#instead of weird cardboard cutouts that are getting in the way of our main couple

[lonelylonelyghost]

Watched 4 episodes of Fateful Love.

On the bright side - I really get why people were raving about the old-school feel of this drama. Pretty cool.

The guy from Snowfall is here, which is also great:

And these two are very cute:

But regarding the other things... Please, allow me to be a hater for a little bit.

Usually when I like a piece of media, I let it get away with a lot. But if I don't like it for whatever reason, then I tend to nitpick very small things that only builds up my dislike even more. I know that it's not objective at all, but the personal taste in art can never be so.

I understand that the aim of this cdrama is pure entertainment, just to watch our main heroes be badass and competent, wreck havoc and have a good ol' time. It's not claiming gritty historical realism (just look at the props and set design) (my eyes almost started bleeding when I first saw that dagger istg), it's a wish-fulfillment fantasy where people just wear vaguely historical gowns, and I'm as usual in my habit of overthinking.

FL thinks that this world is just her hallucination, so naturally she feels indifferent towards anyone and can behave however she pleases. And people surrounding her feel like caricatures, cardboard cutouts because they're not real, so logically I understand it.

But like, why should I care about anything then? The characters should make me invested in their fates at least a little bit, no? It's similar to the Double, where a highly competent couple achieve the highest level of badassery humanly possible, and I should like it, I really wanted to, but neither of the characters felt real, so after watching 20+ episodes I still ended up feeling absolutely nothing.

****

And I know that it sounds incredibly weird, but my biggest complain for this drama so far is that ML just doesn't walk like a person living in historical times would.

He walks like a contemporary person would in our real-life settings, only here instead of a business suit he's wearing royal robes. And there's a difference between a historical character acting relaxed in their robes, and a character that just doesn't know how to behave in those clothes. In the case of ML it's the latter, and it just looks wrong.

Usually I don't really pay attention to this kind of stuff, because it's just body movement, but now this small aspect is changed and it caught my eye instantly. I understand why FL moves the way she does - she's literally a transmigrator, but unless the Fourth Prince is also secretly from another time, it doesn't make sense.

ML is supposed to be a powerful and intimidating figure, a great general and a prince to boot. But to be seen as such while adorning a historical costume, you need to behave like that costume and setting are the most natural thing to you. But the way that ML's mannerisms are, it just feels like a bad cosplay.

Plus, when they show ML bowing to the emperor, they only show his knees, which is so strange? Was this just an... interesting editing choice or did the actor not want to bow down on screen?

There are more little details that ticked me off and I could pinpoint, but I'm lazy and I don't want to spend so much time on things that I don't like.

If you like this drama, then great! I wanted to like this too, but alas. The vibes are off...

[01tsubomi]

i. guess the reason i watched so much trashy anime in high school was bc i watched so much anime in the first place. and if you wanna watch shows about high schoolers then eventually you’re gonna have to watch the trashy stuff (not to mention i like girls sooooo so so much). but i wanted to watch something romance-y and rompy so i’m watching rent-a-girlfriend bc i’ve heard good things abt it being fun and an interesting look at relationships and pretending and satisfaction etc and i’ll give it and my high school self credit in that this is super fun. unfortunately though so far any interesting commentary it could be giving through all the different times of girls in its cast is super overshadowed by how badly it wants you to hate every single girl except the main one

[schirdotblog]

Examining Disgaea 5′s Writing

Okay I swear I write about things that aren't Disgaea sometimes. I mean, I was working on a script for a video about Super Cloudbuilt recently and I've been writing blog posts about the things I've learned by actually trying to making games over the last few weeks, and I might write a bit about some things I really like about thecatamites's philosophy on game design soon, and I've got other plans in the works too.

But no, instead today I have to write about Disgaea again. This time it's because I want to understand why it is I feel that Disgaea 5's writing is borderline insufferable while finding Disgaea 2 to be really nice and fun.

