#the course is called introduction to game development

[nipuni]

Alright, time to share my opinions about Veilguard!! I have both criticism and praise so bear with me as I jump from one extreme to the other 😆 spoilers ahead of course!

The game has a very rough start with the dialogue being formulaic and rushed and the characters overexposing. It feels like a heavy handed attempt at summarizing all of previous games' lore for newcomers or in case you forgot but it's so overdone it feels coddling and trivializes a lot of previous events. Luckily this gets better once all of the introductions are out of the way, though the excessive hints and clarifications continue until the end sadly.

The locations are absolutely incredible and very diverse!! This is a highlight of the game for me. There is so much detail and care in every map and there are so many of them. My pc is struggling to reach medium settings and yet everything looks stunning. The verticality of the maps is so imposing and the graphics have a very dreamy quality that I love. I also enjoy the maze-like structure to the maps, it's more linear but makes everything look a bit more intentional. The color and light direction was amazing, all the visual development really!! it has to be one of the prettiest games I've ever played.

When I started I have to admit it did not feel like I was in Thedas and it all felt a bit theme-parky, if that makes sense. A lot of previously important and established world elements that made Thedas what it is were overlooked or made irrelevant. But the more I played the more it started to feel a bit more similar to Inquisition, for better or worse depending on what you feel about Inquisition. But!! this also feels like a selectively sanitized version of Thedas compared to previous games. In it's attempt to stay safe and uncontroversial in some aspects it loses a lot of substance and it changes the tone. The surface level politics, ignoring previously established major societal issues and a tell-don't-show approach makes the world seem more simple and shallow with no grey areas to explore. ( the humor also falls flat and out of place often too, and WHY is everyone always smirking, enough!! godlike beings are destroying the planet please this is not the time for Marvel banter aaaa )

The pacing at the start is a bit of a mess. It is so fast it felt like jumping from one world shattering discovery to the next with no time to process. The characters also seem to underreact to important information and major developments. It felt like the game was rushing me through all this to get to the part of the story it wanted to tell me while I was still wrapped in my shock blanket trying to catch my breath lmao. I really like all the key story points they touched upon, I just wish they dwelled more on them to give them more narrative weight. ( though blaming every bad thing to ever happen on the Elves was certainly..a choice )

I think the writing could have used more subtlety in the first half and more boldness in the second 😆 but I loved the thematic parallels between Rook and Solas and how every quest informs the main storyline. I do wish Rook was given more impossible choices and put in more difficult situations that forced them to lie or betray their own to better drive the point home though ( listen I just love a Trolley problem!! we need more of those, I'm the Trolley problem's number one fan!! ) I feel like they missed the chance to put Rook in Solas' role and be as vilified and hated for it as Solas was despite their best intentions which would make Rook's regrets stronger and in turn make their escape from the fade all the more impressive and give them a better understanding of Solas to either use against him or earn his respect. The line 'they called me the Dread Wolf, what will they call you when this is over' from the trailers was so good I was waiting for this!! But everyone just loves Rook no matter what!!

But I feel like I stated too many negative aspects in a row so moving on to some things I enjoyed!

The characters were very lovable to me. The romances weren't as long or impactful as I would have liked but I enjoyed all the companion quests. Emmrich is a delight and his quest is so wild and fun. I loved learning about Nevarra and I was awestruck by the Grand Necropolis. The mourn watch was so interesting, it showed a whole new side of Thedas' lore I knew nothing about! and I loved Manfred! Davrin is so charming, he became a favorite. I loved his quest too and learning more bits and pieces about the Dalish was great, I wish we got more. Seeing the Wardens through his quest also made me enjoy them a lot. Assan was very cute too and I'm glad he was treated as an animal and not turned into a goofy Disney sidekick too much lmao 😭 Lucanis is hilarious. The fantasy Spain/Italy was a bit silly and off at times but he is very sweet! and I love the Spite possession, that was so fun I'm glad they kept him that way! Bellara is adorable, her first backstory quest made me cry and I just love a nerd! I wish the second part of her story was written better however, and she sort of devolves into 'it's hard, I wish it was easy but it's hard' dialogues too often sadly. Anaris and the Forgotten Ones' portrayal was underwhelming and anticlimactic which was disappointing. Harding is also very cute and her Titan plotline was the most interesting to me, I bawled my eyes out in her quest!! I love the dwarven lore of this universe I'm so happy we got more of it!! ( she also fucking died in my playthrough?! I was devastated what the hell 😭 'whatever it takes' WEUEUGHHHG I'M SO SORRY) Neve was a slow burn for me because of my choices in game slowing that relationship down ( saving Treviso I mean, perdón amor 🙏 ) but I love detective novels and she is such a badass I ended up loving her. Taash was unexpected, I didn't think they would be so young. The coming of age story was sweet, though I found myself cringing a lot too at the handling of it I have to admit ( and the Lords of Fortune in general, and the Antaam...and que Qun..listen- kajshfgf ) but I also enjoyed learning more about the first expedition and the Qunari in general despite the messy writing and choices. I also loved Antoine and Evka! and Strife! And I haven't even read any of the novels they are in 😆 also Mila!!!! and her dad oh my god and Felassan haunting the narrative!! speaking of haunting, I would have loved for Cole to be in the lighthouse too I think it would have worked well 🤔 especially with the whole 'reading Solas' secret diary' thing the game had going on lmao

Everyone seems to get along except for a bit of friction that is quickly resolved at the start, which is hmm missed potential? I would have preferred more tension personally. I enjoy the drama! gives me more to work with and gives you a better grasp on everyone's personality by contrasting values. I think they wanted to speed run a found family trope for the new hero to establish some emotional stakes early on but it ended up making everyone seem like a group therapy session instead. The group meetings also have everyone either state the obvious or repeat the same opinion or conclusion to each other, I would have loved these meetings to have more bickering, have people get mad and storm out and also get to listen to different takes on a situation. Make Rook struggle more to take the reins and keep the team functional, learning how to be a leader.

Speaking of Rook! ( who in my case has a northern British accent that I loved so much 🥺) They seem to have a very established personality. I was expecting more of a blank slate but I'm lucky that the personality they went for kind of matches what I would normally choose in a first playthrough. Though the lack of range in the choices is irritating and takes away some replayability and role playing potential. Rook is very supportive and selfless, I wasn't expecting this tbh! But it all made my Rook turn into the team's weird supportive necromancer mom so it worked out in the end I guess lmao. I can't wait to draw her!!

I was so overwhelmed by the amount of information we got about Solas and his past!! I was expecting answers but not these many and not for them to be such an integral part of the plot!! The game feels like it's about him more than anything else. His arc is the best written out of all. He is mentioned in every conversation, he's the main advisor and the narrative foil, you get to talk to him often, you work for him and with him and go into his memories it all feels so surreal to me lmao I love him so I'm delighted ngl! but also making the other Evanuris so cartoonishly evil makes Solas into such an obvious choice of an ally, god of trickery or not, that it sort of takes the decision out of your hands and makes some dialogue options and companions' opinions seem almost nonsensical. I have no idea how this game would feel to someone who absolutely hates Solas' guts honestly. I suppose I will find out soon enough 😆

About Solas' story, I loved it! I somehow also feel that I knew it already, all the speculation and theories that Solavellan fans were crafting for years were so accurate that it was all very validating. Even the wildest ones! Solas as the Maker, the elves spirit origin, Mythal giving him a body, the war with the Titans, the origin of the Blight, Solas being on your side as advisor, I can go on, we knew!! Also I have to mention this I'm sorry but they made him look so hot!! unbelievable. And the bloodied teary eyed pathetic look in the end ouurghhh I'm cheering and clapping!!

The romance conclusion was so lovely 😭 the Loki and Sigyn ending we deserved to such a mythological epic!! and open ended enough for all of us to cook!! and we got to see him fight and transform into the Dread Wolf!! and whimper and cry!! and bleed and love!! that's all I ever wanted, incredible we were really spoiled what the hell I still can't believe it 😭 GDL acting was brilliant as usual! the visuals were also incredible and exactly what I had in mind when I imagined where the story may go, the eclipse, the giant wolf, the glowing eyes, the Elvhenan ruins, the statues, even the hair lmao it all aligned exactly to what I've been painting all these years but better I was thrilled 😭

Solas backstory with Mythal also offers players that didn't romance him a chance to see him act out of love and show a side they wouldn't be able to reach otherwise and I think it was smart! also very tragic and sheds more light into all of his choices and words and his relationship with Lavellan too and the parallels and reversals and uughh thoroughly enjoying the emotional distress 👌

Pleasing both the Solas lovers and haters at the same time was always going to be hard with him being such a polarizing character by design and the world states being so different but I think they did a good job! at least from my side of things.

I think my favorite part besides the Solas related stuff was the Blight. I loved how horrific and gross and threatening it was! I've always loved the concept of the Blights and I'm glad it was such a huge part of the story in this game. I also loved Treviso!! has to be the most beautiful city in Thedas ahhh and the Necropolis!! the gardens!! Vorgoth!!! Kal-Sharok!!! I can't believe we got to see it!! and a Titan!!! the giant floating face of Ghilan'nain in the clouds??? and the huge archdemons and dragons!! oh and that warden dragon trap in the shape of a griffon?? and the giant blight tendrils!! the siege at Weisshaupt was outstanding!! and the floating panopticon castle situation in Minrathous uughh there is so much I loved.

OH I also enjoyed the Varric arc even though I saw it coming since the trailer it was still played well and it was touching 🥺

The ending felt a bit jarring to me in tone though, a bit too cheerful considering...the horrors. Over half the continent destroyed and most of the problems Thedas had before the game are still there. Veil in place and all 😆

But I had fun!! I'm nitpicking really, the conclusion to Solas' story feels very satisfying to me which was my main worry so I'm happy. It is a good game!! with a sort of soft reboot feel to it and aimed at a younger audience which is probably what they were going for? You can sort of feel the struggle the team went through during production in the way the target audience seems unclear sadly. I also can't help feeling like this is an ending, so much was revealed and resolved!! but maybe I feel that way because that is what I felt after Shadowbringers / Endwalker in FFXIV once my favorite part of the story was wrapped? They can always pivot to a new continent and expand on the world and cultures we know almost nothing about, but that is always harder to sell so I have no clue where they will go from here 😵‍💫

Anyway I'm still processing a lot of stuff that I will probably talk (and draw) about later, this is already long enough!! for now I'll look up how to get the artbook because the art direction of this game is fantastic!! I would love to hear your thoughts too really, I'm curious about the experiences of players who made different choices and with different tastes to mine!!

[digitalagepulao]

My sincere Black Myth: Wukong review

Full disclosure! This is from a recent but earnest fan of JTTW as the original novel, as well as all the social, cultural and religious layers of it. I've seen my fair share of adaptations and derivative media, from shlocky to silly to grimdark to cutesy. I'm a bachelor in visual arts, with an interest in the field of game development since high school. I am also, white and brazillian, and have talked with other jttw fans, both Chinese and not, on this game. If any of these are for some reason motive to not read further, then fair enough. Hope you have fun and continue to enjoy the game, do not let me or my opinion stop you!

Now to the review proper <3

First things first, let the obvious not remain unsaid. This game, is supremely gorgeous. In every sense of the word, and I mean this fully, it's a work of art. The sound design, the character concepts and execution, the animations, the voice acting, the visual effects, the UI design, the cinematography, the 3D scanning of actual historical artofacts and heritage sites throughout China, and everything beyond and between, are phenomenal, full stop.

This was never a debate, I'm sure, but I don't think I can in good conscience not praise them for their work. It's no news that Asian talent, not just in China either, have been often hired to supplement projects on the West, and we can all agree it's about time they got to shine in their own AAA project. My issues with the international game industry notwithstanding, I hope this brings some much needed acknowledgment and appreciation for Chinese culture and arts, both traditional and modern!

Now, from this point on, THERE WILL BE SPOILERS, so proceed with caution!

(word count: +1.8k)

I also deeply enjoy their choices in arcs to revisit. Some like the Flaming Mountain arc are classic picks to adapt but still a very good match to the whole Six Senses throughline. I don't think you can do a JTTW 2 electric bogaloo without bringing up Niumowang and his family in some way (um, put a pin on that), but the other arcs like Yellowbrow or Black Wind Mountain aren't as explored imo, so it's nice to see them being given a bit of a spotlight.

(speaking of the Yellow Ridge arc, whoever made the executive decision of Lingji Bodhisattva being a Xaanxi singer is, genius!!)

I'm also kind of in love?? with Bajie's design and role in the story overall?? Gameplay wise he sticks around just enough to not feel lonely, but not too long to be a nuisance or overstay his welcome. He's no Atreus (GoW) or Ellie (TLoU) of course, but he doesn't need to be, and most importantly, he isn't trying to be, which I feel is admirable of the devs. Given the visible inspirations from the recent God of War games, it would have been easy to lean a bit too hard on it, but I'm glad they didn't overreach.

Him having a more complex love life is also a nice touch imo. It explores more his womanizer ways in an interesting way, and I appreciate it. I love when people complicate the pig! Also, the way he treats Xiaosheng (Destined One) like a nephew?? The scene on the Huaguoshan throne??? I'M GONNA CRY!!!

I think, I've run out of positive things to say.... time for the spicy takes.

I, kind of detest the premise by default. I'm not a big fan of "Superman is Dead" plots, cus it's usually either done for shock value, or taken so lightly that the weight is totally lost. I have such a love-hate situationship with the introduction cutscene because of this. On one hand, it's phenomenal cinema, and seeing Wukong stand up to the Heavenly armies in glorious 4K high fidelity graphics is delicious. On the other hand, the whole debate they are having has me going "?????", not because I don't get it but just, why?? Why did this have to be the premise?? (put another pin on that)

Also the set up and call to adventure is kind of blergh.

Now is as good a time as any to talk about the gameplay. It's, okay. If you enjoy trying to figure out the most stylish combos, or to mash buttons, then you'll definitely have fun. I was sorely disappointed that I pretty much have been going through the bosses rather easily. Chapter 1 it was mostly the struggle of learning the controls, but I never stuck to a boss for longer than seven tries (Whiteclad Noble, the snakeman that you are). Chapter 2 I only struggled on Tiger Vanguard, because I was sorely underleveled and had missed a pathway to explore before him. After that I second tried him. Chapter 3, I have and I'm not joking, gotten halfway through first or second trying every boss.

Mind you, this is not being some godtier gamer or whatever, I'm pretty average and only a recent player of soulslike games too (maybe playing Lies of P made too OP, but I sincerely doubt it lol). No, this is me saying that if you do explore the game and not rush through it, you won't struggle nearly as much as some people have and still are. Most of the final chapter bosses can be trivialized with the chapter's Obsession Realm gimmick artifact, which isn't in itself a bad thing, just feels like an odd choice personally.

Which leads me to, the level design. So far? Preeeeetty lame! It's very pretty and fancy, but so chockful of invisible walls that it feels stiffling and discourages exploration. I can never tell what is meant to be a path or just fancy scenery, and I never know when a jump will get walled or send me to my death by fall damage. When it's not being confusing, the level design is either a bunch of looping circles, or straight lines. And so far, besides a few interactables and loot, there is not much else to look at. That is, bad level design, plain and simple.

