#just........incredibly slow

[quirkle2]

it's nice to feel childlike wonder again

[bixels]

Splatoon 3: Side Order is good, but not great. I still highly recommend it, but if you care about the story, you're going to be disappointed. Quick review: spoilers ahead.

Side Order was the devs experimenting with Splatoon's gameplay loop. The campaign is a rogue-like, and it works amazingly well. Super fun, super challenging, building my deck and fighting through challenges with the stakes of resetting really scratched an itch in my brain. They did a great job with it.

Unfortunately, I feel like priority went to game design rather than story. Much of the mysterious artwork we saw in the first teaser trailer was completely unused; turns out, all of that was just concept art that never made it into the final product. Side Order failed to make me care about what was happening. I don't know why the protagonist had to be Agent 8; it could've been anyone else and the story would've worked the same.

Octo Expansion was the absolute peak of meshing story and gameplay. The campaign's hook is insanely strong; we immediately empathize with Agent 8 because we know from previous lore that octolings like her have been trapped underground for all their lives. We care about her fight to the surface because it's a fundamentally ideological fight for freedom. The plot stuff about Tartar and the Thangs is just nice set dressing; 8's fight for freedom is the real story.

There's none of that in Side Order. I don't particularly care about Marina's metaverse, even if it's tied to Octo Expansion's story. I don't know why Acht is there other than backstory stuff. It really feels like 8 is just told to do something and she does it because she's the protagonist; she has zero personal stakes or motivations in the conflict. This is a story blunder the devs did in Splatoon 3's default campaign––forgetting to give the protagonist a personal reason to fight––that I hoped would be fixed here, but alas.

What makes it worse is that the gameplay and story progression are completely out of sync. I beat the entire game on my third run in 4 hours. With each run, you get up to two keys to potentially unlock bits of story. That means you'll get about one piece of the story every two runs. There are twelve pieces of the story; I got the first and then beat the whole damn game. Now I have to go back and grind to see the remaining story when I've already beaten the final boss and resolved the conflict. I missed the entire story because I never had to reset because I blazed through the gameplay! It's just a real shame that I experienced everything without knowing... why it's happening. The final boss had me asking myself what the hell is going on because I don't know the backstory at all.

Again, I still really recommend. The devs did a great job, but Side Order remains in the shadow of Octo Expansion's incredible success. Like the default singleplayer campaign, there's just a lot of lost story potential here that, while not necessary, would have really elevated this DLC into something amazing.

[seafoamsol]

“Is that really what you want? To go back to the way things were?”

Here's my preview for the @tf-bigbang! I got to work with the wonderful @spiderscribe, who went absolutely above and beyond during this event. You can read the fic preview [ here ]!

I can't wait to share the finished works with everyone!

[melikes-reads]

What if we were strangers but you saved me from bullies in high school?

What if we became the best of friends?

What if I saved you from your violent father?

What if you ran away for 15 years?

What if you came back into my life, unexpectedly?

What if I told you you're the centre of the world?

What if you told me: "Of your world, maybe"

WHAT THEN? WHAT THEN?

[therealtsk]

thinking about The Girls again and how thematically interesting Ward would have been if Taylor had been living with Lisa. Only barely tangentially involved cape business. Would mostly just work as a barista or a bookshop owner or something and went home to help Lisa with Aiden and played card games with Aisha and the rest of her group on the weekends. Would give people advice and stuff but very deliberately didn't get involved. I understand that the absence of Taylor was almost it's own character in Ward, but all the same, I really do think that Taylor being shown to have almost succeeded in moving on from capery, being about a normal person as she could be- maybe not happy all the time but content with her life where she gets to live with her best friends, sell books and maybe help some people here and there on the side would have helped with how emotionally distressing ward got, and provide hope that even someone as horrendously unstable and damaged as Taylor managed to find some peace in a world where peace often feels like an abstract concept. heck, i think Taylor being there would have also provided Victoria with someone who would have been able to give her the perspective check she really needed at times. Because while i love that girl, my god did some of her plans and actions reach some real moments of horror. Would have been a really cool narrative moment for Taylor to hear Victoria's idea for the new superprison and be like "This is an idea I would have had when I was a cape. I didn't expect I'd hear it from you." Basically I'm saying that it would have been cool to see Ward be less about the massive, sprawling fights and crazy shard shenanigans and be more of a contemplative story about the rebuilding of society, how and if capes can retire, how can you be a good person and also enjoy being a superhero when your job is largely defined by violence, ect. Oh and also Victoria and Ashley should have had more homoerotic moments with each other so taylor and lisa could stare at them and go "ah, remember when we were like that? good times."

[andoutofharm]

the evolution in pete’s delivery of baby annihilation from the first show to the last show.

[novembermorgon]

could you tell us more about myrielle and aerion’s twin sons?

