#there are moments where the game could've improved on

[bloedewir]

Dragon Age: The Veilguard

There's some post-game thoughts I can mark as spoiler ones. Read only if you finished the game.

I love the game. Really. The grand finale was magnificent, the main plot idea is painfully touching and I adore the heavy weight of sorrow I bear after I finished the game. The best kind of bittersweet grief of possible.

However it doesn't mean the game is flawless. There's some stuff I didn't get at all.

Why there's no option to ask Solas about the Forgotten Ones? Like, hello, you have an encyclopedia of elven lore in your head, can't you ask a few optional questions about weird ancient guy you've met during the journey? Nadas Dirthalen? (Or it's because da5 is going to be about new dwarven and/or qunari lore and Forgotten Ones/Executors?)

You also can't say anything about the murals.. which is kinda strange. Why didn't Rook comment those mind-blowing revelations? For Harding, at least?

Evanuris. Solas' story is beautifully written, Mythal' story was also revealed more than before (even if she's in all 4 games) so we get to know her better. But Elgar'nan and Ghilan'nain? Fine, forget other evanuris.. but the spectacular duo? Spirits and demons are kinda the same, like two sides of a coin. Solas is Wisdom and Pride, Mythal is Benevolence and Retribution (as Morrigan said). Elgar'nan and Ghilan'nain are just.. bad? They're blighted and corrupted now but what about the past? Where's the duality of their personalities? No chance for redemption now because they don't want or need it, I get the idea, but the story itself? I wish there would be more about them. We do have something on Ghilan'nain tho, like: she created hallas but can't create them any longer and she has a full control over the Blight as if it's modeling clay (+ some Bellara' thoughts on a matter of "navigation" and "healing" and path Ghilan'nain chose for the People). But Elgar'nan? He likes tyranny. And he still had his hair. Uhm.. ┐⁠(��� ⁠∵⁠ ⁠)⁠┌

Romances. Can't say much because I didn't try all of them but Neve's and Lucanis'.. uhm. It doesn't feel like a written romance, y'know? Just a bonus lines so you doesn't have to feel lonely or whatever. Characters are on their own and don't have connection with Rook till the very end. There's no impact and Rook is, ironically, just an enjoyable side benefit™ but nothing more. Comparing to datv romance situation solavellan romance is hot as hell and full of content. And it says a lot.

Inquisitor. I do like how their absence was explained... yet Lavellan was robbed. I don't want to see a cringe Fade therapy session with Solas telling his tragic lovestory to a random stranger (Rook) and whining about just how much he misses his gorgeous wife (and I'm solavellan). But adding a few tiny details? The bare minimum: take the dai tarot card and place it on the wall in a music room. That already could've been much better. (mods mods mods 🤞🤞🤞).

Dialogue timing and triggers. I suspect dialogues are cool but I can't know for sure. In my first playthrough I didn't even know Davrin and Lucanis are not a big fans of each other before the Weisshaupt quest because I didn't hear it. DATV locations are much smaller than it was in DAI, so you just don't get the chance to hear those dialogues unless you find a trigger point and just stay there waiting to play all lines.

Some of that is not a tragedy and, theoretically, could be improved by magnificent people creating mods. But sometimes datv seems kinda unfinished like there's a missing puzzle pieces as if content was cut out with no replacement.

Despite some questionable moments and a bit of criticism I love this game regardless. It's dark and atmospheric, absolutely beautiful and mesmerizing. And analysis of Regret? Choices and consequences, acceptance, struggling, desperation, guilt..? The work Bioware did deserves to be highly appreciated. The final left me in tears, sobbing and grieving, and heartbroken - that's all I ever wanted of Dragon Age 💜

[spyrkle4]

My thoughts on the ending of Danganronpa Despair Time Chapter 2

Man just when I think I can predict what'll happen in Drdt it throws a 180

I'm gonna hide the spoilerly stuff under the read more but first things first of my god... this was great!!! And it also makes me TERRIFIED for chapter 3 because chapter 2 was enough of an emotional rollar coaster, idk if the dev or anyone working on drdt will see this silly post bc a LOT of people have been sharing their thoughts on the ending of chapter 2 but I really enjoyed the ending

And that I don't mind if chapter 3 has a long wait bc my mental health is in shambles after this chapter

Okay now the spoilery stuff!

-First of all, I did find it interesting that the secrets (including David in his joker arc) was a bit of a red herring, the secrets weren't part of the murder/case at all, unless you count the part of Arturo threatening Eden over his secret, but after this trial EVERYONE's laundry has been aired and I wonder if that'll be touched upon in Chapter 3

-I think I've said this before but I love how the dead cast (Xander, Min, Arei, and now Ace) are just constantly mentioned, haunting the narrative, I'm pretty sure they're gonna keep that up

-Teruko having a mental breakdown after this, like homegirl spent ALL of chapter 2 trying to repress her grief over Xander and Min, but now that Arei, Ace, and potentially Levi are dead she ended up cracking, chapter 2 ending with her breaking down in the darkened trial room is heartbreakiiiing

-I read a couple posts before typing this and one of them mentioned that "MonoTV's comment about the most mastermind-y person getting punished" applied to Teruko almost being shot after telling Ace to kill MonoTV (she tried), the foreshadowing of this, like hey guys remember in chapter 1 when Ace was dragged into watching horror movies and he commented they were so scary he could've died from it :))

-Levi's really putting the L in Levi dude cant stop getting injured. but seriously I just wanna know WHY DID HE DO THAT LEVI OH MY GOD. LEVIIII

-MonoTV genuinely scared me, also the implications of who could potentially be running this show is also scaring me. and the implications that they're programmed to run this show until EVERYONE is dead.

-Not Ace's excecution being he gets psychologically tortured until its too much for his heart

-The fact it wasn't related to his talent but it was related to his constant fear of death is just evil.

-Also the way Ace goes out, before the ending I kind of thought his arc was a mirror to Arei's where that while she improved and started to trust some of the others, Ace became more cruel and distrustful, even to those still reaching out to him, he was so scared of dying that he ironically caused his own death by participating in the killing game and killing Arei

-And that he was so scared of dying, yet told MonoTV to go ahead with his execution so that the others could give Levi medical treatment and he even yells at Arturo that he CAN save Levi if he tries, dude in the end did change but sadly like Arei, he died before before being able to fully embrace that change

-also if you want to go more feral over the little details check out the names on the gravestones :))) I know at least ONE of the names is his only friend. And based his line of "I'm gonna have THREE deaths on my hands!" His friend might be deceased and he blames himself for it

-I was thinking "I sure hope the squeamish of the cast aka Charles and Rose shield their eyes during the execution" and then there was Whit's line of telling Charles to cover his eyes when Teruko is about to get shot

-Whit's sprite when the gang realize the elevators are closed is scaring me a little. its also scaring the Whit fans!

-That's all I'm gonna say about the ending, it was emotional and at least Ace was able to have some good moments before his end, I wonder what'll happen with the secrets aftermath including David causing problems on purpose, the cast realizing that the killing game is making them worse, and all the little lore that got dropped.

