Well, it's time to say one of my most controversy opinion ever, related to OSC. However, this time it is related to TPOT.
So, I want to say, that this whole season was a mistake. Yes, I think the season, despite having interesting storylines, characters (One-), and also one of the best hosts ever, was a mistake. Before any of you say anything, listen to me!
So, you all know why TPOT exist, right? JNJ Crew, after BFB 15, had no clue what they should do with the show. Remember, BFB was supposed to be, pretty much, low quality season, that would be released at much quicker date (heck, the whole name for the season was supposed to be Sloppy BFDI!), but due to them deciding to add more quality, both in writing and animation, episodes started to take too long, not to mention the cast being, oddly, big (like, 64 people?!). There various concepts about what to do, there was even an idea to kill 40 people off, so the cast could become smaller. Then, an idea was brought to life - splitting the show, in half.
The split happened next episode and... Let's say a lot of people hated the split - not only because a lot of arcs were dropped, a lot of decisions were questionable (cough allowing Loser and Spongy to join cough), not to mention Two being, let's be honest here, an asshole. Because of the way the split was handled, a lot of people hated Two and, I'm being serious, wrote hate fics about Two and the contestants, that joined them. Yes, this was THAT controversial.
Even when JNJ dropped a video, about why the split happened, it still wasn't helping the case of TPOT. While BFB Post-Split quality was... Okay (I mean as in general, because no joke, that season isn't good), TPOT quality was supposed to be like the latest episode of Pre-Split BFB - it was supposed to have deep arcs, to have better animation, to have EVERYTHING better.
And, it did have deeper themes, better animation (TPOT), but some decisions were being meet with criticism, from BFDI fans - the episodes were taking too long (1 year), the characters were acting out of character (it was mostly seen in TPOT 2, where some considered the episode to be mean-spirited), that some arcs made no sense (Pin arc, though it makes more sense now, that we have BFDIA, but remember - BFDIA was seen as cancelled season back then, when two first episodes of TPOT were released). There were decisions, that annoyed a lot of people, such as letting Teardrop join.
There were also conflicts within the crew, which lead to Satomi being laid off (not fired, laid off), alongside Pokey. The whole season feel into limbo and a lot of people thought it would be meet with the same fate as BFDIA, but surprisingly it did come back, with Sam writing, and... First episodes under his production were meet with criticism from BFDI fans, that were kinda disappointed, especially Satomi and Pokey fans, that enjoyed their writing style (I mean, I enjoyed their writing too), some going too far into saying lots of harmful things about Sam, which was always the problem with those fanatics, I swear those people need to grow up.
The past few episodes of TPOT were AMAZING for me - it introduced better handled plot, they introduced fucking ONE to the show! However, there are still people, that are going too far with criticism, which is no longer a criticism, literally wanting Sam to be fired, which would be literally the worst scenario for many, many BFDI fans!
I enjoy Sam's writing too, but it does sometimes have lots of flaws, but I can't say it's awful. What I'm saying is TPOT is a result of mistakes, that JNJ Crew made, regarding BFB. So, you may ask "How could we avoid the split?", I have few suggestions:
Double eliminations! If they decided to introduce them in TPOT, why they couldn't introduce them there?
Drop the quality of animation a bit,
Make Two a co-host of Four and X (if Two would still be introduced)
Handle rejoiners better - don't make Loser and Spongy rejoin, either make anyone else rejoin (Liy-), or make no one rejoin! Or, heck, even better - have a rejoiner and a debuter, decided by people!
If they wanted to keep arcs there, at least they could make them be enjoyable, because the majority of BFDI fans kinda disliked the way Tacobook was handled (and also early Winnerclock arc... And Pin cheating arc... Yeah...)
The quality should be somewhat in the middle - of course, there should be still serious moments, but not arcs, that do make people dislike characters (Pin cheating arc and Tacobook!)
