#the entire opposite of the game

[myrmica]

its so funny that all minute—the guy who once upon a time hoped to redeem zam—'s team has accomplished is getting him to consider giving up his remaining honor in order to match the level they're playing on ?

[silver-horse]

unfortunately I have opinions about the ascendant astarion ending and I have been holding back from saying it. but it's a problem that applies to the whole game and it's been annoying me

what's actually weird about the ascendant "romance" scene is that the writer considers it a tempting option for the player. They wrote it to be bad, but they also think it's a fun and sexy option. Same goes for the haarlep scene which they also wrote that way because they find it sexy. Except finding this sexually appealing entirely hinges on the idea that the player is a submissive. So RIP to a scene that the rest of us could have found sexy because the lead narrative designer was a submissive. lmao

In this game you can have a scene where you have to kneel for a male character. But you can never have a male character do the same for you. (Halsin doesn't count. It's a vanilla scene, he is not submissive there and we are not even asking/telling him to kneel down) You don't get such options, not even if you play a drow female! RIP the number one reason for playing drow female to be honest. lol You can kneel and fully submit to ascendant astarion or fully submit to mizora or fully submit to haarlep or submit to lae'zel or submit to minthara. you can get whipped by abdirak or you can tell him "touch me and lose a hand" he even responds positively to this remark and yet the possibility to flip the dynamic doesn't exist. There is never an option where a male character truly submits to the player. RIP to a scene that would have been the opposite of the traditional dynamic. the potential that existed but they never used the opportunity

By the way, how interesting that Lae'zel is dominant but she is a woman so ofc you get the option to tell her “no you will submit to me”. You never get such switch options with any of the male characters... Obviously it's not ascendant where they could have made that an option. My point is that it's NEVER an option among so many male characters.

It's a cool idea that the bad ending in a romance means "I saw this character as a sex object" except it falls apart when the scene is very sexually unappealing to anyone who is more dominant leaning. If I see a character as a sex object then I would place them in sexual situations which are appealing to me. so the message doesn't quite work. because there isn't anything that I can selfishly choose for myself just because I like it and I find it sexy.

[s0fter-sin]

i need a fic of soap bringing ghost home to his family for the holidays. his family’s always disapproved of everything; being queer, being in the military, being with ghost and it’s all over not a great time but they’re trying to pretend for the sake of the holiday. they get into it after dinner one night though and for once soap isn’t backing down, not when it’s ghost they’re attacking, when the power suddenly goes out. soap moves just in time for a shot to come through the window and he orders his family to get down

graves and what’s left of shadow company followed them to glasgow; it’s the first time they’ve been away from the 141 and they think it’ll be their best chance to take them out. johnny and simon are left behind as they become soap and ghost and soap’s childhood home becomes a battleground, his hysterical family who still think he can’t be that good of a soldier now civilians that he has to protect and get out in one piece

[karvviie]

are the rascism accusations true or????

BRO NOOOOO i can’t believe people are falling for that shit???

someone edited a screenshot of a racist tweet and then claimed that i wrote it when it is just so blatantly fake and untrue to anyone who knows me or interacts with my art. if anyone sees it then i feel like it’s pretty obvious that it goes against sooo many things that ive posted and made art about. idek what made that person decide to do it in the first place???

that being said if anyone here is racist/homophobic/transphobic/ableist/zionist then fuck off. you are not welcome here and have never been. why are you even here in the first place.

[milkymooshi]

Sharing a dart with Oswald would be a fucking nightmare and I just know it intrinsically in my heart

[enobariasdistrict2]

thinking about the scene in book!tbosas where teslee (district three female) was being attacked by the horrifying snakes and she nonverbally pleaded with mizzen (district four male) for help. and he only shook his head, not moving to help her - but the book specifically stated that this was more out of stunned fear/horror than any kind of menace or glee at teslee's imminent death.

and he wasn't even from her district too. they were not in an alliance. she literally had no reason to expect any assistance from him, but district divisions & sectionalism didn't matter when she was scared and in pain. none of these divisions of districts one, two, three, four, five through twelve matter!!! not when children are suffering and dying as penance for a just war that ended several years ago! it's as if the narrative is trying to tell you there is no difference between a suffering/dying child from one district or another.

[sugarsweetvirgo]

Eve: Bottling up negative emotions is bad for your health, so you shouldn't do it.

