#people who say material stuff isn't great don't know how to live

[hybbart]

Heya! I was wondering how medication and medical devices work in the ranchers au. Most devices need replacing quite often and after five years, many medications would be out of date and useless or even dangerous.

I definitely get if it's just a case of, they don't go off, since medicine is confusing but I was curious since it could lead to plot.

I should say that I specifically don't get into this stuff much just because I don't know much about it and I would rather keep things vague than accidentally impart incorrect information. As well as the fact that it is ultimately a biopunk setting with differences to our world. That said, have more rambles than I expected.

Right you are, there's in fact not a lot of medication left. People hoard anything they find but most is long expired. The hospital is lucky to have two doctors and Scar who know a bit more about medicine than the average person, but a lot of whats kept is just praying it still works.

Cleo thanks to being a gorgon is also in the drug development business, though she specialized in developing antivenom, but she not only knows but can help develop certain medicines. She and Scott have made quite a thing of their inn and I kinda wanna touch on it in the future.

Shubble, Katherine, Gem, Impulse, and Pearl know home remidies for a lot of things and have specifically been growing and creating them. These aren't going to replace complex modern drugs for specific conditions obviously, but they work and its easy to pass it around with the help of the radio station.

Overall, on bad days, Tango generally has to grin and bear it with homemade pain killers at most. It's rough and it contributed to the second wave of population decline after the first wave of zombie deaths. It's Scar's goal to specifically help survivors with this sort of thing, though.

As for medical equipment, it's a bit grim but since there's such a small population now and the hospitals were the first to go there was a lot of spare equipment from storage and patients left behind. In part because of Scar's own medical needs and in part for their desire to help others, Scar and Cub, and later Grian, collected what they could from abandoned hospitals and care homes.

It's obviously not going to cover everything, materials break down and as far as replacing them or things that need customization there isn't a factory just down the road that makes it all in house.

This is where I take the most artistic liberties, but Tango, with Doc and Zed, is the one to maintain Jimmy and Scar's equipment as well as his arm. Whether that's patching the existing, altering replacement, or crafting new parts. He knew a good bit from his job and hobbies but he's spent the past 5 years learning specifically how to diy for Jimmy and himself. It's not perfect but it's the best they have.

This is still a bit of a soft biopunk setting at the end of the day with mutliple species and genetic modification, I imagine it might be a little bit easier to get hold of certain things than it would be in real life. I also think they live in a very different economy, and its probably easier to find sturdier and custom made items due to the variety of their society making mass production more difficult. This leaves the problem of certain species not responding to certain medicines though and needing more specialized treatment.

The degredation of materials is something I do try to take into account, which is the reason gas power is nearly nonexistent, but it's hard to take everything into account and sometimes I would rather not, simply because it allows more stories to be told if something is available but difficult to get rather than impossible. I'm not great with drawing or knowing technology so it's easier to just say something is jerryrigged than it is to actively illustrate how they did it. If it seems it might be possible I allow it.

The important thing to me is to consider the types of people who would think about these things first and if anyone might be that person. You know, someone with asthma is going to think of medication and figure out how to get it, a truck driver might know where to go for storages of specific supplies instead of raiding malls, and a historical reenactor might think of how to get and create sustainable materials. Everyone leads a life that puts certain things at the forefront of their mind that other people probably wouldn't think of at all. Especially going from a modern specialist society collapsing into a society that requires generalized knowledge. And the saved knowledge of these things didn't turn to dust the second the apocalypse hit.

Life's not as rough as it might be in other apocalypse media, just because I guess I generally don't really care for the unrralistically cynical outlook a lot of american apocalypse stories are made in for drama's sake. This is a story about people caring about and helping one another, and developing a new life for themselves. If they don't have access to something, people work together to make due with what they have.

#raau ask #raau notes: technology #raau notes #raau notes: setting #raau notes: character #raau notes: ranchers #raau notes: art

[lexsang]

Could you recommend sources about sanguinarian vampirism? I tried to look for it but most recommend books seem to be published by sketchy/charlatan authors and it makes doubtful if they are genuine or not (besides some of them have very prejudiced views towards sang).

Videos, podcasts, articles, sites or books are all welcome recommendations and I would be very grateful if you had them.

Thank you very much!

(Sorry for how long it took for me to get back to you, the past few weeks have been hectic to say the least, but I've been thinkin about this ask since you sent it) My main issue with the vast majority of content on sanguinarian vampirism out there is that it is made by people who are just interested in vampires, and have no actual experience living through the things we live through. They often times come off as halloween-spooky, and inauthentic, with an emphasis on shock factor for an audience that doesn't understand that we really do actually exist.

Books are definitely not the place to look from my experience if you're interested in learning about sanguinarian vampirism. They are one of the best places if you're wanting to learn about psychic vampirism or vampiric witchcraft, but they're not for the blood drinkers.

Videos can be good learning material, but I haven't seen any on sanguinarianism that aren't just people talking about their experiences in the community, and it can get fairly full of unnecessary drama and zero useful info quick. I used to watch videos from the creator below, though I personally didn't get much out of them, but that may not be the case for you. Most of the videos are on psychic vampirism, but there are a few on sanguinarianism if I'm remembering correctly.

With Podcasts, I'm sure there are a number of one offs on paranormal podcasts if you look hard enough, but the time is most likely not worth it. The link below is one of the best I have seen, a series of great interviews with real vampires (I was lucky enough to be one of them, though that's not why I suggest this series), and the second is a youtube channel called Coffin Lounge (I would link, but youtube is being weird), which could be good, but I don't now yet. I have only listened to a little bit of the first episode, and it is more goth community centered than vamp, but there may be good stuff since since each episode is with a new guest.

Sites are the best bet so far, with forums being one of the best places to look imo.

Sanguinarius.org and their connected forum, VCMB.org were where I first realized I wasn't alone, and wasn't crazy. The biggest benefit of forums like this one, is that you are, without a doubt, listening to real people's experience, and seeing real vamps figure it out for themselves. There is so much information in the VCMB, even though it isn't very active anymore, the experiences are still there.

theredcellar.com has also been a personal favourite for ages. It is full of plenty of articles that focus on the medsang perspective, and it is home to some really down to earth vamps who are all wonderful. They also have a forum, as well as a discord that is linked on their site.

The absolute best teachers, however, are just regular old vampires. You will learn more in a few hours than you could hope to learn in months from articles and the sporadic info online by sending someone a message and asking if they have the capacity to answer your questions. Whether you are an awakening vamp looking for advice, or just interested in the real, visceral experience that vampires live through, most are kind and willing to share. Everyone's experience is different, and speaking to multiple people will help you realize just how colourful and varied the world of vampirism is.

And if you are a vampire, I know that this is cliché, but experience is a great teacher. So much of vampirism, from what I've seen and experienced myself, is about trying to run away from the vampiric experience, and be as human as possible. It has stopped being about that for me. Manage your health of course, and don't go without feeding for too long if you can help it. Take the substitutes you need to take to control the beast when you need to take them, but feeling those cravings instead of fleeing from them is a great way to become more familiar with vampirism. No one will be able to tell you more about your vampirism than yourself. Learn to meditate in those moments of hunger. You are a vampire, it's ok to allow yourself to be just that from time to time.

I hope this was helpful! Please feel free to ask if you have any more questions, I'm more than happy to help if you feel that I can :)

#sanguinarian #real vampire #vampyre

[xerith-42]

What if I made a whole post about Blaze

Wouldn't it be funny if I did that?

Blaze MyStreet (that's his name now) is the gayest character in the entire aphverse and I am tired of him being slept on. That's not to say that people don't like Blaze, they do. He was a popular character, but not in the way other characters are popular. It's hard to find other people who have him as a favorite character, and if you're a fan of Minecraft Diaries, most people forgot he was in that series because he was in like an episode of Season 3 and even I forgot about Season 3 outside of that. He's liked, but not in the way people can really latch onto characters in this series. More passively liked, because it's really hard to hate him.

And even in MyStreet, his ultimate conclusion is just bad. It's bad. I don't have any other words for it, it just sucks. Blaze being mind controlled and then killed off right before the finale was just unnecessary. It didn't add anything. This season had already implied to kill Melissa, and made it clear it wasn't afraid to kill off characters. There was no reason to do this other than to keep people hooked and make them have an emotional reaction to the episode.

And it worked! Most of the times I look up Blaze fanart, I find art of him as an angel, or in heaven with another character, or just art of him dying. And I don't object to making fanart out of these moments it just... it sucks opening his wiki and seeing "Status: Deceased" every time. It sucks going to find content of this character only to find a majority of it is just angst around a death I've actively tried to forget.

SO LET'S TALK ABOUT WHY BLAZE IS THE BEST CHARACTER IN MYSTREET AND WHY YOU SHOULD ALL (yes even you) GIVE HIM MORE LOVE AND ATTENTION

Did you guys know Blaze is canonically not straight and probably polyamorus? That isn't my headcanons, that's in the text. Sure it's all in mini-games, but the mini-games are supplemental material to the canon work, and when Blaze gets so little actual character work, I am unashamed to pull from these sources. And in these sources Blaze has stated that he is very much one of the fruits.

In one mini-game Aaron says "You can't marry two people Blaze, you know that!" And Blaze's response is "I do?"

[vine boom]

In another that I am rationally normal about, Aphmau stumbles in on Blaze with his head on Garroth's lap in a closet, WHILE THEY ARE UNDER MISTLETOE! And Blaze says "Your thighs are soft" while Garroth comments on how soft his hair is?!

[vine boom]

And this is all in tandem with the fact that he at the very least canonically had a thing for Dottie, and it's very easy to say he might have harbored feelings for Daniel, Rylan, OR Aaron

[vine boom]

So, we've established Blaze as one of them queers, this is great. Aphmau series really struggle with having gay characters at all, let alone good ones, but there's a quality queer character just sitting right there! Blaze is charming, funny, doesn't take up more space than he needs, and while it isn't in the test of MyStreet, I'll take what I can get. And he only gets better from here!

