#to me its a bit of a double edged sword but I'll choose to take mostly the good out of it

[bristof]

Dragon Age: The Veilguard Should Have Been Rated T

Spoilers for the entirety of Dragon Age: The Veilguard

I can't fathom how Dragon Age: The Veilguard exists in the way it does. Every now and then a game will come along that is so baffling in its design that I spend more time wondering how they came to certain decisions than thinking about the actual content in front of me. I'll start with the things I liked, which is unfortunately, not much. I found the combat and some of the exploration elements to be pretty fun and reminiscent of the recent God of War games, a comparison I'm sure you've heard before. Some of the overlap is pretty hard to overlook, the exploration and level design philosophy in both games are VERY similar and you can feel it with the small puzzles you do, the party members having different abilities that can interact with the world, looting, gear progression etc. While none of these ideas are new to games like this, even with God of War, it's the most recent and apt comparison I can make based on how the game feels to play. While I am a bit disappointed that you can't control party members in full like in previous installments, it makes sense for the combat framework here. Build crafting wasn't as flexible as I would have liked it to be, but I still found it to be fun a lot of the time. There's enough variety present within build crafting and itemization that I never found myself brushing it off just so I could get through the game, unlike some other aspects. I played a mage and landed on a hybrid necromancer evoker build that I was really enjoying. The other thing I liked is a double edged sword that will transition into what I didn't like about the game, which is basically everything else. The art design is a mixed bag to say the least. On one hand, the environments are stunning, there isn't a single location that isn't beautiful to look at. Some stand outs being Arlathan, Minrathous and The Crossroads. Another point for the art design is the sky box tech they used. Veilguard might have the most beautiful and detailed sky boxes I have ever seen in a video game. Unique lighting techniques are used in some areas and the sky boxes fully take advantage of that. Also it had been said to death but I cannot get over the Qunari design in this game, they look like direct descendents of Yakub.

Tone is a difficult thing to set and stay consistent with in any story, especially one that is meant to be experienced for 25+ hours. Veilguard fails to set a consistent tone on almost every level. This is a considerable step down from previous Dragon Age games in terms of everything related to writing. This game revolves around trying to kill two "gods", from act 2 to 14, that is the main goal. Except there's almost no consistency with how dangerous and powerful these gods are. What do I mean by that? One of the big shifts in tone is at the beginning of the game when you go to D'metas Crossing and find a terrible mess of alien looking biomass and corpses strewn about everywhere. Up until this point, Veilguard had been relatively light hearted with you exploring a magical, colorful forest and meeting characters that present no friction to any dialogue choice you make. Then you're thrust into this town with people mangled everywhere, you can see bodies that were trying to escape only to be caught by something and reduced to a skeletal shell, devoid of their outer layer of skin. It would have been an effective shift, except right after this we go back to happy go lucky dialogue and characters. When you go back to Arlathan and tell some of the people about it one of them goes "First the darkspawn and now this, all of this is getting very scary!". While this line was so bad I laughed out loud, it signaled to me that the writing in this game is probably not going to get better. Later on the gods wreak havoc on a city and you have to choose one to save, one of the most impactful choices in the game. However the city you choose to not save, while looking a lot worse for wear, doesn't feel all that terrible, especially when compared with D'metas Crossing from earlier. There are a few more moments I could make an example of but the bottom line I want to make is that both of the gods do not present as a threat save for a few moments towards the end of the game. Solas should have been the main antagonist of Veilguard, he is by far the most compelling and well written character and is with you the entire game. Knowing that this game used to be called "Dragon Age: Dreadwolf" it's pretty easy to assume that this used to be the case for the narrative and was later changed.

