#the dialogue in this game is so silly i've been voice-acting all of it to myself. full of fools

[taraxippos]

I logged back in to tumblr just to see ur thoughts on the Oblivion remake that's probably being revealed tomorrow. May I point out they're still using the imperial city guard as their stand-in for the self insert main character and idk that tickles me Youtube link /watch?v=Ed_E2crglcw

So I've been pretty out of the fucking loop and not on my dashboard much, so this ask plus the series of searches I just did to confirm it is the first I've heard that bethesda is almost definitely doing a fucking OBLIVION REMAKE LMAO.

There is still a part of me that's like 'ouugghhhh it might actually be really cool to see Oblivion made with better graphics and a more fleshed out world, even just visually.... perhaps they will even.... do some rewriting??!!?'. But I will be extremely shocked if Bethesda has gone an extra mile to improve the quest/story content, and genuinely the potato faces and stilted voice acting and 50% of the characters being voiced by Wes Johnson are SO fundamental to Oblivion's tone and experience it will probably feel like an entirely different game even if they keep all the quests and dialogue 1:1, and probably not for the better. Like Oblivion's quest writing Does have some legitimate high notes (mostly Shivering Isles and the first half of the DBH, and some standalones) but I think it gets wayyyyy too much credit for having good quests. While playing it you (maybe) let a lot of stuff go because the visuals and voice acting just put you into this dreamlike clown universe where it's like, yeah, I guess that can happen (and the tone itself really Is intentionally silly at times).

Like what's it going to be like to get to the end of a really feeble and badly written mages guild questline where you're finally confronting MANNIMARCO KING OF WORMS, WHO MANTLED THE NECROMANCERS MOON and etc and he DOESN'T fucking look like this

The questline probably won't be any better (unless they're actually rewriting shit, and even then probably won't be any better) AND you're denied the sight of its allegedly powerful and intimidating antagonist standing barefoot in a cave in a hot topic bathrobe. This will be my 9/11.

[lancer-fan-club-was-taken]

Looking at you with big puppy dog eyes....I want to read the ut character voice analysis 👁 👁

Toby Fox, being able to make a non voice acted game, FEEL, voice acted to the point that streamers all use the same voices with them is crazy cool. They all have inflections, and you can feel the pauses and tone the characters are using it's just so good 👌. Alphys getting really passionate when talking about mew mew to the point no streamer can even read what she's saying and the fact you can tell she wrote all the true lab entrys...she easily has the most 'range' in the game followed closely by flowey and undyne to me

hey, glad someone else is interested :]

toby honestly is one of the strongest character writers in any media. ever. not just video games, and i feel like he really doesn't get enough credit for that. all his characters are instantly recognizable just by their speech quirks and sometimes even just their grammar.

i'll prolly need to separate every analysis into a different post, cuz i do have a lot to say about em all, but ill give a brief run-down with the things i think are most interesting.

flowey:

he shares many vocal tics with his dad, which fits with his personality as asriel, and the sort of persona he puts on for frisk and papyrus. "howdy," has a very friendly connotation, so using it right off the bat kinda forces the player to see him as non-threatening.

when his "friendly" persona does slip, it's made pretty obvious that he is a child. he doesn't swear like undyne, he doesn't try to play it cool like sans, he says you're an idiot, and accuses you of trying to make him suffer. the sequence where he mocks you for calling for help, is prolly the best example of how childish his outlook on life is, despite how jaded he is. him specifically using the phrasing of "mommy" and "daddy" makes him sound like an older brother bullying their sibling rather then a final boss.

his voice reminds me a lot of porky minch tbh.

toriel:

my favorite thing about toriel's dialogue is how she doesn't use contractions. i think it really helps set up undertale as this twist of both old school rpgs and of fairy tales, which typically didn't use contractions either.

her dialogue has a very formal air about it, it really shows that despite her appearance, she's pretty old.

i think she has the simplest voice personally, i also haven't analyzed her too closely so i might be missing sth lmao-

sans:

sans is interesting, because he's the only main character with an accent rendered in his diarlogue. he uses a lot of new york slang, and cuts the g's off words with the "-ing" suffix.

it's a pretty subtle way to hint that he and papyrus aren't from snowdin, which is based off rural towns opposed to hotland or new home which are large cities. at first glance, his accent just looks like it's him being lazy, like "oh he can't even put the g at the end of words," or "he can't even put spaces in between words." then he says "capiche" and you realize you've been had. /silly

personally, i've always interpreted his text being all-lowercase as his voice being very monotone and inexpressive, opposed to papyrus whose implied to be constantly yelling and seems to be pretty emotive, but i think that's more-so up to the individual.

papyrus:

oh my god, papyrus.

i love this dudes character voice sm, it's so like- specific?

he uses a lot of obsolete words like "boondoggle," will make up his own words like "bonetrousled," will say words that are seen as childish and/or silly like "wowie" and "neato," or, my personal favorite, sometimes he'll just talk like starfire, the phrase "steam-thingies," will never leave my brain.

his grammar is also pretty distinct. he switches between using contractions and not using them. he also ALWAYS uses more then one exclamation point or question mark.

his speech patterns don't say anything too definitive about his character that you couldn't already tell from the story itself, but i think it really highlights his pompous and silly, but kind nature.

undyne:

her voice is honestly one of the most fun to analyze imo, because it ranges from being pretty realistic, to being so damn hammy and over the top.

her dialogue quirks change a lot depending on the context and whose she's talking to, and it honestly adds a lotta depth to her character. before her battle, she speaks very formally, it's clearly rehearsed, but it shows that she takes her job pretty seriously.

her dialogue with papyrus has her come of as a sort of older sister to him, their phone dialogue is seriously so damn funny/sweet- so many of their calls really show off her more playful side, with her purposefully just annoying the shit out of pap.

all the teasing nicknames she gives frisk really add to this imo, she views you and papyrus as both being "innocent," so she treats them both as her younger siblings.

anyway i love comparing her dialogue w alphys and asgore to her dialogue with you and pap. she clearly views people younger then her as surrogate siblings.

alphys:

i totally agree with al having the most range. she reads like a real person to me, and her dialogue sprites definitely help with that.

her dialogue starts off as pretty nervous and stilted, she stammers a lot, but that seems more to do with her shyness and self-loathing rather then it being a speech impediment.

after true lab, she begins stammering less, and is way more confident around everyone. her character development is so clear just through her speech quirks, its such a nice detail.

from what i remember, she never actually gets mad, just upset, and NEVER at anyone else. most of her wording implying that she really doesn't like it when people get hurt. (idc what people say about the hotland segment, she is clearly SO worried when you get hurt. she turns off the lasers if you keep getting hit by them- i just-)

all of her little bursts of energy are SO interesting, and idk if this was intentional, but it is so reminiscent of infodumping to me. it def reinforces her social awkwardness, because it does always come outta nowhere. autistic queen.

asgore:

asgore shares a lot of voice traits with tori and flowey. he shares toriel's somewhat archaic manner of speech, but also has the very friendly speech patterns of flowey's persona.

a lot of his dialogue comes off as very melancholy in a way most other characters don't. i can only assume this is due to us only really seeing him interact w frisk and tori, but he does genuinely seem so beaten down just based on his pauses and the way he talks to you. i don't remember the exact line, but his line before he fights you where he basically just asks if you have any unfinished business kinda encapsulates his whole character voice to me. it's very simple and respectful, but also caries so much grief behind it.

like alphys, after true pacifist his dialogue changes a lot, and his character voice becomes really indicative of a normal dorky dad.

(my favoritism is so obvious in this post lmao-)

[quigzahhutt]

12. for the hurt/comfort prompt asks my good sir 🕺🕺 🫡🫡 for whoever you please

this is such an interesting one! I had a hard time figuring out how to contextualize this in a way I found interesting but I think I've got it >:3

for the dialogue prompt ask game!

Prompt: "can you talk?"

