#i just thought it was funny how literally all the npcs they brought with them vanished and prob wont be back for another ep or two at least

[cloudmancy]

i just finished acofaf and i havent finished the last few adventuring partys yet but it kind of makes me feel crazy how no one has brought up wuvvy clearly being in love with rue. especially in rue & wuvvy's last conversation theres never any indication of rue acknowledging the depth of wuvvy's feelings for them or the sacrifices she's made to be with them and its kind of baffling to me cause rue must know how wuvvy feels about them right? she left her court for them! which is literally the same exact grand gesture hob makes for rue to prove his "love" for them. except wuvvy didnt need to be persuaded. and i was so surprised how in the adventuring parties nobody rlly talked much about wuvvy's love for rue, like emily mentioned it a few times but it felt to me like this elephant in the room that no one was talking about. it's funny cause most/all of the pcs this season were queer but wuvvy comes across kind of like a "scorned lesbian" character where the lack of acknowledgement of her grievances belittles them so as to communicate that they are not legitimate and her feelings are petty and immature. which is obviously a trope intended to preserve a heteronormative and misogynistic status quo. sorry if this is kind of rambly and/or incoherent (i have the flu) i just like your posts and fanart of wuvvy and i wanted to share my thoughts!

OHHHH BOY... you're in for a treat because they do talk about wuvvy in acofaf APs 9-10. it's bittersweet because it's very much an acknowledgement of 'yeah she had feelings for rue and it's a bit fucked up what happened to her'. I cannot blame oscar for wanting to go for a PC/PC romance with brennan's character rather than the NPC but you're right... it really does bother me the way the fandom treated her as a bitch, making really aggressively violent posts when she burned hob's letter, oscar not really even acknowledging in or out of character how much rue meant to her... some of it has to be attributed to how short the adventuring parties are and how much of it was spent talking about ruehob (I have my own opinions about how baffling it was that ruehob was meta'd and built up so much entirely OUTSIDE of the campaign, the main content of the show? but that's a post for another time)

I don't think aabria, brennan, oscar, or anybody else actually meant to contribute to a lesbophobic trope or stereotype; aabria was playing a thoroughly cool character and the circumstances surrounding her just happened to end up this way. it's a game of dnd in the end where a pc/pc romance is more interesting roleplay wise and that is how the cards fell in terms of npc romance. it would not kill people to acknowledge wuvvy and how badly rue hurt her though 😞 I have a huge problem with the 'ruehob together forever, happy ending' part of acofaf & its fandom because of how little the fandom seems to remember or care about her... I do think that is a pattern of misogyny especially when you have many many fans who violently hate wuvvy for getting in the way of their (already canon) ship

I will never stop talking about wuvvy though. [slaps her horns] this satyr can contain so much devotion and angst in her

#asks #lesbianmarrow #wuvvy #acofaf #thanks for the ask! equally rambly reply back

[hatkuu]

Omg anon is so right about Syd being shoehorned into everything. Like they are written to just be involved with everything like their the main character or the chosen one. Like you're seriously gonna tell me they're deeply connected to the temple, is some kind of vessel for augria, their parent is one of the teachers and the other was the priest (all the temple stuff is a little excusable though because they're the temple li but at the same time Whitney is the delinquent li but they aren't connected to every aspect of the criminal world, abd Eden is the forest npc but isn't deeply intertwined with blue presence, lake temple, etc.), they went to the asylum and knows about Harper's shenanigans, is apparently kylar's best friend and is connected to what happened to their parents, knows about great hawk and I think Morgan somehow, and knows the ivory Wraith personally? And nothing can be like, oh, they saw great hawks species in a book about extinct animals or something, it always has to be an implication that there's something more going on because Sydney is the most important person ever, and they can't just not be connected to things. And I've seen similar arguments brought up only to be shot down with "well the whole game is badly written then because the PC also does a bunch of important stuff" but the PC is the player character. You write those differently than NPCs. A lot of the time when someone writes for someone that is played as in a game, there's an implication that what the player does isn't necessarily all the same person in lore. Like maybe one orphan is doing the church stuff, and another is untangling the hookah parlor.

Sorry this turned into a rant, but the more I thought about how much of a marry sue/main character/chosen one/etc sydney is, the more I wrote

yeah! you can definitely see which characters are favourites (which is silly coming from me because i most definitely have a favourite) but yes. sydney somehow being:

a member of the temple

a child of a teacher

know about harper's shenanigans at the asylum

is kylar's ex-bestie

knows about great hawk (a harpy monster that literally lives outside of town ??? how???) AND the ivory wraith (hello?? aren't they supposed to be a mystical being that has a super secret unrevealed past with pc???) < i did NOT know that sydney knew about these things either btw

IS CRAZZZYYYYYYY!!! comparing them to the other characters in the game, syd seems to have a lot more going on for them.

(also i dont hate sydney!! i just think it's wild how they have so much more cool elements to their character compared to everyone else in the game. i think calling them a mary sue is really funny though sfdkjfdsfds)

#hatkuuasks #hatkuurambles #im worried im going to get assassinated for saying this stuff #GUYS I DONT HATE SYDNEy

[revserrayyu]

2.2 Penacony thoughts [part 1]

**Mild spoiler warning** in place as I didn’t reach that far into the new update as of yet. Stopped right after seeing Sunday being a holy man listening to the troubles of others, so if that scene doesn’t ring any bells, then please refrain from reading further. As always, don’t spoil anything that happens afterwards, not only for myself, but for anyone else who hasn’t finished the new story yet.

First things first, I’m so pleased that we start off with Boothill. It feels like it’s been forever since he was first drip-marketed and when we heard that phone call of his with Black Swan, so finally seeing him in game is pretty nice. Still love that design in his eye too.

I’m also happy that the jade abacus was brought up again. Once we saw DHIL & Jing Yuan team up in the 2.2 livestream trailer I figured that Dan Heng was gonna call upon our beloved general with this item. At present, I don’t know if it’s actually used or if we head to the Xianzhou instead and request for help. Either way, I’m a bit surprised the general lends a hand. Of course he’s an ally and promised to help us with any troubles, but.. last time we saw him, he had just encountered Luocha and Jingliu, right? Could Jing Yuan really have left that confrontation behind so easily? Are we ever going to learn about what happened during that conversation? Who knows, but I hope we find out one day if this story doesn’t mention the matter further.

Anyways, who do you think the Elation Emanator that Boothill is? Naturally, I first thought of Sparkle solely because of her “I AM Elation!” declaration during her character trailer and her being a Masked Fool, but seeing how Boothill is having issues accessing Penacony in the first place, I doubt the two have officially met. They could’ve met elsewhere, sure, but I still doubt it’s Sparkle. Still haven’t a clue on who else it could be though but whomever it is certainly can’t hold their liquor.

Then we cut to Acheron being cornered by a bunch of npcs who are apparently all part of the “Dreammaster,” but let me just say that I love how literal Acheron can be, like correcting how many slashes she actually used. It’s also a bit scary for her to mention, as I don’t even remember a second blade either.

She’s just.. ironically funny to me. Acting all threatening but being completely serious with her grammar.

It was humorous when we switched to Robin for the first time. I didn’t manage to get a screenshot of it but how the screen even questioned it like “switching to Robin’s POV?” was hilarious. And rightfully so because this certainly isn’t our beloved idol. Sparkle, please, stop handing out bombs to everyone!

It was a short switch, but we finally jump back to where we personally left off. I know the journey Firefly is referring to might be our time hanging out together in Penacony, but somewhere deep down I imagine it could also be about our possible time with the Stellaron Hunters before the entire story even happened. I’m sure we have some sort of past with them but who knows if and when we’ll touch upon that.

Firefly goes into detail about her actions, about how she informed Silver Wolf to contact us and the plan she wanted to share with us before “Death” acted out. I guess it makes the lies and secrets a bit more bearable? All according to the script and at least she originally intended to tell us everything before the monster lashed out.

Then we get scene with her and Blade and oh my god, they both look so good?? Learning that Blade actually owns a driver’s license is comical too. Who would’ve thought our edgy man could be so reliable.

I’m so thankful for this scene as it gives us a taste about how Firefly acts around the other Stellaron Hunters. Since the rumors about her being Sam started, I couldn’t imagine how this sweet girl could’ve been one of them, but it seems she gets along just fine, even teasing Blade a bit.

Now correct me if I’m wrong but this is actually a flashback that happens right before Kafka destroys the Jepella Brotherhood during that one Myriad Celestia trailer, yeah? That’s pretty cool. Confirms that Firefly has been here the entire time and Bladie is even wearing the same suit.

I never thought of a decent acronym for what Sam could really mean, but we finally got our answer: Strategic Assault Mech. Makes me wonder if Firefly is even her true name, since that also seems to be part of the suit’s name.

Rejoice, someone other than ourselves can actually see Misha and Clockie. Would’ve never guessed that person to be Welt though. I guess he really is a child at heart. I know he gets excited whenever mechs are involved, such as the Engine of Creation, but this also reminds me of how his E6 depicts him as a child.

It’s unsettling that Misha calls “Death” something so innocent as “Sleepie.” Also claims that the monster isn’t aggressive and sometimes fetches the wrong guests to bring here.. uh huh, right. Sure. But of course Gallagher controls it! I know we learn more about him during this patch but I still don’t trust him.

So it’s clear that Misha is still a giant mystery. It’s good that us and Welt can see him, but the kid still isn’t perceived by everyone here. That one pepeshi we found alongside March thought we were talking to someone invisible and it appears Micah and Himeko can’t see Misha either.

During that flashback with the siblings as kids, I sorta feel like Sunday is also talking about Robin here. I know we’re chatting about the injured bird they found, but all the caged bird metaphors that Robin has, from her splash art and trailers, is hard to ignore.

Then we learn Gallagher is a History Fictionologist that’s in charge of this new place, which is all fine and well I suppose? Great to know who he really is but chalk it up as yet another person who lied to us. Of course I don’t believe much of anything any non-Express family says but whatever. He’s using fancy words that went over my head.

And now it’s all started to make sense in my head. Inviting different parties that have experience handling stellarons or at least have capable means of preventing a disaster. The Express and the Stellaron Hunters themselves are an obvious and reliable choices when it comes to stellarons, the IPC certainly has impressive power if Aventurine is anything to go off of, and I don’t doubt the real Galaxy Rangers are strong fighters too. I’m sire Black Swan and Sparkle have some tricks up their sleeves too, as would Ever-Flame Mansion.. if they’re alive. Also, the fact that the meme is named “Dormancy”.. Ratio stated in his note to Aventurine that “Dormancy” was the impossible in the dreamscape instead of “Death,” but I figured he just meant it as the word’s true meaning, not referring to the monster itself. That’s clever.

