#it's a good thing it's not like an actual rpg where there are time sensitive missions

[drinkyourvillainjuice]

what video games do the ro's/would the ro's play . would teddy fw dark souls. would mal fw league.

Hmm, let me think! Fun question.

Mal: Periodically gets into random gacha games, amasses a hoard of jpgs, never touches them again. Swears up and down they don't spend money on microtransactions, despite their absurd amount of resources. If they played league of legends they'd probably get banned swiftly for inting, as they'd realise it's a surefire way to troll annoying teammates.

Teddie: Can't really play input heavy games because of pain issues. would vibe with slow-paced turn-based strategy I think. Stuff that isn't time sensitive and he can do methodically. Watches Kay play things.

Kay: RPGs RPGs RPGs. Give her the final fantasy. Give her the mass effect. Give her the baldur's gate. Plays co-op with Teddie.

CG: Played party games a lot when she was younger. The kind of ones you mostly only play when you have at least four people. Hasn't touched a console in a long time and wouldn't be seen dead mobile gaming.

Wil: Kind of embarassingly out of touch with video games. They played mario once when they were eight. Stares blankly at you when you ask them which mario. You receive the sinking feeling that they are genuinely not aware that there is more than one.

(it was paper mario)

Alistair: Bashfully admits that he does like to game now and then. It transpires that he is ridiculously good at various management/colony building style games like Dwarf Fortress and Rimworld. Dabbles in old RTS games. Hasn't played Nethack in a while but would pick it up like he never left if he played it again.

Spends actual hours making cool houses in the Sims. As a teenager he once did the thing where you take away the pool ladder to drown a sim, felt unbelievably guilty, never did that again.

Almost never plays multiplayer anything cause he gets anxious.

[kafus]

is it true theres kamitsubaki lore and if so where can i read it? i know there's like, 2 games and an ARG?

simple answer: yes

true answer: it's complicated

kamitsubaki lore mainly centers around VWP (virtual witch phenomenon, the group of singers) and it's kind of a side thing? like you don't have to know the lore to enjoy kamitsubaki stuff. personally it's not even a super strong focus for me. so like yeah there's lore but you don't have to know it

that being said, if you WANT to know it... well right now that's pretty hard. there was an ARG all the way back in october 2021 that is essentially lost media unless you feel like perusing the unofficial english discord's archives of it, which are a nightmare to sift through. i'm planning on eventually organizing all of that stuff into a browsable format on a fansite but i just haven't gotten around to it

there are two games coming out (in english, too, thank the lord) but neither of them have come out yet. kamitsubaki city ensemble is going to be a rhythm game focused around VIP/the VWP cevios, and seems like it has some story stuff in it, though i'm unsure at the moment whether or not it'll actually tie into the wider Kamitsubaki City lore despite the title, though i imagine it very well Could. there's also a VN in development called kamitsubaki city regenerate, which seems like it's going to be the main way to get into the lore once it comes out, so definitely keep an eye on that.

if you want to try and consume the lore BEFORE these two games come out, there is a tabletop RPG akin to D&D online called NARRATIVE and you can find that here, but it's fully in japanese and is kind of hard to engage with if you don't know japanese because. well. it's a roleplaying game lol. but there's a lot of lore in like, the rulebook and stuff.

and of course VWP's music videos hint at stuff... and there's various scattered small things throughout paid concerts that i can't share... kamitsubaki city is kind of a fucking mess i'd honestly just wait for regenerate to come out and go from there LOL

though a quick tldr of the lore is there's a city called. well. you know. kamitsubaki city. and it's in ruin. and the VWP girls are called to the city by a mysterious force called the restoration department to fix it thru the magic of singing or whatever.

good luck soldier i unfortunately cannot relay all the lore in one ask because it's like trying to piece together a narrative from the past 3 years of me being a kaf fan that i've obtained through disjointed fan interaction and literally being there for a time sensitive ARG

[open-hearth-rpg]

Safety: Great RPG Mechanics #RPGMechanics Week Nine

One of the greatest things about modern rpg gaming is that the issue of safety has become a great filter. Beyond the actual application of safety tools, it has become accepted and conventional to the point that a game has to make a deliberate choice not to discuss that in some way, particularly for any material moving towards edginess, horror, etc. If a game goes into problematic areas but doesn’t address those issues, someone has made a deliberate decision. 

And that’s something which has changed over the last decade and it makes me super happy. Just a few years ago Free League publish Mutant: Elysium, a game where you effectively play fascist, human-supremacist, state tools who engage in ongoing PVP and player betrayal. Imagine Paranoia without the humor and more jackboots. And the only nod to the potential problems with this was a passage that said, yes players might get mad at one another and if that happened you should probably stop the game and talk about it. 

Weak sauce. 

Or another game, written in part by creators I respect, which covered a licensed property with a strong ethnic element, including a history of white co-opting, which had no talk about cultural issues in play, culture sensitivity, the challenges of playing characters from that culture. It boggled my mind at the time– but it was just far enough back I could squint my eyes and hold my nose. I like to think people would point out that absence today– or more likely that oversight wouldn’t have happened. 

So when a ttrpg doesn’t have any discussion of boundaries, talking to the table, or handling safety– especially with tough themes– that’s a good filter– it moves it down in the likelihood of actually spending the effort to bring it to the table. I appreciate too when slightly older games start to address these issues in later supplements. More recent Star Trek Adventures publications like the Players & Gamemasters’ Guides and the Lowers Deck Sourcebook have called out theme and issues which could be a problem at tables (eugenics, suicide, death) and suggested way to talk about these with the table.   

And here’s the thing I’m going to be brutally honest about. I thought safety tools were dumb when I first heard about them in the abstract. My immediate reaction was to go into grumpy GM mode, worrying about people talking away my autonomy as a GM. I thought up straw man arguments based on how imaginary players could use these to break or derail a game. I was an asshole about it. But then I started to see people actually railing about it and invariably they were people I considered asshole GMs. And I started to ask myself AITA?

More importantly I started to actually see and interact with these things in play. That really showed me how dumb I’d been about the whole thing. But two things sealed the deal for me. First I had a player I’d played with for close to two decades, a big, buff dude stop a game. He said: enough with the spiders. He finally told me that he was phobic, really badly phobic and sketched out an incident as a child. It had always stressed him out, had made him quit games, but he’d never said anything. We’d played together for years and years and I hadn’t known and he hadn’t said and it had made some of his time at the table really awful. 

I see GMs say “my group has played together for years and never needed…” Yeah, f*ck you. I’m willing to bet there’s someone who had an evening ruined or quit your table because of that. And don’t get me started on the “we always had girls at the table and they never had a problem with it” line. Someone did and they felt like they had to get along and keep their mouth shut. But that’s an older generation of gamers– my generation of dinosaurs and the generation which followed us. I am genuinely grateful that the needle has moved and these kinds of discussions have become commonplace and accepted. 

The second event which completely changed my take on this was at Gen Con running a late-night Saturday session for Game on Demand in 2017. A group of five sat down, four guys and a young woman. They were clearly a friend group who had been playing together for three days. I set up the game and then I went through the X-Card with the table. And I looked up at the young woman and saw a look which I can only describe as “thank f*cking god.” She didn’t know me, but she realized there was a chance that I wasn’t a total asshole. 

So yeah, safety tools are one of the greatest modern meta-mechanics to facilitate play. I love reading how different games provide resources. On Open Hearth we ask that GMs use a layered set of tools for all sessions: Lines & Veils, the X-Card, and Open Door. Each has a different purpose and role. GMs have leeway to swap some of these out for other tools they’re more comfortable with but most people use these three because they’re accessible and work. 

The best games spend some time discussing how these tools work in the context of the game and how to implement them. Safety tools aren’t a band-aid, the game facilitator and the table as a whole has to be aware of how to resolve situations using those tools. That can be a challenge and good games illustrate those techniques. There has to be follow through. 

A couple of recent games have solid safety sections. #iHunt uses its own structure and lays things out pretty thoroughly. It also spends time talking about its philosophy regarding safety. Apocalypse Keys has a great three pages which tightly lay out the concepts of the game’s Green, Yellow, and Red approach. I’m biased but I think Hearts of Wulin also does a pretty good job– it combines a CATS explanation, safety tools, and some cultural notes. 

But it wasn’t as good when I first sketched it out. It took time to develop some of those ideas– with influence from Agatha Cheng and James Mendez Hodes for the cultural discussion. Other concepts came from feedback. Hearts of Wulin offers romantic action melodrama. I knew I wanted to make clear that players should consider gender and sexuality fluid in play. But a playtester pointed out that the structure of mandatory romantic entanglements pushed out aromantic characters. 

And again I’m going to cop to being dumb here. My first reaction was “well, it is a game about romance so that’s key to the genre.” But on reflection I realized how limiting and potentially alienating that could be. It didn’t take changing the rules to fix. I just added in language about how players who wanted Ace or aromantic characters could do that. They could swap out a romantic entanglement for a general one or they could read “romantic” as a strong bond of friendship, care, or devotion. 

I’m ranging wildly in this because so much of table culture and play management circles around the broader concept of safety. It’s not an onerous thing and the care spent here pays back. It includes a lot of elements: active tools, collaboration, consent, check ins, establishing boundaries, and beyond. For example I stress that players should identify pronouns for themselves and their characters. In play they should also take care to get those right and make corrections when applicable. 

I love this for a couple of reasons, but most importantly the one I talked about at the start of this. Using pronouns makes fascists, TERFS, and the like really mad. It’s a great filter for them. Every couple of months I’ll get a comment on one of my actual play videos. Most recently I got this one on a Dune session zero: “wow, this is the first time I've stopped viewing RPG content after just 5 seconds. however it is a must, after hearing the application of the pronouns after the presentation."

All I can say is good, die mad about it. 