Now, to understand this feeling, I went and looked at a couple of random midgame cutscenes in Disgaea 5 and took screenshots and video of them. Then I went and re-read the dialogue with the perspective I've gotten from trying to write characters talking in my own games. With a full maybe 20 hours of dialogue writing under my belt, and a couple thousand character-talking hours from playing D&D, it's safe to say that Dunning-Krueger is in full effect here. You have been warned.

In the opening cutscene of Chapter 6, after the reveal that General Bloodis is actually Goldion, Killia reveals to the rest of the party that he used to be Goldion's apprentice. Zeroken is shocked. Killia says that he had fought his way to becoming the Overlord of Cryo Blood, and then had his first defeat at the hands of Goldion, who he then trained under. Seraphina says that Cryo Blood was ruled by Tyrant Overlord Killidia, and asks Killia if he's the same person. Killia responds in the affirmative.

Now, this is just some really rough exposition. It gets even worse in a minute, but this is just really fucking hamfisted. Setting up Killia as the former apprentice of the apparently now-turned-evil big bad is dumb. Killia's been a more-or-less willing participant in this shit without needing to have that established. It's setting up the endgame reveal that Killia and Void Dark trained together under Goldion and that Void Dark's doing this conquering nonsense to resurrect Lizerotte, who Killia liked I guess? But at the same time it doesn't really at any point feel like Killia wants to be involved in any of this. Usually I find that if I'm writing a character who has no desire to be involved in a story, it's better to just toss 'em out and write someone who does. It makes writing feel less like dragging a cat around, and usually winds up making a more likeable character who does things of their own volition, which tends to make the plot way more fun as a consequence. And how can I tell that Killia is the sort of character that has no real reason to be there? I can tell because Killia has to be forced into the plot against his will. He's kidnapped and put into Seraphina's pocket dimension at the start of the game because reasons. This is the sort of plotting I tend to run into in a GM's first tabletop game. Can't figure out how to make the party get together? Lock 'em in a cell together. Fuck it. It's lazy and, frankly, bad writing.

Now is it necessarily a bad thing to have a reluctant protagonist? No, not at all. You just have to give them a reason to be there. I think that's what the writers are trying to do in this scene, but they don't understand that 'giving someone a reason to be there' is writer speak for 'giving someone a reason to take action and do things'. They're suddenly revealing that oh, actually, the main character has a personal relationship with the villain because of his lengthy and tragic backstory. You know what'd be way easier and more effective than this weird set of interlocking personal relationships? Having the main character go "Hey, fuck that guy! We need to stop him!" That'd at least make it seem like the character has some kind of emotions, agency, volition, or investment in what's happening. As it stands though, our main character's involved because he was kidnapped and then revealed to have some kind of intertwining cosmic relationship with the events happening in the story. But again, that's a lot of things that would really help elevate the story if the protagonist, or really anyone else in Disgaea 5, had any amount of say in what things happen.

Like okay, let's rewrite the last few scenes real quick here, just at a broad level. Let's keep the plot beats too, why not. So maybe instead of having Seraphina serendipitously shoot the bad guy's one weak point to reveal that secretly he's also this other guy who secretly trained the protagonist in the past, he just fucking beats the party's collective asses and they book it the fuck outta there. Maybe a quick "shit this guy's too strong, we have to leave, now!" as we fade out.  We fade back in, with the party moping around talking about how they're too weak or some anime shit. Someone brings up needing to get stronger. Killia says that he knows a place they could train; his home world. The chapter would then be spent gradually revealing that Killia was the Overlord there and hinting at bits of backstory. Killia would show some initiative, and you could end the chapter with some Prinny saying they've heard a rumour of Bloodis's weakness and residence. The reveal is that Bloodis still lives on the old training grounds where Killia used to train, and the next chapter's spent there. Show the player cool things and don't just exposit at them. Wow! What an idea.

