#i don't even know what part they're gonna play in the narrative yet but I WOULD DIE FOR THE DRAGON

[bcacstuff]

So you’re long term single. I’m long term single, too. But do you want a Hollywood leading man career? Do you play games, including pretending to be with your co-star for years, to get your dream career? Do you have a heavyweight PR person to plan your pap walk and PDA for public consumption? Well, I don’t.

You know Anon, I wrote already a long answer, but just removed it all as I wasn't even half way of what I perhaps would like to express in my answer to you. I deleted it, since, what's the point, how many words do I need to write. You're gonna see things just like you want, from your point of view, from your own experiences, and your cultural background, or whatever ingredients you can think of that makes you form your opinion. And I'm doing exactly the same.

I know your message derives from yesterdays discussion about the 'gay theory' (for lack of a better description). I left some comments on there, as I was triggered by how 'the lack of a gf/lover' was 'interesting'.

It's the biased presumptions, the part you show as well in your message to me, by implying he plays games, pretended to be with his co-star for years to get his dream career. The heavyweight PR person planning pap walks. I don't share that view particularly.

I know, in the same thread I got told, I'm a 'late comer' [to the fandom]. I'm not quite sure how that makes my perception of things less worthy, or was it to belittle me or my view or opinion? I don't know. Actually, I was in the process to write another comment and then just thought, oh why, what's the point here. I didn't sent it. I just read how some of the posters claimed they're not there to prove anything, and people can have their own opinions, yet they were quite engaged in the whole thread referring to all kind of 'proof' that imho is based on pure confirmation bias. There, I used that term once again. Anyway, I could do the same, and what would it matter, what do we all achieve? A lot of time wasted on a subject that nobody ever will have factual proof for, and even if there was, it would be denied and 'explained' by the ones whom's narrative it doesn't fit.

It's quite easy Anon, I showed and wrote about it a number of times, to just put a narrative based on confirmation bias out there and make it cannon in this fandom. One word, one sentence can go a long way. That's for what I write, but that's also for his actions and words (or for that matter, his co-stars as well). How a bar of Irish soap can lead to many receipts, explanations, accusations, all depending on what fraction of the fandom explains it. If you come to think of it, it is quite hilarious and ridiculous at the same time, and maybe even a bit sad.

Same with the 'PR planned pap walks'. Yes, he does get 'papped' where that word to me means, he get photographed by paparazzi. You know, the name they call photographers that make their living to get pictures of celebs and get paid for it by magazines or online stock images distributors. It's a job. Thing is, each fraction in this fandom has their own view and explanation for it. One part says, he needs to be seen with a woman to sell his [insert whatever to sell or promote here]. Another part says, it's to hide his real marriage with CB. Yet another part knows she's a beard and in fact lesbian.... Need I go on? Yes, I go on with the biggest majority of the fandom, the ones that see a nice pic of him, discuss the shirt or the color of socks.... They're totally oblivious of all the narratives and they don't even follow whom he's with. And they're not interested in that at all. They sometimes get a bit overboard when he posts a pic with a certain beer brand. So, for who exactly are these so called 'pap walks' planned? Are they planned? I don't know, and frankly I don't care because what does it prove? Does it prove he's gay? Does it prove he's married to his co-star? Does it prove he's a womanizer? It gets him some attention and that's it 🤷‍♀️

Then there is this other thing, the 'being single part' in your message. If you are a long term single, you most likely had your own share of gossip around you as a person. Cause that's what happens. It's amazing, but actually also sad, how people still can't let go the medieval part that being in a steady relationship is not always the ultimate way of living. The sad part is, how they make up stories about you. If you go out for a drink or a coffee or have a bite with a good friend, oh... she must be... right, no I must be nothing, I was just having a good time with a friend. Or you work closely together with someone, who becomes your friend, and you are seen a lot of times together... oh they must be... no, it's someone whom I like and love to work with, we have some common interests and we like to hang out together as well from time to time. Just some examples, there are many more. And what did I do to make people gossip but just have a good time with somebody? They never say it to your face, but you know what they are talking about behind your back. And yes, of course the being gay part, or in my case lesbian part, is talked about as well. Not to your face, no they are just too cowardly to ask you, or are they just afraid of the answer that makes all their fun of talking about you a moot point? What do people expect from singles? That they sit on the couch waiting for the love of my life to ring my doorbell? That they spent their time on dating apps to find the ever loving partner who brings you your breakfast on bed? Oh the things I could tell, I could write a book about it, and it would make a pretty good tv show perhaps.

Anyway, at some point you stop reacting on those ridiculous things they say about you. You shrug and move on. You know for yourself, there is just nothing wrong with being single, it's just another way of life. If it shows one thing it is that a lot of people pretend to be open minded for different opinions, ways of life and respective of another persons life and choices. Yet, they show at the same time their narrow minded suspicion and biased views.

And if there's one thing I learned from this fandom, it's that there are a lot of weird people in it, of which Sam is not the weirdest but quite boring compared to them. Take the Twitter account currently pretending she's traveling with her imaginary bf the SS tour. Or that shipper who rather flips coins and trust her guts, while a marriage certificate is totally fake. Now that's weird in my book! But okay, it's a way of life I guess. To each their own.

Sigh, and all in all it still became quite a long answer. And all in all I know people will say you're [insert any criticism] because [insert any reason]. And I... I shrug and will just move on.

[musingsofmaisie]

More on Ineffability and What Comes Next

So @ghstptats put up a really well thought out post on Aziraphale and the Ineffability that we're all mired in. @dunkthebiscuit and I had a little back and forth about it that got me thinking.

So we have 3 narratives here that are confounding us about the end of Season 2 and where things go from here:

.....that's really the problem right now, innit.....either Neil is betraying the characters, or he's betraying US. I truly don't see how that needle gets threaded. Because Things. Have. Been. Said. between these two. And actions taken. And body swaps, drugged coffee, apology dances, 11th hour appearances of a Deus ex Machina and other tricks are just not going to work this time. If we're still playing Hide the Lady, that means there's an option #3 that we haven't seen yet.

So I spent the afternoon digging in my garden, where I do some of my best thinking and this thought came to me.

We haven't heard from the Almighty in a long damn time. She seems to have checked out, turned off her phone, gone dark. Meantime, stuff is happening. Seems like the Metatron is kinda running things, and he's got some ideas that sound a bit...scary, shall we say? The whole senior administrative team seem like they're up to no good.

If we take the ending of Season 2 at face value we would have to accept that Aziraphale and Crowley broke up/were forced apart rather acrimoniously when the Metatron appeared (Literally and figuratively a Deus ex Machina). The leading theories-drugged coffee, switched identities, pretending, etc-don't make sense, either because they've been used before, or because they betray the integrity of these 2 characters. The other option is that it happened exactly the way we saw it, which also requires a suspension of disbelief because we saw Crowley break down AND we saw Aziraphale' behaviour towards him for the whole season contradicted with the things he did and said in that last 15 minutes.

Since Neil Gaiman is a master of misdirection, we have to conclude that something else is happening, right? Because neither of the options presented make sense going forward. Nor are they compatible with a *satisfying* ending-even if it's not a happy one.

Remember when the Metatron and Aziraphale start their conversation, and Aziraphale says "I don't believe there's anything left to be said. I've made my position quite clear" ? We don't really talk about that much.

So seems there has been some sort of discussion or communication between them that we don't know about. (By extension, we can assume that our heroes are talking to one another outside of the story, right? Not everything between them happens on screen.)

