#honestly the main reason I made this is because I don't really see any edits about jack

[elexuscal]

So just over a year ago, I made a resolution to myself to get better at Fitness, since I was getting older and i knew if i didn't, the Consequences would begin to manifest. One problem? Historically i have always hated working out.

i knew there were two main reasons why: 1. lingering trauma from the usual Fat/Neurodivergent Kid Mistreated In PE Class Experience 2. oh my god it's so so so boring i would rather do anything more entertaining.

So. I'm not an expert, and i'm definitely not a professional fitness instructor, BUT i have genuinely come to not just tolerate but actually enjoy exercise this past year. So if these are any problems you personally have contended with, these strategies May Help.

One: Remove Barriers

a lot of flavours of neurodivergence struggle with switching between tasks and executive function generally, especially towards something you don't find fun. So first you gotta identify any barriers keeping you from exercising, and removing or mitigating them.

For me, a hurdle i recognised is that if I could not easily access the equipment, I was unlikely to use it. honestly if i couldn't see it i would probably forget it was there. So my first order of business was making a Work Out Zone. I unrolled my yoga mat and gave it a near-permanent place in my room. my weights came out of the closet and placed on a low shelf where i could easily access them, as did my resistance band. now they were always Right there.

I also realised something I detested was the general feeling of sweaty clothes, and in particular, having to change out of them. So Gross. so i started scheduling my work outs for in the the morning after breakfast or right before my nightly showers, aka: when I am changing in and out of my PJs. I'll do my routine (mostly) naked and not have to contend with the extra steps and laundry that sweaty clothes bring.

two: secondary entertainment

like i said: i found exercise very boring. and while i've gotten better over the past year, and can find it meditative, i still prefer having something else to catch my attention.

i used to like to put on video essays. but then i realised i was so often pausing my work outs because the particular video ended, or the pace got slow, or the topic turned to something dark and depressing out of nowhere and killed the vibe, so then i had to stop to find something else--

No. You need something that will keep you in the zone, and won't knock you out of it. I didn't used to listen to music much, but this year i took advantage of a Spotify subscription my sister gifted me (😔) and started just putting on upbeat rock, hip-hop, and pop mixes. it doesn't need to be my favouirte music ever it just needs to Keep Going.

i do find the loud, rhythmic music is really good for keeping my pace up, but if music doesn't do it for you, you might find audiobooks or autoplaying favourite old tv shows/sitcoms might scratch that itch.

Three: Find Other Motivators

Or, "if you can't make your own motivation, store bought is fine"

Gameification is really good here. You might be someone who'll benefit from a pedometer or step-counter app. I have a friend who swears by the Switch Ring-Fit, and I've also heard of folks who use games like Just Dance, Zombies, Run! and Beat Saber to rely on the sweet sweet endorphins generated by hitting a high score.

(BUT: do beware the dark side of gameification, which is the risk of demotivation if you don't hit your goals. For example, after doing GREAT on exceeding my step goal for a month, I got hit with COVID. For about a week and a half I was barely moving beyond the kitchen and back. My step counts plummeted, there was no way to edit the record out, and that made it harder to get back into the groove. Be mindful relying too much on gameification!)

Even outside of literal games, there are ways to scratch this itch. I used secondary objectives as a way to encourage me to keep up with my daily walks. Walking my roommate's dog when he was working long days is an obvious one, but we don't always have a furry friend at our disposal. Then I would rely on mini-challenges like, "pick up 10 cool rocks to paint", "fill this bag with wood for the fireplace", "take 10 pretty pictures", or "get to the corner store to get more milk".

And of course, consider team sports! Many folks I've talked to feel having set training/play times with a team that relies on them crucial to keep them on track!

Four: Don't Measure Success By Weight Loss

I know. I know. Easier said than done. It does not help that like 80% of workout resources online are going to mention this. but above all else, you must resist the beast. (and while not as dicey, measuring success by visible muscle gain can fall into a similar trap).

The biggest benefits to exercise are invisible. it improves cardiovascular health, brain function, tissue regeneration, immune system function, lung capacity, energy levels, literally our whole body. no matter what external changes your body does or doesn't go through, you're still going to be benefitting from exercise, and you do not want to get demotivated chasing unrealistic/irrelevant goals.

Instead, to track your progress, focus on questions like these:

How is exercise impacting my mood? Do I feel less stressed or anxious?

Am I sleeping better?

Is my balance improving?

Is my stamina increasing?

Am I becoming more flexible?

Can I lift/carry heavier weights?

Is my breath control improving?

Over the last year, I've seen marked improvements in all of these. My joints don't hurt as much; it's easier for me to to get up and move; I don't get winded as easily; I generally feel more relaxed and cheerful. Those are all amazing outcomes, and I hope that everyone on their own fitness journey can find the same joy there as I have.

[siristvantoth]

I did a live transcription of the Dragon Age: the Veilguard dev Q&A session today.

UPDATE/EDIT: I made a second pass of this and cleaned it up into a full/complete transcript.

Q: If you could belong to any of the main factions, which would you choose? 

Corinne: Listen Katie, you say softball but this is hard. I'm gonna cheat and I’m gonna give you two. So for fashion, the Antivan Crows all day long. their threads, you're gonna love it. For vibes though, the ones that capture my vibe, Mournwatch. Gimme those necromancers.

John: Those are good answers. I have one for fashion and for just general faction that I’d like to be a part of. Veil jumpers - who doesn't like a nice walk in the forest, you know, even if that forest is filled with horrifying monsters and terrifying anomalies, but uh, yeah.

Matt: For me it’s definitely the Lords of Fortune. I’ve had a chance to try out a bunch of them, and I think I’ve finally settled on them, and I think it’s just because pirate barbarian is just such a great combination of elements. Treasure hunting, plus beaches and palm trees and all that stuff, it’s a really good mix, so that’s kind of my default.

Q: I’ve seen a lot of talk about only having two companions in your party instead of three for this game. What is the reasoning this and will we get the same companion conversations and banter as seen in the previous Dragon Age Games?? 

Corinne: Such a good question. Thank you to whoever submitted this one. I'll start and then turn it over to John Epler. As you saw in the gameplay reveal, this is a much more intimate experience. We pulled the camera in. For those that aren't aware, the reason why is we want you to feel like you actually are in this world, like you’re walking these the city streets of Minrathous, you’re looking up at the buildings all around you. You're a part of this place. It's much more intimate, and we believe as the narrative unfolds that this creates a lot more immersion. Now how this relates to the companions is in doing this, we went back and forth on it a lot, but we actually found that having two companions allows them more visibility and presence. We've talked about the incredible depth and focus we’ve put on fleshing out these companions, they're very fully realized, so here you really get to see them more clearly, you get to see them shine. When you see Lace Harding jump into the air and release a volley of arrows, you can only get that because of this more intimate view. So I love the spotlight that’s been put on them. But I think in addition to the banter, one of the things people are wondering about is, ok but what about gameplay. Again, this has come about from our testing, working with the internal team and also our lovely our council of players. We just found that in the combat system, when you're planning your strategies, two felt like the right number to manage. Keep in mind, Rook has a lot of different types of actions: abilities, individual attacks that are more fleshed out than ever before. Timing and positioning matter a lot, so this really felt like the right balance. The number of inputs and actions we’re asking you as a player to take, including directing your companions, is higher than ever before. And I will also say that I engage with the companions, I actively control what they're doing more than I ever have before in any of the other three games. But John, I’ll toss it over to you for the banter.

John: So banter, honestly I don't think you could stop the writers from writing banters. I will say for myself, it's one of the more light but fun things to do. You get to write little stories, little arcs between the characters, and Veilguard is no different. Banter is still absolutely a core part of it. We've got global banter, you know the general stuff that you get in all spaces, as well as mission specific stuff. But yeah. It's definitely still a big thing, if anything it's the most we've ever done for pairings of companions. Beyond that, we’ve also made sure—and I mean, I’ve been on Dragon Age for a while, and I know there’s been an issue, you know, things like, “well, I don’t wanna miss this banter.” So we've even added stuff like interruptable and resumable banter as well, just to make sure that—because again, it’s a core part of the experience. Everyone loves hearing these companions talk to each other. Everyone loves hearing these little stories and relationships develop over the course of the game, and as mentioned before, companions are the heart of this experience. So we still have it, if anything like I said, you could not stop the writers from doing it, even if you tried.

Corinne: Well John, listening to you speak, one thing that comes to mind, maybe people are wondering, with two companions in the field, do I get less interaction? Like do I get a scene with my companions interacting with a broader group more often? And the way you'll gather them around the kitchen table, there's just so many of those moments where they're all interacting with each other. Those are some of my favorite parts.

John: Yeah, and that’s a good callout, because I think the other side of it is, we aren’t talking too much about your home, but we also wanna make sure that they feel like they have relationships and a life outside of just the times you take a certain pair of companions out on the field, so we made sure that they have interactions there as well.

Q: How customizable is the backstory of Rook? Will we get to determine their past in the character creator?

John: Absolutely. So Rook has six different backgrounds that you can choose from. Each  one is tied to one of the major factions in the Veilguard, and each one sets out who Rook was before they were recruited by Varric. While that sets up the broad events, as you go through the game and have conversations either with members of your faction, other characters, you can define not just what those events were but what they meant to you – what was your motivation, what was the kind of person you are as you build up Rook, because again, we wanna make sure that roleplaying is at the heart of this experience, and taking Rook, giving them a background in the world but letting you decide what that means and what that says about you is also a big part of it. And again, there are six different factions in this game. Two which anyone who’s played Dragon Age for a while would remember, you’ve got the Gray Wardens and Antivan Crows. We also have, in addition to them, four new ones because we’re in Northern Thedas. We’ve got the Veil Jumpers, Mournwatch, Shadow Dragons, and Lords of Fortune. A lot of different options, a lot of different backgrounds, and a lot of opportunities to define who your Rook was and who they are now.

Q: Will crafting return and has it been improved since Inquisition?

Corinne: Will crafting return? You can absolutely improve and customize your gear, yes. That is a big part of RPG progression, so yes you can improve and customize it. I will say though, it's different this time around, and it does get into spoiler territory so I'm gonna be a little cagey about it, but there might be a mysterious entity that assists you with that that will be an important part of the narrative.

Q: Can we kiss or romance Manfred the skeleton? 

John: I would say, not that skeleton, but we're not saying no skeletons.

Q: What were some of the development considerations that you had to take into account to ensure this game flows & functions with prior games & dragon age keep, if keep is being utilized? 

Corinne: We did an interview with IGN that goes into some of the details there. To summarize, we have taken a different approach on how you import your decisions this time around. It's now fully integrated into the character creator and serves a dual purpose, to be honest. It’s not called this in game, but I playfully think of it as "last time on dragon age". When I talk about its dual purpose, it's been 10 years since the last dragon age game release, so it serves as a refresher on critical events as well as allowing you to remake those decisions that are critical to you. The thing I love about it is it's very highly visual, it uses the familiar tarot card aesthetic, so it's actually a very visual and playful experience as you go through it. It is very much important to us that it's built into the client, though. You can play this game entirely offline, no connection, you don’t have to link to your EA accounts. That's been a really big request, so the refresher plus make those decisions in client, I think we're all pretty happy about that. I don't wanna spoil anything by revealing what decisions you can import. Y'all don't want the spoilers. But it's been a really interesting creative intersection for us. Because on the one hand, this is a whole new adventure. You're in northern thedas, these locations you've literally never been to before, so that affects what will matter and what we’re not using this time around as far as decisions. But obviously there’s some very very clear connections to existing characters. It’s no secret that the Inquisitor, our dear Inky, is gonna show up, so that's a factor.

Q: Will this next game be an open world game or is it just confined to Tevinter? 

John: Yeah, so you are in northern Thedas, but the game only begins in Minrathous. It doesn't stay there. I think one of the most exciting things for me, and again, I don’t wanna get into too much spoiler detail, but getting to go to and work with the art team, the narrative, the design team to build out these locations we've talked about, places that character have referred to as where they’ve come from, places that characters obviously in previous games have hailed from, has been absolutely exciting. So you do start in Tevinter, you do start in Minrathous, but again that’s not the entire game by any stretch.

Corinne: And the first half of it is, is it an open world game? We've gone back to what we believe delivers the best, most curated, intense narratives. So this is a hand crafted experience, it's mission based. Now these locations can open up, you can go back, solve mysteries, do some really great side content - not fetch quests, not grind quests, some really great side content. But I wanna be clear, it's a really curated, hand crafted experience.

John: Just to bounce off of that very quickly, the most important thing for us and what Corinne was saying about hand crafted, obviously we’ve talked about how characters, story, narrative are critical to us, and this has allowed us to build those experiences in a way that emphasized that really well while still tying it into the story threads and story beats.

Q: Will the companions have unique specializations like DA2 or the same as player?

Corinne: I think the best way for me to describe this is that yes, our companions will have abilities that are truly unique to them, but also the companions do fall into the archetypes of mage, rogue, and warrior. For instance, you might be surprised to hear, because she has a bow, but Bellara is in fact a mage, and I love that. Some of the abilities, the bulk of the abilities of the companions, are based on their own unique personalities. Neve is the only mage that is an ice mage, so you get distinct abilities for her. But because she's a mage, she does have access to abilities that all mages share, like Time Slow. We really like the balance there. It’s a good mix of representing their archetype, their class, and also their distinct specialization or personality or whatever you wanna call it.

John: Yeah actually, I would say the word personality is a great one, because all of these characters exist, have a story, have a history of how they became who they were, and part of that was finding that intersection between narrative and gameplay and making sure that again, we serve the needs of gameplay, but also allow these characters to exist as their own people, not just in conversation but out of conversations as well.

Corinne: I would also say that as part of that core mage kit, healing spells are there. So if your mages, you wanna make ‘em a healer, yeah.

Q: Will the Veilguard have tactical combat still? 