The most disappointing thing in this game would have to be the party members. There are 7 of them in total and I only really liked 4 of them. However, I didn't do many of their companion quests as I got to a point where I didn't want to do side content anymore and just wanted to be done with the game. That left all of their stories unfinished and it's baffling how little characterization these characters get within the main story. Some of the characters have major moments within the main story that relate to their quest line, but that only counts for 2 or 3 of them depending on how you look at it. I'll leave the thoughts on the side content for later, for now I want to go through each party member. I don't have much to say about Harding as I found her to be a pretty nothing character. She has some moments during the memories of the Dreadwolf quest that leave her with interesting questions about her people and their history, but other than that she felt like such a nothing character. I can say the same about Bellara but she had a bit more charm with her energetic personality that endeared me to her a bit more. Neve is cool, she has better dialogue than some and worse than others, very middle of the road. She is focused on Minrathous and really really cares about Minrathous, that's her entire character. By itself that's not a big deal, Lucanis is like that but with Treviso, I just found it to be a bit redundant since my Rook was also a Shadow Dragon that cared about Minrathous a lot. Emmrich is really awesome, I really like the spin on a necromancer being really nice and posh. He provides the most insight during the group discussions and has funny banter with the other characters. Lucanis is probably my favorite, during the main quest he falters and doubts himself and changes quite a bit. I kept it pretty short for most of the characters since I don't have much to say about them. While I liked some of them, none of them left a lasting impression on me. Davrin and Taash are interesting in what they represent rather than their actual character. Taash is pretty compelling, kinda? Their journey of self discovery is handled pretty weirdly. During my playthrough, they have one conversation with Neve right after they join the party and then decide they are non-binary. I love seeing representation in games but this felt very "hey guys look, we have a non-binary character!!!" rather than something genuine. Especially when the rest of their questline has to do with their cultural identity and that you basically tell them to choose rather than say "hey you don't have to be defined by either groups of people because you are your own person". It's a very cool idea to flesh out a non-binary character in a long rpg like this with both their gender and cultural identity, it's just handled poorly here. Another thing that upsets me a bit is Davrin. I like his character quite a bit, however, he represents the step back the Dragon Age games have taken with Veilguard in terms of mature themes. Race has always been an important theme in these games, I played an elf in Origins and that decision heavily affected me for the entire game. Yet here things are all of a sudden just more tolerant? They mention how elves are still heavily discriminated against, Bellara says it a couple times but most of it comes straight from Davrin, I played an elf for Veilguard and all it changed was that I could say something about the gods every now and then in conversation. None of the discrimination present in the other games is here in Veilguard, which is crazy because the plot of this game should have amplified that idea tenfold. The gods threatening the entire world are elven and everyone knows it. That is a ripe opportunity for upsetting and insightful storytelling and all we get is Davrin saying "Elves really have it hard" every now and then.

I skipped most of the side content in this game, and I was heavily punished for it. The game tells you a few times that you should do the side stuff and I ignored it for the most part, this led to me getting the "bad" ending where every single member of my party, myself included, died, saving the world in the process. My issue lies with the lack of decision that led me to this ending. There were no dialogue options throughout the game that I could have chosen to prevent this and get a better ending. The game basically said to my face after the credits rolled "If you did the side content you would have gotten the good ending". I do not think an rpg that prides itself on the choices you make affecting the narrative should work like this. That's not even mentioning the lack of choice you have in regards to anything in this story, you make decisions don't get me wrong, they just don't affect much. Even with the party, 9/10 times everyone in the party agrees with everything you do, I only saw the "X character disprove" pop up maybe 3 or 4 times and I was choosing the meanest options you could make sometimes. The worst part is, I found the ending I got to be the most affecting and emotional part of the game. My home city of Minrathous looked like D'metas Crossing, everything was terrible, all my party members were dying one by one, leading to my character sacrificing himself to save the entire world. It was the dark and desperate tone the game was teetering on the edge of for the entire runtime come to fruition, and directly after Veilguard gives you a text pop up that basically says "you didn't do the side content and everyone died because of it". A final slap in the face after Veilguard actually made a risky choice, I should have been the one wondering what I could have done differently after the credits rolled, wondering if I had helped the party with their personal issues if things would have turned out differently, wondering if I had helped the various faction prepare for the coming battle if we could have won with little to no casualties. Veilguard disguises itself as a narrative choice driven rpg but there is a story it wants to tell, it does its best to push you in the direction of the ending they want to show as it would be consistent with the rest of the pg-13 writing the game has to offer. I wish we could have seen what the original concept of this game would have looked like, when it was more Dreadwolf and less Veilguard.

[paulisded]

The Ledge #600: Hudson's Best Of 2023

Choosing my favorite records of the year is always a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it's great fun for a music nerd like me to revisit the hundreds of releases I've checked out the last twelve months. But it's also frustrating trying to thin down those picks into a list that truly represents the past year. Many records that initially seemed a lock are suddenly eclipsed by new records that I simply can't ignore. Other albums that I had prematurely set aside have revealed themselves to be chock full of fabulous tunes that I can't imagine living without. 

Overall, this is another great year for music. I'll never understand the mindset of people, especially those around my age, that complain how there's no great bands or records these days. Sure, the pop charts are primarily filled with garbage, and one does have to spend more time than ever finding new artists. But the search has always been a great part of the fun of being a collector, and my main reason I've now put together 600 episodes of this show is to share my findings with others. I'm always thrilled when I hear that someone has bought a record due to my recommendation. So please let me know your thoughts on this countdown of my picks for the 40 best records of the year!

