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woodchipp · 7 months

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A CRITIQUE OF OMORI, PART 3: MARI AND THE TRUTH

NOTE: Reader discretion is advised. By clicking on “Keep reading”, you willingly choose to continue reading the post.

OMORI spends a considerable amount of time trying to ingratiate you to Mari as a character. In Headspace, she plays a motherly role to Omori and the gang, providing endless positivity and advice to the party whenever they take a break at her picnic blanket; at one point, Kel even begs Hero not to tell Mari about him and Aubrey knocking Basil over the same way a child would beg someone else to not tell their mother after messing up. In the real world, everyone who knew her only ever speaks of her as being kind and gentle, and the official walkthrough guide even calls her “the glue that holds everyone together”.

As wholesome as all of that may seem at first glance, this is one of the main problems with Mari’s writing: the game tries to get you to love her so hard that it comes off as overly aggressive character shilling. For instance, during the second picnic Omori and his friends can have with Mari en route to Basil’s house, Basil wishes to be more like Mari and notes that she always seems to have everything under control, Hero compliments her on how she always makes everything look easy, and Aubrey describes her as "effortlessly graceful". As with Basil summing up each of the characters via flowers, the game spells out the character’s personality for you right at the start rather than allowing you to parse it for yourself over the course of the story.

[Pictured: complex and nuanced characterization.]

[How should I know? I literally just met her a few minutes ago.]

If the shilling had been limited to Headspace, it could’ve been a powerful narrative tool to show how much Sunny idolizes his big sister and foreshadow that his perception of her is unreliable. The problem is that what we learn about her in the real world reinforces said unreliable perception; as with the photo album and the main characters’ childhood, the narrative paints the real Mari as too impossibly perfect of a person to be remotely believable. Not only did she switch beds with her brother when the latter started to have difficulty falling asleep, she also let him sleep with her when he had nightmares, took the blame for him breaking one of their mother’s vases and even saved him from drowning once. She also bought Basil his signature photo album, bought Sunny a giant building block set as a gift for one of his birthdays, carried Sunny back home after he fell asleep on the bus, pitched in along with Sunny's other friends to buy him a violin for Christmas, was the perfect match for Hero and generally served as the group’s caring mother figure in the real world as well. C’mon, love her already!

Of course, such a flawless angel is too good for this sinful earth. That is why, after spending the entirety of its runtime building up to Mari having killed herself due to her own mental issues, the game pulls a last-minute plot twist and reveals that Sunny accidentally killed her by shoving her down the stairs during an argument they had over Sunny breaking his violin on the day of a recital they were to perform at. As evidenced by the datamined text from the “Truth” photo album, the game gives no consideration to Mari’s perspective on the matter and only focuses on Sunny’s feelings. It’s all about how he was overcome, how his fingers were shaking in pain and how he was sick of practicing over and over. How did Mari feel when she saw her brother destroy the fruit of her and his friends’ hard work in one fell swoop? How did she feel being perpetually dissatisfied with the waltz she obsessively practiced, trying to reach the unreachable standards she set for herself? These are questions the game doesn’t bother answering, because Sunny and his feelings are of central priority to the story at all times, even if it comes at the expense of other characters, their own feelings or even logic.

(speaking of logic, the game never explains why Sunny and Mari were arguing at the top of the staircase in the first place. the piano room, which is most likely where the two practiced since Mari's piano is located there, is on the first floor of their house, while Photo of an Argument shows them them having said argument on the second one. peak writing)

Additionally, the story fails to properly establish just how strenuous violin practice was for Sunny. The only bit of set-up for the argument the game provides during the main story is Lost Library's “Saturday morning cartoons” book, which isn’t much and requires the player to make a giant leap from “Sunny doesn’t like violin practice because he misses out on watching cartoons with his friends” to “violin practice physically hurts Sunny and he resents Mari for her perfectionism”. Likewise, the narrative’s prior and consistent portrayal of Mari as flawless is incompatible with the plot twist’s insinuation that she overworked Sunny and was harsh on him when he made mistakes, which makes the twist feel even more inorganic than it already is.

If the game left the twist at Sunny shoving Mari down the stairs, that probably would’ve been enough. However, it subsequently inserts Basil into the scene, him having bore witness to the argument and Mari’s murder. This doesn’t make sense on a logistical level because the game never explains how Basil managed to get inside Sunny’s house and why he was there in the first place. Not only does Basil not try to call an ambulance/find the nearest adult to help, he comes up with a plan to cover up Mari’s murder by framing it as a suicide. Basil’s multi-step plan is not something one would come up with in a situation of high anxiety and stress: it feels nearly premeditated, and at no step of the way does Basil seem to have had second thoughts, like one would if they were acting irrationally. Furthermore, the sheer tonal dissonance created by the fact that Basil of all people came up with an idea this demented isn’t disturbing as much as it is absurd. It reeks of the writer assuming that a topic like murder instantly makes a story Deep and Complex without putting any thought into it, and it seems Basil was written into the twist solely to absolve Sunny of any responsibility for the cover-up.

Finally, the game inadvertently implies that Mari's suicide wasn't investigated properly, if at all. The clues indicating that she didn't hang herself are obvious, such as the fact that she seemingly used a jumping rope and her stockings being clean as opposed to stained with grass and mud from the ground around the tree. Such a break from reality isn't much of a significant problem, but it does become rather conspicuous once you notice it. Fans tend to theorize that Sunny's parents somehow knew the truth and possibly bribed the police into dropping the case, but there isn't enough concrete evidence to support this theory.