But no, we're leaving the fantasy land of halfway competent storytelling now. Back to the real game, what actually happens is that Usalia expresses shock and fear on hearing that Killia is Killidia, Red Magnus expresses shock and a desire to fight that immediately evaporates when Seraphina shoots him, Christo says Killia's not an ordinary demon after all with all that magic potential energy he's got, Usalia's surprised that Killidia and Killia are the same person again, and god this fucking cutscene has nothing happening and doesn't end jesus fu- oh good I guess Killia's expositing about some technique he learned and how he's betrayed his master again and fuuuuuuuuuuck this is so fucking boring I think I'm in hell.

So here's the thing that's getting my goose, alright? The story's saying these things and trying to create this tightly interwoven plot where the major players are all related in some way. But then the worlds you go to are just completely unrelated to all of that. General Bloodis's base is some random place, as are the five preceding worlds and the seven following ones, with maybe two exceptions that've been manhandled. They're video game worlds that have no story significance and do nothing besides serve as an irrelevant backdrop. Remember how the first world you went to in Disgaea 1 was the castle of a rebellious servant of the former Overlord? Remember how that showed how little of a fuck anyone gave for Laharl, while also showing how much the demons respected the previous Overlord, and how that set up things to come? Remember how Rozalin kept trying to lure Adell into deathtraps and actively tried to subvert the progression of the plot? Remember how that was the basis for the development of a trusting relationship between those two characters? Remember when the characters had clearly-defined motivations for taking action in the story, and personalities that had sensible reasons for being there?

Yeah, neither does Disgaea 5. None of these characters have any reason to be doing anything here. Their personalities are paper-thin, and all the dialogue comes across as a personality trait reacting to a plot point, rather than a person reacting to something that just happened.

So I guess to answer the question I started writing this for, I don't like Disgaea 5's story because it feels like the plot's happening at a bunch of cardboard cutouts with a single character quirk each. I dislike the story because it falls into the amateur mistake of confusing backstory with personality. It tells us about all of the things that happened to the characters in the past and says 'see? That's who they are' without showing us any of those things. The characters are apparently doing things in the story, but it never quite feels like any character's making the choice to do those things for reasons internal to them personally. It all feels bland and hollow because none of these characters seem like they have any sort of emotional investment in the things that are happening.

[kirbychan234]

Continued from this

“What the hell kind of power mechanism is this?”

An assortment of seemingly random items were strewn about on six pedestals. There were assigned spots, and as soon as the items were in place, the lights around the main power switch flickered on. The room didn’t look any better in the light either.

“Well…” Lewis looked around nervously. “At least it worked.”

“Vivi, I think this client of ours has a few screws loose,” Arthur deadpanned.

“No kidding…” Vivi replied and swallowed down any other anxious quips. Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea. Vivi knew what she said before, but with this place being powered by an almost ritualistic power source, not to mention everything else in the place that raised all kinds of red flags, she was starting to have second thoughts.

But if this Joey Drew really needed help…they couldn’t just leave. They hadn’t even seen a speck of him since coming to this crazy studio.

“So…” Arthur’s voice cut off her thoughts. “The main power’s on, but there’s no ink flow.” He put his hand on the main power switch of the Ink Machine and gave it a pull. It didn’t budge an inch and the screen next to the lever blared an awful noise.

INK: LOW

Vivi sighed. That was just one more thing they had to do. “Alright…so do we have to find a switch for that too?”

“Probably,” Arthur replied with a shrug.

“It shouldn’t be too hard to find.” Mystery inclined his head to the large pipes along where the wall met the ceiling. “All we have to do is follow those and we should be led straight there.”

With any luck it would be that easy, but the Skulls had the sinking feeling that it wouldn’t be. Nothing could ever be that easy for them.

--

Nowadays, Lewis didn’t need a flashlight. He could see perfectly in the dark, and his eyes zeroed in on the mount on the wall. “Look guys, it’s an old tape recorder.”

“Really?” Vivi shined her own flashlight over to Lewis. The recorder was propped up like some sort of trophy. “What’s it doing here? Does it still work?”

Lewis looked it over and shrugged. “Dunno. I’ll try.” But he barely raised his hand before he was stopped by another one gently grabbing his arm.

