#my gameplay theories are all wrong this is the take away

[icharchivist]

mood of the day

#ichashitpost gbf #ichatalks about gbf #ichablogging gbf #ichablogging 4kishi #i don't want to say sorry either but also I TruLY BELIEVED. I TRULY HYPED IT UP. #my gameplay theories are all wrong this is the take away #next you know 10th anni will actually be the dragon knights and my logic sucks. #also honestly it's all about how i've had this memetemplate in mind ever since i saw the leaks.

[mirror-ralsei]

THEORY: The Butterfly Effect

I'd like to thank VGFM for forming the basis of this theory with theirs, the excellent "The True Identity and Importance of "Everyman"". I highly recommend reading it!

---

A while ago, VGFM brought to my attention the presence of a butterfly motif in UTDR.

They noted the presence of butterflies in three specific places: Whimsun/Whimsalot's bullets, Reaper Bird/Everyman's bullets, and King's cape.

I'd like to expound on this by analyzing these usages, and also add another two instances of a butterfly motif that, all together, lead me to a conclusion about what butterflies in UTDR could mean.

1: Everyman's bullets

Probably the most memorable appearance of butterflies across Undertale and Deltarune. It's our pal Everyman!

In case it was possible to forget, here's a refresher: the amalgamate Reaper Bird in the True Lab features a guest star in their attacks. The strange, embryonic "Everyman" initially just stands there. Then their face is painfully eaten by butterflies, and they subsequently will go on the attack. Everyman has since cameoed in Deltarune a few times, but the butterflies have been conspicuously absent.

Still, this seems to be the character most obviously linked to butterflies so far.

As for what butterflies could mean here, there's only one really major thing to note: Everyman was not aggressive until the butterflies infested their face. In one of their attacks, the butterflies even seem to be "puppeting" a staggering Everyman, and are the ones actually inflicting damage by flying out of their head.

Does this mean the butterflies represent aggression? I'm not so sure. However, as we're about to see, they do seem to appear a lot in the context of antagonism.

2: King's Mantle

Another butterfly was visible in Deltarune Chapter 1, taking the shape of King's... cape?

At the time of VGFM's theory, we didn't have the Chapter 1 livestream, but Toby gave us this one for free: "Cool mantle, bro."

Setting aside the weighted term "mantle" for this theory (but rest assured, you're in good company thinking about the SkyMantle and ShadowMantle), I'd like to focus on the King himself.

Firstly: Many people refer to this character as the "Chaos King," likely due to the titular track that plays during his fight. But the character himself is only ever referred to as "(a) King." Let's squirrel this away for later.

Secondly: During said battle with King, during which he has his greyscale mantle, he is able to use a greyscale "tail" from his belly to attack us by slightly manipulating the UI.

King uses that grey belly tail to drag our box around the screen and into bullets in various ways, almost reminiscent of fighting Sans. As far as I can remember, (correct me if I'm wrong), he's one of the only DR characters who do this (ETA: @potabo pointed out Queen also has a UI-affecting attack, as does Spamton in a scrapped attack).

But after the King's mantle has flown away, we only see him using basic spade bullets. We never see the belly tail again.

Now, of course, this could just be gameplay/story dichotomy - we're in a cutscene, not in battle, so of course we don't see any grander attacks.

But it would be interesting if the mantle itself was what granted him the meta power to manipulate the UI. If true, then by extension, this might associate the butterfly motif with similar powers.

Remember what I said about "Chaos King" not being his real name? That begs the question: why is the track titled that?

3: CHAOS SABER

This one's a little sneaky.

We've all probably noticed by now that Asriel's battle is chock full of Deltarune references, and plot elements we weren't even aware of. There's plenty of theories and speculation out there about that.

But one of the elements flying under the radar is his attack "CHAOS SABER."

Not the Kris-like sword attack, or the unusual animations, or the Deltarune-like sparkles at the end... but the very sword sprites themselves.

Take a look again.

Yep - when put together, the two swords Asriel uses form a butterfly shape. (They're also reflections of each other...)

What do we know about this instance of the butterfly motif? Not much, really, aside from the use of swords to cut, the production of those Darkner-representing stars, and the title: "CHAOS SABER."

Uh-oh. Maybe we shouldn't speak too loudly of "chaos..."

4: Jevil's voiceline

Just a small one, but I think worth noting: Jevil, a character strongly associated with Chaos, has the voiceline "METAMORPHOSIS."

Yes, it's one of his references to those Line stickers. But face it: when you hear "metamorphosis," what's the first thing that comes to mind?

It may not directly spell out the word "butterfly." But fellow Line reference "I CAN DO ANYTHING" doesn't directly spell out "freedom," anyway, and that's an actual confirmed Jevil motif.

All I'm saying is, it's not out of the question that the "METAMORPHOSIS" line might tie into this ongoing butterfly motif.

5: Whimsun/Whimsalot's Bullets

You may have gone through this list wondering: where are Whimsun and Whimsalot? What profound meaning do they have? What fascinating secrets can we glean from their depiction of butterflies?

The answer is: I dunno lol.

Sorry, there was a reason I shunted them off to the end. Unfortunately, I just can't find anything that sorely sticks out! Whimsalot is one of the CORE enemies, sure, and those seem Deltarune-relevant in some way, but otherwise... I just don't know! If anyone has more profound insight to offer here, feel free to sound off - I'd love to hear your ideas. Personally, I'm gonna throw in the towel until we get another chapter.

CONCLUSION

You've probably noticed by now, but there seems to be a common thread throughout half of these instances.

Jevil, "Chaos King," "CHAOS SABER"...

In Undertale and Deltarune, butterflies may represent CHAOS.

And honestly, it makes more sense than you'd think.

The butterfly effect is pretty well-referenced in media: a single flap of a butterfly's wings, rippling out to eventually cause a hurricane somewhere else.

And what discipline, exactly, does the butterfly effect fall under? Chaos theory.

If this is the imagery Toby Fox is trying to invoke, I wonder if our actions won't "ripple out" in a great chain of cause-and-effect, either. After all, he did state some things "only appear random. All chaos is ordered."

As for what this means for the affected characters, the one that jumps out the most as an example is Everyman. Again, in Reaper Bird's attack, the poor fellow appears to be engulfed by butterflies - so, metaphorically, by CHAOS. Only after this do they actually become aggressive. And interestingly, Toby Fox also remarks on how the Dark Fountain may have changed King's behavior.

After all, in terms of the greater plot, the most solid thing we know about the role of CHAOS is that it will apparently result when the Dark Fountains fill the sky, and cause the Roaring.

So, is "Chaos King" actually King altered by the CHAOS-causing presence of the fountain? How many more benign characters like Everyman have been spurred into aggression in this way? And how long before all this mounting CHAOS becomes a true Roaring?

It seems we'll have to keep an eye on the butterflies.

...Well, that's all I've got for today. Feel free to leave your essays about Whimsun being the most important Undertale character - once things ripple out enough, you might just be right.

(Screenshot credit: 1, 2, 3)

#deltarune theory #undertale theory #utdr theory #here's how morpho knight can still win!!!!!!!!111

[motleyflash]

KINITOPET THEORY: SONNY_C IS KINITO

there's a lot of evidence for this, so i'll show you guys it! (i got most of the pictures from Forever Nenaa's gameplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UsjIm7G7bE&t=1409s)

#1. if you type kinitopet.com/email in your real web browser this image pops up "as the subject of your article has unfortunately passed away", DID KINITO KILL SONNY OR SOMETHING?? THE HELL?? i think that whenever kinito pulls someone into his digital world, it kills them in a way. he asks them for admin permission, then uses that power to do the shit he's doing so, those people in the command prompt are dead! ___________________________________________

#2. i don't know if you can see the image, but i've looked at the command prompt when it was deleting kinito and it says "removing file [sonnys_world.zip] from server ["kinito"]" which is pretty interesting... i'd also like to say, i think that dead body in sam's house is one of those people that you see in the command prompt... i do have a theory about sam and jade being humans but there's not much evidence except for sam's hanging body and when jade(?) says "i'm back here again, aren't i?" ___________________________________________ #3. the "IT'S NOT TOO LATE" email decoded

i find this email especially very, very interesting. the line "a soul enshrouded, a spirit's mournful chime" is most likely about the other trapped souls... i honestly do not know what else to say about this poem, other than the fact that it is very impressive how the person wrote it so uniquely! this does imply some dark stuff though, like how kinito traps the souls of the players in the computer. ___________________________________________ #4. the "EJSY SZ O?" email decoded (click the images to expand)

"I FEAR THAT WHEN YOU DELETE THAT SERVER YOU WILL DELETE ME" OHHH now we're talkin.. seeing at the very end, this makes me think that kinito took some of the stuff that sonny was saying in his head, and saying it directly to the player when he got deleted (kinito GUILT TRIPPING us god damn). and, from this email, sonny appears to be having an existential crisis! maybe the ai is feeding off of the souls' emotions for its own gain. it learns and adapts, remember? also, the "I KNOW THEORETICALLY I AM NOT REAL BUT I FEEL REAL" line makes me think that kinito took over sonny's mind for just a little bit. does kinito feel empathy after taking all these poor souls? honestly i'm seeing a lot of similarities with tadc and kinitopet (even though kinitopet came before tadc with the trailer but STILLLL). souls being trapped in a digital world with no escape, and some ai that apparently wants to be your friend...ALSO CIRCUS THEMED ESQUE STUFF _________________________________________ #5. this guy from the kinito plush ad

am i the only one who thinks that this might be sonny? or, some completely different soul that arrived before you? _________________________________________ #6. the messages on the computer when you delete kinito

these messages hurt me to the bone. sonny used the power he had left to contact you in those last lines, saying his final goodbyes to you. he knew that it was inevitable for his fate to come, and it did. maybe the player burning the computer was freeing the souls somehow... you know DAMN WELL i thought of henry emily's speech while seeing that computer burn to a crisp i dont have a good conclusion for this but this is my theory that sonny_c is kinito (in a way)... But hey! that's just a theory. A GAY THEORY Wrong one A GAMMEEEE THEORY if i find more, i'll be sure to update this also i apologize if this isn't very well structured.. i just grabbed this stuff and said "holy shit sonny chamberlain is kinito"... i'd love to hear other people's theories though! i made this post at like 1 AM so that's why it's poorly written

#kinitopet #kinitopet jade #kinitopet sam #kinito the axolotl #jade the jellyfish #sam the sea anemone #kinitopet theory #sonny_c #troy_en #kinito

[gay-jesus-probably]

So like, last night I stumbled upon your discussions of why a lot of TOTK’s whole… everything is messed up, and it had me thinking about it so much I had troubled sleeping afterwards. So uh, thanks for that lol (/lh). In all seriousness, your takes on how imperialist Hyrule is in this game, how much less like unique cultures the various towns feel like, Ganondorf being both completely flat and also seemingly not meant to be, and how weird it is that Zelda is back in power really put into words a lot of thoughts that had been nagging at me as I’ve been playing. Like, the amount to which the writing has suffered from BOTW is staggering when you actually lay out the problems. Out of curiosity, do you have any idea what the fuck happened? Like did the writing team change? The game had so much potential, as seen by the numerous fan theories/AUs etc. So what went wrong?

Honestly? I have no idea. I'm not usually that big on behind the scenes stuff anyways, and I'll be real here, I went into this game pretty much 100% blind - I didn't even watch any of the trailers, I knew NOTHING about TOTK except from a few details I absorbed from hearing other people talk about online (basically, I knew Ganondorf was going to show up as a talking corpse, Link would lose an arm, and the Master Sword would get rekt).

I rarely buy games as soon as they come out anyways tbh; I can only think of three games that I've actually gone out of my way to get as soon as possible after their release, and that was the 3DS remakes of Superstar Saga and Bowsers Inside Story (two of my favourite games ever, and Superstar Saga having literally been my first RPG), and I picked up the Mario 3D All Stars collection on launch day as a favour to my older sibling (who was stuck at work), and got one for myself in the process. The only reason I bought TOTK like a week after its release was because one of our dogs was literally days away from having a puppy, and so I knew that the next few weeks of my life would be entirely dedicated to keeping the other two dogs busy, assisting mom with the newborn puppy, and just generally being on call to provide literally anything mom needed as soon as she needed it. Which meant a lot of sitting around waiting to be required, and I'd need something to do that I could easily pause at a moments notice. So... new video game seemed a good way to fill the hang time.

And it was a good call, like I said, I've been having loads of fun with this game. There's a reason I've almost got 300 hours of gameplay, and it's not (just) because I haven't had anything better to do in between taking care of dog stuff (though that number is somewhat inflated due to me leaving it open and paused for hours at a time while busy with dog stuff). It's just that the story is a fucking mess.

As for what happened with the story... I have no idea. I've seen some people suggest that they might have been planning something a little more ambitious, and then technical limitations forced them to walk it back, so the story had to be hastily reworked to match. And I've heard that the abilities in TOTK were just ideas they had for BOTW that they couldn't fit in, which honestly I can see - the abilities are cool and all, but let's be real here, they aren't nearly as distinct as the BOTW runes. Magnesis, Cryonis, Stasis and Remote Bombs were unique powers with different uses in different areas; now the powerset is just Recall, Get Around Slightly Faster, Ultrahand, Ultrahand But In Your Inventory, and Ultrahand But Faster. But I don't know if that's actually the case.