The knowledge of the twist is imperative to understanding just how aggressive and transparent the shilling becomes. Some of the most notable moments that explicitly demonstrate what the player is meant to think about Mari include divine light shining down on her grave in the town’s cemetery, her farewell to Sunny at the end of the North Lake segment, where she is briefly shown walking on water, and her brief conversation with Sunny in his house's piano room on One Day Left, where she apologizes to Sunny for “pushing him too hard”, implying that her brother killing her was somehow her fault.

Mari isn’t a character in her own right - she is the quintessential fridged woman, existing purely as the object fueling the main characters’ grief and being important only when the game needs to assure the player that Sunny killing his sister wasn’t much of a big deal. After all, even the person he killed is shown to forgive him for what he did.

Speaking of Sunny, his actions in the aftermath of the incident paint him as rather reprehensible. Not only does he vandalize Basil’s most precious belonging and then leave him alone, but he also chooses to lie by omission to his friends and his parents, letting them believe that they failed her because of the assumed nature of her death as a suicide. On top of all that, the game seems to heavily imply that Sunny blacked out the photos due to Omori’s influence; considering that Omori is apparently meant to be the personification of Sunny’s depression, this reads as a convenient way to absolve Sunny of any responsibility for his horrible actions by making his Evil Mental Illness the culprit.

It’s time to talk about this game’s depiction of mental illness, then.

#omori #omori game #omori sunny #sunny omori #omori kel #kel omori #omori aubrey #aubrey omori #omori hero #hero omori #omori basil #basil omori #omori mari #mari omori

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the-s1lly-corner · 2 months

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I JUST WATCHED AN EPISODE OF LAW AND ORDER AND I GOT AN IDEA.

Tim x reader who died giving birth IDK WHAT ITS CALLED HELP- (they're Married 😽)

This one's for the fem readers for now, im sorry 😔

-Tim obsessed 🙀 not so anon anymore

P.s. I love Tim fr fr

Tim x reader who dies during childbirth

Using the term "x reader" loose here on account that uh... readers dead

Notes: Reader is GN but AFAB

CWs: Death, pregnancy, traumatic labor/pregnancy

To say that tim is broken is an understatement- you were one of the main good things going on in his life after.. everything that's happened. He was ready to give being a father a go, as long as you were by his side

But just like that, you were gone

He doesnt blame the child, of course he wouldn't... does it hurt when he looks at them for the first few months? Of course it does

He feels so guilty for it, and he feels so guilty for having to go through this without you- would you not have wanted the chance to meet your baby?

It hurts even more as the kid grows and starts to resemble you more and more

He tries not to smoke around the kid, but old habits root themselves in deeper than ever

Tries his best to be a single father- its unlikely that hes going to be seeing anyone new anytime soon

When the child is older he tells them about you so you won't be forgotten

Usually this is during moments where hes.. hurting more than usual or perhaps after a few drinks

He.. usually doesnt talk about you for a while- its terrible but it's to keep himself together.. even if shoving things down isnt the healthiest route

A little against putting himself out there, so a lot of support is going to rely from your family- if you have a good relationship with them- as well as your friends

Tries his best to be a good dad even if some days it feels impossible

#marble hornets tim x reader #tim sutton x reader #mh tim x reader #mh tim x you #tim wright x you #tim Wright x reader #marble hornets x you #marble hornets x reader #mh x you #mh x reader #creepypasta x reader #creepypasta x you #creepypasta imagine

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vibratingskull · 2 months

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Hello! I was thinking you said you didn't master Thrass yet how about you start "small" with him not been exactly the main character?

How about a F!reader she was in relationship with Thrass and by the time he died she is pregnant and she leaves to the empire.

Thrawn finds her in his exile. You could focus more on her relationship with Thrawn if it's easier.(?)

Obviously, this is just a suggestion not a request. You can totally ignore this if you like.

Art by @jorrmund

Thrawn and in laws... That sounds interesting

Thrawn & Chiss!F!reader

Tags : Hurt and little comfort

You apply the final touches with your brushes on your blue skin, finishing to perfect your traditional make up for the day. You check your coiffure one last time and rise on your feet to enter the salon and take your place.

You’re alone at the tea house today, your two apprentices have their day off but that’s not a problem for you. Your first family was in the tea business for generation and educated you in its ways. You later trained your husband at this art when you entered the Mitth for your wedding.

Now that you are in the human Empire, this traditionnal Chiss tea house that you built for yourself is the last bound you have to your former life. When Mitth’raw’nuruodo came back from his mission, distraught, his first action was to come to you and warn you about Thrass disapearance. Without thinking twice you prepared a bag and with Thrawn complicity you stealed a ship to fly after Thrass while pregnant.

You were not letting your husband disappear when you had a baby on the way!

You searched for him for a months, visiting numerous planets, meeting nuemrous species.

To no avail.

At some point you got lost in the chaos and end up in lesser space, the term was really close and you needed an hospital or a maternity to give birth to your baby safely. You had to give birth alone, without any familiar faces and surrounded by aliens.

A chance there was a near-Chiss species, humans, who helped you in this trial. But traveling with a week old baby without any concrete destination and on unsafe routes was simply impossible and you had to stop. The danger was simply too great.

So you worked different jobs to make ends meet, hiding your skin color or your shiny red eyes, you traveled across this city planet called Coruscant, changing apartments, sometimes running away from creditors and hiding somewhere until things settles down. You saw the end of the Republic and lived through the first days of the Empire, keeping a low profile...

