#Still I'm very happy it's being re-released for more people to play

[greetings-from-the-eraser-king]

Hlvrai kids au

Basic premise the crew go on a field trip to Black Mesa they stumble upon a secret experiment b-u557 and end up releasing him and Black Mesa security desperately tries to stop him

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Eatch kids character description below 👇

Tommy- is the oldest and is in 4th grade and is in a gifted class with darnold he has a huge collection of soda cans and stuffed animals his favorite thing to do is line them up in different patterns. Hes mainly happy and cheerful. him and benrey live together as brothers though there not biologically related he's not quite sure we're ben came from. Gman takes Tommy to black mesa a lot to show him different science experiments going on. Wants a dog so bad his toy dog is doing the job for now.

Gordon- he's in 3erd and is mainly a loner who doesn't fit in a chronic over-thinker he mainly likes to play videogames or read (mainly magazines about video games) he is a smart kid and maybe next year he'll be in the advanced science class. Anxious but loyal and can get easily annoyed. Him and benrey are frenemies both bonding over videogames and other nerdy things but benery is a bit to annoying to be a true friend (benery constantly taunts him by calling him feet man because when he was in kindergarten he stepped in peanut butter and ate it Gordon regrets telling him this) he carries a Gameboy wherever he goes.

Darnold- is one of the smartest kids in the 3erd grade but unfortunately the shortest which leads to constant taunts from forzen though not in the same grade him and Tommy are in the same gifted class and are very good friends. They enjoy making positions out of soda and doing all sorts of strange experiments.more shy and less confident than Tommy he still has a similar joyful attitude. Reads fantasy books and constantly has a new one every week.

Benery- in 3erd lives with Tommy and has no memory of how he got there but meh who cares loves to skate board and do tricks though no one knows how he holds onto it at all times seemingly appears and disappears at will. He wandered a lot and seems to forget things you just told him. You can't tell when he's joking or being serious. His helmet never comes off. Chill jokester who doesn't take a lot of things seriously and likes to hang around Gordon and annoy him. He is not allowed near black mesa.

B-u557- a top secret black mesa experiment to be the ultimate life form he was still brewing when the kids broke him out of his tube so he might have some defects mostly annoyed all the time but he is thrilled to be out of his tube and even more thrilled to finally be able to hear a scientist who has been visiting him.

Forzen- moved from France when he was around 3-4 his dad's in the military and he's a bit spoiled has had to move a lot because of his dad but he's been in the same neighborhood as the gang sense the end of 2ed grade. He's not truly one of the bullies of the school but is annoying to Gordon darnold and Tommy he quickly became friends with benery when he moved and benery taut him how to skate board.

Dr.coomer- a good friend of Tommy's dad but usually not taken very seriously by his coworkers. He is a little unusual and loud but is a very kind soul other scientists complaine that he talks to much. he works in many departments around black mesa but is most offensive seen in the robotics department is the founder of the black mesa boxing ring and has not lost his wife in the divorce yet. He likes to visit the secret experiment B-u557 to see how he's doing he does his rants to the experiment even though he knows he can't hear him. But b-u557 doesn't ever seem to be annoyed so he keeps visiting. Even if everyone else in black mesa tells him to stop.

Credit: blinkees

[khttrpg]

Cracks knuckles.

Alright team. Let's talk the next few months.

The short version is I'm going to have a basic version for v0.3 out by mid-September. The current plan is to finish work on it through June, finish privately testing it by mid-August, and then do a closed playtest with Patreon supporters through the rest of August. I'll make any further adjustments, playtest one more round if needed, and then throw it out to The People!

This is going to be a more compact initial release than previous versions. The version of the game to release will be through about level 21 (out of 100 levels). Unlike V0.2, though, it will be playable at release - no waiting to learn how to make enemies. There are several reasons for this smaller release, but the most important is changeability: this way, instead of needing full years to adjust everything I've made if something about the base game is completely off course, it'll only take a month or so. Quicker turnaround for adjustments!

I'll be sitting down to do a sort of psuedo-Q&A on Friday, June 28 on my Twitch at 7 PM EST- playing some Kingdom Hearts, answering questions as they come up, talking about what I've been up to and longer-term plans. If there's anything in this post that you don't understand or want elaboration on, send an ask, and I'll answer it on that stream!

Some of the big changes you can expect in V0.3, under a cut for brevity (some of the details and names may be subject to change still!):

Combat Stats. You know, in retrospect, there was no good reason to not use KH's existing ATK/DEF/MAG stats and just directly translate abilities using them. The new version has the actual stats used in KH games connected to the more roleplay-oriented Stats from previous versions - e.g. ATK being connected to Body - but ultimately separated in terms of usage.

Sword, Shield, Staff. This will appear in very basic form in this version, to be elaborated on once the core game has been adequately playtested. I've wanted to include the chance to "choose your path" since day 1, but could never find a way to integrate it; the addition of Combat Stats provided a clean opportunity to try it out!

Dice. This was something that got brought up relatively early on in the Discord, but at the time I didn't have the experience to handle it. Now I do! Attacks have a more standardized pattern and there's no longer going to be a situation where you can hit and do 0 damage. Not unless you intentionally do some really bad numbers. I can't stop you from that.

Job Classes -> Job Paths. There was a consistent issue in the first two versions, where the intent of job classes - to be loose guidelines rather than strict classes, with lots of mixing and matching - was unclear. They've been re-contextualized as sets of Abilities, with one feature being a prerequisite to the next. My hope is that this will allow people to view them closer to as intended, on top of some other interesting things that have opened up to do with them.

MP. I really wanted to stick to KH1-style MP because I love the low numbers and wanted so badly to make them work. But ultimately, the MP numbers from KH2 and KH3 were easier to deal with. There's just no #/5 equivalent to 12/100.

Hordes. Yes I've reworked them again. I'm so happy with them this time though!! I think I finally struck a balance to make it both quick and large. Hopefully. Playtesting permits.

Memories. Will finally be a full part of the game! There'll be ~5 options minimum at time of initial publishing. I'd REALLY like to get it up to 7 for that sweet sweet number symbolism, but that won't be a priority for this initial release.

Leveling. There will be a way to calculate the EXP for level ups, and that leveling is simpler to understand.

And other stuff! Some of it in too early stages to talk about for this release, some of it is just formatting, some of it is hard to explain quickly.

I will not be updating monthly, because after trying to make myself do that for several years now, I'm forced to accept that I'm not capable of doing so on a for-fun project. But I will make a concerted effort to be more present here and to keep everyone appraised of the Big milestones, like when I open up playtesting for patrons.

Thank you all so much for your patience, as always! <3

[manonamora-if]

Retrospective 2023 (3)

Haven't looked at numbers in a minute, and since my presence online has been super inconsistent (especially here) recently, I have no idea how this will end up looking. I've updated this sheet a couple of time during the year, but not in a way it tracks old numbers... Because Tumblr has a limit of 20 images per post, I won't include the graphs here, like I did last year, but in this doc (for those interested). Also, I realised I didn't even do celebration posts for milestones this year... And there were quite a few ;-; sorry

For the relevant projects, I've also included a more detailed recap of what's been done this year. All of it is under the cut.

The projects are ordered in date of release.

Forewarning, those stats are not a good representation of IF/Tumblr popularity. The numbers should not be taken as a baseline for comparison. There are many different factors that resulted in those, most of them being out of everyone’s control. I am only comparing myself to Past-Me.

2021 Releases

Status: Complete.

No major updates, since the game is complete. Only some maintenance fixes. The source code of older versions is also available on my GitHub.

Stats:

5.475 total plays (+1.7k-ish)

30 ratings (+5), with an average of 4.4/5 (+0.1)

Inside 316 collections (+108)

Almost 2.3 views/play (+0.1)

Unsurprisingly, the interest for MtP is going down. The game is complete, has not and will not have new updates. It would surprise me if it would gain any traction at this point. I expect the additional plays not to pass 600 by the end of 2024.

