#you could point at literally any NPC in this game and say that they use they/them pronouns and you'd be more likely to be right than wrong

[bonetrousledbones]

do u ever think about how crazy it is that undertale came out with its insane amount of unambiguously queer characters in fucking 2015

[mantisgodsdomain]

We ought to write more Pokemon fic some time. We want to recreate the Pokemon Manners/Human Manners cheat sheet that we made a few years ago we think that this site would like the Sliding Scale Of Politeness When Greeting A New Pokemon You've Never Met Before.

[koimethehorizon]

Amazing Digital Circus Theory: Gangle is an NPC

Sooo, I wasn’t expecting to talk about this show. I was perfectly content to just enjoy Digital Circus as is.

It’s a show that invites theories as to what exactly’s going on with the setting and characters, but I didn’t have much room to think too hard about it. Who’s Abel? Is Pomni really a human? Why is this VR game emulating an N64 game at the start? I like the show plenty, but it just wasn’t as interesting to go hard on any of those questions at the time.

But with this recent episode… a single, perhaps throwaway line got the brain nagging. And it’s kind of a bizarre one to waste hours analyzing.

Okay, so yeah, it’s a joke on submissive and breedable. (Don’t give them ideas) But try taking it at face value.

What does he mean by this? Sure, Jax is an asshole, and being a bullied kid is Gangle’s whole archetype… but what if it means a little more than that?

Gangle’s trapped for all eternity this asshole and she’s just letting him boss her around. Zooble can choose not to participate, so no one has to. Why does Gangle listen to Jax at all?

Let's entertain a thought: Is Gangle an NPC?

With Episode 2 bringing so much attention to the autonomy of NPCs, it seemed natural to start pointing fingers at characters being this or that. But this isn't just a random crackshot, I feel that there is a story to tell here.

Look back at Pomni’s “orientation” with the other humans. Ragatha, Zooble, and Jax ease her by saying that they’ve been trapped in this world for years and then bring attention to Kinger being the oldest.

But Gangle… she’s isolated from the peanut gallery, busy moping about the broken comedy mask instead.

Every character has been given some hints as to how they’ve been coping with the situation. Jax no longer empathizes with anything, Ragatha once had trouble adjusting but now tries to stay happy, Zooble picks and chooses her involvement, Kinger is the eldest and just exists for the hell of it, and Pomni is new to everything.

With Gangle, it’s a blank. No opinion, no hints of her human side, how long she’s been here, no thoughts on the games, nothing. She’s just Jax’s punching bag.

Even Kinger gets a potshot on Gangle in a rock-paper-scissors game…. and he likely forgot that she doesn’t have hands!

And that brings me to another detail. Doesn't Gangle look different from the others?

Unlike everyone else, Gangle's just a mask and a ribbon. No hands or legs, or just any limbs in general. She stands out as looking a bit simpler than the others.

Gangle's most interesting design trait is that she's based on comedy and tragedy masks. The ones used old Greek theater to dictate the emotions of their characters.

The first episode seems to imply that with a broken comedy mask, Gangle literally can’t stay happy. Hence why we see her sad most of the time. That's a strange limitation if Gangle's human mind is supposed to be completely intact, especially with how expressive the other characters can be.

It's not delved into too much but does Gangle actually rely on these masks to "feel" emotions?

The obvious hole is that Caine would’ve just killed her a while ago if she was an NPC, but he's not exactly omniscient.

He even admits that he has to kill them off because it’s possible for him to lose track.

Now normally I could just stop here, but I’m all about the grand statements. You know, the retroactive readings of an episode once you get a theory going. Why does Gangle being an NPC matter at all? How does Ep 2 change?

While deep diving, I realized that the thematic core of Episode 2 is Pomni and Jax’s approaches to surviving the Digital Circus.

In Pomni’s A plot, we see her connecting with Gummigoo, the NPC that Caine pitted their group against. After discovering him lamenting his new reality, she finds a strange comfort in being existentially lost together. Because in the end the NPCs and the humans are just as displaced and frightened in this meaningless world.

In Jax’s B plot, he forces Gangle to follow some insane orders. Sabotage the game to let the big chocolate turd monster destroy the Candy Kingdom. To Jax, he is the main character. Helping or displeasing this giant population of fake people doesn’t have any consequence for him, so why humor anyone but yourself?

A bit of a stretch, but what if Jax already knows Gangle is an NPC and is keeping it quiet as long as Gangle follows orders, hence the “submissive” comment? He’d be a way more unpleasant character with this reading, but it doesn’t seem off the cards with how he treats everyone anyway.

This dichotomy already plays out well within the episode, but when reframing it as Pomni and Gummigoo vs Jax and Gangle, the parallel is a lot more interesting.

Make an NPC an equal, they die. But keep an NPC under wraps as long as they continue to obey you… they live.

The episode ends with a grim conundrum that NPCs can’t be together with the humans, not because of their differences but because they're just... not allowed to be. But what if one already in the group, proving that they’re just as capable as the humans to play the games and grieve loved ones together?

PS. Despite knowing everyone else's name, I actually forgot Gangle's until I started finding evidence for this intrusive thought. Sorry Gangle.

PSS. I couldn't fit this anywhere, but Gangle's door frame doesn't work as evidence against the NPC theory, because even the mannequins have their own rooms in that hallway.

[anneapocalypse]

I'm just gonna say it, the idea that Dragon Age has this big history of "playersexual" love interests I think is largely BS. It's a term somebody came up with that probably seemed like a good idea at the time, and devs and gaming news outlets have been parroting it mindlessly every since.

If "playersexual" means that an NPC's orientation is only toward the player character or changes based on the player character, and therefore they can't be said to have a distinct sexuality, that is just... demonstrably not true for most of the relevant characters in Dragon Age.

Leliana is not playersexual. She has a past relationship with a woman. There's a whole DLC about it.

Zevran is not playersexual. He tells you in dialogue that he's interested in men and women.

Isabela is not playersexual. She mentions past involvement with men and women, and will have a relationship with Fenris if not romanced by Hawke.

Fenris is not playersexual. See above about the relationship with Isabela.

Anders is not playersexual. In Awakening he mentions liking pretty girls, and he has a past relationship with a man. Not everyone may get the latter dialogue in the game (and it's fair to question that writing choice), but it's also in World of Thedas; it's canon even if you didn't hear it in your game.

The Iron Bull is not playersexual. He can have a relationship with Dorian if not romanced.

Josephine is not playersexual. She has a brief hint of a relationship with Blackwall, even though it doesn't last.

The player character's gender has no effect on any of these relationships canonically happening.

The only love interest you could maybe make a case for (simply because we have no other canon relationships to point to) is Merrill, and her lack of experience is largely alluded to being a result of her being sheltered as the Keeper's apprentice, rather than her having no interest.

While not all of these characters will outright tell you they're attracted to the same gender if not romanced, they all canonically have romantic or sexual interests of some kind outside the player character and none of those change based on the player character's gender, only (sometimes) on whether they are in a romance with the player character. My point here isn't that there's no room for queer identity to be made more explicit, but that their sexualities explicitly do not revolve only around the player character.

And if that's not the definition of "playersexual" then okay, what is it?

Do NPCs literally have to be having a threesome onscreen, visible in every single playthrough no matter what, for us to accept that they have a sexuality that isn't contingent on the player character? Alistair or Sebastian's availability as a romance to female PCs only is generally considered sufficient evidence that they're canonically straight (whatever else fans may headcanon or desire). It's possible to have Sera in your game without ever talking to her about her sexuality, but she's still canonically a lesbian. So exactly what standards for "canon bisexuality" or "canon pansexuality" are we falling short of here? And why is it only for bi/pan characters that the bar is set so high?