Pairing: Lando Norris/Max Fewtrell

His knuckles meet the door with a hollow sound, the flimsy nature of these driver room doors means the sound echoes strangely around the small hallway.

"Lando, buddy, are you ok?" Max feels silly calling through the door like this; privacy was never a thing for them– it was always either burst in without warning, or shout something and then burst in. Establishing this level of hesitancy is completely out of character.

"I know you haven't been feeling well, mate, you're worrying me," he continues talking though the wall, ear pressed to the thin frame to try and pick up any signs of life in the room.

He leans in and almost falls flat on the floor as Lando swings the door open suddenly, causing him to tumble gracelessly into the small room.

After flicking Lando in the shoulder for almost killing him, Max realizes how truly awful he looks.

Where Lando's face isn't flushed, he's horribly pale, nearly green around the soft tissue surrounding his eyes. His brows are constantly pinched, mirroring the taut nature of his shoulders.

Max tries to reach for his shoulder, but Lando flinches away from him and that's when Max knows something is seriously wrong.

"Are you sore? Does your... is your skin achy?"

Lando just huffs at him; it's a humorous sound, kind of like he's making fun of Max, as if he's telling him "yeah, you muppet." He can practically hear it in his voice.

The silence is very unwelcome. Max is aware that Lando's throat has been real bad, but to the extent he isn't even making any noise at all? He can feel his brows furrow together.

"Can you talk?" Lando shakes his head, "At all?" Max stresses.

The look he gets in response is comical, crooked and dramatized, but it makes them both laugh; Lando huffs out an unimpressed sound, one that's accompanied by a harsh swallow before he crumples again.

A chronic grimace has made itself comfortable on Lando's face, and Max has to stop himself from reaching out instinctively; he would rather avoid a harsh smack on the shoulder today.

They sit in silence for a while, listening individually to the busy sounds of the hospitality on the other side of the wall. Someone is talking particularly loudly, and the clinking of various dishes acts as a buffer.

Through the door, Daniel enters his own room on the other side of the hallway, the hinges clicking shut and seemingly shutting out the entire rest of the world before he starts half-singing, half-humming a random tune.

Max looks across from him to find Lando typing something furiously on his phone, twisting the device around so Max can read the screen.

'it hurts too much to take my race suit off can you help me?'

"'Course, mate," Max snorts, "is it your shoulders?"

Lando visibly relaxes at that, and nods his head slowly, his face twisting in pain again as he goes to unzip his suit.

It's a methodical process, one that Max has done for himself a number of times. It's definitely strange, feeling Lando's hardened body beneath his hands instead of his own; he's touched Lando plenty before, but for some reason, the gentle touches he's utilizing to ease the sleeves off makes it all different.

He has to grasp at Lando's shoulder to tug the second sleeve off, and the hiss he gets in response doesn't go unnoticed, and a soft, soothing affirmation slips out of Max's mouth before he could even realize.

It's nothing weird for them. They say things like that all the time, encourage each other a bit too intimately. People look at them funny, yeah, but it's not weird to them; it's just how they've always been.

But right now, all soft touches and tender angles? Max starts to feel weird over it, the cauldron in his belly that Lando seems to control begins to boil over.

Once the sleeves go, the rest of the suit follows quickly, and the trousers are easily tugged off after Lando's hips prove a bit of difficulty.

When had Lando's body changed so much? It feels like just yesterday the two of them were sitting together on the stairs of his mum's front porch, soaking up the sun, practically nothing but skin and bone and baby teeth.

Now he's– he's solid, taller than him, even if it's just by a bit. His hair is curlier, and his teeth have straightened out artificially. He's lean but bulky and so different from how Max knew him all those years ago. His smile is still the same, though, wide and gappy.

Sometimes Max feels unreasonably pissed off that other people get to see it; he wishes he could keep Lando's smile all to himself, and he usually has to throw himself into a random task to take his mind off of that line of thinking.

The fireproofs prove to be more of a challenge; Lando's still a bit sweaty so the fabric is stubborn, sticking valiantly to all of his more intimate places. Max averts his gaze from the damp lines on Lando's inner thighs, inching up and up and up to where Max has never seen him, the only inch of skin he doesn't know like the back of his hand.

He shakes his head a bit too noticeably and begins treating this a bit like those practice pit stops; the ones the teams like to make the drivers do just for shits and giggles.

Roll the waistband, ignore the damp elastic of Lando's Calvin Klein boxers, inch the fabric down his thighs and then tug on the ankle cuffs to pull them all the way off. Easy enough.

While he was working on the trousers, Lando had wiggled his way out of the shirt and was already throwing on a big knit top.

How he's wearing something knitted, Max has no idea. The man is sweaty enough as it is, and yet he's throwing on a jumper– Lando does that all the time and it absolutely drives him up the wall.

The bottoms come off easily and Max breathes a grounding breath as Lando immediately replaces them a new pair of sweats.

"You won't be too hot?" Max asks as soon as he's collected himself, raising an accusatory eyebrow.

Instead of fighting back like he normally would, though, Lando just pouts, licks his top row of teeth like he does when the sim is being a bit tricky.

"No- come on, mate, I wasn't being serious, it's fine," he immediately backpedals, "I just know that I would get hot, is all. I'm just worrying about you, like a fool."

Lando quirks his lips up in response, a smug thing, as if he had just won whatever interaction they just had.

"Let me worry about you a bit more, yeah?" He waits for Lando to nod, "I'm taking you to the doctor." He says before Lando can say no.

---

ACKK I've never written this pair before but I like them!! a lot !!! I hope u enjoyed :)

[books-and-strawberry-tea]

Fourth Wing Review

★★★★☆

This took me a few days to write. What could I say about Fourth Wing that hasn't already been said? This book has been insanely popular for a few years now, and I've only just gotten around to reading it.

So I guess I'll talk about my feelings instead of the books story itself.

I...loved it. It took me a bit to get in to. Maybe 10%-15%. Which to be fair, is still pretty early. But I had stayed away from any spoilers (somehow, idk how that happened), because I didn't want to know anything. I wanted to know if the hype was worth it. So I wanted to remain as neutral as possible. I wouldn't say I necessarily love the book with all my being and soul. But it definitely has made it's way up my list as one of the better books I've read. That being said, I still really loved it. Hence the 4 star rating.

One thing I will not forget, is how this book made me ugly cry in public before work. At the 80-90% mark, when....Liam...IYKYK. Fucking hell!!! I was not expecting to cry so much before I had to go serve customers. Started with my nose tingling, then my eyes stinging, and it just went down hill from there. Why, may you ask, was I outside? Let's be honest, I don't go outside if I don't have to. I worked 10+ days straight the week I read this book. I read any time I could, on the bus, before my shift, again when I took the bus home, before bed. Any chance I could. I just had to know what was going to happen next.

The smut came in alot later then I expected. I was told that it came in really quick. And maybe not plot wise, but character development wise, I can see that as a valid argument. But I got to be honest, 70% into the book, filled with tension and angst of Xaden and Violet not liking each other, and quickly turn to something more. HEHE! (You can tell I enjoyed this book cause I remembered their names off the bat! If I don't really like a book, my adhd yeets that sort of information. So if I can remember their names, it's really telling'.)

If you like war, fantasy, romance, and ofc dragons, you'd like this book. I was actually surprised though. In my own experience, most content for dragons that I've been exposed to, the dragons are all goofy and silly. Or at least a tad comical in some way. But Tairn and Andarna were anything but that and I lived for it!! They straight away comanded respect, and had a very forward aura of "Fuck around and find out!" People sure did with Andarna that's for sure. RIP you foul suckers. (Again, IYKYK).

Tairn and Andarna were absolutely the stars of the book for me. Their dialogue, the way they were written, the interactions they had with humans and each other, was so incredibly enjoyable. And yes, I've already been looking at merch for these two cause I'm utterly obsessed.

Also that fucking ending??? HOLY SHIT!!! Talk about dropping a bomb right at the last second!!! This was unfortunately the only thing that was spoiled for me. I didn't know exactly how this was going to unfold, but the fact he is alive?? Like wow!! Even before the spoiler, that was not on my radar at all.