2023 Milestones:

5k plays

30 ratings

PLAY | INTRO POST | RATE | REVIEW

Status: Hiatus

I wanted to have an update for this project in 2023. It didn't happen. There is actually quite a bit of work to do in the code, which I had started but didn't complete.

Stats:

40.326 total plays (+12k-ish)

97 (+28), with an average of 4.6/5 (-0.1)

Inside 2.679 collections (+913)

About 2.0 view/play (+0.1)

For a year without any update, I am honestly surprised so many people still played the game this year (average of 30 plays/day). I'm very grateful about it, nonetheless. Hopefully, I'll have something to show for this year!

2023 Milestones:

30k + 40k plays

75 ratings

PLAY | INTRO POST | RATE | REVIEW

Status: Hiatus

This was another project I had planned to complete this year and... didn't. I managed to write a bit for the game, but nothing that would warrant an update.

Stats:

2.203 total plays (+760)

13 ratings (+2), with an average of 4.3/5 (+0.1)

Inside 126 collections (+38)

Went to 2.9 view/play (+0.2)

There were a few jumps in interest in Exquisite Cadaver this year, especially considering there were, once again, no updates (especially at the start of April). But nothing very substantial... I'm honestly pretty happy peeps still enjoy the game, because the whole thing is a bit strange xD

2023 Milestones:

2k plays

PLAY | INTRO POST | RATE | REVIEW

2022 Releases

Status: Completed

Absolutely nothing has been happening with this game, not even a bug fix or anything. When I get back to this project, it will be for a complete re-haul. Which won't happen in a long while.

Stats:

3.205 total plays (+790-ish)

19 ratings (+4), with an average of 4.3/5 (=)

Inside 293 collections (+90)

About to 2.2 view/play (+0.1)

2023 Milestones:

3k plays

PLAY | INTRO POST | RATE | REVIEW

Status: Completed

There was a plan to fix the issues in the game AND add new content. But, if you've followed me this year, you've seen... nothing happened! Honestly, a whole re-code of the game is needed at this point.

Stats:

1.458 total plays (+785)

16 ratings (+6), with an average of 4.5/5 (+0.3)

Inside 103 collections (+59)

About 2.1 view/play (=)

The lack of blowing up stands on two things: the game is not that good... and I don't really have an intro post peeps can share...

2023 Milestones:

1k plays

PLAY | INTRO POST | RATE | REVIEW

Status: Ongoing

Out of all the WIPs I have, this one got the most progress. It got two major updates during the first half of the year (one of which included a maze!). The second had been spent working especially on Chapter 5 (it's a chunker) and starting Chapter 6 (for MelS). We are trying to wrap up the project for 2024.

Stats:

9.379 total plays (+6.4k-ish) (so close…)

56 (+28) ratings, with an average of 4.8/5 (=)

Inside 783 collections (+444)

About 1.9 view/play (+0.1)

A pretty decent growth for the game, though it is not always consistent. Most interest in the project happens during updates (duh), with some dozen returning players weekly. I don't think it will ever reach the level of CRWL, but it is doing pretty well considering the genre.

2023 Milestones:

5k plays

50 ratings

PLAY | INTRO POST | RATE | REVIEW

Status: Completed(-ish)

Until the first anniversary of this project (coinciding with the EctoComp once more) this game was in French only. Since last October, it was re-written to include more rooms inside the house, and a proper ending beat. It was then translated into English, and the whole thing was recoded. There are still a few kinks I need to handle, but it is essentially complete.

Stats:

252 total plays (+181)

1 rating with 5 stars (=)

Inside 13 collections (+7)

About 4.9 view/play (-0.7)

Unsurprisingly, there was little to no interest in the game. The page was visited a bunch of times, but few people clicked (probably because it was in French. Since the translation, more users have checked out the game and played it. I don't really expect much more interest from players, unfortunately...

2023 Milestones:

100 + 250 plays

PLAY | INTRO POST | RATE | REVIEW Oh... it doesn't have a page... omg.. stpid me.

Status: Completed

This year, the game was re-edited, translated to French, and recoded - a proper remaster including sound! And another game I can call complete and shelved!

Stats:

605 total plays (+270-ish)

10 ratings (+3), with an average of 4.8/5 (+0.1)

Inside 31 collections (+17)

About 3.2 view/play (+0.1)

I am not shocked to see this, honestly. It's a short meme game around a gimmick mechanic that gets old pretty quickly. Still, some interest made in late last June (somehow???) and when I published the remaster in autumn.

2023 Milestones:

500 plays

10 ratings

PLAY | INTRO POST | RATE | REVIEW

Status: Ongoing

At the start of the year, I updated this game to add a tiny bit of content (a few passages) and ensured it could be played on mobile. And published a template from this UI.

There was more content written for the game, as well as mechanics coded, but nothing is coherent enough (or devoid of bugs) to be playable.

Stats:

500 total plays (+333 !!!)

4 ratings (+4), with an average of 5.0

Inside 39 collections (+28)

About 3.0 view/play (+0.5)

Combined a tiny demo with a pre-set character, a not super popular genre, not much to do or little replayability... and you get this. I'll just check back when the game is actually complete :P Honestly, I'm just glad some peeps caught the inspiration for P-RIX.

2023 Milestones:

500 plays !!!!

PLAY | INTRO POST | RATE | REVIEW (oh and it has both an intro post and an IFDB page now!)

2023 Releases

Now that we are going into the new releases, there is less comparing, and more putting down the base.

Status: Completed

Biggest high of this year! Released the game in January, won the comp in March, was interviewed shortly after, remastered the whole thing during the summer break (which included a total re-haul of the UI, an English translation, and increased content). Hands down my best game of the year.

Stats

967 total plays

7 ratings, with an average of 5.0

Inside 68 collections

About 3.1 view/play

Lots of views on the game page without plays for the longest time, because, up until the remaster, the game was only available in French. Things picked up then the remaster was uploaded (though it coincided with the IFComp). The game is also not available for mobile play due to its interface...

2023 Milestones:

Won the French Comp!

100 + 250 + 500 plays

PLAY | INTRO POST | RATE | REVIEW

Status: Hiatus

The first Act of the story was created for the SeedComp! (which didn't win anything because I organised it, and it would have been unfair :P ). There was a plan to complete the game after the SeedComp! was over, but that didn't pan out. I have notes for it, though a re-write of Act 1 may be necessary...

Stats:

633 total plays

5 ratings, with an average of 3.6

Inside 46 collections

About 2.6 view/plays

While bummed by the average, Not surprised. The game is incomplete and plays on the noir codes, which are... something (also the twist is silly). I'll pay a bit more attention to it when the game is actually complete :P Also... It never got an intro post....

2023 Milestones:

100 + 250 + 500 plays

PLAY | INTRO POST | RATE | REVIEW

Status: Complete

Released for the SpringThing in the Main Garden, this game was supposed to be updated by the end of last year and... it ended up needed a lot more work than expected. I am still working on it. This was my attempt in experimenting with Twine, creating a parser with a non-parser program. It... didn't work all that well as a conventional parser, but it worked pretty well for other peeps.

Stats:

650 total plays

5 ratings, with an average of 5.0

Inside 56 collections

About 2.8 view/plays

Honestly, not bad considering this is a weird parser, that worked eh and still has some issues. I won't ever expect it to blow up, honestly, but it's nice to see a play or two popup on my screen sometimes.

2023 Milestones

100 + 250 + 500 plays

PLAY | INTRO POST | RATE | REVIEW

Status: Complete-ish

Created for a French Jam where I could not choose the program, the game was then upgraded and translated into English for the Text Adventure Literacy Jam a few weeks later. It was my first proper parser game (and made with Adventuron). I still need to fix some issues and typos with the English version, and retranslate back into French...

Stats: The game has currently two pages: French and English

160 (58+88) total plays

4 ratings, with an average of 5.0 and 4.0

Inside 4 collections

About 2.8 view/plays

No surprise here. Parsers are not popular on itch. (I should maybe add it to the textadventure.co.uk website....)

PLAY FR - EN | INTRO POST | RATE FR - EN | REVIEW

Assets and Other Tiny Games

Loads happened with this sections this year, with the addition of 5 new templates, and a whole Guide for SugarCube.

