#my first playthrough involved me and my friends voicing it the whole way through and god i wish to experience it again often

[bakafurai]

>sighs< I miss The Murder of Sonic The Hedgehog, I miss it a lot. I'll be back-

[gb-patch]

Ask Answers (March 3rd, 2021)

Here’s our latest batch of anon ask answers! Thanks for waiting for them.

Will there be a 'Our Life' game for each season? Please say we're getting a winter one! 

As of right now we’re only planning on making two, summer and fall. They take quite a while to finish and we’re not sure where we’ll be when the second OL is truly wrapped up. But it’s not impossible we can do a third. Though, four Our Life games is probably not super likely, honestly, aha. Maybe the third game, if we make one, could be switch between winter and spring or something.

What engine/engines do you use to make your games? 

We use Renpy for all our projects!

For version 1.2 of OL, did you make any changes to the DLC? If so, could you post a changelog detailing what exactly (or at least a general overview)? If it's not too much trouble, could you also elaborate on the bugs/errors you fixed in the base game? 

There aren’t really any changes to the DLCs, except for the voiced name DLC getting an expansion. We fixed very few small typos and added a couple extra lines. Unfortunately, we don’t have a list of exactly what all the little fixes were.

I've been playing OL and I love the characters! As soon as Baxter showed up, I knew I wanted to learn more about him! Would you consider adding him as a prospective LI in the future? 

Yep, Baxter (and Derek) will be getting his own romance story as an optional DLC late in 2021! Glad you like him.

Hellooo! First off I'm a huge fan of the game and can't stop playing it. However, I was wondering about how much domestic life with Cove we'll get to see in step 4. Meaning the time before the wedding and the time after. In my game Cove and I talked about having children and I was hoping that would be an option in step 4. Either way, I cannot wait for the release and I send my best to everyone working on the production :) thanks! 

I’m sorry, there’s no children or scenes after the two are married. There’s sort of endless possibilities for what that future could be like, so we unfortunately can’t depict it. You only get scenes before they’re married and, if you get the wedding DLC, you can see the day they get married. It ends there, though. But thank you for the well-wishes!

Hello! I was just wondering, so step 4 is going to be similiar to the prologue/epilogue scenes of the game. Is the Wedding DLC going to be one long scene too or will that have moments? (I love the game by the way, its ruined all other visual novels for me in the most wonderful way <3 ) 

Yeah, Step 4 and the wedding DLC will be like the prologues/summer ended parts of the game. There won’t be separate Moments you can play in any order. I’m really happy you like the game so much!

You said that the OL MC's birthday can't be in summer, but what if you headcanoned it to be? 

You can headcanon it as being in summer! There just aren’t birthday events in the game even if you do know your MC was born in summer. We had to leave those out, since some people might not want their MC to be born in summer and then they’d miss out on extra birthday scenes because of it. It wouldn’t have been fair.

Hello!😺 I absolutely love your game!😻 I can't wait for DLS with Derek and Baxter. And I wonder if Baxter could have seen Cove and MC at the party during their first failed dance? Or is Baxter only paying attention to who he's dancing with, or is he not dancing with anyone at the soiree at all then? 

Baxter isn’t really paying attention to the couples on the floor. He’s just cruising the outskirts for someone available to dance with him. So he doesn’t get any memories of the MC or Cove at that party if the two just dance with each other. It’s great to hear you like the game!

time-wise/step-wise when does the nsfw dlc take place? 

It’s not super strict in terms of an exact of weeks/months, but generally it’s sometime not long after the end of Step 3.

Heya! I'm currently obsessed with Our Life (I played through the entire game on Valentine's Day, hahaha– ha... hah), and I have one silly question: if I start playing Step 3 with the less... "romantically inclined" interest levels (Fond & Disinterest), is there still a chance of getting a romantic ending with Cove? Can Cove and the MC realize "they're the one for me" in just one summer? Or... are confessions off the table completely unless at least at Crush level? Thank you in advance! 

So happy you’re having fun with it! In OL1 deciding that Cove is your friend means he’s truly only a friend. You can’t decide you have a crush partway through. But we are considering doing things differently in future games.

hey i have some questions about our life

a) is there a way to be friends with that mean bowlcut kid or is he always... like tha

b. what is coves ethnicity?

A. He is always like that, haha. At least as a kid, he does grow up to be different~

B. Cove’s mom Kyra is white, but Cliff’s race doesn’t come up and players are able to headcanon it. So Cove is half white and half whatever you prefer Cliff to be. 

how do you get to the two mc cut-in scenes from the new update?

&

Hiii! I'm doing another playthrough (it's only like my 100th time playing through the entire game) after the 1.2 update, and I was wondering how to get the new art? I also really love all the new stuff, thank you for working so hard and creating such a wonderful game :)

You can check our our CG guide on Steam for that! Thank you for the kind words.

Sorry to bother you, but I have a question about the Patreon moment. Will there be initiative settings there too? And if there aren't, will the MC lead the whole thing or will Cove lead at certain points too? Thank you~ 

There will still be flexibly in what you’re comfortable with and whether you want Cove to automatically do things or for choices to always be involved :]. And you don’t need to apologize!

Hello!! I wanted to ask a couple of questions about Our Life:

1. Will we able to buy all the DLC via Steam or will there be some of them only available in Patreon? Just to know if I should create a Patreon user XD

2. Will Our Life: Now and Forever be about the current MC, Cove and the other characters or will it be a game with a New MC, new romantic options and new characters?

1. There will be a Patreon-only NSFW bonus Moment. But all the normal planned DLCs will release on Steam.

2. Our Life: Now & Forever is about new characters- new MC, new family, new LI, etc.

just some small bug I noticed: even if you didn't ask Cove to dance, if he asks you at the Soiree in Step 2 later and you say yes to dancing, the MC acts like they got to dance with Cove again even if it was the first time. 

Thank you for the report on that! We thought it was fixed, but I guess it didn’t work.

I was messing around with the new update and I noticed that all the hands in the firefly CGs have the same skin tone regardless of what you put in, (with the exception of the really dark skin color) is this a glitch or something? 

The skin tones aren’t the same. It’s just because they’re out at night with only fireflies for light that it makes each image look dark and therefore similar. But if you line them up together it’s clear how there are changes in every option.

How long did it take to plan out and write the story for OL? Not including the programming, art stuff, or the DLC chapters, I mean just planning and writing the base game story alone. The base game story seems hefty as is, and then on top of that there's the changes to scenes depending on MC's and Cove's personalities and relationship, I'm curious how long that took 

It took basically the full development time, aha. I’m someone who doesn’t fully outline a project before start and instead continues to come up with stuff as a project progresses. There were new parts to the story being created right up to near the launch. So, starting in 2016 or so to later 2020, with some breaks/hold-ups throughout that time.

Hello! I'm really, really enjoying Our Life: Beginning and Always, it was the kind of sweet, wholesome content I needed during these past months. I had a quick question, will you be making any female characters for the MC to romance? In this game or any others like it? I'm a lesbian and I'd love to have a female love interest with such well written romance as yours! Thank you so much. 

Thank you for the nice comment! Our Life: Beginnings & Always won’t have a female LI since we didn’t want to treat other gender options as second fiddle to the male lead. But we have just started full production on Our Life: Now & Forever, which will have a starring female LI! There’s a silhouette glimpse of her Step 1 self here~

-------------------------------------------------

Thanks everyone for sending the questions :D

FAQ   If you prefer to just see the main posts without all the asks/reblogs, feel free to follow our side account instead: GB Patch Updates Bl

[myuntoldstory]

saeran after end after thought

it took me a ducking month and some change because i had to farm hourglasses. when i started playing i kept getting the bad ends and i got so frustrated i didn’t touch the app for two weeks. i had to consult a guide to finally reach the end.

i wanted to play this because i needed to see where jihyun ended up and... well... we all know what happened there. anyway...

i have many thoughts and feelings about this ae. i don’t know if i can ever properly organise them, but i’ll put it in bullet points for now. this is my personal feelings, not any kind of fact. i have nothing against nearly anything and anyone (character or real) involved in this game. i’ll always love and appreciate them for being in this game, for creating this game, for giving us something to love for the past four or five years.

these thoughts are rather unfiltered. this is me coming out hours after finishing the ae. i might change my mind after letting it marinate for a while and after reading up some more about it.

it’s all under the cut. it’s long and rambling. there’s no need to read this, really; the ae is a month old after all, but i just needed to get this out. also, it’s salty as hell. literally saltier than the dead sea. it will dehydrate you... best to not bother with this.

also spoilers.

1. during the first playthrough the game mechanics were wonderful, novel, and immersive. but years later and for the sake of an ae? unnecessary. it’s too long. it’s too much work. i did my due when i played the game during ray’s route. why do i also have to work for something that should have been my reward? why do i still have to worry about hearts, choices, and game branches? why do i have to go through multiple endings? it’s an after end. it’s after the ending.

of course i love new content, i love more content, but not like this. and i know i sound super entitled. if i was impatient i should have justt read the wiki, but i wanted the experience, but not this specific experience. lucky it’s the pandemic and i have more time on my hands, but in normal circumstances my life is very different from what it was in 2016. i can’t be waiting for chats and making plans around it to get to the after ending. honestly i expected something like the secret ends or even similar to the style of jihyun’s ae... but no. apparently, chertiz thinks it’s fun to make us spend three and a half days to reach an AFTER END.

2. saeran choi needs love... but, in my opinion, not ours. not mc’s. the love he needs is his brother’s. the person he needs most is saeyoung choi. he’s suffered so much, endured many things no person should ever endure. of course he deserves romantic love, but i feel like he needed to recover first. that’s why after all this im firmly in the very bare, maybe even empty camp of preferring secret end saeran choi over ray route saeran choi.

3. never in my life has a game made me exhausted about the act of forgiveness. i feel a little sick. it’s terrible to say that, i know, but i am just so emotionally exhausted. there is this heavy feeling in my chest that makes me want to cry because i feel like i somehow destroyed a part of myself?

first it’s the saviour in jihyun’s ae. it’s still her in this ae. but in addition to that there’s also the prime minister? when does it stop? at this point we might as well forgive the twins’ mother too. she imprisoned her own sons to benefit from their father; beat the shit out of and starved saeran to the point that he wanted to die, but there must be a reason behind it, right? like all the villains in this game her choices are not her own; they are the product of their circumstances and we have to understand that.

i just... i understand what cheritz is trying to convey here. and granted saeyoung is not as forgiving, but this isn’t his story. it felt like the forgiveness was nearing some extreme by the end of it. i don’t think there’s anything wrong if you’e unable to forgive. if the only way for you to move forward is to not do so i feel that’s valid. as long as you’re not hurting anyone and that you’re not hurting yourself, you do whatever you need to recover. forgiving is not the only way, the noble way. not everyone’s backstory you have to understand and take into consideration in order to move on. even if they realise what they did was wrong, it’s okay not to forgive. sometimes that’s what we need to take care of ourselves.

im rambling on this point, but im going through this currently. it’s not as extreme as the choi twins or the rfa, but all my life i’ve been forgiving and understanding and it chipped away at me. even at my expense i forgave everything and it landed me in a place im struggling to get out of. i needed justice and this ae didn’t give me a bit of that... at least not in the way i needed.

4. cheritz said this is the grand finale, but... it didn’t feel like it? again this is me being entitled, but i expected something more. something bigger. something poignant because after this mystic messenger is over. i expected some kind of epilogues in the form of story modes. of course i appreciate everything the company has done, especially the efforts of the writers, artists, voice actors, and everyone, but... it’s so rushed? it such a short farewell that instead of getting catharsis and satisfaction i felt... drained. and i feel sad that it’s all over because im not ready to say goodbye and that goodbye is far too short for me.

i don’t know im just sad it’s all over.

also, the conclusion they come to is the dissolution of the rfa once everyone found their happy ending. i... this is a group that has been through some shit and that doesn’t make them closer somehow? the rfa app lies neglected and abandoned as everyone moves on with their lives? that is so... lonely? at least for me.

i mean, of course, not all endings have to be necessarily happy in the “everyone gets together once a week for dinners” kind, but i just... i dont know i expected them to be closer somehow. maybe they are. maybe outside the app they’re all closer, but... i don’t know. i feel sad they’re abandoning the app.

5. and then there’s kim jihyun.

and im... i dont know anymore. if you know me, follow me, or have read any of my fics you know im a jihyun fan. i love that man and YES i know his sins. we all do.

as i played the ae i started to hope that he’d die in the end instead of suffering through this egregious character assassination. yes, i literally preferred that he died and that i go through that pain instead of suffering whatever this is. obviously i dont want him to die, but this is like killing him anyway. they killed the essence of him, who he is as a person. hell, they probably killed him already and just installed a stranger in the ae because that v is not our v. all throughout the game he’s been kind and compassionate and selfless. his whole thing is about protecting the rfa, the mc, saving the saviour, and sacrificing himself for them. this is the idiot who gives you his hearts when you’re being actively nice to his abuser and saeran in his route. his ultimate happy ending involves everyone being happy, reunited, and given the proper mental care. he went away for two years, putting a much needed pause in your budding relationship, not only to recover from his trauma, but also to rescue saeran and help him recover too.

yes, v enabled the saviour even before another story. he lied. he put everyone in danger. he’s reckless and he keeps secrets way more than what’s natural. but he will never let any of them come to harm. my memory is fuzzy but im sure he never lets the rfa get in danger. he was devastated when yoosung got injured. he also tried to rescue seven and mc in the secret ends thats why he got shot. this guy always looks out for everyone. 

in what world is he okay with drugging the twins? making deals with the villains? the idea of trapping the twins in the saviour’s delusional, twisted family life? he’s not the type to be okay just standing there when his best friend’s life is falling apart or for even causing it. when zen, jaehee, and yoosung get backed into the corner he wouldn’t have been just idle. but in this ae all he does is play stacking chairs, buy strawberry yoghurt, and echo the saviour’s words like a puppet. he asks only mc to save herself and like... jesus christ he never gets a break. he doesn’t even get the same gesture of forgiveness everyone and their father gets. he goes through a trial and jail, which is fair enough, but he’s also a victim of abuse and suffering and despair and mental illness. but somehow because it’s v it’s okay that this is all he gets. somehow he doesn’t deserve any compassionate resolution.

literally the only time he’s happy is his route and after end and even then that happiness is not his own. even then there were concessions to be made before he could get it.

seriously. it seems like cheritz hates him. they think little to nothing of him. if that’s the case why even make content for him? he’s not even meant to be romanceable in the original stories. they could’ve just ignored the petitions and left him as a side character. i mean, i dont know if i prefer that honestly, i do appreciate the content we got, but as his fan it hurts to see all this half-hearted decisions. and to see all this hate still pouring out for him, now magnified because of this ae.

this is like a tiring odyssey, starting way back when he got shot and killed all because he loved someone. he loved the wrong person and it’s the wrong kind of love and he committed his crimes because of it. he had a hand in making the rfa and mc suffer, but still all he did was love. and i know that sounds blind and naive and ignorant and im sorry for not picking up the nuances of his relationship with the saviour, but that’s all i saw. i saw a guy loving the wrong person and it made him make all the wrong choices leading to a bad life.

gah. i am drained people. i am drained, and frustrated, and tired.

[lildevyl]

Pick Me Up Playlist

@jellymadebutler  I know you said you’re not feeling your best so here’s a “Pick Me up Playlist” for ya or for anyone needs it!

(Markiplier)

Try Not To Laugh Challenge:  This is actually backwards! It goes from 23-1 but it’s still a nice Playlist to watch!

Markiplier Makes:  This is the whole Playlist of the infamous Markiplier Makes Videos!  It’s really funny!

Among Us:  Among Us is a new game that’s out there on Steam.  You’re either a Crewmate going trying to do tasks to keep the ship going until you reach your destination or the you’re the Imposter! What happens when you get a bunch of YouTubers together for a classic Whodunnit?  Chaos and hilarity in sue!

Minecraft:  I’m not big into Minecraft but it is very funny seeing Mark and Sean play this and see what they come up with!

I Am Bread:  This is a rage game just letting you know ahead of time!  But it is funny seeing Mark rage out of the game!  But like I said this is a rage game so there is some yelling/screaming in it!

Getting Over It:  This another rage game!  It is quite funny but like I said it is a Rage Game so there is screaming and yelling involved!

Pogo Stuck:  This is a somewhat kind of rage game!  It first starts out with Bob, Wade, and Mark playing it.  But then Mark starts playing it by himself and yes there is some yelling and screaming in the videos so fair warning!

Uno:  This is quite a hilarious game series!  It’s Mark and his friends playing the online game of Uno!

Monopoly:  This a goo game series and is quite hilarious!  It’s Mark, Bob and Wade and there is one where Lixian joins!  It really funny and think you might enjoy it!

(JackSepticeye)

Undertale:  The best way to start you off with JackSepticeye is one of his most famous series of all time, Undertale!  Undertale is about a human that falls in the Monster World and go about it learning the Monster World while trying to get home! It’s a text based game and Jack does the voices for the characters!

Deltarune:  The Sequel to Undertale!  Or that’s what everyone seems to be calling it!  I haven’t had the chance to watch the series but I’ve heard it’s really good!

Slime Rancher:  Literally you are a Rancher raising all kinds of different slimes!  It’s really cute and funny!

Cuphead:  This is a very old school cartoon like style game.  There is some violence in it but it’s mild and no more then what actual cartoons, like Tom and Jerry and the Animatics.

Bendy and the Inc Machine:  This is a horror game but it’s not the scary!  There are some jump scares but it’s more like FNAF kind of jump scare.  So, it will be scare ya but not that much.  It’s like a cartoon horror game.  Again some violence in the game but it’s mild.  This also kinda of spawn the idea of the JSE Fan Made Ego Shawn Flynn!  Jack has a cameo in the game!

Animal Crossing:  Nice little story driven game that Jack plays on his switch.  It’s very cute and it’s a nice little game to series to watch!

Spiderman:  Jack finally gets to play as his all time favorite Super Hero from his childhood!  Spiderman!

Spiderman Miles Morales:  The next gen starts now!  With the new Spiderman!  This game is based of the movie Spiderman into the Spider verse and I can’t wait to watch it and watch this series of Jack’s!

Spyro 3: Remake:  This is a cute series of the game Spyro 3 redone for the PS3!  It’s super cute and a lot of fun!  I think you might enjoy this one!

Minecraft:  Like I said, I’m not into Minecraft but this is a nice and cute series that Jack has!  Filled with a lot of Adventure and some scary events!

Meme Time!:  A cute series that Jack started where he goes on his Subreddit and looks at some of our Memes that we did!