Also, the animations are glorious, but what is the point if I can't see the enemy?? That camera is my true nemesis, and I mean that. the fact that a boss can be beyond my field of vision at ANY POINT when I'm locked on and it strifes sideways, is dreadful. GameScience, FIX IT. It is also, very hard to tell what parts of a boss will damage me if I collide with them or not. The Kang-Jin Long fight was baffling on a design point of view, same for Captain Lotus-Vision. Some clearer hitboxes would be swell.

This is the point where I say my main issue with the game lies: it's very pretty, and adoringly crafted, but it lacks substance design wise. I feel like it needed to cook more, the level design polished more so I wouldn't get lost every five minutes, and clearer.... well, everything. Mechanic explanations, level progression, gimmicks, etc. It all needed to be less murky and convoluted to understand.

It also needed more meat in between bosses. I have yet to run into common enemies that give me actual trouble, so it ends up being just a jolly waltz from boss to boss. Boss rushes are fun and great, but not as the base game experience (for me at least). I had to stop one boss away from completing Chapter 1 cus I was just so exhausted. And I had been playing for like, an hour and a half?? That left a sour taste in my mouth, I'll be honest.

Okay, I'm gonna pick open those pins now.

#1 the Flaming Mountain Arc. I'm gonna be very real here chat, that was so cringe. What do you MEAN, Red Son wasn't Demon Bull King's biological son, and Princess Iron Fan was forced to drink from the Childbearing River??? And Red Son hates him????When I watched that cutscene, I had to pause and walk away for a moment, legitimately. This plotbeat is SO WILD to me, I got nothing to say. Just, why??Soooo bizarre. And that the Flaming Mountain Keeper has such a presence in Iron Fan's life is also, weird?? Not bad weird, just Weird, but that's like a nitpick more than an actual criticism. Ping Ping is fine though, I like that Bull has a daughter with Princess Fair Fox, that's cute and interesting. Wish she was in a better plot and adaptation but lol

And #2, the premise. Now we are getting to the meat of it all.

The underlying premise of the whole plot, including the true ending, is flawed by default. The premise runs on what is sometimes called as a "conspiracy theory plot", as in, "what if the gods were bad actually??". It's reddit movie theory content in very short terms, and while it had a place during the 00s grimdark years pre-Marvel, it's become quite a jaded and boring take nowadays. Now you may say that it comes from a genuine desire to show distrust and critique to insitutions and the powers than be, and I can see that.

There is a hiccup in that though.

In JTTW, Wukong is the Mind Monkey because of the religious text and subtext of the stories. Its interwoven in the whole thing, and makes it cohesive. It still offer critique and mockery to institutions, without entirely invalidating their foundations. Not only for genuine fear of prosecution, but because, shockingly, religion and belief is a major component of human society in general. But going back to my point, JTTW is *already* a critique of institutions and the power that be. Adding further layers into it feel like angst and edginess just for the sake of it, and that feels hollow to me.

To go further, this intent also clashes with their own plot. See, they bring up that Wukong's Mind, his Sixth Sense, died. Thus they need another Mind to guide his other senses and reform him, so that he may be reborn.

For one, that is such a convoluted way to do a reincarnation plot, it feels complicated just for novelty sake. Secondly, Wukong being the Mind Monkey, as I said, implies a tie to the underlying themes of the Journey as a person's path to enlightenment. If enlightenment itself is flawed because the gods are flawed/evil, then both themes are clashing. By making a "what if the gods were evil all along" plot while also going by the laws and order of said gods, then what are we even fighting against? What is the point of this whole rebellion between Erlang and Wukong??

my friend @ryin-silverfish said it best a while back, and I'm paraphrasing here (do pitch in or correct me if needed! <3), but the issue with these conspiracy narratives is the inherent anti-religion of them. They don't believe in anything, and thus they cannot properly retell the story of JTTW through a postmodern lense, because they refuse to engage with the religiosity that runs throughout the story.

It also leaves a sour taste in my mouth, because this game will likely be many people's first genuine experience with the JTTW mythos and story, and I tend to be concerned for how much this will "sour the pot" in the conversation. The novels are sadly innacessible enough as it is; the sheer size of them scare many people away, not even to mention the amount of underlying cultural context you'll miss out without proper footnotes and commentary. Most people will not engage with them directly, and certainly not most gamers.

While the narrative of someone embodying Wukong's spirit is not new in itself, I do find that it coexisting with such a poor premise and spin on it will be a sore first experience for new fans, and I can only hope that them meeting fans of the OG novels won't cause much friction in the fandom (we have enough as it is imo).

It also concerns me that, sadly, people and gamers in particular, get too swept up in the ooh-aah beauty of flashy sfx and highly detailed graphics, and fail to notice some of the underlying issues in game design. As I said, this game is a work of art, but it has flaws, and I don't think people are speaking of them enough. No, the issue is not "lack of diversity" or whatever the hell.

It runs deeper than that, and it's an issue I've come to see in recent movies as well. I'm aware it might just be different cultural expectations of the pacing and span of a story, and it may as well be! But I think if there was more care given to the bones of a media, it would bring much needed longevity and weight to these wonderful artworks.

All this said, I wanna see what acolades this game gets and see what the devs are cooking up with the DLCs (they said at one point the game was supposed to have 12 chapters and my god, that game would be TOO LONG. So glad it didn't get like that!), and further more see how this ripples in the eastern game dev scene. While this is a flawed game with a flawed story, it can be the first on a genuinely wonderful wave of new creations, not just by GameScience, and overall I'm hopeful for what might come next!

[felassan]

Some thoughts on the character descriptions & other details from game files. DA:TV spoilers under cut.

[original source link]

Some of the char notes are v neat and interesting. ◕‿◕ (caveat to bear in mind of course: gamefiles info can contradict what is presented in game as plots and ideas naturally & normally can change a lot throughout development. what's in the game and other media is what's canon. that said they're still neat and interesting to think about.)

You can read Ghil talking to some of her "stock" in a/some Trespasser armor codex[es]

Like Dalish lore in modern Thedas has it (the Ascension of Ghilan'nain), Ghil had the distinction of being the only mortal elf uplifted into the Evanuris pantheon

" (in this case, Solas's murder of his friend Felassan by stabbing him in the back)" - "[TME quote] He never heard the blow that killed him." q.q

Spirits of Profit are a thing (note: this kind of thing I just like to take as canon as long as nothing in-game actually contradicts it being a possible thing in the world hh)

Spirits of Need are a thing

Spirits of Passion are a thing

Demons of Obsession are a thing

Spirits of Freedom are possibly a thing

Not just a General, Felassan was the second-in-command

The idea/possibility that the Caretaker is (or at one point during development was thought to be) what remains of a truly ancient dragon, who long ago took on the form of this spirit, then was summoned by ancient elves, slaps

"A spirit of chaos and freedom, unleashed by Solas to break through a labyrinth to his ally Mythal", "A spirit heavily implied to be the Caretaker in another era, speaking with Solas about the attempt to rescue Mythal. Speaking with the spirit, Solas makes it clear that he will sacrifice anything to save Mythal." - I wonder if at one point there was an idea to have a scene which was another relivable Solas Crossroads memory, where this Mythal-rescue scenario would play out? Maybe Rook would have 'played' the Spirit of Chaos in that memory similar to the one where Solas and Felassan call spirits to launch an attack on an Elgar'nan fortress

Inquisitor - "relatable leader and mentor", "confident, knowing" 🥺

Interesting to see that Charter at one point may have appeared in the game and had a role. There are still references to her and her work in some DA:TV codexes

The character descriptions for Varric and Dorian, and the Morrigan speech pattern note, are so fun hhh. some characters simply need no introduction

Two possible appearances, depending on how the player resolves her past: 1. Dark black dyed hair 2. Red hair with streaks of grey CHARACTERDESCRIPTION: Isabela from Dragon Age II

At one point there was possibly an idea to have further choices such as what happened to Isabela in DA2 be in the game.

"Manfred is curious, loyal, innocent, and wants to be helpful." 🥺

I had personally been hcing Lucanis as 36 so that is neat

the ages listed are age ranges meant to help inform the char info, & info players would actually see/hear in the games and other media like books etc would take precedence. I would place Teia and Harding as at least a few years older than what's given for example (Teia was 28 when she became a Talon, and it's now 9:52; and I don't really see Harding as having been as young as 19 in DA:I in 9:42 as a Lead Scout. young definitely, but not that young).

and this is more based on subjective vibes than any canon info, but I read Viago as being older than this, and older than Lucanis, Illario and Teia.

ACCENT: Hint of Italian, but not as strong as Zevran's. (He is from a coastal city in Antiva, which had an influx of Tevinter refugees from Seheron after the Qunari invaded 100 years or so ago. That’€™s why he looks and sounds different from Zevran and Josephine.) [Caterina] Older Korean-Spanish or Korean-Italian woman (from the same region as Lucanis)

This is neat worldbuilding. a hint at what people from Seheron or people with Seheron heritage may be like.

Lucanis now bears scars both physically and mentally from his time as a brainwashed executioner for an evil mage cult. No longer the pragmatic assassin always in control, he wrestles with becoming what he’s spent his life hunting: a demon-possessed abomination. He longs to return to his former glory, but the monster inside him demands blood and vengeance. With his future hanging in the balance, Lucanis must decide whether to give into the demon or control it.

some other ideas about what Lucanis' storyline may/could have been at a different point in time.

Taash is a Qunari agent with a specialization in infiltration -- a thief, basically. She can scale buildings, pick locks, and take out enemies with quick and brutal efficiency.

some other ideas about what Taash's storyline/character may/could have been at a different point in time. maybe Ben-Hassrath-y? infiltration and stuff reminds me of the 'spies and heists' version of the game that was reported on at one point.

This whole set of descriptions is so good, no notes ＼(￣▽￣)／

Spite was once a Spirit of Passion drawn to Lucanis's will to live, but years of torture and a desire for revenge has twisted him into a Demon of Obsession.

some other ideas about what Spite's storyline/character may/could have been at a different point in time. in-game we hear Spite referred to as a Spirit of Determination (Isabela, Rowan, Solas), and Mary Kirby has described Spite on social media as having the basic aspect of Defiance.

"The Godmother of the Antivan Crows" hhh＼(￣▽￣)／

Interesting backstory information on Rayan Ivenci

Dartonia's farming background and Timetri's military family background tracks with an in-game dialogue line Lucanis has in banter about how Crows often recruit from the army and the trades

Ivenci and Fletcher [Crows Merchant in the Diamond] are both non-binary and use they/them pronouns; they use they/them pronouns also in the game

The Crows are still recruiting and training minors, if a 15 year-old Crow is already well-trained in dual daggers. fledglings Dartonia and Timetri are given as 17.

"Chance is a stylish, dramatic Orlesian who joined the Crows to be their emmisary among the courts of Orlais. (French accent.)" - handy inspo grounds (just one example of many things you could hc) to hc why an Antivan Crow Rook doesn't have an Antivan accent, if you wanted. there is also the example of Heir, who is Orlesian (unless of course you simply hc them as having an Antivan accent :D)

The Treviso Market master's name is Sidestreet Alidare

Anaris had "half-possessed" Cyrian, via the mask as we saw

Anaris, an ancient elven "would-be" god. If you were a power-hungry and/or angry 'mortal' elf back then, it must have been maddening that only Ghil was granted ascension, and to live under Evanuris tyranny

Strife Dragonage is 50

Strife is a keen-eyed hunter who grew up in the elven city slums, but was taken in by the forest-dwelling Dalish elves and taught to be an expert woodsman. He's rugged, tough, adventurous, and doesn't suffer fools. He feels some disconnect between his city-upbringing and his current role as a hunter - somtimes Strife worries he's an imposter, not truly growing up with his people, but he's tried to take their teachings to heart. Strife is loyal to those who earn his friendship, and fiercely protective of his clan.

here I am simply quoting the Strife blurb, as a Strife appreciator. reference to his backstory as a Starkhaven City Elf and joining of Dalish Clan Morlyn, and the toughness he showed in Three Trees to Midnight. nice to see his perspective / thoughts explored a bit here as a City Elf who joined the Dalish and what that means to him and how he relates to the world.

IRELIN A Dalish elf who grew up in the woods, Irelin has learned the ancient and incredibly rare art of shapeshifting. She uses this ability to move secretly in the forest, scouting for her people. Practical and no-nonsense when it comes to defending her clan and her friends, she has a healthy distrust of outsiders, especially the humans who've persecuted and exploited her people for so long. Irelin takes a secret joy in the thrill and power of shapeshifting, however. She loves exploring as the different animals of the forest, and knows some of their paths better than anyone.

I loved seeing this info on/exploration of Irelin too. :)

Protect Evka and Antoine

Rook Thorne snippet: "If Rook is a Grey Warden, Greta [30] has met them before--they both became Wardens around the same time. Greta doesn't know Rook well--it's more like running into an old school mate--but she likes them". maybe this is simply in the game as dialogue ofc, but I haven't played a Thorne yet so I wouldn't know :)

"A cat" hhhhhh :D

Mae's age-range is 50

Dragon King: "Basically, a bad guy doing his evil bad guy best." lmao

Hezenkoss's creation is described as a "bone golem", taking me back to the flesh golems (Harvester etc) in prior DA games

Is "Sealed Spirit" the Formless One? since its description mentions possessing an undead dragon, and its in the Mourn Watch/Necropolis section.

Tarquin x Viper feels aaa

Vorgoth's whole segment (and Vorgoth as a character) is so fascinating. maybe they're a rogue, Thedas-loving member of the same type of entity as whatever the Executors are? some of the description here and their appearance in the game reminds me of the description of the Executor in TN and also the Executors' appearance in the DA:TV secret ending.

THE EXECUTOR APPEARANCE: Human-appearing CHARACTERDESCRIPTION: A masked and hooded figure that speaks like someone unfamiliar with language in general. Stilted, awkward, but with a low menace. SPEECHPATTERN: Stilted. Is trying to form words from thoughts that are far more complex than a regular person's.

also very intriguing, naturally. the way they're described (trying to form words from thoughts, being unfamiliar with language) makes them sound spirit/demon-y or adjacent.. it also reminds me somewhat of the description of the way the Cekorax was rendering speech (iirc) in TN. if the place they come from does indeed have empty settlements made of crystal and obsidian - well, entities unfamiliar with language etc in this kind of way might also be unfamiliar with regular settlements/mortal world settlements, no? at one point in time it may have been the idea that we would meet an Executor in-game as part of the story.

