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meggtheegg · 6 months

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FNAF Movie Theory...

I'm pretty sure there's still one major plot twist in the universe of the movie that's been set up for a sequel but hasn't actually happened yet. Heavy spoilers under the cut:

After watching the movie in theaters and then revisiting a few scenes on Peacock, I'm still kind of convinced that Mike Schmidt is Michael Afton.

Here's my reasoning. A lot of the characters spend time acting like they know something the audience/other characters don't, and those things are...mostly resolved. But some of them just...kind of aren't.

The main thing that sticks out to me is William's whole storyline. Starting with the scene where he offers Mike the job, his behavior is almost explained by the movie's logic. He sees Mike's name, seems...kind of deeply upset, looks at him very closely, stands to get coffee, and has a moment of visible internal conflict. Then he instantly offers him the Freddy's job. The way the movie frames this, it seems to be saying that he recognized the name of one of his victims, realized this was the kid's brother, and decided to kill him right then and there. Which is passable as an explanation, but it has a lot of holes, if you look deeper.

Why would William so instantly recognize a fairly common last name as the brother of some kid he killed that wasn't even anywhere near Freddy's? Why did he kidnap/kill Garrett in the first place, in some random forest in Nebraska? Why did he see the name on the file, then immediately stop and examine Mike's face so closely, when Mike's memories/dreams pretty clearly show that they never saw each others' faces when Garrett was taken? Why did he send Vanessa to "keep Mike in the dark" if he purposely gave him the job to get him killed? Why not have the animatronics kill him right away? He didn't know that Mike was searching for the man who took his brother, and while he could have maybe guessed he was still actively haunted by what happened based on Mike beating up a guy that he thought was kidnapping someone, it still feels like a weird choice to go and hire him, then just have him do the job with no issue for a few days.

As for Vanessa, we see that she's been cleaning up William's messes for years. Why is Mike the one she changes her mind and stands up to her father for? There's no implied romance between the two and no particularly meaningful connection beyond them both having family issues. I guess she cares about Abby because she's a kid, but kids getting hurt clearly never stopped her from helping her father before.

And, on a more meta level, this is Scott and his storytelling style we're talking about. The man puts plot twists inside of plot twists and everything always ties back into the Aftons, somehow.

So, here's my theory: I think that Mike is William's kid, but Mike's mom left Afton when he was young and remarried the man that Mike thinks is his father.

It seems convoluted and maybe cliche, but if it's true, then suddenly there's an answer to all of those questions. "Michael Schmidt" isn't exactly an eye-catching name, unless you had a kid named Michael and your ex-wife married a guy with the last name Schmidt. Garrett's kidnapping, then, becomes an act of intentional, petty revenge rather than an extremely random coincidence. Giving Mike the job and sending in Vanessa suddenly becomes about piecing together how much he knows and figuring out if he's worth trying to reconnect with or is just a threat that needs to be killed. (It feels worth noting that William is as far as I can remember the only person to call him Michael in the whole film. He also very pointedly never says "Schmidt" until he's decided to kill Mike and suddenly announces his full name out loud. If he went by Michael as a little kid, that is what William would default to calling him, but if he took the new husband's last name, that would be like like salt in the wound that he wouldn't want to voice. By finally saying it out loud, it feels like he's making the decision to fully separate himself from Mike.)

As for Vanessa, if Mike is her brother, it makes sense that he would be the person she'd turn against William to save. It would be weird for her not to tell him, but she could also be trying to protect him, in some way. There's never any mention of her mother, and it seems like it's just been her and William for a long time. Also, ending the movie with her in a coma feels like a strange narrative choice, but it makes sense if she knows information that's purposely being kept hidden for the sequel.

Of course, it could just be that the movie has kind of messy writing and I'm trying to fix it because I want there to be a deeper reason for it. Maybe there is no Michael Afton in the movies, or maybe he's off chilling and doing his own thing somewhere and we'll see him in the sequel. Only time will tell.

#fnaf movie #fnaf movie spoilers #five nights at freddy's #five nights at freddy's spoilers #michael afton #mike schmidt

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mothellie · 25 days

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I think the Duffer Brothers' history with racism in their show goes a lot deeper than a lot of people realize.

Lucas as a character has three distinct B plot stories that get assigned to him: being a minor antagonist to Eleven in season one, being a good friend to the rest of the Party, and being in love with his girlfriend. While Mike's plot is directly centered around two of the most pivotal characters of the show, Dustin is given two different role model characters that shape his arc and is overall the genius that helps the rest of the cast get out of several difficult situations, Will still being connected to the Upside Down after his disappearance in 1983 and that playing into several major plots, Max having a multitude of centric storylines especially in season four and Eleven literally being THE main character- Lucas is only ever given plots that help serve and uplift the other (white) characters. Unless you count him... playing basketball and being friends with Jason. I guess?

Erica is similar to Lucas, but to a much larger degree. I'd like you reading this to think of any single Erica standalone plot in the show that has nothing to do with/does not predominantly or solely benefit the white characters around her. I'll wait.

The Sinclair parents are only touched on in brief sections for the sake of filling the episodes, only ever playing a more major role in Season Four. If you could call it that. I'm sure most of you couldn't even tell me their names off of the top of your heads. (It's Charles and Sue, by the way.)

Argyle was the first somewhat major character of color to be introduced to the show after Erica played her part in season three. I could say similar things about his role in the season overall that I can about Lucas and Erica. Except they set him up to play a bigger role in the next season at the end of season four, going as far as to show him in Hawkins and have Jancy verbally allude to him sticking around, only for the show heads to ghost Eduardo Franco and let him find out he wasn't being brought back through an official social media cast photo.

Kali was a former subject from the same lab El came from, having escaped and subsequently began to lead a vigilante life of enacting revenge on those who played a hand in her suffering. She was the first subject El ever met after leaving the lab, shown to be incredibly powerful and strong-willed. Her and El had an immediate connection, calling themselves sisters right after meeting. But after El was finished with her self-discovery period on the S.S. Kali Gang for one (1) often-forgotten and poorly-written episode, Kali was quite literally abandoned both in spirit and on screen, never to be seen or even mentioned again.

All other characters of color are either killed violently (Patrick), have like ten minutes of screentime total (Jeff and Calvin Powell), or are just straight up background only and may not even have names.

They can dedicate an entire section of season four's plot to Suzie's family, but not to genuine character development for Erica or for Kali to return. They can make room for a whole pointless predatory plot between Billy and Karen, but not to give a more important role to the Sinclair parents. They have room to include a whole plot about El getting bullied in school, but not for Lucas to have a more meaningful story outside of his white friends and girlfriend. They can platform three known white zionists while Palestine currently undergoes a gruesome genocide even as I type this, but they don't have room for Argyle in season five (or even the decency to give Eduardo a fucking phone call).

Not only do the Duffers constantly write themselves into holes because they keep adding unnecessary fodder to the plot, and refuse to kill ANY of their main characters in favor of just creating new characters for the sake of killing them off in mediocre ways despite the fact that they're trying to fit 20+ B plots into 8-9 40-50 minute episodes per season and wondering why half their show doesn't make sense- The time they DO dedicate to character-specific B plots and character arc progression visibly favor the white characters.

If I watch S5, and that's a huge if, I will be sailing the high seas. Between all of this, the fact that they filmed part of season four in an old Nazi prison and tried to turn it into a fucking AirBNB, and the fact that at least four people who play major roles in the show actively support the current genocide of Palestine- I won't be giving them (or Netflix for that matter) another cent of my money.

While you're here, please do your completely free daily click to send aid to Palestine, and here's a list of other resources for how to help more directly.

#cassie talks #stranger things #free palestine #lucas sinclair #erica sinclair #charles sinclair #sue sinclair #argyle stranger things #kali prasad #patrick mckinney #jeff stranger things #calvin powell #anyway excuse me im gonna go put these characters in an ungodly amount of fics #it's what they deserve

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ecosystem-administrator · 20 days

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the road to Horizon

I was watching a video recapping someone's journey through FFXIV and it made me think back on the start of my own, so I have some thoughts to ramble here, on my departure from Azeroth and arrival into Eorzea. From the perspective of a WoW refugee who arrived before the big waves of exodus, who left before all the bad news broke at Blizzard.

I don't talk about it much. At first it was because I was still grieving what I'd left, adjusting to the new normal I'd found for myself and trying not to be that person who compares everything to their only other experience in the genre; then, it was because the news had broken about all the things broken in Blizzard behind the scenes, and suddenly it no longer felt cool to have ever enjoyed what they were doing. But I started playing WoW during Wrath of the Lich King, and I continued to play until somewhere in the patch cycles of Battle For Azeroth. 2009-2019, a full decade of investment in the lore, of anticipation and disappointment, of theorycrafting my way around plotholes so I could keep enjoying the things that were enjoyable.