This got me thinking: who might be the one character for whom both of these two *would* pull off a game of "Hide the Lady" in order to save the world, that they would work together in secret, that they would be willing to appear to sacrifice everything, and truly act the part, as if their very existences depended on it?

What's their safe word, d'you think? Under what sort of circumstances would one of them drop it?

I don't know how far I want to take this, but I'm gonna bet that if there IS a third path that makes sense, it involves God-and thwarting the Metatron. Maybe that's part of the Ineffable Plan.

#the ineffable plan #crowley #aziraphale #ineffable breakup #the kiss #neil gaiman #where is the almighty in all this #the metatron #good omens theories #we should keep an eye on what Frances McDormand is working on

[idleorbitals]

OF ep 2 watch through ...part 2

(part 1)

sand he was inviting both of you *so* explicitly what is your move here. sand will complain repeatedly about this into the next scene but no one asked him to cancel his date. baby is in denial

side note ray enjoying begging sand so much?? side note also this is how we find out ray blacked out and sand left him their last night together? ouch

ohhhkay the extensive flirting in the car. "one night stand boy, huh?" sand patently enjoying himself /so/ much but whining the whole way. they are both in trouble and neither of them know it yet but sand is going to find out really soon and ray is not going to find out until they both are in much more trouble

top has trauma-induced insomnia and he's serious enough about it to make this face. I'm still proud of mew for checking if he was trying to pull one on him and then being kind about it when it seemed like he wasn't

alright tho didn't we just establish that your much comfier bed is right over there? mew no one did this to you but yourself

I like these mockumentary cutscenes more than I thought I would. mew silently smirking as he checks off boxes is doing heavy narrative lifting and I'm into it

the foreboding music the lighting the lingering on the photo of ray and mew boston what are you planning?? is he about to become a real antagonist? can't decide how I feel about this

ray is sort of into sand insulting him? is this because he doesn't have the power to hurt him yet or masochistic kink

...ray baby no. you're gonna be Learning

sand brings up the /who are you, my dad?/ except this time it's /who am I, your dad?/ convo again and ray makes this face:

alright

alright

oh here we. fokking go

sand going "what am I supposed to be, your hooker" and ray saying "sure" and sand doing soft surprised pikachu for like ten seconds. ray doubling down and sand telling him to save it. instead of saying "I don't sleep with people for money" he says "I sleep with people I like for free" and we send silent thanks to screenwriters who understand the sex industry and have the cultural vocabulary to write compelling nuanced and still quippy conversations about sex. not to be heterophobic but queer people make better tv

anyway sandray are both playing a game and they both keep getting surprised to be one-upped. this is a very enjoyable dynamic to watch and they seem to be enjoying it too

...for now

at minute 8:30 sand's last vocal sound leaves his mouth. for thirty full seconds ray smokes and asks him leading flirty questions including "am I interesting enough for you?" and "are you open to someone like me?" and for thirty full seconds sand looks from rays right eye to his left eye and back again and lowers and raises his jaw infinitesimally and just generally:

this boy is done for and I can't even be mean about it I'm right there with him

anyway at shortly after minute 9 they break the tension and kiss each other. they kiss each other! ray is the one leaning around from his cigarette to do khaotung's little smoke plume of high art but sand is very much matching him in coming in for this kiss. I love this framing so much. firstkhao have the absolutely ideal dynamic to pull this off*

*if anyone saw that one person copy pasting SANDRAYYYY SWITCHHH into the live comment box the entire end credits that wasn't me but I was there with them in spirit

they break away and sand says if they go further they won't just be friends and ray says some kinds of friendship start from sex you watched the same thing I watched I don't need to describe it but here I am. do you remember though that this was the look ray was giving sand while he said that because ho boy

sand pronouncing that ray is going to keep wanting him but they're going to stay just friends right after he says we won't be just friends after this...what level to tackle this on. narratively this definitely feels like foreshadowing and I think he's right on the money on the first bit. but we know that sand is not going to get out of this remotely unscathed whether or not it could possibly be argued that he hasn't already lost that battle. sand showing his hand by contradicting himself out loud as well as internally?

they stub out their cigarettes Significantly and start making out again. can't coherently screencap this scene. it's so excellently done. top notch dynamic again. firstkhao are getting better at this with every go.

ok I do have one minor gripe

for some reason in the middle of sand pushing ray back onto the couch they have inserted a shot of ray on top of sand. it is from the beat that comes after the last little mockumentary cutscene—it's not a double, it's the exact same shot, just colored differently. screenshots below from 10:11 and 11:02

editing mistake? intentional insert to lengthen the scene? I like this shot too but it breaks up the flow of the scene oddly and I want it gone from the first part

mockumentary cutscene: even harder to focus on when I know what's coming back on screen right after but worth mention. obviously sand is reflecting on some past mistakes here. he knows he's playing with fire and he's denying it vocally and also not changing his behavior. self-awareness level relatable honestly. do we think he fell in love with someone he didn't want to? or fell in love freely and then got screwed over? why is he mr. one night stand boy

also don't know whether to credit ray or khaotung for this longest gayest look ever at his own pants. sublime

okay back to the couch for our not-quite-ten-second final indulgence. ray's on top this time. I don't even like sex scenes that much I know what I am saying

I see, like sand's, my words are not matching my actions. and yet

*trembling* sandray.... switch....

all ofts watch throughs

#ofts #only friends the series #ofts meta #firstkhaotung #raysand #sandray #that devolved a little #also it took me so long to finish i took two breaks and posted snippets forgive me #i'm overflowing with um. i don't even know #consider me truly fucked over by this show #where did my saturday go anyhow #ofts watch through

[thebearemoji]

My thoughts on the astarion romance (spoiler: they're not good)

Hoo boy going right from the wonderful bliss of karlach's romance to this.... dark mess of despair was a hell of a whiplash.

So I'm gonna assume if you clicked on that read more that you don't care about spoilers. If that's not true then dont read this. To be clear we're on the same page, astarion has two potential outcomes. You let him complete cazador's ritual and ascend to big boy vampire or you stop him from completing it.

The game made the choice to make a statement with the outcome of astarion's quest. If you don't break the cycle of abuse, then you're perpetuating it. Astarion after completing the ritual is much more cazador than himself. The romance takes this one step further, the only way to continue it if the ritual is completed is to willingly become astarion's spawn. The game implies in no uncertain terms that you will meet the same terrible fate he was so recently trapped in. Cazador's master tortured him. Cazador tortured astarion. One way or another Astarion will torture you.

He even has a line of dialogue after you reject him along the lines of "Of course I'm familiar with love. I would've tormented it out of you until you had nothing left if you'd let me." That's just the start. Just about every line to come out of a romanced evil astarion is stunningly toxic, he pretends to love you, threatens to leave you, all to get you to agree to become his spawn. You can even read his mind to find out he thinks you're degrading yourself by staying with him. It's stunningly dark, and part of me respects the writing for sticking so hard to their guns.

Speaking as a fan of roleplay focused games, this did take me off guard. I'm accustomed to games treating evil choices as options to explore your characters and develop a sense of gray morality. Because... it's a video game for fun and sometimes its fun to do silly pretend evil things and twirl my pretend evil mustache. But bg3 will occasionally treat evil choices as sins that the narrative will punish you for, sometimes immediately, sometimes later down the line. And astarion is undeniably one of these choices. A non romanced evil astarion is fine, i guess. but i know i'm not the only one out there who fell into the trap of thinking astarion could be the other half of my evil power couple.

