#tldr: i regret absolutely nothing

[threnodians]

so i caved in and pulled for lingsha this afternoon. i was at zero (0) pity. i did one (1) ten-pull. got e3 bronya. okay, i rarely use bronya but i won’t complain (at least it wasn’t gepard). did one (1) more ten-pull. got lingsha and e3 moze. two 5* characters in 20 pulls. i have NEVER been this lucky before in ANY gacha game and i actually hate gambling so it is very stressful for me to pull for things but!!! apparently hyv knows that i am feeling awful and gave me some luck!!! unfortunately i pulled 40 times for her lightcone and got nothing but i am saving that pity in hopes of getting either castorice or phainon’s lightcone 🥲🤞🏻

her traces aren’t even fully leveled yet and her stats aren’t even good (she needs at least 200% break effect) but she has suddenly made it possible for me to complete every stage of pure fiction, complete difficulty 3 of apocalyptic shadow, and complete stage 11 of memory of chaos 🤯

[aphelion-neon]

I love svsss, it’s a great book. I love Sj, he’s a complex character with a great story. I hate how ppl treat Sj. Everyone talks about how poor Sj deserved better, he shouldn’t have been murdered. Lbh is in the wrong for killing him.

Sj 100% deserved his ending. He was a terrible person. Yes, his backstory is really tragic, but that doesn’t excuse his abuse and neglect of his peak and duties.

Sj wasn’t some innocent bystander in Lbh’s abuse. He actively participated and promoted it. He has the choice to not pick Lbh, but he did. He saw a 13 yr old boy and was a jealous 40+ yr old man. No one forced Sj to pick Lbh. That was his choice to take him.

After willingly taking Lbh on as a disciple, he abused him to no end. He motivated everyone to target Lbh. Yes, other peaks also had abuse/neglect going on, but that doesn’t make what Sj did okay, or any better.

He attempted to murder a child on multiple occasions. Lbh has done absolutely nothing to Sj, yet he tried to kill Lbh multiple times. He even gave Lbh the faulty cultivation novel so he would have a qi deviation. He make Lbh fight a demon who was 10x his strength. Everything he did was to abuse Lbh, a child he willingly let onto his peak. To top it off, he pushed Lbh into literal hell(I give hims some slack bc that was the whole demon Lbh reveal).

This neglect didn’t even stop at Lbh, he neglected the rest of his peak. He was a terrible master for his peak. He also treated the people around him like shit. Everyone didn’t hate him for no reason. He was a cold and cruel man to his fellow peak lords. Their dislike didn’t come from thin air.

Then, after everything, when Lbh is enacting his revenge, he admits to not regretting a single Thing he did. Sj even said if he could do it again, or would do worse to Lbh.

Not once is Sj remorseful for what he did to a child who’s only mistake was having potential. Sj did not deserve any better than what he got. A sad backstory is no excuse for his terrible actions.

Yes, Yqy not coming back for Sj was terrible. Yes the abuse Sj went through as a slave was horrible. That does not change the horrendous person he turned into. There was no external force that made Sj pick Lbh, nothing making him abuse Lbh. All of his actions were his own, of his own free will.

TLDR: Sj nah have a tragic backstory, but he still deserved his ending.

[cyranonic]

Dragon Age: The Veilguard, a Belated Review

Well, I finally finished playing Veilguard and I've got some thoughts. For context, I'm a big fan of the previous 3 Dragon Age games and of fantasy RPGs in general, so my review is very much informed by that. The TLDR is: Veilguard isn't the worst game ever, but I really did not like it and I feel like it exemplifies a lot of my problems with the modern media landscape. Full explanation below the cut:

There were definitely some things in Veilguard that I enjoyed. It looked nice; combat was intuitive and snappy; VAs did great work. But I am fundamentally more interested in story than technical stuff so I want to focus on that. Some individual story arcs were fun out of the context of the whole. A few of my favorite parts:

Assan!!! Cutest baby boy!! His bond with Davrin was probably the most emotional part of the whole game for me lol

Emmerich's personal quest overall was enjoyable in a zany, campy way. I adopted the skeleton. No regrets.

Solas memory quests! I liked how we kept seeing him sacrifice his own people for the greater good. Set up the theme of the story well and allowed for some good Dreadwolf tricks and gambits.

Bellara taking up the Varric mantle, except that she write romance serials made me laugh (no one tell Cassandra about this; she will lose her mind)

It was actually really sweet when Lucanis and Neve got together

However, even the things in the game that did work for me were all slightly tainted by some bigger overarching issues I have with the tone, lore, companions, and execution of the story overall.

Problem 1: Tone

A lot of other reviews have mentioned that the tone of Veilguard feels cartoony or simplistic, and I unfortunately agree. All of the dialogue has this slightly obnoxious, Marvel movie-esque, jokey tone to it. Serious moments are often undercut by Rook's quip-heavy responses and there is a lot of that irony-poisoned, insincere, self-awareness that would be great in a Deadpool movie, but not a Dragon Age game.

I'm not against humor in a Dragon Age game and, in fact, I love and cherish the comedic moments in the earlier games (purple Hawke forever haha). I think the difference is that earlier Dragon Age games took the story, world, and characters very seriously. The humor was the characters themselves being funny within that very serious world, not the whole tone of the game itself being light-hearted and wacky.

For example, let's examine Johanna Hezenkoss, the villain of Emmerich's quest. I overall enjoyed the quest a lot, but one cannot ignore how silly the tone of it is. Johanna is a necromancer who is now half-lich--the classic Dragon Age trope of a mage gone wrong. However, she is never really treated as a seriously disturbing threat or a genuinely tragic figure. She is basically a wacky mad scientist, complete with a funny crawling hand gag. It isn't bad writing, exactly. It did get some chuckles out of me. But it does exemplify the tone of the game overall--nothing feels like a big deal because it all seems vaguely silly and self-aware and on-the-nose.

In a less fun example, I am quite unhappy with the ways that this game tries to avoid dealing with the canonical racism and social inequity that previous games established. Like yes, we get some mentions that the Shadow Dragons work to free slaves in Tevinter, but no characters or quest lines ever really make the player confront that reality. It feels distant, impersonal, and stripped of complexity. I will readily acknowledge that Dragon Age hasn't always dealt with elf racism plotlines perfectly, but I respected them trying and messing up more than Veilguard just... not trying. For example, the animated show they made (Dragon Age: Absolution) dealt more maturely and interestingly with Tevinter's slave society than any part of Veilguard and I wish we had gotten more of that in a game that finally brings players into Tevinter as a main setting.

Problem 2: Lore

It would not be an exaggeration to say that a huge part of the appeal of Dragon Age as a game is simply the world that the writers created. Earlier games developed a Thedas that felt big and epic and complex. They created a setting that gave players a true fantasy experience, full of mysteries and unique societies and fun languages to learn and a rich history.

Veilguard feels very strangely uninterested in capturing that epic fantasy feeling. I cannot count the number of times that characters talked about concepts or used terms that sounded incredibly modern and bizarre given what we know about Thedas. In scenes with Morrigan, it was so obvious how older games were far more comfortable with characters sounding more archaic (dropping a 'tis on us occasionally).

Additionally, some aspects of lore were simply brushed over in very weird ways. For example, why did the Venatori so eagerly join up with elven gods, when in prior games they were, um... fairly anti-elf??? Also, why did everyone in Thedas apparently forget about the concept of Mage Circles? Did anyone give a single flying fuck about the Chantry in this game? Not particularly. Why won't anyone just call the Evanuris "the Evanuris"? Are you embarrassed by your own made-up words, game? Why does every character call them "the gods," even if they are not an elf??

One aspect of the game where Veilguard's disinterest in building its own lore really bothered me was with Taash's quest. Obviously, I have no issues with an non-binary character appearing in a fantasy setting. But the fact that Taash just kinda independently developed the term "non-binary" was very immersion-breaking to me. This might sound lame, but I want to learn some sort of cool fantasy term or an ancient pre-Qun concept of third genders or something. Just give me more fantasy stuff in my fantasy story please!!

Also, I know this controversial, but it also breaks my immersion that even playing as an NB character from Tevinter, no one ever brings up how canonically homophobic Tevinter is (thinking of Dorian and Krem here!) I think there is definitely a place for games that depict queer characters in fantasy settings being happy and accepted, but I don't think Dragon Age has ever been the franchise that people went to for comforting and hopeful visions of a fantasy society. Thedas has always been a dark, brutal, borderline dystopian world, but it still has the potential to tell queer-affirming stories about the struggle against oppression and living in defiance of your society. I wish Veilguard had done that.

