#still thinking abt the bad quest lmao

[captainbragd-personal]

I think Jade Shadow as a quest was hot garbage. But I really like Jade. She looks cool, I like her vibes. Shes fun to play. And I like her avenging angel thing.

The pregnancy stuff feels really tacked on umu she would have been just as cool if they didnt give her a glowing uterus and have her noble animation craddling her belly. Like its not a Bad Thing that she also does those things (excpe tcome on why did they make her so fkn skinny. If shes suposed to be pregnant cut the wasp waist cowards), but her concept feels so complete even without those things. Like take away the tragic dead wife situstion, the pregnancy theming, and you still have a really cool warframe that can atand thematically on her own.

[toastsnaffler]

the fucking rat is back in our flat 😭

[danielnelsen]

finally playing the sword & shield dlc (yes i’m a little late to the party lmao) and woooow crown tundra is so much more enjoyable than isle of armour

[hijackalx]

*SOME DURGE QUEST SPOILERS*

***NONCON AND DRUG USE MENTIONS***

GORTASH SFW HEADCANONS:

ok to start i think when he was a prisoner his hair got rlly long and unkept and he hateddd it so the minute he escaped he chopped that shit off himself and thats why its so unruly lol (*EDIT he always cuts his own hair is what im sayin)

this man is such a taurus like everything about him screams taurus. has a taurus stellium fosho

would listen to superheaven

hes also sooo jenny by studio killers, disco man by remi wolf, happiness by the 1975 coded with Durge 😩😩

with durge hes also giving bf that ur dad hates but like thats canon. i think he likes that hes able to influence durge to the point that they rebel lol. the type of boy u run away with when ur younger

probably BLASTED jet black heart by 5SOS on repeat when Durge disappeared LMFAOO

also i kind of feel like the fearless buff to his clothing is more an insight to his character rather than him needing magic to not be fearful bcz he literally got the shit beat out of him everyday and lived in HELL how can he not be desensitized to everything at that point 😭😭😭 it does not get much worse than that my boy

hes so thique like hes just a big boned dude. tiddies SO fat too EUGH + thick shoulders/arms. he feels so warm and safe i just know it i just KNOW it gurl

also idk if it was supposed to happen but in my latest playthrough during the fight with him he dropped his bow and just started beating the shit out of us 😭😭😭😭 all hands baby like WHAT 😭😭 so i like to think thats his preferred method of fighting idk if thats canon tho i feel like i seen somebody talking abt that before but mightve just been another hc

occasionally does drugs. likes the ones that make him feel really elated (idk what theyre called in bg3 its some kind of dust or something) ALSO HC THAT HE WAS ON SOMETHING WHEN HE WROTE RHAT FUCKED UP NOTE TO FRANC (WAS THAG HIS NAME U GUYS KNOW THE NOTE) HE WAS OBVIOJSLY TRIPPING BALLSSSSS

lots of body hair…… everywhere……. straight and black body hair. that is so sexy to me let me smell the pheromones in your armpits king LMFAO (i think theres something wrong with me)

going off of rhat yes i think he smells good (DIVINE, even) as a woman that is feral and in heat all the time. but to normal ppl he may smell kind of weird. not STINKY stinky but like when u dont shower and ur natural scent starts to mix with the perfume/cologne ur wearing SORRY 😭😭😭 im trying to be realistic here. or maybe like when u wake up and didnt shower the night before and u can still smell the perfume/cologne u put on yesterday. basically what im saying is he might need to shower

hes just so masculine it drives me crazy I LOVE MEN !!!!!!!!!! I LOVE EEENERM. ME E WN

love language:

giving = lowkey getting acts of service vibes here but u didnt hear it from me 🤫🤐 gift giving too. tav is just his widdle babie and he wants to make sure theyre the happiest they can be 🥺😩

receiving = acts of service LMAO give and get back type of shit

relationship wise i think he is the most doting and sweetest person. like tav will never have to worry abt anything ever again bcz he will handle everything. takes care of them cuz they are his king/queen 😌

GORTASH NSFW HEADCANONS:

yeah going off that last hc he is sweet outside the bedroom but a menace in it. its just the way he is. its probably exhausting too 😩 like if u ask him to be gentler/less intense he will try for a while but probably wont enjoy it as much. he doesnt like to hold back.

i WILL say tho ☝🏻🤨 i think when he gets close to finishing he gets a little more soft/loving. he just has to get his badness out first yall its fine

HIGH libido wants to smash all the time. he also (POSSIBLE NONCON MENTION !!!!!!!) thinks that since ur his u should be willing to give it up whenever he wants it. (NONCON MENTION OVER) i think in the bedroom he sees u as a servant even if ur considered his equal normally. like hes a chosen of bane he has to feel like he has control over u in SOME way

can be selfish depending on his mood. sometimes he doesnt see u as anything other than a toy (lowkey hard for me to admit but i NEVA LIE GIRLS !!!!! 🙅🙅🙅) like can be such a fucking asshole about it too

BUT !!! when he is feeling generous he is soooo generous. EUGH like he will make sure u enjoy urself!!!! probably multiple times !!!!!!!!!!!!

dont know why nobody else has said he has a daddy kink. so obvious like call him daddy ms thing he will nut so hard. oh corruption kink too. like can u imagine Durge being so innocent when they first met cuz they were never allowed to get close to anybody and hes just sooo into it HELLO i got to write that fic NEOW

omg breeding kink too give him heirs. will fuck the shitttt out of u in a mating press. probably comes a lot too almost impossible not to get pregnant with him LMAO

likes to pick u up and fuck u. manhandling king. also will do the faerun equivalent to coke and wants u to do it w him then fuck nasty afterwards

i feel like he doesnt last an extremely long time. 15-20 mins is THE MOST youre getting out of him lol he just gets very excited (which is lowkey kind of cute??)

