#this is also edited because i wasn't satisfied earlier

[wilderhyperfoxations]

Chains of Eternity- my biased, terrible little review

This will include spoilers, so you've been warned. Although I like this game (my tumblr and even this post are a testament to that) sometimes things you like can fall short. So, let's get into my various critiques of COE. The start of the story felt pretty strong. I do wish we saw Valen, BECAUSE WHERE IS THAT MAN, but sure, right. I felt like there were too many side characters during the first few quests, and this trend continues through the whole arc. I really liked Faramor… so where the hell did he go? He sort of disappeared without much of an explanation. He had no character development, or it simply wasn't portrayed in a cohesive way. But his VA was very good. Also, controversial, but while I did enjoy Lorsan's cameo- it did not add anything. Same with half the characters this season, they really came out of nowhere, and could have been utilized in a more interesting way. The whole immortality talk also felt unconvincing- sure it's bad but if you're really afraid of death it's a small price to pay, and you'll watch people die even if you're mortal, so… weak argument there. Cyran. God, Cyran, they barely used him, too. Which I really wished they did. Also the King/Duke(?) was kind of barely there. They did nail Yolena and made the ending that much more WHAT THE FUCK. There were some bigger overarching issues, such as: Structural issues, Promise, payoff, Setup, Too much fluff, Pacing, Lore. Structural issues- the story structure did not feel sound nor satisfying due to the lack of promise at the start and the lack of payoff at the end (ex.- in WOI, it's "Merlin wants to leave Rustport, Sinbad wants to be a Captain, Sonja wants to kill her dad" and all of those things come true and make a satisfying story). This is pretty much the same as "setup"- there was not much of that. Too much fluff- too many characters and frivolous parts that I felt could be trimmed. Most characters could be cut out and the story would still work. Pacing- unlike WOI, which felt like it lasted ages, or even the first few storylines that were pretty even, this one was choppy. The start dragged and then the end sprinted. The whole thing whizzed past me and there I was, left befuddled. Lore- confusing! In the story not much is elaborated on, but then in some heart-to-heart's there are comments on why graveborns were made that… actually make no sense, or are unsupported by the wider narrative. How would they improve this? Honestly. Just more editing and more time. This one must've been rushed, or something, because WOI was stellar for any game (and again Sinbad's VA was FIRE, nothing stood out to me this time). And if I were to edit this story, I'd introduce Valka earlier, and give her some clearer goal than just "am sad, don't deserve your praise, blah". State it more clearly that she wishes she could make things right. And the villain, who I neglected to mention- all villains besides the WOI ones have been last-minute. Cryonaia was intimidating, but, she was… not setup. If the story spoke of her earlier, or incorporated her into some legend, her reveal would mean more. Otherwise she's just another hypogean. Also, what was her goal? What was she trying to do? Who the fuck knows. I found her vibe unclear. Tell me if I missed something, but I do doubt I missed anything major. Altogether, if this was a book, I'd give it a 2 or 3 stars for "you tried and you almost got here but your editor must've been drunk and passed out for months or something".

[britt-kageryuu]

The audience of the stream is watching Leo move about the set checking a laptop, tablet, and his phone all sitting on a desk with a blue gaming chair. He was also swapping his models outfit, not sure which would fit with whatever he was about to talk about.

He finally chose a full Lou Jitsu jumpsuit, with gloves, platform shoes, and shield glasses worn over his usual mask. He plopped back into the chair and poses with his one of his ligs crossed over the other, and leaning onto his left hand.

"Sorry 'bout starting the stream while I wasn't ready. I found some amazing news, and wanted to track down as much actual facts, to make sure I had everything correct." He leans over to the laptop to set something up. Once he was satisfied he turns back to facing the camera.

"So, it's fairly obvious we're big Lou Jitsu fans here, so imagine our surprise to hear about someone attempting to claim his supposed left behind fortune. Because people for some reason think he's dead, and not just trying to live peacefully somewhere." Leo clicks on something, and a news article pops up.

"Woman claims to be Lou Jitsus 'long lost' Daughter/Granddaughter."

"Either the Lady couldn't keep her story straight, or whoever wrote this kept getting conflicting evidence. Part of why I wasn't quite ready. Had to check is with my journalist sis to see if she could help get things straight." He clicks over to something else and a different article takes the place of the previous one.

"Woman attempts to steal fortune of Lou Jitsu with faulty Scam. Surprised by the results!"

"So to set the scene better, this lady shows up out of nowhere, claiming she's, let's see by age... Daughter! Of Lou Jitsu. I don't know how she planned to have this work with modern DNA matching and everything, but she apparently refused to do a DNA test to prove this. If this was literally 30 years earlier she wouldn't have to worry, but I guess she didn't bank on people asking so many questions." He gets rid of the article, and brings up a badly edited birth certificate. "Seems she believed she could just wave around a doctored Birth Certificate, and some flimsy 'photographic evidence' that looked like they were put together in a bootleg photoshop program."

A couple of pictures appear on screen, they were obviously edited pictures of Lou Jitsu "holding" a baby, or child. Then a couple with a little girl that looked very off, the lighting didn't match between the girl, and Lou.

"Yeah, this didn't fly with the people at the banks, or whichever government offices, she had attempted go to, especially since there was a different thing blocking her from succeeding in this sham of a scam." Leo looks proud of himself for that slight word play. Something is thrown at him from off screen, and he glares at whoever threw it before continuing.

"You see, Lou Jitsu had set up an interesting set of security questions and or tests for getting access his bank accounts. He did include a DNA matching test as a last ditch security, but it never got that far. No she got caught at a slightly obscure set of security questions that required you to answer a random on set inside joke from one of Lou Jitsus first movies!" Leo laughs and spins in his chair a couple times. He stops and brings up a new document.

"Okay, so this is a copy of the security tests list we got ahold of, as you can see," He points at a spot near the top that's highlighted, "Lady didn't get very far into the security tests. Yeah there are alot of them, he apparently set this up not long before completely disappearing from the limelight. Though why there's so many tests is anyone's guess! Maybe it's just to annoy whoever attempts to fake their way into his accounts?"

Leo thinks it over a bit before muting the mic and shouting off to the side, then waiting for an answer, where he nods his head, and talks to whoever's off screen, with a couple of odd gestures and head tilts. After a couple minutes he unmutes the mic.

"So, just asked Dee a couple questions, and while we can only speculate why Lou make such a complicated set of tests, what we do know is that the tests were actually updated a few years back. So Lou is still out there, and he knows the Lady made this attempt. And has filed a lawsuit against her! That will be an interesting day in court!!" He quickly stands up and throws his arms up in the air with jazz hands.

After sitting back down he swaps out the documents still on screen with a couple of pictures of the Lady's headshots from getting arrested for attempted fraud, and scam. Her name is blurred out.

"This is the Lady, we don't want to give out her name since she either has a very unfortunate name, or she would only give them a very crude name instead of her actual name. Plus some places can't legally tell the names of people who were arrested, so let's go with that." Leo reads some notes on the laptop then added, "And she might have a record already, but we can't read or find any legal documents that confirm or deny this."

The pictures are taken off the screen, and the lighting changes.

"Well, there's not much more of that incident that's public, so let's move on to something else Lou Jitsu related! They've announced a new special anniversary movie bundle! And we have some info on the special bonus features!" Leo announces, and brings up some graphics for this movie bundle.

The stream continues from there, and even though some people in chat are still shouting questions about the scammer lady segment, they get ignored and buried under other things spammed in the chat. Especially since donation notifications were disabled for the stream.

-------------------

Masterpost

[mulders-too-large-shirt]

s2 episode 11 thoughts

okay!!!! i've kept you waiting long enough. now let's get into the things i liked about this episode while ignoring the stuff i didn't.

first. mulder walking into his office. and scully sitting there in the dark, watching a tape.

this had me HOWLING. how did she get in there? she keeps a key to his house and his office on hand at all times? the level of casualness with which he turned on the lights only for dana scully to be sitting in his office chair, as if it were the most natural of things in the world, floored me. she made herself welcome. she looks up and says hello.

then we get a little lore break to learn about the case and yeah yeah case stuff hold on. did she just say she got there at 6 am?

yes, you heard me correctly, she made her way into his office at 6 in the morning to watch the video and go through all of the related x files. i think i had tears in my eyes at this point and i definitely do now as i recount it. dana scully you are such a little weirdo and i love you so bad. i hope you enjoyed your time rummaging through his stuff. glad his space has really become yours as well.

and his entire lack of reaction to her being there pushed me even further over the edge. like, sure. at this point in their relationship, why not walk in to see her sitting at your desk and going through all your shit? the level of casual intimacy is at once so fucking funny and so heartwarming.

(a few weeks ago i was chatting with a friend about our top five favorite fictional characters, and i made the argument that scully and mulder ought to count as just one character for the sake of the ranking, because of how entirely they blend into one person. and her just being there when he opens the door- and having been there for hours at that point- really solidifies my reasoning. and i had made that argument BEFORE seeing any of s2, let alone this moment)

the next moment that had me laughing was when they went to the convalescent home (which wasn't a word i was familiar with before all of this) and our poor agents get stuck questioning a 74 year old man during his bath time. i already had a "oh noooo" feeling of dread about the whole situation- for how could the academy prepare them for this? and sure enough, he flashed them.

now, this was, like i mentioned in an earlier post, part of an attempt at social commentary that i could and might write an essay on- but let's set that aside here, and just deal with the fact that our poor agents have been put into such an awkward position, while understanding that the scene is being played for comedic value despite how awful that would be irl. because mulder smiles and says "thanks for sharing", while scully also bites back laughter. their faces at this moment had me laughing. it was such a "fuck my entire life" moment for both of them and i felt that extreme case of tv show-induced secondhand embarrassment.

and i think they handled it quite well!!! have we considered giving them a raise? for having to deal with all the haunted children and now creepy old men? god. their poor eyes. "thanks for sharing" stfu mulder... he cannot act seriously for ONE minute!!!!!!

there was another big ass coats moment when they walked outside and spoke with someone involved in running the program. and you know by now that's catnip to me!!!

one of the old men starts choking to death (he was taking mushroom pills he wasn't supposed to) and scully slips into Doctor Mode and it was deeply satisfying to watch. she starts saying fancy words and calling out for certain medications- "this man's in ventricular fibrillation, i need 75 milligrams of lidocaine and one amp of amphinephrine" and i'm sat there like yes. exactly right!!! she's doing serious doctor business!!!!

