#but yeah this is based off my playthrough and just what I saw

[atlasira]

I LOVE how obvious it is Dorius wants you to find him in Chapter 5. His actions contradict everything he says.

I don’t think he’s made up his mind whether he’ll truly try to force Bright to stay or let her go. He has no idea what to do. He’s panicking to extreme levels, and this is felt in how chaotic his words and actions come off.

You can show him the sigils Raze revealed to you. At the time, Dorius tells you to never use them. Regardless, he knows you know them. And after allying with Ari, he knows you know a witch who can activate portals. He knows these things. You can also choose to not conceal the amulet, so he can see everything you’re doing. He can see when you enter in the sigils and activate the portal to his lair.

And yet he does nothing when you get there. Not only that, but Bright’s heart is restored immediately upon arrival. He claims it was a mistake.

He says he didn’t expect Bright to seek him out, but he never took any precautions to ensure it. He didn’t have to tell us when he stole Bright’s heart. He could’ve killed Ari then and there, and instantly teleported Bright to his lair to keep her there forever. She’d have no way to escape. He did neither of these things, instead exposing his actions and leaving Ari and Bright free and unscathed.

The door to Raze’s prison room was unlocked and easily opened. Dorius says he did not want you to see the child, but again he took no precautions to make sure that didn’t happen. No wards, no magic, no anything. He simply stands in the room, at the scene of the crime ready to confess.

Afterwards, he kidnaps Ari and flees. It feels like an emergency, but no matter how long you take to get there, you’re still able to find them at the end of that hall, waiting. Not only that, but this is Dorius’ domain. He had to have known that room was a dead end. He knew there would be nowhere to go. He claims it was unintentional, and yet he stood there waiting for you.

Dorius is unhinged at this point of the story. Ari was right in that once he got Bright’s heart, he had no need to lie anymore. But I don’t think he actually wanted to control Bright, not like Rivera and Brash. No, he wanted her loyalty. Due to his past, his believes the two to be synonymous, but they are not and a small part of him is aware of that. This is reflected in how contradictory he behaves.

What I’m trying to say is: I believe Dorius subconsciously wanted a confrontation with Bright. He wanted to be chased after, exposed, questioned, and fought. He claims to already know Bright either hates him or will hate him, but I don’t think he genuinely knows whether either are true. And so he is desperate for a confrontation to see what she’ll do. Who, in the end, she will choose. Him or Raze.

Because there is also no way Bright could’ve truly won that fight against him. Not only did she need to use her speed which she was still an amateur at, but they were in his lair!! He has not only the home field advantage, but also the upper hand in experience and power. There is zero way Bright could’ve actually won against him, except if he allowed her to.

And once she has him on the ground, it’s even described that he concedes, waiting and watching to see what the conclusion of their relationship will come to.

This entire series of events is a clash of selfishness and selflessness.

It is selfless because, subconsciously, Dorius wants Bright to know the truth. He wants to be seen for who he is and what he’s done. He loses his mind terrified of what will happen when she finds out, but he allows her to see it all anyway.

It is selfish because, despite the horror of his actions, he wants her to choose him anyway. He wants Raze’s promised life and he wants Bright. He displays Orchid’s gifts, that she left for the real Raze, on a precious alter. After everything is said and done, he chooses to still claim Raze’s name for his own.

He wants to be Raze and he wants everything that was promised to Raze, but at the same time he wants to know if “Dorius” is worthy of being Raze. This why he allows Bright to learn the truth, but still puts back on the mask if you do end up choosing him.

Because they both know he is not Raze, but Bright, who he has chosen to be his judge, jury, and executioner, has found him worthy of Raze’s life, so it’s fine. Everything that’s happened up to this point is fine. His own mother’s death, his experimentation as a child, murdering Orchid, the screams of the young boy in his living room. It’s all fine because he’s Raze and that’s all that matters.

[purplekoop]

So I still don't have much to say about Hero 42 yet, but there is one, single detail I wanna mention, and that's based on the hero select screen.

Now, if you somehow hadn't noticed by now, Overwatch generally sorts heroes alphabetically whenever needed. Note the Damage role starting with Ashe, Bastion, and Cassidy, then going down alphabetical order from there.

The two codenamed heroes, Venture and Space Ranger, also fit this sorting scheme. Venture is between Tracer and Widowmaker, and Space Ranger is between Moira and Zenyatta. We know that Space Ranger is just a temporary name used by developers, so don't expect her to stay there unless her final hero name still happens to fall between M and Z on the alphabet.

Applying this logic to Hero 42 though, we see them between Sigma and Winston. That make the range of first letters include S, T, U, V, and W. Now, this won't give us their final name either, but could give a hint to their codename, and thus some major part of their character. Some ideas include "Toxin" (noting their color scheme and resemblance to some old unused hero concept art), "Turtle" (hey I still stand by them basically being radioactive Bowser), or maybe even something as simple as "Spike".

Also here's the best image I could find of this being. Saw someone also compare this design to an edgy version of the pokemon Chesnaught, which is funny considering that's what I'm using in my current playthrough of Pokemon X. Either way this is definitely my "big spiky shell dudes" era.

Maybe it's not surprising that this is the hero that captivated my attention so much out of the three early teasers, considering I am a Tank main and also just love this hero's design already from this little cartoony icon. My personal hope is that they are some sort of gnarly creature, since I feel like in a game with big cool robots and hyperintelligent moon animals, the lack of some kind of mutant monster dude has... I don't wanna say bothered me, but feels like a missed opportunity. Have this guy be some Oasis experiment gone rogue that's now going wild across the world or something. I don't wanna say outright to make them another Talon-aligned tank, since now we're swimming with those. I'm similarly not super keen on them being another Junker considering how many of those are also in that role, though it'd be an easy way to explain the "mutant" theory of mine. Consider that, if we count Ramattra as Talon-aligned, every single Tank added since OW1's initial release has either been part of Talon or a Junker, with the sole exception of Orisa. I won't deny they definitely fit the look of a Junker though, and there's definitely more to that style to explore, I just want a messed up bowser guy. or gal! we don't know yet! could even be another NB character! Diversity win: this giant mutant spike monster uses they/them pronouns too!

Anyways yeah this has been an exhausting weekend in the best possible way for being an Overwatch fan, so I'm gonna hold off on more posts unless someone asks for my thoughts on anything in particular. If you want a better recap of everything discussed at Blizzcon, I highly recommend the recent video on Master Ian Gamer's youtube channel, it's like 17 minutes long and covers almost everything of note for Overwatch 2's future from today's panel and from the opening ceremony.

I'm gonna go play more Minecraft now I think

[mirror-to-the-past]

Finished KH3 and Re:Mind- holy shitballs.

So *much* was happening throughout that climax, and so little of it was cohesive, and Re:Mind made it so a double narrative was taking place simultaneously alongside the base KH3 climax so yeah, it's going to be hard to discuss everything I probably would've wanted to while playing throughout those fateful final hours. I'm definitely going to accidentally skim over some details or questions I have, purely as a consequence of my head whirling.

The two biggest criminals here impacting my understanding of the plot are one- the aforementioned double narrative and two- the obfuscating nature of Sora's POV (like, the one that comes to the forefront of my mind at the moment was when he came out of the light tunnel with Kairi after resurrecting everyone via Power of Waking and looked off somewhere and appeared confused/surprised). Re:Mind explained what was going on in some suspicious moments where Sora looked like... haha I don't know how else to describe it except by saying he looked like he was dissociating? But yeah, that post light tunnel moment was not one of those so. 👀 Literally have no inkling what they might have been going with there- just a feeling of significance I can't shake. I got that a lot throughout the end of this playthrough. Pain.

The time travel in this game was one of the most bonkers usage of time travel I've seen in media, and I salute the writers for sticking to it and making their plot happen. I think my brain would've fried halfway through and I'd have cried at the keyboard. I am but a mortal stuck on a linear scale. This falls somewhat beyond me. I'll try my best to make heads or tails of it, though.

While the execution felt somewhat... sudden/rushed, I appreciated the follow-up on Sora's crumbling self esteem. 10/10 mini breakdown, you motivated Riku to such a degree that he got you spirited to the Final World- good job, lad. I know Naminé said that Kairi was the one keeping Sora tied to the Final World, but I had to wrap my mind around that statement, assuming its validity, because it felt a bit out of left field for me. I only mention this because after everything I saw (Riku's sacrifice shown twice, a good number of the star people who had very similar sounding sentiments to Riku [lemme tell you some of those stars were very telling], and I thought I was bullshiting on this one at first, but after rewatching the Final World's title card animation thingy, it ALSO looks a lot like a reflection of the composition of the Riku death scene), I felt a bit surprised that it was not said to have been Riku's contribution that kept Sora chained to the Final World- it would definitely have made sense given the context. However, Kairi's love and hope for Sora is definitely not to be dismissed, alongside Riku's love and belief in him, so upon thinking on it more, I see it as a "Riku saved and tethered Sora's heart to the Final World and Kairi helped Sora retain his form" kind of thing. And if you think about the presence of each character in Sora's life, their contributions under that lense would make sense:

Kairi is a symbol of home and memory, maintenance of stability. She would be the one to hold onto her memory of Sora- strong enough that he would maintain some level of physicality and semblance of mortal self, even in near death. Similarly to what Joshua said in DDD: "By ourselves, we're no one. It's when other people look at us and see someone- that's the moment we each start to exist. All they needed was someone to see them, connect with them." <- That fits pretty well with the situation.

Riku focuses more on new beginnings, and the casting away of things deemed as 'unnecessary' (body, home, companionship... debatablely happiness) for the sake of pursuing desires. It would match up with his history of possession and development where he learns relinquishing of control. Without Kairi's contribution, Sora would likely have just manifested as another faceless star person, as retaining Sora's heart would've been Riku's priority in that moment, regardless of what form he would take. (From moments before Riku's sacrifice- "We haven't lost them. They still have their hearts. But we have to protect them." Tie that into Riku's "Protect the things that matter" thing, and boom.)

So uh... go team! Sora may be determined to get himself killed, but with their powers combi- oh... (Looks at the ending)

Also I made sure the 111th Sora I grabbed was doing a funny little jig. I'm proud of me.

Here's a speculative blurb from a previous attempt at a KH3 climax post from earlier that ended up getting scrapped:

"Because of what Young Xehanort said (EN: the "It's already too late for you" line), now I'm wondering if Sora's being baited into an illusion where his friends are safe, because he couldn't handle a world where that wasn't the case, paralleling DDD ending. That, or Sora's just doomed himself by going to the Final World, using the power of waking a bunch and attempting to carry on, business as usual."

While I'm glad that it didn't turn out as bleak as the initial speculation, I do still wonder post ending if, given Xehanort's level of anticipation of his opponents' moves on a metaphysical level, he took advantage of Sora's insistence on breaking reality for his loved ones as a way to bait him and shove him out of the way forever, or if sending him to where it looks like Sora ended up was somehow more advantageous for his ambitions in the long run. And let it be known I predicted my boy was going to sorta-die due to his everything-ex-machina. I cracked jokes about it to cope throughout the entire finale.

Examples:

"Boy Riku, the air that I'm breathing in the Keyblade Graveyard sure is stuffy, but I feel immensely grateful for it for some reason. *coughs forebodingly*"

"Y'know Kairi, I think I'm down to reminisce with you for once. I just feel like I should really look at where life's taken me so far. Oh, no particular reason. Lovely weather today."

On a less upsetting note-

ROXASSS

XIONNN

YYEAHHHH BABEYY 😎😎😎

Literally lost my MIND when Roxas showed up. The hype I felt was immeasurable, and my day was made. The "Other Promise" rendition during the fight was sick, and Re:Mind did the Org. trio even more justice with their attacks. When Xion started crying post fight I was just like... same, babygirl. It was just a lot, and I'm so happy Roxas was yoinked back into existence.

Still extremely intrigued about all of the unknowns in the Org. XIII lore. You can't just take away all the cool guys again and not tell me anything new about them (Marluxia, Larxene, Demyx, Luxord). Especially after Xemnas previously made a big deal literally about how mysterious they all were. Dick. >:0

Very curious about when and how Luxord's wild card will come into play, considering it didn't get mentioned during Re:Mind, as I assumed it might in order to help Sora fix Kairi or perhaps get Sora out of his mess. KH4, maybe? 👀

Also XIGBAR MVP ONCE MORE LFG. OR SHALL I SAY, LUXU?? I really should've put two and two together for that one, because of how all-knowing Xigbar seemed to be at all times, but I wasn't particularly focused on figuring out Luxu's identity, so that's on me. Curious about how he summoned the Foretellers. Thought they were dead, for some reason, but I suppose there was no reason to assume so if Luxu was able to survive that long as well. Wonder what they've been up to? Ava noped out- wisest thing anyone has done this entire franchise, lol. I would assume the Book of Prophecies was inside the box, but as seen by the Union X stuff, Mr. Master was still enjoying prophetic light reading after he sent Luxu away, so all one can assume is that it's parts of the Book of Prophecies hidden away from everyone or perhaps another significant book altogether. We'll seeeee. *explodes*

Speaking of the Union X stuff, loved that moment where Ephemer phased into Sora's reality to stir the lingering wills of the deceased Keyblade wielders into action. I just felt so happy for what I assume were real players who are now forever immortalized in the game as people who come to your side to help you beat the tough baddie, y'know? I got a bit emotional- it reminded me of NieR:Automata. If you know, you know.

