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five-one-two-station · 3 months

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Everybody should have their own fun, and this isn't trying to harsh anybody's buzz, but I find the impulse to make your own cutesy/badass Replika oc doing funny or heroic or badass things a little odd. Like, that character you designed as a super badass soldier, or well-armed and armored steely eyed cop type... who would they have been built to fight or police exactly? Remember who all those guns and weapons were intended for use on?

I know we're all sick of discourse over who "gets" the game, and I'm by no means scolding anybody for something that harmless, but what's interesting to me is the sense that designing overtly "cool" Replika personas and OCs, complete with the propaganda poster style imagery, feels a little...

I mean, bluntly, it's like the in-world propaganda worked, unironically, on some level, for many people. Kolibris aren't scary, they're whimsical and fun! Storches aren't notably cruel enforcers and chain gang drivers, they're Protektors! Falke isn't a camp commandant, she's a beautiful angel!

The Replikas aren't cool and heroic figures in the reality of the game. They're the carefully crafted organs of a system of control so dreadful it could do what it did to Elster and Ariane. They're victims to that system themselves too, sure - and humanising them is a nuanced and valuable observation of how totalitarian regimes maintain themselves - but that doesn't negate the fact they're also the ones who operate, enforce and perpetuate it, a big part of what the game knows and communicates about such societies. It's notable that the game makes it clear few, if any, of the Replikas actually buy into the Nation as an ideal at all - they enforce it no less pitilessly anyway, incapable or unsafe to imagine anything else.

Their affectations, pasttimes, trinkets, and even affections for each other, all serve to draw a stark contrast to how callously they regard the gestalts they keep suppressed. Their disposability is something they're conscious and fearful of themselves, but fail to recognise as a commonality with the people they brutalise every day, their business as usual. The only grief, tragedy or suffering they acknowledge is their own - they have no regard for any such things in the humans they have... well, dehumanised.

But S-23 Sierpinski was such a hellhole for most of its denizens under "normal" conditions that the nightmare it becomes is arguably an improvement; if only because there are fewer people left now to suffer it. There's a dark poetry here - because the place's banal cruelty is "off camera" to us, it's very naturally less real to us than the grief of the crying Eule. It's only natural, too, to forget how grim the Replikas' purposes are when you don't have to see anyone endure the brunt of it.

And isn't that the very same effect a state like the Nation is seeking in the first place, by disappearing people away to such dark little corners to have it done? In our world, no less than that one.

That works like a kind of propaganda too, not being able to see it - a propaganda of hidden things, as powerful as any poster. A space that's been intentionally left blank.

Kolibris are literal thought police; they intrude on people's very minds, interrogating them to death as a matter of course, with hardly a care either way. The various Protektor classes are functionally concentration camp guards and slave drivers. Falke and Adler are overseeing what amounts to a gulag, one so unimaginably awful Ariane preferred to spend years of her life alone in space to the prospect of being sent there, and inevitably worked to death, far underground.

I think there's a reason we never see one of those posters for LSTRs in game. How could we be asked to forgive our own if we ever did?

#signalis #signalis spoilers

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smilingangel582 · 3 days

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Yo yo... ik I don't take requests and all... but I have my reasons... im really sorry! I just have a lot on my plate! But writing is all I need and I would like to write as much as I want! That's all, thank you 👉 👈

Anyway! Wind breaker is the new hot topic for me! Idk about u guys but im loving the mc

Haruka sakura! Love his name, style, antics, and cuteness overload when he gets flustered and shy!

Possible lers! Suo, Umemiya, Togame!

I want more of these guys srsly!

Ok, so warning spoilers alert! Anime and manga

Sakura's Dilema!?

Sakura ate Kotoha's omelette rice as usual. She would smile fondly at him throughout and began her unusual newspaper routine about town.

"...so that's what granny sato said..."

Sakura licking his fingers clean shrugged, "Hm, good..."

Somewhat a little impressed, "Your improving. You don't get flustered anymore when someone compliment you?"

Sakura scoff, "That's a hundred years ago... im not that weak"

She smiled warmly, a hand resting under her chin as he looked at Sakura, "Well i guess everyone should compliment you more now, if that's the case..."

A small heat crept up to his cheeks, Kotoha giggled teasingly, "Ah ha! There's that cute blush we all like..."

"S-shut up! So you guys are praising me because you like to see me reaction??" He snapped, getting flustered.

She grinned looking sideways, "Maybe? Or maybe not but... granny said its adorable... and so do I" winking back Sakura gritted his teeth, a shade of red growing uncontrollably on his face.

She chuckles, thinking, "Maybe I should stop teasing him..." Then she speaks with a calmer tone to relax Sakura's tensed embarassment.

"Oh, Sakura... I almost forgot..."

Looking up from his plate, his face back to his normal colour gradually, "Yh what?"

"Ume told me the shishitoren buddies are coming over at Furin high..."

Almost choking on the eggs, Sakura looked up with a surprised frown, standing up with a daring grumble, "Huh? Why? Are they here to pick a fight?"

Kotoha sighs, "No, that's not it... its-"

He cuts in, "Maybe they wanna fight me again! Hah! I'll show them!" He quickly stuffed his mouth with the final bits of rice and eggs, but deliberately ignoring his veggies and sets out.

Kotoha was too surprised to protest as she couldn't even finish, as the bell tinkled upon his leave, "E-eh? Sakura! Hold up! That isn't what I... meant..." she murmured the last part as he was already gone, smiling confusedly, she sigh again, "That idiot..."

Meanwhile, Sakura hurrying towards the school began to notice a large crowd of bofurin and shishitoren looking at each other. Suspecting it's a fight, Sakura lets out a growl, "Oi! Do u wanna fight?"

The others stared, and half of shishitoren lunged towards him. But not in the way he expected. They crowded him like a flock of fan boys.

"That's the first year that beat our second in command!"

"Wow! He's got a funny but cool look!"

"Is he strong? I can feel it!"

So many ushering and laughter comes from the usually wild shishitorens. Sakura gets flustered and shocked. "H-hey, what's going on?"

"Sakura-san, didn't kotaha-san tell ya?" Nirei finally steps forward, smiling as he helped him out from the crowd, "Shishitoren are here on Umemiya-san's orders for a casual get-together..."

Silent, Sakura stared, "Eh... rly? That's it?"

He nods now, grabbing his hand, "Come, they are all at the auditorium!"

Past the hallways, Sakura could tell the room is less tensed than it should be if it's back those days. There... he can see Togame, Toyama, Umemiya and Suo standing in one pack -oh and Sugishita glaring at Sakura.

Sakura smirks, "Well well... I thought it was a battle but its just a silly tea party..."

Togame played along, feigning meance, "Oh? would you have preferred us thrashing your butt, Sakura?"

Eyeing him challengingly, "Ah... the second in command himself, Togame, wants to lose again..."

The older guy steps in with his geta clattering on the ground. He has a much mellower appearance in contrast to Sakura's first impression of him. Sakura says he prefers the other and colder Togame, but... who knows what a tsundere actually says and means?

Togame clapped him in the back, "So, Sakura... how have you been?"

"Hmph! Mr. Sloth himself... what a surprise"

Togame smiles, genuinely happy, as he continues this banter, "Well, you are still that brat who almost got pummeled by me,"

Sakura scoffs, "As if! I never lose..."

"Togame and Sakura have history to share..." Umemiya grins gleefully, and Toyama has his arms around Umemiya, very buddy-like and close as expected. Its ironic to how things used to be. There's more liveliness and strength in Shidhitori.

Everyone had a harmonious atomosphere compared to how they met the first day. Even Sako has a reserved but amiable relationship with Hiragi. Sakura felt somewhat... relieved...

Suo mentions slyly as he crept behind Sakura, "Well, Togame-san? Want to have another fun fight with our grade captain?"

Sakura's ears turn red as he snaps at Suo, "Oi, don't push it..." however he looks at Togame expectantly, "Well, I don't mind a bit of fighting and all..."

Nirei squeaked, "B-but... Sakura..."

"Dont worry, Nirei... look, " Suo pats his back with assurance. They both watched Togame smile more openly, not in the prior meancing grin, "Yaa... It's been too long, Othello-kun. I hope you learnt something from me that time..."

"Oh? You mean other than how I punched you?" Sakura provoked, which Togame narrowed his eyes playfully, "Don't get cocky..."

Toyama brightened up, "Ne,ne Ume-chan, are they gonna fight?"

Umemiya sighs but not in dismay, "Seriously... alright, I suppose, but don't go too far, or else Hiragi needs another stock of gas-kun ten"

"Oi!"

