#npc has a story to tell

[vaguely-concerned]

do you think arranging the little veilguard tableaus of npcs standing around together was fun. I think it would be fun. I would make up soooo many dumb intricate little stories for all of them while I was placing them around the map and no one playing the game would ever know about it. but I'd know. I'd know their stories

[sisterdivinium]

Another thing (among many) that Warrior Nun gets absolutely right is its cast full of women and how they're treated throughout.

By gifting us with a diverse selection of female characters, each with their own backgrounds, looks, desires, virtues, flaws, we are treated to a wonderful mosaic of what women can be and effectively are. Proud, scared, selfish, hurt, strong, vulnerable, cunning, selfless, determined, evil, good... Each one of them can be individually and duly explored without making it look like a comment on some ideal sort of "Woman", without slipping into stereotype and the usual dullness that many other narratives reserve for their female characters.

By having (many) more than only a single interesting, well-rounded woman, by allowing each of them to be complex and human rather than just a prop for some man or eye candy for a male audience, the world of WN seems to us a lot more like something we can recognise, something truthful, unlike many other stories we've seen before — and that is one hell of a breath of fresh air.

[elvhendis]

One thing that bugs me about Astarion's storyline is that you can miss most of his story if you simply don't have him in your party at the right moment. Gandrel, Raphael (in Last Light Inn), Araj, Raphael (in front of the mausoleum), his siblings in Fraygo's flophouse. (And if you don't rest enough times before going to Cazador you won't even meet his siblings). I'm watching a streamer right now and I'm screaming at the screen because he has not had Astarion with him for any of these things and it's the most frustrating thing ever.

[mabaris]

that stupid comicbook.com article and also fan response in general to the companion romance situation annoys me so bad for the sole reason that everyone acts like the only people in the game are the pc and playable companions

[fragmentedblade]

No but even beyond the heathcliffean air of his story as a kid, Nelly scene and revenge fantasies included, and even beyond the identification of the self with the craft, the entire concept of Yingxing is so good.

The glimpse we get of the relationship he has with his master has so much potential. What it says about him, what it says about everyone around them, what it says about the kid.

The fact that already as a child Yingxing was vindictive, as he will be as Blade.

His self-consciousness about being a short life species, and how he is right to be self-conscious about it. How in such a short time, being so young, he's had to deal with enormous tragedy, so that he can even as a kid look the truth in the eye and admit it. Admit that he has to work harder, longer, more obsessively, and that still nonetheless there's little chance to get ever at the level of the long life species that look down on him and take him for granted. How he is able to overcome it.

It's incredible also in the context of Dan Feng. How both struggle with their identities and how they get new ones, but in totally opposite ways. Dan Feng is weighted down by what he is and what he can do, and wants to escape that fate, and dreams of a new life in which he can be something else; and Dan Heng is born. Yingxing takes pride in that which he can do, something he wasn't born into, something he had to work very hard to achieve, and that was the path to overcome the prejudices and undermining gazes he had to bear as a short life species. He crafts his place into the Xianzhou society and becomes the legendary Furnace Master. Even on a more personal level, one could argue this is his way of maneuvering his life, of expressing himself, this is how he deals with things; like his relationship with Jing Yuan having a turning point after giving him his weapon, or how he crafted that jade flask. And then he loses his ability to create and loses himself; he becomes Blade.

The fact that even as an adult, as an exceedingly arrogant craftsman, something of the shy self-conscious kid remains is both endearing and heartbreaking as well. In some ways we still see that in Blade.

We also see echoes of that personality in Mr. Xiao, who worked under him. And that alongside his craftsmanship, his ability to fix and create auromatons even though they are vanishing in the civilian landscape, live on through Mr. Xiao. And die alongside him, for Mr. Xiao too has become but a relic of another time.

The way the other stories of craftsmen enhance facets of Yingxing's is so good too. Mainly in the story of Master Ryan and Chengjie, with the insight we get of the struggles of short life species in the Xianzhou, especially those dedicated to a craft, and how hard it is for them to reach positions of prestige. It also poses the question of how we can transcend time, if it's possible at all, and how the sharing of knowledge, the passing down of skills, the shared loved, is one of the answers. This was all already significant before, but the information gains weight with the existence of Mr. Xiao. I'd argue there's echoes of Yingxing even in Master Gongshu. His love for his automatons, his sincere fondness for them, his pride on his job, his loyalty to his position and duties, the way he is both hard and stern as well as loving with his apprentices, and how he talks about short life species.

