#this cast is the best haha
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seeyounextmurder · 6 months ago
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The Kathy & Stella Solve A Murder! cast play “Kathy or Stella?”
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infinity-brain · 7 months ago
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See you later
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bigbrainbiology · 3 months ago
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chiLD WHERE ARE YOUR PARENTS WHY ARE YOU JUST WANDERING ALONE ON AN ACTIVE BATTLEFIELD
Also me when Ky Luc actually left her alone and didn't murder a child on screen!
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Anyways I'm drawing this kid she's mine now Kagami
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possiblyfunny · 6 months ago
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Oh look, another art piece-
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He a little confused, but he got the spirit
WOO! After getting confirmation on details about the character, I finally allowed myself to draw this! It was originally going to be a mini comic, but I just decided to draw the last panel with a lot more detail.
Blue belongs to @creatively-cosmic. They have an Ask Blog by the name of @themissingnumbers, so go check them out! Their content is great!
Aster belongs to me.
[Extras and whatnot below the cut!]
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[Extra Bonus!:
If you actually looked under the cut, you get to be blessed with a little nugget of information about Aster!
Aster doesn’t know jack about sexuality or gender identity (don’t worry, he’s learning!) But what he does know are the colors! Aster can tell you what colors or flag represents which sexuality/gender—but he couldn’t actually tell you about them. He doesn’t know what each of them mean.
Lots of people in his life and around his home have little desk flags or wear pins with different gender identities or sexuality’s on them, so he knows that it isn’t a bad thing. He thinks all the colors are pretty and unique and should be supported and celebrated!]
[Also, for those curious, here’s the symbolism for each flower. I wasn’t the most confident in drawing some of them, but I did my best to pick good ones!:
Blue Morning Glory: Encouragement, Power, Enduring Love
Pink Roses: Appreciation, Recognition, Happiness
White Daffodil: Rebirth, Good Fortune, Resilience.]
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personinthepalace · 1 year ago
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PPGW Closing Night Pre-Show Shenanigans!!
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Footage that I got from closing night! Everyone was out and about including people who usually don’t go out into the audience during the preshow - Sandra, Annie, and Max. All of the understudies were out as stagehands - Bren was in her Tessa outfit! Got to talk to Blair and Bartley who introduced himself as Rennis (Bartley covers for Dennis when Jon is out). Got to talk with Dennis and Max. Got yelled at by Chris. Trevor yelled at us about five times 😆. @icee-queens got pictures with Sandra while I got some with Jonathan!! (never going to recover from that haha). Truly the best night!!! Thank you so much to @icee-queens for joining me on this amazing adventure 💜
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iristial · 2 years ago
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Can badge...missed...
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cxldtyrant · 11 months ago
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Arcosian Headcanon: Clothing
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Due to their ability to adapt under any sort of climate, as well as the fact their genitals are sheathed and therefore not visible, the Arcosian people don't actually need to wear clothing. In fact, the concept of clothing was only just a recent discovery to Arcos via King Cold's influence once he married Queen Froza, as his various conquests brought the planet all kinds of trades and intrigued the nobility, and thereby impacting the masses who sought to emulate them.
Therefore, if you were to attend a gathering with the nobility at the palace, you would find everyone dressed in various foreign fashions. The more expensive and intricate the outfit is, the more the noble will brag about it. Especially if its a rarity, such as the fabrics or style came from a planet whose populace was just wiped out or naturally went extinct, now making it a one-of-a-kind. To the Arcosian nobles, accusations of cultural appropriation or fetishism be damned, foreign clothing shows status and luxury, and they will gladly partake in it.
Because of this cultural trend, the other castes will attempt to emulate the nobles by purchasing more common fabrics or stitching together their own outfits from materials of their home-world's flora and fauna. For the middle class, such as merchants and military, you can occasionally see them in clothing from trades or their army uniform to show off their status and wealth. But for the people in the lower caste (or those who are outright casteless) It is common to see them without clothing.
Of course, there are some who just outright refuse to partake in the trend out of rebellion. Whether because their xenophobia towards foreign species is that strong, a growing resentment towards the nobility for indulging in expensive goods and flaunting it at the other castes, or simple decency to not glorify the appropriation a subjected planet's culture, it all very much varies.
While Cooler himself is not above bringing new crafts and trades to Arcos, he doesn't particularly care to wear clothing and only does so when attending an important royal gathering at his father's request. He finds them particularly restricting, and with how the nobles use them, an utter waste of resources when it could be distributed across all of Arcos, and not just its upper castes. This makes him come across as something of an eccentric individual to the nobility, while the lower castes see him as a cultural rebel and look upon him much more favorably.
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nowwheresmynut · 2 years ago
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who's who in the goncharov au?
Ok this took a while to get to because i hadn't actually watched that movie in over a decade and i needed to rewatch.
Some of my choices required me to take some liberties with the plot of the movie, others were because my memory didn't help me much (I mean, MH would be a great ice pick joe, i now realize, but too late for him now) and others were just because i specifically wanted Viktor in an eyepatch.
More under the cut for possible Goncharov spoilers.
