#sorry for ranting abt this game

[thefloatingwriter]

the victors as complex characters will always be more interesting than making them amazing people.

like these are people who did absolutely everything in their power to survive something as traumatic as the games. most of them probably sleep with weapons in their hands. the thought on the forefront of most of their minds is survival. everything else—anyone else—can wait.

they sacrificed everything to crawl out of a killing game. their mental stability. their innocence. their childhood.

and after all of that, they realized that the games never really end. that they would sacrifice ever having a good night sleep without being plagued by nightmares. they would sacrifice their brains to help the capitol. they would sacrifice their bodies, something that should have always been their own, now snatched away from them. all for surviving a killing match that twenty-three children didn’t.

no victor is immune to this either. do you think cashmere doesn’t regret being so excited to go into the games after her brother after staying the night in a strange man’s bed that she doesn’t know? do you think gloss doesn’t regret not warning his sister about the horrors that await her after she wins? do you think brutus doesn’t sometimes wake up in a cold sweat after having yet another nightmare about being on the receiving end of his weapon, just as all of his victims were before everything faded to black? do you think enobaria doesn’t run her tongue over her sharpened teeth and wonder if it was worth it?

do you think beetee doesn’t flinch every time he sees lightning? do you think wiress doesn’t think of how if she hadn’t learned acrobatics that the 48th hunger games would have gone very differently? do you think finnick doesn’t see nets in the same way ever again, after he saw the girl from nine begging for her life tangled in a net he set up before he stabbed her with a trident? do you think annie doesn’t think about if she hadn’t spent all of that time on the beach growing up, playing in the water, that she wouldn’t have survived the dam breaking in her arena? do you think mags doesn’t think about how she left her district partner to die in the first ever traditional career pack? how if maybe, if she had been there to take the blow for him, there would be a different victor of the 11th hunger games?

do you think that blight doesn’t wonder what would have happened if the boy from two had looked up a little bit sooner, looked a little bit closer at the treetops above him, before the knife previously in blight’s hand found it’s way to the boy’s back? do you think that every time johanna picks up an axe, she doesn’t think about what if felt like to stab someone with it, what blood felt like when it splattered you? do you think she doesn’t wake up in a sweat, thinking the moisture on her skin is blood, that she’s back in the third quarter quell? do you think she doesn’t ever walk into her house in the victor’s village and think she sees a glimpse, a shadow, of her lost loved ones?

do you think that woof doesn’t use real knives anymore because every time he sees one, he remembers how it felt to stab blindly at the boy from seven? that even when he was seventy-five and the male tribute from eight for the third quarter quell, he couldn’t even look at the utensil and had to get cecelia to take it away from him? do you think cecelia can’t look at seashells anymore, that she could barely stand district four on her victory tour, because the girl from four was her last kill? that her necklace, a pretty one her sister made for her with a seashell strung through the string, was what cecelia used to choke the life out of her?

do you think that chaff doesn’t ever feel the phantom feeling of his hand? doesn’t ever touch the stump where it used to be and feel the phantom pain of it being sawed off like it was yesterday, even thirty years later? do you think that seeder doesn’t ever feel the hot sun of her arena on her body, doesn’t ever think she’s back, waiting for her death to come?

do you think that haymitch doesn’t start shaking every time a blowgun is provided at the cornucopia? do you think that he didn’t see the gold pin on katniss’ arena wear and have to sit down, remembering a very different girl with blonde hair and a quick witted humor with the same pin? do you think that peeta doesn’t hear foxface’s voice during her interview, over and over and over, until it’s so distorted he can’t even remember what she had actually said? that he doesn’t ever think of the girl from eight, a girl he might not have even known the name of?

do you think that, years down the line, katniss doesn’t realize the fate that waited for glimmer if she had won? do you think that she doesn’t wonder what would have happened if cato was a little quicker to get to the cornucopia to save clove? do you think she doesn’t wonder what the girl from four was like, what her name was, what her parents were like, what she was like? do you think that she doesn’t think about what would have happened if marvel was just a little bit quicker with his spear than her with her arrows, what would have happened if she was just a little bit slower to get to rue?

the what-ifs plague them. their games will never leave them. they will never escape their experiences. their lives will never be their own, if they ever were, ever again.