Seto: I know, that's why I bottle up all my emotions, both positive and negative, so it cancels out.

Eve: Th-that's not how that works-

Actually, the two are pretty open with each other.

[rathandz]

every time someone misgenders kris i gain a little more power and will eventually be able to wield a sword that i will use to chop off the heads of those that have wronged the honorable they/them silent protagonist.

[forcedhesitation]

why should it just be steve who has all the torturous purgatory realm fun?

[wormy-worm]

ok u know what maybe if the world isn't ready for sunrazer post that means that the world IS ready for Amoveous siblings post. This is Milo and Enho and theyre my DARLINGS and i love them SO MUCH. i have. SOOOOOOOO many thoughts abt them but after the previous post massacre i do not really feel like typing all of that xoxo love <3

[criticalrolo]

i can't tell you the amount of whiplash i got when i realized ppl were giving their bg3 PCs backstories. i've been out here like 'hehe cool tiefling sniper' big no thoughts head empty

oh my god aldjdjsksk u are so valid for this

[daz4i]

maybe it's bc I'm arospec but my take is that viewing certain ships as romantic simply takes away from anything interesting or unique about them. the idea that romance is the end goal of every relationship sucks enough irl as is but in fiction it makes people lose their creativity i fear

[jils-things]

the pokemas story with the family battle event is so fascinating to me because it never clicked to me that each person has their own "style" in battling and it can be hard to synchronize with each other as a team.... despite being family

[riddles-fiddles]

Those two motherfuckers share the same name and I think the range is so fucking funny

[prismit]

finally got the binding of isaac like a billion years late lmao

i wasn't really feeling it much at first, like it's fun but Very Confusing, and then i realized "ohh, this is a game where you may need to have 2000 wiki tabs open to really understand. like terraria. i get it now!" and NOW i'm getting into it properly lol

[my-current-obsession]

Devastated to report that Margaret's marriage event in RF4 is just okay. :/

Considering the time and effort it took to get here I feel like it should be better. It's not bad really, but after seeing so many other marriage events I am forced to admit it's nowhere near the best.

What pains me most is that ignorance is truly bliss. I was INCREDIBLY lucky on my recent run of the game to get all her events in just over a year, so of course I married her without hesitation. But it's not half as satisfying as it would have been if I could have done so on my first playthrough when I wanted to, before coming to know and love another girl.

Below is a long, rambling account of the romantic nightmare that was my first playthrough of Rune Factory 4 (as Lest), and how my second run brought me closure... but also regret.

Margaret was my favorite on my first blind run of the game and I even got a bit lucky with the town events to have a truly organic feeling start with her - got "Thoughts Lost in the Lake" as one of my earliest events, so we basically upgraded from acquaintances to true friends around friendship level 3-4, which felt right. Then I got her mini-event as soon as she hit level 7 and confessed right after, and she accepted me immediately (which I know from my Frey playthrough is not guaranteed. I got rejected so many times at first...).

And then... I beat the game. In-game months passed. I loved Margaret. I went on SO MANY dates with Margaret, and we were an absolute power couple in any dungeon. But I wasn't getting lucky with the town events and her other events never seemed to show up. Pretty sure I was loyal to her for over a year before I finally gave up and started looking for love elsewhere. I wanted desperately to marry Margaret, but more than that I wanted to marry SOMEONE, and clearly she wasn't happening anytime soon.

I went into Rune Prana with one girlfriend. I beat Rune Prana with 4, the other two soon to follow. I had ultimately decided to seek out as much content as possible, though that wasn't my initial intention.

I had wanted one girlfriend who I'd stay loyal to. When that failed, I set my sights initially on just one other girl - my number two pick - and thought I'd try my luck with her. Tragically for me, Clorica was horrifically dense. Day after day, for WEEKS she responded to my love confession with the most platonic of "I love you too"s. I could only take so many oblivious rejections before my spirit broke.

That was when I started confessing to Xiao Pai. To be honest, at the beginning of the game I hadn't been very interested in her at all. Her anime intro of SITTING on the camera did her no favors, IMO. But the more I got to know her, the more I liked her. She's clumsy and somewhat airheaded, but very kind to everyone and always wanting to help WITHOUT trying to insert herself in their business (I had come to realize that Margaret was... a bit of a busybody). And despite her constant screw-ups, she never gives up and strives to do her best and improve at everything, which I found admirable.