But honestly, I really don't know why the writing is so awful. To be fair, some of it is definitely just the English translation team shitting the bed - like come on, they didn't need to have Sidon and Yona repeatedly exchange the exact same line about how he's scared she'll die like Mipha. They could have at least changed the fucking wording to make it sound more natural. And I know that other translation teams managed to inject some more nuance into the story - the French translation actually managed to call Rauru on his imperialist bullshit! For the throne room scene, they had Ganon refer to Rauru with 'vous', the formal form of 'you', but Rauru refers to Ganon with 'tu', the informal form of 'you'. 'Tu' is for use in casual settings or between friends, and if someone is using 'vous' for you, referring to them with 'tu' is a MASSIVE insult; it's very condescending, and implies that you have literally no respect for that person whatsoever, but they should continue treating you as a figure of great authority. To sort of translate that into an English equivalent, it'd be like if Ganon walked into that scene using formal language and referring to Rauru as a fellow King, and Rauru responded by treating Ganon like a small, dumb child. Hugely insulting. Also the vous/tu disparity has a History with French colonialism, so that adds some implications as to what Hyrule's really doing with their 'allies'. And in the scene where Ganon takes the secret stone, the French translation has him say Rauru tried to force him to submit, which is an outright accusation of imperialism (as opposed to the English saying Rauru wanted to control Ganon, which suggests the problem was Rauru thinking he could find a peaceful solution instead of just executing a foreign leader for thought crimes)

So the english translation definitely had the room to put some more nuance into things if the team had wanted to; honestly I kind of wish I knew Japanese so I could compare it to the original script and see if any of the problems I've been bitching about were part of the script from the start, or if the English translators were just particularly bad. But Nintendo is a very conservative company, and Japan is a very conservative country with a serious nationalism problem, so I kind of doubt it, especially since the game portrays Hyrule pretty much the exact same way that Japan is portrayed in propaganda justifying their own imperialism. That... does not suggest the English team went apeshit. That suggests that the awful shit was in the script from the start, and the English team was just totally on board with it.

As for the writing teams... I mean, to be fair it's been like seven years, of course the writing team isn't the exact same as BOTW. But honestly, the main issue is just that they've recycled a lot of old problems from the Zelda games, and somehow stripped them of what little nuance they had before. Like, Ganondorf trying to take over Hyrule because Evil has been an issue since Ocarina of Time (which this game was clearly heavily pulling from), but even though OoT never told us he had a deeper motive, the worldbuilding still showed exactly why he would have such an issue with Hyrule. We knew there had been a bloody civil war only about a decade before Ganon's takeover, we knew that the Gerudo were treated with disdain by Hyrule, and we saw that Hyrule's alliances with the Gorons and Zora were pretty flimsy, and neither race felt like Hyrule actually gave a damn about them. But most importantly of all, OoT gave us the Shadow Temple, a horrific prison meant to inflict unspeakable torture on its captives... all on orders from the Hylian royal family. Hyrule's hands were never clean. We weren't supposed to side with Ganon in OoT, but we were shown a long list of reasons for why he was so pissed off.

Someone else said that TOTK feels like a retelling of OoT that's just pro-Hyrule propaganda, and that's a pretty good summary. I don't know what the fuck Nintendo was thinking, but honestly it kind of seems like they're trying to stick to the formula of Zelda games at all costs, while also making the entire game just a huge 'gotcha' to all the fans that have spent the last 25 years seeing Ganondorf as a sympathetic character with depth and reasonable motivations. I find it ironic that they decided to include the Wind Waker boomerang and shield in the game, considering that the whole game feels like an attempt to get everyone to forget Wind Waker ever happened. That's still the most human we've ever gotten to see Ganondorf - he didn't have many lines in that game, but the ones he did have mattered. At the end of the day, WW Ganondorf wanted to have a better life for his people, and he knew Hyrule would never let that happen. But now apparently Ganon just wants to dropkick puppies into woodchippers, and he doesn't give the slightest hint of a fuck about trying to wipe out the Gerudo people entirely by attacking them with an endless sandstorm plus zombie apocalypse. His only character trait is Evil.

If I want to get really cynical for a minute here, I think it's basically just a cash grab. If your game prompts a moral debate, then it can offend people, which means they won't want to give you money for it. But if it's a simple black and white conflict with no nuance, the fans will love all the right characters in the right way, and everyone will love hyrule and want to see more of it! It's like the fucking MCU; they're not willing to tell a fresh story, or make any serious commentary. They just want something safe and formulaic that has been statistically proven to make money. Fucking cowards.

#tears of the kingdom spoilers #tears of the kingdom

[instantbreplay]

HELLO!

I HAVE A THEORY! And this is a theory regarding the newest character of Honkai: Star Rail, the rootin’ tootin’, flamboyant, brash, and trigger happy space cowboy of the Galaxy Rangers—Boothill! This will be posted on both Tumblr and AO3 for those who do not have either or for easier access! By the way, this theory contains mentions of leaks and in-game content, so if you don't want to get any spoilers, I advise not to read this theory at all.

For starters, I will admit that I haven’t played Honkai: Star Rail in a while due to…whatever reason I had, and one of those reasons was because of Twisted Wonderland! I was playing that for a while—still am—I was having a blast insulting Ace and having aneurysms over the students’ antics and methods of breaking people out (I’m lookin’ at you, Rook). It was great! Then, Star Rail showcases two new characters on their Twitter page for their newest planet known as Penacony, one of them being Boothill who a lot of people were upset with due to them wanting the characters, Sam and/or Firefly who unfortunately met her demise in the newest update, and…well, I fell head over heels for him and started saving for him (122 PULLS WITH 20 PITY BABY BUT HE’S MY FIRST FEATURED CHARACTER SO PRAY FOR ME). I kept up with leaks because I could care less about gameplay, stat kit, and character lore leaks since that’s the interesting part and helps me figure out if I want the newest character…like my Al-Haitham theory which did not age well, this theory about Boothill does stem from exhaustion from not sleeping, but I feel like this is a more coherent and sound theory than the last, and I have to say that I have to take this with a grain of salt—and I advise the same for you—because it’s merely a theory. I can be wrong on certain things, but without ado, I’ll start with what really feels like the backbone of this theory, and that is Boothill’s name: Boothill.

The Name

So, just to give a little context, prominently in Asian media—most notably Japanese and Chinese entertainment from what I’ve seen as I played HoYo games and watched a lot of anime—characters tend to have name pun which correspond with their personality, physical design, talents, etc., to give people a little laugh and be like, “Ooooh! I get what they mean!” For example, Zhongli, in HoYoverse’s most popular game, Genshin Impact, written as 钟离 in simplified Chinese, is a pun of his departure—his retirement—as Rex Lapis: 钟 Zhōng being a homophone for the word for “clock” as it’s spelled exactly the same, while 离 Lí is a common word for “leaving” or “away”. Putting it together, it can be taken as “time of departure/leaving” or “off the clock” which foreshadowed Zhongli stepping down as Archon of Liyue.

With that knowledge in mind, I looked at Boothill's name and decided to Google it because I knew it was a pun of some sort! My only thought was that his name could have been a reference to a western (cowboy) film I never heard of which, to me, made sense as Boothill is modeled after stereotypical cowboys, and HoYo loves pop culture references with the Genius Invokation TCG which is a reference to the ever-so-popular card game, Yu-Gi-Oh, and how March 7th and Caelus made a reference to the movie, Fight Club, when the Moles were talking about the first rule of Fight Club…never talk about Fight Club! So, I thought Boothill was a nod to an old movie!

…No! A lot of people have already Googled it, but for those who probably don’t know, Boothill’s name comes from a burial grounds for gunfighters—with headstones engraved with the gunfighter’s name or “unknown” if the identity of the person has not been found—in the Old American West called a Boot Hill, and that name derives from the phrase “those who died with their boots on”, meaning that the gunfighter died rather violently. I did see someone say that the phrase could also mean that they were hanged, and that part is correct as the context of the expression changed in the early 19th century. However, I don’t believe that Boothill was hanged—although it is a possibility that I will keep in mind! Again, I have to take this theory with a grain of salt so I don’t die on that hill again, but seeing Boothill’s situation that he’s metal and wires from the chin down, he most likely died in a very extreme battle in the past since the only thing human about him…is his head!

His body must have been blasted to oblivion to where it was beyond saving, beheading him from the impact of whatever and whoever killed him. Now, some people may think that they probably just beheaded him or he was shot multiple times in the chest: other possibilities I will keep in mind, but that would mean he could have resulted as some kind of Frankenstein instead because if the body was still there, the Interastral Peace Corporation or IPC (the people who rebuilt Boothill) would use that since he has things to salvage like a heart or liver, etc., yet if we look at another Star Rail character named Luka who hails from the Underworld, he is missing an arm which is replaced with a mechanical one. That is because Luka saved a child in a fire involving a monster possibly from the Fragmentum, and his arm was chopped off by the ax the monster wielded, giving him the prosthetic he has today. So, if we compare Luka to Boothill in terms of how bad the conflict in Boothill’s past was, Boothill lost too much of his body from the chin down for the IPC to even save, leaving him with a full body prosthetic.

The Light Cone

Now, the question that we have…why was Boothill killed? Who could’ve had such a grudge against him that they killed him off so violently? Well, that is where his Light Cone description comes in. Let’s focus on the middle of the description where it states:

“Some cruel memories resurfaced as the unforgettable hatred turned into a weak light in the darkness.”

The Light Cone entirely describes when Boothill was regaining consciousness and how he felt while briefly in a limbo before being greeted by a doctor in the IPC. What sticks out are these “cruel memories” and this “unforgettable hatred” that he has which calls back to what happened before he died. I’ll lead into this with another point I have to make this make sense a little bit: Boothill is a bounty hunter. Why do I think this? Well, we get a glimpse of this in-game in the newest update of Star Rail where Black Swan answers the phone to a mysterious Pathstrider of the Hunt who is part of the Galaxy Rangers (a gang who “swore to punish the wretched by any and all means”) who is tracking down Acheron, ready to kill her for reasons unknown as of right now: that was Boothill who has been confirmed to be a Pathstrider of the Hunt along with him being a Galaxy Ranger as he calls Acheron an “imposter” who is also a Galaxy Ranger, most likely hinting that Acheron is going undercover and infiltrating the group. We also know it is him from his line, “My bullets will find you”, since he is a gunslinger with a bullet motif on his hat and actual bullets around his waist and one hanging from his left ear.

Going back to the point I made, he’s obviously smart with pinpointing someone’s location such as Acheron’s and having at least some information on her like her being an Emanator. His Path, the Hunt, is said to “admire determination, ruthlessness, and tenacious behavior”, which fits Boothill’s Light Cone description as well as his possible reason for his alliance with the Galaxy Rangers and why his finger is ready to shoot Black Swan if she was an ally of Acheron stating to “get [her] forehead clean…and wait for [him]”. A bounty hunter would have to be ruthless with their target, showing little to no emotion as they are the person they are after, the person who wronged their client or the bounty hunter themselves, and it is obvious that Boothill is determined to gather any info from Black Swan to continue his hunt with Acheron.

Now, with that in mind…Boothill had to have been a bounty hunter in the past who was wronged as he had “cruel memories” returning to his mind, and he had anger in his heart that was weakening but helped him return to the living world. If I were to guess, he may have had a loved one who died at the hands of someone else and gained the skills to become a bounty hunter in his previous life to hunt that person down because he had “unforgettable hatred”, and that had to be at a level where he couldn’t let go especially if he had “cruel memories”, and those could probably be that he watched that same loved one get brutally tortured and/or murdered in front of him. As to who the loved one of Boothill could have been, it could have been anyone: his father, his mother, a sister, brother, a best friend—Unfortunately, we do not have the information to determine that for sure, but I truly believe that it could be someone he was very close to that was tortured and/or killed for, again, reasons unknown.

The IPC

From what we gathered in the leaks and what HoYo has already established, it was the IPC that brought Boothill back with unknown intentions, but to me for this theory, it’s because of his skills as a bounty hunter since he must have been the best hunter wherever he came from. However, Boothill has a new grudge against the IPC as the his reveal information stated that, “His flamboyant and brash actions were all to draw the attention of the Interastral Peace Corporation — the target of his revenge.” The man is very flamboyant as we can holler back to his Ultimate, his skill…the freaking JoJo poses—

—(somebody in HoYo is a JoJo fan—IT'S BECOME INCREDIBLY CLEAR NOW) so I can see him causing havoc and being flashy to purposely attract their attention so he can properly get his revenge on them due to them making him into a cyborg which he isn’t happy about.

However…if I go back to the Light Cone description…at the very end, it said that Boothill “would no longer live for himself.” Sounds a little strange, doesn’t it? Here he is greeted by the doctor that saved him, and he’s clenching his new iron fists (literally speaking) because he knows what the IPC’s intentions are. If he’s no longer living for himself, that doctor would most likely have a sadistic tone when he welcomed him back because they experimented on him, testing him and his new body and using him for unspeakable things against his will, and why do I believe this?

Think back to Boothill’s gameplay and the leak of his gun’s range. That could be a reason, and a way I can describe it is by using Bucky Barnes, a.k.a. the Winter Soldier, in the MARVEL franchise. In the movie, Captain America: The First Avenger, Bucky was believed to be killed during a fall off a hijacked train in WWII in an attack against HYDRA, a sub-Nazi group led by the Red Skull, Steve becoming devastated by his best friend’s death. However, in Captain America: Civil War, it was revealed that Bucky was actually brainwashed, gaining a prosthetic arm (like Luka), and became a Super Soldier under HYDRA as they experimented to revive Dr. Erskine’s research for the original Super Soldier serum. Plus, HYDRA knew of his friendship with Steven Rogers and that Steve was alive but was going to expose S.H.I.E.L.D. for their lies, making him a threat. So, they trained and used Bucky as their line of defense since he was the only successful experiment that remotely compares to Captain America in strength and combat.

Because of Boothill’s skills in gunslinging, the IPC possibly saw this as an opportunity to have an effective line of defense in case something were to happen in their facility or if there was someone they needed to eliminate; they would have Boothill who had those qualifications to be their guard dog, but hearing how Boothill talks in-game for the first time, you could hear a hint of insanity in him as he keeps insisting that he will kill Acheron and Black Swan with lines such as “My bullets will find you”, “you best find a casket store on Penacony, and ask the owner to reserve a good quality casket for you”, “I’ll leave a round for you, so get that forehead clean and wait for me”, and “Are you askin’ me to write your will?” He wants to kill anybody who hurts him, still having that anger. That must have been how he felt when he was trapped in the IPC facility, going through experiment after experiment that broke him to the point that he couldn’t take it anymore as he is still human; he still has emotions and a mind of his own despite being 90% iron and wires.