On a sort of ontological way, it's very interesting to see how Yingxing goes from craftsman to tool or weapon, from creator to creation, from subject to object. The potential in the context of Abundance/Destruction is also extremely intriguing, I think. He who created is unmade by a curse of Abundance. He who forged weapons now follows that path of destruction. There's so much going on with Yingxing conceptually around the cycles of death and rebirth, destruction and creation; it's so fitting that now Blade is stuck in such a cycle in the most literal way.

And it's so fitting too that, in all this context, given Yingxing's entire story, Blade's entire being, that which he made unmade him. That which he created and gave him so much pride was the weapon that killed him. And now he wields it himself, his tool of revenge while he follows the path to eternal and irrevocable death.

[famewolf]

if im being honest and allowing myself to vent a bit about it ... another red flag was when the DM went 'wow i love the detail of your backstory but idk what i can do with it tho ):'

[whales-are-gay]

the thesis of every campaign ive played with this party has been “the choice is yours”

[maramahan]

I wanna hear about the pokemon ttrpg 👀

WELL SINCE YOU ASKED—!

Ok. so. You know how in the pokémon games there’s always those Team-Badguy grunts who challenge you to a battle then run away afterward? That’s my character:

Renn is literally an ex villain-squad punk who’s finally been released from house arrest in Starting Town & is taking the opportunity to go on a “normal pokémon journey” don’t mind the baseball bat officer I SWEAR it’s for self-defense :)

Other cast members include

Kestrel, a mysterious and kindly young doctor with an eyepatch and a knack for finding evolution stones

Vincent, a weirdo from the woods with an uncanny connection to pokémon and a mission to speak with the gods

Jiro, a gifted chef with a knack for battle on a mission to someday open his own restaurant

Emilia, a cheerful photographer who is god’s gift to the enemy not always completely prepared for the impact of her pokémon’s AoE moves

Douglass, an incredibly sheltered pokémon councilor who just wants to show his beloved Psyduck to the world and is also coincidentally Renn’s cousin

And the way my friend is running it — instead of standardized region starters, it was a potluck. Everyone chose one 3-stage pokémon that the other players might pick.

There was a Trapinch on offer. She was small, orange, and sweet— so Renn named her Clementine.

We are now best friends. I love her big ol’ head. She’s a long way from evolving, but I love her just the way she is.

Anyway, we left town as a group, me and the other trainers. It’s been pretty chaotic since then. I’ve been showing my cousin the ropes of living in the Pokémon World, Kestrel’s been paying me good money to stop extorting politely asking strangers for pocket change, Jiro’s on his way up in the world, and the Wiz Kid Vincey met god the other day.

AND. and. We’re slowly but surely on our way to BigCity — my old hometown, where Team Badguy runs the streets and Big Tech Corp runs everything else — and.

And. I’m on the trail. They took my beloved Zubat when I got arrested — but my little Echo is still out there. I got a lead that my little buddy might be in BigCity, and. I swear. I’ll burn the world if that’s what it takes to get her back.

I can’t wait to play again!!

[gottagobuycheese]

there’s got to be a faster way to play this game but How

[gender-euphowrya]

the forgotten city Good 👍

[the-bitter-ocean]

(FULL GAME SPOILERS UNDER THE CUT)

I am very normal about Euphrasie. I am. I very much am. I think everyone should listen to this really good ISAT fan song about Euphrasie that’s by evidentlyfresh. You can see how normal I am about her here and here and here but also in the long ass ramble below:

I think about Euphrasie a normal amount and I am very :/ when people say she “doesn’t have a character” because she does actually!!! She is kind and willing to do whatever she felt was right to protect her protege (mirabelle) and her country!! Even at the expense of herself!! She’s silly and lighthearted but also very brave!!

Euphrasie had no idea how the king would’ve reacted to her standing against him- putting the blessing to be immune to the time freezing curse on Mirabelle was extremely risky. The king could have easily killed or badly hurt Euphrasie for that instead of merely just freezing her.

I know we talk about how Mirabelle feels a lot of pressure to save everyone and wonders if she’s doing enough- lamenting that her mentor could’ve done it better..and the truth is Euphrasie is just as filled with guilt over what happens as mirabelle, if not more so!