These games actually go to considerable lengths to show us that its characters have lives and personalities and preferences apart from the player character. Why is it never enough? Why are we so resistant to just calling these characters pansexual and bisexual? What do we gain from that refusal? And what do we lose?

[thewertsearch]

One can make either true statements or false statements about reality. All of the statements I make are true.

One can make true or false statements about reality, but those aren’t the only options. ‘This sentence is false’ and 'lies are not funny' are examples of statements which are neither.

You proceeded to question me believing you understood the purpose of the Scratch. You received your information about it from trolls. I assure you that in most ways, the trolls are as confused about everything as you are.

Confused she may have been, but Aradia got her Scratch lore from Sburb's own NPCs. Doc's plans run deep, but he can't have been manipulating every Consort on LOQAM.

Maybe the Sburb NPCs she was talking to are simply mistaken in their understanding of the Scratch. It might be a phenomenon which looks like a spacetime rift, but functions completely differently.

TT: What exactly does the Scratch do, then? It resets the game.

It resets the game.

...like, completely? Are we going to Groundhog Day right back to John's original entry, with all our memories intact? I have no idea what that'd mean for the trolls, interwoven as they are into the kids' session - but either way, the possibility of a full reset for John & co. is amazing news.

It would be fascinating to see the kids taking another shot at Sburb, armed with all their accumulated knowledge. They'd be starting from a much better position, and we could sidestep mistakes like Jack's ascension before they happen. We'd be seeing new prototypings, new alchemy, and potentially more God Tier ascensions. Terezi did say that Dave was only locked out of God Tier before the Scratch, and I think I'm beginning to understand what she means. A lot of possibilities we've long since given up on have just been placed back on the table.

The elephant in the room, of course, is the Alpha Timeline. Changing the past should doom us all, so what's our loophole? I guess we could just transport the Players to a freshly generated session, without any time travel - but I personally don't think that's what's happening here. The Scratch is Time-themed for a reason.

TT: We all start from the beginning again? When John entered? No.

...oh.

Welp, that's another theory that didn't survive the brooding caverns.

The release of temporal energy will be quite massive. This is a hard reset. It will reboot the conditions in your universe well before you began playing the game. You will have lived different lives after the reset. The different initial conditions will ideally lead to a more favourable scenario in the new session.

I guess Scratch has a point. The kids' prior lives were heavily influenced by events in their session. Hell, Jade killed her Grandpa with a gun that wouldn't even exist if John's Veil trip had gone differently. Even the Frog Tem-

...oh, no.

Even Bec could be Scratched.

Now. If I'm an omniscient, malevolent First Guardian, and I'm making some edits to a universe, what's the most effective change I could make? What's the best way to ensure that it serves my purposes?

Well, it would be pretty useful if I were in the universe, shaping it as I did Alternia - but my impending death might put a damper on that plan.

Alright, then. If I can't the the one to shape this universe, the next best thing would be an entity of comparable power - one who is as loyal to my master as I am.

And I know exactly how to make that happen.

Even Bec could be Scratched.

Literally.

[linka-from-captain-planet]

Florrickology, Part 4: Florrick, Wyll, Ulder, and Character Assassination

We all know it, we all hate it. They did my beloved dirty, used her to shit all over Wyll's quest at what should be a climactic moment, and I will never forgive never forget it.

In Act 3, if Wyll rejects Mizora's offer to rescue his father from the Iron Throne in favor of keeping his pact broken, Florrick will ambush the party, inform them that "Lady Mizora" told her what he did, and seek retribution unless talked down.

This is stupid, makes no sense, assassinates Florrick's character for no good reason, and represents some of Larian's laziest NPC writing--unsurprisingly, in the midst of Wyll's personal quest, and smack dab in what's supposed to be the climax of one of the longest quests in the game.

As I said in previous posts, Florrick being willing to go to the mat for Ulder any day or time of the week is consistent with her other characterization.

Up to the point of this confrontation, the player has observed that she'll follow Ulder to literal hell and back, chase him across half a continent, and become so disappointed in her perceived failure to save him and, by extension, the entire city, that she completely gives up and quietly awaits execution, without even trying to escape (which she probably could do, as a level 11, probably Enchantment School wizard).

All her voice lines and all the things others say about her paint the picture of a loyal and true-blue friend, and a public servant of the highest caliber, "as steady as Tyr's heartbeat" and "as upstanding as the Sword Mountains." She may be sharp and shrewd, and perhaps a bit domineering and curt, but she's not cruel. She may be a bit cavalier, but she's never rash.

She's not stupid. She may be more emotional than she seems.

She has killed someone before, on the spot, for coming after Ulder. It's consistent that she would do it again, even if she had to hunt them down this time and risk being caught by the Steel Watch. In her mind, she has nothing left to lose.

What is not consistent is her being willing to kill Wyll on a flimsy accusation (that she doesn't even really believe if you read her thoughts).

Now as I've mentioned, Florrick doesn't seem to feel any particular way about Wyll; she seems to regard him simply as her friend and boss' son, just a good kid she patted on the head at parades, and when they meet again in Waukeen's Rest, as a valuable asset in rescuing Ulder and saving the city.

And I like this! It highlights that Ulder was Wyll's entire world, and it was Ulder, alone, who failed him and cast him aside. I think this is also part of why there's never any indication that Florrick and Ulder are/were romantically involved, because this would change the expectations for how she treats/feels about Wyll. But as it stands, simply being a woman in the vicinity of a child, even one in need, didn't obligate her to be a mother.

And this the feeling is mutual. In-game, there's also no indication that Wyll had or desired had any sort of personal relationship with her, as he talks about her accomplishments but not, say, seeking her out for advice or spending time with her. He mentions crushing on Stellmayne, but when asked about Florrick, he goes right to "yeah she fucks, she sniped a guy right in front of me once." He only regards her in relation to his father and the city, never himself. She's his dad's confidant and advisor, and an exemplary public servant, but nothing in particular to him.

So, it's not how Florrick feels about Wyll that makes it out of character for her to attack him, but because of how she knows Ulder feels about Wyll.

She says herself, when talked down in that confrontation, that Ulder wanted her to find Wyll and pass his birthright on if he fell, because as many mistakes as Ulder made, and as wrong as he was, and as unacceptable as his behavior was, in the end, he trusted his boy with the fate of his beloved city.

So, Florrick would never betray Ulder by attacking his son, without irrefutable evidence, especially when she'd been told explicitly to trust and help Wyll by the person she respects and reveres the most in the entire world.

As one of the most prominent NPCs in the game, appearing with a fairly significant role in all three acts, and who's been demonstrated to be an unquestionable heroic figure all along, Florrick deserved better than what she got in this blatantly lazy, formulaic scene.

And that's the answer to the question of 'why is this scene so bad?' - lazy, formulaic writing.

That's also probably the answer to any 'why is this Act 3 moment and/or NPC interaction so clunky?' question. This confrontation is Like That because it's how every every NPC Confrontation is: someone is willing to kill you for variably logical reasons, unless you talk your way out of it, and the end result is only nominally different, so it was pointless from the jump. It's the illusion of drama and conflict and a plot twist, not real drama and conflict and plot twist. Of course she (andWyllcoughcough) isn't safe from the "uh oh this game isn't done but we're shipping it anyway so we better make this story beat messy, both under-and over-whelming, and confusing to match the overall tone of Act 3" curse.

