#like why give us all that one on one stuff and all those dialogue choices in trespasser?

[malefilus]

I’m really sad about it but I really am not looking forward to the next Dragon Age game. All of the press and statements that have been released just feel like it’s gonna be a let down in one way or another. I understand that the company and devs want to draw in a wider audience and get more people interested in the series, but the statement of ‘you won’t need to play the first games to play this one’ really concerns me. As well as them saying the Inquisitor won’t be a huge factor nor will your (possible) romance with Solas? A huge part of why I personally was looking forward to this game was that tie in. That ending of will it be a bitter end truly or will there be a chance for some sort of happiness? I felt before the announcements a bigger sense of need to not mess up my choices. Now I just feel like it’s going to be a horrid let down and something that ties in poorly with not so great character development. I’m hoping I’m wrong but man, it really is looking like this isn’t going to be a game for the older fans.

[nelkenbabe]

the conversations between solas and varric drive me to insanity, i think they might be the longest consecutive, interconnected pieces of dialogue between any companions.

there are so many layers and so much back and forth pushing, so much being said without saying it. they explain so much about solas’ current state of mind, but also show the effects of what happened in da2 on varric

Solas: I find the fall of the dwarven lands confusing.

Varric: What's so confusing about endless darkspawn?

Solas: A great deal, although that is a different matter. Dwarves control the flow of lyrium. They could tighten their grip on it.

Varric: It's hard to get the attention of the humans when the darkspawn aren't up here messing with their stuff.

Solas: You're active in the Carta. You know your people could tug the purse strings. You could claim sovereign land on the surface, or demand help restoring the dwarven kingdom, but you don't.

Varric: You're not saying anything I haven't said myself, Chuckles. Orzammar is what it is.

───────

Solas: Is there at least a movement to reunite Orzammar and Kal-Sharok?

Varric: What is it with you, Chuckles? Why do you care so much about the dwarves?

Solas: Once, in the Fade, I saw the memory of a man who lived alone on an island. Most of his tribe had fallen to beasts or disease. His wife had died in childbirth. He was the only one left. He could have struck out on his own to find a new land, new people. But he stayed. He spent every day catching fish in a little boat, every night drinking fermented fruit juice and watching the stars.

Varric: I can think of worse lives.

Solas: How can you be happy surrendering, knowing it will all end with you?  How can you not fight?

Varric: I suppose it depends on the quality of the fermented fruit juice.

Solas: So it seems.

Solas:: I am sorry to have bothered you with my questions about your people Varric. I see so much of this world in dreams. Humans, my own people, even qunari. Dwarves alone were lost to me, save scattered fragments of memory where some spirit cared to watch. Now I know why I see so little.

Varric: And why is that?

Solas:: Dwarves are the severed arm of a once mighty hero, lying in a pool of blood. Undirected. Whatever skill of arms it had, gone forever. Although it might twitch to give the appearance of life, it will never dream. 

Varric: I'd avoid mentioning that to any Carta, Chuckles. They might not take it the right way. 

───────

Varric: What's with you and the doom stuff? Are you always this cheery or is the hole in the sky getting to you?

Solas: I've no idea what you mean.

Varric: All the "fallen empire" crap you go on about. What's so great about empires anyway?

Varric: So we lost the Deep Roads, and Orzammar is too proud to ask for help. So what? We're not Orzammar and we're not our empire.

Varric: There are tens of thousands of us living up here in the sunlight now, and it's not that bad.

Varric: Life goes on. It's just different than it used to be.

Solas: And you have no concept of what that difference cost you.

Varric: I know what it didn't cost me. I'm still here, even after all those thaigs fell.

───────

Solas: You truly are content to sit in the sun, never wondering what you could've been, never fighting back.

Varric: Ha, you've got it all wrong, Chuckles. This is fighting back.

Solas: How does passively accepting your fate constitute a fight?

Varric: In that story of yours—-the fisherman watching the stars, dying alone. You thought he gave up, right?

Solas: Yes.

Varric: But he went on living. He lost everyone, but he still got up every morning. He made a life, even if it was alone.

Varric: That's the world. Everything you build, it tears down. Everything you've got, it takes. And it's gone forever.

Varric: The only choices you get are to lie down and die or keep going. He kept going. That's as close to beating the world as anyone gets.

Solas: Well said. Perhaps I was mistaken.

Varric: You know what I like about you, Chuckles? Your boundless optimism.

Solas: It's comforting that whatever qualities I lack, you'll invent for me, Varric.

Varric: No, really. Why else would an elven apostate help crazy Chantry folk close a hole in the sky?

Solas: When you put it like that, I must concede your point.

PLEASE

[ikkleosu]

Is Isabelle a "fix it fic" for Leah?

(Running back to my first love tumblr because I will not pay Elon to use more words)

So with the release of Isabelle's character bio, confirming Isabelle has romantic feelings for Daryl, it leads me to think more about what I've been suspecting for some time - that Isabelle's story was created to redo the Leah arc from s11, but this time do it right.

So, when we look at the Leah story from Find Me, it's very clear to most people that there was a story there that was meant to go someplace, relating to Carol and Daryl's relationship, that for whatever reason got canned.

There's the obvious parallels they drew with Carol and Leah (repeated dialogue etc), there's the knife that passed from Leah to Daryl to Carol and we were told was going to be significant - and was then never mentioned again. And of course, there's the fight at the end of Find Me that was never resolved on screen.

I think it's safe to say that was all leading somewhere, but because of COVID or the show being cancelled or Melissa leaving the spinoff, or some combination we don't know about - the conclusions from the Leah storyline were dropped, and it left a whole lot of unresolved stuff between Carol and Daryl.

We know Melissa and Norman have both talked about wanting the spin-off to delve into stuff from the main show that wasn't dealt with, and to give time to stuff they felt was rushed over. It's not much of a leap to assume the Leah story is one of those things, especially when we know form Angela Kang's own words that Norman was VERY MUCH not a fan of the Leah plot. So much so he asked for Daryl to kill her at the end of the Reaper arc.

So what if, the Leah storyline was intended to give us greater insight into the Caryl relationship, and specifically Daryl's feelings towards Carol? And Norman, along with the audience was frustrated that instead Leah just killed everything he's said about Daryl's attitude to love and sex, for absolutely no reason.

It's easy then to understand why Norman might want a redo of that chance to tell a similar story but with the resolution that was originally intended.

And so, we have Isabelle. Now, obviously, she's a very different character to Leah... but really, is she?

Both have fallen into a religious cult that helps them deal with their own trauma, and gives them a sense of family they were missing.

Both adopted their sister's child as their own (Leah lost hers, but Isabelle is drive by protecting hers)

Both manipulate Daryl and lie to him to keep him by their side.

Both, ultimately, ask Daryl to make a choice between going back to his family, or staying with them.

I think these similarities are deliberate. And I suspect there will be more similarities once we see season 2 - it looks as if they are both held captive by Genet, and may have similar through the wall conversations to Daryl and Leah when the Reapers held him captive.

So if we assume this is deliberate, we can also assume dialogue references are deliberate. Isabelle tells Daryl she doesn't need a hero - a line that goes back to Leah saying he always has to be the hero, and Carol saying she didn't need a hero during the fight in Find Me.

We also have the starts of the "making it right" dialogue when Isabelle asks Daryl if he could be happy there, and he says he doesn't know if this is where he should be - like Leah asking him where he belonged and he was unsure, but then said "I belong with you". This time, Daryl isn't going to ever say "I belong with you" to Isabelle, because as he said in Find Me he knows where he belongs.

Isabelle having feelings for Daryl is not for nothing. It will - if this speculation is correct - be a chance for things to be set right. If she has feelings she will somehow, at some point, express them. And that is where the storyline will "diverge" (see what I did there?) from the Leah storyline, and this time Daryl will be able to tell Isabelle "why not".

It will resolve the Connie question too, in that way, which was also never answered. Why don't you want to make a move on Connie? And why don't you respond to Isabelle's feelings?

Both are for the same reason, and it feels like this is the chance to finally say it.

I should add that

a) i suspect this will be cliffhanger throughout the season, and will play out like "Daryl's promise" from s1 where we won't know the answer, and it will all be opaque until episode 5 or 6

b) My understanding of the whys this might be happening, and why they gave Isabelle romantic feelings for Daryl, does not mean I like it or I would have chosen this route. I would not.

[cheetour]

The Void Within's dialogue is sloppy to the point of not being fully literate*.

It's been noticed that the rough sketches and the final artwork don't match up in quality, and seem to be declining as the plot goes on. The same is happening to the writing.

This is, I am sorry, a post about the latest major Neopets update. Not only that, it's about the GRAMMAR in the dialogue for that update. Riveting.

I SWEAR I AM NOT JUST A PEDANTIC ASSHOLE, I GENUINELY WANT USERS TO KNOW THERE'S AN ISSUE!

Most people who complain about "incorrect" grammar in games and comics are wrong. Homestuck, Night in the Woods, We Know the Devil, and Captain Underpants all have fine grammar, just stylized.

I really, really, really like The Void Within. I think it's a fantastic idea, and I am determined to enjoy it as much as possible.

I am a professional editor. Noticing this stuff is my job.

Now, PLEASE bear that in mind when I say:

tl;dr: Neopets is asking you to pay money to a product that does not meet the quality standards of a primary school English test for ages 10+.

*I don't mean to use "not literate" as a stand-in for "stupid and bad at writing." Literacy is very complicated, illiteracy is more common than you think, and there is no shame in being illiterate - you can be very intelligent and also have no written or digital literacy. I mean the literal "not able to use written language to its fullest extent".

It's clear whoever wrote the dialogue didn't have a perfect grasp of English punctuation. AND THAT'S FINE. Good writers don't always have good grammar, and you DON'T need fluent English to write good stories in English.

That's why writing, proofreading, and editing are all separate professions, and why a well-run creative project delegates those roles to separate people. They still matter.

People are more likely to notice grammar mistakes the more they read books. Correctly formatted English is how older, less online, and disabled people with visual or linguistic processing difficulties read. Text-to-speech doesn't work correctly on writing without correct punctuation. These are serious professional standards, and they exist for a reason. They're not worthless just because you don't understand them.

A good-quality publisher of books, comics, or video games wouldn't release dialogue like this to a paying audience. They would consider this standard unacceptable. They'd either use correct grammar, or stylized grammar. (Inconsistent grammar, with no logical or narrative rules, isn't a style. They're not choices if you don't know you're making them. They're mistakes.)

To an extent this is nitpicking, and most people wouldn't notice this stuff.

But Neopets is MAKING MONEY. They are SELLING PRODUCTS for this. They have MULTIPLE PHASES of NC Market sales for this plot.

As an educator, there is no way I could show this (perfectly kid-friendly) comic to a classroom of children - it would have no educational value. It's not written correctly or with any obvious care. If they paid attention to it too much, they'd get the wrong idea about the English language!

I think it's fair to say that if you're publishing an official Neopets story, and you want Neopets to be a kid-friendly, fan-driven, story-based brand with a target audience wider than "people who don't really care about whether stories are professionally written", the script should've been proofread.

To give you an idea of how many typos Chapter 3 has, here's one of the dialogue pages with the missing punctuation added; I also took 5 minutes to rewrite each line for coherency.