Sir, don’t give me hope like this by saying you’ll fight with us. Do you know how many people are wishing for you to actually be playable?? I’d love it if he was, I’d even take him as a four-star at this point (even though he clearly has five-star energy) but something tells me he isn’t. He gives me Cocolia vibes a little, like he’s certainly an important figure but I would not be shocked if he turns on us somehow and ends up as a boss of some sort either.

Aventurine’s status is truly a mystery that I definitely need to know! Is our beloved gambler okay?? Preferably alive somehow?? It hasn’t been long but I miss seeing/hearing him in the story already! But I do love that the chip he gave is when we first entered our hotel room turned out to be a transmitter. I’m not sure if it’ll reach his place in that momochromatic world he’s in, but perhaps we can use it to call upon Topaz and the rest of the IPC chilling in the hotel lobby? After Topaz noticed one of the broken Aventurine stone pieces lost its shine, I can imagine that our gambler had several spare transmitter chips to hand out to those he can depend on.

Stuff happens in a quick cutscene and we climb up many stairs to encounter another Nameless who has certainly seen better days. He sorta looks like that one white-haired dude on that new light cone that they showed briefly during the 2.2 livestream. And since it isn’t much of a spoiler anymore considering the official HSR yt channel already put out a video on it.. yeah, harmony hat.

Pfftt there’s something so funny to me about hearing Himeko call that fierce monster who has already “killed” several people a mere pet. Show no fear mother!

I absolutely LOVE that this man canonically can’t swear! They can switch all the words they want but I know exactly what Boothill wishes to say and it is hilarious. This quirk alone makes me want to pull for him.

My memory isn’t the greatest, but this shot made it so clear for me to remember that the Forgotten Hall mirror is a sort of Garden of Recollection thing, so having Black Swan appear from it was simply perfect.

The girlies working together once again, oh my~

After the things you personally witnessed sweetie, I’m glad you think so. Gotta love strong women!

Whose?? The only relics that come to mind are the Ashblazing Grand Duke set which I’m fairly certain isn’t what Acheron is referring to. I only thought of it due to the memes about how she killed him and turned him into said relics.

There’s another cutscenes with Acheron and that old dude we heard last patch, but I don’t remember much aside from him reminiscing about his companions once being Galaxy Rangers and more chatter about Nihility. This scene however, with Sunday looking all handsome and holy.. OH BOY. He’s gorgeous with the light shinning on him like that. I feel blessed to have witnessed such beauty.

I never thought of him to actually listen to people’s sins, but it suits him rather well. Doesn’t seem like most people recognize him doing so either? Aside from this one pepeshi of course.. either that, or everyone clearly respects Sunday too much while this person could care less on how to act around him. I was gonna make fun of the merchant for having such trivial sins, but if you’re living a life where that’s all you have to worry about, then sign me up.

The confession isn’t all fun and games though as some disbelief about the Family is brought up. Yet another reason for me not to completely trust this holy hot handsome man yet. Looking forward to continuing more later tonight.

#honkai star rail #boothill #acheron #firefly #blade #misha #gallagher #sunday #black swan #gameplay #revs rambles

[arkiwii]

Rambling about Il Siracusano event - a subjective review

Il Siracusano event having been out for an entire week now, and with the survey Yostar gave us about the event, I would like to ramble a bit about the event and what I thought of it; of course, this is mainly going to be something subjective, so not many might agree with it, feel free to give out your opinions in reblogs/comments! I'm very open with it, no problems at all!

So, warning, small spoilers about the event, long post and probably bad english, I'm doing my best

What I liked about the event

Map design and layout

Of course, I think this is very original to have a direct map of Siracusa as a field of exploration, and more than all, having not only the stages, but different places; it really makes Siracusa feel real, realistic, almost like a real city, rather than "just some stage levels"

Some events have been pretty original with their map, like Maria Nearl's map looking like a tournament, or Mansfield Break looking like the prison's design, or the amazing Stulifera Navis's map, but none were as elaborate as Il Siracusano

We can see a lot of worldbuilding and originality from it, and it's very pleasing to see! The only small downside I can see is that when we first open the event's stages, there's no indication to where to start - of course, by looking around and clicking on everything, we can find our path, but it's slightly overwhelming at the first glance and we feel a bit lost

Characters and story

No surprise, Arknights characters are very attaching as always, and even side NPCs have been really amazing in it, may it be Giovanna, Sicilla, Agenir, but even less remarkable characters like Danbrown and Ben - who thought an event would have made me feel attached for a carwasher guy? The little side quests where we follow each of the main's characters in the city was really interesting, because we could experiment their point of view and life outside of the main story, making them feel human and alive

The whole story about the influence that the famiglias occupy in the city, making it an anarchy where each decide their own rules, and the only law being the one brought by the Judges, yet their power is still meaningless, was really great

It really takes us away from our sense of morales by showing us a place where crimes are casual, and a day without blood flowing sounds like more of a surprise than a day without; the characters all have a different way to react to this life, some decide to live with it without complaining, some decide to oppose to it, and some prefer to go away

I rarely pay attention to events stories, at least, not if I'm not interested in the characters; Texas and Lappland being not the characters that I'm the most attached to, I could have just ignored it, but yet I still felt taken in the story

Side note to la Critica Artistica, some reviews are truly funny and the winks to the event's main story are awesome

Rewards and event shop

Are you telling me there is a stage with guaranteed orirock clusters? For real?!

The entire's event rewards are truly great, may it be the rewards given by the side quests or the event's shop, we really have nothing to complain about - we literally can get 600k LMD from the shop alone, not given all the LMD given by the side quests as well; this event allowed me to promote three six-stars in a single day

And of course, not to mention the free six-stars operator given out, Vigil, even if a Tactician Vanguard is not the most ideal in the gameplay, and apparently the character is not the best gameplay wise, it's still a good gift for new players

What I did not liked in the event

Complicated dialogues and foreign language

Of course, a common criticism about Arknights in general is how complicated it is to understand what is going on; the whole plot often revolves around politics and other complicated subjects, it's difficult to grab a hand on what is being told if we don't have a basic knowledge on the subject

While the event was slightly easier to understand, some details went above my head easily, - but it could be fault to the fact that I am not a native English speaker and also cursed with ADHD - the dialogues were still very long and if it's not about the characters we care about, we quickly lose interest or barely read it; you know the rules, thirty or fourty minutes of cutscenes, and in the end, not even five minutes of gameplay

Not mentioning the characters using Italian terms; it's not the first time that characters use their native language in a media, Pokémon and Disney movies being good examples, but there is a fine line between "using local expressions time by time" and "using key terms in this language" - I have to thank myself for being French, since the languages are quite similar, I could guess what some words meant, but sometimes I really had no clues. Having important terms like Il Signore dei Lupi can be confusing, and we miss some important points or small details, and not many enjoy playing with a translator open near them

Complicated politic talk is already confusing, complicated politic talk in another language is even more confusing; I think it's an important role of a translator to know how much they should remove, and how much they should keep, to have dialogues that we can understand while showing the cultural references used behind

Way too easy

I'm not a new player, nor an old player, I already have a bunch of six-stars, and very good ones, and Elite 2 characters; but for having done almost all Side Stories/Intermezzo in the course of the last weeks, I can definitely tell that even at my level and with the units I used, some were seriously challenging, and I'm not talking about the ex stages, but the main ones

Yet, I have never seen an event as easy as Il Siracusano; the new enemies were nothing challenging, sure, the debt progress was an original adding, but the challenge was not that complicated - not only there is no downsides in letting civils die (while in other events, you would lose a life point), but the enemy that appears when the debt is full is not that bothersome. It could be for the first stages, but later, with a good defender and good healing, it can be really easy to counter it

And here comes the final stage and boss; annihilated. I never cleared a boss stage this fast ever, and I had no help or anything, it was all improvised and a surprise - I don't even know what the final boss's ability was, as I killed him before he could even use it, and no support unit were used

Of course, there is a true debate about if the main stages of an event should be easy or complicated; on one hand, if they're too complicated, new players will struggle to finish the event, or even not finish it at all in due time, and even old players might have to use a guide or playthrough to know what to do; but on the other hand, if it's too easy, old players will find no pleasure in playing the stages, and with the dialogues being way too long, it really is "95% of cutscene, 5% of gameplay"

I think it's something that the game still has to work on it; of course, I would like to have stages I can clear without having to use Deus ex Ch'alter and our Savior Kyo, but I would like them to be challenging enough to not clear them in a blink of an eye; it's a true balance that still needs to be found, something not as complicated as SN-10, but not as simple as IS-10, and finding balance in a gacha - so a game with a lot of units, each with their own abilities and strength, and allow every player to be able to use who they like - is the most challenging

What I would love to see in the future

"Showcase" stages of new operators

A very good idea that I loved in An Obscure Wanderer was the stages with given operators, and more than all, Mlynar himself; it was a very good introduction for the players to directly test out the new operator's ability, and if it was not for these stages, I would not have been convinced to roll for him

May it be Texalter, Penance, Vigil and Lunacub, we did not had any stages where we could use the operator or see them in battle directly; not a lot of players might feel comfortable enough to test out the character as a support unit, since it's a bit "testing new waters", and three new six-stars can feel imposing

But I feel like if there's some special stages - those "tutorial stages" that costs no sanity, and with no rewards, or at most just one Originite Prime, would help to test the true potential of the character in a given stage where the operator would have a perfect niche, to help the player how to use them, but also to convince them to roll the character

Lore guide and event sum-up

For people who have a hard time focusing on the dialogues and just what is going on in general, I think that a lore guide and sum-up for each event would be truly useful; quite like the small lore hints given in Chapter 10 and 11, but more elaborate, probably without rewards, but a new page at each stage and cutscene cleared

The lore guide could introduce each characters with their name, role, affiliation, and small profile, an introduction to the place where the event take place, and a sum-up of the important events and key points of the event, in an easy language; and why not use this guide to translate/explain cultural references used in the event? It could be interesting, not only to educate us, but also it would allow to have characters speak in their native language without making it hard to understand since there'll be an explanation given

Alright, so that's it with all I can come up with! I have no idea how pertinent it is to put my review and opinions on Tumblr, cause the chances that a personal of Yostar comes by are very low, but we never know!