[ravel-puzzlewell]

Hi! Do you mind elaborating on what you meant by "tiefling politics" on that wotr vs bg3 post? Just curious, ignore if you want

its about the fact that bg3 has a lot of tiefling characters, somehow more than wotr, and huge theme of like hells and connections to demons\devils and somehow manages to say absolutely nothing interesting about it.

in wotr we have examination of tieflings fitting into human society, ostracization and (literal) demonization of them, where even if some of them would want to help in war against hell, they are scared (frex, group of tieflings thieves you save which you can ask to help u and they are like are u kidding me, crusaders will torch us). woljif in particular is a deconstruction of selfish chaotic neutral tielfling rogue archetype, his story both exploring how both he was pushed into being a criminal bc he had no other options, but also interplay with how he then himself tends to dismiss his own agency in being able to decide for himself and choose better, forever excusing himself with "well this is a crappy hand dealt to me", his survivalist attitude of everyone for themselves vs desire for community, how when given a smidge of stability and access to decision making in council, he tries to awkwardly, but eagerly advocate for societal improvement for all tieflings, and this is one of his most sincere moments - and gets laughed at immediately, etc etc. and speaking of community, v interesting intersection between "good" and "bad" marginalized groups of mongrels vs tieflings, with Lann being self-righteous about both his moral superiority and how mongrels "have it worse", while ignoring that mongrels - and he himself specifically - are mistreated literally bc they are mistaken for tieflings.

btw if anyone wants me to talk more about mongrels vs tieflings thing, hit me up, i think there was a interesting stuff, even if not properly dramatized

meanwhile in bg3 being tiefling largely means nothing? like the refugees would sometimes like drop a line out loud about how tieflings should stick together bc humans won't help them, but like that's it. the refugees could literally be humans running from war or blue cat ppl from avatar running from capitalism and nothing in the plot or characters would need to be changed. tieflings is just cosmetics for them, like idk its cool to have colorful NPCs with fire eyes and sexy horns. And even companions wise, you know I love Karlach and tried to romance her, but being tiefling is just looks for her, its not meaningful. It doesn't matter for her backstory, she could have been a strong human from poor background who was sold out to idk, underdark. like it sucked bc she was forced to do violence and everyne was an asshole and she couldn't see sun, but otherwise it being Blood War specifically doesn't come into play. and like. Blood War has famously huge effects on ppl with hell heritage! I'm not saying she should have been Valen Shadowbreath with entire plotline about struggling with blood war calling, but like. idk, something?

my point is that tieflings and hell has a lot of lore and like, FLAVOUR in this setting, which were not explored at all. these are just ppl with horns and generic Bad Place.

and then like. devil essentialism. bg3 has central motive of how evil races are not ontologically evil, but like, devils are. sdfghjk. apparentely mind flayers can fight actual mind control if they are V Special, but all devils/demons are evil with no exceptions. karlach was in hell for 10 years and never met a single sympathetic devil. the closest one he had mocks IS Evil when we meet her in game. and I actually liked Raphael (transition could've saved her), but there is nothing particularily interesting about him, he's also straighforwardly evil. this severely limits how interesting interactions with hell are. in wotr there is a wide range from reformed succubus to most evil sadists, with every shade in between, which allows for complex stories, like that that fucked up love between that betrayer dwarf and demoness who seduced him. she's legit evil, but she also has actual twisted affection for him, and he knows she uses him, but he was pushed too far by humans and chooses her anyway. this background story is honestly has more depth than wyll's and mizora relationship, where shes just evil and he's straighforwardly martyr. when mizora offered to have fun wink wink, i immediately knew she's gonna Evil It. and she did. and she didn't even get anything out of it! it was just staining your soul to be evil:3 like ok, but boring tbh.

and like yeah war with hell is central plot of wotr, obviously it has a lot more to say and explore about it, but like. bg3 didn't HAVE to have to include so many tieflings and have us follow their stories through all acts. it didn't have to include hell in "no race essentialism" game if it didn't want to talk about it. it chose to, and when game has big chuncks of content about smth connected by a theme, i expect it to say smth about it? anything interesting? eh.

btw, this is not to say i think wotr's writing is perfect, far from it, i can talk for ages of my problems with that game's writing, but this initial phrase was from shitposts specifically comparng things in wotr to bg3, so

[skywlker-sluvtt]

🥺 with ani please <3

me when virgin ani: 👹👹👹 this is my area of expertise so i'm excited heheheheh

anakin x afab!reader 18+ below the cut nsfw emoji ask game

🥺 first-time headcanon

✧ it wasn't easy for anakin to get experience at all, being cooped up in the temple or off-world there wasn't much time for him to think thoroughly about who he'd want it to be with. in the end he decides it should be a stranger, surely it wouldn't be that bad

✧ off world he met you at a bar of some kind. he couldn't help but give you the biggest puppy dog eyes and watch you the entire night. if it wasn't for the fact he was pretty it probably could've been a little bit creepy. he's too nervous to talk to you, so you have to approach him.

✧ he's putty in your hands the moment you speak to him. asking him his name and where he's from, playing with the pretty braid in his hair. "jedi huh? i've never been with a jedi before..." it's suggestive enough to get him hard and nervous. "w-well i'd be more than happy to be your first...first jedi" he stumbles over his words before you ask to kiss him very politely.

✧ you gotta pick up on the virgin energy. he can barely kiss you and it makes you giggle a little. when he comes back to yours he'll cOnFeSs to you that he's a virgin, but yk that's fineeeee.

✧ anakin wants to pleasure you he's just not too sure how to. you offer to show him and teach him how to make you feel good and return the favor happily. he tries his hardest and he finds he enjoys your playful banter, he expected the experience to be a lot more serious.

✧ he finishes really quick inside you, with little whimpers he can't control and a flushed face from the embarrassment. after reassuring him it's okay he finishes you off with his mouth and honestly, his skill improves within the last half hour. he's proud of himself for making you cum with just his tongue gladly cleaning all the cum from your pretty hole.

✧ when he leaves in the morning he thanks you profusely and was very confident. ani wani won't be forgetting about you anytime soon, he might even have to visit you at some point <3

[yzafre]

it could've been so good - a possible interpretation and extrapolation of 2012 April O'Neil

So, 2012 makes me want to take every character apart and put them back together like a jigsaw puzzle.  The characterization drives me crazy because like.  It’s messy but not entirely incoherent.  It’s like... someone was making a bracelet and picked out a bunch of matching or complementary beads, but then just left them scattered on the table instead of finishing stringing them up.

Similarly, 2012 puts a lot of fascinating character moments on the table but then doesn’t really... do anything with them, or thread them together with any kind of intent, and it makes me insane. 

So this is me, frantically putting my own strings between them like a conspiracy board.  I’ll probably end up meandering through most of the main cast but we are STARTING with April because I’ve already alluded to my thoughts on her in a couple posts. 

And I know, I know, it’s always easy to talk shit and say “they should have done this” in hindsight - and it very much seems like the writers just.  Didn’t know what to do with her for a long time? 

But if you look at the scenes/episodes she’s given, you have the skeleton of an interesting character arc focusing on the desire for agency and control over your life, chasing strength/power, and the difference between the two.

Starting point

Okay, we’re going to start with two key themes I’ve found and go from there: April’s desire to become a ninja, and her whole family-kraang situation.

When it comes to April and fighting, one of the first things I noticed was this exchange between April and Splinter, when he offers to train her:

“If I do this… does that mean I can kick everybody’s butt?”

And then, when Splinter is against it: “Oh yeah, me neither… but I could, right?”

That is the attitude of someone who wants to fight – and not only fight, but to win.  To beat others.  That was… interesting.

We also see, as time goes by, that – when the writers remember to include her – she wants to be involved.  To a reckless degree.

Metalhead: she set up her own research avenue, gathering information on Krang sightings.  Then she immediately goes to sneak in, even though the turtles can’t go out yet – and has her own mini-adventure!

Panic in the Sewers: she approaches the Purple Dragons with the pizza plan of her own accord.  She volunteers to spy on the meeting with the Shredder the moment the turtles look to be giving up – even when they are very against it – and keeps going when her first plan doesn’t work.

In the next season, after she’s been training for a while, you have the Kraang Conspiracy (incidentally, where she gets a big lore dump about her family’s connection to the kraang): she’s trying to get involved in their training/missions, upset about not being able to keep up -  she refused to be left behind to wait “like some stupid sidekick”.

“I want in on the action, too.”

She’s not theatrically bombastic about it as Casey is, but… She wants to be in the game so bad.  She is consistently frustrated when left behind, when reminded of ways she can’t keep up.  She volunteers herself to get involved, even against the turtle’s recommendations at times.  Insists on it.

This continues even as she improves, as she’s more often on the team – look at City at War in season 4.  April is so thrilled to finally be a “full fledged ninja”, but frustrated when Raph points out how much further she has to go, and does not deal well with being defeated by Shinigami so easily.  First it’s simply self-doubt, yes, but when she sees Shinigami again there is impulsiveness and anger. (yes there is some influence by the Aeon crystal here, BUT).

((Also sidenote, it was also Raph who specifically brought up time spent training with Splinter, and what it takes, back in the Kraang Conspiracy.))

