#it was nice when he was fighting with us towards the end of the dlc and that he used dragon cheer for me like 2 times

[audinite]

pokemon storytelling through the pokemon itself and even the moves is always so good

[rosewood-multifandom-writer]

So, now that I have fully digested every story element about Hobo Bison, I can safely say, I got mixed feelings still. But it lands more towards me viewing Bison in a positive light somewhat.

First, the negatives. Idk why the SF writers have a thing for making Juri Bison’s punching bag. Like him ripping out her eye twice wasn’t enough? He couldn’t have gone after someone else? Like, maybe Ryu, the guy delivered the final blow with a singular Hadoken? (Still so lame). Probably one of the few times I’m actually on the side of character fans/stans. In this case, I can understand why Juri mains were upset and annoyed. Once is an accident, twice is a coincidence, three times is a pattern.

Speaking of which, I hate how people were saying that Bison was Rule 34ing Juri during his Arcade ending. Like… dude, get the porn out of your mind, that is NOT what’s happening here. I’m not referring to the ones that are joking about it, I’m talking about the ones that sound genuine and not a joke.

Secondly, he’s back to wanting to dominate the world when he regains his memories. Alright, then, here we go again I guess, lol. Get ready to “die” for a fifth time Bison.

Third, I saw the unused concept art, and this is just a nitpick, but I think they shouldn’t have played it safe, but I get why they did it, because otherwise Bison would be unrecognizable. But even still, some of the unused designs could’ve been nice. I mean, he has a lot of backup bodies in case he dies for real.

Fourth, as usual, World Tour has to make finding Bison more tedious than Akuma’s master mission of using fighting styles I don’t even use or care about.

With all that out of the way, the positives. M. Bison’s moveset is fun to use. Especially the psycho power ticking time bombs.

Next, his design. Specifically, his hobo default outfit. His scars, his tattered cloak, and the long hair is a look he rocks. Don’t care about the classic, because it looks like a dude cosplaying him and it looks the most out of place in a game that has semi-realism. It’s a small nitpick, so moving on.

I love his dialogue with the characters too, it shows that even though he has amnesia, he is still evil.

His motives I can actually get behind this time around, because he seeks power more than anything else (well, it is one of his likes). It makes his whole world domination thing make a tiny bit more sense. It’s still cliched though, do not get me wrong. Both his and Junko Enoshima’s (Danganronpa) motivations to rule the world is a villain cliche that is not everyone’s cup of tea. But both are iconic and are good villains, but have cliches that could bring their interesting factors down.

I also like how it’s heavily implied that the Bison we see in SF6 could be just a vessel that hasn’t fully gone through the process with his memories.

The build up to Bison was also good. I would say more about the foreshadowing in World Tour and in most of the Arcade mode stories, but I already made a post about it before and this post would be longer than it already is, so I’m leaving it at that.

And that’s about it. I may have mixed feelings about Bison’s place in the story, but I do enjoy him being a part of the roster, since he is an iconic and long established video game character decades ago. I still think DLC wise so far, the Season 1 DLC characters are all equally the best. I mean, A.K.I is literally the number one most voted popular character from the latest poll. Plus the people who hated Ed now love him or tolerate him. And of course, Akuma is Akuma, he’s really cool too. Rashid was also a good start. Bison is just okay, and I think Capcom started with him first to rip the bandaid off just in case there was backlash.

[andmaybegayer]

Last Monday of the Week 2023-10-09

Somehow bionicle is in this one

Listening: I looked at the date on my oven yesterday and it was 08-10 and I was like hey isn't that Bionicle Day. The answer is no, because it's Americans and Bionicle Day was the tenth of August. Anyway turns out that this year some fans got the original voice of Vakama to do a tribute video? And also Cryoshell dropped a new song.

Cryoshell is one of the funniest bands I know. They had little success until they got contracted in by an ad agency to do music for Bionicle, they did Creeping in My Soul for the Voya Nui arc in 2007 and ended up getting contracted in basically every year after that to whip up some music for Bionicle. They remain to this day extremely closely associated with the Bionicle fandom, like, you know, releasing their latest track on Bionicle day.

They are, and I mean this in the nicest way possible, and with all the love in my heart, the Evanescence we have at home. Bionicle had just saved Lego less than a decade earlier and the media effort around Bionicle was very well designed, which included making the perfect AMV soundtrack for 13 year olds to set their stop motion Bionicle fight scenes to. Of course I don't know anything about using a webcam and extremely dubious stop motion software to produce extensive Bionicle fanvideos. What are you talking about.

I am going to leave it here but there is so much to say about Cryoshell. Seriously just go look it up. Their music is actually very good if you like that particular symphonic metal alt rock style that was so emblematic of the 2000's.

Reading: Ended up on a research dive about small towns, because I now live in a country with a lot of small towns. Attempting to do and find a comparative anatomy of how small towns are administered around the world and what drives their success or failure. There is a lot of stuff from the Trump years when he apparently made some gestures towards the idea that people should just move out of doomed towns.

As always in the USA, housing affects everything, both in that homeownership ties people to their towns and that moving to a new city requires paying often prohibitively expensive rents. There are a lot of conservative blogs taking on this question and doing some dubious interpretations of mostly good data.

I am teasing at the thread of "limits of local government in small towns" which seems to be leading somewhere but it's still not well supported. There's a lot of factors.

Watching: the Loading Ready Run 20th Anniversary Subathon is on until this Friday. Since I was mostly watching during American night I caught primarily their watchalong of old videos, which is cute but not exactly that novel. I do like LRR.

Making: More 3D printing, trying to get the hang of modelling off a photo to make a nozzle adapter for my vacuum cleaner. Also made a little stand for my temperature and humidity sensor so I can see it when I'm sitting down or standing up more easily.

Playing: Beat Breath of the Wild finally. It was so long.

The final fight was kind of anticlimactic, between the assists you get from the divine beasts and all your power-ups I feel like I didn't have to puzzle it out as much as I did for some of the blight Ganon fights. I have kind of accepted that I just don't like the endings of most video games.

I did first go around and do the Champions' Ballad DLC quest because I stumbled into it, it's a nice set of little challenges plus some vignettes of the champions to help characterize them some more. I kind of wish you could walk around the world post-endgame and like, talk to some of the people you've met and see what they have to say. Eh.

Tools and Equipment: I have been storing my butter at room temperature the past few weeks, because it makes it much easier to spread. Modern butter is both very high fat and pasteurized so it won't go off for well over a week even if you just left it out, but the main concern is rancidity, which can happen quite quickly.

My Pro Tip is that you don't have to store the whole damn block. Euro butter is 250g blocks and I cut that into four ~60g cubes that I keep in a sealed plastic container in the cupboard one at a time. Just top it up as you go. I think American sticks are like 100g so you could cut it in half. South African butter usually comes in 500g so you'd have to cut that in like eighths.

[ellenchain]

I love Vampyr. My first run was a 'not even once' one with zero casualties. Then another where I turned the pillars only....and Geoffrey. Then one when I turned people I disliked....the murderer, serial killer, priest....and I'm currently in one where I try to have .....the most effect. Like you bite one character and then another obe does sth because of your actions, I love gameplay like that.

I agree that the gameplay could use some polish. Most of the fighting is sort of superfluous, you kill so many Priwen for basically nothing. Better to focus on the discovery and dialogue gameplay.

Geoffrey hits the perfect storm of classical antagonist, hunter vs monster, well meaning, modern knight, maybe even king arthur expy.....and relentless bastard. The interesting thing is that he's friendlier towards you if you turned him than if you spared him.

Elisabeth just wasn't explored enough, I almost feel like there's a part missing. In one mission she sends you dispatch her blackmailer, gives you no helpful information, scolds you if you get things wrong because of your lack of information and finally it turns out that her blackmailer was actually right and justified because she does kill helpless patients. And in the next mission Jonathan is in love with her.

Sorry for rambling, I have way too many thoughts about Vampyr.

Oh you've played it a lot more than me! Very nice! And since I'm fresh into the game, I love hearing your thoughts on it 🤩

I also think it's nice to see the effect that actions can have on the gameplay. For sure I'll give myself another run snacking on a few more people too. Just to see what happens! Some NPC were real dicks, it will give me great pleasure to make Jonathan bite them

I think it's a shame though that he immediately gets those bloodshot eyes - like, no other vampire has them, why does Jonathan immediately become a "bloodthirsty beast" haha (they suit him, don't get me wrong, it's just a bit strange)

I also noticed that Geoffrey isn't too sad as a vampire! Had almost thought he'd throw himself into the sun as his quasi-first official act as a vampire, but no - I think he actually likes it in the end. It would be cool if we got a second part (or a DLC) where Geoffrey as vampire helps us. Or he remains a human and helps us anyway, but we get to snack on him from time to time hihi

You're right, Elisabeth just wasn't portrayed well. Her character should have been given more depth. She came across as rather unsympathetic at the beginning, and suddenly Jonathan is head over heels for her. That didn't make sense in my head either. That's why the love story seemed a bit far-fetched to me.

In general, I also thought it was a shame that we didn't get to the East End and meet Jonathan's home until the very end. That part also came a bit too short for me. I'd have loved to learn more about his past. At the beginning I even thought he was "lying" about being a doctor because he introduced himself so hesitantly. The game opened so many barrels, but in the end didn't really close any of them and didn't really continue any of them... That was a bit sad. It could have been a great "Witcher" game (in terms of scale, you know what I mean)

But maybe I just need to play it a few more times, read some more fanfiction, search fan wikis and so on 🤭

[themoomoorn]

26, 27, and 28? :o

Hoo boy

26. Who is your overall favorite character?

Probably Ignatz. On top of being one of the stronger Deer in terms of characterization, he's kind of a comfort character too - a wealthy artist and knight who glows up, geeks out on history and mythology, and is generally well-liked by most of his peers, plus he's a very fun unit to tweak with in gameplay. There's something also touching in how he's very loyal to Claude and willing to fight against the Empire if not poached and he doesn't go about it in a weird lackadaisical fashion like Hilda.

Remaining top 5 includes Balthus, Rhea, Claude, Flayn, and Dimitri.

27. Which character do you feel “meh” about?

Shamir. She's boring. She's also one of the biggest fanservice pulls and I honestly get it...because she's uncomplicated and fits certain slots that get minimal expansion (hot foreigner who isn't dark-skinned/Stoic archer who softens with certain love interests especially Male Byleth/Has pronounced sexual tension with female characters that Hopes takes advantage of/Giant booba). Tellingly, she's Toshiyuki Kusakihara's (director of Houses/Producer of Hopes) favorite character.