Corinne: Yes. Combat gets quite tactical. Obviously this is an evolution of the combat system. I talked about immersion, wanting to put you in the world like you’re actually living and existing in it, but it is very tactical and I will say we have a robust difficulty system. The tactics are increasingly important the higher difficulty that you go. So if you’re showing up for a highly tactical experience, I would crank that difficulty in particular. But I wanna make sure I’m super clear in my answer. You saw the gameplay reveal. Our pause time tactical mode is not overhead. It stays close to Rook. It does allow you to cycle between targets in and out of combat, there’s a reason for that. As the game progresses, you didn’t see this in that opening hour of the game, but it will display strategic information on the enemies, so what are their vulnerabilities, what are their elemental weaknesses, their enhancements, what are they resistant to, so your type of abilities, leaning into elemental gameplay matters a lot.

I would also say, this is a long answer because it’s such a great question, tactical decision making also takes the form, I would say this is front and center, of coordinating your ability usage between Rook and your companions to create synergies and or really devastating, we call them detonation combos. So let me give you a couple of examples, because it can be really hard to visualize, so hopefully this helps. One of the tactics that I personally enjoy in my own builds, I just recently played as a veil ranger, I love it, it’s one of my favorites. if I'm fighting fade touched enemies in Artlathan, I like to use Bellara's galvanized tear to pull enemies together, it’s like a gravity well. You then Slow Time with Neve – Slow Time affects the world around you, but it does not affect you, so you clump them up, you slow time -- and then with Rook I come in and do a devastating AOE or damage over time spell or ability. And it’s even better if it's a lightning based ability, because the fade touched in Arlathan are vulnerable to that. So there’s so many layers of coordination and strategies and tactics. We did talk about the devastating detonation combos, that's one of my favorite features, because that’s when you’re really leaning into explicit teamwork between your companions and Rook or the companions together. When I build out my team and I'm going into a mission, I try to ensure that I have at least a couple possible synergies, detonation combo synergies, between my team. It might be between Harding and Neve, Neve and me, or both. So here, I'd go into battle, pause time, open the ability wheel, get information on the enemy – and the wheel will actually tell you that there is a synergy combo, you  might have seen a screenshot that says “combo available” – it will remind you of synergies between companions, you can queue both of those abilities up at the same time, close out of the pause time menu, they’ll both execute, both abilities will happen. Then the detonation AOE happens, applies debuffs to all the enemies in a radius of it. It's so satisfying. I can’t wait for yall to see it, but the interesting thing is that too is a tactical choice. I’m choosing to use my companions to do that, and that means I’m not using them to heal me, or to give me that defense bonus, or to knock an enemy off a ledge, so it’s about the opportunity costs. I could spend the rest of the session talking about this, apologies for being long winded, but this is one of my favorite parts of the game.

Q: Can you choose rook's pronouns? If yes, is being non-binary an option? How detailed is the character creator?

Corinne: Well yeah you can select your pronouns. Absolutely. You can actually select your pronouns and your gender, because those are related concepts, but they’re not actually the exact same thing. Yeah, you can be non-binary, we have he/him, she/her, they/them. Yes. Emphatic yes. How detailed is the character creator? Oh my goodness, yall. Very. I don't wanna give away too much just yet but it's very very deep. It has been revealed, it’s out there in a couple articles about the focus on hair, the focus on skin tones that are done respectfully, full body customization, hell yeah, we love to see it. But we’re gonna come back, we’re gonna show you a lot more on character creator, but we wanna make sure we have the time and space to do that.

Q: Will there be a photo mode in game? 

Corinne: That is something we’re actively looking into, we know there’s a ton of interest, so stay tuned on that one, but we are very much looking into it.

John: I can add too, that is a feature that we like, we like the idea of, and it’s not just player facing, but internally it’s a really helpful thing to have that as we’re building things out, so we’ll let you know.

Corinne: Yes, yeah, absolutely. We are as geeked on that possibility as you all are.

Q: A lot of people were asking about abilities. Are we going to be limited in how many abilities we can pick from the wheel?

Corinne: Ability wheel does have a capacity. You have to choose which three abilities you wanna bring for Rook, which three for  a companion, and which three for another companion. What I like about this is there is kind of an emergent gameplay depending on who you and your companions are coming into a mission with. Now the reason for that is it actually creates a really interesting balance between strategizing, having to do that strategy about your combat kit before the mission, and then the tactical decisions once you're in the field deciding what to do. I want to clear one thing up, while there are three ability slots for Rook, there's so much more than that - other actions that you can perform directly from the wheel like you’ll have an ultimate ability associated with your class or your specialization, so there’s variants there. There’s a type of items you can get that function like abilities, they’re typically like buffs and enhancements, in the form of runes, so you’ll control that for Rook and/or the team from the wheel. You may have also seen that you can direct which targets your companions can focus on, but what you might not know is that a lot of the companion gear really synergizes with that directing with your companions. When you issue those commands, that too will proc depending on the gear they have equipped, really interesting and strategic effects. They can be more ability like, more like proc’d effects, there’s just so much from the wheel that once you get in and see everything working together, becomes more and more apparent.

Q: Will fireball and cone of cold be back as spells in Dragon Age: the Veilguard? 

Corinne: All these combat questions, really good. Fireball and Cone of Cold aren't specifically back, however their successors are, frost nova and meteor. These serve the exact same combat role and function as those other abilities. I would also say it gives them quite the glow up. Meteor in particular, so satisfying nuking a group of darkspawn with a well placed meteor. It’s wonderful

Q: What accessibility features are available? Arachnophobia mode? Mod support? 

Corinne: Oh my goodness, arachnophobia. I am wicked afraid of spiders too. My partner always laughs at me, I’m just terrified of them. That said, that's one we're going to save for a little bit closer to launch before we’ll go into full details about accessibility features. But I do wanna assure you we have spent a lot of time thinking about this topic, so that you can play the game in a way that really works for you. I'm excited to share that with you when the time is right.

Q: How long is the time skip from Inquisition to the Veilguard? 

John: Anyone who's paid attention to Dragon Age, and I can say as somebody who’s been on Dragon Age since Origins, timelines are always a little iffy. They change and they morph over development as we see how longs things are taking, but for Veilguard we were actually pretty consistent from the start that it's been about 10 years since trespasser, as you may or may not have noticed, Varric's become a bit of a silver fox. I’ve seen a lot of comments about that on social media. Yeah, 10 years. Solas's ritual has taken time to set up and you’re kinda coming in at the end of that hunt.

Q: Is Solas still bald? 

Matt: Yeah. I mean if you’ve watched the gameplay thing, we can all confirm that Solas is still bald, Solas is still Solas. I really like how Solas has turned out this time around. I will say, here’s a comment on this specific question that’s gonna sound like a non-sequitor, but once you get a chance to play a little bit more, maybe you’ll – In Thedas, ancient elves go bald when they are millenia old, so Solas wasn't always bald. So if you end up seeing what Solas looked like in the past, things might be a little different. Now that said, I’m sure some of you are wondering what happened to Solas’s wig from Tevinter Nights. I’m sure he still has it somewhere, so… It’s his most important possession.

Corinne: Some pride there, huh.

Q: Will we be able to change companions appearances and outfits or are they fixed, similar to Dragon Age 2? 

Matt: Dragon Age 2 was, we loved how the followers turned out in that, but it was sad given our constraints that we had to keep them with just one basic outfit. We really tried to make some space for them this time around. They have iconic color palettes and things like that, but they do have a wider range of appearances that you can find for them, some are just cool but then there are some  that are tied to directly to their narrative and just kind of what’s happening in their life.

Q: Will we be seeing or visiting Kal’Sharok? 

Matt: What’s been really cool, so in previous games, we’ve kind of alluded to this before, it was a lot of fun to hint at the locations that were off the map, the mysterious places you were not going, and so you could just bring in some props, some characters, a piece of art, things like that. Even Tevinter was only vaguely hinted at and we’d just add drips and bits and pieces, so that stuff was really fun. In the Veilguard we’re actually getting to visit a whole lot of those locations that had only been hinted at for real, so you do actually run around Tevinter and a bunch of the other locations that we’ve revealed. But this also means that we're not completely filling out the map, and that there are new things we can start hinting at and we can start drip feeding. It’s kinda fun, I’d say for what we can show of Kal’Sharok and other locations, there’s more to do.

Q: Will the dialogue wheel/options be similar to Inquisition and Andromeda in the sense that it's more tone based?

John: We have a number of different types of wheels in our game. All the dialogue wheels are based off the same principle, anyone who’s played a dragon age game and remembers what they look like. In Dragon Age: the Veilguard, we have tone wheels which are roleplaying your character picking consistent tone. We also have emotion wheels where you can pick specific emotional reactions, and choice wheels which are, I don’t have a strong emotional or tone tie here, but I do want to make a choice based on what I do. Investigate’s obviously return as well. We want players to understand as much as possible what it is they are going to be picking, we want the choice to be clear even if one of the best things about consequence is making sure that’s not entirely clear.

Q: How extensive are Rook’s dialogue decision trees? 

John: Huge. Again, it’s a Dragon Age game. We wanna make sure you have choices, we wanna make sure you can choose your roleplaying, but also choose outcomes of conversations, choose how events unfold. Again it’s a Dragon Age game, we wanna make sure we also react to decisions you’ve made. So for example, you may be talking to a follower who is an elf, and if you yourself are an elf, obviously you'll have a different perspective on events than someone who’s not an elf. Sometimes that means different conversation options, sometimes that’s going to be entirely new dialogue trees, as well as based off decisions you’ve made throughout the game, so again, making sure the game feels like it notices what you’re doing is a huge part of how we’ve written out the dialogue wheel and dialogue trees in this game.

Q: All companions romanceable by all player characters regardless of race and gender? 

Corinne: Yeah, yeah. We have talked about this in some of the interviews, I’ve seen a few articles about it, so I'd recommend everyone check out those articles, but let me just give you a quick interview. Each of the seven companions has full romance arcs and they are romanceable by all genders. Absolutely. But something that’s really important to us on the team, and so I just wanna make sure and double down on, that doesn't mean playersexual. If anyone’s unaware of what we mean by that, it doesn’t mean they conform or twist their identities to who you the player are. They won’t suddenly have a preference for men or women based on what you’re playing. Instead they have their own fully fleshed out identities. They are true and authentic to that. So in this game they are all pansexuals, they all have histories and romances, sometimes you’ll hear about preferences and things of that nature. And what I really love is if you don’t pursue a romance with them, they’ll actually build their own romances with each other. So in one of the interviews I talked about Lace Harding and Taash getting together. I give that example because it’s one of my favorites. I’m gonna put a question back to the community though. I’ve heard we’re going with Laash for that ship name? You tell me what is that ship name?

Q: What are the markings on the faces of the elven warden and veil hopper?

John: So there’s quite a few, I think more than we’ve done before, tattoos from various cultures. We're bringing the vallaslin back of course but there's a ton of different options, especially when we’re going into these new regions. Each area has its own kind of visual language for that. We are bringing the vallaslin back and a couple characters have them, but we've customized them a bit. They’re a bit more specific to their personality.

Q: What are you as a developer most proud of and excited for players to experience? 

Corinne: I suspect for most of us, myself included, it's the depths and authenticity of the companions journey along with on their arcs, learning about their hardships, what they care about, being by their side. That authenticity is just so good, they all feel like my dear friends. But I have to say, the closest runner up for me has to be the character creator. Has to be. That character creator, the makeup options, the range of sliders... I'm a Qunari fan, so even just the way you customize the horns and combine that with the really great looking hair. Character creator has to be my very close runner up.

Matt: As far as what I can say I’m most proud of on this one, I can speak for the art team, we worked incredible hard to make the story more visible than ever. Games are a visual medium, but sometimes it's easier to do things in text format or written in a codex somewhere or alluded to off screen, but we really leaned into trying to make sure that every design, prop, character, environment, that the effects we’re choosing, all these choices were putting the story on screen so you can see it unfold, and I think having worked on all the dragon age games, I'd say Veilguard represents one of the best attempts at that we’ve made yet.

John: I’m gonna cheat and kind of combine both Corinne’s and Matt’s answers. Honestly the companions for me are the absolute highlight. Just being able to work across all the disciplines, building characters who look and sound and behave in very specific and characterful ways. These are the deepest companion arcs we've ever done, not just on Dragon Age but in BioWare in general. Each companion has their own story arc you can go through, decisions you can make. They really do take center stage. As you play through them, you see the care and love that the team has put into each and every one. I mean, there’s moments in each arc that make you cry, make you angry, make you excited, and the way they integrate into the story as a whole for me is something that’s been really fun. Finding ways to bring these characters together, ways to bring this story, this narrative, of you know, you need to put together a team and stop the end of the world, has been absolutely exciting and thrilling. And again, you see the team's love in every single piece of it. As for what I’m most excited, Dragon Age has been part of my career and part of my life for literally the last decade and a half, I’ve worked on it since Origins, and there's something about the Veilguard that feels an amazing mix of novelty and familiarity, it’s like coming home in a way that I feel is going to be very exciting for people who are existing Dragon Age players, but there’s also so much here that’s just new and exciting for people, new players and old players alike. Going to parts of the world, seeing things we’ve never seen before, and just getting to take this amazing world and series and expand on it and build on it in ways that I’ve just been, honestly an absolute thrill, the best part of my career, and I’ve been in games for 17 years now and this has been the absolute highlight for me, so that’s what I’m excited about.

Corinne: I just wanna yes and that. I so completely agree with you. There’ve been times in companion arcs where even knowing what's going to happen, we work on the game, with some of these decisions, I've had to set down the controller, let out a heavy sigh, and go “oh my god, what am I gonna do here?” The depth of them is wonderful. I do wanna put this out there, when we talk about as a developer what we are most proud of, can we just give a big shout out to the dev team? I am so proud of them. This team has poured their hearts into this. Anyone from BioWare who’s listening in, thank you so much. Y’all are just the best.

Q: Why does Varric have dark hair now? 