Another part of the lore that felt very poorly done was the Titans. I loved the hints we had gotten in previous games through characters like Sandal and quests like The Descent DLC. But when the reveal happened in this game, all the characters kind just went "oh. huh. wild." Also I found the confrontation with, uh, evil red Harding to be very confusing and anti-climactic. The writing of the scene did not clearly telegraph what the red Harding thing even was? And then all of the rage of the Titans was very easily suppressed by Rook saying... "remember you are still you"??? Huge anticlimax that was poorly built-up and all the characters reacted to with little more than a shrug and a "dang, sucks for the Titans. I'd be pretty steamed too, I guess!" I want confrontations with the Titans to feel alien and epic and dangerous (and definitely not easily resolvable through a single dialogue option).

Problem 3: RPG elements

I feel like the developers of Veilgaurd did not want it to be an RPG and instead pushed the writers into created a more generic action/adventure game, but dang it!! I play Dragon Age because I like RPGs! I like to make choices that feel important and complicated! Veilguard gives the player a few significant choices, but I did not like them much and here is why:

Firstly, Minrathous vs. Treviso. This choice feels very forced. You have no real reason to pick one over the other unless you are planning to romance Lucanis or you are trying to role-play as a character from one of those cities. And you have no other options. I like RPG choices that either feel tactical or rooted in the lore of the world, and this is neither. The choice does not impact the game's outcome; no matter what option you choose, you can still ally with that faction and everyone will just kinda forgive you. From a role-play perspective, the game goes out of its way to reassure you that the city you Blight will eventually rebuild through grit and tenacity, etc.

Secondly, picking a character to die heroically. I hate this one because it feels like the game is trying to give you some "real consequences" and play into the larger theme of regret and leadership. But it once again, picking feels random! The game telegraphs very obviously that your choice will probably lead to this character dying or getting injured, so it isn't even shocking when it happens. And, yet again, everyone forgives Rook so quickly and immediately after the death. I actually liked the Bellara vs. Neve choice way more because I was surprised by the outcome, and that gave it more emotional weight. I thought it was just a random call; I didn't know one would be kidnapped!

Finally, the multiple endings. This was a choice that was not actually a choice. Getting the "true ending" was not based on decisions; it was just a check to see if you actually finished the game you just spent a bunch of money on. Like... yeah, obviously I finished all of the companion quests and faction quests?? I paid a lot of money to play this game so I did, in fact, play it.

For comparison, I thought a lot about BG3, which is another fantasy RPG that I played recently. That game allows you to make lots of choices that feel like part of the role-play and impact the ending of the game (is my Tav evil? Does my Tav want to rule the world with the Absolute's power or do they want to save it? Is my Tav willing to compromise with evil in order to make life easier?) Veilguard does not let you role-play much with Rook. You cannot create an evil Rook. You cannot play as a Rook who wants to tear down the Veil or side with the Evanuris. That's fine, I get that BG3 was a really hard game to make, but it makes Veilguard less of an RPG.

A closer comparison might be to look at a choice from a previous Dragon Age game. One decision that comes to mind was the choice between the Mages and the Templars in DAII. This isn't a particularly tactical choice (you still have to fight both bosses regardless) nor is it a choice that significantly changes the ending of the game. But it is a role-playing choice! By that point in the game, the player has gotten tons of information about the mage/templar conflict. They have seen multiple perspectives on the issue and seen the problems with both points of view. Therefore, the choice is fun because it feels like a declaration of belief. You, the player, are forced to pick which organization you see as less flawed or more ideologically valid, and by that point in the game, you care about that choice. Your companion characters are deeply invested in this conflict too, and so, if you care about them, then you care about the decision even when it doesn't change the ending.

With the choices in Veilguard, I was either not invested in the choice because the situation felt so arbitrary, or the choice was not really a role-play choice at all, but simply a sign of completing the game.

Problem 4: Companion Characters

Perhaps the most disappointing part of Veilguard to me is the characters, because I feel like they all had potential to be fascinating, but the writing played it way too safe.

A lot of the companions were strong concepts (a noir detective from Minrathous! an assassin possessed by a demon! a scholarly necromancer!) but I feel like their storylines never gave them much depth and often felt strangely unfinished. I think Lucanis and Harding suffered the most from being incredibly underwritten (Lucanis' Spite plotline feels like they just forgot to add another mission in?). Other characters had personal quests that were oddly paced (Bellara's brother is dead! Wait, no, he's alive. But we might have to kill him! Just kidding, we don't have to kill him. Oh no, he still died!) or with stakes that were not properly set-up (why does Neve care so much about a random templar guy who we never meet or learn anything about prior to her telling us that he died?)

Ultimately, I think the biggest issue I had with the companion characters is it felt like the writers never wanted to take any risks. There were no genuinely surprising twists like with Solas or Anders or Morrigan. There were no major RPG decisions like with Alistair or Isabella. There were no characters who were genuinely unlikable or flawed or at least morally ambiguous. I'm not insisting that companion characters all be dicks, but flawed characters feel more real, human, and therefore more empathetic to me. I love Cassandra because her faith and devotion to her cause does blind her to injustice. I love Fenris because his trauma has made him so defensive and prickly. I love Zevran because his survival strategies are horribly messed up.

I wish Veilguard had given us characters that felt more flawed. I wish they had been brave enough to show us companion characters acting terribly--lashing out in pain, or struggling with their core beliefs, or even fully betraying the party if their approval was low or the player made certain choices! Let me make Lucanis evil if I destroy Treviso! Let me see Neve genuinely go down a dark path and become the dark mage she has always fought against! Let me see Davrin truly asking himself if the Grey Wardens are a cause that he has the heart to fight for anymore!

In general, while it was cool to explore lots of different factions and parts of Thedas, the game never really put those perspectives into conversation. The threat of the Evanuris was meant to be so overwhelming and apocalyptic that in-fighting wouldn't really make sense. But I want in-fighting! I want the Veiljumpers to have serious issues with the Lord of Fortune surrounding ancient artifacts! I want the Grey Wardens to distrust the Antivan Crows because they are criminals. I want the Mournwatch and the Shadow Dragons to debate about what types of magic should be forbidden. Let things be complicated!

Veilguard, I beg you, let situations be emotionally difficult. Allow the player to be uncomfortable at times. Trust that the story will be better if the characters do not constantly announce to the player how they ought to feel and what is the Right and Correct Perspective.

Problem 5: Theme

This last point is less of a criticism and more of a diagnosis of sorts. Veilguard clearly has a theme relating to regret and how leaders are forced to bear the burden of regret for their decisions. Overall, I think the theme was pretty solid and I actually really liked most of the parts about Solas and Rook, their bond, and the Varric twist. No complaints there (although a symptom of a larger disease that Solas and Varric, characters from prior games, were my favorite parts of this game).

However, I think the rest of the game would have been so much stronger if the writers are really honed in on this theme in the side-quests and companion quests. In general, a lot of Veilguard felt slightly directionless and lacking cohesion. If other story arcs and faction quests had also shown the player different examples of "regret as a prison," that could have been a cool way to make those parts of the story feel more meaningful.

But even if the theme were more fully explored in companion quests and side quests, I still think that the game needs more focus in order to tell an effective story. Honestly, if I were writing the game, I would have limited the setting to Tevinter and the conflict to the issue between Rook and Solas. The Evanuris are fine villains, but immediately making the stakes so massive and global makes the story kinda scattered. I would have waited until the endgame to let them out.

If anyone ever wants to read by in-depth "how I would fix Veilgaurd" post, please let me know lol. I have many ideas.

Conclusions:

I don't want to jump on the Veilgaurd hate train too hard, because a lot of people have not been making their criticisms in good faith. But I do feel disappointed by this game, not just because I am a fan of the franchise, but because it feels like it plays into a bigger issue with narrative art today.

Veilguard fails because it feels deeply corporate, sanitized, insincere, and pathologically afraid of getting messy. Even if that means its lows are never that low, I would prefer it to swing hard and miss hard. I like art that actually has something to say other than "hello, here is more of the thing you like, please give us money." Some games are giving us these amazing stories, but not many of them are coming from big studios. I wish Dragon Age had gone in the direction of being a smaller, shittier, but infinitely more loved franchise. I wish the graphics still looked like ass, but I could fall in love with a mass of horrible polygons anyways because the writing was so compelling.

Instead, we got this glossy, over-worked, and pretty underwhelming game. Veilguard is a game for the modern era of soulless, irony-poisoned, pandering capitalists and I hate it, thanks. I hate it.

[mogruith]

YOU. POINTS.

Coranzan. 🔥 FIRE, ❤️ RED HEART, & 🌱 SEEDLING

(And bonus, if it's your thing if you feel like it. 🎀 RIBBON)

Ahh! Oh boy! Thank you for the ask!! 💕So sorry it took me so long to answer, many chores were suddenly generated...

🔥 FIRE - do they have any self destructive tendencies? what habits do they have that hinder them from becoming their best self?