((Also also, don’t love the cattiness/pitting girls against each other way this episode is written.  But for the observation section we use what we’ve got.  Sigh.))

All of this put together: they are giving April a very active, driven personality, who is interested in being able to fight, being involved with taking on the bad guys, and being a main player in confronting the world around her.

HOWEVER – she's often only middling-levels of successful, when she’s not side-lined.  It’s a show about the turtles, so they have to save the day, right? ....right? no

Now, the other half of her we’ve got to talk about is her, the kraang, and all the effects that has on her family.

When we start the show, her mom’s already gone, and it’s just her and her dad – thus why she ends up staying with an Aunt.  We don’t know it yet, but that’s important.

So, she loses her father in the pilot – it's how she meets the turtles, why she continues to interact with them (and at this point from the writing it’s not entirely convincing she would stay in touch otherwise – to me Mikey's “You have to like us” comment feels very real, early on).

She gets her dad back, but he’s compromised, leading to events in the Season 1 finale.

((Not her family, but the one “normal” friend we see her with turns out to be a Kraang in disguise, so like.  That’s also interference in her life.))

Season 2 opener, she loses him again – this time to mutation.  Her hallucination in the fear mushrooms episode was about bats/her father, remember, so the state of her father is front and center for her – and with only one parent, why wouldn’t it be?

When they cure that, it’s not long until the invasion.  And he gets mutated again, left behind with the rest of New York.

We found out her family line – her mother specifically – was part of a project by the Kraang.  April is the end result of this genetic manipulation, a tool to finish their goals.

These are all things that are done to her, which she has no control over.

So, we get an (ostensibly, when April isn’t being put on the shelf by the narrative) active personality, contrasted against plot developments in which things keep happening to her.

These are the two rocks I’m banging together to create the lens I’ll be interpreting her character through.

What do you do when your fate is never in your hands?

So, let’s go back to the beginning, and let me show you the context I’m looking at:

You are a smart, promising, self-motivated girl, who despite the loss of a parent has a generally good life.

And then you get attacked, and though you are rescued your father is not, and despite your best efforts, there’s nothing you can do about it.  You’re helpless, largely having to depend on these strangers to save your future.

But then you get the offer for martial arts training – you can learn to fight back.  Where you have been made powerless, you can reclaim power.

As you go deeper in the rabbit hole, you learn more truths – you have a strange power, the enemy is somehow connected to your lost mother, your very DNA has bene tampered with, your fate altered for someone else’s benefit before you could even walk.

You get your father back – he's mutated again.  You cure him – he's lost to an invasion.

You can’t do anything about it.

You find out the real truth of how the Kraang stole your mother from you.  More ways you never had control of your life, your fate – how everything about you was manufactured, out of your control.

You keep trying to get stronger.

And yet, despite your best efforts, you keep getting left behind.  This entire situation has to deal with you: your life, your father, your history – but they keep saying: you can’t keep up.  Your best is not enough

Even when you finally graduate, you’re met with reminders of how much further there’s left to go.  You’re met with enemies who are better than you, who you can’t defeat.

You keep trying to get stronger but it’s never enough.

…hey, The Power Inside Her is making more sense now, isn’t it?

((Aren’t you tired of being nice?  Don’t you want to go ape shit?))

Even the trope that she occasionally touches on – which generally annoys me – of “character who is clearly unqualified tries to force their way into the mission” gets a different view to it, because it’s not about a generic “want to be included” or “but I am good” (you are not).  It’s... it’s this tension of “my agency keeps getting stolen from me, so I’m resisting when people tell me no to something that will let me get it back”.

Now, to be clear, I don’t think this connection was well executed – and I’m extremely skeptical whether it was even intentional, but you can make the connections if you want to, and isn’t it interesting?

Where could we go with this?

This is the extrapolating section, and is admittedly just a fun thought experiment for me to indulge myself with – but if the story were to take this direction more explicitly, what could you do with it?

First off, to make anything work, you need to let the POV sit with April and her grief occasionally.  Show her away from the turtles, how she’s handling the change in her living situation, and also how losing her Mom young affected her/is currently impacting her.

To adapt the story we already have, I think you could lean into her not being personally invested in the turtles early on – her focus is on getting her father and her life back.  It’s not that she dislikes them, it’s just her headspace isn’t in the “make friends” mindset – they're co-workers or team-mates, not real friends.

(Of course, that’s not going to hold up, long-term.  Genuine affection for them starts slipping in when she’s not looking – but it’s always competing with her focus on her dad, and will frequently lose to it.)

I think you could – probably mostly in season 1 – make some interesting tension between her acting with a sort of professional distance, versus the turtles (maybe minus Raph?  He was always the most skeptical of humans) wanting to make a friend for the first time.  You’d have to actually dedicate time in the episodes for relationship writing rather than just the plot, but it could be done!

Then, the period where she splits from the turtles at the beginning of season two could be a really make-or-break moment of clarity.  Her (mostly subconscious!) view of “turtles as tool to regain what she cares about” vs the honest affection for them that snuck up on her.  Grappling with the way her anger is complex and misplaced – she's angry this keeps happening, that she’s involved with this at all – angry because – even if she can’t put this into words – the turtles were supposed to be the thing that makes this better and now they made it worse.

Again, you need the camera to be on April more for this to pan out in any kind of sympathetic way!  Show the empty spaces where her Dad should be once more, show her thinking about/instinctively reaching out for the turtles for little social things, but then stumbling over it.  You gotta show how she’s feeling about the separation and not make it all about Donnie.

So when she comes back it’s a firm choice on her part to move past (a part of) her issues – and yes, you can still have Casey Jones be the one to hit her over the head with this emotional revelation, I liked their interactions in that episode.

Jumping tracks, this interpretation is also a big part of why I think she should have been positioned as closer to Leo, rather than Donnie (apart from just giving her some space from the love triangle).

Of the turtles, Leo is the most invested in The Plot – and April is obviously personally invested in the Kraang side of it.

Beyond that, April shows investment in getting better as a fighter.  Who else values improving their martial arts?  That’s right, Leo.  And April’s quitter than Casey, enough that I think she’d be interested in discussing some of the more philosophical parts of it that Leo likes, you know?  What it means to be a ninja, or whatever.

Under this paradigm, I think they both would exhibit a.... a demeanor of responsibility?  Feeling the weight of importance of dedicating yourself to getting better?  But their underlying reasons are a bit different.

Leo has the burden of being a leader – and the tension he feels with the weight of it, wanting to be able to let loose, to do something just for him. ((Not to mention living up to Splinter’s expectations.))

April is desperate to get her agency her father back.  In this circumstance it would have this feeling of... if she’s just strong enough, she can fix it all.  She can prevent it from happening again.  She can control her life.  Even when she moves past the subconscious “the turtles are supposed to fix it”, it instead could move on to an equally subconscious, “if I’m strong enough it will fix this”.

And – okay go with me here – I think this has April showing vaguely Leo-esque behavior, with a vaguely Raph-esque reason.  And that tension/dynamic could be fascinating.

I haven’t really seen a lot of talk about April being angry – other than I think I’ve seen some bashing takes of her being “bitchy” in the worst sense – but.. she kind of is, isn’t she?  Just a bit?  And with this interpretation you take it and let it run deep underneath it all.

She is angry and doesn’t realize the depths of it.  She is hanging all her hopes on martial arts giving her control back over her life and doesn’t realize how desperate she is for it.

With that, you could do some really interesting things of having her be close with Leo, have him think he understands her... but as she begins to crack, and everything she’s been repressing starts spilling out, have Raph start recognizing parts of himself in her, gaining understanding of her while Leo is still floundering.

I think it would add some texture and push growth for all three characters!

...and, -sigh-, if we’re going to talk about the love triangle.  You could look at the mess with “the boys fighting over her and making moves in uncomfortable ways” (she can’t control them, its confining, she needs the turtles to like her early on) for some thematic relevance – perhaps with a hint of “trying to gain back control, she begins to try and manipulate/control their reactions/affections”?  Not particularly healthy, mind you, but it could be done to make it more of a clusterfuck all around.