(i need to edit this image to make it appropriate for when her doctor mode takes over. because this is what i'm always referencing when i say someone is "shifting into ____ mode" and i don't think i've ever spelled that out before so i should here. have not seen seinfeld just saw this image one day and it permanently altered my vocabulary)

there's another moment where she's having a doctor-off with the dude who worked at the place and she said the line "the clinical benefits are marginal at best" and idk man i just like to see her doing her doctorly thing.

(she also gets very doctorly excited about the idea of there being improvements for incurable conditions such as alzheimer's and it's good to see some joy on her)

next thing that had me laughing:

"are you saying that the building's haunted? because if you are, i think you've been working with me for too long, scully" <- said in a flirtatious manner

don't remember what was going on at this point beyond someone had just fallen to death, but i wrote "another scully serving looks moment in the midst of tragedy" and i stand by it. this is really an epidemic. scully stop working angles in front of the dead... or don't because i'm not actually complaining <3

we also see mulder prowling down a dark and damp hall and cracking open a lock to break into a room. which seemed like a typical activity for a guy like him. literally just a tuesday in his life. he found a bunch of mushrooms and i made a frantic note reading along the lines of DO NOT TOUCH THEM because famously mushrooms WILL kill you but he seemed unharmed. thank god.

he's all, what if the mushrooms are what is helping the patients, and scully delivers this banger line: "mulder, mushrooms aren't medicine. they taste good on hamburgers, but they can't raise the dead"

which is 1. a hilarious fucking line just for its sheer ridiculousness, and 2. a critical insight into how scully orders her burgers... which i WILL be adding to my list of useless character facts

the episode winds down with mulder getting trapped in a room with rapidly rising water and we see the door SLAM right before scully can witness the ghosts tossing things about. and the commitment to that gag of her never actually seeing the paranormal stuff really got me there.

then, the door breaks due to the water, and everyone is soaking wet, which is always a good look.

overall, highlight of this episode to me was by far scully breaking into his office at 6 am. nothing will top that for me in terms of comedic value. it has become Her space now. she has claimed you mulder, there is no going back, you are in far too deep and thank god for that because you freaks deserve each other.

[surrealliberosis]

Hi, Tumblr. It's Oni.

TW: Mild Violence, for the following content showcases physical combat. All movements shown should not be imitated.

I haven't thought of putting actual effort into a real blog compared to the short ones sourced within the site (reposts and screen recording), nor do I have any intention to frequently do such content, so think of this as some sort of biographical experiment. I hope you enjoy the rambling.

So what happened earlier was that I visited the town center mall, and I grabbed my hands on one of the arcade cabinets to play...

Yeah. I played Street Fighter VI.

This isn't my first time though. I played it once a few weeks ago, and it's EXCITING. It felt like a dream come true. It's really surprising how experiencing the game by hand is different from passively appreciating it. It made me very happy cuz' it's an opportunity worth taking to play this game.

The first gameplay I've made is just pure improv - mashing buttons without understanding the fundamentals; Now, revisiting the game, I got the opportunity to practice in Tutorial Mode. I learned about the basic attacks and new gameplay mechanics, which took a little while but got a slight hang of it.

Short comment: Classic controls are hard for a fighting game noobs like me. Glad I selected the tutorial set for the Modern control scheme. Easier to learn and grasp with the controls.

Once I'm done understanding how to practically use and memorize the basics, I've started learning how to play my favorite character. Juri Han.

Short disclaimer: this post is not meant for anybody who likes grippers (ew). Sorry, not having that. Careful, kids.

Playing as Juri is quite different from playing as Luke (the tutorial character), cuz she has a tricky moveset that can seize opening vulnerabilities within close attack range and her moveset is unpredictable (at least from what I can precisely remember during the tutorial). I looked up at her character guide in-game to practice basic attacks and fundamental combos. The attack animations are satisfying to watch because of how fluid and dynamic her moves are, and how there's this splash-like woosh effect that empasizes strong movement. It took me a while to let the unique basic attacks sink in my head until I can independently make up some decent combos.

I have a few clips of live gameplay since I wasn't initially going to stay at the mall for very long, so here's a short clip of me basically experimenting with Juri's moves in practice mode (along with the random button-mashing).

I could also show more, but I just found out that I can only share 1 video per post. Okay, Tumblr.

That's basically about it lol. It overall cheered me up when I felt down earlier this morning due to tons of schoolwork. Hopefully I'll come back to visit and play again next time.

Hm. Maybe I'll actually get the game one day. Heh.

Okay. Bye now.

Edit: I can't play A.K.I waaaaaahhh 😭

[hotcheetohatredwastaken]

Hi! This is anon from the other day who was asking about outlining! First of all, thanks so much for your input! It was really helpful and I finally have an ok outline- at least in my opinion! Just wondering if you have anymore advice on outling in general- My fics going to be a longer one- looking at average novel length here for everything I want to shove in it. Have a good day! :D

Hello, dear anon! I am always happy to give advice (though the quality of it may be lacking, as I speak from personal experience rather than professional study).

If you're looking for some more advice (writing wise), I would suggest making sure that you don't spend too much time obsessing over any one chapter, especially as you're just starting out on such a long project. Not that you can't edit, but I've seen so many new writers (how new are you at writing? That may change my future advice, if you ask for it) edit and edit and edit their first chapters without ever moving onto the second because they're trying to get it perfect. I'm on a writing exchange platform on Reddit (Writers Helping Writers), and I had one kid send me his first chapter no more than seven times to review the different versions, because he couldn't get down the details of how he wanted that inciting scene to go. It's been like 3? months, and he just sent me an eighth version the other day, and I had to tell him that I wasn't gonna give (the same) feedback on the chapter anymore XD

Especially if you're going to be doing a long fic, new things you'll want to add to different sections will pop up as you go. You just have to accommodate for ideas as they come up rather than try to preemptively pin them all down, and I'm saying this as the person known as being super super detailed with crazy outlines, apparently. You have to be a bit flexible--the story will take you places that you didn't expect to go, and you'll have to go back and fix details and revise many many times.

Specifically for outlining, however, I am a very visual person, so I have drawings, diagrams, and I also have a corkboard with all my chapter "sections" on sticky notes, with string connecting big subplots (I've actually taken these all down right now, and the only one's up are concluded subplots XD Arc 2 is a mess rn). You'll just have to play around and see what works for you, when it comes to that. Have you seen the train station model for subplots? I'm not sure if that's exactly what it's called, because googling it gets nothing, but when I started writing years and years ago there was one for the Hunger Games going around XD Basically, deciding which subplots will be advanced in which scenes, and tracking them through the story that similar to a system of subway rails, with each chapter being a stop that only some of the trains (subplots) will stop at. It gives you the opportunity to visually make sure that you give each the amount of screentime they deserve and also remember to give them a satisfying conclusion that's going in the same direction, to extend the metaphor, as the main plot.

It's great that you have an outline already, as that'll cut down on those revisions that I mentioned earlier a lot! And you're going for NOVEL LENGTH? Wow, good luck, and as I said before, please message me when you get around to posting that! Feel free to message me if you need anything, whether that be talking through plot points or my specific processes for anything.

You have a good day yourself, my dear writing anon!

[readythefanons]

desk dispatch (early May 2023)

writing desk updates from your pal reddy

desk status: under control (patches of the desk's surface are visible, and the stacks do not exceed 3 inches in height = manageable but in the middle of some things)

General notes from April:

I used April's camp NaNo (NaNoWriMo=national novel writing month, which is in November. Camp NaNo is for self-set goals and is held in April and July) to work on an outline! I outlined the Petra/Sylvain fic, and I wrote about 10k >_> the outline is mostly there, but there are a few sections in the middle that could use some more attention

I finally succeeded in winning the "write every day" achievement for (camp) NaNo!!!!!

I posted "Place" in April which is an Adopted!Hilda AU. If you're reading this post, you probably saw at least one of the eleventybillion promos I scheduled for the fic. (five. It was five.) I started that fic in 2020, so it feels great to post it

What's in the can: NOTHING. I have nothing lined up to post. But...

The Leonie fan anthology (AKA Sunflower: A Leonie Fanzine) is shipping/has shipped! I have a fic in that one, and I hope that soonish I'll be able to post that fic to AO3 :) That piece is titled "not a circle, but a spiral"

I am poking the Leonie/Lorenz SciFi AU again. In a fit of productivity, I re-outlined the thing and I hope to poke the draft itself soon.

I wrote and edited 3k of thoughts on pronouns and personhood in the book Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie. When I finally hit post on that, you'll see it on my book blog @reddy-reads but I might also bump it over here because why not. embarrassment is for other people. (disclaimer: not every blog on tumblr with "reddy" in the name is connected to me, i promise)

Miscellaneous thoughts: outlining

I might... love... outlining? To be determined. But it felt so good to work on the Petra/Sylvain outline, and it felt good to work on the SciFi AU outline. So IF these fics actually get written, then I might never go back to my no-outline ways.

What I liked about it: it was so satisfying to think about all the parts of the story and how they were supposed to fit together. It was useful to be able to plan out which characters would show up when and where. It was useful (but often felt bad) to realize that certain scene ideas I had weren't working (usually because there wasn't enough concept there). It was SO much easier to go "wait this isn't working" after only writing a few sentences instead of pages and pages. It was much easier to go "oh I need to introduce X earlier" in an outline than after writing (and posting!!!) whole chapters. It feels good to have a plan about where the story goes and how it reaches the ending.

Outlining (it's new to me): My other multichapter fics ("all things considered could be worse" in Netflix!Daredevil fandom, and of course the "Pull It Together" duology) were written without an outline! I knew generally what I wanted to happen and how the ending should feel, but I didn't know how I was going to get from A to Z.

(Actually... those fics BOTH started as oneshot responses to prompts on kinkmemes... and... the Petra/Sylvain fic was inspired by a post on a kinkmeme, and it was originally conceived as a oneshot. So, uh, credit for finally recognizing a pattern!)

