#just bc it feel unrealistic and forced yknow?

[narwhalandchill]

yknow as much as the (deserved) inazuma backlash has clearly changed hoyos writing for the better i do think there v much is one completely wrong lesson theyve taken from it and thats incorporating story quests into the AQ sequence (and specifically how theyve never attempted it again)

the concept itself was Never inherently bad. in fact it unironically has a ton of potential bc you could lessen the need for sudden character specific exposition in the AQ AND pull off way more high-stakes and timeline-specific plotlines in the SQs by ensuring players will experience it at the intended place and time.

the issue was that they introduced a bleak depressing inazuma in the middle of a fucking civil war and then went omg AQ on pause!!! lets go to a festival with ayaka and u will be her first friend ever OwO yoimiyas is at least vastly better written and actually involves the VH and sakoku decrees so its always been a favorite of mine but even then im sure theres things worth criticism in there its just been 2 years so i cant analyze it off the top of my head. but the greatest offender has always been the way ayakas comes with such a complete tonal dissonance it just takes you out of the atmosphere they spent the entire act I building up.

and it rly makes me sad bc i Know hoyo took the backlash about interrupted pacing and disjointed tone as "ok story quests bad as AQ requirements" when its like. no the one you wrote just sucked

AQ incorporated story quests need to have a damn good reason to be mandatory at that specific point and while its far from perfect i DO think yoimiyas fulfills that! but ayakas doesnt! at all! and like im realizing the issue is also in how genshins made it a standard that a character must receive a story quest Instantly on release. so i guess ayakas had to be in between acts I and II for plot reasons but like. that being the case then the story quest itself shouldve focused on a completely different theme as opposed to her very predictable tropey personal problems that werent even explored properly imo. like im sure plenty of depth and nuance in her characterization was lost in translation but i almost cry laughed the first time the restaurant vendor went "oh ayaka is lonely because she is so perfect that no one sees her as a friend but instead an aspiration" like what in the 3rd grader writing mary sue self insert fic tarnation 💀 you couldve worded that exact same concept in 12 different ways to make it actually sound poignant and you did That SHAHSKSJSKDLJH

(and a quick addition before i get accused of being a blind hater hater lmao. here goes: "the burdens of miss ayakas position as the public face of the kamisato make it difficult for her to shed the mask of practiced perfection. i think people struggle to see her as a person whod enjoy simple things in life like friendship just like everyone else when theyre so used to viewing her as an unreachable figurehead." there. now its way more clearly nuanced. this took me 3 minutes and is far from any fluid writing yet. the difference is staggering)

but like. as a result this ambiguous timeline limbo most story quests end up falling into is genuinely a shame bc i do think theres potential in attempting the ayaka n yoi thing again but with characters for whom it makes sense and actually enhances the AQ experience by necessitating it. and yeah yeah ik genshin wants to be casual friendly so they dont want to force ppl to do quests they dont like for AQ so its unrealistic to expect them to ever try it out again but man

as long as they pick the right place and time and characters for it they could massively alleviate the issue of some story quests contents ending up feeling like somewhat empty fluff bc they cant assume what point a player will be in the main plot could be so they lack actually impactful lore and or character beats.

obviously im not a writer at hoyo and idk how much backlash the ayaya/yoi situation got them but like. idk. taking the lesson "never do anything like inazuma again" isnt rly what id consider the full picture. inazuma does suck and has clunky moments throughout but like in 2.0 people were still hype! inazuma had good ideas and concepts and attempted sth that couldve been great the issue isnt inazuma bad on all levels its that they never delivered its potential and 2.1 was an incredible letdown.