Boothill knew, from the sound of that doctor’s tone, that he would be seen as their Super Soldier, a little toy they could dispose of if he was deemed useless; he was nothing but a heartless, soulless object to them which most likely broke him. Boothill has calmed down since his possible escape from an IPC facility and killing people in order to have a successful breakout, but he still has that pain inside his heart because of the possible abuse he faced that he’s trying to protect himself from being betrayed or used again which is why he’s so expressive and flamboyant.

He wants to live for himself and show the IPC just how human he was. However, he’s still showing off how strong he is as a warning to others of what he can do to them if they ever crossed him.

Now, I cannot stress enough that this is just a theory (A GAAAAAME THEORY), and I have to take this with a grain of salt because there is still a lot we don't know about Boothill regarding his past or his relationship with the IPC. Heck, a friend of mine and I believe that Boothill may not actually be his real name, but there's no evidence of his real name to even prove that point. This is all speculation, and what I gathered and thought about using any resources I have at my disposal to produce this, so please—for the love of the QUEEN OF HEARTS HERSELF—do not take this as actual, confirmed, or leaked information on Boothill's backstory since there are many unanswered questions. For now, I'll stick to what I got until Boothill is finally released!

And hopefully not die on that hill like I did with Al-Haitham...

#boothill #honkai star rail #theory #gaming #boothill hsr #pre-release #hsr spoilers

[the-cooler-vigilante]

GOD I am so hyped for the Spider-Man 2 Trailer, even if I'm not gonna be able to play it until it releases on PC.

The Gameplay looks amazing, I can't wait to see how the new gliding mechanic works, let alone the new combat abilities.

I LOVE how much more savage Peter's moveset is while he's wearing the symbiote, some more of his frustration and anger bleeding into his moves.

As for Miles...

MY MAN HAS LEARNED HOW TO DO THE KAMEHAMEHA. I also love the new blue energy look he's got going on. I wonder if that's a side effect of the NuForm reactor or his abilities maturing.

Gameplay aside, I really want to talk about the little chunk of the story we're given, I'm not gonna talk about the whole thing, but there is some interesting stuff that flies by pretty quick.

First off, we get a look at the Targets Kraven has chosen to potentially hunt:

In order we see Black Cat, The Prowler, Wraith (Yuri Watanabe), Tombstone, Peter Parker Spider-Man, Miles Morales Spider-Man, The Lizard, Tombstone, and finally a last character that we don't get to fully see.

Now this character could be anyone, but I do have a few theories. It is NOT Norman Osborn. Norman's definitely going to show up as the Green Goblin, either in act 2 or 3 of this game, or as the main antagonist of the 3rd game. But he's not on the radar. So whoever it is, it's not him.

One possibility I think is more likely is that this target might be Otto Octavius, either as Doctor Octopus or the Master Planner. In the time between the last game and this one, he may have escape and is formulating a plan to once again terrorize Norman Osborn.

It could also be Mister Negative, after all we never saw him get sent to prison, just batted away by Doc Ock after his fight with Spider-Man. I could be wrong though.

Now, only in my most wildest hopes and dreams could this happen. But I hope it might be someone we haven't seen before; Deadpool. He could be a source of challenges akin to Taskmaster or Screwball, or the minor antagonist of the story, which Shattered Dimensions did very well.

Moving on from that detour I really want to talk about the Black Suit. Hell, we're all gonna be talking about the Symbiote after this.

The black suit looks. so. damn. good.

I didn't know how to feel about it at first, but the more I got used to the look the more it works for me. It feels so alien and wrong. It's shines too much, and just looks wet. Like, all of the time. Aside from that, the way it has a thicker, more armored looking outside protecting and intricate, nerve-like looking inside feels perfect for this interpretation.

I think we can assume that at this point in the story, Peter has had the Symbiote for a while, and it's getting more and more of a hold on him. His anger bleeds out during the fight at (what I'm assuming is) Curt Connor's house, beating the ever loving spaghetti out of Kraven's Goons.

He acts more reckless too, single mindedly going after the attack chopper, which definitely would have ended poorly his Miles hadn't been there to pull him out of harm's way. Hell, I don't think he's even considering what could happen to everyone around that fight should things get messy.

I can't post too many more images, but I didn't see him swooping in to save anyone in this sequence, just going after the attack chopper. again. In fact, looking back at the video, he doesn't even seem to try to stop that sign from falling, more concerned with taking down the chopper with Miles, even then only giving "Fine" as a response to Miles.

But this is where it really hit for me.

These two scenes, the one where Peter almost goes after the Lizard, instead of helping the people back on the pier. And the scene where he says, "So do I." in response to Miles comment about the Lizards bigass chompers. Just look at those eyes man, even now Venom is taking form.

To me it feels like the Symbiote is lowing Peter's inhibitions, and raising his levels of frustration, of anger. Letting the venom out. Except it's not just aimed at Peter's enemies, but also his friends and family as well.

I don't think Peter's going to be doing too well at the start of the game, I mean, yeah he's got Mary Jane and Miles, but he's also lost Aunt May, been betrayed by Yuri, and is on the verge of losing Harry, whose only hope is Curt Connors, the very same man he just let escape.

The Symbiote is feeding on not only his anger, but his fears. I think that in this version of the story, it's going to take a little more than church bells and sheer will to pry it off of him. But that's just speculation. Either way, whatever path this game wants to take with the symbiote is going to be one hell of a trip, no doubt.

#spider-man #spider-man ps5 #spider-man 2 #spider-man miles morales #peter parker #miles morales #the symbiote #venom #now listen #i know ya'll are gonna be thirstin' over the black suit #don't try to hide it #just dont make a big deal out of it please #oh who am i kidding #ya'll are going nuts and nothing short of a worldwide blackout would stop you

[collinnmckinley]

Modern Warfare III Review:

Okay so, I finished my first play through last night 5 days ago and ngl… lmao i had to open a gameplay so i could recount what actually my thoughts were at those times because I was confused half the time if not more from the story.

So here’s my unfiltered, filled with spoilers, and honest review. 

Before anything let me just say this; I was wrong, my theory was wrong (although a banger if you ask me. Hire me Activision), and nothing I said in that post mattered. I’ll swallow my words… But I am slightly annoyed by it.

Here're the points I had problems with:

The story: it was…. Idk how to put it other than it being super fucking fast and filled with plot holes. Like half the time I was confused as to what was going on or I would forget what needed to be done. I think I blacked out 40% of the playthrough, because I would go into an OCM (Open Combat Missions) and Graves/Laswell would be like “bruh you need to do this we don't got time for stroll on the park get to it” and I’m just running around like a headless chicken trying to figure out what are the obj. I think they could’ve made it a bit slow paced, like MWII or MW even. Those had perfect story pace, even after the fact MWII didn’t have good writing. I just thought, MWIII would be impactful in a way the previous MWs weren’t, the ending WAS, but it took them 5 hours to of dragging and stretching one fucking thing, literally one thing. Because if you see the campaign in a way, even the bad guy, Makarov, wasn’t THAT impressive. I legit didn’t give a single fuck about Makarov or what his motives were, I just followed with 141’s intuitions.

Speaking of Makarov’s plans, he just appeared out of nowhere, and he has some beef with Farah and Urzakstan for some reason. Why? They didn’t specify other than he wants to “bring Russia to its old glory”. And of course they had to put fucking Farah into middle of this fiasco because why wouldn’t they. I hate the fact that she’s STILL to this day the center of the fucking MW storyline. She didn’t have much of a role to play in MWII campaign but the Raids took the center part. And that annoyed me tbh. Alas, we can’t have everything we ask for. (I would’ve stanned Farah in the long run but her holding hands with Graves in season 5 REALLY annoyed me but that's for another day).

Operation 627: Misleading. That's what I have to describe this mission, when i read the mission name, I was expecting it to be Price centered mission. I really wanted it to be a Price centered mission because the number 627 is Price’s identity. So to just take the number away and give it to Makarov really irked me if I’m being honest. And the whole marketing for it was misleading too (I’m looking at you barry). Gameplay wise it was okay I guess, typical CoD campaign mission.

Open Combat Missions: now here things gets fucked up. I was not expecting to be thrown right into OCMs right away. And by the end of my 400th try I was just running around and shooting without any care. I tried to do it stealthy, and with the enemies standing around the objectives that you CANNOT avoid it's almost impossible to even go undetected. It’s like a mixture of campaign and DMZ, which BTW is a really bad combination. And also, whenever I try to restart from the checkpoint it starts from the TOP! You have to do it all over again. I just wish they added the checkpoint thing it would’ve made so much easier. I know they want to make it feel like DMZ but it just SUCKS. And I wish it would've been at least a choice that you could make before the mission starts. Basically either you go OCM or just a regular mission, but in this case you’re forced to go to OCM. 

(Also Farah’s Arabic sucks ass. At least they casted a good VO for Dena who knew how to speak Arabic properly.)

Reactor: again, another OCM. But this time, it was Price I played as. Now here everything felt off for me. Normally we would be playing as Soap or Gaz in ANY scenario because that would be the logical thing to do. But when the camera angle shifted to Price’s perspective, everything changed. And following this mission, every mission we got to play as Price just gave me a fear of sorts. Same as before, hard not to go undetected but more manageable than “Precious Cargo”. By the end of the mission Price almost gets incapacitated by the toxic gas, and that's what we see in the trailer. And from it we knew someone’s gonna die but it was not Price for sure, because he lives and kicks ass left and right.

Price being an errand boy: there’s a cutscene before mission ‘Payload, where Price and Farah get together to infiltrate an underground bunker to stop some rockets. In that cutscene it felt like the roles have been switched between the two. When Price was this leading figure in Farah’s life that had an enormous impact that changed the course of her life, now she’s acting like he owes her? It’s the other way around if you ask me, and she owes him fucking big. I don’t know man, I just hated the way she treated him the way she did. They keep giving her a piece of the story bigger than she could chew, and Price is left with crumbs (even with the amount of cutscenes and gameplay we have with him), he almost felt like he was being LED by everyone around him instead of him LEADING the team (and Farah). He felt like what Soap felt like in MWII, even Soap had a major ass role in MWII. That cutscene, as much as he looked good in it, felt really undermining Price for me. And the audacity Farah had when she said “do you trust me” to Price. Girl, after what you pulled with Graves, I would never trust you with anything. And Price giving his utmost loyalty to her just didn’t feel like he would do something like that. And I mean that in the most respectful way. When Price told her about Shadow company calling a hit on 141 and Shepherd being a bad man, I legit thought she would actually be shocked and side with Price, but what did she say? “My weapons are my business” fuck you Farah, and fuck your weapons. In conclusion, yeah Price felt more like an errand boy than the Captain of 141 task force. The mission that follows that cutscene was almost standard campaign mission. I say almost because it still felt like OCM.

Yuri Volkov: I’ll be honest, I was not expecting Yuri to make an appearance, I was expecting ‘Roach’ to be there more than anything. And we finally got to see Yuri’s face. I liked how they took Yuri’s story and twisted it around so he never 'betrayed' 141 by keeping the fact that he worked with Makarov from them. I guess Laswell is indeed useful sometimes. The fact that they made him be useful to 141 without having him take one in the face from Price was indeed surprising. (I was screaming in discord chat about it to Mari when he appeared.) Though we don't know what his fate is, but I'm 100% sure he's still alive and I have a feeling he'll be joining 141 in the next installment if not in the upcoming seasons of MWIII. I just hope he got away safe. That man sounded like a rascal lol, he definitely has some stuff up his sleeves.

Oh and special mention about Nikolai, am I happy to see Nik again. That man deserves every bit of love. No MW or 141 would be complete without Nik. 

Stealth: For some reason this game was made to be played as ‘go big or go fucking die’ because in “Deep Cover”, you play as Laswell trying to sneak into the Arklov base, to meet up with Yuri, and i got caught like at least 10 times before I had to restart all over again, and again and again. The fucking stealth in this game is horrendous. Whoever made it IMPOSSIBLE to stealth, I hope you choke on water you drink and recover so you know how I felt all those tries I had to restart. It’s the same case even in regular missions, you either get caught even in fucking desguise, or they start shooting you for no fucking reason. I walk far, I'm too far from the obj, I walk close they shoot me. Fuck me man, I just had to fucking power walking through the first half of this whats suppose to be a 10 minutes walking simulator, took me 3 minutes of multiple tries because of that. Not gonna lie, I was kind of expecting Laswell to meet her demise in that mission because of the unavoidable missiles (maybe I was little bit of hoping it too who knows), but she survived, yaay.

Alex & Farah: then comes in the Master and the Lapdog duo. At this point I’ll never get tired of complaining about Farah and her personality. They tried so hard to make her into a girlboss, and they would have succeeded if they just left her story as is after MWII. But no, they had to drag her and her lapdog into this story and make something out of it.

I am just annoyed by everything she says. She keeps secrets from Price, the man who basically saved her life to become the commander she is today, her motives are unclear, she says she does this to protect her country and that she doesn’t get out of it to protect but stays INSIDE it protecting it (her words not mine), extends hands with a war criminal when she said that she doesn’t work with people who kills civilians for no reason, she compares herself, 141 and PRICE to the Shadows/Shepherd by saying “we’re all dangerous”, and the icing on the cake, her Arabic is horrendous. I know because I speak Arabic fluently. You might say “but Jay thats her accent you can’t judge her like that”, I know how Arabic accents sounds like, and this bitch’s is fucking incoherent half the time if not all the time. 

