#the ai looking thing that's honestly offensive

[lordandladywhistledown]

I cannot explain to y'all how much I need that new Polin poster from the banner as the RMB book cover LIKE

[calitears]

sessions

3. turn it up!

story masterlist

tw/notes: cussing, drinking, slightly offensive jokes, small tiny manga spoilers (?) (it just mentions two characters who haven’t appeared in the anime yet doesn’t spoil the plot or anything)

as far as you knew, toge, panda, and yuji had stayed downstairs playing rounds of beer pong while you happily went with nobara upstairs. however it seemed god was on your side today as megumi tagged along behind you two, for whatever reason. you heard him mumbling under his breath something about not liking the taste of beer or even the actual game, but the reason seemed unimportant now as he sat next to you, alone, after nobara ran off saying she was going to go get another friend of theirs or something like that.

usually you’d be able to strike up a conversation, however you felt rather awkward as megumi seemed distracted on his phone, furrowing his brow slightly, typing away against the screen.

what could you ask him? his hobbies? what his favorite movie was? wait, didn’t yuta say something about them being in the same class? finally after another minute, he put his phone away and sighed, looking up ahead of him.

oh what the hell was there to lose, if you failed miserably you’d probably never have to directly meet him again anyway.

as you spoke up, you smiled slightly at the way his attention almost immediately turned to you.

“so… what do you do?” well you had a good chance, maybe, but what the hell type of question was that to start off with?

“what do i… do? like… job wise?” he questioned, a slight pout on his lip, but maybe they were just naturally like that.

“yeah.”

he shrugged slightly, before leaning back further into the couch, “i make music, go to college, have a job on the side too…”

“oh, cool- wait you made that song with yuji right?”

he internally cringed “no. don’t bring that up.”

you almost laughed at the way his expression soured almost immediately just by mentioning it.

“it wasn’t that bad…”

“you don’t have to spare me. don’t lie to my face, i know it was horrendous.”

“well… i haven’t heard any of your other stuff, but i’m sure you were just being nice to yuji to let him… y’know… on one of your instrumentals.”

“well i need to redeem myself then, i can’t have that as your only impression of my music.”

“y’know… we should trade…”

“trade?”

“i listen to yours, and you listen to mine…”

he seemed to think about something for a moment, before letting out a small huff.

“…and if i already listened to yours?”

now that caught you off guard.

“you have?”

he shifted slightly in his seat, and you could’ve sworn he leaned in closer, even by just an inch.

“yeah… actually got curious from yuji’s post with you. it’s pretty good just… it’s not usually the type i’d listen to, but that doesn’t mean it’s bad.”

smiling at him, you moved closer, yet he didn’t seem to move back at all, mostly just seeming amused. “oh, so you’re not into ‘pink princess pilates’ music?”

he scoffed, a small smirk forming on his face, “what type of ai generated spotify wrapped thing is that?”

“that’s exactly where i got it from actually, was one of my genres…”

“well… at least it sounds cute, i think it’s ‘fitting’, i got grouped into something called ‘abstract indie sleaze soundtrack moment’.”

“the hell does that even mean? sounds like a red flag honestly, maybe i should stop talking to you hear…”

“not gonna give me a chance then? thought yuji said you were into me?”

“oh my god did he seriously say that- can’t he keep a secret?”

he was about to respond, his expression still slightly playful until suddenly a voice cut in, and you saw a girl jump into the empty space next to him, sitting down. “fushiguro! it’s been too long!” she exclaimed. megumi seemed startled at first, but relaxed after another moment. “oh… hey hana.”

“i missed you- where have you been recently?” she continued, seemingly wanting to reach out and touch him, but hesitant to.

“just busy… work… college and stuff.” he replied, about to turn back to you to introduce you to what you hoped was just his friend, that is until yuji and nobara seemed to have finally caught up with you guys again. before you even got the chance to say goodbye to him, yuji was pulling you off the couch and dragging you away from the group.

“y/n real quick- sorry- but pleaseeee you need to dj for us or something- just for like half an hour at least!! you need to show off against this asshole!”

no context whatsoever to what was happening, you couldn’t even reject yuji’s offer as he basically dragged you towards the music booth.

outside the studio…

sigh… guys i don’t hate hana i actually think she’s a cutie and love her but i had to bring someone into that role… 😥😓😪

yuji such a feminist wanted to prove some guy who was drunkly babbling on about #womeninmusic wrong accidentally crashed the moment

y/n texted maki a sc of megumi’s instagram and she put two and two together immediately

megumi was actually just writing down a reminder to get in contact with y/n but nobara wanted to push him

idk why the gif drops qualities every time i use one hope it doesn’t bother anyone 💔💔💔

taglist (open)

@starrysho @anotherwriternamedclara @qtnfer @ist0leurc0ffee @missunrise @lovefromberry @beepbopzlorp @1l-ynn @gumims @vivienne-jo @s6rine @good-mourning0 @raquel12 @kasumitenbaz @susiekern @anngelllla @saekolust @wgafa @arrozyfrijoles23 @that-willowtree @restrictionsapply @wrldwyde @estella-novella

*feel free to ask in inbox, comment, or pm if you’d like to be added!!

*if your tag isn’t working pls change your settings or let me know!!

[peachjagiya]

I hope you don’t take offense to what I am about to say cuz i’ll speak freely. I think the issue here is, so many taekookers kept talking about how much Jungkook didn’t want to do the show and even went as far as claiming that he was forced to do this show no matter how much Jungkook verbally proclaimed how much fun he was having and how he loved the show. Let’s also be serious here, does anyone really believe that Jungkook would have continued shooting in other locations if he hated the first experience in NY? Before someone comes up with the contract excuse, I need to remind everyone that this show was never the company’s idea. It was Jimin who thought of it, told Jungkook about it and then pushed at the level of the company to make it happen. I had never gotten chance to watch ITS friendcation with Tae because honestly I am more a music fan and their variety shows or other healing shows kinda bore me but I recently watched Friendcation and it was Tae too who wanted to film the show with his wooga squad and from what I understood from what they said at the beginning, he was the one who took the idea to the company and they let it happen. So I don’t think it’s fair to claim that Jungkook couldn’t back out of the show even if he didn’t like it because he was contractually bound.

Right now if I were jikookers I would gloat too because so many people have claimed that Jk looked miserable, looked disinterested, didn’t want to do the show at all or didn’t see the point but from his own words we know that is far from the truth. Not only did he declare how much he loved the show and how free he felt during the show, he also thinks that out of all the trips he been on in his life, these trips for AYS were the best. He also mentioned wanting to go back to the start of their trip so anyone still claiming that Jungkook didn’t love being on that show is not being realistic or reasonable at all. He could have just not said anything if he didn’t feel that way because ofcourse he couldn’t say he didn’t enjoy the trip if he didn’t (or maybe he could) so knowing how blunt Jk can be if he said he loved it, then he loved it. So I think it is wise to just stop with all the stuff about him not liking it or not not wanting to be there because nothing we have seen and heard from him supports that line of thought. He clearly looked bummed that the trip was ending, him and Jimin, and someone wouldn’t feel that way if they didn’t enjoy the trip. I feel like those trips to him, were an opportunity for him to break away from his excessive work load for a few days and just unwind, have fun and eat to his hearts delights. In hindsight, I think it was a great Idea that the show was there to film as after watching his documentary and seeing just how much he worked and pushed himself, I think those few days inbetween schedules to just have fun did him some good.

This is just me stating my honest opinion and I hope I didn’t say anything condescending or rude.

Honest opinions are fine and you're welcome to them.

The only thing I want to query is that jimkookers should gloat. What is this victim storyline? Oh well they're only gloating cos we were so mean to them?

They spent a couple of weeks saying JK visibly hated Tae, laughing at misinterpreted jokes to make it look like JK wanted him gone, mocking their short lay down. Did they all bow at our feet when he finally said it was better with Tae? No they absolutely did not. What they did was just carry on. Cos they perceived events a different way. And I couldn't give a fuck if they do that.... until they get pissy when others do it.

I have never, in my life, been to a JMKK space to "gloat." Or to say anything actually. I've often wondered about their thoughts on things and I just haven't ever. It's not my space.

Imagine if the tumblr Taekookers reacted to, for example, Hawaii this way. Ran into Jikook spaces to "gloat". Because as you say here, we had plenty of reason to. After months and years of "JK can't stand being around him" and "Tae just lies" that became too much even in the short time I've been around, there was vindication. Yeah, we could have gloated.

I bet if we'd done that, the first thing the jmkkrs would say would be "why hasn't this made you feel good?"

What actually happened is we just had a couple of exciting days being dorks about it, feeling good and happy in our "community" here.

So they should go do that.

[yuzuyoon]

Hello,

I have been watching the show.

Overall it's been an enjoyable watch. It just confirms a few things for me that I have always known but it's more noticeable here.

