#me when I mesh the dungeons

[actually-nagito]

Marcille painting warm-up while I wait for my doctor

[dogsdontdie04]

where my dungeon mesh heads at

Edit: someone asked me to add this ID so here ya go. I edited to makeit more accurate

[ID: a comic of Marcille and Chilchuck from Dungeon Meshi/Delicious in Dungeon. In the first panel, Chilchuck sits at a table, leaning back in his chair with his arms crossed behind his head. His eyes are half closed as he blows smoke from his mouth. The table in front of him contains an ash tray filled with many cigarette butts. Marcille stands next to him, looking down with furrowed brows and a frown. She says "Youve already smoked 9 cigarettes today down to the filter / don't you think that's more than enough"

In the second panel Chilchuck is holding a fresh cigarette in one hand, lifted up to his mouth. A lighter is in his other hand as he prepares to light his tenth ciggy. He looks over at Marcille and replies "Dont worry my body lets me know when Im done by vomiting". Marcille looks at him with furrowed brows, wide eyes, and a strained smile. She thinks to herself "ooohh hes going to die". End ID]

[ellaphnt]

Saw ur Toshiro post, and I absolutely agree that Toshiro's outburst will be a stepping stone for both um an Laios to grow and that the buildup was because Shuro didn't want to ruin situation he was still trying to figure out. But the funniest thing is, afaik, Laios and Falin are *also Foreigners* for quite far away. Their country is simply Scandinavian/northern Europe themed. I don't think we see any long-lived races in their flash backs (baring the dead man buying a ring of elves?). And both Falin and Laois definitly are the equivalent of nobility/Local chiefs kids. But instead of being send out with all their assistants and guards, Laios ran away and suffered in the army and then on his own in a caravan , and Falin was send to a Magial School full of other races and people. They both had time to 'adjust' to the wider world (and still carry a bit of home-grown uh...prejudice (mountain people)). So when they met Shuro both of them were well used to meeting people not from their Country. Toshiro not being either from the tiny Island or the nearby lands simply didn't mesh with how they had adapted to behave. Plus, obviously, Laios textual Autism. But I feel like Laios could totally have figured it out if he had met people from Shuros island before who would have told him, he does after all know how to behave around Dwarves and such, who also have quite diffrent culturual norms. Sorry for the ramble xD Good Toshiro post!

Hi hi! I’m really glad you’re adding onto my silly brain thoughts hehe - I’m super happy to hear yours, especially since they make me think more! Warning this is going to be long, talking about dungeon meshi is just a lot of fun.

When I said foreigner, I should have clarified that that I meant he’s a stranger to the CULTURE. A good chunk of the people in the island are not native to it! But culturally, they have the social background to fit in. They didn’t all come from the same place, yes, but they grew up in European-esque cultures and interacted to some extent with other races. Even Kabru and Rin are not foreign to this type of culture because they grew up with Western/European socialization.

Gonna elaborate bc I think it’s fascinating: From what we know about the Eastern islands, the worldview is very very different. In the Adventurer’s Bible where Kabru talks to Hien, they talk about how the East defines “humans” as “tallmen”, and oni/ogres were the only “other”. In the post-canon snippet where Toshiro talks to Falin, he even refers to Eastern thinking as “backward” due to the lack of long-lived races. Because of his delayed exposure to other races, and because the worldview is far more different than the one the Toudens experienced, that’s where I make the statement that he had more to adjust to.

I’ll also note, the fact that the Toudens are subjectively more adjusted to seeing and accommodating other races makes Laios’ statement that Toshiro “had an odd appearance” an even more bizarre thing to say. And although we can assume Toshiro also has his biases, we don’t see them highlighted like other characters have had (to my knowledge). So it makes it seem like he was more thoughtful/careful towards other races from the get-go, despite his lack of knowledge. His main issues were always with other tallmen, just like Laios.

It’s good to point out that the Toudens are outcasts in their own right. Both of them went through a really hard time, and it changed them. Laios’ cycle of failures and giving up and being bullied are especially important to characterizing his relationship with his sister and his disinterest in humanity and lack of close friends. Falin at least had Marcille. Both Laios and Toshiro have reasons they’re inexperienced in friendship, but one of them stated it in the story and the other didn’t. There’s more misconception about Toshiro’s character than Laios’. So my post was to talk about that one a bit.

ALSO OOO I COMPLETELY FORGOT but I WAS going to mention how both the Toudens and Toshiro came from families of influence! Thank you for bringing it up! Laios and Toshiro diverge from that upbringing, while making Toshiro and Falin a little more similar. This goes into another whole thing where Laios and Toshiro parallel (and foils?) each other but that’s too long of a discussion. Just as long is how this divergence distinguishes the Touden siblings (too many people have said their only difference is gender..)

Lastly, yes, Laios does need more exposure to Eastern people and Eastern culture to get a grasp on it. He really wants to learn! It’s just that Shuro isn’t his encyclopedia and until he gets that chance, he will make ignorant takes. I can think of two more that will occur in the main narrative alone. (but like Toshiro said, Laios has no malicious intent, that’s what makes it all the more complicated)

While there’s good conversation to be had about the fight from a ND vs NT POV, I’ve seen SO much discussion about Toshiro possibly being read as autistic too, and neurodivergent individuals who can relate to his experience. Often it comes as an intersection between both being autistic and being a poc. I think it brings even more nuance to the narrative. Plus I’m just glad there’s people who can relate to him. He’s meant to be relatable! His problem with Laios is just as much a character flaw as it is human.

Hope this post was a thoughtful response to yours, I tried to tackle everything you mentioned! Thank you sm for the ask :D

Edit: for the sake of context, here’s the og post that’s being referred to!

[dylawas-reblogs]

be me

be looking at Baldur's Gate III modding again

be looking at how to make custom clothes/armor (I am unimpressed with currently existing dress mods)

Modder's Resource page for importing/exporting models from the game

talks about vertex painting (painting information on the "corners" of the squares that make up a 3D model/mesh)

"The game’s armour system works by vertex paint. It uses this, in combination with the .lsx code, to tell it what to hide and what to show. For example, an armour mesh may unload the torso as it will not be shown. The bottom half of a pant leg may not show when boots are equipped."

"Genitals have their own vertex paint and only load in when nothing with the 'hide genitals' tag is equipped."

epiphany.jpeg

Gale's Dick Slip

back in February, freecam modders find an unfortunate mistake in the mesh for one of Gale's epilogue outfits (no spoilers)

underwear on, dick still out. Would not have normally been noticeable in regular gameplay.

become enlightened on the nature of Gale's Dick Slip

too enlightened

I am now obsessed about Gale's Dick Slip

I have to thrust this information upon as many people as I can

throw together an entire slideshow presentation to give to my Dungeons and Dragons group a half hour before playtime

title it "You're not ready for this presentation's twist"

enter Discord call laughing like a maniac

they are fear.png

start by explaining 3d meshes, vertex painting, then how to export Baldur's Gate models to alter

give a wealth of genuinely useful 3D modeling/modding information purely for context

"Thus, we arrive at the crux of Larian’s Folly…"

"GALE'S DICK SLIP"

reveal Gale's Dick Slip

DND group bewildered

give my theory on what happened to make Gale be freeballing

refuse to elaborate

leave

[blacklegsanjiii]

Okay okay youve awakend brain worms in me, hear me out:

Sanji escaping the dungeon a few weeks earlier causing him to be in the grandline instead of east blue and meeting none other than ✨Robin✨ maybe sanjis somehow being hunted by germa or smth so theyre both on the run and they make a pact to help each other (which is rocky at first cause they both have hella trust issues) but slowly opening up to each other more and more and being each others only trust person...

Idk!! Im reallt loving all your different sanji situations especially since i see him as a barbie character (he has so many jobs!! Lmao) and ive always loveedd his friendship with Robin since i imagine them both having a bit of a morbid humour

Fuck that's good. That's so fucking good ommmggggg.

17 year old Nico Robin picking up a starved and beaten 8 year old Sanji. Both of them flinching at touch no matter how kind or anything. After a year they're probably close and sharing beds/blankets/stuff like that. Doesn't mean it's not hard or anything. Sanji suffers from nightmares every night and is running on very little sleep most of the time. Robin doesn't know how to comfort him at first because sometimes when he wakes up it's straight into a panic attack.

Robin explains Ohara and the buster call, Sanji explains Germa and his issue with bugs from the mask. Robin pulls this impossibly tiny child to her and holds him as they both cry. This is the first time they really touch each other without flinching and such. If they're running from Cipher Pol or the marines or even Aokiji Robin makes sure to always hold the younger's hand. Makes sure to keep him with her at all times.

They spend a lot of time traveling and reading and Sanji gets better at cooking and feeding them and Robin only gets smarter. Sanji gets a bounty as well, guilty by association and the theft and everything else. He's got to have a name like Robin does but I don't know what.

Eventually they wind up in Alabasta working under Crocodile. Ms. All Sunday and Mr. Prince are excellent workers, highly skilled and still able to do what they love. I imagine Robin also taught Sanji to read the poneglyphs in case she dies. Sanji tells her about the All Blue. They have a pact with each other, if one dies the other will try to fulfill the other's dream. It's a lot of weight on their shoulders. Ohara and Germa, the government, the history they have.

When they ask to join the Strawhat crew Luffy lets them when he finds out Sanji can cook and Robin is an archeologist. They don't mesh well at first. Zoro trusts them on the Captain's word but he picks fight with Sanji because he doesn't use weapons and he and Robin are on edge.

When they run into Aokiji he looks at Sanji and Robin. Aokiji mentions off handedly that Sanji's bounty might be getting updated. They leave and Enies Lobby happens and Robin and Sanji are tense. They just are. It probably falls apart and Sanji says it should have been both of them at once because that way they wouldn't have hurt the crew twice, Robin agrees. Luffy yells at both of them for that, saying that they are apart of his crew and won't let them leave until they're dreams are accomplished.

Skipping ahead to WCI Robin goes with Luffy instead of Nami. Robin is dead set on bringing up what happened in Enies Lobby against Sanji because how dare there be a double standard. Even when she finds out they have Cipher Pol over them again. Then she finds out about the cuffs.

How dare Judge and Big Mom? How fucking dare they. Those are his hands, his greatest treasures and tools. Sanji explains that he wants to save his family and they do, Robin doesn't like it because she saw Sanji fresh out of the dungeon, a skeleton wrapped in paper skin covered in bruises and cuts. Robin will let Judge live but on the escape when Judge is saying that shit?

