#it’s an arbitrary aspect idk

[spinsterennui]

Going to have to drop this class 😂😭

#i wanted to finish my women’s studies certificate #but this class is nuuuuuuuuts #like the amount of work??!?! #bitch i do not have time for ten hours of effort for one class per week #like when a paper is due or w/e sure #but EVERY week? #🙄 #so disappointing bc it’s an online class and they’re so rare #but i have other shit to deal with #like the syllabus has i shit you not like 10 pages of just descriptions of all the little assignments #?!?!!! what the actual fuck #i mean yes i’m lazy but this is a bit much #it’s like they’re worried about legitimacy #so they just pile on work and requirements too shut people up #but like that doesn’t necessarily make it a good or bad class or department #it’s an arbitrary aspect idk #*to

[escapismblue]

this is gonna sound ridiculous but I made a romantic orientation because I could not find one that fit my headcanon for Sonic. like. I looked through so many aromantic orientations and could not find one that was close enough so. here we are.

💕 Rivalisromantic 💕

definition that fits my headcanon and the Sonic universe:

an arospec identity in which one only develops romantic attraction after knowing that person can hold their own in a fight. i.e only forming romantic attraction if they can take comfort in that someone’s safety and/or seeing that someone as an equal in said aspect.

more general definition that better fits our world if anyone wants that:

an arospec identity in which one only develops romantic attraction after knowing that person is an equal to them in some competitive aspect. for example: chess, boxing, games, etc.

and the flag that might be similar to an existing one because to be honest I didn’t check:

do whatever you want with this, I really do not care. tweak it as much as you want if you so desire.

#the colors of the flag are sorta arbitrary ngl #from what I know green is like THE aromantic color #and the red/orange is pretty obvious #the name is also like pretty weird but eh #as far as I know rivalis is the latin word for rivals #but I’m not attached to the name at all #the comfort aspect doesn’t really transfer much to our world but is very important for my Sonic headcanon #anyway yeah idk this was made at 3am #romantic orientation #aromantic #arospec #sonic the hedgehog #sonic #sonic headcanons

[thats-a-lot-of-cortisol]

new hair new hair!

Before:

After:

#image id in alt text #ive been planning this for so long #i decided a while ago that dora's act iii change would happen after the house of grief #(something something the weight of memories and forgetting) #(something something letting go of people who are already dead) #(something something forgetting is not mercy) #and. she may be going through a little teensy tiny bit of a faith crisis #her braids *were* a way to reclaim an aspect of her culture #(a 'fuck you' to the rigid & arbitrary restrictions drow society imposed on expression & a *specific* 'fuck you' to the noble houses) #(she's common-born so wearing her hair in braids was illegal while she was living in the underdark) #(it doubled nicely as a way to keep her long hair out of her way) #so her cutting it off was a way to fully move on- accepting the parts of her culture & environment she still appreciates #without feeling subconsciously like she has to remain connected to everything #and. you know. the whole “hair holds memory”/“cutting hair as a form of grief” thing #i was set on the wizardly updo hair for her but im. undecided. i tried most of the short hairs though so idk what the alternative would be #hairstyle changes faces SO much #noticed that with corentin too #bg3 #bg3 tav #diodore #the star's shield #bg3 screenshots #bg3 drow #drow paladin #oath of ancients paladin #my post #jay rambles #blood cw

[gothamcityneedsme]

listening to the me:a ost for work and tbh it is incredible how much me:a is an improvement on the 'bioware open world game' formula. like i still think its weaker but in comparison to da:i, me:a is infinitely more playable and feels more full of an actual soul.

Like. I have 100%-ed both games. I will NEVER 100% da:i again, and honestly im not sure if i would even *play* it again. meanwhile i, 1000%, would replay me:a, and i could even see myself doing everything in it again. The grind isnt unbearable, gives you time to hear other party convos, and lots of the sidequests have memorable characters and concepts

#Shitpost #dai is such a dead soulless game that playing it feels like inviting weeds to grow inside me #so much in that game ends in a body and just stupid text #Its. Really really terrible on a world gameplay aspect #Such a just. Personally harmful game to me really just because its so cynically devoid #A good microcosm is how like every quest in dai leads to really nothing of consequence vs #In mea one of the most interesting and personal story moments is tied *into* the gameplay #The random exploring of points unlocks your fathers memory #which is something so personal and it also makes sense since you literally took his place and like #Literally are becoming an expert at what he was an expert in etc #and you unlock the MOST MEANINGFUL MEMORIES possible and theyre ALL rewarding #actual CUTSCENES of the family and of SAM too #and you learn so much #mea has some intrigue that was meant to lead to a sequel that seems like itll never come #Its so annoying because mea was hated and flamed for arbitrary incorrect reasons #fucking gamerbros i hate you #Anyways. The intrigue in mea wasnt the only interesting things that happened unlike dai #they were interesting little snippets but the true core was already there #Finding the other pathfinders is a good exame of meaningful choices offered. Alongside the dad focused quests i mentioned earlier #just idk parts of mea were a little too grindy and so theres some of the threadbare irritation #but it has so much more than dai did

[catboybiologist]

Oh, i absolutely am thinking about stuff like breast implants for cancer patients after a masectomy. like yeah, that is pretty much the same question, just, i thought to ask about the aspect of it you have the most, idk, experience in. And idk, like, i do think of how much those types of things improve people's lives, that is probably a higher priority than, idk, oil subsidies and the war. But still, ig that's a debate we are far from needing to have, as if theres a line there, we wont reach it soon.

Yeah, of course ask about what I have experience in! It's unfortunately a question that's highly context dependent and beyond me, but at the very least, we should alter the framework to bring gender affirming care into that discussion overall.

Unfortunately, a lack of gender affirming care access is oftentimes an issue of arbitrary bans that take extra money to implement, so removing those, all other things equal, would probably save money. I wonder how much money the UK has wasted on psychiatric analysis and waiting list management for HRT access. So you're right, we aren't at that point yet.