Things could have gotten a lot worse if you didn’t hold on to your principles and bared your teeth to adversity. But you managed to gain some money, bought that building for next to nothing, renovating it yourself into a proper establishement worthy of Chiss standards, and now you have two trainees to train. They are nice girls, diligent and hard working with the will to do great and by the rules but they are still far from the Chiss excellence in the ways of the tea.

You check your questi... datapad to know your shedules of the day. Lately you have more than 25 clients per day. It forces you to rush some aspects of the ceremony but it is still manageable.

...

Only one client?

Weird.

Your apprentice who took the reservation left a note.

“Navy Officer who specifically requested the entire day to himself.”

You sigh, annoyed. You are a tea house, not a pleasure house. You don’t stay an entire day here! What was she thinking when she took the reservation? You cannot permit yourself to dedicate a full day to a single client!

A Navy Officer no less.

You sniff with disdain. Another one of those men who thinks because he has money and rank everything is due to him!

But what’s done is done now. You’ll conduct the ceremony as always and push him to the door and took the rest of the day to yourself. You will be able to come back home earlier and spend some time with your son.

You lay down the pad and aligns all your ustensils on the clothe on the floor, seating heels on the little mattress dedicated to this effect. That’s when you hear the door of the salon open and steps entering the room.

At least this Grand Admiral respects the schedule.

You also notes he had the presence of mind to take off his shoes to walk on the tatami. Not all clients knows that. You begrugingly give him another point as you lay down the last utensil and turns towards your client, eyes closed as you bow down to him respectfully.

“Welcome to the Primordial Tea house.”

“I thank you Mitth’(Y/n)’(F/n).”

You froze, opening your eyes in a shock.

Before you, impeccably seated on his heels, raising from his bow and in a perfectly neat green uniform, stands another chiss.

And not any Chiss!

“Mitth’raw’ nuruodo...” You say with a white voice, barely audible.

His expression is serene and aloof, but his gleaming red eyes shine with tenderness and a controlled joy. You are utterly speechless. Why is he here? What is he doing in this parts of the Galaxy? Why...

“I rejoice seeing you thriving in this Empire, my sister.” He finally says before your resonnating silence, “You must have a lot of questions.”

You look at him up and down, not believing your sight.

But that’s him! Older by a decade but it is unmistikably him! Your husband’s little brother!

Your own little brother now.

“I... How?” You utter.

“I was sent in a mission by the Ascendancy to find new allies and study this Empire.”

You look at him with round eyes, feeling your hands starting to tremble on your knees.

“I was terrified for you when you stopped sending me news years ago, but I heard rumors about a woman with blue skin and red eyes in this part of Coruscant. I had to verify it for myself.” He continues before your disarray, “I hoped with all my heart it was you, and I was not mistaken.”

“Mitth... raw...”

“Call me Thrawn, my sister. As you used to do back in the day.”

“Thrawn...” You breath, heart clenching painfully, “Did you get any news? Anything?”

His shoulders lower and he shakes his head slightly.

“No. Nothing.”

Your heart starts to bleed and a sob rises in your throat.

“He will never come back...” You manage to say with a shaky voice, a tear rolling on your cheek.

“I am affraid.” He concedes gravely. “Hope gets thiner by each passing day.”

And you burst out in tears. You hide your face behind your hands, sobbing as you are forced to face your most horrifying fear. Thrawn remains silent, repectful of your pain. He lets you cry with compassion in his eyes.

“I am truly sorry (Y/n).” He murmures.

“Oh my warrior... What will I say to Thabim?” Your entire body shakes between sobs.

Thrawn tilts his head.

“Thabim?”

You sniff unelegantly, going against the reserve and modesty of your role as a tea master, but frankly you don’t care at that moment.

“Thrass’ son... Our child...” You gasp, trying to breath.

Thrawn’s eyes round up slightly, clearly taken by surprise.

“You had a child?”

You nod as tears fall down from your cheeks to your folded legs, soiling your precious traditional attire for tea ceremony.

“We didn’t want to announce it to the family just yet... It was supposed to be a surprise...” You pull on your collar to open your attire and take out a medallion that you open, revealing an old picture of you and Thrass together.

Smiling.

Carefree.

Simply happy to be together.

You still remember vividly the day you announced your pregnancy to your dear Ch’acah. Thrass was checking files on his questis when you agitated the test under his gaze. Surprised, he threw his head backward, hitting the back of his skull against the bedrame. You chuckled as he massaged his painfull head, turning his gaze to you, wondering what you wanted to tell him. You showed him the test again with a big smile and saw the shimmer of his red gaze intensify by ten fold. He jumped out of the bed, seized your hips and made you spin in the air, laughing loudly, before embracing you, pulling you into a deep kiss, happy and hopefull.

Now he is lost...

You press the medallion against your heart, forgetting Thrawn’s presence because of the pain. Thrass hide the same pendant under his sydyc tunic. You fold your body in two in a soothing gesture. You feel Thrawn’s hand seize your shoulder gently, squeezing it softly.

“I am sorry (Y/n).” He repeats

“It is so painful...” You cry. “It feels like I’m hoing to die!”

“Yes.” He agrees, “It is the most terrible pain. But you are not alone anymore, I am with you now. I will help you and Thabim.”

You raise you gaze to him, full of pain and pleadings.

And you throw yourself in his arms, all etiquette be damned! He frozes under your touch, taken by surprise once more. You squeeze him tight, burying your face in the crook of his neck, soiling his uniform with your tears. You feel him responding to your hug after an hesitation, caressing your back comfortingly and circling your shoulders.

