#let's talk about...

[twistedtummies2]

Let’s Talk About...”A Villain’s Twisted Heart”

So, this is a little different from most posts I make. XD Basically, I just wanted to take a little time to talk to you guys about a couple of games I found out about recently. They have some good characters - as well as very kinkable ones - and they are very “niche” pieces, not especially widely known. So I thought bringing some attention to them would be a good idea. Both games are by a gaming company called “Genius Inc.” They make otome-style visual novels, which are all…TECHNICALLY free to play. Yeah, spoiler alert, I can’t - in good conscience - recommend either of the games I want to talk about AS games. I’ll get to why that is, and tell you where you can find walkthroughs to view, later on in this post, however. First, I want to focus on the positives, and especially on the characters. There are two games I want to discuss, and I think it’s best I do them one at a time. So, I’m going to start with this one: “A Villain’s Twisted Heart.” WHAT’S THE STORY? I am 90% convinced that, since this game came out in 2021, and has a title like “A Villain’s Twisted Heart,” this had to be inspired by the success of my beloved “Twisted Wonderland.” When you first hear the premise, it does bear a few passing resemblances to the game, but it’s different enough that I think it can stand on its own. The story focuses on the POV Protagonist - referred to as “The Reader” - who has the power to make material anything they read aloud. Basically, if they were to read, say, something from Arthurian Legend, they could potentially summon Excalibur; within the story of the game itself, they read from Cinderella and summon the Mice, and from a science book and summon a portal into outer space, just to give you two examples. However, in typical fashion, the Reader doesn’t know how to fully control their powers, and sees it more as a curse than a blessing. Things take a bad turn when they encounter a mysterious antagonist, known only as “The Unraveler.” The Unraveler is a Reader gone rogue, who uses his powers to travel to different worlds via different stories and books, and then basically mess everything up there. The problem is, the more one messes with other worlds this way, the greater the risk of the world itself being completely destroyed by the Unraveler’s meddling. He’s now planning to do the same to the Reader’s own world. To try and combat this threat, the Reader attempts to summon three of their favorite heroes in fiction…but, seemingly because of their lack of experience, they instead summon the villains of the stories in question. These villains are Captain Hook (from Peter Pan), Grimm (the Big Bad Wolf of Fairy-Tales), and Hisame (a genderbent version of the Snow Queen). The Reader thus is forced to team up with these dastardly, selfish, murderous scoundrels in order to defeat the much worse evil the Unraveler presents. In the first season of the game, all the action takes place within the Reader’s own world, with many fish-out-of-water elements for the Villains who are the focus. In the second season, the Reader and the Villains travel between the three worlds of the bad guys’ respective stories, pursuing the Unraveler to try and stop his mad plan to basically become a God. Since this is an otome type game, you make choices along the way to strengthen your relationships with the three Villains, and at the end of the story, you choose to form a romantic relationship with one of the three; they remain in your world (the Reader’s world), while the other two return to their own respective universes…with the promise that they will either visit you or you will visit them sometime down the line.