[pixies-and-poets]

In which I dare to rant about Paper Mario

So there's this discourse going around twitter right now about Paper Mario being an AU and Paper Mario not being the "real" Mario and if ANY of the PM games happened in "the real Mario world" or have parallels, do the characters exist outside of the Paper World, etc etc

And all I can think is like, damn, how unfortunate is it that Intelligent Systems deciding to use a charming and timeless art style back on the N64 led to this. The idea to use 2D sprites on 3D backgrounds to create a storybook feel eventually spiraled into the series' ENTIRE IDENTITY. Gameplay does not unite the whole Paper Mario series, depth of story does not, shared characters do not, only the art style and the idea of 2D vs 3D.

And it's a shame because the first PM was a lovely fairy tale that clearly followed in the footsteps of SMRPG as an extrapolation of what the Mushroom Kingdom could be, and how Mario's world works. It was also my first Mario RPG and had tremendous influence on me. Friendly Koopas and Goombas, the Star Spirits, wishes. It was called Mario Story in Japan and the paper aspect mattered nothing to the actual narrative. And then TTYD got a little cheekier with the paper abilities (with them being a fourth-wall-wobbling joke tacked on to what was clearly supposed to still be a Mario Story). And then SPM, much as I love it, bases its entire hook around 2D/3D in a way that's hard to reconcile with Mario's "normal" existence. And by Sticker Star they just said screw it, reboot it, everyone is 100% aware they are made of paper and that's like the series' whole deal now. And it has stayed there ever since.

For the last three games, you can say maybe there's a "real" Bobby out there or a "real" Captain T. Ode but it's impossible for their plots to take place in a world divorced from the craft universe unless we substitute in a lot of body horror and viscera (and even then, what of the Things? Etc). And that's ok for these games, they work within their own context and can be fun for what they are. But it's now got people thinking the first three games fold into this same AU. And you can blame Paper Jam for this but the PM series did it to itself. PJ just clearly spelled out the dual reality that Sticker Star and its follow-ups obviously necessitated. And now the whole series has retroactively been wrapped up into this Paper Universe.

Look, I know "Mario lore" doesn't actually matter, and most RPG characters never show up again even in their own series, and as long as you enjoy each game in a vacuum that's what matters. But it's frustrating that we've reached a point where PM characters have to be the odd ones out who may or may not "actually exist" or have actually met the "real Mario". Mallow is definitely real, Cackletta is definitely real but Chuck Quizmo- WHOA SLAM THE BRAKES, IDK ABOUT THAT ONE CHIEF. Thankfully most people don't give a shit about this drudgery and it won't stop people from drawing Vivian and Geno interacting, because it's just fun and good.

But my point is, I don't think the people working on the first PM (and TTYD) really could have foreseen the series evolving into what it is today, and it's unfair to wipe out their lovely narratives and relegate them to some kind of side universe not worthy of The Real Super Mario(tm) [especially because, taken in sum total of characters and vignettes, TTYD is the greatest Mario narrative there has ever been IMO]. SPM, so strange in both its style and its entire concept, is in some kind of weird limbo where I don't even really care what people think of it anymore, just let me enjoy my game that makes me cry every time in peace lmao

I can't think of another example of a series where an arbitrary stylistic gimmick (not a gameplay or story gimmick but a STYLISTIC gimmick) consumes it and becomes its entire thematic identity. Can you? It's Flanderization on the scale of a franchise, not just a character. Closest is perhaps the Yoshi series, where Yoshi's Island had a childlike crayon look to stand out on the SNES and fit the theme of Baby Mario, which got expanded to Yoshi's Story being a storybook and now we have craft themed Yoshi games. But it's still not entirely the same thing because the gameplay has remained somewhat consistent, if getting rather easier.

Anyway peace and love I just want Johnny Jones and Cortez to hang out

#paper mario #mario rpgs

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

I kind of believe Ace will play at least somewhat of a role on episode 7. Maybe the fact they set him up to be Malleus’ birthday interviewer this year is an indicator of that, but I could be reaching.

Ace’s relationship with his friend group is interesting because he acts like he’s just nonchalantly there. Like “What? No, I don’t really care about those people, I’m around just because!” — but as we can see, he really does care. He cares about Deuce, MC, and Grim (I believe some of his vignettes hint to that?). He’s the only one who isn’t visibly upset (as in, not letting it show) at the prospect of MC leaving, choosing to deflect the subject when the mood is souring because of Deuce and Grim saying it’ll get lonely without MC.

Also, I think the friend group just came together beautifully and will be relevant in episode 7. Coincidentally, the friend group has 7 people: Ace, Deuce, Grim, MC, Jack, Epel, Ortho and Sebek. I say Sebek because it’s heavily hinted he’ll join the friend group(what stands out is the 1 year official art and anthology comic cover featuring everyone + Sebek even though at there wasn’t much to justify his presence there). The way Ace, Deuce, MC and Grim initially formed a quartet of people begrudgingly brought together by complete chance then developed into a group of friends is very precious to me, and I believe that’ll at least play a part in this episode, considering this is the one Sebek will (apparently) join our group. Which also makes sense for them to be able to explore Sebek as a character, since this is the Diasomnia episode.

Idk if I’m being a clown and pointing out the obvious but anyways!!! I think Ace might have his moment to shine in the next updates, depending on how the story goes. Or idk, he might be hit by the sleeping spell and stay out of the story the whole time, but since Deuce got his spotlight in Glorious Masquerade, it would be only fair.

[Referencing this post!]

I think the birthday interviewers are arbitrary to the main story 🤔 There doesn’t seem to be a clear pattern to the interviewers assigned for the Broomquet series of cards (whereas Birthday Boy and Union definitely did have their own patterns). If there's some significance to Ace interviewing Malleus, then wouldn't the logic hold that the other Broomquet interviewers also have some kind of big tie to the birthday boy...? There doesn't seem to be this importance reflected in all of them, at least as far as I can tell.

Of the main trio (Ace, Deuce, and Grim), Ace seems to be the least emotionally vulnerable. He’s not totally honest about his feelings (despite, ironically, being the one to tell others how it is without any sugarcoating) and uses jokes/humor to deflect from confrontational or difficult situations he doesn’t want to get entangled in. Ace claims to not care, but his actions tell very different stories than his words do (see: the worry he displays in episodes 4 and 6, as well as some vignettes and events). I guess this could be called “tsundere” behavior, but rather than being his entire identity, it’s only a single aspect of Ace and lends to his overall cheeky yet bright character.

