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thegrimreaperisanerd · 8 months

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hi :) binge read your de fic that you have posted on ao3 last night and really enjoyed all of it! excited to see any updates. was wondering if you have any rec for other fic youve read and enjoyed-- i am not god's bravest soldier and do not enjoy trudging through tags and was wondering if you had read anything yourself that you really enjoyed lolol

Hey, thanks so much!!! Sorry it's taken a couple days to answer this, I'm poor as shit and have two jobs now wah... capitilism...

I'm working on the next 46' chapter, It's about 70% complete and I generally let it sit for an evening once it's done then re-read it the next day to catch the vast majority of mistakes (I edit everything myself) so I'd say expect that in the coming days.

I have some thoughts! I... Have never been asked for fic recs before so I'm gonna list a bunch in no particular order that I enjoyed, and reasons why. I will note that I tend to enjoy meaty plot-based works over fluff, so that's what I'll be recommending. Anyway!

Paddling Out (THE REPEATER CORPSE CONUNDRUM) - @transhitman - So this is the first DE fic I read and it set the bar pretty fucking high. YOU'VE GOT: a very cool and insular setting (don't get me wrong I like fics where they travel around Revachol too, but there's something to be said for building a set and living in it for a while) YOU'VE GOT: extremely harrowing tension and pale-fuckery YOU'VE GOT: some genuinely beautiful, heartfelt moments (I don't want to spoil anything but "people don't need your permission to care about you" kinda undid me) YOU'VE ALSO GOT: Amazing art?! Always a bonus, I wish I could draw people lol

Have You Heard The News That You're Dead? - Wizardlover - Time Loop shenanigans hell yeah! Basic premise: Kim is *unable* to save Harry's life after he's shot at the tribunal, each time he dies he Reawakens in Martinaise on the first day and desperately has to try and find a way to either prevent the Tribunal entirely, or survive it. I think the major draw to this one is how well it's characterised and how well that lends to the major source of tension: trying to convince THE WORLD'S BIGGEST SKEPTIC that you *a man he 'has only just met'* is actually stuck in a time loop. Juicy shit.

The Case Of The Man Who Two-Thirds Wasn't There - @glisteningceruleaneyes - We got another case fic here, gang. This is one of those "they travel around Revachol" numbers I previously mentioned. A lot to love about this fic; the minor OCs are all loveable (or at least well-written, looking at you Mr. Bigot-All-Rounder), the elements of writing in the game's style (particularly use of Harry's 'to do' list that you find in the ledger, you don't see that as often!) are all fantastic. Also without spoiling too much I'm a sucker for hurt/ comfort :) I like when bad things happen to our specialist guy :) ALSO! alternating chapters, Kim vs Harry's perspectives contrast REALLY well! Just a super enjoyable read. - On that note I also wanna include a special mention: there's a podfic for this one and since I mentioned my two jobs, I've been listening to audiobooks at work (I'm a cleaner. It's very boring) and that was a fun change of pace!

The Emergent Causeway - hal_incandenza - Now you KNOW this one is good because it's the only *unfinished* fic I'm recommending. Again, We've got art! We've got a brand new (non-Revachol!) setting that still feels excellently Elysium! We got that excellent balance of humour and misery from the get go! EXCELLENT murder mystery so far, I am intrigued AND also there's a fucking puppy. Hell yeah. This one's from Kim's perspective and does a really good job of it, nothing like a man being begrudgingly sent on holiday and being somewhat relieved to have a corpse to deal with.

A Spilled Kaleidoscope - @spilledkaleidoscope - I'm actually recommending a series here. Real definition of "came for the art, stayed for the writing" I mostly have a soft spot because I got to watch a few "haha, what if-?" musing text posts become a series of written chapters and INCREDIBLE DRAWINGS HOLY SHIT. Like, you really just draw hands for fun, huh? This person made a pact with some sort of devil beasts to draw hands very good, at the bare minimum we can read their fiction.

Nothing To Lose But Our Chains - Lepak - I almost forgot this one and I honestly can't believe it because this is one of these ones that you need a cigarette afterwards. Good fucking god. This is probably the best fic I've ever read in terms of not shying away from the heavy themes that make Disco Elysium such a beautiful, moving game. It tackles a racism in many forms, particularly how people like Kim (in working for the RCM) and immigration laws do their part in upholding racist systems, despite the way it hurts him too. Of course, it's also excellently written with tense scenes and some real funny moments. A real good'un here.

The Catacomb Killer - SupposedToBeWriting - Give Harry more memory loss. Make him convinced he killed a kid. Make *Kim* convinced he killed a kid... Then the plot thickens. I won't lie I can't remember fuck all about this one because I was mostly drunk when I read it, but if it was good enough that I kept reading instead of smoking a spliff or something then it must have been excellent... I will re-read it when I have the time, lmao.

MURDER ON THE AIRWAVES - @randomisedmongoose - I'm just a really big fan of murder mysteries and gore. You show me somebody with brain matter pouring from their earholes and I'm like "yum yum, more of that please." I am a sucker for curious methods of murder and this one's good for that. Lots of trekking back and forth like in the game again. More ACAB - always good.

I did not mean to include this many...........................

Oh well. Here's my list, there are plenty of others I've enjoyed but these are just the ones that came to mind! Thanks again for reading my fic! Always makes me happy when people let me know they enjoy my writing :3

#hey if i tagged u in this and u don't want to be tagged then PLEASE lemme know and i'll remove u #likewise i dont know if everyone has tumblr so if u know somebody does ping this post their way and if they wanna be tagged let me know and #i'll do that #fic recs

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chubsonthemoon · 1 year

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GUESS WHOSE BOOK ARRIVED TODAYYYYYY SO NOW I GET TO POST PICS!!!!

This is To Hell and Back Again, by dear dear @perexcri. Cover design by @byierficrecs (thank you SO much for letting me use your design!). Binding by me!

I'm not in ST fandom, but I had the pleasure of skimming this fic while I was typesetting, and can I just say? I'm rooting for these kids SO hard. I'd go to hell and back again for them--[GUNSHOT]

But in all seriousness, Leah's writing is whip-smart, sincere, and funny as hell. I cannot recommend it enough to anyone who is a fan of these crazy kids. Her ao3 is a veritable treasure trove of excellent byler stories, which you should absolutely check out right now go do it!!!

As usual, process chatter and more pics, under the cut! <3

WORD COUNT: 144k

FONTS:

Title: Hellprint

Heading/Chapter Headings/Spine Titling: Norwester

C4 Summary: Roboto Condensed

Main Body Text: Garamond

COVER MATERIAL: Epson Premium Presentation Paper Matte, printed on my Epson Ecotank (more on that later baha)

HEADBANDS: Trebizond silk thread in the colors Garnet and Black

EDGE PAINTING: Acrylic paint in Crimson and Black

TITLING: Red iron-on foil for the text and white HTV for my maker's mark. Cut by Charlotte, my Cricut!

BINDING:

This was my first go at a German Bradel binding! I've seen lots of Renegade folks use this method and am so psyched I got around to trying it myself. I modified DAS's approach a bit and tipped on endpapers instead of sewing them in (there were a lot of new things to learn so I decided to shelve sewn endpapers for the next binding XD). I also only had 2.0 mm bookboard instead of 1.0 mm, so instead of layering two of the same boards like DAS did, I instead used one 2.0 mm board and one very thin piece of cardboard to create the groove for the hinge. The original article that DAS bases his video on actually uses boards of two different sizes too--a "thick" board and a "thin" board--but I still want to experiment with DAS's way of doing it, especially since I think it'll be easier to do cutouts on thinner board.

As far as matching the groove with the hinge, I think I did pretty okay for my first try! One board is definitely better fitting than the other though baha. There's always room for improvement, but hey that's where half the fun is anyway (and also you can't tell after the case-in whew), so I'm not stressed about it :D

COLOR SCHEME:

Nearly all of my design decisions for the color scheme were based off of @byierficrecs's gorgeous cover design! They were so generous in letting me use their cover and answering my questions about fonts, for which I can't thank them enough. And with so many wonderful elements to work with, it was so much fun to tease out the elements I loved from their work!

I decided to keep with the theme of red/black, which I also thought was fitting for a ST fic set largely in the Upside Down. Thus, black painted edges with red vines, as a kind of inverted, "upside down" continuation of the cover:

Even the thread I used to sew the signatures is red/black! :3 (please also ignore how the picture of the textblock is not focused on the actual textblock ajsldkfjs it was very late when I took that photo)

COVER PRINTING:

This was my first time printing a cover on my new printer (!!!), and BOY oh boy was it an adventure. Figuring out the dimensions took a second, but not as long as it took me to figure out what settings produced something I was happy with. Behold, all my test prints:

Very long story short, let's just say now I understand why being a prepress color specialist is literally a career you can have in publishing LOL.