PROTAGONISTS & ANTAGONISTS

The main thing that both this and the other game I plan to talk about do so well is create strong characters. While the Reader is a mostly pretty blank protagonist - which is par the course for this type of game, to be fair - I do appreciate the person who wrote this visual novel did, in fact, give them a little bit of a personality, and a story arc beyond just falling in love. The Reader starts off as an easily flustered, generally reserved person at the start, and by the end of the game they’ve become just as much of a bad@$$, to be blunt, as the three Villains who they befriend (and, in at least one case, more than befriend). They also have a sense of humor and, despite being shy at the beginning, they aren’t completely spineless, usually ready with a quick comeback or logical argument. On that note, the character IS defined as female, but there’s no reason one can’t imagine them as male in personal writing, or just keep the gender neutral. The Unraveler, our main antagonist (pictured above), is a pretty deplorable villain. And I mean that in a good way: he’s a decent bad guy. He starts off as a straightforward villain without much depth, but as the story goes on, he becomes more interesting. We never find out his true name; apparently, he adopts a new alias each time he visits a new world, and all his misadventures have unnaturally expanded his lifespan, so he’s far older than he seems; just like the Villains we’re facing, themselves. In the Reader’s world, he adopts the identity of a college professor (Moriarty, anyone?), but it’s pretty clear even this identity is something he’s made up. Whoever he is, his backstory is that he was a person who was neglected and shunned by society for most of his life; when he found out about his powers as a Reader, he used them to make himself into the hero of many stories. He craved the attention and praise being the hero got him, but he wasn’t willing to do the actual work to become a true hero; instead, he would organize things to make the heroes of those worlds look bad, and thus present himself as the only one who could stop their evil deeds. It’s this obsessive need to be given attention and adulation that leads to him seeking to become “The Hero of All Worlds,” which would apparently give him powers tantamount to a God. Which brings us to the real stars of this story, the three Villains. What I appreciate about this game is that these three Villains ARE villains, at the start. They aren’t just misunderstood heroes, or even anti-heroes: they, themselves, acknowledge that whatever and whoever they used to be, they became the bad guys of their own stories. A common thread runs through all three of their stories: it’s revealed that each of these Villains used to be the hero of their own respective world. They were protective presences who guarded their people and tried to help them in times of need. That all changed when the Unraveler came to their world: he framed each of them for crimes they did not commit, and when they tried to stand up against him, they failed, lost, and thus their reputations were completely ruined. The suffering they went through led to all three making the same basic decision. To quote a song: “You’re looking for a monster? Well, it’s your lucky day! I’ll be what you want!” As the story goes on, each of the three not only begins to form attachments - both to each other, and to the Reader - but they do start to shape up. By the end of Season 1, they’ve effectively gone from Villains to Anti-Heroes: they’re not exactly GOOD people, but they’re on their way to the path of redemption. And by the end of Season 2, I’d say all three are what would be termed Flawed Heroes. They’re now more or less heroic figures, the way they once were…but after spending so much time as Villains who would kill or even eat you without a second thought, they obviously still have some broken gears in the clockworks, so to speak. On that note, let’s now take a look at the three separately… MEET THE VILLAINS

Captain Hook is the first of the trio we’ll talk about. Hook seems to be the sort of self-appointed leader of the villains, as he’s the one who comes up with most of the plans throughout the story and tends to act as an ironic voice of reason. I do love the way Hook is portrayed in this version: while he’s younger than most versions of the character, he’s still basically the Captain Hook we all know and love. He’s a sneaky, dastardly swashbuckler with a theatrical, charismatic, slightly foppish sort of personality. The game plays a lot with the duality of Hook, between him as the dandified gentleman and him as…well…a pirate. He’s a drinker, a womanizer, and has the sort of cocksure swagger many typical pirates have, but he’s also capable of being quite eloquent and even somewhat of a ham. They also play with the brutality of Hook: he’s a manipulative sadist who loves to play with people’s minds, keeping his cards close to his chest and finding stealthy, subtle ways to solve most problems. You can never fully trust him, and he seems to be the one of the three who gets the most pleasure out of the thought of not only killing but outright torturing those who cross him. As the game goes on, Hook softens up considerably, his sadistic elements toning down bit by bit, as he starts to realize he still has a chance to reclaim at least most of the things he lost when Peter Pan (one of the Unraveler’s many identities) cut off his hand and fed it to the Crocodile.

Grimm, the Big Bad Wolf, actually reminds me a bit of Jack Howl from Twisted Wonderland…except that, at the start, he’s much meaner. Where Hook is a mental threat, who prefers to outwit his enemies, toy with their minds, and use guile and sneakiness to get what he wants, Grimm is a purely physical threat. While he isn’t a total dunderhead, he is, nevertheless, a person who relies largely on brute force and intimidation to get what he wants. At the start of the game, he behaves more like an animal than a human being, and is easily the most physically imposing and strong of the trio. He’s also, being the Big Bad Wolf, RAVENOUSLY hungry. He’s a bottomless pit, really; threatening to eat people on more than one occasion, and constantly chowing down throughout the game, without a shred of manners. As the game goes on, we quickly realize that under his big and bad exterior, Grimm has a soft side; he’s basically a violent tsundere, afraid to admit his true feelings and form close attachments because of past experiences, and trying to seem meaner than he (already) is. As the game goes on, Grimm opens up more and more, and shows a sort of puppyish side to his personality: he’s extremely curious about human life, and the way things work in the Reader’s own world, and goes from trying to push them away to becoming the single most protective of them out of the whole bunch. By the end, while he’s still got his rough edges and doesn’t always like to show his soft sides, those soft sides are clearly taking greater precedence.