But honestly if it has to be here, I would prefer for it to just affect Donnie’s development and be more of a background thing to April while she focuses on all the above aspects.  Her biggest actions would be just trying to dodge it all, until she shuts it down for good, given she seems generally uninterested.

So, there’s my emotional conspiracy board on April O’Niel.  Obviously with this level of interpretation (and blatant re-writing) it’s a subjective, YMMV type thing, but I think the groundwork is there. 

And it could have been so good.

[bibones]

BiBones' Star Trek Book Ranking

Work in progress - I'm going to rank the Star Trek novels that I've read in order of preference, and (when I get the time) write short, super informal reviews backing up their placement on the list!

I'll pin this post and edit it as I continue to read through the books I've collected so far.

Currently Reading: Ice Trap - L.A. Graf

Doctor's Orders - Diane Duane

Shell Game - Melissa Crandall

Dreams of the Raven - Carmen Carter

The Vulcan Academy Murders - Jean Lorrah

This is where I'd put my book reviews... If I had any!

Dreams of the Raven:

Doctor's Orders:

Shell Game:

The Vulcan Academy Murders: daniel corrigan sucks and this book would be much more enjoyable if he didn't waste so much paper with his inclusion. any book can be improved with the addition of more mccoy, and this one is no exception - however the scene with sarek and mccoy discussing how sarek met amanda was so sweet it almost makes up for the lack of mccoy elsewhere, and i like his little heroic detective moment when he realises something's amiss and saves kirk. spock's gay but what else is new. kirk loses braincells because of a pretty woman, again, what else is new. the murderer was pretty obvious - to the point of sometimes being frustrating. also deeply uncomfortable with how often women are referred to as 'belonging' to men. excellent father-son bonding with spock and sarek, easily my favourite part of the whole story. i could've read 278 pages solely of spock and sarek interacting and considered it a worthy use of my free time. definitely worth a read, but by golly. who let corrigan take up so many pages.

[toptophat]

Top Hat's thoughts on the FNAF movie (Spoilers)

I thoroughly enjoyed it! Smiled throughout the whole thing

As a FNAF fan, seeing some key moments from the games as well as acknowledging the fandom (e.g Game theory's MatPat and The Living Tombstone's iconic song at the credits) made my jaw drop

FNAF veterans such as Dawko enjoyed it so that made me optimistic

The animatronics were replicated perfectly and the entire set for the restaurant is just too beautiful

Scenes such as the break-in, while not exactly scary, were still intense enough to keep me invested

Unpopular opinion - I kinda liked the pillow fort scene, it was cheesy but it could be seen as the animatronics trying to gain Abby's trust to lure her to be stuffed into a suit. Also I'm jealous, i wanna make a pillow fort with them 😭

And here's where I'll address (some of) the main critiques people gave to the movie (references: anything in the media that would link to this in a way)

"The movie wasn't scary at all, it should've been gory"

Yeah, I agree, even though I got shocked a couple of times (like the balloon boy gag) it wasn't really terrifying

But honestly, after watching countless "playthroughs" as a kid, you start to realise... The games were never that scary in the first place

To be honest, the only thing scary about it was actually some areas in the fandom (you know who you are..)

I'm aware that FNAF was never for kids, no matter how many elsagate vids were made on it. So it would make sense for it to have blood and gore. It definitely would've made scenes like the spring lock scene more traumatising to look back at

You know what else was expected to be more adult oriented? Cuphead's Netflix adaptation. While I understand that both of these beloved franchises could've been adapted to be more adult, it can also be noted that the Cuphead show is actually accepted by the fandom as while it did have a rocky start with S1, it showed that the writers were testing the waters to try something new, and by S2, they had a better idea of what they wanted, and a lot of people fell in love with it. While it would've definitely been cool to see more gore, it wouldn't improve the movie automatically

"The movie doesn't follow the original lore"

While, yes, it would've been cool to see all theories confirmed by Scott himself during the film, it's also good to remember this: they're called "adaptations" for a reason

Many popular franchises, when adapted to the big/small screen can experience changes in the known story and lore as a way to bring this fresh new start and perspective, they never aim to continue or tell the story again when it wasn't necessary in the first place (*cough cough* Lion King 2019). Last time I checked: Luigi wasn't the one who gets kidnapped by Bowser (SMB23), Cuphead never lost the right to his soul due to a carnival game (TCS), The Echidnas never had beef with freaking owls over the master emerald (The Sonic movies)

Let's be honest here, Scott may have made FNAF, but all the popular fan theories wrote the story, so everything is kinda messy. Maybe this was Scott's chance to rewrite everything, to start over and stray away from the messy lore that others made, MatPat seemed to be cool with it, he was even in the damn movie!

While, there have been times when repeating the same story makes it stale and repetitive (Disney), Changing important elements of the story (Also Disney) can make it unfaithful and pointless, so I understand that.

The changes that were made in this movie were interesting, making Vanessa, Afton's daughter could add more impact on the whole Vanny thing as she's been around this horrible man her whole life. Not making Mike, Abby and Garrett, Afton's children doesn't really deepen the personal connection and conflict between Mike and Afton so it'll be interesting to see how that one goes especially with Circus Baby now that Abby has no real connection to Afton other than that one encounter

Also I heard from one review that the movies take more inspiration from the books, but I don't have enough knowledge on the books to elaborate on that argument

Unless there's some weird twist, which is highly unlikely, I'd love to see how they develop these newly established dynamics if there are sequels being planned (pls make more, I need to see how this goes)

Besides, like I said, often, the first movies, seasons etc are there to experiment, it has the potential to improve in each new installment. For example, JJBA, it took until around parts 3-4 for Araki to have a better idea of what he wanted it to be.

Conclusion

That's about all I really have to say. I understand that many had high expectations going in and, who wouldn't? It shows we value ourselves and that we want to experience things that are worth our time. People are not obligated to love everything and don't have to agree with everything I said. I personally found the movie to be enjoyable and worth my time, and, while i know it lacked in some aspects, who knows?, as it progresses, opinions could change and if we get more of the revamped FNAF, then, we could see if it changed for the better or for the worse. And while first impressions do matter, it won't always be the same impression moving forward (for people who liked and didn't like the movie)

Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk!

[dwtsfun]

Dancing with the Stars Season 33 Week 7: Something's Gotta Give

So Jenn was eliminated and I honestly was not shocked. She was the most obvious choice for elimination last week, even with the overscoring of 4 couples. She had her best dance of the season though, so it was a good note for them to go out on. Now before I get into anyone else, I need to vent a bit about the mess that we dealt with last week.

The scoring was atrocious. I am still frustrated by it. Let me tell you why. Ilona came out and while she gave a respectable routine, there were some issues. A 24 was a normal score and definitely deserved. But when you look at Dwight, Joey and Danny's dances and how CAI gave them all 10s (and Bruno giving Joey a 10 as well) while they all had OBVIOUS technical issues, it makes it seem like Ilona was horrible while they all completely knocked it out of the park. And while they did well, they were closer to Ilona in terms of execution than the judges made it seem.

So you think that's it, right? That it can't get any worse? Well, we get to Chandler's dance and it was perfect. You couldn't see a mistake under a microscope. And yet CAI tells her that she can't give her a perfect score because it has more criteria than contemporary and the Argentine tango. What that means? None of us know. She doesn't even know. It's also bull because the Argentine tango has quite a bit of criteria in order to be good and she KNOWS how to properly judge a contemporary dance. And when questioned by Chandler on what she can do to improve (because this is maybe the 4th week that she hasn't gotten an actual critique from her), instead of answering, she hid.

So here's where I'm at. We cannot play these foolish games on this show. Not with scoring. This is how you get dumb results. This is how someone like Tinashe or Demarcus gets eliminated early. This is how you get someone like a Joe Amabile getting 5th and a Bobby Bones winning the whole thing. Is anyone this season like those two? No. BUT, there was a legit chance that we could've lost Ilona or Chandler prematurely. Heck, we still can lose them. Y'all remember how Nastia and Simone were both unjustly eliminated in the semis on their respective seasons? That's because the judges kept zeroing in on complete nonissues in their dances (the same exact thing they're zeroing in on for Chandler). After a while, GP starts to believe it and they vote that way too. I refuse to let them do this and then continue to blame us for wonky results when it's on them! The judges shoulder the vast majority of the blame when those things happen. Yeah, the viewers have blame too. But when the judges' scores count for 50% of the overall total, they have to be more responsible with this. I'm sick of them just doing what tf ever, just like CAI basically admitted to last week. Dwight was out of sync at points. Danny was hunched over and his footwork needed a lot of work. Joey also had footwork issues and his lifts were kinda rough. Jenn was probably the cleanest of them all, but there was one part that was kind of messy toward the end. We need to call things out across the board.