I think the first two episodes were a little more intimate. I have always known JK and JM share a close bond. I mean BTS as a whole do so I expect the closeness.

The show has further reiterated my belief that Jimin has a patience of a saint and can and will get past anything and everything. He is also extremely aware of how people feel around him. For instance in the first two episodes, it's pretty obvious he understands that JK doesn't know how to keep people engaged/entertained unless people are thirsting over his body or if he is drinking and signing songs. No offense but doesn't have the charisma to hold audiences intrigue. Also, honestly he looks so skinny especially in the episode 3 that I was a bit confused what everyone was raving about. He isn't as big as people make him out to be lol. All those comparisons posts of how big JK is and how small JM is so funny to me. There are literally like a few centimeters different between them. Yeah he is a bit more muscular but honestly he looked skinny in the new episode. JM then knows he needs to step in and bring in the chilled and entertainment vibe and he does while dying.

I don't think BTS fans understand how much Jimin brings to the team because they are so busy trying to argue about everything Jimin related and trying to make it look like Jimin is nothing without BTS. Literally, these episodes make it even more obvious to me how instrumental he is to their success. He is entertaining, knows when to step in, when to pull back. Like they are so lucky.

I think I have always thought about this but JK is kinda rude. I don't mean with JM because I think there was a bit of banter going on with them but he was rude to V. JM literally had to tell him off when they were go carting. I get that it could be his humour or him trying to be funny but honestly it came across rude. I don't understand why shippers are using the moment. That's not sassy. That's actually rude and if I was V I would be offended. Luckily JM pulls him back and he changes his tune. Can you imagine if he wasn't there as a buffer? God these solos and shippers are so dumb. Jimin is the one that treats your favorites well lol literally. Also the thing that's been obvious and continues to be obvious is that JM is still the one they both buzz around. He is obviously the one that keeps them both grounded because sometimes neither of them have any sense. Once again I go back to the same thing I mentioned before. They don't know how fucking lucky they are haha.

Overall the episodes were good, a bit chaotic. I don't think JM and JK are estranged like people think neither do I think V and JM are. They still share a close bond it seems. It was nice to see them all.

Watching AYS, it just confirms my bias that JM is a great individual with an amazing sense of humor, incredible people skills and just overall a good guy.

jimin's ability to be so aware and patient is why i love him so much. that's the type of person i need in my life personally, so i'm so drawn to his behavior. watching him on ays really just makes me love and appreciate him more.

jimin appears to look so small at times copmared to other memebrs because of his body proportions. someone can have the exact same height and weight as another person but look either tiny or massive in comparison to them. jimin may be only a few centimeters shorter than jungkook but because he has such slender limbs and narrower features, he looks a lot smaller.

jimin is also literally the perfect entertainer. you have too little (jungkook) and then too much (taehyung) and you have jimin, who is the perfect balance. his persona he has on camera is a lot more natural than the one taehyung uses and it really helps to ease everyone into the episode. it also helps bts shows feel a lot more real and personal. it's like watching a hidden camera show rather than a planned program. also how jimin go more for the entertainment route with shows like run bts instead of trying to win everything like jk does. it provides a good balance for the group

bts was honestly really well crafted personality wise and when you take into account all the members strengths and flaws, they end up balancing out really well. it feels really natural, and you can tell they've all rubbed off on each other to the point where every interaction seems almost perfect for the moment

i think jk has been seeming rude to a lot of us recently is probably because he was babied so much. there's a reason authority hands out consequences for poor behavior and it's to teach whoever that what they did was not okay. jk, having grown up surrounded by people that coddle him, probably did not quite learn these things in the same way. that coupled with his newly inflated ego really put a new perspective on his behavior.

i honestly think that bts are all close in a family sort of way. the way they get jealous of each other but still support one another, the way they joke around, their skinship, the way they will not talk to each other for weeks and then come back and be fine. i'm like that with my siblings and relatives so it really just makes sense for them to be that way

[maeshelix]

I hope this isn't rude or offensive to ask, but how many of you are there? And what're your names? :3

Anon. My dear friend.

Not only is this not rude at all, but we've been looking for the perfect excuse to make a little introduction post about us since we found out we were we!!!

At least, I have lmao. And you just gave me that excuse right now let's goooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!! 🎉🎉🎉

So!!! At the moment, there's about 10 of us, possibly 12??? Not sure yet, I'll let one of them edit this if I'm wrong and they exist lmao. But for now just operate on there being 10 peeps in here!!!

(Edit: It is actually twelve. Hello. I think I'll let Rokoko handle edits to the list proper though. She seems to enjoy that immensely-❤️)

(She seems to enjoy most things immensely lmao-💙)

More after the break (^-^)

First up on the list is meeeeeeeeee :3c Rokoko is the name and fun is my favorite game!!! I'm the resident clown-bot-girl of this particular system, a certified Delight here to spread joy and positivity in whatever ways I can!!! Usually through jokes!!! Though mostly because our body couldn't do half the shit I can do internally if we tried and also all of our friends are in completely different states and countries so we couldn't even hug or dance with any of them if I wanted to. And goodness knows I want to!!!

Next up is Salem!!!!!! My best buddy Salem!!!!!! She's basically the polar opposite to me lmao. She's a Protector who's perpetually tired and bitter cause the world kinda sorta sucks alot lmao. She's super sweet and kind if you get on her good side though!!! Which is harder then you think to get on but easier then you'd think!!! She's also a big tough werewolf girl who wants to look both cute and badass!!! Like a big metal spike wrapped in cute red ribbon ^_^

Next, there's Zero!!! She's a super cute robot girl like me!!! Except she's not really into the whole having emotions thing like I am. Like, she still has them (can't really completely avoid those while stuck in a human body after all) but she'd really prefer if she didn't, and she's told me that herself!!! Nonetheless, she's a logical and loyal little perfectionist AI who loves us just as much as we love her 💝💝💝. We're not really sure what her role within the system is (and honestly we don't really sweat it when it comes to roles in the system. Some of us know it instinctively but others don't and that's honestly fine!!!) But we know she's really witty and really smart!!! When she wants to be. She's also kind lazy, heehee :p

There's Daisy, who's a total sweetheart honestly. So much so that she's usually kinda sad and scared of the world around us which, fair lmao. She's a teeny tiny plant girl who just wants to be happy and loved and who's willing to help out in whatever ways she can. She's also adorable and again, soso sweet omgggggg you have no idea!!!

Marking the midway point of this list is Freesia!!! The suave moth demoness of our little family!!! She's an incredibly kind and loving woman who would probably help you move houses if you asked her to. I think she's a Caretaker??? Again, we don't really sweat labels here but it definitely fits with her in my opinion!!! She doesn't really come out often though, which sucks!!! @our brain, let the gal out every now and then she deserves time to herself!!!

Sleepy is next and we know basically nothing about her!!! Mostly because she rarely comes out, at least lately. Despite that though, we know that she's a big ol' goofball who says the most random shit sometimes and honestly, i love that aboit her (^ー^). Also fun fact!!! She's actually the one who originally tipped us off to being us in the first place!!! In that she was the first one to notice that she was different from whoever was in front at first one day and went "huh. Damn that's weird bro." I think she also miiiight controls when we feel especially ready to sleep (hence her name!!! I think. It could also be that she's just really really tired most the time, I honestly dunno!!!) so that's cool!!!

Next up, in no particular order, is Miranda!!! And next to Sleepy we probably know the least about her, except that she formed after a point in time where we played nothing but Elden Ring for like a month, after a particularly stressful point in our life!!! As such, she speaks like a fusion of Melina and Ranni and kinda looks like one too!!! With four arms and everything!!! She's really into fantasy media, and I'm sure she's gonna have a ball whenever we get around to playing Baldur's Gate 3 (let's be honest girls, it's an inevitability at this point, we just gotta pick the time lmao).

Heading up the rearguard is Hana!!! She's a super chill grill with attitude( ￣▽￣). Almost as much of a jokester as me, she's just focused on relaxing and hanging out. She's a kinda fictive??? It's complicated, and not for public speculation!!! All you need to know is that she's got multiple wings like an angel and is super into DOOM!!! She's the best I love her o(^o^)o

If you're looking for a definitive fictive, then F.E. is the girl for you!!! I don't think she wants me to tell you what she's a fictive of, so I won't say her full name, but like. She's not really subtle about it let's be honest lmao. She's the one who usually comes to front and takes care of our body whenever our brain is just far too exhausted (emotionally or otherwise) for any of us to use it!!! Or whenever we're on painkillers. Either or lmao. We actually thought she was also Zero for the longest time since they both kinda have a similar "emotionless perfect being" thing going on, though eventually F.E. found out she's definitely different from Zero and here we are now!!! She's a nice and steadfast gal with a little bit of a mischievous streak and she's also our latest split!!! I love her (^.^)

Last, but certainly not least, probably, is our girl Silver!!! Unlike F.E., Silver's pretty open about what her source is, that being Silver the Hedgehog!!! And I'd say she act an awful lot like the OG telepath too!!! If just a liiiiittle more nervous and anxious. She's an optimist, but she's also a realist, and she never fails to have hope for the future!!! In spite of the evidence to the contrary lmao. She also thinks she's been here the longest too!!! Here being our brain of course. Which I believe!!! Makes sense that we'd have a Silver fictive as a kid lmao.