Side note that I forgot to mention, I actually listened to the Graphic Audio while reading this. Which, game changer!! All the voice acting, sound affects, dragon roars, battle sounds/music. Really tops just listening to fantasy music playlist while reading. Graphic Audio's are my new obsession while reading, if a GA exists for the book I'm reading, you bet I'll be listening to it while reading. It's so much more immersive. Especially in big scenes that are dramatic, of plot heavy, OR FUCKING EMOTIONAL!!! Def's recommend.

[rynli]

Hi, can I just say I'm in love with your fic? Cause I'm in love with your fucking fic. Did I finish binge reading it just five minutes ago? Yes. Yes I did. But it makes the brain worms fresh, so.

1. IM IN LOVE WITH YOUR CHARACTERISATION. Harry is enough of a sopping sack of old man sadness coupled with incompetence of a guy who forgor everything about the current reality - even down to the simplicity of 'wait, where do you buy ingredients?' and needing someone to explain how to do his own goddamn paperwork. And of COURSE Pryce needs him back on his old caseload - which would just kill him. Again. AND BY GOD, MAN.... The way that breakdown/relapse chapter went down? God. He really did just try to go on a run. At least he got a bowl out of it, though. Absolutely love the way you write the skills and all the failed checks, too, cause man is Harry struggling. Absolutely delightful. (Also this is small, but electrochemistry being more than the 'take drugs!!' guy is. Actually refreshing which is unfortunate. He's the HAPPY CHEMICAL GUY!! THE THINGS YOU ENJOY DOING!! SEEKING SEROTONIN AND DOPAMINE! He's gonna be excited over a new fuckin thing that makes you happy!)

2. KIM. THE MAN HIMSELF. I love that you're making him act appropriately silly actually. He's not serious all the time. Yes he's a killjoy but he'll also call you a schoolboy. The banter??? God I love the banter. The bit with 'papa' at the lake actually killed me and I almost whipped out a whole essay right there. GOD he plays off of Harry so well. ALSO!!! ACTUALLY VALIDATING HIS FEELINGS IN THAT SCENE!! MEETING HIM HALFWAY, NOT TAKING A STEP BACK. HARRY IS MENTALLY ILL, AND YOU DON'T TELL THOSE PEOPLE THEIR DELUSIONS/BELIEFS/IN THIS CASE BRAIN VOICES ARE NOT REAL OR THAT THEY DON'T MATTER!!! GOD. The talk of Kim being actively curious about Harry's voices, too? The 'Dreamer' bit? Oh my godddd. I hope we see Harry introduce more of the skills to Kim, I'd love for that to be an ongoing literary thread of Harry giving bits of his heart on a silver platter. Man.

Okay I'm rambling but the last thing I'll mention is the actual MYSTERY!! It being mostly kids/teenagers??? KNOWING AND ACKNOWLEDGING HARRY USED TO BE A GYM TEACHER AND USED TO INTERACT AND TEACH KIDS? That has to be devastating, right?? You could have known them. In another life. One was LITERALLY coming back from soccer practice. It could have been you, losing one of your students. Whos to say be didn't lose them before? God. Just- god. He joined the cops for the city, for the people- and they keep dying anyway.

(I AM SO NORMAL ABOUT YOUR FIC!!! SO NORMAL RIGHT NOW!!! I PROMISE. IT'S VERY LOVELY.)

Holy shit thank you for the fresh brainworms!! Eating them like a bird.

Poor Harry is sopping wet and going through it. He's exactly the mix of pathetic + weird + potentially scary that I love to read and write about, and I am throwing him against the wall to see how he splats. Kim is less intuitive, especially when it comes to things like Harry's voices (the game text is very clear that he doesn't believe things talk to Harry, but also he cares a lot for him at this point and he knows that this is important to him!!) so I'm very happy to hear that that hit the mark.

Fun fact! I almost didn't even start this fic because I didn't think I could come up with skill dialogue! Thankfully they flow surprisingly easily. Echem ��redemption 👏 arc! Give the guy some natural dopamine!

Oh god... Harry would have known so many of the district's youth... he absolutely had to take cases with kids he used to know. screaming and crying. I'm always thinking about how he's a cop to try to help people, but as a homicide detective he can only ever show up after it's too late. I'm hoping to find a place where he can help people (and the city) preventatively, rather than posthumously! I've found several lines in the game that point in a certain direction; hoping I can get there.

I'm glad we can all be so normal together :)

[okase]

Thoughts on Veilguard so far, not really spoilery but still using a read more just in case:

Enjoying it so far, it feels more Mass Effect than Dragon Age, specifically Andromeda if Andromeda had more time to cook. But honestly having played both origins and inquisition lately, I don't mind it! It's just different.

The writing so far is... Fine, serviceable. It has that typical Bioware jank in places but I've yet to come across anything that's stood out to me as particularly off-putting. Despite playing for most of yesterday I'm still pretty early in the story so we'll see where it goes, but I want to see where it goes which is a good sign! And there have been moments that made me smile for sure.

I like the companions so far, the one I'm more lukewarm to is Neve so far but I get the impression she's more of a slow burn character rather than a bad one. I was worried Harding would be a bit dull and rely too much on our nostalgia but she's actually really endearing still which is nice. Bellara was the one I was most worried about initially because Bioware quirky characters tend to irritate me rather than endear me but I actually really like her and might romance her if I can resist Emmerich lmao. And the last one I've recruited so far is Lucanis who I really like and am now considering romancing in a future playthrough. He's a hot mess in a good way

I like being sassy at Solas and I like the different dad vibes I'm getting from him and particularly Varric. They didn't kill Varric immediately like I thought they would but I fully expect that he'll die later lol

I like Rook! My thoughts before launch were that if we were going to have a voiced protagonist that the ideal would be that they'd be somewhere between Hawke and the Inquisitor, which they are! More personality than the latter with more room for custom characterization than the former. Idk how much different dialogue affects how Rook acts when you aren't directly giving input but my Rook so far has been sweet and a bit silly, which is what I was going for anyway. Also the scene with the mementos was nice and it was cool to not only establish a character as trans but also you could choose how they feel about it currently. I've yet to see it come up since but I have no doubt it will.

Gameplay wise it's a bit repetitive but honestly so are all dragon age games so it's fine, the loop is satisfying, it works. I've had fun. Though I've quickly realized with my play style that I should have picked rogue like I originally intended because I suck at blocking 😭

Also it's probably because my graphics card is ancient but I have had performance issues + stuttering. It's not constant but it's noticeable and gets particularly bad in Arlathan specifically for some reason. That said someone pointed out that if you have an older graphics card you should turn off upscaling so I'm gonna do that and see how that goes!

But yeah overall it's been fun and I look forward to playing more of it!

