#which is in my opinion the single most evil thing in the entire game (so far)

[thereisabearonmyceiling]

rain world gaming part 2!

this one's entirely dedicated to my least favourite region, because i've been stuck in it for way too long in my survivor playthrough <3

(higher res pictures under the cut)

fun fact: shaded citadel is the reason i didn't finish my first ever rain world playthrough & quit the game entirely for several months! i have a fucking history with this place

[utilitycaster]

this may seem needlessly finicky but I do actually believe it's important: calling Verin a himbo is just one of many examples where like, one of the cast says something off the cuff and it's not exactly the right word or it is highly contextual, and that is fine because no one is perfect especially in improv, but then it gets repeated ad infinitum within the fandom when it never really fit in the first place. We have Verin's stats and he's decently more intelligent than average with a 13 (smarter than most of Bells Hells for one; as smart as Pike); it's just he's the guy with a bachelor's degree with good grades followed by military service in a family where everyone has two PhDs - Matt said "himbo of the family" the way in a family where most people are exceptionally tall you'd call the 5'11" child the short one. In Call of the Netherdeep he appears as thoughtful and competent and promoted to a difficult position at a very young age, and in the campaign his appearance is simultaneously as a leader of troops in a dangerous mission, and someone who cares enough about poetry from a completely foreign and distant culture to have tried to learn more about it. I'm sorry, but if you're using the word "himbo" I don't think you're processing a thing about the character yourself; you're just the latest repetition in a game of telephone that's been going on since mid-2021.

And that's not deeply bad on the surface, and I'm using Verin not because he is the character most wronged by this sort of thing but because he's recent and it's really clear where the word came from and that it's not a good assessment, but something I happen to have a decent knack for is pattern recognition in language. I usually find it really easy to pick up on when someone's plagiarized because of the language and pattern shifts. I tend to remember urls and out of place words well. So I do tend to notice when everyone suddenly starts using a single turn of phrase and I tend to flag it. Sometimes that's not bad; sometimes it means everyone came to a similar conclusion and that's the best way to express that conclusion. But like, when Taliesin called the Yios episode a gas-leak episode and the entire fandom started parroting it? The line "bone-dry takes"? The fact that a lot of ship defenses I see were phrased precisely as "I have eyes"? without actually talking about the ship itself? the fact that I've seen a spike in the use of the term "ontologically evil" including in myself and not all uses are actually correct? And extending this beyond strictly language but consider any headcanon with minimal textual support that catches like wildfire (sidebar: remember how we make, or made fun of the SPREAD THIS LIKE WILDFIRE tendency on Tumblr a decade ago? same concept of repetition of a specific turn of phrase without internalizing) all sort of ping this.

And it's fine, truly, to come to fandom and turn off your brain. I know this will sound sarcastic from me, and that's because I don't personally agree, but I do strongly agree that you can do what you want in fandom and you don't have to listen to my opinions so in the end, yeah, it's fine because I am not the arbiter of "fine". But I think critical thought is a vital exercise and I think precision with language is part of it and so if you find yourself using the same exact words and thoughts as everyone else, that should, ideally, trigger a process of "but are these the right words? what do I see when I see this character and how would I describe them? do I agree with this assessment?" Fandom is an interesting and easier microcosm than reality in which to start doing that.

[stupditysholy]

I have to get this off my chest because the amount of Curly love on tik tok actually stresses me out and I’ll tell you why:

So to my understanding having experienced the game multiple times, Curly absolutely fails to advocate for/help Anya. She hides the gun to keep it away from Jim because Curly will not allow her to protect herself. He straight up calls her crazy to her face, too: “You never had to get psych evals like the rest of us. I should’ve known” or something along those lines. When Curly confronts Jim before Jim crashes the ship, he doesn’t say ANYTHING in defense of Anya, instead consoling Jim that they would figure it out, and he’d been in rough spots before.

For all intents and purposes, Curly does not see that Jim has done something inexcusable, and rather he has made a series of mistakes. He does not for one single moment consider how Anya’s life has been permanently altered, how her autonomy has been entirely stolen from her.

Until he experiences it himself.

Curly being reduced to a mostly immobile spring sausage is his way of experiencing the pain he allowed to be inflicted upon Anya, full stop. Even more ironic? Anya can’t bare to give him his pain killers, so he is left completely at Jim’s mercy, a fun-house mirror of how Curly could not bare to hold his friend accountable, and therefore left Anya at Jim’s mercy pre-crash.

Curly only becomes Jim’s victim because he allows Anya’s victimization to go on unchecked. He thought he was exempt from Jim’s abuse, and that is his biggest mistake.

Also, I have to say the idea that Curly get’s rescued and lives happily ever after does the narrative no justice. In fact, it completely undermines Jim’s entire character arc. Curly living happily ever after would, in some sense, redeem a little of Jim’s character—redemption he did not remotely earn because he did NOT take responsibility. At all.

Jim putting Curly in the pod at the end is no act of mercy. It’s actually the worst and most selfish thing he could have done. It’s the exact freaking opposite of taking responsibility. When he has his big talk with Polle before the very end, he is spouting complete and utter bullshit. Why?

The crash and Curly are NOT the things he is supposed to be taking responsibility for. The thing he is supposed to be taking responsibility for is ANYA’S TORMENT. That is the thing which started all of this, which lead to the crash, which fried Curly. That is the inciting incident.

That’s the freaking irony!

Anya get’s completely and utterly forgotten in this moment. In my opinion, this is why Polle says:

If all of that is true… why are you still so concerned with him?

Because right before that, Jim is about to say “Our worst moments don’t make us monsters.”

And Polle knows, then, in that moment, that when Jim thinks of his worst moments, he thinks of the accident, what happened to Curly, rather than the immeasurable pain he inflicted on Anya PURPOSEFULLY. Jim completely fucking ignores his worst moment, and that DOES make him a monster.

So when Jim puts Curly in that pod, not only is he righting the WRONG wrong, but he is actively choosing to believe this is what it means to take responsibility. He is making his amends to a man he accidentally hurt rather than the person who suffered the most at his hand.

It’s also pretty evil of Jim to put him in there because he knows: a good captain goes down with his ship. He makes Curly out to be a selfish and pitiful. He may even be setting him up for failure depending on how the authorities reason out what happened.

I just think at the end of the day Jim is the villian of the story, and Curly is a freaking bystander. Obviously post-crash this is inevitable, but that’s almost funny—not gonna do anything to stop him, Curly? Guess what, now you don’t even have a freaking choice.

Anyway please stop glazing the spaghetti man you can love his complexity but he is not a good guy or uwu cutie pie. He sucks. Straight up.

Feel free to start discourse in the comments I’m okay with being wrong about him I guess I just don’t think I am.

[sapphicrow]

The choices for the side enemies in each section of resident evil was very deliberate, and shows off both what Mother Miranda thought the lords deserved and what suits their characters. This may have been for difficulty purposes for each area, but still. I think it is a nice tidbit of flavor to our characters even if it’s indirect. Also I have brain rot.

Moreau doesn’t have any mobs. His reservoir is uniquely isolated. It’s evident from the way the other lords treat him that this is how they feel towards him as well. He isn’t a popular fella. As such, Mother Miranda granted him no special protection or privileges. Besides, I’m sure his bile would repel any creature, even a zombie or moroaica.

Lady Dimitrescu has many creatures within her castle because she interacts with more people on the regular. It’s canon that she had a whole service of female servants who were regularly harvested and experimented on. These subjects are later turned into one of two things: moroaica (the on ground creepy crawlies), or samca (the harpy looking things on the roof). Though we know Alcina isn’t Miranda’s favorite, she’s still pretty high up there. She had to make these critters herself still. Plus, her castle is huge and it only makes sense to have scattered security. I’d say Alcina’s daughters count as a high honor and another reflection of the characterization of Castle Dimitrescu.

As for Lady Beneviento, her situation is an interesting one. Angie doesn’t quite count as a mob, since she is technically an extension of Donna’s consciousness. This is obviously part of her as a person. Disregarding Angie, Donna has no major creatures. I say this because I don’t believe her dolls count as beasts bestowed upon her by Miranda. They’re handmade. She had to harness the skills of cadou experimentation, combined with the craftsmanship of doll making. This reflects Donna because she is isolated, but skillful enough to combat it unlike Moreau. She’s delusional, but evidently not to the same degree as Sal. She copes in her own fucked up, crafty way.

