#I have always played my game with storylines even without posting them

[bogwaterparasite]

Saja Boys HC’s!!

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Paring: Saja Boys x Reader(?? If you squint

A/N: I just watched this movie and, Oh MY GOD! I am OBSESSED WITH IT. Genuinely, I feel like the writers did such a good job at portraying the characters and the storyline without it feeling rushed? I would love to see it as a series sometime, or have some sort of sequel/prequel to answer all of my questions!! But for now? I’ll just stick to writing Drabbles about guys who only had a few minutes of screen time.

BTW. This is all simply MY opinion on them, they have no defined personality so literally almost everything could be cannon.

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Baby Saja

★ He’s on his phone, like, a LOT. Not in a brainrotty way, but he’s just rather uninterested in anything else.

★ Nonchalant dread head. He doesn’t care about things too much. Want to hang out in a big group? Ok! Want to stay in and not do anything? That’s cool. Sometimes it can be quite annoying, considering you’ll be the one making the decision half of the time, but he will take the initiative eventually.. (Still, be prepared to be the one who ends up deciding what yall do, even if he started the hangout)

★ No sense of taste. Heavily based on him and the hot sauce contest thing

★ Plays video games. Not a gamer, just uses them to pass the time. He’s awfully good at them, specially fight games, however, he doesn’t like rpg games.

★ For someone who’s nonchalant, he cares about his appearance a little too much. What can I say? A man just wants to look cool

★ Lazy as hell. Like stated before, if you wanted to do something he wouldn’t oppose to it, however, he won’t go out of his way to do something.

★ Doesn’t like hot drinks, don’t ask why

★ Isn’t very fond of animals, they’re too much work and bothersome.

★ Likes soft to the touch things

★ Doesn’t like interviews much, mostly because of the amount of talking you have to do in them

★ Always has something in his mouth; gum, lollipops, soft candy, he always has something there. He don’t like crunchy things tho, the vibrations they send to his head.

★ Heavy gaslighter, like, he enjoys to bother others. Type to hide your things and then act like he has no clue what you’re talking about up until you’re going crazy not being able to find the object

Abs Saja

★ Foodie, but in reality he’s just a fatass. Says he’s bulking but he just likes to eat

★ Prefers sour over salty, does NOT like sweet things

★ Constantly showing off his muscles, specially his abs, lets bffr his whole personality are his abs.

★ During the winter he likes to go on runs shirtless, or he’s just always constantly shirtless.

★ Annoying asf. He’s funny, but in the way that he says the dumbest things constantly and makes you wonder how many times he’s been dropped as a child.

★ Social, but still likes to keep his distance to people. He hates talking about feelings, and if you do try? He’d probably find a way to avoid the situation with a dumb comment

★ Dog person all the way, he’d have a golden retriever named cupcake or world destroyer

★ He’s pushy when it comes to things that he really wants. You’re going to the gym with him whether you like it or not, will sulk if you end up winning.

★ Surprisingly a good cook, but he’s messy as hell

★ Immature as hell. He would laugh at penis jokes, or just any type of middle school joke.

★ Sore loser, yet, he sucks at any game that doesn’t involve some sort of athletic performance.

★ He sleeps with his socks on

★ Self centered. He watches edits of him on repeat, constantly likes posts about him and probably has magazines of himself hung up on his walls

★ Doesn’t like children

Romance Saja

★ He likes cars

★ Reads romance novels, books, fanfiction (SPECIALLY about him) will say dumb corny shit all the time, like cheesy pick up lines from hallmark movies

★ Theater kid, watched Highschool Musical too many times to count

★ He cares about his hygiene a lot. Manicures, pedicures, metrosexual in a way.

★ Huge fashionista, he has a mannequin of himself in order to pick out outfits.

★ He can’t hold his alcohol, EXTREME lightweight.

★ He likes word games

★ He likes to tease people, their reactions are simply too good to pass up on.

★ If you are in a relationship he’d make it a thing to take the role of the knight and shining armor, or just the typical male romance movies role

★ Speaks French

★ Out of all the members, he’s surprisingly the weakest physically.

★ Unlike abs, he LOVES to talk about his emotions. Overshares constantly, can be quite annoying sometimes but oh well.

★ If he were to have any pets, he’d have something that wouldn’t get him that dirty, most likely a fish. He believes they’re perfect companions (even though you can’t do much with them)

Mystery Saja

★ This has been obvious, but the quietest of them all. You won’t hear a peep from this dude until waaaaay later into your interactions, and even then it won’t be much.

★ Animal lover. I don’t believe he would have a pet, but he’s the type to stop while walking to pet a stray or some shit like that. Call him snowy white because he’ll even have insects land on him and he won’t care

★ Very good listener, of course, he isn’t much for giving advise, but he’s always there to hear whatever might be troubling your mind.

★ I wouldn’t say he’s antisocial, but I wouldn’t say he’s social either. He much prefers one on one hang outs, whether it’s outside or inside.

★ He sucks at saying tongue twisters.

★ Artist. He expresses what he doesn’t voice through art, mainly paintings. He tried to sell some as modern art once, but no one bought any.

★ over-analytical over the dumbest shit

★ he barks at people

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I was blanking really hard on Jinu, so I might just group him in with huntrix if I ever decide I want to make one for them! Also, so sorry for the delay on posting, I’m sure half of yall don’t care atp but I still feel horrible about it LOL. I leave for the military in about a month! So, expect to hear absolutely nothing for six months after that!!

Hope you enjoyed! Reblogs are appreciated ^^

If you liked this, don’t forget to check out

Saja boys character building

[simswoon]

hi how come you quit your joy of life save?

I quit Joy of Life mostly because I did a massive CC cleanout and accidentally deleted a ton of stuff I used for that save 😭 BUT also… (drops lore) my founder, Myla, died immediately after giving birth to my heir, Hana. So gen one never really got a chance to happen, and I just kept playing because I was attached to the mess. I still have most of their lore memorised, and honestly… I miss them so bad I might remake the whole thing. Anways, unnecessary lore for sims ya'll will probably never see, under the cut.

So Myla moved into this old, run-down farmhouse with dreams of being a baker. She was the absolute sweetest sim, I loved her so much. Unfortunately, I have no screenshots from before she died because I messed up my keybinds like an idiot. Anyway, she went on this blind date with Jinwoo, a guy in town on a business trip. also he was already engaged, but he didn’t love the girl—he’d just settled because his parents approved of her. (these are all i have of her...)

Naturally, Myla ends up pregnant (wow so shock!!), and she just vibes through the first trimester alone while being so fucking poor. She reaches out to Jinwoo in her second trimester, and of course he doesn’t believe her and asks for a paternity test (it is his baby). She tells him she doesn’t expect him to be involved, though she does ask for financial help. But he decides he wants to be present.

Over the course of the second trimester, they get close (they fall in love). Jinwoo says he’s going to leave his fiancée and be with Myla. That lasts all of two seconds because his parents are like “absolutely not,” threaten to cut him off from the family business (he's the heir, I went very Kdarma vibes with jol LMAO), and he folds. Myla breaks up with him because she doesn’t want him to have to choose between her and his entire life.

He gets re-engaged to the other girl right as Myla enters her third trimester. Then, right after giving birth to their daughter Hana, Myla dies of a postpartum hemorrhage. It was awful. Jinwoo is left grieving the woman he never really got to love and trying to raise a newborn alone. He moves back home and raises Hana with his fiancée.

Then when Hana’s a toddler, Jinwoo realizes at his wedding that he can’t go through with it. He’s still in love with Myla. So he leaves his fiancée at the altar and moves back into Myla’s old house. Of course, his ex-fiancée shows up later pregnant, and Jinwoo, being the responsible (but messy) family man he is, steps up for that child—Seoyeon.

They start bonding again, and Jinwoo realizes she’s not as horrible as he remembered. They get back together. She knows she’ll never be his great love like Myla was, but she wants a family. Then they instantly get pregnant again with triplets. (First time that’s ever happened in my game.)

They take a family trip to Sulani, where Hana meets her best friend Hari. Jinwoo and his fiancée get engaged again. And while I was off watching Hana and Hari being cute, Jinwoo autonomously cheats with a bartender. Then gets HIV. Then gives it to his pregnant fiancée. THEN BLAMES HER. (I love my chotic game)

She finds out he cheated but forgives him. They have the triplets (Minho, Hyun, and Jisoo), life is stressful, and Hana becomes a teen. She realizes she has a crush on Hari, and Hari helps her start a cooking YouTube channel. But Hana ends up kissing a boy (autonomously again, thanks Sims), and she and Hari have a falling out because Hari also liked her.

And that’s about where I stopped playing. It was drama. But yeah… I still think about them all the time.

[gowerhardcastle]

Fun with Achievements

Achievements create this really interesting tempo you can play with.  You read the text, and then, you hit an achievement, and it pops up there at the bottom.  It hits with this ba-dump! tempo. 

It’s like when you read a post here, and then you look down and you see some clever tag at the bottom, it hits you with a one-two punch.  The post, the tag.  That’s what an achievement can you.  You read the text, you read the achievement.

It creates a really fun dynamic.

The very presence of an achievement tells the reader “there is a path here that you might never have considered.  Try it.  There’s rewards there for you.”  You Explored the Dark Cavern without a Light.  You might not even have realized that there was something interesting about going without a light, or that it was even possible.

An achievement, because of that ba-dump! tempo (I need a better way to describe that) can act like a punchline. You make a choice, see the result, and then the achievement pops up like a little snarky editorial or authorial comment at the bottom. It's a moment where I, the author, talk to you, the player in a very direct way. If you take the "Mysterious Benefactor" Sponsor in Jolly Good, the achievement says the following:

An unmissable, or very very easy achievement towards the start of the game gives a nice connection between author and player.  It says, “there are achievements here.  Some will be easy to find, and some, you’ll have to range abroad.  Here’s an easy first one.”

