#the presence of a character good or evil aligned doing a bad thing is a thing you can only judge within

[ssaalexblake]

what didn’t appear in that post was the line ‘even peppa pig is a little bitch a lot of the time’ bc i was trying to actually be serious, but i wanted to mention it bc it’s funny and also true. 

[glacierheart]

you were born, bluer than a butterfly. beautiful & so deprived of oxygen, colder than your father's eyes. ❄

you were born, reachin' for your mother's hands ... VICTIM of your father's plans to RULE the world. too afraid to step outside, paranoid & petrified what you've heard.

THE TALE OF THE HEIR OF JACK FROST . son of the ice king . an original character crafted from the son to a villainous jack frost & a concoction of a summer personification heroine for a mother (aestas) to create an elaborate story of choosing between good and evil, being the embodiment of both sides of the moral alignments. a character born with bad and GOOD ingredients.

delving into how a potential villain becomes an ANTI-HERO. themes of chasing for a controlling father's approval, child neglect, trust issues and abandonment issues. stepping outside of his mother's good will & turning down a dark path (before getting back onto the good one). teetering on the fine line side of wrong and right. the savior or the villain? feeling a void from a broken heart and a cold childhood. needing a reason to be good. icy eyes, warm heart. living behind a facade. pretends to not care, but deep down .. cares a lot. protective. a prankster, morbid humor, sarcastic and witty. emotional and unpredictable.

based in the world of : DC, DISNEY / DISNEY'S DESCENDANTS, THE HUNGER GAMES, STRANGER THINGS, WEDNESDAY AND A MODERN WORLD VERSE.

name origin: caspian theros frost. caspian, meaning, 'white' like snow. and theros meaning an old greek name of 'summer' & his last name frost– after his father jack frost. his name is a combination of winter and summer, just like his parents.

memes. / open starters. / verses are under cut. / rules are under cut.

rules.

01. mun is 21+.

02. i am not based in just one verse, so pls– if you're not into the disney, thg, st, wednesday or dc/marvel world(s) then keep in mind i do have a normal modern world verse setting!

03. be mindful of triggering themes such as blood, death, drowning or child abuse on this blog. caspian was grown up with a very toxic, abusive father– so it'll be difficult to avoid mentioning these themes at times.

04. i am super welcoming of other oc characters and canon characters, i love them all.

05. i love different fandoms and crossovers, so do not hesitate to write with me if you apart of fandoms i may have not even mentioned on this blog yet.

06. if you follow me, pls feel free to reply to any of my opens or send in memes at any time! there's no expiration dates on those. if you're the type that loves to plot, then def come to my IMs but keep in mind i'm not the best at plotting until i get an idea flowing.. so coming to my IMs with an idea already in mind is your best bet if you'd rather plot !! <3

07. i ship with chemistry so no force shipping or godmodding, pls. <3

verses.

disney / disney descendants verse. the lost winter prince. caspian frost is the son to mother summer & father winter that are apart of their own separate seasonal kingdoms in auradon. when a combination of a warm hearted young woman and an ill-tempered, glacier hearted man wed and share a child they get both of their natures intertwined. the ice king had a skill for perfect persuasion– so charming and manipulative. he found grand interest the mother of warmth, aestas or as she liked to be called florence. the queen of summer is adorned with nothing but radiant waves, a symbol of abundance and prosperity. her presence heralds the arrival of the season of warmth, light, and growth. aestas is revered for her power to bring forth the earth's bounty, nurturing the land and its inhabitants with her life-giving energy. as the embodiment of summer, aestas represents the joyful and vibrant spirit of the season, inviting all to bask in the warmth of the sun's embrace. so what did father frost want, with a woman the complete opposite of himself? to destruct all of that, use florence as his greatest challenge to glaze over her summery heart, turn her on his side of all things glacier and then make her the queen of the winter kingdom. the ice king became very charming on his ploy to wrap himself around mother summer's heart. perhaps, kind deeds and months worth of finding out jack frost's romanticizing side had created a soft spot in her heart. perhaps, a warm spot... had melted a small hole in his frozen heart itself whether he wanted to remain in denial of that or not. perhaps, that's what fueled his anger all the more in the end. he promised to wed her, have the child she always wished for, jack frost was certain he had the queen of summer delicately wrapped around his icy finger. but when she wouldn't join him and his winter kingdom after understanding his scheme all along, to get her to join forces with him, he took it bitterly and hatefully because in his mind... he really thought she wouldn't 'betray' him then froze her over when she least expected it. caspian was a newborn and never learned the true events of what happened to his mother all from his father's manipulations and lies he fed the young frost. how his mother had abandoned them both and ran off with a new family because he simply wasn't good enough. his father took him under his wing and tried to mold caspian as his last option to being the future ruler of the winter kingdom one day. the ice king is equally as a controlling father as he is a ruler and eventually into caspian's teen years... he begins to find that out the more caspian strays off his father's plan and path of destruction the more he pries into how his mother was like the more demanding his father becomes. and the day he finds out how she really died, is the day the winter kingdom brews an ugly storm and a terrible argument between father winter and his child of winter that unfortunately held the eerily identical anger in his eye as his mother summer had the day she wished to 'betray' him. caspian's only choice left was to flee in fear he would kill him too... during that journey he ends up on the ISLE OF THE LOST. in this verse, caspian does possess a few powers as both of his parents have them. (all inheriting from his father, however.) he can create tiny snowflakes from the tips of his fingers. he has a special white rose that could be used for bad or for good, one touch of it and he can either create beautiful icy rose sculptures – or one drop – and freeze over endless acres of land. he posesses cryokinesis: ability to control temperature and moisture in the environment, which he can generate ice and cold. however, he doesn't have total control on his abilities and his volatile emotions of sadness and a lot of anger have a lot to do with how well he can control them.

the hunger games verse. the president's son: the hunger games. going entirely au for this by sort of reinventing the snow's with the frost's. the difference is unlike coriolanus, caspian has a long run battling between doing the right or wrong thing and inevitably chooses the right decision to scheme a plan to end the hunger games since the other difference is he's the presidents son. son of president frost. but – until then, his morals can come across skeptical. it's easy to assume what he may be like if going anything by his dictator father (which caspian despises). is he a bad person like mr. frost or has he taken a good streak after his late mother? getting accused, categorized in with his father, looked at as the next monster in line... sometimes makes him have difficulty believing he's any thing less. that's something that can certainly get in the way of trying to be a good person. especially with the brainwashing's of his father to topple on top of that. but there's a secret to still be unrevealed, something happened a long time ago when his mother tried to make a good impact on his father and out of anger of his mother's attempt to turn him good... he found a way to rid of her. all these year's caspian's believed a rebel is the one who did it but the day he finds out it was his father all along; things drastically change among that newfound betrayal.

wednesday verse. (to be written) ..

stranger things verse. (to be written) probably will be a test subject type thing, if i don't change my mind.

dc & marvel verse. anti hero. for this verse i may base him off delores winters son. but this is also to be decided and written!

modern verse 1. the president's son: modern day. in modern day setting, caspian winters lives an unordinary life as the son to the united state's president mr. jack winters. his entire life he's been shoved into politics, even if his mother, the kinder parent– has gave the best of her ability to allow him to live as a normal child. still, growing up with zero siblings and a small group of friends has created this loneliness inside of him he wishes he didn't have. sometimes he yearns for an escape from all of it all while the pressure to be next in line to take the throne is shoved down his throat.

modern verse 2. the mayor's son: modern day. this modern verse allows me to write caspian in more of a normal setting. his father's still able to be some kind of man in power, but he's allowed to live more typically and hide in the shadows better. attending university in his home city of chicago, in a band on the side, keeping up with his love for theatre. caspian's definitely always been that theatre kid. it's the only healthy thing other than his band in his life that keeps him out of his usual trouble he tends to find himself causing or in the middle of. he has a rebellious attitude, that tends to lead him there a lot. always caught on either side of right and wrong with zero positive role models in his life.

[crystalelemental]

I have now cleared Fire Emblem Engage, and before I get to the cut below, I want to address something.  In the leadup to this game, a lot of reviews came back going, rather ominously, “this is not like Three Houses.”  Every scenario was about how the plot isn’t as intricate, the supports not as dynamic, and made everything about Engage sound like it was a step backwards; a regression in some way.  I want to make clear, it’s not.  It’s much more aligned with games prior to Three Houses, but its plot and characters are not lesser for having a more standard story.  At a bare minimum for discussing this game, I feel like that’s something that needs to be said, because it was a concern that almost kept my wife and I from getting it at all.

That said, in the grand scheme of the series?  This might be one of the best.

It’s been a long time since I’ve said this, and I can’t actually recall if it’s ever a thing I’ve said on the blog before, but from my younger days spending time with friends who exclusively watched bad movies for fun, I developed a hardline stance that simple is not bad, and complex is only good if it’s consistent.  Very often, stories can lead into something being incredibly strong, and then falter or trip face-first at the finish line, becoming outright terrible.  I feel like Three Hopes was a strong example.  That was a pretty fun game from an alternate events story, but the instant we start talking about Zahras, that game shits itself so hard even my wife doesn’t like talking about it, and she’s super invested in Three Houses.  If you can’t stick the landing on a complex idea, I do legitimately think it’s better to not even try.  Just aim simple.  Because if you can aim simple, and just stick to something that has an emotional impact, you can still come out as a good story.

Engage does that.  At its core, it’s a pretty simple good vs evil kind of story.  You are divine dragon, enemy is fell dragon, kill.  This never really changes, and there’s no real gray area on what’s going on broadly.  But the specifics of the story focus a lot on family, and the bonds people create to become like family.  It presents the idea that your family is more than just your blood, and that family can be unbelievably shitty but still, in some distorted way, care about each other.  It has a lot of really impactful scenes around this, with probably the best one being Zephia and Griss.  I...really like that scene.  It’s such an interesting presentation of their dynamic.  It’s too late to feel proper empathy for them, Marni and all that, but it’s such an interesting approach.

I think it’s also worth noting...there’s discussion I’ve heard through the series about how tension is built up in games, and how things like the turnwheel mechanic lessen the impact of your decisions.  But I think this game now provides a fantastic alternative perspective.  The presence of the Time Crystal, and its infinite use in Normal mode, means this is a very common tool to rely on.  Combined with the Emblem Rings that are absurdly powerful, with Celica’s Warp Ragnarok being a near-instant OHKO on bosses.  So hitting Chapter 11, and having all of your tools removed, even temporarily?  That’s the most powerless and desperate I’ve felt playing these games.  Like, that’s up there with shifting back to Dawn Brigade in Radiant Dawn, or basically anything in Thracia after Chapter 3.  It’s such an effective ploy to get you panicking.  I kinda love it.

On that note, I also kinda like infinite rewind.  I know there’s a lot of discussion about its merits, but I dunno, I kinda thought the decision to limit uses of it was...unnecessary.  Either have it or don’t.

Mechanically, I also enjoy that skills are more limited.  I think modern games tend to go overboard on skills and their acquisition, requiring you to cycle through whole classes and allowing five skills for ridiculous combinations.  I think the limitation to 2 skills is more reasonable, and I actually like that they’re inherited off the rings instead of classes.  I think that makes things more accessible, in a way.  Nothing is more frustrating about optimizing Awakening than needing to go to Dark Flier on like every unit who can access it to get Galeforce, requiring you to promote, shift class, get to level 15, then shift to a class you actually wanted, all before picking up the kids, and at that point being so wildly overpowered that the game no longer mattered.  Optimizing in that way was just frustrating.  Here it’s a lot easier to just play naturally.

But.  I hate the SP system.  It’s awful.  Characters start out with more SP the later they join, which is sensible, but it turns out you cannot possibly accrue that amount of SP without obscene levels of grinding.  Seriously, Framme starts with like 300SP, and I think she ended around 1200.  Meanwhile late-game units like Saphir step in with like 2000SP outright.  And some skills have the audacity to cost 5000.  There’s no NG+.  How in god’s name am I supposed to ever afford that?  It’s just not a well executed system.  At all.  Because you can’t really mix and match skills.  Half my army never saw 2000SP, so I just...didn’t get to test any combinations.  Which sucks.   A lot.

I do like class promotion, though.  We’re off the Echoes/Three Houses system, and back to flat stat improvements.  I like that a lot more.  I like pushing to level 20 then promoting when I can, and it always annoyed me that the base stat promotion system would give me nothing for the change.  I also like the proficiency system a bit, and I think it’s interesting how a lot of the classes are organized in a way where you can pick a combination of two skills.  Like, Wolf Knight?  You get Daggers, but you can pick sword, lance, or axe, depending on what proficiency you learn.  I think that’s really cool.  Also Wolf Knight is the coolest addition.  I love it.

Combat-wise, I really like how this game plays.  It just...feels good, in a way that I’m not quite able to describe.  I felt more like my placement mattered, and that weapon advantage mattered.  I was initially wary of the break system, but it came together incredibly well.  Chain attacks are...a bit hard for me to grasp when they happen, but are an interesting play as well.  When I’m using them.  When the enemy uses them to kill Louis, then it’s bullshit.  Random encounters for grinding in particular get really frustrating once they enter “Recommended level: Advanced Class.”  Because the enemies are a swarm.  And they’re a swarm that will all converge on you at once.  The hardest maps felt like the random encounters, because they scale to your best level, and are so aggressive, and Chain Attacks are going to blitz you regardless of defensive ability.  So I’m a bit back and forth.  It’s a cool idea, but I think any time you’re aiming to farm something, it’s more of a problem than a help.  The game feels like dodge tanking is the way to go sometimes, but even then, Chain Attacks are a flat 80% chance to land, so like...I don’t really know what the solution is there.

The rings are pretty fun, though.  Celica was fantastic early-game, but by the time I got her back, Warp Ragnarok was no longer killing everything in one shot.  Which was frustrating.  I feel like she kinda fell off.  Sigurd’s ring with Canter is fantastic, I love the nonsense you can get up to.  Lucina ring was great on Goldmary, double Chain Attacks put fantastic pressure on things.  Lyn’s special is a great way to just annihilate the first HP bar from a boss, and draw aggro without putting anyone in danger.  Byleth’s Goddess Dance was really good, and Thyrsus meant it was ideal for Celine, who now has 4-range Bolganone.  I think the rings simultaneously felt really overpowered, but not in a way I disliked.  Most of the game you don’t have many, so it doesn’t feel too bad, and once you have them all, nearly your whole team is equipped.  I did find it very funny you get 14 units, though.  Because 12 rings and the two DLC options.  They left you units to encourage use of all options, even the DLC.  I won’t complain.  I love using more units.

The last thing I’d note is supports.  Supports in this game are...really good, actually.  I was very pleased with how they came out.  They can feel a bit repetitive at times, but that’s every game.  But man, when they land on something interesting, they really shine.  I especially liked Celine, really grew to love Yunaka and Goldmary, and Hortensia was a massive surprise as well.  They did really well with crafting the characters with supports, which I always feel like is the most important part.  Not every character needs to be centrally important.  If anything, trying to make everyone centrally important bogs down the gameplay something fierce.  But the characters should matter, and that’s what supports are for.  It’s why they invented the things, I think.  So I’m glad those played out.

But oh my GOD are they hard to get.  Getting C and B aren’t too difficult, just fight in the Arena, but that requires a bit of save scumming.  Eating meals is a slow progression, but far more damning is that in-combat support only works in player phase, and doesn’t seem to confer much.  Worse, I gave everyone Corrin’s Quality Time ability, and it...did not significantly speed up access to supports.  It’s really distressing how little that skill did, actually.  I don’t necessarily mind a game where the goal is to replay things to get different supports.  But I also think this goes way, way too slow to be reasonable.  I’d like it to be a little quicker.

That said, barring the SP and support systems being a little janky...this was a really well put together game, with a simple but really effective story, and some great characters.  I had a great time with this one.  And with that out of the way, I am officially able to look through the tags here on Tumblr, where I’m sure everyone will be normal about things and nothing bad will happen.

[especdreamy]

👀 penny for your controversial c!Ranboo opinions? (u get him so i'm sure they're fine)

ok gonna preface this with I am so content starved and having a constant feedback loop with myself + i dont rewatch vods (except specific clips sometimes) + Sometimes I have difficulty wording things in a way that I feel couldn't be misinterpreted. so Please if you want clarification/debate me on this you can bc rn I have talked about this with like. 2 people. and they both agreed.

Short answer: I don't think c!Ranboo AND ew!Ranboo are good people. But they're not EVIL either. But I also feel like ew!Ranboo is much more logically driven than c!Ranboo is.

Long answer? putting under a readmore because oh my god

There's A LOTTTT i got to say abt my perception of ew!Ranboo. I saw someone say how it'd be more interesting for c!Ranboo's whole character if he, for whatever reason, willingly worked with c!Dream. And as someone who at the beginning of the year was very partial to the "Worked with c!Dream at first, got blackmailed afterwards" idea, I also kind of saw where that person was coming from, and how ew!Ranboo working with c!Dream because he saw it optimal, necessary, or whatever else, is probably a very interesting conflict to the story.

I have said in dms that I belive ew!Ranboo is more Goal oriented. He's a "The ends justify the means" kinda person. He genuinely believes that whatever he's doing is for a better cause (Ending conflict on the server).

And I used to say that at least at the beginning ew!Ranboo willingly working with c!Dream seemed very plausible! Because c!Dream also had a whole spiel about ending conflict on the server, it's just that his real goal is a very corrupted version of that. And that similar but different goal is what had lead to ew!Ranboo being allies with c!Dream up to the disc finale. And I used to say that after that, he didn't align with c!Dream's views anymore and was blackmailed into doing everything that came after.

