#the story didnt really... progress

[haunted-xander]

Fontaine, as a whole, is a nation I feel was so nearly perfect, but also just... somewhat unsatisfying.

Like, the exploration is nice, the puzzles and mechanics are fun, but... it's so easy. I have the entire map 100%. I didn't use a guide for most of it (only for Special Stuff like the treasure maps and foggy branches), nor did I have the treasure compass. All I had to help me was the hydroculus resonance gadget. The only regions in the game I got to 100% without any guides before was Galesong Hill (which, tbh, most ppl probably have at 100% or close %), and Hypostyle Desert (simply bc the underground ruins were so much fun to explore). Everywhere else I used a guide for at some point. During 4.0 I literally felt like I had to hold back on exploring just to not finish it too quickly. Yeah.

The world quests have a lot of interesting stuff going for them, especially the Narzissenkreuz questline and the ones in/around Merusea Village. But... they feel like they're missing something. I don't feel like I'm properly done with any of them, even though there isn't really anything more to add. The Narzissenkreuz quests had a very strong start, I cared about the characters involved and the lore they're a part of, and having it be 3 questlines that combine into one comprehensive story was really fun, but the ending feels... unceremonious almost. I can't pinpoint what's wrong with it, it answered what it needed to and it made it clear what everyone was doing going forward, but... it feels off. Anticlimatic, almost, despite it having the climax it needed. The world quest I was most satisfied with was the Questioning Melusine And Answering Machine quests, and it's a largely self-contained one. Everything else feels... unfinished, almost. But also not.

And the Archon Quests are so so good, but also... weird at parts. First of all, Childe's out-of-nowhere traumadump early on is jarring, especially since... they didn't really follow up with it properly? Like yes, the Narwhal and Skirk ended up relevant but... not to him, for the most part. The important questions this conversation prompted wasn't elaborated or followed up on, which is what could've justified including it at all. We still have no more clues as to why the Narwhal connected with him, we don't know what caused his restlessness or why his vision messed up, and Skirk was kinda just... there. She loredumped and that was that.

There's other oddities too, like Traveler getting upset at the twins for hiding their Fatui affiliation. Traveler has every right to be upset with them in that moment but... not for that. They should be upset because they lied about the magic show, not about being Fatui. Like, you literally called Childe you're friend just the other day! And he's literally tried to kill you (well, okay, not "kill", but he was still an enemy)! And later on you're suddenly fine with Arlecchino, a person we have seen time and time again is an absolutely terrible person? Because, what, she cared about this one specific problem that affected innocent lives? Really?

Furina and Childe not getting checked up on by basically anyone at the end of 4.2s AQ feels not only out of character (you're gonna tell me Traveler isn't gonna check on them after all that happened? Really?) but also just... very shitty. The only one who seemed to even care was Neuvillette, everyone else just kinda... forgot about those two. Despite the fact that 1) Furina was a well liked public figure who, even after the truth was revealed, people very much still cared about, and 2) Childe literally saved the entire nation but stalling the Narwhal for over a month. Even Neuvillette couldn't so much as deter that thing until he got his full powers back, and you're telling me nobody, not even the people who where directly saved by him, even wondered what became of him? Really?

The characters are fantastic here, don't get me wrong, everyone is lovely and I adore them all, but the way the story handled certain things is just... not great. It's unsatisfying. It feels like there were things they wanted to do but either chickened out of or simply didn't get to include. It's so jarring.

[madame-cookie]

gw2 fans losing another battle in the war of understanding a morally gray character

[the-vibing-ghoul]

some people will be all about mental health awareness and leftist ideals of at least tolerating the mentally ill who show ''ugly'' symptoms until it's someone they know and ''care'' about having a bad day and acting like it in a way they don't find appealing

[puppyeared]

i am playing professor layton and the curious village on my ds. very fun!!!

I don't know if i'm very far in because most of the time spent in that game was me being confused and bad at puzzles. it's fun though.

!!! im glad to hear youre enjoying it!! its one of my fav titles and honestly such an underrated series, id love it if more ppl gave it a try!

the puzzles can be difficult but very rewarding!! i used to dread them as a kid but now i find them nice and challenging. the math ones are still hard, but if u speak to Flick at the cafe he'll give you chess puzzles which i think were my favorite ^_^

[mummer]

literally what do you MEAN the coyote got run over offscreen and the roadrunner is alone and left unchased!!!!!!!!!!

[lord-squiggletits]

Also speaking of absurd plots in Barber's writing, shout out to that time he wrote a scene of Optimus and the US President talking. And the US president who's a black woman and her father was a civil right's activist has nothing to say about the fact that a police officer in her country getting killed by Jazz was a big reason ppl don't trust the Autobots? Like, a major diplomatic incident b/t humans and Autobots just never gets discussed? Optimus never goes "so heyyy the reason my soldier killed a police officer is because he was about to kill injured and surrendering Autobots, can I get a pardon for that? Or maybe some kind of editorial where we get to clear the air and show both sides of that incident? In the spirit of transparency and fairness not only to your people but also mine?"

Like.

The black female president whose father was a civil rights activist has nothing to say about an incident of a police officer about to fire on surrendering suspects, and then the media treats his attempted killing as him being the noble police officer just doing his duty who was completely in the right to shoot??? Why was this major diplomatic incident not part of some major convention between humans and Autobots? Why did Jazz/Optimus never get to share their side of this incident on an official political or diplomatic channel? Why did Barber write one of his politician characters as being left-leaning and clearly in-tune with social justice issues, having nothing to say about a police officer from her country (a country infamous for police brutality and racial inequality, which she would know personally because she's a black woman) being the subject of an interplanetary dispute causing tension between Earth and the alien civilization trying to help them not get colonized by Decepticons?

