#not a spoiler you know there are dogs in this game

[kogiopsis]

I am in late Act 2 on a Minrathous-saving run (Neve romance) and honestly I kind of... regret it. It is staggering how much Treviso is objectively the better choice:

So far, I have not encountered any quests or characters in Minrathous who I didn't see on a Treviso-saving first playthrough. In fact, there are at least two Minrathous quests which may only appear if you save Treviso, meaning there's more content on that path overall.

By contrast, two named Crow characters (plus the vendor, Fletcher) have died, and there's at least one questline gone as a result. I know a lot of Shadow Dragons are implied to have died if you save Treviso, but you see the Crows. It's tangible.

Jacobus is... not going in a good direction. I don't expect him to survive the game at this point.

In a surprisingly subtle example of environmental storytelling: the cats and dogs in Treviso are gone. In addition to all of the people you see and hear sick and dying, this really struck me when I realized.

Neve's storyline is honestly more compelling if the stakes are raised. Lucanis's story (and Treviso's) already have pretty high stakes - control of the Crows, family betrayal, and Antaam occupation - and the blight isn't actually a problem that can be solved, so it just creates misery without narrative conflict. The Venatori are something for Neve to fight and struggle against, and it adds weight to her characterization IMO.

Spoilers as mildly as I can put them: The final battle occurs in Minrathous regardless, so the city cannot make it out unscathed.

I don't know if Bioware meant this choice to be as black-and-white as it ended up, but phew. Sorry Neve, I'm never saving Minrathous again.

I'm gonna be real with you: The Minrathous vs Treviso choice was way easy to make for me. Even if I wasn't playing a Crow personally invested in Treviso, like... the Blight poisoning Treviso's water seems way more long-term damage worth avoiding than Venatori gaining power in Minrathous.

[crescent--moons]

Sooo I finished Veilguard a week ago already but have been replaying and stewing on all the feels. I'm at the point where I need to dump some of my personal thoughts and feelings in no particular order and in a list format because that's just how my brain works lol

(Putting them under the cut for spoilers)

- I will protect Bellara at all costs (her personal quest is so important to me)

- Crows and Shadow Dragons factions are peak

- Seeing my Inky again gave me so much nostalgia I almost cried

- The chemistry between Lucanis x Shadow Dragon Rook x Neve is immaculate (bonding over "our day job is killing Venatori" is hilarious and everything I wanted)

- The dynamic between Lucanis x Crow Rook x Viago x Teia has my whole entire heart

- "Illario you idiot" is an understatement

- Taash and Lucanis banter made me laugh so hard I busted a lung I fear

- Emmrich and Manfred are absolutely delightful

- The gasps I gasped when Zara called Illario Amatus and Manfred spoke his first word

- Spite. Is. My favourite.

- The realization that Varric was dead all along shattered my heart

- The character creator is great (wishing for more hair options though)

- Rivain's combat music slaps

- Solas needs both a good scramble and a big hug

- Crow Rook 🤝 Viago "The Crows rule Antiva and Treviso will be free" (I love them)

- All the lore reveals gave both my Rook and I an existential crisis

- The game could have used a bit more faction recognition in certain scenes/dialogs but alas

- The level design is so good and the environments are gorgeous

- Spellblade and Evoker are so much fun

- The animations in certain cutscenes are so well done I was in awe

- I ugly cried for 1 whole hour after I finished the game (worth it)

- Davrin and Lucanis bickering half the time is the dynamic I didn't know I needed

- Harding and Taash are so cute together

- Seeing Dorian (again) and Maevaris (for the first time) in game was awesome

- Evka and Antoine are adorable

- Spending time petting cats and dogs in Minrathous and Treviso instead of getting on with quests is the DA experience I was looking for

- Lucanis Dellamorte has bewitched me body and soul (his story arc and romance was tailored made for me istg)

- I'm just so incredibly happy to finally have a new Dragon Age game after 10 years of painful waiting

[tristomisto]

I didn’t know how much I needed Jonathan Sims to ridicule my decision making skill.

This game felt like a dream come true and was so my vibe, I can’t wait to find all the branching paths but man those endings…

Spoilers from my playthrough and the game’s ending below

TW: Some Gore talk

So my goal was to be as non-violent as possible (almost always choosing to leave the dagger), and while it’s likely you can get this dialogue anyway, it made me weak.

