#restart 4 smart

[tpher]

scary girl analysis !

something something the most clearly gimmicky gen 4 character we know. as your resident pahkitew island apologist, i dont care. it actually took me a bit to warm up to her and i figured id talk abt why that is

so her main thing is being creepy and sadistic for the sake of jokes. its not serious.. mostly. she does prove to actually be down to hurt others (such as when she got a hold of a jackhammer). but what about an instance where she wanted to hurt someone for actual reasons? when was that?

that was when priya went up to her to compliment her on doing a good job on the previous challenge. priya says that shes surprised by scary girl having done a good job.

scary girls response?

a very defensive "oh, it surprised you that i was good? cuz you thought id do bad?"

and thats the thesis of this post

scary girl is very insecure

backing up for a moment, in ep 2 when the teams were on ships and attacking each other, she was the one who came up with the idea of sinking the other teams ship as an idea on what to do when they were out of ammo (? iirc). but no one else heard that, just zee

then in ep 3, ripper makes her go last in the relay race thing bc he didnt want her to "blow things" for the team. she reacts by trying to bite his finger. not with a funny creepy smile, but with genuine anger to her literal bite. and then during that challenge, she infamously grabs a bear by the arm and starts beating it up while saying "thats what you get for growling at me!!!". once shes done, she goes "byeee" and goes on like nothing happened. proving that if someone wrongs her, she can easily let it go.. so long as she gets to do something back. remember this for later

and here we come back to her interaction with priya. so far, scary girl has proven herself to be a pretty alright player and she herself knows that. so the notion of someone being SURPRISED she did well?? does not sit well with her at all. but the way that she harps on the wording, even before zee steps in to make it worse, is what gets to me. it just really adds an extra layer to her character that, well. ironically surprised me! for someone who always seems to be in her own world, so unconventional, so ill-fitting with everyone else to also be insecure in some capacity?

anyway she tries to hurt priya with a spoon but gets interrupted. later on, priya is still thinking abt their encounter and feels bad so she tries to make it up to scary girl by flattering her. namely by saying that scary girls question was smart.. and priya being her awkward self, only dug herself in a hole by making it seem like that was a smart question by scary girls standards

scary girl is speechless. baffled. mad beyond words

it should be noted that scary girl looked offended when priya even started speaking. meaning that she also did not forget about their conversation that morning. she REALLY took it to heart. applying the bear logic here, had scary girl hurt her with the spoon earlier, would she be less mad? would she had considered each other even? and in that case, would this comment go over better or would it had simply restarted her need for revenge?

well. they dont interact for the rest of the episode up until the very end. after ripper used priya as a human shield, obviously injuring her

scary girl tells her that rippers a jerk and that priya didnt deserve that. so she'll be voting to get ripper out. and calls priya her "friend".

(her face and tone makes me a bit suspicious if this was genuine. but thats probably just her being her offputting self so i'll ignore it.) ok so by scary girl logic, priya deserved to have SOMETHING bad coming her way after what she said to her.

but not this.

scary girl, who came here to "make friends and watch them get really hurt", was not okay with what ripper did to priya. perhaps she thinks that only she could be allowed to hurt priya to balance things out? personally giving priya her karma, perhaps?

but now she considers priya a "friend". who likely wants to see her get hurt. but in the fun way that scary girl likely sees most other contestants as, possibly? idk.

anyway after all of that, we can see just how insecure scary girl can get over unintentionally awkward phrasing. just how deeply it hurts her feelings to be underestimated like that

season 2 spoilers ahead !!!

in season 2, we see even less of her. but there is SO much to work with

normal girl is so fascinating to me

by the time s2 starts, scary girl already has an all new look. shes trying to be "normal"

she admits in her confessional that some ppl thought she was too scary in the first season so thats why she changed her appearance and her everything. who were these ppl?

other than a dog as a joke, online forums, showing an interesting glimpse into the in-universe ""real world"" stepping into total drama. perhaps also a meta joke on the fandoms response to her but who knows. imagine unabashedly being yourself on tv and everyone is telling you to change. you are 16 and likely going through a weird phase. feeling a lot of heightened emotions already and ""knowing"" that this is who you are (at the moment). and if its not a phase? still 16 on international television getting lambasted by millions

and last but not least, her MOM??? her own mother. that just raises more questions abt how scary girl was before getting on td. was she NOT like this before? was she playing it up for the cameras? or did she just go unhinged without parental supervision? in any case the fact is that even her own mom wasnt okay with what makes her happy and how she presented herself.

so scary girls solution? to try her best to suppress anything that made her unique. to try to adhere to "societal norms", in her own words.

we dont see much of her in this ep other than her commenting on how shes normal and totally did not want to see someone get hurt. shes clearly struggling so bad. she knows that apparently what she likes isnt "right", therefore the opposite must be true, right?

she is simultaneously so immediately different that the others didnt even recognize her at first. yet still so "scary" that she cant fit in. she just doesnt know how no matter how hard she tries. if she were to stay longer, what can she do? this game is not only abt your skills in the challenges its also a social thing. how long until she snapped and went back to her old ways?

and then we get to the campfire ceremony. chef is about to call out whatever it was the she did wrong that day, but she interrupts him with a simple "no."

she cannot fathom being sent home, at least not this early. bc shes normal! she is sooo normal and she tried SO HARD to be normal! she read normal books and normal movies and studied normal people. she even taught herself to smile in a more acceptable way, which is so autistic coded to me. so she deserves to stay longer.

(getting flashbacks to my topher psychoanalysis and his entitlement being both a tragedy and his self-imposed downfall)

..but she studied "normal people" in her own not-normal way. while they werent looking. while they were sleeping. while they had no idea she was there.

so she got booted out for that. and she cannot believe it.

when she says that she "didnt even try to hurt anyone this time", she is mad. that was her ""fun"" and she managed to control it 100% only to get eliminated??? shes fed up!

but when she talks about how she taught herself how to smile in a "less-creepy" way?

she softens up and looks genuinely hurt.

she tried so hard. she saw all those horrible comments from people judging her based on like 5 episodes on a reality show. her own mother didnt accept her. her insecurity won and she aimed to change and repress everything that made her unique

and it still wasnt enough

[morn1e]

the devs deserve no hapiness in their stupid life u think u r so fucking smart making a room that is only accessible on monday 4 a rampage&u cannot enter it anymore on any other day? what if missed it on monday&just discovered it on friday when coming back? this is how u punish ur players? the now out of bound room is not even cool it is just some edgy satanist ritual gone wrong accident whatfucking ever room. spent all fucking day collecting all rampages&this is how i find out i have 2 restart the whole goddamn hunt all over again from monday? all bcuz of 1 stupid rampage challenge that is no longer accessible? r u fucking kidding me?

[lordofdragos]

ITS TIME

TIME FOR THE DRAGOS WALL OF IMAGES AND SCREENSHOTS *UPROAROUS APPLAUSE* Ok but for real For the people that know what this is you already know (Great sentence there Drago glad I can speak English to say stuff like that) but for those that DON'T know This is going to be me screaming and having a mental break down about a game called "In Stars and Time" I highly recommend you DO NOT view under the read more page break if you intend to play this game at any future point in your life, which I would HIGHLY recommend the game is so GOOD AAA Anyways, off to the races!