So you might then move on to, "okay, well, what's the in-universe explanation for this? How can we make it make sense, considering what we know about Florrick?"

I won't give them credit for implying anything they didn't bother to imply, even though they could have gone several other routes with about 2 lines of better dialogue and a simple animation. So, I think the only true, canonical reason Florrick does this is exactly what's presented in the text. She was approached by "Lady" Mizora, a stranger, told a lie, only half-believed it, slapped a fuckass hood on over her very distinctive freakum dress, went on the hunt, and ambushed the party in front of like 50 human, 5 cat, and 3 Steel Watch witnesses even though she's a fugitive marked for execution.

That's it. There's no further context. Again, nothing implied. As you can tell by this entire series, I will read into anything, and there's simply nothing to read into here.

No indication that Mizora charmed or is controlling Florrick, a simple explanation that could have been easily been introduced with about 1 line, a special effect, and a mocap of her "snapping out of it."

No revelation that "Lady" Mizora has been posing as a patriar and pulling strings in Baldur's Gate for the last seven years, working closely with and maybe kissin haha jk... unless Florrick, making it perfectly reasonable why she'd believe Mizora over Wyll, who's been not only missing BUT cavorting with devils for those same seven years, which is ironic because Florrick had unknowingly been doing the same thing (juicy!). (more thoughts on this)

There's not even really a feeling that Florrick, who again did all that mentioned above for Ulder and her city, is simply just so heartbroken and grieving and demoralized that she's experiencing a mental breakdown and a critical lapse in judgement, grasping at anything to make it make sense or to make her feel in control again, even if she has her doubts deep down. Again, this could have easily been written in with a few lines and some body language. I feel like this is what they thought they did, but the fact is they didn't even though it would have been easy and cost basically 0 extra resources or time.

Clearly, this scene got rubber-stamped because they (painfully correctly) assumed that nobody would care about Wyll's storyline at this point, and his supporting character Florrick with it. They probably just figured that we'd all forget how wack it was when we continued the quest and got gagged by the Emporer being a gay dragon-fucker and also Balduran.

So, what would have made this scene/part of the quest better?

To be clear, better is a pretty low bar as the canonical version full-on sucks. The above suggestions are only what could have made this specific scene (Florrick Confronts Wyll About Killing His Father) better. But really, Wyll's quest, as we all know, needs an overhaul. So, below is what's overall needed to make Wyll's entire quest in Act 3 better.

maintain Florrick's characterization (this post is about Florrick after all)

give Wyll a chance to be a hero in his own story

actually utilize Mizora, who's truly been pretty pointless all this time

provide a sense of stakes--it has to matter what happens

get everything the fuck away from that fucking magic show

I had a whole alternative Act 3 storyline written to suggest, Boss Fight Mizora Avernus and all, but realized just before posting that it doesn't work because it ends with Wyll destroying his pact, and he does sort of need that to remain a warlock for the endgame (being forced to re-class at the 11th hour would be a bit of a bold move). But trust me it was cool and better than what we got.

[essektheylyss]

for the ask game: 🧡🖤💚

🧡: What is a popular (serious) theory you disagree with?

Until I see definitive proof that Ludinus is in fact as old as he wants people to believe he is, I will not believe it. I don't even really have an opinion on how old he is; I just don't think he's as old as he tries to suggest. And lest it be said that I am playing favorites, the thing about Ludinus is that he talks the way Essek talks in 91—and there are a lot of things Essek says at that dinner that I take with a good heaping of salt. It's this sense that they're talking around things that they would rather people not question; they're both very skilled at talking around things in a way where they aren't outright lying, but they'd rather you not think too hard about it because there's shit they're not saying. To be clear I also won't be mad if there does turn out to be some evidence in canon that he is that old, but thus far, there is nothing definitive, and I do not take the word of unreliable NPCs at face value.

🖤: Which character is not as morally good as everyone else seems to think?

I don't think this is really an unpopular opinion at this point, but Jester. Nice =/= good. I don't think she's evil, by any means! But her morality is a lot more complex than it's given credit for and I think it's one of the things that is most interesting about her. I'd actually consider her largely amoral; it's just not really an axis of consideration that she worries about. She doesn't want people to hurt her or her friends and she doesn't want something to destroy the world, but otherwise she doesn't really care much about what someone's morality is. "Just don't be evil to me" is an incredible sentiment for a reason. She cares more that Essek said they were his friends than the fact that he's the traitor they've been looking for. Ludinus is so insignificant to her despite his literally world-spanning evil plots that she has basically forgotten him six years later, even though two members of her friend group have spent the last six years trying to pin him down. Jester is hilariously amoral and I love that for her.

💚: What does everyone else get wrong about your favorite character?

[cracks knuckles] OKAY, this is where I've got receipts, because hooo boy do I have an opinion and I will be proving it.

Essek does not have an opinion on the Prime Deities. He does not really have much of an opinion on religion. He actually does not by the end of the campaign have any real issue with the Luxon, and frankly he primarily expressed issue with the Dynasty's worship because, until he got to Aeor, he wasn't certain that the Luxon was a real entity at all—which he contrasts against the Prime Deities, in fact!—and he seems to believe there is compelling evidence in Aeor that categorically disproves his hypothesis that the beacons are simply constructed Age of Arcanum devices.

Originally he is mostly concerned that the Luxon religion is used as a "crutch" which is "distracting them from what other good things they could do with the time and focus". He does specify that any religion can be used as such, but he only remarks upon the one he knows. His theory about the beacons, as of episode 91, is that they may be "artifacts designed in the Age of Arcanum that have been misread" that could be put to even further use.

He also does parrot the Dynasty party line in their first meeting about the Luxon being "the basis of how we've been able to free ourselves from the binds of the lineage the Betrayer Gods left for us", and while I do not take him at face value here (see the above commentary about unreliable NPCs), I doubt the truth of this statement is lost on him, considering his familial connections to Bazzoxan, which I can only imagine would not exactly endear one to the Betrayers, though this is only conjecture. If we do care to take him at his word here, it's not unreasonable, since he obviously has a lot more interest in the power offered by the beacons than anything else.

With all that being said, his tune on the Luxon itself has at least changed by the time they get to Aeor. He discusses iconography found in Aeor and when prompted by the Nein about whether the beacons were created by mortals, says, "I do not believe that they are made by anyone but the Luxon. They are of the Luxon. But they've been around since the Luxon's been in Exandria, which is the beginning."

So we started with him largely apathetic to religion, uncertain if this god was real, and by the time we circle back to him, he has now sided fairly definitively with the fact that the Luxon is an entity that has been around since at least the Founding. (For those keeping track at home, this is longer than Predathos has been around. In the Dynasty's creation myth, it may also have been around before the Prime Deities arrived, which is technically not incompatible with the creation myth of Exandria at large, but I digress.) Like most of Exandria, and as is perfectly reasonable for both his culture and his region, he probably doesn't have any love for the Betrayer Gods, but doesn't express much opinion if any on the Prime Deities. He has no time for religion, but frankly, he doesn't have time for much except for his own research, so it's hard to really ascribe any noted contempt to that.

Like, look, I've written plenty of religious trauma Essek fic, and I don't doubt that that element of it exists, but overall, in terms of canonical statements, it's pretty tame.