In January, the Setting Template was added - with the Space-Tech UI one following at the end of March, the VN-lite UI one in July, the Character Creator in November, and the Title Page UI in December.

The Guide was released in two periods, with a pre-release before the summer, and a complete one mid-december (which included a download point).

As of last month, all templates are also available on Github, and the Guides are all "playable" on itch.

CScript to SugarCube Guide/Folder

105 downloads (114 plays)

4 rating at 5 stars

Inside 36 collections

Get it here.

Tweego Ready to Use Guide

425 downloads (51 plays)

1 rating at 5 stars

Inside 6 collections

Get it here

Note: this guide got its own page in November of this year, despite being available since 2022

SugarCube Guide

1.300 "plays" (76 download)

11 ratings at 5 stars

Inside 102 collections

Get it here

Templates

2105 downloads

25 ratings, with an average of 5.0

Inside 274 collections

Get them here

After the release of Le Jeu de la Dévotion in late December 2022, I've been participating in other game jams with tiny entries. While one did get a bit more interaction than even my larger piece (Collision, wtf), little really happened to warrant a proper section (they are really tiny!).

And so these were released:

April 2023: À la Campagne [English]

June 2023: Clarence Street, 14, Collision, Intersigne [English + French]

Aug 2023: Le Diner [English]

Oct 2023: In the Blink of an Eye [English + French]

Nov 2023: Tower of Sleep [English] <- BINKSI :D

Dec 2023: Dévoiement [French]

2023 Overall Graph

Ok I lied, one graph:

Compared to last year, the graph is less very high peaks and very low down time (with a slow increase), but a more consistent base (higher than last year) with some moderate peaks for releases (namely Harcourt's and DOL-OS). The downloads have boomed, but that's because of the templates...

The increase of overall small releases (with jam/comp entries) probably helped in this staying a bit consistent (though I could do a better job at hyping up releases before and after they happen here and in other places). It would probably have looked much different if my release focus was somewhere else (like CRWL).

And that's it for stats (I'm skipping the follower/note counts)! The 2024-plan is next!

[ikemenomegas]

where was the alpha during the whole shibuya arc? Where they also unaliving people like the hot bad bitch they are or were they mainly trying to deal with the elders and providing support from behind the scenes?

And did gojo ever feel his mate removing their mating mark? Also, i have this thought that ive played around in my head for a while, it'd be interesting if the next time gojo meets his mate when he's outside the box, his mate somewhat changed and became more solemn and then gojo gets this deja vu feeling back to when geto acted the same way after gojo was absent a lot because he became more bombarded with missions and now it's happening again to one of the most important people in his life and he slowly gets this foreboding feeling of dread

I'm swinging around this oc like my poor cat hehe. Very pleased that you think they're a hot bad bitch. They're also a total awkward simp, like run into doorways if they see Satoru naked after a shower, so we love someone one can be both lol.

During the Shibuya arc, alpha wasn't ever inside the curtains. I think there's some brief discussion about it, but Satoru tells them not to come with him because this is clearly going to be people batting at his level. The higher-ups also demand that Satoru go alone and he doesn't tend to outright cross them concerning things like this.

Alpha end up keeping an eye on Inumaki and a third year oc (who will be Inumaki's partner). They end up trying to rescue the other auxiliary sorcerers while the curtain is up, and then helping get people out once the curtains go down - so they'd help Nitta extract Nobara and Akari (this means they do see Nanami's body rip) and essentially guard the retreat, up until they're called back to the school. There's probably a fair bit of unaliving things as part of that lol, but this time they're not going hunting for trouble.

(more below the cut because this is a lot to address!)

Gojo would not have felt the mark removal happen while in the box, because the way I'm interpreting the prison realm, is that nothing physical can happen to him in there that he doesn't do to himself. He feels it when he's released though.

I had some options I was toying with for the eventual unboxing before it actually happened:

Because Satoru feels it the moment the box releases him, I think he actually had time to reject the rejection as it were, and decide to maintain the bond. I would love for that to happen because the imagery of blue flame slowly burning away alpha's name back at the family home and then suddenly dissipating leaving their name intact is very pretty to me.

The other thought I had was that if the box was in a place that made releasing Gojo potentially hazardous, alpha would sense his sudden return to the world and feel the bond reform on their neck and hold back Satoru's powers just long enough for him to regain control, almost like stopping an explosion.

The other option is what's been seeming like the more likely option for a while now, which is that Gojo lets the bond break because alpha still wouldn't be safe as Gojo's mate. The last edict from the higher-ups is still technically enforceable, although they don't have the manpower to try rn. It also suits the long standing imagery of Gojo being a bodhisattva.

In the last few chapters, we've seen his major connections to the earth slowly be chipped away - one ward is taken over, the other is dead, his friends and allies have been decimated, his students are slowly becoming strong enough not to need him, and in this au his mate was forced to sever the connection for their own safety, oh and he killed his best friend a year ago and has to fight that body again. That's a lot of loss to pile on the shoulders of even the strongest. And the bodhisattva ascension is only delayed, so there's still a chance he could never have the chance to make new connections because he's well "ascended".

In my happy ending, I want Gojo and alpha to openly get [re]mated after everything is over. I love love "I chose you again and again" type of relationships and choosing to stay with someone is so hard for Gojo because of the implications of loss or attachment in particular that choosing again feels very powerful. He's an incredibly lonely person but it's so difficult to reach out to him because no one, not even Getou, was forced to live the full weight of his experience then and now.

You're not the first person to bring up that from an outsider's perspective, what's happening with alpha is very similar to Getou's pulling back and being forced to acknowledge that no matter what they want, they can't stand side by side with Gojo and have to do things their own way. I've been trying and failing to write their post-unboxing meeting for literal months because it's so difficult to capture.

Mostly because Gojo is someone who accepts the realities of a situation fairly quickly. It is incredibly painful to realize that yet another person who tried to walk alongside him has changed while he wasn't there. But, he could acknowledge that very quickly and set the pain aside as fast as he could because pain comes from expectations being different from reality, and he has a lot of important things to attend to.

Alpha is one of the most important people in his personal life, which makes all of this easier said than done. There's a lot of lingering looks and quiet moments of emotionally charged "strategy meetings" over the time between his unsealing and the set date of his fights.

Probably the only difference between Getou and Alpha at this point is that alpha has never functioned with the straight cold logic Suguru sometimes did. They have things they certainly consider unforgivable, but they fully joined Gojo's faction so their method is never going to be "literally break the whole world" - they'll just break their own, their rules, their walls, their own source of security/safety, for the people they care about. Objectively, this may be worse than Suguru because alpha will do things they know or think are "wrong" if it can guarantee safety for the people they love.

So it fills Gojo with a whole new type of dread! isn't that fun! Instead of "I might [will probably] have to kill this person in the name of my code and responsibilities even if it's literally going to break a piece of me forever" it's "this person I love might end up burning themself out in the name of their goals because they consider other people and their future wellbeing far more important than themself at this moment, and I can't stop them because that strength of resolve is either going to save them or do the opposite". Either way, Gojo knows they're no longer walking the same path, and in some way, it hurts.

[thecloudstan]

I totally get your point about the original, and I didn’t mean to criticize the game itself because I know it’s practically ancient, at least in terms of videogame standards. It’s just that I’ve seen so many old fans saying how the original is superior in every way and it pretty much discredits everything added to the remakes. Like I get that they have their nostalgia, but it gets annoying after a while if you genuinely enjoyed the new stuff and you just have a bunch of people complaining about everything. I’ll go on Reddit to see if anyone has theories about the ending or what they thought about the game in general and I’ll run into a good amount of people on every post complaining about something- even if it’s inconsequential- and it’ll feel like they’re doing it just because they’re grumpy it’s not a one to one remake.

Again it’s not meant to be criticism against the original which is like three decades old by now, but rather of the people who just refuse to accept change. I do agree though that people on both sides need to calm down. There’s so much anger for nothing. If you’re going to get mad about something can’t you find something better to take your frustrations out on? Like is all the complaining about time shenanigans and slightly altered plot points really worth all the energy?