So,
Dimitri as Goncharov, for obvious reasons
Jayce as Mario Ambrosini, he initially works for Goncharov but i swear i thought they had a background story as student rivals, but maybe im mixing fanfic with reality or maybe i saw that in the DVD extras, not sure now
Viktor as Andrey Daddano, did i just do it for the eyepatch? Yes. But the gay subtext with Goncharov helped. But despite his past feelings for Goncharov, the endgame here is Mario x Andrey, i just think they're so compatible. SURE they only have like 2 scenes where they talk but that was enough for my shippy heart 😔💖
Singed as Ice Pick Joe, i feel like his curiosity means he's a man of science at heart, but a man of murder by trade, although he'd rather be helping keep them alive
Mel as Katya, obviously, not because of her relationship with Gonch, she can just get people to do whatever she wants. And the way she convinced Mario to help her in the movie reminded me of her relationship with Jayce. Plus, Katya with a gun made me want Mel with a gun
Heimer as Valery Mikhailov, for his past business association with Katya and the russian institute (i can't spell that name lmao sorry) that remind me of the Council. But also. Heimer with a gun is so funny.
I'm still not sure about Sofia though, if anyone has suggestions... based on the rule of It Would Look Cool as Heck, i'd say Sevika.
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mazojo · 2 years ago
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Guys I finished the supernatural aliens not aliens demogorgons dnd something something show !
#so many thots so many head empty i am quite literally dealing !!!#as you can see characters are ranked in a scale of whether they are Will Byers or not and as most of the cast is not will Byers they can't#be as cool important relevant funny and interesting as S tier rip#ALL JOKES ASIDE I AM CRYING SCREAMING AND THROWING UP ALL AT ONCE S4 FINALE HELLO???#(also no one get offended okay this is me being funny dont take me seriously)#but yes objectively Joyce is the best character in the show but Will makes me emo because he needs a hug and therapy and aha pls someone#help him and by someone I mean Mike Wheeler helLO STOP BEING DUMB REACT DO SOMETHING#every time mike says does or literally appears on my screen is constant go girl give us nothing it irks my blood#I still love them all but goD did they decide to make Mike annoying !#plot wise s1 is the best imo but emotionally devastating wise s4 because none of them made me cry except the last one in the lumax scene#loved s3 aesthetic tho and s2 Noah's acting is amazing#ship wise only canon ships I care about is Joyce and hopper & Lucas and max#(hopefully robin next season please ??? girlfriend???)#non canon obviously Will x mike soulmates and it hurts haha but also love me my max x el and steddie was also nice#I thought I would care about Eddie more and while I dont hate him or anything he was just kinda there and I wish he had more moments to shin#because that final scene with dustin was devastating#anyways sorry I needed to rant I have feelings#stranger things
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true-blue-sonic · 1 year ago
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I've been thinking of what kind of kid sidekick Silver could have in the vein of Sonic & Tails/Amy & Cream/Blaze & Marine and came to the conclusion that because of Silver's nature his kid partner would have to go in the opposite direction of the others and not only be less innocent than him but actually have a darker personality. Someone like Tails Nine or Anti-Miles that would contrast and challenge him but could also be positively influenced by him.
To be quite honest, for me Silver actually has the the vibes of the kid sidekick! He's older than Cream, Marine, and Tails, but with both Blaze and Espio you can see that they are the more mature and experienced people who counterbalance Silver's naivete and relative unknowingness about the world. But Silver having a kid sidekick himself would nicely shown how he's grown and developed, I think.
I must readily admit that I don't know a single thing about Prime, so I have no ideas what Tails Nine and Anti-Miles (or is the latter from Archie?) are like in terms of personality. The duos from your ask are characterised by the fact they have (what appears to be) contrasting personality traits: Sonic is the jumping-in-headfirst brawler whose intelligence is quite subtle, whereas Tails is the child prodigy whose intelligence rivals Eggman and can be quite visible. Amy is the eager heroine whereas Cream is much more polite and a bit on the sidelines. Blaze is the wise ruler of a country whereas Marine is the more brash and unknowing explorer*. So I guess for Silver and his own kid sidekick, the same would apply? Silver's a naive optimist who never gives up or backs down from a challenge, and who would do anything to help out the future or other people, no matter what it takes. So a sidekick of his then indeed would be more 'grounded in reality'/pessimistic, pointing out that that is not always how the world works and perhaps being a bit selfish?
...Hmm, except for that last part about selfishness, that honestly just kind of describes Blaze imo😅 But I can see Silver be a positive influence on his kid sidekick, because his optimism aside, Silver can be an absolutely brutal person once he's been crossed. Perhaps then the sidekick will see that even naive, wide-eyed idealist people have their boundaries, and are not afraid to stand up for what they believe is right? It's definitely interesting to think about, and I like the idea of Silver's positive traits rubbing off on another character!
*I love how I write this out, and for every character I can make a case there is more underneath the surface that what you would say at first glance. Sonic is also smart, Tails and Cream are also good fighters, Blaze's got quite the impatient temper on her, etc. It has little to do with the ask itself, but I adore how multi-faceted Sonic characters are!