Ace doesn’t want to linger on things he considers boring or sad; he lives in the moment and wants to quickly move on to the next thing that may be more fun or happy than the current moment. The same does not hold true for Deuce or Grim, and for very good but also very different reasons. Deuce fixates on his past and his failures due to wanting to reform from his delinquency, and Grim is attached to Yuu because of their close bond as partners, roommates, and master-minion. Given this, of course Deuce and Grim would feel more sad and make remarks about the things they cannot do together anymore once Yuu leaves.

I think it’s possible that Ace has multiple intentions behind not sulking with Deuce and Grim 🤔 For one, yeah, it’s not in Ace’s nature to; he’s just more cheerful than the other two—but I think this speaks to other aspects of his character. He’s the only one of the group to point out that Mickey may not actually be Yuu’s ticket home, yet everyone is treating it like it’s already the end. I wonder if this is Ace lying to himself too—making up some excuse to avoid looking at the truth, or maybe genuinely hoping he’s actually right. Alternatively, maybe Ace is saying these things because he doesn’t want to see his friends sad—or even to alleviate everyone’s pain when Yuu ultimately has to leave (in kind of a “don’t cry now, save your tears for when the time finally comes” way) 🫠

I appreciate that the first years assemble in 7, but it felt a little clunky to me since we didn’t previously see them unite or act as a big group of friends. It was usually just Adeuce + the first year for that particular episode like Epel or isolated incidents (ie checking in with Jack and Savanaclaw pre-VDC in 5). I’m still under the impression that Adeuce and Grim are the close friends of Yuu and the other first years are friends in a looser sense of the word—but narratively speaking, it makes sense to bring the group together for what is meant to be the “last chapter” of their story. It emphasizes how far everyone has come, how they’ve grown so much closer than the circumstances which initially forced them together. It feels more bittersweet seeing the friends made along the way and realizing that Yuu has to say goodbye to them all.

It’s interesting that we end up with 7 people (excluding Yuu from this count), one for each dorm (even if there is no one representing Octavinelle and Scarabia + two representing Heartslabyul). I don’t know if that means anything right now other than being a recurring number, but it would be cool if it does! The promotional materials of the game really seem to market the first years as a group of close knit friends, which is reflected in the fandom works but not super deeply in the main story 🤔 so it’d be nice to see more of the group together and such. I wonder how Sebek will be integrated with them, seeing as he’s so opposed to befriending humans and those outside of the Briar Valley. He’ll certainly complicate the group’s dynamics and add a lot of flair to episode 7!

Oh, I’m sure Ace will have his fun at his own Glorious Masquerade (the Halloween 2023 event will probably be Masquerade Part II with the other half of the NRC cast). I just hope Ace also gets to play a big role in episode 7 😌 and earns his unique magic along the way~

#twisted wonderland analysis #twst analysis #twst #twst character analysis #twisted wonderland #Ace Trappola #Deuce Spade #twisted wonderland character analysis #Epel Felmier #Grim #Yuu #Jack Howl #Sebek Zigvolt #Ortho Shroud #Mickey Mouse #Malleus Draconia #spoilers #notes from the writing raven #disney twisted wonderland

[ruthlesslistener]

All this talk of breeding kink has resolved not one but TWO things in my brain.

First was cementing why it's kink. As far as I can tell there's not an easy line between kink and non-kink and it seems more related to what society counts as "normal" or not. Which in that view I kept thinking, well wouldn't reproduction be the most "normal" as it's the "point" (evolutionarily) of sex, and humans do in fact keep reproducing? Which just led to my brain spinning in circles on how arbitrary such definitions are.

And well. Okay I actually didn't resolve the arbitrary aspect, but it does make more sense how it would play out ask kink if the sorta fantasy aspect of breeding is disconnected to actual want for that.

Which led me to my second revelation of why I often (not always) find breeding kink stuff so disappointing. As someone who wants kids/pregnancy XDDDD And all I could think was "why don't you want to follow through" in such works. The worst offenders being tagged breeding and then not even....mentioning such a thing at all...(okay maybe that's just a tagging/bad writing problem).

Anyway I just enjoyed reading your thoughts. Made me think.

Yeah this sort of discussion really is deeply fascinating- its part of the reason why I'm so interested in sex from a scientific perspective, but it makes talking about it hard because of societal limitations (ie, rn I'm worried I'll be called a pedophile for exposing minors to discussions about sex, but since I'm just discussing it in a non-arousing context + clearly don't want to fuck kids I'mma file that away as my OCD being cruel to me). Thing is, it really is fascinating how it makes our brains tick! There's all sorts of papers by sexologists out there that talk about how its like a completely separate part of your brain from your logic center or something similar (been a while since I read any of those papers, so don't take this at face value), which is why you can have people like me who are repulsed by the idea of getting pregnant for various reasons but have a breeding kink. You're very literally not you when you're horny! The reason why I was musing about breeding kinks potentially being an evolutionary 'trick' to get people to have more kids is because it's one of the most common ones out there, despite lots of people not wanting to get pregnant- because its disconnected from the logic system and is way closer to 'instinct' than most other of our desires

The way I define 'kink' myself is some aspect integrated into sex that makes it a whole lot more arousing to an individual, but is not necessarily a commonality across individuals (and is separate from a fetish because its typically sexual in nature, whereas fetishes oftentimes don't seem to be tied to sex at all). Like, for example, people who are attracted to penises are, across the board, probably going to become aroused by seeing an erect dick, and watching people having sex is arousing even if you yourself are not attracted to either person in the picture. That's not a kink. But stuff like breeding, cuckholding, etc are, because while they're common as a source of arousal, they're not shared by everyone in the population. Though I do think that what you mentioned about there being a blurry line defined by societal rules def. does play a factor into it, because a lot of the super popular/common kinks are directly linked to what is seen as 'taboo', like nonmonogamy or public sex (I believe there's been extensive research on why rape kinks among afab people are so common, for example, and it's because society looks down on female sexuality so much that it's a way of uncoupling the person's shame at being horny from the actual scenario that arouses them- they cannot be 'impure' if they had no agency in what happened to them. Which is probably why someone like me, who thinks arousal is the stupidest thing to shame someone for, doesn't see the appeal at all. But that's a direct tie between social expectations and kink). Idk, the psychology of it is really fucking cool and I highly recommend checking out papers written on it sometime!!