39. Hotline TNT, Cartwheel/Dion Lunadon, Systems Edge. (tie) It’s only fitting that the list ends with the two most recent discoveries. Hotline TNT is the latest project of Weed leader Will Anderson, and it’s a prime example of the modern era’s version of what was described as shoegaze years ago. Dion Lunadon is a veteran rocker who got his start in The D4, which put out two albums on Flying Nun Records, and also spent time in A Place To Bury Strangers. His third solo album of glam-influenced rock and roll probably would have charted higher in this year’s list if I had heard it a few weeks earlier.

38. The Blips, Again. A few years ago, the leaders of four bands convened in an Atlanta studio and put together a great rootsy rock and roll album. These four songwriters have reconvened and their second album is as strong as their debut.

37. Dwarves, Concept Album. A happy Dwarves album? Is that possible? Well, sort of. The snark is still there from He Who Shall Not Be Named and the rest of these masked marvels.

36. Jagger Holly, Rivoltella. Forced with a second lockdown in his Austria home, Jagger Holly’s Jay Dee sat down and started writing…and writing more. As he states on his bandcamp, “If 1 record is nice....2 records has to be better right?” The result is indeed two records of what pop-punk should sound like instead of the whiny vocal styles that plague the records that generally are described as such.

35. Local Drags, Mess Of Everything. Let’s take a little bit of The Shoes, mix it with early Tom Petty along with Wilco at their poppiest, and you have this rock and roll gem.

34. The Smashing Times, This Sporting Life. We all need a little jangle in our lives, and we have The Smashing Times to give us this year’s shimmering guitars.

33. JJ & The Real Jerks, Rat Beach. Our friends at Rum Bar Records released a ton of great music this year, but the highlight is quite possibly by these grizzled rockers. Take a little bit of Ramones, more than a couple of pinches of Dead Boys, and quite a bit of any other “loud fast rules” bands, and you have these wonderful jerks.

32. The Men, New York City. After a few albums that saw this veteran band attempt to expand their sound, this record is a true back to basics that, to quote Pitchfork, “wears its analogue heart on flannel-clad sleeves”.

31. Country Westerns, Forgive the City. Great band, terrible name. But with great garage rock such as this I’ll forgive the sin.

30. Kevin Morby, More Photographs (A Continuum). Technically, this record is a set of leftovers from last year’s This Is a Photograph album, but these aren’t second rate rejects. Instead, these are songs that lyrically or sonically just didn’t fit that album but deserved to be released.

29. Waco Brothers, The Men That God Forgot. A personal note here. I created a yearlong theme for my podcast, The Ledge, where I’ve been playing a cover of The Undertones’ “Teenage Kicks” on each and every one of my shows this year. I was obviously thrilled when I first saw a tracklist of the latest by these veteran “Clash meets Cash’ rockers and “Teenage Kicks” was the lone cover on their first set of original songs since 2016.

28. Bory, Who’s a Good Boy. Bory is the project by Portland newcomer Brenden Ramirez, and is produced by power pop maestro Mo Troper. This was a late addition, and I can’t wait to fully immerse myself into multiple plays of this catchy record.

27. Iggy Pop, Every Loser. It certainly seems like 2023 was a year for legends to return to the spotlight. Pop set the tone with this album that came out the first Friday of this year. Like the Stones album, Pop was reenergized by young producer Andrew Watt, which resulted in quite possibly the most varied Iggy album in decades.

26. Brian Jonestown Massacre, The Future Is Your Past. Thirty years after their very first release, Anton Newcombe’s latest collection of songs is his 20th album to date. The latest is an extension of last year’s Fire Doesn’t Grow On Tree, where Anton set a goal to record one new song a day for 70 days. I guess we’ll have a few more records from these sessions in the next few years.

25. Guided By Voices, Nowhere To Go But Up. Another year, another three albums by Robert Pollard and friends. So which one do I pick for this list? Honestly, I’m going to go with recency bias and choose the most recent record. But all three feature the typical three minute blasts of pop/rock bliss that Pollard has completely perfected since he stabilized his most recent lineup a decade or so ago.

24. Night Beats, Rajan. It may not sound correct, but I can’t help but think this wild mix of psych and Western genres would make it the perfect soundtrack for a remake of a 60’s spaghetti western.

23. Yo La Tengo, This Stupid World. Shortly before COVID hit, Yo La Tengo began recording jam sessions in their practice space. They reconvened a few months later, and started experimenting with these tapes they had previously recorded. The result is one of the veteran band’s more interesting albums they have put out in their almost 40 year career.