do i even have to say that this man is packing schmeat. heavy dick. heavy balls. allow me to bear some of that weight for u my liege 🤲🏻🧎

ORIN BONUS ????:

mostly nsfw

ok i didnt originally plan to add orin but listen….. gortash is a charismatic guy….. imagine orin was into him too LISTEN ! like shes jealous asf of Durge in that sense too not just bcz of them being bhaal’s fav. like when i think abt them i just am getting a vibe okay. this trio……..

every time she sees gortash and Durge acting close and doing all their yucky lovesick shit she just gets soooo mad. now imagine she shifts into Durge to get gortash to fuck her. yeah… yall seeing the vision? would he ever find out ?? imagine that was why he hates orin so much?? he doesnt want to tell Durge (cuz thats cheating hes not a cheater duh 🙄 plus hes scared theyll be mad at him) and thats why his explanations as to why he hates orin are so vague

[angelsdean]

john saying he's known abt sam and the other special children for "awhile" in 2x01

and the demon calling him out saying he's been "playing dumb" like uhh, how he got mad at dean for not calling him (they did) to tell him that all this psychic stuff was happening with sam when john was literally at missouri's house when they were visiting and she directly told john abt sam's abilities.

but also, he's definitely known for much longer imo, and if you take the john journal companion book as canon / semi-canon then it definitely supports the idea that john Knew to some extent about sam's abilities:

these are just two passages from '91 but there are others about how demons are after sam, how sam is special. and if john was hearing this stuff abt sam in '91, there's no way he didn't start digging into things more over the years.

other people have spoken abt headcanons that john was even hunting other special children over the years. which brings me to the crunchy, tastey, AU that i've been rotating around in my mind this morning where john's not only been hunting the thing that killed mary all these years, but also been busy unraveling the sam-psychic-children plot by hunting, kidnapping, and studying other Special Children.

In this AU john isn't as incompetent as he is in canon lmao. In the 20+ years since mary's death he's discovered a whole lot, including his Men of Letters roots. In fact, he discovered the bunker and that's been his "home base" and Special Children Experimentation Lab for years. He's been studying all sorts of things. Watching footage of old MoL experiments. He connected the dots: mothers died in fires at 6 months, kids grew up to develop psychic abilities. He knows the same fate is waiting for sam and john thinks he can fix sam. He has to! That's his son. He won't let his son become some kind of supernatural thing, some kind of monster. In true john fashion he justifies all his actions as an act of love. He's trying to protect sam. Because demons are after these special children. Because these children have been corrupted. He's helping them, actually.

So john conducts experiments to try to draw out the demon blood, to purify them. Similar to how sam later tries to turn crowley human and also forcefully purifies demon dean. It's a very juicy parallel. And it draws on how sam and john hold many similar black-and-white views abt good and bad + what makes someone a monster, and how sam internalized a lot of these ideas re: becoming a monster and how the demon blood led to an obsession with "becoming pure."

John spends more and more time away from the boys, spends so much time tracking down these special children and studying them. Why does his revenge quest take over 20 yrs? Why does it seem like he's nowhere near close to tracking down Azazel until s1 rolls around? Because he's been spending so many years on this subplot. Because in his mind this is him being a good father, this is him looking out for his kids, particularly sam. He's doing all this for sam.

But then, John's never able to find a cure. And then he catches Azazel's trail again and he's off on that hunt. He "goes missing." Sam starts developing psychic powers, just as john always feared. John's aware of all this happening but still projects onto dean, still blames dean for not informing him of something he's known abt for years at this point. John's terrified because he's failed. He hasn't been able to save sam, and now sam might turn into a monster. He might go "dark side" and john can't let that happen. But he also can't kill him. He doesn't have the guts, so he puts that burden on Dean. And he trades his life for Dean's to ensure that someone will be there to carry out John's mission. Either find a way to save Sam, or kill the monster he becomes.

Edit to add two more excerpts from John's journal:

in the canon that includes this journal, john definitely was aware to some extent of sam being Special (or other people insisting he is) and he has been keeping an eye out for any strangeness manifesting in sam and worrying about sam's strange dreams and his bottled up emotions becoming dangerous

[spacetravels]

i am so unwell about dragon age and knowing u from the choices fandom i got so excited ur playing soooo what did u think of dao? da2? who did you romance and what was ur character like? how are u liking dai? got pics of ur inky? 🥺 (only if u want!! no pressure to share ofc 💖) i myself am an alistair anders solas girlie 😔

WEHHH thank you… veilguard looks so good i have to speedrun dai but man all of you who’ve been waiting since like 2014 are my heroes cuz i’m just gonna trot in like lalala… (has been here like three months)

dao is my favorite by far i think… i’m easy to please LOL it has my favorite story and i love the cast so much ;_;/ i played warrior lady cousland so i did marry alistair HUHU he’s my favorite romance across all the games but i wanna replay so bad to romance morrigan and have a diff silly little world state (trying not to think about doing this until after dav LOL) but god . HoF is just so so funny and i had so much fun…

da2!! i played blue warrior hawke <3 i liked running around kirkwall LMAO i think it was really fun to just contain the story around this one city and just hang out with my best friends 🥹 but goddamn. no one warned me about everything hawke goes thru LIKE 😭 HAVE A VACATION!!! i didn’t romance anyone though in my first playthru HAHA i kind of regret it though cuz by the end i wanted to romance isabela but i also think for my hawke i was happy to not have had a romance cuz it makes sense for my thoughts about her … like she’s just happy to still be alive and wants to do right by everyone who’s ever believed in her so she never thought about it but maybe after all gets said and done she’d seek out izzy… one of those real Slow burns in my brain heehee.. (pro mage .. btw)