Robin pulls him close and traps him in her arms and threatens him. Devil Child Nico Robin is not one to be played with, especially when it comes to the only person she really truly trusts. So she makes it very clear that she is letting him live this time but if she sees him again? IF they even happen to be in the same town? He will be killed, it will be painful. Sanji is letting her because this is Robin's turn to be protective.

On the way to Wano they're sitting next to each other and Robin mentions that if she was allowed to she would have killed him then and there for how she found Sanji. Sanji nods and apologizes for the trouble and Robin frowns at him. Something akin to "Remember Enies Lobby?" where Sanji mutters that it still should have been both of them. Robin pulls him close and mutters that this should have been both of them too.

[rain2bow2]

Analysation of Hell in my eyes. Feel free to disprove any of my analysis or crazy ramblings about how I just don't understand anything in the comments.

long staircase

I didn't happen to see any other doors in the Long Staircase... perhaps it's just another optical illusion to drive the sinners crazy, but the actual demons of hell actually know how to navigate? Also, why did the stalker woman (Maron?) just... sitting there? Why is her soul not captured by a demon like Edwin's was?

Perhaps because of the demonic ritual, Edwin's life immediately belonged to that apologetic demon, who traded him multiple times until he had reached one of the worst levels of hell. I would presume that the better(?) layers of hell were further up, but as Edwin's life is traded more and more he was descended unwillingly.

So, that brings us back to the question of Maron - was she not assigned to a demon once she arrived? So do demons have to make deals with the souls in order to get them, as it is done in Hazbin Hotel, for example? And we can already confirm that its like a market as well, considering the fact that the first demon that had Edwin was more sympathetic, I would like to say, than other ones. So (assuming, definitely not confirming nor denying any other theory) that demon could have gambled away Edwin's soul or like lost it in a debt.

ALSO just the entire way that Charles had to go through the different layers of hell (more on this later) and just the mere coincidence that he had ended up so close to Edwin and his torture room - wouldn't you have thought that his room would be further away from the rest? or even just like... not at the front of the entrance from Gluttony? Idk, but it smells fishy to me, so I think that the directors specifically didn't like show us the rest of hell that Charles would have had to go through to get to Edwin, perhaps something to do with Hell and its inner workings in S2?

limbo

A grand room - why? I would be more like understandable if it was just white like other tv shows do.

Just to get started off with, i would like to mention that I do not understand limbo whatsoever. Why are all the people standing around? why is it so beautiful in comparison to the other layers? why is it that when the bell is pressed, all of the people screamed??

Like that room completely went against all of the other deprecations of limbo that i had seen. Just completely like bizarre in my eyes. Not that that is a bad thing, mind you, just that it's weird asf and I just don't get it at all.

The place had a curtain with a corner pointed downwards to a door like in the middle of the stairs, and on the curtain there was multiple layers put on it with the number 1 on top. But that was held off by a red rope, so presumably, if a person was to go through that door, they would end up on the first layer of hell. (MORE ON THIS LATER)

lust

It has green walls, weird uncomfortable iron looking things on the walls and just dirty floors at first glance - depicts Lust in a great way. It looks kind of like a sex dungeon, does it not?

When Charles comes back from hell and we see the people, we see them like all covered in red, having random pork like things just hanging from the ceiling and the people just writhing about on the ground, meshing into each other.

So. The fact that they are all meshing into each other, uncaring of who they have sexual intercourse with could also point to those people also being cheaters and cheating on their spouse.

The red is meant to symbolise the blood spilled during long term intercourse, but also the fact that there's so much blood spilled when people sexually assault and rape people - lust is not only about lusting for a partner and then having sex with them outside marriage or while cheating, but also forcing sex on vulnerable people and how that trauma then changes those people so much that they could not function after, killing themselves. or also that people kill the vulnerable person after raping them, or also that other more taboo sex things occurs where people bleed as a result of that brute trauma towards their person.

The cattle-like hanging from the ceiling reminds me of the fact that people objectify other people's bodies (strangers, friends etc etc) and view them as nothing more but just cattle. And the fact that that piece of meat is also stained with red like the people who were on the floor speaks volumes about not only objectification and verbal assault on people, but also about rape. The cattle (or the people that it is meant to represent) could not consent to those people fucking against it - also talks about how some people would just see others and then fantasise about them afterwards, even going as far as raping them, all without their consent and for the enjoyment of only the assaulter, and not the victim.

It doesn't seem like much of a punishment though, is it? Those people are doing what they liked the most. How much is it is them just enjoying and embracing their vices? Which isn't a good thing to the people who do not participate in that vice, but to the people who do that vice? to them, that shit must be better than heaven. So what's the point of shoving them down to that part of hell then? Shouldn't those people have the same anointed punishment as the rest of the sinners?

gluttony

The setting is really like a French cafe in the morning, not open to customers yet at the beginning.

At the end, the cafe is filled with people stuffing their faces with their most favourite food and then just vomiting it all up. it seemed to be such a cute and unassuming place at the beginning, but then it was deteriorated and destroyed by the humans, destroyed by their rampage of sin and gluttonous desires.

creepy doll monster

Did it not seem like more of a... pet, lets say? Or a slave? I would argue that it wasn't like a demon at all (going from the two demons that we had seen canonically) - it didn't seem like it was conscious of its actions. Its program was to torture souls that its Master currently had no use for and wasn't going to be using them at that point.

Okay, also going off of some just speculation that I'm thinking of... isn't torture meant to be like super specific to that particular person? like the boy with the books - like that's super specific to his crimes against humanity and the situation that he was in. I mean, "The headmaster told me to do it," the books like in general? They were teenage boys in a 1916 school, they would have had been faced with similar punishments (i hope not but like) and they were surrounded by books in their teenage years, so naturally it would reflect onto the death of that young student.

Now Maron (the stalker, I can't remember her name for the life of me) is sitting on the stairs, having white petals? shavings? around her and is crying, not understanding what was happening. Perhaps that is her specific torture as well - she genuinely thought that she was doing a service to Jenny and that she was doing it with the correct approach, obviously she wouldn't know. So when she would finally realise like 'oh shit i did bad and i shouldn't have acted like that' then she would be reformed and taken out of hell.

anyway, just a really convoluted way of saying that the doll monster did not seem like it was a specific torture for Edwin - the boy never had any experiences with dolls (that we know of) or like running through hallways trying to escape them (again, that we know of) so... yes. The doll monster was just a henchman/slave/robot keeping an eye on Edwin until his master decided to trade away him again.

layers of hell

So, talking about this. This is a subject that had confused me during my rewatch and during my thinking of this tv show.

Edwin had created this beautifully description of hell and its inner workings. However, I could not for the life of me understand his writing due to the blurry image (this is like the clearest one that I could get). If anyone could please transcribe what is written on that map, I will be so happy and eternally grateful to you.

However, we can see by just the image that the layers essentially get worse as it goes down. However, this will also depend on what a person could put in the categories of bad, worse, and worser.

Also, when seeing this image, one might assume that an elevator would be used as a way to travel through the different layers. But the fact that different rooms are needed to get to each one is like really confusing to me - how are they in rooms, instead of like giant pieces of wasteland spreading out for miles and miles, to accompany all of the people who had sinned in that sin? It is a bit ridiculous to assume that only around perhaps 10 people were in Gluttony at one time and that there were perhaps 15 in Lust at one time as well. As said by the show as well, there had been a massive overpopulation in the afterlife and the departments were struggling to keep up

SO WHERE THE FUCK ARE THE PEOPLE?

AND WHY ARE THE ROOMS SO FUCKING SMALL?

I can't see a door into another section of hell that could potentially house these people, so what???

Also, where the hell is the actual maze itself (which changed itself, probably going to make this into another post after) in the diagram? How coincidental that the room into the maze was just so close to the gluttony room, and that the Night Nurse had placed the doorway right there.

Anyway guys, I will stop right here because it is late and I have been writing this for almost 2 hours. Now, I did not cover all of my thoughts about all of what had happened, so I will most definitely make a part 2 to this.

Thank you for reading and enjoy your day. Please talk to me in the comments if this is insane or if there's something completely wrong.

Love y'all

[parttime-creative]

As someone who has not yet read the manga of dungeon mesh, due to ... idk where... what's up with Marcilles black clothes/bunny headdress thingy outfit? I keep seeing it in fan arts and I am getting intrigued. Also why doesn't she have her staff with it anymore, when she's depicted with that outfit? Also yes. please spoiler me, this post is explicitly asking for spoilers from the manga. (or a source where to read the manga?)

[steveharringtonat3am]

Breeding kink with Eddie

kinktober masterlist!!

pairing: eddie munson/fem!reader

word count: 870

warnings: talk about having kids, eddie and reader being horny for each other, penetrative sex

Eddie had been acting weird lately. It started when I told him my cousin had her baby. He got along pretty well with my family, especially some of my cousins, both younger and older. This cousin in particular meshed well with Eddie. Maybe it was because I was especially close with her and she could see how much I loved him. So she loved him too.

He was a little distant when we went to see the baby, not paying much mind as I gushed over her cute cheeks and wide eyes. Normally, Eddie was fine with babies. He would hold them and let them tug his hair and do his dungeon master voice while he read them a story.

So why was he being so weird?

I decide to bring it up after dinner, as we quietly clear the table.

“Babe? Could I ask you something?” I start, and he shoots me a concerned look. We don’t have a lot of serious talks, and very rarely are they out of the blue.

“Sure. What’s up?” He finishes loading the dishwasher, turning it on and shutting it before turning to me.

“Well I just…noticed you were being a little weird today when we went to visit my cousin. Is there something wrong?” I try to keep my voice as light as possible, busying myself with a glass of wine.

“No, there’s nothing wrong. It just…got me thinking.”

“Thinking about what?”

“Kids.”

It shouldn’t be a shock to me. We had both talked about kids before getting married, and we were both in pretty stable spots in our career. But I never knew when we should do it. So I had been waiting for Eddie to bring it up. And apparently this is all it took.

“Really? Do you think we should…start trying?” I turn to look at him and find him staring at me.

“Well we should probably do some research first, figure out what we’re getting ourselves into…” He trails off, and I suddenly take notice of how close he is to me, and how warm it is.