What I don't love is achievements for romantic paths. That always makes me feel like the game is treating the love interests like paths to be achieved and it takes me right out of the feeling of romance.

When something bad happens to the character, awarding an achievement tells the player, you didn't do something wrong. Quite the contrary. You played and experienced a unique path. It tells the player, well explored. It briefly distinguishes the player and the character in this way.

An achievement demonstrates what's important for a player: in Tea and Scones there is going to be scene where a character cannot be saved from a terrible fate. The achievement will note that the player has successfully completed that storyline. The important point is not that it was done successfully, but that the player pursued that storyline to its natural conclusion.

Achievements can acknowledge or laugh at weird little edge cases in which a player tries to do something bizarre, like "sit in a chair for entire cocktail party without getting up" or "get bonked in the head more than twenty times over the course of the game." These are not things you would do if you wanted the best possible outcome, but things that you can do, so why not reward them with a little thumb's up from the writer?

I love achievements that create a whole new game. This one from Choice of Robots is so much fun, because it makes the achievements themselves into a sort of obstacle course that you have to set out to avoid, and chart your course--it's strikingly difficult. It's the rarest achievement in this game!

Consider an achievement that rewards something perplexing. 

You get this achievement if nothing blows up in Chapter Six's ending, which, if you get it makes you wonder what could blow up, and then when you replay, you will start looking around to see what you can blow up. This is my idea of a good use of an achievement.

Come visit the Noble Gases Club here for loads and loads more discussion of game design and musings on the elements of interactive literature.

[greenplumbboblover]

Lyra's Yearly Recap - 2024/2025

I actually forgot I did this quite a few times the last few years, but this year I wanted to look back of what I accomplished from my resolution list.

And then see if In can make some of that true this year! (and what else to add!)

2023/2024 Resolutions:

(See: https://greenplumbboblover.tumblr.com/post/738067930777059328/accomplishments-of-2023)

I'm not answering all of them, but I do want to set some record straight!

Finishing LISISV

Haha... yeah I misjudged that completely lol. I got to a point where I lost complete motivation on... well, everything. I had no motivation for personal projects, CC making (one of the reasons why some of my mods in this year were so riddled with bugs), playing games... hell, even interacting with others. Now you could call that depression, but I wasn't showing those symptoms properly either. I found myself in a weird place where, on the one hand, I felt guilty of that I just couldn't do those stuff that I wanted to do, and that then causing me to feel super overwhelmed... yet telling myself constantly that "adults don't feel overwhelmed on those tiny silly things!". I was pretty mean to myself this year, honestly... But all that sad stuff aside! I have made some personal changes in December that are helping me a lot already, before getting also some mental help for other things. But I'll save you from those details. 😉 --------------- The second thing that didn't help was that I would at some point feel a HUGE disconnect with the characters I had in my head and my actual writing. I would make impulsive thoughts, without realistically navigating how it would work out in the future. I would introduce characters, without really giving it a thought on how I wanted them to come across... how to fully tackle certain cases. So! I spent a majority of that time researching a lot of the ways writers actually attempt those issues and solving those. I was hoping to make a post to help others with that soon, since It's really awesome insight at times! And... then there was the whole posing. But I resolved that with the Pose Add-on IMO already! Chapter 10 however, is actually taking a long time because I do struggle a lot with the fact that I consider it my "old" way of writing, and I REALLY want to move on to my 'new' ideas and style. So the willpower is simply not always there.

LISIV PLANS:

Alright, now that we have all that out of the way, here are some of my plans for this year and the story: Splitting certain stories into sub-stories: My current personal problem I have with the story, is that there are some really cool characters, but with the current format, I can't explore their characters as intensely as I'd like to. I also know that I love to jump back and forth from one story to another.

How that would look like is:

Morgana will have her own "Sub-story"

I am pondering of doing the same for Dustin and Zelda.

We travel 5 years into the future, where I want to do more with Mortimer and Bella. But also the Landgraabs and the Alto's.

I am also thinking of making a separate (short) storyline for Gunther and Lolita. The moment I was making the flashbacks, I really have been wanting to write more about it.

Same as 4, but maybe for some other townies! They will be short, but I think it can be fun! :)

Figuring out what to do with Interests & Hobbies

The infamous mod of being delayed... again :p.

I guess you all are probably exhausted of me hearing "no wait! I will finish it!", and then another mod gets released, and another year passes... and personally I have that same thought.

So I am putting the mod entirely on ice. There might not be a chance that I even finish it ever.

However I do want to add something here:

I will be working much more with Stories be told

I am going to be making more hobby items in return! I have been craving that "small but cool" modding projects a lot the past few years. I just like to be ambitious and unrealistic I guess, lol

However, I will be modding WAY less this year due to other factors.

My 2024/2025 Resolutions:

I think I've mentioned this now a lot of times, but never properly done it...

Wanting to write more. Whether it's for the sims, or even personal!

Wanting to get more into 3D modeling. Mostly for myself, but here and there I could probably release some CC pieces! :)

Keep up with Simblr.cc of course!

Post more of my thoughts on LISISV and Character stuff (@nocturnalazure suggested this a while back, but the more I thought of it, the more fun it sounds!)

Doing more Sims photoshoots!

Either way! May this year be your year! Where issues get resolutions and love is all around you.💖

[zelbits]

Skyward Sword: A Study

Imagine, just for a second, that you wake up in Skyloft. A village set on a massive isle suspended in the air, where everyone knows everyone and its an incredibly peaceful life.

My younger self severely underestimated this game.

I got it for my birthday in 2011. I went to Best Buy with my dad, and up until that point I had only ever played A Link to the Past. All I saw was the Zelda title to our newest console, a Wii that we'd gotten for Christmas last year. As soon as I got home I popped in Skyward Sword, and I was hooked.

Of course, the title of my favorite game was stolen by Twilight Princess (and it'll probably always be like that, although Tears of the Kingdom is a really hard pass solely because of the storyline with Zelda). But Skyward Sword was my introduction to the lore side of everything.

Shortly after getting Skyward Sword, I was given Hyrule Historia. My days were spent tracing Loftwings through the pages on my light board when I wasn't playing the game.

Slowly, despite my love for the giant birds, Skyward Sword was pushed to the back burner because of Twilight Princess. I actually got stuck in Faron Woods trying to find the Elder Kikwi (I could not find the path up to him for some reason) and became discouraged, quickly forgetting it. When I finally did go back to play it, I ashamedly used the entire ZeldaDungeon walkthrough for it and didn't even try. Today when playing a game, I refuse to look up a walkthrough for anything unless me and my husband both can't figure out how to keep going.

By the end of playing Skyward Sword that way, it had taken me a long four or five years to beat the game, and it always felt inferior to Twilight Princess. Heck, I even gave Link a different name. When I beat Demise, I was 17 and realizing the depth of the story that I'd missed. I erased my save file, and started again. Shortly after, unfortunately, my Wii ended up getting locked in a storage unit.

I'm 23 and I finally have it back. I'm stunned that (so far) everything seems to be working correctly. Picking up on my old profile, I hadn't even gotten past the Flight Ceremony. I've been replaying it when I have free time, which is why I haven't been posting on here. Every puzzle I thought was so hard back then is easy, too easy-- so far.

I'm just taken aback. The setting. The characters. The soundtrack. Everything is beautiful. The colors. The interactions with early Gorons and Kikwis and Parella before they evolved into what they are now. Knowing that Link and Zelda form a new Hyrule, that Groose may be the ancestor of the Gerudo, and that the giant tree in Faron Woods may be the ancestor of the Deku Tree.

Let's start with the day-to-day life of a Skyloftian. Here, everyone knows everyone. Your whole life is in the clouds; the weather isn't really severe at this altitude, but I'm assuming Skyloft still gets rain and snow sometimes. It's probably chilly a lot of days, but judging from the vegetation I would say a mild, spring-like climate is logical. Depending on your preference, you may grow up to work in the bazaar, farm, or, if you're lucky, join the Knight Academy from a young age.

There must be more that the game is implying, surely. Obviously, you may or may not bond with a Loftwing when you come of age, although not doing so is probably immensely rare. I'm sure there are explorers, travelers, other small sky villages; lore-accurate Skyloft must be fairly large. It's small and simple, but it's all everyone knows.

Link had (if you consider the manga by Akira Himekawa canon) clearly joined the Knight Academy young, but was late bonding with a Loftwing. Until of course he bonded with a Crimson Loftwing, previously believed extinct. This is probably the last of its kind, and again, drawing from manga, is unbeknownst to them a holy bird.

Zelda is the daughter of the Headmaster, however, and unfortunately without a mother. Gaepora probably thought it best to enroll her in the academy so that he could keep an eye on her, or perhaps just had her stay around the area. Either way, she showed immense promise, becoming a proficient rider, scholar, and swords woman herself (I'm assuming, if she can defend herself on the Surface when she has none of her goddess powers).

Link and Zelda's relationships vary from game to game. However, this one in particular is one where they're more than just friends. They clearly love one another, which is bittersweet considering that they are the first of many incarnations that rarely get together.

Throughout the game, we witness the story of two fated heroes: a goddess reincarnated in human form and her chosen hero, both entirely unaware of the fate that awaits them. They go from happily living life to being thrown into a wild adventure about the fate of the world in an instant-- and they're still just kids. They're only 17 and a half (source: Hyrule Historia). We witness incredible character arcs: Link making the transition from a sleepyheaded goofball to a hardened warrior (although I like to think he retained his silly traits); Zelda from a level-headed student to a woman whose regaining the memories of her Goddess form, struggling to cope with the transformation; Groose, an awful bully whose only goal in the end is to help Link and Zelda; and even Fi, who learns that she needed to understand the human spirit better in order to retain her holy form.