Why I'm finally trying outlining: I've become increasingly aware that I have limited time and energy. I wish I didn't. I wish I felt limitless, but the last few year-or-so has just taught me that I only have so much bandwidth. (Which is a good lesson, even/especially if it's not really welcome.) So since I'm admitting that I have limited time and energy, why shouldn't I help myself spend more time doing what I enjoy (writing!) and less time doing what I dislike (not writing because I'm stuck). So that's part of why I have this fresh interest in outlining.

The other thing about outlining is that--well Leonie and Lorenz's stories were fundamentally pretty simple. The Matt & Foggy (Daredevil again) story was even simpler because it was a slice of life. It was hard to get truly lost there. The Petra/Sylvain story needs to fit together a little more precisely, and that means prewriting. AKA writing the whole thing, then editing and posting. I'm not looking forward to giving up my post-as-you-go ways, but maybe I'll end up loving it.

The last part of the "why suddenly outline and prewrite" puzzle is a little... uh... it's a little sensitive. I have ideas about Petra and Brigid that I want to express, but the themes involved (colonialism/imperialism) are delicate. I want to give myself the option of really thinking it through & maybe even getting an extra set of eyes on it before putting it out on the whole internet to see.

So that's why I haven't been posting as much. I'm cooking up something big, I hope people will like it.

Final goodies

Fic rec: Ruu has written a Leonie/Lorenz fic called "Of Conduct, Of Manners." The Jane Austen influence wafts off the page. It updates regularly, and the whole thing is already written :D :D :D

Writing podcasts: I like the writing podcast "Writing Excuses" and "Fiction Writing Made Easy with Savannah Gilbo."

Media podcasts: I still adore "Be the Serpent." It's on hiatus but they have an extensive back catalogue. I got so many great media recommendations from them.

Writing essays: I enjoyed Diane Duane's blog post about her outlining style and approach. I used her "grocery shopping list" and it really helped me build my outline's backbone.

Writing essay 2: A discord pal shared this post with me, which helped me get past an outlining block. The bit about "stop writing scenes you don't want to write" was the magic ingredient for me.

Meal Idea: Vegetarian sushi bowl. Make some rice, season it into sushi rice. Add all the yummy veggies you want. Eat and enjoy. (I made the sushi rice, but then I mixed some riced cauliflower into it for extra bonus veggies. For topping I did avocado w a sprinkle of soy sauce, finely cut carrot, Japanese pickles [cucumber and ginger], and edamame. I also had nori to wrap it as I ate because I loooove seaweed.)

[scendscales]

2024: SEIZE OUR DESTINY & REDEEM THE FUTURE.

This year was a productive one for me in gaming. I played more games than the usual because I got into the entire Xeno franchise--Xenogears, Xenosaga, and Xenoblade. I also played other games outside of the Xeno franchise. It was an absolutely phenomenal experience.

I began with Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition. I was actually encouraged by my friends to play it, which I eventually did earlier this year. Initially, I wasn't planning on playing its predecessors, but the experience was actually enjoyable enough for me to consider it. The new side story that came along with the definitive edition was also fantastic. Future Connected gave a very fitting and impactful side story about an important character in the Xenoblade series.

After wrapping everything up, I moved to Xenosaga Episode I: Der Wille Zur Macht. It was a rather unique experience for me. The story of Xenosaga fully extends among its three mainline titles, but there are important plot points in the spin-offs as well.

My first plan was to play the Xeno games in this order: Xenoblade DE, Xenosaga 1, Xenoblade 2, Xenosaga 2, Xenoblade 3, Xenosaga 3, Xenoblade X, and finally, Xenogears. (Weird play order, I know.) Thus, my next game was Xenoblade Chronicles 2.

My experience was a bit rough. There has been a lot of instances where my exploration was hindered because of a certain mechanic in the game, but I still did enjoy my time with it. Its prequel, Torna: The Golden Country, also emotionally destroyed me. In fact, Torna easily landed a spot in one of my top five games. That's how amazing it was.

I took a break from Xeno games and played Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep after. It was short, but a great game regardless. Kingdom Hearts games always nail it at the ending, and Birth By Sleep was no exception from that. I also tried something new to me which was Mad Father. Also a short game, but it provided the kind of experience you'd expect from a game of its nature.

The next Xeno games on my list are highly rated ones, so I was really excited to play them. I was not disappointed at all. Xenogears and Xenosaga Episode III: Also Sprach Zarathustra are incredible games that deserve the recognition. Xenosaga 3 had clean and amazing graphics for a PS2 game, and Xenogears' storytelling was topnotch.

I also tried out a new game that was released just this year, which was Reynatis. It honestly has a beautiful art style, and the character designs look really good too. However, I feel like it could've benefited a lot from more development time. This game has potential, but sadly, it falls short.

Finally, I get to wrap things up with Xenoblade Chronicles 3. Just like how Xenosaga 3 was the best of its series, this, too, was the best one in Xenoblade. Its side story, Future Redeemed, also perfectly wraps up the entire Xenoblade series, and it even made references from its predecessors Xenosaga and Xenogears. It honestly felt like a message to all dedicated Xeno fans that the universes in each game, although from different timelines, are still connected. It was also satisfying seeing and understanding all the references they put.

Once everything was done, I felt like I had achieved something great. At the same time, I do feel a little burned out from everything, so I'll be taking a short break until January next year. All the games that I've finished have left something within me, and I'll be bringing them with me to the future.

[ladyazulina]

Azu is Talking — A Little Too Personal at the End

This week, the dental pain I have been updating you about has been decreasing. Slowly but surely. I was able to stop numbing my mouth to fall asleep earlier in the week, so that’s… good? I guess? It’s still hurting, but I see even the smaller of steps as progress, so.

This Creative Monday was… intense, to say the least. Fortunately, the mechanic of this game seems to be coming pretty nicely. Wordy-wise, at least. I easily spent the whole afternoon working on it, seven hours. From late morning to right into the evening, with a long break to prepare and eat lunch (watching a series episode~) and a shorter one to have a coffee.

My eyes were tired of seeing words and I still wanted to try to add something to the [REDACTED] adventure, ‘cause that goes whenever I can, remember? And I did, though very little, and my eyes ended up also hurting after that. I still have just a bit more than two weeks left to work on it. Not sure how many words missing just yet. But with just an hour or so to end my working hours, I wasn't really sure about my odds (I did the add-up with five minutes to spare). Don't have to rush and worry about it just yet, but the sooner I can end it, the better I will feel. And I always want to feel the better.

That’s not what usually happens on Tuesdays… Particularly this one. When reading a book in which you have 50+ favorite highlighted quotes, Review Tuesday becomes a nightmare.

Read this week’s review:

Posting each and every one of those quotes individually (because I want to 😭) is a heavy job. I can try to quell it a bit by listening to music and reading those quotes during the arduous posting to remind myself how much I loved that book, but it still leaves a toll. Especially if after the first massive posting on Tumblr, I'm doing the same on Patreon, repeating it on Ko-fi, and doing it once more on Co-host! Doesn't surprise me that it took me a whole day. But a whole day trying to post a review was going to easily become a killer instead of a cause of excitement. That's why I rebranded my Ko-fi and the way I shared the reviews on Co-host! Now it's a headache, but a headache that takes a slightly less amount of time and leaves me with enough left to try to fix the rest of my day. Or madden me even more, who knows?

Iron Valley, Linney's Campaign, is being live every Tuesday.

Yeah, kind of that is what I meant. Not only that, though.

I started the day by sharing everywhere I could the second post of Linney’s campaign on Iron Valley. Then I worked on posting the review of the week. All those reviews are from books I read in 2022 and 2023, I haven’t had that much of a reading spur this year mostly because I wanted to slow down and read some books I wanted outside of ARC and Beta picks. It hasn’t worked like that, if I have to be honest, but it’s like I needed the rest. I am still reading (or trying to 😬) for the teams I am already a part of, just took a year’s pause from actively looking and pursuing new teams to apply for.

After that, anyway, I had a really motivating brainstorming session with a trusted friend 💙 (my heart aches for being able not only to say but also believe that I have friends I can trust) that led me to dive for almost six hours on the [REDACTED] adventure. I was satisfied (and oh so tired) for basically finishing it with a little more than two weeks before the deadline (being aware of the time was, is, and will still be jamming my head), but I still have to make a few editions to make it the best I could. I feel so low-key hyped.

Working Wednesday, though, didn’t have much of ‘Working’. I started the day with a power outage and that wrecked my plans, even if they were really not that time or head-consuming. I could have finished with my Collaborative Writing Workshop later on, but I wasn’t feeling it. Had enough of a time figuring out what I was going to eat and how I was going to dive into the darkness of a kitchen I had even in the brightest of hours (and I had, for a change, the brightest of days so far lately). Fortunately, the power came back for a little bit to let me fix my breakfast. And then came back again so I could fix my lunch (really, really thankful for that). It went out for a little bit again when I was prepping my dessert (the first time in a long time, I can get accustomed to that 😏). But so far it held. Still have no idea what happened that day (to warrant the power outage, I mean).

So, when I finally was able to settle, it was already time for the coffee break (sacred, do not disturb), and I felt so out of sync that I just made some last-minute editions and called it a day. I added a few more things to my schedule (’cause I just remembered), but so far it could have totally gone as an UnPlanned Resting Day. I took a book from my small, brand-new, growing, personal library collection and read for hours. I don’t remember when was the last time I read a physical book I physically held in my physical hands (my last birthday doesn’t count because the book wasn’t mine yet and I was in a bookstore 👀), so it was nice. Now I just have to finish it. Preferably before the end of the month. Hopefully more on that next week 🤞

Backstage Thursday was… backstaging, ba dum tss 🥁 I did an orderly move of tasks to help me manage a bit better few certain things outside my thematic days. Like an edition I had to start because of me getting into a new project… as an editor. It took me longer than I expected, but I had so much fun starting to dive in there and I’m loving a lot the setting and the concepts and I’m into the idea that my ‘boss’ is such an easy-going person, it will be hella fun to work with them. I did my scheduled task as well, and also had to reject a possible paid project because I didn’t find myself fit enough for it. Mature decisions. I’m growing way so fast 🥺

I also found a solo TTRPG game I could playtest the week after next. I know I ‘should’ have finished the previous one by now, but life happened. Anyhow, I’m happy and excited for the new game. I really can’t wait. I’m surprisingly content as well with the subjects I was able to grab for my incoming semester. I had to withdraw all of them last semester, so I wasn’t sure how things were going to go on this one, but I even found a virtual class! It’s the best of the best of what I can get. I will totally talk a lot more about my college life after the semester starts in three weeks anyway, so let’s wait until then.