Ooo. He has a couple - a lot of it rooted in insecurities about how he's perceived, which results in a lot of narcissistic behavior and toxic perfectionism. When he becomes obsessed with a goal/concept, he gets tunnel vision and ignores all else. He can also get this way with idealizing certain people. As a result, he neglects relationships, including ones that are close to his heart. Just a super short TLDR of an example I've partly mentioned before: Coranzan becomes obsessed with a lover of his and he used that against Coranzan to isolate him from his sister Z'ress ["Zee"] (as well as the rest of their family). Within 8 years or so, it blew up in Coran's face. And only when it was all said and done that he realized he'd neglected his relationship with Zee and it's one of the deepest regrets he carries with him. Despite the hurt, somehow she forgave her stupid brother. He rarely leaves her side for anything now.

❤️ RED HEART - their love language(s)?

Physical touch. HUGE. I think we've tag-talked about this before but yeah… being touch-starved in the Underdark and then coming to the surface and discovering there's a whole lot of …touch?? Uhh weird?? Wait, this is actually really nice??? Oh no, it's my whole life now. Safe to say Coran is absolutely greedy for giving and receiving physical touch.

🌱 SEEDLING - what is their most vivid memory from childhood?

I don't have a specific memory in mind, but Coranzan has, if nothing else, been consistently recklessly engaged in risky attention-seeking behavior for most of his young life which tends to make for memorable experiences. There was a point in his life where he wanted to apply the musical skills his mother taught him into becoming a bard at a relatively young age. And most bard-ing in that world was getting knee-deep into some eventful (ie dangerous especially for a kid) thing and creating some kind of epic war ballad about it. Well, he was very good at finding trouble, but not so good at getting out of it. And it was usually Zee that saved his ass when he went too far. But he did end up with some pretty wicked tales out of it.

🎀 RIBBON - how would they fit into other worlds / aus? what aus would you like to try out? what fictional world would they fit / not fit into?

Hmm. Well, I'll tell you what I thought about and gave up on: Pathfinder 2e's Remastered lore for Drow. Fucking cavern elves with absolutely no lore. Fuck off. I must admit I don't engage in AU stuff much with Coranzan, although I have with other OC (Mog, my username sake). So I will have to think about this one. Maybe I'll post something about it if I think of one.

[theshadyrodian]

Okay, so I’m playing Mass Effect for the first time, right? Just finished ME1 and immediately went onto ME2 (legendary edition), and I’m about 4 hours in.

Can we TALKKK about how TRAGIC of a character Shepard can be? In the first game my fshep was a colonist + war hero, ending the game with a full paragon bar. Walking into missions, she did the absolute MOST to make sure everyone, every civilian, stayed alive. There’s a line she has (ME1, fairly sure it was after sacrificing Ashley on Virmire + was talking to Kaiden about grief) where she comments that she couldn’t save everyone on Elysium, that she carries the regret with her but has promised to save as many people as possible since.

Then she’s racing against Saren, completely aware of the fact that she is the last hope to stop the reapers. She’s absolutely panicking, trying to keep her cool, protecting Garrus and Wrex fighting alongside her but knowing that she cannot die otherwise the galaxy follows her.

A horrible, distressing decision is placed on her shoulders. Saving the council or providing more support destroying the reaper. A few people who signify the galaxy’s primary races vs every single civilian, soldier, politician, criminal. She chooses the people, sacrificing the lives of a few, something she promised never to do.

But she had to, she had to, she had no other choice. Except she did.

Nights following this torn apart with screams or tossing and turning or martial practice. Anything. Anything to get that decision out of her head. To get Garrus’ cold warning circling her mind out of it for just a second: I hope you know what you’re doing, human. As if they weren’t friends anymore, as if he hadn’t progressed to being her most trusted companion in a fight.

Then it happens. Suffocating in her suit, drifting in space. She’d yelled at Alenko, at Kaidan, to leave. She’d screamed at him, no trace of their intimacy or closeness in her order. She didn’t want him to die, she didn’t want Joker to die. It was half a relief when she was ripped from the burning remnants of the Normandy, choking in her own beloved armour. She was going to die alongside those she’d murdered, practically with her own hands. Ashley, Ashley, Ashley. She couldn’t send any of her friends into death, now. Okay. Okay.

Clinical, blinding. Dark hair, interesting accent. Air. Air. Breathing.

No. No. She remembered dying. She was dead.

Then, just like that, she’s alive again. In active duty. Loading a pistol like no time had passed. Unfamiliar and weighty in her hand, fumbling like a toddler as if she hadn’t destroyed Saren herself.

Finding out she was revived by Cerberus, the corporation that ruined countless innocent lives, that experimented on people like they deserved it, like they were scum. She was one of them.

She’s thrown into everything again. You’re the only one who can. Only one only one only one. Everything is the same but leaning to the left. Everything is the same but mirrored in her vision. Something is wrong something is wrong something is wrong.

Joker. Oh gods, Joker. Normandy. Squad. Team. Family? No. No Garrus, no Kaidan, no Wrex. Tali gone again. Everything the same but different.

Her mission to recruit Archangel ends in damp skin. Sweat, so much, following the defeat of those who’d come after Garrus. Her friend. Her friend. Tears shed, away from everyone, the captain’s quarters nothing but a phantom of her room on the Normandy.

The SR-2 is merely a shell of itself. Burning, suffocating. Dead dead dead. Alive again. Like her.

Anger claws inside of her, something unreachable, uncontrollable. Was she always this angry? Her reactions so violent, impatient?

Zaeed demands sacrifice for his vengeance. She lets him, blocks out the screams of the civilians she would have once saved. Garrus watching.

At least someone who used to know her is with her, waiting for her next move. In the vast, empty space of the galaxy before her, it’s the one thing she could hope for.

TLDR; i love the way you can rp shepard through the games. i feel like paragon in ME1 to half/half renegade, but using the renegade reactions in ME2 is sooo interesting. because holy fuck imagine dying and then being brought back to life as a tool for an evil company, literally being objectified + dehumanised to the MAX, then just being expected to pick up your shit and save the galaxy again. i never really do ‘bad guy’ paths in video games (yes yes call me boring), however exploring the darker side to shepard in mass effect is SOOO INTERESTING because their morality is so closely tied to their mental state imo and just…. RAAAHHHH. can you tell i did a kaidan romance in ME1 and am progressing into a garrus romance for my shep btw?🤗

[stardewvalleyreddit]

r/tifu

I (36m) live in a small town. Everyone knows each other, and we don't often have new people moving in.

Well, recently, we had a new person move into town (they'll be called "The Farmer" from here on). They inherited a farm from their grandfather, who we all loved dearly. So far, they've been nothing but kind; they help everyone in town as best they can. They've even brought me some things I was looking for! We are very lucky that they joined our community.

This is where the problem starts.

I've had a thing for someone else in town (25f, let's call her "Emma") for quite some time. I'll be honest, I'm not the most confident person. I tend to look down on myself and have trouble initiating conversations. I've written notes to Emma that I've never had the guts to send. You know, typical nervous introvert nice guy stuff.

Well, I asked The Farmer if they wouldn't mind bringing Emma a piece of amethyst (one of her favorites) and let her know it was from me. They did that, but I think it may have backfired. When they told her it was from me, she seemed to not react how I thought she would. They gave it to her while she was at work (she is a bartender/waitress), I was sitting less than 20 feet away. She thought the gift was PURCHASED from my shop (I am the local blacksmith), and she kissed The Farmer! The Farmer just let it happen. It was absolutely embarrassing.

Since then, I haven't had the courage to say anything else to Emma, or The Farmer. I'm regretting asking the Farmer to give her the gift rather than delivering it myself. It seems like The Farmer has a crush on her now, which I had never gotten any signals about before.

Things in town have also felt off. Like nobody noticing my special shoes at a yearly local festival, when normally someone would compliment them.

Not sure where to go from here.

Tldr tifu by not shooting my shot with my crush when I had the chance to, in turn accidently setting her up with someone else in town.

[crowroboros]

Two Mentally ill Men in Games that I like

I'm drafting up a post about Moebius, Ouroboros, Alpha and their role in shaping Aionios and how they tie into the messages and themes of the Xenoblade series but I'm taking a break from that because I just can't look past how similar Consul N and Leo's arcs are.

MASSIVE Echo (Leo's Route) and Xenoblade 3 spoilers. I mean absolutely earth-shattering spoilers. You have been warned.

Also this is being written on the spot and in one sitting and while I'm sleep deprived so it might be messy and a bit incoherent to anyone but me. Maybe I'll touch it up a bit in the future. This is also long as hell.

TLDR; N and Leo:

Are both obsessed with their romantic partner

Are both mentally beaten down and manipulated by their circumstances which slowly strengthens their obsession and makes them spiral further

Are both possessive of their romantic partner to the point of manipulation and control to keep them by their side

Both commit atrocities in the name of their obsession (To be fair to Leo, Consul N is MUCH MUCH worse in this regard) Both reach their breaking point towards the end of their game

Both indirectly kill their romantic partner/love interest

Are both incapable of moving on when their relationship ends, leaving them stuck in the past.