22. Graham Parker & The Goldtops, Last Chance To Learn The Twist. It’s always a great year when we see a new Graham Parker album, and this year is no exception. His first in five years, Parker’s latest combines his usual snark with a wry sense of humor, along with his love of classic soul and barroom rock.

20. Lucinda Williams, Stories From a Rock N Roll Heart/Pretenders, Relentless. (tie) Two legendary rock and roll women who have nothing to prove return with some of their best music ever, and they do it on their own terms. Chrissie Hynde’s latest Pretenders album rocks as hard as her band’s greatest moments, but it’s not a retread of her first two albums. Williams, who recently recovered from a stroke, combines barroom rockers with her patented grizzled folky ballads.

19. Cut Worms, S/T. Max Clarke’s third album as Cut Worms is a weird fever dream where Brian Wilson in his 1966 prime suddenly records an Americana album that would fit right in with 1999-era Jayhawks, Wilco, or Whiskeytown. Does that make sense? 

18. Frankie and the Witch Fingers, Data Doom. Let’s just let the bandcamp page describe this album, as it’s better than anything I could possibly write - “on…Data Doom the band hurtles the listener head first into the wood-chipper of technological dystopia, systemic rot, creeping fascism, the military-industrial profit mill, and a near-constant erosion of humanity that peels away the soul bit by bit. With a fuse lit by these modern-day monstrosities the band seeks to find salvation through a thousand watt wake-up of rock n’ roll exfoliation.” Are you as exhausted as me?

17. Osees, Intercepted Message. It’s insane to think that this is the 28th studio album by John Dwyer and Company, under quite possibly the tenth or so variation of their band name. What’s even more insane is that, with few exceptions, none of these albums sound the same. This record could be described as their “party record”, with synths leading the way. But that’s not saying this is an OMD album, as the garage-punk aggression is still present.

16. King Tuff, Smalltown Stardust. Kyle Thomas, aka King Tuff, has always mixed a wide range of influences into his records. On this record, Thomas adds quite a bit of 70’s singer/songwriter, along with a bit of early Wings, merged with the fuzzier sounds of Dinosaur Jr., Ty Segall, and many others.

15. The Rolling Stones, Hackney Diamonds. There’s absolutely no reason why a 2023 album by The Rolling Stones could be anything better than middling. A tour souvenir, maybe. Or something only for the devoted fan. Yet, this record works. The band sounds like they mean it, man. It may be prototypical Mick and Kieth, but there’s also a modern edge to it thanks to producer Andrew Watt.

14. Lydia Loveless, Nothing’s Gonna Stand in My Way. Lydia’s lyrics have always seemed like a direct path to her soul, and that’s never been more true than on this record. Yes, she’s been through a lot of heartbreak, but there’s also a feeling that she knows she’s going to make it and won’t let anybody get in her way.

13. The Exbats, Song Machine. Everyone’s favorite father/daughter band has now fleshed out their sound with the addition of two additional band members, and their new record is sort of a love note to the history of pop music. There’s some songs reminiscent of Phil Spector’s great girl groups of the 60’s. Other tunes seem to come straight from the Brill Building or whatever production team created the Partridge Family records of the 70s. Yet these syrupy tunes mix with the darker influences of bands like the Velvet Underground and the Ramones.

12. Sparklehorse, Bird Machine. As a rule, posthumous records don’t make my lists. But I can’t help but include this final Sparklehorse record. One year before he took his life, Mark Linkous spent a few weeks in the studio with producer Steve Albini, bashing out a bunch of simpler than usual tunes for a project that was never finished. Over a decade later, Linkous’ brother and his wife fleshed out these recordings, resulting in a fitting final chapter for a brilliant career that should have been bigger than it was.

11. Tommy Stinson’s Cowboys In the Campfire, Wronger. The former Replacements bassist has long promised this side project with buddy Chip Roberts, and it’s a wonderful departure from the great Bash and Pop album of a few years ago. This record is chock full of laid back Americana, and certainly showcases Stinson’s love of the likes of Johnny Cash, Dave Alvin, and John Doe (who makes a guest appearance).

10. Bar Italia, The Twits. This wonderful London trio released two records this year, but this second one was arguably the better of the pair. Their sound is chock full of many classic and contemporary bands - a bit of Sonic Youth, a midge of Dry Cleaning, among many others. What’s most interesting is that on most songs the three members each trade off on vocal lines, which journalist Skye Butchard says “(takes) songs in new directions, reveling in the tension where their individual ideas intersect"

9. Wreckless Eric, Leisureland. How does one describe a modern day Wreckless Eric album? It’s not easy. The melodic pop skills of his early days are still present, but he surrounds these tunes with landscapes of various sounds. This particular record flows best as one long piece of music. Well, two pieces, actually, if you’re listening via vinyl, as god intended.