With that being said, I do want to fast forward a bit to draw attention to something else. Because I actually do think he ends the campaign with some measure of respect for, at the very least, the Wildmother.

In 140 after the Raise Dead fails, he talks briefly with Fjord about the unfairness of it. Fjord passively directs him to "if you were to ask my wise friend Caduceus..." Immediately after this exchange, Essek challenges Caleb to not accept defeat, and admits he wishes there was more that he or any of them could do, but concedes that, "Unfortunately, this type of magic is beyond my purview."

Immediately after this exchange, Caduceus asks for divine intervention.

Of course, he then spends several weeks gardening in a temple to the Wildmother, and seems to find some genuine clarity and perspective there, but I think this alone is enough to argue that, for a person as driven by empirical evidence as Essek, this sequence of events in 140 would be plenty to earn a wizard's respect.

So my formal belief is that Essek is not in fact anti-god or anti-religion, let alone against the Prime Deities. My opinion is that it's very easy to imagine him on his post-campaign travels leaving a small offering at any shrine of Melora he might pass, not out of actual worship but as a sign of respect.

[the0maski]

Oh look! I escaped containment! Update Entrance | part 2

So normal dungeon size. Would be cool to see what the different floor look like and for what reason the temple had been used in the past. Could there be references to one of them? An old inscription telling one of the Link’s legend?

-

Oh yes the reason Hyrule Warriors isn’t a canon Zelda game…and my personal one-sides beef with Aonuma! The timeline would be so much easier…

Anyway, Hyrule Warriors features some dungeons, but you just run and fight the hoards of monsters.

Love the their shock faces! And then there is Time. Don’t know if the side eye is because Time is the most stoic 3D Link, or because my boy is going through high level stress?

-

Interesting piece of LU lore! Either that or Wars purposely mentions Ganon.

Cause, technically, Cia started the War of Ages. Yes she was under the influence of Ganon, but it was her obsession that also lead to the events in HW.

And that, snuck under Ganon’s snout is not true for all of them.

Time literally played into Ganondorf’s plan in the first half of Oot. (In MM, if you look at Skull kid with the telescope. Majora will always look at you, what means they know where you are)

The same goes for Legend, in a Link between Worlds. Hilda had asked for his help, only so she could have the Triforce of Courage. Meaning that they had to be watching him somehow to make sure everything was going according to plan.

And also, I think that Zant had an eye on Twilight, not sure if from the very beginning or at some point in the game.

-

Yes recurrent items. I wonder if Hyrule has already left something hidden somewhere, for a future hero to find? The hero to follow would be Warriors so, has he any items of Hyrule?

Interesting enough, Twilight’s hero’s clothes are often said belonged to Time, because Ordona made the comment that the green tunic belonged to an ancient hero. But it makes more sense that there actually belonged to Sky, since Time isn’t an official hero in that timeline.

(Some other example of what Hyrule said, would be:

Four’s Gust Jar -> Sky’s Gust bellows

Four’s Mole Mitts -> Sky’s Digging mitts/ Mogma mitts

Four’s Small Shield -> Wind’s Hero’s shield

Four’s Cane of Pacci -> Legend’s Cane of Somaria/ Cane of Byrna

Twilight’s Ball and Chain -> Warrior’s Ball and Chain

Time’s Hero’s Bow -> Twilight’s Hero’s Bow)

-

Twilight saw the opportunity to bite War’s ego and took it! Meanwhile, Four worries about some enemies only found in dungeons, why is he the only one who cares about his brother getting badly hurt?

Wind is clearly screaming inside.

-

Nice call back to when LU hasn’t had a storyline!

This part could be also mean that some of the doodles can be taken as Slice of Life parts, though some of them still hadn’t taken place yet.

-

Hyrule knows that it is important to know the enemy and be prepare. Like that about his character, as much as he likes to goof around and get lost in the world, he knows when to take things serious.

(He might quote this even from his game? His text does read like something an NPC in game would say.)

-

Legend‘s little prank here is a good way to show the captain how it’s feels to be grabbed by a Wallmaster. So no blame to the Vet, this might be even good.

More on part 3

[tubborucho]

I think there’s a big misconception between red and blue viewers about the nature of feeling defeated.

I can’t speak for red, because I don’t watch them, but I see people using red’s first day as a counterargument to what’s happening with blue practically every day. As I understand, their first day was hell, because they were in a severe disadvantage as a team. They’re lore-heads and ‘dumb lucky’ (i am NOT calling them dumb, they are actually all really smart, i am just saying that they are stupidly lucky sometimes), this is not what can give you a win when you are thrown in that game. On the first day. They did get killed a lot and they were going insane. And they were having fun! Listen, I’ve read SO many posts about how funny and cool red’s first day was and hoe people absolutely enjoyed it. And it’s cool.

But it’s COMPLETELY different to blue. Blue are not in the ‘fuck it we ball’ defeat mood. Because they are never given a chance to just enjoy their wins.

1st day – they got SO much backlash for everything that it was genuinely horrible

2nd day – red found the global task strat. Which is fine. But blue had the whole day of just struggling to understand how FOUR PEOPLE TRYING AND TRYING cant overtake one Etoiles on a leaderboard.

3rd day – they’ve been leading the score all day. Did everything they could pretty much. And again, last minute strat. Which was fair, but it’s a big hit on their morale.

4th day – they win, using the same strat. they specifically did it the way they did just to show how broken it is. they get layers and layers of hate from twitter.

5th day – both red and blue give win to green. this day was neutral.

6th day – the egg preparations. blue decided to just give this day away as well. but bad and pac were hunted for hours just two of them.

7th day – the Egg Wars. we all know what happened :D

8th day – elimination. blue won. blue could’ve easily win without even trying to tie with green, but they did. they almost succeeded. it didn’t feel as a victory when they won, because everyone just blamed them. that wouldn’t happen if green won, everyone would cheer, and it’s a fact.

9th day – that’s today. bad and bagi were constantly hunted for about 3 hours. they couldn’t get into the base for like 4,5 hours (they can now because tubbo is guarding the bounty npc).

Each day when they lose – they lose without sympathy and any kindness from others. Each day they win – this victory is bitter, clawed out and they are hated.

Yes, red and blue both know this feeling of not being able to do anything. But Red have so much support on their side. Both in-game and in-fandom. They are praised for everything they do. They got so much less troubles from blue and green because they kept walking away to not ‘punch down’ from this whole underdog narrative. Meanwhile blue just keep being screwed by everything around them. I think arguably the only thing they have over red is the favor of Lil Buddies, because they are constantly hanging out with them. That’s all. All material stuff they have will be easily matched like tomorrow. They’ve never really had a PVP advantage in the first place because Green’s skills and Red’s players count.

It’s genuinely demotivating to even watch their stream. Like I think I would genuinely cry in their place. All their efforts are either useless, because they immediately get nerfed, or get hated on by literally everyone and everything. It’s such a deep-rooted feeling of loosing before you could even play, that it transfers over the screen.

Red burned in that fire on the first day. And it powered them (in a cursed but fun way). Blue keeps being drowned by everything around them like unwanted kittens, and they are fighting for their life.

So no, I do not think it’s fair to compare Red’s first day to anything that happens to Blue. It’s not the same. I do understand however that it defied them as characters, so it’s a fair point to analyze. But in meta-arguments? Yeah, no. [insert a poll ‘Who suffered more? Blue Team Jesus]

And yet they try. And yet they have nice moments. And yet they are friends. Love prevails.

