#the thing about this game is that i enjoy how much story and worldbuilding there is

[icewindandboringhorror]

I'm so heavily anti-advertising that all pitches sound goofy silly to me/I can never take them seriously, so I have no idea how I'll manage to to advertise my game even if I do finally finish it soon-ish lol...

[slettlune]

there are so many fantasy rpgs i can't play because my newest piece of hardware is a ps4, so i'm having another go at witcher 3, a game i've started playing SEVERAL times over the years (and then inevitably i've gotten bored/overwhelmed during the first missions and quit again)

well this time i've whiteknuckled through about six or seven hours and THEN

and THEN i got to the mission with the crones of crookback bog, and that was when i was finally like YES. YES this is enjoyable actually. i want to have more of these kinds of reveals

i love their designs (especially the one with a wicker face). i love how distinct their animations are. i love that they threaten to suck geralt's dick to death

[kelocitta]

what did you think of watcher? i noticed a good few people dropped the dlc because of high expectations and how different it felt from the rest of the game. which is a shame because it gets very good but that's how rain world goes.

[Non-spoiler Answer] I liked it! I was actually one of the beta testers for it and distinctly we were all super thrilled with the overall way it 'felt' because it did actually feel like vanilla RW again. It's not 1-to-1 obviously, but it was super nice to go back to that more esoteric wandering game than what Downpour was- which was very much a very distinctly more 'normal game' experience. Its got a few quirks that need some more evening out, either due to time constraints or just being a hard thing to balance without a bigger playbase, and hopefully they will be. There's also the issue of anti-spoiler rush to finish things before everyone starts posting about it, which means people get irritated easier or frustrated when progress isn't consistent, they only want the big reveals and bits or lore and are considering the process of getting to those a blockade rather than the game. I think a lot of people just forgot what its like to play vanilla Rain World, or at least didn't remember what its like to play vanilla Rain World without a wiki open or a guiding hand. Cause if you were playing RW truly blind, c'mon, this was a game where you wandered through a couple ecosystems until you effectively climb into a plot once you get up the leg and into Five Pebbles and someone can actually talk to you and point you towards a more physical goal, and even then most players who ascended had no clue what was happening, much less why. The pearls are fun but lets be real, most of us read those on the wiki and not painstakingly delivered all of them for the bits of bite-sized region lore. Rain World has always been like that, it was why it was so much more niche prior to DP- some people grew to love that quirk but most people bounced off hard cause of it. I enjoy Downpour but it's design philosophy is miles different, and in a much more accessible and appealing way. With that said, I think it has a great story, and one that is frankly, much more obvious and at the forefront of it than base RW. People saying it doesn't have a plot are insane imo, its extremely there, minus the initial wandering the (at least the first) goal and plotline is not at all vague. I was also pleasantly surprised by some fringe things I got correct, or at least put my thumb on at some point, lmao.

[Small Spoilers about a small game design choice of the DLC, not plot]

One thing I'm surprised lots of people didn't like was actually the region cross-warp mechanic, I get why they don't like- things don't connect into each other in a sensical, worldbuild-y type way, but for me, who was someone who had a pretty big gripe with Downpour's 'Bubble Narrative' choices in how it was laid out it felt super cool to have this implication of an impossibly large, tangled world where you don't and can't know how everything is laid out. Everything in Downpour takes place in Five Pebble's immediate area. The creatures are consistent across the timelines (Not in distribution, things go extinct or change locations, but nothing distinctly new 'comes in' despite the massive world changes.) It makes the whole thing feel like a terrarium, where you can see it all despite the fact you shouldn't, that you don't have the right to know everything about the world. The fact that you aren't getting the full regions, that you really can't tell how they all connect- how much of the world is inbetween them, whether these areas are actually physically connected- its delicious to me frankly! The world is so big, so complicated, and you only ever get snippets of it. You are denied the full picture of life, its impossibly big- the world stretches out so far. Its the kind of the design that says 'hey, all those fan regions people make? Maybe those are all out there, somewhere, they fit into this grand puzzle but you'll never know where or how' I like that! The world is big and complex and unknowable again! We've seen outside the Five Pebbles bubble and were told only a scrap. I actually really like how jumbled up everything is after vanilla and downpour, I like thinking that the world map we have is full of empty spaces and unknowns in how all these places bleed into each other. I can understand why people miss the connections, or the pearls, but frankly I really like the spin they put on the exploration mechanic to spread things away from FP that isn't just 'make the bubble bigger'

[blueskittlesart]

without dropping anything super specific what do you think of EoW's story? in particular i'm kinda worried over if they made Zelda basically replaceable with any other silent protag and i'm holding back on getting the game if that's the case...

I think they handled a playable zelda incredibly well actually! In particular I was impressed that although she is a silent protagonist, she is NOT link, and the game takes care to remind you of that in everything from dialog to physical gameplay. Though she does technically have the ability to wield link's sword, in practice it's almost always more practical to use echoes, her own unique form of gameplay, to get through combat instead, which is a good reminder to the player that this isn't link's story, and we're not going to be able to beat it link's way. You're required to be ZELDA and think like zelda, utilizing mechanics unique to her, in order to progress through the story, and those mechanics emphasize creative problem-solving in a way that clearly envokes her core trait of wisdom. so in that regard i'd say she's definitely a unique protagonist and I never felt like she could have been replaced with someone else! (mild spoilery note: in the final battle you do actually have link fighting alongside you, and because of that, your sword ability is removed entirely, meaning you HAVE to end the game on zelda's terms, with zelda's abilities, which I thought was a nice touch.)

In terms of actual story, it's honestly a fairly classic zelda formula, but the twists and turns were well-written and kept me VERY engaged throughout. The act of searching for link felt different not because chasing after a captured friend is uncommon in a loz game, but because HE was different. The things you learn about link and how he ended up in this story compel you to keep searching for him in a way that you almost... don't need when you're link chasing zelda, because OF COURSE the hero is going to go after the princess. but this game had to engineer a situation in which the PRINCESS wanted to go after the HERO, and a hero she'd never met before at that. and that to me is what made the story interesting.

I will say, don't go into this game expecting it to have the same amount of story as a 3d installment like botw or totk. this is a topdown classic-style game, and it treats itself like one. the story is good, but it's not pushing the boundaries of the genre or anything. eow is a game that knows what it is and what it wants to do, and it does it exceptionally well. I think where the game really shines is in the implied narrative of the worldbuilding--pieces of personal memorabilia in characters' houses, little hints of the past and references to previous games in map design and details that allow you as the player to theorize and put together the less overt pieces of the story on your own. this has always been one of the things that I personally really enjoy about zelda games, so I absolutely LOVE how much detail is left for the player to find in eow if they're paying attention.

[alexanderwales]

Turning Off Your Brain and the Critical Lens

Alright, let's start with this: there is a thing called a critical lens. It is a way of looking at a piece of art, examining what it's saying to us about itself or its subject or themes or whatever.

There are many critical lenses. Because this is something that's mostly only taught at the college level, most of them are (in my opinion) mired in academic language and not actually all that interesting in and of themselves: I think if you read a dozen stories through a feminist lens, you really start to think "okay, yeah, I get it". Different readings of different texts through different lenses can be great fun though, and it's one of my favorite parts of media criticism, and something that I wish people were more explicit about.

I'm going to talk about the Barbie movie, because it's easy. The feminist lens is obvious and in my opinion intended: it's the thing that the movie is most trying to be about, and as a consequence, it's something that probably has the most critical meat. But you can also read the movie through other lenses, and ask what it has to say about capitalism, about race, about neurodivergence and queer theory and game theory and a bunch of other things.

Some of these readings are Unintended. The author (in this case, hundreds of people working together on the film) did not intend for you to look at the movie to see what it's saying about, say, American Imperialism. Probably.

I personally enjoy unintended readings. I like teasing apart a book to see what it's saying about different things, and how it's saying it, and what the assumptions it's operating under, and whether this creates anything interesting when I bring a different set of assumptions. I think the writers and actors of Winter Soldier were not trying to say anything in particular about masculinity, but fuck it, let's watch the movie and think about it.

Sometimes people will watch something and recommend that you turn your brain off. Sometimes they'll say this to you just as you're about to start in on some critical analysis of something that definitely was not made with that critical analysis in mind.

Here's how I think of "turning off your brain": it's a critical lens. It's not a critical lens in the sense that academics might use it, but you're looking at this piece of media from a specific viewpoint, and that viewpoint is "omg they're in love" or "fuck yeah" or "no, don't go into the basement!". There are certain pop genres that greatly benefit from being viewed this way, at least in terms of pure enjoyment.

When I sit down to watch a romcom, I can do it with male/female social dynamics in mind, or I can do it with "aw, I hope these kids get together" in mind. One is the intended reading, and I don't think that it should get all that much privilege for it, but I do think generally it can result in better enjoyment. I love media criticism and consider it to be one of my main hobbies, but if you fall in love with one particular way of viewing media and only use that single one, you're going to have a bad time.

I write and generally enjoy rational fiction, which comes with its own lens, which I guess we can call the rational lens. If you sit and view a work through the rational lens, sometimes you can have fun with it: you try to work through the systems as presented and the actions of the characters and think about how you could make everything make sense. The way to do this that's not very fun is to look at a work through the rational lens and conclude that the author is dumb, the characters are dumb, and the worldbuilding is shit. I guess this can be fun if you have a sense of smug superiority, but I personally do not.

One of the things that I love about media criticism is that you can sometimes extract weird and new things out of a work. One of the things that I love about fanfic is that you can take a deliberately strange reading of a work and then write as though that reading was true. You can look at Batman and say "what does this say about income inequality" and then start writing and say "this is about income inequality now". You can look at Winter Solider and find a reading where Cap and Bucky are gay and then write it out.

Where I think people fail in a way that's personally annoying to me is that they take their preferred reading and then loudly claim ("ironically" or not) that this is the One True Reading against which no other readings can stand. Sometimes "that is not The Point of [thing]". I think you get that a lot from the "shut off your brain" crowd, but I've seen it from other places too, and I would attribute it to people talking past each other, sometimes not even realizing what critical lens they're using.

If you're talking to me, you can just say "non-preferred lens" and I'll understand, or maybe I'll say "wat" because I might forget this blog post moments after I write it.