8. Purling Hiss, Drag On Girard. Purling Hiss began as a one-man project of Philadelphia guitarist Mike Polizze. Now a full-fledged band, this is the record for fans of fuzzed up garage rock.

7. Wilco, Cousin. After last year’s somewhat overrated country-ish Cruel Country, it’s nice to see the band back to experimentation. For the first time ever, they even reached out to an outside producer, Cate Le Bon. The results are one of those “creeper” albums that takes a few spins to unveil its charms.

5. Brad Marino, Grin & Bear It/Geoff Palmer, An Otherwise Negative Situation. (tie) it may not be fair to either Marino or Palmer, but it’s hard for me to think of one without the other. They’re friends that regularly play on each other’s albums, and they both tend to put out records around the same time. They’re pretty much the power pop/punk/rock version of Rockpile’s Dave Edmonds and Nick Lowe.

4. Paint Fumes, Real Romancer. The veteran garage/punk rockers’ fourth album is quite possibly their best. Their bandcamp site states it’s for fans of the Nerves, Ramones, and Gun Club, and I can’t think of a better description.

3. Civic, Taken By Force. Asked to describe their second album, the Melbourne-based five piece responded with “1984 meets Endless Summer”. A head scratcher, to be sure, but yet it weirdly is apt. Noisy, explosive proto-punk guitars meets singalong choruses, aptly produced by Radio Birdman’s Rob Younger.

2. The Whiffs, Scratch ‘N’ Sniff. What I just wrote about Uni Boys also fits with this fabulous Kansas City band, which made their short tour together this year a dream lineup.

1. Uni Boys, Buy This Now! Power pop was back in a big way in 2023, but it’s an evolved form of the genre. “Power” is the key word. Yes, the pop melodies are full of the giant hooks we expect from these sorts of bands, but they’re intermixed with louder guitars and faster tempos. These bands are forging their own visions instead of simply following the past. This L.A. foursome grew up at Burger Records shows, and you can tell.

Tonight's show also sees the conclusion of a yearlong project that has been great fun - the "52 Weeks of Teenage Kicks" series. I had originally planned on just playing a demo version of The Undertones' original track, but I received a surprising email just a couple of days ago. "Hey it's Krusty, longtime caller first time listener", it read. "Procrastinated my way through almost the whole year on this one (its pretty easy when you suck at drums!). Usually I am playing with my band Fashionkill, but this is my first effort at playing everything involved! Like the metallica blecccchh album, this is definitely more studio tricks than actual musicianship! Drums on Thursday, Everything else on Monday. Mixed on Tuesday. Sent today. Keep up the good stuff!" Thank you, Krusty, and thanks to all of the others who participated in this series!

Here are the tracks I aired to represent all 40 selections (aired in reverse, "countdown" order, of course):

1. Uni Boys, Down To The City.

2. The Whiffs, It’s Not Over.

3. Civic, Blood Rushes.

4. Paint Fumes, Starting Over.

5. Brad Marino, Lucy.

6. Geoff Palmer, Surfin’ Nebraska.

7. Wilco, Cousin.

8. Purling Hiss, Something In My Basement.

9. Wreckless Eric, Standing Water.

10. Bar Italia, World’s Greatest Emoter.

11. Tommy Stinson’s Cowboys In the Campfire, Mr. Wrong.

12. Sparklehorse, I Fucked It Up.

13. The Exbats, Himbo.

14. Lydia Loveless, Poor Boy.

15. The Rolling Stones, Whole Wide World.

16. King Tuff, Smalltown Stardust.

17. Osees, Intercepted Message. 1

18. Frankie and the Witch Fingers, Syster System.

19. Cut Worms, Take It and Smile.

20. Lucinda Williams, Rock N Roll Heart. 

21. Pretenders, Losing My Sense Of Taste.

22. Graham Parker & The Goldtops, The Music Of the Devil.

23. Yo La Tengo, Sinatra Drive Breakdown.

24. Night Beats, Motion Picture.

25. Guided By Voices, Puncher’s Parade.

26. The Brian Jonestown Massacre, Do Rainbows Have Ends.

27. Iggy Pop, Strung Out Johnny.

28. Bory, Feel the Burn.

29. The Waco brothers, Teenage Kicks.

30. Kevin Morby, This Is a Photograph II.

31. Country Westerns, Grapefruit.

32. The Men, God Bless the USA.

33. JJ & The Real Jerks, Girl I Want My Money Back.

34. The Smashing Times, Lets’ Be Nice With Johnny.

35. Local Drags, Heard About It.

36. Jagger Holly, Don’t Bore Us (Get to the Chorus).

37. The Dwarves, Feeling Great.

38. The Blips,, Who Took My Baby Away.

39. Hotline TNT, History Channel.

40. Dion Lunadon, Diamond Sea.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE SHOW!

[meganuzlockediary]