[james-stark-the-writer]

started playing Persona 5 Royal after finding out i accidentally bought Persona 5 regular (i was already about 4 hours into Persona 5 on merciless and had stopped at the shop where you buy stuff for the first time after the first dungeon when i found this out) instead of Royal and jesus fucking christ, i forgot how slow this game's opening is it's like two hours long before you actually even get into the game, just like an hour of (really well made!) animated scenes and cutscenes with minor (pretty pointless) sections of walking to locations before you even get to the actual school portion, which takes another fucking hour to really get going like, oh my god, this game does not understand what the word pacing means. every scene goes on for like 10 fucking minutes longer than it has to, it's a lot of pointless (attempts at) building intrigue which don't work because you're just being bombarded with them back to back and have no idea what the status quo is for any of it to have really any impact! i know it's like a 100-hour RPG or whatever but good god, just drop me into the school instead with a lore dump and let me PLAY THE FUCKING GAME ALREADY.

like it's truly nonstop, it's just going from establishing one thing after another like oh we're a stylish thief to oh we're fighting monsters to oh we have a friend to oh we were captured by pigs to oh we were betrayed to oh police brutality to oh we have a lawyer(?) to oh we stole someone's heart to oh someone's speaking to us from another realm(?) to oh we're back in time to oh cars keep crashing randomly to oh we were sued by somebody trying to SA someone to oh there's a weird app on my phone that somehow slowed down time to oh we were sent away by the courts and our family to oh we're living above a restaurant to oh we are talking to a guy in a dream who is talking about the world being ruined like it's NON FUCKING STOP. AND THE JOKE IS YOU CAN'T REMOVE ANYTHING WITHOUT A COMPLETE REWRITE OF THE OPENING OR A STRUCTURAL OVERHAUL OR 30 MINUTES OF NONSTOP TUTORIALS OR JUST AN ENDLESSLY LONG PARAGRAPH TYPING ALL THIS LORE OUT INSTEAD OF HAVING CHARACTERS SAY IT. like the casino scene is necessary to introduce you to context sensitive actions and what combat will look like, so you can't start in the interrogation room or start with you getting captured, the interrogation scene room is necessary to establish that it's a flashback and for you to select your name and shit and to establish that you're talking to someone and a lawyer and that you're a famous criminal and to establish that this larger spirit world exists and that your character has amnesia(?), you can't remove the going to the dude's house bc it's necessary to get you acquainted to the map and neighborhood and daily routine, you can't remove the scene with the app bc it becomes a running theme soon, like the opening HAS to be this way bc otherwise you'd overwhelm every player, even ones as diligent as me and as enthusiastic about playing in menus as outside of them, and you have to dole out the story in this way because there's so many concepts they don't expect you to know and that they have to effectively and efficiently introduce to you so that the rest of the game isn't constantly bogged down in pausing every ten seconds (though somehow i get the feeling it still will) to explain shit to you your character should already know like it's maddening bc it HAS to be this way but also it kinda doesn't.

anyway, i did enjoy the new fight in the opening that wasn't there in the original, definitely does a lot for building intrigue and making the identity of the person who apparently turned us in even more suspect since we have more of a connection with one of them because we fight next to her, which makes me think it's almost guaranteed to be that person whenever the reveal happens but anyway. i'm just like really exhausted at how slow this opening is, even though i know why it is this way. and how structurally they are fucking trying their best to be effective and efficient while setting and tone and a mood and an atmosphere instead of just having you read about it in a text box. i kinda can't stand all the vague shit in the dialogue tho, it's too much intrigue building crammed into a very small space and after a point you just start spacing out or ignoring the intrigue bc you know you're not gonna get answers for quite a while.

[bunheadbunni]

Usagi Tsukino is based on Usagi Tsukino from Sailor Moon. She is a 26 year old super human, streamer, and uses she/her pronouns. She has the power of lunar healing and energy manipulation. Usagi is portrayed by Minatozaki Sana.

usagi has lived in evermore for basically her entire life. she couldn’t remember a time where she wasn’t even if she tried. for the longest time she thought she was just an average girl. she didn’t do very well in school and she spent most of her free time crying, eating, or playing video games, but she was really good at all of those things! her life may have not been extraordinary but it was hers and she loved it all the same.

meeting luma changed everything. she went from being silly little usagi to a sailor guardian and she is still trying to wrap her head around it. she is happy that her friends are a part of it, really, but she doesn’t want to let them down or get them hurt. she is constantly worried she is going to mess up.

she has always felt connected to the moon, which fits her being sailor moon. she stares at it when she can’t sleep, she talks to it when she doesn’t know what to do....the moon guides her in more ways than she is even aware.

her hair is normally always in her signature “bunhead” style. two big buns with two long pigtails. despite hating being called bunhead, she has worn her hair that way since forever, so why change it now? it is her signature look but every now and then she will just do some space buns.

she has been streaming full time for a few years now. with the grades she had it was a miracle she graduated high school so the idea of going to college was....not in the cards for her. honestly her dream job would be a professional taste tester at the lucky cat or literally anywhere that sold food. but she really likes streaming! she can just talk and talk and no one every interrupts her! she typically plays cozy games or rpgs. big fan of legend of zelda.

usagi does not sleep well at first. she often has dreams of this beautiful kingdom on the moon and a boy that feels like home. sometimes the dreams end good, sometimes they end really bad. but she ends up sleeping in because she is so restless when they start. she would love to know what they mean.

as stated before usagi’s first love is food. she has a sweet tooth for days but she is also a deep appreciator of savory foods. traditional japanese food is her favorite but she honestly eats just about anything put in front of her. the only food she actually HATES is carrots. no carrots allowed!

she is a big manga fan! her favorite ones are romance, star crossed lovers, things like that. she could honestly disappear for hours reading them and she has a rather large collection of her favorites series at her home.

she loves the idea of being in love and getting married and having kids. of course she can’t keep a boyfriend to save her life, but she hasn’t given up yet! she believes in fate and soulmates and she believes that hers is somewhere out there in evermore.

she cries extremely easily. she has been labeled as the sensitive one or the crybaby basically all her life but really she is just passionate! she cares so deeply about others and the words they say that she can’t help but show her emotions plain as day on her face. the only thing she really hates about it is how she is labeled immature when she thinks she is fairly mature (she is not tbh).

one of her favorite spots in evermore is the arcade. not only because really cute guys work there but because she is one her way of getting top score in her favorite games and she has been working on it very hard since she was a kid. she isn’t the greatest at arcade games but she is determined to be the unofficial queen of the arcade.

she has a HUGE crush on tuxedo mask. she has zero idea what his true identity is and she wants to know of course, but she is kinda really into the mystery of it too. every time he looks at her it is like she is waking up for the first time. like she was meant to gaze into his eyes.

also as mentioned before she really isn’t always the brightest. academically she isn’t bright at all despite her friends trying to help her get through it over the years. she is constantly making jokes, constantly being teased for missing a joke, and trying her best to keep the atmosphere light because she likes seeing others smile. a standard class clown!

usagi has always been obsessed with bunnies. she has her own pet bunny now that she is not living at home with her parents and younger brother. the bunnies name is bonbon and he is her precious baby. her name means rabbit, so y’know it checks out.

usagi is a TERRIBLE COOK. she normally has to beg kwon to come over and help her cook or else she is just ordering takeout forever. she will very much need roommates because otherwise she will burn the house down trying to boil water or make a grilled cheese alone.

a very big fan of singing and karaoke. she is constantly dragging anyone who she can to neverland to sing duets with her! her voice is alright, but she is that girl who acts like she can’t sing and then does pretty awesome.

SHE IS THE LOUDEST CANCER SUN I HAVE EVER SEEN. Her BIG THREE are cancer sun, taurus moon. pisces rising!

[runekeepershymnal]

Physical aspects of a dream life that is probably (certainly) not practically possible under capitalism without winning the lottery (either birth or the kind with the little pieces of paper) but which are not outside the realms of physics / current technology:

A house with an ADA fully accessible outbuilding with a bathroom, also ADA and fully accessible, with several UV enhanced air filter running. (My partner has OCD and a pretty significant fear of germs/contaminants)

Several functioning, self-cleaning litterboxes (who likes cleaning the litterbox?)

A house big enough for my partner and I to both have an office and a bedroom (we can’t share a bed due to my RLS, we keep different hours, he is an extremely light sleeper)

Ideally, a garage or shed for stinky crafts (gotta keep it ventilated)

A kitchen with counters big enough for a mixer and a multi-cooker to be on it at the same time (my joints are getting worse as I age and both are pretty heavy)

A greenhouse or sunroom (I would love to grow more of our own food, and while my spouse has light sensitivity issues, the cats love it, and I need to bask every now and then)

Enough space for raised garden beds (more growing some of own food)

Excellent, reliable wifi and power, preferably with some solar (we both telecommute and spend a lot of time communicating with friends far away)

Quiet, with trees, preferably set far enough away from neighbors so that we don’t have to hear each other (my spouse has misophonia)

A stream, a creek, a pond, a lake. Some body of water (we’ve had it before at rentals and apartments, and listening to spring peepers is a joy)

Good insurance (pet insurance, too - just another capitalist dystopia necessity when you’re disabled / crazy [I will describe myself however I want, fuck off], or just straight up mortal and human and capable of catching diseases)

Within a reasonable drive to either a city where I can actually work or a train station where I can do the same (I want to do something in academia or libraries or archives or museums or theater or a non-profit that actually helps people, or or or…)

Friends with either no or grown children, or access to childcare (we are not great with small kids, our pets are not good with kids, but we love our friends and family who do have kids)

A setup in the outbuilding where there can be video conferencing so that we can play RPGs either in person or with friends who can’t be there due to distance or disability - (we definitely get it on the disability side)

Enough money to pay our bills and set enough aside for an emergency (dreams should not include emergencies, but life is life and a contingency is a contingency)

Wardrobes large enough to embrace and explore the aesthetic side of our gender fuckery

Legal weed to help with chronic pain / anxiety issues

A way to protect ourselves and people we care about if things really go to shit

I’m privileged to have what we have. To be able to make rent, to not have bombs dropping on us, to be able to get access to some, if not all, of the healthcare I need most of the time. (Please don’t think that I’m ungrateful for what I’ve got, or that I’m not aware that there are people who aren’t even getting those basic needs met.) But despite all that, we are kind of isolated due to my spouse’s disabilities.

We’re coming to figure out some of our stuff later in life. He’s got one rare condition for which there isn’t currently any treatment, and that condition make it really difficult to go out and get treatment for the other ones. It makes it difficult and painful to go out or be away from our apartment most of the time. It wouldn’t be fair to ask other people to come to us all the time, especially if their disabilities and needs also limit where they can go and for how long, but having a place that was actually ours would make it easier for us to make it easier on them.

The more isolated we get, the harder it seems to be to break the cycle. So… I just wanted to write out the dream life that might make it better, or more possible, to break it.

[kimbap-r0ll]

Hello may I request a BNHA matchup for my male OC?

