#this is my second(?) playthrough and i didn’t the last time and now i did and ! it was a time !!!!!! izizjzjx morgie and i did it !

[thedeadthree]

besties we survived the couriers mile

[ash-arts-but-sinful]

This is burning a hole into my brain, but what if new game+ gave you the option to summon Carlo instead of Specter and he offers stupid/witty commentary for each boss you fight with him. Tbh this is just for fun, but I wanted to share in case anybody else might like it

Might have to put this one under a cut it could get long. Also spoiler warning!

Scrapped Watchman

• I never liked cops, this is going to be fun!

• Do we really need a watchman this big?

• Okay Sparky, let’s dance!

• (if he gets picked up) Shit-! -> Ugh- okay that might’ve hurt a little.

• Haha! Good riddance! Don’t know what the local kids saw in that thing.

King’s Flame

• Oh boy, a walking furnace.

• Have I ever mentioned I hate the heat?

• The floor is lava! Shit!

• (if he’s set on fire) I know I’m hot, but this is ridiculous! / Hot! Too hot!

• Sigh, thank god. I could never work alongside that… thing.

Archbishop

• Oh wow, that is… hard to look at.

• Watch the chicken legs!

• Really?! With its tongue?! Disgusting!

During phase 2

• How did he manage to get even uglier?

• You should’ve stayed in your shell!

• God chose you to be an Angel alright. Just not a living one.

Black Rabbit Brotherhood

• Some rabbit, the big guy looks more like a pig to me!

• Would somebody shut her up!

• Half of you aren’t even rabbits! That stupid bucket looks like a dog!

• You are too full of yourself, bunny boy.

• These guys need better fursuits

• Pathetic… And don’t bother coming back!

King of Puppets

• Something feels wrong about this.

• That voice…

• No… It can’t be-!

Second phase

• Romeo?!

• Romeo please! Why won’t you stop, it’s me!

• How do we get through to him?!

• No!!! UGH Why wouldn’t you LISTEN?! *shakey inhale* Damn it, just go! Get out of this damn place.

Victor

• What do you want? Are we killing my best friend in disguise again?

• I finally get to see this guy in action and I’m the one who has to fight him! Seriously?!

• This guy really is all washed up.

• That can’t be good for you.

• Yikes, those fists pack one hell of a punch!

• That Simon guy is a real piece of work. Good luck with that.

Green Monster

• Ohh this thing looks disgusting.

• It sounds disgusting too, I think I’m going hurl!

• It slimed me!

Phase 2

• Not the giant cop again!

• Would you! Just! Sit! Still!

• I can only imagine what it smells like in that puppet chassis.

• That was truly vile. If you ever need help fighting a giant slime monster again PLEASE hesitate to ask.

Black Rabbit Brotherhood 2

• Didn’t you learn your lessons last time?

• Lord, are these guys full of themselves.

• If you couldn’t beat us last time what makes you think you can this time?

• Looks like the pig wants his bacon cooked again!

• You had to mutate yourself because you wouldn’t beat us last time? Now THAT is pathetic.

• Still losers. Still pretentious. Still pathetic. How disappointing.

Laxasia

• Hmm. Big sword.

• Oh and it makes lightning too, great!

• How can she move so fast with all that armour!?

Phase 2

• Ohhhh good, now she’s even faster!

• Weakness to it or not electricity still hurts like hell!

• There she goes into the air again. Coward!

• Well that wasn’t fun, but I suspect it’ll be even less fun in that tower.

Simon

• Isn’t that the guy from the exhibition?

• This guy is a real piece of work.

• And I thought the rabbits were full of themselves!

Phase 2

• I didn’t think it could get any worse!

• Who needs this many hands?!

• God or not this guy is going down!

• The last like after Simon is defeated depends on your playthrough: Truth “Until next we meet. Which will be sooner than you think, I can’t wait.” Punctuated by a dark chuckle. Lie “I’ll see you again soon. For what it’s worth though… I’m sorry.”

Bonus: depending on what playthrough you did the Nameless Puppet will actually talk and have different dialogue

Truth playthrough/Lie playthrough

• I’ve been waiting for this for too damn long. / I didn’t want it to come to this.

• You don’t deserve that heart! It’s rightfully mine! / Please, you have to understand! I need that heart!

• You stupid puppet, I hope you didn’t think father actually cared about YOU! / Gepetto never cared for you, I wish he had, at least you could’ve known love.

• Why won’t you DIE ALREADY!? / I deserve to live too, this isn’t fair for either of us!

• You will NEVER be me, just give up already! / You may not be me, but you deserve better than this.

During Phase 2 the puppet won’t speak, but Carlo’s dialogue will be inserted along everyone else’s, tbh I want to have him say something during phase 2, but there’s already so much going on during that fight. In a truth playthrough the ending will play out as normal and Gepetto will die, calling Pinocchio a useless puppet, Pinocchio will be the one to finish off Carlo’s vessel. In a lie playthrough Carlo will finally be able to control his actions and is unable to finish off Pinocchio, he shuts himself down while giving one final line.

“Maybe in another life we could have been… brothers.”

Gepetto is distraught and instead of shedding tears for his father Pinocchio sheds them for Carlo

A lot of his radient dialogue would consist of laughter that borders on unhinged and the usual exertion and damage taking grunts. Regardless of what playthrough you do he wants to keep either his heart or Pinocchio alive, so if his health falls below half he has a chance of reminding you to heal. Also depending on the playthrough he’ll either compliment perfect blocks, parry’s, dodges or hits for lies and for truths he’ll be a snarky asshole, claiming he could do just as good if not better

[taranida]

The loops and spiral of the first game

Airight, I’ve written extensively about Thomas Zane the Poet, 70’s and what happened, to my belief, at the time. All of it accessible through this post with links on every expanding theory. I will not even try to claim that I was consistent with my conclusions and views, since with each dive I was finding new things, rethinking everything and looking at what’s presented in the games and extras from a different perspective. Some theories (like who wrote the eruption) never changed, some (like is Thomas Zane this benign man, who cared about the future and the world) did — a lot. But that’s alright, I’ve created this blog to make sense of everything meself in the first place; theories will evolve, change and grow as I sink deeper into madness.

Now I want to talk about loops. Without making sense of them I can’t even start to talk about the Bright Presence (who literally scratches on my brain), since his actions cannot — in my opinion — be explained without explaining the loops of the first game. I’m not sure there is even one moment when the Bright Presence acted on his own volition, but we’ll see how this belief will change later.

Let’s start with the in-your-face evidence:

just like in the second game we have things that change on your “final draft 0.1” playthrough on nightmare, that you can unlock only by finishing the game on any other difficulty — nightmare only manuscripts.

at the end of the game, right after the famous line “it’s not a lake, it’s an ocean” we hear Alice’s voiceline “Alan! Wake up!” from the moment on the ferry.

in the Well-Lit Room Alan claims “the last page is still in the typewriter. I need to read it first. Everything needs to be just right. Zane tried to cut some corners, and it didn’t end well.” Yet the page in the typewriter is about the last fight between Alan and Alice, right before she was dragged into the lake.

the cutscene that follows Alan writing the ending to Departure, repeats what happened after his fight with Alice in the Bird Leg Cabin.

although little bit less obvious, but the nightmare in the prologue and the monologue of the Hitchhiker also points on Alan already being in the loop: “you’re in this story now”.

I’m going to unpack those points a bit.

The nightmare manuscripts pages might be written off as a game mechanic, of course, a reward to the player for tackling the highest difficulty in the game, but they simply do not appear on your first playthrough. The first loop doesn’t have those pages. On the nightmare difficulty, however, they appear on their own places, not replacing anything, and given that the Bright Presence outright spells that he’s delivering the right pages in the right time, they are as crucial part of the last loop as the simple ones. The guide explains that the Nightmares might be particularly difficult:

This little thing in the guide, presented as in-universe book, also hints that those so-called Nightmares are not one and done occurrence. Each of them is yet another loop and not all of them are “particularly difficult”.

Other question is: do those pages even matter? Well, for the most of them the answer will be — no, not really; they expand on the story and characters, give you lyrics of both songs by the boys of OGoA and Thomas’ poem, but it’s just flavour text. There is one, however, that affects the story in much more significant way; it changes or defines the Dark Presence’s power and intentions at the start (of the loop):

It also so happens to hint that the writer is already in the Dark Presence’s web, jerking and kicking, although the incentive is still needed. When exactly Alan was in this situation? His “jerking and kicking” starts after the Dark Presence kidnaps Alice, as it’s shown in the game. So, does this page point to the dream Alan had on the ferry or is it another confirmation of the loops?

The Alice’s voiceline, I believe, is self-explanatory. What’s interesting in it is that it sends us to a point in time where this particular loop starts. The loop, not the struggle against the Dark Presence; after all, Alan’s main objective is to save Alice, and to do it perfectly, how he put it:

“Everything needs to be just right. Zane tried to cut some corners, and it didn’t end well.”

The Dark Presence or Place might’ve been involved way before the ferry. Here I will jump to the Hitchhiker point. His monologue is sus. He states that Alan is being trapped in the story, talks about Alan playing god and killing people off for the sake of drama, all of which is actually true. And he’s the first Taken that we encounter.

Now let me return to the previous points. Alan claims that the last page of the Departure is in the typewriter, and there is a page, alright:

The page that reads:

…by Wake and Alice, Barbara Jagger stands in the shadows in the cabin. As soon as it began, the flickering stops and Jagger is gone. Alice is startled by the flickering lights. Wake is too angry to stay. He needs to cool off, to clear his head. Wake storms out of the cabin. He is certain that…

Looks familiar, isn’t it? When Alan sits to write the camera shows us the clock, they move properly to 12 am/pm and then start to go back rapidly and we’re thrown to the cutscene where Alan returns to the cabin, following Alice’s cries for help — direct continuation of what was written on the page. He jumps and the scene ends. Just like in the beginning.

That’s quite in-your-face, let’s add a bit more subtle things into the mix. Alice in the second game says about her time in the Dark Place “the same events and images, looping again and again”, whole second game hammers down the point that this is exactly how the Dark Place operates. And the cutscene, that follows Alan’s jump after Alice, now shows us how from that moment the time moves on again to the morning when Alice is resurfacing from the lake — another loop ends there; ultimate or penultimate, depends — if you completed the game on nightmare or not.