[prismatoxic]

i know the original mgs1 graphic novel has been around for almost 20 years. i'm sure it’s been analyzed to death by people smarter than me, with more innate knowledge of the series than i have, but serzh and i watched the digital one (with all the voices and animations), and i've been thinking about it ever since.

mgs1 is my favorite. in comparison to the rest of the series that followed, it's far more subdued; the voice acting is more sincere, the setting is less fantastical, the enemies more human... when things like psycho mantis's manipulation or vulcan raven's ~mystic native powers~ (ugh) come into play, the juxtaposition of those events with the more grounded rest of the narrative makes them feel more severe.

is mgs1 perfect? god, no. maybe raven's portrayal can be somewhat forgiven from a game from 1998, but a lot of the issues it has come down to technical limitations and plot discrepancies, imo. i have a lot of thoughts about how stilted snake and meryl's relationship is, too, but i kind of want to give the game a point for that one since they fell apart after the fact anyway. i just don't know if that was intended from the start. if not, they wrote an unsalted cracker of a relationship story for no real reason, and that's sad.

but my thoughts don’t end there, nor do my thoughts on twin snakes and, later, the graphic novel, which was eventually billed as a way for players to get the story of mgs1 without having to play it. i feel like that framing makes things far more egregious than they already were. regardless, if you’re interested, my thoughts on all this will be under the cut. i’d love to hear other fans’ thoughts, too. fair warning, though: a lot of this will be centered on the dynamic between snake and otacon, and their individual characterizations, bc those things interest me most and also made me the angriest when changed.

so let’s get twin snakes out of the way first. twin snakes is a bastardized version of the story that i love, which somehow manages to mangle the narrative while also changing none of the dialogue. i’ve heard the story of david hayter personally paying all the other returning VAs to get them to come back, but you can tell they don’t really have a lot of passion for re-recording things they already said years ago. david himself, while not so disenfranchised, has fully switched to the later snake portrayals here, and while i do think he’s a very talented VA and the only snake i’ll ever agree with, the direction he was nudged in from then onwards makes snake so... over-the-top, and hammy. it’s embarrassing at times, and in twin snakes it’s at its worst.

then there’s the characterization. ignoring the voices, for a moment, you will also run into situations where the characters’ actions and movements paint a picture of them that contradicts the characterization they had originally. snake is... over-the-top, like his voice, and then you have otacon. i am still mad about otacon. i am so mad about otacon. without changing a single goddamn one of christopher randolph’s lines, they butchered his character, turning him into a joke: he’s constantly falling down in silly slapstick ways, even during the wolf death scene. one of the most powerful scenes in the entire first game, if not THE most powerful one, and they turned it into a fucking JOKE. (and had an actual wolf carry her body away at the end??? what????)

...but this has absolutely been talked about by people smarter than me. here’s an article by the english translator for mgs1 about his work and experience with the game, and here's a video by youtuber jackdonsurfer about the differences between mgs1 and twin snakes, and why twin snakes is a bad remake. i highly recommend both of these, they’re very good.

so moving on from twin snakes, we have... the graphic novel for mgs1, the bastard son of the two games combined with a bunch of its own ideas as well, for better or worse. i’ll be referencing the digital version, but anything that isn’t related to the voice acting will still hold true for my thoughts on the actual book.

the graphic novel uses the same voice direction as twin snakes, but toned down, more befitting the tone of mgs2 or 3, which did seem to learn from that particular mistake. the actors also seem to have regained their passion for the project, and for the most part, give it their all. gray fox is voiced here by rob paulsen, as well, and that’s a decision i understand, same as in twin snakes; greg eagles voiced donald anderson along with gray fox, and the similarities between his anderson and gray fox voices were inescapable once you recognized them. i do think greg eagles did things a lot more passionately, and his version of gray fox is very different from rob paulsen’s, but at the same time, the more mechanical read of gray fox’s lines—up until the tail end of the fight in the lab, or the REX fight, where he gets more intense—does lend an interesting interpretation to his character. so, in the end, while i think i overall prefer greg eagles’ version, i don’t think rob paulsen’s is bad.

so everyone is doing their best, and the writing isn’t as godawful as it was in twin snakes... however, several things jeremy blaustein discussed specifically changing in his english translation of mgs1 in the polygon article i linked are instead lifted from the twin snakes version of the script, or based largely on it. so it’s not great. better, but not as good as it could be.

so with that out of the way, and with me having a subzero interest in talking in depth about the art (it’s really stylized, but there’s nothing wrong with that, it’s perfectly serviceable), it’s time to talk about the story.

there are some things the graphic novel does alright, or even really well. i like the added scenes between FOXHOUND members and other main characters; i like otacon’s justification for wanting his own codename; and i love the psycho mantis section. absolutely fucking flawless concept, wish they’d done that in the game instead of making the controller vibrate. ah well.

the rest, though. god.

i mean, a lot of it is fine, i suppose. slightly more dramatic spins on the original narrative, cutting out parts that only made sense in-game, shifting some events around, and otherwise just sort of doing things the same. but i have some very specific grievances about some of the portrayed relationships.

so, if this post gets out farther than i expect, like some of my other mgs posts have, here’s some background: i’m an otasune shipper. i don’t think that affects my biases too much, as the story and characters are really important to me as-is (in the original, obviously), but i am particularly invested in snake and otacon’s relationship, even in a strictly canon sense. otacon is my favorite mgs character, too. so let’s discuss some of this while also knowing those things about me, for transparency’s sake.

onto the point, i think snake and otacon’s relationship in the original game is massively important to the narrative. the video i linked by jackdonsurfer discusses this, and is one of the reasons i originally started fully considering it, but to be more precise: snake and otacon are very explicitly narrative foils. 

snake is a military veteran, a mercenary, a soldier by birth and by trade. he kills people for a living, and he does it well. he’s gruff and aggressive and with rare exceptions, looks out for himself first and foremost. he’s rough around the edges, sharp, pushing away meaningful connections and never letting anyone get too close.

otacon is a scientist, as well as an anime fanboy, two of the first things we learn about him. we also quickly learn that he’s a pacifist—upon accepting that he’s responsible for a nuclear weapon and not a defensive machine, he immediately vows to fix it, refusing to cause any more deaths than he surely already has. he’s soft and kind and passionate, and he wants to help people, whether it be the whole world or just snake. he wears his emotions on his sleeve, and even when snake is holding him at arm’s length, otacon is trying in earnest to connect with him.

they tend to bounce off of each other like polarized magnets, but in moments like the “love blooming on a battlefield” scene or wolf’s death, they come together, finding common enough ground to understand each other while remaining distinctly different. you can feel snake warming up to otacon before the end, even without taking into account the otacon ending (which is noncanon anyway, but its exploration into their relationship in that situation is still very sweet). otacon is willing to sacrifice himself to ensure snake and meryl’s survival in the canon ending, and snake makes especially sure to request otacon’s extraction when the bombs don’t fall.

this all segues nicely into their dynamic come mgs2, but even taken only by itself, it tells a very concise story. even though they both have romantic interests in mgs1, their relationship with each other is important, a key factor in both of their character arcs.

why am i bringing all of this up? well, uh, because the graphic novel tries to downplay it in favor of the romances.

look, i don’t ship either of the “canon” ships in mgs1 (if we can even call otacon/wolf such), but i don’t think they’re done poorly, either. as i said earlier, i felt like snake and meryl’s stilted, almost forced romance lends well to the timeline between mgs1 and 2, because the idea that she’d eventually realize he was exactly who he said he was—thereby seeing the real him, and not this idea of him she had in her head—and subsequently realize she didn’t want that and wind up leaving, is really good. it’s an interesting story, and adds to the overall narrative. as for wolf and otacon, i always got the sense that otacon was in over his head about someone who’d shown him the barest hint of mercy, and wolf was mostly neutral on him in turn. the moment when she reaches out, and snake asks what she wants, and she says her gun? with otacon visibly in frame behind the gun? that’s powerful. he’s inconsequential, meaningless; yet to him, she’s everything, this symbol of “love blooming on the battlefield”. it’s an interesting story.

the graphic novel giving us more scenes between snake and meryl/otacon and wolf isn’t something i mind, especially the latter. i want to see more of that! i want to know why otacon feels the way he does. the first time he runs into wolf in this story, she wants to kill him. (never mind that she “doesn’t kill for sport” in the game, huh.) the second time, she uh. decides she likes him a lot? i’m willing to accept her being at least somewhat fond of him (he does have her handkerchief, after all), but her sudden pivot to openly liking him is... odd. and then the third time, he bursts onto the snowfield to stop snake and wolf from killing each other (this is good, i like this idea), and she can’t bring herself to shoot him to lure snake like she did with meryl (which feels... not like a problem a trained killer like her would have, especially given that she discusses shooting him in non-vital but crippling ways, specifically). her death scene is similarly impacted by this increased focus on her and otacon, stripping away the mood of the original in ways i really wasn’t fond of. 