Last but not least, Heisenberg. Now, Heisenberg is Mother Miranda’s established favorite. The golden child. The sun of her sons. It’s also established that Mother’s fondness is by no means requited. Heisenberg loathes her. But nonetheless, even with his absolutely meh loyalty, he has a fair deal of power bestowed upon him. Disregarding his cadou abilities, he has the entirety of the lycan pack. That is no small force. Miranda practically trusts the most dangerous lord with an army. I’d like to believe she isn’t stupid enough not to realize his faulty loyalty, but I feel as if she treats him like a second true child. He’s the son that could’ve been Eva’s big brother should everything have worked out. Love is blind, and Miranda’s too busy to question cutie Karl. Karl also has the Soldats that he’s made himself. This is an intriguing view of him in my opinion. Karl lets Ethan slaughter Miranda’s creation because the entire time he’s been using the powers she gave him to oppose her. Silly guy moment.

Mother Miranda herself has no side mob which is very purposeful as well. She works alone. Her sidekick is the cadou, which we see in the form of all those root looking appendages bursting forth from the ground later in the game. Unlike Moreau who’s isolated due to his insufferable and odorous nature, Miranda is alone by choice. By grief, more accurately. Why bother with companions when Eva isn’t back yet? For her shattered mindset, I’m sure the thought of her daughter is companionship enough. Even with the mold making an appearance, Ethan only has to engage in combat with her herself. This is because even with the mold present, she’s still the vessel. It’s illogical and unnecessary for the megamycete to risk itself when Miranda is right there and so willing to take the blunt of the force.

The megamycete’s side mob is every single thing infected with the mold.

Thank you for reading :) hope it was coherent

[gingacat]

my oc twisted from Zira

name: Zakari D'Ekon

birthday: December 8th

age: 17

height: 181 cm

homeland: Sunset Savanna

grade: Sophomore

class: 2-D

club: Board Game Club

best subject: Practical magic

hobbies: Tabletop RPG

pet peeves: Blandness

favorite food: Bunny chow

least favorite food: Chicken

talent: Being delusional

Personality

Don't let his pretty face deceive you, Zakari is weird. He has a wild imagination and tends to believe he is much more than he actually is. He spends most of the time spacing out, which makes people wonder what is this ikemen prince thinking about, but behind that pretty face of his lies a scheming gay. He is always planning "evil" edgy things that he would not really do at all, but he still thinks about it bc idk?? He thinks it's cool and he is a cool edgelord in his mind.

He's delusional and a personal dream of his is to win against Leona. Zakari makes his entire life goal to compete against him, but since Zakari is too prideful to go following Leona around like a fan, he competes against him in "imaginary battles". He also tried the Savanaclaw housewarden position in his mind. 💀

Students can oftentimes find Zakari mumbling to himself or talking to the voices in his head — it's better to leave him alone, he might bite.

Behind this weird ahh persona of his, he's actually a nice guy, but again, he's too prideful to admit.

Background

Surprisingly enough, he had a normal life. His mom was one of the royal guards of the Kingscholar family, and child Zakari would oftentimes encounter child Leona around. They were kind of friends, but Zakari's admiration twisted into a kinda toxic competition with Zakari wanting to be better than Leona.

Zakari might have evolved into a chuunibyou because his life was really just boring, and he was very boring himself (that's what he thinks, but is that the truth???), so he wanted to be a "cool" guy, and maybe have a personality that is interesting.

Trivia

Zakari is quick to lose his temper and does throw a lot of threats around, but he's... a kind soul deep inside. He says he would exterminate all flies from the world, but he wouldn't really hurt a single one.

"Ekon" means strong.

He hates chicken because in his opinion chicken tastes bland — it was his favorite food when he was a kid.

He likes tabletop RPG because he can be the coolest character however he wants.

Zakari believes wearing makeup makes him look less boring, but it's honestly not even for the aesthetic it's just for the competition 😭.

a/n: i changed almost everything about him, but in my opinion this version is better. this personality does not fit his design at all, but ig that's the intention???? 😭

[yumenotambourin]

do all 3 mouses for the character ask or im shaving elfilis 🪒🪒🪒

I'M SORRY I WAS TRAVELING YESTERDAY AM I STILL IN TIME TO SAVE THEM???

🩷First impression🩵

Elfilin

Very cute! I thought he was quite bland before release already, but I was like 100% sure that it was because the twist was gonna be that he was mass produced.

And then after finishing the game I had a little phase in which I hated him because he was super fucking plot important, yet he didn't do anything and this made me angry, lol

Forgo

As soon as my eyes landed on it, I thought it was Elfilin after some horrific experimentations. But then they showed the actual Elfilin lmao. I thought it was really cute and I didn't want to fight it, thank god it transformed before we fought it. Then I was just awestruck.

Also my mom randomly asked me what it was and I didn't know what to say so I just said something like "a mental parasite species"

Elfilis

The first thought that crossed my mind after seeing them was "oh god they have my exact favorite color scheme I'm gonna be obsessed with them, aren't I?". Breathtakingly beautiful, of an angelicity(?) never seen before from Kirby. Throughout April 2022, I occasionally woke up in the morning wondering wether they were just a dream. The fact that something like them existed in the Kirby universe was astonishing to me.

🩷Impression now🩵

Elfilin

I still think he's severely underdeveloped, but I'm more cool with that now. He's cute and silly and fun, he's a nice contrast to Forgo, and generally an adorable sidekick. Tho I wish there was more of him.

Forgo

Baby. It's very cute, strikes pretty well the balance between creepy and goober, and the superior gemini in my opinion. I like putting it in situations :3

Elfilis

A MOUS!!! As magnificent as the first time I saw them. Except they're now my muse, my guardian angel. My view of them has kinda shifted from "stereotypical perfect lifeform" to "the embodiment of life itself", which kinda recontextualizes them, especially given how hard each mous fought to stay alive, and I find that very inspirational.

I love Elfilis.

🩷Favorite moment🩵

They don't have that many moments so uuuuh

Elfilin

Finding the Light! Perfect way to end the mouces' arc, and goes to show how much of a sweetheart he is.

Forgo

The iconic "everything shall be consumed" is iconic

Elfilis

The only thing that they do, their boss fight 😭 it's stunning and I find myself replaying it more often than normal

🩷Idea for a story🩵

Elfilin

Definitely a plotline where they tackle that he can learn something from Elfilis and/or Forgo as well. I don't like how y'all treat him like he's perfect.

Forgo

I'd like to see it getting used to living a normal happy life :3 the baby has suffered enough

Elfilis

ELFILIS PROLOGUE PLEASE!!! About how they attacked earth and stuff and their capture and maybe even Neichel cameo!!!

(I will not let you forget about Neichel)

🩷Unpopular opinion🩵

Elfilin

As I said before, I hate when people make him out to be this little goody-two-shoes without a single flaw who's juts the embodiment of niceness and kindness and will always do the right thing. Like no??? It's not all black and white! Let him be a proper multilayered character! Let him make mistakes and learn from others! Let him learn from his literal other half!!!

Forgo

Whenever someone says that Forgo is Elfilis an angel loses their wings. Starting from the fact that the game heavily implies if not downright states (I'm on plane I can't check I forgor) that Elfilis = Forgo + Elfilin, why would anyone choose to take two different characters in different situations with likely two different outlooks (ELFILIS WAS SPLIT INTO TWO FOR THE ENTIRE FUCKING PLOT!!! ELFILIS HAS THE HERO OF THE STORY INSIDE THEM!!!) and reduce them to a single, more limited being? Plus, most people with this headcanon are also the "Elfilis/Forgo is pure evil and an irredeemable monster!!!!" people who also really piss me off. Like yeah okay YOU chose to headcanon the traumatized baby and the insane mous as the same character. YOU are the one taking away all the nuance they could possibly have. Also as I said before THATS A TRAUMATIZED BABY!!!

Elfilis

I strongly dislike the headcanon that Elfilis absorbs other creatures into their dna. I feel like it ruins a lot of the charm they have, at least for me, by making their ethereal presentation be stolen from other creatures rather than it just being who they are. Also, while I am a Good Elfilis defender, I love the idea of them destroying planets for fun. It just goes to cement how otherworldy and above it all this creature is. So yeah, I feel like this headcanon takes away a lot of their appeal for me personally.

I also don't like when people make them always angry and grumpy, like do you realize half of them is Elfilin?