As for why some fics get tagged as breeding kink without any mention of breeding itself- my guess is that because its so widespread of a kink that people's opinions on what constitutes it ranges anywhere from 'not stopping until the person is confirmed pregnant and then some' to 'unprotected PIV sex'. The former of which is what the definition should be imo, the latter which is the way more boring and vanilla option that you probably ran into

#nsft topic #sex as a biological/evolutionary study is actually deeply fascinating bc its where things get *weird* #because its a huge arms race competition #but its not one that is necessarily lethal- like fleeing from predators or stalking prey #which is how you end up with birds of paradise or deeply complex social rituals like what humans do #and then all the little non-innate things in between- like men ejaculating more sperm when watching another man have sex #(which is believed to be indirect male-male competition) #shits cool!! its really cool!! #anon #reply

[sablegear0]

Finished TotK Finally

As in, finished the story. End numbers after buying the last boss pictures and completing the Compendium were 87.72% complete. I may go back and do koroks and minigames sporadically when I want to wander around in the world again.

So I suppose people might expect my thoughts or a review. Idk if I have anything unique to say but I may as well so: Plot and BIG ending spoilers under the cut. Also extremely long detailed opinions. Like this one got REALLY long. TL;DR at the very bottom.

The End Bits The Light Dragon In a previous blog I applauded Nintendo for letting their women characters turn into incomprehensible beasties lately (TotK, Dread). For the record, I posted that shortly before being spoiled on the fact that Zelda changes back at the end. Needless to say I was re-disappointed. I get WHY they did it. Permanently removing the title character from the game via 10,000 years of ego death doesn't really seem like a great reward for the player seeking out the plot; BotW/TotK Link and Zelda have gone through more than most of their incarnations to get where they are, so it's nice to give them a happy ending, etc. It just... kinda sucks because that was a really cool move otherwise. But Nintendo will not tell us an intentionally tragic (or even bittersweet) story so we got our girl back.

Also she was fine, by the way. She just woke up fully able to move and speak like she'd just had a bit of a rough nap. She also canonically does not remember her millennia spent as a dragon in any fashion. I know the fan writers are probably having a field day with injury/trauma recovery fics for her and I don't blame them. 10k years of ego death and a monstrous transformation should come with some consequences, shouldn't it?

To be honest the nature of the deus ex machina in question bugs me more than the fact that it happened. "Idk Sonia and Rauru did something" is the actual explanation we get (thanks Mineru, you're a real one tho) and it feels... hollow. Like, if the two dragons had clashed and injured one another, and "dying" knocked Zelda out of the transformation the same way destroying the Secret Stone that Ganondorf had taken destroyed his dragon form, that would make more sense, right? You still get your dramatic ending that's a cinematic reflection of Skyward Sword and a symbolic close (presumably) to Ganon's cycle of reincarnation. The arbitrary "power of love" (and not even the Hero's love, come on) ending just doesn't sit right.

Ganondorf Neither did the actual fight with Ganondorf, to be honest. I prepped some pretty high-value weapons, assuming that like BotW I'd have to break a few swords on him before the fight was over. But they just, again, deus ex machina'd that the Master Sword was indestructible for that fight and at no other time. My big scary weapons did see some good use in the wave fight beforehand, which was kind of neat but also kind of underwhelming. I guess that's the point where the game checks if you can handle that many enemies (ie. did you bring enough friends), similar to how doing the Divine Beasts halves Calamity Ganon's HP in BotW.

The duel-style fight for the first two phases was kind of cool. Made a bit annoying by TotK's tighter timing on parries and dodges. And the fact that the legitimate pressure of having your HP outright destroyed (cool, stressful) was removed by the third phase (annoying, no consequences for doing poorly in that part of the fight).

Third phase was neat. It was cinematic, but with no actual danger. I don't think I took any damage that wasn't just gloom-ticks from standing on the demon dragon to attack it. Didn't even get to use my cool bows in the aerial battle. Additionally I didn't have any need for the cool armour I had worked so hard to upgrade. I spent quite a lot of time and effort upgrading the Ancient Hero's Aspect and a second high-defense set (Champion's Leathers, Soldier's Greaves, Amber Earrings). The latter I did use in the demon dragon phase because it looked cool. The former I completely forgot that I had (despite having had to kill an ungodly amount of King Gleeoks to complete it). I used the Depths set for the first two-thirds of the fight because of the Gloom resistance it offered.

The Mechanics Devices All that said, what TotK set out to do it did decently well. It expanded on the physics-heavy improvisational gameplay of BotW with the addition of the Ultrahand fusion mechanic and Zonai Devices, improving on their base engine to create a system that I have heard other devs consider basically magic. Devices and weapon fusion, however, were clearly balanced with the early-to-mid-game in mind. The devices were tools, not weapons, even the ones that were nominally weapons. They simply did not put out enough raw damage to be used offensively, and were better as deterrents or distractions for enemies.

Weapon Fusion I know people weren't crazy about weapon degradation in BotW and I think TotK managed to make it slightly worse. In BotW, all you had to do was find where a desirable weapon spawned and make note of it so you could come back to pick it up after the Bloodmoon respawned everything. In TotK, you have to do that AND fight a monster with a good fuseable part to improve it. You have to do twice as much farming for about the same amount of gain. And that's not even accounting for the weapons you'd break fighting something big like a Lynel - sure they drop good parts, but you might break 2 or 3 weapons taking one down, even with help from your sages. You're operating at a net loss.

Granted the fused part of a weapon does the bulk of the work, but TotK did the interesting thing of making each flavour of weapon ("Soldier's", "Zonaite", "Gerudo", etc) have its own unique properties. This is very cool, until you find a type you like and struggle to find enough of them. Again, you have to trek around to find them and also hope you have the materials for a good fusion. It has its moments, like sticking a Silver Lynel horn on a Gerudo weapon to get a damage value over 100 (which is absurd, most "good" weapons cap out around 50 on average, barring any extra effects), but again, you're usually operating at a slight loss with respect to weapons.