28. What character do you not like at all / hate?

I know it's cheating, but the most visceral reactions I've had are to five characters in particular (healthy, I know). So without further ado, the Bottom 5:

5. Monica. We all know Holst and nu-Judith and nu-Nader were GTA-style Wasted(tm), but none were Wasted(tm) as badly as Monica. This alleged "epitome" of wlw is little more than a paper-thin version of Faye from Echoes, or worse yet, a flanderization on Soleil from Fates. Monica's presence combined with the execution of Hopes' story is the final nail in the coffin for Fodlan having any shot of having a fair and balanced story. To add insult to injury, she's yet another mage on the Eagles when there are already many, and she's not even a good gameplay unit, what with a terrible personal skill and an erratic spell list.

Also, why does it look like she has permanently bugged-out eyes by default? Well, it certainly fits, doesn't it.

4. Jeritza. Double standards ahoy - when one character's tragedy and implied mental illness is portrayed fairly realistically and his arc is presented to make the player feel uncomfortable, this guy gets a melodramatic rendition of a split personality (with the DLC add-on for Houses wiping away any indication that he's just plain cruel) and is woobified and cutesy...fied, with the writing telling the player that no, you're supposed to find him tragic and cute and a kicked puppy, never mind that he's otherwise as intriguing as the sugar he eats. What could've been a nice deconstruction of the Black Knight (as in, no tragedy to be found, only a bloodthirsty, one-sided "rivalry" from an empty-hearted sociopath) is instead used to fuel the game's bizarre need for gap moe (completely failing to realize just how the idea even works) and sympathies for a decidedly unsympathetic imperialistic force.

3. Linhardt. Why Linhardt? Whereas many find his (likely neurodivergent-stemmed) sleepiness and behavior relatable, I've found him to be morally repugnant. Hopes, naturally, made it worse. He's privileged, gives no thought to his status or the ramifications of how he's able to keep up his lifestyle because of it, finds the whole tragedy of the war to be a chore that should be swept under the rug, finds discomfort in violence more in how it repulses him, and most of his apologies for his overly-analytic curiosity towards people like Lysithea and Flayn are half-assed at most, with some endings like Flayn stewing with unfortunate implications. Honestly, he's probably someone who would go along with Edelgard's conquest because of convenience (she does offer him a cushy office job that he probably doesn't deserve in their A-Support, after all), and he'd need more buttering up or state secrets to swap sides.

2. Edelgard. For anyone who's read posts and reblogs, this goes without saying. Seriously though, one goes out of their way to make an amazing idea of a setting with some great characters and then they hack it up and throw it in the dumpster the way poor Denji is at the start of Chainsaw Man for the sake of promoting this poster girl? It'd be one thing if she were just another character like Bernadetta, but she's one of the three leads and she's on the imperialistic side. We now have a spinoff where she gets away with everything and everyone else's "arcs" are varying degrees of "be nice to the Emperor and any resistance is a counter-invasion, she was hurt once and that overrides any pain you feel."

The dissonance between dev intention and the result (and certain fan reactions) is...buck wild.

Three Hopes' version of Claude. This one probably requires its own post, but somehow they mutilated him so much that I've actually become disenchanted with aspects of the canon character from Houses. But in reality, going back to dev notes from 2020, Claude was probably screwed from Day 1.

[professionallydeadinside]

I just wanna preface this by saying that I love how the fandom portrays Jack Baker (especially this blog), and that’s in part because he reminds me of my own father, who I love and is one of the best people I know. In fact, it’s my father I use when writing and imagining Urias in Unpredictable, especially in the way he talks and interacts with Karl.

(Tw and cw for discussion of possible parental abuse, spoilers for re7)

That aside, I have written this, basically essay, over the fact that I believe, in canon, Jack Baker is not a good father, at least towards Lucas.

(I came up with this late at night so idk how much this’ll hold up while I’m writing it but there is evidence)

I believe this based on one key point, in addition to the rest of the game: In one of the first sequences of the game, Jack cuts off Lucas’s hand, and that doesn’t add up with everything else.

From simply a game standpoint, it’s obvious what the scene is meant to show: The Bakers are fucked, and something supernatural is happening. That’s all it does and is meant to show, what with Lucas then reattaching his hand and having perfect motor control of it and no one else at the table giving a shit aside from Ethan.

But from a narrative standpoint? It makes no fucking sense. Not unless Jack had never been all that nice to Lucas before Eveline.

Eveline’s entire motive, in the whole game, is solely that she wants a family, a real and normal family. Yes, that family eats things that aren’t edible, but who cares? It’s still a lovely family dinner. Everything that Jack and his wife do are because of Eveline, either to make her happy or protect her. Cutting off your sons hand because he made a shitty remark doesn’t fit that.

Also note that Jack doesn’t treat anyone else like that, DLC Daughters not withstanding. He rarely interacts with his wife in the base game, and the few moments we do get aren’t all that bad. He yells at Marguerite when she starts yelling first about Ethan not eating, which a very human and frankly normal reaction to someone yelling, no matter how badly of an overreaction it ends up being. Yes, he doesn’t like Zoe in the game, but that’s because she rejected Eveline, and so Eveline doesn’t like her and doesn’t want Eveline’s family to like her.

Then we get to Lucas.

Lucas by himself is already super interesting. He doesn’t seem to view Eveline as a sister, as one would expect him to given the whole family theme. He more so views her as someone who gave a gift, and that’s it. He’s not family, he’s someone who has benefited from her. You see him look and talk offscreen after ripping his fingernails off, and it’s somewhat assumed it’s Eveline (at least, that’s what I guessed) but you never find out. The only sister he ever talks about is Zoe.

Lucas is weird, no? We all know it, we all make jokes about it, but I think there’s more to it than just the way he is. He’s definitely just, a weird guy/kid, that’s just part of his personality and all that, but I also think part of that weirdness comes from the fact Jack wasn’t ever kind to him.

Lucas avoid confrontation with Ethan, preferring to hide behind screens and games, only getting close when he knows nothing can happen to him. He does the same thing with Clancy. He gets angry very quickly, and doesn’t like when things don’t go to plan. He’s angry, but he doesn’t fight. It’s interesting, no? Especially for the other characters in re7.

You make Jack mad? He fights you, again and again. You make Marguerite mad? She fights you. You make Eveline mad? She fights you. You make Mia mad? She fights you.

You make Lucas mad? He brushes it off and makes you play another game, or he vanishes.

Now, something about my father. He comes from a not exactly nice family, my grandmother is a piece of literal shit. I’m not gonna get into it, but she has manipulated and abused and borderline gaslit people her whole life, including her son.

My dad acts a lot like Lucas, aside from the short temper.

Now, we go back to the scene where Jack cuts off Lucas’s hand. It doesn’t line up with Eveline’s goal, and if we assume she’s constantly controlling them to some degree, which she quite obviously is (the family always stays in the weird illusion of being a family with her), then we can also assume she’s controlling them during the dinner, to some degree.

She may not control their every move and word, but she’s nudging them in the direction she wants. Eveline doesn’t exactly want a family where cutting off each other’s limbs is normal, but she doesn’t care enough to stop it.

It doesn’t hinder or help her objective, why does it matter?

And that’s the kicker.

It doesn’t matter to Eveline what happens to Ethan, not really. If she gets another family member and a new dad, awesome! When he shows resistance and defiance? Okay, guess I gotta kill him, oh well! So why would Jack cut off Lucas’s hand solely for being a shit and throwing food? It’s clearly not Eveline, it doesn’t make sense for her to do that.

It’s because Jack had never been kind to Lucas before, and now he has the ability to be as cruel as he wants to, knowing there’s no consequences he’s going to face. You can even see it Daughters, they don’t interact, and when they do, it’s fairly cold. There’s not even a bit of warmth between them like there is Jack and Zoe.

When Jack cuts off Lucas’s hand, Lucas says something along the lines of “No old man, not again”. This is meant to disturb the player/Ethan, make them realise and ponder the fact that that has happened before, but it lines up with another key thing.

Lucas isn’t entirely under Eveline’s control. We’ve established that he doesn’t view her as a sister, which doesn’t fit with Eveline’s goal, but he also doesn’t fight Ethan. He fights Chris Redfield after Ethan escapes and Eveline has been killed. He doesn’t care about Eveline, evidenced by the fact he doesn’t fight to protect her or try to recruit new family members. He kills because he’s curious and he enjoys it. That’s why Ethan doesn’t fight him at all, Lucas couldn’t give two shits about Eveline, he only likes the abilities she gave him. Lucas only fights when he’s backed into a corner, and even then he still tries to stay out of fights, first trying to kill Redfield with poisoned gas and Molded.

Lucas isn’t someone who doesn’t enjoy confrontation or conflict, he shows he quite enjoys it, he just doesn’t want to physically fight someone.

Almost like he’s always had someone stronger than him winning and making him afraid.

The fact Lucas isn’t entirely under Eveline’s control also helps us understand why he pleads with Jack to not cut his hand off. That is a different reaction that Marguerite’s, who simply keeps staring at Ethan.

Lucas is genuinely a bit afraid. He knows nothing can happen to him, not permanently, not anymore, but we know they still feel pain. And now, there’s the fact that Lucas will never be able to seek help, because he’d have to explain Eveline, the killings, the abilities, everything bad and wrong they’ve done that he’s had a part in. Jack is still stronger than him, Jack can still beat him in a fight, and Lucas is still helpless, bound by the fact he’s trapped in a corner he cannot escape from.

His only hopes are that Eveline will eventually make him stronger than his father, someone will replace his father, and the mines.

He tries to escape, and he almost does, he only gets caught because of information he has on Eveline.

Umbrella makes him out to be a dangerous bioweapon, but I don’t think that inherently true. Yes, he is violent, but he clearly was able to hide those urges, if they were even there before Eveline.

I believe that Lucas’s violent streak is caused by feelings of helplessness, of someone who has hurt him to some degree becoming so much more powerful than him, and he’s helpless. He cannot do a single thing to defend and protect himself.

He’s trapped, and there’s no way out.

That is why I believe Jack Baker had never been a kind or good father to Lucas.

This was undeniably a bit all over the place, and I have no idea if it even makes sense, but that one scene couldn’t leave my head, along with how different Lucas is from the rest of them. This isn’t meant to be defending him, or making him better. Lucas is a shitty person and a murderer, but I do think this is a reason. A reason is not an excuse, but it can tell us why they do the things they do.

