#i will stop hyperfixating and go back to isat eventually

[nilihim-him]

the funny thing about kerdly to me the idea of reverse noelle scene with kris.

that scene where berdly confess he pretends to have feelings with her bc he thinks she has a crush on him.

that but. him, with kris confessing that he knew that kris flirting is a bit, for laughs, bulling him (did not watched that berdly ch analysis bout his low self esteem that turned him into my blorbo no nononon he's not i swear that he's not my blorbo)

he like the bit, finds it funny and confess that he would like to be their actual friends fr fr. (bc genuienly why would hang out him? when ppl only go to him if they need help, he thinks.)

except kris did have feelings for him after hangin out for a while.

[chimerafeathers]

it’s pretty funny looking back on my perception of isat as i played because it shifted a LOT.

a lot of rambling about my specific experience with the game below the cut lol

starting point was like

- “oh one or two of the people i follow started posting about this game. looks cute. i might check it out sometime so i won’t read anything too closely.”

- somehow dashboard osmosised the info that main character and star person were connected/the same and NOTHING ELSE. info goes to the very back of my mind and is not consciously considered for a very long time

- Secret Sleepover Society posts a VOD of the beginning. eventually get around to watching this long after it’s clear that they’re not doing a full playthrough.

- [gets like 20-30 mins into the first vod] “oh wow i REALLY like the art and humor, this is so incredibly my style. since J&J aren’t finishing it i’m just gonna stop watching now and play it for myself”

- [reads a comment on the SSS vod that says isat is now on the same level as undertale for them] “ooohhhhkay i expect this to be fun and sweet and emotional but. cmon” [press X to doubt]

- intrigued still but become skeptical and guarded in that way where someone hypes something up TOO much to you and you’re suddenly on the lookout for flaws and overaware of your own emotional investment into the thing, like “sure it’s good but is it really gonna be THAT good 🧐”

- “this is probably gonna start out very cute, get ~dark and emotional~ later on, i’m gonna cry at the end (this is not hard to accomplish), i’ll think about it a lot for a week or two, and then i’ll move on and just think about it fondly from time to time :)” (i have not had a hyperfixation this strong in years lmao)

and then it being a “tumblr game” really kept hitting that “on the lookout for flaws” point over and over again. because i’m very aware of the pendulum swing of tumblr trends around storytelling preferences—all those posts like “why do people want characters to talk like they’ve been through 10 years of therapy, everyone should be fucked up & toxic instead” and “not everything needs to be found family. sometimes people are just coworkers/friends/whatever, stop trying to fit every relationship into a familial or romantic box” and “why are these medieval characters listing off their identity labels like they’re on 21st century social media. they would Not have that terminology/level of self awareness”

so i played the beginning kinda going “ehhhh” about how clearly communicative a lot of the characters appeared to be, the big hammer of “HEY THIS IS A FOUND FAMILY. DO YOU GET IT?” during the friendquests (especially with Odile saying it’s weird for an adult to be friends with a child, which i disagree with), the kind of awkward pronoun scene between Loop & Siffrin…i kept squinting at it all, trying to figure out if it worked for me or not in context.

and. it does. with the found family stuff especially, i keep thinking about how earned it feels, how the big friendquest “found family” hammer is like…a fakeout of the real ending. it’s not enough to say the word or play with the aesthetic of family. what does it actually mean to care about someone that much? what lengths are you willing to go to, what wrongs are you willing to forgive? it’s important that it IS family, and not ““just”” friendship or coworkers or mentorship, because the craving for permanence is so deeply etched into Siffrin’s character and that concept is the closest they can get to something that might last. but at the same time, those relationships are the same no matter what name they go by—friendship, family, the word doesn’t matter because the love is there regardless.

i thought Siffrin was gonna be a kinda bland, blank slate character in the beginning! i thought the focus was going to be on all of the other characters, and “Siffrin” was just going to be our unobtrusive player vehicle to interact with them. something along the lines of Slay the Princess, the Stanley Parable, even Undertale itself—the “decider,” Stanley, and Frisk are all characters, technically, information can be gleaned and extrapolated about their personality or background to some extent, but that’s not really the point or focus of the story they’re in. it’s about the situation, it’s about the choices YOU, the player, are making, it’s about the characters you meet and the relationships YOU establish under the player character’s name.

lol. lmao, even.

there’s a Black Sails post i saw a long time before i watched that show, that said something along the lines of, “by the end, a character’s lack of a backstory becomes the most poignant tragedy of them all.” i didn’t fully get what that meant at the time but it sounded intriguing! and now i’m like. YEAH. YEAH MAN. IT SURE IS.

the “blank slate” impression didn’t last long at all, but it’s still wild to me how cleanly all the little elements that gave me that impression in the first place were retroactively justified and made heartbreaking. of COURSE Siffrin says he “didn’t have anything better to do” before joining the party. that’s not a weird, weak cop-out, that’s a lifetime of being adrift and alone hidden behind an amicable smile.

none of the characters are as open and communicative as they appear. not with us, not with themselves, not until they’re pushed to a breaking point. their experiences with gender and identity are grounded in the cultural and religious worldbuilding and aren’t as utopic or shallow as slapping on a label and calling it a day. they’re examined in the context of their world and identity first and foremost, not ours (as much as that’s possible to untangle anyway), and meaningfully conflict and interact with those elements of characterization.

it’s just. man. my expectations weren’t low going in—i fully expected to love it!! it just caught me off guard how layered the writing would actually be.

[aroacesigma]

Top 5 characters you have not been normal about in your life!

(I hope your day is going well btw✨️)

its going alright thank you :) <3 hope urs is too!!!

sigma obviously. 2 years of insanity and running so far!!! fun times. i love himmmm <3333 AND I MISS HIM I SWEAR IF HES NOT BACK BY THE END OF THE YEA RIM GONNA CRASH OUT. I CANNOT. WHERE IS HE ASAGIRI I SWEAR TO FUCKING GOD. everyone here has heard this a billion times im sure. hes amazing his backstory compels me the fact that hes unique from the other bsd characters in the 'not from an author' sense compels me (i dont like sigma author hcs sorryyyyy i like him being isolated and different <3). big fan of his normal guy shtick thats definitely not a coping mechanism hes definitely actually super normal. i. love him sahhksjgkjfhdjg my boyyy

loki. as per usual, i cannot stress MOVIES LOKI enough. that tv show thing is not the character i was obsessed with. idk what happened in the second season but oh my god season 1 was just non stop horrific character misinterpretations and horrible choices. the fact that im still mad about this 4 years later should tell you enough.

wandaaaaa <3333 more stressing!!! COMICS WANDA. NOT MOVIES. i love herrrr. fascinating character truly. comics are so hard tho every writer has a different interpretation. ive really enjoyed her 2023 and 2015 solo runs tho <3

daisy johnson!!!! from agents of shield. look i know the words marvel tv show evoke an absolutely horrendous shitty cash grab, but the old netflix ones were so fucking good oh my god. i love agents of shield. anyway um i thnik i have a type. with characters. because we have yet another in a long line of 'no home no knowledge of where they come from gets crazy attached to whatever home/family they get'. um. yeah. well she does find out eventually. god i need to rewatch that show

i actually dunno what to put for this one tbh? ive had a lot of obsessions over the years. i guess honorable mentions time from starting in grade 1 lol up to the marvel obsession. anakin skywalker (i cannot emphasise the insanity that was my first star wars hyperfixation enough its amazing what a ton of free time will do), like half the main warrior cats characters in that whole franchise, percy jackson, alex fierro. also honorable mentions to the recent isat hyperfixating im not over that yet i <3 isabeau and siffrin