“Maaaaybe let me handle that, big guy,” Arthur said with a nervous grin. “This thing is ancient, and uh, you tend to short out electronics. No offense.”

Lewis frowned, but it wasn’t like Arthur didn’t have a point. “None taken,” he replied and took a step back.

To each of their surprise, the tape started right up as soon as Arthur pressed the button. There was some static, showing the thing’s age, but the words and the voice were clear enough.

“At this point, I don’t get what Joey’s plan is for this company. The animations sure aren’t being finished on time anymore, and I don’t see why we need this…machine. It’s noisy, it’s messy, and who needs that much ink anyway?”

Oh this was off to a lovely start.

“Also, get this. Joey had each one of us “donate” something from our work station and put ‘em on these little pedestals in the break room. To help “appease the gods” Joey says. “Keep things goin’.””

Now didn’t that sound familiar? The Mystery Skulls all shared a look.

“I think he’s lost his mind, but hey, he writes the checks. But I’ll tell you what: if one more of these pipes bursts, I’m outta here!”

The tape cut off and an eerie silence came over the hallway. Nobody dared to speak for a good few seconds.

“Definitely got a few screws loose…” Lewis muttered, voicing what everyone was thinking.

--

Nobody said much after that, instead focusing on the way forward. The sooner they got out of this place, the better. Arthur turned his gaze from the pipes on the walls to down the dark and dreary hallway.

Without warning, a familiar and grinning face peeked itself from around the corner and Arthur swore it looked right at him. Arthur squawked in surprise and backed up a few steps, right into Lewis.

“What?” Lewis put his hands on Arthur’s shoulders. “What happened?”

“Th-that thing-!”

“What thing?”

Arthur took a second to catch his breath. Of course he’d been the only one to see the damn jumpscare. Maybe he was seeing things… “I thought I saw…that, uh B-Bendy thing. A-around the corner.”

Three pairs of eyes glanced down the hall, Vivi shining her light as far as it could go. “Bendy?” She repeated, carefully walking the rest of the way down the hall with Mystery on her heels. She turned the corner and Arthur held his breath.

“Well…” He nearly jumped when he heard her voice again. “You’re not wrong, Artie.”

With some urging from Lewis, the two of them met up with Vivi and Mystery once more. A cardboard cutout of the little devil greeted them, grinning as if it didn’t care a care in the world. “Was this what you saw?” Vivi asked as she rounded the Bendy cutout.

“Uh, p-probably. It kinda looks like what I saw…”

“That’s…troubling.” Mystery pawed at it. As far as he could tell, it was just cardboard. “If that’s the case, then how did it move?”

Nobody was certain they actually wanted the answer to that question.

--

With the ink flow finally restored, and the main power to the machine in working order, the dread sunk for all of them as they slowly made their way back to the Ink Machine. Besides that one moment with the cutout of Bendy and a projector randomly turning on in the Ink Flow room…that had been far too easy.

Were they missing something?

Arthur stopped dead in his tracks when she turned the last corner. “Uh…guys?” Lewis and Vivi paused their conversation when they heard him. “We got a problem here.”

The room to the ink machine was completely boarded up.

“What the hell?”

“That…wasn’t like that before, right? I’m not crazy?”

“No, you…you’re right.” The dread only increased but Vivi knew she had to be strong for her team. “I’ll check it out. You guys stay here.”

When she stepped forward, Lewis grabbed her shoulder. “Vivi-”

“I’ll be careful.” She smiled at him. “Promise.” And while hesitant…Lewis released her with a nod.

From what she could see through the gaps in the boards, the ink machine was moving slightly and making noises. At least that meant it was working, right? Maybe now they could help Boris, and then hopefully solve this weird mystery.

Her thoughts were cut off as soon as Vivi got close enough to the doorway, when without warning a hand shot out through the largest gap and made a grab at her. She shrieked and jumped back, the claws just barely grazing her face.

