#whenever I write out an essay

[nobodyfamousposts]

You: here is this well thought out opinion that I base off solely from the show and not fan ideas

Stans: aCtUaLlY-

I wish I could say I didn't expect it, but that's pretty much how it goes.

I appreciate the compliment and the acknowledgement.

[twentyfivemiceinatrenchcoat]

thinking sashisu thoughts rn ………… suguru was the least desensitized of the three and that’s why he was the first to break . explodes

[mishkakagehishka]

I may have spent all my life until this moment wasting both mine and God's time, but from tomorrow on, for sure, i swear it, i will change my ways and be better. And it'll be different from all the other times i said the same thing🧎‍♀️

[cosmicdenro]

the torn feeling of liking copperright as close best friends and wanting to justify why having good rep of guys just being friends without any focus on dumbass toxic masculinity for being vocal about their appreciation for each other is important vs loving them as having something romantic because of how all the canonical implications of them being just friends can so nicely just also be romantic without any modifications

[mc-pumpkin]

dubbs!!! saw u posting about fields of mistria. im considering buying it and i wanted to know is it actually pretty good ? like would u consider it worth it

I've been really really enjoying it! I think there's a lot of features in this game that make it quite fun :D

I was writing a whole essay about all the features but perhaps the devs themselves can do that better than me. You can read about everything available in early access here, along with what they're planning to add/update in the near future

What I will say is I have found everything available in early access to either line up with my experiences in other games, such as the fishing being similar to Animal Crossing, or donating to the museum being reminiscent of bundles in Stardew. Or to be fun and refreshing like the magic spells and skill perks feeling like magic is always present in wherever I go and whatever I do, or the combat in the mines being a step up from every other farming game I've played

I think the biggest appeal to me for this game has definitely been the character art. And something I think this game does better than other farming sims I've played is making the characters feel like they're actually living and doing things with their lives, as they will have conversations with each other and even comment on things you've done or follow up on previous conversations you've had with them

but I will say I've put 50 hours into the game so far and I am feeling like I'm nearing the end of what's available in early access, though I am still very much enjoying playing! I think if I had to summarize my thoughts, as much as I do love this game it is still early access and does not have nearly as many features as say Stardew, but Stardew has been out and updating for 8 years and I think if these devs are just as dedicated to their game as ConcernedApe is to his I think Fields of Mistria has a bright future

imo the game is definitely worth buying rn if you find the early access features appealing and 50 hours of gameplay for whatever price it costs in your region sounds like a good deal to you :D

[skrunksthatwunk]

yakuza: dead souls - american vibes, bigass guns, and why zombies are super weird to have in ryu ga gotoku thematically/ideologically speaking

so i've been playing dead souls recently (hell yeah hell yeah hell yeah) and although i'm having the time of my life with it, there was something about it that kinda felt off to me, and i think i've figured out what it was, but i'm gonna have to walk you through a bit of my thought process to get there.

my first instinct was that it felt... american? and upon further examination i think that boils down to a couple of things:

everyone suddenly has lots of guns and also way way bigger guns

high emphasis on individual heroism (this itself is quite typical for rgg, but it manifests differently here; more on that in a bit)

military/government incompetence, which must be solved by the right individuals having the biggest and bestest guns

[for the sake of transparency i will note that my experience with zombie media is pretty limited and skews american (and i myself am american), so that may create bias. however, the 'this feels american to me' instinct is a rare one for me even in genres where i have seen little/no non-american media, so i think the fact that it did occur to me is notable. what about dead souls triggered that response when little else has? that's why i examined it and, truthfully, i think there's merit in the idea itself.]

the first point is pretty self-explanatory. america's got more guns than it does people, and its gun worship is infamous. japan's ban on guns (aided by its being an island state) means there's far fewer guns in the country, as well as far fewer people with guns (and likely far fewer guns per gun owner, excepting arms dealers/smugglers) than somewhere without such a ban. obviously, there are guns anyway. due to their illegality they are clustered within the criminal population, which explains their presence within organized crime within the series. very few guns will be sitting around in the homes of otherwise law-abiding citizens.

