#he has unique dialog for when you try to name him
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Invader Zim game where there’s a gag where you’re given the option to rename “Zim”, but if you try it he’ll just tell you the name you picked sucks and is unworthy of a mighty Irken Invader and it goes back to “Zim” by default. Unless the name you chose was “Carl”, in which case Zim will say that’s a great name and for the rest of the game everyone will call him “Carl”. Like, every single actor recorded two versions of every line where his name is spoken, just for “Carl” and nothing else.
#Invader Zim#invader carl#he has unique dialog for when you try to name him#moxxie#razputin#billy#kaos#daggett#or any of his other characters' names
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Okay, so, i want Gortash in party so badly, here's few things i headcanoned for how it would be. Durge run, because it seems more fitting for me
- After the destruction of the grove, only Wyll leaves, Karlach stays behind and, when she meets Gortash, gives you an ultimatum: it's either him or her. Gortash's taunts don't help the cause, but in theory you can convince her to just leave without attacking. Afterwards, Gortash joins the party, as he needs to deal with Orin personally.
- You can go to him from any LI, you don't have to be a loner for the whole game.
- The personal quest is tied to the House of Hope. Maybe it's about the contract with the sale of Gortash, not sure yet. If you take him there, you can get unique interactions with almost everyone on the location, when you meet the man who used to be the jailer you have to pass a persuasion/intimidation check so he doesn't raise the alarm and shear everyone at you
- There's unique dialog with Raphael too, even at the deal-making stage (Gortash won't approve it). He mocks Gortash by suggesting him go back "home", calls him by his real last name, and says that he became like that solely because of his upbringing from Rafael. After the deal, you can talk to Gortash about it, he'll snap at you and won't let the subject develop. Full dialog will be after Raphael's death, then the start of the romance can also be...?
- Additional unique dialog when meeting Gortash's parents. In the romance, Gortash will laugh that he invited MC specifically to introduce his dear parents to beloved of their lovely son. At the same time, he will disapprove for trying to contact them by tadpole, and if you do try to talk about it, he will emphasize that they got what they deserved.
- Alternate quest options with the factory and the prison. On both we instead of releasing prisoners on the contrary more oppress them + the opportunity to personally chat with Gortash's subordinates (they will snort that he told them about you all the time, they're sorry for Bhaalites, if you are the same), in addition, if Wyll previously left the party, it's Gortash who gives a quest about the dragon. He also is the main fan of dragons here and with all the polite impossibility to refuse asking to be in a party to go to look at the dragon
- Because of dragons, here are banters with Laezel, where he tries to ask more about them and sighs that he wanted a dragon when he was a kid, but even Bane didn't give him one, and someone in this world talks about justice.
- There's no good route with him. Like at all. Just no. Just like Wyll and Karlach have no evil and they argue and angry when the MC tries to move in that direction, so it is with good and Gortash. If you try to draw an analogy between his slavery and what he does to those around him, he disapprove on 30 points and warns you that okay, you don't remember, but bring it up again and blame yourself. If you try to continue, he gets angry and either attacks or leaves the party, saying that Urge has really changed too much.
- If you come to Sarevok with him, a free dose of grandfatherly grumbling is assured. If there is romance, he can also start mentioning how much Urge admired Gortash, which will give Gortash a satisfied grin. With Orin, if Gortash is in the party, it will be much harder to save the hostage (checks 30+-) and after the duel, your father will additionally condemn your choice of the chosen one (but I would like this with all romances, not just with the Gortash personally).
- The butler doesn't call him by name, but keeps telling that his lord/lady deserves much better than this. Gortash finds it funny
- He doesn't die at the brain like stupid, instead he can meet Emperor again. Thinks that becoming illythid is stupid if there's already a squid here, and after all it would be easy to betray him. Also in the finale gives the ability to summon a squad of Steel Guardians. Of course, will agitate to become an Absolute
- If you still destroy brain, then obviously romantic dialog after the finale, where he sighs that okay, to rule the world is still a little failed, but you two will practice for now on one city.
#bg3#baldur's gate 3#baldurs gate 3#dark urge x gortash#lord enver gortash#lord gortash#enver gortash#bg3 gortash#gortash x durge
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More Rito Headcanons!
Something of an expansion of my "Rito Biology 101" post, but I'm not going to bother with the in-universe POV and talking about a couple different things here so...
Here's the original. Now that TotK is out, we got some new info so I'm going to go over things. (Namely a new Tribe for Penn and some thoughts on the aged up kiddos.) There my be some minor spoilers in the images, so I'm going to put them below the read more line.
Minor edit: 7/30/23, realized that one of the new NPC's mentioned something I forgot to talk about!
New Rito Guy! Penn is a reporter who you team up with for a few sidequests. Clearly he's some kind of pelican, so a quick search on Wikipedia and... Pelca Tribe (from Pelecanus the genus that contains all living pelicans)
So a couple things here. One: the triangles on his little sash reminds me of Kass' scarf. (What did you do to Kass Nintendo?!) Two: his outfit appears to be made of some kind of blue leather. I'm assuming that all Rito wear leather armor basically (except Saki and the little ones). Interestingly, I had drawn an axe that had talon grip handles in the axe head that are sometimes made out of leather sourced from blue monster hides. Doubt that's the case here since he's not a warrior but still...
His catchphrase... You can see they did the little hook on his beak! Is that yellow on his chest part of his clothes? Hm...
Including this because, A: this is quite possibly my favorite quote from him and B: you can see he has webbed feets! (Still say they should have given the Rito four toes but whatever...)
Look at his tiny pen and notebook! (The dangles on his hood are shaped like pens!)
Okay, that's enough Penn for now... In other news, new color morphs just dropped ya'll!
So the first guy looks like he might be a shade or two lighter than Huck, but the second guy is a new color altogether. We gots purple Orni Tribe Ritos now! Really don't have much to say about these two, but more variety is nice.
EDIT: Actually I do have something to say about Ornest. He mentions that all Rito have the ability to manipulate the wind, something I was theorizing to be the case. So, headcanon confirmed!
Moving on to the kiddos!
Kotts! Again her headband makes me think of her father's scarf and I miss him so much!
Here's BotW Kotts for comparison. As you can see, the white on her face is starting to fade, and she's lost her "bangs", and her head is starting to be more bird shaped. Rough estimation is that TotK is around 5 years after BotW and I'm assuming that she's 5 during BotW so that would make her 10 in TotK. (I'm going with Rito living around 80 years on average BTW).
She's almost as tall as Link! Also that dialog speaks to me on like, a molecular level. (She gets up at 10AM BTW) Also note her Saki-like clothing.
BotW Molli
TotK Molli
I, uh, don't think she grew at all...
She wants to make cool arrows so her dad will use them with his bows... (Why's there no emoji/emoticon button?! I need a big eyed sad face here!)
Speaking of her dad... Here enjoy this totally unrelated to anything I'm talking about shot of Harth actually standing! He gets to do stuff in this game guys! (Can you believe I almost forgot he existed when I went from BotW to Age of Calamity? How could I forget this unique bird?!)
Last but not least, Bird Son himself...
Tulin!!!! Look at this adorable little guy! LOOK AT HIM!!!!
I like to think he admires the hell out of Link and so he's mimicking Link's pose as much as he can. Speaking of which... Get that guy a cowboy outfit and a giant belt buckle!
Look at him some more!
So I don't know if that's eyeliner or just natural markings but he's doing his mom's thing and I can't even you guys!
I am SO normal about these birds...
*regains composure*
Okay, so what have we learned from this? Rito start off with blue sclera (the whites of the eye) when they're little. Around 10 or so the sclera becomes white and the irises are blue. Given that neither Kass nor Amali have blue eyes, I'm going to assume at some point their daughters will develop yellow eyes like them. Tulin... Let's just say his eyes stay blue.
Fluffy white baby feathers on the face slowly fade over the years until they their faces are solid colors (Orni Tribe at least). Tulin's little bun, is this like his mom's "hair" or more like his dad's floof? His he tying it back? You can make out something around the base of it in that second image of him so I think so... What if he ends up with a braid like the Ancient Wind Sage? (Why couldn't you just name them Nintendo? You could have just used the Divine Beasts' names and it would have been fine!)
None of the kids have proper tail feathers yet, so I hesitate to call them juveniles... Give them a few more years and they'll probably start growing them.
I like Penn, and pelican/waterfowl Rito fit in with ideas I was having for my fanfic so... Just gotta find a way to fit him in...
I made it so that different Rito settlements have different symbols. Normally these would be found on the cloth around their waist. However, Penn has this unique symbol on his chestpiece... Granted there's some similar symbols around the village but...
#rito#botw#totk#loz au#headcanons#therealmwalker#long post#totk spoilers#minor spoilers#rambles#tnc-n3cl rambles#thinking out loud#rito headcanons#kotts#molli#tulin#saki#penn#harth
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Road to Cream64 v1 Part 3: So many friends and an egg.
I was hoping to do two of these a week but man this has been a crazy week. Anyway, we back to wrapping up the rest of the NPCs. Actually had to grab
Star Toads were next and I wanted to make each one unique. The thought process for who got chosen was a mix of who was connected to Cream and just who I liked. The obvious answers were Amy and Blaze and I ended up choosing Blaze for the second toad. Doesn't mean I would leave Amy hanging, as she got a little side story in v2, but when we get there of course.
In Blaze's dialog, she mentions that Marine was also with her and that she's somewhere. So go help her find this mangy raccoon! I wanted to do something special and stick Marine in a level where you'd just run into her. Though with very limited code knowledge, even if you find Marine, Blaze's dialog stays the same. Mostly just a cute little event that would eventually fuel my desire to add more stuff like this in later versions. So much more...
The first star toad as you can see here ended up being a leftover from a small edit I did when just figuring out dialog edits and stuff. Eventually just ran with the idea of a single stubborn toad who refused to leave when Peach gave the order for every toad to go on vacation for this party.
Even after all the latest versions and dialog rewrites, his has been the only one that's stayed the same since v1. People really have come to love this little asshole.
For the last toad, I ended up choosing a little blue bunny for reason that should be clear: she be my bun bun.
Around early 2020 is when I finally had gotten out of my weird funk about my drawing ability and stuff and finally started getting back into Sonic stuff. Bare with me for a bit for I must go into a tangent into what I've been doing for the past few years before all this.
Near the end of 2019 I started slowly getting back into Sonic AUs and OCs again, a bit of that can be attributed to the Sonic movie and my friend's revigorated interest into that part of the fandom. One of my oldest characters, Mark, was stuck in a weird limbo of being in a Sonic AU and being in an original story for a few years. It reached a point where I just tired of it and shelved him to focus on an entirely new story and characters unrelated to anything I've done before.
Now back to the start of 2020, I actually go out of my way to try and update his design and do some stuff with him.
And we have our new design. I swear one day I'll go into his backstory but I'm dragging on. So where does this rabbit fit in? One of the new story bits I had in mind was that he would find a little rabbit named Katalina and adopt her. Then while he does his adventurin', he would leave her with Vanilla and that's how she would form a bond with Cream and the rest of her family. It's also why she calls Cream "Lil' Sis" in her dialog since she's like slightly older than Cream.
So yeah this hack is based off my AU, which is still mostly just told through these hacks. Don't blame people for getting real confused as to who the heck she is and eventually her adopted pappy. Sorry for the long bit, I rarely get a chance to speak about them as much like this. Speaking of, let's go back to him since that we're now done with the toads.
Changing Yoshi was just like changing the other model though this is the first time changing someone's model who was bigger than the model swapped (in this case it's using Mario's rig on a model that's taller). The best way to describe it is that the root position is off so he's kind of sticking a bit on one side, even if his shadow looks fine. His collision is kind of wonky as a result.
I would end up leaving this for v1 but it is something I would fix down the line. It was just a matter of changing the root point or even moving the rig a bit before exporting. Also noting, Mark here has changed again, with Blaze like fur sticking out instead of the weird white hair flowing from the back. Saved me a lot of effort down the line, lemmie tell ya!
Ya know I guess I should at least show what they're latest designs are. From the ref sheets I got, made by my friend @fudgernutter.
And now time for the big boy. That's right, it's time for Eggman and his Egg Koopa Mk 2!
God, this monster was one of the hardest thing to put together, if only just to uncrumple him so I can apply his textures and fix up the head mesh.
WHY IS YOUR JAW SO FAR APART?! It was one of those that was so bad I had to write down which bone was moved and how much so I don't accidently mess up the whole thing. Gah, it was a mess but as the years have shown me, it was 100% worth the effort.