Riku and Xehanort's Heartless have finally finished their strange drawn out mentorship/insecurity demon/invasive clingy ex dynamic. I chuckled a little bit at Riku saying "I think I'll miss you." Oh dear, lol.

I love that one scene where all the Guardians of light minus Kairi and Sora were fighting in an Avenger-esque huddle in the sky, and they occasionally chatted with each other. Ventus complimenting Roxas made my heart warm. It's the little things!

Scala ad Caelum is so pretty! And fun to say, haha! It reminds me a lot of a The Mist/Sharlayan city lovechild from FFXIV. Very Mediterranean, bleached white coastal prettiness. Would live there- 10/10. Also, I appreciate the consistency of people's hearts manifesting physically as their homeland. You had Sora's heart in DDD as the island the kids played at in Destiny Islands, and now Xehanort where he was raised and trained (he felt more personal connection to it than say, Destiny Islands, where he seemed to have also spent part of his life). It's sweet, and a bit sad, as both have grown so estranged from their homelands.

The way I SCREAMED when I got to play as Kairi. So sad how she's been thrown into such a disastrous fray so suddenly after becoming a Keyblade wielder, her and Axel/Lea (I don't care about Merlin's time stopping magic man, I Know they needed more time) and suffered the most for it. She was really getting the Sora treatment of being talked down to by the villains (kudos to Axel/Lea, I love him so much for calling Kairi his trump card, they make me so happy), and being seen as easy pickings. It's so good that Sora was in her corner to help her, because like damn. Girlie went through it. And then she comes out the other end only for her best friend who risked life and limb for her to fucking DIE as a result of how hard he tried to make sure she was safe despite the universe working against her (gj for Sora finally stepping up as a Kairi bodyguard this game, by the way. About time 🙄 [I am light-heartedly referencing my own inside joke].)? DAMN. SHE'S PROBABLY GOING THROUGH IT EVEN MORE. Survivor's guilt, anyone? But yeah, anyway, her going "please work!" when fighting Xehanort was so sad... you're doing great, Kairi! Don't let anyone tell you different! Loved the "One Heart" attack her and Sora had! It was so pretty, and they're absolutely my little angels- they deserve the wings! Love how they're both like... the connection pieces between everyone, y'know? I love Kairi's attack pattern of her initial swipe being a long ranged hit that then zaps her to the target- thought that was great design! It was on par with Aqua's gameplay in this game, for me, and I admittedly like the feel of it a little more than Roxas' and Riku's. Side note- was Riku's AI as a party member just wack for me, or does he not have healing moves/items this game? I only ask because I remember how he was like 🫰 On It whenever Sora's health would drop a smidgen in KH2, but here he was like "I saved you in cutscene, if you die now, you die, fam."

That part in Re:Mind where Mickey becomes playable and gets a whole Price of Freedom last stand moment had me in tears, I was laughing so hard from the melodrama of it all. But also the music was genuinely beautiful. It's just... 😂 I'm sorry I loved it so much. I love these games, they're so ridiculous. If someone likes Kingdom Hearts, I can't help but assume they also have a brilliant sense of humor, as well.

Love how every day, Kingdom Hearts becomes more and more Doctor Who. That one battle line from Young Xehanort, the fanatical time traveling icon himself, where he stops time and says "Don't Blink" made me smile.

I really liked that one Vanitas line to Sora- "And I do stand by your side. I'm the shadow that you cast. How much closer could I be?" I am reminded that the main reason I love antagonistic characters is due to their cryptic and occasionally poetic speech patterns.

Speaking of antagonistic characters who are NOT poetic- Master of Masters my GUY! I am consistently delighted to see this guy on screen, he's so loveable- I don't care about his war crimes. Thought it was hilarious how he said "So you're saying the weak feel the need to justify their actions to maintain a sense of self." And it completely goes over Xehanort's head how hard he's justifying his intended actions in that scene. When a guy like the Master of Masters, who seems to pride himself on low involvement passively mentions your strong willed ideologies, I'd get the idea he's silently judging you in his head. "There's no class, really! What happened to letting human nature take its course? Kids these days just can't wait for things to fall into place over the course of millennia anymore." *Cracks open a cold one in the Keyblade Graveyard*

Oh also, Xehanort and Gaius van Baelsar from FFXIV are the same individual in goals and personality and that is immensely hilarious to me. They both have a propensity of taking in orphans that then go through psychological and physical trauma for his agenda, too. You don't understand him, guys! The weak were being propelled into a misguided agenda that controlled the masses, and SOMEONE needed to step up and be the voice of action that would allow the motherland- *ahem* Keyblade Wielders and the worlds to return to their true glory! All these teenagers and twenty-somethings raving to him about friendship and light are too sensitive- they'll give Keyblades to anyone nowadays, and he hates this new woke Keyblade society! Next time, on the Xehanort podcast-

As you can see, at this point in the post my sanity dwindles evermore. So, I'll finish by going over the last major thing that made me spiritually foam at the mouth a little bit:

SECRET ENDING CUTSCENE WAS SO WELL COMPOSED HOLY SHIT. Every single frame was desktop worthy. The LIGHTING. I also like how it looks more Final Fantasy, admittedly. The other style they had in the fancy cutscenes looked a little off-putting with everyone's porcelain doll eyes. But this one? MWAH. BELLISIMO.

The MUSIC. The COLORS. The red/blue thing Sora and Riku kept locking onto while they were gaining their bearings and trying to find each other? The warm/cool tones between each of the boys' sides, both still within an urban setting? The dynamic camera movement that started as slow, unfocused, lingering shots to reflect Sora's (especially) and Riku's disorientation of their new surroundings, all before switching to sudden, sweeping shots over the cityscape as the realization of their circumstances crashes down upon them? Them walking into each other's shots while looking around, showing how they're searching for each other even subconsciously? OH, OH, AND THE RED/BLUE THING CARRIED OVER FOR THE DEFINITELY NOT PLOT RELEVANT (it's not like the game drew attention to how he looks like Sora [I don't see it but whatever] and Riku, and this series has never made character designs plot relevant ever) HETEROCHROMIA IN THE VIDEO GAME GUY TOO, AND YEAH, HE'S THERE LMAO?? Literally did not have "the spoof Riku-esque character from the damn Toy Story World is important and potentially the MCs' secret lovechild" on my Bingo card, but I'm adaptable. I hope that once he and Riku meet there's a Spiderman meme moment. I also hope Sora's like "What? How am I talking to you? You're from a video game!" And Yozora is like "You also are from a video game" and we finally shatter this paltry meta narrative barrier we've been poking at once and for all. Give me more chaos, I must feed.

I was extremely confused as to why Riku was in the same place as Sora, and was like "maybe it's another DDD parallel world separating them from each other" thing, but still, how did he get there in the first place? But then I laughed as I envisioned the natural, sensible progression of this situation in a hypothetical post-Sora disappearance cutscene where everyone stares on, shocked, and Kairi wobbles down the Paopu tree, sobbing, to everyone else on the beach.

Kairi: "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, he said he didn't have much time left, but he was happy to spend it with everyone, and he's happy I'm safe and- *sniff* and- I should've asked him something that could help us go after him and-"

Riku: "Don't worry, Kairi. I'll handle this."

Aqua: "Riku, we don't even know where to start, we need to assess the situation!"

Axel: "Aaaand, he's walking away."

Ventus: "What do you think he's planning on doing?"

Terra: "It's Riku. He's a man with a plan. He'll do what he has to to... uhm."

Axel: "Aaaand, he's walking into the ocean."

Kairi: "RIKU, NO-"

Naminé: "RIKU, YOU CAN'T DO THIS AGAIN-"

And from where I left off before getting mercilessly slaughtered by my first Data fight, it's now been a whole year of Absent Sora. Damn. One squad's in hell, Kairi might be in another coma, and Riku's probably gonna take up blindfolds again at this rate. What no Sora does to a mf part 2.

Riku: "We NeEd to BeLieVe in HiM. HiS hEaRt aNd HiS miNd aRe MaDe uP." *Puts his face in his hands* *Silently sobs*

[bearpillowmonster]

Wall-E (PC Game Review)

(Ok, that scene isn't really in the game, it's concept art that you can unlock but it got your attention, didn't it?) I've always heard good things about this game, even seeing playthroughs of it made it intriguing because it looks like a quality platformer. Strange for a licensed game but then I saw the opening logos and realized. This is Deep Iron Studios, I knew I heard that name before and yeah they made Battle for Bikini Bottom, The Spongebob Movie game, Night of 100 Frights, The Incredibles games! So you know these people actually care what they're putting out and even if they lose a deadline, they're going to at least try.

So that's what they did, the opening segment (aka tutorial) gives you pretty much everything from momentum based speed and jumping to going into "box mode" which you can "box dash" with to destroy crates. This isn't a game where you fight enemies mind you (at least for most of it) but one where you explore the area, collect and solve little puzzles both environmental and mini-game like. It's also brimming with personality giving me some reasonable cutscenes before the events of the movie before converging. Not only that but I mentioned collectibles, there are the boxes which contain various power sources to open doors and laser capsules, that's right, you can shoot a laser. But there are also artifacts which glimmer in the sunlight and when inspected, a little cutscene will play out where Wall-E digs up an item like say an umbrella and then proceed to play with said umbrella. It'd be cool if these optional rewards were usable but hey, they're still fun to watch the animations, they fit right in.

Think of playing as a skateboard for most of the game. That's how this is. There are ramps (not really moves you can perform) but it comes up with some pretty cool traversal methods. Now all these things are great but I might complain just a little bit. Some things can be finicky or precise like sometimes you're not as fast as you should be going down a hill and when certain jumps can or cannot be jumped off of or landed on. Your jump isn't very high to start out with and you can't change direction in the air, once you're up, you're locked.

I think one way to solve this might be to just throw out the jump button for certain sections because there will be a stretch of obstacles and jumps that you need to make but if you don't have enough speed or momentum then you won't make them, I'd rather just have him smooth glide off the ramp so I know when and where to jump but that's me being picky. I'm sure lots of these things were known and they just didn't have enough time to iron them out but it's a solid game.

What you wanted more? Ok, well you can also play as Eve so there are 'racing' where you can fly around like an on rails shooter. I 100% this game guys and I never do that, sure it wasn't hard but I went the extra mile because I enjoyed it and was having fun. I haven't had this much fun playing a Disney game since probably Toy Story 3 for the DS and if you've seen my review of the Wii version, you'll know that I was a sucker for that game, playing it over and over again. This game is better than the Wii version of TS3 but still debatable on TS3DS so that means that I probably would've liked it as a kid.

From what I can tell, there are a few different versions of this game though. The DS version which is basically a chibi top down thing, kinda cute. The Wii, PS2, PSP and PC versions are the same, basically being what I played. The PS3 and Xbox ones differ from those, having some abilities like being able to flip around in box mode making for some interesting levels and interactivity puzzles that almost looked like motion controls to me, making this surprising that the Wii version wasn't included. You don't collect boxes or artifacts, you collect "Wallops" which are just the logo, unlocking a few more things that apparently you can only use during minigames? But don't quote me on that.

One thing that I was actually interested in were the Eve levels. In the PC game, they're the on rails shooter type and while this has something similar, it also has missions where you scan around for the plant but that's in turn for Wall-E's laser because whatever you need to destroy can be done with Eve or a cube which you can apparently stack…huh. It also has some bigger worlds that you can even bump the people off their chairs (man I wish I had that mechanic) but the game ends up being shorter in the long run.

Anyway 4/5. Yeah, I'm going that far.

[m34gs]

What are your Top Five Ships of All Time that you can Scream (TM) about and why?

All time? Of All Time???? OOOOOH you are making me choose! This is tough, but an exciting ask! Thank you so much, friend!!! I will list them in reverse order, from number 5 to number 1!! (as always, this is just a list based on my current interests, and it could change in the future!)

5. Brawler/Hoodlum from Akudama Drive. Listen, listen. These two? They are in love. So clearly in love. Brawler is Constantly showing off for Hoodlum, and Hoodlum blushes??? When he's talking with Brawler???? Excuse me?????? I 10000% believe Brawler knew Hoodlum stretched the truth with his amount of years he owed the system, but he took One (1) look at Hoodlum's pretty eyes and went "yeah that's fine he's pretty I want to keep him around I will humour him" and that was IT. (I could also talk about the scene with the bridge but I WILL NOT for reasons😭😭😭 He's resting. Just resting.) This one comes out at number 5 because while I love it and could easily go on and on and on about it, I haven't talked about it as much or as often as the others on this list.