Are both a major part of a game all about "going in circles", "cycles", and the human condition

Both perpetuate the aforementioned cycle

Both put on a front of being stable and collected to hide intense shame, regret, and turmoil going on within them.

Leo and Noah are two shades of the same color so to speak. Now let me be clear, Mio and Chase are nothing alike and their roles in Noah's and Leo's respective obsession with them are very very different. Chase directly had a role by texting and sexting Leo while drunk, continually fueling Leo's hope that the pair would get back together. Mio on the other hand, alongside Noah, was forcibly reincarnated again and again by Moebius. They kept meeting, falling in love, and having their lives ripped away from them by war. Mio's involvement begins and ends with her just trying to survive like everyone else.

Noah, in all these past lives, seems to be the last of the pair to die. And even thought the memories of each life were wiped upon rebirth, those memories and their complimentary feelings still lay dormant deep within him. Hundreds of memories and feelings stacked up deep within his subconscious.

Each time Noah loses Mio is more painful than the last and it culminates when the pair, in a new incarnation, lose the hope to fight against Moebius and ending the war; instead deciding to go into hiding. They have a son, Ghondor, together and hope to live out the rest of their lives in peace. Alas Mio again dies, this time from her Term Marker reaching the end. And Noah is absolutely distraught. It only gets worse with Noah's death a year or two later, for he is brought before Moebius Z and forced to witness all of his past lives; Every time he and Mio met, fell in love, fought by each other's side with the Lost Numbers...only to get killed again and again.

Noah in this moment is forced to realize that he exists in an inescapable cycle, and becomes despaired of ever ending it. Z, seeing Noah at his lowest, offers him the option to live out eternity with Mio. Noah, if he is to take the offer, will get immortality, power, and he'll even bring back Mio to live alongside him; All he has to do is become Moebius, and completely destroy the inhabitants of The City. And to Noah — having just relived the pain and suffering of hundreds of past lives and being told that nothing he does can change the world — accepts. After all, why wouldn't he? If nothing he does matters in the end, if Moebius will keep the inhabitants of Aionios stuck in this cycle of bloodshed for all eternity, then why can't he at least live out that eternity with the one he loves?

When Noah becomes Consul N and destroys The City as well as killing most of its inhabitants — including his and Mio's now adult son Ghondor — Z does keep his promise, bringing Mio back as Moebius M. But she's absolutely horrified by his actions, lashing out at him and pushing him away. Noah at this point already regrets his actions, never having truly agreed with Z on the goals of Moebius. He's disgusted and ashamed of himself over what he had just done, and it's only made worse by Mio's response. But instead of repenting or accepting that what he is doing is horrific, he puts on a front. He buries his regret deep and pretends to believe in a cause that he never truly could get behind. He spends the next thousand years carrying on as the very thing he and Mio were so desperate to destroy and internally it's killing him. N becomes despondent and hateful, relying on Mio's existence to keep himself happy all while he presents himself outwardly as stoic and collected, pretending to be content with his choice. On the other hand, Mio openly hates the life she has now been forced into — taking lives and perpetuation the cycle of war that grips Aionios to fuel her own existence — and she too falls into a depression.

On the Echo side of things, this is equivalent to the prank Chase and Jenna pulled on Leo as well as the three years that Chase and Leo kept having a long distance "on-again-off-again" thing going on. Pretending that Chase was cheating on Leo, the breaking of Chase's phone, Chase never directly saying that the pair have broken up — only saying that he's going to Pueblo — and then limiting contact for the following three years to just drunken sexts doesn't offer Leo any real closure on the relationship. Leo has based so much of his own happiness on the idea of his relationship with Chase and the bond they had together, and now he's desperate to have that back, even going as far as to continue to wear the anchor bracelet that he and Chase wore to symbolize their relationship all these years later.

Just like N deludes himself into thinking that what he is doing as Moebius is what is good for himself, Mio, and the people of Aionios, Leo is deluding himself with the false hope of rekindling his relationship with Chase. They're both holding on to their own desire for a relationship long dead and are ruining themselves in the process. Both are perpetuating the cycle that holds their respective worlds captive: Consul N with the Endless Now and the war between Keves and Agnus, and Leo (albeit on a much smaller scale) with the inability to grow and change.

Both Aionios and Echo are locations that get their identity from their stagnation and decay. Aionios has been in an endless war since its creation with the collision between the universes of Bionis/Mechonis and Alrest, slowly getting chipped away at by the Annihilation Events. Echo was once a thriving town that over the years has failed to keep up with the changing world and now sits in a state of decline with only ~50 residents by the time of Echo VN.

And in this state of eternity, both Leo and Noah are given the opportunity to embrace change and to accept that nothing will be the same forever. For Leo it's when Chase leaves Echo, and for Noah it's when Mio dies in the last natural reincarnation. But both of them are too afraid of what it means to move on and let go. So instead, both cling to what's familiar and end up back at square one.

This refusal to move on isn't just detrimental for Leo and N alone, but it is detrimental for everyone around them. Aionios and its war persists for at least another millennium at the hands of N, resulting in the prolonged suffering of the people of Keves and Agnus. While Leo's obsession over Chase results in the manifestation of The Embrace, which stalks people such as Duke and Dale and drives them to some level of paranoia. And it all reaches the breaking point when it gets the person they love most — the object of their obsession — killed.

To briefly provide context before this next section; Sometime across the thousands of years between when Consul N and M came into existence and the main game of Xenoblade 3, N and M's repressed hope and ideals of a better world manifested as separate entities all of their own as the pair sunk deeper into despair and self-loathing. (Origin is essentially a Conduit emulator and there is a bunch of Xenoblade lore that makes this already long post even longer so just know that under certain conditions and with access to certain things, one's willpower can cause physical change or manifest as a physical entity.) These newly formed entities are the protagonists of Xenoblade 3; Noah and Mio. Functionally, it is the same as the cycle of reincarnation that all inhabitants of Aionios experience except with the caveat that the originals are still alive. From here on out, the Noah and Mio who became Moebius will be referred to as N and M, while the protagonists of Xenoblade 3 will be called Noah and Mio.

When the protagonists get absolutely fucked up when fighting against Consul N, Consul M sees potential within the group and spots an out. She is presented with a second chance to hopefully put an end to the world's suffering. M ends up revealing everything to Mio; The memories of their past lives, what Consul N did and his reasons, and ultimately what M wants from this: To die. The two switch places, with Mio taking M's place and M taking Mio's.

M, masquerading as Mio, spends a month in prison where she and the rest of Ouroboros are psychologically tormented and taunted by Consul N. Whereas M saw Ouroboros as a second chance, N sees the group as a threat to the familiar. A threat to the eternity he gained with M. To him, M is his property to hold close. So he spends that month breaking down the group's hope, putting them in the same place he was moments before he was given the offer to become Moebius. He wants them to fall victim to the same cycle he has.

And when that month is up, M dies in Mio's place at the Homecoming. She dissolves into light and her soul is set free from the reach of Moebius and the cycle of reincarnation. She has escaped the cycle and embraced an unknown future in the form of Mio.

And when N realizes who just died, he crumbles. For much of the final act of Xenoblade 3, N is inconsolable. He sits alone within Origin, not speaking or moving from his place in the Amphitheater. He knows that everything he has done up to this point had just been erased, for M is now gone. He is forced out of the past he lived in and is thrust into the future alone. But rather than admit that, he only dives deeper into the mask he wears, pretending that it isn't him clinging to the past that led to her demise but instead the changing world brought about by Ouroboros.

Over in Echo when Chase, Jenna, and TJ return for spring break it is Leo who takes action and gets the entire group back together. After all, this is exactly the opportunity he had been waiting for! He can get the group back together after three years and try his hand at getting Chase back as well! Over the course of Leo's route, the wolf gets increasingly more aggressive and protective of Chase and by the end of his route, he's outright threatening anyone he views as potentially taking Chase away from him again; using his size and gun to intimidate them.

In Leo's bad ending, this culminates when Chase once again leaves the status of his and Leo's relationship ambiguous. When trying to jump on a train to escape Echo, Leo grabs and pulls Chase off the caboose. This causes Chase's legs to swing under the rails and for both of his legs to be severed at his calves.

It's here that N and Leo begin to differ, at least in this ending of Leo's route. Whereas N was in full control of what he was doing, Leo is undoubtedly influenced in part by the hysteria over Echo. Leo's obsession, possessiveness, overprotectiveness, and his aggression is all him, however it is likely that as the hysteria takes hold of the town, these traits are exasperated by the supernatural. It's why N falls into a near comatose state out of grief, and Leo loses grip on his own sense of reality, failing to grasp the gravity of Chase's injuries. Leo takes Chase to his house and bandages his wounds thinking it'll be enough. Chase slowly bleeds out and eventually dies, though Leo doesn't seem to be able to grasp this. In fact, Leo's actions and behavior after Chase loses his legs could be seen as analogous for when N decided to become Moebius. It is when Leo fully resigns himself to Echo, thrusting himself and Chase into reliving their past together. Literally in Chase's case, as he flashes back to various memories of his and Leo's relationship as he dies.