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infinity-brain · 7 months ago
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*Showing people rather*
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isaacathom · 4 months ago
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also a fun detail about the alt timeline, right, is that these like. holes in the world, regions of cosmic instability, like an old minecraft chunk error, have been unleashed across the border.
in the prime timeline, this didnt happen because naielle (and marius!) joined up with naielle's fiancee/wife to kidnap her sister, who was the one experimenting with this shit. and then the whole subplot happens, yada yada.
so for the alternate timeline to have the unravelling world, that means mariela was not stopped.
but xistina, naielle's wife, was going to go on that mission withou naielle. naielle did not actually factor into her plan to kidnap mariela. because naielle showed up unannounced.
which mean xistina still would have landed on the shore that night to stop mariela.
what happened to her
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ominous-horse-noises · 6 months ago
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as someone who fell off of genshin for similar reasons (gameplay loop became meaningless busywork way too quickly, the story became too self-referential and unfocused, etc.), i also want to add that i feel like the writers wrote themselves into a corner from the start with the traveler.
the traveler's motivations are kind of counterintuitive to the interests of players. from lumine's (the twin i played) perspective, she wants as little interaction with this world as possible, and thus any story conflict she's drawn into has to be kind of against her will. sure, lumine can make connections with the characters, but genshin isnt really written well enough to express a lot of those relationships as organic and a meaningful obstacle to her objective of grabbing her twin and leaving teyvat. there are exceptions (xiao, for instance, has actually been built up to have a close bond with the traveler specifically), but overall, the writing strongly implies that if it wasnt useful for her to be helping others, she would have stopped by now.
full admission, i stopped playing soon after sumeru dropped- partly because i had gotten bored with the gameplay, and partly because a lot of the new mechanics and puzzles introduced were too dense to parse easily. however, from streamers i watch who've played up to fontaine, there seems to have been an overarching arc of the traveler's good nature being taken advantage of so often and for so long that they're starting to become embittered over having to lend a hand at all in all threads of the plot- because the writers keep having characters (usually the archons or similarly high ranking members in each nation's society) promise them progress and then go 'teehee guess i can't help you after all' in a cycle that feels a little like the writers taunting the players themselves.
now, i say this is counterintuitive to the players because the players WANT to linger in the world. they want to get to know all the characters, they want to explore every inch of the map for puzzles and chests, they want to do all the quests, they want to understand the lore. so now the story is caught between inventing more and more grating reasons why the traveler has to get involved with the narrative of the world against their will, the characters seem more and more like assholes for being able to provide nothing useful in return (bc as op accurately pinpointed, the writers keep holding their story cards tight to their chests), and the traveler becomes more exhausted and cynical about doing the things that the player is playing the game to do. its basically a running joke in the fandom at this point.
the difference between botw having a similar 'racing to save someone dear to the protagonist but getting involved in the minutiae of an open world' and genshin is that botw is VERY clear why link can't just grab a few overpowered allies and run straight for the castle. in genshin, because the story is so bloated and yet underdeveloped, the player doesn't get a real sense of the scope of the danger beyond cryptic allusion and other characters just saying so.
and the tragic thing is hoyo knows this is, objectively, a bad set up to tell a story like this from, because the first thing they did with the protagonist of honkai: star rail (i have complaints about the storytelling from the second world, but overall, the writing is head and shoulders above genshin by every metric) is give them no past and stick them on a crew of people who are literal do-gooders. amnesia is a cheap writing trick for player avatars, but it ends up working because the avatar is put with a group of people whose whole motivation is to travel and help others, which gives them an easy and plausible reason to get involved in conflicts of both A plot and C/D plot importance.
so. uh. in short, writing a protagonist whose express purpose is to get out of the world the entire game takes place in as soon as possible punishes players who want to try and be immersed in the story and their avatar's goals with endless frustration.
i kinda really wanna see a big ol vent/rant from you about genshin now lol. I would read an essay
I'm not sure you understand the insanity you just unlocked in me but ok
genshin impact is probably the clearest modern example i can think of of capitalism absolutely eviscerating a creative project. For context, I started playing genshin in 2021, just after the 1.4 update. it was venti's first rerun/the first windblume festival if that means something to you. and I really genuinely thought that it might have had something special. It was a gacha that didn't FEEL like a gacha, which was a huge feat to me.
it began with a very simple story pitch--you, the protagonist, are one of a set of twin siblings traveling through space. you come upon a seemingly unassuming world and your attempts to continue your journey are suddenly stopped by a mysterious, all-powerful figure. you are separated from your sibling and wake up alone on the shores of this planet you were attempting to leave together. throughout that opening cutscene and scattered through the world and your character's dialog there are implications that all is not as it seems, that your character is something unique to this world and that they possess powers and abilities that you've yet to unlock. You are told that you must travel the seven nations of this world in order to find your sibling, which is great--a simple, zelda-like objective which drives the player to explore the secondary narratives of the world. none of this is bad on the surface. in fact i'd argue it's pretty good. there's a ton that can be done with these story bones. even at launch the map and combat system were full of potential as well.
Note: for ease of reading, i'm going to label the different storylines of the game now. A-plot refers to the central objective of the entire game; the find-your-sibling plot and everything that encompasses, including the abyss order/dain, the heavenly principles, the fake sky, etc. B-plot refers to the secondary objective present in each new nation, usually meeting the archon and/or solving a problem for the archon. (A and B-plots will occasionally intersect.) C-plot refers to any story, location, or background information which remains in permanent gameplay but which isn't directly related to the A or B-plots, such as dragonspine, the chasm, enkanomiya, etc. D-plot refers to any story, location, or background information which is confined to limited-time events and does NOT remain in permanent gameplay, regardless of its connection or lack thereof to the A and B-plots, such as the golden apple archipelago, the infamous albedo/dragonspine event, the infamous kaeya/diluc event, etc. Lore as i will refer to it in this post refers to any information which is present in permanent gameplay but which is not directly told to the player within the A or B-plot story quests and objectives, including books, weapon, artifact, and item descriptions, world quest dialog and puzzles, etc.
