#also watch her in the cinematic cutscenes !!!

[diana-fortyseven]

I just noticed something when watching Hitman 3 cinematics again, and I'm probably the last person to notice this, but even though all of you most likely noticed this three years ago, I shall share my discovery:

This is Diana in her cabin, burning the last few pieces of evidence (including her origami pin) after she dismantled Providence.

What's that in the foreground? Oh, yes, that's the folder and the phone she left for 47 to find.

BUT WAIT.

This is the next scene in the cinematic. 47 on his way to the cabin, one year later.

The scene in the cabin took place one year before 47 made his way to the cabin to find the folder and the phone. That's something we all talked about ad nauseam, I know.

But, excuse me, how did we never absolutely lose it at the idea that Diana

waited one whole year after she prepared the folder for 47

knew/trusted/hoped that 47 would return to her, eventually

destroyed Providence and then waited one year for 47 to contact her again

???

Bonus question, how did we never absolutely lose it at the idea that Diana and 47 apparently always had a way to locate the other/make sure that the other could locate them??

The voiceover phone call in the "One Year Later" part of the cinematic is the phone call that took place after 47 entered the cabin and found the phone (and the folder).

We see him on the phone after he entered the cabin; he's not talking on the phone on his way there. He's using the phone he found in the cabin. Yes, I know this is obvious, I just wanted to point this out just because.

She left the phone there for him to contact her, because she obviously can't just give him her current phone number, and she probably didn't know his current number either.

Imagine waiting for one whole year after you signalled your location. Imagine how she must've felt when she left the stuff there for him to find, absolutely sure that he'd come back to her, and then nothing happened for a year??

Also, this means that way more time has passed between the train and the reunion. We know that the dismantling of Providence took months. At the beginning of this cinematic, that job is already done. She's destroying her Providence pin. It's already over.

I knew that this was a "one year later" cutscene because I can read, but how did I never realise that Diana left the cabin and began waiting for him to return to her one whole year before he actually did?

I'm sorry, I'm losing it right now. I just wanted to take a screenshot I need as a background image for something, but instead I'm sitting here in the dark, having all the Hitman 3 feelings all over again.

Next step will be watching the Hitman 3 release trailer on repeat for three hours.

[sheikah-simp]

Okay fuck it today I’m finally gonna talk about how cheap Zelda’s draconification was and how it robbed so much from not only the player but also undercut the entire premise of botw.

Long post below because boy do I have some THOUGHTS.

First, I do wanna say that I don’t completely hate totk. It absolutely hurt me at first and I despised it because it was a betrayal of botw in so many ways, but it does do some things well, and it’s grown on me. Despite the story being shit, the execution of it is done very well. Genuinely I cried multiple times through the game because they just made certain things so beautiful. Even during the draconification scene when I was pissed off beyond belief. And the ending fight is admittedly really cool. Some of the bosses are a bit too easy despite being really fucking cinematic (colgera) and I like how versatile the devices are. Link’s abilities also mesh with the game really, really well. As a “game,” I think totk supersedes botw. However, as a narrative, botw is far superior.

Alright. Let’s just rip the bandaid off. I absolutely despise Zelda’s transformation into the Light Dragon. It completely destroys her entire arc in botw and completely destroys botw itself. Not only have we CLEARLY split the timeline again (ugh) it just seemed so out of character and they helplessly damselfied a Zelda we had just watched grow so so strong. (Maybe how well Age of Calamity handled Zelda’s arc has also colored my perception of this but I digress).

In botw, we watch Zelda grapple with failure, duty, and selflessness. She is constantly faced with her feelings of failure and the looming threat of the Calamity and undue pressure from her father, trying to convince her to give up the one thing in her life that actually brings her joy (researching ancient sheikah tech). This pressure occasionally leads her to acting really bratty, especially towards Link. She is selfish not in a way that is arrogant, but rather is self-conscious because she is so consumed with her own thoughts of failure she can’t often see what other people are giving up or going through - it’s a very natural human reaction many people with low self esteem have. It is still, however, a self-centered outlook. She can’t get out of her own head and stop blaming herself for her problems.

But then!! Just when all hope is lost and the Champions are caught in the Divine Beasts, she and Link are cornered, she steps up and does one big selfless thing. She jumps in front of Link to protect him from the blast of a guardian, and this awakens her powers. This is significant to her story for a couple reasons:

#1) Zelda does something selfless for Link. Even in this situation that seems hopeless, and how in a scene before she’s shown blaming herself, she finally decides to take action in spite of the circumstances. She defies hopelessness even when all hope seems lost. She’s demonstrated not only does she deeply care for Link, but she isn’t going to let a hopeless situation stop her.

#2) This is the bigger one for me. Zelda deactivates a guardian. In that cutscene, her blast is shown to be so powerful that it actually deactivates most all the guardians at Fort Hateno, and maybe across all of Hyrule. All those decayed guardians you’ve been seeing throughout the game? Yeah. Half of them or more could be directly because of Zelda. Her connection to ancient Sheikah tech is ultimately what helps her save the kingdom. No, in that moment she didn’t sit there thinking “Aha! I know how these operate and therefore—“ but it really isn’t lost on me thematically here that Zelda’s major interaction with a major piece of Sheikah tech is what saves everyone. Her own talents are her strength. (This is even more pronounced in Age of Calamity but again. I digress).

So then Zelda buys them enough time to take Link to the Shrine of Resurrection. She drops the Master Sword off with the Deku Tree and then you know what she does? With her newfound power, she goes and fights Calamity Ganon in a cage match, herself, for 100 years. She is locked in that fucking egg with him holding him back one on one, and she is still able to communicate with Link while doing so. That is objectively badass. After overcoming hopelessness and failure she is so strong she can hold back a literal force of nature, herself, for a century. And it’s another selfless act. She’s been in there one hundred years keeping Hyrule safe until the Master Sword is restored and Link is better enough to finish the job.

And then when everything is done? The final shot in the completed ending of the game is Zelda setting out on her next adventure. She’s still talking about the Sheikah tech (Vah Rutah) and what to do about it. Her power is fading, but she’s ecstatic. And the final thing we see of her is her smiling and laughing (the first time she’s really done so!!) and then the camera pans out to this entire field of Silent Princess flowers - the flower that cannot thrive in a domesticated environment. A flower that can only thrive out free in the open - in the wild - and is such a clear metaphor for Zelda I feel like I don’t really have to get into it at this point. Zelda is free of all the chains that once held her back and now she is free to explore her actual interests and talents, out in the field, out in the wild. And it’s fucking beautiful I still cry thinking about the last shot of those flowers. It’s some of the most powerful imagery I’ve ever seen in media, let alone in a video game. It’s on the fucking cover art with the Master Sword. It’s about rising from the harsh, uninhabitable ground and thriving. You show me a silent princess flower and to this day I will weep.

So now this brings us to how totk betrays this (and uses the silent princess flower to slap me in the face I guess idfk).

Look. I get that they cannot keep Zelda in god mode. I get that her letting go of her power is actually an important part of her arc. But you’re telling me she has nothing? This awakened Zelda we already know who’s saved Hyrule doesn’t have any remnants of her light power? I guess they needed it all for Mary Sue- I mean Rauru jfc. And I get the time power thing is a callback to previous games but in the context of this incarnation of Zelda it seems really out of place. I’m glad she got a mother figure for a little bit though. Even if she was then murdered directly in front of her face.

So now we have this Zelda, who we KNOW is kind of a genius at all things ancient tech. And who we KNOW has already saved the world once. (Putting aside how this game can’t decide if it’s a sequel or not). And. Oh my god! She was sent to the past! She was sent to the past to interact with a highly technological race! This should be like a dream for her! She should clearly be able to demonstrate how knowledgeable and competent she is in these situations, right? Right? RIGHT!?!

No! She isn’t!! She is flopping around completely useless back there!!! Rauru and Sonia are shown doing everything while she just watches and kind of picks up her time power eventually. We get little tidbits more of her interactions in the Ring Ruins, but none of this is shown in game. The Zelda we get on screen is helpless, has no idea what she’s doing there, no idea how to get back, and sits having conversations with her mommy about how much she loves this boy back home. And maybe she needs that ok. She didn’t have a mom. But still. Come on. We see NONE of her old talents and capabilities showcased in an era where she was perfectly poised to do so. SHE IS OUT THERE FREE IN THE WILD. She regressed in personality and has less interesting traits than when she was being a selfish brat to Link. Come on. Look how they butchered my girl. She is a damsel. It’s really sad.