BUT I started thinking. What if he wasn't being blackmailed into it? I don't think that ew!Ranboo sees eye to eye with c!Dream at all times, I wouldn't even say that he likes him or enjoys his presence. But I do think that he believes working with him is something that is gonna help with this "ending conflict in the server" deal, and whatever talking that c!Dream does to convince him into doing things like the prison explosion are kinda up in the air.

So that's the controversial opinion, at least in my close circle I belive? ew!Ranboo works willingly with c!Dream, he isn't being blackmailed, I would even dare to say that he doesn't even feel regret. Guilt maybe! but not regret.

And why? Because of his reply to c!Ranboo after the lessons stream:

I am someone who stops conflict. I need to make sure that if any conflict arises to try and help in any way possible.

MAKE SURE THAT EVERYONE IS SAFE.

STOP CONFLICT.

MAKE THE SERVER BETTER.

This is what I need to do. Trust me.

There's something about the "try and help in any way possible." and the "This is what I need to do. Trust me." that scratch my brain in that way. c!Ranboo was asking him "Who am I?" after being bombarded by memories and the lessons that were pretty much driving him towards a panic attack. I feel like ew!Ranboo wouldn't be WILLINGLY causing him turmoil by hiding any information that'd make it clear that actually he didn't want to do some of the bad things.

Instead, he tells him to trust him. that this is what he has to do.

He KNOWS c!Ranboo doesn't like the stuff he's remembering. He KNOWS c!Ranboo hates c!Dream, would rather have him dead, would rather die than willingly work with him.

ew!Ranboo in that book was basically saying "I know that you don't like what you're remembering. That you don't like what you've done. But I promise you this is for the greater good."

I think whatever past c!Ranboo has that he doesn't remember (but ew!Ranboo DOES) gives a very different perspective of the situation, and maybe a different mentality on how to approach the problem of "Conflict in the server" and just. c!Dream as a whole.

I'll clarify I dont think ew!Ranboo is evil. I don't think c!Ranboo is evil either. But I don't think either of them are good people and both are very grey characters.

I think ew!Ranboo genuinely believes that working with c!Dream is for the greater good of the server, whether or not c!Dream is hiding stuff from him or giving him his full intentions is something that I cannot say fully. I think that ew!Ranboo doesn't regret things like the prison explosion because he thinks it's all gonna pay off in the end. The ends justify the means.

[utilitycaster]

In a very on-brand move thinking about how much the “haha this group has one brain cell and this character has it” meme annoys me sparked like, between two and seven different rants for me (I edited myself down to four, mostly) so I’ve helpfully numbered them into something that is debatably readable.

The main reason I don’t like it in any media is because usually it’s not as simple as ‘this is the brains of the group’, because people are multidimensional. I also don’t like it in actual play specifically for “stop acting like stats mean absolutely everything” reasons, which is a thing I’ve been on about recently; think “Caleb Widogast (20 INT, 16 WIS) and the Emerald of Death that Absolutely Could Have Been Left Alone”.

It is my belief that people who do not take impulsive and/or risky actions in D&D are bad at playing D&D. There’s a good quote from Travis Willingham about this - that you can’t just play it safe. If you want to be pedantic and optimal about it the smartest thing to do would have probably been to never touch the ship full of corpses and the +1 Spider Crown of Makes Good People Throw Up*. But I think most** people understand that to have a story, that is, to find out, one must first fuck around. When players delicately try to skirt around every possible thing that might deprive them of a single hit point, it is unbelievably frustrating. It is not unintelligent or ‘lacking in brain cells’ to take risks. Dorian and Opal made great choices! They saw that the Nameless ones were going to be a threat that they could not avoid, and took actions to address that! Which brings me to my third point.

I find that fandom often pivots with all the grace of a broken Zamboni driven by an elephant, which is to say they do not react well to changes or new information. When the Nameless Ones show up, and it becomes clear that the plan of quietly running away undetected had failed, a lot of people seem to short circuit (presumably) and perceive whoever drops that first plan - even though we already know it has failed - as being the cause of the new problem. This is wrong; the person who drops the plan is the person who reacts first to a new and changed situation instead of hanging on to plan A when they know it won’t work. This happens a lot; I may be turning over a huge amount of dead discourse about Rumblecusp but it was fascinating to see how many people were frustrated by the inaction against Vokodo but then championed inaction in terms of reacting to Jester being in trouble; it seems many people make a connection between inertia and ‘the brain cell’ even though sticking with a plan you know has failed is not smart. This also, I should note, tracks with neutral good characters often being assigned the brain cell by the fandom, so onto point 4, which is…

It’s easy to appeal to law or chaos - in fact, it’s much easier to appeal to that than to morality (good/neutral/evil). True neutral is also not terribly hard to appeal to in that you either zero in on the character’s personal goals/beliefs and ignore alignment altogether, or you trust the player isn’t a total dickhead and will go along with the party majority. Neutral good and neutral evil are the trickiest alignments to motivate, and since neutral evil is both rare among PCs and especially tricky***, let’s talk neutral good. Neutral good characters want to help but they lack the certainty of a lawful character or the spontaneity of a chaotic one; they typically need to analyze everything to figure out how they can best help since all they really have to go on is ‘am I helping’ and that’s often a complicated question. And it’s not bad to do this! It’s a valuable perspective to have in a party. But it’s not a sign of intelligence so much as a sign of having a specifi philosophy, and while I’m sure there’s someone out there who wants to watch a 7 hour trolley problem debate, I do not, nor do most people, so another character will often take action. This in turn doesn’t mean they’re impulsive, so much as they acknowledge that the trolley waits for no one.

In summary I think a lot of people associate “the brain cell” with extreme caution, but in a world where pausing for six seconds can get you hit by a poisoned dagger (and also resurrection exists), there is a lot of sense in making a quick decision.****

*if you were going to say “um actually this is the circlet of barbed vision” unironically may I gently suggest you learn what jokes are.

**not many, and yet still, far more than the acceptable amount, which is zero.

***this is a whole new too-long post but in short while neutral good usually wants to actively help, neutral evil often just doesn’t care if they do harm, but doesn’t actively seek it. Many neutral evil characters (eg: pre-Mighty Nein Essek) have relatively morally neutral goals; the evil comes from them being willing to hurt others in their pursuit of those motivations. They do not necessarily see doing evil as its own goal or reward the way a neutral good character may feel about doing good.

****for more on this see every time I have ever complained about how people are all about more thorough examinations of worldbuilding when it comes to boring shit like fabric arts but refuse to apply it to like, the sociocultural implications of a world with complete gender and sexuality equality and wildly different lifespans among different peoples and the presence of magic and gods.

[akisata-moved]

a little bit of divine worldbuilding 🕊️

hi everyone! i said i would make a post about my angel worldbuilding and the lore surrounding it, so here we are. let's get into this!

(as a forewarning: this got really long really fast. sorry lol)

i. at the beginning of the universe: what's the deal with god, heaven, and hell?

you know... this guy. ...or, guys? i use they pronouns for god, not because they're nonbinary rep or anything but because the classic collection uses they pronouns for god because they are literally plural. so, multiple guys.

a. the universe's first inhabitants 🌟

we can't have angels (or anything, really) without god. so... what is god?

to put it simply, "god" is a small collective of beings that hail from a primordial race of creatures called aeons. contrary to popular belief, "god" did not create the universe as a whole.

that being said, they WERE the first beings to exist in the universe; gifted with near-immortality and the power of creation, they were essentially burdened the cosmic purpose of bringing the universe to life. think of them as... like, demiurges, really. despite being the first beings in the universe, they didn't really start popping up until ~370,000 years into the universe existing.

(whether or not there is a "supreme" being above them isn't something i've given TOO much thought to. my working idea is that the universe is quite literally a supreme being in itself.)

so, our "god" is not the only ones of their kind. there isn't a large amount of them, but considering the size of the universe and how it's ever-expanding... there's enough of them to go around, you know.

as the early stages of the universe progress, they start to become aware of the existence of each other. it's difficult to be what is essentially a god and be unaware of the presences that surround you.

the attitudes that they held towards each other varied from aeon to aeon. some of them worked in tandem, others remained solitary. some of them competed with others, and others dedicated themselves to watching over their corner of the universe and making it a home.

there weren't many "overstepped boundaries" in the infinitely expanding stretch of space they had at their disposal. in the early stages of the universe, there was no need for that kind of thing. they all mostly stayed in their own lanes.

during the early epochs, they mostly just spent their time experimenting, growing and changing, and learning the ins and outs of their little cosmic playground.

due to the nature and scope of their abilities, and their immortality, they were mostly aware that their exploits were relatively infinitesimal. they had a very acute awareness that every planet and galaxy they created would eventually crumble.

similarly to their attitudes towards each other, the attitudes they held towards their creations varied. some liked to stay disconnected, and hopped from creation to creation, moving on as soon as they finished working on their little project. others were more involved.

in regards to their abilities, they aren't omnipotent. in fact i wouldn't even really call them omnificent. if there was a way to describe what they were able to do, it would be... transmute? the universe provided all the materials for creation, and so it was their job to use their divine power to... make something with it, really. they can't create something out of absolutely nothing. there has to be something for them to make stuff.

they also don't really have any kind of set moral compass. so none of them are inherently evil, good, bad, whatever.

of course, given the fact that they mostly reside in space (we'll get to what exactly "heaven" is in a little), they aren't necessarily bound to one physical shape or form. we love shapeshifters.

b. the devilman "god", and the prison of light 🕯️

the devilman "god" is a trio of aeons who bonded over a certainty and awareness of what they wanted from the universe. they strove to create something perfect— something beautiful. better than every other creation out there. other aeons' work was... sloppy, imperfect, and quite ugly.

as stated before, the aeons aren't necessarily physical beings. that makes it really easy for them to fuse with each other, as they aren't really bound to any kind of physics or laws governing their consciousnesses and bodies.

"so are they a hivemind" not necessarily? they're all just... fused together. the pros of fusing together like that means that one single entity now has the power of three aeons, which lets them do a lot more than if they were all separate, and on a larger scale. god is a throuple

they probably aren't the only aeon group to do this, honestly.

fun note: the devilman "god" never refers to themselves as another aeon. they always refer to themselves as a "god", and it's mainly just because they think they're better than the rest of the aeons lol. i'll be referring to them as god from here on out just because it's easier.

so, then what? god decides that they need a place for themselves. a pocket of space only for them (+ eventually, the angels). they needed a home base of sorts, a place that represented their vision as they imagined it. and so, they created heaven.

so what even is heaven? it's essentially a sub-universe, or a pocket of the universe that god hid away just for themselves.... and for the angels, which were created afterwards.

once again, i doubt heaven is the only realm of its kind. i doubt that god is the only aeon who had the idea for a "home base" of sorts.

heaven started out as a home just for god, but as angelic society grew, it eventually turned into a whole kingdom. that being said, god still has a palace Just For Them at the very top layer of it!

people don't go to heaven. nope. that doesn't happen. mainly because it's not an "afterlife".

after god created heaven and the angels, heaven because a home for all of them. heaven was created to be perfect (in the eyes of its creator), or as close to perfect as god could manage while also having a species with (sort of) free will residing within it.

heaven is almost like a hidden galaxy, except a LOTTT smaller.

heaven is mostly made up of clouds and solid energy. there are actually five layers of heaven; one for each sphere of the angelic choir, one for the Archangels, and one for god.

that isn't to say that the angels are confined to one layer. they can freely travel about, it's just that they'll usually spend time in the layer dedicated to their sphere, unless they're stationed to work elsewhere.

the need for more and more angels became more important as time went on. god became more... power hungry, and they fell harder into the belief that they alone were the ones worthy of the universe. they eventually gained a very hostile attitude towards other aeons and cosmic societies. this wasn't unheard of, really, but considering how most of them stayed in their own lanes, having god be all... aggressive was a little bit of a shock. needless to say, this resulted in the formation of enemies... and other forms of cosmic politics.

heaven and angelic culture has a lot of emphasis on architecture! ...although, not in a way you would expect. the best way i can explain it is that it's very... suess-like.

lots of staircases, lots of columns, lots of... that kind of thing...

while we're on the topic of sub-universes, we can talk a little about hell, too.

hell was actually created by the universe itself, not by the aeons or god or anything. it has always existed, and is sort of a universal collection all life and souls. sorta like the universe's garbage can for all dead things.

it’s less of an eternal resting place and more of an intermediary location you go while the universe works to basically recycle your soul and convert it back to its original state.

ii. what is an angel?: a little on angelic society

a. the angelic choir at a glance📜

angelic society as a whole is referred to as the angelic choir.

the main thing about angelic society is that it's split into different spheres based on how much power an angel has/the specific task they were made to do.

why do angels exist in the first place? they were made to be servants of god, and basically do everything that they do... for them. so, deliver messages, be soldiers, do tasks and chores and watch over the things god makes... all that kind of thing.

angels have free will, but were created with an ingrained sense of duty that usually outweighs said free will. or perhaps it influences their free will. hard to tell. that being said, most angels will not do anything if it directly contradicts their purpose.

also, angels are not inherently “good” aligned. like I said, they have free will, which means they have choices. angels can be shitty people! whether or not an angel “falls” has nothing to do with what their character is like, and everything to do with whether or not they are defiant to God.

not a lot of angels do defy god, either. an angel being kicked out of heaven is pretty rare.

anyways, back to the angelic choir... there are three spheres of angel, each with three types of angel in them. the highest ranking angels are the first order of the first sphere, and the lowest ranking are the third order of the third sphere. yeah.

in the first sphere you have the seraphim, cherubim, and thrones. the first sphere angels are the only angels that tend directly to god.

the second sphere is made up of the dominations, the virtues, and the powers.

the third sphere consists of the principalities, the arches, and the angels (generic term).

Archangels are above the first sphere in rank. they're the most powerful angels, and there aren't very many of them.

b. archangels and the angels of the first sphere🔥

Archangels, as stated before, are the most powerful angels and the ones with the most important duties. they're mostly angelic supervisors that manage angels with different specialties. who are the archangels? before lucifer's fall, there were eight different archangels.

jophiel (archangel of wisdom and inspiration), chamuel (archangel of divine justice), gabriel (archangel of revalation), raphael (archangel of healing), uriel (archangel of truth and light), zadkiel (archangel of healing), and, of course, michael (archangel of strength and courage) and lucifer (archangel of love and empathy).

the first sphere angels are the angels that are closest to god, and the only ones that can interact where with them directly. they're the least... replaceable angels, except for the archangels. that's why they don't really leave heaven.

the seraphim are the bodyguards of the throne, and those who directly guard and protect both god's palace and the different layers of heaven itself. they're stationed just about everywhere on the fifth layer of heaven, and then scattered about in the other layers just to keep an eye on everything. they're also stationed at the entrances and exits.

they're busy a LOT of the time. they take their jobs very seriously.

the seraphim are the angels that interact the most with god. the cherubim and the thrones do, too, but not as frequently.

the tradition when interacting with god is to cover their faces and bodies with their wings when interacting directly with them. it's a sort of humbling thing, to show that they regard themselves as lesser than them. just out of respect.

the cherubim are the celestial recordkeepers of heaven, and the ones that really hold the knowledge of god and heaven.

they're known for their wisdom, and they keep records of everything that happens in their part of the universe. nothing goes undocumented, really. heaven's historians are also cherubim.

along with keeping records of events, they also keep track of all of the angels that are created, and those that come in and out of heaven. and those who go out and dont come back. yeah.

jophiel is the archangel who supervises the cherubim.

the thrones are some of the most intellectual angels and have wonderful minds. they serve as both teachers, guides, and counselors for the lower ranks of the angels.

they're the ones in charge of receiving orders from god and dishing out duties to the lower ranks (dominations, mostly) and explaining them. celestial teachers, really. they're very engaged with the rest of angelic society, and are always willing to offer an explanation or a helping hand to other angels.

they're also the head order that deals with cosmic laws and making sure everything that god makes works the way it's supposed to. god doesn't really have time to keep everything in check themselves, so it's up to the thrones and the virtues to make sure their creation... functions like it should.

lucifer was supposed to the archangelic supervisor of the thrones...? but, uh... that didn't exactly.... uh.... work out....

after lucifer was cast out, jophiel was put in charge of both the thrones and the cherubim. it's a lot of work for one angel, really, but she doesn't mind.

c. angels of the second and third spheres☄️

the first order of the second sphere is the dominations. think of these guys as... well, management.

they're in charge of managing the angelic kingdoms, and of regulating the second sphere angels in lower orders.

they help keep everyone organized. there's a lot of things to keep track of.

the dominions get their orders from the thrones (who receive orders from god), and pass along orders to the principalities in the third sphere along with the virtues and powers. it's just a big chain.

zadkiel is the archangel in charge of the dominations rank. he also deals with some of the stuff that the principalities handles, but mostly sticks to dominations.

the second order of the second sphere is the virtues. if seraphim are the guards and watchers of heaven itself, then the virtues are the watchers of the universe (well, god's part of the universe, anyways).

they watch over everything god creates, from planets, galaxies, luminaries, and other celestial bodies to make sure the cosmos are in order. and that nothing is going wrong.

they work closely with certain thrones angels for this reason.

it's actually very important to make sure shit isn't going wrong. especially considering how their god's... hostile attitude... attracts some not so friendly faces.

uriel is the archangel in charge of the virtues, and because of the close ties between the virtues and the thrones, he quickly became good friends with lucifer.

the powers are the third order of the third sphere, and they make up the angelic army.

can basically be split into two groups— soldiers and healers. the soldiers were originally led by chamuel, but the job was pretty much taken over by michael once he showed up, and chamuel instead switched gears to deal more with strategizing after that. raphael supervises those more geared towards healing.

running an army is hard work, turns out. there's a lot that goes into it.

the third sphere is the most populous sphere; they're like worker bees. they're very easy to replace, and are very expendable.

third sphere angels actually leave heaven a lot. they deal with intergalactic relationships.

in the first sphere, the principalities are the main managers of the lower-ranking arches and angels. they're very similar to the dominations in that regard, and they actually get their orders from them. like i said before... it's a big chain.

they're the ones that are stuck dealing the most with cosmic politics.

arches are celestial envoys, while your everyday angels work as messengers, running back and forth between heaven and other places in space. angel postal service!

the angels and arches are also assigned most of the mundane tasks not given to any higher ranks.

usually the angels go out in groups, because there's safety in numbers, and space is REALLY big. at least one arch will accompany an angel group, and on occasion, a principality will come too, depending on how important things are.

that being said, there have been many, many instances where angels don't come back. sometimes they get lost. this happens more often than it should.

gabriel is the head messenger archangel. he's the postmaster. angel. guy.

d. okay i'll bite. what are angels made of. aka, angel physiology 🌠

angels are special. lol.

they're made of photon energy (in the case of most angels) and thermal energy (in the case of seraphim).

