#based on a screencap I took in game

[chaoticgoodcrow]

happy birthday nahida! 🥰 ID in alt

#HBD nahida !! 🎉🎉🎉 #digital illustration #art #sketch #digital painting #image described #ashvattha tree #based on a screencap I took in game

[eatingfireflies]

I was on the hoyolab app doing my check-in and saw someone asking why Sunday suddenly started talking about the way Aventurine wears his clothes in the middle of a long conversation about other things.

I actually liked that bit so let's talk about it!! Not in the hoyolab app because I can't write long meta there, but here. Where people can't see me. Oops.

(my screenshots game is weak so I took a bunch of stuff from here. Also checked here to see what the Jp translation says. These people don't know me, I just like their videos.)

What is this old rich vs nouveau riche conversation 😂

But nah, the implication here is Aventurine is a pantser (which he tells us earlier)

while Sunday isn't. Sunday needs to have everything decided and planned and all his pawns arranged on the table before he makes a move.

But Black Swan tells us in the beginning that this is one of the reasons why dealing with Aventurine is dangerous

When he says he'll play it by ear, he means he'll adjust his actions and reactions based on what he's getting from the other person.

Sunday's weakness is not only underestimating Aventurine, but also being unable to adjust his plans or even actually listen to what his opponent is saying

Sunday is wrong here: Dr Ratio doesn't value the pursuit of knowledge above all. (This is why he's not a Genius Society member! He values ethics and fairness above knowledge or prestige. But tbf, even Screwllum got this wrong about Ratio.)

'But how can you be sure of that?'

Because Ratio says so. To Sunday. In reply to Sunday's offer.

In Jp he says それがわかっているなら、一人前の学者は自分の立場を弁え、つまらない尊厳のために大事なものを失ったりしないことも 知っているだろう。'In that case, you should know a competent scholar knows how to stand their ground and not lose something important* for the sake of trivial dignity**.'

* his ethics

** prestige

Sorry, Chadwick. But Ratio is different 😂

So you've already lost one of your bargaining chips if you're Sunday

But he moves forward anyway, because he's already gone outside and can't adjust his clothes anymore. If he was even listening to Ratio, that is 😂 He was so convinced he's got Ratio's personality correctly

And Ratio also has to move forward with this because it's part of Aventurine's plan

even though Ratio doesn't necessarily approve of it (I also want to talk about the plan and also I'm losing my mind about the posts I've seen talking about the references that were made in game, but there's no more space for screencaps so let's do that in a different post!!)

The moral lesson is: don't believe rich people when they give tips on how to prevent wardrobe malfunction

#honkai star rail spoilers #penacony #aventurine #sunday hsr #dr ratio #d metas

[ethicaltreatmentofcowplants]

Interior & Ground Revamp: Von Windenburg Estate

SIZE: 64x64 BEDROOM: 5 BATHROOM: 4.5 COST: §413,392 (yeah just ye average starter home) PACKS: I own all but DINE OUT. No cc. PLAYTESTED: No GALLERY ID: hayley247

Surprisingly I had a lot of fun with this! I actually really liked this house and just wanted to see what would happen if more that the base game and GET TOGETHER were used (seriously, all the packs). As per usual, I didn't go for a 'perfect' build, just wanted to capture the personalities of the inhabitants and throw in a few Easter Eggs every now and then.

Main contribution was the butler's quarters on the second floor. Ideally they'd have the room adjoining the kitchen, but Jacques doesn't want any of his children on the same floor as him.

(Also the Villareals themselves kind of hit that sweet spot of having a tragic backstory administered in the silly whimsical manner of the Sims but still having some heart to it. I actually felt sad when I was doing Luna's room lol)

Below the cut: more photos (seriously I took 30+ detail shots). They're more to get a closer look at the place than for aesthetics, as you will see by the screencap quality 😅

(There is that tree plant from the PARANORMAL pack next to Jacques' desk, but for some reason it doesn't show up in the picture)

Finally, if you're wondering why I put something where it is, I probably had a reason for it. I just didn't go into the details as this post is already very long and I'm a little light headed with this cold. So if you're curious, just ama ❤️

#my builds #well 'build' is putting it generously #von windenburg estate #jacques villareal #hugo villareal #luna villareal #max villareal #windenburg #sims 4 get together #sims 4 builds #okay more of a revamp but shh

[bg-sparrow]

BTTF Year-End Tag Game!

Thanks for the tag, @mjf-af! And thanks for loving one of my favorite fics this year, @daryfromthefuture! 🥰

This year:

How many times would you guess you watched the first back to the future movie? First film, only once or twice. After I finished basically studying it frame-for-frame for my triloogy rewrite, I took a bit of a break lol.

Did you get any sweet bttf merch? If so, what! I did! Lots! I got the complete 1989 BttF II Topps trading card collection, We Don't Need Roads: The Making of the Back to the Future Trilogy, Creating Back to hte Future: The Musical, Save the Clocktower tote, BttF Musical t-shirt, Pink Clint Eastwood hoodie, Enchantment Under the Sea Dance t-shirt, and a 10K medal from MedalChasers!

3. How many cans of Pepsi Free did you chug this year? None. Don't hurt me, but I'm a Diet Coke girl. I was heavily into Pespi in my youth, but I gave up pop for a few years, then one of my medications changed my tastebuds like whoa and I couldn't handle how sweet it was!

4. What was a favorite bttf fanfic you read this year? Don't do this to me! 😩 Tie between He Didn't Start the Fire by @daryfromthefuture, which really started all this 40s Doc phenomenon and was gifted to me in exchange for A Fracture in the Space-time Continuum. I also loved being a part of @professorsaber's r/ThePinheads: Guys, Marty McFLy really *is* a time traveller!!!

5. A favorite bttf fanart you saw this year? (please give us a link, not a screencap/repost!) My favorite this year was one that was a surprise made just for me, so it has no link, unfortunately. @daryfromthefuture drew this for my birthday way back in March of her Until I Get Home Marty and my Once Upon A Time in the West "Clint" about to be blown to bits by cake. Affectionately. :) I smile at it often and love it so much! 🥰

6. Did you create any bttf fanart or fanfic? If you did, what one(s) are you proudest of? Pfffft. Apparently, I added 22 (‽) fics to the BttF AO3 this year?? When the hell did I have time to do that?? Anyhoo, my favorite is a three-way tie and changes based on my mood: A Fracture in the Space-time Continuum (the most canon-flavored of the lot), Now I Am Become Death (my history-heavy Manhattan Project Doc fic), and Once Upon a Time in the East (#2) (because of all the personal leaps in my writing I took with this one).

7. How many times were you late for school this year? I don't attend school anymore, and being self-employed, I have the luxury of running a few minutes late (if it's more than 5 minutes, I count it as late late).

8. Did you watch any other movies/tv shows with BTTF actors in them? I watched MJF's documentary, Still. I watched about a million episodes of classic Spongebob, where Tom Wilson does a lot of voice acting. Watched Who Framed Roger Rabbit? once with Christopher Lloyd as the amazingly unsettling Judge Doom, Titanic with Billy Zane, and I think that's it. I didn't get a lot of screen time outside writing this year.

9. Was there a memorable moment you heard a Huey Lewis song this year? In September, "Hip to be a Square" came on in the grocery store, and I was reminded how much I loved that song as a kid. I'm gonna catch hands for this, but it's probably my favorite Huey Lewis song. :)

10. How many times did you fall down this year? I don't even know. Two of those falls involved my lower legs folding up underneath me as I slid down the stairs, though. The first time, I broke a toe, and the second time was down a set of brick stairs. My entire left leg was a bruise from knee to ankle. There is still some swelling in my knee a month later that makes it painful to kneel on that knee.

11. Did you get to see BTTF: The Musical? What was your experience like! I did I did I did I did I DID!! It was AMAZING! I was out the door and back home in 25 hours, and it was such a fun solo venture! I even got to meet @bri-to-the-future because we happened to be there the same day! I have detailed it extensively in this post!

12. How many times did your mom retell the story of how she and your father met? Uh, maybe once that I heard (I don't live with them anymore). It's a great story. I heard it a bunch growing up, though! My mom was a Good Student, and my dad was Just There Joking-type. They had Home Ec together. She was passing out tests for the teacher, and my dad handed the test back to my mom and said, "I don't want this." My mom just froze up because she didn't know what to do. XD

13. If you could describe your year in a BTTF quote, which one would it be? "You man enough to back them up with more than just a pie plate?" comes to mind because I'm a dreamer with ADHD. That means I spout off stuff all the time that I want to do (fics I want to write), but they're only going to get done through my actions. Starting stuff is hard for an ADHDer, even if it's something we REALLY want to do. I have to follow through or it won't happen. And I did a good deal of that this year and last year, and I'm big proud of that!

14.⚡️LIGHTNING ROUND⚡️ Did you get to: go on any trains, skate on a skateboard, ride a horse, drive a Delorean, run in the rain, go to a dance, hang up a clock, play the guitar, pull an all-nighter, read science fiction, or drive-thru Burger King this year?

15. Your future is whatever you make it! So what are you going to make of this coming year? I said this last year, but this year I'm gonna stick to it: this coming year, I'm going to focus more on reading again. I've spent the last three years going so hard with my writing, terrified if I stopped I wouldn't start again for another eight years, but I'm also confident enough to say that I'll be writing here and there again and not lose it like I did before. I want to read more in 2024 because some of my own writing is feeling stale, like I'm reusing phrases, words, scenarios, etc., and I need some new stuff to inspire the evolution of my writing. I also want to start working on something original! I will absolutely still be around (I host June of Doom after all, and I have a McFly July streak to maintain)! So keep tagging me in these awesome games!