And so then!! Then!! They have the balls to sprinkle in this dragon stuff and SUDDENLY make it the big overarching thing of the game. I think the dragons are very cool and an awesome idea for a game, but I don’t think they’re integrated very well into botw, let alone totk, to justify what a suddenly massive role draconification plays late in the story. I wish they were. Because it’s a really good idea. But it is NOT well executed here and serves to undercut her arc and her personality further. The immortal dragon thing is like a side throwaway line in ONE CUTSCENE from Mineru. No one dwells on it. It is not presented in a way where it seems like it’s gonna become A Thing. But it’s made clear to us that OOOO IF U BECOME A DRAGON U BASICALLY DIE. U ARE NOT URSELF ANYMORE U DESTROY YOUR SPIRIT AND SOUL AND PERSONALITY AND DIE. Like oh god ok I get it. Swallowing ur secret stone is suicide by dragon. I get it. Okay.

And so then, instead of being competent in this situation and environment like she should be, we have a useless helpless Zelda floundering around in a hopeless situation where once again all of her friends die. This Zelda who has already overcome this hopelessness and all of her friends dying once and rose above it with god level power. And they are on the brink of failure and all her friends die and what does she do?

(bottoms up, and the devil laughs).

AND SO WE KILL OURSELVES???? KILL OURSELVES!!!???!!

On one hand I really don’t blame her. The devs gave her absolutely no power or agency in this situation and so this is the only option she has. Because she has no power, this is the only way she can get the Master Sword to Link. It’s forced and cheap, but also makes sense on her end given what she’s working with. But I cannot emphasize enough how much she does not know if this will even work or not and how from her POV and everything we have been given to know about this process in game, she is just killing herself over this sword. And that is not MY Zelda.

Not only is she killing herself over Link and the Master Sword, but it makes you feeling invested in the scale of her sacrifice in botw seem cheap and stupid in retrospect. Like, Oh?? You thought it was bad Zelda was locked in a fight with Ganon for 100 years?? WELL TRY ONE MILLION BAJILLION SINCE THE BEGINNING OF TIME AS A DRAGON WITH A SWORD STICKING OUT OF HER HEAD!!!!! Like god ok I get it!!! Sorry for caring!!!! Sorry for thinking her sacrifice in botw was really badass and cool and meant something!! you’re right this sacrifice is waaayy bigger and waaayy worse and scarier god im sorry!!!!!

Like. I'm kind of glad she doesn't remember any of it then. But then why the hell did you need to make this seem like a bigger scarier deal that took a shit on all of her choices in botw? 100 years with Ganon seems pointless and like nothing in comparison to that, and as a sequel, that's bad.

But like I'm sorry. I just can't get over Zelda killing herself in this environment she's supposed to be thriving in. She has NO options?? she can do NO research with Mineru? She can make NO PLANS to get herself OUT of draconification (we're returning to this is a second, don't worry) or find a different way to get the sword better?? My god. What have they done to you girl.

And then. Then these fuckers have the absolute GALL to slap down a ton of silent princess flowers at the end of that final scene. You fuckers didn't even make that a recurring symbol in this game. How dare you put the silent princess flower, the symbol of breath of the wild, the symbol of a girl who rises up out of hopelessness against all odds, who thrives her best out in the wild, tacked on to the end of a cutscene where she does exactly the opposite of all of that. Seriously after watching that entire sequence it felt like they spat in my face. I was pissed.

So then you do the rest of the game that's a wild goose chase except you know the goddamn answer the whole time. You know where Zelda is. She's up there in the sky. You don't need to find her. She's right there. And the ending fight sequence is cool, but as we've established, Zelda was not conscious during that, so really she had no part in the badassness at all. She didn't even actively choose to fly in and face Ganon. The dragon did that.

And THEN!! AND THEN!!!!!!! Rather than create some interesting postgame content (which could have involved the ring ruins!! which could have involved Purah or the forgotten temple!!! you know that room you have to walk through where you very clearly have to walk around this object that looks like a fucking lotus?? yeah?? that one?? that LOTUS that does FUCKING NOTHING????) we just get not even a deus-ex-machina, we get Rauru-ex-machina, yet again, stepping in and fixing Link's arm and turning Zelda back just because he can do that now or something. Because suddenly they can defy all established laws of the game and it means nothing. That big sacrifice we cheapened botw to make also meant nothing because Rauru can just. Reverse it lmao. There is no reason they should just be able to do that now. And if there is, why does the player not get ANY part of this? (Such as in Age of Calamity, where after the main storyline you can go back and put together Terrako and unlock the true ending. Age of Calamity was a better companion story for BOTW than TOTK ever was, in this essay I will--)

Anyways. Those are my thoughts. I was really excited for the Ring Ruins to have some sort of meaning in terms of turning Zelda back (especially because you know. they're a big ring. a circle. like the logo of the game. like. an ourobouros. like. yknow what nvm.) and the whole, Impa being a part of that. and the rest of the Sheikah. But instead I just got Mary Sue Rauru fixing everything and taking his arm back (because I guess he could have just fixed Link's arm regularly the entire time) and the Sheikah, descendants of the OTHER highly technological race, floundering around completely useless at the foot of these mysterious rocks that do nothing but get you an armor set that gets you to a skippable dungeon. Totk. Stamping all over my cool ideas and hopes and dreams once again.

I could go on about this. But I can't. I just can't go on anymore. They've broken me enough already.

[currantlee]

(I didn't find this cutscene by itself on YouTube in English, so y'all are gonna have to deal with a link to a specific timestamp in the video - anyway, here's the Japanese version sans subtitles)

Okay, but can we talk about the Revelation ending cinematic for a second, please?

Like, I know this game is several years old at this point, but this cinematic is still so perfect, like, come on!! Apart from the strellar video quality that all of the 3DS games have, there is so much love and detail in just this one scene.

You have eight characters in the scene, and none of them are standing around and doing nothing. This is obviously not counting Corrin, who is really more of a stand-in for the player in this scene - also, funfact!

Theoretically, you should see Corrin in this shot since in the end of the cutscene, when the little sisters drag Corrin to the rest of the siblings, they're running in the direction of the trees in the background, indicating that this is where Corrin should stand. But they're not in this shot.

Regardless, having eight characters in one scene and each of them not just say something, but do something (rather than just standing by idly until it's time to say their lines) is impressive! Even more impressive is that the things they do are not just standard / repetitive motions, but rather small details that are easy to miss, yet so in-character. I put some of my personal highlights under the cut - what are yours?

Right before the little sisters run towards them, Camilla smiles and gives Corrin / the player a little wave, and it's the sort of smile that we rarely see from this character - a very sincere smile that reaches her eyes.

Very easy to miss, but I love how just before the little sisters run to Corrin, Takumi (and, less obviously, Leo too!) look lovingly at their little sisters (whom both of them are shown to have a close relationship to in the supports, it's such a nice touch IMO!), while Camilla and Hinoka are looking at Corrin, and Xander and Ryoma are looking at the scene unfolding in front of them.

There is also this cute interaction Takumi initiates with Leo, which I find especially cool because after Ryoma and Xander make their vow to keep peace and Elise cheers that Sakura and her can be friends now, Takumi remarks how he wishes it were that easy to forgive, and Leo responds by saying that healing can only begin with trust - which is not only very true in my experience, it's one of my favorite lines from the entire game. If you take anything away from Fates as a story, it should be this.

So anyway, Takumi seems to think about Leo's words a bit before he nods and agrees. So regardless of whether you ship Leokumi or not (I do, and this interaction is definitely a bonus to me), you can kind of see this interaction as an extension to Takumi's agreement from earlier, where he specifically decides to trust and befriend Leo.

The next part of this interaction is a bit harder to see because the camera pans to the sisters. Camilla and Hinoka have a little interaction with Sakura and Elise. Hinoka even bends down so they're on the same level (cool aunt character indeed), and it looks like they're moving their lips to actually say something, even though that's not part of the dialogue. Xander and Ryoma also watch this unfold (while Leo gets shoved in a friendly way by Takumi).

Leo, judging by his expression, did not expect this and is not exactly happy about in the first second of surprise. You can actually see him breathe heavily directly after stumbling forward, indicating that he was indeed startled by this. However, he then goes on to laugh it off, like "haha, you got me". Meanwhile, Takumi does not instantly turn around to Corrin again, but actually takes a step towards Leo and even turns to him for a bit, as if to make sure he's okay. The other siblings (safe for Elise) also turn to them briefly.

By the way, at the end of the scene, Takumi's hand is still on Leo's back. Also, Camilla is actually the last one to turn around to face the camera / Corrin. Instead, she takes a long look at the united families until her gaze lands at Corrin when the screen already fades to white.

[ask-a-w]

Continued to watch Part 3 & Part 4 of Nick Apostolides play RE4R and wrote down some interesting stuff that they shared happened while filming.

Parts 1 & 2 here.

Part 3:

- Steve (cinematics director) loved Marcio as Salazar.

- Marcio is not good at playing RE4R lol and died within 30 seconds.

- They are teasing Marcio about his sexy music videos.

- Marcio first filmed other characters in RE4R before filming Salazar. For the first few days of filming, Steve promised Marcio that his part is coming.