Also, for some reason I could only sometimes get the bleed to work? Basically what I ended up doing was painting over the parts where the design didn't quite extend over the turn-ins, using with the same black acrylic paint I used for the edges. You can see this more clearly in the photos I took of the groove, and the endpapers covered the messy bits when I cased in:

THE MAIN INGREDIENT: LOVE

Finally!! The most important part of the process!!! HI LEAH ILY!!!! This fic is special for a lot of personal reasons, but chief among them is LOVE!!!! Your A/N's made me tear up when I first read it, because AH! You read my words of love!!! And went and wrote hundreds of thousands of your own words of love!!! And now I hope I've given that love back once again :3 And on and on we go, ad infinitum, until we are relieved of the curse of literacy and greet whatever comes after all this, thanks be to Todd. But until then, I'm so glad I get to shoot holes out of bagels and scream about radioactive tumblr posts and cry over fake people with you, friend :] Truly, peace and love on FUCKING Planet Earth. We are making it and we will all go together when we--[ANOTHER GUNSHOT]

I'm so excited to see where we're going, and what other stories we have to tell. But for now: EEEEEEEE YOU WROTE A BOOK!!!!!!!

<33333!!!

#Stranger Things #Byler #bookbinding #fanbinding #ficbinding #To Hell and Back Again #perexcri #friend fic!#<333

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zelda-cooper · 5 months

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My version of Loonatics Unleashed

This is just my interpretation of this universe of "Loonatics Unleashed", don't take it as a summary of the series or as absolute truth to interpret your version. NO! It's just MY view and you have every right to disagree. Furthermore, there will be low-level words (even though I censor some) and there may be sensitive topics for certain people. Besides, this refers to the universe of Loonatics Unleashed, so for those who don't care, you can skip this blog, but for those who are a fan or if this interests you, you can continue reading.

So... I was researching hashtags for animated series that I like in general, whether it's the ones I've already mentioned like Steven Universe and The Owl House, or series that a lot of people don't know about, which is the case with the series "Loonatics Unleashed", which (giving a really bad summary-) is one of several Looney Tunes reinventions, but here it's about them in a superhero version. Yeah... The 2000s had that- Jokes aside, I really think it's a good series and I like it, even though the series has its flaws and I recognize that. And, interestingly, @drakepad-luv-2000 made a blog talking about her version of Loonatics Unleashed, with her Headcanons and ideas. So I'm making this blog copying his idea - Just kidding... I asked if I could do it with the same theme and she gave me permission. I'm not that dishonest. So, having given that introduction... Let's move on to my version of Loonatics Unleashed! AH- And if you want to share your opinion, leave it in the comments, but if you want to make a blog with the same theme, give credit to me and @drakepad-luv-2000, ok? Excellent! ^^

I'm going to end up dividing this blog into topics, the first will just be to reformulate the backstory and the second part will talk more about the characters themselves. I won't be able to talk about all the topics, in fact, these three are JUST to start talking about Loonatics Unleashed, there are also the conflicts and evolutions of the characters, their relationships, the villains themselves and even my OCs from this universe (you They thought I wouldn't put my character in, right? Obviously I would...-w-). So, if you feel like it, I can do a part two. But let's get down to business.

Series Plot (Reinvented)

Speaking of the series' plot, Drakepad, when talking about Headcanons, said that she wanted to change the plot a little to the year 2017 because it was more relatable for us, because the series, even though it takes place in the future, for some reason had the technologies of the years 2000 which are currently old... And, honestly, I agree with her point... But I still wanted to get this more futuristic theme for the series, as that's what gives the series a certain charm. So I'm going to mix some ideas... The series will take place in a year that is not exactly specified, but it will be both close to the years 2017 to 2024 (which is the current year that the blog is being published) and also having elements of Cyberpunk with Advanced Technology from science fiction films, also taking some things from hero stories.

The meteor part... It will be discarded because, honestly... How the HELL did the meteor only affect Acmetropolis, but not the whole world?! If it's something like the dinosaur meteor, there would be people with powers ALL OVER THE WORLD. Ok, I think I'm demanding too much logic for a children's series, but still... They could have elaborated more. Back... So, if the meteor was discarded... What caused the characters' powers? And here I get the idea of a classic Anime... Akira!

If you don't know the plot of the exquisite film, it's basically a Japan (or just Tokyo, I don't remember-) in the Cyberpunk future caused after a nuclear explosion (or not, that's a story spoiler-) that made the city become a technological place, however, underneath all the neon and wealth, the poor part of the city ends up suffering a lot from marginality and crime, mainly affecting the young people of this generation who do not respect their elders and do not know the history, they were just born in a country already destroyed. And, in the middle of the story, children with paranormal powers are revealed... I know the story is crazy, but the film is good... It's just a bit violent in many ways-

Returning to the story of Loonatics... I adapted the story of the series a little with some content that she herself showed, like the fact that there are aliens and such... And taking some conspiracies from real life, because it might help... (or not, you know- ). It's also good to get a little of Zadavia's story and her brother's story itself, it's still similar to the original. The main difference is the context of everything... In the beginning, the brothers actually worked together to achieve union with certain planets with the High Council, however they both took care of different things. Zadavia was the more diplomatic person, while Optimatus was the one who took care of the military troops and this made them have different views, but to a certain extent they got along well. However, the day came that the High Council found out about the Milky Way and, consequently, about the planet Earth, so Optimatus and some soldiers went to the planet to try to keep a close eye on the place. But, well... Being human is a complicated being, and if he is already bad with his own species, who will say with Aliens? It didn't happen otherwise, Optimatus and his soldiers were captured and taken to Area 51, where they were tortured and many died in experiments, which is why Optimatus' burns and scars appeared here. He managed to escape, however... He was completely changed and, when he returned, he wanted to annihilate planet Earth and the entire human race for the savagery he went through.

Even hearing the experiences he went through, the High Council denied the proposal for mass annihilation, largely due to Zadavia, who believed that not all humans were bad. Then follows the same idea of Optimatus having kidnapped (in this case, REALLY KILLED) the rest of the council and only being left with Zadavia, who took refuge on Earth because she was one of the few races physically similar to his own, while Optimatus, also trying annihilating the human race, caused an explosion in one of the cities, which was where he was captured, which killed many people, others were left with irreversible damage to their DNA and there were also places still affected by radiation. There were survivors who, in the future, would end up developing mutations in the future that would give them powers, who are our protagonists and also some villains in the series.

In the future, the city managed to rebuild itself, becoming the Acmetropolis that we see today, which on the one hand, became a city full of technology and neon, but on the other, in the poorest and dirtiest regions, it became a place full of crime and both adults and young people traumatized by the "atomic" explosion. The media, at the time, said that it was an explosion caused by an enemy country, but in fact, it was one of Optimatus' attempts to take revenge on humans. While Zadavia? She tried to start life again on Earth, however her alien appearance made her hide her real appearance with a hologram device, making her pass as a mere normal human, both to really start over and to hide from her brother. But, of course... One time or another... He would come back... And until then, she would have to prepare herself too.

And that's kind of the plot of this version, at least, the story of the reason for the technologies and the powers of the protagonists and villains. I don't know if it's too crazy or if it's a bit "cliché", but either way... I feel like I managed to create a good initial plot, in a way, but now, having already mentioned them... Let's talk about the characters.

Main Characters (Reinvented)

I'm going to say right away in this topic that, basically, I'm going to take some ideas from Drakepad, but just as inspiration. Like the fact that Ace and Lexi are brothers here (because considering they are descendants of Bugs Bunny and Lola Bunny, it's really weird for them to ship...), but I want to make it clear that I'm not going to change the gender of the characters. There are also things like the characters being adults in this version and having already gained their powers before the explosion, but certain events were triggers for them to awaken them. I only change gender or sexuality when it really suits and makes sense, but I honestly like to maintain a certain Canon of the series, and in this case it will be the gender of the protagonists (sexuality is another story...7w7). And another thing... Among the protagonists, there will be NO ships, but there may be some implicit insinuations of a certain relationship between the characters, however very subtle. So let's start with Ace and Lexi...

• Ace and Lexi Bunny

The two are twin brothers who were born in Acmetropolis and, when they were little, they were one of several people who survived the explosion event with their parents by pure luck, however, their mother ended up passing away after medical complications caused by the event, which made Lexi become the "woman" of the family, having to take care of the house, while Ace started working with his father and younger brothers to earn a living. Ace and Lexi, prematurely, ended up having to mature very early to be able to help their family members, with the boy being more affected, even more so with his father also being distant from him, making Ace learn to fight to defend his brothers and having to leave many of the dreams and goals aside sometimes, but I always had a fascination for these heroes from old films. Lexi, in turn, learned several household chores, but still managed to discover her passion for music and dance, dreaming of being a songwriter or singer, to try to bring hope to everyone. As adults, while Lexi managed to enter a more musical career, as a music teacher, Ace also tried to follow his dream of being an actor, but he was unable to pursue the career, as they always judged him as someone incapable, making him give up on that altogether. and starting to work as a handyman. Their powers awakened together, on a day at work, Lexi was going to pick up her brother from one of his jobs, when she was approached by some bad-intentioned boys, with Ace trying to defend her, but both being incapacitated. However, when they were going to harm both of them, that was a trigger for their powers to awaken, which scared the guys and made them run away, calling them monsters and freaks. An event that would mark them forever... And that, in the future, would make them approached by Zadavia and make them meet the rest of the team.