Luigi’s Mason 3:  I can’t make a playlist for someone to watch and not include this!  This is so cute and wholesome!  It’s all from Luigi’s point of view and how he’s going to try and stop the Ghost King and save his brother and friends!

Among Us:  I have to include Jack’s!  This is so funny with Jack and his friends!  I think you might enjoy this!

(CrankGamePlays)

Pokémon: I haven’t watched this series yet, but I’ve heard great things about it!

 Papers Please:  This is very hilarious!  I’ve seen a couple of episodes and I think you might like it!

Animal Crossing:  I did enjoy watching Ethan play this!  It’s really funny and wholesome and I think you might enjoy it!

Slime Rancher:  I have to include this!  I watched this when I was feeling a little down during Quarantine.  It’s really funny!

(DolphinTreasureArt)

This a YouTuber that I found when I went browsing for Markiplier and JackSepticeye fan-made games!  DolphinTreasureArt plays fan-made games and indie games on her channel.  Along with some Cosplays and Artwork that she has done.  Some of her Fanart has gotten in a couple of fan games!

Septiscape:  First off, this series is near and dear to my heart!  This is the first ever series that watched back in 2k18 when I first found Erin’s Channel!  This helped me get over my writers block and led to me to writing my first fanfic that I wrote in over a year!  This one is an older version but I still love it!

Jack finds himself trapped in his own mind, the Mindscape and is trying to find his way home!  Along the way he finds out the Egos that he created are more then just Egos!  But at the same time, some sort of Corruption and happening with Jack’s mind and many of the Ego’s Worlds is collapsing!

Septiscape: Livestream #HopeFromHome:  This is the livestream of the updated version of the game!  It’s about 8 hours long but you can skip some parts, especially since some of the fights can be a bit repetive but I wanted to include this one!  

Soulscape:  I can’t put in Septiscape and not give you the sequel as well!  This is the well awaited sequel to Septiscape!  After the adventures of the first game, the Egos go and try to enjoy a nice little R&R only for someone to stalking Anti and trying to take his soul pieces back!  Join Anti and the Egos as they try to figure out what it going on and help save Anti before it’s too late!  And there is really cool plot twist!

Hearts and Heroes:  This is another one that is near and dear to my heart! I will also link Mark’s playthrough as well!  Hearts and Heroes and about you the fans of Markiplier and the journey that the fans go through trying to help save people from the Monsters the haunt their dreams and to help save Mark from his worst Nightmare.  Markiplier’s Playthrough here.

Septiclands: A JackSepticeye Fan Game:  This is very funny series that DolphinTreasureArt has done!  It’s silly and goofy and it has a very weird plot but it’s absolutely one of my favorites!  It’s also on her longest series as well!

The Boss: A JackSepticeye Fan Game:  Just like Heats and Heroes is near and dear to me heart so is this game!  I’ll leave a link to Jack’s Playthrough as well!  This is near and dear to my heart b/c it’s the first JackSepticeye Fan Game that I came across.  It was on Jack’s Channel that first saw it and then I watched Erin’s.  This is nice little RPG Game, but it’s about Jack being sucked into his computer and has to try and find his way home! On the way he finds out that there is two subscribers that lost in his computer and there is a major twist at the end!

The Boss Is Nothing: His Side of the Story:  I don’t want to give away what happens in the Boss!  So, this the other side of the story of The Boss!  In the Boss, Jack comes across someone he never thought he would, so now we’re getting his side of the story and why did what he did to Jack!

Glitch in the System: Chapter 1:  This is a very special game!  It’s the sequel to The Boss!  The developers over at Sarcastic Pasta Games is working hard to get chapter two out!  Chapter one is really good and you get see Erin do some Cosplay along with some voice acting for the characters/Egos!

Septic Storm:  This is a cute little fan game that’s a bit old, but it’s a very cute RPG Game!  Join, Jack, Mark and Felix as they battle Billy to end this battle once and for all!  Only to find out that Billy isn’t the one that truly is behind this, but someone else entirely!

CrankGamePlays Fan Game: The Crank Chronicles:  This is a RPG Fan Game of one Ethan Nester CrankGamePlays!  Ethan has find himself in a distant land thanks to the help of a powerful Sorceress!  But an evil threatens the land!  With help of his two best friends Mark and Tyler, Ethan goes on a quest to help save this land and find his way home!  I don’t if the developer ever did the sequel to the this game or not but it’s not a bad game!

[squeemcsquee]

Anime Iowa 2021: Sunday

2This is going to be my shortest post. Why? 

Well, I don’t really have many photos from Sunday, except for con swag. 

We did hit up one panel, but again, no photos were allowed during the panel. 

I will say that this was super entertaining. We actually started with watching Tamers episode 28:   "Blame it on Ryo" ("Friend or Foe!? The Legendary Tamer, Ryo Akiyama")  then followed that up with the live script read, Some of the audience participants did really well with the voices of the digimon involved. And the episode that was read aloud? Episode 43:  "Beelzemon's Big Day" ("Connected Hearts, Beelzebumon's Resurrection") I am ashamed to admit that I never saw Tamers all the way through. I really should remedy that. After that, it was just a final pass through the dealer area. I did use a gashapon machine for the first time! There was a dealer who had one that took quarters.

I went ahead and went for a couple of prizes. Not sure what I’ll do with them yet though, lol.

We grabbed some snacks for the drive home, and and we were on our way. 

At least this year’s drive home was uneventful, unlike leaving Des Moines in 2019. On the whole, I was very impressed with Anime Iowa this year. Yeah, it’s true that not a ton of the panels caught my eye, but that’s okay. I like the fact that for me, Anime Iowa is a chill con. I was very appreciative of the way they enforced the mask policy. 

Oh! And for those who weren’t able to attend the con in person - or for those who just needed a way to kill time during lines, etc - they had a text-based playthrough of a virtual con. That was cool. I had almost forgotten to mention that! Shame on me!

We definitely are pre-registered for 2022 and I’m looking forward to it!

My Anime Iowa 2021 Coverage

1. Cosplayers of Anime Iowa 

2. Anime Iowa 2021: Friday

3. Anime Iowa 2021: Saturday

4. Anime Iowa 2021: Sunday (current post)

[diffractor]

I was thinking back to childhood memories, and just realized that the gba game “Sonic Battle” I played a very long time ago was plausibly a subconscious motivating factor for finding AI safety to be an important thing to work on. Said game is a Sonic fighting game, with a hell of a story, though it only really clicks once you do a second playthrough with enough context to see what’s actually going on there. So, this is the plot with full context (and filling in tidbits of info that you only get on the second playthrough), and I’m doing it from memory so there may be some inaccuracies. Once upon a time there was the 4th great Civilization. Key word, “was”. The thing that wiped them out was that they made a very specific robot, as a weapon of war, named Emerl (though that isn’t the original name), and... it didn’t go so well. Emerl’s ability was to be able to copy any attack or weapon used against it, or that it observes. This manifests in the game as Emerl not having a fixed moveset, you can splice together whichever moveset you want from the moves of all the other characters you’ve fought against. Just stitch the best healing and the best movement speed and the best attacks and best projectiles and a “self-destruct after you die” special ability together from all the different characters, and plow through the rest of the cast. Anyways, it was built as a weapon of war, and the creators didn’t last too long after that, though it isn’t specified precisely what happened. Eggman’s father (or grandpa, maybe?) is tasked by the military with creating weapons of war. He doesn’t really want to do this, and so tends to make freely willed things that can reject being a weapon. One of which was Shadow the hedgehog, and also, as his logs show, he found Emerl on an archeology trip too, and kinda freaked out when he realized exactly what that particular robot was. He wasn’t able to completely override the original programming, just put in some modifications. Later, Eggman gets a hold of Emerl somehow, and after a bit of testing and using it to make crappy knockoff robots, deems it a useless pile of trash and certainly not the civilization-ending weapon it’s supposed to be and throws it away on the beach. Sonic finds the abandoned robot, and shows off his moves. Emerl bonds with him (read: follows Sonic around and obeys commands and if Sonic tells Emerl to obey someone else then Emerl has a new master), because one of the things it’s programmed to do is to obey someone who displays sufficient power. It can barely talk, isn’t that good at fighting, and Tails is trying to figure out what the deal with it is. It seems to be attracted to Chaos Emeralds, and after getting the first one, there’s a notable boost in its ability to copy things, fight, and talk, going from “barely able to talk” to “low-quality chatbot trained on a corpus of sonic and tails talking” to “gpt-2 trained on sonic, tails, knuckles, and amy” to “gpt-3 trained on the whole sonic cast” as the game progresses and you acquire more. There’s a bunch of adventures which are mostly pointless, by my estimation, with a bunch of characters trying to use Emerl for their own ends, and getting into shenanigans, and fighting off Eggman, while nobody seems to realize they’ve got a civilization-destroying weapon on their hands. The only sane character worthy of any respect in this entire shitshow is Shadow the Hedgehog, who knows what Emerl actually is and is trying his best to kill the damn thing, while everyone else unreasonably insists on getting in his way and feeding Emerl more Chaos Emeralds because he’s their friend. Idiots. We get to the Shadow arc. Apparently Shadow and Rouge have found Eggman’s (dad’s? grandpa’s?) logs, and apparently when it gets all 7 Chaos Emeralds, it will awaken to its original form. And he managed to set things up so if you say the password “bring hope to humanity” upon Emerl fully waking up... it gets sealed again, and acts as just a friendly Sonic character with free will again, having fun with the rest of the cast. Shadow gives Emerl the last Chaos Emerald and does that, after some meaningful chats. And then the Emerl arc, the final one. Eggman has apparently made some villainous spaceship floating in the sky and being ominous, and the sonic crew sends Emerl up to give Eggman an ass-whooping, which he does. And then Eggman reveals that it was a trap, fires the big spaceship gun (which apparently wipes out some stars, but I reject this because physics and my headcanon is that it just made a big new crater on the moon), and reveals that there’s one last bit of knowledge that nobody knew about. Emerl will always make a bond with anyone that displays overwhelming power, far in excess of what has previously been shown. And all the happy-go-lucky friendly robot nonsense is wiped away, and the ancient weapon of war (which Emerl always was, Shadow should have turned it into scrap) awakens at full power, and starts gathering energy. Eggman tries to direct it (and fails). It aims the big spaceship gun at earth, and Eggman is quite put out by this, because he just wants to rule the world, not destroy it. But, y’know, if you play around with civilization-destroying robots, your civilization might end up destroyed, who would have thought. Emerl beats Eggman up. Sonic takes the Master Emerald (capable of controlling the Chaos Emeralds) and teleports onto the ship to try to use it to reign Emerl in, as their last hope. The heroic victory at the last moment. Emerl unceremoniously smashes it before it can be used. 30 seconds until end of earth. Shadow chooses to go out with a few edgy lines about “the final voice of the last war machine” and “natural result of ignorant human desires” Cream chooses to go out with “are we all... going to die? :(” Tails chooses to go out frantically advising Sonic on how, if he can inflict massive damage on Emerl, since Emerl has too much power stored up and is highly unstable, it should be able to take him out. Sonic chooses to go out fighting Full Power Emerl entirely equipped with blink-fast 2-hit-ko attacks. And then you defeat Emerl and he suffers but shuts down back to normal and looks like he’s gonna live... And then beeping. Apparently Eggman’s grandpa put in a self-destruct safeguard. Emerl dies via self-destruct, and everyone is sad, and I cried a bit as a kid, and they talk about making a better world... And (it may just be me), there’s one last note of discontent in your mind after beating the game. You didn’t beat Emerl in 30 seconds. In fact, I don’t think it’s even possible to beat that final battle in 30 seconds. If the situation had actually happened, there wouldn’t have been a heroic final victory after Emerl shattered the Master Emerald. Sonic would have had his ass handed to him, or not won in 30 seconds, and the Earth would be destroyed thanks to Dr. Eggman and everyone involved in waking Emerl up and thinking they were helping, and Shadow failing at killing the robot early on, and that would be that. You now probably see why this old gba game could be a subconscious motivator.

[stoptobreathe]

Lol man this blog is usually pretty dead these days but... Christ. It was a vent blog, so I guess that's where this is gonna go.

I've watched Cry for... Gods, I don't know how long. Years. Somewhere back in 2011 I think I found him, but then in a depressive spell around 2013-2014ish was when I really started to actually keep up with things for a bit. Around that time I had terrible night terrors due to past abuse, and I found out that watching Youtubers' playlists helped me immensely- both with falling asleep, and with orienting myself once I woke up to not be so terrified. A lot of gaming YouTubers are, quite frankly, really loud though, haha. Not the best to calm down with.

But then there was Cry. And he was just this silly guy, who got way attached to the characters and who always seemed so sweet and empathetic and his voice was so calm. He was the first Youtuber I watched that didn't have a camera on them as they played, and to me it made it feel more real. His playthroughs didn't feel like they were a show; it was more like he was just playing a game, getting along with the characters, and I just got to watch. Like watching a friend play over skype.

Plus his humor and everything always seemed so much more wholesome and just silly, haha. I would always joke that he was my "spirit Let's Play-er", because back then the whole 'x is my spirit animal' thing was such a thing, idk. I always felt way more connected to him than I probably had any right to. I was a depressed, passively suicidal wreck for a long time; his videos were one of the few things that really made me laugh and happy.

...

In a way I guess I was lucky I was always too anxious to get into the community. I'd always thought he was the type of person I'd really want to be close friends with. I wondered if he needed a friend; some of his comments and videos seemed lonely, y'know? But my fascination with him wasn't enough to get me to ever really interact. He was a voice through a screen, and that was that.

I only found out that he'd switched to streaming about a year ago, and only really watched a handful of his streams. Haha, when I've been depressed lately with the chaos 2020 has brought, my girlfriend would even suggest watching some of his videos or streams, since she knew he's always been my favorite streamer. The one that never failed to make me smile.

... And then, all this came out.

...

I can't deny that Cry helped me through a lot of really tough things. For me, personally, he'd been nothing but a positive role off in the distance. And now... I guess I see that that role really was just that. A role. A character, a persona. And... I don't know if I'll ever really see that character the same. But for my sake... I think I need to be able to hold on to what he was for me. There are few things I can find comfort in, and... Haha, well.

"Cry", the persona, the character, was a hell of a good person. I'll hold on to those memories, and grieve the fact that that character, that distant 'friend' is now lost. There was a lot of good that came from him, and I can't- I won't- erase that.

But as for Ryan, the man behind the mask?

Well...

I hope those you've hurt can heal. I hope the people directly effected by your actions can find peace. And I hope to god that you get the help you need. I honestly believe you have a good heart in you, but that doesn't count for anything if you don't work at it. Maybe it's naive, but I do believe people can change and grow. You've just got to want it and work at it, maybe for the rest of your life. I hope you stay safe and can get better and DO better.

There's no excusing the things you've done. You say you understand that. I hope you do.

Listen to the people you've hurt and respect their wishes where you can. Work on yourself, work on your life. And once you do that, I hope you can get back to making people happy someday, in a way that's healthier for everyone involved.

Good luck, Ryan.

Goodbye, "Cry".

[paladin-lynx]

Be More Chill “Sky” AU - Part 1?

Dreams

Ships Involved: None (yet?)

Setting: A Sky: Children of the Light crossover/AU where Jeremy and Michael are Skykids who travel around the different Realms together.

Trigger/Content Warnings: Nightmares

Author’s Notes: I haven’t sat down and written in like...months, so this may be a little rusty. But I recently finished my first playthrough of Sky (which I highly recommend checking out), and I apologize that some of the terminology/references in this may be confusing for people who don’t know the game. This is kind of a test-run for this AU. The basic premise of the game and explanation of some of the terms mentioned (hopefully with little to no spoilers for the game) is that you are a “Skykid”, a child essentially made of light, and you explore different areas to learn the history of a fallen civilization by finding Spirits and reliving their memories and then meeting Elders who oversee each Realm of the game. You get around by using a special cape that lets you glide and fly. There’s a big emphasis on working with other players to get through things, and every friend you make is represented by a star in your main hub, called Home. Krill are dragon-esque enemies who steal your light, which is your life-force, and the Eye of Eden is the final level of the game. Each time you complete the game you start over as a reincarnation of your Skykid. I don’t know all the lore myself since the game has no dialogue and leaves a lot to interpretation and imagination, and I haven’t done too too much research yet, and honestly I may not do too much so that I can learn more in my future playthroughs, lol. Hopefully that helps those of you who don’t know as much. Sorry for the lengthy explanation, I’m curious to know what people think of this potential AU!

“I had a weird dream last night.”

Jeremy wasn’t sure what made him say it. He had been with Michael all day, running around and exploring as they always did, with Michael leading him around by the hand and making conversation with every wayward Skykid they crossed paths with. Jeremy had never been the best at making friends and was lucky to have met Michael at all, who was intent on not letting him go anywhere on his own.

He had been thinking about the dream since the night before, but he supposed he’d been too distracted by their adventures to mention it. Now, as they lounged in the grass in the Home Realm, just relaxing by the campfire and gazing at the stars as Michael lazily strummed his guitar, his thoughts had drifted back to it.

Michael paused in his playing, glancing over at Jeremy. “A weird dream?” he echoed. “I mean…dreams aren’t really supposed to make sense, are they?”

“That’s not what I mean.” Jeremy shifted so that he could pull his knees to his chest, resting his chin on top of them and looking down at the fire. “I remember it so clearly. It felt so real. It’s been bothering me.”

“Hm. Alright.” Michael tossed his guitar into the air, watching it spin as it fell back down to its spot on his back. He leaned back on his hands and turned his full attention to Jeremy. “Well, let’s hear it, then.”

Jeremy blinked at him, his brow furrowing. “I don’t wanna be a bother.”

“Oh c’mon, Jer-bear, you’ve barely talked all day. And you know it isn’t bothering me, I asked to hear it. Got nothin’ better to do until tomorrow, do we?”

“I…guess.” Jeremy knew he could trust Michael with anything, and he knew that dreams were only dreams, but something about this felt almost…private. Like he wasn’t meant to divulge what he’d seen to anyone else. It was all just so strange and normally Jeremy couldn’t even recall his dreams when he woke up in the morning. Maybe he’d have an inkling of an idea of what it had been about, but he had never been like Michael, who could prattle on about his dreams for hours, although for all Jeremy knew he was just making it up as he went.

Jeremy fidgeted with the edge of his cape, still hesitant, but he finally decided there was no real harm in sharing: “Okay, so, uh…I was in the Wastes. I was by myself, heading towards the Temple. It was dark and windy which, er, you know, is normal for the Golden Wasteland. But as I was going…I got spotted by a Krill.”

Michael’s eyes widened immediately. “Oh shit.”

