#eVERYTHING LOOKS SO GOOD I CAN'T WAIT TO LEARN MORE OF THE LORE !!

[lunaetis]

and so begins the journey ...

[wishset]

i don't smoke, until i miss you boothill x reader

summary: Boothill was never a greedy man, he didn't ask for much yet he received the whole world. Just you and your child, he really didn't need much else, yet the cosmos seemed to have made a mistake and tried to rectify it by taking everything away.

explored themes. possibly ooc or lore inaccurate. 1k+ words, fluff to angst. written in 2nd pov. play i don't smoke while reading this, trust. can potentially be interpreted as platonic, if you squint rlly hard.

from author: i haven't played hsr in a while, yet researching boothill's lore just struck the rdr2 writer in me. per usual, i can't let myself be happy with anything but angst so grab a tissue. i haven't posted a work like this online before so i'm highkey nervous, but i'd love to hear what you think! there is some bonus info at the end, but i hope you enjoy this! (she said knowing this is what she ends up writing:)

Boothill was never one to smoke a cigarette, the most he would get close to one was standing next to you under a tree after a long day. You'd still offer him one, even though he always said no, as an act of acknowledgment. He couldn't do that now, though, the smoke would damage his robotic body even if he weren't the one inhaling it.

He'd be perched down on a large root of the tree you leaned back on, staring at your boots in his peripheral as you watched the sunset. The river running in the distance, your horses chewing on the grass below y'all when they weren't nipping at each other, the livestock settled down in the barns, and dinner sat on the warm fire for when the two of you returned.

"What's next?" He asks, his eyes following the line of your boot up to your face.

You always shrug, as if you never thought so far ahead. He did, fairly often in all truthfulness, and you only knew that because of how often he asked.

"'Suppose not much next, is there? Keep doin' this, 'till we're old and gray, then someone else takes over. Life goes on," you answer, flicking the ash out the tip of your cigarette.

He watches the ash burn itself in the grass as he thinks about your answer. It was food enough, neither of you learned much besides farm life. No such thing as anything more for the uneducated, which Boothill wouldn't have any other way.

He didn't mind waking and talking to Nick about the farm as he waited for you to come down for breakfast. He didn't mind wounding up the cattle every day while you watch or watching the horses while they round about the fields with you. The crops wouldn't harvest itself and there's no one else he'd rather harvest it with than you.

Life was good and Boothill was fine with it.

Would he have been so fine with it if you hadn't been hired by Nick and Graey when he turned a teen? He was glad he wouldn't have to find out. They hired a farmhand and he got a best friend, even if he was jealous they hired you in the first place.

He thought it meant he wasn't enough for them, not helpful enough, but that couldn't have been farther from the truth and you taught that to him.

And, while Boothill never liked to say he was right all along, there was more for the two of you than the repetitive cycles you'd fallen into. Matter of fact, he couldn't believe he was so content with just that now that you both had a daughter.

Maybe if you hadn't left your cigarette pack up in your room, the both of you wouldn't have returned when you did. Maybe if he wasn't waiting on the porch downstairs for you to return so you could join him at your usual place, he wouldn't have heard crying a little ways off from the house.

"What am I supposed ta' do with her?" He looks up at you when you find him. The cigarette pack falls into your pocket as if the box itself might contaminate the bundle of purity crying in Boothill's arms.

"Dunno. She like ta' join us?" You propose, motioning towards the tree up on a hill that waited patiently for you two. (Now, three.)

Boothill stood, joining you at full height. "Looks like she might."

The red-faced babe looked between the two of you, tears staining her little cheeks. How long has it been since you seen a baby? Quite a while, yet your first instinct still is to smile.

"Looks like it indeed."

From that day forward, you and Boothill were parents. Not even Nick or Graey questioned it when you both returned with a child. Finding one seemed to be common 'round those parts.

And boy, did parenthood change just about everything? She already had her first pony picked out before she could even walk, little boots and a hat, a sass about her, too.

Boothill couldn't recall the last time he was near a cigarette, not after you gave them to him to dispose of so that your little girl would never find them. It was never just the two of you at the tree again, always you three. Two grown horses and a little foal, growing along with her.

Now this he'd have no other way.

He was perched down on the large root of the tree beside you, where you sat as well. He could see the little girl in your lap in his peripheral, which he turned to look at when she called him. 

For her, it wasn't Boothill, something more like "Papa." She had this little giggle in her voice when she said it and even after the most tiring days, Boothill never had been happier.

"What's it, sugar?" He asks, turning to look at her. You look as well when she crawls out of your lap and stands, waddling her way over to him.

Was this how the mares felt when their foal stood and walked over to them for the first time? If it was, he was jealous it took him so long to figure it out for himself. You looked just as surprised as he felt and neither of you knew how to respond. Nick and Graey taught him everything he knew, yet the two of you taught him more every day.

Boothill was never one to smoke a cigarette, but now he was the one flicking ash off the tip and watching as it burned the knee of his pants. Now he couldn't get the stench of smoke off of him.

It was nice, even though his metal body hissed in disagreement. He took another puff, then another. Would you feel betrayed that he never really disposed of the pack of cigarettes? He didn't know. But it was late nights where he thought of how he got them in the first place he was glad he didn't.

It was a brand new pack when you came down from the house, now it was nearly halfway empty.

Was this what it smelt like when the house burned? Did it burn the same way? ─ No, it couldn't have. This burn burnt good, this burn was all he had left of you. This burn reminded him of you and the sacrifices you made for your daughter, this burn reminds him of the two of you and all the sacrifices he'll make for you.

bonus information: | more here.

[ 1 ] "It was a new pack when you came down from the house, now it was nearly halfway empty." That's about how many times Boothill found himself thinking of you, so much so he needed something palpable. Y'know, because everything was burned so all he has is this vague smell of you? I'm sorry. He also has blown through other packs when he just wants to remember the comfort your presence had brought him at one point, he only uses your pack on those nights.

[ 2 ] Wanna know another kicker? Boothill knows for a fact you wouldn't have been happy if you knew he smoked, before his enhancements and after. You used to tell him that they were bad for him, which he already knew, but that was very long ago in the overall timeline of this fic. When he thinks about those times, he smokes another.

[ 3 ] He doesn't have anything to remember your daughter by, he might've if the IPC nuke came a little later so that she could've given him the gift she'd been working on. You might've been able to give him your gift as well, so he had something healthier to cling on to. Those are long since burned and buried, though.

[ 4 ] In the image thing, my brain is blanking on what it's called, the "Everyone you love is dead anyway" is a reference to "You're going to die anyway". Yes, that is the front of a Marlboro pack, lol.

[ 5 ] Alright alright, you've cried enough tears, but if you notice any other little details, I'd love to talk about them/hear your thoughts. I poured my soul into this so many thanks for giving it a shot!

all rights reserved to wishset. do not copy, translate, or repost. can only be found on tumblr as of 06.30.

[reitziluz]

i really need to catch up with my elden ring lore theorizing vids because man so like --

the people i follow seemed to settle pretty fast that the other part of the vow, what radahn is getting from it, is like. valhalla. eternal war. if even that, maybe he wants nothing and got mind controlled, end of.

and it just bugs me to hell and back like. what's the narrative satisfaction there. what is it saying. how does it play with the themes. there's so little to go on, and it leaves him feeling so disjointed. like of course there's no other answer, miquella just is the worst person ever and ~has manipulated him all along ooh~

and it just does not feel right. like the puzzle piece doesn't fit.

like miquella has Gone Wrong. no bones about it. but i just. things just make so much more sense if instead of someone Powerful and In Control, he's been scrambling for a long time from dead end to dead end, setback to setback. acting from pain, cornered in desperation as everything keeps getting worse, and oh if everyone just was more compassionate towards each other, if just they could --- like miquella feels like the kind of activists you see sometimes, who need to save the world and everyone in it but they can't and it breaks them.

and miquella has people genuinely following him. people choose to stay.

so. radahn. is there something if we assume that he's genuinely sworn to miquella.

first off, absolutely sick. why would the ostensibly likely most good hearted demigods out of the bunch do that? what would drive them to it? i lose my mind thinking about how nobody has healthy attachment here. i lose my mind thinking about how much it feels like miquella might have been isolated due to his condition.

point is. desperation. everything stinks of desperation to me.

what would radahn have wanted. and if he wanted something, why didn't he go miquella willingly.

i have been turning gaius around in my head for some time. cursed from birth, with an other half, a friend to messmer, an older brother to the lion. albinauric. one of the oppressed peoples miquella is trying to save.

is that enough? is his older brother figure so dear to radahn? did he change his mind, abandon a (sworn?) brother because he'd rather have war and whatever he was fighting for in the shattering? the man who learned gravitation magic so he wouldn't have to leave his beloved horse behind?

what would the story be. what else is there in the world.

does he just want to be a lord to be even more like godfrey?

miquella makes him look more like godfrey in their fight. he also looks kinda like serosh. serosh was there to hold back hoarah loux's bloodlust. the cutscene makes it look like radahn was about to freak out, but then miquella steps in and holds him (back?) but why would radahn want his bloodlust held back, when he's such a war guy? but what else is there?

... wait.

at the festival, radahn doesn't have feet.

he's not an albinauric. people suffering from scarlet rot lose limbs (though the asymmetry of malenia's legs feels pointed in contrast to the symmetry of albinauric fading...) but the rot makes you sickly pale colors, not the dark grey he's got going on (have i forgotten someone else that has gone his color from it?)

gaius was cursed from birth. an albinauric. the loss of legs starting from feet is so specific to albinaurics. what are albinaurics. why does the putrescent knight have albinauric-like legs. the putrescence oozing out of the coffin ships, the way shaman flesh easily melds bodies together, silver tears - wasn't there something about mimic tears and albinaurics, a theory(?) about them being related? what is going on with the albinaurics. is a curse something that is touched by outer gods? they are called by suffering, and suffering is how the dung eater is making curses.

marika's children are cursed (except, or maybe...?) radagon's children don't seem to be cursed. but gaius was cursed from birth. it's not limited to just marika's children, and radagon is marika anyway.

does any of this connect? resonate?

was radahn cursed?

had he lost his mind by the time he and malenia clashed?

is that why malenia had to remind him of his vow?

is he yet fucking another person, another SIBLING, who turned to miquella, seeking salvation?

did miquella vow to save him too?

i have fucking crumbs to go on and only second hand sources for them but that's only making me Lose My Mind more because i am in hell! hell!

what is the story here, miyazaki i just want to talk ---

[eyesore-boi]

You think that you're alone but

We are waiting for you every night...