And that's the list so far!!! We'll probably just edit and re-edit this list whenever something new happens in here so keep an eye out for that!!! And of you can't then don't worry, cause I'm pinning this to the top of our silly little blog lmao.

Again, thank you for the ask anon!!! And I hope you enjoy my answer as much as I did writing it!!!

[gaykarstaagforever]

1) ...It didn't raise any suspicions that the company is called "House of Illuminati," and not "House of Illumination," or something that makes any sense whatsoever?

Like it seems to me that EVEN THE NAME OF THE COMPANY was created by AI and no one with interest or basic English-language skills approved it.

2) Also, if an event is being put on in conjunction with a company making a movie, that company's logo will be all over the press material. I get that a lot of people won't think to notice that, but...you were paying $44 for this. And taking your kids. It was in an abandoned warehouse. All of the flags were red.

3) So you can just put on a scam event, based on an IP you don't own, and do promotion for it, and no one tells you to stop?

Did Zaslav fire all the lawyers over there? How did this not attract corporate attention?

It wasn't like "COME HAVE A CHOCOLATE FANTASY EXPERIENCE!" They used the actual name of the thing. The stones on these morons.

4) The shitty AI art renders looked like they were based on the art direction for the fascinatingly weird Tim Burton movie, that most people with brains think is bad (I don't think it's good, but it was certainly entertaining). But still. Who would want to go to anything associated with that mess? A minor red flag, but still a red flag.

5) No offense, Scotland. But why would a legit company do this event in Scotland, of all places? They're based in London, Roald Dahl was born in Wales and lived in England, and the newest movie was a Hollywood thing. Why a warehouse in Scotland? Again, no one looked up any of this before they gave it money?

6) Honestly, the fact that it ended with it just being weird and terrible is kind of the best-case scenario. Like, this could have just as easily ended with the warehouse doors autolocking, and all the kids being turned into donkeys on an island somewhere.

7) Hang on, I'm going to go get an AI to write a script for a Pinocchio one of these.

Hell. At least THAT is an actual public domain property.

...I'm going to call my company "Realms of Wander". I'll register it in NYC, but all the events will take place at an abandoned iron works in Ohio.

Bring the whole family!

...NOW.

[lanaevyssmoved]

What do you think about the mod thst turns gale into a woman ? Im Intrested as story wise i think i can make MtF gale or the opposite in my game too

well. okay so.

first of all to get it out of the way - i think ai voice shit is morally abhorrent unless the actor themselves gives consent. even then i have concerns because this can be used for extremely damaging and dangerous things. so.. mods that give him a higher pitched, feminine voice? despise. burn it all to the ground. i feel so furious over shit like this i can't even debate it

mods that change gale to look more feminine.. well. this honestly ties into the genderbend debate. how do i feel about genderbending a character in a way that completely changes their body? if gale took estrogen he wouldn't suddenly have what people would call a 'womans frame' - like those mods do. so instead the mods that turn gale into a woman are turning him into a ciswoman. if you want transfem gale just make him transfem without actually changing him. headcanon that the characters do his makeup and he got some iddy bitty titties. yknow. that is unless you put magic in the picture - as far as i know there is only two cases of this happening and it involves gods. the first one was mystra forcibly changing elminster into a woman without his consent, the other is the changedance, done by eilistraee female and male priests, where they undergo a ritual to temporarily change themselves into the opposite sex - but it was never permanent.

it's also a little difficult because my transmasc gale headcanon is very dear to me, to the point i cannot separate gale from it. i know people who have many gender headcanons for gale from transfem to nonbinary - wizards are inherently very fun to play with when it comes to gender. personally i feel dysphoric when i see gale looking like a woman.

at the end of the day what someone does in their single player game isn't any of my business, and i am working on judging people for what they do - beyond laughing at screenshots i funny. if you wanna mod gale into a woman with an ai high pitched voice.. it's none of my business. but if i see it on my dash i will probably block you for my own comfort.

also - please don't send me asks in the future about ftm or mft - i find these terms to be offensive, personally.

[hidingoutbackstage]

So now that RvB is over, I'm curious: Which season from the later era of RvB do you think is the worst (Shisno Duology/16-17, Zero/18 or Restoration/19)?

Personally if I had to rank those three, Zero/18 is the worst, then Restoration/19, and then Shisno Duology/16-17. Shisno Duology I think has more redeeming elements (like FINALLY getting a Donut arc and giving Sister depth and moments that showed of Wash and Carolina’s relationship) and even though it had writing elements I really didn’t like (Tucker being more of an asshole, Grif suddenly being a MAJOR asshole for no reason despite the arc he JUST went through in s15, trying to insert gds but actually they’re just AI but they’re the most advanced AI in the world to a stupid degree) it at least tried to give ALL of our main characters something to do, like it felt ooc and annoying at times but it was still THEM and they were still THERE.

The same canNOT be said for Restoration or Zero. Zero I hate the most because it stars an all new cast that they tell us is so cool and we should care about them and take them seriously, but they never show us anything worthy of that, and it also just feels like the creators of Zero watched the Freelancer Saga and took away that fans thought what was interesting was the cool action scenes and how badass these guys were and the emotional conflicts and how they sidelined our main characters. It’s like they didn’t realize that the Freelancers are supposed to be bad people and we were watching to see them eventually fall. As for how Zero treats the three (3) main characters from the og it DOES have, holy fuck is it terrible. Carolina is way undermined and sidelined for these people she should not care about, Wash’s disability was cured in a single throwaway line before he was put out of commission anyway, and Tucker, oh man Tucker. My blood is already boiling. They turned him back into a creep and an asshole, separated him from his team for no reason, KILLED HIM and gave his SUPER IMPORTANT SWORD to some random chick who STILL HAS THE SWORD AT THE END SO FUCK EVERYTHING THE SHOW SAID MADE TUCKER SPECIAL IG.

Sorry. Got heated there. Anyway Restoration is between those two in terms of quality, but it’s still bad. The character writing jumped all over the place, the pacing was atrocious, it felt like they didn’t have enough time to execute the story they were trying to do, while at the same time they wasted so much time. They tried to make Simmons the main character, which doesn’t come across AT ALL, they sideline basically everyone but Simmons, Caboose, Grif, and Sarge, and still don’t really give any satisfying narrative conclusion to any of them. Sarge’s death is stupid, Simmons staying in the army is stupid, Grif retiring and therefore being away from Simmons is stupid, and Caboose doesn’t really get an arc or honestly anything that gives him character, he’s just a plot device. They make Tucker the Meta and framed it as a big important thing in the marketing and then had all the characters act blasé about it, didn’t let anyone who WOULD be impacted by Meta!Tucker, actually get impacted by it, he got 23 total lines in the story, they tortured Tucker for months that felt like YEARS and then didn’t allow him to process any of that HORRIFIC TRAUMA and sent him out of the series with a SEX JOKE. Wash’s B plot was TOTALLY pointless and doesn’t make sense narratively given the end of s13. Donut was given a cameo that was just one more offensive gay joke. I swear the only good thing was the Chex reunion at the very end. It was also poorly made, with the animation looking rlly bad at times, stuff like Caboose’s double knees and the mouse cursor on screen the most notable (but also there was just a lot of the action that looked rough) and as a series ending finale it was a major fucking letdown on pretty much all fronts, but despite all that, it still isn’t worse than Zero. Imagine that.

[thessalian]

Thess vs Installations

Well, first, the Saga of the Graphics Card.

The graphics card was supposed to arrive just before New Year. And then it didn't. And it didn't. And it continued to didn't. So by about the third I just went, "Okay, fine, time to get on to customer service". Since this was a first offense, I decided it didn't require "talking to a human being", so I hit their support chat and basically went, "The graphics card I paid a fair bit of money for has not arrived, so could you just send me one that actually gets here? Thanks". And the AI or whatever said "Sure".

Taking the delivery was fun. While the doorbell technically works, I still can't buzz people into the building from the comfort of my foyer (my stepfather is looking into it; which means I'll probably have it fixed sometime next year). So I had to haul my poor disabled ass downstairs to let the guy in. He was such a nice guy. He not only had my graphics card, but he also had the new headset mic I'd ordered (since my last one has proven to have worn out to the point where my input is a staticky mess). Thing is, he only remembered seeing it when I got to the door, so he went all the way back to his van to get it. See, while we do have visitor parking out front, we have a few residents who use it for their second cars, so the visitors parking is usually full ... which is ironic when you consider that only maybe two-thirds of the actual residents have cars and use their allotted parking spaces. Anyway, he had a couple of deliveries for other residents in the building so since I was going upstairs anyway, I offered to take the one that was going up to my floor. He was so nice, I figured I'd spare him the trip.