To have a divine entity tell me “you have a gentle heart” when I told it I didn’t want to hurt it anymore. Floored me.

The game also captivated me in the way the voices worked. Because it’s the same way I hear voices in my head. They don’t have control over me, (unlike the game) I know they are fictional and they are more of a nuisance then anything. They just pop in and out to say their piece, even if I don’t want to hear it. I prefer to think of it as my conscience trying to get through to me in a different way.

Any way back to the game, I made a save right before confronting the narrator and got to see most of the endings (I think).

My first was getting back to the cabin with the Voice of the Hero. I left the dagger upstairs to go to the Princess and figure out what happens next. I always asked for her name, and never got one other than then what the entity called itself, The Shifting Mound.

But the Princess gave me a name, she called me Quiet (due to you actually being a god called the Long Quiet, which was a really cool twist). I found the nickname adorable, so in my head I started calling her Shift. My choice, as always was ever the peaceful option.

I told her we could just leave, and she trusted me. I thanked the Voice of the Hero, who stayed behind to look for the others when we decided to leave. Then together, the Princess and I opened the door, and we’re left to interpret what happens next. I think this is the “good” ending or at least mine.

I also love any ending in which the Princess is given agency. If you bring the dagger downstairs to her at the last scene, she offers to stab you with it. Doing so will reset everything back to the beginning of the game, in the hope that things will be different the next go around and the world won’t end. And even if it isn’t, at least they will find each other here at this moment again and again, and both make the same decision.

I love this ending, especially due to the explore options before taking it. I remember saying something along the lines of “I’ll miss you.” And she says I won’t have to, because when I come back, she’ll be right there waiting for me, even if she doesn’t remember.

I also quite enjoyed the endings of becoming gods together. While it’s still good, I think arguably the ending I personally don’t like is the Narrator’s want which is slaying the princess at the end.

In terms of individual branching paths, I love the spectre ending where you let the princess possess you as a ghost, the “hey killer” really got to me. The one where she becomes like a demon girl and just wants to fight is really funny until it gets really sad.

I was also cooked from the beginning because my first path when she started to gnaw her arm off, it unnerved me for a few seconds before I was like “well if I was trapped with no way out I’d probably end like this too.” Then the huge puppy dog eyes she has whenever you’re helping her remove her arm.

Overall 10/10 I love this game so much, and having Jonathan sims as all the voices in my head was a real treat. Will get all the achievements eventually!

And the first romance ending was so funny because I hear Archivist Jonathan Sims narrating with a bunch “ews” the whole time. IM SORRY JON IF I MEET AN ENTITY I WILL GREET IT WITH LOVE AND UNDERSTANDING. I know she started to gnaw off her own arm but I get it!!!

[lucky-clover-gazette]

HIS HEAD SPINS AS HE WATCHES THE DOG

[driftingballoons]

I love Rozenmarine, but sometimes the way her VA says “Elise” is just so

[cakemoney]

the way it happened is truly everyone's worst fear, and the episode puts a spotlight on what those fears are. k trying to fix something and fucking it up massively. when she airdrops all her stuff, it didn't feel like "k's still thinking about her network etc", it felt like defeat, giving up the work she was doing as itsy for someone else, cause she's lost all confidence in her ability to fix what she was trying to fix. sam tries to help with magic, and her wand doesn't work, and she's confronted with how helpless she is without it. she hosts a show with magic in the name but when she needs it, when she calls for it, it doesn't come, and without it all she is (all she fears that she is) is just being shiny on the outside with nothing on the inside. jammer having less than a minute to feel grief and fear before he just locks in on what he needs to do, where they need to go, because jammer feels responsible for everyone he cares about so he feels responsible for this, he can't face evan's shadow because he can't fail evan again because he's already failed to be there before. and then evan! having to be rescued, being inconvenient and throwing off their mission, and then coming back with no clothes, is the worst! he's so sad about how his presence is making his friends' lives worse because k and jammer can't even look at him, he tried to help sam in whatever way he can and it just upset her, and then he socially trapped sam into assuring him she cares about him. he has to ask a magic goat a question and he doesn't know how and even though the goat ends up giving him the theoretical right answer, now it's disappointed in him because he used a cop out! very bad no good day for evan. man.

