#vegas critical

[vinndas]

the two worst and irredeemable men make each other miserable for years and make it everyone elses problem, hundreds dead, a courier struggling

[psykersomatic]

[chimaerakid]

(possible) final draft for my arcade charm! I want it to be double sided :) I'm also thinking about making it into a sticker design as well.

please please please give some feedback if you have any! I've never made physical merch before & I'm planning on using vograce to get them made ^_^

EDIT: Here's the final design!! also read the tags in that post for some extra info :-)

[psycherubs]

just saying I imagine that both Veronica and arcade are in my party at the same time.

why? well of course mlm wlw solidarity and the epic roast battles they would have. courier, arcade, AND veronica....imagine 3 sassy gays pull up. say your prayers cuz you're done for

but also I think arcade would have a lot of wisdom to share with Veronica. despite not ever actually being a functioning member of the enclave, having ties with it has allowed him to have a different perspective than most when it comes to organizations hated in the mojave. I think Veronica could reeeeallly use someone with that kind of insight because of her struggles with the brotherhood. arcade would be a no judgement type when it comes to that situation and would offer any advice or help he could. because in my mind the best option for Veronica, as a character, is for her to leave the brotherhood.

then after Veronica leaves and truly understands why the brotherhood is disliked I think arcade could help her with the guilt she would feel for being associated with them (after all he knows a looootttt about that)

most importantly he could help her realize that you don't have to hate the people you love and care for just for being in a certain organization. you can recognize the nuance of the situation and judge the person accordingly. we all know that is Veronica's biggest hesitancy when it comes to wanting to leave.

his biggest lesson to her would be: you can't help what you were born into but you can, and should, do everything in your power to do what is good and right moving forward

I hc that arcade took Veronica to meet the remnants and gave her the same spiel that he did the courier + the courier took her to old mormon fort to become a member of the followers

[gloom-metal]

everyone and their mom, mainly people smarter than me, have talked endlessly about fallout and especially about both new vegas and 4, but fuck it, i'll add my two cents

i think my problem with bethesda's take on fallout as opposed to black isle's/obsidian's is that they're just too caught up on the Aesthetic™ of it. they try going so hard on the "50's retro futurism meets mad max" visual that they forget why that's the case in 1, 2, and new vegas.

the kitschy, 50's visuals are there not just to contrast the modern, post-apocalyptic landscape, it's there to contrast to how pre-war america operated. before the nukes fell, america was a totalitarian, military dictatorship that routinely engaged in human rights violations that wore the facade of idealized 50's suburbia. and 200 years later, it's the only thing that remains of its corpse. in new vegas, this part of the setting is acknowledged, but it's more concerned on the current culture of the mojave and a major theme of the game (if not the series) is how to build a new society that won't destroy itself like the one that came before (it's no coincidence some of the characters that cling harder to the past are more prone to have evil karma)

but to bethesda, there's no underlying point. the aesthetic is the point. here's a bunch of things related to nuka-cola, here's a quest where you play as a silver age-esque comic book character, here's group of people that treat power armour like 50's hot rods (and i have to admit, i actually think that's pretty cool), here's a door to door salesman but he's a ghoul, etc, etc. there's all this imagery and aesthetic choices but none of it seems to tie to any theme or actually try saying anything.

[verstappenclerc]

where you go i go

what you see i see

i know i’d never be me without the security

of your loving arms keeping me from harm

put your hand in my hand

and we’ll stand

[akidachi]

slow morning

[sunshinechay]

So I finally caught up on My Stand In after being 3 episodes behind due to irl reasons.

The last three episodes have been a lot and while I’m sad to have missed the weekly discussions, I’m also kind of glad I watched all three at once because it gave me the opportunity to get to watch Ming’s progress rapidly rather than waiting (which my ADHD brain is very happy about) and the one thing really stuck with me through all three episodes.

Of the three who knows Joe is Joe, Ming is the only one to figure it out completely on his own. He doesn’t overhear anything, he isn’t told by anyone. Even the priest (is that what he is? Citation needed) won’t give Ming the straight answer he seeks. Joe is neither dead nor alive but a secret third thing, his soul has transmigrated to another body entirely.

Before, when he didn’t know, we got the small kernels of change. Ming is much more straight forward than he used to be. While he was never one to mince words, he is more truthful and up front, even with Joe 2.0. He is honest with him from the start about exactly what he wants. He doesn’t tell Joe the real reason why he wants it, but that’s understandable given that no one else is willing to believe Ming when he says Joe is still alive. So why tell this new stand in why you want him to be so.