#arknights #il siracusano spoilers #rambling #long post #I have no idea if I got characters/mechanics/foreign terms right I don't have my game open near me and I'm waiting at my therapist's

[vanikolya]

note: i can't be bothered formatting this properly its like nearly 1am DHDHFJD but i thought I'd get back into headcanons so here's a little memey post - ash

bungo stray dogs characters i like as dnd players

(may be ooc but shush) (i literally only read any content with nikolai and sigma in it yesterday)

sigma: the dm. hes literally the only one who could be bothered to fully read the rules and know how to play so hes the dm so he can run the game and teach the others how to play

nikolai: dice collector. asked fyodor and sigma to play dnd with him purely because he had so many dice and wanted to use them despite not knowing the first thing about dnd

dazai: sigma doesn't overly care about how closely the rules are followed, he just wanted to shut nikolai up. dazai, however, will call out every rule mistake and say how it really should be, just to piss off everyone at the table

chuuya: gets way too into the roleplay. feels real emotions (mostly anger) over npcs (and mostly dumb shit they do). thinks important dice rolls are the pinnacle of suspense (hes correct) and most likely to care the most if his character dies

fyodor: tells people what they got on their rolls. "so i got 16 with a plus five thats..." "21." "yeah 21". probably has a Stoic Dark Mysterious Quiet character so he doesnt have to actively roleplay all that much (hes there to keep nikolai quiet) (but he would probably be interested in the storyline etc and mostly how chuuya reacts to it bc fyodor thinks its funny how he cares so much)

kouyou: she brought like all of the snacks. she's giving vibes that she'd be nice to the enemies ingame as a first resort but her character probably has some secret evil streak going on

mori: brought elise despite specifically being asked not to (she's loud and makes a childish running commentary on everything sigma says about the setting and characters etc). gets really disinterested and forgets he's playing dnd

ranpo: fucking loves it just dont give him a murder mystery campaign because it will actually be a oneshot

fukuzawa: played it as a kid bet. ranpo comes to him to tell him about the Funny Little New Game and fukuzawas like "ah, dnd" and then deadass just starts playing with ranpo. he wont dm tho because the Kids(tm) are learning how to dm and he wont disrupt them (hes happy people still give a shit about dnd)

#bungo stray dogs hcs #incorrect bungo stray dogs #bungo stray dogs headcanons #bungou stray dogs gogol #gogol bsd #sigma bsd #sigma bungou stray dogs #fyodor bsd #fyodor bungou stray dogs #dazai bsd #dazai bungou stray dogs #dazai bungo #chuuya bsd #chuuya bungou stray dogs #chuuya nakahara #ranpo edogawa #bungou stray dogs ranpo #ranpo bsd #bungou stray dogs fukuzawa #fukuzawa bsd #mori bsd #mori ougai #bsd kouyou #bungo stray dogs #bsd #bsd headcanons

[createandconstruct]

talk about ur love of final fantasy 9, idk talk about doctor tot or someone obscure that u love

HAPPY 22ND ANNIVERSARY FFIX. Guess it's as a good a time as any to answer all these waiting ffix asks I have waiting.

And poor Doctor Tootsie. Relegated to an obscure ffix character. But since you brought him up I'll give you my thoughts on the good ol' Treno Doctor. 

I sorta… hate him? NOT AS A CHARACTER. Idk it’s weird. Doctor Tot is a great part of the cast and I love his relationship with Garnet but overtime, while replaying and rewatching the game I’ve started to interpret him as a character who’s weak-willed and slightly misguided. I’ve gotten more critical of him and his actions over time which is why I’ve started to see him less as a fun loveable little eccentric guy and rather as a man who let those in power do as they wish. 

Tot is absent at the start of the story. We pick up from npcs in the library (if I’m remembering correctly) that he worked in the castle as Garnet’s tutor and recently left. When we meet him we learned that he left when Brahne began to become a bit unhinged and dismissed him. Now I can’t completely fault him, I’m not sure what this little top hat wearing guy would have done in the face of an unhinged queen but there’s a sadness there that, he left Garnet behind with a to-be abuser/leader-bent-on-war. She was just a little girl who’d lost her father and was now trapped with a mother who was quickly losing herself. I do at least forgive him for this because when Garnet comes to him for help with her mother he says one of my favorite lines in the game:

What I really have a problem with is that he watched on as Garnet, still Sarah at the time, was stripped of her identity as a child. He was one to find Sarah and her deceased mother when they washed ashore and while it was the King and Brahne who decided to cut off the little girl’s horn - mutilating her body - he never did anything with the information. He even let it slip his mind. My dude I know you're old but how do you forget that someone had a horn and then had it REMOVED. I'm concerned for your academia. He also tutored and helped raise the new Princess Garnet for years and allowed her to live in falsehood. The King and Queen could have adopted Sarah as a new daughter. They didn’t have use her as a replacement, but they did - perhaps for their grief or to hide that the actual continuation of their royal bloodline had died - and its a fact that makes me more and more existential whenever I think of it and how "Garnet" feels. She was stripped of her family, culture, identity, name, and literal anatomy. I can’t help but indict the bystanders of this act. Thus, Doctor Tootsie is included. He new of Garnet's origins, even though he did not associate them with the summoners at the time, and he did nothing with such knowledge. Leaving Garnet to discover it on her own, through tragedy.

But he’s got a little top hat, funny nose, and rat hands so I’ll forgive him.

#asks #polandspringz #ffix #doctor tot #garnet til alexandros #final fantasy 9 #what is doctor tot anyway? a rat?? I always felt like he seemed mole like to me? maybe the glasses? #garnet til alexandros xvii

[cielsosinfel]

its 4am so i need to log OFF and go to BED but my mind is spinning with dishonored dishonored dishonored. this game really meant the world to me when i was... fucking... 18 years old lmao wow. i'm really not very far at all, i have just made my way to Claring Blvd, but some thoughts, i guess:

for a game that came out on consoles in 2012, it looks amazing. the stylization aged very VERY well even if some gameplay elements didn't. (and to be honest, the gameplay isn't as clunky as i was worrying it'd be.) (i do think there must have been a better, less confusing button mapping option for sneak-stabbing vs sneak-choking.)

i still love how beat up everyone's faces look in this. though, the women could stand to be more beat up and have more varied face shapes. also the NOSES

forgot that literally everyone wears pants because apparently skirts and dresses don't exist in the dishonoredverse? at least not in dunwall. which seems very fitting tbf.

the amount of thought and depth poured into the lore of the world dishonored takes place in, the amount of WORLDBUILDING, when you never even leave the walls of dunwall, is still one of my favorite things about it. i think the writers in charge of the flavor text strewn about as notes and books did a good job giving all of these details that flesh the setting out but still leave so much mystery that could be expanded on.

i love the atmosphere obviously but i love the just, entire atmosphere around the whales in this universe, their place in the world and its foundational myths and religions and the economic exploitation, everything it symbolizes for THESE ancient, magical leviathans to be brutally killed en masse to be rendered down to oil and heretical charms. and it reminds me yet again, of the common fanon of pre-DH2 fandom, where the outsider was a whale, or something older than the whales who brought them forth into the world or merely has a particular fondness and affinity for them, and he was never a human in anything but false flesh, only worn to put the mortals who reach out to him at something like ease, or just acknowledge the limitations of these beings who can't fathom whale song. what i'm saying is, i'm really still annoyed they canonized the whole "teenaged sacrifice victim" origin for him instead of having more fun with the magical ancient whales stuff u_u

something i hadn't noticed until this replay is the voice acting is very flat? i think it's easy to tell it's a voice direction thing. like, wow, so many charactes just speak Very Flat, almost monotone at times. it does take me out of the dialogue, ngl. i think as a 17/18 year old i wasn't paying nearly as much attention to like, writing and acting as i do now, so its sticking out. havelock especially sticks out. also funny to realize just how many background NPCs are voiced by the same three or four VAs...

the heart mechanic is still one of the most fun and enjoyable game mechanic gimmicks that ties in SO perfectly with the narrative itself. it's also just so funny to imagine corvo following people around the hound's pit, like barely a foot away from their back, holding a freshly-beating heart in his hand and burning a hole into the other person's head with such an INTENSITY trying to wring every little observation out of the lump of metal-choked flesh he holds (while the heart tells him how god dang suicidal they are. oh lydia and cecelia)

i'm thinking of all the woobie corvo angst fics i ever read where the heart is basically an emotional support haunted organ and going wuwuwuwu while i replay

i think now, as a 30 year old gay man instead of a teen girl, i desire samuel carnally (more specifically desire to see him and corvo fuck each other senseless) even MORE STRONGLY

ok i gotta do homework today good night

#mine poste

[felicitywilds]

brennan, regretting letting them take so many npcs as hirelings and having to remember what 5 different characters are doing at any one time: and hallariel comes and asks to take cathilda home :( and you guys are one fewer now

bad kids: hey ayda come with us pls

brennan: actually you know what you guys enter the forest and all your friends (not u tho) go missing :ooo now theres only gilear :ooo

#fantasy high #dimension 20 #dimension 20 live #fantasy high live #brennan lee mulligan #gilear faeth #by me #yes i recognise that as dm brennan does have creative control over who can/cant stay in the group #i just thought it was funny how literally all the npcs they brought with them vanished and prob wont be back for another ep or two at least #fh

[bigshotautos]

I’m definitely taking this too seriously but like

Kris’s phone gives garbage noise when you try using it to call someone from the dark world. What could have happened if jevil successfully made a web search?

Option one- the phone screen is a mess of garbled pixels and corrupted data. Jevil puts a great amount of time and effort “decoding” his answer and arrives to some interesting conclusions

Option two- for ineffable reasons, the dark world has real world wifi. Success! He orders dozens of dating magazine subscriptions, suits + ties, and flowers among other things, all of which arrive on Toriel’s doorstep.

Option three- the cyber world brought internet to castle town! Which would be fine, except for the fact that it is maintained and run by a relatively small group of darkners in a very tiny, close knit community. Literally everyone knows his search history… or rather, Kris’s search history.

Option four- the phone spits out weird garbage noise and now Spamton is having a freaking panic attack

Lots of things to consider! don't worry about taking things too seriously, now that I'm giving it thought it's pretty interesting. Putting thoughts under the cut.

I tend to do by rule of funny, that'd be option 2 or 3, most plausible is one, most heart-wrenching is option 4! Partial to option 2 just imagine Kris realizing that not only has their phone been stolen periodically while they're adventuring but the clown has learned how to online shop.

It's kind of wacky to think about how the internet works in Deltarune, because as far as most Cyber City darkners know of, it's not something they have access to. There's that one bit of dialogue we get where the internet is seen as a tool that Queen uses but not much else besides that. I feel like for the sake of having knowledge they shouldn't have, Spamton and Jevil would be aware of the internet (and of EVERYTHING being a game as a whole of course). Kris can't parse the garbage noise, maybe Spamton and Jevil would be able to? And any distorted garbled up nonsense the screen would display. But it would probably be a sore spot for both of them, Spamton especially.