[todayisafridaynight]

no ones ever gonna understand how much i love daigo doin this stupid shit after dissolving the tojo

[wampiryzm]

btw because the embargo on veilguard spoilers for the selected content creators have been lifted im not gonna be here much, even after blacklisting most of the spoiler tags ive seen some and i kinda. dont want to see more story spoilers than what is shown in trailers/ign videos so im just trying to not scroll through tumblr much

[joelsbloodyhands]

My Dialogue While Playing TLOU Part One 🚀

(Spending a long time in Sarah’s room at the beginning)

Me: *reading the title of her books and cds, looking at her photos, opens bday card for Joel, cries at the giraffe* You know if we just stay here then nothing bad will happen. Right? 🤗

(Ellie meeting Bill for the first time)

Me: Don’t mind him. He’s just a grumpy gay with commitment issues.

(Bill leading Ellie and Joel through the church to the window)

Me: You know “fireflies, this” and “fireflies, that”. How many places have we been to that could be potential homes, Joel? Father that child already! 😤

Bill: Well, if you’ve got anything to confess, this’d be the place to do it.

Me: *knows what’s going to happen later* Joel, we may need to detour back here later 👀

(Getting split up from Henry and Ellie)

Henry: Take care of my brother!

Me: Protect my daughter with your life or you’re toast, buddy! *killing all the Stalkers while wondering if Ellie knows what toast actually is* 🤔

(Ellie lifting her hand for a high five)

Me: *clicks the prompt button so he delivers the high five* Not about to swerve or I’m throwing you in this ravine, old man 🤨

(Looking for Ellie who has stabbed the shit out of David)

Joel: (just woke up from death slumber) Where is she?

Me: Where is my sweet baby child? 😖 (knows very well where she is) 🙄

Joel: *sees the bodies* Oh god, I gotta find her.

Me: We will, babe. I swear! Maybe if we just talk to ‘em, explain the sich, they’ll hand her back *starts crafting Molotovs* ☺️

(Ellie traumatised by what happened with David)

Joel: (has just mentioned teaching her to play guitar) Ellie, I’m talking to you.

Ellie: (experiencing ptsd) Oh yeah, that sounds great.

Me: Joel, I think we need to go back. I forgot to piss on David’s corpse 😑

(Ellie and Joel walking around the bus depot)

Ellie: I dreamt about flying last night.

Joel: Oh yeah? Tell me about it.

Me: 😭😭😭 *cries for the hundredth time*

Joel: *keeps calling her kiddo*

Me: My heart is gonna collapse if you keep doing that.

Joel: Come on, kiddo.

Me: *proceeds to keyboard smash*

(Ellie and Joel finding the giraffes)

Me: (starts crying, no really and proceeds to sit there with the cute music playing to let my faves watch the giraffes together because the world did in fact end but then Joel softened towards Ellie. They retraced their steps went back to Jackson, the fireflies fucked right off and died of natural causes, no surgeons were murdered meaning this action will not have consequences, everyone lived happily ever after and lived to an old age, especially Joel. Ahem. Turns off pc. Sighs happily).

(Joel killing all the fireflies in the hospital)

Me: You know some would call this murder but I call it intent to cause harm and those two things are most definitely not the same *throws 3 nail bombs* 😁

(After killing the main surgeon)

Me: *listens to the other two surgeons plead for their lives* Huh? I wonder *shoots the first one causing the other one to slide down to the ground in fear*

Surgeon: Please. I don’t want to die.

Me: *shoots them as well* I’m not the accessory to murder here. You are. Attempted murder anyway *picking up Ellie* let’s go Babygirl 🥰

[queenofmalkier]

Now I'm stuck on how unhinged and depraved and AWFUL Tuon/Gawyn could be.