I'm tagging everyone who hasn't been tagged yet!!! :D

#back to the future #bttf #bttf year-end tag game #tag game #fanfic #fanfiction #bttf art #i love these! #thanks!! #see you guys in 2024!!

[liquidstar]

How would you feel if pple took some of the funny interactions uve posted of ur brothers and made them into fan works like comics of fictional characters? How would ur brothers feel (if u feel comfortable asking them)

I don't mind if it's the goofy stuff, and I really doubt my brothers would either (I can ask but they're at school/work respectively rn so it'll take a bit). I've seen textpost memes w posts I've made of them and sent them to them like look you're an anime boy now lmao

Like the silly interactions in the screencaps is basically free game. HOWEVER I will ask the the more serious stuff, like the story I shared about my mom passing out and my brothers defending her bc of misunderstanding the situation, Not be used for characters please! Stuff like that isn't just a funny little conversation, though it obviously has a lighthearted and wholesome ending, it's still a personal family story. So it would be kind of weird to see it put in like a comic or textpost meme 😅 but the others are totally fine

Actually now that I think about it I also told my brothers once that I wanted to make a comic based on a lighthearted argument we had about gugurt and they were cool w it. I never actually made it tho lol

So yeah silly stuff is fine basically 👍 if you're unsure you can ask tho

[firespirited]

i woke up prepared to apologize for getting angry over doll stuff but the more i think about it the more it’s obvious exactly where I stand.

Whether it’s “You shouldn’t reblog from vapider they’re a paedo” which led me down a rabbit hole that took hours and led to him being friends with someone who supports writing properly tagged dark fic.

“You should have researched BarbiesGBF he made caricatures without consent” which led to hours of searching to find one use of the r word (and since when do you need consent to make cartoons or post about popular public figures in a fandom?)

“I need to know for my safety your position on [extremely complex syscourse/vast spectrum of religious discrimination]”

I refuse to play broken telephone with a rumour mill. If you want “accountability” in your community you can keep dated screencaps somewhere public and decide as a community what the boundaries and acceptable responses are.

It’s stupid fandom stuff but it’s hitting deep because I’ve been in religious communities run on gossip and charisma and seen the same for activism. It was toxic, it destroyed multiple good people’s lives and if this kind of thing, the whole guilt by association, those awful doll confessions and vague accusations come to dollblr, I will make a new place with actual rules where we start over from scratch because I believe in rehabilitative justice and transparency.

So here’s the deal, we can make a baddollydeals type thread on The Pony Arena (or a google doc) for active bigots, theft and scams.

Anything else is vibes based judgement based on gossip and WILL be ignored. If you want accountability you either put up or shut up: you might think you’re just being a good person but you are being played in a systemic game I have seen play out before many times before. Your blocklist is your own business, the rumour mill is community business.

---------------------------

So as part of the “research” I went to twitter and there was a screencap of me so I went and deleted that comment because I can totally see how it could be construed as thoughtless and sexualizing - I’m mortified (for the record, I think highly of Brooke and thought her caricature was a guy at first because her public image is as a mermaid or a Disney princess, a while back we had an interesting email convo about doll repair)... That person didn’t message me on instagram or even reply, they just screengrabbed and shared as part of the public “scandal”. I’m a creep to the 56 people who liked that and who knows how many more. No questions no context and I find out by accident and can’t apologize and explain as I don’t have twitter.

------------------------------

Said it before, i’ll state it again, if anyone has a problem with me: talk to me, @ me with your complaints, ask people if I have the ability to react to new information, grow and learn.

And more importantly, do the same for everyone: if you have an issue, leave a comment. otherwise we end up with broken telephone of 4 tweets saying variations on “barbiegbf is a sex offender” because someone once used a stolen picture of him to *say* hateful things on a live and it was clearly not him.

How many whispers until you are tainted for having interacted with me? it’s no way to do things.

#saf #dollblr #drama #i have always been completely open #i was just looking for stuff to watch

[aspl1tl1fe]

Back in June I shared a text post that explained the chaotic way I came to set up a secret party lot for a Spring Festival bash in my Isla Paradiso save. That chaos resulted in the creation of multiple histories of the archipelago’s formation as an explanation for two separate simultaneous spring celebrations. The first and official celebration, based on the colonizer’s (Central Islanders) version of history, and the second, unofficial celebration, based on the colonized people’s (Little Sister Residents) history.

The costumes from the first celebration, along with some historical details on the participants I also began sharing in June. Those costumes, unfortunately do not appear in the official A Farming Town: Tropical Vacation story, but I felt the lore I created around them would help explain some of the politics on the islands that play out in the story. Today, I wanted to begin sharing costumes from the second celebration, as well as CAS swimwear edits that do appear in the final story. Ironically, the level of detail regarding the history of these costumes are not as concrete in my mind as the previous. I suspect that is because I have more experience with systems based off histories similar to the ‘official’ one in this save. Trying to imagine something totally different from that would have taken me way more time, so I worked my vagueness into the plot.

Above is a group shot featuring several NPC’s employed at Cruzita’s Grocery and Diner. They are of course edits that I completely made over during initial game set up. From left to right we have: Angelina Copola, Darrelynn James, Carmelo Broussard, Azalia Nuzetti, Yesenia Almira, and Domingo Owens.

I decided to share this group shot first, not just because it’s actually the first screencap I took while preparing for this festival, but because I thought the shot would very quickly show the variety of styles colors, and color combinations of the Isla Paradiso Little Sister natives' spring celebration costumes. While all costumes feature mermaid scale make up, the same pattern on their sarongs, and similar gender related details (crowns for women/girls, and stolen bird feather fans for men/boys) the lack of uniformity is both meant to represent a kind of lack of hierarchy in the way they historically governed themselves, and a level of lost cultural heritage.

According to the oral traditions, the original people were merfolk (I of course built this on some of the mermaid stuff from the game pack), who mostly resided in the waters taking up residence on the island clusters during certain time cycles. These people did not have a stratified system in which they organized themselves, instead equally valuing one’s contribution or lack their of (as existence is also a contribution) to the collective. Unlike the Central Islanders, the lengths and colors of their skirts, type or cut of one’s top, does not mark one’s status. These things simply make reference to profession, location within the archipelago, household, history, ect.

The Little Sister residents’ celebration is also reflective of a more loose culture. Instead of an official parade, or highly organized event, their celebration consists of a series of parties that starts on the Little Sister and then culminates at the ruins on a much smaller, pretty much forgotten (by me mostly, lol) island.

Next week, I will begin posting some household shots featuring Little Sister costumes. These will of course include a bit more on costume details and the choices I made when dressing these sims.

Happy Simming everyone!

#TS3 #FarmTown #TropicalVacation #ts3 gameplay #ts3gameplay #TheSims3 #TheSims #Black sims #Ts3GameSetup #simprofiles

[hotchkiss-and-tell]

Until recently taking screencaps of the Haunted Mansion’s secret room, I never realized that its door back to the hallway is a secret door where the exterior blends with the wallpaper.

Ever since I first played this game I figured we simply exited via the door opposite the basement door. 

This one ^    

But no. Based on the pictures we face while exiting either the basement or the secret room, they are on the same side of the hallway. Each exit makes us look at those two square framed photos instead of the oval portraits beside the basement door. 

Which puts the secret entrance at the very end of the hallway in the corner. 

But I guess I’m not surprised it took me this long to realize. Everyone in this mansion is so oblivious to all the other cool stuff, it seemed pretty on brand that they just never tried opening the two other doors in the hallway.

#Message in a Haunted Mansion #mhm #Nancy Drew

[kieuecaprie]

So... I finished the main taskline (for now) for Toontown Corporate Clash. I won't say too much about the end but it was definitely a journey to get through, especially when the server started having issues and districts had to be reset which made making and finding groups a bit of a drag.

So, I figured it'd be nice to have a little collection of screenshots I took over the course of my journey. Of course, I won't dump all of them, just a select few I found neat.

There may be spoilers but I think most of the screenshots I'm about to post are just out of context stuff anyhow so... I'm gonna give you a fair warning anyway!

I believe I posted this a while back effectively saying that I have been playing TTCC and wanted to post this screenshot. I managed to catch the tailend of the St. Patrick's Day code event so I was able to snag some stuff, including the clover that became a mainstay on my deer.

I think this may have been the first of many buildings I would take on by myself over the course of doing the main taskline so I guess I took this screenshot to comemmorate my first building (plus it was in Toontown Central, where buildings are kind of a rarity even on private servers) and the fact I barely made it out alive.

This was before I learned the power of Prestige Throw, btw, that little prestige gag carried me pretty hard with its self-healing properties.

I just liked visual bugs and this one kind of tickled me. You can still get on the elevator, it's just bugged for some reason. No idea if this was a server thing or the behavior of the base code of the game that it ran on.

Funnily enough, BB was the first playground I got to the final kudos rank-up task for just so I could go see Rainmaker, who would otherwise be known as Misty Monsoon if you searched through some ARG stuff (or read the wiki, I guess).

Her fight was an ordeal the first time through and was frightening and was definitely a step up from the easy gameplay of the babby game that came before it.

I spared her, in case you were asking. Fortunately, my group decided to do the same.

I hated going through YOTT even though I liked the vibe of it all. The dialogue was painful to read but this one with Seymour in particular was chuckleworthy. Kind of appreciated that. Keep at it, TTCC writer's team!