Then he figures it out. He puts together the context clues and believes the impossible because he’s the only one who never gave up hope that Joe would come home, would come back to him. Joe does come back to him and Ming immediately sets out to ensure that Joe exactly where he stands in terms of how Ming feels about him. Ming needs Joe to understand exactly what he wants. Ming is probably always going to be the type of person who will use underhanded tactics in certain situations, but it’s completely understandable why he uses the contract to keep Joe with him.

Ming offers up explanations where Joe didn’t ask for them, because he knows that Joe deserves them, whether or not he asks for them. He wants Joe to understand that he regrets a lot of his past actions, including what he did for Tong at the end. Ming had all but admitted that if he could go back and change it, he would.

Ming is willing to confront so many issues head on. He is learning to deal with his emotions in a way that is more productive for them all. He has started to feel more of his emotions out loud in a way he didn’t before. He promised himself he would change if Joe ever came back and so far he has kept his promise. He will better himself and he will grow. He will no longer be stagnant.

He is even willing to tell his father that he is dating Joe. The mere mention of it clearly terrifies him more than he has the words to express, something that Joe picks up on right away and tries to protect both of them from. Preemptively breaking up with Ming to try and save them both a worst heartbreak than simply breaking up.

Tong had spent so much of the show attempting to prove again and again that Ming is under his thumb. He knew that Ming was in love with him in the past and still believes he is now, but he is wrong. Ming will no longer allow himself to be manipulated by Tong and by extension his mother. So he will shoot their ace out of the sky by doing the one thing that terrifies him the most. He will tell his father that he is gay. That he is gay and dating a man. A man named Joe.

He will accept what comes next because the only other options is to lose Joe and Ming absolutely will not do that for a second time. He is willing to lose everything, as long as it means he doesn’t lose Joe.

[somethingaboutmint]

Blocking every annoying fallout fan and taking away new vegas until you all learn to behave

[skitskatdacat63]

2023 Las Vegas Grand Prix - Qualifiying - Fernando Alonso

[chalkrevelations]

Watching ep 12 again, and I just

god

It’s SO CLEAR that Vegas was letting Pete go. That he left the handcuff key there, deliberately.

1) Not only does he tell Pete that there’s no guards around (which, lie - we find out in Ep 13 that there’s absolutely someone around who’s able to track Pete’s movements back to the main family and report back to Vegas, which means Vegas must have told them to stand down in Ep 12 - an order that’s still being followed in Ep 13, or else how is Pete able to flee the safehouse unhindered?), but also,

2) Vegas tells Pete that Vegas, himself, is going to fuck off to the vet with his hedgehog (again, lie, Kun has him trapped in that safehouse just as surely - no, more surely than Pete is trapped there, and Vegas isn’t going anywhere except out to the garden to have a breakdown over his dying hedgehog son ... no, actually, his dead hedgehog son, because I DON’T believe that hedgehog is still alive when Vegas walks out of the room cradling it in his hands, I halfway suspect he sat on the edge of the bed and held it while it died and then waited for Pete to wake up, before pretending it was still alive and he was going to take it to the vet), therefore alerting Pete that there will be no one around to stop him, and perhaps MOST TELLING,

3) that button-down shirt that’s left right there at the foot of the bed for Pete to “find” and put on? There is no way on god’s earth that’s one of Vegas’s shirts that he just left lying around. The shirt is the clincher. It’s there for Pete, deliberately left by Vegas for Pete to “find.” Not only is it in Pete’s color, but Vegas “Clothes Horse” Theerapanyakul wouldn’t be caught dead in that workman-like fabric. Sure he’ll wear a T-shirt and pajama pants - when it’s Pete’s T-shirt that he’s been carrying around since his goons stripped Pete in the basement of the main family compound, and he can put on Pete’s skin as armor in the wake of his shitty dad smacking him around. But that pedestrian shirt Pete grabs up to put on to run? The only reason Vegas Theerapanyakul would allow that in his vicinity would be to allow Pete some camouflage.

[badass-queer-couples-battle]

Sword gays showdown, round 3 of bracket one

*Several different versions of Zorro were submitted, I decided to count them as one guy. I don't know enough about him to judge if there are any significant differences between those versions.

Propaganda:

For Yasha:

Big somft goth Viking barbarian lesbian who fights with a zweihander (and other big swords)

She's huge, she fights with a giant sword, looks intimidating but loves her friends and (eventual) gf so so much

For Zorro:

Has been an iconic swordsman for over half a century. Ask any Spanish-speaking person and they'd tell you how loved he is. Has strong bisexual energy regardless of which version of him you're watching. His mask is very cool.