I hope this was interesting, and maybe you have something new to think about, too

BRO YOU FULL ON WROTE OUT AN ENTIRE ESSAY I RESPECT THAT SO MUCH

But I totally agree with you on Jack in canon, he 100% was shitty to Lucas and the only reason he isn't in my au is because I'm the creator and it's the happy au <3

[patchun]

Kirby and the Forgotten Land Final Thoughts

Spoilers below, including pictures. These aren't really that well organized, sorry!

gameplay

So, wow, what a great game! As a diehard fan of the series, it satisfied everything I was looking for! And it seems like it would be a great starting point for people to get into the series. Spring Breeze mode seems like it'd be perfect for kids (idk you already know we play on Wild), and Wild Mode is a nice option for adults.

I mean, Wild Mode isn't exactly tough, even so - that is... until postgame. I found the postgame challenge super refreshing.

As far as abilities go, my favorite would have to be Meta Knight Sword. Morpho Knight sword is awesome, yes. Warping around, lifestealing, using your huge sword to just obliterate health bars - it feels wonderful and I love that you can play like that. But Meta Knight Sword, bro? The slide into upper slash into aerial combo into down slash? The bat particle effects? It's just so cool! I maxed out my Meta Knight Sword for that reason and it is my favorite way to play. Then would have to be Dragonfire, such a cool reference and great execution. Then Space Ranger, who I feel has the most interesting moveset outside of the Sword and Hammer abilities, with a surprising number of options. Speaking of Hammer, the final hammer is just broken as hell. Charge it up and destroy bosses. You may find yourself getting the world record on the True Arena by accident. Maximum upgrade Needle is also super cool.

The new dodge mechanic is really cool and very satisfying to use. I'm seeing some people deciding not to engage with it at all for challenge purposes, and if that's the way they enjoy the game, that's fine, but good luck with Meta Knight ex and Morpho Knight like that, LOL.

I was pretty nervous about the Mouthful Mode gimmick, but little did I realize that Mouthful Mode is possibly the best executed gimmick to date. Compared to Hypernova or Friend Train, it kept a lot of control in the player's hands, and found lots of little ways to keep the concepts interesting. I'm impressed.

lore and enemies

I was a bit disappointed with just how much of the full game was shown off during trailers, but I think the team REALLY wanted this game to perform well, and had to make sacrifices in their advertising to that end.

The real big thing is the final boss. Man, what an awesome ending. I was looking forward to something horrifying ever since I saw that it was rated "FEAR" in the UK, and the game delivered. In the Leongar fight when he's possessed and starts crunching towards you, that was pretty unsettling, and it was enough for me... but then Fecto Forgo shows up, and hot damn.

Then, not satisfied with a run sequence being the boss, Fecto Elfilis just has such a beautiful and badass design. I truly hope we see more of it in the future since Elfilin is now complete according to the Secret Ending.

Morpho Knight's canon appearance was wonderful, but that's what led me to make the previous comment that everything that happens in Kirby is kind of true. The fact that Morpho Knight appeared here implies that the secret ending of Star Allies was at least partially true, since that's where Morpho Knight came into existence in the first place. So basically, yes, Marx split apart and died. And also, Marx is still alive and a friend now. Both of those things are true. And I think that's great.

So my rating right now of the game is 8/10. It has flaws, but it still shines as a great game, and an even better Kirby game. Being familiar with Kirby lore could help people to appreciate certain things more... but it's not necessary.

This rating is likely due to change and go up whenever DLC drops. Super, super excited for the future of Kirby.

[hunterguyveriv]

Injustice 3 Characters?........I’m hoping so!

So as of late, I've been hearing rumors that an Injustice 3 game is in the works. As much as I want all characters from both games to come back I think there are some characters whether they are DC characters that have yet to make an appearance, Crossover characters, or simply characters Warner Brothers has the movie rights to that I would love to see. This is my short list on who I would love to see in Injustice 3 if the rumors are indeed true as DLC characters.

DC Comics Characters: Abby Arcane - Current Avatar of the Rot: She could be an interesting addition to the Injustice cast if Swamp Thing and Poison Ivy return. I could see her dialogue with Swamp Thing being similar to Ollie & Dinah's and her dialogue with Ivy being more vicious towards because Swamp Thing's heart and soul has always been Abby's. Now I know, that they are no longer an item (regrettibly) but it has been proven in one of the recent Justice League Dark comics that they still have feelings for each other even though one is the Avatar of the Rot and the other is the Avatar of the Green

Anton Arcane - Rival Rot Avatar: If Abby is added for Swamp Thing then you have to have the one person who is their worst enemy. Dialogue between both him and Abby and him and Swamp Thing would be vicious and awesome. Even his dialogue with Ivy a hinted future Avatar of the Green from the New 52 Swamp Thing series. he could also be an invaluable ally to Superman to a point because in one of the tie-in crossover series to Injustice Superman obtained Rot-Creatures to protect his territory from magic.

Zuggernaut:  I admit I know little to nothing about this character, except that he appears to be a copy of the manga version of the last character in this short list (who was created in 1985) and think it would be nice to see both on screen together challenging each other on who the true Alien Bio-Weapon really is. Would also be kind of sweet to see him and Jaime’s Blue Beetle fight.

Animal Man: An ally to Alec Holland during the RotWorld saga, I think interactions with not Just Swamp Thing but Vixen, Cheetah, Ivy, Aquaman (who is literally the Avatar of the Blue - Water) would be interesting. More so if Abby Arcane and Anton Arcane are added to the game.

Crossover Characters:

Oroku Saki aka The Shredder: Come on now, like Swamp Thing and Anton Arcane, you can't add the Ninja Turtles without adding their greatest enemy the Shredder. If memory also serves me right from the Batman vs TMNT movie, Shredder was also someone who could go toe to toe with Batman in combat and beat him and had him on the ropes their second encounter. Depending on what continuity you follow Shredder has been known to take down aliens 3 times bigger and stronger than him. So him taking on someone like Superman and soundly beating in a game like Injustice wouldn’t be that much of a stretch.

He-Man and Teela: Let me be as blunt as blunt can be. This is NOT because of the new Kevin Smith series. This is because of the Injustice vs Masters of the Universe tie-in comics. Both He-Man and Teela in those comics proved they could fight not just Superman but with Bane and Wonder Woman also. Teela mortally wounded Wonder Woman (who was saved on Batman’s quick thinking) and was even called a Good Soldier by a bleeding out Wonder Woman and up until the power of Greyskull ran out, He-Man was going blow for blow with Superman. Teela also got the attention of Granny Goodness with her prowess of a fighter and considered.....”TRAINING”..... her to be an addition to her Furies.

But even the He-Man vs Teela dialogue could be prove to be rather interesting, especially if she is te Injustice vs MotU Teela who knows Prince Adam is He-Man, and could prove to be comical with others because she kind of gets jealous when Zatanna touches Adam’s chest-plate. 

Skeletor: But including He-Man and Teela, you have to include Skeletor who was plotting not just against Superman but also Darkseid all to gain access to Castle Greyskull even though it cost him his life in the end..... or did it?

But with the inclusion of He-Man, Teela, and Skeletor it also can open up the door for Hordak who in the Injustice vs Masters of the Universe forms his own version of a Red-Ring corps and took over Apokolips. The Hordak who like Darkseid is more than happy to commit genocide on hundreds of planets just for a whim. Which I know some will argue with his involvement you gotta have She-Ra - which I would agree, BUT Classic She-Ra. The same She-Ra who also had the title Desparda who had no qualms killing thousands in the name of Hordak and nearly killed her brother in the MotU: Eternity War saga which was also done by DC Comics. I know the She-Ra fans of the recent series will be upset with that, but lets be honest - for something that is dark and serious like Injustice, the new versions of Hordak and She-Ra just simply wouldn’t cut it. She-Ra and Teela matches and She-Ra and He-Man matches alone would be a nice add. Sibling Rivalry and two future Sister-in-Laws... “SPARRING.”

Guyver: I know, I know this is a wishful-thinking-pipe dream of a fan to a dying franchise. I know New Line Cinemas did the movies and Warner Brothers now own the rights to the Guyver movies, since I last checked or at least Guyver: Dark Hero (1994) which is the main reason I want to see Guyver crossover into Injustice. But I would love to see Guyver and Blue-Beetle (2 Alien War Machines) go at it and even even Guyver vs Zuggernaut. The dialogue alone along with their super attacks would be absolute gold!

Edit-Addons for DC Characters (6-25): Magog (Kingdom Come): If anyone by now isn’t familiar with Kingdom Come, it is an alternative to the Injustice Series. Instead of Superman killing Joker for Lois’ death it was Magog. When the aquittal of Magog forced Superman to go into a self imposed exile, Magog formed his own group of Super-humans and distributed his own ruthless form of justice upon those that his group fought culminating in the destruction of Kansas. The inclusion of his character could prove interesting because like Injustice the death of Lois at the hands of Joker and his deaths set into motion in both “universes” where the Justice League (who’s dangerously close to turning into the regime) and Batman’s allies fight.

Gog (The Kingdom): With the Multi-Verse in play from both games, the inclusion of this guy is a must! He started off as a normal man by the name of William who was one of the survivors of the Kansas Disaster caused by Magog, saw Superman as the as quite literally a Jesus Christ type figure. When Superman set him straight on things including the Kansas Disaster, William’s beliefs were shaken to the core and questioning his worth, in which the Phantom Stranger bestowed upon him all sorts of powers (powers of Zeus, Shazam, Oan, and a few others I believe). But with his beliefs shaken along with his worth and mental stability fractured, he used said abilities to go on a Superman killing spree throughout the multi-verse. He was so mad that he even went back in time and caused his own Kansas Disaster catching the attention of the present Superman/Wonder Woman/Batman. It took the combined might of the time Traveling Superman/Wonder Woman/Batman and some allies with the “present day” versions of themselves and “PD”-Superman piercing the veil of the multi-verse to completely defeat Gog. Seeing him fight Injustice-Superman alone would be worth his inclusion.

[rawliverandcigarettes]

If you're still willing to do the character meme, I won't ask about Aria since you already discussed her at length not that long ago, but /is/ there a character you would like to talk about but which is, shall we say, less obvious than Mordin ? Basically, [Insert Character Here] for the meme. No pressure though.