[softpine]

i wasn't on tumblr when tlou part 2 dropped but i would love to know your thoughts on the game especially if/how they've changed with time if you're up to writing a paragraph lol

also i've seen a lot of ppl (i've never had a playstation so i have to go off of other ppl's opinions) say that while the story is about how the cycle of revenge is bad that the gameplay still rewards it and how that sort of defeats the purpose of the game for them and wanted to know your thoughts on that

happy tlou season 2 renewal <3

YES YES YES you know i’m always up for writing a paragraph (or ten)

first, let me just clarify one thing: the main message of the game is not “revenge is bad”. i hear people say this constantly and it’s just not true. the real message is all about forgiveness. if i had to boil it down to its essentials, i’d say the message is “love is a stronger force than hate.” but that’s just one interpretation!

i don’t feel that the gameplay rewards the cycle of revenge at all. abby kills joel and in return, she systematically loses everyone she cares about – leah, nick, jordan, nora, manny, yara, mel, and owen... plus she will never be allowed to go home to the WLF again. lev loses his entire family and community too. and they’ve both experienced unspeakable horrors while they were held captive by the rattlers. abby was punished for her decision at literally every turn. but she keeps fighting to survive because she has found a much stronger reason than hate to stay alive: love. protection. family. the first time she ever has a happy dream of her father, after years of nightmares, is when she saves yara and lev. killing joel didn’t give abby closure, but finding something to fight for did. it’s the exact same thing joel found with ellie.

ellie is not rewarded for her actions either. she’s the one picking off the salt lake crew members one by one, but we see her lose a piece of herself each time. she’s not experiencing catharsis, she’s only spiraling deeper into obsession and grief. she can’t appreciate anything good in her life, because she’s still consumed by everything she’s lost. she walks out on her partner, their baby, and their dream home to chase after this elusive “closure”, knowing that she may die trying. i think ellie herself knows that killing abby won’t make her feel better, but the only alternative is forgiving joel and moving on without him, which she doesn’t feel is possible yet. she has to lose everything before she’s able to accept joel for who he is and what he’s done.

it’s a fucking masterpiece the way that the game makes you think joel and ellie’s last conversation was a fight, until they reveal that actually, their last conversation was ellie offering him an olive branch. “i don’t think i can ever forgive you for that. but... i would like to try.” is so impactful because ellie never got the chance to forgive joel while he was alive. even while she was trying to avenge his death, she couldn’t forgive him. it’s only when she has lost herself that she can finally forgive him, and perhaps she can even understand him. that forgiveness has nothing to do with abby or anyone else – it’s all about ellie. it’s about love.

as for my personal opinions about tlou2, they haven’t changed much. i loved it when i played it the first time and i love it even more now!! i greatly appreciate the sheer balls they had, and the fact that they never changed their creative vision to make the game more palatable / marketable. i’ve never seen a game make such an unpopular choice and i respect the fuck out of them for doing it no matter what anyone said. i love joel but i’m glad he died because it gave rise to one of the most impactful stories i’ve ever had the pleasure of experiencing 💖

(special mention to the fact that the main character is a lesbian, which is something i would never even think to wish for because it’s so uncommon in games of this genre. ellie is everything i’ve ever wanted from gay rep, meaning that she’s literally just existing as a gay person and her sexuality has hardly anything to do with the plot. i fucking love how she has a detailed story, a rich personality, and complicated relationships while she just happens to be a lesbian. it’s literally perfect, no notes!)

[goldensunset]

One of my favorite posts that I've seen about sv is one where someone said that Mabosstiff must've been specifically designed to be Arven's dying dog pokemon bc it looks so pathetic

FSFGDHBDJDJH really cannot argue with that

[fountainpenguin]

2 for the ask thing!

When you’re writing a new story, what is the one thing you need to know before you can start?

[Current Ask game]

#ridspoilers / #Dog's Life spoilers

---

I'd say character (both in terms of character motivations and in how the character interacts with the world, along with a decent amount of backstory). I can change my plot direction any time, but if you have a solid character, you can go anywhere. You get the character down first and you build the world around that character and the story you're telling.

I've talked about my scrap docs before and how I have tens of thousands of words of scenes I didn't keep in the final drafts. One of the very first things I wrote for my Fairly OddParents stuff was a scene of H.P. having dinner with Anti-Cosmo and Anti-Wanda with dozens of little pixies in tow.

I never posted it because it's incompatible with my finished canon, but it shaped the worldbuilding and character interactions for me (namely H.P. being burned out on childcare, Anti-Wanda being super friendly with H.P., and Anti-Cosmo holding pixies by the napes of their necks... all still accurate today).