At some point, there was a news announcement coming, and I found myself anxious, dreading the possibility that the plot would focus on some of the characters I'd come to like, and in doing so wreck the stories I'd been building in my head. I had to stop and replay that moment for myself: I was dreading my favorite characters getting spotlight time, because I was afraid of what the writers would do to them. This is, I had to finally admit to myself, no way to live. I had reached my limit. My trust was broken, years of disappointment having finally dismantled my hope. I had to walk away. I wouldn't uninstall, not yet - but I would instead try out that beautiful Final Fantasy game my fiancee and some of her friends had started playing. I had watched over her shoulder one time a good while back as a tiny pink cupcake of a girl drank a goblet of poisoned wine, and at the time I had envied the power of the scene on display. Perhaps starting fresh with a new story would help ease the grief of finally stepping away from a decade of giving my heart to a game that was simply no longer giving back.

It takes time to adjust to a new game, of course. New controls, new abilities, what do you mean crafters are classes just like combat classes, wait what's the difference between a class and a job, how do I know whether I'm where I'm supposed to be, what do you mean dungeons aren't optional content, etc. I stumbled my way through the start of ARR, increasingly enthused to be learning a whole new set of lore but still anxious about how new I was. In FFXIV, we call new players 'sprouts' and tend to them; but I hadn't yet learned that mindset. I had to be told not to remove the sprout icon that flagged me as new and learning, because to me it looked like a 'kick me' sign on my back, a bright waving flag that said "Fresh Meat". That's what it would have been, where I had come from. I didn't know any better yet.

I made my way out of Gridania, around the capitals, through the baby dungeons, back to Ul'dah to get my invitation to the Scions, doing my best to absorb new lore, new controls, and new attitudes simultaneously. So it wasn't until I was leaving Ul'dah and headed out into Western Thanalan toward the Scions, on foot because I hadn't unlocked mounts yet, because I hadn't yet gotten the Horizon aetheryte, that I suddenly had a series of revelations.

I couldn't see player levels just by looking at them. I would have to click on a player and examine them in order to identify what level they were. Conversely, no one could see my level unless they went to that effort. They couldn't tell at a glance if I was overleveled or underleveled, if I was out of place in a zone or where I was meant to be.

The plot I had been through so far had gradually converged on this point in a way that suggested the story was melding with the starting storylines from the other two cities. In WoW, there are overarching plotlines for zones sometimes, but the presence of a Main Plot is a very recent development. Players rarely take the same path from starting zone to max level; but here, we were all walking the same road.

There were no factions. We were all walking the same road, and this was what struck me the hardest. From level 1 to level 70 (at the time I started lmao), every single player around me was somewhere on the same plotline. No one was a threat. There was no world PvP. I would never be ganked, griefed, have to wait for critical NPCs to respawn after max-level players from the other faction had come in and killed them.

Me, to me, at level 15 as the light began to dawn:

This is really how it felt, after all those years of WoW. The road to Horizon was the place where I finally realized I wasn't a soldier anymore, an erstwhile mercenary trying to dodge getting drafted back into a forever war. Of course there were still enemies, but all of the enemies were NPCs. I didn't have to worry about enemy PCs coming in raids, about staying out of their way or deciding to stand and fight. There were no such thing as enemy PCs. The war was, finally, over.

And so I trod onward lighter, still on foot until someone saw fit to give me a chocobo, my faction tabard abandoned in the dust of Thanalan, only an adventurer at last.

#ffxiv #thorn rambles #arr spoilers #there isn't really a point to this #except gratitude I guess #and personal journaling as I track the journey of my life #somewhat melodramatically

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acourtofthought · 21 days

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Do you think elucien will defeat koschei next book? I feel like koschei is a part of the overarching bigger plot, and it would be too soon for it to happen next book. Sarah said that each couple would have their own little story while there's a bigger plot that connects the books. UNLESS the human queens and the situation with the human lands and the wall is the overarching plot? Hmm

I do actually.

Once upon a time we thought we were only getting two more ACOTAR books after SF (with one possibly being set in the past which means she was never sure on Koschei extending beyond two spin-offs) and a novella but since then, SJM has signed up on for additional books (though we don't know exactly which series those all belong to) and has said that she knows she'll never be done writing the acotar series.

If she plans on continuing ACOTAR for an undetermined time frame, it's a fair assumption to say that the Koschei plot is not going to drag out over the course of many more books, she'll have to wrap up his story then introduce a new plot to the characters.

She also had a WIP named Twilight of the Gods and is suddenly giving attention to the would have been "Dusk" court.

I think Koschei is the big bad to close out the Archeron sisters saga, which will leave Prythian, the fae on the other continents and the humans in the human lands in peace once again.

I think a novella will then bridge the gap to a new round of books, closing out the HEA for Feyre, Nesta, and Elain then focusing on non Archeron sister main characters, set partially in the ACOTAR world but also connecting to her multiverse (though the sisters would still make appearances as side characters).

HOFAS clearly seemed to set up for a future reunion of Nesta and Ember, the possibility of threats from other worlds, and SF included the possibility for the characters to travel through time and space.

But right now in the ACOTAR world, (and even at the end of HOFAS), there are no actual threats involving time travel. The possibility of them yes, but nothing concrete.

And I think the Valkyrie will be at the center of the new round of books but to me their storyline and anything time travel related doesn't seem to be priorty over that which is going on in Spring, the continent, with Beron and with Koschei (plots that seem strongly connected to Elain and Lucien).

All the language SJM uses for the Valkyrie and time travel seems to hint at something that will take place in their world later. After they secure the peace elsewhere, after the treaty is signed, after Koschei and Beron are dealt with, after the climate elsewhere is settled.

Considering the Valkrie were just reborn in SF, I think it makes sense for there to be a bit more time from their inception (which right now only includes three females who haven't had battle training yet) until they are a fully formed elite female fighting unit heading into battle and possibly traveling to other worlds. Having an entire unit of female warriors who have never fought in battle together, who have never trained together (again, right now it's only three females, not a whole group and two who only just left where they were living for the first time ever) become a major part of the series the same year the idea of the Valkyrie was reborn seems less likely to me.

And I think it makes sense for SJM to close out the three sisters arcs, the ones who basically launched the series as it now is for her since she's on record saying how their return in book 2 changed the course of the books for her, and then focus on what comes after, the world as it expanded while writing SF.

#elucien #pro elucien #elain archeron #lucien vanserra #pro lucien vanserra #acotar theory #acotar 5 #acotar 6 #koschei acotar

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rawliverandgoronspice · 10 months

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New anon. I've been a few reading your thoughts and general posts, and I really agree so strongly to many of them. Some of my biggest pet peeves in the story were really how weirdly disjointed it felt, with missing reasoning and foundation? If I may share my thoughts? I wish they had genuinely focused more on characters besides Zelda, because by the end of the storyline, and having watched all the tears, I was left more confused and empty, and not satisfied at all. Not to be rude to Zelda, but I really stopped caring about her because I was so hyperfocused on wanting to know more about the Zonai, Sonia, the Sages, and Ganondorf... and then nothing, well except two tears, and they gave almost no plot relevance? It was such a pity. The sages? Who? Why? How? Every sage showing the exact same memory with only a tiny bit of their personality sprinkled, but nothing about them as sages made me miffed. Ganondorf felt really like a missed opportunity, I think you, other anon's and everyone has already said it. In my words: Lost potential. I don't even need a big sobstory or anything, a monologue like in WW? Yeah he's angry that the Zonai are wasting their "god like powers" but WHY is he so angry about it? How are the lives of the Gerudo? Why are they split? Even if he was raised to crave power, just getting more of a look at why would have been nice. The Gerudo sage would have been a perfect candidate to get some explanation. (I'd have much preferred that over some of the more slice-of-life Zelda tears tbh.) I know it's called "The legend of ZELDA!" But I always took that to be more along the lines of "This is the legend of Zelda, but we (the player) see the legend from behind the scenes." Zelda being a major player and royalty would obviously be more interesting to in-universe historians, and easier to write down, with Link always just being "The hero clad in green!" But us, as the player, we see what really occurred, how the hero came to be, and that he's not "just a hero" but he's actually just a guy, who then takes up the mantle of hero. I just wasn't too invested in Zelda's story, especially since she's just background noise for a lot of the story. (Idk how to best word it, pardon me.)

Hello, thank you for the ask and sorry for taking so long to reply!!