His name is Charles Kendrick, an English-Welsh student of UA with Celtic and British roots. He's 17, 5'6", kinda plump with fair skin, brown hair, hazel eyes, and has a lot of small moles and freckles. His fashion is either a gamer or a jock. Queer but goes with he/him pronouns, ENFP, and a Gryffinpuff. Extrovert, laid-back, free spirited, appreciative, and genuine person who loves to socialize with other people on and off the social media sites. Naturally funny because of his contagious laugh and he's extremely careful to sensitive people. He may have a pleasing personality, but once he sensed there are fake friends or backstabbers, he'll just call them out when they're not in front of them until they disconnect with him.

He's also mildly rebellious, can be rude when he's in a bad mood, and swears a lot even he didn't mean it just to look cool. He doesn't even care if he has a failing grades because he believes that learning is everywhere, not in books alone. That's why he condemned his family for being manipulative but they're actually discipling him. Not to mention he's also flirtatious (but in a friendly way), where his punchlines are annoying but sweet, this is his way to have a significant other. But unfortunately, he's only good on words, not on actions.

A proud gamer, he could spent his time to his computer or any gaming consoles all throughout the day. Very active in social media considering he also have a lot of friends there, also creates memes and have a blog dedicated to aesthetic photos. He can make a program or a website for being a computer enthusiast plus a rugby player even he's not the best among the team.

Ooh this is very cool, thanks for the request! There’s a lot of students that would like his company, but I think that the person that would like his company the most is...

Denki

He loves Charles’s laidback personality a lot. He too, believes that learning can take more than one form, and the two of them probably bonded through that. He really likes just hanging out with Charles, even if that means the two of them are just scrolling through their phones and sitting next to each other. They are honestly a vibe.

Please share memes with Denki. He loves them, and he likes humorous people in general. The two of them are lowkey class-clowns of their own classes (unless their in the same class) and I can imagine how popular they are to the students because of this. The teachers, on the other hand, might find their combo too perfect that they can’t get through lessons sometimes haha. But overall, everyone likes how they are able to make people smile, and that’s one thing Denki admires so much about Charles.

He loves video games too, so there’s bound to be long gaming sessions between the two of them. The games can honestly be anything, from rpgs to just Minecraft, they would have so much fun no matter what it is. I can imagine them having small competitions like who can do a faster speedrun on a certain level and the loser has to buy dinner on their next night out or so. If Charles is busy in a rugby game, Denki's out there cheering super loudly for him. It's honestly so cute to the people that see it!

Denki definitely doesn’t mind the grades or the swearing, he just wants to be with someone who has fun vibes, and Charles is the exact person Denki wants in his life.

[ganymedesclock]

[Another OC Ask Meme] For Taylor: 12, 17, 24. For Hero: 14, 15, 23

[original meme]

Taylor

12. A trait your character dislikes in other people?

They actually have a lot of pet peeves in other people. For something more serious than 'they hate when other people go "um" too much', they can't stand perceived laziness. They can get used to it if people seem to move slowly or act laid-back but prove they can be counted on, but when there's work to be done they absolutely turn into that Chris Fleming COMPANY IS COMING skit.

This is the downside of giving a slightly high strung fifteen year old levels in Leadership Skills.

17. Something seemingly insignificant that makes them happy?

By far their biggest mood booster is feeling like they made or accomplished something. They're very craft-focused. They want proof that they mattered, and that something they thought of is now real, especially if another person is using it. As a gift-giver they tend for the handmade and practical (though coming from a pre-industrial culture that does have slightly different significance) and as a gift-receiver they'll be way more affected by the equivalent of a deeply sentimental card or personal handcrafts.

If they see someone wearing or using something that Taylor gave them, it makes them extremely happy.

24. Something they are self-conscious about?

I'm going to gloss over the low-hanging fruit of 'being a skeleton/regarded as a monster by other people' and say...

Taylor actually is self-conscious about how short they are! Both of their parents were pretty tall people / in the neighborhood of six feet, and while their dad was a little more swimmer's back/all-limbs as you'd expect of a fisherman who's scrambling around the rigging of his ship semi-regularly, their mom was quite stocky. They've got all the genetics to be tall, they're just a bit of a late bloomer.

(this was affected by a period of childhood hunger scarcity that stunted their growth)

They're afraid people don't take them seriously because of their cute little babyface, or that they come off like a child trying to pretend to be a grown-up, which they sort of are, but more in the way that being fifteen is that point in your life where you feel like you're completely done growing but a twenty-year-old would look at you and realize how young you still are.

Hero

14. Something someone could say to hurt them?

I can joke and say 'a lot' but to actually deeply hurt him is pretty hard. His personal anxieties tend to hit him a lot harder and with that much 'noise' already going on, hurtful behavior from others tends to fall into one of two categories- a sort of unspoken 'ha ha, I know, I'm a sham and everyone can tell, this is fine, I'll just internalize that', or, at worst, you successfully cross enough of a line that he feels justified viewing you as an enemy, where the anxiety disappears and his ... call it 'problem solving instinct' start to rank up.

He tends to be a lot more sensitive to remarks made about his friends or loved ones but those are harder to take personally. So the most hurtful things you could say to him would probably play on the doubts that he's not good for them, or fears he already has about his wife and her health. If you were going to torture this man, the absolute worst thing you could do would be insinuate someone around him isn't safe anymore since the last time he saw them.

As mentioned, though, he's kind of an emotional shrapnel bomb, so anyone looking to exploit that would definitely bite off more than they could chew.

15. Something they might say to hurt someone else?

"I don't need to waste time on you". Not even really said as much as made clear with body language. Hero... in his better moments at least, he tries to be there for everyone, tries to be an attentive king and a champion-of-the-people. He is an rpg protagonist and he did time fetching kittens out of trees and basically doing people's grocery shopping for them. (Specifically, he's the equivalent of an rpg protagonist who did level grinding, so you better bet he has enough sidequest hours in that he practically spent half the time saving the world like he was working for a temp agency)

By default, Hero tends to actually overwork himself- he tries to support everyone and be there for them and reconcile with them, and works his already very limited health into the ground, and then because he's exhausted and out of patience he starts cutting corners with brutal efficiency and the less he cares about you the more likely he is to like, bodily shove you out of his way the second something else comes up.

And then he feels super bad about it and tries to reconcile by being there 300% with everybody he can reach and runs himself into the ground even faster. It's a vicious cycle.

So it's a pretty pointed and intense rejection on his part if he's got plenty of energy or will consistently, no matter where he is in that spiral, not give someone the time of day. It's also intimidating because it's a time people have to remember the guy's like six feet tall and used to destroy anachronistic tanks and mecha for a living.

23. What do they do for fun in their free time?

He actually super misses the sidequests, okay. You save the kingdom once and marry your sweetheart because that's the thing you both promised to do if you were both alive at the end of it and now you're, like, a king or something, and nobody will let you do menial chores. Blah blah you're too important blah blah think of your health. He rebelliously cleans rooms and nobody can stop him. Mad with power, and this mop he stole in the time someone left it unattended.

As debilitating social anxiety and an injured throat might suggest, he's really a lot more of an actions-than-words person and has been pretty much all his life, so it's soothing for him to feel like he's helping others or being there for them in a way that doesn't leave him second-guessing himself and every little thing he tries to communicate. He withers in a conversation, but loves to be the friend who comes over when you're depressed and helps clean your space because he already knows everywhere you like to put things, or cooks a meal. Doing random chores/favors for others is also a way to get out of his own head and just focus on something that seems completely clear or laid out to him.

He struggles a lot more with open-ended stuff. It's a lot more relaxing for him to do anything that has already set objectives and parameters, or someone else who's deciding how it all goes. Health permitting he'd love nothing better than to spend a day cleaning out an old room, hauling furniture, scrubbing floors, etc.

Failing all of that, he does like a good puzzle, because it's the same idea. Thing to do, all the parameters are laid out for you, there is a guarantee of a solution and the only thing you have to do is work to get there.

[yue-muffin]

I just started playing Okami again from the beginning and this game, this game, one of my favorite rpgs of all time. I loved it when I first played it and I love it now, years later. Even though I haven’t played it in ten years or more, the game was so memorable that it’s almost as if I hadn’t put it down for more than a year or two. There’s a huge nostalgia factor because all of the little details that make this game were so memorable that seeing it a second time, I can recall encountering it all those years ago.

There are a lot of little details in this game that make the world seem lived in and real. It’s not open world, but certain areas are pretty large and you have free rein to explore and do little side quests at your leisure. And yet, those spaces don’t feel like dead space where there are some plants and rocks and nothing else.

I also appreciate the Japanese culture aspect of the game more now, as opposed to my middle school days where I didn’t know much outside of anime. There are even some kanji I definitely couldn’t read then that I now know. This game is definitely a must-play if you’re at all interested in Japanese mythology and folklore. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again lol. It not only has a lot of characters and creatures from myth and legend, it also does an excellent job portraying core cultural concepts like kegare (filth, taint), as it’s your job as the sun goddess Amaterasu to restore life to the land and rid of it of evil. And you do that by fighting monsters, the usual, but also by helping ordinary people who’ve been affected by the disaster, and by feeding wild animals, making flowers bloom. I like that ‘saving the world’ isn’t just defeating the monsters, but making a positive impact in others’ lives.

You also play as a wolf who is a goddess in disguise but acts like an actual animal (more of a dog than wolf, but still adorable) and the combat system is super unique (I have the wii version, which is both a cool and infuriating experience, as you get to “draw” on the screen using the remote which in-game is the wolf using her tail to draw onto the world like a canvas). Combat is also fun because there are little side objectives as well (combos, using finishing moves to get special items)

I like that you obtain power ups in this game by doing good deeds, helping others. It’s a pretty interesting system where you start off weakened because no one believes in the gods anymore, but as you perform “miracles” and help the land revitalize and give people hope for a better, peaceful life, their “praise” or gratefulness becomes your strength that lets you fight and survive against stronger enemies.

The game also allows for a little mischief. You can pick up animals, headbutt people, bark at people and animals and scare them momentarily. Do crazy things like make a tree pop out of the ground next to them and the npcs are notably confused. The npcs are a quirky, colorful bunch, and most of them are pretty memorable.

The soundtrack is absolutely delightful. I’ve used it as study music more than once over the years.

Also, one minor thing I really like about the narrative is that it’s framed as a story written on a scroll that someone recorded of the legends and your adventures. I love framed narratives like that. 

