#remade my original ad post with more stuff

[crypticroleplays]

LF: House of the Dragon Roleplays

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+18 ONLY - Underage/Ageless Blogs will be ignored

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Hello hello! On the roleplay hunt again now with HOTD Season 2 in full swing!

If you're new to my blog I'm 20 years old (He/They/It pronouns) and I have roughly 7+ years of writing experience - I'm usually a semi-adv literate writer who averages 3-4 paragraphs, though I'll often do my best to match the length of my partner's reply. I enjoy chatting OOC about characters/dynamics and general plotting so please be aware of that and I also primarily use discord for roleplays though I'm also open to just using Tumblr DMs! I'd also be open to potential group roleplay servers though preferably nothing over the top and fancy (things with official Tumblr blogs, for instance, while I think they are very neat it's just not my style with specific edit and fc requirements - I don't want to spend my motivation on just setting up character information ya know?)

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In terms of knowledge I'm most familiar with the show but I'm in the process of reading Fire & Blood, and have some knowledge of the ASOIAF book lore due to research for one of my original characters.

For roleplay plots I'm open to canon based, canon divergence & AUs in general! I do have a preference for romantic based things, as a heads up.

I will be honest, I am a sucker for dragons if you couldn't tell - so I would love some decent dragon involvement if possible, since all the characters I wish to play are dragon riders/have the potential to be dragon riders.

For romantic plots I am exclusively looking for MxM pairings - For more general plots (Familial/Platonic) any pairing is fair game. I'm open to canon characters or OC related things, while I have a preference for OCs I'm fine with either option alongside potential OCxCanon! The canon characters I'm open to writing and my main OCs are down at the bottom of the post!

I may consider doubling up - though it's a case by case basis and dependent on the ideas. I generally prefer to put all my focus into one plot, but considering the two sided nature of HOTD I'm more open to potentially doubling.

I'm open to canon typical themes here in terms of how 'dark' things are - I have few hard limits if I'm honest. Angst/darker plots are also welcome though I would like to have hurt/comfort in there somewhere at the least - I'm not the best with 100% angst all the time, even if it's all a massive tragedy in the end.

Additionally NSFW is also on the table - if it happens and we want to write/plan for it I'm totally down for it, if not that is also completely okay!

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Characters I'm Looking to Write

Note: I'm new to writing canon cast characters - so please be open to my interpretations as they may not be 100% accurate to either show or book canon.

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Canon Characters:

Laenor

Aegon II

Jaecarys/Jace

Lucerys/Luke

Daeron

Addam of Hull

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Original Characters:

- The Dragon Thief || Carden Waters

"I think we all know how my coin landed, so why shouldn't I burn it all down? What else am I good for then?"

Carden is a ticking time bomb of a dragonseed, the unfortunate spawn of Daemon Targaryen - he holds notable distain and hatred towards his half blood family for a multitude of reasons. Just like any person though he's a mess of emotions and motivations, being desperate to make something of himself in the greater scheme of the world especially with the tension in the realm being at an all time high.

Full Character Information

- || Gryfinn Cantrill

"Well I'm sorry, I never asked for any of this! I'm doing my best to enjoy what I have, and it was going great until now- I didn't expect to end up actually giving a fuck about anyone-"

Gryfinn of the Vale - a young man who's been called beautiful more often than handsome due to his well groomed nature, being known through rumors and things of the like to be a man with little care, who has slept his way through half the brothels in The Vale. While having a slightly unsavory reputation and often the first to make snide or crude remarks, he currently lives amongst those of House Arryn in the Eyrie - by request to assist his cousin Lady Jeyne with certain affairs.

Gryfinn in truth is a quick witted and clever man who often has his own interests in mind due to how his mother and father lord over him despite being a man grown. He's been holding off the inevitability of being married off by them for years now and he's aware he may be running out of time - so he's only seemed to grow more bitter towards most people minus the few closer to him.

- The Dragonskin || Olivar Pyke

"I think it's because I'm like them, in a way... Neither of us truly belong anywhere, not anymore"

A skinchanger of Targaryen descent from the Iron Islands, Olivar was born blind and has lived most of his life hidden behind walls - a secret to the world in more ways than just being a useless bastard. He shares a unique bond with a wild dragon called Shipbreaker, though according to Olivar her name is Vethimax or that is her preferred name at the least. This bond is something more mutual than that of most skinchangers and their other forms. The dragon herself understands Olivar in a way and allows him to take control of her body from time to time, allowing for this unique bond between them to develop - that and Olivar's bastard lineage which also makes this possible. Though there's more to this bond than even Olivar knows.

Olivar himself is a soft spoken and oddly calm individual, he's cautious and respectful around anyone regardless of who they are. He's good at keeping aware of his surroundings despite his lack of sight, but still struggles in many aspects due to having little education or instruction throughout his life.

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Note: I am also open to potentially making new OCs depending on the plots! I have a few other concepts, these are just my most fleshed out fellas.

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If you're interested in potentially doing an RP I would prefer if you DM me but you can also like this post and I'll do my best to get back to you! (I've been having issues with dming people myself due to blogs not showing up in the message search so please don't take it personally if you don't hear back from me!)

[papiliomame]

Hallway

JUMPSSCARE WARNING!

Inspired by Things That Bleed by @artistfingers, @ghostly-cabbage and @kkachis

While waiting for the new chapter I made a little something. Ok, this has nothing to do with the story but more about Danny's nature as a SCP and his hallucination power.

Imagine a SCP videogame and you(the player) do your investigation and stuff and suddenly you find yourself in an infinite hallway! You run for a while and than this happens! Game over...

Some technical stuff under the cut:

Originally, I wanted to post this as a video but the gif compression made this spookier so a gif it is!

While I was at it I remade the SCP-danny model, mostly stuff you can't see in the finished render ( retopology, rigging) but some major visual alteration is there to see. I remodeled the mouth, it looks more like the mouth of a skull now (Here is a sideview without shader):

I added forearm bones, it kinda looked better in my head. Maybe I should reverse this or maybe i should add hand- and fingerbones next time when I work on this model again.

Then some smaller stuff like longer limbs, remodeled hair, bigger hands.

For so small changes I don't think this is enough for a whole turnaround of the model.

[dr-cross]

Some Bunny Man Facts and Fun

Thought I’d throw my hat in the ring here since I prefer to use Twitter to browse funny stuff, save cool art, and look at news. It’s been 2 months since Tales of the Bunny Man released and from what I’ve seen, it was received very positively with the hope for a sequel of sorts coming sometime. The latter is happening, but not for a while since the team are sort of in recess to some extent. (We’re working when we can.)

Let me hit you with a big fact; did you know the game had to be remade because my PC died? The graphics for 90% of the modelling was done on a laptop, so it was ultimately a case of “it works, let’s move on” with that period of time. There won’t be a repeat of that this time. I’m actually in a mindset of remaking the models; keeping the designs the same, just improving and getting shit together. I’m glad my PC died because what we have now is better than what we could’ve had, and it would’ve been awful on my end.

Another fun fact is originally this wasn’t going to be a game. When we first thought of ideas for it. Zeriq proposed it to be analog horror at first, while I suggested we have an entry for a game somewhere. Suffice to say, it’s kind of both, minus the realistic monochrome eyes and the crappy vhs filter.

Sparky the dog is in the game somewhere. He exists and is very real.

If the sequel does come to fruition and releases, then this game will be the only one with a custom night. Since people only play for challenges, we’ve got you covered and there will be quite a variety.

At one point, a Weezer themed cheat screen existed during the old version’s development. It was designed to erase your data if you changed certain troll values in the saves.

The reason Poltergeist isn’t like the other Phantoms is because it’s more tangible than the others, meaning it is as close to a physical entity as they get. Phantom Fredbear, BB, or Puppet aren’t a thing because spoilers.

Vincent’s fate is unknown.

The main day segments didn’t have the markers to show your objectives, but they got added during testing. Thank goodness.

JJ was set to appear at one point during development, but it wouldn’t make sense to add another kid to the pile of possessed characters already.

Outside of the additional Mimic stuff, the story and plans have remained consistent for two years straight. Suffice to say, having a document to reference is a very good thing. We’re continuing to use these.

Originally, the gameplay was going to be free roaming with an At Dead of Night style to it. Since the building is so small and there are up to six roaming characters, it wouldn’t work logically. Post-night tasks were going to be a thing too, but those would mess with the pace of the story. This was before we had everything written down.

Development started with me setting a challenge to Zeriq. I said we weren’t allowed to have a phone guy at all and no other door in the office, so that the player feels cornered constantly. That’s where the comics and the idea of giving characters different behaviours came from. These may return in some ways.

Lastly, Tales of the Bunny Man is the game that’s sort of made me like FNaF again. At times, the boat was shaky and uncertain, but we locked in and made something that Dawko of all people took interest in. A project that for once, I know I’m happy with and one that outdoes anything I’ve done before on a serious level. Things are getting better going forward, so stay for the ride if you feel inclined.

That’s a lot of rambling, but I felt this was the best outlet to spill some beans, say some facts off the top of my head, and allude to the future. What comes next? You’ll have to bark up another tree for that answer.

See ya.

[destiny-smasher]

Stuff From 2023!

List of things of note I experienced in 2023! A few things didn't technically release in 2023, I'm sure, but yea. Will contain my 'Top 10 Games I Played in 2023' as well.

Firstly, something I played a lot of this year in bursts but doesn't quite crack my Top 10 is Vampire Survivors. Very addicting, did some very fun goofy shit that had me laughing and engaged in a lizard brain way. Appreciated the many Castlevania references and jokes, too.