Despite the difference, thematically N and Leo's situation here is the same. They both refused to step forward into the future and the center of their greatest desire died because of it. For N, it was the possibility of a future without M. If Moebius was stopped and Origin rebooted to allow for the safe reconstruction of Bionis/Mechonis and Alrest, there is a chance that he'd never see M again. There's a chance that the rebooting of Origin's systems won't even work and the two worlds will cease to be. And for him, that possibility is too much to bear for he bases his entire sense of self around M and his relationship with her.

With Leo, when he asks Chase if the otter will stay with him after they escape Echo, he needs a concrete answer. The past three years has had Leo in a sea of uncertainty in regards to his relationship status with Chase, and as Leo says himself "seeing you leave on that train was too much."

For Leo, getting on that train meant leaving all that he and Chase went through in Echo behind for a future that neither of them can predict. He's terrified of what that could mean; Maybe they'll work out, maybe they won't. Maybe they'll be friends, maybe they'll never talk again. Why take that risk when the two can stay in Echo? Echo, just like Aionios, is stagnant and decaying; things stay the same and end up right where they began. Stuck in a cycle.

But Leo's good ending follows a different path. Here, Chase directly and unquestionably cuts things off with Leo. Chase forces Leo to move on by giving him a hard answer, making sure that the wolf simply cannot continue to hold onto the idea of their relationship rekindling.

And what does Leo do in response? Nothing. As Chase and the others flee on the train, Leo stands and stares; Dejected.

In this ending, Chase lives. However it is more similar to M's death in terms of what it does to Leo and the overall narrative. Just as M's death did for N, Chase's rejection forced Leo from the perfect eternity he tried so desperately to craft for the two of them. Leo is forced to move on without Chase, and it crushes him. In his despair and grief, he is left alone by the side of the tracks in the dark.

Two years later, Chase returns to Echo with Kudzu to formally say goodbye to the town and Leo. In these two years, Leo has undergone a lot of change. He too is leaving Echo, moving back in with his parents, and he's no longer wearing the anchor bracelet. In these past two years, Leo ahs come to terms with the fact that he and Chase are over.

Leo has managed to escape the cycle and has come to accept the future that awaits him. He's no longer wearing that anchor bracelet; which not only symbolized Leo and Chase's bond, but also the way it tied Leo down. it symbolizes the way the weight of what the past meant for him kept Leo from moving forward and embracing the changing world around him.

And his route ends with the pair parting ways.

Through both leaving Echo and moving on from Chase, Leo is stepping into an unpredictable and uncertain future. He doesn't know what will happen or whether he'll ever see Chase again, but he's content with that. In a town where all you can do is go in circles, he has managed to get free of that burden and forge his own path in life.

Over in Aionios, Ouroboros make their way within Origin and confront N. When they find the Consul, he's no longer sulking alone, but standing ready for a fight. Now that M is gone, now that all he has sacrificed for hundreds upon hundreds of years has been for nothing, he feels empty.

It doesn't matter what happens to N anymore, he just wants to make others feel the same pain and suffering he's feeling. This is comparable to the two years Leo spent dealing with Chase's absence post-Echo. Rather than wallowing alone however, N is taking out his sorrow and guilt on Ouroboros. He's lashing out, as he knows that his eternity is gone.

Ouroboros and Consul N fight, and after a long battle N is defeated again. It is here that N and Ouroboros — in particular Noah and Mio — have a heart-to-heart with him, serving as his inner conscious in a manner similar to that of self-reflection. The pair get N to realize that he fucked up, and nothing he does will bring M back nor will it make everything he has done right. But importantly, they empathize with him, understanding his reasons and how hard it was for him to keep up that act. They convince him to not allow the past to define him and to instead atone for his actions and move forward. And their words, as well as M's, finally get through to him.

N and Noah fuse together, giving N a chance not to redeem himself, but to atone and move forward with his life. He joins Ouroboros to destroy the last remaining Moebius, Moebius Z, and to set the world free from stagnation.

Moebius and Ouroboros, the symbols themselves, are two sides of the same coin. Both are cycles, seemingly endless paths looping in on themselves. But whereas a Moebius strip ends where it started, and Ouroboros ends one loop with the birth of something new. Moebius is an endless cycle of stagnation. Ouroboros is the endless cycle of change and rebirth.

Ouroboros goes on to destroy Moebius Z, the collective unconscious given physical form by the dense collection of fear and anxiety over the fate of their worlds that the respective people of Bionis and Alrest within Origin's systems felt as their universes threatened the other with oblivion.

As Origin reboots and Aionios falls apart, Ouroboros separate as they're dragged along with their respective universe. N has done it. He, similar to Leo, has managed to move on from eternity. he has allowed Aionios to be destroyed and has stepped into an uncertain tomorrow. From here, no one knows what will happen. Maybe Origin will fail and both universes cease to be. Maybe everything will go to plan and the worlds no longer are at risk of destroying each other. If it does succeed and the universes safely merge together again, there's a chance that Noah, Mio, and the rest of Ouroboros won't be alive to see it, thus never meeting each other again.

But they're content with that.

Consul N from Xenoblade Chronicles 3 and Leo Alvarez from Echo Project's Echo VN are both complex and interesting characters that explore the human desire to cling to what's familiar and reject painful or unsatisfactory change. And through them, we see how staying in the past can be harmful not just to the self, but to those around you. Through these two characters, Monolithsoft and the Echo Project team tell the audience that it's okay to be afraid of how things might turn out, that it's okay to want to stay close to what's familiar. But if you resist change, if you do everything in your power to keep yourself in an endless now, that you'll do nothing but cause harm. So look forward to tomorrow, for it is a bundle of possibilities. And just

Walk on.

[riddleredcoats]

I just finished my first playthrough of Veilguard and boy oh boy, do i have thoughts.

but, TLDR:

Bros, this game is so fucking strange.

It literally giving me everything I wanted; every theory for the past 10 years I've had to speculate is bang on, they bring niche characters in a way that makes sense, they give us nice romances, they give us cool combat, EPIC set pieces and then [gestures].

Anyway, this is more for posterity than any real, coherent thoughts.

The Good:

I don't know what sort of wizardry the devs at Bioware made for this game, but this game runs smooth AF. Actually insane in the year of our lord 2024 that a AAA viddy game manages to do it. Kudos must be given.

The art-style grows on you really fast, actually. And considering what happens in the game, especially in the back half, I think making it more stylised was necessary to also compliment the aforementioned point of it running smoothly.

There is in fact, a lot of dark themes in this game. I don't know what game some reviewers played, but to say its basically a clean version of a DA game is... just wrong. I have a theory, in the Bad section, about why they believe that is the case, but Veilguard is filled with Dark Themes.

The set pieces of this game are fucking insane. Like, there is no comparison to any other Bioware game. Even ME3 with its bombastic set pieces isn't a match to Veilguard in the prologue. The Siege at Weisshaupt? Gagged the whole way through. That last 2-4hrs of game were amazing and while I have beef with it - further down - for what it is and what it is trying to be? They succeeded. Some of the best viddy game I have ever viddy gamed, frankly.

The lore drops are also insane. I basically watched all of Solas regrets back to back to back and basically it was confirmation upon confirmation upon confirmation. I'm still in the high of the Solas/Mythal confirmation and that happened like 3 days ago, lmao. And if you know me, you know why - it goes wayyy beyond Solas and Mythal for me, personally.

Morrigan's place in the narrative. Keeping it vague, but just [gestures to all of it].

Issenya... Just... Issenya, man.

The companions. Yeah, they're all great, I don't think there's really a dud one. Sure, I connected more with some than others, but man- these companion quests are involved and meaningful and progress the story. You do get to know them very well. Harding, Neve, Davrin and Emmerich will always have a place in my heart for their questlines, even though I love all the other companions too - but those really resonated with me.

Combat. Holy shit, a DA game with a fun combat system. That's all really.

The Middling

The music. I don't love it but I don't hate it. I can count on one hand the amount of times the music made me feel something - basically the last scene of the Harding questline and when The Main Theme came in during the final quests. Trevor Morris reigns supreme; I teared up more for The Lost Elf theme return than any other musical moment in the game.

The pacing of this game is... baffling. I'm not sure if its my own fault for basically trying to do everything in the first act, but Act 1 took me like 40 hours, while the remaining two acts took me 20. Weird. Will need to experiment because it might absolutely be on me, but yeah.

The Bad

It's basically one thing but honestly, every time it was brough up it was like a dagger piercing my heart while my stomach was stepped on by a bronto.

The lack of geopolitical talk both past and present.

Much as been said from the infamous 3 choices that Veilguard imports - and I will say, that even those 3 are laughably implemented imo - but never is it more felt than in this aspect. The past straight up does not matter. Worse; they actively disregard it imo. There is no difference between world states, no world leader talk, no nothing. It is just... nothing. And listen, the specifics deserve their own post eventually, but im just processing shit still.