I think this was taken during my runs through Sellbot Factories for the Sellbot parts. I admit, it was a little nervewracking at first to utilize the group finder because, up to this point, I was just using it to set up groups for battles I absolutely needed to do (Derrick Man, Land Acquisition Architect, Public Relations Representative). No idea why this screencap in particular, maybe I just found the name "Medieval Pheasant" on the Turkey toon to be quite amusing.

Fishing was my first activity I'd end up maxing on this server. As customary, I grade games based on how fun their fishing is. I'd give the Toontown fishing, as a whole, a decent 7/10. Fish Bingo is a nice sidegame and casting and reeling is super quick, also a good source of currency and ended up filling my bank to the brim.

A screenshot from... some attempt at mity, I don't know the number tbh. Tried the old "befriend a cog" trick during the mist phase and my heart shattered into a million pieces afterward...

Going through Mezzo Melodyland (At the time of writing, I have the rank-up task available to go from 9 to 10, gonna hold off on that for now but I'm coming for you, DAVE BRUBOT!), and I run into a taskline about a kazoo maestro who wants me to go find someone who is the kazoo kid. I already knew where this was going but I didn't think they'd actually go through with the bit.

Good one!

Shut up and leave me alone.

The only screenshot I ever took in a Cashbot Mint. Honestly thought it'd take a while to clear out the 4 Coin Mints, 4 Dollar Mints, and the 2 Bullion Mints but they were snap compared to the Lawbot and Bossbot facilities... especially in wait time, yeesh.

Come on, you had to break into Reid's van at LEAST once! I hope she didn't mind me coming in, I mean, I do pay her a ton of jellybeans, after all!

My first capped track was Throw, predictably. And I think Lure followed soon after and then it took a while before Sound, Squirt, Zap, and Toon Up would join them. Still got Trap and Drop left to go and I don't look forward to levelling Trap again.

This wizard really wanted the... ahem... minglussy. iamsosorry

Lawbot Lawfices... They were kinda fun but waiting was a bit of a drag. Although I think at one point, someone pointed out that you could play Toono on the couches. WHY COULDN'T BOSSBOT HQ HAVE SOMETHING LIKE THAT?!

Speaking of, here's a screenshot from a Bossbot Cog Golf Course. Don't tell me which one because they all felt the same to me, and it was at that point that I really felt the drag. This part was probably one of the biggest hurdles imo and I don't blame anyone for not really wanting to do anything related to Bossbots unless they ABSOLUTELY had to. (Speaking of, if any friendos wanted to do cog golf courses, I'd gladly run it because I don't want them waiting half a century for a group.)

Short detour into the High Roller stuff for MAYpril Toons event. I was sad that I couldn't fight Sads but the High Roller fight was definitely something else. And if they could pull that off for a permanent, non-canon joke of a manager, what could they do for 2.0? Gosh, imagine. The next few are also High Roller related, I had to grind for a bit to get the stuff out of him. (I still need one more item from him, barring another update that adds yet another goalpost, but it takes a while to beat him even with optimal strats.)

Holy meh, Toriel Toontown real.

This one is from one of the CEO fights. I took this one because the game was taking its sweet time waiting for everybody and found the cogs with their hands in the same position as the grief kiwi sticker to be quite funny.

While I was doing the DDL taskline, I ran into this where Featherbedder and a bunch of cogs were just... snoozing. And there was literally nobody fighting them. Guess they just wanted a slumber party, huh?

Hehehe... yeah, game show. Would be crazy if there was one in Mezzo Melodyland hosted by a robotic green duck who is a fusion of two cog managers that we've previously fought, right?

And the end of the road, for now. It feels... weird now that I have ALL FOUR task slots to fill up but it'll be a great boon when grinding out those kudos tasks! I'm not quite done yet with TTCC and I don't think I will be for a while, after all, I have drops to collect, suits to perfect, departments to experience fully, and a couple other stuff left unfinished.

I will say that I absolutely enjoyed my time in Toontown Corporate Clash and I wish the team good luck as they push onwards because this is probably the most polished Toontown experience I've ever... erm... experienced.

#kieuecaprie gaming #game screenshots #toontown corporate clash #ttcc #long post #i'm already feeling nostalgic for the sellbot factories even though i literally cleared them last month #feels like yesterday that i was afraid of everyone in the server save for a few friendly faces #now i get to be the triple digit laffer helping newbies cool surprise

[neoyi]

My dilemma is that I love wasting time in big, bloated AAA-developed open world games. I love helping every NPCs with their problems (I think owe this particular mindset to Majora's Mask, my favorite game ever, which does this), and I don't mind scouring every rock and tree for the 10,000 acorns I need to collect in spite of the rewards being naught but pittance in comparison to the time I spent gathering them.

But also I don't have as much time as I used to and eventually I'm going to get bored collecting acorns before I inevitably move on with the main plot and finish it off. After a certain point, nearly every sidequest is some variation of Fight These Waves of Enemies or Race These NPCs or Gather Resources For NPCs.

This is further hampered by how lifeless a lot of these open world games feel. You can have dozens of random NPCs walking around A Town to make it feel like A Town, but 99% of them are faceless and cannot be communicated with. This is not, say, Windfall Island from Zelda's Wind Waker where every single NPC ('bout a decent forty of them) are different and interactive.

Also, no amount of realistic graphics and fancy visuals cannot shake off the feeling I have of sheer boredom that they won't try and an attempt something stylish because the general gaming community wants the Super Realistic Look. Don't get me wrong, Horizon Zero Dawn's forestry backdrops are gorgeous and I'm in love with the way Ghost of Tsushima uses leaves and animals to create a sense of serenity, but also it's like the equ. of a mainstream western animated film: you've seen one Disney/Dreamworks/Illumination CGi, you've seen them all.

I mean, this is not a "All Hope Is Lost" kinda thing. Nintendo is still aiming for stylish looks; Breath of the Wild gave me the "ooh, what's that over there" mentality based on its visuals alone; stuff more open world games should be giving me, and in the western animated camp, we're seeing stuff like Into the Spider-Verse (and from what I've seen in screencaps, the new Puss in Boots movie.)

What this boils down to is, I appreciate the hell out of games when they don't take months to beat. I recently finished Pizza Tower, a game that took roughly less than a week to down, and it was one of the most satisfying experiences of my life. Indie games are always good about this, and while I think limitations can suck when you have a vision in mind, it also means finding loopholes and keeping a small scale that ultimately works out in the end. Older games had to do this at the time, and a lot of indie games do it, too. AAA games can literally afford to go big, but the ones who do stay small because they want to, I respect the hell out of.

I like that I live in a world where I can have both though. If I want to waste time playing open worlds, flaws and all, there's so many to pick from its garden. But also I love when a game doesn't fuck around with what little time I have and offers something smaller that's equally as fun and satisfying (and more often, tend to have better variety or charm.)

What's the point of this post? No idea. Just shit I've had lingering in my mind for a good while (also probably because I'm wrapping up Ghost of Tsushima, which, as of now, I clocked 80 hours into while also just having wrapped up Pizza Tower) and I guess I wanted to type it down. Like, I do not, under any circumstances think ever single big-budget game need to be Big and Bloated, but also I still like playing it. But I also like playing games that can be beaten in, like, six hours.

So yeah, you can kind of see my conundrum.

#neoyi talks #video games #I blame my brain #dopamine is collecting ten thousand acorns #but relief is playing a small ten hour game I can beat in a week

[rob-nobody]

Buzz Lightyear Instruction Manual

TITLE: Buzz Lightyear Instruction Manual AUTHOR: Unknown ORIGIN: Toy Story 3 (movie, 2010, directed by Lee Unkrich)

The instruction manual for the original Buzz Lightyear action figure, released in 1995, when short-sighted retailers did not order enough dolls to meet demand. The toy was based on the character from the cartoon series Buzz Lightyear of Star Command, a spinoff of the popular Lightyear movie trilogy from the 1980s. The manual covers basic operation of the toy: how to retract the visor, extend the wings, replace the batteries, the functions of the various buttons, and so on. Certain things are not explained especially well, however. For instance, contrary to what the manual states, "demo mode" does not reset the doll to its factory settings — a meaningless act in a toy with no customizable settings — but presumably limits its available actions to slow battery drain when on display. Similarly, the reset button serves no obvious purpose, though disobeying the manual's unexplained warning to not hold it down for more than five seconds does switch the doll's language settings to Spanish, a helpful feature that the manual perhaps should have mentioned.

I. Handbooks and manuals — Toys and games — Action figures II. Handbooks and manuals — Pseudo-living creatures — Robots, AIs, and golems III. Plot obstacles — Mental tampering — Troubling existential questions

For such a comparatively simple book, I spent an INORDINATELY LONG TIME making this one. I couldn't find any images that were high-res and/or clear enough to suit me, either from screencaps or from the official replica that came with the extremely expensive Buzz figure from Chogokin, so I ended up making my own by painstakingly tracing over a low-res image. Of course, for full verisimilitude I printed it out and made my own booklet which I then took a picture of. What is wrong with me.

Screenshot 1:

Screenshot 2:

#fictional books #toy story #disney pixar #buzz lightyear #lightyear #buzz lightyear of star command #lee unkrich #from movies #comedy #animation #handbooks and manuals #physical recreations #i made this myself #but seriously what settings are supposedly being reset #none of his settings can be customized #the switch and button only seem to have a point if you know he's sentient #WAIT #DOES THE TOY COMPANY KNOW #IS THIS HOW THEY PREVENT THE TOY REVOLUTION #my head canon is actually that there are Living Toy conspiracy theorists in the Toy Story universe #surely people have noticed discrepancies and gotten suspicious #sid is ALL OVER those message boards

[runawaycarouselhorse]

Screencap from this article talking about MaMaMedia.com

I found out about this site after borrowing one of their magazines from the library as a kid! I think of it as one of those children's websites like Neopets and Postopia with mini-games and customization and a moderated community, but it seems it was like a precursor to Scratch.