Soon, Togame was in his usual stance. Instead of glaring, he was looking forward to it. Nirei grabbed his notebook, and began scribbling on a new page.

Suo asked, "Are you gathering information on Togame?"

Nirei grins, sticking his tongue as he concentrated, "Not quite... It's for Sakura-san as he told me to write down his flaws so he can improve himself, I want to know what's his weak points are, too, anyway..."

Suo gives a brief laugh, "Other than the fact that he's so easily red when someone compliments him?"

Nirei conceded with a chuckle, "Well, yh that too... but something else..."

Togame lunged just the moment Sakura moved. It expected that Togame strives for grappling more and he's more intent on grabbing Sakura instead of punching him

"Ugh, I hate this fighting style!" Sakura sneered as he dodged perfectly. Regardless, their hits are serious despite the playful nature. Sakura could feel Togame grab his shoulders to push him down, but he's too flexible as Sakura slips away.

"Whew close!" Toyama mentioned and Umeniya agreed with a smile.

Sakura managed to dodge and yet...

"Gotcha..." Togame slipped under his arm to judo flip him from behind. Sakura felt the force as he made contact on the ground, yet Togame carefully made it less forceful and used his hand to protect the back of his head. Nevertheless Sakura twisted himself to avoid being pinned down. Instead, he spun himself with his leg wrapping around his opponents waist now switching sides.

Togame slipped a bit but latched on to his waist a bit unexpectedly.

The touch caught Sakura off guard despite it being an obvious grapple. Surprising everyone, Sakura stumbled down on his knees.

This was noted by the shishitoren second in command. Then, getting an idea, Togame slowly poked his waist while using his body weight to pin the shorter guy down, "Hm... interesting discovery..."

"H-hey! Wait! Dohont doho that!" Sakura flinched now, arcing his back as Togame's touch became gentler and swift around his sides, a light giggle slipping out of Sakura's grinding teeth.

"Oh my, is the little delinquent a bit sensitive?" Suo teased from the background, beating Togame from saying a similar phrase.

Sakura gets flustered again, now trying so hard to keep his laughter under control. Togame's nimble fingers began to crawl up his stomach, which made Sakura shriek and quickly scramble away from him, "Ack... NOHO?!"

A frivolous yet sinister grin was plastered on Togame's face. He raised his hands, tauntingly wiggling his fingers, "Uh oh, someone's in trouble... too bad I found out this weakness first..."

Nirei, mildly shocked, immediately began jotting down notes, giving a serious nod to himself, "Intriguing indeed, but a guy like Sakura is bound to be ticklish..."

Nirei flinched when Sakura yelled. Snapping his head with an aghast look, "Huh? Whohoho's sihihide ahahahahare youhuhu ohohohon, boke?"

"Now now, you can't even keep your giggles to yourself, Sakura..." Suo snickered.

"Y-YOHohou bahahastard!" He raised a hand to try and punch Togame and use a leg to kick his face.

Togame took this chance to lunge forward, dodging them effectively. Like the tackle from last time during the fight, Togame pushed himself forward towards Sakura's midriff. He managed to use his strength to get him down again, "You shouldn't let your guard down... even at friendly spars"

"Ah!" Sakura yelped, trying to turn on his stomach to escape, as this is no longer fighting but play fighting, "S-shit!"

Togame instantly grabbed his shoulders to stop him, "Uh uh uh~ Sakura... where do you think you're going...?" He dug his nimble fingers into Sakura's sides, suddenly eliciting a squeal and contagious giggles that sounded so unlikely of the tough Sakura. It went crescendo to decrescando at each sensitive spot he targeted.

"EEEh! DohoHOHOho noHOHOt! HahAHAHAHa, thiHIHIHIHIs iHIsn't fahAHAHAHAHAIR!"

"Who said fighting is about fair play?" Togame snickered mercilessly, almost like an evil older brother, "You of all people should know that, little Othello. Plus, it's cute when you lose control..." That earned a beet red blush from the victim as he kicked and thrashed, not even coordinating his defences.

Toyama and Umemiya grinned at this, and the others watched how their bonding went on through this 'spar' session.

Still the leader of Furin sigh, "Honestly it's dangerous if anyone finds out about his weakness..."

Toyama laughed, "Yes! Isn't he like strong as you? It's crazy how he's trying to fight back like this..."

Nirei chuckles, "I never expected this side of him, its... surprisingly cute"

"You mean unsurprisingly Nirei-kun," Suo winked, now pointing towards the fight with a gleeful look. Sugishitha, who's been eye rolling as he watered the plants, took multiple glances back at the little one-sided tickle fight.

Sakura tried to kick him (half-heartedly) but instead felt a suddenly electric tingle spread down and up his leg as Togame sqeezed his knee -whether it is accidental or intentionally was unknown.

Shocked beyond anything...

His laugh kicked a knotch as Togame began to tickle under his knee, unable to use his hands as they uselessly failed. They just hit the wooden floor instead, "AHAHA! NOHOT THEHEHERE! DAHAHAMN IT!"

Togame laughed at that, not stopping as Sakura couldn't place his attacks properly, "Oho? I should've gone for the knees before... It's funny how you got restrained by a mere touch there,"

"AHAHA BAHAHASTARD! NOHO WAY I'M LOHOSING!"

"Then... what about... heeere?"

Togame used his bodyweight to pin his shins and then squeezed his upper thigh. This made Sakura go wild, "GAH! N-NOO! HAHA SHIT! YOU AHAHAHASS!"

Seeing him slightly going red, Togame decide to give him a break. But... just a break.

Just five seconds at least... Togame thought menacingly.

5...

"Haah haaa..."

4...

"J-jeeheeez, thehehe heheck?" 3...

Togame got ready as he cracked his fingers. 2...

"U-uh eek!"

1...

Sakura's voice hit an octave as he let out a startled shrill when Togame pounced forward to get his ribs, a giggly reaction that melted his heart. It's not as strong as his knees and thighs, at least.

Suo has his usual smile, which stretched widely as he said mysteriously, "I wonder if I can get a turn?"

Nirei gulped, inwardly thinking he should never leave Sakura alone from now on-

"NOOO! HAHAHA, P-PLEHEHEASE NOHOT THEHERE! I TAHAHAKE IT BAHAHAHACK! AHAHA YOHOHOU'RE AHAHA DEHEHEMON!" A surprised squeal from Sakura made Nirei look in bewilderment. Where was Togame tickling to make the tough and cold Sakura to actually beg for mercy?

"Ahhh~ found it... your actually weak in the armpits? How predictable, its so adorable" Togame is, as Nirei will note down, the possible second worst tickle monster... first place being Suo.

Suo chuckles, "You say it's the worst but he's ticklish everywhere"

Togame laughed, still tickling Sakura, "Oh yh... it doesn't matter... his knees are as bad as here..."

Sakura kicked and thrashed weakly, now cackling like a mad man, closing his arms, "NAHAHAA! Y-yohOHOHOU AHAHAHAASS! LEHEHEHehet gOHOHOHo!"

"Mmmm~ nope..."

Panicking instantly, Sakura let out a flustered cry, "FIHIHINEHEHE! FINE! I GIVE UHUHUP!"

His voice raised another octave at the end, and Togame chuckled with amusement, letting his hands leave his armpits, "You are so ticklish there, who would've guessed..." he added with a pinch yo his thighs, making the other squeak weakly jolting, "aaaand there too..."

"It's good enough, that he's a tsundere, but being ticklish one is better," Suo proudly stated.

"Q-Quhuhuiet y-yohou dihihick!"

Evidently, Sakura is catching his breath, still pink in his face, sweating as if he had an actual one-sided 'battle' of blood-lust.

Nirei hummed in consideration as he looked at his notebook, "Hmm, so being ticklish is Sakura's weak point eh? Even I could win against him,"

"Shaddap!" Sakura managed to choke out angrily.

Umemiya gives a laugh, scratching the back of his head, "Oh, I doubt you can cuz Sakura will knock you out cold before you could try. He's a proud guy after all..."

"Oi! Quit talking like I'm not here, dumbass"

Sugishita sneered, clenching the water kettle tightly, "That's Umemiya-san to you, weaksauce!"

Getting up on his elbows, Sakura growl, back to his old self, with remarkable stamina, "Ah? Do you wanna pick a fight mop-head? Cuz I'm game..."

"Ma ma..." Suo stepped in between them, elegantly skimming his eyes over the taller guy, "Sugishita-kun, do you want to upset Umemiya-san?"

The tall guy turned to a radiant happy Umemiya and huffed angrily as he backed away easily. Now Suo turned to Sakura with a much eerie smile, "And Sakura-kun, do you want round two?" He mischievously wiggled his finger, "Instead of Togame, I can step in for him?"