(like I said I know it being in the game files doesn't automatically make something canon, it's just fun to peruse and add to hcs or not etc. this post is just a bunch of personal headcanon/speculation really ^^)

[original source link]

[https-rizzo]

₊˚~A “Tiny” Obsession~˚₊

Pairing: insecure!oblivious!Dae-ho x jealous!low-key homewrecker!fem-reader

Type: dark(kinda) angst

Warnings: cussing, lots of “you”s, mentions of nudity, low-key obsessed-reader, hes 26 and reader 27, no mention of “y/n”, BTW this sucks ass so

Summery: (non-squid game au) blud is jelly their crush has a gf and they do smth about it, because you’re low-key insane about him

Word Count: 966

Part 2

You met Dae-ho in middle school through one of his older sisters. Dae-ho was in the year below you, so you didn't interact much. A polite greeting was exchanged here and there because you two recognized each other. You also only participated in small civil conversations whenever you went to their house for a sleepover with his sister(s). Naturally, he was around you more because of the close relationship he had with his sisters.

Later, you grew up and entered your second year of high school with his sister and him in the year below you. You couldn't tell if it was your hormones speaking or what, but you started to think Dae-ho was cute. Developing a small crush that you'd never act on, and out of fear, you pushed your feelings down. That was until you had an accident and were in the hospital. The first one to greet you when you woke up from unconsciousness was Dae-ho himself. Hell, he even beat your parents there. Your crush on him was official then. Years pass, and your crush on Dae-ho remains. You're 27 now and he's 26. You were at the mall with one of his older sisters eating in the main food hall, enjoying the little trip with your friend. But sadly your fun time was ruined when your friend choked on her food making you raise an eyebrow. She looks at you shocked and tells you to look at the entrance of the women's bathroom. When you do, your breath catches in your throat. Your crush Dae-ho was kissing a lady. You play your jealousy off by acting as if it doesn't affect you. Dae-ho's sister calls him and tells him to come over and introduce the woman to you both. You didn't want him to. You were upset. But he was walking over anyway. You put on your best non-bitchy face as the sun-kissed lady greets you. God, she was gorgeous; you knew you couldn't compete with that. You've been pinning on Dae-ho for a while now, and his dating some random pissed you right the fuck off. The underlying bitchiness in her tone and that cleavage of hers that threatened to spill is what sealed the deal. Is this the type of girl he likes? Honestly, he could do so much better than her. He's kind and respectful, and he pays attention to detail. After about a few more minutes of introduction that you missed, you excuse yourself by saying something came up. But you knew you just wanted to leave. As you entered your apartment, your mind started to spiral. Your head began to hurt as your brain wandered about thinking about how that woman was probably sucking the life out of him. How she isn't a good match for him and only someone like yourself was. You slowly undressed yourself and eventually thought of an idea. Simply break them up, of course, you didn't take that idea lightly. You're a woman at heart. But as you changed into your pajamas and took off your makeup, you couldn't help becoming fascinated with the idea of helping Dae-ho escape that brat's clutches.

A week has passed since you met Dae-ho's girlfriend. She ended up following you on Instagram! To not seem crass, you followed her back, but the very first thing you see is a collage she made of her and Dae-ho. You felt the bottom of your stomach twist and turn as you swiped lower on her page. What's so special about her anyway? Was it her face, her body, or her cooking? You couldn't understand it. You weren't ugly, your body was average, and you once won a prize for best homemade soup. So how come this is the girl he's dating? In a fit of rage, you made a snide comment on her recent post.

The next night, a knock on your door startled you. It was 8 o'clock, and you weren't expecting any company. When you opened the door, Dae-ho was standing there. Seeing Dae-ho surprised you. He looked disheveled as his hair was down and his eyes looked pink and puffy. He frowned at you, mumbling an apology and a plea to be let inside. You stepped aside as he walked in and set himself on your couch. You sat beside him, asking what he was here for. He looked at you, tears beginning to fall as he choked out a sob and leaned his forehead on your shoulder. Then he wrapped his arms around your waist. Your heart fluttered, but you felt bad for feeling such a way when he was upset. You returned the embrace as your right hand lay on the back of his head while your other rubbed circles on his back. Dae-ho tells you about how his girlfriend has a male friend he feels inferior to. You cease your movements. You're filled with disbelief that he could even feel that way about himself. You pull away from him and take his hands into yours. You tell him what you think, that he is the sweetest and most caring person you've ever met, and if his girlfriend couldn't see that, then it's her loss. Needless to say, he was taken aback by your sudden affection, and so were you. You decided to test the waters. You raised your hand to cup the side of his face, then glided your thumb over his cheek. Your boldness showed as your eyes flickered to his lips. Closing your eyes and leaning in, you gave Dae-ho a quick kiss. Almost immediately, the severity of your action was quickly recognized. You tried to read his expression, but you couldn't tell what he was thinking. The one thing you did know was that you messed up big time.

Authors Note: Yeah this shits ass💀, but it's ok because we js here for fun.

[adinfernumadinfinitum]

Welcome to my silly little fan theory @emmg:

How Raphael is the ‘Mastermind’ behind the plot of Baldur’s Gate 3…

…or how I give him more importance than I should.

DISCLAIMER:

In this ‘dissertation,’ I present my take on things based on Dungeons and Dragons 5e lore from the Forgotten Realms universe, along with fandom theories and headcanons where they suit me. This is NOT an in-depth analysis of anything, so I won’t be reciting specific quotes, etc.

I repeat, this is just MY take on things. If a similar theory already exists, feel free to reach out, and I’ll gladly tag the material!

Oh, and there are a lot of spoilers about, well, everything, so read at your own risk ⚠️

I thank the lovely @bitethedevil for allowing me to tag their posts, making it easier on me so I don’t have to write everything out! I also want to take this moment to appreciate their work and contributions to this fandom! ☺️

Introduction

Baldur’s Gate 3 is a brilliant, complex, multi-layered game filled with multiple villains, heroic figures, and a plot that weaves players in seamlessly. That’s why we love this game—at least, that’s why I do—the gripping storyline and its faceted characters.

The game is set in the Forgotten Realms with DnD lore and rules, while still adding and maintaining its own unique features and twists.

But what if we entirely take a look at it from DnD lore perspective?

Section 1: Raphael as the core character in Baldur’s Gate 3

Fans of the Emperor might argue with me here, but oh man, have you seen how many pies Raphael has his fingers in?

This narcissistic little shit of a cambion plotted his grand design to take the Crown of Karsus for over 2,000 years, planning everything with terrifying precision and putting in a staggering amount of effort—all to manipulate Tav or Durge into giving him the crown.

To understand just how far back his scheming goes, we have to start with the fall of Netheril. As Raphael himself tells us, this is where it all began, and when his father seized the crown, it became impossible for Raphael to obtain it himself.

Baator—the Nine Layers of Hell—has its own system and rules. The plane is aligned as lawful evil, and by its laws, anyone who breaks them is punished; in other words, theft is a crime (don’t try this at home edition).

Am I going to explain the system and rules of the Nine Hells? Hell no, or I’ll be sitting here until next Halloween. Sorry, maybe in a separate post sometime (or not) 😭

So Raphael had to get creative if he wanted to get his greedy claws on the crown.

You can read about how much Raphael’s involvement is actually found in the game Baldur’s Gate 3 here.

What’s relevant for this ‘dissertation’ are the following points, which all show how he orchestrates the plot:

1. Raphael, Vlaakith, and the Astral Prism —

Raphael even plots to capture Orpheus. Not personally, of course, but with the knowledge that it could benefit him and would even serve its purpose in the future. This is a crucial detail.

However, I don’t believe Raphael would craft or have someone craft an item like the Astral Prism, as well as the bindings of Orpheus (the mask, chains, and binding crystals) and the Orphic Hammer. It’s more likely these objects already existed in the Hells, with Raphael profiting by dealing with them.

Sadly there is no official information on that, I really find that interesting.

As for why the Orphic Hammer is called Orphic Hammer - why is Orpheus called Orpheus? He’s a liberator for his people, having inherited the power of Mother Gith, who freed the Gith from mind flayer enslavement. The character of Orpheus draws heavily from Orpheus in Greek mythology, a symbol of liberation, love, and the attempt to rescue a soul from the bonds of death. The term “Orphic” reflects this sense of breaking free from constraints or seeking transformation (of course, it has other meanings, too, but this one feels like what the developers were aiming for).

So the hammer’s name has both symbolic depth and a bit of pun, as it’s intended to free the character Orpheus from his chains.

ANYWAY

2. Raphael, Moonrise Towers, and the Gauntlet of Shar —

The amount of interwoven contracts Raphael has made in the Shadow Cursed Lands is suspicious, and each and every one of them is too , an important point.

Isn’t it just a bit too convenient that Ketheric’s misery plays right into Raphael’s hands? The Shadow-Cursed Lands—Reithwin, once ruled by Ketheric, formerly full of Selunite worshippers but ruined by schemes of the Dark Lady who turned a grieving worshipper of her sister into a Shar follower and leader of an army of Dark Justiciars—is a whole breeding ground for contracts and a stage for Raphael’s play.

Hold on, I’m not implying that I believe Raphael had a hand in Shar’s mischief here, but I do think Raphael handpicked Ketheric, a grieving and obsessed madman (a truly tragic character, honestly), to be an unwitting pawn in his schemes, without directly involving himself. To do this, he contracted with desperate beings like the Architect, Yurgir, and the last Dark Justiciar.

To understand why Raphael would even need Ketheric, we have to look a step further.

3. Raphael and my beloved raccoon boy, Gortash —

Raphael buying Gortash from his parents was a calculated move and the final piece in the Netherbrain plot scheme.

I believe Raphael specifically chose Enver Gortash, a boy with potential, for his plans to get the Crown of Karsus.

Look, Gortash is anything but dumb; in fact, he’s the exact opposite. He learned the ropes in Hell, literally imprisoned in Raphael’s House of Hope. All jokes aside about pot-scrubbing duty and overhearing Raphael and Haarlep getting it on, Gortash is a quick learner.

Raphael just had to watch as Gortash escaped the House of Hope with vital information about the crown. With this, Raphael set up an ambitious, cunning man with the drive to steal the crown.

And this is where Ketheric returns to the picture. Ketheric, the chosen of Myrkul; Gortash, the chosen of Bane; and Durge, the chosen of Bhaal.

As for how Raphael might have gotten his hands on Durge? I’ll leave that as the theory’s plot hole.

I could fill it with headcanons—like Gortash and Durge knowing each other even before Gortash was sold—but that feels a bit far-fetched.

Actually, all of this is a bit far-fetched, but hey, it’s my silly little theory.

But hey again, we’re slowly coming to a conclusion how Raphael is the mastermind behind BG3, do you see my vision?

All Raphael needed was patience. The chosen ones, Gortash and Durge, set the stage by planning the Netherbrain coup and, in stealing the crown, executed Raphael’s plan. All they needed was the third chosen, Ketheric, to carry out the rest of the plot: building the Absolute’s army, etc., the rest we know...

So, what was left? Just someone desperate enough to make a deal with Raphael and actually hand over the Crown of Karsus. And how would he pull that off?

✨The Tadpole Gang✨

Every single one of them fits the bill. Especially if the player chooses Durge.

The next question is: how could he manipulate the group if they were under the Absolute’s influence? Well, that’s where the Emperor comes onto the stage.

Because, hear me out one more time: isn’t it convenient that the Emperor, of all people, finds the Astral Prism? A figure obsessed with freedom and manipulation, ambitious and clever, who would serve perfectly as a kind of protection shield from the Elder Brain’s influence for the gang? And to that even a disposable figure as it is a mind flayer who would not be trusted in the end.

(Naturally, in the game the player is the ultimate executional force, making any kind of higher plan or scheme either perfect or useless)

Nevertheless, this is as far as I will dive into this specific pond.

I just think it adds up nicely.

But Björni, if you have a Section 1, what about a Section 2? you might ask. Well, here it comes…

… how this ‘dissertation’ is actually about Mephistopheles being the ‘Mastermind’ behind the plot of Baldur’s Gate 3.

Section 2: Raphael as the Scapegoat

DnD’s lore about fiends—and, specifically, cambions—teaches us that they’re doomed to fail from birth. While they may think they’re in control of their schemes, they’re actually playing into the hands of their fiendish parent.

Ever wondered why Mephistopheles would even bother devouring Raphael if we defeat him? Sure, cambion sons are nourishing (yum yum), but given Mephistopheles’ personality, I’d guess he does it to humiliate his son, even in death, for being a failure—a failure to retrieve the crown for his father.

But wait, Mephistopheles already had the crown—why would he bother plotting all of this just to get it back? Isn’t that a bit over-the-top, Björni?

Bear with me: it’s not officially written anywhere, but it’s more or less canon based on what we know of the Archdevils Asmodeus and Mephistopheles.

Asmodeus rules the Hells, while Mephistopheles, as the Archduke of the 8th layer, Cania, is arguably the second most powerful being in Baator. Mephistopheles has never stopped dreaming of overthrowing Asmodeus, even after repeatedly failing miserably. But if he openly tried to use the crown against Asmodeus, it would be a direct affront, and Asmodeus would have shut it down from the start.

Mephistopheles has other children besides Raphael, and Raphael isn’t exactly useless, he’s actually the complete opposite. Strategically, it wouldn’t make sense to discard such a puppet (call him son)—unless Raphael had done something atrocious. And for someone as mighty as Mephistopheles, controlling his little cambion son would be child’s play. So, then why does Raphael hate his father so much, and why is Raphael ‘residing’ in Avernus?

As we know, Avernus is the armpit of Baator, a plane for exiles and outcasts.

I think Mephistopheles intentionally filled his relationship with Raphael with hatred, so Raphael’s ambition to overthrow his father would ignite and one day serve him. When Mephistopheles got the Crown of Karsus, unable to wield it himself, he set the stage for his son’s scheme—by casting Raphael aside, Mephistopheles set him on the path to steal the crown, with Mephistopheles only indirectly involved in overthrowing Asmodeus. Raphael would do the dirty work—taking over the other layers—before ultimately facing his father, who could then just snatch the crown from him. And yes, I do believe Mephistopheles is arrogant enough to think he’d still be more powerful than his son, even with a god-like artifact. He has that bloated of an ego.

BUT (Nr. 36,252), what about Asmodeus? Wouldn’t he step in and crush the plan?

Here’s the thing: Asmodeus generally doesn’t mind if his archdukes fight for control of their layers, as long as it doesn’t threaten his supreme authority or destabilize Hell’s hierarchy. In fact, he encourages a bit of rivalry and ambition among his archdevils, as infighting serves his purposes.

And can you imagine THE Asmodeus being worried about an over-ambitious cambion?

However, this leads to the TRUE instigator and the true subject of this ‘dissertation’…

… how Asmodeus is actually the ‘Mastermind’ behind the plot of Baldur’s Gate 3.

Section 3: Asmodeus doing things, just because

Joke’s on you—it’s been about Asmodeus all along, because even if he’d lose (not that he ever would—he’s just that powerful), he’d claim at the last minute that it was his plan all along. Losing trusted allies? What a bunch of traitors—perfect excuse to clean house. Losing Baator? Finally, he was sick of the job.

All jokes aside, Asmodeus being the cunning bastard he is, would likely pull off everything mentioned above.

To understand why he’d even bother, let’s take a quick (really quick, this is already getting too long) dive into his background and shenanigans in DnD.