🩷Favorite relationship🩵

This is entirely headcanon-based as the mouces don't really interact with anyone besides Elfilin with Kirby

Elfilis and Elfilin and Elfilis and Forgo. More than the three of them together, I prefer each baby mous with Elfilis on their own.

I'm gonna briefly summarize my hc dynamics for them cause I love mice.

Elfilis and Elfilin - Elfilin

As I said before, Elfilin's feelings on his big sibling are very conflicted. On one hand, he feels safe with them, and looks up to them. On the other hand, he fears them. The fact that they just wipe out planets without second thought disturbs him. Although he'd never admit it to himself because he loves them so much. Elfilis, however, is very much aware of Elfilin's feelings. And as much as they're devastated by the guilt of having hurt their little ones so much, they dismss Elfilin's compassion as naivete due to his young age and time spent with the beasts. They're sure he will outgrow it one day and see his superiority, ans in the meantime they remind him that he's their little one and that they'll always love him.

Elfilis and Forgo - Forgo

Forgo sees itself as nothing but a temporary form of Elfilis, unworthy of being seen as anything but. And it's not taking this whole "coexisting with the actual Elfilis" all that well. If the actual Elfilis exists, what purpose does Forgo have? This sends them down an existential crisis. Elfilis doesn't like that. And they're desperate to help it break free from these beliefs. Also, Forgo always saw Elfilis in a very idolized way, as a ruthless monstrous destroyer. But that's not all there is to Elfilis, they can be a little silly sometimes. And Forgo is SEVERELY disappointed. It often calls them an idiot and then feels bad about it because nobody should be reproaching the almighty Fecto Elfilis. Also it exclusively refers to them as "Great One".

🩷Favorite headcanon🩵

Elfilin

Can I be honest? No fucking clue. Maybe that Elfilis teaches him how to fight?

Forgo

I'll make it quick so as not to repeat myself, that it sees itself as nothing more than a temporary form of Elfilis.

Elfilis

The idea that they have no motivation is very important to me. Specifically that they do things purely out of enjoyment. That they're just a force beyond our comprehension who sees everything as insignificant and is just trying to have fun.

ALSO THAT THEY LOVE EACHOTHER VERY MUCH!!!

[sweetmage]

I was talking to my friend about DAI's treatment of Anders the other day and how it drives me INSANE. This game is SO cruel and uncharitable to him! Firstly, the only time we EVER see his manifesto in canon (as far as I know) is in the house of a crazed murderer with a pile of bodies in his basement. Every single mention is placing the blame firmly on his shoulders. I know some people subscribe to the "Varric is distancing himself from their actions for his/their safety" which I subscribe to as well simply for my own sanity, but it does sometimes become hard to swallow when it's been revealed that (assuming you romanced him) he knew where Hawke and Anders were the entire time yet he continues to let others trash Anders while he chimes, etc. And I DO understand and sympathize with Varric in a way, Kirkwall was his home and when the war broke out there was mass death and destruction and he had to leave. Anders did play a role in that, but he only sped up the process, he was not the root cause and they were heading that direction anyway. Also, he saw Meritdith's red lyrium nonsense firsthand, he saw the cruelty that preceded it, and everything she did aligned with what Anders was so concerned about. The Thedas-wide fighting is not "blondie's mess". I originally had my imported Hawke set to "supported Anders" but I had to change it to "didn't support Anders" in my next playthrough because the supportive Hawke straight up calls him a "monster" so I found the alternative to somehow be the lesser of two evils. In the end, I guess that's more accurate to my Hawke anyway because he was upset that Anders went behind his back and didn't tell him first, he would have liked the time to prepare for the aftermath and all that. But yeah, the "I don't know if there ever was an Anders" from a conflicted but still loyal Hawke is easier for me to roll my eyes and ignore than "he wasn't a hero or a monster, maybe he was both" from a supportive Hawke. But ugh, I digress... As for the other main characters, I do understand that none of them knew Anders personally, they only know him from the big action he took with the chantry and nothing more. So I think it makes sense that they don't necessarily have a favorable view of him, some of them seem rather confused if anything. Not to mention a lot of them did not personally endure the circumstances that led Anders to do what he did. But I really would have loved for there to be more NPCs that supported him, especially when DA2 introduced "The Resolutionists" who seem to align pretty damn well with Anders.

And we got a character that supported Loghain which is a 10+ year old topic but not a single one that supported Anders who seems to be a hot-button issue atm? At the very least, I wish there were at least some people that questioned the whole "Anders did this, this is all his fault" narrative (especially once DAI itself revealed that the war did not, in fact, start because of Anders) or at least SOME differing opinions on him?? As far as I can tell, the only person who has been remotely charitable to him is Solas in this conversation (the thing my friend sent me that got me talking about it):

And the only other mention I could find of people that may have supported him is in the Annexing Kirkwall wartable mission where Sebastian mentions "Anders's associates" who he believes might know where he is. But then again, this is coming from the man who wants to march on a city of innocents for to find a man who probably isn't even there so should be taken with a huge grain of salt.

FWIW I now play with the mod that makes Aiding Kirkwall trigger every time because it better aligns with my HCs for Seb and I will never in my life kill Anders so... I actually like Sebastian even though I don't agree with him most of the time. I get his immediate hurt and betrayal at the end of DA2 because he effectively lost his family again, but I'd like to after 3 whole years of being prince he'd have cooled down enough to uhhh... not march on a bunch of innocents??? Which seems very antithetical to his character and development in DA2?? Annexing Kirkwall is silly, so I do not see it. But I digress, this is an Anders post!!

Anyway, I know I am not saying anything that hasn't been said to death by this point. I love each and every DA companion in their own way, regardless of whether or not I agree with them. But I feel like this is less an issue with them and more an issue with how the writers chose to frame the narrative. I do have to wonder if the fact that so many people hated and were averse to Anders made them think that this is what the people wanted. I have quite a few issues with Anders's writing and handling in DA2 as well, don't get me wrong, but at the very least I enjoyed the ability to support him all the way through.

[thecoolerliauditore]

Interesting perspectives.

I'm a big baby who mostly just dislikes LL for being the "meanest" season, with everyone backstabbing each other, no compelling dynamics as well as some of my least favourite dynamics in the whole series (truly it was the season that belonged to my beloatheds), and too many big groups (not fond of groups larger than 3, more than that makes interactions get lost and alliances weak in an uncompelling way. a duo/trio can realistically trust each other and have a personal dynamic, a quartet+ are just early episode roommates (this is a problem that is a result of the length of the seasons, I think if they were closer to 12+ episodes larger teams would work better, but I also think if a season stuck around that long everyone would be sick of it)).

And also yeah if you ask me to remember much of anything that happened in the last 2/3s besides an unrelenting wave of betrayals and abandonments I'd be hard pressed to think of anything. I can't even remember most people's last deaths. The map was also the most Eh map in the series, never knew where anything was, was all just ambiguous forest. Session 2 was good, though, entirely because of Lizzie. And, I also watch things as casual entertainment first and foremost, so most of my first watch enjoyment is "did this pov make me laugh/cheer on their antics". LL very rarely made me do either.

I waver back and forth between it and 3L being my least favourite, though, cause 3L was genuinely just kinda boring unless you cared about either desert duo or renchanting. And I kinda liked both but I didn't love either. People weren't as funny and didn't know each other well so they were awkward, they still didn't know what they were doing, and the map outside the desert was wasted (a particular quality of each season that people don't talk about nearly as much I think, setting quality). I can only enjoy it casually as background noise, I rarely get pulled in.

I know this one is an unpopular opinion because the last two seasons can't go a single episode without some controversy by monday, but to me the life series generally is one that gets better every season. Though I think SL was its peak even if it didn't have any particularly compelling teams, the gimmick was the best and everyone was at their funniest and enjoying themselves the most, the gimmick lent itself to being bent to the needs of the game such as lightening the blow of the wider gap of final deaths by having Jimmy return as a ghost, or giving the reds tasks to do damage. It was good at creating both personal moments and server-wide moments.

Double life is my favourite though, because no objective qualities can beat out favourite characters and first entry bias. Also the small amount of deaths and inherently having someone to share it with made every single one memorable, and it had one of the best maps with the ancient city and canyon. And every single team memorable and well-utilized base, as well as being the season that finally forced everyone to get to know each other which the later seasons benefited from greatly.