If Algebralians were still supposed to show up, they should be a part of EXITors attempting to escape plot,
Change the voting system to Vote to Save and change the ways you're voting to Google Forms (because Jesus Christ, Voting Wars were stressing for lots of people)
Handle Two's character better than how it was handled in BFB 16, so they would be still sympathetic character
Of course there might be still lots of possibilities, that could avoid the show to split, but I just said mine ideas.
Despite the split still happening and lots of people enjoying TPOT, I can't deny that there are lots of problems going on currently with this season, while BFDIA revival is going steady. Of course I won't rush any crew members or beg JNJ to tell us about what's going to happen next. Hopefully things will get better for everyone out there.
Oh, and btw - if you think harassment of any kind is ok, then I respectfully tell you to stay away from me and grow up. BFDI isn't THAT serious and was never supposed to be taken seriously!
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After watching through Side Order... I have a Few Thoughts.
[Spoilers ahead]
My Review of the Side Order DLC - Its little more than Gameplay.
Initial Opinion
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Overall; I like the gameplay mechanics initially, but the story absolutely feels lacking to me, imo. It feels like they were really banking on Side Order being Hard but... multiple of my friends finished it on their 2nd or 3rd run through the Spire.
That in itself isnt a problem! But... everyone felt sort of unsatisfied? There were no developments in the story, as we, Agent 8, were just assigned the task to Get to The Top of the Spire -> The Player Does That -> You beat a Boss -> Credits Roll (?)
On my watchthrough I literally said Please Say Sike 😭 because, dont take this poorly, but they were advertising Side Order as;
• Difficult (stated Multiple Times in basically every Trailer)
• Story Driven (You Uncover things as You Climb)
• Character and Lore Intensive (as shown by the trailers with all the concept art as well as promo art)
I dont feel like it was wrong to expect more based on how it was advertised.
But... if you complete the DLC in 1-2 runs, which is Very Much Possible, no buildup happens at all. The story was banking on the player struggling, and putting all the content behind repeat runs, which falls through and Doesnt really work/feel satisfying if the main goal is achieved in such a short time. I Feel like anyone who regularly plays Salmon Run will likely have a similar experience. And I feel kind of cheated? Because what we got was something that was Tell Not Show rather than the Show, Not Tell formula. And in my opinion, it really doesn't work as well at all. It puts all the major lore that the game has set up behind repetetive climbs (which never change btw, despite each climb being generated differently, its the same after a while) and you get about 1 Sentence of Exposition, with a Modlog from Marina if you are Lucky.
Side Order was (to me), after watching it all;
• Not Difficult, But Repetetive Gameplay (This easily runs people down, which would be fine if the tower had more than 1 setup or phase)
• Inital Story Setup with no complexities or stages. You climb the first Tower, Save Marina, Climb the Second Tower, Beat Order, and the credits Roll. In its most complex, you could fit what Side Order's Story is in 2-3 Sentences. Rather than Lore being revealed During the story, it feels Pushed to the Side as all of it is either in Text the player may never see (different climbs) or care to read (Marina's Mod Log)
• Use of Character Drops with no explaination / mention (The Agent 4 Boss, Anyone?) (This felt very Bait-y, with No Payoff)
Rating
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If I had to give Side Order a Rating
4/10. At Best.
I am a bit disappointed with this as I feel like I was promised more, Storywise, and honestly a bit gameplay wise. I think it fails where other DLC has succeeded Due to being Built in such a way where anything engaging is stuck behind barely changing gameplay. It is not built in a way where the experience cant fail to show you whats important to the characters and the worldbuilding. It relies too much on telling you whats happening rather than the world showing you. Its too Simple, and It Doesnt Work, personally, in a series that contains Octo Expansion.
Which is Sad to me!! It had so much wasted potential and I really hope this isn't the last we're going to see of the concept, we get to see ideas actually built into the story, and... maybe find Agent 4.
Conclusion
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Tldr; Side Order had a good concept, but failed in execution for being simple and gameplay dependent, which was ultimately disappointing due to it being advertised as something more for all involved.
It was an alright attempt. The experience will just be known to me as... well. Baby's First Rouge-like. Nothing worldbreaking.