4. Mondo Oowaa/Kiyotaka Ishimaru from Danganronpa. These two. THESE. TWO. Ugh. I love them so much. Mondo is MY SON. He's just so...precious. And so is Taka. I love them both and I think their dynamic is very sweet. I think they are very similar to Brawler and Hoodlum in some ways, but obviously not exactly the same. I do love how they bonded over a mutual respect for each other that came from competition. I also will cry every time I watch Mondo's execution, and every time Taka ends up murdered. Pain. I live for the AU where they are both alive and healthy and able to fall in love and live happily ever after. This ship is at number four because I did settle down a lot after my initial playthrough of the game and while I can definitely scream about them at any given time if prompted, I don't search them out as actively as I used to in fanfiction or fanart.

3. Jade Leech/Floyd Leech/Azul Ashengrotto from Twisted Wonderland. This OT3 is honestly addicting to talk about for me. I love them. They're three of my favourite characters in the game, and I really find their dynamics fascinating. They have this incredible trust with each other, they know each other so well, and they support each other. Also I am *here* for the Mafia theme. Love that so so so much. Honestly, over the past few days I don't think I've shut up about them in our DMs and texts.

2. GrimmIchi from Bleach. Honestly, I had to give Grimmjow and Ichigo one of the top two spots. I mean, honestly, I'm one of the co-writers for a blog *dedicated* strictly to GrimmIchi (though I haven't written anything there in a long while...ooops). I have Many Many Many thoughts about them and I love to yell about them. It's very hard to get me to stop once you get me going, and it's so easy to get me going. Just ask @backwardshirt

Honourable Mentions: Byakuya/Kirigiri/Naegi from Danganronpa, Gundham/Souda from Danganronpa 2, Noiz/Aoba from DMMD, Vash/Wolfwood/Meryl from Trigun, Lawrence/Adam from Saw (2004), Byakuya/Renji from Bleach, Vil/Rook from Twisted Wonderland, Bokuto/Akaashi from Haikyuu!

1.Number one spot goes to:

Kalim/Idia from Twisted Wonderland. I mean. It's not hard to figure out, I'm sure, lol. I talk about them a lot, and I make a lot of posts about them. I love to discuss different dynamics, different possible aus, and I have written several one-shots and short scenes about them now, as well as a multi-chaptered fic centered around them as a pairing (and there will be more to come!!!). I love them and I will take any and all opportunities to shout about them. They are so cute; the introvert and the extrovert, the grumpy rain cloud and the sunshine beam. I love that dynamic with my entire soul. I can't help but be drawn to them. They got that Sun and Moon dynamic. Both of them have such complex emotions, and I think both of them struggle with conveying what they feel; just in totally different ways. I love them so much!!!!!!!!!!

[pizza-games-and-more]

Okay, here's my promised Pizza Tower boss tierlist and detailed explanations

Before we go through this, I have a confession to make though: I haven't actually played any of these bosses so this is just going to be based on what I like from watching them.

The reason I haven't played the bosses is kinda embarrassing. I... don't have the reflexes for this game at all. I struggled with the tutorial and couldn't beat Pizzascape.

So while I'm hiding in shame, have my tierlist and explanations under the cut. I AM SO SORRY.

Best Boss: The Vigilante

The reason I rank him so high is NOT because of bias, believe it or not. I enjoy watching people playing super-intense boss battles that throw a lot of shit at you (I like watching Cuphead and Mega Man playthroughs for that, and this boss has been compared to both), and on top of that, it references two of my favourite game series: Kirby and Worms. Yeah, it may surprise you to know considering what I just admitted, but I actually love a wide variety of games, and seeing them being referenced here just sold me on it lol.

Second Best: Pizzahead

Yes, really. Pizzahead is my second favourite of the bosses to watch. The reason is actually very simple: The boss rush. When I saw the other bosses being pulled out and refought, I thought that was the coolest thing ever. Even if my first exposure to it was (no, I'm not kidding,) an Ed Edd n Eddy sound effects meme. Seeing Peppino go absolutely apeshit on everyone and even Gustavo joining in was so cool and I can see why many people consider this their favourite.

Third Best: Pepperman

Pepperman looks just... fun. His boss battle manages to be goofier than The Noise's. How in the fresh hell is that possible? In addition, there's another load of references in the battle (some of which possibly unintentional) that earns it a few more points. His moveset is basically Wario, but if you combined his Land self with his Ware self. In fact I actually like joking that the bits where you have to make a statue to distract him as "Playing the chisel microgame from WarioWare and then slapping him on the ass". (Fun fact: WarioWare is actually my favourite game series of all time lol) In addition, something about the fact that he's an artist that fights with animated drawings in a medieval themed area brings the Painter from Castle Crashers to mind. Anyway, Pepperman is great.

Fourth Best: Fake Peppino

Fake Peppino is a bit of an interesting case. His boss battle looks really cool and intense the first time you see it, but becomes a bit less so on subsequent plays/watches. Don't get me wrong, I do still like him and his weirdness, but it just doesn't hit as hard as it did when my boyfriend first showed me. That being said, one thing does keep me coming back to watching it though: The music! I've already mentioned it but PIZZA TIME NEVER ENDS is my favourite boss music in the game, and I actually like it considerably more than the song it's remixing.

Least Best: The Noise

The Noise is... I like him as a character, but his boss fight, not gonna lie, looks like it's designed to piss you off as much as possible. Granted, it makes sense considering the character, but while I do still like watching it, I can't imagine myself enjoying playing at all. Hence why it's so low on the list. I do, however, like the presentation. Particularly the phase transition and the ending. Those are hilarious.

[appreciatingtokrev]

hi! sorry for disappearing, i was feeling a bit down and then i 🫠 for a little while after that. yes, nfsw is a massive no but like you said there are other topics that shouldn't be discuss about. it actually is but a person will either get upset or find it rude, depending on their mindset but i suppose it's both like a double edged sword. those relationships def are treated as inferior but the friendships that turn into relationships are probably criticise most esp if the parties been friends for years but you can't force feelings to come out at an acceptable time if it ever happens 🤷‍♀️ that's true, a relationship need to be stable before progressing more.

it is a bit unfair esp if the newer users become massive fans, there are playthroughs on youtube but from what i've seen, it is a bit jumbled up and all over the place. i'm assuming you must have a lot of weapons then? oh i see, are they both mobile based? fans want a nintendo switch port for GI. it is a bit of a random topic lol. that's true and it would be super hard too, the spellings for my mum and her siblings overlaps a lot, they have double e in all their names. it's been a cool topic to talk about but it's finished now 🤣 that sound like an awkward situation to be in, i hope your teachers never thought that for like signed permissions slips for school's trips 😭 did you guys ever have problem with telling which one is your mail/posted package considering the initials thing. ah my dad and my names spelling are very similar (we have the same letters expect for one that isn't in mine) along with the initials so someone accidentally gave my option of voting to my dad because they skimmed through our names 😂 i did asked my dad if this was planned regarding our names and he said no.

also, i saw a short animated of koko accidentally confessing to inupi and it made me wonder what happened to inupi in the bonten timeline and his relationship with koko.

oh don’t worry, i’m glad that you’re back & feeling better again! <3

yup, agreed

yep. my ex & i tried to love each other romantically and force the feelings, aaand it did not work out lol. in hindsight i’m amazed we managed to go 8 months lmao. funny story too bc we’re both aroace now so it was double stupid. we also didn’t talk at all for 2 years (bc i had them blocked afhjfhg) but we started talking again last week and it’s going great now that we’ve both grown and realised that we’re way better off as friends so i’m not too upset abt our past mistakes anymore lol. anyway, lesson learnt, forcing relationships or love does NOT work out, no matter how desperately you want it to. also agreed, relationships definitely need to be stable to move on bc if they’re not it just keeps getting harder to somehow make them stable (again).

yeah, true. i mean yes.. to be fair i’ve been playing for a really long time and for most of that i’ve been playing it daily so,, hoyoverse (i think i called the company mihoyo in my last reply? they used to be called mihoyo but changed their name to hoyoverse idk a year or so ago but i keep forgetting adhjf) now releases all of their games for both mobile & pc, and i think gi, hi3rd, and hsr are for ps4 & ps5 too? honestly not sure, i play them all on pc. ah yes, the switch port... i used to be kinda excited for it but i’ve lost hope for getting one soon (if ever) bc we were promised one two and a half years ago and nothing’s been done ever since 💀

funny thing my dad is a teacher at my school so he knows some of my teachers a bit & even is friends with one lol so i never really had any problems with our signatures after explaining why they’re so similar. idk abt other places but on the post here there’s always your full name so we never had problems with that. tho i’ve had a bunch of other teachers from my school text me on teams thinking they were texting my father bc our usernames on there (bc school) are almost the same afhjgfjshd

ah lol, that seems annoying

oh i think i know which animation that was bc i think i’ve seen it too! i personally hc that they went no contact or at least barely have any contact even if they’re both not really happy with that (especially koko) but they think it’s for the best. i just think inupi wouldn’t want any associations with criminals and koko wouldn’t want inupi to have associations with criminals bc of him either, so... tho that’s pretty sad afhjggfh but imo the most realistic version of them in bonten

[m39]

Doom WADs’ Roulette (2003): MassMouth 2

Another day, another WAD made by Cyb. It feels kind of ridiculous that the main contributor to the Top 100 WADs of All Time has not only 2.1 WADs on this list (that .1 part being his contribution to 10 Sectors compilation) but also two of these ending up in the 2003 roster. Not to mention having the second main contributor, Linguica, starting as one of the bosses of the WAD I’m about to cover.

And that’s just the tip of the Iceberg of today’s WAD.

#5: MassMouth 2

Main author(s): Mike Watson (Cyb)

Release date: July 15th, 2003 (original release)

Version(s) played: final version (released on July 18th, 2003)

Required port compatibility: ZDoom

Levels: 17 (15 main levels, training level, and the secret level)

MassMouth 2 is, as you guessed already, the sequel to the original WAD titled The Adventures of MassMouth (originally released in 2000). It is also a drug-fueled trip of a WAD.

I might be exaggerating right now, but that’s how I felt during my first playthrough. MassMouth 2, at least thematically, was some of the weirdest WAD I’ve played (at least in terms of the early-mid 2000s). And I played Void weeks ago.

By the way, do not expect this review to be like the other ones I did or completely in-depth, because I don’t think I have the time, strength, or desire to find all the secrets, weapon 7 parts, or check out every ending combination (I’ll get to that later).

So let’s dive into the weirdness of the MassMouth world.

So what’s the story you may ask? Well, you are the titular MassMouth, which is this abomination below:

Anyway, you are working for the Pit Worm from Opposing Force. One day, your boss gets kidnapped by another group of aliens (which later turns out to be led by John Romero himself and the previously mentioned Linguica is his right hand). Now you must save him, with the help of a friendly Shock Trooper (also from Opposing Force).

That’s the basic synopsis. There is more to it during the WAD itself, but it all comes down to Evil aliens running away with Worm when you get close to him. And it happens, like, a few times. Plus, there are a couple of unfunny jokes based on referencing (at least the ones that are said). I know, it was 2003 but I think I saw similar stuff from the early-mid 2000s that was better than this.

The cutscenes also have voice acting. It might not really be good but it’s still better than looking at the wall of text that stops you from playing (007 WAD, everybody?).

MassMouth 2 looks, in my opinion, good. While its architecture may look dated in some places even by 2003 standards, this WAD is very versatile with its locations. I’m talking about many planets you visit, including your home world. There is even a moment when you end up in the famous red cave with the invisible stairs from Doomsday of UAC.

We have reached the full circle, people: WAD from the 2003 roster references the map from the 1994 roster. Peak moment!

The music is even better. It was all fun to listen to it (there are even some remixes from Memento Mori II), even though sometimes it was too loud for me. And it was sometimes louder than the dialogue even. But honestly, I don’t mind it since the plot is...

...yeah, let’s move on to something else.

As for the other sound effects that are not related to voice acting, they are fine. Like, I don’t think there was anything annoying to listen to. The only interesting part about these is that the shotgun uses the same sound effect that was used in Equinox.

MassMouth 2 is kind of boring to play. Not gonna lie. As I said before, you are basically chasing after your boss while John Romero, pretending to be Generic Bond villain #whatever, and/or his goons, teleport him away for almost the entire WAD.

But the ways of getting to Worm are mostly different. Once you have to rely on a moderately dimwitted robot as a guide to teleport to another map, other times you overload diet Orkz’ space ship by turning off its power, and yet another time you smash into a scientist’s house and slaughter his bodyguards just to talk to him.

There is also Training Course, where you can learn the mechanics of this WAD... alongside things that every person that played Doom already knows... Okay?

