#this game feels like it punishes me for caring about the world they created

[lizzybeeee]

THE ENTIRE DRAGON AGE AMA IS A DUMPSTER FIRE

They avoided all the high-rated questions with genuine criticism (not blind hate!) and went for questions that were safer and allowed them more leeway. After that awful IGN article and that treatment of Davrin...God, just put it down. I have no faith that BioWare will be able to continue Dragon Age or Mass Effect with the respect it deserves.

Edit - They had an opportunity for genuine discussion with fans who were concerned/unhappy with the way Veilguard was -> people unhappy with the story, the marketing, the lack of 'RP' options in an RPG, etc... Instead they just doubled-down even more, avoiding those critical questions, with no real acknowledgement that fans have very reasonable problems with this game.

Some Highlights & My Initial Ramblings Below:

The Executors

"They attempt to manipulate events in the most subtle way they can manage."

So, very clear that they're not simply observers of what is happening in Thedas: they're manipulators...

"Magical Illuminati Confirmed! Lizard People Did 9:30 Dragon!!!!"

All that complexity of character -> his hatred of Orlais, his experience as a general, his relationship with Cailain, and the influence of Howe...all diminished. Any influence from a shadow cabal is too much influence - all the humanity of Loghain's choices/consequences...God, what a waste.

Not to mention what this does to other events/characters in the series -> they imply they've been intervening as far back as the magisters breaking into the golden city. I do not find this compelling! At all!

2. Solas and the Executors

Oh my god, he sounds like such a fucking Mary-Sue I'm so sick of Solas at this point -> "Actually, I know more about the Executors than anyone alive - not even the rest of the Gods know as much as me."

("I'm also, like, an Ancient Elven God, I'm responsible for the Blight and the Veil, and I kind of locked the Gods away cause they were evil - but, like, I'm really sad about it. Also the Herald of Andraste thinks I'm cute <3")

<- Previous comments: massive oversimplification, obviously

But I miss the days when not everything was about Solas. It removes so much interest and wonder in this world when the fucking egg is behind it all. I loved him as a character in DAI and now I just feel this bone deep tiredness when I see his stupid face.

Don't you dare threaten to bring Gareth David-Lloyd back -> keep him away from this mess!

3. The Fate of the Rest of the Evanuris

Yay. I'm so looking forwards to "The Return of the Elves: Electric Boogaloo 2" - it was done so well the first time!

"It was the elves all along!"

The only character with any potential to be interesting is Andruil*, but how they handled all this lore was done so shallowly and so poorly that I find it hard to give a damn anymore. Not to mention that the game literally mentions Ghilan'nain mourning Andruil - so is this a retcon/redirection/or have you confirmed that one of the most interesting members of the Evanuris' is dead?

*interesting in that she's established in lore to potentially have a tonne of really cool things attached to her (the void armour, the great weapon she has etc...). The rest of the evanuris are nowhere near as well established as she is.

4. Southern Thedas, Sociopolitical Issues, and Future Games

NOW YOU WANT TO INCORPORATE GEO-POLITCAL EXPLORATION?? You avoided any meaningful discussion like the plague in DATV but now you're acknowledging it?? OkaY. okAy.

They couldn't even give us the long-term ramifications of the mage/templar war how the hell am I supposed to believe that they will be able to pull off 'elven gods are real' etc...? For a game series that totes : your choices matter -> they have not proven that they have been able to show that in a meaningful way. They literally cleaned the slate with this game to avoid doing that.

So, what, does that mean that the Veil is never going to come down now? Or are you going to have the entirety of Thedas build themselves up again just to have the Veil fall and send things into chaos once more?

What a fatalistic, miserable outcome for Thedas -> why the fuck would anyone bother to live in Thedas if you're going to keep throwing meteorites at them? By all means, change/conflict has to happen for the series to move forwards...but this is just so miserable at this point.

(The Elder Scrolls, at least, gives people room to breathe between crisis' or sets them up in different areas of the world! Bethesda treats past installments/your decisions with greater respect than DATV does.)

Even, then, if the Veil remains up, that means that the spirits are just trapped in the Fade being miserable for the rest of existence. The entire series has been humanizing spirits, from Justice to Cole, and now they're just throwing in the towel? I guess they can stay in the fade now! Problem solved!

What do you mean the Evanuris are not a threat anymore? IN A PREVIOUS QUESTION YOU LITERALLY SAID SOME ARE STILL POTENTIALLY KICKING AROUND THE BLACK CITY?

Weakened, sure, but Solas was 'weak' in DAI. You're giving yourself an out if you decide to go back to the elves again. Please do, I'd love more content on how the elves alone fuck everything up!

5. More Southern Thedas, the Chantry, and Tevinter

Thanks for the confirmation that things in the South are so fucked up that they have to work alongside the 'Slave Capital' of the known world to rebuild!

Slavery was one of the biggest things that caused a rift between the north/south chantry system -> one of the reasons why there were exalted marches -> a uniting belief in the south is that slavery is fucked. They didn't address slavery in DATV - what hopes are there that they will do so effectively in a future game?

Don't tell me that Dorian fixes everything off screen either -> either he solves slavery off-screen or the south is being forced to work the slaver-capitol because their land is nuked and they have no ground to stand on.

I'm so thrilled.

6. Solas and the Idol / The Blight

I will never get over Solas fucking curing the Blight off-screen and no one asking questions/giving a shit. Hello?? The Hero of Ferelden would like a word with you???

So the Blight is calcified in Minrathous, at least, but everywhere further away is still fucked! Once more, the South is doomed to suffer from the long-term effects that regular blights have -> not to mention the red lyrium (which still exists according to the AMA) across the south.

I don't care; it's lame. It's a lame way to conclude the blight and I hate it. This game did not earn 'cure the blight from thedas' at all. You could have had us learn how to soothe a titan and see how that can diminish the blight but you did it this way.

Another 'magical ritual' because Solas has such a good track record with them lmao.

7. The Agents of Fen'Harel / The War with the Qun / The Crows

Turned him against the idea of being a leader???!!

Fen'harel's Call to the Elven People After the events at the Winter Palace, elves left the Inquisition under mysterious circumstances, as did elven servants across Thedas. None could say where they went, but those who believed the Inquisitor's story about Fen'Harel wondered just how large the Dread Wolf's forces were... and what the ancient elven rebel had planned. This is from the Trespasser Epilogue, Epler!

Your concept art for Joplin literally had him as a leader of a faction of elves. Just be honest that it's a retcon and you changed course - don't try to save face with this reasoning.

About the Antaam: "We needed some big mindless bad guys to fight and so we did this because we didn't want to address the Qunari War/Invasion we set up in Trespasser".

You had to canonize Sten as being alive and Arishok in order for this reasoning to work -> you didn't even come up with an alternative Arishok to take Sten's place.

Yeah, the exchange that set up the Crows we see in the game as "idealists" did not make the game. I can confirm that!

I'm sorry, "Caterina kept Illario in check?" as in, 'kept him an idealist and not the usual Crow'? The woman that beat him with a cane and starved him and his cousin to train them as Crows. Fuck off.

lmao -> tell me you're coming up with this on the spot without telling me that you're coming up with this on the spot.

8. World State Discrepancies - Isabela

Outright ignores the very real criticism about the marketing from this game and World States.

"there are absolutely places where we unintentionally suggested there was a hard canon (...that Isabela is always assumed to have joined Hawke's party.)"

Unintentional?

Excuse me, you have her talk about Merrill and the Kirkwall Crew as family - that was not unintentional in the slightest. Not to mention Sten, Blackwall, Sera, and Cole are canonized as being part of your world state no matter what.

You had a story you wanted to tell - one that only fit a few world states - and you went ahead with it and disregarded those choices. Don't try and lie about this all being a big misunderstanding.

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Edit - They could have taken the opportunity to address the very reasonable criticisms that people had with this game but they cherry-picked questions and avoided/minimized anything remotely critical.

They could have provided us some insight into the game development time but each time they approached the topic they settled for "we're happy with what we delivered and it was well optimized."

They had an opportunity to acknowledge that people were bothered by the handling of the lore/stories (to potentially mention they could course-correct/ rethink their plans) but instead they doubled down on everything that they did and even 'justified' some decisions. They doubled down on the Executors, Solas's changing motivations, the destruction of Southern Thedas, and the elves/Solas being at the heart of everything etc...

This AMA basically confirmed that the only reason they did what they did to the south was for a reset -> It's not a compelling or fulfilling narrative to have everything we've done reset back to ground zero off-screen. BioWare games differentiate themselves from other RPG's by their import system from previous games - it was compelling and exciting! With DATV they set the expectation that BioWare can outright throw out entire games worth of choices/build up, not solely retcon them.

Justifying your choice to water down the lore/world of your story by saying you'll address it in the 'next game' does not instill me with confidence, BioWare! It doesn't explain that lack of it in this game either!

They avoided every question that, rightfully so, pointed out the misleading comments made by devs in the pre-order period of the game:

the fact that there were only 3 imported choices from previous games was leaked by a reviewer -> BioWare was vague from the start about choices

that this game was the most 'romantic' in the series

that world states/ headcanons wouldn't be disrespected

that there are 'lore' reasons for bad darkspawn design

that there are lasting, impactful choices/consequences to be made in this game

that the lore/world was not watered or toned down

that companions are deep and you can disagree with them etc...

BioWare's behavior towards their customers in the lead up period to this games release was downright scummy. I absolutely felt misled after playing the game for myself and recalling what I read in interviews put out. While EA is undoubtedly poison, you can't hold them solely accountable for this.

I feel for the individual developers who worked on this in what was undoubtedly a toxic environment from EA - but I feel that it's pretty clear that BioWare itself has a lot of problems within and in their leadership/executives. Working for EA does not give them an excuse to mislead their customers.

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I already had a very grim outlook on the franchise from the end of DATV but this literally look my interest out the back and sent it to God. What a disaster.

[thewitchblue]

You're a deity who is placed in a random universe on a random planet. Bored, you began to meddle in the lives of the heroes. You gave them their sidekicks, which your brother didn't like and killed one of them as a warning to stop. You didn't, in fact, stop, and your brother was punished to be thrown in another world as a human. You were allowed to resurrect little Jason despite the devastation you knew it would cause.