A part of Vivi knew she should run, but she was frozen in time as she stared at the creature that had nearly taken her head off. From what little she could see, its limbs were stretched beyond recognition, its face almost completely covered in ink, save for the same grin she had seen so many times in this studio. Couple that with those misshapen horns and…

Bendy?

“Vivi!” Time sped up once more as she felt strong hands grab her shoulders. “Are you okay?!” Lewis exclaimed, his hair losing its shape in worry.

“I – y-yeah – it – he didn’t get me.”

That didn’t seem to calm Lewis down much. “Are you sure? Here, let me-”

“GUYS!” Arthur’s voice broke over their moment. “We gotta move!”

Vivi snapped completely out of her daze. “Wha-?!” The floor shook beneath her; the whole building was rumbling and she almost couldn’t believe what she was seeing. The whole place was flooding with ink!

And that thing – Bendy – had completely disappeared.

Now wasn’t the time to worry about that. She felt bad for Joey Drew, but her team was her main priority. Perhaps they could regroup and figure something else out later, but for now, they had to leave. “This way!” She called, pointing down the opposite hallway they came from. The layout of this place was practically a maze, but Vivi was confident this was the way out.

Nobody questioned her. Mystery dashed ahead first and the other three followed suit. But even as fast as they were, it didn’t take long for the ink to pool up quickly past their ankles, and soon Mystery began to struggle. He never was good at swimming…

Luckily Vivi was right there to grab her precious pooch before the ink got too high, and as the ink was just about up to her knees, the exit door came into view. They were almost there! Just one last stretch and-

She probably should have expected some kind of trap. The moment Vivi felt the floor give out from under her, the swear she desperately wanted to screech died in her throat.

--

Lewis watched in horror as his three teammates, his friends, his family disappeared right before his very eyes. The river of ink poured down the hole they had all just fallen through, but Lewis floated safely above.

Yet he didn’t seem safe at all. Hidden in his chest, his heart was beating a mile a minute as he stared down into the pit.

That was…a long way down. He could hear their screams. They mirrored his own. And he swore he could hear laughing-!

Lewis shook his head. He had to get a hold of himself. This wasn’t the cave and this wasn’t…then. His friends were in trouble, and if he didn’t do something now then…he didn’t even want to know what could happen. There was no telling what was at the bottom of that pit.

Sealing all his courage, Lewis took an unnecessary deep breath and dove into the gigantic gap in the floor. He didn’t fly very often, at least not like this, but Lewis pushed himself to fly faster than he ever had before to shoot past his falling teammates and turn around to hold out his arms.

He was lucky all three of them landed safely, especially with how clumsy he felt. A tad uncomfortable, and Arthur squirmed far too much, but they were safe and that was all that mattered. Lewis’ arms shook as he lowered them all slowly to the ground. “Lew!” Vivi’s smile was blinding. He tried to focus on that on the trip.

Once they were close enough, Lewis practically dropped all of them as he fell to his knees. He held himself, unable to stop shaking. “Lewis?” Vivi was by his side in an instant, her gentle hands on his chest. She knew exactly what was wrong. “Talk to me. Are you okay?”

It took far too long before Lewis felt he was stable enough to form a coherent sentence. “I’m f – o-okay…” He stuttered out. “Just – too high. G-give me a – I just n-need a minute…”

He felt Vivi move her hand over the center of his chest, right where she would easily feel his heart beating faster than ever. A silent comfort, as if saying, take as much time as you need, Lewlew.

It helped. Truly. As the beating began to slow, Lewis lowered his arms to his sides and smiled at their leader. “I…didn’t mean to hold things up. I’m – I’m okay now.”

Vivi frowned. Lewis was still a shade lighter than normal, but at least he did look a tad bit better. She stood up before holding out her hands and helping Lewis to her own feet, mirroring his smile. “Don’t be dumb, Lewis. You’re not holding us up.”