It seems like regular NPCs have a lot less knowledge of the workings of the world which is kind of to be expected, but more important NPCs (Ralsei and Queen in particular) are more hooked into the meta aspects of the game being a game, the internet being a thing (implying Queen is fine with the knowledge of the Lightner world and Spamton's corruption is different than just wanting to go to the light world), the divide between Lightners and Darkners. Things get a little fuzzy when you try to factor in what an average Darkner would know, the chronology of the worlds coming into being, and just how the average darkner NPC would go about their lives of advertising without knowing that it's explicitly internet based. Even Ralsei who's aware of the meta elements of the game thought he 'deleted' the internet when he deleted browser shortcut. Probably just a goof, but it follows the trend of Queen being the only one aware of the Internet being a thing. Kind of mind bending to think how that works with a self-proclaimed e_mail guy.

#i love how quickly things become fuzzy when you think about dark world shit. theres a lot of things that're obvious goofs #but some things that seem pretty consistent and deliberate #for the sake of jokez i'll probably have them know about the internet but this was fun to consider #asks #hope your day night evening goes well anon

[utilitycaster]

Wizard Breakdown Tracker, #135

Each week I think “man it would have been cool if I had thought of this idea, in which I make jokes about how stressed out the wizard NPCs are, during, you know, the Vergesson heist or something when we were interacting with more than one wizard NPC instead of during a dungeon crawl with only one wizard NPC, emphasis on crawl” but you know what, I persevere, because where else am I going to put song parodies about the death of Vess Derogna that are literally only funny to me? Twitter?

Anyway while I am personally team Jester, in that the faster Lucien is simultaneously disintegrated, run through in the chest with both a vestige and a holy avenger, shot through the heart (and Veth’s to blame), beheaded with a hand axe, banished, punched in the face, and sent into a black hole the better, the party has other plans. Thanks to the long rest though it has been about 12 hours, plus the 4-ish from last week, so I guess we’ll check in with a few of our other wizard friends as well.

As a reminder Caleb Widogast is a PC and thus excluded from this list.

Currently sidelined

Presumably having a good day: Pumat Sol (blissfully unaware of all of this); Allura Vyesoren (saint-like patience and a wealth of experience with disaster adventuring parties; at least this one has a cleric at more than 0.33 FTE, a wizard, and some lesbians), Ludinus Da’leth (this miserable pile of power plays wakes up every morning and is like Isn’t it Grand to be head of the evil wizard council and no one realizes I probably destroyed the first non-drow elven civilization on the continent to arise after the calamity! Fetch me more pastries!).

No idea but here’s hoping he found the cat portion of ScryTube: Oremid Hass

Lady DeRogna, taken off the scene, sorry that your murder happened while off-screen.

Trent Ikithon: I’ve established that I think the only real things that can damage Trent emotionally are Caleb paying too much attention to him so as to destroy his standing within the empire, or else Caleb ignoring him. Honestly if Trent would not continue to torture students and spread propaganda if left unchecked I think he could be slowly murdered solely through Caleb expressing apathy. So despite the amulets of nondetection I like to imagine that somehow, somewhere, Trent felt Caleb reaffirm to Essek that his top priority is still stopping the city from returning, not Trent, and it necrotized just a little bit more of his liver.

Conclusion: 7/10. I went to the OG evil mageocracy and no one knew who you were.

Essek Thelyss: Well on the one hand he’s still flirting but on the other imagine spending a literal century being like “what if we’re wrong about how we approach the fundamental basis for our society” and he just got proved right. I have to imagine he’s got that kind of stress where suddenly everything becomes dead calm and also this explains why he unnecessarily cast a 3rd level spell, which he knows could in theory cause him to lose all his hair, to impress a boy. I didn’t even get into the conversations he had with Caleb, the bad dreams and eyeballs, Fjord teasing him, Yasha being like “ALRIGHT ALREADY”, the horrible Aeorian creatures, the fact that robots might be back(?) or his ongoing terror that the Assembly is after him!

Conclusion: 8/10 but he’s like, kind of having a good time. Essek is in all ways but physical in a Hawaiian shirt right now drinking a Mai Tai and going Nothing Matters; I presume he will have a full breakdown following the boss battle and honestly he deserves it.

Astrid Beck: Others have already established the parallels between Essek and Astrid but honestly I want to highlight it because really, on the one hand we have Essek, whose world is crashing around him because he was right all along and is in terrible immediate danger but surrounded by friends, and on the other we have Astrid, whose world is crashing around her because she was wrong all along and she’s probably not in immediate danger but Eadwulf is the only person she can trust and we don’t know all the details about that either.

Conclusion: 8/10 but in the bad way, not Essek’s kind of fun way.

Wulfpupy:

Conclusion: 3/10. You know that tiktok with the blonde woman with glasses who has a lot of highlighter on her nose who talks about how sometimes if you have guy friends they will say something deeply fucked up and you’ll be like “oh my god do we unpack this right now” and then you look over at them and the only thing in their mind are the lyrics to Kokomo? That’s Wulf. He will activate the second Caleb comes back in town or Astrid actually falls apart but until then he is on Island Time.

Yussa Errenis: I wonder if there’s a small part of Yussa that is part of the city’s awareness and, moreover, can see what Beau and Caleb at least are doing, and he’s like “I’m so simultaneously proud and impatient, also we live in a world that does not have IV fluids so like, hopefully my body still exists in some kind of functioning state when I am rescued” (note: did I google “how were coma patients kept alive in olden times” for this? Perhaps.) Anyway if he is aware he’s also just like, watching all this like “I WILL GET YOU SO MUCH PAPER OH MY GOD CAN YOU JUST KISS THE OTHER WIZARD SAVE ME FROM THE EVIL HIVEMIND CITY.”

Conclusion: I mean still infinity/10, he is still trapped in the city of madness and also if he does have a small part of his mind that is sane and able to observe the material plane he also is aware that Trent and the Volstruckers broke into his tower.

Known Gem Wizard Hotsauce Lutefisk: I know, I know, weird that I brought him up. However consider: Yussa’s wizard tower now contains two wizards in suspended animation, their consciousnesses trapped in eldritch astral sea-related spaces. This is incredibly funny to me. We’re in a real Old Lady who swallowed a fly scenario except it’s centuries-old wizards getting sucked into traps because of their own hubris. The reason why mageocracies no longer exist isn’t the lack of magical knowledge or even because power corrupts absolutely, it’s because literally just put some lightly fried forbidden knowledge under a box with a stick propping it up, add your parody of Long-Term Nuclear Waste Warnings above it, and a wizard will be like “that sign won’t stop me because I CAN read and what’s more I’m better at reading than you are!” And then they get trapped in a box.

Conclusion: what is a breakdown tracker to a man whose mind has been stuck in a gem for, from his perspective, at minimum about 35 years?

#critical role #critical role spoilers #wizard breakdown tracker #shadowgast #honestly i want shenanigans that rival any post-dragon vm shenanigans after aeor and i want essek to have a starring role #sorry percy i want a BLACK HOLE in the hot tub #your music this week was lady madonna by the beatles and kokomo by the beach boys #i swear i am a millennial i just spent a lot of formative time in the car with my boomer parents listening to the oldies station

[nochiquinn]

legend of vox machina episode 7: scanbo OR it’s only comic relief until it stops being funny

I got so excited when I saw the title of this episode

all the reactors I've seen thought stonefell was anders on account of the weird cut/camera focus when percy was talking about them

yes your honor I would die for cassandra de rolo

she does sound moderately like a fable npc

mala: that was an assassination attempt

anders is built like a pear on a barbecue fork

like okay. he's not wrong about the baby de rolos being pampered b u t that's not THEIR fault. kids are never responsible for the situation they were born or brought into, only with what they do with it once they're old enough to develop agency. he's just lashing out at them bc they're easy targets. and papa de rolo is right, it's NOT his job, and if it's not an urgent "everything's gonna blow up if we don't do this" matter he shouldn't have kept pushing. also don't bitch about your students' parents in front of them, let alone directly TO them.

okay I'm done now we can continue

I did NOT see the nails holding keyleth's effigy's antlers in place until mica pointed it out and for the record: I hate it

"I assure you, I'm in control" press x to doubt

his hair is getting a lot fluffier/less coiffed as time goes on (good)

"if you turn that thing on any of us again, I will not hesitate, I will kill you"

imagine knowing what percy's guns can do, even if you don't know what they are, and seeing him use them brutally and mercilessly on two prone, helpless people in two days (never mind what they all knew stonefell was and what he did), and now he's leaking smoke and his eyes are black from corner to corner and he's pointing it at you. and if he'll point it at you, his teammate (you'd like to think friend), who won't he point it at? vex? keyleth? and the only way you know to stop him is to put him down.

there's gonna be a lot of meta/fic in these next few recaps and I refuse to apologize

this means he kept the de rolo crest buttons this whole time

I love how they visualized this. just this whole sequence with the hammers and the barrel clicking

how'd he get a forge tho

scanlan

mala pointed out this is how early scanlan deals with dark shit, is to make a joke out of it, but has no filter on when it's appropriate to say it out loud

pours one out for matthew mccoughnatree

this is a really nice sequence tho

when keyleth's ambition outstrips her control

"who's the sixth barrel for?" props to whoever it was caught percy's shadow

I wasn't sure ale would put out a fire instead of dousing it but it probably has a pretty low alcohol content compared to like vodka

it's like dousing a fire with natty light

vax actively countering vex instead of just sniping at her

"this is bigger than all your personal shite" I mean yes but I would like more of the personal shite

s c a n l a n

like he has one job and that's fucking with everyone but. scanlan.

can archie like. wipe his face. it wasn't bothering me until mala pointed it out.

venkman

"let. me. be. ANNOYING." huge tiktok audio potential

me: oh no is this a musical episode mala: it was threatened

this was INTENSELY unneccesary

CrItIcAl RoLe WaS nEvEr ThIs CrAsS

D&D GUARDS

I'm sorry, they're clearly playing bunions and flagons

blink? I assume?

"how would this ever help?" idk if you needed to get inside a dragon

nut check WITH the gauntlet

I remember the fire breath being much more controlled in the stream, I am probably remembering wrong.

scanlan: literally a thirteen year old

yes. YES. the triceratops is LOOSE.

doors: the only thing to stop a charging triceratops

"who let that sex-crazed gnome do this solo?" "uh...you?" "never listen to me again."

"excellent plan, vox machina" "I mean that is what we're known for" rank lies

"I was dead yesterday, remember? can only improve from here."

tbf the DOOR wasn't trapped. just the everything else.

I just love how bigby's scanlan's hand has been used in the show, much more versatile than I remember it being in the stream

(or it was just so ubiquitious in the stream I stopped appreciating it properly)

you have activated GrogRage™

"oh man, they are fucked now"

mala pointed out vex and keyleth still work together in battle, regardless of their personal squabbles. they can hate each other later when they're still alive.

(also probably helps that keyleth actually has no beef with vex, and is likely absolutely bewildered at the way vex has been treating her lately)

COCK LIGHTNING

no! double-tap! confirm the kill!