A couple of games I played every weekend for a few hours across many weeks this year were Project Zomboid and Roots of Pacha, both in a group 4. We had lots of fun with those two, and I think they're both great co-op time-sink games. Zomboid is a zombie survival sim that has way more attention to detail than its graphics may imply. It's still in early access but the depth to its is honestly pretty dang impressive. Pacha iterates on the Stardew Valley formula in a ton of small but deliberate, thoughtful ways that make for a nice twist on that Harvest Moon style game.

REMAKES

There were so many great remakes this year, on top of just amazing games in general, I can't fit them all into my Top 10. So here's a segment dedicated to most of the remakes I loved this year.

The remake of Super Mario RPG was such a surprise, and turned out very damn well. That game, turns out, is very near and dear to my heart and I did not fully appreciate that until this remake was revealed. It comes just shy of cracking my Top 10 list and that's honestly only because I finished Mother 3 finally right at the tail end of the year. This game manages to still feel weirdly fresh even today just due to how fucking strange it is, and the remake speeds up the pacing a bit while also adding in some new mechanics and a chunk of new post-game content. Everything was handled so well. This is like the new gold standard of complete one-to-one remakes of sprite-based games imo. I will admit the artstyle is a bit 'off' in some ways but I think it's very clean looking and captures that 90's CGI spirit really well, all things considered. And the music, OOF, so damn good.

The remake of Dead Space I don't have much to talk about, but it's very well produced. It's remade so well, in fact, that it felt like my memories of the original, even though I know it's not an exact recreation. Very well done and still holds up as a great horror action game with these improvements.

The remaster of Metroid Prime is so impressive it feels like a remake, even if the game is identical to the original aside from presentation and some control changes. It's an iconic classic, and yet I have no patience to do the Chozo Artifact stuff, so I actually did not roll credits on this version BUT still thoroughly enjoyed reliving the game with a very nice new coat of paint. It makes me excited to see what Prime 4 will look like on, I expect, more powerful hardware.

SHOWS/MOVIES

The year started strong with a TV adaptation of The Last of Us. While I've come to have conflicted feelings with the franchise at large, mainly due to its leading boss man, I thoroughly enjoyed the first season of this series. Very well done adaptation that picked and chose what to keep and what to change and honestly makes for a better story as a whole if you ask me, while not really replacing the game's tactile interactive tensions. Cannot wait to see what they do with Part 2 tbqh. I loved that game more than the original but also felt it was worse as an overall game/experience/narrative. But a fresh take on that same plot could potentially address a lot of the issues I had with Part 2, while simultaneously not really 'replacing' it, either.

The Bear. If you haven't seen it, it's just. Very good television. Two seasons in and it's sitting up there chasing Mr. Robot and Better Call Saul as one of the best live action series I've ever seen. Season 2 did such a great job of giving us deeper dives on the various characters and building toward an organic and rewarding conclusion that still leaves room for another season to theoretically wrap things up. Nothing too crazy with this show, it's super down to earth, and it owns that very well with editing and pacing that varies per episode, kind of in line with the different character perspectives.

Super Mario Bros.: The Movie had me worried for a while, mainly due to the animation studio and casting. And while I'm still not 100% sold on this celebrity casting, I will admit it didn't weight the experience down -- even if it's still the second weakest element by far. The weakest element is the writing. It's not, like, offense -- it's loyal to the source material and works, it functions. But it's not doing anything beyond pushing us from set piece to set piece. If anything, the movie is a bit too short for all of the stuff it's cramming in. But on the upside, there is a lot of amazingly rendered visuals and music to take in. A real treat for fans of the franchise, and the most loyal gaming adaptation in movie form, I would say.

Across the Spiderverse is in essence the first half of a two part film. That makes it kind of difficult to talk about, especially when it's also a sequel, and the production sounds like it was marred with bad management and crunch. But the results they came up with actually met my hopes and expectations for a sequel, and that is saying something, as I had very high expectations. I completely adore this film's stupendous sense of style, editing, framing, writing, and the way it's making meta-commentary on multiple levels on top of just being an effective narrative on its own. This is animated storytelling running at full capacity in my opinion, and in general just film doing all of the kinds of things film can do. So it's no wonder that there's still a rub -- this is the first half of the story they planned. The editing, animation, framing, effects, acting, action sequences, music, writing, theming, just Farore's sake, this is SUCH a damn banger of a film and one of the best movies I've ever seen, which, again, is kind of insane given the circumstances. I can only hope they don't fuck up the conclusion.

Scott Pilgrim Takes Off was quite the surprise announcement, and as it turns out, quite the surprise adaptation. I won't spoil much but I will say that by the end of the first episode, it becomes very apparent that this series is no mere by-the-books adaptation, and does something unique and edifying, even if it still maintains a certain surface-level depth I wish the franchise would push beyond. Either way, I enjoyed it way more than I expected to going in, and I think it makes for a great companion to the rest of the series. The animation style was super fun, as well, with some great action sequences.

But Blue Eye Samurai sucker-punched me, having released before I'd even known about it. This show is something else, something unlike any other animated show I've seen besides Arcane. And it's not like it's mimicking Arcane, it's just the closest I can think to compare it to: a quality, thoughtfully framed, thoughtfully written, made-for-adults animated series. It tows the line between fantasy and realism in a refreshing way, its protagonist is great, its cast is compelling, its plot goes to some neat places, and things just feel very well thought-out and well-executed. Slap this in second place behind Arcane as the TV series I am the most excited to see more of in the future, just ahead of The Bear.

Something I did near the end of the year was watch The Hunger Games movies, back to back over the course of like, a week. Have not read the books but man, watching these sure made me interested in doing so at some point. I totally get why people were so enamored with this franchise, and honestly, I think its themes and messages are more relevant now than they were when this franchise was at the peak of its popularity. The films certainly have glaring issues for my tastes but yea, I managed to really enjoy them as a whole despite my lack of mainstream sensibilities. Looking forward to reading the books eventually.

Another thing my wife shared with me was 花ざかりの君たちへ (often called 'Hana-Kimi' for short). Specifically, the 2007 version, as, uh, apparently there are multiple adaptations of this. It was a live action Japanese drama about a high schooler who was born female but transfers into an all-boys school, identifying as a boy while she is there. There's more to it than that, and I won't say it handles everything the best (it's from the mid 2000's) or concludes things in quite the way I'd have preferred. Not to mention it's kind of weird seeing many tropes I'm used to seeing in anime rendered by physical, real actors. BUT it was overall a really sweet, adorable, funny, heartfelt, and reached for pro-queer expression in a time and place when that wasn't mainstream yet (and honestly kinda still isn't depending on who you ask).

Good Omens Season 3 also dropped this year. I actually don't have much to say partly because I think a big element of it is just not knowing what to expect going into it! But it was also very good, very fun, pretty damn gay, I really enjoyed it and am crossing my fingers hard they get to wrap it up the way they want.

All right! Onto my personal top 10 GOTYs.

TOP 11 GAMES

(I played and finished in 2023)

11) Mother 3

The one entry on this list that did not actually come out this year -- in fact, it's never technically released outside of Japan. Originally release in 2007 on the Game Boy Advance, this quirky RPG has developed quite the reputation. I started playing the fan translation back in like 2020, and only got around to finally finishing it this year. While that likely did tarnish the experience a bit for me, so does the final third or so -- it kind of drags on a bit, and any old school format RPG that requires grinding to progress can become a bit of a chore.

Thankfully, Mother 3 did earn its hallowed reputation in my eyes now that I have experienced it. I totally get the passion for this game now, and I am a convert. It makes me want to finally finish Mother 2, aka Earthbound. But here's the biggest thing about Mother 3 I weirdly did not expect going in, yet smashed my face in like a hammer by the time I finished it:

without Mother 3, there is no way Undertale/deltarune would exist.

The DNA for Toby Fox's works is achingly obvious in its relation to this game, specifically. I won't spoil anything and I won't go into my long list of evidence like an Ace Attorney case, but trust me, there is ample evidence to make this claim.

And that also means that Mother 3 stands on its own merits as doing things that RPGs just plain were not doing in 2007, and in some ways still aren't today. Aside from some pacing issues further in, the characters in your party aren't as developed as much as I'd like. BUT the overall narrative it tells, especially in those opening chapters, have a rare kind of earnest, human magic to them that most games just don't let themselves fall into. And it concludes in ways I did not expect and yet offered clarity as to why it is so beloved, and how Toby Fox was so inspired to put his own mark on the gaming landscape.

I owe a great deal to Undertale, personally, and as such, I also owe a great deal to Mother 3. You don't need to have played others in the series to enjoy it, you'll just be missing some referential stuff here and there. It's quite playable and unique by today's standards and I strongly recommend it if you want an RPG that is heartfelt, funny, fun mechanically, and has some simple but hard-hitting things to say about the world we live in, and what we are doing to ourselves and that world.

10) Super Mario Bros. Wonder

What can be said that hasn't been said already? Nintendo knocked it out the park with this one. This was everything I've wanted in a 2D Mario for like 15 years. The only thing 'missing' from it is playable Rosalina, but hey, we finally got Daisy in a mainline Mario game, so I'll take it. After a decade or so of dragging their feet with low-effort but enjoyable 2D games, Super Mario Wonder finally, at long last, captures what makes Nintendo games great and with their best foot forward. They haven't done 2D Mario this well since World on the SNES in 1991. And they have never put this level of production into a 2D game since... ever?

This is one of the all-time best 2D platformers out there, and for once it finally feels like 2D Mario is running on all cylinders as a big budget passion project kind of game. You love to see it.

9) Scarlet Hollow

This game isn't technically finished yet, as it is episodic, and its developers wanted to release Slay the Princess in the interim, but that doesn't stop its quality from being good enough to make my list. This game is doing the kinds of things visual novels should be doing, the kinds of things I wish to do in a sense with my own visual novel development.