Yeah, in my head 3L and LL are slightly like test runs and DL is where the series really got on a roll. Grian said they didn't even know what they were getting into with 3L and I think you can tell that by the over-correction into DEATH game territory LL did before DL reeled it back in and they found more of a balance for the rest of the series.

(Actually "5th is the best, 3rd is my fav" is the exact same opinion I have about pokemon, funny enough. Maybe its something)

But I also think that comparing seasons is a bit like comparing apples to oranges since every single one is so different besides the base 'death game' concept. Like I like 24L and WL equal amounts but also they don't have a single thing in common so I find it hard to even put them side by side. And, of course, RL is just... its own thing entirely.

This is why I rotate stuff like the funny evil bdubs interpretation chart/cycle so much because essentially all the reasons you listed for disliking 3L and LL are reasons they're my favourites e.g. the awkwardness, the distrust you could feel in larger groups, the overall meanness, so on.

They felt absolutely like. the most DEATH GAME out of the series, DL still felt like a death game to me albeit with a slower pace and much more focused on conversation and drama than action. LimL marked a very distinct shift in tone for me although that was also the first one I watched as episodes were coming out so that might've been a factor. SL and WL so far feel more like Mario Party than Death Game with maybe the exception of the very last episode of SL feeling much more like something that should've been in an earlier season due to the lack of tasks.

I think we're all biased towards our own fav seasons but tbf I think the "controversy" with each new episode of WL is more. me being grouchy than any real significant drop in retention? You can correct me on this I am absolutely not watching the numbers but I've definitely seen people like the direction the series is taking which is honestly cool w/ me cus I feel like Grian knows that in competitive situations with time it either goes the funny minigame RNG route or the sweaty min-maxxer route and I and most people I feel like would much rather watch the series go more in the direction of funny RNG than Last Life 2 where everyone employs the smajor strategy of not making enemies, making a base in the corner of the map, only teaming with 1-2 people, etc. Plus it's going to be kind of hard to fish back the distrustful atmosphere of 3L/LL when it's six seasons in and pretty much the entire cast are friends.

Anyway yeah the apples and oranges thing is very correct, it's more or less a different vibe completely and why death game stories that are intended as death game stories usually don't rerun the same cast lol <-- although the "they are stuck in a horrifying death game loop forever to the point where they dont care anymore and find it kind of fun" angle is something I find really cool to think abt with this series.

One of the reasons I like LL over 3L actually (other than the very strong first season I watched bias) is the fact that 3L was a rare situation where I felt like there was a very clear A plot/B plot that emerged with main and side characters. Bdubs' POV in his last episode was literally just brewing potions in his house whilst a million death messages flooded the chat lol.

I still think 3L might be the strongest narratively and its "b plots" although not as flashy as desert duo vs dogwarts have some really cool stuff that have left me fucked up forever mentally (flower husbands I'll never forgive you) but yeah. Compared to LL and the seasons that come after it does feel like the one where all POVs are equal but some POVs are more equal than others. Especially when LL was a massive fucking mess in terms of its alliances where every single team had some sort of massive dramatic moment.

Thinking about it now I think I like the life series for the same reason I like those. "100 player battle royale" videos where I more or less look at it from an angle of an unethical psychologist. Holy shit okay um I was about to make a joke about how I would be Zimbardo instead of Freud if Zimbardo was dead and I didn't think this would be the way I found out Zimbardo died last month holy shit post cancelled I feel bad now

[fayesdiary]

Rhea for the "send me a character" w/ the "first impression, impression now, etc." ask game!

Cringefail pope my beloved💚

First impression

The days of 3H pre-release are long gone, but from what I remember I didn't think much of her beside her being another Mikoto archetype which I didn't have any interest in. (especially because this was back when I was still on Reddit and by extension the Fates Bad™ circlejerk)

Then I think I remember seeing a screenshot of an official tweet that went something like "fight/destroy the Church of Seiros in Fire Emblem Three Houses" (nevermind it happens in only one of the four routes and the most villainous one at that) so I was something like "welp. guess she's the villain of another Evil Religion™, whatever."

Impression now

fgdgdfgdfgdfgsdfgshfgifuhg

She's my favorite Fodlan character, something I never saw coming.

While I have my issues with how she's treated as a character (mainly being relegated to the red herring for Edelgard in Part 1 and the late Nabatean infodump only to then die in Part 2. You know, when she's not completely absent or treated as the scapedragon. In general she's treated with the "tell don't show" approach Fodlan writing loves) they are definitely mitigated by all the small details that make her so interesting. And while I find her lack of spotlight and moments where she shines at her best incredibly frustrating, I'll admit that digging beneath the surface and starting to see who she actually is as a person is quite fun in its own right.

She's a truly kindhearted, deeply flawed and quite cringe woman. Of course I love her.

Favorite moment

Funnily enough, her weed quest. Not just because the sheer concept of the pope indirectly giving weed to her students is hilarious, but because if you look closer you'll notice that every herb she gives seems to fit the specific students a bit too well to be a coincidence (for example Bernadetta's herb is said to give her the courage to strike a conversation, Marianne's gives her a more positive outlook on life and Ignatz's boosts his self-confidence).

This shows that while she feels unable to get close to the students on a deeper level, she's clearly paying enough attention to them to know the general things they struggle with and tries to secretly help them, and it's really sweet!

Idea for a story

I've been entertaining the idea of a Silver Snow rewrite (AKA a scenario where getting an A support with her changes the entire route instead of just the ending) where Rhea is rescued early and becomes the de-facto lord. Featuring character development where she finally starts to actually talk to the students and her loved ones, Dimitri in a secondary role because I think the dynamic between her and early-timeskip Dimitri, not to metion in a context where Edie's already dead, has some insane potential (also makes for a nice foil to CF).

Also changing from her requirement to survive from being A Rank with Byleth to being A rank with all of her support partners. AKA overcoming her fatal flaw allows her to not only survive, but live.

Basically her learning to stop compulsively keeping secrets, openly talk and get close to others again and rely on other people on a deeper level. You know, the good stuff!

Don't count on it ever actually getting written beyond a few posts though. I know my limits :(

Favorite relationship

Romantically with Catherine, platonically with Cyril!

Unpopular opinion

I mean, this is Rhea we're talking about.

Liking her to begin with and not treating her like she's responsible for everything wrong in Fodlan is already unpopular to begin with.

Also people severely overestimate the political power she actually has.

Favorite headcanon

As a joke headcanon: Rhea has been every single archbishop in the past as well, so to keep humanity from finding out she's a dragon she faked her death every few decades... in increasingly ridiculous ways.

It got to the point where the Seiros faithful believe the position of Archbishop is cursed, and whenever people act concerned about her because of it Rhea is grateful for it but at the same time is internally laughing her ass off.

[sickknotdoom]

Someone should tell Eve that squeak doesn't get to decide how we feel about squeak's characters.

REAL. this is definitely gonna set some people off, but the whole "cuddles is the only real villain in the entire story and all the other staff are actually innocent" narrative is bullshit. nearly everyone that works at that hospital tortures and permanently detriments innocent lives if not ending them entirely in brutal ways, and were supposed to just forgive every single one just because "theyre being forced to do so"?

also, the "one true villain" being the only cishet and likely only neurotypical in the comic really rubs me the wrong way. apparently the reason sparklecare even got rebooted was because kneeby thought having evil characters also be queer was "bad representation". i am not a fan of the "queer people can do no wrong" approach. as someone whos gay and under the trans umbrella, id like to point you towards dahmer and chris chan.

jeffrey dahmer was a gay man who cannibalized other gay men. christine chandler is a transgender woman who committed incest. those traits are not mutually exclusive in the real world. they are taken simultaneously, unrelated to eachother unless you go out of your way to relate them. and i think its safe to say that nobody would try and link dahmers sexuality with his actions unless theyre homophobic.

just because one figure within a minority is fucked up, does not mean the rest of the minority is fucked up by association. if that was the case, then id be associated with edp445 and h/tler due to the fact im black and suffer from autism. but thats not the case at all, so why are the clowns so afraid of letting queer characters be antagonists, or vice versa?

all the nurses are treated like theyre completely innocent just because of their identities and/or them being possibly coded as neurodivergent. it seriously comes across as infantilizing queer and/or autistic people, which as someone whos both, i do not like. especially nurse puppy. i do not like the way puppy is written.