Leaf Green! The Pokemon League

November 17th

Lorelei

Jolteon meets her water types taking out, Dewgong, Clyster and slowbro in one shot with thunderbolt. Lapras goes to a slither of heath and uses Body slam doing just under half health. Fortunately Sitrus berry blocks the heal and Jolteon finishes it off. Jynx comes last and is the most annoying. It uses attract on Jolteon as Bite only does about half. I'm not willing to lose Jolteon so I switch to butterfree hoping to get a silver wind. Unfortunately Jynx uses lovely kiss on the switch in so I go to Blastoise who has a Chesto berry just in case and uses bit for the win.

One down 4 to go.

Bruno

Bruno is a little easier. Blastoise OHKOs onix and tanks a sky uppercut from Hitmonchan to take it down. I switch into Butterfree on Hitmonchan who manages to take a mega punch to below half health before going down to psychic. Machamp is going to take more work. Fortunately compound eyes sleep powder helps here putting machamp to sleep allowing for the 2HKO from psychic. I switch back into Blastoise to take a double edge from Onix and finish it off with a surf. I was right this team is tougher to use. Pivoting is more dangerous and will cost me if I Pivot wrong and lose a pokemon.

Agatha

Well shit! Jynx is down. Jynx manages to outspeed and take down the first Gengar, Arbok and Golbat with outspeeding Psychic. The Second Gengar however doesnt go down and one shadow ball later OHKOs Jynx! Who was going to be essential against lance. I swap into butterfree who cleans up the other pokemon.

Lance

Not feeling confident I start of with Jolteon. Gyarados goes down to the first thunderbolt! Fab. Dragonair comes out. I can't tell which but I need Jolteon later so I must switch. Hopefully it is the dragon rage dragonair. I go into Blastoise as it has Ice beam. The dragonair uses safe guard so a free switch. Ice beam is a critical hit leading to the next dragonair. Looks like the crit wasnt needed as the second is an OHKO too. I'm feeling much more confident. Out comes Dragonite and it almost goes down to ice beam just missing the range. it has locked itself into outrage though! So no heals and I should outspeed. I do and Dragonite is down! Just aerodactyl now. Aerodactyl gets a strong wing attack but surf is no match for it and it falls winning against Lance.

I can taste thee end maybe I'll be ok. Blastoise and Butterfree are carrying this!

Blue

Pidgeot comes out first to my Jolteon. One thunderbolt take it out leading to Rhydon. Perfect for a Blastoise switch. Blastoise hits for Surf but Rhydon does get a strong hit in with Earthquake. Venusaur comes out next and I switch to butterfree as it sets up the sun. Solarbeam does just less than half as I put the Venusaur to sleep. Fortunately Venusaur stays aslee for the next two turns but doesn't go down to 2 Psychics! One must have been a low role. Anticipating a heal I go for sleep powder again and am correct. Sleep powder lands and I also get a silver wind off before Blue switches into Arcanine... I just have to hope Blastoise can take another hit. Fortunately he can Blastoise takes a Flamethrower and an extremespeed before takeing out arcanine with surf. The Sleeping venusaur comes out. The sack seems like the most sensible play but I could go for Switch out farfetch'd and swords dance. i choose the fun option. Farfetch'd comes in and does get off a swords dance. I then try to fly to victory. The first misses allowing Venusaur to get off a sunny day and a growth. The decond one fortunately hits OHKO ing venusaur.

Alakazam is next being faster its gets off psychic which doesnt take me out. I use Steelwing hoping the super effectiveness will help. Alakazam survives on very little health. Jynx would be useful right now... Anticipating the heal I stay in and use fly. Alakazam uses Future sight and is then taken down with Fly! Just Gyarados left. I am going for the hail mary and just hoping I outspeed... I do but intimidate has dropped my health. Fly does very little however and takes the future sight attack. Probably for the best. I swap out to jolteon to finish. Winning the fight and the GAME!