Matt: He's been adventuring for a while now. His hair is more gray, but he's been in very dark scenes so far, so we’ll see him in some more contexts.

Q: Will the Inquisitor be appearing in the flesh or are we just choosing their major DAI decisions?

Corinne: Yes they will. The Inky does appear. We've know how attached y’all are to the Inquisitor, we’ve seen the love for your OC. Yes, the Inquisitor shows up. We'd already confirmed that a few places, so let me just say you can also customize them and it includes some of our new customization options. Yeah they’re gonna show up and they’re gonna be your Inquisitor.

John: And I think beyond that, the story of Solas and the story of the Inquisitor obviously are tied together as much as any story, so it would have been strange for us not to bring them in for this one. They’re gonna be a part of this story.

Q: Will there be any planned DLCs and transmog armor? 

Corinne: Right now our focus is entirely on the quality of the game, it's so important at this stage for us to be all in, all attention on finishing this game and delivering on the quality and the promise of it. So that's all I can really say on it, we're 100% focused on this being the most complete game we can make it. I wanna emphasize, there's not gonna be any microtransactions or battle passes, you don't have to connect online. Our focus is making this the most complete single player we possibly can. Now this was kind of a twofer question. Will there be transmog? Hell yeah. I’m the kind of player that believes fashion is the real endgames. Yeah there’s a transmog system, absolutely. It’s sick.

Q: Will any of the characters be asexual? 

Corinne: Such a good question. So, look I'm gonna be really forthcoming with yall and a little bit vulnerable, I'm ace. I'm a gray ace, I don't mind sharing that, I’m kind of public with it. I will say though that none of our companions this time around are explicitly ace. We look at the characters, their motivations, who they are, we always assess is this the right time. This time it wasn't. What I will say for everyone on the ace spectrum on there, I would love to represent an ace relationship sometime in the future when it feels like the most authentic fit for a companion, when we can do it best. And I do see some questions, what do we mean by ace? Asexuality. We often refer to it as the ace spectrum.

Q: Can mage Rook do blood magic? Will blood magic be a skill tree separate from regular magic?

Corinne: OK, this gets a bit spoilery, so let me just say, Rook has some pretty good reasons to avoid blood magic. Rook is not gonna wanna be interested in that. But I will say, the mage skill tree is packed with all kinds of spells, traits, and perks to give you a ton of flexibility in your magic. Gonna go off script just a little bit because I’ve seen “just tell us about the specializations”. I’m not gonna tell you the deets, but there is a necromancer one. There is an elemental one, and there is one that’s actually more of like a combat mage. It’s my favorite.

Q: Can we name the griffon? We also have a griffon emoji in this Discord server.

John: Excellent. So, someone in your party, again, spoilers, may have already named the baby griffon, but don’t worry, Assan is a very good boy.

Corinne: All these griffon emojis, y’all are killing me.

Q: Will we have a camp/home/headquarters that we’ll be able to customize?

Matt: Well this time around, in Inquisition you had Skyhold. In this case you have a headquarters called the Lighthouse. More to be seen on that, but narratively it serves kind of a different purpose, but also the same purpose. As far as customization goes, there are elements of it that change over time and some things you can adjust. I don’t know how much we’re really going into that at the moment. One thing I like about it is that it definitely does start to feel very much like home over time.

Q: We need to know, does pasta and noodles exist in Thedas? 

Matt: I’ll take it as a chance just to geek out about worldbuilding. Again, the Veilguard for us is a really kind of dream opportunity to go to places we've only ever heard reference to or we’ve seen in set. In going through the world building process, and trying to build these things out not just as neat things from the IP, but also as, if you’ve read about this stuff, you've got your own version in your head, you’ve imagined what it might be like and you're probably hoping for something spectacular, and our brains are always far better at creating this stuff than any game developer or any artist can really do justice to, so you really have to swing for the fences to make something very satisfying and exciting. That can be everything as big as architecture and landscape and biomes and ecosystems, but it does get into things like art and culture and costume design, and also food. This time around that was one of the many things we did look into to try to catch the character and feel of a place to make it feel believable and lived in. So that’s my really long answer for yeah, I'm sure at least one place does have pasta.

Q: Are we getting a mabari?

Matt: Ooh, that’s a good question. I will say you’re spending most of the game in the north of Thedas. Mabari are not nearly as big of a thing up there, so in this particular instance, no, you will not get a mabari, sadly.

Q: Can we pet the griffon? 

John: You, I’m really sorry to have to be the one to tell you—Nah, I’m kidding, yes you can. It's not even just petting the griffon, I've actually hugged the griffon, so that feels like even there a step up.

Matt: There’s lots of opportunities to interact with the griffon.

Corinne: Can we see Assan in chat if we wanna see him in the Lighthouse hanging out? And hey, y’all, this was so important to the team, too. Like this is the team’s like, just huge support for this feature, so props to them.

Q: Will we get to see any of the character creator before the game releases?

Corinne: Yes. Yes you will. You've probably seen we are laying out a roadmap for what we're gonna show and when we’re gonna talk about it. You will see it  as we get a little closer to launch.

Q: Will we be able to play as a qunari dwarf elf or human? 

Corinne: hell yeah you will. All 4. And all 4 have that full body customization. I already talked a little bit about, I’ve always loved the qunari, I will say in Dragon Age: Inquisition it was hard to get a good looking qunari hairstyle. So yes you can play as them, you can customize them, the horn options are rad, the hair options are rad. And also related to this, your lineage gives you a lot of really unique dialogue options. So that’s really one aspect of choosing your lineage as well.

John: So actually just to bounce off that, earlier questions about backgrouds. Each lineage, depending on the lineage you choose and the background you choose, there are some specific callouts to, for example, if it’s a Mournwatch, Mournwatch being from Nevarra and mages, if you play as a dwarf, obviously your experiences in that faction is going to be different from, say, a human or an elf, so there are also specific callouts tailored to those combinations and, with the intention of giving each lineage a little flavor as to how they fit into that faction as a whole.

Q: Where is barkspawn and is he ok?

John: Barkspawn is safely gnawing on a bone next to a fireplace somewhere in Ferelden. Don’t worry, he’s fine. You may ask yourself, “but John, it’s been so long.” To which I say, Mabari live exactly as long as they need to.

Q: Will Rook have a set of default name?

John: Yeah, so Rook’s last name is defined based on their faction, again we wanted to tie that into your backstory, but also there's a name generator that can give you a selection of first names, obviously if you wanted to make your own first name, that’s definitely something we support as well. If you’re somebody who maybe has a little more difficulty coming up with a name, so for example you name every single character Bob because that’s the only name you can think of, we also give that opportunity for that generation.

Q: When will the voice acting cast be announced? 

John: We worked with a lot of very talented actors on this one. I am super excited to talk about the voice acting cast, we’ll be talking about it more over the summer, we’re not quite ready to announce names yet.

Same answer for collectors editions and preorders, and required PC specs.

Q: Any special musical guests? Tavern songs? 

Corinne: Yeah there are tavern songs and a huge credit to the audio team and performance teams, because they’re pretty great. There’s one at a little tavern in Minrathous called the Swan, and the song you hear there might just be my favorite of the tavern songs.

Q: DA2's main theme brought back motifs from DAO main theme. Can we expect DAV to recall more or less of that original thematic material than inquisition? 

John: We are not quite ready to talk about music yet in specifics. But in broad strokes I can say that the process for us is always the same. Working with the composer, figuring out themes, figuring out what kinds of elements we want to keep, tying specific elements to maybe specific characters, it's very in depth process and a very collaborative process. We have some fantastic audio people on our team that have done some fantastic work, that have done an amazing job working with composers and with the team as a whole to make sure that again, we said earlier about cohesiveness, making sure that the music feels like a cohesive part of the experience.

Q: When writing the overall story of this game, what themes did you want to have as the prominent focus? 

John: Again, it’s interesting. When writing these games, and this has been true on every Dragon Age I’ve been a part of, what you start with and where you end up aren't always necessarily the same. Sometimes you start writing a theme, you realize actually it’s more interesting if you attack it from this angle, or maybe it ends up twisted a little bit. I will say for Dragon Age: the Veilguard, from the beginning one of the biggest themes has been regret. How regret shapes people’s lives, how they deal with their regrets, how maybe people move past regrets. Each of the characters and the story as a whole have elements of these. We wanted to have that thematic, that cohesiveness to the game’s story and the game’s writing.

Q: Can you play a dwarf and does the world react to your race and backstory?

John: Yes, you can play as a dwarf. Yes, the world does react to your race and backstory. And again you’ll have unique dialogues or unique conversations based on that backstory as well as that race.

Corinne: And to give you a little nugget here because I saw it scrolling through real quickly, you have beards. So when I think of dwarves, I think about glorious, fantastic beards. Hell yeah we do.

John: Yeah I can say, as somebody who plays a lot of games, the character creator—I don’t know what magic they did, but the beards, they feel like a beard should feel like, it’s great, they look awesome.

Q: Will our heroes and companions leave us if we go against their wishes? 

Corinne: Do y’all just love pain? Do you want us to make you cry? Um... if you go against their wishes and make decisions they don't like, I will tell you, you can piss them off, they might not agree with you, and they will take some time away. That said this is the biggest threat to Thedas we've ever seen, so they will always be willing to defend Thedas, but yeah you can piss them off and they’ll leave for a minute. As it relates to them showing up to defend Thedas, well yeah they will, UNLESS…

John: No spoilers, Corinne. No spoilers.

Corinne: Alright, alright. But they want it!

Q: Did any songs, books, movies, or anything inspire character writing? 

John: Art is always a synthesis of your own experiences both in the real world but also the art you consume, the art you pay attention. I don't think that any characters have a direct reference or inspiration, but yeah, they're all inspired by the things we do both in the real world and in the media we consume. And you’re gonna see elements of characters that yeah. The things that we’ve enjoyed show up in these characters. For me it comes down to, writing can be a deeply personal experience, so even if you don't intend for it to be the case, parts of you will show up in the characters. I think that’s true for all the characters in the Veilguard. Sometimes it's exploring things about yourself that you may like or may not like, and sometimes exploring things about characters you like or don't like. So that’s my longwinded way of saying yes, it’s impossible to not have that happen when you’re creating art, but I don’t think there’s one where you can say, “oh this is this character, this is this character.”

Q: What was the thinking process behind making Harding a companion this time around? 

John: When we released Inquisition, it was impossible not to see the love that people had for our murderous girl next door dwarf. She has always been a fan favorite obviously. But I think beyond that, it's something that Harding's writer wanted to explore, there was more of a story to tell there and more perspective. And beyond that Harding also has a strong connection to Solas, to Varric, and the events of the last 10 years. So I wouldn’t say it’s always been but I’d say Harding’s probably one of the first ones we settled on as like yes, this is a character we want, and the writer had a story that they wanted to tell with her, so it just made sense.

Matt: You know, actually, to piggy back on that, that’s something I hadn’t even thought about that much and it’s not a huge part of her character, but she tends to be one of the people that have the most insight into who he was.

John: Yeah that’s exactly—that’s a great way of looking at it, too, it also provides you with a little bit of perspective, for players who’ve been around for previous Dragon Age games, but also for new ones, who was Solas? What kind of character was he? Yeah it’s a great, using characters to provide windows into the world is honestly one of my favorite things.

Matt: And when I say was, I just mean in Inquisition.

John: Yes, that’s exactly, yes. Thank you for correcting that.

Q: What approach are you taking to quest and world design in the Veilguard?

John: I think for us it just comes down to relevance and narrative heft. We wanna make sure that each quest provides either a perspective on the world, a perspective on the characters, or it feels immediately and obviously relevant to what you’re doing here. You’re here to save the world. At the end of the day, one of the things that we heard loud and clear was the feedback about how relevant, or in our case not relevant, previous quests have felt, so for Veilguard, we really wanted all quests to feel like something somebody faced with the end of the world would believe was necessary and important. So again, there’s quests of all sorts and sizes, but all of them share that same feeling of, this is the kind of thing that the Veilguard would do. This is the kind of thing that my hero would do. Especially faced with the end of the world.

Corinne: That’s really good, John. That’s so right. I would just again double down on how hand crafted all the quests are. Whether you’re doing the main story or you’re journeying with your companions or you’re out exploring and you encounter a mystery, everything's hand crafted, intentional, we spend a lot of time listening to what yall said, and of course everyone has slightly different tastes, but you're not gonna be gathering shards in the Hinterlands. Everything is built with intention and they’re lovingly handcrafting the experience.

Q: Are there any locations in the game that can only be accessed by making specific story choices? 

John: So I don’t wanna get too much into spoilers here, but I will say that locations can fundamentally change based on decisions you make. Some of the parts of the world that you go to, you can have, the choices you make have an impact on how these spaces exist and develop.

Q: Will we be able to control companions in combat?

Corinne: If Rook gets KO'd, the player character gets knocked out, this time around it is time to reload your save, or better yet, the companions have really interesting progression. You can spec them out to be able to revive you, but that’s if you’ve invested in their progression and what they can do. And that said, I mentioned this earlier but I personally spend more time in the nature of this combat system when everything comes together, interacting and directing the companions than I have in any of the other games. So like that’s interactivity between them. Once you play it you’ll see just how engaged the scene is.

Q: Will Solas still occasionally or dramatically speak in iambic pentameter? 

John: I actually spent a little bit of time trying to figure out if I wanted to answer this question in iambic pentameter, and then I very quickly gave up. Massive kudos to Patrick who always writes Solas so well. Again, Solas is a returning character. It's the same Solas you know and love or hate depending on who you are. The same writer. So I think this is, the answer is yeah, it's Solas.

Q: Will our decision of who was left in the fade be important? 

John: While that decision does not show up—not for the Veilguard, now that said, that doesn’t mean that’s not a decision that won’t ever be important in the future. Not for this one.

Matt: I’m glad to hear you say that, John, because one of my favorite stories was Bob getting stuck in the web in Reboot.