Throughout DnD’s development from 1e to 5e, Asmodeus has gone through quite the evolution, eventually becoming a Greater Deity, the Embodiment of Evil, and one of the mightiest beings in existence, rivaled only by Ao.

While 5e keeps things vague to allow player interpretation, Asmodeus has consistently been the most powerful entity in the Hells—a schemer, strategist, and supreme manipulator.

(Here’s the only quote I’ll reference:) “[…] His sinister machinations could take centuries, if not millennia, to come to fruition, and his master plans extended across the entire multiverse. His labyrinthine, insidious intrigues could seem inexplicable to most outside observers, for Asmodeus let even his own servants stew in fear of his next move. With all the planes as his board, the Lord of Lies maneuvered the forces of evil like chess pieces in his grand designs, slowly and subtly manipulating everyone from deities to, when needed, lowly mortals.”

He’s described as being a thousand steps ahead of everyone. And while most of his plans serve greater purposes beyond even godly comprehension, some things he does just because—just for fun.

CONCLUSION

Of course Asmodeus knew Mephistopheles had the crown. Of course he knew Mephistopheles would never use it openly against him. And of course he knew Mephistopheles would keep scheming to use it indirectly, bringing his cambion son Raphael into the game.

Why would Asmodeus let all this happen, and why am I saying he’s the real mastermind?

Like already mentioned, Asmodeus often (indirectly) encourages and manipulates his archdukes to scheme and fight among themselves as a means to reinforce his dominance, foster survival of the fittest, and test loyalty within the infernal hierarchy. However, he maintains strict boundaries, and any conflict that risks his supreme authority, disrupts Hell’s role in the multiverse, or leads to excessive chaos would be swiftly and ruthlessly quashed. In Asmodeus’s mind, such rivalries are a useful tool—as long as they remain safely under his control.

In my view, the Crown of Karsus was never a real threat to him; this whole plot served his entertainment, tested loyalties, or helped him gauge his chess pieces.

And that’s how Asmodeus is the real mastermind behind the plot of Baldur’s Gate 3.

Thanks for reading this mass of nonsense ❤️

Why I even bothered with all this shit? It’s one of the key plot points in my longfic, Ah, You Devil!

[brf-rumortrackinganon]

Crazy new development in the IEWU/Justin/Blake lawsuits.

So first, at the beginning of May, Taylor Swift was added to Baldoni's witness list to be subpoenaed in the lawsuit. Blake, Ryan, and their legal team immediately moved to squash it.

Someone - not sure who, but it's either Baldoni's team, Blake's team, or Taylor's own team - said that the only discussions Taylor had with Blake about the film were in regards to licensing "My Tears Ricochet" for the soundtrack. (I think it might've been Blake's team as part of their move to squash the subpoena.)

Then, Baldoni's team filed new documents alleging that Blake (or Blake's lawyer) was blackmailing - or trying to blackmail - Taylor Swift into supporting her in the lawsuit. Allegedly Blake has kept ten-ish years of texts, messages, and emails with Taylor that she was threatening to release if Taylor didn't immediately release a statement supporting Blake in all of this.

At some point in all of this - I'm not clear on the timeline or if it was part of the new papers - two things happened:

Baldoni's paperwork revealed that Taylor's team issued written 'cease and decist'-ish notification to Blake's team over the alleged blackmail/extortion attempts. and

It was leaked that Blake had sent Taylor instructions to delete their entire text/email history.

Blake and her team immediately denied the allegations, calling it abusive and categorically false.

There's been a couple of theories floating around about how Baldoni's team found out about the blackmail attempt and today it was revealed their source is...drumroll please...Scott Swift. Taylor's father.

Allegedly, of course, because it hasn't been confirmed.

If this is all true, then it's such a self-pwn. Not only does being friends with Taylor give Ryan and Blake so much legitimacy...Taylor is smartly vengeful and this is absolutely going to bite them in the butt ten ways to Sunday. Not only does Taylor write very personal songs with revenge lyrics, Taylor also owns Blake's kid's voice (the kid does the introduction on "Gorgeous," a Reputation song) and conceivably she's given the kid credit so Ryan and Blake are making some money on that - meaning if Taylor rerecords "Gorgeous" for Reputation TV, then she can replace the kid's voice and that's the end of that gravy train. (So something to watch for if/when Reputation TV is released.)

Anyway, as of this afternoon, Baldoni's team dropped the subpoena against Taylor so Taylor no longer has to give testimony or participate in the trial, but the damage to Blake and Taylor's friendship is already done. Given how protective Taylor is of her privacy, her reputation, and her name - I'd be very surprised if they remain friends. I personally see Blake and Ryan getting Karlie Kloss'd, but we'll see.

(Not to mention Travis stopped following Ryan on social media too. I don't give follows/unfollows much stock but this basically suggests to me no more box seats and KC football games for Ryan and Blake.)

[ranchstoryblog]

Beyond the Farm: A Dramatic Martial Arts Detective Life Sim?

Long, long ago; in the year 1999, the term "life sim" wasn't used as often or understood as well as it is today. Boku no Natsuyasumi wouldn't release for another year, Animal Crossing was two years away, and reviewers were struggling to determine what a game like Harvest Moon 64 was. Often, instead of putting it alongside simulation games, choosing to place it among RPGs instead.

At this time, one of the biggest game developers in the industry had everything to prove for their next generation console. One of their most legendary creators was putting together something that could influence the entire gaming landscape, building systems modern games would take for granted from scratch. A game that sought to simulate real life as closely as possible.

Positing itself as an epic kung fu saga, most of Shenmue's promotional material focuses on action and adventure that happened to have an impressive world to explore. Upon release, players would quickly find it was almost the exact opposite. A world to live in, one day at a time, with a kung fu adventure somewhere in the backdrop. So, 25 years later, let's look at it through the lens of a life sim.

Living in Shenmue

Though the game opens with a dramatic set-up, your father murdered before your eyes by a mysterious man belonging to a foreign crime organization for reasons unknown, the first gameplay element introduced to you isn't how to throw a punch or a kick. Instead, upon exiting your home for the first time, you encounter a little girl taking care of an orphan kitten, and being pretty ill-prepared for it.

If the player chooses to visit this kitten every single day, using their small 500 yen daily allowance on cat food instead of toys, video games, or candy, they can watch the kitten recover over the next few weeks. Starting from barely being able to stand or eat, shivering in a cardboard box, to eventually exploring freely and climbing to the top of the nearby shrine, triumphant over its adversity.

This entirely optional side-quest is more or less an introduction to one of the main ways to play the game. While following your trail of clues to find your father's killer is one thing, establishing a daily routine that helps work towards tangible goals or experience new things is just as important. Some of these activities improve the protagonist's skills, like practicing martial arts in an empty lot to level-up and evolve moves, while others will challenge the player's skill, like getting good at motorcycle racing game "Hang On" so that a later challenge where you're driving a real motorcycle is a bit easier.

Contemporary games in the simulation genre tended to saddle you with a routine-focused task from the outset, such as a business to run or a field to plow, so it was certainly novel to simply be a jobless teenager trying to find a way to fill your days as seemingly every new step in your main goal required you to wait for someone else before moving forward.

Shenmue's Inhabitants

Of course, it's not just the player involving themselves with a daily routine. Hundreds of NPCs populate the world, each one with distinct personalities, backstories, and full voice-over. If you want, you can follow someone leaving their home in the morning, watch them open their store, walk in, examine every little thing on their shelves, and then pester them all day with questions about if any local gangsters with tattoos have stopped by their antique china shop lately.

On the rare occasions where you don't have any leads to follow, you can actually get to hear more about what they're thinking about. Some of them are familiar with the protagonist and ask how he's doing, or even visit him at home if they're worried, and others will just let you in on their personal life, like relationship troubles. Maybe try to teach you some Italian. If you forget to say hi while exploring town, maybe pick up the phone and call them in the evening.

Unfortunately, it's somewhat rare to get much insight in-game. Perhaps due to the technological hurdles of having everyone voiced and simply not having enough room for that many unique sound files, but the initial release of the game did also come with an online enabled companion disc called "Shenmue Passport." In it, every character in the game, including the dogs and cats, has a bio that includes a paragraph or two about their lives and various stats like birth dates and blood type. Though the feature has gone offline since then, fans have recreated it with a mobile app called "Suka Pass."

The Nature of Shenmue

While most of Shenmue's gameplay occurs in urban environments, plenty of attention was given to the nature the player experiences as well. When it rains, mud and puddles form; when it snows, you can hear it crunching beneath your feet, and tire tracks line the streets. Though you can easily complete the game before the end of December, ignoring the story until as far as April lets you experience the world turning greener, cherry blossoms blooming, and dandelions sprouting up. For some extra verisimilitude, you can even use the real life weather data from 1986/1987 Yokosuka to have the in-game weather match. Pretty impressive stuff for 1999.

However, one of the most memorable moments in the series comes from the end of Shenmue 2. On the fourth disc of the game, where one might normally expect there to be grand spectacle, action, or conquest, there's something else entirely: A chance encounter where you meet someone who's going the same way you're going, followed by a two-day walk and talk where you get to know one another. There are no wolves chasing you, dangerous decisions to make, or villains with chainsaws. There are, however, some colza blossoms that just bloomed. You have to take a detour to see them, but doesn't it sound nice? Why not, since we're here.

More than any action scene, sprawling city street, or technological advancement for the medium, this is the moment that defines what Shenmue is. A mundane world that exists all around you, and feels like it could go on forever if you suspend your disbelief for just a moment. If there's one thing I think any life sim should try to replicate from Shenmue, it's this. The grandeur of this slow walk through the woods where you get to ask a stranger dozens of questions, and answer dozens in return. The more common "two minute event where you can pick the good choice or the bad choice" can't compare.

Only 3.6% of you asked for more posts about life sims that aren't Story of Seasons, but I didn't want to leave those of you who wanted it out to dry. I might still do another one at some point, something more "typical" like Fields of Mistria, but I hope this was interesting for you. While it wasn't one of the more popular requests, and it requires a lot more work than a meme, or just more of the same, it's worth doing so long as someone enjoys it.

[aquicat]

Innocence in the Dark Brotherhood Questline

I love the recurring theme of innocence in the Skyrim DB questline so much.

I like how it starts with this idea of 'Innocence lost.' Of course, Aventus is still innocent, he only wanted to save his friends, and yet he has caused a woman's death. So we are made to question the nature of innocence.

Grelod is possibly the first introduction we get to the idea of appearance vs reality in relation to innocence. She's called 'Grelod the Kind' but she's arguably the cruellest character in the game. She takes innocence from children, seeks to destroy it, and feels no guilt.

When you find Cicero on the road, he is innocent. Of everything he's accused of, that is - there are indeed no weapons or drugs in that big wooden box. Him screaming 'CICERO IS INNOCENT' was a bit heavy handed though ngl. Furthermore, he is continuously innocent of everything he's accused of. Like, no, he's not conspiring against you with a secret accomplice, Astrid.

That brings us onto Astrid, and onto the idea of innocence lost. It is implied that she committed her first murder at a young age, after her uncle abused her. The idea is that her innocence was taken from her, because she had no other choice but to kill him. Is it really her fault, what she does, if she was forced into this life by fate? Is she really Guilty?

Next up: Babette. If anything epitomises this theme, it's Babette, and the illusion of innocence. We see this theme in Cicero too, though to a lesser degree. Children are meant to be innocent. Babette is a child, but she is not a child, and she is not innocent. She is preserved in a state of perceived innocence, but her truth couldn't be further from it. Again, the idea of innocence being lost or taken away when she was turned.

A short note on Gabriella, who enjoys stabbing unicorns (a creature associated with innocence) with knitting needles. Destruction of Innocence.

And it goes without saying that many of the contract victims are innocent - especially Vittoria Vici, an utter victim of circumstance, killed on her wedding day, dressed in white.

Veezara: he was born into the Brotherhood as a Shadowscale, he had no choice in his life. Did he have innocence when he was born, if he was always fated to lose it?

Circling back to Cicero (bcs lets face it i have a problem) there are also lots of example of innocent, childlike phrases both in and outside his dialogue. Ignoring the fact that 'Best friends forever' and 'oki-doki' completely break the lore of Skyrim, they tie into this idea of the fluidity of innocence. Parts of someone can be innocent, while others are not, innocence is easily faked, and signs of innocence can be hollow, and terrifying, when accompanied by a person with so much guilt. Guilt is also interesting, because Cicero is about the only member to show any kind of guilt - guilt about killing the jester, and about hurting Veezara. He doesn't set a very high bar, but it's there. We could say that it's because of this guilt he develops, alone with his memories and thoughts in the Cheydinhal sanctuary, that he puts on this very innocent persona; because let's face it, if he's trying to achieve a disguise of sorts, it's not working.

The final quest: 'Dark Brotherhood Forever!' again, very childish phrasing, very innocent.

And finally the Black Door: What is life's greatest illusion? Innocence, my Brother.

[mhaikkun]

CRIME CITY

definitely gonna clean this post up once I have all my character profiles confirmed and make a more formal story introduction, but I thought I'd do a fun little update on all the characters we've met already as well as a general overview of the plot!

crime city follows winter, florist by day and ruthless murderer by night, in a city ruled by criminals each time the sun sets. the mayor? law enforcement? decorative. useless.

in order to achieve his own goals, child prodigy-turned-crime lord winter lies, steals, and kills — and, when the occasion calls for it, enlists the help of the many outlaws on his list of acquaintances.

but winter, too, is being hunted.

here are the current cast:

WINTER (THE RAVEN)

there are only three things anyone can ever claim to know about him: one, he always smiles; two, he is always dangerous; and three, he always wears black. is he mourning someone?

revered as "the king of hell," this strange ghostly man hates rain, doesn't drink, and used to be a detective.

BRENDOLINE BARBARA (THE LADY)

the mayor's daughter. frustrated by her own powerlessness and the facade of her father's position, she became a vigilante. winter must be destroyed, and, as the saying goes, if you want something done right, you have to do it yourself.

how hard can it be when you find yourself falling in love with the man you want to kill, and who wants to kill you?

GIOVANNI MERCURO (THE SNITCH)

a croupier who runs the "snake eyes" gambling house, giovanni will glady offer you valuable information — that is, of course, if you can win against him. if he likes you enough, maybe his sleight of hand will come in handy for your pickpocketing needs.

believing it to be the height of carelessness to be complacent and predictable in a city crawling with vermin, he refuses to be consistent. he never wears the same hairstyle twice, never plays the same game twice, and never sleeps with the same person twice.

ASHCROFT (THE SNIPER)

a hitman for hire with the air of someone who used to be noble. rarely getting jobs due to his exorbitant prices, when he's out of money and out of work, he plays the saxophone on street corners and in bars for loose change.

as far as assassins go, he's pretty resourceful. after all, his sax doubles as a sniper rifle.

FALK (THE BLOODHOUND)

hates tardiness and thinks dogs are annoying and difficult. he does not appreciate the irony of his criminal title.

once a military man, an inflicted injury forced him to develop his already keen sense of smell into the formidable skill he has today of hunting people down using only their scent to compensate for his impaired vision.