and yet, when the zombie outbreak hits kamurocho, plenty of civilians suddenly have access to quite an arsenal. everyone has the knowledge they need to aim, fire, and reload smoothly and quickly; ammo is infinite for certain guns. characters we've never seen using firearms before suddenly have shotguns under their couches (looking at you, majima). it's not only very different from reality, it's very different from guns' place within the series up until this point, when they were limited weapons used primarily by the enemy.

and they're making a zombie shooter, so of course they would have to do this. it has to be unrealistic to be simultaneously in this setting and in this genre, in the same way that yakuza solving their problems with bareback fistfights instead of guns is itself both unrealistic and necessary to being the kinds of games rgg are.

my point is that this is a kind of focus on and valorization of gun ownership and competency unusual for the series and setting. further, it serves as an argument for why an armed, competent populace is crucial typical in american media.

which brings us to the third point (we'll get to 2 in a minute). guns are often marketed as self-defense weapons. the implication is that the government's defense of the individual (via law enforcement or the military, but particularly the former), are insufficient. this is objectively true. if someone pulls a gun on you at the gas station, will a cop manifest out of thin air to intercede? no. that's impossible. but if you have a gun, or if some bystander has a gun, you or they may be able to do something with that gun to stop the armed person. thus, there is an undeniable gap in the effective immediacy of such responses.

many gun advocates also point to the incompetence or insufficiency of law enforcement, even when they are present to stop an armed aggressor. the fact that law enforcement do not have a 100% success rate in protecting the citizenry is also objectively true.

so, when you are in danger, arming yourself increases your chances of being able to put down (or at least take armed action against) a present or potential threat. whether it is viewed it as a supplement to or a replacement for law enforcement, it is meant to make up for the shortcomings of the government's ability to completely protect all its citizens. it's a safety net for state failure.

back to dead souls. rgg has always centered political corruption in its stories, including politicians, the police, and sometimes even the military, though usually the former two. sometimes this is treated sympathetically (i.e. tanimura, a dirty cop, whose dirty-cop-ness allows him to work outside/against the law to help disadvantaged people, not unlike how kiryu views being a yakuza), and other times it's simply a matter of greed or lust for power (i.e. jingu).

however, something that's almost never touched on so clearly is government incompetence. when the government fails to help people or hurts them or does corrupt things, it's usually due to a competent, malicious bad apple who is removed from power by the end of the game. this implies holes in the system because it keeps happening all the time, but that's on a series-wide scale, a pattern ignored by the series in favor of the individual game solution of "this guy's gone now :) yay".

but in dead souls, the SDF's barracades fall, their men are killed, they are unable to help protect the people outside or inside the quarantine zone. they are weak in a way the government usually isn't in these games. and who is stronger than them? our individual good guys with guns. so we need to be armed because the government is weak and can't protect us. boom. america.

returning to point 2, i'd like to say that dead souls is not particularly more individualistic than any of the other games in the series (other than, perhaps, y7). rgg is an incredibly individualistic series, actually. its protagonists are usually men who defy, oppose, and skirt around the law as a way of helping others and doing what is truly right (with a few exceptions, like shinada and haruka). the romanticized view of the yakuza as a force for helping the community in the face of government incompetence is a real one, and one that tends to manifest itself most in kiryu and how the series treats him. it shows us yakuza who aren't willing to kill, yakuza who cry about honor and justice and humanity and brotherhood, yakuza who never dip their hands into less palatable crimes, or only do with intense regret (and only ever as part of their backstory). the beat-em-up style emphasizes this as well. i mean, what's more individualistic than a one-man army?

put more clearly, this series is about men defying legal and social laws and expectations to live in a way that feels right to them, and about making themselves strong enough to combat those who would get in their way. the individual is placed before the society in importance, (though generally in a way that benefits the community, because they are good guys who want to use that agency and power for good).