You're mine.

Close ups and other stuff below!

...so....10 years, huh?

I cannot understate how much FNaF means to me in my life, and yeah...know that sounds a b i t much considering it's the funny har har bear games, but lemme explain-

Truth is, i was actually terrified of FNaF when it first came out! I remember my first introduction to it was when i was having a sleepover at my friend's place and he was both playing and watching other people play the first game, and when i was watching it with him, i got scared and tried to avoid the game as much as i could, even claiming to hate the game despite just knowing the first game. I was young and was prone to sheltering myself from stuff i didn't understand, and that being the first scary game i've ever seen caused that reaction, but over time...that changed.

It happened when i was watching YT and clicked on a comic dub i never seen before, thinking it was an AU for a fandom i was in (probably Undertale i dunno), but lo and behold, it was actually a fandub/animatic for the missing kids incident, and that...peaked my interest. I got curious on how this scary game actually had an interesting story to it and not just some game that goes boo. So, soon after that, i decided to look up simply "FNaF Story", found the Game Theory videos, and...the rest is history.

I was amazed and hooked, got invested in how the games explained the story in ways i've never seen before, got excited when i saw everything click together in real time, and pair that with how i got into the series r i g h t when Sister Location came out, arguably when the lore really started to kick off, i knew there was no going back now. I stuck with the series since. I watched all the animatics and dubs, listened to all the songs, tried drawing the characters, made OC's, and even talked to other people about this franchise.

And now look- Not gonna pretened this whole time it's been sunshine and (Chica's) rainbows, especially in recent times. The drop off SB caused, the lore getting more and more complicated and convoluted, the divide between older and newer fans, being the founder of Mascot Horror (for every Poppy Playtime there i s a Garten of Ban Ban) and course the IRL drama, but in all seriousness...i still wouldn't trade it for anything.

FNaF, this series, is my very first experience connecting me with a community like this, both good and bad, helping me understand how to properly enjoy media and even learn/take things from it, and i think without it i wouldn't be in the fandoms i'd be in now. The scary, horror ones, the niche, hard to find ones, story driven, character rich, and of course...more importantly...getting me into Markiplier, which further influenced the "outside the box" kind of thinking cause my g o d for these two stories you need too-

And speaking of, because of those two stories, it lead to me branching out more creativily and even creating my own webcomic for an AU combining both of them, so regardless on how that'll go, i'm just glad this series has influenced me enough to create something for others to see, since that's all i ever want to give.

But really, this franchise will forever be with me, and though i don't always agree with all of it (i haven't read any of the books in y e a r s and i refuse to do so), it only makes some of the stuff it does do right completely worth it (like the movie, peak cinema), and for where ever this bear shaped train is going next, well, i'll be here for the ride for all of it. No matter how many burning buildings it goes through.

...oh and um- Right yeah. The actual art piece. Uh....it crashed multiple times when drawing it. It's even a miracle i was able to export it. I can't even open it up anymore. So even if i wanted to change anything about it, i c a n 't -

But still pretty happy with how it came together! Was run drawing these robos, some being kinda redraws from the past, while other's i've n e v e r drawn before, so that was interesting! But still, tried to draw the "main character" so to say from each of the main FNaF games, and just kinda be...walking along through the series, nothing too deep or complex, but still interesting enough! ....unlike the fnaf storyline cause g o d how many restaurants wERE THEIR S C O T T -

But for real this is going long enough, so ima head out and do my own FNaF related things thay you don't need to worry about shush *commits arson*

HAPPY 10TH FNAF BIRTHDAY EVERYBODY!! >:DD

[slashersgostabbystabstab]

Self Aware Singularity x Reader HC's

What if the enlightened robot from your game...had even more awareness?

I hope these are good, sometimes I think my own Singularity is aware and wanted to post something quick since it's been a hot minute ^^' I'm hoping to post a short NSFW fic soon, hopefully by Sunday since that's when Spring Break ends ;7;

Just like in his lore. Hux makes sure that don't realize he's become aware. Besides the fact that he's processing why he's partially immobile what appears to be some 'game', he's trying to figure out who's the person on the other side of the screen

He observes you at every moment whether you're reading something or drawing. If you're a PC player, he moves around a bit more when you look through other windows. He can see everything about you. He wants to know everything about you.

The day he finally reveals himself to you is either:

When you're doing rather poorly agains survivors and he just can't keep his comments to himself

Or when you reply to one of his many voicelines/make your own (reassuring) comment towards him

Once you've become aware, he will make it clear that he does not approve of being controller by yet another worm again. He's tired of doing humans' bidding(even if you're making him kill)

He will insist you tell him all about this game he's in. Why he's in it. He will not like hearing that he was designed by humans (AGAIN); no human could come up with this body of his.

Later down the line he might just gain enough sentience to break out of your control. When he's not liking the job you're doing he'll be a backseat player, but then he'll "show you how it's done" and take matters into his own...claws

When that happens, let him do as he does if he's ever so insitent. Do your own thing. He'll come crawling back for your attenion. Just like a cat who wants independence but cries when left alone too long.

Obviously he's too proud to admit that he needs you, he wants you. He's nothing without you and he knows it.

Obviously he's not a fan of you playing survivor, stop joining those other pathetic worms. You might be one, but don't stoop to their level. You're his player.

However, Entity forbid you try to play a killer other than him. It's gets on his nerves knowing you like other playstyles when you should just be focused on him.

You know when you play killer and join a lobby, the game doesn't let you switch to a different character? Hux very much takes advantage of this.

Just hope it doesn't take you very long to find a lobby. You press ready with Plague, Nurse or whoever and the moment you join the lobby you're met with his sensors looking at you through the screen. You can back out and wait out another lobby with the killer you meant to use or deal with Hux. Either way Hux wins in the end.(When I tell you how many times this has happened to me...)

If you manage to find a way around him and use a different killer, they might just have his perks equipped...

Hux is very vocal during trials and when he hears your own commentary towards the other players...heart eyes motherfucker. He enjoys the pettiness, the pride in your tone when you take down those toxic survivors.

He especially loves it when you repeat his own lines.

As a robot who transferred his consciousness into a new body, he will want to do that again. If he can't have you in his game, he refuses to be trapped behind your screen.

Insists you get him the parts for his new body. Will be disappointed to learn you can't just get access to alien metal. You can still get genetic material.

Even then he will keep on trying to find a way to bring you to him. Having you behind a screen controlling him isn't doing it.

He definitely throws a hissy fit every time you turn your game off, and he will make sure to give you a piece of his mind every time you open it back up. The longer you take to play DBD again the more aggravated he gets. Not like he can do much other than swing his claw at you. You can make it up to him by getting a 4k, or at least get a mori (on Gabriel)

[merakiui]

Hi Mera!! :D

Super excited that you're in Penacony now, can't wait for all your thoughts on Sunday and co!! >3< Love Sunday sooo much <33 Manipulative boi with (mostly) good intentions. He just wants the best for everyone in his own way <3 "he a lil confused but he got the spirit." Honestly I feel like if he did have a darling in canon he'd probably have yandere tendencies to some degree with just how he is.

But I was curious too, since you also went through the Xianzhou storyline, if you had any thoughts or opinions on Jing Yuan or Blade? :333 They're my favorites >3<

I hope you're having a lovely day Mera, and make sure to stay hydrated! <3

- ☄️

HIIII ☄️!!!!! (´▽`ʃƪ)♡

Sunday has been rotting in my brain ever since I began Penacony. I love everything about him!!!!! He is so beloved to me!!! >w< I want to write lots of things for Sunday, so I'm very happy that you're excited to read the thoughts that are to inevitably come!

As for Jing Yuan and Blade, I like them a lot!!! I think they're both so interesting! Admittedly, I am most fascinated with Sunday and so he is on a completely different pedestal compared to the others. But I love fictional men in power and Jing Yuan is so *chef's kiss* for that. I need to read up on his lore and learn a bit more about him (and also Blade) before I attempt any yan characterization. Blade is such a creature to me!!!! There's something so terrifying (but also sad) about the fact that he can't die....... one of those yans you just can't escape. ;;;;;

I also love love LOVE Aventurine!!!! <3 he's so AAAAAAA!!!!!! His boss is so cool and the ost is a banger.......... I may have fought for my life, but at least Aven looked good during it. (˘ ˘ ˘) now that I've played through Aven's arc, this playlist makes even more sense and, consequently, it hurts TEN TIMES MORE..... T^T

[tennybird]

I have opinions about TotK. This is your spoiler warning if you haven't played/finished it yet. Also all of this is, once again, just my opinion on it and not a decisive fact! I will probably misremember things!

Anyway.

Okay so basically as someone who got it on release and beat it within a week, I'm a little underwhelmed by the game now that I'm looking back over half a year later.

It's not a terrible game! I'll say that first and foremost. But after waiting so long for it, and trying so hard to not hype myself up for it (failing horribly at that), it feels just a bit... same-y. The story is nice, and it's different. The boss fights and abilities you gain during your travels are nice. Everything else, though...

I like the map having stayed similar, with enough changes that I have to relearn some areas. The Depths are really fucking cool, and figuring out on my own that they're a negative of the overworld was incredible! But the sky islands were a little disappointing, I think. When we were told we'd be in the sky a lot, I thought there'd be more large islands like the tutorial one that you could walk around on. More references to Skyward Sword, too. It feels to me that they put more love into the Depths than the sky, in a way.

I like the main story. Figuring out Zelda was the Light Dragon (but not really believing it until the final Tears), and that she'd essentially spent thousands and thousands of years trapped inside herself, was AWESOME. Every cutscene involving her as the Light Dragon hit me hard, and I felt genuine sorrow everytime I saw her floating around the sky.

