#difficulty level — hard

[bastardlybonkers]

i feel like not enough ppl are factoring in the cultural clash between laios and shuro and the many micro agressions shuro faced while being in their group. literally the name 'shuro' in itself is one

his name is toshiro 😭 lets also not forget that he has his own communication issues, in the opposite way that laios does- thats literally a factor in their argument, that his envy for laios's ability to express himself sincerely manifested as part of his distaste for him.

ig all this to say like, was their fight heart wrenching, especially when reading laios as autistic? absolutely. anybody whos ever been in laios's position knows how much it hurts to realize someone you thought was your friend doesnt actually like having you around, especially when they didnt tell you and you had no way of knowing due to not understanding their cues. but im begging yall to step back and see the nuance of this situation cause im gonna be real a lot of you are kinda just brushing over it acting like everything is toshiros fault and that hes a terrible person when in reality hes an average guy who really, really clashed with laios and it led to a very long misunderstanding due to their supremely opposite methods of communication. even laios and toshiro, after letting everything out in their fight, were able to come to an understanding and start a foundation for an actual friendship built on better communication

ok yknow what Edit: i shouldve made it even more explicit at the end of this post, i hadnt thought i would need to since i started the post with this, but i think a few too many people are missing my point so i just wanna clarify. i shouldnt have said 'really clashed' and left it at that because yeah they did, but it wasnt just their opposite methods of communication, it is also very much that toshiro was experiencing microaggressions via laios. it may have been unintentional on laios's part, but it still happened and wore him down, made it harder for him to communicate on top of both the more subtle social cues that he was raised with and his own communication difficulties. i also want to say that the fandom reaction to toshiro and the complete ignorance of this point is also racist tbh or at the very least ignorant. i understand that the anime did not cover this panel, and neither did the manga, as this was an omake, but im gonna be real with you guys. there are enough context clues within the story to clue you into this. if you didnt pick up on it thats ok, but i think this is a good lesson in picking up subtext in the stories that youre watching and/or reading. kui shouldnt have to explicitly say 'by the way laios was racist to toshiro' for this point to be understood, and at the very least, when the author portrays a character in a sympathetic light (as kui clearly does) it should make you question Why they are doing so and what makes them sympathetic, rather than youre immediate and only reaction to be 'well i hated what this guy did/said so i hate them and they suck'. idk exactly how to finish this, just. idk. question your biases and gut reactions to things you see in media and stories, and think about whether or not theres subtext that youre missing.

[magicicephoenix]

I'd like to tell Moon that it's incredibly endearing that he blue screens or has to buffer when people give him affection in any form.

that in mind: you're lovely, Moon

not sure what you expected from him lol

[voidedtea]

[ID in alt]

my pieces for @strawberrij's thespius fashion zine!! quite the endeavour and adventure that turned out pretty neat i think :]

special thanks go to @ratchetclankarecute for posing/cloth references + the bulk of the image descriptions! that first image would Not have happened without them <3

[lloydfrontera]

touch averse javier who doesn't really enjoy physical contact all that much and quietly avoids it whenever he can

who quickly learned to avoid being touched as a child in the streets and could never quite forget that lesson.

who after a few uncomfortable incidents where some people got a little too handsy while confessing to him learned to not do anything that may look like encouragement.

who doesn't mind the occasional pat in the arm or quick hug from the people he loves but mostly prefers to keep his distance if possible.

and who post battle-in-hell and subsequent trip-to-seoul becomes the human equivalent of an octopus when it comes to lloyd and is basically attached by the hip to him 24/7.

it starts small enough, so slowly not even javier notices at first.

it begins with him always wanting to keep lloyd in sight or at the very least be able to hear his heartbeat in the next room

then he starts standing next to lloyd, so close their arms brush whenever one of them gestures a little too much

which eventually progresses into pressing against lloyd's shoulder, always keeping a point of contact between them

until one day when their knuckles brush against each other one too many times and lloyd just grabs his hand in his and when javier doesn't pull away he just goes on with his day like that

and it's. it's nice.

it feels nice.

it feels nice in a way touching another person hasn't felt like for javier in a very long time.

and that's how it becomes normal in the frontera estate to see the young master and his knight just casually holding hands with each other every day <3

[demonicfarmer69]

hang out with wwx they said it'll be fun they said

[natjennie]

what's weird about the fantasy high drama is that like. it seems to me like people forget d&d is primarily a) a game you play with your friends and also b) luck based.