• Danger Duck

The duck is one of several orphans left over from the Acmetropolis explosion, having been trapped in the rubble of their home for many days, scared. When he was found, he was sent to an orphanage along with several other children, where he met his best friend and "brother" Pinkster, who was the only person he could really call a friend, as they were both excluded by the other children. for being "animals" among thousands of human children. Until the day came when the last couple arrived at the orphanage, where Duck used the two-sided coin to be adopted by the couple, a fact that he would regret for the rest of his life... After being adopted, his new parents They gave him all the love they could, but Duck still didn't feel like he belonged to that family, after all they were human and he was a duck. This made him very insecure, but he always tried to hide it in some way. As an adult, he left home and tried to find a job so he could support himself and be able to do well in some way, whether it was being rich or having some form of power, but he was always put down and ridiculed. The trigger that made him awaken his powers was in another one of the many horrible jobs he had, in which he was stressed to such a level that he wanted to disappear from there, which made him teleport to another place, which scared everyone and they made they run away. And, just like the Bunny brothers, he found Zadavia and joined the team.

• Slam Tasmanian

There is not much information about his family, but it is known that he was born in Australia into a huge family. In Slam's case, he just went to Acmetropolis to have a better life, but he was affected by the post-explosion radiation that still resided in certain places. He worked as an underground fighter to earn money, which is where his powers awakened and he used them to his advantage. And when they asked about it, the organizers said "Ah, it's a special effect". He was discovered and found by Loonatics and Zadavia, who offered him to join the team.

• Tech E. Coyote

Again, he is another person affected by the explosion, but in Tech's case, the problems would have started a little earlier. He had been diagnosed with autism since he was little, which made him have some problems communicating with people and had restricted interests, which made him suffer a lot of bullying. However, it was with his parents that he developed a passion for technology, building several things with them. When he went to college, he met Mallory, who became her friend (and possible crush...?), but when he found out about her plan, he soon stopped her and reported it to the teachers, leaving him alone again. His powers were slowly awakening, starting with his molecular regeneration, where some injuries and burns were suddenly healed, until he was able to manipulate metal, which was very useful later in his work. He was found by Zadavia and the others who, as he deduced, also gained their powers from the explosion, joining the team as well.

• Rev Runner

Finally, we come to my favorite. Rev has always been a hyperactive child who didn't pay attention to things, mainly because he has ADHD, however his father didn't want to believe that, just saying that "He's just an overly agitated Roadrunner" or "He's just throwing a tantrum" . Rev then continued with this mental condition, without knowing he had it, always pressured by his family to continue their business, especially after the explosion, where they were trying to get back on their feet. Soon Rev gained a younger sister, "Riley", however the little one didn't like acting like a girl and wore much more of Rev's old clothes, with the older brother always calling her by the pronouns "He/His". Soon, "Riley" came out as a trans man and became "Rip", but his father never accepted this and always said that "his daughter" was contradicting him, making the situation at home even worse. When Rev turned 18, he immediately wanted to take his brother with him, but again was stopped by his parents, unfortunately having to go alone. This small event made him, little by little, unlock the powers that, like Tech, were gradually unlocked, and which he used in his work as a delivery man. He was soon found by Loonatics and Zadavia, also joining the team.

Conclusion

And that's it, folks! There are still A LOT of things I still want to cover in my version of Loonatics, but the blog is already getting huge... So I'll leave it for a probable part two. Thank you for reading this blog! BYEEEEE!!!

#loonatics unleashed #rev runner #tech e coyote #ace bunny #lexi bunny #danger duck #slam tasmanian #loonatics #looney tunes

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thebwarch · 1 year

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Everybody’s talked about Velma to death and had all their takes but I wanted to get one thought out that’s eating me alive before it completely passes from pop conscience.

This show creates so much contrast within itself so as to create a non-audience that it’s kind of incredible.

And it goes way deeper than people really think if you’ve only watched the takes from afar and seen a couple clips. Anything that this show or ANY show could possibly excel at it spoils for itself on a completely rapid pace and there is almost ZERO way to approach the show from any direction and enjoy it.

Layer 1 is it’s a Scooby spinoff, family friendly franchise, funny moments and charming characters, now it’s an adult show with cursing and gore and completely unlikable characters.

BUT THEN, say you’re here for the adult moments and gore and cursing. You are not going to be down for how juvenile and silly this show gets at the same time.

So then you have this weird mix of rightism and leftism where the show has race-swapped characters who say politically incorrect things, idiots against race swapping characters will hate it and lefties will hate the actual ideology and “jokes” on tap.

So say you don’t care about Scooby Doo and you’re approaching the show as an adult mystery show, the actual mystery and plot progression is painful, especially in the first week the show came out where there were only two episodes *and the plot had literally not progressed in the slightest and zero actual worthy clues have been found, only a red herring*

Say that you’re a fan of well-done animation, this isn’t that, the show does the bare minimum a majority of the time with maybe five seconds of sakuga if that per episode. But it’s also not atrociously bad to just show up to laugh at it, it’s boring in its terrible presentation.

The show ruins its serious moments with its “funny” moments, and ruins its “funny” moments with serious moments. If you’re here for a down-to-earth mystery, Velma assaults Daph with zero repercussion in the first 5 minutes of the show and main characters slice off background character limbs with zero repercussion. So you’re completely uninvested in taking the mystery or story seriously, and the comedy in and of itself does not work. I laughed a FEW times in the first two episodes. I actually enjoyed hearing about Velma’s mom going missing and her search for her, before the show ruined a touching scene seconds later.

I don’t even know if the show was made this way accidentally or on purpose for rage bait and I barely care about that aspect at this point, a behind the scenes feature completely going over production would be interesting but we are so not getting that in the detail I’d like. People have a pet theory the show was an original show before being slapped with Scooby Doo paint and like, no, if this show didn’t have the Scooby property it would not be better and it would not save it. It doesn’t HELP it to have the Scooby paint, but even REMOVING that element I would not like this show in a vacuum.

This show has TALENT behind it, the people behind it worked on Bojack Horseman and The Office, I’ve watched neither but people like those things in *droves*. It’s *bizarre* to put something together with such contrasting goals and non-audience with the pedigree of the people involved. It feels so accidental because in the leadup to this it REALLY FELT like the people making this show *cared* about it.

Some people say this show is bad because it doesn’t have Scooby and it’s a spin-off without the titular character. *Motherfucker what*. It’s not bad because it’s a spin-off it’s bad because it’s bad. It flies in the face of tons of other spinoffs that I’M SURE THESE SAME PEOPLE ADORE. Teen Titans, every piece of Robin media in general, Better Call Saul, Legend of Korra, Luigi’s Mansion, the list can go on and on. A Velma spinoff focusing on her character and doing a mature mystery twist on the formula sounds amazing on paper, it’s just the execution that fumbles.

There’s this bit at the beginning of episode 1 that’s really emblematic of everything. They have some BG charas taking a group shower at high school and talking about how much they hate sexualized TV, and then one pipes up to say that they like it and sex absolutely sells and everyone else is secretly a pervert. In this censored privates shower scene. It MIGHT work as meta commentary, if these weren’t minors in highschool. Like no, this is not the sex that sells, your designs and art are god awful, I am not going to get turned on at these actual fucking teenagers. It’s really bizarre and awful that you made an adult show with adult concepts surrounding these actual teenagers in actual highschool.

Fred’s becoming one of the most beloved characters in animation history, his last few outtings have made him an adorkable himbo that people adore. And then in this he’s a spoiled rich pathetic white boy, which mind you, I would LOVE to bash on that archetype if it wasn’t goddamn Fred. I LIVE to hate on the rich and pampered with my absolute abysmal bank account. But when you make it THIS character with THIS history, people are OF COURSE going to be sore and going to miss old characterization.

MAYBE IT IS PURPOSEFULLY DONE RAGE BAIT AFTER ALL...

The best thing anyone can do is not talk about it (I have failed) and let it pass, but it’s not as if not talking about it will stop it because it’s already been renewed for a second season. Make it a meme that HBO Max holds terrible shows and renews terrible shows, “HBO Max, home of Velma, the worst show on streaming”

Anyway go watch Puss in Boots Last Wish!