And THIS is a website showing you at what points in primary eduation we teach children to use commas correcty:

Art is hard. Programming is hard. Hell, good writing is hard. It's HARD coming up with dialogue and a plot that people actually want to experience.

Grammar is boring and sometimes pointless. It's not difficult. It requires only basic literacy. Children learn how to use commas at ages seven and up.

If you don't care about the story you're telling enough to check that it would get a good grade on a child's school test, how can you possibly expect anyone to pay for it? You need specialist skills to code a website or create a high-quality digital graphic, but the only thing you need to get this right is... one literate adult who cares enough to try.

So where are they?

**There is no shame in being illiterate, but there is CERTAINLY shame in selling illiterate writing.

tl;dr: Neopets is asking you to pay money to a product that does not meet the quality standards of a primary school English test for ages 10+.

Finally, here are some browser petsites/RPGs who have never prompted me to write an 800 word critique:

Fallen London

Pixel Cat's End

Lioden

[noahmullariii]

a much too whiny rant about fic icks

I die a little every time pup, cub or Prongslet comes up in a wolfstar raising Harry (together or separately) fic. especially cub - it makes literally no sense????? are you sure it's Remus John Lupin I'm reading about??? it's his evil doppelganger, I'm telling you. I'm not even sure I could stomach that word ironically.

Prongslet is fine in moderation, I guess, but only as an inside joke, only coming from Sirius and only when Harry's a smol bean. but when it's Prisoner of Azkaban compliant I wanna claw my eyes out.

it's even worse when those terms are used not just in dialogue but in Remus or Sirius' internal monologue as if pup and cub are Harry's freaking pronouns or something. my cub, my pup, cub did this, pup did that... just call him boy or kid or his name for god's sake. I once saw sprog pop up and was delighted cuz at least it's actually british slang.

and don't get me started on Hadrian(us) James Orion Potter-Black (which is just... why the fuck would James give his son the name of his best mate's horrible father AND the last name of his horrible family?? and why would Lily agree to that?) who's simultaneously Lord Potter, Black, Peverell and Slytherin (and, sure, I have a visceral reaction to aristocracy wank in general but even ignoring that - the last 3 literally make no sense since "Lord Black" is Sirius until his death; and both Peverell and Slytherin lines bled into other families ages ago. so being a Potter automatically means you're descended from Peverells as well as being a Gaunt - from Slytherin. and the last of those is Tom Riddle Jr. but that wouldn't make any Potters "Lord Peverell"s or any Gaunts/Riddle "Lord Slytherin"s. those last names are dead. smh).

but, uh, this tangent technically has nothing to do with my initial complaints, it's just that at some point I started thinking of this naming stuff in tandem with nonsensical nicknames as they began appearing in fics together. which is a double homicide, truly.

and look, I definitely understand the desire to make Harry's original name something else cuz it fits nicely with POC Potters headcanon and Dursleys being racist dicks about it, but... Hadrian? I mean, it's not really a big deal when the fic mentions it being his full name but both narration and characters still refer to him as Harry for short - that makes total sense. however when after the name reveal Hadrian replaces Harry completely, it feels super weird and uncanny, making it hard to identify Harry's character in the story altogether.

although I guess you should all knock me off my high horse for being the biggest hypocrite ever, cuz I myself have a headcanon for Harry's name, even if it's less elaborate than Hadrian. also less Roman? that's another thing I don't get - if you want to create a better connection between Harry and his roots, why choose a name of a Roman emperor for a desi kid? since he's usually explicitly desi in all the Hadrian fics. so it's not that I have a problem with renaming him, per se, I just don't understand the choice of Hadrian.

for example, I recently read a fic where he was Pakistani and his name was originally Hami, which is a nice idea, actually, and makes sense for such headcanon. mine is Hari btw (हरि in Sanskrit), since I headcanon Potters as Indian, but I didn't come up with that name myself - just saw it somewhere a couple years ago and liked it. I think it's actually a pretty popular hc now? anyway, it's closer to Harry than any other name I've seen and has many beautiful meanings that resonate with what I think James and Lily felt towards their son. now, even though I still prefer his name being Harry regardless of ethnicity, I do entertain this silly headcanon from time to time - so yeah, I'm one to talk, boo me.

now, I probably should shut up since this rant has been entirely too negative already, but while I'm on the topic of icky names/nicknames I should circle back to wolfstar cuz gods know I'll never be brave enough to talk about this particular pet peeve in its own post.

Siri, Remu and Remy make my blood boil. Siri could be kinda cute when it's a silly childhood nickname from Regulus, but if any marauder or Lily calls Sirius that - immediate death. Si and Re are a teensy bit better in moderation and if used ironically, but still stab me in the chest. a couple times for good measure. the only somewhat acceptable short form of any of their two names for me is Rem, albeit with a stretch and only because it's an actual version of the name Remus in Catalan and Russian. I know I'm being way too dramatic about this (just like with all of my previous points) but I just don't understand the need to shorten their names. at all. they're only 3 and 2 syllables long and so mystical on their own that any shortening just makes them simultaneously more nonsensical and less remarkable.

both characters literally have established quirky nicknames in canon that you can play with and even shorten to Pads and Moons if you want. Sirius is not a digital assistant and Remus is not the main character from Ratatouille. stop this madness.

plus James is right there. his name has a ridiculous amount of diminutives - Jamie, Jimmy, Jim, Jam, Jem, Jay and even Jimbo if you're into that. why strip Remus and Sirius' magical names of their charm if you can have fun with common names? but I digress.

at the end of the day, my pet peeves are mine only and I should live with them in fragile peace. this post is a personal rant first and foremost and if you disagree, I'm genuinely happy that you enjoy the things I can't. fandom is a playground and we can all find some fun in different corners. I'd also like to point out that I'm not trying to take a jab at fic writers who use any of the aforementioned terms, names or diminutives. I'm only one person, so if I stop reading your work because of my petty biases, it's only my loss and not your problem. hundreds of other fans will enjoy it instead. so keep doing what you love and writing those characters however you want, it's your right!

so yeah, writers and readers - don't take it personally and have your fun! don't listen to me being mean! I'm just making my fandom experience way too convoluted for my own good.

[geminialchemist]

More Shadow of the Erdtree discussion, because I seriously cannot shut up about it.

God damn, my posts must make it seem like I loathe this dlc, when it’s one of the best I’ve played in my life. Screw this just being a good DLC, this was an amazing Fromsoft GAME with the title of DLC attached to it.

With that said… I still have complaints to air, because I’m a whiner baby, and I find it easier to construct my thoughts around my criticism of things rather than my praise for them.

I’ve seen the idea floating around that some people think that some other people don’t care for the ending because they don’t like that Fromsoft made Miquella a villain. I’d like to utterly dash that idea. I don’t dislike that they made him a villain, I dislike that they made him a bad villain.

What’s Miquella’s motivation? We know his end goal. Become a god, make the world a compassionate place via brainwashing. We know how he put his plans into motion, convoluted and brow raising as the writing choices for that was. But what is his reason for doing it?

Messmer’s motivations, we know. He is, at least outwardly, a brutal tyrant. He leads a genocidal crusade against the Hornsent and any Tarnished he crosses paths with. We also know his motivation. To take the blame off of his mother for these actions. He doesn’t particularly like being so brutal, but has become the figurehead for the worst actions of his country, and has faced a willing exile with his loyal followers to shift the blame way from his mother, who he loves and cherishes, even after she has abandoned him to his fate. His villainy is his complacency in his mother’s conquests. This actually makes him a sympathetic antagonist, which is why everyone paints him as a soft boy in need of hugs. I’m simplifying this a lot, because outside of no plot for Melina, I have no major issues with Messmer’s side of the story in this DLC, it’s good stuff, great writing.

What’s Miq’s motivation? What made him wake up one day and decide he was going to be a god, and use mind control to pacify the entire world? I realized as I was theory crafting that I… don’t really know? I certainly have headcanon and ideas, I just can’t remember it ever being stated in canon. Just that he wants to do it. Did I miss something? I can’t have missed something, could I?

Was he evil all along? Is he doing this to control everyone just for laughs? Is he a broken person, who witnessed the horrors of war during the Shattering, unable and unwilling to fight due to his body and pacifism, showing up after battles to tend to the wounded but knowing that for every living person he found, a hundred more were corpses, and that for every one he did manage to save he was forced to leave a dozen others to die in agony and so decided to end the cycle of violence by any means necessary?

Did he simply want power and a complacent population? Did he want to fix all of his mommy’s mistakes(no, couldn’t be that one, fans would have woobified him to the same level as Messmer)? Or was it overpowering grief that drove him to tear his too-soft heart out and cast it aside? We don’t even know! Or at least I don’t. I’ve scoured the wiki’s for NPC dialogue, and item descriptions, but unfortunately those are still incomplete, and are missing huge chunks. I’m in the middle of my second run of the dlc, too, but haven’t come across anything yet.

Can anyone tell me what I’m missing, if I did miss something? Or is this just another example of the second half of Miquella’s questline being terribly written? If I did miss something, let me know, and make sure to shame me and call me an idiot, it’s the only way I’ll ever learn!

EDIT: Thanks so much for giving me some answers! I’ll go look more into Ymir’s dialogue, I’m curious to if reversing Marika’s Sin is his motivation, or just another endgame goal to add to the pile to ensure “World Peace(tm).” For instance, Hornsent still doesn’t trust or accept anyone in the group for what Marika did, even under Miq’s charm, so fixing that could make his charm sink in easier for the Hornsent population? I’ll go check it out in my NG+ run, I actually haven’t spoken to Ymir yet in that run.

[thankskenpenders]

Sonic Prime!

The first eight episodes of Sonic Prime are out! I've been busy for obvious reasons this past week (I kinda released a video game), but I've now seen all eight episodes, and as such can give more structured thoughts on them.

Overall: pretty good! I like it! ...But it's not 100% there yet for me. In the spirit of Festivus, I'm here to air my grievances.

Let's start with one of the highest points. First and foremost, this show looks great. We FINALLY have a Sonic cartoon that actually looks like the games with no asterisks attached, even across multiple wildly different AUs. And everything from small acting choices to big, bombastic fight scenes is a joy to watch in motion thanks to the fluid, expressive, fast-paced movement, with characters pleasantly squashing and stretching in fun ways. It's so fun literally to just watch Sonic's face move in dialogue scenes. God, I wish the cutscenes in Frontiers had animation this good. I get why they don't, but still.

And those action sequences! Man, some of these are the most fun fight scenes in any Sonic cartoon ever, period. Lots of great shot choices, a good mix of recognizable moves from the games combined with new ones and improvisations, I could go on and on. The shot of Sonic leaping backwards down that long stairwell, only for the camera to pan around beneath him and show his friends following suit? There's a reason why they put that in the trailer. It rules. This isn't the greatest action series ever - it still has your typical kids' action cartoon problem where the stakes rarely feel adequately high and you can turn your brain off during fight scenes - but it's fun to look at in a way that previous Sonic cartoons haven't always been.

Really, with how strong the presentation is, it's the writing that tends to let the show down in this first batch of episodes. The writing isn't even bad - there's some really cool stuff to latch onto, and I'm optimistic about them leaning more into what's interesting as the plot continues to develop. It's just... well, it's a Man of Action cartoon.