"I also found an AMA on Reddit from Idit Harel, CEO of Mamamedia.com, but she never talks about MamaMedia in much detail, just a little bit about the design philosophy they took when creating the site. This site was made to incorporate design concepts of constructionism theory to flash games. Kids could build their own designs out of template options given to them. This concept is also huge in computer programming. Specifically C++. Coding in block concept is big now, and the goal with MamaMedia.com was to disguise that learning concept in the form of fun little games." [from the same link above.]

"In 1995, in the early days of the Internet, the founder of the World Wide Workshop gathered a small team of educators, business entrepreneurs, computer scientists, and media designers to create an online place for both learning and fun for all children. MaMaMedia.com was invented as the definitive destination on the Internet for children ages 12 and under. Based on 15 years of innovative research projects at MIT and Harvard, the core idea of MaMaMedia.com was to encourage children to use the Internet, starting at a young age, for playful, expressive, and active learning-not just for searching and finding information." [Source]

"MaMaMedia - A Kids' Guide to the Net, is a 20-page, 4-color quarterly magazine. Was the first of its kind when launched in 1996, and still is the only print publication about the Internet-fully dedicated to kids. Published during 1996-2000, it reached over 1 million readers and introduced children and parents to the culture, technology, and language of new media and the Web, and recommended the best places on the Internet." [Source]

#my childhood #MaMaMedia #old internet

[kulaiyin]

(content: APHO2)

i thought i should continue APHO2 right before i got super busy. i didn’t get that far in the story, but i did end up doing through a lot of the side stories that i piled up from raising friendship through the adventure tasks!

bronya, even as an adult, is babey

(as always, reactions under the cut!)

oh man void archives... 

if i recall correctly, his story and welt’s as well as the sky people were first introduced in the alien space manga. i also sort of skimmed that manga, but it’s so cool that it’s like a prequel to APHO

i’m not sure if this whole thing will play a role in honkai star rail (which, by the way, is releasing in 2-3 days at the time of this post!!! i’m super excited about it), but i do know void archives appears in welt’s star rail splash art

(... this isn’t directly related to honkai but fun fact... lucheni was first mentioned in that one voice recording in APHO, and at that time i just finished watching tkrz elisabeth 2016, and that is the ONLY reason i know about the origin of the name lucheni)

took a break after the big fight! phew

THAT’S NOT A DRINK CAROLE!

C-CAROLE!!!!

the story behind the omurice is actually really sweet though, carole wants to perfect it to thank mei for treating her with that dish back then... 🥺 these drink dialogues are really funny/cute, i wish there was an archive somewhere

side stories... they were really sweet!

NANI THE F ADAM

i almost forgot that bronya became a game designer LKJLJKALWA honestly i love that, it’s so fitting. and she came out of retirement because game dev wasn’t paying bills 🤧 (relatable)

WAIT THIS IS SO FUNNY!!!!!

OH...!!!!!!

this is the moment i realized that the current event, meow town, was the origin of the susannah and stan vlog series?! it was so surreal to see timido talk about stuff like valkyries on their days off and lewis and stuff... APHO2 was written how long ago?! and meow town just happened this patch! 

it’s really cool, i felt the connectivity of honkai story just now...

seems like lots of events in general are connecting too, and this patch is really an interlude into APHO events. like “kitty” being carole, and lyle on the moon base being, well, lyle...!

... now i want to see a grown up seele and susannah...!

i really love the way the CN va for carole said this line  (❤´艸｀❤) so funny

NOOOOOOOOOO

.................... WHY HOMU

i reached the end of my APHO2 screenshots... yes, i ended up leaving the story uncompleted yet again... according to my achievements list, i think i still have 2 more story parts to go through. hopefully i get to complete it soon!

i ended up not screencapping/saving a lot of conversations, but APHO2 dialogue is honestly so funny... i really love the main gang. lyle especially is great

#hi3diary

[holdingforgeneralhugs]

Bitter Pill to Swallow

Chapter 5 (Ch.4, Ch.3, Ch.2, Ch.1)

Thank you as always to @tvserie-s-world for the lovely screencaps 💕

It had been five days since they'd set sail for England, and safe to say tensions were starting to fray. Valerie was lucky to be bunking with Harry, but even they'd had a few disagreements.

"If you don't quit your snoring I'm gonna strap you to the bow to scare off the sharks," he'd sworn one early morning, tying his shirt buttons roughly.

"My snoring?" Valerie replied incredulously, "I'm surprised you can hear me snoring over the droning of your own."

She was playing a game of fish with George when the fight of the day broke out. She'd been laughing at his master plan to snag an English dame when they'd overheard Bill Guarnere talking shit. Valerie looked up in alarm when she noticed Lieb jumping down from his bunk and getting up in Bill's face. She sighed and jumped down herself, intending to step in between them and prevent any fists from flying.

"Hey, hey," she shouted, pulling Lieb back behind her "break it up you two, and watch your damm mouth Gonnorhea. Quit talking shit about Jews, you know where we're going and who we're fighting so why don't you show some goddamn respect. " She put a hand on Lieb's shoulder to steer him back towards his bunk. "Don't listen to him Lieb, he's just being an idiot."

As they moved away they heard Bill grumbling something about 'goddamn woman must be on the rag," and Valerie saw red. She dropped her hand from Lieb's shoulder and marched back towards Bill.

"You wanna say that again to my face Guarnere?" snapped Valerie, "who do you think you are saying things like that about a ranking officer?"

Don was desperately trying to pull Bill away, warning him to cut it out before he gets himself in more trouble. A hush settled in the immediate area surrounding them, everyone afraid to intervene but too nosy to look away.

"I said what I said," Bill snarled, pulling his arm out of Don's and clenching his jaw. Valerie narrowed her eyes at him and glared coldly.

"I'm gonna give you one more chance to take that back Guarnere," Valerie warned, crossing her arms. She felt Lieb step up beside her protectively, and even though she didn't need it she was eternally grateful for him in that moment. He had her back, and he wanted her to know it.

"I ain't taking nothing back, I said what I said," he insisted, ignoring Don's contined pleas for him to back down.

Valerie narrowed her eyes at Bill, her fingers clenching against her crossed arms and her face reddening. Beside her, Lieb was clenching his fists so hard she was sure they'd split open at the knuckles.

"You really don't know when to shut your damn mouth do you?" Snapped Lieb, stepping forward and raising his fist for another go at Bill. But Valerie threw her arm across his chest and stopped him, shaking her head and silently trying to tell him that she could deal with this herself. He huffed but stepped back beside her, continuing to glare harshly at Bill.

"Well you know what gonorrhea," Valerie hissed coldly, stepping up to him "next time why don't you say that to my fists huh? Because you are sorely mistaken if you don't think I could punch you so hard you'd be seeing Lady Liberty dancing the jive."

Bill was about to respond when they were interrupted by a stern voice.

"What's going on here?" Asked Lieutenant Winters, who'd appeared behind Valerie without her noticing. She took a few deep breaths before turning on her toes to face him.

"Nothin' for you to worry about Lieutenant Winters," she replied. He glanced between her and Bill sceptically, his eyebrows furrowing as he assessed the situation.

"Well," he said evenly, "whatever fight was going on here that you don't want me to know about, break it up. We've got a lot of training and work to do once we get to England so use these next five days wisely and take all the rest you can get."

The men who'd gathered on the floor dispersed hastily with a few 'yes sir's'. With one final lingering glare, Bill and Valerie turned away from each other and went their separate ways. She was about to follow Lieb up to his bunk when a tap on her shoulder stopped her.

"Could I talk to you up on deck Lieutenant?" He asked tightly. Val stared him down for a moment before nodding her agreement and following him up the steps and onto the breezy deck.

"So, what was it you wanted to talk about?" She asked after a few beats of awkward silence. His shoulders tensed and he looked out over the ocean for a few seconds before speaking.

"Lieutenant Landry, I don't want you to think I'm criticising you but..."

Look," she snapped, crossing her arms over her chest, "whatever it is you gotta say to me jus' get on with it."

He sighed and scrubbed a hand over his face roughly. "I really don't want to fight fight you so please, don't get all offended about this," he paused in his speech and took a deep breath before continuing, "you're a ranking officer Landry, you cant just go around threatening your NCO's, or any of the men for that matter. It's completely out of line."

"Out of line?," she hissed, narrowing her eyes, her temper immediately flaring at his accusing tone, "Guarnere was out of line makin' comments about Jews and then disrespectin' me. So I think I had every right to say what I said, an' I'd say it again too. You weren't even there, you have no idea what happened before you turned up."

"Then tell me," he sighed, "tell me what happened and I'll go down there and deal with Bill right this minute."

"I just told you, he was making comments about Jews and then he disrespected me," she explained tersely, "And I don't need you to go down there and deal with it. I was dealin' with it jus' fine until you showed up." She couldn't believe he was standing there reprimanding her, nor that he wanted to play the white knight and go deal with the situation for her. She had been handling the situation and herself just fine before he showed up.

"I understand that Guarnere is difficult, and I have no doubt he was running his mouth and deserved a reprimand," Winters groaned, "but you still shouldn't have spoken to him like that, especially in front of the rest of the men. You should have officially reprimanded him in a calm way like a ranking officer should."