(lucifer is an Archangel, so he is... as stated above, made of photons.)

as stated before, god can't create something out of nothing. the energy needed to create angels actually is specific to the energy emitted from dying stars. every angel comes from the death of a star.

so, this means a couple of things. first of all, as angels are created, not born, they don't actually have a functional reproductive system. because they weren't created with the intention of reproduction. the genitalia is decorative essentially tbh. also, every angel looks like this. it's definitely not a reproductive thing. it's entirely aesthetic.

"romance" is essentially nonexistent in angel culture. uh, they all see each other as some kind of equivalent of siblings, considering they were all made directly by the same creator. they all refer to god as their parents, and so they all see each other as siblings.

(that being said, it's not like they're incapable of love or anything. ryosatanlucifer retains his feelings for akira even after he turns back into an angel, so it's not like he can't feel love or anything like that. i mean, that should be obvious, but i felt the need to specify anyways)

the second thing this: angels lack all forms of physical sensation. their bodies are... kind of numb to all sense of touch, taste, smell, etc. they are, in some circumstances, intangible. what does that mean? well...

sorry for having so much stuff from go nagai world.... we never got to see satan in the actual ovas </3

they can float through stuff sometimes. their tangibility (on earth) is actually up to them. so, for example, if they wanted to, they could float through a door. or they could open a door by turning the doorknob. though, they wouldn't be able to experience the sensation of actually touching the doorknob.

anywho. there are actual a few variations of angelic appearance depending on what rank of angel they are! i have... erm... drawn a few examples of some of the angels, but not a whole lot? ahh.... there they are anyways. some of the descriptions are a little outdated bc i've changed into since then but YEAH!!

Archangels, at the very top of the angelic choir, are beautiful with 12 large snow-white wings— two on the head, two from the shoulderblades, two on the middle back, two on the lower back, on on each arm and one on each ankle. they’re all nearly identical- though, most of the angels within each order looks nearly identical. they’re identical in the way that cats of the same coat color and breed are identical. michael and lucifer are actually identical, though, because they’re like real life twins, and are born from the same star. yeah!

seraphim are made from condensed thermal energy rather than light energy. they’re super hot. Lol. they have 10 wings (head, shoulders, lower back, arms, and ankles) unlike the Archangel’s 12. They’re warmer in color scheme than the Archangels, which are usually a sort of yellow-white color? they glow. seraphim are more red-orange because they’re… heat. They also have the ability to manifest flames out of their body, though it’s kind of just for show considering how it can't really do anything.

the cherubim are covered in eyes. or, their wings are covered in eyes- they have 8 of them! wings, I mean (head, shoulders, lower back, and ankles). they have way more than eight eyes. Also, they can open eyes up on their bodies when they get really stressed or angry! it’s a fun neat cherubim trait. all the cherubim are so tired. let them go home please.

the thrones are the third order in the first sphere of the Angelic choir, and these are our ringy-boys. they're the angels with the most emphasis on halos- they can make them spin really fast and manifest more rings around them whenever they feel strongly or honestly just when they want to. they’re usually surrounded by them, just as a sort of status thing. they typically serve as messenger angels (delivering orders to the second sphere) and bodyguards for the cherubim. they have 6 pairs of wings (head, shoulders, and lower back).

from there on out appearance is mostly dictated by sphere— second sphere angels (dominations, virtues, and powers) have two sets of wings (on the head and the shoulders), while first sphere angels (principalities, arches, and angels) have only one set of wings on their shoulders, and look pretty similar to the standard depiction of angels.

e. some more about angel culture in general

i just wanted to share some more fun little details about angel culture, because there IS stuff beyond work for these guys lol

society is really easy to be sustained when there's no need for "hard labor", and when everyone is created with a sense of purpose. and the fact that they don't really need to eat or anything.

since there isn't much of a need for extra work outside of everyone's Assigned Jobs, when there is free time, it's mostly dedicated to the arts. there's actually a LOT of focus on art in angelic culture!

though, it's a lot less... genuine? than "human art". the idea of "perfection" is heavily exalted in angelic society, mainly because that's what god wishes for, and god is the One Real Authority in their society. a lot of angelic art tries to reflect this idea of perfect beauty that they've had drilled into their heads from the beginning of their existence.

of course, perfection is unachievable for the angels. so sad.

art that depicts any kind of "flaw" is entirely unheard of. angels are the ultimate perfectionists.

since none of the angels actually LOOK at god (the archangels and first spheres cover their eyes with their wings when they come in direct contact with them), a lot of art is actually of god. it's always sort of a contest to see how perfectly and beautiful they can depict god. it's a form of worship, really.

they do have a written language. but "novels" aren't really a thing. they aren't super big on fiction. what's the point of that?

instead, they use written language to keep historical accounts, archive events, and write PSALMS. so so many psalms. they really love to write music dedicated to praising their god.

"music" in quotes, because it's... not exactly comparable to human music. it's angel music, guys. cmon.

they also like writing poetry a lot.

because of the way they worship perfection in art/writing, things end up feeling a little bit... sterile? yeah.

obviously, since they are in space, they don't use any kind of timescale similar to days/hours/weeks/etc. there's a sort of "day" equivalent in which things are a lot... brighter? but that's really it.

angels don't age, either. they have no concept of age.

they do have another consistent method of keeping time, though, and it's based on how long it takes for angels (third rank of the third sphere) to be created. lower rank angels are really being produced at a constant rate, to make up for losses, so it's easy to divide time this way. the time it takes to make one angel = one angelic "day".

they don't really have any equivalent of years, instead naming longer periods of time (ages) after whatever archangel was created last. so, the age of gabriel, or the age of uriel.

when michael and lucifer were made At the same Time, the cherubim got into a lot of arguments over who to name the age after. it wasn't like there was any way to choose between the two.

so they just decided on both eventually. lol. they called it the age of lucifer and michael.

after lucifer well, a new Age started. so the age of lucifer and michael and the age of michael are two separate time periods.

michael is sooooooooooooo cocky about that, too. what a bitch.

anyways, like stated before, the idea of perfection is super important to angels. to them, god represents the ULTIMATE perfection.

and on that same note, talking bad about god, and going against god's will, is a very big NO!!!!!!. they REALLY do not do that.

.......okay!!!!!!!! whew!

that was a LOT, but if you read all the way through... mwah! thank you so much for listening to my thoughts!!!! i might make a separate post about lucifer's history/his relationships with the other angels/his fall later on. but for now.... here's just some basic stuff about angels and how they work!!! yeah!!!!!

[ramblings-of-a-mad-cat]

I really want to read the post where you say "why Ravenclaw is the House that suits MC the most in the main story" but I dont find it

I haven’t ever made a full length post about it, come to think of it. I’ve talked about it in previous Ask responses but admittedly I have quite a few of those. So I suppose now is as good a time as any! 

Ultimately, HPHM’s story is designed so that any House can work for Jacob’s Sibling. Obviously, no one House is “canon” over the others. But in my personal opinion, certain Houses do make more sense for different reasons. Everything can change based on how you characterize MC, but setting aside the dialogue choices, they tend to have a general personality that fills in for most of the scenes. It’s average, a kind of “everyman” type. And certain choices can arguably be considered “canon” when they’re the ones that are free, placed next to choices that are locked behind attributes or friendship checks. That is the general vision of MC that I’ll be analyzing. 

But first, the characters. 

One of the primary reasons that MC fits Ravenclaw the best in the Main Story is because there are several characters who are aligned to MC in their Sorting. They always follow MC to whatever House they go to. Thus it becomes a question of which house suits them the most. Rowan Khanna, I think, speaks for them-self. I could see them in any House but they are a Ravenclaw through and through. I bet the only reason they ever get Sorted anywhere else is because they ask the Hat to let them follow MC. They are absolutely brilliant, with a love of reading and learning new things. They’re eccentric as well, deeply creative and good at coming up with plans. They dream of being a Professor, and they turn to books above all else. Next we have Jacob. Another character who could go anywhere based on interpretation, but he strikes me as a Ravenclaw too. Several of the options you can give when expressing speculation about him suggest that the reason he probably investigated the Vaults in the first place was his thirst for knowledge, his desire to know their secrets. To be specific, his stubborn and obsessive need to know. I feel like Jacob couldn’t let this go until he had learned all of the hidden magic and secrets of the Vaults, until he realized far too late that he was in over his head, mixed up with R and everything. 

Then there is Flitwick. A canon Ravenclaw of course, and one of the four Heads of House. It could be coincidental, but even if it is, Flitwick is easily the most developed of the Heads of House within this game. McGonagall is totally in character, but she’s part of the sideline outside of a small section of Year 2. Sprout contributes absolutely nothing, and Snape is likewise in character, but lacking anything to do until Rakepick shows up. Flitwick prepares MC for the first duel with Merula and gives them counsel. I suppose it’s not that much more than McGonagall teaching them the revealing spell in Year 2, but this felt so much more personal. You have the chance to make a promise to Flitwick, and either keep it or break it. In Year 4, he is I think the only teacher to speak up in Rakepick’s defense, and this leads into even further development of his character. By Year 5, he starts to warn MC not to investigate the Portrait Curse, but stops mid-sentence as he realizes that nothing he can say will stop them. I bring all of this up because Flitwick being such a fleshed out character in this game kind of goes hand in hand pretty well with the idea that he is MC’s Head of House. He is the only Head who shows the slightest bit of remorse when banning MC from Hogsmeade. With him, you really get the sense that he’s being overruled and doesn’t agree with it. That he’s in MC’s corner. And god I love him.  I won’t stray too far into the Quidditch characters, but I will say that Murphy and Orion are two other characters that stick with MC, who I could very much see as Ravenclaws, both in different ways. But still, it’s Jacob and Rowan who are most important in affecting the story.

Which brings me to the story itself. 

Hogwarts Mystery is different from the story of Harry Potter. This is the tale of Jacob and his Sibling. In HP, we know from the beginning who the villain is, that he’s an evil monster. We know what he wants, and that he failed. It gets fleshed out more later but everything you need to know is in that first book. We see him, he clashes with Harry, and loses. The books are a hero’s journey. A story of good versus evil. They do have mystery aspects, each of the books has a mystery told within it’s pages. But the overarching story is not about what’s hidden in the trapdoor, or who opened the chamber of secrets. It’s about Harry and Voldemort’s rivalry, their hero/villain dynamic. Everyone knew going into DH that Harry would defeat him in the end because that’s how these things go. OOTP basically confirmed it but most fans had known for years. 

HPHM is different. 

There are heroic moments, and Merula in particular compares MC to being a “hero.” But nothing they do is heroic in the same way as Harry. They both take active roles in the story but in different ways. Harry is still reactionary. He takes it upon himself to solve the problems, but he still waits until the problems show up. MC plans to open the Vaults even before the Curses show themselves. They arrive at Hogwarts with a goal in mind, finding Jacob. And with Hogwarts Mystery, the overarching story is not a hero’s journey. Because MC is so much more ambiguous than Harry. It might seem redundant to say that this story is a Mystery, but it is. An ongoing investigation, the unraveling of a conspiracy. Learning the truth about just what went down during Jacob’s years at Hogwarts. By HBP, Voldemort was such a familiar presence that we were learning the ins and outs of his childhood, right down to how his parents met. By Year 6, we still have no idea what R really is, or what they want. We don’t even know what it stands for. The black and white of the books, the heroes and the villains...that’s all replaced with shades of gray. Jacob is constantly in the gray. So is Rakepick, at least at first. Don’t get me started on Merula. Ben is another character who is definitely good, but has gone through such a roller coaster about who he is and whether he can be trusted. 

Then there’s the ambiguity of MC them-self. The hints that they don’t share everything with people, are prone to tricking others, and for all we know, might wind up on the Dark Side someday. I’ll admit, this can also lend itself well to MC being a Slytherin, and indeed there are dialogue choices that are locked behind being one. But I still feel as though MC playing detective throughout this entire game, that whole premise lends itself pretty damn well toward a Ravenclaw MC. They’re trying to defeat the bad guys, but their main method of preparing for that fight is not train up an army of students, it is to investigate the Vaults, and investigate R. Even going as far as to work with Wizarding police. Granted, I know Harry poked around a lot too. And MC does form the Circle of Khanna, just like how Harry formed Dumbledore’s Army. Both of them do exhibit both behaviors, but MC specializes in covert investigation more than preparation for combat. Again, at least they do so in the main story. The Circle of Khanna was not meant to be like Dumbledore’s Army, at least not in concept. MC first conceived it as the idea of standing toe to toe with the Cabal by having a secret organization of their own. I know that didn’t really land perfectly in actual practice but that was the whole idea. And if there’s one thing MC has a constant stream of, it’s ideas. Not always the right ones, not always fast enough, but they do have them, and these ideas steer the plot. In the main story and otherwise. 

It’s probably a bit cheap to get meta, but so be it. 

I can’t help but notice how, if we take every other contribution to the Potterverse into account...well then, we’ve got a Gryffindor Protagonist in the form of Harry. We’ve got a Slytherin Protagonist in the form of Albus Severus. And a Hufflepuff over in Fantastic Beasts with Newt Scamander. If MC is a Ravenclaw, then that completes the quartet. But there’s another Quartet out there as well - that of the Original Four. Rowan, Ben, Penny, and Merula. The Year 1 characters and the OG leads of the Hogwarts Mystery story. Notice anything about them? We have a Hufflepuff, a Gryffindor, and a Slytherin...but no Ravenclaw. None that is, unless MC, and therefore Rowan by extension, is a Ravenclaw. MC being Sorted into the House of Eagles completes both of these groups. I dunno, I just find it curious that unless the Player goes to Ravenclaw, the first student character we meet in that House shows up in Year 3. Because Jam City wrote in some amazing characters for Ravenclaw. My love of Tulip Karasu is well documented, but I also think Talbott is pretty damn fascinating. Andre and Badeea rock too! Ravenclaw is also a relatively neutral House. I’ve said before that HPHM ignores the House rivalries, and that’s easiest to incorporate in the House of Eagles, which mostly keeps to itself. It would not be socially strange for a Ravenclaw to have so many friends from different Houses. I’m not saying a Slytherin MC couldn’t befriend Ben, for example, but he’s a Muggle-born Gryffindor and that would be a big deal to everyone else. Again, not saying it couldn’t happen, just that it would turn heads and people within Slytherin might go as far as to treat MC like a traitor. I like this premise, but...would Felix seriously help MC prepare to fight Merula, a fellow Slytherin, on behalf of someone like Ben? There are other trivial problems, like the question of two male Prefects if MC is Gryffindor, etc. 

But that’s just a few thoughts. Again, there’s clearly no “canon” House, and neither of my MCs are even in Ravenclaw. But I think it’s fun to explore the idea as Ravenclaw is a House that, I think, is sorely needing development.

[itsclydebitches]

What has Ironwood done that's objectively wrong? Bringing the fleet to Beacon makes sense with 1) Qrow's warning, 2) the presence of Grimm in general, 3) we have security forces for major events on Earth. Blake's trailer shows her & WF stealing dust for terrorist acts used at Beacon and Haven. His embargo makes sense. Penny & co. were fighting grimm in Mantle in vol. 7. Amity was used in vol. 8. I keep seeing people call him a Greek tragic hero and characters keep calling him misguided but why??

Personally, the only thing I think Ironwood has done objectively wrong is shooting Oscar and the Councilman, which is why those actions feels so far removed from the rest of his character — an attempt on the writers’ part to make him really evil when the story started insisting he’s an antagonist. RWBY isn’t interested in portraying Ironwood and Ruby as two heroes who go about saving people in different ways, like it was for Yang and Ruby: “You go save individuals and I’ll tell the world about Salem. We might disagree about how to help, but the narrative presents both actions as helping” (stupidity of the Amity plan aside). We could have easily gotten that with, “You go make a suicidal stand against Salem in an effort to save more people and I’ll take the risk of trying to escape with the people we have” but the show just... didn’t. Nor is the story interested in saying that Ruby was wrong, so the moment she took a firm stance against Ironwood he had to become the objective bad guy. If your story refuses to acknowledge that the hero is in any way flawed, then their opponents can’t have redeeming features that reflect badly on the hero. Which is what we had with Ironwood prior to the Oscar shooting, standing in contrast to Ruby with his practical approach that actually had a chance of saving some vs. her idealism that was going to get everyone killed (and still might). Everything Ironwood did was ABSOLUTELY iffy... but never objectively wrong. He had justified reasons for everything he did and only the best of intentions. Does that mean he was right every time? Wrong? It’s debatable and straddling that line was always the point. But once the story pit Ironwood against Ruby, a Ruby the story refuses to acknowledge as anything other than Pure and Good, that line could not longer exist. He HAD to be villainous in order to exist as her contrast, yet hadn’t acted in a villainous manner. So what do you do? Have him randomly shoot people to establish how evil he is.