puppy is, in my opinion, the most explicitly autistic coded character in the comic (not including characters that are confirmed to be). lo is also the most babied by both the clowns and the fandom. loves whole premise is that cuddles brainwashed lov into seeing loves job (murdering and torturing innocent civilians) as a fun game. lo is canonically 30 years old, by the way.

speaking from experience, us autists are relatively easy to take advantage of when were younger, due to our difficulty grasping social cues. ive been taken advantage of by so many people in just fourteen years of being on this earth. ive been groomed, sextorted by someone who i saught out comfort from after said grooming, painted as a predator by the very person who sextorted me, and then propped by my only remaining "friend" group who would bring all that shit up just to milk my reaction and use it to further damage my reputation.

almost all these people were also queer and autistic, and coincidentally also liked sparklecare, my sextorter being the one who initially got me into it, since he had a uni pfp one time. theyre also victims of similar shit themselves. does that mean all queers/autists/sparklecare fans/abuse victims are like them? no. but does being any of those things excuse the torment they put me through? no the fuck it does not. you cannot give me the excuse of them "not knowing" or being "brainwashed", theyre all at least two years older than me, some being legal adults as im writing. you cannot convince me they didnt intend to fuck me up.

so it reasonably infuriates me to see a Grown Ass 30 Year Old Adult That Murders People For Fun And Listens To Them Scream In Misery With A Smile On Loves Face given the excuse of "lo doesnt know!!!! blame cuddles not lov!!!!" and the fandom just not questioning that at all. imagine watching your lover or best friend get murdered by someone breaking into their house and chucking a toaster into their bath while theyre taking a shower, and the cops* tell you to sue the manufacturers of the toaster. see how fucked that logic is? thats basically sparklecare.

*not like you should trust american cops but i needed an example ok

one of these people i described earlier happens to kin puppy, what a surprise. maybe im just projecting, but the most explicitly autistic coded character (also the only character so far that uses neopronouns/identifies as a xenogender) being treated this way is revolting to say the least, and i feel like lo is made immune to criticism by the clowns because lo just so happens to be those things. if this character werent queer, they would give no chances.* i will gladly allow puppy to exist as is, same personality, everything, i dont mind. its the constant infantilization and justification of loves abhorrent actions that upsets me.

*and this applies to all the other nurses in the comic, except maybe nurse snare since shes practically nonexistant after volume one. but in volume one we are shown barry being tortured and injured by, as far as i can tell, every nurse thats been introduced so far. barry, one of the fandoms most beloved characters, is put through excruciating pain and trauma on screen (with a million trigger warnings before each page, in typical clowns fashion) and nobody gives a fuck once its over, just because everyones queer except cuddles, and cuddles is the Only One To Blame For Anything At All Times.

the cycle of abuse is extremely common. an abuser being a victim does not cancel out them being an abuser, and if theyre not actively seeking help theyre a bad person, regardless of what minorities they belong to. but that does not mean everybody within that minority is a bad person. sparklecares creators and fandom cant seem to grasp that. kneeby cannot erase my opinions on the way the staff is portrayed.

[self-loving-vampire]

Been playing a little bit of Guild Wars 2 with the girlfriend (husband joining us shortly as well).

To no one's surprise I am playing a necromancer.

I have a few thoughts about the game but also feel like I haven't seen that much of it yet despite already being level 50. Still haven't done any dungeons or anything.

You level up truly insanely fast in this for some reason. One time I even went from level 41 to 45 all in one single XP drop and I still don't even know what I did to get that.

Some positives:

1- You don't actually have that many buttons to press. In some other MMOs like this (FFXIV being the one I played most recently) you have a whole lot of cooldowns, three-part combos, mobility skills, and just stuff you're supposed to press in a specific order in order to contribute optimally. Here it's pretty simplified to just 10 buttons, half of which come from your equipped weapons and the rest having limited predefined roles.

Consequently, the buttons you do press end up feeling a lot more substantial and distinct. There isn't really an action I have seen so far that feels like strictly filler.

2- You get to make some choices about your character's backstory and motivation during character creation, and these choices seem to come up in quests as well. This is not entirely unusual in single-player RPGs but the other MMOs I have played tend to avoid that sort of thing entirely. Another rare thing is that some of the story quests also have some branching paths.

3- I really like that it's not a subscription-based game, and even seems to have a very solid free to play version. I still think the lack of a mount during that is rather evil but still way better than subscriptions.

4- You seem to have a decent amount of options for customizing your playstyle, with multiple talent lines to pursue, different weapon types giving you very different skills rather than just having different stats, and eventually also things like specializations.

This is especially nice relative to FFXIV's complete lack of anything remotely similar, with all characters of a class always having all of the abilities for said class (as long as they did their quests). According to a friend the logic there was that people would become toxic over other players having sub-optimal builds and mandating them to use only the most effective skills, which is 100% something that happens but this is still a trade-off I don't really like.

5- I like how a few of the zones are in active war, with NPC armies invading towns and attempting to capture them while players gather together to defend them.

6- My flesh golem turns into a fucked up zombie shark when I go underwater.

The negatives:

1- The game's presentation and world so far seem pretty much just "okay" in my opinion. It's not generic (haven't even seen an elf or anything yet), but it's also not particularly inspiring to me so far. Maybe when we get to see those elder dragons things are going to pick up? Zhaitan definitely looks like an awesome villain for a game to have but simply hasn't arrived yet.

2- Similarly, a lot of the zones are large enough and include so many different sub-zones that so far they haven't quite managed to have the most coherent central identity the way zones in games like WoW or OSRS do. This isn't all that bad but still affects the way I think about them. Maybe this also gets better once I get further away from the "green hills and forests"-type starting areas (although I feel like I have seen like three or four areas with that aesthetic already).

3- The materials gathering for crafting seems to be somewhat unbalanced. You level up so fast and get sent to new zones so quickly that you soon begin stockpiling crafting materials that you don't have the skill to use because the first tier of them seems to last all the way to maybe rank 75? It's as if the game used to have a slower pace that was more in line with that but now you just zoom past the stage where you're collecting tier 1 materials before you gather enough to move up to start using tier 2 materials.

That would also explain why I haven't crafted anything worth using so far. I'm getting significantly better stuff just from questing as I level.

[mk-wizard]

Final Fantasy IV: The installment every FF game SHOULD strive to be like

Hello, friends. Let me tell you about the most underrated installment in the series which near and dear to me because it was not only my introduction to Final Fantasy, it was my introduction to RPGs in general. It is the game the showcased the best of what Final Fantasy brought to gaming, or once did rather, and it is in my opinion the game every other one should have strived to be like... Final Fantasy IV aka Final Fantasy II in North America.

FF7 gets a lot glory, honourable mentions, spin offs and a lot of games since its creation strive to be just like it if not inspired by it, but I think that the franchise is completely wrong when it comes to which game it should focus on being more like. FF4 is the one all FF games should strive to be like because it really is a gem. The amount work, time, effort and love put into it not only shows, it’s stood the test of time. Even now, you can replay the most primitive version of it (the SNES) and it will still be impressive even compared most modern original games now. Yes, it has modern remakes and a few spinoffs though it still doesn’t get the recognition or appreciation it so rightfully deserves. And here is my case as to why...

Note that there are spoilers ahead!

Number one, it had the best music. Like I said, you can play the most primitive version of this game and it will still impress you. For a Super Nintendo game, the music sounds like it was played by an actual orchestra. The prelude alone sounds heavenly and Golbez’ theme sounds like something out of the underworld (more on him later). While the modern music on more modern consoles of FF are nice, none come close to the quality FF4 had. It was more than just about giving each character their own theme song. Every single piece suited the setting and mood it was made for.

Number two, it had the best protagonist: Cecil Harvey. Ever since Cloud appeared, the trend of FF was to have weird or broody kids play hero. Cecil was a real man who did not play hero. He IS a hero. He is a leader, brave, intelligent, responsible, selfless, kind, faithful and doesn’t need to be convinced to do the right thing. He just does it. In fact, that is exactly how Cecil’s entire journey began: with an act of honour. When he realized his king was evil after being tricked into burning the village of Mist to the ground, he had enough and began his rebellion then and there. Also, he inspired others to join him in doing right. I admit Cecil left a big pair of shoes to fill, but I wish more creators in FF would at least try to make their protagonists more like him.