On Secret Friday, though, I was not having it. I woke up in a m o o d, that much I noticed. Last week I signed up as a player for an incoming charity weekend stream to raise funds for medical aid for Palestine by playing TTRPG games. I woke up that day overthinking the help I could give as a player with my need for accommodations. If I haven’t said it yet, I’m hard of hearing and that is such a Big Thing™ in my life… at least for me. All the session zeros and games seemed to be taking place on voice channels on Discord, and Discord doesn’t have yet closed captions integrated (w h y?!). The session zero for a game I wanted to play was taking place that day, so my mood wasn’t helping. It was pushing me to just withdraw altogether, not wanting to be a bother by switching the calls to Google Meets, which could be a problem during a live stream if none of us had a paid account cause Google would be kicking us out every hour. For a game of at least three hours. I… I wasn’t having it.

Fortunately, it did not have a grasp of me. The session zero was held on Google Meets, and the organizer said we would have an account with a Google free trial, so it shouldn’t be able to cut us out during the stream. I had a lot of fun meeting the cast and was glad of hadn’t listened to my head. Now I can formally invite you to accompany us from August 2nd to August 4th on Desis & Dragons’ Twitch channel, we will be playing a lot of games with huge diverse casts for such an amazing cause.

Still on that same Secret Friday, I was also having sad feelings, finding an article in my inbox that very morning that started like this:

Living with hearing loss impacts every aspect of my life. It shapes how I communicate, navigate the world, and connect (or, more often, don’t connect) with others. During Disability Pride month, I find myself thinking lately about unexpected support — the small, impactful ways people have shown up and advocated on my behalf when I couldn’t. There’s my wife, of course, who helps translate basically everywhere we go, and who’s learning ASL with me so we can communicate a little easier. — Pride and Perseverance by AnnaGrams.

As I said, I was having feelings, and I was already a filled well, so I was overflowing. That start hit me somewhere and thought about approaching the author, Anna Pulley, but I was at a loss for words.

I tried to do things that day, but nothing (apart from the session zero) seemed to be working for me, so, understandably so, I just let it be. My partner spent a lot of time with me and, after the session, we had our coffee break (I started having coffee breaks thanks to him) and a few hours watching a series.

I partly knew what I was feeling, so when I didn’t wake up on Playful Saturday feeling better, it didn’t surprise me. It took me a while to figure out what it was though, but after the first harsh wave, I noticed there is only one thing able to destroy me completely overnight. The hormones were shifting to prepare for the period.

What’s the problem with it? The feelings, thoughts, and emotions I have been feeling for the last decade around the hormones have been extremely radical. I don’t consider myself an impulsive person… in this sort of thing, at least, but the intensity that overcomes me has been huge enough to scare me. Of myself. For myself. I’ve been fighting depression all my life and earlier with this I noticed it is something that affects greatly my style of life. Very few people believe me, not the ones who could help me do something about it though. Yet. So it hasn’t been funny.

After communicating with my partner, he decided it best to keep me in his line of sight. So dear friends I also kept in the loop were checking on me. I felt a prisoner of my own body (though this happens often and not only because of this particular matter) and a hostage of my own mind. I made the smarter move, but it was a difficult day.

Reaching the evening, my partner started looking for activities to actively distract me. We ended up playing a few (many) puzzles from Baba is You. It was highly stimulating and I ended up deeply engrossed, so much so that when he had to leave me to spend time with his family, I shifted the attention toward the TTRPG game I’m playing. Instead of the four parts I used to go over in the previous weeks, I was only able to focus through one and a half of another, but so far that was more than I expected to do that day. Depending on how this new week goes, I may or may not finish this first campaign there. I’m excited.

The excitement doesn’t break through this mood that’s bringing me down, but now that I recognized it, it’s slightly easier to fight it. Just slightly. Being able to differentiate when something comes from you and when it comes from the liar you have as a brain makes it all a bit less strenuous. And, sometimes, that’s all you need.

I’m only playing in one game so far next weekend, but nonetheless, I hope to see you there. Until next week 💙

[nightcall99]

Dreams from 19.7.24

Dream 1: I was in a classroom and sitting at a desk with ED (a co-worker/friend from 5 years ago). We got along really well, we were chatting and mucking around as class was happening. We had one of those puzzle and game books and were working through the pages to pass the time. One of the most satisfying games was a matching-the-clue-to-a-word game and eventually the words we guess right would spell a sentence. I found it quite fun, but mostly because I was with ED. We talked to the students around us and as they did other things. There didn't seem to be any teacher around. I started talking to a girl about how I thought I was neurodivergent. I said, I think I have autism, when I'm masked I'm normal and you can't even tell because I'm very polite but without the mask I can unintentionally come across as rude and abrasive. ED joined the conversation and said, Me too, that's me as well. I then tried to tell her, Omg that's autism! Are you also sensitive to light and noise? She wasn't. I got excited because I wanted to label her so we could have more in common or some misplaced sense of 'help' where I thought it would benefit her to be aware of it. But I realised it was pointless and not supposed to be part of her experience, so I dropped it.

Then some guy in the class wanted the puzzle book for himself but we refused to give it to him. Some other girl was speaking on his behalf and kept trying to get to us to hand it over. I said, Why doesn't he go to the shop and buy himself one? She said, Because it's like $50 (I think because now it's a rare/old edition) and he can't afford that. After some fighting the guy ended up taking the book off of us. I didn't understand what he was in it for him since we had already filled out all the puzzles so it's not even going to be fun for him. What was the point? I saw him leaf through the pages. Then we had to move to a different classroom and I entered it alone and chose a place to sit down, thinking that when ED caught up she would sit next to me. But she was already on the other side of the room and told me to come over there.

Dream 2: I was in a house and there was a big gathering of family and friends (no one I recognised). We were celebrating something, maybe it was Christmas. Some kid walked in who I recognised as the actor who plays Luke in Modern Family. He looked like he was in his early teens and then when I blinked, I saw him running around the room looking like he was only 8 years old (just like in the earlier seasons). I said to his friend, Did I see that right? The friend said, Yeah he does that sometimes. When I looked at Luke again, he now looked like a teen and then as he was walking away, back to the 8 year old. He didn't say anything to me, he seemed to think it was funny that he could change forms. Other than that, I remember I was interacting with heaps of people which is unlike me irl. I was really happy to engage with everyone and it was like I was a bit manic, or at least just feeling very free to be myself and soak up the good energy. I seemed to know everyone and everyone I came across, I got along with them easily. The energy was very exciting and suspenseful.

Then in the next scene I am walking the streets of the city on my own, when just before I had been with a great many people. It felt like New Year's Eve. I had on a beautiful shin-length party dress and high heels and I felt great. My feet weren't even hurting, in fact I was barely conscious of even having a body. I knew that it was about 11:20pm, so only around 40 minutes left of the year. While I walked, I suddenly thought about the TG chat and were you guys all were. The feeling was I had been with you guys, but you had moved on to another place or scattered and I wanted to find you guys again. Mort replied to me. I don't know what he said but the energy was like we were old friends. In fact, the feeling that pervaded this part of the dream was exactly the feeling of the three of us chatting last night which happened at around 11:20pm too. Subconsciously, it felt like I was 'waiting' for Mort's birthday (even though consciously I did not care), just like I was waiting for midnight in this dream. There was an excitement that nobody knows what to with, and it's only just registering.

As I walked through the city streets, I came across my mother and her friends. She said something low-vibe in Vietnamese, probably shit about me, but I didn't care, I didn't stop. I continued on. Then my father messaged me saying the nursing home tried to get into contact with him and he didn't know why. In the dream, I had tried to get into contact with them a long time ago asking advice about a particular health problem but they were only just now replying. The message they sent him (instead of to me) was referring to him like wasn't even there or sound of mind/able-bodied, like he was a resident of the nursing home, when he isn't. I kept wondering where everyone was.

Dream 3: I was at work in the back area and a big white fluffy dog came up to me. I was highly affectionate toward it and I was so excited to see it. I was saying cutesy stuff to it and another co-worker who was there too watched me and smiled.

Dream 4: I was in somebody else's body and I had just realised. It was a female body. I felt how it was to have someone else's genitalia which disgusted me for a millisecond but mostly I was just shocked to realise I had a human body at all. It's like I hadn't realised I was in a body but I began to recognise that it had been me all along. I then came to realise that I had in fact swapped bodies with anyone at all, it's that I had gone through life unaware of having a body and the strange feeling overtook me just now. It think this dream is about me perceiving the NPC body as foreign.

[novantinuum]

Finger painting, cricut, film?

Ohohoh the first one is going to be interesting indeed... *eye emoji as I look at this list...*

Thank you so much for sending one in, fren! :D

Writer/OC ask meme source

__

Finger Painting- Share a small snippet from your earliest work (or the earliest that you can get back to). How would you rewrite it today? Either share the rewrite itself or just describe how you’d do it.

Hmm... so, I'm only going to go back to my earliest Gravity Falls story, because to go any earlier would be to lose my sanity. Let's look at "Stanford in the Looking Glass."

Interestingly enough, I already AM re-imagining this fic! It's a series of thematically interconnected one-shots about Ford and his reflection throughout his life. I'm definitely not finished with this re-write yet, not enough to start posting what I have in full, but I can definitely share a small snippet.

Original, written in 2016:

When Stanford Pines returned home from school that day, his father was miraculously nowhere to be seen. "He just left for a- a breath of fresh air," his mother said when he asked about it, and that was that. Didn't even bother to shed a single glance at him. Her eyes were glued to the pages of her book instead. She’s trying to distract herself, he realized. It hurt, but he was used to it. "...Oh." He wasn't entirely sure what else he expected. Suddenly feeling much smaller than he really was, the young boy shoved his scuffed hands into his overall pockets─ too-narrow pockets, which were definitely not made to hide more than five fingers─ and timidly shuffled away.