all of this is true in dead souls as well, technically. those who live on the outskirts of society are the ones who actually save the day, and the ones who go in there and save people rather than just walling them off and pretending like they don't exist. they have the guns, which are illegal and mark them as criminals, but this broken law is what gives them the power to save themselves when the government will not, and to save their community if they so choose.

where dead souls differs is in the nature of that strength.

rgg places a lot of emphasis on self-improvement, both of one's body and of one's character. do both of these, and you will be strong enough to back up your ambitions. what allows someone to carve their own path in life is the ability to put down ideological and physical resistance by having resolve and the ability to tiger drop whoever won't be swayed by your impassioned speeches. you make yourself a weapon. you make yourself strong. in dead souls, that strength comes from an external, material possession. strength is something you buy (or that you take from someone else). who is able to survive the apocalypse comes not from the heart, nor from rigorous training, but from who has the most, the biggest, and the most bestest guns. it's an intersection of capitalism, militarization, and individualism. simply, deeply american.

[when i was talking myself through this a few days ago, i spent a lot more time on the capitalism + individualism stuff, but i think i'll keep this moving. consider this aside the intermission]

dead souls also differs for a few other interlocking reasons. it can be described with this equation:

zombification of enemies + lethality of guns = loss of emphasis on redemption

if your best friend turned into a zombie, could you shoot them? or your child? or your lover? it's a common trope, but it's a damn good one. watching your family, your neighbors, your town, everyone turn into a husk of themselves, something that looks like them but cannot be reached, is deeply tragic. it's even more tragic when these husks are trying to kill you. unable to be reasoned with and unable to be cured, you must incapacitate them before someone innocent is hurt--or hurt, then themselves made dangerous; each loss adds to the number of threats surrounding you. your life is seen as more valuable than that of your zombified friend, not only because the zombie is attacking you and it's self defense, but because they are no longer a person to you. to be a zombie is to no longer be human; zombification is dehumanization.

and so in a series so focused on connection with one's community, on saving innocent civilians, often on saving kamurocho specifically, one would expect similar tropes to occur. even if one's friends aren't turned, perhaps the cashier at poppo you chat with sometimes is. it's the destruction of that community and of the members one has tertiary relationships with that i expect would occur most within a kamurocho zombie story, since they are likely unwilling to axe anyone more important than that, even if dead souls isn't canon. i'd especially expect to see that in the beginning, before the need to kill zombies rather than contain or redeem them becomes apparent.

this does not happen.

i cannot speak for the entire game, but i can speak of gameplay choices that affect this, and ones i think will not be subverted throughout, even if they are somewhat contradicted by plot events i am presently unaware of.

kamurocho is not a community to protect, nor is it filled with your fellows. it is a playground filled with infinitely respawning, infinitely mow-downable, infinitely disposable zombies. you are meant and encouraged to kill them by the thousands, and never to hesitate or consider whether they may be cured or who may be mourning them. who may be unable to identify their loved one because you were trying to reach a headshot goal from hasegawa. you are not meant to consider them as human, nor beings that were once human, nor beings that could be human again, in the eyes of the zombie shooter. they are merely bodies, targets, and obstacles.

the zombies are contrasted with the true humans, those barricading themselves within the quarantine zone or those living in ignorance outside it. humans are meant to be saved, zombies are meant to be killed. the player character is the only one who can truly help with either of these goals, because the other humans are cowardly, ignorant, or unarmed/helpless. you must be their savior. to be a savior is to eliminate zombies, who are less than human.

the black and white nature of this is also emphasized by another gameplay characteristic: the lack of street encounters. when you traverse the peaceful parts of kamurocho, you are never attacked. you are also never directly attacked by the humans within the quarantine zone. kamurocho feels very different without its muggers and hooligans, but it's because this is a zombie shooter, not a beat-em-up. in a normal rgg title, you'd subdue threats by punching, kicking, and throwing them. you'd use your body in (supposedly) nonlethal ways. dead souls does not have a combat system meant for civilians. you have your guns. you subdue threats by shooting them, preferably lethally. the game doesn't want you to do that to humans, so you never fight humans. this furthers the black and white divide between the salvation-worthy, noble humans and the death-worthy, worthless zombies. combat is only lethal, and only used against the inherent other.