John: That’s a deep cut! The sound of my childhood.

Q: Will we have mounts again? 

Matt: No, mounts were, they addressed a need in Inquisition that we don't have in Veilguard, and you’ll see why when you get to play.

Q: How is the side quest design? Will they be mostly story based or will there be a lot of radiant and quests for power like in Inquisition? 

John: We talked about this a bit earlier, but they are all hand crafted and story focused. The narrative, the companions, not just the companions but the characters and the world as a whole, are so much at the core of the Veilguard that anything other than handcrafting quests just felt like it would be a disservice to the game we were building.

Corinne: And maybe we can clarify as well, because with power was such a devisive mechanic in Inquisition, there’s no mechanic like that that blocks your progression until you fill a bar. That’s just not a thing in this. You have the autonomy to engage in these quests as you like, there’s no grind out gates before you can progress.

John: That’s right. Again we want to make sure that doing this content feels as natural and part of the logical flow of the story as possible.

Q: Will there be a similar system to war table? 

Corinne: We haven't talked much about the player's base, the Lighthouse, and we're gonna save that, but what I will say is that the Lighthouse, your headquarters so to speak, it has its own unique purposes and functions this time. So that's an area that we'll leave for you when we talk more about the Lighthouse and when you have a chance to hop in, you’ll be able to see what those unique purposes are.

Q: If there is dual wield for warriors, is it dex or str? 

Corinne: So we did wanna bring dual wielding back. It is part of the rogue kit this time, warriors are really focused on mighty two handed weapons, I can’t wait until you see, when you swing those weapons there's a real heft to it, and then of course sword and shield. So we’re leaving the dual wielding to the rogues, but you can see, the amount of hits you can get in in rapid succession dual wielding as a rogue is really satisfying.  

Q: What have been some of the challenges and advantages of working on a single game for so many years? 

John: That is a fantastic question. I have often joked, and I don’t know how much of a joke it is, that when this game is out and I suddenly don't have to keep all these pieces of game and lore and story and everything straight in my head, I'm suddenly gonna be able to speak Latin or something because there’s gonna be a ton of brain power freed up. But for me it’s just, the thing that keeps me sustained is just knowing the game we're building is the right one. Knowing that the pieces are coming together, and knowing just how much people care about this franchise, care about these games, and how excited people are going to be when they get to see the fantastic work the team has been doing. I’ve been on this project since the start, and even today I see things on a daily basis that I’m like holy smokes I can't believe what the team is doing, I can’t believe how good this looks. It's a huge game and I don't see every piece every day, so I get pleasantly surprised on a daily basis. Sometimes if I’m having a particularly long day, I'll spend about an hour late at night just watching cutscenes come in, watching the work coming together, and just sitting back and being like, holy smokes, I can’t wait for someone who hasn’t seen this every day as I have, to see this and just be blown away by the work.

Corinne: It's been very real, hasn’t it? I will just say speaking on behalf of the dev team, everyone's working so hard and putting so much passion, so much of themselves into it. This is a franchise they truly love and seeing your support cheering us on has meant a lot to them. So let me just say thank you to all of you.

[aesthetic-gamersnail]

What happened in the first family counseling session of the brothers (it contains a spoiler from Trolls 3 since it is based on the movie, so be warned)

Edit: Originates from the meme I made to this topic. Enjoy :)

Therapist: So, at the beginning I always like to begin with the question: why are you here?

The brothers are sitting on a couch in a nicely dimmed room which has green paint on the walls. The therapist sits across them in his armchair, between him and them a coffee table with a vase of fresh flowers, a cup full of pencils, a neat stack of papers and - what immediately catches Clay's eyes - a burning scented candle. (The order in which the brothers sit on the couch from left to right: Branch, Clay, Spruce, Floyd, John)

All: ...

John: Honestly, I think there is no reason for why we are here.

Bruce: And I think, that you are probably one of the main reasons why we are here. And you probably need it the most.

John: I'm sorry, but I think the real reason we are here is because our little brother's lady forced him to do it.

Branch: WHAT? *he whipped his head around* She didn't force me to do it, she recommended it to me and I took her advice because you know what? I actually CARE about our family and I think we could do a lot better.

John: Do you want to say that I don't care about this family?

Floyd: Guys, guys, please, calm down.

Branch: Geez, John, I don't know, did not really get the vibes when you said we would go our separate ways after we saved Floyd.

John: Are you still bent down on this? Look, I'm sorry that I said that but things are different now, right? We are together now, so why are still hung up on the past?

Branch: Just because something is in the past doesn't mean it doesn't have any effect on me anymore. And besides, it has been, what, two weeks ago? I wouldn't call it the past yet.

John: Potato, tomato. See, this is your problem: you take things way out of proportions and let your emotions control you.

Bruce: Well, at least he shows his emotions and talks about them, in contrast to someone else.

John: Excuse me?

Bruce: You heard me.

Clay, interrupting their talk since he also was not listening to them, asks the therapist: Is the candle not a fire hazard? Is this even allowed in such an establishment?

Floyd: Guys, please, calm down. We haven't even properly started and we are already fighting with each other. Let's all breathe for just a moment and then resume to talk.

...Silence for a few moments ...

Therapist:....So I see, there is a lot of pent up aggression going on he-

John: NOPE, no! You know what? It has been fun and all but I honestly don't want to be here anymore. So, I'll be taking my leave.

Floyd: John, plea-

John: Floyd, I'm sorry, but I really can't do it. I already know how this whole thing is going to go, therefore, why should I even stick around?

Bruce: Wait, what do you mean by tha-

Branch: Oh, because you know everything, don't you?

John slowly getting irritated with this situation, suddenly stands up and says: Listen he- *THUMP* *CRASH*

But he is interrupted by the sound of the coffee table falling to the ground. He stood up too fast and took the coffee table in his momentum with him, which made it rock back and forth, till it finally hit the ground facing the brothers. But with the coffee table, also the vase and the scented candle came to the ground. The vase bursts into many splinters which fly into the air in various directions. One splinter shoots into John's foot.

At the sight of the first drop of blood coming from his foot, John says: Oh my god, hahaha, look at that..

And passes out.

Floyd: OH MY GOD, JOHN, ARE YOU OK?

Bruce: Ohhhhhh, I remember now. He was always afraid of blood, ever since he was a kid. Did not think, it still bothered him.

Floyd: Didn't he live in the wilderness for 20 years? How did he survive?

Branch: oh my god, OH MY GOD!

Branch rolled off screaming from the couch.

While Bruce and Floyd were busy with John, the scented candle rolled it's way to the couch and ignited it.

Clay: AHA, I KNEW IT. *Clay laughs* I knew it would be a fire hazard. You have some explaining to do, mister. *he pointed his finger at the therapist, smiling*

His smile drops.

Clay:...Oh shit.

Branch: HOW DO WE PUT OUT THE FIRE? WHAT IS EVEN HERE TO PUT OUT A FIRE? *running around frantic, looking for something that would help against the fire*

Floyd: Ok, so we have an unconscious body and a fire going on. Just, d-don't FREAK out, Bruce, and stay calm!

Bruce:...I am calm.

Floyd: I SAID STAY CALM!

Clay:...Is not the first step to dealing with building fires 'Inform people in the immediate area to evacuate'? Well, *turns to the therapist* I think you should be the one to leave and warn people, AND also call 911, as we have a *stares at the unconscious John, the anxious Floyd, the confused Bruce and the frantic Branch running around* situation going on.

The therapist, staring at this whole situation in horror:...I honestly don't get paid enough for this. *flees the scene*

[fandom-skellyweirdo-jumper]

as someone who's new to writing, especially character of different ethnicity, how do you make sure to potray them accuratly and not accidently depicting stereotypes like say the yoddelers and or other future characters?

...

You know those sureal moments when it feels like a you are a little baby but than another baby comes along and asks for advice and than you realise you're either really good at making yourself look like a competent adult or you might be an older baby than you realise?

That's what I felt, no insult to you, as I read your question for the first time. Because I wrote [The Gift Basket: Trolls Edition] and I have yet to see a single word of indication letting me know if what I wrote was actually too racey/dicey yet.

And I feel like I haven't actually had a full scene to really write the Reggaeton Trio or the Kpop gang yet.

And even worse, I haven't even began looking in the direction of the Funk troll (who everyone knows are black since they're black coded).

I'm flying off the seat of my pants, honestly. And I fully believe my main reason for not portraying the yodellers are stereotypical Germans is because I don't know any German stereotypes besides strudel and maybe having anger issues.

But, sorry for the rant, I guess I still have the smallest but of advice.

Yodellers: Ask yourself if a stereotype actually applies to a character? Example: Anger german but Dickory does in fact have the personality of being grumpy and having his anger be visible compared to Hickory who's made his anger into a steely cold fury over the years.

Kpop & Reggaeton: let them drop in pieces of their language as smoothly and as often as you can when their still speaking English and if a scene feels like they would only be speaking their home language, personally, I sacrifice readability to let them speak paragraphs of their home language to each other.

Funk: research, just research culture stuff. This applies kpop and Reggaeton as well. I'm sorry idk. I feel like I would still mention thinks like grape soda because grape is the best flavor ever and it's just a common flavor. Maybe I would mention basket ball but frankly I can't see a setting where Branch somehow wonders onto a basket ball court. But I know he can see on a bar's TV some other made up Funk trolls sport that I came up with after searching Google. I just Google stuff.

I guess the biggest factor is dialogue.

What slangs do characters say? What culture moments happen while their still away from home and they mention it to their friends? What problems do they mention of home? Do I wanna make a mention of real world Spanish-speaking immigration except all the Country Trolls are cool with it and are really happy to have another pair of hands helping with farming, critter catching or whatever and stuff? Do I want to make a reference to Korean high-school bullying when I only really saw it in a Korean graphic novel and still need to do research on it? Idk.

And I'm sorry for not having a better answer or advice for you but... yeah, we're a pair of baby writers looking and asking each other questions😓😓

If you leave hear with nothing? Than just remember to do research on black people's hair and maybe other ethnic group's daily routines as well.

[honeyhonest]

7.5 thoughts and spoilers

Im making this unrebloggable because I REALLY did not think about or edit it at all. free-flowing thought process

spoilers etc etc

okay so this is going to be about malleus. I think it's cute that silver and lilia had a [squints] legal document filing scene and lilia being a teacher is pretty on par for his character so I just have nothing to say

I do NOT understand the meta reason for putting malleus in ramshackle, BUT I do have faith that this will be an important part of the next book, so I'm more curious to see what they do. here's what it DOES NOT mean:

malleyuu is implied canon or endgame

malleus has a romantic interest in yuu

and you'll read this and think, but!!!! OP, no one REALLY thinks that this cashcow game is pushing a specific pairing, that would be ridiculous and interfere with the plot and open-interpretation world for fans of the other characters! malleyuuers are only excited for more ship fodder and fanfiction opportunities!!

and to that I say: uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

no, there will literally be people who use this as evidence to "prove" that malleyuu is romantic and canon in the explicit text of the game

we already know malleus cares about yuu and sees them as a friend, that doesn't need to be proven! no one disagrees about that (unlike crowley fans, who have to argue for crowley not completely dismissing his students bc that's the general fandom consensus on him, malleus doesn't need to be defended here)

anyway, that all said, do I LIKE the change?

...

...kiiiind offffff??? like I said, it really depends on what the writing team is going to do with it in the next book. 7.5 has already set up the interscholastic spelldrive tournament as the main event, and grim ate malleus' evil rock, so supposedly that's all coming to a head, and then school will be over for summer, and THAT crops up a whole bunch of new problems I'll discuss later

...so, all that said, I already knew that malleus and the rest of the dorm were going to be big parts of the next book, but HOW and WHO and WHAT they'll be a part of is still up in the air for me. will it have to do with the staff? crowley?? raverne???? WHO KNOWS. maybe those things will never come up at all (I do believe that SOMETHING has to be there, but how big of an influence it'll have on the actual book is anyone's guess. sinclair has pointed out that the rush to get staff cards out quicker AND the presence of staff in the wish lantern event may coincide with the writing team introducing them as main characters for future books and events. or i made that up in my head, either way)

so, whatever. I think it'll be interesting to see what the narrative will do with malleus, because even though he has plot armor not even God himself could give him, he's still TECHNICALLY nerfed and will not be able to compete at full capacity for the spelldrive tournament. is it bad that I wrote this and immediately got excited because that means leona will probably have a big part in this book? god twst please make me care about the lizard

NEXT PART

so, um, I'm MUCH less sure that this is actually happening as opposed to like, an inside joke or something, but malleus at styx let's talk about that.