I don't think this is necessarily inherently bad on its own. It severely reduces any desire I have to ever play an evil character again in this game, which sucks because I love minthara. HOWEVER

I got a bone to pick with the good boy astarion romance too.

So of course after the gut punch of evil astarion romance, I reloaded and made him the same good boy i did on my first play through. The subsequent romance scene is nice, and he gets the same beautiful heart-wrenching catharsis that made me sure he was the one I wanted to romance second in the first place.

But throughout all the later conversations, he keeps returning to this idea that he "seduced" my tav. ??? Where. From where I was standing, act 1 he propositions me for casual sex, my tav says yes. Afterwards he proposes continuing to have casual sex, my tav says yes.

And yet he keeps saying these words "I seduced you, manipulated you, used you." And the fact that he's admitting it is meant to show character growth.

But why is the game so determined to make my tav his victim??? Why are those my only two options? The dialogue choices didn't give me a way to say "you didn't manipulate me, I chose to be with you of my own free will, knowing what you are." There's nothing i can do to flip this narrative that my character was used and wronged, even though i dont believe she was. And that left the romance feeling very polarized, like there are only two lenses with which to view romancing astarion.

You are either his victim that he lies to for a grand majority of the game. he doesn't even like by his own admission, he claims he used you for protection. But he grows to appreciate all you did for him and even love you.

Or his helpless thrall, equal parts a victim but hell at least at that point you're embracing the kink of the whole thing.

Tbh, neither of those really do it for me.

In conclusion, astarion is an amazing character, I'm never romancing him again, and finally,

that is all

#bg3 #astarion #calling him acestarion from now on tbh #real talk if there were an explicitly asexual version of the romance i think that would fix it for me #but alas the game praised for countless polyamory options was too cowardly to include anything from the ace/aro spectrum #me long post

[sweatertheman]

okay look i know its in bad taste to spend this long dogging on other people's ships but i've just been having a lot of thoughts about this today.

the idea that suselle is a foregone conclusion is stupid! and that's not because toby fox is just trolling, he's not that dense to pull a pointless bait and switch. its stupid because part of deltarune's narrative is about narrative, and about predestiny! beads on rails, puppets on strings, dark worlds as fiction, all this!

like, let me use my ralsology degree to paint a picture for you here. ralsei, as a symbol, represents traditional RPG stuff. he's been suckered into a worldview where darkners are NPCs, less than people, and ultimately exist to serve both the player characters and the broader narrative. his perception of right and wrong is childish, and he offers simple-minded platitudes as explanations. ralsei believes that everything they do is predestined to some degree, that while they can change how they act and how others feel about them, their relationships, their arcs, their battles, these are all laid out in advance.

and he's wrong about all of it.

darkners are very much people with intricate personal lives, hopes and dreams, complex motivations behind their actions. right and wrong is more complex than, well, right and wrong, and their quest is very much not predetermined, as we can see on snowgrave.

what's more, deltarune's narrative seems to be about how ralsei is wrong. with the secret bosses, and the beads on rails and all that stuff. kris is an unwilling protagonist being forced down a path they don't want to go down. darkners are shown to be people, and yet it seems like the DELTA WARRIORS will be forced to treat them like they aren't. susie herself rejects every narrative and gameplay convention ralsei lays out for her, from the concept of being nice to enemies on principle to the player's sense of choice in the game they're playing.

...and you mean to tell me you trust Ralsei here?!

yes, that's right! ralsei, guy whose worldview is making everything worse for everyone, himself included, is a suselle shipper!

if you go back to the ferris wheel billboard after the susie intermission, ralsei will think to himself that susie must still be thinking about her ride with noelle.

and guess what HE'S FUCKING WRONG. all susie cares about is what the hell a ferris is!

(this isn't to say susie didn't enjoy the ride or doesn't sometimes think about noelle, just to be clear.)

i think there might even be another scene with the same premise but i can't remember.

point is, ralsei expects after a scene he knew was gonna happen that susie would be thinking about noelle, and he's wrong. its likely ralsei believes that suselle is gonna happen, because its part of susie's arc or something.

and considering his worldview hurts everyone, and susie rejects it wherever she can, and generally the story is about how the characters in the story reject the paths forced upon them by the narrative, are we really saying that ralsei is right about this one thing?

saying "susie likes noelle but doesn't know it yet" just feels so gross sometimes! like, come on! you're basically doing exactly what ralsei is doing, saying that its a foregone conclusion that they'll end up together, and that if susie doesn't show signs of having feelings for noelle (even in a goddamn non-canon valentines email!!) its because she just hasn't realized that that's what she wants yet. its almost like saying you know what she wants better than she does, that she'll be happy doing what you want her to do, because that's just how it is.

and i know susie deltarune isn't real but come on! there's a clear parallel here between the narrative imposing arcs and labels upon characters against their will which they then fight against, and imposing romantic feelings onto a character they don't seem to have because that's what's best for you!

i'm not going to say suselle isn't going to happen, but i am going to say there is NARRATIVE REASON for it NOT to happen, because the in-universe narrative, the legend of delta rune, fate, predestiny, WHATEVER, seems to be the bad guy here!

#deltarune #suselle #to sum up: suselle happening stands in direct opposition with the themes of deltarune

[missielynne]

Hi sweet mutual! A fun challenge if you feel like answering - in what ways do you prefer the British version of Ghosts to the US one, and in which ways do you think the US version is better than the UK one? I love both :)

Well hello hello! I love both too and I spend a lot of time thinking about this because honestly, I do need both. Each one does things that the concept of a ghost show needs to be successful that the other doesn't do, so just one show would feel incomplete to me.

Like for instance: the UK show is really good about saying "We're a ghost show. Let's have scenes that make the viewer uneasy and a little creeped out." Like whenever we see ghosts outside Button House, or even inside if their method of death necessitates it, they aren't afraid to show them graphically injured and creepy looking (like the butler in the party hat that got shot through the head, for instance, or even just Jemima for crying out loud. I mean would you want her standing over your bed singing at night?)

Same for what is probably my favorite moment in the whole show with the hitchhiker ghost in bump in the night: the build up to that is so good! And yes we get a little jump scare a la the sixth sense when you realize that she is in fact a ghost and we see her wound. But it has a creepier overall narrative purpose as well: Do not hitchhike Alison Cooper, or you will die like her. It just hits me how amazing it is every single time. (And this particular thing gets the BBC version A LOT of points in its favor.)

That's what I would like to see from the US version even a little bit. Make me uneasy. Make a chill go down my spine with scenes sometimes and actually play them as creepy. Elias and his corpse in the vault could have been an excellent example but it's always played more for laughs, which is a shame.

Now what I like most about the US version is that, of course since they have more time, they can play with the lore more. They can say "We are a ghost show, so we're gonna treat our ghosts like actual ghosts and have them possess people and explore their powers," whereas in the BBC version, they're treated more like people who have just died and are existing in the house, since the idea of them "moving on" as an endgame is not particularly important.

To me though, that leaves the BBC version to be a little more aimless than I prefer. It makes me feel more like I'm just waiting for stuff to actually happen since I don't know what the endgame for these souls actually is (whereas with the US version, it's much more clear.)