- Marcio also read for Luis and Leon too. He jokingly said the part of Leon should go to Nick.

- Steve usually doesn’t play the games he directed.

- Nick & Marcio keep playfully heckling each other during this playthrough and it’s hilarious. Steve also ribs Nick too and Nick jokingly says Steve & Marcio aren’t invited to his barbecues anymore.

- Nick doesn’t remember recording “No, you can’t keep him” when Leon brings Ashley down to the dungeon where the first Garrador is. Genevieve remembers it briefly but was not told the context.

- Steve was surprised to see a portrait that vaguely looks like him in the sword puzzle room.

- Marcio has a tabby cat named Charly and Steve said he can imagine Salazar having a fluffy white cat and petting him. Gen has a cat too. (I am a huge cat lover and it’s amazing to see many RE VAs have kitties!)

- Nick & Gen find the zombies in The Last of Us more “realistic” since cordecyps exists in real life. As almost all of the RE4R VAs are based in Canada, they said when TLOU was going to be filmed in Canada, practically everyone they knew asked their agents to have a chance to audition in TLOU.

- Nick accidentally threw a grenade at Ashley in the playthrough and Gen mock scolded Nick for killing her. 🤣 He also roundhouse kicks Ashley when she’s standing too close to a cultist.

- Marcio is mock offended the cultists “are taking a shit in his fountains” in the water room.

- Gen & Nick got stuck to each other a few times when they filmed the first scene of Ashley getting possessed by Saddler ‘cos the mocap suits have a lot of Velcro.

- Gen was shown videos of Christopher (Saddler) saying some of Saddler lines in order to channel Saddler’s mannerisms for the possession scene.

- They filmed many versions of the Leon & Ada choreography before settling on what we see in-game. There is a stunt team to do the action scenes, so Nick & Lily do not do any stunts because their head cameras restrict movements. After the stunts are filmed, Nick & Lily come in to do the effort sounds and facial capture. Then everything is spliced together to the cutscene in the game.

- Steve likes big brother Leon in RE4R compared to “charm the ladies” Leon in OG RE4.

- Marcio played the cultists that ambush Leon when the cage comes down on him. He also remembered playing the cultist that got stabbed and used as a human shield.

- After the sequence where you play as Ashley, Andre (Luis) played the cultist slumped over the lever while Marcio played the Verdugo. Marcio is carrying a dummy when Ada spots the Verdugo carrying Ashley to the throne room.

- Andre & Marcio also played the cultists that held Ashley as she drank the black liquid. Marcio was the Verdugo in that cutscene as well.

- Nick did not do the physical scene where Leon free-falls down the pit, that goes to the stunt team. Only Nick’s face was captured for that part.

Part 4:

- A separate team in Japan mocapped all the characters’ in-game movements. The voice actors did not do them.

- Andre said it was fun recording Luis cheering Leon in the shooting range.

- Gen does not remember mocapping Ashley sitting on the barrel, it could have been done by the Japan team.

- The mocap suits weren’t itchy but the suits trap a lot of body heat and it gets very warm wearing them. Gen said the room was very cold during filming and never felt like she overheating.

- During mocap, there will be another screen featuring the characters’ models for the VAs to refer to. Andre had a lot of fun doing the floss dance and watch the Luis model do the same on the screen.

- If the VA removed their head cam (referred to as HMC), their character’s head would be hanging and look scary.

- Gen cut off her hair halfway through filming as long hair was very cumbersome for mocapping. The HMC can be pretty tight and if one is filming the whole day, it can be hard to concentrate on filming the lines at the end of the day as the helmet constricts the head quite a bit.

- There are a lot of tech challenges for mocap. There’s the camera, battery packs, audio pack, Velcro, marker dots, etc… All of them must be in place or else it messes up the filming process.

- Andre shows off his cat, Luca (spelling?). Soo many cute cats!! He fawns over Gen’s cat on stream as well.

- Everything is more grounded in RE4R. Andre appreciates that RE4R Luis can express his flirtatious personality without being crude & creepy.

- They love how they balanced Ashley’s small crush on Leon without making it too forward but still have Leon be a professional and being a big-brother character to her.

- They joke about Leon & Luis jumping off the mine cart being very RE6-ish. Nick likes RE6 and finds it fun to play four campaigns as they have different play styles. He can understand why people don’t find it to be a classic RE game though.

- Andre was given an emotional cookie on the day he filmed Luis’ death scene. He said it was a cool filming day though.

- Nick did not mocap the knife fighting when Leon first encounters Krauser but he voluntarily did knife training when he learned he was cast in RE4R… and he wasn’t that good at it. Capcom hired professional knife fighters in Japan to mocap the knife fighting. Mike (Krauser) and Nick only did the facial captures, effort sounds like grunts, and voice lines. Nick & Mike’s filming for this scene starts off from when Leon is kicked off the platform and they stand up to fight.

- Leon might have some PTSD from having to lose a mentor again, since he had to use Marvin’s knife to fight Krauser.

- Nick says Leon & Ada’s relationship is indeed very different in RE4R and yes, he does give off some “done with her shit” vibes. Nick will have Lily on the stream in the future (probably for the island section?) so maybe both of them will talk more about this.

- They start talking about pets and what pets would the characters have. Leon would be a dog person, Luis would be a cat person, Ashley’s probably a dog person but since she’s in college right now, a small pet like a mouse or ferret. 😆

- Topic branches off on how Leon can eat the fish, snake, eggs, rhinoceros beetle all raw in game and everyone jokingly discuss how his mother must have had a tough time telling him not to put moving creatures in his mouth as a child. 🤣

- The VAs recount how they ate play-doh in real life and other random stuff as kids. Gen apparently ate wallpaper as a baby ‘cos the glue was sweet.

- Nick has eaten giant winged ants while helping to build a sustainable protein farm in a remote region in South-East Asia. He was surprised that it tasted like buttered popcorn.

- They talk about an event happening in Canada and mentioned how it’s gonna sell fried Mars bars, and fried Oreos which caught Nick’s attention. (If you don’t know, Nick is obsessed with Oreos.)

- VAs start to speculate how would deep fried plaga taste like. Taste like fried chicken/alligator with vinegar?

[giuilily]

the death scene/ending is indeed confusing and i'm still annoyed by it tbh lol but i'm fairly certain the Aerith that Cloud is seeing at the end is lifestream Aerith (which is why Red can sense her too). But, I do also think that she is alive in some other world/timeline now and it is likely that they will reunite because otherwise I do not see the point of all of this ~ defy destiny ~ stuff the games have been pushing (plus the lyrics to nptk). Why change a pivotal emotional scene into something vague and confusing if it's not going to be resolved later beyond "she dead and cloud is losing it". And yes, his grief is playing a part in him being somewhat delusional but I don't think it is only that. (also can I say i am upset we didn't get to see the water burial! I'm sure it's intentional for the cloud is delusional vibe but still) As for the terrier-verse, I was confused by which world/timeline their date was in before the end... I thought it was that one because Cloud wakes up in the wheelchair (i think?) and everyone knew that world was ending and accepted it which is in line withe the npc dialogue/lack of ability to make a real choice/sephiroth showing up at the end. But I also thought that was weird because where is Elmyra and is Zack off at reactor 6/shinra while they're on their date or has he died again already (probably lol). So I feel like that universe is.. gone? But that seems like a weird way to end that worlds story (and where did zack end up at the end) so maybe I am wrong. (wow sorry this got really long! did not know you could send an ask this long tbh lmaoo)

No worries for the long ask, anon! I enjoy reading people's thoughts on Rebirth's ending. I'm all too happy discussing it hahaha!

AND LITERALLY SAME.

I love Aerith, and the altar scene in Rebirth was very emotional, but I would have much rather things didn't end ambiguously. I would have accepted her death had they made a 1:1 remake.

But I'm not gonna complain if it gives us the possibility of getting her back in Part 3 lol. (Princess Guard and Great Gospel are waving 👀)

I also wanted to see a cinematic cutscene of the water burial, anon. It would have made such an emotional ending for Rebirth too! I feel like we won't see that scene until it shows up as a flashback to Cloud which will absolutely be heartbreaking.

And I agree. I've only played Remake this year and I initially thought that they can't stray too much from OG. But after beating both games, they've put in so much groundwork on the 'defying fate' theme and foreshadowed them reuniting in the end since Remake that they have to deliver on that somehow, otherwise it'd feel like a cop out. Like Cloud said in Red's date: "There's no point in wasting our time worrying about fate if we can't change it." and I'm gonna hold the devs to that since no one asked them to add in new themes to an almost 30 yo game lol.

And the dream date happened in Chihuahua/Spitz-verse! So Terrier-verse Aerith and Cloud should still be asleep with Marlene and Elmyra watching over them. Idk what happened to Zack in this verse but chances are, if he survived, I doubt he'll find a cure from Hojo.