Games won: 2

Pokemon Caught: 46

Pokemon down: 12 (Farfetch'd and Jynx fought well)

[survivor-ingary]

Episode 3 - "RIP tribe Jenkins we were too powerful" - Riley

The 3 tribes of Pendragon, Hatter, and Jenkins have been reorganized and condensed into 2 new Hatter and Pendragon Tribes. Tribal immunity is Scavenger Hunt.

The fact I have Brayden and Toph in my merged tribe boosts my serotonin. i have a feeling colin may be someone to keep an eye out for in the future now...

RIP tribe Jenkins we were too powerful. I guess we'll see how Pendragon pans out.

yall doin me dirty putting me with brayden i just hope that by some miracle me him anastasia and ellie can work together? like i still dont know if theyre plotting on my ass vdshibshj i know brayden told anastasia to take me out when this game started oop but lemme see if dis works. i hope riley follows the logic of the old tribe sticking together and thatll be 5 votes. im kinda obsessed with toph like since the beginning of the game he looks like someone i could totally play with so def wanna work on that relationship. ava and nya? i believe? lets say hello and work on those relationships as well. dis is a bit overwhelming but we shall see how it goes

uh... well... i am SCREWED. me and ginny were the only ones separated from the Jenkins tribe... RIP. 4 pendragons, 2 hatters, and 2 jenkins... the main things i see here are pendragon yoinking one of the hatters / jenkins and voting the other off... OR a 4-4 tie... OR they're gonna target one of me or ginny cuz none of us have gone to tribal council yet. this is really dicey, and I need to tread very, very carefully from hereon. (ALSO GINNY BARELY TALKS PLS I NEED YOUR HELP GIRL)

This swap actually turned out pretty amazing for me. I still have Keith and Moth who I worked semi-close with in the pre-swap. Additionally, I've met up with Colin and Babs. A little Raffy magic could keep me very safe on this tribe. I think Kenneth is super fun as he is a newbie AND active. He will definitely make it far in this game. I hope, at the very least, that I can be by his side to make that happen. However, I am wary he might just be making these strong social connections with everyone. As a final note, OG Pendragons have this tribe 4 to 8. That's both good and bad. Good because we have numbers. Bad because that may make people target me very early on just for being a part of it. So, I have decided that if I were to throw any of my OG Pendragons to the wolves it would be Jonathan as I haven't been able to connect with them as well as Keith and Moth. Other than that, I hope this tribe doesn't have to go to tribal all that often between now and the next swap/merge. These people are lovely.

I'm getting a bad feeling about this... Since most of my Jenkins tribemates are on the other tribe, I KNOW they're good cuz we just keep getting W's... so I think there is a good chance we might lose the challenge. I contributed a good amount, so I hope that the target won't be on me if ever we lose the challenge :( I really don't wanna go, and I wanna reunite with Dennis/Ellie and maybe Anastasia and get further in the game.

i worked hard on this confessional

Our tribe did our absolute best in this challenge. I have no idea who is getting targeted if we go to tribal as everyone is so quiet. All I know is that I want to keep Colin, Kenneth, and Keith close to me for this stage of the game. They are the only ones who consistently talk to me. Challenge results: Pendragon wins due to a 10% advantage, Hatter Tribe must go to tribal council the following day.

THANK GOD I FINALLY GET TO GO TO A TRIBAL, ITS BEEN TOO LONG!!!!

Look, before you go to tribal with a group of people it feels like there’s a barrier of game socialization because you haven’t been able to go to tribal with them. But leading up to tribal and after it, a whole new can of worms is available for game talk. Unfortunately it’s an extremely simple vote because Nya has ghosted all of us, but at least we still get to go to tribal so I can talk game with more people even if it’s only a small amount with this easy vote. But who knows, someone might decide to switch shit up!

And also I absolutely love this tribe (Minus Nya cause I haven’t met them) so I’m glad that I get to go forward with this group although I won’t be nearly as happy if we go to tribal again because as I said, I do enjoy this group of people a lot

Moth (Tumblr will only allow me 10 images so player banners stop now, whoops) I believe the only reason I will make it to the next round is because of Raffys advantage. I’d be so screwed otherwise

I like Babs. They got good vibes.