After a long time of boredom, you've joined the Justice League as a tagalong with your true identity hidden. The Justice League considers you a grenade amongst loaded guns, but you were just on the planet as divine punishment for winning a godly game of Uno against your family. You were simply having your fun until the losers cool down and bring you back.

They have not cooled down in over sixty years. You knew they were petty, but damn. Nobody has calmed down? Not even your sweet little sister? Sure, you crushed them at Uno, but why do they still care? Is something wrong in the celestial realm?

You sighed as you tapped your comms to answer the ringing. Superman needs help, and you were the only one stronger than him in terms of powers. You agreed to come help and flew out your door towards the threat.

"You'll have to stay out of my way and do damage control while I take out Darkseid. Get everyone to safety before helping."

Clark was on it while you arrived. You looked at Darkseid with a frown,

"You should really leave this world alone. You're never going to conquer it as long as the Justice League is here."

Darkseid sneered back,

"Well they aren't here. You are. Superman left you all by yourself."

You gave a displeased hum before flying to face him,

"I told him to leave. This is a fight between gods, don't you think?"

That seemed to unsettle Darkseid. He's heard about your hero name, but he hasn't faced another god.

"I'm the creator of magic and one of the protectors of humanity."

You looked almost bored. Nobody is getting to the humanity you helped create. You'd give your eternal life protecting the earth. Darkseid looked uncertain in continuing this battle now. Someone without fear is someone unconquerable.

"As I am the creator of magic, I am also the taker of magic. You are now as useful as a mortal. Can you fight as a mortal?"

Your smile was intimidating and your expression dark. Darkseid expected his usual fight with Superman, and he was close to winning, only to find out he had a grenade hidden in his suit.

You tend to keep to yourself the best you can, often staying to the side and helping Batman with cases or aiding in combat without your magic.

Darkseid was beginning to feel weak now. His strength and magic were being taken from him, sapped away like it never existed. He fell to his knees with a gasp.

You tilted your head as you approached his collapsed body. Well, that was underwhelming.

"Look at you. You're a joke without your magic. I'm unravelling you like a ball of yarn."

Superman floated above you both. He watched with wary eyes, as he lands at your side. Just like that? You have him on his knees without a single fight?

"You fight like a coward."

Darkseid said, but you only gave him a hum of acknowledgement. Clark didn't know how to feel about this uncomfortable knowledge.

"I'm just gloating before I remove you from existence. Any last words?"

Clark looked at you with wide eyes and horror on his face. He said,

"You can't kill him! He's a god!"

You grimaced. You didn't like removing a divine being, but this being will not be missed. You already had a being of evil in your family, so he won't be missed in the scheme of the universe. You flatly replied,

"Call me a god-killer then."

You hated the taste of his magic. You love chaos, but this is just vile. You'd be embarrassed to call him a being of divine magic. Nonetheless, you executed your justice happily.

"You were an embarrassment to the divine realm."

Clark looked nervous about letting you kill Darkseid, but he allowed it. He watched with morbid curiosity as Darkseid withered into nothingness and the very last atom was removed from existence. Clark asked,

"Will he come back?"

You shook your head. Never again will he return.

"My powers hold all things involving magic. Darkseid is a divine magical being that I could unravel without consequences. My brother could easily replace him, minus the conquests. He's content to be the king of Apokolips and I won a game of Sorry (the board game) so he won't extend farther."

Clark frowned. You did not leave your spot on earth, but yet you won a board game? What happened? As if you understood his questions, you explained,

"I can be at multiple places at the same time. I'm here, but I'm also helping with a monsoon in India and having a discussion with the government in Poland."

Clark understood and said,

"Thanks for the help. I didn't know you were a goddess."

You sighed softly. This was your most dreaded conversation. You wielded your intelligence more than your magic, which Batman respects deeply. You were the one helping him on tough cases and helping with his children, who are also the brains of their groups.

"I didn't want anyone to know. It would make you think about me differently."

Clark chuckled and shook his head. He had a knowing gleam in his eyes as he asked,

"Me or Batman?"

He had a teasing smile on his face. He knew you had a crush on Batman. You blushed and looked away. Batman was your guilty crush. Someone you found unobtainable but couldn't help but love. He was so charming when you got close to him, and it left you dizzy every time he gave you a smile. He was so private that even a small smile was worth gold, but he gave you a genuine smile, carefree and charming.

"Oh, hush. I can't let him think I'm omnipotent when I'm not. I aid him with my brain alone, not cheating by splitting myself."

Clark smiles fondly at you. He's going to make you both a couple. The whole League sees it but for some reason, you two can't see it.

"Make sure to invite me to the wedding."

He said with a wink before flying off the help with reconstructing the damage Darkseid did before you handled it.

"We're not going to get married!"

You screamed after him. However, now you were anxious about what Clark will do. You bit your lip nervously.

You found out the hard way that Clark is a romantic and he kept pushing Batman with everything he could think of. He even roped in his children to push him towards starting a relationship.

You were rolling with it, not necessarily reaching out, but also not pulling away. All of the children (except Jason) were pushing and pushing, even Wonder Woman, and both of the Green heroes (Green Arrow and Green Lantern) were in on it.

You were too shy to ask Bruce out, and Bruce was scared of inviting someone into his life. He was afraid to show his dark side and reveal himself. Sure, you are the best coworker he's even had, and you do make him feel human while he's Batman, but what if it fails? Relationships are always rocky with him; granted, you are a saint and the most understanding person on the planet. Part of him wanted to selfishly keep you to himself, but he needed a push to give in. He'll need you to ask him first.

You sighed as Nightwing physically pushed you into Batman with a thumbs up. He quickly scrambled away before you could hit him.

You looked at Bruce for a long moment. He was frozen with his arms wrapped loosely around your waist. He was still steadying you when you gave him a thoughtful expression.

"What's wrong?"

He asked nervously. He was about to let you go, but you stopped him. You eyed him a moment longer before kissing him. You didn't want to think about this any longer. You couldn't stand the constant pestering when you had feelings for him. You took the risk for them both.

He stiffened in your arms but eventually relaxed into the kiss and tentatively pulled you closer. He was overthinking everything the entire time, but this is him as Batman, not playboy Bruce Wayne. He feels vulnerable in a way he hadn't expected. Even with Selina Kyle, he never felt so raw and vulnerable.

You wrapped your arms around his neck loosely while his arms wrapped around your waist much more confidently now. Your embrace made him relax fully.

Your kiss was gentle and sweet. It felt like you were waiting for him to run away. To hide like a scared child.

He did not run. He pulled away from the kisses, but not the embrace. He kept you in his arms, even when you both rolled your eyes when everybody cheered. Clark said,

"I better be at your wedding, Bruce."

You laughed, and Bruce tried not to. You buried your face in his chest with a smile.

"Let's date before getting married."

He said calmly. You gave him another quick kiss. You told him sternly,

"We're dating now. I don't care if it's our hero selves or our civilian selves or even both."

He gave you a smile and it was the most beautiful smile you've seen.

You love Bruce with your entire immortal heart.

[morallygreychaoticneutral]

The 7000 Spawn Conundrum .

Had a reply to a reply in regards to how nobody is talking about the consequences of releasing 7000 spawn into the Underdark.

So lets start a pot! rummage rummage rummage Ah! The Emperor's 7 Treasures it is! Black and green tea with rose and sunflower petals. Not sure why its called seven when there are only four things in it but, oh well what the hell.

"To be, or not to be, that is the question: Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or to take arms against a sea of troubles and by opposing end them."

William Shakespeare

That is the question, isn't it. To be the one who releases 7000 spawn into the Underdark and let them live, or not to be the one who releases 7000 spawn into the Underdark and destroy them.

WARNING: Game Spoilers, Topics of sex, Abuse, Murder, Torture and Adult themes and language. Not underage appropriate.

This is not fact. Just opinion based off my own and game experience. As always, how anybody cannon their relationships or behaviors is perfectly right! No blame, no shame, it's your game!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And welcome to another round of difficult choices. How anybody decided this is through their own lens and filter and neither right nor wrong in their choosing.

Here is why I was ok with the decision to let them go.

Lets be honest about the dark impulses of humanity. You could release seven thousand humans and get the same outcome. No they are not biting people, well..some might be, but the "how" of how someone choses to unalive someone else is a moot point. The outcome is the same. Those aligned with destructive violence will choose destructive violence. You need only look out into our own world to see that truth.

So, you have 7000 vampire spawn on your hands. Do you kill them all out of fear for what a few might do? Or do you allow them to make their own choices and let fate decide?

For me, the issue with destroying the spawn was you are also destroying the ones who would not chose a life of evil intention. You are taking away their chance to make a life because their neighbor might be bad.

I have always hated the punish the whole for the act of the one mindset. I've been on the receiving end of that more than once and It is absolute equine grass byproduct.

Sebastion was a good example of this. He had been down there for 170 years and still had control of his mind. His first concern wasn't blood, but that his family and friends were gone.

"My family-my friends-they're gone.."

He wasn't "mad" or craven. He wasn't snapping and rattling the bars of the cage like a feral animal to get to rip out anybody's throat. What he was was angry, tired and hopeless. And rightfully so. The fact that he could hold a cognitive conversation was key to me. They did not present as mindless beasts, they were just people suffering.

"I just know I don't want to die down here, please. I just want to breath free air one last time."

Now, I'm sure there were a few in there feral, but I don't think it was possible to open one door at a time and sort them all out. Opening the flood gates was the only option. So again, its a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation.

But there were a few hints as to if it was a good choice or not.

First, Astarion is unhappy about the decision when you talk to him about it the next day. He laments that they should have been given a chance to make the choice just as he had.

"But he called them feral and said they could cause incredible carnage. Why would he suddenly care? "

Because, deep down, he didn't actually believe that. Not for all of them anyway. Honestly given his ability to talk himself into things, he was absolutely creating justifications to make sacrificing them easier to bare if he went thought with the ritual.

"Better they serve a purpose."

Hard to feel ok about killing something you consider sentient vs an mindless dangerous animal. And at that time, he was terrified of them. Imagine being surrounded by all the people you had ever wronged. How would you feel about it?