[rizz-god]

Happy 1 Year to Burning Shores! (plus me being cringe and sappy)

The fact that it's already been entire year is honestly insane. Despite being a newer-ish fan to the Horizon series, these games have had such a huge impact on my life. And when the Burning Shores was announced, little did I know what would be in store for.

First off, Aloy's story post-Forbidden West was handled so incredibly well. Seeing how far she's come since Zero Dawn and her evolution throughout FW has been such a treat to watch. It still blows my mind that high school me thought ZD looked boring and uninteresting then and now I can without a doubt that the Horizon series is one of my favorite video game series.

Burning Shores is still my favorite DLC to this day and I am so glad Guerilla Games told this DLC's story in the way that they did. Seyka's introduction to the series was such a breath of fresh air. And her and Aloy's journey together was some of the most wholesome shit I've ever seen. I pretty much declared myself a Seyloy shipper the moment those two awkward dumbass lesbians (affectionate) started talking to each other, and watching their relationship develop over the course of the DLC nearly brought me to tears.

As a little chaotic lesbian enby, seeing this sort of representation in media as popular as Horizon made me so happy to see and I absolutely cannot wait for what GG has in store for Aloy and Seyka in H3. No matter what direction they decide to take, I have no doubt that GG will handle these two and the story at large in an exciting and meaningful way.

But above all of this, not only did Burning Shores tell an impactful story, it also led me to meeting so many incredible people who I am so honored to call my friends (this is where I'm going to cringe and sappy).

Like seriously, I joined the Moth to Flame discord server (and then later became a mod but that's irrelevant) on a complete whim and it is still one of the best decisions I've ever made. Everyone was so welcoming to me and I felt like I fit right in and like I was finally at home (insert The Idea of Home here for dramatic effect). Words cannot simply describe how much everyone of y'all mean to me and I am honored to have met each of you. Y'all rock and I am grateful for all the late nights spent on voice chat and all of the server bullshit and memes and chaos we inflict on each other everyday.

And so, to show my appreciation and to annoy y'all's inboxes, I'm shouting all of you out because this is my post and I can do whatever I want (bite me): @cookie-druid @a-little-ferret @katiemcgrathisdaddyaf @samaelschain @verthanthi @despite-the-nora @drayna @nico-demons @xamiipholia @solitae @hartlesshart @hellcheercaine @zerodawnkitewalker

And of course, shoutout to all of the other Moths that I forgot to tag (there's too many of y'all, okay lmao) and know that I appreciate y'all just as much everyone else listed above.

Happy 1 year to Burning Shores and to all of the memories we've made along the way! <3

[moonwritersblog]

Main

Hello guys, I'm Frederick C.G. Borromeo, a former gamer and video game developer-turned-filmmaker and comic dubber. It's my first introduction in this Tumblr after all of my comic dubs that I posted many times without introducing yet, and yeah sorry about that because I'm very, very busy with these anyway. Call me Freddy or "Moonwriter" if you want, but it's the best that name "Moonwriter" is my current YouTube account, which means I did post many comic dubs as well as films and compilations. You may check it out below.

ROTTMNT Comic Dubs:

ROTTMNT Randoms:

Other Dubs:

[alwaysforevermaybenever]

YANDERE 「SYSTEM」 : INTRODUCTION

× cw: general yandere stuff; gamer slang; some manipulation; teeny tiny bit of gatekeeping (🤏 just a small bit)

× note: was rereading orv and thought "hey what if i made the system a big ass simp for one person" ill develop this world i swear its just a concept for now

⌗ The world is no longer the same one you used to know. Ever since January 28, 20xx, the world has been turned into a video game for the entertainment of the Guardians. 「The System」 has absolute reign over the “game” and mere humans, Icons, as they are called by the Guardians, are little playthings for their amusement. 

⌗ You’re just a college student in their third year doing their best to survive the already cutthroat world of law, when your entire world is turned upside down. People are killing each other left right and center, monsters that should only be seen in fantasy media emerge from nowhere, and you’re all alone(not really) in a strange and foreign place. 

⌗ Somehow, you manage to survive for six months on your own, and you’ve been dubbed as the Icon of Fortune by Guardians and humans alike, with how much the odds are always in your favour. You happen to stumble across S-tier gear in the middle of the road, or food conveniently appears when you need it the most. You’re not the strongest or most agile person, but your stats are higher than average because of the luxurious chests containing EXP points that seem to spawn just before you turn around. Are you using cheat codes or something?!

「The System」 The System is rooting for you :)

⌗ On the seventh month after The Change, 「The System」 announces a major update. Guardians who sponsor a human can now appear as their companion, should they choose to do so. Of course this benefits both parties. You don’t have a Guardian as a patron, so this update is useless to you, but all that changes when an unknown Guardian sends you a message. 

“Take me as your patron. I can give you any and everything you will ever need to get a good ending.”  

⌗ What do you have to lose? Every human benefits from having a Guardian Patron. The only downside is that you are bonded for life, so you have to make the decision carefully. No other Guardian has sent you a request before, so you gladly accept. As soon as you do so, a handsome man appears before your very eyes, a charming smile on his lips and a hand extended to you. When he speaks, his voice has a very familiar sound:

「The System」 The System promises to never let you down or desert you.

 

⌗ Your Patron is 「The System」. Have a good game.

[lorahgames]

Collar x Malice: Full Review

Console: Nintendo Switch

Total Play Time: 60 hours

Lorah Game Rating: 9.5/10

--------

I finally did it; I stuck with one single otome game, and finished it up!

Although CxM is my first blog post, I am not new to otome. I like to think I have a fair bit of experience to chalk up a decent review about these games, so this is my go at it!

SYNOPSIS: Collar x Malice takes place in a quarantined Shinjuku, Japan, where citizens live in fear of Adonis, a criminal organization that believes it will revitalize Japan with its own warped sense of justice and judgement. The story begins when Ichika Hoshino, a rookie cop, is attacked and has a poisonous collar placed around her neck by Adonis, who declare they are testing her as they believe she has potential to be one of their sympathizers. Ichika must now work with a group of ex-cops to discover the truth behind the Adonis crimes and to remove her collar.

TIME TO BEGIN THE REVIEW!

I was absolutely blown away by Collar x Malice. Don't get me wrong, I love all the otome games I play, but this one topped the charts for me. I am very, very particular when it comes to what I like and dislike about otome. I absolutely can't stand when the story is boring, but also don't like when the plot takes away from the romances with the love interests. I think CxM has perfected the balance of story-to-romance. I found myself both wanting to solve the mystery of the game while also loving the time I got to spend with each of the LIs. Of course, some routes I found better than others, but that's to be expected! I genuinely enjoyed each of the LIs and what they had to offer. Usually, there will be a LI or two I'm not too fond of, but let me say, all these boys have replay-ability. I will be revisiting this game again.

My first impressions were so-so; they are almost always completely based off of the LIs' designs (lol, a little bit shallow but what can you do). I definitely had preferences towards Yanagi and Okazaki initially. I was indifferent to Sasazuka, and did not feel like I would enjoy Enomoto and Shiraishi all that much. But let me tell you this.

DON'T JUDGE A BOOK BY ITS COVER. PLS.

Mineo Enomoto

Honestly, I played this man first to get him over with. LOL. I hate to say it now. Enomoto gave off middle school vibes, and it wasn't for me in the beginning. BUT. He really grew on me! Honestly, for being THAT character, you know, the one with no experience with girls, it ended up being super cute. Once you got past the eyepatch thing, he was truly a really good guy and it was adorable to see his relationship develop with Ichika. Definitely not a story heavy chapter, and was a great light introduction to the game, especially with how the game gets darker later on. Enomoto wasn't my favourite, but I still am excited to play his after-story in CxM unlimited.

Takeru Sasazuka

Oh, Sasazuka. Your route was great.

This man was a tsundere if I've ever seen one. He was curt, he was rude, but he was such a good LI. I actually found Sasazuka's backstory to be really good, especially the role it plays in the plot. He had MEGA character development from the beginning of the route to finish. It was lovely to see him fall so hard for Ichika, who he had been calling stupid cat for half the game. Not to mention, Sasazuka's CGs are FINEEEE. I hit that Switch screenshot button a few times. Funny enough, when I went to go play Yanagi's route it didn't register my completion of Sasazuka's, so I actually had to play his route twice. Of course, I sped through most of the dialogue, but I did find myself stopping to replay and read the cute moments between him and Ichika. I enjoyed them as much as I did the first time. I really enjoyed both LI and plot in this route.

Kageyuki Shiraishi

I played Shiraishi's route fourth. At this point, I had a good gist of how the story was flowing, but I did NOT expect the plot twist of Shiraishi's route! I was hesistant to even play Shiraishi at all, because long-haired men (not to mention the cat aesthetic he has going on) aren't usually my thing. Personally, I loved the route's plot more than I did the romance with Shiraishi. This isn't me saying he was bad, but his story was so well done, it's hard to not like it more. I found with Shiraishi, he was slightly overhyped in online reviews. A lot of people say Shiraishi is their favourite from the game, but he wasn't mine. I think I went in with my expectations a bit too high, especially after how much I loved Okazaki's route. At the climax of his route, I felt things were a bit rushed because I was confused as to what was going on, but it was such a minor confusion that I figured things out pretty quickly. Again, I'm really looking forward to playing his after-story!

Aigi Yanagi

It took forever to finally get to Yanagi's route. Honestly at the point I finally got to play his route, he has been a side character for so long that it was hard not to see him that way (LOL, sorry Yanagi!). One thing I was surprised about was that Yanagi's route really put romance on the back-burner and put the story in the front. I get it, since Yanagi's route was the big reveal and finale, and honestly it really worked for the overall story. It's not like Yanagi's route wasn't romantic, but it was a little hard to focus on him when you could feel the Adonis leader's identity reveal just around the corner. Yanagi also had the longest route, with seven chapters instead of six. I would say he got some of the best CGs of the game, probably since he is the poster child of CxM. The whole Yanagi backstory is absolutely fantastic as well, and they did a really good job diving deep into his character.

Kei Okazaki

Of course, I had to leave Okazaki for last. Okazaki is by far my favourite Collar x Malice LI and may quite literally be overtaking Toma (Amnesia) for the top spot of them all. I knew I would love Okazaki from the start and I was right. I love his character design, the voice acting, aloof personality, route story, EVERYTHING. While I would not classify Okazaki as any sort of yandere (my favourite trope), he checked all the boxes I usually look for in my LIs (self-sacrificing, obsessive, etc). His entire life outlook changed after getting close with Ichika, and was it ever emotional seeing him go though all that inner turmoil. Let me tell you, this man had me RUNNING to Collar x Malice Unlimited for more. The amount of times he popped up in Yanagi's route made me want to just go replay his route again. Not to mention, his tragic love ending has to be the best in the game. I accidently got it by misclicking, but holy crap?? The CG was crazy! And once you get the tragic love end, you get the bonus CG, which also happens to be my favourite from the game. Anyway, this game has left me an Okazaki fan through-and-through, as well as clogged up my Switch library with screenshots of his face. I could say A LOT more, but trying to leave this spoiler-free for friends who potentially want to play.

Kei best boy <3

Do I recommend Collar x Malice? Of course!

The game really hits both the story component and romance component, and I definitely got my money's worth with over 60 hours of gameplay. Of course, there are some minor bugs (looking at you, Sasasuka route) where dialogue seems to be misplaced or the self-inserted name still comes up as Ichika, but believe me, this was so minor and infrequent that I don't think it affected the overall quality of the game.

I am actually sad that the game is over! I'm scared to finish Unlimited too, because what will I do then?!

Overall, Collar x Malice definitely left a lasting impression on me and has become one of my favourite otome. I had a blast playing it and will definitely be back to do it all again. I hope I can break free of my habit of comparing every LI to my favourite, because Okazaki will be hard as hell to beat.

Thanks for reading my review !

LORAH

[themattress]

Yu-Gi-Oh! Story Arc Ranking

Elaboration from yesterday's post, plus including the Duel Monsters anime.

MANGA:

-Duelist Kingdom Arc: I strongly feel like this is the story arc where Kazuki Takahashi got just about everything right. It's where he fully fleshed out the card game to the point where it became feasible and tangible, which is why it quickly came to exist in the real world. It's where he had a perfect team dynamic going with Yugi, Yami Yugi, Jonouchi, Anzu, Honda and Bakura, with Grandpa Moto as their mentor. It's where he perfected the writing of villains and side characters, with Pegasus and his minions, Mai, Haga, Ryuzaki, Ryota, Kozuka and "Bandit" Keith all standing out. It's where Seto Kaiba came into his own as a truly interesting character and worthy rival to Yugi. It had a fantastic environment in the titular Duelist Kingdom, and a perfectly paced structure across 8 volumes. And it was also the biggest game-changer in terms of the manga's overarching narrative: expertly linking together the three arcs that had come before and setting up the three arcs that would come afterward.

-DEATH-T Arc: Takahashi's personal favorite story arc, and I can certainly see why. While it has a rough start with a bizarre one-shot chapter about virtual pets and a two-parter that while fun has little to do with games at all, once Mokuba Kaiba is introduced it follows a sequential plot about the revenge of Seto Kaiba via his deadly game tournament, DEATH-T. While it would later be topped by Duelist Kingdom's McGuffin hunting to gain access to a castle to face its king, the format of scaling the floors of a tower, facing tougher and tougher challenges in order to reach the villain at the top was a highly engaging structure. And of course, there's the unforgettable emotional development of the characters: Yugi fighting for the life of his grandfather, the famous smiley face drawing on the hands of Yugi and his friends, Honda almost sacrificing his life, Yugi breaking down and confessing that he has an alternate personality to his friends, and the tragedy of the Kaiba brothers. It's brilliant stuff. Tbh, if not for Duelist Kingdom - and for Johji's existence - this arc would be my favorite too.

-Pharaoh's Memories Arc: The only real flaw of the manga's final story arc is that due to both editorial meddling and Takahashi having a health scare, it got cut short. It's certainly well paced at 7 volumes, but its material was enough for anywhere between 8 and 10 volumes, which means that there's no avoiding the feeling that several components are missing or otherwise not as fleshed out as they could have been. But that aside, this is a fantastic culmination of everything the series has been building toward, finally letting us see Ancient Egypt and the life Yami Yugi led when he was the Pharaoh, revealing what Yami Bakura's sinister end goal is, and ending with the most logical final duel possible: Yugi vs. Yami Yugi.

-Battle City Arc: This arc is dead middle in my ranking because it has some of the highest highs of the manga and some of the lowest lows all across its incomparably lengthy run. I adore the character development for characters like Yami Yugi, Jonouchi and Kaiba, I adore the Ishtar siblings and all that they bring to the table, I love getting Shizuka as an actual character and not just a plot device, I love the advancements in the overarching narrative, and I love the majority of the duels. But at the same time, the focus on the card game officially reaches the point of exhaustion and suspension of disbelief, running around Domino City isn't particularly interesting setting-wise, too much feels derivative of Duelist Kingdom, Yami Marik is a frustrating and one-dimensional villain, and what gets done with Mai is absolutely shameful. It's an iconic story arc, but I can't call it the best...in the manga, anyway.