Back to the dream. Here was a huge chunk of text, that was growing and growing, as I wanted to touch on everything in there, and I’ve decided to move it into another post. But for the sake of this theory we need to know that Clay Steward, the man we encounter, in his in-universe book The Alan Wake Files, claims that dreams like that started two years prior to the events of the game and were loops in which both him and Alan died to the darkness or men consumed by it over and over again. Alan, how it comes out in the game, forgot all others, except for the one that was invaded by the Bright Presence.

So, when exactly did this dream happen? Contrary to the game, I would say: we don’t really know. You see, aside from Alan’s lack of recollection about other dreams like that, there is an interesting detail, that comes with one of the extras. In the game Alan is awakened by Alice on the ferry and she also lets us on the details of how the vacation was arranged:

“Come on, slowpoke. You get the full service here. I’ve made all the arrangements. I drive the car, I’ll even carry the bags. All you have to do is drag your cute butt into the car and enjoy the ride.”

But in the Bright Falls mini-series, prequel to Alan Wake, the final scene shows Alan driving the car to Bright Falls with Alice on the passenger seat and no ferry involved:

In the second game in the song Herald of Darkness we have the part, that is a bit questionable. The ferry is there, but we see Alan being prepared with flowers and a bottle as if this vacation was not Alice’s idea, which is also hinted in the first game’s second flashback, when Alan says “once this is over, let’s go away together — a vacation, just you and me. Some peace and quiet”. Taken together with the words of the song, the clear picture of how the Wakes ended up in Bright Falls starts to blur.

Just one shot, one more chance For him to save their marriage Away from the city A romantic getaway

Whose idea was it? Alice was sure set on Bright Falls because of Dr. Hartman, but was it her desperate attempt to fix their marriage or was it Alan’s? And how did they get into the town? On the ferry or drove the car? Given the loops, I’d say all of those things. Therefore, we have no way of knowing when exactly the dream occurred. Alan was looping and looping, trying to fix Alice’s disappearance, he might’ve written dozens of stories of how exactly they got to Bright Falls and how nothing happened to her in the first place, only to fail over and over again.

And that’s when Thomas Zane comes in. I’ve taken apart everything I could (remember) on what happened in the 70’s and I think that the true story is simple. Barbara drowned, Thomas wrote her back, after some time realised that it was not his Barbara and took her for a last dive, creating a private island in the Dark Place, where they are living their happy ever after. The meat on those simple bare bones — the eruption, the shoeboxes, even Cynthia’s ruined life — was added by Alan. He needed a guide, someone, who already ventured this path and broke some rules here and there for Alan to learn those rules when he will forget. And those tools worked splendidly; even the Clicker, that was in Alice’s possession (let’s not mistake Zane’s Light Switch for Alan’s Clicker, we have pictures of both of them and they could not be more dissimilar), was now safely tucked away in the Well-Lit Room with clear instructions on what to do next, while the shoebox in the cabin filled Alan on the gaps in his knowledge and understanding of the Dark Place and Presence. Cynthia’s articles pushed him in the right direction, not mentioning how helpful were her stashes. Everything fell into place, we got the final loop, that perfectly served Alan’s purpose: Alice is safe and well, the Dark Presence is no more, collateral damage such as people who died in the hero’s journey Alan had to complete or Mr. Scratch going out to play — all could be the lesser evil than what Alan witnessed in his previous attempts (we can count the dream where the darkness took over the world with the last safe place being the Light House as a clairvoyance or a fading memory of another failed loop).

Fist game is not at all unlike the second or AWAN, where loops and spirals play a major role. If the player goes into the Bird Leg Cabin before turning the generator on, in the writer’s room Alan has a vision of the Dark Presence and says “for a moment, the oppressive feel of the nightmare I had seen on the ferry returned”, he senses the danger, recognises it, yet cannot escape it. As I said before, despite all Alan’s ramblings about threading on reality, he writes pretty unreal events right and left — honestly, his own reaction to what he encounters during the first game can be summarised in his go-to phrase: “what the fuck?” — but he believes in it while writing, so it comes true. He cannot simply “cut some corners” and write that he and Alice were never in Bright Falls, because he won’t believe in it, it’s a paradox; as well as he won’t believe in nothing happening to Alice and them just having a nice vacation together. He might’ve tried that at first, but ultimately failed, until the story became how we know it from the game (yet, there are still things that hint on the story being a bit different). But how the Wakes got in Bright Falls, what were Alan’s previous attempts and how many of them he went through will remain a mystery. Time means nothing in the Dark Place and Alan’s memory — even less.

The unanswered mystery is what stays with us the longest, and it’s what we’ll remember in the end.

[cadybear420]

Cadybear's Reviews- My Two First Loves

Welcome to the twenty-seventh official Cadybear's Reviews! Today I'll be talking about My Two First Loves, which I have ranked on the "Rotting Flesh Tier" at 2 stars out of a possible 10. My last and only playthrough of this was back in April-June 2021.

Oh boy! Oh boy oh boy oh boy! I could write a whole essay on everything wrong with this…  

So I will. 

To put it briefly: this story feels like it was adapted from a Wattpad story that was written by a 12-year-old whose only ever exposure to high school media and depictions of teenage sexuality was Glee, and then had serious queer and mature themes slapped onto it in order to make it seem better. Y’know, the equivalent of trying to polish a turd.

Or, heck, it’s probably PB’s attempt at ripping off “The Kissing Booth”, seeing as both have a MC in a love triangle between her childhood best friend and a bad boy named Noah, after all. Which, funnily enough, was also originally adapted from some tween’s Wattpad story. That’s about the equivalent to a dog eating some rotten food, shitting it out, then another dog finds it, eats it, and then shits it right out again. And THEN that second dog’s owner comes along to try to polish that double-toured turd. 

Number 1: The LGBTQ+ tag is clearly an attempt to appease the queer players that they probably think are being whiny. 

Ava’s arc about realizing she’s a lesbian who had been experiencing compulsory heterosexuality is pretty solid in a vacuum. But her being an LI was so blatantly only a last-minute decision PB made during the writing process, and it shows because Ava’s CG just uses her game sprite while Mason’s and Noah’s are fresh art. 

MC starts to fall for Ava sometime around at least 30 chapters in, but we don’t get to officially pursue her as a romance option until about 70 chapters in. I get delaying her as a love interest a bit because of the whole thing with MC realizing she’s bi, but even then, there’s just so few opportunities for building any kind of relationship with her that it hardly feels authentic. 

Speaking of, MC’s supposed bi awakening is completely rushed and treated with about as much value as a Family Guy cutaway gag, even outside of Ava being sidelined. As someone who realized I wasn’t straight three years ago and is still questioning if I’m bi or straight, I understand that people take different amounts of time to figure out their sexuality. But this MC does not spend any period of time figuring out her bisexuality. She basically just goes “Welp, guess I’m bi now”, and then it’s back to being indecisive as per usual except now there’s a female love interest in the mix too.

To add insult to injury, "discussions of sexuality" is placed in a "player discretion" warning, alongside "racial tensions" and "occasionally violence" to boot. How the fuck is discussion of sexuality even remotely on the same level as either of those? If they meant discussions or depictions of homophobia then maybe I could understand… but I don’t even recall seeing any depictions of homophobia in the book, so including this in the freaking warning tags is pointless at best and kind of insulting at worst. 

Not to mention, plenty of other Choices books like MOTY, ILS, D&D, etc. have had discussions about sexuality/LGBTQ+ stuff before, and didn't have to warn us about it. Not even MAH, a later book which had discussions about freaking conversion therapy for Christ’s sake. Sure, some of those books did have content warnings, but they were generally vague and/or mainly warned for violence, and didn’t warn specifically for depictions of queerphobia or discussions of sexuality. Yet for some reason, MTFL feels the need to include a player discretion warning for sexuality discussions, even though it contains far less harsher queer themes. 

Number 2: The portrayal of teen sexuality in this does not feel earnest. 

Let me just say, I found it very jarring how this one was much more sexually charged compared to PB’s other high school books. PB is usually way more “safe” and PG-13 at most when writing high school characters. Even in books like ROD and WEH, where the characters are 18+ and do have smutty scenes, it’s clear that those books are a lot more restricted compared to the adult cast books.  

I mean, with WEH, the safeness makes sense– it was meant to be a serious and tender story from the start, and it does actually follow through on those themes. But ROD feels like it could have easily been as horny with its writing as MTFL was, what with being about a studious “good girl” who goes rebellious. In fact, the story’s loading screen was pretty infamous at first for looking “steamier” than other covers and loading screens.

In actuality though, ROD had only, what, one smut scene? And despite a lot of MC’s outfits being revealing or arguably sensual, there are practically no moments where MC fawned over how “sexy” a revealing diamond outfit looked. Like, I’m pretty sure there were just little to no sexually charged scenes in general. 

My point is, whatever compelled PB to make MTFL *this* sexualized is beyond me. My guess is the fact that PB called this one a story about “navigating sexuality” and thus wanted to focus more on the aspects of sexuality, but if that’s the case… hoo boy, did they do a terrible job at it. 

I don’t really care about the hypersexualized writing of the teenage characters on its own, or how the characters were initially not confirmed 18+ when the earlier smut scenes were written. What I find far more important is the fact that this sort of cliche and formulaic hypersexualized writing is in a book that markets itself as being about “a young woman navigating love and sexuality for the first time”.

Teens do indeed have sex and can be all over the place with their hormones and sexuality. A lot of us have been there in some way, myself included. And there are ways to talk about that type of stuff in a manner that is silly and/or exaggerated, but still earnest and respectful. But the particular way that MTFL handles super-horny teen sexuality, specifically while claiming to be a coming-of-age story, is neither earnest nor respectful. 

The way this story handles these sorts of topics is the writing equivalent to doing a surgery with Fisher-Price toy surgery tools. It’s genuinely difficult to take MC “navigating her sexuality for the first time” seriously when has to constantly blubber about how Mason and Noah are so muscular or how a diamond outfit has “naughty little thigh highs” or how she wants to do a “down and dirty” cheer routine with Ava for Mason and Noah. 

That last one especially feels like the kind of stuff we’d see more in a campy chick flick that doesn’t take itself seriously. Honestly, if this was a more campy high school book with the tone of DLS or the 2023 movie “Bottoms”, it probably wouldn’t be as glaring. But in a book that markets itself as a coming-of-age story, the tone feels completely off and the whole book honestly felt like it couldn't decide what it wanted to be. 