He was questioning her capabilities as an officer. He honestly believed that she couldn't behave like an officer should. They'd never been friends, hell, they couldn't even have a conversation, but she'd always grudgingly respected that he was a good officer. She'd never once doubted his capabilities as a leader.

In a deep buried part of her, though she'd never admit it, his words stung. His doubts of her capabilites hurt. She had a level of respect for him that obviously he didn't have for her. She'd thought that despite all the tension between them, she could at least count on the fact that he'd respect her position as a Lieutenant. Clearly she'd been wrong.

"Oh, so you doubt my capabilities as an officer is that it?" She snapped defensively, "and for your information, you missed the part where I very calmly told him to take back what he said. You're making a whole lot of assumptions based on the tiny part of the conversation you saw, but I can't say I'm surprised. You've obviously never respected my place in Easy and now the truth of your thoughts has finally come out."

Dick shook his head and ran his tongue over his teeth, his jaw tensing slightly. "That's not what I meant and you know it, stop putting words in my mouth. You're quite possibly the most impossible person I've ever met." He placed his hands on his hips and looked out over the sea once more. "I never said I didn't respect your position as a Lieutenant, I just meant you should have reprimanded Guarnere more calmly."

His patronising was just making her more mad. He really had the nerve to stand there and act like he was better than her when he couldn't possibly understand the situation. "You implied I didn't behave like a proper officer, so please do tell me what you actually meant when you said that because I'd just love to know."

"I didn't mean it like that, so I'm sorry if that's how it came across to you," he huffed, trying to keep his emotions in check, "Just don't talk to your subordinates like that anymore, alright? We've got more than enough to worry about without fights between the officers and the enlisted." He turned to leave without waiting for her to respond any further.

She watched him walk away from her, her simmering temper roiling. Why that sanctimonious prat. She'd just love to see what he would have done if he were in her shoes.

"You know what Winters," she shouted at his retreating back, unable to stop herself from getting in the last word, "I'd like to see you spend a day in my shoes and keep your goddamn cool." Now that she'd started she couldn't stop, all of her frustrated feelings pouring out of her now she'd opened the floodgates a crack.

"I'd like to see you stand there while Guarnere mocks you and says you're just an angry woman on the rag and not get mad. So don't you stand there and patronise me about propriety. Because you know what, if you could actually manage to keep your cool in that situation I'd reckon you were a goddamn saint."

She stormed past his frozen form and marched out the door without a backwards glance, slamming it harshly behind her. Now then, let him stew on that for awhile. She pointedly ignored the twinge of hurt she felt at his words, furiously tampering it down and smothering it with her anger as she marched back to her cabin.

Taglist: @tvserie-s-world @geniedocroe @generousdreamlanddestiny @sunsetmando @cagzzz107 @howunexpectedlyso @alejodi0nysus @sunflowerchuck @now-im-a-belieber

If you'd like to be added to my taglist then just let me know 💕

#band of brothers #bob #dick winters #dick winters x oc #dick winters x valerie landry #valerie landry #bitterpilltoswallow #band of brothers fandom #band of brothers fanfic #hbo band of brothers #hbo war #band of brothers imagine #holdingforgeneralhugs

[calyxestra]

End of year questions for writers and artists

Tagged by @heartoferebor​, thank you! Answers under cut. Anyone who would like to answer the questions, please consider yourself tagged! :) (If you work on projects that don’t fit neatly into writing and artmaking, feel free to apply the questions to your work as well)

Questions: 

1. What project are you most proud of and why? 2. Which project did you have the most fun making? 3. Which project was the most unexpected and/or challenging and why? 4. Which project would you like to receive more attention? 5. Is there a project you intended to work on but couldn’t find the time? If so, what is it? 6. Have you noticed an improvement in your skill this year? Did a specific project help? 7. If you could remake any project you’ve created this year, which one would it be and why? 8. What project would you like to make next year?

These are hard questions. When I have time to draw I blurt out so much stuff almost on autopilot and with barely any forethought that I rarely consider any particular drawing to be a “project.” That said...

1. most proud of

This was actually planned and executed over more than one drawing session. I hadn’t figured out how to color the figures until I filled in the background, then chose the colors for the figures based on that. Also, this was done in GIMP, so many layers (because of the way I work in GIMP, nothing inherent to the program). It’s not the prettiest drawing I’ve made in 2021, but I certainly put effort and care into it and didn’t give up, so I’m proud of that.

2. most fun

Everything under the tag “silliness” and especially “reblog with a drawing” is fun (hooray for audience participation, you all leave very entertaining tags which inspire me—sometimes I have to hold the idea for a response in my head for hours and can’t wait to sit down and doodle it out). 

3. most unexpected/challenging

I already had the base painting but animating it with the changing hair and eye colors and sparks and lighting was challenging: not because it was inherently so but because I took so very long to figure out how to animate things in Clip Studio Paint. Had already done some simple blinks/flickers/fades in previous animated illustrations, but forgot everything and had to regoogle it all. I was thinking I’d be done animating this really quickly and instead sat there clicking around the animation tools in CSP going “???” for quite a while.

4. would like to receive more attention

Geoffrey McCullum from Vampyr. I should draw him more. His facial structure is interesting and, like with Regis, I just can’t get it right intuitively.

5. wanted to work on, couldn’t find time

I want to learn to draw comics (the whole shebang, backgrounds and figures and lettering and everything) and do a couple of comic-style pages for ideas I’ve held onto for a long time. Unfortunately I love drawing the same faces over and over again too much to have the motivation to put brainpower towards learning new stuff in my downtime.

6. improvement? specific project?

Yes, I’d gotten more comfortable with ArtRage then switched to Clip Studio Paint in mid-October and am finding my footing in that. I’m not sure how to quantify the improvement except that the art (most of the time) looks nicer (closer to ref? more coherent in thumbnail?). There wasn’t a specific project, just a lot of drawing the same faces over and over again, looking at different kinds of references (paintings, photos, video stills, game screencaps), and being very lazy (and hence finding shortcuts to do a reasonable amount of stuff within short drawing sessions, like my color blob way of starting color portraits; I could do a whole little post about how being lazy has shaped my way of drawing digitally).

7. remake?

Interesting question. Since most drawings are just a spur-of-the-moment thing, there are few drawings I’m invested in enough to want to improve them. I know just about as soon as I post something where the major flaws are that need fixing, but usually I just leave it be and move on to the next drawing. But I actually just redid Book!Dandelion (Oct 2020 vs. Dec 2021):

First one was in the Calyxestra Copies series (i.e., pastiche), done on my old drawing tablet and in ArtRage. Second one was done with reference to an Artbreeder pic I generated last year; drawn as the first complete piece on my new tablet (with a screen!), in Clip Studio Paint. Fabrics are still out of my comfort zone, and that poor hand looks so muddy, but at least the face isn’t so blurry this time, ha. I think drawing directly on a screen where I can see where the pen tip is going on the picture itself is going to result in a lot less imprecision and fluffy edges :)

8. next year?

I would really like to make those two little comic projects that I have in mind at some point. But again, I’d have to learn to draw more than just faces reliably... One "project” I’ve been keeping for when I got my new tablet is tracing some penciled lineart and turning it into a complete piece digitally. Nothing big, just have to remember to do it.

#about my art #ask game #end of year asks #I don't know how to tag this

[renegadewangs]

Van Zieks - the Examination, part 11

Warnings: SPOILERS for The Great Ace Attorney: Chronicles. Additional warning for racist sentiments uttered by fictional characters (and screencaps to show these sentiments).

Disclaimer: (see Part 1 for the more detailed disclaimer.) - These posts are not meant to be taken as fact. Everything I’m outlining stems from my own views and experiences. If you believe that I’ve missed or misinterpreted something, please let me know so I can edit the post accordingly. -The purpose of these posts is an analysis, nothing more. Please do not come into these posts expecting me to either defend Barok van Zieks from haters, nor expecting me to encourage the hatred. - I’m using the Western release of The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles for these posts, but may refer to the original Japanese dialogue of Dai Gyakuten Saiban if needed to compare what’s said. This also means I’m using the localized names and localized romanization of the names to stay consistent. -It doesn’t matter one bit to me whether you like Barok van Zieks or dislike him. However, I will ask that everyone who comments refrains from attacking real, actual people.

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9 Part 10

Bring on the game's credits! BRING IT! The Resolve of Ryunosuke Naruhodo part 2 is here!

Episode 2-5: The Resolve of Ryunosuke Naruhodo, part 2

This is the first time in a while that I actually want to try other options to see what happens. The 'accusation' leads to some witty banter with a frustrated Stronghart, but 'report' is one that gets a reaction from Van Zieks himself. Ryu theorizes that 'since Klint was a well-bred and fastidious man, and knowing the end was near, he might have wanted to tie up some loose ends in all of his outstanding business'. Van Zieks immediately replies that his brother had no outstanding business.

DID I JUST GET PENALIZED BY THE DEFENDANT??? Just for implying his brother might've had some loose ends to tie up? Van Zieks really hates it when people show his brother even the slightest bit of disrespect, huh? Well, it's about to get a whole lot worse. Let's go for the confession option! Van Zieks definitely doesn't take kindly to this one.

“What are you saying? Do you even realise?! A confession...about the true identity of the Professor... That, that would mean...”

He fumbled his speech, there. We've never heard him do that before. And he's gone back to that bobbing, unsteady animation halfway into the above dialogue. Ryu insists it's the only explanation that fits. The man who murdered those members of the aristocracy wasn't Genshin Asogi at all, it was the one believed to be the fifth victim, Klint van Zieks himself.