It's a horror themed experience but balances the high tension with actual real stakes very well against mostly down-to-earth conversations, with lots of great tricks and touches of presentation you don't typically see in indie visual novels, along with a fantastic art style, charming characters (my favorite character has turned out to be the one I immediately disliked at first, and that's rare for me), and meaningful choices.

I can't wait to see how this one wraps up but even as it stands it's one of the best things I experienced in 2023.

8) Xenoblade Chronicles: Future Redeemed

I will admit I skipped Xenoblade Chronicles 2 after giving it an honest go in like, 2019 or so. A few hours in and i couldn't stomach it, the tonal whiplash from Xenoblade 1 (one of the best RPGs I've ever played) was too much for me. But then Xenoblade 3 came out last year, and is also one of the best RPGs I've ever played, even better than the original for my tastes.

But I wasn't prepared for the DLC to drop a whole ass side-game on us, a self-contained prequel to 3 that serves as narrative cohesion to tie the whole trilogy together with a bow on top, complete with perfectly tuned fanservice (and not the sexy kind, although grown-up Rex and Shulk, well, yes) that really respects its fanbase for investing hundreds of hours in this franchise.

Matthew is easily one of my all-time fav RPG main characters, probably the favorite RPG main character when I think of it (as main characters specifically go, anyway), and his game is a fraction of the length of many RPGs out there. But as usual, the entire cast had their charms, the story was nicely paced, the gameplay and overall length was just about damn perfect for what I could want from the genre.

As an expansion to a pre-existing game, this is one of the top 3 best expansions/DLCs I've ever played. When taken as a side story to an overarching trilogy, I'm not even 100% in on the lore and I still enjoyed the hell out of it, it's just the kind of thing that hits a tone of 'damn, video games are a fucking unique medium that we can do specific narrative things with across years of telling a story.'

I don't know where Monolith Soft is going next, though the ending certainly offers some intriguing teasing, but I suspect I will be there day one to see it, and am looking forward to it.

7) Pikmin 4

Given the long wait (10 years!) one might understand fan concern over the state of Pikmin 4. Turns out, that extra time was spent making this game fucking good. It's not the largest, most impressive, most complex, most inspiring, most 'anything' game I played this year, and yet I can't help saying that this is a damned good video game. It really nailed what it set out to do as a sequel, incorporating just the right ideas to spice up the formula while bringing things back to how Pikmin 2 was, and improving on the series in basically every way -- including stuff to do!

This is easily the most Pikmin game... in a Pikmin game. I still haven't 100%'d it. Without giving away any details, I'll just say that when a game rolls credits and you're only like, halfway through its content, and it just keeps going, that's just kind of wild. It would've felt like a great game even then, but the breadth and depth it ends up going to in order to keep giving you ways to engage with its wonderfully detailed world and addictive mechanics, I love it.

I just want more of it. Give me DLC with more Dandori content, the formula and feel just works so well at this point.

6) Sea of Stars

How the hell I forgot to include this one on my list initially is boggling. Easily one of the best indie games I've ever experienced. The writing is nothing to, well, write home about, but it's not bad. And in fact the story has a lot of great things going on, from an interesting world to a very potent arc with the leading support character (who, let's face it, is kind of more the main character than your two main characters).

The game's art and music are phenomenal, capturing the essence of 90's era RPGs but clearly doing things not capable back then. Made even sweeter, the game is a prequel to the studio's prior work, The Messenger, which I also played and adored in tandem, kind of going back and forth between the two once I was partway into Sea of Stars. The way this RPG repurposes songs from Messenger as well as all kinds of seemingly superfluous elements but makes it feel cohesive is pretty great.

The game also trims a lot of the fat you'd find in older RPGs, as well as lets you customize your experience in a modern way using collectibles you can toggle on and off to grant all kinds of effects, like increasing or decreasing the difficulty in various ways.

The homage paid to classics like Chrono Trigger and Super Mario RPG is clear but it's not at all copy-cat-ing, instead wearing those inspirations proudly on its sleeves and forging its own path with its own ideas. A fantastic collection of party members, a wonderful world, amazing presentation, and environments and pacing that help it stand apart from the genre that inspired it. I wish we got to know the leads better, there is a lack of character growth in many ways, but that's me grasping at straws to critique, it's just a fantastic experience and the studio should be very proud of what they've accomplished.

5) Hi-Fi Rush

This is gonna be a running trend from here on out, but on any other year, Hi-Fi Rush would've been my GOTY, easy. From this point on, we're talking measures of inches rather than miles in terms of my love for these games.

Hi-Fi Rush finally delivered on something I have waited like 20 years for: a rhythm action adventure where playing the game in sync with the music felt fucking cool and gave me emotional resonance in a way only this medium can. The humor was charmng. The visual aesthetic is almost peak 'my taste.' The music was groovy with a few tracks I did not see coming but loved seeing how they were incorporated. The story was surprisingly fun! The characters were fantastic, I loved the entire main crew in a way I rarely ever do and would jump at the chance to spend more time with (and hey, there's a whole bunch of post-game I have yet to do, so I intend to in 2024).

The only real thing I could reasonably ask for from this game is a way to play as those other party members in post-game content or new-game plus or something. And who knows, maybe we get that some day. Even if we don't, what they came up with here is the next best thing besides. And what we got is one the most video-gamey video games I have ever played, a real classic and one I think will go down as one of my all-time favs. A passion project given meaningful time, budget, and creatives to bring it to life.

Had this game offered multiple playable characters, a bit more development in its story, and maybe a stronger climax, it'd be higher. I still love it to death and want more games like it regardless.

Hi-Fi Rush is exactly what kind of game we could have gotten more of if the Internet hadn't pushed gaming into a 'live service' direction. It is literally the spirit of a PS2/GameCube game given modern form. And either way, we did get it, at least, in that form, and it fucking rocks.

4) Resident Evil 4 (Remake)

This year was big for remakes and remasters, but one stands tall above the rest, if you ask me. The original RE4 has stood as my fav in the franchise, the one that got me into the franchise, the one that got me into M-rated games in the first place. Lots of nostalgia, but it's held up surprisingly well over the years despite some limitations of the time (mainly the controls) and some older-fashioned sensibilities ("with ballistics, too~").

But Capcom fucking nailed it with this reimagining. Like Final Fantasy VII: Remake, this game is not a remaster, or a one-to-one recreation. It is a brand new game, built from the ground up, reimagining the original entirely, complete with new mechanics and story. But unlike with FF7, this is also shockingly authentic and loyal to the original at the same time. It remixes elements from the original game, maintains most of the original's map design, adds in new stuff, removes some of the more goofy shit -- and even 90% of what feels 'removed' is revealed to be repurposed for the Ada side story DLC.

It looks great, it sounds great, the adjustments to characters and story are improvements across the board, (except for Hunnigan, RIP) the gameplay is improved in intensity and feel and action and replayability. And yet despite all of this, it balances that campy tone of the original just enough to still evoke what I loved about the original's tone. And it doesn't outright replace the original game, either. The two are now like different recipes of the same sandwich or something. There's reasons to revisit the original, though for me this has now replaced the remake of RE2 as my fav in the franchise.

I really don't know where they go from here but I will look forward to it, and regardless, they fucking nailed this one.

3) Street Fighter 6

Two Capcom games, back-to-back? They had a fucking good year in my eyes. The interesting thing about this particular entry is that unlike the others on this list, I will be continuing to play this one for hours and hours into 2024, especially with more fighters still planned. And in another year, this would've easily been my GOTY.

After all, Street Fighter 6 is the single-best traditional fighting game I think I've ever played. And while fighting games are my overall personal favorite genre, I'm more of a Smash player who also loves the hell out of Street Fighter and then dabbles in Tekken and whatever else releases. Street Fighter has always been one of my go-to top multiplayer games since I got into the franchise with SF4 in 2010. While I did enjoy SF5 well enough, it just didn't keep me hungry to come back for more like 4 did. SF6 has fixed that problem by way of a multitude of changes.

It has easily the most fun single player mode I've seen any fighting game have. Like, yea, The Subspace Emmisary (and even then, I don't love that mode like other folks do, I kinda think it's... fine?) but tbqh World Tour is just better in most every way. You get to build your own fighter, earn and mix and match different costumes and individual character special moves with each fighter's fight style. You get to just hang out with the SF characters, get to know them as people, their hobbies, their fears, their insecurities, their passions besides just beating the shit out of each other. On top of this, the realistic art style shift (a by-product of the RE Engine) seals the deal on what Street Fighter 6 is aiming to do: humanize its cast.

Is it still wacky as fuck? Is it still comical and weird and goofy? Hell yes, it is. Is the story mode deep in its narrative? Not in the slightest. But it's still stepping confidently in a direction fighting games should be trying to, not being too self-serious, but also being earnest.

And I haven't even touched on the mechanics! The Drive System alone is a brilliant addition that adds a sort of 'stamina' system that works so well to add an extra layer of decision making and tension. The game's not perfectly balance imo but for how much is here it is surprisingly damn well balanced, especially given they have insisted on not pushing out a single balance patch since it launched in June. For most any other competitive game, that would be like suicide for the scene, but the game seems to be thriving and selling extremely well for the franchise. And it's earned it.

I will absolutely be continuing my warrior's journey into 2024 and I can't wait to see what else Capcom has in store for this game.

2) Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

Out of every game I played in 2023, Tears of the Kingdom is easily the most technically impressive. From a design standpoint, from a 'how in the hell is the Switch doing all of this without exploding' standpoint. From a 'holy hell how is there this much stuff in a single player game' standpoint. From a 'oh my goddesses that stupid batshit idea I had 100% worked because it actually did make sense' standpoint.