Fear struck him, he blushed, yelling as he swatted those fingers, "H-hohow dare you threaten me! Ugh, whatever... fine, I won't pick a fight with him"

Suo heard Togame speak with amusement from the corner, hands restinf behind his back, "and here I thought you were looking forward for round 2 Sakura..."

"W-why would I?"

Suo answers this time, leaning forward towards his ear, "You never resisted... now did you?"

Sakura instantly turned red, eyes widened with surprise, his golden and black eyes dilating like a cats pupil, "H-huh? I was too concentrated! T-to even fight back!"

"Mmm~" everyone hummed teasingly, not believing him obviously.

This time Toyama grinned childishly, nudging Sakura playfully, "So then, does that mean you admit that you are weak to tickling then?"

"Ah? N-no I didn't say that-!"

"Theeeen, you pretended not to fight back and let me tickle ya?" Togame added... the two shishitoren leaders were putting Sakura in a helpless position.

Silent... Sakura looked away, Suo added, "Quite the bind your in, Sakura-kun"

Debating on what was more embarassing... either he should say that he liked being tickled and pretended not to fight or say he's too ticklish to handle it and fight back.

Sakura fumed for good five seconds before replying with a mutter, "U-ugh fine fine, fine! I'm weak to it so I cant fight back! Happy?"

Everyone grinned fondly, Sakura covered his face, both in shyness and rage.

"Good boy!!" Umemiya ruffled his hair, now making Sakura snap and growl like a little savage puppy.

In a corner with Suo, Nirei, however, chuckled to himself, "I bet he doesn't mind it much..."

Suo grinned, looking at the scene with a glimmering passion, "You guessed it... he's our fearless, cute, tough tsundere grade captain... Sakura-kun"

#lee!sakura #haruka sakura #wind breaker #wind breaker tickling #ticklish!sakura

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deliciousdefendorinternet · 1 month

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about the Headcannon/Fan Theory that Branch is Autistic.

I first started thinking it a few years ago after I watched TBGO for the first time I didn't used to interact much with the fandom online back then.

but after I started doing so I was kinda pleasantly surprised to find out there were other people who thought the same I mainly have the HC about Tv show Branch.

due to certain behaviours and Traits specific to the shows but there are still signs for the movie version as well someone even did multiple youtube videos pointing the signs out.

anyway I figured the easiest way to talk about this is to go over the most common signs of Autism as is stated by NHS on their websites that could apply to him.

tho obviously everyone's different someone not having a few of these signs doesn't mean they aren't autistic. Getting Anxious in social situations and finding it hard to make friends or preferring to be on your own plenty of examples sure its also in large part due to the amount of time he spent avoiding people in his youth but it easily can be taken as an A sign as well. in the episode "" Mr Glittercakes "" he invents a fake person just so he can have an excuse to blow off multiple social events and we see he tires of being social pretty quickly and easily. in "" Fun Branch "" hanging out with the snack pack in his Home proves to be too tiring and stressful not to mention him stressfully micro managing everyone at his party at the start of "" Bye Bye Bunker "" also in "" Two's a Cloud "" he was shown being pretty overwhelmed by spending too much time with people and also due to "" too much affection ""

I swear I will never get tired of that clip 😂😂😂😂 anyway it also ties in to the next common sign. Aversion to Physical Contact. again not every person on the spectrum has it but it is fairly common Branch improves after the first film.

but during the first film he'd literally Rather go to Bergen town with Poppy and Risk being eaten than stay in his safe Bunker and have to put up with Hug times from the other Villagers 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

and in TBGO he's still fairly averse to them when they travel the multiple dimensions the others are all Horrified when they come across the universe where no one knows what a Hug is.

but Branch smugly suggests he's fine with the thought of them staying in that universe before the others drag him away lol.

also in the clip above he seems to have a mini freak out over too much Hugging and even stims a little from the looks of things.

Liking to plan things carefully before doing them.

bit fat yes in "" Peril Patch "" when playing Golf he planned out every minor detail obsessively before taking a single shot. in "" Branch Bum "" he carefully planned out every detail of their Trip and was only actually concerned with the journey there and the journey back lol.

Not understanding Various social Cues.

this one kinda depends since Pop Troll society is so different from our own but given how in that world its Technically the Norm it does make Branch's lack of understanding a social failing on his part.

such as suggesting cutting the Twins Hair when they were having a Disagreement and Poppy stating that was a Social Cue most people would know.

plus in "" Eye'll Be Watching You "" when Poppy said she needed to think about it first before he could put his safety plants around the village.

Branch mistook that to mean she would just think about it for a few seconds then and there and proceeded to stare at her with an adorable smile lol.

also just him doing generally odd stuff in public like screaming about how they will all die when the water dries up in "" Laugh Out Cloud "" and ya know Harvesting Baby Tears 😂😂😂😂😂😂

in "" The Makeunder "" where Branch Teaches Lownote how to act more like him so he can be less social and cool at Guy Diamond's party.

the things Branch tells him to do includes 1. avoiding eye contact during conversation and then overcompensating with an uncomfortable amount of intense eye contact. 2. talking on and on about your own interests not paying any mind to how Bored the other people who your talking to may be. 3. and doing things things such as laughing at inappropriate times when people are talking aka showing the wrong emotional responses to specific situations and interactions. all of which are things which could be signs in certain individuals.

having a very fixated keen interest in a certain subject and area of expertise.

I'd consider his whole love of safety and traps aka engineering as well given he also builds other stuff such as helping build the Train the "" Cakes on a Train "" episode of Trollstopia.

and various devices such as the machine to pick what their new Holiday will be all of his various complex traps and of course Gary.

Poppy literally Refers to him as a safety nerd in the Birthday episode where she throws him a party where he gets to be the lifeguard its so friggin cute 💖💖💖💖

sure in large part its also due to his past Trauma but it kinda works as both imo he deffo takes a keen interest in this stuff beyond just feeling the need to do it for safety given he actively enjoys it. also Trouble getting your tone of voice to match what your trying to say can be a sign. which we see in one of my favourite moments ever from the first episode of Trollstopia where he tries to be genuine and supportive only to sound like he's being Rude and Sarcastic. anyway those are some reasons and also moments that made me HC him as Autistic I'm not saying it was the writers intent or anything.

I think its more likely just a happy accident that he was written in such a way that some of the fandom interpreted him as having Autism.

anyway thanks for reading if your a fellow fan who has this HC I'd be curious to hear what it was about Branch or what specific moments made you start Head cannoning him as such?

#trolls #trolls branch #dreamworks trolls #branch #branch trolls #trolls dreamworks #trolls tbgo #trolls tbgo branch #trolls the beat goes on #trolls the beat goes on branch #trolls hc #trolls headcannons #Trolls #Trolls Branch #Trolls HC #trollstopia #trollstopia branch

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samueldays · 1 month

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I am once again recommending Master of Orion (1993).

It's thirty years old, it originally came on floppy discs, and it's really good. The interface is crisp. The ship design system is neat. The technology research system is not your standard tech tree. It has helpful hotkeys like "Indicate next world that has enemy fleet inbound". It has antifeatures like "not doing a Cinematic Camera Pan for several seconds". It has detail while avoiding micromanagement by giving you mostly high-level control, and automatic reassignment of overflow when something like factory construction fills up.

I say it again because of discourse from a mutual's post.

hello gamer. you claim to want "shorter games with worse graphics that are made by people who are paid more to do less". in front of you is itch dot io, which has a "pay what you want" feature,

that… feels like an unfair take?

I don't want the claim as stated, I strongly suspect it's something said because it's catchy more than it's accurate, and I want to dissect its relation to things I do want, like MOO1.

shorter games

No, I want games with less padding.

I want fewer cinematic camera pans, and fewer cutscenes, and less of the dev team showing off their fancy tech demo, and fewer animations in the interface because the interface should have sub-second response time, and less loading time because the game should be smaller, and less grinding unless you're an idle game in which case it should be automated, and I want more automation and macros for things that are a waste of my attention as well as my time. Give me autoresolve for battles with weak enemies. Give me minions that can be sent to do things for me. Give me "repeat until" orders. Give me a dialogue meta-option that says "I've played this before, give me the TL;DR". Give me speed-up and skip buttons.

itch.io games have some of these, but also have less gameplay.

worse graphics

I'm close to agreeing with this, but IMO it's less about the graphics themselves and more about the 50GB graphics package and rendering engine that contemporary games like to include for little to no gameplay improvement, and then that enables lazy devs to think "another 3GB isn't a problem when we're already past 50GB" and the game bloats to 150GB as each dev includes a whole-ass library for one function, and then there's 10GB updates to download repeatedly.