And so, nearly two years into the game (not counting the timeskip, so technically three), she had risen from 5th place to 3rd in my heart. And while I alternated confessing to her and Clorica, she was the one who accepted first after only a few tries (whereas I'd been confessing unsuccessfully to Clorica for AT LEAST a full month). Dating Xiao Pai brought out a new side of her that I hadn't seen before - she's very open and physical with her affection, which I loved.

She has multiple dialogues that imply hugging/cuddling with Lest gives him or her or both energy, like charging a battery. It's an adorable comparison.

I had liked her before, but as days passed and we went on a few dates I began to realize just HOW MUCH I liked her. Maybe even more than I liked Margaret. While they're both incredibly kind, I could find Margaret occasionally overbearing and nosy, while Xiao Pai tried to offer kindness and help when it seemed appropriate and didn't go around looking to solve peoples' problems. Margaret was incredibly shy and flustered on dates, WANTING to have physical contact but unable to go for it. That was cute at first, but the longer the relationship went on the more it felt out of place. Surely she'd get more comfortable and open eventually? Xiao Pai was confident and comfortable enough to initiate physical contact often, right from the beginning. Basically, Margaret has a very sweet and shy "just started dating" vibe, which is fine at first but eventually feels lackluster, whereas the vibe with Xiao was very easy and casual. They got along well, they communicated well, they were playful and flirty with each other.

At this point, even though my bias had started to shift and I probably would have happily married either girl (though Margaret still had multiple events to go and Xiao needed one of two), I made a mistake. I got the mini event where Dolce has Lest try on clothes she made and he brings up the other girls, which makes her jealous. Since this was my first run and I had barely encountered any mini-events at this point and didn't yet understand their purpose (almost all of them are pretty romantic and serve to indicate that your FP level is high enough to confess), I was pretty confused. Between this event and some of her generic dialogue lately, which had just happened to be more romantic/flirty, I honestly thought the game had glitched somehow and she was somehow my girlfriend too.

I deliberated on what to do before deciding I'd try to confess. I half expected her to truly be glitched and respond with something along the lines of "yeah I love you, too". But if that wasn't the case, I was confident she'd reject me. With only one girlfriend, I couldn't get Clorica or Xiao to accept me until they hit level 9. She had only recently hit level 7 and I had TWO girlfriends, so I was sure it would be fine.

It wasn't. Against all odds, my first (and basically unintended) confession to Dolce was successful. And so I decided... that might as well happen. This was the point I went all in on seeing all the content I could. Due to my frustration with being unable to marry Margaret, I had started looking stuff up by now, and I knew that Dolce's marriage event WOULD pop up (seeing as her one required event is guaranteed in Special), given a few dates and level 10 affection. I also had the one event for the other girls done, too, so technically I could currently theoretically marry any girl EXCEPT my two favorites.

I alternated dates with my girlfriends and renewed my daily confessions to Clorica, who continued to be oblivious. I started gifting Forte and Amber, to make them more amenable to future confessions.

And then, just before I would've asked Dolce on her 3rd date (which would have also brought her close to level 10), Xiao's second event happened. I wasn't sure how the game would handle TWO marriage events being ready simultaneously considering they're given priority, so I backed off from Dolce. I was much more keen to see Xiao's first, anyway.

And it was honestly spectacular. In hindsight, having seen all but 2 marriage events now (Leon and Forte), I can say it had EVERYTHING I want in a marriage event - we learned more about Xiao as a character, her relationship with Lest was relevant and important to the event, but there was also ANOTHER plot/conflict that was at least partially separate so it wasn't just relationship drama.

Xiao's relationship with her parents is... complicated, but lovely. Despite how unfair it is that Lin Fa lucks out and succeeds in life despite her total airheadedness, while Xiao tries so hard yet constantly fails, she loves her mother and looks up to her. And I'm not a fan of the "misunderstand/miscommunication" trope, but it was basically WEAPONIZED by Xiao's dad here to test her resolve. Xiao needed to be more determined than EVER here, to love Lest enough that she couldn't give him up to the other thing she loves most - her mother.

Xiao's proposal and Lest's response to it... their mutual love and understanding as they embraced... and then the wedding itself were all just SO good. This event had thoroughly cemented her in my heart as my favorite girl. I desperately wanted to carry on the save where I married her.

But I didn't. I had resolved to see Content, so I forced myself to reject her, which was INCREDIBLY painful, and moved on. I told myself that I could always go back to her and propose myself once I'd seen everything.