Second: When you find the children again, Gandrel (if you let him live in the swamp) and Kass thank you for letting them live.

This the most fucked up part of this whole situation. Those littles are now forever stuck at whatever age they are. Kass seems to have accepted it but Chessa is still battling her reality. But, as they age "mentally" they can eventually make a decision about if they wish to live as the are or leave for the astral plane.

"I did not expect you to free us. But I am grateful. Thank you for your mercy..Thank you for everything."

Third, the epilogue. Through the letters you learn that the children are doing well with the use of animal blood and medicine to help them overcome their cravings. And the city of spawn are also doing well and are grateful to have the choice to walk their own paths.

These are all read a positive outcomes to this difficult choice. The spawn are free to chose and build their own lives regardless of how any one else thinks they should live it. If they want to live, they live. If they want to die, they die. If they want to be monsters, they live as one. Etc ect. No choice is free of consequence. Even "good" ones.

"Pretty to think that is possible. But how would you feed thousands of vampires in a city?"

Not all seven thousand spawn made it. So how many are collected there is unknow. Over time a herd of Deep Rothe' can be shepherded and raised as blood animals. Like a Dairy farm but blood instead of milk. The larger the heard the more blood that could be produced over time.

Yes, I know, It's not vegan friendly but they are vampires loves. There is no plant option here.

The meat and products made from them could be sold to the surface. They could also establish trade agreements with the city butchers. A bit of gold for blood that would otherwise be dumped into the rivers and septic systems.

And we all know, given our fandom nature, there is no shortage of people who would get in line to be "pome de sang's" either.

Yes, I'm looking at all you kinky little juice boxes. You know who you are. I’m kidding of course. That would require alot of scrolls or a lot of clerics.

Anyway, feeding them would, in time, be sorted out in a way that is sustainable.

Also, they would not be adding to the population at an exponential rate. They are all spawn so they can't make more vampires. It wouldn't be everybody mating and birthing 100 or more new babies a year either. I know Dhampir's are suggested, but the occurrences would be rare.

Would there be pockets of corruption and gangs of violent ideals? Sure, those happen in any society. But as Leader of the city Astarion states they are delt with. Just like wolf packs, if you are putting the success and survival of the pack in danger with your bullshit behaviors your going to get removed from the pack.

"Ok, that's all well and good but what about the Underdark?"

Im sure there was an impact on the Underdark after the wave hit, but if you recall there are a plethora of gargantuan baddies down there and those spawn have not been training for months to battle them.

And you could warn the Myconids through the spores to be on the defense should they reach them. A couple well placed timmask spores and bibberbangs and the problem is solved. Ha ah! Booom!

The Duergar can fend for themselves as well as they are known to have impenetrable fortresses.

Any that make it to the City to cause problems will be handled by the vast amount of adventurers and hero's running around.

Honestly, if you are gong to loose a legion of vampires anywhere the Underdark would be the least impacted.

The point is there are pro's and cons to every decision. Peace and violence in every ecosystem.

Pick your hard.

And again, however one chose is right for how they viewed the situation within their universe.

Now, if you will excuse me, I'm late for the book club.

[coraniaid]

Season 7 should have given us Amy as a vengeance demon.

Season 4's Something Blue established -- and Season 7's Selfless will remind us -- that D'Hoffryn creates vengeance demons by finding young women who are angry and in pain and using magic to seek revenge on the world and offering to 'elevate' them. Selfless in particular ends with D'Hoffryn -- short two vengeance demons now, compared to the start of the episode -- smugly reminding Anya that there are "plenty of girls" and "there will be always be vengeance demons".

Then, a few episodes later, The Killer In Me brings back Amy Madison. Amy is a practicing witch -- maybe by this point the second most powerful one we've seen on the show, after Willow -- and she feels she has been wronged by the world. (Honestly not without reason! Her own mother stole her body for months when she was sixteen; a mob of adults under the influence of a demon -- possibly including her own father, although we don't see him we do know that all the other parents were affected -- tried to burn her at the stake; she only survived that by turning herself into a rat, a form she was stuck in for three years; the girl who decided to keep her as a pet -- and only turned her back into a human because she got dumped and was lonely -- almost immediately cut off all contact with her, even though Amy explicitly hadn't got anybody else to turn to for support; and none of her old friends have been speaking to her ever since [and okay, the show doesn't remember that Buffy and Xander were Amy's friends, but I do!].)

And Amy's pretty clearly trying to use her magic for revenge on Willow. She tells Kennedy that she just cast a hex on Willow "for fun", but the rest of her speech ("Willow always had all the power […] it just came so easy for her. The rest of us - we had to work twice as hard to be half as good. But no one cares about how hard you work. They just care about cute, sweet Willow. [...] She gave in to evil - stuff worse than I can even imagine - she almost destroyed the world! And yet everyone keeps on loving her?") tells a different story. I mean, compare this to Faith's speech to Buffy in Enemies. Does it sound like Amy is having fun? And look at how she describes her spell: "the hex I cast lets the victim's subconscious pick the form of their punishment." That doesn't exactly fit the narrative that this is just some sort of game to Amy.

No, it's personal. Amy is angry with Willow. She wants to punish her. Punishment implies that Amy think Willow's done something to unfairly treat her in some way. And what does Amy want in return? Well, vengeance. (Remember, "it's not about hate," she tells Kennedy. Sure. The thing about Amy complaining that everyone keeps loving Willow despite everything, as she does, is that it implies that, logically, Amy herself must...)

So, to sum up. Halfway through the season, we've recalled or established that:

Vengeance demons are recruited when young women who are capable of powerful magic use that magic to seek revenge on the people they blame for their misfortunes

D'Hoffyrn is short a couple of vengeance demons, but confident they can be replaced

Amy is a young woman who is capable of powerful magic and is currently using that magic to seek revenge on the woman she blames for her misfortune

And then ... well. That's it! Neither character appears on screen again. Other than a slightly weird moment in Get It Done (when, apparently, D'Hoffryn has decided he does want to kill Anya after all, ignoring the fact he actively chose not to in Selfless), neither character is even mentioned again.

But surely the next step is obvious? And Amy as vengeance demon (or even having Amy make the active choice to turn down the chance to be a vengeance demon) would make so much sense. It fits in with her frequent use as a foil to Willow; it was Willow, after all, who turned down the chance to become a vengeance demon in Something Blue. It would work so well as a way of showing that, First Evil aside, the wider world is continuing to go on: that the cycle we saw with Anya and Halfrek isn't over, that there will still be evil out there for the newly activated Potential Slayers to fight against. It would mark some sort of conclusion to Amy's arc over the last seven seasons. It would give the illusion that the writers actually cared about her as a character.

... oh, hang on, wait, I think I see why they didn't bother now.

[muffin-snakes-art]

Hi. So I’m not a Layton guy and all THAT familiar with the lore, but a close friend of mine is, and as far as I understand Layton has a dead girlfriend? Can I please know who Magolor’s dead girlfriend equivalent in this AU is? I’m legitimately so curious. /pos

I have been thinking A LOT about which Kirby character would fit Claire's (dead gf) role. In the end I chose Taranza bc I feel he and Claire are the most similar in character. They're both really good at what they do (Claire: brilliant scientist - Taranza: immaculate mage), quick thinkers, humble, and have a lot of love to give.

I'll explain more under the cut (along with images of Claire and younger Layton for design ref), but Taranza could've also fit in as a couple other characters bc I made Sectonia as Descole. In this essay I will-

In Kirby there's an interesting connection between Magolor and Taranza. Primarily based on that one Magolor portrait in that haunted house in Triple Deluxe (like ok huh????) and also that one Star Allies Wave 3 illustration.

With that portrait existing, to me it implies that Magolor has met Taranza and Sectonia before the events of the game somehow. This theory is further backed up with the Old Friend mask in Merry Magoland. Magolor would HAVE to have known what Joronia looked like before her transformation, and that means he would also have met Taranza too at that time. I could be completely wrong about this HAHA but those are my thoughts on that.

When Wave 3 was announced, I didn't think much on the connection of the 3 characters other than they were from the first three core games of modern Kirby. But then they posted this art piece.

It's so cute how Magolor and Taranza combined their magic to create a shield for Kirby!! Both of their respective magic circle designs are melded together perfectly. Did they practice together on their own to perform this or was that a lucky in-the-moment occurrence? Either way, they must know and understand each other's magic abilities to a decent extent. Like how both Claire and Layton understands each other's careers and goals. Layton is a professor in archeology. Claire is a scientist researching time travel and other stuffs. Those fields go hand in hand, and the two do what they can to support and improve each other's passions.

Now onto the other characters that Taranza would've fit as and reasons why I ended up putting him as Claire.

So I put Sectonia as Descole. Descole has an extremely loyal partner/butler/henchman named Raymond. Yea Taranza would easily fit as him, but a few things made me decide not to. Descole may appear cold and not show it, but even in his madness he cares for Raymond. He does order Raymond around, but he still gives Raymond freewill to do as he pleases. Sectonia is very controlling over Taranza. If Raymond were to make mistakes, I don't see Descole punishing him for them. Sectonia would. She blasted Taranza away for mistaking Dedede as the hero of the lower world. Maybe when she was Joronia she wouldn't and wasn't as controlling but....I feel we don't have the full story on their relationship. I also focused more on Sectonia's overall in-game personality. I absolutely love seeing the two spiders enjoying each other's company and having fun, but in-game we never really got what Joronia really thought of Taranza. As Sectonia, she saw him as a disposable servant. You can say her personality was corrupted by the mirror, but I personally believe the mirror actually amplified her negative feelings and views. Negative emotions are brought up a lot in Kirby lore. I personally find that more interesting than just the mirror possessing her or something. I may be very wrong on that, but those are what I thought about.

Last reason, which is uhm, Raymond saves Descole from death FGDHSJ I don't think I need to elaborate on that. It would be so neat and ironic to have Taranza as Raymond, but I also wanna keep things in line as possible with Kirby lore canon.

Yet, who could be Raymond then? Idk fgdsj that's why I struggled so much. If Claire wasn't an option, Taranza would've been Raymond.