Also I’d kill to know how the other tribe reacted

Dennis in a perfect world i would try to not vote out nya but bdksksksoksks theyve done it to themselves. no need to make waves. unless someone else is secretly plotting on me i think this is about to be an easy tribal. damn one point. miss ellie had her name down on stuff that she didnt do. also overslept that first challenge is she purposey trying to sabotage and play the villain? who knowssss also ive broken my streak of never going to tribe tribal sigh

Toph So what’s happening, I can’t remember the last time I made a confession but the tea yall ?! Soooo the tribe swap happened and my gut was right soooo okay intuition work ! I feel like I really like everyone from the merge and nya as remained inactive since, after losing the challenge it seems like an easy vote but you can never be to safe, I have my little allinnce with Brayden and Ava which is wig and I really dig Ellie , Anastasia, and Dennis too, I’m gonna be so nervous if we have to go to tribal agian because it could be me ! I’m not to sure about Reilly but they seem nice ! I feel pretty good with Anastasia as well and feel we could rope her into an alliance easily, I’m just gonna due my best right now to play the middle, keep my head down and speak positively. I really need to find an idol or something even better just so I don’t have to worry as super much and just plain worry then lol. If anything I’m gonna stay loyal to brayden and Ava the most since there my day one homies. Brayden seems to be close with Anastasia which could definitely help in are favor of having the numbers on are side. But could mean he would easily cut me for her if needed, so that mean I need to get closer with Ava, just to gaurnetee my safety, I have to look out for me this game and only me, making sure the numbers are kn my side I’m constantly on the right side of the vote should help me strageticly float to the end and win my crown thank you very much. I’m also lowkey worried about alliance’s being made right now without me! Everyone seems to be online but my chats are a bit quite but this could be me overthinking things mmmhmm I’m not sure, we’ll anyways it was nice to vent to y’all. :)

Riley Nooooooo I can't believe we lost by just one point. Damn the Hatter tribe's secret bonus point boost >:(

Kenneth I am honestly in such a shock that we won that challenge... Raffy really came in clutch and helped us win AAAAAAAAAAAA!!!! Now I don't have to worry about being randomly blindsided or targeted for at least a couple more days now pls I just hope we get lucky again and another swap happens where I would be on the right side of the numbers, all prepared for merge domination >:) Raffy Oof. I know the other tribe is MAD because I would be too. Like, we only won because of my advantage giving us a 1 POINT LEAD. That's crazy! Honestly, this works for me as I can still focus o n making strong social connections within this tribe. By the time we go to tribal, I will be so integrated with this tribe that voting me out would do a lot more short-term harm than long-term good. I want to see if Kenneth would start an alliance with me as that is someone I want to work closely with. In this alliance? I have no idea. I'll probably let Kenneth take the lead on that since I want him to feel like he is in charge. Dennis nothing is real

if i go tonight i would applaud it bc i am so sure nya is going. it would be a goop if the vote really wasnt nya but everyone is more or less trying to do the easy thing i think. i just hope she is okay and just too busy for dis.

some time has gone by and im just chilling. im not chilling because i feel safe, im chilling because i dont know what else to do. i cant be all game talk 24/7 because then im an outcast and would get targeted. besides the obvi alliances like a+b and maybe(?!?!??) an e(?!) in there, idk what alliances there are. like there has to be something but i dont have the picture yet. as yall know im not in any alliances in my current tribe besides i guess ellie who i fear is a saboteur lol and most likely working with a+b. a+b are such a double edged sword for me ugh. am i really in their best interests???????????????? am i really in ellies best interest???? do they know about her idol too?????????? likeeeee thats the issue. if im not really in their best interests then im the next to go after nya. i am probs very low if not the lowest on this tribe if dats true. i mean what if i really am in their best interests and theyre all genuinely trying to work with me? idk! if not then im next to go efuhijdhvbf and i fear im probably not.

i really like toph. taurus sun (in the 12th!) gemini everything else king. hes got social game on lock like who wouldnt wanna work with him ?! and hes a cutie ?! ?! ?! but i seen the chart -.- i know what hes doin. i think hes working with ellie. but he reaches out to me and probably others but i like our conversations. (but im sure everyone loves their conversations with toph!! hes great!!!!! friendly ol toph wont harm a fly ?!) i hope he likes me and sees i actually would wanna work with him above all the gorls and chooses me over them too.

ava also knows what theyre doing. saturnian legend. we barely talk but little short bits here and there. i hope its bc theyre busy but im sure ellie is talking to them more than me amongst others too. oop also possible alliance, brayden toph ava who all swapped together. so gotta keep that in mind. but yeah i dont really think im much of their priority esp if theyre on vacay they would hear a name and not stress too much if its mine bc we dont have ties like that.

riley and i talk here and there, had a lil chat today

someone once told me that i just look like someone you cant trust but you can :( sometimes :)

so yeah here i am having lots of thoughts over the last few days.

maybe im not super super invested just yet bc i feel like the rug is gonna get swept out right from under me again :))) also back on my bs telling people im a leo moon. i shouldnt weaponize astrology but hey.