#the new magic awakened game has got me hyped

[jade-it-queen]

Jade. The fate of female character in Mortal Kombat

It’s been a while since I posted anything on my blog cause I’ve been busy with my life and rapid changes in it. During this time, I’ve watched the new 2021 Mortal Kombat movie as well as the new animation Battle of the realms and also rewatched the Story Mode of MK11 a few times. As you probably can tell, I have a lot to say.

JADE. MILEENA. KITANA. SONYA.

Skip this if you don’t want to read my very important (and long as sh*t) rant about female characters in MK.

DISCLAIMER. This thing is going to sound extremely feminist and women-supremacist or whatever. By saying things that I’m going to say, I by no means think that male characters should be weak or lacking. If anything, it would be nice to have some godforsaken EQUALITY. I’ll explain further later.

Part One: Mortal Kombat (2021)

There’s no Jade in this movie. 

The end. That should be the sole reason I dislike it.

However, it might be better this way since the Nitara and Mileena portrayals in this movie are... questionable to say the least. Okay, y’all been robbed. If MY JADE would be brought into this movie to BE THERE for like 4 minutes of screen time only to get absolutely brutal FATALITY I. would. be. pissed.

More than I already am and that means something.

Sure, there’s a possibility that she’s going to be present in some of the upcoming movies because this one is definitely not the only one they’re going to make. But do I want that? Yes. And no.

Mortal Kombat movies (and Mortal Kombat in general) have a problem with women portrayal in general. The target audience for them are MEN, potentially heterosexual men, who want nothing more than bloody gorey fighting scenes with occasional sex scene here and there. To achieve that, they need a female lead, an attractive, kinda kick-assish but not too much, to not overshadow the absolutely badass men characters. Girls tend to be “independent” (because God forbid they’d want to express interest in the male leads before the time is right), sarcastic, laid back and sometimes even bitchy. Because, you see, they are fighters. And they are Sonya Blade. They need NO MAN. They just need plot armor, bigger than America itself. And if they’re not Sonya Blade, they are... non existent. They are there, but they are never really there. Here, let me walk on screen for a couple seconds. Let me sit beside Very Important Male Character (aka Shang Tsung) for a couple of seconds, looking absolutely gorgeous. Let me have a fight scene in which I make choices so f*cking stupid there’s no potential explanation to it. I exist in this movie to make people that love me (this character) to come into theatres in hopes to see some good action and interesting plot.

Now, I wasn’t born yesterday, I know how the world works. It’S bEeN LiKe ThAt FoReVeR, gEt OvEr here iT. Yeah, it’s been like that forever and the result is a mediocre movie that pleases neither the casual viewer, nor the actual Mortal Kombat fan. I don’t know, there might be guys who just saw Kung Lao’s fatality on Nitara, thought to themselves “Neat” and went on with their lives. But I exited the cinema with a sour taste in my mouth, feeling like I’ve watched one of the “fighting genre” films based on video games that had nothing worth remembering. Well, besides Kano. He was my favourite part of this movie and I  normally can’t stand the guy :’D

Would it really help if they changed the way the women were portrayed? I mean - is that the ACTUAL problem of the movie? No, women being the eye candy and barely something else (if they’re not Sonya Blade) are not the only problem it suffers from. It’s that MK has been going the same route, retelling the same goddamn story for the millionth time. It’s always THE SAME. The only thing changing is who’s gonna get brutally killed. But - of course - out of the “disposable” character pool. It’s never Sonya (because you need our female lead or else there would be no female characters in the story), who ya know could be killed by Mileena but magically WASN’T. Because Mileena FOR SOME REASON was like: Ya know what? Naaah. Even though Sonya’s from Earthrealm and is actively trying to stop you. If anything, kill her because she annoys you. BUT NAH. It’s never Liu Kang because he’s the Chosen One. But killing Kung Lao is fine, he can die so Liu can awaken or smth. It’s not the main character because how else can you portray THE MAGIC OF LOVE AND FRIENDSHIP? Ya, that’s what I thought, don’t even think about it.

You have an amazing universe, filled to the brim with SO. MUCH. POTENTIAL. Let go of the same boring plot line and show us Kombat from another perspective. Change something. F*ck, go all feminist route and make a story center around Mileena dominating the world. Try with different versions of the same story, making it center around different character each time. 

SURE, YOU’LL PROBABLY LOSE SOME VIEWERS BUT TIMES ARE CHANGING, AND MOST OF US ARE TIRED TO PAY FOR THE SAME STORY OVER AND OVER AGAIN.

Part Two: Mortal Kombat Legends: Battle of the Realms

Jesus f*cking Christ.

To say this film was rushed is an understatement. While I was watching it, I was like: TF? Everything happens all at once, we have Kuai Liang-Scorpion story line, we have Outworld’s attack, the tournament, not to mention the final fight that should be whole another movie. I felt like no story line was properly laid out, some of the characters died before I got to even know them and the battles were... disappointing. I believe they needed to push this movie out so they squished in everything they had and just went with it. 

But, again, this movie just repeats the same things as its live action version. Let me lay it down for you:

Kung Lao dies (because yes)

Sonya Blade lives (because yes)

Jade is just there (more of it later)

disposable characters are disposed of

Liu Kang is badass and always wins

You watch it and feel like you’ve already seen it before. Sure, gore is fine, human Raiden is precious and need to be protected at all costs and adrenaline is pumping (I guess).

BUT NOW.

You know what’s coming.

JADE.

JADE.

My f*cking piece of sunshine, the gorgeous goddess of beauty and kombat, the woman who owns my heart.

She’s there for like not even a minute.

Words can’t describe how f*cking PISSED I am by this portrayal. These motherfrickers put her in EVERY SINGLE POSSIBLE SNIPPET OF THIS MOVIE. HER BATTLE WAS IN THE TRAILER, ONE OF THE SNEAK PEEKS WAS A SCENE OF HER AND KITANA.

TURNS OUT EVERYTHING I SAW BEFORE THE MOVIE WAS RELEASED... WAS EVERYTHING I WAS ABOUT TO SEE OF HER!!!!

THEY MADE ME HYPED UP FOR NOTHING!!!!!!

I know I’m not the only one riding this trolley. Li Mei was there just to be killed. Kung Lao had a f*cking single dialogue line and then BAM, fatality, buh-bye. But I was watching everything of this movie, being so enormously happy that I will finally see Jade in the movies, FINALLY! Only for her to be present in a single scene, get her ass kicked by Liu Kang (what’s new) and then she’s never seen again, even when the whole f*cking world is breaking apart.

Again. She’s just there. Ladies and gentlemen, one of the best Shao Kahn’s assassins, gets her ass kicked in fourty seconds. They NEVER let her speak ffs. She just spews some general villanous sh*t and proceeds to step on Johnny. Then, she just goes Observer mode as Kitana “betrays” Shao Kahn, gets tied to the column and then the world is ending. 

WHERE THE F*CK IS SHE?!

If you hype me up for her every chance you get, at least GIVE ME what you’re advertising. This is a scam. This is criminal offense. And homophobic. She is more than a revealing outfit and Liu Kang’s punching bag. I’m SO. F*CKING. TIRED. OF THIS. SH*T.

Kitana. The rebellious princess of Outworld... turned damsel in distress in this movie. Her role is so effing bad it hurts me to my core. You see her as a general being so badass and independent... oh right, we need Liu Kang to save her because he needs to maintain his hero look. And we need two kissing scenes. How do we get there? Oh, right, let him save her, because you know - that’s what makes wahmen kiss you. 

ARE YOU NUTS?!

The movie started just fine, with Kitana being in charge with her right hand, Jade. Then, obviously, they water her down and soon she is a princess in a tower (in this case, princess on a column) that needs her buffy sexy man to save her. Oh, and she can’t resist him - you know, every normal girl’s reaction to getting untied is to kiss a guy you’ve known for like a few hours but seen before and you’ve talked like three dialogue lines in total. Sure.

Kitana just gets the unfortunate role of a female main character. She’s Liu’s love interest and that makes her take the role of a strong (but surface level, only) woman who still needs her hero to free her. Classic damsel in distress story, with Kitana being the princess, Liu being the Prince charming and Shao Kahn as the dragon (lul). Of course, they try to cover this up by making Kitana a general, letting her win a few fights but it won’t matter in the end. Some say that women want to believe in fairy tales but the more I see fighting games’ lore, the more I say it’s the men who want to believe them. 

Is it necessarily bad? No. But it’s boring as fuk.

I would like to ask the directors to stop being so afraid of upsetting the target audience. Target audience can change and sometimes it comes out better than originally planned. My Little Pony was designed as a child’s cartoon but it was the creepy men who made it reach the top. Morally? Questionable at best. But business is booming, right? And that’s what they care for, right?

All I’m trying to say is these days women and gays are the future.

Thank you for today, more to come. I’m going to rant about the Story Mode.

#Mortal Kombat #mk jade #kitana #nitara #mileena #battle of the realms #female #commentary #article #mortal kombat movie

[onestowatch]

Meet CRAVITY, the K-Pop Super Rookies With a Gravitational Pull [Q&A]

Photo: Courtesy of Artist 

The world of K-Pop is always changing and evolving, and CRAVITY is the latest group to illustrate the universal appeal of the worldwide phenomenon. Originally debuting in the midst of the ongoing COVID pandemic, the affectionately-dubbed “Super Rookies” found themselves in an unprecedented situation, having to make a name for themselves in a genre built around extraordinary live shows and human connection, all while the world shut down around them. In spite of the odds, the group’s debut, Hideout: Remember Who We Are, climbed to the top of the U.S. iTunes K-Pop chart, cementing their place as super rookies ready to take the world by storm.

And hardly a year following their noteworthy debut, CRAVITY is back to make good on the early promise that came with topping with the iTunes chart and being Starship Entertainment’s first new boy band in five years (following in the footsteps of their seniors, Monsta X). The Awakening: Written in the Stars arrives as the group’s first full-length debut album and serves as a marked maturation for each of the members. Consisting of eight tracks that transcend genres, from explosive hip-hop to euphoric electronic-laden pop, CRAVITY fearlessly brings their ambitious vision to life.  

We had the chance to catch up with the boys behind CRAVITY via e-mail ahead of the release of their full-length debut album, which is out now, to check-in and see how they’re doing before they become a household name. 

Ones to Watch: What does CRAVITY mean?

Serim: It’s a combination of the word “Creativity” and “Gravity” and it has special meaning behind it--we (CRAVITY) will gravitate the audience into our unique universe with our charms.

What’s one fun fact about every member of CRAVITY?

Allen: Apparently I sleep talk in three languages? English, Korean, and Chinese.

Hyeongjun: I always wear contact lenses whether it’s a day off or not.

Seongmin: I enjoy eating jellies and candies these days.

Serim: I always clear my throat before I sing or rap.

Minhee: I don't like eggplant.

Jungmo: Allen sleep talks in three different languages and these days, he likes to shop online.

Woobin: I bite my nails, I am always looking for a new song, and beatboxing is one of the things that I enjoy doing these days.

Wonjin: These days, I play the game called Animal Crossing, but I'm too lazy to pull weeds on my island. I need some help haha ☺

Taeyoung: Many fans say I look like a cat! BUT I am actually allergic to cats ~

And what are everyone’s roles?  

Allen: I lead the group during dance practices and make sure everyone is looking sharp by the time we release new music or prepare for a performance.

Hyeongjun: I’m in charge of passion! HJ = Passion! 

Seongmin: I am the “Maknae” of the group and as the youngest member, I get along with my brothers (members) and I’m like the vitamin for the group!

Serim: The strongest and photographer for the members.

Minhee: Everyone is different, so it's fun

Jungmo: I’m in a vocal position in CRAVITY, so sometimes I upload vocal cover videos.

Woobin: I'm the main vocal of the group. 

Wonjin: I like to make some jokes to keep our team’s mood up. It looks so easy, but it is actually very hard.

Taeyoung: My role is to hype up our members!

Serim, do the boys ever make being the group leader a difficult job or are they all pretty well-behaved?

Serim: I think it's really comfortable because the members listen to me well and follow me well.

Were there any particular challenges that arose from debuting in the midst of a pandemic?

Allen: There were definitely moments where I was up on stage tired and worn out, not being able to perform at my best due to not having a live audience, but I still try my best to not let that show through the camera lens. 

Hyeongjun: I think the biggest challenge is not being able to meet the fans.

Seongmin: I wanted to perform in front of the fans, but I'm sad that I can't. 

Minhee: It's still very difficult that I can't show our stages directly to the fans.

Serim: I'm in charge of passion. Expectations about meeting our fans are growing, but I'm sad that we can't at the moment. 

Jungmo: Before our debut, we imagined performing on stage in front of our fans and around the world, but these days we are just performing in front of cameras so it’s really sad. We really miss you guys!

Woobin: I want you to understand what CRAVITY is trying to say. We really miss you and want to see you guys in person.

Wonjin: The fact that we can’t see our fans. We had a fairly long break in between our new album and the last one, but it felt as if it was a year. In addition, when we perform on stage without our fans, it’s hard for us to be energetic. 

Taeyoung: That we can't meet our fans face to-face... that is a big, sad problem.

With your debut reaching number 1 on the US iTunes K-pop chart, how does it feel going forward with future projects?

Wonjin: I’m so excited because there is only one way for us which is to go up.

What do you hope people take away from your first official album?

Hyeongjun: We prepared a lot for the performance so please look forward to our performance and be sure to look out for our music video too!

Woobin: We tried to incorporate various genres and sounds into this album, so we hope you can find your taste in it!

Can you speak on the title of your full-length debut album, The Awakening: Written in the Stars?

Seongmin: It's focused on the keyword “Awakening,” a challenge towards a new goal. Also, please look forward to seeing how CRAVITY’s message will be written in the future!

Jungmo: It’s our first full-length album, and it means that we are all awakened and got more mature after coming out from our hideout.  

Why do you think K-Pop has become such a worldwide phenomenon?

Allen: I believe K-Pop truly has something magical going on. Its power to connect people from all around the world is unbelievable. Social media definitely plays a big part in making K-Pop into such a world phenomenon, but I firmly believe that music is a universal language and that no matter where you’re from or what language you speak, the emotions portrayed by a piece of music will always be well communicated.

Are there any other groups or artists you would love to collaborate with?

Allen: It’d be nice for us to collaborate with Steve Aoki. His collaboration, “Play It Cool” with our company senior Monsta X really suited their vibe and sound, so I feel like if he ever got to produce for us, he would be able to create something that would really suit our image and our sound.

Hyeongjun: It’s still the same for me, I want to collaborate with MONSTA X.

Seongmin: I'd love to collaborate with Charlie Puth.

Serim: I’ve always liked Ateez sunbaenim’s performances and would like to have a collaboration opportunity with them.

Minhee: Anyone is good, it would be an honor for us to have an opportunity to collaborate with other artists.

Jungmo: I want to collaborate with Jooyoung sunbaenim because our new album has a lot of cool tracks written by Jooyoung sunbaenim and his crew! Also, I want to learn his vocal style.

Woobin: Lauv, and Kihyun from our senior group MONSTA X.

Wonjin: I want to collaborate with The Kid Laroi. I knew him through a song called “Stay.” I fell in love with his vocal skills and style and he is so young. I want to be his friend.

Taeyoung: I’m still waiting for the opportunity to collab with The Chainsmokers.

You’ve yet to perform for your fans in a large-scale setting. How do you feel about the possibility of performing for your fans on tour?

Taeyoung: I’m really excited to meet LUVITYs around the world and perform on stage while listening to their voices. It would be an unforgettable experience in my life.

Is there anything you all like to do when not working on music?

Allen: We all enjoy playing board games together. A few of us also like to work out or play sports such as soccer, baseball, badminton, and basketball.

Hyeongjun: I’m into watching tv series on Netflix.

Seongmin: First of all, I'm looking forward to meeting many fans, and I'm looking forward to learning about the culture of various countries. I also enjoy reading books.

Serim: Watching movies!

Minhee: I’m currently looking for one!

Jungmo: I like watching horror movies because I am interested in ghost haha.

Woobin: Cooking? I love to cook!

Wonjin: I like baseball or basketball, but these days because of COVID-19, I’m sad I can’t play.

Taeyoung: I like to play badminton and watch memes~

If you could say one thing to all your fans, what would it be?

Allen: Don’t go anywhere and stay right where you are. We will come find you once the pandemic subsides.

Hyeongjun: Let’s not stop here, LUVITY! Fighting!

Seongmin: Let's always be healthy until we meet each other.

Serim: LUVITY~~ I miss you and I love you.

Minhee: LUVITY! Always be happy!

Jungmo: We really prepared this album hard, so we hope you like it. We always love you guys.

Woobin: Please look forward to our new album! Love ya!

Wonjin: Please love our new album and stay healthy. I miss you guys so so much.

Taeyoung: I just want to say I really care about our fans and I love you so much! 

What’s next for CRAVITY?

Allen: They say the sky’s the limit but we’re going to be up by satellites.

Seongmin: It’s my goal to finish our album promotions well and I hope to meet our fans as soon as possible.

Minhee: There's still a long way to go and I'm pretty sure that there will be more opportunities for us to be on stage in the near future, so I think we should all work harder to move forward.

CRAVITY’s full-length debut album, The Awakening: Written in the Stars, is available to stream on Spotify and Apple Music.

#cravity #k pop #k-pop #interview #album reviews #pop #hip hop #the awakening written in the stars #the awakening

[popculturebuffet]

Amphibia Reviews: The First Temple or Bessie and Joe: The New OTP

Hello all you happy people! Amphibia season 2 moves right a long and it’s time for some video game shenanigans as we enter The First Temple! Family drama, snail on bird action, and outhouses await you under the cut with a recap/review with full spoilers. 

So we open with the Plantars having chocopillbug pancakes. Ironically my mom offered me chocolate chip pancakes after this and thank god for that. This is a rare treat to the point Anne didn’t even know they had choclate, and is suprisingly not strangling Hop Pop over this. Unsuprisingly he broke out the good stuff to try and make up for hiding the box and things are still VERY awkward between the two, with Hop Pop walking on Egghshells around Anne and Anne doing the same when he brings it up with both desperatley trying to avoid the subject and Sprig not helping by bringing it up a bunch. 

I like this a lot and didn’t really think about the series continuting any tension over his decision.. but should have. Partly because this is a modern animated show and most of this wonderful new wave of shows have a LOT of emotional nuance. ANd partly because this show dosen’t forget things even most nuanced shows forget: the fact the characters cause chaos and learn life lesons is outright RECOGNZIED by the show as a pattern and brought up quite often, as are the patterns that lead to it, like mostly being sprig and anne, anne’s impulsivness that sort of thing. It’s the kind of thing you just gloss over in most shows but this one lampshades to hell and back for funsies so when something THIS important happens, you’d better belivie it’s not just going to disappear. 