On the whole, I like the parts of BBC (like the individual episodes that can get from point a to point b e.g. Robbers invade Button house while Alison is gone, and they're caught by the end) rather than the series as a whole where I'm left to figure things out for myself because it's open ended when I would much prefer to know whether I'm right or wrong IN canon, (which is probably an American thing). Whereas with CBS Ghosts which is written to my American tastes, I can love it all because it's got better pacing and doesn't just dwell on certain things forever when there's still more story still to be told (like I don't know if it was cause of Covid restrictions or whatever but I'm a little frustrated that they spent a whole season going on and on about Alison's fake sister when they hadn't told the stories of Kitty's and Cap's deaths yet so we had to wait for them, for instance). Although there are certain parts of CBS (like Jessica and her whole car ghost lore) that I wish could have gotten more because it was so fascinating. Both are amazing in their own ways and I love them to pieces and I'm glad I don't have to choose one or the other.

So anyway, there you go! Thanks for the ask! :)

#cbs ghosts #bbc ghosts

[muntiller2]

I wish they'd just apologize, you know?

Okay, I'm going to be honest here. The way the story is heading is shit and I haven't seen anyone praise it in ages.

It's funny right? It all comes down to the exact same spot in the story where everything goes to absolute shit: EE part 3.

I'm not gonna say EE entirely because acts 1 and 2 were rlly good imo, the murder mystery was fun and engaging and there was no narrative of people being flawless and perfect, it was just a bunch of isolated assholes trapped with a killer inside a house and trying to figure out who it is. I really liked that part!

Everyone knows how the story went from there so I'm not gonna describe it. We all know what went wrong by now, we all know who ruined everything and we all know how it ends.

Ever since then not only has the story suffered severely, but so has the gameplay. As said by a friend on discord: the scummy gacha stuff was forgivable because the "meta" wasn't necessary to enjoy the game, we had the story to hold that up and old valks could very well hold up in newer weather. Today? That shit doesn't fly anymore.

You guys remember when a Herrscher patch was something to be excited for? I do. You guys remember when we didn't have Herrscher after Herrscher after Herrscher being released back to back? I do.

This all means that today not only is the gacha even more demanding in a game that is already really fucking unforgiving, but the meta has also shifted in a way that's not sustainable for people who have older characters. Sure, they're giving one of the new Herrschers for free, but that doesn't change the fact we have a boss and weather that needs 3 different elements on the same team to work, fucking up every single comp I've seen so far that isn't HoO, HoFi and HoTr.

Mihoyo is not only burning through the community's goodwill in regards to the story (and they're burning it fast, I haven't seen anyone excited for new chapters as of late), but they're also burning through the goodwill of these same players when it comes to meta.

If the story is no longer keeping people entertained, they'll move to meta and if meta isn't viable, they'll stop playing.

Hell, I haven't played the newest chapter yet, not a single stage and I don't want to, the story completely burned me out. Do you know what I think when I remember a double Herrscher patch is coming next patch too? I just sigh because I'm tired.

You know what I wish mihoyo did? Apologize.

If they were fucking honest about the fact they fucked up and burned all of the goodwill their community had with them, a lot of people would be less salty about it. If they stopped pretending everything is fine and that everyone is loving where the game is going, people would be less willing to hunt them down with pitchforks.

I just wish they would admit that their story has gone to shit and that they ruined the characters they meticulously built for years, instead of trying to mend things with bandaids and a shiny new coat of paint over the cracks.

But of course, that's not going to happen because it won't. No other reason aside from the fact that it just won't.

I just really fucking wish they would make an actual announcement apologizing, reboot the story back to pre EE and try again with some actual soul into it. I don't think the community would be even mad to have a soft reboot given the vast majority has been doing their own rewrites and completely disregarding canon. With the amount of fucking amazing ideas I've seen coming from all of us, they could even take some of them and make an actual good story.

But once again, that won't happen because they have their heads so far up their asses that they can taste their own hair. It won't happen because they're sure that if they hammer into our heads that this is the new canon enough times, we'll all eventually accept it and shut up.

#honkai impact #honkai #elysium ever ranting

[sparring-spirals]

What are your thoughts about Laudna coming back, I’m curious because this seems different from the Molly situation, the group seems incredibly determined

Oh boy, what a question.

Okay to set up for the first bit, I'm gonna address the second part of the q first:

Yeah, I think this is different. I think this is very different. I think its different in all the ways that the Bells and the M9 are so drastically different and the ways that they are two very distinct camapigns. But also in the more obvious ways- when the M9 lost Molly, they were lower leveled. They didn't have a cleric with revivify, they didn't have half their party. They didn't have anyone to turn to.

I'm trying to avoid this turning into a meta about the M9 but I think that last detail is just- so important. The Bell's have Eshteross, they have random shop owners to ask, they have distant but powerful figures who might help. The M9- did not. It was part of how they operated. More than once in early campaign they went from being mistrusted to marginally trusted and they would just- leave. Authorities were so rarely friendly. They were accusing people more than they weren't.

When Molly went down, on a snowy hill at the sword of someone who wanted to send a message- there was so, so little they could do.

And so we look at the Bells and- they've got more options. They had half their party killed but they got two of them back up and, in theory, left the battle on their own terms.

They're also, like you said. Incredibly determined.

readmore bc this got long im so sorry

Its both incredible and a little sad, honestly. I said this somewhere already, but by the end of the episode- they aren't quite grieving yet. They're hurt, they're aching from the loss, they're sad, but they haven't started grieving yet and part of that is because they are still acting. There are still things to do, avenues to exhaust. They aren't grieving Laudna yet. They can still get her back. They will, they have to. They're taking the time to sit and check in with each other and ask questions and comfort, where they can, but. Very little of that comfort has even entertained the notion of this loss being permanent. About Laudna being gone, not just lost.

(Except maybe for Orym, who is looking at Imogen and thinking of losing a loved one, having that absence be a fixture instead of an aberration. Thinking of a warm embrace, and "Not yet.")

And Imogen-

Imogen, more than the others, is probably painfully aware of Laudna's absence. A silence in her mind, an empty space at her side.

i'm not sure she can even consider the possibility of that absence becoming permanent, right now.

Im not sure any of them really can.

So... uh. on Laudna coming back: I don't know, right now. I don't think it will be too easy, but I think the Bells are going to be fighting for it, hard, for the foreseeable future. And whether it fails or succeeds in the longer term, i think (I'd hope?) itll have pretty long lasting effects.

I've deleted like an additional five paragraphs of my ~thoughts~ on it for the purposes of length and keeping it as 1 meta instead of two tacked together but:

- Some of my thoughts on Laudna's death can be found here.

- Story wise, narratively, campaign-as-a-whole/ externally, is a whole separate conversation, and one that plays a lot into personal preferences and wants and likes and... probably shouldn't go into this post.

- I think there's a lot of the ways this can go and still be done "well", by a subjective metric.

- I'd like for Laudna to come back. I also can see a world where she doesn't, and narratively thats juicy as hell, and also devastating. (edit: like full honesty, devastating and also chock full of potential, yknow?)

- No matter the specifics- Laudna mattered, and will continue to matter, and I think that's the main thoroughline I'm looking for.

- edit: and- alongside that- id want her death to matter too- whatever that might look like.

#oh god im so sorry. listen im going through asks VERY slowly rn and its because my meta braincell is actively fighting me #you can tell when its happening bc all my metas become 3x length and way more winding. so uh. sorry. #critical role #cr spoilers #c3e34 #spar speaks #ask away! #bell's hells #the mighty nein #ive got like So Many competing thoughts about narrative and fairness and m9 and the bells and their brittle optimism and imogen and LAUDNA- #that none of them are coming out right. alas. #character meta #i realize this. maybe doesnt answer your question. so uh. feel free to ask it again if so. and ill get to it.... someday. hopefully. #my meta #?