Where Breath of the Wild opened our minds as to what an open world game could be -- fully designed like one giant interconnected 'level' -- Tears of the Kingdom replied in much the way I expected: it pulled a Super Mario Galaxy 2. What I mean by that is that this is a direct sequel, building directly off the foundation of the original. You know. Like video game sequels almost always used to. And which many very successful ones still absolutely do.

But Tears of the Kingdom somehow managed to wow me all over again by adding to that open world's verticality in insane ways -- the Depths alone are probably my favorite 'mechanic' from any Zelda game ever besides the time loop of Majora's Mask (and what that did for the story and gameplay). But beyond the scale of the world basically doubling and then some (floating islands and caves on top of Depths), I was curious how this game could stand tall after Elden Ring, which is easily in my top 10 favorite games of all time at this point. Elden Ring was Fromsoft's reply to BOTW. And yet Tears of the Kingdom still managed to have something new to say in spite of that very strong reply.

Tears of the Kingdom opened the door to let players essentially create their own mechanics. By removing the abilities Link had to engage with the world before, and replacing them with a brand new toolset that includes abilities you just... don't see games give you, because they'd be 'overpowered,' TOTK designs its massive world in ways that invite you to use those 'overpowered' abilities however you see fit.

Being able to interact with the world and objects in this way, being able to fuse them together to create all kinds of effects, or new methods of transportation, even interacting with things not just spacially but in respect to time, it's nuts and fun and I've already poured like 130 hours with still so much I haven't done. And that's the thing: this game wasn't designed to be 100%'d. It was designed to just... be experienced, as much or as little as you want. And games on this level of scale/budget just do not have the guts to let so, so much 'content' be missed out on. And this game does.

It's a technical achievement and while I had my doubts with how strangely little Nintendo had to show, I am very glad that the experience itself manages to breathe new life into one of my all-time favorite games while improving on it in so many ways. It won't convert you if you didn't love the original -- this is a Super Mario Galaxy 2 style sequel, after all. But it's essentially replaced the original in ways I didn't think would be possible.

The story? Oof. Uh, not so much the story, let's ignore that part. That's what Nintendo wants you to usually do, anyway. But everything else, just. Din-damn.

It expands upon the first game's already fairly open-ended nature in an exponential way that I suspect developers will spend years to come trying to pin down, much like how they've spend the past 6 or 7 years trying to replicate BOTW's open world design.

For much of this year, I thought this was personal GOTY. And for many it will be, because it's just an extremely impressive video game.

Number 1...?

Going into this list, I kept telling myself, 'man, on any other year, this would be my GOTY. And if you know me personally you likely have already figured out what my GOTY is by omission. But the more I've thought about it, the more I've realized just how close these top 5 games are, it really is like centimeters instead of inches, and they each -- well, every game I've mentioned here, beyond the Top 10, as well -- offered something edifying that I was very satisfied with.

And no, it's not Baldur's Gate 3. While I have spent hours playing it in co-op and a little bit solo, that game's just not really for me, exactly. Like, I can enjoy it, and I have massive respect for the dev team and what they accomplished with it. But I don't much care for D&D, and the game just didn't do very much for me personally, I lack the motivation to finish it. Remove Karlach from the game and I have next to nothing to really attach myself to, personally. I definitely get why it's many people's favorite game of 2023, though, and I do think it's a bit of a wakeup call for what can be accomplished by just making a GAME instead of struggling to contort it into a service etc.

Street Fighter 6 is fucking fantastic but it could still use some more actual fighters and incentives to keep playing besides monetizing its players in weird ways. I love it, and it will be the game from 2023 I end up playing the most (it already is, I think). But if it ended as it is, I would be very satisfied.

Hi-Fi Rush is oozing with originality and style and I adore it to death, and when I finished it, I was very satisfied.

Resident Evil 4 kept me addicted for over 100 hours, had an amazing DLC expansion, oozes replaybility in the specific ways I like for a single player action game (rogue-likes besides). I am extremely satisfied by it.

Tears of the Kingdom is so massive and fun to just explore that I know I will continue to play more in the months to come. Will I ever revisit it entirely? I'm actually not sure! That massive length does lend some repetition, even if it's the kind I find therapeutic and satisfying.

And that's what made me realize something. My personal GOTY did not just satisfy me. It made me hungry. It filled me up in a way I didn't think was possible and yet I still hunger for more, because I enjoyed it that fucking much. I played through it twice and still hunger for more. I know I will play it a third time eventually, but mainly I just have not been to remove from my brain the particular ways it made me feel, ways that only a video game can. Nothing about it felt like it needed to be overlooked.

SF6 and RE4 had dubious monetization, TOTK had a story I found to be like 90% boring and it still maintains many of the flaws of the original. And Hi-Fi Rush, while amazing, just didn't scratch the particular itch this game did for me.

1) Lies of P

If you told me that Lies of P was a game developed by some sub-division of FromSoft, I'd believe you. Which is to say I would also believe that it was made by people who wanted to break free from some of the shackles of the now infamous 'soulslike' genre.

A narrative that actually makes sense by the end? Opening up options for the player without requiring specific stat levels? Encounters and boss fights that feel ravenously challenging without just feeling like cheap bullshit? Music that crosses borders beyond 'angry chorus, angrier orchestra'?

Lies of P doesn't quite eclipse Elden Ring, but that's an absolutely unfair comparison given the utter scope and scale and variety that game packs. But Lies of P improves at the FromSoft formula in specific ways, while making concessions in others, and as a result it's just an experience that seeped into my brain like no other game this year, not even Tears of the Kingdom, despite that I put half the hours into this one.

I love all of the games I have mentioned here, you could honestly swap around the order of this top 5 and I could mentally meander a way to justify why, no, actually, this one was my favorite game of 2023. In a year so awful for the people who make games, yet so amazing for games themselves, Lies of P is exactly the kind of game I needed. I needed someone to show me that you can make something directly inspired by someone else's work, yet fine tune it in all the right ways to make it stand just as tall in terms of quality and design. Lies of P made me feel things in ways only a handful of games ever do -- and I would actually count Hi-Fi Rush among those in a regard.

But Lies of P also told a story I found compelling. It had mystery, tension, buildup, it started off seeming like it would do the vague FromSoft schtick only to 100% come together, make sense, be rewarding, and offer a 'true ending' that I got on the first playthrough, organically, without looking things up, because it just... felt right. Not only is the game adapting FromSoft's formula into something its own, it's also doing that with the story of Pinocchio. The gameplay and the story congeal together not in the 'perfect' way that it does with games like Celeste or Undertale, but rather in a more... messy way, like a puppet aching to become a real boy.

The game is full of loss, in its world and for you as the player, who will die many times. But unlike much of FromSoft's catalogue, I never once felt like I died because of bullshit. Was I trolled? Sure, the game definitely 'trolls' you in classic FromSoft fashion, lulling you into a sense of security only to sweep you off your feet. But unlike how FromSoft does it, these circumstances can always be avoided if you're cautious. And if you're not? Hey, 'We got you! We gooottt youuu, haha' and you lose a couple minutes of progress, rather than like fifteen minutes and also an entire level's worth of souls because oh right, this section you just got through is kind of bullshit cheap.

Don't get me wrong, I love Dark Souls. But the thing is, Lies of P takes the parts I love about Dark Souls, admits it can't pull off quite the intricate web of level design, but then throws away everything I do not like about Dark Souls, improves on the things I already liked, and then pushes me to meet it on its level.

The satisfaction of being a boss you spend an hour, two hours on, cannot be understated. It's a feeling unlike any other, and one only this medium can provide. And Lies of P kept me motivated, like Sekiro before it, to keep improving, keep growing, keep trying. And unlike Sekiro, it gave me so many more tools to play with, to learn, to balance in an arsenal with intent. Enemies have elemental weaknesses if I so choose to exploit them, the moveset of one weapon's handle can be applied to a completely different blade, my robotic arm can leverage things in a pinch, or be the backbone to dealing with a boss. Mastery is rewarded with practice. A vicious boss that annihilates you in five seconds can be defeated without a single scratch if you practice enough. Mastery, creativity, quick thinking, and reacting are all rewarded here.

I am more than the hands pulling the strings, I am more than a puppet, I am human. And games like this can only be made by humans, who get that specific itch that only video games that challenge us can scratch. It's not an itch everyone has, but that's why it's my GOTY and not yours, innit?

With its unique setting, its wonderful music, its cozy hub area, its narrative that offers just enough to make me care, but not so much that I am bored or feel misled, its amazing boss designs, and its wonderfully tactile and engaging combat, Lies of P is a game I just can't stop feeling something about whenever I am reminded of it.

It epitomizes so much -- not all, but much -- of what I love about what video games can do, what adaptations can do, and much like how Toby Fox was inspired by Mother 3, what people can do when they are inspired by someone else's work.

As far as I can tell, this is developer Round8's debut game, and just. Holy hell, what a way to come out swinging. I haven't seen a debut game hit this hard since, I don't know, Bastion.

Close your eyes. Come to me. Feel all right.

I did, and I do, and given what you teased at the end of this game, I have extremely high hopes of what you come up with next. And in a landscape where things feel more difficult to get excited for with each passing year, much less new IP, it's so damn refreshing to have both Hi-Fi Rush and this game standing out as signals that, hey, some folks are still willing to invest bigger budgets into new games, new ideas.

Again, a battle of centimeters here and at this point I should wrap this up and go to bed.

But yea, Lies of P reminded me of what makes me, specifically, human, in a very particular way that only it has. And I honestly think out of all of single player games of 2023, I think it will actively stand out in my heart the most in the years to come.

[launcher-of-hearts]

“Lovely? Me? It’s you who’s the loveliest!”

Hello everyone! My name is Locket! I’m very excited to meet everyone here!!

I’m not sure if anyone else I know of is here… but making new friends is always nice!