AS FOR DAI !!! i’m terrible with open world games. NFKSJFKSKFKL but i sincerely am enjoying it cuz i’m following a quest guide so i don’t lose my marbles… it’s funny cuz i like. technically knew the most abt dai before playing through the games cuz [gestures at solas] but that’s alright cuz most of it has actually been a treat and a surprise :-) just not. the ending

my inky’s name is deirdre & she’s a human rogue 🙂‍↕️ i don’t have pics rn i’m at work JFKSLDK but ! kind of a little shit. it’s nice that everyone humors her stupid ass. as for romance…. blackwall…. he compels me… something is wrong with him and i like it <3

i’m close to starting wicked eyes & wicked hearts but i’ve been taking the time to explore places and do side quests stuff cuz i wanna be overleveled LOL and i need to switch up my groups more. except for varric. that’s my emotional support companion

BUT WWWWW i wanna draw my inky more & more da fanart when i’m not swamped with other projects and/or playing dragon age & fields of mistria bahahah.. i’ll remember to share more thoughts as i play 🥹🫰

[battleonthebigbridge]

Wriothesley's story quest

It's been about a day or so since I did the quest but GOD am I rotating Wriothesley around my brain at lightning speeds.

Gonna put some general thoughts under the cut but wow I didn't expect this quest to be so fucked up and dark, like I really got squeamish during some of the parts. But I mainly want to talk abt Wriothesley himself as a character.

FIRST OF ALL THIS NEW DESK SITTING ANIMATION????????????????? Hi Wriothesley :)

He's just so funny like I love his voice acting as well. He just sounds super casual and like a bro y'know? I feel like it would be really natural to have a conversation with him and his constant little one liners definitely helped to brighten up the quest a bit.

I was questioning my sexuality I don't care I'll admit it I'm NOT BACKING DOWN.

(leans into mic) Would.

THE WAY HE DELIVERED THIS LINE WAS INSANE AND THE ZOOM IN ON HIS FACE I WAS BOUNCING OFF THE WALLS LIKE GO ON WRIOTHESLEY YOU GO!!!

I was genuinely surprised they brought up that part of his story in the quest cos like I knew about it from his profile stories but I didn't actually expect them to reveal it like that in the quest. His whole speech about it was just so good and I'm glad it makes that part of his lore more accessible and obvious cos man it's just really dark, but also a cool direction that they're taking with tackling a lot of more difficult themes. AGAIN not for everyone and I honestly think these quests should start coming with some mild content warnings AT LEAST but it was good, i enjoyed it a lot.

LIKE MAN HE WAS JUST A KID AND HE'D ALREADY COMMITTED MURDER AND WAS SENT TO THE TOP SECURITY UNDERWATER FORTRESS ALL ON HIS OWN LIKE. No matter how you look at it I feel so bad for him like idk it's hard to explain. He just deserved better, he deserved a happy childhood. And also damn with his backstory and the Lyney and Lynette backstory we really gotta look into all these noble people cos there is a pretty worrying pattern here.

It was a good quest, probably one of my fave story quests cos not only did it have a really compelling plotline but like we actually found out a lot more about Wriothesley as a character, both personality and backstory wise which is something i often find lacking in these story quests. The Fontaine story quests have been REALLY good so far like Lyney's and Neuvillette's were really good too and had the perfect balance of character exposition and also still having a focus on the NPCs that help to makeup the worldbuilding.

Also I'm just really normal about that rendered cutscene.

Shoutout to Wriothesley.

Honestly I haven't typed much because there's not too much I wanted to say outside of me just commentating about me going EWWWWW and AH FUCK every 5 minutes during this quest LMAO. I just like Wriothesley I think he's neat.

[gaydelgard]

OK heres my real cons list for fae farm after like 25 hours

1. some of the quests and shit are REALLY esoteric and unclear. like early on the mayor asks you to make a decoration "with flowers". this is not elaborated on and theres no early acquisition recipes that actually involve flowers or even LOOK like they involve flowers. and like any potted plant item will work for the quest but i had to google that. its BAD. thats kinda the worst example but like when your barn gets unlocked they basically DO NOT TELL YOU. the appropriate entires are unlocked in your almanac and thats your only clue that new stuff unlocked. or the fact that you have to buy alternate wing styles from the wisp mother but it never tells you that you just have to go back to the wisp mother and notice theres an option to open her shop inventory. what in the goddamn!

2. ive encountered one bug thats impacting my gameplay, where the animals in my coop have stopped producing. apparently its fixable if you sell and buy new animals but its like is it just gonna happen again. pls patch soon

3. the shallow npcs havent really bothered me, i click thru a lot of the day-to-day greeting dialogue anyway and my imagination can do a lot of legwork in fleshing out dynamics, im not worried about it. but one thing that IS very weird is that one of the non marriage plot npcs is nhamashals cousin right so nhamashal talks about how they grew up together in one of his date scenes. he calls this character by name BUT in the friendship menu hes just 'the marquis' and no one ever calls him by name that ive seen except in one of nhamashals mid to late optional romance cutscenes. thats pretty wild!

and i mean i know its shallow as hell like i said but its still disappointing that even if youre engaged to nhamashal mathelion (the marquis) doesnt mention it at all lmao. and ive never seen him mention nhamashal either, his cousin he grew up with. sad!

thats just an example where even if basically nothing else changed abt the romance characters and the way that worked they could still improve on the worldbuilding and shit just by acknowledging it

and ppl have said it bfor i dont rlly need to but the way relationships are sorted into romantic or not romantic is definitely A Choice

it doesnt bother me so much personally but i understand why it would other people, and i definitely think it would be better if it wasnt like that

still really enjoying the game tho thise are just my critiques

[nugulover69]

taiya hater still not over episode 8 here

we talk about taiya, but what about bunbun in this episode?? he pissed me off too lmao, esp during the robo fight- like the entire team save for taiya got thrown out of their cars, and he's just like "hey lets call this one robo puncher" or whatever like?? show a little concern...

taiya still pisses me off the most in these two episodes, making it seem like mira and jou were in the wrong, but hopefully he gets whats coming to him with this whole "not-dad is in with the bad guys" and whatever tf ishiro is up to lol

i neeeeed to see him realize he's not all as smart as he thinks he is, you can do the "cool" "know-it-all" characters just fine, but you gotta humble them every so often y'know?