I'm going to nitpick a lot here, so I want it to be perfectly clear that I like Sonic Prime. I think it's a solid cartoon, and firmly on the high end of the Sonic cartoon spectrum. There's a lot that I'm into, and if someone told me it was their new favorite Sonic cartoon, I could absolutely see why. It mainly just has three things working against it:

It can't decide whether or not it actually wants to be wholeheartedly faithful to the games.

It was very clearly written to be a weekly TV show and not a Netflix show dumped in large batches.

The bar has been VERY high for Sonic content this year across every other medium.

Faithfulness to the games

As has been touted in interviews, Sonic Prime is actually canon to the games, and in many ways it's slavishly faithful to them. Which only makes it weirder when it isn't.

The thing that'll immediately stand out is the new voice cast they had to get because Canadian production laws blah blah blah. Now, they're all good here, particularly Deven Mack as Sonic. His take definitely sounds similar to previous takes on Sonic, but I think he manages to find a nice middle point between the youthful enthusiasm of movie Sonic and the more experienced heroics of game/IDW Sonic. He's great. And not to knock Cindy's performances, but I think Shannon Chan-Kent's voice might actually fit Amy just a liiiiittle better here. But the problem is it gets harder to view this as the regular game cast and alternate timeline versions of them when everyone always sounds a little off. Knuckles in particular is really weird because his AU counterparts have a completely different voice actor, and neither particularly sounds like his current voice in the games. I have no idea why.

For another example, Green Hill is used as a setting in a cartoon for the first time ever, and it looks exactly how you remember it. Cool! But it's also framed as the place where Sonic and all of his friends live 24/7, which has never, ever been true in the games. Even Knuckles is here with no explanation for why he isn't guarding the Master Emerald. (One might think that not drawing attention to Knuckles' job allows the writers to just pretend it doesn't exist, similar to what Sega does in many games, but then we get a literal 16-bit flashback to him guarding the Master Emerald in Hidden Palace.)

This would be a totally fine concession if this show was just doing its own thing like every other Sonic cartoon. The different universes are all different bad timelines for Green Hill, with Sonic spotting the unique iconography of the level buried beneath whatever's taken over South Island this time - a smog-filled Eggman city, an overgrown jungle, an abnormally high sea level - to drive home how wrong the AUs are. It also explains why Sonic can always find the AU versions of his friends in Green Hill, and it probably cut down on the number of sets they had to model. But because it is canon to the games, things like this distract me as a hopeless Sonic nerd. It also leads to some repetitive dialogue in the first few episodes as characters constantly comment on the presence or lack thereof of palm trees, because their only reference for what the world is supposed to look like is Green Hill.

Rings are also treated as a minor plot point early on to incorporate another thing from the games, as Sonic is late for the big battle against Eggman because he was off collecting extra rings. But despite how often it's brought up in that context, they aren't actually a factor in the fight at all, and then rings are never seen again in the AUs.

Also Orbot and Cubot are in this in the regular universe and then we never see them again? Are they going to come back??

This extends beyond these pedantic nitpicks, though. To me, the worst offender of the show selectively choosing when to care about the source material is the dichotomy of the character writing in the alternate universes.

Every AU will have one or two takes on one of Sonic's friends (Tails, Amy, Knuckles, Rouge, and Big) who are The Interesting Ones, the spotlighted characters for each subplot. These are the ones that get actual character arcs, and they feel like they're written in conversation with their original game counterparts in interesting ways.

In the dystopian world, Tails is known as Nine, a cynical loner inventor who was never saved from his bullies and inspired to be a hero by Sonic - but who, when pushed, is still a good kid deep down. In the jungle world, Amy is the extremist Thorn Rose who rides around on a giant Flicky like it's a chocobo and prevents foragers from "stealing" from the forest, possibly riffing on her bond with the Flickies in SA1. She's still looking out for the little guy, she's just doing so at the expense of everyone else. And in the pirate world, Knuckles is the captain Dread Knuckles, who instead of diligently guarding a magic rock was a pirate obsessed with obtaining a magic rock, and who swore off of that quest (and fighting in general) after it cost him the trust of his original crew.

These characters and their interactions with Sonic are all fun - Nine in particular provided a lot of my favorite emotional moments so far - and it feels like it gets at why you would do a multiverse story like this in the first place. You get to examine the characters from other angles! It's just that then there's... the rest. Characters who aren't the focus will just kind of get inserted into roles as Man of Action rests on broad cartoon tropes instead of actually doing anything with the Sonic source material. The dystopia of New Yolk City feels like a good fit given the history of the franchise, but then the other two worlds we've seen so far rely largely on stock "tribal" tropes and pirates going yaarrrrr.

I'm biased, but the worst off here seems to be Rouge, who has yet to get her spotlight universe (assuming she gets one next). This really stings because she's spot on in the regular universe. She hasn't been retconned to be part of Team Sonic, she's invited herself over because she's got her eye on the Paradox Prism (even dropping in unannounced at Tails' workshop). She's got a bit of that playfulness that makes her so fun, and the animation is able to lean into it. But then you go to the other universes and it's all gone.

Pirate Rouge is pretty fun, I'll admit, but I'm shocked they don't play up her love of gems there. Rebel Rouge (yes that is her literal name, the other rebels call her Rebel) gets to be a spy with a fun dynamic with Knuckles at first, but it quickly devolves into her just being the serious, responsible girlboss leading the rebellion who acts as a straight man to Sonic's snark. In other words, she's a lot like... Sally? I hate making that comparison because SatAM/Archie fans have been derisively comparing literally every new female character in the franchise to Sally since the '90s, but it's really hard to shake. (Similarly, it's hard to shake comparisons to Bunnie and Mecha Sally with Rusty Rose, the evil cyborg version of Amy with extendable limbs.) And Rouge's jungle universe counterpart ("Prim Rouge") is also just kind of there as the no-nonsense leader of the tribe, similar to Rebel.

And it's in scenes revolving around the blander of the AU characters when I'm like... man, I kinda wish they'd just made a show about the regular game universe without having to watch Man of Action bust out the pirate joke book and write the dollar store version of Princess Mononoke. I want to spend more time with the actual characters. Because they nailed the tiny glimpses of the game world that we got. This isn't a constant thought I have - again, I like the show, and the major AU characters are cool, and I like seeing new things be done with Sonic. But I'd be lying if I said I never wished the show had gone a different way. My perfect Sonic cartoon continues to elude me...

Story construction

Let's back up a bit and describe the basic premise. On the regular version of Sonic's Earth, things are business as usual, although Sonic seems to be getting a little too cocky and taking his friends for granted. During a fight with Eggman, Sonic accidentally shatters our new macguffin, the Paradox Prism, creating a series of new bad timelines in which he never existed. In that way, I might almost compare it to a multiverse-hopping adventure version of It's A Wonderful Life. A pretty solid emotional throughline to give the show a little more heft. In each of these worlds, Sonic helps set things right with the alternate versions of his friends and finds another shard of the Paradox Prism in an attempt to restore his world. He also usually faces off with the Chaos Council, a team of five alternate Eggmen who are all different ages.

Beyond the fact that there are like five versions of most characters, it's not THAT complicated, especially in a time when damn near everything in pop culture is doing multiverse shenanigans. Which is why it's frustrating that the script seems to think it's fucking House of Leaves.

For the first few episodes, Sonic has a VERY hard time grasping the fact that he's in an alternate universe. This is to be expected to some extent - Sonic is our point of view character through all of this, and it's a kids' show, so he's got to go through a process of figuring things out so that it can be explained to the kids at home. The problem is that it takes him damn near the entire first mini-arc in New Yolk City to figure it out, which starts to come off as insulting and leads to EXTREMELY repetitive dialogue where Sonic wonders why his friends don't remember him and where all the palm trees went. You'd think that by the time Nine explains that his personal history is completely different from how Sonic remembers his time with Tails he'd get a clue, but no, not really. He continues to meet alternate versions of his friends, stubbornly refer to them with their original names, and wonder why no one remembers their previous adventures together. This then somehow even continues into the second universe, the jungle one, where he somehow thinks he's still in New Yolk City and wonders why the cyberpunk rebel versions of his friends are all covered in leaves and wielding spears now. Thankfully, by the time he reaches the pirate world Sonic finally gets a clue, so this isn't a pattern that's going to continue. But it does make the first few episodes a drag.

This, the many recaps, and the out-of-order presentation of scenes back in Green Hill so that they can have a flashback to the regular universe in every episode for context really make it clear that this series was written for TV, not for Netflix. It's assuming that every single episode is going to be some 7-year-old's first episode and that they need to have everything explained again. I'd probably be a bit more sympathetic towards this repetitive, patronizing writing if it actually was airing on Cartoon Network, rather than being a Netflix show where they're dropping eight episodes at a time.

Stiff competition

This is the least fair of my complaints, but I gotta say it. As solid as Sonic Prime is for the most part, it looks worse at the tail end of a year when we've been FEASTING as Sonic fans.

We got a movie sequel that pivoted HARD into game elements, giving us both really great takes on the characters and interesting remixes of old ideas. The IDW comics are still going as strong as ever, with the continually compelling arc of new villains Surge and Kit and now the wildly inventive and downright beautiful to look at Scrapnik Island. And, of course, we got Frontiers, a return to form for the series that adapts it to a semi-open world with the best and most interesting story we've had in god knows how many years.

And then we've got Sonic Prime, a pretty good cartoon that between fun action scenes and interesting story ideas frequently relies on genre pastiches that were tired 30 years ago and jokes that aren't particularly funny.

I think reading Scrapnik Island #3 really put this into perspective for me. Which, again, isn't fair. The comics target older kids and are ALWAYS heavily tied to established continuity, and a comic miniseries can afford to go way more niche than a Netflix show. But Scrapnik is just doing such amazing and original things, bringing back long-forgotten elements of the games and recontextualizing them in fascinating ways. That mix of both the heartwarming sight of the Scrapniks finding happiness in their new lives and the EXTREMELY atmospheric horror aboard the ruins of the Death Egg. It rules! It takes elements hardcore fans wanted to see again and tells a totally new story with them that's unlike anything we've seen before in the franchise. It's really, really hard for "what if Knuckles was a pirate" to compete with that.

But we're still early in Prime. Things are getting more interesting over time, with Sonic acclimating to the dimension hopping and more crossover between the different universes. Nine discovering a completely dead, empty world and wanting to start from scratch there was also really interesting, and I'm curious if that goes anywhere. Again, I've been nitpicking a lot, but the show is pretty good and I've enjoyed my time with it overall. I just don't quite think it's 100% there yet. But I definitely think it could get there within the next 16 episodes.

Misc thoughts

Rouge sleeping like an actual bat is cute.

I like that the environmental themes of the series are such a big focus here! They fall to the wayside too often

I like that the AU characters have different names for the sake of telling them apart, but some of them are pretty bad (the aforementioned Rebel Rouge) while others I just don't get. Why is the old man Eggman named Dr. Done It? Why is the teenage one Dr. Don't?