So now we're in mid-2021, there are two nations' worth of B-plot story quests released in full, and we've run into our first problem, which is that the game isn't finished yet. I don't have any actual information about how the game was/is written, but based on what i've observed over the past few years, my best guess is that the A-plot has been fully written since the beginning, at least in some form. there were very early-game events and information pertaining to the A-plot that would take years to see any actual payoff in the main story quests (kaeya's origin story, the 1.3 scaramouche fake-sky drop, the flowers in lumine's hair, etc.) but those kinds of A-plot story easter eggs very quickly dropped off when the game absolutely EXPLODED during the pandemic.
this sudden burst in popularity was the true beginning of the end for genshin, i think, because suddenly they had a HUGE fanbase that desperately wanted more content faster than they could pump out new A-plot or even B-plot story quests. one of the most pervasive complaints about the game when I began playing in 2021 was that there was nothing to do between story quests. update 1.4 (which was the update I started playing at) was important in that it was the first time since genshin's release over a year before that players recieved any new A-plot, in the form of the archon quest We Will Be Reunited, also known as the quest with the most fucking misleading name of all time. you'll never guess what doesn't fucking happen during this quest. anyways. we were a year into gameplay, two nations out of seven released and a third on the not-so-distant horizon, and it seemed obvious that players were owed some sort of A-plot payoff. and that's very much what WWBR was advertised as, from the quest's name to the banners full of art of the twins staring wistfully at each other. The thing is, what i'm describing as A-plot payoff was actually. not really A-plot payoff at all. WWBR was the reveal that the protagonist's sibling was working with the abyss order, and that the abyss order was connected somehow to Khaenri'ah, which at this point casual players would only have known about from THAT QUEST and MAYBE kaeya's character descriptions if they were diligent enough to get him to friendship level 10 (which, btw there is no indication that you should do to get important context about the story of the game, because kaeya is a 4-star starter character and the only character in the entire game that actually has genuinely important story hidden in his character descriptions.) So what I'm calling A-plot payoff felt at the time a lot less like A-plot payoff than it did like an abyss sibling cameo in an attempt to satiate everyone who was begging for more story. We actually gained almost net 0 information. this is very quickly going to become a pattern.
As I've already alluded to, the motives behind this writing decision are transparently obvious. Genshin is a free gacha game which relies on a consistently active and engaged userbase to make its money. With fans getting restless about the lack of engaging story at the time and a new, very ambitious B-plot quest gearing up for release that would require major support from that fan base in order to remain profitable, the writers were backed into a corner. they HAD to throw the fans some sort of bone in order to keep them engaged with the A-plot, since it was originally pitched as the driving force for the story as a whole, but they were also clearly not at a stage of the writing process where it was prudent to give the player any REAL information about the A-plot. This is how we ended up with a 10-second abyss sibling cameo and an offhanded mention of Khaenri'ah, a nation whose plot-relevance was at that point still basically unknown.
The real problem is, WWBR worked. at least, it worked as intended at the time. It satiated story-focused fans in the interlude between B-plot nations, as hyv was gearing up to release inazuma, which required a lot of time in preparation. WWBR was followed almost immediately by the C-plot golden apple archipelago in 1.6, widely regarded as one of the better events of version 1. GAA was memorable especially because it was the first event that involved an entirely new, limited-time-only map, meaning the event had much more longevity than the standard events players were used to. This is, imo, most likely the update combination that led to the standard formula which hyv uses for its quests and events nowadays. the back-to-back release of WWBR and GAA satisfied both fans who wanted A-plot story AND silenced criticisms about the game lacking endgame playability, which at the time must have seemed like a goldmine to writers desperate for a solution to their content-to-fanbase ratio problem.
From here, genshin started following a standard method of release for their next three nations--inazuma, sumeru, and fontaine. the formula generally went as follows: one major version update (usually version x.0) containing a major map update which included all B-plot relevant locations in the new nation, and the first chapter of the B-plot story quest relevant to that nation. this would then be followed by 2-3 version updates which would each contain the next chapter in the nation's B-plot story quest, sequentially. After the nation's B-plot quest ended, during the downtime in which the next nation's story and map would be finalized, subsequent updates would be largely C-plot, and would contain minor expansions of the map to increase endgame playability via exploration and world quests. This is how we ended up with updates like the chasm, the several extra islands in inazuma, and the quite frankly ridiculously large sumeru map, as well as the offloaded maps like enkanomiya and the sea of bygone eras. with the possible exception of the chasm, none of these areas are A OR B-plot relevant. hyv has realized that artificially inflating the map makes their game technically more engaging during the downtime between nations. However, this comes at a price. While the scenery and set design of the game remains consistently beautiful, the actual, mechanical gameplay that populates that scenery very quickly became mind-numbingly boring if not borderline unplayable. While the 1.0 questlines were not perfect, there was at least an emphasis on the player actually DOING things. 1.0 B-plot quests would have you going to mini-dungeon temples and completing challenges which would acclimate you to the combat system while also serving narrative purpose. There were quests that required you to navigate open-world dungeons. Because your characters were lower-level, combat challenges that arose during these quests were CHALLENGES, rather than two-second buttonmashing segments. By the time we get to sumeru, though, both B-plot AND C-plot quests have become little more than moving your character from location to location and tapping through (usually unvoiced) dialog. there's no GAMEPLAY in the quests anymore, because gameplay isn't what makes money. What DOES make money is giving players 300 hidden chests to find in an open-world map segment, each of which gives them 1/80th of a gacha pull. And so the story suffers and the map gets bigger.