This is a world only a thousand years or so after the war in which Hylia, the Demon King, and the Ancient Hero fought, the very first incarnations in an endless cycle. This was supposed to be the only time this happened. Demise was imprisoned, but only temporarily even his weakened state. Link was reborn with the courageous spirit of his ancestor. Hylia shed her holy form and was reborn as a mortal girl. This was supposed to be the only cycle of reincarnation-- until Demise cursed Link and Zelda to forever fight against his evil spirit whenever they are reborn.

After Demise's defeat, Link and Zelda create the new realm of Hyrule, established on the surface. In a perfect world, they'd live out the rest of their days peacefully. But I'm sure their new kingdom had a lot of issues, and I'm sure that the peoples of the Surface weren't all welcoming to the Hylians. Not to mention, Link probably had a lot of trauma from his search for Zelda, and she is living not only with the memories of herself as a Skyloftian, but her memories from being the Goddess Hylia during the Imprisoning War. While their kingdom was at peace and they knew they were safe, they worried for when Demise would ultimately return and wreak havoc once again.

They built the Temple of Time around the Master Sword's pedestal, sealing it away with the powers of the Sacred Stones from the Gorons, Kikwis, and Parella (which would in turn become Koroks and Zora, respectively). Skyloft was forgotten. There were rumors of a city in the sky, or places such as the Temple of Winds, but Skyloft as it was known was largely forgotten. Most Hylians had followed Link and Zelda to the new kingdom on the Surface, although for many years they lived in both places. Newer generations likely would not have bonded with Loftwings. Perhaps some of the civilians who had remained behind eventually evolved into the Zonai in Tears of the Kingdom.

While Hyrule would see villains later on-- Vaati, for instance, as The Minish Cap and Four Swords both take place after Skyward Sword-- the Master Sword would not be picked up again until Ocarina of Time, several thousand years after Skyward Sword.

In conclusion, I think the most pivotal part of Skyward Sword is the relationship between Link and Zelda. And maybe their descendants-- OoT Link and Zelda, Twilight Princess Link and Zelda-- that never had a relationship felt that some remnant of that longing between the original two. The Spirit Maiden and her Chosen Hero, doomed to an endless cycle. In some instances, they were able to be together, but very rarely. Most of the time, there is little if any record of Zelda's husbands in any iteration, if she ever had any, although there are theories of Link falling in love with Malon, or Midna, or someone else.

Certainly, if you consider Tears of the Kingdom to be in the same timeline as Twilight Princess and Ocarina of Time, to me, it feels like the legend has come full circle. Eight year old me loved Twilight Princess more because of the fact that I could transform into a world-- now that I'm older, I can really appreciate this tragic and beautiful story.

[totheblood]

I honestly think a big reason we don’t see as many fics that are focused on plot is because a lot of people currently in the fandom haven’t even played/watched a full play through of the game and are literally only here to read smut about a hot masc lesbian they don’t really even know much about.

I feel like the stories posted in this fandom used to be so rich and the writers used to write Ellie so well because they joined this fandom because they loved her as a character. So many of them were based in tlou universe (which we hardly see anymore I feel like) and had plot beyond smut. And the AUs that used to be put out were about life and falling in love and not just being railed by hot masc (true blue always comes to mind <3),

I feel like I may be wording all of this weird but basically, I think initially everyone’s love for the video game itself and their love for Ellie as a character made the fics more complex, interesting, and passionate by default. But now, with so many ppl who write for Ellie for the pure purpose of smut, it seems like a lot of the magic has been lost.

Also, as much as all of the responsible adults in this fandom try to avoid it, there are minors at every corner. It’s extremely evident by their writing and the way they post.

Idk. I love smut. I don’t want to sound like a hater because I feel like it’s really hard to say anything without being labeled as one. And at the end of the day, people can write what they want. But there is a clear different in the quality of this fandom in Jan-March vs how it is now!

this is beautifully written, and with the last part i agree. i hope i don’t come off as a hater or anything as someone who really enjoys smut as well and i dont ever want to dictate what someone writes and doesn’t write. in these posts im mostly speaking for myself and not really saying a lot about other people. we have insanely talented people who primarily write smut with interesting plot lines, etc etc etc. i know tumblr is mostly smut in any fandom though, i just really love fleshed out fanfiction stories which is why i try to write those.

but the first part is true and i fell victim to it. as someone who has played the game and watched run throughs multiple times, i’ve strayed soooo far from the plot and most of my fics are au’s with ellie’s character still semi intact. this is also a main reason i wrote cutty love because i saw myself primarily writing modern day au’s and wanted to delve back into canon tlou. the fortunate part is the world tlou is set in gives a lot of opportunities for plot, storylines, and angst and i wish more people, including me, took advantage of that.

there is a deep magic to loving a character dearly that i know a lot of people have here. so i hope we get more of that!

[frauleiiin]

what do you think would be a recommended level to start KOTFE if the enemies and boss fights will have a higher difficulty?

I've always been tempted to make a post about the balance between leveling up and good story experience sooo here I am!

An introduction to maintaining a good level while doing the strict minimum to enjoy the story more~ (preferred player edition)

First time I played the game, I did like everything, every planetary story arc, every daily, EVERYTHING (almost). I also one shotted the entire storyline like you, like I finished the class story on one character then did all the expansions. In total, I have nearly 400h on that character, which is quite a lot for only solo content. Then I played the Sith Inquisitor storyline, did the same thing cuz I wanted to see what imp side had to offer but I didn't play the expansions as they're roughly the same throughout the classes. After that I only ever played the mission stories to try to complete legendary status the quickest possible, I managed in one year only.

What's the lowest level you can complete the class story with?

On these characters, I was able to complete their class stories at level 42ish (which is def difficult on Correllia but manageable, depending on the classes, some might need 43). But I never intended to play the expansions with them, so playing the minimum of the minimum is 100% playable for the class stories (except on Quesh where you need to be lvl 33 but it's usually not far stretched). Now, I wanted to replay the JK storyline and the expansions with my beloved Maverik'a to take screenshots and I wanted to do the minimum of the minimum this time (since last time I did like everything) so here's how I did it.

How to gain and maintain XP more easily?

First I recommend you buying character perks, if you're starting out a class story buying the entire class story & exploration tier can help you a lot. Now that you're in the expansions, the Flashpoints one might be a good one to have. Basically you gain more XP with these perks and level up more easily. Level wise, I recommend you being always 5-10 levels higher than you should, every planet has an ideal lvl you should at least be 5 lvl higher. How to do it without it becoming a task? Do, a few side quests here and there, with ALWAYS an XP boost on, and once you've hit a reasonable level continue the story and so on.

What are the lvl recommendations to play the expansions?

SO to finally answer your question, in my opinion, you must be around 60 when you hit Correllia. Like I said previously you can do just fine with as low as 42, but for expansions you're gonna end up having to catch up a lot and it's just more annoying. And I highly recommend being lvl 80, with your armor all upgraded, by chapter 16 of KOTFE since there's a big battle. The game recommends lvl 75 but if you're not geared up well it can be very difficult, specifically the last chapter of KOTET. These two chapters have big boss fights, a friend asked me to help her on the last chapter of KOTET cuz the boss would keep killing her and she was around lvl 75. At 80, I never had a problem defeating that boss, I one shotted it lol.

Honestly from the comment you left me, I assume you're subscribed cuz you level up quick so it shouldn't be as much of a grind as it is for preferred (the status I had when I replayed the entire thing lol). But 60 at Correllia and 80 at the last chapter of KOTFE is still what I'd recommend even subscribed.

RECAP

Lowest level and time to complete a class story without expansions = lvl 42 at Correllia, playtime from 24-34ish hours.

(If you're a class story complitionist, it takes around 60h! More than the double of a minimalistic run!)

Lowest level and time to complete a class story WITH expansions = lvl 60 at Correllia, playtime 135h for the entire swtor storyline (instead of almost 400 when you're a complitionist!)

Thanks to have come to my Ted talk, I hope this helps people 😭😭

[sonkitty]

The Sideburns Scheme Post #4 v2

(For reference: The Sideburns Scheme)

Crowley, Good Omens 2, Episode 1, The Arrival, The Perfect Entrance Trick

The entrance is part of the coffee shop scene, but it is so special, I am giving it its own post.

Sideburns Check

This show has treated us to something. Crowley does a full spin so that we can get a really good look at the hair from multiple angles. It's not that close up but still good. Thank you show and Crowley!

The sideburns are short. They are the intended shortness after driving. In turn, they are the shortest they have been up to this point in the present day storyline.

Short sideburns happen around human spaces most of the time, at this point in the story.

...

Brighter Red Streak Check

It's easy to think the brighter red streak is not there because of its position. The above image is brightened and more saturated with white rectangles to indicate where I see the streak.

I often find the streak above the center of his left eye and going up from his forehead. Here, the streak actually starts from his part on the top.

...

Hairstyle Changes

In both the Bentley and here, the top hair flared upward. Just outside the coffee shop, the flare has shifted further to his right instead of straight upward and lining up with his nose as it did in the Bentley. There is no extra saturation streak on the right side of his forehead.

Earthly Objects: The Perfect Entrance Trick

(For reference: Earthly Objects)

We have arrived at our first Threshold Trick!

This part is going to be very detailed because of pockets and thresholds.

Here are some GIFs to start us off:

This sequence is The Perfect Entrance Trick. Way, way back before I thought there might be an Earthly Objects game and was just exploring the sideburns, trying to figure them out, I remarked on my appreciation for the camera work and music for this segment. I always compliment those parts because they are so good. They contribute beautifully to the idea here.