[hasarjunadoneanythingwrong]

Have you read the Mahabharata? If you did, what do you think about the way Arjuna was characterized in FGO? As far as I know (I haven't read it but I'm considering it), he's considered one of the big good forces and a close to ideal hero for the majority of the book, so I was wondering what people make of Fate's decision to give him his conflict about "appearing as an ideal hero."

i keep meaning to read it and then getting distracted by other shiny things (drawing) and. Not reading it. But I do know of the General Plot lol. Honestly at this point I’m legit thinking I’ll just buy a physical version bc I think I do better w that-like when I found a physical version of the Bhagavad Gita at a library I got through half of it in one sitting you know? It’s just uh. Getting out in a pandemic :’) scary

as for fate’s version….uh I’d say it’s a mixed bag? Since I basically didn’t know anything about him before I discovered the fate version I wasn’t really familiar w his changes…

I do think having his character focus on the guilt he feels for what happened in his life and his own personal responsibilities in regards to what happened isn’t actually a bad take tbh-the Bhagavad Gita is basically him going ‘uh I don’t want to Murder My Family’ and his Friend who is God has to convince him of his duty as a warrior and human to continue moving forwards and do what he’s supposed to be doing, but even after all that it doesn’t seem unrealistic to assume he has regrets given like. 3 of his children die most of his family die he kills his brother etc etc like. This isn’t an interpretation of him that comes out of nowhere, even after the war most of his relationships end in tragic ways the dude just couldn’t catch a break and it makes sense that it weighs on him-there’s a whole thing about how even though he’s Krishna’s closest friend he still wasn’t able to be enlightened! bc he’s only human, yknow.

The problem is that in fgo his conflict starts and ends with him shooting karna. Like in his bio

3/5 of the descriptive boxes mention Karna (they also have some other random inconsistencies. His human father was NOT called king kuru). There’s no mention of his childhood living with ascetics in the woods, or the multiple times the kauravas tried to kill him and his brothers when they were young, or the many ordeals and trials he went through to EARN the gifts he received from the gods-even his friendship with Krishna is just a footnote they add one to clarify that he’s different from arjuna’s mind demon. They make a single vague mention of his other brothers and mother-not even by name, and then dedicate the rest of his bio to karna. Not the family he lived with, but a guy who was, and I’m sorry to say this, really not that important to the general plot of the mahabharata.

In comparison karna’s own profile only mentions arjuna three times. Total. :-) despite the fact that when I look at the original text he seems much more obsessed with arjuna that the other way around but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ anyway my theory is that arjuna wrote his own profile in a depressed haze at 3 am and that’s why it’s so bad and also makes no sense and is heavily pro karna for basically no reason bc otherwise wtf

This is also reflecting in his in-game writing, especially early on, and it’s something I consistently see people who are more familiar with non-fgo arjuna complain about lol. If they acruallly branched out more into the conflict he had and how it continues to haunt him (why not bring up bhisma’s death? He was much more important to arjuna? And arjuna also had to kill him?) he’d be a great character, but as it is they still struggle to move on from the karna thing. Even in the junao cbc event they couldn’t fucking resist leaving karna out of it lol

Though tbh if you ignore his profile and lb4 arjuna is a pretty decent character? The karna but needs to be dropped but even when they have him as an enemy (too often) he always pulls through and does the right thing in the end

This is starting to fall apart but basically: the bones of his character are good, but they need to

A.) rewrite his fucking profile

B.) stop with the karna vs arjuna shtick we get it we get it please fucking explore literally anything else fucking ask karna’s thoughts on it about it even just stop going ‘haha what if…they….fight!🤭’

C.) GIVE HIM MORE LINES why the hell was karna the first one to bring up their mother. Why was karna the first one to bring up their brothers by name. Arjuna LIVED with his brothers. He actually got ALONG with them. Why does he never talk about them?? Lasengle PLEASE

D.) just like do more stuff about his life that has absolutely nothing to do with karna. I’m not even joking this would fix his character. He has so much to work with that they don’t touch

[theradicalace]

æ = The character and languages (Known or Want to Learn)

feel free to hit me with any character (or characters) you please. i would love to indulge your infodumping mood.