As for the tragic hero aspect, I’d say it’s an easy claim to make if you don’t dive too deep into the story. Meaning, we can see a lot of similarities on the surface of Ironwood’s character, yet the actual meat of the story doesn’t support this reading very well. Ironwood is indeed a moral person of good standing whose misfortune stems from some bad luck/mistakes (army getting hacked is the best example), but that’s it. A great deal more of his misfortune stems from deliberate acts against him, both by Salem and (to a lesser extent) by Ruby. Ironwood’s supposed fatal flaw — the hamartia, usually hubris/pride — is not seen throughout the story, despite how much the fandom insists that he seizes power because he believes he’s Remnant’s savior. Throughout the whole series Ironwood continually eschews pride in favor of leaning on others: Let’s listen to Ozpin, let’s welcome new allies, let’s align ourselves with old enemies. It’s just that every time he reaches out, his allies fail him: Ozpin was keeping secrets (I love the guy and support most of his decisions, but I get why Ironwood's trust faltered, far more-so than I understand the group’s), Ruby lies and betrayed him, Robyn likewise betrayed him and helped get Clover killed. Pride is not his downfall, bad allies and an evil witch are! 

Perhaps most importantly, the tragic hero is meant to elicit pity. Sometimes fear too, but mostly pity. The story should be cathartic for the viewer because they’re watching a good person meet a bad end, largely due to what we recognize as inevitable, human error. That’s not who the story now insists Ironwood is. The story wants us to hate him, hence the above paragraph about “He’s evil now and shoots people for no reason.” This isn’t to say that the tragic hero never does things/has characteristics that the audience dislikes — they are still meant to be very flawed — but those aspects should not outweigh our ability to connect with the character and understand them. The emotional foundation here is regret that things turned out this way when they didn’t have to and the character (or at least who the character started out as) didn’t deserve this fate. Is that what RWBY is aiming for with Ironwood? I wouldn’t say so. We, as individual fans, might feel sympathy for him —  largely due to what we recognize as bad writing choices changing our perspective  — but that doesn’t mean the story is actively angling for that response. I’d say RWBY wants us to despise Ironwood and root for his downfall, which flies in the face of the tragic hero. He’s moved into the category of a much more clear-cut villain: a killer, a contrast to the heroes, our protagonist tells the whole world not to trust him. It’s possible that Ironwood may circle back to a tragic hero, but again, I doubt RWBY will succeed in making that move in a persuasive manner. I think they’ll just kill Ironwood off and people will go, “See, that’s what happens to tragic heroes!” ignoring both what the story wanted us to feel for Ironwood this last volume (he’s villainous) and how it failed to get us there in a believable manner (he was a good guy who just inexplicably started shooting when the story needed him to). 

These archetypes are complex and require that they be written with intent and, to be frank, skill. Compare Ironwood to someone like Walter White. Breaking Bad ensure we see from Episode One how Walter’s pride continually leads him down a dark path. His inability to lean on/trust others means that he goes to extreme lengths to do everything on his own, like making drugs to pay for his own cancer treatments. In time this leads to a more overt desire for power and his eventual downfall, wherein the audience recognizes the need for his punishment, yet still aches for the good man besieged by bad luck (cancer) that he once was. Ironwood’s fatal flaw is that he... wants to use military force against an endless army of literal monsters? That he doesn’t want to do everything on his own? Ironwood’s flaw is only a flaw in our world, not the world where magical monsters are eating people, and 99% of his misfortune stems not from his own actions coming about due to a different flaw, but because others are actively working against him. We can’t make broad-sweeping claims about Ironwood’s actions without first considering the actions of the characters around him. Oedipus is a tragic hero because he kills a man (action), ignorant that this is his father and thus fulfilling part of his prophecy. All of Ironwood’s recent, intended actions  — tell the world about Salem, leaving with Amity, etc. — have not come about and his ignorance only existed because others deliberately kept that information from him. It’s like if a friend of Oedipus’ knew all along that Laius was his father but refused to tell him, then stopped him from killing Laius because that’s bad... but then blamed him when someone else killed him instead? I think the fandom forgets that things are #bad right now because Salem is attacking the kingdom with, like, five different evil weapons. The kingdom is falling mostly because Salem is an asshole and a little because Ruby has made awful choices lately. Ironwood’s supposed pride didn’t bring Salem here, didn’t keep people from surviving, is not stopping the group from winning their battle. The tragedies we see in the story right now are not on him. 

[inamindfarfaraway]

Just going to put this out there: it doesn’t account for every trait a character can have, but a really interesting and arguably more realistic way to look at characters (your own or otherwise) is not really that they have ‘good’, ‘bad’ and ‘neutral’ traits, but that they have a set of deeply-embedded and very durable core traits, values, beliefs, fears, desires, etc. that manifest differently according to the context. Most traits are neutral. A redemption or corruption arc would be changes to the context - which could be external, like a new person, or internal, like the character’s underlying perspective of someone or something shifting - giving the character’s fundamental traits a chance to manifest and develop in a better or worse way. You want to protect your loved ones and would do anything for them? Great! What a noble, sympathetic motivation! You think you need to kill children to protect your loved ones? …Not so great. But you still have internal consistency! Understanding a character’s core allows them to stay consistent in spite of their external and internal journeys.

To me, a strength is not quite the same thing as a virtue; a weakness is not quite the same as a vice. Virtues and vices are good and bad, respectively, in and of themselves. They will be broadly considered positive and negative in almost any situation, at least by the audience. Habitually treat innocent people like dirt, for whatever reason? Vice. Excessive cruelty is one of the most basic human no-nos. Care about people getting what they deserve? Virtue. In our minds a serial killer who kills ten random people is much worse than a serial killer who kills ten murderers and rapists with the exact same methods and sadism. Virtues and vices are moral. Strength and weaknesses are practical, and thus much more fluid. I define a strength as any trait or skill that is useful to the character, their allies and/or moving the plot in their favour. These can change from one to the other in a scene; in the presence of different company; with the character’s varying mental health. Good liar? Strength, when you’re an undercover spy. Brave? Weakness, when you need to be cautious and hold back. Selfishness can be a hero’s driving strength. Being self-sacrificing can be nothing but harmful. Unconditional loyalty can make a character the best, most helpful friend ever… to the evil psychopath. Ambition for the sake of it can motivate the classic villain to take over the world, or the hero to prove themselves and save the world.

Through this lens there’s no reason to give your villains solely immoral and unlikeable traits (aka vices) or vice versa. Because at least a substantial portion of their personality is an entirely different beast from their moral alignment. I love characters who, while still being plausibly and recognizably themselves, could have turned out on the opposite side of the moral conflict had a circumstance or two been altered. Like, in most of the infinite parallel universes of this story, they’re ‘good’ or ‘evil’ when really they’re just always them.

[rainofaugustsith]

SWTOR: The LS/DS effect on story

Echoes of Vengeance spoilers

So there are two moments at the end of Echoes of Vengeance that depend entirely on alignment - not the character's actions. 

1. At the end of the battle with Tenebrae, when the PC struggles, Kira reaches out to help them if they are LS aligned. If they are DS aligned Scourge is shown coming close to them, not directly helping, but being there as a presence. 

2. At the end of the conversation with Satele Shan, if the PC is LS-aligned, Satele says that she hopes they will be able to make a better future. If the PC is DS-aligned, she warns them not to become like Valkorion. 

Captions:  (DS ending) Satele Shan: Take care not to follow his path. Even with all his power, the weight of his wrongdoing dragged him to oblivion.  (LS ending) Satele Shan: Let’s make that future a better one. The trouble with all of this is that alignment in the game doesn't indicate much about a PC's actions. You receive LS or DS points for everything you do, from killing NPCs in mobs to completing companion conversations to throwing snowballs at the gift droid and winning a holiday holo-tree. The alignment is not indicative in any way of how your character has behaved in the game, because the points you receive from making LS or DS choices are quickly overrun by all the other actions that also influence your alignment.  Occasionally the game gets this right. Earning the Darth Occlus title in the Sith Inquisitor story requires the player to constantly toggle their alignment from DS to LS and back, because they can't control it entirely through decisions. But there, wisely, they take a more realistic view of alignment. When Darth Marr grants the player their title, he doesn't allude to good or evil character; he just notes the alignment.  In the Jedi Consular story, characters comment specifically on the JC's behavior - whether they killed all the infected Jedi; whether they threatened someone's family on Balmorra - rather than their alignment. The Sith Warrior story does this too, sort of: the recruitment and alignment of Jaesa Willsaam depend on the player's conversation with her, not alignment. And the Imperial Agent story really does this; the Agent's decisions and conversations dictate what happens, not their alignment.  Even in Echoes of Vengeance they usually get this right. If you've killed Senya and Arcann, it's commented on (still unfairly, IMHO - there's no acknowledgment that Senya was asking you to absolve a genocidal dictator and incorporate him into the Alliance). If you let Theron go from the Alliance or killed him, it's also commented on (more fairly - there's a line where the PC can simply say that they can no longer trust Theron, and that his actions had consequences).  On the other hand, in the Jedi Knight story, if a player's character happens to be aligned DS, Satele Shan comments on it several times and denies them the Master designation, regardless of the actions they've actually taken in the story. In KOTFE there are several lines early on where the PC is said to be selfless or self-serving based solely on their alignment. And in the Warrior story, even though Jaesa's alignment ends up being based on discussion, if you're DS aligned she reads the PC as a horrible person, even if they've taken all positive actions in saving her parents or not killing the Jedi Master on Tatooine.  In The Nathema Conspiracy they go back and forth on this. When the Order of Zildrog's "special guests" appear, for some classes, it's based solely and entirely on specific decisions in the class stories. For example, the Sith Inquisitor gets Zash if they helped Khem Val in the class story; they get Khem Val if they helped Zash. The Trooper's "guest" depends on their decision of who to ally with on Iokath. That makes sense. For other classes it's strictly alignment-based. If you are a Jedi Knight, even if you have chosen to be a Peacekeeper and made every LS decision in the game, Master Kiwiks will show up to scream about how evil you are if you're DS aligned.  And then you get to Satele's chat. 

It's true that a lot of Star Wars often seems to favor very simplistic views of LS and DS - there's little nuance; it's all YOU MUST BE BAD!! or YAY YOU'RE GOOD! but given the rich shades of grey that SWTOR deals in, it's puzzling when it pops up. Also puzzling since a lot of things considered DS, such as anger, are normal human traits. I personally wish that the game would stick with the flags for specific behaviors rather than taking the very simplistic "everything about the light side is good; everything about the dark side is bad" angle. It makes it less frustrating and more genuine to your character's actual experiences. 

[self-loving-vampire]

Pathfinder: Kingmaker (2018)

Pathfinder: Kingmaker is a game that I liked a lot when I played it, but also a game that has a lot of obvious problems that drag aspects of it down. Fortunately, one of its big strengths is that it is extremely customizable, meaning that annoying or broken parts can be toned down for the most part.

Summary

This game has been called a spiritual successor to Baldur’s Gate, which I can see only on a sort of superficial level. What I can say it is that an ambitious and (in some ways) expanded adaptation of the Pathfinder tabletop adventure path of the same name, which I have run a little bit of.

For those who don’t know, an adventure path is essentially a whole campaign, starting at first level and spanning several interlinked chapters with their own minor antagonists and themes, sometimes but not always all the way to 20th level.

This particular AP is one that I’d consider extremely hard to make into a computer game without losing a lot of what makes it appealing in the process. It starts with a simple hook: A wild part of the world is under the rule of a bandit lord, if you defeat him then you will be allowed to found a barony on his land and develop it as you wish.

While the concept is straightforward, this is a great idea with tons of potential in the infinite freedom of tabletop play. While it is impossible for any existing computer to realize this potential as well as a skilled human DM could, the game does have a lot of strengths (and weaknesses) that make it interesting to analyze.

If I had to compare it to an older game, I’d actually use Troika Games’ 2003 cult classic Temple of Elemental Evil rather than Baldur’s Gate, for reasons that will become apparent to any who are familiar with it.

Freedom

I would say that this area is mostly fine. Once you finish the prologue (which doubles as a tutorial) you are largely free to explore the Stolen Lands... except that areas open up gradually depending on your main story progression.

While I understand that this helps keep things focused and manageable, there are times where these limitations end up feeling a bit contrived. Still, this is not a huge deal since each area is reasonably big and full of optional content.

One nice thing about exploration is that there are many areas with encounters that are far deadlier than anything you may be used to at that point, but which usually guard extremely valuable loot. This means that if you can figure out a way to overcome the encounter before you’re “supposed to” level-wise you will get a very satisfying reward out of it.

Defeating these encounters is not even strictly needed at times either. For example, there is a hidden crag linnorm (a CR 14 monster) in a cave within an area full of far weaker monsters (around CR 6 or so if I recall). While defeating the linnorm would not be easy for characters at this level, I managed to use the party’s rogue to sneak past it and loot its hoard without combat.

In terms of things like dialogue choices and the like, the game is also mixed. While you very often have multiple options, some of these options can be Stupid Evil (attacking people for no reason) or even flatly blocked by your alignment in ways that feel arbitrary.

For example, you need a Neutral alignment component to make peace between the mites and the kobolds in chapter 1.

There is one particular quest (courtesy of a kickstarter backer) that is a horrible railroad as well.

But overall I’d say you have more options here than in many other similar games, I mostly just wish the alignment stuff made sense and did not lock you out of options.

The game has multiple endings and Fallout-style ending slides describing what became of the people and places you influenced based on your decisions. However, achieving the secret ending or the secret romance is so extremely obscure that I’m actually surprised I managed to do it on my first playthrough.

Character Creation/Customization

This is easily one of the game’s most significant positives, while also being one of the things that may be extremely intimidating about it for people who haven’t played the tabletop.

With the DLC, there are 9 races to choose from and like 16 classes (not counting prestige classes). Adding to this, each of those classes has 3 optional archetypes that function as subclasses that add, remove, or modify class features.

Many of the races also have different heritages that switch around things like racial bonuses/penalties, resistances, and spell-like abilities.

However, I do have some complaints about it as well. Sometimes the explanations of what an archetype adds don’t seem as complete as they should be, and from what I remember a lot of your character creation decisions did not have enough of an impact outside of combat.

While the game does feature skill checks both in dialogue and in other parts of gameplay, they use the highest modifier within your party so your own stats are not vital to passing them, and (unlike its sequel) the game rarely features things like special dialogue options based on things like your race, class, or chosen deity as far as I can tell.

Also, while many tabletop options were understandably cut since the game was already over-ambitious as it is, this includes all kinds of item crafting (without mods that is). Things like potion-brewing are a pretty central aspect of the alchemist class, while wizards really benefit from scribing scrolls to handle many different situations.

Worse, this inability to craft and enchant your own gear can end up hurting the itemization in the game. There are tons of different types of weapons you can choose to specialize in, but for many of them you will struggle to find good weapons of that type to use within the game.

Also missing is the ability to meaningfully apply several types of spells out of combat, which really hurts some character ideas that would have been very interesting in the tabletop version (such as diviners or enchanters).

The whole system can also be a bit confusing to those unfamiliar with the tabletop. The game is not as clear and good at teaching as it should be.

Story/Setting

The game is set in Golarion’s Stolen Lands, an anarchic area with heavy fey presence. Compared to many of the more colorful locations in the setting, this is one of the more “standard” and generic regions, but there are still some noteworthy things that help define it, such as the ancient cyclops ruins beneath the land or the links to the alien First World of the fey.

Like the adventure path it is based on, the Kingmaker computer game has a story separated into several linked but defined chapters that each present a new threat. Kind of like anime arcs that introduce increasingly dangerous villains at the center of each.

The story is generally fine and the secret ending is as satisfying as it is obscure. However, I would say that story is not what makes this game good in my opinion. This is no Planescape: Torment.

The game features many companions. I did not really care much about roughly half of them to be honest, but I do like the approach used to present them. They are all very visibly flawed, which can make for bad first impressions, but as you spend time with them and do their quests you discover new depths to them that make them far more interesting, and you see them change over time as well.

One notable example is Jubilost, a rude know-it-all gnome with an unpleasant and caustic personality that covers some measure of real kindness underneath (as well as the fact that he does indeed know a lot, he just needs to be less of a dick about it).

And of course, the central idea of the story is something that you don’t actually see that much of in RPGs, or even in a lot of modern tabletop campaigns: The player gaining a kingdom to rule. I think that while there is no way to properly provide the same range of options for how to handle this as the tabletop version can, the game still manages to accomplish something interesting (even if not wholly good) in how it integrates the gameplay into this.

In many ways, ruling the kingdom can actually be kind of stressful outside of easier difficulties due to the interminable problems and literal curses plaguing it. You will have to contend with everything from monster raids to plagues and invasions throughout the game.

While the mechanics of managing the kingdom are not really all that well-balanced and are more of a pain than anything to a lot of people, the throne room events where you get to make decisions on policy and such are often fun and not something you see in many other games.

One thing that can be off-putting about the game’s approach to narrative decisions is that there are a few times where the outcome of a quest can feel a little arbitrary due to depending on seemingly minor dialogue options. This is especially bad about the above-mentioned secret ending and the secret romance option. They go far beyond “secret” and into “you will be lucky to achieve this without a walkthrough”.

Finally, a few of the alignment tags applied during conversation options make no sense. This is particularly bad during chapter 2, but the issue comes up outside of it as well.

Immersion

This is one area where the game is not that strong, for multiple reasons. For instance, the fact that there is no crime system at all. You can loot your entire town (where even magical items are sometimes inexplicably placed in random homes).

The day/night cycle also seems to be for aesthetic purposes only as there are no schedules to go with it (which at least makes sense from a gameplay standpoint I guess).

The one thing the game actually brings to the table here above most others is also one of its most controversial features: The passage of time.