The tensions thankfully broken by a new arrival, as a massive sparrow shows up in the yard. “It’s a giant bird with.. books on it’s back.. what. “ Great delivery from bill there. Naturally it’s Marcy! 

I missed this little goober. Such a joy to be around, and she of course marvels over the Plantar’s house before getting back on track: She’s found the first temple.. even though she sent a letter saying that and it’s not commented on that she did. It set off the whole previous episode Marcy... you okay Mar-Mar?

That aside though it’s time for the first temple and Marcy asks for the Box, with Sprig trying to make a joke about how good thing she didn’t ask for it a week ago. 

Polly rightly punches him in the ribs... do frogs have ribs? Hold on.. okay here we go

Huh.. so they do not You learn something new every day. Well lack of ribs or no our heroes are ready.. while Marcy’s sparrow Joe is also ready TO GET IT ON. Yes really, he does a mating dance for Bessie, complete with an intersumental version of “Sylvia” from last season. God damn that bird’s got game. The only time i’ve seen more game is THIS. 

 Marcy tells him to knock it off. Look marcy your a pet owner now and as a pet owner, it’s your responsiblity.. to let your giant bird do horrifying things with a slightly smaller but still giant snail. it’s what nature intended. Nature was doing a lot of cocaine that day but we still honor her wishes. 

But anyways Marcy’s figure out something intresting about the box.. by winding it just right the gems pop out, which allows her to take one, we later find out it’s the green one, to use in the temple. So off we go with Marcy and the rest of the kids up top and Hop Pop.. screaming in Joe Sparrows claws. He’s fine. 

So while they get ready, Anne worries about the amount of puzzles and hazzards Marcy’s hyping for this but Marcy shurgs it off and gives her own big boast about how may RTS she’s beaten.. suspciously like Yuaan as one post on here pointed out. Not a huge suprise though, to Marcy she’d just be the grand hero out of one of her rpg’s and not think of how many people she probably killed or who she’s working for.. though you’d THNK given all the RPG’s both tapetop and on her switch she’s played, that Marcy would see that “the benevolent king turns out to be the big bad” trope coming. 

But Anne’s worry is not on the big bad of the show but on Marcy who has a tendency to get so in the zone she ignores the world around her, which goes from focusing on her game while helping anne get softserve leading to a mess, not letting Anne down in a play and.. Anne catching Marcy on tv as all the snakes escape from the zoo. 

Regardless our heroes arrive and while the awkwardness between anne and hop pop continues, they find a majestic temple.. and what appears to be an outhouse. Hey we all gotta poop sometimes, even people making a majestic temple.  If you don’t it comes out like this. 

So they head in and we get our first puzzle, a mysterious cube that lifts you into the air and allows you to tilt the thing around. 

Those of you wondering why I have such a strong reaction have ever never played breath of the wild or played it with a pro controller, i.e. NOT having to tilt the very thing your screen is on because Nintendo has failed to grasp that MAYBE people don’t like that, that it takes you out of the experince and that it’s really hard to focus on your screen while having to move the fucking system about. And the plantar’s getting horribly jostled around as she moves it is EXACTLY how it feels to play a puzzle requring that shit. 

Next is a color based tile dungeon leftover from Link’s Awakening DX. As marcy figures out the reds do fire and the blues do crushing... but she reads the language (And as she put earlier “Guess who learned an entire dead language?” God she’s precious. ) and finds a green with envy pun (Which Hop Pop takes offense to.. several of his friends are green.). Which is curious as given several citzens of amphibia are green.. why would they make a green pun? So she gets on one tile and Hop Pop plans to take the risk of getting on the other green tile, but Anne does it instead.. and things get heated between the two as Anne reveals she no longe feels like family since he did what he did for polly and sprig and hop pop takes offense as she IS. Even if he screwed up with her. But Anne’s near death experince activates the tile. 

The final challnge switches us from Zelda.. to Harry Freaking Potter. 

Now I used to love Harry Potter, with all of my heart. Then JK Rowling turned out to be a transphobic piece of shit who thinks she’s an ally, but is really a bigot who wants to “accept” trans people without giving them any rights. So yeah while I still love the starkid musicals, ore more accuratley the music from them, and own a copy of lego harry potter I got as a gift recently as both parties had no idea she was a monster when this stuff was made. Still a sore subject though, but if I didn’t bring up the similiarties I wouldn’t be doing my job as a critic and this was likely thought up long before JK outed herself as well...

No no the great mighty poo respects all peoples.. and wants to take their heads and ram it up his butt. He’s an equal opportunity butt rammer. 

Anyways this is the frog equivlent of chess flipfrog, and just like with Wizard chess, our heroes end up as the pieces minus marcy.. and in a nice twist on that scene, Anne ends up on the other side. Marcy is a grandmaster at it though so after an hour or so of play she almost wins.. only for the king equilvent to refuse to be taken and the automatic board she’s up against to send Anne against hop pop, and with our heroes magically restrained and given stone weapons, this can’t end well. Eventually though Anne’s forced to hit HOp Pop multiple times and while he says “well isn’t this what you wanted”, she says no.. she didn’t want to phsyically hurt him it’s just complicated. So we get one heck of an emotioinal scene as Hop Pop just wants to help and wants this to stop and dosen’t knoow how to fix this which as someone who desperatlyt ries to fix most emotional situations right away this hit very hard.. and her response of needing time hit harder. The two while not reconciled, ar ecloser to it and Marcy realizes what she’s done getting so obessed with winning and forfits for thier benifit. Our heroes leave, seemingly having lost.. only to find glowing arrows to the crap hole, which turns out to be the pedistal. The temple wasn’t just an intellegence test but empathy.. and the temples are clearly built to specifically test each of the chosen three, our heroines, specifically. Marcy’s tested her intellegence.. but also her willingness to let go of cold clyincal thought to do the right thing. That earns her her gem recharged and a flash in her eyes and her gem starts pointing to the next. She needs time to triangulate and hop pop and anne are back on workable footing... though our heroes offer to take a break instead of going to the next temple. 

Back in Newtopia, Yuaan reports on the toads gathering.. but dosen’t get to mentioning sasha before Marcy’s letter interrupts and Andridas oddly and aburbly dimisses her.. and goes to talk to a watcher with a thousand eyes, his “master” who has plans to undo the prophcey and get their revenge. 

Final Thoughts: This was a damn fine episode that gave Marcy some much needed character development, and gave the reveals of last episode some more emotiional fallout.  It also had some really great jokes as always. Top notch stuf. 

Next Time: Marcy tries to win everyone over through science and we FINALLY get an episode with the Frog Robot apparently. Horay

Next on this Blog: We go into final space yo! It’s unexpected births, ho yay, and horrifying zombie gary’s galore! 

Until then if you liked this review, follow me for more, join my patreon, comission a review if you please and i’ll see you at the next rainbow. Play us out jeff... and I haven’t done THAT bit in a while but eh. This song was too perfect. 

#amphibia #anne boonchuy #marcy wu #the first temple #hopidah plantar #sprig plantar #polly planntar #king andrias #the watcher with a thousand eyes

[ladyleahcat]

Seraphine’s Lore Rework

So.. I have to say that I was really hyped for Seraphine. I followed her in social media and I really liked her design. But, after her lore and abilities were revealed, it just felt... out of place in Runeterra. Her in-game abilities don’t make sense with her natural gift. She doesn't have a grand purpose, or breaking point in her story that motivates her to be... you know, a champion. So, I tried to fix the lore. Please be kind, and let me know what you think (English is not my native language, so there may be some redaction mistakes). 

I don't have an extensive knowledge of the LoL universe, so here goes nothing! (I took the official one and changed a little bit too much... I kinda throw away the dream of unity between Zaun and Piltover. And knowing that the Brackerns communicated through MUSIC it´s a fact too rich to ignore. I did a little reseach and took some terms and ideas from Skarner’s short story).

As a child, Seraphine always loved music, especially her father’s lullabies. The songs were beautiful, but sad. He and Seraphine’s mother—two lifelong Zaunites—always dreamt of a better life in the City of Progress. But poor as they were, they did everything they could to give their only child a decent life in Zaun.

Leaning out the window of their hexcoustics workshop, where broken sound tech was made to play again, Seraphine sang along with the dark streets. The constant sound of the leaking pipework, working machinery and wispered conversation was her companion.

Over time, Seraphine realized she could sense songs too private, too personal, for any ordinary person to hear. And as she grew, so did the intensity of her gifts. She heard every person’s soul, loving or cruel—turning the streets she’d once loved into an overwhelming cacophony of conflicting desires. How could she make sense of the voices if none of them harmonized? Some days, she hid shivering in a corner, hands over her ears, unable to hear herself above the chaos and feeling her sanity slowly escape.

Seraphine’s parents couldn’t bear seeing her struggle. Even scraping together their savings, they knew it was not enough to help her. Risking their own safety, they made a deal with powerfull mechants in Zaun´s black market to purchase a shard of a rare hextech crystal. And so, they crafted a device that dampened her magical hearing. For the first time in years, there was silence.

Within that quiet, though, Seraphine heard something—someone. The crystal had a consciousness. But it was hard to hear, and harder to comprehend. Seraphine, awed, asked for guidance. But the crystal refused communication. She made her goal to achieve understanding of this rare soul, but her attempts were interrupted by tragedy.

The debt of the crystal was greater that what her parents could pay, and the mechants, tired of waiting, decided to claim the price in their own way. On the darkest of the nights, the rumbling sound of incessant knocking on the door accompanied by violent threats awoke the family. Taking their few possessions, they intended to flee, but, Seraphine´s father knew they would be followed. Giving his wife and daugther one last kiss, he ordered them to run and never look back, while he faced their attackers. They did, and in the distance the sounds of gunshots rang out. Seraphine was ten when she saw her dad for the last time.

Full of sorrow, the broken family got to Piltover with almost nothing. There were difficult days of cold and hunger until Sera´s mother could grab a job at a hextech workshop, as she refused to sell the crystal, see her child suffer, and let her late husband´s sacrifice go to waste.

Seraphine refused to sing the first months in Piltover, as it didn´t feel like home anymore, and it hurt to much to remember, while she also felt all their disgrace were her fault. One day, through her pain, she finally heard a distant voice. The lethargic soul hidden in the crystal slowly opened up to her. It told her stories and songs of the old brackern race. About how it once was big and respected, and how the greedy softskins destroyed it to gain the power of the crystal namestones hidden within their bodies. Horrified, Seraphine realized how the city that surrounded her was powered by the brackern, and so, she asked the voice why it had decided to share all that information with her. With a kind voice, it answered that she had a unique talent to hear souls and songs, and, that she could understand the pain of loss after what she had been through, just like it had lost its kin a long time ago. Then, the soul inside the crystal proposed a way to help them both.

The brackern knew Seraphine had a gift, and he could teach her to amplify it with magic. To give her voice power, potency and purpose. She could ease, enchant and thrill the crowds, gain fame and fortune, and give her mother a better life. But she could also inflict pain, make suffer and bring death to those who took her father away. The soul only wanted something in return.

There was an old ritual that brackerns knew about. The content of their namestones was to precious to get lost, and they designed a way to bring their race back if something ever went wrong. The proccess requiered to gather a great amount of brackern crystals in a hidden temple within the deserts of old Shurima. But it demanded a great price. The same amount of souls of a single different race in exchange for the awakening of each soul of the dormant one. The brackern wanted them to be human, as it seemed as a fair exchange. The enchanting dreamsong to fulfill the process had to be sung by a representative of each of both races. And she was the perfect candidate of her kin to do so.

Seraphine felt dread all over her body and refused, at first, to cooperate with the crystal; imagining the amount of people she would be required to slay. But as the weeks passed, and she and her mother keep on struggling to survive each day, Seraphine decided to agree to the plan. The brackern teached her a melody to seal their agreement, and with it, theirs souls were bounded to commitement, while allowing their magic to flow and combine. Their practice together begun. Each night, Seraphine grabbed her crystal and escaped to the superficial sewers of Zaun to rehearse. Slowly, she learned to manage the noise. Seraphine felt the crystal´s influence as it helped her understand how to resonate with a crowd, to sing with them, using her dampener less each day. Soon, she realized her full potential, and started to develop dangerous skills as well as the brackern teached her magic enchanting melodies of old. It took them years of practice. When she felt ready, Seraphine asked her mom for help to turn her dampener into an amplifier to test her full abilities.

The first time she performed in front of an audience, testing her skills, she was sixteen, and nervous beyond words. She choose a poor street of Piltover to start. With simple clothes and just her amplifier made of old recicled hextech, she started singing. And soon, a crowd gathered enchanted with her lovely voice and bewitching melodies, as she could take all of their personal songs and hopes to turn them into heart touching harmonies. The first day she collected so many coins that her mother and her were able to buy new things for the first time. With each passing day, the crowds were getting bigger, the profit was growing, allowing her little family to slowly achieve the life they always dreamt of. Still, something was missing—in the crowds, and in herself. She knew her father’s crime was still impune and with each song, his memory was painfully revived. She wanted justice.

Using her newfound richness, Seraphine located the merchants that took her father's life and (by her crystal's indication) collected a vast amount of a very special type of mineral, native from the Shadow Isles. Taking advantage of the cloak of night and her growing abilities, she descended into Zaun to make them pay. She infiltrated their place, lured the group of men and their leader with a beautiful melody and then took their lifes with one of the most complex ancient songs the brackern had teached her. Following the elaborate instructions, she absorbed the bodies and souls of the criminals into some shards of the minerals she brought with her, trapping them forever. These were the first souls she would need for the ritual. Taking advance of her accomplishment, she took all of the remaining brackern crystals keept by the band, and then, her mission started.

Although she felt guilty about her actions, she knew that, finally, she had made justice by her own hand, and had found a purpose for her gifts. The brackern's namestones had been waiting for a long time for someone that could listen their dreamsongs and help, and that was exactly was she was about to do. She was born for it. Seraphine knew there was no way she could take all of the brackern crystals in Runeterra, and that not all human souls are aware of the horrors behind the powerfull fuel of hextech, but there were enough gilty ones that she could execute.

Armed with a platform to keep her precious brackern crystals hidden and safe, and also her trapped human victims, she has become the premier star in both Piltover and Zaun. In the public eye, she uses her playful apearance and beautiful voice to enchant the crowds and win their hearts and favor, while she listens for the brackerns old voices slowly awakening inside their cores and calling out for her, singing gladly their dreamsongs. In the shadows, it´s her duty to retrieve them to safety and trap the souls of those who are greedy enough to collect them. She knows one day, she will gather enought of them to make the journey into Shurima´s desert, looking for the one called Skarner that the ancient spirits talk about and being able to, at last, fulfill her destiny.

(I know it’s not that great, but let me know your thoughts and suggestions :3 ) Disclaimer: These characters belong to Riot Games. I don’t own them, I just did this for fun.

#league of legends #seraphine #lore #skarner #riot #riot games #lol #seradotwav #I just did it for fun and the lolz #I think Sera would be cooler with a better backstory #Skarner deserves better #fan lore #please dont kill me #fangirling me

[wildshero]

ooc: welp i went ahead and spoiled AoC for myself, under the cut are spoilers you have been warned

im super disappointed in nintendo for making everyone live. the game would have been so powerful to have the true ending that leads straight into botw. but they just love their split timelines don’t they. not every game has to end happily at risk of spoiling spider man: miles morales that game has a very bitter sweet ending with death involved, and no one is complaining. i just don’t get why they had to ahead and ruin a timeline they already firmly set up. like the game was described as being a view into what happened before the 100 years, but its not that if you go and change the whole damn story.

like ngl if botw 2 takes place after aoc i’ll be kind of disappointed, like aoc erases everything from botw

like all the heartache and shit is erased in aoc, and it takes away everything that link and zelda fought for in botw in order for it to not happen, which is fine, but at the same time like calling forth the “new” champions from the future to fight alongside you isn’t an answer to the problem. it just creates a huge paradox

so from here on out are basically my thoughts to watching the cut scenes

its just bad writing, not to mention straight up stealing the fact that zelda and impa can understand the egg from droids and their “masters” from star wars, the egg is her music box... and plays her lullaby. like stop forcing the egg on us please

why can no one see hestu til zelda can? like scuse me, no link can see the giant brocoli just fine despite this cut scene. also hestu not remembering link in botw if this scene is real? like COME ON

mipha is shit at hiding her crush

the not ganon character is a seer who wants to control their own calamity possessed egg, and sooga is like its not for mortals to control

it is weird seeing link without the slate on his armor, there’s a place for it, but its like not there.

i know its hyrule warriors and you gotta have more than two people going but like impa being there at the spring of courage... like love her all you want but nah fam this aint it also it steals story elements away from link, i know the boy is selectively mute BUT JESUS give him something please

also its like link being the hero means nothing in terms of the slate and the towers, and then the shrines. its like all of it is meaningless in this game, which like revali says what’s the point of link then

calamity comes early? what the hell? this game. im so upset, but also like rhoam getting unnecessarily angry at link for doing what he’s supposed to like jesus fucking christ then he lowkey dies like okay

purah being there when zelda breaks down and its not just link... like the whole story of botw is like fucked, and zelda has time travel tears now

like all the things that happened in botw that built the characters is erased, like everything is a group effort which like is disappointing. i love how the new champions come BUT at the same time it defeats the point of the champions ballad, and the solo battles that link has to face.

alot of the story telling elements are repeated like more obviously than in botw which is saying something

all that the new champions are seeing is for nothing... like they will go back with these memories and it will suck cause they know the current state will have been changed and so what they see will be burdens they carried alone and for nothing for their future people

link’s sacrifice is for nothing, so thanks for diminishing that for me AOC. like him fending off the four blights unlocks zelda’s power but like seriously what is the point of him in this game, he is literally useless, like he straight up disappears. and her power isn’t unlocked via her love, but seeing link fight, and then thinking of the loss of her father

the yiga joined the good side? the fuck aoc

oh link is magically back now. why is he even in this game?