Finally, there is Hisame, the Snow King. In order to talk about him, I have to give a bit away about his backstory: Hisame’s origin states that he was stabbed by Kai (the Unraveler’s identity in his world) with a dagger formed from a cursed icicle. In Lord-of-the-Rings fashion, a piece of the icicle knife broke off inside of him, and is working its way slowly into the Snow King’s heart, freezing him from the inside out. As time goes on, not only does this cause Hisame to become more and more emotionally cold and distant, but it also means he runs the risk of dying if his heart freezes completely. The only way to break the curse is, of course, through True Love’s Kiss…but if you’re worried that means you HAVE to pick him, don’t worry: in the same vein as “Frozen” or “Maleficent,” it’s explained that True Love doesn’t have to be ROMANTIC love, it just has to be real. Regardless, for most of the game, Hisame is as cold as his slowly freezing heart: he’s haughty, dictatorial, commanding, passive-aggressive, and thoroughly icy. He’s an emotional threat, constantly seeking to make others feel inferior to himself; a dominating and imposing presence. He’s not a sadist the way both Grimm and especially Hook can be, it’s more that he doesn’t care if you suffer or not…which, arguably, can be seen as even more frightening. Part of the reason he acts so cruel and heartless, it’s revealed, is because he’s afraid of what will happen if he gets too close to someone: he’s scared he’ll hurt them, or that their compassion will be wasted on him in some way. Eventually, he does learn to accept his own emotions and finds a way to both literally and figuratively thaw out his frozen heart. For those reading who know me for my kinkier fanfics, yes, I do have MANY thoughts related to these three lads as kink crushes, especially Hook and Grimm. Perhaps I’ll go into them more if people ask in some fashion, but for now, suffice it to say all three characters are awesome and definitely have the capacity to make me blush. WHY YOU SHOULD NOT PLAY THE GAME. So, I’ve established I like all these characters, and the story itself - while not completely perfect in its execution (the second season is somewhat rushed, in particular) - is actually a decently well-told tale. It blends elements of both slice-of-life romance and a sort of magical/superhero adventure epic together in a very fun and sweet way. I also appreciate that, while you can form relationships with all three, they remember that you can only pick one to be your true love at the end. By which I mean, even though the Reader shares romantic scenes with all three characters, they’re written in such a way that you can sort of “excuse” the fact they ultimately will only pick one lover by the end of the tale. HOWEVER, there are two things wrong with “A Villain’s Twisted Heart,” and to be honest, they are problems that all the Genius Inc. games I’ve looked at (I’ve taken a peek at a few by now) seem to have. The first is that this game is very cheaply made. And I do mean VERY cheaply made: a lot of the artwork featured in the game is taken from stock, with only a few backgrounds, screens, and the main character sprites being original. The music, similarly, is a blend of some original music and stock music together. All of Genius Inc.’s games seem to be made on the budget of a can of beans, but this one seems oddly and particularly low-budget compared to even some of the others I’ve looked at. This problem would be excusable if it weren’t for the other issue: all of Genius Inc.’s visual novels have the same basic gameplay system, and it’s a system that is, to be blunt, rigged completely. The games are free to play, and most of the choices you make throughout the story are totally up to you to make. HOWEVER, there are specific choices - referred to as “Premiere Choices” - which are THE MOST IMPORTANT DECISIONS for the character to make. Choosing one way will lead to basically getting a bad ending, and choosing the other will lead to basically getting a good ending, plain and simple. This is already problematic enough, but this is what really tears it: in order to even MAKE the choices that will lead to the good ending(s) of each game…you have to pay money. Yeah. The games are free to play…but to get the good endings, you have to spend cash. On the one hand, I guess it makes sense from a business point of view: how else would these shoestring budget titles make a profit? But from the perspective of the player…that’s just messed up. SO…how to experience these characters and this story for yourself, without giving in to these miserly fiends? Simple: watch a walkthrough on YouTube. There are actually a couple of channels with walkthroughs of this specific game available online, it seems to be one of the most popular titles Genius Inc. has produced. I can see why: out of all the games I’ve looked at so far from this company, this one is probably my favorite, as I feel it has the strongest and best-written story out of all the ones I’ve seen. So, if you don’t know about this game and want to learn more about these lads, head to the magical YouTube and start looking. It may not be worth playing, but it’s definitely worth checking out.

“But wait!” I hark thou wail. “What of the other game you mentioned? What is it?! Is it on YouTube as well?!”

Patience, my little ducklings, patience…I’ll get to THAT business another time… ;)

[dribs-and-drabbles]

Let's talk about... Poppy Ratchapong Anomakiti

(This post is inspired by @angelbesideme who didn't know who Poppy was when I rambled on about him in some tags on a post about Tankhun in Kinnporsche. The gist of that ramble is that I love that Tong is getting to play such a complex character with Tankhun since all he had been given before kp was very plain characterisation.