An entire arc is just him wondering about the risk/benefit balance of coming out (being able to openly be with the one he loves, but at the cost of lifelong danger for himself and everyone who associates with him). The inherent queerness of secret identities. The also inherent queerness of hiding your real self and opinions from everyone except your closest friend, only for your parent to later admit they knew about it for a long time and just waited for you to be ready to tell them. The swordiness? Being one of the best swordsmen around is fundamental to every version of Zorro. He's so famously known for being good with a sword that One Piece translators were worried their Zoro character would be mixed up with him so they changed that other guy's name to Zolo.

Zorro = Fox in Spanish

All you need is a gif of him making the 'Z' with his sword

[nukacourier]

Caesar fnv was born to be a regular at the local deli who holds up the line for an hour by chatting loudly with the owner and wears a stupid baseball hat but instead his stupid bald self is a facist dictator larping ancient Rome poorly

[lu-sn]

ranking kp characters by how much they deserve to be the one to shoot korn in the head 🤍

honorable mentions: chay and macau, who might not quite have the skills to pull it off, but who would CERTAINLY rise to the occasion if sufficiently prompted

7. kinn

now, if this were a list of who needed korn to be dead the most, kinn would be much higher up on this list. poor kid. so completely gaslit. but he probably deserves to NOT be the one shooting korn, on account of the very fun i-killed-my-dad trauma he'd have to pile on top of the my-dad-is-dead trauma. so someone else should just take one for the team here 😂

6. pete

i don't think pete would derive any sort of great joy from killing korn. but he would also be totally ready to do it if, say, vegas indicated in literally any way that he wanted that. or if vegas was in danger. the reason pete deserves to do is simply that vegas would find it SO hot and would eat his ass SO GOOD for it. and pete always deserves to get his brains fucked out silly 🥺

5. kim

because it would be hot 🔥 and he'd make it look sick

ok but actually it's because kim probably has the most rage stored up regarding how fucking unfair it is for him and his big brothers to be trapped in this terrible puppet play for the rest of their lives. and he deserves to free himself and his big bros! let out all that rage! it's healthy!!! and it would be very hot

4. khun

this one's hard. how much khun deserves it is directly related to his backstory, and how he got kidnapped, and whether korn intended to push him out of the heir position. and we're just never gonna know any of that 😢 so really, khun could be anywhere on this list. but i do think that korn pulled some amount of shit here, and khun should get to repay him in full.

also, i think khun is the only one on this list who would do it slow. and i think korn should have to die slowly, pitifully, knowing that his own son is lowering him into his grave and being able to do nothing about it.

3. porsche

where do i even begin? dead dad. imprisoned mom. terrible fake uncle that skimmed all their money and put them in debt. soooooo much lying and manipulating and gaslighting holy shit like so much. porsche is owed MANY pounds of flesh.

and i think it would feel like justice served — not just for himself, but for his family. and for korn's underestimation of him. apples and dull knives, indeed.

the only reason why it might be hard for him would be because kinn would get really hecked up over it. which brings me to...

2. vegas

you could make a good argument for switching porsche and vegas on this list. but i think vegas deserves it just a tiny bit more, and that's because korn has spent vegas's entire life cutting him down into a shell of himself.

sometimes i think about how happy and at peace vegas might have been if korn hadn't been so insistent on inciting competition within the family, and then i want to cry. and then i wish vegas had pulled that trigger when he had korn in his sights.

i bet vegas wishes he had, too. he wants it. and god knows someone should start letting vegas have what he wants.

1. namphueng

you knew this was coming. we all knew.

listen i'm just saying that namphueng could desecrate korn's corpse in the most horrifying ways and i'd just be like 😌👍 girl you looked so good clawing out his jugular and sawing his limbs off do it again ❤️

(thank you @kissporsche for the idea 🥰)

[emmettkane]

Fallout New Vegas represented a subtle evolution from FO1 and 2, from a world where people did whatever they needed to do to survive, to one where they tried to rebuild according to their resources and needs. It explored how, under the gun, people would hold onto their traditions, how the old ways that destroyed the world would attempt to insidiously weave their way into the new one.

It also explored how, despite that insidious instinct, things would change for the better, or that, at the very least, they could change for the better. New traditions would arise, new practices, and eventually, the old ways would either fade or mutate into something unrecognizably different.