Actually let me add tags to this post first... And done!

WHAT ELSE AM I SUPPOSED TO DO WHEN YOU WON'T LET ME YOUR BACKSTORY This sounds like something me and my friends would say to each other when we're being assholes

Game gives us the best party member to control in my personal opinion My personal opinion is I've played this game for like 20 minutes but I threw scissors 3 times against Tutorial Kid I know what I am *Insert that always throws scissors guy meme where he complains about the rock players ruining the metagame*

L bozo sorry m8 YOU'LL GET OVER IT AXFCDHVGJN

I get the distinct feeling that everything will not be fine soon . . . Owie

Time to talk to every bird again!! I am mentally stable I swear the game hasn't already captured my entire soul what no haha

Its the Bastard tm I vaguely know about this character ALSO YES THANK YOU I NOTICED THAT HAPPENING ACTUALLY

So I MAYYYYYYY have gone through this dialogue like 30 times or something to see if anything funny would happen It didn't

Hooray for teamwork!!

DAMN KID DO YOU MIND Also note here from Future Drago Does this one not count as a loop since it tutorials you to restart in the castle? I don't think it increased my loop number

AYO?

WOK!!!!!!!!! Man I really love all of the characters but Bonnie is interesting to me because they are written so perfectly like an actual child Which means I constantly flip between YEAH CHILD ENERGY AND EXCITMENT And get this RUNT AWAY FROM ME GOOD LORD I know it somewhat sounds like I dislike them but no really just more of a testament to how GOOD the writing is

So real game

Mission failed we'll get em next time

Sometimes when the game itself tells you you cannot go further the best way forward is to fight to the death BTW I recommend losing to a normal Sadness some time good reading there

MINOR WORD CHANGE GAME I SEE YOU YOU AINT SLICK

War. War never changes. Went down purely to spite Bonnie for saying smart kid intuition we all stupid here except Odile

This conversation gave me the feels man

Funnyjokespun person! Also Hampter Sif!

End of images for this post but final thoughts at the end of this wonderful loop WHY WON'T ANYONE TOUCH SIF DID SIF ASKING TO STAY WITH THEIR FRIENDS AT THE BEGINNING CAUSE THIS DID THE FUCKING TREE DO THIS MAN?? It has been TEN HOURS and I just finished loop 4 I am so glacially slow (I think) I do basically everything everytime because I love it I refuse to fall into despair! The game will probably change that without my consent in the future though so OH BOY

Alright thats one massive post done how do I like schedule this so I can type more and have them all come out at around the same time...?

[unpleasantaftermath]

NEXT PAGE

[TRANSCRIPT ON READ MORE]

0:

Unpleasant Aftermath

Chapter 1: A Fresh Restart

0-1:

CONTENT WARNING!!!

Unpleasant Aftermath contains:

Death, Deities, Existentialism, Mentions of Self-Harm, Disturbing imagery, Eyes, a lot of them and Unreality.

1:

???: Oh… Poor soul

???: No soul should experience such a horrible end…

Sage: Who are you?! How are you inside my head?! Where am I???

???: Poor thing… It can't remember its own fate. Maybe it's better for you to stay that way.

???: As for my identity…

2:

Zyth: Call me Zyth. Mortals call me by several names, but I prefer Zyth

Sage: Are you god?

Zyth: I prefer to be called a deity…

Zyth: Well… Normally I would present you with options on what the rest of your life would be like, but I can see that your mind is already set on one.

Sage: I am…?

3:

Zyth: "You" are. You may not remember it, but you have a promise to fulfill. I'll keep a watch on you.

Zyth: Try tp remember whp you are… Maybe you'll remember her.

Sage: Her? Promise? I… What are you talking about? You didn't even answer my questions!

Zyth: You're a very smart kid, ?. I believe in you. Everything will become more clear with time. I will see you later.

4:

Sage: No! Please! I don't understand! Please just answ-

[rigelmejo]

Oh also, to hype up this app Smart Books even more (apparently its on app store as Parallel translations of books. Which. Yeah thats literally what it is and it's great:

So in this app, it shows book statistics. Which I'm always fascinated by. Here's my current stats for Guardian:

It shows how fast I'm reading in words per minute, how often I'm looking up words (caveat here that I keep clicking some words I know reading wise for pinyin pronunciation), shows my progress (4% is pathetic but also impressive considering I restarted today and the book is over 100 chapters). It shows how long I have read total and I'm happy to say the timer does NOT count when you minimize the app or switch to other apps with it still open, making the time read quite accurate (and really calling out my ADHD for taking a break from reading every 5-20 minutes ToT). And it shows estimated time to finish the book. Which is a feature I love in any reading app. And I have to say, personally? I am VERY motivated to see the estimated time go DOWN. So when I see it, it motivates me to kick up my reading speed, and remember fucking words so I don't slow down to look them up again. I like motivation, so I love the estimated reading time. And a fun fact about Guardian, the audiobook is around 55 hours if I remember correctly. So the closer I get to seeing that estimated remaining time go down to 55 hours, the closer I'm getting to spoken reading speed! I've already improved a lot as when I started reading it estimated 98 hours, now after a bit of reading its estimating 72 hours. Huge improvement. (And yes, if you load a Chinese novel in this app you'll be hit by the reality a fuck ton of Chinese web novels are from 20 hours for SHORT SHORT ones to 100+ hours to read... for a fast reader). For comparison, I'm also reading 坏小孩 which is only 124k words compared to Guardian at 304k words... and 坏孩子 is estimating ill finish reading it in 28 hours (I think it's audiobook is 20 hours so that's at spoken reading speed).

And Guardian word statistics:

This fun word statistics area lists the words by order of how often they appear, so its great for if you want to pre-study vocabulary for a book. Or if you want to review common words in it. Or if you're curious how MANY fucking unique words are in a book. Fun fact, 坏小孩 has around 8000 unique words, compared to Guardian's 16,740 unique words. Despite this, I find 坏小孩 harder cause apparently of my lexicon of Chinese words I know how to read, it's mostly words priest uses. And the 坏小孩 author uses a word I am not familiar with about every 20 words ;-; to be fair, Guardian leans heavier into case investigatkom stories/supernatural which is the bulk of Other novels I've read too. Whereas 坏小孩 has many more every day words for card games, school, building descriptions, orphanages, which I do not read about as much.

Anyway my point is: this app is free and pretty dang useful if you're trying to read a language you're learning. It generates parallel texts!

[tarnishedxknight]

{out of dalmasca} Yeeeah, so I didn't get as much done tonight as I wanted to. I'm gonna be honest with everyone... Zhaan's death episode was on and I watched it again, heh. You can here, if you want. No blood or gore, I promise. But yeah, my smart TV (Samsung brand) has its own channels, and there's a 24/7 Farscape channel that runs the series continuously. I can never control when my favorite episodes air, I just have to catch them when I can. It restarts around every 4-5 days, approximately. Anyway, I made the mistake of putting it on just to watch that episode, and I swear, I watch five minutes of this character and I get super inspired. So I took time to write a post for my multimuse in between writing here, and my muse for my FFXII characters got a bit derailed by that, heh. Sorry!