Re-written in 2023:

When Stanford Pines returns home from school that day, Dad is miraculously nowhere to be seen. "Your father?” his mother says when he inquires about it. “He just left, for uh- a breath of fresh air.” And that’s that. Not a single word more. She doesn’t even bother to spare an empty glance at him, her focus too caught up within the crinkled, yellowing pages of her latest novel. (He flipped through some of her books once, out of idle curiosity. Her tastes aren’t anything to his interests. All she ever reads about is boring historical romances, where the men sweep the women off their feet and everyone lives happily ever after.) "...Oh,” he mutters, rocking back and forth on his heels. He’s not entirely sure what else he expected, asking this question. Still, Ma’s scattered lack of attention stings more than she probably realizes. Circumstances suddenly making him feel much smaller than he really is, the young boy shoves his scuffed hands into his overall pockets─ too-narrow pockets, which were definitely not made with more than the typical number of fingers in mind─ and timidly shuffles away.

Cricut- Are there any characters you’ve had to “cut” from a story? Are there any moments/chapters/stories you’ve had to “cut” entirely?

So, I've cut moments from my stories- like, a few paragraphs at most- but I don't think I've ever had to resort to fully chopping a chapter, let alone a character. Mostly that's just because I write 100% for hobby, and am not looking to make this feel like a job. I like trying to ensure my work is as decent quality as I can muster, but also... there's a limit to how fervently I'm going to edit before I throw something online. I don't want to stifle my creative spirit by starting to give myself rules, y'know?

That being said, I keep all of my cut scenes just in case I ever wish to go back and recycle any metaphors or phrasing from them. I think one of the largest scenes I've ever cut was from an early chapter of The Ballad of Aryll. The moment just wasn't working, and I ended up having to approach it from an entirely different angle before I was satisfied with the direction. It was actually a kinda rare moment for me, usually I'm able to wrestle with my words until they slot into place, but that time I had to physically delete around 700 words before I could continue.

Film- Which one of your fics do you think would work best if turned into a movie? Who would direct it?

Oh god... Uhhh... does picking a storyboarder team work? I can think of one SU fic I'd love to see as a boarded storyline, and that's my four chapter misadventure "Contact," in which Steven accidentally cracks his gem on a mission and his family has to reckon with the genuine possibility of his death before finally sourcing the cure for it at Rose's fountain.

In the 100% hypothetical universe where this happened, I think this story would translate to an animation best with the talents of SU storyboarders Raven and Paul IMO, because I feel like their style always provides really good, exaggerated expressions at wham moments- perfect for providing contrast between the mundane and the delicate, and then the distressed, painful moments of this story.

[thewardenisonthecase]

besties, props to you for doing this because my fucking god. At this point, I'd rathet the devs never talk in public about the game again like please YOU'RE SHOOTING YOURSELF IN THE FOOT.

It was bad enough with what Epler said about Davrin (which, granted, the apparently apologized on bluesky but it wasn't great). Now all of this.

Honestly, its weird to me that even though Trick Weekes is the LEAD WRITER, Solas still somehow gets shafted and them saying "oh he never cared about people". Bitch the whole point of dai and trespasser is that yes, solas does care about people but he has this weird sense of 'must get things right' like he's such a complex character BC of that. He wants to change the world and destroy everything but he also feels fucking sad about it.

ALSO MY GOD YEAH THE MINRATHOUS THING. I posted about it earlier but it is I N S A N E that the country we spend 3 FUCKING GAMES being told "wow everyone hates tevinter. tevinter sucks. dorian suffers some prejudice bc he's tevene and even he fucking gets why. tevinter is built on blood magic and slavery, two things the south abhors" IS NOW THE TRADE CENTER OF *DIPLOMACY*????? ONLY BC YOU NUKED THE SOUTH. Like GOD, if it was just of 'the north of thedas' FINE, but the REST OF FUCKING THEDAS IS NOT FUCKING WITH TEVINTER.

And even if Dorian manages to unfucker up Tevinter, THAT'S SOMETHING HE'D TAKE YEARS TO DO.

"they did not earn the curing of the blight" YOU ARE SO RIGHT. And i'm so fucking pissed. Because my god, yes, i am glad to have a cure for the blight but idk it didn't feel like a satisfying conclusion to a storyline built since FUCKING DAO???? Like, god, they could have added the HoF or at least the Orlesian Warden to be there, so this moment could feel like a PROPER send off.

idk i have too many thoughts i might reread your post again and then add more thoughts but Alkhnf.oxeihnwrgf;çp34ihrgp~f

EDIT: also about the crows. so see, i can buy into that, that most crows are NOT like teia and viago and lucanis....BUT WHY ISN'T THAT STATED *IN GAME*. Like my god, the crows are INFAMOUS, it wouldn't be too hard to add just one dialogue option for rook to be like 'oh wow you guys are not as ruthless as i thought' and for them to say 'oh yeah bc we're idealists but don't think the rest of us are like that' BOOM DONE. There's too much explaining in this AMA that NEEDED TO BE SAID IN GAME.

also for them to say they want to explore other parts of the world while leaving the south a mess. like my borhter in christ. just...why didn't you just leave the south alone. bc im sorry i have no wish to explore other parts of the world when i know my blorbos are in basically hell on earth.

anyways. for the love of god. the devs *need* to get out of social media. for their own sake too.

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.

Some Highlights & My Initial Thought 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-Llyod 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?

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, fucking 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 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 diminishes 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 BS 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.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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.

[theharpermovieblog]

#HARPERSMOVIECOLLECTION

2023

I watched Terrifier 2 (2022)

I've haphazardly watched the first Terrifier. I know the kills from that and I figured, why not just jump into the sequel which

was a huge hit and supposedly an awesome horror flick. I never saw All Hallows Eve which also features the character Art The Clown.

The supposedly immortal and psychopathic Art The Clown returns to wreak havoc.

My first reaction to both the Terrifier films, when they first came out was, "I hate the way these movies look." Which I still do. It's not to say they are shot poorly, they aren't. They're shot pretty well for what they are, if a bit bland and uninspired. It's just, the look gives more of a YouTube short horror movie vibe than an actual movie vibe. So, because of that one little gripe of mine, I never actually got into them or really gave them the time of day. But, I've come to the conclusion that the look of low budget horror has changed, as digital cameras have come into the world. I don't know, it's all just too crisp. Whatever, I'll shut up about it, I'm just getting old.

Art The Clown, the evil clown in these movies, is a great invention. With a good little sense of humor, a creepy rotten smile and a knack for mutilating his victims the character goes long way in making a fun slasher film. Which is what this is, a slasher. Damien Leone, the film's writer and director is clearly a filmmaker who wasn't satisfied with the gore level of other slashers and wanted to give slasher fans a real treat when he created Art the Clown. Much like Victor Crowley of the Hatchet series of films, Art is a new horror icon. A monster we're rooting for. He's gonna provide all the fake blood and gooey prop organs he can for our entertainment.

The majority of this movie isn't exactly new or exciting territory. We get a little bit of Art doing gross stuff and being gruesomely funny, but the rest is a bunch of set up of the characters we are no doubt going to see terrorized and murdered eventually. A Teen girl with cool teen girl friends, a nerdy awkward kid, a fed up single mother. There's a nightmare sequence, foreshadowing of future weapon use, a bit of prophecy stuff... It's a lot of well worn horror beats. But, that's what this is right? A horror for horror fans who like horror beats. A genre where being formulaic can sometimes be fan service. So, let's not judge it too harshly on that level.

Here's the bad news. This movie has one hell of a pacing issue. It is two hours and 20 minutes long. And it's unnecessarily Two Hours And Twenty Minutes! There are several overly long drawn out scenes with flat dialogue. Attempts at stylish moments that feel cheap and which should have been cut. The editing together of this movie boggles my mind. Did they leave anything on the cutting room floor? These characters and this story can not carry the length of this movie. You could fast forward the majority of it and you wouldn't miss anything. Seriously, from beginning to end I found myself spacing out to seemingly endless scenes that did not move the story or progress anything. Many of them served only to retread earlier scenes and others which were seemingly pointless altogether.

Look, you're here for the gory practical effects. It's ok, so am I. And, for you gore hounds, there's plenty to go around. It's over the top, relentless and walks both the lines of being too brutal and too silly. But, this isn't worth the run time. Somebody edit this movie to make it interesting. The pieces are there for an hour and forty five minute version that doesn't try your patience.

[augustwinsome-blog]

Vacation Outtakes

On Wednesday morning, I have a very vivid, drawn out dream on that my laboratory is exposed to some intelligence group after an explosion occurs in one of the wings, and that I’m arrested at work and the whole thing is televised and I’m led out of the building with my jacket over my head. 

They put me on trial for treason, I’m found guilty, and I watch myself in court from a television in an NYPD police station. When I wake up, I immediately grab my phone to check the news. Nothing has actually happened - no explosions to speak of - but the anxiety of it keeps me in bed for some time, seized by what feels like a minor panic attack, paralyzed. At this point, it is still dark out.

That same afternoon, I am supposed to spend an hour or so alone at a friend of my mother’s house. I told her - my mother - that if she wanted me to, I would be more than happy to visit this woman, but by the time the date arrives I’m so reluctant to go that I spend an extra 10 minutes at the breakfast table, seated just one seat from Garth (ostensibly, because I want to be, but in reality because there was a concerted conspiracy to take up every other seat so that I truly had no other choice), mulling over whether or not I’m going to do this before determining that I have to, getting up to get dressed in a haze while Garth nudges their leg out from under the table in a covert attempt at tripping me that I notice and evade with a graceful hopping step. I end up leaving an hour early, and not because I am just that eager to meet this woman - who claims to have known me since childhood, but whom I hardly recall even in the backdrop of any of my more important memories from that time - but because we live in such a secluded area that driving anywhere - especially to someone else’s equally secluded home - is an ordeal that can take half an hour or more with good road conditions and little traffic. I haven’t slept for more than  consecutive hours in the last 24, which is probably why it takes me some time to get there (though I’m still not late), driving very, very carefully, mostly because obstacles keep arising that I can’t determine the realness of but would rather be safe than sorry about.

The woman - Elise, I think - greets me with a warm smile and I return it with all the subtle curves and infinitesimal details that make a smile ‘warm.’ She hugs me lightly and I do the same - but even more lightly, I tell her how refreshing it is to see her again, how lovely her home is. We are floating together through her large colonial, and I am replying graciously to her chatter, trying to ignore the shadows in the corner of my eyes. The sky is perfectly gray, rendering the whole white home also blue-grey and shadowless, like a flat plane without a single deviation. The flowers on the living room table around which she has me sit are bathed in a thin sheet of dust, which is what tips me off to their being fake - and they’re also overlaid in a blue-grey.