“I am here now, sister. And I will remain.”

You hiss in your pain, breathing with difficulty with your lungs so tight.

“Thank you brother... Thank you...”

@bluechiss @thrawnalani @justanothersadperson93 @al-astakbar@thrawnspetgoose @readinglistfics @elise2174 @debonaire-princess @twilekchiss @pencil-urchin @ineedazeezee @mssbridgerton @dance-like-russia-isnt-watching @Cortisolcosplay @obbicrystaleo @germie2037

#thrawn #mitth'raw'nuruodo #thrawn x reader #thrawn x you #thrawn x f!reader #thrass #mitth'ras'safis #thrass x reader #fanfic #vibratingskull

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playtwewy · 5 months

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Thinking about Doki Doki Literature Club after replaying and also with the now added context of knowing more about Tokimeki Memorial from that almost 6 hour video review of it and i think its so good to take the way tokimeki diverges you to other girls while in pursuit of the "main" girl and turn that into a horror story about that girl being so unattainable that the game gives you no option to be with her despite her being the "main" girl. In Game, she is presented as the end goal, the one route that should be the end all be all of the game if you play it right. But the game will never let you have a chance with her. And when she realizes that, she tears everything apart, breaks the game and manipulates the other characters in pursuit of her own route.

But then to the player, the real player, they are only ever playing a Monika route. She is the only finished route in the game. She is the "main" girl of the story. You have no choice. Because DDLC is exactly like Tokimeki Memorial in that you have to meet and talk to the other girls, have them fall a little bit in love with you, but instead of Monika being impossible to romance, she is the ONLY one you can complete. She is the only one you truly get to know and understand. She is the only one you can choose to be with forever if you want. Just her. Just Monika.

In the narrative of the game it is the horror of a character not only realizing they're in a game, but the futility in trying to break free from their role as unattainable. But for the player, or at least for me upon replaying, the horror is in the knowledge that you only have one route, and the tragedy that is at the end of it.

#sorry for writing like an essay i just had thoughts haha #it's not that deep but man it is to me.#i love this game a lot tbh nothing will ever be like the first time i played it lol #protag.txt

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miss-cydonian · 11 months

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Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Review (If you want to read, of course).

Disclaimer 1: ⚠️HEAVY SPOILERS AHEAD⚠️

Disclaimer 2: I’m not a professional movie reviewer, this is just my opinion™. I’m not a good writer either, so you’ve been warned. Also, this is my first time writing a review, a “proper” one.

These are just the main points that I have some critiques of.

That being said, let’s do this.

Alright, let’s organize this by chapters:

Chapter 1: Gabriel and The Entity

So Dead Reckoning introduce us to the new antagonists of the franchise, a man that goes by the name “Gabriel”, the major antagonist that Ethan Hunt used to know, before his time on IMF and a super intelligent AI, named “The Entity”.

The very brief plot explanation is that Ethan and his team are trying to stop said AI and Gabriel before everything goes awry. To stop them, Ethan must acquire a key that unlocks The Entity, rewriting its programming and setting things back to default mode. Or, as Ethan wishes, to destroy the AI completely, leaving no one to control it.

The whole AI plot is interesting. McQ and Tom took things more on the Sci-Fi route. And yes, you could argue that all MI movies are of a Sci-Fi nature, but that was narrowed down to the gadgets that they used. Here, this AI has gone rogue and seemly gained consciousness and is acting on its own, posing itself has a real threat to the whole digital world as we know, playing a huge role in the narrative as a real enemy.

And there’s Gabriel, the threat to the physical world. He was responsible for the death of a woman, named Marie, and it is implied she was close to Ethan. To be honest, I didn’t feel connection to this whole backstory plot, because it was shown merely seconds on screen. I was hoping they would show more of them interacting to make the audience feel something for her death, but unfortunately, that was not the case. Maybe in Part 2, will see more of this backstory unravels.

If a had to change something, would be that Gabriel was, somehow, involved in the deaths of Ethan’s first crew, back in the first MI, that I think, would get me more invested in Gabriel and his backstory, and be a stronger motivation for Ethan to stop him, he would be afraid that the same would happen to this new crew that he grew so close to.

Chapter 2: The Death of Ilsa Faust

This is a tricky one.

Ok, first of all, I don’t believe Ilsa is dead, but McQ could easily pull a “Kingsman move” and do that. After all, a death of a major character in which the protagonist cares about can be a great driving force to move the plot forward. The reason I don’t think she’s dead is because that would be too easy. Her death didn’t have the enough impact in my opinion and the characters didn’t seem very shocked by it.

Now, there’s some possibilities here. First, she survived, and Ethan gave her the “final choice”, a release from her espionage chains for good, but that also would be too weak of a plot, and it was discussed in Rogue Nation by Ilsa herself, her wish to just get away from everything and everyone with Ethan, but they're never really free from this world.

The other possibility would be that Ethan and Ilsa calculated a final plan, just the two of them, and which she is the main key (HA!) to this said plan, and is just waiting for the right moment, to be in the right spot, in the right time. That would give “Dead Reckoning” its true meaning of the word in the movie, at least, the meaning that I know of. The problem with this possibility is the whole “Deus Ex Machina” thing, in which is also overused in movie media.

As I said, it’s a tricky one. Guess I’ll have to wait and see.