her father isn’t dead but was transported to the temple of time cause of a relic zelda and her mom found. THE PLOT ARMOR, its a shield its literal plot armor oh my god. which lead to her power awakening having no real meaning

literally everything from botw is unwritten, all the strife and everything that was fought for in botw is literally gone

i liked that teba was not a fan of revali’s attitude but like he then becomes a simp for him like dude you can still be in awe and think he’s a jerk to link and in general

ah a blood moon at the end... *eyeroll* okay

harbinger ganon... *squints*

the seer becomes sucked into ganon and the egg attacks zelda and link deflects its blast killing it... WHAT IS THIS WRITING

cool zelda is crying more over this damn egg than her people in BOTW, so zelda is like 5 when her mom dies in the castle (?) its not clear, and her dad is like training only now

also the eggs name is terrako

who needs the master sword the darkness when you’ve got egg boy and zelda’s sealing power, no wonder its shit 100 years later. fi realized she wasn’t fucking needed

slice him through like butter link that’ll do it *eye roll* what happened to that courage power from the fucking master sword scene? what sealing are you doing with that sword? you sliced through him. LIKE?

things that i kinda like, and appreciate character wise

link gets flustered easily. revali revels in the fact that link will be the fallen knight and his reputation what little he has will be ruined, it is also well known that link is in fact a nobody meaning his family is not noble born, but that does not mean his family, read his father, on this blog is a nobody.

urbosa defending link from revali’s bullshit

link fighting malice champions from the totally “not ganon” hooded figure

link is officially considered a champion, and talks with urbosa

impa being pissy with the egg, i feel it. i am tired of the fucking egg pushing himself in too

sooga is the only character i want to see in botw2

link can teleport more than one person is confirmed, though three max is like it in a weakened state.

as much as i hate how many paradoxes this creates, yunobo and sidon’s enterances are very good, and teba’s and riju’s are similar. urbosa recognizing she’s in trouble is very in character for her imo.

i liked that all in hyrule worked together but like at what cost

i prefer this design of calamity ganon

the master sword lets FUCKING DISCUSS

ahahaha no. link pulls the sword when he’s a kid. I WANT TO HAVE A DISCUSSION NINTENDO GIVE ME YOUR NUMBER

like the scene is cool and all but we’re gonna be rewriting that bullshit. the only thing im taking from it is apparently link and the sword together have some courage power a-la zelda’s healing power... NOT THAT IT MATTERS CAUSE HE DOESN’T GET TO FUCKING USE IT

HOWEVER he does not pull it for the first time right then and there, sorry nope, not happening

The story is very much zelda’s which it should be, but like every moment that could have been link’s was taken by another character because of how hyrule warrior’s opperates. like if you want to play as zelda this is your game

im just disappointed, it erases everything from botw quite literally. it gives the new champions memories that they bare alone because zelda and link wont be there in 100 years to help them with it...

link was useless in the game. like you could literally write him out and have the same game, having the master sword literally does fucking nothing because of how OP zelda is. like its called legend of zelda and rightfully so but Link becomes a literal footnote. purah and others takes his place in all the important scenes that were his before.

and like i said if BOTW2 takes place after this its gonna be disappointing and not as dark as nintendo is intending IMO, they should have let this game end the way it does in the lead up to BOTW, it would have been so much more rewarding in my opinion yes you “technically lose” but you would still get some awesome final moments with zelda, and it would hype you up for BOTW.

there were parts i liked obviously, but there were major issues, and this is JUST STORY BASED, im not even talking game play.

#tw: aoc spoilers #ooc: out of memories #i am so disappointed

[bignookling]

100 days to acnh challenge - 1 to 74

found this challenge and decided it would be a great way to pass the time until the release date, and a good way to get people to know me a lil better too c’: i feel so powerful starting at this point, there are so few days left to wait! 

1. Do you prefer making up a new name for your villager, or using your own name? i never, ever used my own name... i always felt like this would be boring, and i kinda want to give myself the opportunity to create a new “character” based on the events that happen to them in the game... (my first character in wild world was named Scarlet :^)) 2. Do you use the first map you’re given, or do you reset for layouts? i am bige resetter with bige plans all jokes aside i am way too indecisive and spent way too much time on this, i would even check people’s dream towns prior to resetting to gather ideas and fresh input on this. though usually, each time i remade my town i had a specific kind of map in mind? most of all, i like having a secluded nice little corner to put my house (being able to move your house in nh is a game changer honestly!) grass type and colors of buildings also matter. residents not so much because, hey, i can also reset for that later! (i am terrible) 3. Do you use the face you’re given, or do you wait for guides and choose your favourite? similarly, i use a guide. i think the only times i didn’t was my first times in wild world where i didn’t really have access to a fast internet connection :’^) (guess what i am also indecisive about this! my most used are the classic arched villager eyes, the almond shaped ones and the shiny anime ones THEY ARE TOO CUTE) 4. Favourite town/island name?/Have you a name picked out for your town/island? I WON’T SAY YET... i have multiple options for now and idk what to do... but my nl town is named Suzuran, and i really like this name :] 5. Will you be sharing with friends/family, or is your island going to be all your own? probably gonna be my own! my mother used to have a character in my wild world town though :) 6. What’s a new feature you’re excited about? ALL but mostly the terraforming/switching everything up options!! for...reasons mentioned above... also the weeds. i never really got to dupe clovers or stuff like that so i am very pumped 7. Favourite fruit? buttfruit peaches probably... i also love perfect oranges and perfect pears because they’re like golden... i like gold like perfect fruits in general hehe i also love the new fruits in new leaf! 8. Least favourite fruit? apples are a bit tacky to me but i still love them i am sad i cannot really make a lot of fruit trees work in my minimally colored nl towns... some people do it so well though and i am TRYING 9.  Favourite area? (Beach, campground, shopping district etc, from any entry in the series.) THIS IS HARD I DON’T HAVE A LOT OF MEMORIES i have fond memories of the beach in wild world just because of some people’s really pretty hacked towns. like they added a whole “manor” (big player house) in front of it and that was the bomb. i also loved the cliffs in city folk and am so glad they are back... 10. Where do you like to like to put your house? Do you like that level of customization, or do you prefer to have some things decided, like in older entries? as i said i like secluded, remote areas for the house, and i also loved to put it near the cliff in city folk! (you better be fully awake if you step out)  the beach is a neat option too. but in nl my favorite was next to a waterfall! 11.  Favourite grass pattern? triangles! when i was a kid it was my least fav and i always avoided it though... then i visited a friend’s cf town and was like “wait this is MORE LIKE REAL GRASS” and i had an awakening...  12. Least favourite grass pattern? circles are a bit... odd for grass i think 13. Favourite villager/s? purrl was my absolute queen when i played wild world and still is. i love cats in general... and deer. and coco. coco is so my aesthetic and goals for a town feeling if you know what i mean, i adore her. doyoing 14. Least favourite villager/s? i am basic and like cute things so the least cute and mostly most tacky, bright colored ones... i am sorry...i still care about all your villagers 15. Did you like doing Tom Nook’s chores, or did you find those to be a pain? generally speaking i like them when i first play the game because they are immersive and kinda introduce you to the main concepts of the game? (the city in city folk, being mayor in nl etc) but with side characters and resetting they get a bit repetitive and frustrating upping your reputation to be able to work as a mayor in nl also is a pain 16. Favourite NPC/s? label is my queen and wife. i love her sisters too, and tom nook... BLANCA too i adored her when i played wild world and couldn’t get to see her in my town and was so hyped for her nl event laughs, and joan and daisy mae... i’m probably forgetting some faves I LOVE EVERYONE wait KAPPN has cute dialogue too!  17. Least favourite NPC/s? is there one? i don’t know? i’m gonna go check a list of npcs now ... i am back and honestly I DON’T KNOW 18. Do you use paths? Are you excited about the new path tool? i don’t use paths in my town because they are a mess to set up and i love the natural look anyway, but some people do it so well! i love the ones with natural colors and the little details.  the new path tool looks so convenient, but i don’t know if i like the textures! i’ll probably use it sparsely because i also wanna keep that wild look to my town 19. Favourite feature from an older entry?  the lights on the villagers’ houses in wild world is what came to mind first, hahah 20. What was your first Animal Crossing game? WILD WORLD!! i played it so much and for so long 21. Favourite activity (fishing, bug catching, fossil hunting, other)? bug catching (ca-ching) is my fave out of this list, i also love visiting dream towns and playing with friends in general! 22. Least favourite activity? diving is so slow... 23. Favourite bug? the huge butterflies you see in summer (i was AMAZED when i first saw them), the fireflies (SAME, the first time i saw some was in someone else’s town in city folk as we crossed a bridge and it was just magical, laughs), and the big shiny beetles... it’s not just for the monies, i promise 24. Least favourite bug? either the small butterflies that you see everywhere when you’re trying to catch something neat for the bug-off, or the tarentulas/scorpios because i NEVER MANAGED TO CATCH THEM 25. A quarter of the way there! How’s the wait? actually there’s barely a month remaining as we speak, so pretty fine! i still have to pick my character and town names, and to be honest i am mostly worried i’ll start procrastinating like crazy once the game is out. coughs. at least i’ll draw ac characters? 26.  Favourite fish? i love coelacanths because i am a big nerd, also the sharks and the cute colorful fishes 27.  Least favourite fish? just all the most common ones probably? sea bass isn’t the only one... 28.  Favourite fossil?  what are these questions. uh, i loved putting the small squares ones in my room in wild world...especially ammonites 29.  Least favourite fossil? the ones that bring less cash money? i only care about fossils when they’re displayed in the museum tbh. and there i just love them all 30. Favourite furniture series? the ranch series looked way better in wild world and i am mourning now i love alpine, rococo and modern wood the most! the green one looks cool recolored too! i like combining different series the most, too 31. Least favourite furniture series? anything bright and tacky (except maybe the lovely that’s still fairly cute?)  32. Favourite soundtrack? (Gamecube, DS/Wii, etc) i can’t remember but i get huge pangs of nostalgia if i listen to the wild world/city folk one 33. Least favourite soundtrack? i DON’T KNOW... maybe nl was a bit less whismical? 34. Favourite wallpaper? alpine, chic, exquisite, classic, [...] anything that looks warm and natural and makes for a comfortable house!  35. Do you have a nice memory of the games/community etc you’d like to share? when i was a young teen, i idolized someone in the wild world community because her town was honestly incredibly pretty? so much thought has been put into it and it was just a dream. it made me want to invest more time and planning into my own towns and that’s how i got really, really hooked on the game, i think 36. Least favourite wallpaper? anything really colorful and tacky again... 37.  Favourite carpet? the wood ones, mostly! 39. Favourite furniture item? i love the oven thing from pocket camp... and the rocking chair... and the fireplace... 40. Will you be buying a Switch for Animal Crossing, or do you already have one? i have preordered the animal crossing one... i live for this (i am so glad i waited though honestly) 41. Least favourite furniture item? the huge tacky things or things that just look odd in a house perhaps... wait but i still like to see them and some people use them so well. why would i hate on furniture i wonder 42. Favourite flower? jacob’s ladders and white flowers in general. i adore the look of the ones in nh, holy sh- 43. Least favourite flower? pretty much anything that’s yellow. just never goes with my town plans... the roses especially are so bright i’m 44. Favourite hybrid? i miss the colors of the ones in ww/cf so much... so so much but in general i like anything that’s purple, black or blue i think :> 45. Least favourite hybrid? hmmmm the orange ones from new leaf i think? in the previous games they were so rich and warm though... 46. Favourite shirt? the canary shirt, maybe? though i mostly use qr codes, ahaha some of these outfits are still super cute... 47. Favourite dress? anything pocket camp tends to be good, also this one forever in my heart. i adore the flowery sleeveless dresses too! 48. Favourite accessory? bandages, heart shades, leaf, and tortoise specs! 49. Favourite hat/helmet? celeste’s ribbon, hibiscus hairpin, and that tiny straw hat 51. Favourite shop? i always adored able sisters, and leif’s little gardening shack :> 52. Do you collect amiibo cards/figures? Would you like to see them used in the new game? we know they are compatible now, but i don’t have any! maybe i should buy some? 53. Fishing Tourney or Bug-Off? bug-off is quicker and funnier >:] also i remember i ALWAYS WON in cf while playing with friends... fight me... 54. Do you like making your own clothing patterns? there are so many nice ones already that my slots are always full, so i don’t bother... i remember making a two-toned shirt that i wanted irl when i got new leaf, but that’s pretty much all 55. Did you streetpass with many other ACNL players, or is it a feature you didn’t get much use of? I ALMOST NEVER DID...

56. Favourite villager species? CATS... also, deer. basic basic 57. Least favourite villager species? mice and monkeys have the least cute designs i think...? also hamsters idk. i don’t know i like villagers don’t make me choose 58. Favourite nickname from a villager? 59. Least favourite nickname from a villager? I NEVER LET THEM NICKNAME ME... i am sorry to all the aminals 60. Do you try to collect everything in the game, or just try to get your favourite bits and pieces? in wild world i tried to fill my catalog, but now i only get what i need or what i know my friends might need 61. Favourite villager personality? i always had a thing for the snooty and cranky ones! the uchis are cool now too 62. Least favourite villager personality? the jocks are boring to me and they tend to have my least fav designs. when i like one i keep them though because it is so rare...wheeps 63. Do you “plot reset” for villager house placement, or do you let them move in wherever they want? i only really started doing that with the welcome amiibo update that apparently makes it easier, else i just waited for the annoying ones to move... (and time travelled a lot) 64. Are you excited to wear any of the new accessories (like the bags etc shown in the E3 trailer)? i will COLLECT THOSE and COLOR COORDINATE 65. What season are you most looking forward to seeing in New Horizons? 66. What’s your favourite season? i think summer, i want to hear the cicadas and see the fireflies again, and i also want to see how the rain and wind look like! i remember seeing really pretty storms in nl during summer too ♥ 67. Least favourite season? winter gets slow after a while? i still love it though 68. Which game’s events/holidays do you like the most? 69. Which game’s events/holidays do you like least? i don’t remember ‘-’ honestly i feel like i liked them all for different reasons? wild world felt more “involved” in the community, REMEMBER THE GARDENING CONTESTS! and city folk gave you better rewards and was a fun minigame for the day.  70. Do you have another nice AC related memory you’d like to share (in-game, of the community, etc)? i had a vivid dream that your character could DIE in animal crossing once (i predicted new horizons yes) 71. Do you prefer the “live” versions of K.K. Slider’s Songs, or the airchecks? i tend to prefer the airchecks but the concerts are Special, no matter if it’s with friends or alone 72. An NPC you’d like to see more of? mmmnnh blanca always. i love her spirit 73. An NPC you’d like to see less of? really unpopular opinion probably but i wouldn’t miss reese and cyrus too much if they aren’t as present in nh 74. If you could have any piece of AC merchandise, which would it be? the plushies are so good... i’d like like... a fauna one... idk WHEW I’M DONE... i’ll be posting the rest of it daily now! 

#100 days to nh #.txt

[redtutel]

Rewatching Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens

Although I have vague memories of the Episode III promotional material, this is the Star Wars movie where I truly was a part of the hype. December 2015 was a magical time where everyone was just...loved Star Wars. And it created a meme and parody culture that was just as wholesome as the original trilogies. None of that cynical and nitpicky, or in extreme cases sexist and racist, Star Wars fan culture we’re dealing with today.

So much like the first Avengers movie, the magic surrounding its release will make it impossible for me to judge this movie fairy. But I don’t care. I’m still very attached to it. Will this be the viewing where the magic wares off? Or will I find myself considering this better then the film it pays homage to. I’m excited to find out.

Seeing a brand new “A Long Time Ago in a Galaxy Far, Far, Away” and an opening crawl in theaters was just awesome.

“Will not rest until, Skywalker, The Last Jedi, has been destroyed,” Hey, Foreshadowing! I know there’s a ton of debate as to what was or wasn’t planned in advance for this trilogy, but still.

The First Order is Space ISIS/Neo-Nazis, and Leia leads an army to fight it. Pretty simple. I don’t get why people get so up in arms about how little the politics are explored in this movie. It’s probably a side effect of just how lore heavy Star Wars got after the original trilogy.

The opening shot of a space ship completely covering a moon. A new take on ironic Star Wars imagers. A pretty good summary of this movie. But I feel like such new takes make up for just how many recycled plot points this movie has.

The opening action sequence is the first time in years Storm Troopers have been intimidating (Clone Troopers and Stormtroopers are two different things). It’s pretty impressive. It’s a great way to establish how evil the First Order is.

Finn’s introduction is so impressive. A Stormtrooper who in his first fight, completely looses the will to participate in war. We may never know about his friend he saw die, but despite that, we still understand why he lost his will to fight. It might be a bit awkward for Finn and Poe’s friendship if they ever find out Poe shot Finn’s old Stormtrooper friend.

Kylo Ren stopping a laser with the Force. An awesome new way to use the Force. And I love Poe’s quip “So who talks first?” It establishes Poe as a fun, jokey character, which is why I don’t get why people got upset about his sense of humor in Last Jedi. He’s the sort of character that uses humor to relieve the tension of any situation he’s in.

J.J Abrams made this movie to be watched blind, and I really wish I could (but I saw spoilers before I watched it). Where is Luke? Who is this new Sith? What’s the backstory the old man hits at? There’s a good Stormtrooper? He talks off his helmet? Who’s this girl in the desert? I’d love to discover these things for the first time all over again.

I’m found of robot characters that go against their programming. Finn’s not a robot, but the beginning of his character arc has that concept. He does not believe in this cause, and he fights war terrifying. And he wants to escape.

Anakin was a slave, Luke was a farmboy, and now we have Rey, a scavenger, all alone in the world, just tying to service. She quickly establishes herself as incredibly tough, but also a bit cute. 

Of all the protagonists Rey’s backstory is the saddest in my eyes. While Luke had a happy but boring life with his aunt and uncle, and Anakin had a hard life but a living mother, Rey has had to fend for herself since she was a child, holding onto hope that one day her parents will come. She was all alone in the world. But now that’s going to change.

I don’t take any sides in the CGI/Puppets debate, but seeing puppets in a big Hollywood blockbuster again is pretty nice.

BB-8′s so cute. I have too much R2-D2 nostalgia to consider him my favorite Skywalker Saga droid though.

Rey’s relationship with BB-8 establishes that although she’s a survivor, she hasn’t let it harden her heart. She’s willing to help BB-8, and although she wants him to be on his way, she still won’t sell him off (despite being tempted to)

...Poe’s technically the Leia archetype in this movie. This tough rebel who got captured by the villains, and who sent a droid with something important.

The Finn and Poe escape scene has a lot of great dialogue. I’d argue some of the best banter in the series. It’s a pretty good action scene too.

Of all the characters, I like how Finn’s take on his archetype the most. He’s the Han Solo, the deuteragonist who wants nothing to do with the battle, and joins for selfish reasons, but in the end proves to be a loyal friend and hero. But unlike cool and collated Solo, Finn is nervous and cowardly. But that makes his eventual bravery and loyalty all the more satisfying. 