I don't know if this is literally what happened behind the scenes, but a recent game like Baldur's Gate 3 did hit 150GB. Which also brings me to,

people who are paid more

I want developer studios to fire the movie team and redistribute their salary to the rest of the devs, with movie team describing the Thing that 'graphics department' has grown into.

A game like Age of Mythology doing in-engine cutscenes was cool when the engine was primarily a game engine and hands had eight polygons; these days it seems like AAA games also want to be movies and that means turning the game engine into a movie-maker, and hiring an entire movie team to render the 3D model of each character's armpit hair and the physics of how it moves in the wind when the character raises his arm.

Since budget is limited, that movie team comes at the expense of every other aspect of the game, like gameplay, writing, bugtesting, et cetera, and it still won't be as good a movie as an actual movie.

do less

See above. Less padding, less cinema.

#all #vidya #essaying #Master of Orion

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joemerl · 8 months

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I'm watching the Eragon movie after rereading the book this year.

It's kind of more enjoyable, sometimes because its changes legitimately improve things but usually because they stray into So Bad It's Good territory.

Durza is still generic af, but Galby is delightfully narmy.

Sloan feels more like an actual character, and the idea that the Spine is considered royal property is a lot simpler than "Sloan's wife died there because it's cursed, maybe, but Eragon can go in there because shut up."

"All hail Eragon, the mighty hunter!" And just like that, the movie makes Roran and Eragon feel more like brothers than Paolini managed in the first two books. Also, they're eight-year-old dorks in teenage bodies.

Sass-master Arya.

I am both annoyed and amused that the Urgals are just burly guys. They give them a little face makeup, but still.

Not really feeling Saphira's voice. I just imagined it huskier.

Durza summons the Ra'zac from the ground like Power Rangers villains. WTF (affectionate).

Eragon figures out that Brom was a Dragon Rider! And just like that, he's outstripped book!Eragon's supposed brilliance.

Arya is awake when she meets Eragon. Makes for a less awkward romantic arc. Also she just says she's a princess, so again, kudos on the screenwriters for not bothering with the obvious twists.

I think there's a passing line about dwarves and elves, but Arya is ostensibly human. There are some guys in the Varden who are clearly supposed to be dwarves but never referred to as such.

Why does the spell for dragon vision let Eragon see through walls? And why does the fire spell make things levitate?

"I expected someone a little more...well, more." Is this line actually clever, or do I just enjoy Eragon getting dunked on?

The whole thing with Brom flying on Saphira as he dies is kind of nice. It would have worked better if they mentioned that Saphira was named after his own dragon, though.

Murtagh is weird, because he acts totally different than book!Murtagh and is introduced with a different backstory. He even offers to lead Eragon to the Varden, which is directly opposed to his motivation in the book. But canon reasserts itself once they get there, so you're left wondering why he chose to do this.

Murtagh's prison cell, incidentally, appears to be a cage left out in the open.

I said Galby was funny, but how many scenes do we need where he's just whispering threats at Durza?

In the books, there are moments where I feel like Eragon has more chemistry with Nasuada than he ever has with Arya. Given the gratuitous "walking in one him shirtless" scene, I feel like the screenwriters agree.

Most of the clothes are Generic Medieval Drab, but then there was one costume designer who was like "NO! Shiny and exotic!"

One change I don't like: Saphira breathing fire before the battle starts is supposed to be cool, ooh-she's-badass-now, but sorry, having her dramatically do that at the end of the battle to save Eragon's life is much better.

So Durza summoned the Ra'zac from the ground, and now he summoned the Lethrblaka from Saphira's fire? somehow? Is it supposed to be made of smoke?

They're not very well done, but the script is trying to give Eragon some arcs that he doesn't have in the book. Some of it is generic "I don't want to be the Chosen One" stuff, but there's also this idea that he might get Saphira killed, like Brom with his dragon, augmented by the fact that Brom's death is kind of Eragon's fault in this version.

Speaking of which, the hell you letting Eragon think Saphira is dead, Murtagh? It's not just a jerk move, it's also out of character. Murtagh is not jokey, either in this movie or the book.

I was gonna say that the final scene is desperately trying to convince us that Eragon and Arya have chemistry, but I actually don't think it's trying that hard.

*watching the credits* That random guy who looked like a dwarf but was never referred to as a dwarf was supposed to be Hrothgar? I assumed it was Orik. He didn't seem to be a king or anything.

#Eragon #The Inheritance Cycle #Inheritance Cycle #Christopher Paolini #Eragon 2006

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corvidist · 10 months

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Located on the north shore of Great Slave Lake, Yellowknife today is the territorial capital and largest city of the Northwest Territories of Canada. This is not the story of that city, but rather of what comes after.

(PA stands for Post-Anthropocene. It is not the system used by Directors for measuring time.)

1 PA

The city of Yellowknife, prior to the war, was growing at an exponential pace. Its stable climate, ample water supply, and the relocation of many important government functions eventually led to its population surpassing 200,000 by the time a one-megaton thermonuclear warhead, launched from western Gansu province, landed just south of its primary airport. The city's fairly compact layout, combined with the yield of the device, led to total devastation, the first days seeing the deaths of over half the city's residents.

One year later, a global nuclear cooling effect has taken hold, and the charred ruins of Yellowknife lay empty. Some Human survivors remain on the outskirts, however the city as a whole is largely devoid of complex life. There are more survivors however, both Human and nonhuman, within the fallout radius, and elevated radiation levels will lead to increased rates of genetic mutation among the next generation. While typically leading to death or chronic illness in those impacted, among dwindling nearby Raven and Crow populations two mutations will actually prove mildly beneficial. A slight change in beak shape, and a growth abnormality in the right set of talons.

At a time when most edible plant and animal life is dead, and what remains is often small and burrowed, these chance mutations will forever alter the course of Earth's history.

1000 PA

Around this time, somewhere in Tierra Del Fuego, the last Human takes their final breath. While the effects of nuclear cooldown are long forgotten (at least at the superficial level), the destruction of nearly 80% of the ozone layer proved far more consequential in the long run. Even as industrial greenhouse gas emissions were suddenly and violently halted, the amount released by the firestorms that engulfed much of the Earth at the end of the Anthropocene led to further runaway warming, picking up around 20 PA.

By now only small pockets of large plant life remain, much of it in areas too hard-hit by the initial nuclear exchange for Humans to take advantage of before the end. Much of Earth's plant life is comparatively smaller, hardier shrubbery and root organisms that can survive drastic weather changes and high UV exposure. This is an improvement from the first 100 years, however, is a very difficult environment for land organisms much larger than coyotes to survive in.

Amidst the desolation, events unfold in the North American Arctic. With populations at a level that Humans would have long ago considered critically endangered, Crows and Ravens in this region, low on options, begin to crossbreed, leading to the first early "Directors". Still, without the caloric intake necessary, this new species remains, like its ancestors, at a level of only basic sapience for the time being.

100,000 PA

It's been 99,000 years or so since the death of the last Human, a little less since the hatching of the first members of a species that could vaguely be described as Directors. In that time, tool use, especially among those individuals, has diversified significantly. Use of large rocks to hunt creatures from the air, early harnessing of gathered fire, spears to reach deep into burrows, and stone shovels for digging out root plants. Still, the overall cognition of this species lacks certain important complexities.

Around this time, that is quickly changing. As the species has been psychologically driven for millennia to find, gather, and consume any food they come across on account of its sparse availability, the steady return of an ample food supply has led to the consumption of higher-than-necessary quantities. This, combined with improving tool use and the occasional harnessing of captured fire, will, given enough time, lead to the dawning of Earth's second technological society.

For now, however, the average life of a Director wouldn't look remarkably different from the life of any typical Crow or Raven of the present day. A few more tools, a little more complexity in communication and games, but all in all nothing that would get one whisked away to a research lab by today's Humans.

300,000 PA

Amid the treetops, an endless expanse of wilderness stops only at the side of a fantastic lake. As winter ends, in rudimentary language a group of avians discuss an idea to help one another tend to their nests. Soon, most of the roost disperses, but a few members stay behind. Together they craft tools, collect food, make art, and otherwise watch out for one another.

It works out well.

It works out very well.

As the next winter comes around, more decide to join them.

The first permanent communities constructed by Directors are only as large as the surrounding environment permits, and in the warm season, most continue to break off into smaller family territories. Still, these year-round communities wait for them upon their return, and as they have for millions of years, prove vital in the exchange of information.

Each warm season the communities grow, and understandings of everything from food acquisition to the inner workings of nature grow with them. The first instances of selective breeding can be recorded in this time period, particularly among grasshopper species and, of all plants, sunflowers, an odd final "gift" from the last Human survivors in the region being their ample presence.