While setting aside the Sideburns Scheme and trying to figure out Earthly Objects, I made a "Bonus Round" part of my main post because this sequence had me so amazed. It looked like threshold-only touches and avoiding earthly object touches, but I couldn't be sure due to some specific questionable things I will explore further down eventually. Nonetheless, it sure seemed to me like Crowley knows how to play the game as an expert, so if he is aiming for threshold-only touches, there must be something to his methods that gets the job done. These Threshold Tricks might even be special supernatural bonus points he's earning in the game.

My understanding of the game at this point in time is like so: In this sequence, they are threshold-only touches, but how are they threshold-only touches with this game's mechanics? That's what an audience player is supposed to figure out in the puzzle.

The Perfect Entrance Trick is actually the third Threshold Trick I found without realizing it because I did not have the words, "Threshold Tricks" for myself then. It felt like the first one I found when I was trying to understand Earthly Objects. I had already found The Bigger Thresholds Trick and The Door Trick without realizing they were Threshold Tricks too. I didn't have names for them then. I just knew there was something special about sideburns and thresholds so caught onto those parts. It took something more than weeks to put these ideas together because I spent a lot of time just thinking and making pictures while readying myself for making posts about sideburns.

Before we go over this particular sequence in more detail, here's something I think the game is putting forth as a challenge. The Pocket Trick is a hidden giant with a giant impact on many things. While I am at a point that I do not think I will ever solve The Pocket Trick to my satisfaction, I believe a significant one of its hidden messages is, "Pay attention to the pockets."

As stated in my main post for The Sideburns Scheme, pockets are a big, little thing in GO2. They are easy to miss and to dismiss. One should also pay attention to doors and windows, but because the pockets are so easy to overlook—even more than windows, it's a good idea to mind that message on pockets specifically all the same. Between doors, windows, and pockets, pockets are the hardest to see and to understand.

In Earthly Objects, a pocket can be a hole created by a character's body between their own self, part of the screen, part of an earthly object, or even part of a threshold. A pocket can be two or more characters surrounding something or someone on the screen in the framing. A pocket can be a character surrounded by things in the framing. A pocket can be the actual literal pockets characters can have on their clothing. That includes the ones we understand are actual pockets and even little holes the clothing can make on itself. Pockets are everywhere, but making sense of them for how they count, when they count, and what they count for, is another story. It is overwhelming—as if "think outside the pocket" wasn't hard enough in The Pocket Trick to begin with!

I think chances are good that pockets are somehow related to every Threshold Trick, and a big part of this challenge I do not expect to pass is to figure out how. That means I won't ever fully solve every Threshold Trick. So, I will pay attention to the pockets, tell you about the pockets, and admit freely, once again, my understanding of them is limited.

Okay, so here's the sequence in more detailed text form with paying attention to the pockets. It is very quick and heavily based on movement. Parts are also blurry. I won't swear everything below is correct because to play, I mainly have to guess based on clues.

With the car on screen before it is parked, I can find multiple different humans using pockets. However, one in particular catches my interest because he put his left hand in a pocket near where Crowley will park, and I recognize this human:

That guy shows up three different times in episode 6 during The Door Trick and The Door Catch. He is responsible or the Purple in the Rainbow Connection on Aziraphale's part.

Nonetheless, Crowley parks the car. The camera work is doing amazing things by going under the car, then around a wheel, focusing in on the shoes of the nearby humans before Crowley himself starts.

The door to the car opens, and Crowley touches the edge of the sidewalk with only one shoe. The heel is touching nothing behind it. The front tip is avoiding the rest of the sidewalk. That is the Single. The edge of the sidewalk is one threshold, and it was touched by only one shoe.

The camera pans up.

Crowley touches two different thresholds with his right hand. They are the window frame and the door panel for the door to his car. The fingertips avoid the window pane. That is the Double.

One of the tie strands becomes visible, including a clasp and a tassel. That's a thumb and thumb joint of one of the Tied Hands. Crowley's left hand moves forward such that the tie strand is visually in front of that hand. The left hand is important because it's the one that's going to do the Triple part of this Threshold Trick. I don't know the watch's role in pocket mechanics. It generally likes to be seen and seems to also watch things, like it's some kind of "lookout," but something more too.

Getting back to the left hand's movement with the tie strand, at the exact frame that thing happened, I can find a human visually behind Crowley's right elbow using a pants pocket with their left hand. They are wearing a white shirt over a darker one.

This part is a clue that this tie strand is going to be tied to the left hand and that it is the longer tie strand when both are seen together shortly.

Instead of moving ahead to get to what is going to be the Triple, Crowley has his back to the camera. He takes some steps and moves his arms around. I don't have it in me to log every pocket they make and close and what they might frame, but they do such things.

A light briefly pops out in one of the trees trying to communicate something, and I'm going with saying it's a little overhead light for Crowley since it's above his ear and to the left of his head.

There is a nearby car with red rear lights. These types of lights are often used to alert about a color switch in the Rainbow Connection when they light up a bit more. So, the main thing I see it to be an alert for is that pocket user already mentioned and knowing what we'll see soon for switching without an active Rainbow Connection. The pocket user is even pocketed briefly between these red lights. In fact, that overhead light mentioned above lights up at the start of when this human starts to pass the first of the two red rear lights. If those red lights mean anything else, I don't know what it would be.

When that human pocket user that was visually behind Crowley is finally completely off-screen, Crowley's left hand and the watch also go off-screen.

Crowley spins.

As he spins, both tie strands become visible. The longer tie strand is on Crowley's right. That means it is mirrored for now. The left hand becomes visible again too. During the spin, the tie strands switch. The longer tie strand becomes aligned with Crowley's left side. Generally, these things have a special mirror that flips through a Rainbow Connection Reflection, or whatever that Connection allows, in the Pocket Chain of The Pocket Trick. However, The Pocket Trick hasn't started yet, and this Trick is not linked to the Pocket Chain.

Well, without the initiating power of The Pocket Trick or a Rainbow Connection, it looks like a little spin switch is allowed this time.

The belt—which is Crowley's Belt Head—also became visible, and Crowley has his mouth open during this spin. The vest tips are surrounding the Belt Head to have it pocketed between them. Additionally, the longer tassel tip just so happens to brush along the belt during the switch. There is even another self-made pocket of hair like there was for the newspaper door. With the movement, the vest tips and their pocket over the belt shift further towards Crowley's left as well.

The left hand and the watch hide behind Crowley's jacket. This action is part of closing pockets between Crowley's torso and both arms.

Crowley finally starts moving toward the door.

The right arm opens a pocket between his torso again, this time by itself instead of with the left arm.

The left arm forms a pocket between Crowley and the main part of the jacket.

The pocket between the right arm and jacket closes.

Soon after, the pocket between the left and jacket closes.

Then the left arm hides behind Crowley. In the blurred movement, that longer tie strand connected to the left hand pushes off the vest temporarily and becomes visible in the air. This action creates yet another temporary pocket.

In motion, all of these pockets amount to looking like pocket-to-pocket passes in the animated GIF shown further below.

Once the tie strand has presumably returned to where it belongs, the left arm is finally ready to make its move on the incoming threshold.

Crowley's left arm reaches out for the door panel. There is a lock that is extremely hard to see in the blurred movement, but it is there above the push plate. Crowley's palm of his left hand covers it completely. He pushes the door on the lock instead of the push plate.

Some video frames reach a nice, stronger clarity. Here is the one that strikes my own interest most:

There are three digits touching the door panel. That's what makes this part the Triple. The index finger and middle finger are touching the front. Most of the thumb is touching the side. However, the ever so vital and important thumb tip is on the edge of where the door panel meets the window pane. Edges are thresholds, and pocket trickery loves edges.

The reflection of Crowley's left hand has pocketed the lock on the other side within the palm that is covering the covered lock. In other words, the palm has the locks covered.

The Tied Hands are making this acceptable because of their link to reflections. Plus, all those words I just had to write out because word play is a key mechanic for pocket trickery.

And there's more!

With the palm being busy with the locks, the thumb tip touches its own reflection while doing its edge touching. All of the digits, the real ones and the reflected ones are pocketing the door panel and its reflection because of their framing. Any issues with that window pane have been neutralized. There is a small bit of Crowley's right sunglasses lens past the door frame but not much.

The watch takes over in the next video frame to keep everything in order because that real covered lock becomes slightly visible. The watch's reflective surface lights up to say that everything's still as it should be. Parts of Crowley's face—and more of the sunglasses themselves—visually passed through the door frame at the same time that real lock became slightly visible, so this threshold has been effectively tricked. We must recall the Belt Head had a role to play in the matter.

The Perfect Entrance Trick is the easy one! But the pockets have increased its difficulty immensely.

Something that is missing in this first Threshold Trick is a rainbow. Four of the others have one. The Sunglasses Trick does not, but it does have a notable white light reflected on the watch in its last touch. Rainbows can take shape through refraction in white light. The lighting on the watch here is not as white as what appears in The Sunglasses Trick. It has a tinge of yellow.

Well, Earthly Objects is a game with puzzles—and some silly puzzles at that, so I'm going to say that this Threshold Trick is excused because the Rainbow Connection within The Pocket Trick has not started yet. The Rainbow Connection starts in episode 2. In fact, the way it goes is that The Pocket Trick gets its official rainbow first. It and the other Threshold Tricks finish in episode 6. In episode 6 is where all of the other rainbows appear for the other Threshold Tricks.

The Perfect Entrance Trick is the only one that both starts and finishes in the first episode. It is the first of three Simple tricks. The Simple tricks are the ones that start and finish in the same episode.

Another way I like to play this game is that these Threshold Tricks are based on simple ideas even though they get so complicated—especially once pockets are known to be so important. I call these simple ideas "core concepts" because these things are indeed conceptual. While I don't like word play as much as The Pocket Trick does, I do like it some. So, let's toss some alliteration in here too.