I agree, My People (oldies) are way too fucking precious about the original. Devs were in this rock and hard place of "don't change my thing but remake it and make it perfectly." Girl, what? It's not possible. Open your mind. Massage your ego a bit, take the nostalgia glasses off. YOU ARE MISSING OUT ON THIS. I just want to shake them!!

My husband was one of these types and we had HEATED arguments between 2015 and the release of Remake in 2020 about this very subject. I'm happy to say he's 100% reformed. LOL.

And if I sounded touchy, it's only because I'm old and tired. I actually avoid Reddits and tags about the game for the same reason you stated. I'm either going to see new fans confused and misinterpreting things or old assed fans who just won't accept any changes. Remake is a SEQUEL. It is literally Sephiroth trying to RE MAKE the events of the original so he can win. Everything that happens is inconsequential to the original game, so if they want their precious baby intact, it very much still is. And tbqh with you, the new fans are a lot more fun lmfao. Which honestly just makes me sad for my people because I'm like...guys, relax. You of all people should be enjoying this because of your knowledge of the Deep Lore. That's a layer of added interest, not something to get all babyish about.

As far as the original being SUPERIOR, ignore those fools. They're literally robbing themselves of a great experience over an apples and oranges argument.

Actually!! This happened wayyy back in the 90s, too. I got a lot of grief from people for loving the original so much. Back then it was mostly male Nintendo fans that I was surrounded by, so I was that sole bitch straight up defending Cloud's honor on the battlefield (the schoolyard). And then by the time I was in high school, all those guys had played FF7 and loved it.

They'll come around. Just laugh at them for now.

[skania]

Replies to ONK Asks

If you've sent me an ONK-related message these past two days, the reply is below the cut!

Since ONK is taking over my blog, I'll work on a Masterlist so stuff is easier to find. In the meantime, please don't hesitate to use the search bar at the top of my blog to check if I've already replied to a particular topic!

Indeed, the fandom at large seems to be hit with a very serious case of confirmation bias. It doesn't only apply to the ships, either. For example, those who want Aqua to be Light-lite will let this bias cloud their interpretation of Aqua's every action lol

The obsession thing is genuinely hilarious though because of the cognitive dissonance 😂

You and me both! If Akane has to play one of the B-Komachi members, it would be nice to see Kana sharing her experience with her so Akane can understand her better. I'm also curious as to how their dynamic will be affected now that Akane has hardened up. I don't even know if Kana will be able to get a rise out of Akane anymore, but I kind of hope she does because Akane has been looking so stoic lately 😭

Aka's pacing is a hot mess. Sometimes the story moves at a snail's pace, and sometimes it moves at the speed of light lol

I'm glad we're finally diving deep into Ruby's mental state and her past as Sarina!

Thank you for this first ramble! I'm glad it worked 😂 I completely agree with you, the intimacy between Aqua and Akane really stands out and it's difficult to ignore. I think this is precisely why some feel the need to deny as much of it as possible: they have convinced themselves of the outcome of the manga, but still feel threatened by Aqua and Akane's dynamic. So, they try to explain it away in a fashion that won't question their desired endgame; hence all the bad takes about how Akane was just a tool to Aqua, etc.

I get how frustrating it can be, but I think that at the end of the day it's up to Aka to prove these people wrong, not us. All we can do is try to provide our perspective, but some people won't change their minds unless Aka delivers an Aqua/Akane ending. And even then, some people will still be in denial until the end of time lol

Re: your PS, I think that if Aqua/Akane happens, Aka will necessarily have to revisit their relationship before then, so people will be able to see it coming and will have time to come to terms with it. I imagine the 2nd Season will help as well because it's the Akane season, so anime-onlies will realize things aren't as set in stone as S1 may make them seem.

Hi there, anon!

On Akane and Ai

On Akane and being "obsessed" with Aqua

I haven't written anything on the third reason because I've thankfully never seen it, but I agree with everything you said!! Besides, the manga itself explains that Akane is hit harder than your average person because of how earnest she is. Instead of tuning out those messages, she felt like it was her duty to face those comments head-on. If anything, I feel that this only makes her even more amazing because she was able to come back from that stronger than ever 😭

Not at all anon, thank you for sharing your thoughts with me! ❤️

I've given my opinion on the former here and here. As for Aqua's happiness being "fake", the lie lies in the fact that Aqua was building his happiness on running away from the truth. Aqua's "freedom" period and his relationship with Akane during it is something I'd love to write about properly later though, so I'll make a mental note to address this then!

and what's your opinion about people saying akane is crazy which is why she's "flawed?"

My opinion is that this hot take is not worth engaging with 😂 It's funny to see people wasting time with made-up flaws instead of discussing Akane's actual flaws though.

I imagine they'll announce S2 next week, so hopefully they also give us a tentative release period! I don't mind waiting for a bit as long as the quality is as good as S1's. If they go for 2 cours this time, Season 2 will truly be the Akane season.

I think the confirmation bias is likely even stronger in manga readers because they've been along longer. I've practically stopped checking OnK out in social media because some takes are just way too bad lol

Hi anon! I'm sorry, I left out the Kishimoto-related stuff because I didn't want to get sidetracked 😂 but to be perfectly honest with you, I'm not an Aka expert. I've only read one other work of his, Kaguya. I have no idea of whether he can be influenced by popularity or not because, in Kaguya, the intended ships also happened to be the most popular ones. The closest thing to a love triangle was pretty much just a distraction and a means for him to explore admiration and unrequited love lol

I do think that Aka is the type to go with whatever suits his vision/fancy best, though. I think he is more likely to be influenced by his own wants rather than the fandom's.

As for the anime, I'm honestly not sure how the merch gets decided. My best guess is that this season they're focusing all the marketing on the "Idol" side of the story, while next season the marketing will highlight the "Acting" side of it. There's no denying that it's pretty disappointing to see collab after collab with no Akane in sight though. I also think they shouldn't have added the recap episode right in the middle of Akane's arc; they should've waited and aired it one episode later. I feel that it kind of stalled the momentum Akane was building with the anime-only fandom, but that may be just me lol

However, what we need to pay attention to is how the anime handles certain scenes. The music cues. What they add, what they cut, what they change. Aka is the type to work very closely with the anime team and to give them information about the story in advance. So if they highlight certain scenes or make them more/less impactful than they were in the manga, it could mean something.

[tellthemeerkatsitsfine]

I’ve been working through The Bugle relatively slowly since I started listening to it again a few weeks ago, which I’m happy about because it means I’ll run out of it more slowly. Have gone from episode 4200 to 4230, and I think these two are my favourites. Highly recommend them both, to anyone who enjoys this sort of thing. Episode 4226, from April 2022 with Nish Kumar and Alice Fraser, and episode 4230, from May 2022 with Nish Kumar and Tom Ballard.

You will notice a common thread there, which is the word “Nish”. Kumar/Fraser and Kumar/Ballard, just in general might be the best pairings you can get on The Bugle. Those have been three of the most frequently recurring guests since the “reboot” in 2016, and it’s taken time but they have built up a really good rapport with each other and with Andy Zaltzman. They always come in with good stuff written, and I don’t know if Andy comes in with better stuff when they’re around, but I do think he delivers it better, as he can play off them more comfortably. As close as he gets to comfortably.

I know that first episode had several strong points because it had a few bits from Nish that made it into his touring stand-up show (which I know because I saw it twice last year, once in New York and once in Montreal, and he filmed it ages ago now and I am still waiting for it to get released, it was so fucking good and I cannot wait to see it again); he writes a lot for The Bugle and I assume, like Andy, just takes the best of it for his tour show.

Also, Kumar/Fraser and Kumar/Ballard are both England/Australia pairings, which I think is also good. When you get people from different countries, you tend to get a broader range of directions for the topical jokes, instead of everyone going for the same thing. And they can get good humour out of comparing how the same event is seen on multiple sides of the globe.

