Been a fan of your fics for YEARS. I was just telling my friend how despite how much I read fics I never actually love them, with some of your fics (especially TMA) as the exception. Felt the need to reread some of them and saw you reblogged some ISAT fanart. So. Any thoughts on ISAT you'd like to share?
Hope you have a wonderful day!! So happy I found your fics again!!
I avoided answering this for a while because I was trying to think of a way to cohesively and coherently vocalize my thoughts on In Stars and Time. I have given up because I don't want to hold everybody here all day and I have accepted that my thoughts are just pterodactyl screeching.
I love it so much. I have so much to say on it. It drove me bonkers for like a week straight. I have AUs. It's absolute Megbait. They're just a little Snufkin and they're having the worst experience of anybody's life. Ludonarratives my fucking beloved.
I am going to talk about the prologue.
The prologue is such a fascinating experience. You crack open the game and immediately begin checking off all of the little genre boxes: mage, warrior, researcher, you're the rogue...some little kid who's there for some reason...alright, you know the score. You're in yet another indie Earthbound RPG, these are your generic characters, let's get the ball rolling.
Except then you realize that these characters are people. You feel instantly how you've entered the game at its last dungeon, at the end of the adventure. They have their own in-jokes, histories, backgrounds, adventures. They get along well and they're obviously close, but not in a twee or unrealistic way. They have so much chemistry and spirit and life. I fell in love with them so quickly.
But Sif doesn't. Sif kind of hates them, because they will not stop saying the same damn thing. They walk the same paths, do the same things, make the same jokes, expect Sif to say the same lines. They keep referencing a Sif we do not see, with jokes we never see him make and heroic personality he never shows - they reference a Sif who is dead - and Sif can't handle that, so he kills them too.
They become only an exercise in tedious frustration. Sif button mashes through their dialogue, Sif mindlessly clicks the same dialogue options, Sif skips through the tutorial, Sif blows through the puzzles. Sif turns their world into a video game. Sif is playing a generic RPG. Sif forgets their names. They are no longer people with in-jokes, histories, backgrounds, adventures. They're the mage, the warrior, the researcher, and...some random kid.
I did not understand the Kid's presence at first. I had no idea what they contributed to the game. They didn't do anything. As a party member in a video game, they're a bit useless. Why is the Kid there?
Because Sif's life isn't a video game. Because the kid isn't 'the kid'. They're Bonnie. Bonnie, who the party loves. Why is Bonnie there? Because they love them. There is no room for Bonnie in the boring RPG that Sif is playing. And then you realize that Sif is wrong, and that they've lost something extremely important, and that they'll never escape without it.
Watching the prologue before watching ISAT gave ISAT the most unique air of dread and horror, because you crack open ISAT and you see the person Sif used to be. You realize that Sif used to be a person. Sif used to be the person who made jokes, who gave real smiles, who interacted with the world as if they are a part of it. And you know you are sitting down to watch Sif lose everything that made them a person, to lose everything that made them a member of this world, and turn them into a character in a video game who doesn't understand the point of Bonnie at all.
At the climax of the game, when the others realize that something is deeply wrong and that Sif physically cannot tell them, they realize that there is nothing they can do. So Bonnie declares snacktime. And for the first time they have snacktime.
What is snacktime? Classic JRPGs don't have snacktime. There's literally no point to a snacktime - not in a video game, and not in Sif's terrible life. It's not fixing this, because nothing can fix this. But Bonnie gives Sif a cookie and Sif eats it.
It's meaningless. It's a cutscene. It didn't save Sif and it didn't change a thing. It will make no difference in the end.
But it did make the difference. It made all of the difference in the world. Bonnie is a character who you really don't understand the point of before you realize that Bonnie was the entire point.
ISAT is about comfort media. Why do we play the same video games over and over again? Why do we avoid watching the finale of our favorite shows? What is truly comforting: a story with no conflict, or a story where you always know what is about to happen? Do you want to live in a scary, uncontrollable world, or do you want to play Stardew Valley? Do you want a person or a character?
When I beat Earthbound for the first time (and if you don't know, the prologue/ISAT battle system is just Mother) and watched the ending cutscene where the characters part ways and say goodbye...I felt a little bit sad. I wanted them to be together forever. But that's something only characters could ever be.
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im gonna be so fr: tiktok girls that got popular bc they're pretty who are like "i cant do anything, im just a girl" they're just untalented and boring as hell.
most women i know are incredible and amazing and don't let tiktok or whatever brainwash you about the whole "trad wife coquette cutesy stay at home listen to whatever men say and not knowing anything" thing.
like these are young women and actual children who aren't working, whose income comes from a phone app. they're not really the people i think should be speaking about the "feminine experience" as if its a monolith. most of them don't even go outside. most of them have probably never really travelled, or have friends from different ages, different life experiences.
anyway. just saying. I'm tired of trends around feminity and quotes about feminity coming from random women most of us have very little in common with.