My best guess for this one's core concept is, "Make a Perfect Entrance while making an entrance." The idea is also to introduce the Threshold Tricks. Each one is required to have a primary Single, a primary Double, and a primary Triple. A single is 1. A double is 2. A triple is 3. Add up 1, 2, and 3, and you get the number 6. That equation of 1 + 2 + 3 is what makes the number 6 a perfect number.

A standard set in Earthly Objects is 3 points. A Threshold Trick has a minimum of 6 points for its theoretical bonus rewards and must be done in this special format.

I had to look that up that part on "perfect" because that was the word I wanted to use to describe The Sunglasses Trick when I put those pieces together. I am familiar with the Tekken franchise due to a past stronger obsession with Devil Jin. In Tekken, a PERFECT is when a player wins a round without taking any damage.

So, once I grasped that 6 is a perfect number, for me, it was like "Oh! That's what the first one is! It has a name! It's a Perfect Entrance!" I had described it as a "beautiful entrance" in my Bonus Round section. Again, that took something more than weeks to figure out.

Also, David Tennant is perfect for the role of Crowley. I love this actor-character combination so much.

...

When Crowley enters and sits down, Aziraphale is sitting down, but there is no actual visible back of a chair for Aziraphale. I am reminded of Crowley's remark in episode 5 of "Looking where the furniture isn't." In one of my posts on Earthly Objects, I note this type of thing as a mysterious vendetta Aziraphale has with chairs. A lot of times, the back of one cannot be seen for Aziraphale. When he's in the bookshop and a back of a chair can be seen, his back will still not touch the back of the chair.

...

Story Commentary

Setting aside the threshold trickery at play in Earthly Objects, Crowley's open mouth could also be interpreted as him using his snake demon senses to find Aziraphale's precise location.

After the Threshold Trick itself is done, Crowley's body is briefly fully obscured, and suddenly the door's moving for him without his hands doing anything. The left hand that was on it is gone. He may as well be using telekinesis on the thing.

Crowley continues onward until he passes Aziraphale on Aziraphale's right. Aziraphale himself glances to his own left first, as that's generally where Crowley is expected for him. This movement also allows Crowley's body to be obscured briefly. He could even mouth something to Aziraphale without us seeing it.

The red on the back of the collar on Crowley's jacket is briefly visible before Crowley himself finally sits down and says, "Right, what's the problem?"

The car transformed a little. There's an extra part of a window frame on the window pane that wasn't there before.

...

Muriel

(For reference: Bookend Buddies - Crowley and Muriel (Part 2))

Muriel's first scene preceded this one. That makes their first scene the front bookend to the first Threshold Trick. Their last scene will act as the back bookend to the last Threshold Trick (The Window Trick).

In turn, Crowley's first Threshold Trick is the back bookend to Muriel's first scene.

...

That's it for this post. Way back when I started to track these things, I did have a tendency to update even these posts, so that could happen again, just FYI.

...

Main post:

The Sideburns Scheme

...

Past version of this post:

Post #4 (entering the coffee shop)

[generic-sonic-fan]

Opinions on Metal/Android Shadow?

Ah, unfortunately, you've touched upon one of the many reasons why I hate Sonic Heroes despite the fact that it's Omega's introductory game.

TL;DR: I don't like Android Shadow.

Putting my rant beneath the cut because I don't want to dissuade anyone from liking Android Shadow as a concept. I certainly am not the spokesperson for the fandom, and to be fair, I have seen a lot of fan works that play with the idea of Android Shadow in a way that I like quite a lot!

@wonderinc-sonic's works, specifically The Label-Maker Incident come to mind. Go check them out instead of reading my hater post, lol.

It's personal preference, but I always thought the question of whether Shadow was the "real one" or not was really lame. There's so much more interesting character drama you can do with Shadow and the whole "Shadow Android" storyline really distracts from that. (Where do I start? His trauma, his relationship with his creators, his difficulty adjusting to life on Earth already without the introduction of robot shenanigans, etc etc etc)

I hold the same belief about Shadow's amnesia, which is also from this game, which I also find really dumb. Sure, go ahead and take the fan favorite character and then erase literally everything he is as a character! Super compelling. Yayyy. (Sarcasm)

Plus, if Eggman can just build infinite Shadow Androids, it really upsets the power-scaling of the universe and makes you wonder why he doesn't apparently create perfect chaos-energy wielding, fast-as-sonic robots to just destroy everything that opposes him. You could say that the counter-argument is already presented in Heroes itself- Metal Sonic and E-123 Omega's rebellions -but in that case, why include Shadow Androids as a story element at all, then? To include them and then immediately throw them away because Eggman will never commit to it is just really lame.

Look, the Sonic franchise is a videogame series made for children with the reputation of some of the worst writing in all of videogames. We as Sonic fans like to embrace a lot of the weird, the dark, and the cheesy writing. There's a lot of earnest heart to it when you dig and transform it with your own hands! But that doesn't mean that SEGA writers are any good most of the time. Especially not in Heroes era.

Canon is fake and I am a writer committing word crimes. That's the reason I'll never really write about Shadow Android or Shadow's period of amnesia. I tend to omit them in any story, even if it's supposed to take place right around or right after Sonic Heroes chronologically. My biggest offenders are probably Residual Orders and Complex Inquiries in this regard. My only fic that's really even that compliant with Heroes is OPERATION: SELF DETERMINATION, but that's because Shadow is hardly even in that one.

[longbobmckenzie]

THTH Season 3 Thoughts

It's been awhile since I've done a thoughts post, but we're over halfway now, and I definitely have some thoughts.

Overall, I'm enjoying the season - I adore Taz, and I look forward to playing it every week. However... I also have a lot of criticisms.

The Love Interests

The love interests are carrying this season!! Taz is the only one I'm really in love with, but I think they're all really good and well-rounded, and there's something for everyone. They have a lot of depth, their loyal routes develop at a really nice pace, and I love that they can be customized! They're the best part of the season and imo they're what make it as enjoyable as it is. Unlike...

The OG "Friends"

I hate them all, and I have since the very first week. Sean is a self-centred annoying asshole (I know some people like him and think he just needs to mature, but he's a big fat no from me). Victoria is an ugly bitch who just uses others to get off. Julian has annoyed me from day 1 with his dramatics, and I didn't like Giselle either but she's only gotten worse and worse. Like girl, if you don't even like Sean that much, maybe don't have sex with him? She's being treated as a sympathetic character, but she wasn't being manipulated or emotionally abused, and she could have spoken her mind. Asshole.

I honestly have had no desire to take the options that give friendship points, so my meters are barely filled for any of them and as a result I lost money when they didn't agree with me when I wanted to forfeit $10k when Poppy and Julian were in the suite. Oops.

The FTL Routes

I really like Avi, and while Poppy was annoying at first, I know people who are doing her route are really loving it. I love the slow burn friends-to-lovers thing so I really love this element - however I would have much preferred it if they were OGs. For Avi especially, it didn't really make sense that he kissed us on the date only to immediately friendzone us. I think it would have made so much more sense if he were there from the beginning and we started out purely as friends.

The "Spy" Storyline

Not a fan of this. Bad Lana is one thing (we'll get to that) but I think this just... doesn't make that much sense? idk. I don't have a fully fleshed out opinion on this or how I'd do it differently, but I think it would've been better in a season without Bad Lana.

Bad Lana

I watched the new season of the show where Bad Lana made her appearance, and I do think it's really neat that they were given that info ahead of time to add it to the game. However, I wish they'd followed how it was done in the show, where the Bad Lana ruling period was at the beginning (they did mention that they had this as well and had lots of fun with it), and then the two people who took advantage of it the most were sent into banishment. Having another Bad Lana ruling period (and then adding the banishment which is coming up in the next episode) right in the middle of the show just doesn't work quite as well to me?

Also, what is the point of getting green lights during Bad Lana's ruling period? We could kiss without them anyway!

MC as the Bombshell

I have mixed feelings on this - I loved being the bombshell and getting the free pass, however... there's just no impact. You pick an LI, you automatically connect, and other than Carmen, none of the partners really care? I would've preferred coming into a situation where the couple was actually a couple and I had to work a bit to turn their head (or maybe even switch to the other person, that'd be fun).

Tying this into the Bad Lana point above, I think it would've made a lot more sense if MC were an OG in this season to experience the Bad Lana period at the beginning. Kiss a couple people, get sent to banishment. To me, that would've been a lot more interesting.

Branching

The branching has been fine (although there have been some continuity errors if you stick with the same LI each time), but I think it was better in S2. I remember always being blown away by how much branching there was in S2, and this season just hasn't had that. It's still good and nothing to complain about, but I'd like to see improvements each season, or at least keeping the same level, rather than taking a slight step back.

Especially now that there are some people who are being banished despite not breaking any rules? How does that make sense? At least in S2, you could be eliminated or not depending on your choices.

The Spicy Scenes

These have been great so far, and I love that they're personalized to each LI and stay consistent with their character. No criticisms here!

The Confessionals

I love, love, love that we don't have a whole episode dedicated to confessionals anymore. And no more dumb quizzes

Cliffhangers

Please, for the love of donuts, not every chapter needs to end on some dramatic soap opera cliffhanger. This week alone, the chapters end as follows:

MC is shocked to walk in on Jirayu and Carmen in the sauna

MC is shocked that someone is having sex (despite the fact she literally just had sex in my route)

Lana's announcement

It's just kinda cheesy at this point, especially the 2nd chapter ending. It's Bad Lana's ruling period, people are having sex, what is there to be surprised about? And the fact that sooo many chapters end like this? Walking in on other people, jumping to conclusions, etc. It's getting old. It's one thing if the whole episode has a cliffhanger of some sort (still not really necessary), but each chapter? c'mon. Let's stop with the dramatics.