Chapter 3: The Action and Found Family

There are two things I love about the MI franchise and that is: the action scenes, the commitment and passion Tom Cruise has to realism and to deliver a proper action scene that deserves everyone's attention, being a car chase or a fight, and the train scene, holy shit, THAT train sequence in Dead Reckoning... And the second thing is the found family that was formed since Ghost Protocol. To tell you the truth, I really begin to enjoy MI with Ghost Protocol and the other titles that came after it, and seeing the familiar faces every movie was so good and had me hooked in the franchise, especially Benji Dunn, played by Simon Pegg, he’s, by far, my favorite character. Dunn brings a lot of expression and personality to the movies and is a major backbone of the group, alongside Ilsa and Luther. Basically, Ethan can’t live without them, and them, without him.

This found family is what makes Mission Impossible movies unique and differentiates itself from spy movies overall and I’m glad this choice was made, and Ethan didn’t fall into the “Lone Wolf” personality of most protagonists of this kind of genre have. I’m excited to see where McQ and Tom are going to take the characters next in Part 2 because I felt that Benji, Luther and Ilsa didn’t get enough space in Part 1 compared to Rogue Nation and Fallout.

Conclusion

Is the movie worth seeing? Yes, absolutely. Dead Reckoning brings a lot more in action, sequences that will really have you in the edge of your seat, recurring characters that you know and probably love (at least love Benji, ok? He’s trying his best), breathtaking visuals, the cinematic and photography are marvelous! This movie had my full attention from beginning to the end and I can’t wait for Part 2.

Rating: 4/5 ⭐

#the cydonian alien is rambling #mission: impossible #mission impossible #mission impossible dead reckoning #mi7 #mi7 spoilers #mission impossible spoilers #movie review #tom cruise #simon pegg #rebecca ferguson #ving rhames #hayley atwell #vanessa kirby #pom klementieff #ethan hunt #ilsa faust #benji dunn #luther stickell

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roaldseth · 9 months

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Is triangle strategy good cause I've heard mixed opinions

My biased opinion: absolutely yes.

My unbiased opinion: absolutely yes.

But, just so you don't just jaunt about your day saying "well that wasn't helpful at all!" This is a more thorough breakdown below to why I like and recommend Triangle Strategy, as well as going into some common reasons as to why people say it's bad or have mixed feelings.

First and foremost as a disclaimer: I am not an SRPG enthusiast. I don't Fire Emblem or Tactics Ogre or what have you. However, I will address things in a broad sense and not things specifically for the genre.

>>STORY: The game opens you into a rather standard medieval-esque fictional setting; its land divided into 3 major powers: the Kingdom of Glenbrook, the Grand Duchy of Aesfrost, and the Holy State of Hyzante, each conveniently color coded for easy recognition and also have their own purposes and ideals. The farther you travers through the paths, for multiple routes await, and its history, the political and martial machinations quickly unfold from easy-going times to one absolutely engulfed in harrowing accounts stemming from no right answers. Despite any preset allegiances, the player, as a young newly appointed lord of the most acclaimed High House of Glenbrook, sits in-between the 3 forces and becomes the epicenter of the continent's, Norzelia's, fate.

Triangle Strategy is a game about harsh wartimes, the impossible decisions needed to make and end them, and the many results that you have directly and indirectly caused. Recently, I had made a post on other social media in which I noted that this game took me a very long time to complete because I had, at point, become physically unable to play from choice aversion and the dangers of outcomes. This is not a flaw of Triangle Strategy. This is its purpose. In those times, the game had done exactly what it was meant to do, so that aspect or level of anxiety while playing a first run-through is not appealing, then it might be something to reconsider with entertaining. However, I will say that eventually you can get accustomed and it can become easier to make those less than desirable choices. The common consensus that I also agree with is to play through your first run as blindly as possible, moving forward with your instincts and gut and even emotions rather than a guide or walkthrough. This is greatly reinforced with the Convictions mechanic, and baby virtually everything counts towards conviction. Pet that cat. You will feel better about it, trust me.

Throughout your path(s) you are presented with a variety of situations. Thought the main story is dire after the first handful of chapters, there is reprieve with character stories that range from silly to heartwarming to melancholic and just an all around fun way of knowing a little bit more on who certain characters are and how they interact with others and the world around them. The script itself isn't difficult, not written in an unintelligible old english, but in just enough way to get the feel of antiquity without being completely lost, making things seem more colorful. There's even a differentiation between characters who'll say "aye" as opposed to a more modern "yes," which is just delightful in my opinion.

The world-building however is understood enough to serve its purpose, but the exact details of many things are left up in the air for question if you look slightly below the surface. Though I personally am left wanting more because I fancy lore, it's very "a piece of a fiction novel" about it. It owns a lot of things it doesn't explain and that's what any writer would do if they were to create a fantasy novel with complex systems and history. It knows what's important to make it move.

As a close off, I would like to note one thing that I think was very bold of Triangle Strategy and that was its endings. Though there is a coveted ending that many strive for, even then the options you are ultimately given are all the results of the ones you hold closest giving in to their lowest selves, and because they are at their worst, the endings reflect that. That one specific, coveted ending is often remarked as "ill planned" and not necessarily thought out well from attempting to neatly tie everything back up into a happy present in contrast to the others, but as someone who's delved through the trenches of the MegaTen (Shin Megami Tensei) franchise and fandom, there is something to be said about "keeping the status quo" and it is that its delaying an ultimate inevitability. "Neutral" isn't always best or superior or a "happy ending."