I thought the scene where Sonic was trying to talk to the New Yolk City crew after a battle and they had to keep ducking under a laser that was still slowly circling the room was funny

The new shoes and gloves are ugly and I think it's really contrived that they magically transform into the perfect tools for every new universe

Between this and Frontiers it's becoming a pattern that Tails and Knuckles can get explicit flashbacks to previous games to highlight their histories with Sonic, while Amy can't. I don't know what to make of this

Thorn is pretty good overall but I do think the flashback depicting her as just randomly snapping one day when her friends pick one too many berries is so hokey that it wraps around to being kinda funny

I've neglected to mention Shadow, but I like him okay in this. It's definitely modern Shadow, but I think "hardass, no-nonsense rival who thinks Sonic is an idiot who acts without thinking and thus wants to kick his ass" is a decent place for Shadow to be in, compared to just The Vegeta, even if it's not my favorite version of the character. I'm curious to see what his role is in the rest of the show, especially given the cliffhanger, and hope he's able to work together with Sonic instead of just being a pissed off antagonist the whole time.

I hate baby Eggman

[rdhadastroke]

So this straw-masked dumbass decided to do a thing and share some personal tips about writing fanfiction/writing someone else's character/writing in general!

Please keep in mind that I am a hobbyist writer, not a professional! These are just suggestions/things that help me that may or may not work for you, please feel free to correct me or add your own anecdotes :)

Tips for getting ready to write:

Make sure that you're in an environment where you can concentrate.

Whether that be in a quiet room, a chatty café, or blasting your eardrums out with music, whatever gets you in the groove is good. Not everybody can focus in the same environment, so your choice of surroundings for when you right aren't going to be the same as everyone else's. I (personally) listen to long video essays, my current favorite song on loop, or a playlist about the story/characters.

Clear a space for where you want to write.

Clear the space of excess clutter and keep only what you need. If what you need to write is a lot, that's fine! Having too much going on at once in your writing space can overwhelm and/or distract you. I know from personal experience.

Have all of your materials at hand.

Character sheets, previous stories, note paper to jot down ideas, rough environment & scene sketches... Whatever references and tools you need, keep them with you! Also, keep a glass of water or some other drink nearby. Hydrate or diedrate, my friends.

Make sure that you won't be interrupted while you're writing.

This may not be an option for those of you living with your parents or a roommate, but it's ideal for your creative flow to go undisturbed, uninterrupted, and unwatched. Is your father really watching you write your fanfic? No, probably not, considering that he's snoring. But it still feels weird to write when he's sitting in his armchair right behind you. No, I am not projecting my experience onto the reader under the cover of an absurd joke, why would you say that?

Now that setup is out of the way, let's go over some actual writing stuff:

Always, always, always block out what you want to write before you actually write it.

By "block out", I mean give a basic summary of the events you want to take place in that chapter or segment. I usually do this event-by-event because I struggle to carry on a story without an outline, but you can do it by chapter or by paragraph if you'd like. Make jokes in your mini-summaries, and phrase things in wacky ways (that convey things to you effectively)! You don't have to be too serious about it. After all, if you're in a lil silly goofy mood, you can get an epic sentence like this:

If you get stuck on a part of a story, move on and save it for later.

If you're anything like me, you understand the screaming, crying, pissing, pants-shittingly frustrating experience of not knowing how to describe something or figure out what should be said next. As angering as it is, it's okay. Just write a mini block-in for what you want to happen, want to describe, or the general tone of what you want to be said. Or use a keyword that you can Ctrl+F for to finish those pesky scenes when you're ready. If your writing software can do it (I have no clue if any one program does this, I only use Google Docs), mark the spot for review to return to it later. If you're one of those frighteningly powerful people who write stories by hand, highlight it and paste what you want to go there over it once you're ready. If you aren't familiar with this infuriating part of writing, you're a lucky bastard and I envy you immensely.

If you have writer's block, there are 8 potential strategies (that I can provide) you can use to alleviate it.

These are NOT surefire fixes for writer's block and are EXTREMELY subjective and results will vary from person to person, but they can potentially help you.

Read a book. Sometimes reading how another author writes (dialogue, scenery, figurative language, etc.) can help you get a better grasp of what you want to write, and how you want to write it. You might even get inspired to make a different story, which bleeds into the next point.

Work on/start a different story. (This isn't always the best way to get out of writer's block, so if you can't get a word down, this probably won't help.) Sometimes changing what you're working on can free up the ink clogged in your pen, for lack of a better phrase, and give you an, "aha!" moment.

Eat and drink something. Brains don't work when they don't have fuel, so feed your machine. Frequent maintenance keeps an engine running smooth, so occasionally get a snack and make sure to keep hydrated.

Take a walk and get some fresh air, and touch some grass for the love of god. Jokes aside, getting your body moving can excite your brain into working and clear some brain fog, since exercise gives your brain a dose of serotonin. As silly as it sounds, sitting in the sun and touching some grass can actually make you feel nice and rejuvenated, it helps me a lot. Even if you don't go outside, moving around is a good way to give your brain a break.

Talk to a friend and get their input. Their ideas can get you through a tough spot and inspire you to get writing again.

Look at pretty pictures and distract yourself from what you're doing. I have pictures of art pieces and doodles I like hanging in front of the desk where I write, and losing myself in pretty stuff helps me work through what I'm struggling with.

Jot down notes by hand on what you're trying to do. Planning things out on pen and paper, despite being tedious, imprints information in your mind and can be useful to your writing needs

If you're writing a fanfiction, look at the source material. Chances are, there's something there that could help you along.

If you don't have the motivation to write anything, don't.

This isn't the best advice for someone who's on a time limit, but works wonders for passion projects and fun stories. Very few do their best work when they force themselves to do it. Besides, there's no point in having a hobby if you don't get joy out of it and overly stress over it.

Writing someone else's character? No problemo, here's some fanfic help:

Always look at the source material, and don't be shy to explore new territory with the character.

It's important to stay true to the personality of a character when you're writing someone else's creation, but don't be afraid to throw in some headcanons and artistic flair. Remember, there's a difference between writing a character unrealistically (pertaining to personality, likes, interests, and universe/world/time period) and changing the circumstances of the original story. Characters are people too, and people react differently to the same thing depending on the world around them. A character may not have [x] trait if [y] event never happened, likewise [y] event never would have happened if this character didn't have [x] trait. Take into consideration the people around the character, as well, as they can also affect what the character does and how they develop. Change up small events in the original source material's story to get a different story and a different reaction out of the character. Experiment, and have fun! It's your story, write it your way!

That's all the advice I have for now, and I hope I was helpful! :)))

[2dboisloyal-devotee]

Trying to distract myself my hand at this stuff first time, and want to see how it goes.

I'm so guilty of doing this exactly even tho i love them because uh um to guilt trip myself? yeah.

Warning: yandere?? obsession, jealousy, all around depressed traveler time hahah

Long Abandoned

The traveler may be the hero(/ine) of Tevyat, but there's just no value if they're not your main character anymore...

They hate feeling helpless like this. The envy could only gnaw at their core deeper as they merely watch how you switch between characters, having the others to stand on a high pedestal of your best team.

There's few who share their feelings, but even the others, have more turns than them to be picked in the judgement of your hand.

“It should've been me.”

At first, it was such a great honor and responsibility that fell upon their small shoulders to bear your presence through them, as the unraveller of the stories and dialogues, as the one who does fishing with you, as the one who take actions in cutscenes... Many others even get jealous yet amazed at them at the same time.

But now, they are all mere dull chances, further pointing out their inability. They ache for you to use them in battle, for your hand choose them yourself. Not to only be shrouded by your eyes feasting upon their prowess but to feel the high and compassion they once got from being controlled around. Like the first time... When it was only between them, and you.

They're only your puppet on a string, but that's exactly why and they felt the most alive to be moved by you...

The traveler does time to time take notes of the characters you usually use, is it from their designs, behavioral patterns, or their stories that intrigue you so much?

They have all of that! They're not just plain cardboard characters They have depth too, for goodness sake they're literally your first five-star character! Don't they matter to you? ...they should be, but it's the fact that you see them as if they aren't worthy of your attention/respect to be used ever again—it's undeniable and simply says everything about them.

They know they shouldn't be despising those others who are so lucky (they can feel the others looking with pity and mock), it's your only rightful choice after all... They try to focus more on the shameful part of their feelings and wallowing in self pity, it helps them cope with the reality sometimes.

They know the others stuck out like a sore thumb yet colorful cast to you, compared to them...

If you're the one who doesn't have any intention of using them ever again simply because they're not to your interest, well... what can they do? As much as they want to rebel, they are pretty much powerless against the program.

(They still look out for any of the slightest chances and slip-ups of the code, they use anything they find to their advantage.)

If you're the one who had fun using them, who still like them even to this moment but for some reason won't use them, well... at least they still have a place to belong in your heart and mind, somewhere...

Ah, but trust them! They still always do their utmost best and give it their all (as much as they could in looking like that anyway) on simply being viewpoints through the lens of you for a minute or so at the dialogues.

Even if they may pass as an afterthought or a second choice, that's okay, it's maybe just their time coming at a later but fitting moment.

They won't stop having hope (and resorting to drastic measures) for those good times to return. Nothing they wouldn't do if it's for your blessings... after all, they're vital for those 'archon quests' to progress the story aren't they?

[crossdressingdeath]

It feels mean commenting on it from anon but I feel like the person you're talking to was speaking too much from their inquisitor/opinion/view. There's some stuff shared across inquisitors because that's how it works but they are ignoring the role play aspect and even the actual choice of freedom game does give about how one inquisitor might feel about something etc.

This is honestly the main reason I tend to get a bad vibe from people who use gendered pronouns for a character without a set gender (with the obvious exception of gender-locked stuff; for example it wouldn't be a bad sign for someone to refer to Lavellan as "she" while talking about Solavellan). In my experience it's often a sign that they struggle to look at the character as the abstract of A Player Character rather than as just their character. RPGs are about choices, giving the player the option to have their character respond to situations in a variety of ways. That's what gives these games replayability! And you don't have to engage with it in-game (I mean, I've only finished DAI as Alaris, he's my baby) or even in every post you make (I'll sometimes he/him Quiz when I'm talking about something silly, because I'm playing Alaris and looking at things from his perspective so if I'm not trying to say anything intelligent or meaningful I may as well approach things as they stand in his worldstate specifically), but if you want to discuss the story as a whole you cannot be looking at the player character as your character or at the choices you made in-game as the canon choices. You have to look at the situation as a whole, including all the options a player can take even if they aren't ones you would take.

And it's especially important to keep that in mind with the player character, because while other characters have the potential for all their possible routes in them the whole time (Leliana has both the harshness of hardened Leliana and the compassion and mercy of softened Leliana, as an example; you just push her to prioritize one or the other) the player character only has the traits you give them. Lavellan might see the elves of Orlais as part of their people or they might not; neither of those options is "correct" or "canon", they're entirely based on what character a player wants to play. Lavellan having an elf-specific dialogue option to encourage her to take full advantage of her new position and their support would be good because it would be an option to play into Lavellan believing that they are of the same people, something they can do at other points in the game. They can do it in conversation with Solas and Sera; why not Briala too? But if you think your character's choices are the only valid ones and your character wouldn't make that connection between them and Briala then you're going to insist that that option shouldn't exist because "Lavellan wouldn't think of it that way"... even though they can at other points in the game if the player so chooses. Which makes for really shitty analysis, because if you're coming at a discussion about a game where you can make a lot of different choices from the viewpoint that the choices you like are the ones that matter most you're not going to be able to say anything interesting about anything that doesn't fit your narrow view of what the best version of the story is.

[kidnamedbird]

Hello all!