It wouldn't be the first time messing with Bowser's model and rig, as I did an edit for Super Suwako 64 by turning him into a Cirno cosplayer. Don't mind the missing jaw, had messed up rotating on of the bones. This is what can happen.
The actual design of the EggBowz basically just comes down to "I wanted the robot to look as close as I can with him". So changed the hair to brown, the horn and spikes to gold to match Eggman's buckles, the upper torso is red to match his coat and the lower half is black for his pants and shoes. The mustache model is just his SA1's stache slapped on the front of the nose cause it seemed like something he would do.
Carving a hole into Bowser's head mesh wasn't too hard thankfully and then just repositioning Eggy to look like he's sitting and we're good! Still weird to think that it was initially just a random thought to actually do this but hey that's how half the ideas in his hack have worked out. Shoutouts to Cream nerds on twitter.
And with that, we got every major character swapped out! I suppose the last reoccurring character not mentioned here would be Mips so I'll just stick him at the end here.
Sonic is full of small animal critters so grabbing one of them was perfect for Mips. Ended up grabbing a model of Pocky from I forget either Smash 4 or a mobile game where the animal friends are there (and low poly). Everything here is still the Mips model except for the head obviously. Then just applying Pocky's textures and even connecting his ears so that they're a single mesh.
Whew that's a lot but there's not much else left. Just enemy models, UI stuff and the soundtrack and that's gonna be fun to discuss. Gotta see if I still have spreadsheets of the songs I chose before adding them.
#super cream 64#sc64#romhack#super mario 64#cream the rabbit#blaze the cat#marine the raccoon#mark and katalina tannon#mips#pocky#dr eggman#egg koopa mk 2#blender#rigging#modeling#road to cream 64
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WTF is Broadway Revival Tumblebrutus's Personality 1/2
One of my favorite things about Cats is how much personality the characters have, even without traditional dialog. Even the ensemble with very few solo lines, manage to have clear, unique personalities. And as my favorite character in the show, I always watch for Tumblebrutus to see how each production characterizes him. Recently though, when watching the Broadway revival bootleg, a question, popped in my head, wtf is this Tumblebrutus's personality? It didn't seem as clear cut as a lot of other productions.
First though, I think it's important to establish how this character is usually characterized. Tumblebrutus originated as Bill Bailey in the original London run of the show, one of the two male kittens of the tribe with Carbucketty. Bill Bailey is a mischievous little shit, constantly pulling pranks and hijinks in the background. I think this is best seen in the 2013 UK tour, with one of my favorite sequences from a Bill Bailey/Tumblebrutus. In the matter of less than a minute, he manages to piss off Skimbleshanks, Plato, Munkustrap, and Alonzo with his "bright black eyes" and "not too big" lines, shoves Carbucketty away from Jemima so he can swoon over her, and then fall flat on his ass trying to do a cartwheel. If you haven't watched it yet, do it, it's great. But basically, London based productions generally have Bill Bailey as a little punk who likes irritating people, and isn't worried that much.
And then Broadway happened. While Victoria has her coming of age arc, culminating in the pas de deux during the Jellicle Ball, it was decided a male character should have a coming of age arc as well. So Bill Bailey was turned from a chaotic kitten to a adolescent that trys a little too hard to prove himself, with a new name taken from Growltiger's Last Stand to boot. Tumblebrutus spends most of the show trying to prove himself as a big boy to the adults of the tribe, and acting tough in front of the other kittens. He scratches Grizabella, does the pas de deux with Victoria, and in some productions, may even have a little part in the Macavity fight. This Tumblebrutus is a lot calmer than Bill Bailey, but is still one of the younger characters in the show.
And finally, for the 1998 film, Tumblebrutus's characterization gets a little, weird. The 1998 film is mostly based on the London production, but for the dual named characters, all of them but Jemima kept their Broadway name, and their London characterization. Tumblebrutus was played by Fergus Logan, who never played Bill Bailey or Tumblebrutus before. He had exclusively played Mistoffelees. I'm honestly surprised they didn't have Damien Delaney, who had been the London Bill Bailey for about two years, or Randy Bettis, who had 9 years as experience as Tumblebrutus, with 3 years on Broadway, do Tumblebrutus in the show. And Fergus Logan did an excellent job playing Tumblebrutus, but it is a little apparent he hadn't quite finished tinkering with Tumblebrutus's characterization. For example his voice for his line in Jellicle Songs for Jellice Cats is significantly deeper than his two lines in The Song of the Jellicles. Tumblebrutus in this film seems to be more similar to London Bill Bailey than Broadway Tumblebrutus, but he is definitely more mature and calm than the wild Bill Bailey.
Next post I'll go into more depth about the Broadway revival version of Tumble
#tumblebrutus#bill bailey#cats the musical#cats musical#cats 1998#mister mistoffelees#mr mistoffelees
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Seen these ads? (Obey Me! Review)
This is a visual novel/otome/gacha card RPG game with the same characters and themes as featured in the ads.
As stated in many of the ads this game centers around seven demon brother love interests (as well as some other potential love interests) although the game has a lot of plot elements other than just romance. Most of the ads that I’ve seen feature real art that appears in the game one way or another, and the ads tend to be focused more on the characters and theme in general rather than specific gameplay. Of the ads that do appear to show gameplay, most of the time it’s not really what you’ll see in the game but still follows fairly close to the actual game (for example, the “kiss, free, whip” ad on the top left doesn’t show real gameplay, but you can kiss or whip that character. But that specific art comes from a gacha card I believe and isn’t what you see when you do the kissing and whipping).
A few notes before I get into the full review:
I’m a lesbian, so I’m definitely not the target audience for this game, but I always try to be objective and open-minded when playing any game I’m not the target audience for (other examples I’ve reviewed in the past are Moments, which was also primarily targeted toward women who are attracted to men, Immortal Taoists, which involved a genre I had never heard of before and really had no interest in, Time Princess, which also wasn’t my favorite genre but was still a great game, and various Genius Inc. visual novels, which are targeted more toward high-school age boys as far as I can tell).
Speaking of lesbians, this game weirdly censors the word “lesbians” but not any other LGBTQ+ terms (that don’t include the word “sexual”) as far as I can tell; I decided it was enough of a one-off thing that it wouldn’t factor a huge amount in my overall review of the game, but I think it’s still something to take note of and not let off the hook since it definitely shows bias and can be offensive to players.
This game is rated 12+ on the Apple App Store, and I was pretty harsh on Crush Crush for being rated that way because I thought it crossed the line with some of its sexually suggestive content. I kept that in mind while playing this one, and personally I don’t think it crossed the line in the same way, at least not from what I’ve played so far; although it does have sexually suggestive content (most often when interacting with the character Asmodeus, who is literally known in the game as the “Avatar of Lust”), it’s much more occasional through tidbits of dialog as opposed to in Crush Crush where it involved a whole section of the game and was more interactive in nature. I would definitely still cringe at the thought of a 12-year-old reading some of this dialog, but I think it fits fairly within the App Store descriptors of “Infrequent/Mild Sexual Content and Nudity” and “Infrequent/Mild Mature/Suggestive Themes.”
Last note - there is a character in this game (Luke) who has the appearance and demeanor of a small child who you can interact with in a similar way to the other love interest characters, which concerned me for obvious reasons. I looked more into this, specifically reading into all of the different dialog options involving this character, and his responses never seem to be more than platonic, which is good. He still blushes when you give him gifts and stuff, which is kind of awkward, and it seems weird to throw a kid character into an otome game, but all considered I wouldn’t say the game is promoting anything inappropriate (unlike one of the Genius VNs that clearly involved relationships between an adult and minors).
Sorry I know that’s a lot of notes and disclaimers but I just wanted to that all out of the way as general concerns anyone might have trying this game or reading this review!
Without further ado, read my full review below:
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(I’m trying a new color-coding system to help highlight some of the main points of my review if you don’t want to read my entire essay word-for-word lol. Pink is a positive aspect of the game, red is a negative aspect/criticism and purple is not necessarily positive or negative but just something I wanted to highlight.)
😈 Is the game actually fun? Yes! Just in terms of production value, this game is top notch: the art and character designs are very appealing, the transitions between characters’ poses and facial expressions during VN scenes are actually animated (which looks much smoother and more natural than switching between still images), the voice acting is great (although the VN scenes aren’t fully voice acted, some parts like phone calls are and the characters say different phrases during scenes and battles as well)(Note: all the voice acting is Japanese), and the music is FANTASTIC and perfectly sets the vibe throughout the game.
The best parts of this game in my opinion are the different personalities of the characters and the overall plot; although some of the characters’ personalities can be a bit one-note at times (for example, one character’s entire personality that I’ve seen so far is that he likes to eat and is always hungry), the characters each have their own charm and play off each other well. I found myself getting invested in each of the characters’ desires and goals throughout the story, even the characters I didn’t particularly like. The story is also chock full of humor which is always fun, and the whole world and backstory built around this game (the “Devildom” setting and the idea of an exchange student program with angels, humans and demons) are also unique and impressive.
I really enjoyed the multiple modes of storytelling i.e. how the VN chapters are supplemented with text messages and phone calls from characters and an Instagram spoof with additional side stories to unlock. I know this isn’t a new thing in mobile games (even Gardenscapes and Homescapes do it to an extent lol) but add the compelling characters and overall production value on top and it’s a really enjoyable experience. Since the home screen of the game is set up like it’s your phone, with the different parts of the game represented as “apps,” the game kind of creates a feeling like you’re really living in this world with these characters where you can freely scroll through their Instagram feeds and check the messages you get from them on your own time. The shop where you can buy items and premium currency is called Akuzon (an Amazon spoof) and the place where all your gacha cards are is called “contacts,” which further adds to the immersive effect.
The “dating” part of the game is pretty cute although I haven’t gotten super far so I’m not sure of the full scope of the romantic interactions. From what I can tell, in addition to the dialog, blushy faces and bedroom eyes you get from characters when you give them gifts and touch different parts of their body (above the belt lol), when you raise your intimacy level with them you get additional phone calls and messages from them (I haven’t played a lot of otome games but I think that’s how a lot of them go). I wasn’t that invested in this part of the game but I think there’s some strategy that goes with using the right combination of gifts and touches to maximize intimacy boosts and get certain dialog, which adds a whole other aspect of gameplay in addition to the main game. I also noticed that occasionally your choices throughout the VN chapters will give you a small intimacy boost with a certain character; I kind of wish this was even more integrated since most of the time I felt like no matter what I chose it didn’t make any difference in my relationship with characters. Also, I don’t think there’s a way to “officially” date a specific character, it’s more about raising the intimacy level to earn more interactions but it doesn’t actually affect the main plot.
As far as the main mode of progressing through the game, which is winning “dance battles” with teams from your gacha collection, this part of the game has its own positive qualities such as the cute chibi forms of the characters that appear on screen and the fact that some of the special attacks show a little anime clip of the character (of course it’s less exciting when you see the same clip every battle but I still thought it was a nice touch). I was a little disappointed that there wasn’t a rhythm aspect as the “dance battle” name would imply, and your main interaction during the battle itself is basically just tapping hearts that pop up and tapping the characters when their attacks are ready, but you also have the option to skip that whole interactive sequence and just get a result based on your team’s stats, so there’s not much to complain about there (especially since the battles are sort of a side note compared to the storytelling aspect of the game despite being the main element of RPG-based gameplay that allows you to progress). If you are interested in the RPG aspects, there’s plenty of that to work with (building teams, balancing attributes, managing resources/rewards to level up cards and progress through skill trees of sorts, all that good stuff) although you’re limited to an extent by how difficult it is to get a lot of gacha draws without paying real money. It’s even harder to be able to focus on both strategy and character relationships while playing for free when the same scarce currency is used for both gacha draws and gifts.
👿 Is this a free game or a “free game”? Despite what I just said, I would still consider it a free game - you can gradually save up some of premium currency the game gives out through tasks in order to pay for more gacha draws and other items, and as far as I can tell you can access the main story and the other parts of the game without hitting a paywall. I only got to the fourth chapter so far though so don’t take this assessment as gospel. Like with a lot of other freemium games you might feel pressured to pay (especially when you run out of gifts to give your lover boys, which was the biggest downer for me, or if you’re obsessed with wanting to collect a lot of cards or get a specific card) but since you don’t actually need to pay to progress I still consider it free.