[stargazer-sims]

15 OC Questions!

I was tagged by the lovely @rebelangelsims (twice! But I'll happily do two of these!) I love this type of ask, where the character gets to answer the questions in their own words. It's a great way to improve (or create) narrative voice, and I love the challenge of making it sound convincing, as if the character really is answering it themselves.

Victor Okamoto-Nelson

Are you named after anyone?

Actually, yeah. I’m named after my mom. Her real first name is Victoria, which a lot of people don’t know because she’s always gone by her middle name, Grace. Anyway, if I’d been a girl, I would’ve been Victoria too, but I turned out to be a boy, so I’m Victor instead.

I'm also named after my dad, Thomas Edward Nelson. Thomas and Edward are my two middle names. I lost my dad when I was six, and it’s always meant a lot to me that I have his names because it's like I'm carrying a part of him with me no matter where I go.

When was the last time you cried?

Oh. Uhh… yesterday? I cry pretty easily, and it doesn’t take much. Yuri, my husband, likes to joke that I cry for everything, and he’s kinda not wrong. I mean, it’s not always full-on sobbing. In fact, it’s mostly not, but getting teary-eyed is still technically crying, so… yeah. I guess I’m soft, or I’m not very good at masking my emotions, or something.

Do you have kids?

No. Yuri and I don’t want any. We’re enough for each other.

Do you use sarcasm?

Not really? I think you have to be smarter than I am to use it effectively. Plus, sometimes it’s just confusing. And also, it sometimes feels kind of mean to answer people with sarcasm.

What’s the first thing you notice about people?

Their physical condition. Like, if they look healthy or not, whether they’re fit or not and if they’re moving and talking and breathing comfortably. I know that’s probably weird, but it’s something I really pay attention to.

What’s your eye colour?

Blue. They're almost the exact same shade as my mom's. Someone once described them as 'oceanic blue' and even though I've seen the ocean before, I never really saw why that person made that comparison until I visited Sulani for the first time. Mine and my mom's eyes aren't just oceanic blue. They're Sulani ocean blue.

Scary movies or happy endings?

I don’t like movies that are seriously, intentionally meant to scare people. I enjoy some of the more campy horror movies, but I don’t want to see anything that’s gonna give me nightmares. Yuri also doesn’t like scary movies, so I never have to worry about sitting through one for him either. We both prefer happy endings, or at least endings where most — or even better, all — of the characters are still alive.

Any special talents?

I don't think so? I'm super awesome at snowboarding, but I don't think that's what you're asking. Yuri says I give really good massages. Is that a special talent?

Where were you born?

Willow Creek

What are your hobbies?

Snowboarding? Oh, you mean other than my obsession, right? I love cooking and baking. Is that a hobby? I like fishing, gardening and playing video games. Dog training is probably a hobby, right? I really enjoy working with the dogs.

Have you any pets?

Yes, we have two dogs. Rosie is a smooth-coated chihuahua, and Sango is a Pomeranian. When we move to our new house, Yuri wants to have chickens and maybe a cat.

What sports do you play/have played?

All the sports! Seriously, I haven't yet found a sport that I'm not good at. I love all kinds of sports and I've played a lot of different ones. My favourites are soccer, swimming, and of course snowboarding. Not to brag or anything, but I'm a world-class competitive snowboarder. Like, I mean... shredding is life. If I couldn't be on the mountain, I think I'd be super depressed, because that's one of the things that makes me feel most alive.

How tall are you?

185cm

Favourite subject in school?

Physical Education. I wasn't really that great in any academic subjects, but I liked P.E. a lot and I also liked Home Economics.

Dream job?

This is a hard one, because I think I have more than one option for my dream job. Like, my current job as a wellness coach and personal trainer is amazing. I love helping people reach their health and wellness goals. and I'm really happy doing this. But, even when I was in college, doing my diploma program in Health and Wellness Management, I was still thinking about my future career. I thought I'd like to be either a physical therapist or a nurse. These days, I'm leaning more towards licensed practical nursing, and maybe specializing in home health care. I think I'd be good at that.

______

I'll tag: @holocene-sims @theageofsims @ljfoxie @cawthorntales @dandylion240 (I know you've already done this) and @blithesomebawcock

Feel free to ignore this if you've already done it or don't want to. <3

#sapphire answers #oc asks #Victor Nelson #stargazersims

[motheatenscarf]

Okay, I'm at the point where I need to do a trial in order to progress the story and I'm a tank, so I'll actually have to watch a video for that, so I took a day off to parse my thoughts on things that WEREN'T unspeakable goddamn tragedies.

I will also post thoughts on the tragedy, but later. I want to see the consequences of this loss in the narrative play out first before making a value judgment, but so far I am already leaning towards "good story beat, actually emotionally impacted me and the characters in text and was thematically appropriate."

For non-tragedy thoughts, I'm just going through screenshots and gonna post my thoughts in order based on what I clearly thought was worth screenshotting;

Okay, I already talked about how I came around on Estinien, but I also really like Ysayle. I love that she earns the name "Lady Iceheart" but is the most emotionally driven character so far in her desire for peace and believes that she's the reincarnated soul of this ancient dragon's old flame. Quite the blow to realize she isn't that and this guy doesn't recognize or care about her and that she just summoned up a primal based on her own desperate beliefs. WOOF. That's a good character arc. I want to see where she goes from there.

Also the fact that she just loves Moogles because they're adorable and makes a comment like "My heart is aflutter from mere... fluffiness??" and like, girl, same, they're so cute.

Another interaction I liked from the Moogles was when Alphinaud got mad at them for making his trial of worthiness just be the chores none of them wanted to do. He got so pissed he went and said something like, "I don't know what a 'kupo nut' is but I know they use it for currency and I've half a mind to demand some for the work I just did!" and, YOU GET EM, SWEETIE! We'll make a lil pinko out of you yet, demand compensation for your labor, work to rule, honey! I'm so proud of him!!

And another fun Alphinaud moment was when he said, in the fanciest little lad way possible, "Last one to finish their job is a rotten egg!"

And speaking of babies, Nanamo's okay! I've actually got mixed feelings on that.

On the one hand, I really like Nanamo and I fucking love Raubahn, I'm full on going to switch my faction allegiance to the Immortal Flames once I max out rep in the Malestrom, but man. The MOST exciting part of the end of ARR was when they shifted the status quo that hard! I grant you the scions are still missing and we still had to retreat to Ishgard to seek new allies, but man, handwaving it so that things can more or less go back to the way they were before kinda sucks.

I was EXCITED for that change! I'm of course glad that Ruabahn is okay and gets to keep being surrounded by tiny adorable lalafel, and I really liked Nanamo and her struggle to figure out how to help her people was compelling, but man... idk... I feel like there was more to be explored with that Ul'dah crew on the run and the city in chaos that had a lot of potential we never got to see :T

This is a relatively minor complaint, of course, the stuff with Isghard is certainly gripping enough. I'm fine if Raubahn only ever gets to be that gif of the drunk girls with the puppies when it comes to keeping all of the itty bitty babies in his life safe

Final thought, UH, they kinda dropped a bomb on me that apparently half-elves exist in this world???