I'm really curious where the Zack who we fought alongside with was sent to. Devs purposely didn't show a stamp to indicate where he was. I've read speculations that he got sent to Beagle-verse but who knows?

[fipindustries]

a house in many pieces (rooms)

so i went to see a play that my gf starred in. except this was a different kind of play. because it was inside a house.

i went inside a house, a normal ass house, and me and the rest of the audience were guided by a trickster-like puckish little guide from room to room and each room had a person doing a monologue. it was a weird mix of live theatre and ghost train. each actor was playing a particularly weird character giving an impassioned speech about life.

it was in total five sections

*a depressed woman in the kitchen talking about the death of her best friend

*a weird pervert in the dinning room talking about his creepy obsession with women

*a wedding guest in the hallway talking to his wife in the bathroom

*a quirky cleptomaniac in the bedroom talking about how she resells the things she steals online (my gf)

*a wife getting ready for a party in the livingroom talking about the demands her husband has on her

it was mesmerizing, it was magical. it was like a dream, but also it was like being inside an indie movie, but also inside a videogame cutscene. and the thing is we were like ten people in the audience and the house was fairly small so we were all crammed inside a tiny little room while the actors tried their best to act surrounded by people all up on their personal space. let me tell you, you have not lived until a guy is acting his heart out literally five centimeters away from your face. suddenly the characters can do eye contact with you, suddenly they can actually touch you. in more than one occassion the character had to ask permission to a member of the audience to get through a door or open a fridge.

i was convinced being that close to people acting would get really awkward real fast but no, the fourth wall would get established really easily. even when i had a guy screaming at my face at one point the suspension of disbelief was never broken, the fourth wall remained firmly in place protecting me, i was never snapped out of the trance of "i am watching a play and this is a lot of fun". i suspect part of it is that i have been playing rolplay games for a while and i am used by now to seeing people act outrageously close to me.

it was incredible how the house was somehow perfectly arranged, how every room was the perfect scene, it was almost cinematic. going from one room to another really felt like going to a different world every time. the work they did with lighting was fantastic, and it all ended up on the garage with all the actors sitting together in a sofa doing a little addams family dance number.

a fantastical experience that i feel so priviledged to have been a part of 9/10, my two favourite sections were the pervert in the dinning room and the wedding guest in the hallway.

[animentality]

What are your thoughts on BG3 character origin videos? (If they existed)

Some small, 2 minute cutscene that either played when you picked the origin or was available to watch on Larion's site.

Karlach's could show her interacting with Gortash and then some scenes in hell.

Wyll could show the battle and hint at taking the deal.

Gale could show how abusive the relationship with Mystra was.

Stuff like that, just small videos that flesh out what the characters personalities are better and show part of their past.

Also what do you think some or all of these videos would like if they were real?

I mean, they do have the little character intros at the start of the game, but the only one I really like is the Dark Urge's. That voice is so sexy...

Ugh. I'd fuck the Dark Urge if he was an option. Literally until my internal organs fell out. Anyway.

BG3 should really do what Overwatch used to do.

Release big lore cinematics, that they couldn't add to the game. It annoys me that only Shadowheart and the Emperor really have flashbacks. Come on, it's DND! You can do flashbacks! You spent all that money on mo cap and shit, and you use the unreal engine! It's supposed to be good for that kind of thing.

I'd love to see a young Wyll being tricked by Mizora, or maybe hunting down someone innocent, kind of like Karlach, and being filled with guilt over it.

Or maybe Karlach with her parents...or the day she was sold by Gortash. Eurgh, that would hurt me, but...I'd still love to see it.

I'd also love to see Gale's first...flirtation with Mystra, maybe. The way he'd been seduced by her power, and by his need to fulfill his true "potential."

Yeah. Every companion/origin should have at least one Emperor or Shadowheart styled backstory, and preferably one that kind of framed who they are as people.

But I have an issue with the stories of the origin characters, so, I'd rather they be tweaked than add filler scenes we don't need. As it is, Karlach and Wyll get nothing from flashbacks, since their stories are the most broken. Only Gale would really have a flashback worth seeing, and even then, it's still kind of filler ish...

[skymagpie]

The War Within SPOILERS and the discussion around [redacted]'s death

This will be spoiler heavy and below the cut I will not be censoring [redacted]'s name so proceed with caution. I am mostly going to discuss theories, reactions, wishful thinking and the such. Feel free to add or discuss!

As a lot of us who saw the leaks know, it is implied that Khadgar dies in the opening of The War Within, in the pre-patch story. The implication comes from the fact that we see Dalaran destroyed and the placeholder for the cutscene says that the rest of the cast takes a moment for Khadgar.

Now I expected Khadgar to die in the World Soul Saga. They kept hinting how they will make us sad, Chris Metzen has been taking classes from the Game of Thrones writing school in the late years and the community was out for blood because Dragonflight was Oh So Disney!!! To add to that, Khadgar kept acting like he is on death's door in both Shadowlands and Dragonflight, which is the weakest form of foreshadowing a character death possible. Also he is 54, he isn't even old.

However what I didn't expect is to be right at the opening quest of The World Within. I expected either here or maybe in the following expacs, maybe at the last fight, but not at the opening. And the death being here is actually my problem with it.

Theory on how it might go down ->

If you watch PlatinumWoW's video on the alpha, it seems that Magni Bronzebeard goes into another coma and we bring him to Dalaran to nurse him back to health. There are some other characters present.

Afterwards we end up on the shore with The Chamber of the Guardian (where we nursed Magni back to health) in pieces. And we fight Xal'atath's nerubians. Afterwards comes the screenshot from above where the main cast seems to mourn Khadgar.

The most obvious and cliche way this will go down is that:

We tend to Magni

We learn something about Xal'atath from Alleria and/or Khadgar

She suddenly attacks

We defend the city and fail

Khadgar does a heroic sacrifice, ensuring our escape and losing his life in the process. This plays in a pre-rendered cutscene much like Varian's on Broken Shore.

Once we arrive at the beach there is a Animated Real-Time Cutscene as described above where everyone mourns him.

Alleria makes it her mission to hunt down Xal'atath because Khadgar is one of her closest friends. Their beef is personal (and I get it, I am with Alleria).

Theories and wishful thinking

-> Now for the theories, please do know that Khadgar is my favourite WoW character and there is a lot of bias in what I hope might happen, so I will list them just in case.

The death might be a fake-out. We might not see him die on screen (though this depends on the pre-rendered cinematic I believe is missing) and we assume he has died in the explosion or whatever broke The Chamber of the Guardian. We mourn him and near the end of the Expansion he will appear just in the nick of time. Here he might actually die, but that is another discussion.

Khadgar openly decides to port Dalaran elsewhere or we see him be swallowed by the void and ported elsewhere himself. He is not dead, but we do not know of his fate and neither do the main characters, so they take a moment to mourn. This also adds to Alleria's personal beef with Xal'atath even if Khadgar doesn't die. Saving him from whatever fate befell him can also add to this.

They actually take a moment for him because he is somewhere and not dead (not likely, but I have to throw it in here).

Discussion

I won't lie, I think if it goes down how I suspect it will, it will be horrible. I don't know if Chris Metzen and the writers are under the impression that Tirion's and Vol'jin's deaths were good because they weren't. They were pointless Game of Thrones-esque shock value so people will not whine that this game doesn't kill enough characters.

This game has had it's fair share of good character deaths and it's fair share of horrible character deaths. Varian, for example, had a good death. His death was given the weight it deserved, he went out as a badass and he got a whole rendered cutscene. Not to mention he had narrative build up, he learned the lesson his son was trying to teach him right at the end and he knew that his time as leader is over and this world needs a king like Anduin now. Tirion was disrespected. Metzen and the writers must be out of their mind if they think the community found Tirion's death as anything other than stupid and funny, because that's all it was.

So if Khadgar earns this death, it will truly be stupid. I have no problem with characters dying, I have a problem with pointless deaths just so annoying youtubers will think that we are finally having AN EPIC STORY because you know, the years are 2011-2019 and we still think Game of Thrones is peak writing.

Khadgar's death here will not have any narrative build up - let's be real, Khadgar wasn't a character in the previous 3 expansions so killing a character that is narratively "cold" is not going to have an emotional impact on people. Varian was very present in the story when he died.

I think a far better way to handle this is if we have this scenario, have Khadgar's death be a fake out and then have him die in the 3rd act of the expansion. This way there will be narrative build up and it will lull us in the false sense of security that Khadgar cannot die, only to then shock us when he does. This will really break the feeling of "hope" we might build up and truly achieve a feeling of dread and defeat.

They already tried writing death at the beginning of a story and just rehashing Broken Shore won't make Tirion and Vol'jin's deaths any less stupid. Khadgar is a beloved character, he isn't someone you should kill at the start of a story. No matter how symbolic you think it is that he dies along with The Chamber of the Guardian, none of it ties back to any of his previous and good stories, from The Last Guardian and all the way to Legion.