I mean it's fine to say that "nothing felt like a challenge" and "they just dominated everything and there weren't any stakes" but like. it's not as if they weren't up against huge threats. they lost the mall fight. the last stand was an onslaught of enemies. they fought a dozen dragons from an airship. the fights were hard. they're just really good. they've had very good dice luck in general this season and are all very high level and highly specialized. fig is gonna beat deception and performance checks. adaine's gonna figure out the arcana. riz is gonna succeed investigations. like. for some reason their strategical competence and wisely picked abilities are. a downside? a disappointment?

the thing about d&d that you need to remember is it's first and foremost a game. it's mostly random and it takes you down weird paths and you're playing to have fun with your friends. the dice are literally telling the story that it's their time, it's their year. they've struggled enough. they've trained enough. they're good at what they do. and in my post about the academic/domestic/personal stressors being the focus, d&d doesn't have any other system to work them out than rolling different skills. that's what d&d is. brennan set specific challenge levels for different tasks and the players strategized to prioritize which abilities they were strongest in. the challenges were there. and the players rose to them. they were both smart in their delegation of responsibilities and lucky with their dice rolls. of which, both are foundations of d&d.

don't mistake them being good players and getting lucky with there being no hardship. just because they smashed through the wall, that doesn't mean the wall wasn't strong. they were just stronger.

[magistralucis]

him when he FUCKING gets you 🥶

[kagaintheskywithdiamonds]

ford pines would be so good at guitar hero though. if you've played guitar hero/rock band on difficulty level hard or above you know what I'm talking about

[no-light-left-on]

further observations from replaying dh2 as Emily

-> Emily's first real shrine that she finds in a corporeal world has a massive Outsider painting right next to it. there is nothing else to add I just think it's fucking hilarious that that's her first Outsider Shrine Experience

-> The Outsider has a habit of teleporting right next to her or behind her. no personal space. somehow in the time between the two games, the Outsider completely forgot about the concept of personal space. love that for him but I also can't help the reading of him keeping his distance from Corvo and Daud but when it comes to their daughters, he doesn't mind being overly touchy. I refuse to believe that he never got elbowed in the gut for this behaviour later on

->his eyes are so sparkly. everyone talks about his blacker than black eyes but whenever he talks to me all I see is this

[arttsuka]

hey ho I just noticed that amongst many of your posts you have some pretty nasty things to say about yourself! As a concerned follower I am here to tell you that does you no good whatsoever, and have expierenced where it can lead you to! (Even when said in jest)

As an outside observer I have determined that exactly 0 of your negative statements are true, so don't believe the lies you tell yourself! Change statements like "my art sucks" to "my art is pretty neat!" (Because it is) "....just kill me" to ".... just give me shrimp" (or fav food/object) "I feel awful and lonely" to " I see the sun rise and its beautiful, I feel nice." And "I have more friends than i realise" ( notice something beautiful or do things you like and appreciate them, you'll start to feel better I promise!

Take a moment to slow down and just breathe and observe all the good things around you (go outside if you have to)

Heres a book that talks about changing your inner monologue for the better, "What to say when you talk to yourself" by Shad Helmstetter its definitely worth a read

I love you and sending a crushing bear hug to you! 🫂🫂💙💙💙

Unfortunately yes I have many bad things to say about myself (I am my biggest hater).

I've been around some pretty toxic people in the past (and present, most of them are my relatives, yikes) and I guess it's just easier to say negative things about me rather than hear them say things (behind my back).

I try to do better but when you don't fit into society the way other people do, it's kinda disheartening, makes me wanna give up.

Sometimes I wish I was like everyone else honestly, or have some confidence.

I'll definitely try to check out that book, thanks for the recommendation :)

Many hugs to you too anon 🫂🫂

[real-fire-emblem-takes]

Ok a 3H solo run is just very easy. Like, you can solo the game with anyone. I’m using broken weapons at this point because I cba to fix them and I’m still doubling and killing everyone. This shouldn’t be the optimal way to play the game.

.

[suntails]

I MADE A GUIDE for the hard mode of the legend of the underworld minigame on twst!!! :D i'd been stuck on it for MONTHS before a moot let me know that you can move the boat while paused and hiding the menu, and i wanted to share the knowledge for anyone that's also been stuck and suffering from completionist brain!!

the full image is very large, so you'll need to download it to view it, but i've created a map, added notes of how many lanes i move at a time, what manner i move in (regular speed or while paused), etc! both achievements are possible to beat with this route, and i highly recommend taking ur time while moving so u don't lose a good run!

all rock assets can vary from play to play, so the flames are your best landmark along the way! i wish everyone still stuck the very best of luck, if this helps even one person i'll be over the moon <3

[thunderboltfire]

The antaam from Taash's recruitment mission were difficult even on the normal difficulty. I should expect that fighting them with a squishy rogue on hard difficulty will make the final fight completely insane. I'll have to dig through the skill loadout and check if I'm able to improve the survavibility this way.