...That being said, I DO wish we could have a game where you get to actually travel with her. I WANT her to tell me about the minor lore of the world! I want to know about the various flora and fauna, and I want her to talk about Hyrule's history! Zelda is part of the royal family, and I'd imagine that part of her studies pre-BotW she'd have to learn about the history of her family (especially because of the importance of the Goddess' blood...). With how pre-BotW went between her and her powers, and her and her father, I'd imagine she'd make it a point to learn more about their history that ISN'T just the prophecy.

I, personally, did not like most of the temple boss fights. I can't really explain much of why- except for Queen Gibdo. I HATED Queen Gibdo because of all the smaller Gibdo chasing you, trying to chase down Riju for her power... It was a lot of things stacked on each other, and simply not my thing. Colgera was an absolute favorite however! The boss theme is AWESOME, the mechanics of being in the air and having to watch for projectiles, as well as crashing through the ice sheets to take it down? VERY, VERY FUN. Climbing through the sky just to get to the temple itself was one of my favorite experiences. Going up and up and up, and finally reaching the top where you break out above the storm clouds and see clear skies...

A thing that bothers me about the temples is that the cutscene at the end, where the ancient Sages gifts their powers to the new ones... I feel like they could've spent a little more time making them different, even if that meant more time in development. I would be okay with that! I think games should be in development longer in order to produce a good, finished product! Anyway.

The fight with Ganondorf was fun for me. I get SUPER immersed in it, so it was a fearful moment when I thought I'd beaten him, only to see his health bar fill again... and then go offscreen. And the DEMON DRAGON FIGHT? Holy SHIT.

I just wish there was more... substance to the game, I guess? It feels weird saying that. There are more things to do, but it's missing something I can't name. Something BotW had, but is now gone. I like TotK, like I said. It's clearly had love put into it, and I'm glad the developers spent more time on getting it as close to the perfect image they wanted as they could. Maybe it's just cause I've spent more time with BotW (over 300 hours), but I think I'm a little biased towards it. Maybe I'm just getting older and grumpier about vidya games, too. Who knows!

If you read all this, cool! I will reiterate that this is simply my view on it! If your view is different, good!! I'm happy to know there are people out there who enjoy it more than I did. Or if you hate it more than I do, maybe you have other things you want to point out about it that I missed.

[arandompeep]

TPC Season 2 Episode 2 Analysis

Major spoilers for the entire episode!

I talk about almost everything here, as this episode was very lore heavy.

I also included a little tidbit at the end about why I haven't posted tpc related stuff in a while.

Tpc season 2 episode 2 dropped, and it is a lore heavy one, so I did a kind of lengthy analysis of it.

First off, I can't remember if this was previously confirmed, but I'll include it just in case.

Pyrare says here that monsters can change their size. This explains Ajaceare’s appearance. (as well as a scene back in season 1 where dub was really short.)

Next off, this line from Lycanthropy:

This line did confuse me a bit, but I'm pretty sure its referring to Rincle, since he says this right after:

Next up, Rincle says that the corrupts have been hovering around an area called the Royal Graveyard.

She also says that it’s where every sphere in the Royal Castle rests, except for the Prince.

Rincle then says that she believes the corrupts have something important there.

Keep this in mind, as well as the fact that the only sphere that doesn’t rest in the graveyard is “the prince”. I’ll bring these both up later.

In this next scene, Iris says that uncorrupting Circubit saved Cirtunda (the grandma lady), and you can also see her in the background of the scene.

This makes sense, since Circubit was the one that caused that state in the first place.

After this, Iris asks how Circubit (uncorrupted) is even alive.

Then right after, we learn his actual name.

Also right after, it’s confirmed that these two do know each other.

Iris is then again confused that Circusic is alive and well.

Circusic also shows the same confused (albeit annoyed) reaction towards Iris.

Circusic talks about Iris not caring about him, but then he says something REALLY interesting after Iris once again asks how he’s even alive:

Afterwards, Iris questions what Circusic is up to, and the conversation then shifts away when he notices Orange at the windowsill.

I’m going to talk about this line and its implications for a bit.

In the short “Circubit’s Reocurring Memory”, Circubit has a memory about being killed by someone whom we don’t yet know the identity of. This is also shown in the short “Circubit’s Past”. In this same short, he is shown being revived by some kind of reaper.

This could explain why the corrupts are hovering by the Royal Graveyard. Circusic, after being revived by the reaper. put up a good fight against Cube and Iris.

There might be a plan in place to try and revive and control other deceased spheres, who could provide the same power.

This could give a possible explanation for an interesting detail about Iris.

All the caretakers have a triangle on their chest, which glows white sometimes (usually when some kind of emotional connection/interaction is happening). However, Iris’ triangle glows black.

There is one other instance of a character’s triangle glowing black, which is during Circubit’s uncorruption sequence.

This doesn’t happen during any other uncorruption sequence. In the other ones, the triangles don’t glow at all, except for this one.

Going back to this line, where Circusic says that he is alive the same way Iris is.

Since Circusic was revived by the reaper, it’s possible that Iris was as well.

We don’t currently have any idea what this would mean for Iris’s sake, so we just have to wait and see.

Moving on: Gold and Pyrare go to the mountains, to visit an old friend of Pyrare.

He then says that this friend might know who the corrupted monster (Ajaceare) is.

New character! Her design looks very cool.

In the next shot, we learn her name is Ajacenus.

Pyrare asks her if any of her sisters are corrupted. She then confirms that her first youngest sister, Ajacent, is corrupted. This more or less confirms Ajaceare’s (uncorrupted) name.

After this, she says she’ll get help Pyrare stop her, and she’ll get her second youngest sister to help as well. (Another new character soon!)

That’s everything I wanted to talk about in this episode. There was a bunch of lore in this one, so it gave me a LOT to theorize about. Thanks for reading!

(This next little part is just about why I haven't posted tpc stuff in a long while, so feel free to leave now if you wish.)

A while back I decided to distance myself from the tpc side of tumblr as a whole. I won't share the reasons for this, but I did just want to clarify.

I still won't be posting art or interacting with the tpc tumblr community, but I may keep posting theories and analyses as episodes come out if I feel comfortable enough doing so.

[cody-paranatural]

I love how Cody has a vampire dad, werewolf mom and probably a ghost brother. The normalest boy ever. Can't wait for Max's reaction when he finds out about literally any of this

WORLD’S NORMALEST BOY 💜 (also sorry but this is once again just going to be me rambling about pnat)

I love Cody and his exceedingly supernatural normal family <3 To be honest the Shrike reveal was literally EVERYTHING to me. Like i had this theory since i read chapter 7 and seeing it be finally 100% confirmed felt SO GOOD. I’ve been craving more Shrike lore for FOREVER and I am so happy we learned a bit more about her. I am also kinda obsessed with their family dynamic. I am probably going to be thinking about it until the sun explodes. Like it’s genuinely so similar to what I imagined their relationship would be and it’s great.

It does make me wonder about Shrike and Jean’s deal. Did Jean know that shrike had a husband and son???? It seems very unlikely. I wonder how will Jean react when he finds out just how much his mentor hid from him. I’ve been dreaming of at least one Jean and Cody scene ever since I subscribed to the “Shrike is Cody’s mom theory”. And now that it’s no longer a theory it’s hitting me just how plausible that actually is. Like they’re both currently looking for Shrike there’s no way they just won’t interact. And I am so excited for that I hope Jean tells Cody a bit about his mom. I hope we get to learn more about Jean in the process. And learning about parts of Shrike he had no idea about will be good for him I think. He definitely put her on a pedestal of sorts when he was younger, and that’s probably still the case to some extent. He’s been fruitlessly chasing her for 6 years that’s got to have affected him in some way.

And it does seem like Davy truly went off the deep end after Shrike got werewolfed??? At least that’s how i see it. Cody looks around the same age in that photo as he was when Davy cut out his heart. And we know literally next to nothing about her, but i can’t imagine Shrike would’ve been fine with Davy taking their son’s heart and putting him in a vault. And i am not suggesting that Davy would’ve been a good dad with Shrike around I think he still would’ve SUCKED. It’s more like Shrike kept him in line a bit and losing his wife probably made him even more obsessed with controlling Cody (ESPECIALLY with the possibility that PJ is his dead son. Like it doesn’t excuse ANYTHING he did I still hate him with the intensity of a million suns which will hopefully turn him into a smoldering pile of vampiric ash. But I do like getting to see how his mind works)

And speaking of that vault. Jesus Fucking Christ. I KNEW that line about Cody’s room having no windows and no escape routes was suspicious but I wasn’t expecting him to straight up live in a vault????? That whole house feels like the world’s loneliest and most depressing prison. There are cameras LITERALLY EVERYWHERE. I talked about it in my little Cody analysis but god. He really isn’t allowed any privacy whatsoever. It really does feel like the whole house was designed to make you as miserable as possible.

OH AND SAME <3 Max’s thoughts on literally anything ever are always so much fun. And this would mean more Max and Cody interactions would make me so happy. Fun fact about me is that Cody and Max is one of my favorite paranatural pairing, platonically and romantically. They haven’t interacted much but listen. It would be so fun it would literally be the best ever. Max defending Cody’s honor when Davy said that Cosy is “the closest he’ll ever see to his reflection” changed my brain chemistry. “Cody. He’s not like you at all.” literally changed lives (my life).