this leads me to the part of dead souls i find most conflicting with the ethos of rgg broadly, and perhaps its greatest ideological/thematic failing.

because the enemy are incurable, dangerous, and inhuman, you must kill them to protect yourself and others, others who are still human. humanity is something that is lost or preserved, but never regained. once someone's gone, they're gone, and you not only must kill them, it is your duty and your right to kill them. you should kill them.

in dead souls, there is no redeeming the enemy.

and that's a big problem.

rgg is about a lot of things, but a key one is the ability of people to change for the better. its most memorable, beloved villains are those who see the light by the end and change their wicked ways (usually through some form of redemptive suicide, though that's another essay in itself). its pantheon of characters is full of those who come from questionable backgrounds struggling to be the best people they can be, to live as themselves authentically and compassionately. it's about the good and the love you can find in the moral and legal gray zones of life/society, and the potential/capacity for good all of us have, no matter how far we may have fallen. it is a hopeful series. it is a merciful series.

this is something bolstered by its gameplay. countless substories are resolved by punching a lesson into someone until they improve their behavior, either out of fear or genuine remorse/development. the games don't just discourage killing your enemies, they don't allow you to (yes, we've all seen the "kiryu hasn't killed anybody? umm. look at this heat action" stuff before, and while they've got a point, i believe it's the narrative's intent that none of this is actually lethal, based on how laxly it treats certain plot injuries (cough cough. y7 bartender) and the actual concept of taking a life, the gravity it is given by the text, particularly when it comes to characters crossing that threshold into someone who has killed. explicit killing is not an option open to you, even when you're being attacked by dozens and dozens of armed men. conflicts are resolved by simply beating up enough guys in this nonlethal manner.

but dead souls is a shooter. to avoid conflict with the series' moral qualms about letting its characters kill, the enemies cannot be human. furthermore, the zombie shooter genre can only fit within the series if its zombies are completely inhuman. this means their pasts as humans cannot be acknowledged, nor the possibility of a cure, nor the characters' own potential conflicts about killing them; or, at least, not in a way that impedes their or the player's ability to gun them down afterwards.

if you can't kill humans in your series, then it cannot be possible to save (in this case, rehumanize) zombies. this is especially true in a game where you are unable to fight humans, and thus human lives are universally more valuable than zombie lives. because if you kill a zombie that can be cured, you are, in a way, killing a human.

and so, in a series where you should always assume your enemies (and everyone, for that matter) are capable of reason, compassion, change, and redemption, and where they are always worth that effort, even if they reject it in the end, dead souls' enemies are irredeemable and only worth swift, stylish slaughter. there are only good guys and bad guys. good guys must be protected, lest they be turned irreversibly into bad guys. good guys are only protected by killing bad guys, and the only way to save good guys is to kill every last one of the bad guys. do not spare them, and do not ask whether or not it's right. only kill.

i love dead souls. it's a silly game. i like seeing daigo in decoy-drag and majima gleefully cartwheeling his way through zombies and ryuji with his giant gun arm prosthetic. it's fun. but when i was trying to figure out what felt off about it to me, one of the words that came to mind (besides american) was indulgent. that, too, felt odd, because i love indulgent media. i am not one to scorn decadent, hedonistic, beautiful high-calorie slop type media. if dead souls was just fan servicey, that wouldn't really bother me. i am a fan and boy do i feel serviced. it rocks. but i think my problem is in what dead souls is indulging.

i think dead souls indulges in the desire to cut loose, and to see these characters cut loose. thing is, they're cutting loose all over kamurocho, and all over the bodies of people they used to (at least in concept) care for. with lethal weapons. it is catharsis via bloodbath, not by pushing your body and mind to the limit in man to man combat, but by pulling a trigger before the other guy can hurt you, or even think about hurting you, for the crime of existing as the wrong kind of thing.