(Also, while we’re on this topic of MC’s premium outfits, I really fucking despise how MC gets so upset about wearing "mom clothes" if you choose to wear the free modest clothing instead of the revealing diamond outfit in Chapter 2. Ugh. Yes, the dad was being shitty about not letting MC dress how she likes, but all it does is it just makes you feel like shit for not wanting to dress in more revealing clothes. Stop making me feel bad for wanting to wear simple non-revealing clothing. Same goes for you, Chris Romantic Getaway story with your “the regular jerseys aren’t cute enough for girls to wear, we have to cut one up into a cleavage crop top in order to make it good for us girls to wear” bullshit.) 

And it just slaps you in the face with these sexual moments too, placing them in frequently whenever it feels like it, and the amount of it that actually contributed to any coming-of-age navigating-sexuality are few and far between. Honestly, it felt like it was trying way too hard to look "mature" with how it handled sexuality (as well as some of the other stuff like them drinking alcohol). Like it maybe was trying to portray teens realistically, but it only does so at a very shallow level. 

It's literally just "Look at the teens that talk about sex and like doing sexy things and having sex and doing grown-up stuff like drinking alcohol, see how MATUUURRREEE they are!" and they don't do anything more with it. It's just tacked on so they can pretend their book is a realistic story about maturing/being mature, when it fails at actually doing so.

I mean, I guess you could argue that the MC is meant to be seen as more messy and hormonal. And in that case, I could give it a pass. But, again, MC’s supposed arc of “navigating sexuality” never goes anywhere from that until the very last few chapters where you choose which LI she ends up with. It’s pretty much the same crap all throughout the book. MC doesn’t navigate sexuality, she just runs around aimlessly in it like a chicken with its head cut off.

Number 3: All the serious themes they try to have in the story are overshadowed by MC’s stupid indecisiveness plot. 

I’ve already said MTFL tries way too hard to make its story seem “mature” with the trashy way it sexualizes its characters. I’ve said it feels like it doesn’t know what it wants to be. Honestly though, this just sums up MTFL’s writing in general. 

MTFL has quite a handful of subplots, and I will admit, all of them are pretty compelling. You have Ava figuring out she’s lesbian, Mack dealing with gang drama, and Mason and Noah dealing with their past and Mason’s dad’s abusive behaviors. And an admittedly decent arc about MC discovering her love for photography instead of cheerleading. 

And then you have MC going on about how she can’t decide between her love interests, which is just the bad apple of the bunch that ruins the rest. It just makes it very hard to take everything else seriously. You ever seen that one meme where the Power Rangers put their hands in a circle but then a Teletubbie tries to join in? It’s the writing-equivalent to that, and MC’s indecisiveness plot is the Teletubbie. 

And maybe it wouldn’t be so bad if MC’s indecisiveness wasn’t the main focus plot of the whole book. I want to take these other storylines seriously. I want to take this story as a whole seriously. But how can I when the main focus of the story is so god damn shallow? No matter how many "soft positive heartfelt" piano tracks and “so sad and tragic sad” piano tracks from WEH they try put over it, it doesn't change the fact that the focus is MC going on and on about being unable to choose between Mason, Noah, and Ava. 

I get teens are shallow and can have shallow issues, but did we really need it to be that big of a focus of the story? Especially when the way it handles it is completely empty? Something like OG HSS was great because even though a lot of the issues the characters had were seemingly shallow and basic (such as the band fighting over which song to play), they do give a little more depth to it and reason to care about it (ie. Aiden starts to feel like a failure at music because of the band infighting). MTFL just throws MC’s indecisiveness at you for 95 chapters and expects you to take it seriously with nothing else surrounding it. 

And they try to pull the twist on the title at the end where it’s all like “LI and photography, the two greatest loves of MC’s life”. Which is an interesting idea in concept, except it feels so artificial and non-earned when MC’s romance plot was spending 95 chapters being unable to decide between the LIs. 

Number 4: It reuses way too much from HSS. 

I know this is a less severe issue, but I just can’t get past it. Sprites, backgrounds, school colors… even plot points like the corrupt principal embezzling from the school, or MC and LI(s) being locked in a large school room (remember when HSS:CA MC and Ajay were locked in the auditorium?). Heck, even MC having lost her mom and having a photography passion connected to that, rings way too similar to one of Autumn’s arcs from the freaking HSS PRIME GAME! Oh yeah, and both of those characters have a love triangle with a golden boy and a bad boy. Holy hell. 

Easily the most noticeable part is the sprites. In my playthrough, I counted 7 whole HSS sprites that were used in MTFL: Sydney became Iris, Payton became Toni, Frank became this random kid in a flashback for Mason and Noah's past, Morgan became a kid in Elijah's gang named Lucy, Lorenzo became Chad, Aiden's mom became Asian Noah's mom, Skye's dad became White Mason's dad (PB really said use that sprite for abusive dads huh). And there’s probably more, I’m sure. 

And the worst offense? They even reuse the iconic bird's-eye view of Berry High in MTFL. Call me petty if you must, but that's just criminal. It's one thing to reuse and alter a bunch of the sprites, uniforms, and backgrounds from the series but to reuse another book series' iconic background like that? Honestly, it feels rather insulting. They couldn't even be arsed to change the "Go Tigers!" on the football field, that’s how little sense it makes to use that background outside of HSS. Fuck’s sake.

I know it’s kind of the norm for Choices to reuse assets throughout different series, but the fact that they do it so much here and majority of it is from HSS just rubs me the wrong way. At best, it’s jarring and lazy. And at worst, it comes off as trying way too hard to be a “more mature” version of HSS. When in reality, it makes HSS:CA’s side characters look like Citizen Kane in comparison. I mean, at least Clint and Natalie and MC stopped whinging about Rory ⅓rd of the way through the series. 

At least when other high-school-setting books like ROD, WEH, and ILITW were made, they at least somewhat bothered to change up a few things and make it feel like an actually different school. They changed up the backgrounds a bit, used different school colors and uniforms, and didn’t reuse nearly as many sprites from HSS.  

In MTFL, all they did was make new cheer uniforms for the non-reused sprites and remove the Berry High logos from everything HSS that they used. Yeah they made some changes, but it’s clear that they didn’t put nearly the same amount of effort into it as they did in the other high school setting books. 

All it does is just make me miss HSS. Like, stop toying with my heart by piggybacking off of a better series (that has better queer rep too) so much. It’s to the point where it feels like they should have just used the time making this book to instead make a HSS senior year (Which, y’know, would be nice, especially since the sendoff we got in HSS:CA 3 was absolute flaming fucking garbage). 

So… in all honesty, I don’t hate this book. But it had a lot of things that annoyed me to no end and it sure as fuck is disappointing wasted potential. It had a great opportunity to be a nice queer coming-of-age story. But instead it felt like a Kissing Booth rip-off with serious themes only hamfisted in order to make it seem more “mature”.

[prismaticpichu]