"good show, scanlan."

I legitimately loved vax running in ahead to find anders (and percy beating the shit out of him for it later) but this does make more narrative sense

"let her go and we can discuss a future where you're still breathing."

hey show what the fuck

hey show what the Fuck

#the legend of vox machina #lovmtag #critical role #spoilers #crititag #liveblog #reaction post

[waynedunlaptheorgandonor]

watched s11ep1

i will provide you with a quick review before i disappear back into the ether of twd avoidance

lots of spoilers under the cut. also i wrote way too much and i worked all night and haven’t slept so i didn’t bother to reread literally any of it, so it might be completely nonsensical, tho if you don’t expect that from me by this point idk whose blog you’ve been reading

enjoy:

hokay, first off, i’ll start by saying that i enjoyed it more than i expected to. i’ve been avoiding any sort of discussion about stuff, but my google algorithm is so fucked at this point that i still get recommended articles and stuff every now and then, so i was already pretty aware of what i was walking into, and was expecting it to be eh, but actually i prob enjoyed it more than i enjoyed the finale

(don’t get too excited tho, the finale was rly boring lmfao)

anyway

episode starts off with a tense scouting mission

it takes .005 seconds into the episode for caryl to exchange a look of longing, establishing that they are still having weird conflict and are both too fucking stubborn to do anything about it even tho they hate it desperately

i imagine that will continue for a while

rosita, kelly, carol, maggie, what’s her face with the bad hair, and lydia (i think that’s everyone?) lower down to some army bunker or something, where a bunch of walkers are taking a snooze, and the girls are very respectful of walker naptime, and do their best not to wake them up

obviously they eventually wake up, but i’ll get to that in a sec

as they’re tiptoeing through the walker tulips, there’s this split second where carol spots a machine gun, and looks at maggie with a face like, “can i plzzzz, i am mad horny for that machine gun,” but maggie tells her no. (i 110% expected her to defy orders and accidentally wake up all the walkers, but she actually behaved herself for once. well. mostly)

never fear, tho, after the girl gang collects a bunch of MREs they go back to wait for the dudes waiting up top to pull them up, and bc men ruin everything, one of the ropes break, and daryl catches it before it falls, but then a slow motion drop of blood falls on a walker’s face, and just like that, walker naptime is over, and carol uses her bow and arrow for two seconds before she is like “fuck this” and whips out the machine gun

yes, she is super hot using it

yes, daryl watches her do it

anyway, all the other girls get rescued, and carol is about to be pulled up, but bc she is a #girlboss, she first makes a beeline for one more crate full of MREs. daryl covers her while she gets the loot, and when she gets back up top they have another charged moment as carol hands him back his knife

just fuck already, jfc

titles!

cut to alexandria where everything is still not smilestimes

BUT, we do get to see uncle daryl run and hug rj and judith (and dog), and FUCKING HERSHEL JR, LIGHT OF MY LIFE is also there

istg, they could not have casted a better child, i a d o r e him

oh, and some friends of maggie’s show up too, idk

cut to a staff meeting where everyone is like, whomp whomp, we’re all gonna starve to death unless we figure out something quick

cue maggie going, “oh, i know where food is, but it requires me to tell you my tragic backstory, in case anyone didn’t watch my bottle episode”

she tells her dramatic backstory about all her friends getting slaughtered by the reapers for no apparent reason, and then she’s like “anyway, let’s go back there!”

no one thinks it’s a great idea, but a group of people decide to go anyway, including daryl and gabriel. rosita is super pissed that gabriel is going, and carol doesn’t go, probably partly bc it’s a shitty fucking idea, and also bc they have to keep caryl apart bc otherwise they’ll fix their problems ahead of schedule and they won’t be able to drag out the needless angst

daryl looks kind of annoyed that carol doesn’t volunteer to go 

bitch, i thought you wanted her to stop putting herself in the line of fire! make up your damn mind!

moving on

cut to a thunderstorm, where, if you look closely, you’ll notice daryl is wearing the STUPIDEST hat i’ve ever seen. just get an umbrella, jfc

for some reason negan is with them, bc ig he knows his way around washington dc, and no one in six years has bothered to figure out how to get around the city and/or get a map, and he is like “hey guys, maybe we shouldn’t try to walk in this fucking hurricane,” and everyone is like “FUCK YOU NEGAN, YOU’RE NOT THE BOSS OF US!!!” 

this will be a common occurrence 

but eventually daryl is even like “actually, it’s rly unpleasant out here, and my hat is mad stupid, can we go inside plz?”

so they go inside an old metro station, which is actually a rly cool cinematic choice. i rly like the idea, and they executed it rly well

speaking of executions

there are some fucking RULL CREEPY walkers. idk why they bothered me so badly, but they were what they at first assumed were corpses wrapped up in tarps, but turns out none of them had been properly put down, so they go through killing these rotted bodies that had supposedly been there since The Fall, and it’s very gross and cool

this entire time, btw, negan is like “hey, i know i’m a shitty person, but i have some rational arguments about why we shouldn’t be doing this right now,” and everyone is like, “FUCK YOU NEGAN, YOU’RE NOT THE BOSS OF US!!!” and he’s just like “god fucking damnit”

(i forgot to mention that at one point, when they’re headed into the metro station, negan is trying to warn ppl of the potential danger, and everyone is ignoring him, and he tries to talk to daryl, and daryl is like “fuck you, you think we’re BUDDIES?” and negan is like “oh, ok, so you’re gonna be like that too? fanfreakingtastic” and it’s very funny)

anyway. a fat monster zombie escapes its tarp at one point, and tries to eat some npc, and negan saves him, again is like “hey, anyone else realize that this is a FUCKING BAD PLAN?”, and everyone is like “we don’t care, you’re still shitty and we’re not listening to you, and you don’t actually care about random npc i would literally not be able to pick out in a lineup bc his face is so generic, you’re not the boss of us!!!”

it’s at this point that negan finally is like, “why am i even here? bc i know how to get around washington dc? do none of you have a map?” and i was like, “right?! that’s what i said!” 

it’s then revealed that maggie only brought negan along to murder him under the guise of “oops, he got hurt in the line of duty, it wasn’t my fault,” and daryl has this look on his face that says, “i seriously need to stop hanging out with lethal women bent on revenge bc it’s gonna give me high blood pressure,” and maggie has a badass moment where she points a gun she has for some reason at negan and is like “i have like, one shred of human compassion left inside of me, and if you keep pushing me i will fucking kill you without a second thought, so shut the hell up”

(in her defense, negan had just dropped glenn’s name to purposely antagonize her, which was rude as hell)

(for the record, i’m completely on maggie’s side here, but negan still is right that trapping themselves in a metro station is a bad call)

anyway, moving away from that briefly

i think this jump cut happens sooner, i don’t actually remember, but whatever who cares, point is, we get to the part of the show that actually matters, and that’s anything involving my love, juanita “princess” sanchez

and also eugene, yumiko, and ezekiel

they are being asked increasingly invasive questions by commonwealth ppl, some of which i wish they actually would of answered (what do they use to wipe their asses with?? surely toilet paper has long since become extinct)

zeke, who is so much more tolerable as a character now that he’s not larping as a king, has this incredibly weird and sort of sexually charged moment with a dude in an orange stormtrooper costume, where he’s like, “i bet you were an asshole cop back before The Fall, you stupid fascist, #fuckthepolice, mb literally? idk, this moment has a lot of pent up aggression that could easily translate to hate sex, it might just be the intense eye contact, but w/e, let’s just move along,” and then he has a coughing fit to remind the audience that he’s currently dying of cancer, and orange stormtrooper is like “lolz, loser, drink some water you dumb piece of shit”

cut to the wholesome foursome sitting at a picnic table in a guarded courtyard eating gruel, and yumkio, who finally has a personality, and princess are like “hey, this place fucking sucks, can we leave?” and zeke is like, “yeah, i met this orange stormtrooper who i think might be dtf and/or murder, so we should probably bounce”

but eugene is like, “but i want some hot stephanie ass, and also some bullshit excuse about how mb commonewealth will save alexandria” which, they left before things went super downhill, right? idr. it was after hilltop fell, but they don’t know alexandria got fucked either, if i recall? w/e, not important

two seconds after he says this, they talk to some people who are like “we’ve been here for four months, or maybe it’s been nine, i don’t actually remember, i’ve stopped processing the passage of time,” and the wholesome foursome takes this as a bad sign, tho that’s just the life i’ve lived as a night worker during a pandemic, so i was like #mood

but then they watch some guy get dragged away screaming to get “reprocessed” and eugene is like “ok, nvm, let’s bounce”

(my theory on what “reprocessing” is, is that they’re stuck in a room and have to watch hours and hours of customer service training videos on vhs from the 90s)

i definitely got my jump cut scenes mixed up bc i think the negan accusing maggie of a murder plot thing happened in between this scene and then the next commonwealth scene, but w/e, i’ll just finish what happens in the commonwealth arch

the wholesome foursome are trying to hatch a plan to escape, except princess, my love, is distracted watching some stormtroopers flirt, and the other three are like “wtf, dude, how can you even tell any of them apart?” and princess then tells them every stormtroopers backstory bc she is brilliant and pays rly close attention to shit, and the other three are like, “this is useful information, thank you for being an insane person”

their plan involves yumiko and eugene dressing up as stormtroopers and leading princess and zeke out of the place, which works fine actually, except on their way out they come across the Depressing Wall of Probably Mostly Dead Missing Loved Ones

they’re about to leave, when princess is like, “wait, yumiko, you’re on here, that’s weird huh?”

sure enough, yumiko  is on the wall, with a note from ig her sister 

the scene ends with yumiko going, “guys...i can’t leave...i have tragic backstory to unveil”

tragic backstory to be continued ig

back in murder metro town, npc and some other npc have stolen all the supplies, there’s a train blocking the track, and a horde of walkers are coming towards them, so things are not going fantastic

they horde is too big to take down, so they start to climb on top of the train car to get away

but dog runs away!

and daryl, being every pet owner ever, is like “gotta go get my dog, guys, try not to get killed while i’m gone, c u soon!” and he ducks under the train and disappears

#priorities

the episode ends with maggie climbing up the train car but getting grabbed by a walker and dangling off the edge, and negan is there and they have a lion king moment where maggie is like, “scar! help me!” and negan is like “long live the king, bitch” and walks away into the shadows, leaving maggie to a potential death

which, while i know isn’t actually going to happen, would be a really fucking funny move on the writers’ part

like, “look, lauren’s back! and now she’s dead, bet you didn’t expect that!”

anyway

my assumption is negan will actually end up helping her up or something, continuing his ambiguous morality bullshit that actually isn’t ambiguous bc he BEAT GLENN TO DEATH WITH A FUCKING BAT WRAPPED IN BARBED WIRE IN FRONT OF HIS PREGNANT WIFE

the maggie/negan arch is kind of dumb, but whatevs, i’ll tolerate it, as long as my boy glenn gets justice in the end

anyway, cue credits!

final assessment: good episode. i’m much more interested in commonwealth than the reapers, tho i am hoping that daryl’s personality-less ex turns out to be a monster killing machine with no conscience, that’ll be fun. princess is a gift from god. hershel jr needs his own tv show. needs more carol (and caryl)

the end! going back into my walking dead free chamber! see you next episode!