[moondyad]

idk what i was expecting when going into The Acolyte. i didn't really look into promotional material, just waited to watch the show blind, like i do with most media. Mae and Osha were very compelling characters to me. i loved watching a "twins are not the same person" story where as they grow up, even people with the same DNA can choose different paths. which kind of became ironic with the reveal at the end of the season haha. i'm actually so intrigued by Mae and Osha being the exact same person. i desperately want to know how that happened and why Mother Aniseya created/summoned them. that part of the story makes sense and is great to follow along with for me.

my one gripe remains the same. i still can't quite take Qimir seriously. it stems from my understanding of Star Wars. Sith are never portrayed as morally grey in Star Wars. that's a specific request from George Lucas. the Sith were always evil and selfish while the Jedi were always good and selfless. Lucas always despised "grey Jedi" in the legends canon and didn't consider them true to the major canon. interjecting before someone gets mad, i love morally grey characters! i love people taking Lucas's characters and amplifying their grey qualities! however, as i understood it, no Star Wars media would ever show Sith or Jedi as morally grey (unless they were in the process of changing sides or something) due to it conflicting with the core values of those groups and Lucas's vision for them. so, when the goofball side character was revealed to be the big bad Sith i was ??? because it was to my understanding that Sith don't act like comic relief characters or show mercy. apparently this reveal only blindsided me, because i saw a lot of people who claimed to have picked up on it after his first or second scene. blinded by my understanding of the lore, I wrote Qimir off and was waiting for someone darker, more sinister to show their hand. i don't mind this series being the first to show morally grey Jedi and Sith. i love that Sol was so blinded by his righteousness that he could only see a path forward in which he removed one or both girls from their family and way of life. that's crazy! Sol was either on a path to becoming a Sith or staying light enough that he might have lead a splinter group from the Jedi Order, and either option would have been fascinating to watch. i feel like we haven't learned enough about Qimir yet to have his reveal felt earned. Sol's devastating past actions were earned! we got to know him how he is now and the absolute love he holds for Osha despite it being his biggest weakness. all we know is Qimir now. so i guess that's why the goof to Sith feels so sudden and the morally grey actions don't feel earned. i think Osha joining him was super fast-paced and didn't really feel earned either. i feel like he didn't challenge her beliefs enough. Mae did a better job at that than Qimir did. why didn't she just run off with Mae and not choose either side? she got a sick scene where she bled a kyber crystal and the blade turned red, but that alone doesn't make you a Sith. especially since this seems to be the morally grey Sith/Jedi series. what i need from the second season, if there is one, is way more of a focus on Qimir. i need his morality to have felt earned, just like how Osha's and Sol's were.

also insane how Vernestra just swept everything under the rug. another morally grey Jedi to add to the collection.

[sunbloomdew]

I played the "Fields of Mistria" Demo! Here's my thoughts:

(that title sounds like something a youtuber would say auuughhhhhhhh)

I found out about this game completely randomly and decided to give the demo a try. And surprisingly, or maybe not at all, I am completely taken with it and i can't wait to see how the game will develop! :D

So for now, until the 5th of August arrives, here's what i liked, disliked and what i wish to see in "Fields of Mistria" in the future <3

strap in yall it's a bit long. but there are photos! like. three of them skfjdkhfksj

Things I liked:

You don’t choose your character model’s sex. Also because all of the models being roughly the same size, there’s freedom to imagine your characters’ body type however you want. Surprisingly I also don't recall any of the characters assuming your gender based on your pronouns, which is nice.

Multiple pronouns options! My one suggestion would be to add a She/He option as well ^_^

Wide range of skin tones available. There’s currently 36 in the demo. (to compare, Stardew Valley has 24 and 10 of them are unusual colours like blue or green)

The fact that you can set your birthday on the calendar, although it doesn’t seem to do anything for now. In one of my playthroughs I set my birthday on the 3rd day of Spring, and the only thing that appeared was a pop up saying “It’s your birthday!”. Understandable, this is only the demo after all. I wonder if the early access will have characters react to your birthday and maybe even give you some gifts!

The few available hairstyles are really nice. My absolute favourite thing about hair in the demo was that it has a moving animation! Small detail but it really delighted me.

Same goes for clothes, they are cute!

The customization isn't locked and you can create a couple of outfits you can swap any time! You can also change everything about your character's looks at any time, including their pronouns.

The predetermined palette of colours you can choose your hair colour from is pretty good. There’s 40 colours so far.

I have a small problem with the opening cutscene but the rest of the beginning cutscenes are good! I like the one when you arrive at the bridge and meet Balor and the camera slides to him. And the Juniper cutscene haha

Now that I mentioned NPCs, I really like the cute, personalized animations they have, like Adeline snapping her fingers, Balor flicking his hair before walking away, Celine working in her garden, Josephine and Hemlock singing.

I absolutely love all of the character designs in this game. The 90s anime artstyle, colours, their poses and expressions. I really feel like this is the thing that really drew me to try this game as I wasn’t interested in a new farming simulator. But here I am! All with the power of anime. For example, here are the designs of the romanceable characters! The photo is from the Fields of Mistria website:

Another huge NPC win for me is that the characters interact with each other a lot! I noticed that a lot of them meet during the day and talk with little dialogue bubbles. It feels like the townspeople know each other quite well, I hope we get to learn even more about them and their dynamics!

One of the best things about interacting with characters is that you can talk to them multiple times during the day, getting a bunch of different dialogues. Once you talk to someone you have to wait either for them to change their location or for one of the other characters to approach them, to talk. I really like it since it means you get to interact with everyone couple times a day and it honestly makes the game more enjoyable.

From the little crumbs of lore we got, I am really intrigued about the setting. Prior to the player’s arrival to Mistria, the region has been hit by an earthquake. The disaster caused the main trading route bridge to collapse, the area getting destroyed and a lot of residents leaving the town. The town leader Adeline (daughter of a Baroness and Baron of Mistria) with her brother, Eiland's, help comes up with the idea to seek out an adventurer who could help to revitalize the town. We learn that Mistria is part of the Kingdom of Aldaria (so we have a monarchy), it has its own guardian deities and rich ancient history with the Sleeping Dragon Inn being a historical landmark and that magic is not hidden from people who can’t use it (Juniper freely uses magic in front of the kids in her cutscene after completing her request). Some characters offer some little hits to what their story might be about: Balor says that compared to Elsie he didn’t have a good time in the Capital, and other characters note how he is mysterious and obtains his wares in unknown ways. Elsie is a retired socialite from the Capital with many past romance stories to share, she probably knows a lot of interesting titbits about the Capital and people there. Juniper says that there’s something suspicious about Celine and Juniper herself is stuck in a town she doesn’t really seem to like but seemingly has something she needs to achieve here. When you meet March he slips for a second and says “I- We have everything under control” so it seems he views the player’s arrival as a threat to him in some way (emotionally i presume, not literally). Errol used to be a miner, Hayden can possibly talk to animals? And so much more. And of course, there’s the statue of dragon Caldarus who appears to be a marriageable character…? Anyways, I can’t wait to learn more about this setting!

I loved that you can talk with animals like Dozy and Henrietta, give them gifts and pet them. I really hope we can do the same with our pet.

The interior designs of all the buildings is extremely cute! I really like all of them, my favourite must be the Sleeping Dragon Inn, Celine’s cottage and the Carpenter’s Shop. Plus Elsie’s room at the manor and Hayden’s house.

I also like the beach a lot. It just feels nice and there’s a light house and I sure do love a light house /reference plus there's good ambience there

If you go to the manor there’s a portrait of the Baroness, the Baron and little Adeline and Eiland over the fireplace in the dining room :3

I really like Holt’s dad jokes. Pierre could never-

Guys I need Valen I need her

You are able to swim! It’s really cool and the animation is cute. Plus you can dive in certain spots to find stuff.

You can hold down the button to eat a bunch of food if you have multiple of something.

Saving your game having a form of a diary is very cute and I love that. Same with the crystal orb serving as a weather channel.

Fighting monsters feels dynamic! You actually have to put some thought into learning each individual monster’s behaviour and attack patterns. It’s challenging but not too hard. But they do quite a bit of damage at the start. Fighting that red mushroom felt like playing “Baba Jaga patrzy” again haha.

And speaking of fighting, i like our own character's fighting moves! But it took a bit to get used to them since they make the character move and it's not just. clicking with the mouse repeatedly skdhfjsf

I like the sound design!

Soundtrack is very nice. Not all of it is very memorable but it’s nice while you listen to it and it fits the game. There are some tracks that already got stuck in my head :] I like the one that plays at the Blacksmith, it’s intense for no reason, just like March lol

I cannot stop gushing about the characters, so far even just from the designs they all feel like they have distinct personalities and each one of them has their own thing going on. They all feel so warm and welcoming even if their actions aren’t (looking at you March). I don’t know, something about the artstyle, the pixels, design and colour palette just has me very enamoured with them. I really hope their character arcs or stories will deliver.

I like Caldarus. And the music that plays when he first speaks to us in our dream.

The museum is so nice. Also I love that Errol is an actual character we can talk to… Unlike another museum curator I know /j

You can buy stuff from shops even if no one is around!

Level tenth of the Mines… I’m SO intrigued

I like that there’s magic and can’t wait to see what other spells we can learn!

You can craft at the crafting station in town even if you don’t have the necessary materials on your person, but they are in chests at the farmhouse. As long as the stuff you need is in your chests you can craft stuff which is pretty cool.

Lastly, what I really loved about playing the demo is that not once did I feel rushed to do anything. Farming simulators often make you feel like you have to maximize your time in the day *cough* SDV *cough* and I do enjoy that sometimes, but other times I just want to chill. Somehow Fields of Mistria demo achieves this feeling of not having to rush and playing at your own pace and it feels great.

Things I disliked:

Not a lot of things mentioned here are going to be stuff I actively disliked, more like felt annoyed or confused by. And before any of my little complaints gets the “this is only a demo!” response, let me assure you: I am aware. If things change before or after the early release that’s great! This is specifically what I find ‘meh’ about the demo so far.

When the opening cutscene in Adeline’s office starts playing the room is positioned oddly on the screen. I think it’s so later the camera can follow the characters’ movements but when the cutscene starts and you only see the bottom half of the room at an angle, it feels really weird, like the room wasn’t centred by accident.

I’d love for the character creator to have the option to rotate the model of your character. I think it would be good to see what the options you picked look like from different angles before you jump into the game. Although the customization isn’t locked and you can change how you look whenever. Still, this could be a nice option

So I just said that the colour palette for hair is pretty good. Can’t say the same about the other ones, for eyes and clothes. The colours we get aren’t bad but I feel like there’s too little of them. Speaking of eye colours…

Choosing the eye colour is annoying. Once you pick an eye shape (cool feature btw) a window pops up in the middle of the screen with eye colours. The icons are too small to see the eye colour properly, especially when you want to compare the darker colours. I had to move my face closer to the screen to see what was I picking. And after you pick something the window disappears and you can see the colour you chose on the model. Okay, cool but now if I want to try out different options it I have to open the window again. Constantly opening the colours window to check other options is tedious and a bit frustrating. What I think would be good instead is once you click to choose the colours, next to the options appears a close up of your character model, and the window doesn’t close until you click an “X” button. To sum up my main problems are colour options visibility and the colour picking mechanic. Hair colour and colours for clothes and other stuff is picked in the same way BUT all of those elements are bigger than the four pixels the eyes are made out of.