There is a real urgency to your quests, as there’s actual consequences to neglecting threats and situations that are meant to be urgent. 

In most games this kind of urgency is completely fake and the story advances at whatever pace the player decides. Not so here. If you ignore, say, the troll hordes early in the game then their attacks will eventually overwhelm and ruin your kingdom.

Everything from travel to resting and even hunting in place of using rations takes time. Rest too much and you could be sacrificing your long-term ability to manage the endless threats around your kingdom in exchange for an edge in the encounters immediately ahead of you.

This not only makes the mechanics somewhat more interesting by forcing you to manage time instead of playing it safe by resting liberally and doing a 15-minute adventure day, it also ties in with the narrative of just how deeply cursed, troubled, and flat-out burdensome caring for your kingdom can be.

It also just feels more real that events move on their own regardless of whether or not you are present to deal with them. This feature is not entirely positive, though. It can obviously be painful if you are struggling or lost.

Gameplay

This is one of the game’s strong points, at least if you enjoy the mechanics of the tabletop. Just as Temple of Elemental Evil was a simplified and buggy but reasonably faithful adaptation of D&D 3.5 rules, Kingmaker is a simplified and buggy but (somewhat less) faithful adaptation of Pathfinder 1E rules.

Obviously there are many, many things missing from the tabletop. Classes, races, feats, I think also grappling in general, firearms, and etc.

I think a lot of these cuts are fair. This is a huge game already and it would have been downright miraculous to include every single option possible in the tabletop. The consolidation and removal of skills that were unlikely to have much use in the adventure also makes sense for balance purposes.

The combat as a whole is deep and complex enough to remain interesting for a long time, at least in turn-based mode (which I recommend). The amount of options available to magic users in particular is extreme even if many spells are missing, and many martial classes also have some features of their own beyond just basic attacks.

Also helping things is the very wide variety of enemies, some of which require a specialized approach to take down easily. You can’t just use the same tactics for every encounter in the game.

For example, trolls regenerate unless attacked with fire or acid. Undead have a whole host of immunities but are vulnerable to positive energy. Golems are immune to spells and extremely tough.

My main complaint about this aspect of the game is really just that combat is a bit excessive. There are far too many random encounters and even outside of that there is much more combat in general than in the tabletop version. Too many of these encounters end up feeling like padding.

This game probably could have been under 100 hours easily if a lot of the superfluous fights had been cut and overall XP gain had been increased. Even with enjoyable combat, 100+ hours of this is way too much.

Besides combat, there are “storybook sections��, where you are presented with situations and must make decisions about how to resolve them, often making use of skill checks to determine results. These are nice, not much else to say about them.

Which brings us to  the last major aspect of gameplay: The kingdom management. This aspect is controversial, and you can turn it off entirely if it sounds like it may not be for you.

There are three major aspects to kingdom management: Decisions, projects/events, and city-building.

Decisions are the most interesting by far. You will be presented by an issue or a request to decide on your policy in one area. You will be given a handful of choices with varying consequences, which may be referenced in later decisions.

Projects and events are more flawed while still having a good idea at their core. These are basically issues that you will need to assign one of your advisors to fix. For example, sending your general to deal with a hostile.

Where it falls apart is the fact that a dice roll is involved in determining success or failure (though there is a type of currency you can spend to improve your chances, which can reach 100%). There are also so many things going on that some of your advisors can be busy for months on a project while various events that require their attention pile up.

The worst part is that there are certain projects that require you to spend a fortnight at your capital doing nothing.

But even worse than this is the city building, which is a missed opportunity. Most buildings provide little beyond a relatively small amount of kingdom stats. This is still beneficial, but not very inspired or interesting.

So there are a lot of problems with kingdom building, one of the core features of the adventure path. While I didn’t hate it myself, I understand why some people might want to focus on the adventuring and combat.

This is also the point where I should mention that the game was incredibly broken at release even by eurojank standards. It is definitely a lot better in this area than it used to be, but is still not the most reliable of games.

Aesthetics

This is one area where the game does very well. Some of the environments look great, the monster designs are generally good, the music is great (though repetitive by the end due to the game’s length), and the combination of sound effects and brutal animations can make combat extra satisfying.

Areas can even change depending on the weather or the time of the year.

The only negative that comes to mind is that most of what you see in the game is relatively generic fantasy environments that don’t really stand out. I was never much of a fan of lush, bright forests and the like.

At least there is still a bit of variety, with dark swamps and mountainous areas, as well as the rare trip into the bizarre First World that fey creatures inhabit.

Accessibility

This is one of the three big complaints about the game (the other two being the bugs and the difficulty). If you are not already familiar with the PF rules then you may struggle to play this game effectively, at least for some time. From what I recall, many things are not that well explained.

In fact, you may have already heard horror stories about how one of the very first side quests you find sends you to a spider cave where you have to fight swarms, which is a type of enemy that is immune to normal weapon attacks outside of the easier difficulties.

This lack of clarity can also extend to your story decisions, as previously explained.

Conclusion

Like many other big and ambitious RPGs, Kingmaker has a lot of jank and technical problems, and its complexity and difficulty mean that it is not really the kind of game that will have widespread appeal. 

However, this does not mean it has no appeal at all. It is a huge game with entertaining combat, a story that puts you and your decisions at its center, and the rather rare opportunity to become a ruler in an RPG. It tries to do a lot  and I for one prefer games with big ambitions and passions like this over games that play it safe, even if they are more competent and polished.

I’d say that this game is mostly recommended for tabletop RPG nerds, people with “old school CRPG” sensibilities, and people with a high tolerance for jank. Others can definitely still enjoy it, but may want to use the easier difficulty modes.

[jimmyflemion]

Hi everyone. The Spiritual album is here. Damaged Goods  / Sinned in Reverse. Out now! Finally. Our album that has been talked about in interviews & the works for the last 30 years. Today digitally available everywhere. Always had it in mind for this to come out as an album in album form (who knows, maybe someday?) but now that it has been finished this seemed the perfect time for its release. Over the last 9 years all the song versions were listened to meticulously, chosen, vocals & instruments added & recorded, the theme of the story & running order placed in a schematic theme, mixed, mastered & the artwork went through several renovations until today as it stands in its completed form. Whenever it seemed like it was finished & patience had given out, there was that voice saying that when the time was right it would be ready. Why are any of us here? Our spirits, our souls, the learning, the forgetting, the remembering. What is my purpose? Is it something other than what I think it is? Am I supposed to be helping in some other way? I often ask myself these questions. Music always has given me hope to figure out these things & be good with myself & my choices, helping me to make sense. I often think of my sins & sins of omission words I feel I should have said or shouldn’t have said. The life I’ve led, previous lives. Being honest with myself & others & communicating my feelings freely & openly. Reflecting how my life would have changed dramatically. Often pointing the finger & not owning up to my own part in things. We all play a part in the communion. I’ve judged so much in my life. Through my own faults perceived through my own judgement, I become more & more conscientious & conscious & not so much on autopilot. For those I’ve hurt through my own neglect, I offer my sincere apologies. To be good with yourself & your pure refection brings peace. Myself & my brother were The Frogs. We grew up together, played & wrote songs entwining a world revered & a world despised & quickly scribed them with quill, in the end giving you the listeners your own choice in choosing where your heart aligns. From seeing both sides of characters as well as taking an honest look at ourselves, there began an introspection as to who we are as humans & it made its’ way into the work. We uncovered a society of depravity we had no intention of joining. Although given somewhat of a view of the music biz here & there from a ringside seat, in fact we were never invited to the party for we posed a threat in seeing through your false idol’s bullshit. We were different, we didn’t fit in & in retrospect a very good thing to be, working in our favor. But alas however cool or punk or whatever someone might think that might feel it took on an aura of loneliness. We were outsiders, who still in a way wanted for our ego’s sake (remember this is show biz, it takes some sort of ego to continue on, year after year) to be appreciated or make some sort of a living at this game. However, looking at things now, there really was never anything we missed out on, knowing how proud he was of me & I of him & what we set out to do through our creativity. I am reminded by a beautiful princess who once upon a time told me, we are all frogs. We are God’s children that keep getting turned into frogs & under the spell of the witches. The Frogs, the band represents all the frogs of the world. The Frogs, the band are the narrator, the storyteller as in the fairytale. The Frogs have their sweet revenge by flipping, showing the people thru song their own judgements of what beauty, evil, cruelty & perception of what is truth or not. You are the judge. It’s always been up to the listener of the message what they were to receive from it to learn or unlearn. Like a lot of music itself, it’s multilayered, multidimensional, the listener gets to decide what it means. We are all frogs, right & wrong, good & bad, ugly & beautiful, loving & hateful, mean & kind. We have a choice. Thru our own experience, we can heal & help to shine our light or to stay in the darkness & continue to judge all of it or accept & return to all that is within us which is love. & somewhere within all that we must not forget what they do to frogs in school’s biology class, cutting them open, dissecting removing parts showing children that it is ok in the name of science & men who eat & destroy the lives of children. Becoming comfortable with these ideas as if it’s cool or gross, not really understanding what they are doing. That which was once life, God’s creation lie there on the table, it represents us thru the fairytales. Being manipulated, being blinded from the day of our birth that we should be okay with all this and yet that is the great big lie too. The world you, we know/knew & the people of it that revel & cling to darkness remain at that vibration until they subscribe to the light. The light is for all yet some have an allergic reaction to it due to their disposition & judgement of the collective creation. The Frogs, myself and my brother spoke the truth about everything the 3rd dimensional world holds & ascending dimensions above. Together we were not puppets, poseurs, plagiarists or frauds, follow the long lost line of money, our trail is short. Those who hijack the heart will find & attract those of like. There remains nothing to be taught or learned for the kingdom of heaven is within, pretty simple. It’s easy to innerstand, if one makes a concerted conscious effort to spread love as opposed to their fascination with fear & pornographic obsession with death, which spoiler alert walks hand in hand with life. The music we created has nothing to do with “satire”, in fact at times there is no rhyme & reason & in times needed there is rhyme & reason. A fool auditions for a song, a wise man dresses up in costume, the world’s zoo comes to life & appears & disappears in illusion or what some call magic or a critic appears on notice to define art. There is a floodgate of material & songs to peruse & at times it makes the most sense to corral them conceptually. I used to be so concerned on being comprehended correctly to my liking but matters not. If I must spell it out, see how the Phoenicians, use their created language & words in plain sight, with the word spell to cast spells. In conclusion, the words with respect to the music are laced with wisdom. There is no other way. The goal, the direction, the soul purpose being co-creating beautiful sounds, energy & vibrations with the maker. In appreciation of creation. The heart beats, the world turns, the divine nature of the soul is changeless, without wavering, it answers the call of protecting & nurturing the mutual life force. Love avoids competition as it stands in its own sovereignty. ‘Tis the very common ground we all share & vibrate to. No one else can control our destiny, that which we were put on this plane, planet earth to fulfill. There was a shared mission only Dennis & I shared. The understanding & meaning that music in the right hands transforms the soul. Caging people, labeling, putting them in boxes, thinking these monsters own you is the absolute antithesis of love. The angels provide the roadmap, speak to them, I’ve spoken in song about freedom, having loved the show “Born Free” growing up under the Leo sign. I pray someday people that are real will find like minded humans & the fake actors satisfied with their empty empathy will have a true awakening. Judge much, yes but ‘tis a lonely world full of ghosts. So on a lighter note, as we float higher, what have I learned in all these years later 9 since Dennis has passed. What I’ve always known that I am so beyond blessed & grateful to have had him as my brother, how much love, care & detail he put into every moment of his life, how much he gave & how everything was a gift, how much he cherished life & being in everyone’s presence. His heart was always in the right place. An angel. Finally this album is the final Frogs album (the spiritual album that has been promised for years) 32 tracks, (number 5) Dennis & I were both number 5’s in our life paths. “damaged GOoDS / sinneD in Reverse” Damaged Goods / Dennis in Reverse In reality this album could not have been completed without the help of our dear friend Bjorn Thorsrud (additional production, mastering & editing) Dennis always wanted to have Bjorn work on this album & when he offered to help it was a GODsend. I devoted my heart & soul into this record & when I finally completed it on the final playback, I broke into tears, my only wish was for Dennis to be proud & happy with this record as a testament to The Frogs legacy. This album is in 432 hertz, the highest energy that governs the universe, vibrates with the earth’s heartbeat, the golden ratio, divine proportion. We made music because it brought us joy & made life such a wonderful experience. The telepathic musical communication Dennis & I shared is innerstood, felt inside. With regards to words they would have you say understood, but none of us is beneath or under where any other human soul stands, we are all equal & equally divine. I love Dennis with all my heart, always have & always will. I am so happy & thank creation so much that I was able to be here on this day to fulfill Dennis & my dream for you to hear this our final Frogs album. This album is for you all the fans who drove all over the country to come to our shows, stood in line, supported us at our merch booths. We started out having fun playing music together in the garage, writing songs in our bedrooms, had absolutely no idea any & all of this would have happened, well it couldn’t have happened without you our fans, we love each & every one of you for showering us with your love all of these years. This album is dedicated to the fans. Love,         Jimmy

[idkthisisjustforfanfic]

two years too late, chapter s e v e n

wc:  6.5k

Your mother had raised a woman of class. Which is why, even though you didn’t really want to, you climbed into the leather backseat that night, greeting Roger with a smile. You had work, it was late. Too soon for a sleepover, you thought. You weren’t going to give it up that easy. That didn’t stop the butterflies in your stomach when he kissed you goodbye, his hand on your face as if pulling away would lead to catastrophe. 

The string of green lights above the dark streets of New York seemed to smile down at you, the cold air coming in from the cracked window next to Roger fluttered up your spine. The radio played songs just for you, a text lit up your screen when the car slowed to a stop outside your building.

Harry S (11:21pm): Might sound weird. Going to say it anyway.

Harry S (11:21pm): I can’t wait to kiss you again. 

So maybe that’s why you couldn’t sleep--the desire to kiss him over and over again that had been lying dormant inside for years was suddenly at the surface, and better yet, it wasn’t a fantasy. This wasn’t a day dream in lecture or a fleeting thought when you scrolled past a picture of him on instagram, wondering where he was and how often he thought of you.

Sleep didn’t come until 2am--after tossing and turning and questioning what type of stars had aligned to make this reality. The ceiling seemed to float higher, a constant energy buzzing inside of you until finally, a yawn. Then another, then, suddenly, morning. 

The New York winter seemed less angry, less bitter. The subway was on time and your coffee was hot. Carly was happy to see you, eager to hear all about your holiday at home over lunch, the anger somehow softened. Staff meeting was quick and everyone seemed cheerful. Wednesday bled into Thursday, Thursday into Friday. 

You were feeling generous, still floating from three nights earlier, when Carly asked to have dinner. 

“Tonight?” You clarified, pen between your teeth as you proofread your own story. You didn’t have any plans this evening, if anything, you had laundry to do and you knew Alyssa would want to order out. Fridays were meant for staying in. 

“Mhm,” she nodded. “We could just go somewhere near you. Been a while since we’ve hung out outside of these four walls,” she motioned around the common space with the plush red couches and vending machines that offered an afternoon pick me up. 

Your computer whirred on your lap, powering through the hours you’d spent on this story. Best Youtube Sensations and Why. A smirk crossed over your face when you looked up to find her staring.

“You want me to invite him?”

“I mean,” a quick shrug of her shoulders, a wave of her hand as if to dismiss your silly thought. “I wasn’t implying that--but I certainly wouldn’t be mad.”

You let out a small laugh, adjusting on the couch and brushing hair behind your ear. Light filtered in through the windows, a busy New York afternoon on the streets below. “I’ll text him and see what he’s doing, but, I dunno, he might be busy.”

“Uh, speaking of,” she said suddenly, her eyes on her phone before she twisted it around to show you. A picture, Harry walking behind Denise to the gate, half of your forehead and eyebrow, a hat on your head was the only saving grace.

“Someone just tagged you in this.”

You leaned forward, hands reaching for the phone in desperation. “What?! Me? What do you mean?”

“It’s a tweet,” she pressed something on the screen to make the picture smaller, showing you that it had been attached to 280 characters. 

You grabbed it out of her hands and held the screen close enough to your face to burn your retinas. “Bloody fuck,” you said, pushing the phone back at her before you shut your laptop. You let your face fall into your hands, a groan escaping your lips. 

Fine, Carly knew. It didn’t seem miserable so far. She wasn’t as annoying about it as you’d expected. You could butter Carly up and let her meet the love of her life--that had to hold some sort of weight in terms of whether or not she’d tattle. But everyone else--and Whitney, for that matter--that was another story.

How would it look if one of The Scoop’s employees was snogging Harry Styles at night while another was writing stories about him in the morning? 

“I mean--you can’t really tell if it’s you or not.”

“Right but that’s like the last one and if this keeps happening--”

“The last one?” she shut her own laptop and leaned forward. 

“That one that you said was a random model--that concert,” you waved a hand to jog her memory, motioning towards the kitchen where she’d brought it up, bringing all above board. “Not a model, but thanks.”

“That was you?!”

“Shhh--jesus, you can’t just be loud about it!”

“Sorry,” she whispered back, her face just as excited as before. “That was you?! Why did he have his arms around you?!”

“He was just telling me something,” you said, partially true, a shrug to really sell it. Carly knowing that you grew up down the street was one thing, her knowing that the nature of the relationship had shifted was a whole other arena you didn’t want to get into. 

“Oh my god,” she said, her smile plastered on her cheeks as she let out a big breath. “I totally want to meet him.”

“I know,” you said, words quick and laced with obligation. “Not the main issue right now,” you reminded, pointing back at her cellphone. 

“Right--sorry,” she said, opening it again to pull up the tweet. “Only a few retweets and likes.”

“What do I do?” You asked, moving closer to stare at it again. “How could anyone tell that that’s me?”