-RPG Arc: The actual RPG part of this arc, which serves as the introduction of Ryou Bakura and Yami Bakura and thus when the series' overarching narrative starts revving up before Duelist Kingdom sends it full throttle, is fantastic. It's hilarious seeing Yugi and his friends as miniatures in a fantasy tabletop RPG world, it's great seeing Yugi and Yami Yugi interact with each other for the first time, and Yami Bakura is an immediately iconic, charismatic foe. The problem is that the handful of one-shot chapters preceding it were pretty weak. Takahashi admitted that he was running out of ideas for games at this point, and it shows (A phone game against a Ferris Wheel car bomber? Really?) And so its score for me gets lowered.

-Dungeon Dice Monsters Arc: The shortest arc in the series meets the baseline for just "good". The game is good, the antagonists are good, the actions and development undertaken by the main characters are good, the advancements made in the overarching narrative are good, and the climax is good. It's good, but in the shadow of arcs that are great.

-School Arc: Is anyone surprised? It's the first story arc, the point where Takahashi is still trying to figure everything else and enduring all the growing pains that many series can expect to go through at the start. It's average at worst, but always showed signs of potential for something better, particularly with the bond between Yugi and Jonouchi, the existence of Yami Yugi, and the Ancient Egyptian connection; potential that would be realized later on.

ANIME:

-Battle City Arc: Yu-Gi-Oh!: Duel Monsters was never better than it was in Battle City. Retaining all of the manga version's strengths while eliminating or mitigating its weaknesses while also adding some new positive changes of its own, not even being interrupted by a terrible filler arc can detract from how awesome this arc is. I will forever marvel, for example, how it took one of the weakest main antagonists of the manga, Yami Marik, and turned him into an iconic, entertaining freakshow that you actually love to hate rather than find tiring.

-Duelist Kingdom Arc: I love this arc. It was my introduction to Yu-Gi-Oh!, as I suspect it was for most people. I'd love to place it first just as I did its manga counterpart, but...well, that's the thing. The manga version was the dead middle arc of the series, whereas the anime version is the first arc. As such, there are countless changes for the weaker, all sorts of instances where context has been stripped away for certain plot beats and character arcs, and adaptational plot holes aplenty. It especially falls apart after Yugi defeats Pegasus: throwing in an abbreviated version of Shadi's first appearance, then rushing out of Duelist Kingdom so that Yugi can face a bratty girl back in Domino City, and then having a mini-arc centered around a video game parody of Duelist Kingdom run by Pegasus' co-conspirators from Kaiba Corp. It's a testament to the strength of Duelist Kingdom as an arc that it still remains by and large interesting and enjoyable despite all of this. It's a very solid 2nd place.

-Dark Side of Dimensions Arc: This arc is technically in the manga's continuity, but it's got the animators and voice-actors from the anime and is in anime format so I'm including it here. I enjoy the story, which is about all of the characters, particularly Yugi and Kaiba, reacting to life without Atem. While Yugi is moving forward with a newfound independence while still accepting support from his friends, Kaiba spirals into a co-dependent madness as he tries to find a way to resurrect Atem and duel him again, coming afoul of a group of supernatural kids who don't want that to happen. The only downsides of this movie is the mixing of manga continuity and trappings of the anime leading to some dissonance (especially in regards to Jonouchi), it has an unnecessary and lame "Save the World" second climax, and all of the duels are horrendously written and rushed, clearly beyond what the film's runtime could fit.

-Orichalcos Arc: OK, I know that this arc gets a bum rap, and a lot of it is deserved since it's got a lot of problems. But I'm sorry, there's so much about it that works and is really cool, and more that while badly executed held great potential in concept. Dartz and his minions are all superbly designed and have interesting dueling gimmicks, and they could have been truly epic villains if written better. The Atlantean lore held promise and could have been connected to Duel Monsters in a more sensible way. It's great seeing Yugi and his friends go to America, and having characters like Rebecca Hawkins, her grandfather Arthur, and Maximillion goddamn Pegasus himself return. And there are so many memorable moments, especially involving Yami Yugi once he gets forcibly separated from regular Yugi for much of the arc's second half ("It should have been me, not him! It's not fair!") So I can't help but appreciate it.

-Pharaoh's Memories Arc: There are many things to like about this arc - several of the manga's strengths are retained, some new additions are good such as the expanded roles for female characters Mana and Kisara, and in the Japanese version it has a banger of an OP and a banger of an ED! But there are just too many changes for the worse for my tastes: too much that got left out and too much that got added even when it went against the point of the original, most notably Seto Kaiba's whole presence ultimately at the expense of his past life.

-KC Grand Championship Arc: This could have been a short, simple and fun filler arc: before going back to Japan, Yugi and his friends compete in a Kaiba Corp tournament held at his newly opened American theme park. Unfortunately, the writers stupidly decided that this arc needed villains, which is why we have the Von Schroeder brothers and Vivian Wong, annoying foes who just end up dragging the whole experience down. It's the peak of the anime's misuse of Jonouchi when his final duel in the series is lost to Zigfried Von Schroeder of all people. That's right, not to Yami Bakura, but a fruity German Pegasus rip-off. Weak!

-Pyramid of Light Arc: Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie has great animation, a fantastic duel between Yugi and Kaiba, the interesting concept of the titular artifact and its connection to the Millennium Puzzle, a spectacular climax, and the presence of Maximillion goddamn Pegasus, so it's got a lot going for it. Sadly, it's dragged down by a short runtime that doesn't allow the plot to be developed in the way it should, a one-dimensional villain who is hardly ever on screen and lacks a solid motivation, and a campy even-by-its-usual-standards English dub.

-Virtual World Arc: Fuck this arc. It insultingly interrupts Battle City between its quarter-finals and semi-finals, rehashes the premise and villains from the post-Duelist Kingdom video game three-parter, begins the anime version of Kaiba's transformation into this overtly sympathetic, honorable and "cool" deuteragonist that he was never meant to be, features a new badly-written and badly-designed villain in Noah Kaiba, and just drags on and on until ending on an underwhelming and nonsensical conclusion that outright undermines the development that Kaiba is supposed to have in the remainder of the Battle City arc. The only decent parts of this arc are getting to see Anzu and even Shizuka duel. Otherwise it's a huge waste of time.

-Dungeon Dice Monsters Arc: There were changes to the Duelist Kingdom, Battle City and Pharaoh's Memories arcs, but they weren't total bastardizations of their source material. This, on the other hand, is. Remember when I said its manga counterpart was the definition of just "good"? Well, this is the definition of just "bad"! Nothing about it works. It's horrendous, poisoning the well on Ryuji as a character and kick-starting the anime's Jonouchi abuse, all while the most important and emotional material is moved to the start of the Battle City arc instead. Maximillion goddamn Pegasus' flashback cameo is the only worthwhile thing here.

-Capsule Monsters Arc: Yeah, this arc's not canon. I refuse to acknowledge it.

[bardock1991]

Weiss Schnee - The Hollow Heiress (Part 1)

Before I begin, I want to establish a few things first.

- I have nothing against people who like this character, nor am I calling any of them out for doing so. This is just why that character doesn't work for me personally.

- I love RWBY like a lot of you, I've been a fan of the show since around the V5 to V6 hiatus when I finally managed to watch the show proper. While I will criticize the writing here... A lot, this is not meant to be seen as a hate piece towards the show or the people behind it.

- I wanna be as good faith as I possibly can & I hope you all can do the same, I especially don't want anyone going over to people who like this character & harrasses them for doing so. If I see any of you pulling that shit, I'm blocking you on sight.

Got it? Good, so sit tight, get comfy, grab some water & a snack, because we're gonna be here for a long-ass time.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Introduction.

Ya ever find those characters who are just... Super popular for one reason or another, then you see that character for yourself, look at why people like it so much & it doesn't work out for you?

Well, this is basically my relationship with Weiss Schnee from RWBY in a nutshell & why I find her a bit overrated. (Neo is just as, if not more overrated than Weiss, but that's a discussion for another time)

Weiss is immensely popular due to her going from a one-note horrible bad girl trope into a pretty empathetic, if still a bit sassy, young lady. She takes shit from nobody, she manages to save her family from the clucthes of her shitstain of a Father & overall, it's kind of a girl boss.

There's nothing wrong with a character like that, of course. I myself like this kind of trope where one of the MCs is a shithead & grows into a better person as the story is told... But Weiss for me just-... Doesn't work for me.

A grand majority of her quote unquote "development" (& by majority, i mean everything except V4 & bits of V3) is either of the 3 following sections.

- It happens Off-screen, therefore making it hollow & meaningless.

- It's just given to her without Weiss having to put in the work.

- It's not as impactful or meaningful as her fellow classmates, including some that aren't even from her team.

In this post, I'd like to go in-depth & discuss Weiss' character arc throughout the show so far & why to me, it doesn't work.

I'm only going to discuss the main show here.

I'm not gonna bring up the Anthology Manga or Ice Queendom since they're side stuff... The last of which not being very good.

I'm also not bringing up either of the JL movies since they're non-canon & the stuff with Weiss that IS good shouldn't be saved on a non-canon movie to begin with.

I'm only going to discuss the main show, the V1 & Mistral Trailers & if I find it necessary, the E.C. Myers novels. Basically, only the stuff that's actually canon to the show.

I also wanna make it very clear that I do like Weiss as a charatcer.

There is a lot of stuff I don't like about her arc as you'll soon see & she's like- around the bottom 10 for me in comes of characters in the show. But I still like her a lot & I'll make sure to adress that to not make this a completely negative look on Weiss' character arc, since there are some stuff I like about it.

Got it? Awesome, let's get started.

Part 1: A very poor first impression.

I know we tend to give some slack to V1 due to the production behind it, but as Adam & I stated in our first FE4 stream at his Discord Server: if we can criticize old games for having outdated stuff that wasn't even that good back in their initial release, we should be willing to do the same with other stuff, so I don't want anyone to give me the "But it's the first season" excuse, alright?

Anyways, when we first meet Weiss, she- to put it bluntly: Sucked. She was very mean, rude, downright selfish & grossly arrogant.

Of course, this is how the trope works: These characters start out bad, but then become better people as time goes on... So it'd make sense for us to have that with Weiss, correct?...

Sadly, that didn’t end up being the case.

Let's start with the events that transpired at Emerald Forest, where Weiss just- does nothing except whine & get in the way until the last minute when she suddenly decided to save Ruby.

There is no scene in between those 2 points that makes Weiss wanna do that, there is nothing hinting about Weiss potentially having a soft side in between those two points & we don't have a scene where Ruby proves to Weiss that her views are wrong, thus forcing Weiss to look at things in a different way.

This, in reality, is a scenario where Weiss goes from stereotypical mean girl to "Ok, I guess I'll play nice", which just comes out of nowhere...

& The problem is that it didn't have to be.

Instead of that scene where Weiss just acts like an arrogant brat with Ruby, why not have that argument escalate a bit to not only hint on Weiss' kindness, but also show how Ruby is when dealing with someone like that...

But we didn't get that, it was a random 180 that just sorta happened.

This wouldn’t be a huge issue if Weiss actually got better afterwards or if this was the only instance of this happening...

The problem as this is not only not the only instance of this happening as I'll get into later, but Weiss herself also gets worse.

Right after that is The Badge & The Burden, which I think it's the worse episode of V1 & honestly one of the lower points of the show as a whole. (Yes, even worse than the 2 Jaune 2-parters, which I actually started to appreciate a bit after my current rewatch of RWBY.)

Here, not only do we have Weiss have her bad attitude escalated to 11, but for some reason, the writers thought it'd be a good idea to make Ruby as obnoxious as possible in order to "justify" Weiss' bad attitude in this 2-parter...

This doesn't work either.

The supposed Weiss "I'm still leagues better than you" Schnee has a lot of trouble fighting this low level Grimm that anyone else in that room (aside from Jaune) could've taken out with ease & then snaps at Ruby for, in Weiss' own words: "doing nothing to earn her position as leader."

Yeah, uh? Who was it again who pulled off that plan (which was made on the spot, by the way) to kill the Nevermore literally yesterday? The nevermore nobody else could've killed on their own? Which would lead you all to fully enroll at Beacon?...

Oh yeah, RUBY!!!

To say that the writing for the both of them here it a really big low would've been an understatement since Ruby is uncharacteristically annoying & Weiss is somehow even worse than she was when we first met her.

Then we have the talk with both Port & Ozpin which I'll admit, it's pretty solid. But it's sorta portraid as a "Oh, X has been given a talk by Y, therefore X has changed completely"... Yeah, that's not how it works, yet the show portrays it as such.

Then we spend some time with Jaune... A bit too much time, but details before we finally get to the V1 finale, which is honestly one of my least favorite parts of the whole show. (Which is saying a lot.)

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We start with Weiss being... A little too happy? Something even the other girls joke about. But the reason she's happy is because the Vytal Festival, this big biannual event that unites all of the 5- oh, sorry, all of the 4 nations of Remnant together to celebrate their new peaceful lives.

There's a joke about her trying to get info of the foreign students & acting it like this is just her being nice to the newcomers, but this is pretty harmless & in-character for Weiss. Nothing bad so far.

Then we have the girls ask the cops about what happened to this robbed Dust store they found, with Weiss suddenly acting rather hostile about the White Fang & Faunus in general.

For those who don't know, Faunus are basically humans with an animalistic trait, be it animal ears, a tail, claws, ETC. Despite being completely illogical & unreasonable (like every form of prejudice since prejudice at its core is illogical & unreasonable), humans still treated the Faunus like hot garbage, whether it be just shooing them away like literal animals, hunting them for a sport or literal enslavement.

The reason the White Fang exists is because the Faunus got sick of being treated like shit for no reason & wanted to fight back against the oppression, mainly against nations like Mistral & especially Atlas where Faunus racism is at its worse.

Weiss herself is from Atlas & more importantly, the Heiress of the Schnee Dust Company, or SDC for short. Which is a company that, as we learn both before & after this episode, is run by a lot of shitty people doing shitty things, said shitty things being done to Faunus 9/10. (The other 1/10 happens to people at Mantle, for those who're curious).

So of course, Weiss doesn't like the White Fang or the Faunus one bit. At first, this looks to be a similar situation with Cardin, where Weiss is just racist for the sake of it... But we learn later that this isn't the case.

We learn that the Faunus, mainly the White Fang, had screwed over the SDC a lot & even killed a few people there according to Weiss. (It is kinda deserved, of course cause screw Atlas & screw the SDC, but that's a discussion for another day.) & that made her already horrible relationship with her Father (We'll get to him, don't worry.) even worse since he took this very justified actions against his poor treatment towards the Faunus as some kind of horrible sin that should be punished with death & it's confirmed by Weiss that he most likely lashed out those feelings at his family, hence Weiss' line of "It made for a very difficult childhood."

Now this on paper, isn't necessarily a bad thing... Well, it IS, Weiss is still being racist, but at least she has a reason to recent the Faunus & especially the White Fang, especially since she doesn't have the full context of the other side of the story just yet.