Armour Upgrades To be frank: It's bad. It's bloated and way too resource-intensive. In BotW there were a limited number of sets you'd actually want to upgrade, as each had its own unique thing and that's it, there's one of each. Even doing all of them for completion's sake was achievable. In TotK they have those basic sets, plus a few more unique sets, plus a few redundant sets, and a frankly absurd number of generic aesthetic sets (which flavour of Link would you like? Ocarina of Time? Twilight Princess? Link's Awakenng Remake?) And in all of this they never thought to rebalance the amount of materials required for upgrading.

And on top of THAT, I think they messed with the item drop-rates too! Most enemies can drop 2 kinds of resources, some potentially have more, some only drop 1. in BotW I don't think (thought I may have to check) each type was a guaranteed drop, but you saw every type fairly frequently. In TotK each enemy now has distinct rare drops. And they can be RARE. And the worst part is you need a LOT of them for some armour upgrades. For example; Lizalfos tails are the Lizalfos rare drop, and the armour sets that need them can need up to 15 of the stupid things from a particular species of Lizalfos. Have fun grinding, because now you're playing Monster Hunter instead of Zelda.

Vehicles and Horses The vehicles both did and didn't trivialize crossing the map; a significant amount of grinding is needed before you have enough batteries to cover any distance, Wings (the bird-shaped gliders) have a limited lifespan to keep you from just flying everywhere, and the overworld is generally complicated enough that any fast wheeled vehicle will not be useful for long, and any all-terrain vehicle moves only at a modest speed. Ironically, just use horses where available. They're faster, more versatile, and can be called to you if they're within earshot. Also horses can spawn with overall higher stats than in BotW, and can be upgraded, though with significant resource investment. (It is worth noting that the "best" horse in base BotW, the royal white horse, is only middling to above-average stat-wise when compared to a good wild-caught horse in TotK. They power-crept the horses!)

The most interesting vehicles/movement devices, to me, were the rockets and hot-air balloons. Both add a lot instant verticality in a game that is all about traversal. Fusing a rocket to a shield gets you a huge boost for little resource expenditure (rockets are a bit rare until you can purchase devices). And once you find the Autobuild schematic for a hot air balloon base, all you need to add is a flame-emitter and you can ascend as far as your batteries allow.

Shrines In my humble opinion, TotK knocked it out of the park with its shrines. The ones that have actual puzzles, anyway. There is an unfortunately large proportion of "blessing" shrines that have no puzzle in them, and not all of them even need to be worked for that hard. The ones that do have puzzles are excellent. There are quite a few that highlight different uses for devices, and a good handful that take the Eventide Island/Master Trials-style challenge of stripping you of all your gear and put some twist on it. (Notably these are most interesting in the mid-game, when you have enough hearts to survive but not to trivialize the no-armour combat difficulty.)

They also did the very classy thing of not locking outfit parts behind hidden chests in Shrines. All the hidden chests were perfectly optional bonus chests that required no frustrating re-visits after finding out where that last piece of armour was hiding. Also the slight variations on the music theme was a nice touch that kept the shrines feeling fresh. No shade to the Sheikah Shrine theme, but the strong synths could get a bit grating at times. TotK's gentle, plinky shrine theme variations were an improvement.

The Map The Overworld Probably(?) the most common complaint about TotK and one I share. It's too damn big. In addition to mostly recycling the map from BotW (which bothered some people more than it bothered me, I think), they added an equivalent-sized map for the Depths. Now, BotW's overworld already felt a bit sparse, but it fit the tone of a literal post-apocalyptic world and encouraged you to poke around looking for koroks and investigating enemy camps. TotK's surface overworld is dotted with far more enemy camps and significantly fewer koroks, so it is about as dense but more dangerous/annoying (depending on your hp and gear) to traverse.

There are some major changes to the surface, beyond adding ruins to some spots; most of Death mountain is now safe to travel on foot (probably to encourage use of vehicles) and is no longer superheated, and there are a few spots where the road network is broken, dividing the map into 2 halves that cannot be crossed between on horseback. (In BotW, by comparison, all the roads were connected and you could auto-pilot a horse from one end of the map to the other, provided you took roads marked on the map.)

The Sky The Sky islands were relatively few, for all the hype they got in the promotional material. However I think their self-contained structure and handful of unique features (the "death star" islands, the dive challenges) helped them not overstay their welcome. Besides, the islands themselves are technically also ruins, 10,000 years old and finally visible to the naked eye from the surface, It's a wonder there's as much left and it's as functional as it is. They are beautiful, though. I did enjoy just loitering around in the sky to take in the view and the relaxed atmosphere, as there are fewer enemies up there.

The Depths The Depths... I think I share the majority gripe with the Depths. They're too big. The Depths are another whole open world that is more hostile with even less in it. It exists to grind for resources and pad the playtime. The challenge of the depths is in initially traversing it, having to light your way through impenetrable darkness and navigate dense enemy encampments and find Light Roots to fill out the map. After that, provided you have enough battery power, it can generally be ignored by flying over it. Which is unfortunate. If I were to fix the Depths, I would make it more akin to the Sky Islands; more self-contained, make it a series of winding, interconnected discrete caves, like one big dungeon crawl, rather than a second open world to ignore. Still have the Light Roots be important to vision and mapping, but have the general landscape be more contained. Maybe even have a few more areas that are inaccessible at first except by dropping into the correct chasms, like they did with the Eventide Island and Tingle Island Chain areas of the Depths.

Everything Else Side Quests and Koroks Honestly I enjoyed the variety of sidequests in TotK, and also enjoyed that some of them were quite involved. TotK had two "Tarrey Town"-equivalent long-form side-quest lines; one being visiting all the stables with Penn (I am counting this as one quest because you get drip-fed armour pieces from a unique set throughout it), and the other being the Mayoral Election / Local Cuisine questline in Hateno Village. There were also side-quests to optionally construct the Champions' weapons, which was neat, and to build a house with crazy Ultrahand powers, which was totally frivolous but fun to do. The one thing that bugged me a bit about the side-quests was running into NPCs that reasonably should have remembered Link but didn't. It felt odd, especially poking around Tarrey Town initially.