The game is really fun, and the themes and characters that are there and the lore is fantastic and when im locked in, I'm REALLY locked in, but then when I try to put it in the context of the past games, what I loved about it - the politics, the disagreements, the sheer brutal way that history and prejudice can just fuck up a country, Veilguard just... it feels hollow, without any bite or flavour.

And this is the crux of all the problems, really, in the present in Veilguard.

The way people talked about the dark tone being gone? Yeah, I can see it here considering that there is no distinction between Dalish and City Elves anymore basically. The discrimination against elves is just... gone, apparently? Which is insane - because we are in Tevinter and it's just... abandoned? The way Rivain is all cool and shit about Magic and Spirits with like zero nuance or, more imporantly, any real consequences when [gestures to the past games] - it just makes the South Really Dumb because of course they are now ig. The Crows - these assassins that bought children to train, in what amounted to a sponsored slavery ring - are now freedom fighters and all the nuance of the assassinations is gone? The Wardens are fine mostly, really, but they are suddenly very above board all of the sudden.

And that's the whole thing here.

They have tried to make everyone stay so above board, to make everyone The Perfect Ally That No One In The Real World Can Criticise, that it retroactively sucked all the nuance and Flavour For Thedas At Large out of the story. It made the story worse because everyone is just so gosh dang nice and A Super Ally when in past games the conflict, the flavour of the Whatever Big Struggle was that everyone hated each other and was constantly in-fighting. Which made it fun and interesting to play.

Okay, sorry i forgot I had another one:

the fuck is that ending credit scene? with the executors implying they have been behind everything since DAO? Oh man, Bioware you can't do those types of stories - you tried in ME3 and [gestures]. Why can't Loghain just be a dude traumatized by Orlais which led to All The Things in DAO? Why can't Bartrand just be a greedy bastard whose actions bring about DA2 and DAI and basically informs Varric's character from then on?

What the hell.

Anyway.

Yeah, initial Veilguard thoughts.

Oh yeah, and Neve is hot and I love her.

[razzmothazz]

i think its so funny when youre on the wrong side of the pjsk fandom before you get into it because you will see people talking about rui like hes trying to kill tsukasa and is literally making saw traps just to put that guy in them like a lab rat and is just absolutely evil and manipulative and then you actually read the stories and rui is just such a kind and caring guy that when tsukasa did get hurt by his machines [ON ACCIDENT] he straight up went welp. guess im never doing anything dangerous ever again and im a failure as a director and only got over it when tsukasa started screaming at him that he likes his crazy ideas and if he didnt want to do them he simply wouldnt. or when rui got hurt when tsukasa couldnt test the thing out and his thought was just "well im glad it wasnt tsukasa that got hurt :] it would really mess up the show if our star✩ was the injured one"

or you will see people talking about ena like shes the worst person ever and is just mean to everyone for fun and hates everyone with her whole being. and again. you read the stories and shes just a girl that struggles with her emotions. shes trying her best but she just never learned how to control her emotions and how to deal with them because she lives in a home where everyone feels somewhat hostile towards her, especially her father who she feels only wants to aggravate her on purpose because he never clearly communicates with her. you can see she is very kind and caring as well, especially visible with how she treats mizuki and their secret. yes shes mean at first but shes clearly trying to work on her issues and do better. her relationship with akito is very complicated but she clearly cares about him too, which is shown in the childhood flashback where she tells him that he should find something to do that he loves and stick to it, she encouraged him to not give up so easily on something if it feels right and he lives by those words to this day.

and akito is portrayed as an asshole, especially to ena, but he also clearly cares about her. hes not good at stating it but he clearly shows it with my favourite example being when ena was having something of a breakdown and was trashing her art supplies. akito walked in, agitated at the noise but as soon as he saw what she was doing he was clearly worried. he didnt want her giving up on her passion, just like ena didnt want him to give up on his. of course, ena in the emotional state she was in didnt listen, but akito knows her. his "you will regret this" mightve been taken as mean and something he said just to be annoying but it wasnt. he said that because he knows his sister and how much she wants to create, and she would definetly regret getting rid of all that stuff. he tried his best to calm her down in some way, to talk to her, to give her some time to think about this and if this is really something she wants to do or if her emotions are getting the best of her again.

i think about that moment at least 5 times a day because its such a nothing scene but it actually shows so much to me, as someone who was both ena and akito in similar situations. sorry i care a lot about the shinonome siblings they mean the world to me

tldr: rui isnt a manipulative ass he just has a hobby, ena isnt a bitch she just doesnt know how to deal with emotions properly and has trouble understanding how others feel, and akito isnt a shitling of a brother he actually tries his best

[myteavsricochet]

Are people really for real with this Nick stuff? Because I just can’t quite fathom it.

For one thing, if he really hated RWRB that much he would not have signed for the sequel.. and if, as people are trying to claim now, he was already tied in by the original contract he signed and now regrets it… he still would have found a way to get out of it. There will have been all sorts of clauses in all of their contracts to give them all wiggle room to get out of it if they’d wanted.

Secondly, if he really hated RWRB and was doing the sequel under duress, do people think he’d be so apparently obvious about his dislike? Because there are a lot of detectives out there who have cracked the code that he hates everything about it? Nick is a professional who is trying to carve a career for himself… he’s not going to behave in the way people claim he is because it would lead to people being put off hiring him. No-one is going to want to work with someone who made it so ‘obvious’ they dislike a project that have worked/are working on.

Thirdly. The boy is chronically online, he’ll have seen everything that people are saying, and he still has not posted about RWRB. That tells me for some reason he can’t. Because if he really was the ruthless, fake, fame hungry person some people are trying to make him out to be, he’d be trying to appease people and make himself look good by posting about it. He’s not going to upset a big proportion of his fan base by making it clear he hates being associated with the film that they love, because that would mean those people would not watch anything else he makes. Which being a money grabbing narcissist who just wants to be popular (apparently) would not sit well. RWRB is also in line to be nominated for an Emmy, by far the most successful thing Nick has done so far in terms of award recognition etc. if he were that single minded about climbing his way up the ladder, he would be mentioning his involvement all the time because he’d want to ride off that success.

Finally… Do people see the videos of the announcement, interviews about the sequel, the panel, photoshoot with Taylor and see someone who is hating every second? Or someone who hates this book/film and being associated with it? Nick can act, but he can’t act that well.

TLDR: The longer it goes without him posting anything about it, the more obvious it becomes that he can’t. Because he would have posted something by now, even if he hated being associated with it, to try to stop it becoming more of a ~thing than it already is.

I absolutely understand your point babe and agree with what you wrote. You're right but I tell you that it is not worth wasting time explaining such simple concepts because these people don't want to understand, they just want to complain, nothing will ever be enough for them. It wasn't even enough to see him at two important events related to rwrb, the confirmation of a sequel and all the content that is coming out and why? because there is no post on ig. We will never make it, so don't waste your time with them and don't get angry it's absolutely not worth it 😇 I posted that anon after receiving at least 20 in that tone just because I wanted to share that video lmao

[apollos-boyfriend]

will Jeff and liu ever run across each other and does liu ever learn about the existence of Slenderman? if so how does all of that that go down?

yes!! liu finally runs into jeff when he’s about 26 (16 years later) and it is. a Lot on all ends. liu’s forced to deal with the fact that his older brother has not grown and is nothing like the idol he’s built up over a decade later and jeff has to deal with the fact he actually didn’t kill liu, whoops! i could and probably will write an entire essay on jeff’s thoughts about his origin some other time but tldr he is Not coping well with liu being alive for various reasons. it’s definitely not what either of them were expecting and would take decades to unpack in therapy if either of them actually went to therapy. alas, the best the mansion has is nina, and jeff knows for a fact she does Not follow doctor-patient confidentiality

liu has been on the run for the past decade or so, and jeff isn’t Really sure what the social protocol for encountering your long-lost/presumed dead older-younger brother is, but he’s pretty sure leaving liu now would be Bad, so he obviously brings liu back to the mansion with him when he returns. liu is essentially in shock for the entire experience of 1. actually finding his brother 2. finding out his brother is still 13 and 3. finding out his brother is still 13 because he’s been taken in by an eldritch monster and hidden away in a timeless pocket dimension full of other murderers/supernatural beings. jeff is just lucky he didn’t pass out, because he is Not strong enough to carry a grown ass man into the woods for that long

brian is absolutely flabbergasted that this is the third fucking time someone has shown up to the mansion because of jeff (nina, then jane). sally is initially happy to have another kid her age (sully) but then talks to sully One Time and spends the rest of her day promptly regretting that decision. ben nearly dies a second time when he sees that liu’s been using nothing but a flip phone for years now. jane offers liu her number to page her at any time, having had a Similar Experience of having built this image of Jeff the Killer in her mind for literal years before discovering he’s literally just an ipad kid with knives.

liu becomes the first real constant adult presence in the mansion. jane leaves frequently because of her family and while brian and tim are Almost constant, they sometimes leave to stay with jessica because the mansion can still be Too Much for them. liu doesn’t have anywhere else to go or anything better to do, having completed his life’s purpose, so he’s just forced to Stay

[friends-to-lovers-tournament]

Friends to Lovers Tournament: Round 1, Side A, Match 2

propaganda under the cut!