Hey, thank you for the freedom (and so very sorry about how late I am ;_;)! I pondered a lot about who I wanted to ramble around, and I think I've been in a big Miranda mood lately so I'm going to talk about Miss Lawson!

favorite thing about them: her relationship with expectations and accomplishment/self-definition. The more I replay the game, the more that specific aspect of her deeply touches me, to the point where I discover myself relating to her more than with any other character in the games. She’s at once trying to follow an impossible blueprint, being expected to behave perfectly because she was “made that way” (whatever perfect means, in this instance the weirdly fetishist definition of a weird rich white guy), but at the same time if she expresses these controlling behaviors towards herself or others, she’s bossy and unlikeable. It’s almost like she’s been made to play a game she cannot win! (not to excuse the shitty controlling things she does to Shepard’s body and the fact she’s literally in a pro-human terrorist ring, but this mess does make a lot of sense with who she is, her envy, how she was shaped) Her relationship to Oriana is also very sweet (I almost always shed a tear at the end of her loyalty mission, I don’t know why this gets me when it’s so hard to get to my tearducts in videogames!!!), because in a way it’s also about Miranda showing herself compassion, and revealing her yearning at a second chance she’ll never have but can only offer to someone else.

least favorite thing about them: unoriginal, but the fixation on the butt? It’s a fanbase thing pushed by the game and its weird fixation on it, but... yeah, while I don’t mind that she uses her sexuality as a form of powermove (people are going to be gross about her anyway, may as well own it and make it do work for her, I get that), I think the fixation on the butt iiis weird and quite deshumanizing and it completely glosses over her great boobs COME ON PEOPLE

favorite line: I don’t remember the specifics, but the entire dialogue where she talks about the complex relationship she has with envy. Envy of Shepard, envy of Mordin, envy of everyone who was allowed and encouraged to express their full potential without feeling like they own all their accomplishments to the person who made them, and all their failures to themselves. She was designed to shine, and then made to step in the shadow of, mostly, “greater men” (her father, TIM, even MShep in the “default” way ME2 was marketed). This sucks!!!! I feel that so bad!!!!  

brOTP: I mentioned her and Mordin in Mordin’s ask, and I still enjoy that quite a lot! I also saw several mentions of Miranda and Grunt bonding over being “made”, and I am won over. This is very cute. But to be honest she strikes me as severely lonely because she’s crippled with her inner battle against herself and can be cold and offputting as a mean to assess control, so I think it takes her a long time to open up to anyone in the Normandy crew --especially since nobody likes her really. Perhaps she could have courteous exchanges with people like Samara or Thane, but I don’t see her baring her soul to any of them before perhaps late in ME3 (Citadel DLC and such). I like the potential of what her relationship to Oriana could end up looking like too, obviously!

OTP: honestly I really like a well-made Miranda/Jack. It can absolutely have this catty/porny “hot girls fighting” vibe which is not mine personally, but I think having Miranda reconciling with her own story of objectification/grooming at the hands of Cerberus alongside Jack is interesting, as well as allowing herself some leeway and tap into more spontaneity would really help. Jack, on the other hand, might need someone stabler to allow for her growth, and someone she can also somewhat hold accountable. I feel like that’s a delicate thread and I’m not even sure this would be the kind of relationship that *should* last given how intricately linked Jack’s history of trauma is to Miranda, but I enjoy the idea of a post-war relationship that takes slow steps and allow both of them to calm down, reconsider and heal. I saw mentions of Miranda and Kaidan, and I don’t hate it either! I think he would pair with her quite well, be a good support and they could have a nice equal relationship. Miranda and Jacob could be a thing? But I don’t entirely understand what their dynamic would have been like so I’m left grabbing at straws here (and she seems to be quite formal towards Jacob all things considered so I’m wondering what that even looked like).

nOTP: I don’t really have one. Even the really bad ones (like Illusive ManXMiranda) could be interesting if written well, even if they are repulsive in other aspects. I guess her relationship with MShep can irk me if “poorly written”, as it can absolutely make her that femme fatale prize of MShep that deny her that equal recognition I understand her to crave.

random headcanon: I HC that, despite being quite dominant in the ME2 love scene, her romantic behavior would be a little more muted once she trusts her partner (I believe she did that whole show to impress Shepard and try to control/maintain a sense of superiority because she’s afraid to be crushed by a stronger force than her, as mentioned above). I think she needs to be vulnerable in private and strong in public to be at her more confident/healthiest mentally, but I’m not even sure she’s ready to express that desire to herself yet (or maybe by mid ME3).

unpopular opinion: I’m not sold on Miranda wanting a “normal life” necessarily as presented in the Citadel DLC? I think she does need to relax and stop putting so much pressure on herself for sure, but I still believe she also wants to become her own beacon, the hero of her own causes, defined by herself. I wish we could have seen her become a little more of that before the end of the game (like the organizer of a movement aiming at taking down Cerberus from the inside-out, something like that, unrelated to her father/her genetics). I don’t know how I feel about us telling her (especially in the romance) to “just chill out and have a normal life”, while in ME2 she had trouble with finding her own success and didn’t ask to be made lesser. She didn’t want to be normal for its own sake, she wanted to be normal so she could exist without the shadow of everyone that defined her getting in the way (I also believe that’s why Cerberus’ views spoke to her, as warped and messed up as they are --their goal is very much about self-definition, at any cost). But it’s possible I’m projecting, I wouldn’t put it past me. :) :) :)

(From: https://rawliverandcigarettes.tumblr.com/post/659045472796803072/mushroom-cookie-bears-send-me-a-character-and)

[alethiometry]

thinkin about an alternate take on odyssey’s cult of kosmos storyline that may culminate in a blatant ripoff of valhalla but bear with me here lmao

instead of deimos continually antagonizing you the entire game as you try desperately to convince them that the cult is simply using them, deimos is actively trying to recruit you to fight alongside them. you are both demigods descended from sparta’s greatest hero, two sides of the same coin, etc. etc. as you go around killing cultists you get those cutscenes where each cultist gets to have one final say (just like all the other ac games) and while many joined and profited from the war for selfish reasons, there are enough of those who had lofty ideals that maybe you start to see that the two warring nations are both truly broken beyond repair. people are suffering because of the war, and for every callous profiteer that joined the cult to make a quick buck there’s also someone who joined just to survive, or because if you can’t beat em, join em -- at the least, they could then maybe stand a chance at protecting the people they love, even if it means others will have to pay that price. that’s just the way the world works, right?

and so after the battle of amphipolis and after killing the rest of the cult, you return to the cave of gaia in delphi and find not only deimos but also the ghost of kosmos down there, in front of the pyramid. deimos is still nursing his wounds from where kleon shot him, and the ghost finally unveils herself. both get their villain-y monologues about how it’s all for the greater good, everyone who died along the way was sacrificing themselves for a better world and the world will remember what they did -- but that will only happen if you join them. if you’re there to make sure they mattered. and the pyramid with its weird little artifacts still draws you in like it did that first night you infiltrated their meeting, and you and deimos and the ghost all touch it and you all get teleported via videogame magic or isu technology or whatever the fuck who cares it’s just a stupid scifi game let me live to...

atlantis?

it’s the exact same look and feel as the dlc: humans and gods living in (apparent) harmony, people are happy, families are together, there’s laughter and music and plenty of food and leisure. the buildings are gorgeous, there’s like fountains and gardens and aquariums and other cool shit, and if not for the weird isu tech all over the place you’d almost think it was elysium. but it’s not elysium, because you’re not dead. deimos isn’t dead. and you’ve never felt more at peace. the ghost tells you that this is all perfectly achievable, if only you join them in helping construct this world from the ashes of the old. deimos tells you that they’ve seen this in their dreams; the world was truly like this once, and it could be again.

there’s no war to be fought here; no pain or suffering or loss. deimos sheathes their sword and tells you that they cannot just go back to being family in the real world, not after everything that has happened and all the suffering you both have experienced -- out in the real world, you were both doomed to be nothing more than shattered bones and streaks of gore at the foot of sparta’s sacred mountain. you don’t matter out there, and you never did, and they know you are tired of trying to prove that you do, because they’re tired too. but in here, in this world, you could be together. you could be the siblings you never got the chance to be. this is what they were fighting for all along. they gave their name, and their life, and their innocence and their pain -- all to achieve this. and with your help they can finally stop calling themself deimos and reclaim their old name. or the two of you could find new names. you could be gods. you could slaughter the old gods, the ones whose prophecies doomed you both to die at the foot of mount taygetos (deimos still doesn’t know the cult orchestrated that lmao listen the brainwashing runs deep). you could be anyone you want here.

all of this feels so real. you feel like you could stay here forever.

deimos extends their hand. you reach out to take it. to join them.

and something tumbles out of your pouch.

it’s a little wooden eagle, a child’s toy, battered and all scratched up with most of its defining features worn away. you know it well. you know every contour of it because a little girl gave it to you when you left the island where you and she once lived, to go make a name for yourself in a war that never seemed to end, until suddenly it did. you know this toy eagle because you folded that little girl’s cold, dead, still-bloody fingers around it one terrible night in athens. you were told, later, that the eagle burned with her on the pyre your friends constructed for her. and so the only reason this eagle is here now, the only reason you can run your hands along its outstretched wings and trace the whorls of the woodgrain with your fingertips and feel the slight weight of it in your palm is because none of this is real.

what is real is this: the cult existed, and phoibe died. leonidas died. perikles died. brasidas died. and you cannot live in a world where the very act of dying for the world they didn’t know they were helping to shape is the one thing that becomes the defining feature of their legacies. where their lives become nothing more than some kind of grotesque buttressing to prop up the very people who got them all killed.

there’s some kind of bossfight against deimos, who, despite their appeals to you to join them as a battlefield companion and true siblings after too many years lost between you, still doesn’t hesitate to turn against you as they always have the moment things do not go their way. because that’s the way it is between the two of you: they push, and you push back.

and the more you fight, the more atlantis crumbles. the others don’t seem to notice; they simply sit there and laugh and sip wine and dance and sing as stone after stone falls from the vast turrets and crushes first their companions, then them, into blood and bone and gristle. there’s a gate up on the highest tower of the city, and you know instinctively that without it you’ll be stuck here in this strange dream-limbo, fighting your sibling for eternity as both worlds, dream and real, carry on with or without you. and as you make your way to it (maybe there’s some sweet parkour opportunities here with like falling debris and such) deimos gives chase and as you draw closer to the gate you start to see that it’s not empty at all, but full of people crowing in to take a peek at all the commotion.

