chiefprocrastinator

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Not even kidding that's literally what happens in the book 😭

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there's no way this hasn't been done yet but come on, she is the epitome of this tweet

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I don’t think we talk enough about how the entirety of Wicked is built on the irony of No One Mourns the Wicked. The musical exists because Glinda feels the need to tell Elphaba’s story, because she is in mourning and entirely alone in that. Glinda’s love is what creates the musical because no one mourns Elphaba except her, and that is an incredibly lonely place to be. She’s just lost two of the most important people to her, and all she’s trying to do is make someone, anyone else see how important they were.

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It’s so funny to imagine Wicked from the perspective of one of the normal students at Shiz. There’s this girl and she’s weird and an overachieving nerd and no one likes her, but then the popular girl becomes best friends with her overnight so you guess she’s chill now. They might be sleeping together but no one’s really sure. They’re also low key dating the same guy but you’re not clear on if it’s a polycule situation or a love triangle. Whatever. You’re just trying to study for finals. Your history teacher gets arrested and no explains why. You just hope this won’t effect your grade in the class. The weird nerdy girl gets a letter from the president inviting her to come see him. Wow, that’s exciting. She and her maybe-girlfriend go off to the capitol and you go back to homework and dorm room parties. One day later one of your professors is on the national radio saying that the weird nerdy girl, who used to be her favorite student, is now a terrorist, has stolen the nuclear codes, and is on the run from the government. You are still expected to show up to class tomorrow.

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Yes meadoo

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the thing about those ooc "woooooooow this show is so deep" quotes from bojack horseman is that they strip away the absurdity of the scenario in a way that makes it come off like weird therapy-speak when like 99% of the time the joke is someone suddenly saying something super eloquent and serious in the middle of some crazy shit.

like everyone quotes the "sometimes i think i was born with a leak, and all the goodness i was born with slowly dripped out" line but no one mentions that he says it to vincent adultman, a character who no one notices is clearly three children stacked on top of each other in a trench coat. who then says "dont be sad, nice horsey!" and pets him with his broom/hand

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Why Dontnod's games feel original and inspired (and why Deck Nine's games don't)

So, I've talked at length about how Double Exposure feels much more like a corporate product than a playable piece of art entertainment [My initial thoughts on the DE trailer] [My thoughts on the early access paywall] [My thoughts on the weird marketing].

But now with the release of Lost Records, I feel like I have no choice but to confront the question: were any of Deck Nine's games truly original or inspired in any way? And honestly, I have to say no.

Objectively, I could say it's because Deck Nine literally has not produced any original IP's since their rebrand from Idol Minds in 2017. Their only narrative adventure games are all part of the LiS franchise. But even their most original game, True Colors, pretty obviously follows the first game's narrative formula (young woman with a superpower investigates a sudden disappearance/death in a small town with a dark secret, has two opposite sex love interests, learns about a twist villain, is nearly murdered, and goes through a psychological nightmare in the last episode) to a tee. But oh look, there's also a LARP!

But I believe there's more to it than that, because when I look at Dontnod's games, they are always inspired by other works. Life is Strange 1 plays very clear homage to Twin Peaks with the Pacific Northwest setting and Rachel Amber resembling Laura Palmer. Max Caulfield is named after the protagonist of The Catcher in the Rye, another novel about the fleeting innocence of childhood and superficiality of society. Life is Strange borrows tropes from Donnie Darko, Groundhog Day, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Stand By Me, and even Blue is The Warmest Color for its themes and plot points. Just take a look at its "Shout-out" page on TV Tropes. And the result is... something completely original, with riveting plot twists, memorable characters, and an ending that will make you cry.

This shouldn't make sense, right? You'd think this big soup of references would turn into an indistinguishable mess of cliches, but Life is Strange managed to be a synthesis of everything the writers loved and were inspired by, to become something completely new. Why? Because nobody had tried to take Twin Peaks, Donnie Darko, and The Catcher in the Rye and turn it into a video game before! And make it gay!

The point being, Dontnod consistently makes original material because they take creative risks. This is definitely not done lightly, since they still need to be a company that generates profit, but they still prioritize making art over selling out. Their stories feel inspired because they are inspired; when writers love what they're writing about, the result is a passion project that has loving, clever nods to all the works that are woven into it.

So perhaps a way to reword that first question is to then ask, "Have Deck Nine's games ever been inspired by anything?" And unfortunately, the answer is still no. Instead, they just copy what they hope will sell well. And a bland imitation for the sake of generating profit is never going to produce anything that feels original.

This takes me back to Lost Records, which is also clearly inspired by the same works: Twin Peaks, It: Chapter One, The Craft, The Blair Witch Project, The Goonies, Stand By Me. But again, no other game studio besides Dontnod has ever looked at these works and thought, "But what if it starred teenage lesbians instead?" Or, more specifically: "How do we capture the spirit of what made these media great and incorporate that into a new story for a new audience?" And those characters have so much thought and care poured into them too: while I've been disappointed that Double Exposure Max looks airbrushed to hell and back, I love that the Bloom & Rage girls have asymmetrical faces, acne, freckles, body hair, skin discoloration, and diverse body types. Double Exposure is marketed as nostalgia bait for fans, where Max is reduced to a prettied-up, polished-up, representation of nostalgia, not even her own character anymore, in a game that otherwise has no connection to the original. Her quips are reduced to "Hey! Remember our good ol', dad-joke cracking, dorky Max Caulfield??" and her grief is shoved aside for "Hey, look at that appealing new love interest! Because we knoooow y'all love your sapphic romance, right?"