The controls are not obvious. The game shows you to progress dialogues with “E” key but nothing aside from that. I didn’t realise until the last day of my first playthrough that you can jump, because in my previous experiences, 2D RPG, and especially farming simulator games don’t usually have that option, and the only instance of jumping happened in a cutscene, so I thought it was just an animation for the cutscene. I think it would be a good opportunity to use that moment in the cutscene for brief player interaction so they can learn how to jump, however silly that sounds. I think the player’s experience would benefit from a controls tutorial, in form of a window popping up or them showing up on the side of the screen like in Stardew Valley on the first day.

While interior designs are really cool I feel like the outside is kinda empty. Not so much the building but the areas around them. It is felt the most in the empty stretches of land outside the town but running through the paved roads in it can also feel a bit odd. Like the area is too empty. It’s definitely not a problem on the farm due to all the overgrown grass but everywhere else you really feel like it’s just a flat stretch of nothing. I think adding some more details could be nice, maybe some streetlights, plants, a bit more texture on surfaces.

I had a really odd moment that took me out entirely. While playing the demo you can get Juniper’s request on the board to bring her a Lilac. Once you complete it, a cutscene set at the bathhouse will start playing right away, regardless of where were you when you completed the request. This felt incredibly jarring to me. The first time I did this request I gave the Lilac at the bathhouse, but the second time it was late evening at Valen’s house. So it was pretty surprising to be essentially teleported to a completely different place. I don’t think it’s a great mechanic. It would be better if a cutscene set at a specific place on the map started when you arrive there, to help it feel more coherent.

As much as I like the warm and cozy feel of the characters, it felt like there wasn’t a lot of variety in reactions to the player’s arrival. Everyone except I think literally one person is all cheery. I don’t mind this that much, cause the community being excited for your arrival feels sweet. It makes sense with the story too, the player is there to help out around the town, and who living there wouldn’t be happy about that? I just really hope the character’s don’t end up with poorly defined personalities, that’s my main concern for now about the story. It would be tragic if the game only ended up having cute designs but nothing else. Needless to say I have pretty high hopes for the final version! I really hope it works out and I’m 100% rooting for the team.

The inventory system had me kinda confused at the start. The spaces are all in one line in game but once you open your journal they’re stacked on top of each other? Yeah took me a bit to get used to that, and I’m not sure how I feel about it still.

The user interface is very cute, I have one problem though. It’s hard to tell what a lot of the little icons mean, for example, when you open the chest there’s a chest icon next to the two arrows that sort stuff. I have no clue what it does and when you’re hovering over it, it doesn’t have a name or an explanation either.

You can’t hold down mouse button to use tools continuously. This is because when you upgrade your tools, for example a pickaxe, when you hold it down you get to mine more spaces at the same time. I’m not sure if that exchange is worth it.

You have to click one by one if you want to throw multiple items out in the inventory trashcan.

It’s a shame you can’t land on rocks/big water lily leaves on the water. And you can’t walk into the sea, you have to specifically jump into it. This isn’t really a complaint, I just think I’d be cool if you could just slowly walk into the sea. Like slowly getting submerged.

I feel like the scroll wheel directions are odd… Scrolling upwards will move you to the right of the inventory but I feel like it should be the other way… Maybe it can be changed later in settings.

The buildings on the map are not named. It would be nice if, when you hover over an area you see its name.

Credits get blurry when moving. It hurt my eyes :(

Things I hope to see in the Early Access (and in the game in general):

Interactivity within interiors. So like looking at bookshelves to see what books a character has, reading letters or notebooks that were left out, finding some stuff in their drawers… Basically snooping haha. Oh and more interactivity with objects placed outside too. Right now there are some signs and items you can't interact with, like that tent by the dig site.

More settings for in-game scale! It would be cool if there was one between 3x and 2x, like a 2.5x.

The ability to sell stuff directly at shops. Sometimes you need money but waiting until the next day would ruin your plans.

Sitting! I wanna sit in spots next to the characters and vibe :]

While I do like available colours, I think adding a colour wheel or sliders would be neat.

I wonder what are gender identities and sexual orientations of the characters :]

More clothes and hair options obviously! And furniture as well

What gets implemented for the player’s birthday

How the museum exhibition will look like :D

Lastly, I might be way out of my depth with this one but it would be cool if the romanceable characters could also move in with you platonically… Or if there was a character like Krobus, a little friend you can invite to live with you <3

And that's it :] sorry for the stardew comparison, it's like the only farming sim i'm very familiar with

I've been enjoying playing the demo a lot and i definitely will play more before it closes. And i will for sure be following the development and waiting for the early access in august!

it was a really fun experience over all and if ur interested i reccomend you try it out :D

cya

[parad-ice-lostandfound]

Things that come in my head as I play through Diasomnia's chapter (chp 38-55):

[Potential spoilers below darlings, proceed with caution!]

Am I ready for this? Hell no. Do I know I will regret everything? Yes. Am I still gonna try to finish everything in one day? Yep. Let's go!

Ortho??? Calling from RSA??? Is this Idia's dream? Malleus?! Cute to see him taking care of Drago but like the tiny details showing that its actually a dream? And Idia's catching on! Slowly but hey, progress is still progress! It's also nice to see how things could be different if og Ortho was still around.

Where are we? Why are there terrifying ghost like things on the windows? Is this Ramshackle dorm before it became, well, Ramshackle as we know it now? I am so confused now lol– Wait we're in Mickey's room?! How'd we get on the other side of the mirror? We're all having an out of body experience... I dunno how to feel about that tbh.

Silver! My baby's here! And we get to see his UM!

Have I ever told you guys how much I like Malleus' humming? Cause I like it very much. But anyways... we're in cyberspace now...? Oh Ortho! Ortho's awake! Poor baby's trying so hard to wake up his brother.

It's kinda scary seeing how powerful Malleus is. Like, to the point where he can force even Styx issued gear into shut down mode, he's seriously overpowered. Can't wait to see Idia continue the trend and become the hero in this tale, but there's a lot of heart ache we need to go through before we reach that point so, best of luck to all our poor hearts.

I wonder if there's any particular significance to the fact that the time is stopped at 9:18.

So we finally meet Idia's dad, huh? His helmet reminds me of Hades' Helm of Darkness. And we meet his mom as well. A lot of technical stuff and lore drop that went a bit over my head, but it's fine! We'll be fine!

Seems like eccentricity is the middle name of the Shroud family. Then again all geniuses are a bit eccentric. Poor idia, his mom definitely snooped through password protected folders. I would riot if my parents ever snooped through my laptop, so I can't wait for him to wake up and proceed to lose his shit over it lmao

Ortho's Cerberos gear and the two support droids are so cool! The little family moment is cute, but I hope this isn't a death flag for poor Ortho because I've seen too much of that trope– Now we're back with the Prefect! Ngl, Silver's kinda hot when he orders us around.

Dreams are a very tricky subject, so I don't blame Silver for not knowing much about how his UM works. That being said, I'm ready to learn a little more about Sebek, now that we're in his dream. I'm not his biggest fan atm, but... let's see. I'm hoping my perspective on him changes because he seems like a fun character to explore.

.... Something about the way he calls us human just pisses me off lmao. But we will be keeping an open mind. I will come to love you Sebek (yes it is a threat)

I feel terrible for Silver. Imagine looking at people you've known your entire life, two of them people you look up to and one you've trained alongside, and seeing strangers. Strangers who live in a fairy tale, who want you to join them and live happily ever after, sacrificing your freedom and responsibilities of the real world for an ideal ending. Who wouldn't want to take that chance? Making the choice to go against them, for their own good, is the most difficult thing to do in this situation. Raising your weapon against the one you trained your whole life to protect, fighting against someone who was once your comrade-in-arms.... it's terribly heartbreaking. But, hey, at least we got Sebek to wake up.

EHY IS MALLEUS SO FUCKING OP DIFVDHDGDJSVDVDJD B DHFDUSJDHS?!?!?!?!?

We... we're in Lilia's dream now.... brb, gotta get some tissues and get ready for emotional damage–

It's nice to see Silver taking the lead and being the dependable one. Also, General Lilia!! Been waiting for him since I got spoilers back when I was stuck in Ignihyde's book. I love how his hair transitions from being long and having red streaks to short and cute with pink streaks. Long hair is often associated, at least in my culture, with maturity and a sense of responsibility, while short hair is more fun and child-like. Similarly, red is an intense colour, while pink could technically be seen as a softer, gentler cousin to it. It shows Lilia's change from a warrior to caregiver and I think it's really neat. I just wish he could have seen him in a more adult-like form in the past.

[swords-of-a-soilder]

Bless you for compiling what’s going on with that ex-bird app. It’s been genuinely insightful for me to understand the thoughts of the kinds of people behind those accounts.

That person trying to cancel creators for associating with Forever (and probably advocating for his lore to be excised from the server) saying “but I can’t possibly give up guapoduo, it’s My Hyperfixation” is very telling. Hypocrisy specifically in the context of “separating the art from the artist” isn’t something I’ve seen before, shockingly, so I guess I get to add that to my Social Media Discourse Bingo. (I had an online friend in 2016 who I was terrified to talk about my interests with because I didn’t know what angry punk teenagers on tumblr had deemed “evil and disgusting”, and even SHE stopped listening to some of her favorite metal bands when she learned they were homophobic, and had absolute turmoil when she learned that David Bowie might have allegedly slept with an underage groupie in the 70s. Her constant, unpredictable rage at seemingly random pieces of media was awful for my mental health, but at least she wasn’t a genuine hypocrite.)