Now the one other character Taranza could've fit as is Descole's late wife. His wife was never mentioned by name, to my memory, and didn't have a huge role in the games. There's not enough information on who she was. I wanted to give Taranza a fitting role in personality and importance.

So in the end after all that thinking, Claire it is! I also don't know who else in the Kirby cast would fit her better and be Professor Magolor's late partner. One may think Susie would fit Claire more, but I've already decided she will be Emmy. Emmy's and Susie's personalities are very similar to me. And Emmy's lore? Fits quite well with Susie's. I'll draw that at some point.

So uh yea. Thanks for reading all that if you did! Hope you enjoyed the insanity

[sopaprimordialy]

I've been thinking about how Luther could have fit so easily into the Disney Renaissance villains again.

He and the Rogues really make me remember what we lost by getting rid of simple villains.

Luther can either be a product of his environment if we go by the original movie / video game or he can be a symptom of the general bigotry that exists in the world.

I feel like if he were created specifically today they're probably would have made him way too complex like some sort of direct parallel to Cyrus or something and we would have lost so much what makes him so interesting.

He can be genuinely terrifying but can also be very comedic depending on how you look at them or even downright pathetic given he may or may not be the son of Victor and is imitating with his father probably does to his own loved ones.

I like the idea of Luther being the embodiment of "suffering doesn't create good people, it creates suffering", in the sense of: I don't think it's *possible for someone to end up that fucked up without some trauma. Like, why would he even be in gang life he lived in a totally stable, loving and caring household?

(*I mean I don't have the needed knowledge to even begin a discussion about people being born "evil" as their nature X being a product of their environment so let's just say its highly unlikely)

The way he says the line "life is pain" makes me believe that he did go through something. The way he is disconnected from everything around him and sees himself as this pain-bringer entity that won't ever face the consequences of his own acts (and, when he does, he just kinda regresses to being a whiny little kid) could be a response to being neglected, isolated. Neglected in a way that he would never be punished for whatever, but neither loved or cared.

I can almost see in my mind he going fucking berserk throughout his entire childhood and teenage years, like, terrorizing other kids at school being the worse kind of bully to ever exist and never being held accountable for that. And I can see he doing that for attention. Eventually, the attention he would get from being a jerk TM wouldn't be enough, and he would start doing more hardcore stuff, progressively more criminal, and boom, gang gang gang.

And then the general bigotry of the world comes to scene, because if he's being neglected and his family* (talking abt that later) isn't educating him, "the streets" will, will them not? At least, that's what my mom always told me. But this "street educational system" aka the police seems to work faaaar better on anyone that isn't, like, a white cisgender male. He has so much less to fear, honestly, it's comical.

Luther is both of those things and at the same time he's also this caricature of a villain that keeps laughing maniacally and saying shit like "yes indeed wanna see 'em bleed get the mop mop mop" and the whole watch the word burn and chaos take over thing. Weirdly enough, this is one of the best ways I've seen this kind of problem being represented; it should be considered pathetic to be hateful about things like race, gender, sexuality... bigotry *is* pathetic, and I like the fact that a character that generally represents how society treats (or, at least, wishes to treat) minorities is portrayed as such.

(This section is dedicated to talking about his hypothetical family)

So. Families.

The first social structure we meet as soon as we're born. Your family has the duty to keep you safe, nourished, loved, and basically teach you how to be a decent human being, at least ideally.

But what if this structure is, let's say, fucked up? Trauma inducing, ain't it? Then everything goes down the drain: the protection, the love, the teachings, the function human being... that's part of what I see in Luther.

In the possibility of Victor being Luther's father, I imagine him being pretty emotionally absent, maybe even physically, considering he would be out to work a lot. Still, Luther would look up to him a lot, it's his father, after all. Maybe if he does everything right, he can get his attention! If we consider he's talking to Victor in that phone call, it fits!

(Further context for why I think that: I found in the movie wiki that Patrick, the actor for both og Luther and Victor, once said that he's talking to a character called "The Boss". Apparently, he kinda just made that shit up and it became canon since no other explanation was given. In the same part of the wiki, I found this commentary that he must look up to that person considering the unique way they interact with them then and in other instances in the game)

Ok now it's 4 am. I need to finish this thing before going to sleep so I'm sorry if this last part is rushed or incomprehensible I don't wven know how I'm still awake

Victor also seems to be very aggressive, and I doubt he keeps it only to harassing young women at work and throwing them under trains (*sob*). He would of course behave like that at home too, I totally agree with you that, in great measure, the way he acts with his crew is basically him imitating how Victor would act with his family.

It's funny and tragic for me to imagine that the way he treats Cropsy — both the passive aggressiveness he shows in the musical and the physical assaults he does in other medias — being just a mirror of how Victor would treat his wife.

I think it was you that talked about Luther's parents being divorced at some point (but I could be wrokg cause I'm super sleepy rn) and dude I agree so fucking much with that. I think they would be the kind of couple that takes way too long to get divorced (esp considering the time period we're talking about) and that just leaves more and more trauma on their children's heads.

Imagine Luther's whole villain's past being like "my dad be rude and violent :( my parents divorced :( now I kill oppressed ppl's leadership:("

*read it in a whinny lil voice

He doesn't need a complex "Cyrus' parallel that went wrong" past to work and this simplicity is beautiful, but if he was written nowadays it would happen 100%

[cerastes]

How do you rate the gacha booty shooter?

NIKKE sure is a game! It's the funnest mixed bag I've played lately. As a side game, it's been pretty good, because it's good at what it does good, and not terrible at its weak points, leaving you with a pretty "Ok :)" feeling overall.

So what's up with Nikke? Yeah, let's have a talk about that so I can explain a bit by what I mean with "fun mixed bag".

Nikke's setting is the same old tired, you've seen it a million times: Once day, humanity was almost decimated by a mysterious enemy that came out of nowhere... We call it... The Enemy! They were simply too strong, so humanity had to deploy its strongest weapons: Anime Girls. And you are the lucky Authority Figure that commands the Anime Girls to defeat The Enemy! But... The Enemy and Anime Girls have more in common than it seems...!?

Replace "The Enemy" with "Rapture", "Anime Girl" with "Nikke", Authority Figure with... Technically "Commander" but more on this in a bit, and you've got Nikke. In other words, the game's setting and premise are just a few word swaps away from being Punishing Gray Raven, Snowbreak, and a bunch of other properties. But here's the thing: Whereas Punishing Gray Raven tells you its story with all the charm and pizzazz of a Wikipedia article, and Snowbreak... Uh, stands there staring at a wall Blair Witch style because nothing ever fucking happens in Snowbreak, Nikke actually has good moment to moment flow. Allow me to elaborate.

Read More break here because I wrote a lot more than I intended:

Nikke has probably the dumbest premise to open with: The Nikkes are basically superpowered cyborg girls (war machines with human brains) that look like supermodels on purpose because they were created, in the game's own words, "with the ideal form in mind". That's all a wordy way of saying they are super hot girls with very powerful guns and superhuman physical capabilities. The dumb part is that Nikkes are treated like absolute shit in-universe by humans. You're telling me humanity is making cyborgs -- not even full on robots or AI, these are straight up people getting turned into weapons -- that are hot as fuck and have tits bigger than my head and asses that could crush cars under their sheer heft and then decided to hate them and treat them like shit, and also these cyborgs are the ones actually keeping humanity alive? Well yeah we need a reason for the Main Character (you!) to be Special and bond with them, so your thing is that You Don't Treat Nikkes Like Shit. In fact, you care for them.

Now, this is all absolutely fucking stupid, but then, the game sort of... Realizes how stupid it is? And some may say "this was always the plan" but to me personally it feels like they kinda realized how god damn stupid this all was as a premise, and they started veering the car mid-trip because for a while this all feels REALLY sincere, not in a foreshadowing way, but then you have some developments such as "no yeah, Commanders are a dime a dozen, are brainwashed into seeing Nikkes as walking garbage and that they'll be heroes, risk their lives for pennies and are extremely expendable", and there's also what I consider a really good and consistent thing the game has done: Nikkes were always a desperate last minute rushed product as a concept, so the safety measures in place so that they don't rebel against humans were never perfect.

This is what I mean by the moment to moment being good: The plot is absolutely whatever, the setting is something you've seen a million times, but the actual scene by scene, beat by beat, is fun. On the micro level, the game knows how to be entertaining and interesting, and when they expand these micro nuggets of gold to a macro level of writing, it's when they end up with their best bits of narrative and world building. I want to use two examples about the whole safety measures thing: Crow and Rose.

Crow is a Nikke that hates humans and is part of a squad of known dangerous elements that Missilis, the most irresponsible of the Big Three companies, is responsible for. This squad is Exotic, and Exotic works with you (your squad is named Counters) on this one mid-game chapter. The thing is, they never really intended to work with you, and Crow wanted you dead because Crow wants to spark a Human Vs Nikke conflict in the Ark (humanity's last big home), because you might quell the hostility between both sides. But, Nikkes can't intentionally kill humans (accidents happen and a Nikke may be ordered to subdue a human, but they are hardwired to not be able to shoot at them or kill them). So, how does Crow go about it when she betrays you? She has her squadmate Jackal plant a steel plate on the ground, and then shoots the plate in a way that the bullet ricochets and hits you. NIMPH, what's used to, among many other things, make sure Nikkes can't turn on humans, was so, so easily circumvented, and this is consistent with what we've been told about the Ark and Nikke in universe development in general: It's sloppy, it's lazy, it's not good. Rose, the other example, is a Nikke from a flashback story around a hundred of years before the start of the game. Rose was a prototype Nikke that was geared for melee combat instead of ranged combat, as all Nikkes are, and she was one of ten such units. Basically, Rose realized that their human Commander was intentionally trying to get them killed until one remained, which would be deemed the success of the line in Darwinian fashion. Rose got so immensely, justifiably angry at this that she plotted to kill the Commander. How can she do this, though, with the NIMPH that prevents her from doing so? Well, Rose was an actual swordmaster, and what she did was wear a blindfold, convince herself that what she was slicing was not a human, but a Rapture, and then she easily killed the shit out of him, unimpeded by her system. The NIMPH, end of the day, is sloppily made, highly dependent on the mental state of the Nikke, and easily circumvented. This is a very important plot point throughout the story, and the way they show this in multiple ways is really good.