Anyways, play Okami. It’s also available on the Switch nowadays, but it was originally for PS2 and then the Wii version came out.

pro tip for wii version: absolutely DO NOT learn the fleetfoot technique. the nunchuck is way too sensitive to movement and you will flip all over the world and in battles during the most inconvenient times.

[verbjectives]

man...i spent p much all day playing ac: valhalla and goddamn this game is really making me miss the lectures from my medieval history classes

[sevendeadlymorons]

Hey I’m that one anon from a while back that sent those long ass paragraphs about Lilith and Simeon, remember me? Anyway I know I’m very late to the party, but some of the boys are either getting to much hate or too much love over here (in my opinion) so I made a pros and cons list for all of them, I’m sorry- (I’m warning you now this will be long but I’ll put it in bullet points so it’s a bit easier to read, just read it whenever your mentally ready lol)

Lucifer (I hate this man.)

Pros

He’d help a lot with getting your life together wether that be finding a job, choosing the right college or other shit like that

He’d make sure your working hard and getting everything done, which is both a blessing and a curse tbh

He would be the one to take the most care of you whenever your ill psychically

Cons

He would probably overwork you

Doesnt have much time to spend on you and doesn’t make a effort to find more time unless your getting really sad about it

Probably wouldn’t be the best of help through issues with mental illness (he just doesn’t strike me as that type, feel free to disagree)

His pride would cause some serious problems in relationships :/

Mammon (I love this man.)

Pros

He’s the “if your sad, I’m sad” kind of guy so he does whatever he can to put a smile on your face

Makes his affection towards you known once he’s comfortable enough, mostly through things like hugs and head pats tho

He shows off anything you make, and I mean anything (you gave him a drawing? After showing it to everyone he puts it on the fridge. You wrote something? He reads it to everyone then puts it in his notebook to reread later, I think you get where I’m going with this)

Cons

There would probably be some communication issues due to his tsundere nature and habit of ignoring you when he’s mad

He’d get super mad at you when your trying to help him financially, maybe it’s a ego thing or maybe he’s just tired of hearing it

While his possessiveness is cute at times he’d definitely get way to overbearing if you don’t force him to cool it

Levi (I kin this man.)

Pros

He’d try to set up designated hangout times (like Friday is movie night, Tuesday is for RPGs etc)

Wanna spend time with him but aren’t very into what he’s into? While it will be harder to bond with him because of this I think if you REALLY wanted to hang with him he’d at least try to meet you in the middle (like if you like sports he’ll offer to play wii sports lol)

Insecurities getting you down again? Well never fear, levi is here! He’d find characters with flaws similar to those you see in yourself to prove that they don’t really matter (and since he struggles with insecurity himself he’d know how you feel and be one of the best at helping you through them)

Cons

Even if he makes an effort to meet you in the middle if you have different interests he’d refuse to get into “normie” stuff

He’ll guilt trip you constantly, even if it’s not on purpose (“Oh your hanging out with Asmo today? I get it, of course you’d wanna hang out with somebody cool and perfect like Asmo and not a gross yucky otaku like me”)

You have to initiate almost everything Hugs? You hug first. Handholding? You reach out to him. Confessions? You seriously thought he’d be the one to confess first??

Satan

Pros

Similar to Lucifer he’d be good at helping you get your life together and putting you on the right track

Unlike Lucifer, he’d actively make time for date nights and/or hangouts multiple times a week wether your going out for dinner or reading in front of the fireplace

While he himself might not be best at helping with comfort in the moment, he’d be great to turn to if you needed a long time treatment (you need a therapist? He’s got the best three in your area that you can afford and he found some helpful things you can do in this book)

Cons

As stated previously, he’s not the best with comfort, which can be an issue if you need a friend/partner who can be your biggest source of comfort (I’m not saying he’ll do nothing, it’ll just be kinda awkward ig)

If you vent to him about something he’ll always offer advice and while that can be good, sometimes all you want is someone to listen to you and getting advice can be annoying in the moment

I feel like hanging out with him you’d rarely ever get to talk about pointless things, everything would be serious you know? And while serious and deep conversations are good for bonding, some people (myself included) need to be able to talk about dumb things without having it turn philosophical

Asmo

Pros

He’s the best at boosting your confidence, there’s no competition

He’s more into spontaneous outings (he suddenly got the urge to go shopping, your coming with right?)

You can talk about just about anything with him, no judgment and he’ll never speak a word of it to anyone else if you don’t want him to (although he may brag to his brothers that you told him your secrets)

High emotional IQ

Cons

He has set things of things he’s interested in and his idea of trying the things your into is doing whatever it is for about 5 seconds then deciding it’s not for him

He cares a lot about looks, I don’t mean he’ll hate you or insult you cause he thinks your ugly, I mean he’ll constantly try to do your makeup, hair, and nails and he’ll always say things like “Your hair is a bit messy today, did you brush it? Yes? Well not good enough, let me do it” and “your wearing that out? There’s nothing wrong with it, I just think you’d look a lot cuter in this” and if your anything like me, that’ll get on your nerves a lot

While he’s great with emotional issues, if it’s a problem with anything like school or your job he’ll have no solution to offer, all you’ll get is a “You can do it!” and a good luck kiss

Narcissistic, need I say more?

Beel

Pros

He’s the best person to vent to, no judgment and tons of hugs and comfort food

He’s a mom friend, no explanation needed

Very supportive and always concerned for your health

Your in trouble? Call beel, he’ll help you and make sure your home safe before questioning you and will only lecture you out of love (unlike a certain older brother that will lecture you because “Your tarnishing Diavlo’s reputation by acting out like this. Your an exchange student, you must abide by the rules and behave yourself.”)

Cons

Food is his answer to everything (Sad?Food. Injured? Food. School’s stressful? Food plus a little help studying) and while food can be good for comfort, sometimes you need him to provide more than a snack

He’s the opposite of Satan in the sense that he’ll almost never offer advice when you rant to him, he just assumes getting it all out is help enough and won’t offer much more then a hug and food

Not getting along with one of his brothers? “They can be a handful, but they’re great people once you learn to handle the chaos” yeah he rarely thinks what his brothers did is a big deal so he gives you advice on how to apologize and get past it and he’ll give you food

Belphie (he really does attract the mentally ill people huh-)

Cons

I feel like he’d be good for certain people with social anxiety and people who have issues with always being scared about being a bad person (“you think your a bad person and are becoming more and more toxic by the day? Well your a better person than Lucifer that’s for sure, wether or not your toxic were going to cuddle now get in bed” or “your worried everyone is constantly staring and judging you for everything you do? Well I don’t really care about what your wearing or the way you walk so I doubt they do either, can we go home now?” ((Side note, I experience both of these issues and his uncaring personality would calm me, which is why I think this one of his pros))

He just wouldn’t care about whatever type of life style you lead and as someone who’s constantly scared of being judged for their lifestyle this would be amazing (“you sleep all the time? Same let’s nap together” “You don’t eat very healthy? Whatever, it’s fine, can we sleep now?” ((although it is a double edged sword))

He gets a burst of energy and just does the most random things (you see that tree? He’s already climbed half way up it. That petting zoo? He’s already feeding the lambs. That store? He’s already spent 30 grim)

Cons

Just like his twin he thinks every problem has one solution, but instead of food he thinks the solution is sleep (your sick? Sleep is the best medicine. A lot of homework? If you sleep you don’t have to think about it.)

At some point he just doesn’t care enough, if you come to him with a serious issue he’ll half listen to you rant then pull you down to sleep

He teases you a lot, which is fine teasing is fun, but he takes it too far. Maybe he touched on something your insecure about or he was too merciless, whatever it was, he won’t apologize for it, he just thinks your being sensitive. If he brought up some bad memories he’ll consider it, but his way of apologizing is cuddling

He doesn’t wanna do something? You guys aren’t gonna do it. You don’t wanna do something? Too bad, he wants to so your gonna.

I’m sorry this is so long- I tried to shorten it I swear- but anyway if you disagree I’m with anything, I wanna hear what you think

And even tho Beel doesn’t get much screen time and more serious moments, I think his character is way more then hunger

Random but I wanna add that other then Levi I kin Tamaki from mha and Ranpo from bsd

Dude do you just like torturing poor college students? This is so much to read, I’m about to cry 😭

I agree with the Lucifer part actually! Tho I do kinda thing he’s be good emotion support in some ways, for me, anyway. I feel like he may lack empathy that is needed in a stable relationship. Yes, he may be able to tell you with shit and honestly, he’d book my doctors appointments when I’m too anxious too so yknow. But yeah

Also agree with mammon. He’s a jackass when he wants to be, and I know he may not mean it, but his words are still hurtful in a lot of ways and he just can’t convey those emotions that’re needed in a loving relationship. But he’s so sweet and will show you off so it’s all good~

As much as I love Levi, I agree. He manipulates and guilt trips you throughout the entire game. It can’t be healthy in relationships but that don’t stop me from loving that sweet otaku boy 😔🖤

I agree with Satan too. I don’t have much to say but he’s avatar of wrath for a reason, for a start, and he honestly looks like he’d prefer talking about books than that funny thing that happened in class that made you laugh earlier

Agreed with Asmo too. Sometimes he may just get overbearing and the narcissism and the constant need to make you look better and improve you may get irritating

I agree with Beel. I don’t think he can comprehend that food isn’t an answer to everything and as a person who doesn’t cope with food and relatively hates it, he won’t be any help to me emotionally. He’s so sweet but he just won’t give you that proper support

I love Belphie so so much but I absolutely agree. He’s one of the most unbothered brothers who won’t care what you look like, yes, but that also means compliments may come rarely and like his twin, “sleep is the answer to everything” I can admit I like to sleep but I have a manic side that comes with insomnia and if he’s dragging me down and not letting me move and I just cannot sleep, I’m gonna get irritated and pissed off.

This got a bit long on my end too. I just really liked how you worded this and it was fun to see pros and cons of the ‘perfect’ brothers

I think Beel is more than food too, but I just don’t particularly like him either way cuz I’m not really a foodie so I can’t relate with him lmao

[steve0discusses]

Yugioh Season Zero: The Yo-yo Crimes of Jounouchi Pt 2

OK, last we left off, we were in a different Youtube video. This one I grabbed off of 2 different videos (you’ll see their watermark in the corner change) and it makes me appreciate the quality that our other episodes have been, honestly. A little bit of compression going on in these, just to give you even more of that nostalgic feel of watching a bootleg anime from the 90′s your brother got from his weird high school friend’s Napster account.