25 for Seph and 6 for Zack <3

Heck yeah! You got it! ❤️ (I actually just answered #6 with Zack so i’ma skip that one if that’s all good! Though main takeaway is that I associate with his unwavering faith in others <3)

~~~

What was your first impression of this character? How about now? ~ ohhhhh YES YES YES i love this question xDD I always hoped for an opportunity to talk about my first discovery of Sephiroth shshdhhd. So! What was my first impression of Sephiroth..? Did I faint? Did I melt? Did I combust into flames at the sheer majesty?

Oh, no. My first impression of him was complete and utter HATRED…

….

For about 2 minutes.

Okie doke so this isn’t as much as a “first impression” as it is my emotions under the circumstance in which I was introduced to him, but I wanna tell the unasked for story anyway lol. So, basically, imagine this: it’s winter or 2020. Little Pichu is stuck inside alongside the rest of the world. There wasn’t much to do, not much to look forward to. But ofc, I always had video games to entertain me. Specifically, Smash Ultimate—a game I played obsessively during lockdown, day after day. Anywho, like I said, it’s winter of 2020. December. And what was coming up in just a few days…? The Game Awards.

Normally, I really wouldn’t care all too much. I never really gave a poo before lol. But this year??? This year, it was different. It was almost guaranteed that a new smash fighter was gonna revealed. And as someone who’s heart and soul was tethered to the game at the time, this was everything to me xD

So! There I am, sitting on the couch in front of the TV. It’s the 10th of December. The Game Awards would be on any moment. Already I’m sitting there and letting my brain trip over all the potential fighters that can be revealed. The anticipation is REAL, man. SO REAL.

The Game Awards start.

The first thing to appear on the screen is a Smash Bros trailer.

Little Pichu is PSYCHED. Heart tenses. Breath hitches. All the characters are there on the cliff. No indication as to who it can be. All options are valid. Every single hope has a chance. They’re about to fight Galeem. The thing prepares to unleash an attack. The music escalates and the god gets sliced in half and—

And…

Whomst.

The F*ck.

Is that.

So, yeah, um, I was very uncultured and had no idea who one of the most iconic villains to exist was x,D It’s actually REALLY embarrassing lol. Anyways, as Sephiroth descended from the sky and that random choir began chanting in the background, all I could feel was RAGE. I’m tell you. It was cold, bitter FURY. How could they add another swordfighter??? We have ENOUGH. Who is this woman??? What??? WHY??? WHY HER?????? WHY NOT SOMEONE I KNOW AND WANTED—!

You know how I said the anger lasted for 2 minutes.

It was prolly more like 55 seconds.

As almost as quickly as I wanted to chuck my remote at the screen, I had turned into, like, a mesmerized sheep. The trailer was (as my vocab would say at the time) freaking EPIC, man! The dude was UNSTOPPABLE. He plowed through anything and everything and holy SHIT DID HE JUST KILL MARIO?—

Yeaaaaah so that’s how it started tor me xD It wasn’t long until I was binge watching memes of Sephiroth’s entrance to smash, scarfing down comics of him and Pichu, and coming to the realization that I actually wanted to know a lot more about this character. I still remember the moment I opened up Google and typed in “Who is Sephiroth?” That’s how engraved this man is into my essence xD Pichu get help. I was brought to a wiki page, and there was literally no turning back lol. I learned that he used to be a hero—a good guy—which absolutely plunged me into wanting to hunt down the Nibelheim Incident and see his downfall. I became so invested in what I didn’t see from his good side that I hunted down an 8 hour playthrough of Crisis Core, as that’s what I discovered was the prequel to it all. Next came devouring fanfic and headcanoning- and, well, here we are today xDD Needless to say I love this stupid psycho to death, and i don’t think that’s changing anytime soon!

…..This has no right to be this long dhdhdhhd.

[couldbebetterforsure]

Okay folks I’m back from my vacation, so now I can go back to posting about my Jack Jeanne playthrough!!!! I finished the Fall Performance before my vacation but I didn’t have time to post my thoughts before I left, so let’s get to it then!

Man, Mary Jane as a play was so creepy and wild and enjoyable! I loved how it managed to be both fucked up and lighthearted at the same time??? Also it just may have my favorite play related CGs so far because WOW there were some fantastic CGs for this play!!! Mary Jane herself is such a fun and sad character in how lonely she is and how warped she is by that loneliness, and yet how kind she also is. Fumi yet again did a wonderful job in this role! All the ghosts managed to be funny and sweet characters. Suzu, Neji, Mitsuki, and Otori did wonderfully (while also having the funniest costumes I let out such a dumb laugh when I saw Suzu’s)! Otori I think you’re meant for the weird roles, just embrace your fate…And man were Figaro and Charles just sooooo delightfully unhinged! Kisa, my girl, she truly did a masterful job in her second Jack role and that maniacal laugh of hers was fucking incredible. But Sou…fucking Soshiro Yonaga…holy fucking shit!!!! More on him later….But anyways the pair were also pitiful in that along with their hatred of ghosts, it’s understandable that they were so angry at Mary specifically for (albeit unknowingly) using their friends’ corpses to make Jacob and man Figaro going absolutely batshit after Charles died because that’s his brother, his twin…What absolutely fun villains! Well at least they can be together as ghosts, right?

Some more A+ music from the play! A Friend Without a Name was such a lovely tune, reminded me in many ways of a music box. Fumi and Kai had some wonderful choreography for this song. Hallelujah Shout the name of God, My Friends was my favorite of the three for sure! I loved how it shifted so much and the way Kisa, Sou, and Fumi’s voices all came together! Ghost Party is a very close second, it’s so damn catchy!!! Like I wasn’t really feeling it when I heard the instrumental during the practice but when I got to hear the actual performance I was bouncing along so much I fucked up the rhythm game 😂😂😂 Still got the SS rank though ✌️ Then again, I am playing the rhythm games on normal mode, which is SUPER forgiving regarding how much you can fuck up and still get the best rank.

And good GRIEF the drama going on with Quartz throughout all of this! I mentioned this earlier but the sheer shock I felt when the cast list first came out and Sou didn’t get a named role. I truly didn’t expect that to happen! I figured there’s no way that doesn’t change, it doesn’t seem right, but I was getting worried there as we got closer and closer to performance day! The buildup to what happened with Sou for the Fall Performance had been building up slowly, like I’ve said before he’s shown he’s getting frustrated with his performance on stage. Especially when compared to how Kisa and Suzu, his two closest friends in Univeil, have been performing in the last two plays…I said before that what he needed was the chance to prove himself in a role that truly clicked for him. But then he wasn’t given a named role for Mary Jane…And geez you see how badly that destroys him despite him trying to stay his polite and soft spoken self, to the point of even ignoring Kisa and Suzu. Which all comes to a head when Suzu and Sou have their big fight, which leads to Sou being the loudest I’ve ever heard him at that point in the game. While I was so uncomfortable in that fight because “nooo boys please you’re friends don’t do this 😭😭😭”, I liked that I could get both sides of the argument. Because on Suzu’s end one of his closest friends has suddenly started ignoring him and won’t explain anything and it’s also clearly hurting another one of their mutual friends (Kisa), while on Sou’s end his insecurities and frustration at how his own efforts aren’t matching up to what he wants and how his friends are seemingly getting where they want to be so easily and seemingly aren’t as gutted by disappointment made him reach his breaking point.

Coupled with Sou’s drama is Suzu’s own drama. Suzu struggling to play a villain role so unlike who he is, a cunning guy. Gosh when I heard Suzu was gonna okay a villain I was sooooooooo hyped!!! He struggled but that’s the thing about Suzu, he struggles but he gets there eventually because he doesn’t stop trying. I was so ready to see him as the cunning and arrogant Jean Jose!!! But then…his injury…You know I remembered a while back a random Suzu event I saw had him mention a scar on his ankle if I remember right, and I was like 👀 at that info but then it was never brought up again so I thought it was just a random fun fact or something. But then as the weeks went on for the Fall Performance, Suzu was shown occasionally struggling with his foot. I actually thought maybe he sprained it in that early practice scene but then I remembered that scar thing and was like “👀👀👀👀👀 oh????? is it related?!?!?!?!??!?!!?!!” And then BAM!!! My poor sweet boy’s ankle couldn’t hold out anymore…Gosh that reveal that he had to give up kendo because of how bad the injury was…And how acting, specifically Univeil performances, gave him a reason to keep going again and a new dream…But now his ankle gave out and now there’s that chance acting could be taken from him too. I wonder if we’ll get more info on his injury, specifically what caused it. Because I admit I’m not too familiar with kendo but I’ve seen some pictures and stuff of it, and I can’t figure out what on earth happened to Suzu that injured him THAT badly. Based on a convo with Neji earlier, I can guess either he or the person he was sparring with wasn’t careful enough but I’d like more details. But yeah seeing how much of a brave face he was putting on, especially when he was cleared to come back but no longer had a role in the play. That scene between him and Kisa when he admits how scared he is murdered me…My poor sweetheart….

Also the way that before the fight was officially cleared up between Suzu and Sou the two of them were already friends again. Sou wanting to practice all the play lines to help Suzu and Kisa with rehearsals while Suzu told Neji to give the role to Sou if he couldn’t stand on stage himself. The way Suzu had no hard feelings towards Sou about being replaced. Sou at the end of the performance telling Suzu that HE is the one Sou doesn’t wanna lose to most 😭😭😭😭 I love all of Quartz so much but the first years are special to me because they really are the best friend trio.

And maaaan, Quartz really does have the best senpai in the world!!! Mitsuki, Fumi, and Kai all helping out Suzu, Kisa, and Sou respectively regarding the fight. Mitsuki and Fumi both standing up to Utsuri and Kakuto when they wanted to start shit with poor Kisa. The fact that Neji at the last moment added an entirely new character to the play just so that Suzu wouldn’t be left out! I mean when they changed the okay so that Sou would play Figaro and as Charles’ brother instead, Neji only needed to fix stuff related to that. But he also went and gave Suzu a new role that wouldn’t stress his ankle out because he knew that despite Suzu trying to be lighthearted about it he desperately wanted to stand on the stage too. For all that Neji thrives on chaos he’s much kinder than he lets on ☺️

Anyways, Sou’s acting in Mary Jane was nuts, absolutely bonkers. The way he kept such a calm tone for most of the play before starting to yell some lines once Figaro and Charles revealed their true purpose. And then…the masterpiece…Figaro’s screaming after Charles died….I truly thought Sou was gonna throw his voice out with how absolute batshit those screams were. How did his VA manage to NOT destroy his voice??? And the CG that accompanied that moment? Perfection. You know half of the audience went home and had nightmares after that. But yeah I was right, Sou got the role that clicked for him. He got to showcase what he’s made of and I can only hope he’ll improve from here! And he deserved that reward, I would’ve entered this game and fought all of Univeil if he didn’t get anything after that performance. Also I really loved Fumi finally getting a chance to be free and not be so tied down from being Quartz’s responsible senpai and getting to truly showcase his skill by competing with Kisa and Sou.

Final note, while I loved Mary Jane and think everything that went down in the Fall Performance arc was great, I’m sad we never got Jean Jose realized. I wanted to see my boy Suzu play a villain role 😞😞😞 Neji, babe, please come through for me and give me the gift of villain Suzu for the Winter Performance! Please do me this one solid, Neji 🙏