Yeah, I mean I don't even think that Zelda got much opportunity to be a character either, despite her being the throughline for most of it. I don't feel like I learned anything new about her character that I didn't know from BotW, and some aspects developed in that game were gone entirely. As you said, she does feel like background noise, a witness to other people's story. Her nerdiness is set-up and then never really paid off (despite her and Mineru interacting), she gets no personal interaction with Ganondorf... I actually don't think they ever speak to one another directly, for the whole game????

Just went out to check that out and... Ganondorf says Zelda's name to her once, then Zelda asks him how he knows their name. That's it. That's the entire sum of their conversation in the entire game, and it happens in the first 5 opening minutes. Unless you count fake Zelda, but even then that would only be a single sentence, and honestly I don't think it counts?

The more I dig around and the more I'm truly baffled by some of the narrative choices made in this game. Like I want to be Normal about it again (and managing, slowly, just getting through the last asks) but.... honestly I don't understand what happened. The straight up refusal to build up any kind of actual dramatic tension between the leading trio is so baffling to me. Like, not to dip back into the TotK Rewrite Well, but: why didn't they fully commit to the OoT route, since they were already so far down, where Zelda is the only one to suss out Ganondorf is out to get them, and so the tension is concentrated between the two of them, where she tries to save Rauru and Sonia from his scheme but can't (which would also give weight to her sacrifice as she turns into a dragon)? Then you'd have an actual reason to feel invested in the plot and want to avenge her and those she cared about! Why are the stakes so split out between Rauru, Zelda and Mineru, to the point where nothing has any oomph and you, as Link, feel pretty much uninvolved in the entire situation?

Like, sure the buildup to the final fight was amazing, the soundtrack is sooooo sososo good, the mood and ambiance is probably at its best, the fight itself is a little treat, but. I really felt like I was a Hyrule appointed cop having to walk into the freaky abandoned basement and yelling "sir I've been mandated by the royal family to formally ask you to stop dumping experimental chemicals into the sewers of the kingdom" to the local weirdo squatter in his broken hot tub, and then fighting about it.

But personal investment and stakes really didn't land for me. I was glad to see Ganondorf, tho I would have prefered him telling me anything other than generic anime villain stuff before repeatedly punting my face into the floor. But yeah. The story was disjointed, and it kept me from enjoying the extremely carefully crafted mechanics to their fullest capacity. :(

#tloz #asks #thoughts #totk #totk critical #totk spoilers #zelda #ganondorf #rauru #mineru #thanks for the lengthy ask!!#still not over how ganondorf and zelda have ZERO interaction in the past #like.... what was the point then???#seriously what was the point???????#that's utterly insane to me

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bluebudgie · 8 months

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So, initial SotO thoughts.

tl;dr: Liked it, not my favourite release.

More details below.

It's a little hard to compare to anything we had before since it's not quite an expansion but also a bit bigger than a regular LS release. Somewhere in between.

I liked it overall. I had fun (I don't think I ever didn't have fun with any release in this game). I do however have many smaller gripes that add up a little. Let's actually start with the biggest one:

The new maps

Well, obviously I loved the inclusion of chak on the new maps and seeing the little critters in a new shiny form was very exciting, but let's take the rose-tinted chak glasses off for a moment.

I like the fractal concept of the first map. It's interesting as an idea but I feel like it fell a little flat in execution. Rata Novus is probably the place that differs the most from the actual-Tyria version, and all the other fractals are just kinda... barely different? Like the Crystal Desert taken over by forged is just..... well, it's desert with forged in it. Like it already is in PoF anyway. And the Kaineng section kinda feels like that too, we have enough hostile jade bots in EoD anyway so... yea I don't know. Didn't do super much for me.

I wish NPCs were a bit more interactive. You can't really talk to many people at all. Core maps had so many random guys just standing around giving you little tidbits of dialogue. Especially the first map just feels very... barren.

Visually a great map nonetheless. Same goes for the second (non-hub) map we got, which is really unique in terms of architecture. We haven't really seen anything quite like it in the game before, so that's cool.

Exploration wise... ...yeah. I mean. Basically exactly what I had feared became true, no real exploration depth and at the very least on the first map you're pretty much expected to just skyscale to every point. Which goes really fast too, despite the whopping 50(or so?) POIs. I wish they had at least made some of the new masteries mandatory for reaching certain spots, but nope. Completed entirely without a single mastery leveled. Feels kinda pointless to introduce movement masteries if they aren't at the very least obligatory for certain events or map exploration. The second map makes the updrafts a little more useful since reaching some of the higher places can be a bit more tricky without it, but... yea I don't know.

I'm not exactly disappointed since that's pretty much what I expected to happen, but still I wish there were a few more interesting ways to get around places other than just straight up flying there. I guess I want more hidden stuff. Secrets. A jumping puzzle that spans half the map like in Draconis Mons. Well, for all I know they are there and I just haven't found them yet.

So yea, overall... visually beautiful; I'm glad about Rata Novus being a clownfest of snobs; I think if chak weren't in this I'd feel extremely lukewarm about those maps. That said, Amnytas has some of the highest quality grass I've ever seen in this game. Seriously what the hell is that grass.

Story and characters

I was worried about this for a bit while playing but the ending thankfully took the immediate worries from me for now.

It felt very... prologue-y. Which, in the end, it was. And I'm glad about that. I was so scared we were in another Gyala Delve situation of "here's an entire story that has absolutely no time to unfold and we'll abruptly end it pretending there was a conclusion". But thank god the epilogue made it clear that this was just the beginning to the storyline. (unless anet is preparing some clown make up)

So now that we had this introduction to the setting and first look into a new cast of characters I'm intrigued to see where all of this is going. I hope everyone we've met gets more screentime in the future and maybe some of them will tag along with us for the next adventures? The whole cast felt like it had a lot of potential. I want to see more of Gladium and Galrath. Isgarren seems interesting, I liked his dialogue. Sad about Mabon. Hoped Peitha would be a non-humanoid creature. Narcisse is cute. I like how they handled Zojja so far.

Didn't care much for the whole wizard tower story before SotO released, I'm decently interested now at least.

Gameplay-wise the player 2 experience was pretty miserable once again (Why exactly did I have to be a blue orb during the entire first flesh fortress instance? Why can I pick up and carry keys in the wizard's tower but then can't interact with the object they need to be used on? Seriously.) but that's nothing new.

As mentioned in another post, the German translation was a trainwreck of contextually wrong mistranslations, English sayings/proverbs translated literally into German when that is absolutely not how that works, misgendering (Zojja wasn't the only one with male pronouns - Yao was also back to that again) and entire chunks of voice lines randomly missing on several occasions. Seriously I don't know what went wrong here but please pay your localization team better. Or at least give them more context to work with.

Music

The few new songs I heard were nice. Lacking a bit in identity, but I guess it would be delusional to expect an EoD, HoT or IBS soundtrack here. GW2 music tends to be extremely high quality so I'm nitpicking on a high level with this one.

There is one battle theme that was really cool, though severely overused. I think it's the one that plays during rift events. Or like, during most of the release in general.

I can't quite explain why but I had several instances that made me think "this is what the PoF combat themes should have sounded like". The music as a whole somehow is very reminiscent of PoF. Like if someone took PoF battle music and went "chill a bit, please."

Was also nice to hear that one new ambient track that echoes the TD main theme and the Rata Novus theme.

Metas

They're okay. First map's meta drags on a little. Though I like collecting the essences. That one phase with the coloured bars is severely stressful. Second map meta is pretty neat. Was a little overwhelmed by it since it started literally 2 minutes after I got onto the map for the first time and I had no idea where anything was and just frantically followed the squad to find a giant squid bug demon on top of a huge tower. Seriously man give me a break. Fun experience though. Did it again on another day on an overflow map without a comm and we managed, though barely. Difficulty seems appropriate.

All in all...

Didn't completely blow me away. I liked it as a setup to something larger. Doesn't compare to any of the big expansions (though I do think the storyline in itself is at least more interesting than PoF, though it obviously lacks the polish of the expansion). If compared to LS seasons I'd say I had a better time with most of LS3 and LS4, and also large chunks of the Icebrood Saga.

I think how well SotO does in the long run largely depends on what gets added to it next. I'm excited to see more, and especially to get more context to all the new characters. Don't pull another Gyala Delve on me. Please.

And also.

Finally rid of the Commander title. Wayfinder is so much better.

#vague spoilers?#nothing super detailed #budgie plays gw2

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purplesigebert · 8 months

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Hello! This is your autumn exchange gifter! So, I've been thinking about your request and am very excited. I've never tried to think of a different meeting or how canon would change if Caroline hadn't been in Mystic Falls at all, so it's been a fun thought experiment.

First, do you have any other characters you especially love or hate? Do you have any hard pass themes or content I should stay away from? Any bits from the shows you'd especially like me to try to fold in or ignore completely?