First of all, I’d like to name a few rules! Boundaries are important after all!

♥ Jokes about NSFW and the sort are fine! Nothing further, please! ♥ Please be respectful to me and others! ♥ Spamming the ask box is debatable, depending if I find it funny or not. ♥ Enjoy my blog!

Hi again :3 owner of the blog here!! i gots some xtra stuff about Locket for you all!!

here’s his design! (soon to be remade)

He will speak in italics and pink! Sometimes I put quotes, sometimes i dont… im not really good at keeping track

here are some tags ill be using! (mostly for me to remind myself, hehe) #locket ic (probably for most things, posts where its me talking will not have this tag!) #locket answers (self-explanatory) #locket posts (for random posts that are ic!)

more will be added!

Information <3

Locket’s adoptive Dad is B. Mine! (Zuka’s ‘love’ version)

Locket’s favorite song is ‘I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend’ by Hot Freaks!

He is very affectionate to everyone, platonic or romantic!

Speaking of affection, his is very explosive! And he loves tackling people in hugs or showering them in gifts.

He loooveees claw machines, specifically the plushie ones. Even if he’s just getting it for someone else or even himself!

Attachment issues, meaning he’s pretty clingy.

He dislikes The Lover, much like the original Rocket.

His heart locket holds much… history.

He/Him, Pansexual

His spawnday is August 11! (Which is also mine bc, why not)

More to be added!

[tzigone]

What age first comes to mind when you think of each of the original NTT?

I've asked this previously with the JLI. It's not about how canonically old they are or you think they should be (absent de-agings, universe reboots, etc.). But when you first think of each of these characters, how old do you think of them as? So much depends on the eras you read with them, and what of that sticks with you, and which eras and aspects and relationships you most value. Not to mention how fast in-universe time was moving in your favorite eras.

Wally, of course, got married and had kids. They never let Dick do so in main timeline, but he has associations with younger Batfam members that make me think of him as older. Poor Raven and Gar were deaged and kept on younger teams even before the universe reboot. And we have Vic and Kory after.

For me, so much depends on the era I read them in. All have eras I just don't read them in, either because I don't like what's going on with them or because of general disinterest in what's going on with DC at the time (that especially covers recent times, as I kept waiting for continuity to settle, then the constant Events, which aren't my thing).

Speed-aging Wally's kids throws him off to me, too, as I'm not fond of speed-aging kids at all (or skip-timing as with Jon Kent). So in my head he ends up a new dad in his mid twenties.

Dick ends up late 20s in my head. Relative ages of other Bats play in, but I sort of cut off for him before New 52 (and I honestly never think of him as Batman) because I've never really gotten into anything of his after that (hate the de-aging). He should be older, of course, but I don't first think of him that way, again probably due to not reading later stuff much.

The others haven't had the same degree of solo work after the team, and I abandoned NTT shortly after Titans Hunt. I've read stuff with them here and there since, but never consistently read a Titans title since.

Raven and Kory pretty much stop for me then. It's hugely important from a storytelling perspective, but I simply dislike the whole concept of Dark Raven or Rachel Roth or the goth-y influences from the cartoon (which I liked when I watched it, but didn't want to influence the comics I didn't read comics then and now resent character being largely remade from it), and even though I know they exist, they don't enter my headspace. So Raven ends up in her early twenties.

Kory, as I said, is in a similar headspace to me. I know other storylines happened, but I'm even vaguer on those than Raven's. Another dead husband, more pain for Tamaran - sounds like basically story on repeat to me, though I didn't read it, so can't speak authoritatively. Don't get me started on having her and Jason (or Roy as Jason) as a team or even worse on putting her on Damian's Teen Titans. Anyway, I always think of her as early twenties, too.

Gar, interestingly enough, I tend to think of in his slightly older, more mature fashion. Not making his obnoxious jokes and sexually harassing female teammates. And operating in a time when Dayton simply isn't around (and Rita is dead). I'm not at all sure it isn't some not just amalgamated, but constructed version of him built out from what I wanted him to grow up to be. Anyway, he sits in his early twenties for me.

Now Vic - I kinda feel in some aspects like I do with Gar and in some aspects like Raven and Kory. Certainly the post Titans Hunt events don't factor in at all (I didn't like storyline even a bit before like, quit reading a few issues after, and forget a lot of what happened after that era with Vic even happened). More like Raven and Kory and less like like Gar, he was older and more mature. I think of him early or mid twenties and having found peace with himself and belief in his own humanity (which happened a couple times before he'd reset on it), but don't think of that as having just happened, so ending up adding a couple years.

Donna is the wonky one. I tend to stick her in two categories - recently married early twenties or recently separated mid twenties. While I think motherhood and her son were extremely important to her in-universe, I didn't read that era, so it doesn't stick with me. I have the before, when I was reading NTT. And I have some of the time during the separation (when she showed up in other comics I was reading) and cutoff before Robert dying, as that was really part of a soft reboot of the character/origins that didn't work for me. I mean, her origin has always been a mess, and moreso since COIE, but another changeup was not the solution.

[the-east-art]

For those who have been around for a while, you may recognize that this is a remake of an old pmv, and for those who have been around for a VERY long time you may recognize that this is a remake of a remake of the second PMV I ever uploaded on my channel. Before I made stuff for this channel I was already making PMV's, just loose in my sketchbook and only shown to my twin.

I had the idea for Unfinished Business long ago, and it started out as loose drawings in a sketchbook. Eventually I drew it all, and when I started the channel I decided to upload it all. The drawings in that first video are sentimental, but also make me laugh now. Years after the original PMV I remade it, and this time not only was it drawn in a better style, but I colored all of them by hand with colored pencils. And then, when I went to photograph those drawings, the colors didn't come out right. I didn't have a good enough phone camera and I had a poor understanding of lighting. It was immensely frustrating to me to post the video with the colors I had painstakingly filled in butchered, and I was never happy with the result. So, all these years later, now that I work on an ipad, I finally remade it once again but sure that the colors would come out right. For those curious I still largely work traditionally, just not exclusively. For this video, like many of my videos, I drew the original pictures on notecards and then scanned those notecards and added the colors digitally. The lineart is all done in pencil though. I'm finally happy with the results of this project. It feels so good to at last have made this something that I can fully be proud of. I hope you all enjoy it as well. For those who are new, welcome and I am so happy to have you. For those who have been here since the original videos -- I cherish you more than words can say.

[womaninwinter]

For the rosary fic (my beloved): 11, 16, 20

For The Intruder: 7, 12

And 8 and the wild card question for whatever fic(s) you desperately want to talk about

aaaayyy bestie, you're predictable (we love that for you)

11. Was there a scene that you hadn't originally planned to include? Why did you decide to fit it in?

Bold of you to assume I planned this. Lol, okay, I do have a plan for the rosary fic, but I did not really have one when I started. I didn't intend for it to be so damn long for one thing. It was supposed to be like 4 chapters, one for each set of decades. So the decision to write one chapter per decade for the sorrowful mysteries (and maybe also the mysteries of light??) was totally unplanned. But I decided to do it because the Hollow Boy arc just couldn't be compressed into one chapter, there's too much of Lockwood's perspective there that needs to be unpacked. And also, as I was writing, I realised I wanted to explore Lockwood's journey to the Faith, so that definitely required more space. Another unplanned scene was Lucy's visit to St James' church. I added that in because I really felt that she grasped the idea of the rosary too quickly and more context was needed.

16. What was the easiest scene to write?

It's been so long that I don't remember, but I think the opening chapter was something I knocked out in an hour. The idea came and it flowed. The rest has taken more work, as the themes I'm weaving in have become more and more complicated.

20. What is something you wish more people noticed about this fic?

I think people are actually pretty good at noticing the stuff I'm proud of in this fic. Catholicism is overthinker central after all. I can't think of anything that's gone under the radar.

For The Intruder, I've answered 7 here.

12. Was there a scene you wished you could have included? Why didn't it fit in?

I think so far I've managed to fit in everything that I wanted to do, although it remains to be seen if that will continue to be the case. I did have a scene where Holly checks Altwood's injuries, but I cut it because I didn't like it and it wasn't really conveying anything new about the characters. So no is the answer to this one I'm afraid. In general I don't cut a whole lot because I tend to draft in my head.

For a fic I'd like to talk about, I'm going to pick Gutted, because I haven't been asked anything about that yet.

8. What inspired the title for this fic? Is that usually how you choose titles?

I like my fics to have punchy, memorable titles as a general rule (this is why I try to avoid song-lyric titles, and also because I'm a snob). I also love a good double meaning, so Gutted ticked all these boxes. It reflects the physical event (Lockwood getting impaled on a metal spike) and the emotional ramifications — "Gutted" being slang for "bitterly disappointed or upset" in UK English. As for inspiration, it just kind of came to me in a flash: I was turning over possible titles in my head and this occurred to me and I was like, yep, that's it.

26. Wild Card! I'll tell you a fun fact about this fic!

Fun fact: as soon as I'm asked for a fact, I forget all the knowledge I've ever contained. Anyway, here is a sort of fun fact about Gutted? I was in a very rough place mentally when I wrote the first chapter (as is probably obvious to anyone who's read it lol), and I was feeling very bad about writing fic in general actually (something I have since gotten over, again obviously), and I deleted it, and my whole AO3 account, shortly after posting. Then I calmed down a bit, and retrieved the deleted version, remade the account and posted it again, along with chapter two. So, for anyone that remembers back that far, that's why my fic vanished for a while and then came back.

🎬 Behind-the-Scenes Fic Asks 🎬

[veebs-hates-video-games]

I keep forgetting or not having the energy to do the next one of these. It's going to be two in one again, this time for Glitchhikers: The Spaces Between and Vengeful Heart, which are the two "wokest" games I've played in a while (in a good way).