I .... I mean, one would assume it was possible, but we haven't seen any until now, despite there being plenty of instances of inter-species relationships that it actually raises MORE questions than it answers. Even if Dragon Age is a copout answer, it at least means they don't have to program unique models to make all children between elves and humans just humans. It means the same of probably other pairings as well, but if you put half-elves in a setting, it BEGS the question, okay, what do mixed heritages look like across the board? And namely, uh, where are all the others? I refuse to believe that this Hilda woman is special, if there is ONE thing I know about humans and elves in any given setting it's that you can't leave them alone for 5 goddamn minutes together without drowning in half-elves. Also, the others, huh? Where are the human/au-ra babies? Where are the Au-Ra/Elezen babies? I know people be fucking these anime uwu catboys and catgirls, where are the lanky elf-cats and scaley dragon cats?!

My brother actually pointed out a very real possibility that if we have humans, and we have hrothgar..... maybe that is where miqo'te came from in the first place, which begs the question of like, okay, if you can have a half and half baby of mixed heritage, what happens if that baby has babies with a third entirely different option?

You cannot introduce this element so cavalierly and then kill my goddamn elf husband and expect me to forget, I WON'T FORGET THE HALF-ELVES THAT COULD HAVE BEEN, FF14, YOU WILL ANSWER ME!

#Caitlin Plays FF14 #FF14 spoilers

[semper-legens]

129. Divine Madness, by Robert Muchamore

Owned: No, library Page count: 360 My summary: James, Lauren, and Dana are on their most dangerous mission yet - to infiltrate a religious cult suspected of hoarding weapons and hosting terrorists. They'll need to play the role of brainwashed little cultists, believing they are 'angels' in a world full of 'devils', the only ones who will be saved when the Rapture comes. But there's more at play under the surface here. And soon they'll find themselves in more danger than they could have anticipated... My rating: 3/5 My commentary:

Of all the CHERUB books, this is the one I was most looking forward to rereading. I don't know what it says about me that I've always been interested in cults and reading about cults, both real and fictional, but that's how it is! I remember that this was one of my favourites when I was a kid, so I was very interested to read it again as an adult, give it a fresh pair of eyes. After all, I know a lot more about real-life religious cults these days than I used to. And how did it hold up? …weirdly.

I'm gonna preface this by saying that it's gonna seem like a lot of complaining about this book down here under the cut. I had some very serious misgivings about it, but I did ultimately enjoy it and recognise what it was trying to do. That said, the misgivings are what I want to discuss. First…I know I've spoken before about the copaganda (or, I suppose, military propaganda) present in these books. So far, this is the worst one for being hypocritical and seemingly not even realising it. At one point, an explicit comparison is drawn between CHERUB as an organisation and the cult in the book. The difference, the kids say indignantly, is that everyone in CHERUB knows what they're getting into, and has the ability to pull out if they need to. They can turn down missions, they have agency.

Which…earlier in the book a mission controller proudly makes the point that no CHERUB ever turns down a mission, and the kids point out that if you refuse a high-profile mission, you'll basically be doing baby jobs through your whole career. There absolutely is pressure on these kids to do dangerous stuff, and the process of recruiting smart, fit kids with no family ties is more than a little shady. Not to mention that CHERUB kids younger than ten are brought up in CHERUB and taught with the expectation that they'd enter the hell that is basic training as soon as they can. Eve, the cult teen, makes a decision at the end to do a terrorism after all and winds up dead because of it, and that's a tragedy. There isn't a lot of difference between her and the CHERUB kids though. They, also, go through with the missions at all costs, and think they're acting for the greater good. But the book doesn't seem to want to explore any of these ideas. CHERUB isn't a cult. CHERUB is a good organisation fighting the bad guys.

My other main issue was Dana. James and Lauren are joined on this mission by Dana, a slightly older mouthy Australian girl who has been mentioned before, but never really shown up. She…really doesn't get a lot of character development in the earlier parts of this book. It's the James and Lauren show - James is the one who gets them an in to the cult compound they're trying to infiltrate, Lauren gets in with important kids, while Dana just kind of exists. True, later she plays a bigger role, but you'd think that if a new character is joining the cast then the narrative would spend some time with her so we can get to know her. She's just standoffish and grumpy through the start of the book, and like, that's all there is to her. It's just a weird choice.

But yeah, I do have to give this book some credit for how it handles its subject matter. None of the cult people are really portrayed as being inherently evil, a lot of them are obviously misguided or brainwashed. The climax, in which the government comes in to crack down on the compound and meets a lot of armed resistance, is wildly reminiscent of the Waco siege. The military and police ignore the mission controller's intelligence that there are armed people inside the compound, and that leads to devastation as the cult, convinced that the 'devils' are coming for them, respond by blowing up most of the compound. And everyone inside it. James and Lauren are caught in the crossfire, trying their best to get out. Initially, James is against taking all the kids that have been sheltering in the same room with them, but Lauren insists - and good thing too, because when the bombs blow, the room they were in is obliterated. That gets her the black shirt, the highest CHERUB rank. But it's also a really sympathetic situation - I don't think the cult members (outside of the higher ups) are ever really demonised for what happens, it's more just a tragedy that they've been brainwashed into thinking they know what's right, and then the police agitate the situation until people die. It's horrible, but it's sadly realistic.

Next up, a graphic novel, and a young girl changes her identity to help her family.

#Divine Madness #Robert Muchamore #bookblr #book blog #book blogger

[nyuudoupee]

So what are your top headcanons on Keira? Like I know a lot of people give her crap because of what happened in Jak 2 and how ND basically just nerfed her character in J3 only to make her more relevant in Jak X.

Número uno, I WILL return to this eventually because I'm not entirely done yet with the entire JND franchise and everything I am thinking about will probably become more solidified when I finish up 2-X. Número dos, when it comes to the "female character who often gets shafted by the narrative in a playstation game" category of character (kyrie devil may cry 4, kairi kingdom hearts), I will basically go right to their defense no matter what, so chances are I'll stick by Keira's side despite the character nerfing.

That being said, I do have some ideas....

Based on what I've played so far of Jak 2 + all of Jak 1, Keira was probably the most well set for acclimating to a 300+ year timeskip. She's a freakin mechanic and is skilled with her hands, so of course she picks up building as a job once she gets time skipped, and racing as well because that's popular at the time. I have a feeling if time shenanigans permit Keira was also the person who created the original prototype for the zoomers used in JND2 before the timeskip (kind of like how Elsie Bray/the Exo Stranger from Destiny 2 made the sparrow/bike prototypes in that game). She can fix and mod cars and probably is the one who modified Jak's main car in jak X to be a one seater instead of 2. She also has an interest in precursor tech and knows how some of that works, so hypothetically speaking she could pilot a mecha/gundam if she wanted to or incorporate it into her work. If the JND games didn't go the way that they did sequel wise, I think Keira would have definitely become a sage, but probably not the Green sage because she doesn't fall into the traditional "the party healer is a girl" trope (just like her dad) and is more of a technical person. My brain says blue eco.

Character dynamics wise... I don't know yet, but Keira might've been entirely by herself for 2 years out there in Haven working on the time machine zoomer thang alongside the racing gigs she did (not including the people Krew might've sent to her or Erol showing up to hit on her), which might've worn away at her spunk/made her more solitary by virtue of being by herself but she stays optimistic anyway. I do feel like she would be friends with Tess considering she's kind of "normal" and level headed compared to her old group (jak, dax, samos). Ashelin might intimidate her or awaken her bisexuality I dont make the rules, but also remember that I haven't beaten all the games and don't know if they actually all interact at least once in game. If they don't, that means more stuff for me to write!!!