[pitchblackespresso]

I feel like I'm on r/OffMyChest, but there's something I've been meaning to say for some time

I dislike the Zonai

Their execution was lackluster (there's some interesting stuff, but the environmental storytelling is too sparse and inconsistent for any sort of coherent theory-crafting), but what I despise the most is how they're retroactively shoehorned into botw's worldbuilding

The Sheikah tech ? Heavily implied to be a derivative of the Much Superior Zonai tech

Hyrule Castle? Was built to honour Rauru's sacrifice

Calamity Ganon? Leaked gloom-turned-malice from dehydrated Ganondorf's seal

Temple of Time? The ~original~ was Zonai-made

Typhlo Ruins? Actually Hylian made, but to honour the great King Rauru (again)

Rauru himself is Zelda's ancestor (and implied source of her sealing powers, retconning the Triforce)

The Forgotten Temple? Also Zonai and used by King Rauru to hide the Secret Stones

Ancient Hero? Some kinda Zonai hybrid creature

This narrative of "everything was the Zonai/Rauru all along" is one I don't vibe with, because not only does it give inconsistent backstory to things that didn't need it, but they then left us with more questions than answers due to just how little we actually know about the Zonai.

I also wanna mention how much I dislike the Gacha machines that dispense the complete eyesore that are the Zonai devices. They're a fun enough gameplay concept (tho I don't personally like it), but it makes no sense how you get functioning hydrants or rockets out of gachapons. The Sheikah tech was given ample backstory, and clashed with Hyrule's otherwise rugged wilderness for thematic reasons. The Zonai tech is just kind of an ugly reminder that this is a videogame, and that you get these pre-made devices because the devs wanted to make a sandbox, regardless of whether it fits in this medieval high fantasy setting with serious undertones and environmental storytelling. And since they're branded as Zonai-made, they add to my discontent with the Zonai

I love this game, and it's done so much right (even tho some people might say otherwise), but I cannot bring myself to enjoy much of anything related to the Zonai, which, despite being barely in the game, play a huge role in the story, environment and worldbuilding

[xzyolotl]

Can you loredump about some of your OCs? [Maybe Roeland + Markos?]

Okay, I can write a bit about my characters. I am bad at writing things down so this is a good excuse to do so.

Markos and Roeland are characters from my Plasticity project. The worldbuilding of Plasticity isn’t very developed, as I don’t really have any fancy plans for it beyond character designs and silly pictures. But there are some details I can share:

The world of Plasticity is a post-apocalyptic Earth where creatures made of microplastics have taken the place of humans.

The project originally started with lowpoly [ crystalline alien characters, ] but I wanted to create a population of creatures for them to mess with for silly alien shenanigans, and with the nature of 3D imagery, I wanted them to look quite a bit different as well.

The inhabitants of Plasticity think cars are a kind of ancient creature, like dinosaurs. They think what we call fossils are just “weird rocks.”

I originally referred to the plastic inhabitants of Plasticity as “Plastic Monsters”, though in their world they refer to themselves as Polymers, which is the name of a small material with synthetic varieties that make up plastics. I am not so smart with words and just wanted a simple name for them.

The visuals of Plasticity are inspired by 1980s CGI and P.F. Magic’s Petz series of games, specifically Oddballz.

The original design for [ Abby ] appeared in my mind while listening to the Donkey Kong 64 soundtrack.

Now, some notes for the characters you asked about (Markos & Roeland):

MARKOS – Polymer (Hamster-type) – Age 28 – He / Him pronouns

Likes to watch wrestling on the TV.

Thinks beetles are neat. His apartment is overrun with a kind of highly intelligent beetles, though he seems to be completely unaware of how smart they are, they are just little silly guys to him.

Met Abby at age 4 (Abby was 6). Abby ate a bug in front of Markos, after that he felt he needed to teach Abby how to be kind to bugs. They both grew up alongside each other since then. Markos sees Abby like a sibling, as part of his family.

Works a boring office job. He isn’t quite sure what the business he works for even does but isn’t interested in asking questions.

Has some internal baggage that has resulted in a reliance on alcohol. Though he wasn’t aware of how much alcohol he consumes until shortly after he started dating Roeland, who expressed concern about the excessive amount alcohol both of them were drinking.

ROELAND – Polymer (Hamster & Square Mixed-type) – Age 31 – He / Him & They / Them pronouns

Lost their right arm due to weak magnetism in the joints caused by genetic condition. They have a specialized diet and medications to help prevent this from happening to their other limbs.

Is generally quiet, but if a friend brings up the right topic he will not shut up.

Has a fear of [ house goblins. ]

Works at a games store at a mall. Hates it but has many interesting stories to share with friends.

Is saving up money for a prosthetic arm to replace the missing one.

Enjoys fiber crafts, they have an excessive yarn collection. They like to make little sweaters and hats for Markos’ beetle friends.

That is all I have the time to write down for now, I do have little webpages for my projects over [ at my website, ] though the pages for them aren’t very filled out at the moment. I have been focusing on my [ Teratoma project. ]

[clumsydolly]

so my thoughts on obey me as someone whos completed both games and played for maybe 4 years

Things I liked:

I always enjoyed that every character is unique in personality and design and that everyone is datable so there Arnt any routes. I loved seasons 1-3 of the og game, I always look fondly on season 3 though because of how it took place in the human world, was more domestic and we got nice lore drops that didn't feel shoved in. I liked the stakes of season 1 and 2 so but id have to say season 2 is my second favorite because of how it expanded more on the first season. I do wish there was a little more worldbuilding and consistency, but I'm not too pressed about it since it does leave things open ended enough for the fandom to exist creatively in.

Season 2 of nightbringer was also good up until the end, which is where my grievances start appearing.

Things I didnt like

There was a LOT retconning in Nightbringer, which made things so confusing that I just disregard most of it as non-canon if they dont fit with what I had imagined in the first game. My two biggest peeves though are

1.) The focus on forgiving the celestial realm/ their father).

-It felt really weird how hard they were pushing the idea that the celestial realm wasn't that bad and disregarding how oppressive it was and how their father literally tried to execute their sister. I understand missing the realm (it was their home after all) and any angel living there being good people, but I'm definitely not okay with forgiving their father (god?). That guy is abusive asf, if there was ever a villain of the story, it has always been that guy. I wish I could have seen more of the characters talk about their familial (religious) trauma and not exclusively Lucifer or Simeon (which was already rare enough and the retconned at the very end).

2.) The lack of a overall plot.

-We started the story with the goal of being the one to master them all, as well as achieving Diavolo's goal of bringing peace to the 3 realms. Problem is that we never got there. The celstial realm is still oppressed, I dont even think the majority of the human world knows demon and angels exist, nor do anyone who knows seems very interested in peace. Diavolo is still the crown prince (which is fine I guess) and we never got to meet Michael. Luke still dosent seem to understand the prejudices of the Celestial Realm and we still dont know much about Solomons past, eg: who was his first aprentice, how did he meet Barb, how did he fight all of the Devildom, what was his time like as king, his family.

We never actually made any big changes, and now the games over.

Miscellaneous thoughts I have:

Don't like the same gag being used excessively for the same characters

I wish I could have seen Satans birthmark :/ its on his back

I would have liked to know more about what happened during the war, but it probably might have been too drab for the game

I think Simeons arc of not being an angel should have just left him a human

The sibling interactions in the game are hilarious

Wish there were more characters, even briefly, the cast feels a little lonely :(

The mc is perfect

Okay okay! First thank you for asking dear! 💕

Now, I'm about to yap my head off so get ready lol.

Now I too love the characters I have such a soft spot for them all especially since I found the game right when covid happened and I had to be inside all the time so the game is such a comfort thing for me. I love the designs but Satan's sweater is fucking annoying ngl but other than that no complaints! I also loved that Obey me! allowed us to date everyone but I remembered people being upset about there being no routes so I'll probably have a lot of routes so people can just pick, "do I want a harem?" "Do I wanna only be with 1,2,3,4,5,7 of them?" Ya get the point!

I truthfully haven't moved past season 3 so everything I know about both that and Nightbringer is from media or my friends but I do in fact also love 2 and parts of season 3 I feel like they were just so cute cause everyone was still figuring out their feelings and it gave us more info on how everything was going on after we left and stuff and season 3 is so domestic in the human world (also how did they get a place like I know they are the top 1% in the Devildom and it's said they can persuade humans, ➖ Mc, sorcerers and witches. But like come seriously?! How!?) I love seeing them all interact cause it's so cute and funny.

I agree the world building definitely needs to be expanded on and more fleshed out we only go to a few different places and when we do it's like we were the only people there lol, no I interactions with anyone outside the cast fr.

Again I haven't played Nightbringer I will now that I plan on writing but Irdgaf in the beginning cause everyone was like "ehhhh" "why's there need to be another game??" "Tf?" So I decided to just kinda ignore it especially since people said they didn't really like it and as you said didn't agree with where it was going so I'll talk more on that when I subject myself to that.

O.M.G

You have no idea how much this rattles me! WHY DO THEY NEED TO FORGIVE THEIR FATHER IN THE FIRST PLACE?! Like I was always annoyed by that. I mean their Dad fucking killed their little sister and exiled the brothers I mean lookkkkkkk

Got this from @flemmingbamse btw so thank you!!! 💕

They literally were exiled from their home and were forced to become a whole other species and they lost their wings/had their wings changed completely. Lucifer gave fucking birth from his back apparently which is how we get Satan and Satan is obviously wearing Lucifer's 2 lost wings and I mean imagine your so fucking pissed you have a god damn child from your anger. Like apagejsjakaopahaiqkqh. Their status in heaven? Gone. Family? Besides each other, Gone. Lilith? Dead. Their home? Not their home anymore. Anyone else they love, who fr weren't a real one low-key. (Kinda looking at Simeon but it's obvious he regrets it so I'm blinking slowly) BUT Raphael? Michael? Actually I don't think Michael is god. God is god. Michael is a seraphim. So they are the children of God or Seraphim? Either way, BULLSHIT! everyone turned their backs on them. And that war I think it's a testament to how strong they are cause they went against ALL of heaven and still held their own granted they lost but they were against ALL of heaven and I think they only really lost cause of Lilith being hit by an arrow and Lucifer giving birth. (Still can't get over that). And I mean they got punished from heaven to hell, literally. So they are still being punished? Does Michael wanna be forgiven or not? Bitch ass fr. NO SYMPATHY.

I will come back to this but the Brothers definitely have religious trauma and I think that Simone started realizing that right before the war was happening when he had to fight Lucifer and saw he was on opposite sides of the battle filed and it's obvious he regrets it and wishes he fought on their side. I think it's a tell tale with how Luke acts and angles are told that God is great and Michael is great and everything they do is right. I mean look at how Luke admires- no, idolizes Michael. I think whenever he brings up Michael the brothers get really quiet and just nod along to just get him to shut up. I think there is super manipulation going on in heaven and only the higher angles, archangel and seraphim are aware of what is going on but not ALWAYS aware which is how Simone got started to officially realize just how wrong Michael's mindset is and started to oppose it silently and when he started getting louder and started falling for Mc this God and Michael got mad (idk fr its a thought tho). But I don't think heaven is it fr.