YUPPPPPPPP!!!

whew . ok .

left is maegor right is aenys . maegor is a few minutes older than aenys

neither of these guys are anything like their namesakes. maegor from birth is small and weak and sickly - he's pretty easy to get along with and agreeable by targaryen man standards, very polite and soft-spoken. to me he's almost like a rapunzel figure in that myrielle keeps him inside most days because she fears he'll get hurt or sick - she dotes on him and cares for him but never truly offers him much freedom to do as he wishes, the way she does aenys. he wants to go out and wants to experience new things and be more bold like his brother but every time there's sort of a block in that he doesn't have the courage to or myrielle convinces him that he can't. he, in a sense, is raised more like a princess than a prince and sort of falls into that role despite his status. i feel like he's drawn to more feminine ways of presenting himself and more ladylike activities; dancing, singing, sewing, reading ..

whereas aenys is the complete opposite - he's essentially just a copy paste of his dad LOL definitely aerion's golden boy . he's strong and bold and good at fighting, does all his dad asks of him, goes off with him to hunts and tourneys and charms people at court without really needing to try . of course being a copy paste of aerion targaryen also means he's kind of an asshole and if youre hanging around at court and you think about him being a prince with real power for too long your stomach probably hurts a little . aerion telling him tales of how he aimed for the horse during one of his jousts once to win and aenys going ohhh!!! yess!! so cool!! i also want to be in the business of fighting dishonorably. gets a little too heated in the training yard with the other lord's sons and knocks someone's teeth out and they have to put him in timeout once a week.

they're. hmm. i think there's an inherent sort of resentment there between them that begins as soon as they're born, just by virtue of being so different, and by being named Maegor and Aenys. you cannot escape your fate you cannot escape the cycle of your family etc. and i think that there's a lot of things here that kind of work against them .... aenys resenting maegor for just so happening to be older and therefore being heir despite he himself feeling as if he's better suited, maegor wanting the freedoms that aenys is given by virtue of being their father's favourite and being a second son with less responsibility. they can find a thousand reasons to hate each other, but at the same time they do love each other and know that they are, inherently, tied together by virtue of being twins. the twins we see in asoiaf are very insistent on the fact that they are tethered, they are one soul in two bodies, they will never truly be apart.

aenys hates maegor for being weak and for being heir even though their father doesn't like him, even though he has none of the qualities aenys loves about himself, even though he's more like a daughter than a son - and even still, he loves maegor, he wants to keep maegor safe from the horrors of the world before anybody else ruins him and takes all that's good about him away from him. maegor hates aenys because he's rude and terrible to him, because he's never respected him, but loves him so dearly because he's the only person in the world who will look on his flaws and be able to feel some sense of genuine pity or affection - the only person who will always feel a responsibility to love him so entirely and wholly because they are twins and have that bond that will never go away no matter what.

in my mind the themes of gender in asoiaf is very interesting especially in relation to the targs in that their relationships are .. a lot stranger .. in a lot of cases. you are twin brothers, but your brother is more like a girl than a boy. you know that if things had been only the slightest bit different, you would most definitely be betrothed to each other because your family traditions demand it of you. how would your love be different, then? would it be any different at all? would that be better? would it fix any of our problems? what am i meant to feel for my brother when every part of our family history is built on a wife's suffering, an incestuous misery that never has an end, when we are so nearly brother and sister ...?

they're complicated . and difficult to describe ... a relationship built on shame and not understanding each other and not understanding what you feel for each other .

i'm a little undecided atm what to do with maegor .. he is a bit of a mystery in my mind but when he's ~15 give or take aenys suffers a little (bad) jousting incident and ends up with a bad leg that he pretends isn't there because he doesn't want to be deemed weak by his father or by court and a case of head trauma that makes him Worse . sort of henry viii esque . he eventually marries a velaryon girl ...

there's also the secret third sibling (bastard sister) but i'll discuss her some other time ....

[rox-of-iu]

ayoo guess who finally sat down and caught up with cultivate B)

is me. so you know what that means.

spoiler warning for cultivate ch 30-37

there was actually.... more things i wanted to draw but I already did so many I had to physically restrain myself hfsjkkdh anyway yes can you tell i love this fic very much

yet once again. cultivate by the wonderful @neonghostcat

[alicenpai]

COME ON BOARD AND BRING ALONG ALL YOUR HOPES AND DREAMS...! stickers here in my shop until oct 17 🏴‍☠️

[the-clay-quarters]

It's Pembroke's birthday and in celebration I uhhhh made her a business card 👍

I had the idea for this two sided card ages ago but only just got to making it. Don't need to worry about which business card you have if it's the same card >:3c

(If this prompts any interaction ideas, do feel free to send her a calling card <3 (link in pinned))

[fadedrainbowbookshelves]

Queen.

[autisticaradiamegido]

day 38

it was 3 hours. i had to lay down immediately.

[wheatormeat]

Can more people please watch odd taxi, its story and dialogue writing is genuinely so fantastic. Its characters are so real to the point its almost jarring, and the art and music direction is phenomenal. its only 12 episodes and it USES those 12 episodes. I genuinely don't think there's any show like it. (but if there is, send them my way) the only preface I can give for it is that its a crime thriller and AVOID SPOILERS

please I'm tired of every other isekai show getting its 5th season while a masterpiece like odd taxi gets ignored cause it has furries. PLEASE

[t-ki]

are ya winnin son?

[windwenn]

The divine comedy is going well

[woofzwoofz]

also doodled ren, and just experimenting with how i wanna draw him ayahaaabdhd andkncncccofjfkdndbsjjfbskkfbdoeoejrbnflsjrkglelhfjgnfbdjwbfisuksmdnfnfpeirh gbfkkfo gjefkofurorjtbf kdlfpfjfjekfh fj