So anyway, I wasn't going to install everything last night because ... well, the machine was on and doing things, and I didn't want to turn the whole thing off and on again, and I figured to do it in the morning (or afternoon, whenever I woke up) so I'd be fresher for any disasters that happened in the process of installing the new graphics card. I did test the headset mic, though, with help from a voice chat with @true0neutral - the new headset works fine, and proves that my poor old headset has to be put out to pasture.

So today, I put in the new graphics card.

THINGS I CAN NO LONGER DO EASILY BECAUSE OF FUCKING FIBROMYALGIA, #839 - manhandle a computer tower to install things.

I mean, the unplugging of everything was a bitch, and then hauling it onto the desk was more of a bitch, and then I had to do some dusting of the inside of the PC, which I guess was okay, and then I had to pull the old graphics card, which was a little frustrating, and then I lost a screw in the casing and had to rattle it around like one of those toys where you tilt a box to get a marble through a maze into a hole, which hurt, and then I had to plug in the new graphics card, which was awkward, and then I had to put everything back together again, which hurt, and then I had to plug everything back in, which hurt more...

And then it decided it wanted to enter setup mode because I guess something went wrong in POST, which was terrifying. But I honestly made no changes to it that I'm aware of; I just put it back to default settings (which apparently changed nothing) and it restarted just fine. However, as is the nature of things, I'm going to be paranoid about it until I'm sure it's not going to do that again.

For now, it all seems to have worked out. My machine is ... actually quieter now, and apart from a little bit of hiccupping as it decided which of my two monitors it wanted to be using for what, and which speakers to use (WHY is it defaulting to my headset? I have speakers and I want to USE THEM), things seem to be working as intended. Of course, I haven't tried to play any games on it yet. I did all this before I'd even had my coffee, y'see, so coffee has to happen before anything else. So the first part of the testing - regular PC function - has to happen while I have at least half my Big Mug O'Coffee. And then I am going to start slowly with an indie game, nothing too graphics intensive, and then I will check how it runs with DA2, and only then will I try it on Baldur's Gate 3.

Look, I get a little paranoid, okay? I've been doing this for about two decades and I should be pretty chill about upgrading my PC when I've literally built a machine from spare parts twice ... but it pays to be cautious, I've found. I'd rather have a little bit of paranoia for awhile and catch any problem before it becomes a big one than tell myself everything's fine and then get blindsided by something exploding. The last time I was too chill about an upgrade, my power supply basically blew up.

No, I am not kidding.

[adelle-ein]

Lace's Engage Review: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly (minimal spoilers)

So I ended up deciding to get Engage shortly after it released, and I uh…have some thoughts about it. Far too many thoughts. As usual.

This is intended to be a spoiler-light review for those on the fence. There's pretty much no story spoilers, they all pertain to gameplay aspects. Also these are my opinions. They're subjective. You'll probably disagree with me. And I don't want to fight about it. Like at all. Okay? Okay.

Overall, I think the gameplay and general style puts me most in mind of the GBA games, with maybe a splash of 3ds-era (Fateswakening, that is, echoes is really more its own thing.) The general focus on the maps and battle, the feel of said maps, the game mechanics, the relative length and varied quality of supports, some characters being very gimmicky while others are more layered — it definitely doesn't feel like Three Houses, and it's more of a return to traditional FE form wrapped up in a strangely-colored package. The story is quite bad, but in a more "average FE story way" — some sweet moments, not a bad concept at all if a common one, but poor and very straightforward delivery. Alear is very Corrin-like in that they aren't the smartest and get largely worshiped just for breathing, which is definitely tiring, but they do actually have a consistent personality and characterization unlike Byleth. C-B supports are mostly (not all) for humor, but several A supports are surprisingly thoughtful and well-done. Unfortunately, the game falls down hard in what, for me, are a few key areas. Basically, maybe this is a three out of five stars? Something like that?

The Good: 

Let be known, for starters, that I am a ~casual~ gamer. I'm bad at video games! Some of this is disability and some is just me! I like to play things on easy! So obviously my perspective will be different from someone playing the whole thing on maddening-classic-ironman-nuzlocke-yunaka solo-what have you. Also, I've played FE7-16, along with both Warriors games, played Heroes since day 1, and read/watched other people's playthroughs of 4/5/6. So those are my "qualifications"…so to speak.

Starting off: The graphics, character designs aside, are really very nice. Everyone is much more expressive, things are much smoother and less jagged than in 3h, and the environments and scenery are very pretty. The pre-rendered cutscenes look detailed and high-quality. The lighting is good and fairly dynamic, and textures are crisp and don't have that photoskinned look to them. Sommie is very cute, honestly. You can run around and explore the maps a little bit after battles, and it's clearly just a mechanic so the devs can show off how good the environments look. Honestly, they're very good! Cute, detailed (you can see inside buildings sometimes and they're fully furnished,) and well-designed. There's also some other cute and well-done details around the Somniel. For example, there's a ton of different models for the various cooking meals (I'm not sure I ever saw any reused? There's a LOT) and they look pretty nice considering you only see them for like ten seconds apiece. Also, I do think Three Houses had a prettier interface, but Engage's is much more comfortably readable with its font choices. Minor thing, but a good thing.

The maps and battle system are clearly the focus of the game, and the game continues to throw new things and gimmicks at you without feeling cheap or getting stale. The Emblems being used both by and against you contribute to this, but there's also some single-map gimmicks and returning ones, such as unique boss AI or moves, that add variety. Offensive staves, more varied weapons and maps, lots of fun ways to mix it up within the main story maps. Just the fact that bosses now have multiple HP bars, for example, adds a lot to gameplay and makes every map just feel like a unique challenge, which I haven't gotten from FE for a few entries now.

While the characters overall aren't quite as layered or deep as Three Houses's, some are genuinely very good, and many are likable in spite of that. Honestly, sometimes when Three Houses pulled out the "depth" card, it just ended up ruining a character for me (ie the Gonerils' child slaves that are never mentioned again…). There wasn't anyone in Engage that I hated at all, really, and that was refreshing. No womanizer character, no "racist but they feel bad about it," nothing like that. I enjoyed them a lot, I think they were fun and colorful (if perhaps maybe too literally colorful) and while a few were reduced to gimmicks, they weren't the majority, and nearly all show a lot of deeper motivation once you get digging. Sure, some of them bring up their hobbies too much, but uh, I'm one to talk. I think they were a fun, lovable cast overall, if perhaps not the ones with the most depth, but a good level of depth for what I personally want out of a Fire Emblem game. They also didn't feel clogged up with "filler characters" the way the earlier games sometimes do. You do get a few prepromotes thrown at you in lategame just in case, but no groups of four cavaliers with interchangeable personalities in case you fuck up and kill two. Everyone feels like they have a reasonable amount of characterization and care put into their writing, even the cast's weaker members, and the result is a generally memorable and likeable group.

While the supports aren't as long and many aren't as deep, they all go up to A, and a lot of them are just fun and enjoyable to watch. If you've only played Three Houses, or only like Three Houses's cast, then yeah, they'll feel weird to you, but if you do like the casts of older FE games, I don't think they're any worse than those (and frankly, they're better than some.) They're fun, some are quite creative, and I don't get any of the "ugh, we HAVE to include these" vibes that sometimes came across in Awakening and Fates. Those two games suffered from needing to include S options for almost every M/F combo, and Engage enjoys being freed from it. Characters are paired together because of their existing connections, traits in common, or because the writers just had an idea, and things flow very well. Overall, it feels like a throwback to FE6-10.

This is a personal note for me, but Three Houses felt like the writers had just discovered the concept of mental illness and wanted to use it as a crutch. Engage steps away from that, and for me personally, that's a huge improvement. After so many "hates: herself" characters, so much depression and anxiety that was portrayed downright callously or even cruelly, and the absolute nightmare of a parody that is Bernadetta, it was a relief to not open every support wondering in which way the writers were about to mock me. I know some mentally ill people liked the way characters were written in Three Houses. I am not one of them, and found it awful. I'm so glad they've decided to step away from their "PTSD is sexy, anxiety is funny, listen to characters tell you they stopped being suicidal because of [Player], listen to Bernadetta scream at the top of her lungs as wacky music plays because agoraphobia is a laugh riot" crusade.