Keira and Daxter would probably work together willingly, even though Dax annoys her. All I'm saying is if Keira had found out even earlier before the 2 year skip that Jak was being held captive in the palace, she would've inverse The Escapists that shit alongside Dax and try and break Jak out of there. She does know where the maintenance elevators are in the area, so a full blown heist doesn't seem too outlandish. She's still got spunk to her even after 2 years with none of her friends/loved ones around her, so she can banter for longer with Daxter if they got the time. Out of the original Sandover trio, she's the middle ground between Dax and Jak and their mediator. She isn't above duct taping Dax to the wall if anything gets too out of hand though

This part is gonna sound a little self-indulgent, but this is my house . Keira and Jak literally share interests so of course they're gonna be interested in eachother. Honestly I think Keira's the one wearing the pants between them, not because Jak doesn't take the initiative with her, but because he respects her and doesn't see a need to step in/insert himself into what she does. Same goes with Keira, there's mutual respect and they help each other out, but she is more outgoing than Jak is and can set him in the right direction if anything bad happens. She might not entirely understand what happened to Jak during those 2 years he was MIA, but she still tries to make sure he's OK/be a support system for him. Also they're bi4bi I again do not make the rules.

Everyone and their mother doesn't consider The L*st Frontier canon or that it ever happened but it's also where the heaviest redesign Keira has ever had comes from. I think it's actually kinda cute. Maybe the shirt she's wearing is an old shirt of Jak's, considering he was also an avid blue collared shirt wearer. IDK that's also very self indulgent for me LMAO

Last thing, there's no way that after a long time or working with heavy machinery and power tools that Keira isn't at least a little bit muscular. Just toned a liiiiiittle bit. Like she has her tummy and arms out, you can probably see some muscle definition through there, same with her back.

That should be everything... thank you for letting me run my mouth and I hope tumblr lets me post this LOL. Keira art will happen again soon i Swear

#nyuudoutxt #long reply #ask tag #jak and daxter #i Will come back to this one day #anon tag

[bonesandthebees]

Rest of the chapter!

I absolutely love Wilbur's spite (referring to the line "You seem to be pretty good at finding out information I didn't tell you"). The fact that he said it in public means that Jack and Niki are going to be very curious/concerned about what exactly went down. I wouldn't be surprised if that comes up later as a plot point

Oh, Tommy standing up for Wilbur when Tubbo tries to talk behind his back while literally in front of him is great. Reinforces what I said in the last ask about trust. It also furthers the idea that Tubbo is playing an antagonistic role in this fic. Tubbo's viewpoint is definitely understandable. That's actually my favorite type of antagonist - the guy on the sidelines who's actions make complete sense yet they're still causing problems for the main character.

Also, the irony that Tubbo was concerned about Wilbur hurting Tommy up in Quackity's bar is not lost on me.

Then Tubbo's spite to actually have the full on argument about Wilbur's life right in front of Wilbur. It makes sense, and Tommy brought this upon himself and Wilbur. Yet it still feels fucking brutal.

Then all the friends converge in and it just becomes more clear to me that nobody understands Wilbur and Tommy. Nobody but each other, and even that is a shaky understanding. Aimsey and Jack* and Tubbo himself start fighting and the thing is that they do not know what they're fighting about. All it's doing is making Tommy and Wilbur more upset.

(* Jack, Niki, Phil, and Techno understand Wilbur & Tommy better than the other characters do because of the time they've taken to understand them. They still don't have the full picture)

Shit. Just got to the part where Wilbur stopped Tommy from escalating the fight. The fact that Wilbur was preventing Tommy from attacking Tubbo and Tubbo pulled out a knife.

Yeah, Tubbo's definitely an antagonist. And I'm fucking loving it.

"And don't you dare call him a fucking dog again." Yes Tommy! Slay!

I understand now. The narrative impacts of Wilbur's escape attempt are not falling on Wilbur and Tommy's relationship. That's relatively unaffected. The narrative impacts of that plot point are about everybody else. Everybody who doesn't understand Wilbur and Tommy.

Then comes that moment.

This is what's so dangerous about Wilbur's loss of identity. This is why his religious trauma is such a problem. This is getting me to understand why Tommy felt it was so important to use a proper name for Wilbur. It's because without one, Wilbur is not a person, and if he is not a person then why does he have the right to live?

In Wilbur's view, his right to existence was granted to him by Clara, not by his personhood. Now that he is not serving Clara, he does not deserve it.

Then the revelation that Wilbur is not going to die. Fate has literally dictated that his going to live.

And Wilbur feels that he is failing Clara by not dying.

Fucking hell.

(However, in Wilbur's own worldview, this outcome should mean that he is still serving Clara because he still has the right to live. Once he calms down, I bet he's going to realize that. That means that he's probably gonna keep trying to do right by her. It's like he's pushing a boulder up a mountain. This is him seeing it roll all the way back down. He's going to go down and do it again, isn't he? When will he finally stop?)

"Don't call me that."

(Yeah, he's not stopping anytime soon.)

-🔥

lmao of course wilbur was gonna be spiteful he's sooooo petty

I wouldn't say tubbo is solely going to be a main antagonist, but he's definitely playing an antagonistic role at this point in the story. again, I don't like to simplify things like that. the reality is far more complicated. and tubbo isn't trying to be an asshole either. he wanted to have the conversation in private, but tommy refused, so he got annoyed at this best friend and doubled down. it's brutal, but that's kind of on tommy.

you got it though. nobody understands what's going on between wilbur and tommy except the two of them. even then, they don't fully get it either. their strange trust doesn't make sense. but it's there and like you said, niki, jack, phil, and techno have a better understanding of it than anyone else in the temple, but they still don't get it fully.

tubbo only pulled out a knife to protect tommy from the pythia. if tommy had attacked him, tubbo wouldn't have pulled it out. he'd never actually try to hurt tommy, just like tommy would never try to seriously hurt tubbo.

the escape attempt DOES affect wilbur and tommy's relationship, just not in the way you expect. but the impacts are far more broadly seen with the rest of the deathlings instead of the two of them.

yes this is exactly why it's so important that wilbur gets his identity back. he's got such an unhealthy mindset and it's going to manifest in some very dangerous ideas like what he pointed out there. you'll get a better idea of his thoughts on all of that in the next chapter :)

thank you flame anon love hearing your thoughts as always. so glad you enjoyed!!

#ask #flame anon #through a glass divine

[silver-wield]

I wanna laugh at the cleriths on twitter who ask for tifa to tell the truth so cloud wouldn't get to a mental breakdown THEN they will accept her??? How is it so difficult for them to get that its an important part for him to get to that vegetable stage for the narrative???? If nojima really wanted to, he wouldn't even put him in that state if he so pitied cloud.

My brain cells, I just wanna hug Tifa, these people don't get empathy and EQ....also IQ considering she can't say it all because she didn't even know he was there!!!!! What good would that do??? Plus if they think it's dead future aerith in the resolution? Shouldn't they be more angry at her since she said little to no information to actually help him and said just vague shit??? She could have helped him more than tifa at that point because she knows more right but didn't??? Oh good lord and they think they know the devs better??? Yet they stilll consider tifa a bully even after ToTP???? Sorry for the rant, pretty new to the fandom (after 1 year catching up at most) but were they always this stupid and crazy???? Rejoicing on KH, a single forced date, relying mostly only on devs interviews instead of game content, optional dress, etc???? There's so much out of content it's like asking for bread crumbs when he couldn't even visit her church even as a friend when it's so close to the HW area, both vers low and high he chose tifa and cleriths here thinking its true love??? jesus christ. In low, he stayed despite probably feeling he doesn't deserve the happiness because he failed to prioritize her (like in AC, so he was cold and self-absorbed), in high, he slept with her period. I just want to see they're mental breakdown once she dies and tifa and cloud get a kissing scene on rendered cgi, one they couldn't edit (hopefully).