[t0bey]

Tobey what did you think of Mike Morton and Nagito Komaeda having the same voice ?

cursing identity v to hell for never visibly crediting their Eng vas so Mike is in a perpetual schroedinger’s komaeda voice until they actually confirm he’s either voiced by Bryce papenbrook or some dude that unfortunately sounds really similar to him

[sorrelpaws]

no offense but i genuinely fear that their potential dynamic will go severely underutilized

[timetravelonion]

Listen I know it wouldn't appeal to most zelda players, but I SO BADLY want to adjust the aperture and ISO. Let me use an extreme telephoto lens. I wanna take a long exposure shot! I wanna put colored filters on the zonai lights! I wanna control whether the lights are set to spot or flood! I wanna adjust the focus manually!

Lemme put stickers on my photos! Gimme a bigger variety of stamps and pins for the map! In fact, lemme DRAW on my map/photos

And yknow what else? for a game with a camera AND a whole side-plot about fashion, where's my fashion photography side quest? Why can't I have link vogue in some custom-dyed clothes and see all the mushroom-hat-wearers follow the trends he sets?

Just let me mod my game, you wouldn't even have to add these features, I'd do it myself, please, I beg you

Nintembo 🅱️LEASE let me mod totk, I just want new camera lenses and I wanna paint my house, is that so much to ass??

[3416]

just need to give a shoutout to all the people who interact w me or the things i make on here for the love and good vibes. twitter's been pissing me off the past couple days and i just think it reaffirms i'll never really leave tumblr bc the fandom culture here is just so much.. more lol

[evelynpr]

Why the fuck are there roller skates, dubstep, stage lighting, an LED screen, and all kinds of modern technology in Xilonen's trailer??? I thought Fontaine had the most advanced technology next to Schneznaya and arguably Sumeru, and every instance of high-end technology we have seen leaned more towards machinations with gears, magic, alchemy, essentially fantasy styled sci-fi???

The disrespect towards Native American and African cultures is enough to piss me off already, but it even goes against Genshin's own consistency with its fantastical world design..and for what? Just so you can have this...pop and gamer aesthetic???

Just look at these two bubbly and optimistic characters for me okay

Yoimiya's design isn't the most respectful and accurate representation of a Japanese firework craftsman, but at least you can damn tell she is Japanese. The large ribbons, hair accessories, tassels, leg covering, tattoo design, shoe style, and fabric patterns all allude to this (I apologize for not knowing the exact terminologies for these, this needs further research).

Then there's Mualani who has...what? Please do correct me if I am wrong here, but her character must be inspired by the real Mualani, a Hawaiian Chiefess. Additionally, her tribe's specialty is in tourism and vacationing, which further leads into the idea that she and her tribe are based off of Hawaii despite the known issues regarding Hawaii and tourism (if there are any good sources that summarize the issue, please do lmk).

I am not too familiar with Hawaiian culture, but there really is nothing about her design that reads as Hawaiian, or even just traditional, to me. What about a 2 piece swimsuit with bows and tails, a bow + braids + ponytail hair style, combat gloves (?), and an entire neon shark, is Hawaiian???

The characters, their designs, and their trailers, are just so culturally disconnected from their real life counterpart that it's even disconnected to Genshin's own world building and design. How the fuck is the fashion trend in Natlan denim pants. I feel like the only parts of Natlan that feel like Genshin Impact and culturally inspired are the in-game music and landscapes (God bless Hoyo-mix and the world designers).

[picckl]

I think the thing that gets me w totk is that despite its similarities in plot to botw, it has a completely different mood. Botw has a promise of hope and victory, the bow of light used during the final fight to banish the darkness. totk is finishing a job someone else started. There’s no princess promised at the end of the fight, the champions are helping but it’s made very clear Link is the one who has to carry the load. Sure, you saved the day last time, but half the people you talk to don’t even know who you are. And the new map areas are all so big, with the sky islands being completely isolated and the depths towering over Link completely. Walking into the final battle and during the cutscenes that follow, it’s made even clearer with the framing that he’s so small compared to the challenges he’s facing.

Botw pinpoints the exact feeling of loneliness with the great plateau followed by an empty world, but totk conveys this weird kind of despair and hopelessness that wasn’t present in the previous games. Botw was about Zelda’s struggle with her responsibilities, and I think that totk is about Link’s.

[indigo-constellation]

It's taken me far too long to have this thought out in public

Daniil should be Artemy's sacrifice in the termite ending.

tl;dr Haruspex route is the only one Daniil doesn't fit the criteria for a sacrifice in and it's been haunting me for years.