They get some strong staples into these two episodes. Nish does his joke about American versus British racism being the same as The Office (the British one is subtle and understated while the American version gets big-name celebrities involves and is more in-your-face but Britain invented them both), which I've always liked. Andy does his Australian rules football versus Australian rules immigration joke that he's so proud of (needlessly violent and aggressive despite there being a colossal amount of space), which I've also always liked. Comparisons between two things that you wouldn't expect to be compared because they're on very different levels of seriousness: always a solid source of humour. And Alice Fraser got to go on one of her favourite rants, about how Elon Musk is basically fictional. Pretending something doesn't exist when it definitely does exist: also always funny. On the subject of the classics, at one point in the Tom Ballard episode, Andy brought up the routine he and John Oliver used to have about turning global wars into a sports tournament, and then he recited the whole thing from memory, which is pretty good given that it would have been at least ten years since he'd performed it. Oh, and that episode began with such a long string of - as the British say - wanking jokes that it ended with Andy Zaltzman declaring this is not what The Bugle is for and John Oliver would be turning in his grave over this. Which is a great line; I think from now on, every time something terrible happens in the world, I'm going to say that John Oliver must be turning in his grave (a joke that I think works extra well during the writer's strike, when John Oliver is, as far as the public is concerned, temporarily dead).

There's been lots of good stuff in the 30 episodes I've heard lately, but these two stood out. Good work all around. Also, I'm now into the June 2022 episodes, which means for the first time since I started the earliest episodes, where were from 2007, I have less than a year of Bugle left to catch up on. But it's okay, because I've just received a bunch of other very exciting stuff to listen to that's going to the top of the list, so I can continue to drag The Bugle out and it'll never end.

[blackbird-brewster]

Another CME thing: I actually am liking the JJ/Will work life balance plot so far. In the original series, when this came up for either Hotch or JJ, it was overly simplified.

For example, when JJ gets back from the state dept it's all 'Will preferred when she was there because she worked less', but from the get go we're set up to side with JJ because we know she missed the BAU. It feels like an unchangeable situation that has to be put up with. Similarly with Hotch/Hailey: from the first time we see them we know that nothing will really change, it's just a matter of how much of Hotch working like this Hailey will tolerate.

While in 2 episodes of this plot now, we have Will and JJ having a productive conversation about this. They talk about making time, and there is an undertone that if they can't work out making time, maybe they need to change/end in the relationship. Not in a 'JJ sucks and is working too much' way, but in a mutual 'they care deeply for eachother and deserve to be in relationships that have time put into it'.

(I love and appreciate all of your CME asks!!!!!!!!!!)

Yes, you bring up very good points!! Like everyone here knows I really dislike Will (always have for many valid reasons, I don't dislike him JUST because he's JJ's husband. He just has too many red flags for me and I dislike his motivations and his character.)

The ONE theme through all the seasons regarding JJ has always been 'Will hates me working long hours.' And in Evolution we finally get to see that play out on-screen, which I agree, is pretty interesting.

You absolutely nailed it when you said:

They talk about making time, and there is an undertone that if they can't work out making time, maybe they need to change/end in the relationship. Not in a 'JJ sucks and is working too much' way, but in a mutual 'they care deeply for eachother and deserve to be in relationships that have time put into it'.

I have ALWAYS thought this. Like, I very much believe in the concept that sometimes relationships work until they don't. Meaning, sometimes two people who still love/care about each other just grow apart and have different priorities and they become incompatible to a point where they need to go their separate ways.

I could 100% see this happening with Will/JJ. I imagine both of them getting to a point where they're simply no longer happy together and they WANT each other to be happy, but sometimes the way to find happiness again is by breaking up.

I also think it's interesting how ALL of the promo interviews talked about how JJ and Will moved to New Orleans for a while then came back so JJ could re-join the BAU. But so far....we haven't heard about this AT ALL?? I think *maybe* JJ says something about 'being back' but it's in a vague way in mid-conversation and it doesn't actually tell us anything about their move to New Orleans or what prompted them to return, etc. And I WANT to know about this, I think without the full scope of what's been going on for JJ over the past few years, it's hard for me to fully invest in the complex relationship she and Will have.

On this note: MOST of the 'here's what the team have been up to' reveals in pre-release interviews haven't been discussed at all yet. Yeah, I know we've only seen 2/10 episodes but you'd think in the first two episodes would be when they established 'here's the background of what we've all been doing'?? Idk if I'm making sense.

I guess I'm just saying, the pre-release interviews made me more interested in the reboot than the actual episodes have lol

[cibellathoughts]

After therapy 😌

Good morning.

Im sorry. I used writing as a coping skill. I shouldn't have sent the writing, tho 😕

I'm sorry for bothering you, I need closure.

Well, after reflecting, meditating, and my therapy session here, I am...

I'm sorry for being so talented with my words. It's a shame that I can't make a song lol seria un Palo. 😅 necesitaba botar el golpe. Lo siento.

En serio this time, because unlike you, I can be 100% honest. I'm sorry for being so mean. I should have chosen to react from love. I was really mad.

I guess I have been out of practice. Im sorry. Even though I was/am mad, I can't justify offending you that way. After all, I asked God to remove you from my life if you were not the one. And he did. I should be thankful. Sacar la curita dolio pero fue rápido y ya estoy un poco mejor. I kind of knew you wouldn't be able to handle me. I am a handful. I know.

Today, I feel better lol and I could express my feelings without insults.

I understand that you can't see me the way I needed you to see me. I have work to do because I really want someone who loves me. There are more than 50 reasons that are facts about us and why we could not work out. You were right. Thank you because even tho I am pissed, it was the right call. I did feel used, tho.

I probably would not have been able to recover if you'd have me wasting more time, money, hopes, love, and energy on you. I do feel deeply mad at myself because struggling this way took me back to old patterns, and I hate feeling that I'm going backward.

This means I have to heal more. I do wonder why you couldn't love me? Am I really unlovable?

Thank you for not arguing because it would have been worse. (For you, lol, jk, for me). I am very sad and disappointed still.

I was getting to see us as a couple, and I gave us qualities that probably were not even real. ( I guess my nedednes created a story that wasn't real)

This is teaching me to re evaluate myself because I am very needed of love and my discerning is being affected, or continues to be fucked, idk.

I honest to God, felt our connection was real and honest. I'm sorry, I made a mistake.

I apologize for offending you. I was wrong.

I have a new story for my book. Thank you. ;)

I know you now will find your forever love. Be happy. I knew this would happen. It always happens. I'm the good luck charm for everyone except for myself.

I do get emotional because I help people find their true love and I always end up struggling, alone and trying to understand, why can't get the love I give.

I guess I'm not that cool and lovable after all. Lol

Continue making a great life. I'll take the good and the bad with me, I won't contact you ever again, as a matter of fact I'm deleting everything, chat, pics and your number. Do not reply please to this message. There's no need.

I can't be your friend. I'm still battling with feelings, and I am working on letting go.

Suerte y éxito con todo. There are some things I said that you could probably read and work on. For real. Don't play with people's feelings. That's not cool.

I'm sorry you couldn't see who I really am, and love me. Thank you for the orgasms. May be you could practice oral sex for your next one. Lol (is a minus one point for that one). 🤣

Anyway, I hope life gives you what you deserve. 🙂 Thank you for the lessons, I release you with much love.