[motionpicturedemise]

Zero's medal, New Mecca's origins, and near-fatal head trauma

Spoilers for all of Katana ZERO ahead. if you haven't played it already, do that now, I'm dead serious when I say it's one of the greatest games of all time.

When I first decided I'd post meta about this game, honestly, this isn't the one I expected to start with. Hey, sometimes inspiration hits, and...

I'm joking. That's a different rant entirely. (yoshiP voice) please look forward to it. I think the best place to start with this one is New Mecca itself, and what that name entails. It's no secret that KZ takes large inspiration from both Judaism and Islam, the latter of which is more relevant today.

The implications of a literal new Mecca are both fascinating and out of my wheelhouse. I encourage any Muslims, who certainly know more about it than me, to elaborate. As it stands, I'm going to leave it at these few screenshots.

The Psychiatrist:

Leon von Alvensleben:

And of course, Headhunter:

This really isn't the main point of this rant, but it's related enough that I feel justified in mentioning it. Now, let's see Zero's service medal.

Thanks to the nature of KZ as a pixel-art game, we don't have much to work with here. It's gold with a purple ribbon, that's the most we're gonna get.

During the scene at the bar, we have an NPC put a name to it, and this name is what kickstarted the entire post.

A Distinguished Service Crescent. This, to my knowledge, is not a real medal in any country. That makes sense, considering, to my knowledge... New Mecca isn't real. (If it was, we'd have bigger problems on our hands.) This name did remind me of the real-life medal known as the Distinguished Service Cross, which has three meanings and appearances between countries.

To the left, the USA's medal, which is the second highest military decoration just behind their Medal of Honor. The center, Australia's medal, the highest of their Distinguished Service awards. The right, the United Kingdom's medal, which is only awarded for service at sea.

But none of these look like Zero's medal, do they? Let's take a look at Distinguished Service Medals instead, same order as above.

No dice. At this point what I'm about to say is going to surprise absolutely nobody, but the only real-life lookalike I can think of is the USA's Purple Heart.

Now, this sounds absolutely nothing like the Distinguished Service Crescent the NPC mentions, but let's account for 1. artistic liberty, 2. multiple inspirations, and 3. the fact that he might've been wrong. (It's not as if KZ has the most reliable narrators in the first place.)

Part of the reason it might be named as such in game is to draw the direct comparison to our real world medals, named after the cross. Why has it been replaced with a crescent, though? Recall the name of New Mecca, and how the crescent has long been a symbol of of Islam.

Most Americans know what a Purple Heart is given for: being wounded or killed by an enemy combatant in the line of duty. Given that Zero is still alive to receive it, only the former is important. Things are starting to come together.

During the final scene with the Psychiatrist, he entirely ignores you if you ask if the medal is real. At first, I assumed this could be Zero coming to doubt everything he's been told, which is reasonable. Then, once I realized the medal is based off of a Purple Heart, I thought it was real after all.

Finally, I realized just how much the Psychiatrist had Zero's life under control. Zero knows what this medal means, what it implies, and the whole course of the game is discovering how much of what he believed to be innate is caused by his medicine.

Chronos, the drug that he's been forbidden from learning about at every turn, that he's been given non-answers about this whole time, that gives him the power of a god. It's not so unreasonable to assume the medal was used to attribute Zero's memory loss to a head injury, as opposed to the truth of it being yet another side effect.

It's worth noting which parts of the screenshots provided are rendered in purple, and the fact that NULL itself is written in the same color. More on the color usage of KZ later.

If you made it this far, thanks for reading the deranged ramblings of a madman. Lord knows I'm not done talking about this game.

Thanks to @chemicalbrew for encouraging my madness, Muffins (no tumblr) for cooking this up with me, @dynal for listening, and everyone in The Apartment, Nepenthe, and Paradox of Lucidity for cheering me on.

[stjeromeshospital]

hi ^_^ so someone recently left some tags on a post i made about modding funger sprites wondering how i did it and i want to explain how because it is actually incredibly incredibly easy and literally anyone could do it. to start im gonna say im going to explain like every process in detail just so its very clear EXACTLY what youre supposed to do for people that arent computer savvy so it might look daunting but in reality i cant express enough how simple it really is. anyway. its pretty long but INCREDIBLY SIMPLE AND EASY TO DO (and understand i hope)

to start youre going to want to find the local files for termina, which if you bought the game off itch.io they should be immediately available to you, however if you bought it off steam youre going to want to find them using steam by finding them in the games settings in your library:

Here ^ (using another game as an example because i dont actually have termina on steam)

you should be here, and from here you want to go into the WWW folder ->

which will take you here, you can just as easily replace any of the movie cutscenes in the game or sound effects like the sprites but im not going to focus on that. for now by this point you want to go into the IMG folder

which looks like this, and its in here, in the CHARACTERS folder where all of the character overworld sprites are stored.

in the files, each character is listed as:

daan = doctor abella = mechanic o'saa = yellow_mage olivia = botanist karin = journalist pav = lieutenant marcoh = thug levi = mercenary marina = occultist samarie = apprentice tanaka = salaryman henryk = chef caligura = mobster august = hunter black kalev = black_kalev ghoul = soldier ghoul is just listed as ghoul, villager ghoul is listed as villager

with this you now decide which character you want to replace with your own, I chose Karin so I'm now going through every file named JOURNALIST until i find the spritesheet im looking for (that being her overworld walking sprite, which looks like this)

every characters overworld spritesheet should look like THIS. no smaller. however other characters (like samarie or august) will have less detailed sheets than playable characters because they dont need to walk diagonally or get their arms chopped off like the players do.

these are the files im looking for, NOW i need to actually LOOK at them (you can not typically just VIEW RPGMVP files so we are going to use a website to do so. that website being

Petschkos RPG-Maker MV & MZ-File Decrypter

which you will need to do all of this. its going to allow you to view files and also turn your own PNGs into RPGMV files to replace the ones here with your own.

it looks like this. as you can see i put the %JOURNALIST.RPGMVP file from the game files in here. this is how you will be able to look at and download the spritesheets (like karins i posted above) at their native resolution (whihc you need) its also how you know which file youre replacing. to do this put a file in (i put in the %journalist file, click RESTORE ORIGINAL IMAGES, the green button in the corner, and then your file will appear in the FILE-LIST on the right, once it does click VIEW and you should be able to see the spritesheet and download it.

and upon clicking view ive found that this file is exactly the one i was looking for ^_^ (the spritesheets youre looking for should all look like this, as in they should include the characters diagonal movement, lost limbs and crawling animations. that means youve found the FULL sprite sheet which affects your IN GAME PLAYABLE CHARACTER as well as how they behave as their NPC/Party member sprites. ive found that most/all of these specific spritesheets are just the characters name (not %doctor1 or $doctor1 JUST %doctor) and they usually start with a % at the beginning, so if youre wanting to change olivia's sprites you want to find %BOTANIST or if you're changing daan you want to find %DOCTOR. ETC.)