#Velma #Velma hbo max #hbo max #critique #Review #Scooby Doo #Bwarch OC

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theminecraftbee · 4 months

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as someone who is also interested in making a persona au but is struggling, how do you decide on the more persona specific stuff? like, how do you decide on stuff like who’s which social link, what personas they have, costumes (if they have any in your au) and stuff like that? it’d be nice to hear about someone else’s thought process;;

SO! starting with general advice that will apply even outside of persona aus: the thing is that none of the assignments will ever be perfect. the inherent nature of ANY au like this is that different people will have different character opinions; for example, i'm sure there are people vehemently think my social link assignments should be different! and that's fine; your goal isn't "perfect, immutable fit", your goal is "it fits to the story i'm trying to tell". like, in general,

with that ALSO said: you shouldn't try to shove characters perfectly into roles from other things, either. two different characters will have two different reactions to Situations, and you should take advantage of that, too! it's like... the role you give a character WILL shape them, but the character will shape that role, too.

with that out of the way: specific persona au thoughts!

first, you are going to want to decide who your team will eventually be; persona squads normally start out with around three guys and end up at seven or eight (with the eighth man often being an odd-one-out). I went “the cherry blossom hill gang” in my au, which was easy, but you may have less simple ideas there! also keep in mind that you will, at least, have protagonist/healer/physical damage/magical damage as the four “basic” in-game archetypes, with persona also typically having a “balanced” guy who does both, a status setter, an instakill guy, and a party buffs guy, spread across its guys. so if that helps you here, excellent! you will also need at least one of the main party to be a navigator.

you will also want some idea of the “themes” of your au because it’ll help you out deciding personas and social links, plus a little plot.

so, first: each persona game has a “theme” for the main party personas. 3 is all greek legendary figures that evolve to greek gods (with lucia prior to ultimate personas breaking theme, and kala-nemi and messiah breaking theme with the ultimate personas). 4 is all japanese gods that evolve to another name of those same gods (with chie breaking theme in that her ultimate persona has nothing to do with her original one). 5 is all legendary rogues/thieves that evolve to trickster gods (with necronomicon breaking theme and frankly milady is a STRETCH for the starter personas, and astarte and anat being questionable for the ultimates). as the like… MANY caveats show, you don’t have to be perfectly on-theme, but having a theme at least in mind helps a lot with picking what persona everyone gets by narrowing the pool! for my au, is went “famous lovers”, since a major “theme” of my au is “isolation versus bonds”. however, you don’t have to stick to something with thematic relevance, you just want something that helps tie everyone together a little bit.

as for weapons, what elements they attack with, what their party role is like: that’s a personality call, you know? and don’t be afraid to get a little weird with it, we aren’t atlus, we CAN break character archetype.

as for social links: that’s indeed tricky! it can help to remember you don’t ACTUALLY need to come up with 22. the world/the universe is ALWAYS only the protagonists final persona. the fool is ALWAYS a plot-driven social link that effectively represents “the protagonist’s relationship with the plot”, with p3/4 making that the team, and p5 making that igor. judgement is ALWAYS a plot-driven social link that represents the protagonist at the end of their journey; in p3/4 it’s the team at the end of the plot once they know their true purpose, and in p5 it’s sae nijima as she interrogates the protagonist. so that cuts out three arcana already to be set aside as “this is for the plot”.

next, while I know this isn’t true of p3, it makes sense from our own writing perspective where our story is NOT constrained by “gameplay dictates a social link can happen at any time” to make each member of the team a social link. fill out the rest with additional canon characters.

but how to decide which character goes in which link? helpfully, this is persona: it tends to have a little less to do with personality and more to do with storyline. you can go by “what character fits the tarot symbolism best”—doc as the tower, jimmy as the hanged man—or “what character fits the normal persona character archetype for this arcana”—skizz as chariot, mumbo as moon. you can also go for a mix! if you don’t KNOW what kind of character normally fills an archetype, the megami tensei wiki has pages for each arcana that describes the typical character archetype that goes there. you can also break type as needed—joe is hermit in my au despite “hermit” not really being his persona character archetype for very specific plot/tarot reasons, for example, and impulse is emperor, but is breaking persona type by being a healer rather than a heavy physical attacker. it’s your au, have fun with it!

also, ultimately, know that because it’s your au to have fun with, if you DON’T have fun giving everyone an arcana, just pick out the ones that are relevant to the part you’re writing and ignore the rest until they come up. this is my tactic for worldbuilding in like half the aus I write it hasn’t steered me wrong yet.

good luck! I hope this helped!

#answered #skateboardlover421

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queenkenzo24 · 5 months

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Greetings to all you call the midwife fans. I wanted to give some clarification on the poll I created about Miss Higgins. I’ve spent a long time thinking deeply on how I wanted to word this in a way that makes my opinion clear in a meaningful way without sounding mean.First of all, thank you to everyone who gave thoughtful and detailed responses to my poll and their insights on the character Miss Higgins. I wanted to clarify that my dislike of this character in no way is me trying to discredit Heidi Thomas and all the beautiful things she’s created. This will however provide some criticism on how she’s written and how I think her character could be improved. Before my poll, I genuinely thought Miss Higgins was a character that was intended to be disliked. I thought the point of her character was that she was constantly being made fun of to the point where no one liked her. Obviously I was wrong in that assumption. I understand my generalization of just calling her annoying and rude in my poll was an overstatement made when I thought that was obvious. Since it isn’t obvious, I want to go into my reasoning for disliking this character.

A lot of the reasons I don’t like Miss Higgins actually boil down to the fact that I think her character has shown little growth in her time on the show. Someone on my poll commented that she was only mean to Shelagh at the beginning of her time on it because they had disagreements about record keeping. I don’t see this hatred as something that is only limited towards her first few episodes, or something that is only directed towards record keeping purposes. To be fair, a lot of their disagreements do seem to be record keeping based, but I don’t think Miss Higgins handles these nicely. There’s a polite way to ask for your policies to be respected, and then there’s what she does. She’s constantly scowling any time Shelagh wants to look at records, rudely telling her that her way of handling the Asian records were ineffective, and scowling when anyone asks for Shelagh’s organizational help(she got so upset when Sister Julienne went to Shelagh for help typing up and printing satisfaction questionnaires). Shelagh isn’t stupid, untrustworthy, or bad with records. She was Dr Turners receptionist for years before Miss Higgins came along. Miss Higgins also seems to have a disdain for Shelagh and Patrick’s relationship. When Patrick gave Shelagh flowers after seeing the Sound of Music, Miss Higgins practically scowled at them. In season 13 episode 1(Spoilers I guess) Miss Higgins looked pissed off just because she walked in on them being all cute as they ate lunch together. It feels as though whenever Miss Higgins sees them being a normal couple doing cute couple things, it makes her angry. Here’s where the growth element comes into it. I was expecting after a while of her being on the show of someone talking to her about this issue she seems to have with Shelagh. I was expecting that Phyllis, or maybe even Timothy, was going to pull her aside and ask her what her issue was with Shelagh(and also her relationship with Patrick) I saw an excellent fic once where this happened and Phyllis figured out that Miss Higgins was judging them because of the rumors she heard years ago about Shelagh being a nun and the improper things that might have happened between her and Patrick. I saw another fic where Trixie pointed out to her how hard Shelagh was working raising 3 young children(and obviously Timothy but he’s older) at the same time as she’s working so hard as a nurse and it changed her whole perspective and attitude towards Shelagh. A conversation like this would certainly be uncomfortable, but it would provide growth.

Another opportunity I feel they missed out on showing growth was when Miss Higgins stayed at Nonnatus house. She seemed to make everyone uncomfortable and had several habits that made her hard to live with. I wish a conversation had taken place where Phyllis pointed out to her that she was being horrible. Demanding your friends make you special meals(which you then complain about), taking long baths when there’s a roster, and forcing everyone to listen to your instruments when no one asked to listen to them are not polite roommate behavior. Her music is another opportunity where growth could be shown. She seems to have no concept of peoples lack of interest in her musical abilities( when that’s even obvious to the girl with autism that’s embarrassing). Phyllis really seemed embarrassed by the fact that Phyllis wanted to do a history of woodwind instruments for the talent show and yet at no time did they show her having a conversation where she voiced that concern. These conversations are really hard. Trust me, I’ve had more than enough hard conversations about social cues and polite behavior as someone with autism. It’s never fun. But those conversations would provide growth to a character that I don’t feel has changed very much in the time she’s been on the show.

Now let’s talk about things that don’t excuse her behavior. I don’t think her being raised in India changes how her behavior should be seen. Do you know who was also brought up in India? Chummy. While being a little socially awkward, Chummy doesn’t have any of the same issues with being a nice, polite, courteous human being. I’ve seen a lot of people say that her personality flaws can be looked past because she grew up in India. Growing up in India doesn’t give you an excuse to be a jerk. The other excuse for her behavior I’ve seen is that she’s just a quirky character that a lot of people in this fandom can relate to. Being quirky also doesn’t excuse you being rude. We should hold everyone to the same standards of being polite and kind people no matter what. Other characters in the series get backlash for their objectivity rude behavior. Chummy had Sister Evangelina to(sometimes unfairly) call out her behavior and push her towards growth. When Patsy was first on the show, she was shown to be not very conscious of the feelings of the mothers she was treating. She was a bit brash and wasn’t very comforting to them. She was quickly told that her behavior wasn’t great, and it was uncomfortable, but she learned and grew from that situation. That’s what I really want for Miss Higgins. For someone to push back against her behavior and cause her to change and grow.

In conclusion(I legit feel like that’s such a high school English paper thing to say but it works) I feel like Miss Higgins actually has potential to be a decent character, but she has too many flaws that have been overlooked and remained unchanged to the point where it’s made her an unbearable character for me to watch in Call the Midwife. I hope her character can improve, but I’m honestly loosing hope of that at this point.

I hope that this all made sense. I tried so hard to keep this concise(obviously I failed at that but I have lots of opinions) and well thought out. I really don’t mind if anyone likes Miss Higgins. It’s simply a difference of opinion that I know I can’t change. I just really wanted to show why I feel the way I do.