Number three, it had the best antagonists. Yes, I meant for that to be plural because unlike all other FF games, Final Fantasy didn’t have just one main antagonist. It had two. The most obvious one was Golbez who just visually alone is serious, frightening and menacing. He isn’t a pretty boy at all. In fact, I even imagine his voice sounding like that of Darth Vader’s. As said before, his theme resonates with evil. He is also the perfect foil and adversary to Cecil because he’s also a leader, relentless, bold, daring, sadistic, cruel and competent. On top of that, he’s a tragic villain done right because it turns out that he was mind controlled this whole time since he was a teenager. Yet, even when he is freed, he still behaved like a badass and even took accountability for his misdeeds. Golbez knew the world would not forgive or pity him that easily nor should it, so he decided to face penance like a man and start a new life on the moon.

The other main antagonist who was memorable is Kain Highwind who also happens to be Cecil’s best friend and foster brother. What also sets him apart from all other FF main antagonists is that you only fight against him once and then, for most of the game, he fights alongside you only to betray you without a warning at the worst possible time. Another thing that sets him apart is that he’s not a tragic villain. He’s a corrupted hero. He is a good guy who made bad decisions and caved into his jealous towards Cecil making him susceptible to being mind controlled. In other word, Golbez played up that which was already there. And like him, Kain accepted that a simple “I’m sorry” was not enough to make up for the things he did and you respect that about him. I mean, he almost killed Rosa and he loved her (more on this later). There has not been a main antagonist like Kain since.

Number four, it had the best romance. A lot of the romances in FF these days are not healthy nor do they feel like they make any sense especially because the characters tend to be underage. The last believable romance I saw was between Zidane and Garnet, and even then, it cannot compare to the love between Cecil and Rosa. They not only have great chemistry together, they’re an item from the beginning and should I also mention that FF4 did a love triangle first? Moreover, it showed it accurately in how they are not fun or cute. They always end with someone getting hurt. You see, Kain was also in love with Rosa and tried to pursue her, but Rosa only loves Cecil. Moreover, though she needed saving a couple of times, she is also just as much there for Cecil. She is his greatest support, believer and is as every bit as stubborn when it comes to doing what is right as he is. Plus, she is the best healer in FF series in general as she is the only one who ever managed to learn Curaja (aka Cure 4) making her and Cecil a power couple. By the way, Cecil and Rosa got married, had a son together and are still going strong. How many FF romances went THAT far?

Number five, it had the best airships. The airships have always been a staple for FF, but you don’t get to use many all at the same time like you did in FF4. You got an airship that had a crane that helped you carry the hovercraft while flying, an airship that had a drill which helped you dig your way out of a mountain from the inside out, and airship that literally takes you to the moon and back. And the best part is, every time you got new one, you still had the others in your garage. I admit that FF5 also had multiple transportation vehicles that stayed in your inventory, but none of them impressed me the way FF4′s did.

Number six, it had the biggest and best set of worlds to explore. As well as having many airships to travel with, it had many worlds to explore. It had the usual overworld, but there was also a vast underworld to see. Moreover, the moon itself is a whole world to explore on its own not one dungeon that comes and go. Most FF games only have one world to explore or one at a time to explore, then there’s no going back. FF4 was not like that. Every world stayed intact and was there to continue being explored as the game went on.

Number seven, it had the best side quests. Like I said, the multiple worlds offered so much to explore and what you would find did not disappoint you. It had side quests that not only added to the experience, but also to the story as though you’re meant to take time to see what lies beyond. And everything you find is genuinely useful from Summons to Weapons. You’re left with the genuine impression that if you don’t complete these quests, you’re missing out. I admit FF5 and FF6 also had great side quests, but they did not surprise me the way FF4 did. I mean, how often do you get a side quest that lets you find out for yourself that not only is your friend still alive, you have a hand in saving him?

Number eight, it had the best story. The most important part of any RPG is its plot and FF4 did not fail to deliver. It’s story plays out like a TV series that you could binge watch over and over again. In fact, if one FF game SHOULD be adapted and faithfully to a TV series it should be this one. The story and character development is just so well done and really draws you in. Did you know that FF4 was the first video game that actually made me cry? When Tellah died, I am not ashamed to say that I cried and not just because I was a kid who felt bad for a character. When Tellah died, you really mourned for him because you got to care about him and what he went through. And I am grateful to this series for making me feel that way because it taught how to write tragedy right.

Number nine, it has been remade again and again, yet still always winds up still being good. I admit it translates best to being 2D and cartoony, but even the CGI 3D version on the DS was was still great and the voice actors selected were pretty much how we imagined them to sound in our minds. More importantly, the remakes always stay faithful to the source material which tells me that deep down, the creators know how perfect FF4 is.

In short, FF7 may be the franchise’s cash cow, but FF4 is its masterpiece. And I can say openly without shame that upon learning that it is getting yet another remake, I am considering purchasing it just to play it because I MISS playing it over and over again. This game not only shaped my childhood. It helped me in my writing.

Anyway, this is all just my opinion on FF4. I would like to know yours and if you disagree, which game was the best in your opinion and why? Thanks for reading and as always, stay safe.

PS: If you haven’t played FF4, play it especially if you are an FF fan. You won’t be disappointed.

[tea-and-conspiracy]

One Ishgardian's Unsolicited Take on DT

...Which is a bit of a misleading title, I realize, because I did DT on Laelia first (cowboys and cyberpunk, I had to) and I'm only now doing it on Eliane, but this is my main XIV account here on tumblr, so whatever.

Spoilers and Opinions below the cut, obviously! If you aren't prepared for either, please don't read. :)

I guess I'll begin with the good.

Tural

I really liked the first half of this xpac. I enjoyed how casual and low-key it was, I loved how it was about engaging with people and getting to know them rather than racing to save the damn world again. By now they've established narratively that the WoL really needs a break and I'm glad they got to get it for a bit.

To this extent, the first half of the xpac felt like ARR in a good way. You were back to being a nobody (why would anyone in Tural know or care who you are?), so the most that was ever asked of you were random, easy tasks. You got to adventure. There was worldbuilding aplenty. Every once in a while you punted a threat that got too big for its britches. That's what ARR was too.

It's hilarious to me that the WoL was there to basically be advisor to Wuk Lamat, because our cute little fragment of that goblin Azem is simultaneously the best and WORST qualified for the position. And I also loved how we would just be pointed at whenever somebody went, "Or else what?" Or else her, obviously.

Tural is breathtaking and might be the team's best round of environmental design yet. I find Urqopacha especially striking, but as a whole it was so refreshing to be back in colorful and vibrant environments again. This includes the dungeons, especially the earlier dungeons.

The Characters

Wuk Lamat started to exhaust me and I still love her. She's sweet, she's genuine, and she's a nice departure from...well more or less every other character in this game. I have a weak spot for shonen protagonists and that's basically what she is. Hell yes, Power of Friendship.

It was hard not to be on Team Koana after the rescue scene. Boy is that cat hot when he's mad. His VA really nailed the subtleties of "guy-who-is-super-intelligent-and-thus-can't-People-as-a-result", and while I can't claim to be particularly bright, I identified with his awkwardness. :P

Otis. Nuff said.

I, uh. I'm definitely confused about the Bakool Ja Ja love but I think I get it. :P Internet Things <tm> aside, I do love a good heel-face turn, although the execution of his turn was, uh. Hm.

I guess it's time for the bad.

The Scions

Didn't need to be there. They didn't add a single thing to the story and were clearly shoehorned in for marketing purposes. A case can be made for Krile obviously, but outside of her, only G'raha made sense because of his specific experience and expertise.

"What about trusts?" A lot of early trust dungeons use random NPCs. We're out here to engage with other cultures, why can't I have a Hanu healer or a Yok Huy DPS? That makes more sense to me than forcing Alisaie to heal.

Mad we didn't get to duel Urianger and Thancred though. >:(

Erenville was done completely dirty and didn't catch a break this entire expansion. Thanks for coming with us as a guide, buddy! One of your childhood friends turned evil, your village is now destroyed, and your mom is dead! That's it, that's all you get. :)

The Story

Like I said. The first half of this story was nice. I really wish the rest of the xpac had stayed that way.