Another thing I like is how the game goes about the player's title. It's technically "Commander" but the truth is, most every single Nikke calls you a different way relative to your relationship with them or their impression of you. Rapi and Anis some of the few that call you Commander, because they are in fact your subordinates, but Rapi says "Shikikan" while Anis says "Shikikan-sama" in a sarcastic way initially and after a while in an affectionately playful way, Neon calls you "Master" (Shishou) because she likes the way you use firepower, Liter calls you "Greenhorn" because you are, well, that in her eyes, Moran calls you "Partner" (Ototou, "little brother" in Japanese) because she's the head of a crime syndicate and she considers you as a cool person under her protection, the sports inclined ones call you "Coach", the school themed ones "Teacher", Viper, the flirty one, "Honey" or "Darling" depending on the scene, and so on, the old timey Scarlet calls you "My Lord", the religious Rapunzel uses "Believer", and the coarse, rough around the edges Snow White just uses "You" (Omae). It's a great touch that I like when it's done.

So, basically, you have a charming combination of a setting that's been overdone infinite times with plot beats that vary between legitimately good (the NIMPH and its logistics) and legitimately bad (Whatever the fuck Chapter 18 was, to name one case), and moment to moment that's really charming and entertaining.

The gameplay is honestly extremely unbalanced, and the sheer disparity in strength between units of the same rarity makes you wonder if they have anyone in the team that actually cares about balance, but honestly, putting the issues of balance aside? It's fun to point at stuff and shoot a million bullets and rockets, and they even get pretty creative with the fights sometimes in terms of enemy types and how they use them against you, so gameplay balance is awful, gameplay itself is suprisingly good for how simple it is.

I know people are going to be like "Dreamer, You Didn't Even Rate The Asses" so okay here:

First of all, the ergonomically perfect ass of the VIXEN that lured me into the game in a moment of weakness, Scarlet:

And next up, the Clothed But Massive Ass of Snow White

In fact, I appreciate the variety, because if it was just bare cheeks and panty shots, it'd be kinda whatever to me, but bodysuit ass and clothed but noticeably huge ass? Fresh, to be honest.

Also notable is that progress in entirely gated by passive production of resources and daily stuff because there's no stamina system. Bold!

But yeah feel free to ask more specific questions, but this is pretty much how I've felt about it.

[evita-shelby]

12 Days of Smuff:

Day 12: Candlelight and Collaring

Luca Changretta x Eva Smith

cw: smut, dom/sub dynamic(m dom/ f sub), collaring kink, master/slave dynamic, blowjob, cum eating, slight degradtion kink, breeding kink

The ring on the choker twinkles in the candlelight making him think up of ways to remind the witch he was her master and she, his slave. The Italian Capo had not expected the Maga to be into that, but God did it feel great to have a cultured lady in the streets and a filthy whore in his bed.

“You’re playing with fire, pussycat.” Luca toys with the heart shaped ring hanging at the center of the black choker.

Eva is not fond of playing by the rules.

He should’ve known she’d made this dinner a game for just the two of them.

But the witch looks good in the collar masked as a simple choker.

“Maybe you should remind me what my place is.” She's in a mood to be the submissive one tonight. The witch can switch things up and have him on his knees for her, but tonight she wants her husband to put her in her fucking place. “Besides, they won’t know what it means, and if they do, well, you get to punish me all night long, Luca.”

This kink of theirs was reprieve for her. A reprieve of being the most powerful woman in the world and the deity the Black Hand owes all its successes to. Spinetta has been running her ragged to ensure this next fight with the gangs encroaching on their territories goes as it should, it is no wonder why the witch decided to wear the collar to show she is the submissive wife of Spinetta’s biggest threat.

To be relegated to chattel and be used like the whores his younger brother likes too much.

“Behave for me and I might be a good master to you.” Luca smirked before taking them back to the candlelight dining room.

And she does, she is the perfect wife and hostess who has their guests completely unaware of how easily she gives her husband the leash that came with the collar. They think she is the one in charge even in their marriage, and yet the collar winking at them in the candlelight tells a different story.

“Have I been good, master?” Eva asked in the now empty dining room, the candlelight giving her beauty a mystical feel to her. Like a creature created solely by God for Luca’s pleasure.

He sits at the host’s chair and beckons his wife closer until she is kneeling between his spread knees.

“Yes, you behaved so good for me I might get you a better collar for more nights like these.” The older man put on the leash they hide on their bedside drawer along with all the naughty things their Leonardo isn’t allowed to know about.

There had been close calls, but the boy luckily remained unaware of the sordid fucking that produced him and would give him a sister.

“A gold one with emeralds to go with the earrings you got me for my birthday.” The witch suggests revealing she knows what one of his gifts to her this year will be.

“Ask your master nicely, pussycat.” The Italian tugged at the leash and his witch of a wife obediently undid his trousers with great care and waiting for his command even if her eyes are dark with anticipation of what happens next.

Luca would fuck her face here in the dining room with the expensive candles and wipe his seed off her pretty with the linens even his boss cannot afford. Then he intends to bend her over the table and be as rough as the witch can handle him being.

“Please, master, may I get a new collar, so everyone knows I belong only to you?” the witch asks desperate to take his cock into her wicked mouth and be his ever-obedient wife.

The suffragettes would be scandalized by her behavior, to see such an indomitable creature reduced to a far too willing sex slave because nothing makes her cum harder than having her husband be rough with her.

A shame she didn’t misbehave tonight, nothing better than punishing her until she’s a filthy mess on the tablecloth. It would be a sight to see, the witch fucked dumb on the table and filled with his cum and begging him for more.

“Please your master well, and I’ll give you the best money can afford.” The capo allows her to suck his cock, and the witch takes it greedily as if she didn’t give him head this morning.

She is good with her tongue, licking the precum beading at the head and then running it along the shaft before taking it all inside her mouth as he trained her to do during their long honeymoon in Rome. A perfect whore for the Italian Capo who intends to rule the world with her.

But he is not in the mood for letting her please him at her own pace, Luca grabs her by the silky dark hair carefully arranged in the latest styles and pulls on it until it falls out of place as he sets a harsh pace.

“Did you think your master would go easy on you, pussycat?” he groans as he fucks her pretty face only to pull out and cum all over her tan neck and the low-cut velvet gown. The cum looks as good as her best jewels on her in the candlelight, the ruined velvet making sure the next time she wears it the witch will be fucked until they’ve given their sweet little boy a sister.

Perhaps he’ll tie her leash to the bed and not let her leave it until she’s pregnant, he thinks to himself as he takes one of his fingers and gives her a taste of his seed.

“You should.” The witch said as she licked his fingers clean believing their scene had come to an end.

“I don’t remember giving you permission to read my mind.” He smirked as he tugged at her leash enough to make her wince. Not enough to truly hurt her, but enough to remind her he is her master until he says it’s over.

[raleighrador]

Jedi: Survivor thoughts

Finally got around to playing this, haven't quite 100% it but not far off.

Good:

Gameplay is amazing across basically all dimension. Movement is incredibly satisfying and empowering, I thought the puzzles were all (with one exception) satisfying and a good balance of working out what you need to do vs mechanically challenging/rewarding, combat is very rewarding. The stances all feel different, there is a real learning/reward curve if you pick 2 and practice them, each is clearly better or worse in context so it feels like being thoughtful is rewarded

The world and exploration is great fun - the environments are big enough to create some sense of freedom but not oppressively expansive, there is a very thoughtful layout of shortcuts so second or third explorations aren't a punishing grind but actually fun

World building/environmental story telling/set design - the "physical" space you occupy is very rich, dense with details that do a good job of unpacking the story (less the main story and more just cool stuff that happened. This is partly things the "echoes" and talking to or overhearing NPCs talk to each other, but also just walking around and watching animals and the like, where there is an old building and what the building look like etc.). It is also, as a rule, very pretty

Bad:

Performance is shocking. I have never experienced this before - I play on console on whatever the standard settings are. The closest I have come is long loading times but honestly who cares. This game crashed multiple times, frame rate consistently suffered, VERY long loading times (sometimes perpetual and I would have to restart my console), and absolutely infuriating bugs at the very worst times (think of a narrative quick time event but suddenly the buttons don't work so you are just trapped)

Story is boring and dumb. It didn't land for me at all. The biggest issue is that all of the conflict is entirely contrived with no in universe reason for it to exist. The conflicts between Cal and the 2 antagonists exist for no reason other than the structural requirements of the story the writers are trying to tell. Dagan Gera wakes up and immediately bleeds his crystal and attacks you. Why? Why would Cal attack him? Why are they fighting? What do they have to fight over? They have the exact same goal of finding Tanalorr and almost the exact same information. I get that "if only they talked" is a criticism that can be applied to many stories but it feels particularly apt here because there is no existing relationship, there is no existing tension or preconceptions. The only thing they know about each other is DG is a Jedi who was in stasis and Cal freed him. Equally, the conflict with Bode is literally stupid and they almost sort of acknowledge it but what actually sustains the conflict is Bode is totally irrational. I think both are meant to be underpinned by "dark side is space crack" but that just doesn't land for me, and doesn't account for the fact that the only time dark side = incapable of being basically logical is when it helps get the lightsabers out. I get it, we need baddies to fight, but at least give me some kind of reason to fight them. It is also undermined by the fact that towards the end of the game Cal is also using the dark side. If the intention is that the conflict with Bode is driven by BOTH Cal and Bode being on space crack, I can forgive it (but think it is poorly delivered). It just doesn't seem that is what the writers are delivering.