And Alex… oh boy, this man is a fucking idiot lmfao. He had good intentions in MW2019, and I liked him there, but they should’ve just killed him off. But no, they had to bring him back. What are they gonna do now with Soap huh? They're gonna bring him back too? Also didn’t Keller say “he’s tired of getting told who his friends are” and didn’t want to follow the CIA blindly anymore? What’s he doing now with Farah, hm? I’ve never seen a boy so delusional like him before. 

So many plot holes in these two characters only, I hate how they’re written.

Makarov lives: we… never got to learn the reason. Yes I went back and watched the gameplay today just to make sure I was not wrong, they never say why Price stopped Soap from killing Mak in that heli. “John he’s in custody he’s not going anywhere. Stand down.” FOR WHAT?! If they knew Makarov had this much power in the world, they should’ve just executed him. But noooooo they had to keep him alive for plot progress. If he died then and there in that heli, Soap would’ve been alive at the end. Was it because Shepherd said “bring him out ALIVE”? Or was it because Price wanted a win so bad that he threw his moral ambiguity out of the fucking heli he was riding? Man, I miss the MW2019 Price. But we’ll get to Price’s personality section later.

Yeah, we never got to learn the reason why Makarov didn’t die, why he is still alive. They just made it so that he’s the only villain that had the balls to do what he did. Bitch please, he looks like a whiny rich child that thinks he can do anything he wants to do. Literally that's how I saw Mak in the reboot. His character legit sounded like a spoiled child, not the evil man we knew and hated from the og MW series. And I can’t believe that I’m saying this but I kind of miss that Mak.

Like, who would look at this face and say “oh he looks intimidating shiver me timbers” 

Yullian is too adorable for this role, and he did a good job to bring a villain to life, it just wasn’t enough to be "The" Makarov.

Soap & Ghost: now that brings us to this broski duo. Watching that heli scene made me realize two things, 1. Either Ghost and Soap were friendly before MWII and Ghost was never a lone wolf to begin with. Or 2.141 was tight as knit before it was even formed. Because if you actually go back to the mission itself these two sounded as close to each other as they were aftermath of MWII Alone mission. Like it doesn't make sense, bare with me a little bit as I go through the timeline of the campaign. 

Ghost was introduced in season 2 of MW2019, he was in the 141 just immediately after Price had formed it, and rumors say Soap was too, but we never saw him until the very last season of whatever game that was released before MWII (I think Vanguard), as a character bundle in the store itself. Mind you the bundle was leaked long before Cold War was out (it came out right after MW2019). And in MWII we get introduced to Ghost as this lone wolf/rogue esque soldier that only takes orders for solo missions. So when he was told that Soap would be assisting him in that first mission we played, he sounded annoyed to say the least. 

Now, up until the “Alone” mission and aftermath of that, it's as if they were only on acquaintance bases, then they became close after the hardship they went through in that mission. And it makes you sympathize and understand why they became close all of a sudden. They were betrayed by the people they trusted, they were in this together. But I digress.

Now in ‘Flashpoint”, the mission that was supposed to take place 4 years prior to MWIII where they catch Makarov, Soap was WITH Price, and Ghost was in overwatch with Shepherd in that heli. When they spoke with each other they sounded very close to each other, mind you this was before MWII took place. I kept thinking long and hard about it. Did they tell us what took place in between? Why do they sound like bffs in that mission when Ghost was not fond of Soap in the beginning of MWII? Did I miss something? 

It’s one of the two, either they are not telling us the whole story of 141 and how Soap and Ghost know each other, or this is a massive ass yet another fucking plot hole.

Ghost: I have to talk about him, because as a character that had been glorified and milked to the brim, his presence in MWIII was so fucking underwhelming. Even as playable, I nearly forgot it was him we played as in that mission. And his dialogues felt kind of… dry… normally he would actually have a smart reply or he’ll talk very bluntly but it just felt dry from him this time around. Like… who asks “what’s the rest of your plan?” to the big baddie plain and simple expecting them to reveal everything? Man they made him sound dumber than MWII. Literally reduced to this emoji 🧍🏻‍♂️. He had almost no impact on the story if you ask me, he was just… there… I expected more from him.

no words....

“No Russian”: well, that was a lame ass “No Russian” mission if you ask me. Now bear with me if I keep comparing this game with the og one because it can't be helped. This is a reboot, this should be BETTER than the og, it had to be but instead we got this. If you compare the og ‘No Russian’ mission, as brutal and raw it was, it left quite the impact on the series. It told us how savage Makarov can be, it showed us the brutality of the world, and that the world has some BAD people with no remorse. In MWIII, the ‘No Russian’ we got was extremely underwhelming, it didn’t make us feel bad for our actions, it did not hold any sort of impact except feeling sorry for the woman because she was forced to do what she did. It wasn’t us following Makarov’s plan and orders, it was plain and dumb if you ask me. Now, I understand in the political climates we live in today, it would be controversial to remake that mission with the player being one of the gunmen that… mows down a whole airport filled with innocent people and civis, but that is what made the og game/mission so good. It didn’t hold back on brutality and the reality of villains, the truth of characters who want to play gods, their motivations, how the player is tied down to the villain no matter what they want to do because it’s inevitable. And It had an impact on the player, the game and the story. We needed the necessary evil so the game could progress. But instead we got a woman trying to save an airplane filled with innocents, disarm the bomb that was strapped on her chest, and clear her name at the same damn time, which was like 3 minutes. Could’ve done better if you ask me. 

Shepherd: how the fuck did this cunt get captured in the first place? Wasn’t he supposed to be in Shadows and Grave’s protection? The man weaseled out of 141 and CIA’s grasps but somehow was weak enough to be captured by the Koni group? What is even the plot anymore? And they didn’t say how or why he got captured. Maybe it was that one Shadows soldier that Mak and his right hand man Nolan interrogated? How does Makarov get his intel? We don’t fucking know. He’s just a prophet at this point :) 

I can’t express how much I dislike this man, I don’t hate him I just really really really dislike him. There’s a difference. 

His character was, again, weak af in the reboot. God… why do they keep making me compare the reboot with the og games, I hate doing that for real. BUT, og Shepherd being as fucked up as he was, still had a strong personality. And if you just put these two side by side, no one would believe they’re the same character. I’m glad he got offed by Price at the end, no one likes loose ends after all. And he was a massive one, and a liability, and someone that no one can trust anymore after what he pulled on 141 and Laswell. Especially after he threw Graves in the fire when he was in trial when Laswell and 141's condition for helping him out was to confess everything. But of course, as the fucking weasel he is he didn’t do that.

Graves: oh man… Can this guy be any more pathetic? I love Graves, as he is, as a whole, pathetic or not, Warren’s acting made me love this character. But again 😭, reduced to nothing but a pathetic man who looks for glory. Stabbing his handler in the back to save his own ass, although he got stabbed in the back first. 

They legit took everything good and cool about any character we like (Price, Graves, Ghost, etc) and gave it to Farah, a character that should not have an impact as much as her. 

Price: that point brings us to John Price himself. I cannot describe how angry I feel towards sledgehammer’s writers now. I’m so pissed at them for writing Price like this.

real img of me reacting to the way they wrote price:

In MW2019, his actions were so RAW, he was brutal, blunt, calculated and honest about his work and what he does. And he took pride in what he did and how he did. He didn’t give a fuck about what the upper management (Laswell, Shepherd) thought about his work. He was THE Captain that everyone respected, even CIA agents and the U.S General were at his feet asking for help from him. 

Laswell: “What can you brief?”, Price: “We just did”- LIKE WHO ELSE CAN SAY THAT SO CASUALLY AND SOUND SO FUCKING BADASS LIKE THAT. NO ONE, thats fucking who. Now even Price doesn't sound like that AT ALL. 

They reduced my man into a puppet that ‘trembles’ in front of Farah whilst she calls him “Old Man”. That scene annoys me every time I think about it. Why would they do this to him? Where did that man that said “they were leverage” to Gaz when he questioned Price’s morality about the hostages, disappear. MW2019 Price would never be this mild, or he would never be gentle or compromising when it comes to civilian lives. That heli scene? It should’ve been HIM instead of Soap, grabbing Mak and pointing a gun at him. MW2019 Price wouldn’t even hesitate to cut out Mak’s tongue for talking too much. Killed Shepherd where he stood in Frozen Tundra. It's as if Price was not there anymore, it was Gaz telling him, reminding him what HE would do, it wasn't just once when Gaz advised him to what to do. Price is losing his mind for some reason.

In MWIII, he looked like he was too scared to be cancelled if he said or did something out of the line. That’s you’re fucking job Captain! To step out of the fucking line when no one would!!

Price is a morally grey character, a necessary evil, and that is what made him so good as a character. MWIII took all that away. I want to cry at how badly they wrote him. I wanted them to bring back “Angry Price” from MW2019, and add even more rage in him because of Makarov, but instead they pumped “Fear” into him. Price was scared shitless in MWIII for some reason, and it made it look like it was because of Makarov. He didn’t take risks anymore… he was not the same Price that we got to know from the beginning of the reboot. It's as if they keep having to change his character in every game he’s in, they can't keep it consistent for some reason. And it cost them dearly. 

All in all it felt like Makarov and Price were having a personality mid-off the whole campaign.

Gameplay: 87% of it was ass. And short. And annoying af. I actually prefer the fucking driving mission from MWII than this bullshit.

The necessary death: I get it. I understand what they were going for, someone had to be the sacrificial lamb, the motivation for 141 to keep going, for Price to get angry and drag everyone to hell as we went there himself. But did it have to be Soap? They just introduced him like a year ago… and they took him out just as fast. In that scene Makarove appeared out of fucking nowhere to fight with Price and Soap, like… where did he appear from? Why is he here if he just armed the bombs? Did he REALLY want to take a body count with him that badly?

We were playing as Price, and again, I had a bad feeling, I couldn’t tell what it was but it was there. Then Mak was pointing a gun at Price, I honestly thought he would die then and there, and I was so scared that it would actually happen but Soap, my man Soapy boy, saved us. When Mak shot him I thought he was incapacitated but stood up and saved up, for like 5 seconds it reminded of the og MW gameplay, just for a short time. 

And then, instead of shooting us (Price), he deliberately shot Soap, in the fucking head. And ran like a fucking pussy… I keep remembering his run, it was so stupid.  Mari mentioned this to me the other day, in the OG we see Soap struggling to live, to breath out the last words to Price so he can know the truth, he was bleeding everywhere, there were seconds to at least say goodbyes, here his soul left his body before it even hit the floor. And after everything went quiet I thought Price would fall to his knees and grieve. But he just stood there like 🧍🏻‍♂️. 

I guess I felt just what Price felt because, I didn’t feel anything at first, because it felt surreal, seeing him take a shot in the head like that. Instantly wiping the light from his eyes like that, it shocked me that I didn’t even react at first. Took me to the last scene where they were spreading Soap’s ashes. And when Price said “Who Dares Wins. sleep easy soldier”, I lost it. 

Again, I get it, a major character death motivation was necessary, but did it have to be Soap?

What I liked about the game:

Frozen Tundra: I liked this mission for one reason only. Okay maybe two… Reason one being that it's a classic cod campaign mission, reason two being that it was in Siberia, Russia. And Icy and snowy environment… thank fuck that they did this in the classic style mission. Also sneaking, and actual stealth that worked, because we were wearing white suites IN the snow. *chefs kiss*.

Wish we had a bit more options and choices, where we would be able to ride vehicles, like snowmobile, or idk maybe snowboard? Some creativity would’ve been nice. Because dammit it’s a snow map. A lot could have been done tbh.

The Cinematics: if call of duty is good at one thing, it’s making good ass cinematic cutscenes for their games. It was filled with eye candy; Price, Soap, Gaz, Nikolai, Graves, Ghost, every single person looked amazing in the cinematics. And yes I was swooning over Price every shot he was in (although his personality was meh). 

Yuri, Nikolai and Gaz: the only characters that I actually liked in MWIII. It seems like the less presence you have in the story the better your character can be. (not you Ghost and Graves). These characters were actually tolerable if anything compared to the rest of the cast. 

The After Credit Scene: oh that was satisfying. Killing Shepherd before he became danger to anyone else ever again, and Shepherd was like “I ain't begging for my life” and Price was like “I know” and just shoots him. Price was not taking risks anymore. 

Now this scene, here we saw the RAW Price. Now after losing one of the closest 141 members to him, Price was in for blood, he was on his way to hell, and he was going to take every. single. poor and pathetic bastard that inflicted harm to his task force. You can see the pain and the guilt in Price’s eyes in that scene, he blames himself for Soap’s death for sure. I loved that emotional part of him, I just wish he was like that the whole campaign. RAW and unfiltered. This was my favorite scene in the game, period.

Conclusion: they had good intentions… but making what was supposed to be DLCs into a fully fledged campaign was not the way to go. I wish more creativity was thrown into the story, the points were good, yes my theory was good, (shut up im biased) but it had some solid points, but the plot holes and the poorly executed story was the demise of this game. 

Like Mari and I had a better fucking story written out WITH this storyline WITHOUT anyone dying, and to prepare for MWIIII. They could’ve used the “Price going MIA” from the og games and implemented it in this game, instead of killing Soap like that. Maybe kill him off later on after recovering Price back like they did in the og MW. so many potentials, yet very poor and bad execution to the story. Man Sledgehammer writers were not fucking cooking at all. I hate them all. 

I would give the game: 6/10.

also I'm still expecting apologies from the people who theorized Soap was a traitor. yall better be so fucking sorry about it. even the people who entertained the idea of it even if you didn't come up with it. shame on you all.