Second, are you married to the exact scenario you laid out in your request? I do have a very vague alternate idea for Caroline as a vampire hunter, but it's a little weird and definitely in its infant stages. But I also have some thoughts about Bill (possibly with Steven and his daughter) being the one to stay in MF as sheriff and the reasons why Liz and Caroline would have had to go.

Third, if you had to choose a setting, would you prefer MF or New Orleans or Salem, MA or somewhere else entirely? New Orleans would end up including some of the same characters as The Originals, but I probably wouldn't write the baby plot in, unless you really want it there. Salem would end up being more spooky season themed and MF would probably be more of a family thing involving Bill's death.

Fourth, do you still want Caroline to be a vampire? I don't usually write her as a normal human, because I'm here for the supernatural stuff, but I can give it a shot if you're interested in that. There's the hunter thing, but do you have objections to her being a witch instead? Some other kind of supernatural creature? It's not what I'm leaning towards, but if that's something you would enjoy, I won't try to keep it strictly vampire Caroline if I think of something else.

Fifth, what level of Klaus do you like? S2 magnificent bastard Klaus or S3/4 slightly relaxed Klaus or TO unhinged mess Klaus?

This is a lot of questions. Please feel free to take your time and/or not answer all of them! Totally valid to not have strong feelings about any of this.

Omg hi! First off, thank you so much for writing this note to me! I'm speechless!! So, to answer in order:

First, I'm not a fan of Damon - if S1's events happened as canon. If not then I'm a fan. Stefan is great. I love love Katherine and Bonnie. Elena was great in her S1-S3 characterization. I don't have any problems with anyone else. Not a fan of the miracle babies storylines.

Second, I'm not completely fixed on my request. I've never considered a MF where Bill was Sherriff, how would that change canon? Damon and Bill already didn't get along and they were in the same room maybe two times? I don't see Bill changing his whole worldview the way that Liz did. If Liz and Caroline left MF, where would they end up?

Third, Oh this is tough one, Caroline coming back to MF for Bill's funeral is one of my fav stories to read! How old is she? Is it still canon time-line and have the S3 storylines been happening? I'll leave that up to you!

Fourth, I don't tend to read Caroline as any other creature (a few where she is a werewolf/hybrid but those are outliers), so Vampire!Caroline is good to go! I'm not too pick, if we see her turn in the story or not.

Fifth, S2/beginning of S3 is peak Klaus, he's just a little shit and he knows it lol.

Sixth, YOU ARE AWESOME! Seriously thank you so much for sending me this. You rock.

#this was amzing #thank you so much #klarolineautumnexchange #klaroline #the vampire diaries #gabby answers

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thisbuildinghasfeelings · 1 year

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"I feel like (unless the wedding happens in some kind of spontaneous scenario because of some kind of disaster/emergency) Carlos’ sisters have to be at the wedding." Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if this is exactly what is going to happen so they don't actually have to show us Carlos' sisters and Enzo. 😵‍💫 I'm not a huge fan of the writers randomly dropping very important information about the characters like this without either any build-up or follow-up.

Yeah, that feels like a good possibility to me. And honestly, I don't think I'd be mad about it--as long as it doesn't take away from TK and Carlos' joy on their wedding day. They deserve that much at least!

As much as I'd like to see Carlos' sisters and ESPECIALLY Enzo and Jonah, there's only so much screen time available. Bringing in all sorts of new characters just might not be feasible, and I want as much of the wedding episode as possible focused on TK and Carlos. If I had to choose between a scene introducing Carlos' sisters and a scene of TK and Carlos being lovesick husbands, I would choose the latter. In a perfect world we would get both, but it's not a perfect world. In my opinion, having a more spontaneous wedding that provided an explanation for these family members' absence would be more satisfying than having a planned and scheduled wedding and not acknowledging the fact that there are a lot more wedding guests we should be seeing.

Personally, I'm ok with the writers dropping this kind of stuff in throwaway lines. On one hand, Carlos having sisters is an important piece of information about him. However, the way the show is set up, we don't usually get to see much of family outside of the 126. At this point, it's probably either this or never finding out that Carlos has sisters. Giving us information like this allows the writers to start to flesh out a character while still juggling all the other things that need screen time more urgently. We got the same sort of thing with Nancy last season when she mentioned a sister. Simply knowing that Carlos has two sisters does start to tell us some things about his character, even if we never get further details. Also, I think it provides good opportunities for future storylines. Even if they don't have a Reyes sisters storyline planned now, this plants the seed and allows them to bring in the Reyes sisters in, say, season 5 or season 6. This is a much better method than the one they used with Carlos' secret marriage to Iris. That whole thing would have been a lot easier for me to accept right away had there been a couple throwaway lines in earlier seasons about Carlos and Iris being best friends.

#anon ask #lone star speculation

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maryellencarter · 1 year

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So! Being as I am spending so much more time at work lately, I'm running out of entertainment options. Specifically, I'm looking for recommendations for video games.

Relevant information:

* Switch only for now. I don't have any other console and I don't have room for my gaming laptop at my workstation. Eventually planning to buy a PS5 if there's a game you think I'd really enjoy.

* Must be fully pauseable at any point, including at any point during combat or platforming sections. Breath of the Wild handles this especially well -- press a single menu button, set aside the controller, and nothing changes in the game until I come back to it. Animal Crossing timescale, where time passes at a constant rate whether I'm in a menu or what, is acceptable only if there's no way to die while AFK. Minecraft, where you can get attacked and die while in the pause menu, is right out.

* Replayability strongly preferred. In Animal Crossing, Breath of the Wild, and Pokemon Scarlet, I'm in a basically endgame state where most of the remaining objectives are collectibles sidequests, completing X ludicrously large/grindy task, max ranking all your inventory items, etc. I don't want to have to delete my saves in order to get back to a point where I can make progress on achievable goals in a reasonable time. Sometimes I want to have those endgame saves available, but I also want to be able to create infinite character profiles on the same player profile, like in Minecraft or Mass Effect.

* If combat/dying exists, easy mode availability preferred. I don't enjoy dying over and over again figuring out how to beat a particular fight. There's a DLC shrine in Breath of the Wild where you basically die at least a few times in every section and get sent back to the beginning, so by the time you actually reach the end, you probably have a repeatable strategy for each section. I hated it.

Games I've played, in approximately alphabetical order, and how I felt about them:

* Animal Crossing New Horizons. Do enjoy: Terraforming, town design, wide variety of activities available, realtime seasons and holidays, villagers do not die or despawn unless I tell them they can leave, multitude of customizable options for almost everything. Do not enjoy: Only one island per Switch, cannot access certain items without having friends who play the same game (although that might be limited to just fruit species now?), limited options per day for just dicking around on your island, no practical use for cooking.

* Breath of the Wild. Did enjoy: Fucking gorgeous, amazing open world with good signposting of where to go, lots of customizable clothing, the voice acting is really solid in the parts where it's voiced, plenty of very practical use for cooking, can tank through the combat with sufficient armor and hearty meals even though I do not have Leet Gamer Skillz and cannot consistently flurry or parry most enemies (I flurried a stalkoblin once, which was hilariously beyond useless), the story is really neat and very layered as you piece it together, it's possible to play in the world for thousands of hours without seeing everything.

Did not enjoy: Anything about the handling of gender with the Gerudo, especially how their women's clothing is some of the worst armor in the game and doesn't even give you heat resistance unless you wear the full set, while the men's armor (which you have to buy at the kink club next to the bondage hood) is basically a necessity for desert travel. The whole Gerudo storyline is practically unplayable for me while I'm female, it's so aggressively gendered. Also do not enjoy the bottomless pits in many shrines, or the drowning animation if you run out of stamina while swimming -- this game does nothing for my phobias of either heights or drowning. Would really appreciate an easy mode, although once I bought the DLC, Majora's Mask turns most monsters peaceful (until they see me kill something), so I can focus on the open-world exploration shit.

* Dragon Age. Played the intro section of Origins as each race and gender, got fairly far in with (I think) a human warrior. Was extremely unimpressed by the way the male town elf's story is rescuing your kidnapped girlfriend but the female town elf's story is *being* the kidnapped girlfriend with a massive helping of threatened sexual violence the whole time you're fighting your way out. Also found the handling of religion boring and did not care about most of the characters. Found the reputation system very confusing. Did enjoy the section in the mystical setting -- what was it called, the "Fade"? -- where you morph into different forms in order to solve puzzles, sort of like how Lego Star Wars has you hot-swap characters to progress through certain areas. Have not tried the other Dragon Age games.