It's me, Kid Named Bird from Team Kid Named Bird. For clarification, I'm actually named after the team, not the other way around. I'm the lead translator and dialogue letterer for Beyblade X, or at least I was. I am heartbroken to announce our indefinite hiatus from the BeyX manga; if we do get back to it, we'd finish off all the year one content (up to the likely incoming subtitle/branding change) and all of the extras that go with it. This would leave us with a finite amount of work for us to do and a nice archival version of the beginnings of X.

To explain why we're ending our release, I'd like to say it's not because we don't want to. We'd love to continue on this project because we all really adore this manga. It's hard not to grow fond of something you've poured so much time into. I never really even planned on forming the team to translate the manga until the first chapter was about to come out. I had translated the prologue chapter as a fun side-project — I learned how to letter and translate because of it! So once some of my veteran scanlator friends and some brave newbies hopped on the project with me, I felt like we could actually take a bite out of this massive undertaking. A 36-72 page manga every month for a team of mostly employed/student volunteers is insane, especially when you consider the amount of redraws we had to do on this specific work. There were so many text overlays we had to draw over or speedlines (blech!!) we had to clean up, and usually tens of pages of them. Sometimes we had to do the work of a weekly manga series translation to get our stuff out depending on the amount of pages we did. After a while, that took a toll on our team. We can only do so many 50 pagers in a row before it completely consumes all of our free time outside of our full time work or education. I knew that as soon as we got behind by one chapter, we'd not be able to catch back up. It would just cause us too much grief and stress. I didn't want to do that to my team of unpaid volunteers, so I made the choice to throw in the towel. We were doing pretty professional work for free, and we got burnt out. We all had entire lives outside of BeyX, and I wanted my team to live them. It wasn't a decision I made lightly, or without reason. The official release is coming out soon, and if you don't mind the dub names, the previews looked pretty good! They seem to be Singapore/South East Asian exclusive for now, but I'm sure someone will snag the scans for them. Also, the anime, for the first time in Bey history, is almost exactly the same plot-wise! Previous series manga and anime have diverged wisely, but as the manga and anime have an overlapping writing staff this time, the stories hit almost all the same beats. If anything, I think the anime takes the manga's story and gives it far more breathing room and better pacing. The extra character-focus episodes have done wonders to help develop the cast further and make Bird's journey of perseverance all the more compelling. You will still get to experience the story of X in different ways, but maybe without us. If we had the time, energy, and ability to sustain our bodies, we'd still be working on this manga, I promise you that. The kind words we have gotten from our readers have meant the world to me (I tear up at them sometimes!). I hope that one day, we can return to finish off the first year of BeyX content. If we don't, then oops! Every member of our team has other projects we work on, so you can find us there. I can't tell you what those projects are for our privacy and safety, but we do them! For now, this is Team Kid Named Bird spinning out.

3! 2! 1! Let it rip with us next time, whenever that may be! Thank you so much for supporting us!

[mermaidsirennikita]

Any recs with reallly great dirty talk? Like pearl clutching water gushing dirty talk?

Yesss I love a dirty talking book.

Sierra Simone is, as with most things in erotic romance, one of the best in the business. The Thornchapel serise has some reeeeeally filthy dirty talk, especially from God's favorite idiot, Auden Guest. There's one scene in the third book where he's like... talking his partner through it... And another scene where there's a "hey let's talk through a ritualistic sacrifice but instead of killing we fuck and I talk you through what we'd do" scene, though this time someone's talking to Auden. The series is MMF and FF, and must be read in order.

Obviously, I'll always recommend New Camelot (MMF), which has excellent dirty talk. There's Ash's weird mindfuckery approach to domination, Embry's rough "MINE MINE MINE" shit. WHY NOT BOTH?

And then that'll lead you into Lyonesse, with Salt in the Wound and Salt Kiss. All around excellent dirty talk in those. (I've talked about this before, and I'll talk about it again lol--there's an extra Salt Kiss scene where Mark casually calls Tristan "puppy" and it is one of my favorite dialogue choices EVER.) Mark is like... really good at it. I just opened Salt in the Wound to refresh my memory, and he really went off towards the end there.

….. yeah.

(FWIW, Tristan also dirty talks great. He calls Isolde “honey” a lot, which shouldn’t work for me but occurs in such dirty contexts that I’m like oh right yeah I get it now.)

Priest, naturally, has a lot of sacrilegious dirty talk which is excellent. With holy oil and everything. Sinner and Saint have it too, Sinner of the corruption variety and Saint of the "I'm a monk and you're making me break my vows" variety".

So yes. Sierra Simone. Do it.

I actually just read Kristen Callihan's The Friend Zone, which is a football college romance (well, college is really like over at that point) and the rare friends to lovers that works for me. In part because they have spontaneous phone sex while she's really horny and talking about what she'd want someone to do to her (at his encouragement). It's SO GOOD. (This is also one we can add to the "heroine fingers his ass" list, and he LOOOOOVES it.) Managed, her "uptight rock band manager meets wild girl" book has some good dirty talk too, from what I remember. Perhaps in the scene where he pushes his cum back in her after he comes inside? Always a lovely moment.

Act Your Age by Eve Dangerfield has EXCELLENT DD/lg role play dirty talk, if you are... into that. The heroine likes to call the hero daddy, and he likes to pretend (with her consent, it's all very discussed and planned) that he's a dirty stepfather type who's Corrupting Her. It's filthy but also a surprisingly emotional book with realistic issues to confront?

Kresley Cole's dirty talk is OTT for me but I LOOOOVE it. The heroes are always like "YOU'RE STEALING MY CUM!!!!" which again, not for everyone, but I DON'T GIVE A FUCK. They narrate everything that's happening. I really like the werewolf IAD books for this because the werewolves are always like, beasting out but also like "YOU ARE A GODDESS DIVINE, CAN'T BELIEVE THIS IS HAPPENING TO ME, WILL NEVER TAKE LIFE 4 GRANTED".

In regards to her Russian mafia books, I think The Master has some really good dirty talk. Like, deranged, but really good.

Kings of Italy has some of my favorite dirty talk ever, lol. There is some Italian, which Mila did use a translator for. There is always some stuff that's not going to translate perfectly, but (and take this with a grain of salt as I'm not a native speaker and am extremely rusty) but I enjoy it lol. But yeah, dude, those heroes are always talking super dirty throughout a sex scene. And tbh? The heroines often do too, especially Gia and Emma. We love reciprocation!

Sara Cate writes really good dirty talk. The hero in Eyes On Me is a voyeur, which means he talks the heroine through it a loooot. Give Me More has a lot of dirty talk, as again it's super focused on the watching element, which I think almost always contributes to a great dirty talk moment.

One Good Earl Deserves a Lover by Sarah MacLean is super famous for its dirty talk scene, where the hero talks the heroine through touching herself for the first time. It's great.

The Duke Gets Even by Joanna Shupe has his amazing moment where Nellie is like "you're so proper that you don't even use dirty words" and Lockwood is like so do you want me to touch your pussy, your quim, your cunt, whatever I can go on. And she's like *GASP*.

Grace Callaway writes a really good dirty talker in a historical romance. Olivia and The Masked Duke and Pippa and The Prince of Secrets are great choices on this front.

I love the way Mac talks to Isabella in Lady Isabella's Scandalous Marriage because it's both deeply dirty and deeply fond, because like. They're married lol. He knows her.

Any Duchess Will Do is good for this, particularly because of the "recite my courtesy titles while I fuck you" scene lol. When a Scot Ties the Knot has some hot dirty talk too.

I remember Joss and The Countess by S.M. LaVolette having some very intense "THAT'S HOW YOU LIKE IT HUH?" Dirty talk.

Oooh American Royalty by Tracey Livesay has some good dirty talk, annnnnd it's of the "British prince talking filth" variety.

Kennedy Ryan's The Kingmaker has some good dirty talk, AAAND one of my favorite romance scenes in which Maxim puts his head under Lennix's sweatshirt to suck on her nipples while all their friends and coworkers are on the other side of the door.

Deep by Kylie Scott has some good dirty talk, of the "I'm going to take care of this pussy and nobody else is allowed to do it" variety. Which is something I love lol. For context, the heroine is the hero's bandmate's sister in law, and the hero broke the bro code by fucking her in a one night stand, and then they sort of fall apart immediately after. But actions! Have consequences! And she ends up pregnant. And horny. And nobody can take care of it but him!!!!

Bound to the Battle God by Ruby Dixon has a great fantasy romance dirty talk scene, in which the hero is like, spanking her pussy and is all "WHOSE IS THIS?" (her: FOR SURE YOURS) before they actually make it Official, and immediately after she realizes that everyone in their little band of miscreants heard them talking. And also heard the smacks.

Ooooh Preferential Treatment by Heather Guerre has some amazing femdom dirty talk. The hero is a billionaire who asks the heroine to become his domme, and she certainly does make him crawl.

Minx by Sophie Lark has some dirty talk by way of pet play--the heroine is an escort hired by the hero, and he enjoys some pet play. And by some, I mean her wearing a catsuit and ears and gloves with claws and a collar and him being all "good girl, Minx" lmao.

[friendsim2]

I’ve got to ask, why did you choose those specific characters for the dating sim??? I mean, a lot of the team have said they don’t like Vikare, Chixie is already in a relationship in FS2, and there’s not much bloodcaste diversity. Mallek and Lanque are obvious choices but why everyone else???

HEAVY SPOILERS AHEAD!

A few comments on that (this is Jonaya speaking, who wrote the entirety of TechniColor Heart):

None of the stuff in TechniColor Heart is directly related to the actual canon of Friendsim 2 (beyond the Dream taking inspiration from MSPAR's subconscious in certain areas) - like, these are explicitly different people (they're presented as humans, with human backstories). There's a ton of non-canonical lore introduced that while it sometimes kinda touches on FS2 canon (Lynera's crush on Bronya, Mallek does computer stuff, Cirava is a streamer) it also often doesn't (Chixie being Jewish, Cirava being from Tennessee, Lanque's relationship to his parents, Marsti being a former soldier, etc.) Also, because of the fact that they're being read as human, the blood color stuff is basically not a thing here - it has to do with their personalities as people and role in the story. The only meaningful bit of color stuff (outside of being used for aesthetics) here is Maria's being purple because of her connection to Gl'bgolyb.

While a few of the team have said they don't like Vikare as a character (or at least said he's kind of a nothing character in the original - which, like, he gets one of the shortest routes and never shows up again), I think that got turned into "y'all hate Vikare!" which is... not exactly accurate (if that were true, he wouldn't be in the game). He's got a role in the story the same as anyone else, and while he doesn't get much direct focus in the main Friendsim 2 canon, he's got more dialogue in the game than, say, Folykl or Kuprum!

Chixie can be in a relationship in the FS2 canon, but that's not set in stone! That's actually reactive to a series of choices involving her and Elwurd.

That being said, here's the reasoning behind them all! Most of them have some connection to how the Dream basis itself off what MSPAR wants, with a couple wildcards that exist because of para-narrative reasons (i.e. "I wanted to put them in" reasons).

Mallek: Given the role of the Dream, it makes sense that he's a romance option, since there's some level of an implied flushed crush between him and MSPAR (in Friendsim 2 especially).

Lanque: He was someone that MSPAR could canonically have a relationship with in the first game, again playing into the Dream picking up on subconscious desires or previous canon/semi-canon events.