Now on the lack of plot everything did feel everywhere some times like some things we're just happening just cause and I feel like Dia's dream was kinda side tracked and after Mc got pacts things were just kinda happening lol. Ngl I think Michael's bitch. Not sure if y'all could tell but yeah. Still I'd like to know more about him too. Now Solomon the shady sorcerer we know and love. Now I heard some people say that they think he was Lilith's lover, the one who she and is the whole reason the war happened, fell in love with and tried to save with a potion which is why Solomon has lived so long. But I'm not too sure about that cause other sorcerers and witches also live super long probably because they are more than likely taking potions or casting spells and he'd probably do that too cause he's one of the great sorcerers and I think it was said that it was another guy Lilith was with but I don't remember. Also irrelevant but, It's said that man got like 300 wives or some shit so he's a whor- Truthfully, I need to think about him a bit more cause I feel like I could say anything about him for real cause that mf is SHADY! lol but I think Asmo would be a bit easy for him to get a pact with since, well, he's Asmo, and I mean look at their relationship. but Asmo did also give the Mc a hard time when they were trying to get his pact so idk. BUT what I wanna know is how that mf got Barbatos to get in a pact with him CAUSE I KNOW THAT MF HATE THAT SHADY OLD MAN I SWEAR- but it's obvious Babs has some sort of animosity towards Sol so I don't know what to think about that.

Hmmm I don't know exactly what you mean by gags but if you mean the same trope or joke being done I totally get that.

When Satan came out of Lucifer he took 2 of his wings with him. Satan has a birth mark on his back in the exact same spot Lucifer lost his wings and both the scar on Lucifer's back and Satan's birthmark look exactly the same.

Ngl I'mma flesh out that whole war and all those bitch ass angles fr. With all their eyes and shit and apparently can't see the BS right in front of em. ALSO there has been so many games/shows where angles are these fuckass manipulative oppressive hypocritical beings who are like kinda crazy and they throw a lot of religious trauma in there fr and I'm not mad at it. Also I think angle's true forms are ugly/scary (I don't know the feeling honestly) . Like uglier/scarier than the demon's true forms. Maybe that's just me. I don't know.

Simone....I'm not sure if I wanted him to be a human or demon but I definitely don't think he should have gone back to being an angel. There was no point in that and it could have helped emphasize how he loved the brothers and wanted to be with his brothers and he should have been in the first place on their side. It could have shown how he was learning just how wrong the war even happening in the first place was. Him going back to being an angel just, like for me at least, completely ruins that while plotline. It's stupid. I'm not sure which is better for him to be, demon or human, but he won't end an Angle that's for sure.

Yes as I said too lonely definitely needs more characters and will happily add them and will take any requests or oc's or anything. The mc is amazing lol

I'm happy to hear anyone's ideas and as always reblogs are loved and appreciated. I'd love anything anyone could give me! 🩷

[revelingrexan]

RECORD FOR MY LONGEST TUMBLR YAPPING EVER, GO! (THIS IS PART 1 OF 2 LOL. LINK TO PART 2!! )

HELLO FOLKS I'M GOING TO DO A LIVEBLOG-BY-MEMORY OF MY FIRST TIME WATCHING HAZBIN EPISODE 5, AKA LUCIFER'S INTRO

...except it turned into a "why i like Hazbin's Lucifer" thing because i have so many thoughts while watching animated things, especially Vivzie's animated things because i'm a nerd and i'm constantly going "-Minecraft Steve dying noises- THAT COULD HAVE BEEN DONE BETTER" aND I DIDN'T WANT TO TYPE ALL MY THOUGHTS, WHICH WOULD TAKE LITERAL HOURS AND HOURS QJFKSQJJKQSJKS (WELL, ADDITIONAL "HOURS AND HOURS" TO WHAT I'VE ALREADY SPENT ON THIS)

(AND I MAINLY WANTED TO MAKE THIS POST SO FUTURE-ME COULD REMEMBER WHY I GOT SO WILDLY OBSESSED WITH THIS CARTOON MAN FOR WELL OVER A YEAR+ ANYWAY)

ACTUALLY, ON THAT NOTE: if you're here just to have a good time enjoying Hazbin rambles, DO be aware this post may lean more toward a "Hazbin critical" post, especially at the beginning. i would have gotten a Minecraft game over if each thing that bugged me caused me physical damage, even in just the first minute and a half. (mainly animation stuff, but some writing stuff too)

NECESSARY DISCLAIMER FOR ANYONE WHO MAY HAVE WANDERED HERE: THIS IS A RAMBLE ABOUT HAZBIN HOTEL, SO THERE WILL BE SOME SWEARING AND MATURE HUMOR MENTIONS

____

most of the following was written with voice-to-text because i had a sprained hand, so if there are any weird word choices that just make NO SENSE, feel free to let me know and i'll fix it! (i've proofread it to death, but there's almost definitely things i've missed) ...but the weird capitalizations and Alastor's name mis-written as "Alastair" are staying LOL

SORRY TO STINKY DEER MAN. VOICE-TO-TEXT DOESN'T KNOW HIS NAME AND EVEN MY "GOOD" SHOULDER/ARM WASN'T IN A PLACE TO BE ABLE TO FIX ALL THOSE (MY BODY IS TERRIBLE AND CONSTANTLY INJURED)

SO HERE WE GO:

PSYCH MORE DISCLAIMER FIRST LOL

don't worry if you don't know what i'm talking about with the animation or art stuff, and don't worry if you like parts i didn't because i was distracted by the animation (especially the song "More than Anything"). i'm just a picky nerd. also, if you want, you can ask about animation things and i can explain. i love rambling about animation!!! :D

i get a bit personal about mental health stuff and other things, but i don't think any of it requires trigger warnings; i'm generally pretty vague on specifics and i don't talk about anything too severe

again, bad body, sprained hand, lots of voice-to-text. some word choices might not make sense, so feel free to point those out, but i won't fix capitalizations or Alastor's misspelled "Alastair" name lol

remember, the Hazbin pilot and first episode are different

these messages i sent a friend on my first watch are a decent "TL;DR" summary of this whole post, minus my thoughts on Lucifer's crowded-with-rubber-ducks room, which are especially important to why i like him so much. (TL;DR of that section: "lol he just like me for real")

(weird collage screenshots because i retyped them to exclude my typos to my friend [i minimally use backspace as a joke with her] + i wanted to keep her reactions and the timestamps)

i'm almost certain "YEAH I THINK LUCIFER'S GONNA BE MY ACTUAL FAVORITE BECAUSE HE HAS THOSE FUN FACIAL EXPRESSIONS" was when Lucifer and Alastor were pushing Charlie around. i LOOOOVE Lucifer's smug -> SURPRISE -> FROWN faces there

SO 👏

WITH THAT:

HUUUUGE YAY, HERE I GO, SELF-INDULGING SOOOORTA-LIVE-BLOGGING (AND HOPING I GET SOME COMMENTS TO INTERACT WITH. I LOVE REPLYING TO PEOPLE BUT GETTING ANY INTERACTION IS ALWAYS A TOSS UP) RAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH :DD

______

hazbin hotel has taught me that unreliable narrator is one of my favorite narrative devices. How an event is narrated can simultaneously worldbuild and teach the audience about the character who's narrating. it would make sense that the opening story of Hazbin, written by a mother for her child and written about that mother herself and her husband, would paint herself and her husband in a better light than they might deserve

learning more about Lucifer was something I was REALLY looking forward to ever since episode one's opening, with the children's story talking about "Lucifer's ideas for creation" and then not elaborating whatsoever on what those ideas might be. how excitingly ominous!

and then episode 5 starts. (We're not to Lucifer's intro yet in this retelling. i don't even know what the episode will be about. hold on XD)

and the animation is terrible

while episodes 1 through 3 felt pretty cramped in their writing's pacing and episode 3 had a few animation/character design consistency moments that made me grimace, overall, their animation quality was pretty consistent and good. (Well, the writing quality for episode 3 was awful. Just really terrible. But that's a whole other post I might or might not make, with, at this point, "might not" looking more likely unless someone asks XD) (episode 4, Angel Dust's episode, was AMAZING, especially with its writing. single best episode in the series. i have some critiques, but overall it's great, and i'm impressed with its pacing)

watching episodes 1 through 4, I wasn't getting whiplash from the animation as I often do while watching Helluva Boss, which frequently changes line art types between animators or clean-up artists and can even pretty dramatically change a character's look between shots

and. Yeah. episode 5.

Even after watching episodes six through eight, 5 is STILL the worst animated episode in the entire series, and I would say that includes if I were to count all of the Helluva Boss episodes

... although, now that I'm thinking about it, I don't know if I would categorize it as having as bad of animation as the Hazbin pilot XD Now I want to rewatch the pilot just to see which I think has worse animation quality/consistency: the pilot or episode 5 lol

BUT I'M GETTING DISTRACTED. (AND, SERIOUSLY, DON'T WORRY IF YOU HAVEN'T NOTICED ANY OF WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT HERE OR IF YOU DON'T AGREE. SERIOUSLY, DON'T STRESS ABOUT IT. THE REASONING/OBSERVATIONS BEHIND THESE ANIMATION RAMBLES ARE SUPER NICHE)

SO. YES. BACK TO EPISODE 5 LIVEBLOGGING THING.

I grimace at the drawing of Charlie looking upward as she tells herself to think:

Not much wrong with the underlying drawing itself -- it's heavily stylized, and that's okay. But the line art on her mouth is a lot thicker than it should be and doesn't have the correct "lipstick" tapering she usually has (extra, extra thick in the middle of her lips, thin at the corners of her mouth). Plus, her movements have really rough settling and feel gross to me. i internally grimace at this whole shot, but It's okay, i tell myself. Hazbin hotel's animation and art quality have improved a lot! This could just be a bad shot that slipped through. it happens! making shows and movies can be chaotic!

... uh-oh. Now the line weights on Charlie's face and body in this shot are wrong too:

I'm starting to feel bad about the episode already, and I don't even know what it's going to be about. (the only thing I DID know about episode 5 was Alistair was going to go "big and freaky monster form" because of the thumbnail Amazon gave the episode, and I was looking forward to that from a glimpse I got in a teaser)

(I'm actually rewatching the episode alongside making this post, to get specific moments if any arise that I want to discuss, and ugh lol, I might just make another post -- probably on my rambles side blog, not here, because I prefer to keep it at least MOSTLY positive and fun here -- doing a whole play-by-play of episode 5. even though I couldn't have known it on my first view, I now have so many comments to make about Charlie's mimicking her dad and saying, " 'gO aHeAd, KiLL eVeRyOnE.' " again, hazbin hotel taught me I love unreliable narrating. and, spoiler alert, Hazbin taught me that because of how poorly it does unreliable narrating, or because of how it almost doesn't do it at all. :( )

(ANYWAY)

when Charlie turns around and says, "Wait! That's... IT!"

her face is distractingly off model and now I'm feeling even WORSE about the direction this episode is going. episode 3 flashbacks lol. If you don't count Hazbin's 30 second intro, we're not even one minute into episode 5, and it's already looking like we're gonna get something as bad as episode 3

side note:

off-model Charlie (i think a big part of the "off-model" impression here is 1. mainly because her eyelashes are so gigantic they almost hide her eyebrows, and a character having no eyebrows when they usually do can look odd, and 2. her pupils aren't wide enough or circular enough): "Wait! That's... IT!"