Your haterade is potent Anon lmao

And you're right, a character like him who's usually cool headed/confident things will work out needs to have their faith/patience tested bc otherwise there's not much of a story to be had. even Tendou Souji, guy with a literal god complex who is comically good at everything he does, has more going on as a character bc he 1. is visibly shown to care deeply abt the people in his life and 2. ACTUALLY SHOWS EMOTION WHEN HE'S PUSHED FAR ENOUGH . like he cries and everything. can Iuchi even do that

It's curious, since ya know, this is a sentai and teamwork makes the dream work. letting your friend go off on a solo revenge quest seems antithetical to this franchise's whole premise. I think what will happen is Genba will realize he can't actually face his nemesis alone and will come crawling back

What I'd personally want is for Taiya to realize he's actually been too hands off and apologize to Genba for abandoning him when he needed his support most. but I don't believe that'll happen bc the narrative the writers have crafted is weirdly adverse to placing Taiya in the wrong. like there's always something to excuse his shady and detached behavior or soften it at least

I've said it before and I'll repeat it here; he feels like a showa era red who got timewarped into a reiwa sentai. but even that doesn't feel fair to say, bc even showa reds with 2 personality traits to their name have more pomp when it comes to caring abt righteous justice and their friends well being

He's only marginally better than the other worst red I've met thus far, Yusuke from Liveman. Taiya may be a bland dickhead who barely gets punished by the narrative, but at least he's not an active massive asshole to his teammates and also SLAPPED A KID THAT ONE TIME

Actually now that I think abt it, Yusuke at least suffers more. three of his friends chose to become evil and then they blew up the college they all went to. so really, his asshole behavior is at least EXPLAINABLE. not justified but explainable

TL;DR Taiya sucks bc the writers are doing a shit job and they need to make up for it with a heavy dose of red ryona STAT

[diamond-dangeresque]

for what i do love about this game—and i love a lot!!!—there are certain things about the story i wish we had either the opportunity to do or otherwise capitalize on

and i'll throw dat shit under a readmore for spoilers. you know. for a 13 year old game lmao

(also i will be using he/him/his pronouns when referring to Hawke simply because my first playthru was Garrett Hawke and therefore i think of Hawke in those terms)

so from the second we deal with Quentin and find his stash of books and letters during All That Remains, including one signed from his "very good friend “O”" i knew two things:

Orsino is behind this, and

i want to cave his smarmy little skull in for being an accessory to Quentin's atrocities, including MY MOTHER'S MURDER

and while i am aware that this can be kinda-sorta dealt with on a Templar playthrough, what bothers me is that i have no way to Deal With This Information until basically the end of the game, which feels...i dunno, like maybe there should have been a side quest of investigating these documents either solo or with the help of Aveline, Templar!Carver/Circle!Bethany, maybe even Anders or Varric, but it feels really weird that you find a letter that definitively proves Quentin was 100% not alone in what he was doing, and Hawke's response is 🦗🦗🦗

now yes, in the immediate aftermath he's mourning or grieving or drinking himself into a stupor or whatever Hawke (yours, mine, otherwise) does to live with not being able to save his mother in time, but it's still then Very Odd that he never just...follows up on this. like "welp, mom's dead and i killed her killer, who was definitely and apparently working alone. somehow. yep."

i would love a sidequest like that works like this, slowly piecing together who could have been assisting this madman by finding additional clues, locating “O”'s dead drop point, finding out it's the Gallows's First Enchanter being this serial killer's accomplice much to [Anders's horror//Aveline's disgust//Fenris's "well I can't say this wasn't unexpected but what the fuck"//etc etc], and then like

idk

maybe you can have a chat with Meredith abt it, convince her that No The Mage Circle Isn't All Bad, It's Just Orsino, starting an investigation and then gathering the evidence needed to convict him (and maybe optionally getting him in a room and beating the unholy piss out of him, real "Smash A to Break Orsino's Nose" kinda stuff) , and thennnnnn. idk, have him hung from the Gallows!!!! good shit, justice for Leandra and all the other women murdered by Quentin, closure for you and your sibling,

or you can take vigilante justice on him and. "hey Meredith, so Orsino died. yeah, he fell down the stairs. tripped on his robes, broke his neck on the way down. terrible shame. tut, tut. (please ignore the bruises and broken bones.)"

and then we're like "welp. so the Circle needs a new First Enchanter, aaaaaand 1. Orsino had like no protege lined up for this, and 2. no one here wants to be First Enchanter anyways" so you could potentially set up smth like

Hawke can become First Enchanter if he's a Mage

Bethany can become First Enchanter (probably easier to convince her on a high Friendship rating)

One of the mages you spared (and still lives) from Acts 1 and 2 could be trained to become First Enchanter; personally I think Alain's got gumption, but to each their own, yeah?

of course i know the problem with this story is that it kiiiiiiinda pulls away from the whole "Mages vs Templars butting heads and also the Chantry blows up" story point that 2 wants to get to, though tbh I don't think these have to be mutually exclusive?