I do want to get a bit more done here, though, because I will likely have to skip this blog next week due to the start of the spring semester and my classes. So... if I get extra time tomorrow (1/18) after writing my Sat muses, I'll pop over here. If not, I may have some time on Sun (1/19). I'll make an effort to get more done over the weekend so that I'm not leaving so many replies for two weeks from now.

My muse for Zhaan is really high right now, btw, for those who also write with me over on my multimuse. I may leave her open during my hiatus next week, just the one muse. I won't have much time to write but I can handle one muse, heh. So feel free to send in things about her or poke her with your muses if you like. I'd love to get some MCU threads going with her, because I totally can see her getting "installed" at the Avengers compound, haha, for lack of anywhere else to put her. Like oh hey, we've got a weird blue alien. Instant Avenger! XD She's better honestly as part of the medical staff, though, and she would probably help out there. So yeah, feel free. Otherwise, I'll try to be back here sometime over the weekend. For now, I sleep.

[presidentdisastraofgallifrey]

Ranking Companions I've Seen So Far

(Because I can)

(Purely from memory so is possible I forgot someone)

(They are bulleted instead of numbered because there's a character limit for blocks and it restarted the numbering when I broke it up. They are, however, in order from favorite to least favorite)

Sarah Jane: She hides it under professional veneer, but she is autistic chaos personified. She has the most chances of anyone to just go home, and even when she claims to be fed up she always gets back in the tardis. She is high on adventure. She thinks the Doctor has died at least once per story, and for the first 3/4 of her run they never actually get to take a fun break from constant danger, and she is hooked. She eats an orange without peeling it. She met the Doctor because she snuck into a scientific conference to investigate disappearances and then walked right into the tardis to look for him. She had no trouble believing she'd moved in space and it took only the barest evidence to have her fully on board with time travel; I think she always half believed in magic. She's excellent at bluffing but only for very short periods. She's very much about the ends justifying the means and always a little confused when people are mad since everything turned out fine, which is very Doctor of her. And their dynamic really was silly best friends.

Leela: Everyone else was either kidnapped or invited along. She pushed the Doctor aside to invite herself, because she didn't want to have to stay home and be a leader (and she too craves adventure). She never completely understands what's happening, but she jumps into every situation fully anyway. And asks a ton of questions. And, once she's been taught about something, she maintains a good understanding of it (no one in-show acknowledges how smart she is and how hard she works to catch up from not having the same education as every other character). I enjoy how ready to stab and shoot people she is, and how often she winds up with guns no matter what the Doctor says. But she's also so genuine and protective and their bickering is sweet and she's best friends with the dog even before she's left alone on Gallifrey with no one who respects her but the dog. (The whole noble savage trope is problematic but I still enjoy a great deal of her character)

Donna: She's outspoken and best friends with the Doctor and no one has ever thought he was less hot. With her the dynamic really is just we're flying through time and space playing dress up. Her fear response is indignant anger. She's a temp who has been told by her mother her whole life that she's a failure, and she's the most important person in the universe. She has terrible self esteem but never lets that get in the way of speaking her mind. She loves and supports her trans daughter. She forgot it all for 15 years and then, married with a teenager, casually moved in with her old best friend.

Bill: Even when she couldn't go to college, she was so determined to learn that she just appeared in the Doctor's lectures and was excited when she didn't initially understand things. She was his student, and his friend, and once or twice his protector, but she never did the Clara thing of putting all her time into keeping track of the Doctor and protecting him from himself. On her first alien planet, robots that spoke emoji tried to kill her, and she still kept traveling. But she never gave up her life at home or her education, either. She had a gay crush in her first episode that she never even got to go on a date with, and then ended up spending eternity together as noncorporeal beings by the end. She helped rehabilitate the most evil Time Lord. She's iconic.

Romana I: She is the sheltered excellent grades autistic. She's so baby and innocent, but also knows more about what the Doctor is talking about than any other companion (and sometimes the Doctor). She can fly the tardis, because she read the manual. She plays dress up constantly but rarely in any sort of context appropriate to where they're going. She wanted to be called Fred. She literally can't lie to save either of their lives. She's charming and beautiful and capable, but might think she's even more capable than she actually is. She was horrified by what a failure of a Time Lord the Doctor was until she realized he was happy, and that that was an option.

Yaz: I love how she seems so normal and together, got involved by chance doing her job, but slowly it becomes clear that she was never ok and somehow this was the best thing that could have happened to her. She was kidnapped into this but instead of missing home she fell in love. She gets stuck on Earth without the Doctor twice and spent both times (1) pining and (2) taking charge to save the world. She talks like she knows what to do better than any other human in the room (and often does), but still works well on a team. She ran into a kid she'd vaguely known in elementary school and his step-grandfather and then ended up traveling with them for years and becoming best friends. She should not have been a cop, however, and would have made a better social worker.

Ryan: He can't ride a bike at 19 but has yet to give up trying. It doesn't come up as much as I'd like, but he is casually disabled. He has a temper, which sort of led to him allowing a murderous alien onto Earth, but he is also so full of compassion for every random person in need they meet. He actually had a life at home and, though he stayed willingly (after getting kidnapped), he struggled with missing his friends and the normality and comfort they represented. It took running around saving worlds to make him admit he should forge a familial bond with his dead grandma's husband. He also made up with his dad (he really did the opposite arc of starting with a strong family and pulling them apart when he left). He got to leave when he chose and be safe and happy, but never stopped trying to protect his world.

Jamie: He also never understands what is happening, but he's mostly fine with that. He's just happy to be along for the ride with the Doctor, being gay and Scottish throughout time and space, ready to stab people (he would have gotten along with Leela tbh). He's good at drawing connections between things he has no context for and the closest thing he understands, and I love it because my brain does that thing too of drawing comparisons to things I've seen. If the Time Lords didn't take his memories, he would have stayed with the Doctor until eventually dying for him.

Susan: She is sensitive and autistic and not cut out for so much drama. Sure, she understands what the Doctor is talking about, and she wasn't technically kidnapped, but she was happy pretending to be a human girl in 1963 and I don't think she ever particularly wanted to keep going adventuring. But she's still enthusiastic and outgoing and just doing her best. She sort of adopted Barbara as her weird protective aunt.

Clara: She was never a normal person. She is naturally manipulative, bossy, controlling, and a bit ruthless. She didn't use most of these traits overmuch until she met the Doctor, but they were there. Luckily, she also has a fairly strong moral compass, so she isn't really a horrible person. But watching a human person surprise the Doctor by out-Doctoring him is delightful. She is also addicted to the thrill and adventure of it all, and no matter how much she likes the idea of having a normal life on the side it could never compare. I don't think she'd have survived going back to a normal human existence like Sarah had to.