I... have mixed feelings

not because of the story material, but what it means for the meta

THE FIRST THING I thought was... the only reason I can really imagine the writing team doing this is to have opportunities to continue the story after the third-years have moved on to their internship year. I don't think we've gotten any actual confirmation that the story WILL continue, but this feels like a little flicker of implication- will other duos and trios get paired off to continue having misadventures after their time at NRC has come to an end??

the linear plot and silver's birthday (which confirmed that the characters DO age in the story) do support the idea of the progression of time, which I honestly wasn't sure that this game would do? does anyone remember clone high- okay so clone high was one of those "liked it before it was cool" things for me, because I am and have been DEEPLY entrenched in the western cartoon community for a very long time- WAYYYY before the underwhelming reboot was announced, I had watched all of clone high on youtube and really liked it because i was fourteen or whatever and it was edgy and weird. well, at some point (this may have been post-reboot as well) I read an interview with chris miller where he said something like, the characters would NEVER leave school. if time progressed then the writers would throw in a mcguffin plot device that would rewind time back to the first day of their freshman year so they'd have to do it all over again, because they didn't actually want to write these characters outside of a school setting

...that all to say, I sort of had the same idea for twst. not the time travel, but just the infinite timeline soup. I REALLY did not think the characters would age, let alone that the story would allow them to move out of the school setting

so, in a weird way, I do think this turn in events is setting up something for the future. like I said, maybe other unexpected 3rd year duos and trios will come out of this, and it'll be a grand old time

or they just wanted to make jokes about malleus being technologically illiterate (everyone and their mother is already doing this in the fandom and the only thing I have to say about that can be found below). and never letting idia have anything happy in his life at all, just constant sisyphean torture for this guy

but that's sort of just speculation

THE SECOND THING I thought about this was "died 2024 born 2025 welcome back coco and maya"

[waywardmillennial]

okay I got a lovely ask about the newest Get Scared episode because the ghoul boys gave their opinions on the most recent Mission Impossible movie (MI8) and I didn't want to turn that ask into a whole essay, but since this is an instance of my two biggest hyperfixations overlapping I think I need to talk about it

I tried to write this for some of my Watcher moots who maybe don't have any clue what's going on in the MI franchise without getting into too much detail

but it still got a little long - I'm sorry I'm like this ...

even before today's podcast I already knew Shane wasn't a fan because he posted this on his Instagram story on May 23rd

and, honestly, when I first saw MI8 I didn't like it either. I only rated it a 6/10 and I don't even know if I would go any higher than 7/10, even now (mostly because of the antagonists and the way large parts of it didn't feel very "Mission-like" to me... more like Top Gun 2.5... but that's a whole other post)

there are parts of MI8 that I enjoy, obviously, and it's fascinating to see as a character study of Ethan Hunt. but the main reason it's become so important to me is because my ✨Fangirl✨ tendencies were activated when the trailer dropped. otherwise I would have seen it once in theaters, been disappointed like the boys were, and never watched it again

but from wanting to dissect certain scenes with other fans, and being interested in how movies are made, and going back to rewatch all of them recently, it has given me a higher appreciation of MI8 in the past few months

but it still has its flaws. it's hard to make a perfect movie, for anyone, in any genre. and the last two MI movies had so much going on with the production being delayed by years and the final pieces of MI8 (like parts of the score and editing) not being locked into place until, I think, a week or two before the premiere - is CRAZY! I think you can feel that disjointedness when you watch it.

so I wasn't expecting the ghoul boys to like MI8 but I also wasn't expecting them to hate it this much 😔

Matt: We got the worst Mission Impossible in decades. Ryan: Oh my god, you're right. Shane: Garbage! Ryan: I mean it is THE worst Mission Impossible, I think. Shane: By a mile. Ryan: Even worse than (MI) two. Shane: Worse than two, 'cause two is a functional film. Ryan: And at least two is trying to do something…

(Get Scared timestamp link)

them saying MI8 is worse than MI2 is WILD!!

I wouldn't even go that far! and I do wonder what Ryan meant about saying MI2 had more it was trying to say than MI8. I think he is so wrong! The director of MI8 (McQ) was absolutely trying to say something! I think the final monologue of the film is a good summary for non-MI fans, even if you haven't seen any of the movies you can read this and get a sense:

"...all that is good inside us, is measured by the good we do for others. We all share the same fate -- the same future. The sum of our infinite choices. One such future is built on kindness, trust, and mutual understanding, should we choose to accept it."

^^^that's more of a commentary on humanity than MI2 was ever trying to achieve

(sorry MI2 fans, that one is in a whole other category of the franchise)

side note: before this they mentioned Fantastic 4 and how they had no reaction to it (Shane saying, deadpan, "I have seen a movie.") to then have all these opinions shows how passionate they are about the MI franchise (something something hatred can only come from passion)

I want to note this podcast ep was filmed on August 15, 2025 so I know they didn't have the chance to watch MI8 again because it wasn't released on digital until Aug 18th. and I know each time I've watched it I've gained more appreciation for it (three times in theaters and once at home with commentary)

I would really like them all to rewatch MI7 and MI8 and then give an updated review

MI7 and MI8 being such a true two-parter is unique for the franchise, and maybe part of the reason it didn't gel with broader audiences? maybe not the ghoul boys specifically because I think their media literacy is higher than most people's. but I also know Ryan doesn't even remember some of the things he himself has put on camera in the past few years lol. so I'd like to hear them (and Matt) review it after a rewatch

it would be a great WTV exclusive, to let us vote on a movie they watch and critique along the way. just sayin!

thank you if you read all of this nonsense <3

[fiberpunk027]

Writing Challenge Weekend

OH MY GOODNESS! @thedissonantverses came back swinging with this one. I am in the editing stages right now with my main WIP and honestly this was a pretty big challenge for me. Grammar is not exactly my strong suit, which is probably a horrible thing for someone who is fond of writing to say.

Here's the challenge for those who want to try it out. It definitely made me think harder about sentence structure! To be fair I may have still made some mistakes, but I tried it!

This week's is brought to you by my dear pal @1queasycrow who had a brilliant idea!!! I think this will be really good if you're struggling with writer's block like I am at the moment. Okay so the goal here is to take a current wip of yours and write six or more sentences! They don't have to be connected but they should all start with a different part of speech: noun, pronoun, verb, adjective, adverb, preposition, (conjunction, and interjection are optional). If you need a refresher and there is zero shame if you do, here's a decent link! I challenge you to go in order and to highlight your beginning word.

This WIP excerpt comes from an upcoming fic featuring my Warden Zukal Tabris, Nathaniel Howe, and her wardens in Vigil's Keep as they navigate a visit from the First Warden and the King of Ferelden, Alistair. Set 4 years after the events of my last larger story featuring her, 'She Looks Right Through Me.'

More below the cut!

Nathaniel didn’t like any of it. Whatever they had done to ensure her survival was going to come to light whether she liked it or not. It didn’t sit right with him, having grown used to her keeping her confidence over the years. Not to mention, he didn’t trust the King to act on anyone’s best interests but his own. The man may have been a Warden once, but in taking the throne he’d forsaken his oath.

He still found himself troubled as he made his way to the training grounds for that day's conditioning. But when he stopped off at the armory to grab his bow he was shocked to find Zukal there helping none other than the King get outfitted in a spare set of armor.

“Good morning, Nathaniel!” she called out cheerfully no semblance of discomfort from the night prior. She tossed a helm toward the King. “See if that will fit your big shem head.”

“Hey! I thought you liked my ‘big shem head. It’s come in handy more than a few times,” he said in his defense. “Remember that time I headbutted a hurlock when I’d lost my sword?”

“I also remember the massive head injury you suffered for it,” she laughed.

“I still managed to keep it from stabbing Wynne and giving you a chance to skewer it’s guts.”

They certainly conversed back and forth like old friends, reliving their old battles and glories, but he still wasn’t convinced. Moving to retrieve his bow he hoped to quietly observe and not have to engage, but he had no such luck.

“It’s Howe, correct?” the King asked.

He stiffened. Either the King was quite good with names and faces or he’d been speaking to Zukal about him. He knew full well how she had discussed the King with him. Had she complained to him about his worst habits, her annoyances, and his faults?

“Aye,” he affirmed with a polite though stiff nod as he shouldered his bow and began to fill a quiver with practice arrows. They were blunted enough not to pierce but still quite painful to come in contact with.

“Sorry I missed breakfast,” she said, coming to his side leaving the King on his own trying to pick an appropriate sword for his use.

“Didn't realize you were missing,” he said brusquely, trying to watch for signs of distress at her proximity either to the King or himself.

As she leaned against the wall however she appeared fine, her gaze trained on the King’s antics as he swung a sword wildly. Relative discomfort or disdain, he could expect after all these years, not friendly affection. A twinge of jealousy needled at the back of his mind, but he pushed it away. There was no reason to act foolish just because another man had her attention this morning.

“Alistair had apology jam,” she explained, inclining her head toward him slightly.

“What, pray tell, is an apology jam?” he scoffed, trying not to laugh at the absurd idea.

“I’m still not sure, but it was an acceptable bribe to join him for breakfast.” So that’s where she’d been. The knowledge did nothing for the prickling annoyance in his mind. Was it really wise they be alone together?

“What’s that about?” he asked, watching warily as the King swiped a sword through the air.

“He’s going to help with the recruits this morning,” she said.

“Can he handle that?” Nathaniel was skeptical, but the monarch did look adept enough not to get himself or anyone else hurt.

“Why not? Besides, it might be fun to watch him try?” she suggested quietly, leaning closer to him. Their eyes finally caught and for a moment looked as if she wanted to say more, but her lips remained closed and she flicked away her eyes back to the King’s escapades.

He wondered if the King had questioned her about his escape from her room this morning. What had she said to him? What even could she say? As much as the mystery needled at him he had no desire to actually discuss the situation. It would be easier if they could pretend the whole thing never happened. Even better if everything could just go right back to the way it was before the First Warden’s carriage rolled into Vigil’s Keep. From his perspective things had been perfectly fine as they were-

“Nathaniel? Is everything all right?” she asked, looking at him with genuine concern, “I’ve been trying to get your attention and it’s like you’re not even there!”

“I’m perfectly fine,” he barked, not caring for the way she peered up at him critically.

“Okay forget I asked,” she muttered. Calmingly she raised her hands in defense, she pushed away from the wall leaving him behind and heading towards the door to the armory.

“I’m sorry.” He pressed his fingers to his forehead, feeling stupid for snipping at her when she was clearly just concerned. It was the King’s fault he was trapped in his own head right now.

“Please try not take whatever is going on in that brooding head of yours out on the recruits, okay?” she said, moving to walk out of the armory. “Are you coming Alistair?”

He wanted to counter and argue with her, but was interrupted as the King slapped him on the back following behind the Commander. Brooding was not what he was doing. He was reasonably worried for her, not that she would stop fraternizing with the enemy long enough to listen to him. This was going to be trouble he just knew it, but there was work to be done.

[captainuranium543]

Why do people keep having weird beef with you? You seemed like a regular person, nice one even, but somehow you seemed to get misconstrued? A lot? Especially regarding Jerza. Which is, hmm, weird. Anyway, sorry if this is too direct and insensitive 🙇, but I have to let you know you're a pretty swell guy to me, and your art is very fun. Please keep yourself safe and secure.

If you don't mind a question after the unloading, I would like to ask, what would you have done about the concept of Mest, or Doranbolt? Like, not him in the story, just the character concept: shaky grey morals, memory manipulation magic, sketchy character, weird tics, etc. I just wanna how you'd play around with that kind of guy if he was in your hands.

Also, fun questions do you have a Fairy Tail Next Gen fankid of your ships?

Drink plenty of water 💦, sleep early regularly, may a kind month come embrace you.

Thanks man that means a lot to me im glad you enjoy my blog.

Starting out with the asks for Mest I think he is actually criminally underutilized. The magic council in general is a whole can of worms for me so I wont get to deep into that but I don't think nearly enough time is spent exploring just how fucking evil they can be. I think the concept of a fairy tail member who has been deep in the magic council for an extended period of time would give a really great opportunity to explore that side of them. Mest's morality right at the start is questionable, and I definitely think that was the councils influence because I cant imagine any fairy tail member abandoning the guild, memory wiped or not. So I think it would have been really cool to see how he got to that point. The magic council is a deeply corrupt government system to the point one of the highest ranking officials managed to run a cult on the side and nobody noticed, I think using Mest to explore that would have been a pretty great use of his character.

Also side notes, I like his relationship with Lahar, I think they play off each other well. Above all else though I think the biggest change I would have made would be not implying him to be a pedophile because what the fuck was that.

Question 2: no i do not i'm sorry😔 i've come up with some names I think the main ships would use in the past but that's about the extent of it. I can link that post here though if you wanna check it out

Lastly, as for the weird ebeef ive been in recently its honestly kind of stupid.

My opinion on jerza is kind of complicated because while I do enjoy certain aspects of it and think it has a lot of potential for a really interesting relationship, im also not a big fan of how it was executed in canon. I find a lot of the canon content tends treat their relationship more like a goal for jellals redemption rather than an actual connection between 2 people and in the process it tends to leave the characters feeling watered down in a way I find very fusterating as somone who likes them both. I've never really tried to hide that opinion, but im much more vocal about it on other platforms, which I guess leads to people feeling misled. I've blocked those people now though so hopefully we're done with all this and I can get back to doing whatever.

Edit: thats just the reason the jerza guy has beef with me, that and he doesnt like that I joke about them sometimes. As for the other two,

1- they think I sent annon hate that I didn't send

2- I misgendered one of them by accident once

Im honestly not entirely sure why they hate me so much since they also just made up a bunch of shit aswell but those are the only 2 things that actually happened besides a random argument I had with one of them that started all this like 5 months ago

In anycase, thank you so much I'm really glad you like my art. Also really glad you think i'm nice, I try to be. thank you for the ask!!

[atlasdoe]

heyy!! i’m so so so curious why u specifically love marlene and peter being childhood friends without james??

HELLO!!!!

thank you so much for asking!!

I'm going to start with the positives of why I like Marlene and Peter and then go into why I don't like them with James.

I've been headcannoning Marlene and Peter to be close since around 2019 and why I loved it was because it has a little easter egg in the originals series with Lily describing Peter as "a bit down" and assuming that it's about the McKinnons death.

I've always seen Marlene as an older sister type friend and I think her friendship with Pete is so wholesome and I totally see her taking him under her wing and defending him when no one else would. They're a fun opposites attract friendship. (and the headcanon that Peter is also the one to kill Marlene hurts my soul so much but i love it)

As for James and Peter I'm not completely opposed and I see where it can be interesting with Peter feeling left out and replaced when James becomes closer with Sirius. My main "problem" (for lack of better word) is that I like the idea that all of the Marauders are Marauders by chance.

When looking at the Marauders and their impact on not only the war but the entire wizarding world, it's really clear that if just one of the Marauders werent apart of the group then the entire fate of the wizarding world would be completely different.

I like the idea that the only criteria to be a Marauder was to literally just be a Gryffindor boy in that year. It was complete chance that these four boys would be grouped together and the fact that they were made an everlasting impact of the entire world. There are multiple butterfly effects that could've changed everything and one of those being if any of them were simply sorted into a different house, and the fact that Peter was a hatstall makes me love this so much more.