Love always, Cibeis (la missi) :)

[rubys-domain]

rambly thoughts about the 4.1 banners under the cut. contains mentions of leaks

so it's confirmed that venti is getting his rerun in the 2nd half of 4.1 alongside wriothesley. guess i have more time to scrape a few primos off of sumeru. i already have 2k, which is a very unusual amount for me to have, so i'm feeling confident even though it's not even worth two 10-pulls.

i'm feeling a little fomo tho because wrio is cryo and he's a cryo catalyst and-

cryo characters are just bait for me at this point honestly. if it's a new cryo character then chances are i want to pull them. i'm still holding out hope for charlotte to be a cryo catalyst tho. i want her normals to have sucrose's range at the very least. kind of a shame that leaks indicate she's not gonna be a cryo yanfei but oh well. was too good to be true. as long as her normals have some range people who want to play her as a dps can with more ease. but if hoyo makes her a sword character i'm gonna be insanely disappointed. standard or not, i don't have plans to pull for wrio, so i'm really banking on charlotte so i can still have a cryo catalyst. am i gonna use her? let's be real, probably not. maybe in the future i can squeeze her into a mono cryo chongyun team. i just like cryo characters. i would've been sad if i didn't get freminet, even though i don't currently have any plans to use him either. (i still am sad that i don't have him yet on the alt.)

neuvillette having the underwater movement speed buff though.......... i know it makes sense. but how dare you hoyo. how dare you give that to a limited 5 star. i'm definitely speaking for myself here since technically lyney currently being the only character with the local specialties locator passive is objectively more egregious. and it's not like underwater fontaine is all that big. it's gonna get bigger i know, but i doubt even twice the current underwater square footage would make me desperate for a speed buff. all that said... i really, REALLY like diving in fontaine... so the fact that it's only neuvillette that has that passive... and i'm trying to save for venti who reruns immediately after his release... and i'm not even interested in his kit... let's just say i'm saltier than most seas. maybe i should pull for him on the alt JUST for his passive. i don't care about getting zhongli anymore; layla's good enough for me. and if my luck is bad and i don't get freminet on the alt, then that'll just bump the usefulness of his passive even higher.

also re: that one leak that said chongyun is rerunning with venti... i don't buy it one bit. while it would make me extremely happy if true (seriously those two alone would already make the banner tailor-made for me), i HIGHLY doubt they're rerunning chong so soon. he's in the range of 4 stars with the lowest demand, and he just got a rerun in the yae/yoi banner. more likely he's gonna be rerun around the same time next year. which is fair since he's already had a ton of reruns over the years. it pains me as a chongyun main obviously — having to wait literally a year for another chance to c6 him since my luck on the yae/yoi banner was so shit (sure i'm glad i at least got a copy of her, but i REALLY did not need all those kirara cons). but getting new 4 stars is good, and most players have c6'd him many times over at this point. besides, info from leakers seem to be rather unreliable lately, so yeah.

[16minutesorso]

Hi! Did you watch Korean Money Heist? I have mixed feelings (definitely not on the level of s1 of lcdp, but some things were better in the remake, for example: less sexual harressment), but really loved Denver, one of the highlights of the show. What did you think? (if you already watched)

Hey, anon! Glad to hear from you! 😃😄

Yes, as a matter of fact, I did; I missed Denver and Mónica too much and was very curious regarding the korean take on them. And in what comes to the ship, I absolutely adored it. They took a proper pace with the development of their relationship, added some new dialogues that were truly appreciated and the actors are on point, their chemistry is adorable. *-* I was actually going to make a post about it, but you arrived first so I'm taking my chances. 😅

I've seen some people complaining about how it follows the same storyline but, c'mon, that's exactly what a remake is. They even tried to fix some issues that failed through the original, so I had my fun watching the korean version, even if it missed the human warmth and attachement that made us fall in love with this show in the first place. Of course La Casa de Papel will always be La Casa de Papel, don't get me wrong; comparisons will happen, but they're not necessarily fair...

Now with spoilers under the cut:

Denver was, once again, the show's major highlight to me. Found him a little more silly and less impulsive than original Denver (his wide spectrum of emotions was what made the character more charismatic and allowed Jaime Lorente to display his enormous acting range), but Kim Ji-hoon made him so enjoyable to watch and easy to root for, I was very impressed. 🥰🥰 Didn't get attached to their version of Moscow as much as the original, probably due to the lack of ties to other characters that weren't his son, but their scenes together were a pleasure to (re)watch.

Yoon Mi-sun was a bit more discreet through these six episodes, but then I remembered that Mónica herself didn't fully shine until part 2, so I hope to see and learn more from her in the second half. There were some minor big changes made to her story - Cho Young-min is much more abusive than Arturito and in this version her pregnancy turned out to be a lie - that I'm still not sure how to feel about, but I'm definitely curious to see where they'll lead her. Right now, I think her arc might be related to the political aspect of this version, her being from the North and trying to bring her family to the South... I don't know a thing about korean politics, but I'm willing to learn.

Can't say I'm one hundred percent confident Denver and Mi-sun will have the same happy ending as Denver and Mónica, but I certainly hope so. Thought they were at least showered with the same amount of softness and careness as the latter; even their sex scene, despite not as intimate, was filled with sentiment so, good sign, maybe...?

I don't have many other things to add outside of their characters and relationship. The concept of 'found family' played a major role in the reason why we fell in love with La Casa de Papel, both characters and actors, and I don't think the team from Money Heist: Korea is there yet. I highly appreciated Rio's backstory as a former medical student, which gave more sense to the healthcare scares they went through, and Berlin has been called out on his cold erratic behaviour, which is a win to me. Couldn't really identify with their Professor, though, and the switch of Tokyo and Nairobi's personalities didn't please me either.

So, yes: mixed feelings is the perfect way to put it. Will I come back when they release the last six episodes? You can bet I will. If not for the show, I definitely will for the ship. Jaime and Esther gave me a lovestory for the ages, but Kim Ji-hoon and Lee Joo-bin are doing a great revival of it.

Thank you for this moment, anon. Hope you're having a great weekend. ❤️🖤

[funnylittlefella]

My problem with the fashion in miraculous.

Part 1 Marinette.

This is going to be a long rant on why I don’t like the fashion in miraculous, which seems very negative but it’s probably just me over analyzing everything.

In 2015 Miraculous: tales of ladybug and chat noir was released, at the time there were already other rivaling cartoons (such as Star vs the forces of evil, Steven Universe and Gravity falls being the most popular ones) What made Miraculous stand out from other cartoons that were aimed for kids/preteens was the 3D animation, this made the show quite popular, especially since Disney's new 3D animated films such as Frozen, Tangled and Big Hero Six was quite popular especially on tumblr (because of the re-colours and redesigns of Rapunzel/Elsa and whoever else into a hipster or some other god awful fashion trend from 2010-2016)

Miraculous is STILL airing today meaning that when I was in grade 6 I was watching it, now I'm in my last year of highschool and we are finally seeing development in the show (sorry) however we have not seen any character changes in clothing which I know we don't see much but I feel as if Marinette wears the same 4 outfits and I WOULD LOVE to see a storyline where Marinette is maturing and decides to change her hairstyle and her clothing choices.

Lets analyse Marinette's everyday outfit.

Marinette wears a white singlet top(tank top?) with a black outline/trim, on the singlet top we see a flower design that appears to be a cherry blossom or lotus. Over the top of the shirt she wears a dark grey blazer jacket with a white inside with pink polka dots, she sports this same material but inverted so it is pink with white dots on her purse. For the bottoms she wears hot pink jeans which appear to have the same polka dot pattern on the cuffs as the jacket she wears, the jeans also have some weird ripped/line structure too them which has been added with a white stitching. She wears baby pink ballet flats with a slight heel and black lining and a bow.

I don’t really like this outfit, it’s very boring and I think that Marinette being an aspiring fashion designer would wear something bold that shows off her skills and her own personal style. I also believe that Marinette would be on trend, while being ladybug could potentially leave her with not enough time to come up with new designs, I think it would be a good concept for Marinette to be wearing a new design once in a while. (Even though I know it will be the same polka dot,baby pink, flower fabric that marinette seems to have 10000 yards of.)

For example, in Gravity Falls Mable would wear a different sweater each episode (don’t quote me on that I could be wrong)

Mabel wore the same structure of outfit each episode yes, but it was new each time. And while I wouldn’t consider this the height of fashion, it suits Mabels personality and shows that she is different from the other characters who wear the same outfit every episode.

SPOILERS FOR GRAVITY FALLS

Mabels constant changing of sweaters shows the chaos of her character, you never know what to expect with her, which is why she played a vital role in Bills plan, she was unpredictable and let her ego and own happiness succumb to her chaotic actions.