I don’t know if this is true, but I’ve heard Poe was originally going to die, but Oscar Isaac was so great they kept the character alive. I do believe keeping them separated is for the best, seeing how it makes sure Finn stays around for as long has he does.

Early on we establish that Kylo Ren is abnormally obsessed with Luke Skywalker, to the point where Gnearl Hux questions him.

Finn and Rey’s friendship stars off pretty rocky, but even then they have some good chemistry. At one point Finn’s all beat up, and he asked Rey if she’s okay. He may not be very good at it, but he’s trying to be a gentleman.

I love how the Millennium Falcon gets called garbage. It’s a funny bit of irony, concerning just how sacred everything else from classic Star Wars gets treated.

The first Millennium Falcon chase is another great action sequence. Rey and Finn are figuring things out as they go along, and BB-8′s being cute. And in the end they’re very impressed with each other. Characters becoming friends tough action sequences is a favorite troupe of mine.

Everything from Finn and Poe’s escape to meeting Maz Katana has nothing to do with a New Hope, and thus is a very underrated part of the movie. Although the tentacle monster scene is kind of forgettable.

Both Finn and Rey have no last name. They’ve never had any sort of family before. Heck, Finn didn’t even have a real name until just a few hours ago. They’re nobodies trying to find themselves, which sets of their arc that carries over into the next film

Kylo Ren destroying the console establishes him as short tempered for the first time. He drops his stoic facade and shows his true colors. Kylo looks indimiateing, but deep down he’s an insecure manchild trying his best to inhert a dark legacy. I’m found of this character, as well as similar characters like Berkut and Shiguraki

Did BB-8 give a thumbs up or a bird? The world will never know.

Rey keeps her guard up around people she doesn’t know to well, but she has a very soft and kind side as well. She’s pretty aggrieve to Finn early on, which is probably why....certain people, dislike her. Women and aggression tends to lead to backlash, after all.

I love how Finn slips in a bit of Stormtrooper knowledge. It comes in handy a few times in this movie. Some could say it should come up a bit more, but I think it’s used enough.

“Chewie, We’re Home” What an iconic line. I can still hear the applause.

Seeing Han become the Obi Wan archetype is a very unique direction for the character to take. And he handles the role very well. Harrison Ford may have been sick of this character, but he still brought his A-game. I love that Rey admires Han more for his smuggling than for his war heroics. And it’s very sweet seeing Han admiring just how much Rey knows about piloting. It’s a very sweet father/daughter relationship. In hindsight, Rey and Han don’t even need to be related for this relationship to be this good. Rey lost her parents and Han lost his son, and they can’t help but see each other as a means to fill those voids, even if they deny it to themselves.

The events of the original trilogy are legendary to these characters, which make the “It’s True, All of it” line so cool. It’s pretty interesting how chronologically, the events of one trilogy are legends to the characters of the next one.

Seeing Han be exactly how people remember his is pretty cleverly deconstructed. In-Univse it happened because he needed to escape from the pain of what happened to his son. And now he’s at the point where there’s nobody left to swindle. 

Whenever Rey’s in trouble, she’s always the one to get herself out of it. This is definitely meant as pushback to the fact that in so many things, women always need help while men can aways get out of a situation by themselves.  And I’m all for it. It’s great to see a woman be this strong, but she’s not flawless. After all, she shuts people out and is struggling to accept the fact her parents are never coming back.

Snoke even says “Last Jedi.” Even in this movie, Snoke is convinced that Luke is the hero of this story, and will stop and nothing to stop him. It is interesting that they introduced the Emperor archetype in this first movie, although maybe it was a sign that he wasn’t actually the big bad of this trilogy.

“It the hands of your father: Han Solo.” And the audience gasped (unless they got spoiled first. It’s one of those things we can never un-know). Although if I have to nitpick, I’d be nice if we found out alongside Finn and Rey.

I love that the space chess still looks like stop motion.

Rey doesn’t see herself as the hero. Just the delivery girl. Even Luke saw himself as trying to save a damsel in distress. But though this journy, she becomes a hero.

"Luke felt responsible. He just, walked away from everything.” This was established in this movie? Why did it take until Last Jedi for people to react to that plot point?

“I didn’t know there was this much green in the whole galaxy” I love that line. It’s so endearing!

Finn reminds me of Usopp. A liar and a coward, but someone who will always do the right thin in the end. He’s my personal favorite sequel character

“Women always find out.” Han has a ton of great lines in this movie.

“I’ve already been away too long” She’s so convinced her parents will come back she won’t even leave her planet for a few hours.

With Maz Katana, we’re back in a New Hope. I’m found of this character. It’s fascinating to see someone who’s Force Sensitive but not a Jedi. And she offers some great advice to Rey and Finn. I’d love to see her in the next season of Clone Wars.

Kylo Ren sees Darth Vader as the hero, the dark as good, and the light as bad. But he has regrets, and lakes the discipline and fidelity of Darth Vader. Of all the characters, he’s the one most desperate to fulfill his archetype.

“Though the ages I have seen evil take on many forms. The Sith, the Empire, today it’s the First Order.” “If you live long enough, you see the same eyes in many different people.” Of the the sequel’s trilogy’s biggest themes is that history repeats itself. But despite that, it’s still important to fight evil whenever it arises, instead of just sitting back and letting it happen.

It never occurred to me before, but Finn’s cowardliness might be the lingering effects of his brainwashing. Although he does not believe in the First Order’s Ways, he was still convinced all his life that they’re unstoppable, which is why he wants to run instead of fight. I also like how he’s admits the truth, instead of there being this “liar revealed” thing.

Finn and Rey have truly become friends at this point. Instead of just running away, now Finn wants Rey to come with him. As far as he knows, she’s the only friend he has, and he doesn’t want anything to happen to her. Meanwhile, Rey doesn’t want Finn to leave, because he’s one of the few people in her life to stick with her for this long. If he leaves, he might end of like her parents, who never came back.

Wait...how come nobody was demanding to know Finn’s parents. He was taken from a family he’ll never know after all. How come people accept that Finn’s parents don’t matter, but insist that Rey’s does?

Seeing Rey connect to the force for the first time (outside of  the piloting and scavenging skills I assume she she used them for subcoinsously before the events of this movie) is really impressive. We get flashes of her past, as well as Luke’s past and Kylo’s past, and even hear the voices of Yoda and Obi Wan. ok She’s getting her first glimpse at the Force that binds everything together, and she’s terrified of it. It’s also yet another divination from the New Hope plot, which is very welcome.

I forgot that Rey being Force sensitive was once a spoiler. How time flys.

I really hope Obi-Wan appears in Rise of Skywalker. He spoke to Rey when she connected to the Force for the first time, and I’d love to see that expanded upon.

“They’re never coming back.” A lesson Rey, and the audience, finds difficulty accepting. 

“The belonging you seek is not behind you, it is ahead.” Such a great line. It’s a great summery of Rey’s arc, and I imagine people with difficult pasts can relate to it.

Maz tells Rey and Finn exactly what they need. Rey need to learn to move forward, and Finn needs to learn to fight for what’s right.

Why does the lightsaber choose Rey? I guess her midichlorian count is just right or something. It doesn’t really matter, and I personally find the idea that the next hero can come from anywhere inspiring.

...Come to think of it, Luke’s the only protagonist who isn’t just some rando.

“Why is Maz so interested in Rey” Probably because of her strong connection to the Force.

Rey rejects the saber. Classic rejection of the call. Can you blame her, after that vision?

The First Order sees the Republic as weak and dishonest. Seems straightforward to me. Maybe people were underwhelmed because Neo-Nazism didn’t get as much attention as it did just a few months later.

Starkiller Base. It’s cool looking power-creep. On one hand, since we don’t know anyone from those planets, it’s not as impactful as what happened to Alderan. But then again, we actually see people on that planet die. So It’s a bit of a mixed bag overall.

Finn’s not going to leave until he knows Rey is safe. How touching.

TR-8R. I miss that meme.

Seeing Poe’s triumphant return is pretty great.

Seing Rey’s trying to fight off Kylo Ren with a gun is very tense. This the the first time she looses a fight in this movie. Seeing someone so strong get captured really raises the stakes. This is where they first meet. Their relationship is standard Hero vs Villain in this movie, but things are going to change a LOT in the next one.

Despite how scared he is, Finn still rushes in to try and stop Rey from being capture.

Seeing General Leia for the first time is awesome. Han and Leia’s reuinon is so touching as well. C-3PO’s back to disturbing Han and Leia moments as well, which is pretty funny.

Seeing BB-8 and Finn get reunited with Poe is also very touching. 

Finn is helping the Resistance for the sake of Rey. He’s not quite a hero yet, but he’s getting there.

So the movie did established R2-D2 had the map in his back-up data in the actual movie.

Han and Leia went back to what they know best after the loss of their son. It’s such a tragic moment. 

Kylo almost has the depth  in one movie that took Vader two or three movies to get. I feel like that should be discussed more often.

Kylo’s face is removed to reveal...a normal person. Ben didn’t get any external injuries to turn him into Kylo Ren. It was all manipulation

Rey takes on the Leia role when capture, and Finn briefly takes on the Luke role, But when she frees herself they go back to being Luke and Han, respectively.

Even in this movie, Rey and Kylo are using the force to get to know each other, although mainly on accident. Maybe that’s where Snoke got the idea in the next movie.

After seeing Kylo using the Force, Rey decides to use it in order to escape, although she’s a bit hesitant to do so. It takes her three tires to do the Jedi mind trick, after all. I do wonder where she heard about it. Maybe she figured that if you can read minds, you can change minds.

Rey is a very fast learner in any situation, be it piloting, shooting or using the force. Maybe it’s her midichlorian count. 

Starkill base makes very little logical sense, but its still a very cool concept, and seeing day turn into night serving as a ticking clock is a very cool visual.

“No matter how much we fought, I always hated watching you leave” “That’s why I did it, so you’d miss me.” All these years later, and that still have such great chemistry. 

“That’s not how the Force works.” I love that line, but people misuse it.

Finn is doing something very heroic, putting himself on the frontlines and disabling the shield. But he’s only doing this for Rey. Despite that, he stays true to his word and disables the shields. I love seeing him stick it to his old boss. It’s a fun moment.

The Rouge One “Womp” is even in this movie! How did I never notice it until after Rouge One?

“As Long as there’s light, we’ve got a chance” A classic symbol, but one that still works.

Seeing Rey and Finn reunited is just another very touching moment. “We came back for you.” For the first time in Rey’s life, somebody actually came back for her. I love how Rey describes how using the force to escape was “Something I can’t explain, you wouldn’t believe it.” In general I love how the Force is depicted in this movie.

“We’ll meet back here” No! That was their last moment together!

Ben and Han’s confrontation is another utterly fantastic moment. Ben is tempted to go back to his father, but he’s too devoted to Snoke’s teachings. On top of that, he feels like it’s too late to go this far. He figures that to get rid of these regrets, he has to kill Han Solo. I love how the sky gets dark, leaving red as the only light source. It really makes Ben’s lightsaber stick out when he kills Han. And yet, Han still touchings the check of his son, showing that even despite this, he still loves him. Instead of letting the past die by killing his father, Kylo is left more conflicted than ever.

Meanwhile, Rey lost a chance to have a father yet again.

The snowy forest at night is such a great setting, and leads to an awesome lightsaber fight. Rey gets knocked out, so Finn has to protect her with a lightsaber duel. Kylo is beating himself, increasing his pain to increase his dark power. Finn puts up a valiant effort, but in the end, he gets knocked out, and Rey has to save him. But still, he bought her time, and gave her the strength to use the force to stop Kylo. Seeing Rey grab the lightsaber for the first time using the Force is just awesome. She’s barely holding her own, but true to the character, she’s a fast learning. Meanwhile Kylo is still injured, and maybe a bit worn out from fighting Finn. At the cliffside, Rey is at the ends of her seat, but when she trusts in the force, she manages to beat Kylo after he overpowered her during the rest of the movie.

Finn ends with the movie more devoted to Rey than the Resistance, but he still proves himself to be a loyal friend and a hero. I was worried about him for the two years between Force Awakens and Last Jedi

There’s no words between Leia and Rey. They both just know, Han is dead, and they both loved him. And that’s enough for them to mourn him together.

But in the midts of dealing with the loss of Han, there’s is hope. Specifically, the New Hope.

Seeing Luke for the first time in this movie is such a fantastic cliffhanger.

Overall, I still love this movie as much as when I first saw it. It’s got great action and effects, the new characters are some of my favorites in the series, and the old characters give some of their best performances of all time. Sure it messed with a happy ending, but I’m still investing in seeing how characters old and new are going to try and get that happy ending back.

#star wars #star wars rewatch

[bedlamgames]

Q&A #100

Yes, been a hundred of this things. Totally a meaningless milestone which is one of my oldest tags on here (assuming any are left after the purge...) still I thought I’d do something for it. 

Specifically I’ve gone back over the old Q&A’s and found some favourite questions and answers which I’ll be including in this after the usual round of outstanding ones. Possibly also with some extra commentary where appropriate. 

Anonymous said: Hey. Any pair of characters connected by an Owned relationship/reputation seems to crash the game if you use either one of them on an assignment. Any chance of this being fixed?

- That should be sorted in yesterday’s update. 

Anonymous said: Got a Forest Goblin with both Dancer and Clumsy. This seems like a very strange combination, but imagining it kind of makes me want to laugh my head off.

- Agreed I think that just works due to being amusing. Less poetry in motion and more of a limerick. 

Anonymous said: In No Haven 0.871 the trait " Elementalist: Air " does not appear when using the estimate value function.

- Cheers for pointing out that oversight. Will sort.

Anonymous said: Hi sory english isn't my native langage, In No Have 0.871 TF Edition I have aquired a slaver But with a bug first i don't know how i acquire her and two she had noting , no name no perk jus a little description i will copy the full examine optin on it : - - - - ExamineName: Race: - Sex: - Status: - Reputation: Traits: Condition: 0 Will: 0 Estimated Value: 0 has a flat chest, a regular pussy, and has an unremarkable ass. She is the same size as most goblins, and .She is . 

- That looks like an empty character in all respects. I believe there was an issue with Ritual Casting where that could happen and is now sorted. If you see it happen again please let me know what you were doing when they appeared. 

Anonymous said: Hey Bedlam, watched stream where you discussed not selling slaves debuff, thing is i always imagined slavers being in this business for fun and pleasure first, and gold second. I mean why else would they agree to live in some Skyrim style, long abandoned really, hard to get to fort in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by hills and marshes(at least that how i imagine it)? So maybe you could make something like,"no new slaves, or slave training for X days, getting bored" or something like that?

- It wouldn’t be too harsh at all. Just a bit of a poke to encourage that you’re business model is based around being a slaver over the leader disappearing to the coast for a week and returning with suspiciously large amounts of gold. In that case you’ve got to think that your slavers might feel that they’re surplus to requirements :D

Anonymous said: I hope you're happy for taking so many hours of my life away from me lol. But playing this again; got a question about NH. Any plans on making some rival groups that we can interact with? Diplomacy, getting tribute, ect. It would be kinda cool to have rivals that push you along 

Glad you’re enjoying it! 

Likely yes. There’s ways currently now to set up a few ways to get tribute every so often. More groups though who are more hostile than the not-witches in the marshlands or the mistress of the Ensnared Rose are sure to be a thing sooner or later. 

doof-ex-machina said: Have you read the Gorean saga by John Nornan? If yes, did it influence your vision of the No Haven world? Gor explores a legal female-oriented slave system, yheah, but there are pretty close similarities with NH in regards to the numbers of ‘fodder’ and the ways of training. Anyway, me personally thinks your world is even better because magic and draenei/succubi boobs, duh.

I haven’t but I am aware of them in general. 

NH is a lot more equal opportunities than Gor where males doing it to females, females doing it to males, and all possible variations of that including others like futanari and sissies are likely to happen. Still high praise indeed, thanks!

And now onto some old questions starting with one from before where I realised beginning to combine these might be a good idea. 

onedrift from 2015:  Trying this again...what's your coder fuel of choice? Red bull, Monster, coffee? None of the above? Soon to be bimbofied slavemakers want to know!

- Heh, totally giving my nationality away (if it wasn’t blatantly obvious already) but the fuel of choice is copious amounts of Earl Grey tea.

Anonymous from 2015: Hiya, been a fan of your work for a long time, captions and games thanks for making them, but a question regarding whorelocks revenge, is it possible to get the tangle infection and bonds of insanity? in all my time playing them I never had either I dont think.

- Not in the current version. Basically I wasn’t happy with the implementation in terms of how they were removed so I disabled them for a bit till I can sort it out… which unfortunately has lasted quite some time.

Soon as I got this No Haven update done they’re top of my list of things to sort in Whorelocks.

(Oh zogging hell. Still not done that yet... Extenuating circumstance for sure with NH taking off and WR was still in RAGS at that point, but even so)

Anonymous from 2015: This is probably a poor place to respond to your open-ended poll question, but have you looked into Twine?

- I’ve looked at Twine and when I one day get round to Rough Landing 3 it’s definitely going to be done using it, but to me it looks like an incredibly poor fit for working on No Haven.

(Oh past me why would say such a thing even if it did make a lot of sense at the time. Let’s hope that guy was wrong)

Anonymous from Q&A #1: Title image is hype, cant wait for next update. recall you mentioned that you had enchantments planed for the update after next (or something there abouts) how far ahead have you planned ahead and any spoilers for the update after this one? :D

- Why thank you! I have several pages bullet pointed of what I have planned along with what I have in my head. For stuff not in the next update I’d say not counting more slave training assignments and options and more assignments in the other areas the big bits of content outstanding are;

Way more potions. (Still do do)

Enchantment/cursing of items system.  (Also still do do)

Crafting Devices. (Also, also still do do)

Ways to manage encampments when they get to large by sending slavers/slaves to new areas to provide ongoing gold/supplies along with the occasional assignment. (Oh dear, also, also still do do)

More stuff for you like going on every assignment, bad ends for some of them, more interactions, being enslaved and so on. Basically lots more sub and also some dom content for when you’re not managing the encampment. (Woo progress made! Bad ends for some assignments going on are indeed a thing. Still work to do as I do want to give Crossbones and Into the Depths the QAYL treatment sometime)

Special events that will occur every so often that will affect things be it for good and bad. This will include a way to get a lost slaver back though perhaps forever altered by their experiences. (Woo again this is done. Definitely could do with more done with)

Encampment reputation to reflect a slaver’s standing with how the other slaver’s see them. This will includes slavers becoming slaves and visa versa. (On a roll now as a great deal of this implemented)

More biomancy options and improving thanks to a multi-part assignment. There will also be other multi-part story based assignments. (Partially done and the biomancy multi-part assignment has been started)

And a bunch more basically but those are the priorities after this next update. Probably not all in the same update though.