By contrast, Lost Records has only been out for 10 days, but I already feel like the girls are some of the most memorable characters I've come across in gaming for the niche they fill. Swann seems like your typical Max-like dork, except she's also a movie buff and giddy about bugs, horror, and the paranormal; and has clearly been affected by her mother's fatphobic beliefs. Autumn is a level-headed leader who always stuck to her desire to help others, and her Blackness naturally informs her desire to feel valued and not cause trouble in a small, very white, conservative town. Nora intrigues me so much for going from a fun-loving rebel punk teen to a more gender-conforming, capitalist-leaning, influencer businesswoman. And Kat feels like an evolution of Chloe's cynicism, where her scrappy charm belies an almost unsettling obsession with the occult and a deep, tragic chasm of rage at having to confront her mortality far too young. They make sense. They feel carefully written, genuine, and like real people.

But most of all, Dontnod's games have never felt like products. In fact, most of their characters have historically gone against the grain of what traditionally "marketable" characters are. The first LiS took all these aforementioned stories about straight white men and chose to remix and retell it through the eyes of a young, queer, time-traveling girl instead. Tell Me Why is the first AAA game with a trans protagonist, and Tyler is voiced by a trans actor in all the language dubs. Lost Records decided that it would tell its story through four queer teenage girls, with women writers onboard, and fucking own it. As long as Dontnod keeps making games that stick to their creative integrity, I'll keep respecting their vision in whatever they decide to create next. Also, maybe I should finally watch Twin Peaks.

Thank you for reading!

[chiefprocrastinator]

Can't leave the gremlins unsupervised. Ever! 🙃

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If I have to see one more take about Corey being 'the most interesting character', 'deserving a redemption arc', and 'obviously not that bad underneath' just because he plays DnD and smiled during the concert I am going to chew glass

He's a human being! Abusers are human beings! They have likes and dislikes and friends! They like the same things YOU like! None of that makes someone 'actually good deep down'! You missed the point! Corey is abusive AND he's a guy that can appreciate a little teenage rebellion. Corey could be a guy sitting at YOUR DnD table. Unless you're the target of his abuse or happen to witness it, you might never know. That's not 'bad writing', that's just real life.

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Autumn Lockhart speaks to me in a very specific way - being the only black girl in the all-white (or white-passing, including Nora bc she's definitely got SOMETHING) friend-group, which is exactly how i grew up

like...no, i'm not gonna do your fucking blood pact and possibly get a disease. no, i don't want to go into this abandoned house in the middle of the woods when we're lost. no, i don't want to break into this bar. no, i'm not gonna throw something special to me into this random glowing abyss that just materialized out of nowhere.

i've definitely been in situations that have the same spirit as those (no blood pacts, but just general shenanigans that i was uncomfortable with and no one would listen to my concerns)

don't get me started on the way she worries about them all. or how nervous she is to do anything "too weird". or the way she always ends up doing the things she's uncomfortable with anyway. or how she gets left out.

like...damn, DontNod. you hit the "model minority" nail right on the fucking head

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Felt like showing some appreciation for Autumn's look during this scene. Just look at that makeup on her neck and collar bone, it's so fucking cool! She lined it all up so perfectly to look like a snarling wolf and I can't get over how badass it looks 'on camera'

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i think what kills me the most about kat calling swann her “soulmate” is just the hopelessness of it all. like kat knew she was going to die, knew she was trapped in that town with her family, knew her and swann couldn’t last, yet she still loved her so adamantly.

normally i hate it when lesbians are doomed to be separated or die in media, but there’s something so beautiful about kat loving swann despite it all, and swann returning to her after all those years.

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Summer '95 — Bloom and Rage 📼

Another bloom and rage fanart 💕☺️

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swann and autumn are endgame TO ME.

these are my own screenshots but save them if you want them :)

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Lost Records is such an insanely beautiful game to me. I just haven’t felt as much from a game as I’ve felt from this in so long. Of course the supernatural elements are important but it’s the simplicity that gets me.

You play as a lonely girl with body image and general self-esteem issues. She meets 3 girls, all queer and all romanceable. No male love interests. It’s the best summer of her life and it’s going to end. Swann, Kat, Nora, and Autumn all wish for it not to end and it still does. Swann is running out of time in Velvet Cove and Kat is running out of time. They genuinely love each other within their little bubble—there’s no talking behind one another’s backs, no backhanded comments. They all support each other.

They talk about missing their childhoods when everything was easier. They talk about things like periods and hygiene products casually, something I literally haven’t even seen from a game up until now. Autumn talks about all the pressure she feels to be the perfect minority in a conservative majority white town—she’s always trying to keep the girls out of trouble because or else she’s suddenly responsible in the eyes of others and she takes that to heart. Nora is this neglected child who’s constantly trying to fill that void and it’s so heartbreaking to watch. Kat is maybe the most insane of all because there’s something so visceral about how angry she feels, trapped in a tiny, conservative nothing town in a family she fights against day after day for nothing because she’s here to die. And there are all these little seemingly insignificant details that are hallmarks of wlw culture, especially in the 90’s!! The Riot Grrl scene (specifically Bikini Kill) the Emily Dickinson reference, even a statement as simple as “If I was a boy, I’d kiss you.” The teenagers talk like real teenagers. And in the adult timeline, the pandemic actually fucking exists! It’s a part of the background! They talk about how it impacted their lives, especially Swann as an isolated, socially anxious and most likely neurodivergent person!

There’s such a sense of togetherness and loneliness all at once, hope and hopelessness. It’s realistic despite the supernatural aspect. It’s life. It’s beautiful and it’s unfair. It’s joyful and it’s furious. It’s finding someone who understands you with the knowledge that it will be ripped from you. But the injustice doesn’t take away the fact that it happened.