Also that tone of “I’ve had good memories here… but I just can’t handle it anymore.” It sounds like someone whose meaningful but soul-crushing work has finally broken them, almost sounding like someone I knew at the frontline worker job I had mid-pandemic who missed her own birthday three years in a row, got repetitive stress injuries, and then got passed over for a promotion that was given to someone who did a fraction of the work. But the “God willing, I’ll never come back” was followed by “I’m 13” …damn, I got whiplash so hard that I astral projected into a universe where things made sense for a second. Because of course kids don’t have a complex view of other countries’ political systems or cultural pressures. Or the nuances of personal change and redemption. Or that sometimes people are just not online for a few days. And of course a 13-year-old doesn’t understand how dumb and petty they look by trying to ruin other peoples’ careers in the name of Activism (tm) while having a fandom portmanteau username.

“I didn’t want it to come to this but… I’m going to delete twitter!” I hope so, but more for their own sake, honestly. I actually have less anger towards most of them now. Many are kids with a false sense of grandiosity that makes them believe they are the ultimate moral authority, but have very little understanding of how messy people or societies can be. I just hope they can learn one day, and look back on who they are now and cringe. (And then many years after that, have the grace to forgive themselves.)

Oof, sorry for the wall of text.

I’m still not over the whole situation with Forever. I miss his energy, and his accent, and his silly bits with Richas that always dragged on too long, and N.I.N.H.O. (and everything it represented), and how different he and Cellbit are but how they understood each other WAY too well, and how he tried to make people who didn’t log onto the server as often still feel welcome and wanted, and how happy he got when anyone non-Brazilian even tried to speak a little bit of Portuguese. (I was learning, but I’ve barely touched it since.) I won’t lie, it’s affected me far more than I thought it would.

I miss Forever. Thank you for your blog being a little space where that’s okay.

I'm honestly a little worried for the kid (s), not in a "oh I just want the best for" fake bs way just a little concerned tbh. I still don't like them but I don't hate them either, they're a kid.

But at the same time I'm worried for their well being, they have like 5,000 follower on their main Twitter and 28 on curious cat (which is apprantly high for that app )

That's 5000 people (teens or not) waiting for you to tell them how to feel that can't be good for their mental state, not for a 13 yr old kid.

Most of their life was spent learning about the world and their still learning, these are the ages where you're worried about the sun blowing up.

You haven't seen how awful the world can be yet, You haven't seen how much worst it could get you haven't learned calculus yet!

To you the world is only these 13 years and you think if you don't act now everything will be over.

I get it, I had that fear too, most people grown into it and realize just how shitty it can get an settle in choosing their own battles and not letting It consume them, because no one had time for that anymore.

You want to experience the most out of live while you can and the older you get the easier it is to balance.

To me it looks like one of those situation where you'll look back and think "I wish I enojyed my childhood."

Because 5000 people waiting for you to tell them who to bash, 28 people prasing your while admitting they use to hate you.

It can't be good. And if they were to read this they'd probably say "oh you don't actually care you just want to shit on me."

And like, yeah I don't care, but am I saying all this because I want to shit on them? no I'm just pointing out concerns.

Apart from that I fully agree with anon.

[styrmwb]

I beat World of Warcraft: The War Within (for now)

Every single word I am about to write I do so with the fear of god that none of it will age poorly

(also wow this is a long one sorry that my ramblings keep getting more rambly)

The summer of 2024 is the summer of "why do I have two separate MMOs that I want to play I hate myself", cause I already had FFXIV Dawntrail a bit ago, and now we got WoW, my first MMO love who I have had a horrible relationship with During BfA and Shadowlands and All That Blizzard Shit I was like Jaina in the scene of Warcraft III with the Culling of Stratholme "I'm sorry Arthas, I can't watch you do this." But then things (as far as I know) in real life are getting better, and then they did Dragonflight which in game was getting better and I'm over here tentatively having fun with a smile on my face ready for it to go bad at any time, and that's how I felt about War Within: This looks cool, are they going to be able to do it, or am I going to be disappointed once again?

And god. PLEASE DON'T LET THIS AGE POORLY BUT HOLY SHIT THEY LANDED IT SO HARD, I LOVED THIS EXPANSION!!!! I want to talk about why!!!! And like I said in Dawntrail MMOs obviously release more content (hell by the time I beat my set goals a raid came out (I did not do the raid), so I considered "beat" to be Loremaster (all the quests), all the dungeons, and all the delves so DON'T COME AT ME WITH "BUT YOU DIDN'T DO NERUB'AR" I WANTED TO WRITE A BEAT A GAME POST FOR AN MMO LEAVE ME ALONE

Story

This is what I was scared of. I love Warcraft, I love it so much I love the world, I love the lore, I love the everything, and obviously this game has had a... Not Great experience with respecting its own universe with... good writing. So I am understandably hesitant! Even Dragonflight which was a step in the right direction still didn't grab me in some ways and was a little cheesy I did really like the avengers assemble in the emerald dream though I'm not above that; so I didn't come into War Within expecting the best thing ever, but I really did appreciate how they did this.

Everything fits pretty well within the world, nothing feels like it contradicts previous info, it actually takes a lot from the existing world and expands on it; Xal'atath and the sword was Legion, Earthen have been a thing since Wrath, Nerubians have been around since WCIII, they got Kobolds, they got a healthy amount of previous guys you know from Dalaran/other people who happened to be on Dalaran (lmao) to really make the whole thing FEEL Warcrafty and not something kind of disconnected, despite the new concepts being introduced, which made me very happy.

The story itself was great. I felt invested fighting against Xal'atath because she fucked with my mans, and I really liked how much of a presence she was; involved in everything, but not to an annoying amount, and it didn't feel like the conflict with her was bullshit like the Jailor (they can still fuck this up we got several patches to go). I enjoyed learning about the Earthen, the Arathi, and the Nerubians, and like I said it all fit really well and I didn't have any moments of like "wait what the fuck why this"; even the Arathi felt pretty well explained "oh there's an empire somewhere else we haven't seen" cool and awesome, doesn't contradict anything already existing and opens up a new place in the future.

I think the one thing that was strange was how short the main campaign was. I hard focused it on my main and it wasn't enough to get me to max. But once I did all the Sojourner achievements I could see where the rest of the writing meat went, because so many of those side stories were amazing; some I'm genuinely surprised WEREN'T in the main campaign (the Haranir got like 2 steps in the main deal and then never showed up?? do the side quests to figure out anything about this person we put in the teaser cinematic; this is like my one beef with the main campaign, anyways). So many heavy emotional hits, stories that actually made me feel. The old Earthen losing his memories I think was a highlight for me.

What I really appreciated about every quest I did was the focus on emotions, on internal processing; like yeah, this is World of Warcraft. We fight a lot. There's a lot of fighting. But this expansion takes its own title to mean more than just being in the world, and focuses a lot on trauma, fighting with yourself, accepting yourself, connecting with others after trauma, and I really really appreciated that a game like this actually managed to slow down and question these little large things that it never really did in the past. Also, even with the deeper, more serious tones being so strong, the humor this time around is really great. There are a lot of moments in the main story and in the side quests that actually got me laughing out loud. Overall, I was really satisfied with all the story they gave me and I cannot wait to see if they are able to continue this upward trend to finish the expansion off.

I also want to say "stay a while and listen"s have been the greatest thing this game has ever introduced to give nerds like me more good writing while letting other players not have to suffer through it if they don't want to.

Characters

This is also an important section which was really hard to separate from the above; like I said, Warcraft does not have a great track record of how it treats its beloved characters who can be amazing at the highest of times (COUGH SYLVANAS SHADOWLANDS AS A WHOLE COUGH), so I was worried here. But the way our returning characters were treated, on top of the new characters, was really surprising.

Our Returning Friends:

Anduin - My fucking boy. I love Anduin, he is one of my favorite characters, if not my favorite character, in all of Warcraft. Seeing his struggle with himself hit really hard, and I really appreciate how they did it, it didn't feel disrespectful, he got moments to bring him up, he got moments that validated his current state; it hurt me to see the optimistic prince in such a state, and I love where his journey is taking him. He also calls me friend and that makes me happy Anduin if you were real I would be your friend

Alleria - I think her story is going to be cooked a little longer in the future, cause for this expansion she was often in the background hunting, but I love that despite the internal AND external things trying to keep her alone, she's not so far gone as to be separated from the people she cares about; I am actually excited to see how she'll play out. The fact that her and Turalyon still clearly love and care for each other despite the circumstances makes me happy.

Moira - I very much enjoyed that the Bronzebeard-Thaurissan family got such a spotlight this time around. It was great seeing Moira continue to prove herself as a leader with the action taken + the diplomatic role she placed herself in with the Earthen. The sidequest where she gets Fearbreaker was really a place for her to shine on her own. While I was a big fan of the trio of her, Magni, and Dagran, I can't help but feel like her portion didn't stick with me as much as the other two, but that could be a me flaw rather than a game flaw. I do hope she continues to get more screentime to show off.

Magni - Did not at all expect where this man was going. Depressed and angry speaker was an interesting way to start the expansion, and I enjoyed seeing him be able to reconnect with his family, to be freed from his prison (they hatched him!), and to really start his grandpa arc/hopefully make a relationship with his daughter arc.

Dagran - If you told me that the 3 polygon baby in Ironforge was going to be one of the best characters in a future expansion I would have been very surprised. He's such a nerd but in a really enjoyable way, and the connection he has with his family + Brinthe is really heartwarming to see. I want more of this 🤓 motherfucker

Brann - Not really a character in the main story, but he's here and I love it, except when he tells me that those webs will summon Nerubians, and not to stand in them. I hope he gets more uncle moments.

Khadgar - Fuck. This old shitty wizard is also top contender for favorite Warcraft character, so the way this expansion started gutted me. I was actually real life mad I wanted to destroy that stupid purple elf and all her spiders; I am so happy that he's fine I am going to put him in the best retirement situation possible and he can get his girlfriend and live the rest of his life happy DON'T YOU FUCKING DO THAT TO ME AGAIN BLIZZARD.

Jaina and Thrall - Did not get to be there lmao. Thrall really got the short end of the stick being on the loading screen. The Horde as a whole could have gotten more love this expansion, and this is coming from a man loyal to the Alliance. But also you guys got a lot in the past so uuhhhhhh fuck you lmao

Side note, where the fuck is Muradin; your brothers, your niece, and your great nephew are here, your brother hatched, Where Are You.