And it's similar with Poppy - in that Poppy is FANTASTIC at the slapstick comedy characters but I just know he would slay a serious role and I really hope he's given the chance in the future. So @angelbesideme this is for you.)

I first became aware of Poppy in YYY, in which he plays Porpla - a yaoi fan and owner of a boarding house...who is either trans or a drag queen (apologies for not knowing exactly).

And in my awareness of him I learnt he was also in Why R U? and Lovely Writer, both of which I had already watched and not really noticed him in...so I went back to see.

In Why R U? he plays Junior - a class clown character and friend of Zon...so with similar slapstick theatrics to YYY...(on the right below)

But in Lovely Writer, he plays Jap, Gene's brother - I think he's the older brother but with the characters' dynamic he sometimes acts like a bratty younger brother - but either way, it's a little more *ahem* 'straight acting'...

And then most recently he's played Foei in Cutie Pie - Lian's wonderful assistant. He's back in a slapstick role but oh my god he was so good. So cute, so darling, so upstaging.

BUT having said that, I really want to see him play something serious, deep, challenging, angsty, soul-destroying (mine), and H E A V Y.

Praying to the bl gods to bring this about...not that it has to be a bl...I would watch him in anything just to see it.

[langdhon]

The fandom interpretations of his sexuality range from nonexistent, due to him not diddling anyone during the show, to hypersexual because he's a tease. But somehow hardly anything in between. I don’t label him simply because he tends to defy boxes, the closest would be be pansexual though. Thing is, when he meets someone who shares a certain energy with him, he can be super into frequent intimacy. But he generally doesn't think about it a lot, like, he can easily go months without bed sport and not care. Sex isn't a big deal to him, just one of the many things you indulge when you feel like it.

But he also uses the mindset others tend to have about attraction and sex against them. Having learned that it's still some kind of taboo or something you don't deem as normal as you'd do other sources of enjoyment. He knows he's conventionally attractive and he will play with that to frustrate others by leading them on; if it serves his sick amusement of crushing the hopes of someone he doesn't respect. Michael also detests the idea that people, especially women, are taught to believe that they have to please someone sexually to obtain a goal. Is why he was a bit perplexed when Madison offered him a bj for saving her.

You'd think he'll constantly fck everyone because of what he is and the association with sin. But this isn't sin. It's natural, yet he enjoys using that weird expectation that he's all about sex to spread sexual frustration. It's why he acts flirty sometimes even when he has no intention of getting it on. On the other hand when he meets someone who passes the vibe check? They'll have him from all sides when the mood strikes, can get experimental. And he won’t make a fuss about it, just have fun.

[lazylittledragon]

can't believe we're all adults being forced into the club penguin level of censorship in 2024

[hack-saw2004]

platforming palestinian joy is just as important as sharing the suffering they're enduring during this genocide. despite continued displacement and bombardment, you cannot steal their joy and spirit. happy birthday to this sweet baby 🖤🇵🇸 may they grow up to see a free palestine

edit: @saffronlesbian made a video description for this post!!

[vd: a screen recording of a tweet from the 20th of April 2024 with 2.5 million views, from Ruhi @/ruhi_hi. the caption reads, "This video of this little Palestinian angel celebrating his bday in a refugee camp" followed by three emoji of a smiling face with teary eyes. the video clip is 11 seconds long and shows a one-year-old baby seated on the sandy ground, smiling hugely and clapping his hands while people sing to him from offscreen and a large cake is placed in front of him. stuck into the top of the cake is a decoration that reads "happy birthday" in english. the video has the tiktok handle @/ibrahim.jamal99 visible in it. /end vd.]

[captainjonnitkessler]

You know I used to think "tumblr's absolute refusal to actually engage with the Trolley Problem in favor of insisting that there must be a third, morally pure option that doesn't require them to make a hard decision and anyone who asks them to make a binary choice is just a short-sighted idiot is really fucking annoying, but I guess it's not actually doing any harm".

Anyway that was before we asked tumblr at large to decide between "guy aiding a genocide but making progress elsewhere" and "guy who would actively and enthusiastically participate in a genocide and would also make everything else much, much worse for everyone elsewhere" and the response was that there must be a third, morally pure option that doesn't require them to make a hard decision and that anyone who asks them to make a binary choice is a short-sighted idiot.