It wasn’t like Jeremy and Michael had never encountered Krill before – or Dragons as Michael preferred to call them, since apparently ‘Krill’ wasn’t menacing enough – but they’d always managed to stay safe by sticking together. While Michael was good at talking to people and getting their help, Jeremy was good at finding places to stay hidden. They had yet to venture into the Eye of Eden, but Michael always liked to say that he was positive they must have been there before in past lives and just didn’t remember it.

Jeremy wasn’t so sure. They’d met other Skykids who spun tales about their previous incarnations going into Eden, about how it was the ultimate test and that they weren’t allowed to speak of what they’d seen in there but it wasn’t something you could forget. And that the end result of Ascension made the struggle so, so worth it. Jeremy had his doubts that he and Michael would just conveniently not remember something so significant.

“What happened next?” Michael prompted, pulling Jeremy from his thoughts.

“Right, um…Well, it spotted me. You know, the whole blue-light-turns-red deal. And I couldn’t move once it did, like I was frozen in place. I was bracing myself, ready for it to just…eat me whole, but then it…didn’t.” Jeremy tugged the ends of his cape close, wrapping himself up like it was a blanket. He could almost feel ice running down his spine at the memory. “It…i-it came up close to me. And it…it spoke to me.”

Michael’s brow furrowed, his expression a mix of confused and warily curious. “…Can they even speak?”

Jeremy managed a shrug. “Anything can happen in a dream, I guess. But it…it said…‘Give me all of your Light, Sky Child, and I will make you the brightest star in Eden.’”

Silence hung between them for a long moment, the quote lingering in the air. Jeremy had only seen Michael speechless a few times in his life, and they were usually because Jeremy had said something too stupid to fathom. Now, Jeremy could tell that even if it had been a dream, Michael was quiet because he felt the same chill in his bones at the words that Jeremy did.

“…Then what?” Michael finally murmured, much less enthusiastic than before.

Jeremy paused, taking in a deep breath and letting it out slowly, watching as a few sparks of light snuck out of his mouth. “I don’t really know. I heard it roar, felt really cold, and then I woke up.”

There was silence again, before Michael mumbled a disturbed, “Spooky.”

Jeremy nodded in agreement, although he had to admit even with the memory of the dream still haunting him, it felt kind of nice to get it out in the open. He had had nightmares before, of course, but they had never been so vivid, and he wasn’t sure he’d ever dreamed about the Krill until now. Generally they were normal bad dreams, like getting separated from Michael in a storm or slipping up in saving a lost Spirit or having one of the Elders disapprove of him. Nothing ever quite this degree of frightening.

He tipped his head back to look up at the stars, some shining brighter than others thanks to the friends that they – mainly Michael, to be honest – had made along the way in their various travels. There were a lot of mysteries in this world that couldn’t be solved alone, even if Jeremy had tried all he could at first to get through by himself, too nervous to try and reach out to anyone else. Michael had stumbled upon him by chance and had all but dragged him to a door that needed two people to work together to open it, and they had been inseparable ever since.

He blinked as Michael suddenly stepped into his field of vision, offering a smile and holding out a hand. Even if his grin was as bright as the campfire, Jeremy could see in Michael’s eyes that he was still shaken by the talk of the dream.

“C’mon,” Michael coaxed, wiggling his fingers. “Let’s go for a fly. Clear our minds before we go to bed.”

Jeremy took in another breath and gave a stiff nod, grabbing Michael’s hand and pulling himself up. He always felt safer, stronger, when his hand was clasped tightly with Michael’s. They were a team, through and through, and Jeremy wasn’t sure where he’d be without him.

“Yeah,” he murmured, giving Michael’s hand a fond squeeze. “That sounds good.”

Michael turned with a flourish of his cape and led Jeremy towards the portal to the Daylight Prairie. But as they went, Jeremy couldn’t help a peek at the gateway to the Golden Wasteland, that deep, purring voice rolling through his mind again.

“I will make you the brightest star in Eden.”

[vaguely-concerned]

Some more mass effect andromeda thinky thoughts as I run around heleus getting some achievements! 

- the murderous angaran ai is genuinely so fucking funny. “How are you feeling here on Aya?” “I hope you die” “Is there anything we could do to make you more comfortable?” “BURY THIS PLANET UNDER FIRE AND ASH” “o.oookay. Goodbye then.” “I HATE you.”

- I hope I never become irresistibly moved to write mass effect andromeda fic b/c there really is no other description for a good 70% of the expressions reyes makes than :> and how could one capture that in words

- as mentioned I’ve been doing a bit of achievement hunting and in the process I’ve been switching up a lot of gameplay stuff from how I handled it the first few times around and let me tell you it’s baller as fuuuuuuuuuck -- it just looks so awesome and is so satisfying between the maneuverability of the jetpack and biotic charge and the effects. special shoutout to what happens if you biotic charge a frozen victim enemy and the biotic pull/push combination. (throwing people around like ragdolls is actually so much fun I’ve kept doing it even after I unlocked the achievement lol)

- lol lol when you get meridian online there’s the montage of every planet coming back to life, right? well the one on kadara is from inside kralla’s song, with umi looking out at everything that’s happening. and all I can imagine is her jaded-ass voice going ‘what the fUCK did that asshole kid do now I only just cleaned up after the bar brawl he started with his krogan grandpa and now he’s rearranging the entire fucking planet right from under us goddess I need a drink’ 

- the implication that reyes ‘cards so close to my chest you won’t even know I’m playing’ vidal just does not shut up about how amazing ryder is to anyone who’ll listen gives me so much life. when you try to be mysterious and laidback but the human pathfinder is so fucking cute tho Y____Y (also go watch his scenes if you’re being standoffish with him the entire time -- he clearly wants ryder to like him so much right from the beginning, he’s doing so much work to no avail and I feel sort of bad for how funny I find it haha. interesting that it really does seem to be an emotional thing as well as y’know the practical/tactical benefits of having the pathfinder on his side. methinks the charlatan might be a bit lonely there behind all his masks lol) 

I think this is why I’m willing to give him some benefit of the doubt too, despite all the cloak and dagger stuff -- he’s so immediately drawn to ryder, who you can never make a bad person, really. something in him must respond to that, if potentially only in the ‘attracted to traits I do not possess myself’ way hahaha

- I love sam. so so much. some of the open world implementation is still grating (yes sam. yes I know I can mine this area for resources through my mining interface. we’ve been doing this for a hundred hours sam. you’ve been right here with me the entire time sam. please sam), but he’s SUCH a good and I’d argue underutilized concept (emotionally at least) and the best boy. the fact that he can get SARCASTIC on you fsdhfjsadh he’s growing and learning! he’s doing so from inside your brain which is kind of unsettling but also SO COOL! there’s something about that level of intimacy, of always knowing there will be someone there with you in your head that is super interesting and deserves to be examined more fully -- both how it could be comforting and how it’s  r e a l l y  not how people or ai are generally designed to work lol. 

he also gives us a unique link with our dad and I wonder if the writers would have explored that in more depth if there’d been more development time -- it practically SCREAMS out an invitation to get to play/see things from alec’s POV in short bursts, like the memories you unlock except you could go through playing it as him since sam is common to both of us. (see my ‘our dad comes back through either kett or remnant nonsense in the sequel and we need to find some way to connect with him’ idea. it would be. amazing. listen alec already looked at the ethical guidelines involved in creating ai and went ‘huh interesting ideas but not for me thanks!’, don’t tell me he wouldn’t have left some loophole in so this could happen)  

- reyes literally says ‘the cavalry’s here’ when we get to meridian and I for one love him more than words can express (he also asks us if we’re okay in sort of a sweet/worried way right before we get to the control room. aw buddy) 

- like we don’t think of them like that because we’re in control of them and see all the stumbles and awkwardness and how young they are all the time, but damn the ryder twins must look like something else to everyone in andromeda haha. they literally stride around like demigods restoring entire planets. on voeld spring non-metaphorically follows in their footsteps. shit dude if we’re talking realpolitik here the angara must feel  p r e t t y nervous about this -- there’s no one saying they can’t turn off the vaults as easily as they turned them on. I hope we get them somehow teaching the angara how to do it too, on a smaller scale at least, as a show of good faith or something in a sequel, because that power imbalance is disconcerting  

- I’m glad sam and I have such similar priorities whenever we’re on kadara. ‘maybe mr vidal would know. perhaps we should ask mr vidal about this. mr vidal said something relating to this pathfinder maybe we should speak to him’ . yeah sam i know the feeling, same (it does undeniably read as sam having a bit of a crush which is. hilarious?) 

- the fact that alec ryder thought ellen responded to his bad boy act in any way when what really charmed her was that he was a great big nerd <3 it’s kind of nice to see a fictional marriage that seems to have just been. nice and stable and chill? just two intellectual equals who like and respect each other very much and not a lot of drama until alec went full alec and started developing rogue ai instead of watching his wife die lol. again I would love for the sequel to involve ellen finally waking up and being like ‘death? trying to claim MY husband? I do not think so, I can die he can’t he’s not leaving me behind’ and helping out and you realize that the reason they were soulmates was that under the relatively rational and unemotional surface they’re both, at heart, batshit crazy mad scientists who are insanely devoted to each other. imagine it tho! the people of andromeda realize alec ryder is back from the dead somehow and doing some Shit out there, they put a ton of resources into curing ellen’s disease because their best shot is something to do with the implants she made, hey presto we’ve got all ryders on the board and in play. 

- just want to make it clear that I’m still sad about avitus rix and hope he’s having a good day

- do you think ryder ever asks sam to read something to him ‘aloud’ in his head if he’s anxious and can’t sleep. or just to talk at him about something boring until he nods off. again the possibilities inherent in the concept!!! he has someone who’s closer to him than any other person could be, what’s that like? 

- *me sticking to my sidewinder pistol the whole playthrough even though it’s laughably inefficient* I just wanna feel like a cowboy bioware please work with me here

- the male ryder voice actor has such amazing comedic timing, there’s a lot of reaction stuff out in the field he absolutely nails. I enjoy the female voice too and I like how much emotion she manages to convey towards the end of the game especially, but there’s a casual comedy in male ryder’s voice that can’t be beat. (well, it’s not hawke levels, but then nothing ever is, that’s too much to ask)

- I love vorn and kesh so much. nerd krogans unite & make out

- I still want to sit peebee down and have a long serious talk with her about emotional abuse, maybe give her a hug :( fuck kalinda 

- this game does not get enough credit for how stunningly beautiful it is, it all got buried under criticism about the animations and it’s a fucking shame. the last few vaults you go through are just mindboggling in scale and visual uh striking-ness. it makes me so sad to think there won’t be any more of it D: 

- I really like this mainly casual + logical dialogue options ryder I’ve found; it makes him sound like a younger and more irreverent version of his father, but also softer and less closed off and much more willing to show affection for his family especially. 

- i wonder if different people’s individual SAMs will take on a certain tone/unique pattern when they’ve coexisted long enough. have I mentioned. how much I want a sequel to this game 

- one last reyes note because don’t look at me okay -- I wonder how much we’re meant to read into ‘being honorable never got me anywhere’. on the one hand I’m fully prepared to believe he’s never even tried doing anything the honorable way in his entire life lol but on the other there’s also some interesting potential in the interplay of that sentence and ‘to be someone’. (there seems to be a deep fear in him both of powerlessness and of being truly seen/recognized -- he equates secrecy with safety pretty explicitly -- which seems... telling? of what I don’t know but telling all the same hahaha) like he might be saying he’s tried doing things the ‘right’ way and it didn’t work and the price was too high, so he just went for this instead with the ends low-key justifying the means. hmmm. :Ia (this is what happens when I get Attached to a character with like an hour of screentime my friends, and I’m already primed to give my entire heart away at the sound of nicholas boulton’s voice)

[modernagesomniari]

Fic - ‘The Wrong Game’

Part 15 (15!?!?!) of my Mala Suledin Nadas series, which follows my playthrough of Ellana Lavellan.  All the stories can pretty much be read on their own, but there is continuity through them.  You can check out the whole series here or read this chapter in isolation on AO3 here.

So, I'd just finished Hushed Whispers and done the rounds back at Haven, which meant that Eli and Vivienne's relationship by this point basically involved two flaming rows about the status of mages. However, the next thing I did was complete Viv's first war table quest, which rewards you with her approval. This didn't make sense to me, so I wrote a thing that made it make sense i.e. Eli is crap at politics and asks Viv's advice despite disagreeing with her. This speaks of a practicality and humility Vivienne approves of (plus we get a sneak peak of how Eli may or may not SLAY the Winter Palace).

*********************

After their second strong disagreement about the status of mages, Vivienne is dismayed to see Herald coming in her direction again.

The Wrong Game

It had been quite some time since Vivienne had needed to calm herself down this way.  Intellectually, she knew why this was different, but that neither made the anger less potent nor curbed the irritation at being made to feel it.  Perhaps she had been at court for too long - she was getting lazy.

It wasn’t just that she disagreed with this new Herald of Andraste - she had disagreed with many people before.  Nor was it that the Herald existed outside of the Game - Vivienne had taken great pleasure in instructing many scholars from all over Thedas of their academic failings.  No, this particular woman was infuriating because her logic had no bearing to the Game at all.  Nor to the Chantry.  Vivienne was more than adept at wielding her learning to point out the flaws in most foolish arguments like Lavellan’s, but her reasoning meant nothing to this girl.  On the contrary, they had barely made it to the more mainstream discussions around mage rights, so busy had they been questioning the fundamental definition of mages that made those discussions relevant.

Lack of preparation, that was what was making her so angry, Vivienne realised.  When Lavellan had rebutted any question of the necessity of mage towers using the Dalish as an example of a society that needed no such thing, Vivienne did not have the tools available to argue the point.  As such she was reduced to simply dismissing the point outright, which felt beneath her.  She was no novice, of course. As soon as she had found out that the Herald was both a mage and a Dalish elf she had combed the library of the Winter Palace for every useful tome on the culture she hadn’t yet read.  That, she quickly learned, was precious few.  Not because she had read them all, but because every account of elven culture that was available was either monstrously out of date or so steeped in mind-numbingly simplified Chantry rhetoric she felt momentarily ashamed for the entirety of the Orlesian academic elite.

Thus, she had come to an argument she was not expecting, that had turned in a direction she should have foreseen, woefully unprepared.  This was not a situation she cared to repeat, although she was slightly at a loss for how not to.  The Herald clearly distrusted her greatly now - there was a defensiveness in her last few sentences that precluded a rather dull mental attitude suggesting any further actual intellectual debate was going to turn predictably cumbersome and personally affronted.  How exceedingly dull.  She was aware she could not blame the Herald for such an attitude.  It seemed to be true that the Dalish did not have the space to carry books with them, so Lavellan couldn’t be accustomed to truly rigorous intellectual discourse, but Vivienne would have appreciated a little more time to gather the information about Dalish culture she needed before they got to the bullish stage.

She had developed just enough of a headache that the sight of the Herald darting out of the war room at the back of the Chantry had her sigh and turn to her books, away from the main body of the building.  She did not wish to get into this discussion again, so did rather hope that the girl would pass her on her way out.

“Madame Vivienne?”

No such luck, it would seem.

“I am rather busy, darling.  Perhaps we can pick this up another time.”

“Oh.  It will only take a moment, I’m sure.  I was wondering if I could ask your advice.”

Well that was unexpected.  Vivienne turned, shrewd eyes skirting over the Herald’s crude (if rather fetching) attire to her face, where she noticed a slight rise of colour to her cheeks, a distinct widening of the eyes.  Something had shaken her, clearly.  

“My advice?” she asked, knowing that for all the frost in her voice she might as well be standing back with her arms crossed.  Lavellan did not look reassured.  Good. “I believe we just established that my advice is not particularly welcome.”

“Not on magic.  I think we’ve discussed that enough for today.” Lavellan said quietly, adding a rather surprisingly self-deprecating chuckle before looking directly up into Vivienne’s eyes.  She had courage, Vivienne had to give her that much.  

Those big green eyes still slightly panicky, the Herald took a step towards her and her words all came out in a rush.  “I was in the war room and they’re asking me to make some decisions because they can’t agree, which is fine.  But there’s a problem just south of Val Royeux to do with the letter your friend sent and it’s to do with some nobles?  Of different families?  That I can’t remember the names of?  And they’re having some disagreements about…about…um…something and the advisors want me to help them decide what to do.  Me.  Me, Madame Vivienne.  Ellana Lavellan, First of Clan Lavellan.  Being, as that name suggests, Dalish.  And I thought to myself ‘why on earth invite an expert on the Orlesian court to join the Inquisition if you’re not going to use her’?  Because, for some reason, they seem to think I’m qualified.”

There was something unavoidably charming about the genuine panic in her face that Vivienne was fighting a losing battle not to be swayed by.  Apparently, however, the Herald wasn’t finished.  “I know we don’t see eye to eye on some things.  And I’m not stupid, so your advice wouldn’t be wasted.  It’s just not my area of expertise and I know it’s yours.  Will you advise me?”

Vivienne considered her and Lavellan, rather surprisingly, let her do it.  She had to admit, she was rather taken aback by this approach.  She had assumed that Lavellan would have taken such offence to their earlier disagreement that Vivienne would now be spurned to the Herald’s detriment.  Still.

“You are aware we come from very different backgrounds, my dear?”

“That’s sort of the point, Madame Vivienne, yes. No one knows woods better than those who have had to survive in them except those who have learned to thrive in them.  My woods are made up of actual trees.  Yours are noble families with bewilderingly similar names.”

Vivienne resolved not to let the Herald see her smile at that particular comment, though from the sparkle of mischief in those same eyes that were so wide a moment ago, she perceived she had possibly failed.

“And you trust me to help you navigate these woods?”

Lavellan cocked her head, something like a smile on her face.  Vivienne realised, not pleasantly, that it seemed she herself was being considered now.  Whatever Lavellan had decided made her nod to herself, the grin widening.  Goodness but she would never survive the Game.

“No.”

Vivienne’s eyebrows raised, pausing her own assumption in its tracks.  Never say that Madame de Fer did not learn from the scant few mistakes she made.

“No?”

“No.  However, I do trust that you have your own ideas about what is best in this situation and how best to resolve it so I think I can learn a lot from listening and watching you hunt in these woods.  I also trust that you will see this as an opportunity to further any agenda you have yourself, which will be just as educational for me.  You can learn just as much about hunting by being hunted as you can by hunting something yourself.”

Well.  It had been a long time since anyone had stood in front of Vivienne and accused her to her face of planning to manipulate them.  Oh, plenty of inferences and innuendo, but never flat out.  She found it rather invigorating.

“What made you be honest with me?”

Lavellan was surprised enough by her choice of question that she laughed.  A little too loudly, so the sound echoed in the Chantry proper and she flinched a little, coming closer with a conspiratorial smile like they’d both just been nearly caught filching chocolates from a Senior Enchanter’s desk.