“Of course! We-we should totally do that….” I keep getting distracted by his lips. They always look so kissable.

“Or maybe…we should get some practice in.” He kisses me passionately, pushing me up onto the cold counter. He stands in between my legs, fingers digging into my hips as he presses against me.

“Can’t wait to put a baby in you…gonna look so pretty.” He starts pushing my dress up and I smile, tugging at his shirt until he eventually peels it off.

“It’s gonna make you so-so horny.” I can barely speak as he pulls my panties to the side, gently stroking my clit. I can feel him grinning as he sees how incredibly wet I am just from our makeout session.

“How could it not? You’re gonna look so hot.” I hear the sound of his zipper coming undone and my response is pavlovian. I instantly start to squirm on the counter, desperate for him to just fuck me as hard as possible.

“So impatient my love.” He presses the fat tip of his cock to my hole, making me whine. Eddie could be a real tease when he knew how much I wanted him.

“C-come on Eddie!” I whine and he finally gives in, sliding in and bottoming out. I let out a loud moan as his grip on my hips tightens.

“Always feel so perfect.” He takes his time before moving, letting me adjust to the feeling of him inside of me. When he finally starts fucking into me, I’m practically in heaven.

“D-don’t stop baby!” I moan. He bends down to kiss me sloppily and I take the opportunity to slide my hands into his hair.

“I don’t plan on it, sweetheart.” He starts pounding into me as quickly as possible. His nails dig into my skin but I’m too high on pleasure to care.

“Want you to-to fill me up. Wanna have a baby with you.” My voice is more hushed as his forehead rests against mine. His thrusts slow, but still hit deep inside me.

“You’d be a great mom…but are you sure about this? We can always wait.” He smiles so softly and it throws me back to our wedding.

It had been a small, intimate ceremony. And we snuck away before the reception to drink some champagne and get a little moment of peace. It was then that I realized just how excited I was to spend the rest of my life with this man.

“I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life.” I kiss him passionately and he takes the opportunity to rub at my clit. I moan into the kiss and he chuckles.

“Go on, babe. Cum.” And I’m a goner, whining into his smile as I cum. I feel him cum deep inside, burying himself deep in me instead of pulling out.

“Gotta make sure it takes, right?”

“Don’t worry about it. We’ve got plenty of time to practice.”

hope you enjoyed!

[elderscrollsconceptart]

• I want to preface this by saying art and musical preferences are subjective. Everything below is just my personal opinion and preferences.

• I also don't want anyone to confuse criticism with hating. I like Inon Zur but I have some thoughts on his musical involvement in TES 6.

I *really* hope that they get someone besides Inon Zur to conduct the OST for TES VI.

The Music is perhaps my favorite part of TES. There's been many times when I'm totally burned out or bored with the games, but I never grow tired of the music. For example I have fallen asleep to the Oblivion OST more times than I can remember and the Morrowind theme is my favorite piece of video game music of all time. (Inon Zur's theme for Fallout New Vegas is my second favorite!!!)

Hearing the Arena and Daggerfall themes on an old burned CD were actually my first exposure to TES in any direct form and were the impetus to my later interest in the series. The music of TES matters so deeply to me. I never want to feel the urge to avoid or feel disappointed by any of it. It would bum me TF out if I was disappointed by the music of TES 6.

For Inon Zur, I LOVE his work on the Fallout soundtracks, but I just do not think his style works for TES.

I really don't like his music in the teaser they used for the now (old) trailer for TESVI. I also don't particularly like Zur's work on the blades OST either. To be clear, his TES music so far is *fine* but its not excellent like the OSTs for Morrowind, Oblivion, and Skyrim were. His TES music is..just fine..

Honestly there are parts of the Blade soundtrack that sound like unused tracks from Fallout (eg. "A worthy foe") Zur loves him some horns, large brass instruments, and drums and while those instruments are fine, an overuse of them just doesn't't work in TES.

His typical style is just too brassy and "hard" for TES IMO. Even when he's trying to be soft with his music it just sounds off. Almost looming and rough. TES is fantasy, it needs flutes, soft vocal harmonies, and strings. Even the parts of ths Blades OST with strings and harmonies sound weirdly harsh and coarse for what they're trying to do. His music has a "dark" tone to me, like everything is tinged in a looming danger. IDK how to describe it. There are also moments in the Blades OST where it feels like he's trying to imitate Jeremy Soule's style and it just falls flat.

I dont believe Zur operates with the necessary softness, warmth, and pulse lowering harmony required for a good TES soundtrack. Yes there are dungeon and combat themes in all the games, but the most beloved TES music is the themes and ambient tracks. Inon Zur's Fallout work is incredible but his style naturally meshes really well with the Fallout games. Don't get me wrong, he's a fantastic artist, but his forays into TES music have been unsatisfying to me personally and doesn't mesh with the series.

I want to be as clear as I can because im not trying to bash him. *Inon Zur is a really good musician and conductor* I just don't think his style works for TES.

I love most or Zur's work, but I hope they get someone with more fitting musical style to make the OST for TES VI.

[f4rfields]

i definitely do understand where people are coming from when they really feel for laios during his conflict with toshiro, but i am not looking forward to the social media posts about how he's the worst and bad forever. i got Thoughts on this.

because laios is definitely not free of blame in this conflict. even if it was on accident, he was doing a lot of racist microaggressions towards toshiro almost immediately (assuming his name is "shuro" and introducing everyone to him this way, talking about his looks being "strange", grilling him constantly for information for 5 hours about his home despite him wanting to leave after the first few seconds of their interaction), and his difficulties with reading social situations was making him uncomfortable regularly. and while laios perhaps didn't know the harm of what he was doing and thought it was just them being pals, that doesn't change how laios made toshiro feel.

but toshiro even recognizes that laios isn't doing this out of malice, which makes being upset at him the way he is even more frustrating. even with the aspect of cultural differences making communicating directly difficult, direct communication in any cultural setting seems to be one of toshiro's weak points, and he's aware of it. but having some guy decide that you're besties despite you not really doing much to reciprocate that feeling, having this guy touch you when you are not accustomed to it, having him say shit that is incredibly insensitive, and having him invite himself along to things is understandably shit that would be unbearable after a while.

the world doesn't revolve around laios, and toshiro is not required to sit down and educate him on social cues/the entirety of his culture's social norms/how not to be doing casual racism just because they came in contact with each other. a lot of this built up resentment probably wouldn't have festered were he to have said "we're not close in the way you think we are, so stop it" when shit first started getting out of hand, but toshiro didn't say that and acted according to the norms of his own culture to strongly imply it. he wasn't "wrong" for making the choice to do that, but it went over laios' head.

while the way in which everything exploded between them was terrible and honestly a nightmare scenario for anyone who is neurodivergent, it's kind of a perfect storm situation. while laios had one awful big reveal, toshiro was dealing with being made uncomfortable by laios for the entire time they've known each other. like that sucks to know that not only did someone you thought you were pals with didn't feel the same, you learned that your presence/behavior was bothersome, insensitive, harmful, invasive, or even outright bigoted. he didn't intend for it to be bad, but it was bad for toshiro. that sucks to find out.

him being frustrated that toshiro never told him otherwise feels more like laios is both saying that to toshiro, but also low-key is misdirecting anger he has for himself for not "getting it". laios seems to be a really extroverted guy who wants to make friends but often dislikes that people don't "get" him and that he doesn't "get" them either. it sucks to be shown that yet again, you didn't read the room right.

i don't think that toshiro hates laios as a person (given that he did seem concerned about their well-being before he left them to continue through the dungeon and gave him the bell, as well as their hug moment in the end), but he sure hated how laios was treating him. but even if toshiro would never come to like laios and even if he does hate him, i don't think that makes him a bad guy. some people just don't mesh, and let's be real - laios' first interaction with him was "hey you look weird let me get your name wrong and introduce you to all my buddies after trapping you in this tavern for 5 hours" which is an awful thing to do.

neurodivergence does not make you immune to perpetuating racism, or make people who find you unpleasant immediately ableist. i think toshiro's anger and frustration were, to a large degree, understandable. it sucks how badly it hurt laios to realize that his feelings of friendship were one-sided though, but toshiro was not doing this out of malice either. it was frustration that built up over the entire time they knew each other, and also feeling misunderstood by laios.

laios deserves love and friendship, but he is not owed it from toshiro just because he thought he was being nice and friendly towards him.

[actually-nagito]

dungeon meshi fans I present to you, my biting diagram

and for extra purposes, here’s the diagram without the last row

just because I think both are important. okay thank you that is all go back to your scheduled programming

@vallhallarama helped me figure out the placements of characters

[trainwiz]

So Morrowind had quite a few quest mods release very recently as part of a modathon, and I played through (I think) all four of them.

Greymarch Dawn is a Jigglebags based faction mod that serves as a prequel to Shivering Isles and probably ended up my favorite of the lot. A lot of these had a lot of interesting scripting stuff in them, but Greymarch was the first that actually surprised me when I realized some of the tricks it was doing (particularly that the tower loops). I am not usually surprised like that, which shot it up to the top of the list. There's a lot of unique assets in it that are used effectively, and though it's relatively short, there's a lot packed into it.

Probably my only two criticisms (one of which was quickly rectified) was that the game's rewards were pretty basic looking (again, no longer the case), and that it ended up having a dwemer ruin when, honestly, not every mod needs to have a dwemer ruin.

Lord of Rebirth was a space pirateyesque mod that didn't have too much that surprised me, but had a lot of solid assets and design work in it. It was pretty short (all these mods kind of are), but there are a few nice set pieces overall. The rewards are a little lackluster in terms of appearance and some of the quests were a little bit too much "find this one thing" kind of stuff that I've grown to dislike, but overall it takes the #2 spot.

Halls of Colossus is, as the name implies, a mod that takes place in the Numidium's big storage tank, with a lot of time travel and time loops involved. By far this mod had the most impressive scripting of the three, and probably the most useful rewards overall with a lot of time manipulation spells. The basic premise was a lot of fun, very Dishonored 2.

BUT a lot of the actual visuals were really disappointing (in particular, the actual Numidium chamber was fairly undetailed and largely unlit, despite being the big climactic area). Fairly weak level design and lighting overall, with a few texture/mesh errors that needed my own patching. It also didn't really stick the landing, with the whole quest sort of just ending, more or less.

Finally, Terror of Tel Amur was the smallest of the four: a horror/house mod that mostly consists of a dungeon that becomes a house later.