I'm actually hoping to post it in October (I think it'll fit in the "King Me" universe which is a special Friday the 13th story I want to do... we'll see).

Dog's Life is a better, more specific example of the character fleshing process I can show; I think I talked about this in a recent Ask too, but I like to give myself a space to do all the "tell" part of "Show don't tell." I'll try to explain this in good words out of context, let's see.

In Dog's Life, there are intermission chapters called "Watcher chapters" which revolve around the theme of "Grian as viewed from the eyes of his friends" and each one is about Grian singling out someone to pester with his questions. "Watcher 2" is when he comes for Scar and I really started delving into Scar's backstory in this draft.

[Cnt'd under the cut, showing a scene that will end up getting rehashed because it's all "tell instead of show"; talking about how it influenced the final portrayal of Scar in Dog's Life]

---

Behind the Scenes

My writing style is very "magical realism" and when it came to Scar, I either wanted "disability with a magical aid" or "disability that is in itself magical in some way" (like a curse). I thought about it a lot and even played with a concept where Scar uses elytra 24/7 (and struggles with no-fly spaces that aren't accessible to him) but it wasn't what I was looking for.

In the end, I researched canes and that seemed right, and it's working well. I particularly liked the scene where he was waving his cane around the entirety of Chapter 4's opening until he finally tripped and fell on Scott and was like "I should probably use this as a walking aid instead of a theater prop" lskdjf... I felt like that was an extremely Scar moment- it shows his personality very well, because he's super positive and he likes to be extravagant and fancy, and he's not ashamed to remind us that the cane isn't just a decorative prop.

While planning, I also kept thinking of that moment in a Hermitcraft stream where Ren wanted to play TCG with Scar and he casually mentioned giving Scar a handicap in the game and Scar just covered his face and giggled and spent the next few minutes casually dropping things like "I think that's a good thing to do in a game with me" until Ren noticed and got flustered... That to me is the quintessential Scar experience: he notices and he'll tease and have a good attitude and it's funny to him.

That's what I was going for when I drafted this scene for "Watcher 2" of Grian approaching Scar. I'll talk more about it below:

"Watcher 2" - First Draft

Grian bristles, ruffling imaginary feathers along the back of his neck. “Don’t worry about it; I’m not here to hunt you. And if you die to a creeper or whatever, I’ll fix it before we start next week. I can do that. He’ll let me.” Then, with venom, “I mean, it’s my series.”

Scar frowns just a sliver. “I’ll fix it.” Grian doesn’t mean anything by it, but… it prickles his skin to get that teensy little reminder that Grian thinks of him as extra attention; extra work.

If Scar does die after hours, it wouldn’t even be the first time. Grian had to mess with his Life code once to fish him back after an accidental death years ago. They weren’t even playing; just taking turns throwing signals at the new server host they’d just moved to, checking to confirm everyone felt steady with it and it wouldn’t cause anyone to glitch.

Scar had glitched. Badly. Doubled over, hacking, with Grian monitoring his connection as he tried to fight his way through the pain (He’s always in pain; this was sharper; some server signals just don’t play nice with his code). It’s been this way for most his life. His immune system just… just never recovered after a bad storm fried his AFK server. He’d been exploring the ocean. Glanced up at the sky; slammed down a bed. Glitched completely out. Drowned. Respawned underwater a few times. Death loop. Whole server crash. The works. That was years ago… and that’s why we use surge protectors, kids.

Part of him never recovered. Part of him is still trapped there, dying and respawning to this day. The Scar he is today is just a backup. An autosave. He doesn’t even have memories of what happened, personally, but he’s heard the whispers in the corridors. He’s the glitch they almost didn’t save.

Would HALO have bothered recovering that autosave file if they’d known how much work keeping him alive would be? Because he breaks things, sometimes. Not intentionally. There are just certain parts of the portal hub that aren’t accessible to someone of his… disability. He can’t take the travel tubes. And most people give him a wide berth so they won’t be in the radius if he does have an episode.

He’s doing okay. He’s mostly okay. He just has a corrupted file. It’s not the end of the world.