Along with the map expansions, downtime between nations usually also nets us one A-plot quest, usually involving the character dainslief, who was the driver of the initial WWBR quest. This is the second half of hyv's magical formula for keeping fans happy between major releases. the A-plot quests will, as a general rule, give players either very little new information or no new information at all, but will dress up the delivery in such a way that it ALMOST feels as though the protagonist has moved forward somehow. the most recent example of this writing style, the 4.7 quest bedtime story, amounts to about an hour and a half of gameplay and, while it DOES contain a segment in which the protagonist finally actually has a conversation with their sibling, that conversation literally begins with the line "I have so many questions, but for some reason I don't want to ask them right now," ensuring that the sibling will not actually be required to give away any plot-relevant information whatsoever, and the quest ends with the protagonist FORGETTING THAT THE CONVERSATION EVER HAPPENED IN THE FIRST PLACE.
As I think I mentioned before, the cardinal problem of genshin impact's writing is that fans want answers faster than the writers are prepared to give them. I don't doubt that there's a game bible or relevant equivalent somewhere within hyv which contains the explanations we are currently lacking in regards to the A-plot. the game is consistent enough in its storytelling for me to believe that this isn't all just being made up as we go along. But I'm also certain that a lot of the late-game A and B-plot that is planned (especially if the Khaenri'ah is truly planned to be the 8th nation of the game) hinges on the player knowing very little about the A-plot. this would be fine if genshin was a standard single-release video game that players could work through at their own pace, but it isn't. it's unfinished, and each nation in the game releases months to years after the last, leaving the writers to scramble to fill in the gameplay gaps and players struggling to remember plot-relevant information when it's brought up literal years after they last heard it mentioned. Not only does the time between updates leave players frustrated about the lack of A-plot, it makes the A-plot harder to understand when it is brought up, because the writers are required to throw in so much dense C and D-plot just to keep engagement high enough to make the game profitable in its downtime. we joke about the insane convolution of genshin's lore, but that is first and foremost a byproduct of its financial model. the game requires engaement to be profitable, and adding lore for players to look into drives up engagement. The fact that having so much story with so little plot relevance muddies the waters and makes the A and B-plot stories considerably harder to understand doesn't matter as long as money is being made.
I want to take a quick detour here to talk about the release of sumeru specifically, because this is when I really began to clock the fact that genshin was declining. on paper, racial sensitivity issues aside (Not that they're not important, but i'm doing this deep dive from a storytelling and game design point of view, nothing else. that's a whole can of worms i don't have time to get into here) sumeru was a really promising addition to the game. The new B-plot quest which was set to drop in 3.0 was highly anticipated for several reasons. Two fan-favorite characters (kaeya and scaramouche) were expected to play major roles, because of earlier C and B-plot quests, and much of the nation's scenery that was teased in trailers and promotional content appeared to tie into the A-plot. the most exciting draw about sumeru and version 3.0, though, was the major update to the combat system.
Arguably genshin impact's most interesting feature upon release was its combat system. The map was basically a botw clone at that point, and the story quests, while decently engaging, were rough around the edges to say the least. What genshin DID have going for it was a unique real-time combat system that rewarded strategy and quick thinking.
Genshin's combat system is elemental, and on release there were 6 elemental affiliations: anemo (wind), cryo (ice), pyro (fire), hydro (water), geo (rock), and electro (electricity.) in a sort of pokemon-like system, certain elements were weak to other ones, but more importantly, certain combinations of elements could drastically boost combat stats. Players got to construct four-slot teams of characters, each with an elemental affiliation and certain "skills" which would match their element, and you were encouraged to use the interactions of these elements to build teams. very quickly, a huge community formed dedicated to optimizing teams and tiering characters. People would even make a game out of building teams specifically to do high-level damage with "bad" characters or characters who weren't designed to be damage drivers (my 100k jean burst was an incredible moment fr.) this was, of course, also a picture-perfect driver for the gacha aspect of the game, which was how players obtained new characters.
Pre-3.0, combat was... well i won't say it was balanced, but there was no elemental reaction that had any MAJOR advantage over the others. when you actually ran the numbers, i believe vaporize was the best reaction in terms of damage output, with the best team being raiden national with kazuha for EM buffs. but a well-built freeze or melt team could do similar numbers, or even better numbers depending on your artifact rolls. (ayaka permafreeze you will always be my #1.) Despite a steady stream of new characters with each update, characters from the earliest version of the game like xingqiu and xiangling were still topping the charts in terms of usefulness and versatility in teambuilding. However, as early as 1.0, players had been teased that a major update to the combat system was planned. There was a seventh element, dendro (plants) which pre-3.0 only existed as an elemental affiliation for menial enemies. there were no playable dendro characters, and the only elemental reaction that existed relating to it was very low-level and not particularly useful in combat.