#jay talks #cod #cod mwiii #mwiii spoilers #mwiii #cod spoilers #holyshit it took me almost 5 days to write this shit #my neck hurts my shoulder is in pain #but i finally finished it #i would've sat 10 more days to write it out #here it is #i dont care if you disagree with me #this is my review and my opinion #and im a mess because of this game

[i-fucked-both-your-parents]

Fnaf posting, beware. Long post and major spoilers

So the whole ‘i cant go get water because fnaf is at the fridge’ is a silly sentence cause in fnaf 4 you have to check the doors and stuff for Bonnie and Chica and they don’t appear right away. So while your listening for them sometimes you can hear the sound of like, plates clattering or some sort of far away kitchen noise so fnaf could very much so be at the fridge

also in fnaf 4 Chica and Bonnie appear on the same sides they do in fnaf 1 as a security guard PLUS Foxy is in the closet that’s right in front of you and in the 1st game Pirates Cove was just about in the center of sorts, his stage area was also covered with a cloth thing that drapes from both sides which is also very similar to fnaf 4 because the front closet is those folding ones so it’s similar to curtains. And in fnaf 3 foxy will appear more to the left side where pirates cove i believe is on the cams in fnaf 1 and in fnaf 2 foxy appears in the front like foxy in fnaf 4. Also in fnaf 4 in the 2nd mini game (I believe) balloon boy (animatronic version) is seen behind the cars, a possible child is in the sewers and the supposed not dead balloon boy is seen before you go inside your house with i believe the same color balloon in a fnaf 3 mini game

another cool Bonnie Chica thing is in fnaf 8 (security breach) when you go to a certain elevator Bonnie Bowl is on the left when you exit (same side as fnaf 1,2,and4) and I forgot where jazzersize (?) is exactly (I haven’t gotten very far lol) also in fnaf 8 in the very beginning area there are display cases with old endo pieces (my theory is that some of them are peices of mangle) and even Chicas cupcake that’s been around for almost every fnaf game (my memory is bad, I’m watching markiplier to refresh) in fnaf 1 it’s on the security desk! Fnaf 2 toy Chica holds it, fnaf 3 it’s a mini game trigger on the cams, fnaf 4 it’s turned into nightmare cupcake and in fnaf 5 I don’t believe it’s there (I rage quit a while ago) but if it is it’s most likely in the Funtime foxy and boors controll area with the circus baby and enard faces.

A cool Bonnie thing I saw in a brief help wanted TikTok was that you basically make withered Bonnie during the repairs (?) I don’t have a VR headset and I’ve yet to see much gameplay but I think that’s pretty neat

speaking of withered Bonnie, he appears in fnaf 2 which lore wise 100% comes before fnaf 1 because phone guy is alive and vibing, he mentions the withered animatronics are from an old Fazbear establishment which is NOT Fazbear pizzeria (fnaf 1, i think that’s the name-) plus the withered animatronics are very different from the fnaf 1 animatronics, Chicas beak is bigger, Bonnie doesn’t seem to have a bow tie, plus his buttons are at the top rather than in fnaf 1 where the buttons are on the bottom. I have no idea why they would take away the toy look for the fnaf 1 animatronics, maybe the toy ones were just a bit too creepy. But in fnaf 5 bonbon has a bow tie and one button on top. Fun Bonnie fact, he appears ‘scarier’ simply because he doesn’t have eyebrow's. now in fnaf 4 crying child dies in the bite of ‘87 as we all know, and in fnaf 3 (I think?) your check is dated to 1987, but the ‘vintage training tapes’ aligns with fnaf 4 and fnaf 3 mini games. For example it tells you how to wear the suits and in fnaf 4 first mini game there is someone in a golden Freddy suit, later in the tapes it says to not wear the suits because it’s dangerous *insert sprintrap here* it basicaly tells you what happened to spring trap (fnaf 3 main character) and William afton dies after cc (crying child/ possibly golden Freddy later on) and Elisabeth (fnaf 5 circus baby) so either the bite of ‘87 didn’t happen in ‘87 and rather in ‘83 (some peoples theory) or the mini game events, tape events and fnaf 4 events all happen before or during the fnaf 3 events (possibly 2 if I got the check dates wrong) which scrambles so much in terms of games. It would make the storyline order something like 2,1,4,3,5 and so on (I don’t know the events of fnaf 6 and 7, also help wanted and others very well)

there’s 13 total games I believe plus a whole comic book series and I think a how to survive/play fnaf book that I’m sure has something about the lore in it too. There’s so much and I cannot wait for even more lore to drop in the movie, fnaf ruin 2 and the ruin DLC

erm… 1 more quick thing, all my info is from either markiplier, playing like 3 of the games myself, and just me spouting half bullshit. I shall add more as I watch more

also stop blaming Monty for replacing Bonnie, Monty may be kinda mean but he can’t just replace him. Maybe he did something to push him being scrapped or whatever but in the end it’s managements decision in case Bonnie maybe got part of the virus or maybe Scott just wanted to switch stuff up to make it a bit more interesting and new

ok final thing, the helpy bot on the loading and save screens is quite literally Funtime Freddy without bon bon

#TL:DR fnaf is my special interest and there is so much cool lore #I am also autistic about this game #Fnaf #five nights at freddy's #rants #infodump #I am so normal about fnaf #Thinking of reading the Wikipedia page again

[tonkizone]

Button city soundtrack

#Button city soundtrack pro

I desperately wanted to help nearly everyone I came across! It’s a silly, yet tragic, ultimately wholesome experience that I’d recommend to anyone! Eastward is available for purchase on the Nintendo eStore and Steam for $24.99.ģ) Audio & Visuals – An East for the Eyes Story – The Best in the East Trope on a Rope This was the first time in a long time that a game made me feel for its characters. Normally, that wouldn’t be my jam, but they are done so well that I was hooked. But please note, I don’t think this game is for everyone. Stellar writing, simple but polished gameplay, gorgeous visuals, and sound design all come together here spectacularly!Īs you may have guessed by now, I’m going to be recommending Eastward. There are flaws, but I loved every minute of it. It’s a really wonderful thing when you find a game you love, but it genuinely felt like Eastward was made specifically for me. It’s also secured itself as one of my favorite games. The soundtrack was created by aggrotech band Combrichrist and takes them down a more metal-oriented path compared to previous work.Eastward is an action-adventure roleplaying game, developed by Pixpil, that I picked up on the Nintendo Switch recently. If you're on the lookout for a game with excellent industrial metal music, you can't go wrong with Ninja Theory's DMC: Devil May Cry. Yes, they totally got Paramore, Carly Rae Jepsen, Katy Perry, My Chemical Romance, The Pussycat Dolls, and Depeche Mode to re-record some of their biggest hits for the game. Besides the fact that the game lets you do things you wish you could be doing right now (like taking a shower, ordering a pizza, or walking outside), it even has music from the real world in Simlish. The Sims has a way of completely taking over our lives. This game features an interesting selection of songs from different ends of the spectrum from the likes of The Chordettes, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, Five Finger Death Punch, to Children of Bodom. In Lollipop Chainsaw, you're a perky cheerleader named Juliet who slays zombies with the head of your boyfriend (still alive and talking, mind you) strapped to your hip. Whether you love it or you hate it, Adult Swim's endless running flash game, Robot Unicorn Attack, is a sure classic from 2010 that will beat your skull with an eternal loop of Erasure's popular synthpop ballad 'Always.' This game has only one song and it's going to keep playing even after you die. Its soundtrack comes with music by Phoenix, Bloc Party, Gorillaz, and Sufjan Stevens. Life Is Strange 2, which came out in 2018 and ended in late 2019, follows the heartbreaking story of brothers Sean and Daniel as they try to understand Daniel's unexplainable abilities and escape to Mexico after an accident outside their Seattle home forces them to run away. The first installment follows best friends (or lovers, it depends on your playthrough) Max and Chloe as they explore Max's power to rewind time and a twisted mystery involving missing girls, backed by tunes by Syd Matters, Local Natives, Bright Eyes, Mogwai, Amanda Palmer, and Foals. Get your heart feeling intense emotions with Dontnod's episodic graphic adventure game Life Is Strange. And what makes it even more epic is the track that backs it up- Skrillex and Damian Marley's 'Make It Bun Dem.' Without a doubt, Kick the Hornet's Nest-that mission on Far Cry 3 where you burn down fields of weed with a flamethrower and evidently have to fight off pirates while you're high-is one of the best moments in gaming history. There's no better soundtrack to set up your rides or run away from the cops than with the extensive catalog from Need For Speed, which is packed with music by Rob Zombie, Static-X, Celldweller, Lil Jon & The Eastside Boys, The Prodigy, Xzibit, The Killing Joke, and more. It includes a handful of additional tracks from the likes of A Tribe Called Quest, Machine Gun Kelly, Reel Big Fish, and The Ataris on top of its iconic soundtrack.

#Button city soundtrack pro

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2 is the leveled up version of its '90s and early '00s predecessors for today's consoles and PC. This was the game that introduced you and made you fall in love with Goldfinger's 'Superman,' Rage Against the Machine's 'Guerilla Radio,' and The Ramones' 'Blitzkrieg Bop.' Let's face it-before Guitar Hero, you picked up a lot of your punk rock skater jams from the classic Tony Hawk Pro Skater. For K/DA, Riot Games worked with members of (G)I-DLE and TWICE along with Madison Beer, Bea Miller, Kim Petras, Jaira Burns, Wolftyla, Aluna, Bekuh BOOM, Lexie Liu, and Jasmine Clarke.

#Button city soundtrack

[starpuppy59]

Did Montgomery destroy Glamrock Bonnie? (FNAF Security Breach Theory)

SPOILERS AHEAD/////.........

This is just my theory from what I saw in the gameplays.

Ok so throughout the game, there are given hints that there used to be a Bonnie animatronic. He is after all the face of the bowling ally at the pizzaplex. 

Yet...it wasn’t clear what happened to him as he is nowhere to be seen physically in the pizzaplex, many guessing that he malfunctioned or broke down.

But I’m thinking something more sinister happened.....

This message lists the final known movements of Bonnie. He leaves his room, goes through the east arcade, and enters Monty Golf. Nothing else is listed after that.

Then this message confirmed that he used to be the bass player of the band before being replaced by Montgomery Gator. And adjustments were made for him to be in the band.

My theory is that Montgomery likely lured Bonnie into the Golf course and destroyed him.

Why? Because he wanted to be in the band. But it goes further than that......

From FusionZGamer’s video “FNAF Security Breach Part 20 - FREDDY GETS THROWN AWAY“ (At 21:30), we see Monty rocking out and performing on stage with Chica and Roxanne. But where is Freddy?

He is seen right here in a dumpster by the side of the stage.

And remember when Vanessa says this?....

So I’m thinking that Montgomery was only the face of the golf course at first and Bonnie was in the band. Knowing that the pizzaplex animatronics are capable of feeling emotions because of their highly advanced AI (or something else), Montgomery was probably not really popular due to his intimidating appearance, scary voice, and maybe kids weren't really interested in golf or thought it was boring and he hated it. Monty wanted to be popular and loved by kids and one way he could be popular was by being in the band. So Montgomery wanted to be in the band. But they wouldn’t let him for whatever reason.

 So he plotted to get rid of one of the band members to get in the band and chose Bonnie as his target. He then maybe invited Bonnie for a friendly game of golf or just wanted to talk to him privately. And when Bonnie came, he attacked and killed Bonnie and then took his place as the bass player of the band. 

He got his fame and respect he wanted by being in the band. But that no longer satisfied him. He wanted to be #1. He then became jealous of Freddy and his popularity and fame and wanted to take his place and become the star and face of the pizzaplex. 

So maybe he is plotting another “accident” to get rid of Freddy and take his role as the main singer, star, and face of the pizzaplex.

So Montgomery's issue is not only his wrath.....

It's his jealousy and greed......

This is just based off my observations of the gameplays and messages in the game. Let me know what you guys think and feel free to weigh in on your own opinions of this theory. 

Thank you for reading!

Edit: REMINDER: THIS IS JUST A THEORY. 

Plz be nice and no fighting about who's right and who's wrong. Also be nice to Montgomery too. Thanks 👍

#fnaf #fnaf security breach #montgomery gator #glamrock freddy #glamrock bonnie #fnaf bonnie #fnaf theory #glamrock monty #fnaf glamrock freddy #fnaf montgomery #fnaf spoilers

[kal-culator]

Hey uh whats the story of sky? Like i have played the game and all but i have 0 ideas on what the actual story is other than we are children's made of light and came to save the world

I don't have Tldr for this I hope you enjoy long post anon. Also! Consider joining the official discord server! They have an entire channel dedicated to talking about Sky's lore and it's fun!!

Unfortunate for the rest of us, the story of Sky's story have never been told in texts before (minus the cutscene and seasonal dialogue from quest givers. Even that gives little clue. We'd be lucky to get a full fledge dialogue like Little Prince did).

The best lore you can ever get from this game is through playing and looking through the murals and or all the structures in the game itself. Basically, the gameplay is the story. (Like you can certainly tell something wrong must've had happened in Golden Wasteland that caused it to look like that, etc etc).

But that's essentially the way the storyteller want us to tell the story, I believe. For us to play along exactly as children who are simply thrown to the leftover of the spirit's society to save their light. They weren't told anything but to save, we weren't told anything but to save, so what's actually going on and what are we saving?

The possibility are endless and just completely vague tale told by what's left of a broken Kingdom that the skykid essentially lives in.

[What I write from here is mostly my own take on the storytelling system in Sky, so you can skip it over to the UTC to see my version of the lore ;D]

Now I'm aware that this sort of thing might make people drive away from sky instead of being attracted to it; I get it, not all game can pull the 'telling a story without a word' well. Hell I've seen people complain about the lack of words in terms of storytelling in Sky, and that's completely fine.

Though personally, I really enjoy this type of storytelling. It forces me to explore more and find out more secrets behind every building I saw, every creatures I've encountered, every murals drawn and every words said. Everything tells a story, and you're always free as to how to interpret it since the game developers have never made their lore into words ever, and I don't believe they will soon.

Beware spoiler; I'll certainly be dropping more than the things in Eden for this one.