Except for when it is. The 3rd Life server host switch was the most jarring reaction he’d had in years. It burned his skin, knocked him out, flung him at a lump of magma blocks, fried him, then exploded him in a burst of scattered code. Killed him then and there. Grian had to boot another autosave and spend hours piecing him together again. Scar wouldn’t know. Because if you can’t hold a connection to the server, you don’t even get respawned in your AFK world. You can’t determine if time is passing. You just… cease existing. Maybe forever, one day.

(Technically, that Scar’s gone. The timeline’s reset. Here he is again… and the corrupted file remains.)

It’s such bad luck how things work out sometimes. Grian even called him over before they made the move; asked him to take a look at things with him. They went through the back-end together. Had a checklist. Did a little A-B testing. Kept their failsafes locked and loaded. Grian did everything right. It isn’t his fault.

Scar just doesn’t have a body that works like everyone else’s does. He needs extra attention. Extra work. It’s no surprise that Grian can’t stand him.

“Oh,” he says, curling his fingers around the edge of the crafting table. “What kind of talk…? Oh no.”

“It’s nothing bad,” Grian hurries to clarify, then stops. He blinks. “Scar, are you all right?”

He aches in a lot of places. There’s not a single spot on his body that doesn’t glitch at least once throughout the day and once again overnight. The glitches roll through him, but you learn to stomach it when you have no other choice. Scar stares back at Grian, trying to process the question. Do I look like I’m not all right? What made him think that?

Grian narrows it down a little more: “You look sad. I can- I can have this chat with you another day, if you like, Scar. I just wanted to pick your brain a little, but if now’s not a good time, you can just talk to me instead. If you like. I’m here for you, you know.”

“I know,” Scar lies. He needs extra attention. He’s extra work.

What this scene does and why it's getting changed

So that's the draft scene... I like it, it's fun, but the final version won't look like this. This is the "tell" and I need to convert it into "show." What I'll probably do is cut 80 to 90%% of this because I'm using the earlier chapters to set up Scar's defensive attitude and we don't need Scar to do it here; it'll be more like the end result of 15 to 20ish chapters worth of build-up, which means I don't want it to sound like the info is being introduced for the first time. As the author, I need this info to "sketch" Scar, but the reader doesn't.

While writing this, this was me saying "I need to get inside Scar's head and let him tell me what his backstory is" (though the details of that backstory will probably change). Scar gets to tell me things, then I take it and show the reader in different ways. Quick topic switch and then we change back to Scar:

I got into 3rd Life and Last Life very shortly after Last Life ended and before plans for Double Life had begun. I craved more content because I loved the series and that led me to Impulse's behind the scenes streams where he talked about his experiences in the series and mentioned a couple of weird things that happened as well.

One of them was that they switched server hosts partway through the series and were testing things out before they played, and Scar died on a magma block. It wasn't considered a canon death since it was off-camera testing time (and I guess that death message was visible in some players' chats during the actual recording time later and it caused a small fuss in the community).

I knew that tidbit of info and I thought it would be interesting if I delved into that: "a glitch happened that made Scar suffer." It quickly turned into "What if Scar has chronic glitches and pain and that's why he uses a walking aid?"

I really liked that idea because it melds nicely with my world. Character influences worldbuilding which influences story.

Fun Fact

The HALO team is a group of players who hold authority in this digital universe. They rescue people, like Scar, who get stuck in death loops or hurt themselves in some way. I loved the name HALO because it gives that rescue vibe, and it was a double meaning because I thought Halo was the game Scar used to make videos for before Minecraft. Turns out that was Call of Duty but I still like the name; I think it's perfect.

Why do I consider this something I needed?

For the purpose of this Ask, this is the part I want to emphasize: Until I wrote this scene, which will take place in Chapter 15 to 20ish, I hadn't even considered giving Scar a chronic glitch. I was going to give him a cane and some pain and leave it at that. Which is fine, and I think going the route of wings as a mobility aid also would have been fine as long as I gave it careful thought, but I really enjoyed giving Scar a disability that fits perfectly with the digital world. I think it brings the world to life.

If you've read Dog's Life, you know that in Chapter 3, Scar glitched out the server, which kicked out all the players except Scar (who got deleted) and they had to reload the world from an autosave, which meant losing some of their progress (and some of Scar's memories). It's implied that this isn't unusual when you play with Scar, which can be very upsetting for him sometimes because it's scary and difficult for him and he also feels like he's a burden who ruins his friends' play time.