“And how is your mother?” She asks perfunctorily. “She’s doing quite well, very well.” I say with a smile, no idea what it is that just came out of my mouth, admiring a large vase on her living room mantle.

“I’m glad to hear that. And have you been enjoying the holiday?”

“Very much.”

“This weather has been lovely, hasn’t it? Perfectly mild.” She says. Why did she invite me here, I wonder. I find myself imagining her lying face down on the carpet, skull wedged open by a large porcelain shard of the vase, gray aberrations all over her arms, still twitching. I can’t help it. I clear my throat and try to clear the image but it won’t go away.   

“It’s been…. Very nice. Far less harsh than New York, it seems.” I say good-naturedly, and then covertly pinch my hand. The image goes away once she turns and I have the opportunity to blink a few times and cross my eyes, focus myself.

“Say nothing.” She smiles.

“Pardon?” ask.

“That’s lovely.” she enunciates again. I touch my watch carefully, running my finger over the row of buttons on the bottom panel of it as she starts off on a mild tangent about her daughter in New York, who’s finishing her final year at Barnard very soon. Barnard is my mother’s alma mater, so I guess that this would be relevant to me. She’s talking up the girl’s accounting credentials, which leads me to believe that she’s trying to secure her a job of some kind. We don’t hire recent graduates at my company - I am the only full-time employee under the age of 28 - but I don’t say anything.

“She’s so hardworking,” she admits. “Sometimes I worry about her. She’s so young.”

“It’s difficult to maintain that… balance these days. A work-life balance.” I say, nodding empathetically.

“How do you manage it?” She asks, seeming genuinely interested. I like it when people ask me for advice, so for a moment I find myself really, actually invested.

“Well… I find that it’s very important not to lose sight of the importance of hard work, devotion to that work. I think that the most important part of work life balance is… understanding that your work and life are not separate from one another.” I pause thoughtfully, she leans closer. “They are irrevocably connected. Work is… I apologize, did you say something?”

“Oh, no. No, no.” She rushes through it. “Please, go on.”

“Work is what keeps life from becoming monotonous. So, really, a balance between work and life doesn’t have to be even. I would consider it a… more of a ratio. A work life ratio.”

She nods silently, obviously confused, not willing to ask a question because she knows that I’m more intelligent than she is and - if she it doesn’t understand - It’s more than likely her fault. “Many people believe that a balance entails a net-zero difference, and that’s not necessarily true,” I warn. “This is why many are never fully able to achieve their potential: because they’re so concerned with reaching someone else’s arbitrary concept of ‘balance’, rather than their own.”

“Fascinating…” she breathes. “How fascinating.”

“There was an interview in Business Insider in… November I believe? Where I discussed this. You might send it to her if you think that it would be useful.”

We talk for 45 minutes, during which my vision is continually blurring at the image and I’m experiencing lapses during which I keep thinking that I should get up and grab that large gilt vase and smash it over her head just to see if it would be possible, something I have no control over - but I’ve become so adept at functioning on this level regularly that it doesn’t effect the conversation or even startle me. I look like I’m paying rapt attention, though partway through the discussion when I suddenly snap like a rubber band into the moment, I realize that I’ve not idea how it is that we’ve reached the subject we’re discussing. I feel slightly sorry for it because I hadn’t actually meant to lose track, but not too sorry - given that she apparently is none the wiser.

-

On Thursday morning at 3:30 or 4:30 in the morning, I can’t sleep at all. Everything in the house lies still except me, and maybe the cat. Even Romeo is still sleeping, which really says something because they hardly ever go to bed before I do - neither of us being particularly regular sleepers. But at the moment, they’re dead to the world - and I don’t want to violate that, so I untangle myself from them as gently as I possibly can.

When I get out of bed I’m very careful not to wake them or anybody else up with my movement, dazed and searching. This isn’t so difficult because of the thickness of our walls and doors, and the familiarity that I have with my childhood home and every creaking floorboard. I shuffle very quietly into my night shoes, positioned at the edge of the bed, and don’t bother to dress any further. I have a niggling feeling that it will get in the way of something - that I won’t have enough time to get dressed - which makes no logical sense, but I still find myself standing at the head of the room in nothing more than a fleece set of nightclothes and moccasin houseshoes.  When I leave, I shut the bedroom door behind me very quietly - sorry to leave Romeo alone, but feeling that I have no other choice -  and then I go in a haze all the way downstairs. At night, the vast space that one finds themselves at the bottom of the main stairs looks like an alien landscape. The moonlight carves ridges into the hardwood, all the white furniture gleams silver and blue. Lorraine is a small blob of a shadow in the center of the plain, blotting out a hole in the scene. I examine her thoughtfully, focused on this animal. I make eye contact with her for a weird minute or two from the bottom of the stairs before she becomes bored or senses something I suppose and begins in the opposite direction. I think about going after her, but I don’t.

I leave the house through the solarium door - which is the way I’ve always gone. If you look very, very closely at the knob of the solarium door, you may well see my fingerprints permanently driven into it. I prefer it because it opens to the garden, and isn’t as heavy as the other doors in the house so you can’t hear it so clearly when it opens or shuts.

It is exceptionally cold outside, but I didn’t expect anything else. The sky is a powerful black, the moon carving a large hole out of it so that it appears almost like one is standing at the bottom of a manhole or a well with the cover removed. The moonlight, however, seems to have been obstructed by something before it was able to reach the ground - except for the stony pond in the center of the garden a step from the patio of the solarium, where it floats contentedly in the square middle. This sight soothes me for no particular reason, I guess maybe because it’s familiar. Forest surrounds the property on two sides, with the other two sides opening to a clear swatch of land that - at night - is indistinguishable between land and sky, with both being so clear and so black, but for a silver sliver that runs between the two like a string of gilt thread. There are no lights outside except for the sconce on the patio, whose rays don’t quite reach me.

I start on the edge of the garden, skirting the outer hedges where the facade of the house is almost entirely flat, and make my way from the northeast most corner of the properly, and then the west, and then the south through the dark thick of the woods, out again and in again. I’m not thinking much at all, besides that Rhode Island would not have been good for me in the long run, that there are too many people spread too far apart there, that if I planned to return here after college - I was going to have a very rude awakening, that the lack of white noise in these rural parts is probably why I can’t sleep, stop, Lorraine got out somehow and is in that tree over there, that I should probably go back to the city soon, that the scenario of a laboratory explosion was still a distinct possibility and that every moment I spend away is another moment I leave open to some sort of freak accident that could be prevented if only I were around to preempt it, maybe if I keep going for long enough I’ll get there or a solution will come to me, go back, stock prices go down when I’m not within city limits, if I go too far out of the bounds of the property something bad will also happen, I should go into Garth’s room and light their sheets on fire, go back, a reservation at Jeanette’s is difficult to get, turn left and then stop or you’ll step on something that you’d rather not step on, I hope that my father doesn’t find out my mother is seeing someone, disaster reels, bergamot oranges, Lorraine is on the patio, two moons, and plastic grass.

I come back inside when the sun is only beginning to rise, and the string division between the sky and ground starts to widen. When I get back into bed - Lorraine shut out of the bedroom for trying to follow me from downstairs, maybe catching the smell of ozone on my clothes -  Romeo sleepily flinches away from me, pitching a muttering complaint about me being cold, but it isn’t long before he’s taking my hand and blowing warm air against it, not fully awake but still thoughtful - maybe not cognizant of the fact that logically, there is no reason for me to be this cold unless I had been outside for quite some time but not questioning it. I don’t end up falling asleep again, but I am also not fully functioning and awake again until 10 o’clock in the morning, spending the hours between my return and then in something like a catatonic stupor.

-

On Friday morning my mother wants private time with me - she wants to “regroup” - so we go to Tiffany’s together for brunch, alone; me in a very handsome ensemble that includes a sweater I was bought for Christmas and a her carrying a lovely black Birkin bag that I bought her for Christmas. I expect to pay for everything, but I don’t care. She wears round sunglasses that I also bought her as a Christmas gift on the car ride there, a trip on which my mother provides the directions. I say that I can use my GPS to navigate, but she insists that they’ve moved recently, too recently for GPS. When I’m not in the city, I drive a Tesla Model S. When I’m not in the city, I drive a Tesla Model S. My mother likes it far more than my Rolls Royce, and she makes her preference known each year: she calls the Rolls “a monster.” She describes it as “an obstacle.”

At the restaurant, we’re seated by a tall bay window in some secluded corner. It throws large rectangles of white over my mother and me, rendering her auburn hair a pale blond and my hands featureless. The whole restaurant is broken up by slats of white from the shaded windows, tables are bisected by blue swaths of shadow. Every plain tablecloth within reach of the light looks silver, flowers on top - soft and the vases - indistinguishable. It seems like it should be warm, springtime weather outside but of course it’s not. All of the faces are made gleaming and amorphous, until the only two that still stand out starkly are those of mother and me, even though most of hers is obscured by her round sunglasses and a hand rested on her cheek. I blame my stress and lack of good sleep for everything sounding filtered through a sheet of water. It takes an inhuman amount of concentration to look fully engaged, and it’s not that I don’t want to be or that I find her boring - I simply am not.

“You look very chipper.” She says suddenly. “Very bright.”

“I am,” I reply, not detecting sarcasm. “I am quite… chipper. I slept well.”

“Did you?”

“I did. You’ve kept the bedroom as inviting as ever.” I say, smiling. “That’s good.. Very good. I’m glad to hear that. I do know how finicky you can be with sleeping arrangements…” She says, sounding almost timid. Finicky is code for “prone to sleep disturbances,” which I do have a regular basis - but I’m sure that that’s not what she wanted to hear. “I hear… well, pacing - it sounds like. Sometimes I go down the hall to get a glass of water or use the restroom or… and I hear footsteps coming from your room.“

"Ah, well: that’s not me. That’s the white noise track I’ve been using. I’ve been sleeping well."She looks momentarily alarmed: I can see the divot above her eyebrow where she’s quirked it behind her shades. 

"Is it? Is that…What you listen to for white noise?”

“It’s just a… ritual of mine. It’s very soothing. I do it regularly at home, it’s only that I’ve become used to it." 