Edited to add:

Background Characters

It's kind of disappointing that if you're not romancing one of the LIs, you just... never see them. The storyline is dominated by the "friends" and your own LI (and Carmen/Jirayu with a minor plotline), and then there's always that one other couple that breaks rules, but otherwise, they all fade into the background. It's a lot like S1 again, whereas one of the things I appreciated about S2 was that the LIs you weren't romancing were still a big part of the story. In S3, if you don't choose their scenes, you just never see them. I hardly know anything about Beatriz, Carmen, or Isla, because I don't take their scenes and barely interact with them. On my Taz route, I've barely spoken to Jirayu or Matthias.

Now that we're pretty much locked in, maybe those characters will start being included more (like in today's episode where we had the chance for a threesome with the couple we've interacted with the least), but I would have really appreciated them being included more up to this point. It's a noticeable change from S2 and since I hate the OG "friend" characters, it's a real negative.

I feel like I had more things to touch on but I've forgotten them, so I'll stop here! Would love to know if you agree, disagree, or have anything else to add!

[madam-whim]

The Gold Road Reveal and my thoughts on it

I’m gonna start this off by saying I love ESO. I have been playing since 2017 and I’m pretty much doing everything the game has to offer. Quests, dungeons, trials, antiquities, sometimes PvP. That being said, this post will include lots of criticism that I feel (or know) is shared by many other fans.

But first things first, let me start off by listing some of the things on yesterday’s stream that had me bouncing in my seat:

The new zone is absolutely stunning! There’s a lot of variety to it and it does look very pretty. Exploring it will undoubtedly be fun and a feast for my eyes.

Also, Fennorian will be there, so I know there will at least be one well-written character that my Vestige has an actual bond with.

The scribing system being more of a roleplay thing – I don’t know what some people were hoping for, but I’m glad it’s not some Big Damage For Those Who Are Good At Maths kind of system. It still allows for a more unique playstyle, and I suppose it’s going to turn out like always: Do whatever you want in open world spaces, but keep your bow backflip heal out of veteran content.

And maybe the biggest “Yes!” moment of the evening: Ed Stark being the zone lead for Gold Road. While I did not like High Isle as much (too predictable for my taste, but at least it had recurring characters), he was responsible for Greymoor and Murkmire as well. I thought Greymoor was fantastic (good quests, excellent new characters alongside very familiar recurring ones), and Murkmire… well, I think Murkmire suffers greatly from being “the DLC that came after the Daedric Triad” so to speak. It kind of fell into the void created by a storyline spanning a full year (or even more, if you count the setup for the whole thing, which really began with the Varen’s ghost and Darien’s letter in Wrothgar and the Gold Coast sweetroll killer quests). I think that’s why lots of people don’t seem to like Murkmire very much despite it having great storytelling. My point is this: I do have some hope that after the fiasco some recent DLCs were story-wise, Ed Stark will at least make sure Gold Road makes sense.

And now for the criticism.

Ithelia’s design (Whenever, wherever, I want to kill Hermaeus…)

… yeah, about that. As one of my friends put it, she looks like Shakira with wings.

They really could have done so much better. The way she is now, as @akaviri-dovah said, she really just looks like a Meridia clone who somehow stole Jyggalag’s crystals, which is funny on so many levels (more on that later). Suffice it to say that I personally think the design choices are kind of lazy, given that we already have an angelic-looking Daedric lady.

Also, what’s with this picture? This kinda makes it seem as if she originally looked. Um. A lil different from the way she is now. In any case, I’m just gonna call this a missed opportunity for something more unique. I do like the glass shard aesthetic, I just wish they’d taken it in a different direction.

Dragon Break Princess Ithelia, or something like that

Now I know Dragon Breaks have to work differently from what Ithelia does, but I am kind of wondering what the consequences of her fate-altering abilities are. How do you alter fate in a way that threatens reality (with reality consisting of past and present events, with all possible versions of the future being possibly-real until one actually happens) without altering the timeline? Just by removing a possible future? Then one could argue that any Daedra could do the same just by manipulating people. Granted, it’s possible that Ithelia sees all possible futures and can do whatever she likes with them, but even then, she’d only be influencing what can become reality, not what already is. So how can she be THAT dangerous?

Right now, it just seems to me that they needed an adversary for Hermaeus Mora, and since his big things are knowledge, secrets and fate, and they couldn’t very well make a Daedric Prince of Anti-Intellectualism or a Daedric Prince of Snitching, she had to be a fate-altering type of Daedra.

At this point I’m still wondering how she even works, because how does she not accidentally cause Dragon Breaks? And if she is that damn powerful, how on earth did Mora alone manage to pretty much remove any trace of her? Which kind of brings me to my next point.

Memory Issues

I know, I know, Ithelia is not the first “new” Daedric Prince. (Which makes her stolen Jyggalag crystal vibes rather funny if you ask me.) And I don’t mind her being crazy powerful either, because so was Jyggalag or else he wouldn’t have been cursed. But that, to my knowledge, required several other Princes, whereas Ithelia apparently got owned by Hermaeus Mora alone, who then erased all memory of her. Which is not only quite the feat given how powerful she has to be, but also a very weird thing for Hermaeus Mora to do. I kinda thought stealing memories was more Meridia’s style. This entire part does not quite make sense to me yet and seems a little out of character, but well. By the way, speaking of Meridia…

Meridia-baiting the players

At this point, ZOS have to know we’re getting tired of waiting for villain Meridia. Everyone I know who is even the least bit interested in ESO’s storyline wants to see it. And I’ve seen people get their hopes up in recent days (new Meridia/Dawnbreaker-themed music box, the Ayleid ruin hint on the fragments sent to streamers…). Even in the twitch chat, there were people hyped about what they thought was Meridia, and who were disappointed when they were told it was Ithelia. And yes, I am absolutely saying they did this and made her a Meridia lookalike on purpose. But I’m well aware that we haven’t gotten any new hints about either Meridia or a certain someone since Greymoor, and that chapter will be four years old soon. Even I am beginning to give up, as much as I hate to say it.

By the way, I really did NOT appreciate Matt Firor name-dropping Darien right at the beginning. If you’re not planning to do anything with him, just let it go. I know absolutely nobody who appreciates being fed very tiny hints for two years and then being left in the dark for four years straight. If you don’t want to pick that storyline up again, just stuff the man into the Old Life quest and be done with it.

Honestly, once again, I’m gonna say this is a MASSIVE missed opportunity right here. ESO’s 10 year anniversary is coming up, what could possibly be better than to go back to the roots now and reward all those loyal players with the story they are waiting for? I distinctly recall Molag Bal telling me to watch my step around Meridia, and the setup is all there. I’m honestly disappointed that there is no Meridia content at all. And this ties in with my final point, albeit vaguely.

“Recurring” characters

Ah, yes, we do love recurring characters. Sometimes. We do love it when a fan favorite comes back – a character who’s accompanied the Vestige over the course of an entire story arc or has made multiple appearances over the years and has become beloved by many players, and, most importantly, who is well-written, i.e. has a unique personality. And that’s why “recurring characters” is not always a recipe for success when it comes to getting people hooked on a story.

It is when it’s one of the five companions, or a Ravenwatch member, or your main alliance buddy (Raz, Naryu and – oh, wait, yeah, us Covenant babies don’t have one anymore). It also works when it’s a character we’ve run across several times already, like Alchemy, who I know tons of people love, or my favorite walking disaster Revus Demnevanni.

But it’s certainly not working when it’s a character we barely know anything about, and who isn’t a hit with the community. Like Eveli’s brother whom I had to google because I could not remember who he was. He’s from a prologue quest. Nothing more. That’s not a “beloved returning character”.

ZOS have several of those just lying around, and they’re just not using them. And even the base game had so many characters that were there over the course of several zones, that were well-written and at least memorable to the degree that people would recognize them with just a little reminder, like Indaenir or Holgunn and Walks-in-Ash or the Vanos siblings. Hell, we haven't seen good old Vanus Galerion in a while. They are ten years old now and deserve to be dragged to the surface again.

Okay, I’m done now!

This concludes my rant (because that’s what it is, I’m aware). I just want to say again that this is not be dragging ESO through the mud, this is just me pointing out that the devs (especially the writers) could do so much better if they listened to their lore nerds and story-interested players more.

[jedi-enthusiast]

Debunking the "The Jedi are Evil" Theory Made by The Film Theorists PT 1

Back when I was a little baby Star Wars fan and I had only ever watched "Star Wars: Rebels" and I didn't really have any opinions of my own--let alone informed opinions--I watched this video:

I had generally really liked the theories made on Film Theory and Game Theory, and I hadn't watched enough SW media to poke holes in this theory (or a more fitting metaphor would be "blowing a giant hole through it" because it's inaccurate), so needless to say my reaction could be summarized as-

"Wow, I can't believe how evil the Jedi were! No wonder Anakin killed them all!" - baby Jedi-Enthusiast, who didn't know any better and was very stupid and ill-informed.

But now that I'm a little older, I've actually watched almost all SW media, and I've actually figured out my own opinions (namely that I'm an Anakin hater and Pro-Jedi), I'm going to go through this entire video and debunk the whole thing and/or provide context to show that the Jedi are, in fact, the good guys and trying to make them out to be some "evil repressive cult" only makes you seem ignorant.

(and yes, most points will be made into their own posts, because some of these get really fucking long)

----------

Point One - George Lucas is Wrong About His Own Characters

One of the first things Matthew says in the video is this:

"I want to look back at these older movies and show that things have always been this way-" [always been morally grey, things not being cut and dry good/evil] "-in the series. That, despite George Lucas's not-so-subtle costume choices from the original movies and the blatant good versus evil storylines that all of these films purport to have, the heroes aren't always the heroes these stories make them out to be."

Now, it's very clear here that Matthew subscribes to the "death of the author" viewpoint of Star Wars, where the intention of the creators doesn't matter, so I'm primarily gonna argue my point without bringing up a bunch of Lucas quotes and commentaries, just so the playing field is even. However-

I do want to make it clear that Lucas is the creator and he had a very specific vision and purpose for the Jedi.