Because this is done with subtitles on, it takes more caps to cover it. Part of why I rewrite the dialogue in these recaps is to help abridge stuff, and so consider yourself warned...there’s a lot of caps in this one. For most of you, that’s probably not much of a problem. But I’m just letting you know because...I sure wasn’t expecting it to be over 40 caps for half an episode, and I’ll probably just type less to make up for that. (Tumblr keeps Erasing All My Words anyway, so this is for the best, but that’s a tech issue I already went into in another post.)

(read more under the cut)

So, to start off, Yugioh and co. walk up to a bar like a really weird version of a bar joke and are like “do you know where we can find the yo-yo gang?” And, much like a video game npc, the bartender was like “I know EXACTLY what you’re talking about, and I heard every part of their intimate conversation. Let me give you all the details, children.”

Hey, PS, there’s an entire Wikipedia entry about the bar joke. And that is wild. Apparently the first bar joke was from Ancient Sumeria, and Wikipedia was like “Here is the Sumerian joke, but we Do Not Get it. Please don’t try to get it.”

The joke being: "A dog walked into a tavern and said, 'I can't see a thing. I'll open this one'."

Damn. I can’t believe the Sumerians were onto meme humor before we ever invented memes. They were in the Galaxy brain over there in the land before time, holy crap. Depositing their memes knowing that 7,000 years later mankind would look at the world’s first joke and be like “I don’t get it!” while all the millennials and zoomers with our MB of nonsense memes on our phones are like “No. I get it.” Good on you Sumerians, that is freakin the best joke ever made. 7000 years to get to the punch line of confusing the hell out of all us. Bless.

They promptly tell Miho that everything was resolved and that she should go to bed and she was like “Cool!” and exited stage left. Bye, I guess. Anzu also went home, but she didn’t have to be tricked into doing it, she just went the hell to bed.

(PS, I just realized that if I want to write less...I should probably not look up Wikipedia articles about the world’s first ever bar joke. But y’all, habits die so freakin hard, and I just feel like it’s very pertinent to this Yugioh recap, although I know it’s really not.)

Yuugi and Honda decide to visit the warehouse and harass Jounouchi. In the context of the show, they’re going out of their way to pull their best friend out of society’s systemic downward pull of a life of crime and most likely turning into exactly like his Father. But, the way that it’s storyboarded makes it look a lot like these kids just show up out of the corner and this gang was like “Damn it, again? OMG small children, please leave us alone!”

Honda hands over the symbolism sash, to which Jounouchi symbolically says “Nyeh.”

And Honda didn’t take it very well.

After tending to his kidneys for a little while, Honda decided to go back at it again at the Krispy Cream and do some sort of insane parkour over this completely ordinary fence.

Ah, the very first instance of real duel law where you duel over a relationship. In later seasons duel law is invoked for things like Mai’s marriage and the right to date Tea (and then just kind of forgetting you ever won the right to date Tea twice). But to think the very first time was Honda dueling for the right of Jounouchi to be part of nerd gang because Jounouchi had fallen to the dark side yo-yo gang across the street run by some 40 year old man with blue hair.

How many times is Honda gonna fight with a broom? Like are they just magnetized to his location? where are they even coming from?

Freakin janitor powers over here, put him in a Final Fantasy style RPG. I want to see what his limit break would be.

Not like it matters, because Hirotani very quickly explains why these yo-yo’s are at all a threat.

Which honestly shouldn’t be...so lethal? Seems like the weight is all you need, not really the spikes. But it’s at least stronger than Honda’s janitor stuff.

Unfortunate for Honda that he just destroyed an antique.

So with lightning reflexes, Yuugi does what he does most:

The death yo-yo ricochets back and does this little itty bitty scrape to this guy’s face and he’s real bothered by it. Although it’s like...well dude, you’re a 50 year old high schooler, I don’t think people will notice the scrape compared to everything else falling apart in your life.

And so then the Yugioh Season Zero team was like “oh shoot is it time to torture Yuugi???” and they got hella excited.

Like I thought it was just Yuugi’s class that were a bunch of disturbing criminal disasters, but I guess it’s the whole city. Like...was Yuugi’s class the good school?

I mean, it can’t be, there’s no way...

but like...is there a good school in this universe? How does anyone survive till graduation? If you so much as disgrace a yo-yo, you will get the torture treatment that I sure did expect in Yakuza games, but not so much in Yugioh, tbh.

Just a reminder: This is the third time we’ve beat up Yuugi this episode. Within the first meeting of Yuugi and Hirotani, he beat the tar out of Yuugi within eye shot of Jounouchi. So like...Jounouchi was reallllllllllllllllly lax on that deal, right? Like...he took his toot sweet time to realize “yeah this just ain’t ever gonna happen.”

And then the yo-yo wars begin.

Just like Solid Snake crawling through the radiation chamber.

Hirotani throws his Fyper-yoyo, Jounouchi intercepts with his Eireboy, and Hirotani’s completely terrible yo-yo just flies off the string again because Hirotani should have just sticked to using his fists. No wonder they wanted to recruit Jounouchi so badly, their yo-yo game is so off.

We never get a door to darkness in this episode, dipping our enemies into mind horrors. Instead, we get home-alone style traps. But, this makes sense. Not only do the show makers have to make Yuugi avoid solving problems with magic in front of Jounouchi, they also have to make it Jounouchi’s choice to leave Hirotani behind. If Yuugi did it for him in like...some sort of duel law situation...then that sort of leaves out Jounouchi’s choice in the equation.

Not like this ever really comes up in later seasons, since who even follows through with duel law and marries Mai? But like, it does feel like Season Zero calls out the later Seasons a bit in this regard. Honda got beat up because he tried to win Jounouchi back by force (or game, I guess.) That was just another form of coercion on the heels of Hirotani’s. What Jounouchi actually needed was to make his own decision to leave.

...most other anime I’d be like “I’m sure that’s just a translation error” but not this one.

So Yuugi runs to the roof where Jounouchi will never see this.

My audible sigh reading this line about fight club roof.

These stupid gang members went into Yuugi’s native territory, not just a fight club roof, but on a warehouse? They were dead before they arrived.

This was like maybe 3 frames of animation in just rapid succession, it was pretty silly and good.

Reminder that like 4 minutes ago, Yuugi was about to get like executed on a meat hook.

Speaking of getting executed on a meathook:

Hope you like the idea of glass in your eyes, because this anime’s got it.

They chase Yuugi around, in a sequence that was done mostly to conserve frames, so you rarely saw the ground until this shot:

Lots of falling down this episode, but unlike Tea, who fell from a warehouse ceiling once and just kind of rubbed her ass after and was like “ah damn it.” these guys won’t come out of it virtually unscathed.

Also, Honda is here now:

Jumping off of his symbolic sash trapeze, he decides to do in Hirotani for good.

Hey so like...walk the dog is a fairly gentle walk that a yo-yo does slowly on the ground right?

Just pointing out how sensitive Hirotani’s fingies are.

And he...didn’t appear to be dead, so I don’t have to add to the bodycount...but it’s gonna be a real long road for recovery.

And now, with the gang back together Jounouchi is back at school knee deep in make up assignments he’ll probably completely ignore since we know that in a years time, these fools are going to be trapped on Pegasus’ island, and at that point school will be just that place you talk about when you try to remember why you’re friends with Bakura.

---hey aren’t those chairs attached to the desks?

Because...holy crap, Anzu.

Honestly this is what you see before you die, but I guess Jounouchi died off screen after the episode ended, so I don’t have to add him to the deathcount (again). RIP.

Alright! That took like...8 tries to get Tumblr to save this one, but it managed! (well...I guess “managed” isn’t the word you’d use for a typing program that takes 8 tries to save)

Next time, we’ll be back to S5, for an arc I’ve heard is kind of boring. We’ll see. If it truly is, I can condense episodes into fewer posts. Or maybe it’s a secret gem? I guess we shall see.

And if you just got here this is a link to read all the Season Zero recaps from the start:

https://steve0discusses.tumblr.com/tagged/yuugi-muto/chrono

(there’s also a link to read all the Yugioh posts we wrote from the start in chrono order but straight up, this file won’t freakin save, and I just can’t even will myself to look up that link again. It’s on the home page of this blog on the right.)

[askmerriauthor]

Jedi: Fallen Order thoughts 2/?

Discussion on "Star Wars - Jedi: Fallen Order". First post here, spoilers and lengthy rambling after the jump.

Honestly, I love this box art so much purely for the facts that 1) I made sure to remove that poncho the instant I could because the game's cloth dynamic rendering had it flailing about wildly as if it were trying to attack the universe through sheer defiance of physics in every cutscene. And 2) see that alien dude on the left with a pistol? In-game, he's an utter coward who never once participates in anything remotely resembling violence and sure as hell never wields a gun. It just reminds me of how Kirby is always given angry eyebrows in the US because marketing people are fucking stupid and think players won't be drawn to the game with an abjectly cute mascot.

So! The story.

As mentioned in my previous post, "Fallen Order" basically wants to tell a Found Family tale about a ragtag group of remnants who leave behind their previous lives and forge a new future together. We have our main character Cal Kestis; a former Padawan who survived Order 66 and has been in hiding for a handful of years. Cere Junda; a former Jedi who's cut herself off from The Force, Greez Dritus; a gambling addict pilot with a troubled past he's trying to leave behind, and BD-1; an annoyingly named but utterly lovable Droid who is far and away the best character in the entire damn game. There's also Nightsister Merrin; the presumably last survivor of the Nightsisters and potentially Cal's love interest, but she basically only shows up in the last 10 minutes of the game and doesn't get a lot of screentime despite being presented as a major part of the cast.

The game takes place a handful of years after the purge of the Jedi in Order 66, where both Cal and Cere's core character thrust is tied into. Cal was a child who survived only due to his master sacrificing his life to save him and has been wracked with guilt and PTSD ever since. Cere, on the other hand, unintentionally abandoned her own Padawan and other younglings, directly leading to their death, corruption by the Dark Side, and almost falling to the Dark Side herself. The bulk of the narrative throughout the game is dealing with the relationship these two have with one another, coming to terms with their own trauma, and moving forward from there. Meanwhile, the overall plot itself focuses around finding a Holocron that has a map and list of Force-sensitive children throughout the galaxy, which the gang can use to rebuild the Jedi Order while also keeping it - and thus the children - out of The Empire's hands. The whole series of events culminates in a big showdown between Cere's former Padawan whom she abandoned and became corrupted into an Inquisitor, Cal contending with his own guilt, and the decision on whether or not the gang has the right to interfere with the Force-sensitive children's lives and potentially put them in danger if another purge were to occur.