there’s sokrates and hippokrates and aristophanes. alkibiades looking uncharacteristically worried, and [insert any npc lieutentants you’ve recruited like roxana or odessa]. xenia is there, and so is anthousa. kyra and/or thaletas, too (depending on the outcome of the mykonos questline). and a gang of plucky little kids, all cheering you on: khloe, the girl with the clay friends; arsenios, the tour-guide-turned-con-artist; ardos and his caretaker. (and i guess nikolaos and stentor if they’re still alive lmao) (maybe pythagoras is allowed too but he’s on thin fucking ice)

and, of course, myrrine. standing at the forefront, shoulder to shoulder with barnabas and herodotos. all three of them -- alongside everyone else you’ve ever allied with, fought beside, or helped out -- everyone who loves you, everyone you’ve ever loved -- they’re beckoning you home. back to the real world, where they matter. where you matter.

where you have always mattered.

you’re so close to taking your mother’s hand, you can feel the warmth of her fingertips -- and then you hear a scream below you.

it’s deimos, and they’re falling. maybe they tripped in their haste to catch you. maybe some of the falling rubble knocked them off-balance. it doesn’t matter. the only thing that matters is that your sibling is falling to their doom. again. and there’s nothing you can do about it.

except this time there definitely is.

so you leap from the ledge with all the strength you have, the roaring in your ears drowning out myrrine’s shouts. you’ve fallen from greater heights, after all, and lived to tell the tale. this is nothing. and this time you’ll catch your sibling, because this is your dream, too. and in your dream, you can do whatever the fuck you want.

you catch deimos, the both of you still falling, the ground rushing up to meet you -- and you both wake in the cave of gaia with a jolt. each of you still have a hand on the pyramid, and you make eye contact. they give you the slightest of nods, as if to say i’m okay. i’m awake.

the ghost is still asleep, head bowed, eyes flitting to and fro behind closed eyelids, both hands still on the pyramid.

you destroy the pyramid with your grandfather’s spear. this wakes the ghost. she’s furious, and tells you that you’ve made a terrible mistake. the cult of kosmos may be extinguished, but the ideals she worked toward are not. (basically this kind of mirrors the whole spiel about the philosopher-king or whatever tf the ghost said at the end of the actual in-game storyline that foreshadowed the order of ancients and eventually the templars)

deimos looks to you and mutters that it’s your choice what to do next. the ghost tries to appeal to them but they’ve run out of fucks to give. they leave.

[kill the ghost] what it says on the label. you get a nice little ac-esque assassination cutscene and it’s actually got some emotional weight to the decision/scene, unlike the game.

[walk away] leave the ghost in the cave. the pyramid is gone, the cult is dead, your sibling is free. the ghost will live the rest of her life looking over her shoulder, knowing that the grandchildren of leonidas have seen her for what she is. knowing that whatever she does next, they’ll be watching closely.

when you leave the cave, you see deimos, pacing as they overlook the view of phokis from mount parnassos. it’s high noon and the sun glints brilliantly off their gilded armor. they glance at the temple of apollo and remark how strange it is to be standing here together, so close to the place where both your fates were sealed with just a few words from a puppet pythia a lifetime ago.

you ask what they’re going to do, now that the cult is gone.

the peace of nicias isn’t going to hold, they tell you. the war will start again soon enough, and when that happens both athens and sparta will be looking for champions to fight for their side.

dialogue choices:

[i’ll see you on the battlefield] you and your sibling part ways. subsequent conquest battles have a chance of spawning a bossfight against deimos who is fighting for the other side -- neither of you can perma-kill the other so you can encounter/fight them over and over again. at the end of the conquest battle, no matter who wins, you can see them walking up and down the battlefield and you can have some silly little sibling banter, which changes depending on who wins/loses the battle

[join me, fight with me] deimos joins your crew just like in the game. unlike the game, you can interact with them at any time while they’re walking up and down your ship and have sibling banter because i just want some decent fucking sibling banter in this game

no matter which option you pick, the first time you return to sparta after finishing this storyline you’ll have the option of entering your old family home and triggering the family dinner cutscene with all the surviving members of your family because goddammit even after all this wishful revisionism i still love that silly little family dinner

anyway in conclusion this is what i want out of odyssey, thanks for coming to my TED talk, don’t forget to smash that like&subscribe the way the eagle bearer definitely smashed brasidas’ fine spartan ass offscreen bc ubisoft were too smoothbrained to give us the romance we deserved

[dinua]

TAG2 really happened, huh?

it has been about less than a day since I beat it, and I'm still reeling from it. but now that I've got a good night's sleep and stuff like that, I'll have to say,

everything was fantastic except for the writing.

this is all my opinion of course.

spoilers under the cut, you have been warned.

where the fuck do I even begin? it felt like all of the plot points were thrown at you at breakneck speeds. I know we're in a pandemic and all and that id's on a deadline (the Year One Pass), but they really should've saved the Davoth fight for a full game. on the topic of the Dark Lord,

  - Davoth, Ruler of Everything

so apparently id thought it would be a good idea to shamelessly retcon The Father being God, by instead having Davoth being God with The Father being his creation. it just seems like a twist put in there just to seem surprising.

nevermind the fact that this contradicts everything back in the main campaign and TAG1. the fact that TAG2 handwaves the Book of the Seraphs as "lies" only puts salt in the wound.

and also, it mentions that absolutely everything was just a part of Davoth's plan to get revenge on the Maykrs, from Doomguy’s existence, to the deal with Khan Maykr, and Samur rebelling.

not only does this mean that none of the characters really have any agency of their own in the story (which sucks because I liked Doomguy being the human-turned-demigod wildcard that messes up everyone's plans), but this once again contradicts previous lore, for after you kill the Khan Maykr back in Urdak, the Dark Lord can be clearly seen shouting "No!" at her demise.

oh yeah, speaking of the maykrs,

   - where the fuck is Sam? (and other loose ends)

seriously, after The Father teleported him away after the fight with him in TAG1, he's never to be seen again. no closure, just nothing. despite the fact that, y'know, he has played a massive role in the story since 2016 and that he's still alive.

also, what even happened to the Fortress of Doom and the Demonic Crucible? are they just floating in Earth's orbit for eternity? and will no one even question it? (well considering no one's questioning the literal portal to Hell's capital, they probably won't.)

   - Valen and the Intern should've gotten more screen time

exactly what it says on the tin. I say that the Intern should've gotten more screentime because I'm heavily biased towards him (he's adorable, what can I say) but Valen should've also gotten screen time considering that he, along with the rest of the Loyalist Night Sentinels, are participating in the siege of Immora. even a cutscene of Valen hatching up a plan with the Sentinels to assist the Slayer would've been nice, considering that he's a commander for crying out loud!

and finally, we reach the ending.

   - Doomguy fucking dies

yes, before anyone asks, I am aware that Doomguy may not be dead and is instead sleeping like he was before 2016, but still.

what. why?

Doomguy deserves better, and being forced into a sarcophagus after finally killing off the dude who's been responsible for all of his suffering up to that point is just... unfair. and if the powers that be decide only to let him out when he is needed, that's basically them viewing him as a weapon, which greatly insults his character and what he's been through. my man deserves a happy ending.

 I have more grievances with Doom's new lore and stuff, expanding beyond TAG2, like how with each and every game + DLC starting from 2016, things keep on getting more wackier and insane, Samuel Hayden being Samur Maykr all along (even though it clashes with his 2016 characterization), and the unsolved mystery of the family photo, but that's for another time. that doesn't mean I hated it as a whole though.

   + Environments

dear god, the world looks absolutely amazing in the DLC. the high tech city of Immora, the Argenta countryside + the World Spear, and the abandoned yet stunning in Reclaimed Earth.. credits to the artists for crafting such landscapes.

   + Gameplay

it's almost as if TAG2 had struck a balance between the decently hard main campaign and the tough-as-platinum-nails difficulty of TAG1. combat flows well, and the game gives you a challenge while not reaching the levels of pain TAG1 gave you. though I've heard that they nerfed a lot of difficult things in Eternal as a whole, much to the chargin of speedrunners.

that hammer tho;;

it's like pure adrenaline condensed into a weapon. It lends itself well to the combat of the game, considering that late-DLC and the Davoth fight was built around it. I reckon that it would be overpowered to hell and back if you were able to use it outside TAG2 though.

 so yeah, that was my rant/review of The Ancient Gods Part 2. some may have liked the writing better than I did, who knows. but, lemme just say one more thing:

intern’s best boy, fight me

[cobalt-rat]

For the Rate a FE Character: Innes, Seth, Claude, Leon (Echoes), Sumia, Dorothea

Interesting group of characters. Let's do it. Ratings below the cut.

First up - Innes

Already we got a solid pick from a solid game. When I first played the game I didn't like Innes much cause he's a dick but it turns out that characters who are dicks can turn out to be some of the best. Innes is a really good foil to Ephraim, rightfully calling the male lead out for his brazen way of going about things. He really proves himself in his debut chapter in Eirika's route; I'll never forget him and Gerik's crew being holed up in that little fortress. Really makes him a memorable addition to an already great cast. He gets an 8/10 from me.

Next is Seth

I don't have especially strong feelings for Seth. To me he does not especially stand out among other Jagens in the series, and it might be because he does not get an especially good chance to shine in Sacred Stones. I suppose that's more of my take on him in a writing sense, because in gameplay Seth is arguably the best unit in the game. I tend not to use him for that reason, just because it's not as fun for me to use the guy that decimates everything with a javelin.

Poor guy though. Debuted in Heroes with a Ruby Sword and then got a refine that didn't make things much better for him at all. Deserved better. 5/10.

And now Claude!

N I love this man. He's easily my favorite of the three House leaders, and the reason why I played Golden Deer route first. (I never finished Blue Lions and never starter Black Eagles, oops)

My favorite thing about Claude in terms of his place in the story is that he just seems to have his shit together compared to whatever the fuck is going on with Edelgard and Dimitri (I say that from the POV of someone playing Golden Deer)

However! Claude is the biggest victim in my opinion of Three Houses' missed potential as a whole. One of my biggest criticisms is how his route is written because frankly it's pretty lazy. Edelgard has her thing of changing the world though destructive means, and Dimitri is a genuinely good redemption story, meanwhile Claude's story ends up being a pretty straight forward Saving the World plot complete with ending racism off screen. We could have had so much more. 8/10

Next up is Leon from Echoes:

AI'm just now noticing I am rating a lot of archers in this ask. I like archers too. Especially Leon. If I fell in love with a man I'd simply follow him to the ends of the earth even if he didn't love me back. Leon kicks all kinds of ass in Echoes and looks good while he does it. He's also much better gay representation than Niles from the previous game on account of him not acting like a creepy predator, so nice job IntSys! He gets a 7/10 from me, would rate him higher but sadly there's not much else to his character and I would have liked to see them delve more into how he copes with the fact that Valbar will not see him as a potential lover.