NOW, what's the criteria we get for the sacrifice? Beautiful young woman who is in love with Artemy right? well, yes, but that prophecy is given to the player by Katerina, the false mistress, all of her other prophecies are in some way wrong, why is this one followed to the letter? Well there is another definition to the sacrifice Artemy must make, two actually. (it's one, I know, but this is easier for me)

The first is that it has to be equal to the udurgh, which the polyhedron isn't. This is why Artemy does not become the foreman in the termite ending and why that ending feels so deeply unsatisfying and unfitting for him, because he never actually fulfils his goal (THIS IS WHY HARUSPEX ROUTE UTOPIAN ENDING IS SO MUCH BETTER but I already ranted about that) Aglaya fills that criteria.

Now you might ask why, and that leads very cleanly to the second point, the real need in the sacrifice to be equal to the udurgh is that it isn't a man, and in Aglaya's own words, "Simon was almost human. And me-I'm not quite human." Aglaya is not quite human, because she is aware of her status as a doll.

What does this have to do with Daniil?

Well, Daniil is "not quite human" himself in the two other routes.

Bachelor route is very simple to explain, not only does he get to discover that he is a doll, but even if he doesn't heal another bound and meet the powers that be, he is still the player character, he still has this level of separation from the world caused by the player, this distinction between the player and the character is made most clear in the Haruspex route where it's explicitly said that Aglaya isn't in love with Artemy, she's in love with the player, as the player themselves say, "Did you fall in love with him because he was free? But that wasn't him; it was me." Meaning that the player is separate enough from their character to justify the player character being "not quite human."

Now Changeling route is where this gets interesting. because there it is also not his route but Daniil is still aware of his status as a toy in it, claiming it to be the third time he's been deceived, outright stating, "I'm a plaything! And so, undoubtedly, are you." Now this obviously makes him fit the criteria of "not quite human" as established by Aglaya, but, this is where it gets interesting.

Because in that same conversation, Daniil can say, "Self-denial is the meaning here, silly. Deny yourself and you win. Yes, that's how it is! That's the essence of my discovery." And this, this line. This one line, which is specifically set after the player played the Bachelor's route, implies that he has known since. Now that might be a bit of a stretch but with the recommended order of playing being Bachelor -> Haruspex -> Changeling, how hard is it to believe that there is a chance that he is aware during the Haruspex's route? Honestly that makes that possibility so fascinating, because he is right when he's saying that he only wins by self-denial, because by denying to himself (and to Artemy, ie, still himself) the fact that he is a doll, he is keeping himself alive. Because otherwise, he would fit the criteria, being a Healer, a past (or future) player character, and "not quite human" he would very well fit the criteria to be an equal sacrifice to the udurgh.

Let us revisit the prophecy by Katerina, by Artemy's own description, Daniil is handsome, he is 28/29 so arguably young, not a woman, and well, in love with Artemy. Considering the fact that Katerina's prophecies are never outright true, this is as close to confirmation as I am going to get.

Why do I care?

WELL, one, potential, so much potential, I have a wip waiting about this.

But also, it would make the problem of Haruspex route termite ending being a kind of boring and unfulfilling ending not be that, and add another layer of tragedy to it. Let me explain, the problem with termite ending (Artemy route) as it is, is that Artemy makes the wrong choice, it's said multiple times that the right choice for him, is to destroy the town, this is stated in Clara's ice prince story, in the character selection screen, as well as the conversation with the executor in the end which states that "inevitability" is the only true villain. Daniil being his sacrifice would prove that wrong. It would give Artemy a way out of that trap laid for him. It would mean the acceptance of the butchers and Artemy gaining access to the living blood below the earth, not just what will spill from the polyhedron's base. It also adds another interesting aspect to the game in that this would be the one chance for a player character not your own to die, and it will be by your hand. Which assuming the player played/is planning to play Bachelor route, would hurt.

I'm not even going to go into the queer interpretation of that possible ending just know that I am thinking about it constantly

I hope this was somewhat coherent, I have been thinking about this specific thing for years and it's not leaving me alone.

[solar-halos]

i know i am so late to the party but someone pointed out that it’s canon that the mayor reads out the names of previous victors before each reaping and i just can’t stop thinking about that. like i really love the idea (in a tragic way) of everyone knowing lucy gray’s name without the story attached, especially since we know her art ended up having such a big impact on the country without a lot of ppl in the original trilogy even knowing it

[breezey-with-an-e]

Being someone who read a lot of myths & fairytales & also has existed on the internet from a young age, I don't think the leaked pokemon stories are that big of a deal

If anything I'm just annoyed because all I'm going to hear about for the next 3 months is typhlosion pedophile jokes

[phightingconfessions]

Holy shit I love that this community is so supporting of chubby characters! The horrors of fat phobia I've seen in other fandoms is crazy especially the regretevator discord server the mods there are just scary..