"That’s lovely.” She breathes.  "I’m delighted to hear that.“ She smiles cautiously, but I can tell that she’s still mulling over my lie and cannot make sense of it. 

She lowers her shades slowly. "Oh sweetheart,” she sighs “It’s so lovely to spend these little moments with you.” She looks at me, raises her eyebrows emphasitorily, and then looks away again. “It’s so important that we spend time with one another… These days, you know.”

The statement has no logical connection with anything else she’s said thus far, so I’m unclear as to where it’s come from.  I think that maybe I’ve missed something."I want you to know,” she continues. “That nobody will ever come between you and me.”

“I know that,” I say finally, maybe even cutting her off slightly - but not meaning to. It’s only that I’d rather not discuss it here, now. “I’ve never doubted it.”

She gestures vaguely. She rubs her eyes, pinches and rolls her fingers, and then the sunglasses go back on. “Well, I felt that I should reinforce. There are certain things that can never be said too many times.”

A waiter materializes seemingly out of nowhere and takes our orders: grapefruit juice - actually, cranberry - a halved grapefruit, one Americano, one iced tea with mint and lemon, the milk and sugar on a platter. I’m still pondering what route he could have possibly taken to arrive so quickly at our table without my noticing. She begins speaking again once the waiters disappeared into another hot pane of light, tells me that I’ve  not been secretive about my disapproval of what she’s doing - dating - but that she’d “like [my] support.” She hesitantly wants to know… something, I don’t know. I’m momentarily distracted by the thought of the waiter. I only look at her for a moment, not to indicate anything, but because I simply did not quite hear her and am now trying to posthumously process the words she said - dead on my ears - in conjunction with the movement of her lips, but she seems to become unsure of the question when confronted with my momentary silence, and sighs uselessly “Well, it is so difficult to tell with you.”

“Is it?” I recoup. 

“Oh, you’ve hardly told me anything.” She whines, and picks up the crystal glass with the cranberry juice.

“Haven’t I?" 

"Stop it, Claudius." 

She purses her mouth. 

"I’m sorry. Did I say something?”

“You know just what you’re doing.” She closes a straw between her lips. I glance down and suddenly there’s a small mound of sugar in a silver bowl. The grapefruit halves fleshy part points skyward, stiffly sparkling. “You’re being… sarcastic. You’re not being serious.”

“My apologies.”

“It’s only that you’ve been so distant recently, and now - well… You’ve always been sensitive to change. And with everything that’s gone on.. I can hardly imagine how you’ve been faring in the city..” She pauses thoughtfully. “Sensitive. You’ve always been quite sensitive.”

“I’ve developed a thicker skin.” I smile reassuringly and then glance back down at my saucer. “But have you, really?”

“Now you’re being sarcastic.” I reply, still looking down. When I look up again, I’m not looking her directly in the eyes - but over her head. It looks like I’m looking at her directly, but I’m not.  I’m distracted by a pair sitting at the table to our left. The steams from the food of the pair seated at the table to our right overtake the citrus smell that permeates our small sphere. I’m distracted by their conversation, of which I catch very little besides some benign talk about winter coats. “People do pay attention,” one of the two - a woman, presumably - says to the other “to the way that you button your coat. I’m telling you, they do.”

“…And, oh, Claudius. I’m concerned.” I’ve lost track of her again.

“Alison’s son. He works on Wallstreet, you know. You do know, don’t you?” She asks. I nod my agreement. Alison’s son is hardly a speck in my eye, but I have seen him before - sometimes if I’m on the exchange. “He commutes an hour from work each day - back and forth - but he says that it’s worth it, the added security is very much worth it.” “I’m sure, but he and I are not in even similar lines of work.” I reply. She considers my statement, and her relentence to the fact that I do have a point is in her shrugging body language. She asks me in defeat if I’m going to eat my grapefruit that - for some time - I hardly recall ordering, let alone having it brought to me. I pick up a knife and right the grapefruit onto its bottom, sawing with a butter knife until the half has been halved, and then placing the second half onto a small saucer, which she accepts curtly. “I’m afraid that we have absolutely nothing in common,” I continue. “Alison’s son.. [voice, lowered] is not the kind of individual I aspire to be. I will put it that way. I do not want to be Alison’s son. I will do everything within my power not to be Alison’s son…”

She frowns. “Now, what’s so wrong with Alison’s son?”

“You know very well what’s wrong with Alison’s son.”

“Oh, stop.” She says without force.

Her hand - dimly freckled like my own, and suddenly I find myself realizing how small and fragile looking it really is - plays as if it’s going to stretch to mine, but retreats. My hand does too, perhaps as a reflex. First, they were laid flat on the table, now they’ve pulled back into a politely covered fist.

“I understand your concerns, but I can assure you that I’m perfectly alright. I’m doing well.” I say.

“I’ve told I don’t want you to be…hurt…” Pause. “Physically. And I don’t want you to become unhappy." 

"You shouldn’t worry yourself about my happiness. I’m very happy.” I assure her, not lying.

“But sweetheart, I am.” She considers her grammar. “I.. do.”

“Then… I’m not sure. I’m sorry then.” I say. Silence. I’m looking out of the window, thinking that I see somebody standing on the lawn. The sky freezes into a painting, the grass looks markedly fake - like plastic, the sun beats brutally onto the lawn, the cranberry juice in the glass looks like blood.

[h50europe]

Why the myth about Steve's PTSD doesn't add up and other inconsistencies

In the last few episodes of H50, PL tried to sell us a mentally broken Steve suffering from PTSD. Only the whole thing came a bit too late. The clip you see is from season 4 and ended up - no, not in the series - but somewhere on the floor of PL's editing room. And why? after Kurtzman and Orci departed, along with their writers, PL took the helm and started turning Steve into a super-soldier. He stylized him into something that wasn't meant to be. Instead of developing the characters, PL began to incorporate more and more hair-raising action sequences into the series and then let Steve fight on the front lines. There was no mention of Steve's mental state, and a lot was explained by PL with: it just happened "offscreen." Yeah, sure. PL can't create a decent character. He can only produce stereotypes and one-dimensional beings. Like Adam. What potential would that character have had had he been turned into Five-0's antagonist? But no. So his role remained diffuse and monotonous. Sometimes even tragicomical.

Back to Steve. When SEAL Team started on CBS, PL also lapsed into SEAL mania. If someone who writes fanfiction were to produce as much garbage as this man did, he would be chased away from every writers' platform in disgrace. PL's Super SEAL also had to rescue his team members from a blazing inferno. Not man by man, no, he flew a helicopter right into the danger zone and lifted a whole cabin out of the burning jungle. If lunacy had a name, it would be PL. While the action became more and more exaggerated and unrealistic, the same happened to the protagonists. After the departure of Daniel Dae Kim and Grace Park, PL completely lost his mind. And please, don't blame the writers for the nonsense that was thrown at you. A series stands and falls with the showrunner. He dictates what he wants and passes it on to his staff.

And so, lovable Steve became a soulless robot who only showed feelings here and there. Danny diminished more and more into a sidekick. McDanno became a ship that drifted anchorless through a stormy sea and threatened to capsize again and again. From season 8, it became a reboot of the reboot. PL tried an ensemble show and failed more than miserably. Often the actors just stood around bored. At least that was the impression. The only highlight was episode 8.10. A feast for all McDanno fans. But even here, the outcome of "who shot Danny" was more than insubstantial.

Wait, there was something about SEALs... Oh, yes. Junior appeared on the scene and became Steve's lapdog. I really wondered when there was going to be an episode where he would fetch sticks for Steve. Luckily we had Eddie for that. And because he thought he was so clever, PL invented the episode speed dating. How many subplots can you squeeze into one episode at the same time? In some episodes, you couldn't even take a look at the bag of potato chips without losing the thread.

The case of the week became the yawn of the week. There were so many loose ends that PL then came up with something called retconning. That's what you do when you're no longer satisfied with what was once established in the series years ago, or it no longer fits. But PL went one step further and did the same with the characters. The more the series was dragged out, the more the characters deteriorated and became OOC. It means, often, they were not recognizable at all. And that's where we come to Steve. Because PL, in his desperation, didn't know what else he could do to Steve, and so he killed Joe White. He did it in such a cheesy way with a fake sunset that it made you sick.

Of course, one episode later, there had to be another gig of PL's favorite Barbie. He stuck a fake beard on poor Steve/Alex, so he couldn't even hug Danny/Scott properly. The episode also raised more questions than it answered any. And Steve? He still didn't suffer from PTSD, even though he had now lost Joe White and a fellow SEAL. Everyone is dropping like flies, except for Steve, who is standing like a rock. No matter what. He doesn't need in-depth talks with Danny, nor psychological care, nor any sleeping pills. No, he's doing great. He also opens a restaurant with Danny because apparently, the carguments are already getting on PL's nerves. Unfortunately, this plot device leads into nirvana. The idea was nice, but nobody thought it through to the end. And the merry-go-round continues. Until we get to season 10, where it gets even more absurd. Now PL is almost bombarding us with McDanno episodes, or at least it should seem that way. Oh well, he's already planning for season 11, so a new character has to come on board quickly. While in the beginning, Steve's mother, Doris, dies.

Alex was allowed to take on the subject. Of course, only under the strict eyes of PL. He then nullifies Alex's idea that Steve kills his mother. Because a good soldier and Super SEAL won't do that. Little does PL know. THAT could have been the opening of a PTSD scenario for Steve. However, apart from that, this episode would have had any potential for a multi-arc. Just imagine Steve chasing his mother across multiple episodes. Again, PL stepped in and butchered Alex's episode. You can really feel sorry for the guy. PL at his best or worse? He just can't help it. And then, on the very last meters of the series, he brings someone new, who is allowed to cruise around with Steve most of the time. Because Danny was kidnapped by Wo Fat's widow, PL also invented quite late to have some villain at his disposal. This wannabe mastermind must really have been living under a rock somewhere if she wasn't even mentioned by her husband or appeared earlier.