Originally, dendro was projected to be added to the combat system somewhere in version 2, but its release was delayed substantially, meaning it came out along with its affiliated nation, sumeru. And as soon as it came out, it basically broke the combat system. I assume that the scaling they ended up going with may have been out of fear that players would be hesitant to integrate a new element into their pre-established team builds, and thus they may have been worried about sales on their dendro character banners, and i assume that the fact that 3 elements are required to get the highest-level reaction was an attempt to make the meta more balanced in the face of that scaling, but, well... it didn't work. At this point, the genshin impact combat meta is basically "if you're not using hyperbloom what the fuck are you doing." there's basically no reaction in the game that comes close to it in terms of both damage and ease of use. you are not going to beat a hyperbloom team with anything other than a better-built hyperbloom team. combat is now very heavily skewed in the direction of dendro, meaning that if you DON'T want to use a dendro team, you're going to be doing significantly lower numbers. And since enemies are added with each update, post-3.0 combat becomes difficult and annoying if you don't have a hyperbloom team on-hand.
The major gripe i have with dendro isn't even the scaling, though. I mentioned offhand earlier that the 1.0 B-plot questline had a section which taught you the basics of the combat system via mini-dungeons. These mini-dungeons, of course, taught you the version of the system that existed pre-3.0, so there's no tutorial for dendro reactions. Rather than integrating the tutorial into the story and world like they did in their early quests, upon playing 3.0 for the first time players were given a popup that explained, very wordily, how dendro reactions worked. there was no opportunity to test these reactions in an environment without consequences--if you wanted to try them you'd have to remember the relevant information, build yourself a team, find an enemy to try them on, and just hope you got it right. This lack of integration is something i began to notice more and more with genshin as it progressed, especially in sumeru. where in mondstadt and liyue open-world puzzles would be explained to you by an npc or via environmental context clues, in sumeru you'd be stopped while exploring every two seconds by a popup explaining some puzzle or another which, of course, you wouldn't read, because you didn't want to do the puzzle right that minute anyway, and then by the time you DID want to do that puzzle you'd have no in-game way of figuring out how to do it. The puzzle popups may seem like a small thing, but it's one of the clearest examples in the game to me of the fact that the player experience is so clearly not being prioritized here. the game doesn't even TRY to be immersive anymore. they have no qualms about pulling you out of the story to read a paragraph about how the puzzle works. they don't care how your character, in-universe, is supposed to have acquired that information. they don't care why your character, in-universe, is doing the puzzle in the first place. because they know the reason YOU are doing the puzzle, which is to unlock a hidden chest that gives you 1/80th of a gacha pull.
That was not "a quick detour" was it lmfao. ok anyways. back to the story. Now i want to talk about D-plot, meaning limited event stories, and lore as i defined it earlier, meaning contextual details not present in quests or playable story. This is where i think genshin's story becomes completely inaccessible.
Already, we've covered the fact that in order to consume the very basic story, players have to be willing to wait years between A and B-plot quest releases, punctuated by irrelevant map expansions and interlude quests. I mentioned before that genshin's incompleteness is one of the major problems of its story. the fact that players have to wait years, remembering plot-relevant information that they have no way of knowing will even BE plot-relevant, for the payoff of these narratives is frustrating at best and actively malicious at worst. But in theory, there should be an obvious way to circumvent this. One could just wait until the game IS completely finished to play the whole thing. Sort of like buying a game in early access but waiting until it's actually finished to play it all the way through. that's theoretically possible. but, as i have been hammering home this whole time, genshin is a free game, and therefore genshin relies entirely on a consistently engaging fanbase in order to remain profitable. if genshin does not have a base of players who are willing to log in every day, or at the very least once every update, the game's financial model collapses on itself. therefore, genshin puts on limited-time events. this is a standard in gacha games, as a way to keep the fans consistently engaging. What is not standard, however, is the way that genshin uses these events as vessels for its story. about 19 out of 20 limited events in genshin impact will be useless menial bullshit with no effect on the story or really even the player aside from maybe making you fucking angry. 1 out of those 20, though, will be innocuously named, with nothing in the banner or event description to indicate that it's special in any way, but it will contain serious A or B-plot relevant information that exists nowhere else in the game. My personal favorite example is the infamous 1.3 scaramouche appearance, in which he showed up, told the protagonist that the sky was fake, and then immediately fucked off again. Scaramouche did not show up again until at least 2.0, and the fake sky wasn't so much as MENTIONED again until 3.2, almost TWO YEARS LATER. but there are others, such as the (almost equally infamous) albedo doppelganger event in which a major character's loyalties are called into question, or the event where major biographical information is revealed about kaeya, the only playable character with major known connections to the A-plot and Khaenri'ah. With all of these events, once the event period ends, the information contained within them vanishes from the game completely. there's no way to replay old events that you've missed, even sans rewards, so if you miss a plot-relevant event the ONLY way to catch up on that story is through word of mouth. again, this is a transparent way to keep genshin's userbase engaged during downtime between B-plot quests; if you don't log in and play every event, how will you know if you've missed something important? You might not be able to fully understand the future story if you miss out on the D-plot now!
The D-plot problem is something that I think could, in theory, be circumvented by dedicated record-keeping. if the wiki had anything resembling an easily accessible event database that marked story-relevant events and contained summaries or gameplay videos, at the very least you wouldn't have to fear being completely lost on the off chance that a random throwaway line in an event from fucking 1.3 becomes plot-relevant. but hyv obviously doesn't want that, because it undermines their financial model, and the sheer number of events and the amount of rerunning of irrelevant events they do makes the task of recording and categorizing them all daunting if not impossible.