“I don’t have much experience with the Game,” she admitted in an almost whisper.  “But I do get the impression that plain talking isn’t part of it.  Which made me wonder whether it wasn’t then actually quite a good weapon if used right.  The huntmaster never let me go on hunts because he thought I’d be no use,” she explained at Vivienne’s questioning look.  “Then I helped my brother win a contest by freezing a deer solid so it wouldn’t run from his bow and the look on his face was like he’d just swallowed a wasps’ nest!”

“Wasn’t that cheating, my dear?”

“Not at all,” Lavellan replied, affecting an extremely convincing innocent look.  It was the touch of affronted, Vivienne thought, that sold it.  “My brother was allowed to pick a second to help him.  He picked me.  The fact that the huntmaster had already decided I was useless was his mistake, not ours.”

Vivienne had underestimated this apostate.  She had underestimated her greatly.  A small approving smile graced her lips and she watched Lavellan notice, hope and challenge in her smirk.  Vivienne could not find it in herself to care, impressed very much by Lavellan’s clear attitude to her assets and resources.  That her pride after an argument was not going to get in the way of her practicality was an aspect to her personality Vivienne very much appreciated.  Perhaps, despite their differences, she could still get her to listen, to make sure that no more damage was done to Vivienne’s people.  This war was taking its toll and the stakes had never been so high.  She couldn’t begin to forgive herself if she didn’t use every talent and skill the Maker had entrusted her to develop to protect and elevate those people who now so desperately needed someone on their side.  Whether they could see it or not.

Which meant keeping the Herald sweet.  The Herald who had just proved that she might be a lot more useful as an ally and dangerous as an enemy than Vivienne had initially predicted.  It was rather delicious being wrong.  Not that the Herald needed to know anything of the sort.

“I assume,” She began, moving away towards the open doors and expecting Lavellan to follow (which she did), “That you refer to the rumours that the Divine is not, in fact, dead?”

“Yes!” Lavellan replied, relief evident in her voice as it appeared that Vivienne was indeed going to help.  “Only apparently just refuting it doesn’t work and we need to choose carefully what we say to who and when?”

Vivienne looked down at her, seeing nothing but an earnest desire to learn in Lavellan’s upturned eyes.  She didn’t trust that look for a second.  This assignment she’d given herself had just got significantly more interesting.

How marvellous.  

[squinoas]

Final Fantasy VII: Remake is both a blessing and a curse, to newcomers and series veterans alike - a (kinda) in-depth review of Final Fantasy VII: Remake.

Final Fantasy VII: Remake is both a blessing and a curse, to newcomers and series veterans alike.

As the latter, and someone who has played and enjoyed (and watched, in the case of Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children), most of the compilation that followed the original, I feel confident in saying this game is a worthy remake of the standout hit that put Final Fantasy on the radar of the Western audience. The blessing is an imaginative and fleshed out retelling of a fraction of an original thirty-hour story – stretching it out and giving backstory to returning characters, while introducing some fresh (and welcome) faces along the way. The Midgar section in the beginning of the original Final Fantasy VII clocks in at around 3-4 hours of a player’s overall journey.

Not this time.

But is that also the aforementioned curse of this game? That those players who have enjoyed the original many, many times know of what it still to come? Throughout my play through of the game this felt like it was going to be its main detractor, when actually the ending completely throws this into the air.

Only time will tell if this is a good decision that will pay off, or if it will backfire. Nevetheless, I’m optimistic that the best is yet to come.

How long will we have to wait for more? That’s anyone’s guess at this point, especially with the Coronavirus situation. Safety comes first, and any delays to the second and third parts of this episodic epic (and I hope it continues to be epic) will be understandable – and hopefully, much like this first part, well worth the wait.

GAMEPLAY (COMBAT, MATERIA, WEAPONS)

Much furore has been made about the series ditching a turn-based system – one still employed by Dragon Quest (another Square-Enix property, and the most recent instalment, Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age, one of, if not my favourite, recent JRPGs).

Final Fantasy now employs an action-based model, more akin to another property, Kingdom Hearts.

Sometimes erratic and frenzied in 2016’s Final Fantasy XV, I’m happy to say that Square-Enix appeared to fine tune most of the aspects I disliked about that game’s playstyle and the result is Final Fantasy VII: Remake’s fun gameplay.

Keeping the ATB gauge involved was a good move, and gave the game a familiarity. The oscillating difficulties mean that there is a playstyle for everyone to find. I managed the entire game on normal mode (even my first time fighting the Whispers), until the Sephiroth boss battle. I have my own narrative issues with us fighting Sephiroth in the first part of this game anyway, but the difficulty spike in this battle on Normal mode felt unreal. I’d managed the slog that was the Hell House boss battle, and the annoyance of the escape from Shinra section, including that boss battle, but this was another level, and the only boss I had to change to easy mode for (which meant redoing the Whispers fight on that mode too).

On the other hand, there were bosses where, understanding their attack patterns and developing a strategy meant that winning the fight felt genuinely rewarding, as opposed to just time and energy-draining. An example of this was the Ghoul fought in the Train Graveyard – a new inclusion, and a whole strand of story that I enjoyed immensely. That battle really made use of switching between party members – Cloud and Tifa taking the lead in physical attacks and Aerith using her magic whenever necessary.

Materia has been updated, but not massively. Rather than a huge overhaul of the system, it still works largely how it did before. It’s been adapted for an action-JRPG but still comes down to strategy. However, an option to change materia mid-fight might have been prudent, considering the variety of enemy weaknesses. I found myself having to restart more than one fight because a batch of enemy scrolled through at least three different weaknesses and I was never adequately prepared for them at first. But at least restarting these fights was easy and hassle-free.

I liked the additions of new materia; such as Synergy which is another way to control what your other party members do in a fight, and the Magnify materia which works like the All materia of the original game. It made finding new materia fun and fresh, and meant I was constantly changing up my strategies to see what worked best.

The weapons system has been changed significantly, however. The upgrade screen looks stylistically like the crystarium from Final Fantasy XIII and the Historia Crux from Final Fantasy XIII-2. Therefore, it looks interesting, but is actually kind of boring when it comes to upgrading weapons. I ended up letting the computer upgrade my weapons with the balanced option, and this was a cool feature for people like me who found the task of upgrading tedious; especially when having to click out of each character’s weapons to only click into another one.

But the abilities that came with the weapons and having to develop a proficiency for these abilities was a nice addition. The only time I felt hindered by this was when Barret had to learn an ability on a close combat weapon. I like the fidelity to the original, but at the same time it was a handicap. Of course this is probably my own problem as I could have chosen not to use those weapons, something I may not do in a second playthrough.

Nonetheless, I felt like it encouraged me to play as every party member, and some were just downright cool. Special mention has to go out to Aerith’s Ray of Judgement, and Barret’s Maximum Fury which are so OP it isn’t even funny.

STORY (CHARACTERS, PLOT, ADDITIONS)

The original Final Fantasy VII is well known for the infamous ship wars. Clerith vs Cloti has been the ongoing debate for the past twenty years, and I don’t think this game is going to convince anyone that their side is right or wrong. It’s still left open to interpretation, at least in my opinion, and perhaps this was the best way to keep everyone satisfied. However, the game adds the additional element of having Aerith confirm that she did indeed love Zack Fair, the main protagonist and her love interest in Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core. As a ‘Zerith’ and ‘Cloti’ shipper myself, this game gave me plenty of moments to love for both couples. As someone who does have a liking for Clerith and Aerti, it kept me more than fed.

I have to give kudos to those involved with the game that they stayed true to the very canon interpretation that Aerith and Tifa are friends, and always were. True, they both expressed some small mote of jealously in the original game (and, at times, in this one too), but it quickly becomes obvious that they are both strong-willed young women who admire each other greatly. There are great examples of their burgeoning friendship but my favourites have to be kicking the lecherous asses of Don Corneo’s lackeys, and discussing a shopping trip for stuff for the bar.

All in all, the characters are kept true to their original incarnations. If anything, they – as with everything else in this game – are given to breath and work through things organically. They are fleshed out, and given further backstories, motivations and plot. I think this was best done with the doomed member of AVALANCHE, Jessie. She’s given a last name which, to begin with, makes her feel less like an ancillary plot device and more a character in her own right. To add to this, we meet her mother and father; which absolutely tugged at my heartstrings, what with her father’s tragic accident leaving him in a comatose state. We find out Jessie wanted to be an actress and was working at the Gold Saucer (this also works as a nice nod to places we know exist in-universe but will not visit until a later instalment).

Marle, Leslie, Madam M, Andrea Rhodes – every Chocobo Sam – are all fantastic additions, and I hope we see them again. In particular I would love to see Leslie reunited with his lost love in a future game.

Now, in terms of the story, I have played the original inside and out for many years, and always thought I would be against changes made to the story. Throughout most of the game most of these additions are simply changes that just make things more interesting for someone like me who’s played the original before. Towards the end, however, things take a drastic turn, and turn everything we’ve known on its head. As I said before, I have no idea where this is going to go in the next part, and there were some aspects that left me scratching my head.

The main of these being Zack. As far as anyone who has played the original or Crisis Core will know, Zack died in a last stand against the Shinra corps sent after him and Cloud after their break out from Nibelheim. However, the ending raises some interesting questions. At first I thought us defeating the Whispers had rewritten Zack’s fate, but maybe that’s not the case. Nevertheless, it will be interesting to see where they take it (one change I did not like was Zack’s voice actor. I know all the English VAs were changed – which I wasn’t a big fan of in the first place – but the new voice actor does not sound good compared to Rick Gomez).

Overall, our characters end the game in more or less the same position as the end of the Midgar section of the original, but after the events of the battles with the Whispers it appears that certain events that would have been due to happen (the original ending with Red XIII, Aerith’s death, etc) may not happen at all – or at least, not in the way we think.

[haledamage]

Bless Me With Your OTP

Rules: answer as many of the following questions as you want, and add art/screenshots to show off your OTP!

Tagged by @queen-scribbles​ :D tagging… @allisondraste​ @risualto​ @serenbach86​ @shimmer-like-agirl​ @ariela-of-aedyr​

I’m gonna do Vesiya/Jorgan because that’s who I’m writing right now :)

I feel like I’ve already answered most of these, in some variation, with Kai and both her boys as well as Cait/Nate, and this way I don’t have to choose a Bravo Boy for Kira :P

Do they fight often? If so, what is their dynamic like?

They butt heads a lot when they first met. They’re both headstrong and natural leaders, but it wasn’t so much fighting as it was posturing.

Now that they’ve settled down around each other, they don’t fight, but they do have Disagreements that mostly involve them both using their Commanding Officer voice and referring to each other entirely by their rank rather than by name. It doesn’t happen often, they agree with each other most of the time, and when it does happen it’s almost always about work things not about personal things. Ves will only pull rank to stop an argument if they’re in public, and she hates doing it.

They will, however, fight anyone and everyone on each others’ behalf. They will pick a fight with the Supreme Chancellor himself if they think he’s insulting their spouse. That part started all the way back at Ord Mantell, long before they’d even considered a romantic relationship - really, even before they were friends. Ves almost lost command of Havoc as soon as she got it because she argued so strongly against Jorgan’s demotion.

Who is the most skeptical of the two?

Definitely Jorgan, which I’m sure surprises no one. The man’s never believed a single word that comes out of a politician’s mouth, and only half that come out of Republic Command. And don’t even get him started on what he thinks of the SIS. While Ves is certainly not a push-over by any means, she’s a lot more likely to give someone the benefit of the doubt than he is.

Who would be most likely to suggest a night of dancing?

Ves. She loves dancing and is very good at it, though her experience with it is mostly either by herself at a cantina or out with a group of friends. Jorgan surprises her when she asks him to dance by saying yes, and surprises her again by being skilled at it. She even lets him lead… for a little while. I’m actually in the middle of writing this scene as we speak

What would they do if the other was injured in battle?

If Jorgan is injured, Ves’s first priority is getting him away from the fighting and out of harm’s way. As long as he’s conscious, Jorgan’s going to keep fighting, and she can’t help him if he’s still fighting. She’s not above ordering him to stand down. Her second priority is healing him. She’s a trained medic, though not as skilled as Elara she’s definitely good enough to deal with an injury in the field until they can get to a medcenter to take care of it properly. Even at the medcenter, she prefers to treat his wounds herself if she can, rather than let Elara or the medical droid do it; if it’s not something she has the power to treat, she hovers, needing to be useful or have something to do to help.

If Hallis is injured, I feel really sorry for whoever hurt her. The first thing Aric does is make sure it’s not life threatening, and if it is, to patch it up enough to stabilize her. He’s no medic, but he’s been in the field for a long time and knows how to patch a wound enough that it won’t kill you anymore, even if he can’t do much more than that. The second thing he does is kill whatever is responsible for hurting Ves and anyone that might be working with them. Then he gets her to Elara or a medcenter as fast as he can. He refuses to leave the room while she’s being treated, and won’t leave her side until she’s recovered.

How do their fighting styles complement each other?

If Ves had had any say in who the first member of Havoc Squad could have been, she’d have still picked Aric. She’s an assault cannon specialist, he’s a sniper, so generally she goes in loud to draw the enemy out and he takes them out as soon as they pop their heads out of cover. Quick, clean, surgical, with barely a word spoken between them. Honestly, by the time she’s promoted to Captain, the two of them can clear an entire battleship without a word, they understand each other on such a fundamental level that they don’t need to call out corners or targets anymore. There’s a reason Havoc ends up with the reputation it does, and it sure as hell ain’t because of Tavus and his squad.

Do they want children? Does it frighten them? How many do they want?

Vesiya would love to have kids. Her brother’s kids are the light of her life and she’d love to have some of her own someday. Jorgan I don’t think had ever really considered it before, he’s a career man through and through, but things change after he meets Ves. And after she was missing for those five years… when he gets her back, I think family is a much higher priority to him then than his career ever was.

I don’t think Cathar and Mirialan are reproductively compatible, but adoption is an option, and one I think they’d both be happy with. I could see them with a whole litter of kids from various races.

As parents, they’d both be a little on the strict side, but fair. Ves is great with kids, and very patient, and Jorgan would be a fantastic dad once he warmed up to it. Can you imagine, a little army of younglings following him around?

What happened when they took them home to their families? If their families aren’t in the picture anymore, how do they feel about it?

I maaaaaay already have some fic ideas floating around for this. 

I don’t know if Jorgan has any family? I can’t remember if he mentions it, he hasn’t so far in my playthrough, and the last one was years ago, so I’m gonna skip that. If he does, I’ll edit this and come back to it :) 

But Ves’s family adores Aric. She comes from a very Republic-centered family - her mother is a senator, her father a retired admiral, her twin brother and his wife are both SIS, and she has a younger brother who’s a Jedi (though she hasn’t seen him in like 15 years since he first showed Force sensitivity because Jedi can’t have attachments and all that) - so chances are good that he’d met some of them before he met her, or that they’d already heard of him at least. He makes a better first impression with them than he did with Ves XD

Vitrin, her twin, is probably the slowest to come around, but only because he’s very protective of his sister, and Vit’s wife Lena is the fastest to accept him because she’s got really good instincts about people. Ves’s nieces, Scout and Zan (Scout is a nickname, her name is actually Kesiya (after her aunt, sort of), but no one calls her that anymore), are already calling him Uncle Aric before they’ve finished that first dinner.

After Ves is declared MIA, Jorgan still keeps in touch with her family - though at first, mostly at their insistence. Vit and Lena have a 3rd kid while Ves is “missing” and they name him Aric, and if that doesn’t tell you how much they love him, I don’t know what will.

How does each person show affection towards the other?

Both of their main love language is Acts of Service, so the biggest way they show affection is by doing things for each other. Jorgan does weapon checks and makes sure Ves’s armor is in good working order, that she’s as safe as he can make her. Hallis makes sure he isn’t hurt, checking for injuries after every combat situation even when he claims he’s fine (he is not always fine. He doesn’t like to worry her about the small stuff. She worries anyway); she does most of the talking, especially to politicians, so he doesn’t have to. Whichever of them wakes up first makes sure the other has a cup of caf waiting for them. They watch each other’s backs.

Besides that, Aric likes to give gifts. Not big ones, necessarily, though he does some of those, too, but a lot of little things. Like a beer at a cantina after the end of a long mission, or an upgrade for her cannon that he knows she had her eye on. Little things that say “I was thinking about you” or prove how well he knows her and what she likes.

Ves likes physical affection. A hand on Jorgan’s shoulder or his arm, a quick kiss before a mission, she’s especially fond of the forehead lean. She won’t do much more than that in public, they’re both very professional, but it’s still her way to silently say “I’m here with you, I love you”. In private, there will never be such a thing as too many hugs. She could wrap herself around him and just stay there all day and be happy.

Who cries the most? Who is better at comforting?

Oh boy, neither of them are big criers. I won’t say they’re repressed, because they aren’t, they both are fairly good at expressing emotion, especially for career soldiers, but any strong enough negative emotion that would elicit tears mostly just turns to anger for both of them. There are a few major exceptions, but they all revolve around that pesky time Ves was pronounced dead for a few years. That was obviously a very hard time for Aric, and when Ves got free she had to make peace with the idea that she’d missed five years. She definitely had at least one very large breakdown.

If I had to pick one, I’d probably say Ves cries more, if only just and only very rarely. And only in absolute privacy where no one can see it at all.

Ves is probably better at comforting, by merit of having a lot of family, especially young children. Or rather, she’s very good at verbal comfort, but Jorgan is probably better at physical comfort. Just look at him. Clearly the man gives good hugs, just look at those arms. Plus, don’t Cathar purr? :)

Who is the bigger flirt?

Jorgan, believe it or not. He’s the one that initiates, most of the time, and Hallis just plays off of what he says. Neither of them are very good at blatantly stating their feelings for each other for a really long time, but admitting attraction is easier. They’re very playful flirts, much more playful than they are in absolutely any other aspect of their lives. It’s a dance, a push and pull, a subtle competition between them. They flirt for a long time before they ever make a step toward an actual relationship.

They very, very rarely ever flirt in public, and when they do it’s always just a quiet aside, not meant to be heard by anyone else, and it’s never anything incriminating. Poor Elara, though, for having to put up with these two. Patience of a saint, that woman. Anyone else would have thrown them out the airlock ages ago.

Of course, it takes them months to get to the point where they’re comfortable enough with each other to start flirting. And outside of each other, they don’t flirt. Like, at all. Ves didn’t even flirt with Balkar.

[lizzybeth1986]

Very Slow Thoughts on TRH Book 1 Chapter 8

• This chapter is meh. It's basically a full chapter of the writers taking the Walker ranch portion of the story, and stretching it like chewing gum at this point. I was pretty much sleepwalking through this one tbh.