The overall "throwback" feel of the game is genuinely nice. I had sort of missed getting to play what feels like a "regular" Fire Emblem. Personally I like it when the game varies formula, but it frustrates me when FE does two extremely similar games in a row (like how Fates tries really really hard to just be Awakening Again), and I was sort of expecting FE17 to be Three Houses Two (again, because Three Hopes is already that…). It was a pleasant surprise to find that Engage overall has its own identity while going back to basics with other aspects of the formula. I don't love everything that came from this (as you'll see below) but there were many things that I really enjoyed, mostly the actual gameplay itself and how fun it was.

As far as the main plot, in a spoiler free version: the idea was good, the execution was off. Pacing is kind of a mess, and the writers fail to give the deuteragonist and other significant secondary characters enough material and screentime to get you as attached to them as they clearly want you to be. This seriously drags down the whole thing. Take the exact basic concept, rearrange the ordering of the chapters and the priorities for screentime, maybe don't fight the Hounds QUITE as many times (it gets ridiculous by the fourth go around and you're still not done…) and certain scenes would hit a lot harder. The emotional core just isn't there because the pacing is so wonky. Parts of the script, animation, and voice acting also fall down at key moments (one character's scream of grief and rage just looks and sounds absurd.) I do like some of the messages, which break up the usual Fire Emblem narrative in key ways, and I don't think it's a terrible plot. It's just another mediocre one. I would personally rank it similarly to Binding Blade or Awakening, which is to say, unimpressive and predictable, but not horrifically bad or anything. It's a bit frustrating though, because I think it had the potential to be genuinely heartfelt, but unwillingness to provide any lore combined with really bad pacing combined with badly distributed screentime leads to kind of a mess. I have more detailed/spoilery thoughts on the plot here, but be warned, I SPOIL EVERYTHING.

The CGs are really well drawn and pretty-looking. Minor but true. The credits are really very nice, I enjoyed them and wish other FE games had something similar. The S-support CGs are not as well done, but the faces are not as, well…Bad as they are in 3h. I'll take it, basically. The rest of the CGs and illustrations are good though! The ally logbook and the little screenshots you unlock of the characters are also cute.

Also Sommie is admittedly adorable. I had to warm up to it but the way it follows you around the Somniel making its little footprint noises? Fucking precious. And hey, if you don't like it, you can just not feed it and it'll stay in its shrine so it won't bug you. Overall, the Somniel is very optional. I don't like minigames (and some of them are too painful for me with my health issues), so I didn't play any of them much, and that was totally fine and didn't slow me down. I personally see this as a plus. Also you can design a cute little card to hand out to anyone you do multiplayer with. With stickers! Lots of stickers!!

…If every aspect of this game had as much care put into it as that card designer, I would be rating it five stars. Alas.

The Bad:

The UI and quality of life features leave a lot to be desired. It is not easy to find or figure out how to do things in this game. For example, you can raise your bonds with Emblem Rings in the Arena area of Somniel, unlocking skills from them that you can then inherit. Great! But, uh...to inherit those skills, you have to go through a loading screen and travel to an entirely different area of Somniel, the Ring Chamber. I've spent a very long time traveling back and forth between the two as I unlock skills. It's a strange oversight, and one that is unfortunately repeated again and again all over the game. The menus are cumbersome, weird, and annoying, and sometimes really frustrating to navigate because there are just too many things going on in a single interface (The ring menu is just not enjoyable to use in my opinion.) Auto-equipping things sounds great until you realize it takes everything off your non-deployed units and the choices it makes are nonsensical. You don't have any kind of notification for support conversations being unlocked, and neither supports nor bonds are indicated as being available from menus either. If you're trying to win over a particular character with a pile of gifts, you'd better hope they randomly happen to spawn into Somniel, or you can sleep over and over until they do, because it's just luck of the draw. There's just a lot of weird, nagging little details that make things very cumbersome.

The thing that really bugged me, personally, is that Engage has no real way to fix up your lower-level units. Thanks to the royal/retainer setup from Fates returning, Engage throws a lot of characters at you very quickly throughout midgame. You can't use them all, so many have to hit the bench. Oh, but that's okay, right? There's skirmish battles infinitely respawning on the map, after all! Well...wrong. The level scaling for those skirmishes is based off the toughest members of your army, and is usually actually higher than whatever story chapters you currently have unlocked. Left Jean on the bench? He's staying there, since every enemy you can spawn for him to face will kill him by blinking. And the levels scale fast. Even sitting out a few maps can be terminal, as it was for my poor Yunaka. No matter how fun you might find some of the characters you skipped, you'll simply never get to use them. The modes in the Somniel are specifically set up to be anti-grind, and have limited uses...or don't gain EXP/supports/SP...et cetera. Weirdly enough, characters will also complain in this game if you don't use them, for some reason, since you can't actually do anything about that. Guess what, Panette, if I deploy you now you're going to immediately be Corrupted food, and there's nothing I can do to fix that.

This extends to every other traditional FE "grind." Other than a few potential exploits people have found, which are very, very slow, there is simply no way to reliably support grind with non-Alear units. Non-Alear units ONLY gain support points with each other by using staves on each other, eating meals or doing arena battles with each other, or...by defeating an enemy on player phase only and only with the units directly adjacent to them. And you can only have one mealtime between every two battles, not endlessly stuff yourself with different duos a la Byleth and Shez. Even with Corrin's support-gaining skill and regular mealtimes and arena battles, supports gain at a crawl. Gold runs out fast and the only way to get more is the miserably difficult, high-level skirmishes.

I have one massive file each in Awakening and Fates in which I have every single unit fully built, all their stats and A supports maxed, and full sets of skills (except for my least favorite units…), from both spamming reeking boxes and the DLC maps, all just for fun. That's not possible in Engage. Awakening/Fates didn't have NG+ because they didn't need NG+. Engage does. In Awakafates, you could, if you wanted to, have a fun, enjoyable postgame/lategame to collect everything and try completely wild combinations out. In Engage, there are a number of skills and builds and abilities that, while cool in theory, are just never possible to try in-game without insanely slow grinding. Finishing the support log is a nightmare ask and pretty much impossible in one file unless you are insanely devoted to having units healing each other with Micaiah's ring in the corners of high level maps for IRL days on end. It’s pretty much impossible to max all donation levels or collect all bond rings, because again, no NG+. This certainly doesn't matter to many players, but it does to me, so that's why I'm sharing. I wouldn't be surprised if we get some DLC maps designed to help fill this in a little, and personally, I think that sucks. Sure, the DLC maps in Fates/Awakening speed things up a lot, but they aren't absolutely necessary as you can still use map battles easily enough. If they add DLC grinding maps to Engage, they will be the only options available. Lame. Even if it’s a free patch, the game currently feels like it’s missing a basic feature. Withholding that for hype or money reasons is just obnoxious.

The throwback paralogues, meanwhile, are…kind of a slog for me. The Emblems make a fairly bland speech about their motivations and then fight you on a map designed to look like various random maps from their corresponding games (and I mean random — some of these choices were far from iconic and downright inexplicable. Why a random beach for Celica? Why is Sigurd on a Seliph map, albeit a well-known one? Why is Lyn's map from FE6 aaaaaaaaa.) While the gameplay on these maps is tight and challenging, that's pretty much where the well-done fanservice begins and ends. Actual characterization of the Emblems is few and far between, pretty much limited to Bond conversations. In the story proper, they're exposition bots.

The Ugly:

Just coming out to say it: God, these characters look so bad. Alear is hideous. The colors are all over the place and clash with each other horribly. The battle outfits are just eyesores (although the Somniel ones are generally improvements, you can't equip those in battle, so what's the point?) The job outfits are REALLY ugly (that sage outfit is goddamn hideous.) Nearly all the characters all have either Boy Face or Girl Face, and Girl Faces all look like they're about eleven years old. The weird medieval/modern/fantasy/??? mashup look doesn't work for me. Every non-pre rendered cutscene had girl Alear making her blank stupid blob face, and no matter what expression she made she just looked really weird. Her design is, for me, simply so weird and ugly as to be distracting at all times. Meanwhile, so many characters like Yunaka, Panette, and Hortensia are just downright distractingly bad looking. I can't take the face stickers or clown dresses seriously at all, and they're not even fun to look at. Orientalism, as usual, abounds in both some default outfits (Seadall is...so bad) and dress-up options. The artist was a poor choice for FE, but I don't think most of the blame lies at her feet — the choice itself was bad, and there's no direction to speak of when it comes to the overall look of the characters. Most of the countries don't appear to have any coherent cultural identity in clothing designs the way Nohr and Hoshido did, for example (barring Firene's passion for flowers and some recurring patterns among the Brodians.) If it weren't for the copy-pasted faces, many of them would look like they came from different games altogether. Even the generic soldiers look awful. It's disjointed and ugly. The entire design team fell down hard on this one.

The Emblems honestly leave a lot to be desired. Some aren't bad, but that blobby girl face doesn't really work for most of the female Emblems. Celica and Eirika's hair looks atrocious (do they have terrible bedhead or something?) and Leif just looks incredibly off in a way I can't quite define. Design-wise, this is a very bad looking game. Which is a shame, because all the animation upgrades now feel completely wasted on terrible designs.