Wanna add drugs and stoner stuff to your next rewrite? Blaze is literally RIGHT THERE!! He's been around since Phoenix Drop High, and his birthday is literally April 20th, the writers are not being subtle about it. And in MCD, he's technically been around as a misspelled name since episode 40, and if you're making a rewrite, just add him in sooner.

Oh, you want Aaron to have a bigger support system that isn't just Aphmau in earlier seasons? Blaze and the werewolf pups are right there and would totally all live together in a house on My Street or Lover's Lane! Just saying! You want these characters to have a vector to explore polyamory? Blaze is basically an open book and very much agrees with the "a friend of Aaron/anyone else is a friend of mine" and would be willing to share his experiences. You want someone for characters to confide in that they normally wouldn't under normal circumstances? Blaze loves getting high and having vent sessions neither of them will fully remember in the morning.

And if we take it to MCD, he can provide a lot of this and more. Fleshing out of the werewolf experience, an actual werewolf that's at least closer to a part of the main cast than any other ones, AND you get to have him smoking out the other characters. Why wouldn't you make MCD Blaze the inventor of the first bong in Ru'aun? Literally why wouldn't you do that? What reason do you have not to do that? That's objectively great.

Blaze is a character who easily lends himself well to comedy and emotional scenes by being vulnerable all the time, and having the ability to bring levity when needed. He knows when you need to just scream into a pillow, or when he needs to pass you a joint and put a movie on in the background. There's not a lot given for him, but enough to build a solid character out of. He's stated to have an extended family, and a lot of siblings. He was probably the oldest one and had to help raise them, and would easily be able to empathize with older siblings in this show, especially ones who may have had to take care of a younger sibling while growing up due to absent parents (cough cough Melissa).

He also stood up to bullies for Daniel and was willing to make enemies with his entire pack, even his Alpha, just to make sure Daniel wouldn't get hurt or harassed. He's fiercely loyal and absolutely willing to throw hands at a moments notice for the right reason. It doesn't take a lot to make Blaze a ride or die friend, you just have to not be a dickhead and show that you're actually a decent person. He's very sociable and outgoing, a bit of a loudmouth, but he's got a good heart and generally gets along with anyone you could think to pair him up with.

I'm serious, send me a character and I will tell you how they could have a beautiful friendship/romance/something else with them and how it fleshes out both their characters. Blaze just does that by being around people. I'm serious. Please do this.

I didn't make an Instagram account in 2018 titled "Blaze_Best_Werewolf" (or something like that) with a self-made profile picture of Blaze wearing a flower crown and actively get in fights with people over MyStreet season 6 for my boy to be slept on in this manner.

#if any of you recognize that username #no you don't #anyways send me asks #about Blaze #or I will keep making posts like this #where I just ramble and don't make sense #I can't be rational about him #aphmau mystreet #mystreet #mystreet blaze #minecraft diaries #mcd blaze #mystreet garroth #mystreet aaron #aphblr #aphverse #mystreet dottie #mystreet daniel #melissa lycan #im normal #explodes #dies

[silyabeeodess]

FusionFall Headcanons: Sunny Bridges

Sadly, Class of 3000's representation in the game is pretty minimal--with mainly just the Sunny Bridges' Auditorium giving it a spotlight. With that, my own headcanons for how its characters would fit in FusionFall have also been limited, as there just isn't much material to go off of. However, inspired from returning to some of the show's music, I'd like to expand on ideas I've had sprinkled with other posts I've made. For now, let's focus on none other than Sunny Bridges himself:

With the auditorium situated in what might be the heart of entertainment for the City areas, Marquee Row, it's unlikely that Sunny originally intended for it to be anything other than a typical venue. Likely constructed prior to his days as a teacher, he may not have even cared for it at all depending on whether or not it was built by the time he started losing his passion for music. It was just another mark of the fame that was wearing him down. However, after his experiences teaching, he started using the auditorium to give young and upcoming artists the chance to explore their own talent on a professional stage. Classes and workshops could be taught there alongside the big concerts, and the auditorium grew as a place of both education and community.

It should go without saying that his time as a teacher revitalized his passion, enough for Sunny to continue acting as a mentor. He might still have issues with the music industry itself, but he's found himself again, along with the importance of music in his life and the lives of those around him. Thanks to that, he wants to keep passing on those lessons and bits of wisdom to others.

That strength in music came in-full when the war hit. The invasion stretched across every community around the globe, with a sense of peace stripped from everyone. Even when nanos were introduced and the tide began to turn, with nothing to help people escape from the daily terrors and lack of normalcy, morale was low. However, that is one of the great powers of art: To give moments of escapism, beauty, and hope in otherwise awful situations. In a situation where people can't even walk out of their homes without facing monsters, where soldiers constantly roam through the streets, when all the places and things you did that you used to find comfort in have been taken from you... Music is something anyone can take part in no matter where they are or what they have. You don't even need tools or instruments when you've got a voice to sing with, feet to dance with, and hands to beat out a rhythm. Music is something any person can take with them anywhere and can be the most widespread and uplifting of the arts. Sunny knows this, and so his part of the war effort was to share that spirit with anyone who needed it.

The Fusion Fighter radio network was already established when Sunny began volunteering himself and his students. However, Sunny plays one of, if not the, biggest role for it. Besides his own music, he also has the connections to bring in many other great artists. Again, he may not like the music industry, but his knowledge of it and his work with his students has given him some means of handling a good chunk of the administrative stuff many other creatives can have difficulty managing. He can get a jumble of talents working like a well-oiled machine. He'll help set up live performances as well, particularly in the City areas and especially at the base in the underground mall.

Inevitably, these efforts that were once his step away from the spotlight have dragged Sunny back in. Before his name could fade from people's minds after he left stardom, he ended up becoming a figurehead among all of these war-time entertainers. Anyone who didn't know him before certainly knows him now, whether or not they're fans of his music. Resuming his celebrity status isn't something he wants, and he makes that point well-known. Nevertheless, he's also glad that his music is reaching people and for all the right reasons.

Sadly, Fuse does not think the same way. Of course, the tyrant won't go after artists the same as he will other figures in the war effort, but he has caught on to how much hope and inspiration Sunny gives to people. If Sunny is ever left vulnerable, Fuse's army will take the chance to take him out. On the upside, there's also plenty of soldiers who'll gladly protect the musician when called.

#fusionfall #headcanons #video games

[the-everqueen]

“Rose and the Corinthian are both people who need care, in different but complimentary ways, and i think that's part of what fascinates me about pairing them.”

I would say this ask is more of a “Thoughts on Corirose” one, based on your excellent quote/response here from LA Guard Dog part 1 👀

i do not remember saying this, which is funny to me because looking back at my comment replies on that fic, i was clearly burned out from final year of grad school. i'm way more loquacious now that my brain isn't running on fumes and spite. but i DO remember how much i appreciated each comment; those ao3 notifications in my inbox were little sparks of delight amid rejection emails and, later, a wave of onboarding paperwork.

anyways i stand by past me's words. i feel like fandom downplays how much Rose has lost: she's a young adult from a broken home, her mom died and left her with limited material resources to start her own life, she met Unity and then almost immediately lost her, she got her brother back but only after he's been through hell, and now she's his only living guardian. she's never really had a childhood. so it makes sense, to me, that deep down she'd really want to be cared for. she had to be The Responsible One with Lyta, with Jed, with the Endless. when is someone going to watch out for her? and yeah, the implication at the end of s1 is that she has this whole found family who are invested in her, but caring about someone is different from caring for them. also accepting care from people you feel have already given you a lot can be difficult when you're used to being self-sufficient and circumstances have taught you that the only person you can really trust to stick around is yourself. i skip ahead to post-comix in LA guard dog, but even with some distance from the events of the Doll's House arc, she's still a mid-20s woman in a parental role for a traumatized preteen. that's a lot for someone who isn't also a daughter of the Endless and the only remaining adult of her human bloodline.

enter the Corinthian. he's useful for Rose in a few ways: he can't die, he can shoulder some of the responsibilities involved with raising a kid (at very least the stuff that takes minimal skill but maximum brain space, like school schedules and chores and packing lunch). also he's an utter hedonist, which is great for getting Rose acclimated to the idea of having things she likes rather than just what she needs. look, he wanted a fancy coffee so he got her this fancy floral pastry. extrapolating from the comix (including the dreaming run, but i'm cherry picking there), he's very much a person who shows feeling through action, even when that's at direct contradiction with his words. and that's great for Rose, who i imagine has had a lot of people say nice things to her and then utterly fail to show up for her in the ways that matter.

i'm talking about him like he's a tool, which admittedly is how Dream still conceptualizes him to some degree in this au. but he's aware this time around that's not what the Corinthian needs, hence giving him to Rose. i don't know that Rose can think of the Corinthian as an object, based on her experiences and who she is as a person. Rose imagines possibilities that Morpheus could not. so her idea of care for a Nightmare looks different, too, and the crux of the LA guard fic pt. 2 is the question "is that enough?" idk! but i think it matters to the Corinthian. there's a moment in the dreaming comix, during Coco's Year As A Real Boy, where he muses that his bf Sila has become more than a distraction to him--i think someone seeing the Corinthian as a person, beyond his function as a mirror (aka what he can do for/to them), is the realization of a story he's been telling himself for a long time. about him and the Dreaming, about him and Dream.

tl;dr: Coco and Rose are both people who have been positioned as non-subjects in their respective worlds and that means they're both weirdly able to affirm each other's subjectivity.

#ask games #violetoftheendless #sandman #cocorose #rose walker/the corinthian #SO many thoughts on ''thingness'' in relation to my fave sandman characters and how they grapple for agency

[slocumjoe]

You rang the bell, now you have to feed us with your best Gage NSFW facts 😛

I have some Thoughts, yes

Warning, this isn't horny in tone and we get into a little bit of Dark Shit References. Like there is some horny and then there's S/A and implied abuse content so...don't go past the photo of the magazine if you don't want to see that

Anyway Gage NSFW stuff

He's basic, he's a tit guy

No labels. Horny is horny. Prefers to take care of himself by himself these days anyway

Not loud...but definitely noisy...cusser. Volume is significantly increased during oral

Hair puller, likes it rough. Bite and scratch marks are medals of honor.