Zoe: "The Doctor is almost as smart as me." She is somehow a teenager and a space librarian with a perfectly normal education level for her time that makes her a genius nearly everywhere she goes. Important to note, she is also an actual genius. She helped fend off cybermen one time and got adopted by a gay alien and his historical boyfriend, both of whom are determined to protect her but both of whom are also considerably less competent than she is. She would never have gone home if she wasn't forced to.

Martha: She is one of the most normal people on this list: a hardworking medical student with a loving but mildly dysfunctional family. Her choice of one trip in the tardis after the hospital situation is actually a pretty normal one even: who would say no to a chance to time travel? But she makes herself extraordinary through pure kindness and determination. She's so full of caring, but won't put up with people walking all over her or allow any sort of cruelty. She is one of the only ones with the strength to leave when she needs to, to take care of herself, but even so she can't forget what she knows and abandon people and quickly ends up working for UNIT and then on her own to save and protect people.

Barbara: Omg she's so weird. She's a history teacher who gets to travel through history, and is understandably delighted and horrified by this. But her response to being concerned for a student and unable to contact her family was to stalk this child to her home and then into a police box in a junkyard; it's kind of her own fault she got kidnapped, though the throughout time and space part was unpredictable. She saw an autistic alien teenager and realized no one else was going to parent her, so took that responsibility upon herself. Despite never stopping trying to get home (and eventually taking a great risk to do so), she really was delighted by so much of what they ran across. She is one of four people who know that the Doctor's manipulative curiosity is responsible for the daleks threatening the universe. She's so great.

Jo: Assigned companion because no one knew what to do with her, not even really liked by the Doctor at first, but threw her entire self enthusiastically into the job. She did not believe the Doctor could travel through time and space and really thought it was just a quirk that he was always trying to fix his time machine, but she liked him anyway. I'm not convinced she believed he was an alien, either, or knew enough about science to realize (at first) that his was more advanced than it should have been. But she was happy to help, and to learn, and just generally be along for the ride.

Liz: Thought she was too smart to be working as the Doctor's assistant, and she was right. A proper scientist who absolutely understood that his science was alien and advanced, but also how ridiculous these situations were and wasn't afraid to challenge the science that shouldn't have made sense or refuse to believe something until she saw proof. Left, of her own choice, without anything horrible happening to her; a minor miracle! Also counts as a historical queer icon, even though technically that didn't come up in the show. It is canon and I like to imagine between the lines her life as a queer lady in the 70's.

Vicki: Not a genius by her time's standards, but her standard education makes her one almost wherever she goes. Left to her own devices stranded on a planet and orphaned, she adopted a giant alien creature as a pet and set up a routine for survival. Tried to go on a relaxing Roman vacation once and ended up poisoning Nero. Adventurous, clever, and easily bored: no wonder the Doctor liked her.

Victoria: The daughter of a scientist who couldn't care less about science. Orphaned by the daleks and immediately adopted by the weird gay alien and his boyfriend who was historical even to her. Later more permanently adopted by a very nice couple in a century she's not even from. She taught Jamie to read.

Ian: Ok, so stalking a teenager into a junkyard wasn't his idea, but he did go along with it. A science teacher who got to see futuristic space science, though I don't think he enjoyed a lot of it as much as Barbara did. He was a good practical balance for everyone else in the tardis, though.

Graham: He's so ordinary, in the best way. I love how consistently his job as a bus driver is plot relevant. He brings sandwiches because the Doctor can't be bothered to feed them regularly. He's down for adventure but also practical about it.

Ruby: She has such a fairytale quality. She loves her mom, she isn't running away from anything, but she sure is running. She's running around the universe playing dress up. And I suspect that with more time separation, she will start to seem less normal and well adjusted and weirder in her own way.

Dodo: I actually only saw her in like 2 serials because so many are missing, and her departure felt sort of forced, but I liked her. She was SO enthusiastic about everything, and had no intention of listening to anyone who told her what to do.

Dan: I like him fine, and although it wasn't for fun he did sort of choose to stay and then to leave when he was ready. He's not the most interesting, though.

Rose: She is my line between companions I like and companions I don't. She's both caring and imperfect in ways that can be fun, but she was a little too consistently mean to Mickey (and her mom) for my taste, and had a habit of worrying about her own enjoyment above all other concerns, at least when people weren't actively being killed. Was definitely addicted to the adventure. There's nothing strictly wrong with a character with any of these traits (except for writing in Mickey just to have him bullied constantly), but she's not really my thing. Still, she's mainly THIS low on the list because I'm tired of the fandom focus on shipping her with ten constantly and also smoothing out all of her flaws.

Steven: His backstory and initial appearance were so cool, and then his actual character was kind of a wet noodle.

Amy: Yes her backstory was interesting too, but she mostly could have bee replaced by a lamp and it would have made no difference.

Rory: Like Amy but worse; he could have been replaced by a hat on the lamp.

Harry: He did have a personality, and it was the wrong one. I don't even usually include him in my companion lists because I disliked him so much. 50% of his personality was being sexist to Sarah while she coped more competently than him, and the rest was just being annoying.

[rp-meme-central]

Press Start to Laugh - What if Stanley Talked in the Stanley Parable? - sentence starters

1. “My shrink told me not to listen to the voices in my head. Bad things tend to happen when I do.” 

2. “So I’m just going to do the exact opposite of everything you say. Cool? Cool.” 

3. “You’re snarkier than my other voices.” 

4. “It’s okay, take your time. Not like I’m going anywhere.” 

5. “This is way more walking than I normally do in a day. Or week.” 

6. “All right, follow the yellow paint line. I’m like a very boring Dorothy.” 

7. “For the love of _____, make it stop! I can’t hear myself think!” 

8. “You’re talking to a line. Not sure you’re gonna get the answers you’re looking for.” 

9. “Damn it, ______! Can’t I go five minutes without being reset?!” 

10. “I’m gonna get dizzy. Yep, I’m getting dizzy. I’m gonna throw up.” 

11. “You’ve had your chances, and it ends in a reset.” 

12. “I don’t want to walk through the red door, I want to take the blue door, and you can’t stop me!” 

13. “I did not do enough drugs to make this interesting.” 

14. “Is this one of those ‘You die in the game, you die in real life’ situations? If so, let the dying commence!”

15. “Is this worth it? Do I really want to die just to get out of this living purgatory? Is this a smart idea?” 

16. “Oh, stop guilt tripping me. You’re the one who stuck me in here.” 

17. “Due to past experience, I’m still not sure about dark, ominous rooms.” 

18. “I’ve never been so creeped out by a phone in my life.” 

19. “Starting to regret my life choices...” 

20. “You should know by now I’m stubborn.” 

21. “I lived? I lived. Hahaha! Or did I live? Am I dead? Have I been dead this whole time? These are questions I should have asked a while ago.” 

22. “Stop talking and help me!” 

23. “Oh, I hate this place. I hate it! I HATE IT!”

24. “Oh. This place. Yeah, I’ve been here before. Several restarts ago.” 

25. “You know what, I’m not that mad about it. Seriously, this is like the most boring mind control ever.” 