I guess also "story" but the game suffers with a lot of the same meta difficulties of the Disney stuff both being obsessed with tying everything to the OT and the fact that we know it can't really impact that. It seems especially odd because the game so clearly creates space for itself to not have to deal with that... and then insists on doing so anyway. Cal on Koboh helping the settlers, discovering High Republic Jedi stuff, and a secret home free from the Empire is the best bit of the game and stands on its own. It also made the galaxy seem bigger (which Disney struggles with). A planet where the Empire is an (evil) but peripheral players, local bad guys in the Bedlam Raiders, cool GenDai mercenary leader etc. That is more than enough. Instead we get the relatively shoehorned interactions with Cere and Cordova - why couldn't the archeologist on Koboh who has made her career studying the High Republic Jedi temples be the one to fix the compass? The answer is because we need to have Darth Vader appear somewhere and murder someone after you get to beat him up a little. Maybe others enjoy that but I personally find it very frustrating - I don't think Cere is a badass for going toe to toe with Vader, I just think Luke is less special. I could probably be less of a sourpuss about the whole thing but that is my honest reaction. The medium of a video game is also one of the worst ways to tell that story - I beat the shit of Vader and dodge all his attacks until he's lost enough health, including persistent animation of me landing lightsaber strikes that damage his armour and cape and his breathing goes all heavy etc... then there is a cut scene where he kills me? It creates a dissonant and unsatisfying experience, not an empowering one (side bar: if you are going to make me "fight" Vader, I thought Fallen Order handled this close to perfectly. The other mechanic I could see working is make the fight explicitly about surviving long enough. Make Vader impossible to hit - like give me animations of him blocking every saber strike, his block meter depletes, but before he gets staggered he Force pushes you. Make 90% of his attacks unblockable, and the 10% should have the absolute smallest parry windows. Have a clock in the corner, or some environmental time cue, where successfully "beating" the fight isn't depleting his health bar, it is just in surviving long enough).

I have written more words on bad than good but genuinely I really enjoyed this game and think it is well worth playing.

The issue, like with a lot of Disney stuff, is you need to focus on just experiencing it and not think about it, because as soon as you do, it's dumbness overcomes it prettiness.

[okaeri-ossan]

I've been under the weather so I randomly picked up this Alice Soft visual novel called Diabolique. The company is a legend in the industry as is known for creating the (much praised and maligned) Rance series. I haven't played that but I have played Toushin Toshi and Mamatoto, both of which I enjoyed quite a bit. However, I've been really surprised by Diabolique so far...

Diabolique is a pure love story about a demon-ish kinkiller guy named Azulite falling in love with a very punished little girl named Leticia. Tragedy befalls them, and the immortal Azulite travels the land in search of Leticia's reincarnations with the goal of making her happy throughout all her lifetimes.

I was seriously surprised by how pure it all is. There were some lines in Toushin Toushi that made me go "awww" and I assume that's thanks to the writer Tori, who has had her in hand on Alice Soft since the start. There's lots of tooth-rottingly sweet sentiments, like "I'll chase all the bad things in your nighmares away" or "even if you won't speak to me, I'll watch over you so you're happy". They're the kind of straight-forward precious words that I always fall victim to. TOO KYUUUUUUTE! It gives the work a feeling not dissimilar to... joseimuke? But there's a bunch of monster r*pe sometimes too. But also there's cute stuff. So yeah, too kyute LOL

The most moe character isn't any of the heroines, though (even if Leticia and Aria are very adorable). It's the immortal demon protagonist, killer of his own kind. Azulite is the gentlest, sweetest man I have no clue how he ended up in an H-game.

When I said the game was pure love, I meant it. This man is too pure. He starts off the game wandering through the desert alone all badass-like before stopping to talk to flowers ("aren't flowers and humans the same?"). He's timid in front of people and painfully polite, always bowing and saying excuse me, tripping over his words when he's flustered (which is often). He has a genuine deep care for the heroine, promising to protect her from the painful things in her life. It's a promise so strong he follows her into her next lives. It's okay if she falls in love with someone else, as long as she's happy and safe. He tries to do all the domestic chores (FRILLY APRON TIME!), he gets up early to cook for her, he draws her a hot bath if she needs it, and most of all he watches over her when she sleeps so she won't get nightmares. In that case, isn't he like a guardian angel? He's a demon who hates himself and prays to God because he wants to be good, but I think he ended up acting like a real angel. Leticia, the poor heroine who experiences endless tragedy throughout her many lives, will always be loved where ever she goes. I still have yet to finish it but I want them to be happy in the end. And if they can't have a happy ending, then I hope he will continue following Leticia through her many lifetimes...

It's not a game I would recommend for various reasons-- the painfully outdated system, the menu functions that break the pacing in areas, the previously mentioned r*pe that pops up-- but it's got so much wholesomeness (I know that sounds silly after what I've just said) I can't stop reading. Sometimes, you need some sugar sweetness in a brutal world. Sometimes... malewife (╯▽╰ ) Okay time to go see if I can snag any doujinshis of the main couple they are mega totes adorbz KYAHHHH!!! (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

[rankine78]

A Secret Makes A Woman... Woman.

Y/N was an ordinary college student with a passion for art and a quiet life. One fateful evening, she attended a masquerade ball hosted by a mysterious benefactor. There, she met a strikingly beautiful woman named Sharon Vineyard, who radiated charm and elegance. Sharon took an immediate interest in Y/N, complimenting her art and engaging her in deep, intimate conversations. Y/N was flattered, unaware that this encounter would mark the beginning of her nightmare.

Sharon, secretly Vermouth of the Black Organization, became infatuated with Y/N. She saw in Y/N a purity and creativity she had long since lost. Vermouth began to stalk Y/N, learning every detail of her life—her friends, her routines, her dreams. She disguised herself as various people to get closer: a barista at Y/N’s favorite café, a new classmate, even a delivery person. Each interaction was calculated to draw Y/N deeper into her web.

Y/N began to notice strange occurrences—gifts left at her doorstep, cryptic notes in her sketchbook, and the unsettling feeling of being watched. She brushed it off as paranoia, but the unease grew.

Vermouth’s obsession escalated. She couldn’t bear the thought of anyone else being close to Y/N. One by one, Y/N’s friends began to disappear. Her best friend, Emma, was found unconscious in an alley, her memory wiped. Her roommate, Lisa, vanished without a trace. Y/N was terrified, but she had no proof of who was behind it.

Vermouth revealed herself to Y/N in a moment of twisted vulnerability. She confessed her love, her voice trembling with desperation. “You’re the only one who understands me,” she whispered. “I’ll do anything to keep you safe, to keep you mine.” Y/N was horrified but couldn’t escape Vermouth’s grip.

Vermouth kidnapped Y/N, taking her to a secluded mansion hidden deep in the woods. The mansion was a gilded cage, filled with luxurious furnishings and Y/N’s artwork—stolen from her apartment and displayed like trophies. Vermouth promised to “protect” Y/N from the world, claiming that only she could truly appreciate her.

Y/N tried to resist, but Vermouth’s manipulation was relentless. She alternated between tender affection and cold, calculated cruelty. She would punish Y/N for any attempt to escape, yet comfort her afterward, whispering, “I do this because I love you.”

As days turned into weeks, Y/N’s spirit began to fracture. Vermouth’s mind games wore her down, and she started to question her own sanity. Vermouth fed her lies, convincing her that the outside world had abandoned her. “No one is looking for you,” Vermouth said. “No one cares about you like I do.”

But Y/N clung to a sliver of hope. She discovered hidden messages in the mansion—notes left by previous victims who had tried and failed to escape. She realized she wasn’t the first, and she wouldn’t be the last unless she fought back.

Y/N devised a plan to outsmart Vermouth. She played along, pretending to succumb to Vermouth’s affection. She used her art to create a fake sense of trust, painting a portrait of Vermouth that seemed to capture her soul. Vermouth was moved, her guard momentarily lowered.

In a moment of vulnerability, Y/N struck. She used a shard of glass from a broken frame to stab Vermouth, then fled into the woods. But Vermouth, fueled by her obsession, pursued her relentlessly. The chase was a harrowing battle of wits and willpower, with Y/N fighting for her freedom and Vermouth refusing to let her go.

Y/N managed to escape and alert the authorities, but Vermouth disappeared without a trace. The mansion was found empty, save for the haunting remnants of her victims. Y/N tried to rebuild her life, but the trauma lingered. She could never shake the feeling that Vermouth was still watching, waiting for the right moment to reclaim her.

In the shadows, Vermouth smiled. She knew Y/N would never truly be free. After all, love like hers was eternal—a secret that bound them together, forever.

[yan-lorkai]

hi! if its ok, can i ask blood, cruelty, game, naughty, stigma, vice, zenith (from yandere alphabet list) for idia? thank you!!

*･゜ﾟ Blood: How messy are they willing to get when it comes to their darling?

He is literally the most desperate mess you can imagine. He has the resources of STYX at his disposal and the brains of a seasoned strategist to concoct a plan good enough to get you to fall in love with him, but he lacks the necessary calm for it. Idia sees flaws in his plans where none exist, wanting every detail to be precise and perfect. He wants to have you around soon, he craves it and when he does, don't expect to escape him and his obsessive eyes.

⠀⠀

*･゜ﾟ Cruelty: How would they treat their darling once abducted? Would they mock them?

He would treat you very well. Months before the kidnapping, Idia begins to observe items that comfort you, your forms of leisure and hobbies, things like that, everything to make your adaptation happen at a smooth pace. He wants you to feel comfortable and happy with your new surroundings, and he will be patient as you get used to it, never once showing his frustration or anger. And no, he wouldn't make fun of you, but he would probably drop a few teasing comments to see some other reaction from you.

⠀⠀

*･゜ﾟ Game: Is this a game to them? How much would they enjoy watching their darling try to escape?

Idia cares more for you than he does for his games, so this whole thing is no game at all. He genuinely wants you to find happiness with him and seeing you scared and trying to escape breaks his heart with every attempt.

⠀⠀

*･゜ﾟ Naughty: How would they punish their darling?

None of your punishments are physical, but they are mental. Idia has a way with words and he knows how to use them well enough to make you doubt yourself and other people. It's subtle. And if you've been behaving really badly, Idia, however hesitant, can use your insecurities against you. And since Twst is a completely different world, I hc that there is or he can create a machine capable of erasing the memories that a person has. So yes, he would threaten you with it. After all, you don't want to forget your world and everything in it, right? :)

⠀⠀

*･゜ﾟ Stigma: What brought about this side of them (childhood, curiosity, etc)?