Cardiophilliac, also really into how his partner breathes during sex. Likes to put his hand on their neck, feel them gulp, swallow, gasp, feel their pulse. He really isn't sure why. Just does it for him. If his partner feels his pulse he's Nutting.

Seriously, easiest way to fluster/turn Gage on is to be close enough to feel his heartbeat, say something sweet, and then point out how fast it gets.

Said before, audio motivated. Whether his S/O is constantly running their mouth with dirty talk, or just can't stop making noises, Gage is fucking into that.

Easiest way to get him to bathe is shower/bath sex. He knows what you're doing but its a small price to pay for a good time

Down for pegging

Likes sitting positions, his partner in his lap, or he in theirs if they're more dominant. Throw your legs over his and he's getting a boner, that's all there is to it

On that note, prefers topping, but is more used to bottoming. Not for great reasons but we'll get into that.

Not down for being tied up. Or even tying his partner up. He's held too many people hostage. Y'know, raider business.

JO material of choice is shit like Woman and Home magazines. "Rory...that isn't porn." It is to Gage. Something about the dainty lady type just...appeals to him...

^ this shit

Soft spot for shorter woman, soft spot for chubby women. Mom bods make him go 👀. Always preferred older women

His type of guy is somehow more embarrassing than his type of lady; toxic men he shouldn't be fucking. Yeah, he and Conner? He and Colter? Gage and assholes with C names who are his bosses. Moth to flame. Knows all about those inappropriate work place relationships.

Has literally no preferences for men beyond "this is a bad fucking idea".

No, seriously, if he and Sole and the others sat down, and someone got him to talk about his past lovers, live Companions React VVV

For a healthy relationship with another guy...I'm imagining a classier, bounty-hunter sort. Clean, professional, kind of a bastard but has a heart. You know, the kind of guy that'll hunt down merchants and rob them, but protects women and children. Gage would butt heads with him, but a good gentlemanly rogueish type would fit nicely with him.

His first dozen or so sexual encounters were for money. Stopped doing this after the Conner incident jaded him. Yes I remember what age Gage would have been at this time 😬😬😬

As one can imagine doesn't have a great relationship with sex...takes a while with an S/O for him to relax enough to not just do it, but fully enjoy it

wouldn't be compatible with a more kinky person because he's, again, used to that shit and he'd really rather not get anymore familiar with it

#porter gage #fo4 #fallout 4

[gunsli-01]

just wanna say since I've been away from fixating on milgram for a month or so and came back for a skim (I got my therapist hooked, so its on the mind).. I wanna say how the fuck did this happen but I've similar enough that like, I hope you're taking care of yourself, congrats on the marriage (thats recent right?), your posts are always nice to see, I hope Organ Thief's Dance Party is entertaining for you too

I got so carried away beneath this cut that it's just a new Mu post I'm sorry in advance! Before any of that though I'll try to answer your points to the best of my abilities!

I'm so happy to hear about the therapist thing! I hope more people can enjoy Milgram so many that getting to a million views is pretty much immediate during trial three!

I think conflicts appearing in the fandom in and of itself isn't a bad thing it just means people care about the material, but I hope people can do that in a fun and respectful way. Not only to make the environment comfortable for old fans but newcomers as well. I don't believe it's good for fandoms to become exclusionary or too closeknit since that can lead to terrible forms of conflict down the line.

A fandom should be full of various people and opinions. So, I always wanna remind people to look at the views of others outside of mine since it helps form a more well-rounded opinion. It's even helped me better reflect on my own biases. I do like passion, but too much of anything in one direction can be bad, and I want more and more people to like and watch Milgram! So, regardless of what happens, I want people to see the fun in it not just from the content but its fans who do great things in a passionate way every day.

I'm taking care of myself and my dad to the best of my abilities he surgery went smoothly too! I'm still very much enjoying Milgram all the way! I hope none of what I said about the fandom comes off as pretentious or too serious because I know it'd be easy to read it that way. When it comes to the marriage, I assume you're referring to my blog description.

Ah, Star and I have known each other since late 2013! We met through Tumblr actually. That's why I was so upset to have my blog shadow banned because it has a lot of sentimental value and I'd hate to lose it. We started dating maybe three years after and we got engaged two to three years after that. Though, since we live in different countries, we haven't officially tied the knot yet. She's my best friend, confidant, and we hang out often. Even meeting up in person whenever we can manage/afford to.

Actually, she's the reason anybody even gets to see me talk about Milgram at all right now. She introduced it to me! She wanted me to look over the entire series. Because she was very well acquainted with my penchant for deductive reasoning and love of solving mysteries. Because of thar she wanted to know what I would think was going on based off the trial one music videos alone. I was a bit miffed at her at the time, so I was like, no, I don't wanna.

Though she went if I didn't want to watch all of it then she'd at least like it if I looked at Mahiru's song. Causing my response to Mahiru's first trial song to pretty much be you trying to say something about me, huh?! However, I really loved it and pretty immediately went okay I'll watch the rest. However, that was only after she asked what I thought happened and the only thing I could think was with the focus on food, probably poisoning, but other than that I'm unsure.

So, I'm very nostalgic when it comes to Mahiru's song since it's related to a person I love.

If you don't want all the personal stuff here's the Milgram stuff!

I think the thing I'm looking most forward too is hearing Shidou's cover of Delusion Tax given how the VA handled Liar Dance! Shidou's voice tends to be more reserved when it comes to singing his original songs but go hard in his covers. Mu is the exact opposite, her voice being stronger in her original songs but going to a gentle whisper in her covers.

Showing the dichotomy between how she presents herself and how she may be inwardly. That outward appearance of dominance breaking into a soft-spoken stint. While Shidou's soft demeanor breaks way into a more domineering tone with hard enunciation that's so good to hear. So, I'm really curious if that will stay in Delusion Tax just like it stayed for Mu with MKDR.

I like Mu's covers far more than her original songs because of that vocal change and the subtle gentleness like holding porcelain. Especially the scream here and how it directly contrasts with the one here. Her covers really highlight that similarity between her and Futa of putting on a tough front but having an incredibly soft interior that needs a lot of nurturing from their environments.

Something also highlighted by her being represented as Parasitic Wasp in It's Not My Fault.

One of the insects that build cocoons on a host and use the nutrients off them to feed their young. Meaning It's Not My Fault we are literally seeing an artistic rendition of a Parasitic Wasp nest being built on a beehive.

Explaining why Mu is so large in comparison to the others. It's a literal hostile takeover until she gets enough of what she needs and leaves.

This also explains why she's so quick to leave and nothing remains when she does in the end. Since they eat everything and go. Yet, it has another meaning too! Mu being a parasitic wasp can be read as her leeching off of a society of course but it can also be read as her needing external validation to support her own beliefs. Showcasing that she lacks the mental fortitude necessary to defend or rationalize her own behavior or past actions.

This is highlighted in After pain when she's literally drowned in her own negative opinion of herself. Something that used to be feeding her is now eating away at her. Because it doesn't come with that sweetness of external validation. No one else is saying that she's right so she'll always wonder if she's wrong on some level. Because she's incapable of validating her own behavior this is even shown in It's Not My Fault when she basically begs the viewers not to hate her or even look for her bad side the source of her pain.

In a, "Just keep liking me, keep feeding me, I can't do it I can't take it on my own." In a way, reminiscent to the way Mikoto freaks out when everybody, but Kotoko wishes him a happy birthday. It also feeds into why her victim ignoring her bothered her so much and she couldn't let it go. The reason she's behaving this way is perfectly illustrated at the end of It's Not My Fault where she's literally reformed by the previous verdict and breaks away from her host, in this case the hourglass.

Something that very much comes through in the tone of her cover songs. While Shidou- Ah, his are so full of that usually restrained animosity of his that I just love! So, that mixed with Delusion Tax may just get me.

#milgram #kirisaki shidou #kusunoki muu

[langernameohnebedeutung]

what did you think of the izombie ending?

I thought the resolution of sticking all the zombies on a segregated island was not great, and I kinda wish blaine and don e had a better ending than just dumping them in a hole and leaving them there together, but what do you think? also if you could change the ending what you make happen instead? sorry for autismdumping izombie thoughts on you,,, have a good day !! +also sorry if you’ve already talked about this one

!! I mean, we're...I think in year 2 of my absolute hyperfixation on this show and me rambling about it so you have nothing to be sorry about!! I love talking about iZombie!! (and I don't think I've talked about the ending before bc...I only watched it one single time, went 'duly noted' and then...proceeded to care a lot more about everything that had been going on before that. So it's also that part of the show where I'm the least immersed)

(Which, in the defence of the show, isn't entirely their fault. I have a way of trying to repress the fact that my favourite shows are over by not thinking too much about the endings).

And I also know there were some budget issues, personnel issues, CW issues so I also cut the show some slack for all that stuff affecting the writing. I also think that with everything that happened since the season 3 finale and season 4 only beginning to set up New Seattle, it would definitely have taken more than season 5 to unwrap all of those plot-points in a really all-around satisfactory way. Especially since s4 also spent a significant amount of time on the whole Brother Love plot which then ended with the season finale, meaning it gives season 5 barely any material to build on BUT also stealing a lot of time they could have invested in starting to set up a satisfactory finale in s5. I heard a lot of people say that the ending was rushed ...and yeah IT WAS - but honestly, I don't see how you resolve a zombie-Seattle under the control of a mercenary army being threatened with nuclear destruction in just 12 episodes without breaking a few eggs.)