26. “How about I take this thing over and see what it can do?” 

27. “Just shut up and let me die in peace!” 

28. “I swear, if you explode me again...”  

[guzsdaily]

The New Factory

Daily Blogs 355 - Oct 25th, 12.024

It is funny how things kinda lined up.

At the start of this week, Factorio: Space Age launched, aka the 2.0 update. Which is an update that I have been watching the development for some time now, reading the Friday Facts almost every week. And because I already showed my addiction love for this game on the 4° day, why not make another update on the factory after so many months?

Spaghetti

Yes, this is the state the factory was. Not that pretty.

I never actually played Factorio in survival mode, so I pretty much fucked up a lot. The main one was not preparing myself for Biters (the enemies) attacking my base on the start, which made me into a fight or flight response trying to research weapons and creating the box around the base.

This box really didn't help on trying to scale the base. Does it look cool? Yes, but as time passed, trying to make progress just ended up being more and more difficult. Space started to shirk, and finding places to put assemblies and pass belts became impossible, so going outside was necessary.

To do it, I needed to have a safe space to build. And because I, again, didn't know how to play the game properly, and had some quality-of-life mods, I used one of their features to build entire canals that separated me from Biters nests, so they wouldn't be able to attack or expand in the direction of the base.

And it worked! But consumed so many resources that I had to wait hours to gear up and complete everything.

Having to wait so much, seeing my resources running out inside the box and the difficulty to expand the base, let me think: "time to build an actual base, time to build a mega-base"; which again, in high sight, was a bad idea, since I didn't even have enough automation and even construction bots to scale to a "mega" state. But I tried, and again, started to fail. The main problem is that I didn't want to actually learn the crafting times, the resource amounts, the math needed to scale a base in Factorio, I just wanted something big, and something big fast.

The main idea was trying to use trains for everything, which kinda works, but makes everything need a lot more waiting and velocity. I wasn't able to make sections of the base produce things fast enough to other section to use and be always in motion, trains mostly waited until they're filled, and constructing everything at this scale was so fucking slow since I didn't have the resources for it, that it ended up just being a chore of waiting.

I stagnated.

Space

However, with the launch of Space Age, a new motivation arrived, which lined perfectly with a need to actually rest after my working days. Knowing that this update would come with a lot of new functionalities and that it would be a 2.0 release, a major version, and that old features (specially trains) would simply be incompatible with older versions, made me have a second chance to restart my survival world.

And that's what I did! I haven't played a lot, since finding time is somewhat difficult, but this week I tried harder to play at least one hour per day (somehow I didn't stay up all night, probably because my partner takes care of me better than I could myself). Progress is being slow, but I'm finally taking the time to actually learn the game, the math, and how to prevent things from exploding.

It's being fun to have fun again.

And I would end this post with some metaphor on things such as "I didn't want to learn things the proper way and take shortcuts", or "because of something unexpected, I started to panic", or "it is not good to jump into bigger things out of nowhere", or "sometimes is better to just restart"... but you're smart enough to figure those things out on your own.

Today's artists & creative things Music: Fuck the Moon Fly Me to the Moon Cover - by Coward

© 2024 Gustavo "Guz" L. de Mello. Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

[thesinglesjukebox]

LINKIN PARK - "THE EMPTINESS MACHINE"

In which we are raged against...

[5.11]

Ian Mathers: To the extent that Linkin Park ever were/are cool, it's at least partly because they absolutely do not seem to care if some people find them cringey. The teenagers (and others) who resonated with "One Step Closer" et al, and now find that the lyrics here touch on the pain and grief of living in our increasingly/eternally dystopian times, don't need the band to be less sincere. Recruiting a new singer who was inspired to both sing and scream via her love of Hybrid Theory (and who has apparently distanced herself from Scientology, or else my tone would be... different), but who doesn't sound like she's just doing a Chester Bennington imitation, is probably about the only way to handle this short of going the Shinoda-only route. Slightly to my surprise, I find that I'm happy they're back. [7]

Alfred Soto: Aptly titled. [3]

Mark Sinker: Genius dot com tells me this song is about the CRITICS and how all they want to do is TAKE YOU DOWN -- but I prefer to believe that it’s an intransigent Adorno-esque critique of administrated present-day life, its lures and its hells. Emily Armstrong has the kind of voice I unreservedly love (and Mike Shinoda does not).  [7]

Harlan Talib Ockey: No one else is ever going to sound like Chester Bennington, and the (poorly-considered) choice of Emily Armstrong implies that Linkin Park wasn’t looking for an impressionist anyway. But their first single with a vocalist who is very audibly not Bennington is the blandest possible version of Linkin Park, including the right ingredients to show fans they’re still the same band while filing off just enough serial numbers that it doesn’t sound retrograde. There aren’t any concessions to Armstrong’s vocal style or musical influences, either of which could’ve made this less slick and more distinctive. I do appreciate how Linkin Park has grown up with their listeners, as the teens raised on Hybrid Theory are now the prime age for an anthem against soul-sucking corporate adulthood — that still understands audience calibration and brand identity. [4]

Nortey Dowuona: The frustrating part about the brouhaha about Emily Armstrong is that whatever her affiliations, she understands becoming part of a cult formed out of the wound of abuse and the agony of cutting yourself out. We are only social creatures, many of us choosing unhealthy groups to find our own identities, only for the lucky few to get free and enter a healthy community -- or, more likely, loneliness again. Perish a thought for those who can never get free. [7]

Jel Bugle: I like their new singer, she’s adding some much needed energy – I’m not sure if Mike’s opening lines were deliberately dreary, to highlight Emily's power? Anyway, it’s a smart move by Linkin Park. Musically, it’s alright, not that exciting – they should go more metalcore rather than pop nu-metal. But as a radio-friendly unit shifter, this will do well! Music for traffic jams. [6]

Jeffrey Brister: I liked them more when they were “Refused for teens who have absolutely no idea who the fuck Refused is.” [1]

Taylor Alatorre: Packaging your radically rebooted line-up in an unadorned riff repeater is the alt-rock version of the median voter theorem -- you can't be seen as going too far too fast, and reassurances must be given to key voting blocs. Of all potential compromises, though, this one is far from the worst, and it reinforces the band's preferred narrative in subtle ways. The dry, compacted production lends the feeling of a group restarting from scratch, huddling in the proverbial garage as they try to figure out what works and what doesn't, which elements are central to the Linkin Park sound and which are secondary. The album title From Zero nods to the band’s late-'90s predecessor, and there is indeed a sense of pre-history here, mixed with alternate history -- what if Hybrid Theory was the sophomore sellout album, and this was what the originalists had clamored for all along? It's an intriguing little fantasy, and it becomes more credible when Emily Armstrong is given her cue to explode, fulfilling in an instant the dreams of a generation by making a million bedroom cover songs canon. The lyrics are not so transferable, though, given how clearly LP-centric they are -- no one could ever think that "your favorite point of view" is about overbearing parents or high school backbiters. But it would be absurd to a expect a "view from nowhere" account from a band whose identity is suddenly a melee free-for-all. [6]

Katherine St. Asaph: More like the empty content machine. The band couldn't have predicted -- or, at least, hopefully didn't predict -- that the "fuck the haters" lyrics would sound offputtingly defensive in the context of the Emily Armstrong backlash. (It's irritating how people see her as some rando and not the frontwoman of a long-running band, but man, between that and later singles, Dead Sara's reputation has just cratered.) But given that Armstrong's role here seems to be sounding as much like Chester Bennington as possible, was it all necessary? [5]

[Read, comment and vote on The Singles Jukebox]

[escapism-from-the-real-world]

The Halo Chief Collection review that no one asked for because I just finished Halo 4 and need to dump my thoughts!