The Korok puzzles had some new variety to them, which was nice. The block puzzles were given the extra interest of being able to rotate things with Ultrahand, and the vehicle/towing mechanics were given a chance to shine with the "help me reach my friend" puzzles. Having Hestu appear in some less-than-ideal places to begin with (and the whole Lost Woods thing omg what a pain) kind of sucked, but getting those sweet sweet inventory upgrades is always worth it.

The Characters I love all the Sages, I'm going to say it right now. It was really cool to see some familiar faces from BotW (that actually recognized me) and learn what they'd been up to in the ambiguous time-gap. Teba being the slight exception but honestly - meeting Tulin and realizing this sweet bean bird boy looks just like both his parents hit me right in the heart. Mineru was also very cool and I'm glad we got to hang out with her (and bid her a tearful goodbye... my lovely lanky lady...). I also appreciated that doing the Ancient Writings quest teases Mineru's introduction. That was a nice touch.

Penn and Purah are fun, and the Lucky Clover Gazette and Monster Control Crew quests add some depth and background progression to BotW's Hyrule. You get to see how ordinary people are faring and how things are advancing post-Calamity. Seeing the various peoples of Hyrule gather at Lookout Landing after clearing a regional temple was neat, even if it was really only for show.

I know some people have beef with Rauru and that's maybe a blog for another time, but I don't think I have a strong enough opinion to bother. I didn't mind him, I think his arc was clear enough, I think I would have liked to see more of him and Sonia interacting with Zelda in a more everyday fashion - it seemed like she had a lot of fun in the distant past and something more than just a text log of that and a couple cutscenes might have been nice. Honestly I think I would have liked to see more of Sonia especially, she seems like an interesting lady (again, something more than Chaucerian text as proof would have been nice).

I'm honestly kind of mid on Matt Mercer's Ganondorf? I get that he's a big name and people were excited to hear him in the role but idk if the voice was entirely a good fit. They rocked the hell out of his visual design, though. Very good updated look, borrowing elements from some of his previous incarnations. Again I would have liked to see more elaboration on him though; what was the Gerudo tribe like under his rule? Were there dissenters? Give me more worldbuilding or I'll be forced to do it myself.

Music Mostly the same, actually. Overworld themes were recycled. Shrine themes were different and an upgrade imo. Combat themes were slightly different but I probably wouldn't be able to tell them apart at a listen. The Temple music though, oh boy. I loved these themes; they took the ramping instruments from the Divine Beasts control panel gimmick and mixed the Divine Beast Approach themes with each Sage's unique motif to create some really cool but pleasantly unobtrusive tracks. The Depths ambience was appropriately spooky, and the dynamic theme that kicks in when you high-dive was a nice touch, especially since there are distinct versions for diving to the surface and diving to the Depths.

But the standout tracks for me? First, the intro sequence where you descend with Zelda into the foundations of Hyrule Castle and hear the ever-layering Zonai chanting with the spooky reversed voice clips? MMM. 👌 So spooky, so tasty. Genuinely had me on edge even though I knew nothing would happen because it was the intro. The return sequence by the endgame has it build even more intensely as you descend even further and it's fantastic. Second is the Gloom's Approach / Gloom's Source battle theme. The distinctly electronic drone and beat associated with the Depths/gloom-related stuff gets room to shine when this tense bass-heavy track kicks in.

The Little Things I am actually going to stop this one here because I think this part deserves its own blog. There are a ton of little details in TotK that I absolutely adored and I want to gush about them with proper space allotted.

TL;DR TotK is alright. I know I'll catch flak for saying it's "good", so I won't. Settle down. It's alright. Some things it does extremely well, some things could have been edited for time, and some things remained just kinda mid from the original.

If I have to give it a number, it's a solid 6.5-7/10 . Competently constructed, technically impressive, mostly cut-and-pasted, mildly bloated, narratively kind of boring with no sense of stakes and an ending that undoes some otherwise interesting choices.

#sable has a take #sable talks about games #this one got away from me #long post #totk #loz totk #tears of the kingdom #tears of the kingdom spoilers #totk spoilers #seriously the first thing i do is talk about the ending in some detail so if you care avoid this one #now with headers for your reading convenience

[thedreadvampy]

this is my new gripe forget talking about "die" vs "unalive" if I have to see one more person talking about "sexual assault" or "SA" when they specifically and exclusively mean "rape" I'm gonna fucking lose it.

apart from anything else idk about other legislatures but while in general/casual use I do personally think rape is a subcategory of sexual assault, in both Scottish and English law I'm pretty sure that rape and sexual assault are two distinct things. attempted rape falls under sexual assault but rape is its own crime?

and I'm not wanting to lean on that tbh because the legal definition of rape is Bad Actually - extremely heterocisnormative (UK law is particularly bad on this bc rape legally can only happen with a penis, any other penetration is Assault By Penetration), extremely restrictive, and, due to being a discrete legal construct, draws extremely arbitrary boundaries between which things which in my experience are pretty much on the same level are and are not rape.

and I also don't. think that legal constructs of sexual assault from within a carceral system are the most useful even if they were broader and more reflective of the human experiences of rape and sexual assault.

hooooooowever. they don't need to be separate things for my point to stand. let's ignore the law (because it is. deeply flawed.) and just talk about what sexual assault entails.

Sexual assault includes (depending on your definition):

Unwanted sexual touching (with hands or objects)

Unwanted kissing

Attempted rape

Cumming, pissing or spitting on someone sexually without consent

Violating someone's bodily autonomy for sexual purposes (eg secretly feeding them things, looking up their skirt)

Groping/feeling up without consent

If we're going to get technical, generally speaking in a legal/professional context, sexual assault means specifically unwanted sexual touching. however I don't think it's unreasonable in an online context to bundle in other forms of sexual violence including:

Masturbating in front of someone

Trying to coerce/threaten/trick someone into any sexual act (whether with yourself, with another person or by themselves)

Flashing someone or sending sexual images without consent

Pressuring people into sexual conversations/situations

Watching/recording people in sexual situations without consent

Creating or obtaining nudes of someone without consent

and loads of other stuff that's traumatic and miserable as well - I don't want to get too granular

rape is an aspect of sexual violence, but not all sexual assault or sexual violence is rape.