• The only interesting bit in this was the Drake childhood scene, but because the initial scenes will always be slight buildup to the actual meat of the backstory - rather than the story itself - its placement in a chapter as dull as this one doesn't exactly do it any favours.

• To avoid seeing these posts on your dash, you can block the following tags: #trh quick thoughts, #trh qts, #trh qt reblogs, #long post

• Screenshot Credits:

Drake: @thefirstcourtesan and the HIMEME YouTube channel

Hana: The Abhirio YouTube channel

I'm sorry I don't have any Maxwell screenshots this time around, since I couldn't find it on YouTube, and I wasn't able to ask permission for screenshots on time. As soon as a video of his route is up on YouTube, I'll try adding the collages with his screenshots up. But I do have a tiny gist of what happens in certain portions of his playthrough, thanks to Tumblr, so I'll put those up as quotes.

• Title: Ride Like The Wind

Alternate Title: There Are Other Things My MC Could Be Riding...But Okay

• We begin with the sisters (yeah Leona and Bianca are back to being sisters now), worrying over how they'll get their cattle to the upcoming auction on time since every ranch hand they'd reached out for help pretty much declined.

• Not only is stubbornness a family trait, but so is the tendency to judge people at face value (I'm looking at you, Leona).

• There are a bunch of parallels between the Walker Ranch situation and the Beaumont house one in Book 1: both for the Regatta and the Beaumont Bash. Only difference is, the writers won't bother to expand much on Beaumont History but throw around every minute detail they can imagine for Drake's family (IIRC, even the mystery in Beaumont House in Book 1 was mostly Savannah related).

• Even in moments of dire need, Leona HAS to slip in snide remarks about people she barely knows.

Slight variation on the third option, if you're married to Drake. The other two highlight either the fact that the MC spent most of her life as a commoner and could think on her feet, and the second establishes that she has at least some riding experience. Leona pokes fun at you for both, but has the sense to not deliver much of her unwanted opinion for the third (besides stating they don't have much of a choice).

• The MC also highlights the benefit of bringing the others along: Hana and Liam have a lot of riding experience, Drake is 'capable' and 'outdoorsy' and for some reason Maxwell is known only for his enthusiasm (even though Beaumont House HAS horses and a stable and the Brothers Beaumont would have had SOME experience at the very least 🤷🏽‍♀ [Didn't the Beaumont Bash involve letting in a couple horses into the house? I doubt those horses would even be there if those two didn't know how to ride and manage them]).

Hands down my favourite line in this chapter (Liam's king voice one comes a close second). I really love this because in stories like TRR/D&D, there's always that divide between nobility vs commoner, aesthetics vs utility...and in dialogues like these you can really see that difference. It reminds me a little of one of my favourite scenes from D&D Book 1, where Briar looks at the MC's embroidery and wonders aloud how a pretty piece like this would be of any use to anyone.

• The suede is fine but there's too much going on with the rest of the outfit for me to really admire it. Our LIs obviously don't agree with me:

Drake and Liam have the same dialogue, Hana and Maxwell have different ones. (in Maxwell's he tells her he is ready to "serenade my amazingly dressed, darlin' wife").

• Everyone gets their horses (Bianca gives King Liam a gentler horse so she doesn't end up indirectly harming a king, and Leona gives Bertrand a rough horse on purpose. Because Bertrand has to be on his best behaviour he agrees despite his initial fears).

• Hmm. Chuck finds out about the lack of help via a rumour. Hmmmm. Bertrand gets as skittish as his horse until the MC and Bianca remind him that they might as well take all the help they need.

• So the task is to ensure that the group reaches the big fair on time (or before) so that the sisters have enough time to prepare for their auction. Since they're short of staff and have a lot of cattle, every minute counts.

• There are roughly 3 tests that can ensure we get there on time if we pass:

- help move a group of stubborn cows from the six dozen we're taking to the auction (you can either say giddyup or scream out silly idioms that they won't understand). If you don't say giddyup, Drake will say it for you.

- Move the herd of cows away from a mud patch on the way. Drake suggests a move he and Savannah used to do as kids called The Cyclone, where 1-2 people get in the way of the herd and the riders come from another side to steer them away. This ensures that they get the cows away from the mud patch. This one is the most time-sensitive of the three, because if we fail this one a lot of time gets spent in getting the cows that fell into the mud patch out of the muck and onto the path again.

- Get a cow wandering through the stream out of it safely using a lasso. The problem arises when the cow starts fidgeting while you're taking them back. Here is where your suede outfit has an advantage, because if you choose "grip the pommel with your hands" and almost fall off the horse, the sturdy outfit will ensure you're safe.

-

All of this results either in you getting the cattle to the auction way before time with an hour to spare, or so late that they reach after the auction itself has begun. In the second option, Leona is nervous about their chances but Bianca insists that they did better than they could have done alone.

• Some stuff that you learn/that happens on the way:

- Chuck calls Leona Miss Walker, so is Walker really Bianca's surname rather than Jackson's? Jackson is also referred to as Jackson Walker. So whose nickname was it initially?

- Wild West Nicknames:

* Maxwell can either be Mad Maxwell or Maxwell 'Calamity' Beaumont. Both nicknames from the MC speak of his tendency to veer towards chaos, or his boundless energy.

* Liam is simply called King Liam because PB is fucking lazy.

* Drake is called The Lone Ranger by Hana, and Hana is called Lucky Lee by Drake.

* The MC can choose her nickname - Cow Boss, Jewel of the Prairie and Wild [Surname]. The second is a nice callback to both one of Valtoria's House mottos (Jewel of the Earth) and a name that Maxwell gives to a caviar dish for the Beaumont Bash (Jewels of the Sea). Personally I think the second one is a better parallel since the Beaumont House situation was already a precursor to what is going on with the Walker Ranch.

-

Well yes Liam, on people.

That aside...Jesus Christ is this man adorable.

- Alright, so much as I can't stand Leona? At least she has a legitimate ax to grind with Cordonian monarchy. Why the hell is CHUCK being like her and acting all condescending?? The closest thing to a 'noble' he's been around was Savannah and they barely even had anything together if we go by what Savannah says. What is he, the shit stirrer of Walker Ranch?

-

I have two points to make about this:

1. Constantine...is a fucking asshole. Most of us knew that. I think TRH just seems to be expanding more on that.

2. Sooo...exactly what was Constantine like before the Nevrakis ppl did what they did coz at this point he sounds like an utter failure in every way imaginable. His wife seems to have serious issues with him at this point, he's too busy fighting to spend any time with his kids (well. at least the one the writers remember), has neglected his friend Hakim, doesn't have good political relations with anyone, screws over the King Guard who he gave a Guardian of the Realm honour to earlier, for saving his life...after the man has died.

3. Leona pretty much doesn't seem to care about anything else besides the money Bianca could have been bringing in. It's the main thing she mentions when we first meet her, and it's the front and center of what she's telling us now. What Bianca was going through, the fact that her kids were left behind in an environment that was seemingly not a good one for them - she hasn't mentioned this so far in any of her more obvious complaints towards the nobility. I mean, is that the first thing you think about when your sister returns to her maternal home after such a devastating tragedy? Really??

4. The other funny thing is...she complains about not getting compensation from the royalty yet forgets that for a whole year or more when Bianca and Leona were not there for her (not their fault obviously, since she likely never told them)...it was a noble family's money that supported Savannah and Bartie. The money of the same Bertrand Leona is now enjoying lording over. I guess she would only know this if she were actually giving her sister's children the time of day, and I have hardly seen her do so, so far.

• Once we reach the fair and the sisters have moved forward to where the auction is happening, we are allowed to check out the rest of the fair. Cue diamond scene!

• I kinda think of this as a Group-LI kind of diamond scene - one where you spend time with the characters, but not separately. In a usual group scene they interact and do stuff together before you get time alone with them, but here, the group interactions are minimal and you get time with each LI in different situations. If you are married to said LI, the dialogues are obviously more romantic.

Drake: Opts for bull riding. He's shocked at the number of waivers he has to sign before participating, has a tough time atop the bull BUT manages to stay on longer than the rest. The rest of the group cheers him on as he comes out victorious, and the MC can either be baffled at his daring, or try it out herself.

The MC who is Drake's wife can opt to kiss him just before he participates and tell him to be safe.

Maxwell: Asks us to join in a tandem pie eating competition with him. The MC and Maxwell can either easily win, or be disqualified for starting a pie fight. Either way, the experience is a blast.

As Maxwell's wife, you get to kiss him after you've won/gotten disqualified, and tell him how his ability to make you laugh and have fun is exactly why your marriage is so amazing. (as Maxwell puts it: "never a dull day and more pie eating contests than you'd expect").

Hana: Has found a dressage-trained horse, and is happily getting the horse to do a perfect figure-eight. What follows is a heartfelt conversation about what home means to her, all the possibilities she can now freely explore, and the changes she has experienced. You can either tell her about her tendency to be competitive (something she apparently did not know herself...uh, yeah, sure), or her love and loyalty towards her friends.

As Hana's wife, you can kiss her, tell her you're falling more and more in love with her each day, and Hana gets to tell you that for her, home is where you are.

Liam: Has learned how to make a lasso from a local at the fair. He speaks of how places like these make him feel like he perhaps may understand his own people better, even if these activities are not what the court would expect or approve of from a king. He can show a few rope tricks to the MC, like catching a chair with a lasso, or be 'captured' by the MC.

As Liam's wife, there's the opportunity to flirt either by using the lasso on Liam, or asking him to tie you up.

• Savannah gives an update from Bertrand on how the cattle drive has gone, and Drake brings along some Texas barbeque. The group love it, but the MC finds it a little too much on the spicier side (bold of you, team TRH, to think I can't handle the seasoning in Texas when I have numbed my tongue on bird's-eye chilis!).

• Gah. The paps again. But this time, we're prepared and able to put a positive spin on our trip to Texas (this is either a romantic getaway to ensure we conceive a child, supporting a local business, attending the wedding of a noble) and the paparazzo runs with it. Chuck comes to our 'rescue' a minute later and Savannah is very appreciative.

• Tensions continue brewing beneath the surface between Bertrand and Chuck. Chuck tries to bond with Bartie, who is naturally a friendly child, and Bertrand isn't able to hide how he feels about this. You get to either deflect the situation by telling Bertrand to show Bartie how a "Beaumont high-five" works, or by telling Chuck not to cut into Bartie's animal petting time.

• Savannah complains. Only improvement is that at least this time she mentions that she's spoken to Bertrand and even then he feels he has something to prove (gee, Savannah, I wonder why. It's not like your AUNT has anything to do with that, for sure!)

• "Whatever's going on with Bertrand, I hope he figures it out before our wedding". 'Because I sure as hell don't care', Savannah forgot to add. Like...the root of his current insecurities is right in front of her. Right in her family. Leona has been rubbing it in that he is a 'useless noble' ever since he's been here (even giving him a skittish horse on purpose) and not once has Savannah ever said a thing - either in front of Bertrand, or secretly to us in all the times she's been complaining about him. That's a...surprisingly cavalier attitude for someone getting married to this guy in a couple days.

• Seeing Bertrand, Savannah and Bartie as a family leads the MC and LI to talk about their own search for a family. Nowadays I generally tap over a scene like this because I personally find the MC having the option to be upset and sorry for herself about not being pregnant, a little annoying. I wouldn't under normal circumstances, considering what this book is about (in fact I would be quite happy) - but I think I'm allowed to feel sore over the fact that the MC unfairly gets the space to feel about this the way others can't. So yeah, for me scenes like these are not worth talking about.

• We're back at the ranch, where the group laughs and reminisces over the last trip some of them (Liam, Drake, Savannah) took to the ranch, and the strongest memory we here about is of Jackson, Drake's father who was once Constantine and Eleanor's security detail.

• In our second childhood diamond scene, we are taken back to their last visit to the ranch, where a rather unwell Eleanor is protected by Jackson, and where the children witness a fight between the king and queen. Drake and Jackson have a conversation in the stables later, where the father evades questions about Constantine and Eleanor from a very worried son, and instead chooses to ask him questions about his future. Here are the things I could glean from the scenes:

- Bianca doesn't get a younger sprite here even though she is present in the scene, and there's a chance that they're maybe saving that for a flashback scene for her (?)

- Eleanor's meant to appear unwell, tired and very unlike herself in this sequence - and even if we've just met her it's quite clear that something is off with her. She is shown looking weary a couple of times, and Jackson says "easy does it" at one point. She shows a lot more frustration towards Constantine than in the last scene, calling him out for his paranoia and asking him if his questions (about her wanting an alliance with Auvernal) are an order from the king rather than a request from her husband. Even Constantine points out that she is not herself.

- Other than Auvernal being her maternal home, what else do we know about her connections there? (besides that telling quote by Bradshaw about Eleanor always graciously welcoming them - which interestingly seems to leave out Constantine). I feel like the upcoming trip there next chapter is going to give us an insight into that.

- There is a heavy emphasis on Liam and Drake's friendship, and Drake's feeling of 'responsibility' towards Liam...which I think is kind of a pointer to the whole question of him returning to court after the assassination and staying with Liam when they're older. Even his conversation with Jackson has the latter mentioning that he would be of the most help if he keeps Liam and his parents happy during their time in the ranch.

- The ending itself shows a significant shift from Drake's attitude towards Liam in the first half (playful, friendly, wants Liam to be safe around his mother's home) to the last (protective, determined to cheer Liam up and more reflective). This scene is clearly a Drake scene through and through and the approach is very different from the first set of childhood scenes. This might be how childhood solo scenes will be dealt with from now on.

- Jackson also mentions not being able to speak openly about the problems between Constantine and Eleanor, and Liam tells us later on that he was kind of a confidant to both of them. Jackson also mentions in the stable scenes that he is responsible for keeping them alive but not for their personal problems. The perfect King Guard. Constantine is an ass for denying his family compensation (but also I wonder if there is more to that story the way they frame it. I hope they don't try to force another of those "it was for the good of Cordoniaaaaa" excuses the writers always keep ready for Constantine.

- If Olivia was so suspicious, why were they leaving her behind?

- There are significant differences between the Drake playthrough and other playthroughs in terms of certain scenes. One lies in the options little Drake can make with regards to his future. The third options in both playthroughs show indicators of his future. If present-day Drake is single in your playthrough, it will focus on his desire for a simpler life. If he is married now, then the flashback will include this:

The other two options are Drake speaking about wanting to be a King Guard like his dad, and wanting to stay Liam's best friend. The King Guard thing obviously doesn't happen, the second one happens because Liam almost died. The third one is more clearly a pointer to Drake's future.

- Another significant variation if you are married to Drake is that you have a conversation with him after the scene is over, about his thoughts on his child becoming an heir to the throne:

Reminds me of the conversation we had at the American bar. On the one hand, I like this because as an outsider in the court and someone close to the security detail at the time, he would think of Liam's life very differently. Kids are impressionable, and ostentatious shows of wealth in front of a kid who cannot afford that much can definitely sting.

- Hmm. Hmm. So Liam's sacrifices only become important to Drake when his own kid might face the same challenges? Until then he will yap about how much luckier Liam is and how everything revolves around Liam? How girls were after Liam and not him (yet the one girl who did like him, he eventually treated like trash)? How he thought of Liam as "leading the MC on" by spending time with her when they first met/during the social season? (that's an actual dialogue he says, in Book 3 Chapter 16). Added to this is the fact that Drake stayed in the palace for free, as Liam's friend, and hardly had to do much (he freely roams around the cities Liam has to visit for diplomatic reasons, he can opt out of court events when he wants, he doesn't even have to dress the way others do - even the MC that doesn't buy outfits has to wear a gown that represents her sponsors/duchy for official events). Now when it's convenient for Drake he chooses to think about the flip side? When that flip side should have been the most obvious to him, the Prince/King's best friend??

• The setup for the next chapter comes in the form of a letter from Auvernal, asking the MC to meet them. Well. It's not Texas, so I'll take it.

General Thoughts:

- I don't have a lot to say about this chapter. There's not much really. It's boring and bland and even the nice Drake childhood scene at the end can't save it.

- Bianca's little line about not wanting to harm a King on her ranch...I feel like part of it may be concern because Liam was after all her son's best friend, and part of it may be wariness because of Constantine? But a lot of this is definitely me reading too much into this one little line 😅

- It does have some decent callbacks though:

* Team TRH FINALLY remembers that Hana has done dressage, which was shown to us as far back as TRR Book 1 Chapter 13. Brava!

* The whole premise of a family struggling with money problems and us offering help and getting the job done, is very reminiscent of the pre-Beaumont Bash sequences where we were scrambling together appetizers, helping with cleaning and setting up the ballroom for the big event. It's kind of ironic because the Beaumonts were in this position once, and now at least 3 books later they are involved in helping the sisters get the cattle drive going.

* The pie fight in Maxwell's section of the diamond scene has some similarities to the food fight in the fondue party scene in Book 2.

* Hana's response to eating barbeque strongly resembles how she approaches eating sloppy joes in Book 1, at the beach party. Back there, she is nervous about sampling the food because it is messy, and here she initially asks about utensils to eat it with, to which Maxwell says "you have ten of them!" referring to her fingers.

* The Jewel nickname for the MC, which we've seen versions of before in Book 1 and Book 3.

* A lighter version of the MC-Drake conversation in the Drake x MC playthrough can be found in the American bar scene in Book 1, where he speaks about how his parents always tried to get him things for his birthday but Liam's parents always went many steps ahead simply because they could afford it.

* Drake being called the Lone Wolf by Hana, which was something the MC could opt to dub herself in her interview at the Derby in Book 1? (a bit of a stretch I know but I'm having fun with this okay 😂)

- Could a kind anon (or not-anon) tell me if there is a reference behind 'Lucky Lee'? In fact behind all the names except maybe the Lone Wolf one for Drake. I couldn't find any hehehe.

- Now that we're going to Auvernal, I think we'll find (paywalled) clues there that might tell us more about Eleanor. Those clues about her changed behaviour and physical condition must have been placed exactly here for a reason.

- Usually Chapters 9 or 10 have been chapters that dealt with some aspect of Constantine and his family (his abdication + news of his impending death in Book 1, discovery of his involvement in the conspiracy in Book 2, and his death in Book 3). So now would be the perfect time to discover the truth about Eleanor and her relationship with Constantine, and what was troubling her.

- One theory I have is that Eleanor's being slow-poisoned, and these may be symptoms of what she is having. @thefirstcourtesan mentioned that pregnancy could be a reason too, and it would be another connecting factor with the MC. One thing that I do feel a little certain about is that this trip to Texas may have been a little while before she died.