(If you ever come back to me with threat in your tone and going aggressive on my ass instead of giving logical, calm, and genuine argument about my own personal theory I will personally throw a fish into your pillow)

ALSO THIS IS L O N G SO PLEASE BE AWARE

It starts off simple, you're playing as a child who apparently have been 'borned' of light. From who, from what, you don't know, what you know is that you essentially felt a calling deep in your heart that whenever you made a call, it always leads to that one place.

As you progresses you've started to gain and collect 'Winged lights', something that you feel heavily attached to. It looks similar to you, but it seems to have less of a body and more of a spirit if you ever compared it to yourself.

[From this, some people have conjured the theory that sky kid is a being made of Light (their soul), and something akin to clay (no one is sure yet, but it's certainly the equivalent of a body) which makes Sky Kid a being made of body and soul, compared to Winged Light that are solely Soul]

You've explored the realm, gained many winged light, and then what? For you to lose it all in Eden to die and be 'rebirth' to repeat the same, millenial task over your entire life where every death leads you towards that one fateful end called Reborn?

But that's what it is.

Day and night past, weeks, months, you've been repeating the same cycle over and over again for as long as you can remember. Gaining friends, accessories, meeting spirit's whom you never gonna be able to talk to ever. It's just how it goes. It's an endless cycle of death, and rebirth, and that's what a 'life' of a sky kid is in the end.

Which comes to question: What are you saving exactly? And how are you doing it? Why are you and many other children are stuck in this world of no civilization, forced to follow your sole impulse of returning to Eden and to experience the same thing over and over again?

What are you saving?

Best I can tell your right now is that Sky Kid are saving the physical world from being entirely consumed by the dark plants that Sky Kid have been melting everyday.

There was a minor lore drop in the Sky discord server once. It was an innocent reminder for us to keep melting the darkness because "If it were to be left along for long, it will grow too big to melt!"

Essentially, one of the way we're saving the world is by preventing these darkness from overtaking whatever that is left of the Kingdom.

Who are we saving?

Frankly, I don't know.

There are no traces of living beings with intelligence left in the Kingdom that can talk anymore, not even Sky Kid can as we've seen them communicate through their honk noises and not words.

My best guest is that you're saving the light creatures that are still living in and around the Kingdom. The mantas, the plants, bird, everything.

What're Sky Kid?

As I've mentioned before, Sky Kid are essentially Light shaped into a soul of a child and put inside a body. Even then this theory is still not (and never, I would assume) to be confirmed.

But from what I've seen and experienced through Season of Prophecy, I've begun to grow to the idea that Sky Kid are a bunch of experiments made with the purpose to 'save' these civilization.

In the Cave of Prophecy, you're thrown into several trials, and in the end of each trial, if you're ever come out successful, you'll be blessed with a Winged Light.

But reading the murals on the walls have told other stories.

You saw children, many of them, falling into their death when they each go through these trials. And it's not even subtle. The murals aren't hiding the fact that there were dozens, hundreds perhaps, of them that participated in these trials.

And if you kept reading the mural, you'd noticed that only one children remains. This, is what I've come to theorize as the perfect result of this gruesome trials. A candidate worthy enough to received all four winged light, a perfect result.

And I would like to believe that this child, was the first successful Sky Kid have ever made (extra clue as to how they're special can be seen how they're drawn differently with glory surrounding them as well as adult spirits seemingly be praying to this child).

I also believe of my own personal theory that these trials were specifically made to create the perfect sky kid. Why? Well if you'd like to look at what these trials consist, I'm sure you'll be able to see it too.

Water Trials are made to tell them that water are deadly and you're certainly won't be able to survive long under certain circumstances (Hidden Forest deadly rain).

Earth Trial was made so that you'd be able to manoeuvre through the broken terrain that is the Kingdom.

Air Trial is, well.. Flying. And we all know the one thing Sky Kid is definitely good at is flying.

Fire trial is tell you to follow the light. Follow the path left by your ancestors, light it up, and follow it to the very end. If you ever fall to the dark side, you'd certainly know that won't end well for you.

These trials were made so that they'd survive. So that they'd live. That's why failure equals death; if you can't survive these trials.. Then how are you going to survive in the actual broken and beaten up world they'll be dropping you into?

So now what do we do now after we've gone through Eden and do all the stuff?

Clearly, it's up to you as the player.

Will you continue to go through this endless cycle of death and rebirth, keeping this silent, endless world of constant emptiness but you and your kin for a time that you're not sure when?

Or will you stop and break your own chain by refusing the sole call that you've been hearing your whole life ever since your time of existence?

Will you simply live idly and content in the world with the friends you've made along the way and be happy with what you have, live the way how you wish it to be?

Or will you keep living and playing and explore this vast world of what used to be a glorious Kingdom in the Sky to look for answers that were not given to you but to seek?

How are you going to play your story?

#sky cotl #sky children of light #prince does ask #sky #sky kid #sky children of the light #anonymous #ITS 4AM I JUST FINISHED SAHURI AND I WRITE THIS OUT OF SOLE ENTHUSIASM TO GET THESE LORE OUT OF MY BRAIN #SMACCS LORE ONTO THE TABLE #enjoy anon #tw long text

[felikatze]

give me the a brainworms i am deeply invested in this man

(0) (2) (3) (4)

okay first of all you asked for this. second of all if i am a little off track from the game that is explained by me just building thoughts like building blocks without looking back. third i was supposed to be studying for an exam but this counts as practice right? it's character analysis anyway lmao.

buckle the fuck up, my dearest anon, because I have sub headings.

1. A as the Player Character

Let me begin with why I am obsessed with this horrid little guy in the first place: he's a silent protagonist. I am always obsessed with protagonists. It's a law of nature. I love taking hollow characters and dissecting them for scraps. It's a long standing practice of mine.

Being a silent protagonist, A, as X, does not have a set personality. However, there are patterns. Firstly, as any semi-silent protagonist, A is a reactive character. He does not start incidents, he only responds to situations, presented by the Sephirah, as they arise. He does not actively seek out new information, merely going about the routine of expanding departments, but expresses curiosity when information is presented to him.

I'm aware fandom likes to characterize X and A differently, likely because they are initially presented as different characters. I, on the other hand, would like to pose the theory that they are more similar than expected.

I believe that A is also a reactive character, rather than active. Despite the fandom wiki describing him as stubborn, the goal A pursues with such fervor, the completion of the Seed of Light, is not actually a goal he set for himself. Carmen is the one who set this goal for him by leaving him her legacy.

Throughout the backstory we get relating to the Cogito Project, A is Carmen's assistant, whereas Carmen is the driving researcher. This is how many of the City's inhabitants seem to be; going with the flow of goals set for them by superiors. Yes I will get into his attachment to Carmen later.

The above is not to say A isn't stubborn. Once he has accepted a goal as his own, he will pursue it at all costs, as is obvious from any and all flashbacks leading to horrible deaths. But the point isn't his pursuit of the goal, but where that goal comes from. Even Lobcorp itself supports this, despite what Hokma may say; A as X follows the "simple" task of managing the Corp's day to day activities, and executes any mission given to him by the Sephirah. He outranks them, and doesn't actually need to do their missions, but does so anyway. Players are driven by the reward offered by those missions, of course, and A might be the same in that regard. Nonetheless, at no point in gameplay do you do anything somebody else hasn't told you to.

The overarching narrative of the Script would be the most obvious example. Every single person in the game follows the script, whether they know it or not.

Lastly on this note, a phrase we hear attributed to A, "Machines must behave as machines." Now, Angela may be attached to this phrase because it bears significance to herself as a machine, and informs most of A's unjust treatmeant of her. However, what if it doesn't just apply to machines? The phrase reads as such, "Everyone must act according to their own role."

2. A, Carmen, and the disease of the mind

So, A will at any cost pursue goals Carmen set for him. Question is, why? The obvious answer would be saying he's in love with her, which like, true. But also, how did Carmen come to be so precious to him?

Let us return to the comparison, "This is how many of the City's inhabitants seem to be." We don't really know why exactly most characters joined Carmen, excluding mainly Daniel and Benjamin. But this does not mean we can't have theories.

Carmen's ideal was curing the "disease of the mind." What is the disease? Complete hopelessness. The inability to form aspirations and dreams, to think of a better future. A is a very reactive character who does not set goals for himself. Therefore, I personally conclude, that initially, Carmen's ideology resonated with him because he could identify with the disease.

This is the point where I start rewatching Lobcorp story clips. Dear god.

So, by briefly binging day 27 onward, I've come up with lines that very much support this lil theory of mine:

First, from Carmen, a description of the disease, "People lock away their own potential."

Second, a line from Angela, after the memory synchronization, "You've locked yourself in this prison without bars."

Carmen describes A as humble, and Benjamin thinks he is warm. If I suppose A was one of the diseased initially, Carmen would be the catalyst for this change. Carmen was someone with big aspirations, with plans to heal what is wrong with the City, and it gave him hope. He was one of the diseased, but through time with Carmen, with that relentless optimistic spirit, he may have been cured, for a time. It's not a stretch to say that she was his light.

But lor shows us what happens when the seed of light sprouts wrong, doesn't it? It distorts. A grasped hope for the first time and then it is ruthlessly crushed. Carmen was everything. Yes, A is described as a jack-of-all-trades, as a genius in all pursuits he puts his mind to, but what does that matter in the face of someone who can unite people? Who can give them hope of a better world? Who can inspire them to actually use the talents they have?

And what kind of pressure is it to put the legacy of a messiah in the hands of the diseased?

3. A and the Perception Filter: A is weak to White damage

No, I am serious about that. He's extremely weak mentally. Obviously death of a loved one is a changing experience for absolutely anybody, but Carmen's death destroyed him.

Not only did he refuse to confide this grief to anyone and bottled it up, now everybody looked to him to lead the project, but he just isn't Carmen. He isn't an ambitious person, he doesn't have the same optimism, he can't bring people together, but people expected him to, and he failed. Hard.

While he was without a doubt talented in science, he was also just an average guy.

After her death, A grew to hate humans. He lost trust in them. He refused to confide in anyone, and be confided in by anyone. Thus, the team fell apart.

In both lobcorp and lor, we get interesting tidbits about precations taken to protect the manager.

Firstly, Lobcorp's perception filter. The cartoony art-style of the game is a result of the game being in first person. Through the eyes of the manager, everything is cartoony!

This is a measure undertaken to specifically protect the manager's psyche. Angela tells us that, before it was deployed, the manager would frequently go insane, one notable incident including the manager trying to hang himself. When we first hear this, the previous managers and X are still separate in our minds. However, they're all A! A went insane multiple times without it.

This is understandable, considering that employees also frequently go insane and try to kill both themselves and others. But they're there in action, confronting the Abnormalities directly. Just watching them made the manager go mad. They could not handle the responsibility for the employees' deaths.

In lor, Angela explains why she picked the Rabbit Team from R Corp as their main contractor instead of any other team. One team was simply too big for L Corp's narrow hallways, and the other team... dealt in psychic damage. It was simply too big of a risk for the manager. But the manager is always secure behind the cameras. Would that teams methods just be that brutal visually, or would their attacks have reached the manager?

Combined with his immense grief at all of his friends and coworkers dying in part because of him, A cannot bear to look at death.

4. A's greatest flaw: Avoidance

A common thread during Core Meltdown flashbacks: A refuses to look at suffering. He just can't. Whether it be looking away from Elijah writhing on the floor or hanging up on Daniel's panicked report of death.

This is actually the thing Angela takes the biggest issue with, and what hurt her most. A would never look at her, acknowledge her, and she did not understand why. But I think A did not refuse to look at her out of maliciousness. Rather, it was out of grief over Carmen. He could not look at her without being reminded of what he lost.

Angela's creation came about because A wanted someone to guide him, someone like Carmen. He threw himself into the project to the point it made Benjamin happy that A was passionate about anything again. But as soon as the project he distracted himself with is complete, he is filled with regret. Carmen cannot be replicated, and he breaks again.

Furthermore, tying this back to my first point about A being a reactive person, we see Angela take charge over A. She's the one recruiting employees and leading the business. It was likely a relief for him to be able to step down from the leading position.

But avoiding it made everything worse. He did not act when he saw Elijah's unchecked ambition, he did not act beyond a simple check at Gabriel's decay, he gave Giovanni the same hope he clung to to no avail, et cetera et cetera.

Avoiding his problems is making them worse and sending everything down the drain (including his psyche), so he deals with it the only way he knows how, avoiding them more!

Biggest example of A's big avoidance problem as his psyche crumbles: the memory wipe. A, in perhaps his one singular moment of acknowledging his emotions, recognizes that he is incapable of fulfilling the Script in his current state. His grief is just too much.

By erasing his own memory, he could start fresh without his grief, because he might've really killed himself otherwise. His suffering became bigger and bigger, and he coped by avoiding it.

The memory wipe allowed him to distangle his problems. Through his interactions with the Sephirah (which I will not individually detail for the sake of my sanity and because I dumped all this on a friend on discord already), he can deal with and actually process his issues one at a time.

As the motto describes, only by facing the fear can he build the future. Only by finally facing his grief and acknowleding it, seeing that the past cannot be changed and he has no choice to move forward, can he actually do so.

5. The Sephirah as ghosts

Lobotomy Corporation feels like a ghost story. I've touched upon this in my previous A post.

As you reach the Corp's lower levels, there are less Sephirah. First there are four. They act like normal employees, and do not breach into the story's underbelly until you reach their core supressions and the facade breaks. Second, counting Tiphereth as one, there are three. They still go about their duties, but they know what they are. Third, there are two, and the facade is gone. They know what they are, and they will tell you about the sins of the past.

And finally, you reach Keter, and there is only one.

This gradual decay of the facade is what really gets to me. I said that by interacting with the Sephirah, A deals with his issues one by one, but that's what the Sephirah are, in this case. Representations.

The people the Sephirah used to be are dead, and the Sephirah are their ghosts. The core supression involve putting these ghosts to rest. Doesn't it match the progression of a typical ghost story? Find the ghost, find what they used to be, and help them move on.