His childhood. Idia had always been a bit of a loner and after that whole incident with Ortho, Idia harbored a great deal of guilt. His actions led to that, but that's okay, he managed to get his brother back. And out of fear that his actions might have the same consequence on you or that other dangers might befall you, Idia decides that he must keep you safe.

⠀⠀

*･゜ﾟ Vice: What weakness can their darling exploit in order to escape?

I would say you could try to get help from Ortho, show him proof that the relationship you have with Idia is not as healthy as he makes it out to be and all that. But considering Ortho was programmed by Idia, I imagine he would turn a blind eye to it and pretend not to notice everything out of loyalty to his older brother.

⠀⠀

*･゜ﾟ Zenith: Would they ever break their darling?

If there was no other way, then yes. But know that he wouldn't be happy about that because, despite his delusional state, he knows that if he breaks you, a part of you that he loves will cease to exist.

⠀⠀⠀⠀

゜ﾟ Requests for the yandere alphabet are still open. Send me a letter and a character!

[thiswaycomessomethingwicked]

Okay here I am again because the Grima brainrot is particularly intense rn and I just saw a post talking about.

Grima but as a woman. Like genderbend. Nothing changes, same looks, same personality, same behaviour, same ambiguous feelings for Eowyn. (I’d smash.)

I think it’s actually interesting considering that Grima’s flaws in the movies/books are hinted also to be rooted from his “unmanliness” (as Tolkien presents a lot of characters with honour and values considered “male”.)

But I think that even if he were to be a woman, there is a great deal of traits Grima wouldn’t possess to be considered conventionally “feminine” by Tolkien’s and many’s standards. (Such as beauty for example).

So yeah, it just occurred to me and now I’ve been thinking about this since 3am. This is the reason why I’m pansexual. We don’t care about gender. We care about silly evil pookies okay.

As always have a great day/night ! ^^

Yesssss!

Grima & Gender is a super interesting thing that I think about all the time. I love thinking about him and manliness, femininity, secret third and fourth options etc.

I know I reblogged the ask/reply that I had about Grima on Gender and Magic, so you have the gist of most of my thoughts as it relates to Grima performing gender (or not, as the case may be) within the context of masculinity.

But Grima straight up as a woman would be very interesting. Particularly because Rohan is quite gendered when it comes to the wielding of power - and quite binary in who wields what power.

(E.g., when Theoden departs Edoras to fight Saruman, he despairs over leaving the city leaderless because Eomer won't stay behind. It doesn't occur to him that Eowyn is even an option until Hama suggests it.)

Therefore, Grima being in a position of power that is traditionally masculine would be very interesting. Indeed, her entire performance of gender would likely be impacted by the uniqueness of her position. Queens, historically, were more passive in Rohan than in other countries so it's not like she would have someone to model herself on. Nor would there be a model for other people on how to receive and perceive Grima.

(Morwen, maaaaaybe, but honestly her epithet of Steelsheen is more about her appearance than anything else. Though perhaps her personality could be inferred from it... But truly, we only know her in the context of being wife and mother.)

Given the absence of models, would Grima into the more masculine aspects of how people would be reading her? Would she do the whole performance of "I may have the body of a woman but I've the head and heart of a man"? Or would she hyper-perform the femininity song and dance as a way to balance it out/make her more palatable to some?

Aside from the occupying a masculine position of power within the context of Rohan's society, Grima's other personality and physical traits would absolutely count against her being seen as appropriately feminine.

Good qualities for a Rohirrim woman to have is height, slenderness, fairness of face, and youthfulness. Grima's tall...and that's all she's got going for her.

Grima is also neither high-hearted nor noble in bearing let alone in birth (because nobility of birth is very important to one's perceived Goodness and Worth in Tolkien's world).

Grima is a sneak, a liar, a thief, and power hungry. Grima would be, fundamentally, a Woman Who Wants Something. And what she wants are things women shouldn't want.

Wanting Things in general, for both men and women, is a dangerous game to play in Middle Earth and the texts punish many of the people who do any major "unacceptable" desiring (or creating) of things outside their purview.

Grima's obvious foil, Eowyn, is a prime example. Eowyn wants to be a warrior, she wants to be queen, she wants to be part of the Gondor noble family (and assume the power and privilege that comes with that), she wants to be seen and heard and to have an impact on the fate of the world.

Some of her wanting was out of a selfless desire to save her home and her people, but a lot was also just her having dreams and desires.

Eowyn may have been named as Shieldmaiden of Rohan but it is evident that this was meant as an honorific that wasn't meant to be actually acted upon. Save, of course, in the gravest/most dire circumstances when all is lost and only women remain to defend the land because the men are dead. This is, indeed, the gist of the conversation she has with Aragorn and you can see her resentment and anger about what her expected role is to be compared to that of her brother and the other men in her life.

I think the fact that Eowyn reflects, in many ways, the ideal of womanhood is what saves her from being punished too hard. Eowyn is tall, fair, slender, young, high-hearted, daughter of kings, and has selfless and noble motives (alongside the more human ones).

She is allowed her transgression. She gets her great moment of battle against the witch-king. She gets to make her mark, to save people, to change history.

But, she also receives a bit of a personality transplant as a result of it. She gets to be a wife - but not a queen. She gets to be a mother who heals people. She gets to be a Proper Noble Woman and live, once again, in a gilded cage. The very thing she was so furious about initially.

I know there is the idea that she is healed and she has overcome her anger and has changed - but it still feels like the text punished her and robbed her. Of course, a huge part of the problem is that Eowyn is the only women we spend any real time with - if we had more women with diverse journeys and endings, it would be different.

It's subconscious to a certain degree, I think, also heavily informed by Tolkien's Catholicism alongside the culture of the time. The importance of the Marian archetype of womanhood etc. And we know Tolkien loved Eowyn's character and thought about her a lot, wanted to write a good story for her, but some of that stuff sneaks in regardless.

But all of this to say - if that is Eowyn's ending...what would happen to Grima? One who would be committing greater transgressions against gender performance let alone the whole Light Soupçon of Treason.

Because aside from wanting material wealth and power, we know that Grima potentially desires Eowyn. In the movie it's explicit but the books are more ambiguous. We are told, via Gandalf, that Eomer was concerned about Grima ogling his sister and threatened to kill him over it. Crucially, we never hear from Grima about this specific item and we certainly never hear from Eowyn.

Indeed, Gandalf's line to Eomer about how his sister is "safe now" says far more about Eomer's fears and concerns than it does about the reality of the situation. We know in ROTK that Eomer didn't know his sister's heart or mind - he didn't know she was unhappy with her position in the household and broader society, he didn't know she wa so angry and resentful, he didn't know she was in emotional pain, he didn't know what she wanted, he didn't know jack. Therefore can we think him reliable when it comes to being a fountain of knowledge about his sister's desires?

I mean...considering no one was paying much attention to her, and when they did they were reading their own things onto her (coughEomercough), perhaps Eowyn liked having Grima pay attention to her? Like, who knows. Someone who may have seen her and may have known what her fears and desires were might have been novel/nice (before she realized he's selling everyone out for a corn chip). Heck, Gandalf implies that Grima had a pretty good handle on Eowyn's innermost dreams and wishes, so take that as you will.

(I now have this image in my head of Eowyn and Grima getting wine drunk out back of Meduseld and bitching about people.)

All pure idle speculation for the sake of pot-stirring. Anyway, I keep getting distracted.

Grima as a woman feeling lust, though - that would be another strike against her. Honourable love and the implied desire that might exist because of it is fine. But in the text overt desire of a clearly sexual nature is presented in a mostly negative light. Let alone, in this speculation, Grima is lusting after another woman! That's even more unnatural and contrary! What a freak /sarcasm.

Then there's the cowardice - which is shown as a negative no matter who is displaying it. Though, I think of all the aspects of Grima, this is the one that would get more of a pass as a woman than as a man.

So yeah - given that Grima's entire personality is one that is contrary to what is modeled as Good Femininity it would be very interesting to see how it played out over the course of the text.

Everything from the banishment, which was predicated on Grima being expected to do battle alongside Theoden in order to prove that he is still loyal - what test of loyalty would Grima as a woman be expected to perform and then fail because she's too chickenshit?

The relationship with Saruman would be construed in a different way, also the hold Grima had over Theoden - that would take on different implications. And those implications would also change how Theoden is perceived, too, which is interesting.

That Theoden is leaning on a woman for support in ruling would make him seem even weaker and more foolish. It would be so interesting to see it unfold!

Then there's the rivalry with Gandalf - the positioning of them as two sides of the Odinnic coin.

Also the being tortured and tormented by Saruman after Helm's Deep. Not to mention the Scouring of the Shire and Grima's ultimate end. If Grima is a woman, in this, I think Tolkien would have had her ending be different.

----

Alright, I've banged on for way, way too long about this and went no where in particular, and all has been said before in different ways so I'm not landing on anything new or insightful.

Just wittering...I love wittering about Grima so thank you for giving me the opportunity to lol

<3 <3

[polyhexian]

I'm not surprised to see kingers wife confirmed. We see a picture of her! That wasnt an accident. The fact she is also a chess piece is interesting tho. Since everyone has such varied appearances. They obviously have lost their memories, and pomni says "in here" so they mean they met here and became husband and wife. But I wonder if they may have been husband and wife before they came to the circus and then met again and re-fell in love. That would be very sweet, I think. He also comes across so distinctly paternal it makes me wonder if he/they had any children in the real world, and if they still exist. If so I guess it's theoretically possible its pomni, that maybe she came to investigate the mysterious disappearance of her parents and put on the helmet blablabla, but. I don't really feel like that's the case. I wouldn't be surprised if kinger DID have a kid/kids back in the real world though.

JAX.... Every day NPC jax theory becomes stronger. The thing is that because it was so IMMEDIATELY a theory makes me think it's kind of an intentional red herring. Like, jax is SO fucking sus it's unreal. But to me he's sus on a level that it's sus. His susness is sus. I suspect the surprise reveal is likely just that he's as frightened and confused as everyone else is and he just copes by not caring about anything. Obviously Cain is very suspicious but it seems a bit like he is in a more similar boat to the others than he lets on or even suspects. He's got a role he's filling but he's not a true mastermind. Bubble is obviously extremely suspect because bubble is not treated as one of the human residents but also doesn't appear to be an NPC. so what IS bubble. Where does she come from? It would make for a very fun scene revealing that silly bubble is a bad guy I'm sure, but that still feels very surface level.