- How is it that the narrative has absolutely no memory of the fact that Leo was once heir to the throne? I can imagine him not being very close to Liam-Drake-Maxwell or being a teenager who didn't want to be around his father (esp if that father is acting the way Constantine does in these scenes)...but not even a reference? A mention? You have the time to draw an entire sprite of little Savannah who pretty much has very little to do with this part of the story (or any part of the overall story) but Leo isn't even mentioned? Sounds a little fishy to me.

- I possibly wouldn't have minded Savannah's complaining and lack of proactiveness with the Bertrand situation, if their entire storyline didn't revolve around her being this "perfect angel" Bertrand has to be worthy of, and Bertrand's mistakes repeatedly being pulled up while Savannah doesn't have to answer much for the occasions where she is irrational or hasn't made good decisions. What we're seeing now is just an extension of this particular storyline.

- You can tell that the original epilogue series was meant to revolve around the Walker Ranch coz whatever we're seeing here is probably way way more than we have seen of Cordonia so far. There are frantic attempts to tie this to the overall plotline, but within the larger picture it makes very little sense.

Like I hate the paparazzi in the series and even then I found myself agreeing when he pointed out that it was weird that half the Royal Council was roaming around Texas.

- Speaking of the Council I wonder what the other court ladies were doing while we were at the fair. Sleeping off those hangovers?

- There could be other childhood/flashback scenes coming up. We will need an adult perspective, so Bianca might get one. Olivia needs to be seen as important and relevant to the plot (plus Constantine was shitty to her too), so she will get one.

- I wonder why Bastien had such a loyalty and attachment to Queen Eleanor (as stated in Book 2 by Regina) if he actually wasn't that close to the royal couple then (Jackson seems to fulfill that role here). I'm pretty sure they're probably going to ignore/forget that little detail.

- Will Hana and Maxwell get flashback scenes? They should, and there are ways you could incorporate that even if they weren't involved as much. Maxwell's could (FINALLY) focus on what happened to his family fortunes and you could slip in a little something about the palace there. Hana's could focus on her family and also have Lorelai catch up on Cordonian news/talk to her Cordonian relatives. Liam needs a solo scene of his own too, because after this I'm pretty sure his life takes a turn for the worse. If Hana and Maxwell (but esp Hana) don't get one...that's going to be extremely disheartening because they deserve way more attention than what they're getting now. I'm sincerely hoping we see more of their childhood memories too.

- You know what I'm REALLY looking forward to? Writing TRR 1's Chapter 8 QT. I'm very fond of that chapter and have a whole bunch of points to make about it 😀

- Until the next chapter, everyone!

[crazy-talk]

As promised, here’s a little large compilation sort of thing of little moments and memories from SBFP that you folks have submitted. I really appreciate everything that you’ve all submitted, it’s pretty clear that SBFP helped and entertained a whole lot of people - in equal amounts.

Here’s some SBFP moments:

Grand Wizard Wakka

The Shitstorm VII Woolie haunting plan

“What a mysterious game.”

MY HOUSE

“Wait, what’s my objectives?” “You don’t haaave any objectives!”

Qui Gon Chi

“Whah happuh?” “das whah happuh!”

“No, shut up though.”

The Baby

“Shut the fuck up about Face/Off!”

“Bleetzboll...”

The Sadness Trilogy

“KIDS LOVE THE FOCKIN’ DEVIL!”

Pat thinking he’s dying because he sat on a chocolate bar

Kenpachi Ramasama

Shit-kids

“Whut deh fuhk? Is he using duh bät room?”

Mr. Shakedown/Kenny/Quint/Eric Sparrow

TAR-KUS! TAR-KUS! TAR-KUS!

“Love is just chemicals.”

Pat eating candy alone in a closet

Matt throwing the fire axe

“Oh no, I make’da bad game!”

“Hey, is that the script?”

“JAAASON!”

“It’s fine.”

The RE2 valve noise

“Yeyeyeye!”

Woolie’s atomic purple Gameboy

“Eyy, what’s goin’ on, man? You ready to play?”

And some SBFP memories. Some of these may be a bit emotionally heavy so feel free to skip this part:

the sbfp lp of yakuza 0 got me and my best friend into the yakuza series. we watched it together and we still laugh about matt falling to pieces over "never-before-seen results" - Anon

the best friends have had such an influence on my speech patterns that i've infected people who've never watched them before. half of my friend group says super big [x] and porked up now - Anon

SBFP introduced me to so many games that ended up becoming personal favorites of mine, like Deadly Premonition and the Silent Hill series. Their videos became a way for me to spend time with some of my own best friends as well! -  captainofthestars

theres one particular moment that will always resonate with me - in their devil may cry lets play, i cant remember if it was 1 or 3, they talk about someone in the comments who mentioned that they had to beat devil may cry with items due to having a physical disability of some kind, i cant remember which. they talked about how it was awesome that he managed to even beat the game like that, and, personally, as someone who struggles with motorskills issues this made me very happy, as a devil may cry fan. theres a lot of other great moments from the tbfp, both funny and genuine that made me happy, but this one in particular stuck with me a lot. -  krillfingers

I'll never stop making "pull out king" jokes thanks to sbfp - venerabledreadnought

I remember the first Shitstorm that made me actually have to get up and sit in a brightly lit room with other people in it, Anatomy. It's become a Halloween tradition to watch it every year since, though watching a whole bunch of Shitstorm also became one. As someone who started watching at their second machinma ep, it's not a lie to say that they made up the entirety of my teenage years. I will miss the channel dearly, but I look forward to the future. -  duke-nitro

My friends and I have been watching The Zaibatsu for so long that we have accidentally adopted a bunch of their phrases like going “yeahyeahyeahyeahyeah” or saying someone “go down.” Also, despite us not knowing each other when we became fans, we all somehow began with their Man vs Wild let’s play and I even made friends with one of them because I quoted something from it at work. Favorite moment probably has to be the entire Omikron playthrough, I can’t pick a single moment. It was a beautiful trainwreck start to finish and I still put on the playlist from time to time while I’m doing other things. I swear I could gently fall asleep to the sounds of Pat screaming about the shooter segments. shogun-ceanataur

Persona 4 and Kenpachi Ramasama were my favourite. I found the name itself hilarious, but how they kept on referring to him as the full name in different little bits and tones never failed to make me laugh. That “See you later, fuckers!” part from when you see Yosuke was also hilarious. I’m not sure if that video is the oeigin, but it’s why I’ve integrated that phrase into my everyday life. Goddamn what a fun, memorable episode. - whatthehellisthisevenfor

tbfp got me through being homeless in my car twice. every time that I wanted to give up, to just stop trying, i'd turn on whatever new video they had out and it brightened up my life. my mom, who was with me, came to love them to, she used to wait to hear them to relax. i have so many memories of that time, and i don't fully relax or even eat on long days until I've turned their videos on. my favorite quote is still "mistakes into miracles". its a rly motivating quote imo. -  c0l0c4k3s

I always loved the Silent Hill 2 LP. I never played it when it came out - all I knew was that it was a horror game, and I hated horror at the time. But when the LP came around, I knew a bit more about the game and I was intrigued. Seeing the game, meeting the characters, hearing Pat disect the story and themes for Matt, I loved it all. I was fascinated, and still am. I will still watch the LP every few months, and I call SH2 one of my favorite games, even though I still haven’t played it.Thanks, SBFP, for all the great moments and the great memories. I wish you all well. - iamthewanderingbard

The best friends are what got me so invested in the Dark souls games, and what motivated me to get through DS2. Even if I say 'You see what i mean' unironically a lot, and go 'You. Did it.' -  awkwardmuses

I got into Super Best Friends from a post on the Twin Perfect forum, that linked to the Silent Hill Downpour lp, and never looked back. Their let's plays brought me so much joy back when I wasn't in the best living or health situation, and continue to do so. My favourite let's plays have to be Eternal Darkness and the Shitstorms; I always go back to those when depression hits, or for any reasons. I'll miss them together, but I'll always have those delicious delicious memories. -  mrjaffesxeldritchtwin

The Best Friends Play are the reason I end so many sentences with "though". I first found them when a friend recommended the Best Sisters Play MLP animations, and I've loved them ever since. I know it's used as a joke, but I really believe they've earned the title of HYPEST GAMEPLAY ON YOUTUBE. I love all of their David Cage playthroughs, and I adore how many plot-points they guess during Beyond: Two Souls. I love how, when they play a game they really love, they show so much knowledge and care. -  mads-in-zero

It was incredibly amusing and oddly touching that the Zaibatsu created this hate circle of David Cage and his godawful games. Even before Detroit’s release, the best friends AND the fanbase were ready to hate it because as a collective, we just latched onto that one thing to hate/make fun of. And we go all out on it together like some fucked up family, and I love it. -  missinghmmingbird

I can’t help but shrug off every minor inconvenience and major issue in my life with “it’s fine” thanks to Gun Jumper Liam. Thanks to Matt and Woolie supporting Skullgirls like no one else on the internet, I really got into it and fighting games as a whole. I’m not good at them, but oh boy do I love them.And if it wasn’t for Pat, I don’t think I’d ever have touched a Yakuza or Persona game.These guys affected my life more than any other individual or group on the internet ever really has. -  dklordg

The first Best Friends video I ever watched was Portal 2. That short LP had me in stitches. I'd never laughed so hard. I've been a huge fan since then. These guys where the ones that introduced me to LPs and made me realize that you can have fun watching other people bumble through games. TheSw1tcher has been one of my favorite channels on YouTube since I began watching. It gave me something to look forward to. I got through high school, and essentially grew up, watching these videos. There are so many catchphrases and memes I will never forget and will always make me smile. I absolutely say stuff like “whah happun?” and “shit-kids” all the time. The Deadly Premonition and Detroit: Become Human playthroughs are wonderful gems in my eyes. It’s amazing how a group of guys can get so many people to collectively love and bash certain games. We’re all on the same page, having a blast like a huge group of friends at a slumber party. Matt, Pat, Woolie, Liam, Billy, and everyone who involved themselves with the Super Best Friends are the absolute best. They gave me a chance to relax and laugh along with some familiar voices. Although it's sad they are going their separate ways, I totally respect that fact. They have my love and support. I wish them nothing but success and happiness moving forward. I'll be watching! And a note to my fellow fans: This has been a wild ride. I'm glad I got to enjoy it with you. You are all fantastic people. -  fablesamongus

[commentaryvorg]

Danganronpa V3 Commentary: Part 6.5

Be aware that this is not a blind playthrough! This will contain spoilers for the entire game, regardless of the part of the game I’m commenting on. A major focus of this commentary is to talk about all of the hints and foreshadowing of events that are going to happen and facts that are going to be revealed in the future of the story. It is emphatically not intended for someone experiencing the game for their first time.

Last time as we wrapped up chapter 6’s investigation, Flashback Lights were clearly fake, Himiko was a very great mage and was probably acting kind of like Kaito on purpose, Shuichi was being the kind of hero Kaito always saw him as and unfortunately playing into Monokuma’s hands in the process, Keebo became mind-controlled again and immediately started making more sense than before, and he still lacked any remotely well-written justification for not having used his weapons sooner.

Before we start the trial, this one requires some more specific skill setup than most trials, because of a couple of parts later on which are exceedingly stupid and should not be allowed to be any harder than they absolutely have to. First off, Librarian’s Glare, which immediately silences loud voices in Mass Panic Debates without you having to do anything. Then, every single skill I have which makes Argument Armaments easier (thanks, Gonta! and also there’s a couple from the casino). This also includes one that increases my health, which was not remotely necessary for the rest of this not-blind playthrough where I wouldn’t be getting any answers wrong, but it definitely helps here. I didn’t quite have enough levels to fit everything new on so I had to drop a couple of the more general-purpose skills that I like to use, but it’ll be worth it. I kept the Psyche Taxi ones on, though, partly because I still want to make those go by as fast as possible, but also because I just want to keep using Kaito’s skill, too.

Anyway, Shuichi is out to prove that Kaede didn’t really kill Rantaro and therefore that Monokuma got a verdict wrong, which is the exact thing Kokichi and Kaito were aiming to make happen in the previous trial in the hope of “winning”/ending the killing game. If Kaito hadn’t managed to prove that there’s definitely an audience and Monokuma definitely isn’t allowed to get things wrong, Shuichi wouldn’t even know it’d be worthwhile to do this right now. Kaito’s efforts did not go to waste.

Monokuma:  “Puhuhu… So in the end, the first case has become the focal point yet again… What a twist! What an interesting twist!”

Narrative bookending! This wasn’t a planned part of his script, but Monokuma’s totally fine with Shuichi doing this for him because it’s good storytelling!

…Though, as we’re going to see later in this trial, maybe I’m giving Monokuma too much credit to assume he knows what “good storytelling” looks like.

Shuichi begins by talking about Rantaro. I’m sure there’s a part of him that just wants to immediately prove that Kaede didn’t kill anyone (because he definitely already knows how to prove that), but he’s restraining himself and taking this one step at a time.

Shuichi:  “The Monopad also contained a video Rantaro recorded for himself.”

No, it didn’t. It contained a note. The video in Rantaro’s lab was a completely different thing that Rantaro never saw before he died.

Every single English line in this trial referring to Rantaro’s Monopad note is going to insistently call it a video – and this is a localisation change, because the original Japanese calls it a note like it should do. I have no idea what kind of confusion happened during the localisation process to convince not just one but all of the localisers – because multiple characters make this mistake – that Rantaro’s Monopad note was supposed to be a video and the original somehow got it wrong. This is the most bizarrely consistent mistake in the whole localisation. It’s even actually a relevant plot point that it is just a note, because that means there was no proof Rantaro himself wrote it and it was most likely actually written by the mastermind as a trap. That would be a lot less possible if it really was a video! Come on, localisers. Kaito’s arm in the trial 5 video had to have been a genuine careless goof one way or another, but this mistake is somehow very calculated and deliberate, and that is ridiculous.

Keebo:  “But if Rantaro had a clue like that, why didn’t he come to us with it?”

Shuichi:  “I assume because he didn’t trust us. The killing game had just started, after all. What he said in his video message certainly didn’t help either. He told himself to only share this information with people he could trust.”

Yep. It’s almost like the message was actually specifically designed to make Rantaro afraid of sharing the information so that he’d get killed because it wasn’t a video and therefore could have easily been from the mastermind!

It’s also incredibly silly that Shuichi is calling it a video over a shot of Rantaro’s Survivor Perk Monopad and its very-not-a-video note. Did… did nobody playtest this and realise the characters were talking about something that doesn’t exist?

Maki:  “He didn’t have any recollection of filming this message, right? That means he must have had trouble believing it as well.”

He would have had a lot less trouble believing it if it really was a video, because it’d be hard to deny seeing himself there in the flesh. But this is from Maki’s original correct line about writing the message, in which case of course Rantaro would doubt whether it was really from himself.

(If it really canonically was a video, then this’d be the one time you’d see me being completely sure that Tsumugi was cosplaying and faking a video of one of these students, because its content is so definitely the mastermind trying to get him killed. Tsumugi faking a video rather than just writing him a note would in fact be a better way for her to do this, because Rantaro would be less likely to doubt the message if he could see himself saying it. So the fact that she didn’t make a video for his Monopad suggests that using her cosplay skills to fake videos isn’t a thing that’s likely to occur to Tsumugi as an option in general.)

Shuichi flashes back to a couple of things Rantaro said: one that hinted at the existence of his note, and one of him declaring his intent to end the killing game. These two different things were actually mentioned during two completely different conversations… and Shuichi wasn’t there for the second of them (because this is when we were playing as Kaede). Kaede also never relayed to Shuichi in detail what Rantaro said back then. The writers maaayyy have forgotten this.

Shuichi:  “The only people who knew about the hidden door at the time were Rantaro and I… I had Kaede with me and I thought I could trust her. So I told her about the hidden room… That was the difference between me and Rantaro, I suppose. I had Kaede…”

The difference was friends. Or, well, the difference was the lack of a mysterious note encouraging paranoia, plus an overly dependent personality causing Shuichi to latch onto and rely on Kaede despite a situation that discourages doing that kind of thing. But also friends. If Rantaro had had someone he could trust like that, maybe things could have been different. And if Shuichi hadn’t trusted Kaede like he did and had kept his knowledge to himself, things would have been different too.

Monokuma:  “And Kaede’s the one who killed him!”

…

Shuichi:  “…”

Shuichi is still sitting on the bombshell that no, she didn’t. He knows, but he’s going to clear up everything else first, probably to make it so that when he does get to that point, there’ll be no doubt about it.

(In this particular post, whenever I put an ellipsis to indicate that I’m skipping other characters’ irrelevant line(s) of dialogue, assume it’s probably the Monokubs. I am sparing you and letting you mostly forget they exist.)

Sigh. I use to like reading all the white noise and picking out fun bits to comment on, but now it’s all just the Monokubs spouting distracting nonsense. I suppose they’re doing it as an excuse to give you more white noise for endgame difficulty despite the far fewer characters left, but.

Shuichi:  “What? Ugh, keep quiet, will you? I don’t have time for your nonsense right now.”

This is Shuichi’s reaction when the cubs butt in for a Rebuttal Showdown, and, yes, Shuichi. We all feel you there.

The typography in their Rebuttal Showdown involves the words spinning around a lot and being vaguely difficult to cut just by their speed, probably representing how annoying and distracting this whole thing is.

Shuichi:  “The outline of his fingers matches how he was holding it in the picture.”

I mean, not really when you look at them like that. But also one can imagine that his fingers might have splayed out in sudden shock the moment he was hit, so yeah, close enough I guess. Danganronpa has never been super careful about getting the details of its evidence exactly right.

Here’s the final proper Psyche Taxi in the game (thank god), which could also contend for the title of the stupidest one simply based on the fact that absolutely none of the questions are asking you to figure out anything new. The final question is “Who can enter the hidden room?” – and the answer is just “the mastermind”, not the actual identity of the mastermind. Because I am definitely only just figuring out now that the hidden room belonged to the mastermind, and this definitely required me to answer four obvious questions to figure out this very secret conundrum.

(At least Kaito helped me crash my way through some of the cars without slowing down to make this go by faster. Thanks, Kaito. Yes, I am still shamelessly using every possible opportunity to mention him, of course I am.)

Tsumugi:  “Oh, that’s true… In order to get to the hidden room, you need to move the bookcase, right? But Shuichi and Kaede set up those hidden cameras, so… If the mastermind was using that door, they would’ve been caught on camera.”

Tsumugi, you know full well about the intervals, we discussed them at length in trial 1. The fact that you are making such a point of trying to argue something that’s already obviously wrong is making you look quite suspicious.

(If she was arguing about how the dust on the card reader means they couldn’t have entered through the library door, then that’s one thing, since she supposedly doesn’t know about the hidden passageway. But that’s not what she’s doing.)