This one was fairly basic and to be honest, I didn't enjoy it too much. Too much running around in overly dark corridors with not a lot of detail to make up for it while wondering if the things I could interact with were part of the quest I was doing, with not a particularly interesting payoff.

All in all, check them out.

[tobiasdrake]

Digimon Adventure 01x11 - The Dancing Ghosts! Bakemon / The Dancing Digimon

Previously on Digimon Adventure: Mimi got harassed again and then thwarted Devimon's Black Gear by starving in its general direction. Meanwhile, Koushiro discovered the Dungeon Map. Since Mimi has the Compass, all they need now is the Boss Key.

Now two island shards and four kids are on their way back to the child murderer. That's not necessarily a good direction to be moving in but it is what we're doing.

(Warning: Very long. This one is intensively dialogue-heavy and the dub changes so much.)

We open on a long panning shot of Infinity Mountain, rising up to Devimon perched at the peak.

Devimon: Chosen Children... Curse the fates that have befallen you! Ahahahahaha!

My man, you do not have to worry about that. They curse the fate that's befallen them practically daily. Mimi just cursed her fate so hard, you have no idea.

That long sweeping shot means Dub Devimon has to vamp for a bit, so his dialogue is longer.

Devimon: I, Devimon, had completely separated those seven brats and their pesky Digimon! That is, until that Tai and Mimi caught up with Matt and Izzy! But I'll make sure they never find their other friends. Especially with the plans I have for Sora and Joe on that lovely day, the Bakemon Holiday! Ahahahahahaha HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

Bakemon pronounced (Bah-keh-mon). Nobody tell Devimon that these island shard episodes are happening simultaneously to one another. Also, spoilers, geez. :P

(Can you imagine if they were happening sequentially? We start each one at night with the kids on their beds and then the sun comes up during their episode. That would mean Izzy and Mimi were on those beds for a full day, and Joe and Sora for two. ...poor T.K....)

Jou's bed did not have the luxury of landing on an island shard. Instead, he's been left adrift in the ocean. We find him cursing the fate that's befallen him.

Jou: This is why I didn't want to go to summer camp....

The dub changes out his despair for seasickness. That's not necessarily added; He does get seasick later in the scene. But it is a different source for his present turmoil.

Joe: There's one thing I've learned in Digi-World: Beds don't make good boats. Urghhhhh....

It's at that moment he realizes that while he's been in his fugue, Gomamon's finished off what's left of the emergency rations.

(I'm surprised there was anything left in that bag. The kids managed to stretch a three-day food supply for six children out to six days for fourteen. They've done an admirable job of only leaning on the emergency supply when absolutely necessary.)

Jou is absolutely livid.

Jou: THIS IS WHY I DIDN'T WANT TO GO TO SUMMER CAMP!!! I have to study for entrance exams next year to get into a prestigious middle school! Gomamon: No point in telling me that. There's nothing I can do about it. Jou: (picks up Gomamon and shakes him) THEN WHO DO I TELL!? THERE'S NO ONE HERE BUT ME AND YOU, GOMAMON!!! Gomamon: That's true, but we should try floating with a bit more hope in our hearts. That way, we won't end up getting seasick-- Jou: (shakes Gomamon some more) WHAT DO HOPE AND SEASICKNESS HAVE WITH EACH OTHER!? (Suddenly, Jou's forced to release Gomamon and vomit over the side.) Gomamon: Are you okay? Jou: No, I'm not. Gomamon: (rubs his back) That's why I said to have more hope.

Once again, we see Jou cracking under the intense pressure that's been placed on him. This time, not for his responsibilities to the younger kids surviving with him, but for his entire situation and the societial obligations of his age.

Jou was under a lot of pressure before he even came to File Island, and this whole intensely stressful situation has only made it worse. That he's one of the kids whose personality grates against his Partner's rather than meshing with it (Sora, Koushiro, Jou) only serves to amplify his stress.

Similar to his despair, the dub cuts this context surrounding Joe's emotional state. They keep the argument locked on Gomamon eating the food.

Joe: DIDN'T I TELL YOU NOT TO EAT ALL THE FOOD SINCE WE DON'T KNOW WHEN WE'LL FIND LAND!?!? I told you that we'd need to ration, which means to save food for later. As in much later! Gomamon: But it is later, Joe; You told me that twenty minutes ago. Joe: (picks up Gomamon and shakes him) TWENTY MINUTES IS NOT MUCH LATER!!! PLEASE TELL ME THAT THERE'S STILL SOME FOOD IN THE BAG!!! Gomamon: Well, no. Since you can't handle eating and floating on the ocean at the same time, I ate it all. Besides, I need food to Digivolve in case we run into bad Digimon. Joe: (shakes Gomamon some more) SO HAVE WE SEEN ANY BAD DIGIMON!?!? NO!!! IF I STARVE, WHO ARE YOU GOING TO PROTECT!?!? (Suddenly, Joe's forced to release Gomamon and vomit over the side.) Gomamon: That's enough about food. Joe: Urghhhhh.... Gomamon: (rubs his back) Things will get better soon. Hang in there, buddy!

Admittedly, it may have been difficult to localize the pressure of entrance exams to middle school. That's a facet of the Japanese education system that I'm not sure we have an equivalent to here in the U.S.

Nonetheless, the dub version of the scene is much weaker. The original is a characterization moment centered on the philosophical differences between Jou and Gomamon while fleshing out Jou's anxieties. We lose just about all of that in the dub, which replaces it with a comedic misunderstanding bit.

Suddenly, the boys see a massive crate floating their direction. This changes everything.

Gomamon: A box? Jou: Maybe it has food! Like bottles of fresh water and sterilized food packages! Gomamon: No way. Jou: (shakes Gomamon) YOU JUST TOLD ME TO HAVE MORE HOPE RIGHT NOW!!! Gomamon: Calm down.

Jou's expectations are fairly reasonable for what seems to be a drifting supply box floating in the ocean. Joe's imagination runs away with him.

Gomamon: That crate is gonna hit us! Joe: Maybe it's full of fruit, vegetables, bread, milk, cereal, hot dogs, cookies, candy, and soda! Gomamon: I wish. Joe: (shakes Gomamon) YOU WISH!? WE WOULDN'T NEED MORE FOOD IF YOU HADN'T EATEN OURS!!! Gomamon: You're strong when you're hungry. Joe: Starvation is a good motivator! Looks like we'll need a jackhammer to open this....

They don't use jackhammers to open crates, Joe. The word you're looking for is crowbar. "You're strong when you're hungry" as a response to Joe's third shaking got me, though. That was good. XD

Good news for Jou is that the box is self-opening!

And it has a toy surprise inside!

(I desperately want to be a fly on that wall when Ogremon was making this plan. I don't know what's more ridiculous: That he sealed himself in a box and trusted the currents to carry him to Jou, or that this worked.)

With Jou isolated and defenseless, Ogremon swings at him with his club, throwing a set of horizontal strikes. Jou and Gomamon jump, avoiding some swings of his club while bouncing the bed in the ocean and carrying them under others.

Frustrated, Ogremon opts for a vertical swing instead, cracking the bed in half.

Fortunately, the halves remain buoyant for Jou and Gomamon who are split between them.

Gomamon conjures up his Marching Fishes, erupting from the ocean and throwing themselves at Ogremon. As his colorful fishes harass Ogremon with their tiny tackles, he explains his plan to Jou.

Jou: The wicked Digimon Ogremon is being defeated by the likes of fish! Gomamon: Ogremon grew up in the Great Canyon mountains, so he should be weak against the smell of raw sea fish! Ogremon: HAOUKEN!!! (pulverizes the attacking fish with bursts of dark purple energy) Gomamon: ...or so I thought, but I guess not.

It was a good plan, Gomamon. I'm sorry you were defeated by Power Levels.

Dub Gomamon gets philosophical with this.

Joe: What powerful force could cause this evil Digimon to be driven back and outmuscled by a bunch of small fish!? Gomamon: When the small and meek join forces to fight for a good purpose, they can often bring about the downfall of the big and powerful. Ogremon: Rargh! Get off me! (pulverizes the attacking fish with bursts of dark purple energy) Gomamon: Then again, sometimes they haven't got a chance!

Sorry, Gomamon, but today is not the day for seizing the means of production. But some day! VIVE LA REVOLUCION!

Honestly, I like both of these versions. Both Tactical Gomamon and Philosophical Gomamon have their merits.

It's not enough, though. With his back against the wall, Gomamon vindicates the dub's earlier point about needing his strength to evolve, and turns into Ikkakumon. Pushing through Ogremon's rapid-fire Haoukens, Ikkakumon headbutts him backwards, then nails him with a point-blank Harpoon Vulcan, knocking him back into the box.

Then he takes his kid and swims away, leaving Ogremon adrift in the ocean.

Ogremon: Damn it! I can't follow because I can't swim!

Oh wow, this was a terrible plan. Have fun rowing back to shore, Ogremon. In the notoriously unpredictable waters of the goddamn ocean. Hope you know how to navigate by the stars.

Dub Ogremon also refuses to get out of the box, but doesn't state his reasoning.

Ogremon: COWARDS!!! Go ahead and run! See how far you'll get! 'Fraidy cats! Come back and fight! I dare ya! Come on!

But the implication is nonetheless there, as we still get to see his visceral panic reaction upon realizing he's about to step out into the waters.

As they swim away from Ogremon, Jou curses the fate that's befallen him one more time.

Jou: I knew it was a bad idea to come to camp....

While Joe curses his fate in a different way.

Joe: Oh man. I don't like adventure. I'm a 'stay at home and read' kind of guy.

Unfortunately, the fight with Ogremon took a lot out of Ikkakumon. Before long, he loses his evolution and turns back into Gomamon, helplessly plunging both him and Jou into the ocean.

(RIP Senpai. I can't say I'm surprised that you're the first to die but I can be sad for you all the same.)

Meanwhile, on a nearby island shard, Piyomon returns to Sora, hopping over to her. She finds Sora taking a much more proactive approach to the Starving Digimon problem than any of the kids have thus far.

(And yet Koushiro gets the reputation as the smart one.)

Unfortunately, she has to make do with what she has on-hand.