Reach: Good time

First Halo game I ever played and kinda just tossed me into the ringer and I got a little lost but I think that’s more my fault than the game’s. That being said, love the game mechanics, especially the enemy AI. I knew it was smart, but I was woefully unprepared for how they could plan for me just as easily as I could plan for them. C’mere, c’mere you little shits I need to put a bullet in your head.

The guns were also fun and sounded amazing (sniper is always my favorite, human or covenant addition) and I like how each gun has its own perks and disadvantages, makes me think a little harder to which gun I wanna bring into a level.

The characters were also super great and I enjoyed listening to their dialogue and, even though I had been spoiled to the ending of the game, I got really attached to them (especially Jorge) and had a fun time following the story. Also, Kat’s death was so shocking I had to pause the game to process it like what the fuck, why am I so heartbroken. All of their deaths hit me in different ways but holy shit that one scared the life outta me. 

The whole atmosphere and how the enemies are treated are also super well done, you really feel the scale of the world and the threat of the covenant. Going onto a covenant ship for the first time scared me because I had gone from a pretty open and familiar space to completely unfamiliar enemy territory, it was a really good shift in atmosphere. 

Overall, it was really fun and I enjoyed the story, the gameplay, and the campaign as a whole. I wanna go back and play it again now that I know what I’m doing and see how differently it plays out for me game wise.

Halo CE: Frustratingly awesome time

For a game that’s as old as it is, Halo holds up really well in my opinion. First off, it has the best feeling to its guns of all the games. Something about the sound and the way it moves and the reloads are just perfect in my brain. I was always a little disappointed to load up the other games and realize the guns don’t shoot, sound, or feel the same way they did in this one. 10/10

It took me so much longer to beat this game than Reach, both because the campaign is longer and also because of the stupid motherfucking flood. 

Honestly, when they first appeared I thought I was getting into a horror movie because holy hell the devastation they brought to the ring and everyone on it, goddamn. Also, that one scene with the soldier who had a psychotic break and shoots at you is insane, like how do you think of that? I shot him the first time out of instinct and I felt so bad I restarted the chapter to see if I could save him (spoiler alert, you can’t) and it was at that moment I realized what kind of game I was dealing with because that small moment completely shifted the tone. 

Anyways, the flood sucks and I spent over an hour just on the beginning part of the library trying to get past the first wave of zombies. Like, literally couldn’t get into the next room. I then had to come to the unfortunate conclusion that you cannot outrun the flood, you must instead take all of them out one section at a time or else they will surround you and run you over like a stampede. Once I figured that out I got through the levels a little faster, but I did die a lot. I had fun though and the whole twist with both what the Halo weapon was and what the monitor’s purpose was still made me gasp in excitement and betrayal (Fuck you moniter I never trusted your ass). 

Very fun game 10/10, will not be replaying it until I recover from dealing with the flood. I might have trauma from that.

Halo 2 anniversary: HOLY FUCK THAT WAS GOOD

First off, the animation was gorgeous, going from Halo to Halo 2 Anniversary was a shock to my systems but goddamn was it pretty. 

Was a little disappointed with the guns and I don’t know if I just got better at the game or if the AI got nerfed but the levels felt like they were quicker to beat and not nearly as time consuming as Halo (maybe it was just because there were a lot less Flood to deal with, could also just be that). BUT it was still fun and getting to shoot aliens in actual space was cool, plus the cutscene of Master Chief dropping a bomb on the covenant will never not be cool.

Story was fucking awesome, Master Chief really had his time to shine here with Cortana and I love it. The Arbiter was also really cool and I remember I was watching his cutscenes and thinking “man, wouldn’t it be cool if I got to play as an elite? That’d be sick” AND THEN LITERALLY THE NEXT LEVEL WAS ME PLAYING AS THE ARBITER it was sick. I was on the edge of my seat whenever I sat down to play and completely lost myself in this world and the characters in it. 

Overall, really good game and I had a fun time playing it even if I had to download a different app just to play it because of how laggy it is (a common problem with Halo 2 Anniversary, I found out). Super worth it, love all of these games so far.

Halo 3: Good time, Good ending

Again, a little disorienting going from updated animation from Halo 2 Anniversary to the original graphics in Halo 3 but I got used to it quickly. Again again, the gun function was a little disappointing (except for sniper which is always a win) but it didn’t affect my gameplay and it definitely wasn’t bad, I just really really like OG Halo’s guns. 

The story started off a little meh for me, but it quickly gained traction and got me invested again. It wasn’t quite as stressful and need-for-complete-focus as the first one nor was it as gripping as the second, but Halo 3 stood really well among the trilogy and the ending was very satisfying. (Also, fuck you moniter I never trusted you).

Overall, I think this is a great trilogy and I adore the story they told here. 

Halo 3 ODST: Not bad at all

I’ll be honest, I was hesitant when I started this game. The characters weren’t as compelling as in Reach and I always roll my eyes at the “We used to date before but now our relationship is strained because we have to have some kind of drama to propel the plot” trope that writers love to use for heterosexual relationships. BUT I did end up coming to like them (still not as much as Noble Team) and Rookie is fucking awesome, I loved playing his bits while he was trying to figure out what happened to his team.

Speaking of which, very clever to have the gameplay go back and forth from Rookie roaming the empty streets all by himself to the more livelier streets the rest of his team are fighting in. Also, the engineer is cute. Very adorable design and his scene with Sargent Johnson made me smile (Rip Johnson, you were one of the best). The story overall was pretty good, even though I wasn’t really sure what they were doing half the time (Veronica, what are doing hun, c’mon) but I had more fun than I thought I would and enjoyed the game thoroughly. 

Guns were wack again though and I mourn the loss of my OG Halo guns. 

Halo 4: Surprisingly good

From what I heard off hand from other people, I knew Halo 4 was not as loved as the last 5 campaigns and playing it for myself, I can see why. The forerunner guns are wonky and the shoot weird; it took me forever to get used to them (except for the sniper because I will always be a pro with a sniper) and I tended to avoid them when I could. The look of the new enemies was pretty cool and they have some cool game mechanics like how you have to shoot the turret things so they don’t revive the prometheans again, but the prometheans themselves were hell to fight and I got annoyed with them, especially since they seemed to have endless health that the forerunner guns did nothing to. But I digress, they were fine and I got good at shooting the dogs(?) heads off. 