Lucas did not subscribe to the "morally grey heroes/villains" idea that's gotten so popular lately, the Jedi and Rebellion are meant to firmly be the good guys and the Sith/Separatists/Empire/etc. are meant to be the bad guys. There are no "if," "ands," or "buts."

The Jedi are good. Period.

(if they weren't then it'd be framed as a bad thing throughout the OT and every other post-prequels show/movie that the Jedi are still alive/coming back, but that's another thing)

[alitgblog]

okok finally caught up on litg s9

gonna try to summarize this neatly bc my game didn't save properly and I played volume 10 twice and sped through volume 11

Zeph is hot and thats a problem for me bc I'm so annoyed at the lack of branching and consequences in this game it has manifested into me making up story for fusebox about MC being upset that Stefan keeps acting like nothing is wrong when I personally am still upset casa amor got Chen dumped (ok that was my fault technically but only bc I wanted him to come back to drama). So now I'm like MC should have a summer fling with Zeph, why not

they're so wishy washy about how Kelly and Finn broke up and it just all feels like hearsay all the time. at the end of volume 11 they seem to decide Kelly thought it was all done pretty respectfully but her comments in volume 10 about movie night seem to disagree??? just asking for a little bit of consistency since I gotta track other people's drama other than my own

also so sorry to kelly who is actually interested in zeph and I am less so interested in him and more just annoyed at the bad writing for stefan

the writing has always been stilted and/or cringe but for some reason I notice it especially with Zeph, like it does feel like his dialogue was written by AI unfortunately. And it puts me off his character a lot, except, again, he's hot and so maybe I'm just like hey don't hurt your pretty head trying to think up romantic scenarios, Zeph. Something odd about him too is he doesn't mention any previous connection to Love Island, and I know he's a new character, but at least Henri and Chen talked about their last times on the show.

I'd like to apologize

I don't know what surprise we're getting next volume but for my own storyline I kinda want the guy dumped post casa to come back. like I'd go back to Chen easy. but this is my delusional ass still just hoping we get drama from casa bc they dropped the ball on it again this season. Curious about talent show but considering how they fucked up Mr Love Island I have little hope.

I forgot this meant we'd have to deal with eddie. hes there like Johnny/Nicolas to the point where I almost prefer if it was one of them around but at least his chaos run makes more sense than johnny/Nicolas just randomly deciding to stir shit out of nowhere after leading MC on and the game forcing us to couple with them.

Eddie pls stfu poor Kelly

said this before but if eddie was gonna show up for heart rate challenge why didn't he do a little dance? is it because he sucks as a bombshell??? YEAH. It makes so much more sense to switch him and Zeph, like yeah that would mean we have less time with zeph and more with Eddie, but Zeph could put on a good heart rate challenge performance and Eddie could be way more catty and start shit during movie night than Zeph who wanted to play nice.

I'm so sad to say goodbye to Finn because it felt like he didn't get a good chance (unless MC is pursuing him I guess). but compared to Hamish, who, even if he got dumped here, would've had a lifelong friendship with MC and Natasha and had multiple chances to couple with people, it feels sad to see him go without a good ending. I mean I guess he's got closure with Kat and Kelly, but he felt always stuck in those couples whereas Hamish tried to explore connections with Natasha, Uma, and Melissa. I just think we should've let him punch Eddie in the face after eddie was so mean to Kat and MC.

I've decided to watch the hamish route vicariously through yall and I'll go for wither zeph or Stefan unless something else wild happens until the finale. so yall better tell me what happens it was such a hard decision when the game narrowed it down 🥺

I also think it would be great if we had chats with characters to decide who we're sticking with. like this season aside from maybe the beginning henri/chen/MC/Melissa thing, it feels like one of the other girls always asks you "who do you want to be chosen by" and then you tell her and that person picks you, but then you never address it or outright reject the other person face to face. it's always just like two sentences or just "a sad look" or a gem scene I'm not paying for.

one positive thing I've seen this last volume though is the mini date with your LI before Zeph's date. like its one of the better scenes they've written that isn't just someone outright saying I like you or just chatting. like its fun, and the only other moment I can think of that's similar that doesn't cost gems is the Hamish eavsdropping scene. now if only this was also tailored to your LI because as someone coupled with Stefan, low key unexpected, but imagine if I had picked Henri??

also a lot more choices this volume were worth 10 gems I think

that being said the amount they're asking for in the heart rate challenge is crazy for literally one scene because MC's outfit is like 14+ gems, then you van go for am extra 10 to see your male LI's outfit, and then another extra 10 for the female LI outfit. and this hardly changes the gameplay or gives you more info 🙃

[mebemilena]

I'm loving all your Maya Lopez stories. They are amazing!!

"I hope you know that this has nothing to do with you"

A/N/: This was gonna be smut but i decided to have it on a chapter of it's own, in case some of you who have followed this storyline dont read smut.

To the sweet anon that sent me a message, this is for you.

Friendly reminder: i write on the drafts of my email so i can edit anytime before posting.  It turns out sometimes i cant proof read it and some grammar and spelling mistakes go unnoticed. i'm trying to pay more attention and let the text rest for at least a few hours before reading it to corret. Might edit the past chapters soon.

Tittle from Big girls don Cry, by Fergie.

- - -

Though Maya had told you to leave by the morning without breakfast, you were adamant about cooking her something.

"Why are you so stuborn?", she signed while you fried some eggs and bacon, the smell of fresh coffee spreading through the small kitchen of her childhood house.

You looked at her all heart eyes, like she put the stars on the sky, and that was clearly bothering her. You filled her a plate and smiled lovingly.

"Stop looking at me like that.", she frowned at you.

You noticed Maya was in a very bad mood, which didnt make much sense to you. She had kissed you last night, cuddled you on your sleep and left a kiss to your neck before getting up this morning. Not even an hour later, here she is. Staring daggers at you. 

"What's wrong?", you asked but Maya just looked away. You walked closer, standing in front of her as she avvoided your eyes. 

You tapped her nose with your index finger, getting her attention and making her face you. "Look at me?", you asked.

Maya kept staring at you, waiting for you to say whatever you wanted to. "Look, if we play our cards right, everything will turn out well." , you tried to convince her.

"This is not a game. And I'm not a prize.", she told you, arching an eyebrown.  Was she talking about Fisk offering money to whoever found her?

You rolled your eyes. Who was being stubborn now?

"You're not a prize, Maya. You're..." you started but paused. You kept looking at her, deep in thought.

"What?", she asked.

"I forgot the sign for that.", you tried.

Maya huffed.

- - -

At noon, it started to rain. You made sure to close the windows before going up to Maya. She was standing against the back of the couch, watching the rain fall down on the outside of the house. 

"This is perfect.", you told her. The rain falling and the smell of wet grass embracing your nostrils made you a little clingy. 

Maya looked at you, a strange look adorning her bautiful face. She seemed sad. 

Right there and then, you were sure she was gonna simply tell you to forget about her, to move on and leave Tamaha. You thought she'd tell you that she didn't like you anymore, tell you to leave her alone and go back to New York. 

Then you'd go right away, walking in the pouring rain and crying your heart out. And it'd be like a sad romance movie.

But she did the oposite of that.

Maya tugged at the hem of your shirt, pulling you to be in front of her, and brought you closer, hiding her face on your neck. She inhaled your scent and you remembered why you hadn't change your perfume in such a long time. 

It was something you thought would work when you started flirting. Picking a smell that'd make her think of you whenever she smelled it. That's why you walk around with tangerine essential oil on your clothes and inside the necklace you're always wearing.

- - -

When you first met Maya she always kept a serious face. As you became close, she'd show you a softer side and you'd take the opportunity to actually learn more about her. 

You had met many versions of Maya and you loved all of them, though you'd seek a few of them more often than the others.

Fierce Maya was one of your favorites. She'd keep her chin up, lips sealed and a perfect eyebrown arched, looking into your eyes like she could make your soul bend to her own desire. 

Funny Maya was all sarcasm and light teasing. She'd smile wild watching you trying to understand a joke she just told. She'd playfully bump your shoulder with her own and she'd even wink at you while at work.

You loved all versions of her, but right now you'd love to have Sexual Maya. The one with wet kisses and a dirty mind, the one that'd make you scream filthy words in three different languages while making you go over the moon.

Maya was a sweet lover but she did have her moments of pure desire. "It's just sex, this is not a relationship", she had told you when you first started your thing. 

At that time you only understood the word "sex" and "relationship".

- - - 

" i missed you too.", she started. "But it wasn't fair to bring you into all of it. I wanted to keep you safe.", she explained. 

You heart grew ten times. Maya telling you she cared for you made you believe things could work out again. Screw Kingpin and New York, you could restart in Tamaha. You'd restart in a small iglu in Alaska,  dressed as a polar bear, if she'd have you. 

"I want you.', Maya signed, bringing you to reality, her eyes full of something you were yet to understand. "All of you.", she continued before claiming your lips with her own, taking your breath away.

-

Check out my redbubble shop:  https://www.redbubble.com/people/MilenaFernandes/shop?asc=u

toss a coin to your artist (me) at ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/mebemilena

[bardic-inspo]

Writer Interview

Playing some catch up on tags. Tagged by the wonderful @pursuitseternal, @marlowethebard, @nyx-knox, @honeybee-bard, @snowfolly,

and @paganwitchisis holy shit thank you all!!

Not sure who all in my circles has done this already, but gonna tag @wilteddreamsofbaldursgate, @astarionancuntnin, @pinkberrytea, @locallegume, @thedreamlessnights,

@ladymdc, and @carooosa if you see this and would like to do it! No worries if not!

When did you start writing?