Vikare: There have been a couple very vocal fans of Vikare - and while his role in the main story is the way it is for narrative reasons, I wanted to acknowledge that there's a segment of our fandom that really likes him. Specifically, wanted to give his TH version the same level of depth and development as anyone else. Think of it as a the Dream referencing metanarrative events.

Chixie: Another character MSPAR has a more-or-less canonical relationship with (as a moirail). She's presented as demi and is the only character you can't actually have sex with, hinting at the connection between her role as MSPAR's moirail in the canon world.

Skylla: Another character MSPAR can get very close to in the first game, physically (sharing the slime bath in her original Friendsim route) and the first character MSPAR meets in Friendsim 2 who expresses concern for them (urging them to get out before they get killed).

Lynera: One of the real wild-cards here, since her relationship to MSPAR isn't especially closer than a lot of other characters. The real secret here is para-textual: Lynera is probably Jonaya's favorite character, so you get to date her!

Xefros (stand-alone only): This is less about the role of the Dream (since it's in the stand-alone mode) and more about wanting to give Xefros some more screen time.

Marsti (stand-alone only): Also outside of the Dream, Marsti is part of the whole fucked-up Absent Place storyline, and her romance plotline is kinda fucked up and dysfunctional. Gotta include at least one absolutely messy storyline in the game, after all.

As far as the reasoning behind the non-dateable characters who have questlines:

Cirava: One of MSPAR's close friends and an important confidant in the main storyline. Picked partly to have them bounce off of Mallek in their storyline, partly because they fit well into the "streamer who spends most of their time inside" archetype and I wanted there to be a consistent touchstone in the form of MSPAR's roommate.

Elwurd: She had "lesbian BFF" energy - someone who MSPAR is cool hanging out with, but she tends to push people away in the FS2 canon in particular. This gets developed if you do her questline.

Aradia: One of the characters we see with metanarrative awareness at times, so she made sense to help guide MSPAR out of the Dream. Also, she was one of the sprites made for another game that could be re-used.

Maria (depends on whether you're in stand-alone mode): In the Dream, Maria (whose sprites are from another game that our Studio stopped development one) represents Gl'bgolyb, hence her vastly different appearance. In the stand-alone mode, she's got her own character and plotline that ties into the Absent Place storyline.

Tyzias (stand-alone only): Given her role in canon, it made sense to have her and Stelsa as FBI agents investigating the murder of Cridea Jeevik. A fair amount of Twin Peaks references with her too.

Ardata (stand-alone only): Needed someone kinda fucked up - originally was gonna be more-or-less a Twin Peaks reference as well, but ended up developing into her own thing. Also her role in the history behind the Absent Place plot ties into her FS2 canon role in the Alternian military.

[desultory-novice]

I don't really understand the thematic narrative of the Magolor Epilogue. Would you please explain or point to something or someone that has already explained decently?

I'm still catching up on everyone else's post on the topic, so someone may have already covered this and I missed it. And I'm not certain I myself am going to hit on everything or give it the proper weight. I'm sort of just going to hit the highlights.

I think this is one of those "everyone's got their own good contribution to make", but I will add my two cents...!

So, one of the mysteries to me in the original game was always "If Magolor was a wizard, and actually GOOD at magic, why did he make Kirby do everything for him?"

Epilogue Magolor ends up having to go through parallel versions of the main game bosses one by one, fighting them on much more uneven ground than Kirby (w their friends) did. So in a way, the epilogue is about not just about a generic form of repentance for his actions, but him having to make up for what he put everyone through by going through all that again himself.

There is also an unspoken sort of journey to purify the Master Crown. The Fruit Fragments he collects are of a green apple. An unripe one. We don't know what kind of tree will grow from it. Good? Bad? Dependent on Magolor's choices?

We also see through his skill tree dialogue that, initially he talks about ways to weaponize his skills to make himself more evil and more threatening. But when you max them out, when Magolor has truly obtained the power he desires (through hard work and persistence) he begins thinking about his skills in a more utilitarian way. Can he use Dimensional Vanish to get home/travel to other worlds? Will max Trickery let him built a better theme park? Etc.

(Tbh, I'm working on a comparison of his EN vs JP skill tree dialogue and was still playing in Japanese while I was maxing things out, so apologies if he's evil all the way through in EN. He isn't in JP though!)

This last one is maybe considered a bit of a stretch but... if Magolor is NOT from Halcandra, well... you can take the things he did and argue that makes him a bit of a grave robber! The fact that he disguises himself as a legitimate Ancient Halcandran when he's very much not? And he even dresses like them specifically for the sake of fooling others? Err, I really don't want to get any further into this issue outside of mentioning it for the sake of moving this conversation forward, so let's get to the point.

Even if his original intentions were just to create the galaxy's best amusement park, he USED Halcandra for his own convenience. And, assuming the fiery destruction we see in the opening of the fight with the Master Tree portrays the fall of Halcandra, then Magolor is basically made to "put up or shut up?" He "made his fakey-fake Halcandran bed and now he has to lay in it?" Or "If you're so Halcandran, then save it from the thing that destroyed it...?"

It works a little better and comes off a little nicer if we later find out he IS a very distant descendant of Halcandra, born from survivors of either the Jamba diaspora or escapees of the Galactic Nightmare. But there's something to be said about Magolor quite literally having to pick up the sword to fight for his "adopted" homeland.

I suppose what all that works out to is that the overarching narrative is not just repentance, but that making up for a lie takes serious effort. Magolor has to truly put in the (non-existent) legwork to redeem himself. And we see him show some real emotion (he's heavily implied to cry) after surviving the fight with the Tree Crown.

Speaking of the Tree Crown, you could also take some cues from its connection with the legendary version of Mistilteinn and the stuff with traveling down into the underworld!

[kiss-my-freckle]

Full Episode Commentary

1x19: Miss Mystic Falls

Elena: Stefan. Damon: Better. Me.

Throughout this episode, Damon and Stefan are written alongside each other, but in the opposite. To see Damon's signature moment, you have to consider the physical heart vs the emotional heart as I've mentioned in my 1x18 re-watch post. For Stefan, it's blood. For Damon, it's emotion.

Stefan drives to school in his cherry red car. "Yeah, I mean the worst part is over so… now all I want to do is just spend as much time with you as possible." There isn't a time in their relationship when Stefan isn't lying to Elena. I've never seen anyone lie this much. He wants Elena to go on without him so she doesn't see the empty blood bags in his trunk. Relationships take two people, but Stefan has yet to embrace this concept. Liz tells Damon that the blood banks have been cleared out. He suspects tomb vampires rather than Stefan because he has no idea his brother is a blood addict. Being a ripper and being a blood addict are two different things. It's hilarious to watch Damon in his scenes with John because they're so very much alike. John offers to work with Damon to get to the bottom of their blood bank problem. "I think we could make a good team, don't you think, Damon?" If only John dealt with his hatred sooner. They make a great team saving Elena in season 2. Damon feeds Elena his blood, John does the witch spell to keep her human.

Bonnie finally returns after leaving in 1x14. She treats Stefan a certain way in these episodes because she knows he's the reason Sheila died. It was all to save Stefan for Elena. Bonnie is the #1 reason Sheila is dead, but she has a hard time accepting responsibility for her actions. Easier to blame others than carry guilt. She should've kept Damon and Stefan in the tomb and gave Sheila a few days rest. It's not like they were going anywhere.

Anna shows up at the boarding house. She's there to see Damon on Pearl's behalf. Damon blames her and the tomb vampires for the missing blood because he stil has no idea Stefan is an addict. "And if you're going continue playing house with these little vampires pets, you might wanna stop robbing the blood bank dry because they're onto it." It's because of Anna that he's able to shift his focus to Stefan. "It's just us and Harper now." This is the moment Damon realizes Stefan is a blood addict.

They repeat a lot of this stuff with Bonnie. She gets closer to Caroline because of Elena. First in Sheila's death, then in Abby's transition. Caroline is always the third wheel. It's like the only time Bonnie and Elena rely on her is when they have no choice. "I understand why. I just… shouldn't know." Elena doesn't know what Bonnie's saying because she's still excusing the way Stefan threatend her. "Because you knowing this is dangerous for so many reasons." Apparntly, Elena completely forgot about the pageant she signed up for with her mother, that's how deeply buried Stefan has her. The writers did a graat job with repetition. They want fans to know this pageant is all about honoring her mother. "Her mom is the one who wanted her to enter."

I love it when Damon confronts Stefan. He obviously isn't buying Stefan's lies, but is giving him enough opportunities to come clean and accept his help. "I'm clean. Believe what you want." Stefan can't stop lying. Elena contacts him to talk about the pageant. Again, this is about her mother. "My mom was really into this Founders' Day stuff. She was even Miss Mystic in her day. I kind of want to do it for her." He finished another blood bag while talking to her on the phone. He shoves it in his dresser drawer. Like the trunk of his car, it's full of empty blood bags. Elena's desire to honor her mother isn't enough for him to get clean. He's heading to the fridge. He looks around for Damon, but gets caught because he isn't as smart as Damon. This is a dialogue combination for 1x18 and 1x19...

"Well, what are those holier-than-thou reasons? You know, we never actually discussed this. You know, I'd - I'd love to hear this story."

"Well well, he's a liar and a thief. So, when were you gonna share? No, no, no. I'm talking about the fact that you're a closet blood junkie."

Damon now knows what Stefan's problem is with blood bags. "So, I'm drinking blood again. You're the one that shoved it on me." I love how Stefan blames Damon rather than accept responsibility, but blaming Damon is quite typical of him. "Have my actions negatively impacted you? I can't imagine what that must feel like." Stefan has mastered the art of deflection, which is also typical of him.

"Yeah, what's Elena thinks about the new…you?" I love this entire scene because Damon is already trying to use Elena to get through to him, but Stefan honestly believes he's gonna be able to keep it from her. "Elena doesn't need to know anything yet." This is a lie. Stefan has no intention of Elena finding out.

When offering his help doesn't work and using Elena doesn't work, there's only one thing Damon can do to stop Stefan, and it's certainly not to drop him. Stefan is far too strong when he's on human blood. Had Damon known about Bonnie's little head trick, he would've kept Elena out of it and had Bonnie drop Stefan for him. "Yeah, what's Elena thinks about the new…you?" Damon has no choice but to rely on Elena, to use her as he just tried to. I'm sure turning to Elena for help wasn't easy for Damon. Stefan's bloodlust is something Lexi would normally take care of, and Damon killed Lexi.

"I'm on the Mystic Falls beautification committee. I volunteer at the poor soup kitchen. I implemented this year's go green campaign at school. I worked for the recycling program and was in charge of this year's police raffle."

I don't like Caroline's character, but she had my vote. Seriously.

Again, this is for Elena's mother. "This was really important to my mother. She believed in community, family, honor and loyalty. It's the legacy she left for me." And every reason why Damon was meant to be her escort... the very essence of 1864 Damon.

John tells Damon he's looking for a Jonathan Gilbert invention that was stolen by a tomb vampire. John has no idea that Damon already found one of his inventions. The pocketwatch was a compass, which Damon used to track Logan. Damon prefers getting his hands on this device John is looking for because he knows it has something to do with the killing of vampires. That's the only reason they'd have a vampire tracking device. "I'm not playing anymore. Get out. Get out." Damon plans to strike a deal with Pearl for the sake of getting what John wants. The vampire-killing device is like Bonnie's head trick, but on a serious level. That's why they do fireworks while they use it. The fireworks show what John is doing to their heads. If only Damon didn't fall in love with Elena at the pageant… lol. John threatens to out Damon to the council, and is lucky to still be standing because Damon will kill whoever he has to for the sake of survival.