And now, Sumia

A I admittedly don't have a whole lot to say about her? I mean, she's fine. She's your first pegasus knight in Awakening and her and Chrom are really cute. I remember a very nice conversation she has in one of the DLC chapters with Shanna, where one of them has a rock stuck in their pegasus' hoof, and the other helps them get it out. Hopefully I'm not getting her confused with Cordelia here... 4/10 she is kinda forgettable to me :/

And lastly, Dorothea.

Uh... Neither of her full cipher arts are very flattering, but I wanted to be consistent. Sorry.

I feel overall positive towards Dorothea even though I've never used her in Three Houses. Her post timeskip design is pretty nice, and I like her voice acting, though the same can be said of most characters from the game.

I appreciate that they started giving dancers/singers the means to fight back in the 3DS era because I really like the concept of a bard type character who is also a strong offensive mage. Honestly though it's hard for me to rate her in good faith because I haven't seen her quite enough... 6/10

Thanks for the ask, Pickles! I hope life is treating ya well.

[dany36]

officially done with tales of zestiria!! overall, i really enjoyed the game and i'm glad i finally sat down and played it. more junk thoughts below.

so it's definitely not as bad as i had heard people say it was. i was really surprised when i saw just how much of a bad rep this game gets, but...i can definitely see some things as to why people don't like it... one of the things i had heard was that there was barely any character development in the game, and i agree with that. i was 35ish hours in when suddenly people were already talking about going into the final battle and i was like...what?! no sub-story about rose or eizen or lilah that goes more into their past/characters like sheena in tos or something?? i guess we did get more into edna with that sidequest about eizen (it was nice seeing her show emotions for once!), but other than that, i really didn't feel like the game focused on ANYONE else at any point in the story. they just sort of get introduced into your party and are there to help sorey in his quest.

speaking of sorey, i REALLY didn't care for his character at all. i think he's the only one where i was super apathetic towards in terms of character and personality. even zaveid, who i thought i was going to dislike because of how annoying i found him in berseria, grew on me and learned to like him. i don't know, i guess when i compare him to other protagonists in the tales of games i've played, he really is the most forgettable of them all. like, when he "sacrifices" himself and goes in a sleep slumber, i felt no emotion whatsoever. as soon as i got rose in my party, i switched to using her as my main (which never happens lol i'm boring and usually stick to main characters as my Player 1--emil, lloyd, luke, velvet, dude with the purple hair in vesperia for the amount i played in the game) cus i was just like wow give me someone more interesting PLEASE. so, sorry to sorey fans (if there are any) but to me he's one of the most boring aspects of the game...and he's the damn shepherd!

and continuing on that point, i think the plot in this tales game is also probably the weakest one out of the ones i've played (weak main character, weak plot). the game starts off with the simple premise that sorey is the shepherd and he must get rid of the Lord of Calamity, and...that's pretty much it. in other tales games, you start off thinking your objective is A, but then as you journey along, a plot twist occurs and you realize now that objective A really was just a small task in what is your true objective. Something like this never happens in the game, so the pace just pretty much stays the same throughout the entirety of the game. sure, there are some cool moments (rose's introduction and her learning to armatize will forever be my favorite), but they are scattered out and about and honestly in this game i can't really remember something as impacting as luke sinking that one city (haven't played tota in a while lol) or palmacosta being destroyed in tos or velvet finding out the truth about her brother.

but anyway, the rest of the cast, i absolutely loved, so it's truly a shame that they were stuck in a sort of forgettable plot. i already talked about edna and rose being my favorites, but lilah (that scene with the oregami...OOF...OOF!!!!) and zaveid are cool too. alisha is barely in the main game, but it was great seeing more of her in the DLC and showing her struggle of what she wants to do (her combat also seems cool for the couple of fights but i had to stick with rose...sorry!). i only wish we could have had more skits showing the party interacting with one other. i don't know if it's just me but i really felt like there were barely any skits in this game, which is sad because most of the cast is enjoyable and it's a shame we didn't get to see them talk with each other in skits more!

i had seen people say that it's best to play zestiria and then berseria so you can catch all the references in berseria, but...to be honest, i don't think i would have enjoyed zestiria as much if i had played it first! prime examples are the eizen sidequest and the sidequest where you FREAKING FIND MAGILOU'S TOMB. like...hello??? when i got to the eizen sidequest, i 100% would not have given as much of a shit on killing that dragon if i hadn't played berseria beforehand. it really made me sad knowing the tragic ending that eizen wound up having. and finding magilou's grave being guarded by her friend also broke my heart. like...seriously!!! that was something that i also would not have given another thought if i didn't know who magilou was. so yeah i don't regret playing berseria first since i actually think it enhanced the experience a bit more.

gameplay-wise, i really enjoyed it! took me a while to get the hang of the equipment system, but once i did, chaining combos with Rose was a blast. i also really enjoyed how easily you could change party members (unlike in tob where it costs 1 BG!) in the middle of a fight. and MAN i never get tired of seeing those sweet, sweet mystic artes animations. <3 <3 <3 it increases any character's coolness factor three-fold.

my main gripe in berseria was the terrible dungeon design. at the beginning, zestiria did a better job at putting in puzzles in dungeons so as to not make the same mistake that berseria did, but then...towards the second half of the game...it was pretty much all berseria-like dungeons of endless same-looking rooms with endless enemies (the DLC dungeon being a prime example of this). which is honestly just terrible and boring, but at least the gameplay makes the fights seem not AS tedious...

i also felt like zestiria did a better job with the music than berseria did. i can hardly recall any song i liked in berseria (there's like two or three i'd put in my vgm collection), but for zestiria, i'm gonna need to hunt down quite a few. also, i could actually remember the names of the towns/locations and what they looked like. in berseria, i felt like i was going town after town but for the life of me i couldn't remember at ALL what we did there in the first place. i really just felt like i was passing through each town not learning much about the place, but in zestiria i really got a feel of each town, so that was nice!

oh, and the ending i felt was...kind of weak lol especially cus...no one talked at all??? it was so weird haha in tos, tota, dotnw, and tob we have the characters at least saying SOMETHING in the ending but in toz it was just...animations and that's it lol. so glad we got a DLC cus i would have been PISSED seeing just rose leave off like that without saying a word and then...they show us her GRAVE??? i always think "wow i wish they would show us how the future of (insert favorite characters here) are like!! :)" but seeing rose's grave made me so sad (as well as eizen's and magilou's) like nononono you do NOT show my favorite characters just DEAD!! >:'v but anyway, yeah i mean it was an ok ending but nothing that made me feel with a great gap in my heart like tob's or tos's did. like mikleo seeing sorey again at the end? cool. did it make me feel something like when tear sees luke again at the end of tota? sadly, no. :(

and last but not least, the DLC. i mean, i absolutely LOVED seeing the girls in the team going out on their own little adventure and just interacting and talking with each other!!! lailah + edna + alisha + rose...who doesn't love that?? we got to see more of rose being the badass that she is and uh yeah her and alisha? totally gay for each other...like that last scene before they kill the final boss?? just A+++ material (except that terrible last dungeon AND the HORRID design of the last bosses??? dragons with purple bright titties so that the player will know they're FEMALE dragons??? LMAO)

oh wow i wrote more than i thought i would but uh yeah. all in all: DEFINITELY NOT a bad game, has a great cast of interesting and fun characters (except sorey) but sadly the game doesn't delve too deep into them as in other tales game, DLC was a fun addition to see more of who i thought was going to be a greater protagonist in the main story, but overall when compared to other tales of games, the weak plot puts it second-to-last in my list of tales games i've played. would i play it again? definitely :)

WHEW, ok, now off to watch the anime!! <3

[tinyteenia]

Director's Cut and going forward

So, a week or so ago DLC 6 released, named Director's Cut, implying it's something that the Director decided to put in that was cut from the base game. Which I'm not sure is the case in this DLC, but nevertheless the story parts of the DLC gave us monumental information.

Warning: Spoilers for the Director's Cut DLC and different aspects of BL3's Story below!

During the story bits of the DLC, Ava decides she wants to do a Podcast on Paranormal Murder Mysteries. Luckily for her it seems a string of Mysterious Murders start happening on different Planets around the Galaxy. As more of the Mysteries are solved it's slowly revealed something is making certain people kill themselves and during so it seems at certain times they(people who committed suicide) were tasked on helping the Crimson Raiders or COV(Children of the Vault) in doing their tasks.

The last part of the DLC takes place on Nekrotafeyo in which Ava and the Vault Hunters go into ruins where after several visions of what seems to be a Guardian telling the murdered throughout the DLC that the Calypso Twins and the Crimson Raiders must be guided towards a certain fate. By the end, this Guardian tells Ava and the VH that everything was going according to plan until Lilith landed into Elpis, which the Guardian says shattered fate. It also states that due to this things will only get worse. This Guardian is given the name The Seer(for its ability to see into the future... obviously). Once defeated, it tells Ava the thing she's been seeking; Lilith is still out there and presumably alive.

Unfortunately this is literally all we get about this new revelation about Lilith. But, it is a good one. Though, I am curious how he's alive. I presume once she went into the stratosphere she started to accelerate and then even moreso once she went deeper into space to Elpis. Not to mention she had no Oxygen... At all so her head would've exploded. I'm not a scientist or am an expert on anything, but this is just presumptions, also yes, I know. It's a game about magic ladies and guns coming out of living creatures. But, it's still odd how she survived. But, that is the question... Is she alive?

Is Lilith Alive and when will we see her?

As I said above, it's really hard to believe Lilith actually survived and lived, but let's say she did. What would that mean? That'd mean Phasewalk cannot be transferred to another person. Or that is assumed, presuming she is alive she also still has her Powers. If she is alive, I find it hard to believe she left Elpis. I'd presume she would want to try and contact the crew again. But, she can't for some reason. It's possible she's been captured or she's in a coma, which the second likely is probably the answer since usually if a Siren is captured, word gets around. I'd argue it's impossible to tell exactly where Lilith would be on Elpis. Pre-Sequel didn't show the entire planet and there's probably thousands of miles.

Though, let's say she actually doesn't want to contact the crew... For some reason and she's alive, has her powers... Where is she? Well, it's entirely possible she'll return home to Dionysus, the mentioned-only planet. It seems absolutely nothing is known about it. If it's to be assumed the team will take inspiration for the non-canonical Comics, the Planet looks similar to Pandora, or at least where it's shown in the Comic. Though, it's unlikely. These are honestly the only two ways I see this going because logically if she was alive, she would've contacted someone and assuming its the 2800's, communication tech must've evolved so much it'd be easier than anything. Of course, I theorize the original idea was to keep Lilith dead forever and this is just something they did due to backlash.