and i just don't think that's in line with rgg's beliefs.

yes, it's probably fair for dead souls' characters to kill zombies. i'm not against that. i'm also not against games letting you do purposeless violence. i spent a good amount of my elementary school years killing oblivion npcs for shits, like. that's not what bothers me about dead souls.

rgg as a series has always taken a hard stance in both its game design and narrative choices against killing and for the potential for redemption in its enemies. and i think the lengths to which it goes to promote that despite the probably-lethal moves you do and the improbability of a harmless do-gooder yakuza is one of the most endearing things about the games. so for this one entry to disregard that key theme for the sake of a genre shift that flopped super hard, well? i dunno. it feels weird i guess. it's out of place not just because it's a dramatic shift in gameplay and style and also zombies are only a thing here (and the supernatural/fantastical are thus only prominent here), but because of what those shifts imply.

so, uh. yeah. my pre-dead-souls thoughts that dead souls wasn't that out of pocket bc rgg's just kinda weird? turns out it was actually super weird to have a zombie shooter in there, but for way way deeper reasons than anyone gives it credit for.

(footnotes in tags)

[juniestar]

It’s ridiculous how men will talk 2 women they don’t find attractive or “cool”. Genuinely treating them like nothing at all. I asked a friend from college (who used to rely on me to get through writing classes) to keep an eye out for job leads in NY for me since I’m looking to move and he immediately rejected the ask bc he doesn’t work in broadcasting (like we studied). I told him well neither do I, I’m looking for anything, and congratulations on your move and he read it without writing back… man I got you through two or three classes and you can’t at least surface level agree to keep a fucking eye out? Come on

[thanatika]

so basically i'm an autism sleeper agent who can be activated by the trigger word "pathologic"

[doublekanble]

Hi. Read your fic WHAT THE FUC- (/POS ITS SO GOOD??) BRUH I WENT INTO IT BEING LIKE "oh I'm just curious as to what this'll be, I'm sure it's just like some short self indulgent thing" THEN GOT STABBED LIKE TWELVE TIMES OVER. INSTANT FOLLOW. OH MY GOD.

its actually IS self indulgent! just in the opposite direction! i want him to kiss me so badly but i also want him to hate me until its all he knows its a bit of trouble really

[huntingrays]

every time i see a fic or twt au make leo gay, i get very happy

idk, it just makes so much sense to me

[imissthembutitwasntadisaster]

meet-cute universe snippet

"Most folks put their love in other people so it can't be used. You just get little scraps of magic from mementos, small stuff you own, things like that. It's some of the most powerful magics out there so even the small stuff does a lot but if you want it big-" Wyle stopped, looking uncomfortable. Isolde caught the end of the sentence without looking up from her work, as monotone as always.

"You want it big, you kill someone you love. Why it's hated so much."

"And that's also why Isolde's so good at what she does. She's a blood sorcerer, you see."

"I'm an engineer."

"Sure, but when you use magic you use blood."

"It gets the best results."

"So you kill people?" asked Anna, agast. She took a few steps back, fumbling for anything she could use as a weapon. Isolde looked up at her full in the face for the first time and Anna almost choked at the burning rage in the other girl's eyes. But when Isolde spoke her voice was, if anything, quieter, more level.

"Of course I don't. How dare you." She stood, slipped her work into her bag, and stalked out of the room. Wyle watched her go with his face all scrunched up into a tangle.

"Ooh, that's impressive, I haven't seen her that mad in a while!" He looked back at Anna. "Not to tell you what to do but you should probably apologize at some point."

"I mean was it really that unreasonable an assumption?" she demanded. Wyle crinkled up his face even more, if possible.

"I'd say it was but I guess you don't know her yet. Nope, she doesn't kill people, she just has a real knack for getting good power out of little things. We're not sure why but it's helpful, when we can convince her to do any, that is. She's got a weird adversion to it for some reason."