>>CAST: Triangle Strategy truly is a game that has a character for everyone. It is large, but it is not skimping for quality. You will see literally any flavor of war veteran old man to pretty young adult boys that could've been a boyband in a different time to strong and independent battle women, many good and bad strong battle women, to peepaw who is probably in his 80s but is everyone's grandpa and a sniper. Each character feels like there was a level of care given into them, and even some all the more revealed after they are no longer able to. The world interacts, it breaths, and so does Norzelia's inhabitants.

For playable characters, there are 30 playable units to acquaint one's self with, each with their own unique class, weapons, and aptitudes. No one unit's development tree is interchangeable, which falls more into the category below (Gameplay), but it's also important in a way to see them as individuals. You will remember everyone's names, even with units that aren't your favorites or play style.

Outside of playable units, there still is a hefty list of important NPCs that are not any less composed, orchestrated, or of variation than our playable characters. Sometimes you will be in an instance struggling to remember what the fuck Clarus had done or who Patriette is or that Tenebris is still one of the Saintly Seven, but... the magic is in the fact that Triangle Strategy is designed to be experienced more than once to get the full effect. They too have their needs and reasons.

If you as a player want to do one run-through and call it quits, you will certainly still have an impressionable experience, but it will only grow the more invested. I didn't find it that hard because I had fallen in love with everything Triangle Strategy has to offer, so I had my own compulsion to keep moving with it, but if it doesn't ultimately strike you in that way, it is a part you will miss. But that is still okay though.

>>GAMEPLAY: Triangle Strategy is accessible for any level of strategist to stumble through with its difficulty settings. There is an Easy, Normal, and Hard mode. It's common for players to even try their hands at Hard, Deathless runs (I don't know if this is a trophy on Steam. I played on Switch). Battles have a staggering variation of difficulties and difficulty spikes, but there are ways to mediate trouble battles you can't seem to get right. Besides difficulty settings, the game also offers a Quietus mechanic which act as a one-time, additional maneuver without taking a units turn up. Quietus has limits but there's many different actions that you can always implement to save your ass. Personally, 99% of the time I forgot Quietus existed and really only used them on mock battles and final battles mostly to see what they did or save me from having to do another 1+ hour of battle or whatever. But, most battles, you can absolutely pull off without Quietus. You can pull off a number of things a first run-through that many people struggle with and/or guides will tell you to use [character or ability you don't have] or certain strategy you can't get right or whatever.

I will touch upon this again below because it is a common comment, but Triangle Strategy's main course is narrative. To experience it, you need to be ready and understand that it has a story to tell. It has multiple stories to tell, and for that you will have long sections that are mainly dialogue, meaty dialogue too. The type of player that just wants to experience battle and "raw crunch gameplay" is not going to have a favorable opinion on the game format because not all mechanics are tied profitably into battle (if anything it's the other way around). You will have battles, and you can mock battle all you want at the tavern, but story battles are sparse to keep point and potency. That being said though, voting and persuasion is a major, at the heart concept of Triangle Strategy which ties into the aforementioned Convictions mechanic because we love democracy in this House until we don't and is not convenient! Play Triangle Strategy as a story and experience, the gameplay is mainly there to support and accentuate it.

If I tried to point out every little thing about Triangle Strategy this post would be miles long. The game explains and leans into everything very well so enjoy the stuff that isn't mentioned as much in their natural habitat in a relevant way for your own interests.

There is a great "divide" amongst players on wether or not Triangle Strategy is a "good" or "bad" game, and ultimately it boils down to understand who you are as a player, as a gamer. Note your interests and what you enjoy in a game and then gauge, because despite "oh it was bad," "oh it didn't do this," "oh it didn't do X thing that's better," "oh let me romance the blorbos together" the game pulled off a lot of executional aspects really well in its own ways to be its own identity. But, to comment about the common comments:

>>"The game doesn't have enough battles"

The game has an amount of battles actually. There's one battle a chapter, which is probably the hubbub on why people might think there "aren't enough." But most routes are 20 chapters, so that's 20 battles. It's just that chapters also vary in length and some can be long. Then, there's 35 mental mock battles available in the tavern of the encampment, realistically likely only seeing ~21 of them on a first play through though.

But, battling as a mechanic I consider a secondary mechanic to its main purpose: Conviction. Because there also is a certain thing that happens also in chapters, sometimes before battles, sometimes before votes, and that's exploration. This is a way to 1) gain a sense of a map that will likely be used as a battle map somewhen in your run, but also to 2) gain more conviction. Exploration is just as much of a thing in Triangle Strategy as combat.

So, in the end, I don't think the problem here is the battles, but rather the pacing the game presents. The player will be met with an interesting experience of feeling everything is dire and needs to be handled right away, while simultaneously moving rather slow and leisurely with no way to course correct because it's not side quests holding you down but the actual main event.

>>"The demo was slow and boring"

Unfortunately, I did not play early demos, because if memory serves me correct there were multiple versions. From friends, they have said that the early demos and final products are two separate games. Do not trust.

Then, the final demo which you can probably still download on the store (I haven't checked), is its final form, but much like Octopath Traveler, the demo presented is the beginning, it's the opening. If I remember correctly the demo goes to Chapter 3, which is ironic because after then is when things start spiraling downhill really, really fast. So by then you are introduced to the major components of Triangle Strategy. You experience the dialogue storytelling, you get through exploration, there's battles, there is a voting point in which you are introduced to the infamous Scales of Conviction, so it really touches upon all of the moving bits that make the game move. You get brief understanding of the state of Norzelia, its last major conflict, and the future prospects and direction it is moving in; none of which goes in any manner on how anyone wants it to move.