(PS, this isnt meant to be mean spirited or overly critical, I just love the Splatoon Series so I give it Tough Love. This is just my personal view on the DLC)
Thank you for Reading! Feel free to share or add any thoughts!
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also since i've already seen people try to turn this into a thing i will just say now, as someone who loves Ashrym and doesn't particularly care for Callowmoore, that my feelings about the two aren't really connected. i love Fearne as a character and i don't see her as "getting in the way of my ship," and honestly i don't think of Ashrym and Callowmoore as being in competition at all! i would be just as happy with some sort of Fearne/Ashton/Orym polycule becoming canon as i would simply Ashrym.
ultimately what i care about is doing right by the characters; making choices that are both honest to who they are and compelling for their story. i love Ashrym because i think their dynamic has done a great job of developing both Orym and Ashton, and i'm far more interested in what they actually say to each other than whether they end up becoming romantic or not. I actually think both Orym and Ashton have a considerable amount of work to do before they're ready for a serious relationship! and if they were to get together i'd want it to be a much slower burn than, for example, Imodna, who were already so close and so intimate that it made sense for their romance to be like that right out the gate.
and the same sentiment applies to Callowmoore; i'm actually quite interested to see how Fearne and Ashton's dynamic could develop, and i think there's a lot of potential there. but it hasn't reached a place where a romance between the two would really feel earned. so yeah, I'm glad Ashton pushed the brakes on that, regardless of their reasons, both because its absolutely what he would do and because it gives them and Fearne the chance to develop a dynamic outside of just whether they're in love with each other.
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She convinced herself. This is also why I can swallow the 2nd almost marriage - she wants to believe the fairytale. I don't believe she ever thought it was true love but I think she thought they were both trying to make an honest go of it. What kills her is being made a fool of in that way. Because let's go back, why did Dorothy marry him? Because she was pregnant, which actually means because she couldn't/wouldnt get an abortion, because she's from a religious family (interestingly it seems they're both from poor immigrant backgrounds). She married him to make everyone else happy, because it was "the right thing to do". Because it meant she wasn't just an easy girl, she could be a good wife and mother (her baby wouldn't be a bastard)- and he destroyed that and in doing so destroyed her in a sense. So yeah, she had every reason to make herself believe that it wasn't happening, to beloeve she hadnt made another mistake.
You make a very compelling argument, anon. After the wedding, it likely became a matter of sunk-cost fallacy for her: she sacrificed so much (of herself and for herself) to become Stan's wife and the mother of his children, so it had to work, no matter what -- because the alternative was that she'd given up her youth, her happiness, her dreams for a whole lot of nothing. And the more time passed -- the more Stan dug this hole around her -- the more painful the idea of letting go became, because she'd invested so damn much in this marriage. It's hard to let go of something when you've given your entire self to it.
I can totally see her telling herself that it's all in her head and choosing to believe Stan's lies because it hurt less than the alternative, and then being completely taken aback when he left (without even the decency to tell her in person, mind you). I recall her saying that she spent a lot of time being holed up in her room after the divorce, until Sophia managed to get her out of her depression, and I mean -- is it any wonder? The ground she'd walked on for years literally disappeared under her feet in the span of one phone call.
I feel like there's some space to think she was honest with herself about it -- a sort of Glen situation in which she knew what was happening, suffered because of it, but still decided not to act on it -- but the self-gaslighting seems more likely, for two reasons:
I think if she'd been fully aware of Stan's infidelity she would have ended up confronting him about it, either during or after their marriage, but in S2E13 he clearly thinks she didn't know about his affairs (except the one that led to the divorce).
It's just in character for her, as you say. She wants to believe that she's fine, that her marriage is working, that Stan really does love her, no matter what. This has been pointed out before a few times, but whenever Stan does something decent in the show she just completely melts, and you can tell this is learned behaviour. She's conditioned herself to believe in him and survive on crumbs of his affection (until she couldn't anymore, that is).
So yeah, this hypothesis makes sense (perfect, heartbreaking sense) to me too.
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