The fallout show chose to erase those ideas, set things back to zero, undo the growth that had already happened and replace it with a civilization that was neither stuck in their traditions nor willing to advance, a hopeless tale justified by a shadow-government of hyper-competent, hyper-intelligent billionaires who cannot be reasoned with or overcome, and who apparently do not make meaningful mistakes.

---

The intense narrative regression that takes place between Fallout: New Vegas and the show is frustrating, but what's even more frustrating are the people who so gladly embrace it.

In a recent interview, Todd Howard asserted that Fallout games would never be set outside of America, and noted that "It’s okay to leave mystery or questions..." and that 'Americana naivete' was core to the identity of the game franchise.

I'll try to ignore the fact that they felt the need to 'answer the mystery' of 'who dropped the bombs' in the show, a mystery that, given the miserable, myopic answer (evil billionaires oh nooooooo) would have been better left unanswered.

The more egregious idea is that Americana has a deep relevance to the themes of any of the official stories in the setting. Even in Bethesda produced titles, it is, at most an aesthetic element.

Anticommunism, consumer culture, American exceptionalism, rugged individualism, western chauvinism, and other ideas that could be explored through the lenses of retrofuturism and Americana are roundly ignored in Bethesda titles, where those lenses are used entirely to generate advertising and nostalgia-bating appeal instead.

In earlier titles, those subjects are expressed, but are either not the main focus of the games or are simplified. The intro cinematic to the original Fallout includes a shot of an American soldier executing a soldier of annexed Canadian and then waving to the camera, followed by a power-armored head placed proudly before an American flag. The opinion here is not clarified further because it doesn't need to be: American imperialism is bad, and was likely a contributing factor to the apocalypse.

---

Some people think that Liberty Prime from fallout 3 and 4 constitutes a commentary on something, or espouses some value or philosophical ideal.

If it does, and if you agree with it, congratulations, you are the commentary.

[kinnbig]

Hi Bestie :D

I enjoyed your pathetic men of Kinnporsche post so much, so here’s another challenge if you’re up to it!

Who is the most horny one, losing all brain cells due to lack of blood supply because it went elsewhere?

HEY thank you i certainly love a challenge! i interpreted this to mean like… who lost the most brain cells and therefore made the most bad decisions out of horniness, because that felt like something measurable with my objectively correct and scientific points system lmao

Kinn -

swapped out the competent bodyguard that Tankhun lent him for a newbie with no training because he had a crush +1

“would you like me if you were a girl?” +1

fucked his intoxicated employee against a window +3

went to apologise for fucking his intoxicated employee against a window without bringing any bodyguards. got kidnapped about it. +2

pulled a gun on his cousin for making a move on his man, escalating the already rapidly growing tension between the two families, then gave his man a handjob in his cousin’s bathroom +2

*in a secret relationship with his employee* *destroys the entire compound with very loud and indiscreet fucking* +1

fucked in a rooftop pool in front of god and Deutsche Bank +1

grabbed Porsche’s dick in the middle of a gun fight +1

total: 12

Porsche -

joined the mafia +2

stayed in the mafia +2

flirted with Vegas +1

tried to give a footjob during an important mafia strategy meeting +1

*in a secret relationship with his boss* *destroys the entire compound with very loud and indiscreet fucking* +1

“this bread is soft… but the other thing isn’t” +1

flirted with Vegas again +2

got fucked in a rooftop pool in front of god and Deutsche Bank +1

wire-tapped a mafia boss to make sure he wasn’t cheating on him +1

total: 12

Vegas -

secretly took a guy he was meant to have killed to his safe-house because he looked hot when his balls were being electrocuted +2

fucked the guy he was holding hostage after a hedgehog funeral and a couple of free therapy sessions +3

referenced keeping his ex-captive as a pet in front of his younger brother +1

total: 6

Pete -

fucked the guy holding him hostage because he cried about his daddy issues and his dead hedgehog +5

quit his job for that BDSM dick +3

killed a colleague so he could go back to being his captor's pet +5

total: 13

Kim -

got sidetracked during a very important top secret investigation because the guy he was investigating was cute +1

stalked his ex and punched his friends +1

total: 2

Chay -

has an idol wall +1

(unknowingly) seduced a mafia prince +2

total: 3

BONUS: not technically canon, but I think he deserves to be included-

Ken -

fucked Vegas. got murdered about it. +5

....... gave Gun head. +5

total: 10

yeah, that tracks! pete's horny decisions were objectively the worst!

more very scientific kinnporsche research