Welp. We broke him. Stronghart remarks that Pandora's box has opened at last, making it clear he already knew what we just revealed. The gallery is outraged.

We've gone from well-bred to thoroughbred, have we? Susato feels very bad for Van Zieks, but Ryu asks himself whether such a brilliant prosecutor never suspected “what his older brother really was”. To clear up doubt further, he asks whether Klint Van Zieks owned a dog. Barok doesn't intend to dodge the facts of the situation, it seems.

Not what the concept art says, but it's possible Klint owned a different, smaller dog before Balmung. Van Zieks talks about how loyal the dog was and how it wore a jewel-studded collar which was stolen from the house “some years ago now”. This implies it was less than ten years ago, and must've been kept in the house as a keepsake even after Balmung passed away. Ryu and Susato bring up that they've seen such a collar; it was Selden's loot in case 2-2. They note the fancy B emblem on it, and this is the first time we find out that Klint van Zieks was a married man. His widow's maiden name was Baskerville. It's a little odd to me that for someone who thought so highly of his brother, Van Zieks never mentioned his sister in law before now. Conveniently, it never came up for the sake of a twist, I suppose. Either way, the emblem confirms the collar they saw was Balmung's. Ryu notes there was a considerable amount of blood on the collar (nobody washed this thing?) and while it could've come from typical hunting trips, it could just as well have been human blood. With that, the gallery begins to lean towards the truth that Klint van Zieks really was the Professor himself. Stronghart seems to have realized there's no way out of this now and announces that 'they may have the truth'.

Here comes that 'true nature' thing again, just worded a bit differently. Van Zieks doesn't intend to shirk away from it, though. He's open to the insinuation that his brother was, in truth, something truly horrible. Stronghart explains that Klint attempted to fight the growing darkness in London, only to end up being consumed by it. He also admits that after the fourth victim fell, Genshin showed up at his office, putting forth the accusation that Klint was the Professor. He didn't have any evidence and needed a warrant to get some, but Stronghart refused to anger the aristocracy based on the accusation of a visiting student, so he sent Genshin away. As a result, the man headed over to the Van Zieks mansion and Klint perished. Stronghart continues to admit that he was responsible for pinning the Professor's crimes on Genshin, right down to ordering Gregson to fabricate evidence. Sure enough, the late inspector's earlier claims ring true: it seems he did genuinely believe Genshin to be the killer, but was reluctant to falsify anything until Stronghart strong-armed him into it. The jailbreak agreement was also part of Stronghart's plan; he manipulated Genshin into agreeing by proverbially dangling his 14 year old son in front of him. Van Zieks brings up one more point: that Stronghart was the mastermind behind the Reaper organization. Not only does he admit to it, he calls it a “brilliant idea” and even takes credit for how his “minions” worked tirelessly to ensure Van Zieks was never accused of being the Reaper himself. What a smarmy bumhole. He insists it was all for the preservation of law and order across the empire, and the gallery is actually suckered into falling for this ploy. It seems as if he's going to get away with his masterminding without decent consequences. Kazuma now has one more question for Van Zieks, and it's the exact one Ryu asked himself earlier; did he never have any doubts about his brother?

“My brother's sense of justice was extremely strong. Perhaps...too strong, I observed. […] During the time of the Professor killings, my brother did not appear to be himself. But it was only once. Not more. Klint wasn't the culprit. That was my conclusion at the time. And I still believe that now. […] The third victim...was the Lord Chief Justice at the time. It was he who had recognized my brother's potential and trained him as a prosecutor. No matter what the circumstances, it's unthinkable that my brother could have killed his friend and mentor!”

So here, we learn that Klint wasn't an infallible paragon of virtue in his brother's eyes. Simply by saying that his sense of justice was “perhaps too strong”, a flaw is being brought to light. Younger Barok saw that Klint's need to ensure justice was overpowering him, and he also saw that during the time of the killings, something was off about his behavior. Enough to have the younger Van Zieks consider, for a brief time, that perhaps the Professor was him. However, the death of the third victim was like a lifeline to him, a flotation device keep him from going under- or perhaps more like a straw to grasp. It offered a sort of justification to him; a firm belief that Klint would never kill his own mentor and therefore he couldn't possibly be the Professor, and Barok was wrong to ever doubt him. However, it was just a very meager excuse to put his suspicions at ease and blind him to the truth. There are, after all, plenty of reasons why Klint would kill that Lord Chief Justice if indeed he were the Professor.

So Stronghart now tries to wrap everything up with a neat little bow, saying that's all the truth they'll be able to get from this trial and he'll present himself at the Ministry of Justice for whatever sanctions are deemed necessary. Since he's the Lord Chief Justice, I can't imagine the Ministry of Justice will give him more than a slap on the wrist. However, he says just a bit too much in his closing statement and Ryu jumps on that immediately. A third page of Genshin's will was hidden from everyone! Turns out, it was a personal message to Kazuma that they never bothered to send to Japan. Governor Caidin conveniently brought it with him and the contents are read aloud after some pressuring. With this last secret message left behind by Genshin, Ryu manages to find Klint's last will and testament hidden inside the Asogi clan's sword. GASP.

Oblivious to the shenanigans playing out in the Court Record section of the game, Stronghart once again tries to end the trial and even goes so far as to say Klint was basically insane when he took his mentor's life (to which Van Zieks objects fiercely). Ryu interjects, saying he has one more piece of evidence to present. When Stronghart calls the very notion absurd, Van Zieks once again raises an objection, pointing out that “this gentleman has an uncanny habit of producing evidence at the final hour that had escaped everyone else's attention.” Which, y'know, is true. That's how Ace Attorney works. I do want to draw attention to the fact that he said “this gentleman” as opposed to “this Nipponese” or even something like “this barrister”. He considers Ryu a gentleman now! So with that, Ryu has the opportunity to shove Klint's will in everyone's face and things escalate very quickly.

Ooh, his speech faltered again. He is shook! And it gets even better when he gets a closer look at the document.

Stronghart panics and demands Ryu hands the document over to him at once. When that fails, he even tries to forcibly adjourn the trial and get everyone to clear the courtroom. If that isn't suspicious, we don't know what is. It sure is satisfying to watch him squirm. Naturally, he can't actually put an end to the trial now- not with so many people watching, so the document is read aloud. It's revealed that Genshin challenged Klint to a duel, so that he might “depart this world with honor”. Klint goes on to write that he finds himself undeserving of this honor and that “the Japanese are a truly merciful people”. So here, already, we get the final nail in the coffin for Van Zieks's entire motivation for racial prejudice and for hating Genshin in particular. Klint never thought ill of Genshin, not even in his final moments. If anything, he was grateful for being put out of his misery and being allowed to 'depart the world with honor'. Genshin's actions were not betrayal; not ever. They were merciful. (COOL MOTIVE, STILL MURDER.) What we also learn is that while Klint did indeed take the life of the first victim on his own accord, he was then immediately identified as the culprit and blackmailed into the next three killings by someone else. You guessed it, it was Stronghart! Despite his earlier panic, he now has a myriad of justification ready, talking about how sacrifices have to be made for the sake of justice and whatnot. He also explains that he was the one who pressured Jigoku into shooting Genshin in the graveyard when Drebber showed up there. He acts like Jigoku is the only one to blame, but considering Stronghart was basically screaming in Jigoku's ear, I wouldn't be surprised if this poor man pulled the trigger by accident simply because he was startled by the shouting. Stronghart was the one who decided that Genshin needed to die and forced Jigoku to act, so Stronghart is the one ultimately responsible. Naturally, Ryu and Kazuma both attempt to argue Stronghart's justifications into the ground. At one point, Stronghart plays the victim card and asks them to acknowledge his 'struggle', but Kazuma insists that this jerk has done nothing and:

WELL. Okay. Looks like we've finally convinced Kazuma that Van Zieks is a victim in this whole ordeal, as well as someone who 'acts justly'. That's a wonderful way forward. With all this out in the open, though, Stronghart offers a literal round of applause. It's true; he's “done nothing” and “merely been surrounded by fools who've acted very rashly indeed”, which means he can't be charged with any crimes. We can't even prove he threatened anyone into doing his bidding, as he says it might as well have been “bargaining”. Thing is, bargaining with someone to end a third party's life is known as “contract killing” and is, in fact, illegal. I can't find any sources to verify whether it was already illegal in 1900 England, but I can only assume so, or people would've gotten away with murders very easily. I guess the bottom line here is that we can't prove Stronghart really did extort or pay anyone to take a life, since there's no material evidence for that sort of thing, nor anyone who can testify on it. Stronghart claims that the minutes of the trial will be heavily redacted to remove matters not related to Gregson's death, in the interest of preserving law and order, as well as to protect the queen. The gallery has now turned against us as well, chanting Stronghart's name.

Here we have a singular opportunity to deviate into the closest thing to a bad ending this game series has. Anyone who remembers the iconic 'the miracle never happen' ending in AA2, or even the bad endings in AA5 where either Trucy or Athena is implied to be killed by Aura, will be sorely disappointed by this one. First, to compare... In the standard ending, no matter how far along you've gotten in the trial- including proving that Stronghart was the Reaper- Van Zieks will still be found guilty. Stronghart will utter the words that he “would like to think however misguided, [Van Zieks] acted out of a sense of justice nonetheless”, and then pronounces the poor man guilty of crimes we've already proven were never committed by him. Now, in this slightly different ending, if you run out of all your penalty points because you fail to present Harely, the dialogue is tweaked. Stronghart declares that for the sake of justice, “the only correct course of action has been unanimously acknowledged by the clear majority here present. All mention of that which has been discussed in this courtroom today will be struck from the records. Barok van Zieks – Or should I say, Reaper of the Bailey... The heinous crimes committed by your brother, Klint van Zieks, will be lost in obscurity, this time forever. May you also find peace now as you join your sibling in the eternal darkness.”