So, if everyone is a ghost, then A is alone.

But, behind the scenes, the Sephirah are still there. They are still people, and they have changed for the better, too. As always, A simply does not look.

(Does he even see the good others see in him? Does he look away from praise, too? Did he even realize Benjamin's admiration for him? Will we ever know?)

6. A's end.

A's progression of moving on would be fine and dandy if it did not end as thus: A does kill himself.

A sees himself beyond the point of no return. Everyone is dead. He is alone. Carmen is never coming back. He can't call it quits now, or else everything has been in vain. (Even if the last days show us a part of him wants to just quit, so badly.)

So, there's only one thing left to do: follow the Script to its ending. Fulfill Carmen's legacy at all costs. Death as the ultimate release.

This is the point where I admit I do not like the death as release trope. But the game does a good enough job as presenting it as the only option A had, or the only option he saw himself as having.

However, I've mentioned it before, I'll mention it again: A was not alone. Death was his release, but he left wreckage. In order to end his own suffering, he inflicted the same pain he went through on others.

Throughout the game, he moves on and pushes through. The ending shows that in reality... he didn't.

At least in lor the characters stick together and help each other heal.

This has been most of my thoughts on A, amounting to my longest analysis post ever, having taken me approximately two and a half hours to complete, and clocking in at 2337 words including up to this paragraph.

Thank you anon for giving me the incentive to verbalize all of this, so I can finally be at ease having inflicted my thoughts on everybody else.

#Feli gets asked #lobotomy corporation #ayin #library of ruina #also i saw apparently another fandom besides lc uses the ayin tag which is just fun to watch honestly #many characters could rival this word vomit probably but as i said i already inflicted most of my thoughts abt netz on my good pal borgor #thank you borgor for dragging me back into projmoon stuff. also curse you terribly #long post #Feli speaks

[msfcatlover]

Can you give the bullet points for that Hollow Knight Ludonarrative dissonance essay so us who played the game can fill in the gaps?

Sure thing!

First and foremost, I know many people are familiar with the term “ludonarrative dissonance,” which is when the mechanics of a game run counter to the themes and sometimes the plot of the story being told. On the opposite end of the spectrum, and far more rarely talked about, is “ludonarrative harmony,” which is when the mechanics of a game support the story being told or even tell a supportive story of their own!

I am very firm in my belief that in a quarter of a century playing video games, Hollow Knight has the best ludonarrative harmony of any game I’ve played.

Here’s my primary example: the condemnation of the Pale King’s actions, and how it ties into the original possible endings of the game.

The Pale King’s failure is the great final tragedy of Hallownest. He saw the end coming, knew he could not defeat the Radiance again, and did not want his people to suffer. He determined he needed a being of pure Void to contain the Radiance, but believed that any emotion would lead to a flawed prison. So, he created the Vessels by the hundreds, letting them struggle to the top of the Abyss, and cast each one of them back down into the depths for the “flaw” of being children with actual emotions. We don’t know how he determined this, but when he finally found one that seemed properly emotionless, “truly hollow,” he took that child and sealed the gate behind them, locking the player character (henceforth referred to as “Ghost” in this first draft ramble-essay,) and who-knows-how-many-other Vessels to fend for themselves in the depths.

You already know this. And you already know that child was not given a name (though I will be referring to them by the fandom nickname “Hollow” from here on out,) was purposefully neglected, taught only training and their purpose for existing in the hopes it would keep emotions  and desires from taking root. But Hollow did have desires; specifically, Hollow just wanted their dad to be proud of them. When Hollow sacrificed their mind to hold the Radiance and was imprisoned in the Black Egg, after the Dreamers gave their own minds to keep it sealed, the prison was faulty. An unspecified amount of time later, the Radiance’s influence was able to leak out in the form of the Infection, and the kingdom of Hallownest was destroyed.

(The Pale King often gets pilloried by the fandom for “letting” that happen by showing any level of caring for the child. This is the wrong conclusion.)

The game begins with us playing Ghost, having at some point escaped from the Abyss and (seemingly) having lost their memories in the wilds outside the kingdom. It is as Ghost that we track down the Dreamers and slay them, opening the Egg to face Hollow and put an end to the plague, though how exactly that happens and what the outcome is depends on your choices throughout the game.

As a fellow Vessel, you can take Hollow’s place. When Hollow is slain, Ghost absorbs the Radiance and the Egg reseals itself.

Using the power of the Dreamnail, you can enter Hollow’s mind and fight the Radiance directly, driving her back into hiding for the foreseeable future.

If you have the Voidheart charm equipped and choose to fight the Radiance, you become a “higher being” yourself and are able to slay her for good. The kingdom is free of the plague, and Hollow even survives and has another chance at life. (This one is, by the way, known as the “True Ending.”)

And here we finally reach my argument, and I can stop regurgitating old information. Because these endings and what you need to achieve them is what finally solidifies just how wrong the Pale King was. Wronger than he ever knew.

He must have thought the Vessels less than people, or he would not have been willing to kill so many. But he would not have rejected so many of them if the Vessels weren’t inherently feeling, thinking creatures like any other bug in the kingdom — none of them were “truly hollow.” Children, left to die in the dark by the hundreds. The greatest sin he ever committed.

We know he did, on some level, care about Hollow, but still chose to neglect them in hopes of stunting their emotional growth. That he believed the sacrifice of one Vessel and three of his most respected advisors (give or take Herrah, who’s whole deal with him is kinda... weird,) to eternal imprisonments was better than letting the whole kingdom fall to the Radiance’s vengeance. That the ends justify the means. It’s his last thought, still echoing in his corpse when we find him on his throne: “...No cost too great...”

But the ends don’t justify the means, and I don’t just mean because the plan failed. I mean because it was inherently flawed in its initial premise, the very assumption he built it on: that “being hollow” was the solution to the problem.

A truly hollow Vessel would not care one whit about the mission or anything else. If Ghost were hollow, there would not be a game; they would wander aimlessly, not speaking or interacting with anyone, until they finally died.

If you play Ghost as being hollow, or as close to it as you can, you’ll be ignoring all NPCs. You’ll not be buying any upgrades or equipment. You’ll not be wandering far from the central path. Why would you? A hollow Vessel should care only for their mission, find the shortest route to enter the Black Egg, slay Hollow, and be done with it. Not only does this make life much harder for you, it nets you the worst ending. The Pale King’s trap just resets, now with the Dreamers dead so none can ever try to fix the problem again, and it will fail eventually, because Ghost isn’t hollow. The very fact there is a plot to follow, a goal to achieve, means that Ghost has goals they are willing to suffer hardships to reach. Frustration, determination, and pride in success have to be assumed, complimented by the fact those are all the emotions the player will feel on this particular run.

If you want to face the Radiance, you have to upgrade the Dreamnail, and you’re not told that will be the end result when you first receive it. You have to be ambitious and stubborn, at the very least, to pursue that goal blind, or you have to really want to know what the Sage will give you as a reward. You have to experiment, going back to bosses you’ve already beaten to fight their dream versions and put them to rest, track down the hidden dream roots and clamber all over the map to solve their puzzles. For the second ending, Ghost has to have goals outside of their main mission, has to think through the concept of deaths enough to make the connection between the ghosts and the bosses, and repeatedly return to speak to the Sage for the upgrades. They have to be curious enough to even use the Dreamnail in the first place, and like it enough to want to improve it.

And how do you get the best ending? The true ending? Slay the Radiance, defeat it for good, save the kingdom of Hallownest?

You explore. You wander off the main path, root out secrets and shortcuts and answers. You need to talk to multiple NPCs, and not just speed through their dialogue to get your reward but actually think about it and remember who’s connected to whom. You meet the White Lady in the Queen’s Garden and travel down into the Abyss, both areas you never need to go to and which no one will even tell you about before you’ve been there. You throw yourself against the Path of Pain again, and again, and again, and again, with no promise of reward, just to see what’s on the other side.

To truly defeat the Radiance, you have to play Ghost as being curious, distractible, attentive, and caring. They cannot be isolated and they cannot be ignorant. And if you care enough to end up with the Voidheart, you probably talked to everyone, helped them complete their quests, tried different charm combinations and ran around the map just to see how people reacted. You probably wanted to know the secrets of Hallownest, and refused to let insurmountable odds turn you away.

In the true ending, Ghost actually has a pretty strong personality, told purely through mechanics.

Story and gameplay.

The Pale King was wrong. We’re told that, asked to look upon his actions and despair that anyone could be driven to such lengths... made worse by the fact his theory was flawed in its very foundations. Being hollow was never the answer; a hollow Vessel was always going to fail. The cost was too great, and all the awful things he did to try and stop the Radiance... it was all for nothing.

Harmony.

It’s just... it’s heartbreaking, and absolutely beautiful.

And every time I see people say Ghost can defeat the Radiance because “they’re the one who’s really hollow,” I want to rip my hair out, like how the fuck can people just IGNORE the SMOOTHEST INTEGRATION OF STORYTELLING AND GAMEPLAY I’ve ever seen in my LIFE, one of the HARDEST PARTS OF GAME DEVELOPMENT that someone probably spent months getting down to such a truly astounding finish, and somehow reach the conclusion the guy whose fuckups lead to the deaths of hundreds of children, intentional child abuse, and the downfall of his kingdom was RIGHT?!

#hollow knight #hollow knight meta #hk meta #the pale king #hallownest #games #my life #mine

[musubiki]

(spoilers for new archon quest) do u have any thoughts on it? there was so much lore and stuff :VV tbh im most concerned abt zhongli and venti possibly committing a massacre!! theyre such charming old grandpas and im rlly hoping that either some other god/divinity did it or they had a REALLY good reason for doing so ;; i just cant see alcoholic broke grandpa #1 and homeless broke grandpa #2 doing such a thing... then again they both did win the archon war... oops

//spoilers

YEAH ive been spewing my thoughts on twitter since yesterday lmfao!!! i have many thoughts,,..but basically my head has been full of:

- lumine being so strong and willing the entire quests so far, and having learned her brother is alive and well but essentially LEFT HER THERE, her going through an uncharacteristic period of sadness. lots of tears, lots of naps, lots of quiet, not her usual lively self (and paimon getting childe for help since she shows the most emotion around him)

- lumine also trying to deal with the (lowkey?) betrayl of venti and zhongli, since she trusted them most. they were like the two people she relied on to be trustworthy and good..,,like all the humans? she trusted that humans had their own agendas and morals. but the gods? she thought she could AT LEAST trust THEM to be moral but....eh, turns out not. hurts more for venti cuz they’re like two peas in a pod (cant wait to see how they address this and the moment we actually confront them about it 🤭)

- lumine also realizing shes gonna be in teyvat a lot longer than originally thought. she assumed “hey, ill find my brother on the way and we’ll get the hell outta here.” now shes forced to go through ALL SEVEN NATIONS (which i understand is for gameplay) just to see her brother again and ufhghfn it must be very discouraging and tiring. shes tired. (and then she buys a house in 1.5 dhfhdjf)

- every day i think more and more that the tsaritsa might be doing something good (theory that she disagreed with the destruction of khaenri’ah and is now trying to right the wrong somehow)

- theory that mayhaps the archons were forced to do it somehow??? everyone hates celestia at this point

- GENSHIN DEADASS TOLD US STRAIGHT UP THAT THE MONSTERS ARE KHAENRI’AHS PEOPLE AND WE’RE STILL FIGHTING THEM FOR DAILY COMMISSIONS ?????? heart hurty

- honestly i just feel bad for lumine and what kind of thoughts she must be having after this, like. if aether held his hand out and went “join me sister” SHE WOULD DO IT!!!!!!! but for whatever reason hes making her go through her journey first, and the rest of the time shes going to have to decide between “do i save these innocent people from the massacre of the abyss order?” or “do i defy my brother and take away the righteous retribution that will come with khaenri’ahs revenge?”

- very complex and reality-esq i love the conflict they created here

- i am once again thinking about tartaglias relationship to her 🥺. i like to think that it gets to a point that hes one of the only people she can rely on. as a person his heart is good and he is a man of honor that keeps his word, and when he promises he wont lie to her, she can actually believe it. and when he pledges his loyalty to her to follow her and travel across teyvat, she can believe that too. though hes also a major troublemaker, she can rely on this to be consistent. hes not the 4d chess player type that will do all these mental gymnastics to deceive her. despite initially being enemies he becomes one of the pillars in her life in teyvat because hes one of the few people she can trust (trust to be a troublemaker or trust to keep his word, at least shes not second-guessing his actions)

- i feel like diluc would be another one of these people who she can rely on, but even he would keep secrets from her, i think, so even then idk. AT FIRST i thought venti and zhongli would be one of these people but I GUESS NOT 

#I HAVE SO MANY THOUGHTS #also i dont trust dainself either #i know hes probably crazy strong but when hes fighting next to aether snd lumine he looks like suchbweak sauce AHDJD

[randomshipperhere]

🖤I love Darkiplier🖤

Welcome people who came from the Top 5 egos post. So as I mentioned, this gets pretty personal. 

The king of kings in this fandom. A lot of fans’ personal number one. Solid choice. You can’t go wrong. Dark and Anti are the reasons why I even made a tumblr. How my blog came to be and how I found my niche fan community on this website. I owe a lot to this character on why I’m even online.

So let’s start from the beginning but a shortened version of the story. I became a fan of Mark through watching Pewds prop hunt collab videos. Went to check out his channel and I came after Wilford Interviews Markiplier Bloopers was released. Watched his videos, loved the content, and finally went to take a look at the fanworks. And one of the most popular things was Darkiplier.

Darkiplier, a character who wasn’t even a character. Darkiplier, a character which the fans created on their own after watching spooky Mark videos. Darkiplier, the fandom myth. An evil version of Mark that was spawned from him just doing vaguely creepy videos. One that overactive imaginers created in their heads that was released to the world. Stories spoke about him like he was the boogeyman, the shadow that crawls and manifests itself as the worst of Mark.