[inkskinned]

because sometimes there are invisible tests and invisible rules and you're just supposed to ... know the rule. someone you thought of as a friend asks you for book recommendations, so you give her a list of like 30 books, each with a brief blurb and why you like it. later, you find out she screenshotted the list and send it out to a group chat with the note: what an absolute freak can you believe this. you saw the responses: emojis where people are rolling over laughing. too much and obsessive and actually kind of creepy in the comments. you thought you'd been doing the right thing. she'd asked, right? an invisible rule: this is what happens when you get too excited.

you aren't supposed to laugh at your own jokes, so you don't, but then you're too serious. you're not supposed to be too loud, but then people say you're too quiet. you aren't supposed to get passionate about things, but then you're shy, boring. you aren't supposed to talk too much, but then people are mad when you're not good at replying.

you fold yourself into a prettier paper crane. since you never know what is "selfish" and what is "charity," you give yourself over, fully. you'd rather be empty and over-generous - you'd rather eat your own boundaries than have even one person believe that you're mean. since you don't know what the thing is that will make them hate you, you simply scrub yourself clean of any form of roughness. if you are perfect and smiling and funny, they can love you. if you are always there for them and never admit what's happening and never mention your past and never make them uncomfortable - you can make up for it. you can earn it.

don't fuck up. they're all testing you, always. they're tolerating you. whatever secret club happened, over a summer somewhere - during some activity you didn't get to attend - everyone else just... figured it out. like they got some kind of award or examination that allowed them to know how-to-be-normal. how to fit. and for the rest of your life, you've been playing catch-up. you've been trying to prove that - haha! you get it! that the joke they're telling, the people they are, the manual they got- yeah, you've totally read it.

if you can just divide yourself in two - the lovable one, and the one that is you - you can do this. you can walk the line. they can laugh and accept you. if you are always-balanced, never burdensome, a delight to have in class, champagne and glittering and never gawky or florescent or god-forbid cringe: you can get away with it.

you stare at your therapist, whom you can make jokes with, and who laughs at your jokes, because you are so fucking good at people-pleasing. you smile at her, and she asks you how you're doing, and you automatically say i'm good, thanks, how are you? while the answer swims somewhere in your little lizard brain:

how long have you been doing this now? mastering the art of your body and mind like you're piloting a puppet. has it worked? what do you mean that all you feel is... just exhausted. pick yourself up, the tightrope has no net. after all, you're cheating, somehow, but nobody seems to know you actually flunked the test. it's working!

aren't you happy yet?

[sushisocks]

i wake up and i am immediately thinking about those characters. i eat breakfast and i am thinking about those characters. i do chores and i am thinking about those characters. i do any work, i study, i walk the dogs, and i am thinking about those characters. i go to bed and i am thinkign

[cemeterything]

when birth is depicted as body horror, as an act of violence

[callisteios]

Hi, feel free to take my new uquiz to discover what kind of vampire you are!

[sleepless-in-starbucks]

guy who's stuck in a timeloop for so long he stops wanting to leave it. guy who started out trying to escape but slowly grew used to and became comforted by the familiarity of the repeating day. guy who is no longer who he was before the timeloop. guy who is offered a way out and violently refuses it because he can't leave, doesn't want to leave. guy who escapes the timeloop by chance or force or accident and doesn't know how to live anymore. guy who keeps going through motions that don't match the situation and keeps having conversations that aren't actually occurring. guy who panics every time he realizes he can't predict the next instant. guy who left the timeloop but still lives with it.

[baconpncakes]

It’s like Dr. House always said

[eclipseshotel]

[oobbbear]

I want to post this here too because I’ve seen it happen a few times

Please understand that there are cultural differences and language differences, if you see this happening let the person clarify what they meant, that person might just not be familiar with words the western side of the internet use

[firerose18991]

Literally anyone meeting bruce and his family for the first time: So how did you get so many kids by 30?

Dick: HE WAS A TEENAGE DELINQUENT

Jason: *shouting over him* HE LEFT MY MOTHER AT THE ALTAR

*tim is sitting, just happy to be included*

Bruce: BE-quiet.  They're ADOPTED!

Jason: *not a beat missed* Because he’s never known the touch of a woman.

[sheepydraws]

The secret Dungeon Meshi sauce that's getting people to eat better is that it's so non-judgmental. Senshi and the rest of the gang never talk about what not to eat besides things that taste bad and literal poison. They don't even talk about "health" that much besides the importance of a balanced diet. It's so much easier to eat well when you think of food simply as something your body needs, and that it's often worth the extra effort to make it taste good, especially when you understand how to connect "things your body needs" with "things that taste good"