-diz

#i didn't mean to recap the entire fucking episode lol #sorry #it's to make up for my lack of content lately #or something #anyway #caryl #twd s11ep1 #twd s11 spoilers #dunlap tp

[garrothromeave]

let’s talk about minecraft diaries rebirth.

and why it’s literally amazing. (warning: this will contain spoilers. lots of them. also, long post ahead.)

i think a lot of people hate mcdr because they were expecting a remake; but the point of rebirth is for jess to rewrite it. it wasn't supposed to be exactly the same.

honestly i went into mcdr with a closed mind. as an og mcd fan, i thought that this was going to suck ass and that i'd rant about how bad it was to my friends later. but actually watching it, i just... couldn't help but immediately fall in love with it.

ik im probably the only motherfucker that likes mcdr, but honestly how could i not? for one, garroth and zenix actually have personalities at the beginning. AND; the villagers? actually amazing. donna made me smile, visher made me laugh and cry, brendan was just bein as good as ever. like... i even didn't despise emmalyn with every ounce of my soul like i usually do?? the characterizations of them were GOOD, man.

and honestly, aphmau like--the way she spoke, her whole thing. it was reallyyy well done in my opinion. she was oblivious to things, but it wasn't overdone and wasn't done in a way to make her annoying. she's a very appealing character in mcdr, a main protagonist i do not mind following along with. her dynamics to the characters are really cool and all very unique.  gonna cut it here so i don’t clog y’all’s feed cuz i got a lot to say :)

the early use of aphmau’s powers was actually pretty cool as well, it also really showed how clueless aphmau really was to everything going on around her. AND UH, THE FACT THAT SHE THOUGHT THAT GARROTH FELT FAMILIAR? GOLDEN. absolutely golden.

AND GENE OH BOY, the early introduction of gene? ik a lot of people are upset about it, but god DAMN i love it so much. his role in the story is very important in original, and i cannot express how much joy this brought me learning that he was actually getting the proper attention for it. and the fact that gene and aphmau were working together?? i mean ik gene was just trying to use her to get back to the "shadow abyss" (pretty pog replacement for the nether, gg) but god DAMN i loved every moment of it. i found their dynamic to be pretty fuckin funny to be honest, would absolutely love to see more of it.

i might be biased considering gene is one of my absolute favorite characters, but i honestly think that introducing gene this early on in the story was a good move. again, he's literally the right-hand man to the shadow lord. it makes you really wonder why he didn't have as much of an important role in season 1 or even 2 of the original mcd plotline. also, we get some of that good-ol-fashioned exposition with seeing early on how vylad and gene interact. vylad’s at a very strange point in the story right now; his motives are unclear, even to the side he’s ‘supposed’ to be taking (aka, a shadow knight.)  another early introduction to a character is zane! this, my friends, is good. really good. i’d say that zane is the main antagonist of season 1 in the original series--and he wasn’t even introduced until like, episode 50. it’s not necessarily a bad thing, but him being introduced this early on really gives the audience a better understanding of what threats are out there and what our protagonist will have to encounter in the future. in the original series, there’s not much explanation as to why lords are disappearing/dying left and right--and while yes, that was supposed to be the mystery of it, having some of that early information is a better move in terms of writing. 

AND IVAN?? BEING A PART OF THE JURY OF NINE?? I COULD NOT HAVE ASKED FOR ANYTHING MORE LIKE GOD DAMN that was a very pleasant surprise i'll just say that, thank you jess :)

and no i did not loop the 4 minutes of screentime laurance got in that one episode haha who would do that i would never do that anyways

SPEAKING of laurance, im so glad jess actually wrote him in this early :) she totally could have just waited for the first time aphmau visits meteli and meets him there, but no! she put him in an early episode. i dont even care if she did it just to shut up the fans about laurance but man that made me so happy seeing him, even if it was only for a bit.

okay i kinda wanna go over the guards real fast firstly; garroth. ignoring how weird the helmet showing emotions is, i really like how garroth is portrayed. he's under a lot of pressure because the village is putting a lot of the blame on him for malik's death, and he's trying his hardest to keep things running. the fact that garroth utterly refused the to take up the position of lord and even got a little snappy about it was actually really cool to see as well. and while he doesn’t have that same “reserved, quiet, observant” feel as the original mcd version of him had, this version of garroth is absolutely awesome. he’s more direct and blunt, is significantly more sarcastic, and isn’t as stiff or as much as a pushover as he is in the original. he even has a sense of humour. also, no homo, but he’s kinda adorable.  plus, the desperation that he goes through during the whole thing is just--it’s really cool to see how hard he’s trying to prove himself and help the village. my rating for mcdr garroth? 9/10. the helmet... the helmet is the main thing throwin me off, i can’t lie. next, zenix. oh BOY do i have a lot to say about this man. first of all, his and garroth’s dynamic is incredible. when i saw how the interacted with each other, my first thought was: father and son. zenix has this immaturity to him that is so fucking fun and interesting to watch, and seeing how garroth scolds him is so fuckin good man. and! seeing how he interacts with the rest of the village... honestly, if jess ever picks this story up again, i would probably cry when zenix (literally) backstabs garroth. HELL, i hope that’s something that still happens, it’d be heartbreaking to witness this character that we’ve come to love hurting his mentor, the man who took him in. he’s just a really good character all in all, and much more appealing than the original mcd zenix. ...except season 3 zenix. no zenix can be better than that one.  either way, zenix is amazing written to be the comic relief and he’s just an all-out lovable character in this series.  finally, dale and brian. yes i’m going to group them up because there’s not much to say regarding them, but i do want to address them. for starters, we have brian; who’s already 16 when the story starts. good on jess for doing that, because in the original aphmau watched brian be born and age INCREDIBLY quick, haha. THOUGH i do feel like there’s a slight connection lost there--one of the hardest things about brian’s betrayal in the original series in the fact that we watched him grow up in phoenix drop. we were there from the moment he was born, to the second he betrayed phoenix drop. BUT OF COURSE, this version is a lot more realistic, so it’s understandable. i just think that if it’s brian who’ll be betraying phoenix drop again (if it even goes down that same route), it won’t hit as hard unless jess really takes the time to grow the connection between brian and aphmau.  as for dale; gotta admit, love it. and like, i think one of the main things about how good of a call it was to make him a drunkard from the beginning is considering how much the village is struggling. the fact that the second-in-command is literally drunk all of the time really conveys the message of, “yeah. this village needs help.” plus, he’s another good comic relief character. i loved seeing molly and dale’s relationship too, it was very funny.  PLUS. we were blessed with a well scene, in which aphmau had to help villagers out of the well. i don’t know about you guys, but that was one of my favorite nods to the original series. i cannot thank jess enough for that, there was a smile on my face the entire time. another amazing thing--visher’s character. instead of just being introduced to this quirky lil merchant who only had one or two interactions with aphmau like in the first one, we got to sit there and really get a feel for someone worth remembering and worth mourning over. we had a reason to be sad over his death, it wasn’t just some npc getting blown up suddenly. this was different, and this hurt.  one of the major things that i hope is to come out of this is for jess to fix the major mistakes she had when writing the first series. she’d expressed how unhappy she was with some of the decisions she made, and i’m glad that she’s getting that second chance to undo the things she didn’t like. this series also gives her a second chance to really, really dig into characters and their motives. like, gimme laurance backstory in better detail. or like, garroth and zane’s relationship from back when they were kids? or how vylad died and who killed him? etc etc. she’s already done an excellent job so far, and i can’t wait to see where this goes. that is, if she ever continues it. god, i wish there were more episodes so that i could seriously let you guys know how beautiful of a series this is. there’s so much i want to say about rebirth, but i think i’ll stop here. i might say some more shit about it later, but if there’s anything i’d want you to take away from this, it’s: give minecraft diaries rebirth a chance. there’s a lot of potential, and this is a chance for jess to really change things for the better! ... but again, that is if this ever is continued. 

#aphmau #minecraft diaries #minecraft diaries rebirth #garroth #laurance #gene #zenix #vylad #rant

[ac-liveblogs]

Raiden Shogun’s Character Quest, Act 1

I spent the first half of this bemoaning how funny this could be in more competent hands, and the second half massaging my shiny new headache brought on by the sheer audacity. Anyway!

We’re introduced to the act by learning that Inazuma is in trouble; between the enroaching storm wall and the the Tricommission its in a general state of chaos, and the Shogun has vanished so nothing can be done about either. So... we’re off to a great start.

Thoma is the one out doing the legwork for the Kamisato Commission again. Seriously, why does Ayaka even exist. She seems fairly narratively pointless, I don’t think a single thing would change if Thoma was just acting on Ayato’s behalf. 

Ei, within very short time, says that she cannot modify the Raiden Shogun, but that fixing the storm wall was no problem; she’d just need to... modify the Shogun... ??? (And we don’t even fix the storm wall during this Act, so. What is the truth.)

This whole “sheltered upperclass woman out of touch with the commoners” spiel has already been done with Ayaka and Eula, though Ei really does take it up to 11 with her complete lack of understanding of the concept of fiction (and right after I thought her being completely stupefied by light novel names was actually pretty funny, too!). I don’t think this is meant to be a symptom of Ei spending most of her life as a warrior with no time for downtime, but even if it is they could have picked something less stupid for her to be ignorant about. 

Also, we seriously establish that Inazuma is in both political and literal physical danger, and just take Ei out on a date. 

Like dragonslayers and motion sickness, the joke about broke Archons will continue on well into the future, won’t it...

I don’t understand why NPCs get so much focus in Genshin. Especially when the playable cast doesn’t get much to work with? Why not switch out Kamaji for Sara, seriously. 

In fact, why not, oh, I don’t know - address the Vision Hunt at all? The entire conflict in the second half is about the Kujou clan’s culpability in the Vision Hunt decree, which somehow manages to damn the clan and completely ignore that Ei is the one that made the decree in the first place. Ei even has the audacity to tell the Takatsukasa clan they better not lie to her the way the Fatui did, but... Ei explicitly did not care about the Fatui’s manipulation of her and Inazuma. Why this retroactive painting of her as a victim?

Her doing the bare minimum of sorting out a mortal quarrel that she caused is treated as a victory for her. Like, she’s the Shogun. That’s her job. I really do not understand why her people are putting up with her. 