Meredith can accuse Hawke of conspiring to lead the rebellion himself and doing so by taking Orsino's place, taking advantage of Meredith's "trust" (whether or not that's true is up to you) and thus being both the more dangerous mage of the two and proving—to herself, ofc—the inherently duplicitous nature of mages as a whole

Meredith can accuse Bethany of being a tool for Hawke's conspiracy against her, effectively using nepotism to undermine her authority and maybe even fearing being replaced herself by another of Hawke's buddies (which is absolutely not true, but red lyrium is a hell of a drug, so 🤷); this can even tie back to a choice you can have on Meredith's side where you can execute your sister or not to prove your loyalty (which obv doesn't work, but y'know 🤷)

Meredith can distrust any of your First Enchanter choices due to a wide variety of reasons: lack of experience, lack of talent, your sympathy being used against you for a position they do not deserve, I Just Don't Fucking Like Them, etc etc

it also creates this cool throughline of Quentin's fuckery being a consistent B- or C-story for Dragon Age 2, underneath Mages Vs Templars and The Qunari Are Vibing (Until They Aren't).

like. if Meredith is gonna be The Big Bad Evil Person no matter what route you take, that means you do have some flexibility on the story along the way.

but the story was also cranked out in 18 months under EA's infamous pressure cooker system, so i don't blame any of the writers for Not Thinking Of These Things, i get it, i do

and if you just want to Skip That For Whatever Reason and go through with what's already there then you can also do that. i guess. (you monster.)

the only other major grievance i have with the game is that Blood Magic Hawke isn't as story-polarizing as it could be. yes i know Blood Magic wasn't as big of a deal even in Origins/Awakening as the lore and story make it out to be; as a Grey Warden you at least get the excuse of "whatever it takes to kill the archdemon, ya feel me?", but Hawke has no such excuse and if anything having Blood Magic should both 1. be a major story beat changer, and 2. be non-reversible (mostly due to the first reason; would be kinda weird if you went Blood Mage for the story stuff, then headed over to the Black Emporeum, chugged a weird potion you got from a dusty-ass shopkeep, and went "nah i change my mind")

and yes, i am also aware that Blood Magic wasn't even going to really be a thing (PC) Hawke could have, and it was basically shoved in last-minute with not much to the story to supplement that. but there is still something to be said about a lot of missed story opportunities involving this. there was also apparently a cut storyline about Mage!Hawke dealing with a near possession attempt, and that both could have unlocked Blood Magic permanently and be yet another cool way to integrate the innate Weirdness of mages into your story

........but i digress, because after that it's mostly very minor grievances about Things I Want But Do Not Have that could probably be fixed with mods if i searched hard enough.

also: no post-game cards about my friends or my lover. come onnnnn. it's literally static text on a background. this isn't hard to implement!!!

ok rant over i'm gonna crawl into a hole now and cry about anders

[nerice]

elden ring sote bingo let's fucking GO!!

dawn of the final 24 hours before my life gets eaten. details under th cut >>

the eclipse

what the fuck were they doing at castle sol what was the point !! "the sun has not been swallowed your companion remains soulless" how was this supposed to connect to/help resurrect godwyn. may we find out when it happens!!

scythe fixes

my partner contributed this one it seems 2 be a vry specific gripe towards scythe builds that i do not understand bc i run my game with two toothpick daggers and refuse to upgrade vigor lmao

death swamp

i think it wld be funny. do it miyazaki

malenia's severed arm/oath ring

WHAT IF WE. FOUND IT >:) no idea why it'd be in the realm of shadow but i wanna pick up specifically the oath ring fr item description lore juice so bad :3

messmer blasphemy arsenal

why is he running around talking abt those unworthy of gold when he's fully stacked w/ anti erdtree insignia!! battle trophies? just to flex? let us know!!

butterfly trio

fringe theory that i don't subscribe to that the trio statue in the haligtree is *not* prodigy twins + godwyn but instead twins + messmer, on account of cape & the fact that they all get butterfly items (nascent for miquella, aeonian for malenia, and smoldering for - presumably - messmer bc of his fire theming) don't rly care for it but am curious abt the butterfly symbolism nd if it will show up

lake of rot expansion

THIS HAS BEEN BOTHERING ME SINCE I FOUND IT. why is that upper portion there, completely inaccesible, with the other end suspiciously faded out!!!! no other part of the giant ass world map has smth like this LET US GO THERE!! blue dancer portal i believe in u

marika's dad

that guy in the painting. who's a talking corpse pulling a sword out of his fucked up body later in the trailer, LOREDROP US

age of rot

easy. malenia resurrection phase three full ending truther. yes i realize this wld be the worst possible fate for her i love dying and despair

sleep swamp

we kind of saw it in the trailer. might not be an actual inflicting-the-effect soup location but again i think it'd be funny!!

godwyn's resurrection (mermaid boss)

with or without connection to whatever the eclipse is. there's no way they're not gonna use that huge disgusting model of him from the deeproot depths 2 fuck us up. miquella can save him but he cannot save him tm :)!

messmer destined death user

every possible evil flame theory under the sun has been floated for him nd which shade of fire it is he's actually wielding. i think he's camp destined death for juice nd (possible) melina connection

gloam-eyed queen is marika's sibling/twin

my fav little pet theory!! assuming the guy in the painting is marika's dad and assuming (spicily) that the woman in the painting isn't actually her but another numen / empyrean / possibly sibling / most likely 2 be the gloam eyed queen aka whoever marika has slain at the beginning of the sote story trailer when she claims godhood. i just think this game loves sibling beef too much 2 not go there. conversely i don't think melina is the gloam-eyed queen but i do think there's a connection/possible inheritance avenue w.