#call the midwife #miss higgins #shelagh turner #patrick turner #timothy turner #ctm #heidi thomas #turnadette

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paragonrobits · 8 months

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given the heavy amount of inherent romantic subtext between Fionna and Ice Prince and thus by definition Simon Petrikov (as, even more than Winter King, Ice Prince feels a LOT like an idealized depiction of Simon at his most fancy and subdued sophistication and has no real signs of Ice King at all except for the magic jewels on his cape), I think its not implausible that we're meant to see some kind of romantic vibe or possibility between them

and in particular, Fionna has a few similarities towards Betty that's interesting in this regard; she has a similar impulsive attitude that ultimately drives the plot and her decisions keep forcing Simon out of his passive box, and she has more than a few verbal quirks that are specifically thinks Betty says: compare Betty time traveling and declaring 'I'm leaving past you for now you, dum-dum!" with Fionna bonking him on the head and making him think straight while also calling him dum-dum, which I don't recall anyone else saying.

So with this in mind, what are we to think? Is this deliberate in-universe? It's pretty likely that if it is, it might be coincidental; I don't think you can ENTIRELY rule out Golbetty pushing Fionna in this direction, though I don't know if it sounds right for Golbetty to essentially make Fionna a substitute for her, especially since their character arcs aren't aligned in finding substitutes

what I think IS happening is that both of them have personalities that lean in that general direction; its clear that Fionna is at least interested in the sort of personality Ice Prince represents; the calm and literally cool sophisticated gentleman, which also lines up with Hunter's character, though he's more of a blue collar variation. It's likely that this sort of guy is her type as far as men-aligned people go. (Which makes a contrast given that she gives the impression she still hates baths and probably smells of wet beef, but horrible gremlin x sophisticated gentlefolk IS an excellent character contrast)

Simon is a bit harder to gauge in this direction; we only really have Betty as an established person he was personally interested in. However, we CAN make some guesses with Ice King and the princesses he tried to pursue, most obviously Bubblegum (who might also be the one he pursued the most because she has quite a few things in common with Betty), but from the other princesses he tended to fixate on, there's a few common elements. They tend to be highly intelligent (which, no offense to Fionna, but she IS a Finn variant so... emotional intelligence perhaps but not really a brainlord), very assertive (yeah), impulsive (oh yeah) and even physically powerful (and while Fionna doesn't quite have the power to match up her bravado, she WANTS to); she does map up pretty well to the sort of people Simon has fixated on while he was Ice King.

with this in mind if Golbetty's intent WAS to set them up for whatever reason or get them to move on, respectively, it probably wasn't the most sensible decision given that any crossover romance is the most extreme long distance relationship imaginable but also that DOES sound like a Betty plan. good intention I guess!

#adventure time #golbetty #simon petrikov #fionna campbell #fionna and cake #simon x fionna #simonna #queued #analysis

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pascalishere · 1 year

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Ok, here are some thoughts on Death Grips, cause I forgot earlier whoops

I’ve been feeling some latent frustration with how I see a lot of people online engage with their music. I don’t mean to be some kind of elitist about this, but a lot of the (deserved) praise that I see them getting feels kind of…detached? It’s almost always coming from the kind of “woah, this music is crazy…but it works somehow?” mindset. I know I’m absolutely making a strawman argument here, but I’ve seen it enough times to where I feel like it’s not just a person I’m making up in my head to be mad at.

I feel like some people don’t get that DG isn’t good in spite of the “insanity”, they’re good because of the “insanity”. And I’ll admit, a lot of their music can be quite alienating! They use lots of abrasive textures, MC Ride’s performances can get very intense, it’s all a lot. But I feel like there are tons of moments of sheer beauty within DG’s discography. The riff from Centuries of Damn comes to mind, it’s so tired and desperate sounding, it’s incredible.

Hearing the incredible art that DG puts out is great, but to see a lot of people in it for the pure spectacle is a little disheartening. And I’m not trying to claim to be the only one who really gets Death Grips, at least I hope I’m not. I just really only see people talk about how crazy they are instead of how flat-out good they are.

Like, each member of DG itself is so talented!

Ride’s ability to channel that much visceral feeling into his performances is impressive on its own, it’s a miracle his throat hasn’t completely given out yet. But it feels so shitty to pigeonhole his style into “Funny homeless man screaming”. First of all, that’s just fucking rude. Second, that’s so reductive! Screaming isn’t all he does, he’s a really damn versatile performer! I never feel like he’s phoning it in or reusing a vibe, he does exactly what needs to be done, every single track. Lots of the most memorable moments of DG’s music are when Ride drops the yelling, and just talks. It’s chilling every time. Plus, his ability to keep a consistent flow over the off-kilter production is a feat all on its own.

Speaking of which, I think Andy Morin might be one of my favorite music producers right now. Right up there with Arca, Patricia Taxxon, Nigel Godrich, that real legendary shit. Like Ride, it never feels like I’m hearing the same thing twice. Each DG track sounds and feels so distinct, even while keeping within the general industrial, electronic, and punk sound palettes. Even my least favorite DG project in terms of production, NLDW, never ever felt lazy or unfinished. I think it’s an excellent project, I just don’t personally enjoy it as much as other DG albums, for very superficial reasons. On projects I prefer more, I still strongly feel that he’s very skilled at creating unique sounds, while still maintaining a sense of familiarity within the outlandish production.

Regarding Zach Hill, I think his drumming speaks for itself. Like, watch any video of a live Death Grips performance. That man goes absolutely ham on the drums, every single time. It’s a wonder he hasn’t snapped his wrists more often. Admittedly, he is the DG member I have the least to say about. I tend to get lost in the electronic elements of most DG tracks, I don’t pay as much attention to the drumming. I also have yet to check out Hella, but I’ve heard nothing but good things about them. Moving forward, I’m definitely going to try to keep my ears open to what he’s doing while the other elements of the tracks pass me by. I’m certain I’ll find something incredible.

Put together, they’re easily one of the most unique and consistently astonishing bands ever. I say that with my full chest. I don’t know, I just really like them! Sorry for the rambling, I just wanted to get all of this out there. Bottom line, Death Grips Good.

#pascal barks #music #death grips #mc ride #andy morin #zach hill #hella #no love deep web #the powers that b #jenny death #arca #patricia taxxon #nigel godrich #radiohead #analysis? question mark?#art #long post

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nightswithkookmin · 1 year

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SET ME FREE REVIEW #1

I said I wasn't going to write a review so I'm not writing one. This is just a commentary. Take a deep breathe, unclench your jaw amd brace yourself for this ride.

I want to start off by saying, admiting, and testifying that Jimin is a genius point blank period. His creativity, his duality, his delivery and execution in every single art work is an attestation to this fact.

If ever his ingenuity was in question, Set me free sets the record straight. It is only Park Jimin that can dare to assemble such imposing sounds, competing talents, daunting expanse and fine rhythm in one room under the single gaze of an equally brilliant director and not get lost in all that magical mashups.

The song is huge. BTS level huge. And for him to attempt to take on a song that takes 7 brilliant minds of our generation, him included, with varying vocal skills and talent- I must say, Jimin has some big balls on him and I respect him for that.

When I tell you my mind is blown, it is.

The song reminds me so much of BTS and everyone seems to agree. However when they say it's a nod to the group I disagree. I'll explain in a minute.

He draws on familiar elements and artistic devices that's signature to BTS as a group thus infusing among other things, nostalgia and that feeling of excellence and excitement we associate with BTS.

But that was the plan all along wasn't it? To show you he is not afraid take on a big shark like BTS or even to be compared to the brilliance of the group? Namjoon told us in words, Jimin just walked the talk.

I don't think this is a nod to BTS however. Because then we have to ask ourselves, is Jimin celebrating the band or has the band been celebrating Jimin all along.

This is bringing to light the artistic inspiration behind the creation of almost all BTS' master pieces. It's jimin. It's always been Jimin, the choreography, the beat, the visuals- everything has been inspired or created around him and his capabilities. The group has always leaned into his strengths in that way. It's why he transitions so well into it even as Solo.

Blackswan comes to mind. The stunning visuals, the contemporary dance styles, the concepts- everything was woven around Jimin. There are pieces of him intricately woven into the fabrics of BTS.

You can't have BTS without Jimin.

He is the secret ingredient that spiced up the group and this master piece of an MV shows it.

It makes sense to say there are songs that were made for BTS with Jimin in mind, choreographies inspired by him and that played to his strengths and uniqueness too.

It's why people accused him of being Hybe's favorite or the director's pet. The writing was on the wall.

Does this mean the others suck?

Yes.

I'm kidding😆

If you want to look at the strength of BTS you only have to look at the strength of the individual parts that make up BTS. From Namjoon's lyrical intellect, Hobi's versatility, Suga's unmatched flow, to even Tae's radiance- you cannot dispute that these men rose not by luck but by substance.

I used to think their Solo phase was them moving apart and away from their shared identity but now I think its the phase for each of them to model and strut across the biggest runway to show the world what they each bring to the golden table that is BTS. It's not a competition among themselves. Not at all. It's a review and examination of the parts that make up the whole and they all have something to prove.

And by Odin's beard, THEY WILL PROVE THEMSELVES. EACH AND EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM. IT'S IN THEIR BLOOD. IT'S THE BANGTAN SPIRIT.

He killed it.

He delivered.

Part two will focus more on the themes, visuals and vocal delivery. Look forward to it.

Hashtag drinking Hennessy. I saw what you did there Jimin. And if you read my blogs closely you'll see what I'm getting at.