My point is, if Peter and James were childhood friends then they would've already known each other and it would be too easy to explain Peter being a Gryffindor to Peter simply wanting to be with his friend and as small and probably stupid of a reason this is to go against one of the most popular headcanons I just can't get it out of my head.

As for Marlene and James, well that ones kinda personal.

I will say that honestly I just can't see Marlene and James being friends. I headcanon that Marlene was friends with Sirius and Peter separately because she could neverrrrr put herself through spending time with all four marauders at the same time. They were four of the most annoying boys on the planet and Marlene didn't hate herself.

On top of that, the first time I ever saw anyone talk about their friendship it was 2020 and I was in the instagram fandom. I saw an edit of their friendship and at first was genially like "oh yeah they're friendship is never talked about." I then read the caption.

Now I have to be honest, there was nothing wrong with this persons headcanons, they were just a blackinnon shipper. But basically they went on about how Marlene and James were childhood best friends and were never seen without the other and how James felt left out when Marlene and Sirius started dating because it was his "best friend and his sister" and I just wasn't vibing at all. (i also really didn't like the editor as a person. there was a lot of beef going on in the fandom at that time)

Ever since every headcanon I saw of James and Marlenes friendship was something along those lines from them and their fellow blackinnon shippers and idk it made me mad that everyone kept trying to connect Marlene with every other Marauder rather then just letting her be her own character.

I don't even know if these people are still in the fandom but either way I am aware now that the internet is big enough for all of us. Despite this, I will just never like the idea of Marlene and James being childhood best friends, and again like I said, I don't even think they would work as friends that much.

Instead I hc that James was childhood friends with Alice and Barty and if by any chance you're interested about that here's my post about it :)

So yeah, I apologise that these aren't really intelectual answers and obviously I hope it goes without saying I don't have a problem with anyone who has these headcanons or any of the headcanons i say i dont like, they're just not my thing.

thank you so much for the ask <3

[asadsadlittleman]

🔥 choose violence ask game 🔥 NBC Hannibal Edition

Requested by @many-blogs (ilysm and sorry for the hella wait, also all the followers I lose for this I'm blaming on you/j)

the character everyone gets wrong - Chilton. He may have been irritating but he clocked everybody the second he walked it the room, he was never incompetent

a compelling argument for why your fave would never top or bottom - oh this is a cop out bc I am a firm switch Hannigram truther but Margot would never bottom bc she's had enough control taken from her in her life

screenshot or description of the worst take you've seen on tumblr - again no screenshot but I've seen several people say that if you're uncomfortable with dead dove stuff you shouldn't even be a fannibal and I have to say that's so unfair. You can get through a show without loving every second of toxic stuff, and I thought the whole point of proshipping was that you can choose to not engage with what you don't wanna engage with??? So like, let them not engage with it, it's their choice. Just cause they liked the cannibalism stuff doesn't mean they'll also love incest aus, that's not how it works

what was the last straw that made you finally block that annoying person? - saying that it's horrible of me to suggest their dynamic would realistically still be toxic post-fall. Like I'm allowed to have opinions?

worst discord server and why - again, not a discord person, sorry 😔

which ship fans are the most annoying? - actually I don't have beef with any ship fans in the fandom, but the people who are aggressively against popular ships are really annoying to me. like, to each their own, but y'all are yapping nonstop about how awful the dynamic is as if that isn't the whole point. like they literally use all the reasons it's interesting as gotchas about it being bad as if none of us ever considered that. like THATS THE REASON ITS GOOD

what character did you begin to hate not because of canon but because how how the fandom acts about them? - Abigail. I still don't super hate her character, but everybody paints her as either a cold blooded killer who chose it all or an innocent little baby who never did anything wrong. I feel like the fanon version of her is annoying and canon is way better (IN MY OPINIONNN)

common fandom opinion that everyone is wrong about - I don't think Margot and Alana were actually that sudden of a relationship, I think the showrunners just didn't have time to give us the full development. iirc they were living together for years, I don't think there could've been zero spark whatsoever between them and I honestly think there was flirting that we just didn't see bc there was so much other stuff happening

worst part of canon - molly and will's marriage

worst part of fanon - I actually love most of fanon, so I'll just say what confuses me: who decided they go to Cuba? everything everywhere says they're in Cuba post-fall unless it's specifically another place for a particular purpose. does he have a safehouse there in canon? like who came up with it? did the actors or bryan mention it at some point? I'm confused chat

number of fandom-related words you've filtered - none actually, I'm super proud of myself for that. again, I'm super open to seeing new stuff, and if I don't like it, I intend to block, I've just never had a need to do that

the unpopular character that you actually like and why more people should like them - Jack. don't get me wrong I don't like the way he treats people, it's just that I feel he's such a fun character to play around with because he really doesn't have that much personality and you can adapt him to a ton of roles. his main thing is that he values public safety over his team's mental health and you can do so much with that imo

worst blorboficiation - molly. I'm sorry but stop acting like she was anything special. I forgot she existed the second she was off screen idk how some people convince themselves she's so iconic

that one thing you see in fics all the time - hannigram foreplay consisting of one of them saying "you'll have to catch me first" or "I'll give you a headstart" and then them chasing and fighting each other

that one thing you see in fanart all the time - um does cannibalism count. if not, will's ass

you can't understand why so many people like this thing (characterization, trope, headcanon, etc) - hannibal immediately forgiving will post-fall. like, patching him up? sure. but straight up forgiving him? that'll take time for sure man

there should be more of this type of fic/art - having regressive or non-speaking episodes. I LOVE THEM EVERY TIME I NEED MORE. also gunplay

it's absolutely criminal that the fandom has been sleeping on... - zeller and price and katz GIVE ME SCIENCE POLYCULE specifically I need bev to be a fujo

you're mad/ashamed/horrified you actually kind of like... - zeller having a crush on will like that's one of my favorite headcanons and it changes almost nothing

part of canon you found tedious or boring - this is a little evil to say but. bella dying. and her cancer and all. like sure okay sad but LETS GET BACK TO THE PLOT

part of canon you think is overhyped - the fall. I understand why people love it so much but it's honestly second to them killing dolarhyde together in my mind. that and will saying it's beautiful are so much more important than the fall to me, even if it was a huge display of their love and all

your favorite part of canon that everyone else ignores - I wouldn't say everybody ignores it but the season one dynamic. I fear it does not get the attention it deserves whatsoever that was the queerest shit I've ever seen in several senses of the word

ship you've unwillingly come around to - bev and alana, I didn't see anything in it at first but I can now understand how awesome it would've been if they got to lez out

topic that brings up the most rancid discourse - mason.

common fandom complaint that you're sick of hearing - how they didn't kiss before the fall. DID YOU NOT GET THE POINT OF THE SHOW. the whole thing is about how whatever the fuck they had going on was WAY gayer than even gay sex would be, how can you honestly think kissing would make it any more romantic. it would add nothing i fear. like I wanna see them kiss too but RIGHT THEN? no absolutely not that would water down the scene imo

[alexdswfan]

Hi, Alex (is it okay to call you Alex?). So, I'm sure you saw all my comments back and forth on your meta post. I had the opportunity of trying to understand the other person's view better, and I saw you edited your post in regards to my own reblog and someone else's, to contradict their perspective. I think you may have misunderstood part of it, though.

"[W]anting to learn how to get better at something is not trying to be manipulative" and "It makes sense they would be interested in Levi's strength without any ulterior motive, which I personally don't even see what it could be" suggest you're thinking of something else, but I believe what they're trying to say is that Hange is interested in Levi's skill, and in an attempt to get him and his friends to reveal it, acts in a friendly way (and bribes Isabel). The "ulterior motive" is the curiosity itself, even though it's made plain. I think from their perspective, Hange is basically sweet talking them so they have a higher chance of getting their information.

I'm not in agreement, so I'm not here picking a bone, but just because I try to promote polite debate and all that fun stuff, I thought you may want to know in case you want to correct the wording of your edit in order to properly convey their argument.

Hi @starshower1215!

Yes, absolutely, you can call me Alex! I genuinely appreciate all that back and forth, it does add to the conversation. I’ve just been a bit surprised by the interpretation Hange could be manipulative with Levi in that scene since it’s really the first time I’ve heard that take about this scene (of course, there’s always a first for everything and I'm not here pretending I know every single argument in the fandom, but nonetheless, it still took me by surprise).

I personally don’t see curiosity as something to state that Hange tried to be manipulative with Levi, nor Hange actually tried to bribe Isabel. I’m sorry if I’m being a little passionate about this lolol, but I respectfully disagree with the idea Hange could even try to be manipulative with Levi and his friends in this scene. I understand Hange can be manipulative and we’ve seen them be manipulative in the story towards other characters, however I don’t see how that supports how Hange was manipulative towards Levi as Hange has never been manipulative with him in particular throughout the story (and I stand by that). The fact that Hange wanted to learn from them all isn’t bad per se.

I appreciate you trying to be polite in the debate, and I might word that section of that edit a bit differently, but with all due respect, I completely disagree with the idea that Hange could be manipulative with Levi and his friends in that scene, and I wanted to include my own thoughts on this debate I’ve honestly never seen until now to be completely honest with you. As I stated in my latest comment, Levi and Hange’s relationship is not built on manipulation, so I don’t see why we would see it in their very first meeting. For me, this interpretation doesn’t really make sense in my humble opinion, and I’ve already stated why. To imply that Hange would be like the guy with glasses from Bad Boy, who actually used his “kindness” to manipulate Levi, is really an insult to Hange’s character (and I want to be clear that I agree with you that Levi might’ve thought Hange was like him at first, but obviously they were not as Levi got to learn Hange better over the years).

I genuinely appreciate your reblog though, but as I said, for me, in order to see Hange manipulate Levi in their first meeting, I need to see a reason why they would do it, and I genuinely can’t see any. And I don’t really consider Hange’s curiosity as this ulterior motive to manipulate Levi. That being said, I will change my wording (I’m sorry if it felt a bit direct though), but my thoughts on this debate remain the same. I think we can absolutely agree to disagree though, so I’ll leave it at that. But the main argument of my post, which is that Hange tried to befriend Levi, Furlan and Isabel genuinely regardless of what they might’ve thought of it at the very beginning, still stands. I don’t think I misinterpreted Hange’s actions at all in my post. But again, we can agree to disagree. I think this is the best action we can take in this particular situation.

But yeah, thanks for the ask and thanks for your input on the scene as well!

[crescencestudio]

Devlog #35 | 09.26.23

Hi everyone!

Hope the beginning of Fall has been kind to you all <3 To be Frank, it has not been Kind to me LMFAO. But I'll get into that, so let's dive in yippee!

Before I do, someone liked this post recently, which was such a throwback. It was before the full demo was out and everything!! I was so young and full of life. I'm going to sprinkle some comparison shots of the new assets with the old ones to break up the text and also walk down memory lane with me! (Full GUI not shown as I'm still waiting on the assets)

Chapter Cards (Left: After | Right: Before)

The "Progress"

I'm going to structure this devlog a little differently from the usual template. The main reason being, for those of you who didn't see, I have not been feeling Myself recently.

This month I found myself all out of sorts. While I felt like I was making progress and doing so much everyday read: fighting for my life, when I looked back on things at the end of this month, I didn't feel like I really did much.

On a higher level, I finished fulfilling Kickstarter physical rewards, opened a Kofi shop of the remaining merch, edited Druk's route and continued writing Etza's route, updated assets and code for the updated demo, and then general commission stuff (BGs from Vui, soundtracks from Peter, etc.).

But overall, Alaris felt largely like it was kinda sitting at around the same spot as it did when I entered this month. Which made me a little sad! I had wanted to make So Much Progress on Alaris because next month I won't be able to work on it really. Then, I realized I haven't taken a break from game development since I started it two years ago HA!!!

The Real Progress

Development for me has been back-to-back. Chapter releases every 1-2 months during my first half year of development, Full Demo release shortly after, Kickstarter shortly after, Full Game Development shortly after. When I was feeling burnt out from Alaris, I made intertwine. Then I was Heavily Involved in the development of two games shortly after.

All of this on top of my IRL responsibilities, which include a job, PhD school, and well, functioning as a normal human occasionally.

And then here we are at the end of September 2023, and I'm wondering why even though I creatively want to work on Alaris, I find my brain literally just getting too tired to think.

Etza CG (Left: After | Right: Before)

I think ever since the Kickstarter, I've put a lot of pressure on myself to consistently put out LOTS of updates for each monthly devlog. I don't want people to think I'm not working on things or I'm not committed to delivering after giving me their hard earned money. But now, with two years under my belt, I'm realizing that is... HMM maybe too high of a standard to put on myself for my first game ever. There are many much more seasoned developers than me who don't put that pressure on themselves (which is Good and Healthy).

So this month, I debated scrounging around and gathering all my crumbs to give you all a devlog that you'll be satisfied with. But I decided ultimately that wouldn't be good for me and would honestly not be the most transparent way to present the current process of things.

And so. Here I am. Head in my Hands. Letting you all know that while I'm not "burnt out," I am.... only human LOL (one human at that). And so some months, like this one, will just not have much progress to report. Not because I'm not working on it or any other deeper reason. But because it's physically impossible and unreasonable for me to be continuously pushing out a steady stream of content.

In-Game Sprites & BGs (Left: After | Right: Before)

Next month, I'lll be taking a vacation. It's actually my first Big, Official one in a Long Time! I'm very excited for it. And while I did initially think about working on Alaris while I was traveling on trains or things like that, I decided to respect my own need to be a Human and just take a break for once in my life. I don't even want to say I Might work on things, because that sentiment alone will pressure me to make some progress. So yes. Next month, there will be no devlog or updates. But please rest assured, I am "working on Alaris" by letting myself just Exist and Rest Up!

Not an Alaris screenshot but it is market research that deserves to be included because I played House in Fata Morgana recently and it was Phenomenal!