Archons vs mortal NPC cutscenes continue to be unimpressive on the Archons’ part. If anything, I admire Kamaji’s sheer guts. Also, shoutout to the ronin that attacked the Shogun. Hope they got paid well.  

Yae Miko is a terrible friend, by the way. 

Ei makes it pretty clear throughout this Act that she really, genuinely, does not give a shit about the humans in her care, considers their issues petty and doesn’t particularly want to rule them. She just wants to preserve her ideal of eternity. In any other game this would read as villainous, so it’s theoretically interesting to actually engage with this perspective. Theoretically. 

But. Here we have a god who does not care about their people, has enacted two decrees that are/were actively harming them, and is not for a single second held to account for any of it. Ei dismisses their concerns as petty, and her opinion does not change. At most, she comes to accept that humans changing is inevitable and should be taken into consideration. There are no consequences for her treatment of her people. The lives ruined are treated as a bump in the road, and Ei needs some time to think and change her strategy.

It is a callous disregard for human life, and I’m shocked the game is treating it as legitimate. Ei clearly has not learnt her lesson. 

I understand that Genshin is more about the Archons than the humans, but the Traveller passively going along with the Archons once they’re in their friend circle without like, objecting or voicing any opinion or disagreement of their own is... genuinely frustrating. Not all Archons have legitimate ways to rule, but it seems we’re fine accepting anything.  

Anyway, Ei’s fifth character story has her dreaming that the Shogun began considering her a danger to it’s preset ideals of eternity (her old self’s ideals of eternity), because she has changed too much. That concept is far more interesting than anything else we got with her. 

#replies #ac plays genshin impact #any other game and she'd be a villain her people wanted to overthrow #this is SO WILD

[something-very-special]

Call Her Back

Probably already a post with this title from the Let’s Play but it’s appropriate.

Thoughts on Replicant up to Ending A (and change):

This game is pretty. I guess it didn’t really hit me because I’ve always thought that the original NIER was pretty, but this game can be very pretty.

This in particular just kind of struck me as I was going across the Northern Plains. It had been dominantly gray, overcast skies up to that point because Part II of the game is meant to be. You know. Bleak. But I walked out onto a bright, sunny day with an expanse of blues skies, the mountains in the backgrounds, the ivy a burst of green growing up the rusted sides of the train tracks and it just kind of hit me that the game can be very pretty.

(Then I got punched out by a Shade.)

It’s definitely not a matter of massive graphical overhaul. The models look much better (getting a good look at the Twins during the finale, they really are beautiful) and I’m sure the environmental poly count is much higher and just overall smoother, and there are little touches here and there and just the capacity for better atmospheric lighting... I mean it all helps. But NIER is a game that’s always had fantastic art direction, making the most out of its budget through atmospheric tuning. There’s something uniquely beautiful about its muted palette and the way it uses its spaces that elevates it beyond the its actual technical limitations. It doesn’t look like an end-of-generation PS4 game, but that’s not an insult; it looks very much like itself from ten years ago, with its solid art direction, but touched up where it matters.

Does the sidequest grind seem... better...? I haven’t really dug into the BEST part of the game (spending 30 hours grinding out weapon upgrades) but I mentioned before my theory about how the sidequest grind is supposed to be carried out across multiple playthroughs and that’s why it sucks. To my surprise I finished Ending A missing only one sidequest (your friend and mine, Life in the Sands), with all of the other ones being more or less... pretty natural? The only thing I really needed to go out of my way for was Memory Alloy but all the other components didn’t really give me the kind of grief I remember from my playthroughs of the original. ‘Grief’ of course being relative to getting the platinum trophy, but my first time through the game I gave up finishing a few outstanding sidequests (specifically, fixing the lighthouse broke me-- I could not find 10 Mysterious Switches!)

Maybe I just got lucky, especially with the Machine Oils. Maybe some weird muscle memory kicked in. I feel like there were a few purchasing options that weren’t open originally, too, to ameliorate some of the grind, but it might also be a case of those options being cost-prohibitive so I just didn’t really acknowledge them... whatever the case the sidequest grind felt overall pretty painless. I dunno!

I really need to know how to manipulate events. For literally seven playthroughs straight of the latter half of the game I always did the keystone quest as Junk Heap (start) - Forest of Myth - Junk Heap (end) - Facade - Aerie. It wasn’t until I did a run with my college roommates and Popola gave me the Aerie letter before the Facade in invite that I realized the Aerie wasn’t actually programmed to be the last event.

Absolutely blew my mind, and ever since I became aware of it, it feels like the game goes out of its way to make sure the Aerie always comes before Facade. When I did my Let’s Play of NIER I kept a save file from the start of the kystone collection so I could re-do the events in case they went ‘out of order’ (according to my headcanon)... which they did. I replayed the latter half of the game again in order to get things the way I wanted them to be, same order, and fortunately it cooperated the second time, but I still don’t understand what the trigger is, if there’s a way to manipulate it, or when the determination is even made.

And then they throw the Little Mermaid into the mix, which I wasn’t expecting (that is, I knew it was added, but I’ve been mostly avoiding spoilers -- and happily, the changes have largely been a delight, I’m so excited for the subsequent playthroughs -- but the way it was posted about made it seem like it would happen after and apart from the keystone quest. Not so, my friends).

The reason for this is just the emotional escalation of each factor of the quest. The Forest of Myth is weird and little else (at this juncture, of course). The Junk Heap is a personal tragedy, but the actual tragedy has already occurred and you’re just experiencing the fallout. Facade is a powerful and personal tragedy that deserves to be experienced later on. The Aerie is a terrible place and nobody misses it it’s an enormous loss and profoundly traumatic for the party, and it feels like the appropriate apex to basically force them to go to the Castle and finish the fight, having already lost far too much.

Also it’s just super weird to me that they see that devastation, they literally wipe an entire settlement off the map, and then the next day everybody’s super excited to go to a wedding.

It also becomes even weirder that you go to Popola post-Aerie and nobody mentions ‘yeah that didn’t go so well’ but coming out of Seafront they have a legitimate conversation about the loss of the ferryman and the people they’re never getting back. I guess that guy had a personality but I still think maybe somebody should mention the smoking crater where people used to be.

Then again it’s legitimately funny to me how basically everybody is just agreed the world is better off without it.

This might also just be an issue of familiarity. Maybe if I’d always ended on Facade, or actually known that they could be swapped out as they are, it wouldn’t feel so weird. I definitely got used to the pacing with the Aerie at the end and I feel like I got into a debate with somebody about how it’s more appropriate for Facade to come last so this might just be a personal thing. But it’s still a personal thing and I’m still vaguely irritated I can’t figure out how it works.

Anyway I blew up the Aerie So that’s that problem taken care of.

I feel like the ambiance surrounding Wendy was a little creepier this time. I swear I heard that good stock creepy child laughter in the background.

Then the ferryman left This was a nice bit of foreshadowing; following the Aerie events I wanted to hop over to Seafront to take care of an extant sidequest only to find the ferry dock in the Northern Plains empty. I thought that maybe this was just a weird way of railroading you to make sure you went through the Village first, even though there were no scenes that would trigger just by being in the Village.

Alas.

Not gonna lie, when the couple was first introduced I thought for SURE it was going to be the wife who wound up dead. I guess it’s because the guy had a purpose as an NPC so yeah, I was tricked. Good design decision; the ferryman is talkative and bright and definitely difficult to forget and even though he was kinda obnoxious there’s a definite void where his dialogue was. It’s clever too that you’re forced to use the ferry at least once so you can’t escape the dialogue that you’re presented with, meaning that even if you don’t really make use of the ferry you’ll always have that contrast between him at the start of Part II and the other guy (his brother, maybe?) taking over the job and just not really talking to you afterward.

Episode Mermaid First of all, to be clear, I’ve not done the Route B playthrough yet. All I know about the Little Mermaid is what’s presented on the surface, what can be gleaned from there, what I remember reading in the Grimoire NieR short story. This is very much just an impression and reaction to the first encounter and it’s pretty cool.

I like that they managed to go into yet another genre style aping a point-and-click adventure.

I like the atmosphere of the wrecked ship. It really brought me back to the ‘ghost ship’ level archetype with its little hints of spookiness.

I appreciate that it ties subtly in to the Haunted Manor (technically the Part I Seafront dungeon) with Weiss’ utterly irrational fear of ghosts.

I love every excuse they find to get Kaine and Emil (and especially Kaine) out of a situation. It’s almost a running gag that Kaine keeps getting knocked out of dungeons and boss fights. None of them are quite as great as her getting Rules Lawyer’d in the Barren Temple, but there’s something delightful about “Let’s get you some fresh air, we’ll be right outside, be careful!” and then bookending it with Kaine and Emil just chilling at the end like “Well yeah there are a lot of holes in the hull we just popped in.”

(I forgot to go backward to see what happens if you try to take them into Seafront proper, gotta remember that next time.)

Interesting thing when you find some of the dropped apples is that Nier and Weiss talk about the dinner they had with the couple. This was actually a really sweet and oddly emotional conclusion to the added sidequest between the bickering couple-- entirely missable. I would assume the dialogue just doesn’t trigger if you didn’t do the quest but it was a nice touch.

I appreciate the use of dead bodies in the hold.

(That’s a sentence.)

But for the game’s focus on violence and excess of blood it’s very selective in how it uses actual corpses. Any time you see a dead body it really emphasizes the seriousness of the situation. The corpses in the hold and the blood spatter -- especially compared to how bright and clean Seafront as a whole is -- was surprisingly effective. Again, just good atmospheric buildup.

Bit of an anticlimax as a boss, though. It is a really cool boss, between the environmental buildup to the fight and then actually unveiling her, but for how big and scary she is the fight itself went by fairly quick, and the actual finale (the postman whacking her hand telling her to go away she’s groooooss) felt a bit weird in comparison to the way the boss fights in the rest of the game usually play out. Of course, I don’t have context of her dialogue (I can take my guesses, her holding out her hand to Hans as he freaks out and attacks her is already a palpable tragedy) and by the way the scene was framed I suspect the Route B reveal is where the most important part of the scenario lies.

And the seals came back! It’s the little things.

“I wish I was Fyra.” So in the original Replicant the conversation between Emil and Nier before Sech’s wedding was apparently an implication that Emil had a crush on Nier and wanted to marry him. It was ambiguous enough that people had to ask for clarification and some players interpreted it as a weird, childish expression of looking up to and respecting Brother Nier. It was clarified in the Grimoire NieR that Emil is gay and crushing hard on Brother Nier, and this line of dialogue here seems to have been... not made explicit, but changed even between RepliCant and ver. 1.22 to make the implication a little clearer, at least insofar as he isn’t interested in girls. (It winds up missing the implication that he’s into Nier specifically, though.)