Vaggie: "Kill everyone?"

Vaggie's line is sincerely one of the best jokes in the series lol. Love that

...okay yeah, I'm not going to do as accurate of a play-by-play of my first viewing of episode 5 as I can, because that would take so so so so so so long XD But, at least one more non-lucifer related note because I do like to point out strong moments in Vivziepop's shows:

I DO feel good about Charlie differentiating between Adam being a terrible person and between all of heaven being untrustworthy (unclear wording on my part lol: What I mean is, she calls Adam an asshole, but she has hope the rest of heaven will be open to her redemption idea and not so dismissive and rude to her.)

her naivete up to this point hasn't given me the impression that she would make that sort of differentiation (and, by the time of episode 5, Vivzie's and especially Hazbin's writing style in general hasn't given me the impression Vivzie would do anything more with Heaven than "Heaven Evil, Actually")

so, anyway, let's skip some more animation rambles and a comedic timing rant, and fast forward to:

Angel Dust: "Well I'd like to meet the big dick in charge!"

Niffty: "The ULTIMATE bad boy! (giggles maniacally) I bet he's SCARY."

My brain goes into overdrive after Niffty's line, especially since it transitions from "I bet he's SCARY" to "-scratchy, guttural voice intended to be powerful and intimidating in a dark room-"

that "overly in agreement with the adjective 'scary' " transition tells me there's an upcoming tonal whiplash joke, meaning Lucifer isn't going to be scary at all

further, the dark room setting that we're given right away, shows that the pictures Lucifer has up are off-kilter.

so, he's not scary (which we can know because of the color tone and audio transition agreeing TOO much with Niffty's statement). he's disorganized. he has multiple photos of him happy with his family Even though they haven't been together for years, and he even has a photo of Charlie in what might have been for most parents a "teenage phase" that they'd like to forget

but apparently Lucifer loves Charlie so much, that he even fondly looks back on her angsting teenager years -- he kept that photo and even hung it up

tonal whiplash joke incoming confirmed, and an especially poorly done one at that. visually, the whiplash could have been done better if there were more obvious signs of neglect, damage, or wear, or maybe even a sheet partially covering one of the images, at first misleadingly implying he doesn't want to associate with or think about his family anymore

instead, he clearly loves his daughter and his family, even though Charlie feels alienated from him. maybe she hasn't seen him in a while because he's a shut-in, or he needed to mostly cut off contact for some reason and we'll find out that reason shortly

when it comes to character intros, overbuilding a character being intimidating and then doing a 180 to show that they're not is one of my least favorite jokes. ever. so my thinking " 'this person actually isn't scary' tonal whiplash joke confirmed" isn't a good time

sudden drop in animation quality, poor dialogue pacing... yep, this episode is off to a TERRIBLE start

...side note

i totally thought Lucifer was masturbating at first

when I later watched this episode with my brother, he did too. (I forget exactly what he said, but he was a bit taken aback or made some joke about it.) and Jeremy Jordan (Lucifer's voice actor) makes a joke in a character description about Lucifer and says Lucifer "play[s] with his dick all day." (Jeremy's swearing so much in that video because the Hazbin voice actors are playing a game of "see how much you can swear while describing your character.")

so, the "oh, he's masturbating" visual misread may have been intentional lol even tho idt i've seen anyone mention this

end of that side note

now an animation side note: the rises and settles of Lucifer's shoulders here are not done well. Very blocky, like that first moment that put me off with Charlie at the start. episode 5's animation sucks

i think to myself, hating this episode, that this is a terrible first animation to use for an important character's introduction. this poorly executed intro is especially egregious because he's mentioned and even vaguely shown in the pilot, and he also gets the same "importantly mentioned but passingly shown" treatment in the very first episode--

"... THE MAGIC-TASTICAL BACKFLIPPING RUBBER DUCK!"

okay that's hilarious and adorable. that was great

"THAT SPITS FIRE!!!"

INCREDIBLE. I LOVE HIM.

... ohp the animation, lineart, and visual timing are bad again. but I've already forgotten how much I hated the lead up to his intro with that "tonal whiplash" joke, because his intro is SO GOOD XD

Lucifer: "Hold the applause, please, okay! Heh, alright, thank you…" ...hm. huh. his voice is. just a guy. kinda boring and an odd choice. (DON'T ATTACK ME I DIDN'T KNOW JEREMY JORDAN AT THIS POINT ;QJSFKJKQSJKSKQJ. HIS VOICE WAS LITERALLY "JUST A GUY" TO ME)

aND OH. I WAS FAR MORE RIGHT THAN I EXPECTED ABOUT HIM BEING A SHUT-IN. A DARK ROOM WITH TILTED PHOTOS, FILLED WITH RUBBER DUCKS, GIVING THE IMPRESSION OF ISOLATION AND OBSESSIVE PROBLEM-IGNORING.

THIS GUY IS NOT DOING OKAY

and now here's one of the first reasons I started to especially get attached to him, rather than just go "haha What a funny character":

My own mental health issues!! -jazz hands-

things have improved a lot, and I haven't self-sabotaged for a while at levels that I did in the past, but one of my coping mechanisms when I'm stressed is over-focusing on media I like or over-focusing on side projects.

(Don't worry about my blogs hyper fixating on stuff, genuinely. I don't think most people can tell from the outside when it's at a self-sabotaging point until there are signs like failing classes [self-sabotaging to that level only happened one semester but WOW it was miserable]. but, even tho it may not be visible from the outside, I can tell the emotions and feelings behind what I'm doing. usually there's almost only anxiety of "this isn't what i should be doing" with no enjoyment at those points, and i'm spending NO TIME AT ALL on responsibilities.

let me emphasize: in that situation when i'm exceedingly stressed and don't know what to do or am too scared to do what i'm aware i should, i may be spending almost all my time on hobbies or interests, but it's MISERABLE AND IT'S NOT EVEN HOW I WANT TO BE SPENDING MY TIME. I'M TOO SCARED TO DO ANYTHING ELSE, AND I MIGHT EVEN BE TELLING MYSELF "STOP, THIS ISN'T WHAT YOU SHOULD BE DOING" THE ENTIRE TIME

all that is also different from my ADHD difficulty with switching tasks, altho "overfocusing to avoid things" and ADHD executive dysfunction can mix together and make each other exponentially worse if i don't take care of myself. anxiety and ADHD are dumb and tricky to work with... but at least i'm self-aware and can usually tell apart which of those two is causing me problems? lol????

anyway, point being of this parenthetical aside, other than partially being more detail on why i relate so much to this maladaptive coping mechanism: hyperfixating is what I do by default, and I'm doing fine right now. :p :) 💜)

Lucifer's barely been onscreen for ten seconds, and he's doing well on becoming a character I like. already he has in his favor:

having a moment done so well, that it pushes past my preemptive eye rolling (The overbuilt intro [bad] followed by The Rubber Duck [magic-tastical]. ....although if a moment has to be done SO well that it pushes past preemptive eye rolling, maybe that's not a shortcut XD)

specific poor coping mechanism that I strongly relate to

and now for an "oh boy this episode's animation SUCKS" interlude: i'll just copy-paste a ramble I sent a friend a while ago about animation quality on this whole Lucifer intro scene.

___

OH BOY EP 5 HAS SUCH MESSY ANIMATION CLEANUP LOL and i'm genuinely not convinced Lucifer was given a character [reference] sheet [more specifically, i'm not convinced he was given a turnaround] from how many variations there are in his design.

i'll share at least some of the most obvious moments that are easily available on YouTube https://youtu.be/dYw9LArY690?si=dPWJUMgiGIU0lfyJ

in general in these three shots, pretty nice line variation, with thicker lines on the outside of the character and thinner ones on the inside (details and inner lines are thinner than the bolder "overall form" outside lines) + individual lines change in thickness along their lengths (e.g. some lines are thicker in the center and thinner at the ends, and vice versa for others):

for the most part in these two screenshots, lines are ALL the same thickness, whether inside or outside the character, as well as the same thickness all along their lengths:

from 2:03 to 2:11 of the linked clip, my brother [[when i watched the episode with him later]] said something like "animator change speedrun" because of the lineart and character styles changing in almost every shot lol (timestamp in link here) https://youtu.be/dYw9LArY690?t=123

___

now for listing more things that Lucifer does well that I relate to or simply enjoy, just in his intro scene (While implicitly acknowledging the animation/cleanup/consistency oversight continues to be terrible lol):

practicing before a phone call (I've only done this a few times, and not with anyone as important to me as Charlie is to Lucifer, but it's felt necessary a few times, even if i felt awkward doing it each time. but even if i don't often rehearse for phonecalls, it's not uncommon for me to write bulletpoint lists for them beforehand [usually not with friends or casual calls, but sometimes] )

especially when already in a poor head space, speaking poorly of any attempts i might do at almost anything, as Lucifer does at his practiced lines to Charlie and as he did with the Magic-tastical rubber duck

SO MANY funny faces and so much movement and expressiveness

EXUBERANT too energetic greeting to make it seem like he's doing well. that "HEY! How are ya!!!" reminds me of so many times that I've needed to pretend to be okay almost immediately after a breakdown or felt like I need to force myself to seem like I'm in a good mood for someone who I feel is doing worse than me. (this is not necessarily healthy)

(bolding some of the quoted parts to visually break up text blocks and make skimming easier)

Charlie: "You know where I am, Dad! I've told you before!" -insert The ADHD Meme:-

... except in the above case, I'm not applying "ADHD" to Lucifer, and, even now more than a year later, I still don't want to until given more character information. instead, I'm seeing "depressed and withdrawing from the world, and suffering from memory issues that come alongside depression."

unfortunately, I relate to that too -- depression memory issues -- and Hazbin's writing so far is doing a great job at saying "depression" without literally saying it. (fortunately, my relating to depression is an "in the past" thing. also here, in my experiences, "depression / dissociating memory loss" and "ADHD memory loss" feel different from each other. AT LEAST I'M SELF-AWARE?? LOL????????)