NOW that youve got the file and images youre going to edit. we move on to our art or image editing program of choice and get to work.

i use clip studio paint, but you can use any program at all as long as you keep the image resolution just as it is. (you CAN NOT make the canvas LARGER or SMALLER. you can not UPSCALE the sprites or change the resolution. you have to edit/draw over anything THE WAY IT IS) here i have the spritesheet ive been editing, that being karins %journalist file (with added marcoh, i put that there) who im replacing with my funger oc enright. unfortunately theres no secret hack for drawing your sprites easily, it took me weeks to have what i have because i had to draw everything myself. its like animation. i cant teach you to draw good but i can teach you to replace files on ur computer. either way as you can see the sprites i made are in the exact same positions that all of karin's were, youre basically wanting to use the originals as a foundation or "trace over them" so theyre EXACTLY where they should be. if theyre in the wrong spots they'll look a little wonky. i hope i explained this concept well enough. its a sprite sheet if you know how those work then itll work out. (ALSO MAKE SURE YOU SAVE THE PICTURE WITH A TRANSPARENT BACKGROUND.)

NOW THAT YOU HAVE YOUR OWN PERSONALIZED SPRITES we're going to save it as a PNG. and name it the same thing as the file youre replacing so its easier. im replacing %journalist.RPGMVP so i name my image %journalist.png

now we're gonna go back to that website we were at and move to En and De-Encrypt

it looks like this. NOW. first what youre going to do is click the browse button in the green circle, then go back to the CHARACTERS FOLDER in F&H2:T. grab your %JOURNALIST.RPGMV file (or whichever file youre replacing) and SELECT that file. then click DETECT, and you'll get a pop up that you got the code

NOW WITH YOUR CODE, you are going to use this to turn your PNG that you made INTO THE .RPGMVP file that youre replacing, except it'll have the sprites you made and not the other ones.

now put your PNG that you made in the 2nd box, which you can see i did, its also named %journalist, and then click (RE)-ENCRYPT MV

it will appear on the side, and now you can save/download your rpgmvp file that you made yaaaaay! youre in the final stretch.

its very important that the file is named exactly the same as the one you're replacing, im replacing %journalist so the file i make is named the same

NOW. GO BACK TO THE CHARACTERS FOLDER IN F&H2:T WHERE OUR ORIGINAL %JOURNALIST FILE IS LOCATED. you should not have moved it or anything it should still be in there but if you do it doesnt matter. what youre going to do is take *YOUR* file that YOU JUST MADE (the %journalist.rpgmvp file that you just made on that website) and youre going to put it in the folder that you found the original file, the file we're replacing is in the CHARACTERS folder so we're putting it in there. your computer will ask you if you want to replace the original file if its still in there, you can do this. now YOUR NEW FILE is in the game

boot up fear and hunger termina, start a new game as the character you replaced, walk around and see your guy :] there are alot of sprites you'd have to replace to have a fully immersive experience with your replacement character, special anims like sleeping, specific skills, sitting in the train etc. but you can replace ANY spritesheet using the exact method i described. have fun. ill also say im fairly confident you can mod the first game in the same way described as this one but im not sure because i dont have it, its up to you to rummage around the files and find out

if you encountered any problems of any kind along the way feel free to ask me about it, but hopefully this should all be described clearly enough that anyone can get into it and do what they want easily. dont be afraid to fuck with the game files they cant hurt you

[dungeonmalcontent]

So, I've been working on a booklet of rules extensions to round out passive scores, right? And I've gone through all the skills and the tools and languages and instruments and gaming sets and weapons types and armor types and just everything you could possibly be proficient with...

And it's made me realize that you can play for hundreds of hours--hundreds of hours of actual real 5e d&d playtime--and never once make a medicine check to stabilize an unconscious creature.

So much of the rules just don't get used in 5e. So many of the basic rules too. And I get why there are all of these bloated niche rules. And I'm not even saying they're bad. But it's wild that there are so many rules and very innocuous and well intentioned GM decisions can make 80% of the rules useless. A less serious and dangerous game can push out the need to have any kind of healing interactions apart from rests, and that's fine but there are so many rules and features centered around healing and hit point recovery. Everyone basically speaks common? Languages and most cultural significance no longer matters. Most everyone is human? Half the monster manual and a third of the player character options go right out the window (not literally, I'm exaggerating to make a point here).

And that's not even getting it really niche rules. Like, how far is line of sight? How do gases and liquids interact with cover? How far can a rowboat travel over the course of a day of light travel? How do you determine the disposition of an NPC towards a player group? How do you account for momentum when using teleportation type abilities? Can characters actually get drunk? How much does it cost to get food and water and shelter for a day? There's rules for all of it. But honestly, very few games end up needing these rules.

The niche rules are there for when a player or GM cares about a specific interaction. But if that interaction, or an interesting situation with that interaction, never comes up then that rule or feature is useless.

[orbmanson7]

Thinking on generation loss and what we know so far

Idk what the twist is, what Showfall's motive is, but....

(spoilers below)

There's something so distinct in that in episode one, sneeg said he had refused to do slimecicle's cooking show and got locked up. That implies he's done this at least once. But slimecicle said in episode two that he ate the mousetrap game piece to survive, implying he's also been through this before. But since he was the villain of the first episode then a victim in the second, we can theorize that the villains are just as trapped here as the rest of them.

And then jerma proves that theory very plausible, because when sneeg gets gooped from the hat in episode two and seems to understand what's really happening, he tries to escape but gets brainwashed again. While this happens, Showfall intervenes and literally pauses everyone, including jerma. When they put the re-brainwashed sneeg back, we can see jerma is not completely frozen, he can see what's happening.

He really is just like the rest of them, and his death coming immediately after he says he's been "doing this for 30 years" is very suspicious. But how did he get to this position? because I'm convinced he's trapped there, too, but forced to put on a show and torturing people and making up puzzles, because it keeps him in some level of power or it's what he has to do for Showfall.

I think that's what happened to slimecicle, too, but probably more recently. My worry now is for sneeg. Because slimecicle purposefully tried to 'corrupt' sneeg in episode one to fight ranboo, and then with sneeg getting brainwashed again after trying to escape in episode two, only for him to act in ways where he went along with whatever ranboo did and then purposefully stopped Austin and himself from surviving in order to let ranboo win in the end...

But if slimecicle and sneeg died in episode one but then were brought back in episode two, maybe jerma and all the other hostages who died in episode two might possibly still be alive?

My theory right now is that Showfall is trying to create entertainment and is basically pulling a hunger games (in that they're making survivors into gamemasters) and they are trying to inaugurate ranboo next... To do that, he's being mind controlled so he won't make his own decisions, which seems to have significantly increased in episode two as he's no longer receiving input from the audience and begins to just wander aimlessly and act more like an NPC. If he's susceptible, they could possibly change him from this 'hero' title to anything else, another victim, another villain, anything!

Someone (this Hetch person) is trying to prevent that from happening by hacking in and making ranboo see things for what they are. But I don't trust this guy, either, because we don't know his motives, not any more than Showfall's. Maybe giving the illusion of choice is the endgame, maybe this has been going on so long, Showfall controls too many aspects and one measly person hacking in to try to save one person isn't going to change anything because the company is too powerful already.

Or maybe that's the point? Maybe ranboo has to be The Hero and that means the audience sees him getting outside help, that means he has to have hope that he can win and somehow be free... But, again, much like the hunger games, all of that is about keeping them trapped inside.

Not to fucking remember slimecicle's old tales of the smp quote here but, well, like he told those characters... You were so busy running through the maze, you never stopped to look for the cracks.

I think ranboo did something on the outside that got him taken and put into this show. Maybe he tried to help and now he's mockingly being titled as 'the hero'.

Maybe it was his intention all along to get caught, but he didn't know what kind of technology Showfall was using on the contestants and now he has to rely on the one person hacking in to try to get him out.