“There’s probably other photos, more of your face or something.”

“Fuck.”

“S’fine,” she shrugged, her voice pleading with you to calm down. “Laugh it off. Claim you have a lookalike who apparently lives the life of the rich and famous.”

“And what happens when no one believes that and realizes it’s actually me?!”

She went quiet at that, her eyes scanning the room before falling back on yours. “Dunno. We just have to make sure Whitney doesn’t see it--not that she’s ever on twitter.”

“She’d kill me.”

“She wouldn’t kill you,” she corrected. “She’d have questions. And she’d want answers.”

“I can’t fucking lose my job, Carly. I’m gonna have to not hang out with him.”

“No!” She said, her own emotions getting the best of her before she cleared her throat, fingers running through her blonde hair to gain composure. “I just--don’t think you should suffer that. Reply really casually to it and if Whitney brings it up tell her that you bumped into him. Total coincidence.”

You thought on it for a second--deciding it was more believable than the lookalike theory or even some type of evil twin narrative. You and Harry heading for the same gate, plausible. He lived in London. You flew out of Heathrow. 

It wasn’t totally crazy. 

“That’s not bad.”

“He recognized you from your articles,” Carly shrugged, the creative wheels turning in her head. “That’d make you look really good, actually.”

You reached for your phone, pulling up twitter to assess the damage. Carly was right. Minimal interaction--the person was just a fan of your writing, you guessed. You typed out an easy response and pressed send. 

So maybe you were getting into dangerous territory, one where business and pleasure mixed like oil and water. But Carly’s support felt genuine, like now she was a safe haven at work--her words reassuring and calming. She bounced as you walked, excited for the possibility that--if he was free--Harry might make a guest appearance in your living room to grace her with his presence. Her words, not yours. 

She promised to be cool, to swallow the smile that was glued to her lips and to count to three before she responded to anything he said. Alyssa, who’s patience quickly diminished after the sun went down, was less than thrilled about company, let alone someone who might make high pitched noises and cry tears of joy. 

Harry was briefed on your commute home, casually accepting the invitation for pizza and beer. He laughed at first, seemingly pleased that you’d let Carly in on it. Can I bring up the article she wrote about my hair cut? The one with all the gif reactions? 

The buzzer of your apartment sounded, Carly’s breath hitched in her throat and Alyssa let out a laugh. Out of everyone, she had the least at stake. Her feet were up on the coffee table, eyes on the Knicks game to prove it. 

“He’s a human,” you said to Carly over your shoulder, she smoothed her blouse and bit her lip. 

“Human,” she repeated the word as if that’d make it more true, her head nodding as you walked over to the door. His footsteps were on the other side.

When you opened it, he smiled. A black wool coat hung over his shoulders, more stubble on his chin than the last time you saw him.

“Hi,” he leaned in, as if his lips were about to press into yours. A hand to his chest, a diversion, you offered your cheek instead.

He raised his eyebrows momentarily, realizing his slip was a risky one. “Hi,” he leaned around you, offering a smile in Carly’s direction. She stood behind you, trying her best to mask the excitement in her eyes. It didn’t matter, you’d already warned him.

“Hi,” she smiled. “I’m, uh, it’s nice to meet you. I’m a big fan.”

“Thank you, heard a lot about you--nice to meet you, too,” he shook her hand, shrugging out of his coat while Alyssa bit into pizza, eyes still glued to the game.

“Beer’s in the fridge,” she spoke between chews, her greeting much more casual than it was the first time they’d met. 

“M’starving,” he said, heading over to the kitchen after hung his coat on the hook behind the door. He rubbed his hands together as he peered into the two boxes, surveying his options. 

Carly was still frozen in place, her eyes big and round when you stepped past her. You settled onto the couch, reconciling with the pizza you’d left on a plate. “Good?”

“Good,” she nodded, her voice quiet enough so he wouldn’t hear. “Wild. Unbelievable, really.”

“It’ll wear off,” Alyssa laughed playfully, referencing her own excitement the first few nights. “Has terrible manners, really.”

“Me?” Harry came back around the corner, his brows furrowed together when he bit into the slice in his hand. “What do you mean?”

“Yeah--at least now you let us know when you’re coming over.”

You shot Alyssa a look, one that begged her to change the subject. The goal of the night was to let Carly have her moment, not spill all the details of your relationship with Harry. 

“Hey,” he whined, “just want to spend time with my friends.”

Alyssa laughed and rolled her eyes, pulling her legs back onto the couch. It wasn’t long before Harry’s attention shifted to that of the game, his eyes following the ball on the screen, muttering back and forth to Alyssa whenever a basket was made. 

Carly seemed more than fine with just watching him watch the telly you kept the conversation light and focused on neutral topics. The holidays, the weather, upcoming concerts at the Garden. Harry made nice and told her he loved his time in the band as much as he said he did in interviews. 

Carly asked a few questions about your relationship with Harry--how old were you when you met? Did you ever get to go to One Direction concerts? 

Harry handled it in stride, answering her questions with ease instead of dodging them like you’d somewhat expected. Instead, he admitted that he lost touch, only thinking to reach out six weeks earlier. 

“I, uh, spoke with our friend Jake--I knew Y/N was here but he reminded me, and I hadn’t seen her in a while, so, figured I’d call.”

You tilted your head to the side, he made brief eye contact with you before looking over to Carly. “You spoke with Jake?” It wasn’t a shock, especially seeing as that cover had already been blown.

“Yeah,” he shrugged, a sip of the beer in his hand. “Caught up with him and mentioned the gang. Figured it’d be nice to see you.”

You let the words settle, Alyssa cheering suddenly when the Knicks stole possession of the ball. 

“Yes!” She screamed, arms in the air, beer pointing towards the sky. “Did you see that?” Her words were aimed at Harry. 

He laughed, turning back to you and Carly. “It’s definitely been nice to see you.”

“Yeah, yeah,” you rolled your eyes, hoping he’d get the hint: no flirting in front of Carly. 

The night went on like that, casual conversation interrupted by Alyssa’s sports excitement.

All of it was easier than you thought, largely because Carly was calmer than you’d anticipated. You’d been prepared for her to barely be able to mumble out words, but she was doing fine enough with full sentences and proper grammar. A success for all. 

You’d wondered, when Carly first showed up, if she’d need to be kicked out of your apartment, feet dragging on the wood floor when you’d inevitably tell her you were going to sleep. You hated when people overstayed their welcome, and this felt like a situation where goodbyes would be reluctant and bittersweet. 

Luckily, Carly did her fair share of yawning before 10pm, letting you know she’d take the subway a few stops back to her apartment in Chelsea. She hugged Harry and wiggled her eyebrows at you over his shoulder. A sigh escaping your lips when she was out the door.

“Good?” Harry asked, his eyebrows raised while Alyssa headed into the bathroom to get ready for bed. “Was I friendly enough?”

He walked over to you, resting his arms around your shoulders, your hands wrapping around his torso. “Yes, you were fine,” you laughed. “She was better than I thought.”

“Me too,” he nodded. “Was prepared for fainting or something.”

Alyssa appeared in the doorway to the bathroom. “Don’t flatter yourself,” she spoke around the toothbrush in her mouth. “The novelty wears off quickly.”

Harry pulled back from you, narrowing his eyes at her. “Pretty sure you cleaned the entire apartment before I came over that one time.”

“Pretty sure you’re...an idiot,” Alyssa shot back, her laugh floating up towards the ceiling. 

Harry pulled you closer, your head against his chest, his chin resting on your hair. “I’ll take it,” he shrugged. 

He pressed his lips to the top of your head, sending a wave of heat down your spine. Alyssa rolled her eyes and left to spit into the sink, disappearing into her room while you and Harry moved over to the couch.

You thanked him for tolerating Carly, he promised it wasn’t too obnoxious. You put your feet on his lap like you had at his mum’s, but this time, he let a hand rest on your thigh. 

You didn’t know what it was. Maybe the dim glow in the living room, maybe the muted telly that now moved on to a late night sitcom rerun. Maybe it was how he helped gather the empty beer bottles, tossing half eaten pieces of crust into the bin.

But when he lingered in the middle of the room, halfway between the door and you, he tilted his head. 

Stay, you said. Your bed was big enough for two. 

**

Getting him out of your house in the morning was something you hadn’t thought through. Neither was the smirk on Alyssa’s face when he stumbled into the bathroom, half asleep, her eyes watching you over the rim of her coffee.

“Relax, nothing happened,” you settled onto a chair beside her at the table, privacy granted by the closed bathroom door. 

“Yeah?”

“Yeah,” you nodded again, reaching for a bite of the muffin on her plate. 

She swatted at your hand. “You expect me to believe that?”

You laughed, turning to look at her. With sleepy eyes and a hesitant tone, you cracked. “No penile penetration.”

Her eyes went wide, the possibilities now swimming in her head. You were saved by the creaking of the door, Harry emerged in the same t-shirt he wore the night before, boxers, socks up to his calves.

“Good morning,” Alyssa offered, a challenging smirk in his direction as he rubbed at his eyes. 

“Morning,” his voice was deep and hoarse. “Has the trial begun?” He shot a smirk back at her, poking fun at her curiosity. 

“You’re the next to testify,” you informed with a smile, heading over to the Keurig to place a mug beneath the spout. 

Alyssa laid off, though. She headed for the bathroom to shower and dress before dipping out the door to a spin class, claiming she had to be there early if she wanted a good bike. Harry lounged on the couch with a coffee in his hands, his eyes trailing you as you walked back and forth from the bathroom to your bedroom. 

Eventually, after you’d traded pyjamas for jeans, the anxiety lodged in your throat and you sat on the couch beside him. “Can we talk?”

He looked up from his phone, eyebrows dipping together when he adjusted on the cushions. “S’never good.”

“No, I just,” you took a breath, unsure of where to start or where to go. The clock above the telly clicked, a horn beeped from the street below. “There was a photo of us at the airport.”

He pushed his lips out, waiting for you to say more. 

“You can’t tell anyone you know me. You should unfollow me on instagram and twitter and--we just need to be careful. Carly showed me the picture and you can only sort of tell that it’s me, but if we keep hanging out--”

He cut you off, your rambling was too much for half past nine. “There will be more.”

“And there are more. If people start to suspect anything they’ll go digging and find photos that neither of us want anyone to see.”

He laughed at that, a small breath out through his nose, a smirk on his mouth. He sat up straight. “If you don’t want to do this, Smalls, then we don’t have to.”

His eyes trailed around the room, anywhere but you. 

“No, s’not what I’m saying.”

“Well, what? You don’t want to tell our friends, you don’t want to be seen out with me--”

“It’s not you, Harry, it’s--”

“My name?” He cut you off, his eyes sad but knowing. 

A shrug of your shoulders. You were quiet for a second, waiting to see if he would speak. When he didn’t, you stood from the couch. “I just want to focus on my career. I’m worried that this would get me fired.”

“I know,” he said, crossing his arms over his chest. Another sigh, this time, less annoyed and more understanding. When he looked over at you, he offered a slight smile, the green of his eyes more vibrant on a cloudy day. “This is always the worst part.”

“What do you mean?”

“Of dating,” he clarified, his head tilted to the side and he looked towards the window. 

You felt your lip twitch into a smile, one that you tried to will away. Don’t get your hopes up, don’t be so naive. He didn’t think much of it, though, as he brushed right past it and kept talking.

“People are nosy and it’s a pain in the ass, but that doesn’t--I still want to hang out with you.”

You nodded, a mix of emotion in your gut as he stood from the couch. Excitement, nervousness, a web of thoughts that all seemed to lead right back to the same place: him. 

“Me too,” you said, standing quickly to face him in the room. “I just--I want my job as well.”

He nodded, opening his arms to invite you into his chest. Two steps forward before you felt his skin on yours, his hips against yours, his lips on yours. 

**

Alyssa knew you hated cooking. Which is why you were a great roommate, really. She would cook, you would clean. You also supplied the wine on nights like this: when she stood before the stove and you sat at the small table, watching her stir in different ingredients that you couldn’t even pronounce. 

She had inundated you with questions upon her return to the apartment--her hair up in a bun from her workout class, still sweaty after brunch with a coworker. She lifted her legs to let you vacuum beneath them, asking what it was like to have his hands roaming under your shirt. 

She was worse than Carly, in a way, less in love with him, but just as curious as enchanted, especially now that he wasn’t in the room. Alyssa was like that. She’d play it cool when he was around, but as soon as the door was shut and his car whizzed down the street, she’d poke and prod until she was blue in the face. 

She stuck a spoon into the pan, moving around the chicken that was now flooded with tomato  sauce. “I can’t believe you’re going to have sex with him,” she looked up at you, her eyes enthusiastic and eager. “This is like, unbelievable. I’m gonna have to tell my mom.”

“What?” You set your glass of wine down on the table. “Why? You do not have to tell her.”

“She loved What Makes You Beautiful,” she shrugged. 

“Yeah, well, that was like ten years ago practically.”

“She’ll be thrilled!”

“It’s not even guaranteed, okay? Who knows how long this will last.”

“Why do you say it like that?” She set the spoon down, moving over to the counter to retrieve her own glass. 

You let out a groan. “I just--it kind of feels too good to be true, you know? Why now? What made him text me that night and why does he suddenly give a shit about all of us again?”

Alyssa took a sip, she looked around the room and mulled over your question. “You’d have to ask him, if you want his answer. But don’t ruin the excitement for yourself, okay? He has feelings for you and you have feelings for him.”

“And his being famous really throws a wrench in that.”

“I know,” she sighed, setting her glass down before tending to the chicken once more. “Sounds like he was receptive today, though!”

“He was,” you shrugged. “He didn’t love it at first though. Which I get. His life is super public and me not being okay with that feels like a recipe for disaster.”

“You really think Whitney would be mad about it? I mean, I thought she was a cool boss,” she laughed. 

You spread your arms out on the table, letting your forehead fall down to rest on the wood. “She is but she also has to abide by the ethics and all of the stuff about truthfulness and integrity.” Another groan.

“So should you just be truthful with her?”

“No!” you pulled your head up quickly to look at her before burying your face again. “It’s too late now, she’ll ask why I didn’t tell her from the start, but I was just trying to have a life outside of him.”

“What do you mean?”

Another groan, you looked up, your gaze met hers and she reached for her wine, eyes wide as she waited for you to explain. “I’ve always been the girl who was friends with him,” you rolled your eyes. “My uni friends and classmates all wanted to hang out with me because they figured maybe he’d come round at some point.”

She laughed a little, her hand danced over the stove to sprinkle more oregano. 

“He didn’t, though,” you reminded, more annoyed now. “Too busy being famous and shit.”

“Okay, alright,” she tried to soothe you. 

“So forgive me for just wanting to be Y/N,” you said. “No connection to him. Just making my own first impression and being my own human.”

“I get it,” she shrugged. “The question is: do you think Whitney would get it?”

“Forget Whitney,” you threw your hands up in the air and let out another noise of defeat. “If she asks about the photo I’ll just say that I bumped into him like Carly said and whatever. I haven’t even seen any other photos,” you reached for your phone. 

You pulled up Twitter, immediately heading into your mentions to assess any further damage. Replies to your last tweet, likes, retweets. A few people asking when you’d be doing another Stupid Things list--a compilation of stupid trends or phrases or memes. Alyssa hummed over the stove.

You scrolled down on your feed, looking for something familiar to know you’d been caught up with the internet happenings, but then, your eyes trailed a familiar photo--one that had been leaked a long time ago.

You jumped as high as you could, as if space between you and the ground would make things less awkward. He’d shown up at your door, a knock as if it wasn’t out of place. 

“How long are you in town for?”

He bounced next to you, you wondered if you were both too heavy for it now, limbs much longer than they were even two years ago before he left.

“Just a week,” he said, his breath unsteady as his arms flailed by his sides. His feet hit the trampoline once more, only a second before yours, both of you tumbling down to the black surface in your parent’s garden. 

“Jesus,” he laughed, his legs tangled with yours, socks against the surface as you tried to brush the hair out of your face. 

What was he doing here? Touring the world with his band didn’t keep him busy enough this summer? Why did he show up at your house, not Jake’s or Jessie’s? Did they even know he was home?

“Sorry,” he said now, pushing himself up on his elbows, the word felt more weighted than a simple apology for knocking you over. 

You sighed, somehow heartbroken by the fact that after all this time, you still wanted to kiss him.

“Oh fuck me,” you said, Alyssa looked up from the stove and came to peer over your shoulder. “M’pretty sure my sister’s stupid friend Sophie took this picture.”

“When’s that from?”

“I don’t know, s’like 2012 or something.” You dropped your phone onto the wooden surface before you, as if holding it in your hand would make the photo harder to escape. 

Alyssa reached for it and held it up to her face. “That’s you?”

“Yes.”

“Can’t really tell.” She handed it back. 

“I know--no one knows it’s me, no one ever did except for my sister and that Sophie girl--and my friends, too, obviously.”

“So why is it popping up now?”

“Cause someone is doing exactly what I suspected!” Another gesture towards the sky in exasperation.

“Which is…”

“Connecting the dots and realizing that I know him! On twitter.”

“What did they say?”

You pulled the tweet up and showed it to her. 

“They didn’t even mention you.”

“No, but, the airport one mentioned me and I’m thinking it’s not a far jump if people start to zoom in.”

“Okay, you’re getting paranoid,” Alyssa laughed, walking over to the wine to offer you a refill. 

“Am I? People aren’t that stupid, Lyss. And if they see that he follows me or old photos of Bryn’s or something they’ll know.”

“You can still be a successful journalist and know Harry Styles.”

You sighed, wishing you could tattoo her words on the inside of your eyelids. “Only if I keep them very separate.”

“So keep them separate! S’not like you have to write about music much, right?”