So her feelings here make perfect sense in my opinion...

But there's two massive & I mean massive problems that ruin this for me.

Reason #1: Blake is written as if she was in the wrong despite not doing a single thing throughout the Volume 1 2-Parter Finale to justify this writing decision.

First of all: Blake does not (let alone tries to) tell Weiss about why the White Fang exists, which is arguably the worst part of this conflict since it makes it completely one-sided.

In conflicts like this, you need BOTH sides to have their sides of the stories explained to each other & have the opposing sides understand why they feel this way. While Blake has an idea of why Weiss feels this way, Weiss doesn't have that with Blake.

Blake doesn't tell Weiss about the struggles the Faunus went through during their hundreds, perhaps even thousands of years of oppression & hate towards her people, she doesn't tell Weiss that her company & the people of Atlas overall are the real problem here, she doesn't even give Weiss a hint of that.

All she does is say that The Faunus were tired of being pushed around & after that, she quite literally pusses out of the room & goes missing for a whole day.

Nope! This moment is just-... So wrong in so many ways.

When they finally meet back up again, Blake, for some reason, goes up to Weiss & apologizes to her, despite the fact that Blake literally did nothing wrong... Does Weiss do the same to Blake since this whole fiasco only happened because of her & that she was in the wrong here?

This is basically a bully tormenting their victim, then have said victim apologize to their bully the next day. That's literally what this is & I hate it so much since the story does nothing to justify this outcome.

& This brings me to the second issue.

Reason #2: Weiss gets absolutely nothing to make her change her mind... Or rather, she does get it, but it's completely off-screen.

Throughout the entirety of the final episode, there is not a single moment where Weiss begins to think about why Blake feels the way she does, why her own views aren't correct & why she should change them... We get nothing like that.

If anything, we get Weiss doing the opposite.

First by suggesting the idea of getting the police involve & already, that's a massive red flag. We all know All Cops are Bad & RWBY's no exception, so Weiss throwing that idea out just makes her look worse.

She also acts all high mighty with lines like "I think that when we hear it, you'll all realize I was right!" & "The innocent never run, Yang!" Both of which are completely false & just makes her look even worse, especially the latter line since the innocent do run, as we've seen many times, including in this finale.

She also has the gal to say that she does care about finding Blake, only to say that she's scared of what Blake will say when they finally find her which... WHAT?!

First of all, the whole reason she ran away was because of Weiss. The entirely of this volume finale happening the way it did is her fault, she was the one who shat on Blake & caused her to run, so why would she be the one scared of what the other has to say?

What kind of backwards logic is that?

Now none of this would've been an issue of either Ruby or Yang (mainly Yang since Ruby is later left with Penny, thus leaving Yang with Weiss for most of the finale.) actually tried to tell Weiss why Blake left & why she feels this way, or if Weiss herself actually started to think about those things, which wouldn't be hard as we later learn in V2 that Weiss does know about how fucked up the SDC is.

When you want to have your character change your views in such a drastic way, you have to give that character a reason to make said change. You need to give them a scene or an opportunity for them to want or feel the need to make said change, you can't just have that person go from Point A to Point B out of nowhere.

But guess what? That's exactly what they do with Weiss!

We have her pull a full 180 from "Mean racist girl" to "Oh, i don't care anymore. We're chill now." not only out of nowhere... But OFF SCREEN!

They pulled this bullshit with Weiss not once, but TWICE! In the same season, no less!

Here's the scene in question in case you need a brief refresher

Later, a handful of police cars are at the docks, where Ruby, Blake, Sun, and Penny are sitting on boxes in silence. That is, until Weiss and Yang appear on the scene.

Ruby: (speaking quickly to explain the situation) Look Weiss, it's not what you think, she explained the whole thing. See, she doesn't actually have a bow, she has kitty ears and they're actually kind of cute... (Weiss ignores her and squares off with Blake)

Blake: (calmly looking her down) Weiss, I want you to know that I'm no longer associated with the White Fang. Back when I was with the-

Weiss: Stop! Do you have any idea of how long we've been searching for you? (she pauses) Twelve hours. That means I've had twelve hours to think about this. And in that twelve hours, I've decided...

Yang, Sun, and Ruby look on, worried.

Weiss: I don't care.

Blake: (surprised) You don't care?

Weiss: You said you're not one of them anymore, right?

Blake: No, I-I haven't been since I was younger-

Weiss: (silencing her) Ah-bahp-bahp-bahp! I don't want to hear it. All I want to know is that the next time something this big comes up... you'll come to your teammates. And not some... (looking at Sun behind her as she catches herself) Someone else.

Blake: (looking at Ruby and Yang grinning at her, she wipes a tear from her eye, nodding) Of course.

You didn't read this wrong, nor have i pulled this out of a bad RWBY fix fic, this is exactly how the conversation goes in the actual show & it is so horrible!

Weiss, throughout this entire finale, was against the Faunus & by extention, the White Fang & against Blake herself & she did a good job reminding us of that by never shutting up about it throughout the whole thing.

But for some reason, we have Weiss, with no build up or reason whatsoever go "I don't care anymore." & Act like none of this ever happened

You can't do that!

You can't just have the character act so hostile through the whole episode & then at the end have them go "I don't care anymore, we're chill now." without actually giving them a reason to feel that way. That basically makes this entire situation a complete waste of time.

& Like i said earlier, the writing has Blake be in the wrong in this conflict & have her be the one to apologize despite the fact that, once again, she hasn't done a single thing wrong here. Literally nothing.

Weiss is the one who's in the wrong here, yet not only does she not apologize for her horrible attitude, but she also does nothing to justify her sudden change of heart in the end. Whatever change she had was off screen, which makes it pointless since we didn't get to see that.

& Like with the Emerald Forest bit, it would not be that hard to have a scene like that... At all!

It would not be difficult to have a scene or two where either Ruby, Yang or even Ozpin if you wanna involve him somehow, make Weiss question her views, thus making her want to change & better understand Blake or have Weiss ask those questions herself... It would not be very difficult to do that.

Yet they decided to not do that & have Weiss have this bullshit off-screen character development & treat Blake as if she was in the wrong this whole time & essentially apologize to her bully...

This is, without debate, bad writing. Really bad writing at that & I'm not gonna take the "It's the first season" excuse because that's a very important thing that should've at least be considered during the production & the writers didn't go through with it despite having no reason to do so.

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Now some of you may be wondering why i focused so much on Volume 1. As i stated, the production of V1 was very bad & had next to no budget, so why go so hard on it? Well, I already gave my first reason earlier in the post: That's not an excuse.

You can't say old stuff is immune from criticism because they're much older & limited compared to the stuff we have now. Especially since a lot of us (myself included) don't give that excuse for most other things, so I don't think RWBY should either.

& The second reason is precisely because this is our first season. More specifically, our season with Weiss, who gets a lot of time focused on her in Volume 1.

When it comes to introducing characters, especially main characters, you need to give them a good first impression. If not, then make them actually grow. Make them change & move away from how they were when we first met them.

Not have them be horrible until the last minute when they decided to be good without any set up or reason behind it!

& This is exactly how Weiss is written throughout the entirety of Volume 1.

She is just straight up horrible throughout pretty much the whole season until the very last scene of said season where she suddenly decides to act a little different, despite doing nothing to make that change believable in any way.

I had a few friends tell me that this works because that's how change works in real life & to that i say: No, it does not!

People don't just stop acting like this out of nowhere, they don't just stop being racist or stop treating people poorly out of the blue like Weiss did... That's not how people work!

But even if they did, you can't have that excuse with Weiss since Weiss isn't a person... She's a character, she's someone who's written, not someone who actually exists.

You can have realistic characters, yes & RWBY is full of those, but you can't have realism & act like that makes a charatcer &/or story good.

In my opinion, Good Writing should never be sacrificed for the purpose of realism... EVER!

You can make a very realistic story with realistic characters, but you should never have that realism be the only thing the character has, nor use it to justify bad writing decisions.

& Like I said earlier, this is Weiss' first volume, this is where we meet her & are supposed to see the start of her growth as a character.

We're supposed to have her start breaking out of "The Lie She Believes In" & actually get to see it happen. (The Lie x Believes is a common writing tool that I feel should be used for great character writing. It's on K.M. Weiland's Creating Character Arcs, i highly recommend her book for those who want to get into storytelling.)

Weiss' Lie that she Believes was that she was perfect, or at least far better than those around her & how the Faunus, more specifically The White Fang, are pure evil. The story should in turn, challenge Weiss' lies & make her stop believing in them... But we don't get that.

Because of how horrible that start is, it makes her supposed character development weak since she did next to nothing to make her supposed growth believable in any way, especially since said growth doesn't even happen off-screen, which makes it pointless.

You need to make a good first impression, especially for a character we're supposed to side with & root for... & To me, Weiss failed that test with flying colors.

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Part 2: A somewhat bumpy, but much appreciated rise.

Phew, that V1 section was longer than I wanted it to be... It was very imporant for the context of this discussion, mind you, but still, I apologize for it.

There are definitely more problems with Weiss' "character development" in later volumes, but I'll get to that when we get there.

For now, let's take a small break & talk about the parts I actually like about Weiss' character arc, starting with Volume 2.

We don't get a lot of stuff with Weiss in Volume 2, but the stuff we do get is actually pretty good.

This current rewatch made me realize how good Volume 2 was & how well it aged compared to other volumes, even some of the later volumes like Volume 5 & Volume 8, which sadly didn't age the best. I don't understand why some people bash on it so much, this shit is great.

Anyways, with Weiss specifically. We start with her having fun during the Volume 2 Premiere, which is easily a top 10 episode for me personally.

On the following chapter, we have Weiss be the first one to realize Blake is acting very secluded & is the first one to do something about it. While Volume 1 doesn't make this moment hit as much as it should, it's still nice to see Weiss actually keep her word here.

She said she'd try to be the best teammate she could be & she's doing exactly that, which I greatly appreciate it.

Of course, the team still goes to do what Blake wants since Blake has enough rational to know "Hey, the bad guys aren't just gonna wait for us to be ready. Whatever they're gonna do is gonna come no matter what, so we have to act before they do."

The fact that the adults of this show are completely ignorant & incompetent morons who do nothing but sit on their asses until the problem arrives at their doorstep makes Blake's argument in this scene even stronger.

Surprisingly, Weiss doesn't whine or complain about this once the mission actually starts. We have her nag at Ruby for going to the CCT instead of the library to get their info (although looking back, this might've been for the best since the library isn't a safe place to do info gathering.) But that's pretty minor.

One of my favorite scenes in this Volume is Weiss going to the CCT on her own, the animation here does a great job in showing how Weiss feels about this whole situation & the situation regarding the SDC purely by her tone of voice & her facial expressions alone. It's a small moment, to be sure, but one I really like & believe it to be intengral for Weiss' arc.

Weiss also plays a huge role during the battle with Roman by having him be thrown off the big roads of the city & then buff Blake like crazy through Time Dialation, making her powerful as hell & then freezing Roman's mech in the end, giving Yang the perfect chance to finish the fight.

The first bit is important cause the team were fighting in a very populated area, so they have to remove Roman from their as fast as possible to minilize casualties & Weiss had the right tools to do just that & she did it effortlessly, on top of being an overall great support fighter to the team.

I don't think Team RWBY would've won that fight without Weiss, she pretty much carried that entire battle in my opinion.

Then we have Weiss help with the Dance Party. Nothing too big or anything, but she does tell Blake that she should rest as well, just like her fellow teammates, which is good.

She also slams the door at Jaune for... Honestly being a complete jerk who can't accept no for an answer, which is honestly really good & a great subversion of the whole "Nice guy gets the girl, even when the girl doesn't like him." trope...

Is there an actual name for that trope? Let me know.

There's also the whole romance with Neptune, but not only does that not go anywhere, but it's moreso used for Jaune's character development, so I don't feel a need to discuss it here.

We then cut to Mountain Glenn, my favorite part of this volume & honestly the whole show. It does such a great job establashing the goals & mindsets of Team RWBY, (as well as give a great first impression with Oobleck.) which is also used as set up for their arcs for the rest of the show.

- Yang: The only one of the team who doesn't have an actual goal. She just wants to go out & live her live as a free woman. Being a Huntress is just a bonus since she gets to punch bad guys, kill monsters & help people.

- Blake: Her goal is to form a bridge between the Humans & the Faunus, but struggles to think on the how since she can't find a solution to this very complex problem.

- Weiss: Her goal is to undo all the bad shit the SDC did & she believes that the only way she can do this is by becoming a Huntress.

I'm not gonna go into the first two too much since I wanna make an entire post like this for each other RWBY girls & my feelings towards them, as well as my opinions on their respective arcs.

Spoilers: They're fantastic, but I'll explain why I think that in the future, not right now.

Like I said before, this is where Weiss confirms that yes, she does know about how bad things are in the SDC, she does know that it's a shithole & that she has to fix it, or die trying.

But much like Blake, she doesn't really know how she'll do that. All she knows... Or rather, what she believes, is that she can only do what she must by being a Huntress, not by taking a job at Atlas.

She also makes an interesting remark on how being a Huntress is a job & how it's a job to help people... I personally think she has this opinion due to growing up in Atlas, which has a very... Negative mindset to put it lightly, as we'll discuss later.

Funny enough though, the show doesn't portray Weiss' views on this subject matter as being the truth.

Being a Huntress is a job, yes... But helping people isn't. You should never help people because it's "your job" to do so, you should do it because it's the right thing to do, which is the mentality her teammates have.

I'd love to see this come back at some point in Volume 10 & beyond, but that's a discussion for another day.

We then have the train fight & by extension, the train scene, Weiss does pretty well aside from that one bit where she loses to a random White Fang officer with a chainsaw who just brute forces his way to victory despite Weiss dominating the fight before that point.

Overall, Weiss' role in Volume 2 is pretty good. She said she'd be the best support & teammate she could be & she did just that.

This of course doesn't make her stuff in V1 any less bad & in some cases, said V1 stuff kinda makes what we have her not pack enough of a punch as i feel it should.

But on it's own, it's really great.

Volume 3 continues that tradition by giving us some really good growth for Weiss, so let's get into that now.

Much like V2, Volume 3 doesn't give us a lot in regards to Weiss, (hell, we get a lot less from her here compared to the last 2 seasons.) but the stuff we do get is pretty good.

For starters, she's a really good team player. She really shows her strengths as a support & AoE kind of fighter during the first round of the tournament & does her best in the second round despite a lot of trouble against Flynt & Neon. So we're already starting off strong with Weiss in Volume 3.

Then we have the stuff with Winter which aside from having a very poor first impression herself, (she literally smacks Weiss twice for no reason, someone who Winter knows suffered abuse during her upbringing & also acts like a jerk with Ruby for no reason.) the stuff in regards to Weiss in particular is really good.

We have Weiss act all confident about her growth as a fighter, including her mastery of Time Dialation... But her attitude complete changes once Winter brings up the topic of Summoning, the one thing Weiss hasn't mastered yet.