I mentioned earlier about ending combinations. That’s because this WAD has multiple endings. Now the first ten levels are relatively linear, there is no branching except for some secrets to find. Once you reach Regression, things start to get interesting. It all mostly comes down to choosing if you want to stick up with Worm or start working with Romero. There might be another branching path related to saving Worm in Space Station Romero, but I managed to save him. I think I got the best possible ending, but I wonder if that’s actually true since MassMouth gets Daikatana copy for all of the trouble he went through.

...

I think I made a huge mistake.

Do not underestimate this WAD. Even though it has only up to dozens of enemies, MassMouth 2 can kick your ass. Although, if that’s true because the fights are actually fair is debatable due to the enemies and your weapons that I will talk about in a moment. And I’m not even talking about moments where you find yourself fighting multiple hitscanners without any proper cover.

So. New weapons. Some of them function the same as their original counterparts but most of them are changed:

There is the Shovel that can be powered up to deal higher damage (although with limited usage).

MassMouth’s personal laser gun acts like a slower Plasma Gun. It works fine when you don't have ammo for your other guns.

Diet Orkz’ rapid-firing shotgun is an absolute beast. It can wreck almost every enemy (providing that you can see from its muzzle flash).

There is also Railgun, which also works very good, especially on Orkz.

Oh yeah, there is also Freezethrower... it’s useless against MassMouth enemies.

And the enemies... well... how do I say it... Almost all of them are bullet sponges who barely have any attack windup (if any at all), even the hitscanners. Now let’s see who you fight:

We have Ontras, your typical cannon fodder that is basically a replacement for Zombies. One of the three versions uses a laser gun, while another doesn’t scream when getting hurt.

Shock Troopers are replacements for Mancubi, just as Raptors are for Pinkies.

Genestealers attack you with two projectiles and come out in two versions – Minora and Majora. Aside from their sizes and colors, I didn’t notice anything different between them. maybe one has more health than the other.

The... uhm... Rattamahattas (the fuck was Cyb smoking when coming out with this name) AKA diet Orkz are acting like Evil Troopers from The Troopers' Playground, as in they fire Spiderdemon’s chaingun blasts but with added head-butting when you get close. Good thing that they die to two Railgun blasts.

Yodan uses a stomp attack that deals hitscanning damage.

There are also bosses that mostly function the same way. Linguica shoots Nitrogolem’s fireballs while Romero uses Railgun himself, and after his first phase, his head acts like Lost Soul.

MassMouth 2 is definitely one of those ZDoom WADs of its time. It might look impressive but my final verdict for this MegaWAD is... fine. It’s ultimately just a fine WAD for me. Yes, it was cool to see all of the weird stuff during my blind playthrough but after the shock is gone and now knowing what to expect, it becomes worse with each playthrough since you can’t skip cutscenes (I tried with the intro one and it broke, showing MassMouth and MassMouth Jr.). At least the characters are voiced so the suffering wasn’t really that big.

And with that WAD out of the way, only maps are left to review. Yes, the 2003 roster’s remaining four WADs are actually maps, so it will go pretty fast with these (at least depending on their sizes).

See you next time, folks.

Bye!

[thechekhov]

So glad you decided to play Undertale! I think it would really suit you so I’m so happy you got into it! Could I have your thoughts about the game? I would LOVE to hear them. I’m ALL for long essays and rants, that’s my jam, but even just a small review from you would make me ecstatic!

Alright alright alright alright. 

I am ecstatic that someone asked because I have a lot to say AS ALWAYS. 

I’m gonna try to keep this readable, I swear. Will add pictures in between to keep things interesting. 

However, due to the length this will SURELY achieve, AND due to spoilers (and yes, laugh at me all you want, the game has been out for 5 years) I’ll put this under a cut. Read at your own (f)risk.

Metagaming - the game plays YOU

When I first started Undertale, I ‘knew’ these things:

there’s a stabby one with a knife, their name is chara

there’s a flower everyone hates

something something sans something something

and the last, and perhaps most important thing

you can spare your enemies to avoid killing them

The thing is. The THING IS. 

I did not realize how pervasive this strategy was. My thought at first was ‘okay, so I don’t have to kill EVERYONE.’

I had no idea that the reality was that I didn’t have to kill anyone.

I’m sure many others have already said this, but Undertale kind of changes the way you think about other games. It forces to you examine simply fighting your way through the RPG by introducing completely non-murder-y ways to resolve issues. This conversation-based combat style is not the first of its kind, I’m sure, but it’s also incredibly well done. It ties into the story, it ties into your decisions.

It ties into your decisions SO MUCH that it changes everything else in the outcome.

Undertale is a game well known for breaking the 4th wall. However, it does so in a strangely eerie, heart-wrenchingly real way. It teaches us that there are other solutions to conflicts - and it really... it really TEACHES us, you know?

Which is funny because to be honest, it took me a while to get the lesson.

(You may already be fully aware of this but yes, my first True Neutral Route was extremely organic. I legitimately had no idea that there was even more than one ending. I was just stumbling about er... killing. Out of habit.)

The beauty of this is that the game drives home that point even more effectively because I was fully unaware of my own bias. I had assumed that some enemies would require killing - DESPITE TORIEL SPECIFICALLY TELLING ME TO TALK TO THEM, and the entire Ruins tutorial being about Mercy. I killed the Dummy on accident (granted, it was due to me pressing the key too fast a few times) and didn’t think much of Toriel’s disapproval. I killed a few monsters because I saw my level was low and decided to automatically grind a little bit. 

By the time I got to Toriel, I was still not comfortable with the mechanic. I knew I could Spare her somehow - after all, she was a kind monster, and clearly an important character - but the Spare option didn’t yield promising results the first few times I chose it. I ran out of patience and decided that maybe... maybe it was like pokemon! 

Maybe I had to get her health down to a certain level before she would allow me to pass through.

Funny thing though.... you know what happens if you attack Toriel one too many times? Even if she has most of her health left? 

Yeah uh... it activates that one-hit-KO thing from No Mercy Route.

So of course, what happened? I hit her one too many times... and killed her! And of course, immediately panicked and reset. 

I got back to my previous save, Spared Toriel PROPERLY this time, and walked out of the ruins only to be confronted with my own reliance on the magical ‘redo’ button which was... apparently... not that magical.

Because it WASN’T a clean redo. Flowey apparently remembered. 

The idea that the game would KNOW about my previous attempts beyond the save file snapped me out of my casual Undertale playthrough. I realized that something was up - this game was not going to be like the others.

I think it was from this point on that I tried to be more careful, but again - I still hadn’t quite gotten the memo about not killing. I took down a few monsters around Snowdin. And when I got to Papyrus, I grew frustrated about not being able to beat him (I ended up losing several times and coming back to try again) and went off to grind SOME MORE because I figured that could raise my HP and increase my chances of holding off long enough to Spare him. 

(The incredible thing about this game is that actually, raising your level gives you only a slight advantage. You can be level 1 and carrying no items, and as long as you’re relatively proficient at dodging the bullet hell style projectiles you will have no issues.) 

Anyway, the point is that I realized I could spare the big monsters and did so readily - but I didn’t bother to spare many of the smaller ones. 

I figured it didn’t matter. 

And then I successfully evaded Undyne, gave her a cup of water, etc... and then went to her house to meet Papyrus, fully expecting her to befriend me anyway. 

And you know what happened?

“She said she won’t hang out with a murderer.“

I think that probably hit me the hardest at that point in the game. 

I had a bit ‘....oh’ moment at that point because I realized that the game would punish me for killing even the ‘not-important’ civilians of the Underground. It wasn’t about just sparing the ‘boss monsters’. My actions had consequences beyond just the ‘elite’ characters that we all tend to focus on.

Because yes, it made sense. It wasn’t about just Undyne - why WOULD she randomly be my friend after I killed tons of living beings?

From there on, I spared everyone, but didn’t reset. I decided to see how it would unravel.

The thing I want to talk about, which is a little difficult, is that...

It took me that long to learn that kindness was the answer. And that, in itself, ends up being a metaphor. 

It’s difficult to be kind if you have not been show how to be.

It’s difficult to change the way you behave (in a game or out of it) if all you know is using other methods.

It was hard enough to spare Toriel before I realized I had to just be very patient and trust that her attacks wouldn’t hit - though at first I thought she would just kill me! 

It was hard to avoid Papyrus’ attacks and I had to die several times before I successfully got through it. 

It was near impossible to fight Undyne because I legitimately had no idea Fleeing was an option. I struggled for ages at her stage, and I had to ask for help to understand what I could do.

And that’s actually honestly very true to life as well.

Being kind takes risk. Being kind takes effort. And sometimes, being kind means asking others HOW to be kind. 

When you choose to be kind, you risk being hurt, and you risk being trapped (Toriel). When you choose to be kind, you need to expand a lot more energy to succeed (Papyrus). When you choose to be kind, you need to sometimes reach out to others to show you how to properly do it (Undyne).

The rest of the playthrough probably went about as you expect. I completed the game, didn’t kill any Boss Monsters, fought to the end and... got that really unsatisfying Neutral Ending which felt strangely bittersweet. 

And of course, after I was done, I was prompted to go back and do a proper Pacifist Run. Which I did. I learned about the background of Determination, about Chara and Asriel... and about how everything came to be the way it was.

The thing that gets me the most about this game is how it serves as a direct parallel to how we use videogames. In fact, Undertale is a videogame... about videogames. 

Chara appears to be a direct metaphor for the people that use videogames to escape - to cope with whatever happened to them in The Overworld. Bad family life, or bad relationships or whatever we suffer - escapism through games is not, in itself, a new theme. 

Chara arrived in Undertale by dropping themself down a hole in the mountain, perhaps even seeking to end their life. They dropped into a world which offered them comfort and companionship, a new family and a new life - but in the end, their nature was destructive because their means to finding a solution inadvertently used other people as fodder. Asgore, Asriel - they used everyone else to complete their plans. It wasn’t about forming connections - it was about Completing the Quest. 

I wonder - did Chara even HAVE access to a MERCY option? 

Was their world one without the option of sparing someone? Did they only have the choice of acting - and was Mercy in the hands of whoever attacked them? I wonder how difficult it might have been for them. I wonder how that, in itself, shaped their perception of the world. 

I wonder if that’s why, during the No Mercy run, people recognize you as Chara? If they come back and attach themselves to your resonating DETERMINATION?

If this is true, was MERCY perhaps created later, brought into existence once Asriel himself made the choice to NOT fight, to turn back and flee, even after being attacked by humans in the Overworld? 

(It would be a nice parallel to Asgore DESTROYING the Mercy option when you enter the fight with him...)

...

In the end, I think Undertale is about many things, including video games. 

But it’s also hurting - and being hurt. 

It’s about how trauma can shape us, how we deal with feeling grief, and loss, and depression - and not being able to feel anything.

It’s about how we focus on goals and use DETERMINATION to keep going - even when whatever it is that’s driving us no longer has any SOUL. 

It’s about how our action have consequences, but they also carry the weight of a choice, and how powerful those choices are, and how powerless we feel when we aren’t given a choice - not to fight back, nor show mercy. 

I think that’s probably the reason this game resonated with so many people. It really brings something we love about videogames to the forefront - that ability to fight back, to have full and total control of our own lives...

And it also shows us how having that endless loop of repetitive grinding and fighting with zero consequences can lead to an incredible hollowness and make us numb to how we interact with real-life people. 

Anyway. 

Good game. 

[stop-breaking-my-heart-telltale]

Top 5 Reasons Doug’s Pretty Great

It’s hard to believe that it’s been nine years since the first episode of S1 was released. I can still remember be a wee little lass first discovering it on youtube and becoming obsessed. At the time, I had no where to play it myself, so I watched as many playthroughs as I could until my family got an xbox. 

While the first episode in this series has a lot of memorable moments, the one that always stands out in people’s memories is the moment where you’re trying to escape the drugstore as walkers pound away at the door and windows, and you realize that both Carley and Doug need your help or they’re going to die. 

But... you can only save one, and whoever you don’t help, they end up being eaten alive by walkers and you get to feel bad about it for the rest of the episode. 

I bring this up because it’s interesting to look back nine years ago and see that... well, not a lot of people saved Doug. Which is crazy, because now the stats are pretty 50/50 with Doug even having a bit of an edge over Carley. That definitely wasn’t the case back then because the stats were more along the line of 20/80.

Why? Well, the writer’s didn’t exactly do the best job of showing how great Doug is in ep1, especially compared to Carley who has more interactions with Lee and more screen time.... which is even funnier because they did actually think they did a good job and were surprised by the results after the episode’s release.

Even back then they had a habit of making imbalanced routes then denying the imbalance... something they never grew out of. 

I guess they were a little butthurt about it since Doug is a favorite among the team given that he’s actually based on a real person, Doug Tabacco, an IT guy they worked with. This got to the point where Telltale never missed an opportunity to tell everyone to #SaveDoug over Carley.