now, snake and meryl i have less to actively say about because we genuinely skipped a lot of it. it was painful to watch. i like meryl—i think her being an inexperienced wannabe soldier who is desperate to prove herself is a great story. she idolizes “heroes” like snake, who were never heroes at all, throwing herself into the war machine to live up to this ideal that will never exist. (mgs4 handled this well too.) i guess i don’t have much to say on how the graphic novel handled her because of the skipping, but i can say that there was ample focus on her and snake, and in a way, i feel like parts of otacon and snake’s story were surgically removed to make more space for it.

remember the “love blooming on a battlefield” scene? of course you do. it’s one of the most iconic scenes in the entire game—maybe the whole series. how does the graphic novel handle it? it, uh. doesn’t. it’s gone. 

and at that point, i can’t help but wonder if part of the entire point of this was to make the story seem less gay. maybe that’s just a tinfoil hat thing. but why would you remove one of the most powerful, character-driven conversations in the game? it doesn’t sit right with me. were they worried snake and otacon would eclipse the oh-so-important romances if they were allowed to be proper foils?

some of the stuff towards the ending is pretty good. i like some of gray fox’s changes, and i like snake being forced to fire the stinger because fox begs him to, though the original version where snake can’t bring himself to is still good. i like that snake cuts off liquid’s arm, setting up ocelot’s arc later on. i like that the patriots are mentioned; of course they weren’t originally, bc they hadn’t been conceived of yet, but it’s a good addition now that they’re part of the series. 

i don’t like how otacon is stripped of the chance to demonstrate his conviction and loyalty, because he’s already safely out and hacked the security doors in advance. i don’t like how he mocks snake’s real name instead of making a 2001: a space odyssey joke. i don’t like how him escaping with snake and meryl has made for some very confusing fanfics where writers think he was at the cabin at the same time as meryl because that’s the only version of the story they know.

and that, right there, is the worst part of it all, isn’t it?

this version of events, with all its changes, has been presented multiple times as a stand-in for the actual game. it’s not the only one in this series, but it is the only one i’ve seen, and it veers so wildly from established canon that it actively changes several dynamics and story beats—and people without access to mgs1, or who don’t like the look of it, or can’t quite get into it, or aren’t able to play video games in the first place, are given this story as a way to bypass having to play it at all. it has been presented as being just as good as playing the game to see its story. it’s officially sanctioned konami content.

i genuinely hate it.

i liked a lot of things, like i said. some changes were good. psycho mantis was great. several of the VAs did a stellar job (though there was one part when otacon meets wolf and her dogs where the voice christopher randolph uses for him is exactly huey’s, so much so that it makes a genuine statement sound manipulative with that context, but this was recorded before peacewalker/mgs5 so it absolutely wasn’t intentional). a lot of it was a really interesting take on a familiar story, but some of the parts they changed just... were really bad. i was kind of fine with it when we finished it, but the more i thought about it, the angrier i got. 

i don’t know what the point of this is. i mostly just wanted to get out my thoughts, i suppose. it drives me insane that this is billed the way it is, like a canon thing and not some fanciful retelling by a fan. i wish it was better, but i’m at least comfortable with the fact that a lot of people in this fandom don’t seem to have any open feelings about it, if they’ve seen it at all. mgs1 hasn’t been lost to history even a little bit, and i love that. 

if we hadn’t skipped a lot of it, i’d probably have more to say, but also, i never want to see it again, so this is what you get. thanks for reading; i’m gonna write otasune fic now probably.

[pausegame]

I think Rook is so precious.

Idk if it's just because I'm a weenie and tend to lean more paragon dialogue choices and I know folks have expressed their discontent that there isn't an option to be genuinely mean which limits RP/personal character building, and that all dialogue choices are just Nice With Different Tones but I'm not against what some perceive as a Set Personality à la Commander Shepard, who IMO always felt like a Tough With Different Tones sort, which was fine, considering they are a military person, but lacked in empathy for me.

There is a wonderful amount of vulnerability and compassion with Rook that makes my heart swell with so much joy. I love that Rook gets to touch their companions. I always disliked that my Inquisitor couldn't give Dorian a hug, because he probably could've used one, and that outside her love interest the only physical contact she could provide was giving Varric one hug. ONE. Granted, Rook doesn't get to really hug anybody at all (and Taash and Bellara definitely could've used like four), but I like that Rook repeatedly comes to hold/steady Bellara, that they are close enough to Emmrich for them to reach out to each other, and going to reach for Harding and being there for her physically is a thing.

Unpopular opinion: I've never been a fan of Hawke. Idk if it was a combination of fanon or them being a product of the 2010s' love for Jerks With a Heart of Gold type who is both a Goddamn Hero and Just a Guy. I never liked DA2 for a myriad of reasons but Hawke being almost their own entity as much as Commander Shepard probably had something to do with it? Locked in as human, default faces, etc. The voice acting wasn't bad by any means but there was a poshness to both voices that just didn't sit right in my soul for the underdog type, and a commoner. Like Fereldans have a certain accent. They sounded noble when they were just normal. IIRC, Male Hawke also voices Vaughan from the City Elf Origin in DA:O. Even when DA2 was essentially Hawke running around putting duct tape on everyone's problems and barely holding things together (theoretically something I would enjoy bc I love broken characters struggling to do their best) there was something about the overall presentation, performance, and characterization that felt a little artificial and superficial about them that never vibed for me. Like their entire persona was designed to be So Relatable but also Cooler than the traditional hero we got in the Warden. They have quips and their merry band of friends is a mixed bag. Unlike the Warden who is a traditional Chosen One Hero, this is An Underdog you can root for. They have some edge. Except my Warden had way more edge and was even more of an underdog than Hawke ever could be (Hello Tabris ILY)

The fanon interpretation that Hawke could punch the demon and walk out of the Fade with sunglasses on completely nonchalant adds to this mythical Cool figure that I just never liked.

And I single out Hawke compared to the Warden who has the most flex room and no voice and the Inquisitor who feels like a professional leaning towards Shepard but who has moments of emotion that make them feel more candid and real, because Hawke walked away from their game with a Specific Characterization, despite the fact that I picked all the goodie-two-shoes options because that tends to be how I play these types of games.

By comparison, even if Rook is locked in as being The Nice One in The Nice Game, I think there is a level of struggle and sincerity even in the Purple dialogue options with Rook that I love. They hoot with their whole chest and zero shame at owl statues (and pretty convincingly). They make really bad hand puns and are genuinely bummed when everyone else tells them to stop. They are silly and can be embarrassed while still being a bit of a smartass. There is a level of approachability in Rook I never felt with Hawke, who was painted as quite legendary with their Smartass Personality. I love how candid and Not Cool Rook can be. That underlying kindness that drives all of Rook's choices makes them less cool, but again, very tangible.

I also love that unlike Shepard, Hawke, the Inquisitor and even the Warden, Rook isn't The One to Do It All. Lucanis gets the final blow on Ghilhin'nan after Davrin or Harding makes the ultimate sacrifice. Rook is just hanging there. Rook is dragged away before they can even free Lucanis in that moment. I love that when saving either Treviso or Minrathous, even if Rook's presence makes the difference it's because of the dagger, not because they're legendary in any sense the way Hawke is Champion or the Inquisitor is The Chosen One. I love that even though Rook gets to blue/red lightsaber duel Elgar'nan in the final fight it's still a team effort because the two other party members are still present in the scene, and depending on which ending, those two or three companions are key to taking out Solas. Rook may be the leader like Shepard, but there is a level of mortality and falling and failing that exists within Rook that doesn't in Shepard, and I absolutely love that.

[sapphicscholar]

10, 12, 21?

thanks for these! Let's see what we've got!

10. What fic made you feel the happiest to work on?

Okay if the question was which am I the happiest *to have written* this would be a different answer (indulgence), but re the actual writing process, I think Two corpses. Everything's fine. has gotta be at the top! It was nice to have something that was largely pretty silly (a murder mystery) where Ava and Deborah were simultaneously trying to work out their own interpersonal issues while also playing their parts in the game and getting totally misread by everyone around them!