When she tries to do it later that same episode, Winter chastises Weiss for doubting herself, but to be honest, Winter is being needlessly harsh to Weiss.

Personally, I think the problem here with Weiss is that she's trying to summon with too many thoughts running across her mind & trying to force the Summon to work. The reason I believe this is because of her relationship with her father which likely got worse due to Weiss not answering his calls, which costs Weiss out of her credit card & overall makes her get a bit worried.

Winter mentions how emotions are a powerful thing, but they shouldn't be the thing that control Weiss. While I agree with that to an extent, It's clearly coming from a militaristic PoV, which ya'know... Isn't good.

We do however see proof of Weiss' growth by having a small sword being summoned before it fades away, which serves as an incredible bit of foreshadowing that I absolutely love.

Then we have Ironwood what Ironwood does best: Be a self-righteous asshole who outright refuses to let people speak for themselves & tell him he's wrong (& The dude is wrong like- all the time.)

Which leads to a small, but really nice moment where the team comfort Yang out of getting booted out of the tournament due to Mercury & Emerald using her as bait for their plans (Fuck them for that. Great villain tactic which I respect... But also fuck them.) Ruby & Weiss immediately stand by Yang's side, with the latter commenting that Yang, although hot-heated, isn't ruthless.

She knows Yang isn't someone who'd attack a person when they're down & when Blake tries to imply otherwise, Weiss gets rightfully pissed at her for it. It all ends well in the end, thankfully, but this is still a small, yet powerful moment for Weiss I feel isn't talked about very much, which makes me a little sad.

We then have the Fall of Beacon, where Weiss once again does what she can as a support & AoE fighter... & She does that job very well. Like- She kicks a lot of ass during the Fall of Beacon, but it's during the Atlesian Paladin Fight where she shines the brightest.

Weiss is forced to stand back due to fatigue & lets Velvet show off a bit as she fights against the Atlesian Paladin until the poor Bunny Girl starts getting pushed back.

In frustration, Weiss is the first one to charge in & attack so she can save Velvet, the same kind of reckless attitude she constantly chastises Ruby for... But it's in that moment when her hard work finally begins to pay off & she summons a full arm & a sword of her eventual Arma-Gigas, which is what gets her the victory over The Atlesian Paladin.

Sadly, things still don't end well for our heroes. Ozpin & Pyrrha still dies, Cinder gets away scott free with her now fully-completed Fall Maiden powers, Team RWBY was essentially disbanded & the entire world has gone down to absolute shit.

Weiss is forced to come back to Atlas with her shit-hole of a Father, despite showing clear signs of her not wanting to do so... But she hasn't broken free of Jacques' control... Not yet anyways.

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Part 3: Weiss' Peak.

Alright, guys, gals & non-binary pals, it is finally time!

We are not only going to discuss Weiss' arc throughout Volume 4, which is one of my personal favorite seasons of the show, but we also reach the peak of Weiss' character arc.

As of Volume 9, this is where I believe Weiss' character is at her best, so let's take a look & see why I think that's the case.

Things don't start well with Weiss. The first minute or so of her screentime in V4 is her walking around the Schnee Manor... With nobody in it.

This scene does a fantastic job in showing how lonely &, to put it bluntly: Imprisoned Weiss feels during the majority of V4.

It doesn't do it with dialogue or anything to flashy, just with these beautiful, but heartbreaking visuals & it's genuinely hard to watch.

I haven't made it into this point during my rewatch, I'm currently halfway through Volume 3, but I'm both excited, yet scared to see these bits with Weiss again.

This is also when we get introduced to Whitley who's just a little shit here, we don't really get anything with him until V7. But since he's important to Weiss' arc, I feel like I should bring it up.

Right after that, we get foreshadowing of Volume 7 by having both Jacques & Ironwood arguing about the latter cancelling the Dust Embargo. It's bad for Jacques due to sales, but it's also bad for everyone else since it essentially prevents people from outside of Atlas to keep themselves defended in the long-run since the people of Remnant heavily rely on Dust & Atlas is the best source of Dust this planet has.

By Ironwood locking away the Dust Embargos, he essentially tells the rest of the world to go fuck itself... It wouldn't be the first, not last time this happens, as we'll soon see.

Once Jimmy leaves, we get a brief look at Weiss before she talks to her father & look at her face in the image above!

That expression alone tells us everything we need to know about Weiss' feelings towards Jacques.

In short: She hates this slimey bastard & rightfully so.

Everything bad that happened in Weiss' life up to this point is because of this asshole & she resents him with every fiber of her being... & So do a lot of people, myself included.

After the fucker pretty much forces Weiss to sing to the public during Jacques' half-hearted attempt of a charidy, we have a small bit of happiness fill Weiss' damaged heart: The Introduction of Klein Sieben, Weiss' real father & I, like a lot of people, adore this gem of a man.

This is a small scene to be sure, but not only does it do a great job in introducing Klein, who I think deserves a discussion post of his own, but it also shows that even in the darkest of days, there is still a small light in Weiss' life & it's all thanks to this magnificent men right here.

Then we have Weiss sing a small bit of This Life Is Mine, which is easily one of the best songs of the whole show. I don't need to discuss why it's so good, there are people on YouTube who do that better than I ever could due to their experience with Music, so I recommend looking into that.

What we then get is arguably Weiss' lowest point in the show & things get really, really bad for her. For starters, she has to sing for the crowd as "requested" by her father, as mentioned earlier. As amazing as the song is, it doesn't change the fact that Weiss is doing this against her will. Then we get the party itself which is when we see just how awful The Atlesian Nobility is. You thought V1 Weiss was bad, she's a goddamn saint compared to these assholes.

Then this rich asshole comes to comment about Weiss' beauty (her rather passive-aggressive reaction indicating that this isn't the first time a noble boy has hit on her) to ask what this Party is about... Which is weird cause this was advertized as a Charity for The Fall of Beacon, so the fact that he doesn't know is... Actually, nevermind, it makes sense as we'll see in just a moment.

Regardless, Weiss gets so upset at how uncaring this dude is & tells her to leave the mansion... & Then comes THAT moment... As Weiss tries her hardest to ignore the nobles' constant talking, she overhears a rich woman talk about how "Vale had it coming." & This sets Weiss off big time. She calls out the noble lady for her bullshit, saying she has no right to say such things since she wasn't there to see the tragedy happen with her own eyes... & Weiss is right!

Unlike everyone else in that room (except for a certain someone who'll show up later), she WAS at the Fall of Beacon... Not just there, but she was there fighting for her life as Grimm, The White Fang & Salem's forces destroyed her new home & killed many people, some of which being her friends. & Keep in mind, those events are RECENT, it has only been a few months since Weiss was taken back to Atlas after The Fall of Beacon. That trauma is still very new to Weiss, she still has nightmares over that horrific event. So to see this arrogant woman just chastise about how Beacon brought this tragedy upon themselves is... Well, it makes Weiss' blood boil. She was already not a fan of this "Charity" due to really being a farse to make her father look good & seeing these apathetic dipshits shows us why Weiss would hate this. Here they are, as Weiss puts it, worrying about worthless dogshit that doesn't actually matter while they're trying to live with the reality that they just dealt with one of the worst crisis the world has seen in 80 years.

After a brief argument with Jacques, Weiss accidently summons a Boarbatusk Avatar that almost attacks the noblewoman, only for it to immediately get shot down by Ironwood (the OTHER person in that room who was at the fall... & Also the biggest reason it even happened). The woman tries to tell Ironwood to arrest Weiss for assault, but Ironwood, rather coldly tells her: "She's the only one making sense around here." Yeah, looks like Jimmy wasn't a fan of this bullshit either. I give this dude a lot of crap (rightfully so), but he was actually a decent person here. Instead of detaining Weiss for calling out the nobles of Atlas for being dicks, he straight up says she's the only decent person in that party. I like that.

Sadly, this still ends up in Weiss getting in trouble with her asshole of a father. He talks about how she "embarrassed their family name" & whatever, only for Weiss to rightfully call him out on the fact that the Schnee Family Name was never his to begin with & that she's the one who has to fix all the crap he made... Jacques responds to that call-out by renouncing her title as SDC Heiress, locking her in her quarters indefinitely & smacking her across the face... Does anyone have an extra set of Torches & Pitchforks?

One thing I'd like to note is Weiss' reaction here. For as horrible as Jacques was, she was shocked to see him lay a hand on her like that. A lot of people like to theorize that Weiss suffered through a lot of physical abuse by Jacques, but this scene kinda makes me believe the opposite. Weiss acts like this is the first time she was smacked across the face by her father. Regardless, this breaks Weiss. Having her title stripped & given to Whitley, someone who wasn't shown in a positive light either, makes Weiss lose all hope, makes Weiss feel like there's nothing she can do, that she's done for...

After she had that much needed cry (poor girl needs a hug, Jesus Christ.), she decides to take action herself by trying to master Glyph Summoning. She saw her efforts paying off in both The Fall of Beacon & just now at that Charity Party, which makes Weiss confident enough to try this again, but from a new perspective. We don't learn how long it took for Weiss to master Glyph Summoning, so for the sake of this essay, let's assume that it took her around a week to master it. I think that's enough time for her to get a hang of things... & Once she does, THIS is the end result.

She is successful in summoning the Avatar of the late Nicholas Schnee's suit of armor, the same suit of armor Weiss battled in The White Trailer. Not only is this a cool development, but it also gives Weiss the motivation to finally follow her own path in life. Now that she's no longer burneded by the SDC, she can help the world & write the wrongs of her family in her OWN way, as a Huntress... & More importantly, with her friends.

The last time we see Weiss in V4 is during an escape attempt from the SDC. Remember, she's technically under House Arrest by her father. During her escape, she overhears a conversation between Jacques & Ironwood, with the latter still showing no signs of remorse over his actions at Beacon & continuing to blame OZPIN for his mistakes. The argument ends with Ironwood declaring that starting today, he's gonna close Atlas' boardings. Nobody is about to leave or get in Atlas without the Counsil's permission... Without HIS permission.

Weiss picks up the pace & meets up with Klein, who prepared both an escape route for her, as well as an escort ship to take her to Mistral so she can meet up with Winter. She overheard Ironwood saying Winter was there at Haven for... Some reason, I don't know why Ironwood was using his right-hand woman as a SPY of all things, but regardless, Weiss hopes to meet up with Winter before she could leave. Now free from her shackles, Weiss begins her next step in life into the unknown, but confident that she'll pull through, one way or another.

Like I said before, this is where I believe Weiss peaked as a character. We see the reasons why she ended up the way she did when she first met her, we see her struggle to fit into this familiar, yet cold enviromnent once more, we see her crumble when all hoped seems lost before she finds the strenght to pick herself back up & fight the good fight, with or without the Title of Schnee Heirress.

We don't really see Weiss get that vulnerable before or since, it's an aspect of her character I feel is often overlooked & I'm so glad Volume 4 decided to tackle this topic & go ham with it.

We also see Weiss sorta take a jab at her past self by having her call out the Atlesian Nobles, people who were basically V1 Weiss, but worse & man, it felt good. But it's also hard to watch given the context of the scene. Weiss has suffered through the greatest tragedy of her life so far & she's forced to deal with a bunch of classist assholes shit-talking about a horrific event where people were killed. That was not a fun experience for Weiss & it shows.

& UNLIKE in Volume 1, this development is actually EARNED. We see her sttrugle, we see her falter, we see her get herself back up & we see her grow... We get to actually see her work her ass off to get to her destination. This is the stuff I wanna see from Weiss, this is the stuff I want to see from this show & my god, is it beautiful.

It's just unfortunate that things will likely go a bit downhill from here.

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& THAT'S where we'll end things off for now. I'm sorry I have to cut this post short, but Tumblr doesn't let me use more than 30 images per post, which is really dumb. So I'll unfortunately have to cut things short, especially since this Post is already very long. Hopefully I'll remember to write Part 2 of this somewhere down the line.

Like I said before, I wanna dive into the other 3 members of Team RWBY & go in-depth about their story arcs. Take a look at what worked, what didn't work & see what we might see in the future with these characters. I'm personally very excited to do this, RWBY is very close to my heart & Team RWBY themselves are... Probably my favorite set of Protagonists right now? Give or take?... We'll see if this will stick once I get to the other girls.

& Again, i'd like to repeat that this is NOT an attack on Weiss fans. I'm not saying they're stupid or that they're wrong for liking this character, I'm simply expressing why this character doesn't work for ME the same way it works for them.

I don't wanna see any of you attacking those people. If that does happen, it's a Block on Sight, got it?! Good.

With all of that said, this has been RemnantBardock & until our next meeting, have a wondeful day, my friends... Arrivederci.

[dreamweaversfavsandthoughs]

Some thoughts on Rick and Morty: The Anime

Spoilers ahead

Instead of doing a review for every episode I’m going to give some thoughts on the first episode and then do a final review at the end when the whole series has wrapped.

Voice Acting

I’m still baffled that they didn’t use the original voice actors for the English language dub. Maybe there were scheduling conflicts or they wanted more of a separation between the American version. Regardless, the actors do a fine job of being faithful to the characters. I really love Rick’s Japanese voice actor (Yōhei Tadano) who captures Rick’s personality and yet makes seem like the 70 year old man he’s actually suppose to be.

Morty and the VR Bisexual Sandwich

The majority of the episode revolves around Morty’s adventure in a VR game created by Rick to keep Morty distracted while Rick and Summer are doing more important things. We are introduced to our first original characters, Elle and Frank. Elle has appeared in several of the previews and has been set up as the main love interest. In fact, it’s implied that have a history even before he first meets her in the VR game. Frank, on the other hand, we haven’t seen before and we don’t yet what their relationship will look like at this point, but there are some romantic undertones. Throughout the game (which seems similar to Roy from Mortynight Run) we see Morty or Morties live a life that parodies Citizen Cane, has a romantic dinner with Elle, share a warm embrace with Frank, and is gifted a Nander Dragon’s Tear/Sweat from his partners. It is implied, however, that the VR game may not purely be a simulation due to the introduction of…

Long-Haired Rick and Troubles in Interdimensional Paradise

During the simulation, Morty meets a version of Rick we’ll just call Long-Haired Rick who informs him that the lines between dimension are becoming blurred and flowing into each other hence the reason this Rick is able to interact with a Morty even though his Morty has long since died. It’s rather nice to see a Rick who openly mourns his lost Morty and is a nice departure from the cynicism of the original show. Of course, the reason LHR and Morty are speaking with one another is the same reason our Rick is stuck in limbo with a nonfunctional portal gun and entropy bomb/not bomb with nothing but Summer to help guide him home. The dimension are bleeding into one another setting up the main conflict (possibly) of the series moving forward.

Final thoughts

I will say it did take a few watchthroughs to understand what was going on in the story because there is a lot of jumping around to different dimensions that can be easily missed if you’re not focused. This is not going be a show you can have on in the background while scrolling on your phone, so if you plan on watching this series expect to take your time with it. From what I’ve seen, I’m intrigued enough to keep watching to see how the story unfolds. I want to see how Morty’s relationship develops with Elle and Frank and what is LHR all about? I guess we’ll find out soon enough.