Or maybe this is just what happens every time. And, like generation loss, this show started out so simple, but it's degraded and distorted so much over time, it's unrecognizable and everyone involved has to be brainwashed to continue participating because if they knew the truth, they'd be terrified....

Idk what the big twist to all this will be, but there are a lot of possibilities in store for us. Sunday should be fun.

[godeaterazathoth]

Issues I have with ikevamp

That I’m venting here because they won’t leave my skull

*Content warning, we’re talking about men in the past, they did some bad stuff*

Part 1, historical inaccuracies

I’m I history nut so this really gets to me, since I know the deep details of these peoples lives.

The timeline, ok so the game takes place in 18th France, correct me if I’m wrong but I think it is in the second empire (1852-1870) considered there is a noble class, yet you can clearly see the Eiffel Tower which was completed in 1889, there is no mention of the 1889 exposition, so it must be after the tower had become permanent, by then the 3rd republic was around, if we are in the republic the Count wouldn’t be called that by the npcs at all the parties he goes to, no matter which we’re in, NOBODY mentions Napoleon III at, NOT EVAN HIS UNCLE (WHOSE SOMEHOW BECAME CASS CONSCIOUS!)

How does the time travel work, example, Dazai died in 1948, his plan was seemingly to wait until he’s born in 1909 then kill himself as a baby, but then he decides to use the magic door, what are the consequences of 2 Dazais existing at once or him erasing himself from history, he’s a pretty important literary figure, does someone else replace him or does the space time continuum collapse?? Is the future Vlad sees set in stone or can it be changed, just copy someone else’s time travel bit!!!

So straight up these guys aren’t who they say they are, we’ll go through 1 by 1

Napoleon- doesn’t mention he left the love of his life to marry a girl 20 years his junior (like think how interesting it would be if he’s conflicted about love cuz he had to give it up for political reasons) -that scene where MC talks about all the ‘good’ that he did in Europe, like committing war crimes against the Spanish and Portuguese and Eastern Europeans, being a coloniser, killing the slaves he freed when they asked for more rights, killing thousands of men in a meaningless war (ligit H*tler vibes)

Arthur- goofy irl, literally believed in fairies, had 5 children and married twice but he never mentions any of this, he cheated on his first wife while she was dying of TB, he was a liberal unionist (tldr didn’t like Irish people) he was anti-immigration, might have committed fraud. We’ll get to the other issues I have with him.

Leonardo- fruity as hell, vegetarian

Mozart- they got his character completely wrong, the guy was a complete man child, vain, broke, by the end of his life his career fell off (Beethoven better composer), in love with his cousin 🤢, had a s*at fetish 🤢🤢🤢. The hole Salieri thing didn’t happen.

Vincent- they made him too mentally stable, I’m all for him being meek, but the guy had serious issues that they ignore, he ate paint thinner, was rejected by his both crushes, WHY DOES HE HAVE BOTH EARS, DID IT GROW BACK, THEY SHOULD HAVE LEFT HIM WITH ONLY ONE, also he should be ginger smh. Oh yeah and they never mentioned the s*ecide attempt.

Theo- doesn’t mention his wife, or son, WHO HE NAMED AFTER VINCENT, his wife is the person responsible for Vincent’s work not being completely forgotten, was way nicer irl.

Issac- tbh hotter irl, low key ace, maybe a fruit, kinda mean, the only thing they got right was the major virgin vibes.

Jean- WHY MAN!??!! Even if the didn’t want a lesbian route, they could have gone with any other guy from the 100 years war, Edward black prince, idk WHY GENDER BEND ONE OF THE MOST PROMINENT WOMEN IN HISTORY, I’m fine with the delusional trans dude lie, but they say that he was a guy all along, THEN WHAT WAS THE POINT OF HIM BEING BURNT AT THE STAKE IF HE WASN’T CROSS DRESSING???!!! was he double cross dressing??? This is the worst of them all, give me the girl boss we deserve (revers fate)

Dazai- not depressed enough imo, he was a leftist, again missing wife, their were two su*ecide attempts, guy lived through fire bombing, had a few children that he is fine to erase from existence.

Shakespeare- probably a fruit, again never mentioned his wife and kids, btw the way he talks is annoying, some people don’t think he’s real.

Faust- NOT A REAL PERSON.

Sanson- too young, this guys is 67, really liked the guillotine, just saw execution as his job didn’t really care, had a wife and kids.

Vlad- Ok is he supposed to be Vlad THE impaler? Cuz he’s not evil enough, or is he a Dracula reference, cuz he can’t dance that dance either, why did they call him Vlad if he isn’t a blood thirsty war criminal.

Count- not enough history to work with.

Part 2, problematic moments

So I ha have seen some posts on the low key misogynistic way the MC is written and treated and there are a lot of issues wit white washing history so another trigger warning ⚠️

Misogyny- the MC of this game is not the best, I know she’s a self insert but she has no backbone at all. She lacks agency I’m most of the routes, like the MC getting kidnapped is a troupe in all these games, but Emma can escape on her own, Kate has ⚽️, even Alice had more depth to her, seems the only thing MC can do is cry and wait to be saved, I swear she gets kidnapped once in every route, I think they could have given her more character to work with. Another thing, but Jean being a man is bad, really bad, she’s a feminist icon but they made her a man, it’s sought of saying that women aren’t capable of this so she had to have actually been a man.

Handling of SA, important one here, I’m ok with the flirty guy, but I really hate Arthur, he doesn’t just flirt with her in chapter 1 he assaults her and acts like he did her a service, and she just forgives him!?! I’m fine with a guy that sleeps around, I like Jin and Nokto fine, but the way Arthur talks about women, always calling them Birds (if they were going for English slang it doesn’t work cuz he doesn’t have a cockney accent) or worse Skirts, it’s dehumanising, and shows that to him women are vehicles for sexual pleasure and aren’t on an equal level of understanding. There are smaller parts to, Leo kisses her without consent, the Count hides the truth from her, idk but Theo calling her a ‘hound’ sounds like he’s calling her something else…

Minor points on classism, I’m not expecting the communist manifesto, but all these games aren’t very good at dealing with class deviation. In Vlad’s route, the orphan boy thinks he can impress the rich girl, this is the 19th century, capitalism is on the rise, but there’s no comment about how it’s impossible. The little school Napoleons runs is strange, considering he was in a position where benefited from poor people existing and staying poor, ( side note, he’s teaching them swordsmanship when ww1 is right around the corner, just saying they won’t need it in the military) called MC out as a social climber, these games sought of depict the past through rosé tinted glasses, there’s only passing reference to how fucked people were in the past, Also all the historical inaccuracies above tie to this.

Anyway love to hear some other opinions, (I started playing this game before my transition and have always thought it it was wired, it’s my personal least favourite just cuz I couldn’t really get into any of the guys, my OC ended up as a Carmilla reference so….)

I have seen a post talking about some of the issues before so that’s what got me to write this out, if you disagree or want to add anything I’m all ears 👂

Thanks for reading 💗💖💖💕💓💝💗🥰🥰🥰❤️✨✨✨✨❤️⭐️⭐️⭐️

[anneapocalypse]

Demands of the Qun, or How the Inquisitor's Choice Answers the Iron Bull's Most Important Question

I was having a chat about the Iron Bull and his personal quest with some friends and one person said in response to something I said that I should make it a Post, so here it is! And a usual disclaimer: this is not about which in-game decision is "correct"--it's an RPG, there's no wrong way to play the game. I just want to talk about the meaning of this decision for Bull's character and for his future.