Glitchhikers is the only thing that's ever given me a dialogue option to declare the concept of the hero's journey to be an act of colonialism (we make fun of Campbell on this blog, and also Jung while we're at it), and Vengeful Heart is probably the most openly revolutionary thing I've played since A Bewitching Revolution (which is also great and you should give it a try).

I played the original Glitchhikers over a decade ago when it first came out. It was only like 15 minutes to go through it once, but it was the exact right thing I needed to see at that exact point in my life, and it's still one of my most memorable experiences with a game ever thanks to that. The new remade and hugely expanded version didn't quite do it for me in the same way, but it was still interesting and had some stuff going for it.

It's very much an experimental art game experience and not something big on gameplay, and it can be a little clunky or frustrating to interact with sometimes as a result. The park section in particular was mostly just annoying for me rather than me getting much out of it.

It can also be kind of on the nose with some of the dialogue and the messages in it, and some of it left me feeling like yeah I've seen multiple posts about this on Tumblr except they expanded on the idea with a thousand more words and it led to a bunch of discussion that added a lot more to it.

When it gets stuff right I really like it though. The train segment of the game avoids those problems entirely for the most part, both because it's a fixed path that makes navigating it a lot easier and because you run into each character multiple times. That latter thing is particularly important because it lets them flesh out the conversations a bit more and spend more time with each idea or theme, which it really benefits a lot from.

I think the final airport section was probably my second favorite. It's a bit tedious wandering around the empty space, and it's kinda blunt with its message, but it did a good enough job presenting the idea that how things are framed and structured matters for how we perceive and think about them, whether it's architecture or stories or ideas. It's a very "I see what you did there" way to wrap things up, but it works.

And then Vengeful Heart is just good. It's a postapocalyptic cyberpunk dystopian VN that manages to be appreciably worse than the way things are in the real world but not by so much that it's not immediately able to be related back to real life. And while the setting and situation are pretty dire, the story itself is about disempowered people joining together to work to do something to change it. Not without struggles and loss along the way, and not with a universally happy ending where everything is magically fixed, but with hope for their actions and sacrifices leading to continued change and improvement in the future.

They absolutely nailed the PC-98 aesthetic better than I've seen anyone do it in a while, and it feels like someone could've made the artwork 30 years ago. A lot of the music is pretty good too and sets the tone well.

Its biggest strength is its characters though, which is always a good thing in a medium and genre that relies so much on them. There are strong women and PoC and queer people and disabled people and student activists and working class union members and more all working together, both learning from each other but also having conflicting ideas and motivations at times, and of course the evil billionaires and militarized cops and private security you'd expect from the genre too. I really liked how a lot of them were handled, and I kept thinking about some of them for days after I finished the story, completely unprompted.

I could see myself going back through the train section of Glitchhikers now and then to meet different characters and see what they have to say, but Vengeful Heart is the one I expect to end up fairly high on my list at the end of the year, and I'm really looking forward to whenever they finish the next thing they've been working on.

[lemon-sugarcoats-nothing]

14. 🍋 and 🐝

Question 14 of the artist asks (Im sorry ive been sitting on this one for so long aaa): How has your art changed over the years?

My art hasnt changed much honestly! i've gotten better at watercolor painting, and acrylic paints, and i'm getting the hang of digital too! - 🍋

🐝 - ...Oh boy, another long history lesson today, Strap in. To keep things a little easier on me to keep condensed, I'm only going over my traditional pony art and NOT digital art. (Im not sure how much of the digital art i could even recover anymore)

TL;DR I've gone through many phases in my art, both pony and otherwise. I started out drawing ponies in 3rd of 4th grade in a very cartoon style, then trying to copy the show style, then with anime eyes to varying success, and finally to where i am now.

Alright so long ass history lesson:

This is my earliest attempt at making my own ponysona; i was really into applejack and wanted my pony to be in the apple family! This oc didnt really go anywhere though, and i dont think i drew her again. This was also early on, before i started following tutorials for drawing ponies.

A bit later, after drawing ponies while following tutorials for a while, I started trying to draw them in my own style. At the time, I was mostly trying to draw in an anime style with my humanoid drawings, and so the big eyes transferred over. During this time, most of my drawings were in blue ballpoint pen on notebook paper or printer paper. I was drawing a lot during my (online) classes and I would fill out pages and pages like this.

While i wasnt using tutorials as often anymore, i still watched a LOT of pony drawing content. At some point, i discovered some videos that inspired me to expand how i drew even more, and i started adding more graphite and colored pencil into final drawings.

Videos in question:

-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSmSN3VtdD0

-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTyMx2H-nuI

A bit later, i also got into creepypasta drawings for mlp and some of the songs (specifically for rainbow factory), but i didnt ever read or listen to MLP creepypastas on their own until much much later. I did however, write my own two page creepypasta comic for pinkie that i never kept up. I think i intended to but after 24 hrs i forgot and dropped the project. Ironically, I tried to redraw it a few years ago as a humanoid comic, stretching it out into i think...10 pages? until my hand got tired and I never actually got to the creepypasta part of the original first comic page. (If you'd like to see, let me know! I still have them, but there would be too many images to post in this already really long post)

Oddly enough, i noticed that around this time i was also mostly drawing either creepypasta, psychotic ponies, or drawing ponies sad and crying. Just a weird little note.

I had a short phase where i drew ponies with more boxy muzzles too, but most notable here is that i finally remade a ponysona! I would keep this sona until I would stop engaging with MLP content and go through my "Ew, mlp weird" phase.

This was also from my time of boxy nosed ponies, and I think the first image was inspired off of a drawing that came up on a google search but i dont remember. I redrew it a while later, after practicing with colored pencils more. The redraw happened sometime during my "Ew mlp" phase.

And now we enter more current stuff. all these drawings are still old but are more in line with what i draw now, and were while i was starting to come out of my "Ew mlp" phase.

First image, you can see this is one of the first times I drew Lucious as a pony. At the time, in the main rp he's from he was still just straight up a demon. And in the second image is a sketch dump of the mlp characters, where i was jut getting more comfortable drawing them again. Still held onto those boxy noses though.

No style change here, but there was a time in my humanoid art where i would draw my and Mocha's characters as royalty. Then i went and drew them as ponies in those outfits! the first image you can see Cinna as an alicorn, and an early version of Lemon was just a unicorn. In the second image, was one of my first attempts to draw Jaysir! I guess its not too far off.

Last is just this pencil drawing of Lemon when their name was still Lemon Sugar-Moon! After this point, i think i took another break from drawing ponies until we come to current day where my style of drawing ponies has less boxy noses, and more pointy, less realistic and just a bit more fun for me personally :D

Who knows where my pony art will go next! Thank you for your ask and I'm sorry again that this has taken so long for me to finally just sit down and type out lol

[beinfriends]

( Alright, pretty sure I've basically collected everybody in the Mother RPC at this point, so looks like it's time for me to say... hello! I'm Rabbit, or better known as Psy in this community (which you can see I continue to go by... because I am too fucking lazy to redo my promo assets. But I still really do just use Psy still.), and I was in the Mother RPC previously from 2018-2021 (I think? or 2020, I don't really remember) and wound up leaving due to mental health reasons, but recently I randomly got the urge to come back, so here I am with a remade blog. I was previously twinsmily, pigmonarch/allhailkingp, and beinfriends, a blog I have since moved from in order to make this blog.

I've added a lot of muses since the previous iteration of this blog. I feel like I should warn people, even if you knew me prior to rejoining (i.e. Neg and Star. hi btw) that my muse priorities have shifted quite a bit, although Lucas/Claus/Porky are still main muses for me. I replayed Mother 3 last June and got really into the Tazmily villagers for some reason, hence why I added all of them to my muse roster. If you remember the original version of this blog, my list was like <10 muses. We're at 50 now, and I didn't even list everybody.

As to why this even happened... I was playing chapter 3 and read Paul's text during the scene where Fassad tries to get everyone to pick up Happy Boxes and he said "I don't need happiness. It's standing right next to me." and I just really admired his wifeguy-ness... I thought that was so cute, since I'd never really thought about him before. And then my brain decided I liked literally all of them so here we are.

As mentioned in my rules, I did recommend the worldbuilding page + considering reading my fic recs per each character, but overall, I feel I should plug this directly. If you're interested in seeing the Tazmily that I have built in excruciating detail, consider giving A Change of Heart a read. The fic is about Leder telling everyone the truth about their past and everyone being forced to reckon with their trauma and memories.

Up front, it's 200,000 words. But it's a fic I wrote over the course of 5 months last year and is a huge basis for how my Tazmily now functions. The main verse of this blog is directly tied to this fic. Per my timeline, the final events of ACOH concluded one year prior to the events of this blog. BUT it's okay, I do not expect you to know all this shit. I will tell you things as necessary, I just thought I could cut out the middleman a bit is all.

What do you need to know about the default universe of this blog? Here's a few simple things to make it clearer:

The events of Mother 3 concluded 4 years ago.

ALL Tazmily villagers have regained their full memories of the past. The story is generally gone, though people didn't abandon their roles/jobs.

Tazmily has been rebuilt in the old style, but the world is a mix of old and new; people still use DP, but bartering has come back in a major way in terms of doing business.

There are multiple new settlements to account for all the New Porkers.

In all, it's pretty simple, but again, highly recommend you check out my worldbuilding page for a more in-depth rundown of the world, but still shorter than a 200,000 word fic lol. I still have some stuff I wanna add, but I got a lot of it done yesterday.

Also, I have a lot of posts queued from my personal about villager lines, or edits I made, so on, so expect to see those posts in the coming days. I have chronicled a vast majority of lines you can possibly see the villagers say. I got plenty o' lines you've probably never seen. There's only a handful of lines I cannot find, and am assuming went unused. So yeah, enjoy that!! It'll be your crash course on the villagers if you, like everybody (including past me), know very little about the villagers. I look forward to it.