Cheers Jimin 🍻

YOU DID IT

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atamascolily · 3 months

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As someone who makes fanvids and AMVs, I spend a lot of time looking at media in unconventional ways--cycling the same clips over and over again, jumping around in a non-linear fashion rather than watching straight through in chronological order, etc, etc. Usually, this is in service of getting shots to line up with the music or finding that one snippet that perfectly illustrates a lyric, but it also means I spend a lot of time engaged with the source material at a level of repetition and detail that most viewers do not indulge in.

I thought nothing would be able to top that level of granularity, but then I started making text post memes by juxtaposing media screenshots with clever and witty posts made by strangers on the Internet. Instead of watching the same clips over and over again, I was now watching specific individual scenes shot by shot, searching for the perfect frame to pause and screenshot. Suddenly, I was engaged with the source material on a whole new level, staring at stills I have never really looked at before, despite having watched them in motion a billion times already.

This was especially true of Madoka Magica and even more true for Rebellion, where the animators had lovingly incorporated whole new levels of detail I had never encountered before--some of them so complex and intricate, they could only be fully appreciated as stills, either because they were only on screen for an instant or because there was so much action/other stuff going on in the foreground that drew my eye when I was watching casually or for plot. (As much as I love subtitles, they did not help with this, since their presence meant my eyes were also naturally drawn to the bottom of the screen as well instead of focusing on the background.)

I started documenting my PMMM observations here on Tumblr, partially because it was low-stress and informal fun, and partially because this site has such excellent and convenient image hosting (for now, anyway) that it's really easy to discuss and compare multiple images at a time, which I think is more effective than reams of text at proving my points.

When I look at a screenshot, I have two major questions in mind:

1) What am I looking at? 2) What does it mean?

The first question is one of observation and identification. This part is usually straightforward, but can be more complicated if the animators are drawing on an element of Japanese culture that I'm not already familiar with. The answers to this question vary considerably depending on context, but they're usually not a source of tremendous controversy among the fandom; they are fairly objective, with a definitive right or wrong answer.

The second question, however, is more complicated and subjective. This is where analysis and interpretation come in--of the shot itself, the scene in which it occurs, and how it fits into the installment/series/franchise as a whole. It's entirely possible for different people to have wildly different takes on this, and multiple readings can and do exist simultaneously.

In my meta writings, I usually attempt to answer both questions: first, by pointing out details that I think are interesting, and then by offering my interpretation of them. Rebellion in particular is so visually dense that it's possible to randomly pause at any scene and find something new; no matter how much I watch it, there is always more to analyze.

To be clear, I don't think that watching Rebellion frame by frame is inherently better than watching the whole thing straight through, just that different perspectives and insights are possible. In this sense, both Madoka Magica TV series and Rebellion are inherently fractal in nature, with meaning multiple levels and layers regardless of scale. Unlike real-life fractals like the Mandelbrot set, however, there is a clearly defined limit to this--I doubt once you zoom into the pixel level there is anything to find, but hey, you never know with SHAFT.

I generally prefer to work with material that has already been released rather than stuff that hasn't, but I try to ground my predictions in my observations as much as possible--by which I mean, consistent with the show's themes and motifs on both a macro and micro level. That in itself doesn't guarantee that they're right, but I like to think they are plausible, which is all you can really hope for with that sort of thing. And of course, all my analyses and predictions tell you as much about me--how I see the world and what I value--as they do the work itself.

I used to joke that I was working on an honorary master's in media studies and Rebellion in particular, but after looking back at my output over the last six months, I'm not so sure that's a joke anymore...

#puella magi madoka magica #madoka magica #madoka rebellion #pmmm analysis

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dwarvenbash · 4 months

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Dwarf Longbeards!

Definitely one of my top 3 favorite Dwarf units in Warhammer. I tried my hardest to match the feel of the excellent 6th edition designs by the legendary sculptor Colin Dixon as pictured in the bottom-most picture (the standard bearer in the center-left has been promoted to a Runelord), but I have quite a few quibbles with the newer plastic kit.

Even so, while my take on these old fogeys could maybe do with a couple additions to fill some gaps, I'd like to think I preserved some of that grumpy character to help them fit in with the rest of the unit!

As promised though, more complaining under the cut...

Now before I dive too deep into a screed of negativity, I'll gush a bit about the aforementioned 6th edition sculpts.

Colin Dixon is responsible for some of the best Warhammer Dwarf designs in my opinion, and absolutely nails all the elements that make them stand out from their other more generic fantasy equivalents. They are loaded to the whiskers with small details, from the iconic angular "ancestor" detailing of simplified dwarven faces on their weapons and armor, to accessories from beer steins to smoking pipes to rings on their fingers. Each miniature tells a story, and for these Longbeards especially it's like they're carrying a long lineage of heirlooms and history with them into battle!

One of the greatest parts of Colin's sculpts however in my opinion are how he poses his dwarfs. An essential element that seperated old Warhammer Dwarf designs from others were how short their legs were. Most of the time, a Dwarf's boots were all you could see on a miniature, the rest obscured by long-hanging chainmail or beard hair. While this did a great job of helping them have a distinct look, it also meant it could be hard getting more dynamic and characterful poses out of them; not so for these Longbeards, however! Unlike their more follicle-challenged kin, these old Dwarfs are not shown charging into the fray, hopped up on adrenaline. This is not their first battle, and you're sure to hear them mutter something about how that "back in their day" the orcs were nastier, and the ale tasted better, to boot! So to reflect this, they are posed at ease, resting on their great weapons like walking sticks, unimpressed, just waiting for the enemy to come to them.

Now, much like in the Dwarfen kingdoms of Warhammer, the new-fangled miniature designing ways somewhat pale in comparison to the old masterworks, which brings us to the new Longbeard model...

I'm not going to sugarcoat it; in my opinion, this is a terribly designed kit. The eclectic choice of colors here isn't doing this promotional image any favors, but the problems run a lot deeper than that. Designed to pull double duty as both Hammerers and Longbeards, this 8th edition kit saps all the uniqueness and character from both unit types in order to kill two proverbial Dwarfs with one stone. The kit is basically mono-pose: the head slots into the body in a very specific way, and the ball joint sockets for the arms might as well be for show. Jamming two different unit types into one kit also means there is no room for any interesting accessories or fun bits like (nearly) every other Dwarf kit has; there are only extra heads or weapons from the unit you weren't building in the first place, which in my opinion, have different enough aesthetics to warrant two separate designs.

Beyond the kit itself, though, the design you are left with after you put it together (if you follow the instructions) is egregious. Most glaring is the model's scale: these Dwarfs are for some reason far more bulky than any of their brethren, so much so that it's a challenge trying to rank these guys up on 20mm bases! (These 8th edition models I suspect are one of the reasons TOW moved their bases up 5mm) Their stupidly bulky armor, too, is bedazzled with this bizarre flowing curly-cue ornamentation that looks more like elven handiwork than anything Dwarf-crafted. Their helmets don't even have horns of any kind like the old designs, opting instead for an odd football helmet-esque look with these orbs on each side that I absolutely despise.

The worst offender might be the model's pose. While it might not be as bad when they are built with hand weapons, the great weapon pose has absolutely no character or energy behind it. I assume the idea is that they are supposed to be mid-march, but they look like they have about as much agency and personality as a chess piece. Embarrassingly, most of the Longbeard head option's beards barely even touch the ground! The one requirement to make this unit recognizable as what it is supposed to be, and they could barely manage that.

I will say the Longbeard unit champion in this kit (pictured front and center in the above picture) does maintain some of that original repose and character by virtue of leaning on his shield and great weapon, and in order to salvage this kit I relied heavily on these bits for my own Longbeards, which you may be able to spot in the initial photos.

That and some old reliable bits from the 4th edition Dwarf Warrior kit saved this build for me, but what stings the most about this new kit is that it is what two of the most iconic Dwarf units are stuck with looking like for most people for the foreseeable future. It has been kept in production solidly since 8th edition as an Age of Sigmar unit, and now with The Old World, it'll probably hold that course.

That being said, there's still a chance for some new developments with The Old World, as some units like the Dwarf Lord with Shieldbearers will almost certainly be getting new models. I'll keep my fingers crossed, but like any good Longbeard, I'll probably just keep sticking with the old stuff. :)

Thanks for reading this somewhat rambling editorial, I'll try to keep these constructive rather than full on devolve into GW-bashing all of the time (while that is quite fun...), but I had to devote some time to articulate why exactly I feel so strongly about this particular variety of Dwarf, as one does.

Not to end on a sad note, but Colin Dixon passed away quite recently, so if you have a moment, here is a very nice article memorializing his career as a painter and sculptor of miniatures:

#warhammer #warhammer fantasy #dwarf #kitbash #fantasy #tune in next time for a model with some actual paint on it!

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lightdancer1 · 8 months

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Another thing surprisingly under-used in the broader set of fanon and canon:

Is the very reality of the first Despair's murder, how that came about, and the impact that would have had on the Endless. Prior to it the only real challenges would have been Death walking out and Delight growing into Delirium and showing that one of them, at least, can stop being an Endless even temporarily (which Death also does once a century and will one day do entirely). Delight to Delirium shows if they really wanted to they could grow and evolve as mortals do, if at a fairly steep price.