So while as a writer I want to remain realistic and know that probably my favourite character will get bagged, a part of me hopes that the writers are a bit better than this and that they won't give us another Broken Shore, but give us a meaningful character death and a worthy farewell.

It's too early to speak, so this is all speculations and I am probably not right about many things.

[katieskarlette]

I watched the trailers and read the Blizzcon '23 stuff on WoWhead.

Meh. Not the spark I was looking for to rekindle my passion for the game.

(Morose lack of enthusiasm for 11.0, and Shadowlands postmortem below.)

Instead of getting hyped for upcoming content, it just makes me feel bad about how little I care anymore.

I used to be on the edge of my seat, palms sweating, happily freaking out about new cinematics and new expansion releases. I would plan ahead and take time off to watch the Blizzcon livestream, and stock up on food I could eat while glued to the screen. Today I got home from work and turned on my computer...and only then remembered that Blizzcon was today. After seeing the trailers and stuff I'm like, "Okay. I guess that's fine. Whatever." [Garrosh voice] Times change. [/Garrosh voice]

I didn't expect the news about upcoming expansions to knock my socks off, though. If Dragonflight, an expansion that was practically custom-made to focus on my favorite lore, didn't rekindle my love for WoW, nothing was going to.

That said, I'm still underwhelmed. I can't say that Alleria, Thrall, and Magni are characters I'd be super excited to hang out with. (It was a nice touch to have Thrall going gray, though.)

Xal'atath (sp?) is pretty cool but forgive me for being wary considering the track record for female villains in this franchise.

Anduin...very mixed feelings there. I'm glad he's back, and it was nice to hear Josh Keaton's voice again. I don't recognize him physically anymore, except those baby blue eyes, which is probably why the cinematic spent so much time zoomed in uncomfortably close on his face. I get that that's the point, that he's grown up and gotten grizzled, but he looks and feels like a completely different person.

I think part of the problem is that we didn't get to see him changing. He went from dropping his sword to resurrect an army and being stubbornly optimistic in BFA, to weary but still full of the Light in the cutscenes with Sylvanas in Torghast, to completely blank (save one glimmer) while under Zovaal's domination, to this broken, unstable, self-loathing shell of a man in the 11.0 cinematic. Even if we're generous and count the tiny conversation with Sylvanas at the end of her novel, we have to just imagine what happened to him in between then and now. It's okay to ask the audience to fill in some implied developments, but this is jarring. (I suppose it's possible we'll see more characterization in-game between now and then. I'm not optimistic, though.)

I imagine Anduin will go through an arc where the Light comes back to him, or he finds some kind of peace again and reclaims his throne, but I don't have the patience to wait around for it to happen, or the confidence that it would be done well.

I also can't separate the character's angst with the real-world consequences of Shadowlands sucking as hard as it did. Yeah, Anduin, you've been through absolute hell--so have we. You haven't recovered--and neither have I.

When they had him do the "Arthas pointing Frostmourne just left of the camera lens" pose, instead of going "Ooh, I recognize that! That was cool!" it just reminded me of all the times they did fanservice callbacks to the Lich King in Shadowlands, only to shit all over that part of lore. That's the last thing I want to be reminded of.

It was a bold move to reveal the names and story hooks of the next two expansions, but rather than whet my appetite it just removed the hope that "maybe the next expansion will be better." Nope, it'll be more of the cosmic bullshit that I don't care about: Light, Void, Titans, etc. It's okay in small doses, but it's not the kind of story that pulled me in and made me fall in love with the world.

I hate to say it, but this might be the nail in the coffin for me. I definitely miss the glory days of WoW when it was a huge part of my life and I got so much enjoyment out of it, but I'm beginning to realize that those days aren't coming back. When I think of all the hours and dollars I invested in the franchise it makes me want to cry--not that I regret any of it. I just wish the spark hadn't gone out for me.

I had been so immersed for so many years that maybe it was just time for it to run its course. The social climate has also changed a lot for me, from a thriving guild during MoP, to sporadic bursts of people logging on in Legion and early BFA, to a ghost town in mid-to-late BFA and SL. Strangers can be rude and elitist, making pugging more stressful than fun. I've also been concentrating a lot on my own original writing in the last year.

Those are factors, to be sure, but I do have to lay a lot of the blame on Shadowlands. I had gotten past so-so expansions before. Cataclysm wasn't the best, but all the Firelands stuff was fun, and some of my favorite dragons got screen time. MOP was freaking fantastic. WoD was a dud expansion for me, but there was enough to keep me busy and playing right up to the end. Legion was awesome. BFA wasn't great, and the loss of Teldrassil left a very sour taste, but it had good leveling content, some fun characters, and generally enough stuff going on to tide me over. It was going in a pattern of great expansion, not-so-good expansion, great expansion, not-so-good expansion, and that was okay.

Then Shadowlands came, and it was grimdark, overly serious, cosmic-scale stuff, headed by the most aggressively boring villain the series had ever had. There were a ton of new characters, and, except for Denathrius, Renathal, and Theotar (and Merileth and his slimes, in small doses), none of them interested me. The game systems somehow became even more fiddly, complicated and confusing time sinks than they were in BFA. The afterlife setup barely made sense, conflicted with past lore, complicated future lore, and was ultimately depressing as hell--you probably won't spend eternity with your loved ones, and even if you do, you'll probably end up as a blip of red energy that gets consumed and then cease to exist at all. That's just how I want to imagine all my favorite Warcraft characters ending up! (We probably didn't see Tirion Fordring because some blue guy in a toga needed his anima to grow better grapes. FFS.)

But the worst aspect of Shadowlands, IMO, was the way the pre-existing characters were done dirty--every single one of them.

I don't know you manage to take one of the greatest paladins of all time, then turn him into fiery overlord of the undead, and have him be boring, but there's Bolvar. Get that man a throat lozenge and some personality. Taelia got cameos in which they mentioned their relationship, but nothing ever came of it. He was a father figure to Anduin in the king's youth, but you wouldn't know it by what they did/said in SL. Going by BFA and SL, freaking Saurfang was more of a father figure to Anduin than Bolvar, who literally raised him for several years of his childhood.

Nathanos got an epic sendoff courtesy of Tyrande in the prepatch, then got teased a few times without ever appearing or mattering again.

Sylvanas was a mess. I don't need to get into details; we all know the trainwreck of a story. The concept of making her soul complete again so she had to come to terms with what she had done was a promising one, but it was handled so clumsily and briefly that it was ultimately frustrating.

The less said about the Jailer, the better. I wanted so badly to like Zovaal, but he was the most flat, boring, paint-by-numbers Saturday morning cartoon villain in the franchise's history. Not interesting, not sympathetic, not fleshed out, not funny, not charismatic, not sexy, not scary--none of the things past Blizzard villains had going for them.

Uther's story was one of the better ones, but because of how closely tied it was to Arthas' story, and the unforgivably bad way that was handled, it ultimately fizzled.

Thrall was...fine? The bits with his mom were neat, but I couldn't stop thinking about what a crappy afterlife it would be to constantly fight, spy, scheme, and play politics, all while the supposed love of her life is nowhere to be seen. Poor Durotan.

Baine famously, frustratingly, amusingly in an if-you-don't-laugh-you'll-cry kind of way, did jack squat in the entire expansion. I know his arc got cut for time, but regardless of the reason he was yet another character whose involvement in SL was disappointing.

Jaina was wasted. Her history with Arthas (and, to a lesser extent, Anduin) could have made for some memorable, heart-wrenching story, but instead she was just a generic sorceress. That was especially disappointing given the respectful, deep treatment her character got in BFA. I know not every character can have the spotlight in every story arc, but the complete lack of personality she had in SL was especially jarring in contrast.

Anduin's arc should have been interesting, but we never got into his head enough to really feel what he was feeling. We had that glimpse of his horror after stabbing the Archon, and he left his father's compass as a clue, but those were fleeting moments open to interpretation and not enough to offset the blank slate we got the rest of the time. Even that would have been forgivable, given the limits of storytelling in a game, but the thing that sticks in my craw the most is that constant, blatant Arthas parallels led to...nothing. Anduin would have been just as devastated to be mind-controlled into doing evil stuff even if Arthas had never existed. Arthas meant nothing to Anduin. The only time he met the man was as an infant. They weren't related. Nobody in-universe was comparing them. Garrosh compared himself to Arthas in the War Crimes novel, and Anduin fleetingly thought about Arthas when he befriended Calia in Before the Storm, but that's it. Even as hokey as it would have been to make Anduin secretly Jaina and Arthas' son, at least that would have explained two expansions' worth of in-your-face parallels between the two characters. But no. It all came across as fanservice--or fan teasing--and had no payoff.