After it was discovered that "anything other than a zombie will cause Scar to glitch," it was very important to me that I had Grian insist he would take as much time as needed to fix the code so that "Scar could play with the full mod" (as opposed to getting restricted to "only zombies").

Grian cares about Scar and it's important to him that Scar gets the accessibility tweaks required to let him play with them. Which Scar didn't see. Scar's worst nightmare would be getting written off as "too difficult or dangerous to play with" which, as we saw in Chapter 4, breaks Scott's heart. Scott knows that if he comes out as an allay hybrid, Scar will instantly put up walls and avoid playing with him so he (vex Scar) doesn't corrupt Scott's player file and turn him into a vex too. Scar genuinely has a positive personality, but it doesn't change the fact that his disability is real... and it does affect him. He has VERY messy feelings... especially about politics.

We'll see some of that next chapter ("Charred") when he mutters to Lizzie that he hopes his "character arc in this series" doesn't get boiled down to "Scar glitched things" because he doesn't want to be defined by that. It's important to Scar (and to me) that he gets plenty of characterization and story content that's unrelated to his disability (He has a whole arc with Mumbo that's fun)... but yeah, he does have a little heartache and it does impact the way he interacts with the world and his friends.

From a writing perspective, I very much enjoy upping the threat level. 3rd Life is a series where deaths are important because lives are limited and it doesn't take long to get cut from the server for good.

I really like how Dog's Life balances the in-game threat of "not getting to play anymore" against the out-of-game parallels of fantasy politics and character drama. I feel like this story weaves really well between "ha ha funny play time," "aww cute moments because everyone is friends outside the game," and "uh-oh political drama" and "oh this is a legitimate threat." I'm really enjoying it <3

Conclusion

Technically the question was "what do you need to know before you start" and I'd already written the first two chapters of this story, but... I think nailing down characterization is so important. Everything I did for Chapter 3 of Dog's Life (i.e. Scar glitching the server) was made up as it unfolded (rather than outlined in advance) and I went with it because it felt right. But I couldn't have done any of that if I hadn't taken the time to do my little character study on Scar.

The same thing happened with Joel damaging his vessel body at the end of Chapter 5- it wasn't in my outline (my OG draft just ended with him trotting back to spawn to taunt Lizzie for dying) but this... felt right. The characters shape the worldbuilding, which in turn is the thing that shapes the plot, which in turn creates the story.

Character is king :) And sometimes you throw away your original plans and follow the new trail. If you really know your character, they'll show you what makes them tick, what they truly want, and what their nightmares are... and then you just guide the story so they experience things you know are hard for them.

Knowing the character is particularly important for a series, I think, because I could pick up any character I've fleshed out and plop them down in any one-shot. They could be a side character in someone else's story and still be nicely polished and well-rounded, or so I hope.

I'm deliberately writing Dog's Life with the goal of giving every character layers of backstory. My goal is that every chapter makes it obvious why the POV character is the POV character for that chapter - because something unique is happening with THEIR story - but I also want the other characters to feel so interesting that it makes the reader say "Oh, I'd love to read from their POV" or "I hope we get to see a conversation with that character in it." That's what makes them feel alive... and that's what makes writing with large casts fun, I think :)

I'm enjoying what I did with Scar and hopefully it comes across well. I think I have enough moments of other characters making good, healthy accommodations for Scar (and plenty of scenes where Scar's glitch disability isn't a factor on the plot, his character arc, or the worldbuilding whatsoever) that it balances out Scar's occasional self-deprecating moments... Scar has good friends who love him. Scar loves himself... But on occasion, especially when under stress, he struggles with his self-image and emotions, just like all the other characters do when it's their turn to be POV character.

Thanks for the Ask and I hope this was helpful and interesting even if you're reading it out of context for this fandom and 'fic!

[Current Ask game]

[deflare]

:)

[rivilu]

Oh no

[gerudospiriit]

[Despite it all, I beat RE2 (Leon's story anyway)! Yay me! I had to basically replay the lab portion because I got to the second to last boss fight and was a hit away from death with no healing items (I didn't know there was one IN the area but I don't think that would have been enough anyway). Very fun game that I finally got around to playing. Definitely liked the challenge even if it was painful at times xD]