EXACTLY!!!! like obviously theres still gonna be those people that get some violent rage and hatred over seeing someone draw a character fat but ive noticed theyre mostly.. a minority in the phandom? not even a VOCAL minority i just barely even see them and ngl its actually really refreshing

[thefloatingwriter]

sunrise on the reaping is where headcanons go to die.

[doorhanginoffthehinges]

hi erm i dont know why im asking but what is all for the game? like ive seen alot about it and i really want to consume this piece of media but i also do not know what it is at all?? pls help

ah jeez. aftg is complicated yet the best thing that’s ever happened to me fandom-wise. worst thing to happen to me productivity-wise. first books called the foxhole court, then the Raven king, then the ravens men. there’s physical copies of the books, but i haven’t ever seen it sold at any bookstore ever, only off of Amazon, but the kindle prices are real cheap and you can find almost any book online free via questionable websites.

all for the game is a book trilogy centred around a runaway w loads of trauma, but he’s running away from his kinda mob boss dad—gasp— which may be off putting but it’s like you don’t think of it as a mafia book it’s just a book that has bad guys who happen to be the mafia. i don’t think that’s a spoiler.

it’s also centered around made up sport, but it doesn’t feel like it’s centered around to but it totally is. it also doesn’t feel made up? like it’s not fantasy it’s just not real.

its gay, which you probably know if you’ve seen any fan art, but it’s not really sweet gays it’s kinda course and gritty but absolutely lovely and heartwarming. but also I have hazy memory bc I read the trilogy in a week but im pretty sure that only gets started midway through the series, so it’s not the WHOLE plot but it’s like a portion of it. their relationship isn’t really problematic, it’s basically the opposite, and all the angst is in the plot and characters themselves rather than how they interact w each other.

speaking of, this trilogy covers A LOT of heavy heavy topics, I’d say what was most off putting for me was the past rape and pedophilia which is touched on pretty briefly but at the same time very largely, but im sure somewhere there’s a list of tws somewhere if youre at all concerned about that.

it’s a fun read! it’s not at all too long (i mean, you read the goldfinch, not at all on the same level as that regarding word count im pretty sure) and i hear it reads like a fanfic, which might be why i consumed it so fast. it has no fantasy or sci fi, its basically a novel or slice of life I guess. i don’t really know the proper terms. there’s action that comes in the form of some violence, but i think most action is really on the exy (made up sport) court. oh also im pretty sure there’s an on page bj and the like. but no sex.

if I knew you in physical life I wouldn’t rec you this bc a) u might read it and hate it and it would ruin me and embarrass me b) u might read it and find it mediocre and it would ruin me and embarrass me c) you don’t read it and I feel annoying and finally d) u love it and it ruins you.

anywho, I hope u have a fun day/night, idk your time zone, and happy reading/non reading/watching. Thank you for giving me a reason to rant about my little obsession on this random monday evening! hope this helped/was what you were looking for

[monards]

everyday i cry a bit over how wlw media will never be as popularized/accepted in mainstream as anything else

[daz4i]

wait i have another rant unrelated to anything. the common... perception? trend? idek what to call it, in fandoms and media commentary communities that every antagonist in every story has to have some deep reason for why they do things, or a sad backstory or w/e, imo kills creativity, makes stories lose their focus, and can be very upsetting when done wrong

like it's okay to have purely evil villains. it's okay to make hate sinks. that doesn't make you a bad writer. characters are meant to be tools, vehicles to tell a story, and sometimes you need that tool to just be an obstacle with no real depth. sometimes the story is more about how the protagonist overcomes hardships, and in certain premises those hardships work better when depicted as other humans. and honestly, even if they can be replaced by a generic monster or some object or w/e, it's still okay to make them a person if you wanna bc it serves the same purpose at the end of the day and you don't need to excuse that choice, imo.

like ppl who tear into every story and try to find every logical fault in it - even when it's only a fault when you entirely strip the context of fiction off it, thus often making these points irrelevant to the discussion about. yknow. a fictional work - can be so boring. I'm all for dissecting stories and trying to understand the logic behind some stuff, and while i personally prefer stories where the villain does indeed have a relatable or at least understandable motive, i do think that for certain stories it just does a disservice and frankly misses the point of why the story is even being told. like sometimes the villain is some money hungry asshole bc we needed a money hungry asshole to stand in opposition to our protagonists. it's not that deep, and it doesn't need to be. you just want to read a different story, so go do that.

[teriiblog]

Sometimes I have an urge to make sideblogs but I never get to them. Idk on one hand I like having my things organized but at the same time... Eh..... Sometime it get confusing.