"If you ask me, the near touch is overrated." If you ask me, honoring Elena's dead mother should be taken more seriously. Something Stefan can't do because he's high on human blood. Non-physical intimacy is important, and something Damon is very good at. A reason Valerie uses vervain to make it so Stefan can't touch Caroline in the 7th season. The emotional connection will always win over the physical connection. That's why Stefan can't flip Elena's switch at prom. He thinks the near touch is overrated, and her heart is with Damon. When Elena has her emotions off, you'll see that all of her scenes with Stefan are sexual, while all of her scenes with Damon are emotional. Elena's signature moment is similar. Damon doesn't touch her when he puts her necklace on. It's a near touch scene. This scene with Stefan and Elena is important because Carol's near touch rule is leading into Damon's signature moment. He's about to make an emotional connection lol. The near touch is basically a heart-to-heart.

"So that leaves Elena which totally has the sympathy vote since her parents died. How can I compete with that?" And people wonder why I hate Caroline. Competes with her friend that lost both her parents... will end up losing both her parents. "I actually deserve this." Something I agree with, but Caroline lacks tact.

Stefan is really pushing it with Bonnie. Elena questions her when she should already know what's wrong. Any real friend would. Bonnie blames Stefan just as much as she blames Damon. Everyone got what they wanted, but she lost her Grams. Stefan is listening into their conversation. His urges come to the surface when he heads outside to see a kid bleeding from a basketball game. Stefan is so messed up. Alaric puts his hand on his shoulder to see if he's okay, and Stefan chokes him. Because Alaric is driving Elena to the pageant, it gives him the opportunity to speak to her about Stefan. She hasn't seen Stefan as Alaric and Damon have seen Stefan, so she blows it off.

Anna's necklace is everything for Elena. 3x19 in one piece of jewelry, and the reason Elena wears black in 4x7. The scene of Damon when he approaches Anna at the pageant is one of my favorites. He cleans up really nice. I like how Anna is acting as an intermediary for Damon and Pearl lol. Damon tells her about the Gilbert invention, and makes it clear that he'll make a deal for it… Pearl gives him the invention, she and Anna can stay in Mystic Falls. "He leaves, you can buy a welcome mat." If not for this pageant, Isobel would've never gotten her hands on the device. Damon would've schemed to get Jeremy back. That's why he gets the device in the same episode he falls for Elena. One outrules the other, and John basically removes Damon's welcome mat.

Jenna looks gorgeous in this episode. Caroline listens in as she and Elena talk about her mother. The writers are nailing it with their repetition, and they'll do it again before Elena joins Damon on the dance floor. John lies to Jeremy about the Gilbert journals. Had he been honest, Jeremy probably would've confided in him. Damon joins Elena in the changing room. "We need to talk."

His eyes in this scene are insanely gorgeous. While talking to Elena, he has a way of drawing attention to certain areas of his body, and it's all about his hands. When people talk with their hands, their listeners follow their hands. "The fact that you're telling me this proves you care." Damon is talking to Elena because he cares, that's why they repeat it with Caroline in 8x9. He hasn't fallen for Elena yet, but this is her issue in 1x20. He's pretending he doesn't care, when him telling her about Stefan in this episode proves that he does. If he didn't, he'd leave Stefan to his addiction. "He has no idea what normal is. His entire existence isn't normal. Normal to a vampire is drinking human blood, but he spent all this time fighting it when he should have been learning to control it, and now it's controlling him instead." This is Damon's humanity issue. He is ruled by his emotions. "Stefan on human blood, Elena… he'll do anything, he'll say anything because he's not gonna want to stop. Trust me." This is the same thing Lexi tells her in Ghost World, and the same goes for Damon. Most of their dialogues fit to both brothers.

Stefan is written alongside Pearl, that's why I love how they cut scene here. I'll skip the parallels and get to the point. 1x19 is the dance Damon didn't get with Elena in 1x12. That's basically what Stefan's betrayal against Damon in 1x13 got him. He enters the room to find Damon talking to Elena. "What are you talking about?" Stefan is insanely juiced up on human blood, and he's trying to lie again. He'd rather be upset that Damon ratted him out than own up to his crap. "I was going to tell you." This is another lie. "Because I kept it a secret from you? Come on, Elena. Look, given the way that you're reacting right now, can you really blame me for doing that?" Insane to me that Stefan is trying to use Elena's reaction to his lies as an excuse for his lies. I also love how Stefan always makes it about Damon. This happens most often when he's confronted by Elena... he makes it about Damon. "So what - so you and Damon all of a sudden have everything figured out then?" If he'd just own his shit, they wouldn't have a problem. I can't stop laughing at this argument. He spends days lying to her, then expects her to believe in him. It just... cracks me up. Carol forces Stefan downstairs. He's so angry, he shatters the mirror with his fist. He didn't want Elena to see him the way she sees Damon. That's why he's so angry.

"This isn't me, I'm not this person anymore." I love Caroline in this scene. Cheerleading is an ongoing thing, so it made sense for Elena to quit that. This event is a one time thing, so even though it's not who she is anymore, Elena should honor her mother. Yeah, the writers are making this stick… it's for her mom. I don't like Caroline's dress, but she implemented this year's go green campaign at school, so green it is. 3x14 is my favorite dress for Caroline. Jeremy and Anna talk about Elena. Jeremy plans to keep things from Elena because Elena kept things from him. I love how Jeremy responds to Anna. He doesn't view them as monsters. "No, as someone who wanted to hurt me." John is watching them interact. "She knows now. God! She wasn't supposed to find out, I didn't want her to find out, now everything's ruined." Stefan with Amber is when the truth comes out. He never wanted Elena to know, he never planned to tell her.

All I Need - Within Temptation

Hunger - Ross Copperman

I'm gonna cover Damon's fall, and do it the best way I can. Then I'll circle back to where I left off. This scene cut is where Stefan and Damon hit their parallel. "I'm not sad. I'm freaking hungry." For Stefan, it's blood. For Damon, it's love.

"One look and I can’t catch my breath"

"Two souls into one flesh"

"When you’re not next to me, I’m incomplete"

As I said earlier, non-physical intimacy is about connecting on an emotional level. This is where their hearts come in. imo, the tomb is a representation of Damon's heart.

"You've opened the door now"

"Don't let it close"

Their 6x22 soundtrack is for Elena's heart.

"Oh, love, let me see inside your heart All the cracks and broken parts The shadows in the light" Their 1x19 soundtrack is for Damon's heart.

"Can you still see the heart of me? All my agony fades away When you hold me in your embrace"

This is why you get a "near touch" moment during their dance in 6x22. Damon is doing the same for Elena that Stefan is doing for Caroline, only he's showing her in dance rather than telling her. He starts the dance at his signature moment in the place they first met.

Circling back now. I'm sure some fans believe Damon should've went to find Stefan instead of dancing with Elena, but no. A pageant girl and an escort took off without notice. That's two people that were meant to take part in the event, and they went missing after John already told the founders council their problems with vampires are just gettting started. Had Damon left to find Stefan, he could've put them both at risk of a search party. But if Damon wasn't worried for Stefan, the founders council had no reason to be. Damon did the right thing and waited until after the dance.

I love Damon. Elena can't say no to dancing with him now lol

I don't know why I like this so much. Perhaps it's because they're entering as a couple… kinda like when the Mr. and Mrs. are introduced at their wedding reception.

There's something about the way Damon pulls himself into Elena that's so sexy. I wouldn't be surprised if this was the moment she felt how sexy he was. The camera pans on Caroline dancing with her escort, then the camera's like… nope, back to Delena lol. I could put this dance on an all day loop, seriously. This is not my favorite Delena dance, but I love watching Damon fall for Elena naturally. Like… the last thing he'd wanna do is fall for her. Not only because she's his brother's girl, but because she's human. Delena is the most realistic vampire-human ship I've ever seen. Because it shouldn't be easy for a vampire to love a human or easy for a human to love a vampire. "I don't hurt people. I don't do that. I'm the good brother." Stefan has a wall in Chicago that says otherwise, and he's slamming Damon even to strangers. I do like how they're written opposite, though. Damon says he doesn't do good, he's the bad brother. "If I do this, if I give in, there's no going back." Stefan's comment becomes Damon's issue having fallen in love with Elena. He's gonna give into her over and over again BECAUSE he's in love with her. That's what love does. "I just want one taste. That's all I need, I just want one taste." This is what Damon got from Elena on the dance floor. Stefan knows about Damon's signature moment because they're the same, they're simply written opposite each other. As you watch Damon fall for Elena naturally, know that Stefan entered her life for the sake of it. He knew how she'd make him feel, so their relationship was pre-arranged on his part, and for that reason. Damon's joke in the pilot episode became his reality in this episode. "Is it working, Stefan? Being around her, being in her world? Does it make you feel alive?" He finally tasted what Stefan has been feeling.

I love the way Elena supports Caroline in her win, and walks away knowing that she honored her mother. John and Liz are in the bathroom, finding the broken mirror Stefan left in the sink. Liz tells them to get Damon Salvatore. He's pretty deep in the council now, but he also takes his role pretty seriously. Stefan stops to ask Amber why she's not afraid of him. He's so wasted on blood he has no idea he compelled her. He tells her to be afraid of him and to run like hell, so she does. Damon already spoke with Liz by the time he and Elena catch up. He tells her there was a struggle in the bathroom and that Amber went missing. "He wouldn't hurt her, he won't." It bothers me sometimes, how naive Elena is. Like… you know you're dating a vampire, right? Bonnie notices there's a problem, so she follows Damon and Elena out the door. Amber is running through the woods, but apparently Stefan changes his mind. He's ready to rip into her. Damon and the girls catch up just in time. Stefan throws Damon when he tries to help, that's when Bonnie uses her head trick. I love how Damon picks up on things. He knows Bonnie is doing something to Stefan, he just doesn't know what. Had he known about Bonnie's power, he would've had her drop Stefan after their fridge scene. Elena has this disgusted look on her face, like wow. Stefan looks at the three of them and runs home. He didn't want anyone to see him that way, but they needed to. They need to see him, know what to expect, and know how to help him through it. That's what the truth allows. Lies only put them at risk. I have no doubt in my mind that Amber would be dead had they not caught up to him. He would've ripped her apart. Liz shows up, and I'm quite sure Damon compelled her of everything. Damon, Bonnie, and Elena cover for Stefan by lying.

Elena's relationship with Stefan is already putting her friendship with Bonnie at risk. "I told you I wasn't gonna make you choose but I need to make the choice for myself. Please just leave me alone." John finally asks about Anna. When Jenna mentions her mother, she gave him everything he needed to know. He's looking to get his hands on the vampire device Pearl has. Pearl was trying to buy the old apothecary and John has been trying to stop her from buying it, so he was bound to find out who she was eventually. Elena is waiting for Alaric to drive her home. John didn't find out who Pearl was in time to get the device from her, she gives it to Damon as an apology for what happened to Stefan in her house. It's hilarious to me that Damon and Pearl needed young Anna to be their peacemaker. Anna basically dies because Damon fell in love with Elena. He'll give into her when she asks for the vampire device. I love this scene of Damon, Pearl, and Anna. The darkness of it, and the fact that Pearl stopped by the boarding house to see him, to make things right. They're now on good terms.

