#bc i cannot control myself

[merely-a-player]

there is a list in the notesapp now of itty bitty rotpl fics to write so now i can start working on that god BLESS

[hinamie]

sry i have chronic only draws megumi disorder the doctor said it's terminal :/

[zappedbyzabka]

[nellasbookplanet]

I just finished my playthrough of me2, and as I put off the overlord and arrival dlcs until the end of it my thoughts on them are very fresh and Must be aired.

The frustrating thing is, they didn’t have to suck. The gameplay, like the shadowbroker dlc, is fun and stands out from the rest of the game! The story and themes of 'how far will you go in sacrificing individual lives in the name of winning a war/stopping extinction' fits well with the overall narrative and emphasis on hard choices! I mostly enjoy them! Only, overlord is completely undone by gross ableism, and arrival doesn’t actually let you engage with the choice it sets up; it fully forces your hand, and then makes the whole thing feel pointless by just having the reapers show up for a surprise attack in the next game anyway. It’s a trolley problem that doesn’t actually let you control the lever and then derails the entire train to hit both tracks no matter what you do.

So, how do you fix arrival? Personally, I would probably keep in the loss of the batarian colony as inevitable, but change the focus. As it is, barely a moment is spared to let it sink in that you're about to end 300 000 lives, and the only 'choice' you get is whether you attempt to (futilely) warn them in a blink and you'll miss it scene. I would've at a minimum added dialogue options where Shepard/the player could’ve expressed anger at how this work could’ve gone on for as long as it did without a warning being sent long before. For a bigger change, that could’ve led into a major conflict: a paragon Shepard trying to warn the colony, while her opponents argue that doing so would jeopordize the project/the hidden base and tries to stop her as part of the final fight of the dlc. If you choose to warn and do it in time, perhaps some small amount of people make it out, with the majority of the colony still being destroyed to keep the tone of sacrifice. If you want to keep it real dark, everyone dies no matter how hard you try to save them, but you should at least have been given the option to seriously try even if it’s hopeless.

But there isn’t really a workaround for how part of the problem with arrival is a problem with the batarians: had the colony been human, turian, or asari, most players would likely have been more upset because those are our allies. The batarians, however, are a one-note species never portrayed as anything other than slavers, criminals, and terrorists. While other species are allowed horrific acts while still being portrayed as complex people capable of both good and bad (need I remind you of the first contact war, the krogan rebellion, the genophage, the quarian's attempted genocide of the geth, the geth's war against biological life, and so on), the player is given little to no reason to sympathize with batarians. Had they been made to feel like actual people while still our enemies from the start of the game, arrival would've felt more like the gut punch of sacrifice it was and less like it was off-handedly writing off a people everyone hates, anyway. There could’ve been a discussion of 'are you more willing to sacrifice those you don’t know/don’t like and what does it say about you; is this a sacrifice or is it selfish revenge with the greater good as cover (a discussion especially brought up if you take the renegade choice)' but instead it feels almost vindictive.

[venstm]

I need to do a big think about alhaitham but some things to know are. he’s quite resolute in making eye contact with people in order to gauge how much they’re paying attention to what he’s saying versus finding eye contact uncomfortable however this is when he initiates it. he doesn’t have a lot of tonal control, his voice tends to not fluctuate very often and thus it can be difficult to discern when he’s being sincere and when he’s being a bastard. he has an aversion to loud, crowded places and prefers one on one conversation versus conversing with a large group. he also prefers emotive people which may be surprised considering in the same breath he can find them exhausting but it’s also easier to read them.

[thedarklyblue]

what if i just started t

[conjectureand-gloom]

here is your gentle reminder that you are not your thoughts

[angelstrawbabie420]

im so fucked LMFAO ive really done it

[goodpointsandbadpoints]

everything is really wrecked by people not knowing themselves, and not respecting each other, and not being able to communicate (reciprocally).

need to inject the definition of intimacy into peoples' brains. how do we do this.

[icewindandboringhorror]

Everytime I face a new character limit on a website that didn't have them before/used to have really long ones... AUGHHhhh the modern social media world was not made for people like me (lovers of details, rambling, elaboration, thorough explanation, and nuance)

[musingmycelium]

. noncoherent but also thoughts

[beautifel]

i. hate that i cant ignore any longer how fucked up i am

[agayconcept]

.

[pollenallergie]

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hi, yes, everything about this. i fucking hate the tiktokification and twitterification of mental health terminology and this precisely fucking why!! because it’s so goddamn dangerous and it’s setting us back literal decades!!!

[piplupod]

getting real tired of connecting two pieces together and realizing once again my inability to function in some part of life is due to The Abuse. head in my hands.

[elfanonymous]

guys i think i am lucky dsmp was a minecraft smp that couldnt have mass produced merchandise bc if they sold dsmp stuff at regular stores i think that i would have a dsmp themed bedroom at this point