* Flight Rising (browser petsite focused on breeding and decorating dragons). Do enjoy: Dragons will not die or despawn unless I sell them or remove them from the game, thriving in-game player marketplace with a healthy and balanced economy, unlimited fairly mindless resource grinding option (for most resources) when I feel like mindless infinite grinding, turn-based combat with well-understood recommended builds. Do not enjoy: I'm basically endgame there too, the only remaining objective is one that receives ongoing updates every month so I'd never truly finish it and I'm always further behind when I wander back, only one resource grinding option exists and I'm pretty burnt out on it.

* Kirby and the Forgotten Land: Enjoyed the demo, played a few levels, discovered I don't enjoy platformers. Being very precise with button pushes and joystick control is not my skillset. I tend to flail wildly, get stuck to walls, and over-prepare massively for boss fights so that I can win without actual Gamer Skillz. Did enjoy the artstyle and music, very cheerful little game.

* Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga (first six movies version). Did enjoy: Silly Lego artstyle, easy availability of cheats and walkthroughs so combat/progression wasn't frustrating, very strong aim assist on blasters, getting to do Star War things like tow cable an AT-AT with my snowspeeder. Did not enjoy: Vehicle combat segments (I get so carsick on the podrace especially), platforming segments requiring too much precision (I still haven't beaten Mustafar), repetitive stuff like having to tow cable *fifteen* AT-ATs to beat the snowspeeder level, the part where after I collected a certain assortment of characters I couldn't walk around the hub area without getting constantly aggro'd on by whichever characters were my enemy.

* Mass Effect trilogy/Legendary Edition: If it was available on Switch, I'd be set, but it's not. Do enjoy: Near infinite replayability with different story and teammate options, open world/galaxy exploration options (especially driving the Mako on uncharted worlds in ME1), full player character customization including gender, massive assortment of found-family characters, easy combat options, high aim assist and auto squad combat options, combat pause HUD which can be maneuvered while paused, amazing high-quality full voice acting, incredible modding community.

Did not enjoy: The almost stereotypical gamer-dev sexism on display in practically every treatment of a female character, including occasionally the player character. (On PC, I now have mods to eliminate a lot of that! I haven't been playing the PC version much though, because I was trying to stream it for some friends, and there were audio issues and I'm also struggling with the mouse sensitivity. I'm honestly considering getting a PS5 just to play Legendary Edition on my TV while at work, but that's gonna be another couple paychecks at least. Although if there are other PS5 games that sound like they'd be right up my alley, let me know, I guess?) Would not have enjoyed Virmire if I hadn't been warned in advance.

* Minecraft. Do enjoy: The infinite number and size of open worlds, obviously. The simple, distinctive artstyle. The infinite modifiability of each world. Do not enjoy: Fall damage. Drowning. If you play on Peaceful, there is no use for cooking, and you can't get certain resources such as blaze powder. (I'm too much of a klutz to play on non-Peaceful difficulties for very long.) The confusing nature of multiplayer/servers/Realms?

* Pokemon Go. Burned out around generation three or four. Did enjoy: Learning about Pokemon cultural references, the outdoor component. Did not enjoy: Inability to get most non-desert types, slow development of the assessment tools so that I eventually turned out to have put in tons of effort on Pokemon that were retroactively revealed to be pretty crappy, requirement to have a strong multi-person raiding party in order to get any of the legendaries, limited-time events, increasing requirements to buy things like raid passes in order to stay relevant, inability to beat boss battles due to type imbalance due to living in desert...

* Pokemon Let's Go Pikachu (remake of Pokemon Yellow). Did enjoy: Learning more Pokemon cultural references, especially the towns and NPCs that everyone else knows from the anime I didn't watch, catching a whole bunch of the same pokemon and then going through to consider which had the best stats. Did not enjoy: Impossible to finish Pokedex unless you trade with a local friend who has the other version (Let's Go Eevee), I was so disappointed I couldn't get a Gengar that I quit entirely.

* Pokemon Scarlet. Crashes more than any other game I've ever run on hardware it was intended for -- it doesn't crash quite as often as my first Mass Effect trilogy playthrough on an *incredibly* underpowered laptop where I had to turn off things like search indexing and the print spooler to keep it from crashing to desktop every time there was a lens flare, but that bar isn't just on the ground, it's down in the *asthenosphere* somewhere! Did enjoy: Having a large but finite collection of little critters to work on, having all of their stats be adjustable (with use of resources) so I didn't have to worry about putting too much effort in on a critter that turned out to be of poor quality, ability to get Gengar from an NPC, surprise trades are very fun, turn-based combat is easy to "pause".

Did not enjoy: The pseudo-open world? I'm really damn glad @tabbiewolfreblogs warned me about the non-scaling gym system, because I would have been terminally frustrated if I hadn't known to look up a list of what order to go in. I realize measuring other open worlds against Breath of the Wild is a high bar, but that was a weird way to handle it. I also really disliked the way the game forces me into unexpected battles at certain points and doesn't allow me to change my team before fighting, which meant I wound up in several situations where I realized right away I couldn't win but wasn't allowed to flee, so I had to just battle through and get my ass thoroughly kicked, which was very discouraging.

Also considering:

* Link's Awakening remake for Switch. I've watched a complete playthrough, it's a cute little thing, love the artstyle, but it's very... slight? I don't know that it would be worth the $50 price tag. Not sure how pauseable it is, doesn't look like it would have much replayability.

* Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, a hack-and-slash (I think that's the genre name?) Breath of the Wild tie-in prequel. Tried the demo, it's pretty button-spammy and I suspect it would hit some of the same "I do not have the amount of experience holding a controller that this game expects" that platformers do, but I've also seen a playthrough and I really love the story. It also has some serious "you're expected to replay the same maps several times with different characters to grind levels and loot" that might be a good console substitute for Mass Effect 3 multiplayer, I do enjoy grinding on repeatable maps sometimes. Definitely has the amount of content that would make it more worth $50. I'm not sure if it even *has* a pause button though. And all the online guides for it assume that you're going to play in exactly the specific ways they like best, so they're like "The unequivocal best and worst characters/builds! Don't even bother with defense, just never get hit!" and so forth, which annoys the hell out of me because it's so gatekeepy and does not acknowledge that people can have different playstyles.

Anyway! That was a lot. Any recommendations of other games I might like, though?

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thebrokengate · 2 years

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Damn, the Duffers really said they're not adding new characters for S5 because they want to focus on the original, already existing characters. So, it's either Byler is happening or Will is ending up alone, which I would not have a problem with if they didn't make him suffer and didn't make him in love with Mike in the first place. Aside from that, if their only gay main doesn't get to experience romance on screen whereas all the other straights are given love interests at some point, it is gonna look really bad.

I don't see him getting a no-face love interest as well when they really could have given him a love interest in S4, back in Cali. They introduced Vickie into the story, so I see no reason why they could not have introduced a new love interest for Will. Even if someone doesn't ship Byler must see that this whole build up, context and storyline would be really meaningless if Byler isn't canon. Because like other people have already pointed out, the Duffers really wrote themselves to a corner. I hope the Netflix execs do not interfere...

Yeah, if they were going to give Will a new love interest, season 4 would've been the time to do it. And I don't see them giving him an underdeveloped love interest or them pulling the "and suddenly he makes eye contact with a random boy, and roll credits" card either for a main character, because Will is going to be a central focus next season. They wouldn't have set Byler up this way if they weren't planning to go through with it. Unless they really hate Will, they wouldn't set him up for so much heartbreak and suffering over Mike for it to end in unrequited love, and if making it seem like everyone in the show forgot his birthday instead of opting to change it later is too sad, then I don't think they would leave him alone and miserable, stuck pining from afar forever. Will doesn't just have a crush on Mike, he's in love with him, and even in fiction, that's not something you get over fast. So it would literally make no sense from a narrative standpoint to throw away all of that build-up, especially for a relationship that they've presented as mediocre in comparison.

#ask styx #byler

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tobeornottotc · 2 years

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hey since you've also read the novel and don't mind talking about it so you think we should be worried for Chay tomorrow or nah? I simply can't figure out the kimchay plot but I desperately dont want kidnapping to be how Chay finds out about everything😂

Hi!!

Real answer? 65% um like for me I need this plot to happen because it’s just one of the biggest catalysts for VegasPete it reveals a lot and it does connect to the chess game that is happening currently it truly does a lot to Vegas’s plans and it will also be a great way to amplify the story of KimChay and also balance the dynamic between them giving the power more to Chay hopefully when he finds out. However, I’m still unsure hence the whole 35% still being that we won’t get it in episode nine unless it’s the end of the episode because I see lots of changes and I feel like they have a different plan for Tawan and also we don’t have a lot of episodes left so for VegasPete to have their storyline with enough content they have to kinda rush through Tawans plans and his arc and his destruction but they also have to show this story cause I just think it’s a massive part of the story in general in terms of the feud between minor family and major and I also feel like episode 7 is really good because it shows all the minor family plans but hides in plain sight like Don is set up for everything when it’s clear it’s Vegas who was working with him and they’ve mentioned how Tawan gave information to the Italians so Don, so it’s connected they’re still following the mole storyline and the Tawan storyline and the mutiny storyline happening behind the scenes that’s leading to the final fight so again I still see them as keeping a lot of the storyline the same just rushed, and heavily edited.