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sorry to still be thinking about it but its amazing the amount of people who are willing to overlook one of the core elements of konoha's history (and by extension of naruto as a whole) which is the marginalisation and straight up segregation of the uchiha clan just because the character who kickstarted all of it has a cool design and is really strong. tobirama hated the uchiha to the point where his own brother while on his DEATHBED had to make him promise not to hurt them so he made up the police force and assigned it to the uchiha so they could be effectively unable to do literally any other job while also making sure everyone else in konoha hated them because they felt constantly under watch by the red eyed freaks. tobirama's excuse was that he didnt actually hate the uchiha, just madara, who was coincidentally their most powerful member, so the uchiha exiled him bc they believed tobirama. and what did that accomplish? that when madara died nobody claimed his body and tobirama took it to STUDY it and then buried him in an unmarked grave (which ironically worked in madara's favor later).
tobirama "i dont hate the uchiha one of my students was an uchiha" senju just so happened to also "raise" one of the biggest uchiha haters in konoha history, danzo, who not only furthered their marginalisation and demonization but also orchestrated their whole entire MASSACRE just so he could steal their eyes.
but sure the two things are completely unrelated and tobirama and danzo are very different and nothing matters
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other quest thoughts:
ARLECCHINO OH MY GOD. IM PULLING FR SHES HOT SCARY AND DUBIOUSLY EVIL-> A PERFECT WOMAN
kinda interesting that navia just. disappeared from this part. like I guess Wriothesley wasn't in act 1 or 2 either but I hope they bring her back into the story somehow and she's not just like. a prop for the early acts
the fixation on having 3 people at any meeting/important event is interesting. first it was the primordial water cases, now it's furina/arlecchino/neuvillette (or the traveler) and clorinde coming to help wriothesley and neuvillette (forgot which line, but there's definitely a reference to a neutral party when they're discussing how to resolve everything)
the fontaine siblings are quite literally everything to me. lyney got put through the fucking WRINGER this patch though ;.; i care him. almost screamed when he found out lynette was taken and was like "no not again" let me give them hugs T_T
also. furina!!!! read a ton of theories on her, excited to see what they do with her story. she's also going through it this patch L i hope people who think she's annoying like change their minds a bit though, she's just very character shaped, interesting to dissect
speaking of, i wish they animated arlecchino's flashbacks the illustration things were nice (she looks SO GOOD in those holy shit her assassin outfit...) but ahgghghghgh telling and not showing smth smth
also what the fuck is up with childe
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I ragged on High Guardian Spice a lot while I was watching it, but I have to admit that ever since then, I legitimately cannot stop thinking about it.
The way it completely lacks plot, hooks, interesting concepts, characters, or anything remotely unique is, in and of itself, kind of incredible. I've truly never watched another show like it. Its not even unforgivabley bad—it's just NOTHING. If HGS were a color, it'd be beige.
The most enticing aspect of High Guardian Spice is how, across the whole 12 episode run, never once do they even ACCIDENTALLY stumble into anything interesting. It IS a special show, but only because, despite all odds, it completely fails to be special at Every Single Possible Turn.
I love it. I've watched it 7 times.
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This is a genuine innocent ask
Since ofmd is officially over, where does all the money donated go? This is not just a question for the fandom bit in general when ur raising money for a renewal but it fails.
so i mean, in general when a renewal campaign "fails" we dont usually get the showrunner saying outright "yeah the show isnt getting picked up, im sorry guys." like im pretty sure that most of the time, money that's raised for a campaign like this just gets collected and spent without there ever being an official announcement from the showrunners that fans should stop campaigning.
as far as the money that was raised for the first billboard back in january, all the money that was collected is long gone now bc it was spent on the billboard, the truck, the plane flyover, and the charity donations. and like, everyone who donated to that campaign knew that's where the money was going, and they knew there was a chance that the renewal campaign wouldn't work. so even tho the money they raised is gone, the ppl who donated technically got what they paid for.
when it comes to the second billboard, i have no idea what the plan is there. as far as im aware that fundraising effort is (was??) still ongoing, so djenks saying it's over kinda throws a wrench in that process. im not actually associated w the ppl collecting money for the second billboard, nor have i personally contributed to that campaign (or to the first campaign either, ftr), so i have no input or insight as to what's gonna happen w that money going forward. if u want more concrete info abt what's going on with that money you'd wanna ask @saveofmdcrewmates
from what i can tell tho, there are a few options as to what they could do with the money: they could ignore david's message and run the billboard as planned, they could forget the billboard and donate the money to charity, or they could run the billboard but change the messaging to something else. they might even be able to give some of the money back to the people who contributed?? that might be hard tho, idk what platform they were using to collect the money and i have no idea if they're even able to like, refund people. idk if the people who donated would even want their money back, or if they would rather the money still be used for the billboard, or be repurposed for something else. like i said, i didnt donate and i have nothing to do with the ppl raising the money so it rlly doesn't matter to me at all what happens.
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