rape includes:

someone having sex with you against your will or without you being able to give full consent

that's it that's specifically what it is

the only flex in this definition is what you count as sex and how you define the bounds of consent for the purposes of the conversation

but like

do you see the problem?

do you see how. wherever we place rape in relation to sexual assault. attempted rape is also a form of sexual assault.

do you see how it's important that "rape" isn't synonymous with a term that also includes "attempted rape"?

in some - many! - circumstances it's useful to group together all these experiences of sexual violence. the edges are not clearcut and they all deserve to be understood as significant and traumatic.

but if we're taking about rape we're taking about rape. We're talking about a specific thing and it requires specific language. If we unilaterally consider rape and sexual assault to be 1:1 synonyms, there's absolutely no room to acknowledge the difference between "attempted rape" and "rape" (other than by removing anything that isn't a full on successful rape from the definition of sexual assault, in which case we're just removing the language to talk about that type of traumatic experience)

they're not the same thing and the use of SA as a euphemistic way to talk about specifically rape is convincing a lot of people that they are the same thing. and that does immediate measurable harm to our ability to actually talk about our experiences.

#red said #rape tw #the looming monster of rape in the abstract

[aeide-thea]

overthinking things as per uʒ but:

[a transcript is under the cut, for anyone who prefers that format. <3]

aeide-thea sent a post "love sports love when people write about them in a normal fashion"

aeide-thea: lol i AM insane but the more i contemplate this post the more it irritates me actually

elucubrare: what aspect of it?

aeide-thea: like i have no particular stance on the success of this lyricism but as a general position i feel like. yes actually anything can come under the besotted lens of a prose stylist and get elevated thereby. cowardly and boring to laugh at writers not being 'normal' when in fact the elevation of the everyday into the ecstatic is one of the highest and best uses of language. like YES defamiliarize that shit. YES hallow it.

elucubrare: yeah ok, i'm with you!

elucubrare: i also have a half-articulated thought about Not Liking Sports and dismissing them as a tribal marker on the internet & so this description of a player like someone on tumblr would talk about idk. a supernatural man feels like it's unpleasantly transgressive

aeide-thea: yes i think you're onto something! like there's definitely a way in which a certain kind of (maybe especially modern, maybe especially on tumblr) writer feels like there's Their People and then there's Sports People and never the twain shall meet, and like, it's not that i don't recognize the incongruity myself but i also think the joke IS fundamentally based on the idea that anyone who loves a sport is a dumb redneck which like. IS instinctively how i feel about football but there are enough sports i do love that i can check that impulse in myself and recognize my own arbitrary bias

aeide-thea: like admittedly i haven't *read* eg roger angell's baseball writing but i feel like there used to be more room for the idea that an american writer could write about an american pastime (which like. problems of their own there but.) without it being like. writing is for nerds and sports are for jocks!! no—i'm tempted to say 'miscegenation' but i think that's probably an offensively reductive metaphor. however i do sort of feel like it's on the same spectrum of tribalism however far apart??

elucubrare: yeah i agree!

elucubrare: i think when i think about mid-century sports writing that i've been aware of, it's less overtly lyrical or flowery than this, but it *does* take its subject seriously or metaphorically the way this does

aeide-thea: no exactly. and like. idk if you've read that famous DFW piece on federer but like. would be very curious to see if OP would make fun of that the same way or if the fact that it like. has lit cred would stop them

aeide-thea: like dgmw i know i've done a lot of objecting lately to like. people pointing out Amusing Incongruities (see also: 'blorbo' in the NYT) and i know i sound like a humorless idiot but the thing is, it's not that i don't get where these posts are coming from! i just think the fundamental 'humor' of them is predicated on false dichotomies

elucubrare: yeah for sure!

elucubrare: i think here i think the snippet *is* a bit much but i would think that no matter what the subject was

aeide-thea: oh i super don't disagree!! but i also think like. it's tricky to evaluate the success of a snippet stripped of all buildup and ALSO i don't actually think the post was taking issue with the craftsmanship (where i'd probably have agreed with them/you!), but rather just laughing at the fundamental *attitude* regardless of execution?

elucubrare: yeah, i agree!

elucubrare: i think also this is a place where ur crusade against "normal about" comes into play b/c it really does sneer generally but say nothing except "this is not how *i* would have approached this"

aeide-thea: god no exactly. like fundamentally ALL you're ever conveying with 'normal' is like. 'i don't have to actually explain or justify myself bc Everyone (Who Matters) Already Understands so really this is just a general sneer to amuse and bond us, the preexisting in-group'

aeide-thea: like. articulate! your! objections!!! you might find in the process of having to explain yourself that you don't actually agree with yourself! learning and personal growth might happen (god forbid)!

aeide-thea: (also unrelatedly how do u feel abt having portions of our sportswriting convo reproduced 4 public perusal. 'pls no' is totes ok, i can always make my own post if i care that much i'm just feeling lazy lol)

elucubrare: (Go for it!!)

[cannibalcaprine]

Hey sorry if this is weird but I wanted to ask how you might compare/contrast cannibalism erotica vs hard vore. I know vore is a lot broader, but I could see how if you check a specific set of boxes for a hard vore fantasy you'd basically have narrowed it down to be indistinguishable from a cannibalism fantasy.

The way some of your posts talk about cannibalism sounds very similar to the way I've heard some vore folks talk about their stuff. Closeness, intimacy, literally becoming part of someone, submission and dominance, love and possessiveness and lust, primacy, overwhelming desire, subsumation and transformation.

It seems like there's overlap but I'm not confident that it's not just a passing appearance, and the underlying appeal is different, even if it has surface-level similarities. Difference of degrees vs difference of form.

Like if I grow some vegetables in my backyard garden, and a farmer grows potatoes on their land, we're technically doing a lot of similar stuff but you wouldn't necessarily call a gardener a farmer or vice versa? IDK if that makes sense.