Instead the purpose of that scene was like... I don't even remember, it was basically the US pres going "my father was a civil rights activist" and Optimus is like "hm I guess I'll leave Jazz out to dry for the sake of diplomatic relations." I don't understand why the only possible outcome of the story was for Optimus to just abandon Jazz when, as Jazz' commanding officer and a representative of Cybertron, he would've been within his rights (and indeed, may have had such meetings during the war) to demand some sort of trial to clear Jazz' name? Like, the fact that Optimus had this diplomatic power but didn't even try to use it, and the US President had a character background to make her sympathetic and she didn't bring up a trial either, just feels like a massive plot hole.

It's just so fucking bad because not only does the treatment of that incident not make sense logic wise (an international/interplanetary? incident of that magnitude is DEFINITELY something that would be discussed between the leaders of the two nations in question), it also kind of makes Barber's attempts to put progressive politics in the comics look really stupid? Like. Shouldn't a black female president whose father was a civil rights activist go "Ah yes, unfortunately I'm very familiar with pro-police propaganda and the way police are often potrayed as people who can do no wrong. We should talk more about this incident of your soldier killing a police officer, maybe have some sort of trial to determine wrongsoing. Because the fair thing to do is to give alleged victims an attempt to speak and not just assume the police are in the right." Like the US President isn't supposed to be a super important character in the plot or anything, but I just think it's really fucking weird to add this US Civil Rights Era background to one of your characters and then have her not react sympathetically at all to an incident of attempted police brutality.

It really seemed like that whole plot of Optimus deciding that public image is more important than saving Jazz feel super forced and stupid, not to mention it portrayed a minority character with activist backgrounds as being apathetic to an issue she should have a lot of stake in.

...

Also have I mentioned that the incident I'm referring to of Jazz killing a police officer was an event specifically orchestrated by Megatron? Who seeded mind-controlling, paranoia-inducing guns among Earth's populace with the specific goal of poisoning Autobot-human relations? And Megatron literally did an evil monologue about this plan in front of Spike and another Skywatch operative, and Spike is still part of the military in the present day, meaning that he would've known that Jazz killing a police officer was just part of a plan by Megatron BECAUSE HE WAS LITERALLY RIGHT THERE WHEN MEGATRON EXPLAINED IT AND IMMEDIATELY RAN TO TRY AND STOP THE INCIDENT FROM OCCURRING???

[kruxton]

having a Night. havent been alone w my thoughts in a while and im not liking it

[avnasace]

as much as i thoroughly enjoy seeing olivia cooke on my screen, the alicent plots this episode were like, entirely unnecessary right?

anyone with eyes saw the matching wounds last episode, and we know she's losing power and spiralling a bit. it really just felt like they felt it was needed to tell us that, when we were already shown it.

what we dont know is whats going on with the northmen, baela, rhaena, helaena(!!!), even criston and gwayne etc.

they could be doing so much more with them, but instead we get alicent camping scenes, long small team green council meetings and a seasons worth of dragged out daemon acid trip dreams.

obviously this season had to be slower now that we are in one set time period instead of jumping decades like season one, but still its frustrating, it still feels like we arent diving into the characters and their relationships enough, and its very obvious which characters are liked more and less by the producers.

the silver linings for me have really been any scene with jace, rhaenyra and baela (and my queen rhaenys).

[cptnbeefheart]

i think i gotta pl;ay fallout 4 ..

[azatas]

finally made it to act 3 and i am so in love with how shadowheart and lae'zel's arcs are going so far and i love how much they parallel each other

[cowboy-robooty]

physically holding back my rage when i go get my weekly uchuujin no kakushigoto update and see people bitchin and moaning about it. I WANT TO HURT YOU AND IM NOT FUCKING AROUND. YOU SHOULD HAVE BEAR MACE SPRAYED IN YOUR EYES SINCE YOU OBVIOUSLY HAVE NO FUCKING APPRECIATION FOR GOOD LITERATURE. S2G SHUT YOUR DUMBASS UP BEFORE I GO AHEAD AND SLICE OFF ALL YOUR FINGER TIPS TOO AND PUT YOUR TONGUE IN A BAG CORPSE PARTY STYLE CUZ YOUR OPINIONS ARE ACTIVELY MAKING SOCIETY WORSE.

[paulnewmanlover]

agggrrhrhhhh bg3 is so good. god damn this is everything I love about the da series but with even more fun combat and gameplay. I'm like 50 hours in and only on act 2 and I'm having just a freaking blast!!!

[screamingay]

listening to the wall-e director's commentary and i absolutely adore the connection they made between the plant and love both finding their way back to earth at the same time.. wall-e finds the little plant just before eve comes down and finds him, and that's not a coincidence!! the plant was meant to represent life persevering post-humanity and wall-e & eve's relationship represents love persevering post-humanity too!!! the idea that the things we create will still have the capacity to learn and grow and even love long after we've left them behind!!! and that life will always find a way!!!!!!

[pink-psychic]

POV I JUST FINISHED ALICE IN BORDERLAND:

[perenlop]

im not defending but like people saying that pokemon scarlet and violet are on the same level as or worse than sonic 06 or even that “we have to apologize about sonic 06 because we’ve seen it can get worse″ make me feel like no one actually played either of these games because like. sonic 06 was literally near unplayable. saying this as someone who has played both and actually really likes both of these individual games and franchises btw

[venomgender]

they need tk make more cross dressing yaois that are good