Tasutsumu:

Submission 1:

(exploding) sorry if this is badly written i am walking rn . Mods know the series but A3 is about stage actors.

TasuTsumu are literally the friends to lovers ever. They're childhood friends, even. They did everything together. They've acted together since elementary school. but then (VINE BOOM) they both try out for a prestigious acting troupe called GODza... but only Tasuku makes it in (sad horn sounds) Tsumugi lost a ton of confidence after not making it and kinda ghosted Tasuku and ran away from his problems </3 he originally had given up, but missed the stage so he tried out again at the Mankai Company (troupe all of the characters are in). Of course, as fate has it, Tasuku had just left GODza after their... unsavory business tactics, but the troupe had blacklisted him from becoming an actor at any other high end troupes in the area, leaving him to go to the Mankai Company. And of course times 2, he and Tsumugi try out for the same troupe. Tasuku is less than pleased with seeing Tsumugi's face after he just disappeared before, and things between them are tense, especially when Tasuku gets fed up with Tsumugi's lack of confidence after he becomes the troupe's leader. But!! Fate wants them to get along (and be together) and Tsumugi finds this cursed doll that traps them in a time loop of the same day. They're stuck until they resolve their issues. Nothing like a good ol divine intervention to get two friends to lovers back together. tldr Tsumugi owns up to his insecurities to Tasuku and works to overcome it. In the process, while performing their play in an act off (if they end up in the competition i'll actually essay about it) Tsumugi feels that his acting is inferior once again and totally bombs a show. Tasuku finally works around his own regrets of not reaching out before when Tsumugi had "quit," telling him how much he loves and envies Tsumugi's acting, and apologizes to Tsumugi. Then boom they pull off an incredibly gay play about angels and become lovers (not canon but Trust me).

please let me write properly about them and put them in i love my blorbos <3 they were made for this tournament

Submission 2:

absolute best friends in childhood who had a very impactful falling out, but managed to resolve things. nowadays they're in a theatre troupe together where their troupe is quite literally married.

Submission 3:

1. CHILDHOOD FRIENDS

2. Their introductory arc was literally a whole divorce-reunion arc. They divorced because Tsumugi failed an audition into the God Squad theatre troupe while Tasuku got in which was a blow to Tsumugi's confidence as an actor and he ran away and Tasuku was mad at him for that. It was literally so bad that the game had to break its slice-of-life genre to introduce a doll that traps people in a timeloop until they're able to make up, and they (and another guy who's kinda a cryptid) are the only ones aware that the day keeps repeating

3. After one of their shows, Tsumugi overhears some audience members criticising him and comparing him to Tasuku, which leads to him changing his acting style in the next show which completes bombs their show. Out of shame, Tsumugi runs away, and it takes Tasuku some hesitating before chasing after him and finally telling him how he REALLY feels -- that he was guilty for not being able to do anything to help Tsumugi when he failed that audition years ago and ran away, and that he admires Tsumugi's acting for what it is. The anime makes this scene even gayer by having them meet on a bridge in the snow and Tasuku holding an umbrella over Tsumugi's head as he pours his heart out to Tsumugi

4. Tsumugi regains his confidence after hearing that, and they finally FINALLY 100% reconcile

Zenyuki:

they start out strangers who despite their different statuses become friends, who then gradually develop feelings for each other as they continue to get to know each other better! despite being a prince, zen treats shirayuki like an equal, helping her out with her herbalist qualifying exams even staying up late in the greenhouse and getting his hands literally dirty with soil all to help her. shirayuki also treats zen like a friend and doesn't kowtow or walk on eggshells around him just bc he's a prince. they have so much mutual admiration and respect for each other, and they inspire each other to grow and chase their goals! i also really like that the story goes out of their way to show that they have lives outside of each other, that they both have separate goals, responsibilities, and duties but they come together to support each other in working towards them! also that neck kiss scene mmm i think about that a lot

[jarvis-cockhead]

Okay one person has given me an excuse to yap so:

An Overview of Moz Politics

Disclaimer this is super informal but essentially I think I've cracked the Morrissey code as to why he seems to hold so many conflicting beliefs at once. My finding is that he doesn't, actually, his beliefs just play out differently within the UK vs the US. This means a man can side with both Bernie Sanders and Nigel Farage and not be contradicting himself, somehow. Anyway. The key Moz policies to be aware of:

- Anti royalist & despises the monarchy

- Hates Thatcher

- Hates the Conservatives (I think it's very funny that in 2010 he backed up Marr on saying David Cameron isn't allowed to like The Smiths)

- Anti war (? evidence inconclusive especially recent events, this is mostly an assumption based on his 2013 criticisms of Bush for the Iraq war)

- Believes Obama should've done more to tackle police brutality

- Sexuality inconclusive but we know he supports gay rights. Criticised Trump for not having any sympathy for the victims of the Pulse shooting

- Speaking of Trump, in 2017 when asked if he would push a button to kill Trump, he said yes, "for the safety of the human race"

- Early in the 2016 election he endorsed Clinton but later praised Bernie Sanders as "sane and intelligent" and said the media should've given him more coverage

However 😸

- His views on animal rights have led him to support PETA and call Chinese people a 'subspecies' because of their treatment of animals

- Said in 2019 he thinks Farage would be a good prime minister

- 'Nearly voted' UKIP (2013)

- Doesn't like the EU, presumably voted leave

- Claimed to have nothing against people from other countries but said in 2007 that British identity is disappearing due to immigration

- Endorsed Anne Marie Waters far-right party For Britain in 2018. "She believes in British heritage, freedom of speech, and she wants everyone in the UK to live under the same law. I find this compelling"

- Supported anti-islam activist Tommy Robinson under the guise of free speech, "It's very obvious that Labour or the Tories do not believe in free speech"

- In response to racism accusations he claimed that "everyone prefers their own race"

All of this is taken from his Wikipedia page, and there haven't been any updates on recent politics, so as of right now this is all we have to go off.

The TLDR:

Morrissey hates conservatives and capitalism, he's pro 'the people' and British heritage, and is so far up himself he'll let his animal rights beliefs turn into abhorrent racism.

His own personal description of his politics:

The way I've come to understand it is that when it comes to British politics, since he hates capitalism, the Conservatives (and he doesn't seem to think much of Labour either), the monarchy, and seems very strong on heritage, his views align closer to working class far-right groups like UKIP and For Britain. In America on the other hand you're a bit more limited to Republican vs Democrat, and of course he isn't going to support the super capitalist Republicans. He also doesn't have any ties to heritage to muddy his choices.

His racism in relation to animal rights is it's own thing but clearly shows he has no issues with racist views.

... And that's essentially it. Probably the only Morrissey hypocrisy is him stating in 2004 that The National Front Disco is him expressing sadness and regret for anyone who joins far-right movements, when later he'll go and do... Just that. Aside from that, he's very unchanging in his principles. It just depends on the playing field.

I don't care to go into the morals and ethics of liking his music/The Smiths, he just fascinates me as a person. Do I still wish he'd get his head out of his own arse? Absolutely.

[nemesis-is-my-middle-name]

Well about the perception of Volo vs Kamado thing, and why more people don’t hate Volo, I have my own reflections (pretty privilege is absolutely a factor tho let’s be real 😂)

Everyone growing up has at least one story of an adult being super unfair to you, even though you were doing everything right. Their own biases and experiences could be understood later once you were older and calmer reflecting back on the incident, like a teacher who snapped at you maybe had a super long day of wrangling hundreds of children. But we never forget how it feels in that moment to have those who should be guiding us be unfair and seemingly unreasonable. So naturally that’s gonna hurt when you get kamado being paranoid.

