people started forming a line at the broken npc

i feel like nicki chan is a more interesting character than carrie in her own book

expaaaansion update thoughts ( SotO spoilers) in no particular order

peitha ily forever

i wish there was more character building/connection. i don't mind taking commander/wayfinder away from their regular group and putting them in a new and unfamiliar dynamic, but seeing as zojja was a big selling point for the expansion n now she's just memory wiped and barely even present in the bagground.... ***eh***. :(

nayos is a very cool and pretty place. i like the events! exploration is neat as well. i really don't mind using story to help explore, even if the events-meter thingy is grindy at times.

that said ^ i am however worried that this Otherworldly Realm of Dreams that could Impact Tyria so much will just be confined to one map. and then... that's it. i mean i was really looking forward to more Cantha but instead we just ,, don't explore those implied plotlines or areas? the story feels pretty rushed :c

i miss tyria. i love tyria. i REALLLLY love tyria, tyria is so cool and diverse and grand with so much to see and so many stories to explore. nayos is cool but man do i love tyria. i want to know how everything is effecting tyria, IF anything is affecting tyria orz. the dragons arent/werent the only thing going down in tyria!!! theres so much there!!

but also getting whisked away to another dimension and not knowing What Else Is Up is also pretty cool. (but man. i LOVE tyria)

i DO like commander/wayfinder back in the role of sidekick/attack dog. i loved it with trahearne and i love it with peitha.

frustrated huff. im pretty satisfied with this expansion so far but also im not used to settling for 'pretty satisfied' when it comes to gw2, personally. i know they can't continue the way they used to, with long expansions and content-filled living world eps. but even if the living world ep was small, they usually still managed to pack a LOT of stakes into them!! i really hope they round the story off well, but with there being another expansion in the works already... hhhh...

i really wish we spent more time discussing and exploring the fractals introduced in the beginning of the expansion.

actually, i think what i really miss is taimi (or anyone) sending us on our way to collect every bit of data possible in every corner of a new map, with fun dialogue to accompany it.

i miss the characters we got to know in the first bit of the expansion. man first i dont get to see the guild, then i dont get to see zojja, now ive only goth Peitha and Galrath. i love you Peitha and Galrath 💕. but where's our buddies :( yeah i know they explained. but. hrmrmff.

like idk i was really expecting we'd get to spend more time with zojja at least, even when memory wiped. you're telling me being stuck with your old friend/coworker in a mysterious demon dream dimension while your old friend/coworker remembers nothing about the bond you two had except that you two had it at all doesnt sound like grounds for amazing dialogue?? cmon!!!!!!

i think thats all for now ! thanku for reading my wall of text (i didnt mean to dwell on negatives sm bc theres still quite a lot i really like!! but i just. know what gw2 can be at its best. and if gw2's best can't happen anymore then im still really happy ive got the best to replay whenever i want)

Which villain do you like?

Ooooh i like a lot of villains! Garmadon, Morro, and Harumi are all obvious answers, of course, i mean those are i think the top 3 fandom faves. If i had to rank them id say Harumi is my favorite out of the three, because i find her rawness so compelling. Like, shes what Lloyd couldve become if he hadnt gotten a proper support system, and thinking about how she and Lloyd are such incredible foils for each other makes me wanna start biting things. Shes so messed up and i love that about her. Part of me wants her to get therapy but the rest of me wants to see how much worse she can get.

So i guess, if you forced me to choose just one villain to call my absolute favorite, id say Harumi. But i feel bad about snubbing all the other delightful villains in this show! I gotta hand it to Ninjago, they really know how to craft a dazzling rogues gallery.

As for underappreciated/underrated villains i love:

Nadakhan. He is SO slimy, and he makes me SO uncomfortable, but honestly thats what makes him work as a villain think. Some Ninjago villains are lovable, tragic, or sympathetic, but hes just a horrible person and youre rooting for his downfall the whole time and its awesome. Also - sky pirate genie who becomes a pirate to compensate for how he can only grant other peoples wishes but never his own, deciding to take by force that which he cannot have, is such a great concept. Really his whole characterization, motivation, and general aesthetic are all very solid, and its a shame Skybound ended up as....messy, as it was. Because the season brings up some amazing themes, characters, and plot lines, but doesnt execute them as well as they deserve.

Aspheera. Not a lot of depth to her, but idk i just love her energy. Shes just my silly little war criminal and i find the pettiness between her and wu delightful

The Mechanic. I 100% support the theory that he was one of those background pirates on Captain Soto's ship who made a life for himself in the modern world by working for Chen. Idk im a sucker for characters who are tangentially woven into the plot - hes there, and the ninjas' actions have direct consequences on his life that turn him into a far more personal enemy. Also, i think the Mechanic should be a Pixal villain. Honestly i think she deserves her own personal villain just in general - poor girl deserves a nemesis 😭😭- and i think the Mechanic fits well into that position. Also, him becoming a major antagonist in Prime Empire and Crystalized was such a satisfying payoff imo. Hes rising up the criminal ranks, im so proud of him. My horrible guy, off to torture nindroids. They grow up so fast

Miss Demeanor. Is she really a villain? I dont care, shes wonderful. Shes got a fantastic vibe and design. Also, "blah blah blah - FIREBALL!" lives in my head rent-free. She honestly deserves more love and i will die on that hill. Shes not a main villain but shes the main villain of my heart and thats what matters.