There’s also an energy system where you hit a wall and have to wait if you run out, but I never ran out because of the huge amount of energy the game dumps on you when you first start, and it seems like there are a bunch of other ways to get extra energy as well. There also aren’t pop-up or watch-to-earn ads in this game that I saw.
💀 Features
Main visual novel scenes and storyline (the visual novel scenes come between dance battle stages and there are a few short side routes that branch off but still one main route as far as I can tell, I don’t think your dialog choices really make a different except for in how the characters react to you immediately afterward. Still the main storyline in itself is fun to follow and it’s fun to get different reactions out of the characters based on what you say)
Dance battles (I’m not fully knowledgeable about the minutia of the RPG system at play here but in general the outcome of the battle will depend on the level, rank and attributes of your cards compared against the difficulty and attributes of the stage you’re playing. There also “memory cards” that can be assigned to support your team and expendable temporary boosters called “glow sticks” that boost your stats for one battle. During the battle itself you tap hearts that appear to earn extra points and you can tap your characters when their power is charged up to “attack” your opponent and use special skills. There are guides online that go deeper into stats and strategies and such if you’re interested. Different stages have different rewards for completion and you can quick complete levels you’ve already beaten to mine resources you need)
Gacha mechanic and cards (the gacha area of this game is called “Nightmare” and there are a few different pools along with event pools each with their own odds and sets of cards you can get. For the default pools you get free draws periodically and I believe you get one free draw for each event pool IIRC. You also get a bunch of vouchers for draws when you first start the game which got me handful of SSRs and a couple URs to build a couple of solid teams right off the bat. In addition to drawing directly from gacha pools you can get some cards by collecting card pieces as rewards from stages and events until you have enough to get the actual card. Each card has its own set of stats/attributes, can be leveled up and has a skill tree of sorts that can be progressed through with resources mined through beating stages, although it’s more of an attribute tree than a skill tree since most of the branches just add points onto one of your card’s attributes. Some cards, the rarer ones, have special skills that can be used in battle)
One-on-one characters interactions and intimacy i.e. the “dating” part (there are two ways this occurs: 1) you can set a specific character to your home screen that allows you to enter into an interaction with them, with a refresh period in between interactions 2) the main way, which is through “surprise guests” after dance battles. These surprise guests show up frequently but not always, and they’re always one of the three team members you used in battle, selected randomly. For each one-on-one interaction you can do three actions - either give a gift, touch the character or ignore the character. Sometimes the character will also offer you a high five which counts as an action if you oblige. Different characters have different favorite gifts and touching different parts of the body can get a different reaction depending on the character and your level of intimacy I believe. Your intimacy level with a character increases depending on the combination of actions you perform, and sometimes the character also gives you gifts back like more energy or resources. There are guides for this online as well)
Text messages and phone calls (text messages are the main mode of storytelling outside of the main VN scenes - you get messages from characters or multiple characters in group chats that you respond to with preset messages or stickers similar to how you make choices during the VN parts. Some of the text messages correspond with the main plot as you progress, ex. A character texts you to be in a certain place at a certain time and next VN scene is of you two meeting at that place. I think other text messages also come up when you reach certain intimacy levels with characters. There are certain group messages that you don’t respond to where you’re basically spying on a group chat among characters and just get to see what everyone’s saying. In addition to written messages and emoji stickers characters will also sometimes send pictures. Phone calls are fully voice-acted dialog you have with another character and they seem to pop up when you reach certain intimacy levels - I’ve only gotten ones so far with the two characters I have the highest intimacy with)
Instagram spoof/“Devilgram” (Devilgram is an in-game photo sharing social media app similar to Instagram and the photos on there correspond to gacha cards. When you acquire the gacha card that corresponds to a Devilgram post you unlock a side story, but you also need keys to unlock further scenes from that story, which can be gradually earned through completing tasks and such)
To Do tasks (completing tasks on your To Do is the main way to earn premium currency in the game along with other rewards and resources. There are daily tasks, overall tasks and tasks specific to each character. Examples of tasks are completing a certain stage or number of stages, beating a stage using a team that includes a certain character or reaching a certain intimacy level with a character. There are also beginner missions when you start the game that I think stay available until you complete all of them)
Events (there are sometimes side story events called “pop quizzes” and gacha events that are available for a limited time, or sometimes an event has both a corresponding pop quiz and gacha pool. The pop quizzes are separate chapters with their own dance battles and VN scenes, and the battles will come with reward points that you can spend on different prizes. Sometimes there are unique cards you can only get from an event. Other minor types of events include log-in bonus events and events where you can get special types of gifts for your love interests. There’s also a feature where you can “time-travel” back to old events at some cost but I haven’t explored this much)
Jobs (you can assign characters to passively complete jobs that earn you a small amount of non-premium currency over time and also increases your intimacy with the assigned characters by a small amount)
Customization (you can unlock avatars of different characters to use for your profile and set the name you want characters to refer to you by throughout the game. You can also change the outfit of your homescreen character, change the homescreen wallpaper and change the homescreen background music by making purchases in the Akuzon shop or acquiring certain gacha cards)
⚖️ Ad Honesty Rating: 4/5 (just from the ads I’ve seen, especially the ones that appear to be running currently, there don’t seem to be blatantly fake ads and the ads show real art and do well conveying the theme and characters in the game. However some of the ads are misleading about the actual mechanics of gameplay and may also lead you to believe there are actual romance routes with the characters which is not really the case)
⭐️ Overall Rating: 5/5 (I definitely didn’t want to give this game a great rating just because it’s super popular on Tumblr but I can definitely see why it’s so popular. There are lots of things to do, the characters are very lovable, it’s funny, the art is great, the music is great and the lore and overall vibe are compelling and unique. It’s a high-quality game with a good story and I’ll probably keep playing it)
▶️ Ad Example:
▶️ Gameplay Examples:
Dance Battles
youtube
Surprise Guest
youtube
If you got through this review bless your heart ❤️ Special thanks to @human-watching-ads-from-devildom which is where I was able to view some of the ads since I was having trouble finding them elsewhere online and viewing some of them on the Facebook ad library.
Follow me for more reviews of those free mobile games you’re always getting ads for! Thanks for reading! 🥳
#obey me#obey me shall we date#otome games#gacha games#visual novels#full review#anime games#rpg#dating simulation games#romance games#war and peace but it’s just a review of a mobile game#sorry if there are typos or mistakes
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Catch & Release - Catch
Summary: When your fiancé dies days before your wedding you find yourself confronted with his lies. When his best friend attends his burial things become even more complicated as you slowly fall for the green-eyed man.
Pairing: AU Dean x Reader; Sam x Reader (mentioned), Sam x Jess (mentioned)
Characters: Benny Lafitte, Jimmy Novak
Warnings: angst, betrayal, cheating, main characters death, grief, sadness, arguments, language, comforting, angry reader, mentions of infidelity
A/N: Loosely inspired by the movie Catch & Release. Dialogs and characters are not the same as in the movie. Sam and Dean are not brothers for my storyline.
Catch & Release Masterlist
“How could I not see Sam was not the man I believed he is? Am I dumb? Was I too blinded by my love? Hell, I gave everything to him. Sam was my whole world and now I must realize, I never was his world,” you sniffle, looking helpless at Dean.
He’s still not used to comfort a girl. Dean Winchester never was the kind of guy who soothed a girl; he was rather the one breaking a girl’s heart.
“I can’t tell you, sweetheart,” he mumbles instinctively wrapping his arms around you.
Sobs wreck your body when you must hear Jess’s voice become louder. All you can understand is that Benny seems to want her gone, but Jimmy, well he wants her to stay.
“Figures,” Dean whispers, running his hand over your back to soothe you. “Jimmy always was into other guys girls.”
“Dean, I want to escape this nightmare. I want to just climb out of the window, run away and never remember Sam’s name or that I wasted so many years on him,” you hide your face in Dean’s chest, almost clinging to him whilst he feels his heart flutter anytime you reach out for him.
“I can’t tell you what to do, Y/N. I barely know you, but we can sneak out of the window if you want to,” a smile crosses your face until you hear Jess’s voice raise again. “I’m sorry.”
“This is not your fault, Dean. Sam was the one cheating on me, not you,” he rests his chin on top of your head, closing his eyes for a moment. “I know this must be odd for you. Soothing your dead friends’ fiancé.”
“Nah, I had worse dates. Once a girl brought a parrot to a restaurant. At first, I believed she tried to be funny but that feathered guy was her spirit animal or crap. I had to pay for the bird’s meal too,” you snicker, looking up at Dean. “I swear, it’s true.”
“You had odd dates,” humming Dean wraps one arm around your waist, presses you closer to his chest. “Any other funny dates you want to talk about?”
“There was that girl, she was a belly dancer, smoking hot and all…bendable,” you grin, following Dean when he leads you toward the window. “Long story short – she was a twin and wanted a threesome with me and her brother.”
“Gosh, did you…?” you poke Dean’s chest, giving him a knowing look. “I bet you kissed a guy and liked it!”
“No, but she’s a nice girl, still sends me Christmas cards and calls on my birthday. Even asked me to be her best man at her wedding with the parrot lady.” Dean wiggles his eyebrows before he bursts into laughter. “You believed me, didn’t you?”
“All a lie,” you whine. “The bird lady too?”
“The bird was real, sweetheart. It pooped onto my jacket, called me a jerk, and flew around the restaurant. In the end, we got kicked out,” laughing you look at Dean. He gives you a soft smile, glad he could distract you for a moment or two.
“Can we just run away for tonight?”
“Phew, that was a close call. They almost caught us sneak out,” Dean smirks, holding out his hand to help you sit on the hood of Benny’s truck you stole to drive to the lake. “Haven’t been here for like twelve years.”
“Sam liked to fish, but I couldn’t watch him kill the fish,” you lean your head against Dean’s shoulder, just watching the water.
“I don’t like it either,” smiling you watch Dean who points toward the lake. “I like to eat fish but don’t want to kill it first.”
“Sam and I, we didn’t share interests or hobbies. I never thought I would say so, but when I look back at my relationship with Sam, I don’t think we were meant to be.”
He doesn’t say a word, nor does he react when you rest your head on his lap. Dean simply watches you close your eyes, smiling when your breathing evens out.
“Just sleep a bit, sweetheart. I will not let that girl hurt you, promised.”
“Where have you been? We were worried sick,” Jimmy exclaims, glaring at Dean who has one arm slung around your waist.
“You mean you were worried sick,” Benny grunts. “I told you she’s safe with Dean. Now be quiet. I don’t think Y/N needs more stress than you already caused. Letting that chick, the proof of Sam’s infidelity, inside,” you never saw Benny that mad before. His nostrils flare and he balls his hands into fists. “Leave Y/N and Dean alone.”
“I was simply worried, Benny. They could’ve told us…,” Jimmy stammers, watching you look at Jess who still sits on the couch. The blonde runs one hand over her belly, not missing the way you follow the motion.
“We kinda didn’t want to meet up with a certain person. Just drop it, okay,” Dean grumbles, too angry to handle Jimmy’s jealousy. “I suggest you send Jess to Sam’s mother. I bet Mary Winchester would be happy to see the girl who ruined Y/N’s relationship with Sam.” Dean leads you toward the backyard to take a few deep breaths.
“Thank you,” mumbling the words you run one hand over Dean’s back to calm him. “I don’t know if I want to pity Jess for carrying her dead lovers baby or to beat the shit out of her,” you laugh, covering your mouth with the palm of your right hand when the laughter turns into sobs. “How could he do this to me?”
“Oh-sweetheart, Sam was a fool,” you run into the house when Jess walks outside to get fresh air, calling your name. “You shouldn’t have come here, Jess.”
“I had to,” Jess sighs. “I’m alone, pregnant and just lost my job. Sam was as much responsible than I that a baby is on her way,” Dean looks away, not wanting to pity Jess. “I can understand why he came to me, Dean. Sam always seemed to be under pressure. Now I know why – she’s unique, lovely, and beautiful. Smart too, according to Jimmy.”
You flatten against the wall, hiding in the shadows to listen to Jess’s words.
“Sam, he relaxed with me. I was nothing but convenient when the stress of playing the perfect man for Y/N was too much. I never wanted to get pregnant, that wasn’t the plan.”
“What was the plan?” Dean huffs. “Fucking Sammy until he gets married or did the two of you plan to keep on doing it?”