The story itself was okay. I don’t really love that they brought the forerunners back, especially since from what we learned from the monitor in the first game, they purposefully killed themselves so that the flood wouldn’t spread, right? Also don’t really like the bit where they devolved humans so they wouldn’t take over? Idk, the lore kinda confused me sometimes and the librarian still doesn’t make sense even though I had gone out of my way to collect the extra cutscenes throughout the game. Like, what did she do to Chief? Make him an unkillable cockroach? He was already that before! What did she do?!

That being said, any scene with Cortana and Chief was a win. Cortana’s slow descent into rampancy was so well done and you feel Chief’s worry for her and his insistence to make sure she’s okay. Chief also got a lot more dialogue and we got to see more of who he is as a character and how much he loves Cortana. I adore these two and their relationship and I got emotional in that end scene with them. They have my heart and I love them. 

Overall, the game was fun and I think Cortana and Chief really carried the story and made it enjoyable. Lore was kind of meh, but I might try to rewatch cutscenes to try and piece together what was happening.

[christelightlavo]

Expand : part 4 (manhwa)

If you like

Then try,

× the way to protect the older brother of the heroine ×

Description

I accidentally took possession of someone in a 19+ reverse harem novel.

The problem is that I became Roxana Agriche, the older sister of the sub-villain. My damn father kidnapped the heroine’s brother. Now, is the only thing left to meet a terrible end from the vengeance of the heroine?

But what if I can avoid that horrible development?

“I’m also interested in this toy.”

“I’ll protect you until you can get out of here safely.”

The heroine’s brother, Cassis Pedalian, will definitely be able to pay me back later.

My note : if you like medea then you will like Roxanne. They aren't totally alike but they give the same vibes.

All Charlize Ronan ever wanted was to bring honor to her family. But instead, she is forced into becoming a “living sword” — a mere tool for the emperors. It is from this hell that she prays for justice… and awakens in her former body. Now, determined to tear down this horrible empire, Charlize seeks out the young prince, Dylan Blade. She will put him on the throne, not as an honorable ruler, but as a tyrant. It is time for Charlize to tame the one who will bring forth her revenge

My note : I am personally pretty divided on the main couple. They are very dysfunctional, But the female lead is smart and tactical.

× Resetting lady ×

It is also known as a epic mystery series stuck in a time loop. It's been claimed that every character is important and there a puzzle you have to figure out with our MC.

She has to figure out the reason why she keeps reliving her death over and over.

She does go on a rampage to kill everyone after her 100 death because she tired of being killed. She figures if she kills first and doesn't get killed afterwards she can figure out the murderer.

If it was only that easy.

It always start out in the garden on a raining day but she always die within a year.

However if she killed while holding on something in her hand she carries it with her to her next restart.

Raymond is the only one who has never try to kill her out of all those lives. The MC thinks he must be the main character but after dying so many times she has given up on him as he can never recall their past lives.

Our MC started out with a stutter and painful shyness but now is off her rocker after 100 years of pain. With her painful decision to start killing people the future is finally going on a whole new route she has never been on. Can she now break her cruse and become happy with the one she love?

My note : she is one of the most tragic villianess female lead I have ever seen. She has died, been betrayed, tortured and broken more then 100 times.

She gets to murder everyone. Ya know as a treat.

× Untouchable lady ×

DESCRIPTION:

“Please, Hilise. Please die in place of Gabrielle.”

My always dignified brother begged me for the first time. He wants me to die for our stepsister, whom we don’t even share a drop of blood with.

“For the first and last time, I ask you this.”

I’ve always been miserable, and there is no exception this time. The seventh time that I was betrayed and killed, I was completely free of lingering feelings.

“I’m glad that you’re a scumbag until the end.”

I won’t be swayed by love anymore. It’s my turn to abandon them first.

My note : by far my favorite female lead. Just like the previous story, she has been broken and died multiple times. Her getting revenge on her father, dumbass brother and whiny sister gives me happiness.

[rosewoodconch]

RWCH Readathon 2024: Day 4

Undercover Princess - Chapter 11

Im a day late because at the girl in red concert sorry yall

This whole mess is so scary

Like from both sides

But i kind of love how dramatically ellie switches, as if shes trying to find a bright side and it suddenly clicks that hey this could work

Note that ellie is 15 here

Because already i feel like the timeline is broken

I really really love ellies reaction to Lotties mantra. Shes so stern and so genuine that no its not silly, it makes you feel better and that makes you smart

The amount of validation and reassurance you get when someone tells you that no you're not silly, I'm taking you seriously because this is important to you, is so overwhelming and i really like that this shows a little restart to their friendship. That they understand each other.

I know its kind of batted over, because we can assume that Ani found out from Saskia to some degree, but seriously, who told everyone else?

Was it a slip up? Intentional by saskia to weed them out? Was it some random student who overheard something?

Overall this chapter is short and sweet

I like how it tackles their argument but wraps it up without too much fuss. It lets them bond and really know each other a bit better, and also starts off the mystery of who knows and whats really going on

Special shoutout to the line "Princess of Mood Swings" me too ellie. Me too.

[guiltiest-gear]

You, smart person with computers, can you explain why the Tumblr app has been making its evil brothers appear when I go to close the app? Like 4+ instances of Tumblr are lined up whenever I am looking at my open apps to select or close

Honestly anon

I don't have the slightest fucking clue why it would do that

My best guess is it's a possible visual glitch, try doing a restart, may fix the issue

[haveaclock]

I am the most laziest person alive

I finally finished OC week after six days of non-procrastination..

what was I doing? .. Everything Total Drama nothing CS.

@carmensandiego-ocweek

Day one I actually made a drawing, with my fingers, because no, my dear readers I do not, have an iPad, nor do I have an apple pencil.

And whenever I draw with my fingers I put absolutely no effort into it because it's going to be a waste of time if I do but regardless it's awful.

Day 1: intros!!

Shánzi (Zhéngyì Beifong)

Shánzi is an VILE operative,origins from China, no you'll never catch the man smiling, he's never happy, and will never ever be. His choice of weaponry are just a mere pair of fans, but don't! Don't! Do not underestimate him, fans are some formidable weapons. He's usually unfazed by most things (though the lack of smile) but just, don't even mention anything regarding his past to the man, you might be–sliced and chopped.

Sparkle Shot (Millie Schmit)

Unlike her partner, Shánzi. Sparkle Shot, orgining from Germany, is happy all the time and "fun" to be around if she's not trying to end your life. Everywhere she goes glitter must be there and if there's none she'll sparkle it up! She was always a wild child. Her choice of weaponry would look more effective than her partner's, she carries an entire arsenal with her, but mainly uses her guns.

Robin Ernest (last name change is in due)

Robin is not in any way a wrongdoer. Originating from Tanzania (I'm going to change that probably.) She is one of ACME's most important agents. She will be the next chief when Chief Fraser retires from position , But for now, she is like Lieutenant. Though despite her role, she is surprisingly, calm and lazy, you'll find her slurping on some frappe on the job. That doesn't make her less important! She is extremely skilled in smarts and arts so whatever you do, don't slap the frappe out of her hand.

intros done!!