Then, of course, there's lore. this is arguably what genshin is infamous for in certain circles of the internet. You know that unraveled video where bdg reads every book in skyrim? if you tried to do that with genshin the video would probably be about 10 hours long. and it's not just books; genshin hides (potentially) plot-relevant information in weapon and artifact descriptions, in random hidden world quests, in character bios... the list goes on. and 9 times out of 10, the information is essentially written in code. Plot-relevant characters will have multiple names, or the relevant information will refer to them as vaguely as possible, presumably to further the "mystery" and encourage theorizing among fans. but the sheer amount of information like this that exists within the game makes it all but impossible to determine what is plot-relevant and what isn't. For a topical example, the most recent A-plot quest bedtime story mentions the name Rhinedottir in connection with events in Khaenri'ah, suddenly making that name A-plot relevant. Rhinedottir is an alternate name for the character Gold, whose existence you would only have known of before this point if you'd unlocked and read the character Albedo's character bios. (Albedo is a limited-run character who hasn't been available since november 2022, btw.) the only other information about Rhinedottir permanently available in the game comes from the description of the weapon Festering Desire, which was only obtainable from a limited event back in 2020, anyway. So basically, if you wanted ANY context for that remark, you'd have to have been playing the game since AT LEAST 2022, AND you'd have to have taken the time to go over your weapon and character descriptions with a fine-toothed comb. keep in mind that as of right now (june 2024) there are 85 playable characters in this game, each with 10 unique unlockable character bio sections, and over 150 weapons, each with their own unique descriptions, not to mention over 50 artifact sets, each with 5 unique artifacts, which all have their own unique descriptions as well. there are also 51 different collections of books which contain written lore as well. the idea that any player could keep up with all this, or that anyone could even sift through it all to pick out the important things that they NEED to keep up with, is insane, especially when the game makes a point of withholding crucial plot information from its players within the A and B-plot quests. this amount of written lore only exists, again, to drive up engagement in the hopes of subsequently driving up profit. Even if the average player isn't reading and absorbing all this information, the fact that it's there coupled with the fact that the writers consistently refuse to reveal anything beyond surface-level A-plot information means that there's basically ENDLESS theory fodder. and THAT means that people will be posting their theories and talking with each other and getting into arguments. it means "genshin impact" trends on twitter. it means engagement, and engagement means money.
basically what it comes back to is that everything is so transparently money over player experience with this game. I think what we're witnessing with genshin is what i would call an end-stage gacha game--a gacha game that's gone on a little too long and gotten a little too popular, and so the veil has started to slip a little more than usual. Gachas work primarily because they operate by toeing the line between what is fun to play and what is a predatory mechanic. As long as the actual gameplay remains engaging and rewarding, players can ignore the unsavory business practices underneath. At this point, genshin has swerved too hard into the money-hungriness and is still hoping that they can use their old tried-and-true engagement farming methods to remain popular regardless. currently, it seems like those methods are still working, unfortunately. Like I said in the post that prompted this, i really can't wait for the hyv writer NDAs to expire 10 or so years down the line, because I can only imagine what an insane shitshow writing for this game must be. I want to see the tell-all articles. I want carnage.
That being said, I played genshin impact religiously from 2020 to 2023. I loved the game. Despite myself, I am still really, REALLY interested in the A-plot. I want to know what's going on with the protagonist and their sibling; where they came from, what happened to them, what the heavenly principles are, what role celestia plays in all of this. I want to know Kaeya's full backstory, what role Khaenri'ah plays in the overarching story, and what happened to it in the past. but I don't really have any faith that I ever will, because I know that as long as keeping their fans in the dark and stringing them along remains profitable, that's what hyv will continue to do.
Do I think genshin impact is unsalvagable? in its current state, yes. If I was given the ability to turn back time and convince a bunch of executives of the profitability of this venture, I would change almost nothing about the story of genshin and completely rework the mechanics of its release. I would make it a series of single-release self-contained games rather than a constantly-updating gacha. Each game would be one B-plot quest, or one nation, eight games in all, preferably released once every year. Removing the gacha mechanic, players would be given access to a certain pool of characters to build teams at the start of each game, and then periodically unlock new characters as the story progressed. for example, if you were playing the inazuma game, you'd start out with only your protag, and after progressing to a certain point in the story you'd get a pool of inazuma 4-stars to teambuild with freely. Then, as the story progressed and you met plot-relevant inazuman 5-stars you'd add them to your pool. I'd change basically nothing about the combat system except for a properly integrated introduction of dendro when it makes its appearance in sumeru. Once you completed the story in that nation, you could move onto the next game in the series if it was out, or if it wasn't, you could continue to explore the open world while waiting for the next release. Would this be as profitable as the gacha model? probably not, but what it WOULD do is allow for much more consistent pacing and writing, with the added bonus of not making your userbase feel like you'd shoot them in the head for their pocket change.
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suiana · 4 months ago
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yandere! prince who got cursed and became a statue for like hundreds of years. only the kiss of his soulmate will break the curse that got cast on him by a silly wizard.
enter, you.
innocent and silly you, walking through the forest (maybe trying to look for your next monster hookup) before bumping into this... this beautiful marble statue of some prince??? what? who even is he?? why is he here???
is this... your main character moment? where you kiss him and the two of you fall in love and- haha! that won't happen! you're just being delusional!
of course, being the silly specimen you are, you still kiss his lips without thinking much of it. i mean, you fucked some monsters before. what's a marble statue gonna do? he's hot, might as well right?
WRONG.
you shouldn't have done that because the second you kissed him this bright light came bursting from his chest and now you were being kissed back by this random oldie who's now supposedly human again.