Anyways thanks for being cool I hope you have a nice day

hmmm. . .

maybe it's something between the tearing, or lethality, or SOMETHING

it almost just seems arbitrary

again, it ain't really a sexual thing for me, so I feel like I can't really comment

well

hm

there's sexual aspects to it, the pinning to the ground, the breath, the intimacy, but the actual craving for meat isn't sexual

#does your hand in any way own your stomach? #← unrelated to the post just thinking about that question again #cannibalism

[raisinchallah]

ok potentially controversial post but i will never understand people diagnosed with both adhd and autism acting like they are two different conditions and idk characterizing them as different things within their brain different impulses with their own minds whatever like especially when there seem to be such high comorbidity rates and so many overlapping symptoms like one clearly these labels and all are simply rings set out to try and contain and label entire huge ranges of human experiences and minds and whatever and the diagnostic categories are fairly broad and vague but idk like i fully understand needing an adhd diagnosis for access to medication and i think idk it might be better if we all just acknowledged idk the complex interlocking aspects of diagnostic gatekeeping and layers of criminalization vs legality around certain drugs and whatever in a more honest way as well as ways these diagnoses can be the barriers to help and desperately needed assistance and maybe have more honest discussions about this rather than focusing so much energy into the essential energy some deeper truth about ourselves that can be validated and enhanced by accurate application of these diagnostic categories and understanding that a lot of this stuff is fairly arbitrary and maybe not some kind of essential truth about yourself you must uncover but is only validated and understood thru the medical system idk like why the insistence on something in yourself being so distinct and like separate like im not saying oh its all one thing or whatever but idk its just bizarre to me to be like oh these are different in my own brain they have their own desires they inflict upon me way of phrasing it idk this makes no sense but i have simply tried to stop thinking about all these little categories since focusing desperately on some kind of outside validation and essential truth is not good for my insanely disordered little mind that latches onto shit like that so fast i must simply disengage

[girlvinland]

I was just thinking about how like, ten years ago or maybe more, I used to think to myself that in my thirties I'd kind of shift my interests/hobbies and find things I liked that were more "adult" or whatever (idk why this idea gets ingrained in our heads, like at thirty you pick up a briefcase and never stop doing taxes for fun). But still I love to write and doodle and RP and I realize that those are the things I really enjoy and I don't want to stop doing them for as long as I still can. They're the things that make me feel like me and make me happy, and I don't think it should be strange for people to keep doing what makes them happy, ever. And I think a lot of these things as they exist in online spaces are still...well, not new, but they're hobbies a lot of us who are in our twenties and thirties (and some even older) have grown up with and developed over the years and I think that's great! Now looking back, I think it would have been really sad if I had given up those creative aspects of myself, and I'm really happy I stuck with them if for no other reason than that I've gotten to meet some amazing friends over the years who I can share it all with! Idk, I hope no one ever feels like they have to try and change what they like or become a different person because of an arbitrary number or pointless expectations they or others put on themselves. You should always do the things you feel passionate about and that you find important and fulfilling!

#by bug

[nemesis-is-my-middle-name]

I like the idea that Reshiram and Zekrom being treated the same narratively, and the fact that it's very hard to differentiate Truth and Ideals, is The Entire Point™. They are both two aspects of the same Convictions, shaped and fueled by the Beliefs of humanity-but it is Humanity who drew the (slightly arbitrary) line between them in the first place. And yet without said line, they would not exist as individuals, and Kyurem would still be Whole.

THIS IS WHAT I'M SAAAAYYIIING!

like, i honestly think it could be argued that from the beginning, the dragon's nature as a channel for human beliefs gave it form and strength, but it also sort of doomed it. this is sort of similar to what i think happened to giratina, but also not really, bc while giratina was overwhelmed by the simple breadth and depth of the concept it was trying to control, the dragon was never going to survive because it was trying to embody a thing that is inherently contradictory. it was fine at first, but it was only ever a matter of time before its champions tore it apart.

which also makes me wonder why it had two champions... their goals must have been one at first... is it bc they were twins? and it couldn't clearly delineate "this is the one i want to follow?" idk i wonder

#the nemesis speaks #the nemesis answers #anonymous #pla analysis #tbc when i say it drives me crazy i don't mean in a bad way #it's such a Thing. i love it

[tentativeauthor]

I’m reading through the extended zodiac traits for a few signs we have trolls for (namely Daraya and Lanque bc I’m predictable) and some of these descriptions don’t really seem to apply to the characters?

Something under the Prospit description says “… Prospit Dreamers are less rebellious than they are adaptable-instead of struggling against authority, they will find a way to coexist with it.” Which is… very much Not Daraya.

And the entire description for Life (Lanque's aspect) just does not seem to fit him at all, except for the last part, "At their worst, the Life-bound are passive aggressive, and pushy-..."

(Arguably, the bit about them being "deeply empathetic" could apply to Lanque, he just uses that power to Cause Problems On Purpose rather than use it for good.)

Then Again, we didn’t get to see very much of them in Act 2. I’m basing a lot of the above off their friendsim’s personalities, which are only dubiously canon/even exaggerated.

HOWEVER

The description for Hope (Daraya’s aspect) says “They do right for right’s sake…” but Daraya is very clearly apathetic towards the trial in Act 2 and doesn't really care about finding the culprit.

And the description for Jade signs... hoo boy.

"... Jade Signs can often come off as timid or doormats, when really they just prefer to come at conflicts in a less combative way."

"Naturally loyal and loving..."

"If all of this makes Jade Signs sound soft and nurturing, they are,..."

Does any of that sound like the Lanque and Daraya we saw in Act 2? I think not.

And I feel like some people might take that as a sign of poor/inconsistent writing, but I like to think of it as more like... Alternia/Sgrub/Paradox Space tries to assign roles to people, but those roles are just arbitrary bullshit that mean next to nothing. Although, that take throws hundreds of thousands of words of (very good) classpect analysis out the window.

Alternatively, their non-alignment with their sign/lunar sway/aspect is just another result of the way Alternia's culture twists people around into their worst selves. The "at their worst" descriptions for both Hope and Life could apply to Act 2 Daraya and Lanque.

Obligatory disclaimer that I'm only looking at 2 of the 38 trolls we have (and it's going to stay that way because I don't feel like reading and analyzing 36 more signs) and this is probably not super representative of the whole picture. (And I am aware that some parts of the descriptions DO fit them)

Idk, just an observation! I'm just throwing words around right now, this got longer than I thought it would!

#hiveswap #extended zodiac #daraya jonjet #lanque bombyx #daraya #lanque #I did this instead of writing can you tell