I think the most interesting part of tadc is that it starts with an immediate mystery of what is going on, and the absolute certainty that there is a twist. They don't have much info but some of it has to be a lie and you don't know which parts. There are facts missing and you don't know where. It's a fun show to speculate on.

This kind of story has a few potential twist directions at the outset. There's the soma direction, not in they're all actually robots or AI or whatever, but that the reason they're in a program could be the twist. That the world ended or something and they've escaped to somewhere their consciousnesses can survive. Could be that this was part of a game being designed that was meant to be sword art online style trapping players, but the devs have stopped it from ever coming out somehow with their own self sacrifice. Maybe all of them are already dead wooohoohoooo. But not like ghosts or something like digital consciousnesses uploaded to a computer and the body died.

With all of the allusions to the circus being Hell I wonder if that is the twist, that it IS hell. Not like literally but like. It was created to punish in some way. Like whoosh, twist, none of our lovely protagonists are innocent good people, theyve all done something Bad and are here as a direct result of it, except for pomni.

Still can't form a true theory IMHO, tho I'm sure ppl smarter than me already have better ideas.

[fanimesenseiwrites]

Y'all ever read something so bad it makes you wanna write and fix it?

Nightbringer (up to) lesson 60 Spoilers under the cut.

Yeah, like... someone posted the meme of the sign that says "Our expectations were low but holy fuck"

And that's kinda exactly how I feel.

Through the fuck-all pacing and general messiness, I can see the vision and I think that's what makes me the most upset. I wish it all hadn't been cut so short.

I feel like we still know too little the Celestial Realm to really understand why the genetic stunt with Simeon suddenly allowed him to be invited back for a meeting with the potential of getting his wings back. Honestly, that's one of things I don't like. Like, in a world of magic, where Simeon was just made to be human, why couldn't he just be made to be an angel again? If he was being good and decided he wanted to stay in the Celestial Realm, why did it matter if he had any demonic cells? Why couldn't they just be changed like he was for his punishment?

And that's not to say it's all bad, I like the idea that humans could naturally change to be anything given the proper influence. And that angels and demons can't change without a powerful external factor (i.e. God or the Demon King). But with regards to Simeon and how they handled that, it was not great.

I also really liked the moon idea actually (maybe it's just because I like Majora's Mask lol), but again, that in particular was just a fumbled mess. That was probably the worst because it was introduced and then taken care of so quickly, of course. But something in particular that bothered me was how when you're up there trying to cast your spell, and then it does the weird cracking, absorption thing, and it seems like it goes wrong! It doesn't work, and your chosen boy gets hurt trying to protect you. And the lame, generic way you heal him aside, your spell did work?? I think? They don't address it again, so I can only assume it worked.

But it didn't give that vibe to me. When a solution hurts somebody, but doesn't kill them, that doesn't give the vibe of the solution working. Just in any plot of anything I can think of.

And I just felt there were lot of blanks to fill in with that part of the story. Which, I kinda have always felt that way with Obey Me (hence why I ever started writing for it in the first place), but I always chalked that up to being a feature of an otome game. There are choices you get to make, and they wanted to make it more inclusive, so I was never mad about that. But these last few lessons, the gaps are WIDE.

And don't even get me started on not learning anything new about Nightbringer, for pretty much the whole season!

All that bitching to say, I'm gonna write something to make this better. I'm gonna focus on this moon plot line first, because I like the idea of it and I've got ideas to make it better, and then I may move on to writing a good satisfying ending to Nightbringer as a whole.

I've seen several other writers and creatives talk about creating a good ending, etc. So I'm excited to see what ideas other people have. If you have your own idea, please write it. Don't think you shouldn't because other people have ideas. More cake is always a good thing.

Thank you, and I'll see you soon lovelies ~

[creepyclothdoll]

Everything Is Fine (comic): Everything we know about the New Government (SPOILERS)

I just finished season three. I need to talk to someone about it.

SPOILERS AHEAD.

Up until the end of Season 3, I (like many) suspected Red Status was some sort of illusion, recording, deepfake, etc. That's still not off the table, but Season 3 gives us a lot of evidence that Red Status is real, that the children are genuinely being held on rooftop camps, and that at least some of them are genuinely brainwashed in favor of the New Government.

Since the start, I've felt that the New Government was probably aliens or rogue AI or some other sci-fi non-human entity, because it seems like no human being would have anything to gain at all from doing any of the stuff the New Government is doing. I'm sticking with this theory, that it's non-human, because of how organized yet indecipherable its actions seem to be.

So what do we know about this group or entity? I'm making a list. I haven't read the previous seasons since they came out, so I'll definitely miss details-- please feel free to add or correct me!

...

RESOURCES

It has vast resources. It is able to produce cat heads for every single person in these communities-- possibly for the entire world, and distribute them. It is able to produce and maintain inconceivably vast quantities of surveillance equipment. It is probable that it has built all of the dystopian cookie-cutter suburban homes shown in season one, but that could just be the actual suburbs, idk.

It was able to "source replacements" for all utilities immediately upon taking over, an improbable feat.

The takeover interfered with the communications of the International Space Station.

It was somehow able to gather and communicate with all children in either full secret or possibly instantaneously, leading the children to "join their cause" at the start of the takeover. Children were either very quickly or very secretly brainwashed and radicalized enough that some were willing to taunt and berate their own parents as they committed suicide at the command of the New Government.

It is able to somehow monitor every single person and sense when they are doing something "wrong." In the first season, this monitor's activity is depicted through red eye cameras, and it seems VERY nit-picky about people dropping the happy facade even slightly. HOWEVER, this monitoring seems like it can easily be tricked by people using cheeky turn-of-phrase and code (such as Judy asking Maggie how many square feet her 'turkey' has). It also doesn't seem to notice or care when someone suddenly goes off-line (entering a faraday cage). Its most effective monitors are human beings, however, as it highly incentivizes people to turn each other in.

...

THEMES IN BEHAVIOR

It has a sense of order which is completely unintuitive to human beings (groceries and products organized alphabetically, streets and businesses named by number, 'Art factory').

It encourages betrayal and persecution. It does not care whether anyone punished is legitimately guilty of anything-- the purpose seems to be to continue to make people inflict punishment on each other as much as possible.

It enables and encourages cruelty of individuals' own free will. The mayor of Lakeview must move one couple "up" each month, but there is no limit to the number they can red status. The mayor has extreme limitations on their power when it comes to helping people, but unlimited power when it comes to hurting them, which encourages abuse while also leaving the actual choice to abuse power up to free will.

It exterminates huge swaths of the population at a time. It seems like MOST people are probably killed under this regime.

It has an ultimate goal. The current status quo is not its end game. It created the numbered neighborhood society and then it destroyed it after about three years, allowing only a select few who "played the game" right (betrayed their neighbors) to escape.

It changes the rules from phase to phase, seemingly encouraging "cheating" in the second part of its game by providing everyone in Lakeview with an apparently unsurveilled boat. This could be ineptitude on its part, but it seems like a huge oversight for an otherwise over-the-top hyper-surveilling entity.

It is committed to control over aesthetic. It takes full responsibility of a mass-production strategy to feeding the population. Food is mostly canned, there are no brands, and the quality seems poor and inauthentic. Where are these resources coming from? Who is generating all this food, and where?

It is committed to aesthetic over functionality. (Charlie worked at the box factory, Sam worked in moving the boxes around, while Bob worked at the box incinerator, implying there is no value or purpose to many peoples' jobs other than busywork). They designated Ormel red status because the mask he was assigned was a misprint.

It needs human beings to enforce its will. An empowered individual must make the choice to "red status" someone else. It seems to overwhelmingly rely on citizens to use the tools it provides to enforce its rules and maintain its order. Is this an actual need, or a choice it makes? Would it be able to "red status" or possibly kill everyone if all of its enforcement officers refused to push the button?

...

HISTORY & METHODS OF REIGN

The military was likely targeted first, as the army was already executing people in the streets the same day the overthrow was announced.

The cat heads seem to be made of a combination of current human technology and sci-fi wildness, containing both cameras, tracking devices, and strange green ooze that can "heal."

The smiley sticker system was not invented by the New Government. The manipulative facade of a system where you can supposedly "buy" a merit with an unattainable amount of money was invented by Lakeview, as was the voting system. A large amount of the sinister system of Lakeview was created by Mayor Laura and the town council based on assumptions they made from reading between the lines. We don't know if this is what they New Government WANTS, but we definitely know it's ALLOWED.

They declared another lakeview-like town a "failed project" and redded everyone, possibly due to corruption and fighting in the town.

It often communicates through implication. When the New Government took over, it "implied" responsibility to the press.

It claims Lakewood's job is to determine who is "truly loyal." Lakewood must send one couple "up" and at least one "down" each month. It was up to the mayor of Lakewood to interpret what this meant, and she interpreted it as snuffing out rebellious activity.

It mandates the hunts in Lakewood. The practice of rewarding those who hunt down and kill red status people is a direct edict from the New Government.

Whatever happens to the children who do survive is bad enough that most of them are deeply psychologically scarred.

We may assume that the red-status children actually did jump, as we have more evidence for that now than we did before. We have seen what is implied to be dried blood from the splatter, but no bodies. It is implied that the bodies were removed with a vehicle. At the camp we have seen, it looks like of the six children camping there (estimated from the number of cots shown), four died.

...

ASSUMPTIONS & GUESSES

We have no proof or evidence that any real human beings are running the New Government. The highest-up official we have seen was described as just another victim herself.

Maggie said "This world takes people... and turns them into monsters." I suspect that is at least part of the goal of the New Government.

Winston's daughter Lucy said, as she was about to kill herself, that they were doing what they were told "so the people who deserve this world get to live in it." That seems like it must be very close to what the New Government is telling them.

Hillside is not the end of the "game." It is strongly implied that Hillside residents are still locked in some sort of betrayal-based "loyalty" test.

So what do you think? What is the nature of or purpose of "The New Government?" And how do you think Oscar fits in?