The problems began around about the time I hit Yak T'el. Unfortunately, there's some content there that started hitting a little too close to home for me, and yeah, it hurt me a lot. I don't think the devs realized what they were engaging with, which is kind of par for the course for this particular subject matter. :/

That aside, I agree with others that the Mamool Ja's story is a bit of a stretch in general. Part of the reason the Yok Huy and the Mamool Ja exist -- at least to my understanding -- is so that the game can explore what fundamentalist cultures look like without them being linked to any one culture in the real world, and I think that's a good thing. But the writers seemed to lose either their nerve or direction with the people of Mamook, and it undermined Bakool Ja Ja's character progression as a result.

We didn't spend much time in Shaaloani, and I had a feeling we wouldn't, even if I was hoping for more good ol' fashioned spaghetti western tropes. But more importantly...where tf are the Whaalaquee (sp?)? Erenville even mentions them but they're not physically present? Wasn't the whole conflict there due to ceruleum being dug on their sacred lands?

But anyway, let's just get to the elephant in the room: the latter half of the story. Why. Why did we have to do any of this? I don't understand Zarool Ja or anything about him. He had a loving family, he had everything, and instead turned into Varis 2.0 because he felt...inadequate? How do you go from, "Man, I'll never measure up to my dad" to, "I need to fucking take over the world?" Shit, even Varis was at least a little sympathetic in that he was hoping to free his people from Emet-Selch. I never bought into Zarool Ja and found him a really shallow and boring antagonist.

ALSO WHO DID HE FUCK? I'M AMAZED HE WOULD EVEN TAKE THE TIME TO FUCK. WHAT OTHER MAMOOL JA WAS EVEN UP THERE? FHEJAKRFGHJKE

This might be a weird take, but I'm tired of the leadup to the endgame zone being the people you previously helped out coming together to get you to a place you cannot reach. That was *incredibly* moving in Shadowbringers, because you spent the entire game getting to know these people personally. And a callback to it in Endwalker worked because this was the culmination of your adventures on Hydaelyn. But we had to do it with the train again and it just felt...lacking. Like, "here's the obligatory cooperation scene!" We don't have to keep rewriting Shadowbringers, guys. Also, these scenes work better when it involves individual characters; since Dawntrail was more about getting to know the cultures instead (and that's ok!), it unfortunately lacks a bit of that more personal connection.

We didn't need Alexandria. I am so. Tired. Of the end game zones being megatech. It was a fun and wild shift ONCE in Heavensward, but you can't keep doing that on repeat, especially when you keep amping up the technological advancement. What made Alexandria/Solution 9 worse is that there's way too many hints of real life in there. You know, government employment offices and recycling bins and advertisements and stuff. I play this game to get away from real life, not be reminded of it. And yeah, Garlemald had cars and stuff, but it at least felt justified because the Garleans can't use magic. They are a mundane people, so of course they'd be more like us. Solution 9 feels like it belongs in another game.

I found Sphene exhausting, not sympathetic. We've already done this before with Emet-Selch and then again with Golbez, and she didn't have a fragment of the depth of the former. I personally dislike the trope of "the leader so universally beloved that they're practically worshiped". I can never buy into it and it always creeps me out.

While I love Vrtra and the first brood, I was mega bummed that getting outside help was the solution to protecting Tuliyollal. Like, Koana's been hyped up as a brilliant engineer this whole time, I was fully expecting him to engineer a defense for the city. I guess time was a consideration but there's some kinda eeeehhhh implications in the Turali being unable to defend themselves, and it's a little cheap imo that the solution was apparently Draco Ex Machina.

But what made Alexandria most exhausting of all is that we literally just finished this storyline, almost beat for beat, in the 6.X patches.Right down to having a flashback dungeon set in a medieval kingdom in the middle of the calamitous war that destroyed it, like what the actual hell. Do we really have to keep doing a narrated dungeon at the end of every xpac, btw? It worked for Amaurot. It was already a bit much with Meteion. But we're just rewriting Shadowbringers again forever, I guess.

I didn't like the end zone at all for the same reasons: another reconstruction of a long-dead place and long-dead people for the third expac in a row. Please stop. I loved Shadowbringers but for the love of god please move on from it. By the end I was just rushing things along because I was just so tired of it all. It's lost its emotional impact by now.

Which is all a very long way of saying that I wish we didn't have to save the world again, I guess. We were supposed to be done with that but either the devs (or more likely the execs) didn't trust that we'd remain engaged if the stakes stayed low. I wish they would trust us like they used to.

ARR wasn't about the end of the world. Heavensward wasn't about the end of the world. Stormblood wasn't about the end of the world. We already know they can do it. We already know people enjoy it. It's safe to relax and take your time building back up, dammit. It was kind of disappointing.

In Conclusion

Despite all my whinging, I actually enjoyed the xpac a fair amount. I'm not hooked, but I didn't hate it. There's a lot of good, and a lot of endearing things too. But ShB was clearly too successful, and I'm wondering now if we'll ever get away from it. The new writing team is proving very hit and miss and I really do miss Ishikawa.

We'll see where things go from here. :think:

[unpassive-viewer]

The Hunger Games: Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (mild spoilers)

Welcome, welcome to the [10th] annual Hunger Games,

Good news everyone, I'm living my best life and back in the depths of my Hunger Games obsession that I'd thought I'd retired at thirteen years old. I saw the Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes and by golly do I have some opinions.

TL;DR: This was overall a fun film, although WAY too long. By Act 3 I just wanted to go home. Still a good watch, but I could have used an intermission or something.

Staying true to the vibe of the Hunger Games franchise, director Francis Lawrence is back with lots of wide angle shots and close-ups, explosions and rubble. He did a pretty good job of translating young Snow's inner narrative to the screen, although I don't think he totally captured what a sociopath the character was throughout the entire book (which I have indeed read).

The casting, as was the case in the first 4 movies, was pretty much perfect. I liked that the other characters were interesting outside of the Lucy Gray/Snow narrative. Hunter Schafer dominated every single scene she was in. The shot where she, Sajanus and Snow watch Lucy Gray on television? You could've removed Tom Blythe and Josh Andres Rivera and I would not have noticed. She carried.

Viola Davis and Peter Dinklage were equally interesting. I wish Peter Dinklage's character had more screen time, he played his part so well. And as we know, I would lie down on train tracks if Viola Davis asked me to, so that's my opinion on that. Although her red and white outfit was... interesting.

Rachel Zegler was amazing, and her voice was so pretty that I actually did not mind how often they made her sing... (seriously, there was so much singing. An unbelievable amount of singing for a non-Disney princess movie). She and Tom Blythe have wicked chemistry, even when he decides to go full Evil Snow in the second half of the film. The only thing I really couldn't stand was how she couldn't maintain her accent.

I really wish that the second half of the movie had more character interactions outside of the Lucy Gray/Snow dyad. I felt that's where the film got a little dry - I simply did not care about their relationship, regardless of what it meant to Snow's character development. Their interactions in the first half benefitted a lot from those around them, rather than their blossoming interest in one another.

The costume and set design in this film was super interesting. The first film in the Hunger Games trilogy leaned very hard into displaying the Capitol's culture through their clothing, since we got so few glimpses into the citizen's actual lives. I feel this film did that equally well, although I didn't feel it adequately showed the depth of Snow's poverty. Considering this was incredibly important to his character arc, I wish we could've seen more of that.

I also didn't particularly like how obvious the callbacks to the original films were. I think the comments about swamp potatoes could have been scaled back. I also would have appreciated if there was less focus on the hanging tree song. To me there were too many direct ties to the scenes we got in the 74th/75th Hunger Games. Culture changes a lot in sixty years - lyrics change, tunes change, dances change, clothes change. Too much of this film felt like it stopped time between what is technically the next Hunger Games films.

However, the movie did get a lot right in this respect. Specifically, you can see the warping of the Appalachian culture between the 10th and 74th Hunger Games. Lucy Gray's character belonging to a travelling band was a great illustration of the way that the Capitol caged its citizens for nearly 100 years.

Anyways, I watched all of the older films this week and reignited my love for Peeta and Finnick. I still like Catching Fire the most, and I don't think I'll add Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes to my annual franchise rewatch. For what it was, though, it was pretty fun. A little part of middle school me was fulfilled, remembering showing up to the original movies on opening day in full costume... (I was a nerd). I miss the fancasts for the other games, the makeup trends, the deep dives into characters on YouTube and the fan-made movies?? Ah, when times were simple.

Anyways, did you see The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes? What'd you think? Are you deep into your formerly-retired Hunger Games phase too?

Let me know.