And then one day Despair is just murdered and someone else replaces her. Prior to that I can see that all of the Endless save perhaps Death would have seen themselves as immortal. And then in one fell swoop all of this changed. The reality that something killed an idea and devoted the time and effort to do so, and made it work, has its own mythical element.

In my own stories how and why this happens is a fundamental aspect of the mythos, and it comes in two kinds. In one it is an entity of myth wanting vengeance on Desire by destroying that which Desire values most, which winds up being their twin. In the other it's a man of Krypton, the umpty great-great-great grandfather of General Zod, who finds out about the bargain that doomed his world and his entire species and takes up a Muspell-blade and does the deed.

Given Sandman's overlap with Norse mythology in different aspects, I use the Muspell-blade as a nod to that and to the idea that the Muspelli are slayers of gods and of worlds alike. And what better weapon to make an endless end, the infinite finite, than a mythological weapon calculated for precisely that kind of purpose devised by beings capable of such a thing?

This is, of course, purely my own take on the weapon, the person who does so matters just as much.

For that matter, there are entire sets of fics that can be done here and some excellent ones have been done on AO3 involving the murder of Despair and what that did to Desire. There are also ones that can be there for Death and Despair talking during that moment. How would Death feel the first time one of her siblings truly died? What did it mean for the rest of the family and for their own changes over time?

I don't think Neil's ever going to answer this question directly and I think at this Doylist level it's a question that should never be answered, for the reader's imagination in various ways will be richer than anything the canon could come up with to answer it.

For that matter, how did Despair take her second form? What happened to Despair's murderer? There is one headcanon I like and use in one case where the murderer became the new Despair and suffers eternally in the body of the new Despair, looking behind her eyes. If not that, then what? A soul in Hell? Someone caught somewhere in the broader elements of both the Sandman/Vertigo side of the DC cosmology or the broader aspects of it?

The murder of Despair is one of these very mythical aspects that also works as a thing of both old and new mythologies alike. Somewhere, in the past, a being found a way to permanently kill an Endless, even if something else replaced the destroyed point of view. What happened with that? What is the impact on an infinite being with immortality if the immortal proves mortal and the infinite finite?

And yet with all this element, rich in itself, fanon and canon and fanfic largely neglect this mine except in the narrow set of stories specifically focused on Desire, where Despair, of course, is a vital character for she and Desire have arguably a healthier sibling relationship than Death and Dream, which is why it's a pity they get seen so little with this in canon. The show made it even warmer and this is one of the areas where it fully improved on the comic.

#despair of the endless #sandman meta #sandman fanfic #death of the endless #desire of the endless #despair of the endless deserves better

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heart-forge · 2 months

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interested in yr starfield take. played a lot of skyrim as a teen as one does but am not per se a bethesda fan and am mostly bemused by how little i have seen anyone talking about starfield either way in my social circles

well listen this with the important distinction that I am a Bethesda fan. Todd wrapped his chess-master's hands around my throat as a child and has not let go, so perhaps it's me that is biased, but I've been asking for years for a Starfield-esque game and I will not complain now that they've given it to me.

The critical like friction point I think with Starfield and mainstream gaming is that it's an FPS that isn't an FPS. I rarely had to actually fight outside of space flight mechanics. Most plot-based fights could be avoided with a keen enough charisma-or-whatever-space-equivalent skill. I think overall Starfield's flaw was Cyberpunk's flaw in a much more professional setting: it didn't commit enough to what it wanted to do, and by doing so added some watered down stuff that didn't work. Starfield wanted to be an exploration game: No Man's Sky, Garden of the Sea, something that's focused on studying the flora and fauna.

But also they doubled down on settlement building, something that people only wanted to use to make themselves home bases in Fallout 4 and otherwise didn't enjoy as a method of resource management (unless there was some bethesda forum silent majority: generally I gauge whether something is broadly popular or unpopular by asking my brother if it annoyed him dsfkjhds). And then also there was combat, but not just the ship combat which was the real novelty, but also base level FPS combat? But only sometimes.

And then of course there were the procedurally generated worlds which everyone knew immediately was not going to work, because No Man's Sky had already fumbled that hurdle. Bethesda narrative structure is not suitable for random distribution: they excel with specific and focused quest lines in limited, fleshed out locations (ie Shivering Isles, particular abandoned Vault side quests in Fallout 3, Rivenspire in ESO) and become overly generic and repetitive once they remove that element (all the busywork in Skyrim, all the backtracking in Starfield).

This is a problem with a lot of AAA video games as time goes on because...they don't want to commit to genre. What if someone doesn't like that genre? Then they won't buy the game. And it's gotten to the point where games are starting to flop because the mechanics are so broadly generalized and bloated that even the interesting stuff isn't relevant enough to do more than annoy players. I love scanning things in Starfield, I loved scanning them enough that they were fully researched, I loved finding different planets with variations on gravity...but there was literally no reason to explore. There could have been: I was in a guild of explorers. They could have done so much to make it worth my while to explore planets, but instead it was a radiant quest that I didn't even get the first time I played.

I've asked for a long, long time for a video game where my core purpose was not "bloodthirsty fighter itching to kill something with a gun or several guns or a knife or a sword murder kill death death death I don't understand magic I just want to cull my enemies". I hate playing ESO and getting treated like a barbarian in every interaction. I hate being railroaded into being a combat marine in Mass Effect (and was thrilled when Andromeda gave me cool biotics like everyone else got except for Shepard even if Shepard was a biotics class). I want class variation, even if we need to take money away from fidelity and put it into narrative so I can have someone treat me like I'm not a complete drooling neanderthal even if I specifically pick a magic or stealth class.

Starfield gave me that. I was able to pick dialogue options that reflected my skills. If I had points in geology, I could reassure Barrett that the story that the mining company fed him about his husband's misconduct was implausible. I could scold people for improper storage and care of relics even without sinking any particular skills. I could choose to be in religious awe of the relic visions, I could choose to be scientifically fascinated by them, I could choose to be power hungry about them. It's the most flexibility that's ever been allowed in a Bethesda game that I've ever played, and combat was so unfocused that I frequently forgot that fighting was even an option.

I really liked building my ship. I liked that it was a bit of a puzzle when it came to connecting things. The UI was awful and there wasn't much of a tutorial, but I said already that I'm a Bethesda fan. I liked ship combat once I got the hang of it, I liked the act of flying the ship around space. A lot of people said "Starfield gets really good...twelve hours in har har har" which I don't think is strictly fair. Starfield gets good once you figure out how to do stuff and use stuff the way it's supposed to be done and used.

Overall I think Starfield was a really positive experiment in trying something new with the FPS genre. Not everything worked which is grounds for a mass murder-suicide when it comes to how level-headedly gamers react to things that are really popular that they're just not clicking with (seriously I think a lot of problems in the game industry could be at least alleviated if we unlocked the 'just because you want to like it does not mean a fundamental right of yours is being violated if you don't' skill tree), but I like that a company the size of Bethesda is still kind of trying new things. Some quests REALLY hit me in the face: there's one where you're hunting down a relic and find a permeable reality where you have to decide to canonize one particular timeline over another, which involves a lot of switching through timelines in order to advance through to the next room. That was incredible, and meant so much more to me than any generic fetch quest. Grinding mechanics are difficult: not all players like to grind, but if you leave off grinding altogether then it becomes more complicated to balance for difficulty, especially if your goal is to present specific challenges to your player.

Anyway I thought Starfield was fun, I thought the story was good, I think fidelity is overrated, I think that many problems with video games would be solved by carefully integrated accessibility features, and I watched multiple videos criticizing Starfield for things that have always been true across Bethesda games (ie "why do guards know I've stolen and what I've stolen between different planets" because that's how Bethesda has always handled theft mechanics, maybe you just don't like Bethesda games and don't have an immutable human right to frictionlessly play and enjoy every video game that your friends are also playing (not YOU anon just the general you)). There's plenty of things to criticize but at this point I think some people just start nitpicking for nitpicking's sake. It's okay that some people didn't like it. They don't have to, but much like not liking something doesn't make it evil, not liking something also doesn't make it bad.

Overall though I'm not surprised that no one has heard much about it: it ran terribly without many options outside of modding to fix that issue. Maybe things are different over on Reddit, but I'm willing to wager that a lot of PC gamers have outdated systems. I said it about Cyberpunk and I'll say it here too: it's nice that your NASA computer can run one billion fps with high detail shadows and 4K reflections. Mine needs to be able to turn that shit off or else I just can't play your game.

As far as what you haven't heard about the main plot, I'll say this: it's a very, very interesting twist on infinite replayability. Nothing is truly infinitely replayable, but Starfield makes a very bold and frankly fascinating leap into how to achieve such a thing, to the point where before I found the ending I was like "it would have been better to redirect resources from x to the ending in order to achieve this insane thing" and while it's not perfect, I was SHOCKED that they just...literally do. It's so fascinating that I'm kind of surprised that no one talked about it.