The thing is as well the other change they’ve done is about KimChay it’s purposefully done this way to make not know of Porsches career and we know it goes against his dreams for him and Porsche’s since he mentioned it in episode 1, and he also was a victim of the past debt collecting issues so he won’t be happy with the news that his brother is in danger everyday and Kim is part of that

Second it punishes Kim, for his actions because it reveals his emotions too late when he realises Chay is in danger and it also endangers Porchay making him realise even more that using him and playing him the way he was doing was not right and someone like Porchay doesn’t deserve something like that cause he’s purely innocent so it’s a power switch hopefully in which Kim comes to realise how wrong he’s been and Chay start to mature and make everyone realise how stupid they’ve made him feel. So to be honest I do want the kidnapping to be the most angsty potential for Chay to find out about everything and for everyone to apologise to him.

But they honestly may just make Tawans story just end with him manipulating Porsche by replacing Marsh arc in the book (which I think I don’t want like Porsche seeing someone with Kinn and misunderstanding) and then Kinn chases after Porsche we get pool scene but Tawan spills out Vegas is the one who sent him bla bla then VegasPete begins but for plot wise I dunno I’ll feel meh about that I think adding Chay to the mafia arc properly and having him realise the danger really ties everything together or ties to Porches guilt and sacrifice of his responsibilities to be with Kinn, (as episode 6 showcased that was the one thing that Porsche had to deal with in terms of his identity arc) and it ties to Tawan and hurting Porsche because of Kinn and bringing back Kinns own traumas and trust issues to the surface also making him deal with his own obstacle before they can finally be together.and it also ties to the mutiny of the minor family and major family and Vegas Pete the kidnapping has everything connected to it in terms of story structure. And it causes a lot of development of characters to happen and gives us a darker mafia storyline

It also reveals the mole!! Like there’s so much that kidnapping thing leads to so I don’t know what they’re goanna replace it with.

So yeah. Thanks anon, I actually think when it comes to this next 6 episodes they really may be come very different to the Novel they may have a different structural arc and character arcs for certain people like I’m still unsure what they want to do with VegasPete, or who the mole is or why Tawan looks like a zombie (I think it’s because he’s goanna say no he’s released from either Vegas or Don he can finally explain the truth about him being framed to betray Kinn or something like that) but we don’t know what they plan to do with all of them.

That’s why I’m not sure about it like I don’t get how we are getting both the pool scene in episode 9 and the Tawan arc? Because Tawans arc seems too long and lot of plot and narrative and pool scene is meant to be a reuniting of the two is what I think or guessing but I’ve been wrong about some of the things so I’m probably not right. Thanks for the question though ❤️

#Kinnporsche #kinnporsche the series #asks #reviews #bl series #bl drama #Thai bl #Kinn x Porsche #VegasPete

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hard-core-super-star · 6 months

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I think I sent the last ask and forgot to make it anonymous, I'm going to faint right now. about comfort, do you say about writing something small and quick or is it about some fluff? 🤔

well, looking at the bright side is looking at my side, after all, a star has to shine so- “unless” lmao. unless what? don't be shy finish the sentence.

are you defending me from the reference you made that I didn't get? Kejskakwk there's a whole conspiracy behind this 119% and now I understand it, but I didn't expect it to be something random, I thought it had to do with your age.

RIGHT? even the dialogues between themselves are incredible. NO RUBIX, EVEN THEN YOU CANNOT TAKE THE PHONES!!! but I completely agree, Children shouldn't have access to the phone at such a young age, but I think what's even worse is children who at that age have already developed an addiction.

It took me a while to learn that there wasn't just one Robin in the bat-family lmao. but yes, if it makes sense then I will continue to love them the same, even though I am called a “fake fan” by a certain someone-

It's really cool that you just go after the poorly written part of the shows and throw rocks at them and then just rant about it. It's not a complaint, I'm for it whatever you call it. Firestorm! wow, I'm really bad with names too, jesus. Oh yeah- I see it, but hey, it can still be given to you, but by yourself. you can write after all. I don't remember who they are 😭😭 the thing about them being irrelevant is real apparently (I'm literally almost asleep writing this, there's probably something that doesn't make any sense, now let's see if I have enough strength to answer the next one)

– 🌟

you definitely sent it on anon so don't worry about it. and if you ever do forget, i’ll just delete it and pretend it never happened. i respect your decision to stay anonymous and mysterious. honestly, it's a bit of both. writing fluff can be incredibly therapeutic for me and writing those short headcanon sets makes me feel better about going so many days without posting a full fic. i still take forever to write the headcanon sets though which doesn't leave me with the greatest feeling in the world but oh well.

alskdkdk that's an excellent way to put it, i approve. in the words of my favorite star,”nuh-uh, no way.” two can play the game of unfinished sentences. the only difference is my unfinished sentences are still obvious so 👀

i was trying to help you feel better about not getting it and i think i succeeded. it's also not completely random, to be fair. i have a strong attachment to the song because i was born on a 19 [i’ll keep the month a secret for now because it's fun] which means that yes, it does also have to do with my age ‘cause i’m nineteen [call me. that's a reference to the song lmao] unrelated but i have 19 tattooed on me but in roman numeral version because i could.

i truly don't know how they came up with such amazing lines and this is making me want to replay the game ‘cause it’s been a WHILE since the last time i played it. fine 🙄 i won't take their phones. i’ll just silently judge them instead. exactly!!! it's concerning and i don't care how hypocritical it makes me sound.

skskjdjdjs i want to judge but i get it lmao. damn, that certain someone sounds like a cool person with a great sense of judgement 👀

i think it's just hard for me to turn off my writer brain sometimes so when i see something not done the way I think it should be done, i start trying to rewrite it in my head. sometimes that leads to fics, other times i just rant a lot. akdkkdksj it’s okay, they're genuinely not that important, in my opinion. they should have just focused on idk, giving caitlin a real storyline instead of adding new characters every other episode. [i thought your sentences made sense, don't worry. i’m also half-asleep writing this so bear with me and my tendency to skip over grammar mistakes when i’m tired 😶]

#rubix replies #🌟

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godspeedwarrior · 1 year

Text

Story time!

Hello, I'm a bad Dm. I'm not bad in a sense that I can't run a game or prepare good encounters. I'm bad in the sense that I don't deal well with obnoxious players.

Got a 5th level Rogue player that likes to think of himself as a "Dm breaker." Has a few of the hallmarks you'd see in a new player despite having years of play under his belt; convinced that he's allowed meta knowledge without making it an integral part of his backstory and gets pissed when he has to roll, makes up reasons everytime he rolls for a lower DC, has straight up pulled game to a stop because I modified the monsters and "that's not the stat block, how does this creature have so much HP/AC?!"

I'd say he breaks character too if he had one. Wouldn't really be a complaint if he would just remain immersed in game, frankly.

So he comes to me one session with instructions on how to make a bomb out of materials found in Nature. Is convinced his urban born Rogue would have this knowledge because of, "this book he found once," and thinks he's skilled enough to pull it off. Not his character, him personally.

Starts eating up major game time by constantly rolling search for materials. Eventually has to be shut down by myself or his wife because people are trying to roleplay. Does this every game.

Finally get so sick of shit I snap one day.

First, context. Wife is an excellent player who's incredibly wrapped up in the main storyline, bringing real grounding to social events and even managing to get Rogue to be a functional roleplayer now and again.

Out right killing Rogue with rocks falling out of nowhere isn't an option. Guy needs to be curbed, but in a way that won't cause him to rage quit and lose one of our pillars of RP at the table.

So I give it to him.

Rogue starts usual BS the moment party touches grass outside town. Distance out material acquisitions over at least 2 hours of play. Each time, I ask him to roll percentiles while pretending to write down the numbers.

Eventually he has enough to make at least 3 dirty bombs and tries to put the entire game on hold so he can craft. Wife compromises by convincing the party to take a short rest that's going to go on for more than an hour.

This is where I start laying my defense.

I describe him laying out the materials. Indicate that since these were foraged imperfections will have to be accounted for, citing his presentile rolls earlier.

Ask him a question I already know the answer to.

"Do you have Tinker Tools?"

No.

"Yeah, I stole a set off a guy earlier."