(side note: Lucifer being autistic and having ADHD are popular headcanons in the fandom. i respect those headcanons and am not telling anyone they need to change them. i can see it. i just don't feel like i can, in good faith with my understanding of his character, say those apply to him until we've seen him under less stress and less pressure. many anxiety, stress, and depression responses can read as ADHD or autism, and the frequent comorbidity of any of these with each other make them even trickier to individually identify)

Lucifer: "Well, you know, I um... Uh." THAT DELIVERY AND HIS EXPRESSIONS. FUNNI. GOOD.

but also, i interpret the above moment as maybe more evidence of memory issues from depression (if it's not just him not knowing how to avoid saying "i was. making ducks"). this writing is awesome (sincere)

Charlie: "I told you when you called me 5 months ago? Or did you not listen?" Getting accused of not listening when something is just not at all in my memory is so real

Lucifer in response to Charlie's above line: "(panic that settles into an attempt of composure) No! No no no! Just--You know, just FORGOT. You know, I've just been really busy. You know with um. IMPORTANT things. 😬😶" i connected to so many parts of those few lines: the backpedaling after realizing you said the wrong thing, and the trying to make it seem like your forgetting isn't associated with how much you care about the other person (because sometimes the saying ~"If it's important, then you'd remember" just doesn't apply)

the following doesn't as directly tie to what's going on with Lucifer in the story But nonetheless gives me an extra "ping" of "I relate to this guy." still with the above moment, specifically the awkward lie of he's been busy with "important things," a lot of my hobbies and interests can seem trivial or even shameful to much of my family.

most people find it's super cool that I animate, but somehow those same people don't always seem to make the connection that means I enjoy watching cartoons a lot, and that, even though they think animating itself is cool, somehow an adult really liking animated stories is immature, or that it's "weird" I focus so much on one series much of the time. Plus, socializing can be difficult and exhausting for me, so I need a lot of "rest days." and I'm physically disabled, Even outside of what's currently going on with my sprained hand.

basically where I'm going with this, when it comes to meeting up with people and doing things that aren't doctors' appointments or school- or work-related, I may need to negotiate dates and times with people, even though I may not technically have a lot going on, or I may not have a lot going on by other people's perspectives. just doing a doctor's appointment or hanging out with other people might exhaust me for a day or two, so already that's a lot of space "filled" in my calendar

(This is different from fatigue syndromes, since how exhausting an interaction is, is almost always directly tied to how much i need to second guess myself or mask. I think it's just an "it can be tiring to consciously and constantly analyze people's body language, tone, and word choices, as well as tiring to analyze what I say or do three times before I do anything due to autism and taught anxiety" thing.)

But giving myself my rest days so I can maintain my emotional stability and emotional health is so important. I've had people, often family, question me in annoyance before about, well, what do I have going on anyway? and the answer is watching YouTube or reading a book

But you don't need to know that. You just need to know that I'm not available the other day that you wanted to try to talk or meet up. "I'm busy," or "That day doesn't work for me."

so, yeah, "important things" said with a bit of (narrative) humor and (character) awkwardness is relatable too, even if my experience isn't what's going on in this scene

Lucifer so happily and readily wanting to help Charlie (at first lol) has actually been really important to me. i'm fortunate to have a dad who's eager to help his kids and is financially able to, But it can feel bad or shameful to ask for help. Not going to get too far into this, but some of my siblings are okay with asking for financial help, and some of us aren't. until I saw this episode, I was in a mindset of "only ask parent for financial help If you're literally in danger of dying or being (further) disabled for life," Even though almost every time I talked to my dad he would seemingly be implying, "PLEASE, Is there something I can do for you?"

--- basically, even though there were some really bad moments in my life, I still didn't see asking for his help as an option. But the shocked literally wide-eyed eagerness Lucifer shows at feeling like he can help his daughter got me to understand more fully where a parent might be coming from, a parent who cares about their child and who has the means and desire to help.

--- this small moment has literally encouraged me to ask for help when i might have been too anxious to do so before. or, with some of the things i asked for help with, maybe i still would have asked, but I would have been far more troubled and guilt-ridden than otherwise, making already stressful situations even more stressful

with all that I wrote above, I didn't take it personally when Lucifer refused Charlie's request at first. first of all, this is fiction and i'm not actually any of the characters in the story lol. second, the moment was done comedically, and almost certainly, I thought even on my first viewing, it's related to a bad past experience Lucifer has had with heaven. this is The Lucifer we're talking about after all, and his banishment is definitively established in episode 1. also I got distracted by all the bad animation and what, to me, was a too-long joke with all of his "No"s lol. (when I watched this episode for a second time, knowing how much I now liked Lucifer, I figured the multi-No moment would grow on me, and it has XD)

him wanting to see Charlie so badly is endearing lol, and his missing or entirely forgetting or ignoring the point of WHY she's inviting him over is funny, even if concerning

Lucifer: "My~ daughter~ wants to see~ meeeee~" both funny and a sweet reminder of how parents can feel about children they love: they want to spend time with their kids, and they want to feel like they matter to their kids.

--- also, this whole last moment, from before he hangs up to the end of this little singing bit, seems to hint that for some reason he wasn't spending time with Charlie because someone told him that she DIDN'T want to see him, or for some reason he convinced himself of that. this is SUPER interesting and, if i'm reading the moment correctly, i'm still curious about the origin of him having those beliefs

"TAKE THAT, DEPRESSION!!" I actually didn't care much for this moment when I first watched. it brought his depression out of a "well written but not said outright" category + where did he learn the term "depression" since it being used that way is relatively recent and he's who-knows-how-many-thousands-or-millions-or-billions of years old + he's an old geezer (many older people aren't very open about mental health diagnoses or what they view as "trendy" diagnoses) + i got concerned "depression" might be used as a narrative excuse for any of Lucifer's shortcomings or poor actions. although his face is funny :p and this moment has grown on me and I do like it now, especially after seeing how much Jeremy Jordan loves this line during his live streams

NEW SCENE. LUCIFER'S AT THE HOTEL NOW

(i caps lock this next part, although, looking at the messages to my friend as I first watched the episode, it looks like even though I was enjoying Lucifer trying and failing to be a good dad [because, in almost all circumstances, if a child, especially an adult child, feels abandoned by their parent, that parent is not doing a good job] I was still hesitant to enjoy the overall episode.

The animation has been atrocious, the pacing and joke writing has felt off, and this is the first episode released after the first chunk of four. I was concerned all Quality Control was put into the first four episodes, and that the quality of the rest of the show will have plummeted)

LUCIFER IS SO PATHETIC AND AWKWARD. HOW LONG WAS HE STANDING OUTSIDE THE DOOR. I LOVE HIM

AAAAWWWW. HE'S SO HAPPY TO BE HERE AND SO HAPPY TO SEE CHARLIE

OH MY GOODNESS HIM PETTING AND COOING AT KEEKEE IS THE CUTEST THING

--- ON A LATER VIEW WHEN I SAW HIS AWKWARD SMILE BEFORE BENDING DOWN TO PET KEEKEE, I ASSOCIATED HIS PETTING KEEKEE AS SIMILAR TO GOING TO A PARTY AND FIXATING ON A CAT OR DOG BECAUSE YOU DON'T KNOW HOW TO INTERACT WITH THE PEOPLE. VERY RELATABLE ANXIETY / AWKWARD RESPONSE

OH MY GOODNESS HIS LITTLE DANCE AND TINY BIT OF SINGING WITH RAZZLE AND DAZZLE IS AMAZING

the "You better be" joke is actually another type of joke that I am usually not a fan of (another "OoOoOoO unexpected tone change!" joke) and it doesn't work for me here

--- ASIDE: I can say that the delivery in the Canadian French dub maybe works as a joke for me XD in English, the "you better be" isn't all that intimidating anyway, so the tonal joke isn't done well. in Canadian French, it IS more intimidating. AND his follow-up laugh is so dorky and funny. his laughing almost sounds like he's trying to be a neighing cartoon horse

honestly I can't fault Lucifer for his uncertain first looks around the hotel, followed by his "It's got a lot of character!" He's TRYING to be supportive and not discouraging. but he sucks at it. also, funni

some things are done poorly in this scene, but I forgot that i originally titled the draft of this post "why I like Lucifer." so, how about to save probably literally a few thousand words, I will just focus on moments that specifically matter to how I understand Lucifer XD

I have a very deep analysis here with Alistair starting to interact with him: haha Lucifer short and responding with funni faces :)

... oh no. I'm actually, right now, as I'm making this distractible liveblog thing, not having a lot of info in my mind on what I was thinking during my first view about alistair's early interactions with Lucifer. oh no. was I THAT focused on Lucifer's funny faces???? i should have SOMETHING else in my mind here (other than "eugh. weird animation"). oh no. maybe I WAS mainly just going "haha faces :)"

.......haha faces :) ⬇️

AHEM. ANYWAY. YEAH I THOUGHT HIS INTERACTIONS WITH ALASTOR WERE MOSTLY FUNNY AND GOOD. DUMB MEN

AND THAT'S THE END OF PART 1 BECAUSE I'VE REACHED TUMBLR'S IMAGE LIMIT LOOOOOOOL

part 2 scheduled to come out in three days on Thursday! (AND HERE IT IS NOW!)

[burr-ell]

Ppl are so fucking weird about narrative meta and it's solely bc it doesn't cater to ships. The ship isn't the center of the narrative and therefore when we talk abt the story in broad strokes they take any neutral writing observation and treat it like bitter screeing and crazy hate even though frankly speaking I don't think pointing out patterns is emotionally charged

So this ask is almost a year old and I am VERY sorry to the anon who sent it, but it's also interesting to me to consider how things have changed in that time. I got this a couple weeks after Imogen/Laudna became canon and I had been subject to some stan harassment because I disliked it, and after a bit of conversation about the whole thing I just shrugged and moved on. And yet for a not-insignificant portion of the ship's fandom, it feels as though everything that has happened between Imogen and Laudna since then has been just...quietly ignored. (I distinctly recall one of the hateful anons I received lecturing me about how "Im*dna is the heart of the campaign", and uh...how you doin these days, bud?)

Like, I've very recently blocked the majority of loud stan voices on Twitter, but it's telling to me that so many people proclaim to be these deranged fanatics about the ship and yet hardly acknowledge anything that's happened. And it could be that it's because prior to episode 89 nothing interesting had happened, but they still had moments; they had that dance on the pirate ship and the lap pillow and the comforting after the shard incident. But you'd hardly even know those moments happened—everyone's pfp is still a screenshot of Laura from episode 65, the bios all still read #IMOGENTEMULT: "can i kiss you?", and all the fanart is generic hugs or kisses and the occasional buff cowboy Imogen with damsel Laudna. So many emoji combinations include the ring when it's been referenced more often out of game than in it!

And meanwhile, the people who were vocally critical of the ship—many of whom, I think it bears observing, are queer women, women of color, neurodivergent women, or some combination thereof—have been having the time of our lives ever since 3x89 and especially 3x95. We've been asking for conflict the whole time and finally got it and surprise! We're enjoying ourselves! I think you'd be hard-pressed to find someone in this corner who's turned into a classic OTP-type shipper, but we're engaging with this narrative and are interested in where it goes because it finally gave us something to do. We're also focused on everything else in the campaign, because it has an intriguing plot, an engaging villain, fun worldbuilding, and five other interesting protagonists.