[dokidokitsuna]

Spoiler-Free Reactions to RWBY: Arrowfell~

I watched a playthrough, so I can’t comment on how it actually feels to play the game, but based on what I saw, my overall grade is C+...which is much higher than I thought it would be.

So although I’m gonna say a lot of nasty things about this game (and there are a lot of nasty things to say about it (o゜▽゜)o☆) I’m also gonna explain why it’s not as bad as I expected.

First, a moment of silence for all the people who thought this game was gonna be secretly * AMAZING * because WayForward and ArcSys were involved. Whoever you are out there...I’m so sorry. ^^;;;;

Love how the ‘towns’ just have NPCs standing in an evenly-spaced line XD Great immersive gameplay experience, 10/10 no notes

The action cutscenes look...good?! oAo Like, Team BRIR’s introduction actually looked kind of cool...maybe RT should downsize and just focus on working with game developers...

Love those little ‘item get!’ animations~

Of course Yang’s semblance ability is the ‘special block puncher’(¬_¬ ) ...all the other girls have some strategic elements to their semblances; even Ruby can be used to quickly zip past enemies when revisiting areas. But Yang’s semblance has only one use; you have very little reason to play as her for longer than half a second. Even when she gains the Burn+ damage boost, it doesn’t mean much when you could, for instance, simply stack Blake with 2 clones and get triple damage...

Speaking of Blake, her clones not only function as autonomous attack turrets, they can block bullets AND act as targets for enemy homing attacks. Far and away the best semblance in the game. ‘_’

Penny is beautiful and cute and deserves the world...honestly, shame on RT for throwing such a wonderful girl in the trash for mere shock value... Anyway, it was a very pleasant surprise to see her in this game, even if it was just as a silly side character.

Side note: Why is Weiss so mean to Penny now?? இ௰இ Almost everything she says to her is some kind of insult...

Ruby and Weiss both have noticeably different characterization in this game, actually: Weiss is a LOT meaner to everyone, worse than she was in V1, even...and Ruby kinda got turned into a stereotypical dopey airhead anime girl. :/ She’s still more entertaining than the canon show version, but...man, I miss awkward nerd Ruby...

Qrow is characterized differently too-- he’s actually entertaining again! o_O I legit forgot his character used to be cool and fun...

BTW, fixed Yang: instead of making her semblance a mere tool to get rid of glowy blocks, they could’ve given her ‘crowd control’ abilities as well-- maybe her special punch could knock back/stun enemies or repel attacks. It’d probably come in handy when you’re getting mobbed during the ‘Ambush’ stages... ...See, this isn’t hard, folks. ^^;

JAMES! JAMES!!! JAMES!!!! (;´༎ຶД༎ຶ`) ...Okay, to be honest, Ironwood is only marginally relevant in this game, but it was nice to see him again too. ^^ It’s great that all these ruined and/or murdered characters get to have one last chance to shine here.

Demonizing the civil rights movement wasn’t enough; now we’re going to demonize unions...oh, Rooster Teeth...(╬▔v▔)

And on that note: did RT really not have a hand in writing this game...? Because it really feels like something they would write... Maybe they gave WayForward the concepts and basic story outline to use...it would explain why many things were actually executed well (i.e. ‘everyone can write RWBY better than its actual creators’ strikes again) even though the plot still contains some of their trademark icky writing decisions...

OKAY, so: The game may be cheap and basic-looking, but it’s solid. ‘_’ Definitely feels like something made by people with adequate resources and skill that they just didn’t feel like spending a lot of their time on, rather than the usual “we ran out of budget! DX We didn’t know what to do!” that we usually get with RWBY media. Basically, there’s not a lot there, but what is there is relatively well done. It’d be a good game to give to an 11-year-old kid or something (although idk if there are still RWBY fans that young). ^^;

Spoiler-FULL reactions are on their way, in which I’ll have a LOT MORE nasty things to say. =_= Stay tuned...

[winged-wolf-s-collection-of-arts]

Come and Trick or Treat! Open all year :] tags updated Nov. 28

Intro?

Howdy!!! Pronouns —> she/he/they (no preference)

Wolfy (wolf character I doodle sometimes) is my blog mascot. Unreliable sleep schedule/forgetful/message notifs don’t show up- so if you need me uhhhh keep yelling until I notice? Hdfjhfg..

I love drawing, listening to game playthroughs, and looking at cute animals! Feel free to send an ask about anything.

——

Tags!!

Art tag: wolfys art

Cool art by pals: grand showcase of arts

Doc says something: wolf chats

Art months stuff (all of them!! general tag): Just Here To Have Fun

Kiley and co stuff (commonwealth): little wastrels

second fallout au (island, custom location for an rp): badlands crew

Misc fandom tags (unreliably tagged but I will start now): qsmp, good omens, fallout, bg3, whump stuff, starfield, doctor who

important/tagged consistently: psa, boost (urgent news), reblogging for future reference (general tips), promo (friends news), flashing images, bright colors

"You have to reblog!" And similar phrases: rebait

Minor misc tags: drawing tips, writing tips, cooking tips, fave,

Note- these are not tagged reliably: ghouls/zombies, blood, skeletons, suggestive (no explicit things here), bugs and spiders, guns, drug use, smoking, all caps

——

Unimportant ramblings v

Time stamp: Jul 15? Heeeeey. Hello. So I did take a break from art till like last week, but uh, the health has been a roller coaster-

I kinda cleaned the whole house compulsively multiple times. I dunno what to say about that. Went from the compulsion to be Always Drawing to Always Doing Chores, so it wasn’t really a break? It felt amazing for a little while, but I am so stressed inside ahagfhkhdf. Anywayssssss.

I realized that promising to do the art requests Later is just me returning to old behavior, like just... keeping it on the line so I /nobody gets a direct answer *when* it will be done. That makes my brain think it’s in the clear while the other artists are worried and unsure what’d happen. Andddd even though I did have the motivation to do animated group projects for a little while, a small thing completely knocked me into dropping everything else.

I know I *could* try to join more projects or do more requests, I’m not in a safe headspace where I wouldn’t be set off, and nobody should risk their project’s deadline for that-

TLDR I’m going to Try and fix things up on my end and stop myself from joining anything (that depends on Every artists effort). Even if I feel alright *now* I know there’s a lot of risk for *later*- just don’t let me in anything big and important even if I ask, please- for at least a year-

—— Timestamp: Slightly Before August

Gonna Try Ink Demonth this year- I’ll limit myself and not do something too detailed again hsdkfjzhk.

——

Timestamp: August 17

[cackles evilly] Ink Demonth Ink Demothhhhh- this is the furthest I’ve ever gotten in an art prompt month ever! ...even though I’m technically not on theme (Fallout instead of Batim). Trying to pace myself by alternating between a simple and detailed style. Hrrrh the yeehawgust prompts (cowboy theme!) look so cool but I won’t double up- but I will try to participate in the September AI-less-Whump month. (gore and dark subjects! I’ll tag everything properly of course.)

Also I’ve come to a realization- A dream of mine has been becoming famous for my art/animations, but uh- One, it isn’t realistic, and Two, posts getting like 200 notes freaks me out cfjhxfgh- Well, doing stuff for friends and others is just as cool. Y’all are awesome ^w^

——

Timestamp: Aughust ninteen

Wait actually I don’t need a reason to block people. I don’t need to tell you either. It’s been getting a bit too chummy around here (reference)

——

Timestamp: September 4

I didn’t finish the art month, but I got to day twenty! That’s pretty good. I’ll finish it up this month. I also gotta work on some ref sheet, finish a birthday gift, andddd clear the askbox.

——

Timestamp: September 29

Oeghhhh.... too many ideas, not enough time. So many comic ideas. And I gotta tamp down my love of angst dvhkdfbnsf, make sure it makes sense first!! Decided to keep the aus separate. Normal Game Stuff is happening in the Badlands mainland, uh, I don’t know what ending we’d go with but anyways. ....hm. Maybe there’s no sosu and the factions are not making any progress. But probably’d lean towards Institute ending if I had to choose now.

Hm. Well. Maybe I did not think. Uh well in the other au Kiley’s with the Minutemen, and Nate’s with the BoS, so... well I’m not sure how this is gonna go- I’ll keep drawing memes till I think of something cool.

——

Timestamp: October 24

Well uhhhh. I dropped the October art challenge pretty quick, unfortunately. I’ll continue in December maybe? I said I’d do a few days of Halltober, and I don’t want to go back on what I said.

I keep continuing and dropping the au stuff, but that just proves I can continue a project! Maybe!! Maybe. It’ssss a comedy, so uh I’m not worried about making a Deep Story or anything. It’ll be fiiiiine. Just little slice of life stuff.

I wwwwwill get caught up on requests and gifts-

[aleakybiro]

A ramble about Breath of the Wild's difficulty level;

I've poured more hours into Breath of the Wild than I probably should have, perhaps only outdone by my last obsession with Animal Crossing New Leaf. I’ve finished the game twice, and decided I wanted another go. Let me say; it’s rare to come across a game so captivating it makes you want to pour in another 150 hours to see every detail all over again.

My first time playing the game, I was pretty bad at it by any gamer’s standards. If I wanted to go somewhere, I’d quite literally go as the crow flies. I’d cross cliffs, attempt to jump huge rivers, swim across lakes; because, apparently, I’d never heard of roads. At every enemy, I chose flight over fight. I forgot to prepare food before every venture from a stable. There was no strategy, no direction, no intent. I once tried to befriend wizzrobes because I thought they were fairies, and I’ll die disappointed about it.

But I think that was why it was fun. I played the game like a 6 year-old who just wanted to ride horses and find out what happened to Zelda. And the game let me. Unlike most games, where you can only access certain parts of the map at certain levels, I could go the most illogical way possible and this game would just laugh and wish me good luck. I didn’t get stuck, like ever, because I wasn’t bogged down figuring out how it was supposed to be played, how someone else was expecting me to get unstuck.

My second time, I knew the tricks. I knew there were roads and bridges, I knew how to fight from the offset, I knew which enemies were too dangerous to take at the beginning, and how to find everything. This time, I went to Gerudo town first so I could get the magic jewellery, because I knew it would be helpful on the way to getting the proper armour. I played the game the way it was perhaps not so much intended to be – for Breath of the Wild there is, of course, no intended way – but expected to be. Eventually though, I got bored. I didn’t have the patience to drag my heels through the completion of every shrine and puzzle. I just fought Ganon so I could finish the game and start over. Another nice option, might I add.

But why? Well, there was no challenge anymore. I knew how to beat every enemy, what was where. I knew to visit the castle dungeon mid-game to get the goods rather than right at the end where they were little use. I knew every twist and turn, every memory scene, most of the secrets in the map. But it just felt like I was walking in my old footsteps with less wonder and less to discover.

I love Breath of the Wild. I wanted to traverse its wonderful universe a hundred times. But I couldn't just do the same thing a third time, what was the point? I needed something new. A challenge. So on my third playthrough, I had some new rules:

No upgrading hearts or stamina. I could collect every spirit orb in the game, but it wasn’t allowed.

No upgrading runes.

No using the champion gifts, even if I had earned them fair and square.

No fancy clothes. Basic Hylian clothes only. And the warm doublet, ‘cause I said so.

No upgrading clothes either. Not that I’d miss the fairies.