I also love that they use the Stranger to guilt trip everyone who saved Carley by having him be like, “Doug was in a worse position! >:( You only saved Carley because she was a pretty girl!!” just.... real subtle, guys haha

Now, I’ll be the first to admit that more often than not, I choose to save Carley over Doug for many reasons, but that doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate Doug and enjoy having him around in the off chance I do save him. So I thought it’d be fun to talk about Doug as a character and why he was pretty great as a little tribute, y’know? 

5. Doug’s a pretty funny dude

Now, I wouldn’t exactly call twdg a comedy, y’know? It gets dark, then manages to get even darker at times, but if the game was nothing but doom and gloom, it’d get boring and become unenjoyable. 

While other characters do get a laugh out of me from time to time, I enjoy the humor that Doug brings to the group, even if it’s not intentional and just the way he is. 

Even from the beginning, Doug had me chuckling with the fact that this nerdy dude didn’t want to bring profanity to Lee’s ears when talking about Larry, so he’s just like “ He's kind of a dick... pardon my french,” like Doug.... it’s okay, you can call him an asshole, no one will judge hahaha.

Then there’s the biscuit scene that I think we all know and love. Helps break the tension of meeting these weirdo’s who own a dairy and are totally not suspicious or anything. 

But it’s not even just that Doug is funny, he’s also a character that gets you to crack a smile when he’s talking about something he’s passionate about, or when he’s proud of the alarm he rigged up, or when he’s being adorably awkward. 

One of my favorites is in ep3 when Lee goes to ask Doug if he has any chalk, and he goes into this spiel about charcoal-- “You know, a piece of charcoal is a suitable alternative, depending on your marking surface. Since we're on the subject, did you know that while chalk is traditionally known to be calcium carbonate, what's often used in classrooms is actually made of gypsum, thanks to favorable domestic mining conditions?”

And Lee’s response is just-- “Doug, I did not know that.”

“Happy to be of service.”

It’s just really funny... and it makes you feel better after all the implications about Doug’s mental health in the episode... like you gave him a moment to flex his knowledge and get excited about it. 

But yeah, what can I say? Doug makes me laugh and he brings a bit of light to the groups constant shitshow. 

4. Doug saved the group’s ass at the St John farm

And he did so with a laser pointer. 

I always hate it when Doug/Carley leave the group at the St Johns and remain absent for most of the episode, though I chalk that up to the writers trying to make the different routes easier on themselves, y’know? 

But, at least they come back to save the day. 

In Doug’s case, he’s not comfortable with guns like Carley is, so he’s gotta get creative when it comes to getting Lee’s attention and stopping Andy from hurting Duck and Lee. 

That’s where his fancy little laser pointer comes in. 

We first see him with it during the walk to the farm, but then see it in action after Lee escapes the barn and is nearly blinded by the light. Doug claims he was doing morse code before Lee tells him and Ben that these assholes cut off Mark’s legs and tried to feed them to the group. 

Now, here’s the thing... If Doug and Ben had done what they were told and stayed at the motor inn over night, things probably wouldn’t have turned out so good for the group. Doug is the one who shines the laser pointer in Andy’s eyes when he’s got ahold of Duck, giving Lee the advantage of attack. Without that, if Lee tried anything, he would’ve ended up like dingdong Kenny with a bullet in his side. 

Also there’s just a lot of bravery from Doug, y’know? Like as soon as he finds Lee and knows the situation, the first thing he asks is what can they do to help, and he sticks around to do what he can.... even if it is just to point a laser in someone’s eye. 

No one gives Doug enough credit for savin’ the day, y’know? And if you have any doubt, even Lee says, “I never thought a laser pointer would be the thing that saved our lives.”

3. Doug’s friendship with Lee

Speaking of Lee, his friendship with Doug is underrated. The two have chemistry and work off each other well in the scene’s they’re in. While it’s not as strong as Carley’s in ep1, saving Doug and having around in ep2 & ep3 lets you see it at it’s best, y’know? 

After Lee saves his life at the drugstore, Doug is shown to mourn Carley and asks Lee why he would pick him, lamenting that he wished he had picked her over him and you can tell that Doug feels that he owes Lee a lot for saving him. Hell, he even says as much when Lee tries to give him food in ep2-- “Why don't you keep my share today. I know I said it didn't matter why you saved me and not Carley, but... I owe you a lot more than half a day's rations."

Also, I love this one line from Kenny when you’re on bad terms with him and they’re talking about going separate ways where he’s basically like “We all know Doug’s gonna stay with you because you saved him that ONE time >:(” and on top of it being such a bitchy Kenny line, it also shows that every can see that Doug is a loyal friend to Lee and would want to stick with him where ever he decides to go. 

One thing that I think people tend to overlook, though, is how concerned Lee is with Doug’s mental health in ep3. There are implications that Doug might be suffering with depression due to the situation of the walkers, bandits harrassing and threatening them, and believing that he isn’t useful to the group, stating that he feel pretty worthless. Lee asks Clementine if he seems sad, and hell, he even talks to Lilly about it.

In fact, speaking of Clementine, Doug is real sweet with her, too. Of course, he gives her those batteries for her walkie, but he also asks about how she’s doing as they’re leaving the dairy. Hell, 8 years later, Clementine still remembers him by name and how sweet he was when fucking dingdong Lilly can’t remember his damn name. That says a lot. 

Y’all know how important Clementine is to Lee, so he wouldn’t have grown as close to Doug if he wasn’t a genuinely good person who treated Clementine with kindess. 

I dunno, there’s a lot of trust and care between the two and it’s a relationship that I truly love. I just wish we could’ve seen a bit more of it but y’know...#2 happened. 

2. Doug saved Ben’s life

Yeah, I think we all saw this coming...

Look, doesn’t matter what you think about Ben, okay? Not what we’re talkin’ about. We’re talkin’ about Doug saving Ben’s life, which unfortunately meant ending his own.

Still haven’t forgiven Lilly for this one. Though I’ve always found the difference between Doug and Carley’s death’s interesting. With Carley, Lilly intentionally kills her after Carley tells her off. But with Doug, Lilly was aiming for Ben and even when Doug pulled him out of the way, she still fired the gun... even though she didn’t have a clear shot and ended up hitting Doug. 

Then she tries to play it off like it was an accident which, yeah I guess it was but that doesn’t change that you were intending to murder this 6ft tall child. 

It’s just... I dunno, man, it’s sad. I always feel more sorrow for Doug’s death, but more anger for Carley’s? Even though both make me angry, it’s just different characters, different things that led to their deaths, different feelings. This is the first real “Fuck you, Lilly” moment for me and she can spend the next 8 years wandering around for all I can. 

Doug didn’t deserve this shit. 

But, the reason I put this at #2 because it really says a lot about Doug as a character. The second he saw Lilly aim that gun, he yanked Ben out of the way. He could’ve gone into shock, he could’ve just yelled “no!”, or he could’ve gone at Lilly instead.... but no, his first instinct was to grab Ben and move himself in front and it really fucking sucks that that’s what killed him. 

And y’know this isn’t the first time Doug has put himself in danger to save someone. I already talked about him saving everyone at the dairy, but can we not forget how he and Carley met? She was gonna get eaten by walkers then our big hero Doug came in and saved her?? Didn’t know her or anything, just saw her and her crew getting attacked and did what he could to save any survivors?? 

Like... no one talks about that because it’s so played off and never brought up again and I need everyone to remember this, okay? 

Doug selflessly putting himself in danger to help those around him? Fantastic. Beautiful. Love that.

1. Look, Doug himself is just #1. His personality, intelligence, everything.

Wow, Doug’s personality being the #1 reason he’s so great? Who woulda thought?

Well, ME woulda thought because obviously.

Listen... in case you haven’t gather this from the previous four entries, Doug is an intelligent, awkward, caring, selfless, funny, and brave man, okay? He’s likable, he tries his damnedest to pull his weight for the group, he shows actual loyalty and kindness unlike some people, and when he tends to avoid the constant Lilly and Kenny conflicts, he does his best to step in when things take a serious turn, hence the Ben situation. 

No to mention the dude is smart. 

I mean, he really took a random remote and was like, “Oh it’s universal, let me just program it to work on ALL the random TV’s across the street as a way to distract these walkers!” like dude.... you just know how to do that, huh? 

Or his fun little bell trap that alerts the groups of strangers and walkers? Oh, and remember when he fixed the RV by hitting it with a fucking hammer and was like “It works now, drive!” 

And have I mentioned that he bested Andy St John with a goddamn laser pointer?? 

Oh, also wanna add that I really like his voice acting, as well. He’s voiced by Sam Joan, who does a good job at selling Doug’s soft-spoken but intelligent nature, and knows how to pull off “dorky” when needed... and I mean that in a good way, when he’s talking about charcoal Doug is being a dork and I love him.

I mean... what else is there to say?

All that’s left to do is pull a Telltale and--

#SaveDoug

---

Honorable Mentions

-Doug is a pie guy, going off of that time he named all the different kinds of pie he could thing of and I feel that.  -He’s a very fashionable person. I want that weird polar bear deer thing shirt he wears in ep1.  -also, you can’t go wrong with socks and sandals, my dude.  -He had a crush on Carley and honestly, I feel that, too. 

---

There it is, there’s my whole thing about Doug. What are your thoughts? When it comes to that choice in ep1 of s1, do you save Doug or do you save Carley? Do you agree or disagree with any of my choices for this list? Or have anything to add? I’m always down to chat.

Have any suggestions for future T5F’s? Feel free to send ‘em in! :D

—

Next week’s T5F

[tttinytrash]

A prompt from the legendary Shy! I decided to go with this one first because the most ideas to fill in the framework they so kindly provided sprung to mind immediately, but expect the other two they sent along at some point soon. I took the liberty of picking Classic and Underfell Sans for the cast, but the nicknames will probably have made that clear anyhow. I tried to change it up and made the prey brave rather than the nervous wreck I often default to, so hopefully that pans out. Enjoy!

Nerds really do have more fun.

You’re not entirely sure how your socially inept self had made friends as good as these two, but your life had definitely improved exponentially after their addition to it. Red and Classic were both skeletons, but that was immaterial to your friendship with the two.

For the moment you three were tinkering away in the lab the university provided for your research. You were attempting to make a version of the monsters’ inventories that was more accessible for humans, or a TARDIS pocket as Classic had taken to calling the project. You couldn’t argue the accuracy of the comparison, though the name would sadly have to change for copyright purposes at some point. The idea was to make a pocket that was larger on the inside, thereby vastly increasing storage capabilities for the denizens of the world without magical capabilities.

Classic was at the far workbench, going over the calculations yet again while you and Red were closer to the machine actually intended to form the dimensional pockets. The burned scraps of a grocery tote bag, the cremated remains of your latest failed attempt, hung in place in the machine for now despite the machine not being active. Red was shoulders deep in the thing, checking that the soldering on the wires were holding after another failed test. You were busy removing the latest scorches from the machine’s plating when you heard the dull hum start. 

You glanced over at saw the machine had started trying to form another rift, without any kind of vessel and without any of you having activated it. Worse, two thirds of the team was not even remotely beyond the safety perimeter! You didn’t even think, you just grabbed Red by the pelvis and dragged him out of the machine. You didn’t even process what he was saying, nor his angry tone as you bundled him up bridal style and bolted from the danger zone. 

You were almost in the clear when you heard the explosion behind you and felt the searing heat on your back. Well, as least you’d gotten your more sturdy human body between your 1HP monster companion and the blast, you had time to think. 

The pain ebbed as quickly as it came and you felt like you were in freefall...

-----

Red really didn’t know what the hell had just happened. 

He’d felt the human yank him out of the maintenance hatch, and the glow and crackling of building energy he could get from over their shoulder as they ran clued him in roughly and mollified his annoyance in favor of concern. Then there was heat and he felt his body fall to the floor like a puppet with its strings cut. Classic had been far enough away from the blast to be unharmed, and therefore was free to rush over to where Red lay. 

He groaned as the unharmed skeleton arrived, not missing the other’s visual sweep of his body for injury or dust. 

“are you ok? where’s y/n?” Classic asked.

Red’s skull whipped back, not finding the human on the floor with him as he’d expected. “i-i dunno! y/n?!”

“Here...” came the weak reply. 

Both skeletons homed in on the source quickly, which was oddly Red’s chest.

A tiny human lay on Red’s sternum sprawled as if having fallen. Y/n was severely reduced in size and dazed, but awake an aware much to both skeletons’ visible relief. Red scooped the sluggish human into his hands and did a Check on them. Their HP had definitely taken a hit, but they weren’t in the red. (Heh, nickname pun.)

The trio was collectively baffled, but the relief that everyone was ok for the most part was palpable. They now had the fun task of figuring out how to reverse this change. Oh. And the machine was smoldering, so that probably should be addressed too. This to do list was quickly looking very not fun.