On paper, it's a solid enough story. The actual execution leaves something to be desired.

Something I absolutely hate in games (which has become frustratingly abundant in recent years) is the illusion of choice. If a player is presented with choosing A, B, or C, that decision should matter. Which path is taken should have impact, consequence, and change the course of the story. If all three routes converge back together at the same outcome regardless of what you picked, then your choice never mattered at all. "Fallen Order' suffers from this. There are fairly sporadic points in the game where you're given the option to choose how Cal will reply to a given conversation, or whether or not to take a certain action, but it doesn't matter at all. The conversation's outcome nor the overall story isn't affected by your choice (or even if you bother to have the conversation at all), and the any time you try to do something other than what the game wants you to do, it'll just reset itself endlessly until you cooperate. You have no choice in the matter, but the game makes it appear as if you do to emulate your involvement.

I absolutely hate this in games. If a game presents you with choices, then your choices should have consequences. Your input should matter. There is absolutely nothing wrong with a linear, plot-driven game where the player has no direct input on the narrative. If anything, that gives the story even greater opportunities to shine because it allows the writers and directors to be in full control of the presentation, characterization, and story.

At the risk of sounding like a cranky old man, this is very much a "back in my day!" sort of situation where older games wouldn't shy away from simply locking a player out of content if they chose a certain path. If you pick A, you don't get to see what happens down B or C. If you want to join the Jets, you don't get to join the Sharks. If you want to see what lies down those other routes, then replay the game and make different decisions. Sometimes it was a specific design choice, other times it was a way to handle hardware/programming restrictions. But there's a big notion these days in particular where there's a desire to make sure the player sees all the game's content up front. I anecdotally chalk it up to an increase in non-gamers entering into video game development at management level and making design decisions they're not qualified for, but that's just my own take. Like, I understand the thought process behind it. "We have all this content, so we want to make it a selling point and ensure the player gets to see all of it! If they play our game and miss a bunch of stuff, they might bitch at us and cause reviews". I get it, I do. But it's also bullshit because it directly harms the final product. If a game is good, players will replay it ad nauseum for ages beyond release. So they're going to see all the content one way or another. When the "we have to let the player access all content up front" mind set is in effect, it means the player's choices ultimately don't matter and the resulting abundance of content is quantity rather than quality.

In the case of "Fallen Order", your choices don't matter one bit and it's not even out of a case of accessing content. For some reason the developers put in this vestigial, pointless façade of a dialogue tree and choice system when the game frankly would've been far stronger if it had just been left out entirely. Developers have to invest one way or another. Either make it a fully narrative-driven game and tell a solid story, or make it a player-driven game and put in the effort to make the player's choices matter. Especially in a Star Wars game, as RPGs in this franchise have historically have Light/Dark Side choices, character deaths, and alternate endings based on your decisions. A big part of "Fallen Order"'s story is characters contending with the risk of falling to the Dark Side because of their trauma, but the game itself never actually gives the player any chance to explore that at all. It's a huge missed opportunity either way.

I think that's where a lot of the story's trouble comes from in the end. It's a lot of build up on a good idea that fizzles out and goes nowhere. Cal spends the entire game getting to a point where he's ready to move on, and then the game ends. Cere comes to terms with her past mistakes and tries to redeem her fallen Padawan, only for said fallen Padawan to be killed abruptly and completely cut off that entire story thread. Greez's past coming back to haunt him is shoe-horned in randomly and never goes anywhere. Merrin doesn't have enough time on screen to matter. There are three major villains throughout the game who are just cast aside casually and with no lingering impact for ever having been there. The biggest final boss, who has been the core antagonist and a major point of emotional conflict for the entire game, is discarded with no resolution because this is a Star Wars game and we just can't have one that doesn't feature Darth Vader sweeping in to steal the spotlight.

It's just... ugh. There's potential here. There's obvious, glowing moments of potential where things could've been developed into something really impressive if they were just given the opportunity. It feels like a huge waste and the end result is just a "meh" game that doesn't go anywhere, doesn't contribute to the setting, and could very easily be dismissed entirely from the franchise with absolutely no impact.

[faroreswinds]

覇道 vs 王道 - By Someone With Limited Knowledge and a Short Attention Span

In light of the resurgence of the terminology used in the Nintendo Dream interview regarding 3 Houses, I wanted to take a little bit of a deeper look into "Hadou" (覇道) and "Oudou" (王道).

Again.

The Kanji Breakdown

Before we get into the actual words themselves, I wanted to break out the kanji that form them. Let's start with oudou. Oudou consists of two kanji, "ou" (王) and "dou" (道). This are very basic kanji. "Ou" means "king" and "dou" means path or road. With kanji, the makeup of the kanji can often (but not always) allude to the meaning of the word it represents, in this case something akin to "King's Path".

Similarly, we have 覇道 (Hadou). We have already discussed "dou" but "ha" (覇) means supremacy (over a nation), hegemony, domination, leadership. The combination of these two kanji alludes to a meaning of "domination road" or "hegemony path".

Great, but what do the words actually mean?

That's a bit tricky, because there is a lot of history, philosophy, and cultural subtleties to understand.

At their core, "Oudou" means righteous path, righteous government, just path, kingship, rule of right; "Hadou" means military rule.

Interestingly, oudou can also refer to "classic" in regards to games like rpgs, where the prince saves the princess, that sort of thing. It can also mean "short cut" or the "easy way" but we aren't really here for those particular definitions today.

Origin of Oudou and Hadou

Finding anything in English regarding these terms has proved to be a... difficult task. From what I can understand, though, is that these words find their origin from Confucius and his philosophy.

Confucius was a Chinese philosopher born in 551 BCE, and by all accounts seems to have been an ambitious man. Ambitious to correct the world. It would take a lot to dissect Confucius’ life story, so I only want to focus on the important parts that are related to the origins of Hadou and Oudou. 

Simply put, Confucius is considered the founder of Confucianism, a philosophical relating to a system of thought and behavior. It is meant to dictate a way of life, a way of governing, tradition, etc. It rests on the fundamental belief that human beings are good and teachable, and focuses on the cultivation of virtue in a morally organized world. 

Confucius had been a poor man and wished to find a way to restore a kind of socio-political order that had prevailed sometime in the beginning of the Zhou dynasty. His work over his lifetime would set in motion the teaching of Confucianism. 

There is a very strong focus on humanness and morality in this school of thought. Rulers must cultivate themselves in this morality, lead by moral example rather than rule of law and threat of punishment. One who cultivates themselves to a virtue that is worthy of a prince is indeed a prince, but a prince who does not cultivate himself is not worthy of being a prince. This morality include the famous “golden rule” - do not treat others as you would not want to be treated yourself. 

Confucius was very focused on “virtue” in leaders and people, but the evolution of Confucianism did not end with his death. Mencius, a Confucian philosopher born in 372 BCE, often described as the ‘second sage’ (second to Confucius himself), would expand on many of these ideologies Confucius had developed.

Mencius was more aggressive in his beliefs. He believed that a ruler who forsakes ethical behavior and engages in extreme misrule can and should be removed, even executed. Mencius believed that a ruler’s success was directly tied to the leader’s ability to win the hearts and minds of the people. The ruler needed the people, and the people were the heart of the power that the ruler had. The people gave legitimacy to the ruler. AKA, the common people were the focus. 

Mencius would go on to disguise the difference between 徳化, inspired by virtue, and 武力, armed force, and made a distinction between the ‘royal road’ and ‘supremacy’. 

Unfortunately, there isn’t much I can find in English that really goes into depth with Hadou and Oudou from here. 

Confucianism in Japan

As with many things from ancient China, Confucianism found its way into Japan and was incorporated into the culture and history of the country, and this includes the mentality surrounding the political climate.

With the very conditional perspective that Confucianism affirmed in relation to governing, it would be no surprise to anyone that the teachings circulated the ruling elite first and foremost. A wider teaching would have posed more challenges to the ones in power, after all. 

There was also the famous “Mandate of Heaven”, which I won’t go into too much depth here. But, I will put the relate bit here, source linked here: 

According to numerous passages in the History, if a ruler repeatedly abandoned his concern for the people, heaven would eventually give the mandate to rule to a new line, one that distinguished itself on the basis of concern for the people. In this process, the role of the people was instrumental. One passage in the History even states that heaven and the people are nearly the same: “heaven sees with the eyes of the people, and hears with the ears of the people.”

Ultimately, as with many philosophies, the ways of governing did not fully embrace these teachings, as in so much as they were adapted. If you are interested in more, go ahead and read the link, but it’s really not too important for this post. However, what is important is that eventually, the teaching did make it to Japan, and were adapted to some degree.

Modern Use in Japan

As language does, words change and adapt. 

Oudou and Hadou retain a lot of of their original meanings, but they do have modern uses that go beyond their meanings of forms of ruling. 

Here is the link I originally had posted long ago regarding these usages. WARNING: Japanese only. 

We have already discussed some meanings of Oudou beyond the ‘right way to rule’, including ‘classic’ or ‘short cut’ or ‘the right way to do something’, and of the two has required the most new usages; however, the connotations of these words have not changed. 

Hadou and Outou are antonyms of each other. Hadou is very much a negatively connotated word, used most frequently to express someone’s abuse of power. 

According to this article, politics really possess both Outou and Hadou. To quote the article with a bit of translation: 

Both politics have a royal side and a supremacy side. Especially in diplomacy called power games, there is a reality that we have to rely on supremacy. However, if all politics becomes a "dominance", it will become a society of weak meat and strong food, devouring this finite earth, destroying the environment and driving it to the brink of destruction.

In other words, Outou is an idealist view of how governing should work. However, realistically you need both Outou and Hadou, but too much Hadou will lead to destruction. A balance is needed. 