Volo on the other hand is just absolutely delightful I’m sorry maybe if Kamado put on a silly outfit and hair for his boss battle instead of plate mail he’d have more art. Like you said Volos betrayal is one and done really, he acts like a theater kid and then dips. You have to keep seeing kamado being in charge in the game after his blunders for a while which can rub people the wrong way. (Also this is maybe just me but I never trusted Volo just like I never trusted Cynthia as a kid, and finding out he was evil was a great moment of vindication I CANT be the only one who experienced this)

TLDR we see unfairness way more than we see someone betray us while making their hair like a god horse

well, you heard them, kamado. time to go get the jester outfit. cmon chop chop it's to redeem your image

yeah, the point abt getting burned by adults in authority is also very fair. most of us were not scarred for life by theater kid antics lol. the other thing abt it is that often those same adults never really face any consequences. you were always just expected to move on, suck it up etc. cause that's life as a kid right. sometimes ppl will use their power over you just to flex their limited authority, or to vent whatever's going on in their home life, and this doesn't really stop when you grow up it's just that when you're a kid basically every adult has that authority position. so it's just expected that there's nothing you can do. i mean unless you decide to be the karmic force of justice in your own life by being the most stubborn bitch of a child to walk the earth. not that i would know anything about that cough

uh anyway. the thing is the thing btwn you and kamado isn't about about child vs adult. you're more or less considered an adult yourself by jubilife, albeit a rather young and more importantly low ranking one. like we've said (a million times already lol) kamado's not doing it just to grasp at a sense of control, he's reacting to what he perceives as a very real threat to his village (and also because the writers clocked him in the face with the idiot ball for plot advancement reasons lbr).

and the thing is kamado DOES, kind of, face consequences and own up to his mistakes by the end of the game. also after the red sky event he's like, REALLY nice to you lol. not just briefly either! imo you can tell that he sincerely respects you and regrets his actions in the red sky. go look at his late game quotes-

"Perhaps you are a divine being yourself, sent to bring us gifts from above... "I know I've no right to say this... But we are truly fortunate to have been able to count you among the Survey Corps' ranks. If you had not joined us, we would have fallen on Mount Coronet. We would have lost our home. We would have lost our future." "I'm grateful to you for showing me what a heartening presence Pokémon can be. We must spar again sometime!" "<player>, forgive me for taking so much of your time [telling you about the Galaxy name.] Please accept this as a sort of apology."

like he's trying to make up for the way they were treated earlier and give them the proper treatment they're owed for all their help.

idk i don't have a good way to conclude this i guess. i just think he's a cool character

[lnights]

Ok thoughts on the new album.

TLDR: I really like it! I would put it above LOTSAD. I think Phobia is my favorite

Me examining it like a sample in a petri dish below:

There are some similar things between EE and LOTSAD but to me it's almost like two sides of the same coin.

For example Glory for the Greedy and Not Your Bro have the same theme of people trying to act different once they started to get more popular.

While Glory was more about the corporate side, labels and producers and such that had rejected them before and then wanted to get a cut while they gleefully rejected them in turn now.

I have always supported your band" You haven't? Our last chat you were saying "ditch the rapper" "I believed in your vision" Hmm, no you didn't? You told us to lose the guitars and sing in Finnish "You're gonna be a big band, I always knew" Shut the fuck up man, no thanks to you "Prepare getting sued" Well prepare to fucking lose We ain't giving away percentages for work you didn't do

Not Your Bro is more the personal side of things.

When are we gonna hang, bro? It must be crazy touring with the band, bro Let me know if you ever need a hand, bro What can I say I'll return the favor, I'm returning the fear Your apologies only hurting my ears Call me a brother once again And I swear You'll disappear

And that theme stayed in my mind the whole album, where LOTSAD was triumphant to almost an annoying degree (I still liked it tbh) Exit Emotions is showing more of the turmoil that comes from the grind they've been putting themselves through. I think at this point we've all read or heard from them how there's been days they've been up for over 24 hours, that they were literally recording the album in hotel rooms between shows. I personally am a little haunted by the live where Niko explained that they weren't supposed to have such a packed tour schedule last year while recording the album but things just kind of happened, and Joel, Joonas, and Aleksi were just quiet but had this look of defeat on their faces. And one of them saying later that they were scared to listen to the album because they were so sleep deprived when they were recording it... Bros need a fucking break.

But back to the album, I have to admit I expected Wolves in California to be an absolute cringe fest and it was to a degree, but for as much as they've been trying to break into the American market I kind of love that the song was more talking about Finland and how they don't necessarily feel steady in the US.

The night is darkest just before the dawn But where I'm from the sun don't rise at all Damn you, now I need someone to shout at Damn you, now I need someone to shout at Damn you, now I need someone to shout We don't belong here We don't belong here, no Everybody tried to warn ya Now there's wolves in California

Yes it talks about conquering too but I digress.

Where's the Exit

Screaming rap goblin Niko my beloved, keep it up you sad clown. But again, a contrast from LOTSAD:

This life is what you fake it And everybody has a deathwish True tell me where's the exit

Red Tail Lights vs Don't Fix Me

From say Balboa that talked about getting up again and again against the odds and not giving up.

Both songs scream Joel to me, I don't know if it was him turning 30 or what but we went from Don't fix me:

Don't fix me Let me bleed out, leave me open No, don't fix me Maybe I was born to be broken I'm dead inside And it's alright (And it's alright) So don't fix me (Don't fix me) Don't fix me

Saying yeah I'm broken but it's who I am to Red Tail Lights:

I'm rolling rolling rolling rolling with the punches I need the beating 'cause there's nothing under my chest Here's something to digest

And

On the run, on the run, running from my heart Red tail lights is all I've got

I get the impression of yeah this is who I am, but there seems to be regret now, a different tone.

Autopsy and Phobia both funky little songs talking about fears. 10/10 no notes

Keeping it Surreal sounds more inline with Violent Pop or Blood Brothers to me, and that's giving me hope we'll get more songs like that when they inevitably make another album, hopefully in a year and not in like 6 months.

XOXO, I just loved it, I like From Ashes to New and hearing Matti and Danny and Joona on the song? Wonderful.

Of course we have the singles too:

Flatline is catchy and I've always enjoyed, dorky little dance aside.

Happy Doomsday, meh. It's better live but it has started to grow on me.

Deadzone, cringy but their brand of cringy, I do enjoy it.

Die Another Day, somebody correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't Feel Nothing and Bad Idea from the same event in Niko's life that inspired Die Another Day? He had a lot of pain from that. Love all three of those songs.

But also fascinating looking at the progression between the three: Feel Nothing, still in the pits of despair and numb to the pain.

Bad Idea, internalizing the fallout and admitting things that went wrong

Die Another Day, trying to pull yourself out of that pit

Then we have our final song, One Last Time... Again.

Holy hell it's a tone shift from Thank You for the Pain, where TYFTP was all about their rise to fame and leaning to deal withit, One Last Time... Again speaks more to accepting things will never be the same and is a lot more driven then TYFTP.

But ffs, they need to stop putting fillers at the end of their albums.

[chepedukduks]

Holy mackarel I just randomly thought of wizard game again… hit with crazy feels every time I remember that dang thing and the community that loves it.

Heck, I was an autistic kid and that game was my whole reason to keep going, for a while. The stories I wrote to myself, the days where I’d sit and think of nothing but scrabdackle. The dozens of fanfic ideas I never got to write, fanart and fan animations I wasn’t good enough to make. The people I connected with so much emotionally… I doubt anyone else cared as much as I do. Or even knew how I felt. I just acted stupid and energetic. That’s how I showed my love back then. I remember all the little things and inside jokes and little moments and the little jolts of pain I’d get every time I’d mess up and do something wrong. Around the middle of last year was when I’d listen to stupid corny songs about moving on and how everyone’s happier without me. It felt like the world was crashing down… like some childish, silly breakup. Such a harsh reaction to something so inconsequential to everyone else. I’m downplaying it now, but it hurt bad back then. The fact that I got so scared, so afraid of getting real and never truly expressing — not knowing HOW to express — how much it’d really meant to me despite everything, is something I’ll always regret. I realize only in retrospect that the community isn’t perfect, not at all, but I’m not perfect either.

I remember being bitter at people… for no real reason? I honestly don’t even remember why I was upset, but it was probably something stupid and petty. I was a petty guy. I remember getting in trouble a lot, like I was the troubled kid. I probably was. My heart was in the right place, but my actions may not have reflected that. I think I’m emotionally stunted. That’s okay. I’m sorry regardless.

I remember how I’d act all dramatic, pointing to the stars and praying to whatever god was out there that I wanted it to be successful! As if that’s how the world works. I’d imagine a tree, a small sapling that we raised together. Me and my cool internet friends that I looked up to! I’d cry myself happy tears to sleep dreaming about how it’ll become so big and beautiful someday, and then sad tears believing I wouldn’t be there to see it. I was such a sensitive, naive person… still am. I don’t wanna change that about me, never.

I wish I knew you all more personally (subposting pfft, what’s new). I don’t know how to socialize at all, and I’d hate to subject anyone in that server to any more of my overbearing sentimentality. Thank you for being so kind. Thank you for talking and being my friends and keeping me updated and sharing our appreciation for the game with each other. Last year, all I could think of was how to say goodbye. I’m not planning on saying that anymore. Someday, I’m gonna show the world peak fiction… absolute cinema…. just you wait, but not now. Not for a long, long time.

I dunno why I’m writing this now. Just feel like it, I guess. Maybe I should’ve waited till thanksgiving, but does being thankful really need a particular date?

So yeah, thanks for raising me for 2 whole years <3

- Chep

(TLDR: JUST DON’T READ IT IT’S CORNY also wishlist scrabdackle on steam :p)