-----

It was agreed upon (more like accepted, really) that a shrunken human really couldn’t live on their own in a house without any adaptations for such a small person. In the long term (Delta forbid this persisted long enough to need a long term solution) adjustments to your house could be arranged. In the short term, the skeleton pair would take turns hosting their human friend at their houses. 

Classic took the first night, as he and Vanilla (his brother) had a place closer than Red and his bro, Edge. At the moment, Vanilla was out of the house at a sleepover (arranged before the incident) with Undyne. This left Classic and the human alone, and eventually watching TV together. 

You had been set up with a fluffy hand towel for a blanket and set atop a pillow. Your pillow was on the couch cushion besides Classic, who sprawled with the grace of a sack of potatoes on his corner of the couch as he watched the cheesy sci-fi flick on screen. You were both making jokes throughout the movie, but as the night drew on and the ambient temperature dropped, you found your towel wasn’t quite warm enough. 

You were waiting for a break in dialogue to ask for another towel, but Classic beat you to it. He looked over as if he were about to crack a joke at the expense of the movie again, noticed your huddled posture, and paused the movie. “you cold, kiddo?”

“Yeah, a bit. Are there any more towels I could pile on, maybe?”

“i’ll do ya one better, c’mere.” He offered a flat palm, waiting patiently for you to board.

You didn’t really have to hesitate, trusting the guy already and curiosity spurred you on as well. He gently lifted you and your towel, dumped the pillow on the floor absently, and moved to sprawl flat over the whole couch instead. This left his chest as a flat plane, on which you were gently deposited.

You sat there, surprised at the new level of contact. Sure, you three nerds had crammed yourselves onto the loveseat at your place to watch TV or game together and ended up with hips mildly wedged against each other and shoulders bumping, but that was the closest you’d ever been. To now be seated on Classic’s sternum was new territory. 

“go ahead, get comfy and lay down. i don’t mind.” he encouraged. 

You took his advice, curling on your side facing the TV, towel still tented around you. Classic increased the warmth his body offered even more by taking the liberty to partially zip his ever-present blue jacket up to the point that your body was zipped in, but your head was outside the confines of the giant garment.

“better?” he asked.

“Yeah, much warmer.” You could easily affirm. 

While this was new territory, his casual attitude towards the whole thing dissipated the awkwardness you were feeling. Without that feeling, you really found you couldn’t complain. You liked cuddling anyhow, so finding a friend was also up for that was a boon in your book. 

The movie resumed without further incident, though you may or may not have totally fallen asleep on your friend. Eh, he didn’t seem to mind.

-----

It’d been a couple of weeks since the incident at the lab, and today was Red’s day for hosting y/n. Red was playing a campaign in a very story based game, with the human watching from their perch on his shoulder while Classic lounged on the other side of the couch. Playthroughs of games like this were common with their group, and the three would usually switch off who had the controller each session with the other two chipping in and offering advice. 

The biggest difference now was that y/n couldn’t take their turn with the controller, but they seemed content to snuggle into the fluff of Red’s hood, relishing in the warmth of their position by his cervical vertebrae. Ever since becoming small, they hadn’t been able to maintain their heat as well once the sun went down.

“I think I saw something on your left.” they offered. 

Red panned the camera that way to find an enemy, which was swiftly dealt with.

“thanks, pipsqueak.” Red said as he collected the dropped loot.

“No problem. Hey, do you think you could get the bathroom door for me?”

“oh, sure.” he paused the game and crossed over to the bathroom. He gently cupped the human into his hands and gingerly set them on the floor just before the threshold. Inside there was a bathroom setup of bitty furniture, an investment that had been made early on for each of the skeletons’ houses. Once they went inside, he closed the door without catching the latch so they could push it open once they were done. 

In the meantime, he approached the couch again where he saw Classic grinning at him.

“the hell you looking at?” Red groused.

Classic chuckled “a softy.”

Red felt the light blush on his face, much to his chagrin “shut the hell up. s’not like you aint doing the same damn thing.”

“well yeah, but i don’t try to claim i’m not a softy.”

Red groaned as he flopped petulantly onto the couch. “can’t help it, they’re just so small. plus, this is all my fault anyhow.”

“woah, what?” Classic sat up straighter, humor gone from his voice. “what do you mean, your fault?”

“i was fucking with the wiring when the machine started up. it had to be something i did that caused it to go haywire and blast them. least i can do is help em out when they need it.”

Classic was about to address the mountain of guilt Red had built upon himself, but was cut off by a growl from Red’s stomach.

“you hungry?” Classic asked, though Red knew he already had the answer to that question based on the tone. 

Red buried his face in his hands, responding “no, and the human aint gonna believe the ‘i just need a snack’ lie forever. i just wanna protect them so damn bad.”

“yeah, they’re too smart for us. plus, i’ve been using the same lie.”

Red unburied his face, asking “instinct is cropping up for you too, eh?”

“yeah. especially since they get so cold at night. it went downhill fast as soon as i realized we had an easy fix.”

“tell me about it. they were so uncomfortable when they first changed, i didn’t wanna add to the discomfort by asking them about it.”

“well, the machine is back in one piece now so we can start working to reverse this mess come monday when the university lets us back in.”

“yeah, thank delta for that.”

Neither one realized that the human had heard some of their conversation from the bathroom, nor that they refused to accept their friends were apparently hiding something from them. 

The human became determined to confront this issue that very night.

-----

Classic had gone home by now and you were settled in your bed, more of a nest of towels and an electric heated blanket than a real bed. Nest was probably a better term. 

Red hadn’t come into the room yet (you slept in the same room as him so he could help you off the desk and to the bathroom if you needed to make a trip in the middle of the night) so you instead thought about what you’d overheard and what you were going to say. You’d caught only snippets due to distance, knowing something about an instinct they were both trying to hide from you, and you’d also heard “all my fault” and desperately wanted to address that if it was regarding you, which the conversation had seemed to.

Your planning was cut short when he entered, in a loose black muscle tank and flannel PJ bottoms pattered with jolly roger flags flying over a grey background. He flopped onto the bed without ceremony amongst his tangled blankets and immediately started scrolling on his phone. 

You steeled yourself a moment before calling for his attention, leaving your nest behind on the beside table to approach the skeleton closer. “Hey, Red?”

He put down his phone, looking at you with a questioning grunt.

“I wasn’t trying to eavesdrop, but I heard you and Classic earlier...”

Red looked mildly alarmed “what exactly did you hear?”

“Enough to know you guys are hiding things from me, and it sounded like it was about me. And something about this being ‘all your fault’?”

Red sat up leaving his face a little higher than you, and only a foot of distance from your perch to his shoulder. “yeah, well it is my fault. since i was the one tinkering, the machine had to have been fucked up by me. and now...” he gestured limply at you. “i’m gonna do my damndest to fix it, but i hate that i did this at all.”

“Cut the crap.”

Red looked as if he’d been slapped. He instantly went from hunched and quiet, reluctant to open up to you at all (probably only caving so early knowing you would keep badgering), to sitting straight up, eyes locked on you in obvious shock.

“This was an accident. No one is at fault.” you stated emphatically.

He looked ready to protest, eyebrows tilting down almost as if angry.

You cut him off again. “You never intended for this to happen. I don’t hold you responsible, or anyone else for that matter. But that doesn’t even matter. You just said you were going to fix it. That matters way more than fretting over the past we can’t change. No more self pity. Not allowed. Got it, mister?” You wagged a finger at him, refusing to be the one to break eye contact.

Red’s expression had mollified during your response, and he was the one who lost the game of eye contact chicken when he changed focus onto his folded hands in his lap. “forgot how much spunk you have, looks like the size change didn’t touch that.” he laughed a little.

“You mean you forgot what made us become friends in the first place? I’m hurt, Red.” You feigned pain, placing your hands over your heart.

His laugh was stronger this time “sorry, pipsqueak. won’t make that mistake again.” He ruffled your hair with a two fingers, which got you laughing too as you batted his invading phalanges away.

“you win. i’ll try to focus on fixing, not shitting on myself. fair deal?”

“Sounds good to me, bud.”

You two lapsed into silence.

You felt accomplished, but only half of your mystery had been solved. you decided to risk it and push farther. You’d back off if he resisted though, as you knew opening up at all was asking a lot of your somewhat emotionally constipated friend. “So... what was the instinct you two kept referring to?”

“damn, you’re relentless tonight!” he laughed again, flopping back onto his pillow.

“Well it’s got my two best friends in a twist over it, I wanna know what the hell is going on!” you defend, happy to keep up the more teasing tone.

“fine, fine. but you asked for it.”

“Yeah, yeah, lay it on me!”

He barked a laugh, “alright, pipsqueak. there’s a protective instinct that can rear up among monsters who’re less flesh based. it’s been triggered by your small size and our desire to help, but basically we wanna take you in.”

“Ya lost me right at the end, there.”

“figured i would. skeletons, and some other races of monsters, have the ability to take other creatures inside their own body harmlessly. more specifically, it’d be me and classic fighting the urge to eat you, but safely.”

“Safely.... eat?” The humor left your tone completely.

The humor was gone in his too, saying “yeah, that’s why we didn’t say anything. that reaction right there. but yes, basically eat minus the chewing bit. it’s safe and you’d be let out later, but the idea is to put us between you and danger. pretty damn literally. but a fleshbag like you wouldn’t be a fan and we both knew that going in. now ya know.” he looked away again, not so much looking at anything but apparently not wanting to look at you.

You thought back to all the times you’d caught either of them trying to sneak stomach growls past you or how oddly often they’d been claiming they’d needed a snack, or even that one time Red had tried (and failed) to play off getting caught wiping drool away. It all clicked into place and made so much more sense. But far more importantly, you didn’t like the resigned tone in his voice. 

You took a moment to process the new information in stifling silence, then asked “So... you thought I wouldn’t trust you?”

“what?” Red’s skull whipped around to fix you with a baffled look. “that’s not even close to what i said. i just meant it’d be pretty fuckin’ weird to you.”

“Yeah, well I went and made friends with two monsters after having shit luck with humans. I’d say I’m pretty open to new and weird.”

Red just blinked at you.

“If you want to, I’m unopposed. Go for it. You said it was triggered by a desire to help, and that it was safe. I trust you.”

Red’s brows were knit, sockets squinted a bit at you as he sat up. He stared you down like that, feeling like he was looking for the “gotcha” or any fear. You stared right back with nothing to hide, you weren’t afraid and didn’t want to take back what you’d said.

“yer sure?” he asked, sounding suspicious. 

“Yep.” You popped the P for emphasis.

“alright. i’ll let you out when you change your mind.” he shrugged, holding a hand out for you to board. 

You took that comment as a challenge and sat on his metacarpals confidently.

He brought you up toward his face while his free hand reached up from behind you, wrapping around your ribs under the arms. Using the new grip, he lifted you over his upturned face with your bare feet dangling in thin air over his opening mouth.

Ok, maybe your confidence had left a little. Your legs tucked up a bit in instinct, but you didn’t struggle when he guided your lower limbs into his mouth. You fought the urge to cringe away at the odd slick feeling of your feet sliding along his thick red tongue, or even more so at the feeling of his throat around your lower legs. 

You still trusted Red, that wasn’t the issue, so you decided to fight your instincts just as your friends had been fighting theirs and refused to show any fear. 

You pulled your arms in close to your chest when his grasping fingers left, and looked upwards as the world was sealed off by a wall of sharp teeth. Thankfully Red didn’t leave you waiting long, as a wet gulping sound drew your upper legs down with a surprisingly strong force. You clenched your teeth at that, barely keeping in the yelp of surprise. Another two gulps followed in quick succession, drawing your whole body into his waiting throat. The tissue around you pressed in, pushing you ever downward. 

For a brief moment during your decent, you felt a warm tingling sensation akin to the light buzz you felt the few times you’d come into contact with a magical construct (Red had lobbed a bone attack at you when you’d be particularly snarky a time or two, usually blue so you didn’t get hurt.) This tingle was much stronger, and you couldn’t describe it any better than saying it felt like Red. ...was that his soul? 

Your musing was cut off shortly after the buzz of magic left and you found yourself kicking a little in surprise when your legs had room to move. The rest of you spilled into the open space a moment later. 

You felt a bit dazed as you just sat there a moment. You were somewhat pulled back down to earth as you felt a pressure coming from outside. It was immediately obvious the pressure was his hand pressing in at you, and the hand started moving, rubbing you from outside in soothing circles, slowly moving up and down your back. Even if you were out of it, you had the wherewithal to realize that was incredibly cute. 

“alright, buyer’s remorse set in?” he asked.

“No...” you breathed, not quite done processing your current situation.

“you ok in there?” his tone was more concerned, the rubbing stopped but the pressure of his hand remained.

“Y-yeah!” You shook your head as if that would help clear the fog, clicking back into reality. “I’m ok. Wow, this is just... a lot.”

“sure you don’t want out?”

“Do you want me out?”

“...didn’t say that...” he mumbled.

You laughed, which earned you a half hearted growl.