And then, just as in the standard ending, Van Zieks is pronounced guilty and the doors slam shut. So effectively, the only real difference here is that Stronghart really rubs it in our faces that Van Zieks is taking the fall as the Reaper in the eyes of the public. He knows Van Zieks isn't the Reaper- everyone present in the courtroom knows it. However, since the entirely gallery is siding with the real mastermind, the minutes of the trial will be confiscated and destroyed so that the truth will be lost forever. Neither Kazuma nor Ryu reacts to this turn of events on-screen, which is a shame. Van Zieks doesn't fight the adjudication either, he simply accepts the verdict in silence- Hang on, where have we heard that before? Genshin? And didn't Van Zieks say that so long as his death served a purpose, he wouldn't mind dying over being called the Reaper? Stronghart certainly seems to feel that Van Zieks ought to be thrown under the omnibus and sent to the gallows for the sake of minimizing crime in London.

But we're not going to let the true antagonist of this game get away with his bullshit! Time to pull Harely's ears! Cue another (S)Holmeus Ex-Machina where it turns out the entire secret trial has been livestreamed to the Queen of England through holograms. By royal decree, Stronghart is stripped of his title and will be prosecuted for his crimes at a later time. FINAL BOSS, DEFEATED.

With Stronghart out of the way, Van Zieks has some closing sentiments to offer.

“Is that my brother left this world without a word to me.”

I can see why that might bug him. Van Zieks always looked up to his brother and shielded him from disrespect even a decade after his death, but Klint in turn didn't seem to want to leave any parting sentiments for him, not even a simple farewell. That's not the case, though! Susato points out there's actually more to Klint's will than was read aloud, so let's hear it now.

“Barok, you have always looked up to me, and now, you follow in my footsteps to become a prosecutor. It is my fervent wish that my unspeakable deeds should not hinder your advancement. I ask not for understanding, for none could understand my depravity. I ask only for forgiveness. Asogi is a fine detective, and a hunter worthy of respect. He has agreed to honour my final two wishes. The first is that this document survives. The second... I cannot commit to paper. I have confessed my sins to my wife. May she find resolution in my death. With my eternal gratitude to my Japanese friend, I rest my quill.”

Imagine how different things would've ended if the will had found its way to Van Zieks shortly after Klint's death. It would've prevented so much grief and so much prejudice, because if Van Zieks had learned that Klint still regarded Genshin with so much respect and gratitude even in this situation, he would never have blamed him for Klint's death nor considered it too great a betrayal. Everything that happened was in line with Klint's wishes. As it stands now, the words in Klint's will basically serve to scold Van Zieks for his attitude and hatred these past ten years.

Yep, there we go. The final straw. He's been truly, utterly embarrassed and made to confront his mistakes. When Stronghart explains how his ambition to become Attorney General is what prompted him to silence people like Watson and Gregson. Van Zieks asks him whether he ever bothered to count the number of brilliant people he had killed. Kind of a questionable remark, since Stronghart mostly had criminals killed. We don't even know for sure whether Watson was a good person or not; he comes across as a cowardly skeeve. I guess Van Zieks is mostly talking about Genshin, but even that is... Uh...

I received an Ask a while back, bringing up the matter that Genshin appears to be exonerated of any wrongdoing when the truth of Klint's death is revealed. That despite duels being outlawed and it being literal murder, Kazuma seems to take this truth as his father's name being cleared. Indeed, going over everything we've learned so far, it feels as if the narrative has set up both Klint and Genshin, and even characters like Jigoku and Gregson, as victims of Stronghart's manipulation. The thing is, though... Both Genshin and Klint took at least one life of their own free will, Jigoku pulled a trigger twice for the sake of his own career (and recruited someone into an assassin plot), Gregson conspired with a notorious assassin to commit over a dozen murders just because his boss told him it was the right thing to do... Feeling bad about murder or resorting to it because 'the other person is even worse and needs to be stopped' doesn't change that it's murder. It doesn't seem as if Kazuma or anyone else outright says their loved ones are absolved of any responsibility/their names are cleared, but it does really come across as if the narrative wants you to forgive them. So uh... Yes. This is something the game should have properly addressed, instead of just going 'oh, these poor people, all used as puppets by the final boss'.

Anyway, (S)Holmes takes the time to remind Van Zieks that he's the defendant in this case, not the prosecutor. Our old friend Santa Judge returns for the adjudication! Turns out, he was in the gallery all along. (Was he chanting Stronghart's name too?) He talks about how the darkness of the past ten years has lifted, in part thanks to a bright young star from the East. Awww, we've completely won over the judge! Van Zieks now also has something to add.

“I had the faintest of intimations. That if British justice, so warped and twisted over its long history, was finally to know change... This might just be the man to do it. But at the time, I wouldn't allow myself to acknowledge the possibility. I couldn't overcome my hatred of the Japanese, after the circumstances of my brother's death. Mr. Naruhodo...”

He takes a flourishing bow here, an acknowledgment that Ryu is worthy of his respect and perhaps even that Ryu is superior to him, then stands up straight again for the final whammy.

Ryu is shocked and Susato is brought to tears. We did it, y'all. We've secured the full, heartfelt apology. I'm not sure there's really anything to add to this, nor anything we could want from it at this point in time. Ryu doesn't say he forgives Van Zieks for his discourtesies, but considering how hard he worked to get this guy cleared of murder, that would feel kind of out of place. The forgiveness happened long before Van Zieks apologized, or so is the implication. (Is that the correct narrative path? Not at all, but I'll get back to that in the conclusion.) So after some more closing words from Ryu, Van Zieks gets his not-guilty verdict and court is adjourned.

In the defendant's lobby, Ryu feels a bit conflicted about how this whole thing went down. Susato tries to cheer him up by saying that everything will seem much better once he sees Van Zieks's smiling face. Indeed, in most other Ace Attorney games, this would be the point where at last, an emotionally distant defendant/witness drops their walls and allows themselves to smile (or cry). Just think of Gina, Lana Skye or even Athena Cykes when she cries tears of joy during AA5's ending. Hilariously enough, Van Zieks is not one of those characters.

This is a really fun subversion of expectations and Ace Attorney tropes. And I still believe his face got frozen like that. Even so, he's got something heartfelt to say.

“For you to have risen to the level of excellence you demonstrated today... Well, it's quite remarkable.”

Sounds like a hatchet job of a compliment at first glance, but the sentiment is there. It is extremely remarkable for a foreign exchange student who's only been in the country for about 9 months- and who only spent like 2 of those as an active lawyer- to rise to such a level that he not only uncovers the truth of the current case, but of a cold case from 10 years prior, which was part of a huge cover-up. Ryu points out that he exposed a most 'unpalatable truth' in court and that he feels as if he robbed Van Zieks of something precious. Van Zieks doesn't seem to agree. He reminisces on Stronghart's words.

“But that... That was just the feeble excuse of a coward. Only those with a steadfast eye for the truth have what it takes to fight the dark forces of crime. You made fine work of establishing that fact in court today.”

So once again, he's complimenting Ryu's courtroom performance. Not only that, but he's acknowledging (in different words) the earlier sentiment that the truth needs to come out, no matter how painful. Perhaps, indirectly, he's calling himself a feeble coward as well. Ryu and Susato are proud of Van Zieks's growth, with Susato saying that surely Kazuma would be smiling if he were here. Naturally, when he shows up at that very second, he isn't smiling at all. Like mentor, like disciple! Kazuma takes a polite bow before Van Zieks and congratulates him on his acquittal. Naturally, after watching Kazuma prosecute so ferociously for two whole episodes, that doesn't feel sincere. Van Zieks asks him whether he doesn't instead want to curse him. Kazuma apologizes for his earlier behavior, which does feel 100% sincere.

“Your father, Genshin... If I had been stronger, then perhaps... I made an unforgivable error of judgment. … I can offer no excuse.”

One more apology to add to the pile! And here we once again reach that question of whether the narrative is acting like Genshin should be absolved of all blame. In a technical sense, Van Zieks wasn't wrong to prosecute Genshin, since he did seriously murder Klint. That alone is already warranting of the death penalty, so the added crimes of the Professor on top of that don't change too much. However, I don't think Van Zieks's lines truly relate to the Professor trial itself. The error of judgment, in my eyes, can also be seen as the blind acceptance that Genshin betrayed him (as well as Klint) when there was actually far more at play. This notion that Genshin was a horrid traitor who abused their trust and hospitality was then allowed to grow into an irrational hatred which festered for a decade. Regardless of whether Genshin killed Klint, the insistence that the man's true nature was that of a monster was wrong, and I think that's what he's apologizing for. To be clear, he's not apologizing for racist sentiments uttered towards Kazuma or anyone else from Japan with these lines. This purely relates to his treatment of Genshin. However, he already apologized for his many discourtesies back in the courtroom and I think the racist outbursts were part of those discourtesies.

Kazuma says he can offer no forgiveness, which is totally fair. Kazuma isn't obligated to forgive this man. He does, however, admit that he has respect for Van Zieks, since he “fought for justice and the truth”.

Awww! Remember how in my very first 'strong thought about Barok' post, I pointed out that Barok almost appears to have been designed to be Kazuma's rival prosecutor instead of Ryu's? Yeah. Here we see it very clearly. The reconciliation conversation between these two feels like a much better resolution than the conversation between Van Zieks and Ryu.