So where does that leave us? Simply put, we need a 4th judge on the panel that can keep everyone in check. Bruno is not that cuz he has his moments too. Derek clearly can't be that person and he be on some bs too. We need someone else that is going to force the judges to respect the integrity of the competition and the dances. Things like this can quickly turn folks away from this show. I've been watching for almost 20 years and I damn near gave up on the season and probably the show at the moment CAI whipped out a 9 for Chandler after giving out 4 undeserved 10s while also acknowledging they were undeserved and also letting us know she had no real reason to not give Chandler a 10. You see how stupid that looks? It felt stupid for me to type that out.

Listen, I sound like a broken record at this point. But the scoring has to be better and it has to be consistent. I'm more mad this week because this was the most egregious occurrence that I have ever seen. You don't get that together, you kill your show. Conrad, come here. Get your talent together. Y'all flying a little too close to the sun right now.

That's all that I have. I pretty much gave my thoughts on each dance in this rant, so I won't do too much more. I'll just say that Stephen had a great night and I'm glad he got a moment to have a really great dance.

My Scores

1 Chandler and Brandon- 30 2 Stephen and Rylee- 28 3 Jenn and Sasha- 27 4 Dwight and Daniella- 26 5 Joey and Jenna- 25 6 Ilona and Alan- 24 = Danny and Witney- 24

[satanstrousers]

A (mostly) Spoiler Free Veilguard Review! I did my best to avoid too many specifics, but also Read More for people who want to know nothing at all.

First, thoughts on all the companions:

Harding - Kind of a surprise to see when she was announced but I really liked her! They built out her story in a really fun way, I romanced her as a dwarf and her story is perfect for that.

Neve - Someone really cooked with the concept of Neve Gallus, but she as a character didn't really grow on me until the last act. Also her hat is stupid in a way that I just can't get over.

Bellara - I'm not gonna lie, I almost forgot to include her on this list. She's incredibly sweet, but I found myself falling asleep during her story. Super basic, super boring, but I saw that based on some decisions she can really grow in the last act, so maybe a second playthrough will have me see her in a kinder light.

Lucanis - What if we took Ezio Auditore and made him an awkward short king wife guy with a special interest in knives and coffee? Super fun, but I did traumatize him a little early on. :/

Emmrich - Undefeated. Far and away the best character Dragon Age has ever come up with and it's not even close. Manfred sweep.

Davrin - Listen, I love Griffons as much as the next guy, but Davrin was not an instant favorite. They rely a lot on Assan to carry his story at the beginning slow-play a lot of the sweeter parts until halfway, and even after I think there was way more that they could've explored with him (unfortunately a pretty consistent theme with DA characters). I did enjoy him in the second half, but I did him dirty, so I'm hoping the next time is a little better.

Taash - Genuinely would be the favorite if Emmrich wasn't around. Two character beats that have a common theme of accepting yourself, I thought it was very beautifully done and something I'm sure many people playing will relate to. Taash is like opposite-Karlach personality-wise and I mean that in the most affectionate way to both characters.

Ok spoiler free Plot:

Solas is a motherfucker in ways previously thought unachievable by one man, and the game knows it.

Seriously though, the best part of this game is Solas. Truly I can't remember the last time a video game made me hate someone as much as I hate Solas, and this game knows it. If you hated this dude in the first game, and you felt like things went a little unresolved, Veilguard has got you covered. If you hate him, you'll get to show it, and if you love him........ Well I hope you guys have a very happy life together far away from us.

Overall the story is... Fine? Its basically 70 hours of waiting to tell a couple gods to go fuck themselves. There's a lot of really fun moments and beats, but the connective tissue is the same as its always been in Bioware games.

Overall, combat and UI is a definite improvement over Inquisition but god I should hope so after 10 years. Dialog is pretty impressive and definitely made me feel by the end that the members of the Veilguard were actually friends. The pacing.... Is terrible. You're either doing nonsense side missions and fighting the same enemy 100 times, or blasting through the story at breakneck speed. They managed to do a pretty good job with returning characters, but if you're not HEAVILY invested in the series the moments where *insert character from previous game* appears feel like they're waiting for an applause break.

Final Review:

8/10 if you're a longtime Dragon Age fan

6/10 if you're just jumping in (which is insane this series is fully inaccessible if you haven't at least played Inquisition.)

[asteralley]

finished playing metaphor (technically not yet since I'm in the middle of the epilogue. but I'm bascially done) and I have a lot of positive thoughts about it 😌 (spoilers under the cut)

everybody's said this before but it has all of the charms the persona series captured me with and cut down a lot of the fat and issues I had previously. I really preferred not having romance options this time around so no forced moments were made with the protag and the female party members. (besides eupha but they were cute so I'm biased for them)

on the flip side, I was really disappointed with how they handled the final festival scene in eht ria where you could choose one party member to hang out with. for the female party members, when they ask what wish protag made he could answer basically with "world peace", "safety of our friends", or "for you" but when I did the event with strohl, the last option was replaced with "I forgot to make a wish". and junah also joins the scene at the very end even though she doesn't in the other scenes? like it just really felt biased against strohl in that scene.

on a more positive note, the ui and ost really brought everything to life! atlus really sticking with what they do best hehe

I really liked the reveal with more's identity as well. it tied up everything nicely 😌

fidelio's death was the first time a video game actually made me cry lol. I'm always weak to sibling relationships

the game is very forgiving with the time management aspect, which I appreciate so very much. I had like 10 days of free time after I maxed out all social stats, follower bonds, and finished all the side quests. it was amazing.

a personal nitpick I have is the in-game dictionary not being alphabetized? the contents are separated by category but they could definitely improve the organization.

also, I wish there could've been cosmetic outfits whenever you go in a dungeon. I know there's the dlc outfits but. im not paying money for that yknow.

I loved exploring each city and how the little npc side stories developed! I got like 107 hours playing the game and a lot of that was from walking around.

I hope atlus continues the trend of having a talking protagonist in the persona series! it was really refreshing, seeing him actually get a sprite. if atlus wants to continue having a silent protagonist, then I feel like the direction they went with in metaphor is a good step.

regarding my thoughts on will as a protagonist, he's pretty good! definitely one of my favorite atlus protags. I eventually came to love his design and his little mannerism of adjusting his collar was cute

in summary: metaphor was a really fun game to play and the writing was amazing 🫶 if they ever release a figure of will I'm pre-ordering that instantly

[bellhopping]

merry christmas fellas, here's my little summary of art

Generally I'd say I've improved a lot throughout this year. Got a proper drawing tablet, switched drawing programs, finally begun working on using more then one type of brush... it's certainly been journey! A journey with many ups and downs, but one I am glad I went on anyhow.

Under the cut is individual uploads of every piece of art in this image, alongside a writeups about their creation. Cheers!

[1/25/23, Medibang Paint]

Starting off with a pretty alright one, drew this to commerate the release of a game I'd been interested in for the past 4 or 5 years. I think it could use some tweaks, but for something drawn in mobile medibang I'm still pretty proud of it.

[N/A, N/A]

This is where my february drawing would go... IF I HAD ONE !!!

I did not draw much digitally in February, on account of my tablet randomly breaking right at the start of the month. I did draw some stuff traditionally, but I don't feel like fishing it out at this moment lol

[3/31/23, Krita]

One of my first proper drawings in krita, and of a character I should really draw more of. This was made for trans day of visibility & comes with a trans pride palette to boot, though I ended up choosing the normal palette since the other one kind of sucks. Also could've done better on the posing, but I was still getting used to the ins & outs of drawing tablet usage so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[4/22/23]

Drawing I made for earth day, honestly a solid contender for best thing I've drawn all year. I did pretty good on the pose, still dig the background a fair bit, & overall think the piece came out damn cool!