Thank you all for understanding and your continued support. I'm extremely appreciative to have such a kind and patient community. Hope you all have a wonderful October filled with Fall Treats, and I'll see you in November! <3

[andreal831]

Do you think the TVDU lacked female friendships in its shows? Like, I can’t think of any meaningful female friendships in TVD outside of Elena, Bonnie, and Caroline. The women were always either not getting along or had very little interaction.

I think TO was worse when it came to this. Outside of the occasional Hayley/Rebekah, Hayley/Cami scenes, the women didn’t really interact. Though I think this is more so due to TO not really focusing on any relationships that weren’t familial. (And the lack of female characters in general.) Hayley and Freya were the only two female characters who were main characters for the majority of the show, yet their friendship only blossomed offscreen between the s4 and s5 time jump.

While I’m not a fan of Legacies, I think that show definitely did better with this aspect with Hope/Lizzie, Hope/Josie, etc.

Anyway, I love your blog and would love to hear your thoughts on this!

Hi love! I love to discuss female friendships and the lack of them in TVDU.

I feel like the show loved to have these friendships in the background but put almost zero effort into them.

I will always love Bonnie, Elena, and Caroline. I especially loved Bonnie and Caroline's bond after Elena left. Yes, they all had problems and at times weren't the best of friends, but the bond was always there. They were all willing to sacrifice themselves for each other. But the most important aspect of their friendship was the day to day. I loved the little moments of friendship we got throughout the show. There were definitely things I would change and improve but they had the best friendship in the show.

Now, in TO, we get almost nothing. Like I said, we have background friendships, Hayley/Rebekah, Hayley/Cami, Rebekah/Davina, Hayley/Davina, etc. But the show invests almost no time in the friendships. I agree with your point that TO just didn't "waste" time on relationships, romantic or platonic. It is one of my biggest complaints. We hardly got any scenes of just pure friendship. To me, the best TO friendship is Davina and Josh and even that is limited.

In TO, the women tend to revolve around the men because the show revolves around the Mikaelson men, and more specifically Klaus. Even when the women are interacting, they are often interacting because of the men. We finally see a good friendship between women in the later seasons, Hayley and Freya, and as you said, it happens off screen and only after the Mikaelson men are forced out of NOLA.

I do think it would have been different had Claire Holt been able to stay on the show as a main character. Season 1 showed her friendships with Davina and Hayley and I think her and Cami would have bonded quickly. Unfortunately she wasn't able to and the show was still going to revolve around the Mikaelsons. They tried to just pass the relationships onto Freya as Rebekah's replacement, but there was just too much already going on at that point and they were having to build up her relationship with her family (the men) from nothing. Unlike Rebekah who already had established relationships with her brothers. This made Freya's relationships with the other women more strained.

Also, I would be remiss if I don't mention this is another reason Cami's death was so stupid. She was a central figure, uniting the different characters, and had probably the most important relationships with other women.

Honestly, the edits I've seen of Hope, Lizzie, and Josie are the only reason I debate watching Legacies. It seems like the show did a better job of recapturing the TVD friendships and even improved upon it.

Thank you for the ask and for reading my long winded metas <33

[lilolilyr]

For "Being Known" (Helena writer, Myka actress): 2 and 3, 6 and/or 7 (whichever you like better, or both), and 9!

Ah, thank you! My longest Bering and Wells fic to date :D

Moodboard & header for the fic, and Here's the ask meme

2. How did you come up with the idea?

It was part of a gift exchange, and my giftee had asked for a pop culture AU, with some fusion prompts for fandoms I didn't know very well - so instead of trying to find out enough about eg Buffy the Vampire Slayer to write a fic in that world, I asked whether a celebrity AU would work, and here we are!

3. Did the idea change at all by the time the fic was complete?

I expanded my initial idea a lot - adding Steve, Leena, Artie, Caturanga, Jane and Amanda, I'm pretty sure initially it was just supposed to be HG and Myka with side characters Claudia and Pete. I don't remember exactly what the plan was and what came later, apart from having the idea of Helena's conflict about wanting to remain anonymous while being passionate about something that could bring her a lot of fame early on...I'll have to see whether I still have my initial draft somewhere and I can add it at the end of the post, I tend to write in messages on telegram and copy paste them to an ao3 draft or word doc once I start editing, so the messages should still be the original first draft.

I think I was unsure whether or not I should add an AU-ified Christina related backstory and work that into part of the reason for Helena's reluctance over fame, I had several ideas about her own childhood, her knowing a child something happened to, or actually writing Christina into her backstory... I went back and forth between Christina being a child star and Helena herself being one, I think in the end I just made Helena one because it worked better for the story though I would have liked to have more Christina backstory, but oh well, kill your darlings.

6. How did you decide what tense and POV(s)to use? / 7. How did you decide what character(s) would narrate the fic?

Honestly, I rarely decide that kind of thing consciously - I guess if you want to write something commercially there are lots of things to consider, but I write for fun and I'll write wherever my ideas bring me. Sometimes I'll notice a scene works better from a different POV and I change it, but usually it just happens one way and then it's fine to leave it as is

In this case I think I immediately knew it would mainly be Helena's POV because it's really her story I wanted to tell.

9. Did you get stuck at any point? How did you get past that?

Claudia! Hah, I mean I didn't get stuck on her, but that I used her to get past difficult scenes, giving Helena a much needed push! Especially near the end, when it comes to Helena accepting the possibility of a relationship between her and Myka.

Thank you so much for the ask! This was fun to talk about :)

.

This is my draft for the fic, the way it was written (in a messenger chat with just myself in it, as I start most fics) in one go, before making any edits at all!

You'll notice a lot of 'xx' markers - because there aren't really any words with that, it's easy to search a text for that later on, so whenever I know I still need to fix something - add a sentence, translate a word, edit bullet points into paragraph, add entire scenes - I write XX to mark it for later.

wip bering and wells author actress AU for anandabrat

Working title The Perfect Warrior

HG (former child actor turned?) writer under pseudonym hiding from fame (bc burned out from kid fame?), slowly getting back into acting, does improv for fun

Myka either star there to help 'learning' amateur actors for xxkomparsen? Or she's a newcomer and HG is back on film?

Claudia's HG's friend, Pete Myka's

ohhh what about Helena's book being verfilmt & Myka main role, HG making sure she won't be overwhelmed..

xxx

xxflashback seven months prior

"H.G., I'm coming in!"

Helena covers her head with a pillow when she hears Claudia Donovan's shouting from the backyard before a well-aimed kick against the old garden door has it fling open.

"Breaking and entering, really?" Helena's muffled voice lets Claudia know where she is. "I would have thought that petty crime is belowxx you."

"Come oooon," Claudia pulls the pillow from her face and Helena is left squinting at the sudden light. "We're going out! A friend of mine has a gallery opening, and there's bound to be a crowd of interesting people there!"

"I can't," Helena grouches. "I have to write, I still haven't finished either of those silly sequels my agents want me to work on."

"Riiight," Claudia nods, juggling the pillow between her hands. "Because that's what you were doing right now. Writing."

"Oh, cut the sarcasm." Helena growls. She is in a bad enough mood without Claudia butting in and making it worse.

"Alright then." Instead of backing down, Claudia throws the pillow onto the bed and, hands on her hips, stares Helena down. "I'll speak xxklartext. You're wasting away here, H.G.! You hate the books you're supposed to write, you refuse to write anything else either, you haven't seen any of our friends in months and now you're getting your groceries delivered so you don't even have to leave the house? That's the final straw!"

"Who snitched on me," Helena xx Leena?sbcanonordontmention

"It'll be good for you," Claudia insists. "You can dazzle everyone with your Wikipedia brain, and maybe you'll meet a xxverleger who wants to publish one of your weirder novellas. Come on, get up. get up, if not for yourself then do it for me because there's no way I'll go schmooze with the rich and famous all on my own!"

"I still cannot believe you managed to talk me into this," Helena sighs, looking at the xx and bustle around her.

"I'm up, I'm up," Helena sighs and avoidsxxausweichen Claudia's attempt to pull her from the bed by sitting up. "Alright, what exactly is this opening we're going to?"

...

Laughing, herxxfriend Claudia bumps their elbows together. "You better believe it, there's no getting out of it now! And this will be good for you! xx I'm happy for you, H.G., this is a dream come true!" She twirls around without missing a step, taking it all in.

"The fact that it makes you xxgoodposition takes no part in it, I'm sure." Helena deflects. She doesn't want to admit that Claudia is right and she is thrilled to have her characters coming to life for the big screen - nor does she want it known that, despite all the negotiations and concessions on side of the production studio, she is still afraid that she won't recognise the world she created once the movie is done. Will they do justice to the worlds of trees and cogwheels, to the unseeing creator and the warrior with the unruly hair? Will they listen to Helena when she has suggestions, will the stick to the details from the book, will it even be possible to transfer it to the new medium?

This and more goes through Helena's mind as she lets Claudia drag her along over the big parking lot and storage area, past trucks with equipment and the xxvans for cast and crew towards the xxhall.

first time sees Myka - the perfect xxcharactername warrior.

xx looks after her xx her hair xx in the wind, a sharp edge to her big brown eyes that negates anything childish about their shape, xx stepping out of the camper

xx C hey, we're not here to flirt! Can't believe I need to say that to you, you're like, the least likely person xx xx pretty girl

xx not what - I mean yes beautiful, but not what that wasabout -

xx oh /beauuutiful

xx shut up Donovan

xx later sees Myka in makeup all *sideeye* what did you do to my xxcharactername

argument - need makeup! Looks silly on camera without, different than irl!

HG: well if so, just makeup that makes it look decent with the lights and closeups, NOT that kind of obvious eye makeup, and who had the idea that a warrior in a cyberpunk dystopia would need a bold red lip? Or shaved pits?

xx Myka uncomfortable, thinks she has done something wrong, especially when sent back out in the middle of the scene, doesn't notice the argument

co-star Pete tries to comfort her

xxMyka thinks maybe this was bad idea, should quit

xx HG will Not lose my warrior!

(xx Myka in trouble

xx HG kann wen zusammenscheißen, makes sure Myka's fine)

xx from then on Helena trying to keep an eye on Myka, asks how she's dealing with the pressure, what her plans are for if she'll be famous after this project, whether she has a good agent to protect her interests, etc... (eg where u live? city apartment...

H:security? M:none?? H:myself, nature away from most people M: wish could affort...)

Myka: know you're just doing this because you think I'm a good fit for the character and you don't want it to be ruined by me quitting, but I still really appreciate

HG: what?? No, am doing this - well, would for everyone! Know how it is, when I was a kid... nevermind. But, care about you too

Myka finds out why HG is so wary about fame

go to premiere together - "don't have to hold a speech, don't even have to tell anyone who you are, but at least go as my date?"

As usual, I had a first scene instantly in my head, then started thinking quicker than I could write and had to note down bullet points so I wouldn't forget anything xD

Again, thanks for the ask :)

[vivacia-18]

Rupees as crystallized magic, and other LOZ thoughts...

Was thinking of Zelda stuff the other night when I was out walking my doggo (as one does) and I kinda wanted to list it out here to keep track of it. Don't take anything too seriously, this is just musing for fun, but feel free to adopt any ideas that strike your fancy.

Edit: This got long so I'm going to put it under a cut ^^;

The main setting for this is BOTW (with some TotK tie in) because it's a very fun sandbox to play in, though I absolutely pull from other games

While it's a bit of a stretch, I like to amuse myself with the headcanon that Link can naturally see - and therefore interact with - the magical and supernatural, whereas most people can't. You need to have magic/magical abilities like the Champions and Sheikah/Yiga (or divine liek Zelda... or both like Gan lol) just to have a shot, and the weaker/less trained you are the less you can see/interact. Normal people can't see shit without outside intervention, eg a device like the eye of truth or the magical being in question themselves. That's why NPC's are always so chill when you do crazy shit near them - they literally can't perceive most of what you are doing.

In that vein, this is also why no one else does stuff like harvest rupees from grass or pots - they literally can't because they don't have the magic to perceive them.

Following that, I wondered what might be a good in-universe reason for great fairies to love rupees so much. My thought, which I honestly quite like as it ties things together quite neatly, is that rupees are crystallized magic. They are inert, they can't channel any sort of powers... but for a being made of pure magic like the great fairies, they sure are tasty!

I like to think that the different coloured rupees have different flavours/magical concentration, and so part of the reason not all the great fairies have equal power for upgrading your stuff is because they favour different flavours of rupees. The weakest likes the green ones, with some blue thrown in for funsies. Are they nutritious? Not really, but damn are they tasty. The most powerful obviously likes silver and gold rupees best, though purple are tasty too. They also have more kick, so they can do more to upgrade your stuff ;)

Back to the rupees being crystallized magic, and why they appear... I think it's just another consequence of Hyrule being a literally very magical land that tends to manifest things to bleed it off (eg the stall creatures rising naturally every night). For the rupees that are visible, like under peoples houses and such, I like to think the blupees put them there for fun. For pots, I think as the clay to make the pots came from Hyrules soil it's no surprise they retain the ability to manifest rupees on occasion.

The TotK tie in with all this I was daydreaming on is a classic "What if Link was the one who went to the past" (... admittedly because in this particular AU Zelda didn't live at the end of BOTW - she was a spirit just like the former Champions and dissipated at the end of everything along with them. Sorry guys!)

Aaaaanyways, Link gets a report about weird stuff at the castle, checks it out, ends up in the past, etc etc.

Takes it pretty well (our boy knows how to roll with the punches lol) and Rauru and Sonia basically adult adopt him (he's CUTE dammit, and so carefree but sometimes he just seems so SAD, y'know?)

In this AU Gan and the Gerudo are not immediately attacking; he and a Gerudo party are in fact visiting for diplomatic reasons (aka spying because knowledge is Power and all that) though tensions are definitely high

So obviously they are a common topic of conversation between Rauru, Sonia and Link.