Piyomon: Fishing? Sora: I thought I should try to get some food. Piyomon: You're so smart! I'm starving.... Sora: The bait is just a twig, though. It'd be great if some fish out there thought it was a worm... (glancing back at the island) How'd things look in there? Piyomon: I can't see anything because of the fog. I think this might be an island.... (Suddenly, Sora's twig bobber goes underwater) Piyomon: AHH! You caught something! Sora: (struggling with the rod, excited) There is a big fish stupid enough to fall for the twig!

SUCCESS!!! Piyomon braces Sora and helps her pull, struggling to bring in their unbelievably heavy catch! But, to their surprise but not the audience's, their big stupid fish is Jou-senpai.

Meanwhile, in the dub, Biyomon already knew Sora was fishing.

Biyomon: Catch anything? Sora: Not yet. Give me time; I'm hoping to catch something big. Biyomon: I've even be happy if you caught me a little sardine. Sora: Please, I know how hungry you can get. If I caught a huge 'any kind of fish', you'd be right there eating it with me, right? Biyomon: Well, since you put it that way.... Do you really think you can make a big catch? (Suddenly, Sora's twig bobber goes underwater) Biyomon: Oh, look! Maybe there's one now! Sora: Oh boy, it feels like a whale! This is a whopper for sure!

Like Jou's argument with Gomamon, this is a worse scene all around. We lose the brief exposition that Piyomon's been off trying to scout the island, and they removed the funny joke about Jou being a stupid fish in a localization that's actively trying to make things more light-hearted and funny.

While Jou recovers by the fire, Gomamon explains what happened. He woke up underwater, spotted Jou, and tried to carry him to surface. Then he saw Sora's twig bait and hook nearby. He grabbed it, wrapped it around Jou, and let Sora pull them both to surface.

Jou survived his plunge in the murky waters, but Gomamon has other concerns now.

Gomamon: Can I ask for a favor? Piyomon: What is it? Gomamon: It's about Jou. Sora: Is there something wrong with him? Gomamon: He's becoming more timid by the moment. Sora: Well, he never had a strong heart to begin with. Gomamon: We don't know what's going to happen from here on. If he stays like this, we can't have a proper adventure! Piyomon: So what should we do? Gomamon: Let's make him our leader so he can gain confidence.

Gomamon's concerns for Jou are valid, but we also see a bit of Gomamon's flaws creep up when he talks about wanting to have a "proper adventure". This is one of the traits that causes his personality to grate against Jou's; Gomamon's an impulsive thrill-seeker.

Dub Gomamon broaches this subject differently.

Gomamon: I'm worried about Joe. Biyomon: You are? Sora: Joe's going to be just fine, Gomamon. Gomamon: Well, yes. Physically. But I'm worried about his confidence. Fighting Ogremon back there really knocked him out. He needs to rebuild his self-confidence. Biyomon: How can we help him? Gomamon: Very simple: We just make him our leader.

The dub cuts Sora's observation that Jou's always had a weak stomach. That's something we saw for ourselves back in the Unimon episode, when he had his first pressure-induced meltdown. (Over eggs!) Instead, Dub Gomamon blames Ogremon's ambush for Joe being like this.

Which. Uh. Is a choice, to be sure.

"Let's make him our leader" also kinda comes out of nowhere without the context that Jou is the oldest and meant to be responsible for us to begin with. Gomamon's asking Sora to step back and let Jou-senpai take charge like he's been trying to do since episode 1.

Once Jou wakes up, the others put the plan in motion. Jou is initially reluctant once the topic is broached with him.

Jou: Where's everyone else? Sora: We don't know. We just got here ourselves. That's why you should be our leader, Jou-senpai! Gomamon: Agreed! Piyomon: Agreed! Jou: W-W-Wait a minute! Sora: You're the only one who can do it! Gomamon & Piyomon: Right, right! (Jou considers their words. Slowly, the trepidation on his face transforms into determination, and he stands up.) Jou: Fine then! I'll be the leader! (In the distance, a bell rings suddenly) Jou: Huh? ...is that bell ringing to celebrate me being the leader? Sora: Seems unlikely. Piyomon: (gasp) The fog is lifting! (Everyone turns and watches the fog fade away, revealing a church at the top of a hill)

Over in the dub, Joe wakes up rambling about Ogremon, following through on Gomamon's statement that the ambush messed him up.

Joe: Where's Ogremon!? Biyomon: He's gone. Sora: But we've got a bigger problem. We can't find the others. What should we do? We're stuck on this deserted island with no leader so I guess you're going to have to lead us, Joe! Gomamon: I'm for him! Biyomon: And me! Joe: Not me! I am not a leader! Sora: You have to! You're the strongest one here! Biyomon: Not to mention the bravest! Gomamon: Come on, Joe! Remember how you fought the Unimon? (Joe considers their words. Slowly, the trepidation on his face transforms into determination, and he stands up.) Joe: I am brave! You're right! I am the bravest one here! Sora: Well, let's not get too carried away. Joe: Oh. But if I fail, who will save save you or me? Sora: My fish line? (In the distance, a bell rings suddenly. Everyone turns and watches the fog fade away, revealing a church at the top of a hill)

This exchange has some good bits in it. I like Sora playing up their crisis with "We're stranded on a deserted island, help us!" That bit would go great with original Jou's particular anxieties. I also like Gomamon bringing up Unimon, though in the dub he says "the Unimon" for some reason. Might be a line flub.

What i don't like is that, again, they cut out a funny joke in this lighter and goofier rendition. "Do you think the bell's ringing to celebrate me being the leader?" is a great bit. They actually moved the ringing of the bell to get it out of the way for Sora's less funny "My fish line will save us?" bit.

Localizers, why are you removing jokes? Someone didn't understand the assignment.

The ringing of the bell seems to becoming from that church. Where do we go from here, Jou-senpai? Of course, anyone who's been paying attention to Jou knows exactly where his mind's about to go.

Gomamon: It's a church! Jou: There might be humans there this time! Sora: (skeptically) ...you think so? Piyomon: LET'S FIND OUT!!! (starts to fly towards the church) Sora: Wait! Jou is our leader! (turns to Jou) Leader! What do we do? Jou: Huh!? Um uh you see.... (looking absolutely terrified) E-EVERYONE, LET'S GO!!!

For once, Jou's interest in finding humans makes its way into the dub, but only in passing.

Biyomon: What do you suppose it is? Sora: Looks kinda like a church. Joe: Wherever there's a church, there's usually people! Maybe even our friends! Sora: Someone should check it out. Biyomon: I'll go! (starts to fly towards the church) Sora: Wait, Biyomon! Joe's our leader now! (turns to Joe) Well? Lead us! Joe: W-What if we see a bad Digimon? I, uh.... (looking absolutely terrified) I need a moment! ...okay!

From there, they begin their march up the hill. Jou mercifully lets them climb in silence while Joe insists on chanting an army marching cadence. Poor Dub Sora.

At the top, they take in their surroundings and get an understanding of their shard.

Jou: Just like we thought, this place really was a part of File Island before it broke up.

A fairly simple assessment that the dub makes much more complicated, filling dialogue into the scenes of the kids looking around.

Joe: Notice anything? Sora: It all looks sorta familiar to me. As if this were a place I've dreamed about or deja vu. You know, like we've been here before. Joe: You're right. This definitely looks like the part of the island that broke away.

So, in the dub, Sora and Joe are pretty sure they've been to this part of File Island before, even though they have not. Further, I had to listen to this several times to make sure I was hearing it correctly: Joe says "the part of the island that broke away" as if there were only one. I'm hoping that's also a line flub.

Lot of inappropriate the's going around the dub today.

From there, Jou gets into it once more.

Jou: Okay! Now we can finally find humans besides us at that church! Sora: Do you still believe that? Jou: YES! They must be there this time! Sora: But you don't have any proof.... Jou: I AM THE LEADER!!! Sora: Yes, but-- Jou: LET'S GO!!! (races off)

Of note: Every time they say "leader", they're using the English word as a loanword. When Jou comically cuts off the argument with "LET'S GO!!!" and bolts, that's English too.

Again, Joe actually brings up Jou's hangup on finding other people, but in passing once again.

Joe: So, we should find everyone else or at least some other people taking shelter in that church! Sora: You're assuming quite a bit there. Joe: FINE! That's my opinion. Sora: I'm just giving you another view.... Joe: I'M THE LEADER HERE!!! Sora: Okay! Excuse me. Joe: LET'S MOVE OUT!!! (races off)

Without Jou's long history of "I bet there's humans!" followed swiftly by disappointment, it's trickier for the dub to make this brief squabble work. They made more work for themselves by carving out that part of Jou's character earlier.

This isn't a mistake or bad choice on the part of the dub but rather an unfortunate reality of the changing language: Sadly, "LET'S MOVE OUT!!!" doesn't hit as comically as Jou interrupting Sora by screaming "LET'S GO!!!" in English and running off.

As they watch Jou run towards the church, the others hang back to discuss his behavior.

Sora: Why is he getting so worked up? Gomamon: (proudly) He's turning into a leader! Sora: (laughs) Hahaha what.

Dub Gomamon's not so impressed with Joe.

Sora: We've created a monster. Gomamon: Hey, do you think a Black Gear got him? Sora: (laughs) Hahaha Gomamon!

There we go, lighter and goofier dub. That one got me. XD Though the original's good too. Sora refusing to even dignify Gomamon's remark with a response; Instead, she just barks out "Sou ka!" while laughing in his face.

As they approach the church, the team spurs Jou to action.

Piyomon: What's that? Sora: Go take a look, Leader! Jou: HUUUH!? Piyomon: Go look! Sora: LEADER!!! Jou: ... Gomamon: Want me to go? Jou: There's no need for you to do that! I'm the leader, so I'll go! (storms off)

As Jou marches off to investigate the church, the trio exchange self-pleased grins. Meanwhile, in the dub:

Biyomon: Who's going in? Sora: What are you waiting for!? Joe: Uhhh huhhhhhh... Biyomon: What's wrong? Sora: Well, boss? Joe: ... Gomamon: Joe, you're the leader! (annoyed) Do you want me to take a peek? Joe: No, I don't want you taking a peek! I can't wait to go in there! (storms off) Gomamon: I think it worked.

Lateral difference here; They're mostly the same, but I do like how the Japanese version manages to do more with fewer words. At one point, Sora's literally just chanting the English word "LEADER!!!" at Jou.

Making his way inside, Jou finds a most unexpected sight.

