#i dont wike this

[battletrio]

Ok @spybiote and @viperbit I want y’all to know that “how do you tragically die” quiz is giving me Anxiety™️ about John’s future in the MCU 🤣🥲😅

[creacherkeeper]

say what you will about gender, money, time, race, borders, or any other enforced social construct ... NOTHING in the world is more made up than citation styles

[bigfatbreak]

the fact that they’re gonna throttle the old editor soon and make it just legacy, limiting pics per post to only 30 is gonna make me die guys

[unopenablebox]

princemoding for sure

[raksh-writes]

Laena, sweetie, baby, my dear, you deserve so, So much better, Im so sorry ;_;

[stormbabylore]

Logically speaking, I understand that the updates are graphically superior by leaps and bounds. I understand that these facial features are more or less the same shape and in the same place. I also understand that my discontent with how my character looks in the update is coming predominantly from a place of familiarity bias.

But even knowing that, I am genuinely baffled by the notion that someone might prefer the images on the right to the ones on the left. (And I personally think she looks worse/more jarringly different in the actual benchmark.) I do have multiple logical reasons why I believe my preference for the version on the left might not JUST be familiarity bias, but I suspect it would only come across as whining at this point. And I'll probably "get used to it" once this is what I'm seeing all the time - but for the time being, I just can't like it. (╥﹏╥)

I've really enjoyed taking my time (couple years...?) with this game and not forcing myself to run full-speed through the story... but the temptation, now, to hurry up and get to/finish Endwalker while my stormbaby still looks like herself is s t r o n g.

[dreadfuldevotee]

I need a 13 era haters dni post banner so i can go into the notes of my own posts without wading through nothing but people thinking I wanna hear about how much they hate her era

[cdroloisms]

awesamdream

🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈(^・ω・^ ) c!awesamdream in gay love (^・ω・^ ) 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈

[ofthecaravel]

🎤Thoughts on Danny growing out his facial hair 😔 (I can’t even cope)

[shanti-ashant-hai]

not to be a slut but nitya lifting weights Does Things™ to me

[arataka-reigen]

Girl who hates traveling at night and is so so scared of the dark being forced to take an overnight trip

[flyboytracy]

good bois always wear their seatbelts

[katiefratie]

NO HE PUT THE KEY IN JUSTIN NOOOOOOOOOOO justification for self loathing.....nooooo!!!

[tangents-within-tangents]

Why? Why does it have to be like this??!?

[raksh-writes]

Ugh, Im meeting up with some friends today and I Know its gonna be fun -- we’re going for some drinks, maybe food, and then to the theatre -- but right now Im sitting here stressing out like "the fuck, anxiety, could you give me a break??" this is ridiculous xd

[stormbabylore]

Left to Right: New Benchmark, Current State, Original Benchmark

The new benchmark is leaps and bounds better than the original, in my personal opinion, and I'm exceptionally grateful to those who put in the hard work to bring us these massive updates so quickly. I've held out hope for the last month that the new benchmark would give me the ability to see Aeryn with the same excitement that others felt looking forward to their characters' graphic updates in Dawntrail.

But I'm just not there. Though she looks significantly better, there's still something "incorrect" about her expression causing my messed up little brain to reject her. I've stared at her with a highly critical eye trying to pinpoint why I feel this way, and I've landed on this: most (though not all) of the changes I personally see in her appearance are caused by an interpretation formed about how certain lines and features on her face must be due to how shadows previously appeared on them - shadows which are now drastically different and highlight her features in a different way from what I previously perceived.

Examples and additional rambling behind the cut, if you don't mind me being insane about this.

The new rendering of her eyelashes looks thinner, and the shadows they cast on her upper eye are less intense, making more of her iris visible. Additionally, her lower eyelids appear slightly more rounded, especially toward the inner part of her eye, where shadows originally made it seem the eyelids straightened out and then very slightly curved down - the opposite of now, which appears to be more of a continual upward curve. Combined, these all give her more of a wide-eyed expression than before.

The new shading of the bags under her eyes makes them (and her eyes in general) look more bulbous. They didn't seem to protrude quite so much before, with a focus more on subtle highlights that caused the bags to be most visible in brighter scenes or in stark, overhead lighting. (I'm looking at you, Prae.) These were often situations where it felt appropriate to showcase how tired she might be feeling; but otherwise, in most scenes, they didn't stand out so much. They're now very obvious, visible from every angle, and they stand out even in night views.

I personally see a slight change in the line of her nose, most visible in the 3/4 up-angle shots. It used to have a minuscule inward curve along the ridge and turned up the tiniest bit at the end. From the front, it looks like her nostrils used to tilt up more, giving the impression that her nose was slightly narrower, despite the fact that it does, in fact, take up the exact same space on her face. Finally, the bolder shadows along every part of the nose give the impression that it is larger and protrudes further along the bridge - though, again, that is definitely not the case.

I very much miss the wider dip of her upper lip (which I have learned today is called the philtrum). It gave her expression a certain softness, whereas her benchmark lips look gently pursed to me. There was also a barely-there upturn at the corners of her lips before, or at least the impression of one created by the stronger, "dimple-like" shadows at both ends of her lip-line. That slight upturn is very evidently gone (noticeable especially on her profile) and makes her look far more serious and even severe. The more I stare at her, the more I think this (perhaps along with her eyes) might be the change that bothers me the most.

I can't comment on her face shape with any reasonable accuracy. Sometimes I think her face feels rounder, but then I rotate her and think perhaps it's actually thinner? The chin throws me off, and I think the angle of her jawline feels higher - but that (like so many other things) might just be a false impression based on the illusion of lines created by cast shadows, which now just hit different.

Colors, of course, also play a role in some of this... but I'm not going to waste time comparing skin, eye, and hair tones now that we know there's been a shroud on the character creator that impacts how things look in the original (center images). I did briefly attempt to find a less "pink-leaning" hue for her skin now that the shadows don't dilute the warmth of the coloring in quite the same way, but I didn't find anything that felt any closer to the original iteration.

So there are my unnecessary and overly-analytical observations about my WoL's appearance. It's not a criticism of the graphics at all, which I admit look pretty darn stellar. Again, massive kudos to the entire team of individuals involved in all this work - it means a lot that they take fan feedback and really work to make this game amazing for us. And most of my alts look incredible! So does this character, in her own way? If I never had the original version of Aeryn and didn't know her so well, I'd probably be fine with how the character on the far left looks.

She just doesn't feel like my character.

Of course that might change. As I mentioned while I was trying to work through my dejection following the release of the first benchmark (here), there's a very real possibility I'll just "get used to it" once this is the only version of her I have available. I can definitely see her somewhere in there, trying to peek through; and maybe when I see her in the actual game environment, I'll feel differently. Or maybe I'll reevaluate and decide she just looks "older," or that she's tired, or some other such nonsense that would cause a change in her overall aesthetic as the story progresses.

But as it stands, I'm undecided as to if I will continue to play her or not. I had paused for a long spell on my goal to power through EW before the graphics update, and I think I'm going to resume it, now. I've been reasonably assured by a good friend that EW reaches a solid finale that could be a conclusion for the WoL's story. (Noooo spoilers, pleeaaaase.) If that turns out to be the case, it might be nice to give Aeryn an "ever after" and let this be the conclusion of her adventures... if I find I really can't resolve the notion of playing with her like this. (Goodness knows I have plenty of alts to fall back if I don't bring Aeryn into Dawntrail!)

But I will be so, so very sad to end my main's story, if I decide to do so. (ᴗ_ ᴗ。)