One year, a casual game causes sparks to erupt on the shoreline of the lake, the right stones dropped on top of one another from just the right altitude. It lights a small fire in nearby brush, which quickly goes out on its own.

400,000 PA

An ominous orange glow rises in the distance. Far from the permanent community, though if the winds change moving it won't be too difficult, at least at this time of year. They can always make a new one, and the controlled burn serves a purpose too important to not carry out. As Directors are too small to adequately clear land, at least on their own, a complex system of agroforestry has developed instead. This region's culture, now harboring one of the post-Anthropocene world's first new writing systems, uses it to manage forests and encourage the growth of edible plant life. Much of it involves introducing plant species selectively bred for nearly 100,000 years, to a point unrecognizable from its original form. Each year, on top of the tried and true, they tinker with new methods and record the results. All part of a more complex, more widespread ideology that has begun to blossom.

As a generalist species with fairly short lifespans, early Directors have a better sense of the cycles of life and death than early Humans and are more prone to consider the impacts of their actions outside of their own lifespan. Much more than us, they live on through their offspring. To an extent, this culture, like many others, believes in integration with nature rather than dominance.

Despite this, what is said is not always done, and language tends to focus more on avoiding annihilation rather than alteration, though the hypocrisy of some of these sentiments will become increasingly important as technology advances. For now, the first large communities have begun to pop up around these controlled burn sites, sedentary agricultural hubs, and rudimentary fisheries along the coast. They feature a one-level layout among the tree canopy, largely for waste management, with everything from basic trade workshops and artistry to storage areas, even archives or libraries in the largest communities. However, unlike early Human cities, these possess no leader, no monarch to give orders, and no currency.

This will become a running theme as Directors progress further into their development.

490,000 PA

Is City of North Winds in the distance, a group of Directors works together to pull an early lighter-than-air craft. It carries a variety of items belonging to their rural community, now migrating to the city for easier access to food and resources amidst lowered global temperatures following an unknown volcanic eruption.

The city in the distance has a population of over two million, the largest city on Home at the time. Its most densely populated section has been under construction for thousands of years, trees selectively bred to grow taller and more resistant to flame, their branches sturdier, reaching high above the forest canopy. Recently developed bioluminescent lanterns seem to hang across every surface, and everything from tapestries and streamers to chimes and windmills adorn the exterior. Within the branches and cavernous clearings of this city, the region's culture blossoms, as does a (somewhat) new system of labor organization.

First originating on the Island of currently plentiful shrubbery, known in the Anthropocene as Baffin Island, the collective system arose in response to a need for accounting of who was doing what at any given time as the population grew. In order to do this, collectives were formed, loose groups of individuals coming together to complete needed tasks for a community. These groups were and continue to be open to join and leave as an individual wishes, with no structure or hierarchy within them save for systems of apprenticeship that were established as certain forms of labor complexified. It takes Is City of North Winds by storm, as although there is no force by which to drive people to personally adopt the system, the cold has everyone on edge.

More confined than usual, amidst the city's interior its residents watch as much of the livestock that couldn't be brought inside, some of it entirely immobile as a consequence of millennia of alteration, ends up succumbing to the extreme cold. Debate, long engaged in but seldom at a societal level, over the ethics of many of the selective breeding practices being engaged in begins to rage. It will lead to the three lakes' culture's slow disillusionment with many of their practices, which will take root, vanish, and reappear over hundreds of generations. It will take over 9,000 years for this undercurrent of discontent to finally be put to rest.

498,000 PA

In a smaller auditorium at the edge of the community, a crowd gathers before a group of travelers from far southeast. Outside, an already-operating windmill is wired to produce a small amount of energy, just enough to power three models of a strange new contraption. The audience is intrigued. While aesthetically displeasing, the increasing number of ways to harness this energy poses unique opportunities in dozens of fields, and the crowd can't help but speculate.

499,000 PA

Solstices ago, a research collective in the underground section of the city received a design for a device via mail. It comes once again from the southeast, where a thus far unwieldy technology has slowly become better understood in spite of limited general interest. Now, it bears fruit. The world's first electron microscopes in nearly 500,000 years, small towers compared to their operators. Within 200 years, laboratory gene editing will be commonplace. Within 500, society as they know it will be nearly unrecognizable.

500,000 PA

Night falls on Was, Is, and Shall Be City of North Winds. The glowing, immensely decorated mountain of sorts rises high above the forest canopy, surpassing even the monolithic posts of airship docks.

Society has changed in so many aspects over the past thousand years that it is somewhat pointless to try and list everything. Still, perhaps the most significant among these changes is what has occurred on the cultural level. To the residents of this community, and indeed to most of First Home's cultures, the development of direct genetic modification was a turning point beyond anything in the history of the configuration. Technologies that would have otherwise taken incredible spans of time to direct to fruition now took a few solstices. And, importantly, most could be done utilizing only stem cells.

As part of a wider societal craze, many ancient ethical debates had the equivalent of a sledgehammer taken to them as communities unified around a new goal, preached but not truly practiced by cultures since the beginning of their civilization. That goal, the recognition, and more importantly treatment of all complex life as being inherently equal to their own configuration, was perhaps finally within reach.

Far from the city, a grasshopper lands on a well-positioned sunflower, one of many that grow freely in the wilderness of the central north. They do not consider the balloon rockets departing in the west, or, at least not strongly, the nature of the airships passing in the distance. Still, it is because of their sacrifice that they fly, and now it is for them that they will continue.

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ultrahpfan5blog · 1 year

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Shazam! Fury of the Gods - Review

I am a big fan of the first Shazam movie. To me, that is one of the unique superhero movies that is less about action and superheroics, and more about heart and emotion. Plus, it was genuinely funny. So I was very excited when the entire team reunited to do Shazam! Fury of the Gods. Just saw the movie today and while I don't think its as good as the first, the film was a lot of fun. Arguably my favorite superhero movie since The Batman.

The film feels like it improves on some elements from the first film and is inferior on other elements. One thing the film definitely improves on is the action and visual effects. The first Shazam was fairly measured on its big action set pieces. And the Seven Deadly Sins definitely felt quite video gamy. Here though, the action sequences are quite good and the visuals on the Dragon, as seen in the trailer, are quite awesome. The film's humor is also on point. There is a scene with Helen Mirren reading a letter which had me in stitches laughing. The humor is consistent and keeps the tone light and frothy. The film also gives all the characters something to do and they all have some sort of purpose and story. Djimon Honsou's Wizard has a much expanded role and he and Jack Dylan Grazer's Freddy share some really funny scenes. The cast also has a lot of chemistry and immense likability, so you enjoy watching the various antics they get up to. The film is also fairly quick paced. It never slacks or bores the audience. The very final climactic set piece is pretty cool.

The one element that the film is inferior to compared to its predecessor, is the emotional heart. It is a little tricky for this film because one of the appeals of the first film was the little kid in a superhero's body. But Billy isn't so young anymore. They still have enough of it to be fun, but it is no longer as refreshing. Also, there is nothing quite as emotionally powerful as the arc of Billy trying to find his mother and finally coming to terms with the fact that his mother rejected him. The film actually doesn't spend enough time with the characters as kids. The key arc with Billy clinging onto his family out of the fear of losing them doesn't have enough emotional weight because we don't see Billy as a kid in situations where that worry would come up. Also, the key dynamic between Freddy and Billy, which was the heart of the first film, is pushed to the side though it does come full circle at the end. The entire action climax could have been trimmed down because it does start to feel a bit repetitive although the ending of the climax is kickass. They could have given that 10-15 mins to giving some more depth to all the kids and their individual predicaments.

The performances are strong across the board. All the kids and their counterparts are perfectly matched. Levi is still a delight as Shazam. Asher Angel doesn't have enough to do in this film but he makes an impression. Jack Dylan Grazer is a scene stealer, as he was in the first film and Adam Brody is a very apt adult Freddy. Ross Butler and Ian Chen as Eugene, DJ Cotrona and Jovan Armand as Pedro, Meaghan Goode and Faithe Herman as Darla, and Grace Caroline Currey as Mary are all excellent. I particularly love how Meaghan Goode plays adult Darla. Grace also makes an impression as the most level headed sibling of the lot. Rachel Zegler, Helen Mirren, and Lucy Liu are all enjoyable as the daughters of Atlas. Marta Milans and Cooper Andrews as the foster parents are very likable and the movie could have used more of them. Djimon Honsou is a hoot and clearly having a lot of fun.