malenia death consequences

THE ONLY THING I REALLY CARE ABT FOR THIS DLC it cannot be a 10/10 without this, indulge meeeeee pwease she's a fkcin optional boss and the entire reason for miquella's quest. it has to matter COME ON !!!! idc if it's a lot to code and account for u built this house

melina/messmer siblings

melina is the odd one out whose parentage is so far unconfirmed. nd there are no only children in this game. so w/ the addition of messmer > obv conclusion that might still be fully off lol

miquella anti-griffith path

yes ive seen the theories. yes ive read berserk. yes it makes sense and the parallels are off the charts. when i first found the bewitching branch nd the lore bits abt miquella/st trina i also sent my partner a long essay abt the parallels. miquella the beloved defender of the weak, (+ there is LITERALLY AN ECLIPSE HE TRIED TO CAUSE) however all the "miquella is evil" theories are supremely boring sorry. playing it straight wld be such a waste. u meet miquella nd he turns out to be a mastermind manipulator who used dream control and charm and even malenia was tricked etc etc IT'S BORING gtfo

boss w/ 3rd phase

haven't had that yet. bonus points if i get my resurrected malenia insect body horror for this (wldnt even count bc it's not a consequtive phase) but a girl can dream uwu

final boss fight @ the vagina tree roots

sorry for the uninitiated. but yeah this wld be a dope final boss location and either way i wanna go there!!!!! give us pussy

outer god of sleep

this shot in the story trailer. "abandoning his fate" can be interpreted either way, abandoning (unalloyed) gold for existence as st trina OR WHAT I'M PUSHING. him even abandoning his fate as empyrean i.e. godhood since power in this game always comes at the price of outer gods whispering in ur ear nd i want!! an outer god of sleep !! to have been that for miquella. sleep was his destined path like rot was for malenia, and he wants no part of it >:3

torrent's origins

this is a filler square u_u but also i'm genuinely curious if we will get more lore abt him. it's confirmed miquella was riding torrent when he set out, and the torrent we have now is a spectral steed, first seen with melina and then gifted to us by ranni in disguise so like. how do we get from a to b to c d e f here chat !!!!

blue dancer lore

ANOTHER 10/10 REQUIREMENT. ive made my case and it's a strong one. ik all of the malenia content wishes are copium at best but getting vicarious lore on this one is extremely feasible imo

age of unalloyed gold

there's no way we aren't getting a miquella themed ending right. riiiight??

full melina lore

TRULY THE MOST ENIGMATIC CHARACTER there's a billion theories (geq being the strongest one) i don't even care what her specific lore details are gonna be but it'll be so interesting if any of it gets elaborated on !!

all new npcs fucking die

they're such a merry band in the story trailer :) wld be a shame if something happened to them :))))))))

[areislol]

if the characters are yandere i have to apologise to the ruan mei stans in advance because as soon as i notice she's fed me some sus shit i am siccing the boys on her at the nearest opportunity. be as autistic as u like bbg but i do not abide by being drugged <3 shame abt ur bug children tho, guess the space station is being invaded then

is it bad that i still haven't finished that quest yet LMAO, was it 2.0?? i think so BUT ANYWAY

don't worry!!! as if anyone would ever drug their creator. i mean unless you're REALLY curious like her (and after explaining to her that it's fine for the 100th time) and willing to put yourself up for testing she'll gladly do it! (!! IM NOT SURE ABT THIS) but then again she is trying to get closer to aeon-hood and if you're the creator.. lord.. you need at least ten of the men with you LMAO

[angelsdean]

Have you any thought about how Stanford/S1 Sam is a mirror of both Mary and John? He's a mirror of John because of his killed love and his quest of revenge... but the way he lived with Jess was just... Mary-coded (pretending the supernatural world doesn't exist, being someone he wasn't, etc)

oh yea definitely. i think they both obvs have qualities from both parents. the john parallels w/ early season sam are just louder but yea he's definitely got some mary qualities. also, idk if you've watched the winchesters, but in that mary also wants to leave hunting and go to college and secretly enrolls and gets in, so, another very sam-coded moment. i think dean also wanted to get out of hunting in similar ways, but because he was raised to be john's number 2 right hand man blunt little instrument he gave up on those dream (9x07 bad boys dean wanted to be a rockstar-slash-mechanic !!) and made peace with being a hunter and being stuck in that life. but we see him long for a family, for a quiet peaceful life too. but where mary and sam wanted a "normal" life to hide and pretend the supernatural world doesn't exist i think dean wanted that as like both a desire to get back what he lost as a child and also as like, a retirement sort of thing. or even as something to have alongside hunting in the later seasons. like i could see him settling down with cas but still working cases on occasion or helping out in a bobby-like role. anyways, sorry for the dean-tangent. just deangirl things lmao. but anyways yes !! sam 🤝 mary wanting to get out of hunting and have a "normal" life while hiding everything abt their family and upbringing from their partner. wait, sorry i'm having thoughts. ok but then that tying back to what i was just saying abt dean, how he wants a family and a partner and the stability of that kind of life except he wants it alongside everything else, he doesn't want to hide the hunting part, which we literally see with cassie !! because unlike sam, dean tells her about hunting because he wants to stay with her and build something real. so dean's like, "yea *handshakes* sam and mary, i want a stable family life but uhhhh not with you there with the hiding from the hunting world and keeping secrets coz that's never gonna work." (he even does this later with lisa too, she knows everything and dean's generally pretty upfront w/ her abt what's going on)

anyways, thanks for the message, sorry for my tangents<3

[ferrocyan]

a meandering talk about tart and "fray"

disclaimer that im talking abt half remembered events and quests bc i havent replayed any of them. were playing fast and loose here lol

because she woke up after the calamity w amnesia tart has an odd sense of what she is and isnt capable of. some things shes totally clueless abt but others she tries and is like oh huh i sort of know how to do this already. like carpentry, and combat

her mental process tends to go "idk if i can do this" (gets into a situation) "OH I TOTALLY CAN LETS GO" (gets overwhelmed) "shit shit shit gotta run". bc her knowledge base is limited and she works mostly off of feelings she gets into bad spots a lot www