Btw saw an idiot who say " that people are more concerned with who cloud kisses instead of the new graphics etc" law and behold its a fucking clerith. Why are they acting all high and mighty??? When they're the first one to be so abnormaly obsessed with the "kiss part" of their statement if they get a content even so desperately little??? Did they forget they're shitty take on hollow???? Lol now they're saying we shouldn't be so sure with the trailer but they're so sure about hollow??? Wtf? Do they think that's making them look smart??? Why do they mostly all act this way????

Also, before they think they get the devs, they better ask if they actually get the characters and especially the one they think they're a fan of. I'm neutral on aerith but it's sad that there are a lot of people who don't really get the real workings of her heart. It's even more sad that due to their shipping glasses they fail to get one of the most important theme/moment in the game, her death!!!! Smfh they really think she's gonna live?? Sephiroth, devs nor cloti aren't their biggest enemy on that but new players who don't care to play OG or part 1!!! FF7 has a brand and they're gonna keep it.

Thank you for listening to my rant, hope you have a good day. Im really sorry about this burst of rant but I just hate it since it ruins what the game wants to really say. It actually has a good message if only they're capable of actually seeing that. I personally don't ship cloti , im neutral but I consider them because you don't question how Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy are in love right?? It's right there in the fcking story on it's own unless your eyes were closed the whole time.

So I shared this same clip on twitter the other day. You can literally hear Tifa say "as far as I know" meaning she isn't sure.

Nojima is slapping lying Tifa haters with every bit of this game and companion works and they're still desperately trying to claim they're in the right.

It's funny af watching them meltdown rn over Sephiroth saying Tifa's name in the trailer. They've claimed he don't know her. They're dumb. They've claimed the devs are doing a fake out by having Sephiroth talk about Tifa but "they really mean Aerith". They're deluded af and they know time's up and the hoad is waiting to humiliate them 🤣

#ship war #for the fandom

[hatboyproject]

Calling Other Shoker Writers

Okay, okay... so I am really struggling with what tone to hit on these bridge ambients. I'm not sure about the ones I've written, because I feel almost like they're too direct and subtlety is probably key? But I want others to help if possible! I am many things, but I am not subtle. Any of these are meant to trigger only if the following things are true: - Shepard has initiated a friendly relationship with EDI - Shepard has agreed to let EDI encourage Jeff to be more open - Shepard is not already locked into a romance - The 'Hey let's date?' conversation at Flux Bar has not yet happened These are meant to trigger upon Shepard stepping into Bridge, like other ambient conversations. It should feel like Shepard is walking in on part of a conversation. They are set at a lower priority than vanilla story stuff, so the player will run into them when narrative tension is low. Each branch only plays once. I feel like I want it to be obvious that EDI is poking Joker to try pursuing it with Shepard, but I don't know how direct it should feel. Like, I see pros and cons to the on-the-nose approach versus not. On-the-nose keeps things shorter and may fit in keeping with the game's original writing more? Subtle has a better emotional effect and doesn't club the player over the head with this mod's content?

Do you like writing Shoker stuff? Please, save me from myself! I would love any suggestions you have, or even direct exchanges if you're cool with me potentially implementing them!

BRANCHES: JOKER: Yeah, well... it's complicated. EDI: Historically, beards are also not permitted. JOKER: They're not gonna rip my wings off over that. It's different. EDI: Did you not prove yourself capable of flying the SR1 by stowing aboard, punching a crewman in the face, and assuming the helm? JOKER: Look, just because a buncha stuffed shirts say I can't -- ... I'm onto you.

--

EDI: Your current strategy of leaving model ships around for her to find does not appear to be a winning one. JOKER: Well, what am I supposed to do? What, you want me to write her a sonnet? What? EDI: You are lucky they were not mistaken for improvised explosive devices and destroyed. JOKER: [SIGH] This is why you always leave a note.

--

JOKER: Hey, did you download that Blasto vid? EDI: And the latest Dog or Not, for Shepard. JOKER: Nice. Hope I get to watch that with her... Heh, she has the cutest laugh. SHEPARD: Everything alright up here? JOKER: [COUGH] Uh, yes, Ma'am!

--

None of these are final. Please gib suggestions. Pls gib.

#shoker romance #shoker me3 #shoker #jeff joker moreau

[sheryl-lee]

hi, what are your thoughts on the season finale? im.. processing

hi, i have MANY thoughts and i'll try my best to articulate them (under the cut, because i know there are still a lot of people who haven't seen the episode yet)

spoilers below!

so overall i actually really, really loved it. idk if that's a hot take because i have seen a fair amount of people who have disliked the finale and the season as a whole, and while i respect those opinions i personally disagree on both counts. i have some problems with the season, but i still enjoy it more than season 1 and this finale was, in my opinion, incredible and really makes me like the season overall much more as a result.

of course people are upset that nat died, but imo they're using their love for nat as a character to support their claims that nat's death was sloppy writing or unnecessary. don't get me wrong, i love nat in both timelines and was devastated by her death in the present day, but i can also understand that it was what makes most sense for the story and it's a narratively satisying choice for both the character and the plot. people in fandom are really against killing off characters, even if their death makes sense and is emotionally effective, and while i do get the attachment to a character, it really annoys me that people can't overlook that attachment when a character's death is rich and complex and adds to a story. both things can be true; you can love a character and think that their demise within the story is a necessary conclusion to their arc. i was worried that nat would die and, as i said in the last ask, i was wary about its execution. but imo the writer's nailed it and seeing it play out on screen changed my perspective. i'll miss juliette lewis so much though, she was truly wonderful as adult natalie :(

nat being antler queen was also a really well executed twist; so much of what we've thought to be true in the series has been changed fundamentally by it (the entire pilot episode is filled with hints that nat is antler queen if you go back and rewatch it! my mind is blown). i disagree with people claiming that the writers are retconning or making things up as they go, there are so many hints throughout the series that worked towards the nat reveals in both the past and present, both of which are narratively rich and compelling developments that make me even more excited for the next season.

beyond that, the cabin burning down was something i had predicted weeks ago, so it was cool to see that i was right! ben's days are numbered for sure though, he's gonna die in like episode 1 of season 3 🫡 van's character arc in both timelines was also really interesting; lauren and liv are AMAZING and i cannot wait to see more of both of them (same for simone and courtney as lottie, they're both phenomenal). seeing how the shauna/nat rivalry (really a one sided rivalry on shauna's part jkdvdkfvkfd) plays out in the 96 timeline next season is also gonna be really fun to watch.

we're still in the dark regarding who javi's friend was (i kinda thought that would get revealed in the finale, but ig it's being saved for next season), and jason ritter allegedly filmed scenes as cabin guy that ended up not being in the finale after all, so i'm really curious if that will also be saved for next season (but i'm still on the bonus episode clown train 🤡). the dark tai stuff was similarly discarded in this episode and i'm really intrigued by where that goes.

tldr; great episode, really rich and ultimately satisfying, i find myself liking it the more i've sat with it, and it changes so much of what we've seen so far while also setting up what's sure to be a really intense and dark third season.

#these are just general thoughts but if there's something you'd like me to specifically touch on lmk! #i had mild expectations going in so i'm really pleased with it #thought it was amazing and i tend to be more reserved with season finales. but this was just really strong for me. #💌 answered 💌 #yellowjackets spoilers