[enbyleighlines]

Started the dlc xenologue for fe engage today and man

(Spoilers below btw)

Idk what it is exactly but the writing in fe engage just continues to rub me the wrong way. I find myself unable to get emotionally invested. The pacing just feels strange, and the dialogue is too full of exposition, and yet I still have trouble understanding the plot?

Maybe I just can’t suspend my disbelief enough but I find it weird that there’s an entire country that worships the Fell dragon, and everyone just like… treats it as normal? Like, the same Sombron whose sole purpose is to… idk? Destroy stuff and obtain power? (I still don’t fully understand his motivations, only that it involves a whole bunch of death and other bad things). And people worship him? Like an entire country?

At one point Alear even says something like “I wish to respect your opinion” in regards to someone who worships Sombron, and like?

That’s not an opinion worth respecting? This isn’t like a difference of cultures thing this is like one side explicitly desires the erasure of all life on earth (including their own??? They know Sombron would 110% destroy them too, right? Or do they think they will be spared??)

I wish I was smarter and could more clearly articulate what bothers me so much. Part of it is the childlike view of morality (good guys save the world, evil people wish to destroy it) which is overly simplistic. But then they try to add complexity on top of it?

Zephia’s whole thing was that she wanted a family?? With Sombron??? Like girl you can just go adopt or something idk

And the game expects me to mourn her passing or feel things about her relationship with the hounds but like?? She was really about to let the entire world burn just so she could experience pregnancy

Like what exactly are the followers of Sombron getting out of this arrangement?

I feel that way about all villains whose entire motivation is “power”. Okay, and so? Power is a means to an end. Why do you want power? What do you intend to do with it? And like if you destroy the world for the sole purpose of becoming the most powerful being in existence, like?? Does power even have meaning anymore?

There are parts of Engage I like, mostly the more down to earth stuff, like the dynamics between siblings (Alfred and Celine’s A support comes to mind) and Timerra’s relationship with her retainers

But for the most part I find myself barely paying attention to the plot because it never gives me a reason to be invested. Plus the character models look so stiff sometime, like they really have a severely limited number of facial expressions, which never bothered me with the drawn talking sprites of other FE games but with this game it annoys me so much I can barely concentrate on what they’re saying.

There’s just so much left unexplored or undiscovered behind the scenes. The xenologue is dropping all this dragon lore on me but I’m unsure whether any of it applies to Alear’s original world. Like Nel and Nil are Alear’s siblings, right? Or, at least, his alternate world counterpart was their sibling. But they never mention it at all? Like Alear and Veyle can’t have a single conversation without calling each other sister and brother but Nel and Nil don’t mention the original Divine Dragon being their sibling once?

Is alt-world Alear Lumera’s blood son/daughter? Is that why their hair is completely blue? Does this mean that Nel’s crush on Alt-Alear isn’t incestuous after all?

And if all Fell dragons have twins, where is Alear’s? Where is Veyle’s? Or is that a strictly alternative world thing?

Everything is so confusing

Like I came here for Ike and Soren but I expected to get a little invested in the original story and characters? Like I get that this game is supposed to be campy but sometimes I feel like it wants to be taken seriously, but man I just can’t do it

Not to mention the ridiculous amount of plot twists. It’s like the story is attempting to be clever but they just happen one after another and I’ve just become immune to them by this point. Plot twists are really the type of thing where quality matters more than quantity, but Engage apparently doesn’t think so!

And there’s just little things, too. Like Alear’s short stint as a Corrupted. Why did he look, act, and speak the same?

And if all the royals in the xenologue are corrupted, but they look, act, and speak the same as they did before they died, then what does it matter that they’re corrupted? Why do they have to die again?

Idk does anyone else understand what I mean? What is it about the writing in this game that bothers me so?

[foxgirltail]

Ok here's my tags I wrote in response to that Echoes of Wisdom (abbreviated as eow below) comment made into its own post and modified.

The Zelda series (and Nintendo at large) has a big misogyny issue and I do not think eow shows a positively change in this regard. The only ways I forsee me thinking that the zelda franchise is moving in a positive direction wrt their historic misogyny are:

1) significantly more women, both major and minor characters, need to have narrative agency. Very few women in any Zelda game have any agency and most are primarily moved by outside forces rather than making (or appearing to make as these are fictional characters) their own decisions. In my opinion, Windwaker initially does a decent job with Tetra - but that agency is later stripped away with the Zelda reveal! She does nothing during the second half of the game! I think there's maybe 5 named and narratively relevant women in botw/totk with even a semblance of agency, and even fewer that you actually get to interact with outside of cutscenes.

As for eow, I could even argue that Zelda has very little agency! and most of the narrative agency that she does have is granted because she's the playable character, which is basically just a gimme! Here's the starting premise:

The game starts with Zelda kidnapped and trapped in a crystal (as per usual). Link shows up to save her (he is playable for like 10 minutes here. Still not sure why), then ends up in a rift. Zelda returns to the castle.

(At this point Zelda has made 1 choice, which was to return home after her ordeal)

She talks to her dad, the king, about what happened, and it felt to me like she was ready to be done adventuring at this point. Hand off the rift problem and saving Link to someone else.

Oh no! Suddenly the king turns evil and imprisons Zelda, and plans to execute her. Tri finds Zelda in prison and gives her a magic wand that uses their (not sure on Tri's pronouns) power to duplicate things. Using this, Link's old cloak, and Impa distracting some guards; the pair escape

(Now, Zelda has made 2 whole choices! Go home, and escape death)

Around this point - with guidance/prodding from Impa and Tri - Zelda decides she and Tri have to Save The King (which I assume will somehow balloon into Save The Kingdom, possibly at the request of the king or because getting to the king will require doing so first).

This is like, the only significant choice she makes in my eyes. I only barely consider the first two decisions to be actual choices at all - you experience something traumatic, you go home; you're presented with an opportunity to avoid dying, you take it. And gameplay wise, it looks like every "choice" after this is because she's the playable character (order of doing things, side quests, etc), or because said decision helps accomplish the goal of saving dad.

So, y'know, not really a ton of narrative agency on her part imo

2) A mainline Zelda game with a playable girl character who actually fights under her own power. Link's basic combat maneuvers in every single game are achieved by his own power. While he may be gifted the sword initially, the starting sword in most games is entirely nonmagical. Sure, yes, in many games Link is given magical gifts - or is magically enhanced or altered - that he would not otherwise have, but a lot of those games suggest that he would not be able to wield these gifts if not for his own capabilities, or alternatively, the gift givers require that Link proves his capabilities time and again to earn these gifts.

Meanwhile, Zelda's basic moves in eow are all borrowed from someone else! Tri is the one making copies, not Zelda*! Zelda is more-or-less just instructing them on what to copy (or control)! Her other moveset that I know of (based on button layout I think there could potentially be one or two more gameplay modes that I haven't unlocked yet tbh) is the "sword mode", which she gains by finding a magical sword. In this mode she basically temporarily borrows some of Link's sword-wielding capabilities to swing a sword (and jump twice as high). I wouldn't really consider either of these movesets to be 'performing combat under her own power' in the same way Link has historically done. Honestly, the list of 'Zelda-powered traits or abilities' in eow is: Be the princess. Walk/Swim/Climb. Jump (half as high as Link can). See Tri without having first fallen into a rift (and honestly this one is a just maybe! We don't know if Ganon took her through one before the opening sequence or something). That's about it!

*I think that Tri is meant to represent a fragment of the Triforce/the Triforce's power, and so you could make some argument about the Triforce and Hylia and the overarching Lore of Zelda etc etc, but that's not how the game initially presents this situation (if they even bring up this Lore at any point anyway). Also pointing to a bunch of other games - which seem to be only tangentially related to this one from a narrative standpoint anyway - to determine whether this game is misogynistic or not doesn't really hold up, so i think it's a poor argument.

I somewhat understand Nintendo wanting to give Link and Zelda distinctions in play style, but I think theres better ways to achieve this that dont feel misogynistic! Hell, I would consider a game where you play as Link, who happens to be a girl this time and nothing else is changed, to be less misogynistic than eow is.

Neither of my judgements for "is the series moving away from its historic misogyny" apply to eow, so I feel comfortable saying that it does not represent a positive change on Nintendo's part

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

And now you know why this ended up being its own post! Thanks for reading!

(I'm only a few hours in, if later game stuff alters some of these opinions, I'll add further thoughts I have in a reblog)