Anonymous from Q&A #6: I would play the hell out of Paranoia set in No Haven.  

- Temptation to give slavers and you conflicting secret societies and agendas rising.

Y’know like…

Dire Panthers: A mottley band of young savage orcs, amazons and trolls out to raise hell by breaking stuff, setting stuff on fire and generally being a nuisance to everyone.

The Cooperative: A dedicated group of Frozen Queen cultists out to oppose the Human Empire by working together to make things better for the common people… till you know the Queen awakens and buries all the land in eternal ice.

Mage Smashers: Magic iz like wrong an’ stuff! We smash dem in dere stupid face till dey not so smart.

Fellowship-Fel: The denizens that lurk beyond our reality and infect our dreams with tainted nightmares are our friends! We must expose ourselves to as much corruption as possible to make ourselves like them. We see no flaws in this plan whatsoever, you see the chorus of whispers in our minds entirely agrees with us.

Psion: No changes need to be made whatsoever from the original version.

Trekksters: …and I think that’s enough of that, or further evidence of why I shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near RAGS or indeed tumblr when I have my old sourcebooks nearby :D

(Also apologies to most of you who have no idea what that was about!) (This is still far too much of a good idea)

Anonymous from Q&A #17: 2/2 and another hilarious one: Your succubus slave Jaeil was not looking so hot right now so Virholen just held her close and told Jaeil that everything would be alright. Jaeil was oddly quiet everytime you looked in on them and you wonder if they have resigned themselves to their fate. Condition: 45 (Change: 20) - Will: 47 (Change: 15)

After their mistreatment Jaeil sees no reason not to only care for them self as clearly no one else will leaving them hardened and even outright cruel. usc++

- You win best bug report in ages, that is beautiful :D

Anonymous from Q&A #37: Will there be other spirit races in the game besides wisps, such as undynes, gnomes, and dryads? And finally Im new to patreon. I decided to pay for the your character teir but ask for a unique because I dont really understand it. Is the “play your character” a scenario or what? And where do I go to talk with you on what I would like for it?

- True story, I had to google undyines and for ages I couldn’t work out what you were referring too as so many of the results were of that character from Undertale :D

Undines themselves would be no, but I do have a water spirit of a kind planned. (Still do!) Gnomes no, as I’m happy with Hakh Dwarven and the various Goblins as my short races. Dryads absolutely yes, and will be one of the advanced races. See the last Q&A for more details of those.

Thank you for your support! Those options are for those that want to play a specific character that isn’t available in the standard options or design a specific slaver that you can have in your encampment. If you want to see some examples of ones others have asked for before on the playable character front then Orc Wright Raptor, Lago’Mae Scholar or Goblin Underground Potioneer would be a good ones to look at to start off with.

As for the unique slavers then pretty much any of the slavers available under Strong Right Arm/Recruiter.

How much detail you want to go into is up to you. If you want to say oh I just want a Kitsune lady who likes to pole-dance then I’d put something together for your approval, or you can go full on detailing everything about them from their art, description, traits etc. and I’ll work with you to the point I’m happy having it as an option in the game. (Note: If you want an entirely new race like the Golems you need to go for the lore tier given the significantly larger amount of work involved)

For discussing please send me a message on patreon and we can take it further from there.

One thing to bare in mind is that patreon only charges at the end of the month, and so while I’m more than willing to talk it out, if you want to me to do a lot of work on your request I’m going to need to see a pledge go through first. It sucks I know, but this is the unfortunate reality of the internet that alas trust can only go so for.

I’m always happy to discuss things though, I really am, and some people have asked to pay some of their pledge upfront via paypal to get round this which is not a problem if that’s what you want to do.

valhallaimmortan from Q&A #47: I managed to get a elven smith who makes fancy armor that is usually masterwork quality, and equipped my ‘Basher’ Squad with it, the Basher’s are all Ogre’s who I recruited and I have a alchemist who seriously creeps me out with how many petrification potions he has been pumping out. I also like the Lago'mae Scholar how now the Lizard man is using her as his new project… poor Scholar… and I got to ask is it actually possible to recruit a keldan from the keldan mission in the city?

- I love this question, absolutely adore it, and you made the patron who requested the lizardman unique really happy when I mentioned it to them. If people want to send in their favourite/amusing/interesting slavers/slaves that have resulted from generation and gameplay I might do a tumblr post series on them called ‘Tell me about your Character’.

As to the question yes she should be on the critical result.

Anonymous from Q&A #61: Silly question. For clothing and armor, what in your mind is the major difference between micro, and impractical? I can’t really visualize a difference between the two when reading armor/clothing descriptions. Scandalously short is divergent enough that it creates its own image for me. The other two seem as if they would be interchangeable, but they aren’t since there is a distinction so what is it?

- Yay silly questions are always the best questions. Okay micro is where you have outfits that are recognizable bits of clothing but it’s incredibly brief so a skirt that’s more a belt than actually trying to cover anything whatsoever and/or a bikini top so teeny-weeny that it doesn’t even cover all of the nipples. Completely impractical though is the kind of clothing beloved by a certain kind of fantasy art which just doesn’t make any kind of sense whatsoever where looking good trumps any pretension of realism, and the only way it could stay on is either with copious amounts of glue or magic being involved.

Anonymous from Q&A #66: Hello again! I’m the guy who asked about the post-slave [slaver] titles. I’m going to very respectfully push the idea that ex-slaves should get unique titles. First, I honestly think having the unique titles is cooler. It’s more interesting to send a Chosen, an Acolyte, and a Hedge-Witch on an assignment than it is to send three Slavers. It’s a rarity thing, sort of? If you get a character who qualifies for one of those things, it’s a BIG DEAL. Secondly, it already changes with jobs, so…

- Alright, alright, you’ve twisted my arm :)

That should now be included for the most recent update along with a couple of new titles so that all of the more rare traits (not counting crafting ones) should have one. Let me know if there’s any issues as while it was a fairly straightforward change I didn’t get a chance to test that particular bit.

Thanks for reading and here’s to another hundred of these. 

#Q&A #meaningless milestones

[jisungshotfirst]

Okay, so here is the promised concert experience report lol

I'm not gonna talk about organisation and pre-concert stuff because it was a whole mess and I wish to forget that...

So, when we were inside, we had a really good spot close to the middle of the stage and second row. But some people were fainting before it even began and had to be pulled out by security. Fortunately they all recovered before it started and could take their spots again. But that also caused the whole crowd to shift and I was pushed back a few rows, but still had a really good view. It started with a commercial film about JYP entertainment and everyone went absolutely crazy for every single group they showed it was awesome!

And then Stray Kids took the stage. They opened with Hellevator and everyone was singing along and doing the fanchants and I had goosebumps! Then they played Grrr and Awaken and District 9. After that I left my spot to go to the back because people were pushing and I was getting mad. But when I had some space around me and could breathe again, I could enjoy it again. And Stays were so nice, they all asked if I was okay or needed water or anything.

They had their first ment and I was so surprised because Changbin was only talking in English and he sounded really good and confident and just wow! The way he expressed himself and the choice of his words was so beautiful, I'm still in awe! And he talked in English for almost the whole concert!

Then they performed Mirror and WHO? and they had a whole choreography for it where two members would be dancing on opposite sides of a frame and it looked like they were mirroring each other and it was just so beautiful!

When they played Voices I almost cried but I could hold it in. And I sang so loudly, that I felt my throat getting hoarse.

They had another ment and Changbin got us hyped for My Pace. He also got Jisung doing the Nanana and we got blessed with his body rolls and right after Chan did a cute version of it. We were all still singing the Nanana and they blended the beginning of the song right into our singing and it was so cool!

When they played My Side we did a rainbow ocean with our phone flashlights. Some stays had handed out some coloured paper slips to cover the flashlights before the concert and it was really pretty! They even mentioned it in their insta post about the Berlin concert. During the next ment they all showed their aegyo and Jeongin did his silly Dididi-dance (idk if you know what I'm talking about lmao I'm gonna send you the video for it later) and Hyunjin did a sexy dance so Chan and Jisung covered Jeongin's eyes to protect his pure soul lmao

They said the concert would be over after their next song and everyone was getting really sad and I had tears in my eyes again. Their "last song" was I am YOU and I wanted to sing along and do fanchants but my voice was gone by then...

When they had left the stage, they played a video on the big screen that showed their journey from their predebut days and survival show through the eras. They were practicing and teasing each other and making jokes and they just had to play Mixtape#2 for this. So why I was able to hold my tears in before, I couldn't then. I legit cried my eyes out...

But they came back out right after and performed Victory song and let me tell you I was not prepared for this whiplash they gave me. I wasn't even over my emotional crying and they just had to punch me in the face... Then they performed Miroh and had their ending ment.

They all had learned one German phrase they said and everyone went absolute nuts! Their pronunciation was so good and they sounded so sweet I melted! Changbin mentioned that his aunt and uncle were there and his voice almost cracked and he was getting so emotional because he was so happy that he could perform for them with all of us cheering them on so loudly.

After that they performed a short medley of Get Cool and Awkward Silence and then as their real last song they performed YAYAYA and had confetti cannons and fireworks and all! It was so full of energy and everyone was jumping and dancing it was amazing! When it was over we had to wait for the hi-touch.

We tried to go as one of the last ones but staff was starting to rush the people to line up and get ready because it was already late, so we were somewhere in the middle I guess.

The first I saw was Woojin. So I didn't mention it before but during the whole concert my eyes were on him. His performances drew me in and I really couldn't look away. He was magnetic to my eyes and I had fallen in love with him all over again. And when I saw him face to face in all his glowing beauty, I knew I was lost. He is my new bias. I'm so sorry to let Jisung go, but Woojin has this magic that captured me and I couldn't escape.

The next one was Changbin. He looks so different in real life and I don't even know why or how. It's just his whole aura is so different from what I expected. And he's not tiny! I didn't even notice a height difference between us.

Hyunjin was really intimidating for me. I almost couldn't look him in the eyes. It's not that he looked unfriendly or anything, he was an absolute sweetheart but he has such a strong presence it feels like he's towering over you...

Seungmin was surprised by what I told him. He wanted to say thank you when I said "I love you..." but when I continued with "...as much as you love Day6" he was so surprised and his eyes got so big and he just started laughing.

Chan was so humble and quiet it surprised me a bit. Not the humbleness, but the quietness. It felt like he would be so shy and introverted if it were not for his passion for music and performing. He's so different on and off stage.

Felix is probably the clearest in my memory. He was smiling so brightly and his freckles were glowing. Also his hands are freaking tiny! It felt like a small child's hand and I wanted to keep holding it forever!

Jeongin is taller than I expected. He looks so mature and he will definitely grow into a very, very handsome man. Also his eye smile game is strong. He's a literal sunshine and I would very much love to adopt him (but let's be honest, who wouldn't?)

I'm still sad about how I had to rush by Jisung and Minho. I only got a glimpse of them and their faces are so blurry in my memory. It sounds dumb because I have hundreds of pictures to look at them, but it's something completely different when you're in front of them.

Anyways, to conclude this novel now, it was beyond amazing! I laughed and cried and sang my heartb out and jumped and danced and everyone was so full of energy. Stray Kids are amazing performers, amazing singers and rappers, the sweetest boys around, and just so, so great in all they do. I'm really glad I went to see them again and got the opportunity to meet them and tell them how much they mean to me.

I'm gonna go through my camera roll tomorrow and find some good pictures that are not too blurry and then I'm gonna send them to you. But I'm too tired to do that now. This was one hell of a weekend but I'd do it all over again!

PS: You asked about South Club. They are the band of Nam Taehyun. He was a member of Winner but left in 2016. I saw them live last year in Cologne and they were amazing! They also shot their MV for Dirty House in Berlin.

I’m crying reading this I love them so much and I can get your experience through reading this (your writing is stunning) and jsut OMG I’m tearing up I love these boys. And dw I can love Jisung enough for the both of us, woojin deserves some love hahah. I’m so happy you can share this with me and I hope I can have this experience one day :) also I hope in years and years to come that they still end every concert with yayaya because what a BOP. Like what a hype song OMG I can imagine it still keeps you hype for days to come. I have one day of travel today then hopefully I’ll be in hotels with working WiFi haha so I’ll be on more x send me anything you want to share I will be so grateful!! Love you x

#kitty #almost name buddy #anons ^ ^ #i love my boys #submission

[starwarshyperdrive]

Am I excited about a new Star Wars trilogy? No? Yes? Maybe

Are we excited about the new Star Wars trilogy? Not yet. The hype machine hasn’t started and there are so many ways it could go wrong. My initial thought was ‘Grimes of Grindelwald’. I must confess I haven’t read or seen anything of Harry Potter. I’m just too old and don’t have kids, so it completely slipped me, BUT (!) I’m somewhat aware of what’s going on and now A LOT OF hardcore fans. Most of which were disappointed by the new movies. Is this just their Prequel Trilogy that couldn’t capture the magic of the books you grew up on? Nothing will ever compete with the feeling you had being immersed in a franchise growing up. Yet The Force Awakens somehow mastered it... Can the Game of Thrones guys and Rian Johnson who brought us the most controversial Star Wars movie since the prequels do it as well?

I was never one to complain about Disney. The got the funds and it looks like the right people who seem to ‘understand’ Star Wars. Then there are the shareholders. All they understand is profit. So as long as you got someone on top who knows how to sell them Star Wars and avoid wrong decisions (such as releasing Solo 5 months after The Last Jedi #irony ) we’re good. There are enough sources for money, so that they don’t have to react to certain tendencies (’Loki was supposed to be the bad guy, but the audience loves him, shit, what are we gonna do about that..’) and thankfully can and want to afford to say ‘you didn’t like The Last Jedi? Well, your loss, you shouldn’t count the chickens before they hatch, so wait for Ep9′.  

So you could say, as long as there is no Yes-man or Yes-woman in charge I’m fairly confident Star Wars is safe. At least for the time being.

What am I afraid of? What are my concerns? That down the line this will change and Star Wars will departure more from it’s ‘core values’ and become a superhero-esque popcorn spectacle without any substance or gravitas. I am extremely happy about the 2 year interval, that will make an event out of the movies, like it used to be. I went to all the premieres and they were always sold out and the director, producer and/or cast made a surprise appearance. Only for Solo the cinema was half empty and no one showed up. Disneys Bob Iger said that they learned from that mistake. They were not in tune with Star Wars and just tried to carbon-copy the MCU, something I personally always knew wouldn’t work. Now they know as well. Good.

We heard about two new trilogies being in development. A prophecy that could easily have been misread. I doubt that they start preproduction for something that’s gonna be in cinemas in 10 years and after The Mandalorian and the announced Cassian series who is to say that one is not another TV/streaming thing. Or maybe even the same thing. Or Obi Wan (if you want fans to freak out).. 

Be it as it may..even though I like The Last Jedi I sound like a broken record when it comes to some of the writing. That and the lackluster turn Game of Thrones took in its last episodes that had fans on their feet wondering WTF went on, makes me slightly concerned. Game of Thrones was successful, but did it know where to go? I loved LOST, still do, but a lot of fans complained that it led nowhere, that there was no plan laid out from the beginning and it showed in the last episodes. So is it a one hit wonder. Is it enough to give them control over a Star Wars trilogy? And The Last Jedi? I’m not upset about the way Luke was portrayed. I’m more concerned about the Harry Potter-y broom kid. 

Star Wars is for everyone and at this point it has become ‘religious’ and I mean it exactly the way it sounds. Splintered into separate factions interpreting ‘the force’ differently. Do anything that affects the Old Testament and fans will go nuts. Add a New Testament and followers of the Old Testament might reject it. Write the book of Mormon and you lose most of the old followers but gain completely new ones... and then there will be casual followers who only go to the church in the end of December who also have their opinions influenced by other things. 

So what does this comparison teach us? It can get ugly if we think our truth is the only and ultimate truth. Star Wars is for everyone. Take it for what it is, enjoy the parts you like. No one is taking Star Wars away from you. 

Look who is talking. I said I’m concerned. But the thing I’m most concerned about it that I won’t get excited about Star Wars anymore, so PLEASE, PLEASE excite me. Start the hype engine, let me get on board, sell it to me and for the forces sake don’t contradict the Old Testament.

#star wars #star wars sequel #star wars trilogy #new star wars #the rise of skywalker #the last jedi #the mandalorian #the force #jedi #sith #pop culture

[brothermouzongaming]

E3 2019 overview

I wanted to take the time to look at and talk about some of the games we’re more than likely seeing at the conference. E3 is...dying and it’s misleading trailers don’t help, but despite this, the show is still important and at least gives us a little insight into what may come in games/tech. So let’s cross our fingers and dive in. I’ll be focussing more on main titles and not DLC and updates. Available footage will be linked in the corresponding title.

Avengers project (Crystal Dynamics/ Square Enix)

It feels like ages since the teaser for the Avengers project dropped. Since then I have been trying to keep my hopes high, I even thought it was canceled for a time when we heard literally nothing since that trailer. I know nothing about this game, but I just hope Crystal Dynamics and Square are treating something this big with the care it needs. The last thing Marvel, more importantly Disney, want is another Battlefront 2 situation on their hands. If Square can incorporate their over the top combat style to the Marvel universe, it could be amazing, incredible, invinci- okay I’ll stop.

Borderlands 3

Getting back into Borderlands just before the big press release was very serendipitous. Something about this made me even more excited for some of the additions coming like loot instancing, slide/mantle (finally), secondary fire weapons, more diverse and varied play spaces, and a lot more. So many of BL2 and the Pre-Sequel’s flaws are glaring with me having played them recently and to see the long-awaited title addressing these exact issues so comforting when I get to thinking about this next adventure into the wastes. It isn’t some massive leap forward or anything, it’s more Borderlands and there’s nothing wrong with that to me. Finally, an online optional looter shooter that isn’t some strange mmo lite, long live the king. Randy Pitchford is a weirdo but I’m not gonna hold that against the devs lol.

Cyberpunk 2077

This is more than likely going to be my game of the show. E3 is typically full of surprises and anything can happen but in all honesty, I just can’t see much coming close especially since we aren’t seeing Death Stranding (thattrailertho). I was literally giddy when they released the gameplay trailer that they showed press and influencers and the FPS RPG looked very good but not unrealistic. Recently it’s come out that the game is “pretty different” from that showcase and that statement interests me as much as it gives me pause. Regardless, we are going to be seeing more of this game with CDPR claiming they’ll have an even bigger presence than last year. I just hope that we get solid gameplay footage and not buzzwords and theatrical trailers.