Stefan is in his room, stripping off his suit. Elena is extremely naive to their vampirism, but Stefan didn't need to call her an idiot. I have no doubt Damon was there through this entire Stelena scene. He wouldn't risk Elena's safety, certainly not after falling in love with her. You wanna feel a difference between the brothers, click for larger view and feel this...

I like how Damon gets Elena to vervain Stefan. Fitting since Stefan used Caroline to vervain Damon. Because it's one of Alaric's vervain injections, I have no doubt she told him enough on the car ride home.

"Deadly beast captured. All is well in Mystic Falls."

Damon and Stefan are selfish in different ways. Damon doesn't plan to starve Stefan for the sake of desiccating him for 50 years, but he could if he wanted to. What would Elena do, report her missing vampire boyfriend to Liz? lol. Damon is selfish with Elena's life, but not her love. Stefan is selfish with her love, but not her life. That's why Stefan will do anything to keep her and Damon apart, and I do mean anything.

Elena has no idea how much power she has over Damon now. He wants to be wherever she is. If she isn't coming with him, he's staying with her. She completes him, the good to his bad. Elena reminds Damon of all that he was in 1864. And yes, 1864 Damon is the better man.

[yanderefairyangel]

*sight*

Alright so basically was again talking about Engage story and how I thought it did a better job then 3H with someone and at first it was very cordial, but when I said that in Engage, animals, clothing and dishes are linked to the area unlike in 3H where everything is linked to the monastery, I wake up to a condescending reply where I am told I have no reading skills and as much media literacy as a 3 year old and that I was straight up lying, before getting blocked with no chance to reply to this person... who managed to misunderstood something I said in less then 2 lines. So I decided that instead of just ranting I would actually use this to show how the Somniel is better then the monastery while explaining further this idea because I actually think it's a clever idea and shows why you should never rely only on conveying your worldbuiling through telling.

So what do I mean by linked ? In both Engage and 3H you have many things originating from all the continents, but in 3H everything is linked to the monastery whereas in Engage it's not, the only thing that is linked to the Somniel is what originates from Lythos in terms of dishes or clothing, and only because the Somniel is part of Lythos.

If you want something originating from Firene, you need to unlock said region from Firene first while keeping in mind that the animals or materials avalaible in let's say , the map of chapter 4 is not avaliable in chapter 5's map and slightly different then in map 6. Same can be said about Brodia, Elusia and Solm and even once you unlocked those areas, you still need to make donations to be able to unlocked some dishes in the Somniel, some outfits or to adopt some animals. Therefore, we understand that those are all linked to the different areas of the world it originates from, all the more so when Engage having no NG+ if you replay another file, you have to do this again giving a real meaning to the exploration phase. It's also giving you the sense that Alear is actually gaining knowledge on the world they live in and are getting used to it, fitting with their own character developpement of slowly stepping more and more into their role as the Divine dragon. Additionally it helps making the Somniel much more tolerable because it gives you a sense of progression, it doesn't feel monotone nor routine like. You get to visit different landscapes that are moreover beautifully designed with colorful graphics meaning you are less likely to feel bored and feel like you are repeting over and over again the same thing. The fact that the more you progress into the story, the more you unlock stuff even activites linked to one specific character (work out => Alfred, Wyrvern riding =>Ivy etc) so it makes the Somniel feel actually meanigful and gives the feeling that Alear is getting used to their world, as well as varying in the Somniel during the playthrough so that at no points it feels boring while still leaving the possiblity to skip the Somniel when you don't want to go back to it. The only cons of this strategy is that it's up to the player to actually seek for the world and do the exploration and donations but depending on what you want to see on your first playthrought, it actually leaves you the choice.

Now in 3H. The monastery is the place where you end up spending most of the game and oh boy does it hurts the story. So while 3H has this gigantic worldbuilding, the main problem is that it's conveyed through dialogue. And unlike Engage where you had only 2 chapters of Lumera and Alfred explaining the whole world to Alear and then lefting the rest to explore so that the story could focus on it's events and left the support dwell more into it as well, the characters will very, very , very often repeat the same wordlbuilding elements. So now, while 3H also let you cook specialty from Adestria, Faerghus or Leicester or let you pet animals from diverses regions... you never work for them. They aren't linked to the area of the world they originate from, they are all linked to the monastery as they are already there. All you need to do is to fufill the request that unlocked the cooking activity. It's not "Oh I went to Faerghus and now that I visited the place I can cook any dishes originating from there", no it's already there. And while I get it since Garrech March is the center of the world and that with these many students from all over the continent, they need to have a lot of recipes from all around the world, it kills the creativity because everything is handed to you, you just need to do some secondary quest rather then actually explore the world so as a result, the only thing you have to do is do monastery activities rather then visit the world to get them. Same thing for the animals, they aren't linked to their world, but to the monastery and thus everything is avalaible regardless of which route you choose. Even in Leicester you can have stuff from Faerghus in the monastery because it is linked to it rather then to the place it originates from, so it creates a very monotone thing in the monastery that contributes to its repetitveness and gives little variety to the route you choose. And when the game asks you to replay everytime the first 12 chapter, let's say that it's not good. And with NG+ it's worse because the necessity to gain activity point that gave the impression Byleth was becoming a better teacher is ruined by the sole fact that all the points you had can be re-acquired right at the begining despite you doing nothing to deserves it on this playthrough.

Moreover, it never feels like Byleth is learning about the world they live in because the characters will constantly acts as if they didn't knew about... everything. It doesn't matter how much time you can spend at the library reading about the family and the world, for reasons the character will always treat you as if you didn't read those. And this is because of being a route game. Since 3H can't know which routes you'll play first, it constantly treats every 12 chapters as if you never played the others while also taking into account that you might have played the others and trying to rely on that for a lot of things. It creates a paradox, but paradoxes never works and it actually hurts the story because one of the reasons why 3H feels so easy to burn out from is the repetiteveness and the monastery being that one place where all the worldbuiling is stocked into when it's not conveyed through dialogue or supports or the main story, it only makes the monastery more and more tedious. Compare that to the Somniel where you have the possiblity to skip those phase, where when you go to the donations maps, you can notice the difference between the different areas, to the world exploration phases after battle where the title screen will appear to tell you "that you don't know enough about said animal to adopt it", where you have to make donations to unlock all these regions linked items. There is more variety here.

If Engage was a route game where you can side with any of the 4 kingdoms, no doubt it would have a real advantage over 3H by the fact that these exploration phases and unlockable items linked to the regions they originate from with what's more, the possiblity to observes the landscape gives much more variety and diversity making the whole Somniel and fighting phases less monotone. In 3H, the only variety offered by choosing your path is your students, whom you can recruit anyway no matter what houses you choose, so it ends up that 3H's has little variety. Imagine if depending on whether you choose Black Eagles or Blue Lions, you end up with different stuff for each route : different pets to pet, different plants to plant, different dishes to cook and if you could unlock outfits linked to these regions rather then having only the outfits that are Garrech March made since you can only choose to dress your units between differents uniforms or a maid/butler outfit. Say whatever you want about Engage's design, but at least, it lets you dress your units as how people in the kingdoms traditionally dress up. But since the only NPC you can intereact with in 3H are people of the monastery, it once again kills that diversity. In Engage, you can talk to NPC living there in their environement. In 3H you can't. The only way you know how people of Faerghus dress is by looking at Dima and the other with their outfit that seems to fit more for a country where there is a cold climate but that's about it.

And worse : since 3H recylcles a lot of maps and place present in the support for the dialogue even in main story, it's even less varieted. It gives even more the impression that you don't move, that everything is static. And it's not even that all maps are the same, but the fact you have so little opportunity to appreciate going outside of the monastery makes it hard to project yourself. You can literaly go click on map yet it feels like you don't move at all and mainly due to the calendar system. Outside of battle and side mission, can you really say that 3H lets you explore the world ? And is it really that different between the routes ?

You wanna know a game that does exactly like Engage ? Fates. Freaking Fates.

Fates has its flaw, but diversity and variety was not one of them. When you choose Hoshido, you get special item originating from Hoshido in my Castle and since those aren't available if you choosed Nohr, so that means those ressources are linked to Hoshido and that gives more variety to the playthrough.You have to choose an entire route to get to have both ressources. It gives actual variety to the landscape and life to the world. 3H in comparision hands you everything it has no matter which route you choose : dishes ? all there in the monastery. Animals that can be found in variying regions of Fodlan ? They are all already in the monsatery, no need to visit any country to adopt them. Clothing ? All comming from the monastery, no way you can cosplay as some villager from Remire or any palce you are curious about.

What I am trying to say, it's that by showing its worldbuiling and letting you explore the world and do all these little stuff, Engage is able to make it's world more lively and creates an actual dynamic between Alear and Elyos rather then having them staying passive. In 3H, the worldbuilding is always presented to us but the fact that it is linked to the monastery and not avalaible in any other context ruins it and fails to give it life, if anything it gives everything to the player no matter the route making the experience feels shallow which is what I am sure player that feels like 3H has this enormous worldbuilding and does nothing with it comes from. It's great to have a big worldbuilding, but because everything is tied to the monastery rather then the region it is originating from, it ends up feeling like there is no substance in this worldbuilding and in 3H's case it hurts even more due to how it makes the replay experience so repetitive. You can play a different route, but the monastery phase will remain pretty much the same since it's the same story for 12 chapters, only some dialogue changes and different scene... doesn't help a lot does it ?

And you are pretty much forced to play the monastery phase just because you need to boost your teacher points to unlock every monastery feature but with NG+ it's only once you'd have to do that since you won't have to do it for the next playthrough making the whole thing even more tedious.

The Somniel in comparison is not only very easily skippable, but the fact that it gets more and more feature because of your progression in the story and the world rather then your Somniel activity does convey a progression rythm making the exploration phase worth it. Unlike for Garrech March were the feature depended only on how much you invested into monastery actvity, for the Somniel the feature rely on your progression into the world. And the lack of NG+ in Engage actually respect that every of these feature is linked to the world and that's up to the player to search for them, unlike the monastery where everything is handed to you, linked to the monastery and therefore making it that the world of Fodlan fails to come to life.

This tell don't show way of exposing the worldbuilding that 3H has is really a big flaw, especially for the gigantic world it created for itself. Engage has a simpler and smaller world, but the fact it lets you explore it and most importantly, interact with the world rather then being locked into the Somniel like Rapunzel in her tower helps it give it life, it breaks the possible monotony of the Somniel by giving variety to your moves.

If 3H had a world hub phase like Engage, you have no idea how this would improve it's wordbuilding by giving it actual substance. At first Engage's activity might seems like silly little fun, but it actually gives you a dynamic and active relationship to said world rather then staying at home and having everything handed to you over

Now that's not saying Engage has a perfect worldbuilding but I can say that if the devs had a library like for 3h, it's likely that to fill it you'd have to again unlock the kingdoms first to have them in the Somniel and it's possible they might have you have a mini games like a quizz with Vander since it's how it worked for all the Royals having a special activity to train Alear. And in the case of 3H, if the reading could actually pay off. That would be an improvement.