Man, I sure am glad nobody spoiled the intrigue and suspense of this moment by calling it the Bakemon Holiday right at the start of the episode! No, I kid; That was probably necessary in order to preserve the tension to come.

Creeping around the church, Jou discovers a group of humans in human-faced masks dancing together. He races frantically back to the others and delivers the news: There's people in the church.

Jou: There really are humans here! Lots of them!

Joe delivers the same news but he's judgmental about it.

Joe: There are people in the church! Dancing! Badly, I might add.

Rude. XD

Jou brings the others back to his peeping spot to see what he found.

As the group observes the dancing people, they don't notice a man in a mask coming up behind them.

Jou: Why are they dancing? Sora: Is it a festival? Masked Man: This is a carnival where we give offerings to Bakemon-sama.

Horror scare chords play as he speaks, and the kids scream in panic. To be expected; He said they give offerings to "Bakemon-sama", which is sure to set off alarm bells in any Japanese person's head.

Bakemon is named for the word "bakemono". It's an umbrella category of shapeshifting yokai known for taking on the form of a variety of things, including impersonating humans. To my understanding, it's also a general term for "spooker" in common parlance.

Either way, "Bakemon-sama" is a red flag to be sure. He might as well have said, "Here, we give offerings to Lord Slender Man." This is probably why the episode had to spoil the "Bakemon Festival" earlier, so American kids could have their skin crawl too.

In the dub, we get this exchange.

Sora: There are people. They're dancing and they're wearing masks like it's Halloween. Masked Man: Hallow-what?

Bit of a weak line, but it still works within the context of the scene. When the kids scream and panic, it's in reaction to the man's presence moreso than what he said.

The masked man brings the kids inside the church, where six other masked people are gathered around an altar. As they enter, Gomamon has something bothering him.

Gomamon: I'd like to ask something. Masked Man: ...go on. Gomamon: You mentioned a Bakemon-sama. Masked Man: Yes. Gomamon: The Bakemon I know is a ghost Digimon who lives in the Overdell Graveyard. I don't think he's worthy of being given offerings and having '-sama' added to his name. Piyomon: Me neither. Masked Man: (leans in close to the Digimon) God does not forgive those who speak rudely of Bakemon-sama! Gomamon: Sorry! Piyomon: Sorry! Sora: Where's your offering? I don't see it anywhere. Masked Man: It's here. Jou: Huh? Where? Masked Man: Our offering to Bakemon-sama is YOU!!!

Over in the dub, the Masked Man is much more verbose as he brings the kids into the church.

Masked Man: They're celebrating the Bakemon Holiday. Joe: It reminds me of Halloween! Masked Man: We'd love to have you join us. We don't have a lot of young people around, and no holiday is complete without them! You arrived just in time for some... fun.... Joe: Like trick-or-treat? You do that for Bakemon? Masked Man: Yes. Gomamon: Wait, Bakemon? As in Lord Bakemon? Masked Man: Yes? Gomamon: But the only Bakemon I know of is a horrible Digimon who lives among ghosts as their ruler. Why would you honor and celebrate someone like that? In the words of our friends, he's like a loser! Biyomon: You got that right! Masked Man: (leans in close to the Digimon) Don't you dare come in here telling us who to honor or not! Gomamon: Now, now! Biyomon: Back off! Sora: You're a little touchy. We just wanna know when the trick-or-treating starts. Masked Man: You're not afraid? Whole Kid Group: Nuh-uh! Masked Man: Well, you should be. Because it's a TRICK!!! AND YOU'RE THE TREAT!!!

They really play that Halloween thing for all its worth. That's fair; "It's a trick and you're the treat" is a payoff that goes hard. Credit where it's due, that is fantastic wordplay for a guy hearing about trick-or-treat for the first time in this conversation. Mad improv skills.

Though they're forced to stretch for the Bakemon-sama bit. Gomamon himself has to ID him as "Lord Bakemon" so he can then go off on how inappropriate the honorific is. Probably should have let the Masked Man refer to "Lord Bakemon" for that; It's awkward as is.

The man's mask cracks in front of the kids' eyes. Then it breaks and the bakemono reveals its true form.

Specifically, Bakemon himself, an Adult-stage Virus-type Ghost Digimon.

Narrator: Bakemon. A ghost Digimon that wears a white sheet. No one knows what its true form looks like underneath.

Gomamon handles the rundown for the dub.

Gomamon: The Masked Man was the evil Digimon Lord Bakemon in disguise! No one had ever seen him in his true form!

Once again, the original manages to be funnier than the dub. Bakemon is an actual ghost doing the "spooky white sheet to look like a ghost" bit. XD This is such a goofy episode.

The other worshippers turn towards the kids, shedding their human guises and revealing themselves to be Bakemon as well. In the dub, they shout "Trick!" "Or!" "Treat!" as they do, committing to the bit.

The kids panic and flee outside, only to find themselves in Overdell Graveyard. The dancing humans were also Bakemon this whole time.

Then, at last, the church itself changes, revealing it to be decayed and decrepit.

No option left but to fight. Piyomon lets off a Magical Fire to scatter the Bakemon while Gomamon tries to evolve; However, he used up what strength he had earlier, so no dice.

Gomamon: I can't evolve now because I used it up earlier!

The dub uses this to pay off the food argument from the start of the episode.

Gomamon: I need food! You were right, I should have saved some earlier.

If he'd saved it earlier, Ogremon probably would have killed them both. But they're trying to give this episode some semblance of a story arc after erasing the key points of it.

Piyomon tries to evolve as well, but she's too hungry. Defenseless and surrounded by Bakemon, the kids are completely outmatched. The Bakemon swarm and overwhelm them easily.

"Ow! No! I'm allergic! I'm allergic to pain!" ~Dub Joe, relieving the tension with a pretty good gag. XD

Gomamon and Piyomon are thrown in a dungeon cell. The Bakemon tie up Jou and Sora on their altar, gathering around it and beginning their ritual. They aren't saying anything in specific in the original, but in the dub they chant, "It's a trick! You're the treat!"

Jou: Are we going to be offered to Bakemon-sama? Sora: Looks like. Jou: (bawling) I knew I should have stayed at home studying instead of coming to camp! (A pair of Bakemon approach with salt and pepper shakers. They season the kids, causing Jou to sneeze.) Sora: I-I think you should go light on the salt, don't you? Bakemon: You're right. They say eating too many salty things is bad for your health. Jou: I knew it! Bakemon-sama is planning to eat us! Sora: Just who is this Bakemon-sama!?!?

Glad to see Sora looking out for Bakemon-sama's health. His worshippers were about to give him high blood pressure. XD

Over in the dub, Joe's still trying to take charge and be the leader.

Joe: Okay, don't panic. I'm still in control and feeling strong. Sora: Okay. Joe: (bawling) I don't wanna be somebody's appetizer! I'm supposed to go to Med School! (A pair of Bakemon approach with salt and pepper shakers. They season the kids, causing Joe to sneeze.) Sora: Salt and pepper? You're not really going to eat us, are you? Bakemon: You're a little on the scrawny side, but you'd be surprised what the right seasonings can do! Joe: You think we can finagle him into dining on someone a bit bigger? Sora: What kind of fiend is this guy!? We're just kids!

Here, the dub finally nails the "Why did I go to camp" bit with Joe's exclamation about Med School. Additionally, Joe trying to weasel out of this by convincing Bakemon to eat someone else is fun. Meanwhile, the original has the funny salt exchange. So both versions of this scene are pretty good.

Down in their cells, Gomamon and Piyomon plot what to do. They need to escape somehow but they're starving.

Gomamon: The walls are too thick to break down. Piyomon: We have to get out somehow. Bakemon: (snores) Gomamon: Let's trick that Bakemon into getting us out. He looks stupid enough. Piyomon: What makes you think he's gullible? Gomamon: Digimon who sleep with a mucus bubble coming out of their noses are easy to fool. Piyomon: Is it really a good idea to judge based on that? Gomamon: Yep! Piyomon: So how do we do it?

It's true. Sleeping with a snot bubble while on guard duty is a universal indicator of being a hapless rube.

Over in the dub, the roles are reversed.

Biyomon: There must be a way out of here. Gomamon: Maybe we've been looking in all the wrong places. Biyomon: There's not much room to look in this place. Bakemon: (snores) Biyomon: Hey! We may be able to trick the guard and escape? Gomamon: We may be able to trick him? I think that's a given; He doesn't look too smart. Biyomon: Right. So first we have to try and wake him up. Gomamon: And how are we gonna do that? Look at him. For a ghost, he sleeps like a log! Biyomon: We just have to get his attention or we'll never escape! But I'm all out of ideas! Gomamon: I think I have just the thing.

Again with carving the funny bits. Why did you remove the mucus bubble call-out?

To get Bakemon's attention, Gomamon picks up a rock and pops his mucus bubble with it, waking him up. Then we get the most amazing exchange in the entire episode.

Gomamon: Bakemon! Bakemon: Are you talking to me? Gomamon: I am. Bakemon: What do you want? Gomamon: Try to torture us. Bakemon: What. Piyomon: We want to be tortured! Bakemon: You two are weird Digimon. Gomamon: We're hungry. You should eat something in front of us to torture us. Bakemon: Huh!? Gomamon: Could it be that this graveyard is so poor, you don't even have any food? Bakemon: What!? No! We have tons of food! Piyomon: Then torture us with it! Bakemon: Okay....

This poor Virus is so baffled right now, it's amazing. XD

Obviously, the dub was never going to let these characters start shrieking, "Torture me, Virus-sama!" No way in hell that makes it to broadcast on FOX Kids. But they still try their best to make this scene their own.

Bakemon: Hey! What's the idea!? Gomamon: So, when do you start? Bakemon: Start what? Gomamon: Start taunting us, you floating bag of wind! Bakemon: Wha--? Biyomon: You give bad Digimon a bad name! Bakemon: But I haven't learned how to taunt anyone yet.... Biyomon: It's easy! You just find out what we want, then don't let us have it. Bakemon: Huh? Gomamon: Here's how you taunt. We're starving and want to eat. So you show us food but don't give it to us, got it? Bakemon: I think I gotcha! You know, I've got a bunch of bananas.... Biyomon: Then taunt us with them! Come on! Bakemon: Okay!

This is pretty clever. Playing off their Bakemon being dim-witted, Gomamon and Biyomon trick him into letting them teach him how to be cruel. It's not nearly as funny, but it captures the spirit of Torture Me, Senpai in a way that would be acceptable to American censors.