Around 13/14 years old, doing warrior cats roleplay on proboards forums. Roleplay isn't really my speed anymore, but it eventually bridged me into more traditional narrative writing and then fanfic later. Fallout 4 was the first fandom I really wrote fanfic for.

Are there different themes or genres you enjoy reading than what you write?

I really love intricate long-running plots with slow-burn pay off, and used to write more in that vein, but got pretty burnt out on it. It felt like it would take so long to get to those big moments I pictured the whole time, by the time I arrived to them, they felt played out in my head. Trying to strike a happy medium now by writing (relatively) shorter and more focused fic/storylines that still pack a punch, but maybe have fewer branches.

Otherwise my genre/theme preferences are generally the same with writing vs. reading and are pretty broad.

Is there a writer you want to emulate or get compared to often?

Not a writer, but I've been told at various times there is a poetical element in a lot of my writing, even in just the sentence structure or how I tend to pace my prose. That makes a lot of sense to me, since I wrote a lot of poetry before getting into writing a lot of prose.

Can you tell me a bit about your writing space?

I used too many tricks on my brain to jump start creativity (yummy beverage, cozy blanket, favorite candle when writing) and now my brain often demands all of these things be in place to do any writing 😬I can sometimes get away without all of them. Usually, I'm writing in my office, which is a pretty blue color with some gold picture frames and often a soothing space. But, I do work from home in there at times, too, and on workdays I can't make myself do creative things in the same spot I sat in working all day. Then, I'll be at my dining table or sitting on my couch, usually with headphones because I have a hard time concentrating with other noise around me.

What’s your most effective way to muster up a muse?

Self care. I mean, making sure I've got sleep/food/hygiene etc. squared away where they should be, even if it means taking a break from the page. Most of the time when I'm trying hard to write and it's just not jiving, it's because I've neglected one of those things, and the words always come easier once I've addressed them.

Playing the game again. Listening to character music. Chatting with friends who love the character, too.

Are there any recurring themes in your writing? Do they surprise you?

Yes! A lot of them became apparent to me only after switching fandoms and realizing I was writing about a lot of similar themes. Grief is a big one. Characters who've experienced both a lack of love and a loss of it. Characters who fall in love again or in spite of that loss. The main ships I've written for all feature characters who either loved someone else first or, in Astarion's case, have gone through the forced motions of romance.

Battle couples is another big one. Bisexual battle couples. 🥰

What is your reason for writing?

It's always felt like something I needed to do to feel whole. Not necessarily the sharing the writing or posting it part, or getting a reaction about it, but doing it at all, even just a little. Even if it's just for me. I feel more me when writing is at least a small part of my life. More free. It's my creative outlet.

Is there any specific comment or type of comment you find particularly motivating?

I adore any comment. I'm borrowing this from someone else's interview post, but I too am a slut for praise. In all honesty though, just knowing I'm not writing into some void or vacuum can be so powerful. Even just a heart emoji comment makes my spirits soar.

The ones that go full red string and corkboard about the plot or characters, or quote what parts stick out to them always stick with me. It lets me know I'm hitting the mark with what I'm trying to convey.

How do you want to be thought about by your readers?

I want them to know I'm still good for it even if it takes me a long time.💜That's the biggest thing to me right now. I'm not able to pour it out so quickly as others can. But I hope they know it'll be a good time when I do eventually post.

And also that I'm just some lady. I'm just another human bean. Wanting to share and enjoy stories with other human beans, and connect with a sense of community through those stories.

What do you feel is your greatest strength as a writer?

Visceral/punchy action scenes, vivid descriptions, setting tone, and portraying character personalities.

How do you feel about your own writing?

My feelings about it change with the tides. Right now, I'm a bit glum, and I think that's because I haven't had much to share or post lately, even though I've been doing lots of writing that isn't ready to be shared yet. On the other hand, I'm having the most fun with it that I've had in a very long time, and that element feels great.

I'm grateful for what I've done, incredibly blessed to have made friends and found community through writing, and ever-striving to find the happy medium of productivity and creativity.

When you write, are you influenced by what others enjoy might enjoy reading, or do you write purely for yourself, or a mix of both?

It's mostly what I'd like hehe. And I'm happy about that. I am often inspired to try things based on what I see in fandom, but if I don't enjoy it, too, I won't pursue it further.

[derekscorner]

Remember Kingdom Hearts Chi?

Well my young friend I certainly do

Hi, hello there again friend or reader or ye old bored soul. Gotta say its been a week for me. First a Fate post after a long while and now a KH post. What a week for my endless shower thoughts~

This week has been quite a ride hasn't it? First you had Missing Link cancelled then immediately got KH4 screen shots. There's jokes I could make (and have) or complaints an older me would raise but no.

This entire event has sparked talk about whether the mobile gaming story line was good or bad for the series direction overall. This, oddly enough, got me nostalgic.

Why? Because all the talk of what KHUX "used to be" made me realize that a lot of younger fans don't know what KH Chi is. It's been so long now but so few remember that KHUX was a rebrand.

The tale of the keyblade war was originally a web browser game. Still free to play, albeit locked to Japan if I recall, way back in the yonder years of 2013.

Look at that banger title screen

You're likely wondering why that'd make me nostalgic when it was Japan only. Well, for one, the region lock did not hamper fans at the time. Even though I never played it we still had forums of people in Japan or who could read the language that'd play it share the story.

And that story was, quite frankly, good. Now now before you throw hypocrisy at me let me make one thing clear. I may be critical of what KHUX became and what it did to the story but I've never said it's initial premise wasn't good.

In fact, UX had things that even I could enjoy even if I didn't like what it was doing in a broader sense. It's a ramble for another day mind you but one of those things worthy of praise was the initial story.

See that? Originally it was cards like CoM rather than medals

For the near entirety of Chi's original run it was a self contained story. It had intrigue, it had an air of Greek tragedy since we know the war was unavoidable, and it had a simpler mystery of the disappearance of the 'master of masters' and his sixth apprentice.

That's all there was to it. No characters being shoehorned into the past, no datascapes, or other such things. It was just a simple story of a world marching headlong into it's death.

Perfectly self contained.

It was quite frankly interesting. After seeing Xehanort do all his machinations over an unseen war we were getting to see how that war happened. It was a perfect hook.

Despite my old man ranting I have no problem with side games or stories in a series. If anything, they can be a fun way to flesh out a world without dealing with the main storyline or character.

It is one issue I have with Nomura to this day, his inability to just let a story be a story. It always has to tie into what Sora is doing or the present events.

No, this isn't some Anti-Nomura tag or hidden post. I don't even like that tag tbh. I have my gripes but it is also true that corporate has bared down on him over the years. I only point it out here because he is the main writer/director.

And I feel this need of his to make everything super relevant hurt this story.

Furries the lot of them

The initial story of Chi was actually good. Granted, I should've seen the writing on the wall when it ended with you waking up from a "dream" and Maleficent showing up.

(fun fact, the start of KHUX was actually the ending for Chi that a lot of later players to UX were skipped through)

But prior to that ending you didn't have any time travel shenanigans or the like. It was a straight forward story. Hell, even if you factor in the dream eaters and dandelions there was till a neat story there.

it didn't really lose itself until the UX rebrand when all that came barreling in. And while I often say this hurt the future story I rarely mention the fact that I think this hurt Chi's story as well.

Just as the mobile games gained a choke hold on the future events they became chained by tying that together in the past. You now had to explain how Ventus got to BBS, you now had to tie it into Marluxia and Elrena, and this even stretched to Xehanort through Dark Road later.

Many like that kinda thing in the fandom I know but I feel it hampered the chance for something truly original to flesh itself out.

Realistically, all you needed to tie to the present day was explain how someone (or a group) survived to begin the keyblade tradition that would be ancient in Sora's time.

And while I'm a staunch fan of Occams Razor I'm not even arguing that Chi needed to be kept super simple. You could've had that as big a mess as you wanted and it would've been fine since it was self contained.

We often joke about all the Xehanort's and Sora's but Chi in it's original form was something that could've made a mark without them. All you had to do was remove that Maleficent cliffhanger.

We could've seen how the world operated when it was still one. Perhaps even see how the pureblood heartless came to be. The potential there was endless and thinking about it makes me sad because it was chained to the modern events.

And I'm not even arguing that UX, Dark Road, or even Missing Link should've had existed. It would've been fine if they had in this self contained context since they would be their own events...well not Dark Road but at least UX and Missing Link.

To me, the worst part about all of this wasn't just the wasted potential for something truly unique but that the practice of making KH mobile incredibly relevant completely undercut the endeavor to stop the console spread issue of the day.

Before remixes you couldn't find a KH1 or KH2 final mix state side and many of the titles building toward KH3 back then were on scattered handheld systems.

It was a serious problem and one that began with Chain of Memories. So many started KH2 lost back then.

And even when it was "resolved" the mobile story line had grown so important that was shaping scenes in KH3. Hell, it even got a movie in the 2.8 remix even though that movie didn't give you anywhere near enough to fully grasp the story happening in that era.

It's this aspect of the mobile games that many argue about. I'm rambling about wasted story potential but for many the core issue was that locked away lore and genuinely good story moments KHUX had.

Especially with UX unplayable at the time of this posts creation. To even grasp the Luxu reveal in KH3 you'd have to sit through some youtube scenes.

Hours of it if you wanted a full understanding since some stuff did happen in world missions sporadically.

Ray Chase is the one thing selling this character right now

I've rambled myself out of words so I'll end here. I am not sure how well I got my feelings out but here we are. Thank you for reading~

And if you're one of those sad about KHML's cancellation I'd advise you to have hope. As I said, Nomura is chronic about tying everything back into itself. Whatever was in Missing Link will not be left to rot.

You just may not get it in the form you were hoping for.

Either way, remember kids, Verum Rex is now owned by Disney! Farewell~