“Yeah,” you sighed. “You’re right. I’ll pretend I don’t know him when I’m at work and when I’m at home I’ll snog him until morning.”

Alyssa laughed, turning the burner down and offering a smile. “Sounds fun to me.”

**

When closing time came on Monday, the main thing on your mind was how crowded the subway would be and whether or not you could talk Alyssa into making chilli for dinner. You’d written five different lists and managed to avoid a conversation about Liam Payne in the kitchen. So when you checked your email for the last time before heading out, you were not, for any reason, expecting to be called into Whitney’s office at 4:58pm.

At first you thought the worst. She’d seen the photos, you’d be fired. Someone had sent them to her and demanded to know why an employee was getting cozy with a celebrity--what type of work ethic was that? You’d have to move home. Ask your parents for money. Anxieties ticked through your brain as you counted the thirty-five steps to her corner office. 

Coats and scarves disguised your coworkers--some of whom offered smiles as you completed what you were sure was the walk of shame.

The sun had gone down outside, blinking lights from other offices greeted you through the windows when you knocked twice. “Hi, you wanted to see me?”

She looked up from her computer, a smile taking over her face when her eyes met yours. “Hi,  yeah, come in,” she said, shutting her computer quickly and pushing back from her desk. “Sorry to catch you so last minute.”

“S’okay,” you replied, taking a seat in the Sahara coloured leather chair opposite her. You clasped your hands on your lap, her smile was too wide to be upset with you, you were sure of it. “Everything alright?”

“Great, yeah, actually I have good news.”

“Oh? Yeah, what is it?” You wiggled in your chair,  an immediate wave of relief washing up when you realized you weren’t getting canned. If you were lucky, Alyssa would be in the mood for chilli and there’d be a new documentary to watch on Netflix. 

“We got an amazing offer for someone to do an interview. A long form. Photoshoot. The like. I know you’ve been itching to do something more serious,” she smiled coyly. “So I was hoping you’d do it.”

“Oh god, wow, who is it?!”

“Harry Styles!” She let out a squeal, clapping her hands together as she leaned back in her chair once more. “How amazing, right? He can be so picky about press but I guess his team was looking for something not as mainstream, y’know, not GQ.”

Quiet for a second, you had to keep your eyes from going wide, your face from losing all colour. You imagined, if you could see yourself in this moment, you looked like a shell of yourself.

“You want me to interview him?”

She nodded, her lips pressed together in a firm line, obviously awaiting a burst of excitement to come from your lungs.

You shook your head unconsciously, “what about Carly? She loves him!”

Whitney sighed, her red fingernails tapped on her desk. “I know--she was my first thought obviously cause she’s covered him for so long, but, to be honest, I’m just kind of worried that she wouldn’t be able to be professional about it.”

You bit your tongue, a sudden rise of guilt in your chest. Two options, either led to disaster. 

Interview Harry, solidify your career as a journalist and get to list yourself as one of the few people who’ve interviewed someone of his caliber. Run the risk of outing yourself as someone who actually knows someone of his caliber and all the while engaging in something extremely unethical. 

Or, pass on the interview to preserve your morals and lose a chance to further your career, likely for a relationship that would fizzle out like your friendship previously had. You weren’t stupid. You couldn’t possibly believe that this would last or be long term.

“Why can’t Gabrielle do it?”

“Too busy--she’s got two big pieces this month that she’s tied up with. She’ll be out of town one of the days he’s available, too.”

You bit your lip, toying with the idea of just coming out with all of it now. 

“I really took into consideration what you said before the holidays--I want to give you this story.” She smiled at you, a fondness in her eyes that felt both flattering and overwhelming all at once. “Besides, you’ve always been so nonchalant about celebrities, I think it’d be a good take on someone like him.”

Silence. Cleaning staff shuffled outside her door, picking up waste bins and vacuuming the office carpet. You let your eyes wander the room. A framed picture of her nieces sat beside her computer. 

“Are you not interested?”

“I am,” you looked up at her quickly, hunting for the right words. “Just nervous, I guess.”

Not false.

“So you’ll do it?” she leaned forward on her desk, a second wave of guilt crashed over you.  

Whitney, like the good boss she was, wanted you to grow as a journalist. She wanted you to be fulfilled by your work and she valued and appreciated your feedback. And now she offered you what would have been an amazing opportunity, had the interview subject not been someone you got drunk with only a few weeks ago.

A nod of your head. Words out of your mouth from a voice that didn’t sound familiar. “Yeah,” you whispered. “I’ll do it.”

**

The air was cold when you climbed out of your Uber. Your computer was clutched beneath your arm and you were only slightly offended that the doorman of Harry’s building ignored your frantic pounding on the glass door to the lobby.

If you hadn’t known Harry for over a decade, you’d be more hesitant about showing up at his flat unannounced for the second time in two weeks. You’d tried to warn him, but the four text messages you’d sent were left unread. He finally answered the third phone and called down to the doorman to let you in, but you’d rehearsed your opening line the entire ride up.

“Okay, we have a big issue.”

“What’s wrong?” he came around the corner of the sofa, pulling a jumper over his head when you crossed your arms. You hadn’t the slightest clue what he’d been doing all day or why he hadn’t answered your messages, but you didn’t have time to greet him before launching into the problem at hand.

“Whitney wants me to interview you,” you said, unzipping your coat, your eyes locked on his as you waited for a reaction.

“What?” his eyes narrowed. “What do you mean?”

You let your hands slap your sides, frustration boiling over. “She said your team agreed to do an interview with The Scoop and she wants me to do it.”

“Shit,” he said, his eyes drifting left. 

“What do you mean shit?” Panic seemed to rise in your core.

“Well,” he spoke quickly, “Phoebe mentioned doing an interview the other day with a local website but I didn’t think it was yours.” He started to pace in the living room, hands in the front pocket of his jumper as he shook his head.

“Great,” you said, anger rising in your voice. “This is great.”

“Do you want me to cancel it? I’ll just cancel it.”

“No! You can’t cancel it. This is huge for my career.”

The words felt contradictory. You’d previously been hellbent on privacy, fearful any tie to Harry could ruin your status of employment. And while it might, now a part of you felt eager to cover him, boost your reputation as a good writer. 

“Well you don’t sound too excited,” he rolled his eyes, stopping on top of the white carpet that laid above the polished wood floors. His feet were socked--dark circles under his eyes when he rubbed at his chin.

“Well I’m not!” 

He paced again. 

“I have to interview you because I told Whitney before Christmas that I wanted more long form work--you know, real news!”

“Well then what do you suppose you tell her?”

You let out a huff of air. “I don’t know.”

He was quiet for a moment, the hum of the telly in the other room seemed to drift down the hall from his bedroom. 

“Can you do it and just not tell her we’re...friends?”

The word hurt more than you cared to admit, so you shrugged. “Dunno. I guess.”

More quiet. He let out a sigh before moving to sit on the couch. “If you think about it,” he looked up at you, his elbows resting on his knees, “that might explain the photos, right? Once you put the story out, people will assume that the airport photo was because of the story.”

“What about the concert one?”

“Can’t tell it’s you.”

You thought on it for a second. Whitney must not have seen it. She seemed to be busy enough with the upcoming award season and the start of a new podcast that she must have just missed the slight buzz of excitement. 

No one else at work aside from Carly cared enough about Harry to pay attention to his hold over the internet. Maybe it wasn’t a bad idea. 

“It would take a few weeks, the story, that is,” you thought aloud. “A few sessions of interviewing, a week of writing, a week of editing. There’d be a photoshoot somewhere in there.”

He nodded, urging you to continue. 

“So by the time the story is out if she sees any photos of us from the last month she won’t even know if they were recent. She’ll think it had something to do with that.”

Another nod. Hope in his eyes. 

You closed yours and let your head fall back, stomping a foot on the ground in frustration. “This is ridiculous. I can’t believe I’m doing this.”

“Doing what?” He asked, his stare still on you when you opened your eyes again.

“Interviewing someone I’m...seeing.”

He cracked a smile at that, standing from the couch to come over to where you stood. “Oh come on, you used to ask me a ton of annoying questions when we were kids. It’ll be like old times.”

“Yeah, minus your tongue down my throat.”

“We can still do that when you interview me?” he wiggled his eyebrows and laughed, pulling you into his chest.

“If you behave,” you said. “Let me ask all sorts of questions and give me good answers. None of your vague and general bullshit.”

He let out a howl of a laugh at that, dropping his arms from around you altogether as he walked towards the kitchen. “Maybe I’ll only give you that. The worst interview I’ve ever given.”

“You’re neglecting to remember that I could write an entire story about the time you slipped down the stairs in Year 7 or when your trousers ripped at that dance when we were fourteen.”

He looked at you over his shoulder, his eyes pointed and playful. “You wouldn’t dare.”

A shrug. A smirk on your lips that could only be removed by his mouth on yours. “Maybe I would,” you threatened.

read the other parts here

AN: ohhhh shit. lmk what ya think! 

tag list:  @clorenafila​ @ainsleesolareclipse @castawaycths @harryspirate @wanderlustiing @ursamajor603 @thurhomish @omgsharry  @stepping-into-the-light @rachkon​ @jdcharliewhiskey @sad-little-asshole  @shawnsblue​  @gendryia​ @g0bl1nqueen​  @laula843​  @flooome​  a-woman-without-a-plan @awomanindeniall​  @shaw-nm​ @staceystoleyourheart @ohprettylittlemind​ @anssu-amry​ @my-fandomful-life​ @stylesfantasy​ @bookingbee​  @mleestiles​  @haute-romance-quotidienne​  @craic-head-horan​ @talk-british-2-me-britbritharry​ @at-least-im-1​ @paigemck00​ @rawmeharry​ @pinkpolaroidgirl​ blackxxmagicc

[toooldforfandom-liveblogs]

She-Ra and the Princesses of Power S02E06 - Light Spinner

Ooh, that title sounds very intriguing considering how in the background Shadow Weaver has been this season. I can't wait so let's do this!

Flashback episode? Can't wait for Shadow Weaver's tragic backstory that somehow is going to make feel bad for that abusive gaslighting woman.

That was it. Some kid broke her spell and that made her break bad.

That's a good excuse for the exposition dump.

Wait, I just realized he's Micah. Future King Micah. Future dead King Micah. For some reason I had the idea that Shadow Weaver was around his (and Angella's) age.

That really does sound like cool stuff. Shame that we've never seen any of it in show. Just very specific princess magic and She-Ra. It'd be nice to have a proper sorceress in the group.

Where did all her magic go? She didn't depend on the runestone when she was Light Spinner, what happened?

Ooh, we're also getting info about Mr Hordak himself. Is he running out of time?

I can't tell if she can see in the dark or not

Oh Catra. First Shadow Weaver with Adora and now Hordak with Entrapta. Always the second choice.

Shame she can't see how she's first in everything in Scorpia's eyes.

He really does look like Glimmer, they nailed that.

I wonder if it's intentional that what we can see from her face looks like the 80s cartoon.

For a second I thought she was Spinerella but wrong hair color.

Wasn't it a big deal when She-Ra destroyed some of these crystals and now they are stealing them?

Please don't tell me Light Spinner's downfall is going to be because she's jealous of Micah's natural talents. She did have a bit of a chip on her shoulder about how Princesses get their powers and how much work it required to use magic so maybe.

Kinda sounding villain-y there, Light Spinner.

"You'll keep teaching me? Even though I just heard you muttering weird things aloud?"

So. Was Adora Shadow Weaver's second attempt at obtaining power through someone who could be manipulated? I'm still curious about what she saw in Adora to make her so obsessed. With Micah it's obvious that he's talented, but Adora had to be a baby.

I'm glad that they aren't really casting Light Spinner in a different light than Shadow Weaver, she's just as manipulative. It's not like she suddenly turned bad, she always had those traits.

There's been nothing about "Prince Micah," just "Micah" so far. How did he become the King?

An actual timeline! I really thought the Horde had been in the planet since Mara had done her thing but Light Spinner is making it sound like it's something recent. Considering Glimmer is 17(?), the Horde's presence in Etheria can't be older than maybe 30 years?

Well, there goes my theory of Hordak getting trapped in that dimension due to Mara. Maybe he was using his portals, crashed into Etheria and has been trying to repair his systems since then?

At least this gives her some motivation for her to go "welp, I guess I'm defecting to the horde now" since she sees them as the winning side.

Channeling the power of the runestone? I can't see how having Micah on her side would make the council easier to convince that would be a good idea.

Yeaaaah, not helping there.

I mean, it's complicated but maaaaybe you could open up?

Nope, I guess this is not that episode.

Is this the first time they show the moons almost in a row? Because that really screams "aligned planets prophecy"

Well, there you go. Considering how close the moons were to be aligned again, maybe this council is happening soon in the present time?

Scorpia's story made they giving up the stone sound a lot more peaceful.

If she cast it, that would explain why she gets her powers from the rune stone. But I wonder if she was interrupted or something since her relationship with the stone seems so tenuous, with her having to recharge a lot more than we have ever seen Glimmer do it, for example.

Just in time for the finale~

Really episode, really? You're making an explicit parallel between Catra and Light Spinner?

Sure, give the sorceress an amulet probably imbued with power. Interesting, if she escapes there'd be three sides in this war.

generational abuse~

At this point I'm more interested in how Micah is going to deal with the guilt of having been complicit of everything that happened and giving the Horde a lot more power once that comes up, than in Light Spinner's fall.

Huh. That was fast. I really thought there'd be some wandering the desert for a couple of years (to maybe find Adora) before this.

I wish they had introduced the concept of the moons aligning before this episode, since it feels like they just had to come up with something to give Shadow Weaver a reason to wait so long before escaping. I think that's probably one of She-Ra's biggest problems so far, it tends to introduce concepts the same episode it uses them, it's definitely not the first time I complain about it.

I wonder if Shadow Weaver was the one who ended up killing Micah. It'd a tragic enough revelation for an episode, with Micah maybe trying to appeal to the Light Spinner he had seen in his youth and failing to do it.

This is killing me. I'm sure there's a bit of real feeling behind all of these words, just enough to make Shadow Weaver not 100% two-dimensionally evil, but I'm also pretty sure that it's mostly so she can manipulate Catra into bringing her the badge.

nooo, poor Catra.

So this is how it happened. What did Shadow Weaver see in that baby that nobody else could?

What was Hordak looking for that he ended up with a baby?

But she never taught Adora anything about magic. Huh.

Hordak's biggest weakness, hearing a baby cry

Yup, just as sad as I thought it'd be. This show really doesn't want to give Catra any breaks, huh. But why? Why push Catra into being even less willing to trust? Maybe it's all preparation so she can do something awful without making her irredeemable? I'm really not sure where her character is going.

The show is also pushing Adora into something, but that seems to be handled every episode by reminding her she actually has friends to fall back on.

Narrator: It ends up being good.

There was a somewhat long-ish text here but it's gone because of a dumb bug so, here's a summary:

While Shadow Weaver's backstory was interesting, it also felt unnecessary. I'm not sure I learned anything new about her. It adds some context to her actions, her relationships and maaaybe a bit of depth but she was pretty bad back then and she's still just as bad.

It's implied that she also got screwed by the authority figures in her life, making this a cycle if Catra can't escape it but... I feel very "tragic motive, still abuse" about her and her backstory making it hard to care.

While the Horde are the designated bad guys of the show, I feel Shadow Weaver is the main villain, having personally hurt both Catra and Adora. So, her being free it's pretty interesting.

I'm very intrigued about Micah. What happened afterwards? Did they ever meet again? I hope they end up exploring that at some point.

I have no idea where the show is going with Catra. Is it piling up tragedy on top of tragedy over her so she can overcome it all or so she can fall even further into the dark?

Almost forgot to re-add this but what was Hordak looking for when he found Adora? It makes sense for him to collect orphans after battles since it's another way to build up his army, but it didn't sound like he was coming back from a battle. Was he looking for technology? If yes, why was Adora there?

Can't wait to watch where the plot goes next episode so, until next time!

[kogo-dogo]

I looked at your favorite character top 5 thing and there's the one character you said was your ''problematic fave''. And I've heard of that game before because I saw somebody play it on Youtube once, I think the second one, and I was just curious about the character. Torque?? Because it seems like such a bad game and he didn't seem to have much personality but you seem very attacked so I was wondering if maybe it was worth looking into the series or something. I like old games.

I am so sorry that I said a week ago I’d answer this, Anon. I have so many thoughts about this probably-actually-one-dimensional character because I’ve had sixteen years to pick apart every scrap of info that exists about him. And overanalysis of fictional men is, at this point, my primary hobby.

First of all… eh. I won’t say to definitively not look into the series, but I would encourage you not look into the series. It’s one of those things that’s aged like an open bottle of two-buck chuck and I can tell you right now that it wouldn’t be as palatable in 2020 as it was in 2004. As much as I love Prison is Hell (the first game) and as much as I get what they were trying to do, they messed a lot of things up and it wouldn’t translate well to modern times. This is especially true for Ties That Bind. Oh my god, do NOT play Ties That Bind if you’re easily offended.

It’s fascinating to pick apart, though, even if it seems extremely basic on the surface level, and part of the reason I like Torque so much is because he’s a very interesting character to crack open and inspect. I know he probably Isn’t That Deep, but he’s interesting, figuring him out is a puzzle because of the way storytelling is carried out, and if he’d been handled better, would probably still be remembered beyond “quiet dude in a game Youtubers occasionally play on Halloween.” He’s really an unfortunate casualty of that era of gaming. It’s surprising he was handled with any dignity at all.

Spoilers are to follow, but it’s for the best. Now you don’t have to play the game.

First, a disclaimer: The Suffering games do work on a morality system, where you can get good or bad endings based on how you treat other people. The game is heavily designed to favor the good ending, and most people I’ve spoken to have agreed the good endings are likely canonical considering how much you’d miss while playing neutral/evil. So, we’re going with the “Good Aligned Torque is Canon” angle.