And, of course, Fire Emblem gonna Fire Emblem: the S-supports are just a mess overall. The datamined ages don't appear to be present in the game proper, but based on the under-18s being made platonic in the NA localization, I'm assuming they're still canon. This means Alear is 17 and capable of marrying a number of people in their twenties and above, even in the localized version. To be fair, I think the localizers were fucked no matter what they did here. Leave in marriage to Anna and the game will rightfully be slammed. Take out every romantic relationship and the backlash will be incredible. But where do you draw the line for a 17-year-old dating a 15-19 y/o? There was just no way to win this one, and I guess going with 18 makes as much sense as anything. This is not me defending the original devs, who suck. This is just me thinking about how the localization team really just could not make any good choice here, thanks to the original game's fucked up "lol you can marry anyone" choices. Whole thing is gross all the way around. There's a pretty small handful of characters that are both left romantic and not creepy choices for Alear, so we're back in the same situation Fates and 3h left us in, where all the super popular avatar ships are just weird and unpleasant and people call you a monster for not liking them. Great, thanks a lot, intsys. All of this being said: the game itself really doesn't include these ages, and most people aren't even going to realize they're a thing. You need to go online to even find out. So who only knows why they exist to begin with (Anna etc romantic S-supports still gonna be real bad no matter what, though.)

And no, there's no romance or paired endings between non-Alear characters, just some vague non-explicit implications in certain a-supports, as per usual, because playersexuality is all that matters to anyone anymore. Let's all publish thinkpieces about how FE said gay rights or whatever though! Woo-hoo!

Verdict:

So, all that being said…Engage is really fun. It is also a hot mess and while the gameplay is overall strong, there are certain aspects that don't seem to have been thought through at all. Its greatest strengths are its map design and focus on core gameplay, but its weaknesses lie in quality of life and options for grinding and more casual fun. There's no postgame/ng+/etc whatsoever despite the game really needing it. And the designs look terrible. I personally don't think it was worth the $60 (maybe more like $40), and mostly decided to go ahead and buy it so I could lend it out to the family. Of course, your mileage may vary, but those are my full thoughts on the game as a whole. 

Also don't ask me how it ranks in the series overall, it'll take at least a few months before I can form concrete thoughts on that. All I can say it doesn't inspire sheer frothing rage and I will probably play it again. No the best FE game but not the worst either. That's all I got.

Stan Sommie.

[uraharashouten]

No offense meant but I really think youre wrong about AI

AI in the context of art and writing HAS to take sources from other people. Online AI generators cant operate without stealing from other creators, and is being used to minimize the work actual artists and writers do. All tech is AN AI but a computer or website isnt going to steal your work, assimilate it and spit it back out for someone else without your knowledge, consent or input. AI in general has ethical issues when implemented into society. And honestly not all progress is good progress. The current AI tech is bad regardless of hows its used and is very different than just being a computer program, its only purpose is to mix up artistic input and spit it out for others benefit

The fact is, even if artists get a say, its tech that fundamentally tries to bypass the hard work and ACTUAL technical aspects of art to mimic it. Maybe it can move forward in the future but its not a good idea to say that the way its being used is the only problem. New tech isn’t automatically bad or good, how people use it does matter. Comparing the real world use of this tech to steal from artists to fictional characters who happen to be artificial creations isn’t ok. You can choose not to have negative consequences in a fictional world, but not in reality. And just because something works out okay in a story doesn't mean its a good idea. Artificial life is itself an entire ethical debate thats gone on for decades and cant be boiled down to good or bad.

It's always nice to know people are reading this blog. Thanks for your thoughtful input.

I was being a bit tongue-in-cheek with the reference to fictional characters, but how AI is applied to real-world creative enterprises is indeed a significant issue. One major problem has been around the data sets used to train various AI models, and those being used to generate 'art' are only one facet of the problem. Take, just for one example, AI used to sift resumes—if the training data favors a particular demographic bias, guess which ones get filtered out a priori? Ethical questions around use and application of AI abound. Use of artificial intelligence is a complex and nuanced issue.

The damage has been done with the most popular tools, such as ChatGPT and DALL-E, but it would be possible for artists and writers to consent to using their works to train AI tools, in which case, there'd be no stealing. (I personally would be intrigued to see what would happen if this blog were used to train an AI, so I'd consent to that.) But if we begin to rely broadly on the AI to generate art, where does that leave artists? Where does that leave innovation and originality? If everything is a mélange and regurgitated hodgepodge that looks good enough, where does that leave our expectations? Our aspirations? That doesn't sound like human flourishing to me.

Now, before we get all high and mighty about how original we are, let me point out that humans have always loved to copy one another. In a sense, all art is derivative; that's why we have archetypes and tropes. We influence one another, but we'll only ever be similar, not identical, and that's part of the beauty of creativity. I can write someone else's characters (thank you Kubo Tite) but I will never exactly replicate perfectly the way the creator did it. And that's a beautiful thing. Likewise, an artifical intelligence won't duplicate an original; it'll just take inspiration from it, in the same way a human would. But it might do that faster and cheaper, if not better. And that's part of the problem. But... we will need to grapple with all this as a society, because it's not going away.

Finally: the real reason for that post? If you've read this far, you deserve to know. I understand that the PSA that's been going around is an attempt to establish a new cultural norm for how artificially-generated content is regarded... by using fear of being replaced by AI to justify ostracizing anyone who uses any form of it, as determined subjectively. And frankly, anything that uses fear, uncertainty and doubt to create in-groups and out-groups in the RPC—or frankly, anywhere else— just rubs me the wrong way.

[unityrain24]

rambling ahead

so on any of my fics that i write about something significant that i haven't personally experienced, i always put something in the notes saying something along the lines of "i tried my best to write this, but i don't personally experience it, so if you are a person who has experienced this, please let me know if i wrote anything incorrect/offensive so i can fix it!".

Most commonly, i do this for genderfluidity, as the character i write about is loki (who is. genderfluid). While I myself am queer, i am not genderfluid, so I cannot have first-hand experience. I feel it is important to let people know they can correct me if i unknowingly wrote anything incorrect/offensive. (which has not happened yet, in fact i've gotten various assurances from genderfluid commenters i am doing a just fine job). The note i leave isn't asking for an in-depth lecture, as i'm not a completely clueless person looking desperately for knowledge, it's just a little short thing telling them to let me know if I made a small mistake somewhere.

Anyways, today i got a comment on a fic i posted a year or two ago (it was my first published fic, actually), which was about loki & genderfluidness. The comment was on the routine note i was just explained, and the comment was:

heyy, maybe i could help you with some stuff, im just a beginner myself, but i see things very fast, so i could help with that, and to make the genderfluid thing more realistic, my friend is genderfluid, so i have some experience with it. its okay ifyou dont do anything wit this, wut if you do, feel free to message me:)

Which just seems like... a sort of strange comment?? (also i do feel bad putting their comment out here so i might delete it)

i wasn't asking for help

while i may have been a beginner when i wrote the fic, that was a year or two ago?? I have written plenty since then. While i am by no means a seasoned writer, i am hesitant to call myself a beginner beginner, at least in fanfiction terms (especially when this commenter only had three fics, all from this year, one of which was actually written by/with an ai, so even if i am a beginner, objectively i would still have more experience than them. we would not be the same level of beginner)

how would you have experience with being genderfluid if you aren't genderfluid.

'i am experienced in genderfluidity because i know a genderfluid person' would honestly be kind of funny if things like that weren't said all the time about various subjects (example: "is an expert on autism because my son is autistic" or "i can't be racist, my neighbor is black") (not perfect examples but)

again how would your view of genderfluidity be any "more realistic" than mine if neither of us are genderfluid

also the implication that mine is not realistic/ or at least lacking quality, while theirs wouldn't

also this assumes i don't know any genderfluid people myself?? which isn't true. i have met numerous genderfluid people. that doesn't give me experience

again i wasn't asking for help in my note, and if i did want help, i would just... ask a genderfluid person?? Or read things by genderfluid people? If i wanted help understanding/writing genderfluidity, why would i ask a non-genderfluid person?

also, i made this fic a year or two ago, and it's completed (and marked as such). Offering help on a completed fic is a bit strange?

also, what does "i see things very fast" mean

Now i'm not posting all this because i am mad or super-offended at the commenter!! Honestly, the comment was from wattpad, not my usual ao3, so the person very well could have been a middle schooler or something. And even if not, they seemed like they were trying be very nice/helpful. The post is long not out of anger, but because i found it a bit strange and also i have the inability to shut up.