This blog may or may not wind up being low activity, but it remains to be seen. I start my new job today, so I'll see how the work-life balance is. Bios are still a WIP. As I said yesterday, I have 19/50 completed. I will hopefully do the secondary bio batch soon, but probably not today, and probably not tomorrow, because work. But everyone in the main tier has a bio, so check 'em out!

If you made it this far, thanks for reading! I hope I get to know all of you better in the coming days and weeks! Starter call will come after this post for everyone. See ya soon! )

[sillyfudgemonkeys]

I'm curious, do ya think a p3 remake is more or less likely after the release of the "remaster" (I couldn't resist) I haven't seen any sales numbers for it specifically and I'm like "yeah ok p3 would make sense for a remake... but why would they release a remaster then? Wouldn't they overshadow each other? Or in this case, the poor reception tarnish the remake's image?"

TT0TT

Personally I still think it's plausible. It might not be AS SOON. Like if they didn't release a "remaster" then it would've probably been something announced A LOT sooner.

But I think it something we could get in the next 3-5 years.

My ideas they could include in a remake.

post draft update: Dunno why I didn't publish this sooner (I probs had more I wanted to say on the matter but stuff go in the way, I probs wanted to expand on the "my ideas part" which....probs amount to "there's a lot they could fit into P3 if they remade it that a remaster couldn't do" or I was thinking of deleting it....cause it took away from the topic of the ask......and I was deciding on what to do.....I'll just keep it as is cause I'm a goober and I want an open dialogue on people's wishes for what if remakes of P1/2/3/4 kjsafkdjaf) TT0TT

But yeah, considering the rumors AGAIN, I'm none too surprised if we get it. I was hoping they'd pull a FF7 (and I guess RE4 can be added to that, at least the PS4 version), and have the original available in their classics as a port and then also have a remake. I'm not against them porting the older versions and I very much encourage it (cause some of us like the older versions, and it's great to have an option to play either the new or older ver).....

That being said it's probs a cash grab on Atlus' end. But hey, if it works in the favor of the consumer....I'm not complaining. ;D Atlus is probs thinking "Ok this is easy money, quick port cash grab, and then we'll hit 'em with a really good lookin' remake and take their money BOTH times!"

Considering how well Persona sells in general, with other ports and remakes (lord knows what the sales on digital ports are!) even prior to being released on all consoles. And before P5 (tho P5 continues to sell well). I don't think Atlus should be too concerned about a port being meh...... Not that I'm defending them, but I wouldn't be surprised if that's their thought process and hey, if it still gets us a good remake that's fine by me. Shame the port is meh but it could be worse (it could be $60 and running like the PS3 ports of Silent hill 1/2 :'D...and at least we have modders to improve on it TT0TT)

(now if Atlus will just port Catherine FB to steam....I think I prefer the Classic version they have up there, but I want both versions damnit!)

[eyeballtank]

Companion remade, their CRAWL states, checkpoint, power up, sprite/skin system and a bit more.

After a while, i might as well make another news post about Project Nortubel just to see what's happened:

Remade Companion

First things first, i had to remake Companion with a new variation called Comp4. This is because of 3 major reasons:

CCopy used a complicated code that i couldn't easily modify in my favor.

CCopy specifically used methods that i assumed could be troublesome for future players and hardware.

The fact that CCopy moves left and right when close to the Player might be odd to some and i couldn't even take advantage of sees_player() from Gonkee's project, but at least Comp4 stops when close enough during FOLLOWME.

It took a while but i eventually managed to fix issues they had.

Companion on ice

The Companion finally has ice physics. Besides the fact that ICERUN/FOLLOW have some build up when direction changes, the fact that ICEIDLE can be slippery (And even so the "idle" part of when they're close enough to the Player during ICEFOLLOW) is also good.

Companion crawl states

First i added a "CrawlCheck", then the "enter/exit Crawlzone" areas, then some code based on touching those areas, then some code related to resizing/positioning the collision shapes and then code related to the commands and movement.

So it's there. The main idea here is having a reason to seperate the characters in some scenarios and trying to make the little bro/sis character a bit more useful in some scenarios.

Slow floors

These floors are kinda like opposites to the ice floors and mainly exist because when i was working on the Pushable object, i tried a method of "it automatically slows down the Player when they touch it" which made me realize i could make this a thing.

Visually, think of it like some really thick and slimey mud (And this feature might as well be rare depending on how annoying it'd be for players).

The first power up (A lifeguard floater)

To make this work, i simply had to learn about set_monitoring because unlike with the Melee attack, i couldn't call the collision of the Area2D with dot disabled = false. But at least it's there.

What it needs is some sort of visual feedback for both during activation and when it's picked up/gone.

Originally it was going to be a green jacket but a lifeguard ring/floater makes more sense with the setting (Plus, depending on potential character sprites, i don't want to make the characters wearing a green jacket when i already thought of 3 Player characters).

So far, it only works on the Player by turning their hurtbox temporarily.

Checkpoint system

A checkpoint is something i always had in mind and when i first implemented i faced a lot of issues in regards to scene instancing and node names.

So i used a tutorial video by matinator9185/MateuSai to make a checkpoint method that "drags" the Player to a specific spot as the respawn spot.

However, this had another issue which was the game crashing if you haven't set a checkpoint prior due to needing a place for the player to respawn to.

So i created a "playerspawn" scene to fix that (And did the same for the Companion).

Even had to tweak the visuals to make sure each character is made invisible, so they seem like they actually disappear and reappear.

Export var behind Door

Now the Door scene that ends levels has an export var, so i can change the next level in the inspector instead of creating specific scripts

Sprites

Still not finished but i implemented various character sprites and even got an export var to select specific characters by levels.

The sprites themselves look weird but at least some mechanical stuff is there.

I also found a way to fix the Player's pushing animation.

Though the placeholder sprite scenes still exist (Are set behind the characters' AnimatedSprite scenes), partially because of comparison stuff and other test related things.

I also had to redo how the Player's melee works because somehow i broke it (Ended up creating a seperate PlayerMelee scene that the Player spawns in the spot of their original hitbox).

Current issues

The Player's new "Hurt" animation using AnimatedSprite and/or HURT state are messy; One issue i noticed is how the Enemy can still hurt the Player because it takes a while for the "playerhurt" animation to actually play. I want "playerhurt" to start RIGHT when the Player's hurtbox collides with the EnemyHitbox.

I felt like redoing how the Player receieves damage, even if i broke it.

The current Pause Menu scene isn't AutoLoad/"universal" because it's set as a node under a CanvasLayer node in each level, so i need to make this as an actual recurring game scene.

The Pause Menu shows up ABOVE the SceneManager's animation but it doesn't pause the animation: Therefore the scene changing animation still plays and changes the scene (And i only didn't make the Pause Menu AutoLoad because i don't know how to make it unavailable in certain scenes like the Main Menu).

The Companion's AI could improve as it only jumps when it's "under" the player's position (And there's more to consider depending on what will eventually be added to the game).

Current health bars are attached to the main characters and not part of an ingame HUD attached to the screen.

Companion shakes during climbing when close enough to the Player, as seen in the AnimatedSprite still retaining the "Climbidle" frame when supposedly moving.

There may be a subtle bug on Comp4 during "Pushing" animation where it returns to "Running" while on PUSHRUN state i guess.

Comp4 doesn't have the "updated but still broken" take on getting hurt that the Player has (Part of this is because i want to learn how you make an scene change to a previous state, because i don't know how a script can keep a "previous state" in mind, so the Player's HURT state just changes to MAINSTATE which can be weird if the Player was on CLIMB state).

Other stuff

Just learned that Gonkee's video on the Jared AI project is gone. Because not only do i borrow code from that project, it's a specific version where unlike the Jared thing, i don't have that "sees player" code used on may game.

With the checkpoint, i'd like to work on a life system: Ideally, both characters share "lives" despite the health being seperate meaning that if one dies, both characters respawn.

Another idea i consider is an oxygen system. Maybe make it that the number is 100 by default/outside water but when is_on_water(), it slowly goes down and whether or not it's insta death or health drain depends.

I need to do something about collision shapes for stuff since i added new sprites for the characters.

I got too ambitious with this game but if i tweak/add enough stuff, i like to think i'm close enough to make a playable demo.

Project as usual is here https://github.com/EyeBallTank/PROJECT-NORTUBEL-main-ish

[ostensiblyarticulate]

Edit August 2023

Today on stuff I keep meaning to do, an updated writing post to pin, now with added Actually Everything. My intent is just to edit this for updates instead of making new posts; we’ll see how that goes.

Things I Have Written:

She-Ra (my beloved)

Catradora & Best Friends Squad hijinks, front to finish. Including 100+k words of post-canon stories focusing on the Best Friends Squad as they have space adventures (The Squad Goes Intergalactic), the super short one about predestination (Remade all the time), the also super short one where catradora doesn’t get married (Only Constant), the much longer one I wrote with @fuhadeza​ where catradora gets married a lot (The Thing About Forever), the self-indulgent one about fiber art (Twist; talk to me about spinning!), and the one where they’re Arthurian Knights that’s secretly an ode to the whole thing Tristram/Lamorak have going on (I will do you gentleness).