In Relation to Three Houses

When talking about this interview, we mean this one here. Unfortunately, I’m having a hard time finding the actual Japanese version, but according to the translated version, this is said: 

Kusakihara: Edelgard’s route’s theme is literally “military rule.” It’s the route where you have your own cause and convictions, and even if people you know stand in your way, you mow ‘em down. In contrast, Dimitri’s route began with the idea to make it “righteous,” the easy approach. It’s just, at the beginning, poor sensitive Dimitri ends up like that because of the circumstances… We sprinkled in juxtapositions like that.

Everyone: (laughs)

Kusakihara: Once he’s fallen, he goes through some twists and turns and awakens to the true king’s path. I wanted to write the righteous route as the conquest route’s opposite [TN: lit. “paradox”].

This is pretty self explanatory. Hadou and Outou are two different ways to rule. In according to Mencius, Outou is the virtuous, right way; Hadou is the forceful, wrong way. They are opposites, and that is exactly what Kusakihara used them for. The routes are opposites of each other. Dimitri is the ‘right way’, the way of the people, for the people, the vitreous way. Edelgard is the destructive way, the forceful way, not the way of the people. 

Actually, this does really line up even with their own beliefs. Edelgard believes in a strong leadership, that everyone should pull themselves up by their bootstraps, and only those who can keep up will find themselves in power. Dimitri, however, believes rulers serve the people, are only as strong as the people, and needs the people. 

Kusakihara really did put thought into it... even if the story didn’t fully deliver. But the intent was there.

ANYWAYS

Thanks for coming to my ted talk about Hadou and Oudou. I could have gone into deeper depth but... Well, I don’t want to make a super big essay. 

Thanks for reading. 

Yes, I took writing shortcuts. 

EDIT: 

YOOOOOO, thanks to @nilsh13​ for linking me to the original Japanese interview!

And yeah, they use 覇道 and 王道! Excellent! 

Thank you so much!

[warsofasoiaf]

Its been awhile since you've done any character analysis on Fallout New Vegas, but would you be willing to go into one for some of the minor characters? I'm actually curios of your opinion on Silus the captured centurion and his motivations.

I’m more than happy to, although this won’t be about Silus so much as it will be about the quest Silus Treatment. It’s one of my favorite quests in the game, since it does a great deal just with dialogue and some creative use with the engine to create an engaging quest that showcases some of the failures of the NCR and the Legion. Given that the central theme is about picking a faction, warts and all, having a quest that puts the two main faction of New Vegas on full display is an absolutely good idea. The game is too old for spoilers, but it’s a long analysis so I’ll put a cut in.

Silus Treatment starts off simple enough, going to Camp McCarran, in the old McCarran International Airport, now the regional command post of Colonel Hsu. McCarran is not in a great spot when you first get there; there are periodic Fiend attacks, tensions in Freeside are causing havoc for NCR civilians, the overstretched NCR supply lines are making it difficult even for their central point of operations, and there’s a strong possibility that they’ve been infiltrated. It’s all Colonel Hsu can do to keep order and function in the base. Perfect protagonist fodder, in other words, for a nice quest hub.

It’s a tough needle to thread in any RPG to build a quest hub where there’s stuff for a character to do. If everyone is incapable of solving even the most basic of problems, it gives a great deal of quests for the player to do but it makes the quest-givers look incompetent, especially if the quest-givers are supposed to be capable figures in their own right. Conversely, if the NPC’s are competent, then the quests would be solved and that would close out on content for the player. There’s plenty of ways to settle this, and the devs do an adequate job here. The war effort means prioritization, and Hsu is dealing with being torn from both angles. He can’t just hunt down the Fiends, because he needs to organize patrols and deal with NCR settlers in the area. He can’t just pacify Freeside because it will engender hostility with House and so he’s delaying the order from his butcher superiors like Moore to go in with fire and sword. He doesn’t have a solution to the Kings but he’s trying to find one, which as far as writing goes is a good solution. Hsu is a decent man but overworked. He’s hoping that he can develop a solution in time before Cassandra Moore decides to pull rank and go on the warpath against all who oppose the NCR, which leaves a convenient spot for the player.

It’s this person that gives us our introduction to the Silus Treatment questline. Hsu has a valuable prize: Silus, a captured Legion centurion! Typically centurions always commit suicide rather than be captured to deny any useful intelligence to the enemy, so to capture a centurion alive should be quite a find. But it’s not going so well. Lt Carrie Boyd, in charge of base security, can’t get Silus to talk. Again, perfect quest writing to get the PC involved in the plot. Normally such a sensitive operation would never be given to an unknown civilian contractor, even for a bureaucratic mess like the NCR. Frontier desperation, hitting a wall via official channels, and the fact that the character is the protagonist in a sprawling open world help it pass ludonarrative muster.

Boyd is a real piece of work, she’s openly sadistic hiding beneath of veneer of civility. She considers the humane treatment of POW’s as an impediment, and so looks for ways around it. Notably, while she wants information from Silus to deliver to her superiors, she’ll settle for just having Silus beaten so bloody that he can’t speak anymore, calling it “entertainment.” This is a person who simply should not be in charge of interrogating a prisoner, she is neither humane nor effective at her job, but here she is by virtue simply of being the chief MP on base.

Not that Silus, the prisoner and the other side of this duo, is better. He openly revels in the barbaric practices of the Legion’s slavery system, even trying to ensure that the slaves can never achieve some level of comfort by tightening the collars and making it difficult for them to feel at ease while eating or drinking. Even if Silus is mostly saying those things simply to get a rise out of Lieutenant Boyd, he knows what the Legion is up to and enjoys it. Silus is arrogant to an extreme degree, he is filled with confidence that he can outlast any interrogation by the feeble NCR without giving up any intelligence, that he could easily escape NCR confinement and that he is so valuable to the Legion that following Caesar’s order would be a waste. Good fodder then, for the protagonist to bring him down to size.

Silus Treatment as a quest is relatively simple. Boyd signs off on the Courier beating the ever-living tar out of Silus and then steps out for a smoke, letting the player do whatever he or she wants to the prisoner. Silus, sneering, dismisses the Courier as just another piece of NCR trash, and it’s up to the player with how to succeed. Violence is always an option, you can beat Silus, and eventually gets something useful, that the base itself will be the target of Legion destruction. Silus admits that his fantasy of escape was always a fantasy, he was dead to Caesar just as surely as he as if he had committed suicide before capture. 

Yet if the Courier has points in Speech or Intelligence, he can completely upend Boyd’s methods and actually deliver a worthwhile interrogation. The first technique, with speech, uses an interrogation technique known as Pride-and-ego-down, where the interrogator routinely belittles and demeans the prisoner, usually their technical competence or soldierly qualities, in an attempt to get the prisoner to “redeem” themselves by explaining a piece of useful intelligence that would explain the deficiency as opposed to it just being a terrible personal quality. The Courier mocks Silus as a coward (bravery being a key soldierly virtue) and he defends himself by stating his bravery and that suicide is a poor death for a soldier of his intelligence and caliber, then saying how good a soldier he is for a “self-appointed megalomaniacal dictator.” Silus then spills that Caesar held his unit for three days because of “headaches,” in actuality, it’s Caesar’s brain tumor. The technique works to an exceptionally high degree, not only does Silus divulge that McCarran has been infiltrated as in the violence ending, but also that the Legion is suffering a crisis of command due to Caesar’s illness. The Courier gets a lot of useful intelligence out of Silus and doesn’t compromise the humane treatment of prisoners in the process. If it actually caused some self-reflection in Boyd, that’d be a complete win, but I suppose we can’t have everything.

My favorite option is the intelligence option, because the Courier goes full-on PSYOPS, posing as a Legion assassin sent to kill Silus for his failure to commit suicide on Caesar’s order. Silus denies it at first, but as the Courier continues to sell the performance, Silus begins to express real terror at the thought that the Courier is actually a frumentarius sent to kill Silus before he divulges anything to the NCR. The Courier fully sells the deal using Latin phrases as the language of Caesar’s elites. The Courier can quote Cicero, “legum servi sumus” - we are all slaves to the law, in what is perhaps a perfect example of Caesar’s philosophy of totalitarian obedience. The full quote "Legum servi sumus ut liberi esse possimus” - we are slaves to the law so that we might be free, means little in Caesar’s totalitarian state where all are subject to his whims and contingency plans for Caesar’s incapacity aren’t even considered. Of course, the Roman Republic was hardly a free state, but Caesar really takes the cake with his dictatorship. If Caesar’s dictum holds true: “Corruptio optimi pessima” - the corruption of the greatest is the worst outcome. how much worse is it when Caesar himself is corrupted? But totalitarians rarely raise the possibility that they themselves are corrupt, because the good of the dictator is the good of the state. After all, L'etat c'est moi is the dictum of any dictator, not just a Sun King.

Of course, fitting New Vegas, you can side with Silus, and facilitate his escape. There, you feign beating him to unconsciousness and slip him a silenced pistol, then Silus makes good his escape, killing the guard sent to bring him back to his cell and sneaking out. Of all the endings, this one isn’t as satisfying. Some of it, of course, is that you never interact or see Silus again, so there’s never any reward to the quest except for the knowledge that the base is infiltrated, which in the pro-Legion side of the quest I Put a Spell on You allows you to complete Curtis’s sabotage operation (and a far better Legion quest, in my opinion, with the NCR quest side being even better given the multiple outcomes), but also it’s not referenced again with Caesar. What would Caesar’s reaction be to the Courier springing Silus? He is quite fond of reciting a litany of the Courier’s accomplishments in Act 2 at Fortification Hill.

If I could improve Silus Treatment, I think I would have made it so the violent path wouldn’t have produced enough valuable intel, and the player needs to do some more detective work to actually get to I Put a Spell on You, or even being mislead by Curtis and becoming the unwitting patsy of the Legion. But overall, I think it was an incredible quest and a testament to the writing in the game.

Thanks for the question, Anon.