Considering he's digging his grave, might as well let him have the shovel.

"Do you know how to use them?"

"Uhhh, no. I don't."

Actual honesty. That was a surprise.

"-But I'll ask the Gnome to help."

Gnome has to be reminded of his racial feature, but he somewhat agrees to it.

Play it easy and make the DC over 10, but roll my own percentiles on the side to fain that these bombs had a chance not to be set to detonate the moment you light them.

Figured being a rogue, he was going to pass his rolls anyway, so I planted the thought that there was something wrong with them by having him put question marks next to the item listing.

He tries to debate me over my influence, "I know exactly how these bombs are put together, there shouldn't be any chances they're duds or spontaneously go off. That's not how it works, you know."

I shrugged. "That's if you get your materials processed, I believe."

Rogue just glares at me from across the table.

Rogue rolls for his final bomb and drops a 2.

RNGesus has graced me with the killing blow.

Now there's no such thing as a crit fail on skill checks in 5e unless you establish it pregame. However, I had been hinting this whole time that this crafting process was incredibly dangerous. That anything small could set the bombs off. Rogue was adamant he should be able to take 10's, but after his blunder of admitting to not have proficiency with Tinker Tools, I forced him to roll in hopes of just this moment.

I announce to everyone at the table what I'm pretty sure they already knew, "So, I've been rolling for stability. Which hasn't been great on my end, but since he's been passing they were at least sustainable. I'm about to roll for the last bomb that he just botched. Prepare to roll dex saves people!"

Everyone starts reestablishing their distance from Rogue or that they're really sitting being half cover. Our Barbarian just nodded.

Actually rolled a 23.

Oh no. I've created a monster.

Explain that one bomb goes off sets off the other unstable bombs.

Rogue tries to salvage things by crying out he uses his reaction to throw the bombs last second.

Tell him his roll is too low for his character to have any insight on the tragedy unfolding before him. The reaction is too sudden that his character wouldn't even know that the bomb had gone off.

Especially since it was entirely beyond his control at that point, but I wasn't about to say that.

Everyone who rolls manages to make their saves, but sadly, the damage was equal to 3 fireballs going off all at the same time so half of the party is now dead.

Rogue tries to half damage again with Uncanny Dodge as a last ditch effort.

"That's what Evasion is for," I sigh.

Rogue tries to shift blame to me as the table starts to light heartedly give him shit.

"Wouldn't have done any of this had you just bought the materials." I shrugged. "You wanted to make dirty bombs. That's just what happens sometimes."

Can't contain laughter, start cackling like a mad man.

Rogue doesn't show up for two sessions after that.

#dnd story #dungeons and dragons #fantasy #dnd stories #5e dnd

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jojaqualityheadcanons · 3 years

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SDV's 1.5 update contains content that plays into racist, colonialist, and imperialist myths and beliefs.

Disclaimer: I loved SDV (which is a given, considering I have an SDV sideblog lol?), and I'm not writing this post to get people to boycott the game or stop liking it or whatever. I just want people to understand why this content is harmful, how it might be affecting your biases and beliefs, and think of how they can engage with this media without exacerbating the harm that it does. I'm Filipino, and I don't speak for all POC or all brown people, but I felt deeply hurt and betrayed by the content update. Please keep that in mind before you interact with this post. Explanation under the cut because of 1.5 spoilers (obviously) and because this got long.

(I will block people who clown on this post. Keep your opinions to yourself unless you also have firsthand experience with the issues I describe.)

Background

I was already wary of the 1.5 content update because of how the previews featured ~tropical~ and ~exotic~ stuff, but I decided to give it a shot because maybe I was being too hasty with my judgment.

I wasn't. I made a new save to play with the 1.5 content update, and at first, I was having a great time! The new special orders made gameplay more exciting and varied! I could finally get rid of the nursery from my house without mods! The remixed junimo bundles made me change my usual game strategy. And then, I finally unlocked Ginger Island.

It seemed cool at first, but I had a sinking feeling growing in the pit of my stomach as I kept playing. It got to the point that I started nursing a stomach ache and lots of anger that took me days to shake off. I know SDV has never been a shining example of racial/ethnic diversity and sensitivity (I mean... there's a reason why mods like Diverse Stardew Valley and a bunch of other diversity mods exist lol). But while the lack of diversity in the pre-1.5 content is more of a missed opportunity, the 1.5 content is just... actively harmful and hurtful, imo. Here's a breakdown of the issues with the setting and the characters:

The Setting

Ginger Island, along with the Fern Islands in general, is a tropical island that is clearly based on islands in the Pacific. Its features include fertile soil and an abundance of natural, foragable resources. And for some unknown reason, it has no native human population.

Many islands in the world are uninhabited by humans, and there's always a good reason why. The island's environment may be too hostile, it could be too small to sustain human life, it could be sacred or otherwise culturally unacceptable to live there, or some disaster may have occurred to wipe out the local population or cause them to flee. Some uninhabited islands are nature reserves or privately owned. The point is that if an island is habitable, people are bound to call it home.

Writing Ginger Island as an uninhabited "tropical paradise" feels like a copout. It's as if the game is saying, "don't worry, you're not colonizing this land because no one really lives here! You're not stealing this land or anything because it's up for grabs and is just waiting for the right person to come along to develop it and turn it into a resort for other people who don't live here!" But that claim rings hollow when there are so many signs of civilization there, such as literal computers and ancient structures. And the canon reason for the existence of these things is that dwarves, non-human creatures, lived there once. I just think it's ridiculous and harmful that the game completely ignores and erases the existence of the people who lived and still live in the places that Ginger Island is based on and goes even further to use non-human creatures as stand-ins. I don’t think I have to explain why this isn’t good, considering that people of color have been compared to animals and treated like animals to dehumanize us and justify our oppression for ages.

To really hammer in my point about whitewashing and erasure, all the human labor on the island is done by a flock of parrots that you pay with golden walnuts (i. e., resources that you get for free from the island they live on). There's even an anthropomorphized bird who's a shopkeep! I get that creating a whole cast of human NPCs to fill a town would have been way too much work for a content update, but CA didn't need to use a bunch of animals as stand-ins for non-white human characters. There’s a troubling trend of creators prioritizing animal characters over characters of color, and CA plays right into it. He seriously chose to create more anthro characters instead of adding characters of color to the game in a setting that in real life has populations that are primarily made up of brown people. The game includes brown people's land and cultures, but it draws the line at brown people themselves.

The erasure of brown people and the portrayal of our lands as wild and untamed have been used to sanitize the narrative of colonialism for centuries. Pretending that our lands were wild tropical paradises that were ripe for the taking is pretending that colonizing forces didn't use violent, dehumanizing means to subjugate or wipe out countless peoples and cultures in order to make these lands available. Ginger Island's erasure of brown people just perpetuates this colonialist myth, and the context in which it does so disgusts me: the farmer, who already runs a successful farm that was inherited from their grandfather, goes off to a tropical island they have no personal connection to and uses its natural resources to expand their business further. They also open up a resort on the island for the enjoyment of other privileged people from their homeland, and going there is treated as a luxury. This is a classic colonizer narrative, and I cannot believe the game forces players to colonize an island in order to win.

The Characters

I'm honestly amazed that the amount of feedback about the lack of diversity in SDV didn't prompt CA to create characters of color. I'm amazed that he chose the setting he did and still didn't bother to create any characters of color. The fact that all three of the new human characters who live on this tropical island are white makes me go a little apeshit, to be honest! I hate all three of them for a variety of reasons, so I'll go over them one by one:

Birdie

My reasons for not liking Birdie are primarily related to misogyny (lady spent literal decades in isolation on this island moping over her dead husband?) and ageism (if you tell her to live her own life, she tells you that she's too old to???). Sooo they're not really related to the rest of my discussion here, and I won't get into them further. Moving on!

Professor Snail

White historians, archaeologists, and paleontologists have been stealing and plundering artifacts, relics, and fossils from colonized lands for centuries. These white scientists would send their “discoveries” back to their homelands with little regard for the people they stole from. I’ll acknowledge that Professor Snail doesn’t bring the bones and fossils off the island, so his character isn’t as awful as it could be, but he still canonically has this line:

I really just don’t understand why it was necessary to make this character white when making him a character of color could have easily prevented the uncomfortable real-world implications of a white man coming to a foreign land to plunder fossils without asking anybody for permission. If he he’d been created as someone who traced his ancestry to Ginger Island and wanted to study the island’s biological history, his character could have been so sympathetic and even admirable to me! But his character as it is just makes me think of this meme:

Here are some links for further reading about colonialism in paleontology and other social sciences: 1, 2, 3, 4.