Now, this put me in an interesting position. I played through the Great Plateau as normal, and enjoyed it as I always did. There’s something about it, it’s just my favourite part. Perhaps it’s the secluded area, perhaps the small space as you build from zero. Or maybe the stronger link to the story at that point in the game. I’ve never been sure. But the moment I set foot on Hyrule kingdom soil, there was no more normal; and in a good way.

At this point, I hadn’t considered any other changes to my playthrough, so I set off down the beaten track towards Kakariko village…for maybe 2-3 minutes?. I saw the Bridge of Hylia, and I turned right. Impa could wait.

And it was a great decision. The Faron region is the only one you’re not really directed to in your main quest, when you think about it. Most regions are home to an important village, a major path, or an area where at least part of the main quest takes place. Excluding Akkala, but there’s plenty of direction towards it. So what directs people to Faron? There’s only one memory there, and it’s right on the outskirts. Either you’re aiming for completion, or you’re just plain curious. The latter is the beauty of the game.

The only area that really has a difficulty level intended for a specific point in the game is the Duelling peaks, and to an extent Hateno, suited to be easier in the beginning. So Faron was a fun choice for a first region. Storms, the lightning god, a jungle, a peaceful village unaffected by your main quest? Perfect.

I had my knowledge of how to fight, and of different enemies and whatnot, but I was still in for a shock. Oh yeah. Where most of us would brush a couple of Stalmoblins off, they were a one hit killer for me, and I quickly learned I couldn’t take three at once without getting hit. A rude awakening. So travelling at night was out. I also quickly found I had to restock food at every cookpot, because there was no point in carrying a ten heart meal. Just lots of burnt fish and mushrooms. Classy.

But the biggest change (and my favourite) was the combat. I’m aware that you can buy master mode if you want to make the game more challenging, but what does it change? You take more damage, enemies are stronger, your weapons break more often. To me, that honestly sounds very frustrating. It makes the technical combat more difficult, but it doesn’t change how you approach it. That, for me anyway, was the fun bit.

I remember early in my first playthrough, I was sent to raid a beach camp near Hateno village to rescue some sheep. At this point, I was still a terrible fighter (and a bit of a wimp), so I picked the monsters off one by one with remote bombs until there were few enough to take in one go. It took a while, sure, but hell was it a satisfying victory. Now, two playthroughs later, it was back to that kind of strategy. Analyse your surroundings for things to drop or to blow up, approach from the right place, bait monsters out to you, pick them off one by one. Granted, I failed a lot – I’m still not a great fighter by any stretch of the imagination– but I was thinking about what I was doing, so every victory felt more earned.

The most satisfying win I’ve had so far was against a lynel. (No, I wasn’t going to hide from them this time, I’m slightly less of a wimp.) So, I thought back to how I normally fight a lynel. Stasis, hit, wait to recharge, repeat until dead. But that strategy had some beef with my little rulebook – No stasis +.

Which turned out to be pretty brilliant.

In my previous victories against lynels (few and far between, if I’m honest), I had never really taken the time to watch how they fought, I’d just ran around waiting for my stasis to recharge. However, upon watching, I noticed they don’t have too many moves, really.

Their close combat moves feature a cross slash and a heavy swing, dodged by backflip, as well as a charge attack which can be avoided with a side hop, both allowing me to get my hits in with a flurry rush. (which were my best friend this playthrough, even on bokoblins)

They also featured a move where they breathe fire – my personal favourite, because for the lynel of Ploymous mountain, he was standing on grass. When this move was featured, I could glide on the updraft, and draw my bow.

Now, a general rule when fighting a lynel is never draw your bow. You draw your bow, they draw theirs. Big mistake.

My first encounter with a lynel way back when was with the one on the Naydra snowfield. Here, I had a similar situation as with the wizzrobes. You see I thought, ladies and gentlemen, that the lynel was a centaur. Like an npc creature. That I should go and talk to. Until, of course, I saw the dreaded yellow exclamation mark and knew I had royally screwed myself over. I ran, only to find that their arrows could HONE IN ON YOU LIKE MISSILES, and I was dead in less than ten seconds. You can draw a number of conclusions about my intelligence from this, but the important lesson is never to let a lynel draw its bow.

Once yours is in hand, the only way to stop it from doing so is to shoot it in the face, stun it, then put your bow away. But on the ground, you have no chance of this hit before you’re trampled. From the air, however, the time freeze allows you to take the shot, drop to the ground, and perform the legendary move of mounting a lynel.

Did it take some trial and error to figure this out? Absolutely. Would I have figured it out if I hadn’t put myself in the position where I had to? Probably not. And I certainly wouldn’t have been able to ramble about it like a 5 year old at a birthday party if I hadn’t.

To me, that’s what makes videogames exciting, especially ones like Breath of the Wild, where you’re constantly figuring out new ways to do things. If any of you have ever played Splatoon, think about what’s more fun; Shooting your enemies down, or surprising them as you jump out from the trail of a curling bomb and splashdown three people at once? The rewarding part of the fighting aspect of gaming is winning in the ways that no one, sometimes not even yourself, expects. I don’t imagine everyone feels the same way; there is, of course, a certain pleasure to just blasting them. But this is true for me.

I also feel like, as you move through Breath of the Wild, you get a lot of great tips on creative fighting; from npcs, loading screens, and hidden all over the game, but many of them quickly become irrelevant. Taking out a bokoblin camp with magnesis is all great until you have seven hearts and can run in and mow them down in 20 seconds. During this playthrough, I actually learned a lot of tactics I could apply in the overworld through shrine puzzles.

In my early game exploration of Faron, I encountered an area of constant thunderstorm, caused by a shrine. The shrine was at the top of a massive waterfall. First thing that comes to your head? Yep. Zora armour. But by my rules, that wasn’t an option. Next? Climb the cliff and rest on its ledges. Bad news; with one wheel of stamina and constant rain, that wasn’t happening either. So what would I do? Come back later? In any other situation, yes, but this time, later in the game I’d still have no fancy armour, and no more stamina. So I had just as much chance of success now as I would later.

I am admittedly proud to say I did figure it out. The solution was found in a rather annoying shrine puzzle, where you had to lead one of those giant Sheikah orbs along a waterfall and into the hole. The goal was to use cryonis blocks to make a path for it. Incredibly pernickety and frustrating, but there was the solution, staring me in the face. A cryonis staircase up to the top of the waterfall.

It took a while, but it’s another example of using every tool at my disposal. The runes are an aspect of Breath of the Wild’s gameplay that is very creative, and very well used in overworld korok puzzles as well as shrines, but I think, rather underutilised in combat. That’s not to fault the design – the open nature of the game gives us the option, but most players would simply rather opt to use a royal broadsword, which is to be fair completely understandable.

This way of playing made the experience feel more human. If you were out in the wild, you’d need every trick in the book. You’d have to pick your battles - when you travel, what route you take, what you pack - very carefully. From the beginning of the game, Link is, let’s face it, already strong for a human/hylian. He can fight, he can take being stabbed a few times, withstand harsh environments for a decent amount of time, jog for way longer than I could dream, sprint a fair bit, climb sheer cliffs… He has the strength of your average soldier right off the bat. By the time you’re halfway through the game he’s frankly super-human. And yes, this kinda fits with the lore of the goddess’ chosen hero, but still; anyone who can get hit by a guardian’s laser square on and get back up is more than just abnormally strong.

And I’ve always been very interested in what it would be like to be a civilian during the events of the game. We laugh as travellers get beaten up by red bokoblins, but the truth of it is we’d probably be just like the truffle hunter girls. This time I suddenly didn’t feel so invincible against a black bokoblin, and the reality of the danger of Breath of Wild’s expansive world hit me. It’s not all pretty post-apocalypse of open fields and skies. I don’t think the urgency of the boss battle in universe quite hits any player in the vast expanse of pretty picture material, but during this playthrough the thought did occur. Not that it made me go any faster.

Really, my point is that even if you love obliterating sixteen monsters in one charge (‘cause same), I would still whole-heartedly recommend trying Breath of the Wild this way if you ever plan to play through it again. It gives a different take on the world and gameplay, which for me was very fun, and breathed a little new life into a game that was already brimming with it the first time. Games are best when you play them however you want. Solve problems with crazy backwards solutions. Play games like a happy little six year-old at Christmas. Sometimes making things difficult for yourself is fun, and who’s gonna stop you?

[dangan-ronpa-imagines]

Not gonna bother asking for you to crop me out unlike last time, but heyo its me, former Mod Masky of the blog that was ran by you-know-who. Saw this place was active again and wanted to give a quick wave! I'm glad to see you've been doing good, Erin! I've missed the good times we had as fellow mods and friends, especially on the old Discord server. But, just like you, I think about her quite a bit, especially because I was developing a crush on her, er, who I thought she was, at the time... I even saw she still had some of my old work on the blog she ran, and it's impressive how much I've both improved but also regressed when it came to my skills. (I've not written in a long time due to life, and have only recently gotten back into it. Yes, it was SMUT writing btw. That still hasn't changed.) I too can only hope she learned her lesson and finally took some steps to improve herself, both mentally and as a person. I don't think I'll ever forgive her for what she did... I'll end off by saying somethings to address and update people who may happen to remember me. I left that blog because of what you-know-who did, but she deleted my departure note, as it also called her out. I was considering joining this blog, but declined due to the slight trauma I gained from you-know-who, and to also put my full focus into college. Also, I'm really not active here anymore, but still like to view and browse. You can find me primarily on Twitter/X now. Lastly, I'm married now to a wonderful man! ;D Have a wonderful day/night! And sorry for the long ass ask!

Actually forgot to respond to this but everyone say congratulations!!! Life seems to be good to you according to instagram lol and I’m so happy for you!! Honestly it kind of went downhill after that whole incident and I think after a while I didn’t care so much for the series!!! Don’t get me wrong I’m still a big fan but I’ve moved onto other things as people do!!!! Like my second playthrough of Baldur’s Gate 3 I don’t have much time for writing cause working saps all of my energy away and I’m planning on going back to school so who knows!!! Regardless I wish you and your husband all of the happiness in the world ❤️ thank you for the time you spent with us!!! ~ Mod Eri

[signalhill-if]

hi there! first of all, i finally got around to really exploring this game and i have to tell you i am SO impressed, both with the world / characters you have created + with the brilliant MECHANICS!!! 🤩🙇‍♀️ major major kudos, i’m so excited to see how everything progresses 🥰