Actually i change my mind, Miss Demeanor should be Pixal's nemesis instead so they can have rivalry tension. Think Detective Conan vs Kaito Kid type of frenemy action here. Also i just??? Think they would play off each other really well? Lego please hire me so i can write a Pixal focus season where she has funky lil nemesis rivalry with Miss Demeanor. I can make it happen. It would be amazing, you know itd be amazing.

Anyway, thanks for the ask!

a mish-mash of my thoughts about soto! story, maps, rewards, lotsa spoilers!

liked the maps are gorgeous, anet never misses with music & map design. the reuse of assets makes sense for the story (and seeing these alternate "what-ifs" of story zones is really cool), so we'll see what happens for future smaller xpacs

really liked the new cast of characters, especially gladium & r'tchikk and mabon. friendly mursaat is something i never could have predicted

the story. long bit sorry! after EoD this is my favorite xpac story (thus far). something about the idea of a wizard ascending and being basically immortal but giving up mortal connections & memories really vibes with me. its something that SOUNDS like what anyone would theoretically want but through lore and stuff we see that some of the older ascended regret it but they maybe don't remember why. mabon is a mursaat and knows what his race collectively did, but not what he participated in. livia even mentions mabon knew lazarus. anyway it's very tlt/lyctorhood to me. also i kinda like that isgarren is a bit of a dick to us. he seems like the type who bends over backwards to convince himself he's doing the right thing (by not interfering in the dragons etc.). and he has little triangle glasses what a nerd. I WANT TO KNOW MORE ABOUT WAITING SORROW. where is she. she's a kodan right? i need to know more. LOVE how they dealt with zojja both explicitly in the story and through lore books/collections. i love her so much. seeing the powered down mr sparkles made me literally cry irl tears :( anyway crossing my fingies that the new map is nayos 🤞🤞

meh two (at launch) armor sets that are identical for every weight :/

rifts as-is are kinda boring. like i get it, especially as a way to get the 10s of stacks of essences we need for legendary armor, and idk how they'd make them more interesting but im firmly ~whelmed~ with rifts

some of the masteries are also just there imo. using updrafts & leylines on flying mounts is fantastic!!!! using mastery points to be able to open slightly better chests does not excite me. there are also few excess mastery points so some of these are gonna be a grind/frustrating. hopefully the next content patch late this/yearly next year adds more.

it's nice that adventures, races (iirc), shrine guardian puzzles, and going-from-point-A-to-point-B-without-touching-the-ground made a return, there's no really true og jumping puzzles

there a few post-story collections in the wizard tower (like in aborstone post-story) but not that many? like i get why we don't build it up like arborstone bc it's already established and populated but i just wish there was more.

no mingoo mini? 🥺

disliked the limited amount of daily choices. my only big cannot-see-a-positive thing. the rewards are great! we just need more choices for what to do for dailies. really really hope anet reads the criticism and adds more options

overall at this point i'm 7.8/10 happy with the xpac as a whole. but if maps/story/achievements of this calibre are what we get every year-ish, i'd be thrilled tbh

so, as my thoughts on the new expac

• housing i can already imagine the micro transaction hell that that will be, but as a devils advicate, this possibly would allow them to have less? like right now, alot of new armors and such are behind the pay wall, and for outfits thats fine, but, maybe this means that they might put more in the game that wont take gems? and with housing, maybe they will help the crafting systme too, allowing scribes to sell furniture would be HUGE , like, look at FFXIV furniture market right???. •spears i cant deny that i am exited, weather its on my revenent dragoon cosplay, or even a new option for my warrior, im sure this will bring so much to the game, but, my focus drifts, to where spears are equipped? are they making it so the aquatic area will be a seperate weapon slot? will we need to have two spears or will one legendary spear be enough for both land and sea? and what of tridents and spearguns? it would be great to see engineer getting some love in here too, or maybe spear will be a unlocked weapoin throughout? big worry that spears are some weird mastery thing that are the same across all classes, like the same wep set, or abilities? but thats just me worse case scenaroing, im confedent thats not the case •the story so , spoilers i will try and keep to a minimum,, there are a few things i want to touch on stop reading and avert your eyes are you sure? ok youve kept reading this far im gonna yap so, in the last part of soto, there was talk of "the rifts were seen by all" "you cant expect to hide anymore after this" "what is the astrial ward gonna do now?" "a half hidden secret is more dangurus than one fully uncovered" ect there was also a lil blurb at the end that had aneise saying hay, girl where you at, to the murssaut related lady and we see caithe in the trailer, all of this points to many possibilities, especially with how caithe said "wait is that" in the trailer which points to a possibility of something from her history being brought back, many chips could be played here, aurene, someone from destines edge, maybe even, "wait why is zojja with you" or, somthing to do with the sylvari? the possiblities are quite endless, but its getting me to bubble on the thoughts about it, the koden are there and what we learned about them from season 3 might come back or maybe they dont even refure to the same culture they could be an offshoot like the omicron and charr, but all of that aside caithe means something more,. it raises the question of weather or not we are going to still be wayfinder, like, us becoming commander could mean many things for what was laid down in soto, us being recognized as wayfinder to our old couliges could mean so many things too, i tire of typing, but dont really have anyone to talk to who is caught up on story, so, i thought i would dump out all of my thoughts current as of 6-5-24 thank you for induldging my gushing