Shuichi:  “The mastermind was probably terrified by the idea of us picking up Rantaro’s perk.”

Monokuma:  “No, that’s wrong!”

Shuichi:  (…What?)

Monokuma:  “I wasn’t necessarily afraid… The Survivor Perk was for Rantaro’s eyes only. Sure, he could’ve shared the info with you… But that’s not the same as getting the info directly from the Monopad. Cuz then, you can’t say it was for Rantaro’s eyes only, right? So when he died, I took it back. That’s all.”

Monokuma’s excuse here does actually make a reasonable amount of sense. One general principle of this game is that anyone can make basically any claim they like, but they aren’t necessarily going to be able to prove that what they’re saying is true, and it’s up to others to decide whether or not to believe them. Monokuma is not (supposed to be, trial 5 aside) allowed to give any information that would directly prove any student’s claim to be true or false, hence the Monokuma Files sometimes omitting details. Rantaro’s Survivor Perk would also sort of fall under that idea. Rantaro was allowed to tell people about it, but that claim of his wasn’t allowed to be conclusively proven to be true.

If you’ve ever played the game Mafia/Werewolf/whatever else you might call it, it’s a lot like how you’re not allowed to show everyone else your role card/role PM/whatever it was you got from the gamemaster to tell you what your role is. That would prove certain claims to be true or false, and that’s not in the spirit of the game. Monokuma is trying to run a similar kind of game here. He did admittedly make it much harder for himself to enforce that rule by giving Rantaro extra info that was meant to be for his eyes only in a format that someone else might be able to get their hands on. Rantaro’s video in his lab was also supposed to be like this – he mentioned in it that Monokuma might try to shoo people away from him to stop him from telling anyone else about it. That sure would have been a very awkward way for Monokuma to try and enforce that.

Of course, note how Monokuma only says he wasn’t necessarily afraid before explaining why this was all totally within the rules of the game. The rules might be part of it, but he totally was also afraid of others seeing the Survivor Perk just because it would give them information he didn’t want them to know regardless of the rules. The hint that Rantaro has been in a previous killing game, and the possibility that him checking out the hidden door might have been a trap to get him killed, definitely weren’t things that Monokuma wanted to be known.

Shuichi:  “The Monopad clearly stated that there was a mastermind in the academy. If we knew then that a mastermind was behind everything, we would have worked together.”

Also that. Shuichi knows what’s up.

(Oh, hey, remember who was always still convinced there was a mastermind even after Kaede’s trial but just decided to never fucking tell anyone that he thought that? Yeah, he sure would have helped us out a lot more if he ever actually had, huh.)

Himiko:  “If they wanted to retrieve the Monopad, they shoulda used Monokuma to do it!”

Monokuma:  “Nope, that’s impossible. The rules state I can’t participate in a murder, which includes tampering with the crime scene.”

…Not really? The rules state, “Monokuma will never directly commit a murder”. That’s all. There’s nothing specific about Monokuma being unable to participate in more indirect ways or tamper with the crime scene, so if he wanted to do that, he totally could while claiming it wasn’t technically against the rules.

This appears to be a localisation thing, because looking at the Japanese wording of that rule, a more direct translation would be something like, “Monokuma will not participate in a murder”, which matches with this line here. You’d still think that the rules should better clarify exactly what “participation” entails in order for them to explicitly ban Monokuma from tampering with the crime scene after the fact, though.

Regardless, if one of the reasons he wanted to hide the Monopad was for the abiding-by-the-rules reason of keeping it for Rantaro’s eyes only, that definitely seems like a situation in which Monokuma would be allowed to step in even when he usually couldn’t.

…Not that he’d have wanted to anyway, because Tsumugi had to be there just in case she needed to do the murder, which Monokuma definitely wasn’t allowed to do.

(Also, in case 4 of Danganronpa 1, Monokuma very much did tamper with the crime scene while arguing that it totally didn’t count as being against the rules. Different killing games with slightly different rule technicalities, sure, but I could definitely buy him weaseling his way out of this one too if he’d wanted to.)

Shuichi tries to insist that Monokuma’s strictness about the rules means they’re being watched, and Monokuma conspicuously changes the subject.

Shuichi:  (I still don’t have the whole picture… but it seems that we’re all being watched. In that case… this plan should go well.)

You already knew you were most likely being watched! Kaito sacrificed everything to prove it! It’s honestly quite disappointing to me that the narrative doesn’t connect trials 5 and 6 together as well as it really should. It seems on the surface that the only reason this trial is happening is because Keebo went rogue after Kaito’s execution completely coincidentally happened to break his antenna. This is really a lot more connected to what happened in trial 5 than just that, because it’s also about Shuichi now knowing there’s an audience thanks to that trial. But it’s not emphasised as much as it should be, not with lines like this that gloss over the reason Shuichi began to assume they’re being watched.

Monokuma:  “In the end, Kaede killed him… There’s no shaking off that truth.”

…

Shuichi:  “No, that’s not the truth. I’m certain of that. It’s a lie that you made up.”

Finally, Shuichi’s getting down to business! Looks like he’s got everything else that he wanted to out of the way now. Proving that the mastermind was in the hidden room at the time of Rantaro’s death is helpful for proving who really did kill Rantaro if it wasn’t Kaede, after all.

Shuichi:  “The most important fact we discovered during the investigation is this… The shot put ball that Rantaro was killed with, was different than the one Kaede had!”

Aww, look at how he sees the fact that Kaede shouldn’t have been executed as the most important thing he found out, despite having found several other things that are also objectively preeeetty important (Flashback Lights being fake, for one).

Shuichi:  “It was wrapped in her spare vest. Her *pink* vest.”

Despite how the writing makes Shuichi refer to it, her vest was totally purple and not pink, by the way. I’m bringing this up for a more meaningful reason than just being nitpicky about my mental categorisation of colours, because Kaede’s vest was a lighter shade but almost exactly the same purple hue as Kaito’s jacket. Have I mentioned those two were so very similar and the writers knew exactly what they were doing with them, even to the point of making them visually reminiscent of each other in their colour palettes.

I am somewhat disappointed that the order in which Monokuma blows up his cubs here doesn’t match the original order they died in, in that Monodam is killed earlier than last time. He was the most tolerable one! I didn’t talk about it at all because it was still completely extraneous and unnecessary, but he actually had something vaguely resembling an interesting character arc! They could have at least kept him around for longer than his much more annoying yellow brother this time too.

Tsumugi:  “The mastermind killed Rantaro… but why?”

Shuichi:  “I believe the reason had something to do with the time limit motive.”

That’s definitely part of it – they didn’t actually want to kill everyone when the time limit ran out, so they needed a murder to happen, which they could conveniently pin on Kaede – but that’s not all of it. It’s also just because Kaede being so determined to save everyone that she was willing to kill the mastermind and yet tragically killed an innocent instead was such a good story that they didn’t want it to go to waste by pure bad luck of the shot put ball missing. Even if there hadn’t been the issue of awkwardly being obligated to kill everyone upon the time limit if Kaede’s plan failed, they’d still have done this just for the story.

Himiko:  “S-So… Kaede was executed on false charges!?”

Shuichi:  “Yes… yes, she was. She didn’t actually kill anyone. But she was executed nonetheless.”

See, the thing is… for all meaningful intents and purposes, Kaede still was a murderer. She very much meant to kill someone, and so she deliberately took actions that she believed would lead to someone’s death, that wouldn’t have done if she hadn’t taken them. And, indeed, it wouldn’t have done – because if Kaede hadn’t tried to kill someone, Tsumugi wouldn’t have stepped in and finished the job for her and Rantaro wouldn’t have died. Kaede is still just as responsible for Rantaro’s death as Tsumugi is. I’m certain that if she were still alive and aware of this truth, she’d be furious at Tsumugi for killing Rantaro when he’d had the chance to live after all, but she’d also still be blaming herself for Rantaro’s death, and she’d be right to.

Shuichi:  “And you want to tell us that this game is fair? That there are rules? That’s all bullshit! This game makes no sense at all!”

Maki:  “If Monokuma twisted the truth for this case… then he could’ve twisted it for the other cases, making this killing game unfair.”

Himiko:  “Th-Then it’s not even a killing game anymore. It’s just… killing.”

…But the rules of this game don’t give a fuck about where the moral responsibility for a murder lies. They only care about who very literally and directly carried out the act. That’s how Kokichi got away with killing Miu, even though, during the trial in which Gonta had no memory of killing her, Kokichi was more meaningfully responsible for her death than the Gonta standing in the room was.

And the death penalty is fucked up as all hell. Nobody deserves to die for killing someone, not even Kiyo – he deserved to be locked up for the rest of his life where he couldn’t hurt anyone else, but even he did not deserve to be horribly killed. The only way in which it can be seen to be even remotely, vaguely justified that any of these people got executed is because they were in a game where they knew the rules meant that if they directly killed someone and then got found out, they’d die for it, because that’s just how the game works. (This is of course still not actually justified at all, but it’s what Monokuma will insist on.) So even though Kaede did meaningfully cause a person’s death, the fact that she did not directly kill Rantaro in accordance with the game’s rules means that her death was not fair and not justifiable on any level at all. Like Himiko says, that’s not even a game, that’s just killing.

(This is the one other time in this game that Shuichi uses strong language, which feels very appropriate given the context of this moment.)

Shuichi:  “…I won’t forgive them. I’ll never forgive them for breaking the rules and killing Kaede. So cruel… I’ll never forgive them! And I *will* avenge Kaede! I swear on her kindness and her love… and her grave that I will avenge her!”

And note how Shuichi doesn’t linger for very long on the fact that Kaede technically didn’t kill Rantaro and instead focuses his passion and anger on the fact that her death was wrong. That’s the most important part, after all.

I also like to think when he talks about “her love” that he’s not really talking about specifically romantic love, even though he seemingly did happen to have romantic feelings for her. After all, Kaede was such a warm and kind person that she loved everyone here, more than she loved herself. Platonic love is equally important, and Kaede had so much of it to give.

So, I’ve seen people complain that Shuichi acts like Kaede was perfect and innocent and without fault at this point in the trial… but that’s not really what he’s actually doing here. Admittedly, he doesn’t properly acknowledge to himself that Kaede was still guilty, since that’s something I imagine he’d want to avoid thinking about too much, so he is still being a little influenced by his own personal bias of how much she meant to him. But he is also not trying to incorrectly argue, to himself or out loud, that she was ever innocent, and I think that’s important to keep in mind. All he ever says is “she didn’t actually kill anyone”, which is true on a technical level relating to her being executed for it, and that’s the context in which he said that.

(While we’re here talking about moral responsibility for deaths, let’s also talk about Maki in case 5. She very much intended to and tried to kill Kokichi, yes. She landed a lethal blow on him, which one might think would make the fact that Kaito finished the job for her be a moot point, even more so than it was with Tsumugi finishing off Rantaro in Kaede’s case. But the thing is, in Maki’s case, Kokichi was already going to die anyway. He’d already decided on his plan to have Kaito kill him that night, and Kaito said himself that he would definitely have agreed to the plan even if Maki hadn’t been a factor. The “wouldn’t have led to his death if she hadn’t taken those actions” part doesn’t fit here, because Kaito would have killed Kokichi regardless. So while Maki still tried to kill Kokichi, and that’s something she needs to acknowledge and take responsibility for, the fact that she tried to do that ultimately ended up irrelevant to his death. Kokichi did not die because Maki tried to kill him. If Kaede’s shot put ball had missed and then somebody else had come along and killed Rantaro for unrelated reasons that they’d still have had even if Kaede’s plan didn’t exist, Kaede would have been guilty of nothing but attempted murder too.)

Tsumugi:  “It’s Kaede’s younger twin sister!”

Oh boy, here we go with this.

Tsumugi:  “It seemed sorta weird to me. Junko Enoshima had a twin, too, right?”

Keebo:  “Are you saying those same circumstances apply here, as well?”

Tsumugi:  “This killing game was influenced a lot by the past one, right? So maybe the mastermind’s identity was, too.”

This argument does not make any sense at all. She’s saying the mastermind wanted to copy everything about Junko’s killing game… so she also went and… copied having a twin??? Funnily enough, that is not how twins work. Either you were born with one, or you’ll never have one. Unless Tsumugi’s saying that twins are somehow genetically predisposed to being despair-loving evil masterminds, there is no level on which she can be arguing that this would be anything more than a coincidence and therefore can even remotely be used as evidence to point to the mastermind’s identity.

The only value that the argument of “Junko was a twin, so maybe this game’s mastermind is also a twin because it’s following the same pattern” has is as a narrative argument. The writers could give the mastermind a twin after the fact to make it follow the pattern. And characters within this story should not be able to make narrative arguments. This is very, very telling.

Shuichi:  (The mastermind who snuck into the academy and is making us play this sick game… Is Kaede’s twin sister?) “…”

Shuichi’s somewhat pressured thoughtful face during his silent textbox there reads to me less like he’s worrying about Kaede being connected to this and more that he’s just thinking “but that doesn’t make any goddamn sense”.

If you happen to attempt to agree with Tsumugi’s “theory” during the following debate…

Tsumugi:  “Right? The mastermind must be Kaede's twin sister! I'm sure of this now that you agree, Shuichi!”

Shuichi:  (...What is this? Why do I feel so uncomfortable?)

…It really does read like Shuichi knows full well how bullshit this is and is wondering why he even seemed to think it might make sense for a moment. His sense of discomfort could even be because this is making him suspect that Tsumugi is deliberately trying to mislead him, and he’s still not ready to accept that she’s the mastermind.

Shuichi:  “However, the implications… aren’t good.”

Himiko:  “Wh-What an ominous way to say it… But there’s nothing to worry about! We got this far because we’re friends!”

Himiko, you are really tempting fate here. Does it not occur to you that the not-good implications Shuichi’s talking about could be that you’re actually not all friends?

During this part where you’re meant to say the mastermind is one of the participants, if you try and say it’s Kaede’s twin, Shuichi muses:

Shuichi:  (No... there's no real proof she has a twin sister in the first place.)

…which is a very valid point and supports my theory that she really actually didn’t, if the narrative is acknowledging that as an option.

Himiko:  “Th-That’s crazy! There’s no way one of us is the mastermind! Because… we’re all friends! We swore to fight together!”

Monokuma:  “Puhuhu… Then it just means that all your friendship talk was a lie, right?”

Geez, Monokuma, just because Kokichi’s dead doesn’t mean you need to fill in for him. They really are so alike. The fact that one person’s friendship talk was a lie doesn’t mean that it all was!

But man, can you imagine the field day Kokichi would be having with this if he were still here? He never used any of his “maybe you shouldn’t trust each other” spiel to try and get people to actually find the mastermind among their friends even though he knew all along that there was one – but that definitely wouldn’t stop him from now being all self-righteously “I told you so and if you’d all listened to me you’d have found the mastermind sooner!!!”

Himiko:  “Whatever! I don’t believe you! There’s no way the mastermind’s here!”

Himiko being so adamant about this is another thing that’s become very Kaito of her! Kaito definitely wouldn’t be enjoying this either if he were still with us. But, since there’s no memory loss involved, Kaito would be able to see the truth in Tsumugi’s behaviour and accept it once she starts acting more and more suspicious. If you get betrayed, it’s your fault for misjudging them, that’s all.

Monokuma:  “Puhuhu… I wonder where this discussion will lead. Will it lead to a mastermind in this very room? Or… not? Either way, we’re gonna make sure this trial stays exciting!”

Are you about to head to a commercial break or something, Monokuma? That can’t be it, since the debate starts immediately after this, but it sure sounds like it. Also way to not be even remotely subtle about this thing having an audience, yet again.

Himiko:  “I was in the Game Room in the basement. With Kaito and Gonta and Maki… Also, Tenko and Angie were there too.”

It’s odd that Himiko adds Tenko and Angie like they’re afterthoughts, when surely she’d think of them first.

Tsumugi:  “Though I did leave briefly to use the bathroom… I couldn’t have killed Rantaro!”

I appreciate how this time around Tsumugi is at least not trying to argue that the reason she couldn’t have killed Rantaro is because she couldn’t have been in disguise and that’s the only way she could possibly ever kill someone. The less said about that stupid argument, the better.

Shuichi:  (… There’s clearly something wrong here… If someone killed Rantaro… It could only be them!)

Seems like this here is the moment Shuichi finally realises exactly which of his friends was never really his friend and was putting them all through hell. To be fair to him, Kaede’s case was a couple of weeks ago and a lot has happened since then, so he may well have forgotten that Tsumugi went to the bathroom until now. First-time-me remembered this detail, but that might partly be because I binged the whole game in a very short space of time, meaning case 1 was only like two days ago for me.

Himiko:  “… Tsumugi… is this true?”

Aww, Himiko’s making one of her sad faces that we haven’t really seen much of since after Angie and Tenko died. It seems she really did consider Tsumugi a friend, and she said she didn’t want to lose any more friends!

Monotaro:  “Please! Please let us win! We don’t wanna die!”

…I actually do feel kind of sorry for the Monokubs here in their second Rebuttal Showdown. They may have been created to have incredibly irritating flat personalities… but even so, they’re still alive, and right now they’re terrified of being killed on a whim by their tyrannical father and have absolutely no control over anything.

Shuichi:  “Monokuma and the mastermind are the bad guys here. You don’t want to die? Do you know how many of my friends were sacrificed!?”

Still, Shuichi has every right to not have the energy to care about these so-called-comic-relief idiots when they’re in league with the ones who’ve been killing so many of his friends. I love the emotion he gets across here. He is so done with losing his friends.

Shuichi:  (The evidence that points to Tsumugi being the mastermind… I didn’t notice it at the time, but now I know for sure!)

It’s pretty impressive that Shuichi can remember the exact wording of that “birth” conversation to pick up on the suspicious part, given that at the time he had no reason to suspect Tsumugi in particular.

Tsumugi:  “Ah! But Keebo wasn’t there, was he!?”

Keebo:  “R-Right… Because I was fighting the Exisals.”

Tsumugi:  “Did you hear that!? Keebo didn’t try giving Motherkuma a command! So the real mastermind is—”

Tsumugi, you are just making yourself look waaaaay more guilty with your desperation to take the suspicion off yourself.

Shuichi:  “I… don’t want to believe it either. That one of our friends, the survivors… could do this. That’s why I’m begging, Tsumugi. I’m begging you to refute me. I might be wrong, I… I was wrong before, about Kaede… That’s why I need everyone’s help! I don’t care if my detective work is wrong, I want to hear your argument!”