SomethingLikeALawyer, Hand of the King

[duelofthefatesmp3]

i DO actually wanna know how youd make kotor 3 !!!!!

this ask has been sitting on my inbox for so long on PURPOSE! i wanted some time to re read the revan book + watch some swtor gameplays so i could give a concrete answer about why the book and swtor arent satisfactory and what i would do instead (im not like. a storytelling god so i this is just my PERSONAL idea). under the cut!

to begin with, what's wrong with revan the book and swtor, mai?

i am very fond of swtor i think it was such a nice idea to have an "open" world game set in star wars old republic time. but ultimately, it was not a good conclusion to revan and meetra's storyline! now, i don't really know what happened in the development of the third kotor game (if there ever was a plan for one) but it's clear they dropped the ball on that and decided to start a whole different project. i don't think we can blame disney for that one, because it was announced on 2008, launched in 2011, and disney had just bought star wars that year. so who knows.

the thing is that it's painfully evident that a bunch of the story that was gonna be in the third game, ended up in the book + misc parts of swtor. much of the book feels like a gameplay.

now, it was clear when the book was planned that they wanted to keep revan's story open so when the game came out, they could have a cool Revan storyline so he could make a cool villain appearence and draw in some of that kotor nostalgia. which ehhhhhh. uh. i don't really think did any favors for revan's character. he didn't have a satisfactory arc (I'm not saying "a happy ending" because good arcs aren't always happy) but at least some closure?

revan went through many big events in his life. we didnt need to keep his ass in stasis for his fun villain moments 300 years later. we already had what we wanted from him: jedi turned sith turned jedi again to defeat a terrible threat. that was it we could have let it there and it would have been cool! but then they decided to drag and drag his story just to leave him right where he was before. he just suffered a little more in the in-between.

you could say he finally redeemed himself of all of his crimes this way, but wasn't that the whole purpose of the first kotor game (and would have been the purpose of the 3rd?)

swtor does not centre revan in his own narrative. he's a side character for the player to experience. and look, i get it, we've had a different protag on each game, why not have another one in this one. well, because the protagonist has no personal relationship with revan. meetra was one of his closest friends, and fought with him. there is a connection that can be exploited. but the swtor protagonist is just some guy 300 years in the future who happens to stumble into revan and his life. not even his descendants get to fully interact with revan.

also, there is the fact that revan is not the centre of the game itself, only of a particular storyline. and it's weird, because swtor could have happened without revan's involvement.

ms. meetra surik, ms. bastila shan, women of the world I'm sorry

so it's no news that star wars is misogynistic as fuck right. cause it is.

so you decide to make your gender neutral protagonist a guy. then you decide to make your other gender neutral protagonist a woman. cool. now let's guess who gets underdeveloped, turned into a plot device without reason, and promptly fridged in the most unceremoniously fashion just to fullfil some manpain moments. which one do you think got that treatment.

i know the revan book is supposed to be about revan, but why make meetra go through a whole arc just to undermine her character and turn her into the faithful servant of the guy? she leaves everything behind for him, sacrifices herself for him, hell not even dead is she not serving the guy. and she was the second game’s protagonist! she beat up a bunch of powerful people and now she’s just meh, there? she had so many interesting ways to interact with revan (meeting kreia, revan’s first master, encountering another force consuming entity, etc.)

meetra went through a whole arc about dealing with the guilt of doing something horrible and having the consequences of it cut her from the force. we see her broken, then slowly come back to the world and reconnect herself with the force, then stop running and face the consequences of her role in the war. thats such a cool character with tons of potential! and nothing happened!

then we got bastila who is. a whole deal. so you make her go through a “promising jedi who defeated revan, to questioning reluctant companion, to fell into the dark side, to was redeemed thanks to her bond to revan, who helped her come back because he’d been through the same experience” arc, and then you decide to push her to the side to have a baby?? which is... its clear that the writer didnt know what to do with her (or with the other characters outside of canderous) so hey, lets get her to marry revan and have a baby.

my ideal kotor 3

to preface, im not a game developer, so some of my choices could be stunted by what a kotor rpg can do lol. of course, it would follow the same mechanics and have the same format as the first two, because consistency!

the fun way to start the game, would be from scourge’s perspective. we get to play as a sith! i’d even say you get to change scourge’s name and gender and looks (i know sith have different looks)

in scourge’s storyline, we get from his arrival to normound kaas, to his talks with nissyris, to his missions working for her. in some of these, we can make scourge lean into the dark or the light side! fun! plus we get some exposition with dialogue options. it all continues untill we get to nissirys story about the emperor. we get a fucked up cutscene of his childhood and then BOOM when its over, we see revan waking up from a nightmare and their pov starts.

ok, as for revan’s story, since we’d have to pick it up from where kotor ended, i’d have a little cutscene of revan back into the ebon hawk, with bastila, and them telling the crew to take them to courascant. then cut to a council meeting where revan and bastila get scolded in private, then rewarded by the republic. i would also like to see some revan mournink malak’s death mayhaps. since he was their childhood friend and all.

i would 100% scrape the marriage and two years passed part. as the book said, the council had no use for revan aside from the legend(tm), so why would they stay in courascant. revan was very alienated from the jedi at that point, despite being back in the “light side”

then like, to revan asking around for meetra and other jedi from the mandalorian wars, we can cash in that atris cameo, then revan starts to have these visions about the sith emperor, and maybe we could get a playable dream sequence about revan’s fight with mandalore the ultimate (I KNOW I WOULD LIKE TO SEE IT.) and we get the whole exposition to mandalore telling revan that the sith are behind it all. i believe we should get a bunch of these flashback/dream sequences of revan’s past doing shit. cut to revan burying the mask in a planet, then back to the present. we see a bunch of mission and juhani scenes trying to reach him, but he keeps pushing them away. revan and bastila meet canderous, travel to the ice planet, meet clan ordo (god i love clan ordo) you get the whole quest, you decide weather to spare veela or not, maybe you get a cheeky mandalorian companion (force sensitive mando oh?) and leave canderous behind.

we can visit like, a couple more planets searching for clues maybe, etc. then when reaching nathema, you are forced to go alone as revan, get to explore nathema a bit (raiding ancient location yay) nathema as a location can be so fun because you can have it weaken you hp bar and also you cant use the force (which, in game is pretty cool)

then we get to scourge and nyssiris arriving to the planet, they fight but since theres two of them and revan doesn’t have the force, they beat the shit out of them, and while running away, they get in a fight with bastila and the companions in the ebon hawk (ebon hawk shooting game my hated). bastila manages to get a glimpse of revan’s thoughts before they take them away. but the ebon is so ruined it takes bastila, t3 and the mandalorian a while to fix it, and they get stuck into the unknown regions for a while. the ebon hawk is left in an outer rim planet with t3 fixing it, bastila and the mandalorian run back to the jedi council, only to get caught in the middle of the jedi civil war. we can have bastila choosing to hide in courascant and trying to make sense of what she saw, reading texts about the sith empire, trying to plot a course to where they took revan (more atris! but shes pissed at her now)

cutscene to meetra’s pov, leaving malachor v behind, getting calls from everyone at the hawk (atton my beloved) but just as she’s leaving she gets a force message from revan, calling for her to find him and sending visions of normound kaas. then, through her force bond with visas, she tells her not to go because they’re gay and in love and whatnot.

then boom, she gets intercepted by bastila’s ship, with the mandalore and the other mandalorian (yes i do love having a bunch of mandos on board) and they go on their way to find revan.

now i want there to be an underlying message of “we can’t take our friends with us because we have to do this ALONE we’re powerful JEDI we don’t need our FRIENDS.” meetra gets asked if she wants to bring any friends and she’s like “no. we have to do this alone.” along the game you get constantly contacted by other game characters, you get the chance to talk to them or ignore them.

so, we get back to nathema, and meetra has a whole “holy shit this is just like darth nihilus but ten times worse. but i beat darth nihilus. i can do this!” then she finds peace in this place without the force, we get a whole speech about how the odds arent against them, they find a way to normound kaas, and get going.

in normound kaas i thought about them getting a whole mission about how to infiltrate the citadel, only to get helped by scourge. he joins the party, we get a little flashback of all the years he spent trying to make revan remember and they storm the citadel. we get to fight the dark council members, fun! then we get to free revan and the game switches povs. bastila hands the mask to revan and he has a cool “yes im revan im pretty cool” then a nice heartfelt yet rushed reunion with everyone.

then have a small CONVERSATION WITH MEETRA where she talks about the sith triumvirate she defeated and revan is impressed with her and is like “we are the last hope of the jedi, we’ve learned to walk between light and dark, we’ve done horrors but we can still make things right, our experience has made us more powerful etc.

then they fight the imperial guard, ALL OF THEM, meetra revan and scourge make it into the throne room, they all fight the emperor. meetra shows the emperor that she has seen the void, she has cut herself from the force, and she’s not afraid of him, revan supports her, talks about redemption and hope  and NOW.

NOW. how the alternate endings could go:

if you decide to take scourge through the light side, he manages to form a forcebond with meetra and revan since they’ve both teached something about the duality of the force, they get 100% stronger, but its still not enough. UNTIL. a bunch of ships (jedi and mandalorian, even non republic ships) arrive to dormound kaas, the gangs from each game storm the room and together they make the emperor and his guard a bunch of punching bags. they beat him! (unknow to them, this was a backup body because the emperor can do weird shit like that, and has only debilitated his plan, but he’ll come back dont worry). then they fly back to the republic, to tell the chancellor about the sith threat, and preparations for the war begin. meetra and revan get to live happily ever after for a while, then they die away from the jedi or the sith (waaah im thinking about them helping canderous rebuild the mandalorians, and them doing it since they killed so many mandos in the war)

BECAUSE IN THE END KOTOR IS ABOUT LEARNING TO PROCESS TRAUMA AND RECOGNIZE YOUR MISTAKES AND LIVE WITH THE GUILT WHILST TRYING TO FIX THE MISTAKES YOU MADE ALONG THE WAY. AND ALSO TO HEAL FROM TRAUMA YOU NEED A SUPPORT SYSTEM SO EVEN THOUGH IT MAKES SENSE TO YOU YOU SHOULDNT PUSH PEOPLE WHO LOVE YOU AWAY. AND THINGS AREN’T BLACK AND WHITE ITS COMPLICATED SO YOU DONT END UP BACK ON SQUARE ONE YOURE A CHANGED PERSON.

or

if you decide to dark side scourge further, he betrays revan and meetra, they all die, and the emperor unleashes his angry lightning or whatever on everyone + a bunch of visions of all the enemies of past mocking them, and their loved ones suffering. and since you’ve had that “im not calling my friends bullshit” no one comes, you die there, and the emperor is only stalled for a few years. swtor ensues. scourge becomes the emperor’s hand.

now you could of course bring revan and meetra up in swtor, but maybe only as force ghost guides, or have some of the other characters of the game have relevance (visas tries to heal the miraluka planet 2021)

WELL THAT WAS A LOT OF WORDS. HOPE THIS IS SATISFYING ENOUGH