All in all this was still a really fun film. I feel bad that this film is bombing so badly at the BO. I still can't believe that Morbius had a better opening weekend than what this film will have. Unfortunately, this film feels like it was a bad victim of circumstance. Coming 4 years after the first film, which was probably too big a gap for a minor character, after a spate of comic book films which haven't been received with a lot of positivity, with no major integration into the main DCEU till then, with now also the image of being a dead franchise walking after Gunn and Safran have taken over DC, there just has been audience apathy towards the film that the marketing hasn't been able to overcome. I also find the reviews for this to be strange. While I do think the first Shazam is a bit better, I don't get how that has a 90% RT and this has a 54%. I would have thought it would at least have a 75-80% RT rating. I think David F. Sandberg has done a real admirable job with these two Shazam films and its sad that we won't see any more of these but I have enjoyed the two we got. I'd rate this a solid 8/10 on first watch.

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cappuccinopoweredsprite · 6 months

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Hey, hi and hello, it's @brick-enthusiast coming at you from the sideblog again!

As part of a friendly agreement with @things-about-cars-in-posts, I am here to introduce another race car.

You know Peugeot? In recent years, the French brand is probably best known for fighting tooth and nail to shake a reputation of dullness. However, you've probably heard - or perhaps you remember - that Peugeot used to be a whole lot more cool.

Well, this story takes place a little bit after that. Less than a year after the last story I told, in fact, in 1995. And the similarities between the two don't end there.

The car in question is the then-new Peugeot 806.

By all means a run-of-the-mill, boring people carrier, unveiled in 1994.

PSA Group had co-developed it with Fiat, so it was also sold as a Citroen, a Lancia and a Fiat.

(As you may remember from a recent post by @things-about-cars-in-posts!)

Anyway! Peugeot wanted to do something to promote their version of the so-called Eurovan. Someone, half-jokingly, suggested to take it to the racetrack.

That someone was Pascal Witmauer, the man in charge of Peugeot's advertising in Belgium, as well as marketing for the Belgian Procar racing series. Peugeot's "promotional event" was set to be 1995's running of the Spa 24 Hours.

A 24-hour endurance race, yes.

A 24-hour endurance race that was happening at the end of July. It was May.

The project was handed over to Kronos Racing, a Belgian racing team that would go on to build successful Peugeots and Citroens for the circuit as well as dirt. And well, they did complete it.

As much as a parts-bin-special it might have been, the Peugeot 806 Procar was a serious racing machine. Its interior was stripped of anything non-essential, the 8 factory seats were replaced by a single carbon bucket and a roll cage.

The engine and drivetrain were a mix of parts from the 306 Maxi rally car and the outgoing 405 Mi16 circuit racer, while the then-new 406 Supertourisme donated a 6-speed sequential gearbox.

The van's speed certainly didn't lag behind. It qualified 12th overall and third(!) in its class. Not to mention that it certainly stood out in a field full of contemporary BMW 3-series and French hot hatchbacks.

By the start of the race, the big white box was already the crowd favorite. Pascal Witmeur (who also happened to be one of the 806's three drivers) recounts:

“Every time we passed by Raidillon¹, people were applauding. The public liked it, because apart from being atypical, it was often on two wheels!"

¹ a corner on the Spa-Francorchamps track

Unfortunately, mechanical issues didn't take long to show up. The team ran into brake problems an hour into the race. The engine itself gave out before the 10-hour mark, leading to a DNF for the Peugeot.

Not that it mattered to the public though. The touring van single-handedly improved the image of all MPV's² - not just the French-Italian quadruplets. Peugeot of Belgium had 5000 posters printed - all of which were given away signed by Witmeur.

"For a few hours, I was more more famous than Johnny Hallyday³!"

he laughs, admitting it was likely that many workers from Peugeot's local Sevel Nord⁴ factory came to see the race.

² multi-purpose vehicles in case you don't know, European for "minivans"

³ iconic French singer, composer and actor, regarded as "the French Elvis Presley"

⁴ that's where the 806 was assembled. Note the logo on the side of the race car's front bumper!

The very same Peugeot 806 Procar is still around to this day. After the race, it was reportedly kept by one Jean-Pierre Montron - founder of Kronos Racing - until his passing. It went up for sale in 2020 (wherein it had a bunch of articles I could use as sources written about it) and again in late 2022, when it failed to sell at auction.

Thank you for reading <3

image links: [one through four] [five]

#car things #long post #post i made #rambles

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vivalgi · 4 months

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Another month, another Choices Insiders

I lost a lot of interest when it turned out we're not the titular character in Hot Shot but a lowly reporter who has to wh*re out and do filthy propaganda for some hockey team. However, it has GOC MC so I'll still give it a try, albeit with low expectations.

I liked the behind-the-scenes stuff though, always cool to see what goes into creating art for the game. There seems to be a lot of 3D modelling involved in background art, which is cool. Perhaps PB could base character sprites on 3D models as well, then they wouldn't look so weird.

Surprised that PB is trying to release Blades 3 already this year, although it doesn't sound that impossible. After all, book 2 was still in pre-production less than a year before its release. I hope that they won't rush it though and take more time if needed. RWB spin-off and COP3 are not surprising as they're lower budget linear stories.

1 GOC book per 1 gender locked book is ...ooookay, it's not good but better than last year. 3 per 2 would be more in line with the better years and actually improve the situation overall. I'll probably do the next Choices stats post about GOC books.

ID2 - the main villain, the final battle, the way MC was turned into vampire and how he reacted to it were all hugely underwhelming but I still look forward to it. Urban fantasies seem to be my thing (besides sci-fi but sadly PB isn't interested). I'm curious how they'll handle the 3 different romance paths, I also want to see MC seriously struggle mentally with vampire life and I hope that whatever danger is waiting for us is more multifaceted than the boring villain in book 1. Hopefully there won't be another cheesy happy ending where regular humans and vampires suddenly become the best buddies.

ACT - it's gender locked so there goes my interest.

TDG - the name and thumbnail made me hope for something dark and gritty but based on the leaks we're once again getting involved with the quirky lives of rich people. Still, it's a GOC detective story so it shouldn't be too bad. Fingers crossed there's still going to be some gore and blood besides the fake glittery glamour.

TGOU - meh, another gender locked book. Probably THOBM but smuttier and over 3 times longer.

FR - lol I don't know why the title sounds so funny to me 🤣! Based on recent patterns, the filthy rich one is probably the LI, unless PB manages to surprise us. What is up with the fascination with billionaires anyway? What is PB trying to tell us with it? That the company is struggling and waiting for a sugar daddy to rescue it? Anyway, it's another gender locked book, so there's little to no chance I'm going to read it.

HOF - that must be the book about firefighters that PB teased sometime ago. It's good to have something involving a more down to earth life style for a change that us regular people could relate to. I just hope it's not another one of those books where only the LI is the firefighter. Or where we are another rookie falling for an older, more experienced person.

#playchoices #pixelberry #choices stories you play #choices #choices insiders #hot shot #blades of light and shadow #roommates with benefits #crimes of passion #immortal desires #along came treble #the deadliest game #the ghost of us #filthy rich #hearts on fire

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wolfieworld · 1 year

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4/6 Diary: Dead Projects

it's hard to acknowledge why something isn't working when you're in the middle of it, sometimes it's hard to even know why. There's a few plots that have been in my brain for years that I've rewritten and rewritten and rewritten with little success. I think a big part of failed projects is actually over-estimating ones own capabilities, for example I plan out mechanics that I don't have the experience to achieve, or characterization too far from my own experience that its not fun to write. I often plan out stories that require a lot of research and I feel like I can't write until I know everything-therefore most writing doesn't get done and what does is full of holes. It's kind of embarrassing to look back at stuff and just think "I didn't know what I was talking about at all."

Sometimes shit just doesn't work out. In the words of Pretty Boy Detective Club giving up on a dream can be more beautiful than achieving the dream itself.

Probably 90% of everything I try doesn't work out and it's been on my mind lately that that's a good thing. Of course in an ideal world we learn from finished works bc there are things from those you can only learn by sharing with others and by wrapping up a story and by saying goodbye to your characters but there isn't such a thing as an ideal world and everything we do we learn from whether other people see it or not. There is something special you learn from unfinished projects, the types you choose to put down forever, which is you are forced to acknowledge precisely why it could not get done.

These are all images from 2 retired vn/comic projects.

These projects are prisons for some of my best and worst writing, full of ideas with no through-line or real objective, and no real thorough understanding of these characters who I loved just collections of feelings and images and facts I thought were cool.