[5/12/23, Krita]

An expirement with line thickness, featuring one of my favorite ocs. Despite it's roughness you can tell I had gotten a hang of Krita's core functions by now.

[6/17/23, Krita]

Cover art for the prolouge of CAT-Astrophe Comic, the webcomic my brother & I have been working on. Overall been really happy with my work on the comic so far, I've slowly but surely been getting better at each part of the process and am still making good progress on pages n such ^^

[7/9/23, Krita]

Fanart of a character from a game, drawn for my pal Rinbin after they bought me Rain World. This single handedly inspired me to draw more robots, definitely one thing I 100% intend to follow up on next year.

[8/1/23, MS Paint]

Drawn based off of someone elses post, I don't remember what it was really. Honestly still really damn proud of everything in this!!!

[9/7/23, Krita]

Drew some snakes/snake adjacent pokemon for snektember. I'd say this is around the point where I "mastered" krita, by this point I actively knew how to use a majority of featues & had even begun downloading outside brushes.

[10/20/23, Krita]

Overhaul of a character I made & barely used in 2022, her name is now Olive. I based the whole squidog thing off of something in a dream.

[11/26/23, MS Paint]

Fanart of a webcomic I really fucking like !!!!! Not much more to say I just really dig this one, fucking love drawing in MS Paint.

[12/20/23, Krita]

And, as if to repeat last year, I end this one with a DreamSide main cast image!

Really proud of how much all of my designs have improved throughout the year, from the small tweaks to gigantic overhauls! I finally feel ready to take the next step forward, so to speak.

And that's everything! Thank you all for your time, and accompanying me on this journey. It was certainly a rough one in many aspects, but every year is rough for me so I've gotten used to it. See you all later :>

[translucio]

ok heres my veilguard thoughts so far. pretty minor spoilers below cut

char creator and visuals

character creator is indeed pretty amazing, probably the best character creator i have ever experienced. i do have some gripes with it but they are minor

qunari don't look TERRIBLE, the 5head can be mitigated, but i do still wish there were more options for horn bases and hair. it's true that after looking at them for a long time you become a little desensitized to it but i still think they could've done better.

THAT SAID. there are a lot of different horn options which i appreciate

the hair is hands down the best hair ive seen in a video game i think. certainly the best curly and afrotextured hair in a game. they put in the work to make it good and it shows. for the first time i have been able to make a character with the same hair texture as me, that looks GREAT and moves beautifully. there was a moment when i was creating my character where i went "wait, that literally looks just like me" and i have NEVER had that in a video game before. props to bioware for that for sure. they even have different beard textures!

the only minor nitpick i have other than wanting more hair options for qunari is that i wish you could add grey hairs for a salt and pepper look, like you can in elden ring or bg3. you might be able to do it but i couldn't find a way that looked like i wanted

gameplay

combat is fun. im feeling a Lot of god of war inspiration. i think they did a good job. their combat systems seem pretty deep. it is definitely more action rpg than strategy/tactics, but still requires some thinking - just quick thinking rather than planned out. i find this kind of action rpg combat more challenging than tactical combat Because it requires holding a lot of things in your head and maintaining a lot of awareness while also making quick decisions, as well as more input mastery. but i think it's challenging in a good way. certainly an improvement over inquisition's combat which i never found fun.

the level design is working for me so far! much better than inquisition. again feeling a lot of influence from god of war

characters, writing, story seem fine so far. im not far in but im having a good time. i have a lot of questions but im waiting to see if they get answered

there are a couple of gameplay things that i Haven't seen and im not sure if they're just not a part of this game, or if i just haven't gotten to them yet. namely...

it seems like you can't just talk to your companions outside of unique scripted scenes with them at specific story points? waiting to see if that's true or i just haven't gotten to it yet. but i liked being able to just drop in and choose topic(s) to dig in on with all the companions in previous bioware games.

similarly seems like you can't just talk to minor npcs as you explore the world. again waiting to see if that's actually true

[cheetahsprints]

Shadow is the coolest!!!

(Spoilers ahead)

STAGES: Eye candy, super fun and fluid.

My totally subjective judgement:

1. Chaos Island (It's a whole vibe and slightly scratches the part of brain that wishes Shadow could've appeared in Frontiers somehow. Ironically my least favorite full island in Frontiers... Speaking of, that was my first Sonic game besides TMOSTH so naturally I'm biased.)

2. Space Colony Ark (Currently all S-ranked, very fun and iconic location. After watching the demo players and waiting so long, finally being in it was so unreal.)

3. Sunset Heights (it's just delicious, I want to eat it)

4. Kingdom Valley (Utterly gorgeous and fun. Doom Surf parts were a little awkward, but don't take away from it much. I'm still salivating, so to speak.)

5. Radical Highway (I'm mad at this stage for skill checking me rn but... it's still the SA2 level remade... so cool. Expected to be hard as the last stage. The wonkiness caused by the game's story kinda takes away from the stage's original vibes for me though.)

6. Rail Canyon (Being at the bottom doesn't mean I don't love it, it just doesn't stand out as much as the others and... a lot of rail gaming as a given, y'know.)

BOSS FIGHTS: Biolizard and Mephiles are great, I'd rather not go through Metal Overlord again (I likely will), but visually it's cool. The gameplay of that was... not my forte. I didn't play '06 so the Mephiles fight in particular was a treat.

CONTROLS: Smooth!!! Doom Morph is kinda slippery sometimes, and I struggle with the sliding sections in Radical Highway. They're not Cyberspace, not Sonic Generations, but a secret third thing. (Somewhat an adaption of Overworld Frontiers controls to an evolution of Sonic Generations type level design? Something to that effect.)

CUT SCENES: My emotions grahh! I got no issues with the writing I can think of. I for one, enjoy the references, which were placed well imo. Overall, it's just really nice to see Shadow be an actual character.

GRAPHICS: Looks fine on the Switch, though I imagine it might be scaled down in places, I don't notice if anything is off. Didn't notice any stuttering, pop-in, or anything like that. I did have moments where the pause menu would freeze while I was scrolling through stages, not sure what that's about.

EXTRAS:

If you've played the game, White Space speaks for itself. It's great.

The 2D acts are fun wtf??? They flow so well? Sorcery! (Some parts of the 2D sections of Act 1 in Sonic Gens mess up my enjoyment of the stages.)

Missions are well done, as pretty much just tests of stage running skill, none of them making me want to punch the screen or just feel like I'm doing a chore as with several of the missions in Sonic Gens.

I don't like chasing music notes. [Redacted] those. The ones where you have to platform to a specific place where they're waiting for you are fine. Me problem though.

I sense if I try to improve my ranks I'm gonna have a love/hate relationship with the ranking system. I don't know yet if it's mostly based on time, but it certainly seems less generous than Sonic's.

Surprised at the lack of minibosses, it seemed like a fair number of people were expecting there to be. After playing most of the game... it makes sense though.

Next Session: Devil Doom...

[scarletsaphire]

Chapter 3 of Guide Dog, and the final chapter before the epilogue! This is my EI fic done with @skarlettskwrl and beta'd by @redactedgoose

It took two weeks before there was the first sign of improvement from Danny's core. 

Two weeks where Jazz didn't leave the forest, barely left the patch of moss that Danny laid on. The only time she did is when her throat started to hurt from thirst, or when she couldn't think past the growling of her stomach.

Even then, she never had to go far. The instinctual inner compass that had led her to this part of the woods would switch the moment she climbed to shaky legs, leading her to a stream running with cool, clear water, or to a thicket of berries, sweet and plentiful. The moment she had her fill, she'd trot back to the clearing and curl back up around Danny's core, as close as she could get without the cold hurting her.

She passed the time trying to turn back into herself. 

Danny had once explained what it felt like to switch between ghost and human, how he would reach for the vibration of his core or the beating of his heart. Jazz tried to replicate it, trying to detect something familiarly human inside her, but she felt nothing. Her heart still beat, of course, but it wasn't at the pace she was used to it beating. There was nothing hidden inside of her that felt different, and with nothing for her to reach towards, there was no real way for her to turn back- at least, not using that method.