#talkForge #it's like precisely the type of thing that I think if tumblr had grabbed onto it it would have popped off

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olreid · 1 year

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'the secret good neverafter that lives in my head' lol i take it you're not enjoying the season? curious to hear why if you feel like sharing

hmm idk that i would say im not enjoying it but yeah i think for me it's just not really like. a successful horror story at least so far. under a cut for length lol

i think the first thing watching neverafter has helped me discover is that i dont think characters in a horror story can know that they are in a horror story, at least initially. OR if they do, they have to be the only person who knows it and no one else can agree with or believe them. for me at least, such a huge element of resonant horror is the split between what the world insists it is and what it actually is, between what you are promised in life and what you actually receive. you have to be being told that the world is logical, good, that there is a way for you to win at life or beat the game or escape the prison, and you have to genuinely believe that, at least at first. so i wish neverafter hadn't started with the premise of 'the world has gotten noticeably Bad and you all noticed it and everyone agrees that this is the case even if they dont know how to fix it.' i wish they had played it straight, starting in the happily ever after of fairy tales and had the characters slowly realizing that actually they're not happy even though they're supposed to be, and having to break out of prisons that don't look like prisons and fight through a world that insists it is helping them at every step even as it constrains and warps them. and i know that's partially at odds with needing to appropriately warn viewers about what they're getting into, but i still think even if they had billed this season as a horror season and started out the first episode with Everything Is Great, that would have been excellent because i would have been just WAITING in agony for the other shoe to drop.

and then i think my other issue besides the framing has more to do with the general format of d20, which i don't think lends itself to horror for several reasons, firstly the at this point predictable shape of a main cast season. again i think a lot of the power of horror comes from unpredictability; you know something bad is going to happen in a horror story, but you don't know exactly when or what shape it will be. the wind gets kind of taken out of the sails if you know that it's going to be an every-other-episode combat situation. i appreciate that brennan's trying to add some new stuff in - red tokens, one shot kills, etc - but i don't think it's enough and even the twist of the tpk alreadys feel like it's been almost fully explained in-world to the point that we now understand how combat works in this setting. again that goes along with the format -- the players have to be able to understand the game in order to play it and be able to effectively help tell the story. but it means that things are pretty predictable, and when you've watched a bunch of d20 seasons you develop an eye for what the next fight will look like and what the overall arc of a season will be. there is of course still room for me to be surprised or proven wrong here! but my hopes are not high.

the other issue is that d20 is first and foremost a comedy. and it's not that i think horror can't be funny, but i think that largely the comedy has to come from audience interpretation -- horror needs to take itself seriously to succeed, at least for me. i think of the 'it's remarkably easy to buy an ax in central london' line from tma -- timeless and hilarious but jon is completely sincere when he says it and jonny's delivery is similarly sincere; he plays it straight, and so we get both the horror of that moment -- jon having been driven to a point where he feels the need to arm himself, which seems a pitiful gesture in the face of the forces at work on him -- and the humor, which comes when we distance ourselves a bit from the text and can appreciate that line out of context. neverafter, on the other hand, as a comedy show, is full of jokes and bits which not only contrast somewhat bizarrely with the more serious horror moments but also serve to lower the stakes of the entire project, as nearly every joke creates distance between player and character, reminding us as the audience that they are just that -- characters, not real people, in a made-up world. for example, in the spider fight where lou is calling the spiders who are attacking him Ladies as he fails to fight them off, it succeeds as a joke -- it did make me laugh -- but fails as horror because if someone was truly prone glued to a spider web with spiders crawling onto their body, i highly doubt they would be joking about it, so it takes me out of the scene and makes the world less real to me. in the other direction, the fact that it's a comedy also primes the players to take what brennan says as comedy first and horror second, eg the mouse in cinderella's old house who is saying something genuinely horrifying about not being in control of his body or actions as the entire table struggles not to break because the voice is funny or whatever. and so i feel like the two main goals of the season are at cross-purposes, because nearly all of the successful comedy makes it feel like less of a horror story, and makes the characters feel less real.

and having said all that it's not that i don't think the d20 table is capable of doing horror well, because i honestly think they already have done so with a crown of candy. acoc doesn't suffer from any of the issues ive outlined above; characters were killed in roleplay episodes to the point that you felt something terrible could happen at any time; the season took itself seriously, perhaps because the premise itself is so inherently comedic that they decided that to seriously embody a character who is a loaf of bread named senator ciabatta is funnier than making a gag out of it. whatever the reason, the stakes of the world are incredibly high -- we know this was also partially because it was a low-magic, high lethality season where brennan put limits on the party's healing abilities and removed most of the plot armor that protected characters in other fantasy seasons. and crucially, the characters did not begin the story thinking that the world was terrible. they were all members of the royal house of rocks, and heavily invested in their world moving according to logical rules and patterns; so much of the horror and tragedy of the season comes with the dawning realization on the part of the characters that the rules they thought would protect them -- those of diplomacy and morality and cause and effect -- don't actually prevent harm, death, grief, or suffering.

similarly, fantasy high sophomore year succeeds at horror, largely because the horror is dream and mirror-based so there is a sense of pervasive unsafety and a feeling that characters cannot even doze off without making themselves vulnerable to possession or violation. so it's not that i think d20 couldn't ever do horror successfully, which would almost be better -- they have done it and i have watched them do it but theyre not doing it now for whatever reason and that is disappointing. i was promised horror!! i want horror!!!

hopefully i don't need to say that this is just one guy's opinion on why it hasn't gripped me -- i know it's working for others because the tag is always full of people posting about how they couldnt sleep after the episode or whatever and truly good for them. but that is not my journey

#asks #anon

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somethingwittyandweird · 5 months

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So I finished Sea of Stars today (as anyone with me on their dash will find out as soon as they scroll past this post). Long story short, I loved it! It was a really solid experience from start to finish, and I'm going to take a moment here to sing some praises.

Early on the first thing that charmed me was the environment design- it felt like I could follow my character's journey visually on the world map through the zones when I entered and exited them, which just testifies to how well made the overworld map is. The environment designs were just great in general- every place was visually interesting and some of the backgrounds were absolutely jaw dropping.

I liked the combat system! It's not hard by any means but it's fun. It starts out slow to ramp up the interesting features and many times in the early game I felt like combats were over before I got to use any cool moves, but by the time you unlock all the mechanics it's a really dynamic system. I like the choice to flatten the MP bars and skill costs and put an emphasis on alternating spending MP on two-three skills and then basic attacking to replenish it. The live mana system gives another dynamic angle that ended up feeling a lot like Octopath's BP system in execution (again, setting up a cadence of small attacks to charge -> big damage attack -> repeat) but also interacted well with the lock system. The combo attacks are a highlight and the elemental lock system encourages nearly all of them to enter the rotation. The only gripe I have is that the Obligatory Indie RPG Timed Hits Like Paper Mario, while they do have good feel once you get them down, *really* could have used a timing example on first appearance, or someplace to practice using them. When a new party member showed up with a completely different attack pattern, it took me several fights of pressing A at random times during the animation to figure out where the right timing window was. Turning on the modifier that gave feedback on perfect timing was helpful to know when I had it, but I didn't like having to guess what part of the animation I was aiming at in the first place.

The characters were excellent- though I don't have much to say about some of them, others of them felt like they were aimed directly at me and the types of character I like. There were multiple times that I was delighted to see a new character get to join the ensemble and not just remain in place. I think they were all treated well by the story and most importantly, all had their moments to shine. On that, the story in this one was also excellent- some good twists and some *really* heartfelt plot beats that will stick with me. One visually shattering moment in the middle gave me that awe-struck "oh to experience that again for the first time" feeling whenever I passed through that area thereafter. Just an overall good story well told.

Like I said in my last post, I enjoyed the gamefeel of traversal, which is surprising since JRPGs aren't really a movement focused genre. But again, with the addition of verticality, climbing up ledges and rock walls, and later on the grapple hook to cross gaps, I was pretty engaged even when backtracking- though there was very little backtracking, since the world and environments were designed as very straightforward and easy to navigate. The collectibles and sidequests were at a good challenge level where they weren't free but they also didn't take dozens of hours to scour the world for the hidden door, etc. The game also gives you a modifier that gives a radar for collectibles too making it easy to get that nice shiny completion star. And the sidequests were all worthwhile too, especially the late game character-specific questlines. The full completion reward true ending surprised me at first, but I settled into it once the feelings started to flow.

It wouldn't be fair to the game to not mention the way it wears its love for Chrono Trigger and other SNES-era JRPGs on its sleeve. If "Guest Composer: Yasunori Mitsuda" wasn't enough of a clue, the story is tucked full of easter eggs and references, combo attacks and enemies and environments and plot beats that fans of Chrono Trigger would identify easily. But I think it handles the inspiration well, being an homage that still keeps up its own identity. The lore tying it to the studio's other game, The Messenger, helps with that. It's not just "hey let's remake this game we're all nostalgic for beat for beat" and more "hey let's do our own thing but throw in a lot of nods for us and for other people who are nostalgic for this."

Overall, playing the game was great to end 2023 and finishing the game is a killer start to 2024! A very hearty recommend from me.

#sea of stars #i talk a lot tag #long post #do i have too much to say in these sorts of posts?#nah it's my blog and readmores are my friend #i wish i could have said more about the characters and plot beats even #but everything else about my favorite moments is spoilers so i can't elaborate here #edit: oh yeah funniest thing about the endgame was that the credits had a button to multiply the scroll speed #and once the kickstarter backer section appeared another button appeared to super-multiply the speed

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