so tart is sorta both recklessly brave and a coward. and also a dumbass who thinks if she runs she can probably escape (nope lmao) well it gets her beat up a lot but shes ok w it

tart goes into fighting arr primals w this reckless mindset and so far has been strong enough to come out on top. she wants more so she goes to gridania and hears about a mysterious primal that appears on occasion. goes "awesome gotta kill that guy" and challenges it to a fight

this is odin, and odin is way, way more than she bargained for (ooc: this is an extreme level fight that is labeled as normal, i was clueless and went into this w minimal information and got my ass fucking stomped)

as per habit tart wants to run. except. shes here w a padjal (basically children blessed by the forest elemental spirits) and only a handful of guards. tart is the only one who can fight a primal, everyone else would get corrupted and die. theres no way she can run, and for the first time shes terrified out of her mind

and gets killed by odins final "zantetsuken"

the primal disappears (defeated?) fortunately the padjal is able to beg the elementals to save tart, so shes not dead, just with a deep scar where she was cut from shoulder to chest. but something did get killed there.. her desire to run from danger

it doesnt die instantly either, much like tart herself. it takes until she gets framed for the murder of ul'dahs sultana, and she and the scions of the seventh dawn have to escape arrest. the rest of the scions sacrifice themselves for their leader minfilia and tart to escape. at the last moment minfilia stays behind and urges tart to go ahead, escape to ishgard where she would be safe

for a moment tart feels so relieved and takes the offer. but in safety the realization of what shes done hits like a truck. she vows to never, ever allow herself to run and leave someone else to die again. plant your feet on the ground, keep yourself chained in battle, and you do not die. (this is holmgang, the warrior skill that makes you unable to die for 10 seconds. i changed it to target self instead of chaining an enemy at the beginning of heavensward.. i had wanted to not do it but decided it worked as part of tarts story. incidentally i might have forgotten to use holmgang at all in the odin fight... lol)

so. thats good right! throughout heavensward the primals that the warrior of light has to fight ramp up in power. even her allies start to worry, especially alphinaud, but tart doesnt care. without the fear, primal battles are just fun. she fearlessly takes them on!

this is a great thing, right? its character development. though someone disagrees: tart herself

you cant really kill a desire, can you? you can repress it of course, and its easy to repress a desire when its been cut off from your heart. but its still there: the desire to run. to not be in danger. to be safe and unhurt and alive. it lives on, though separated by odins blade. it does not accept how tart has chosen to throw herself into mortal peril over and over. for what? for the ishgard that never accepted her? for the eorzea that took her heroism when its good for them and then threw her out like yesterdays garbage? why be a hero when it either gets you killed or taken advantage of? it was better before the calamity, when her parents were there and they still called the vigil home. if only we could repel those damned ishgardians and take back the vigil... if only theres a way to stop tart from her foolish heroism...

and so we arrive to fray. fray myste was a dark knight, someone working in the shadows of ishgardian society to protect the weak. it led him to be accused of heresy by the church and put into a trial by combat, the (unfair) result of which was his death. frays body was left to rot along the walls of the slums. ...and that is where the repressed desire of tarts heart finds itself a convenient vessel, becoming "fray"

frays dark knight crystal gives "fray" the ability to use dark magic, which they use to entice tart to interact w them. fray will teach her how to be a dark knight. tart agrees, and in learning the dark arts its not just tart who becomes more powerful, but fray too. bc tart has stopped just repressing fray outright and denying them completely, it gives fray the power to grow beyond what it is

at first fray hopes that tart would listen and stop this "heroism" madness. but the events of heavensward leaves tart w a certainty: she cant call coerthas home. shes a different person from who she was before losing her memories. now she is the warrior of light. thats all she can be. fray rejects this and attempts a hostile takeover of a fort in coerthas--since the vigils are gone, home is in ruins, then whitebrim front is the closest thing and fray will take it

they fail. defeated by tart. fray laments their fate but goes willingly back into her heart. only wanting to be heard as the feelings of love that they are

and so ends the tale of fray for now. i say that because. uhh. tart never does listen and only gets worse in the next expansions. heroism will only consume her further ...sorry fray.... u_u

then there is myste. or is there myste? myste is an orphan boy with a strange ability: he can manifest memories into almost-real people. he powers this ability with tarts dark knight crystal, by accident, and so shes roped into helping him out (with our other dark knight friends sid and rielle. theyre great, i just dont have anything to say abt them really)

similar to fray, myste is a manifestation of the warrior of lights broken heart.. this time their guilt and regrets. theyve saved the world and many people in it, but along the way theyve killed others and failed to save even more. thats why hes shaped like both haurchefant and ysayle.. friends who saved us for the price of their own lives. myste wants everyone to have another chance to live. he wants the dead to pass on peacefully, and the living to be unburdened by grief. myste wants to be forgiven for what hes done

now uh. i unfortunately have to tell you that tart has none of that shit. the vigils, dawn and dusk especially, were the first line of defense in ishgards war against dragons. tart was raised surrounded by death. its just a part of life, dying and killing. were all beasts getting slaughtered in the end. no need to feel guilty over upholding your survival above everyone else

its not impossible that tarts guilty conscience would break off and manifest as a boy, like fray, but the thing is the self-love and self-preservation that fray represents was a part of tart as a character, part of how i played her back in the beginning of the game. while guilt and regrets... not really. tart is stupid and easygoing but more importantly shes callous when it comes to "doing the right thing". anythings justifiable if its for the right thing. conscience isnt something she denies she just doesnt have one. lol

also the cardinal virtues former warriors of light of the first work way better for her to explore regrets and living at the cost of other peoples lives

ok whew that is all thanks for reading my ted talk on. literally what is this even about. i just like talking abt tarts "fray" and where it came from lmao alright im done