...which is funny, because it colors his introduction to the King of Facade somewhat differently. These two meeting is honestly really sweet on a few levels (Sechs recognizing him from Nier’s descriptions, which implies that Nier’s been visiting Sechs regularly and so proud of his interactions with Emil he told the king of another nation all about him, and the King is legit excited to meet him) but then a couple of minutes later Emil is all ‘I’m so jealous of Fyra’. He isn’t crushing on Nier, but he is totally crushing on Sechs.

Endgame At this point in the game the distinction between Brother and Father has become mostly lost and the final charge is pretty much the same as

wait what’s up with the music in the Lost Shrine? This is Snow in Summer.

Or an arrangement thereof. That particular track level from Snow in Summer winds up getting used in a few new places and it has this kind of weird, vague sense of dread that makes it work pretty well. Utterly threw me off in the Lost Shrine, though (I think it’s appropriate given its connection to the Shadowlord/Gestalt Nier so slowly re-introducing it in the climb is pretty cool). It also builds insanely as you climb, which is a very cool effect but, um, I’m just here to pick up some sidequest items right now this feels like a little much.

There isn’t much to say regarding any impact or differences in the large part of this area of the game. It’s a good final dungeon, it carries good momentum, it works as well as it ever did (that is to say, rather well). The emotional beats are great and translate equally well between the protagonists, although I have to give the nod to Papa Nier during a lot of this just for the imagery of such a big, powerful man becoming so broken the further he goes in (and Kaine being strong enough to toss him around like a rag doll anyway).

The final flashback with Nier and Yonah also feels better with Papa Nier. I always read it as, of course, Papa Nier having his moment with Yonah, giving her the flower, and as he lays back down Yonah does the same big sigh like she’s trying to emulate her dad and it’s really sweet. This is another one of those moments where it’s not something that feels wrong in Replicant, but just having that comparison in the back of my head is something that I just can’t help.

Is Papa Nier still Best Neir? Yes.

But there’s room in my heart for Brother. I’m glad the bizarre marketing decision happened and both of these characters can exist.

...and then we reload the save. Okay, okay, so-- so here’s the thing-- I figured that’s a good place to conclude a session, right? Get to the ending, prepare for the next run. But I also know that Route B starts with Kaine’s unskippable novel segments. I’ve read them, of course, so I figure I’ll just reload into Route B so I can make a save after the novel sections, really get into the meat of Route B when I’m fresh.

So skim through those--

Beat up the Knave--

Skim through the rest--

Educated Warrior... didn’t pop...?--

Wait what’s this camera angle--

Why am I outs--

oh my god

oh my god

KAINE AND EMIL HAVING GIGGLY GIRL TALK AROUND THE CAMPFIRE OH MY GOD WHAT IS HAPPENING

THERE’S MORE.

THERE’S. MORE.

I legit short-circuited. Going in I knew they added the Little Mermaid. I knew they added Ending E. Those were things I suspected would be added and went out to specifically confirm; beyond that I’ve been keeping myself completely spoiler free.

I had no idea there was more. I had no idea this was happening.

I’m so excited.

And a goofy thought for the road

“I polished you with a special cloth, I poured warm water on you--”

“Wait, you poured water on me?”

/imagines Emil running blindfolded eight hours across the Southern Plains with an 8oz plastic water cup, getting to the library, splashing it on Kaine, waiting expectantly

/nothing happens

/walks dejectedly eight hours all the way back to the Manor

#NieR #NieR Replicant #Musings #Ramblings #OH MY GOD WHY DID NOBODY TELL ME ABOUT THIS #I AM SO GLAD NOBODY TOLD ME ABOUT THIS

[endexe]

Whew, okay, uh, ya star child, Mori, here whipped out a fucking long ass essay just regarding to the things I realized while writing Zero and how much Zero means to me, especially on the personal level. Some heavy areas are to be touched as warned ahead in the sixth paragraph, but I promise I’m okay! I simply have a lot of thoughts and emotions whirling around in me that I need to place somewhere! But to summarize: Thank you all so, so, so much for loving Zero Orez, my one and only bestest foolish glitch child, and for giving me the safe and gentle space where I can be at my most joy and comfort having him here. <3

So the concept of Zero was created this month on April’s Fool, which is the second most ironic thing to happen with him ( the first is honestly  the fact that within the same month, Zero have interacted with five muses who share the same faceclaim as him, like lmfao poor Zero, he’s just not having it --- shoutout to Mercy ( maskeraide ), River ( wxrldkiller ), Oli ( teletropic ), Vi ( heartbetween ), and Grace ( evermxre ) for having me so delighted and entertained by this concept, it makes my experiences writing with Zero so much more fun ). I created him for this episodic novel series Let There Be with Noble and Grim, the angel and demon respectively, who are private investigators. I had the concept of how there would be eldritch monsters trying to take over Earth by using the elements of the horror genre, which created mundane appearing but still supernatural linked cases that Noble and Grim had to solve when no other ordinary humans could, and the monsters were linked to their respective tarot card. Zero was considered to be the Fool.

I was excited to make Zero be a side character of the novel, the foolish and childish character who would constantly help and betray both sides of the series, one side being Noble and Grim, and another the Arcane. But I didn’t know what more to expect from him. I was reading the tag within the post I made in Noble’s and Grim’s blog that was the NPC introduction of Zero. It’s so funny that I said I didn’t know if I’d end up writing him on here because I thought Noble and Grim, my impossible lights, would end up taking all of the muse from him. BUT IN THE END... They were the ones who I set up the indefinite hiatus note few days ago while Zero’s still thriving, and I find that so bizarre because I thought Noble and Grim were the ONES who I’d always have the muse for. You know how you’d have that thing where you’d expect something to happen with your muse, but they would do the exact opposite as you least expected? Zero’s like that ALWAYS, but the fact he pulled the UNO reverse card on my impossible lights? Truly wild and now here I am, writing him for almost a month!

And... creating him, writing him is the BEST choice I had ever made in my entire life. Yes, Noble and Grim had helped me a lot, especially I do face a lot of struggles when it comes to the matters of hope and despair, what Noble and Grim embody of respectively but Zero eventually become so many things to me. The vent character, the comfort character, the character who I can channel my childish and curious energy into when I was rarely given the chance to let them out in the real world when I was younger, the character who is a learner but as slow and easily frustrated as me and a lover of life like me despite everything / anything. I realize also that I have so much fun and easier times writing him than I had with Noble and Grim, I won’t lie about this. Noble’s and Grim’s aesthetic and energy seem to attract more of an urge to write a bit more purple prosey with a hint of seriousness to it, and... it was so time and energy consuming to write them with these expectations I had on myself. And for some reason, I sometimes had trouble plotting with them, maybe because, again, I felt like they had to be these serious characters having to be put in serious situations. Few of the things I love about Zero is he have bare limits to his character as he can be anything and anyone I want him to be. He has about everything that I can use to develop and have fun with. I love how ultimately, Zero is ever unbound to labels and he is ever changing.

I’m just amazed realizing how many writings and developments I have done with Zero within a month than I had with those two, but that’s because with Zero? He is truly... all over the place. He is so messy, chaotic, flawed, but also, he is loud and open and FREE. Having to get into his energy makes me feel my most self where I can be too loud and loving, and not care too much about how I write and format my posts, unlike with Noble and Grim. He makes me so so SO happy and comfortable, and there is a lot of times I’d think about him and sometimes with my friends’ muses, and it’s a lot more than I had thought of Noble and Grim. The love I have for Zero is endless and beyond, always. He reminds me that original characters are so fucking important when they can be anything and anyone you want them to be, and as long as it’s nothing of harm to others and yourself, whoever and whatever they are, they are more than good enough when they provide you so much joy and comfort.

[ trigger warning: mentions of ( child ) abuse and traumas ] Zero have... about about everything I’ve ever loved in general from my interests to tropes ( adorkable, the fool, fourth wall breaking, etcetera ) to my love of aesthetics ( such as glitchcore / cybercore / kidcore / weirdcore ), and so many more. As well as he have learning disability, hypersexuality, tendency to be so distracted and forgettable like me. Along with he does these things that I do as stimming like he’d just rock or always love to touch blankets that have very soft materials. As well as he have experienced so many traumas that resulted him having so much trouble remembering and wanting to be childish as hating to be responsible, which is what I have. I don’t remember anything of my childhood or honestly, majority of my life but traumas. I don’t remember much of what I did yesterday. I don’t even remember if I had breakfast yesterday or what I ate if I did because I had been through so much mainly involving abuse from my own mother, still do unfortunately as I live with her, that makes my brain shut down, which also makes me have so much trouble being in deep thoughts when my brain is just. Numb. When I’m going to be more real here, despite how I appear online here, I do have trouble experiencing and expressing much emotions because, again, of the traumas I have dealt with for so long.

From all of these things I had gone through in life, I have dealt a lot with these concepts of who I am, what I am, like Zero does, and having him, I eventually realize how extremely important he is to me, so much more than any characters I ever created. He is my biggest coping mechanism and my gentlest reminder that it’s never too late to be... free. Just enjoy everything that I’m so fortunate to get from life. Draw clumsily, listen to music loudly, love too much and just let my heart be louder than the thunderstorms and crashing sea waves combined. Just be free and happy, despite everything, anything. I said before with Noble and Grim that I hadn’t been this happy before writing them, but I was so wrong. With Zero, I am so much more happier than I could ever be, and there are so many people on here who I am beyond lucky and grateful to be friends with who let me have him with no judgement like over how ridiculously overpowered he is or how much I self projected myself into him. And all of the connections Zero made on here so far are very touching and wonderful. I didn’t know what to really expect when I decided to give Zero his own blog, but having him for a month, this decision brought me so many beautiful things that I will always cherish.

I also wanna give a quick shoutout to River for. Fuck, everything. They’re truly the biggest reason why I decided to keep writing Zero and even make me love him more. They had made me talk about so many things with Zero I probably would’ve never thought, or wouldn’t have thought about so soon. I always extremely enjoy everything River and I would go over about together, and... literally, River, if you see this, know that you’re truly a wonder to have. I am so beyond thankful to have you as, honestly, already my close friend. Thank you so much for giving me that extra push to keep Zero and one of the most meaningful reasons why Zero still exist today, and for being just an amazing friend.

Just thank you all so much, to those we had known each other from the other blog and those we just became mutuals, for giving me and Zero a chance to be a bit more free and happier at least when our life won’t let us have that so often. Just thank you, thank you, thank you.

#* ❪⠀ 📺⠀❫ : 𝚎𝚙𝚜1.2:outofcharacter.𝚝𝚊𝚐 // #( I'm not expecting anyone to read it I just. again I had so many thoughts and feelings on this that I had no where to put but here ) #( but again and again thank you everyone for this <3 )