What I don't understand is that they knew they had this time problem and then...spend a lot of time introducing so many new plot points and focussing on new ideas and elements. For example, I think the whole Dead-Enders plotline was not very compelling, rushed and...I don't know, I just didn't feel particularly intrigued. Especially since it was introduced so late in the show.

Or Liv's father being Beanpole Bob - for one, I didn't really care about Liv's father up to that point bc...she never really seemed to care. I didn't even really take much notice of the fact that she didn't have a father around and it didn't feel like something we were supposed to be invested in. Honestly, up until that point, Liv didn't seem to care much about her father at all. There was no significant journey to find him, and I wished they had dedicated more time to exploring her relationships with her actual relatives and their falling-out after the season 1 finale. Maybe even really dedicate an episode just to the Moore family. Hell, give me Evan Moore as a narrator, talking about his feelings over the last few years. It would have been better if they had delved into those dynamics earlier instead of cramming them into the last season.

And perhaps this is a personal preference, but as someone who is also fatherless and okay with it, it's a bit irksome from a feminist perspective how just HAD to give us a father to Liv. It feels as though we were suddenly supposed to care deeply about the identity of our female protagonist's creator and rejoice in this revelation. Like they thought we were watching this entire show wondering desperately where Liv's father is and why she doesn't have one around. Especially since the Moore-family is very well-situated and successful and is clearly managing just fine - while the media often likes to make deadbeat dads look like a problem specific to precarious living situations. I think it would have been good to show a family that is well-off, successful without a man around and no, you don't have to ask where the father is, just be normal about it. And yes, Liv's mom is toxic in many ways - but I genuinely think that this is something that never really is resolved, for better of for worse because suddenly we have a father for Liv to care about. They spend so much time on Blaine and Angus horrible father - son dynamic that it feels a bit annoying that they never fully explored the disturbed mother - daughter dynamic between Liv and her mother.

Also, the whole twist of discovering that Liv, who became a zombie simply by being in the wrong place at the wrong time, and had no involvement in drugs or related activities, happens to have a father who was connected to the creation of the zombie virus and the Boat-Party Massacre felt just too contrived. It didn't sit well with me; it felt forced.

(sorry, I know this isn't really about the ending itself but I got carried away)

As for zombie-island - I feel like pretty much everything has already been said about the issues with that entire solution. The biggest problem I see is...with eternity. It doesn't really feel like much of a resolution to me.

Take the idea that you now have terminally ill people getting infected and living on the island. This is going to get very crowded very soon - not to mention the rise in brain demands - this would mean over time, it would really difficult to keep this place working without once again giving power to brain dealers and brain smugglers (also, again: eternity. Islands aren't exactly getting bigger these days, with the oceans rising). And if the good-will and brain donations depend on people being a lot more pro-zombie because they're helping sick people, then this sentiment can also turn sideways very quickly when they start rejecting people because they cannot feed them anymore. It would be the same problem they had in Seattle. Moods change, governments change, problems change. It feels unrealistic to me that just because there is a cure now, people are just going to be fine with this for the rest of time. (This is part of the reason why I at least made it a government secret in one of my fics)

Not to mention what it means for the main-characters. Again, this is a bit of a personal opinion but...I never really liked stagnant endings. The kind of endings that are 'well they're living in small house in the countryside now and have 5000 kids and don't work anymore'. That kind of Peter Fox Haus am See ending. Especially not if it's for all eternity. Because that's...not really a happy ending to me, unless e.g. that person was always shown to have really longed for that or maybe they spent their entire life without having peace like that. For example, Liv and Major taking care of kids together is something I enjoy because this was something they both wanted - Liv wanted kids and Major was a social worker who lost his job because of this situation. But especially Liv was always an extremely driven person - she was always in motion, always chasing that feeling of accomplishment. And a big deal in the show was her realisation that she was chasing things that weren't actually making her happy and that she wasn't doing what she did because she believed in it. She had to learn to do what she thought was right and important over what others thought was right and important. She had to learn that she wasn't taking the time to rest and look around and take in the sights and live.(In fact, one of the many things I consider zombism to be a metaphor is - at least in the early days - Liv suffering from burn-out). And the ending feels like it's going into the opposite extreme and I don't think she would be happy, spending literal eternity living in secret on an island. Like...what's going to happen to her? It still hasn't really been answered.

(don't get me wrong! I'm excited that Major apparently got to live his dream of building outdoor furniture like he said in season 1).

The problem was never that Liv WAS a driven person or active person - the problem was that she applied it to the wrong things in the wrong measures. Her drive is one of her best traits and while she certainly deserves a few decades of peace and vacation and relaxation after all the events of the last 5 years, I don't think that would work for her for the rest of eternity. What will become of her? That question still hasn't been fully answered for me. The lives of the other main characters went on. I like that - even though I'm a bit sad that their group is kind of separated now and to be back together, they also have to live in stagnation.

So yeah, this is kind of my biggest reason why I'm not over the moon enthusiastic about the ending. I'm also not like...super-angry about it but I'm also not thrilled. It just wasn't one of those endings that are brilliant, for me. It's just...an ending.

As for Blaine and Don E:

Honestly, I'm going to out myself here ... I think it's a fitting ending for them. On the one hand, I think it is intentionally a somewhat ambiguous ending. Blaine and Don E were fan-favourite characters but they were also pretty awful people AND especially Blaine also had some parts of the audience that really, really hated him - so it's a bit hard to find an ending for those two that works for everyone (and I mean, this one also clearly doesn't work for everyone).

But...the well-ending, even more so than the zombie-island ending, leaves room for speculation. Maybe they're down there for the rest of time, going Romero. (something that would be a giant fucking biohazard btw). Maybe the main gang just leaves them down there long enough to scare the shit out of them, before having someone fish them out, cure them and put them in prison. Maybe they climb out on their own (they're not weighed down like Angus was and it IS a pretty narrow well) and kill each other. Maybe they escape and play some Catch Me If You can and finally make up again. Maybe one of them kills the other and gets away, maybe they both kill each other, or maybe they were killed by the fall. The opportunities are basically endless so everyone gets to have their cake and eat it.

Another reason I'm fine with the well-ending is that I'm a bit obsessive about the symbolism of the well (I'm going to make a really long post about this one of these days and will be legally declared insane) but long story really, really short: I think the well is a symbol of how Blaine never managed to truly define himself outside of his own upbringing and trauma. Despite how much he resents Angus, he also defines his own worth by the way Angus defined his (lack of) worth as a son: Angus is all about power, selfishness, capitalism, how feelings and compassion are weak and pathetic etc. Après moi le déluge. And his entire life, Blaine ran after those values, trying to accomplish something in this framework. His efforts to do something else were very brief and dishonest (like the amnesia-thing where he tried to live a lie with Peyton).

His only idea of changing was being seen differently by others - but never to actually work on himself. He could never bring himself to commit to the idea that if his father is such a horrible person it doesn't matter if he thinks that Blaine is a failure - that it is, in fact, a badge of honour for a guy like Angus to consider him a failure. (I think this is at least partially because Angus is the only person left from Blaine's childhood. He could never even really bring himself to kill him, he just freezes him or dangles him in a well and talks to him).

Blaine never found friends of his own other than Don E, never went to therapy, he could easily have moved to a new city, found a job there, gotten married to someone or done whatever the hell he wanted with his life that WASN’T mass-murder and become a fully self-actualised person. And sure, he would probably always have carried that trauma and pain with him - but we can't change the pain we carry within us. But we can do is decide whether we're going to do something about it and grow - or whether we're always going to venerate what was done to us and try to climb into a shell to keep that from happening again. A very important aspect of Blaine's storyline was always that he felt entitled to act the way he does in order to get rich and reclaim the privilege he was born into and that he feels he's owed. And for me, the well and his relationship with it, his talking to the well, throwing his father in there (even instead of killing him!) really symbolises how much he's a prisoner of his own pain and of his own stunted self-image and that's why in the end - he ends up being devoured wholly by the well. The more unhinged he becomes, the more he becomes part of the well.

And...as for Don E - and I know this is probably the even more controversial point bc I know a lot of people wanted a redemption arc for him: As it stands, I'm also fine with him going down the well. The reason I stand with that is specifically the exchange he had with Peyton when he found out that Blaine had killed Darcy - he was absolutely fine, even amused with everything Blaine did UNTIL he learnt that it affected him this time. His response to learning that Blaine had killed some girl was literally "well we all have our hobbies". And that's really always been his thing, honestly. Yes, he did less genuinely awful things than Blaine - but he also never really spoke up against them. He was always happy to profit from Blaine's bullshit and sit on the bandwagon as long as it got him forward. So him getting the same ending even if he's not directly as bad as Blaine - I feel fine with it.

Now, mind you, I'm not entirely against Blaine and/or Don E getting a redemption arc if it had been done right (and it would have had to be done early enough). However, in Don E's case, it would have required more than just falling in love and caring deeply about another person like he did with Darcy. I think it should have required some initiative regarding something that isn't just him protecting something or avenging something or someone he cares about.

I understand that many people view Blaine as beyond redemption, but honestly, the point of no return for me would have been if he had simply become friends with the main gang, especially if someone like Peyton or another female character did all the work to fix him (as he intended with the amnesia arc). If he had shown personal growth and started establishing moral boundaries on his own at some point and chosen something like compassion or idealism or morality over profit and personal power, and if it had been handled intelligently and with care, I would have been okay with that. Nevertheless, I'm not upset or saddened that they didn't go that route, because it's a delicate matter that could have easily gone awry, and I prefer him not being redeemed over a poorly executed redemption arc that mishandles his character.

Things that I would change:

Small thing I think about a lot: I would have made Al Bronson the relative or former teacher or friend or maybe a girlfriend (I guess she's a little too old for that) of one the kids Blaine killed in season 1. I liked that he got his comeuppance for what he did to those kids and that he got outed as a child murderer but I feel like the fact that she's the niece of Mr Boss cheapens it a little. For one: Al Bronson is the one who manages what no one else previously could do - she really brought down Blaine. This would be a lot cooler if she was e.g. the sister of one of the kids from season 1. By making her Mr Boss niece, her accomplishment kind of falls onto a male character and Blaine's punishment suddenly becomes more about the gang war he started in season 2 rather than the kids he exploited in season 1. He openly admits that he killed those kids because no one was going to notice or care or investigate for long - so someone genuinely caring about them and THIS causing Blaine's fall would have been great. But now it's just...part of another scheme in the endless scheme-war these guys got goingand Mr Boss gets away with everything and doesn't receive his due punishment despite also being pretty awful.

In the grand scheme, I would have avoided introducing so many new things in the finale, like the Dead-Enders.

I wouldn't have introduced Liv's dad. I genuinely don't care about meeting Liv's dad. Instead, I would have wanted more episode with her established family.

I really didn't like that they killed Michelle

maybe an ending where the main gang is a bit closer together

and I mean, if I had all the power ever to make changes, I'd have...maybe dropped a few cases of the week in order to stretch the resolution over a few more episodes.

Heck, if I had all the powers in the world ever (and budget, I'd just have made a season 6)

#sorry this took a while bc I accidentally opened it in two tabs and tumblr kept resetting my changes t_t #izombie #fandom #spoilers I guess

[tellthemeerkatsitsfine]

Every once in a while, I do Chortle headlines round-ups. But this time, it's their external headlines list that caught my eye and seemed worth posting:

Yep, that seems to me like a solid summary of comedy news from August 2023. I've been obsessively following comedy in the last month - I mean I'm always obsessively following comedy but I've been especially doing it in the last month because I wish I were in Edinburgh and I want to vicariously live through everyone who was - and this seems like pretty much the cliff notes of what you'd learn if you were following Britcom in the last month.

Eddie Izzard is happy and performing a collection of the best stuff of her long career and it's fucking great. Edinburgh Fringe Festival living is tough, it's too expensive for the comedians and for the audience, that's a big problem. The Edinburgh Fringe Festival is full of comedians telling their traumatic stories. John Robins is getting his shit together (honestly, I did read that article and it made me feel a bit guilty for how I recently said in a post that I like the angry bitter version of him so I'm a bit sorry that he's getting better - of course comedians can still be great after getting therapy, often they can be better after getting therapy, James Acaster's brilliant latest show is a great example of that, of course I'm happy about John Robins getting his life to a better place, I was being flippant about John Robins' problems in that other post, reading that article made me want to stop being flippant for a minute and say I really am glad he's taking better care of himself, and I am sure he can make greater comedy than ever in the wake of that). Stewart Lee is maybe autistic - yeah, I knew that, I heard him talk about that possible diagnosis in his show last year, I got a bit emotional hearing from this guy whose comedy has never been especially personal or emotionally vulnerable, but it has been cynical and pedantic in a way I relate to, so hearing he might have this major thing in common with me got to me on an emotional level, and God damn it, why did he have to ruin it by doing the "rich successful man leaves age-appropriate wife for woman half his age" thing that makes me no longer want to relate to him at all?

That's five of the six stories in this round-up. The sixth being - God damn it, Mark, what the fuck? And I know, I know, we're not supposed to care, we're not supposed to put strangers on a pedestal and then be upset when they fail to live up to our standards. I know, I know, but what the fuck, Mark? Hell of a thing to leave out, that is, of all that material you did for all those years about the ending of your marriage. Hell of a thing to leave out, to people who were listening to that material and thinking we knew what you were talking about. What the fuck? I mean... how did you even... three fucking years? Are you fucking kidding me? Just on a practical level, that is so long. No, no, it's fine, I wasn't tying my faith in humanity to the idea of Mark Watson being perfect or anything.

And, no, sorry obviously I was in fact tying my faith in humanity to that, but also, I don't think I am being ridiculous with my pedestal or demanding too much perfection, because surely "if you're going to cheat on your wife don't do it for three whole years, and if you are going to do that then don't spend years doing material about how hard the end of the marriage was without mentioning that little detail, not that you have to tell us every bit of your personal life if you don't want to, but don't talk about it in your comedy at all if you want to leave out the part where it was all your own fault" isn't too fucking much to ask? Fucking hell, Mark. Why? Why, Mark? Mark. Mark, what the fuck?

Anyway. I feel like that screenshot is Britcom in August 2023 in a nutshell. John Robins is okay, Stewart Lee and Mark Watson have news that will disappoint you, Edinburgh Fringe is trauma-filled and expensive. And Eddie Izzard is doing great. Good for her.

[foodfightnovelization]

Hey there! I found your blog last Wednesday, and I gotta say, it's about time someone showed this misbegotten movie some love! I've also been reading Ziggy Cashmere's ebook Drawing For Nothing, which includes all sorts of old material from the film - and even directs you to an early draft of the script! Awesome-sauce! Aside from that, I want to know your thoughts on the proposed franchise Larry wanted to make out of the movie, including sequels, video games, books, live stage performances, etc.?

Thank you so much! I'm so glad you're enjoying my blog, and yes, Drawing For Nothing is fantastic isn't it? There's a lot more where that came from too, with Ziggy currently working on a documentary called "ROTTEN: Behind Foodfight" (see my last post for more info on that). It should be coming out very soon, so stay tuned for that! I was fortunate enough to be involved in it, even making a small cameo at one point in it, and I can't wait for everyone to see the plethora of incredible behind-the-scenes material he's uncovered.

And yes, I read that early draft of the Foodfight! script a while ago and I'm planning on making a post talking about it (alongside... other exciting things) once the documentary is out It's a draft from April 2005 and is VERY similar to the novelization, but there are still a bunch of interesting differences worth discussing. For one, the script includes all the real-world mascot cameos intended to be in the movie (such as M&Ms, Pringles, Oscar Mayer etc.) which were excluded from the novelization presumably due to brand deals not extending to merchandising. This actually leads to some surprising changes in the plot and dialogue, some of which I find incredibly funny, so there'll be a whole lot to talk about!

Anyway, as for my thoughts on the proposed franchise? I think it could've worked, I really do. Not to the extent Larry Kasanoff dreamed of- I don't think there was anyway the proposed "Foodfight! On Ice" show was ever going to happen (there's no way the Brand X soldiers could goosestep in iceskates, come on now). I think that's dreaming too big too soon, the "Disney On Ice" shows didn't happen until Disney had already been making movies for decades. That said, I do think if the production of Foodfight! hadn't been so horribly mismanaged and had come out when it was intended to it would've been somewhat of a hit, and to that end some of the merchandising ideas were really smart. Stuff like the tie-in videogame, children's books, and videogames were just what a lot of movies had back then- this was 2006, every movie had a sidescroller on the GBA and a 3D platformer on the PS2. From what little we've seen of the game it's impossible to know how good it would've been, but those kind of movie tie-ins are usually pretty harmless.

As for the other merchandise, a lot of it WAS released...and I think it's pretty great for what it is! If all of the books, toys etc. had just released alongside the movie if it came out in 2006 as intended, then they'd just seem like exactly what they are - merchandise made to promote a recently released children's film, and there'd be nothing much to discuss about them. They're all only so fascinating because the movie itself came out so badly, and so the merchandise provides a glimpse at what might've been had things gone better. That said, I still desperately want to make a post talking about the Deluxe Sound Storybook at some point (unfortunately it's absurdly expensive).

I don't think Foodfight! ever would've been popular enough to warrant a sequel- I think it would've been like Hoodwinked where some people look back on it fondly but it's largely been forgotten over the years, and I don't think Threshold (the studio who animated Foodfight!) would have ever been the "next Pixar" like Larry Kasanoff thought they'd be either. But maybe in another world, where the production of Foodfight! went as smooth as butter, for a time there'd have been a real Cinnamon Sleuth Cereal with a free Dex Dogtective toy inside. Ten years later someone would make a post on Reddit saying "Hey! Anyone else remember Cinnamon Sleuth?" and a series of pointless arguments about the movie's usage of product placement would flare up in the comments. And that wouldn't be such a bad legacy to have, right...?

#foodfight #dex dogtective #cinnamon sleuth #daredevil dan #lady x

[hopalongfairywren]

Sam Bucket Lore liveblogging

FUCK WE'RE LIVE

lore is starting in nine minutes ok. I can wait.

quackity inspires him omg. cc!Quackity really did raise the dsmp to new levels. It was already great but he made it fucking cinematic

tina shoutout! Everyone say thank you to cc!tina she is the reason

Sam bucket. I will never get tired of cc!sam saying saaam buuucket

wait its not over till its over... Huh. Damnit their goes my friday night

c!george cameo? They really are shoehorning in every lore deficient person into these finales huh.

creepy music ooh. I love the music its not spooky month yet but i feel like the music makes it come early.

jumpscares? Fuck. The things I do for minecraft lore

Bad, minecraft is fucking terrifying

Oh thank god the timeline is saved

STARTING

oh god it has a "disturbing content warning" and its crackling like a found footage thingy. Well dsmp fandom if I don't see a shit ton of halloween/horror projects after this imma be mad

recap! with creepy music!

god damn it im already on edge

c!sam thank you for having more reason than the average horror protagonist

YESS. WAIT KNIGHTS OF HOPE? WILL THEY JOIN? AU MATERIAL?

talk to foolish? At the same time as perhaps... the knights of hope... so interconecting lore and plotlines that compliment each other?

No one would come. Nobody trusts c!sam or c!bad because of their actions. Jesus christ. That's my angsty interpretation but it's probably everyone just going; "Well ghosts are real, you can revive the dead, their was a parasitic red egg that tried to kill us, but that..? That's ridiculous lol. Go take your meds."

c!sam is fucking terrified and trying to reassure himself that maybe this isn't real. I wouldn't exactly call it gaslighting (can we not water down the term gaslighting is actively malicious-)

Oh. He brought up being stuck in the egg. Get him c!Sam.

Past lorestream being mentioned in canon? consistency for lore/characters/timeline? Can this stream kiss me pls?

FUUUCK

why does the music sound like fnaf phone ringing stuff

aaand they split up. theyre totally dead

sam bucket

ok but imagine from an in universe perspective how terrifying this is. I'll make a detailed post later

fuck the worst thing is when its to dark you can't see the threat

is he gonna do the horror classic of sneaking into the monster?

YEP

EGG AINT GONE YET EGG MAINS STAY WINNING

jesus christ they took notes from classic horror movies didn't they

Oh god the og eggpire. This makes the current eggpire's actions even more horrifying. They knew they were wrong. they did it anyways.

And yet more proof that the dsmp has been inhabited long before c!dream and will be long after!

Sam bucket

Francis? FRAN?

Callahan? Dream? Slime? Who knows who started this take ur pick!

Oh god I was right. The eggpire people would have had a few momments of lucidity. Scp Slowburn sloth nightmarefuel shit right their

Oh he wanted his dog. Oh. :(

SAM BUCKET WAS WARNING THEM? OH? OH? (pls tell me this is the truth no sudden attack no jumpscare let sam bucket be good)

ok now i feel bad for what im gonna do with sam bucket in pitdd :(

Wait is this a trick? Oh fuck. FUCK.

Is he sacrificing himself or Bad?

Oh HIMSELF?

Now I REALLY feel bad for what I'm gonna do with sam bucket lore in pitdd. Ah well I wrote it back when sam bucket was new and its important

HE PULLED A SKEPPY REFRENCE WTF

OK that ending. I DID NOT SUSPECT THAT ENDING

So many questions. Is Sam bucket good? did he trick c!bad? Did he somehow escape after destroying the egg? did he kill c!bad after this or get him posessed? This doesn't end until cc!sam gets raided so I guess we have to find out....

Oh god back to the scary part no more whismical music

THE EGG IS FROM THE FUCKING NETHER?

Ok this left more questions then answers why did sam bucket show up outside after he blocked himself off. The implication of the Egg being from the nether. If this is the end I'll be confused.

oh wow this is late i forgot to publish it woops

#dream smp #dsmp #sam bucket #dsmp liveblogging #dsmp lore #awesamdude #c!sam #badboyhalo #c!bad #dsmp horror #horror tw #egg #the egg

[queenofbaws]

so like what is the deal with the washington parents? They dont really seem to care about their children. Josh‘ issues and the twins literally dying. are they not concerned? Or just dont show it? Do you think it was different when they were children? What kind of relationship do you think the twins and josh had with their parents?

---

aw man, an excellent question this chilly evening! i mean, in the canon material at least, i think the washington parents just suffer from 'don't look too close at the background characters shhhhhhhhhh' disease, where we just weren't supposed to think about them...

but if you're lookin' for my headcanons ohoho. ohoooo. HOO BOY. i got those. ;Pc

i want to preface this by saying for everything i am about to rant about, there is maybe like. 3 sentences in the source material to support. the rest, as you might imagine, is simply the product of me staring at my ceiling at night and writing in-depth character bios in my head. think barbie doll soap operas but with people who dress like they've never experienced snow before in their lives.

whenever i think about the washingtons, the first word that always pops into my head is COMPLICATED. i think they're a complicated bunch. i do think they love each other, and i do think they care about each other, i just also think there's some distance there. i've always very much been of the belief that josh and the twins were closer to each other than any of them were to their parents, but i don't think that means there isn't love there - just that it's, again, COMMMMPLICATED XD

i think the major issue in the washington fam, as a general rule, is denial. 'pretend it's not a problem and it won't be one.' is that a major issue in my family? perhaps. is this just me projecting? who's to say. but at the end of the day, i think there's a lot of avoidance and distance when it comes to talking about The Big Bad Stuff. we see that in josh, at least, how he just tamps stuff down and lets it fester, so i always just assumed he had to get that from SOMEWHERE. there are also little niblets of this here and there with like, hannah's diary suggesting she wasn't aware of what was going on with josh when he was in and out of the hospital.

so in my head, i tend to translate that as the MOMENT the washington parents realized the situation with beth and hannah was what it was, they both just absolutely, without question, 110% threw themselves into their work so they wouldn't have to think about it. not the healthiest way to go, to be sure, but...i don't know, that's just always the picture i had in my head. in the basement, josh leads sam to believe that his dad's been pretty distant ever since the movie thing took off anyway, so i just sort of stretched that into "and now that things are so fuckin grim here all the time, he's really not around." i like to believe that means it was different when they were kids, that maybe the family was closer and they spent more time together, but i'm sure the whole 'suddenly winning award(s) in hollywood' thing affected how much time they got to spend together.

i sort of paint that in broader strokes in t(a), mostly because whenever we're really dealing with the washington family dynamic stuff, we're seeing it through josh's eyes and he's Goin Thru It, but for what it's worth, in my head i always imagine there's some sort of familial reconciliation when *plugs fingers in ears and talks real loud so i can't hear anyone say the word 'canon'* JOSH AND ALL THE OTHERS GET HOME AFTER WHAT HAPPENS AFTER THE LODGE BLOWS UP LA LA LA LA LA LAAAAA!

this was a lot of rambling for me to get across that YES, i do think the washingtons care about their kids, i just think they're maybe not great at showing it. i think they all need to be seeing dr hill for weekly sessions, that's what i think.

#submission #save-the-dandelions #asks #gonna go ahead and tag this as #the almosts #since thats where said headcanons gelled XD

[drukhari]

hey tristan,

not too get too deep on your tumblr but... idk been feeling weird lately. i've been kinda taking this little break from everything, and i'm back home (altho it's not always chill time with family and all) but idk... i know there's no rush to figure out what you wanna do in life and all, and that it doesn't even have to be this one thing, it can be multiple things too and there's also no need for a ''one purpose'' kind of thing, that you can literally just be and that's it but its just... idk it's been about a year since i've been back home and i know i wanna move abroad but i dont really know what to do, like at all. Like i'm not spiralling or anything but it's just a feeling that's been at the back of my mind for a while now and it's still there, and idk i had kinda hoped that taking a break from everything would help get that energy and ''passion'' (for lack of better word) back, but not really. Mental health wise, it's been a great time to sit back but life wise, next steps-wise and all that, i feel like i'm still in the same place and still don't know what i should do next. i go on linkedin and i start looking at jobs and i have no idea what im looking for

anyways, what do you do when you feel like this? lowkey wanna do buzzfeed test that will tell me what i should next based on my favourite ways to eat pasta or something

That one's tough anon, not gonna lie. I used to feel that way a lot when I was in college and it used to keep me up at night sometimes because it seemed like everyone else had found that "thing" that they wanted for their lives and they at least had somewhat of an idea how to start proceeding in that direction, but in my case it felt like I had too many things I'd be just "fine" doing and nothing that I was really pulled towards. I was changing majors all the time and generally just felt like I was untethered from anything concrete in terms of planning a future.

And like you mentioned, you can absolutely know that some people dont have just 1 thing they do over the course of their life and that its completely ok not to know what you want...but knowing those things and really being able to internalize and feel them for yourself is a whole other ball game.

The feeling ultimately ended up going away on its own eventually, after a lot of time spent just burying myself in my hobbies, my connections with other people around me, the parts of my jobs that I didn't hate and just generally learning to appreciate the experience of living a life that didn't revolve around finding and advancing in a career.

Not that there's anything wrong with wanting to advance in a job that you enjoy, sometimes advancement at a job isn't about the material/ego based aspects of climbing the ladder so much as it's about getting to work on cooler stuff (which is the case in my job).

It was like I was too busy doing other things to realize that I couldn't pin down a 5 year plan for the life of me if asked, until one day I woke up and realized I still didn't have a 5 year plan beyond "keep learning and doing more things that interest me, keep enjoying the life I live as much as I can, and fuck anyone who says I should feel bad for not having more than that figured out".

You mentioned you took some time away just to sort of re-center yourself and that's great tbh. It may not feel like it yet but that time away may have some hidden lessons to it that you're not even aware of yet that will help lead you to the next step, or maybe it'll hit you out of nowhere like some kind of Jimmy Neutron Brain Blast-esque moment, but focusing on just enjoying each day, chasing your interests wherever they lead you (within reason, ofc) and being on the lookout for new experiences to try are all things that eventually helped me to get to that point, so maybe they'll be of some help to you along the way too.

[irkimatsu]

Caught up on Hazbin Hotel! It's a fun ride! I don't have nearly enough words for it - there's someone in my circle way, way better at that when it comes to this - but I did want to ramble a little bit:

-Charlie. CHARLIE. I am about 60% here for Charlie. You could have told me nothing about this show besides "the Princess of Hell is basically a shoujo protagonist" and you would have gotten me from there. Is my love for Charlie proof of my namby-pamby hippie ways of love and kindness and forgiveness? Probably! But it's fine. I love Charlie. I want to know her dreams of redemption are possible. (Sometimes I really need to know that you really can be redeemed no matter how badly you've fucked up...)

-I'm also really loving Husk. How much is the personality and how much is the character design? No clue. (I'm a furry, baby~) He's a good straight man, though, and someone that most of this hotel's residents are gonna need, especially Angel. Glad I'm not the only one on the Husk/Angel train, looking forward to where that's going

-Sir Pentious is a pathetic baby man and I love pathetic baby men. (My main fandom is still an anime about six pathetic baby men, after all.) While there's other characters I care more about as a whole, I fully expect to be laughing my shit off every time this guy's on screen. Idiot. <3

-God damn the music is good, just as I expected after years of Helluva Boss. Standouts so far are "Poison" (obviously, even though that scene fucking hurt to watch - which isn't a complaint, it did what it was supposed to); "Stayed Gone" (Vox is such a petty bitch and damn do I see why a friend of mine favors Alastor, he's effective as hell); and "Loser Baby" (maybe because I literally just watched it and boarded the Husk/Angel train, but hey, it was fun, and a desperately needed cleanser after "Poison". You know "Poison" was rough when a cheerful song about how much your lives suck is a cleanser.) There hasn't been a dud yet, though! Gonna have to loop the soundtrack to commit everything to memory, though that might wait until the whole season's out. Don't want to not give later songs a fair shake because I was too busy looping the earlier ones.

-If I have to complain a little, I do admit to being lost on some things, and I don't know how much of that is "I'm supposed to be lost, they'll explain later", "I'm dumb and didn't absorb things properly", or "that was explained in side materials". I hope most of it is those first two and not the third - side materials are fun, but I do think the show should be able to stand on its own. Even with the pilot - is that on Amazon? I don't know because I watched the show, um, elsewhere. I have my doubts about it, though, since so much changed between the pilot and the main show, as it tends to happen with pilots. If it's not, that does feel like a bit of a problem, since I think this show has its best chance of success if someone sees it turns up in their recommended section, knows nothing about it but thinks it looks cool, and tunes in there. Treats for the dedicated fans are great, but continuity lockout makes it hard for newbies to care, and I'd rather this didn't turn into "well you're not a real fan because you didn't read all the side comics and blog posts". No elitism, please! Let people who don't live on the Internet enjoy the funny demon show, too!

-Twitter is annoying and my engagement with this show in public will probably be slim-to-zero because this show's hatedom is one of the most obnoxious I've seen in a long time. It's fine to hate the show, obviously, but god, all the reaching for straws to prove that everyone who watches this show is evil and supports all the crime in the world. It's okay, you don't have to like the violent Hell show where people say fuck. It's not for everyone. You don't need to prove you're better than everyone else for not liking it. It's fine, love, it's fine. Of course there's stuff to criticize, every show can be critiqued, but "it's gross for Niffty to make sex jokes because she's tiny"? Go away with that shit.

I hope at least some of this was coherent. Looking forward to more!

#irk blubbers about nothing #nope not tagging this not going there #no fandoms only friends

[cksmart-world]

SMART BOMB

The Completely Unnecessary News Analysis

By Christopher Smart

December 19, 2023

A PSYCHIC, A PROPHET, 'REAL HOUSEWIVES' AND AN EYEPATCH

Holy moly, have you heard the latest about the “Real Housewives of Salt Lake City.” They're in Bermuda hanging out together, which is weird when you consider they hate each other. Lucky for us, our old pal Scotty Pierce at The Salt Lake Tribune, keeps us informed: “Monica tells Lisa that Meredith is spreading rumors that Angie is in the Greek mafia and, among other things, owes $170,000 to the IRS.” But wait, there's more fun news: Tim Ballard, the dude who used to run Operation Underground Railroad (OUR) that claims to rescue trafficked children, is up to his neck in alligators and allegations of sexual misconduct and assault. Get this: he hired a psychic to find the trafficked children. So cool. According to investigation documents, Ballard commissioned psychic Janet Russon, who reportedly communicated with Nephi, the Mormon prophet who lived around 600 B.C. For the record, Russon said she didn't talk to Nephi. The whole thing gets rather messy. But not as wacky as the Real Housewives: “For her birthday dinner, Monica wants everyone to dress like a pirate,” Pierce writes. “Whitney has some difficulty with her pirate costume: 'My outfit came with a G string and I thought it was an eyepatch and I put it on.'” You just can't make this stuff up.

STUDY: MORNING PEOPLE HAVE NEANDERTHAL DNA

Hey Wilson, there finally is some real evidence that the guys in the band aren't cavemen. A study reveals that Neanderthals were morning people. We are not making this up. Scientist compared DNA in living humans to genetic material from Neanderthal fossils. The elephant in the room, of course, is how did that Neanderthal DNA get into humans. Yes Wilson, you do know the answer: the old fashioned way, they did the dirty deed. Some time 50,000 or 60,000 years ago your great grandmother-to-the-100thpower got it on with one of those studly redheaded cavemen. But don't say anything to the White Christian Nationalists, it could ruin their day, what with their “pure white people” thing. Creationists, of course, find this Neanderthal stuff crazy — it flies in the face of The Bible. Many of them believe the Earth and all its beings are only 6,000 years old. And after all, if evolution were true, why isn't every other baby born a chimpanzee. But we digress. Homo sapiens appeared about 300,000 years ago in Africa and eventually migrated to Europe where they found our cousins, Homo neanderthalensis, and the prehistoric dating game began. Somewhere around 40,000 years ago Neanderthals disappeared. Maybe that morning person thing isn't all it's cracked up to be, after all.

THE REAL REASON JOE BIDEN SHOULD BE IMPEACHED

You've heard it before: justice delayed is justice denied and that's why Republicans are pushing ahead with an impeachment inquiry into Hunter Biden, er, uh, his father. Democrats say there is nothing there — but wait, there may be evidence that points to something like evidence on Hunter Biden's laptop that he lost when stoned out of his gourd. The president's son snorted and whored his way across Europe throwing his father's name around like a Black Friday close-out to entice big shots to fork over large bucks. Rumors have it the FBI might be hiding evidence of evidence that Hunter got $5 million hidden in a Virgin Mary figurine from a dude with ties to Barisma, a Ukrainian gas company. Barisma, Barisma, Benghazi, Benghazi... The reputed evidence of the smoking Virgin Mary was slipped to the Trump Justice Department by special counsel to President Trump, Secret Agent Rudy Giuliani, after he roamed around eastern European card rooms before the 2020 election. The theoretical evidence of potential evidence is a FD-1023 internal document from a confidential informant who could appear any minute at Hunter Biden's impeachment inquiry. Then Americans will know that Donald Trump isn't the only criminal running for president.

Post script — That's just about going to do it for another smoggy week here in the City of Salt where we keep track of deadly air pollution so you don't have to. Just pretend it's not killing your children and remember Utah's mantra — Growth, Growth, Growth. OK Wilson, the word of the week is Schadenfreude — joy over others misfortune. It popped up following reports that the chairman of the Florida GOP and his wife were having a menage a trois, aka three-way, with another woman. Christian Ziegler and his wife Bridget, who is cofounder of the conservative extremist group Moms for Liberty and sits on the Sarasota School Board, caught the spotlight when the other woman accused Mr. Ziegler of rape. He denied the allegation but the power couple's cover is blown. Darn. Next time we'll review the word, Hypocrite. If you think our morals are slipping, check this out: Mike Johnson, the new speaker of the house, once won a lawsuit that captured $18 million in tax money for a Noah's Ark amusement park in Kentucky that features a huge vessel said to be like the one in the biblical flood. It was created by Answers in Genesis, a creationist organization that believes God created the Earth in six days and the world is 6,000 years old. Your tax dollars at work. Say amen.

Well Wilson, we ought to get the band to do something for those poor morning people who worry that they'll pass on Neanderthal DNA to their children. But it can't be all bad, the Neanderthals may have had the key to a better lifestyle. So hit it, Wilson:

In man's evolution he has created the cities and The motor traffic rumble, but give me half a chance And I'd be taking off my clothes and living in the jungle 'Cos the only time that I feel at ease Is swinging up and down in a coconut tree Oh what a life of luxury to be like an ape man I'm an ape, I'm an ape ape man, I'm an ape man I'm a King Kong man, I'm a voo-doo man I'm an ape man

I look out my window, but I can't see the sky 'Cos the air pollution is fogging up my eyes I want to get out of this city alive And make like an ape man Come and love me, be my ape man girl And we will be so happy in my ape man world I'm an ape man, I'm an ape ape man, I'm an ape man I'm a King Kong man, I'm a voo-doo man I'm an ape man

I'll be your Tarzan, you'll be my Jane I'll keep you warm and you'll keep me sane And we'll sit in the trees and eat bananas all day Just like an ape man I'm an ape man, I'm an ape ape man, I'm an ape man I'm a King Kong man, I'm a voo-doo man I'm an ape man. I don't feel safe in this world no more I don't want to die in a nuclear war I want to sail away to a distant shore And make like an ape man.

(Apeman — The Kinks)

[elletromil]

So my thoughts about FFXVI! Obviously ALL THE SPOILERS

(under a readmore cause its gonna be long and all over the place)

I seriously really enjoyed the game!

I would not call it perfect, but then again, i wouldn't call any game perfect anyway. It's easily in my top 5 favourite games though!

The combat was really fun and easy even for someone like me who isn't really skilled at it and the variety of items let me have a great experience. I even ended up abandonning some of the 'helpful' items after a while as i grew more confident.

Now story/character wise, let me preface what imma be talking by saying I knew very little going into the game.

I found out in january 2023 that ffxvi was releasing this year and went "omg i truly do live under a rock when it comes to video games releases :O" and quickly grow excited. I saw a total of one trailer and then decided i wouldn't spoil myself about anything and would find out for myself what the game was about.

So the stuff i knew going in was very limited. A) The main character was a dude with a younger brother. B) There was something about people being able to turn into big powerful magical beasts and the dude's brother was one of them. C) There was a good doggo in the game that you could even pet. Yes i did get the trophy for petting Torgal within the first minute the game finally allowed me to pet the dog.

For a long while I didn't know if i would actually get to play the game upon release since I didn't have a PS5, but then after much debate with myself (and annoying my good friends Red with the dilemma), I caved and bought myself a PS5. After all, back in the days, I bought the PS4 just so i could play FFXV (another one of my top 5 favourite games) so it seemed only fair.

It took me this long to finish the game for two reasons: life happening and also i didn't want to finish the game because then what would i do with my life? (Write this post apparently, after crying for a while over the ending)

Anyway, got the game started playing and immediately started refering to Clive as if he was myself whenever i texted/voice messaged my friend Britt about my progress. Usually a good sign.

I agreed quickly that Torgal was indeed the best doggo, decided I would die for Joshua and kinda went 'meh' at the budding romance between Jill and Clive (more on that one later, but spoilers alert: i changed my mind).

Then the plot happened.

I was very sad for my (Clive's) dad and all the other Shields of Rosaria who died. Refused to believe Joshua was dead. Decided i wouldn't know peace until i killed Clive's mother. Fun fact. Whenever I talked to my friend Britt, I would talk about the game as if what was happening to Clive as if it was me ('my dad is dead', 'i refuse to believe my brother is dead', 'i've branded now and basically a slave', etc) but i absolutely refused to refer to Annabella as 'my mom'. I would always say 'Clive's mother' because i did not claim that woman as having any relation to me. That's how much I hated her. Great character tho

But yeah. I think going into the game without knowing shit about the story was seriously the best decision I made.

I don't know if there is anything in the promo material that lets you know that Joshua is alive, but for the whole begining of the game, the game is very intent in making you believe he's very much dead. And I was very intent on not believing it for the only reason that I had not seen a body. The vindication I felt when I found out he was indeed alive? It was sweet beyond words

Also i mentionned i was gonna be all over the place with this and shit if I was right :D

Ok trying to give everything more of an order

On the characters

Clive: I love him ok? I love that as a young boy he could have chosen to hate his baby brother for getting everything he should have, but instead he loved him deeply and decided to become his Shield. And then when he's older, even if he's suspicious and guarded, it doesn't take long before he decides to help everyone. And even if he's very much the kind of character who takes everything upon his own shoulders, he still let other people helped. Sure sometime he needed to be reminded to do so, but hey he's only human. The game is very much about connection and the bonds linking all of the characters and they did a good job showing just that with the main character.

Cid: I fell in love instantly. I mean, what else was I supposed to do? That man appears when you (clive) think you've breathe your last breath and kills all your enemies with lightning before bringing you to safety. Took me 0.1 second to ship him with Clive. Also Cid's voice actor? Damn sir, love your voice. Also the first time he started coughing I went 'oh no. You're going to die aren't you?' So for the whole time with him, I *knew* he was doomed by the narrative. I held out hope that he would just be seriously injured and be confined at the hideaway for as long as I could. Basically when Clive first step into the new hideaway and you can't find Cid anywhere. Because yes, Clive going around being called Cid wasn't enough to convince me Cid hadn't miraculously survived. Anyway, loved Cid, loved his ideals, loved that he let himself be changed too by Clive and Jill. Loved how much even after his death, he was such a huge presence in the story. Not just because Clive has taken up his name (also forgot to mentionned how much i cried when we first realise that Clive is not only keeping Cir's legacy, but his very *name* alive. A lot. I cried a lot), but just because people keep remembering him. And every character would be open about the impact he had/still had on their lives.

Jill: My wife. I love her. I will die for her. So i mentionned how I was 'meh' at first with the budding romance when they are young. After falling instantly in love with Cid, I was prepared to you know, accept that Jill and Clive were the het romance and just more or less ignore it. And then the moment you can visit her in the infirmary and Clive speaks with her I went 'oh. The team behind final fantasy does it again and makes me care for their het couple SO MUCH WHAT THE FUCK. NOW KISS'. I spent the whole game telling them to kiss during cut scenes. Heck, whenever i would pet Torgal and Jill was in my party, i would take a second to go 'smooch' her even if there is no option for it. LET US SMOOCH OUR COMPANIONS SQUARE ENIX. Anyway. I love her. And I loved her and Clive relationship. I loved that she refused to let Clive do all the fighting, that she was doing her part too. That Clive trusted her and relied on her.

Torgal: Best doggo. Finding out that he was a special hound that basically took on the magic of all the dominants in his life he was loyal to fucking destroyed me emotionnally in the best way possible

Joshua: After it's revealed that he is truly alive, I don't know why exactly he still had to keep away from Clive, but i forgive him. Their reunion was really sweet. He was partly raised by a cult. Could have ended up way more fucked up all things considered. I really appreciate that, just like Jill, he took no shit from Clive. He's doing his part too, it's *their* world to save, not just Clive and he's gonna remind him as many time as he needs to.

Dion: I love him. Which is kind of a theme here, in case you haven't noticed yet xD Not many character I didn't love. Anyway, i loved him and I only wish we had much more of his backstory. That we could have played as him too maybe? I loved his dedication to his people, that he would stand up to the father he loved because he thought that was the right thing to do for the people they ruled over. I hurt for him so much for being made to cause so much pain and destruction. Even if I fully believed that even without all the guilt, he would still have done what was right at the very end at Origin, fuck if I wished he hadn't had to carry that. Or well, I wished we could have seen him afterward reunited with Terence and maybe not free of the guilt, but keeping afloat and channeling it into working to make everyone's life better. Also I was so happy when I found out he was queer and in a canon relationship with Terence omg??? Yes, there has been more and more video games with queer representation, but I was so happy to see it in final fantasy. And that it wasn't made into a big deal, that it seemed just as legitimate as a het romance in their world? Just like the soldier and the veil courtier in northreach, i just loved seeing those addition

Barnabas: HE WAS ANNOYING AS ALL FUCK! I just wanted to kill him and be done with it. At one point he more or less says 'I'm not a puppet. I just do what my lord Ultima tells me to do' SO YOU'RE A PUPPET THEN. THAT'S WHAT WE MEAN WHEN WE SAY SOMEONE IS A PUPPET MY DUDE.

Ultima: THEY WERE EVEN MORE ANNOYING THAN BARNABAS!! Basically Ultima was the cause of every problem. So they're a 'god'. They say 'we gave the miracle of magic' and in practially the same breath 'magic is the reason behind the blight'. Then that asshole discard their physical form, travel to somewhere untouched by the blight and goes 'you know what's missing here? Magic. Let's harvest the eather so i can do a giga spell that will allow me to get rid of the blight. The blight that's caused by magic. Also I need a physical body so imma plant the seed of humanity so after a few centuries i'll have a vessel that will allow me to cast the spell'. Which like ok. Personally i wouldn't conclude that the solution to the blight caused by the use of magic is MORE MAGIC, but you do you Ultima. At that point they only had themselves to fuck over with the decision. But then, they create humanity. Which ok fine. If you were really a god you wouldn't need humans for a vessel but whatever, we are not talking about your presumed godhood here. No the point that infuriates me is what comes next. 'While my plan was in action, i decided to wait the centuries i needed to wait by sleeping. And then *legasp*, humanity dared to develop a will while i was sleeping, the greatest sin of all'. And i'm like... BUT THATS A YOU PROBLEM YA CUNT? You created humanity without thinking to prevent them from growing a will of their own and then decided to sleep on the job? And now you are throwing a tantrum because they possibly have another solution to fix the problems *you* caused that doesn't involve them all dying? My good dude, if you truly were a god, you would have been able to destroy everyone's will easily and there would be no game. But! Even if they're second in the list of character i hate (1st place goes to Annabelle), i truly appreciate that the game pointed out how much of a hypocrite they were being via Clive and Joshua's dialogue after that info was revealed to them. I've read enough stuff where the 'god' is clearly an hypocrite and its just 'uwu, but they're a gos tho' to appreciate their 'ultima is a big hypocrite and humanity could have helped them too but they decided to abandon us so let's go kill a god' stance on the whole thing.

There are more characters of course but basically, i loved them all or loved hating them.

On the story

So i covered some of it with my talk about the characters but I enjoyed it? I loved that there was many layers to it.

The progression between 'political intrigue but with magic' to 'let's go kill a god and hopefully save the world' was, in my opinion, really well made. They bled nicely into one another and raised the stakes of the game progressively instead of throwing you directly into 'WE SHALL SAVE THE WHOLE WORLD' territory. Like nothing wrong with it, but it felt way more achievable with the progression.

I also loved how they brought the sidequests into it. To unluck sidequests you need to progress the main story and each sidequests help with the worldbuilding and character backstories. It makes you care a bit more about the people of that world, makes you want to fight so they can continue to live. It makes you hope for a happy ending, make you *believe* it's possible. If you do all the sidequests, it's pretty much about the same thing. People connecting, people coming together and working together for peace. For a world where everyone can live as they choose to do so.

And they did a very good job of making the people who had died still have a presence in the story. Cid and Elwin come to mind of course, but most allies had a story of having lost someone who made them into who they were and gave them a reason to fight for what they fought for.

Final Fantasy XVI is a lot about coming together. But it's also a lot about remembering who came before us. Of honoring their sacrifice, honoring their history. It's about coming together in the hope of not repeating the same mistakes. I loved that a lot.

Also i appreciate that you can complete all the sidequests before completing the main story. Because listen. I'm a sidequester. I will complete all of them as soon as they are available to me. And sure if it's after i completed the main game (looking at you FFXV) i will do it. But I won't be happy about it, especially if the sidequests do not change the ending. If it doesn't change the ending, let me do the sidequests before i finish the game and get emotionally destroyed

Also!! The dialogues with NPCs or overheard when your walk about!! I was so delighted that they would change depending of when in the story you were at?? I made sure I would go everywhere I could in between main story quests so that i would could hear everything.

As for the ending...

The thing with final fantasy games is i love the games. The endings are usually narratively satisfying. Do i agree with them tho? Fuck no. My heart is made of fluff ok? I want a happy ending everytime.

So that means imma completely ignore the bullshit ending that made me cry for about 30 minutes and will probably make me cry for the next few days whenever i remember it. Also i will cry whenever i replay the game. It won't be right now though, because I am still emotionnally unstable and restarting from the begining will kill me.

the only negative point about the game

Listen. Annabella? Good vilain character. I loved hating her.

BUT I WISH I COULD HAVE KILLED HER MYSELF OKAY?

I hope Clive would get to kill her. Or Dion. Or Joshua. Heck, before I realised how much of a creep Olivier was, I was even ready for that kid to kill her. I just wanted her to die at the end of one of her sons or Dion.

And ok sure, she had a pretty terrible death, but I wish i could have had my vengence on her for all the terrible stuff she caused.

#ffxvi #me #i've been writing this since i my previous post #i am RAMBLINGS BECAUSE I HAVE TOO MANY EMOTIONS #you can come talk to me about ffxvi too if you want