“Hey, is it ok if I move around a little? I really want to, uh, check the place out now that I’m here if that’s cool.”

“oh, sure. i don’t care.”

He removed his hand, which left you free to experiment. Call it childish if you wanted, but you really wanted to feel out your new surroundings in an exceedingly literal sense.

-----

Holy shit this went so much better than he’d ever thought it’d go. The human was inside, no panic, and their soul had settled from the anxiety he’d been feeling during their decent. Guess they’d gone and proven him and Classic wrong. Again. Maybe he should expect that by now.

For now he laid back, feeling them slide back to the new lowest point as he got comfortable. He also very much heard their tiny squeak when they startled at the movement, which brought out a smile on him. He felt them quickly readjust, then felt a small point of pressure pushing outwards. A tiny moving bump raised in his shirt, showing where their small hands were pushing out. He didn’t protest, finding this all quite amusing.

On a whim, he used two fingers to push at that little raised bump. He heard them laugh, and then the bump showed up on a new spot, disappeared, and showed up again in yet another. This was a bizarre version of whack a mole, but he did play along until they ended the game with a breathy giggle. 

They were moving again, probably trying to stand given the two distinct points of pressure. They slowly wobbled a few steps before he distinctly felt the impact of them falling over. 

He laughed aloud at the “I’m good!” they called out.

Their movements inside were calm, but distinctly curious. It was all highly endearing on top of feeling good. The quieting of the protective instinct at last was also a welcome absence, leaving him feeling comfortable and secure. He didn’t really try all that hard to stifle his subsequent yawn. 

The responding, smaller yawn from inside was a bit of a surprise.

“tired?”

“We were getting ready for bed, dingus.”

“fair point. we turning this into a sleepover or you going back to your own bed?”

There was a pause, then “Fuck it, sleepover.”

“fine by me, pipsqueak. g’night.”

“Goodnight, bonehead.”

He felt their weight settle, then relax as they slipped into sleep. He decided to follow them, hands folded over his stomach to protect the precious cargo inside.

[dat-carovieh]

Got some interpretation on Hank’s character that got prompted by some discussion on Discord about the stickers on Hank’s work desk. They all seem to somehow send a message about some boomer guy who is racist about androids, hates his ex-wife, is in general a grumpy asshole who is a prick to everyone. But is he really and if not, how do you explain the stickers?

So, let’s first have a look at who Hank interacts with throughout the game to see if he really is a grumpy prick like the stickers suggest. We will get to the stickers later. I will not include Connor for now, because I think that has been talked about a lot also this post is already a novel. But let’s talk about side characters.

We have of course his co-workers. Most memorable is probably Gavin. He clearly doesn’t like Gavin and Gavin clearly doesn’t like him. Gavin is pretty shitty to Hank, despite Hank being his superior. So I think Hank calling Gavin an asshole and not being friendly with him makes sense. How about other co-workers, we don’t see a lot. I can only think of Ben and Chris. They seem to be respecting each other. In Partners Hank arrives, gets greeted by Ben, has a polite conversation about what happened, Ben teases him a little, Hank does not get rude about it, maybe a bit grumpy, but well he’s annoyed about his new partner. He than walks around the crime scene and asks questions. When he talks, he is polite to the person he talks to. He talks to Chris in public enemy (Please excuse if I forget instances, I have played the game a couple of times, but my brain isn’t perfect) He enters, he makes a joke, in my opinion it’s funny and in no way rude, he’s annoyed with the FBI, yeah but I think that’s normal. He asks Chris questions, listens to him, polite conversation, they seem to clearly respect each other and have a good and professional relationship. Later Hank is clearly really affected by what happened to Chris, no matter if he got killed or not.

Jeffrey is a little harder. They do yell at each other, it’s not really pretty, there are clearly issues between them. They go way back and I can imagine they butt heads a lot because Jeffrey is disappointed in Hank for letting himself go and giving in to his depression and alcoholism. I can imagine he had tried to help Hank and he resisted a lot, Hank seems like the type. So there is a lot of tension that comes out between them.

I mentioned the FBI earlier, so clearly, we have to talk about Perkins, THAT MOTHER FUCKER. Yeah, I hate him, he’s an asshole, Hank thinks the same. But honestly Perkins was super rude from the beginning. Chris introduced them and instead of a “Hello” or whatever his first words were “What is that” about Connor. Yeah, fuck off Perkins. Hank has actually been really polite with him there, if you take in the circumstances.

Let’s move to the Eden Club. Who does he interact here? Ben, briefly, polite professional, he calls Gavin an asshole, when he’s not there, he doesn’t really say anything to Gavin when they’re in the same room, despite Gavin being a little shit again. Eden Club owner? He’s polite as he questions him, he does mention that he likes his dog more and more the more he learns about humans, which honestly, if you look at why he says that, understandable. Then the Traci, this is easily missed, I only saw it on my fourth playthrough, he is trying to gently let her down and it’s incredibly adorable. The guy who supposedly absolutely hates Androids and thinks they’re just machines tries to not hurt this android sexworker’s feelings even though he believes she doesn’t even have feelings.

We see a little bit of his private life at Chicken Feed where he meets Pedro, a guy who apparently gives him questionable betting advice and last time Hank apparently lost quite a bit of money with Pedro’s advice. But he’s not mad. He mentions it but he is quickly convinced to bet again and he’s in general super friendly to Pedro. Gary, the guy who owns Chicken Feed, him and Hank also seem to have a good relationship. Someone who wouldn’t want to interact with humans and who is annoyed by them (like me sometimes) wouldn’t actually built a connection to the guy you buy your food from. I’m talking from personal experience here. Yes, I’m always friendly to service workers I interact with but I don’t really say more than greeting, thanking, wishing a good day and anything important for whatever I’m buying. Hank clearly knows him better and talks to him. Jimmy is less clear but the way he says to him “Wonders of technology, make it double” it seems like they know each other, they chat on occasion. And I think that extends to other Service workers. He would be friendly at the grocery store when something doesn’t work out r at the restaurant when getting the wrong dish. You know like millennials are, because he is a millennial.

That we go to Kamski. I’m not sure why he seems nervous while talking to Chloe because I’m pretty sure with all his experience he doesn’t get nervous in front of a pretty woman, that seems like it would be really bad for the job. I don’t know what’s with this, maybe cause she’s an android and he’s not sure how to interact with her? But he is very polite to her, greets her and asks for Kamski. Despite her being an android, he supposedly hates. He is less polite to Kamski, but he’s a little shit, who honestly is wilfully withholding information from the police, which is a crime, but he’s rich so I guess he gets away with it.

 So, what about the Stickers than? Let’s have a look at the Stickers and see what we have.

I’m just gonna list what we see there, so you don’t have to get through my grainy screenshots and also, it’s accessible for screenreaders.

We have three categories, let’s start with anti Android: -“We don’t bleed the same color” -a blue triangle, crossed out, underneath it says: “No more androids”

That’s it, only two, we know he doesn’t like androids but like mentioned before he is still really polite to them, well his relationship with Connor is starting bumpy and based on player choices might get bumpier. But what is it, he hates? He doesn't like androids in their non-deviated state because of what humans want them to be, he hates that humans basically built human shaped slaves. And honestly, I kinda get it. Connor shoots the Tracis? Hank likes Connor less. Hank shoots Chloe, Hank is mad. Connor spares them? Hank tells him he did the right thing. Connor asked him why he didn’t want him to chase Kara across the highway and the first thing he says is “You could have died” before he remembers he’s supposed to hate androids. Yes, he gives positive feedback when Connor shoots the kitchen android but he was actively threatening all of their lifes.

Next, we have a sticker mentioning an ex-wife, only one. It says: “If I wanted to be ignored I’d talk to my ex-wife” There is something else there but it’s blocked by another sticker.

Seems like classical boomer humour “Haha I hate my ex-wife” or it’s ironic. There is no other instance of an ex-wife being mentioned. For all we know, he might have never been married. Hell he might be gay. Cole might have been adopted. The sticker might be ironic. Or he got it from somewhere and just sticked it on or he did it very shortly after the breakup when he was pretty mad.

Third are the grumpy ones. We have more from them. -“If you’re not a bartender, go away!” twice -“How is my driving? Call: 1-555-IDONTCARE” twice -I’m not grumpy. I just don’t like you.” -“Warning, to avoid injury, don’t tell me how to do my job” -“If you have a complaint, please do to hell.” -“Happy people make me sick”

This screams edgy millennial to me. Also the fact he has stickers twice seems like he just got them somewhere and slapped them on because he found them funny. He didn’t buy them specifically.

The bartender ones? Don’t we all like to make fun of our mental illnesses? He knows he’s an alcoholic, might as well make fun about it. The ones about driving? Wouldn’t you stick them on your car? Why is this in the office? Because they’re stupid but somehow funny, just slap them on there. I’m not grumpy? I would totally say that as well. And I believe people told them he’s grumpy so he probably saw this as fitting. I have to admit I don’t have a specific interpretation to telling him hoe to do his job and the complaint one. The one about happy people? This man is heavily depressed, that’s a coping mechanism, it’s again making fun of your own mental illness. But yes, all in all they boil down to edgy millennial.

 I’m well aware that this is probably not what David Cage intended but to be honest I don’t care what David Cage intended. He tried to push boomer Hank on us with these stickers but the Hank we got was different. I don’t know if that’s Clancy’s doing or if this is just another plothole. But that is my interpretation of Hank, nobody asked for.

Anyway, I love Hank and I’m making it everyone’s problem.

[bearpillowmonster]

Tomb Raider Anniversary Review (Wii)

For those who haven't read my PC review, might be confused, so check that out here.

So how's this compared to the PC version?

Controls are still a bit unsavory because some stuff is mapped to the D-Pad which can be kind of hard to use when the remote is vertical. Moving the camera is also kind of like that by holding the C-button on the nunchuck and pointing the Wii remote where you want to look but at least you can see where you're jumping this time. I guess camera's just a Tomb Raider Anniversary curse.

Instead of just levers, there are little knicks and knacks like 'rubs' which sounds wrong but they're inscriptions that you can dust off like a DS game and run charcoal over them to get an imprint and match them up on a wheel. There are also a few more types of collectibles through that. You can chip away at the wall using a pick and cement knife to pick up your relics rather than just picking them up off the floor, same locations though. The gears are always right there on the floor though and 9/10 it'll be the same solution. And there's this funny drawing puzzle where you have to make symbols but they're really just squiggly lines.

I won't bother mentioning what's the same because most of it is, but I didn't get as many enemies getting stuck or even Lara for that matter, it was all mostly normal.

Framerate takes a dip but that's to be expected. Locking on seems a bit tougher because you actually have to aim at the enemies so there's no "up close and personal shooting mode" anymore. There's a flashlight now so some places are darker than before and QTEs are motion based. Wolves and stuff can grab onto you and you have to shake the nunchuck to get them off.

The dinosaur battle is a bit middling because in the original (PS1), you just fight it. In this one, you 'can' do that but it's going to be super annoying and long so they added the gimmick that you need to dodge at just the right time and let it hit these spike things but it relies solely on the dodge ability, you can't jump behind these spike logs so it turns out pretty cheesy. This was for both games but it's really disappointing to have a scene that iconic just be kind of limp. But at least you hear the gun through the Wii remote, there's that.

Take it from someone who bought the game twice because he wanted to like it but thought it was just the version he was playing, I label it as a bad game. Worst Tomb Raider I've played so far (not that I've played that many).

Was it worth it though? Yeah, kind of, now I know it wasn't just the version. What took me 2 hours in the Wii version took me four days to complete on PC, not just because it was my first playthrough but because it took so long to get it to work correctly. (I was in St. Francis Folly for reference) So I got to play the game a bit easier at times but it ended up evening out with annoying jumps that I knew how to make but just couldn't execute due to the Wii or bad level design (like the mapping I mentioned in the PC review). I saw enough potential in it enough to play it but it just didn't live up to that overall, too many things bogging it down. It seems (though outdated) the original PS1 game has this beat in very many aspects but I'm done trying to live through this again.

[purity-town]

Whoops, didn’t mean to post this so late. Time’s gotten away from me this week, haha. Anyways, a few ask replies are below the cut!

Aw, I’m glad you’re enjoying the comic! It’s the best feeling knowing that folks are liking what I’m putting out. ^^

And yep, bosses are being done in order! I’ll list them out below with how I’m handling each of them for simplicity’s sake:

King Slime -- Will be mentioned, but won’t appear. Probably defeated by a previous hero? I’m not sure, but Chris won’t be fighting it.

Eye of Cthulhu -- The first boss Chris fights.

Eater of Worlds -- Most likely an on-screen boss fight? I’m debating.

Brain of Cthulhu -- This is a Corruption world, so it’s not included.

Queen Bee -- Mentioned, though cut for time.

Skeletron -- Plot important boss battle!

Wall of Flesh -- Also plot important boss battle; actually one of the first scenes I had figured out for the comic, haha.