"ah...ah... are you my soulmate? god you're beautiful-"
"dude i just wanted to fuck some monsters."
unfortunately, no more monster fucking for you :( because this geriatric prince is jealous as FUCK and will absolutely go batshit bonkers if you as much as suggest looking at someone else.
"lol, that drider looks kinda hot-"
"ahaha what drider? *cleaning blood from his sword*"
he's made himself a part of your life, without your consent by the way, and it's going to stay that way. no, he doesn't care if he's from centuries ago, you're his and he's yours. that much is certain to him.
so now you have a god of a prince hovering by your side 24/7. plus side is you get to see him act like a grandpa with all the new technology and lingo!
"my dear, what is... sk... skebeede? skibidi? how do i exit this app? ah, i want to take a picture, how do i- *breaks phone screen*"
he's trying his best :( just love him dearly, won't you?
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kadoodles-on-ao3 · 1 year ago
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Hello!! I took a longer break than I thought I would but now I'm back! :)
I hope to finally sit down and take the dang gpose pictures for my FFXIV crossover so I can share it all soon! For those who'd like to cosplay the squad in-game I'll be putting the glam lists (and any alt options for stuff that's lower level, non-mogstation, class neutral, etc) on Eorzea Collection, but if you're more interested in just looking at what I made and/or the crossover aspect like "ooh what ff jobs would they be??? if they actually did a crossover what races from 14 would they make them???", more pics with better outfits as well as my crossover-job writeups will be here on my blog (along with links to my Eorzea Collection posts)!
Also if you do play 14... I may have went ahead and made a couple alts based on the above and may have even made some text macros to type in chat voice line quotes from XC 1 during dungeons to make it like you're actually fighting alongside Shulk or Melia :) (and Egil too but he doesn't talk he grumpy... and has very few voice lines to work with in comparison lol). And you may also send me asks to meet up with either of them and talk to them and/or do dungeons/raids with them if you want! They are very baby, level/msq-wise, rn because I don't have much time to play them (and I'm nervous to rp at all least of all mid-dungeon lmao) but they exist!!! Shulk and Melia and Egil real omg
Completely unrelated to anything I've talked about ever at all whatsoever but my bf and I have been doing a Godzilla movie marathon the past month or so and (aside from them being very very fun to watch and I recommend you watch them if you're interested) I actually have a lot of thoughts about each one and the series as a whole, so I might post my reviews of them on here too! And perhaps make a tier list ranking them since that's what the kids are doing right? They still make those? (Also I think the number system we use for rating everything nowadays isn't super informative in terms of telling an audience if something is worth experiencing or not, lots of bad movies and games are fun because they're 3/10s, so instead of that I have little categories like "how often are the fights silly because you can really tell it's just guys in suits" or "does this film or does it not have a comic relief side character who is obsessed with one (1) singular thing in every scene and is genuinely really hilarious because that is a Thing a lot the Godzilla movies have for some reason and I love it so much" or "how much does this film tie into the original allegory/moral of the atomic bombings on Japan or is it just 'big monsters cool'", so depending on what you're wanting to get out of these movies you can tell which ones you'd want to see. As well as an overall "do I recommend you watch this movie" rating haha)
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the-cooler-harmonybot · 1 year ago
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me after making a character (villain) that does so many bad things but as deliberate choices that conflict with their morals which is still bad regardless of guilt they may feel. and at the same time she's not "intrinsically evil," nor do they enjoy it in any way. and also they come across neurodivergent, and i don't want THOSE traits to be demonised. and they do still have lines they won't cross which is interesting compared to other characters but they are very very awful still and state this themself: hm i think. i think i did a little more nuance than i needed to here. i'm sure i won't mess that up and people will read things as intended and in good faith :)
#yeah this is about pip. PLUS SIDE she's fun. she's evil she's sad they're probably autistic but that's statistically likely in my writing so#basically i want her actions and choices and greed to be seen as bad#but not like her lack of expression or interest in/love of magic and studying it etc#(a risk given it's half of her motive that they're willing to do bad things to reach)#like she's TECHNICALLY morally grey internally but a villain in actions#i just don't want the wrong parts to be demonised/seem like i'm demonising them#and definitely don't want her read as like “misunderstood uwu” no she's awful <3#but that's her CHOICE not her NATURE#idk it's probably fine i'm just always prepared for the worst mentally#been having a crisis over phosphor's cast size too because the post going around with object show pet peeves#but it's. like phosphor doesn't work the same as a normal object show. voting plot or format wise.#so idk how it applies.#idk this became more venty than intended. i'm just a little stressed. it's been so long since i've shared work like i'm about to#and phosphor has so much room for error compared to anything i've made before#don't worry about this i'm just mentally ill <3 haha#like if people really end up hating it i'll just. idk. stop doing it i guess.#my best is all i can do#don't get me started on whether killing certain characters will get people upset/saying it's "burying your (insert group here)#(they're all queer if anyone tries to say gays specifically because a character has a relationship i'll just self destruct)#that's not foreshadowing half the deaths are still undecided. mainly because of this worry LOL#okay i should shut up now#hobbies include not making posts ever (haven't even been on tumblr much the past week)#and then posting paragraphs of tags and then dipping again. uh if people read this hope you're doing well. sorry <3#i can only be concise in fictional writing not rambles#also note that this is like REALLY POORLY EXPLAINED#but anyway
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