12. What fic was the most difficult to write? Did you finish it?

Hmm, Adrift (Hacks historical pirate AU) is up there because it's far from my normal genre (much more action-heavy), required a fair amount of research to be close to historically accurate (which is, for better or worse, one of those things I'm really committed to), and just didn't get a ton of interaction (I know lots of folks don't read AUs, even more don't read historical AUs, and plenty don't read WIPs until they're done, but it was the first time in a while I chose to start posting while I was still writing, in large part because lots of folks were so bummed about the tag being quiet, and it was hard to keep up motivation after that). I wrote and posted 3 chapters, but the combo of all those things definitely bumped it down my priority list - it'll get finished, but all things considered, it'll probably say in the back seat until I've made it through work commitment stuff unfortunately!

21. Share your favorite piece of dialogue

Ooh the one I posted in response to @ensorcei is probably up there, but from the same fic (indulgence) is this back and forth because I just really love the rhythm these two characters sink into when they're at each other's throats (because they so often show their cards and give away just how much they care even at the height of their cruelty!)

Blanche’s scowl deepens. “Your talent got you here. Own your achievements.”

“You think you could have lured me from France?” Judith asks with an incredulous laugh.

“All it took was a tawdry affair with a boring American. It can’t have been that hard.” Blanche finds herself leaning in closer, her voice growing more and more ardent. “He can offer you what? Sex? Stability? I gave you the world. A career. A name for yourself.”

“And I want both!”

“You can’t just have both.” Every inch Blanche has ever taken has been a battle, and there has never been a victory without its concessions.

“No, Blanche. No. You think you can’t have both.” Something twists uncomfortably in Blanche’s gut. “You sit there and act superior telling yourself no again and again and again. But all you’re really doing is hiding. Ceding ground before you can even risk losing it.”

[eri-blogs-life]

Today officially marks my 5-year anniversary of starting gender-affirming hormone replacement therapy! It's been a real good five years, overall. A mixed bag at times, for sure, with my old shitty job and then me losing my job and getting into extreme debt, but on the bright side I'm in a great relationship, I've got some fantastic friends, and I feel like I am my own person now and all that good stuff's got a lot to do with my transition.

Anyway, to celebrate I decided to take a whole day off work and play a bunch of video games! Quick impressions on like the half-dozen games I played at least an hour or so of today, in no particular order other than the order I played them in today:

Lego: Lord of the Rings

I'll be real, I was not the biggest fan from my first impression. I grew up with Lego Star Wars, and still love that game to this day, but a new Lego game for me...? The gameplay is pretty simple, which is fine but not necessarily the most engaging.

Worst of all though is adding voice acting. One of the best aspects of the Lego Star Wars games was that they had to get creative with how they told the story, focus only on the really important details, and come up with unique ways for characters to express themselves. By ripping the dialogue straight out of the Lord of the Rings movies instead, it cuts a lot of the Lego charm that I loved so much in those games growing up.

Probably not going to play much more of this one

Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun

RIP AND TEAR

Holy shit, this game slaps. Like, I'd heard lots of good things, but now that I've played it I can really feel just how good it is. The pixel art intro is amazing (though a little long-winded for my taste I feel), the graphics of the core gameplay are absolutely beautiful, the music and sound feels so good to the ears, the shooting feels so clunky and satisfying... All around, an absolutely awesome experience.

I am definitely going to be beating this one at LEAST once through.

Lethal Company

Far from my first time playing Lethal Company, but yeah, this is a real fun game. The mix of horror and goofing off with friends just makes for a real fun experience. Once you start learning the creatures' behaviors and they stop being so scary, it really does become just a fun, goofy, silly time with friends in which you ocassionally get extremely freaked out by something suddenly killing you when you don't expect it.

Absolutely playing more, of course.

Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin Edition

I've written about this game before on my blog, it is one of my favorite games of all time and I absolutely adore it. I didn't play for a whole lot today, mostly just booted it up and played until I died, but that made for a satisfying little taste of the game again. Without the social aspect of me playing this game with my friend Jon back in college, though, it definitely doesn't have quite the same appeal.

I don't know if I'm going to play more DS2 anytime soon. I played so, so many hours of this game and explored nearly all its secrets, I don't know how much more playtime I've got in me.

XCOM 2

I've been playing this game for the past few weeks, actually, and fucking loving it. I adored the original reboot XCOM and played it tons, and I picked up XCOM 2 shortly after its release, but I didn't actually give it a real good playing until recently. It's fantastic, but man is it rough to play. You lose a couple of good soldiers on one mision and it feels like everything starts chain-reacting til you've lost the whole run.

Definitely going to be playing more. I want to see this game's ending at least once.

Slay the Spire

Quite possibly my favorite game of all time, I love Slay the Spire's everything. Its game loop, its art, its music, the whole package is absolutely fantastic.

Absolutely I'm playing this game more. I also cannot wait for StS 2.

Cube Escape Collection

Alright, so my first exposure to this series was my neice playing a Cube Escape game on her ipad in, like, 2014, and then I didn't think about it again for a really long time. It was just some weird little puzzle game for mobile apps for kids or whatever. But then I saw this game on steam one time on sale, thought the name sounded familiar, and decided to pick it up. So far in first little experience, it's chill. I do enjoy me a good little escape room puzzle, for sure.

Probably going to play more, but it might be a while before I pick it up again

Monster Prom 2: Monster Camp

I loved Monster Prom - its fun characters and silly setting make for a really entertaining time. I finally got around to trying out the sequel. It's good, though mechanically it felt like largely the same core loop. It's not a bad loop by any means, and of course the real appeal is in the new romanceable characters, but I didn't find myself really falling too hard for any of them on an initial runthrough like I did with Polly in Monster Prom.

I might play more. Might try at least one run to date Aaravi cause they seemed fun.

Highschool Romance

Holy shit this made me feel things. The premise of a boy has to crossdress to fit in at an all-girls school feels kinda silly at first blush, but it really feels like the game takes it seriously. I dunno, when the game put me in a situation where I had to make a decision between revealing my identity to the girl I was interested in or keeping it a secret, I had to just pause the game and step away for a few minutes. The game really got me in to feeling like I was there in the character's shoes, caught in the headlights of a near impossible decision between trying to keep my secret a little longer or coming out when I didn't know how she'd take it. I tried keeping it a secret, but it didn't exactly end up working out, and she found out. But she was cool about it. And she even wanted to kiss me, which was pretty hot.

I'm absolutely about to play the fuck out of this game.

Ocean's Heart

Didn't play this game for long, but I got just enough of a taste to say it seems really promising. Got a lot of the 2D Zelda genes in it and from my short time with it, it feels pretty fun to play.

Definitely going to play more of it, but I think it's going to go back onto the backlog for now while I focus on other games.