Jazz tried other ways, of course, but all of them ended up just as successful as the first.

After these two weeks, Jazz felt a vibration. Danny’s core was just as still as ever, as was the ground and the trees and everything else, but she could feel it, like someone had struck a tuning fork deep inside of her. She didn't know what it meant, but she knew it was good. It was a sign that something had changed which was probably good. 

Jazz curled closer to Danny's core, and the vibrating inside of her increased.

She didn't get up for another week after that, thirst and hunger be damned.

At the end of that week, Danny's core was covered by a layer of ectoplasm, steadily getting thicker every hour. By the end of that day, it was about the size of a bowling ball. By that morning, small stubs had started growing out of it where arms and legs and a head would be. Another few hours and it had a near human silhouette, and by the time the moon was visible, enough features had regrown that Jazz would be able to recognize him as Danny.

Jazz regretted not getting something to drink or eat in the past few days, because she definitely couldn't go now. Danny could wake up at any moment now, and Jazz refused to let him wake up alone, in an unfamiliar place.

His chest started moving, so slowly at first Jazz didn't even notice it. She did notice when the nearly unbroken sound of the forest that she'd gotten so used to over the past couple weeks was broken by the sound of Danny's breathing, soon joined by the slow beating of his heart.

Danny was alive. Or at least as alive as he ever was.

He spoke before he opened his eyes. It wasn’t much, just Jazz’s name, mumbled and slurred until it was almost unintelligible, but not with the sound of someone missing their tongue and teeth. It was the same way he’d said Jazz’s name every morning since he started kindergarten, from the first time she had to wake him up.

Jazz had never heard Danny say it with anything resembling relief before, but she heard it in his voice now.

She couldn't reply, of course. Any sound she could've made right now would have just proven to Danny that something was wrong, and she felt she could explain it better through a weird game of charades, once he could see. Her silence didn't seem to deter him, since he reached out directly towards her. Jazz was just slightly out of his reach, and she made sure to stay that way.

She braced herself as Danny peeled back his eyes, waiting for the moment that he laid eyes on her. How would he react? What would he think? Danny was always a do first, ask questions later kind of kid; would he do the same thing here? She hoped not.

He turned her face to look at her, and Jazz couldn't hold the whimper back. She'd expected to see his normal bright blue, or maybe the blinding green that he had in his ghost form. Instead, he gazed at her with eyes a pale brown color, with no pupils or iris or whites to speak of. Jazz recognized it as the same color the silicone had been, the same thing that had been poured into his eyes. She couldn't see which way he was looking, but by the way he kept blinking, and the panicked look that crossed his features, she could tell he couldn't see.

"Jazz?" he said again, his voice much clearer now. "Something's wrong. What... what happened?"

Jazz wanted to do so many things. She wanted to hold Danny close, hug him tight like she had done when they were little and their parents' work in the lab got too loud and too scary for them. She wanted to tell him that it would be okay, that he was safe now. She wanted to lead him through the guided breathing techniques that he could never remember on his own. She wanted to lay next to them in the patch of moonlight, and look up at the stars as he talked about them as if they were magic.

She couldn't do any of that.

Danny lifted himself up to a sitting position. "I know you're there," Danny said. "I... I can feel you."

Jazz could hear him swallow.

"I can feel you like I can feel ghosts." The words were whispered, would've been too quiet for her to hear if she was still normal, still how she should be. "You- you're not-" Danny couldn't finish his sentence, and Jazz couldn't watch him keep struggling with it.

She rested her head in Danny's lap, trying to be as loud as she could without sounding too animalistic. Danny jumped at the sudden touch, but he started to relax slowly. 

His hand fell on her neck, the touch distant through the thick layers of fur, but she could feel it, and she could feel him in another way too.

Jazz had felt it before; a soft vibration that she could pinpoint to Danny, but was coming from inside of her. It wasn't quite as strong as it had been when he was just his core, but it was still there.

Danny slowly started to move his hand, burrowing it deeper into her fur. He let out a shaky breath. "Well, you're more alive than I am," he said with a joyless laugh. He traced over her ears, gently down her snout, figuring out her silhouette by touch. "A... dog?"

It was close enough for Jazz.

"So a wolf then," he corrected.

Jazz looked up sharply, causing Danny to jerk backwards and lose his balance. He fell back onto the ground with a thud. "Ow," he said simply.

Jazz whimpered an apology.

"Yeah, you better be sorry," Danny grumbled.

It was probably a coincidence, Jazz told herself. Danny could do a lot of things that made absolutely zero sense, but he'd never been able to read someone's mind before. At least, not without actually overshadowing her in some way, and he was clearly not doing that. It was just a coincidence, a lucky accident, that he seemed to be replying. They weren't hard leaps in logic to make.

"I don't think this is a me thing," Danny said. "Maybe it’s finally your turn to get hit with the worst of the Fenton luck."

Danny had quite literally just recovered from being dissected.

Danny winced. "Don't remind me."

That was probably a good idea.

"So. You're a wolf. I'm blind, and we're... Where are we?" Danny asked.

Jazz projected the idea of the forest clearing they were in at Danny. He didn't reply. Maybe it only worked with actual thoughts?

"If that question is directed at me, then probably. I didn't... detect anything before that."

That did make Jazz's life easier. She was never much of a visual person. She explained as best as she could how she had found the forest, and about the few weeks they'd sent there. It wasn't easy to focus enough to keep her thoughts from wandering, especially with how hungry and thirsty she was, but she managed.

Danny nodded slowly as she ended the story. "Gotcha. So, game plan. We get you something to eat, because I don't know if you're just thinking of being hungry or if I can actually hear your stomach growl, but either way that's probably important. Then we find Sam and Tucker."

Jazz didn't like that plan. It was almost guaranteed that someone had found- she cut that thought off quickly. She didn't know how much control she had over what Danny could and could not hear, but she wasn't going to make him listen to that so soon. Someone would probably be looking for them, and the first place they'd check would be Danny's best friends.

"Well, what do you think we should do then?"

Jazz paused. They couldn't stay here forever, and Danny certainly wasn't acting like he needed any more time to recover. It didn't look like they had many options.

"That's what I was thinking. Besides, I don't want to leave Sam and Tuck in the dark any longer than they already have been." Danny climbed to his feet, dusting dirt off of his jeans. "Get it, in the dark? Like I am? Cause I can't see?"

He started walking in the direction Jazz knew the berries had been before Jazz could think up a reply.

---

"You know what?" Tucker asked after Danny finished explaining. "I don't think this was on my bingo card."

"It definitely wasn't on mine," Sam said. "Though, I did have Jazz getting the next batch of ghost weirdness. This definitely counts."

"Oh, definitely," Danny agreed. "And I think it was on mine. One of you double check for me?"

Sam nodded, rifling around one of her drawers and pulling out a note card almost identical to the one she already had. "You did have captured by your parents," Sam said. "And dissection. Damn. I always forget just how bleak yours is."

"It is working for him," Tucker said, looking over Sam's shoulder. "That's double bingo for you, man."

"Hooray," Danny said, weakly lifting his arm in a fake cheer and letting it fall back down on Jazz, who was laying next to him. "Now that we've established I'm the undefeated bingo champion, we should probably figure everything out."

"Everything might be a hopeful estimate," Tucker said. "Everything hasn't been... great, recently."

"They found your parents-" Sam cut herself off. It was clear that they all knew what had happened to the Drs. Fenton, at least to some degree, but they'd all been dancing around the topic. Jazz was grateful for that. Sam started back up, slower this time. "They found your parents and have been looking for you-" she pointed at Danny "-and trying to call you." She pointed at Jazz.

"From what I've heard, most people assume you're as good as dead," Tucker said. "We had a memorial service for you at school and everything. Dash gave someone a wedgie in your honor. I'm sure he's expecting a thank you when you get back."

Danny tensed, sitting quiet for a minute. "I don't know if I'll have the chance to."

Tucker and Sam shared a look. "What do you mean?" she asked.