>>"The story is just Game of Thrones"

There's a special secret: any medieval fantasy setting is just "Game of Thrones" because Game of Thrones is the most recent rendition that is popular among the masses. Besides general, not-at-all-surprising political maneuvering and scheming, there really isn't one point in which it's overtly cumbersome as "ripping off" the award winning novel series, because a lot also stands to fact that history is just like that too. "There's powerful Houses that everyone has to watch out for and [other thing that I won't disclose because I think you'll get a better experience not knowing]" yeah and so did regular Europe back in the day, but now it's fictional and maximized to make an interesting story. Actually, Houses and clans are still a thing, I'd imagine, but have mainly been reduced to icons (but don't quote me on that).

Conquest, wars of successions, religious wars, whatever the Boston Tea Party is, power hungry individuals, people abusing power, puppet states/nations, and a lot of other things are historical events and writing tropes to be used as narrative devices. Whatever media you have consumed beforehand effecting your vision and enjoyment is unique to each individual and only influenced by that individual.

>>"The game has terrible voice acting."

Well, first off, show some pity on the voice actors. I don't know their full conditions but also note that the artbook lists that Triangle Strategy's art production was from 2018-2022, and well, a certain pandemic happened in early 2019. It was likely by at least September 2021 that they had finalized voiced lines because teasers were going out with used tracks and lines. I don't remember when the first teaser went out, I was only alerted by several people when Benedict happened because of my character brand, and that's the moment it was over for me to be honest.

But, disregarding that, I'm no expert, but I love how some voices were done. I can still distinctly hear what Erador sounds like, like Mr. Wingert's voice greatly helped define Erador. Sure, I do recall originally opening Triangle Strategy for the first time and listening to Benedict speak and he was very.... flat, but in a very specific way. However, now in hindsight, I have a great appreciation for that because now knowing Benedict, what else was he supposed to sound like? It has a different interpretation and understanding when seeing what's attached to who and how, and in early game with a lot of characters to keep track of that doesn't always click. But, damn, if I do not mimic Lionel every time I say "yes, ha ha, yes" like that's voice acting, it sticks like a tv commercial.

Even though I have thoroughly went off in a lot of directions, I just cannot cover everything. I am absolutely open for engagement if anyone would like further discussion about anything I didn't cover or did cover. Thank you for the ask, and I hope this helped in some manner.

#long post I spend like 2 hours typing this #Triangle Strategy #kimi no #please everyone looking at this PLAY TRIANGLE STRATEGY #I am not joking this is not ironic #be informed before playing #but my GOD play it #oh god anon I could've gone off for so much more #but I like physically cannot #but PLEASE DM me if you want more direction #actually anyone DM me about Triangle Strategy #I am locked in a glass cage looking out at everyone else having fun #I know this was not answered timely #so original anon is probably already gone #but I really do hope this helps someone #forgot to address how everyone hates the name 'triangle strategy' but whatever

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reflections-in-a-critical-eye · 6 months

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I am sorry I am going to disagree on a couple of these.

First, it was normal for pjms to be upset about jimin not winning. I saw them calling out that k account for misguiding k army. I don't understand how calling out fans for not voting = hating on jk winning. It would have been best to ignore them and let them deal with it, instead of constantly quoting them or replying to them with "You'll jealous jk won", or "you'll hate jk won" or whatever. No, cause what do people think the response from them would be?

Secondly, why are jikookers always in pjms' business but snoozing when jjks were tagging military accounts? Didn't see any of talk against it.

Everytime pjms or anyone in the fandom says "jm didn't get xyz" and others are like oh that's jk shade, ur hating jk, u hate jk's success or whatever. Can't even talk about jimin not getting something coz apparently now that's hating jk. I am so tired of jikookers and jjks.

Can we not twist everything into hating jk. This constant inserting of jk and victimizing him is getting annoying.

Do you want to know how I see it? I think both the previous anon that I posted and you (and a bunch of similar asks that I got in the meantime) are both right. What is impossible - because of the current climate and how a fandom works - it's more difficult to see it. For now, being in the middle of it, is about taking sides. It's a ongoing fight that sees no end and fans need to choose.

What you and the other anon are doing is simply expressing your views on the situation, which are determined by the online spaces which you inhabit. And again, you're both right. I'm not trying to say there's no factual reality here and each group/person is building its own (although we do that to some degree, but it's not about that), but that the things we see on our timeline shape our perception.

If I say that it shouldn't be a competition when it comes to bullying, harassment and hate towards an artist, I'd be reminded that Jimin has it worst (trust me, I know all about it). If I do take Jimin's fans side and how they see it, then someone will come and tell me that they are saying awful things about Jungkook as well. And when it comes to shippers, in this case jikookers, they'll take a side depending on who is their actual bias or choose the easiest route if they consider themselves army. Now, where does that lead us? Nowhere, because we'd be stuck in a loop.

From where I'm sitting, it looks like everything that is happening today is the result of the mentality bred by a fandom that operates like a cult and influenced by label propaganda. BTS is seven and all are treated equal brainwashed the fans in the first stage, which was the perfect recipe for solo fans as they know it is impossible. We all do. Army is following company narrative, as always. If the main goal was for the last 6 months to focus most of their attention on the Golden project, then army will follow. They will always follow. Of course they listened to that account who tells them how to vote. Of course they listen each time an army uses the solo narrative excuse. I mean, aren't we all tired of the same 20 words used in this fandom in different variations? It is a limited vocabulary, used by armys, solos, shippers and what like. It amounts to nonsense and nothing because of it and no one listens to one another. It's complete madness. And they all talk shit and they threat these guys in the most horrible ways when ultimately, I believe that at least in some capacity, that behavior is the result of how this fandom came to be in the first place and how the company has it in its grip.