He begged to differ, but Lewis merely chuckled in response. His focus soon went to Arthur, who was looking extremely uncomfortable with the entire situation. Lewis bit his lip. He had to nip this in the bud now before Arthur started blaming himself. “Artie-”

“I’m fine,” was the automatic response, and Vivi didn’t look very pleased by his words. “Really, it’s – it’s all good. Thanks for the save back there, big guy. We’d p-probably look a lot like these ink stains if it hadn’t been for you.”

The dark humor wasn’t exactly appreciated, but Lewis let it be, at least for now. The fact that Arthur was holding his left arm in practically a death grip was a clear sign he didn’t want this conversation to go on any further. They all knew that now was not the time.

Perhaps later, when they were all safe from this sudden hell they had found themselves in.

“Lew…” Vivi looked conflicted. “I know you…you don’t like heights. So I’m so sorry to ask you this, but…can you fly us out of here? I don’t know if we have a lot of time before that thing catches up to us.”

“What-?” Before Lewis could respond, Arthur chimed in. “Wait a second, Vivi we can’t leave now. We haven’t even found who we’re looking for.”

“Arthur, there’s an ink monster roaming this place. Maybe there are more.”

“Yeah? And it’s not like we haven’t dealt with worse. This kinda shit is what we do, Vivi.”

It always surprised her to hear Arthur say things like that. After getting her memories back, Vivi had been adamant on herself about taking better care of her team, her family. But…perhaps she had gotten too coddling. Arthur, the one who was easiest to scare, was determined to see this through. It made Vivi smile; Arthur was far too kind.

“He’s right,” Lewis replied with a weak smile. “We’ll be okay, Vivi. And someone down here needs our help. We can’t leave now.”

Even Mystery was by her side, nudging her leg. They were all right. She needed to have more faith in them. And with an entire new floor to explore, Vivi couldn’t lie and say she wasn’t determined as well.

Without warning, Mystery shook off the ink on his fur (and ignoring Arthur and Vivi’s whines at splashing them with more ink), but frowned when the splotches refused to completely leave. He wasn’t looking forward to the bath that was in his near future. “I suggest we keep moving,” he grumbled while shaking off his paw. “Whatever that thing was, it doesn’t want us to leave.”

They nodded and Vivi squeezed Lewis’ hands for one last bit of support before slowly letting go.

--

The only staircase they found led downwards, something nobody was thankful for. But it was the only way to go, so there was little choice in the matter. Vivi had her bat at the ready almost the entire time, bashing away any stray boards in their path.

After what felt like hours, Vivi stopped with a small grumble. “Must be important,” she grumped and pointed with her thumb to a boarded up door. “Arthur, do you have something with you that could take out these nails?”

Arthur thought about it for a moment, shoving his hands in his pockets, but eventually sighed in defeat. “Sorry, I don’t. Probably should have, in retrospect…”

“There was an axe in the room we just came from,” Mystery pointed out. “It would probably work a little better than your bat, Vivi.”

“Or,” Lewis interrupted, placing a hand on one of the boards. “I could just do this.” His grip tightened ever-so-slightly before Lewis effortlessly tore the board from its hinges and moved onto the next one. “These things are pretty old and worn. No need to make a huge deal about them.”

“Wow.” Arthur couldn’t hold back a soft chuckle. “Who needs an axe when you got Lewis?”

Lewis playfully rolled his eyes as he dropped the third and final board. Just as he was about to open the door, however, he paused. “…Do you guys hear that?”

Vivi took a step forward, suddenly tense. “Hear what?”

“…I don’t know, but it’s coming from behind this door.” Lewis grimaced and watched as Vivi put an ear to the door.

“Sounds like…some sort of rumbling.”

“Yeah.” And it wasn’t good, whatever it was. “Stay behind me, okay Vivi?”

After a moment, Vivi reluctantly nodded, stepping back and making sure Arthur and Mystery did the same. Slowly Lewis opened the door…

Only for them to come face to face with a room that made all of their stomachs drop. A neatly stenciled pentagram on the floor, candles circling around it, even coffins lining the walls…

Arthur couldn’t handle the silence. “You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me…”