This would be an easy concept to implement into miraculous and would fit with the context, perhaps Marinette would make a new piece of clothing to wear each episode, it could start off with smaller accessories that slowly develop into larger pieces. If Marinette is sad, it could reflect in the item she chooses to make.

However that isn’t the main problem of the outfits, my problem is that I hate them, I’m not judging you if you like them in any way,shape or form, but personally I cannot see a normal teenager wearing these outfits, there is only few characters whose outfits actually make sense.

For example, Marinettes outfit feels more mature, as if she is working in an office, this does not fit her character at all, and while the colours are bright, the structure and presentation of the pieces gives off the boring dull feeling of working in an office and makes her look much older.

Now here is what I would’ve liked Marinette to wear each season. (considering the dates of releases)

Season 1 2015

In season one we are introduced to Marinette, considering Marinettes age 13. Bare with me, I understand these years are arguably the worst for fashion.

The reason why I picked this outfit is because it reminds me of Marinette, Taking inspiration from 2015 trends, we see Marinette following basic trends such as off the shoulder and denim materials, however, I believe she would add her own style by adding the polka dot pattern to the inside of the jacket (like her original blazer) and the skirt. This look is generally what I would consider to be basic Marinette, she could wear this throughout each season since it is a outfit that could fit into any time frame (2000s-2020) with a few alterations.

Season 2 2016.

2016 was also not a good year for fashion but oh well I digress. This season we get to meet new characters, including new miraculous wielders and love interest. This is also when we get a Marinette birthday episode shower her growth symbolically or whatever.

I decided to add ‘edge’ to this outfit, since we do see Marinette get hurt in a few episodes and struggle with having to choose the right people to wield a miraculous. on the left, I chose a bomber jacket since they were incredibly popular at the time, and dark heels to show Marinettes change, however underneath she wears bright pink jeans and a white turtleneck, this is to show that she is still soft and caring.

Season 3 2019.

this is where it gets much better since the trends and fashion were actually really good this year. We see a lot of important points in this season, we get backstory about characters, learn more about the Miraculous lore, AND we see Marinette be very mature and put Adrien and Kagamis happiness over her own.

This is how I think Marinette would dress and yes they are 4 very different styles, but I think that she would want to show variety not only in her work as a designer, but also as a person, Marinette wants to grow.

Anyways that’s all for now, yes this post is very much all over the place and I start point and leave them without conclusion, but it was fun for me.

EDIT: in my research I decided to change my idea lol, Marinette doesn’t wear the item she makes because it’s too expensive to have a character wear a new outfit each episode, but instead we just see her making a new item.

[lovequinn]

ALL YOUR X THOUGHTS NOW PLS

okay kiddos let's talk x!!

many many spoilers under the cut so be warned, but my baseline review is that i had SO much fun and the longer i think about it since leaving the theater, the more i appreciate it.

x mixes classic texas chainsaw massacre-esque horror with really interesting explorations of youth, morality, lost ambitions, and love. i thought it was such an interesting road to take for a movie like this, and there were plenty of moments that really contrasted how it was promoted. it got me thinking for hours after it ended, which i didn't expect! also, brittany snow. so. i was bound to love it.

some scattered thoughts:

horror is one of my favorite genres, and that's gotten super complicated because the last couple of years i've started struggling with blood and gore and hardcore gross material (call it pandemic-induced death anxiety, idk) so i've started leaning more towards suspense horror rather than bloody slashers. happy to say for my own sanity that this was a PERFECT mix! the deaths were definitely brutal and satisfied the horror lover in me, while also leaning into the creepiness factor more and not being so overkill on gore that i wanted to bash my head into a wall (and the one or two that were, were predictable enough that i had time to hide in my shirt lol).

a lot of x's strength comes from its characters. it manages to flesh out the group a surprising amount for its length and genre, so you really do find yourself a little sad each time one of them bites the dust. this also serves to leave you uncomfortably sympathizing with the killer old couple from hell at times, and there's one particularly kind of gross scene that had me going "aww...but ew....but aww." the dinner scene + landslide cover was a really great character/group dynamic moment (i hope they release that on the soundtrack?? @beca-mitchell and i went feral??) right before the action goes batshit

brittany snow QUEEN, this is some of her best work and a great vehicle for her, and yes i did slide uncomfortably down in my seat when she was entirely nude yelling "fuck my pussy" etc etc i'm only human and i will not be blamed. this woman has been star of my heart for going on 15 years now and i'm SO excited to see the response she is getting/will get from x.

circling back to the deaths (major spoiler warning again), brittany honestly had the best one??? pushed into the lake and DEVOURED BY AN ALLIGATOR??? hell yeah. i guessed it about 20 minutes before it happened but it still slapped. my friends also pointed out that in the very beginning of the movie, the strip club they leave from has a giant mural of a blonde woman with a gator and i absolutely live for that kind of foreshadowing

i fully thought jenna ortega was gonna be the final girl and apparently so did everyone else in the theater because there was a collective gasp when she got her face blown off in the final minutes kfdgslsk sorry jenna stans but also she was FANTASTIC in this, her acting chops continue to flourish with every project she does

did not realize until long after it was over that mia goth also played miss old lady killer pearl????? she had scenes with HERSELF, she was giving tatiana maslany, lindsay lohan parent trap, the range!!! cannot wait for her prequel

the cinematography was sick, i expect nothing less from an a24 film at this point. some really awesome wide shots and overheads that i can't wait for people to gif

also some great camp and comedic beats! i laughed!

idk man there's so much more to talk about about re: the deeper meanings of this movie and what it wants to say but i don't wanna dissect the entire thing here before anyone else has even seen it so GO SEE X

[o-wyrmlight]

Personally, I don't really mind the collabs. I mean, Good on the Devs for hitting such heights! I think everyone has the right to what they think on these things though. Some can be upset, some can be happy.

I'm just happy that even with the collabs happening, the Devs are still trying their best with keeping the stories and game going. They add more challenges to try and do. More things to enjoy in both CRK and CROB.

Listen, while you're not wrong, I'm. Tired.

During the Disney collab, we were introduced to the Duskgloom Islands, which added not only grinding for Disney characters, but also a whole extra dimension to the game that takes a lot of time and grinding to do.

Not like we already have to grind for topping pieces, soul stones, arena medals, guild medals, sea harbor pearls, materials and goods, trains, balloon expeditions, Cookie Alliance, Soda Isles, Tower of Sweet Chaos, Candy Upgrades, star jellies, soul essence, skill powder, GOOD medium topping pieces, wishes, Odyssey quills, Odyssey stages, normal and dark mode stages, events, treasures and COOKIES when they're released, among other things.

Now we also have another time-consuming subset of the game that we have to do if we want all of the rewards that we're able to get while also getting all of the legendary pull currency that we're able to, and even then, it's rather unlikely that with all that work we'll even be able to get Black Pearl Cookie unless you spend money to get the guaranteed Black Pearl.

So idk but I just kind of. I'm tired. I just think it'd be nice to have a little break after the terrible-ness that was the Disney collab. At the very least so that we can get used to the Duskgloom Islands and re-orient ourselves around that new event. Especially because we can't even use time skips on it like we now can with Cookie Alliance.

Good on Devsis for being able to score a collab with BTS! /gen It makes sense especially because both groups are Korean! But I don't think that it has to happen so soon after the Disney collab. I wish that Devsis would take a month or so to not work on new aspects of the game and just work on ironing out kinks in the system and seeing what can be done to adjust and address what people who play the game have issue with.

I wouldn't mind if there were a break with minimal updates or no events if it means that I not only get a chance to take a break from all of the extra stuff that's offloaded onto the game, but also means that they'll have time to work on improving it. People already had massive issues with the Disney collab because even after doing all of the missions and dailies, there was still practically no guarantee that you'd get all the cookies and rewards in the first place... Unless you spent money.

And. Idk. It makes sense people are worried that the BTS collab is going to be the same as that. Especially so soon after the Disney collab itself.