Mech Bosses/Plantera/Golem -- These most likely will be fought, but I’m not sure how I’ll be handling them. The Mechs at least are plot relevant, we’ll see about the other two.

Optional Hardmode Bosses -- Queen Slime, Duke Fishron, etc. will be cut for time.

Event Bosses -- Things like the Pumpkin/Frost Moon and so on won’t be included.

Other Events -- Solar eclipse, blood moon, etc.; may or may not be included depending on how the story flows with them.

Lunatic Cultist/Celestial Events/Moon Lord -- again, plot important.

Do keep in mind that the above is subject to some change depending on what I want to include, as well as just what I want to be on/off screen. I never really know how I’m going to handle something until I’m actually writing/drafting/sketching that chapter, save for a few scenes that I’ve had planned from the beginning, haha.

Firstly, 🎉🎉🎉 for 200 followers!!!

And as for the question -- it’s a really long story actually, haha. Hence why I’m putting this ask last.

So, I’ve owned a copy of Terraria on Steam since early 2016; I had bought another game and needed something cheap to finish off the gift card. Spent like five minutes on it, said no thanks, and went on. Opened it again a few years later, played for an hour and got frustrated at the controls/opening doors/not understanding tools and put it down again. I only got into it come 1.4 -- having access to journey mode meant I had a lot more freedom to do what I wanted, and since I had previously played a little, I was no longer totally confused by the game.

I went through my first playthrough pretty much blind, and had a lot of fun! I tend to make up little stories while playing open world games, and since I only started playing Terraria after the NPC happiness mechanic came out, I put a lot of effort into getting everyone little houses with their friends and such. I put in a few dozen hours, had a blast, and that was that.

Because it was my first playthrough, I was mostly relying on the Guide and a boss progression list I had pulled up on my phone to get through the game, though to figure out housing I ended up spending a while screwing around on the NPC pages, and realized...hey! Terraria doesn’t have *much* of a story, but it does have enough content to work with.

And then I spent an evening putting together a 20 page document about the game’s lore and characters because I wanted to share my latest fixation with my partner, but didn’t want to annoy them. I don’t recall if they ever did read it -- I think they did? -- but the point is that I had it, and started playing around with the idea of writing a little fanfic based off of it. I planned a few things out, but didn’t end up writing any of it, and then shelved the idea after a little bit.

After that I went through a phase of doing a lot of commissions to get some money for college shopping, then classes started and I was busy, then I got really into HLVRAI, etc. etc. Finally, someone I used to watch years and years ago on youtube posted a Frankenstein: A New Musical animatic. I said “cool!” and then Frankenstein was my latest fixation. I found someone on Tumblr (@/reanimationstation) who draws a lot of Frankenstein art, saw they were doing a cute little gothic lit slice of life comic, and said...hey, comics are pretty neat! What if I did one? I had been recently thinking about my Terraria story, that could be fun to mess with.

So, I drew a two-page comic with the Guide and Old Man talking about their curses, posted it to Reddit, and got tons of nice comments and PMs from people saying that they really liked it and hoped I did some more. I had mentioned it was part of an old fic of mine (I was still debating picking it back up and writing it at the time), and people interpreted that as there being more to the comic. There wasn’t, but I figured: eh, why not? I’ll go for ten pages, enough to squish in a whole first chapter if I keep it short, and if I don’t like it, I’ll stop. I’d always wanted to do a webcomic, after all. This could be fun.

And you know what? It has been fun! I need to get better at managing my time most certainly, since pages take so long, but it’s also serving as a way for me to actually be forced to improve, haha. I can already see how much my style has changed since the first chapter, just from the weekly drawings! Plus, I really do love the characters, haha. It’s been a good while since I’ve been so passionate about stuff like this, and while I don’t post them, I do pretty often write goofy ficlets about the characters just to work on their “voices” and all that. Mostly about Andrew and Chris, since they’ll have the most screen time, so to speak, but overall whatever my latest silly idea is.

So, yeah! Just a bunch of things coming together in such a way that I ended up doing a comic.

[blarfkey]

for the ship ask meme - Reylo and Shay/Solas, hit me! :D

Reylo:

What made you ship it?

Listen, I’m always a sucker for villain ships. But that scene where he knocks her out in TFA an carries her BRIDAL STYLE to his ship. And the scene where he immediately takes off his mask when she says she hates it and it makes her afraid? That was it for me. And TLJ only made it even stronger.

What are your favorite things about the ship?

I love that the entire time he’s known her, he’s admired her. Even when she’s trying to kill him on StarKiller Base he offers to be her teacher and I don’t think that has to do entirely with Snoke’s wishes for her. He says she could be turned so that Snoke would want to spare her life.

I also love how soft he is with her. He rages and screams and fights everyone else, but he’s always quiet with her. In their force connection sessions, she’s spitting venom and he’s engaging back with utter calm. You can tell that no matter what she says to him, he is always happy to see her. And at the end, when she looks at him from the lift of the Falcon and he’s kneeling on the floor in the rebel base, he looks up at her with regret and guilt. He’s not angry even though he should be, even though he was earlier.

I think she is someone who doesn’t want anything from him, doesn’t have any expectations from him, and he needs that from someone

Is there an unpopular opinion you have on your ship?

Lol, oh yeah. Now, I by no means want any censorship on fic. But I have to say that I really really hate the fics, whether it’s AU or otherwise, that make Kylo/Ben into some kind of obsessive stalker, or cruel sadist, or a rapist, or inherently violent with her. And it wouldn’t really bother me if those didn’t make up a huge amount of the fics about them. He’s an antagonist, he does shitty things, but I never saw him as outright villainous, like Snoke or Palpatine, and I wish there were more fics that explored the nuance of his character rather than having an OC with basically his name slapped on it for the purpose of a dark fantasy.

Like I said, I’m not advocating that these fics are bad and shouldn’t exist. I just don’t get why it feels like they are the majority of the “popular” fics to me and its’ frustrating trying to filter them out.

Solas X Cadash

What made you ship it?

I love dwarves, okay? And the first playthrough of Dragon Age, I tried like hell to get with the mysterious apostate elf and he would have nothing to do with me and I was outraged, haha. So I replayed as an elf just to see what it was like and I was even more outraged.

I also don’t like feeling like Solas would only be attracted to someone who fits a strict standard of beauty that I am so sick of seeing in media regardless and the fact that I’m supposed to have a lot of freedom of choice in DA and still get slapped with the “Solas wouldn’t want anyone who isn’t exactly like him or taller/thinner/conventionally beautiful” just enrages with me.

It’s not my fantasy to have an OC/player insert that is everything I can’t be in the real world be romanced by a character I like because it’s just demoralizing to have that message that I have to be an ideal before I’m worthy.  It’s my fantasy to be romanced exactly as I look like in this world because I’m still valuable without being conventionally beautiful.

What do you like about it?

I like that Solas has very few ways to push a dwarf aside and put distance between them. A dwarf is as neutral as you can get with him. They aren’t necessarily raised with the Chantry’s fear of magic, they don’t have a complicated and fucked up history with elves, he can’t be superior with them like he is with the Dalish or the Qunari. The balcony scene with a dwarf is the least insulting because he doesn’t really have anything beyond the fact that dwarves don’t dream, except this dwarf does. So I feel like he could have a romance that isn’t hindered or colored by negative perceptions that you have to hurdle through the way he can be with a human or Dalish or Qunari.

At least, that’s how I wrote it.

Unpopular Opinion about the ship

Um . . .that there isn’t enough of it? Idk if there is an unpopular opinion because you have to be popular first, haha. But I do feel like some people shy away from dwarf characters because you can’t make them tall and thin and conventionally beautiful and some people are desperate for that because they haven’t accepted the way they look IRL. Not everyone, of course. Some people just don’t think dwarves are interesting and that’s fine! But I do think there’s a connection between a dwarf being thicker and stouter and shorter than what is generally considered attractive and the severe lack of dwarf OCs that I see in fandom compared to humans or elves or even Qunari.

And if that makes me sound kind of stuck up then . . .oh well, I’m kind of stuck up. Do I wish I could be thinner/healthier/in shape? Of course. But I know I have value outside of the way I look and I like to have characters that go against this ingrained message that we have to be beautiful according to an unrealistic standard in order to be the heroes of our story and dwarf characters are as close as I can get to that.

[laytonloztew]

I Played: Verloren, Living Playground: The Witch's Puppets

I've been meaning to play the games of some cool rpgmaker game devs I've met since making my own game, so today I played VERLOREN and LIVING PLAYGROUND: THE WITCH'S PUPPETS.

I literally own merch of one of these games, so I think its beyond time I give them a try. I thought I would post some thoughts + a recommendation to check these games/devs out too.

VERLOREN

Fav. Characters: Vladimir

Playtime: ~1 hour

Version: 0.03 DEMO

https://gamejolt.com/games/Verloren/486793

@choko-flan

Chris finds himself cold and alone in a void - but Vlad, self-proclaimed weirdo and straight-up LAD, soon accompanies on our quest for the key out.

While dialogue-heavy isn't my loaf of bread, I'm interested in seeing how Chris & Vlad's relationship changes over the course of the full game. I'm also looking forward to more locales like the dreamy (and tasty) sweets dimension.

I liked the arcade mini-game, especially how it resembled an actual arcade game. I let Vlad beat it for me to get the authentic experience.

While it mostly stems from my own impatience, I did feel some back-and-forths with Vlad dragged on a smidge. I think the planned character portraits will help a lot, as well with the difficulty in keeping track of who is speaking.

I find myself asking the essential questions: WHO is Vlad? WHY is Vlad? But what no one ever asks: HOW is Vlad?

While a short and unfinished demo, I'm looking forward to seeing more of Verloren in the future :) VLAD/10

LIVING PLAYGROUND: THE WITCH'S PUPPETS

Fav. Characters: Haze, STRONG PICKLE

Playtime: 2.5 hours

Version: 1.0.1

https://gamejolt.com/games/the-witchs-puppets/425031

@game-meak

I find myself asking the essential questions: WHO is STRONG PICKLE?

Not knowing anything going into this (and having not played the original), I was pleasantly surprised (with Verloren as well) that I was into it as much as I was.

Tony, Pablo, and Octavio (or as us Living Playground-heads would say: Slide, Swing Set, and Monkey Bars) are siblings in a world of witchery and geese. Two witches are really good friends, and our heroes are sent into pocket dimensions for stealing without permission.

I liked the game show section (maybe I missed references with the other contestants), I thought it was a fun bit.

I am kind of concerned that I saw the chalkboard and thought 'oh hell yeah, hangman!'

I could definitely tell at a certain point that this game's events were of/inspired by personal experiences, so I wasn't surprised to see that in the post-mortem. The contrast in theme over time is shocking, how a character treats the siblings differently as the game progresses. I felt that I had maybe brushed off earlier signs of this change, just like a certain character did?

I do think it would have been cool to pick a side in the conflict and get a different ending, but if it’s based off personal experience then I suppose that wouldn't quite work out.

When Pablo laid there like a peanuts character, I felt that - when STRONG PICKLE told me to wash my hands, I felt that.

The included walkthrough proved vital for my playthrough, because I'm an idiot. I searched it out after thinking I was stuck when placing gems on pedestals, not knowing I could remove a gem if it wasn't correctly placed and that I didn't need a gem for the middle pedestal.

I would have probably been stuck for ages looking for items if I hadn't checked with the guide occasionally, and for that I salute this pdf document.

I did get soft locked at a point: Choosing 'O' before 'P' in the hangman puzzle prevents 'P' from being usable. A typo in the eventing is the culprit, but of course I happened to run into it naturally.

I also was curious about the slide puzzle lag, so I looked into it. I always feel a slight guilt from opening people's games with the intent to fix things without being asked - but I can't help myself.

Each unsolved piece is checked each frame if it has been solved by comparing positions of the solution spot and the tile's current spot. What I would do is have each tile check if its solved only after being pushed. I went ahead and modified it myself just for fun (so I can get the speedrun world record >:]), but I noticed something about this puzzle while doing this:

I didn't notice while playing that the puzzle pieces can be pushed on top of each other. That's kind of weird. You can push the pieces out onto the water or stack them together (I did try to 'automatically' solve the puzzle by stacking them all up and pushing the stack into each space, can't be done lol). What an odd decision, right?

Oh.

I'm guessing the puzzle isn't entirely reset on pumpkin interact because it would be real annoying to mispush the last piece and have to reset the whole thing, but with this puzzle design it means it is possible to softlock when doing this piece last. I'm not sure if the lack of collision is meant as a solution to this exact issue, but I thought it was interesting. In my build I added collision to the tiles and just made it so one of the adjacent tiles to the inner one always gets reset.

With some minor bugs and issues abound, Living Playground: The Witch's Puppets surprised me. While I'm not very attached to the main 3, I did feel for the 2. I relied on the walkthrough a bit much, but I had a good time. STRONG PICKLE/10