“Honestly…,” Jess hangs her head, shaking it lightly, “I don’t know Dean. When we parted ways after college, I always tried to reach out for Sam. One day, he was at your place, we ran into each other and the spark reignited. Back then he said it was only this once, that he loves Y/N, and believe me, he did but…”
“The need to relax was stronger, I get,” Dean watches you sneak into the house, a sad smile on his lips. “Sam should’ve made a decision, not fool two girls…”
“He wanted to end things or rather did so. Sam didn’t want to come to California before his wedding, but I insisted that he needs to help me with the baby,” Jess rubs her arms, looking at Dean. “It’s my fault he’s dead, Dean. If not for my selfishness Sam could be alive, married to the woman he loved.”
“True, but Sam decided to drive to California instead of telling you no. We saw the pictures, Jess. He came to you, had fun, took nice pictures, and drove back to his fiancé,” Dean’s patience is wearing thin when Jess tries to excuse the pictures.
“One last nice memory, you know. That’s what the pictures are, nothing else.” Dean brushes past Jess. He looks over his shoulder, not hiding his disgust.
“You mean you fucked one last time before he drove off to marry someone else. Whilst you decided to wait in California for him to come back and do it all over again.”
“You should’ve known better than letting that girl in,” Benny chastises. “Y/N is vulnerable, hurt, and devasted and you just threw that pregnant girl at her.”
“Benny, calm down. We are all tired,” Dean rubs his eyes, hating he can hear sobs come from inside your room. “I’ll check on Y/N. I hate to say it, but we can’t let a pregnant girl sleep on the street. The first thing in the morning we will do is to call Mary Winchester. She can take care of her sons’ concubine,” storming off Dean ignores Jimmy’s angry grunts.
“Who does he think he is? Mr. One-night-stand can’t just act as if he’s Y/N’s best friend,” Jimmy narrows his eyes, not liking Benny silently nods at Dean. “Great, you are on that asshole’s side.”
“Whoever can make Y/N feel better is welcome to try. Dean is a good guy. Believe it or not, he never cheated on a woman. He’s a heartbreaker but never promised a girl to marry her only to fuck his ex. That was Sam’s specialty. If you excuse me now,” Benny grunts. “I lost one of my best friends. His fiancé, my friend is crying in her room and I’m tired enough to fall asleep standing.”
“Still, he shouldn’t be with her…”
“You didn’t have to come here, Dean. I understand if you are tired of catching me whenever I fall. You barely know me and,” he’s pressing his index finger to your lips, shaking his head.
“If I didn’t want to be here, I would’ve left hours or days ago. How about we try to get some sleep?” giving Dean a sly smile you nod; thankful he doesn’t want to leave you alone tonight. “I need confirmation, ma’am.”
You giggle, mumbling ‘yes Sir’ before you crawl onto the bed, resting your tired body onto the soft mattress. “Dean, thank you.”
“Bake me a pie one day and we are even,” he smirks, shrugging his jacket off his shoulders. You don’t want to be a creep but you can’t take your eyes off Dean when he unbuttons his shirt. “Did you ever think that it was Sam’s fault, not yours? He was the one cheating on you. There is nothing wrong with you.”
Dean lies next to you, carefully running his fingers through your hair. “I’m no one you want to stay with, Dean. Look at her and then…” Dean’s lips press against yours and you gasp before you lose yourself in the kiss.
At first, it’s slow, gentle but you grasp for his hair, tug harshly at the soft strands, causing Dean to growls against your lips. “Catch me one last time, Dean…”
More tags in reblog
Catch & Release
@allonsy-yesiwill
@marvelfansworld
#Catch & Release Masterlist#angst#infedelity#dean winchester#au dean winchester#au dean winchester x reader#au dean#au dean x reader#au dean x you#dean winchester fanfiction#dean winchester x you#AU Fanfic#dean winchester x reader#dean winchester SPN#dean winchester fanfic#former Sam x Reader#sam x jess#Catch & Release - Catch
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R n D
Since I am reeling from allergies and have minimal energy to draw, I am posting a story I wrote a bit ago instead. Not MadCom related, once again.
This is meant to be read as one side of a dialog, as in one character is speaking and you cannot hear the other one. Thus for the full experience, I suggest reading through this twice- once without and once with context.
But yeah;
So, let’s get right to it, shall we? What’s your name?
Hardy?
Oh, Ardee, I see. A unique name, to be sure. Age?
Twenty two years of age. So, I’m guessing you’re past college, yes?
Oh... No, no, that’s okay. I know quite a few people who couldn’t handle it either. I’m sure you had your reasons… Anyway, tell me Ardee, why’re you here today?
I see… Well, that’s not all that uncommon either, trust me. I suppose you could tell me more about your life then? What exactly lead you here?
Mhm?
I see… That’s just life, sadly. People lash out at things and people who they don’t understand or changes that they think are unnecessary. It’s been like that since ancient times. I know that doesn’t really help, but it’s the truth. If it’d cheer you up, then I couldn’t tell.
Mhm, well, either way, anything else worth mentioning?
Ah, yes, that tends to be the case, yes.
I see. What minimum wage job, exactly?
Ah, I love coffee! I would’ve loved to stop by, though… I don’t think you’d be mentioning it, if you actually liked being there.
Mhm, I know what you mean. Talking to tons of people a day can be very nerve wracking, especially considering how aggressive customers tend to be against store clerks. Why did you even take up the job then? I’m sure there are non-retail jobs that you could take up, even without a degree.
Oh, of course. Nice people working with you is always a plus.
Is that so? Who got you the job then?
Ah, you don’t need to be so nervous, my boy. I promise I won’t tell a soul.
Mhm, go on.
I see. So, you fancied this Gregory, eh?
Ahah, don’t worry, I swear, I don’t judge these things! I’m here to help, Ardee, remember? I can’t help if you feel uncomfortable talking to me.
You don’t have to apologize, just… Remember that, alright? Anyway, as you were saying?
Mhm.
Just out of the blue? Ah, sorry, I didn’t mean to butt in. Please, continue.
Mhm?
Is that so?
Well, at least to me, it seems that you had caught his eye as well if he was willing to just hire you on the spot like that.
Really?
But then… Did something happen between you or…?
You don’t know?
Scared? Of what?
Dear boy, how would you know that that’d even be the case if you didn’t even try talking to him about it? Most people aren’t psychic.
Ardee…
Ardee, please, calm down. Do you want a cup of water, perhaps?
Ah, well… Here, have the box of tissues, at least. You’re face is practically overflowing right now.
...Well? Do you wanna continue or...?
Oh! Ah, well, then yes, please, continue. And please, you don’t need to apologize so much, really. This is why I’m here.
Mhm…?
Hm, yeah, that’s usually the case after something like that, indeed.
You… You shut them out? All because of…?
Oh, Ardee…
I’m not… I’m not judging you for your actions, Ardee. I just… I bet even you can see how irrational those kinds of thoughts are. They wanted to help you, as best as friends possibly can. Just… By talking things out and being there for you.
Ardee, I can conclude with a hundred percent certainty that you were not a nuisance to them, or even are now. They wouldn’t offer it, if they weren’t willing to help you, wouldn’t you agree?
Stop apologizing. There isn’t a thing that’d do now, is there? Now… Now you just need to accept what has happened and what you’ve done, so you could move on from it. Alright?
Good. Now, I’m guessing you’re telling me all of this since that’s when you decided to…?
Yeah… Thought so… Well, are you… I don’t know… Happy over that decision?
And why is that?
Ardee, please, calm down. I can hear you just fine.
...Just… Just continue.
Mhm?
Well… I suppose that’s just a decision you have to deal with now. I’m sorry to be so blunt, but there really isn’t anything else for me to say. What’s done is done. And… You can’t go back, no matter how much you regret it now. It only takes being determined about it once.
O-Oh? Uh, of course! Come here.
...There there… Do you feel better now?
Hey, even a bit is better than nothing. And, I can conclude one thing, after all you’ve said. Wanna know what it is?
You’re ready to move on.
Yes, yes, I know. But, well, there’s nothing else you can do for your friends anymore. I do hope your parents feel at least a little guilty at your funeral though. It does seem that most of the trauma was caused by them. That is, if they attend.
Well, I’ll tell you what now. See that light behind you?
Go to it. You may not have lived the best life, but you weren’t at fault for the worst parts of it, so… You deserve a bit of rest now.
If they read the note, then they probably know it’s not their fault.
Well, I’m glad I could help, even if all I did was listen.
Yes, yes, good bye, Ardee! Have a nice afterlife!
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Real Rip-Offs!: Fate: The Winx Saga
It’s the infamous show that takes the magic of Winx and flushes it down the toilet! May contain spoilers.
Where the frick do I even begin with this? Like what the hell!?
Like everyone else, when I saw the teasers and trailers for this I wasn’t too thrilled with the whole thing, but I decided I’ll give it a watch and boy...this is bad. Really really bad! Omg! Not very long into the first episode and already I wanted to turn it off! I usually get that feeling within maybe the second or third episode of a show but no! This was bad even from the beginning.
Let’s put a side the blatant obvious issue with replacing Musa and Flora’s race, which Captain Marvel kinda already did that. She was black for a while then they made her white again. No one gave a dang but okay. Priorities I suppose. But this series does things that fails already on arrival.
First, we’re introduced to Bloom AFTER she finds out her powers. Yup! We’re just thrown in there like Mummy Returns, she’s like boop! We’re there! Right after a farmer gets killed by something called a “Burned One” right at the beginning! A blatant shadow monster you only end up seeing in the distance in the shadows. When I first played the episode, I thought I accidentally played an episode of Goosebumps at first and I mean it in that sense. It wasn’t scary, it was pathetic! Are You Afraid of the Dark had more nightmare fuel and that show was on Nickelodeon!
The dialog already dated! Bloom actually says the word “mansplaining” and is already a total b@#$ to Sky and they haven’t even dated! Gosh, at least when Bloom had troubles with Sky they at least established they’re dating! Despite the whole “feminist” agenda, Bloom is a freakin moron and needs to be saved by Aisha and a teacher. The whole use of smartphones, at least in the older series, they made up their own tech so the series could take place at any time.
Let’s not forget the wonderful, unique personalities of each of our favorite girls (except Techna) has been replaced with “troubled teen with parent/social issues”. Like every single girl in this is awful! There’s no good guy to root for!
Like I don’t expect teens to be happy all the time. I suffer mental health problems including anxiety! I know that depression isn’t about being sad all the time either! I have friends who have it! My teen years weren’t the greatest and I wouldn’t relive those years either. However, even with all that, the way this show depicts emotional troubles and mental health, it makes it seem like if you’re not troubled all the time and you’re not moping about your problems more often than not, you don’t have mental health issues or emotional problems!
There’s taking light of it where characters don’t seem to face real issues and then there’s over exaggerating it and this does just that. It over exaggerates what teen life and mental health is like.
Not to mention, but none of the characters seem likeable cuz again, there unique personalities were replaced with “troubled teen”. You don’t even to know their names. The only thing that sets them apart is the reason why they’re miserable and the boys, don’t get me started with them. Just a heartthrob with no brain that has to back down when a girl gets mad at them cuz girls can’t be strong unless the man backs down to let her be. Which is the opposite of what that whole girl power agenda is.
News flash, a woman isn’t strong if they run into danger without a brain. Like they don’t need to be super smart but at least know how to think on their feet. That’s what old Bloom did at least and a woman isn’t strong if the man has to back down for her. What made Mulan (1999) a strong character was cuz the guys didn’t back down on her. She had to learn to fight and never gave up on it. Same with Bloom and the other girls of the old series. They fought a long side the dudes and saw them as equal. They didn’t use “mansplaining” cuz girls and guys were equal.
There’s also no comradery. I get that in the first episode, the Winx weren’t that close yet in the old series, but they at least weren’t mean to each other. They at least were chilled with each other, were polite with one another and thus would already be comfortable around each other. You could be friend any of the old girls and get a long with them fine. Had any one treat me the way these new girls did back in my day in school, I wouldn’t have befriended a single one! Everyone’s so riled up in their own personal problems and they just act mean that, even when they’re trying to sympathize with each other, it all comes across as insincere.
I get teens can be mean. I wasn’t always nice either but not this mean. Everyone gets so offended and that’s the thing. The boys get a long with each other fine. The girls always act like they’re ready to slit each other’s throat and already to mope about something or get mad about something. So basically this is the stereotype of what people think feminism is. Girls are total emotional which is somehow a personality, “so much better than the boys” and the guys are laidback idiots with “duh” as a personality.