During one of these chats, Link mentions that yeah he can see why the Gerudo would feel the Hylians had it easier to accumulate wealth - harvesting rupees from grass is way faster than from pots and sand dunes afterall.

And Rauru and Sonia just... stare at him. Because wtf? Leading to a whole demonstration of Link whacking grass and breking pots (with permission!) and rupees sprouting up.

And some very confused civilians who can't see the rupees until they appear in Links hands lol

Raura and Sonia could always see them, buuuut they're royalty - they aren't lacking for money and they don't cut grass or break pottery for funsies, so it's never really come up.

Also had vague ideas of a scene where Gan does something impressive with swordplay (like I dunno, an exhibition where he slices through a huge boulder like butter) and Link, hanging out with some of the Gerudo party, is admittedly impressed. But not by the muscle, no; he's impressed at the precise application of raw magic on the edge of the sword to achieve that. There was no elemental bleed through even, just pure power! That's hard to do!

And once again our companion just. Stares. Because whot he fuck is this twink to be able to perceive Lord Ganons magical workings in such detail?! At a single glance?!?!

She drags him over to Gan and gets him to say that all again. Link is very bemused but gamely does so.

Gan in turn is intrigued (and begrudgingly impressed not that he'd ever admit it) because he definitely thought Link was weak at worst and strictly a skilled meathead at best. Who's have thought he actually knew so many big words, let alone had a natural gift with magic?

Sidenote Link can use any magical device with ease and channel a power someone gives him (like the magical equivalent to type O blood), but he can't craft his own magic (outside of the kitchen ;P) worth shit.

Walkies ended there so that's about as far as I got, but I think you see my vision.

Kudos and a cookie if you read this ramble all the way to the end lol.

[freevoidman]

The Pros and Cons of Silent Hill: Ascension

Hey there! Are you planning on sitting through Silent Hill Ascension, either because you're excited, want to build up hype/support for further Silent Hill projects, or maybe you're curious about what new shit show Konami's cooked up? Well, I've sat through the first two days, and let this post be a quick run-through on the good, the bad, and the very, very ugly about Silent Hill: Ascension!

Pros:

There's honestly very little, but I'll run through them nonetheless.

Voice Acting is, right now, okay. Some actors are clearly better than others. I have to give special shout-outs to Rachel Hernandez and Xavier Candless. They're both doing really well with their characters so far and I'm excited to hear how they'll act in more emotive scenes. Of course, we're only two days in so we'll see how that changes.

Silent Hill Ascension features minigames which average around "okay." I'll talk about it more in the 'Bad' section, but the good ones are fun little brain teasers that I find satisfying enough to solve. This is not across the board, but it's enough of a positive that I felt it okay to list.

The site is functional enough that the catch-up videos seemed to work without any hiccups (edit: so long as there isn't a livestream occurring at the same time. If you want to play catch-up 30 minutes before the new stuff is released, odds are the livestream will cut in and mess up your video). Plus, the grace period for decision making is very generous so far, ranging from a full 24 hours to multiple days, so they do give you enough time if you can't watch live.

Credit where credit is due: the monster/creature designs are genuinely well-made. You can clearly see where the budget went, and it was towards making these things look cool and be animated well enough to translate that creepy factor. While nothing is abundantly original right now (we've yet to see the flaming box head guy) I won't short-change the monster designers and animators here, they put effort into this.

There was a bit of misinformation spread around that you'd have to pay to participate. Thankfully, that's not true, you can "play" Ascension without paying a cent and I, personally, wouldn't call this a "pay-to-win" type of game with its set-up. In other words: DO NOT PAY, it's absolutely not worth it here.

Bad:

Animation quality shifts from middling to horrible. The main criticism I have for this "experimental idea" is that everything Ascension tries, the 2000s nailed long before. If you've ever seen one of those 3D straight-to-TV movies that airs on cartoon networks during the holidays, congrats, their animation is likely better and has more charm than Ascension. Characters in Ascension move stiffly, either emote too much or not enough, and lip syncing seems off no matter which language you pick. Animation in SH1 is easily better than this, so don't expect a visual spectacle.

As an addendum to this: Ascension is dark--no, not the content, it is literally hard to see. Going into a Silent Hill-adjacent media, you expect visibility to be impacted by fog. Ascension, on the other hand, skips the fog entirely and just makes everything dark. It is incredibly difficult to see anything that's happening (this includes QTEs which, hoo boy! look at the next segment for that). I don't want to be cynical, but I truly do believe that part of the reason why is to cover up the stiff animation. Until Dawn and other Dark Anthology games had some moments of animation weirdness, but Silent Hill Ascension is easily worse than that on a pure technical level.

App and website responsivity is baaad. Minigames are designed for both platforms with zero differences, but this means some minigames are better on desktop than on mobile and vice versa. Two minigames stand out as particularly mixed/bad: a find-the-object game and a guitar minigame. The find-the-object game was better on desktop because your hovering cursor could find clickable areas more easily than on mobile. The guitar minigame was just bad--it wasn't a rhythm game, it was a game where you had to click finger positions for chords on the guitar strings and, my god, it played horribly no matter which platform I picked (though mobile was noticeably worse) and actually hurt my ears.

As an addendum to that, the live QTE events (yes that's a thing) ALSO suffer from this lack of responsivity, with more destructive results. Live participants were abruptly thrust into QTEs with no warning, no tutorials, and no preparation. There were 4 types of QTEs: a quick button press, a hold-release button, a rapid-tap, and a quick swipe. Of these, only the hold-release and rapid-tap worked regularly. The quick press barely responded, and the swipe indicator is practically hidden due to it being borderline invisible.* While you can try the minigames over and over as much as you want, the QTEs are limited to the live showings and cannot be "replayed." In addition, they have been heavily implied to be a major determining factor as to whether or not characters survive, so if every character's fate is based on successful QTEs, every character is going to die in this show, no matter what you do. This is why I said it's not pay-to-win, you can't pay your way through live QTEs, and this set-up feeds into the unsatisfactory system the entire "game" perpetuates. Even if YOU do well, decisions are based on the community, so if they fail, tough nugs.

The story isn't shaping up to be anything remarkable. There's no major hook in the opening scene and even less of a hook for the three scenes that followed. I'm not intrigued by the "horror" being shown, the way this is being shot and told is more confusing than anything else and, while there are some 'good' actors in this, a majority of them are bad and lack any hutzpah to sell the continued experience. I'm going to hold out for the end of the week, when the first "episode" is done airing, but if nothing hooks me I'm not going to continue.

Ugly:

The "Battlepass." Oh dear god the Battlepass. By paying $20, you can get more "influence points," which you can use to determine actions in this game. You also get exclusive little emote stickers for the live chat (oof) that are, at best, a cringey nightmare and, at worst, absolutely stupid and useless. You also get accessories for your avatar (did I mention there's an avatar? it's so pointless I don't even know WHERE to put that tidbit). Why is this even here? You already have freemium options where you can buy influence points, what does a battlepass add?

The "live chat" just shouldn't be there. I'm sorry, it shouldn't. You can already see the community casting votes and helping with QTEs, having a live chat that is barely moderated with hundreds of thousands of people signing on at 9 to watch the stupidity unfold is a bad idea. It also contributes to the stupidity of the Battlepass system--I don't want emotes, I don't want a 3D avatar that can appear in the show if I give enough points--so nix the whole thing. EDIT 11/1/2023: I kinda got my wish! After the amazing lack of moderation on launch, they've either temporarily OR permanently disabled the live chat! Unfortunately, the video's dimensions to compensate FOR live chat have not been altered, so there's a big gap of black negative space where it should be. People can only reply with the dumb stickers the devs have shoved into this, BUT if you have the battlepass, you can apparently type messages! Ironically, this retroactively gives the battle pass an actual fucking purpose since it gives you a privilege, and the stickers serve a purpose since they're the only way for non-battlepassers to communicate in live chat. Fucking brilliant, they've stumbled backwards into an unintentional solution. EDIT 11/4/2023: Genvid's CEO, Jacob Navok, has made various claims on twitter that of course they tested they tested their AI moderation for basic slurs, it's just that the system got overwhelmed by day 1 traffic. Well, I absolutely DON'T believe that (the testing, not the overwhelmed thing, connection and stability were terrible day 1) seeing as people are getting around not being able to TYPE swearing and horrific racial slurs into chat by simply making their usernames swears and slurs without any letter substitution (a la leetspeak). Here is a link to a video of someone who was streaming Ascension and had the chat open, only to see have someone with the user name "Fuck_[n-word]s" in chat (I'm not typing the actual slur fuck that). When he goes to try and flag the user, he is given no ability to report the username. So, yeah, even if you see some incredibly racist/bigoted shit, you can't flag the user and report them to, y'know, assist with the absolutely real robot-powered moderation that totally exists! If there was the most BASIC moderation in the world to catch english swears and slurs, that username would not have been permitted under any circumstances, so I fully do not believe this fucker.

The decisions themselves shouldn't have labels. What I mean by that is that, so far, every option has three possible options. These options are labelled under three categories: redemption, suffering, and damnation. In other words, the watcher can literally see the paths leading towards the "good, neutral, and bad" endings for Ascension. This shouldn't be a thing, period, because it immediately introduces biases into your choices. Every option so far has been massively skewed towards the "redemption" path because people aren't blind, they can see the "good" ending on the horizon, and they want to go for it. The worst part is, the options on their on aren't explicitly good or bad, so if they got rid of that labeling it'd still work. idk, it just feels stupid. (NOTE: day 2 introduced ONE choice that doesn't have this same labeling system. No clue if that's a bug or if there are going to be decisions that don't have a label. Even then, it seems like a small decision in the overall scheme of things, so... :shrug:)

Yes, the decisions are permanent, thus denying you the ability to see 2/3s of whatever Genvids has worked on. I just think that's dumb and, though many in the community have criticized this already, it feels even dumber when watching the show play out live. There's no way that the money Ascension could possibly make would subsidize the effort put into this if you're effectively nixing 2/3s of anything you can see (and it does seem like major alterations to the characters and their routes so far, nothing minor, so... yeah, you're missing out on a LOT). This also means that because of the audience effectively being enticed to pick the clearly labelled "good path," if you put any effort into a different choice, odds are you wasted your time with minigames for the day. This means Ascension is set up to be as unsatisfying as possible for individuals, and only satiates half of the community engaging with it. There is no way this is going to last the entire scheduled 6 months this is intended to run for if this is the system they're operating under.

In conclusion: give this one a pass. If you're really curious, you can watch now and get a good idea of its future quality. This isn't remarkable at all and looks more like a time sink than anything "fun."

I still don't understand why this isn't a video game, other than Konami hoping some suckers will pay for the influence packs and get them more money than a $60 one-time-purchase. Quantic Dreams and Supermassive "Dark Anthology" games are really fun and well-liked because of the CYA angle they take. This could've made a decent amount of money if it were just, y'know, a normal game.

*MINOR EDIT: tested the QTEs on desktop instead of mobile and they were better overall: prompts respond easily to mouse clicks and aren't nearly as invisible on my phone screen compared to my desktop. If you are REALLY interested in trying it live and getting a feel of the "authentic, live experience", I'd recommend accessing the site on desktop over downloading a mobile app.

EDIT 11/2/2023

Yeah I know I keep editing this honestly BUT I do have a big-ass critique I just noticed relating, again, to the minigames.

Here is a screenshot of the rewards you can receive for your performance with the minigames. You are rated on a scale of 1-3 stars, with a failure being 0 stars. In return for your performance, you gain "Interactive Points" and EXP. Tell me, after looking at this screenshot, what the problem with these rewards might be:

Do you see it? Well, if you don't, let me point it out to you.

THE AMOUNT OF INTERACTIVE POINTS YOU RECEIVE, THE CURRENCY YOU USE TO ACTUALLY MAKE DECISIONS AND PROPERLY CONTRIBUTE TO THE STORY, GOES DOWN IF YOU DO WELL AT THE MINIGAMES. THE GAME ACTIVELY PUNISHES YOU FOR PLAYING WELL.***

100 interactive points, by the way, is not enough to vote on a decision! You need 200 minimum. You also cannot repeatedly play the minigames to farm IP or EXP so, once you get two stars, you can't get the rewards for three or vice versa. And remember, if you're not a battlepasser, you only get two of these minigames per day.

Why on earth is it scaled this way? The difference between two stars and three stars is the exact same, why does it not increase when you do the minigames well? 100 for one star, 200 for two, 300 for three, it's so god damn easy AND you can still keep the scummy interactive point packages they sell!

But, I here you asking, what does the EXP do? Well, ignoring that a 10 EXP difference is exceeding minimal, EXP gives you... nothing!

Yeah, not even kidding with this one. There does seem to be a leveling system attached to your profile, but I cannot see a single thing connecting it to rewards (which are across the board useless), giving you a power boost with your voting, or just giving you perks. As far as I'm aware, EXP doesn't grant you a god damn thing, and that's the only increased reward from doing well.

***CORRECTION (because nothing in my life can ever be simple): the minigames DO reward you better than the screenshot above. Just did today's minigames and I got 330 IP from a 2 star ranking. However, if that's the case, I GENUINELY do not understand why this is labelled incorrectly? This doesn't even add up correctly (the 1 star + 2 star ranking should equal 300, NOT 330).

So, at best, the site is poor at labelling things (which wouldn't surprise me, the UI is a mess most days on this) OR my view of the site/rewards are bugged! Who fuckin' knows at this point. Sorry for the long rant y'all but honestly? Considering I only noticed the labelling earlier today and couldn't test this until the reset happened, I could only go off the labelled point system above.

I WILL say that tonight was the first night the community succeeded at the endurance scenes! I'd be happier about that if the game itself gave a shit, because apparently, what we do does not matter (as this game seems rapt with telling us)

Yes folks, despite the community succeeding two (2!) of these long ass, repetitive QTE events, for some fucking reason, Karl's hope went down further! This is, again, despite the fact that the community AT LARGE succeeded for the first time since the premiere date, but we still lost! Fucking how.