What is improvement? I'm not a person who looks at my old art and feels like I've gotten better at drawing, and when I look back at old writing I only really get the sense that I've become less cringe but not become a better writer. I think improvement is more esoteric than becoming better at the skills you use to express, maybe it's just knowing yourself better and playing to your strengths, and crystalizing what you want to say (or finding it in the first place). Aesthetics form naturally from writing and drawings that plainly express what they need too and they are drawn like blood from stone from work that is trying its hardest to be clever.

Personally I find these digital pages from 2020(21?) to be better drawings than anything I've done in the last two years in a technical way but it doesn't matter, I couldn't finish it, and I didn't know the characters. It's just portfolio work, it took me months to do five of them. They're just "cool shots" even though I didn't know it at the time.

As I get further into working on Youth Who Was Killed I'm noticing that cutting corners produces better results, there's more emotion in sketches so why finish a drawing, why design a logo which I'm not good at when I can use a font, why color grade the images myself when limiting the palette to one or two or three colors provides an unmuddied result? This is the kind of laziness you would think would harm 'improvement' but I've found that too much brute force is a highway to burn out, and then you're not learning anything at all.

Making art is a war against human nature I think, cavemen definitely weren't built too instinctually develop a five year plan every new years. However it becomes like less of a war when you work with your nature rather than against it. Maybe. I don't know. I really hope I don't make a blog post two years from now about why I couldn't finish YWWK. If that happens blame ren'py.

i drew my ocs in funny t shirts for the first time in my life so maybe all that stuff i said about improvement being that you become less cringe is untrue, maybe you get more cringe. thats ok with me i guess.

#meow meow meow #youth who was killed #that feels like kind of a scary tag and maybe i should use the acronym i will decide later

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adobe-outdesign · 2 years

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What are your thoughts on girafarig?

Girafarig has always been an odd Pokemon. "Palindrome giraffe" was already kind of an off-beat premise to begin with, and tossing a chain-chomp style tail in there only makes it stranger. Personally, I like it; it's one of the more interesting Gen 2 Pokemon in terms of just pure weirdness, and there's some cool biological elements in there with how the tail works:

I also like the design. The half-and-half coloration is very striking, and I love how a giraffe's patterns have been made into hexogonal markings that flip colors once they hit the dark half. Even the little white spot on the forehead adds some depth. The nose always looked a bit off to me, but aside from that, it's pretty solid... for what we got.

See, Girafarig's problem is that the original beta design was kind of... better? It evolved from a conjoined ghost (dropping this was a good call, as it was just strange) into an actual palindrome giraffe, with a normal-type front half and a dark-type back half. This is cool enough, but what really makes this design brilliant is the face they gave the second head:

That is terrifying, and makes for such a cool "easter egg" for when you actually would catch one. It adds personality, and helps justify the typing (final Girafarig being psychic-type is a pun in Japanese, but why is it still normal? Is the front half still considered the normal half? If so, what makes the tail psychic when it has less of a brain than the front half? You get the idea).

The only reason I can think of for them "watering down" the concept like this is that it's hard to figure out how beta Girafarig functions as an animal; like, both sets of its legs bend outward, so how would it walk? And in that respect, the final design is an improvement. However, it just feels like too much was lost. I feel like you could've easily blended the designs; have the core body of final Girafarig, but have the tail (rather than the tail and back legs) be the beta head and neck. Would be twice as weird and twice as memorable, without sacrificing basic biological logic.

(Also, side note: the dark-type half having a single horn is weird and defeats the purpose of having it be a palindrome. That's my only real complaint with the beta design outside of the functionality thing.)

This is why I'm so glad SV is finally giving us Farigiraf. For years, Girafarig has always felt like a good but incredibly watered-down Pokemon that was never living up to its full potential. While Farigiraf doesn't go in the same direction as the beta, it at least does something interesting that helps expand upon the theme, and makes the line feel much more complete.

Overall, Girafarig is a neat little Pokemon and one of the better ones from Gen 2. However, the beta design, while somewhat flawed, was more interesting. Thankfully, the existence of Farigiraf has rectified this, and I can now say that Girafarig feels really solid as a pre-evo.

#the backlogging for reviews has been taking long enough that girafarig's evo was literally announced after this ask was sent in #girafarig #farigiraf #pokemon #pokemon reviews #.gif

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leagueofgardens · 9 months

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Assault Lily × Ludvico Private Girls' Academy: The Blade of Truth

For obvious reasons, I'm not writing the full title of the play.

Ever since The Gleam of Dawn had its run earlier this year, my opinion has been that it was the best individual one of the Assault Lily stage plays, but the Ludvico quartet (in their revival versions when those existed) are the best series. And though The Blade of Truth was by no means bad and a worthy finale to the series, my opinion hasn't changed.

Extensive spoilers for the play below. Don't click unless you want to be spoiled! (Also, I talk about death, so a content warning for that.)

The Blade of Truth is actually the only one of the Ludvico stage plays that I've watched the original 2019 performance of, because there was no alternative at the time I was first watching the series. It was… okay. Definitely rough compared to the revivals, but I wasn't sure how much of it was inherent and how much was because of the lower budget those plays were working with.

It turns out that at least a little of it was inherent, but I'll focus on what was good first.

BoT 2023 (I'll abbreviate it as that from now on) was excellently produced. Assault Lily's stage tradition of projecting video onto the stage came out crystal clear, for nearly the first time ever, and was used to great effect every scene it happened in.

Though the choreography wasn't quite as fancy as The Gleam of Dawn's, it was frequently impressive, and the playwright/director duo of Sakuragi Sayaka and Hayashi Shuuji elevated their trademark of simultaneous scenes to new heights by occasionally having important conversations take place on one half of the stage while battles occurred on the other.

The story was an improvement over the 2019 version with a variety of small changes to the script, and possibly also thanks to the years of extra experience the actresses and staff have. Asahi and Nagisa were adorable together, the flashback scenes with Kazane made her feel less like just Mirai #2, Ichika and Karen both got even cooler, Himari was a lot more likeable, and Nonoka's scenes were somehow even funnier.

In the back half, Professor Amamiya "installing" himself into Kosaka the same way various other characters have makes a lot more sense than the 2019 version's brain transplant. I feel really bad for Kosaka, since she seems to momentarily regain her original personality just before she dies… well, no one ever said Assault Lily stories have happy endings for everyone.

Also, Pius seems to have mostly recovered from whatever issue they had in 2022 where the stage cameras and microphones precipitously dropped in quality (maybe Bushiroad gave them loaners and took them back when they pulled out of the Assault Lily project?)

What wasn't so great? Well, it's an ongoing thing with the Ludvico series, but the plain-looking hairstyles/costumes and boring CHARMs are disappointing coming from the other stage plays. They provide the advantage that they avoid having the occasional ugly-as-sin wig (like Kasumiko's in The Gleam of Dawn,) but I wish the crew had at least used different shades of natural hair so the characters are easier to tell apart. I don't see why Yuko couldn't be a blonde and so forth.

In BoT 2023, a reasonable amount of characters have custom CHARMs (or at least less common ones like Kazane's Triglav,) but I'll be quite happy if I never see another Dainsleif Carbine or Gungnir Carbine again in my life.

I'm still not a fan of The Blade of Truth's plot, particularly the second half. I've always been disappointed by Assault Lily's dull villains and feel that Toda Kotohi is the only one, in any part of the media mix, who's genuinely a great character. A bunch of nuns and Kosaka-sensei repeatedly screaming "This is for the good of humanity!" haven't changed my mind on that.

The fights were really cool, and Makabe and Kosaka in particular have their moments, but I wish we knew more about what they were actually trying to accomplish instead of them just seeming crazy.

While Sakuragi may have felt she couldn't make a change that drastic to the script in a revival, I think Ichika should have died when Makabe shot her. It really undermined the impact of that moment when she was just fine later, and more broadly I feel that Assault Lily's aversion to allowing even a single Lily to die in the present clashes badly with how its strongest plotlines are based on the deaths of characters in the past, like Mirai.

If Yuria had died in the previous Ludvico play, that would be fine too. Just kill someone. Anyone!

I feel very edgy saying that, but I really believe AL tests the limits of our disbelief with how everything, all of a sudden, always turns out just fine for the Lilies. (Unless you're a teacher, in which case you have a 75% chance of dying horribly.)

Anyway. BoT 2023 is a solid play, not the best Assault Lily stage play and not the best Ludvico one either (I think that's probably Schwester's Secret), but well worth watching. Don't miss it… though it's a little late to say that now.