Leo

I had a hard time figuring out how to write about this character because the way CA wrote him is arguably one of the most racist parts of SDV. So many aspects of his character left me speechless and appalled because I cannot believe people are still writing shit like this in the 2020s.

I’ll start off with his storyline: this white child gets stranded on an island and is raised by animals. When the farmer meets him, he speaks in broken English to show how “wild” he is:

As the farmer continues to interact with him, he begins to speak more “proper” English:

Wow... he’s becoming more “civilized” because of the farmer’s influence!

As his story progresses, he reveals that he’s lonely because he doesn’t fit in among the other birds. Eventually, he leaves behind his non-human family and assimilates into a primarily white, Western-coded society because that’s supposedly where he belongs.

This whole storyline is made possible by the problems with the setting that I mentioned earlier. Leo wouldn’t feel so lonely and out of place if there were people on the island. He wouldn’t be depicted as wild and animal-like if he had an adoptive family made up of humans instead of parrots. But because CA chose not to have native human characters on this island, Leo can only be around other people if he leaves his home and family behind. As a result, Leo’s story has very uncomfortable parallels with how colonizers have historically separated indigenous children from their families and cultures and forced them to assimilate into the dominant colonizer culture because they considered indigenous cultures to be savage and barbaric (1) (2).

Leo’s whole narrative unintentionally implies that a good life in a good community can only be had in civilized white Western societies. I’m honestly having trouble with further explaining why Leo’s whole character makes me feel so gross, so just read up on the White Man’s Burden, The Jungle Book and other works by Rudyard Kipling (1) (2) (3) (4) (5, PDF download link), and even Tarzan (1) (2).

Leo’s character is also used to further whitewash non-white cultures:

Poi is a Polynesian dish. Mango sticky rice, which is also a recipe that Leo teaches you in-game, is a Thai dish. In the letter, Leo says that the dish is from his home and enjoyed by his non-human family. Considering that he probably learned these recipes on Ginger Island, and that the only “people” who could have taught him this recipe are literal animals, including these recipes in the game in this way just reinforces the equation of brown people to animals. I’m not Polynesian or Thai, but I know that if CA had included a Filipino recipe in the game and not only had it taught to players by a white character, but also passed off as something from the white character’s culture, I’d be angry. I’ll repeat myself: The game features brown people's food and cultures, but it draws the line at brown people themselves.

I don’t think there’s any way to tweak or edit Leo’s character to fix the issues I described. No matter how we change things, he’s still an orphan raised by animals coded as indigenous people, and he assimilates into the dominant white Western culture. The only way to address these issues is to completely redo his character and even the setting of Ginger Island. Here are some options that I’ve thought of:

Leo is related to someone in the Valley and stays with them for part of the year.

Leo lives with his human family and community on Ginger Island.

Leo’s parents are specifically from Stardew Valley/Pelican Town and he wants to visit in order to reconnect with his heritage.

This list isn’t comprehensive, but it does show that there are so many alternatives to having yet another Mowgli story in Stardew Valley.

Conclusion

I don’t think that CA had bad intentions when he made this content, but the fact is that he did create this content. I’m not calling him a bad person. However, he does have a lot of racist, imperialist, and colonialist biases that he has yet to unlearn. Considering the setting and subject matter of the new 1.5 content, he really should have hired some sensitivity readers to avoid creating harmful content. The man’s sold over ten million copies of his game, and he certainly has the resources to put together a sensitivity team.

I can’t look at Stardew Valley the same way I did before 1.5, but I’m not going to condemn the game as a whole. I might play the game again someday, but I absolutely won’t be going back to Ginger Island. If you’ve enjoyed the Ginger Island content, then good for you! Please just keep all that I’ve written here in mind and accept that that content hurts some people like me.

If you’re a content creator, I urge you to get sensitivity readers if you’re featuring cultures that you’re not a part of to avoid making the same mistakes that I’ve discussed here. Creating from a place of understanding and respect can only make your work better and more accessible to a wider audience, especially to the people whose culture you’re borrowing.

#stardew valley #sdv #sdv leo #sdv birdie #sdv professor snail #racism cw #imperialism #colonialism #blabbering #ids for images are in alt text btw!

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bellarkeandclintashaandsuch · 2 years

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Apart from everything that's already been said, you know what else I hate about the whole gramgene fiasco? That they had such a good storyline (gramblack) in the palm of their hand but they decided to crush it and went with an infinitely worse one. Gramblack would have tied Gram's individual storyline back to the gang instead of him being away all the time. It would have given him an additional (more personal) reason to join the gang. It would create some conflict between Gram and Sean perhaps (as Gram would see "Black" getting closer to Sean, he would sureky feel some type of way about that), maybe he'd start resenting Sean without even wanting to and struggling with it. The angst he would feel over seanwhite would be so delicious. It would have given us a GREAT parallel between Sean and Gram: one person loving this new version of "Black" and getting closer to him while the other disliking this version of him and getting more distant from him in turn. Then it would have given us the relief he'd feel when finding out "Black" was actually White and that the real Black, his Black was back. Maybe it would have given us Black that's rough with everyone else in the gang except Gram. But nah, let's scrap all that in favour of Gram pining after his friend's (if we can even call them that anymore) girlfriend (now ex) and relentlessy pursuing her, asking her out a billion times (after being told no). If anyone thinks the second storyline is better... I have nothing to say to that person.

Hi! I hope you're dealing with this mess well!

Yes, I agree 100%. And you spelling it out like that makes it clear we were robbed of the better option. I really did think that's where they were going.

Like you said, GramBlack would give Gram a tie into the rest of the gang. Yok and Sean both have their reasons for being in the gang shown, but Gram really doesn't. I get that he's supposed to be a good person who doesn't need a tragic backstory to want justice. But these guys aren't just organizing protests and signing petitions. They set houses on fire! That's an extreme thing to get into without a reason. I thought that reason was Black. But now, whether it was intended or not, it feels like Gram just wanted to be close to Black to be close to Eugene.

And after episode 6, Gram feels completely disconnected from the greater plot. Maybe this is just me, but it feels like other characters get more time in their scenes to stretch things out to feel the emotions and let the scenes and characters breath. And then they have 2 minutes of Gram making me cringe and 30 seconds of him with the gang just to make sure we don't forget he is technically a part of it.

And I really, really thought the reason we all felt disconnected from Gram's story was because that's what they wanted us to feel. They wanted us to feel distant from Gram because he was feeling distant from Black. And that when he saw the real Black, it would click for him and us, the audience. He and we would feel that relief. I would've loved to see Gram not being his happy self around the gang once or twice too, maybe snapping at Sean because, like you said, he'd see Sean getting closer to "Black" and not know how to deal with that. And then feeling bad for snapping at Sean. They could've used Eugene for that purpose. She could've been the one he turned to because she knows Black, too. She could've listened to his complaints as a friend. Had a purpose besides being a love interest, either begging to be taken back or being asked out repeatedly.

It is also frustrating to think of the parallels we should've had. How many stories have an opportunity like this? To show love in this way. To show how a person can look the same, but act differently and cause one person to fall in love and another to think they're falling out of love? (unless it's the same person and you want a sad story. but i'm not about that.) Even if he's not in love with Black, we didn't even get to see Gram being relieved his best friend hasn't suddenly changed. That the spark of their friendship isn't gone. Because they certainly did not act like friends in the one scene they've shared. I can't imagine Gram acting with Black the way he did at he start of the series. I think that's what confuses me most. How can they not even show the friendship that was promised? I hate the way we were misled into believing Gram was in love with Black and that he cared about their friendship. Because I don't see that. And with Black apart from the group in the next episode, it doesn't seem like there's time to fix that. It didn't seem like either of them liked the other even a little when they finally interacted. And they didn't develop Gram feeling distant from "Black" enough for that to make sense to me in the scene. And from Black's perspective, he should be where Gram was in episode 1, which seemed to be a good friendship. Unless Black knew Gram was in love with his girlfriend the whole time. It's just very confusing.

And I'm right there with you on hating the storyline they did choose. Gram, who wants to overhaul the entire justice system because he cares so much about people, can't respect the boundaries of a woman who is supposed to be his friend? He couldn't even let her process her breakup (both times Black and "Black" break up with her) and be on her own for a while before asking her out? Not even after she said no? And if he didn't feel like he was doing something wrong, wouldn't he have talked to Black about it? Eugene can make her own choices (except not anymore because the writers told us her choice twice and now seem to have forgotten). But if you're asking out your supposed best friend's ex, wouldn't you at least want to talk about that with your best friend first? Explain how you feel and make sure they know you still love them as your friend, too?

#not me the series #gramblack #negativity #sorry that was really long #thanks for the ask :)#i clearly still have a lot of feelings on this

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