If you got into the campaign because you wanted to watch a good story, you may have had trouble in the beginning, but if you stuck it out you're probably having a good time vibing with the moon. But if you got into this campaign because you thought the most important thing in the world was making sure Imogen and Laudna end up in their skinnyass white girl cottage baking cookies and shopping for Zhudanna and exchanging the uwu softest of kisses and handholds? You'd probably like very much for the campaign to have ended in July 2023. But it hasn't, and I think the campaign rather forcefully demonstrating once again that it is out of the audience's control is a disquieting thought in those circles. And if you're the type of person who felt Imogen and Laudna's constant fawning and inability to have uncomfortable conversations was not only romantic but aspirational, you're not likely to want to sit with disquieting thoughts.

[suzukiblu]

this is a question that is not meant to come off as judgemental, and if it does i apologise and you don’t have to answer

for you, or anyone out there in the world if they see this,

What is the appeal of (the?) Omegaverse?

Ive never quite gotten it? And it might be the big bold orange, blue and white letters spelling out aroace, or being european, younger than most people who are knowledgeable about that particular genre of content (still 18+) and while I did get on the internet at 11, I didn’t start reading fanfic until 14-15

this is a long and rambly ask so I just want to clarify, this is a genuine question I would like an answer to, no matter how short and sweet, or long and convoluted it may be

It's all good, I don't mind getting questions! And, like, I've written a LOT of omegaverse, so it's a thoroughly relevant question to this blog, haha.

. . . and this definitely wound up long and convoluted. So like, yeah, we are SO gonna need a read-more here, friend. 😅

Obviously everyone's gonna have their own reasons for liking the genre, but as another (much older, I'm assuming) aroace, for me the appeal is the opportunity to use the tag "Fantasy Gender Roles". Like, there's other stuff there, def, but "Fantasy Gender Roles" is my favorite part. Omegaverse is a game where the rules are made-up and the points don't matter, and you can interpret and re-interpret the involved sexes and genders however the heck you wanna, and in fact are ENCOURAGED to. I also really like certain tropes that are common to the genre, like pack dynamics and breeding kink and having babies and feral behavior and courting/courting rituals, I just really enjoy playing with and reading about all of those.

Also, the worldbuilding. I get to do ✨GENDER-BASED WORLDBUILDING✨.

And obvi, like, some people are just into omegaverse for the kink/porn factor, which is totally fair, but personally I am here for ✨GENDER-BASED WORLDBUILDING✨. And then also the kink/porn. Generally speaking a recurring comment I've gotten from a lot of readers is "I literally hate omegaverse but I love yours", so a lot of my stuff is allegedly a decent jumping-on point for the genre if you're looking for that. Like, I'm not the only person who writes omegaverse the way I do, obviously, just I'm a pretty accessible one who's written a LOT of it.

( and in the event you DO want any jumping-on omegaverse recs from my stuff, I'mma just pop a few of them from various fandoms here. no DC-related ones 'cuz I don't have any of those currently on AO3, only scattered in my WIP tags, but hopefully something helpful will be in here. )

original fic

to the victor go the spoils - human omega OMC/dragon [ GENDER NOT FOUND ] OMC; 16.7k; explicit Fantasy AU. This one includes porn but honestly the heart of it is just one of those fairy tales where the protagonist is somehow both incredibly genre-savvy in their story and yet still a total fucking idiot about other people's feelings, and especially considering it's original fic, it is honestly one of the most popular things I've ever posted, hah.

The dragon arrived early in the morning, and by noon the entire village was in a panic in the town hall. No one in the village knew anything about dragons, aside from what they’d heard in fairy tales and stories, and the plans for dealing with it were about that level of sophisticated.

“We’re not sacrificing a virgin to the dragon,” Viktor said in exasperation.

“Well what would YOU do?!” the mayor demanded.

“I’m going to go talk to it,” Viktor said reasonably, and got up from his seat and went to do just that.

.

Avatar: The Last Airbender

does the pain feel better when I'm around? - beta!Sokka/omega!Zuko, beta!Sokka/beta!Suki, past alpha!Mai/omega!Zuko, polyamory; 3k; teen Societal dynamics-focused fic. Zuko goes into heat at the Western Air Temple immediately after the Boiling Rock happens and goes off to den down alone and stay out of everyone's way without realizing that the local betas are gonna lose their ever-lovin' MINDS about that.

“Cool,” he says. “You realize we’ve been looking for you for, like, two HOURS, right?”

“Why?” Zuko asks, sounding confused, which is kind of sad.

“Because the world is full of people who wanna kill you and you didn’t bother telling anyone where you were going?” Sokka says. “Obviously?”

“Oh.” Zuko falls silent. Sokka glances moonwards in supplication. Yue save him from dumb, dumb firebenders.

every act of communication is a miracle of translation - alpha!Mai/omega!Zuko; 5.7k; teen Post-series fic where Mai and Zuko are about to spend their first cycle together and they're both really awkward about working out how it should go. Not actually a sequel to "does the pain feel better when I'm around?", but you could definitely draw a relationship between 'em.

They leave the office, Mai pretending that all her senses aren’t full of Zuko’s warm, spicy scent, and he keeps looking worried. She wonders if it’s THIS he’s worried about, now that she’s thinking about it. They agreed they’d share their next cycles together, but again, they haven’t really talked about it.

They can talk about it now, Mai thinks.

Unfortunately, that means now they actually have to talk about it.

.

Overwatch

even if I do I don't, even if I could I won't - omega!Genji/beta!the-character-who-was-at-the-time-I-wrote-this-fic-known-as-McCree; 5.1k; explicit Blackwatch-era fic where Genji did not fill out his heat partner designation forms and "Fuck or Suffer Unspecified Health Consequences" is gonna make that a problem. Worldbuilding, assisted negotiation, a touch of workplace-influenced pack dynamics, and porn.

“Yeah, you’re hilarious, kid,” Gabe says. “Get back to work. And Shimada, call your heat partner and we’ll see you next week.”

Shimada’s shoulders tense. Gabe . . . pauses.

“Shimada,” he says slowly. “PLEASE tell me you have a heat partner on base.”

“I have a heat partner on base,” Shimada lies. Gabe and Jesse both stare at him, then Gabe calls up his file, takes one look at it, and starts cursing.

don't, don't, don't let's start (I've got a weak heart) - alpha!Genji/omega!the-character-who-was-at-the-time-I-wrote-this-fic-known-as-McCree; 17.3k; explicit Blackwatch-era fic about Genji and the character formerly known as McCree dealing with their complicated feelings about each other and also the cybernetics and trauma and physical disabilities that are fucking up their sex life, including ED.

“You busy?” he asks. Genji stares at him in bemusement, which is fair. Genji’s only ever busy when they’re on a mission or he’s in the middle of an upgrade. “Dumb question. My heat’s coming on, wanna do me a favor?”

“What favor?” Genji asks, still looking mystified. Jesse tries not to laugh at him.

“The obvious one,” he says meaningfully, tipping his hat back and raising his eyebrows at him. Genji looks no less mystified for a moment, then startles. “THERE we go."

.

Marvel Cinematic Universe

come hang (let's go out with a bang) - omega!Darcy Lewis/omega!Johnny Storm; 5k; teen Darcy almost dies again, tries to figure out which omega buys the courting gifts in an omega/omega relationship, and has her first date with a super-hot superhero.

“Was there traffic?” Jane asks.

“I have a date with Johnny Storm,” Darcy says.

“What?” Jane says.

“Oh, and I almost died again,” Darcy says, pulling out Jane’s papers for her. “But that’s kind of secondary.”

“WHAT?!”

pack up, don't stray (oh say say say) - alpha!Natasha + polyamory; 3.4k; teen Natasha collects a harem pack and Captain America is fucking difficult about it.

Natasha is an alpha on a mission, and that mission is simple and clear.

I said you're holding back, she said shut up and dance with me - alpha!Peggy/omega!Steve/omega!Bucky; 10.3k; mature Alternate timeline where Steve and Bucky don't "die" and they all run away from the States to get married and start a family. Illegal adoption and biokids and lowkey pack dynamics involving figuring out how to fold pups into their lives, oh my!! And also, they all get to dance.

“One alpha mating two omegas? Really, Steve?” Peggy asks, mouth quirking wryly. “What WOULD the newsreels say?”

“We’ll go to France,” Steve says. “No one will care in France.”

“I do love France,” she muses.

oh don't you dare hold back, just keep your eyes on me - alpha!Darcy/omega!Bucky, polyamory; 187.4k; explicit MY MAGNUM OPUS, MY WHITE WHALE, THE LITERAL REASON OMEGAVERSE TOOK OVER HALF MY BLOG FOR HALF MY STINT IN MCU FANDOM. I wanted a goddamn female alpha and I wanted that female alpha to be Darcy Lewis, and Bucky was my fave blorbo at the time so the inevitable happened. The inevitable happened for three and a half years and 187,430 words, to be more precise.

Darcy is thirty feet out of Stark-cum-Avengers Tower when she starts craving cinnamon rolls--the sticky-sweet iced-up old-fashioned kind, yummy and messy and dripping gooshy icing all over your mouth and hands and down your yuuuup, yup, that is a super, super fertile omega that she is smelling, holy SHIT is it ever.

“Jesus Christ,” she groans in frustration, then follows her alpha instincts (and, more easily and importantly, her NOSE) to go track them down. They’re in the middle of New York City; middle of the day or not, not checking on somebody who smells like THAT is, like, the ultimate dick move.

.

OKAY SELF THAT'S ENOUGH LINKS, WE MOVE ON NOW, haha.

I will also say, if you're interested in, like, gender-exploratory AU concepts, apiary genders might be more your thing and more easily accessible for you? It's a MUCH newer thing than omegaverse and really only has a few fics around, some of which are linked in the "inspired by" of that AO3 primer linked above, but the concept is a bit more strongly "hive"-based than a lot of omegaverse is "pack"-based, and also there's no physical differences from baseline. I've got a WIP or two going about apiary myself, actually, but I haven't gotten too far into them yet, alas. The only one I've posted anything from is this one Superbat one.

[emblemxeno]

I saw that my ask had gotten eaten by this hellsite, so I'll repost it again. Lucky you, I had it saved!

I think the thing that pisses me off the most about FE fans... is how much they often feel like they miss the point of the series.