Okay. Now.

- Who is Torque? 

This guy.

Torque is, in essence, what happens when you take every tired trope of a horror movie villain and flip it around on its head. He’s a severely mentally ill inmate convicted of murder (while it’s never outright stated what mental illnesses he has, it’s pretty obviously a mixture of DID and schizophrenia), he never speaks (at least not in the present; he does have scant dialogue in flashbacks in the second game; it amounts to maybe eight words total), and he is… freakishly strong. Beyond that, there’s very heavy evidence that he’s somehow supernaturally inclined. 

The difference is that, instead of being presented as the villain, he’s the hero. He’s not just the hero, he’s basically one of the very few competent people in the games. Nobody treats him any different than they would anyone else, the game doesn’t go out of its way to underline that he’s some kind of “monster,” and even when the most monstrous of his alters presents itself (The Creature, who we’ll discuss later), people are just kind of like, “Oh, well that was different” and then move on with their lives.

He is a character who could very easily take the place of Jason Voorhees, and instead of being given a machete and told to kill everyone he comes across, he’s given a fire ax and a voice in his head that tells him to take care to think about how much other people are struggling and that maybe, being that he is probably stronger than them, he should put forth the effort to get them someplace safe. 

- Okay, but, like… WHO is he? Character-wise?

If you want his backstory, it’s actually one of the best parts about him and one of the few things that Ties That Bind expands upon correctly. To summarize, he’s a victim of the state that fell through the cracks, pieced his life back together, and then ended up in the wrong place at the wrong time. 

To be more long-winded: He was a troubled child with psychiatric problems who lost both of his parents in a car accident. With no living relatives beyond his parents, he was placed into the Garvey Children’s Home, where the conditions were less than ideal. A mixture of strain, trauma, loneliness, and desperation prompted his brain to divide up into three: himself, Blackmore, and The Creature. Then, left to navigate life and his own mental health on his own, he ended up falling in with some very bad crowds.

He became a drug dealer. He got in a lot of altercations. He was in and out of prison. This only stopped when he met his wife and became a family man, and began to consciously put forth the effort to right himself. He had two sons, had everything under control… and then ended up in prison again when the guy he used to work for on the streets hired a man to come pay him a visit at his friend’s bar and press every last one of his buttons until he snapped. He wound up in prison, his wife divorced him, and everyone assumed he’d end up back to his old tricks.

Except… he didn’t go back to being a drug dealer. He got a job at a gym instead. He stayed on the right track. He started reconciling with his ex-wife who, right before the events of the first game, moved back in with him. 

This didn’t sit well with the men Torque used to run with, especially not the guy he used to work for… so a hit was ordered on him and his family. He wasn’t home when it was carried out. He walked in, found his wife and kids dead, and passed out in his apartment from the shock, where the police found him after receiving a tip.

He was bloody. He was disoriented. He was known to be a repeat offender. They pinned the whole thing on him and, after a very unfair trial, he was sentenced to death.

The first day he arrives in prison--located on scenic Carnate Island--the ground opens up and monsters begin sweeping over the land. Convenient.

- Wait, this bitch has alters?

Yeah. This… isn’t really a part of the game that’s handled well, but it’s interesting. There’s a lot of weirdness going on with Torque (remember that supernatural bend I mentioned?), and one of the two is… well, I’m not sure he’s an alter at all.

First, there’s Torque himself who is just a short-tempered, easily frustrated, but generally reasonable guy who really just wanted to keep his head above water. Secondly, there’s The Creature, a defense mechanism and literal monster that is incapable of communication and rears its head whenever he feels threatened. Physically threatened, generally, which resulted in The Creature being a bit violent. Torque has a pretty extensive arrest record and most of his arrests seem to revolve around “punched a guy at an inopportune time.”

Blackmore is more complicated, because he isn’t really clear. You see, there’s a snippet of dialogue in the second game and a lot of environmental storytelling that indicates that Torque is supernaturally gifted somehow (something he likely inherited from his mother), and that some of his mental illnesses are actually paranormal interference. Blackmore is the biggest gray area, because while he is presented as an alter, he… very much defies that. 

He’s presented as a presence that Torque experiences externally and that only he can see (not really uncommon; Torque hallucinates pretty frequently throughout the game), but he also seems to be aware and consciously trying to control Torque. When that fails, he settles for trying to find a way to take over Torque’s body permanently. He’s capable of actually getting in physical altercations with Torque, but at the same time can hijack his body to do things he wouldn’t normally be able to do. He honestly smacks more of something Torque is possessed by instead of something his brain came up with itself, made all the more obvious by the fact that the final battle in the second game is literally Torque and Blackmore beating the everloving hell out of each other after Torque consciously realizes that nobody can perceive Blackmore but him.

But at the same time, that guy that Torque worked for that ordered the hit on his family? That’s Blackmore. There’s a lot of talk about how nobody has ever seen Blackmore (indicating he only communicated via writing or phone or what have you), and it’s all… very, very stupid. It’s one of those things in TTB that made me throw up my hands and go, “Well, sure. Okay. Let’s just do that, then. That makes perfect sense thanks.”

(I do not like most of Ties That Bind.)

- Okay, so he’s supernatural somehow?

Mm-hm. Again, it’s never explicitly stated, but heavily implied through some dialogue from my second favorite character in the game (DR. Q.L. KILLJOY, MOTHERFUCKER) and just the way the story plays out. 

Carnate Island erupts with a bad case of monsters the second Torque sets foot on the island. A prologue you unlock after you beat the game once reveals that Torque actually hallucinated the first game’s end boss before he even saw it, indicating he has some precognitive abilities. The sentient spirits of both games know who Torque is and take a special interest in him, and plenty make allusions that they’re “more alike” than he thinks. Blackmore is very clearly paranormal in origin and seems to even be able to command the monsters in some way. 

Hell, Dr. Killjoy even implies at the end of the first game that Torque is somehow making all of this happen and, only by tackling the root of his problems, can he make everything stop.

While there’s never been an active fandom for this game, I used to associate with a small group of fans, and there was actually a lot of discussion/disagreements about whether Torque actually had any form of psychosis or if maybe he had latent psychic abilities he couldn’t control. Seeing things all the time, causing things to accidentally happen that nobody would believe; it’d be easy to be chalked up with a disorder when there’s no way to know or prove what you’re experiencing is Real Shit.

- Why do you hate Ties That Bind so much?

Because of the way it improperly handles a bunch of mental health stuff that the first game wisely didn’t actually touch on much beyond acknowledging the fact that This Guy Are Sick.

Prison is Hell makes it very evident that Torque has psychiatric problems but never dwells on it overmuch. There’s even an entire chapter of the game that takes place in an old asylum with an early 1900s alienist ghost (DR. KILLJOY) trying to diagnose and “treat” Torque, and it still is mostly hinged on the horrors of old-timey treatment of mentally ill patients than anything about Torque. That and Dr. Killjoy’s misguided good intent (that dude deserves a whole essay of his own, to be honest).

Instead of hammering it home that he has Issues and deciding to talk too much about Issues, it just treats Torque like a human being. Your main goal is getting off the island and saving stragglers along the way, all of which react to Torque just the same way they would to anyone. COs will either be authoritative or condescending. Fellow inmates will be suspicious but more likely to work with him. Everyone is always gracious for his help, and nobody makes any odd remarks about anything weird he does (barring when The Creature shows up; then, they just remark on, “DUDE HOW IN THE FUCK?” because you find out, later on, that all they see is Torque getting in fist fights with things twice his size and winning).

Torque is just Torque. He just do what Torque do.

Ties That Bind then goes barreling into a bunch of tired tropes and tries to make a convoluted twist ending, and then there’s the whole matter of the secret underground organization that wants to capture Torque and have been working with Blackmore and you end up fighting a helicopter and some SWAT-looking motherfuckers and… they try so much harder to be edgy and gritty and it’s really fucking stupid.

The only good things you get out of it are some further snippets into Torque’s backstory (appreciated), the return of Dr. Q.L. Killjoy (always welcome), and a set of monsters known as Gorgers (they make purr-gle sounds when they eat and I love them).

Oh, and Consuela. She is mentioned in the first game and actually shows up in the second, and I can respect any woman who gets captured by an evil paramilitary organization and, immediately upon being rescued, takes the biggest gun she can find, looks you dead in the eye, and says, “I’m going to steal a fucking boat, drive it straight into a warzone, and rescue my goddamn husband. You with me or not?”

She is literally some female parallel to Torque and my headcanon is they are bros.

- Anything else?

Yeah. The soundtrack for the game is pretty awesome and ended up inspiring some other music in a couple of other video games of the time (Mortal Kombat: Armageddon immediately comes to mind). They actually rigged up some pretty cool contraptions to make unique sounds and ambience using shit like scrap metal and garbage, and the results are pretty fucking cool.

Favorites of mine are the boss themes for Hermes, and Dr. Killjoy, with Dr. Killjoy’s being my absolute favorite of all of them. The main theme of the game is pretty great, too, and is probably the most iconic of all of the songs on the OST. I’ve even heard it used in stuff where I doubt people knew what the hell The Suffering was, lol.

[naruhearts]

14x18 First Watch Thoughts: Mary Winchester the Mirror, TFW and Destiel

**FLAILS**

My thoughts are practically incoherent because I’m having BIG FEELS right now...VERY big feels re: TFW/Destiel narratives.

I am SUPER glad Berens was the one who penned Mary’s death!! The episode was just well-done all around from start to finish and intensely executed, with the proper solid balance of angst, emotional insight from the characters placed inside Mary’s cathartic contextual role, and the consistent reiteration of Mary as TFW’s overall Parental Catharsis in 14x18′s storytelling (and S12-14′s whole parental premise in conjunction with John Winchester’s ghost). 

Mary was portrayed as the singular contrasting foil to TFW’s individual and combined arcs. Absence was, obviously, a core theme, with Mary’s absence -- her death -- playing out as A. familial purpose (accountability and her death as the impetus to work together --> forgive each other, forgive yourself), B. self-purpose (self-realization via Jack: what did I do? Why did I do it? Why do we do things?), and C. romantic purpose on the Dean/Cas front. 

Let me explain C. -- well, WE BEEN KNEW. The metasphere wrote about this (my post x).

x

Dean was HEAVILY subtextually framed as the angry spouse undergoing a rough patch with Cas over Mary’s death  (the tension, juxtaposed by sad orchestral strings and soft lighting, Dean lashing out at Cas, romantic framing via Dean’s back turned to Cas, their interactions holding frustration yet still underpinned by certain tenderness etc *sighhhhh*) and Dean continuing down the route of giving Cas, not Sam, frosty shoulders -- emphasized by the romantic visual framing of space between them e.g. Sam preventing Cas from comforting Dean during Mary’s funeral, backs again facing each other, Dean and Cas interacting sparsely, Dean bitter and disengaged, Cas longing for forgiveness from Dean, Sam as the overt brother caught in the middle as he embodies the role of mediator and stable thinker for both of them etc -- just strengthens my belief that Destiel is going to experience another (hopefully) intense romance-coded confrontation as intense as the one they had in the cabin -- one that leads up to a lover’s make-up or some kind of emotional breakthrough/realization which has Cas happy enough to be taken by the Empty (remember, DEAN STILL DOESN’T KNOW ABOUT CAS’ DEAL. Cas’ life to save his son’s life, harking back to Dean’s own fatherly self-sacrificial deal by saying Yes to Michael. He is utterly unaware that he’ll lose Cas) and it’s a double punch here, because Dean will realize how stupid he is for not appreciating Cas -- more accurately, trying to be mutually transparent and honest with him (he has, though, and he’s made leaps and bounds) before it’s too late but failing (final regression before progression). He does appreciate Cas, and Cas means more to him than anyone could ever describe *points at his Mind!Bar 14x10* yet their love languages still don’t align. IT’S NEVER TOO LATE TO START ALL OVER AGAIN, DEAN! 14x19 is written by BL so I additionally hope the D/C subtext from this point onwards works in our favour!!

As I said in above and in my liveblog posts, a summary: 

The differences in Dean’s grieving are a COMPLETE visual comparison to 12x23, complete with overhead 📸 shots and differing funeral pyre scenes: when he grieved over Cas, he was alone, kneeling on the ground, and was blatantly numb/emotionally incapacitated – Dean mourned the loss of his lover. When he’s grieving Mary, Sam is by his side. Brothers mourning the loss of their mother. Romantic vs familial.

Overt romance-coded parallels with Sam/Rowena keeping constant contact just like Dean/Cas do both offscreen and onscreen

Sam telling Dean IT WASN’T JUST CAS and his own emotional pull in this ep as expressing accountability for TFW’s actions in general – besides internalizing/talking about the self-guilt, shame, and the inevitable pain of losing people despite saving people (also re: the 🔑 theme of doing the wrong, stupid thing for the right reasons) -- was character development on a marvelous scale. Dean was enlightened and began to admit it himself. Honest, open words. Dean and Cas should learn from him!!

 Cas was absolutely humanized, subsuming the Winchester Way of Bringing Family Back, and he additionally evoked honesty/an emotional justification while admitting his mistakes and again representing FAITH: faith in Jack narratively linked to FAITH IN HIMSELF and the season-long theme of believing there’s another way -- in believing that good things shall come. As he appropriately told Anael last episode -- loneliness is a construct misconstrued by her; not being in one’s physical presence doesn’t mean they aren’t there -- they are there. They are there for you. Narrative symmetry with 14x17′s presence of emotional acknowledgement despite physical absence re: God (and TFW; just because Cas wasn’t with the Winchesters did not mean he loved them any less) vs 14x18′s absence of full-frontal communication despite physical presence re: Dean and Cas/TFW (being physically present also entails being emotionally present through HONESTY). Berens interlinked the subtext. Negative spaces are being filled. And there’s also an Evil/dark dimension added to this Presence vs Absence commentary: Lucifer’s a visage in Jack’s mind, just like Sam. Jack’s soullessness has come to a psychological crux. He’s teeter-tottering – tried desperately to bring Mary back, and now he might have fucked up the natural order (if BTS pics of zombies in 14x20 is linked to this).  Furthermore:

(*clutches chest* There’s the heartbreaking spousal-coded visual narrative.)

Oh, Cas...Jack is BOTH good and evil. This is the intrinsic dualism of human nature. It’s what makes Jack human. And goodness involves badness. 

CAS: [Jack] was good for us. Indeed, we know he was. The unhealthily-codependent-abusive notion of family TFW used to possess (where their overarching parental issues -- Chuck’s absence, John’s abuse and Mary’s absence -- crippled their early formative growth, extending into decades) was deconstructed and rebuilt in healthier ways. Being a parent to Jack offset their true capabilities/qualities: FAITH (Cas), HOPE (Sam), and LOVE (Dean), alongside all the stickiness that came with his birth. By direct association, Cas learned (is learning) how to believe in himself. Sam learned (is learning) how to hope in himself. Dean learned (is learning) how to love himself. Mental/emotional release from their internal chains took place (will come to its final culmination in S15). In other words, Jack the Unifying TFW Mirror -- like Mary -- was the great interpersonal conduit for (a Jesus-figure-representation) honesty, appreciation (spending time with your loved ones), positive vs negative self-process, and self-awareness. Keep in mind that Jack has characteristically taken the place of Dean, Cas and Sam’s own dark arcs (Soulless!Sam, in particular) with what looks like a Godstiel mirror in 14x19 -- he’s literally becoming textualized as TFW’s mirror -- and, like his parents, he is going to make his independent (wayward) choices and question the primacy of human nature: good, evil, and the grey in-between. Will he listen to his head or his heart?  Most of all, Jack taught them that HuntingTM is filled with pain, horror, and death, but genuine purpose lies beyond it. The lives they live are also innumerably interlinked with joy and happiness. These positive things aren’t as sparse as they think: they have each other.

Mary Winchester is ⚰️ and resides in Heaven (her death successfully made me emotional and packed a deep personal punch; the black and white flashbacks interspersed throughout 14x18 relative to Mary’s influence on TFW was A++). She disappeared right when TFW’s arcs came together to display character progression. Her purpose – pushing TFW to engage in self-introspection, personal growth, and honesty with the Self and others – is done.

Mary, the Cas mirror, carved M.W. into the table with S.W and D.W. You know who should be next, right? CASTIEL W. (and Jack W.) (recall that in 14x17, Mary relayed to Dean that she treasured and enjoyed her time with him and Sam -- channeling Cas’ 14x12 farewell speech. Mary has always embodied LOVE, both romantic and familial, with the great virtue of honesty, and Dean, by proxy, has been telling his family he loves them. Again, who is the next family member he’ll say I LOVE YOU to? What do Dean and Cas WANT? Time to answer this question!!)

WE HAVE COME FULL CIRCLE. Narrative cyclism, y’all. Mary and John Winchester are finally at ✌️, and by so doing, TFW will experience emotional/personal/psychological ✌️ as they leave their past behind to create their own optimistic self-actualized future. THERE’LL BE GENUINE PEACE WHEN YOU ARE DONE.

TFW MUST TALK

I mean, I’ll probably reblog this with new thoughts during the next few days, but yes, ENDGAME’S UPON US, and all the extensive meta regarding Dabb Era Love and...Love, Unity, Family, Honesty, the centrality of interpersonal relationships and Reconciliation of the Past & Future since Season New Beginnings 12/13 over Season Who Am I 14 should be realized in the final two ANGST-filled eps. TL;DR a gigantic multilayered soup of character-positive/relationship growth-positive meta coming to fruition for the main plot.

Berens has killed us all. 14x18 is one of my favourite Emotion-centric episodes yet!

RATING: 10/10

Thank you for reading my sloppier-than-usual word-vomit!