Because towards the end, PL obviously ran out not only of steam but also of ideas, everything culminated in a wildly illogical scenario. Steve has to live through a dramatic day with Eddie, who stands as a metaphor for Steve (as I said, PTSD was never a thing for Super SEAL), Danny bangs his brains out in a ladies' room with a complete stranger, who dies shortly after that in an accident with Danny's rental car. Apparently, there was no budget to turn the Camaro into scrap metal. Danny then also goes home alone, ignoring the incoming emergency vehicles. Everything remains open at the end of the episode. While Steve expresses his gratitude to Tani and Quinn and says, he would be just as lost as poor Eddie without the dog and all of them. The strange thing is that you never notice anything until that sentence. A few forced dialogues are supposed to make the drama visible, but they all happen way too late or are so poorly written that you miss them.

PL had decided early on to make Steve a Teflon hero. That also means he didn't need to put much substance into the character. Which you can clearly see if you compare the first three seasons to the rest of the series. But towards the end, PL wanted to turn the tide and forcefully rewrote Steve's past. There is a huge difference if you compare Steve from seasons 1 to 3 with Steve from season 10. It is only a sparse remnant of what made this character so great. This change in Steve's personality also affects his relationship with Danny. The witty, affectionate banter degenerates into a snappy, humorless bitch-fest that takes all the joy out of it.

The final two episodes could have been written for any other crime show. As mentioned, we have Cole, who even gets a book'em Cole from Steve, which can only be described as out of line. And it begs the question, was that what Lenkov originally had in mind? Danny out of the show and Cole in? Was the last episode, which mainly featured McCole, something of a test run? Did all the McDanno moments happen only to tear the two apart eventually? Was the real final scene the one where Steve and Catherine take Danny's coffin back to Jersey? Was Danny not supposed to survive? Was that the real reason Steve wanted to get out of Hawaii because he wanted to pay his respects to Danny? And would he really have returned to Hawaii later? Or would he have turned his back on Hawaii? To me, this ending is more plausible than what PL served us. Then, Steve handed over his credentials to Cole instead of Danny, his second in command. Honestly, you can't make the end of a series any more sloppy and dumber than that. And I won't even lose a word about the last 1:30 minutes because I think everything has already been said.

No PL, mission absolutely not accomplished. You created Teflon-Steve. You never wanted him to show any weakness. You turned him into a superhuman who can survive anything. Only to pull the rug out from under him on the last few meters to the finish line and spit on his legacy. How can you dismantle such a great series and its characters like you did? How much do you have to hate something to do that? In the final interviews, the showrunner didn't exactly cover himself in glory either. Everyone who grew up with the series from day one knows that its end was wrong on all the possible levels and that the showrunner is solely to blame for that. It takes a fair amount of egoism and carelessness to drive 10 years at full throttle against the wall. Not many people can do that. Whether you can be proud of that, however, I doubt.

My respect if you have made it this far. Each of you gets 10 extra brownie points for it.

[bignickrgxa2]

OK so I finished the Saw movies (outside of Spiral and X) and I HAVE THOUGHTS.

IV is great. Really enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would when it started. I also love how really you can stop watching after 4? If you wanted to? Like 1-4 is a perfect little story in its own microcosm timeline. Definitely didn't see the twist coming at the end. God bless Tobin Bell man he is SO great. The icecrusher moment was MAD. The little lessons all throughout the movie setting up the last dumb mistake was super satisfying watching this dumb ass cop get what he deserved tbh. Guy was dumb as fuck. Great tests too. Really enjoyable stuff. Probably the right place to end it from a satisfactory story point of view. Not that the other movies aren't worth watching, they absolutely are, but it could have ended here and been a great little series.

Saw V was really good too, in its own way. And it was in its own way a lot of the time. In my head there's these two separate, not timelines obviously but like eras. 1-4 is the Jigsaw era and 5-7 is basically tidying up after a house party, but you just keep knocking shit over all the time and making it worse because you're still a little bit drunk? All that being said, I enjoyed 5 for what it was. I think the Strahm Vs Hoffman cat/mouse game works really well, and I actually really liked the whole twist element with the traps/victims too. Good stuff.

Saw 6 is where stuff starts to fall downhill quick for me in terms of the long-term storytelling. The traps, victims etc are actually all GREAT here though. Honestly probably the most effective of the entire franchise, which is why it's a shame that the surrounding "hunt for Hoffman" story, for me at least, is kinda ass. The wife involvement for me is kinda lame, didn't enjoy her just like pissing away whatever little character she had. Hoffman being actually incapable of maintaining Jigsaws legacy is an interesting little touch, but I don't think they did it well enough. The actual game though? God tier. Probably the best "game" since Saw 2. Loved it. Loved the little twist at the end. Great stuff.

Saw 3D is basically just "look how much gore we can stuff into these poorly edited body doubles" the movie. The story is better than 6 in a few ways, Hoffman is much more believable here than in 6 for some reason. Jill can still fuck off though, glad we finally got to see the Mouth-ripper trap that was teased in the FIRST MOVIE actually happen. Also look man the ending is perfect cinema, I don't care how lame it feels with the "this guy was helping Jigsaw the whole time" bullshit being done for a 3rd fucking time. It's THE BOY. I just wished we could have had more time with that actor man, he's so great. Shame we wasn't featured earlier on as an assistant tbh. Would have lifted the whole franchise even higher for me.

Jigsaw, is ass. Enjoyable, gory, Tobin is back briefly, but still ASS. All the characters are unlikable, the gore is actually really well done but it's impact is so insanely reduced at this point that even in just the most boring exposition scenes there's just a fucking dude with half his head just hanging out. Acting is BADD here. Like fucking Brazzers level shit. I liked the last trap in the game, not the last Lazer trap that was lame. But the actual twist in the game was nice. They always nail that bit. Bonneville is super hot but that isn't enough. Also just re-doing the fucking twist from Saw 2 and ANOTHER "THEY WERE HELPING JIGSAW THE WHOLE TIME" twist is just too much. Man had a whole fucking Avengers team to help him do shit the whole fucking time. Like 5 dudes.

Don't watch Jigsaw, 4-7 are pretty decent. Absolutely watch 1-4.

I watched the first 3 Saw movies for the first time yesterday and I have thoughts.

First movie is a fucking masterpiece, I didn't see the final twist coming at all, the soundtrack nails it, the acting is corny but absolutely works, the minimal gore really makes the gory moments work. Great movie.

Second movie I also really liked. Didn't see the final few twists coming either, brilliantly executed. Tobin Bell crushes. Characters in the house are a bit one note and cookie cutter, but because they're personalities are so big and obvious, it works? Because you don't spend every second with them. Again, gore isn't dialled up yet, so when it happens it's impactful. Good stuff. Not as good as the first movie, but still good.

Third movie is INSANE. Absolutely bonkers. Plot is wild, but actually works really well as a mind of twisty-ish narrative, if you completely switch your brain off. SO MUCH MORE GORE. Girl gets her tits ripped off, dude gets limbs twisted off, and never forget the fucking mouldy pig blender (absolute worst thing I've ever seen. Disgusting). The movie works (bare minimum I know), the small cast all work really well together and Tobin is just SO GOOD. Was really sad when the nurse bit the dust. Worst of the first three by a way I think, but still enjoyable. Expecting the gore to ramp the fuck up and the plots/twists to deteriorate in quality as the movies go on.

Excited to continue through them, hope they're not all garbage from here on out.

[voidstilesplease]

Fic authors self rec! When you get this, reply with your favorite five fics that you've written, then pass on to at least five other writers. Let’s spread the self-love 💖

Laura, thank you so much for sending this to me even though I haven't written any new fic in a while 🥺. And also, I know this was forever ago but... better late than never? Anyway, here's my favorite 5; four of these are one shots, and one published WIP.

can't believe his luck - steo | 11.5k | 1/1 | T | tags: au - a/b/o dynamics, friends to lovers, werefox!stiles, werewolf!theo

summary: Stiles, Theo, a treehouse, two gold rings, and three hundred sixty-five volumes of Stiles's favorite manga.

notes: this was the last fic I wrote for the ship that wasn't a ficlet for my a-z collection :'( this was written in january

cardinal sins - steo | 4.9k | 1/1 | M | tags: canon divergence, canon-typical violence, supernatural mercenaries!chimera pack, supernatural deadpool, seven deadly sins au

summary: Stiles, Theo, and the vices to end all vices.

notes: this will always own my heart simply for being one of my earlier fics in the fandom. also, the concept of the seven deadly sins, man. it's just perfect for steo <3

enthralled - steo | 4.2k | 1/1 | E | tags: au - vampire, blood kink, prostitution, vampire thrall

summary: “An entire month,” Stiles knew he must look awful - crying like a scorned lover. “You cut me off for an entire month.” But he was done pretending that he wasn’t afraid, because he was scared shitless. Not of Theo – never of Theo and what he was, and what he was capable of doing. But of Theo having enough of Stiles not being enough for him. How could he be remarkable enough for Theo, when he would still be young and beautiful as Stiles withered and died?

“You’re my whore, Stiles,” Theo answered, so casually cruel. “Not my lover.”

notes: this was written to satisfy my vampire lust. also, @its-tea-time-darling read this and thought theo was a vampire in the show. how could this ever not be one of my favorites now just for this reason?

you bet Chiron made new rules after this - steo | 1k | 1/1 | T | tags: au - demigods, demigod!stiles, demigod!theo, camp half-blood, part 8 of the demigod series

summary: In response to: This is weird but a demigod prompt: "we can save water by showering together" after training or capture the flag or a camp tournament maybe.

OR

Theo should've known better than to taunt his boyfriend.

notes: teen wolf x percy jackson. seriously, i had the time of my life writing every single one of the ficlets in this series, but this one in particular stood out. idk. maybe bec i have a shower kink or smth.

there you are, and i run - steo | 32.5k | 5/? | M | tags: au - hogwarts, magic, witches & wizards, slytherin!stiles, durmstrang!theo, triwizard tournament

summary: Whatever the case was, Stiles had concluded to better forget about that night. After all, they might not even see each other in four years, right? He only told his best friend, Scott, about it. But he didn't have to worry about Scott blabbering because he was too preoccupied with his relationship. Stiles could even claim that he was succeeding in his quest to cleanse his memory of the one-night-stand until, of course, the announcement of the Triwizard Tournament.

notes: i need to do lots of editing in this fic, and idk when i can post any update, but this still holds a special place in my heart. harry potter is one of the best things that ever happened in my life, like percy jackson, so being able to drag my teen wolf otp into this world secures a place in my favorites by default.

oops. sorry this got longer than i anticipated.✌️