CoD 2019

Black Ops 4 came out guns drawn and it really impressed at first. Since that time Activision has found a way to completely reverse the conversation around BO4 and where the franchise is headed/ is as a whole. Activision needs a win, and with this being their main and essentially only franchise it has to be big. The rumor is that it’s Modern Warfare 4 which would be a “soft reboot” if that is the case. If not this year then next, I’m surprised it’s even taken them this long so hopefully all this time will lead to something good. Honestly, I’m shocked we’re still getting annual releases of this game. I don’t forsee CoD lasting much longer and this tug at our nostalgia may be a sign of that. 

Destroy All Humans (THQ Nordic)

I spent so many hours with my friend Walter terrorizing the meat bags between the tools the game devs gave us and some gamer creativity that was a relatively new aspect of gaming compared to nowadays where player creativity is often an aspect of gameplay. THQ has reported something insane like 50+ games in development which...sounds like a stupid choice but if this is one of them it’s definitely going to get people’s heads turning. Can you imagine what they’ll be able to do with today’s tech? They don’t have to go crazy but then again for the sake of a concise vision but...maybe they should?

Dino Crisis (Capcom)

Let’s talk more about old ass games I’m completely shocked could be coming back. So in light of Capcom bringing back past titles and breathing new life into them, it is reported that Capcom is looking to bring back...Dino Crisis? I swear to god if they make Dino Crisis before Viewtiful Joe and Onimusha? POWER STONE ANYONE?? I’m more than willing to suspend my meh-ness because Capcom has proved that not only can they bring back an old game we love, but they can do it damn well. If this is true, then maybe there is hope for some of my favorite Capcom titles from the past but mother of god why Dino Crisis?

Doom Eternal

Doom 2016 was one of the best first-person shooters I’ve ever played. “Smooth as butter” isn’t something I would use to describe most games but god damn if that game wasn’t lubed up before they packaged it because it’s damn slick. So imagine the stiffy I got when that gameplay was dropped and mobility was increased. Can we talk about the grappling hook shotgun? The new demons and takedowns to dispatch said demons? God knows what else is under the hood for us to find out when it releases let alone when they talk about it during the conference. A more open level design in tandem with the conventional “kill room” here and there is gonna really spice up the combat especially if exploration is properly rewarded. Rage 2 was a disappointment but I do have hope this is gonna live up to the hype the way it did the first time.

Gears of War 5

Lawd Microsoft needs a win. This is quite clearly their attempt at a blockbuster event like God of War was for Sony. Everything about the trailer screams “Oscar bait but for games” and I hope they do the damn thing. Make me sad I don’t have an Xbox dammit! This could be a big step for Gears and could even lead it down a more character focussed design. The world of Gears of War is rich for a deeper explanation, and I know that isn’t what Gears is known for but I won’t be told that they can’t do both. It appears to be heavily cinematic though gameplay can be seen in the trailer above. It seems interesting and I hope they really make something worth owning an Xbox for. The fans deserve it.

Halo: Infinite

Did I say Microsoft needs a win from the software perspective? Cause they do. The Xbox One is fine, the One X is a huge step up and is the most powerful console but there are next to no exclusives for this console. Ya know, the reason why you buy a certain console outside of interface and services. What better way than to bring back the most successful franchise Microsoft has associated with. There’s talk of it having an open world which is jarring initially especially when the history of Halo is rich with environments that tell stories alongside the mid-range combat. If they can properly expand that baseline to fit an open world format, it’ll be amazing. Whether or not they can is the question.

Harry Potter: Magic Awakened

Warner Brothers does a great job of shooting themselves square in the foot. They just put on the finest shoes money can buy and BAM queue the red kool-aid fountain. Shadow of War is the pinnacle of such stupidity with the way the monetization completely bankrupted the integrity of the game. The brief footage that was up involved a third-person real-time action reminiscent of the original games. Warner Bros. jumped on the trailer takedown but it’s safe to say the cat is out of the bag and casting spells in the kitchen. This could be a unique adventure involving a custom character, it could involve something more directly related to the books. Anything is possible but if we heard about it this year it wouldn’t entirely surprise me.

My Friend Pedro

A twin stick shooter of a different kind. Imagine stranglehold but cartoony, John Wick but even more comic book like. It looks like the entire game is going to be centered around ballerina jumping through levels and enemies leaving every enemy in your wake riddled with bullets. It seems light, fun, and self-aware in it’s silliness which can lead to the most fun type of games.

Session

Oh boy, SKATE was my jam back in high school and if you’re anything like me you’ve been waiting for the next game/ literally anything like it to come along. Session appears to be that game, we weren’t told a lot when it was revealed so I’m hoping that E3 will lead to some more information on gameplay and ya know, a release date. 

Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order

Anthem is in shambles and in my opinion, it’s this year’s No Man’s Sky. Between the games they put out, and the Star Wars games they put out (or don’t put out depending on your perspective); this does not bode well at all. Respawn is working on the project and their track record is very good, but I can’t help but worry about what EA is planning. They always find a way to put their hand directly into a project and do exactly what needs to be done to ruin it. Sometimes that’s on the front end in development and planning or lack thereof, and sometimes it’s on the back end with moving devs to other projects/ not hold their devs to the post-launch promises they tend to make and not fulfill. This story of a padawan in hiding after Order 66 is ripe for gameplay development and storytelling. So long as Respawn has the vision and can execute, all we need is for EA to stay the fuck away and let them work. We’ll see.

honorable mentions: Ori and the Will of the Wisps, Vampire Bloodlines 2, From Soft and George R. R. Martin collab, Fable remake, Rocksteady’s Suicide Squad, Wolfenstein Young Blood, Afterparty, Beyond Good and Evil 2, Bleeding Edge (Ninja Theory’s new game), Last of Us 3 (v hype just not a lot of info)

#Avengers project #Borderlands 3 #Cyberpunk 2077 #Call of Duty #Destroy All Humans #Dino Crisis #Doom Eternal #Gears of War 5 #Halo Infinite #Harry Potter Magic Awakened #My Friend Pedro #Session #Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order #e3 #E3 2019 #video games #gaming

[gascon-en-exil]

A Not Actually Definitive Ranking of Fire Emblem Games

So after a lot of deliberation I’ve decided not to revisit last year’s Zelda ranking project on a full scale for FE, but that doesn’t mean it’s not something I really wanted to do. 2018 is the year we’re going to get alternatively hyped for and disappointed by FE16, after all. With that in mind have an abbreviated list that will end up being one very long post. I’ve got games to gush over and an anon or two (and very likely actual followers…eep) to piss off, so here we go.

The “personal favorites of the series, love revisiting them” Tier - FE10, FE2/15, FE4

I’m never going to argue that Radiant Dawn is a perfect game or even just a perfect FE game, but damned if it doesn’t manage to do so much right all at once. An extremely ambitious story that builds off its mostly conventional predecessor in a variety of interesting ways, deconstructing a bunch of series narrative standards (life in a defeated country kind of sucks and there are people that don’t warm that quickly to young and inexperienced rulers, go figure) and taking an eleventh hour hard right at Nietzchean atheism as read by a Pride parade. Kind of falls on its ass by the end, but every experimental FE story does the same thing so I can’t fault this one. I love the army switching as motivation to try different units almost as much as I love the oh-so-exploitable growth and BEXP mechanics. Its Easy mode also hits a sweet spot for me of being challenging enough to not be a complete snore while also allowing the freedom for all manner of weird self-imposed challenges that don’t even require grinding. By all accounts Hard mode is one lazy design choice after another, but I don’t play at that level so no complaints here.

Never played Gaiden, but to its credit around half of the unique gameplay mechanics I like in Shadows of Valentia were also in the original: the modest army size, the novel approaches to inventory management and magic, the pretty basic class system with just a hint of nuance. The remake threw in some hit-or-miss questing, dungeon exploration, and achievements, but all the rest was either a solid addition or a continuation of NES-era annoyances that I could live with. And the story…SoV makes me dislike the DS games even more just because this game does so much with so little. Even leaving aside the mostly great voice acting there’s a bunch of new content that characterizes almost everybody and makes half of them (the men, anyway, because this is a remake of a Kaga-era game and therefore misogynistic as can be) gay because why the hell not, and then some development that constitutes the only solid attempt at worldbuilding Archanea-Valentia-Ylisse has ever really gotten and also retcons some stuff from Awakening into making sense. It’s even got some solid DLC with lots of character stuff for the Deliverance, the least sucky grinding of the 3DS games, and probably the only context in which I’ll ever be able to comment on anything from Cipher.

No remake needed for Genealogy of the Holy War to make it competitive with the rest of the top tier - just an excellent translation patch and the standard features of an emulator. I’ve never watched Game of Thrones and probably don’t plan on it, but I gather that this game provides the same essential experience with less blood and female nudity and marginally more egalitarianism for all. I can forgive it for being the original Het Baby Fest since you’d be hard-pressed to find a single entirely healthy and well-adjusted individual anywhere on Jugdral and I relate to that just as much. Screwed up family dynamics for everyone! It’s also arguably got a more fun breeding meta than either of the 3DS games, lacking Awakening’s optimization around a single postgame map with very specific parameters or Fates’s high level of balance that ironically stymies analysis. This is another game for interesting inventory management and unit leveling that isn’t too obnoxious, which mostly makes up for the maps taking an eon to play through even with an emulator speeding through those enemy phases. This would be a strange game to remake, but if it got a localized one of the same caliber as SoV I fully acknowledge that this could climb to the #2 spot. SoV would probably have the queer edge though unless they do some strange things to the plot or just make Gen 2 really gay…but then again Gen 2 is the part that’s more in need of fleshing out as it is. (Also, this game has So. Much. Incest. That’s not even really a kink of mine especially as it’s all straight incest, but I just find that hilarious in light of how Tumblr’s purity culture speaks of such things.)

The “good games, but don’t come back to them as much” Tier - FE7, FE9, FE8

Blazing Sword is not here for nostalgia purposes, especially since when I first played the game at 14 years old most of what I like about it didn’t really register. It was just that game with RPG elements that I liked and permadeath that I didn’t, and it took a few games after that for me to become an established fan of the franchise. Massive props for putting such an unconventional spin on a prequel to a textbook FE; this is a game in a series about war in which no war is fought, how crazy is that? We actually get to see the backstory of FE6′s tragic antagonist, even as it’s completely tangential to the plot of this game and so just feels like random Jugdral-esque family drama without context, and on top of that we get the first hints of interdimensional travel and kinky human/shapeshifter sex several years before either of those became controversial talking points about how they were ruining the series. I am so there. Lyn doesn’t matter to the saga, but her character arc is distinct and self-contained and also she picked up a disproportionately large fanbase while being bisexual and biracial so go her. Eliwood is sympathetic and homosocially-inclined even if his growths frequently make me want to cry (at least he gets a horse unlike his similarly-challenged son), and I can live with Hector even if I could have done without his lordly legacy. Throw in some average-for-the-time gameplay with just enough variety across the two routes and even more good character work *waves at Sonia and Renault and Priscilla -> Raven/Lucius and Serra and…* and it’s all in all a solid experience. The ranking system can go die in a fire though, which funnily enough it did after this game. Yay!

Like most early 3D games - except on Gamecube so it’s even more embarrassing - Path of Radiance has aged terribly by every aesthetic measure aside from the soundtrack. It’s also painfully slow, and my computer can’t run Dolphin apparently so an emulator’s not going to fix that for me. Those obvious flaws aside, it’s still an entertaining game, and more importantly it’s the prologue that had the crucial task of setting up all the pins RD knocked over in stellar fashion, whether we’re talking about the basic storyline that actually isn’t or the many het relationship fake-outs (more so in localization…I guess we’ll never know if NoA was actively planning that when they pushed Ike/Elincia like they did). PoR is also a love letter to Jugdral in both gameplay and themes, albeit an occasionally critical one. The jury’s still out on whether Jugdral or Tellius succeeds the most (fails the least?) of the FE settings at developing a complete world with a nuanced and resonant saga narrative, but that Tellius manages to be competitive while being kind of clumsy overall with racism and shifting the series’s overarching motif of dragon-blooded superhumans to one of kinky interracial sex is pretty impressive. The less I say about Ike the better since it’s only his endings in RD that save him for me; suffice it to point out that his worldview and general personality were clearly designed to appeal to a demographic that does not include me.

And finally comes The Sacred Stones, truly my average benchmark FE as I like it but struggle to have any particularly strong feelings on it one way or the other. The story is standard but has a few intriguing quirks, like the light vs. dark magic meta, surprise necrophilia, and how the main antagonist’s sexuality sort of depends on which route you take (except he’s still never getting laid so does it really matter?). It also seems to have been the first game to have made a legitimate effort toward the kind of replayability that’s normal for RPGs, what with the branched promotions, the route split, and the actual postgame. That’s all much more engaging than just filling up a support log. The gameplay is also more polished and (I think?) more balanced than the other GBA games, if one is willing to overlook the minor issue of Seth. Let’s see…something something twincest that’s now an IS running gag, something something guys talking intimately about their lances, something something SoV did the whole dungeon crawling with monsters bit better but I can forgive SS for not taking it that far. Moving on….

The “they have Problems” Tier - FE14, FE13

Probably qualifies as a fandom heresy, but yes I’m putting Fates first of these two. Fates is in every conceivable way for me the “You Tried” game, because I had such high hopes for it from the moment we got the earliest promotional content. I was expecting a World of Warcraft-style conflict between two morally grey factions with myriad convoluted grievances against each other messily resolving themselves one way or the other according to player choice (though note that this is already somewhat damning with faint praise as no one’s going to call WoW a storytelling masterpiece), with Conquest in particular a true villain campaign that I imagined might play out as European Imperialism: The Game. What we actually got was…not that, not at all, but amid all the complaints about plot holes and idiot balls and moral myopia most fans seem to have forgotten just how much there is to this game. It’s three full stories that together average out to be just about passable, with possibly the biggest gameplay variety in the series that fixed most of Awakening’s more broken elements (pair-up, children being unquestionably superior to the first generation) while also adding in new features that undoubtedly appealed to someone or other like Phoenix mode and the castle-building aspect. I can even mostly forgive the obvious growing pains Fates exhibits in terms of queer content, as they were pretty much inevitable once the developers realized that (almost) everyone was picking up on the subtext and that that approach just wasn’t going to cut it anymore. Again, they tried, and if the results included face-touching fanservice and plot contrivances left and right and two-way cultural posturing that inevitably crosses over into real world racism at some point I can still step back for a moment and acknowledge that Fates began as a distinctive, high-concept setting on par with Tellius and Jugdral that was willing to do something different with the narrative norm (for two of its routes at least, and even so I’m not begrudging Birthright its conventionality because that grounding is important overall). And who knows? Maybe a later game will come along and retroactively make this setting coherent.

Fates might have more sexual fanservice, but if there’s any FE that I feel ends up a slave to fanservice in a broader sense it would be Awakening. Yeah, I get that when it was in development everyone thought this would be the final game, so it makes sense that the finished product turned out to be a nostalgia-laden greatest hits piece. It’s still hard to forgive Awakening for feeling so insubstantial, doubly so since it ended up revitalizing the franchise and now it and Fates are everywhere. It’s got a plot that only makes some sense in light of SoV and possibly on a meta level (following my theory that the plot structure is meant to mirror FE1-3 in sequence), the first iteration of an Avatar dating game heavily coloring the characterization and support system, and a queasily feel-good atmosphere that allows almost no character to actually remain dead and centers everything around the self-insert and the power of friendship. So much for the series’s traditionally dim view of human nature and recurring theme of the inevitability of conflict. What’s more, in spite of its theoretically broad scope (including a criminally under-explored time travel plot with a bad future) and numerous call-backs to older games Awakening does surprisingly little for developing the series’s most frequently-visited setting. I think it was in large part how generic this game has always felt to me even before release that I never got very hyped for it and as a consequence was never very disappointed by it. It’s just….there, with its nostalgia and its chronic “no homo” and its host of hilariously broken mechanics. I wonder if we’d have ended up viewing Awakening more favorably if it really had been the last game? Eh, probably not.

The “needs a remake or needs a better remake” Tier - FE5, FE6, FE3/12, FE1/11

I don’t have a specific order for these, except that FE1/11 is almost certainly the bottom since 5 and 6 have remake potential and, lack of localization aside, New Mystery was a better remake than Shadow Dragon.

I still haven’t fully played Thracia 776, but I’ve watched and read through Let’s Plays and have read more than enough analysis and meta on the game to where I can definitively say that I wouldn’t enjoy playing it too much and don’t feel all that emotionally connected to the story except insofar as it relates to the overall Jugdral saga. The concept of a standard FE plot that ends with the playable cast losing is an intriguing one, though they really could have done better than the weird non-ending that is this game’s final boss. I’m also not as invested in Leif the fallen aristocrat as I usually am those types of characters, possibly because it’s a foregone conclusion that he eventually gets his kingship anyway. I would like a remake, hopefully one that smooths over some of the original’s mechanical roughness and also makes a bunch of characters gay because the material’s certainly there in places, but I also admit that I’d rather have a remake of Genealogy first. Or, for that matter….

Binding Blade doesn’t have the potential for an amazing story-driven remake that Thracia does; after all, it’s basically a soft reboot of FE1 with an equally bland lord saved by his Super Smash Bros. fanbase and possibly his weirdly large harem. That said, there’s a fair amount of character potential and worldbuilding opportunities what with the series’s first true support system and the content of its unorthodox prequel. Even by itself I feel like BB does more to sell Elibe as its own distinctive world than any of Marth’s games ever did for Archanea, and that’s even with the reality that like the Archanea games this playable cast is inflated with some really forgettable characters (that seem to have followed a semi-rigid numerical quota by class in this instance. It’s weird.). This game never really stuck in my mind as a good playable experience either, not helped by the fact that it feels simple and antiquated compared not only to the GBA games that followed it but to the Jugdral games that preceded it. Good on them for throwing out some of Thracia’s more unwieldy mechanics, but did they have to throw out skills, hybrid classes, and varied chapter objectives too? The space limitations of the GBA couldn’t have been that severe.