[figofswords]

The Batman fandom has ruined the words replacement, coffee, cereal, green, pit and so many others lol. Every time I hear those words I just have a fight or flight response 😭

DONT even get me started. you should hear the sigh I make every time I see REPLACEMENT. like yes hate how are so many people so wrong

[archersartcorner]

Y’all the humanstuck au was gonna happen eventually

IDs under cut!

[ID: Five images, done digitally, though the latter four are derivatives/close ups of the first image.

The first image shows the four Vantases, Karkat, Kankri, Kanaan (the Signless), and Kardin (Beforus Karkat) in a humanized AU, each of them drawn from the shoulders up, with a description next to their busts describing their deal in the AU. The following images zoom in on them individually, so they’ll be described further there. In the center of the image is the label, “Humanstuck Vantas Fam cus it’s 2022 and this is where I’m at at the moment.”

The second image focuses on Karkat, who’s depicted as albino, with pale skin, white hair, and red eyes. He’s wearing his signature gray turtleneck. Next to him is a bullet point description that states: “Karkat Vantas ; 16 ; Fucking high school man. Shit's rough. Fortunately he's definitely not massively autistic and never gets bullied ever. ; 100000 torn shirt sleeves (chew stims) ; Thinks Kankri's annoying and doesn't shut up, and dad's never around, so Karkat has just straight up hitchhiked to uncle Kardin's apartment before. Cue So Many worried phone calls from dad and brother. ; Is the source of many a home argument. Does usually just end up with him in tears.”

The third image focuses on Kankri, depicted as a brown-skinned human, with dark brown hair and eyes, and sideburns/stubble. He’s also wearing his signature red turtleneck. His bullet point description states: “Kankri Vantas ; 22 ; Karkat's primary caretaker, frankly. ; In graduate school and works part time, busy busy busy. ; He knows about his relationship to Kardin, actually. Found old birth records where Kanaan was not registered as his father. Kankri hasn't brought it up. He won't admit it, but he's scared Kanaan and Karkat will reject him now that he knows.”

The fourth image focuses on the Signless, named Kanaan for the AU, who is slightly darker than Kankri, and has the same dark brown hair and eyes, and similar patterned facial hair to Kankri’s, but more grown in. His description states: “Kanaan Vantas ; 40 ; Karkat and Kankri's father, though Kankri is adopted, technically his nephew. ; Is a good man and a good father, but tends to be absent. ; Often gets in trouble with the law due to protest. ; Is so so so sorry he was late getting home tonight!!! It won't happen again!! (It will.) ; As absent as he can be at times, he loves Kankri and Karkat so so much.”

The fifth image focuses on Beforus Karkat, named Kardin for the AU. Like Karkat, he’s albino, with pale skin, white hair, and red eyes. He’s also working with a white, chinstrap beard, and I apologize because I’m not sure how else to describe it. His description states: “Kardin Vantas ; 42 ; Kankri's biological father, Kanaan's older brother ; Whenever Kanaan gets into trouble, Kardin steps in to watch over the boys. ; Lives about an hour away, but has considered moving closer due to Kanaan's frequent troubles. ; Quiet, soft-spoken. ; Wasn't ready to be a father when he had Kankri, so he asked Kanaan, who Kardin thought was more stable, to take him in. He simultaneously regrets having not told Kankri and wishes to, and also fears the day he has to.”

END ID.]

[bbbeowulf]

“I’ll never be able to write 700-1000 words for this essay!!!”

*writes almost 1,300 words and counting*

🧍

[tenshindon]

do you hate dbza. also sorry for liking basically all of your posts out of nowhere

this is such a funny ask but anyway

1.) i have a love/hate relationship with it but mostly hate. i like some jokes but those are one in a trillion, otherwise i firmly believe DBZA is the cause for super's atrocious characterization as well as the fandom's, nevermind the fandom's inability and unwillingness to watch/read the original material.

2.) you're fine, i'm glad you like my stuff ! :]

[seilon]

god I wish I could rip Instagram apart with my teeth I hate it I hate it I hate it