[yekokataa]

if there's one thing i've learned from playing portal 2 mods it's that good puzzle design is really fucking hard

[thomaswinwood]

I have this embryo of a suspicion that the rhetoric surrounding certain gameplay mechanics in Elden Ring specifically and the broader Souls series in general is a direct result of everyone collectively agreeing that those mechanics are "what the game has instead of selectable difficulty options".

See, if the game was honest and let you pick easy/normal/hard then spirit ashes would just be another tool for customising your build the same way you pick a weapon category or incantations versus sorceries. They make the game different, sure, but so does everything else.

Elden Ring as designed can't do that: people tried to figure out for themselves what tools give the biggest bang for their buck, and spirit ashes (which break up gank fights, create space for you to disengage when you need to heal or whatever, and deal damage essentially for free) ended up being one of those things, so it became the target of easy-mode mockery (with the argument being no less incoherent - why are spirit ashes unacceptable but physic flasks not, since they both make the game easier?).

In other words, in addition to all the other reasons From Software should add difficulty options to their games we can add that it makes elitists look more pathetic. We have decades of experience defusing people who complain about the concept of someone playing on an easier difficulty.

[rigelmejo]

Chinese Listening Experiment 441 hours

I again reiterate that the biggest takeaway I have from this experiment is: if you have decent reading skills, extensive listening WILL drag your listening skills up to where your reading skills are.

Particularly if you listen to stuff you could read, but many things probably would work. I mostly used audiobooks I'd read in Chinese, and audiobooks I knew the stories from reading English versions but had not actually read in Chinese. That worked great. That worked better than expected to be honest.

No intensive listening necessary - though maybe that could have sped progress up. Maybe audio-visual stuff like cartoons would have worked faster. I only did a little watching of cartoons and shows, but definitely noticed they also worked.

But yeah. My main takeaway is - listening WILL improve if you just listen more!!!! At least, if you already had reading skills - so you knew many words in some form.

Right now my listening skills are just a touch below my reading skills, and I predict they'll catch up within a dozen hours or so. I can now comfortably listen to anything I could read in Chinese. It's just if I was reading, I'd have more time and the hanzi look at to recognize certain words, that in listening I don't recognize instantly yet.

I am 100% using this strategy to improve my French next time I have time. Extensive listening is EASY. It just requires listening. No extra work, no flashcards, no rewinding and replaying, no word lookups, no reading along to a transcript (although I think all of those activities also would help listening skills). Just listening while doing other things, paying partial attention (for me - who has been listening to Chinese stuff any time I'd normally be partly listening to some English stuff).

I am curious of the utility of doing this for Japanese for me, as I know ~3000-5000 words in Japanese, but I do not have such a heavy experience of reading prior, I've only read a few things in Japanese, so most of the exposure to those words was in memrise/anki or in Glossika. I predict it might go... alright? I think if I started with Nihongo Con Teppei and listened to ALL of it, some other learner podcasts like Japanese with Shun, maybe the Comprehensible Japanese youtube channel, then listened to some Lets Plays of video games I've played, that would get me pretty fucking far. I imagine it might push me up to actually feeling fucking B1/lower intermediate in terms of understanding Japanese.

But Japanese is a weird situation for me: I can read novels I do NOT know the verbal words for because of hanzi-near-cognates with kanji-words, I know verbal words from Glossika that I never learned the kanji-word for, I know some kanji-word INCLUDING pronunciation from when I studied with memrise and audio, and those spheres of 'words I know' does not fully overlap. I also have a lot of basic grammar knowledge, in that I've read a LOT of grammar guides for Japanese and listened to sentences enough in Glossika/Japanese Audio Lessons to get used to some grammar without thinking about how it's working. So I either totally "get" the grammar of a phrase/sentence I'm hearing and understand without thinking, or it seems vaguely familiar and I puzzle it out, or I don't recognize it at all. The Japanese I know is all over the fucking place, not reliable and not consolidated. If I watch something like Death Note I can understand so much just from the spoken words and plot I know already, with something like Yakuza games I understand short phrases and simple statements "I'm tired, he's an old sad guy, I appreciate it" etc. then hear full sentences I can't parse. I can play Yakuza Ishin in only Japanese and follow the main idea, but I am leaning on kanji in the subtitles which I guess the meaning of from Hanzi I know.

TLDR: if your reading skills are intermediate (you can read some stuff), then your listening skills will eventually catch up if you just keep practicing listening.

I imagine this is also true in reverse - if you have intermediate listening skills (can understand some shows/cartoons/audiobooks), then simply extensively reading a lot will eventually catch up your reading skills.