on my last playthrough i ended up finding the augur identity while poking around with a religious androgyne MC + omg 👁️👁️ very intrigued by the narration/variations that have been implemented so far + can’t wait for my MC to make questionable choices in the name of ‘enlightenment’ 😉 (once they can afford to 😳)

i did come across a small bug/error during the test run lead when KC asks about augur!MC’s whole ~deal~ (second choice option):

i reloaded to an earlier save to try the first choice, though, and that one seemed fine!

oh, also—in the electronics store it says that purchased music could be added to the MC’s altar, but i bought a couple cds + didn’t see an option to add them in the altar menu 🤔 not sure if this is an error or if that feature just hasn’t been implemented yet

Gosh, thank you so much! A lot of work went into thinking through the mechanics for this game, so every time I get compliments on them it's so lovely, thank you 😭

I'm glad you're enjoying the options for augur & devotee characters, they are super important identities for this game and I hope you will not be disappointed! They are gonna get soooooo much content I promise you that.

And thank you for reporting the bugs! That first one is very silly, I have a habit of occasionally typing "identities" even though the correct variable is "identity" haha.

As for the other bug.... grrrr.... I really really REALLY thought I had fixed that. Or maybe I gave up on fixing it and forgot that I gave up on it. Either way, I've added it to my bug tracker and will continue to not fix it for now because for some reason getting that to work has been an absolute pain in my ass. You'll just have to go without a Savvy boost for now, I'm sorry... Thank you for he reminder though haha

[darkx-the-dragon-kn1ght]

Chapter 6- Part 3

Through this corner and up this hallway we go, aaand here we’ve got some more Grunts!

It’s more likely than you think!

Alright, this isn’t so bad- Riptide can handle Aron pretty easily. Water Gun time, baby!

Heck yeah. Well- not for Budew, both Aron and Zubat have been ganging up on it, very sad. Anyways, back to attacking-

Hm- Riptide’s not doing as much damage to Zubat as I’d like, not to mention he just got a level-up…so you know what? I’ll switch into Whiskers, she’s got Zen Headbutt anyways.

Speaking of switching, uh…

You know what? Sandile’s a much better matchup against the Zubat than Budew. In fact, it’s such a better matchup that Sandile ends up stealing Whiskers’ kill with Bite!

Eh…a victory is a victory I guess, and Whiskers gets the exp. points either way.

Oh- his Sandile’s Ability is Moxie? That’ll be good to remember in the future.

You’re not allowed to do that punchline!! I already did it!!

Alright, so, continuing on up here, we kinda turn these corners, and then…

Hey, there’s an item up there! I don’t think we can go up to the second floor just yet, but when we do, I’ll have to remember to grab whatever that is.

AND THEN X HAD TO LEAVE TO TAKE CARE OF IRL STUFF.

SHE CAME BACK AFTER SEVERAL HOURS.

So, it is currently 9:30 PM as of the time of writing this. I could wait until tomorrow morning to continue on with this escapade, when I’m a little less tired, but I’d actually rather not do that, soooo…

(Future edit: Little did I know, I would have no choice but to put the rest of this play session off until the next day anyways, but I digress-)

Also, through the power of saving the game, I have discovered this location is called Mosswater Industrial! As I said before: YEAH DUDE, IT SURE IS!

Now, despite the fact that Ace told the Grunts to slow us down and we need to stop them from deleting all the data (I’m assuming), I…don’t think there’s an actual time constraint? Like, Fern didn’t say anything like “we need to get up there as soon as possible, we can’t waste time fighting everyone” or something, and there’s no indication of a legit time limit, so like…I don’t think there’s a penalty to fighting all the Grunts we come across.

In other words, despite the fact that we went around these two, we’re gonna beat them up anyways.

Alright, what have we here…I don’t think we have anything that’s specifically good against either of these, but Streak can still hold his own. And we can start that with Tail Whip, which will lower both Rattata and Lillipup’s Defenses at the same time! 

This’ll be useful not just for Streak, but for Fern’s Sandile as well because uuuuuh…well, Budew got knocked out again. RIP, I guess.

So, neither Streak nor Sandile are super great against these two, but they’re still doing…something. I’m having Streak focus on Lillipup for the time being-

Which worked out very well! Now these two can just focus on the Rattata and win the battle, which also works out well enough- ignore Streak’s HP, he’s fine.

Can’t believe Xera and Fern are exterminators now- but given that was a bit of a running gag with a D&D campaign me and some friends did (lest we forget Slap Her Bald Head Sunday), I’m fine with carrying on the legacy in this playthrough.

And I was heading into the menu to check something, and I finally noticed something…

The party gets healed after every battle! I didn’t even notice that in the last few battles, but now that I do- great! That means I’ll have an easier time saving resources (namely those Potions) during this. My cheapskate arc in this game continues on apace!

Previous

Next

[rhonuscorner]

That moment when you think you’re finally fully satisfied with your canon DAI worldstate, when suddenly, LI doubts

Ugh I need to rant 😂

So I finished my Bullmance playthrough yesterday, I updated the keep and figured I’m fully ready for DAD now.

During that last scene with Solas in Trespasser yesterday I was really feeling the Solas feels again, but no. Not happening. I did his romance with Tae once years ago, I enjoyed it, but ultimately I prefer him in a good trusted friend and mentor role. I went back to Bull, who was my first choice for Tae way back on release day and figured not even Dorian could change my mind.

I’ve done a Dorianmance too and I love him, but ultimately, I prefer him as one of Tae’s closest friends as well.

And I do really love Bull, I always considered him a really good fit for Taerel (no pun intended) and he’s still one of my favorite characters... but there was this nagging feeling in the back of my mind during this playthrough that I couldn’t really put my finger on and was difficult to ignore. I knew it was related to the romance because I got the option to lock in a romance with Dorian before Bull and I agonized over it before I told myself no, stick with the plan.

It’s been almost 10 years since I first settled on Bull for Tae, and Tae’s grown so much as a character even to this day, especially recently now that I’ve started working on his story again and I always figured... if not Dorian and Solas, who else is there for Tae to romance? As in, characters that I like as well?

I was on AO3 just now and somehow I ended on the Male Lavellan/Cullen tag aaaaaaaaaaaand here we are. Doubting.

And I don’t need this right now! 🤣 I’ve done three different romances with Tae but Cullen was never a real part of that picture and neither was Blackwall. Yet I just took a moment to envision what it would be like if Cullen and Tae were close in that manner and... it actually has potential. And I dunno how I feel about that.

I never much cared for Cullen before, I didn’t dislike him, I was just... neutral about his character. But I really enjoyed him this time around, and maybe it’s because I’m older too compared to the last time I played this game (2016). I guess that makes sense.

Just the whole... Elven mage who is an important religious figure and actually converts to Andrastianism one day... plus disgruntled ex Templar who is very religious and also has massive magic related PTSD. I could really do a lot with that and my brain is trying to run away with it.

So now I am very conflicted lol. I know there’s a bi Cullen mod on nexus, I don’t know if it still works (the comments on the mod page make me question) but I kinda wanna try it out, even though I JUST finished a playthrough.

On the other hand I’m like NO. STICK WITH BULL.

On the other other hand... I could have Adoribull in my game >3>

I dunno what to dooooooooo. I NEVER for ONE second since I first played DAO waaaaaaay back when... that one day I’d be considering Cullen as an LI. What the fuck lol

I’m gonna sleep on it and give it some more thought tomorrow but... yeah, I may actually try it out and see if I really like it or if I can really rule it out. >>;

[girl4music]

Okay,… you never asked for it but I’m going to go on a long rant anyway because I’m just that kind of person.

‘Twilight Princess’ isn’t just my favourite Legend Of Zelda game. It’s also my favourite video game of all-time. I’ve played it countless times over 100% both on the GameCube and the Wii (mostly on the GameCube because that mirror-switch was just unnecessary - LINK IS LEFT-HANDED!) and it’s timeless to me.

The main reason why is Midna and I really have to explain why she’s the main reason because if you knew me you would know just how important character is to me in art/entertainment. She’s my favourite Zelda character of all-time. Her character representation and development is handled superbly for a video game, and, like you, I loved that I finally had a companion in a Zelda game that felt like a REAL PERSON as opposed to an annoying shadow following me around everywhere I went, telling me what to do every single fucking second. Navi really is the reason ‘Ocarina Of Time’ was a once-only/never-again gameplay experience for me. I completed it once 100% and never looked back because Navi was just that annoying. Fi in ‘Skyward Sword’ I didn’t mind so much as she stayed in the sword for most of the game and only emerged when I actually needed her help. Not before prompting me to summon her every time though. Midna however was an absolute joy to engage with, to have as a companion and to learn of her plight in the Twilight realm and understand her story. Why she is the way she is when we first meet her. Why she’s so mistrusting, manipulative and selfish. And how she goes from that to someone that actually sacrifices her own well being to keep Link safe and to help him save Zelda and Hyrule by extension. She’s just the shining example of how characterisation should be written in a video game because she didn’t feel like a sidekick, only there to aid us along in our endeavours. She felt like a friend. Someone to confide and take comfort in. And since you spoiled the endgame for her, - that is still one of the greatest character transformations I’ve ever seen in any art/entertainment medium whatsoever. So yeah, she’s the main factor as to why I love ‘Twilight Princess’ so much. The creators of the game actually made me care about what I should have regarded as another “Navi” in another Zelda game where the gameplay is majorly the same as the last game was in that the mechanics were just the same.

But other reasons were the maturity of the darker visual appearance (because I was one of those “ridiculous” people that didn’t like the graphics art style of ‘Wind Waker’, discounting it completely as a playable, let alone enjoyable, Zelda game because I was an idiot like that back then), a thoroughly engaging open-world exploration gameplay experience I had never really had before, and finally, like you also mentioned, I cared about the NPC’s throughout the entire game - especially those of Link’s hometown - which made me feel personally close to the character I was playing as for once. I’ve never felt that way before about Link. I mean he was still silent and about as charismatic as a cardboard box - just as he always was - but the dynamics changed. I related to and resonated with him like never before all because I felt a personal attachment to HIS people. That made all the damn difference.

You talked about how ‘Twilight Princess’ is a game you could only play once, feel fully immersed in and then it would go stale for you. You���d find yourself rushing to get through it. That was and will never be the way it is for me. I could go back to that game right now - start a whole new playthrough and find myself just as immersed in that world, in that lore and in those characters. Yes, nostalgia would be a factor as to why, but I just know that I’d completely enjoy playing it just as much as I did the first time I played it if not more.

[hufflepuff-legacy]

On the Edge of the Abyss

You almost sent him to Azkaban.

Oneshot GN Hufflepuff reader

Spoilers for Sebastian’s storhufflepuffufflepuff playthrough (not much of a writer, but I’ll try my best)

Imagine meeting Sebastian after visiting the catacomb for the second time, you walk up with him speaking to Ominis..