Everything after that in my first run... didn't really matter. Yes, I finally added Clorica to my harem. I saw Dolce's marriage event. Didn't really care for it. Started dating Amber. Clorica's marriage event was really good but Lest frustrated me by forcing me to pick stupid options. If he MUST be oblivious to her problems even when I'm not, just use text boxes instead of making ME pick the wrong choices!

I added Forte to my list of girlfriends, completing the set. However, my motivation was running dry FAST - it had been several in-game months since I'd beaten Rune Prana. There was virtually nothing left to do in game. Nowhere to explore, no new farming to be done; only upgrading the late-game seeds. I STILL couldn't marry Margaret.

I managed to power through for a few more weeks and got Amber's marriage event. It was honestly really compelling and helped me see a more mature side of her. Too bad she immediately reverts to her usual too-childish self afterwards.

I had been playing the game for nearly four in-game years at this point, and still wasn't married. I COULD have been married a year ago if I hadn't rejected Xiao. I wanted to marry and have a kid, but what would I do to pass the time every day? There was nothing to do anymore beyond getting gold crowns for shipping items, which. No thank you.

In the end, I gave up. I had six girlfriends and yet my first run ended bitter and alone. I left the game untouched for several ACTUAL months. And when I came back, I had a plan.

First, a fresh start - wipe my save data and start a HARD playthrough to slow my progress a little, hopefully allowing more time for a relationship to happen before the end.

Second, I put some hard rules in place - I want a lover that feels organic to my run. I made up a spreadsheet in Excel for this. I was tracking more than JUST town events - I also accounted for mini events, and the random, just for fun compatibility checker, which I took each girl to see SIX times since there were SIX girls. All those things were worth a certain amount of points, and a girl needed to hit a certain threshold (unique to each of them, since they have varying numbers of prereqs & mini events) before I was allowed to confess. I will allow a maximum of TWO girlfriends - save the rest for a future run. Confess to at least one of them BEFORE beating act 2. I'm also more likely to be able to actually marry someone with some game left this way.

(For the record, I also started a new Frey run with these same rules. While my first Frey run wasn't AS bad as my Lest run, it was also dragged out and poisoned by content seeking. So they BOTH got a do-over.)

I won't lie, I went into this hoping the RNG would bless me with Xiao. While I still had a soft spot for Margaret as my "original" love interest, Xiao had long since eclipsed her as my favorite and I wanted to recapture the magic of dating her and actually get to marry her this time.

Instead, the RNG blessed me with... Margaret. Without any save-scumming to change the town events on my part, I got ALL FOUR of her events and her mini event in a little over a year - late Spring of year 2 (technically 3). In that time, I also saw the one event all the other girls required and one of Xiao's, but ultimately my two allowed girlfriends of the run were Amber and Margaret, due to them first hitting the aforementioned point threshold.

I was a tad disappointed to not have Xiao in this run, but when Margaret's fourth event popped up I was THRILLED. Literally jumped around my room in joy. After the hell she put me through in my first run back when I WANTED to marry her, this felt like a miracle. Or perhaps a heartfelt apology.

And so it was that after 5 and a half-ish years in-game across two playthroughs, and over two years in reality, I finally got to see her marriage event and pop the question.

And it was fine. Not bad. Not great. Just... fine. It TECHNICALLY hit all the checks for a "good" marriage event I mentioned earlier - though I'd argue that Marget's hangup about being an elf who will lose any human she loves one day is pretty clear prior to this event explicitly spelling it out. Basically, we don't learn anything entirely new so much as get a bit more detail on something already implied. I'll admit I really liked the very end of it, with her finally making a bold move and heavily implying Lest should propose soon. After everything they've been through, and the event basically being ABOUT her having to let herself fully love a human despite her fears, that felt really good.

I'm absolutely going forward with this save, so I've come full circle. I'm going to marry Margaret and finally see what this game has to offer post-marriage, with the original girl of my dreams. Even if she's NOT the girl of my dreams anymore. At this point I couldn't marry Xiao even if I wanted to, since I'm still missing an event for her and who knows how long it would take to show up.

It's a bittersweet feeling. I still like Margaret, she's probably my 3rd favorite girl now after Xiao and Clorica, and I certainly feel a sense of resolution having FINALLY married her. But I miss Xiao. I should have married her when I had the chance.