Now, where will we see Lilith next? Well, assuming they dropped such a big piece of information I find it very hard to believe they wouldn't try to pick back up on it immediately. However, that is if it's DLC. It's entirely possible Lilith's return will be saved for Borderlands 4 or whichever game is being developed next and it probably the thing they're going for. But, they could pull a Lilith's Fight of Sanctuary and do for the last DLC of the game the search mission for Lilith. Which, frankly, I do feel would be the best move moving into the next Borderlands game. Why? Because it would take away time from the next game's story to find her, assuming all they have to do it find her. Though, my answer changes depending on what they want to do with her. They could pull an Aqua from Kingdom Hearts 3(TL;DR she was corrupted and turned evil) and make her not like her usual self. Which I think would work into the next game's story. Though, I think either could work as a DLC or Main Arc of the next game, it would just be nice to shove the Lilith thing out of the way since they already revealed it in DLC and have already done Universe changing things in DLC.

Though, that is all I have. This isn't really a lore post or anything more-so, let me dump my thoughts and others can see it too kind of thing. If I got anything wrong or you would like to add to it, let me know and feel free to do so. :)

[saphicfreshman]

Spoilers tlou 2!!!

A lot of people seem to think that the entire message of the game is that violence is bad but I actually think that there is soo much more to it... (I'm gonna ramble about a lot of things and it's gonna be quite long, so sorry in advance. Also this is just my personal take on it. Please, don't feel offended if you see it differently)

1. As a player we feel incredible hatred towards Abby as a character after she kills Joel and we simply want to hurt her in the same way. We despise her, which is a natural human reaction. However, the point in this game is that it forces us to see the other perspective. It forces us to admit that maybe we weren't playing the heroes because in this game nobody is. This game revolves around humans and what they have to do to survive.

2. A lot of people complain that the game judges your actions or makes you feel guilty. It never explicitly judges anything. It simply shows you the different perspectives and that you feel guilty is on you, not on the game because through the game, we as the player realize that our actions had consequences and that we didn't just kill NPCs but humans who had friends and families and had their own personality. This makes the game so much more realistic.

3. If you don't play this game narrow-minded, you will see that Ellie and Abby have exactly the same motives. They both seek revenge for the same reason and even though Abby killed our beloved character Joel, we have to admit that Ellie and Tommy killing most of her friends and Joel killing her father the surgeon were pretty good reasons to justify her actions. We aren't supposed to love Abby after all she killed Joel but we are supposed to sympathize with her and at least I can say that it truly worked for me. At the beginning I only wanted revenge for Joel but on that beach scene I truly didn't want to see her die and I didn't want to fight against her.

4. I've heard many people say that the game forces you to dislike Ellie or to see Joel as the villain. I don't agree with this statement at all. The flashbacks we see of Joel and Ellie make Joel seem like such an amazing guy and make him even more loveable. We see that his relationship with Ellie grew even stronger until she found out that he had lied about the fireflies and we saw that Joel got softer in the years after the first game. He seemed to open up a bit more and I think that is due to his peaceful life in Jackson. I loved that development and I think that is also the reason why he told Abby's group his real name. He didn't see them as a threat since Jackson welcomed outsiders and constantly took new people in.

Concerning Ellie's storyline: Yes, she makes a lot of bad choices and I didn't want her to go down this path but I also understood why she did it. I don't hate her, if anything I feel sorry for her and want to protect her even more because of everything she's been through. Yes, she did threaten Lev but I can understand why... I played through this game in a bit more than two days and when it came to the beach scene I just felt exhausted and I wanted it to stop. When we as the player already feel like that think about the character. Ellie was wounded, has left her family and has done horrible things to get to Abby and now Abby refuses to fight her. Everything she had done would have been for nothing if she didn't fight Abby. So, I personally think that Ellie was desperate and that's the reason she threatened Lev but I also think that she wouldn't have killed him if it came down to it.

5. Now that I'm already talking about the ending, I want to add that I think that assumption that Ellie has lost everything at the end of the game is wrong. Yes, she has lost a lot but at the same time she found herself again. She stopped the cycle of hatred. If the game would have ended with Dina, JJ and her it would have been incredibly sweet but it wouldn't have been a character development. Because she was forced to let Abby go after Abby defeated Ellie and Dina. Ellie didn't have another choice in this moment but in order to let go of the hatred, she had to spare Abby out of her own volition. At the end she regained some sense of humanity and there's still hope for her. At least that is what I got from that ending. In my opinion the reasons why she spared Abby are these two things:

1) Through the flashback she saw Joel and realized that no matter what she did he was gone and nothing could bring him back. At the same time she probably remembered Joel for who he had been in the last few years and what he would have wanted her to do.

2) She thought about Lev who had nobody except for Abby which is such a strong parallel to Ellie and Joel. She didn't want to cause Lev the same pain and suffering by taking Abby away from him.

6. I saw many messages about how important these characters (Ellie and Joel) are to people and how they deserved better/were completely different characters in this game.

I started playing the first game when I was 14 (just like Ellie) but I was honestly a bit to scared to play through the game so I played different games until I came back to tlou a few years later and I found myself incredibly impressed with the story. I loved how despite the cruel and harsh world Ellie and Joel live in the game still made me feel happy and calm in many sections. It was such a joy to watch the relationship between Ellie and Joel develop throughout the game. Playing the dlc and finding out that Ellie is a gay woman, just as me, obviously made me love the character even more.

Nowadays, I'm 19 (again just as old as Ellie) and I have become more mature, I have to face bigger and different problems than with 14 and I see the world in a different way. (I know that was a lot of information about me, I'm sorry but I promise I try to get to a point)

In the second game Ellie isn't the innocent, sweet little girl anymore that we got to know in the first game. She has been through a lot, she has different problems now and simply life in general is a lot more complicated than with 14. A huge part of the first game was about Ellie's innocence and how she grew up in front of our eyes during the game. "It can't all be for nothing" is in my opinion such a powerful line that explains her character development in tlou 1 perfectly. In the second game she is an adult with complex and complicated relationships and a different world view. She stopped being the innocent child a long time ago and is now a grown woman who isn't dependent on Joel anymore. So, that their dynamics would change is obvious. I am sad at the tragic turn of events for Joel and Ellie in tlou part 2 but I believe that the characters are incredibly well written and just a good continuation of the first game.

7. I see many people being toxic and attacking the story saying that it is "shit", "horrible", and that a child could write a better one. And I have to say that the people who say this probably would be more content with a fanfic like story from a child that includes a nice, action adventure and a happy ending. A light-hearted story that's maybe a bit dark sometimes but overall pretty nice. But that's not what Neil had in mind, because it truly would be easy to write a story that would appease the masses and that would be a slightly different game than the first one but overall with the same atmosphere to it. I think that's what a lot of fans wanted and that's not what we got.

Instead we got an amazing story that was incredibly emotional, took turns and forced us out of our comfort zone. I know that I will never forget this gaming experience. Especially the moment where I had to attack Ellie as Abby and I truly thought I was going to kill her. I smashed the square button while at the same time repeatedly saying: "please don't die Ellie, please don't die". I've never had such a weird, conflicting experience and I have never felt so many different emotions while playing a game. If naughty dog and Neil Druckmann had given us the game we wanted, it would have been a good gameplay, amazing visuals and great music and sound choices but it would have been a story that would have tried to recreate the first one and therefore it would have been easily forgettable and not impactful.

This game just keeps on making me think about the characters, reflecting on their actions and makes me feel so many different emotions that I'm not even sure what to think. And this, at least for me, is a masterpiece.

[nmoroder]

L4D(2) Actor AU

This is a (not complete) list of headcanons for the Actor AU me and my bro came up with during our Expert runs and running extremely low on morale. We created this as a sort of ‘happy’ AU which would also give some room to our own ideas, so some of this stuff below may only slightly be related to original. We understand.

This post won’t be updated but instead followed by other ones if something else arises, so check ‘l4d actor au’ tag on my blog for more!

Overall setting

The Left 4 Dead universe itself is a series of 90-min movies divided into first and second season, L4D1 and L4D2 respectively. This list will further refer to them as S1 and S2;

L4D is a series about, of course, zombie apocalypse, but teamwork and forming bonds between people are brought to spotlight. Both seasons consist of episodes where four Survivors try to find a solid ground and safety with every episode ending on a cheerful note but every next one starting with the cheerfulness destroyed. The episodes share their names and events with Campaigns;

Originally, L4D was created by a team of enthusiasts, consisting of friends, families and family friends, so they are all very immersed in process and really giving their best. Their collective is also the reason their funding isn’t very high and they’re mostly using their own equipment and props; this makes the series look less expensive and polished but retains the atmosphere and the main goal: to show people growing warmer to each other and learning to stick together;

The actors’ names are mostly created by combining the face model’s first name and the voice actor’s last name, though some other versions do take place (see S1 and S2);

The safehouse graffitis are inspired by the fans’ responses from forums and contests, so it’s some sort of communicating with audience through screenplay;

The Third Strike, more commonly known as Black and White Mode which occures after second incapacitation, was firstly discovered as a camera malfunction but then the team liked it so much that they decided to leave it as a feature and add the heartbeat effect and stuff;

Main plot line consists solely of canon Campaigns (that means it doesn’t include Last Stand and Cold Stream) but there were also suggestions to shot additional episodes - the Mutations. After S1 success, the authors posted their ideas on different ‘modes’ and fans added theirs as well and thus during S2 some more episodes were made using, for example, a male synchronized swimming team to create the Hunting Party mutation. The original Hunter actor also participated and the swimmers required to copy his behavior; they did it so well that sometimes the whole Survivor team was being overwhelmed once they began the take;

There are no stuntmen on board so every fighting scene is shot with original actors. When it requires to shove someone off with a weapon (e.g. Zoey shoving a Hunter off Louis in the L4D1 intro), after the take actors always ask each other whether they hit too hard, should they improve the movements etc. Different actors have different range so it’s a tricky thing to cooperate but they still manage (I’ll come back to this topic in L4D2 section);

Most Infected, especially Special Infected encounters are improvised, bringing more life and realism to the Survivors’ response. The Hunter is responsible for a fair share of their shock as they noticed him stuck at a saferoom ceiling only after a while (this is a reference to the glitches that allow the Hunter to get stuck under the roof in Versus);

There was a suggestion to run a Kickstarter campaign to gather money for a fanservice episode especially for shippers. While it was most likely a joke from actors who didn’t mind shipping, it’s still a suggestion and not in work.