[navysealt4t]

totk might have my FAVORITE ost i've ever played. like it is so GOOD and DIVERSE in tone, and it actually uses instruments to create thematic moments its actually GENIUS musically. it does one of my favorite things an ost can do and assign roles to instruments. and then have those instruments duet when imprortant things happen. i can say i might be wrong about some of this cuz i havent had time to listen to cutscenes in full without overlapping dialogue of pointcrow, so take this all with a grain of salt LOL

i really really like their usages of saxaphones esp to represent what ive been calling like human resistance?? its representative of a lot of stuff within the modern era that link exists in, and ties very directly into link himself which is very interesting when u consider that saxes are kind of an odd instrumentation to use in a full orchestra game like totk. theyre used in a full ensemble setting, even outside of solos and features, which is interesting because saxes are NOT typically used in full string orchestras. they might appear for a solo or feature, but never tend to stick around for the full thing. which i think is so interesting. and very much a thematic thing for link like he is inherently unique. i lost whatever train of thought i was having here actually. sorrgyyyy. but saxes are very much representative of humanity (hylianity??? idk) and it's sort of … "indomnitable spirit?" i guess? that's a heavy thought ive sort of had. sax quartets also tend to be used in like?? moments of collaboration for link and companionship :3 which is hella cool.

theres also the voices, which tend to represent like zonai stuff and ganon, weirdly enough. i think theyre more of a symbol of the past. i also really enjoy the dissonant tones used, i think its a genuine concept of just how music was in hryule's past, and it sounds weird to the listener because its not modern music, further emphasizing just how strange the whole situation is

another thing that i find pretty cool and what i was MOST excited about in totk was their usage of the erhu, a chinese string instrument that you hear a lot in moments with the dragons and i JUST LOVE THAT because higher quality erhu's will be carved with dragon's heads at the tip :3 just a silly coincidence probably but i like it. its safe to say erhus represent dragons and the act of draconification itself but methinks we can go a bit wider and say that it represents sacredness in hyrule itself. holy or not. i think it's because of the pure and resounding tone of the instrument. the erhu is also a two stringed instrument, which further pushes the "two dragons"/orobourous narrative that totk has going on. ok thats my rant i had to get the demons out of me before i died

GODDDDDDDDD SHAKING THIS YES YES GES !!!! GID i love the weird lil voices that r like. a symbol of the past. THE VOICES R SO LOUD WHEN LINK IS DESCENDING DOWN TO FACE THE DEMON KINGS ARMY ITS SO COOL. GAH I LOVE THE MUSIC SO MUCHH. THERE SO MANY LITTLE THEMES AND MOTIFS ITS AMAZING

[ponymations]

Ayano dialogue: Doki Doki Literature club

Sayori:

“Sayori is such a sweet girl, pity she uses drugs in her off time.”

“I saw Sayori skipping school to tag buildings. You never really know someone huh?”

“Sayori should be careful, her clumsiness might lead to her fall off a building.”

"Sayori looks like a great friend, I would like to hang with her sometime."

“I pop off her scalp like the lid of a cookie jar, her mind melting on my fingers.”

Natsuki:

“I just realized you were talking to Natsuki. Took a minute since she’s SO unremarkable.”

“I cooked something for Natsuki to help her grow! It has a…special ingredient.”

“Natsuki is so cute. I just want to squeeze her until her neck snaps!”

"Natsuki's such a child, reading all of that silly manga. I bet you'd prefer a girl who reads books in the proper age range."

“You know what I heard about Natsuki? Natsuki likes maggots. And I’m gonna tell everyone.”

Yuri:

“So Yuri likes knives? Me too! I’m looking forward to showing her mine.”

“Careful with Yuri, Senpai. I tried talking to her and she cut me. So rude.”

“Did you hear about Yuri’s corpse fetish? It’s probably just a silly rumor.”

"Yuri's sophisticated act doesn't fool me, because I know what's she's hiding. Want me to tell you senpai?"

“I brandish my cutting knife, the raccoon flees in fear. A rush of blood. I slice it’s flesh. And I feed my love again.”

Monika:

“It looks like I have a tough opponent…for martial arts! Definitely that.”

“That Monika girl is weird, she told me I don’t belong in this game. What does that mean?”

"Do you know where Monika went? I could have sworn she was just here. I wanted to…tell her something."

"Dammit, where is she? I'll find her. Oh senpai! Didn't see you there. Just talking to myself."

"In your reality, if she doesn't love you, then I will."

Responses:

Sayori:

"Someone left a creepy poem about death in my locker today. I asked the other members and it wasn't any of theirs. Weird."

"Last night, I heard a strange voice while trying to sleep. It said awful things but I'm pretty sure it was just my inner voice."

"Oh my gosh! I found a noose hung outside my door! Who would do that?"

"Someone pushed me down the stairs today. Luckily I'm fine but the person left before I could see them."

"There's a girl hanging around school I've never met before. Maybe I can show her around sometime!"

Natsuki:

"I baked cupcakes this morning, but after a few minutes away I found they were all smashed! Whoever did this will regret messing with me!"

"I got a nasty email today. It said to watch my back or I'll die. Can I stay at your place tonight?"

"I found a dead mouse at my door. It was really gross. Did a cat leave it there?"

"I saw a girl staring at me at the store. They were holding a knife and it gave me chills. I told someone but she disappeared. Hope I never see her again."

"Help me! My manga showed up at my house. I don't know how they got there but we need to take them back before dad sees them!"

Yuri:

"Ever since I started reading the new horror novel, I've been feeling chills, like I've become part of one. Maybe I'm more invested than I thought."

"I found all my knives on the floor today. One of them wasn't mine and was covered in blood. I washed and kept it but it's still concerning."

"Someone sent me a gravestone with my name on it. It's actually really cool! I'll use it for this year's Halloween."

"I almost stepped on an exposed wire. It was outside my house like someone left it there. But why would someone do that?"

"OH! Someone tried choking me today with my scarf. Luckily, I had a knife and scared them away. I'm still shaken though, so can you walk home with me?

Monika:

"Ayano Aishi from Yandere simulator. Never had another game character visit my game before."

"Ayano's love for you is so strong she's crashing other games now. My love is stronger though, she won't stand a chance."

"I keep trying to delete her file, but it keeps coming back. She's really determined to kill us."

"Ayano doesn't scare me. She's such a stereotype that I can predict what she's going to do. The threatening letters, the watching through the windows, the gifts. Called them every time."

"It's actually becoming funny to watch her fail to kill me. I might keep her around a little longer before banning her file."

[spawnofbhaal]

Realizing that one of the plus sides of BG1/BG2 being more simplistic in terms of visuals and audio is that it allowed for so many mods that can change/add to the story if you want them. Like want a new companion character? There are like 30+ to choose from. Want a romance with a character that wasn't originally romanceable? Chances are there's a romance mod for them. Want a new quest in the game, or one that was cut before release? There are mods for that.

(More rambling under the cut because this got long).

Sure, some mods are . . . weird or annoying by varying standards, or not the best written (a lot of modders didn't speak English as a first language, or were teenagers when they made them), but the love behind the writing can absolve some odd phrasing. A lot of people in the modding community also translated mods into their native, non-English languages. All of this for free, just because they loved the game. The level of content (dialogue, quests etc) in some romance mods puts any studio-made romance to shame, because a modder could just focus on romance rather than all the other aspects of game development.

(Also, IMO Bioware totally took the "kiss your love interest" option in DAO from "flirt pack" mods and other romance mods where your character could choose a lot of different flirtatious things to try on your love interest, from kissing, hugging, playing with their hair, etc. Or you could ask them more about their past, their family, or whatever the modder thought to add. The Bioware devs were definitely aware of the modding community and I honestly think that's one of the reasons you can kiss your LI on command in DAO and now BG3).

I think what I've felt kind of sad about, or like I'm "missing" with BG3 the past few days, is this . . . sense of almost infinite possibility with the game, and collaborative storytelling. Which is silly, because obviously BG3 is a great game as is, and Larian has been doing a great job of updating things, and there are a lot of talented writers, artists, and modders who make content centered around the game.

But I have to reconcile the fact that there are probably never going to be companion mods for BG3. There are never going to be new quest mods for BG3. Like for BG2, someone would totally make a mod to adventure in hell with Karlach or cure Astarion or romance Raphael (like a real romance, whatever that would look like, not the incubus thing). A mod to hug Gale, or ask Astarion about his family before he was turned, or braid Shadowheart's hair, or ask Wyll to tell you all the Baldur's Gate scandals he's heard. But with games being more advanced with graphics and voice acting these days, I seriously doubt any of these things will happen unless Larian does them. And Larian only has so much time and resources. (I also get that for many people, graphics and voice acting are more important than having more written content, but for me it's the opposite). Fanfiction helps a lot, but there's something really magical about seeing things happen in the game.

And if I'm somehow wrong about how these mods will never come to be, I'll be happy to see it (unless people try to do crap like add voice lines with AI, in which case I do NOT want to see it. Ever). But modern game modding has mostly just become cosmetic as far as I can tell. When there's such a focus on graphics, that's cool and all, but I sincerely doubt I'll remember a mod hairstyle after 20 years. Story and character mods I do remember.