I was even shock that the replacement for Flora “Terra”, nearly kills Riven by hanging him by vine. Like, she down right tries to kill him! That’s attempted murder, yet it’s brushed a side for whatever dang reason! Flora wouldn’t do this, not even to her enemies! She would get mad but she would never use her powers against someone that clearly wasn’t an enemy and even then, she wouldn’t go that far. If murderous tendencies counts as strong, the people who made this show and the people who agree with that scene, need serious therapy!
Flora was strong cuz she was kind. She used her abilities to the best of her own, stood up even when she was scared and showed kindness to even people being mean to her. That takes a lot of skill and to some that’s “unrealistic”. Well you know what? It is realistic! I know people who do their best to avoid conflict and always stay kind cuz kindness is a rare thing!
Now and I know people who attack people for hating Terra cuz they believe it’s body shaming if you do, but no! I don’t like Terra not cuz she’s not skinny. I shame on her cuz she like her I would say friends but more so they’re enemies under the same roof, are stereotypical “my life is bad or it isn’t perfect so I must act like a rude, stuck up brat and mope around a lot” and for showing that murderous tendencies = edgy and strong, which is dangerous. Sure, it was a quick moment and but I’m with Riven, he could have died and who knows, what if Riven had asthma or other breathing problems, Terra doesn’t know!
I also watched where Bloom finally gains her wings and the effects for that is so bad, even the effects for Power Rangers are more credible despite this series being a “adult version”.
This series is just bad! It’s not even fun kind of bad. All the characters are either mean or stupid or both, you can’t root for them. No one has a personality outside edgy, stupid or troubled teen. Has dialog and themes that make it dated on arrival. The school and settings are uninspiring. The effects are down right pathetic! The outfits are ugly! Not even as a teen would I wear stuff like that and I wore some tacky choices. I’m a 90s girl, I had tacky stuff but man! Bloom half the time looks like she’s wearing curtains from a haunted mansion and not even from the Haunted Mansion. More like a frumpy, sad knock off version of the movie.
Yeah, this series is the worst! It’s not even just the controversial stuff that makes it bad. It’s just all around bad in everything it gives! I can’t even stand watching a single episode. It’s so bad I don’t even want to use pictures or screenshots of it for this review! I give Fate: The Winx Saga 1 out of 10 stars! I would give it 0 if I could! Just don’t bother! Watch the old Winx and World of Winx cuz those two series for kids are surprisingly more adult than this piece of crap!
Now excuse me while I go enjoy another episode of Aikatsu Planet! At least that show is fun to watch and the characters don’t make me want to slap them!
Also for my rip off reviews I don’t read the notes usually. You can reblog, rant at me and call me whatever, but you’re writing to no one so have fun! If you like this show more power to you! Not everyone wants to worship it though!
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WILL: A Wonderful World
This is a unique game, where the actual story is partly told by written letters and partly as a dialog. Your contribution to the story is that you need to change the contents of the letters by switching sentences from two of the letters you get and therefore you decide the fate of the characters.
Story
You play as a goddess, who lives in a secluded city in a house. Outside it’s always snowing and you only later get to know about the world, where she is living. The goddess has only one friend and it’s her dog Willy. Every day she receives some letters and can change the fate of the sender by switching out the sentences in two of those letters.
The characters introduced in the letters are more or less the main characters of the story since the content of the visual novel is mostly about them. Their names are Li Wen, Wen Zhaoren, Jimmy, Pi, Spottie, Carlos, Alicia, Chang Gyeong-Min and Kang Baek-Ya. These characters can be divided further in four groups: Li Wen, Wen Zhaoren and Jimmy are the first group. Their story is more or less like a romance K-Drama, while Jimmy’s story later on becomes even a little scary. The second group consists of Pi and Spottie and the third group of Carlos and Alicia. Both of these stories I’d call action stories. And the fourth group would be Chang Gyeong-Min and Kang Baek-Ya. Their story is pretty much a thriller/ detective.
Characters
Li Wen
She has a somewhat cold and distant personality and isn’t very happy with her life before she meets her new art teacher Wen Zhaoren. While she seems somewhat intelligent at first, she makes a lot of really stupid decisions throughout her storyline and is actually quite a romantic.
Wen Zhaoren
He has pretty much given up on his life at the beginning of the story and wants to quit living altogether. However, after meeting Li Wen he somewhat gains a new purpose in life and becomes a happier person.
Jimmy
While at first, he seems more of a geek and a somewhat secluded gamer, he matures throughout his story and at the end becomes a successful adult.
Pi
A secret character.
Spottie
He is a cat, who lost his guardian and struggles to start a new life as a stray without anyone next to him.
Carlos
He is Alicia’s brother, who ventures out from his hometown to search for his lost sister and gets somehow involved with a shady organization.
Alicia
Carlos’ sister, who was separated from her brother at a young age. She wants to find Carlos at all means, however, gets also involved with shady characters.
Chang Gyeong-Min
He is a freshly graduated police officer, who has a lot of illusions about his future job. Being more about physical strength than brain, he often blindly follows his ideals about a greater justice and throws himself into dangerous situations without a second thought, much to the dismay of his chef.
Kang Baek-Ya
He is a somewhat pessimistic police officer, even more annoyed because of his new partner Chang than his own “miserable” life. While he seems cold at first, he is actually somewhat caring towards his friends and subordinates. However, he has also a darker side, which actually never gets fully explained in the game, since he can’t actually write about it in the letters, while he is unconscious.
My opinion
This game has very interesting approach to visual novels. It completely satisfies a lot of readers with different preferences by combining different genres together in one big story line. While some of these genres might be focused to satisfy specific readers like e.g. there is k-drama like romance, the whole story can be enjoyed by everyone, who likes suspense. Honestly, I was really engrossed in the story, while reading this novel, so I sat for days in front of the computer in order to read everything.
Besides the story I really liked the characters as well. They all have different personalities, a different goal and a different story. I really enjoyed it that some of the stories didn’t focus at romance at all, or even led to worse endings, if you included romance, since it was hindering the characters to reach their goals, or made their decisions very emotional towards the end, where they should have acted more rationally.
Both the characters and storytelling are also very unique. Since you are reading the character’s letters and since they are writing to you only, when they have a problem, you have some time-skips and a very subjective perspective. Also, it is pretty funny that a some of wishes of the characters need to be ignored in order for them to achieve the best possible ending since they can’t predict the future and sometimes the future is brighter, when people don’t get, what they want for a while. While some of the choices didn’t made sense for me and the endings for some stories felt a little rushed, I think all in all the game does a pretty good job conveying the story and combining all of the stories into the main story. However, you need to be prepared that you won’t always get the happy ending you wish for and some characters don’t manage to get to their goal, even when you try to help them. Plus, the story of the goddess is actually a real tear jerker, so be prepared.
I can add that the music is very good as well. The game tells you to wear headphones, while you play and I wholeheartedly agree with that suggestion.
To summarize: I really love this game and it’s holds a special place in my heart since I was so fascinated both with the storytelling, the idea and I really liked the characters. The only thing I was frustrated with is that the one, who brought happiness to others didn’t have a happy ending herself. And I am still kind of sad about it.
Obviously, this game gets a 10/10 from me.
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🌺 The Event of Mubahila 🌺
Najran was a fertile land located in the Northern mountainous region of Yemen about 20 km from Sanaa. About 40,000 Christians inhabited the land divided into 73 small towns. They were idol worshipers historically just like the Arabs but a priest named Femeon, a constructor by profession, preached Christianity in the area of Najran and soon all the population converted to Christianity and Najran became a powerful center of activities of Christians.
After the conquest of Makkah when Islam started spreading rapidly and the warring groups came under the flag of Islam, the Holy Prophet, peace be upon him, starting sending emissaries to the tribes who had not yet accepted Islam. In 10 A.H. a similar message was sent to the Christians of Najran and they were offered either to accept the teachings of Islam or live in the protection of Muslims and give Jizya - a kind of fee for protection services. When the Bishop of Najran received this message, he invited all the scholars and influential people of Najran and asked them to think and find a solution to this situation. This news spread rapidly among the masses and some people got infuriated as well but the Bishop of Najran pacified them and advised them to be mindful of the military might of the Islamic regime and try to find a peaceful solution.
Christian mission heads to Madina
After deliberations, it was finally decided to send a mission to Madina and have a dialog with the Muslims. A 14 member delegation headed by Aqib Saidawar and Abu Harisa started off for Makkah.
After exchange of views on several issues, the delegation did not seem to be willing to accept the observations about the incorrect beliefs of Christianity and the logical explanations proving the incorrectness of their beliefs. At that time Allah(swt) send down the famous verse of Mubahila of the Quran:
Then whoever argues with you about it after [this] knowledge has come to you - say, "Come, let us call our sons and your sons, our women and your women, ourselves and yourselves, then supplicate earnestly [together] and invoke the curse of Allah upon the liars [among us]." (Holy Quran 3:61)
The Prophet recited this verse and invited them for Mubahila - praying to God(swt) to destroy and banish the liars.
Mubahila became necessary since the Christian delegation was adamant to accept the truth. After some hesitations the delegations asked to be given one day to reconsider their options and then accepted to have the Mubahila after two days.
Whom did the Prophet take with him?
The Prophet Mohammad, peace be upon him, selected a place close to Madina for the Mubahila which was then cleaned and prepared by Salman al-Mohammadi and the next day the Christian delegation reached the designated place. A number of people also gathered at the site. The Holy Prophet Mohammad took with him Imam Ali, Fatima al-Zahraa, Imam Hasan and Imam Hussain, peace be upon them.
Prophet Mohammad sat down under a tree with these weighty personalities and said that when I pray to God, you all should say ‘Ameen'. When the Christian delegation saw a woman, two children and only one man with the Prophet, they got scared and worried and Abu Harisa said, "O my Christian friends, I am seeing such bright faces that if they pray that God move this mountain from its place then the mountain will be moved. I warn you do not have Mubahila with them or you all will be destroyed and banished."
The Christian delegation was still amazed and frightened when the brother of Abu Harisa, Karz ibn-e-Alqama stated, "O my fellows, it appears that Mohammad is the same last apostle and prophet that has been mentioned in our sacred books. We should not have Mubahila with them because anyone who had Mubahila with the prophets in the past as well were destroyed. Look around you and observe that the signs of your destruction are appearing." When they looked around, they observed that the entire atmosphere had changed and it appeared that a furious storm is in offing.
Result of the Mubahila
Witnessing this, they backed off from the contest and requested that their friendship be accepted. Prophet Mohammad accepted their request and asked Imam Ali to write the agreement according to which they Najran tribes accepted to pay Jizya and live under the protection of the Muslims.
This victory is a unique one in the history of this world.
Source: Duas.org
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First line meme
Rules: List the first lines of your last 15 stories. See if there are any patterns. Then tag your favorite authors!
I was tagged by @touchmycoat and I will pass this on to anyone who wants to do it. Even if I don't follow you, or you don't think I mean you, I mean you if you think this sounds fun. Feel free to tag me so I can see what you learn!
About formatting--I am considering each chapter in the fic "Thirty One Days" a unique chapter for the purposes of this meme, as they are written to be loosely connected one shots.
I am using both of my pseuds to better get a picture of my writing history, so if you end up looking up my yugiomo pseud...know that there WILL be omorashi and consider this your warning. If you do not know what this is, and are over 18, use urban dictionary or something.
Astonishingly, all of the first lines of all of the fics are tumblr safe. Horray. Most of the fics aren't. If you look up any fics, PLEASE pay attention to the ratings on AO3, and any content warnings.
Patterns: Every. Single. One. Of my new (2019 holiday season forward) fics starts with the name of a person and a paragraph. This paragraph immediately sets up the person's thoughts. Previously, I had begun fics with much more action, often with dialog, or specific thoughts or actions. "Keijo!!!!!" was sitting in my drafts for years before it was finished and posted, so it makes sense that it followed my old format, despite falling on the newer side of the break I took writing. (It is the only thing I published besides the 2018 YGOME before the 2019 YGOME started me writing again.) The long break coincides, to my memory with the tumblr purge and me entering a long-term relationship with my current partner. I should maybe think about adding more action into my writing again.
15. "War of Love: The Game" from "Thirty One Days" --- “Draw!” Atem yelled as he pulled the card out of the deck and looked at it.
14. "Dignity Lost! The Ship Ride to Duelist Kingdom" (yugiomo pseud, and yes apparently I'm mainblogging that now). --- Anzu grit her teeth as she listened to the gentle sound of water on the hull of the giant boat, every wave torturous to her ears. Finally she stood from her position crouching next to Honda. “I’m at my breaking point,” she complained, her voice a slight whine.
