#because you're so desperate to make sure your players never know literally anything about whatever might happen to them ever

[blujayonthewing]

reflecting on how all of my other DMs have gone above and beyond to lovingly weave my and my friends' backstory elements into the larger worldbuilding of the campaign by contrast to all of the ways Elyss' DM has gone out of his way to suppress or excise any influences her family may have ever had on anything and I'm genuinely near tears over it

[silver-wield]

Based from your former posts like super random old ones I guess you have watched shounen genre harems like code Geass. When you're aware of the tropes it's easy to shrug off what happened in between to just fan service or not. I guess I'm just bringing up people being adamant about cloud's reaction to aerith's dress. At least the favorable ones. I know of the real meaning of it, that he's confused, I watched Yamazaki about it and even he was surprised at the final production. I trust his reaction because it seems to me he didn't get "act all mesmerized to her dress" as a stage direction. But rather act confused would be more accurate. But that's not where I'm getting at. I'm getting at the parts in shounen harem or not harem really, where lets say the third party can go and kiss you and all that. Mc's going to blush, panic, or any reaction. This is technically romantic in the atmosphere. But does that mean it properly does that effect? Is he in love? Are these third party really doing anything? No. I could literally just compile kissing scenes from the third parties or any other reaction and then place in the part where the Mc straight on rejects the same girl like nothing happened. Like he never blushed, nothing, its cold. And so when I see defenders on reddit , twitter , or I don't know anymore saying that's supposed to be romantic! Any scene with her really. I just think of this phenomenon in Japanese media for boys and just smh that sure go ahead have deep thoughts on a fan service but it doesn't really mean anything. You could look at most mc in shounen for example ikki from air gear, he'd be putting himself out there in compromising positions with girls and they get a reaction out of him. Does that mean he has feelings/attracted to them? Nah, unless it's explicitly being showed , sayed, developed , wtvr actually substantial like it's supposed to be convincing okay? And not like your counting what is possibly counted / passably romantic because that's desperation (pssh like with aerith scenes). Just to push it out there as well, anybody thinking ff7 is inspired from shoujo tropes don't get FF is a male demographic game. If they do then they're probably doing that for a reason (perhaps to send of the illusion/ confusion part? Wink wink). One day you'll be seeing me out there putting out collage of the stuff I just mentioned and make people get it. Uncultured swines lmfao.

I've watched it a bit 🤣

Yeah, that whole red dress thing is one giant bit of fanservice. It's an optional result from the player's efforts. If it was canon you'd get the red dress no matter what you did, and there'd be links to it once the scene is over. Instead Cloud has the same line about Johnny and never pays any attention to Aerith no matter what she looks like. You'd think he'd be more attentive to her if he suddenly fell in love or whatever, but he's more focused on saving Tifa, and so is Aerith.

Aerith is dressed to impress Corneo. That's literally what the dress is for.

Cloud is literally confused and doesn't recognise Aerith in the red dress scene.

It's no different to when she offered a date. He just doesn't get it. Every time she tries to throw herself at him in any capacity he just doesn't understand what she's after.

And again in her resolution, he's confused. That's his emotional state around her. He doesn't understand what she's on about or why she says and does things towards him. And it's not him being oblivious about women. He's not a moron. He gets that Jessie is throwing herself at him and calls her desperate, so he's not some snow white pure innocent lamb. He understands he's attractive and women like him, he's just not interested in anyone but Tifa, and remains oblivious of her feelings because like him, she's buried them super deep in case it ruins their friendship. And he's under alien control but that's a whole other thing 🤣

And yeah, Yamazaki also confirmed Cloud was confused during the scene and in pretty much every other scene that Cloud appears with Aerith. He also scolded Cloud for being mean in scenes with Aerith. He said they're like siblings and Aerith annoys Cloud on purpose like a sister does to a brother.

If the mocap and the vas and the devs and everybody involved is telling you something then people should just shut up and accept it as a fact 🤷

[crystalelemental]

My wife is, I think, through the DLC stuff. Which means we know the story.

I do not vibe with this DLC.

I mentioned the issue of pivoting into "Ogerpon did nothing wrong, and the Loyal Three are horrible bastards because Poison type." I'm tired of Poison so often being the bad type, and Ogerpon, while cute, is kinda lacking in interest as a result. Like it's story doesn't really vibe. I get they're going for the whole "falsely accused of stuff and now people hate you for it" thing, but like. Team Star. We did that one already. Find something else to talk about.

It gets extra frustrating because they have full working knowledge of what really happened, and the only reason it's never once talked about is "but they won't believe you." Which is like. Look at the time, I'm sure there's some significance to not being that guy. But we're like thousands of years later or whatever, and there's not really any significant social repercussion anymore. No one thought to bring this up? Especially given how easily Carmine, who was invested in the Loyal Three, pivots to believing the story. There's like zero resistance.

But the worst is Kieran. Pokemon is no stranger to the destruction of dreams, but this is the worst one. Kieran's investment in the ogre is fairly cute, and the focus on being an outcast and how that ogre must feel connects him much more strongly to it. So you'd think hey, this kid is the obvious connection, but by now we know better. The player character has to get it. Like, by structure. They won't let us not get it. Which is fine, happens all the time. We had to get Ho-oh instead of Morty, because we were recognized or whatever. We had to take Solgaleo/Lunala because...Lillie's going off to do something else now I guess. Usually, if they don't pivot into "this is fine and we're happy for you," they opt for "there are two of them" and the person after it gets the other. With Kieran, he desperately wants to catch Ogerpon, and gets his absolute shit rocked and has to watch you catch it instead. You, who...really doesn't have any emotional connection to this thing. Who just kinda showed up and had a chance encounter that kicked off events. I'm sure it'll make a cute Masters story in like two years or so, but I wouldn't really want that either, because I...don't like Kieran.

Okay, look, I'm sorry, but we literally did this one already. It's the same vibe as Team Star. I'm supposed to feel sad about this kid feeling like an outcast, and I just...don't. Yes, I know that's hard. Shit sucks. You're not exactly doing yourself favors by getting pissy toward me over not telling you the true ogre story that you overheard your grandfather tell us not to share. "But you lied to me!" Yeah, and you know damn well why we did. I get that you're like ten and therefore stupid as hell, but just because you like the ogre a lot doesn't mean you get special privilege where the rules we were told don't apply to you.

I dunno, it's just kinda irritating to me? I didn't really vibe with the whole story this time. It feels more like treading old ground after Team Star, and missed me in the same way. Ogerpon's cute but I'm kinda bummed the other three are just evil Poison again. Carmine's alright. I have few complaints about her. Though I could stand to see more of Briar. I'm interested in what her deal is, but she's largely irrelevant here. Oh, and the Ogre Oustin' minigame seems terrible. So that's great.

I dunno, ScarVi DLC! You're really not doing anything for me. Still.