While I’ve been spending much of this post ragging on Archanea, I will say that (New) Mystery of the Emblem has some interesting character beats, like the resolution of the Camus/Nyna/Hardin tragedy, Rickard and the situationally bisexual(?) Julian, and some of the antics of Marth’s retainers. I did like bits of the remake’s new assassin plot even if most of it is cribbed from the Black Fang; Eremiya’s no Sonia, but Clarisse and Katarina have their moments. Also, Kris isn’t that offensive to me since I was never all that engaged in Marth’s inconsistent personality and from what I’ve seen his/her supports don’t all devolve into a dating sim. New Mystery has a broader array of characters than either the original or the previous remake, without requiring the player to kill off characters just to get some of the new ones. That said, the reclassing in the DS games is still broken and allows the player to strip even more character out of their personality-deprived units. I’m getting to the point where I’m having trouble separating the two actually, so I’ll just go ahead and remark that I think everyone can agree that Shadow Dragon is the worst of the three remakes so far, with no supports, the aforementioned killing of units, a prologue that adds to the story but only exists on Normal mode and also requires you to kill someone off (seriously, what is it with this game? Is it commentary on the necessary sacrifices of war that they tried forcing on the player for one game until they realized it was a terrible idea?), the needless removal of features from earlier games like rescuing even as others like weapon ranks and forging were left in, that first clumsy iteration of reclassing, and little to nothing that I can see as elevating the story above the standard fantasy adventure fare of Dark Dragon and the Sword of Light that might have been good in 1990 but didn’t look so hot in 2008. Archanea just feels so lifeless overall compared to every other setting in the franchise, to the point where I don’t even feel that guilty about putting the first game in the series way down at the bottom when over in the Zelda ranking I raised the NES games above ones I found more fun to play solely because of their historical significance. Isn’t FE1 arguably the first tactical RPG? I feel like I should appreciate it more, but I just can’t. *shrugs*

#Fire Emblem #Mostly serious but not entirely

[cy4658-writes]

3. Afternoon Jazz

'In the blue sky just a few specks of gray

Is the evening of a beautiful day'

Francis Duggan - A Beautiful day

I spent almost all day outside walking, wondering through the cobbled streets of northern London. The weather was perfect, warm but with a slight breeze. The trees around me were starting to become green again, spring was in the air and you could tell.

I had found the perfect place to grab a quick lunch before heading to the supermarket to stock my cupboards.

I finally got back to my apartment, took my shoes off. I was tired at last, both mentally and physically. I was feeling lazy so I only put out the stuff that needed to go on the fridge.

I wasn't hungry at all, which was strange but I thought to myself it was all because of my jet lag. It always takes me 2 to 3 days for my body to fully adjust to my new time zone and that's why I knew I shouldn't go to be before 9 pm or I'll suffer from it longer.

Checked my phone: 7:30 pm so I thought I can finally call home to let them know I arrived safe and sound.

Mom sounded happy but a bit sad that I was going to be gone for that long. Despite the fact that I was already in my 30s and being the older one of two, I will always be a kid in her eyes. We spent about 20 minutes talking and catching up on each other's day till I could no longer keep my eyes open.

'Bye mom. I promise I'll call you tomorrow' I said in the middle of a yawn 'Bye love. Be safe and get some rest' she said before hanging up.

Literally dragging my feet through the dark wooden floor, I made my way to the bathroom. I still had a bit of will power, so I decided to take a shower before going to bed. The apartment was getting cold and I still haven't gotten around of figuring out how the heater worked neither I felt like even trying at this point so, the best solution was a hot bath and 2 extra blankets I found earlier while hanging my clothes.

As I was dry blowing my hair, Morpheous decided I should call it a night. Got next to my bed, pulled my pajamas from under the pillow: an oversized Korn t-shirt that I owned since high school and a flannel pair of pants; put my hair up in a bun and proceeded to lie down. My eyes promptly closed making me fall automatically into my slumber.

°Dan's POV°

'Wake up! Come on, Dan. Wake up!'

As I open my eyes, I see Phil's face a few inches above mine, looking at me upside down.

'How long was I out?' I mumbled as I rubbed my eyes.

'About 3 hours?' he replied still looking at me from that awkward position.

'Crap' I thought to myself 'This is not going to help get my sleeping pattern back in check'

'I was going to wake you up sooner, but I heard you got up super early this morning. I didn't want to bother you' he said.

'It's fine. What's up?'

'I just finished installing Amnesia: The Dark Descent on the computer so I thought we could make a video out of it. The reviews say it's an amazing horror game and I've been meaning to play it' Phil said with that twinkle in his eyes he only gets when he is really excited.

'Ok but first, can we have something to eat? I'm starving' I could hear my stomach growl 'Chinese?' He nodded as he left the room to order.

I sit up and cracked every bone in my body; I must've slept in a very crooked position. My head was pounding and my back ached like a mother fucker 'Maybe a hot bath would help' I thought to myself, after all, it'd take a while for the food to arrive.

I wasn't keen of playing horror games at night, I always ended up super hyped and I couldn't go to bed for a few hours after but it was my fault for not setting my alarm as I took my nap. 'No' I stopped my thoughts 'No it wasn't my fault. If that stupid neighbor hadn't blasted that stupid music in the morning' I cursed as I rubbed my neck under the warm water.

I was still in a foul mood; I've been cranky since I woke up 'Maybe some comfort food would help change that'

The doorbell rang signaling the arrival of our meal. 'I'll get it, you set up the table' said Phil as he stormed out the door.

After we finished eating, put the dishes on the washing machine and I was already feeling better and ready to play.

'So, what's that game about?' I asked Phil

'Well, basically is a horror game, which means that you're in trouble from the get-go. Daniel is the name of the main character' he chuckled before proceeding 'Who's a few fries short of a Happy Meal and has absolutely no recourse to weapons or any sort of magic or special gadgets. So when the shambling monsters shamble by, you have no choice but to avoid them. Take them head-on, and you either go as crazy as Lovecraft's Charles Dexter Ward or get slaughtered. Pretty rad, right?' he said with a giant grin on his lips.

'Oh fucking great' I was having some horrendous Outlast flashbacks.

We sat down and we were all ready to start, I turned on the camera:

'Hello Dan and Phil horror friends' Yelled Phil with excitement

'Here we are, yet again, ready to play something that will keep me up for THE REST OF MY TORTUOUS LIFE' I said

Phil proceeded to explain the game as I rolled my eyes and made a snarky comment here and there. After a battle of Rock, Paper, Scissors, I lost so it was my turn to be the first one to play. I was not thrilled.

The game was keeping me on edge, I really don't like going in without even knowing what it was REALLY about. Of course, that was Phil's plan all along as he gets some odd thrill when he hears me scream my lungs out.

All of a sudden, everything was calm, I knew that something horrible was about to happen yet it caught me off guard.

'WHAT THE FUCKING HELL WAS THAT, PHIL. GOD DAMN IT. THIS FUCKING GAME SUCKS DICKS. I HATE IT I

HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATE

ITTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT'  

I screamed like there was no tomorrow. I could feel the glasses from the windows shake as my voice echoed around the room. No sound proof tiles could have ever muffled the sounds I was making

°Your POV°

'What the hell?!' I was awaken by scream. 'What the fuck is going on?!'

It sounded like someone was shouting right beside me. I couldn't make up what the person was saying but I could tell that it was someone screaming out of terror. My eyes were wide open.

The screaming stopped.

I run to my windows and shut them closed. 'Yeah, because someone is going to go all Spiderman to the 4th floor' I shook my head at how silly my precaution measure was.

I wasn't able to see at all, on the heat of the moment I jumped off bed and I didn't even bother to put on my glasses, without them I'm pretty much blind as a bat. Everything looked blurry as I was running into every single piece of furniture in my way. 'Fuck'

The quiet murmuring of the busy street beneath me started filling my flat once again.

As I was swinging my way back to my room when I hear it again.

A crude scream but now I could make up some words 'Oh no, not again, please don't let me die'

The noises were coming from my next door neighbor's apartment.

'What should I do?' My mind run a million miles an hour 'Shall I call 911? No Y/N, that only works in the US' I was panicking.

Without even realizing, I stormed out of my apartment and started banging on my neighbor's door. What was I even going to do? Was I going to get murdered by whoever was attacking this person? I didn't even know but a rush of adrenaline came over me and I kept banging till someone opened the door.

'Oh my god, are you alright?' I yelled at the tall person that answered the door 'I heard someone screaming, is everyone in there ok?' I said, slightly hyperventilating.

As I was trying to focus my eyes on this person, I hear a loud laugh 'What the hell?!'

'I'm sorry' he said 'Everything is alright, I think we might have gotten a little carried away with a game I'm playing with my friend'  he said as he was trying to hold back a laugh

'Are you fucking kidding me right now?!' I got mad 'I thought something horrible was happening in there, you fucking asshole!' I was fuming now as the asshole kept on laughing.

It might have been a laughable sight, I must admit. Me, with my rattled hair, unable to shit and hyperventilating. What a picture!

'I didn't mean to b...' he was saying as I interrupt him

'You know what? I hope you fucking get kill, you goddamn prick! The audacity you have to even laugh in my face. Screw you' I hollered as I was slamming my front door shut.

'God damn, bastard' I muttered as I went in my room

°Dan's POV°

I went back to our gaming room; Phil looked at me and asked 'What was that all about?'

'Apparently, our neighbor thought that someone was getting killed in here and came to our rescue' I chuckled 'I nervously laugh in her face and got upset. She hoped I got killed tonight for being a prick'

'I think we may need to buy more sound proof tiles' I told Phil as we resumed with our game

a/n: Sorry, I got a little carried away here

#dan howell fanfic #daniel howell fanfiction #dan howell #danisnotonfire #danisnotinteresting #dan howel imagine #fanfic #phanfiction #phanfic

[sevdrag]

dreamwidth update: Mobile Game Monday, on Tuesday

yyyyep, that's right, it's time for Mobile Game Mondays, that weekly series that doesn't know what day it is and doesn't quite care!

[FFBE] In Pulls: the 5% 5* draw has been acting up; I have scored myself Dark Knight Cecil, Elfreeda, and Awakened Rain! I am stoked for A-Rain, as he is supposed to be an amazing magic tank (I do have Mystea, who is grand, but supposedly A-Rain is better?). Elfreeda seems to be a TM generator rather than incredibly useful, although I'll still level her for funsies; DK Cecil is disliked on the Reddit, but if nothing else, he'll be grand for expeditions. I'm still considering pulls for Squall/Rinoa, and I have 3 days left, but I may end up accepting status quo and saving up some tickets again. I have like, 7. In Leveling: I awakened Wilhelm to 7*, and he's so pretty. NEED to run him in something boss for fun. Maxed A-Rain out immediately; working on Elfreeda and DKC. I'm still using all LB pots I get on HT Lid's Limit Break, but from there it will probably go to either A-Rain or Hot Dad Raegen. Considering taking Orlandeau or Lightning to 7*, but I'll probably wait a bit on that. In TMs: I finally got Frye's sword TM and Vanille's accessory TM, so I sit with my DW Fryevia at 585/899 ATK/MAG at the moment and still building. So pretty. Onion Knight has not dropped his TM yet because he is a dick and I hate him. Trying to get one of the Orochi's 40% ATK TMs now, along with Crowe; probably will focus on A-Rain after that. Have to figure out who else to add once OK gets his lazy ass off the team; I may try to work on TMs for some of the folks I am planning to 7* when they arrive. In Game: Still farming the MK VIII event; need a couple more things from it, and then I'll do the story event. After that I need to spend some extra time getting through plot Ch 2 before September!

[FFRK] I've taken a break from Magicites to wrap up all the Jump Starts (that dungeon ends tomorrow? evening? i think?) that I haven't done before they go away. Looks like I have 11 left to do so I'm gonna have to devote some time tonight XD. There are a ton of motes lying there are rewards, and (unlike fucking Torments) I actually enjoy the JS setup and strategy, so they're at least entertaining me as I plug on through. Haven't pulled on anything in a while, so I pulled on the XII banner; got a literal 1/11 dupe Ashe BSB. At least it's a shiny 7* now. Butts. That's never fun. I still have to do the August Crystal Tower, too. I'll get back to the 4* Magicites soon, but I'm going to try a different one. Realized today I have a pretty good Water team that might be a better place to start (also considering a pull on the Water banner because a Water Chain to top it off would be a definite win), or even a Fire team. I've temporarily lost the interest in a lot of this game, so I'd like to get myself hyped up on the next level of challenge, so that I can get back into enjoying it.

[LN] Working on the Ch13 suit (Magician of the Wild) to proceed in the story, and catching up in Princess too. The new event suits are cute, but it's just a roulette gatcha, so I'm not sure how much I'll spend diamonds on it. I'm still low on diamonds from whatever last crap I spent them on, lol. Focusing on farming the suit and getting through story again XD

how about y'all? what's having fun on your phone?

comments Comment? https://ift.tt/2OBkgWh

#crossposted #dreamwidth

[cynicaldesire]

I don’t know when I last updated about our DnD campaign because we play every couple weeks, except when we played back-to-back recently. I feel like I haven’t updated though because we keep just going from town to town and I’m never allowed to RP and the people that do RP just talk in circles around one topic.

So lessee. The campaign started on a boat, a dragon destroyed the boat, we woke up in a clinic in Fort Bandann, the place we were headed. They had a problem with the Holy Night and with something in the lake attacking all the fishing boats. We tried to talk to the village head, but he was off wandering around. (Apparently he has Alzheimer’s? Or maybe it’s magical. Who knows.) We talked to the village head’s granddaughter who provided us lodgings. The innkeeper lady had a plot hook and my character was the one that engaged with her and got it. (Not that I ever had the opportunity to actually tell the others.)

We eventually got all together and went to confront the lake monster. We have a druid in our party and he convinced the awakened lake monster to be friends. We got a level. My husband was displeased. We didn’t really see combat or anything and it felt like a weird and cheap way to get a level. He asked our DM if he could choose his like.... Paladin fighting style later. The DM took this as Level up my whole character later and said sure.

(Because we leveled up, we were supposed to roll our new health points. I rolled at my desk with a real dice, got a 6, and put it on my sheet right after the game. Two weeks later, our DM says that our ranger did it in the Roll20 chat so he wanted everybody to do it that way. I said I already did it in person on my sheet. He said just do it again. That roll came out to a 2. I lost 4HP at level 2 because they didn’t just want to accept that I had rolled it already. I’m bitter about this forever.)

Our reward for befriending this creature was a bunch of money split 5 ways and the choice of one of two scrolls. Our wizard character has chosen to be the one who talks to everyone, the guy in charge, and he’s a dick about it. Between the choice of Knock (a spell that unlocks anything) and Moonbeam, he chose Moonbeam to put in his spellbook.

My husband, and this also me, thought this was strange and selfish because, uh, Moonbeam is a Druid ONLY spell. He can’t put it in his Wizard spellbook. And the Druid, a fresher player, doesn’t know any of this. So the next session, our Wizard went to give the scroll back to the character that gave it to him, an NPC that he tried to use his campaign setting Secret on, and we had to tell him that putting the spell into his spellbook destroys the scroll.

We also survived the Holy Night. This campaign, Rime of the Frostmaiden, has these Holy Nights I guess where, in the beginning, people were sacrificed, but at some point the rest of the people realized that they didn’t have to sacrifice people, they just had to sacrifice something. So Bandann was sacrificing their warmth. So on the Holy Night, all fires go out. We all had to make a save and if we didn’t pass, we suffered a point of exhaustion. I don’t think any of us made it, or it was just automatically bad, so we all had to do the next day with disadvantage.

After the Holy Night, we also discovered a dead body with their heart frozen or some shit. I was in the bathroom I think. Some Investigator man showed up and we took him to the village head and he’s staying at the inn we were staying at.

So there’s a bunch of plot hooks, but because our Wizard is the one his charge and won’t let any one else talk really, he decides we should go investigate this White Moose that is killing all the loggers in another town. I feel like we had an encounter on the way, and it was difficult because of the disadvantage, but we got through it. My husband accidentally leveled in that fight because our DM is an airhead.

New town, we go to this village’s head and it’s a nice little old lady with like 4-5 orphan children. My husband’s character is a freshly out of high school (Paladin training) kid so he decides to make friends with the orphans. (I was in the bathroom again. :x ) A couple of our members are frustrated at this usage of time to RP, but the DM loves it, so.

Eventually we sit down to have dinner with the nice orphan matron lady and she directs us to the bar where we can get more information on the White Moose and whatever else we’re looking for. There was a plot hook in the room, so I tried to ask about it. What happened to the person with the prosthetic hand in your curio cabinet there? It was her husband, he died to yetis out in the wilderness. And his hand? Frostbitten and cut off earlier, hence the prosthetic.

Then the Wizard is like How dare you talk to her about something painful over dinner! I’m so sorry for my rude compatriot, you don’t have to talk about this if it’s too difficult. Anyway, so what happened to the kids parents? Sacrificed to the Holy Night? Tell me more.

We head to the bar and the DM asks us to roll Perception. We all roll like shit. He bids us roll again. We roll better but not good enough. He says ugh, just roll a d6. We do. We get a bunch of different overheard conversations as rumors for information about our quests and new quests. One of the things we overhear pertains to my secret. Because its a Secret (part of the Rime campaign), I haven’t told anybody, but I’m excited about it. My husband knows, so he’s excited, too. But everybody else just jots it down as a probable place to avoid. Or be aware of. But some guys talk about the White Moose that we’re hunting.

How do you do fellow.... fellows, can you tell me more about the Moose? Our Wizard just sits down at the table with the guys gossiping about the Moose and asks them directly for information. My husband and I laugh and are reminded of the campaign my husband ran wherein there was a mercenary ordered to kill everyone that knew a secret, this player was privy to that secret, so he just walks up to the guy and says Hey, I know the secret. My husband struggled with the knowledge that the merc’s mission was to kill everyone with that knowledge. But it’s not the first time or the last, apparently.

The guys at the table don’t have much more information, but what they do have helps us form a plan. We disguise ourselves as loggers and go into the woods and hunt this beast. We hire a logger to help us, head out there, and start pretending the log. The logger brings a cart.

We get attacked by a pack of wolves. Like 8 wolves. The guy we hired is near the cart, so we crowd around him and the cart. We have to make strength saves to prevent being knocked down by the wolves. They have some high AC for being wolves, so I can’t seem to hit them. We get almost overwhelmed, a couple people faint. It’s bullshit. I’m frustrated. I might’ve lived if I had those 4HP I rolled up like a month ago. The guy we hired also faints. We end up killing enough that the rest run off. We revive everybody, including the guy we hired. We send him back to town, it’s too dangerous out here. We end the session.

Two weeks go by. New session. DM says we should get hype because there’s going to be a lot of combat if we play our cards right. Considering how squishy we are and how tough the enemies are, I don’t look forward to this. We heal up from our encounter with the wolves and head further into the woods. We discover some kind of temple? The ranger stealths in and so do I. The Wizard sees some statues and wants to roll knowledge on them. While they’re investigating the statues, my character is a monk that used to be a barbarian so she doesn’t care about knowing the history of a thing, so she continues to scout ahead.