Not only is she aware of the fact that she has no agency in the loops- she’s one of the few people in the game that knew about the favor trees and wish craft (granted she couldn’t remember how to properly do it) but the fact that she alone was able to figure it out despite all the information on it being locked away in a secret room in a language most people can’t speak and written in the language no one can read without getting a headache)

Even when she has little to no options she still did her best to protect the people she cared about. Also she’s just genuinely so forgiving?? And chipper?? Despite literally everything going wrong? Siffrin straight up yells at her and shoves her/ pushes her when he grew *huge*. She doesn’t hold it against him at all and just takes it in stride:

(shoutout script project for. script)

yall ever. think about this? yeah. yeeeah. ooohgh mdame head housemaiden you are so doomed. girl you are wrapped up in a fate you cannot possibly hope to defy. you are just a vessel for which a wish can be followed through on. you dont have a choice.

[anneapocalypse]

"lol isn't it funny how there are hardly any dragons in the dragon age games! and how dragons are barely relevant to the story lol" Anyway isn't it funny how the true importance of dragons in Dragon Age has been such a slow-burn concept despite the final boss of the first game being a dragon? One of the most important recurring NPCs in the series transforms into a dragon and is associated with dragon imagery. The big repeated world-ravaging catastrophes are led by corrupted dragons. These dragons and said catastrophes are connected to at least three of the world's major religions. The current age was named the "Dragon Age" because of the resurgence of dragons after they were thought to be extinct. A daughter of the aforementioned recurring character is revealed to have been deliberately breeding dragons to bring them back, and tells us that "the blood of dragons is the blood of the world." A major character from ancient times finds the idea of all the old god dragons being killed really upsetting and hasn't told us why. We found out in the last game that dragons have an unusual resistance to that world-ravaging catastrophe. There are only a couple old god dragons left. Dragons aren't always in the foreground of the story, but they're always there, they've always been there, in the background or just offscreen, hiding, sleeping, deep under the surface, waiting.

[shizunitis]

the world of pidw is malfunctioning. wives already wed are not triggering their wife plots, and the story is suffering!

to fix the issue, the system has grabbed the soul of shen yuan to act as wife plot enacter. he must now set in motion the wife plots for every wife who does not stumble onto it by herself, as well as keep the timeline on track.

luo binghe thinks there’s a weird meddling kidnapper with access to aphrodisiac plants who’s jealous of either him, or his harem. he genuinely can’t tell. the man, who he’s never seen but had been described as kind, beautiful and gentle, was either too kindhearted to hurt any of his wives or a malicious spirit. some of the wives even come back with gifts. as apology? enticement? luo binghe doesn’t know. some wives even want to go back, while others ask the emperor for leniency. he’s yet to manage to catch this mysterious man.

the system has applied a special tag to npc shen yuan’s character profile: “protagonist halo’s blindspot”, which allows him to evade every attempt at being discovered by the protagonist while active! it’s really quite helpful.

eventually luo binghe figures out some kind of pattern to the whole thing (airplane had a system) and, disguised as the wife in “danger”, he allows himself to be kindapped and taken to a modest but warm home where he’s shown to “his” room and told to wait by the most beautiful man he’s ever seen. he’s given books and food, and assured no one will bother him until the emperor shows up.

when luo binghe doesn’t show up to save the wife, shen yuan begins feeling bad for keeping her cooped up and starts keeping her company. they talk, play table games, she cooks for him when he proves hopeless in the kitchen. shen yuan feels horrible: where is binghe? this beauty is waiting to be saved, and he’s nowhere to be seen! and she’s so cool, too! very powerful cultivator! why would binghe not want to save her? he’s left the appropriate amount of clues! also, where’s the system?! the damn thing announced it was enacting “final wife plot protocol” and then fucked off!!! shen yuan was so close to freedom!!!!!!!!

and that’s the story of how luo binghe found his empress

[juniette13]

Genshin Rewrite Heads Up

Just a heads up I will be posting about what I’ve jotted down for the Mondstadt arc of the rewrite plus a ref of Venti! So be on the lookout!

[fragmentedblade]

I don't know, it's silly, but I really love this story. I fell in love with the details and how everything cohered beyond my expectations, how the little details in worldbuilding made big things click and make sense even though they seemed typical fiction "too much but you have to suspend belief" things at first. And I actually honestly think most of the things some parts of fandom complain about are not only coherent, but some of the best more nuanced aspects of the writing. Everything that I thought and interpreted, even to the most minute details, was confirmed. Even, again, to the most minute details I loved but thought I was being stupid for paying so much attention to, because surely they couldn't mean as much as I thought they did. Yet they did.

[roaringheat]

godddd there's so much dialogue where someone calls Arthur good/kind/caring and he shuts it down by saying he's a bad man or something similar. I didn't really think anything of it at first, just thinkin it was the game reinforcing the whole outlaw thing but when you look at how often it happens on top of the times Arthur bashes himself even in private it's like god damn!!! this man has self worth issues!!!