lookingbetteringlasses

[lookingbetteringlasses]

That last sentence is just incredible.

I liked how totally used to all this nonsense the Daily Planet crew are in the movie. You don't get to be caught in Superman's immediate orbit for 3 whole years without building up a superhuman tolerance for crazy bullshit. Every person in that building has stared into the abyss and when the abyss stared back they told it "sir, this is a Wendy's."

[lookingbetteringlasses]

Clark Kent is someone who grew up to become Superman.

Homelander is someone who was manufactured to be a superman.

Superman (2025) // The Boys (2019 - )

[lookingbetteringlasses]

[lookingbetteringlasses]

One of the biggest sins of The Veilguard is the utter lack of horses in the game.

Think about it: horses are one of the primary modes of transportation in this world, one ostensibly set in... something like the 1400-1500s, I guess. They are used for economic and military purposes, particularly in pre-industrialized societies. But you barely see any of them, let alone people riding mounts or anything like that.

This is detrimental because it makes the world feel like less of a world, instead being only areas players visit from the Lighthouse to traverse through for plots reasons or rewards or whatnot. The hub-based world design is given priority, not the normies down in Thedas, so thought is given more to what levels the party ventures through than creating a tangible, believable world. We don't have to use horses, so the regular people we are saving the world for that do likely use horses are not given thought.

I mean, does anyone remember those freaky dragon horse mount things in Inquisition? Apparently, they are used in Tevinter cavalry. And we don't see jack of that in Veilguard, possibly used to establish the ferocity of Tevinter society as a place of open animosity towards outsiders and flirting with danger through the acquisition of potentially uncontrollable power, as well as to show how those secure within the Tevinter hierarchy treat those lesser than them. Nothing like that.

Veilguard feels like a grounded world only in the way it deliberately tries to make you invested in it through dialogue rather than through more casual visual demonstrations in naturalistic environmental design. Because the latter takes a lot of thought and planning to do correctly, something the team was likely discouraged from doing originally and then didn't have much time to do eventually. This game was only given enough chances to ensure its competency rather than its success.

Maybe this could also have been a gameplay mechanic: have levels wide enough to where mounts are encouraged for navigation at first, but then allow players to open eluvians through exploration and puzzle solving or other things like that, but space them far enough apart to where horses can still be a viable option for traversal. Fast travel becomes a mechanic that players have to put effort into unlocking, and the world gains more substance as a result. Obviously, this would likely work more for Arlathan, but it could still be a viable option for Rivain and the Anderfels, potentially, being the more hypothetically exploratory areas.

[lookingbetteringlasses]

One thing I don't often see people talk about in Steven Universe.

In the series most of Stevens powers come from a need to protect those around him. His shield, his bubble, healing spit/tears, all designed, and come from the desire to, protect those around him. With the exception of his floating which comes from a sense of joy and happiness.

In Future his new powers stem from a subconscious need to protect himself, instead of a need to protect others. He's dealing with a lot and his powers are reacting in an explosive way to keep him safe. Super speed to escape a dangerous situation, explosive screams to throw the threat away from him, and panels, thicker and stronger than his shield and bubble, to shield him from the perceived threat.

Which then makes me wonder, since Pink on Homeworld was known for destructive "temper tantrums" how often she must've felt so unsafe, scared and unhappy that her powers reacted the way Stevens do in Future.

When she became Rose Quartz she felt confident, comfortable and more safe as Rose than as Pink. She had a strong desire to protect the Earth and the Crystal Gems, developing her powers into the ones we see most in the show.

[lookingbetteringlasses]

Currently rereading Wizard of Earthsea

[lookingbetteringlasses]

Andor: Allow me to introduce myself!

Everytime new Star Wars content releases I look at this headline

And it's still true

[lookingbetteringlasses]

we stan

[lookingbetteringlasses]

And then there's Legion, a representative of an entire civilization manufactured souls and clarification of the true aim for this thematic motif: the necessity of autonomy for life to properly flourish, absent of imposed control thematically represented by the Reapers.

God I love how ME2 is filled with people who were MANUFACTURED. MADE. DEVELOPED LIKE MACHINES. Shepards a multi-billion credit product. Miranda was genetically engineered to be perfect. Jack was an experiment. You have to let Grunt out of his test tube. what a fun team to go up against evil machines; against Geth and against the Reapers. How apt. How terrifying. So many implications.

[lookingbetteringlasses]

I don't even know what to say.

My brain connected Shepard and Garrus to that one post and I was simply possessed to draw it.

[lookingbetteringlasses]

grunt does some mental math

[lookingbetteringlasses]

"Mordin"

[lookingbetteringlasses]

I just think ME2 would’ve been better if Legion had to wear a trench coat disguise like a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle.

If i knew how to mod this would be the first thing i’d make.

[lookingbetteringlasses]

[lookingbetteringlasses]

Had to be me. Someone else might've gotten it wrong.

[lookingbetteringlasses]

It's been interesting to see how Love Like You has evolved over the course of the series, but at the very end, I know exactly what this song is about: it's Rose talking to Steven.

It's about Rose wondering how she'll live up to the idealized version of herself that Steven will grow up hearing about, especially compared to the innocence she will grant onto her son versus the actions she committed during her lifetime. Rose can't imagine how Steven would see her like that, as someone worth respecting, but if she knew how, she would try to do right by him, to prove herself as someone capable of loving and being loved.

It's telling that the last couple lyrics show what "I would even learn how to love like you" really means:

Love like you Love me like you

The one thing Pink Diamond could never do was love herself. But Steven can. Steven does. And that's the one thing White Diamond could never understand: why would someone so imperfect be capable of loving themselves? Pink didn't, so how could her son?

[lookingbetteringlasses]

A piece a did while back that never got finished.

I started this piece when i was hyped about dragon age inquisition.

I never felt so happy when it was possible to play as a qunari.