13. "Paladins: Champions of the Realm" from "Thirty One Days" --- “Enemy double kill... enemy triple kill!” the automated voice announced. "Enemy killing spree.”
12. "Failure" (yugiomo pseud) --- Stupid Kaiba and his stupid rules! Jounouchi thought, desperately working at the restraints that held him him in place. Who even made desks like this anyway? It almost seemed like the chain was built in, like it was meant to be on the desk. But that couldn’t be right. Kaiba had said he’d had this desk as a kid.
11. "More Sex Play" from "Thirty One Days" --- “Want to play something other than Duel Monsters this afternoon?” Atem suggested to Kaiba as he dug through the golden box for his deck. “I live in a game shop, surely there is something else you’d like to try to beat me at.”
10. "Alone" --- All Kaiba wanted was to shrink away from the music, the noise and the crowd. He didn’t want to play this part anymore, but he had to, for Mokuba’s sake. Mokuba was all that was left.
9. "Trying (On) My Patience" -- “Look, all I’m saying is that you need to find something other than a discarded school uniform to throw over your shoulders. And maybe some better jewelry.”
8. "Keijo!!!!!" from "Thirty One Days" --- “Don’t you think we should check it out?” Atem insisted, his intense gaze meeting Kaiba’s across the desk. “It’s the latest competitive fad in Japan. According to Yugi, men are going crazy for it.”
7. "Liquid Gold" --- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XaS93WMRQQ
Atem sat at the computer, simply searching the internet while he waited for Seto to finish up with his work. While he almost exclusively had been using this specific computer in Seto’s office space since coming back from the afterlife, occasionally Seto would use it to set the ambiance while Atem was gone. What Seto didn’t know is that Atem had figured out how to search the browsing history, and that he had recently seen that there were nearly 20 plays of the same youtube video.
6. "All I Want For Christmas..." --- Yugi yawned as he watched out the window of the Kaiba jet . It was the private one, not the blue eyes white jet; Yugi had always been secretly nervous about that plane’s capability of flying, and regardless, there wouldn't have been enough room for Mokuba, Yugi, and Seto to fly in the dragon-shaped jet together. He’d been woken by the announcement of the plane’s descent, as dawn broke over the unique arrangement of city and harbor that forms Sydney, Australia.
5. "Help Me Doctor (I Have Sinned)" --- Marco always had an eye out for sails as he went about his daily tasks on Whitebeard’s peaceful home island. He’d been expecting Edward Weevil to make his way there eventually, and in the meantime needed to protect the small island from bands of low-class marauders. So, when he was walking down the beach and he recognized the telltale black flag, he immediately pulled out his spyglass. The jolly roger showed a skull surrounded by a fluffy pink scarf, with giant red lips and a brown and pink tricorne on its head, and Marco’s heart rate immediately increased.
4. "Shimmering Blush" --- Tony Tony Chopper woke up bright and early, excited to go back to see his friends. The last two years in Birdie Kingdom without seeing any of the other Straw Hats had been long, even with the new friends he’d made here. He knew he was stronger, and would do his best to support everyone now that he would finally get to see them again.
3. "House On A Hill" --- Marco wasn’t about to listen to Katakuri (of all people) lecturing him on selflessness. They both had always been the kind of people that would prioritize their families over themselves. That was why they had ended and Marco was cursing Katakuri for not leaving the island after yet another ill-advised tryst.
2. "Relief" (yugiomo pseud--you thought this died in 2017, didn't you?) --- Ryou had, for the most part, reached an understanding with the Spirit of the Ring. Unlike Yugi, Ryou was well-aware of the other person that had come attached to the Millenium Ring, the Item his father had gifted him from one of his archeological digs. Most people probably would have assumed they were cursed the first time they saw the disembodied Spirit following themselves around, and thrown the Ring away as far as they could. Ryou, in contrast, turned around, faced the Spirit, and said hello.
1. "Shared Nightmares" --- Robin has had nightmares about the Buster Call that destroyed Ohara ever since she escaped her fate. Sometimes it’s just the kids back home that picked on her and called her a devil child, all in the rescue boat and dying because she might have made it on board, sometimes it’s the burning of the Tree of Life, sometimes it’s Saul’s laughing face as Akoiji froze him solid.
0. "Seek and Ye Shall Find" (I miscounted and started a fic late and I am not spending time readjusting this nonsense) --- Atem was so happy he’d finally found a way to at least view what was happening back in Domino. Rather than getting surprised by the Gods’ future requests at world-saving, he could keep an eye on things from the afterlife. It’s not like he could transport himself to Domino without the Gods’ help, so it was more a way to keep an eye on things in the meantime. The Kaiba Dome seemed the best place for the mirror into the realm of the living; after all, Seto Kaiba now seemed the center of all the trouble.
youtube
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Borderlands 3 | What we know...
Just because I’m not sure the best way to present this information, prepare for a long list of new features in Borderlands 3 with my comments because.... well this is my blog. I will not be discussing the two Vault Hunters we’ve seen gameplay of in terms of their action skills and skill trees.
Quality of Life improvements!
Borderlands has aged quite well, BL2 more than BL1 but we can go back to games almost a decade (and actually a decade) old and they still feel great and are tons of fun. After taking about a year hiatus from all Borderlands games, I came back after the Mask of Mayhem trailer and I found myself trying to roll or slide out of the way of charging enemies and merely crouched in front of them. After so long of this, I knew what I wanted out of Borderlands 3...
Sliding, Grappling, Ground Slams - A feature that I was hoping for beyond almost anything else were movement upgrades and boy we got them. The sliding adds a whole new dynamic to fighting a mob of enemies and the grappling opens up a plethora of verticality options. Be sure to be looking up high for hidden chests! The ground slams seem to be an upgraded, more visually appealing version of the ground slams from TPS. Zane cocks back an arm with a Digi-claw before slamming his fist to the ground while Amara leaps into the air slamming both fists to the ground (not to be confused with her Action Skill).
Vending Machines - Instead of manually purchasing each ammo type by spamming our select key on them, we can now purchase the max amount of ammo by pressing a key as we approach the machine, without ever entering the UI.
“Claim Lost Loot” - A new “vending machine” in Sanctuary III collects all the loot we didn’t pick up and store them until we access the machine. Once we activate it, all the loot comes spilling out onto the ground in front of us for us to check out and make sure we didn’t miss anything. No more lost Legendaries!
Sanctuary III is the first hub in the Borderlands franchise that features a unique room for our Vault Hunters! Our room will be tailored to the Vault Hunter of our choice with possible customization options. The wall holds a number of “mounts” where we can showcase our favorite guns as well as a couple spots for a relic, shield, and grenade mod.
Loot Instancing and Level Scaling - Is your buddy ten levels ahead of you? No problem! If you join the game of a friend who is a higher or lower level than you, your damage output will scale accordingly so no one is over or underleveled! Along with this will be loot drops. If you open a chest to a blue and purple rarity pistol, they will be at your level and ready to loot. Your friend will also see a blue and purple rarity pistol, but different manufactures and at their own level. You both can take both pistols from the same chest. All of these options have a toggle feature if you preferred the previous games style.
Claptrap as a General of the Crimson Raiders - It’s nice to know that the Crimson Raiders are continuing on after the death of Roland, but their priorities may be a bit askew if Claptrap is a general... then again maybe his title holds no responsibilities... all about the ego boost.
Lilith as Commander of the Crimson Raiders - Not all that surprising although I was speculating that maybe she had ditched our friends to deal with some of that pent up anger post-Jack. It seems like she has been broadcasting across the galaxy searching for new Vault Hunters, and maybe even “broadcasting” directly into Siren’s minds as a comment by Amara upon meeting Lilith went something like “Oh so you’re the voice in my head.” Sounds like our Guardian Angel...
Marcus - I have no doubt Marcus will be buying and selling us guns, but we do see that in person he will be our go to for SDU’s. This go around the currency used is money opposed to Eridium, similar to our BL1 days.
Moxxi - She still has her bar, this time with four different slot machines, possibly activated by a unique currency each, or rewarding different pools of loot.
Tannis - “Tannis’ Lab + Infirmary” read the sign pointing us toward our old friend, which leaves a noticeable lack of Dr. Zed on Sanctuary III. Was he a fatality of the ill fate that befell Sanctuary 2? Or is he on Pandora?
Ellie - Ellie takes position as our lead engineer / car provider for Borderlands 3, as we no longer have our dear friend Scooter with us (nice decal of him on the outside of the ship though).
Unlockable Vehicles - It looks like we will unlock vehicles as we progress through the story, similar to the Bandit Technical in BL2, but there seems to be World Event / Side Missions that allow us to come across unique vehicles parked across the maps that we can get in and return to a Catch-A-Ride station so that they are available to use any time we like! This means if your vehicle blows up before you can get it registered, you may be out of luck!
Alternate Firing Mode- Initially inthough a couple of gun manufacturers would have alternate firing modes but it almost seemed like every gun during the gameplay reveal had an alternate firing mode.
Hyperion Shields- I’ve been wondering how the shields would work for the Hyperion weapon and it looks like they are ADS activated.
Unique Dialog for our Vault Hunters - A feature introduced during some of the DLC for BL2, as well as through the entirety of TPS was character dialog unique to each Vault Hunter. It is most definitely returning for BL3 and I couldn’t be happier.
Unique Looting for our Vault Hunters? - When Amara opened a chest (really a repurposed car trunk) she punched it open in a similar fashion to Kratos in God of War. Although punching a chest open definitely seems like Amara’s style, I wouldn’t say the same for the other Vault Hunters which makes me wonder if certain chests will have unique opening animations for each VH.
Location: Ascension Bluff - This was the location title card that was on the projection screen after got the initial reveal demo which makes me wonder if the Children of the Vault Propaganda center(?) is on a map called Ascension Bluff. I could be wrong in thinking that, however I’m pretty positive that all of that was on Pandora.
Location: Meridian Metroplex - Some interesting reveals about the city we’ve seen from the trailers! The Meridian Metroplex is on Promethea, and has become an Atlas controlled city. For some this is great, for others not so much. Maliwan seems to be attacking the city with their new ally...
Locations: So far we have Pandora and Promethea listed as worlds we can visit but I believe it was Paul Sage also confirmed an Asteroid(?) map that will feature low-gravity similar to (but not quite the same as) TPS.
Tyreen + Troy Calypso / The Calypso Twins- These two are fucking Borderlands equivalent douche twitch streamers. They’ve leveraged this position (or vice - versa?) into being Cult Leaders for the Children of the Vault.
They have broadcast stations scattered around the galaxy that we can destroy / turn off as a world event style challenge.
Tyreen is a Siren who can leech the life and power out of other living beings. Being a Siren, she’s convinced her followers that she is their God - Queen. Troy is merely piggy-backing off the fact that she has all the influence, or it seems that way to me.
Tyreen has streamed her ability of sucking the life out of beings to her many followers, and to the Vault Hunters who she calls her most loyal follower yet.
What’s a cult without its followers? Instead of our typical “Bandit” enemies, it seems like the main enemy faction of that caliber has been rebranded to Fanatics.
Tyreen has struck a deal with the Head of Mergers and Acquisitions for Maliwan, a guy named Katagawa (some dweeb who hates / envies / is jealous of Rhys, but also makes sense why he wants control of Atlas) and so mobs of both the Maliwan Assault Troopers and the Fanatics will be fighting you at the same time.
Randy Pitchford has let on that Tyreen is using the bandits, and probably her Maliwan allies, as a tool to find the Vaults so that she can gain the power of the Vault Monsters.
Zer0 has left the Crimson Raiders and is working with / for Rhys under the Atlas corporation, at least while the money and weapons are good.
Crimson Lance became the Crimson Raiders after Atlas fell and they joined Roland’s cause in Sanctuary. Now that Atlas is being ran by CEO Rhys, they are called Atlas Soldiers.
New Element : Radiation - Irradiated enemies will take damage and are also more susceptible to other damage types. An irradiated enemy can spread the effect to other enemies surrounding them. Upon death, an irradiated enemy will reach critical mass and explode.
Barrels - Elemental variety barrels can now be melee’d to launch at enemies before shooting them and causing them to explode.
Pipelines -Certain pipelines can be shot to cause radiation spills, or oil slicks that can then be ignited to cause an AOE of damage.
Enemies / Mini Bosses - There will be more mini bosses in Borderlands 3, and the weapons they use against you can be dropped so that you can use that gun on future enemies.
NPC - Certain NPC’s will assist you on missions, like Lorelei and Zer0, and then can also be downed. You can revive NPC’s and they can also revive you.
Paul Sage (Gearbox Developer?) - Paul made the comment about the low-grav environments as well as stating that if you “beeline through the story” it will take around 30 hours. Upon questioning if the guns in the reveal were better than what we will find (because of the basically non-existant recoil) he stated that in the past they’ve worked there way up to really good guns in terms of level progression, but this time they wanted to know if they could “start good, and make it fucking awesome.” So yeah. Guns are gonna be fucking awesome.
And that wraps it up! A nice guide to catch you up on things you’ve missed or to remind you of some things you’ve forgotten. I make no claim to have covered everything we’ve seen, but these were some things that I took note of. Feel free to add your own bits and pieces I missed in the replies! Borderlands 3 looks amazing, happy hunting.
- VaultHunter426
#borderlands#borderlands 3#amara the siren#long post#amara#maliwan#borderlands 3 spoilers#bl3 spoilers#bl3#atlas#rhys#zero#claptrap#lilith the siren#the calypso twins#troy calypso#tyreen calypso
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MM ANON Riddle
I’m not like emsi, but here are my thoughts:
MM ANON … All the Queens horses’and all the Queens men”… Row,row,row your boat………”here’s my handle, here’s my spout”. “Jack fell down and broke …… “. “This little piggy went to market “. … the nursery Slopes of public disapproval. “Give me the child at seven… “. “Of all the gin joints ‘of all the towns”. An anonymous answer to a trending question.
All the Queens horses’and all the Queens men”… All the Queen’s Horses and All the Queen’s Men by Chase Baldewyn (Author) Written before Trump’s campaign and election,the trilogy has characters, stories and dialog that provide unique insight as to how and why Donald Trump would be elected.
OR
ALL THE QUEEN’S HORSES tells the story of Rita Crundwell, the perpetratorof the largest case of municipal fraud in American history. As city comptroller of Dixon, IL (population 15,838), Crundwell stole $53 million dollars of public funds across 20 years.
OR
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall. Unable to fix MM’s reputation.
Row,row,row your boat………” Life is but a dream. Or could MM be sent back home to US?
here’s my handle, here’s my spout”. When I get all steamed up
I just shout. MM yelling and throwing a temper tantrum. Complete mental breakdown.
Jack fell down and broke …… “.
An alternative is that the rhyme may refer to King Louis XVI of France who lost his crown and his head by the guillotine as did Marie Antoinette who “came tumbling after”.
“This little piggy went to market “.
the fattest little piggy — the big toe — was being sold into slaughter. It went to the market, sure, but it never came back. MM being led out the door and never to return.
the nursery Slopes of public disapproval. Slope of a line (Coordinate Geometry) is a number that measures it’s “steepness”, usually denoted by the letter m. Slippery Slope = an idea or course of action which will lead to something unacceptable, wrong, or disastrous.
“Give me the child at seven… “.
If you give me a child until he is seven then I will give you the man. MM is making a general statement about what she can do if she is given children.
“Of all the gin joints ‘of all the towns”.
Casablanca, the great 1942 World War II yarn about an itinerant saloonkeeper named Rick; Ilsa, the woman who done him wrong; her husband, a Resistance leader on the run from the Gestapo; Rick says of Ilsa: “Of all the gin joints of all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine.” As Rick says near the end of the film, “…it doesn’t take much to see that the problems of three little people don’t amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world.”
An anonymous answer to a trending question. I’m going to guess that MM has now fallen down a very steep slope with no return. There is no baby that will be christened this weekend.
Sorry if this is all jumbled. I’m trying to re-group my mental status so I can stay strong for my husband. His mother’s funeral will be this Friday.
God Save Your Queen and Her Commonwealths.
You did a great job....thank you! Again so sorry for your loss...🙏🏻❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
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The Rise Of Skywalker Review [SPOILERICIOUS]
=0=
I’m going to post all the SPOILER stuff way below in section 3, so as not to ruin anything for anybody who hasn’t seen the movie yet.
You’ll get plenty of warnings.
=1=
In my old age I’m starting to divide creative works into three groups: Good, bad, and not-so-good.
A good creative work is any where the strengths overwhelmingly outweigh the weaknesses; a bad one is the obverse.
A not-so-good work is one where the strengths and weaknesses balance each other out.
It’s the kind of a work that will doubtless please those audience members who really enjoy the strengths in it, and equally irritate those annoyed by the weaknesses.
In my estimation, a not-so-good work is one done with straight forward intent and as often as not, a fair degree of technical and aesthetic competency, but fails to jell as a cohesive whole.
No one need feel ashamed for enjoying a not-so-good work, and no one involved in the making of a not-so-good work should feel bad about their contribution (unless, of course, their contribution turns out to be one of the weaknesses that should have been avoided).
Theodore Sturgeon famously observed “90% of everything is crap.”
I think that’s a little harsh.
I agree with him that only 10% of anything is good, but think only 40% falls into the crap bin.
Most stuff falls in the 50% I call not-so-good.
Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise Of Skywalker is in that 50%.
. . .
The good stuff is really good.
Elsewhere I’ve posted my enthusiasm for Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens and Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi hinge in no small part on just how emo Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) could get, and holy cow, does he ever deliver in The Rise Of Skywalker.
Easily my favorite parts of the picture.
Doesn’t really mesh with anything else in the movie but, hey, ya can’t have everything, right? (I’ll discuss his performance in a little more detail in section =3=.)
Other performances range from adequate to doing-the-best-they-can-with-the-material to okay-smartass-you-try-recreating-a-dead-actress-via-CGI.
The dialog in The Rise Of Skywalker is the worst of any film in the series, with the possible exception Star Wars Episode III: The Revenge Of The Sith, which I haven’t seen and have no intention of seeing (but more on that below…).
It’s not an attempt to depict characters talking, it’s a series of shouted declarative sentences.
Elsewhere I’ve referred to The Rise Of Skywalker as the best Jason Of Star Command episode ever made.
For those who don’t get the reference, Jason Of Star Command was a low budget albeit imaginative Saturday morning kid-vid Star Wars rip off by Filmation Studios.
To make sure the youngest kids in the audience understood what was going on, they tended to hammer home plot points repeatedly.
DRAGOS
Jason! In just sixteen hours my space fleet
will destroy Star Command!
STAR COMMAND
Jason! Dragos is going to destroy us with his
space fleet in just sixteen hours!
JASON
Don’t worry, Star Command! I’ll stop Dragos from
destroying you with his space fleet in sixteen hours.
NARRATOR
(i.e., Norm Prescott)
Jason has only sixteen hours to stop Dragos from
destroying Star Command with his space fleet!
There is far too much of that in The Rise Of Skywalker.
Ten minutes into the movie, and there was already far too much of that…
The opening credit crawl reveals an off camera plot development that literally deserved an entire film of its own to fully explore.
There is no sustained coherent plot to The Rise Of Skywalker:
Well, we gotta do this,
now we gotta do that,
first we gotta find this thing,
then we gotta find that thing,
now I’m feeling blue,
now I’m gonna get encouraged,
etc., etc., and of course, etc.
Everything feel frenetic, not fast paced.
There are far too many scenes that exist just to sell action figures and toy vehicles.
There was a desire to tie off loose ends and say good-bye to favorite characters and that was a mistake.
It undercuts the urgency of the story (or rather, the desired urgency; the fact the film is called The Rise Of Skywalker means everybody in the freakin’ audience ALREADY KNOWS HOW THE DAMN THING IS GONNA END!
(This is not a problem unique to Star Wars. Gene Siskell famously upbraided Roger Ebert for spoiling the ending to the third Star Trek movie, to which Ebert retorted, “Oh, come on! They’re going to call a forty million dollar movie The Search For Spock and not find him?!?!?”)
There is one nice little breather scene (“little” only in screen time; visually it’s pretty big and impressive): The Festival of the Ancestors on the desert world Pasaana that gives a nice touch of exotic space opera flavor to the proceedings.
All of the Star Wars movies offer really great art direction and visual design, and The Rise Of Skywalker certainly delivers in that category.
Which makes the occasional mediocre special effects shots all the more obvious.
The Rise Of Skywalker has a few painfully obvious matte shots, a few shots obviously composed in post-production, and a few shots where the audience becomes aware the actors are performing in front of a greenscreen.
You can get away with mediocre visuals so long as there is consistency in their mediocrity.
If everything else consistently looks great, a so-so shot spoils the illusion; if everything consistently looks so-so, it’s simply part of the work’s look.
Indeed, you’re better off with consistently mediocre work highlighted by a few great shots than consistently great stuff undercut by a few mediocre ones.
Best thing about the movie is the complete lack of Jar Jar Binks.
=2=
Before diving deeper in The Rise Of Skywalker, let’s look at the series as a whole (just the numbered theatrical episodes, not standalone films, TV series, video games, comics, novels, etc.).
I’ve said the original Star Wars was the movie an entire generation had been waiting all their lives to see.
George Lucas wanted to do Flash Gordon but when Universal turned him down, created his own space opera.
Lucas, it needs be noted, is not a good writer.
Whatever visual talents he has, they don’t extend to telling a good story.
One can easily find early drafts of Star Wars online, and while they all share certain elements, they’re all pretty bad.
The development of Star Wars the movie grew organically with storyboard and production art, characters and incidents changing and evolving along the way.
It’s long been rumored that a more skilled writer than Lucas came in to do the final draft; one thing’s for sure, the shooting script is head and shoulders above the earlier drafts.
Star Wars the original Han-shoots-first-dammit theatrical release is very much a product of the 1970s.
20th Century Fox thought they had a good enough kiddee matinee movie for summer release; they expected their big sci-fi blockbuster of the year to be Damnation Alley.
Instead, they hit a nerve and found themselves with a blockbuster on their hands.
Lucas did show one great example of foresight: He trademarked all the names / characters / vehicles and held the licenses on them, not 20th Century Fox.
This gave him the war chest he needed to build the Lucasfilm empire.
And let’s give Lucas and his crew their due: They added immeasurably to the technical art of film making, as well as making several entertaining films.
What Lucas did not fully envision was how to mold his Star Wars material into a coherent and thematically cohesive saga.
He started out with grandiose plans -- four trilogies with a standalone film connecting each for a total of 15 movies -- but that gradually got whittled down to 12, then 9.
After Star Wars Episode VI: The Return Of The Jedi, Lucas put the Star Wars movie series on hold, waiting for film making technology to develop to the point where he could tell the stories the way he wanted to tell them.
Okay, fair enough.
But the problem is that while the film making technology improved, the technology of the Star Wars universe didn’t.
As I said, the original Star Wars is very much a 70s movie in taste / tone / style / sensibility.
While the designs look sufficiently sci-fi, they reflect robots and spacecraft designs of the 1970s -- in fact, even earlier in many cases.
That fit in with Lucas’ “used universe” look and the tag line “A long ago in a galaxy far, far away...”
But compare the original Star Wars with Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Kubrick spent a lot of time researching where technology was heading.
Long before visual displays and vector graphics became commonplace in real world aircraft, he showed them being used in the future.
The first example of what we refer to today as a computer tablet appeared in 2001 as a throwaway background detail.
Kubrick’s next film was A Clockwork Orange and he successfully predicted punk culture a decade ahead of reality (his only mistake being the assumption white, not black, would be the base color).
Star Wars Eps I - III take place a generation before the original Star Wars movie.
Star Wars Eps VII - IX take place a generation after.
Name a two generation span since the start of the industrial age that is not marked by radical technological change that produces an ensuing change in the social order.
Now I grant you, the Star Wars universe isn’t trying to tell that kind of story, but the story it is telling is static.
Characters in The Rise Of Skywalker talk about cloning as if it were A Really Big Deal.
Cloning today is cutting edge bio-tech, to be sure, but it’s already common place.
It’s as if the Star Wars characters were getting worked up over steam engines.
One can intercut scenes from the movies and, unless one is a familiar with each movie, it’s impossible to tell one film from another.
Lucas’ financial success enabled him to issue edicts re Star Wars (and other Lucasfilm projects) that undercut the strengths of his projects.
Lucas is a technological guru and a savvy businessman, but he really struggles to tell a story.
Frankly, I think he would have been a better film maker if he’d spent a decade or so making American Graffiti scale movies, not space operas and epic fantasies and adventure movies.
His decision to make the original Star Wars the fourth episode in his saga and going back to start his story with his villain was fatally flawed.
I grant following the Skywalker saga from Anakin to Luke to Rey could work if it started with Anakin.
But what he did was the equivalent of the James Bond movies jumping back in time to follow the pre-Bond career of Ernst Stavo Blofeld.
(And the Bond movies, at least up until the Daniel Craig era, are all standalone films insofar as one does not have to see any of the previous films to understand and enjoy the one being watched, not does the sequence they’re viewed in matter. And the Craig films were conceived from the beginning as having a coherent overall arc, so in that case they are the exception to the rule.)
The joyous whiz-bang space opera of the original Star Wars got bogged down in a lot of meaningless politics and talks of trade treaties, none of which explained why anyone would want to conquer the universe in order to rule it as a decrepit, diseased dictator in a dark hole.
Look at Hitler and Stalin and Castro and Mao and the Kim family in North Korea.
These guys enjoyed themselves (well, Hitler did until things went south for him). They loved the attention and went around preening themselves in public.
The off screen Empire (and implied Emperor) of the original Star Wars served that film well: It was a story about a tactical conflict, not a treatise on the philosophy of governance.
Lucas’ universe does not make sense even in its own context.
And because of that, it becomes harder and harder to fully engage with it.
A sci-fi movie doesn’t have to explain everything, but it has to at least imply there is an underlying order that links up.
Lucas began subverting his own universe almost immediately.
The Force was originally presented as a spiritual discipline that any sufficiently dedicated intelligent being could gain access to. (Robots seem to be specifically excluded from The Force, implying it needs a biological connection. But that would seem to exclude intelligences that may not be organic in the commonly accepted sense of the word, which means such beings cannot appear in the Star Wars universe, which means…well, I digress…)
That was a big hunk of the original Star Wars’ appeal, the thought that literally anybody could become a Jedi if they so desired.
It speaks to a religious bent in audiences from many different cultures around the world, and it offers up an egalitarian hope that allows everyone access to the Star Wars fantasy (“fantasy” in this context meaning the shared ideal).
But already in Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back Lucas began betraying his original concept, sowing the seeds for self-serving deception and innate superiority as endemic in The Force.
By the time he got around to Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, Lucas abandoned the hope established in the original Star Wars movie.
Now one has to be a special somebody, not just dedicated.
Mind you, that sort of story has its adherents, too.
Way back in the 1940s sci-fi fans were saying “Fans are slans” in order to claim superiority over “mundanes”. Today many Harry Potter fans like to think of themselves as inherently superior to “Muggles”.
It’s a very appealing idea, so appealing that the United States of America is based on it, the assumption being that white people are endowed with more blessings -- and therefore more rights -- than non-white people (add force multipliers such as “rich” / “male” / “Christian” / “straight” and you get to lord it over everybody).
Lucas with his stupid midichlorians robbed audiences of their healthy egalitarian fantasy and replaced it with a far more toxic elitism.
It appeals to the narcissistic stain in the human soul, and encourages dominance and bullying and cruelty and harm as a result.
It’s an elitism that requires a technologically and sociologically stagnant society, one where clones and robots and slaves can all co-exist and nobody points out they are all essentially the same thing.
A progressive society -- and here I use “progressive” strictly in a scientific and technological sense (though as stated above, advances in scientific fields invariably lead to changes elsewhere) -- does not let such conditions exist unchanged for generations.
As technology changes and improves, the culture/s around it change (and hopefully improve, too).
As I mentioned above, I’ve never seen Star Wars Episode III: Revenge Of The Sith.
My reason for not seeing it? Star Wars Episode II: Attack Of The Clones.
Little Anakin Skywalker and his mom are slaves in The Phantom Menace.
He saves the Jedis and Princess Padame’s collective asses in that movie.
Okay, you’d think at the end of the movie that Padame would hand Qui-gon her ATM card and say, “Here, go back to Tatooine and bail the kid’s mom out. He did a solid for us, it’s the least we can do for him.”
No, they leave her there because there is no desire to change the underlying social order of their universe.
There can be no changes in Lucas’ bleak, barren moral universe.
There can be no help, no hope, no improvement.
When an edict is issue -- be it Jedi council or Emperor (or president of Lucasfilm) -- it is to be obeyed without question or pause.
Daring to say one can change their status -- change their destiny -- results in tragedy (and ironically, proof that is their destiny).
It’s dismaying enough that a large number of people enjoy cosplaying Star Wars villains, especially storm troopers, as that seems to indicate they’re missing the whole point of why the rebels were striving against the Empire in the first place.
Originally that could be written off as (at best) just enjoying the cool costumes and props or (at worst) finding an excuse for bad behavior (i.e., “I vuz only followink orders”).
But Lucas’ tacitly endorsing a sense of innate superiority pretty much destroys everything about The Force that the original Star Wars audience found enlightening and ennobling.
The Star Wars universe has become at its core a very ugly thing, and The Rise Of Skywalker doesn’t really clean it up.
SPOILERS ahead.
=3=
Seriously, SPOILERS follow.
Holy crap, The Rise Of Skywalker is a damn mess.
Nice eye candy, but a mess.
It pretty much undoes everything good in the previous two episodes.
I’m glad it’s the “official” end of the original saga because now I never need to see another Star Wars movie ever again.
(Oh, I’ll keep my DVD of the original Star Wars and if I find Solo in a bargain bin somewhere I might pick that up, but as far as the rest of Star Wars goes, I am D.O.N.E.)
The series stopped making sense long ago, so I’m really in no mood to analyze why nothing links up or really works.
It’s full of absurd, stupid ideas, such as space barbarians galloping across the deck of a star destroyed on their space horsies.
The whole back and forth between among Palpatine / Kylo / Rey goes on for two long. If hating somebody is bad because it sucks you over to the Dark Side, then why doesn’t somebody start building Terminators that can track down beings with midichlorians and kill them? (They’ve got the technology to detect midichlorians, that’s canon.)
It’s not anywhere near a good movie. It’s not as bad as George Lucas’ Star Wars Episodes I - III, but it’s clearly the worst of the last trilogy.
The scene where Rey gets off camera encouragement from all the dead Jedi? It seemed awfully familiar to me, as if the writers consciously or unconsciously remembered the John Wilkes Booth / Lee Harvey Oswald scene in Stephen Sondheim’s Assassins where all the presidential assassins and would-be assassins past and future encourage him to plug Kennedy.
Not what I want in a Star Wars movie.
I think we may be seeing the end of Star Wars. It’s been crammed down our throats for too long. I’m aware of The Mandalorian series and how insanely popular it is, but y’know, sooner or later every pop culture craze dies out.
Star Wars has nowhere to go. Star Trek is hemmed in, too, but nowhere nearly as bad as Star Wars.
We’re about to enter a generational shift in America, and I wouldn’t be surprised if a badly dated 1970s sci-fi concept fails to make the cut.
It ends on a frustrating note, taking much too long to come to a close, far too much self-congratulatory bullshit, and the deliberate planting of clues for a future set of sequels should the Mouse start jonesin’ for that sweet, sweet Star Wars franchise money fix.
It’s a really bad script, and dragging Carrie Fisher’s digitally reanimated corpse into it and then killing her off by suicide is a damned stupid / offensive idea.
Mark Hamill’s ghost walking out of the flames of Jedi hell (thank you for that analogy, David Brin)? Wow, who didn’t see that one marching down the avenue?
Harrison Ford coming back as a memory / hallucination to tell Kylo to do the right thing? Skrue dat noiz.
(Though I have to say Kylo Ren is the best thing about the movie and his character turn parallels both Luke’s and Vader’s in The Return Of The Jedi only his is much more believable and poignant so dammit, Disney, you could have done a much better job with this movie than you did.)
The plot and pacing is straight out of a video game. First do this, then do that, now ya gotta do another thing -- feh!
And unless I misheard the dialog, this whole film supposedly takes place over a span of sixteen hours!!!
They visit a half dozen worlds, crash and repair spaceships, go undercover, get captured and escape, fight duels to the deal -- all in sixteen hours?!?!?
Yeesh.
And I’ll say this, the last line is wrong wrong WRONG.
If the Star Wars saga has taught us anything, it’s that Force users are a threat to everything.
They should be eliminated for the good of the universe.
Rey shouldn’t have buried the Skywalker lightsabers.
She should have destroyed them -- and the one she made, and any others she found lying around.
And when she’s asked at the very end what her name is, the answer should have been: “Rey…just Rey.”
I know I put The Rise Of Skywalker in the not-so-good bin, but truth be told, that’s the nostalgia talking; it’s only a eyelash away from being bad.
The whole epic saga is a failure as far as I’m concerned. One and done is the way to go; the moment it started making money as a toy franchise it went south.
© Buzz Dixon
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The Shining - Review
1/21/20
Written by Stephen King, released January 1977
Stephen King is one of the most prolific horror/thriller writers of the 20th Century. I’ve always been attracted to the horror genre in books, even as a child. I was a shamefully poor reader in elementary school, yet I loved collecting and reading R.L. Stein’s Goosebumps books. There’s something so magical and unique about reading markings on a page and conjuring feelings of horror, terror, dread, and suspense. You could say the same is true for any genre of literature, but I find it especially interesting for horror. Scary movies I hate most of the time because too many rely on jump-scares instead of building real dread that gets under your skin, which is why I love scary books. I recently watched Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 film from beginning to end and found it mesmerizing, and wanted to see if the book held up to the film’s legendary status.
The Shining is a household name, but the deeper themes or inspirations behind the story are not known to everyone. King was struggling with alcoholism at the time of writing this novel, and with the main character Jack Torrance struggling to finish a novel in a secluded environment where booze (or lack of) starts driving him crazy, I can imagine several layers of King drawing inspiration from real life. It’s actually kind of bittersweet because in certain instances of the story you can feel where an intimate draw may have come from, or where at least King fearing the potential or consequences if he didn’t get his problems under control. I’m finally glad to say I finished the book from beginning to end and wasn’t disappointed one bit.
The Shining takes place in Colorado (wait, not Maine?) at the Overlook Hotel, a resort on a snowy mountain with its nearest town, Sidewinder, being 20+ miles away. With the hotel closing for the season, and not opening again until May, Jack Torrance has been hired as the resort’s caretaker. He will live on site with his wife Wendy and son Danny, and writing a novel in the meantime. Jack has been fired from his teaching job, and has a recent slues of failures in his life, including accidentally breaking Danny’s arm in a drunken rage, that have set his mental state back. Setting the booze aside and sober for 5 months, this could be the fresh start he and his family need while they keep the Overlook intact throughout the winter.
This is such a unique and original idea I absolutely love it. The Shining is a great spin on the “haunted house” trope, and it surely is one of King’s best work. Sometimes, and mentioned in my Phantoms review, King’s books can be full of filler. I especially found this to be the case with ‘Salem’s Lot and Gerald’s Game, but I felt there was little to no bloat in this novel. Every chapter felt it had relevance to the main plot, even in the beginning where Jack is shown the boiler room and virtually all the functions of the pipes, dials, duties, and other minutia he has to attend to while looking after the Overlook. The closest I felt the book came to needless world building was a flashback of Jack’s childhood, but it’s revealed to explain important info, and show how Jack’s father treated him growing up.
My favorite part of the book, which isn’t in the more famous movie version, is when Jack has gone crazy and he says things like “come out Danny. Come on out and take your medicine like a man!” You can tell from the flashbacks that he’s evoking his abusive father, and saying or behaving in ways that embedded in him when he was Danny’s age. It made Jack Torrance more of a sympathetic character where you almost feel bad for him as the hotel brings out his inner demons. The only thing I didn’t like about the book is Danny is written like he’s at least 7 or 8, but in actuality is only 5 years old. I feel like his inner and outer dialog was a bit too clear and understanding of things around him from how a 5 year old sees the world.
My other favorite part is in the last chapter where Danny is trying to bring out his father when the hotel has completely overtaken him with evil and darkness. It really reminded me of Return of the Jedi when Luke is trying to shake the Emperor’s grip from Vader and return him to the light he know he has inside him. It was uncanny and I wouldn’t be surprised if the book influenced the movie. Having Jack fight for dominance in his own body against the possession of the Overlook itself was gripping to read and I wish there was even more of it. The Shining is one of King’s best books which also feels very personal and honest. If you are a fan of the genre or King in general, and you haven’t read this book, make it a priority.
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