Bakemon goes and retrieves a bunch of purple bananas. Real bananas, not like those imposter bananas Mimi found. He tries simply peeling one and eating it, but they explain that they can't see. They're too hungry to see or smell the bananas; He needs to come closer.

Once he's close enough to the bars, Gomamon and Piyomon grab him, yanking him forward and knocking him out. With bananas in hand, Gomamon and Piyomon satiate their hunger.

Up in the church, the Bakemon prepare their ritual.

Jou: My soul tastes awful! Sora: What? Are you saying mine tastes better!? Jou: Yes! It probably tastes better than mine! Sora: JOU-SENPAI!!! And you call yourself a leader!?

Jou is now actively trying to throw Sora under the bus to save himself. That's not very senpai of you, Jou.

The dub edits this to remove Jou's supreme moment of cowardice.

Joe: You don't want to eat me; I'm mostly gristle anyway. Sora: What's that supposed to mean? Are you saying they should eat me first!? Joe: Oh, can't you see it's curtains for both of us!? Sora: Oh, go have your pity party somewhere else!

A much softer interpretation that cuts out Jou explicitly saying they should eat Sora instead of him.

The Bakemon perform the ritual, swirling together above the kids to merge together into a single huge Bakemon. With visible claws.

The process of merging into Bakemon-sama is silent in the original, but the dub has the lesser Bakemon perform a chant.

Bakemon: We're scary ghosts! / We like to boo! / Now it's time / to boo on you!

Once formed, Bakemon-sama descends upon the children, preparing to devour them. However, right at that moment, something bursts up through the floor behind the altar.

Don't know about you but I wouldn't want to be under that sheet right now.

Sora and Jou come untied... somehow, it's not super clear which titanic Digimon carefully snipped their ropes. They race out into the graveyard to take cover behind graves while the explosive battle takes place.

Bakemon uses his signature Hell's Hand to deflect Ikkakumon's Harpoon Vulcan and Birdramon's Meteor Wing. We're throwing everything we have at him, but he's taking it all.

Suddenly, Jou has a revelation.

Sora: Bakemon-sama is much stronger than I thought! Jou: Well, he's a ghost! (lightbulb) To fight against ghosts, you need to chant a sutra praying for God's good grace! Sora: Chant what!? Jou: By chanting the sutra, Bakemon-sama's power will weaken! Sora: Can you do that? Jou: Yes! Sora: Do you know any sutras? Jou: My rural grandmother taught me one so I could pray to do better on my exams. Sora: ...will that work against Bakemon-sama? Jou: It's a sutra. It has to work! Sora: What's with this sudden confidence? You're scaring me!

For fuck's sake. You can feel the localizers crying with every scene of this episode. Okay. Now we have to scrub the religious references from Jou praying to God for holy power to weaken Bakemon.

Hahaha. Ahahahaha. Ahahahahahaha. Okay, Joe. Let's see what you've got.

They start by chopping up the footage. The shot for Sora's first line is cut and Joe's first line is trimmed down. They reframe his lightbulb realization as him watching the fight and exclaiming, "WHOA!" and only use that shot for the duration of the reaction.

To fill back in the runtime for the shots they cut, they replay Bakemon parrying Harpoon Torpedo and Meteor Wing. But they put a commercial break between the original attacks and the replays so it's not as noticeable.

This way, Joe is confident and self-assured right from the get-go. We don't see his transformation from terrified to suddenly realizing he knows what to do. He's just got this on lock.

Sora: Lord Bakemon is tough! Joe: His power comes from evil. But I know that good can beat him in time. Sora: Ohh, what if it's too late!? Joe: It's never too late to fight evil! But we have to weaken Lord Bakemon to help our friends prevail! Sora: We!? You're the leader, not me! Joe: Don't be a quitter! Sora: So what makes you think that we can beat him? Joe: I once saw a show about this Roman physicist. He believed that repeating a phrase helped you focus mind over matter. Sora: Let's focus on running! Joe: No. We focus on making Bakemon lose his power! Sora: ...okay, you're in charge. Start focusing.

Wow, it's funny that the dub cut the line about eating Sora instead because they nonetheless threw her on the fire to make Joe look good here. She goes from being uncertain about Jou's plan and probing for details to full-on cowardly so that Joe can encourage her.

Using Sora's hat as a ritual drum, Jou performs his sutra to weaken Bakemon-sama. Meanwhile, Joe performs his definitely not a prayer mind-over-matter affirmation, intoning "Bakemon lose your power" again and again. They can't say he needs a ritual drum, so Sora instead simply suggests that we "use [her] lucky hat".

The sutra works, gradually diminishing Bakemon in size and power. Once he's weakend, Jou leaps up and gives the order to open fire on him.

Birdramon and Ikkakumon's shots hit home, causing Bakemon to explode in a shower of fabric confetti.

Sora: I have no idea what just happened but that was so cool!

I guess this makes up for trying to get Bakemon to eat Sora instead of him earlier.

Once again, the dub cuts out this great line and replaces it with something much more generic.

Sora: Way to go, guys! You got Bakemon!

Why. Why do you keep removing the funny.

Bakemon's... defeat? Death? Unclear. Whatever happened to Bakemon ruptures a seam in the ground, revealing the Black Gears.

We don't even need to touch them. They stop moving suddenly, then fall apart. Rather than going into reverse, they break entirely. So this shard's not going back to Infinity Mountain like the previous two are.

That's okay, though. We have transportation.

Reasoning that the rest of the group will be over there, Jou and Sora leave their shard behind and set sail for Infinity Mountain. We close on the pair riding off to an uncertain fate.

Assessment: In contrast to the previous two episodes, this one doesn't give Sora much of a character study. It's Jou's episode from start to finish. Sora agrees to Gomamon's plan, following Jou around to puff up his confidence. She questions and scrutinizes him repeatedly but remains firmly in that area.

They squabble repeatedly, but it never feels like it's pitting them against one another, the way the previous episodes did for Taichi & Yamato and for Mimi & Koushiro. Instead, the focus is on pushing Jou to his lowest, then raising him to his highest.

By the end of the episode, he feels like he's genuinely become the reliable upperclassmen that he's been trying to be. His plan against Bakemon relies on not just leadership, but drawing from knowledge that Sora hasn't yet had a chance to learn.

At the same time, this is the funniest episode the show's had thus far. Overflowing with absurdity.

On the other hand, the previous episode with Mimi and Koushiro was the best dubbed episode we've had yet. This one was the worst. They carved out so much and only sometimes had something as good to replace it with. A lot of it they had to carve out but there's also plenty that they didn't. Multiple places where they made a choice to be less funny or less interesting.

[itsbenedict]

Games I Played In 2023 And Whether Or Not I Thought They Were Good (Part 1/4)

Once again, a year has passed, and I spent a considerable chunk of it on video games! Here's what I thought about [e: some of] the ones that I played.

1 - [2] - [3] - [4]

Potionomics

This game is- well, I've never played a Recettear game, but apparently it's a Recettear knockoff? You run a potion shop, and you hire adventurers to go into dungeons to get ingredients for your potion shop, and the whole thing's on a timer where you have to pay off a big debt by the end... apparently there's a formula it's aping that I'm unfamiliar with.

But it's very fun- it's got two main unique mechanics, one of which is a potion-brewing minigame about balancing ingredients in certain ratios which is challenging- and the other of which is an STS-style deckbuilder card game where you haggle with customers in lieu of combat. Both systems have a lot of depth and interesting options and I enjoyed them a lot.

Other standouts: the cast of support characters you can rank up social links with are great (love love love the coffee-addled workaholic moth girl and the comic relief cat pirates with a surprisingly dark backstory), and the fully-animated 3D character portraits are really fun and expressive.

Nitpicks: the time system having one time block reserved for the hour it takes to go home after visiting town is... an awkward choice (holdover from the Recettear structure they're aping?), and lategame you kind of cap out in potion-making capacity and it becomes kind of tricky to progress. Also the story's kinda predictable and the villains who don't later become party members are paper-thin.

Horizon: Forbidden West

God this game pisses me off.

Horizon: Zero Dawn, its predecessor, was a fun open-world game about hunting robot dinosaurs and uncovering the surprisingly elaborate story behind why there are robot dinosaurs. I enjoyed it a lot!

Forbidden West has everything Zero Dawn had... and also mountains of tedious cruft to pad out the game's runtime which all infuriates me to no end.

The story is still quite good! And the robot dinosaur fighting is still quite good! Those are the important parts, and they nailed them... but I have complained at my friends for hours about the bafflingly bad design choices that plague every other aspect of this game constantly. It's... there's so much, I want to like, make a video going into the details, but in short...

The cool and versatile weapons from the last game have been split up into piles of slightly-different weapons with different elements so you have to carry around and upgrade ten times as much crap and are forced to spec into a build that locks you out of effective experimentation

Every little noncombat action in the game has some very realistic and pretty AAA graphics animation that takes too long and wastes your time constantly during basic gameplay and kills flow dead

The very cool procedural climbing mesh thing... gets arbitrarily turned off in inexplicably oiled-up puzzle ruins that very badly want you to push a crate around in every way it's possible to push a crate around in order to waste the maximum amount of your time

Cooking "system" which is the most comprehensively useless thing anyone probably spent dozens of hours implementing in their video game

Item wheel that contains every consumable item in the game regardless of whether you currently have any and is basically unnavigable during tense situations like, say, combat, when you need it

So many repetitive sidequests about some poor fucker who went missing and might be in danger and is every single time dead to a bunch of robot dinosaurs obviously. Lot of missions designed to kill time rather than show you something cool or have interesting story.

There's a lot to like and it's super cool but god there's so much to be mad at. Respects the player's time 0%. I'm gonna go off about this more later for sure.

Disco Elysium

Oh my god, this game. It's... really something. You might be familiar with it from memes on Tumblr, about its comically inept slash deranged protagonist and his partner with the patience of a saint- but it's doing so much more than I expected from the out-of-context screencaps.

Like- yes, it's fucking hilarious. I love that about it. But it's also this incredibly detailed work of worldbuilding that creates this whole setting that's doing... some wild stuff. Like, you've maybe heard it's very political? Well, it is, but about weird alternate universe sci-fi politics that sort of halfway resemble our own, and it's thought through all of these invented social dynamics. And it's got a great sense of atmosphere- it knows when to be funny and when to be solemn and how to blend the two for maximum effect. It's a dark comedy, but it's all built on a dead-serious reality and a really effective story.