Shuichi still hates accusing his friends of murder and still has the least faith in his detective skills out of anyone here. This is a much more notable lack of confidence in himself than he’s shown in a long time, though, which might have to do with Kaito not being there any more. While he didn’t seem to need Kaito’s direct support that much towards the end, just knowing that Kaito was there and unflinchingly believed in him made such a huge difference. Shuichi’s trying to turn to everyone else for help now like Kaito told him to, but that’s still not quite as easy as having that one person he’s completely dependent on. (Even though it’s much healthier.)

This is also just a lot harder for Shuichi to accept because there is no good excuse for this. He told himself Gonta’s consciousness had been affected, and he never doubted that Kaito had to have some selfless reason for his actions. But if Tsumugi is the mastermind, then that just means that she was never their friend and was always the one making them suffer, plain and simple, and that’s the worst thing to have to accept.

Maki:  “…What’s the matter? You can’t argue back after hearing that?”

Maki, being Maki, seems to be the first one to really accept this truth. She’s got better at having friends, but she’s still well aware that some people can just be really shitty, despite how they might appear on the surface.

(Monosuke gets blown up around about here while trying to protest that they should all just be friends. That’d have been the perfect thing to use Monodam for instead!)

Monokuma:  “See? It’s getting exciting. Shuichi is trying to reveal the mastermind… Trying to overcome despair…”

It’s really got nothing to do with overcoming despair. The fact that one of their friends was putting them through this is cause for despair, if anything. I think the phrase you’re looking for is “defeating evil”, Monokuma?

Shuichi:  (We have the mastermind cornered, why is Monokuma so calm? He should be feeling cornered as well… Forget it. We’re on the offensive here.)

Geez, Shuichi, stop doing this! The number of times he notes that something seems suspicious, and then goes “no, it’s not important now, gotta focus on the case” when it could in fact be very relevant to the case is incredible. That Ultimate Detective tunnel vision sure is powerful.

Himiko:  “Tsumugi… I don’t wanna suspect you… I wanna believe in you. I want the mastermind to be somewhere else like in the previous killing games… So… if you’re really not the mastermind then don’t give up! I’ll cheer you on!”

Aww, Himiko. I like how she’s accepted the possibility that Tsumugi is the mastermind, but she’s still trying to support the hypothetical Tsumugi who is still their friend in case that really is the Tsumugi who exists.

Monokuma:  “Hey, Shuichi. Why don’t we look over the case again?”

Shuichi:  “What?”

Monokuma:  “C’mon, that’s like, your thing. Present the truth and end this.”

It’s kind of remarkable when you think about it that this is Shuichi’s thing, that he just took to doing these Closing Arguments without knowing that that’s what the protagonist in a Danganronpa is supposed to do. Maybe that was also influenced by the Flashback Light that created him.

Monokuma:  “Cuz there are people who don’t know what the heck is going on until they get to this part!”

Does the audience even get the comic books? Team Danganronpa would have to prepare those pretty quickly if so. That’d also render all of my comments about things in the comics being Shuichi’s imagination incorrect, so I hope not. Actually, that notion makes it pretty certain that it really is only Shuichi’s imagination – if Team Danganronpa was responsible for the out-of-character evil grins for Kirumi and Gonta, they’d have also had no qualms about doing that for Kaede and Kaito too, but that’s not what we got.

If the audience really probably isn’t seeing the comics, then Shuichi just giving a verbal monologue of what happened can’t really be the best way for them to understand the case.

Please enjoy these newly-non-ambiguous shots of Kaede nervously getting ready to do a murder, and also Kaede horrified upon having done a murder.

This panel does suggest that Tsumugi specifically hit Rantaro with the shot in her hand rather than throwing it from a distance. That should really have got his blood all over her clothes… but then again, if she’d prepared a change of clothes in the hidden room, she could definitely have changed into them in approximately one second thanks to her cosplay powers. Then she could just leave the bloody clothes in the hidden room and quietly dispose of them way after the trial. (You’d think she’d have disposed of Kaede’s shot put ball at the same time as she did that, but. 

The Ambiguous Culprit Figure this time has Tsumugi’s glasses… and it really shouldn’t. The only reason it ever had visible items of clothing before was when they were relevant to the case and therefore needed to be shown. Tsumugi’s glasses do not matter.

At least all evil grins on this Ambiguous Culprit Figure are entirely deserved and accurate.

Shuichi:  “If I’m wrong… please, refute me. Please tell us you aren’t the mastermind, Tsumugi Shirogane, the Ultimate Cosplayer!”

I like this twist on the usual ending of a Closing Argument. He really wants to be wrong!

Monokuma:  “Y-Yes! What a scorching hot twist!”

The apparently plain ordinary girl with barely any notable personality traits, no character arc, and no real narrative reason to still be here if she isn’t the mastermind is the mastermind? Yeah, no, this isn’t actually that big of a deal, Monokuma, you’re overselling yourself.

Also, that one time Tsumugi made a reference to Danganronpa 2 way before the Hope’s Peak Flashback Light probably tipped the in-universe audience off ages ago, you know.

The two remaining kubs try to beg their dad not to blow them up in his excitement, but…

Monokuma:  “Basically, your story doesn’t matter! I gotta watch this exciting development!”

Geez, Monokuma, if you’re actually willing to acknowledge that their story doesn’t matter then why did it ever exist in the first place?

Himiko:  “Y-You can do it! You can do it, Tsumugi!”

Tsumugi:  “E-Even if you cheer me on… It’s not like that! I didn’t do it! It’s plain to see!”

Monokuma:  “Fight back, Tsumugi! C’mon! You can do it, you can do it!”

Pfft, Monokuma is parroting Himiko’s words to make her sound more insincere, which is again very Kokichi of him.

(Himiko’s stuttering a little. She’s starting to realise more and more that the Tsumugi she’s trying to cheer on really doesn’t exist, isn’t she.)

Tsumugi:  “In the Hope’s Peak killing game and in the Jabberwock Island killing game… Junko Enoshima didn’t participate. She controlled the game from outside. Even if it’s boring or repetitive, she’s always the mastermind, isn’t she!?”

There she goes making another narrative argument again, even if this one is a “the narrative is usually bad in this way so why can’t this be the same” argument. (Also known as the type of narrative argument that made me a lot less sure Kaito was alive in case 5.)

She’s also hinting at the existence of other Danganronpas that they’re not supposed to know about just from the Flashback Light. Twice isn’t precisely “repetitive” and enough to argue that it’ll definitely keep happening forever, is it?

Tsumugi:  “Junko Enoshima is…”

Monokuma:  “Junko Enoshima is what!? …Okay, time for a commercial break!”

…Do they seriously do these? Maybe the intermissions work for that a little bit, but otherwise, how do they get the characters doing the trial to stop talking about anything important for long enough to have one? Is that what the Monokubs’ pointless conversations have always been there for?

(Since we’re done with the retrial and are about to completely shift topics, this does however happen to be an appropriate moment for me to put a break between posts, so there’s that.)

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[Next post]

[melissatreglia]

Did You Miss Me?: Darkiplier in 2018

For the most part, 2018 was a quiet year. In contrast with 2017, where we were gratified to see Dark's monochromatic visage throughout the year, 2018 carried playful hints and teasing of the elusive entity's presence but no confirmation. There were thumbnails and quick flashes that indicated He was continuing to pull strings, ensuring that His presence was felt but His face never really seen.

Throughout 2017, He'd show up during what us mere mortals consider major holidays or important events. Valentine's Day. Easter. Even Cinco de Mayo got a nod. And of course, the infamous Friday the 13th late in the year.

But 2018? He apparently decided to stay home in the void during our days of revelry, with the possible (though not confirmed) exception of the decidedly strange Fall in Love with Markiplier video for Valentine's Day. And for the TWO Friday the 13ths in 2018? He was a no-show. In 2017, He'd returned to shake things up in our safe little lives... and in 2018, He left us wanting more, like the skilled manipulative seducer He is.

Getting Over It, Part 8 included a thumbnail with Mark's dour expression and a suspiciously familiar colour scheme. The thumbnail for WATCH OUT!! had Mark reaching for us in a state of panic (which belied the contents of the video itself). 

Try Not to Smile Challenge #3, while the smile-free serial killer laugh is creepy, it's not a Darkiplier moment. Though, him joking near the end of the video that people who didn’t smile at some point during the video are "soulless demons" does seem to be a Darkiplier reference of some kind (or maybe a Devilplier reference, since the Cuphead song was released just two months later)?

In Madison, when his game character watches a television that glitches and fades to static, Mark fearfully squeaks, "Darkiplier, is that You?!" While in the description for End My Suffering, just ten days later, Mark wailed, "What malevolent being did I piss off to be cursed like this!"

Brother Wake Up promised "I’ll try to help in whatever way I can but you have to wake up!" Which, while it fit perfectly with the title of the game, the description also fit pretty damn well into the channel lore too. And Umfend's description was likewise ominous: "You shouldn't have forgotten about me... I'll make you remember..."

Meanwhile, the title for the video of Welcome The The Game 2.0 doubles as a callback to an earlier Darkiplier moment: "Don't Play This Game". Horns of Fear did it one better, with the thumbnail featuring many eyes staring out at the viewer (again with an all-too-familiar colour scheme), while the title warned us "DON'T LOOK AWAY..."

In the Warframe playthrough late in the year, Mark's camera briefly freezes. But in 3 Scary Games #9, his camera freezes repeatedly before glitching back to normal, and he implies that "there's something else" messing with the camera. In 5 Nostalgic Games, when Mark gives the definition of ubiquitous and bares his teeth while saying "We're learning today!", the video suddenly glitches. 

The thumbnail for Markiplier has fled the country had Mark lunging at the camera, his face completely darkened by shadow. And the thumbnail for 3.75 Scary Games blatantly toyed with the fandom with text shouting "DARKIPLIER?"

And the fanbaiting didn't stop there. More thumbnails that hinted at Dark included a hand bathed in blue light reaching out to the viewer for the fittingly titled The Devil Haunts Me, and a cartoon of Mark cowering away from Dark's furious glare for You're Perfect.  

Markiplier's Tour: The Movie featured the improv teacher stating that Markiplier wasn't at the shows. "I don't know who that guy was, but it wasn't him." Even the Markiplier Animated short I've Got Boobs?! features a brief scene of a shadowy Darkiplier rising from a well and whispering something unintelligible.

For the most part however, the teasing came directly from out of Mark’s mouth.

In 3 Scary Games #5, Mark jokes that a ghost (clad in the classic white sheet and glitching somewhat) is Darkiplier. 3 Scary Games #13, the first (jokey) game called "Death Trips" features RGB text and Mark narrating in an echoing voice. In Midnight Shift, a game where Mark is memorably being chased by mannequins, he jokes that an RGB poster on a wall is "expricitly [sic] Darkiplier". In SCP Containment Breach #57, Mark jokes when he sees the intro screen of a pretty lady in 3D with an open third eye, "Look at this Darkiplier ass thing... it's like Celine, straight out of [Who Killed Markiplier?]". 

In 3 FNAF Fan Games, he even chortles that the game has “Darkiplier letters.” In Devil Daggers, he scoffs, “A high-pitched ringing in the darkness. That’s always good.”

[Image captured by me, on June 3, 2018.] 

Just before midsummer, I received a pleasant surprise. In Imscared: Steam Edition, Mark says "I gotta go get back into the Shadow Realm, the Upside Down." Which, personally, made me very happy at the time. Since I first became active on Tumblr in July 2017, I've been referring to Dark's void dimension as the Shadow Realm, while Mark has referred to it in the past as the Upside Down, making the link fairly clear in this statement. (Somehow, whether by happy accident or serendipity, my terminology and its proper context made its way to Mark. As a fan, I can't describe how pleased that made me, to know he might have actually seen something I’ve made.)

(But enough about me. I’m just an obsessive Darkiplier fangirl. So let’s get back to cataloging all the hinty goodness!)

By this point, you’re probably wondering, “Okay, so all those hints are decent. But where the hell is Dark in all of this?!” But that’s the point, my friends: He was there the whole time. In brief flashes of imagery, in hints and innuendo. Unseen, but his presence clearly felt as our expectations were played with by our channel host.

We expected a wild ride at the beginning, when Mark made two brief livestreams on January 5th, wandering through the theatre he was slated to play for the You’re Welcome Tour. 

The first of the two, “What’s Going In?!”, he showed us the back area of the Paramount Theatre, using only improvised narration and acting to build an atmosphere of dread. He claimed the theatre was haunted, and that he could smell “the scent of death”, ultimately vowing to protect those who would be visiting the theatre to see him that night. He also declares the EXIT a trap, before being pursued by an unseen entity.

The drama continued with “...” (a title that is impossible to find using Youtube’s search options), that begins with an eerie quiet. Tyler eventually finds Mark’s dropped phone. He asks the viewers where Mark is, before going on a search. He’s eventually attacked from behind and the stream cuts off, leaving those who weren’t at the show that night to wonder how the matter resolved.

In Simulacra, there's a brief flash of Mark in his Big Mood outfit with text saying "WAKE UP". When the simulacra changes the colour of the cellphone's display and begins to speak in a calm, creepy voice, Mark reflexively responds, "Darkiplier?" and sounding unnerved at the mention of "behind your black mirrors", then being stunned as the screen appears to crack.

At the end of Simulacra, he gives an uncharacteristically downbeat speech, declaring that "We're all just digital copies of ourselves, idealized in a digital form. And maybe that's the way that life is just supposed to be. Maybe we should all just roll over and accept it, because there's nothing that we can do to change our fates, after all. And who's to say that it's not better for us just to wear the masks that are our digital personas, and live our lives as those? Maybe that is for the best."

The How To Make Slime video goes from harmlessly silly and takes a twist for the stabby. Mark declares "In order to appease the Dark Gods..." then he instructs the viewer to slice their palm and "whisper the words of power." The words in question? "They shall rise. They shall consume. All will be lost when they rise from the darkness of the ocean. Madness opens up to everything." When the making of the slime is concluded, he adds that "We all get to enjoy three years of peace before the Dark Gods consume us all."

I have no idea what that means, but I’m pretty sure it may involve Cthulhu chomping on my kidneys. (Then again, Darkiplier is a Lovecraftian monstrosity Himself. So, if it’s Him who’s one of the Dark Gods? He can have a kidney from me if He’s really that hungry. Kidneys are a redundant system anyway, so you really only need one.)

April Fool’s Day brought us the gag gift of The Official Markiplier Rock, with a suspiciously deep voice informing us that the rock is available in white. Additionally, the video warned to alert the SCP Foundation if the rock appears to start talking! (What? My rock has been talking to me since I got it, and there’s nothing wrong with me!)

Baldi’s Basics: Secret Ending featured an explanation about attaining the secret ending, with Mark’s otherwise normal voice echoing slightly with subtle white noise effects. (Hmmm...)

In December, for the charity livestream and archived in a video called Santa Spills The Tea, a Santa Claus that sounded suspiciously like Wilford Warfstache declared that Dark, the master manipulator and Big Bad of Mark’s channel, was a “sweetheart! He shouts a lot, but he’s just a big ol’ pussy. He can’t even possibly… he didn’t hurt anybody! He didn’t kill one person! If there’s anybody who’s on my naughty li— uh, on my list of people who’ve been bad, he’s the only one not on it.” (And mind you, in 2017′s Markiplier TV, Wilford sang a little ditty about how he killed Santa Claus and the kids wouldn’t be getting any presents that year. And Dark still convinced us to shoot someone in A Date With Markiplier, while apparently feigning regret. But heck, use your own judgement.)

Mark also dropped one heck of a hint of things to come in, of all places, Markiplier Tries Korean Beauty Products. There, the descriptive intro to the following year’s DAMIEN animated feature can be heard at one point. “Snow blankets the field, a pristine meadow of untouched white. No animals call. No birds cry. Only the steady rustling of wind through dead trees accented by the impact of his axe. A crack-like thunder rings out as the ancient pine finally succumbs to his murderous assault. The old giant crashes into the ground. Dami-”

Wilford Motherloving Warfstache was, of course, focused on the mustachioed entity. But there were elements to the short film that felt like Darkiplier was watching along with us. Particularly the VHS-style glitch at the end of the film.

Of course, there were only three videos that year that potentially contained Darkiplier himself.

One candidate is Fall in Love with Markiplier. Yes, the name on the title is Mark’s... but is it really him? The entirety of the film is a fourteen minute staring contest with Mark, as he lovingly (and somehow also creepily) gazes at the viewer in different settings -- by the ocean, at a dog park, and in a bubble bath. The only spoken words are in the intro, over the strains of the music from A Date with Markiplier: “It’s scientifically proven that you can fall in love with someone simply by maintaining eye-contact for an extended period of time. So now, you can fall in love with Markiplier all over again in these three locations. Happy Valentine’s Day.”

The second candidate is World’s 5th Quietest Let’s Play, released just 5 days prior to the Let’s Have a Romantic Staring Contest video. Unlike the previously mentioned video, there’s more going on this time around. The game to be played quietly this time around is Bennett Foddy’s infamous rage-inducing creation “Getting Over It”. 

He threatens the developer with the words, “You will see the inside of your entrails, when I drag them out of your abdomen and show them to you.” (Ah, how romantic.) He goes even further than that, saying soon after, “This is a representation of My sins... You will be purged in the fires of absolution, along with all of your ilk. I will burn the heretics that you are harbouring inside of your soul... I will destroy you.” (Now there’s the smite-happy Hellgod we all love!)

But He doesn’t stop there, snarling under His breath, “You will burn in the fires of My own hell! And I will choose your pain to last eternity!” However, He is ultimately defeated by the game, departing our company with  “Alas, I leave you now, to slumber amongst the ancients.” (Aww, poor guy needs a hug. And I know just who’s ready to snuggle with Him...)

But the last of the video to potentially contain Darkiplier is... the four-hour long play through of Hearts & Heroes. Is it canon Dark? No, probably not. It’s a fan game, though the words of dialogue are acted out by Mark himself. But rather than simply recounting key phrases for you, here’s the Boss Battle between Mark’s team and Dark, edited by the lovely icedpinkpeebles (Mark’s goofy character names and all!):

So, what does all of this ultimately mean? Why did Darkiplier fade into the background in 2018? And, most importantly, what is He up to now?

The truth is I don’t know any more than you do. I can only guess.

But I can tell you this: We don’t know Darkiplier as well as we all think we do. Many of us (including me) fully expected Dark to raise hell following the events of the jokey Darkiplier vs Antisepticeye video in 2017 (because He did mention how He hates being mocked!). And while we did get more Dark at the end of that year, it was in the form of an origin story.

Whatever Dark’s planning, we’re not going to see it coming. Because He’s playing a long game. And when you’re immortal like He is, you have all the time in the world to get what you want. Be it for love or revenge, Darkiplier remains a force to be reckoned with.

But here we are, in the eye of the storm. Only time will tell before the final wrath of the hurricane makes landfall.