"I don't think it’s a good idea for me to go back," Danny said slowly. He picked up speed, continuing before anyone could say anything. "I've already been doing a terrible job at hiding my secret, we all know it. I don't think that these are going to help any." He knocked against the silicone in his eyes with his knuckle. "I'd have to answer so many questions- and I don't think I'd be able to get very far without Jazz anyway."

That was true. On their journey to Sam's house, Danny had kept his hand on Jazz's back, keeping them both invisible and using her as a guide. The couple times he'd let go of her, he'd promptly walked straight into a wall. Literally.

"I'm sure we could manage," Tucker said. "You can say you were kidnapped into the ghost zone or something. I'm sure they'll believe it."

"And if they do?" Danny said. "They'll keep a closer eye on me than ever. And what about the fact that I don't have any legal guardian right now? They'll try and get to Jazz, and realize that she's missing too, and then there will be even more questions."

"You do have a point," Sam agreed, nodding along. "But if you're not going to try and come back, what will you do?"

"To start with, shut down the portal."

The room fell into stunned silence.

It wasn't the first time they'd talked about shutting down the portal. 

Jazz herself had spent many nights wishing she could just shut it down and end all of the madness. It had just never been possible; it would take hours of preparation to redirect all the power, hours that they never had, especially when Maddie and Jack spent almost all their time down there. Even if they had the option, they'd never been sure what would happen to Danny or the ghosts who'd decided to stay peacefully in Amity Park.

It was Tucker who spoke first. "Are you sure that's a good idea?"

"Not at all," Danny said. "But it needs to be done. Just because I'm MIA doesn't mean that ghosts will stop coming through, and I'm clearly not coming back on the scene any time soon."

"But what about-"

"I'm shutting down the portal, whether you agree or not," Danny shut Tucker down before he could finish his thought. "It’s too dangerous. It's always been too dangerous. I'm proof enough of that."

"It's not going to be easy," Sam said. "The police are watching that place like a hawk, and the GIW are close behind, if marginally more subtle about it."

"Since when is anything in my half life easy?" Danny asked.

"And yet you insist on dragging us into it anyway," Tucker said with a shake of his head. His hand had already reached into his pocket, pulling out his PDA. "I have the surveillance patterns here, and can probably get the blueprints for the portal if they've saved them to their database."

"You guys are the best," Danny said with a weak smile. "We can do this. Right Jazz?"

Yes, yes they would. And Jazz would do everything in her power to make sure it went well.

[klowncrunch]

DIDNT ALLY SAY THEY UNBANISHED BUDDY AND BRENNAN. IGNORED IT? AM I TRIPPING.

Brennan Lee Mulligan please I don't want to see another truamatized child be the villain and killed in cathartic manner please do something else ANYTHING ELSE we could've had such a fun moment with Buddy creating his own god like Kristen did and getting his own path to choose but just. Idk

I'm so sorry I'm going to need like a week and a half to get like all of my thoughts together about this finale because it was so much, so little, and all in too short of a time.

But what I will say right now is, the way that dimension 20 is filmed. Is a detriment. It's very obvious a lot of story beats got rushed in. And while that's the beauty of D&D, this is a professional group of comedians. This isn't a home game or something like that, all of these people are professionally trained and have been in the industry for years. There should not be this many loose strings

Also, The sex jokes in fantasy high have got into a level where it's kind of just gotten weird. Like I could take it in sophomore year because it was funny. But fabian's virgin jokes in the last two episodes of the finale are weird to me. They somehow managed to have a helluva boss tone problem. Idk if I don't get it because I'm ace or I don't get it just cause I don't get it.

The way Lucy was brought back felt. Ultimately very shallow. And just. Idk?? So many things felt so loose and weird. Why are the rest of the ratgrinders allowed to improve while KLCK has to stay super dead? It just all feels so narratively disappointing.

Also, I'm not in the mood to argue, I might straight up just delete your comment if you try to yell about how I'm horribly wrong because it's just a show or it's just a bit or some shit. I don't care. This episode was a mixed bag of good and bad. I will obviously post about the good stuff. But I'm getting my hater out first. This is all my opinions.

[quirkle2]

nobody asked but im typing out all the gripes i have w totk . they're mostly nick-picky tho i loved this game. complaints first, praises after

single biggest gripe i have with totk is that the main selling point of the game, the sky, does not feel nearly as expansive as it should. i feel like there coulda been waayyy more islands up there, and Bigger ones, like the one u start out on. i want bigger pieces of land to explore, not these tiny little rocks. it feels i've seen everything there is to see the moment i land. as far as i remember, there's no biomes in the sky islands either, except for the great sky one. there's no differences, and many of the islands are copy-pasted. still fun to explore and still beautiful, but i was expecting... more

while i love the depths with all my heart and being down there is an Experience, i do think it could've been improved with a little bit of variety. it looks the same wherever u go, with the exception of the eldin region and a few other lavafalls sprinkled about. i think some different biomes woulda been so cool

no post-game. i don't even necessarily want a fully fleshed out post-game, i literally just want the game and the world to acknowledge i beat ganon instead of dumping me back in time moments before the fight i just started. this is a common thing, i know, but i Hate the practice

u can't pet th efuckign dogs

what the hell happened to ganon's face in that one scene . i thought we were past weirdly impossible expressions like that one midna grin. why did it happen again in the year 2023.

why did ganon's intro scene before the final fight pan to his feet so much

kinda predictable story, in the sense that zelda turned into the light dragon. saw it comin a mile away, but this is just me being bitchy the story itself is still very fulfilling and good. just predictable, which isn't necessarily a bad thing

okay that was 7 complaints 2 of which were memes now sit back as i ramble abt the good stuff. already made a thread abt the little stuff i liked now it's the bigish stuff

the music in some of the areas is genuine fucking art. some of my favorites are the wind temple theme and it's approach track, the construct factory theme, dragonhead island, the bits of the calamity ganon theme in this game's final boss track, frozen rito village,,, so many pieces of genuine skill and talent

the wind temple is absolutely one of the best experiences i've had in a video game, not because of the puzzle design, but the temple design. the moment where you look up into the clouds with tulin and you see a giant airship silhouette highlighted by lightning,, the approach track that plays when ur getting higher into the air had chills running down my spine. what a cool fucking concept for a temple

there's already a post somewhere on tumblr abt this, but i love that the citizens of hyrule don't follow the typical "every man for himself" apocalyptic mindset. they help each other, constantly. they seek out people to help in their spare time. they shelter each other and volunteer to do hard work for the sake of everybody else. i just think that's rly endearing n nice. a good message

the entire fuse and ultrahand mechanics are SUPER fun. so endlessly creative. and i love that a lot of the time, the game doesn't hold ur hand. it doesn't even Grab ur hand, it pushes u off the ledge to teach you how to fly. it Makes u get creative with ur solutions. it makes u feel stupid a Lot, but sometimes it makes u feel like an absolute genius (anybody else have trouble with that one rail shrine? anybody else just launch themselves across the pit and rail grind to skip the thing entirely?)

tulin.

the vibes of the thunderhead isles were Incredible. i went up there before the clouds cleared, and i gotta say, even if the game Wants u to go up there later in the story, exploring those islands while the storm is still active is an entirely different experience, and i recommend it. if ur reading this before you've finished this part, just don't go to the actual dragonhead island . leave that for when it prompts u, trust me.

ganon's dragon design ? fucking killer

a lot of the new armor pieces are really beautiful. the miner's set looks so fuckin stupid but the headpiece is cool. all the torso pieces for the elemental dragon sets r Gorgeous

loved that the first half of the final boss took place in the depths, and the second half took place in the sky. nintendo has always been good at linking game elements with stories and this is no exception imo

LOVED when ganon's health bar stretched super far to the right. that was so silly and intimidating

in the final fight, the way ganon would only be affected by flurry rushes at first and not any random attacks, but then random attacks were the only way to hit him later. i know it was scripted, but it genuinely made it feel like he was learning to fight link better

the theme of cycles and the circular nature of time throughout this game is wonderful, and how it's mirrored in the first/last settings of the game is genius. how the game starts in a cave, and then part of the ending is in that same cave. how link dived alone into that pond below the great sky island at the start, and then at the very end he dived For Zelda in that very same pond