And- it is a murder mystery game about solving cases! It works very well on that level! It manages to be open-ended and let you solve things in a variety of different ways using this complex RPG stat system of creatively-designed psychological stats, while making sure the central whodunit (and a bevy of fascinating satellite mysteries) stays on track. Extremely good on a game design level.

(also some shit happens in this game that i was not at all expecting and can't even go into without spoilers, but- but holy fuck, the way this game opens up and the things it manages to hide in plain sight... just mind-boggling. incredibly impressive.)

Tunic

Speaking of hiding things in plain sight- neither this nor Disco Elysium came out this year, so I can't call either of them GotY, but... if they had, I'd have a hard time deciding.

Tunic is incredibly clever. On the surface, it's an isometric soulslike thing with a low-poly Zelda-y aesthetic... but there's not just the surface. There's layers and layers to this thing. The first layer it hits you with is that most of the game's UI is in a made-up rune script, which you have to learn, which is a fun challenge and caused me to spend a few hours making a tool to catalogue and decrypt the damn thing- though I eventually learned to sight-read it. But that's just- that's like, the tip of the iceberg, the most obvious twist to what this game is.

There's, like... I don't want to spoil what there's like. The whole thing is about peeling back the layers and figuring out which seemingly arbitrary aesthetic choices were secretly meaningful, and seeing how the game transforms as you figure out the different sorts of secret structure layered on top of each other. It's actually best compared to The Witness, although there's still a pretty meaty and challenging action-adventure game to tackle while you're uncovering the hidden patterns and deepest lore. It's a fascinating intellectual challenge and highly recommended to anyone who likes giving their noggin something to chew on.

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

Man, so... this game is very impressive, but it's in a weird place due to some awkward design decisions and cut corners.

This is a direct sequel to smash megahit Breath of the Wild... sort of. It's very weird what it's doing. It really wants to be a self-contained thing, to the point of throwing out major setting elements and story concepts from BotW entirely so it can do its own thing... but on a mechanical level, this is the same game, with some very cool new mechanics and a cool-ish new story bolted on.

(Said story... it has one extremely cool plot twist that's also a gameplay twist, delivered effectively in a nonlinear way that creates this great sense of dawning comprehension. Otherwise... kind of a nothingburger. Ganondorf is boring and has no coherent motivation, there's no explanation or real plot relevance to the [spoilers] that seem like such a central thing, and... the whole thing revolves around a technologically advanced precursor civilization that's completely different from the technologically advanced precursor civilization established by the last game, of which all evidence has been meticulously scrubbed from the world to... I guess avoid confusion? The one huge central plot beat really works, and the rest is... low-effort nonsense.)

So, mechanically... the developers made this very odd choice to... have the game take place in the exact same map from the first game, except warped and remixed by geologic upheaval just enough to force the environment designers to redo every bit of landscape more or less from scratch. Like, all the same recognizable locations, but a step to the left. In theory, not a bad idea- but then they layer on top of that a threefold expansion to the world.

TotK has three world maps- Hyrule, the sky (full of floating islands now), and a third spoilery area that's the same size as both of those. The game's economy is thus weirdly trifurcated- crucial resources are located in all three areas, so you need to go up and down and up and down a lot. And so is the game's content- there's a roughly comparable amount of stuff in BotW and TotK, but TotK splits it across three maps, making each area feel largely empty, with a lot of wasted space.

This effect is especially noticeable in Hyrule, which... if you've played BotW, you won't really find anything new there. It's all the same places with a few tweaks, so there's not much sense of discovery if you played the original. There's a bunch of landmarks and areas that exist purely because they were there before and it'd be weird for them to disappear... except now instead of some secret or loot there, there's just nothing. Wasted space. And both the sky and the other new map are pretty homogeneous and unrewarding to explore once you've seen the four or five types of things they have to offer- they're mainly made up of recycled assets.

TotK is... I think strictly better than BotW, with more content and more fun core mechanics, but it's a worse experience than BotW if you played the first one. If you haven't played BotW, Hyrule will still be fun to explore, and you probably want to jump straight to TotK.

-

I'm... gonna have to break this post up to get to the 21 other games I played this year, otherwise it's gonna be stupid long and take forever. Stay tuned!

1 - [2] - [3] - [4]

[simdertalia]

🔮 Witchy Shop Tarot Bundle 15 🔮

Guardian of the Night Tarot

Wizards Tarot

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Runic Tarot

Tarot Illuminati

Eros Tarot

Sims 4 | base game compatible | Box up & box down versions of all 6 boxes

1 swatch for each package file

To find quickly, type “witchy shop” into the search query in buy/build mode. If you’re like me and have a lot of CC in your game, an easy way to find things is to search for the title of the item you’re looking for.

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[frostymj]

I wanted to do more for Prodigy Celebration, but I'm having some creativity block right now.

But there was a short story I posted to the Discord some time ago, but haven't posted anywhere else. I thought today might be a good day.

Minor mentions of hunger, imprisonment, death, not graphic. Just a conversation shortly before Lost & Found. I tried to imagine the scene of Dal first telling Gwyn about the Window of Dreams. Good ending.

Prisoner Dal R'El grunted with determination as he climbed the metal walls of his detention cell on Tars Lamora. Close enough to the ceiling, he pushed himself to reach out, and was successful this time at grabbing hold of the ventilation grate.

He wasn't known for being the strongest kid by far, but he was agile enough to pull himself up to peer through the wire mesh to the fan mechanism inside, to see if the ventilation shaft was big enough for him to possibly squeeze through.

"The vent pipe is only 10 centimeters in diameter. You're not that skinny."

Realizing he'd been caught, Dal shot his attention to the voice outside the cell.

Gwyndala, the prison warden's daughter, stood casually with her arms crossed, amused by his antics.

Dal let go of the grating and landed heavy on his feet. "Gwyn! What brings you all the way down here..." He stepped toward the opening, careful not to get shocked by the force field, so he could see if anyone else was with her. "...with no watchers?

Gwyn sighed. "Just thought I'd see how you're doing so far. Figured maybe this could help." She pulled a honey lychee from her concealing robes and placed it through the passthrough. She knew it was his favorite, and watched as Dal's eyes widened, but he tried to act casual as he took it and bit.

"How long has it been now?", he mumbled through chewing.

"Three days."

"Hm. Could've sworn it's been four." He sat cross legged on the floor. "But, you know, brain gets fuzzy without food or water after a while."

"Five days detention. You know the rules for trying to escape. Just like last time, and the time before that." It was a grueling punishment. Some didn't survive it. But Dal was particularly resilient. She couldn't help but add "still better than where you would've wound up if you hadn't been caught."

"I would've figured something out," he gave his usual protest.

"You hid in the chimerium loading car, about to be dumped into smelting. It would've roasted you. How would you figure that out?" She was hoping a challenge would prompt him into telling her his next move.

But he just chuckled. "C'mon Gwyn, where's your sense of adventure? Oh that's right, it got locked away in these dungeons along with the rest of us."

Of course she bristled at his attitude, but she couldn't deny part of her was drawn to the truth of his words. Something she was starting to realize she wasn't getting from her father.

"All you have to do is keep your head down, and you'll survive." She tried not to sound too concerned for his safety, but she was.

He paused before his next bite and shot a piercing look up at her. "You know your father's going to work us all to death in these mines anyway. What difference does it make?"

Gwyn closed her eyes. Again, he was right. Her heart ached for all of them.

"But I know that's not going to be me."

She scoffed. "How do you know that?"

Dal pondered down at the half eaten lychee for a few quiet moments.

His voice was more gentle when he spoke. "Have I ever told you about the Window of Dreams?"

When they first met, she wouldn't have expected such softness from him. But over their conversations she had caught glimpses of a tenderness underneath his bravado and biting sarcasm. "What is it?" she asked.

"It's a pulsar cluster. The most beautiful nebula." He gazed up at the walls of his cell, but he wasn't looking at them. His wistful smile told her he was back on the ship, gazing into the stars.

She was stung by the longing to be out there too.

"Waves of vibrant red and wisps of blue, with a heavenly white light at the center. And they emit an electromagnetic resonance that makes the hull of the ship sing like a choir of angels."

Gwyn leaned her shoulder against the door frame outside the cell, and lowered herself to the floor with him to listen.

"They say if you gaze into it long enough, you can see your future."

"And what did you see?"

He shifted closer to lean against the door frame himself. They were now separated only by the force field between them. He closed his eyes to remember the moment, still smiling gently. "Adventure,.. freedom,.. safety,.. family,.. love..." his voice tapered off.

Gwyn considered him quietly with a smile of her own. She wouldn't have guessed he dreamed of such sentimental things with such reverence.

"...that's how I know I'm getting out of here," he finished with renewed confidence, finishing the lychee.

She wanted that for him. She couldn't help but admire the courage of holding onto that hope.

With nothing edible left, he put the core of the fruit back through the passthrough "What about you?"

She was caught off guard and again looked up to see his bold eyes imploring gently into hers. She had never felt so connected to anyone than in that moment.

"What are your dreams?"

Gwyn blinked back to reality when she realized no one had ever asked her that before. "...I don't know," she felt a little embarrassed as she answered sadly. She half expected him to laugh at her lack of life experience. But she only saw a sympathetic smile. He wanted more for her too.

The moment was interrupted when the familiar clacking of metallic feet, and the chittering of approaching watchers on patrol startled her. Drednock must have noticed the surveillance cameras offline.

By the time the robots had rounded into the corridor of detention cells, they spotted the Diviner's Progeny standing over the prisoner.

"I suggest you think carefully about your insubordination," Gwyn coldly chastised him. "We won't be so generous next time." She abruptly turned to leave, but not without sneaking a sorrowful glance at him. He countered with a knowing smirk as she walked away. She was forced into this role, as trapped as he was.

---

It was some months later Gwyn stood at the windows lining the ready room of the USS Protostar.

Acting Captain R'el walked up from behind to join her. They both gazed out to the stunning sight of the Window of Dreams, singing it's glorious song against the ship's hull all around them.

"What do you see?" he asked.

She gently started crying with happiness as she took his hand in hers and leaned into him. Nothing separating them anymore.

Adventure,.. freedom,.. safety,.. family,.. love...