Suddenly a banshee shows up. My character punches and is pretty far from ineffectively punching the banshee, so she continues around the temple to find the entrance and make sure there’s not more danger.

My husband proceeds to get very bothered by this. I want my character to have been a veteran adventurer and she’s been asking the others for some kind of hierarchy or understanding of what roles everyone is filling in the group. The Wizard hates authority or is Chaotic, so he has basically told her to eat shit. No one else seems to care either. But I figured in this instance, she was literally too far from helping them so might as well keep scouting. My husband said But you care about the group, you care about your party, you’ve emphasized being a a group and establishing roles, so why would you abandon them? So we had to argue about that because he couldn’t wrap his head around my thought process and I had committed to the action. He eventually pulled up the information on Banshee and said they have the power to Wail and kill everyone in a 30ft radius. And I was like Okay? I didn’t know that and if I’m that far away wouldn’t I live?

Anyway, the banshee disappears. The rest of the party basically spent their turns shooting magic and shit at her and she was like ??? and left. We proceed through the temple. We find a gazebo with some kind of instructions for a ritual on it. Me punch, so I continue exploring to clear the Fog of War. We find a raised section with a sarcophagus. It has the same symbols as the gazebo. Weird. I continue exploring while the Wizard and the Ranger investigating the coffin.

We had the cart with us. My husband decided to stay with the cart and so did the Druid. My husband wanted to play a character that multiclassed based on the people he was adventuring with, so he tried to ask the Wizard to teach him magic and the Wizard said Eat shit. So since he was hanging out with the Druid, he asked the Druid to teach him magic. The Druid’s backstory is that he’s been alone for a very long time and he’s a race that gets very old, so he’s an old, isolated man. So he doesn’t like people very much. So when my husband said he wanted to ask the Druid about magic, the Druid says “I take a nap.” So, I guess Eat Shit from him, too.

Upon finding the zone relatively clear, the banshee having appeared once and not again, we call the boys from the cart. We move the cart next tot he gazebo and our Paladin sniffs around the tomb. He finds the ground is consecrated and there’s no Evil around. We continue exploring. As we leave the consecrated ground, the banshee appears and shoots our ranger. He falls unconscious. I grab him and pull his body back, perform a medicine check to stabilize him. I think this is when the Wizard crit on a spell, but because she’s a banshee, his Ice Knife was ineffective. So he was like WELP and ran away. We disperse the banshee again. Paladin uses Lay on Hands to get our Ranger to 1HP and we keep exploring. We find a Moondial puzzle and a whole in the wall. The Ranger goes into the hole. I follow. The Wizard and the Druid want to go in the hole, but my husband convinces them to solve the puzzle.

In the hole, the Ranger sees the White Moose. I’m a human in a dark place so I don’t see shit. I stealth out of the hole to tell the others what is us. I go the bathroom. I come back and they had solved the puzzle, but it woke up the moose. The Druid peeks his head in to ask the Moose if he’s friendly. He is not. We ask the Moose for a Duel! He accepts. We send in our Paladin. The Moose charges him. He takes a fuckton of damage and falls down with like 4HP left.

The Wizard tries to move around the moose, gets Attack of Opportunity’d and drops. Unconscious. I move in, pull my husband up from Prone and activate my Dodge. It works out because the moose misses me. The Ranger shoots him.

The Druid is using the new Tasha’s Wildfire Spirit. He summons his spirit, which sends out a fire wave when it appears and/or teleports. The White Moose had been guarding some innocent woodland creatures. The Druid Spirit gets summoned and accidentally torches the animals. The Druid says Oh No. Anyway. The Moose panics and tries to squeeze out of the tiny hole we came through. He calls for help. The Druid that Awakened the Moose and the Lake Monster shows up to fight us. The Moose gets blasted from a bunch of sources and dies. The Enemy Druid is now here and chooses to fight us. The Ranger and Wizard fall unconscious. Our Druid uses the spirit to teleport the Wizard and the Ranger out of danger. It’s just me and my husband in the hole facing off against this enemy druid.

I hid around the corner of the hallway where the Enemy Druid showed up. When he came into view, I popped out and punched him. I hit him and used my Variant Human Feat to knock him back 5ft. Then it’s my turn again. I do it again. I dart around the other corner.

Enemy Druid summons 4 White Moose spirits. My husband decides to just run through them to the ED. The Moose spirits miss! My husband runs up and starts beating on the guy. I punch a Moose Spirit in the butt. It kicks me and I go down. My husband is trying to fight the Enemy Druid and goes down, but not after he is told about his Secret.

Outside the hole, the Ranger is revived by our Druid. He takes a shot and hits the Enemy Druid. Our Druid sends his Wildfire Spirit back in to fight. We get enough damage on the guy to kill him.

The Ranger grabs the healer’s kit and stabilizes my husband. While he’s doing that, an Awakened Goodberry Shrub runs out and thanks us for killing the Evil Tyrant. He feeds us Goodberries to revive our fallen. I get 1HP, the husband gets 4?? The Wizard gets 1. We talk to him a bit, look around the cave. The puzzle is pretty obvious to us, but the Wizard and the Druid are like Oh, we’ll just prop open the doors and redo the puzzle, it’ll be fine. (It wasn’t.)

We find a magical scrying mirror. My husband asks a question, has to make a Wisdom save, passes, and gets no answer. The Wizard shoves him asides and asks 2 questions. One we already knew the answer to and one that was pretty good. He doesn’t make the Wisdom saves. The second one was about the Dragon. The Dragon know sees us. This panics the party who says we have to leave. My husband is like We’re underground, what is a dragon gonna do? Let’s rest here. NOPE, says the others.

So to get rid of the banshee, we have to cleanse her corpse. We have to redo the puzzle to reopen the room with her body in it, the husband grabs it and goes to leave. She pops up, shoots the Ranger again, and I drag him into cover. The husband goes to dash to the consecrated ground, but the DM says he’s “dragging a body” so he has to move at half-speed. I say Hey, why don’t we tell her what we’re doing? Maybe she’ll be lenient? The Wizard says he already tried talking to her, (By yelling STOP) and it didn’t work. She’s already seen that we have her body and her face got all fucked up, so it won’t work. And I’m tired. It’s been several hours and several sessions of these people not listening to my ideas, not letting me RP, upsetting my husband, so I’m like WHY IS IT YOU NEVER WANNA DO MY IDEAS. The Druid gets shot. I drag him back into cover. My husband asks for ideas on how to get the body to the consecrated ground since it will take him 2 turns and he has 4HP. Wizard doesn’t want to help because he’s been yelled at. Ranger offers some advice.

Husband runs halfway and hides behind the gazebo. The Wizard follows and shoots at the banshee. She can’t hit because they’re behind cover. The husband dashes the rest of the way to the consecrated ground, “drops the body” and the body and banshee burn up. Okay! Great!

Now that we’ve cleared out all the danger, how about we REST HERE since we’re now ALL AT 1HP. No, there might be a dragon coming for us. Husband and I are so tired at this point. We say fine, let’s go back to town. But it’s too far so we’ll have to roll on the encounter table. Fuck, how about we take the Moose Carcass, put it on the cart, and take it into the woods where we have cover from aerial scouting, and rest? We can make camp.

I loot the evil druid’s body. He has a bunch of potions. We give them to our druid to identify. We load up the Moose on the cart. The ritual required 4 items, one of which was a hand. (This ties into the thing the Innkeeper told me and the Prosthetic hand back in the town. I don’t know if these are related because no one will let me talk.) So we cut the hand off the evil druid and used it in the ritual.

The sarcophagus on the consecrated ground opens. Earlier, our druid was like I’ma open it. And our Wizard was like Absolutely not, if you do that, I will PvP you. (I had flashbacks to when he unconscious’d my character because of an argument.) A very confused, very old elf emerges from the Sarcophagus. Int his setting, this brand of elves get to 400 and start losing their minds and memories. This elf is like 350 or so. The ritual puts these elves into a deep sleep so they can die peacefully without going mad. (Which, we had to fight about that, as well. The DM said the ritual puts them into a deep sleep until they die, but the Wizard and Ranger assumed that we had to do the ritual to cleanse the banshee and I said She’s already dead, what would the ritual do? They argued with me and I was like AM I FUCKING INSANE? DID HE NOT SAY UNTIL THEY DIE? Eventually the DM was like The ritual is for people who are alive. And that was the end of it.)

And that was where the session ended because it had gone kinda long. My husband then proceeded to ask the Druid why he was okay with killing those innocent woodland creatures and the Druid was like ??? He’s Neutral, what does he care? It’s good eatin. Har har! And then he proceeded to chat with them for another while and he could tell they weren’t really into it so he bailed. Now he’s unsure if he can play the character he planned because the Wizard and Druid are being such assholes. And I said what about Ranger? Or me? I’m pretty Lawful Good, I think. You wanted to flirt with me. But he’s just disappointed in his friends and having a hard time dealing with that. I’ve had to deal with this stuff enough that I expect it by now, but it’s still awful. I get it.

But I think that’s about it! That should be all the major points up to now. The last session was recent so its the strongest in my memory. That’s why it got so much screen time.

#about me #dnd #dnd tales #long post

[ashen-star-mage]

My Favorite Fandoms and Why

I’m a huge nerd. Hopefully that’s clear for anyone who follows my blog or posts. So naturally I like a lot of fandoms, but there are a number that I really really like and some I’ve followed since childhood. 

Pokemon

A fandom I’ve followed since childhood. I was part of the original Pokemon generation who were kids when the first games (red, blue and yellow) came out. I love how even in the beginning there was no end of things to do in Pokemon. Bored with your team? There’s 151 of them and more on the way. Then you could battle and min-max your team to your heart’s content, and way back in the day you could even gamble in Pokemon games. I love the art style of Pokemon and the beloved creatures that are way too easy to get attached to. It’s like to the point where when someone (I’m not naming names) KOs your favorite Pokemon and then it’s time for some serious payback. We’re talking Hyper Beam on a 10% health Pokemon payback. Modern games have given us even more to do in games. If battling isn’t your thing, you can breed them for cool moves and other things (and potentially become a twisted Pokemon eugenicist). You can hunt for oddly colored Pokemon (shinies), something I never had the patience for. You can participate in Pokemon contests, and bond with your team by feeding or petting them. Pokemon designs are really diverse too, from ‘normal’ animals to plants to the gods themselves. Gods that can be caught and battled by ten year olds for some reason. Also it needs saying that for some reason teenage boys (and perhaps girls too) detest Pokemon because it’s not cool. What’s cool for teenage boys? Skateboards and saying ‘radical’ all the time? Ninja Turtles reference by the way. I was definitely in the minority liking Pokemon in my teenage years, but when I got to college, suddenly it was cool again and everyone was allowed to like it just like when I was a kid. Pretty awesome right? I’m really hyped for Sword and Shield, just like I’ve been hyped for every new main series game. 

Star Wars

Another fandom I’ve followed since childhood. While Pokemon took us to a land of wonderful creatures of all stripes, Star Wars takes us to that galaxy a long time a go and far far away where there are adventures, cool ships, and magic space wizards. In my opinion, Star Wars introduced the world to some of the coolest and most iconic ships. Like the wedge-shaped Star Destroyers that struck terror into all who saw them, or the Millennium Falcon, the fastest hunk of junk in the galaxy. And who could forget the characters. Definitely a diverse cast in terms of archetypes, Luke the naive and idealist farmboy, Leia the tough no-nonsense princess, Han Solo the lovable rogue, Darth Vader one of the most feared men in the Empire and an extremely iconic villain. The list goes on. Even if the galaxy is almost always at war, be it the clone wars, galactic civil war, or other conflicts, it was somewhere I always wanted to go some day. Meet the characters, try not to get force-choked, fly a ship through hyperspace. Star Wars may have started as three very well-done movies, but it has turned into an incredible multimedia franchise. The Legends series (formerly expanded universe) really fleshed out the galaxy and lore beyond what the movies did and so did the prequels. Say what you will, but they had some really good aspects to them. Then there are the games like my favorite of all time, Empire At War, game that would transport you into that galaxy far far away for a few hours at a time and let you blow up stormtroopers or rebel scum to your hearts content. Or clones or clankers (battle droids) if you prefer that. The fans have definitely done their part too, like the 501st Legion and Rebel Legion, two incredible professional-quality Star Wars costuming organizations (both of which I want to join some day). They really do their part to bring the galaxy to life. 

Disney/Pixar

Ah, Disney, the company that has been entertaining us with beloved child-friendly characters and stories for many decades. A lot of generations can say they grew up with at least one Disney movie. I love how Disney movies appeal to people of all ages. They have characters both kids and adults adore and stories and even humor for both adults and children as well. Then there’s Kingdom Hearts, the massive Disney and Final Fantasy crossover that brings tons of Disney characters into one universe. Also Disneyland and Disney parks which bring the magic of Disney to life with animatronics, costumed actors, and various other things. Unless someone outright hates Disney or animated films, there’s bound to be something in the Disney canon for almost everyone. I have too many favorite Disney films to name, but some I’m particularly fond of are Mulan, Tangled, Wreck-It Ralph, Alice in Wonderland (my namesake). I’m definitely planning some Disney cosplays in the future, and now that Disney owns Star Wars, those characters could count too. 

Fire Emblem

A tactical RPG with one of the world’s saltiest fanbases (at least in my opinion). I’ve described the series as chess-meets-Final-Fantasy to people who have never heard of it. Basically you have an army of very relatable characters who can talk to each other for combat bonuses and you have a bunch of enemies and undoubtably a giant evil dragon to fight. These games have been pegged as being rather difficult, considering weapons can break mid-battle, characters who die in battle never come back (until recent games), and experience points are limited (more in older games). Fire Emblem used to be such a niche series, only known to a few dedicated fans, but luckily Fire Emblem Awakening saved the series and made it really popular, to the point of being a mainstream series now. I only got into the series in high school, but I’ve been hooked ever since. The mix of strategy, RPG elements, and interesting characters and plots really was a winning combination. The character relations are deep, especially when there are 40+ playable characters per game. Each character can talk to around half a dozen others several times, revealing character backstory, personality, and interesting and sometimes funny interactions between them. I think Fire Emblem Awakening is one of my all-time favorites, and not just because it saved the series. It was a great standalone game. Some of my favorite characters are Lilina from Binding Blade, Nino from Blazing Sword (just Fire Emblem in the international release), Lissa, Chrom, Frederick, Robin, and Nowi from Awakening, Flora and Mozu from Fates. I even cosplay Mozu. I should honestly dust that cosplay off and wear it again. I love the character.

 Hyperdimension Neptunia

Definitely still a rather niche series. It’s extremely meta and loves trampling on the fourth wall. This series is basically the video game console war (Wii vs Playstation 3 vs Xbox 360) with all the players (pun intended) personified as anime girls. It’s not just those systems either. Sega is a major player, as in main character major, and video game piracy is personified too. The characters are fantastic and their interactions are equal parts endearing and hilarious. There are way too many video game references and tidbits. Like how Vert (Xbox personification) complains about overheating just like a real Xbox 360. Or how the enemies you fight are based on classic video game enemies like the ghosts from Pac-Man or the space invaders. This franchise is rather unique for me in that I like almost every character. With Star Wars or Fire Emblem for example, there are definitely a fair number of characters I’m neutral towards, but both those franchises have way more characters than Neptunia. I think my favorite characters are Vert and Nepgear (personification of the Sega Game Gear). 

RWBY

Say what you will about the animation style at first (believe me, I was turned off at first but then I came back years later to give it another try) but this series has some of the most epic fight sequences and choreography in any series I’ve seen. All the main characters have superpowers of varying sorts called semblances and throw in a bunch of cool weapons that are also guns and you’ve got a recipe for epic combat. It’s so tragic and sad that Monty Oum, the series creator passed away, since he was a real driving force behind the epic fight choreography. I normally don’t like series just because the fighting is good (I’m not into most shounen battle anime). There needs to be more than just epic fights. I like character-driven stories and RWBY provides quite the diverse and likable cast. The team dynamics (RWBY stands for the names of the four characters on team RWBY) make for very interesting character interactions. 

Disgaea

Probably the most wonderfully absurd fandom on my list. Disgaea is about playing as the demons as they get into mischief and are forced to fight even worse demons and sometimes rogue human super-villains and angels too. Also did I mention the exploding peg-leg penguins called Prinnies who also talk like surfers for some reason? Because they do exist and they’re so great they even got a few games that star them as the main character... even though they’re supposed to be the fall guy and cheap slave labor of the Disgaea universe. The main characters, Laharl being a great example, are a departure from the ‘good guy’ protagonists of your typical RPG. He’s greedy, petty, and likes to brag about himself. Sure he’ll do the right thing after much prodding, but he really likes to play the role of the villain too. Aside from the absurd characters and plots, there’s the absurd game mechanics. Lv 99 look too low for you? Try Lv 9999 and then reset to lv 1 and grind back to Lv 9999 multiple times. Also stats reaching the millions and billions and damage several magnitudes beyond that with the right overpowered sword (which you can level up by going inside it). 

Tales Series

A series that’s somewhat similar to Final Fantasy in terms of being a mostly fantasy RPG, but also with hack-and-slash team battle mechanics. It’s a series that I feel is terribly underrated and needs more love. Final Fantasy is great but I feel like Tales deserves more recognition. The series has a lot of great characters and heavily emphasizes character interactions and character development. A perfect example is Luke fon Fabre, a character whose spoiled, whiny, abrasive personality makes him hard to like, but due to certain events he becomes one of the most beloved protagonists in the series (and a personal favorite of mine). This series is known for playing archetypes and tropes straight (like the chosen one trope, or unshakable destiny) and then turning them on their heads and deconstructing them, only to reconstruct them, then deconstruct them again. The combat is fast-paced and exciting, and while I love turn-based combat as well, the Tales fights, especially boss battles are fantastic. I describe the series as Final Fantasy meets Super Smash Bros in terms of battle system. My favorite game in the series is Tales of the Abyss. 

#Pokemon #Hyper Beam #pokemon sword #pokemon shield #Star wars #magic space wizard #star destroyer #millennium falcon #Luke Skywalker #leia organa #han solo #Darth Vader #clone wars #galactic civil war #star wars legends #expanded universe #battle droid #clanker #stormtrooper #rebel scum #501stlegion #rebel legion #Disney #kingdom hearts #disneyland #Mulan #Tangled #wreck-it ralph #alice in wonderland #cosplay