Now I wasn’t a fan from the get go. I was more of a Googs fan at the time but I really liked the creative ways people interpreted Dark. Even if some of them were just basic Mark with his merch shirt, give him gray skin and dark eyes. I slowly began to become accustomed to this small community and just enjoyed the fan content. I started watching videos which supposedly have Dark in them. And the thing is he plays so many horror games that it just made sense to have an evil version of him. It just clicked! It wasn’t an out of place idea. Considering how he has dabbled in villain roles in other skits and sketches, how his main gameplay was horror. If let’s say, Rosanna Pansino’s fans made an evil version of her, it would be so out of place since her content revolves around baking. But because of the kind of content Mark makes, it was a concept that felt natural.

One of the reasons I liked his pre-canon version is how he sounded. Mark’s voice is naturally pleasing to listen to but when it was paired with a lower, much slower, more menacing sound? One that makes your skin crawl because it’s from a very familiar face but it doesn’t sound like him. Turning someone you think you know into a stranger.  Chills, goosebumps! I can actually have a horror experience without the stupid jumpscares.

Fan art, fanfics, fan theories, there was a lot of content for a non canon character and I’m slowly realizing oh shit, maybe I do like Dark. But we liked the idea of him, we didn’t know if he’d ever be a confirmed character Mark would play in a serious video so we kept to our small little circle.

This is why “relax” is such a sucker punch of a video for people who liked Dark. It was a fun video when it was released and up until now, especially now. But at the time it made me feel ashamed for liking Dark that I even went bye bye. I never had accounts so I just lurked but that made me stop interacting with that niche for a while. That is until the announcement of ADWM.

How many of you remember the countdown clock? How many of you remember the excitement of a special project that was going to be released on Valentines. How the website made everyone collectively think Dark was going to appear. The pictures, the cryptic and vagueness of it all just opened the floor for conversation and suddenly I’m back in full blast, ready for Dark to show up.

And show up he did. That first appearance is so special and he took my fucking breath away. I was grinning so widely, from ear to ear. Not just with his appearance but the whole project itself. It was a fan service feast. The whole concept of a CYOA video in Mark’s channel done in a 1st person’s POV was so exciting. Add the fact that it was on valentines day for the lonely and maybe even delusional fans out there. Add Dark first proper appearance and Wilford coming back as the cherry on top and we had the perfect Valentines. No experience to this day in this fandom can quite capture what ADWM meant to me. It was a day of many firsts in this fandom. Fan reception was insane and started a new wave of Markiplier fans. Lowkey kinda smug about being a Dark fan when I saw how people reacted. That day was seriously unforgettable.

There’s also the Feb. 2017 charity stream where Mark explained he wanted to do the character right. That he wanted to take control and finally make this fan character into his own. And you know what? He fucking did it because right after, any previous fan iterations were thrown out the window. Gone buh bye. It’s all ancient history now and the Dark we to this day know and love came from that decision. As much as I loved the small community that was created, I felt relieved that there’s this official version. Man, did Mark throw so much shade on us for liking Dark. He still does actually and... fair.

Living in a post-ADWM world is a treat. Markiplier TV, WKM, AHWM. Each and every official appearance he has makes me feel so happy because he’s not just a fan character anymore, he’s not just a joke character as well. We have proper, easily pin-pointable videos of his appearance along with the vague posting. Dark is a fully-fleshed, multi-faceted, layered ego. Not just another ego but one of the two pillars and heads among them. The journey to how Dark became Dark is just amazing and it makes me feel like a proud fan. Look at how far he’s come!

Speaking of journeys, Mark himself has had one with this character. There’s this incredible meta analysis post and I highly suggest you read it. Mark started his journey with just cool creepy videos. Saw the fanbase had grown and hated how out of his control it was so in response made fun of the character. Then took time, sat down, and thought that he wanted to make his own, an indisputable and canon version. Projected all of the things he didn’t want to be in Dark. An antithesis to Mark. Then he made an incredibly sad origin story and realized to himself that maybe he doesn’t hate Dark as much. Now comes the AHWM part of the journey where he’s more accepting of Dark and is back to clowning on us Dark fans.

It’s really nice to see it all happen. Mark’s views about Dark are ever changing.

There’s Dark’s backstory. It’s just so sad that you can’t help but feel bad for him. A fallen hero or a tragic villain, whatever you want to categorize Dark as, the angst that surrounds his story is incredibly wonderful. I like the pain. This heart that feels hurt for what happened to him and it makes me want to root for Dark even more. Like you go you fucking menace! Go get your revenge on Actor!

People may also have conflicting opinions about this but I like how charismatic and manipulative he is. It’s like a siren’s call to tempt the viewer to the other side. And the way Mark’s charismatic behavior is shown in a villainous manner. Look I just really want Mark to play full on antagonists again. Okay?

I love the contrast of this gentlemanly demeanor and the anger that seems to slip through the cracks every now and then. And shit when he degrades the viewer I’m still left helpless because yes you fucking idiot I do miss you and your face. Look, characters that always make you feel like you want to learn more about them AND the world they live in are always high on my interest list. The way he also words things, a balancing act of threatening and charming, things that can be interpreted and misinterpreted.

His voice is so nice to listen to, even if there is a constant ringing sound. The visual glitches he also has are beautiful! The variety and effects. My overall favorite is the one he does in “over and over and over again”.

Can we also give a round of applause for Dark changing his look every time he shows up. Gray suit? Classic. The loose fit in dark vs anti? Sexy. WKM? Hot. AHWM? Absolute perfection. Suits are just great. Want to look good? Wear a suit! Gosh, the grip you have on me never loosened.

As I mentioned earlier, I love the idea of taking something familiar and turning it into something unfamiliar. It’s as plain as day how Dark wants to use you for the plans he has in store, whatever they may be. Yet we still love him because of how charming he is and because we understand his motivations better after WKM & ADWM.

There’s also the fact that he doesn’t harm you or even force you to follow him. Like he has so many opportunities to murder us, he could even force us into a loop or taking whatever little control we have (which is choosing the next video) and force us to get his ending but he doesn’t. If you bring up [Horror->Freedom] how it only has one option, no it doesn’t. There are 4 options and 3 of them are an out to the CYOA. Only one continues in the ADWM CYOA but this option doesn’t force you into an ending. Dark also comforts you when you get his ending while Mark is all oh you killed someone, let’s move on. In AHWM he’s relating to you (whilst degrading, thanks Dark) and even gave you an answer, sort of.

Aren’t you supposed to be our enemy? I guess we’re allies and thanks? Thanks, yeah. Dark has also never lied to us. I can definitely trust this man more than I trust Actor.

Dark is so many things I adore all in one. I love the macabre, the gothic, the monsters that hide under your bed. A charming villain, posing as a gentleman. The things that creep in the shadow of the night. His entire look, demeanor, and aesthetic hits every single note for me.

Like those mood boards or even pinterest boards of knives, and castles, and smokes, and mirrors. A king of a fallen kingdom. Crows, and gargoyles, sweet seductive words that mask the poison. That kind of thing! I may like a lot of dapper villains, incredibly seductive villains, dressed to the nines with the money and power to crumble the world. But shit Dark’s charm hits differently.

I am having an incredibly weird parasocial relationship with a fictional character played by a real person in a simulated event and there’s an incredibly meta thing going on here but I don’t know what it is or what that means nor do I know how to add this in a somewhat natural manner and we’re ending this.

Other than loving him as a character, loving his story and personality, and how he interacts with us the viewers, I also love him because I managed to make a friend for being such a fan. One of my current friends, I managed to get close to them partially because we’re Markiplier fans. They were more of a casual fan but having someone to talk about this really nerdy sounding side of me that’s just so in love with this character and them starting to get into the lore was fun. I actually have a friend I can gush over with these things.

With all of that said, Dark to me is more than just a character Mark gave life to. Dark is an experience, one I’m glad I got a chance to have. He made me connect to a community, made me actually actively participate in said community. I don’t just love him, but I can’t say something like I stay in this fandom because of Dark because that is false. I love him a fucking lot. More than most fictional characters I like. He lives rent free in my head but it doesn’t bleed out into my day to day life or thinking. It’s a very complicated love relationship but as fellow fans I think you get what I mean. Maybe not with Dark specifically but you must have a character you feel similar things for.

Closing statement. There will be no one who can dethrone him for me. When he shows up in ISWM you bet that I’m already typing down shit because I can never get enough of him.

Extra stuff: Damien deserved better | Drunk Wilford and Dark | I will never forgive him for this blooper

Don’t mind me being a hoe for Dark: He has never done anything wrong | Smiley Dark | Smiley Dark Bloopers | Hihi his head tilt | Right away | It’s ya boy | Consider

and maybe the way mark feels for lady D is how I feel about dark lmao. It’s about the power okay. I like dark’s aesthetic too much aaaaa

P.S liking Dark is almost like being in a different fandom. Kind of like a game where you’re speculating about it before beta or official release and when it comes out you’re just waiting for new updates. Heh

#text post #if you’re reading this before I posted the thing please go away #come back later

[af1899]

THE REAL BEST NEWS OF THE UPDATE

The whole banner is boring, these are the real best news tonight.

POGGGGGGGGGGGGGG

Yes, after a long wait of over 4 years, Sophia is finally getting her first alt and as a free unit, which is very nice.

Part of the artwork, as well as the event information, should be out in less than 2 hours since this post's date/time.

Anyway, I'll now comment on a few things about the new units now formally revealed with skills and artwork.

Trailer

Thoughts

The seasonal units come to no surprise as they were all previously leaked (thanks again Intern-kun!) but there are some interesting things in this reveal and the associated notice.

First of all, you're perhaps wondering how well I did with my guesses on the attires Male Grima and Kurtnaga would be doning plus the free unit potentially being Nasir, well... completely wrong with the last two, Kurthnaga isn't dressing like a Jiangshi, actually looking more like an... emperor? But if you know his role in the Tellius games, then it makes sense, either way he looks nice, I was right with Male Grima, more dressed up than his Female counterpart and the like, but Okuma Yugo takes on drawing Male Grima again and he looks so cool.

However, I'm still shook one of my biggest favs in Elibe got an alt like, out of nowhere, I was totally expecting some Tellius unit that'd go along with the theory I had in mind, nevethless, I'm excited to build her and comment on her gameplay elements (that'll be done once I have her properly built, but I need to prepare some resources in advance), I'll also talk about the event stuff later on, I hope today but something came up recently, so we'll see.

The banner itself remains the same: an easy skip with nothing I do feel like I need right away.

Male Grima is fodder galore for me, fortunately, he's easy to fodder for two full passive skills if one of them is [Sturdy Stance 3]. He's quite fearsome to face if you initiate on an ally of his near him, and he'll be pretty durable, replacing his special with [Moonbow] is also a good call, then add a movement assist, a [Atk/Def Bond] as [Sacred Seal] and he's set. It's also worth noting he's a colorless breath armor unit, giving him less likelihood to get WTD.

Rhea... Idk if that weapon type and animation would give away some important spoilers, but even though I know something regarding her identity, I'd rather continue avoiding spoilers, I have no way to play her home game. She's also another fodder galore unit in my eyes; but onto what's she like as a unit, not as great as Male Grima, and she relies on both keeping herself healthy to reduce incoming damage and deny follow-ups, plus healthy foes to deal follow-up attacks, not the most reliable thing but not too shabby either, keeping her health on check shouldn't be as difficult.

Kurthnaga has a rather interesting weapon over there, it makes its user beefier in enemy phase and you can inherit it to any dragon unit of your liking, the rest isn't exactly too interesting except for maybe [Even Pulse Tie 3] being on a seasonal semi-demote, it's a decent skill that can (in part) counter some teams or units but most of the time, you'll find it useless. He's also added like Spring Narcian, introducing a new {Experience} skill and an inheritable weapon, plus on demote too. 🤨

Lastly, Sothis is with Male Byleth, it seems to be the better fit for her out of the two despite his not-so-recent Legendary alt, since his Female counterpart leads a Duo with Rhea. Fodder galore as well but this one has some things to point out:

Welp, that's Múspell's C-skill but without {Joint}-esque effect all right, and you can give it to dragons, it'll likely stack with Múspell's C-skill, resulting in a slightly bigger boost in damage dealt and reduction on damage taken, most likely at least.

As a unit, this Duo is also best used on enemy phase, with a Lv.3 {Stance} of any kind being their best A-skill, they should be able to handle themselves just fine, but they're still vulnerable to arrows, green bow users like Rath or Python (for accessable choices) or Shamir with [Deadeye] should be able to quickly dispatch the Duo, they'll also most likely be used in offense than defense I think, they still don't seem super threatening, but their selling point would be the Duo Skill, which can help some units deal with Fallen Edelgard and some other dangers that tend to deny follow-up attacks:

...And it can be re-used on the same map.

Anyway, it seems everyone here has some sort of focus on being tankier and enemy phase oriented, yet there's a clear ounce of difference in how to use them, but nothing I'd exactly find super broken or must-have, the Duo might come in handy though.

I'll just free pick blue if available, otherwise I guess I'll go for colorless, green or red, I'm moreso looking forward to Sophia... speaking of her, it's possible she'll also play similarly to the units in here and her OG form (being slow and tanky, best used on enemy phase), if that's how she plays out, then [Close Counter], [Atk/Res Rein 3] (though I need a Brady first to properly fodder Plumeria) and [Pact Blooms+] are ready for her, but I'm short on B-skills and other expensive stuff, maybe [Flier Formation 3] since I have one last Díthorba to spare, I could pick [Quick Riposte 3] but my OCD wouldn't let me live with her just inheriting it up to Lv.2, and my only source without promoting anyone is Nah, so I'd have to do with alternatives, we'll see...

Anyway, thanks for reading and I hope you get who you want soon in the banner, hopefully Sophia will do great for you if you plan to build her also.

#feh #fe heroes #fire emblem heroes #fe sophia