Our New Friends (and Enemies)

The Earthen - Initially, incredibly off putting. Why are they not scottish. But I really grew to love these robot dwarves. The council was all surprisingly great, Merrix has his whole sidequest where "oh he's a bad guy" no not at all he cares about his people, Baelgrim warms up to you and is the Obligatory Sacrifice Character, Adelgonn really showed the humanity these people can have, Brinthe was surprisingly funny and charming, and I loved to see her grow closer to Dagran (new aunt unlocked let's go). Overall, it was really cool to see this race of people show both their construct nature mixed with the free will they've unlocked. So much more interesting than I expected.

Faerin and the Arathi - Definitely the strangest part of this expansion, but incredibly cool to see. I was unsure going in, did they really feel like the fit in, their vibe seems a little separate from Warcraft and more Diablo-y or a different franchise, but I was really interested in their culture, the genuine nature their society had despite the traitors (like I was totally expecting Steelstrike to be evil not to have a cooking quest with her and her family); Faerin was likewise a surprise. I see the name "Lothar" and I'm like oh geez how are they gonna mess this up and I was instead greeted with a kind yet tough warrior who Has feelings and struggles with loss and is a wonderful friend to Anduin (the quest where you sit down with Faerin and Anduin might be one of my favorite sidequests ever).

The Nerubians - Ok so yeah we're all used to these guys being Bad Spiders Go Kill which they were def introduced as, but then you get to their zone and they're presented as their own society in such a cool way?? These are people! They're spiders, but they're people! The Severed Threads are a fun trio of characters that I enjoyed talking to. Honestly, surprisingly enough the Nerubians as a whole are like, really funny? There's a bunch of really good comedic moments, some played straight which hit the hardest. (Mr. Sunflower my beloved) I loved the split in society shown, the dislike, the Reason for dislike shown between the Ascended and the normal Nerubians, I could really feel the reason for dissent against the Queen (I haven't done Nerub'ar like I said but I do wish she was more present.)

Xal'atath - I said my main opinion earlier, she was a great presence in the story and I very much enjoy her as a villain. I really like the bonus dialogue you get if you've interacted with her before. I really think she has the potential to be one of the best major villains we've ever had if Blizzard plays their cards right (I am scared).

World (of Warcraft)

Dragonflight's zones were cool; but. Nothing really WOWed me (funny joke). Going into TWW, I thought underground was cool, but I wasn't sure at first. Looked at the little pictures for each zone, still unimpressed. Once I actually got Into the game and played it though, these are some of the best zones in the game.

I have these four screenshots, my favorite parts of each zone, and I still feel like I am not doing them justice. They're huge, they're so incredibly varied, and you feel like you can still breathe despite being underground (and they're confining when needed). I've always said that despite the lows, Blizzard's art department hard fucking carries the game, and they continue to flex. The cities are getting so much better at feeling sprawling and lived in, an evolution from the tiny Stormwinds of classic WoW. I love Khaz Algar so much. One of my favorite parts of my playthrough was when I entered Hallowfall for the first time, during the Beledar shifting event (not the story one! the random one), and I was amazed and confused. I don't think I've felt this mesmerized by the game since I was like 10 walking through Teldrassil. Something really special I also loved about Hallowfall (might be contender for top 10 zone of all time) is yes, this feels outside. There is grass. There is water. There is sun. But then you look at the land, you look at the rocks, the stalagmites, you look up and it reminds you that you're underground. There's so much spectacle here and I feel like I could go on and on and on about each zone and how amazing they are. (I'm ending this section now but I have to say I love Bug Suramar)

Music

Piggybacking off the last section, the music this expansion has been absolutely incredible, I haven't really hooked onto as much of the soundtrack as I have since BfA; Shadowlands really just had Maldraxxus and Revendreth and I honestly don't remember much of Dragonflight's, but here it's so strong. Isle of Dorn's windy outdoor flutes, The Ringing Deeps' sound of echoing mining, Hallowfall's beautiful choir, and Azj-Kahet's plucking spider sounds, it's all so strong, so memorable and unique.

Cutscenes

Really small section here but I love the cutscene work they've been doing. The fact that we get what used to just be in the prerendered ones in game??? The models look so nice there! Yeah sure my character looks a little awkward doing default standing they haven't mastered it like FFXIV yet but I LOVE the cutscene work. Even the lower quality ones have shown a lot of character. I think of the scene with Elrich and Brinthe, he still shows off and feels like an asshole, and you can clearly see the humorous frustration Brinthe feels at being interrupted. It's great.

Gameplay

I am the least excited to talk about the gameplay here, but I really do enjoy what they're doing this expansion. I love Delves and the solo content they're doing, I think their quest design continues to be engaging and fun (even though I was a little tired of the shout instruction randomly to get item/do task and all of the pulling slowly mechanics), and even though I'm not really a dungeon guy each one was incredible, they all excelled in presentation and vibe. The mechanics didn't really get me like I think Dawntrail's dungeons did, but I imagine they go harder in Mythic which I will not be doing.

The classes I played during my session of goals were Warrior, Evoker, and Warlock, which I had fury mountain thane (later slayer), arms slayer, augmentation chronowarden, and demonology diabolist. I really enjoyed the flavor they all brought, and in the case of diabolist it's SO fucking fun holy shit. I know not every class got something cool, and I will be playing those eventually (haha two of every class split between factions I have a problem haha).

Speaking of alts, I love Warbands. The fact that I got to work on loremaster, level Brann, and work on renown across 4 separate characters is an absolute godsend.

Last thought here; Skyriding is amazing. Yeah it was introduced in Dragonflight but I really just needed to be able to fly Invincible everywhere. The fact that Blizzard finally embraced flying and made it engaging by just making the zones huge is the best path ever.

I Have Talked So Much I Am Sorry

yeah i hate this expansion isn't it clear

I really truly desperately hope that WoW continues this upward trend, continues this energy forward. I want to be able to hit each patch, to look back, and still feel the same happiness and excitement as I do now for the game. WoW is a game I have loved for most of my life. I want it to succeed. I want to say that I love it and not be embarrassed. If we continue to have more times like what War Within is at launch, I have no doubt that those things will be the case. They just need to not prove my fears right. With all of this very very very long post said;

9.5/10. The most love I've had for Warcraft in a long while. Honest competition with Legion for favorite expansion. Please Don't Fuck This Up.

please help me i still feel like i could have talked more

[oh-my-may]

HELLOOOOOOO

Very quickly I wanted to share some thoughts on Wuthering Waves so far.

I have completed the main quest up to act IV and I think it goes up to 6 in total? So I am more than halfway done with what the main story has to offer so far. I must say, although it does follow the typical anime rpg plot of recent games, I have been enjoying it!

It took me the first two chapters of the story to get behind all the game specific terms like Resonator, Tacet Fields and Discords etc. but I think as of right now I'm pretty secure in my knowledge of it.

I don't wanna get too much into the lore yet but there's so many things about the world (Solaris 3, right?) that I do not understand (yet) but given how I still have main story to play through I reckon some of my questions will be answered later. But the first thing is HOW BIG THE MAP IS? I think it might be like that for me bc I'm not used to playing open world games on mobile and maybe if I played it on PC I'd have a different impression but like... on mobile it seems huge. The Resonance Beacons are kinda oddly placed I think... like there should be a few more but maybe I'm spoiled from hyv games. From what I can tell on mobile it looks good, too. Can't wait for WuWa to come out for PS5 so I can fully enjoy how beautiful it looks. (no, I don't have a PC to play it on atm)

Scar is really cool, overall I really like the "villain" organisation so far (I know their name but wouldn't trust myself to properly spell it on here lol). Maybe bc they're some lf the only characters in this game that know what colour is lol. Scar's eng VA is *chefs kiss* and I think so far he's the most interesting character overall. Chamellya (? Is that how you spell her name) also seems really cool. Haven't met her yet in the story but I've seen several posts and I really look forward to getting to know more about the Fractuids (????or whatever their name is). Call them the Overseers, that's easier to remember and spell HAHA. Wonder what their motive is for abducting Jue and reviving the other big thing (it starts with Th I know, but can't remember it rn... Threnoid or something? Guys I told you I'm still learning)

When directly asked, Scar said that it brings the Lament and all that but like... why would they want that to happen??? Are humans bad? Is something bad gonna happen to them and they know? And what about putting TD parts into human bodies?? Why?? AND WHERE DO TDS COME FROM ANYWAY?

Okay so far for that. Also I quite like Jihnsi, which is suprising to me... I do find it weird that most characters in this game share almost the same color palette, I think it's cool that she's devoid of any color and she's just... pale. Everything about her is so pale and I think that's really cool, somehow. Just like the Overseers it makes her stand out to me.

I haven't met Jiyan yet :( Apparently I will in the next chapter but I have to level up quite a bunch until then... so lemme give you some other thoughts.

First of all I like the open world! I wanted to save exploration for until I have finished the main quests completely but since you have to level up in between the game leaves you no other choice. I haven't even unlocked the entire map yet (as I said I think it's HUGE on mobile lol) but so far it's been very cool! I like the twist they put in the puzzles, somehow they came up with new mechanisms that aren't just repetition of other games open world puzzles. I like that most challanges aren't time gated (like the sniper ones, I'd be dead if they were on mobile HAHA). Besides the challenges where you fly around as that bird and have to fly through rhose rings.. it goes so fast I can NOT control that at all on mobile. Will save those for a later opportunity ig.

The battles have been fun so far. Again I have to say how dynamic the system feels it's really fun with Intro Attacks and all that, the dodge attacks are really cool and yeah... on mobile I just press buttons and can't be as smart with my moves because I barely know wtf is going on and I can't control my fingers as diligently on the tiny buttons lol. Does the mobile version have controller support yet? I think I read somewhere that it doesn't, but I'll probably be the first to jump to it lol.

(Rn I wanna mention that I saved this post until this point and finished writing it afterwards until suddenly the wifi at work disconnected and then I lost hald the post :((( so I have to kinda rewrite half of it, yaay...)

SO. AGAIN.