(also sorry if this sent twice my internet is being odd)

jet you are my biggest enabler and i love it

it's time to break out the incredibly unrealistic friday night funkin language headcanons! (with some character headcanons as seasoning because i can't help myself)

under the cut, cause its long lol

our main man boyfriend (blake)

-born in japan, spent a good chunk of his childhood there, his native language is japanese.

-learned english after moving to the united states about age 10

-he frequently goes nonverbal when he's stressed or tired, so he learned american sign language to make things easier on himself

-picked up spanish when he started dating pico as a cute little surprise for him :3

-is it unreasonable for someone to know four languages? probably, but yknow what, thats just the power of bisexuality/j

-he tends to speak japanese when he's at home with his family, but with friends and partners, he'll switch between english and asl.

-he's probably least fluent in spanish, bc he 100% picked up just to flirt with pico, but he's still pretty damn good at it

everyone's my favorite marksman, pico:

-he has two native languages: english and spanish

-isn't he cool

-did i google "can a person have two native languages" for this post? maybe

-picked up american sign language when he started dating blake, because as much as he pretends to be standoffish and distant, he actually does care

local icon, girlfriend (gabby):

-born and raised in the us, her native language is english

-she does not take well to other languages, not for lack of trying, that shit is just difficult

-she also tried to pick up american sign language when she started dating blake, but didn't really get the hang of it until pico was back in the picture

-that's not to say blake is a bad teacher, but he's way more likely to go "lol it's fine you don't have to learn it, most people don't" when she gets frustrated and gives up, whereas pico would shut that down and go "frustrated or not, you said you wanted to learn this and you're going to learn" which absolutely does not work for everyone, but worked for her

dearest parent number one, mommy dearest (im not calling her mearest or "must murder", im sorry those are dumb):

-native language is english, and that is the only language she has ANY sort of fluency in

-don't get me wrong, she totally tried to learn others

-she was the type of person to take like 3 language classes in high school and she definitely has like 20 duolingo classes on her phone

-but because she refuses to just sit down and pick one, the end result is her knowing like 15 words in all of them and not being able to string together a coherent sentence in a single damn one

-i love that for her

dearest parent number two, daddy dearest:

-native language is english

-he took spanish in high school because he thought learning a romance language would help him pick up chicks (it did not)

-dumb intentions aside, he actually ended up really enjoying the class and the language, and he kept at it after he graduated

-it is very much his second language, and it shows, but he's reasonably conversational in it despite that

-the fact that he speaks spanish is actually a damn good bonding point between him, blake, and pico

-yknow, after he stops doing the whole over protective dad murder bit

-me? trying to create a found family? no way!! /j

digital boy, senpai (seth):

-surprise surprise, i have language headcanons for him too

-as a shocking parallel to blake, his native language is also japanese

-he also learned english after moving from japan to the states as a kid

-(don't tell him that he has anything in common with blake he's still mad at him for leaving the game without him)

-you'd think that getting trapped in a dating sim with the language set to english would force him to speak that, but he makes sure to keep speaking japanese when the game is turned off, even if he's just narrating to himself, because he doesn't want to fall out of practice

-he's already had so much taken from him, he refuses to let his own damn language be one of them

-oh no i made it sad

there's no reason that all of these characters should be bilingual or multilingual i just dont know how to characterize <3

[marianbyron]

twdg take us back thoughts (forgive me if any of this is out of order, i’m doing this from memory)

-the game took 10 minutes to download and those were a wild ten minutes i’ll tell you that -right off the bat i was worried clem was gonna get bit -i tried to shoot lilly at first, then i saw it didn’t work and wished her well. that’s just my s1 lilly fan’s final breaths of air right there -LOUIS SAVED MY LIFE THANK YOU I’M SORRY ABOUT YOUR TONGUE -god louis’s little smile though oOF -VI I LOVE YOU -THE OTHER KIDS ARE ALIVE -vIOLET INITIATED KISS!!!! (adding a read more bc this got LONG)