#assault lily #asslily #assault lily meta #assault lily spoilers #ludvico #ludvico private girls academy #the blade of truth #stage play #theater #butai #death tw

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ihopesocomic · 1 year

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realized that MP's weird "masculinity = bad" agenda that the other anon brought up very clearly also shows up w/ their writing of hover as a gender non-conforming/butch lesbian.. due to the fact that she takes on a more traditionally masc role in lion society and is also an obvious stereotype. she's in this weird limbo where she's written to be cruel and abusive like the males in the series but since she's a lioness the narrative kind of tries to wave it away and expect us still to find her likable. it's weird

Like we've said before, we don't even know if a masculinity=bad or even an anti-man message was intended. But it's certainly there anyway.

I mentioned this in one of my last Hover rants, but it's not lost on me that the two butch lesbians that are in canonical relationships are both crass and awful. (Karabi is just fortunate enough to have less screen time than Hover.) I don't really need to go over speciics of what they do, but the short version is they both are irrationally furious with their stereotypically-feminine parter. Or in Hover's case she's treated like being flippant and offensive is cool (or that she's allowed to be ableist so long as its against a guy she doesn't like.) and is either dismissive of Nothing's concerns or flat out isn't interested in her needs when it's more important to punish her. In Karabi's case when Kyoga is keeping their relationship a secret, her impulse is to question her love for her, instead of being sympathetic to the position she's in and actually trying to find a solution.

(And I won't get into Hover's broken personality when she wants to join the pride lol)

When I see toxic masculinity presented in a butch lesbian character, and it's never brought up or called out or improved, I side-eye the writers, no matter who they are. And no matter whether the character is "intended" to be one we side with. Because this has been a harmful stereotype for decades, and yet it shows up in a character it doesn't even make sense for it to have. So I can't help but think about whether these characters exist the way they are because there's conscious or subconscious prejudices floating around and it was possibly never even addressed by a single person during the editing process. (Or if it was brought up, it was ignored.)

There's always been this underlying judgement of butches (or transmasculine people in general) that we're "trying to be like men" and it's like uh lol That also just kind of shows how little they know. (It's almost like butches have a complicated relationship with gender or something, what a novel concept.) And yet. People keep continuing to write us this way. Now why on earth would that be? Oh yea cuz its all people see in media (bar a few outliers). Now I'm gonna stop myself before I go on an 8 year tangent unpacking why "trying to be like men" would entail being emotionally stunted and rude. Good lort.

And I don't really want to hear that "Hover is a reincarnation of Karabi, that's why they're both big and muscular" because that's not stated in the show. And I don't want to hear anything about manes and hormone levels, quite frankly I'm over granting this show the "realism" argument in any degree. The fans care more about the realism than the show does lol Especially as far as it's queer representation is concerned. - Cat

#ask

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ubike-official · 10 days

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hello everynyan, i've been spending the post wisdom teeth removal process (i'm doing fine, very minimal pain) doing a lot of art and i came to a realization abt the way i've done art for my life that i posted a bit abt on my ig but abridged to hell and back bc yk instagram. but yeah, i've always had a very messy art style. lots of paint splatters and running ink splots and collage. I never did anything clean or in one medium only. I had a very disordered and messy style which often fit the theme of the piece as a lot of my trauma was represented in my art. and now i'm doing like a pop color esque portrait of my dog and I think it's the cleanest piece I've done in a very long time for a personal piece. I had "clean" pieces i made for projects that had to be clean, but not many things i made for me. and, it's very interesting. bc like, i honestly think I used to have that messy art style because I was afraid. Like the style I had was also cool as hell and I really like it still. but another layer of it was I was too scared to commit to doing something realistic, clean, and defined and it looked bad. Bc if it's messy and bad, it's almost part of the style. but with clean, highly technical work, there is no room for error. If it's off then it really looks off and needs to be corrected. And I never liked that. i never had the patience. I wanted my art to be a cathartic, messy, one take release of feelings. I never wanted to have to actually focus on skill and that's not wrong. there is nothing wrong with that if that's what art is for you. but for me, i wanted a certain level of technique and skill that i never really had the guts to commit to. and I saw other try to do that while having less talent than me, and i never got it. my ex was like that. It's mean but i did always think my art was better than his while we were in hs. It kinda made me question why he tried so hard to be good at art when he art wasn't bad but was always missing something. It was missing some sort of spark, and I saw him trying to find it and was like, why? Which again, was mean. I was very wrong for that and was honestly just bitter bc i didn't have that sort of work ethic. (but like i was a traumatized 17 year old with little going for me. like it made sense. )This is bc i did always had a raw talent for art and i feel like a lot of ppl could see that that. He always came to me for color mixing and a bunch of things, like line or design. Like i knew that i could more effortlessly pull of certain things from young. I'm actually not sure how much was talent but rather i spent more time thinking abt art than my peers. But as I got older and ego became mixed in, art felt like something only I and a handful of other sad weird kids could have. It felt wrong to see people try and improve when it felt like their lives were normal. which was so wrong and short sighted of me, but i felt it. It came from a very hurt, insecure place and I am over that now. but it was true, that's how i felt. and it was wrong. And now that i can look back on my past self and her body of work, I think i can appreciate what she did and how far she came and now i can create art from an empowered place. now i can dare to do what i hesitated from due to fear of failure. to fear that all i had wasn't good enough. and its liberating bc now i can create to truly create and that's wonderful. I'm still not fully there yet. Like, there is a lot more I want to do and routines i need to create and mental blocks to overcome before i'm really back in my creative flow like i was when i had more time on my hands. but yea, it's nice, it feels really nice. Like looking back and seeing how far i've come. so yeah. just wanted to share. love you all and hope you all are in a good place in your creative journey's or are on the way there. peace .

#snail.txt

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fezwearingjellybananas · 14 days

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Answer the questions then tag 5 fanfic authors

Tagged by @kitkatt0430 thank you!

How did you get into writing fanfiction?

My friend sent me a e-mail with some Doctor Who/Sherlock crossover fics to read and they were fun and I already liked writing but was too nervous to actually share any of it, so it seemed like a good way to practise being less nervous because it didn't have to have my name attached to it or be connected back to me in real life

I am less nervous than when I first started, but I'm definitely still too nervous to share anything with my real name attached to it.

How many fandoms have you written in?

AO3 has 25 on my profile but some are connected (like the various dctv shows and several different comics that are all dc)

How many years have you been writing fanfiction?

Ten! More or less, I don't have the very first stuff I put on ffn any more, but it's about 10

Do you read or write more fanfiction?

It probably varies from month to month depending on how inspired I am to write, but I think it might lean towards read, certainly at the minute

What is one way you’ve improved as a writer?

I may still be nervous often, but I have grown in confidence, which in turn does let me experiment with fics more- like using first person POV in the Barriscowest Sherlock Holmes AU, leaning more into horror with Nightmares, dipping my toes in the Eobarry sandbox, criticising the soulmate trope in Blank- without worrying too much about "this one is different will people like it" to actually sit down and write it, and I hesitate over the post button less.

What’s the weirdest topic you researched for a writing project?

I read an entire research paper on CFL quark matter for a throwaway line (and because I was curious) and I still understand literally nothing about CFL quark matter. I'm so glad I did chemistry not physics

What’s your favourite type of comment to receive on your work?

All of them? I really love the ones where people pull out a line though, especially when it's a line I loved writing. And @goldheartedchaoticdisaster's Eobard insults, I love those so much

What’s the most fringe trope/topic you write about?

I guess I like playing around with rare pairs sometimes to see if I can make a story out of changing relationships around? There are a handful of ships where my fic is the first to use the tag, and there is still only one fic in the Tess Morgan/Tina McGee tag and I wrote it. The same is true of the Laurel Lance/Lily Stein tag only AO3 haven't listed it as a tag you can search for yet apparently, so that probably fits fringe

What is the hardest type of story for you to write?

I think everything has its challenges but the hardest parts are always when the characters don't know what to do because putting myself in their spot is also going to mean I don't know what to do, but to get the plot rolling something's got to come next

What is the easiest type?

Short, dialogue heavy conversation fics. Or I assume these must be since that is often what I end up writing

Where do you do your writing? What platform? When?

On my laptop, on my phone, in notebooks (though this is typically original writing, not fanfic), and typically mornings and evenings, but honestly whenever I've got a moment and an idea

What is something you’ve been too nervous/intimidated to write, but would love to write one day?

Original fiction. I've got the idea, I write little bits occasionally, but I know all my trouble writing that one stems from anxiety over what do I do when it's done. One day I'll write it though

What made you choose your username?

Doctor Who. I was panicking a lot and it was the first thing I could think of so I entered it into the box before I could chicken out yet again (Eleven has his "fezzes are cool" bit, the jelly is as in Jelly Babies, and the banana is from the Ninth Doctor)

Tagging @roboticnebula @ftl-faster-than-life @alittleflashvibe @annnesbonny and @spectralarchers if you would like to?

#replies #*

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