"According to the developers, the Fire Emblem series' central theme revolves around the inherent humanity of the characters, who have more to them than just being chess pieces. The games also encourage a lot of individual growth and players using whoever they like the most, due to the emphasis on the humanity of the cast and the sanctity of each life. This, it seems, is sadly lost on the portion of the fandom that takes the Nintendo Hard difficulty as a reason to rigidly adhere to using characters within the lens of strategic elements based on immediate gains. Add that to how a lot of the series locks behind character potential through supports and the fandom's reluctance to actually learn more and state their opinions on it without adopting an extremely binary morality view (see below), and the community clearly enjoys the game, if for much different reasons than what the devs intended. Can't get more of a dissonance than to have a theme song loudly blare The Power of Friendship and people not understanding that the characters are humans within their own rights. Matters are not helped by virtue of people wanting to validate themselves within their "correct" opinion of the story, not taking into consideration how others may see differently or the fact that there's only losers in war for all sides, a theme that Fire Emblem Fates and Fire Emblem: Three Houses bash you on the head with." Source: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/MisaimedFandom/FireEmblem

Like, FE has always, always been about love, bonds and the power of emotions triumphing all in a simulation RPG. The bonds of who you use, who lives, who dies, who marries who, that has been the heart and soul of the series by treating the various cast members as their own people with their own lives, will to live, and inherently diverse views on how the world works. There being so many ways to play FE and so many strategies that if you make it work, that just shows you overcoming the game's challenges; you can use Seth or Titania to solo most of their games, but just as much use Amelia or Rolf to do that if you so want to. And the difference is that while there's often restrictions for said characters, you can and often do are able to make it work by playing on those inefficiencies and use whatever strategies you can to overcome the challenges in a simulation RPG. It's inherently about subjectivity, and inherently about love, hope, and kickass swords! The broad strokes and worldbuilding of the series yet sheer richness of the story and sheer randomness for how your runs may turn out leave so much to headcanon and worldbuilding, letting YOU play the way you want to play and nobody else. It makes for a truly amazing storytelling experience that isn't rivaled by any other FE game in the series. It's inherently subjective, straight from interviews, no less:

“I think it’s because of the focus we’ve had in recent games on having you develop affinities for the characters,” Maeda says. “You choose the characters you like out of a large stable, you’ve got a lot of freedom to build them the way you like, and each player has their own characters they’re fond of.” [...] “It looks a bit like you’re moving players around in a chess match at first, but in reality, each one of them are human beings, with flesh and blood,” says Intelligent Systems director Kouhei Maeda. “As the player, you don’t want to lose them. You love them as a real person/character, and you want to make them stronger.” Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/fireemblem/comments/plrmlt/i_found_a_really_interesting_interview_on_the/

NOM: So the purpose was to make it simple but fun, but what does that mean, exactly? Narihiro: When it comes to Simulation, it is actually difficult to think that there are too many visible components. Each component alone is simple, but variation increases based on the combination of these components. By combining a multitude of simple components, it means that each person can play in their own way. For example, individuals who say, “I want to fight using only female units” or, “I only want to use bows!” can play according to their own desires. (laughs) Source: https://kantopia.wordpress.com/2020/04/21/fire-emblem-path-of-radiance-staff-interview-highlights-nintendo-dream-june-2005/

FE is truly unique, special and amazing for the sheer empathy, warmth and humanity it exhibits, and it taught me to value the meaning of human life and all it values. And I'd have no problems if people actually realized how geared FE is to inherent subjectivity regardless. But that's not what happened. The FE fandom is reclusive, reactionary and territorially aggressive to even the slightest bit of self-expression or non-curative fanlore, being so utterly obsessed with being "objectively correct" they invented stuff like 'Personal Experience Means Nothing' despite the inherent subjectivity of the series and bashed anyone for having the "wrong opinion" while taking what's fundamentally a simple yet fun gameplay experience and not only tried to outright compare it to chess, but had the shitting temerity to act like they were qualified to "teach" the centralized way of playing FE at college communities. (https://twitter.com/lucky_lunatrick/status/1790562171207696517). This is a fandom that revels in excluding people while continuously gaslighting anyone who dares protest this abusive relationship (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlIOI057L0g) while shitting on anyone for daring to show emotion to the story as "bad taste" (https://youtu.be/DInHAC3FIL4?si=xIWiekGECP_McfLk, https://youtu.be/p2k24l-c13w?si=BGzqZr6eGx5RO3Xa). All while they are so dedicated to "fighting misinformation" in the fandom, while being blind to their own biases in story and spewing open misinformation or misinterpretation of the story or coming up with ideas of what they're like. They take a game series fundamentally about subjectivity with many right ways and tried to make it as objective as possible with there being only "one" right way of playing the series. They took a series that bashes you on the head of the humanity of all sides yet they only see from their perspective and try to act like their side is automatically right while all others is evil. It's cartoonish how much they miss the point of the series. It's like saying My Little Pony supports Nazi beliefs like /mlpol/ tried to argue, when that's just objectively not true. Given it involves openly hacking the game for 0% growth runs or playing in blatantly rushing elements, it feels sincerely like they're playing for factually the wrong reasons, and I don't use that term genuinely. Worse, they actually think this hyper-fixation on being "objectively correct" means they can exclude others!:

>"Players feel excluded when their gameplay doesn't reflect community standards" This is a non-issue. Not everyone needs to be part of every discussion. I keep bringing this example up in these threads, but if I play Smash Bros casually and there's a competitive tier list thread going on, I don't feel the need to participate. I can read it and it's fun to learn how competitive people play and how they see the game, but at no point do I feel like I need to butt in with my uninformed opinion. The problem is people wanting to be included when they have nothing of value to say. Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/fireemblem/comments/16q6tnu/how_efficiency_has_warped_the_fe_community_and/

Like, to give an idea how fucking unhinged this is; Smash Bros. is a metagame that, doubtlessly as you know, has an extremely in-depth and complicated metagame of ways to play the game and the best ways to win a match-up. Everything is usually fiercely defined by usability and with clear winners and losers. This is okay, because there doesn't need to be anything other than that, because Smash Bros. is at a competitive level on a fundamental level that doesn't need that. The skill ceiling is very high and only the best of the best will win you the day. Which is fine... but FE is a single-player strategy RPG. A game that explicitly has it so that you're strongly encouraged to play the way you want to play and emotionally invest in the characters you love, and ultimately use that gameplay to help them change their fate and earn them a happy ending through the amount of emotional investment you provide them. All while still not applying any kind of media analysis on FE or what its story means.

The fandom absolutely hates having to dig for any story context even when it's there in the game and loudly screeching at the player, because if it's not lore dumps or blatantly spoonfeeding context to the player, it's useless. People hated Fates because it so dissatisfied this completionist/"true gamer" mentality because it was emotionally unsatisfying for them because they refused to dig deeper. While 3H gets praise for them removing that fundamental self-discovery and personalization element of the series and spoonfeeding it by forcing it to the player as unsubtly as possible to tell them what they think. In almost any other fandom this would be seen as ridiculous, but the FE community is so ass-backwards they think this is good writing and gobble it up while shitting on Engage for being "back to basics" (which I didn't like like you did OP, but I respect what people love about it so much).

FE is a fandom that willfully and ignorantly twists the series's sentiments to its own self-justifying perspective while having a superiority complex over a fucking anime JRPG. And gets mad when you point out how pointless it is and only exists to be exclusionary! And I'd be fine with it if it was one sector of the fandom, but this shit is fucking everywhere. It's like if Fallout only had No Mutants Allowed as the only place to go for the fandom when you don't think the Bethesda Fallout games are the devil (well, not me and 3 anyways, that game slapped), while the shitting on people's tastes is so omnipresent it makes me wonder how anyone tolerates them IRL because they're the kinds of people who will die alone because nobody would put up with their above-average midwit brainiac egotist Brian Griffin-lookin' ahh.

Point is, while there are fandoms with a reputation as more toxic (e.g. Steven Universe pre-porn exodus, Danganronpa, Undertale, etc.), I cannot think of a fandom that's as exclusionary or downright missing the point of the series on an objective level (and again, I avoid using absolutes as much as possible!) as the FE fandom. The kicker is that people loved Fates and you consistently have luck with people who adore the story and its characters outside of these mainstream communities, but the hardcore fans are so utterly toxic they shame anyone for daring to express it despite the fact it didn't become the second best selling FE ever out of thin air. I think you cannot get more closer to missing the goddamn point of your own series than if you made a mecha show that's fundamentally anti-war and say "Wow! Cool robot!".

this was the long post, guys.

the post where i was frustrated with this website, was applied to this

[theafictionado]

I’m Excited for an Isekai?! Early Thoughts on ZENSHU

I’m not super fond of isekai anime. Controversial statement, I know. Why am I not super fond of isekai? Well, I could start with the obvious, like how they’re often very dull, generic power fantasies running on the lowest-common-denominator idea of what young, heterosexual men want to read about. The way these shows treat their female characters ranges from shallow fan service to horrific dehumanisation. Their fantasy worldbuilding is often incredibly bland, and everything runs on video game mechanics or uses them as shorthand, even if this isn’t a “trapped in a video game” story and it makes no sense to do so. There’s also about one billion of them coming out every season, and they take up a truly ridiculous portion of the anime ecosystem, causing a deep sense of fatigue in anyone trying to keep up with, and sort through, new releases. There’s an audience for these shows—there must be, or surely they wouldn’t be making so many and saturating the market so intensely—but it’s not me. 

All this is a crying shame because I actually love the portal fantasy genre, both the classics for kids like The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and more contemporary takes on the tropes for older audiences, like The Starless Sea, Piranesi, or The Ten Thousand Doors of January. If I’m feeling silly I could classify the Wayward Children novellas as “light novels” and say hey, I do like some isekai LNs! But if I’m being straightforward, the truth is that isekai anime very, very rarely engage with any of the things I find interesting, fun, or endearing about the concept of an ordinary person traveling to a fantasy world. Traveling to a fantasy world. There’s so much room for creativity and character exploration in that trope, and yet so much isekai doesn’t use this to its potential. While I’ve enjoyed some—often more on the comedy side of things, like Reborn as a Vending Machine or Villainess Level 99—the general rule is that isekai anime switches me off.

And yet. There’s a “transported to another world” show I’m watching this season that I’m not only enjoying, but feeling intrigued and inspired by. So what’s it doing differently that makes my brain light up, when usually this set-up would put me to sleep?

Keep reading...

[ladyloveandjustice]

Winter 2024 Anime Overview: Dungeon Meshi (Delicious in Dungeon)

Premise: Laios is the leader of an adventuring party, and his sister, Falin, got eaten by a dragon while sacrificing herself to save the team. Fortunately, in the dungeon they were exploring, people can be resurrected with magic. Unfortunately, if the dragon fully digests Falin, they probably can’t resurrect her. They have no time to resupply and must traverse many levels of the dungeon filled with monsters to find the dragon. Laios declares that since they can’t get food, they’ll eat the monsters in the dungeon instead-- and as a huge monster fanatic. he's unsettlingly excited about this. He’s accompanied by elf mage Marcille and hafling rogue Chilchuck in his quest, who are much more reluctant about monster-eating. They run into a dwarf, Senshi, who is an expert at cooking monsters, and the delicious race against time to save Falin begins!