So now Kazuma brings up that Genshin promised to do two things for Klint, but the second wasn't mentioned in the will. Mikotoba shows up to share a very heartbreaking tale about Klint's unnamed widow, the lady Zieks-Baskerville, who was hiding out in Dartmoor and passed away from childbirth very shortly after Genshin was executed. The newborn baby girl survived, though! Van Zieks blurts out that that makes no sense. “Why on Earth wouldn't Klint have entrusted the child to my care in that case?!” And that alone is already kind of tragic, but what really packs a wallop is this:

This means Klint and his wife deliberately kept the pregnancy from him. It's never explained why. Genshin showed up at the manor in the spur of the moment and Klint died that very same night, when his wife must've already been around 8 or 9 months pregnant. (she gives birth about a week or two later, after all.) Klint says that he 'confessed his sins to his wife', but that also must've been very recent, if not that very same night, since Stronghart was threatening to tell Klint's wife and brother of his misdeeds. Stronghart's hold on Klint would've weakened if he'd told her the truth months ago, which in turn implies the both of them decided not to tell Barok while she herself was still oblivious to the Professor truth. Honestly, it all feels like a vague plotconvenience.

What is explained is why the newborn baby wasn't entrusted to Van Zieks. It isn't because Klint had the amazing foresight to know his younger brother would become a salty, loner alcoholic; it's because he and his wife feared the truth of the Professor might come out. Heck, if Genshin had never been arrested for Klint's death, perhaps it would've come out for certain. “The girl would be forever branded as the daughter of the infamous mass murderer.” So the baby girl was distanced from the Van Zieks family as much as possible, with all of London unaware of her existence. This girl is, of course, Iris.

Right on cue, the Harely plushie activates to receive a call from (S)Holmes and Iris. She invites everyone over to 221B for a feast and makes sure to invite “Mr. Reaper” too. He very awkwardly declines the offer.

Humanization? Humanization! He does, however, give Iris his word that he'll present himself at 221B in the near future to express his gratitude. I think a big part of why he declined the offer was because he wouldn't feel at home during the big celebration when a whole group of people is there. He'd much rather visit Iris during a more quiet, private moment and that's sweet too. Plus, I don't think he's in the mood for a celebration, considering all the horrible truths he's learned in a single day.

So now Kazuma prepares to leave and asks Van Zieks to accompany him. The wording of “would you care to-” makes it very clear this isn't a demand, it's a very soft request that Van Zieks is free to decline. Not that he hesitates for even a second. Here's some more parting words.

“I believe... You saved my life.”

He takes a deep, flourishing bow and honestly I've lost track of how many times he's praised/thanked Ryu by now. More than Edgeworth thanked Phoenix, most likely. The prosecutor duo prepares to walk away, but Ryu calls after Van Zieks, asking him to wait. Which he does. Ryu asks him what he intends to do now.

... “Prosecutor van Zieks chooses death”??? In a way, he's thinking of pulling a similar move. He intends to publicize the full truth of the Professor, and I can only imagine that includes Stronghart's involvement in what went down 10 years ago. Maybe he'll even share the truth of the Reaper who's haunted the courtroom all these years. He believes that “once that's done, the Van Zieks family will be ostracised completely from London society.” (I don't think he means living family members, but rather, the legacy of the Van Zieks name and the rights associated with it.) So because of that, he intends to leave the capital as soon as he's free of his employment. Considering how easily this man took a five year sabbatical and adding in the fact that the Lord Chief Justice just got arrested, I expect his resignation could be as easy as packing his desk and leaving his office without saying a word. Kazuma, however, calls him a fool and a coward. He basically dares Van Zieks to keep going now that he's finally freed from the pseudonym of the Reaper. Van Zieks neither agrees with the sentiment nor shoots it down, instead saying it's unexpected to hear those words from Kazuma of all people. With that out in the open, they leave for realsies.

Just as Van Zieks doesn't attend the Baker Street party, he isn't there when Ryu's at the docks to return to Japan. I like to think Kazuma did bother to tell Van Zieks that Ryu is leaving the country, because withholding that information seems like a bit of a jerk move, but... Well. Not showing up at the docks to say some final farewells is even more of a jerk move on Van Zieks's part. Though it's possible he felt he wasn't wanted there, and may eventually ask for Ryu's address so he can write a letter (which is far less imposing than invading a heartfelt farewell with a scowling face). It's a shame, though. I would've liked to hear his thoughts on Ryu's departure.

We learn that Kazuma will “stay in Lord van Zieks's tutelage for the time being” to become a full-fledged prosecutor. Which is fine, I guess. It doesn't matter whether he's a defense attorney or a prosecutor; all that matters is the pursuit of the truth. What catches my interest is that even with all that bad blood and refusal to forgive Van Zieks, Kazuma still agrees to keep studying as his disciple. This implies to me that he sincerely doesn't believe Van Zieks to be a bad person anymore, and acknowledges he can learn a lot from this man. Which is not the same thing as being on friendly terms with him, but at the very least he's giving Van Zieks the benefit of the doubt when it comes to improving their... Well, their dynamic, I suppose I should call it.

On to the credits scenes we go! This time, Van Zieks legit does get a scene of his own, but before we address this one, I want to skip ahead real quick to Albert Harebrayne's scene.

“He sent me a very nice letter saying he'd like to show me around now that everything was settled. B-But what have I done? I was so excited, I picked this splendid hotel and now I can't afford the bill! Oh Barok! Come to my rescue again, please! I, I wish I could just vanish into thin air sometimes!”

Several things of note can be taken out of this little scene. First of all, with the Reaper nonsense behind them, Van Zieks seems to have wasted very little time with asking his best buddy to return to London for that sightseeing that was promised. Presumably, he even paid for the trip (again), since Albert still seems to be very low on money. This, coupled with the fact that Van Zieks was reading that letter with quite a bit of dedication in his jail cell, indicates to me that he's longing for the good old days, when he could smile and have friends. He's trying to return to a sense of normalcy and since Albert is still considered his closest friend, it makes sense he'd reach out to him instead of a relative stranger like Kazuma. Baby steps. Now, the fact that Albert says “come to my rescue again” sets the very clear tone that this guy believes Van Zieks has helped him before- during the trial, of course. It's another reinforcement of the notion that Albert is thankful Van Zieks chose the role of prosecutor in order to defend the teleportation theory, even if it meant that he himself would be branded a murderer. Despite his gruff exterior and blunt words, Albert thinks of Van Zieks as a sort of knight in shining armor who will come save him. … With cold hard cash, in this case, but it's the gesture that counts. Van Zieks might allow Albert to stay in his mansion instead, but it depends how high the risk of assassination is at this point in time. People are probably hating on the Van Zieks family now that the truth of the Professor is out.

On to credits scene of Van Zieks himself! We have confirmation by now that he hasn't retired as a prosecutor, since Kazuma already expressed his intent to keep studying under him. So we see Van Zieks in his office, addressing Klint's painting.

“In those days, when I was known as the Reaper, I felt your presence at my side. Once, unable to bear the burden of that grim pseudonym, I even retired from the courtroom. Despite everything, I still wear your prosecutor's badge with pride. But the darkness that beset me is no more. As you, too... Are no more.”

The first two sentences of this bit feel very disjointed and barely related to me, so I had a quick look at some fan translations. First is the sub translation on Youtube: “I could feel you standing by my side through the days in which I was called the Reaper. Yet there were times I could not bear the burden of that name, and left the courtroom far behind me.” The “yet” is very crucial, since it makes the insinuation that feeling his brother's presence was very important to Van Zieks, but the burden became so overwhelming that he retired anyway. Taisa the Gamer's script doesn't have a “yet” in it, nor any equivalent, but the sentence structure still flows well enough not to cast doubt on how he felt about Klint's supposed presence. Contrasting that, the localization's wording with “even” almost makes it seem like feeling Klint's presence was a negative thing- that he was overwhelmed by it and that this was the burden associated with the Reaper name, as opposed to the killings. Which can't possibly be right; he already admitted to us that the idea of his brother's ghost helping him was one of the main reasons he kept on being the Reaper. So long story short, the localization's take on these first two lines is a little off.

The prosecutor's badge thing, however, is spot on. Despite everything- despite the 'true nature' of Klint now exposed, Van Zieks still wears the badge with pride. We know the badge is symbolical, of course. He still believes in Klint's sense of justice and he's still going to openly admit to being Klint's brother- to being a Van Zieks. That's sweet. He goes on to say that the darkness within him is no more. To really grasp what that means, let's go back to the end of case 2-3 for a second. There, Van Zieks says that after his brother's death, he found himself in “a very dark place indeed”. In case 2-4, he mentions that he refuses to trust others to protect himself against betrayal, but has now sunk into a proverbial mire which makes it impossible to breathe. All of that is the same darkness he's referring to now, I'm sure. I don't believe depression can lift this easily; there's no way that darkness is no more. However, I think what he means to say is that it no longer has such a strong hold on him that it manifests in paranoia and irrational hatred. He has a chance now to start fresh and that's what he intends to do. He's striding away from that darkness, towards a brighter future. In order for a person to change for the better, they themselves have to want to change, and it looks like Van Zieks is all for that. Which at last brings us to the conclusion of this essay series! The conclusion, which looks back on the original query posed in Part 1, will once again include a load of screencaps. To keep the post size lighter, I'm going to put it in a separate post. I hope you'll look forward to it!

#dgs #dgs spoilers #tgaa #tgaa spoilers #barok van zieks #ALMOST THERE #HHHHHHHHH