Speaking of Arthas, arguably the most famous and recognizable character in the franchise (competing with Illidan and Scantily-Clad Female Night Elf #17 for the top spot)...

After being teased about his possible involvement or whereabouts all expansion long, after they milked every possible drop of nostalgia out of his story in an attempt to make SL palatable, after all the flashing red arrows calling our attention to parallels between him and Anduin, despite his importance to three prominent characters (Uther, Sylvanas, and Jaina), Arthas never did anything (boss mechanics don't count), never had a line of dialogue, never appeared in a form we recognized, got insulted and belittled by Sylvanas one last time, and disappeared in a flicker of blue plasma that was less impressive than a drunk frat boy lighting his farts with a match.

So yeah. Toss Shadowlands in the trash heap (except Sire Denathrius). It was so bad it tainted the entire franchise for me, so that I couldn't even enjoy the long-awaited dragonpalooza that followed.

Phew, that was a long rant, and the first time I've written about WoW in ages. I guess it just goes to show that I have deep roots in the franchise that come along with strong feelings--which makes it all the harder to accept that I may not even buy the next expansion. I suppose I'll weaken when the time comes, but I'm certainly not shelling out for the collector's edition or other bells and whistles.

But then the Li'l Wrathion in-game pet stares at me from another browser tab, and I think about the new Wrathion plushie, and I'm like...DAMN IT, why couldn't you have done this years ago? :(

Anyway, sorry to be a downer, but I'm kind of in mourning, in a weird way, as I come to terms with the way I feel--or more importantly, don't feel--about Warcraft now.

[marisoft-paint-adventures]

Pgs. 385 - 445

TG: skepticism is the crutch of cinematic troglodytes TG: like hey mom dad theres a dinosaur or a ghost or whatever in my room. "yeah right junior go back to bed" TG: fuck you mom and dad how many times are we going to watch this trope unfold it wasnt goddamn funny the first time i saw it TG: just once id like to see dad crap his pants when a kid says theres a vampire in his closet TG: "OH SHIT EVERYONE IN THE MINIVAN" TG: be fuckin dad of the year right there

so fucking true Dave, keep spitting.

EB: that's fine, you are entitled to your opinion, i am just saying that being a white guy who is a rapper with a ventriloquist doll is not cool by any stretch of the imagination or by any definition of word cool, ironic or otherwise. that's all i'm saying.

ULTIMATE WHITE BOY BRO STRIDER.

oh hey it’s the page I used to showcase Hussie’s affinity for slurs.

uh

still bad.

me when I fucking sTAB MY MOTHER.

I’m having rough flashbacks to HS^2 and I don’t like it.

also I just gotta say that Mom is the coolest looking person in this entire comic I mean just look at this fucking POSE.

it just screams “hello daughter you are going to get fuckin served.”

yes. the pony. beloved Maplehoof.

I’ve always seen this idea that the process of creating Earth, and by extension Universe B, involved taking the attributes and interests of the 12 trolls and morphing them into brand new instances and ideas, like how Gamzee’s Juggalo religion manifested as ICP on Earth.

I like to think that the entirety of the For Assholes book series exists through a recycling of Karkat’s personality.

also that fucking Asshole Note is comedy gold.

aw yeah time to fucking beat the shit out of an imp let’s

shit.

W magnet.

alright for real this time let’s kick the shit out of this imp.

goddammit.

also another White John can be found in this flash, collect all 7 to turn Super White.

also the Egbert Centipede I guess.

Tip: I am so fucking mad.

OK 1 MORE TIME.

he did it. he destroyed the fucker. John man.

YES.

DO THE THING.

YEEEAAAAAAH.

yeah.

fuck you cat I am about to revive.

IT’S HER, CLOWN GRANDMA.

HI NANNA.

TG: i mean dont get me wrong i think its cool and all TG: the semi-ironic puppet thing or whatever TG: or semi-semi ironic TG: man i dont even know TG: im just starting to think some of this shit is going a little far and its kind of fucked up TT: I've seen his websites. TT: I like them.

what did she mean by this.

what did she mean by this?

what did she mean by this?!

TG: oh man i wish lil cal wouldnt look at me like that TG: with those dead eyes jesus TG: sometimes i dream that hes real and hes talking to me and i wake up in a cold sweat and basically flip the fuck out

not saying it.

Page 422, titled “[S] GO ON. ==>” completely underrated flash, just listen to this fuckin song.

it captures the feeling of a big expository RPG cutscene so damn well I love it, it’s like I’m a kid again.

this is also just one of my favorite Sburb mechanics, I love the concept of basically deciding the abilities and aesthetics of the NPCs via prototyping, it’s such a cool little thing and opens up a lot of possibility for any fan-sessions.

JOHN: ok, i think i get it now! JOHN: so i guess the battle against good and evil is sort of irrelevant? well, i don't know, that all sounds kind of weird, but in any case, we build the house to get to these gates, and then i can save my dad! NANNASPRITE: Yes, John! JOHN: and then after that, we solve this ultimate riddle thing and save earth from destruction!!! NANNASPRITE: Oh no, I'm afraid not!

NANNASPRITE: Your planet is done for, dear! There is nothing you can do about that! JOHN: oh...

I fucking love this sequence because John activates the Cheery Protagonist Mode ready to assemble a team of teens with attitude in order to save the world from Dark Chess and whatever only to hear that the entire world will end and his response is just “aw..... :(”

I went on this entire shpeel about the potential of writing an isolationist John based off of willy nilly prose narration at the beginning but MAN do the early versions of the kids not give a SHIT about what’s going on.

“John Egbert, the Earth is doomed, it is going to explode, all life will die, you and your friends will be the last living things remaining.”

“:(”

AND THEN HE JUST MOVES ON.

this is a very weird moment that sticks out when looking at the comic as a whole because the weight of literally all life dying at once is nonexistent, but at the same time, this is fucking hilarious.

it makes think about a lot of rewrites I’ve seen where they try, emphasis on try, to give the fact that world ends more emotional relevance, and they basically kinda force this by introducing random background characters who are obviously going to die immediately.

like “oh hi my name is Huma Nfriend I’ve been besties with John Egbert since childhood we’re very close and cool and we’re gonna play a game called Sburb!!!” and then they just

I understand y’all want to make the characters actually feel something in regards to the entire home blowing the fuck up but there’s gotta be better ways than inventing some characters just to fridge.

also John does this.

uh, yeah. I don’t know.

he’s having a moment.

just give him some space.

ok now that’s just rude.

god Rose’s house during the winter is so pretty.

holy shit a Jade and Rose conversation, I hope we get plenty of these! (we do not.)

Jade knows about Sburb??? and it could bring Jaspers back to life???? what could it me- ok this joke already fucking sucks.

ah yeah it’s time to beat the shit out of the local whiteboy.

this shit is so fucking cool oh my god.

also there are literally meteors falling as Dave looks out and I guess he does give a shit.

[wrenhavenriver]

If you're still doing these can I ask top 5 songs from the Bloodborne OST?

absolutely you can!

the first hunter is on my "secret emotions" playlist for a reason. it's like, no matter how you feel about [redacted], you will be struck by a sense of regret and grief as you two fight to the death in this field of beautiful white flowers, the full moon looming meaningfully overhead, the hunter's dream burning to the ground in the distance,

lady maria of the astral clocktower. you ever search youtube for "lady maria fight no hud" and let the music and visuals wash over you and just marvel at how gotdamn cinematic it all is? y-yeah me neither. but seriously, it's such a fitting theme for her. the beginning is anxiety personified, heightening that feeling of "OH SHIT OH FUCK" you get from the cutscene and the transition into the boss fight where she's slowly advancing on you and you start to suspect you're about to get your ass handed to you. the bits with the choir are really powerful but also discordant and unsettling, especially with the sort of piercing wail you can hear over the top of it at parts. if you manage to time the fight so maria's phases/power ups sync up with the major turning points of the song it's just awesome in the original sense of the word. bone rattling and shiver inducing.

omen. i've seen the cinematic trailer/menu movie so many fucken times that if i put this song on i can pretty much just watch the cinematic behind my eyes. that moment when the hunter flicks open the saw cleaver and walks away with Purpose as the scene fades out? talented, brilliant, incredible, amazing, show stopping, spectacular,

ludwig the holy blade. i watch a lot of soulsborne speedruns and 9/10 times the streamer successfully blasts through the ludwig fight somebody in chat will be like "we didn't get to hear the music >(" and like. how can you argue with that. do the fight again but worse, streamer, 2:39 onward is the best part of the track!!

lullaby for mergo. what is it about music boxes that makes everything feel a hundred times more melancholy?? and this track is sad enough to begin with, associated with the loss of both child Great Ones (mergo) and human children (gascoigne's daughter(s), if you try and help them).