[maguneedsalife]

T'zekhwalker - Final Zenos Fight

i spent so much time here it needed its own post. i'd be lying if i said this one scene wasn't a main reason i pushed t'zekh through the main story (the other was i wanted him to get to 90/get the rdm artifact gear so he could wear his canon glam but you know)

so, some background for folks who are new here: t'zekh was the main wol for stormblood. he was the one zenos became obsessed with, and he has spent most of endwalker trying to get zenos to leave him alone. he knows zenos desperately wants t'zekh to kill him--to come at him with fire and rage and bloodlust--but t'zekh refuses to kill anyone no matter how much they deserve it.

i had been waiting so long for t'zekh to be able to do this dialog choice and the answer i had envisioned for him actually changed from the time i did this with aoife. originally i'd thought he'd go with option 2, but by the time i got here, 3 was more his style.

which ended up being a good thing, because zenos's response to that answer was fucking perfect for t'zekh

small aside--it drove me bonkers back when spoiler embargo first lifted and ppl (mostly on twitter) were INSISTING that answer 1 was the only possible canon answer and if you picked any of the others you were clearly playing the game wrong. even despite yoshi p confirming that there was no "correct" answer and the team had tried to write it so that players could respond to zenos the way they felt best reflected their own character's experience. people were STILL out there like "sorry but if you didnt pick option 1 you're just wrong"

so to see the text validate my choice and my hcs so perfectly has me feeling vindicated in this chilis. it is okay for people to have a different experience of the game than you!!! (i'll get off my soapbox now)

option 3 was perfect for t'zekh because he is finally fed up enough with zenos that he's finally willing to cast aside his moral opposition to killing in order to make sure zenos can't hurt anyone else in his name.

and zenos caught on to that and responded in kind.

anyway then i took a fucktillion pictures in the instance (most of which i'll put on my wol blog)

it was so hard to get them in the same frame lmao

and then i did the solo fight! not too bad on red mage, surprisingly enough - was very thankful to have vercure though lmao

this punch is still just as satisfying the second time

On my way to the last credits sequence i learned that you will actually fuck up the music timing if you skip or speed up the credits. it was playing revenge twofold when it was supposed to be playing flow together. that was very jarring. i don't know why they haven't set it to just start playing flow together for that sequence. dont skip the credits folks

and that's a wrap! i uhhh might have abandoned him before finishing out the quest so i could go farm memoria misera with aoife but im very happy to have (technically) beaten Endwalker with him before the year ended, which was one of my goals.

I think I started main story with him in January, so it's taken me about a year to get through... mostly what set me back was i had to make time/build emotional strength to make progress through parts I knew would be difficult emotionally. But I committed to not to skipping any cutscenes and just pressing on through a second read, and I'm glad to have embarked on this journey.

as soon as i finished endwalker the first time i knew it was going to be equally aoife and t'zekh's story. they both ended up having stakes in the plot in different ways, and getting to play through and see things from t'zekh's perspective was so much fun.

i still keep thinking abt the version of the ending in my head, wherein t'zekh is lying at the edge of the universe and all he can think is "i want to live, dammit!!"

and he hears a voice calling out to him.

"there you are!" aoife shouts, "I was looking all over for you!"

T'zekh has spent so much of the story kind of in aoife's shadow, grappling with what it means to be a "hero" in his own way. he spent a lot of stormblood resenting her absence.

but by the end of endwalker… i think they end up really close friends

---

Next, it'll be Banri's turn.... skipping as many cutscenes as possible so i can get him through before Dawntrail!

[reapersynth]

is fo4 worth it? been thinking abt it ever since seeing it in ps store but dbrnnffbxk i'm afraid of being disappointed or smth so asking u bc u have good vg opinions

HMMMM in my honest opinion I think it's one of those games that's definitely more fun with mods, I definitely don't think it's a BAD game but I also don't think I'd be able to play vanilla for an extended amount of time without getting bored 😭 Im bad at giving well thought out video game reviews so I'll break it down into pros and cons <3

pros:

dogmeat :)

the follower system is nice, more fleshed out than previous bethesda games bc your followers actually have unique dialogue and likes + dislikes. plus you can romance any/all of the companions

building off of the followers: nick valentine :)

the crafting system + settlement building system is a lot of fun, especially with mods that add new stuff to build

it's a good game for people who care more about the exploration & building/crafting aspect than the story imo, if you like to wander around and do side/faction quests and build stuff and upgrade things then you'll probably like it!!

the character creator is pretty good

comes with an optional "survival mode" for players who like a challenge and would like to experience fallout as a pseudo-survival-craft game

both console and pc players can use mods, though the selection of mods for playstation is significantly Less due to sony's restrictions

cons:

MY biggest personal gripe: i personally find the main story kinda Sucks. your character backstory is locked into a hetero marriage and your Offspring is kinda like, the big plot of the game fghfjhhff fo3 and fnv had way better protags imo. but it's still sandbox-esque so you dont HAVE to do the main quest, i just think it's lame 😵‍💫(there are some aspects of the main story that are cool so it's not that the WHOLE thing sucks. your companions & whatever factions you side with definitely make it better) so I use an alternate start mod LMAO

your companions make annoying comments about the player picking up trash when like. picking up trash is a significant part of the game (quit judging me valentine i need these plastic containers to put a roof over ur head!!!)

the game is poorly optimized, i had performance issues on both pc and xbox and I dont know if that ever got officially fixed by the devs 😭😭

YOU WILL at some point experience the horror of being in dialogue with an npc and then a deathclaw suddenly shows up and kills everybody in the area. such is the way of bethesda life

sometimes the map in fo4 feels a lot like quantity over quality. like there's TONS of stuff to do and buildings to explore but are all of them worth it??? perhaps Not