[aureiki]

very nosy and curious after seeing your ask game answer on yuzuru, how did you start to like him?

// slight mentions of the good ol depression and its effects

Ok so this will be like a long explanation on how I got into Yuzuru and midoyuzu as a ship because they're connected and it's a rather funny story.. as an extra note; I've been into enstars for around 3-4 years now!

Around this year, I'd say February to early March, I was feeling VERY down in the dumps about life and stuff and depression kicked me in the ass super hard ... so naturally I went to find something to make me happy- That being enstars because I somehow found it to be a massive comfort at the time (loser-ish I know)

So at the same time i grew a massive attachment to midori! Because he was the character that kept me happy and motivated throughout that time, so I wanted to learn lots about him just out of indulgence and to make myself happier. Somehow I found myself going through ao3 because I wanted to find midori fics to read.. Now I thought itd be silly to find a midori ship to like because (for me, at least) that's how I get to know characters well by digging through their dynamics and such and interactions- Then I stumbled upon the midori/yuzuru tag.

At the time, my only thought was- "Yuzuru? Who's that again?" and i searched him up immediately (lol) but even then my thoughts then became "oh him. I dont really care about him." But their dynamic was cute and funny, I read their thing on the shipping wiki, the few fics I read were adorable, so hey, why not check out Yuzuru more?

I read a couple dialogue of him, checked out some fine story translations, and even after all that- my opinion still remained as 'oh, he's okay I guess.'

Then I guess something, clicked in me one day that really set me off in a terrible mood, got close to doing stupid things and stuff. That's probably when midoyuzu became an even bigger attachment, cuz the thought of them made me happy, and I clung onto that happiness that they gave me alone. and I just. grew to care about Yuzuru more from ot, even if it wasn't directly- he did still help me, in a way.

I do love him, a lot of things about him. I like how he's written, how he acts, his role in his unit, design, voice, many things! I was (still am) shocked he isn't as popular as I expected him to be.. maybe I just admire him in a way lol, maybe I relate to midori too much and also just someone like him in my life.

So yeah, it's crazy how just a few months back, I didnt even remember who this guy was. And now? He's a massive comfort character that I love very dearly!! I still have lots of stories of him that I've yet to read, and I know damn well that'll make me love him even more. Everytime I see content of him nowadays I find myself smiling and kicking my feet that's truly the power of being hyper fixated lads

[honeyhonest]

leona............. 2, 5, 8, 21 cater..... 23, 7, 3 maleanor <333 2, 12, 24, 11, 14 sebek the silly guy 12, 2, 8

ask game woo hoo!!!

2. Favorite canon thing about this character?

genuinely one of the more interesting characters in the game. once again the Guy with an Inferiority Complex becomes one of my favorites. don't read too much into that haha. I FUCKING WISH LEONA GOT TO TALK MORE ABOUT HIS IDEAS!!! it's teased so often but we don't get much more than throwaway lines in events. PLEASEEEE I wanna hear his political theory

5. What's the first song that comes to mind when you think about them?

darude sandstorm. ok no sorry I couldn't resist. umm

blue monday - new order

8. What's something the fandom does when it comes to this character that you despise?

I think making him like, overly aggressive is a lil annoying. he's genuinely an okay guy just also kind of an ass

21. If you're a fic writer and have written for this character, what's your favorite thing to do when you're writing for this character? What's something you don't like?

leona is always so easy to write for me. idk I think I have a good grip on his voice and mannerisms so his dialogue always feels natural he's like my best friend

3. Least favorite canon thing about this character?

cater... tsk tsk. I don't know. there's nothing he does that contradicts his character, so it's hard to say that I don't care for the excessive use of lingo, because that's important to his characterization. so, nothing? oh wait um his ssr cards are usually pretty mid like they just don't look as good as his in-game renders

7. What's something the fandom does when it comes to this character that you like?

always a fan of the meta-cater analysis. since he's not as popular as the housewardens, he isn't mischaracterized as much

23. Favorite picture of this character?

I like his autistic stimming

2. Favorite canon thing about this character?

I think it's cute how much maleanor resembles malleus, in both looks and temperament. also her backstory with lilia was interesting and sweet etc

11. Would you date this character?

no she would intimidate me too much. I love beautiful women but realistically I can only date people I feel really comfortable with

12. What's a headcanon you have for this character?

I think she was raised fairly similar to how malleus was- her mother had little to do with her upbringing, and she was reared by the senate instead. very royalty-core

14. Assign a fashion aesthetic to this character.

free my goth queen. she did all of that but I don't care

24. What other character from another fandom of yours that reminds you of them?

ohhh uhhhh man I have not been in a lot of scary lady fandoms... she's got a certain white witch of narnia fame energy

2. Favorite canon thing about this character?

SEBEK IS SO SILLY!!!! FREE MY BOY HE DID ALL OF THAT BUT I DON'T CARE!!! his passion is adorable and he's got a lot of comedic potential while also being a very complex character

8. What's something the fandom does when it comes to this character that you despise?

glossing over his obviously internalized racism and making him a sort of cartoonishly evil villain. like I get that there are lots of teenage boys (and girls) who act like this in real life and their behavior is still harmful, but like. sebek isn't real. fae (as in twst's) aren't real. and also this is a really interesting character trait to explore and I think yana has done an alright job with it. stop making him a villain and a stereotype I've seen this happen before and it's so fucking annoying. the joke is funny maybe one time in the narrative and then you're just beating a dead horse over what is obviously supposed to be a character flaw

12. What's a headcanon you have for this character?

I think he once accidentally bought a cheesy romance novel by mistake and read the whole thing anyway and really liked it. and then got scared and hid it behind his desk and told no one

[idyllic-affections]

Hello again!

Tis' I, Dragon Anon (no emoji this time because I'm on my laptop atm!) yet again. And I see great minds think alike ahahaha. Honestly, another thing I really enjoy about the Trailblazer compared to the Traveler is that they have more actual voice acting in the game, like, they actually speak more during these super big moments. Like, don't get me wrong, love me Aether/Lumine, but I feel like there are some specific moments where I feel Hoyo should've just had them talk, rather than flashing us dialogue options. Like for example, any moment where it clearly them just thinking to themself, and nobody else is going to hear them. Or when we first reunite with out twin with the mega plot twist of them leading the Abyss, like MOTHERFUCKER THE SIBLING YOU'VE BEEN SEARCHING FOR THESE PAST FEW IN GAME YEARS IS RIGHT THERE. SAY SOMETHING GOD DAMMIT!!!

Also yeah, it's seriously impressive how well written hoyoverse's characters tend to be, that they even manage to make a character archetype that someone might not like likeable, though I feel like that is also in part due to the fact that March clearly has some deeper stuff going on then what she may let on.

Alsooooo, on a bit of a sidenote. I've noticed that some people have been (with your permission) sharing their OCs with you, to hear your thoughts. And soooo, I've gotten some OCs, both more or less fleshed out, and some still just in the conceptualizing phase, and I was wondering if perhaps I could share some of those, because I'd love to hear your thoughts, if you'd have me, of course!

-Dragon Anon

YES I AGREE i love how much the trailblazer talks. stelle is so silly i adore her. i love that she has an internal monologue the majority of the time. i wish the traveler had that!! i feel more attached to the trailblazer both because of that internal monologue and because stelle is valuable in battle for me. i love her combat style sm!! it has been so useful. but i just don't feel the same way about aether rip (i still love him though i swear 🫶🫶).

march is just so. squishable. she's so well written and isn't flat or one-dimensional at all and i feel like that is what so many characters with her bubbly-like personality are--they end up being really flat. and that's why i never end up liking characters of her personality type, but march??????? she's my beloved my adored <33

i have two hands and they are for march 7th and dan heng 💕��

also yes of course!! oc thoughts are always welcome here. i would love to hear about them. c: