#player pandering sucks

[randomnameless]

I stumbled across one of your posts from a while ago where, in the tags, you compared Seteth caring more about Rhea telling Byleth the truth than whether or not she was safe at the end of Silver Snow to Kaze defecting to Nohr because of Corrin, in terms of the awfulness of the avatar worship.

While i agree with the former case being bad, i actually think that Kaze's defection is much more well-justified than Seteth suddenly caring more about Byleth than Rhea.

A fundamental part of Kaze's backstory and character is that he feels an immense amount of guilt for failing to save Corrin from being kidnapped by Nohr when he was supposed to be guarding them, to the point of said guilt getting him killed in Birthright if he doesn’t learn to move past his regrets and focus on the present by having a heart-to-heart with Corrin in their A-support; that, coupled with the fact that he only joins after personally witnessing Corrin go out of their way to avoid killing enemy soldiers, which concinces him that Corrin's plan to change Nohr from the inside in order to make it more a more peaceful place is true, makes it less avatar worship and more just a natural development for Kaze's estabilished character, imo.

Where i do think his motivation starts faltering is that the game doesn't really put in enough effort to address Kaze's feelings after Corrin's plan falls through and they have to go to war against Hoshido; the closest it gets to that is having him tell Corrin that siding with Hoshido wouldn't necessarily have been the best choice and that both Nohr and Hoshido think that they're fighting for the sake of justice in Chapter 17 of Conquest: (jp version, translated by fateswartable)

Kamui: ….

Suzukaze: Lady Kamui…

Kamui: Sorry, Suzukaze. Joining me must be painful for you.

Suzukaze: N- No, that’s…!

Kamui: Saizou, Kagerou… And all of the Hoshido shinobi defeated today… If I chose another path, we could have fought together.

Suzukaze: …That’s right. But, that doesn’t necessarily mean that’s the right way. Both Hoshido and Nohr too are fighting for justice. That’s something everyone should know. Even brother, surely.

Kamui: Yes… Thank you, Suzukaze…

While Kaze growing to think of Nohr as also fighting for it's own justice through his time living in the country, causing him to choose to fight for it over Hoshido, is an interesting direction to take his character in, it's kinda undercut by the fact that, not only does this development happen entirely off-screen, but that Kaze has no presence in Conquest's plot afterwards; the game never develops or expands on his newfound motivation after Chapter 17, forcing players to just settle for a throwaway line and the fact that he still feels bad for failing to protect Corrin as the only reasons why he's willing to fight and kill his own brother and former allies.

It's underdeveloped, to be sure, but i wouldn't call it a flaw caused by avatar worship, and certainly not as bad as Seteth, out of nowhere, not giving a fuck about Rhea's safety or location and only caring about her insofar as what she can tell Byleth about their origins.

Oh !

TBH, Fates's avatar wanking looks.... tame, compared to FE16 Supreme Leader wanking and Billy wanking.

But it's still... there.

I was re-reading the RD battle/talk quotes from Part 3, where Miccy's army and Ike's army fight, and how some people choose to fight against others for, uh, reasons -

Some Daien people are fighting because their king does, some do because the believe in Miccy and, well, some (Nailah, Kurth and Rafiel) know the truth, and how Miccy can't back down, else her people will die.

Nohr fighting for its own Justice in CQ always felt, well. Corrin saved Kaze, and wants to change Nohr from the inside.

However, in CQ (my mind is foggy?) Nohr is, iirc, invading Hoshido. It's not like a war where someone wants to erase someone else or pissed on a diplomatic proposal asking for reparations for a genocide, nope. In FE14, Nohr kills the Hoshidan Queen, and in CQ, well, conquers/invades Hoshido.

Even if Kaze learnt and witnessed how Nohrians aren't baby eating monsters in their everyday life (save for iago) why and how is them invading Hoshido any form of "justice"? Mc Guffin here and there means Gooron has to sit on the Hoshidan throne to turn into goo - and yet, even if deposing Gooron is the best thing to do to change Nohr from the inside, how can this (invasion to depose) be justified and bought by a Hoshidan as "Justice" and acceptable?

Maybe I'm too used to the FE14 lolcalisation, but Kaze pulling the "justice" card here is oddly reminiscent of Tru Piss Sylvain (I think?) who says they can't reason with the Kingdom they're invading because each party fights for their beliefs like Faerghus just wanting to exist

If Kaze became a green unit like Aerone or Gale (in FE6 iirc?) and died due to Iago Iago-ing or Hans Hans-ing I'd have prefered it to him joining on Conquest because of his guilt regarding Corrin and "witnessing him sparing soldiers". And yet, buying the "everyone fights for their own justice" and choosing Norh is, idk, strange. Maybe it would have been better if, as you said, his change of heart wasn't off-screen...

Coming from FE10 to FE14 was already kind of ultra meh in terms on dealing with the unit that became a turncoat, but FE16 takes it to new heights.

So yeah, I was exaggerating when I compared the Billy worship to Kaze lol, but I thought about it because it's the only pair of siblings I remember where an avatar inserts themselves in an existing relationship and effectively severs it.

Seteth not giving any fucks about Rhea (and to some extent, Flayn too, she's not mentionned in their A-S support, when, maybe shipping googles make a bit biased, his support with Manu talking about remarriage mention his daughter!) is completely wild, but just like everything in FE16, characters, the plot and the lore can be forgotten and torn apart if it means the player can be pandered to, via Billy or Supreme Leader.

#anon #replies #FE14 #FE16 #player pandering sucks #thanks for the 'everyone fights for their own justice' line #it would have made me furious back then #but now FE16 exists so #in french we have a proverb to mean something bad already existed but you notice it later #le ver est dans le fruit #but after FE16 the avatar wanking from FE14 feels so tame #like eating one peanut when FE16 is full on peanut butter #lizard family time? #only because I remembered that post and why I ranted about it lol

[darkarfs]

Truth of truths, it was nice to see Zayn and Owens with my last name on the back of their jerseys.

#it was local pandering but I didn't care #hockey fans know #but my last name is Crosby and our star player's last name is ALSO that #it created friction when I worked in sports bars #HEY TELL YOUR COUSIN TO DO BETTER NEXT SEASON #yeah tell your mom she sucks dick like she has three rows of teeth #but anyway yeah #my ego CAN be pandered to is what I'm saying

[emblemxeno]

This ask is going to be kind of long, but your platform is really the only platform where I feel comfortable having this conversation. You don’t have to post this if you don’t want to, I won’t feel any sort of ways about it, but I’ve got to get this feeling out of my system. The way the fandom treats Fates compared to the other games in the franchise, makes them completely unbearable. I don’t think I can forgive the fandom for it even if they did somehow start giving Fates its overdue credit. Treating its fans like shit for almost a decade is unacceptable. I don’t know how so many people can justify their behavior in regards to this game. The fans of this game have literally done nothing to the fandom other than love it unapologetically, and we still get condescended to about it. You dare offer your opinion about a take in the series and it’s like, “You’re a Corrin fan, you have no right to talk about anything.” I have never seen a group of fans that have to literally HIDE the fact that they cherish a game in order to appease its larger community, it’s so disgusting. I don’t care if I’m being harsh with this ask because I have witnessed and dealt with this condescension for years. I don’t care to spare any feelings at this point, and I think the fandom certainly doesn’t deserve any of our grace either. Calling out the elitism, cliquish behavior, and hypocrisy is the right thing to do no matter how much some people soften/normalize these issues.

Hope you don't mind me posting this anon.

It's certainly an unfortunate situation. While Fates has its problems--I say this as a diehard fan--I agree in that it's in a singular situation where it's just met with derision initially and only given praise in backhanded manners. Think "Fates sucks but it does have great X and Y" and including an obligatory compliment towards Conquest. Which, don't get me wrong, Conquest is fucking amazing in the gameplay department, but half the time I'm just like... all right, I think you're just pretending to like anything of Fates just because you feel obligated to like one of the most acclaimed gameplay centered entries in the series.

There was just the perfect storm of controversy and unmet expectations that people had towards the game: the woefully inaccurate conversion therapy accusations, the romance options, the sales model of having multiple versions, the story not being liked, Corrin not being liked, the cast being seen as tropey, the fanservice hatred, etc. Its reputation from pre-release to nearly a decade after release is just a swamp of negativity.

And, in risk of sounding defensive and deflective, Awakening did most of this first. Awakening used being gay as a constant punchline especially in DLC (but people are reclaiming that now as something to be praised cuz of course), Awakening had problematic romance options (Nowi, any of the children but especially Nah, Donnel, Ricken, and Lissa are still underage, Aversa is technically your sister and she's written in the M!Robin support to tease that aspect, Tharja in her entirety), Awakening's cast was the de facto tropey cast before Fates, its story was criticized for the same things Fates was (poorly explained lore and world, pacing issues, convenient plot devices, pandering to a previous game, and had its exclusive issue of being inconsistent with Archanea's lore), Robin was criticized for being an all loved player insert with too many powers/importance, it started the oddly designed armor designs for fanservice reasons, and while it didn't have multiple versions, it was the first game with a ton of paid DLC.

Don't get me wrong, I love Awakening to pieces. But that game started pretty much everything Fates gets shit for. Yet it gets retrospective love or at the very least a pass cuz... Fates does it worse/more and because it was gonna be the last game in the series? Wouldn't it be fair then, to give slack to Fates for following in the footsteps of the most well received and successful game in the series by replicating it while trying to improve on what some felt were lacking? But I guess at that point, people think it utterly failed in improving on the story and characters so :/

I think you have a point regarding Fates fans as well. We're pretty much the only FE fans that get unironic negative labels, at least by casual aduiences. Apparetnly we're "coomer, porn brain freaks who don't know what good games are." Though, that's about it in terms of the elitism thing, otherwise I think it's just fans of older games being out off by the direction newer games have gone, and most make no distinction and criticize all of Awakening, Fates, 3H, and Engage. Still, Fates fans are the ones getting the most accepted flak.

To end this off, let's be honest: If Fates is the example most people give of the worst game in the series, FE fans have it pretty fucking good lmao.

#fire emblem fates #fire emblem discourse

[latenightsuburbansprinklersystem]

no hate to the horny losers who just want to make their little dolls kiss and don't care about things like good or interesting writing because ultimately this isn't their fault but I gotta be honest it kindve annoys me how larian pandered to that crowd so hard that they removed any sort of gender restrictions on romances for literally all of the companions. like it really precludes a character's sexuality from being a major component of their character/character development which kinda sucks. also for a game that seems to take great care in constructing a world that feels living and breathing and like it exists on its own terms with the player simply inhabiting it that shit immediately shatters the illusion and turns it into a player power fantasy jerk off sesh which I personally am not too big on. like sometimes in real life you're going to meet people you wish you could have sex with who don't wanna fuck you for any number of reasons. some of which may potentially even be interesting and shed some light on other aspects of their character. but you just can't get that here. it really isn't that big of a deal to be clear and I'm still gonna pick someone to make my little doll kiss but all of the side characters I've met so far are incredibly fucking strong and it feels a little jarring turning them into cardboard cut outs all the sudden just for that one specific thing

[shoutydwarf]

people don’t call inquisition/da:d “elf simulator”/”elf age” because they hate elves and elvhen lore. Let Me Be Clear: 

- elves have the most special dialogue options. even more if you’re a f!mage. bioware accidentally forgot dalish elves know who mythal is for ONE dialogue wheel and people really used it to run with the idea that elves were somehow narratively shafted during inquisition; meanwhile dwarves in the descent dlc, you know, THE DWARF DLC where you get your Crumb Of Dwarf, you get next to no special dialogue options besides being told by valta that you’re not a Real Dwarf and you don’t have stone sense (which isn’t even true. stone sense comes back to all dwarves if they’re underground long enough. this is more of bioware trying to prove all the disgusting corrupt systems in place are Acthually Correct Trollol.. that or they just forgot bc they dont care.) 

- eluvians, the fade, fen’harel, everything that comes out of solas’s mouth, a chunk of WEWH, inquisitor ameridan being a dalish elf, etc is not at all narratively relevant to anyone but an elf inquisitor. spin all the stories you want to make eluvians and elvhen gods important to your non-elf OCs but off what we get in the games alone, without doing an ungodly amount of work to make it fit, what BIOWARE has established, it means nothing. you can argue that all of this is important to the inquisitor on principal of them Being inquisitor but... be fucking serious

- elves seeing the crossroads differently than other races. just another special elfy thing

- every single religion is being geared up to link back to the elves. i think we can all agree by now that andraste is flemythal and the maker is mythal (whether u think the theory is good or not is neither here nor there, bioware is so predictable at this point). and thank god she freed the dwarves from the titans, amirite! it’d really suck if the dwarves had something exclusive! (bioware if you try to paint the titans as slavers and mythal as the Dwarven Savior........................)

- you can make an argument for any of the origins in da:o fitting “the best” as canon. the dalish elf is as ignorant to the world outside of the forest as the player is. cousland is your classic betrayed hero thrust into saving the world tale. dwarves are intrinsically tied to the darkspawn/wardens. the mages are freed birds but the world outside their cage is corrupted and torn asunder. tabris/brosca is your saving the world that never fought for them back tale. they all equally mean something in unique, valuable ways to the main story and it shows through ample unique dialogue options and main quest relevance. 

- can you REALLLLYYYYY say the same for all of the non-elf da:i origins? what do we got, a mercenary vashoth. a carta dwarf. a human noble or mage. all random NPCs fr. but the dalish elf who unlocks the power of an elvhen orb which leads to a slew of world-shattering reveals about the lore they grew up with and believed in? meanwhile ur dwarf/human/qunari inquisitor didn’t even know there WAS a plot twist. they didnt even know there was a plot

- all of this extra elf stuff would be perfectly fine. the countless elvhen ruins, lore reveals etc. if it was even REMOTELY evenly distributed across all the races. BUT IT’S NOT. 

- it would also be fine if inquisition was a one-off elf-focused game but they used the opportunity to take from every other races’ lore and make it about elves, so now A. there’s no going back, B. the 4th game’s title is literally dreadwolf wow i wonder who the story is going to be written for, C. if i ever have to hear with my own two ears “i’ve been through shit that would make the deep roads look like a cake walk!” followed by the dwarf at the receiving end of this Dying From Being Pwned, i’m going to get violent

- the point is that it’s bioware’s fault, not the elves. “elf simulator” is poking fun at biowares pandering to solavellan twitter, not at elf players lmao

#miriam you were out of fucking pocket and if i wrote that dwarf he'd have spit on you but this is only one small problem in the grand scheme #of grievances i have with absolution lmao #sorry to have opinions today. hope u enjoy. rare shoutydwarf opinion day. #im not tagging this cuz yall can argue with the wall but feel free to rb #p

[eyeballtank]

Might as well write something related to what happened with Skullgirls just because.

Some of the changes even affect Kickstarter stuff and the concept art, which comes off as revisionism and is a punch in the face to anyone who backed up the game years ago.

The "desexualization" still applies to characters that are legal like Cerebella.

They could also easily retcon Fillia's age to 18 but even then, it's just a number randomly slapped to a made up character and people thought Shantae was 16, while Yoko Littner from Gurren Lagann is like 14.

If people even thought SG had "evil content that had to be removed", why even support it in the first place? Same thing with P3P having the Ken social link: Why even support Atlus after the fact?

Maybe these people will always attach to Skullgirls and Persona because of the "waifu" appeal, meaning they only easily boycott Hogwartz Legacy because they think Harry Potter sucks and has no "cute 2D girls", not because of JK Rowling.

Otherwise, if Hogwartz Legacy had a 2D art style or even looked like whatever mobile game came prior, it wouldn't be just /v/ that'd talk about Merula Snyde.

Goes to show when someone calls anything "CP" they don't take it seriously and might as well associate it with "mildly annoying/thing i don't like".

They even changed a story moment displaying police brutality… don't people want cops to be portrayed as the bad guys? (Or did they gave up on that part because of that one time Mike Z made a "i can't breathe" joke?).

The Black Egrets only had the Nazi-like looks to show off their moral ambiguity in the setting, it's not like Alex Ahad was secretly promoting some Neo-Nazi messages (He even stated that they're not as bad as actual Nazis) but i guess these people LabZero wants to pander to never read JoJo or even European comics where Nazis are there for the sake of moral ambiguity based roles.

(Because Nazis will always be seen as assholes in history and most of this modern sentiment people have towards them is from 2017 culture war shit and associating them with the alt right: Don't be surprised if a Breadtuber dismisses the Holocaust because he thinks "Jews hate Nazis the WRONG way" in some video).

But i guess the cameo of a furry who jacks off to guro is fine, who even shat on Mike Z when he was getting cancelled (Probably karma for Mike Z in the first place but also means that a snake would be more fitting for this e-sports player's fursona).

Seeing Zone-tan defending this is funny for obvious reasons, from the fact that people will still shit on him for being a porn artist involved in the game to the fact that Zoomers made the Ankha animation into their own version of 2 Girls 1 Cup.

Another porn artist i saw defending this was a guy that does Persona NTR shit, which is no loss. There's plenty of better artists to associate with Mitsuru anyway.

People say "it's only censorship if the government does it" as if they would say the same if it applied to a game they cared about more and affected specific things they'd like. It's honestly a statement on pair with "it's only prejucide if THIS specific group does it" where the meaning of a word is revised by making it as if only a group can do the act.

"It's their game, they can do whatever they want" the actual creators (Alex Ahad included) aren't present anymore, so this whole "they own it" part lines up with the notion that IP's matter more than artist: Part of what Martin Scorcece talked about with MCU movies.

It's pretty clear that Skullgirls (And a lot of media people attach because it's always a topic of discussion online) was made for and by "perverts".

Even the people that claim to be ok with these changes probably got into it for the same factor ("Sex sells" etc) and now, most reviews are turning negative on Steam and most positive ones are from years ago.

Maybe the problem with Skullgirls is that it's technically an indiegame but it didn't have that much of a "indie spirit". What i mean is the "goal" of it landing on EVO, since the competitive fighting game scene became corporate and i occasionally draw a line between that and when they started to tone down the panty shots from years ago. Because people already assume that other companies get rid of fanservice and sexy stuff for the sake of approval (Meanwhile, SNK is owned by Saudi Arabia and Mai Shiranui is still safe). It's a similar sentiment people have towards that Boxtown cartoon for being indie yet having the same animation style as most modern cartoons or that one Dinomites "when you encourage an artist" comic involving someone's dream of a Pixar mascot character and a Katy Perry music video. "Indie" isn't just a status in terms of economics or publishing, i like to think it reflects on the actual creativity and risks.

And this is also because Skullgirls has its fair share of references and influences to other stuff, which might've come from media by artists who had to say "no, i want to make this". Take a look at various artists, writers, game devs, movie directors, composers etc that you like: Chances are they had moments where they had to stand up for their works. Some even have their own varied political beliefs and still managed to upset both sides.

Even if they're notorious in certain industries and praised by some nerd media sites, they still have content that you know people would lose their shit over if it came today.

Anyway, if i were to make a fighting game, it'd just use it as an excuse to "mechanically expand" my characters and say "look, they have attacks and abilities" and not give a fuck about a competitive scene. And i don't really hide the fact that i'm a pervert, so if my current game's art improves, i'll still retain a certain easter egg. Maybe i'm too wary over things like "Troll's Remorse" but i know it's possible for someone to still make stuff and retain somethings in a creative field.

Not like anybody cares who i am and i still consider myself at a very early phase.

There's still some lessons to learn from this event.

#blog

[pegasusknightsonly]

admittedly i watched Zoran play engage and then was like "i never want to ever touch this with my own hands, this game fucking sucks and i hate it" so maybe i missed some extra dialogue but like. in awakening s supports have a specific mechanical purpose: they lock off a pair of characters from any other s supports and, if there's a child attached to one or both of the characters, they unlock that child's paralogue after chapter 13. the exclusivity makes sense because the point is to give you access to the child units, as a homage to the second generation in genealogy, because awakening was looking back at every fe game that came before it, and also as a way to build on Lucina's purpose in the story as someone who is willing to do absolutely anything to break the cycle they have found themself stuck in. i think s supports in awakening MAKE SENSE because the game is about 1) building relationships with other people 2) inevitable cycles of behaviour and 3) having children*. it's about parenting and s supports in awakening have significant and meaningful contributions to the games mechanics and themes. all in harmony. and they get different dialogue with each other once they're s supported and if they're paired up they're blushing in their portraits on the lower screen it's cute. there was a degree of thought and care

s supports in FATES exist because fates was all but directly called "this is the sequel to awakening". as someone who loves awakening i think all the worst bits of fates either directly copy or are a response to something in awakening. fates has s supports because awakening had s supports and the expansion of the mechanic to TWO corrin-only same sex s supports demonstrates that it was no longer mechanically and thematically grounded but instead trying to imagine a product that the maximum possible number of people would buy. would people be disgusted if some or god forbid all of the characters they are meant to desire had homosexual inclinations? surely they would. therefore the fujos and the tharja fans can have a bone thrown into the dirt while the entire rest of the game can reconfirm to itself and its audience that homosexuality is disgusting and perverse and that any deviation from the norm will be punished. job done!

I'm not even sure if SoV has supports given that those first started appearing in genealogy / fe7 and that it was remade closely enough to keep all the misogyny in but with no player avatar there is no need for s supports confirming that the player of this game is the most important incredible specialest person in the whole wide world

the fact that three houses has s supports at all makes me so fucking mad. it shouldn't. yet another reason why 3hopes reigns supreme. in short without the ability to s support characters other than the player avatar the mechanic has been reduced to fairly naked pandering and an invitation for the most graceless and desperate projection. add to this the disparity between m/m and f/f content not just for byleth but in paired endings more generally and it is apparent that characters who exist in the story independently of being sexually available for the player was not the priority. barf

and then engage takes the momentum from three houses "prioritise the potential feelings of the player above all else" approach and adds the least interesting and dynamic same sex options i have ever seen alongside and with the exact same prominence as putting a ring on the finger of alear's little sister. BARF!! are you really satisfied with this??

#hater moment #*please note that “having children” and “parenting” are specific experiences and specific themes #and “family” . is not. “family” as a theme is nothing. happy families? broken families? the existence of the idea of family?? #why settle for that. why pretend that's satisfying. demand better

[dimiclaudeblaigan]

One thing I find annoying about Hopes' writing of Claude that I haven't seen too many point out is just how, like... needy he is? Like he CAN'T get enough validation for just about everything, and it crops up so often (like a good chunk of his correct expedition answers are "Give a pep talk" which like. Variety where are you).

Meanwhile in 3H he gets upset at you trying to console him when he does bad in training instead of critiquing him, he deflects away any attempt at trying to give him credit on his route, he says he expects and is ready for people to give him flack for his ideas, he's just... WAY more confident. Like it's a pretty big thing about his character.

Like I think I get the idea, where it's him being less confident because of the different circumstances (like him having less time as an actual leader), but because of how Hopes sets up the story it just comes off as coming out of nowhere. One second Claude is acting secure in himself, a timeskip happens, and now he can't take a step without asking Shez if he should start with his left foot or his right. And that same thing makes it hard to believe that he needs Shez of all people to do this because it feels like they barely know each other, so it just feels like player pandering... which Claude also was very good about avoiding in 3H...

Sorry for the rant, it's just been bugging me for a while lol.

No worries! If you have stuff you want to talk about, feel free to pop into my ask whenever!

Hopes Claude strikes me as just... intentionally being the opposite of Claude in every way. I know they mentioned the GDs were ooc on purpose, but I'd argue not all of them were that ooc, at least in personality/behavior. The same overall vibes of their characters were there. Everything about Claude felt like it was off-the-rails opposite for me.

I also understand him being younger and in a different situation, but I think, ultimately, that would not change his core character. His behavior and personality as well, but his decision making was vastly different and watered down. I think they tried too hard to make his story different and just didn't know how to while keeping it ingrained with Fodlan overall.

In Houses, Academy Claude is already a step up in maturity from Hopes Claude. If you consider that he's the same person in both games during the Academy portions, then you could say he had backwards development, which normally would be fine... if his decision making wasn't total batshit ass.

It really is just player pandering, because if you recall, Claude basically ghosted Shez for two whole fucking years. They do not know each other well, and I don't feel like Claude is the type to do that just because he's busy. Just based on Academy Claude, I expect he'd at least give a heads up like he did with Byleth when he was going to be absent from the monastery for a bit.

Even if I put aside all the nonsensical plot points in GW, Claude just feels very shafted in care by the story. He exists more to cater to the story's whims than for the story to be about him and his story. In AG for example, the focus is on Dimitri in the sense that the story follows him. He doesn't just follow the story (Zaharas is the only instance of this in the other routes, which is at least unrelated to the overall plot). Claude is yanked left and right by the story and is just a device to steer you where the plot wants you to go.

I get the frustration. I find that the devs really just suck at handling Claude. It's why I make jokes that I'm taking him away from them lol. I am taking custody of this man because they cannot be trusted with him.

#DCB Ask

[aetheternity]

I’ve always found the traveler discourse annoying. Lumine stans whining about how there isn’t enough Lumine content. Aether stans harassing anyone who even suggests that Aether isn’t the “real protagonist” or whatever. It’s pretty obvious why things are this way to begin with. First off why in the world would they animate the same trailer just to swap the travelers just to appease a few people? And they default to Aether because it’s a Chinese company. They have a preference for men and an idea that the average gamer is male, therefore more players would relate to Aether. This whole situation reminds me of when people bitch about the male to female character ratio in the game. Again, it’s a Chinese company, they have their own ideas about these things, and they’re pandering to an audience. Don’t like it? Either suck it up like I did or go play a game made by a company who cares.

Lumine stans calling Aether simps/stans sexist because they chose Aether. Both stans going under posts about the other twin to bitch about how it isn't their favorite twin. 🙄

It's actually so exhausting how many people don't understand that Japanese and Chinese culture doesn't abide by the same rules as their own and that they are not gonna be changed because a westerner fucking pouted and wrote "meanies!" in all caps on fucking Twitter. Genshin coming to Europe and America was a mistake.

I will never understand why people get so uptight over Aether being on a promo banner vs Lumine how long are you planning on looking at the TCG banner card?? Be so fucking deadass no one has looked at the Shadows admist the snow storm, that one Mario maker event poster or the TCG poster since they dropped it's such a waste of time to write five hundred posts about how Hoyo hates women 🙄

Oh someone's shocked that their favorite female character is less loved than the average male character?? I've said it before and I'll say it again. The best written male character in this game >>>>>>>>>>>> the best written female character in this game. That's not even really a personal opinion either the male characters are normally written so much better than the females. Said by a woman btw.

#cal answers #anon ask

[thedarknesssings]

Prompt 16: A Long Time Ago

Prompt 16: Deiform - FFXIV Write 2022 Characters:  The Unspoken Ones.  (This is based on player-created alternate Gelmorran history accepted by the group I RP with regularly.)   Content Warning: Body horror, blood, punishment.  

“Come here,” The Sleeper commanded.

And he obeyed, crawling on hands and knees across the cold, grey stone.  Bare skin held no protection against the scrape of the rocks or the seeping dark.  Blood smeared the ground in his wake like an offering.  His lips trembled when they met the hand lowered for him to lick.  The water droplets still adorning his skin had a crisp taste to them.

“Present.”  The Sleeper’s voice is unhurried, liquid and smooth even when resonating through the cavern chamber.  An viper’s head rose from its pile of coils near the Sleeper’s feet, sapphire eyes far too bright and attentive in the darkness.  The viper’s hiss burned into the elf’s ears, pricked at his mind, his heart, whispered of truth but never of mercy.

“My Lord,” The Justicar stepped forward, hand to his heart, head bowing in deference.  These Gelmorrans were vicious, the ones that served the Sleeper and his kin.  The Unspoken Ones, the devout called them.  “This beast attacked one of the High Priestess’s maidens.  She has suffered greatly at his hands, and the people call for his sacrifice to atone for his slight against you.”

The beast lifted his head and dared to stare up at the Sleeper.  These entities they unearthed without intention.  Gelmorra lies sprawled between the Shroud ruled by the elements and the depths haunted by the Unspoken Ones.  Those that dwelled in the lowest reaches of the City came to revere these old entities they’re digging had awoken. Some were more zealous than others, pandering for position and power, coming to rule this sector and reaching beyond to claim more.  All in the name of the Unspoken, all according to the song sung in the Dark.

The white and black wings of an enormous moth fluttered in the leafless branches of the Ebontree the Sleeper’s throne was fashioned from.  In the early days when he was newly arisen, the Sleeper had commanded the roots and trunk to twist themselves into a seat for him to rule from.  The black wood was unlike any other tree the beast had seen, that any of them had seen, growing out of the charcoal rock and soil surrounding the lake of water so dark it stained any hand placed within it. Some spoke of souls lost to its depths, sucked clear out of them with mere contact.

“She offered herself to me.  I wish to bind my life to hers for all of my days.”  The beast clutched to the hand his lips peppered kisses on.  The cold, ashen fingers withdrew like water he couldn’t hold on to.  “No, no!  Please, my Lord!  I beg forgiveness.”

The skittering of the Spider echoed through the cavern, emerging alongside the throne to cast her multitude of eyes on the pitiful beast.  They had all come to watch, to see the commotion, but none spoke to save him.  This man had proven himself a beast.  The cavern filled with their whispers, their contorted language maddening to those non-devout.  The beast wept and collapsed on the ground, hands outstretched, his back hunched.  Begging, praying.

“A beast you have been marked as.”  The words came down as judgement.  A black tentacle seeped outward from the base of the throne, the flesh smooth and slick snaked around the beast’s throat, suckers imprinting themselves into the man’s flesh.  The constriction was absolute.  Eyes widened and lips spread on soundless pleas.  No more breath for useless prayers.  The Sleeper wanted to hear no more.

“You will serve the rest of your days as you have shown yourself to be.  A dog.”  The man’s figure bent in half, limbs snapping and shifting.  He couldn’t scream past the tentacle holding him.  Bones cracked and refused, flesh crawled and reformed, fur burst outward, coating the beast entirely.  By the time he was tossed to the ground, his tongue couldn’t bend around words, merely snuffles and growls, whimpers and soft woofs.  Penitent.  Belly to the stone.  

“Call the Hunter to collect his new hound.”

“Yes, my Lord.”  The Justicar clasped his hand to his heart once more, head bowing as he backed away from the Unspoken.  

#FFxivWrite2022 #Prompt 16 #ffxiv writers #writers on tumblr #The Unspoken Ones #The Darkness Sings #The Secariots #The Roches #Those whose names we do not speak

[dcbicki]

sorry if you’ve already answered this, but what characters do you think will die in st s5?

I've talked about it at length on Twitter (even before S4 came out) and honestly I can't see a single death among the regular cast. And I can see people disagreeing but, to me, it's just not that kind of story and never has been.

I mean:

El and Hopper are most likely safe because they've "died" before and it wouldn't feel genuine, and Max isn't going to die again when there are only 8 hours left and she's already in a coma.

The Byers have been the main family the audience can empathize with since the beginning, and they're not going to kill off Joyce or her boys because it would break her. That said, Will is at risk because of the UP connection.

They've already said Mike is safe -- There are some characters you just can't touch. As much as people want to hate the kid for some reason, the Duffers love him and he's their surrogate. (Not to mention the cascade of shit it would cause.)

Lucas, Dustin, Erica, Nancy and Robin are all clear for one reason or another. The boys (and Erica) have plot armor because they're the 'kids'. Nancy is more than likely safe; she's been a driving force of the show since the start and I can't imagine her not making it through the final battle. Robin might be a possibility if she wasn't both the only out character and had not been around long enough to have a real impact. If anyone is going, it'd be a season/two-er.

Karen, Murray, Owens, etc. are all up on the chopping block tbh, but really the one main character who could bite the dust and (I say this light) shock the audience...

... is Steve. He's an original, had a great-to-middling arc, and he has connections to several characters. But he's not actually tied to them. We've never even met his family. He's technically disposable, and that sucks. But he's probably also safe because he has the advantage of being a/the fan favorite and even though the Duffers claim to never pander to fans, they do when it comes to Steve. That's why he's still around cracking jokes, being a full-fledged himbo.

Really... I don't think any of the key players can die. And this whole "gotta kill off people! there's no stakes! blahblahblah!" thing people go on and on about is just mind-boggling to me because, like, what show have they been watching? Those dudes love their own characters too much to kill them. They've proven that. It's why they bring in new meat. This isn't based on a book -- there are no deaths to check off a list. It's rooted in 80s coming-of-age movies and horror. How many of those end in actual tragedy? That's what it would be to kill off one of these characters.

So the problem isn't that they don't kill off enough characters or ones that have actual meaningful arcs. It's that they can't because their storylines are so intertwined that it would cause a whole chain reaction of sadness. This doesn't happen with most shows, etc: If you kill off the Love Interest to the Hero, it's not going to ricochet to every other character in the series.

Throw in the fact that there's a limited timeframe to do it in, which means the story has to be condensed and concise. Short and sweet. You kill Mike -- the glue of the show. I will keep repeating it -- and it affects his family, his friends, and Eleven. And if you send Eleven off the deep end, Hopper's arc gets tossed out the window too. This affects Joyce, then her boys, then Nancy, and no matter which order you put them in they all directly have an effect on each other. You can't have a bittersweet ending if any of these characters die -- The bitter has to do with either El's powers or Hawkins or these people who've all become family having to separate. Not death.

#anon #answered #stranger things #... i went off but you get it ;)

[randomnameless]

Kind of random thoughts but -

After that post about Flayn and her super cool aunt we couldn't see in Fe16, I just remembered how Seteth doesn't mention Flayn (by her name or an allusion to his daughter) or his wife in the Billy support.

I've already pointed out how shitty that support was in regards to Seteth's relationship with Rhea and how Billy suddenly takes precedence over a sister (?) he knew and supported for centuries, but no Flayn or dead wife mention? Really??

Why no mention of Flayn here?

Of course in his other supports he mentions his family, but damn.

Again, GG to Nopes for allowing the nabateans to interact with each other, without any interferences from Billy who was, in Fe16, designed as a black hole who erases their interlocutor's preexisting bonds with other characters.

Look :

Nopes!Flayn thinks Rhea is her super cool aunt.

Fe16!Flayn gives us this free Rhea SuS moment -

What has Rhea done by that point (support available before the battle of the eagle and the lion) to make her niece doubt her so?

Tldr : I hate player pandering.

#Fe16 #3 Nopes #Billy could have been an interesting character #But no they just made them the avatar and cursed them with player pandering #The Billy Seteth support chain is something #I'm not bashing the ship or anything but damn if that support chain #As it is written sucks

[arttrampbelle]

Cw: vent

Vent time.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mk11 doesn't have plotholes

IT HAVE PLOT CHASMS. PLOT ABYSSES.

Plots so huge,so confusing,so stupid. It makes the old sub zero mythologies,and special forces side games look like decent plots.

The only thing good about it is the og actor is back as shang but even then it's still painful.

9,story is garbage. But the gameplay is amazing.

10,gameplay is out of this world. Story is mid,horrible for some characters but solid main big boss. Online i heard is better than 11. But i hate online competitive gameplay. It kinda sucks the fun away. And not worth it. Plus the amount of guest characters because they killed half the roster. It's ridiculous. And unnecessary. So yeah.

11. *breathes in*. 11. Again they knew the story was crap,half baked. So they made a whole ass expansion to a lukewarm story nobody cared for. To retcon a retcon THEY MADE. And guess what? It's that "we are gonna take everything you love about this series and take a huge fat shit on it. For profit" if you like shang tsung,you may love 11. But even then it feels off. But again thats the best they can do. And you damn well we ain't gonna have this again. If there ever will be a 12. Because at this point im not so sure. And honestly i don't care if they dont make a 12.

It would be a shame. But honestly I'd rather take a non canon ACTUALLY GOOD MK GAME. no bullshit. No fillers. No guest characters. No micro transactions. Just a good ol fashioned mk game. Pick a character,pick an arena,and fight. No complicated over explained story. Simple and to the point. Let the audience and players make a story. Or at least,bring back the spirit of mk. Bring back the ACTUAL CHOOSE YOUR DESTINY part in mk,with more than 2 choices. More than "good" vs "evil" actually have real constructive morally grey areas. Like it's not that hard.

Like get better writers. Fr.

Wattpad has better writers than you NRS.

WATTPAD!

You had 30yrs to get it right. 30!

Almost as old as i am.

Fr. No excuses. You are a decent,multibillion company. Or at very least a professional one. Your servers should be always up to date. You should have things actually in a row. The basics at least.

Like there is no excuses on being sloppy.

This isn't just about mk. This is also from a business perspective.

If you know your story isnt solid. Get better writers. Or tell your writers to stop relying on dumb tropes. And have actual creativity.

You can make things modern without pandering.

You can have nods to nostalgia without pandering too.

Subtle is better.

Cheeky one liners you cant rely on.

If the motives aren't solid. Then things fall apart.

Like they knew that if they dont bring back shang tsung as a big bad boss. It would suck.

Because how can they top corrupt form shinnok. Let's be honest....that was badass.

Nothing was ever really changed. And its a waste of time.

We get nothing but absolute perfection from tagawa's performance. But other then him. Mk11 is weak af.

So again. You like cary hiroyuki tagawa? Good. You're in luck. You like shang tsung? He's the man of the hour.

If you like anything else,anybody else,NRS said fuck you.

Which sucks. Because as a shang tsimp. It pisses me off that that's all they relied on.

And they can't pull that shit again. Because people will know. They already probably do.

They rely on cheap gimmicks,to prey on non mk fans,new fans who haven't touched mk in their whole ass existence and are just getting into it,and y'all fall for it. Because people seem to have short attention spans and need their gatcha fix no matter how poor quality.

Like im sorry. Even if you are new. Have better standards in storytelling. This is a professional company. They shouldn't be worse then us fans telling fart jokes in a fanfic about silly fighting game characters in colorful jammies.

Im just saying.

Im done venting now.

#mortal kombat #vent #cw vent #mk discourse

[theskyexists]

Played the Hogwarts game via my brother via a friend of my brother's who bought it (idiot)...... It is........ Hm. The dialogue in it is terrible. That is to say, lifeless, often pointless. Fig keeps talking over you the first hour which is not really endearing. The pandering is kinda irksome (headmaster black, professor weasely). The games copy all of the movies mistakes, including giving the students and teachers etc. trousers and skirts and blouses instead of GOWNS. Hogwarts is so so so quiet. And kinda.....weirdly....marbled? So far. The nice goblin is indeed less hook-nosed. The Goblins are evil for no stated reason yet. They just...are? The evil goblin obviously has a classic lower class accent or whatever. THUG GOBLIN. Absolutely insane writing choice to have Miriam (Jewish name?) be prof figs WIFE who DIED only MONTHS AGO, and have fig respond with zero emotion to a message from her that wasn't sent to him in the first place nor any response to a good friend's death right in front of him (who was said to be a good apparator two minutes ago but doesn't apparate away from a dragons mouth), murdered presumably by the same people. Why are there 40 students in the whole great hall. There's a good progression of spell learning so far, but extremely railroaded first two hours of walking with some NPC at snails pace. Wayyyy too many things to collect, too overwhelming. Collecting is as simple as walking by and casting a spell so far - bland. So many obvious thing in the castle so far that I simply don't have access to yet. annoying. The combat is extremely simple. This is almost a-blind-dog-clicking-could-beat-this Lego Harry Potter game level. No IDEA nor any INDICATION why main character is transferring in in fifth year having never studied magic before. There isn't even any game mechanic reason for this, nor in-story. There is no memorable soundtrack, which is impressive (derogatory) for a Harry Potter game. There also generally IS NO music. Weird.

Positive: all the character options are pretty and feature a quite diverse range of (ethnic) features which are easily mixed and matched (though skewed). another negative: Dont know how I ended up in a skirt though, I guess the character creation railroads you into certain costume through the pre-sets. Despite being able to select voices and wizard/witch status independently. Even though lots of girl NPC's have trousers. Ironically some letter by some professor implies sexism doesn't actually exist in the magical world - only in Muggle world. A fine fantasy if I didn't know about the irony of it all....also quite a retcon. And a double edges sword about SUPERIOR witches/wizards.

I like doing tasks and so I WAS sucked into the very simple doing tasks game loop. Exploring isn't really very fun tbh.... There aren't really secret passages so far? There isn't any platforming... Peeves looks solid and not like a ghost? The castle is populated but not exactly bustling. Not quite lifeless but so damn chill does anybody go to classes?

The fantasy this game presents is being a magical prodigy for no discernible reason and acing all classes, competitions, duels etc. Literally, pleasure to have in class, sir. That is the protagonist's only character trait: teacher's pet and optionally: arrogant lil shit. I actually chose my characters face for its neutral bitch face, but the game kept forcing her to smile in the starter cut scenes.

Where's quidditch wtf. It's not SO hard to make an avatar fly and make the player awkwardly catch a ball in mid-air. Anyway. It looks good. It just doesn't.....feel like Hogwarts much. Not exactly magical. Maybe I've outgrown it completely to the depths of my heart. Maybe every further iteration of this stretched-thin franchise's products only gets worse. Maybe Rowling's undeniable sense for what appeals to the imagination is missing. Maybe if I didnt know where this is going i could simply enjoy doing my tasks, and the so far clunky, stupid but 'fine' to mediocre experience. Or maybe it just sucks.

#my stuff #personal #vidi #hp

[burr-ell]

Hiya. I was reading meta from another great FE Tumblr person and they made (what I found to be) a very convincing argument re: why Dedue was shafted in AM. And they DO believe it was because of player pandering. To explain the backbone of their argument: on other routes, you see directly how close Dimidue are. You see their death scene at Tailtean Plains in CF. Even in Gronder VW, Dimitri tells Dedue to retreat and doesn't comment if anybody else dies. You see SS ghost Dimitri too (1)

Dimitri and Dedue have an unbreakable bond on CF/SS/VW ... That's only broken because Byleth needs to exist in AM to "replace" that focus. And while it's easy to say the Lions can coexist with Byleth in AM, Dedue is the one with the strongest bond to Dimitri who is conveniently killed off if you don't do his paralogue. That kinda reeks of player pandering on part of the devs. Now with this in mind, the devs do it for Hubert as well. Hubert is the most important ally of Edelgard in the past (2)

Hubert is the only Eagle who knows anything about Edelgard's plans, the Flame Emperor, Edelgard's trauma, or her war plans. Hubert is her most loyal and devoted ally. But in CF, a mercenary Edelgard met for less than 7 months already gets to know the truth about Edelgard's trauma. A merc she knew for less than a year gets to learn about her tortured past. And this merc replaces Hubert as her most important ally in the same way the merc replaced Dedue for Dimitri too. It's a similar situation (3)

Now I liked this Tumblr user's argument because I had never realized that it was such a parallel for both Dedue and Hubert too. But in a way, it is. To make Dedue and Hubert less important to their respective Lord, the self insert avatar has to take that role instead. And yes, I acknowledge that professor Byleth can earn their trust. But simultaneously, it's still player pandering, is it not? Only self insert avatar can earn Edelgard's trust at all! CF is def worse but Dedue alone can die (4)

Hi! This is pretty sound; I get where they're coming from.

I guess to me this is significantly alleviated by the fact that Byleth is just...better integrated into the story on AM. Like, Dimitri's mood is still noticeably improved when Dedue returns, and he still snaps at Byleth a lot before he's brought to a breaking point. There's still a character who takes over the "retainer" role (quest-giving, cutscene exposition, plot armor); it's Gilbert, who sucks, and later Rodrigue, but their importance to Dimitri is also made clear repeatedly. There isn't a scene where Dimitri, say, squeals over a rat and then talks about his tragic backstory and then gets embawwassed because senpai saw his dwawing; instead, he's found working late into the night on official business to make up for lost time and Byleth tells him to get some rest and take care of himself. Even the scene in the rain reads like a mentor helping a student—a friend helping a friend—rather than You Are The Only One Who Could Save Him Reach For His Hand ✨🎶

Don't get me wrong, I still hate that Dedue can die at all and I understand the argument that it's for player pandering, though I would also argue that his death can serve the genuine narrative purpose of making Dimitri permanently lose someone else that he loved and having to cope with it (as opposed to solely being about making way for Byleth). I'm just very reluctant to see it as being on the same level as the rather blatant "isn't it just so cute and romantic that the hard cold red emperor is so soft and can change for you?" waifu-baiting throughline of Crimson Flower.

#fe3h discourse #fe3h #asks

[tribow]

So I watched The Silver Guardian

A.K.A. Gin No Guardian. Both seasons.

This is one of the worst shounen's I've seen. Wow! Seriously that's impressive.

So you got a story where the main character is supposed to be an elite gamer. Yet, he's lame as hell. This guy shows off absolutely 0 skill in every battle he takes place in. He wins his fights not because of himself, but because of an item someone gives had given him. Every single time. He never wins on his own merit.

What makes it worse is how he is set up. He was a famous player who could take down end-game bosses with the weakest gear. His whole shtick is that he was too poor in real life afford paying for the best items, so he manages with the weak gear. (The game seems to be an MMO...think of it like Maplestory if you know that game).

So in this new MMO game, money is literally power. Maximum pay to win energy coming from this game. If you're rich, you're OP. In-game currency is literally your power level (which you can buy with real money). How is the poor main character so good in this new game?

Ah, he was given billions of money right at the start he doesn't even have to actually try c'moooon. What's the point of the setup? Was it all just a waste of time?

Yes.

That's what The Silver Guardian is. A bigass waste of time. What I just complained about wasn't even the premise of the story, just an aspect of the main character. There's no point in discussing the story or the characters. There's nothing to it.

Characters? What about them? They're nothing but a stack of cliches. There's no character writing to speak of here, just cogs in the plot machine.....a machine that explains nothing by the way. The characters may allude you to something deeper within the story, but there's nothing there! There will never be anything there for you!

I'm repeating myself at this point, so how about something actually interesting? The production:

The Silver Guardian is an adaptation of a manhua. It's Chinese....well sorta. The original manhua is certainly Chinese, but the production of this anime is fairly japanese. A lot of the staff are Japanese staff, but the studio is a Chinese one.

Haoliners Huimeng Animation is the studio. It's the first time I've seen their work and it seems aight. Although they got help from BLADE too and there was contracted japanese animators involved as well. It's hard to judge how much of the animation came from Haoliners without looking into it. (Even the opening is a japanese one!)

I'm not debating whether to call this "anime" or anything. I just find it interesting. Silver Guardian is apparently a pretty popular manhua. Surely this adaptation isn't faithful to the original. I can see proper setups to story beats that the anime just doesn't execute on.

Was this trying to pander to a japanese audience or something? I definitely got the vibe of an unfaithful production Could this be some kind of cash grab?

I could be a little too suspicious, but when I saw that Tencent is the publisher of the manhua I couldn't help being skeptical. Maybe the original work is actually that bad, but then how is it so successful? Aaaaaaaaa, I'm so curious!

Well anyway, the show sucks ass. I wouldn't recommend watching it unless you're there for the sole purpose to tear it to shreds. All those youtubers who farmed Sword Art Online's bad writing for views have no idea what some actually terrible writing can be like. THIS is some bottom of the barrel shit that would actually need more than an hour to dissect everything wrong with it. It's truly fascinating how bad this is.

#anime #review #manhua #donghua #The Silver Guardian #Gin No Guardian #there's a damsel in distress character that damsels so hard I was baffled #I've never seen damseling of this calibur #apparently the manhua is a seinen even though the anime is absolutely a shounen??? #man there's gotta be hella controversy and drama around this im not aware of