[merakiui]

hihi again!!

yanven anon sounds a bit silly, but it also has a nice ring to it, im not quite sure i have any other ideas ( ⚈̥̥̥̥̥́⌢⚈̥̥̥̥̥̀) im not very good with giving names ..

that's absolutely fair!! i just don't have the determination to keep in trying and tell myself it's for the next time 😣 i guess you can't be lucky in every event..

you use aether though??? i love traveler mains so much, most especially aether mains, cause the ones i meet are such sweethearts omg!! i hope to see the day he gets crowned with you!! ✧◝(⁰▿⁰)◜✧

i tend to feel foolish too, but it mostly happens as a hunter, because i'm not very good at looking for things and people •́ ‿ ,•̀ i'm a better rebel, but it's such a 50/50... i tend to get caught in stupid ways, and i don't hide/disguise cause i prefer being chased aha (faint presence is one of my favorite achievements!) and omg it definitely must have been fun! childe mains in general are really entertaining in windtrace, it's a shame ive barely met any...

hehe ill be waiting for that, if luck has it; that would truly make me happy ꒰⑅ᵕ༚ᵕ꒱˖♡! kaeya is such a fun character to use...

and yeah (´∩｡• ᵕ •｡∩`) i guess that's what makes the whole island even better!! the atmosphere really embellishes it in that..gloomy way..

hehe, i'm glad you understand! (ب_ب) as much i love to slander him, i kind of wanted childe myself, because of his story and character, but i could not play when his banner had a re-rerun..

thank you! i guess ill just spend my wishes on both kazuhas and yae's banner and hope for the best, we'll see (人*´∀｀)｡*ﾟ+ and yeah, kazuha has such a pretty design, and he's just such a soothing character, it makes him super likeable!! (and i am definitely not forgetting venti and his fun personality (. ❛ ᴗ ❛.) my beloved...!!! i am planning on cosplaying him too, so maybe he's worth having...)

thank you so much!! i wish you the same; it's a pleasure to talk with you!!

(ps: by the way, have you heard of twisted wonderland? with it's recent english release, i suspect it's gona gain some fans, and i was just wondering if you knew about the game..? ( ╹▽╹ ))

Hello, yanven anon!! I think that name is nice, so if you'd like to keep it I'll happily use it to address you! (I will put my chat under a cut for any mobile users so that it won't be a long scroll! ^0^)

Some Genshin events are really enjoyable, but for some some it feels like I have to drag my feet through it. I try to have an optimistic outlook for each event, but the ones that involve fighting are really not my favorite. ^^;;

Yes, I main Aether! To this day he is the strongest out of my characters (although ever since I got Childe he went to second strongest). When I first started playing, I didn't understand the wish system at all so I didn't do it and instead worked hard to build the starter team. ୧ʕ•̀ᴥ•́ʔ୨ I still use them, even in the Spiral Abyss!! And Aether always stays on my team no matter what. :D I can't wait to give him his very first crown! But before that I'd like to stock up on more resources. orz

Ooh, that makes sense! I'd like to think I'm equally good at both roles, but sometimes my clownery manages to impress me. ;;; Despite that, I really do like playing! I'm worried I'll encounter toxic players, so most times I don't talk unless someone else talks. But so far all of my experiences have been pleasant! I hope it's the same for you!

Hopefully there will be a chance for you to get Childe sometime in the future! He really grew on me and I like his character. He's also very fun to write, so maybe that influenced my love for him.

Good luck with your wishes!! I'm hoping you can win your 50/50s and that both will come home early. If Venti gets another rerun, I might be tempted to wish... T^T But I've fought the Anemo Hypostasis so many times now. It's too much. </3 Omg but cosplaying him!!! Maybe he will come home while you wish for him in cosplay. o(^∀^*)o

(*looks at all the twst wips/concepts in my folder* Never in my life have I ever heard of such a game. Never have I looked at the one known as Riddle Rosehearts and gone :D. I don't know him. ;;

lol yes, I have heard of it! I've been a fan since it first released in Japan. I started playing it recently and it's a lot of fun!! I'd like to write for it, so I'm dusting off old ideas and seeing what I can do with them. I've got solid fic plans for Riddle and Azul so far. Hopefully I can write something for Ace and Deuce because they're a funny pair!)

[trizinc-zn3]

just some cantha hype rambling

...alright so i basically only ever post my artworks on the internet, and have no experience writing blog posts ever since middle school (which doesn't count, right?), but i have so many thoughts and hype for the very-soon-upcoming GW2 EoD release that i need to put it out somewhere so... here goes nothing!

I'm sure there are many reasons to be excited about End of Dragons, but for me the most significant one must be the very *personal* connection that I finally feel I can have for Tyria as an Asian player (and EoD being the Asian-themed expansion).

I first realised this when I saw this in-game screenshot (from Shing Jea, I'm guessing?) on the EoD website when it just came out:

Well, goodness! It reminded me so much of Jiufen, a town / attraction in Taiwan (my home country) - even my friend who is not Taiwanese but has travelled there agreed! Pic below for comparison - it's not visible in this photo but the town actually faces an ocean too:

(Source: Gregg Tavares from Stanton, California, 180124 Jiufen, Taiwan 九份, CC BY 2.0)

Anyway, I had a very similar moment of epiphany earlier today while re-watching the New Kaineng trailer, when I saw this frame (around 00:15) of a skiff entering a canal, with buildings on either side:

And I immediately remembered the canals in Suzhou, China (where I've also lived in) - in which we used to take boat rides during school excursions. The photo below shows a more tourist / commercial area, but some boat rides would pass by narrower canals, right behind people's homes:

(Source: Peter K Burian, Grand Canal, tour boats, Suzhou, China, CC BY-SA 4.0)

Granted, I've always just considered GW2 a 'western fantasy game' so didn't really expect to experience any cultural resonance from it (rather I wanted to experience cultures and aesthetics that are different from mine - that's what fantasy is for!), but seeing things that are more familiar and closer to home for me in my favourite game has made me happy in ways I've never imagined before. Especially since I have not been able to visit either Taiwan or China since the pandemic, I'm looking forward even more to 'reconnect' with these places via Cantha =D

Since my main is still in the middle of the LS4 story so it will take her some time to reach Cantha, I decided to make a new alt to play EoD in the meantime: enter Riley!

Despite already having one character of each race-gender combination and originally thinking that I do not need any new characters anymore, I still created Riley because I just wanted to have some Canthan / Asian representation in my character roster after feeling that special connection thanks to EoD (my current human male is of Elonian descent and human female is Ascalonian-Krytan) (also how good are the new faces and hairstyles!?? I couldn't help but notice that I ended up choosing the face with features most similar to my own, something which I wouldn't have been able to do in the past)

I've used the name 'Riley Hsia' in a few other games before, but this time I decided to give her a proper Taiwanese-Mandarin name: Yeh-Hsin ('葉欣'; so adding in her surname Hsia/夏 her full name would be 夏葉欣). [Although when in a name the characters may not always carry meaning, the literal meaning of the characters are: Hsia/夏 - summer, Yeh/葉 - leaf & Hsin/欣 - happy or flourishing]

And I love how this name will be lore-relevant in GW2!

...Well, it would have always been lore-relevant in the game anyway, but EoD makes it even more relevant...?

In any case, I've decided that Riley (born & raised in LA) is the descendant of Canthan merchants stuck in Kryta after Zhaitan's rising (I love this notion because my ancestors arrived and settled in Taiwan via sailing across the sea as well). This explains why she has a Krytan (English) name 'Riley', and her surname 'Hsia' is still placed behind her given name(s), instead of in front. This would also help explain why her Canthan name is not as Korean-sounding as the 'modern' Canthans will apparently be?

I am also currently planning to make her a Virtuoso as that is probably the EoD elite spec that I am currently most interested in playing (and it definitely has nothing to do with the pretty glowing flying daggers! XD).

I think this about sums up most of what I have wanted to say when I began this post; just three more things: 1) I need those sweet sweet EOD soundtracks like yesterday?? 2) I cant wait to meet my drone camera jade bot and 3) really looking forward to give my main a Scepter Spectre spec :D