-uhhhh i’m pretty sure i’m not the only one who was left with some post-ep3 lilly vibes with minnie. like fuck u for expecting some kinda redemption arc with any character we are going to make them go Batshit the next episode -like i really thought we’d be able to help her or something when she was fighting off those walkers. i mean i get she was totally brainwashed but c’mon man. she’s a kid. but fuk that ig -walker james man. i sorta justified not going back and killing lilly last ep by saying this was what james would’ve wanted (also it’s my playthrough i do what i want), and now that i know what happens if you do save him uhhhhhhh.... i’m glad i made the choices i did tbh! it’s what james would’ve wanted. -i spent so long in that cave looking for “something to light on fire” -i decided to trust aj. i figured a) that could possibly save my life (it didn’t lol), b) it would make him feel good about himself, and c) i’ve taught him pretty well up to now so i trust him. -MEETING UP WITH VIOLET AND OUR LITTLE FAMILY HUG WOW CAN I JUST SAY THAT SHIT’S THE GOOD SHIT -i low key wish i’d named the school castle violet, but i figured it was more important to give her the choice. texas two squad, gang gang -fighting minnie on the bridge i was thinking ‘ok minnie’s gonna get a lot of shit for this lol’ -speaking of Bridge Scene, that shit was INTENSE if nothing else -like SHIT -when minnie cut me, i thought ‘oh fuuck, something’s gonna bite that’ -i also thought ‘hey clem’s gonna have a big leg scar to match her big arm scar’ but i was wrong about that lmao -i’ve never been more stressed that someone was gonna bite me than in this ep lmao -i also thought the scene from the trailer where you try to grab aj’s hand was gonna be here on the bridge, not on the rocks -oof when tenn died i was upset, but i feel more secure in that than if it were violet who died. only because that was tenn’s choice, and tenn was another person, like james, who had seemed to make peace with the walkers in a way. plus he died with his sister, which seemed to be what they both wanted at the time. that’s not so say that i wish i could’ve saved him without killing vi (or louis), but i do feel satisfied with what i got here (rip tennessee, you were a cool kid) -and then vi jumps over a fence ok bye violet -climbing up the rocks, i knew this was when it was gonna happen. but still. i cried lol -when i uncovered the bite, i was reminded of the s2 game mechanics. oof -as soon as she was bitten i said ‘you have an axe! cut it off now! do it!’ and when they didn’t i died -the next bit was reminiscent of lee making his way to the marsh house in s1 -actually, clem’s limp reminded me of a new day when lee got into that car crash lol -and when clem and aj were closing the doors to the barn and clem said to get something to block the door, i was expecting her to continue and say something like ‘something strong and sturdy’ like lee said when they were blocking off the pharmacy in s1 bc that scene gave me strong pharmacy vibes -and then strong jewelry shop vibes bc why tf not -playing as aj. that was rough. he’s FAST tho oml -that was when i went ‘ok so clem is dying for real’ and cried a lil bit more cuz you know me -switching between clem and aj. DUDE that got me so emotional -also aj using clem’s trick (that used to be jane’s trick). GO KIDDO -seeing clem looking more and more dead fuckt me up (like how did she get from that to the end of the ep i don’t get it. like even if it was because she waited shorter to cut it off or because it was her leg rather than her arm or what. it doesn’t matter because by the time lee looked like THAT his arm was (determinantly) long gone. but hey, not gonna analyze it too much lol i’m just glad my girl clem’s alive) -okay when clem was talking to aj that also got me crying -and when i told aj to leave clem, i was thinking ‘okay, maybe she’ll link up with james. or tenn, but like hopefully not minnie at this point. and lEE maybe she’ll find lee. or luke. or her parents-’ -and then he picks up that ax and i was like ‘woa ok did you just kill her??’ -and then the flashback. lemme be real and say i thought that was the afterlife or something, and that those floaty specks were Afterlife Dust -but then i remembered ‘oh right the ranch’ -lemme just say i didn’t think the ranch was gonna look like that lol -not 100 percent on what was going on at the ranch tbh -like who were those people and why did we kill all of them? one would assume that clem would first try to get aj back peacefully -oh wait they were at war right -also i really liked the design of like all of those people -and the LAVA GUY HOLY SHIT -obviously i mercy killed him -also wait, was clem with the people they were fighting? i couldn’t tell -ALSO also, was. was that eddie? from 400 days? checking the wiki real quick -yea i think that was him. rip eddie you didn’t deserve That. i mean i was happy he was back nd then we were just forced to kill him oof sorry man -felt bad about killing that woman also, but hey, she had aj in a tiny locker, so i didn’t feel super bad about it after finding him -also lemme just say -little kid aj?? -SUPER CUTE OML -he’s like the perfect mix of anf aj’s face and tfs aj’s face. kudos to whoever designed little aj -also when clem was talking with him in the car. i felt like it was sort of unrealistic little kid talk, but not so much that it distracted from anything going on -never go alone god rule number one had me crying -and then we’re aj fishing! -i didn’t catch any fish as aj lol -also i LOVE how they changed the dialogue options for aj to be a lot more childlike if that makes sense? like fuck yeah that was a really nice call -ROSIE IM SO GLAD YOU’RE OK -i didn’t scratch out the v+m heart because it’s history, and it’s not mine to scratch out. same reason i didn’t make clem spit on marlon’s grave -CLEM’S HAT GET IT -GET IT GET IT -OH GOOD GIRL ROSIE YOU’RE A GOD -oh a walker -oH THAT’S A TENN WALKER SHIT -well i’m not gonna kill him Again -also i don’t want the other kids to have to see him -i was so glad when i got the option to throw the rock -he learned from james what a good boy -RUBY HI -god ruby’s the best lmao -my thoughts when they’re talking about the hat ‘...aj hasn’t put it on... they haven’t talked about clem in the past tense.... is she.... possibly.... not dead?’ -lmao and when the next scene started, the trees + sky reminded me of the st john’s dairy and i wondered if we had another lee dream or afterlife or something but nope -is this take us back?? -hOLY SHIT IT’S TAKE US BACK!!! -okay and walking home, seeing everyone. god i was so sjfsakjfa there -like when i saw aasim run up to ruby i was all !!! and when they held hands i was all !!!!!!!!! yknow?? and then when i saw omar and WILLY and then on the gate there was VIOLET (i was so glad she was ok lmao the last thing i wanted for my girl was an offscreen death) god that was so good with the music i was crying a little again -need to make another bullet to stress how happy i am for ruby and aasim. like i would’ve been happy either way but they were portrayed as such a cute couple in the few seconds we got of them, so like. consider me a fan now i guess -i was worried for louis at first cuz i didn’t see him -i thought maybe this was the end of the game because we closed the gate and stuff and i was thinking ‘oh, like closing the story’ but NOPE -sup omar. up and cooking again i see -lmao my sleep-deprived brain found it hilarious that we just put the empty bucket down next to him -uhh what came next the graves or clem?? i forget -WAIT IT WAS THE GRAVES BECAUSE THE TIRE SWING WHICH IS SO CUTE AHH -well tenn’s grave made me :( but then CLEM -so glad my hunch that she was alive was right lmao -but also i thought that was determinant it was a lot less satisfying when you realize that no matter what she lives -i mean i get why they did it like that, they didn’t want anyone feeling left with the “bad ending”, their thing is that their games are tailored to how you play and there IS no bad ending but still. a little variation on that front would’ve made it a lil more satisfying -also where did they get those crutches -i love talking as aj. so much. -he’s just a funky lil guy! -that convo with clem on the steps, when she asked if she did a good job... like FUCK YEAH you did a good job, I’M YOU, you think i’m not happy with how i raised me?? -aj saying ‘are you crazy’ when clem asked that made me smile -okay i know ppl have been saying this. but. siblings aasim and willy rule. -and then the meal!! -i was super hoping for a card game but what we good was good. not great, but good. also, card game as aj would probably not be quite as fun. or it’d be very fun. honestly, it’d probably just be a different kind of fun. -when we panned over the table i saw a flash of louis and i went all ‘louis!!’ in my head -louis’s little note sadfasf that was so cute -and honestly everything about louis in this scene i love you louis -actually, just this whole scene was cute. willy and omar were adorable, and then ruby, and willy asking for seconds, and everyone just being Soft in general like. yall deserve this happiness -vi and clem talking Strategy dude sign me up -i love how clem trusts aj now. and i trust aj too tbh, a lot more than i did initially. i think i taught him pretty well. -violet and aj duo let’s go -slightly worried abt that caravan that was mentioned, but hey. the game left off on a high note, so NOTHING BAD CAN HAPPEN TO THEM EVER. YOU HEAR THAT?? -vIOLET INITIATED KISS PART TWO!!!!!! CHEEK KISS EDITION!!!!!!!! IM SOFT!!!!!!!!!! -okay that hallway with the snb team’s names all over the walls?? dude oof. they worked so hard it made me so happy to see their mark on texas two -haha texas two -ANYWAY -obviously i looked at all the collectibles i had, AND pet rosie, because i knew that when i ran out of things to do, the game would be over, and who wants that? -aj: *places human skull* *looks at animal skull* wow clem really likes skulls -kiddo i hate to break it to you but -seems like you’re taking after her in that regard -good girl rosie -lmao aj and his magic powers -it’s like louis in a box -hanging up james’ walker mask made me :(( -he is watching over you aj. and he would like that -ok guys i am BEGGING you. if you haven’t already, PLEASE repeatedly click disco broccoli until you can’t anymore. it’s great. -and then i finally had to put down the hat -”thank you for playing” GOD THANK YOU FOR HAVING ME -I CAN’T BELIEVE THIS SERIES IS OVER -I CAN’T BELIEVE I’M SAYING GOODBYE TO CLEM -i mean i still have my louis route BUT IT’S NOT THE SAME AS A FRESH EPISODE YKNOW?? OKAY FINAL THOUGHTS: -FIRST OFF I JUST FOUND OUT VI CAN GO BLIND -honestly im in favor of that i rly like blind violet au and now it’s not au -rip her eye honestly -new tag to match my rip louis’ tongue -also i left violet feeling loved FUCK yea i did i love violet -OKAY ACTUAL THOUGHTS -looking at this episode afterwards, is it just me or is it a little... lacking? like, a little off? i mean obviously it’s good in the moment, super intense, but there were just a few things that make me feel like it’s the weakest of the season -also lmao i guess fuck minnie james and lilly, their storylines all felt kinda like a middle finger to their fans if that makes sense -but holy shit was that minnie stuff haunting. like HOLY SHIT -also, for a game that’s been focused a lot around clem’s interactions with the other characters, there was a lot... less of that in this episode. no card game, barely any interaction with anyone other than louis/violet, tenn, minnie, aj, and james. and two of those people are fighting you. one of them is even determinant. i was just expecting a little more on that front, because this season’s been really good with that sorta thing -also i would’ve loved a little more time with violet/louis. but that’s just a personal thing and not necessarily a problem lol -again, i feel like it would’ve been a little more satisfying for clem to survive if there were an option where she didn’t. but again again, i totally get why they didn’t go that route -in that vein, i’d really enjoy a little more time with the person who wasn’t on the bridge with you. i miss my boy louis :( -idk there’s just something a little off about this episode. -that’s not to say i didn’t love it (because i TOTALLY did just look at all that stuff above haha) -like i know i didn’t love the minnie part, but like i said, that shit was INTENSE -i can sorta see why they went that route -and i can’t speak for living!james but walker!james was oddly peaceful to see. like, there was a feeling of ‘this is what he would’ve wanted’ -and okay i loved the violet initiated kisses. so much. -also ruby and aasim that was pretty cute -and obviously im happy clem isn’t dead that’s always great -OH and i loved the scene with the snb team’s names on the walls. like that was so good. -finally, the end scene was so satisfying. it ended the series the right way. with clem’s hat :p