“She’s devastated. She just buried your uncle.. alone.”

“I did it for her.” Sebastian says matter-of-factly.

“Sebastian-” Ominis continues, softly, trying to show Sebastian his error, “Anne can’t bear the thought of turning you in but-”

“What? Turn me in?!” Sebastian interrupts, irritated, “She saw what happened.”

“I’ll give you time to think, Sebastian,” Ominis finishes, sounding defeated. With that he walks past you, not saying anything but hoping you can convince Sebastian instead.

“Turn me in..?” Sebastian says aloud, talking to himself. He’s pacing, trying to get his thoughts straight. You can see how disheveled he is, how his normally well groomed hair is sticking out all over the place, and how his calm, collected face is now full of confusion and fear.

“Sebastian-” You start.

“Did you hear that?! You saw what happened! I never wanted to hurt my uncle.” He interrupts. You cast a glance to the side nervously, remembering how Ominis mentioned that Unforgivable curses have to be meant to work.

“..I know,” you reply lamely.

“I can’t believe he’s gone..” Sebastian’s voice wavering, his lip trembling slightly. “How did things go so wrong? I didn’t mean it. I didn’t mean to-” his voice trails off for a bit, and he runs a hand through his hair. “Oh Anne.. I was only trying to help,” he sniffles, and you think you can see tears welling into his eyes, before he looks down to the floor. “I can’t leave now. Anne needs me more than ever.”

After a few seconds, he looks up to you. “You understand. You can talk to Ominis,” He grabs your hand with both of his, looking into your eyes with his dark ones, pleading. You can’t help but look away. “Make him understand. He listens to you. I need to be with Anne.”

For every step of the way, you were there for him, through all of his mistakes, all of the pain and anger he took out on you. Even when it wasn’t easy, even if it made your heart ache, you were there supporting Sebastian through it all. You weren’t sure if you could support him through this.

“..I don’t know what to do, Sebastian,” you say softly, pulling your hand away.

“You don’t know? You do know!” Sebastian retorts, with venom in his words. The sudden change in tone made you wince. “Anne has no one,” He continues, softer. “I regret everything I did. I know what I did was wrong.” His voice quivers again. “I only hope she can forgive me.. that everyone can forgive me.”

You start to walk away before he quietly, almost to himself speaks, “No matter what happens from here.. I’m glad we met.” He slumps to the floor against the cold stone walls, running his hands through his hair, thoughts racing behind his eyes.

You look at him for a moment, wanting to hug him, to tell him that it’ll all be alright, but you refrain. As much as Sebastian means to you, you’re afraid of him. How effortlessly he cast imperio on the goblin, the killing curse on his uncle, you weren’t sure if you could trust him not to go down this road again. Instead, you walk over to Ominis.

“Poor Sebastian..” Ominis sighs, his face in anguish. “What a mess. I can’t believe it. After I last saw you I went straight to Hogwarts.” He pauses, his milky, unfocused eyes cast to some part of the floor, “Before I had time to talk to Black, I heard from Anne. I rushed to Feldcroft and found her with Solomon’s body.” He breathes in heavily, his fingers fumbling over a nearby barrel, trying to calm himself in the ridges of the wood before continuing. “She was beside herself with grief, Part of her wants Sebastian to face the consequences, another part can’t bear the thought of it.” Ominis’ hand grip the lip of the wood hard, his voice comes out in a weak tremble, “I don’t want to lose Sebastian, but I don’t think we have a choice..”

“We don’t have a choice,” you say. He had to answer for his mistakes. “You’re right, you were right the entire time.”

“I wish I hadn’t been,” Ominis’ voice barely comes out as a whisper. “If we do this, we may never see Sebastian again.”

At this, you falter. You’ve never really thought about it being forever. You’re mind can’t help but bring you back to your time at Azkaban. How dreadful and depressing and downright terrifying that place had been. The damp, darkened halls, the screams that seemed to come from everywhere at once, the black robed figures floating just above, waiting for the tiniest flicker in Helen Thistlewood’s patronus to descend upon you both. You remembered seeing the prisoners in their cells, how a woman seemed to be spasming alone on the floor, tearing at her skin leaving deep gashes, her eyes wild, her face thin.

You remember Anne Thisbe. Her first wish upon hearing someone approach being death. That before her false imprisonment in Azkaban, she had been a Hogwarts student like you. But now, between the harsh years and the dementors sucking out any ounce of humanity left in her, her mind was gone.

The memory rattled you, and you couldn’t help but give a shiver. Could you do that to Sebastian? Could you let him rot away in Azkaban for the rest of his life? If it were any muggle prison, you might’ve been okay with it- they wouldn’t have treated him kindly, but at least it wouldn’t have been so cruel.

You look at Ominis, his sightless eyes crinkled in worry and sadness. You know that for him, Sebastian is both his dearest friend and closer than any blood family he has. That you’re sure he sees Sebastian as almost a brother. You think of Anne, how she’s lost everything in her brother’s search for a cure. You know she won’t have anything to do with Sebastian now, but you aren’t sure she could handle losing her brother as well. You think of yourself, how much you’ve grown to care for the Slytherin boy. His smug smile when you both had first dueled, him taking the fall for you in the restricted section, him showing you the Undercroft against Ominis’ wishes where he taught you Confringo. You couldn’t do it. You couldn’t send him to Azkaban.

“But what good would it do to turn him in now..” your voice is shakey, and you didn’t even realize you had started crying. “He clearly regrets everything. He’s not going to do anything like this again.” ‘You hope’  your mind finishes.

“We’ve both heard that before,” Ominis says bitterly, his face now a scowl.

“But we also need to think about Anne,” you begin, Ominis’ face softening at her mention. “She’s lost her health - now she’s lost her uncle. Do you really want to take her brother away from her too?”

“I.. I understand what you’re saying. Perhaps you’re right. As much as I believe that Sebastian should pay for his actions-” he sighs heavily, closing his eyes. “-We’d only be punishing Anne as well. I hope we’re doing the right thing.” His eyes open again, settling somewhere around your shoulder. “I’ll talk to Anne, If it comes from me, she’ll agree with this decision.”

“Thank you, Ominis. You’re a good friend.”

 “Whatever lies ahead, we must face it together. That, I know.” at that, Ominis pulls out his wand, it emitting a small red glow, and walks out of the Undercroft.

--- Notes ---

I honestly almost sent the best boy to prison, but the idea of my MC going to Azkaban, seeing what happens there, then doing the same thing to Sebastian? Nah sorry, loyalty over sense of right I suppose. Like I said, not much of a writer, but I feel as if I did a good job, hope you enjoyed.

[mariatesstruther]

Tbf as much as I don’t trust TV writers, I have no doubt Maria will be fine. Part of Tommy’s storyline is that he actively chooses to leave her when he goes on his revenge quest and when he returns a broken man, the one thing he has left is his marriage, and he ruins that too and without that, and that pain will only be doubled with a 4 year old kid as well.

It also makes the contrast to Ellie leaving Dina and JJ more poignant, and maybe even backs up Tommy’s decision to go to the farm more as in ‘I left my wife and kid for you, you can leave yours for me’.

So even though it would set Tommy down a darker path, I actually think it’s pivotal Maria is alive for the revenge quest because of that choice to leave, which is easier if she’s not there and I think a lot of Part 2 is about choices and if the costs are worth it and if his family are dead, Tommy doesn’t really have any ‘costs’ left but if they are, his choices can actively haunt him since they’re alive but he’s still lost them

these are very awesome and legit points!!!! i think its been a while since i last watched a tlou2 playthrough as well so thank you for the reminder of how his game/season 2 story kinda reflects ellie’s in those ways

i think part of the reason im just major major offput about them adding a pregnancy for maria in s2 in it just makes things so much more sad and stressful for maria????? like her whole life has just been loving people and then getting left behind. imagine finding a husband you love and having a child with him and then losing them BOTH to a goddamn zombie apocalypse. id already be devastated. joel lost his child and it completely ruined him; maria lost a child and their father, who as far as we know she had a happy life with. fucking brutal

but THEN she picks herself up, dusts herself off, and finds the strength to keep going. builds a place that she would’ve been maybe happy with raising kevin in, if she could, and she opens her heart up to tommy. she falls in love, and theyre happy, and now shes pregnant. shes having another baby that she gets to raise and lose with a husband she adores

THEN HIS BROTHER GETS MURDERED AND NOW HES JUST GONNA LEAVE HER THERE????? WITH A WHOLE ASS TINY CHILD??????? for REVENGE??????

like im sorry, i love me some good ol revenge as much as the next guy—i really do. the glory was my favorite show, and the first time i watched a tlou 2 full play through i was rooting for tommy and ellie to honestly take out EVERYBODY in joel’s name—and i also know firsthand what kind of distorted thinking tommy’s level of grief can cause. but i just HATE the idea that tommy would leave a CHILD to go after anyone, even the people that killed his brother. and i think if joel saw him do so, he literally would smack him upside the head and drag him back to jackson

it also just doesnt fit what i imagine tommy would do in the instance that he has a kid???? like this is the same tommy that watched joel devote his whole entire life to his own daughter from jump, who wouldve done anything he could to protect his first daughter and DID do everything he could to protect his second. tommy knows from joel that when you’re a father, you’re kid comes fucking first. fuck everything else

so i just can’t imagine tommy leaving both maria AND his child???? like tbh i could understand him leaving maria in the game, as much as i didn’t like it—but his own baby???? he knows joel wouldnt ever want him to do that, no matter what happens to him. to me it just wouldn’t make sense for tommy’s grief over joel to take him so far that he makes a choice he knows joel would hate

(and i know ellie made the choice to leave jesse and dina, but i think a big reason she did that was bc she had the additional guilt of having jesse on her conscience and knowing that tommy wouldn’t physically be able to do it after being shot. tommy’s circumstances for leaving his kid would be different)

so like for those reasons on tommy’s side, it doesn’t make much sense to me that he would go after joel unless his own child was out of the picture, and i don’t see his child being out of the picture unless maria i also out of the picture

NOT SAYING ID RATHER MARIA BE DEAD THAN PREGNANT BTW I WANT HER TO BE ALIVE AND HAPPY AND SAFE. i am just so confused about the hbo writer’s intentions with making her pregnant like!!!!!! feels very sus to me!!!!!!

especially bc of the track record for the way nonwhite tlou characters are brutalized in the game/show too. like @clickergossip ur tags on the reblog were so so so so so so so SO right on point. them making maria a PREGNANT black woman just makes me so nervous that something terrible will happen, esp considering what we’ve seen happen to the other Black characters in the game/show

and i totally understand brutality and gore and death is all part of tlou anyway, but i feel like with joel and ellie, the violence is almost always balanced out witth a degree of love/humor/lightheartedness. unfortunately rutina wesley’s maria hasn’t had much opportunity at all to partake in those lighter moments, which makes me think either the writers have a LOT of good stuff coming up for her or that they think she’s expendable. idk idk idk idk this does even have a point, im just rambling and thinking about it a lot aand very on edge as a maria-truther 😭😭😭 as much as i want to have confidence, i have many many doubts she will be fine