Dragon Age: Inquisition’s “Demands of the Qun” is, for me, one of those quests where the RPG format of “player character makes major decision for companion character” really works. I do not see this as an example of game mechanics taking away agency from an NPC. I think Bull has agency in this situation.

The Chargers are not Inquisition soldiers. They are mercenaries, and Bull is their commander. If the Inquisitor makes a call he doesn't like, he is free to say "Screw you" and take his people and leave, because they are not soldiers, they're independent contractors, so leaving isn't desertion, it's just quitting. If he were already certain he wanted to leave the Qun, he could simply call the retreat himself, take the Chargers and leave. Similarly if he were certain of his loyalties and willing to sacrifice the Chargers for that purpose, he could do that, regardless of what the Inquisitor says.

He lets the Inquisitor make this choice.

The Iron Bull has had one foot out the door of the Qun for a long time now. But he's gone back and gone back, submitted himself for re-education and done his best to keep serving the Qun, because he believes he needs the Qun. To him, becoming Tal-Vashoth means losing himself, his identity, his purpose, his very sanity, and as the Fade tells us in "Here Lies the Abyss," this is quite literally his greatest fear. Bull could never bring himself to leave the Qun with nowhere to go instead, nothing to give his life purpose and meaning—and no one to entrust himself to should he doubt his own sanity.

But in his work in the south, the Iron Bull has found community and identity and purpose outside the Qun. The very name he has given himself speaks to that, as does his close relationship to the Chargers.

Right from the beginning, there is tension in "Demands of the Qun." Bull remarks that he's gotten used to the Qunari being "over there" during his life in the south. I think Bull has a very potent anxiety when he meets Gatt again on the Storm Coast, and introduces him to the Inquisitor and their party. To me, it very much has the vibes of introducing two friend groups, where you're not only pretty sure they won't get along, but you're also very aware that they know very different sides of you—and neither of them are going to like seeing the other side. Bull's discomfort is visible both when Gatt speaks freely about Bull's work in the Ben-Hassrath, and when the Inquisitor's other companions make disparaging remarks about the Qun. His two worlds have collided, calling into conflict two sides of his sense of self that he has thus far managed to avoid confronting.

And this is likely part of the point. The Qun does not truly respect alliances with any outside the Qun. I wouldn't say for sure that the Qunari set up this whole situation just to test Bull—it's possible they knew exactly how many Venatori would show up, but they couldn't have known precisely how the Inquisition would respond. That, and their desire to root out the Venatori is no doubt sincere. But I do think they are watching Bull's actions very closely throughout this proposed alliance, gauging his loyalty. Gatt tells him outright that many already believe he has betrayed the Qun.

Bull's internal conflict quickly becomes an external one when the Venatori reinforcements show up, and Bull is faced with the decision of whether to withdraw the Chargers or defend the dreadnought at the cost of their lives.

The thing is, Bull is not neutral on this. He tells the Inquisitor what he wants. He wants to save the Chargers. If the Inquisitor says that the Chargers still have time to retreat, Bull agrees. When Gatt tells him they need to hold position, he says in a low, intense tone, "They're my men."

And then, when Gatt tells him in no uncertain terms that calling the retreat will make him Tal-Vashoth, the Iron Bull looks to the Inquisitor.

Again, he is not neutral. He knows what he wants. He is standing there basically begging the Inquisitor with his eyes to save his boys.

So why doesn't he just make the call himself?

Because just as this whole situation is in part a test of Bull's loyalty, this is also a test of the Inquisitor.

What Bull needs to leave the Qun is not simply for someone else to make the choice for him, but to believe that there is a future for him outside the Qun. That he will still be himself, that he will have purpose, and meaning, and that someone else is worth trusting. Bull cannot bring himself to leave the Qun if it means he will be left utterly alone with nothing but his own mind and his deepest fears. And if that's what leaving the Qun means… then in his mind, it would be better to stay.

The Inquisitor's choice will answer that question.

To sacrifice the Chargers leaves Bull with nothing outside of the Qun. He has just watched his closest friends die, and he cannot trust the Inquisitor. With Krem and Rocky and Skinner and Stitches and Dalish and Grim, the new sense of self that the Iron Bull has found in the south also dies.

Of course he turns back to the Qun. He has nothing else left.

But if it's the Inquisitor who makes the call to save the Chargers… Bull can leave. He has friends who care about him. He has purpose. He has someone whose command he can trust. He has hope. None of this makes the choice easy for him. It is quite clearly very painful and difficult, and I don't think there's any way it could be otherwise. But he has a way forward nonetheless. The choice makes leaving possible.

The Inquisitor doesn't force the Iron Bull to become Tal-Vashoth. Instead, Bull implicitly asks a question, and the Inquisitor by their choice gives him an answer.

[chaifootsteps]

Been playing BG3 again (I stopped at a certain point because I disliked enough of it to shelve it) but I'm back at it to actually form a good opinion on *why* I dislike it, since the refund period was already well out the window by the time I was fed up the first time around.

Why am I coming to you about this? Because I noticed something while playing and doing some digging on the other romance routes that I will not be doing. Astarion and Stolas are incredibly alike. It's fascinating to me, Astarion literally admits to the player that he manipulated you so you wouldn't ever cross him, but only after *he* fell in love does he decide you get agency. Which sounds very similar to how a certain owl treats a certain imp.

Honestly the more I play the game and do some digging on the fandom the more BG3 feels like Helluva Boss. Both stories had initial premise (for BG3 it was the Early Access, for HB it was the pilot/season 1) but fell into just being romance or focusing on the writer's pet (for BG3 this is Astarion). Both stories handle abuse abysmally (Wyll and Gale are both victims and yet their abuse isn't treated as serious? There was even a 'patch' where the PC could pressure Gale into group sex and he still expresses being uncomfortable the entire time, Wyll's abuse is... A fucking lot to get into) and both stories are just. Flat out racist? HB has the whole... Imps and Hellhounds metaphor going on (that gets conveniently forgotten about when we need to focus on how sad Stolas is) and BG3 also has fantasy racism (playing as a Teifling apparently has NPCs call you slurs right out the gate) but also just has normal, everyday racism in the foundations of the game (Wyll is the most lacking companion in content while Astarion gets more and more content, the lack of options for POC to make a character that even looks like them). *This* was 2023's GotY?

I'm so, so tired of mediocre at best pieces of work being propped up as 'the best thing ever and if you disagree you're a bad person' by fandom at large. I wish people were more critical of the things they consumed, I wish stories about male victims of abuse were treated seriously and not just made as wank fodder or without the author constantly implying that the victim 'deserved' it.

Apologies in advance if this is heavy, I generally try to form my thoughts about these things more constructively as I believe it's important to establish *why* something is flawed, but I'm so frustrated. It's hard to be charitable and kind all the time when it feels like doing so is coming up against a dead end. It also goes without saying that if any fans of BG3 see this, I don't hate you, I don't think you're a bad person for liking this game I despise, I'm just... Tired.

(I'd also like to request that this ask, if you decide to answer, is paired with the suggestive tag due to the language I've used. It's a personal preference, thank you in advance.)

Haven't gotten around to playing BG3, but between the resemblance to Stolas and the terrible flashbacks to actual worst character Iron Bull sleeping with your Inquisitor as a means of spying on them and then "catching feelings," I'm thinking I might have to skip romancing Astarion. At least there's plenty of other fish in the Baldur's Gate 3.