[feline-evil]

Thinking about MGS5, as i so often am, and the way it's 'shots' are constructed; because there's something so deeply fascinating about it. It's a very cinematic, movie-like game that relishes in letting itself play with lens flares and lighting and film language, imitation switches between steady cam and handheld, positioning shots to cement the camera man within them; this is something i adore about it. I'm sure it's not the first nor only game to have done this, but something feels so....gripping to me about it. Maybe it's just me experiencing it at the right time and place for it to really lodge in my head, but there's just... something about it. There's mods that let you move the camera around during cut scenes, i see posts online of people finding expressions on character models faces that weren't visible in normal gameplay; and that really all just adds to it, to the fact this scene is playing out yet we as the viewers through the cameraman's gaze can only see so much. The world and it's characters seem to continue on regardless of if we can see them or not, no matter where on the stage our eyes are drawn the actors are still performing even when out of sight. Isn't that fascinating? My experiences with moving camera angles during gameplay or cutscenes in games has always been that it'll reveal that pieces despawn, that faces go still and blank, that characters a pose and only that which you need to see in normal gameplay is truly there; because of course, this no doubt saves work and time and frees up resources. But seeing scenes from different angles, seeing expressions you can't normally see, constructing your own shots of the same thing playing out yet from a different view... it's a fascinating concept isn't it? It's no surprise this occurs in a game made under the watch of the man also behind the Silent Hills playable teaser, where the ghost is constantly right behind you despite it being impossible to see her unless you mess with the game enough to allow you to move the camera and look. But isn't it just the most intriguing thing, to wonder how much is going on when you aren't looking, to wonder what's just out of sight; I've never played a game that's made me feel that before, not in this way. It truly does feel like the world of MGS5 lives and breathes, and this is absolutely deliberately cultivated and created by those who worked on this game- you can see that in so many other points, such as the animations of minute micro-expressions and muscle flexes in faces. However nothing amongst all the high praise i have of this game can stand as high as my absolute wonder as to why hidden little expressions and different views from different camera angles can exist. Did the development of this game take into account people would go looking? Or was it simply a matter of construction, of building scenes to play out and then direct the camera within them, letting the scene dictate the shot, not the other way around.

I feel like this game never stops surprising me, never stops feeling like there's more beyond what I've seen; that someday some more big secrets will be found within it, or somehow when i return to it someday there's just going to be....more. It's very very dear to my heart.

[tiredassmage]

semi-coherent 7.2 thoughts roundup/screenshot dump/’fuck this was fun, look at my boy!!!!!’ (short of the dailies because I had to dart off to work, so that’s a later in the week event for me) below the cut (and in a wacky order because ????? lmao what’s chronology fuck it we ball (in what order can i find my screenshots)

(I love reading everyone’s reviews, it feels like comparing notes xD)

honest to goodness think there’s some real competition for most satisfying kill option here. i deadass almost thought they weren’t going to give me the utter pleasure and i was going to be SO pissed, tyr was NOT takin’ more shit. my friend could confirm i was ready to jump this option the second it popped up, lmao.

genuinely some of my favorite cutscene action in a hot minute. not just because i got to watch my favorite bestest boy kick ass, take names, and maybe get his ass kicked a bit in return along the way (yeah, I’m predictable, sue me), but because it was genuinely some fuckin cinematics. showdown on ruhnuk for sure! genuinely impressed with the amount of action condensed into this patch’s cutscenes.

the atmosphere of the arena. hundreds, maybe thousands of mandalorians preparing to watch shae and heta duke it out. watching shae with bated breath. someone mentioned prequels-level epicness in their post and i wholeheartedly agree. this felt like watching an epic star wars showdown unfold, complete with heroic star wars action music, lol.

felt incredibly indulgently good to go scouting with shae. assess, infiltrate, eliminate, damn it’s almost like we’re back in intelligence for a change (tyr relishes it almost as much as shae relishes the hunt).

i’m also incredibly interested in their borderline opposition over objectives.

just when he’s maybe getting somewhere in de-escalating the situation, shae gets impatient and they both lose whatever they were hoping to gain. shae gets snappy, tyr understandably doesn’t quite appreciate it, but they move on. he respects her authority on dealing with heta, but he isn’t excited about losing leads on the bigger picture issue - especially on one that’s probably cost him a few good nights of sleep like malgus, lmao.

sir ur eyes are very pretty nd i love u anyway

i was incredibly interested in the amount of path decisions to be made along the way. heta mentions a round-up of your methods which i was all for.

dot.exe has encountered an error. tyr, thankfully, doesn’t share my “issue” for powerful women xD. he’s happily married, thank you.

overall? i honestly feel SO FED. very seen, lmao. this was a LOT of fun to play through. glad to see everything sort of tying together by sa’har and ri’kan being here, makes its introduction feel a bit less jarring. i’m here for the ~vibes of something bigger playing out for these characters, pushing them together, putting them in opposition. no new big reveals about the whys or the hows, perhaps, but i feel like the insights into these other characters was worth it. and, again, the absolute cinematics of it all was REALLY damn good. ruhnuk looks beautiful, there was a lot more to it than i had been expecting, i am so far a big fan of the ui changes and map update that was VERY nice.

runs back to the front of the line my other characters, i’ll be looking forward to going through this ride all over again, lol.

and also maybe i just missed my boy a lot. i will always be happy to have a reason to see my boy. xD

this was also fucking golden i fucking love this as a running thing i fucking LOVE that rass was SO DAMN EXCITED and also that the shuttle crashes are a running gag and tyr and shae were both equally (un)amused i literally just. i loved this. this was great for me, lol.

glad to not have another patch of endless alliance meetings summarizing information, basically, too. i can’t entirely blame shae for wanting away from all the mandalore clan running, can i? xD

also shoutout to the very real fear i felt for a good five minutes that they’d given us torian and akavvi back only for me to IMMEDIATELY fuck that up with comm silence don’t FUCK WITH ME LIKE THAT that’s my BOY (it was, in fact, fine in the end, but HOOOO). i don’t trust them to not let me pull something like that, okay, that seemed completely possible at the time. but they didn’t. so it’s okay.

[less-than-three-3]