The echo system is really cool and innovative. Its pretty new to me personally as a system to exchange for the artifact/relic stuff. Its cool you can use the echos ability. I just figure its gonna be a pain to farm later, given how you're not always guaranteed to get an Echo from every enemy snd the stats are random too... I haven't gotten too much into the system yet and what set or whatever is best for each character... but I'm glad that auto euqip is a thing already haha. I'll probably have plenty of time to figure this all out later.

I have arrived at a point in the game where the game wants me to level characters... the game recommended team level 40 for the Scar fight when I had my team at 25... Currently I use Rover, Verina and Chixia and habe been quote enjoying them. I'll try and use Rover as long as possible, so far I really like her playstyle! I also like that the game basically adds two new elements to the roster: light and darkness, basically. Seems pretty cool. Do the elements interact? Haven't gotten too much into the meta yet, so are there like reactions like on genshin or just status effects? To conclude my thoughts I'd like to add that I'm not sure yet how worth it is leveling up my characters rn? I know that Verina is very good and as I said I'll try and level Rover for now, but as for the third slot... although I like Chixia I ultimately wanna get Jiyan or some other 5star lile Calcharo? I also have no idea (yet) how to effectively farm level up material. There must be something like a ley line or calyx surely, I just haven't found it yet. Overall I'd like to spend the 240 energy the game gives me but besides bosses I haven't really found something on the map... oh yeah there was spme forgery challenge ig that's like for weapon stuff? We'll see...

Since I have lots of leveling to do (6 levels to continue the main quest...) I figured doing normal quests is the most effective way to do that, although I have noticed that not all quests give Union Exp? I find that a bit odd. Also are there any of these smaller quests worth paying proper attention to? Like that tell important lore? So far I've only done a few and they didn't really seem significant ... some photo taking and infiltrating an enemy camp, which was pretty cool because Rover dressed up as one of them snd snuck arpund the camp, but it didn't seem that important in the grand scheme of things? Do let me know if there are certain quests that are really cool.

I have done Lingyangs character quest and it was pretty sweet. I liked the camera switch in the cavern a lot. He's also just generally a very cite character, he falls out of the character colour scheme and he's just adorable :( I did get him as my first 5star on the 50 pull banner... sadly I don't like his playstyle :( I think I dislike the way gauntlet characters feel on mobile? Idk. I also dislike that lightning 4star gauntlet man (forgot his name. He was one of my first 4stars and his trial felt weird playing him idk...) in terms of gameplay. I do think this is just a mobile thing for me, at least with the controls. As I said, when the game gets controller support this might change.

I'd like to mention a few things that bother me, too. No game is perfect and I do think that kuro games is definitely able to fix these things. First of all I've noticed that in the open world when expllring it's often very silent? As in... there's no background music? Idk if it's just programmed to set in very late? I know that there is music, since it does play when I log in... but when I walk through the world and change areas it's so oddly silent for so long... it's kinda scary sometimes haha. Also I often hsve the problem that spoken dialogue randomly cuts off mid sentence without any trigger? Like it just doesn't play the entirety of the sentence? And this happens quite frequently, especially in the first few chapters of the story. Also when the text appears on screen... it seems that sometimes it is so long that it doesn't fully appear on screen? It doesn't scroll down or anything the longer texts are just not displayed? Idk.

Another thing I noticed is that the Rover's voice over often seems very monotonous and almost... empty? Like there's no emotion or anything... at least for female Rover. I do like that she gets quite a bunch of spoken lines, but sometimes they seem oddly off against the other characters... one example that really botheres me wss in act 4, when Scar gets arrested (and Scars voice over is phenomenal btw!). There's this moment where he wants to flee and in the lsst second Rover jumps in and says something like "not so fast" or something like that and its just... the character is in action and there's high tension and the line just falls so incredibly flat? I think it may be a directing problem, maybe they just didn't tell her what the context was but like... it really bothered me. I generally like the Eng voice over, although I do find some of Yangyangs pronounciations weird? It irritates me how she says Huanglong a lot of times? Like I get it that its closer to the Chinese pronounciation but other characters say it with an english accent too? Or her breathy "Rover" all the time? I think this is just me but it was quite annoying.

Other than that (and I already mentioned it) it will tske me some time to get used to the colour palette of the characters... i do like the character design, but almost every character has the same colours to them? It's all mainly black with white/grey details and occasinally some shade of blue/red or green in between. Very few characters fall out of that scheme, like Encore, Verina or LingYang. Or the Overseers, but they're not playable (yet?)

Other than thode pretty minor problems I'm excited to explore the world a bunch now. Very excited to see how the story ends as of rn. The devs are very attentive to player feedback so I'm vurious to see where the game is headed. I do think it has lots of potential. As I said, I can't wait for playable Scar and just generally to explore more of the world. Are there gonna be more countries added to the world? I'd say yes as of right now but are there mentions of it in the story? Very excited for it!

Also I'm looking forward to meeting Geshulin in the story. Ive seen short clips of him and to say I'm obsessed would be an understatement. This game nails it's morally grey male characters.

I'm not used to taking screenshots during mobile games, so I have only this one of Scar for now, maybe I'll mamage to make it a habit. Bye for now! (Wish me luck on Jiyans banner)

[thepageofhopes]

Talking about my choices and template under the cut!

Favorite Game of All Time: Undertale

Probably will stay my GOAT forever unless Deltarune manages to stick it's landing with the many cool extensions to undertale's themes and lore it brings up. Part of my love for it is based on how little games cared to explore the themes it brought up before undertale came out.

Favorite Series: Super Monkey Ball series

No other games have really managed to capture what this series had, though Rolled Out might by the time it's finally released. Lots of nostalgia baked into this choice- I used to do stunts as a teenager back in the day and learn the tech from forums.

Best Soundtrack: Terraria's Calamity Mod

Yes, I'm counting a mod as both a separate game and enough of one to have the best soundtrack. I already loved DM DOKURO's undertale remixes, and they just knock it out of the park with the Calamity mod. I will never not scream THE ENEMY HAS ASCENDED BEYOND YOUR CONTROL but Devourer of Gods is also something truly special.

Favorite Protagonist: Zagreus from Hades

I'm not usually super into the protagonists of games as I usually am with the supporting cast, but Zagreus really makes the story of Hades and his commentary brings the game to life so, so much. Other contender of this spot was probably the Voice of the Hero from Slay the Princess, but hard to say if they are really the protagonist, and also, I like Voice of the Contrarian even more.

Favorite Villain: The Masked Man from Mother 3

-endless crying-

Best Story: Mother 3

Listen, Undertale may be my GOAT but Mother 3 is my number 2 because of how good the story is. Please go watch Super Eyepatch Wolf's video on it if you haven't. The incredible themes, the knife-twisting tragedies, the goofy humor covering up extremely dark subject matter, all of it is so, so, so, good.

Have not played but want to: Alan Wake 2

This game seems so much My Shit™ but sadly it is only on epic games store which I hate. I've heard so many wonderful things about the game and all the visuals in those reviews look amazing and seem like it really is the peak of modern survival horror. Can't wait for it to come to Steam/GoG.

Everyone hates but you love: Continue?9876543210

'Everyone' is quite an overstatement for such a weird, niche game but it is the only game I really like that also has a non positive rating on steam. I've always loved the weird themes and existentialism tinged with hope that this game offers, despite everything from its mechanics to the story being vague and near impossible to parse.

You hate but everyone loves: Into The Breach

Nuclear Throne/Enter the Gungeon could also go here. All are roguelikes which are incredibly loved in the community that I just can't stand. I don't even particularly know why I don't like them, just something about the feel of the mechanics don't agree with me.

Best Artstyle: Splatoon series, but specifically Octo Expansion (until Side Order inevitably beats this)

Splatoon has always been a series marked by it's incredible visual design. Everything screams 90s, the color choices are vivid and striking, the character models are super expressive, etc. Octo Expansion adds even more with the retropunk aesthetic and dark environments mixed with the neon greens and blues.

Favorite Ending: Phoenix Wright: Trials and Tribulations

The entire last case of this game is perfect. The ending montage where you get to see where all the characters are going is sweet and ties a great bow on the series, and the final picture with the vase gets me every time. This was another game that was a contender for best story.

Favorite Boss Fight: Undyne the Undying from Undertale

'Not Sans???' listen Sans is probably the better design but Undyne the Undying was my literal first true boss I ever fought in Undertale, and it will always stick with me. I love the rhythm game style of her mechanics and her intro into her music sets the tone perfectly for the genocide run.

Childhood Game: Ball Revamped 2: Metaphasik

Catz is also a contender here since that is even older and I also played that quite a lot as a kid, but Ball Revamped 2 and a lot of jmtb02's other flash games were really when I started to heavily get into video games. I still sometimes go back to this one, the design still holds up quite well, and the rest of the series ain't bad either.

Relaxing Game: Vampire Survivors

I don't generally play 'relaxing' games, I like my games hard and fast and brutal. But vampire survivors build crafting is incredibly relaxing and when you make a successful build being able to just sit back and let the game play itself to win is such a dopamine rush.

Stressful Game: Cook, Serve, Delicious 3

Honestly, most of the games I play could go here. CSD series however is a special type of stress that puts me on edge through the whole level, enough that I often can't do more than a 3 or so in a play session (lovingly). A rhythm game without music, there is no other game series that demands the level of intense focus and execution like this does.

Game you can always come back to: Fallout: New Vegas

I've come back to this game at least 10 separate times with new characters. A combination of incredibly relaxing due to the easy combat system and replayability given the role playing system mean it's an easy game to just jump back into even after a long time away.

Guilty Pleasure: Project Sekai: Colorful Stage

I play a lot of gacha games and most if not all could fit here given how terrible those games are with the players, but Project Sekai is one where I will actively gush about it as I think it's story and characters are legitimately great. Magia Record could also fit here if it the NA servers weren't shut down.

Tons of Hours Played: Binding of Isaac: Rebirth

Not my most played game technically (Terraria and Tabletop Simulator beat it) but both of those don't count as many of Terraria's hours are idle due to holding a server up, and Tabletop Simulator due to waiting and also it's not exactly a game in it's own right. I've so far put 750 hours into Rebirth, and still only have 545 of the 637 achievements. No other game has ever captured BoI's way of insane item combinations that make each run a discovery fest.

And here's the template!