Also i have no clue how to reply to this person

[therealtsk]

A Review of Redfall, by an Old Arkane Fan

Alright, introductions: Hi! I’ve played through Redfall twice- finished the main campaign both co-op and solo, and I’ve done a fair majority of the side missions. As a long time fan of Arkane’s games (Dishonored mega fan, replayed the entire series more times then I can count), I thought it might be fun to write up my general thoughts on Redfall. I want to start with some things I enjoyed, list some things I didn’t, and then detail some hopes for the possible future of the game. For the short and quick of it, I had a good time both playthroughs of the game! In it’s current state, I think it’s somewhere around a six outta ten for me. It has a lot- a lot of flaws, but if you’re with a buddy or if you’re just in the mood for a funky action-horror looter shooter, it’ll entertain you well enough.

For the purposes of clarity, this is a review both aimed at the general consumer and at the developers, so if y’all could boost this, I’d really appreciate it!

To begin with, the positives: Characters

I’ve only gotten to enjoy half of the main cast (I played Jacob, my friend played Layla) but I’m already in love with them. The VA’s did a great job with what they got, Jacob’s in particular. I’m used to these kinds of looter-shooters (and honestly Arkane games in general, no offense) to being a bit light on character interaction, and while I did hear a few voice lines more times then I would have liked, there’s some genuine charm in here. Jacob’s surrogate big brother vibes and general background gave some real emotional heft to parts of the main campaign, particularly to one mission where you recover a young girl’s toy bear. His speech at the end was enough to get me properly invested in taking down the boss of the first half of the game, and a few of his interactions with Layla showed a very sweet dynamic starting to grow— I’ll talk about this more at the end, but I earnestly hope that they add more lines to the game fostering the adoptive family energy I was getting. From what I’ve seen of Devinder and Remi, it looks like they got the main cast right. As for the side characters, they’re not as fully realized as I would want them to be, but they’re generally likable enough that you want to do their respective missions. My only regret is that once you do a mission that hooks Bob up to the radios in the safehouses, his voice starts to get more than a little grating, especially towards the end of the game— but you can turn the radios off, so it’s not that big of a deal.

Core Gameplay 

Putting the wonkiness of the AI aside, the movement and gunplay of this game provides a solid foundation for the experience. Not having a movement penalty when reloading after so many games implementing that is a breath of fresh air, sliding is fast and practical in combat, three out of four characters provide movement-based abilities that offer a ton of dynamic approaches to combat— great stuff! The guns themselves all feel generally fun and satisfying to use, with one exception. Particular shout out to the reloads of shotguns and sniper rifles for having appropriately crunching sound design. 

Environmental Storytelling

While I have some…Thoughts on the main narrative, you can really feel Arkane’s touch when it comes to the subtler elements of the story in the world itself. Particularly in solo play, the game’s environments have this wonderful ability to balance the kind of bombastic, make-with-the-chaos style dialogue with some genuine suspense and horror. I don’t want to spoil the experience for anyone so I’ll be vague, but there’s one Underboss in the first half of the game which had such excellent build up that I ended up getting legitimately unnerved exploring his area. There’s a few other side quests in the game that also feature a fantastic combination of both written notes and visual/auditorial details to make the breath catch in your lungs as you put the pieces together.

Out of the entire game, this is the part where I could hear the echo of previous entries in Arkane’s repository, singing out of the past. 

Now, onto a few issues I have with the game. I want to keep the tone generally positive, so I'm going to list a few suggestions for potential fixes to these issues when I bring them up. That said, let’s get into it.

Enemy Difficulty and Variety

So, you all knew this one was coming. I’m gonna break this up into subcategories per enemy type since each one has problems, but to start, the enemies in this game are just not smart enough and not plentiful enough, especially in co-op, where my friend and I both clearly felt as if there were remarkably less enemies when we played together versus when we played solo. There needs to be more enemies throughout the entire campaign and throughout every area. As for enemy intelligence, cultists remained an almost non-threat for the entire game with how slow they are to respond to you, and Bellwether soldiers were only even a mild danger when they brought turrets and I didn’t have a sniper rifle on me to deal with them. Even the vampires seemed to be a bit unaware in general, although they’re definitely better balanced with regards to threat level and variety than the other enemies in the game. 

Okay, now for specific enemy type issues/potential changes:

Cultists either need to be reduced in quantity or given more distinction— perhaps berserker-type enemies that become tankier/faster upon ingesting blood but become melee focused, or members that try and sneak up behind you to deal massive damage (these could be very thematically relevant in Miss Whisper’s faction, using her fog to their advantage.) Maybe give them different weapons in general? Like bows or throwing knives that can do bleed damage over time. In areas they control, perhaps have old fashioned traps disguised in the trees, snares that limit mobility, hidden bear traps. Something to flavor them differently from Bellwether, because as of right now, they fight fundamentally the same.

For Bellwether, adding perhaps mini-gun wielding enemies with bullet-resistant armor could encourage the usage of more environmental hazards or esoteric weapons, like the Flare Gun to blind them, or using the Stake Launcher to damage the weapon itself. Another potential mini-boss-esque enemy type could be Electrucitioners, Bellewether ops who’re using Devinder-inspired tech to create zones of electric discharge to hamper the player’s superior mobility— they throw stakes as their only ranged attack, and otherwise try to get in close and zap you. For Vampires, I’d almost say that on top of just increasing the spawn locations and rates in general, there needs to be some kind of invisible system in place where the longer you’re out in the open, especially if you’re making noise, the more vampires descend upon you. Even during solo play, the districts feel too empty— the town is being occupied by these monsters, and I think adding something like that would really increase the sense of player tension where you don’t wanna be outside of designated safe zones for too long, or more and more will descend upon you, whittling down your resources until you trigger a Rook with little ammo to spare. I think there’s enough subtypes of Vampires for now (although I think siphons could afford to look a little more visually distinct from the regular ones), but I wouldn’t say no to something similar to a less tanky Rook or a stalker type enemy that can follow you across the map, ambushing you when you’re not expecting it. 

In summation and at bare minimum, the AI needs to be patched to just be more aware and responsive overall, and far more vampires need to be placed throughout the entire campaign— if possible, adding more variations to the human enemies would make encounters focused on them feel less dull and repetitive.

Weapon Drops 

This one is another problem of variety and quantity. While I don’t personally believe I’ve seen every possible weapon drop in the game, the fact is that by the time I was halfway through the main campaign, after done every side mission, Safehouse quests, and Rook encounter I could get my hands on, I didn’t find a properly new weapon until near the last mission. As far as I can tell, there are six assault rifles, maybe seven shotguns, five handguns, two UV-beams, five sniper rifles, four stake launchers, and maybe four flare guns. Oh, and out of those categories, only rifles, shotguns, pistols get non-character specific uniques— and chances are you’ll have seen multiple copies of all of them before you even get to the second half of the main mission. For a game that marketed itself as something of a looter-shooter, this is far too small of a pool. It loses the ability to get you excited about what you might get from killing a tough enemy or completing a mission far too early. Once I hit the mid to late game missions, I think I kept the same weapons the entire time, only switching out when I ran into a copy that had slightly higher stats because I simply hadn’t found anything I hadn’t already tried before. 

Short of it is, more weapons need to be added to the roster, ideally variations on preexisting weapons that change up the usual way you use them, especially with regards to legendaries (and frankly, the legendaries themselves could use buffs in general). As a final note, flare guns. Throughout my entire two run throughs, I could not find a situation in which a flare gun would be a better pick than any other weapon type. I’d love to hear feedback from other people on this one because maybe I missed something. 

Main Campaign Narrative

So, sadly, this can’t really be patched, which is why I’m going to spend the least amount of time on it because…the main story is just kind of not…great. It’s not bad, but it’s at once too short and also way too meandering. Anticlimactic, would be the way I’d put it. Aside from the opening segment, there’s no proper cutscenes, which I’m actually fine with— except for the fact that after you eliminate every penultimate boss, there’s this big speech by your character about how they’ve “played right into the Black Sun’s hands, and now it’s Extra Dangerous Outside” but there’s no cutscene or any ensuing gameplay event to show that, leaving me with an an acute feeling of “um, what?” 

In that specific case, I think maybe some kind of section after all of the Gods have been taken out, having a moment where you emerge from the Nest only for the sky to turn red, and maybe a rook drops on you and you can’t fast travel, and then there’s this very haunting, intense run back to a safe zone with the Black Sun gloating at you about how now she can take all of Redfall for herself, with loads more enemies. Maybe have a general threat increase in the overworld if there’s still side missions left for the player to do, or perhaps a chance to return to the first map and see that new Underbosses have cropped up in different locations. 

Then there’s the bit with The Carnival, which again just feels very sudden and anticlimactic. You meet the new NPC, you go into three nests in what feel like random locations that are weirdly lacking in enemies, collect three things and then…final boss time? Really? Nothing more to do with this fairly pivotal character? 