Now take random things I have here

"Woah Clock you're a gacha kid?! Cringe alert!!!"

"I'll shove uluru into your mouth"

Day 2: mission!!

Take the link and read. Okay I'll take the link

Day 3: Relationships!

Now take this one please

but why

Okay, I'm not sure if it's taking you to chapter 2..but there's a chapter 2..

Day 4: tragedy!!

I love angst the way I love my father..

so I was looking at the prompt for day 4 and I'm like.."didn't I do this 2 years ago"

incredibly cringe in need of a revamp but for now this because I'm somehow getting stressed by the fact no I can't draw full body

linky link

and linky link #2

Day 5: Mentorship

no comment

actually yes comment READ THE TRIGGER WARNING!!

Day 6: Favourite character

I was like "I dont wanna draw Nevada again.."

El Topo looks like Nevada - proud American

Day 7: La.Femme.Rouge.!!

I'm like "no...I cant.." then I'm like "wait minute! don't I have Carmen on file in Gacha?!"

..

yea

omg it's actually done so horribly...

It looked decent but then I had technical difficulties and I had to restart and I was just fed up..

But anyways..

IM FINSIHED!!!!

Yay!!

(I was finished a day ago..but it never saved on Tumblr..)

@carmensandiego-ocweek

[mdhwrites]

The Commander in GoV: Nikke is INFURIATING

Because one step in either direction he could have gone and he'd either be good or INCREDIBLE. Instead, this potential makes his actions, bare minimum early on, characterize him as being the dumbest motherfucker in the military. Our heart may have been restarted but our brain did not come with us from our near death experience.

Which, ironically enough, is one of the ways to fix him: Amnesia. To get into that though, a second of context. In the story, we are first found literally one day after we graduated from the military academy with high enough marks to be allowed to lead and command what are presumably somewhat expensive weapons of wars: Nikkes. Early lore bits do make it clear humanity is desperate (which has... ISSUES) for recruits so we probably didn't need to earn top marks but we are very firmly a member of this world. We are someone who was literally taught all about the conflict we are participating in.

And yet, we know literally nothing. That isn't really an exaggeration. Chain of Command? what's that? How Nikkes function? Nope. Industrial leaders for the end of civilization? Why would we even consider such things as a ranking military officer!? And the literal basics of decorum and respect that says not to accuse literally everyone you meet in a position of power of some amount of treason? Throw that out the window too for good measure.

None of this is exaggeration btw. We meet a CEO of the three big companies still around? Ask them if they know anything about sabotaged Nikkes, in a way that from their response makes it clear we mean it as an accusation. Meet our superior commander, potentially the commander of all armed forces? Ask them if they know about sabotaged Nikkes in the same way. Even after being explicitly told how powerful these people are, that opposing them could get us ALL killed, the game acts like you straight up try to choke out one of these CEOs until pain finally makes you pass out.

Why would ANYONE in this setting do these things? Let alone need basic things like "This person runs this corporation," explained to them in what is a struggling but high tech state of humanity? Let alone, one who was specifically prepared for MILITARY SERVICE where the chain of command is everything?

If you make them an amnesiac though, problem solved. They have such a big heart that without the knowledge and conditioning, their kind nature overrides everything, even common sense or blatant warnings. It wouldn't be great but it still leans into us being different by being kind to Nikkes (something I'll get more into in a moment) and being an example of what humanity could be like working side by side with Nikkes instead of just coming across like our character is too stupid to function.

BUT. There's a better option.

See, the Commander in Nikke actually has an incredibly smart quirk which especially resonates to me as someone who has touch as a love language. See, despite Nikkes being machines, he actually likes to bandage them when they're hurt. It's one of those basic acts of humanity that's just touching and really highlights in a physical way, outside of the fact that we're turned on by them, what makes us different. We cherish their lives while others treat them merely as tools.

So do you want to know how to make that a knockout character who does these stupid things? Acknowledge that he IS a part of this world. That he does know all the rules, all the decorum, all the status various people have and that he doesn't give a SINGLE fuck. He is a firebrand, promoted to commander due to the sheer desperation of humanity's state in this apocalyptic situation. That he was skilled and good enough to get here but now that he is there, upper chain of command wants him broken, thus the weirdness of "These people beat 1/4 odds! He's survived two missions when 90% of Commanders don't! Let's just try to murder him indirectly as hard as possible!" I'm sorry, that seems pretty dumb... Unless we've actively pissed people off politically but that's not the case here as they already essentially stated they wanted us dead BEFORE we ever talked to anyone other than a Nikke.

It also just makes his actions with the Nikke better and more meaningful. Instead of feeling like a naive child who is too dumb to recognize the difference between flesh and machine, these are active decisions on his part. Him putting a bandage on one can be a way to admit that yes, he can't help them beyond his commands but this makes him be able to feel a little bit more like he can and also gives the girls a reminder that he is looking out for them, not just the other way around. This isn't even a case where I want characterization on a blank slate character. You have NO choice in how your commander actually behaves besides some honestly just bad response options that are really rare and ONLY with the Nikkes. All of this to do with him being pro-Nikke rights, seeing them as people, rejecting and confronting command? That is ALREADY your character. So why not lean a bit more into it to make the writing a bit sharper?

Instead, I'm left in this No Man's Land where I'm being told this is me and I'm doing good things but instead of doing those because I have a good heart or because I have firm beliefs, it either is because I'm as naive as a child or because I'm horny. He's just straight too stupid by literally knowing nothing to actually have meaning behind his actions but by not reducing him to just his base nature like with amnesia, he can't have his actions come off as purely good either. He still needs a motivation of some sort and we have none.

It is an uncanny valley of writing and it makes what could genuinely have been compelling instead just grinding on my brain like a sander as I try to find something in this that I wasn't experiencing five years ago but with better production value. Something that makes the fact that even when you are actively participating in the combat, you are still only 70% in control of what is happening, MAX. To make up for the fact that while these characters have skills and passives, nothing has made it feel like anything but bigger number matters besides the fact that not having a sniper makes small portions of a fight take longer. Yes, that's because I'm early only in the third chapter of the story but Star Rail was smart enough to quite literally from during its tutorialization go "Hey, there is actual strategy that matters here and synergies you can very clearly find." Nikke doesn't have that when I can power level to be literally twice as strong, if not four times as strong, as all the starting content.

A strong, genuinely good main character to slip myself into, or at least genuinely more of a blank slate that doesn't have me question the validity of his backstory all the time, could have helped with those matters. Instead, I'm just left sitting here, listening to exposition like I'm a fish out of water, when I am categorically not.

That makes my character, who is meant to just be me in the grand tradition of this sort of mobile game, braindead. And sorry, I don't like being characterized as that fundamentally stupid.

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This experience really has helped me appreciate Star Rail even more with how much it genuinely broke away from a lot of these elements in small ways that snowballed into a genuinely compelling game instead of something that still feels derivative of games put out half a decade ago.

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead. If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

A Twitter you can follow too

And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.