L4D (Season 1)

Zoey shares the zombie movie obsession with her actress; Sonja was the most familiar with the topic among original team and provided a lot of help with setting up the scene, behaviour writing etc. Along with Louis and Boomer actors, she was the creator of original idea and can consider herself a founder of the series. She is also older than Zoey as a character, being already in her 25s while Zoey is a college student;

The original Boomer actor was a CGI specialist and offered his skills for post-processing while also playing an Infected role. He came up with the idea of a Boomer Infected himself and suggested his large physique to do the role with a little touch of computer graphics and makeup;

While discussing the major characters and personalities worth including, Zoey’s actress instantly remembered her neighbor, the big buffy tattooed guy who was her childhood friend, worked as a driver and spent his weekends with his favorite bike. She figured that it’s a nice image to have in a zombie apocalypse setting, and thus Francis’ actor made it to the set;

When it came to the image of a war veteran refusing to give in to monsters, Zoey’s actress was also the one to suggest another person to fill up the space: her father. He was younger than Bill was written to be but did the impersonating well. He’s got an overall friendly but bickering attitude towards Francis’ actor so most of lines written for Bill and Francis interaction were the ones actors remembered from their own conversations, slightly exaggerated;

Zoey’s actress and Louis’ actor were co-workers for several years and bonded over their mutual interest to zombie theme and shooting. She foud out that Sean attended a shooting range in his spare time and asked him to take her out too; thus she both found out he aces in ambidextrous shooting and got him to teach her how to wield a hunting rifle. The weapon preferences were carried over to respective characters;

Hunter’s actor became a surprise for the team as Francis’ actor brought him over saying that the guy’s got a fantastic voice (and a music band) and physique to make some badass new Infected for them. They got him to voice the crowd extras of common Infected but also came up with an idea of shrieking hooded parkour bastard to rip someone’s guts out, thus creating the Hunter as another Special Infected;

As the next Special Infected concept came out of the shadows - a lanky coughing tongue-twisting zombie who would grab the Survivors and restrict them, Hunter’s actor brought another person to the set. It was his music band co-participant who did drums and back vocals and also had an ability to eject the most horrible coughing sound out of his throat while being (seemingly) healthy. He took over the role of a Smoker;

Hunter’s actor is named Mike after Mike Patton, the voice actor for Infected and SI like Hunter and Smoker. Smoker’s actor is named Mike too but the fact that he plays drums and does back vocals is actually a reference to Faith No More, the band where Patton actually does vocals and Mike Bordin does what Smoker’s actor does. It sounds complicated but originally the idea of Hunter and Smoker actors sharing a name came from Patton voicing them both, and then I found out about the band and two Mikes present so... that was a weird but happy coincidence;

The fact stated above was the reason the team came up with nicknames just for two Mikes on the set - Hoodie and Tongue respectively. The tradition was carried over to S2 where the new Hunter actor would receive a patronizing nickname Kid from Survivors (see S2)

Of all Infected actors, Hunter’s actor was the least level-headed and even Francis’ actor sometimes doubted his past decision to bring him in. Nevertheless, Hoodie’s cheerful attitude and energy helped the collective stay positive and fuelled during especially hard days. It also brought out the less lethargic and melancholic part of Tongue and made him more lively about things;

Despite Hoodie being the Endless Energy Core which people tended to adore, he was still in a lousy relationship with Witch’s actress (her name, by the way, is different from the voice actress - it’s Rose). He kept a charmer’s attitude towards her even though she was a married woman; Rose tended to be neutral or mostly positive towards most colleagues but this behavior pissed her off big time, leading to Hoodie being injured by her stage costume claws after she punched him in the face for a really bad dating joke. Hoodie toned it down afterwards but their relationship didn’t improve much up until the end;

Witch’s actress is keen on baking and sometimes brings some to the filming set;

Since the budget was comparatively low, the team couldn’t afford a lot of crowd extras so they hired a group of people to then create an image of a Horde attacking by using CGI. That’s why there’s so much repeating common Infected on-screen;

The first season included all L4D1 original Campaigns, leaving The Sacrifice out as it was added later in a DLC. As S2 came into development stage, the team wanted to add an episode with the old Survivors team but Bill’s actor was unavailable at the time and was overall not hot with the idea of shooting movies anymore; so eventually they plotted the episode (The Passing campaign) to feature Bill being dead. The fans were shocked to find it out and demanded to know what exactly happened, thus leading to actually shooting The Sacrifice as a bonus episode to S1 (and requiring Bill’s actor to come back despite his attitude).

L4D2 (Season 2)

The collective decided to take a sharp turn on the new Survivors and create them being unacquainted and sort of separated at the start but growing closer as time passes by. The idea of S1 Survivors being almost a family to each other sounded great and played along just right but the team wanted to delve deeper into relationship problems and also have a change of scenery - and so they did;

The Infected team for S2 still consisted of some old faces (Boomer, Tank and Witch) but some had to leave the set for the time being and were unable to rehearse the roles, this being Hunter and Smoker actors. They got into music harder than zombie movies and planned to go on a tour so they could only leave their old Infected sounds as a legacy;

The new Smoker actor was a treasure Coach’s actor brought to the set. Since Coach was in fact a college coach, he kept a close eye on some problematic students under his wing and picked out the one he’d considered perfect and at the same time worth looking after. The guy was recovering from compulsory drug treatment and had some ugly scars all over his arms, making him an easier candidate for makeup;

Hoodie, on his part, brought a replacement on his own, and it was his brother - four years younger, even more insanely into parkour and a huge fan of L4D series, he made a perfect new Hunter. Despite being only a few years younger than Hoodie, he instantly became treated like a restless constant-questioner child, a literal piece of sunshine on the set, so the team came to call him just Kid. He adjusted to the nickname after a couple of weeks, though being seriously surprised at it at the start;

The actors of Ellis, Jockey and Charger all come from one family, being two sons and a father. Coach suggested the family as well, being their close friend for many years and pointing out Ellis’ actor appearance being something close to the laid-back mechanic they wanted for the new Survivors team;

Although fluently speaking in a Southern accent, Ellis’ actor isn’t very fond of it as he tried to get rid of it and move to a different state; the role obliged him to use the accent again though and it wasn’t hard to recreate, but he still didn’t take pride in it and was mostly annoyed with it and Nick’s jokes written in script;

Ellis’ actor is also the one more frequently complaining about amount of money the actors receive for their work on set. Their funding increased a bit since S1′s popularity strike but still;

Most of Ellis’ stories were written based on actual on-set incidents, usually featuring Nick’s actor (see below);

Nick’s actor, Taymour, is married to Witch’s actress and is a big fan of her performance in S1. When she heard the idea of having a snarky self-centered ladies’ man in the new Survivors team, she immediately knew who’d handle the role at his best. She also rehearsed the role of Witch just to make sure nothing bad happens to her husband on-set (also see below);

Nick’s actor suffers from constant bad luck incidents. He can accidentally break or twist something without serious effort; he’s also allergic to artificial blood and he is the reason the filming set actually features painkillers and functioning adrenaline shots. Despite all that, he’s got a positive attitude about bad luck and got used to being in a state of constant non-obvious danger, unlike others who geniunely worry about his well-being and fear that one day an accidental injury might end him once and for all;

This trait is also the reason Nick’s line “Can’t you see I’m limping here?” made it into the script - it was improvised after Nick’s actor badly hit his leg and was the last to make it to a saferoom during a take. The team liked it and decided to leave it in;

Nick’s actor treats his role with all respect and doesn’t consider it a small one despite the not so large fee. He’s also a complete opposite to the character, being a very friendly and kind-hearted guy to everyone on set; he can however switch back to his script personality with startling speed and it scared some of the new actors at first. Despite playing an asshole which is very different from real him, Nick’s actor enjoys it a lot and overall finds great joy in working with the team and bringing them together;

Bringing back the topic of being gentle to each other, Nick’s actor takes great care when it’s required to hit or shove someone in the take, keeping it mildest possible, unlike for example Ellis’ actor who can smash you in the face without a second thought;

Nick’s actor and Witch’s actress keep their loving attitude on set as well, sometimes making it hard to shoot scenes featuring a Witch killing; as they were shooting the Witch Bride scene where the same actress took place but had a different outfit and makeup, they ruined several takes by driving the dialogue in unwanted directions, e.g. “Ellis, go kiss the bride! No wait, I’ll do that myself” or “N: Sounds like my ex-wife... W: I still AM your wife, darling! >:C”;

With her husband on stage, Witch’s actress is probably closest to her role - she will tear apart anyone who dares to hit on Nick’s actor or mean any harm to him (as if his own harming isn’t enough...). The only one she’d go loose is Ellis’ actor, being an old close friend;

Ellis’ actor was the one who introduced Nick’s actor to his future wife. They’ve actually been close friends since the university and Ellis’ actor was among those who obviously saw Nick’s actor and Rose being in love but completely oblivious to it. Ellis’ actor is still kinda jealous that she took his best friend away and they can’t hang out anymore like they used to, but they get quite a lot of time on set so he’s less irritated about that;

Nick’s actor is especially supportive towards Rochelle’s actress, Shanola. She feels self-conscious because of her character’s rating being lower than expected and blames it on her performance, but Taymour keeps reassuring her that she’s doing amazing. Rochelle’s actress is also the one least accustomed to shooting a weapon and handling violence of any kind so it was hard for her to get her head into action. With the team fully supporting her, the progress sped up tremendously;

Ellis’ actor’s name is Jesy and he gets salty about people misspelling it or mistaking it for a female name. It was the inspiration to include the “El kinda sounds like a girl’s name” part of Ellis’ dialogue;

The team is overall friendly towards shipping dynamics in the series’ fandom, with the only one explicitly stating otherwise being Ellis’ actor. He’s espeicially upset with Nellis ship as people started shipping actors over it too; he stated multiple times that he and Nick’s actor have been best friends for so long that it’s simply wrong to imply any romantic and/or sexual relationship between them. He once stated in an interview that he’d rather believe an Ellis/Hunter ship and the fandom exploded with it on the next day, much to the actor’s chagrin. The Hunter’s actor, or Kid, however, wasn’t that upset and supported the idea. The team made no confirmation to any ships yet;

Nick’s actor is neutral to most ships including Nellis and doesn’t see why his friend is so angry about it. His personal favorites are Nick/Witch for obvious reasons and Nick/Hunter for less obvious reasons that he doesn’t state. He jokingly suggests Jesy from time to time to start a Kickstarter campaign for a Nellis-centered episode; it’s still unknown whether they’ll take it serious one day.