It’s just kind of a shame, really— given how much legitimately good narrative stuff there is in smaller, more environmental parts of the game, the main campaign’s narrative is ultimately the writing equivalent of a plain piece of toast. It’s not bad, but there’s just not a whole lot there, and after eating it for a bit, you wish that there was more flavor and substance on it. 

Hopes for the Future

So, to avoid ending this on a downer note, I wanna talk about some hopes I have for this game's future. 

First of that being: communication from the dev team! As far as I know, it’s been pretty much radio silence. Devs, y’all gotta talk to us! Let us know what’s going on, even if it’s not great news. Good communication is a cornerstone for the longevity of any game like this. 

Secondly: I dearly do hope that more patches are on the way, because I honestly think this game could go from being a 6/10 all the way up to an 8/10 with some general fixes. Ultimately, every major problem I think exists aside from the story is very fixable, and with the right tweaks/additions, I think would get general consensus of the game turned around. If someone like me can have fun with the game in a not great place, I think lots more can have fun with it once it’s been given a little love and attention

Thirdly: With regards to the DLC, I think that releasing them is still the right move, and could even be used to help shore up the game’s admittedly short run time depending on what they had in mind. I definitely think there’s room here to add more to do in general. 

In one big summation: I had fun with the game both co-op and solo, even in it’s current state! I think the characters, core gameplay, and environmental storytelling are great. The enemies and loot system could use some work, and the main campaign story is nothing to write home about. I hope to hear more from the dev team, see more patches, and look forwards to what the DLC could do for the game. That’s all. Have a good one!

[sleepy-moonfly]

This is so random but I swear it's been eating away at my paranoid anxiety filled soul for the past two days 💀 (I accidentally made a long post. lots of swearing too because I'm so pissed about this)

I literally cannot put into words exactly how much I despise AI generated content. It's.. I dunno, offensive, rude, cruel, unnecessary, dumb, and makes me incredibly uncomfortable. A few years ago I wouldn't have even thought that I'd end up saying something like this about something that has to do with AI, considering that I really like robots. Quite frankly I feel like this is abuse of artifical intelligence. (Which makes me even more upset, oh my goodness these fuckers are so stupid I hate them-)

As someone who puts my heart into creating things—in general, not only art—I'm offended that people try to imitate the hard work of people like me. I'd call it cheap, but I think some of those programs they use are paid, but I guess they wouldn't care because they make shit money from it anyway. Ugh.

AI art, AI songs, AI writing, AI videos, AI whatever, really. Its soulless and I hate it because it feels like blasphemy. My art might be shit, my singing might be shit, but at least I put my heart into it. I'll be damned if people start making AI games or something, comeplete with AI "art" from AI "artists" and AI "music" so fucking beautiful fuck you stupid wannabes, why don't you just fucking learn how to use your heart—and your brain. What, is it impossible? I can't believe some people think soulless content is better that something made with passion and creativity.

Honestly, I feel bad for the AI programs that "AI artists" use for their nonsense. It's abuse, if you really think about it. The AI makes the art—not even aware that the data it's being trained by is stolen—and the person who literally just typed some words gets all the credit.

I'm uncomfortable looking for art nowadays. I miss the time when you could look for fanart and not have to second guess that it was made by someone who puts value in creating art, even if its in a really goofy way. I have a collection of fanart that I saved in before AI "art" broke loose on the internet, it just feels different knowing for sure that an artist made those than looking at the art that is circulating now. I didn't realize this was how things were going to turn out, and I wish I took the time to look for more art and artists back when we didn't have to sift through everything with a keen eye.

Now I'm scared that people will try to use my content for AI slop (or just steal my creations in general), maybe when I gain more reach online, or maybe even now since people hardly know me and it would be (maybe) impossible to trace back the original artist. If some wannbe tries training an AI model off of my stuff, I WILL make a fuss. Call me immature, but if they don't feel any remorse at all even after I've expressed how upset I am, they've got a problem and they're gonna get the shit talk from me. You've gotta be a loser to pick on someone who's creative but has trouble expressing themselves yet still tries anyway.

People are so fake, especially now, and I wish I didn't have to look for lies. They'll try to get to me eventually, as they'll try to get to everyone else as well. I hope I can scare them away, but bullies never take a disturbed person seriously. They'll just laugh about it.

[promiscuouspomegranate]

why does it take u so long to upload like no offense but u always take so long

First of all, what happened to hello? Straight to the point, aren't we? Normally these "asks" try to sugarcoat it, but I guess we feel bold now. Second of all, what the scallop? I understand I take a while to upload, but that is because I am a perfectionist. If there is a detail I do not like, I will go back and change everything. Also, I have a life and education outside of this blog—I do not get paid or acknowledged enough to make this my main focus. I have midterms coming up again, so much homework it has put me in generational debt, and so many books I need to read that the list could be a Tolstoy novel. I’m not trying to be rude to you, but this is not the first “ask” I have received asking me why I take a long time to upload. Honestly, it is frustrating that when I get notifications on Tumblr, I am not receiving compliments or asks, but rather, I am receiving questions like this. If you value my writing, give me time to write. I simply cannot half-ass something because people want more—think quality over quantity. You can always find another blog if you are displeased with how long it takes me to upload. I feel like AI has made readers think that writers can put out work every hour because of the immediate response. I hate to break it to anyone, but writing takes time and effort. If you read my most recent story, you might have noticed all the syntax and symbolism I wrote into it. Did you count the sentence structure and notice the repetition of sixes? Did you look up the names and realize they mean certain sins each character has? Did you notice the specific words I used instead of stating things plainly? That takes a large portion of time to accomplish. I love to write, and I love to write well. I apologize if that takes time, but I cannot keep opening Tumblr to see this bullshit. Also, if my anonymous asks are just going to look like this, I am going to disable them... because no way in HELL am I going to get badgered by someone who can't even fess up to who they are.

[thebestpartofwakingup]

Honestly both arguments are important but the second is just way more strategic in actually reducing harm and protecting artists at this point in time

“Ai art isn’t real art” is I think a truthful statement but one that is more relevant to commentary, discussion, and study of the cultural and social conditions that lead to the proposition that Ai art is comparable to real art — a capitalist society that devalues the artistic process and defines art as a means to an end.

Art is more than the end product, it’s a practice and complex relationship between the individual and their space in means similar to physical exercise and feats of acrobatics. The theory of aesthetic proposes that human art is the result of two different distinct forms of intelligence — knowledge of classical practice (what tools someone deems as appropriate for art, what ideas they recognize and try to apply to their piece whether it be rhythm or balance or color theory, etc.) and knowledge of subject or general “over familiarity” as you cannot try to execute a dance move or write a lyric or paint a portrait without having a subject, a thought of what position you would like your body to proceed into, or what message, theme, or purpose you’d like the lyric to poses, or what it is you would like to paint — and that includes “dumping paint on the canvas” because you still must make that choice and then choose what paints you are dumping and how

A finished piece of human art is the end result of anything from 1 to a trillion choices made by the artist.

It’s why people say Ai art is soulless — because people who respect and appreciate art as something more than a means to an end for the final piece find that lack of relationship or care distasteful and offensive — because it serves as a direct statement from the person trying to proclaim their Ai art as being “the same” as human produced art that that relationship and series of decisions and personal experiences brought to a piece by its human artist don’t actually matter, not just to the Ai artist or viewer, but as a whole, in the way there is a difference between saying you didn’t like a book and saying that a book was bad or was pointless in its writing.

And it’s also distasteful because rather than seeking the validation of strangers artists want the relationship they have with their art to be something that their society as a whole values more than it does currently, we want people to pursue and appreciate art as an activity rather than as a means of production

It’s also partially why I find “modern art” — specifically the genre of colored shapes and lines that tend to piss people off — so powerful, because those pieces serve as direct interrogation of that value. ANYONE can paint a canvas with red paint, it’s perhaps the easiest thing one COULD do with a canvas — but that doesn’t mean everyone will, and it doesn’t mean that everyone who does will seek museum entry for their piece, would be willing to or even think to do the piles of paperwork and meetings and arguing and negotiating that gets an original piece placed into a museum

It’s ok to care about and value how a piece of art looks or sounds or feels by the end of its creation — but how much someone values that will vary among individuals and AI is so distasteful because it serves as a threat to that diversity, by stealing and repurposing art made by real artists for the purpose of image generation AI art serves to push that value for the process itself out of mainstream society by introducing an alternative to the reception of imaging, sound, and writing that cuts out that relationship entirely

i feel like i'm losing my mind why has the AI debate pivoted away from material/labor concerns back to debates about Real vs Fake Art. cannot express just how little i care about relitigating Art and high art and low art and skilled vs unskilled art. what i care about is the treatment and compensation of workers, the power corporations are exerting over intellectual property and creators, the continued extraction of resources, and the omnipresent glut of spam and disinformation with few regulations and resources that filter out the SEO AI generated nonsense