fallen order lives rent free in my head

It's been like 3 weeks since I finished star wars jedi fallen order and it continues to live in my thoughts randomly so I just want to mind dump all of it here. tldr if you have not played the game you absolutely should!! one of my favorites of all time, it's fairly rare for a game to invade my thoughts and make me wish I could re-experience it all again for the first time (ok triangle strategy I also felt that way but I've just been playing more bangers recently) I'll get the spoiler-free stuff out of the way- it very much entirely feels like you are playing a star wars movie. And yeah "it really makes you feel like [thing]" is perhaps the most cliche thing to say about any video game but respawn really put their heart and soul into the presentation of this game because there is SO MUCH that's cinematic, and not in the way that the cliche mid-2010's AAA games just felt like you were watching a movie and pressing a couple buttons. The environments are super star wars (though the first major planet is kind of Just Ok in that regard), and the cinematic details of the cutscenes and ziplining and everything just feel awesome. The music goes without saying is super good, you could say it's derivative of John Williams but like, that's *entirely the point* and they do it super well. The characters feel extremely human in line delivery and animation, which is a thing that apparently we are still struggling with in current day. The only thing it's missing is the title scroll lmao Combat is very fluid once you get a hang of it, and even though you technically only have access to a few force abilities (being a goody two shoes jedi) throughout the whole game they add a lot to how you can approach enemies. It does feel sort of diet soulsborne, but that's entirely excused by the fact that you are a using a FUCKING LIGHTSABER it's so cool lol. And there's wallrunning and some parkour stuff that respawn excels at. If you are vaguely interested in souls games and/or metroidvanias I 100% recommend it, playing on the 2nd highest difficulty it was the right difficulty for me (on par with like hollow knight difficulty), but grandmaster sounds like the true souls bullshit experience if you really want that. ~~~~~~~~~Spoilers start here~~~~~~~~~~ I've gushed for a bit so I'll start here with the criticisms I had. Ultimately they all kind of boil down to "I wish the game was longer" and for a 20 hour (non-jrpg) game even that's kind of praise lol. But I did wish there was more of a final act twist or just something besides what you probably could have guessed would happen from the very start. That being "you find all 3 tombs and you get the holocron and the Second Sister steals it and you have a final confrontation with her and take back the holocron and end credits". That said there is a lot of character development for both Cal and Cere and a lot of lore building so I still found the story overall incredibly enthralling but I just wish there was *more* overarching y'know. You don't spend that much time with dual wield lightsabers and your own kyber crystal before you realize you're pretty much at the finale. And with only like 4 planets I just wished there were more places to go so there could be a lot more enemy types and boss varieties etc. And also I kind of wish the Nightsister did something more like idk fight alongside or teach Cal some combat techniques or something (but I assume that will probably be a thing in Jedi Survivor) but since she gets pretty much added to the crew at the end of the penultimate chapter she couldn't be particularly impactful besides saving Cal in the finale. Ultimately I think that's more an issue of "this is a prequel game to the main movie trilogy" than an issue with the game itself, by which I mean you know Cal can't entirely save the Jedi Order and defeat Darth Vader and Palpatine because that's what Luke Skywalker has to do. So when Darth Vader shows up and that awesome finale sequence happens there's a little bittersweetness because you know you aren't gonna *fight* him (or it'll be a scripted loss/he gets away due to some bullshit). It's the sort of phenomenon that I always talk about when people say like "man I wish Age of Calamity was a REAL prequel to BotW" like it functionally is for most of it except now you don't *actually* know the ending so there are actual stakes. Is it "less dark"? Sure, I guess, but I feel like going the entire story knowing the champions are all going to die would put a damper on the amazing character development and interactions throughout the game knowing none of it really matters because they're all gonna die and you know how they're gonna die from BotW. And just a nitpick is I wish the dual wield lightsabers were like a thing you could wield as a main weapon and not just a combo finisher lol but that's just me I fucking love dual wield it's always so sick!! But the combat is already super smooth, transitioning between single and dual blade lightsaber is very satisfying and weaving in force abilities and dodging it's already super fucking good, it could just be much sicker if you could just dual blade some fools. Going back to the story and characters, I just love pretty much the entire cast from beginning to end, allies and enemies. I could go through all of them one by one but like it's way too much to talk about I'd just recap the entire game lmao. Particular highlights are of course Cal's growth and tackling his trauma from Order 66 (an INCREDIBLE sequence built off of the "tutorial segments") and how it mirrors Cere's similar journey as they converge and work together in the finale, Second Sister and Merrin being badasses just in general, and the intro. Oh and of course BD-1. Just in general. BD-1 is a friend :) Map/dungeon design is also a highlight, there are a surprising amount of pretty interesting puzzles that I'd be shocked if they weren't directly inspired by Zelda dungeons. They're the puzzles that seem like the overall answer is fairly obvious but you just have to sit and think, run around, scratch your head as you figure out HOW to put together the answer. Yes, Fallen Order is one of my favorite Zelda games. (Alternatively, the Zelda team needs to make Zelda into a dedicated metroidvania it would bang!!!) I do wish there was better quick travel (or am I just spoiled by hollow knight benchwarp mod?) to better encourage exploring but I found that it generally wasn't really a huge issue; Dathomir is kind of a pain to get around but I never really hated backtracking for secrets, just wished I could benchwarp lol Moment to moment I loved the game and characters and music and cinematic presentation and I'm really hoping Jedi Survivor can push these pros even further and add even more cool combat options and add a little more QoL and be a like 100 hour game that would be cool. Just please don't pretend to be another game and instead build on Fallen Order's unique flavor in the sequel (looking at you Ori 2)(August 2022)

[ask-a-w]

Watched Part 7 of Nick Apostolides’ RE4R playthrough, this is the last one. Again, penning down stuff that caught my attention.

Parts 1 & 2

Parts 3 & 4

Parts 5 & 6

Guests: Genevieve (Ashley’s VA) & Craig (Wesker’s VA)

Part 7:

- When asked what each character would dress up as for Halloween, Craig responded Wesker would go as himself and Ashley will go as a mouse. (Nick was too busy killing the island goons to answer)

- During the pandemic, Craig tripped on the floor and created a giant hole in his apartment wall. He posted the pic on Reddit and it somehow made it onto a BuzzFeed list.

- Gen was recounting how she once tripped over nothing in a parking lot and completely shredded the skin from both palms. She had to film a pilot the next day (that never got picked up by a network) and she had to hide her hands behind her back or in her pockets while filming.

- Nick knows how Gen felt as he also shredded the skin from both his hands when he was tossed over the handle bars of his bicycle. It took a long time to heal.

- If you find the name “Garret Saddler” in game, Nick asked Capcom if they could work his cousin’s name into the game and this was the result. He introduced his cousin to the OG RE2 in 1998 and both played RE3 together one year later. His cousin has been a fan ever since.

- Gen jokingly said the altar scene was an easy day for her and Nick said he almost dropped her a couple of times. They had fun filming it with Christopher (Saddler’s VA).

- Nick had to do “many many many” takes of the altar scene where Leon was frozen in place but trembling. He was “sweating his ass off” and it’s very hard to do when you have to tense every muscle in your body.

- They had to do a few takes of Leon carrying Ashley & escaping Saddler as they wanted to capture the “right amount of pain & injury”. Nick tripped over his feet for one of the takes and almost toppled onto Gen, she was nearly thrown to the floor. Craig was surprised a dummy wasn’t used.

- Whenever Nick puts Gen down, they would have a lot of Velcro stuck to each other.

- Quite sure Nick is joking when he said he had to carry Gen 3 miles down the street as the crew recorded him from behind for the part Leon is stumbling to Luis’ lab.

- They keep joking Marcio (Salazar’s VA) mocapped inanimate objects like the helicopter, the plaga laser, the floor, etc. If you don’t know, Marcio also mocapped a lot of enemies like Verdugo, one of the Bella sisters, Dr Salvador, ganado, etc.

- All cinematics are filmed in person with all the actors involved in that scene.

- The part where Leon cures Ashley was the very first scene Nick & Gen filmed together. Gen was in disbelief when she read the schedule and saw this scene was on it. It was a very tough one to film.

- The chair that was built for Gen to sit in for the plaga cure scene was very uncomfortable.

- Audio in the cutscenes are directly taken from mocap. Performance capture, motion capture, and dialogue are all recorded at the same time for cutscenes. There is a microphone in the middle of their foreheads in the helmet they wear.

- Voice recordings are also done with the helmet mic, not the mic you see in a voice recording booth.

- While people say Ashley would be unable to lift Leon when he’s unconscious, Gen says Ashley is beefy and “look at those shoulders”. Even Nick comments that Ashley seems very proud of herself when she smiles that she did help to cure Leon.

- Craig is jealous that he never got to try Nick’s barbecues as he usually flew out of Vancouver whenever he got done filming.

- Gen’s least favourite Ashley line is “Hey look, the flag has been lowered.” She recorded different variations of that as Capcom did not decide if it’ll be a flag or something else in the castle maze. She was surprised the flag version was used.

- Gen was there for the recording of the final Saddler confrontation. She was wrapped up in a blanket and seated on a couch. It’s cold in the studio.

- Gen is intending to cosplay as Ashley. She’s waiting for the wig to be delivered.

- Nick keeps calling Saddler’s mouth eyeball a grapefruit and it’s amusing as he keeps saying “Show me the grapefruit” during the Saddler fight.

- Craig wouldn’t mind cosplaying as Wesker but he would need to get a new suit.

- Nick’s favourite line in the game is “I’ll give you a holy body!”

- Lily did the mocap in heels.

- If Nick did cosplay RE4R Leon, it would be Leon in the tactical vest.

- Nick & Gen sat on wooden blocks to mocap the jetski scene. Gen has never ridden a jetski but Nick has and was launched 15 feet when he & his cousin hit a wave. He lost his favourite hat in the ocean.

- Craig always found it amusing how Wesker says “I do not pay you to ask questions” and Craig interjects with “But I will explain it” in Wesker’s voice.

- Lily is juggling multiple projects and Christopher is in another country so it’s hard to match schedules to get them on stream. Nick does want to get them on stream for future runs though.

- Nick is surprised by the amount of people who voiced the ganados.

[drpretentious]

Part 2: Video Games as a medium for storytelling vs Film, TV and other Mediums

With video games becoming much more cinematic in recent years along with the massive rise in popularity of more niche genres like RPGs, open-world etc. They have in many ways become a more effective medium of storytelling and narrative then more traditional mediums like film and TV. The most obvious point in their favor is through their very nature as an interactive medium. No matter what kind of game you are playing you as a player are actively participating in whatever narrative the game has to offer, rather than just passively watching as an outside observer. This is also bolstered by the length of a game compared to films as most films are limited to about 1.5-2 hours while a lot of video games are about 6-15 hours in length. Even then your playtime can vary depending on how much side content the game includes and how much of it you choose to engage with it. This allows a lot of games more time to develop each of its characters through cutscenes and sometimes dedicated side content.

An excellent example of this is CD Project Red's Cyberpunk 2077 released in 2020. While the game wasn't exactly in the most stable state when it first released, it still gave us a cast of characters many people grew emotionally attached to as most of them had various dedicated side missions that tied directly into their character development. Let's look at Panam Palmer as an example. She's a nomad who's had a falling out with her clan due to fundamental disagreements with the clan's leader, Saul, over how the clan should be run. She's hot-headed and stubborn but also quite compassionate and caring when it comes to her family. If the player chooses to participate in her side content they can help her reconnect with her clan and in doing so become a part of the family themselves