...Oh what the hell, I'll say it. FINALLY, some good fucking food.

Memes aside, I love this story so much that writing a review of Delicious in Dungeon/Dungeon Meshi is daunting, because I really want to get across how great it is. But are there enough words in the English language to convey this? We can only try.

Dungeon Meshi combines cooking and adventure animanga expertly, humorously treating eating monsters with the complexity of actual recipes (and indeed, the recipes for the monsters are based off real life recipes). You can experience the warmth and contentment of sharing a meal and enjoy the way the story goes in depth about the biology of the monsters and ecology of classic RPG style dungeon. But at the same time these characters are on a classic fantasy quest and there’s lot’s of excitement as they work together overcome monsters, obstacles and their own weaknesses to save Falin.

The first thing that stands out about Dungeon Meshi is that it’s immediately entertaining and funny. A lot of humor is mined out of Marcille’s complete disgust at eating monsters (and Chilchuck’s more measured reluctance) contrasted with Laios and Senshi’s bizarre enthusiasm for it. The face game of the series is on point, especially Marcille’s.

The characters play off each other very well, have a hilarious dynamic and tons of quirks. They're immediately lovable. They're eccentric weirdos who push each other's buttons, misfits who just happen to fit together, and that's always the best.

I've seen some first time anime viewers complained about that how the early episodes are supposed to be race to save Falin, but there isn't much urgency as the characters have adventures and meals on the way. I can see that as a criticism (though it didn’t stick out to me much in the manga) but this is because we’re mostly seeing them in between the times they’re traveling, when they need downtime and mealtime. The fact that people should never neglect eating and rest if they want to succeed is a pretty important message of the show. You’ve got to let the series cook (forgive the pun). As it goes on, the urgency and tension increases ramps way up. the plot truly takes form and we see a lot of the world building from early parts pay off.

Phenomenal, intricate worldbuilding is the next big thing that stands out about Dunmeshi. Any viewers paying attention will notice it pretty quickly. Ryoko Kui doesn’t dump her complex world or her character’s detailed backstories on the viewer all at once, instead she lets it unfold bit by bit, so the viewer/reader can watch the world expand as the journey goes on, as if we are truly living this world and exploring it along with the characters.

 Everything is carefully thought out, from the structure of the societies, the cultural nuances and physiology of the different magical races, the conflicts between said races and the ways they integrate, the ecosystem and the different monsters and how they function…I could go on forever. And best of all, Dunmeshi's worldbuilding is never to the detriment of it’s incredibly rich story and characters, all of which are also developed wonderfully.

After all, Dugeon Meshi isn’t simply a story about making food and eating monsters—it’s about the ways we consume and ARE consumed, it’s about the endless cycle of life and death and the pain of struggling against that cycle. It’s about the endless hunger that drives us all and the ways we try to fill ourselves up. It’s about the ways we can find both solace and terror in the monstrous, about our struggle to accept not just monsters, but anyone who's different from us. It’s not just about natural ecosystems, but social and societal ecosystems and the ways they both hurt and help us. It’s about all the things that make good meal, one that can draw people together and help us find essential humanity that connects us.

These strong themes are all expressed through the world and the journeys of the characters. And god, do I love these characters.

Even from the start, the characters overturn RPG/fantasy archetypes. (We have an elf who’s not that into nature and dwarf who LOVES nature and doesn’t like blacksmithing)… but the most special thing about these characters is how they deepen, becoming more and more complex and fascinating as the series unfolds. None of them are quite who you think they are while also being exactly how they appear.

Marcille is one of my favorite characters in anything ever. She’s just an absolute disaster, while also being terrifyingly powerful. She’s a magic honors student who buried herself in theory but doesn’t have a lot of experience with the real world and gets upset it doesn’t work like school (I feel that). Her pride and generally high strung nature can lead to blunders that make her very funny to watch. She’s a total nerd in a way that’s so relatable, she has intelligence in spades, but not a lot of wisdom.

 But on the other hand, she’s an aching wounded soul who’s struggling under the surface, dealing with grief and loss constantly. She's obsessed with control in a world that uncontrollable. She’s incredibly driven and unnervingly dedicated to her goals. She’s also scarily devoted to the people she loves and will cross any moral line, break any taboo, and cover herself in blood and sin to save them. She refuses to let silly things like “laws” and “rules” stifle her research or get in her way .And while she's a neat freak who's grossed out by monsters, she's the first person to dive into the blood and guts and horror when shit gets real.

The contrast between her being a sweet, silly, dorky lovable nerd who flails around and being a powerful badass who has complex motivations, an intricate arc, and sometimes questionable morals is so great. Get you a girl who can do both. She's basically everything I love in a character.

Marcille’s love for Falin and infinite devotion is also key to the story, and it’s so refreshing to see a well-written relationship between women be so central to a fantasy anime like this. And yes, by love for Falin, I mean in a gay way. It’s not technically canon (Dunmeshi is not into confirming romantic relationships for any of it’s characters really) but it’s hard to interpret their relationship as anything else, and honestly it’s one of the best wlw ships I’ve seen in a while. It’s got everything, the softness, the sweet and sensual intimacy, the angst, the tragedy, the raw unbearable yearning, tearing the world apart and defying even the laws of nature for her, crawling through hell and soaking your hands in blood and not letting anything get in your way...yeah, it’s good.

While Marcille is my #1, all the characters in this story are fantastic and I love them all. They all have incredible depth and similarly complex backstories and arcs, and are all fun to watch. For instance, Laios may look like generic human fighter but he’s just the weirdest dude, a wonderfully unhinged man who absolutely has a monstersona. But then we also discover he's someone who struggles socially in a way that many neurodivergent people can relate to, who had a troubled childhood, who grapples with survivor’s guilt, and who, like Marcille, would do anything for his sister and the people he cares about. Chilchuck and Senshi and Falin and all the others the same, really interesting characters who deepen and grow. Everyone's relationships also develop wonderfully.

And on top of all that, it's a show with really well-realized and well-written female characters…who even have diverse body types! We have stocky dwarf ladies with muscles! Huge orc and oni women! They’re allowed to be messy and complicated, badass and vulnerable, and that’s definitely a part of my affection for the series. (and famously, most of the fanservice of the series is focused on Senshi’s endless pant shots (loincloth, if we’re being specific)) and while there are moments with the female characters that make me fan myself, it’s not the obnoxious anime unsexy bullshit way that treats women like objects.

And specifically for the anime, Trigger is doing great work with it. There’s so much cool and vivid animation. There are some small moments from the manga that I really miss and wish they had kept, but it’s been a largely faithful adaptation that understands what makes the story great, and I can’t ask for much more. The English simuldub is also genuinely good with all of the VA’s turning in great performances (and Prozd plays Senshi!)

Dungeon Meshi is honestly one to the best stories in recent years, and it’s easy to let it take over your brain. So come along with me and enjoy the funny jokes, the splendid storytelling, the endearing and endlessly fascinating characters and the delectable world. You don’t want to miss out on this delicious meal.

[kirkwallguy]

i rly think DA's companions peaked with rivalries lol, like that can create such interesting dynamics, when rivaled these people are still following hawke and you can still romance them, Interesting!! THat's cool! why are they doing that, staying with someone who's disagreed with them the whole time or done things they find objectionable - you get different dialogue in cutscenes too, they react to how you treat them (thinking with Merrill you can just chose to not give her the thing to fix the eluvian and you get a different scene after the quest) You can be mean, you can support them or not and they respond to that, it feels like your choices are affecting the characters around you. (diff game but alistair confronts you about Isolde and if you killed her, the kid, or got help, i'd have loved more of that!! more characters going "hey this was fucked up of you, why???" or "I'm glad you handled this" and then you can talk about it more, the companions having Thoughts on your good or bad behavior and actions and voicing it!) also I think not being able to just chat with the companions was a silly choice, especially with the fact that rook can be a crow or shadow dragon etc, wdym we cant just talk about that with the gang??? ask for their thoughts on it all and they ask for rooks, rook could voice support or question what the group is and what they're doing (kinda like with Wynne and mage warden, you can talk about the circles and voice your dislike or support for them), rook could ask for more information and if they know they could share, or they won't if rook isn't a part of that group and it's all meant to be secret or something - and maybe if you ask again when they have high approval they'll tell you anyway cause they trust you, more opportunities for lore and worldbuilding as well as exploring the characters a little more??

idk im :/ rambling lol, i just really enjoyed how much you could say and do in other games, dav feels limited? And like nothing was perfect in the other games but I feel like there were so many more opportunities to learn about everything and the characters felt so much more involved? I do love that the companions talk to each other at the lighthouse like thats great we get to see those dynamics more outside of party banter!

i LOVE the rivalry dynamic and it really helps with each playthrough feeling unique, a hawke who is besties with merril is so different emotionally to a hawke who rivals merril, and it feels like there's a near-endless number of combos? also being able to push back on companions is something people have been complaining about a LOT in dai and dav, being able to spend the entire game disagreeing with a character and still see their entire story (WITH extra dialogue and sometimes entirely different cutscenes to acknowledge the fact that you don't have a good relationship?) it solves such a fundamental problem with relationships in rpgs and i don't get why it isn't more frequently used lol

and yeah i can understand if they wanted to save money not doing chats in the lighthouse (tbh. the inquisition skyhold dialogue options were just annoying and useless to me especially when you had to exhaust them to trigger certain quests), but it just feels like it creates a distance between you and the companions when they can all have conversations with each other at the lighthouse but you can't speak to them? it just feels like such an important feature for the genre and the only other game in the series that doesn't have it is the one that was made in like a year

[ganondoodle]

riot making arcane the main canon is honestly the stupidest and most unnecessary move, its taken alot of enjoyment from the show for me bc now instead of seeing it as a really well made fanfiction that i can just sit back and enjoy the reinterpretations of without worry i keep thinking how whatever they do is gonna fuck with canon and how much is retconned bc of it

they didnt even finish the other, waht 10 year old now?, retcon and now they are doing it again?? what for?? literally nothing is gained from forcing it all into arcanes interpretation- even if they want to bring more characters the show made up into the game you can do that without having to make the show the center of everything; i might have stopped playign the game but i still care about some of the characters and stories, the lore and worldbuilding is what i enjoyed most of any league stuff, all of which is now on thin ice (granted, it has been since they started to fire their writers, but now even the work they did might not even stay), it hurts to see things you loved being thrown into the garbage for no reason, whatever time i spent thinking and caring about it essentially wasted, deemed that what i cared about didnt matter at all (hhhh similarly so with totk, what is it with these things happening to the few things i ever liked ......)