Riverdale (Rest In Chaos) 

Join me in the descent from Jughead’s impenetrably pretentious s5 polyam-subtext-but-textually-bughead-because-Jughead’s-unreliable introspection that you should skip unless you’re up for an endurance challenge (Another Love Song for Betty Cooper) to Betty’s much more succinct and readable adventures in being aromantic but cool to make out with him (An Antonym for Serenade) to wait actually I think I’m going all in on the Betty/Archie/Veronica/Jughead polyamory (alternative solutions for gordian knots) to cool they have superpowers but only Betty/Veronica/Archie get to quite literally come (In then out, and other ways to breathe) to POP THE CHAMPAGNE THE OT4 IS CANON let’s get Jughead back in there, yeah he’s confused about it too (In which Reggie Mantle is not invited to the polycule). Somewhere in there I also wrote a completely canon compliant character study of the Biblical Angel Raphael (Shall the water not remember).

Star Wars (is a fun time)

Weird little philosophical things about Count Dooku’s Qui-Gon Jinn guilt (this thing of darkness), Ezra Bridger & Leia Organa almost hooking up as reckless teens in the least sexy encounter ever and never talking about it ever again (Requiem for a Misspent Youth), Hera Syndulla & Luke Skywalker talking because I think they should talk (They talk about Jedi), and the uncomfortable generational angst that just kind of lives between Luke Skywalker & Ahsoka Tano (Chiasmus).

Stranger Things (is also here)

Gets its own section because I have two more I’ll be super sad if I never finish. Currently two Steve fics (the king is dead, Steve Harrington is Having a Crisis Today) and one Robin fic (Party Plan) in which everyone assumes everyone else is straight, everyone is wrong, and it leads to silliness with a side of feelings. Very, very robust drafts of the Nancy and Eddie fic very much continue to exist in my drafts and oh boy would I love to ffs finish them.

Other

Midsummer Night’s Dream ot4 shenanigans (four bosoms and one troth), a non-linear Arcane fic about CaitVi (Pins & String), a more important Arcane fic about spotlights ([that one saying about a nail]), the one about the fairy tale you’re more likely to know (about 12 Princesses, Dancing), the one about the fairy tale you’re less likely to know (Jorinde & Joringel; Fraxinella), concerning changelings (original work), concerning dragons (Game of Thrones/Harry Potter xover), concerning witches (The Squire’s Tales by Gerald Morris; the company of witches), concerning punching god(s) in the face (RWBY; if it had to perish twice), Harry Potter house sorting meta (Out of Sorts), a very silly Destiel fix-it fic (how soon unaccountable), an even sillier Teen Wolf fic ft. none of the characters anyone cares about (Brett Talbot’s Last Week in Beacon Hills), a character study of Mulan from the Once Upon A Time TV show (Tactical Advantage), gay shit about the Enchanted sequel for some reason (Some Enchanted Evening), and now there’s a HSMTMTS one about the inherent homoeroticism of being romantic rivals in two different sequential love triangles ([line from I Don’t Dance here])

And of course all of it is on ao3 here. 

I could totally end the post here, in which case it would be reasonably sized, very informative, and in no way make any promises I cannot keep. But where’s the fun in that, so...

...Things In My Drafts Folder (She-Ra, unless indicated otherwise):

I have a lot of drafts, and I’m writing them very slowly. Turns out, it takes longer to write things when you are (a) busy and (b) hopping between ten drafts at the whim of your brain instead of focusing on just one. The good news is that, historically speaking, when I stick with a hobby for a full year it tends to mean it’s not going anywhere. So while I can’t promise I’ll end up finishing all of these, the highest chance is that I’ll finish a bunch. Just...slowly.

(Edit 4/16/22: just...SO slowly. And I’m gonna run ttrpg again now so like...the slowest. But the drafts all DO still exist.)(Edit to add 8/31/23: I still really do want to finish these bc I am extremely proud of them but like idk who knows when. Ttrpg is going great tho so like hmu to talk about arthurian roleplay I guess)

Most of these fics have titles already, but I’m vaguely and nonsensically superstitious about announcing them so formally so early. So I...won’t.

The one where Catra & Glimmer have a space adventure ft. all of Catra’s shitty bosses. (I started this draft last summer, forgot about it for most of the year, and then proceeded to write a ton for it two nights ago. So: case in point about this stuff getting written just slowly.)

Adora And Her Spaceship.

The highkey catradora romance amnesia fic where I name the chapters after poems because sometimes I get to be pretentious, as a treat.

The catradora au that’s mostly about dragons and a little about a bad pun.

The star trek voyager au. Yes, also catradora, it’s all catradora.

Possibly a seamista fic??

An arranged marriage au that’s so deeply and totally backburnered that I’m not even bolding it but which I want to mention here on the off chance that if I ever get around to finishing it I can look back from a decade in the future and tell my past self I told you so.

(not She-Ra) Another Supernatural fic - aka the one where I rewrite plots for a bunch of female characters, because that’s what I did while I binged that show but also dear goodness it needs so much editing

(not She-Ra) The one where Anakin Skywalker is a shitty teen force ghost.

(not She-Ra) I would like to finish the Stranger Things drafts a lot yeah. Same with a bunch of Arcane stuff.

In conclusion: sorry for the long post. Extra sorry if you are someone who follows me for non-writing/non-She-Ra reasons. If it helps, it’ll probably be a long time until I make another one. In the meantime, my writing tag continues to be #forsythiarising, and if I remember to I may make a series of posts about the titles of my existing fics bc I have a lot of meta and love titles a lot. As with most of all this: we shall see.

[stefankarlfanblog]

Back from hiatus

I'm finally back from a posting hiatus, took longer than I would've wanted originally but it felt better to take my time with taking care of everything on the blog as well as my own life.

I've finished all I needed to do on my to-do list for the blog and I'm writing this to mention a few important things before I start posting again 🙏

Tomorrow I'll be adding my new pinned post which will have important links added for convenience for anyone visiting the blog. And links to stuff I've updated for the blog.

A lot of the posts that will be coming to the blog soon are going to be reblogged edited old posts or entire remakes of old posts.

Some only needed minor editing but others required more extensive editing that I feel it would be better to reblog them here so people following the blog can see them again or even for the first time. Not all of the edited posts, just the more extensively updated ones.

Some posts needed to be remade entirely a new to actually format them and translate them correctly. So there's going to be more new posts of things I've covered before but just improved a lot more this time around.

That said there's still going to be a lot of new brand new posts so be on the lookout for those :)

New posts will be back on the 4th of March!

[ouyangzizhensdad]

hey if you're still curious here's a compilation of cql tea from bilibili. There's pics of the original ending script where wangxian part ways so wwx can look for his beloved wen qing. And google translate isnt very reliable but it seems that the voice that called out to wwx really was NOT lwj. Also schedules of the reshoots are there and as well as the list of the stuff they had to cut and you're gonna be happy about this but there really was supposed to be a wwx/wq/jc love triangle but they chose to retain her romantic subplot with jc. There's also the og cloud recesses script leak with dozens of wen qing scenes including her fighting over the rabbits with wwx. Yeah anyway if you know someone who can translate for you do try. Hope this link works https://www.bilibili.com/read/mobile/3489356

Hi anon,

Okay that post has pretty interesting stuff, although I don’t like some of the tone and framing of Meng Ziyi (after all she’s just an actress playing a role and then probably was just told how to best spin the situation by PR people, even if that meant her lying. In a way if she’d be sold the role as the ML I do feel sorry for her). Also, as much as it would be the end result, these changes would not have been made to “upset” danmei/novel fans, but... you know, more the result of the team trying to figure out ways to pass censorship when there are no clear sense of where the line will be drawn. No need to make this into a victimisation narrative. But tone aside, let’s move on to the content of the post!

The allegation that an earlier version of the script included LWJ rescuing WQ and injuring elders in the process is..... very interesting wrt how the punishment LWJ ends up receiving in the final version of CQL seems very disproportionate to the harm he actually did to anyone? Once again, things like these can be doctored so we cannot just accept them as indisputable proof, but it is..... interesting when we think about the final product we did get..... and how it makes a lot more sense with that added scene.

I especially love the point about episode 13: “the 13th episode of Xuanwu Cave was remade, and Wei Wuxian was changed back to save MianMian in the play, but the dubbing and mouth shape were not right” (translation by by google translate lmao). If you go check, it’s true. Like it is so distinctive the way lips move around a name like MianMian and yet--! Nicely caught.

It was also fascinating to think about the point they make wrt MianMian’s scene at Jinlintai. It’s something I’ve mentioned in my MianMian meta, that the confrontation is diminished by a lot and that we thereby lose a lot of nuance wrt her character and themes explored through her. Notably, I noted that “ [In CQL there is] no dismissal of her based on the fact that she is a woman, or suggestions that she is standing up for the YLLZ only because she is enamoured with him”. But I never stopped to consider if that was the consequence of them having, in the past, changed the Xuanwu cave scene to have WQ in MianMian’s place. And if they didn’t change that scene in Jinlintai after changing the scene in the Xuanwu cave, it makes even more sense why they would excise this from what was in the novel. 

And the breakdown of the added WQ-WWX moments that were still kept in the final versions do only make sense as additions if there were a romantic storyline intended. I mean, I’ve mentioned it before, but the very casting of Meng Ziyi as WQ, to me, is proof enough. You can only think she’s a good choice for WQ if you’ve decided to turn WQ into a love interest. 

Overall, in terms of evidence, it is certainly convincing that CQL as its own work of fiction would make more sense and would be more cohesive with the scenes that are alleged to have been planned/originally shot.

Honestly, though, sometimes I do wonder if it would not have been best if CQL had kept the ambiguous/romantic relationship between WQ and WWX, just because I’d bet my entire life savings that the show would have never reached the international audience it ended up getting. No more uppity CQL-only fans praising the production team for ‘’’’’’’’’’Gay Rights’’’’’’’’. It’s like, the Chinese novel fans got what they wanted.... but..... at what cost.......

But yeah, jokes aside, CQL-fans should probably remember this one line from the post: 《陈情令》能有今天如此出众的成绩，书粉功不可没。