#m thoughts #bts army #pjms #jjks #bts #hybe #bighit #bts fandom #I allowed both perspectives and shared my thoughts on each #I hope this is clear enough #i won't let this transform into a forum anyway #and let's put it to rest

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boundinparchment · 1 year

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Deus In Absentia - X [END]

The first time was a coincidence. The second time was a fluke. But the third time? You were starting to think it was fate. Or, more likely, a calculated trap.

Within a few days’ time, the world as you knew it was thrown into chaos.

Celestia wanted its control over Teyvat and the Sustainer would do anything to keep it. Even if it meant the deaths of every single living creature that stood in their path.

At first, you kept close to Dottore’s side, using your Delusion to the best of your ability. There hadn’t been time to properly learn but you took his warning to heart: use it too often, too quickly, especially without the mask to regulate exposure to the Mist Grass, and you would burn out before the battle was over. You held your own and even got a few good shots in that gave the Harbinger a window of opportunity. Everything seemed to be going according to the battle strategy set by Pierro and the Tsaritsa.

You weren’t thrilled to have the Traveler on your side, standing with the rest of the Fatui against Celestia. You were even less enthused to see that there were a fair number of Abyss creatures standing alongside the skirmishers and sharpshooters defending their homeland.

But it had to be done.

The Panopticon wouldn’t topple without a united front.

And then, at some point, the tides shifted. Other Harbingers fell. When a messenger brought news that the last line of defense before the Tsaritsa was broken, a difficult choice was laid at the feet of the scientist whose very technology was giving them a fighting chance.

You knew his mind was made up when he looked at you, when he hesitated for a fraction of a second, before he withdrew his Ruin machines and set orders for the throne room. With an ungloved hand to your wind burnt cheek and a stoic expression, he ordered you to stay behind.

“But—”

“It is unlikely the route here will be of any use now. Nothing but stragglers will remain. You will be safe here.”

Since when had safety mattered to begin with, you wanted to scream. The man who took it upon himself to learn the technology of a long-lost civilization, to make augmented humans, was citing safety as a priority?

Your eyes burned with fury and scorn but you were too tired for anything close to tears. Tears were useless here.

“And what of your safety, Lord Harbinger?”

“I am more than mere flesh, Archivist. I’ll be fine. Celestia will fall. And it will be my greatest accomplishment.”

He left you with enough resources, manpower, and machinery, and placed command of them into your hands. You, who, before this crucial time, had never touched a Delusion; you, who only knew the concept of war, its price and its consequences, in black and white text.

Hours later, as high evening crested and the Celestial Nail hovered overhead, you could still feel the warmth from his hand against your cheek. Shifts rotated and from incoming intelligence reports, it was clear the tides had changed and not for the better. One Nail already struck an important grain silo and the largest farm that served the main city. Without another source, stores would be depleted long before winter was out. A Sneznhayan winter was hard enough as it was. You did your best but it was impossible to ignore the ghosts of flat expressions behind masks and the lack of conviction against the stragglers that dared to come this way. Morale was shit. Dottore would have ruled with fear but that wouldn’t have been all that effective, either.

So instead, you tried to get their stories. You recorded what you could, as was your duty. Those fighting around you were people fighting for a cause they believed in, regardless of anything else. Their words deserved to be remembered, you rationalized, even if you were the last person to ever hear them.

_______________________

By the next evening, you and your remaining men and machines were relocated to the grand foyer to defend the throne room. You found yourself fighting alongside an Abyss Herald and a Knight of Favonius and tried not to think about how perfectly in sync you were with the Harbinger now probably sealed inside the room you were set to defend. It felt off to be pairing attack after attack with two individuals who fought so differently than the Fatui. Although…the way Childe used his blades was remarkably similar to the Herald…

For a time, the enemy forces halted. It felt as you imagined it might sitting in the eye of the storm while stuck at sea, the waves finally calm and the rain passing with a momentary respite of sunlight and warmth.

Temporary.

Fleeting.

The blitz was over before you truly knew what was happening. A burst of cubes, pulsating in a color that would make hellfire envious, unrelenting and overwhelming. You recalled a figure with white hair floating through the palace, hands glowing crimson, a flowing dress made of blood-red stars billowing behind her.

Asmoday. Sustainer of Heavenly Principles.

Her powers heeded her with a mere flick of a wrist. Everything, everyone, consumed in the name of control, of keeping the pawns on the chess board.

You caught a glimpse of the doors to the throne room breaking open before you, too, were swallowed and contained.

_______________________

Days later, when the Veil fell and the stars were bright and vibrant, you were one of the first to awake and investigate.

Actually, when you took a count, you were one of the first and only ones alive.

The throne room was devastated, the Sustainer impaled on a large ice crystal. The Tsaritsa survived, her Archon markings like cracks in the ice caps to the far north, fractures crawling up her arms and neck. By her side, the Traveler, cradling their long-lost sibling. The twins were the only ones with anything close to a smile on their faces. Envy churned deep in your gut. How nice it must be to see the one they cared for, safe…alive…

Nearby, Pierro, bruised and bloodied, along with Columbina, a limp Arlecchino in her lap. You spotted familiar boots or scarves or weapons, all unmoving.

You looked at the Tsaritsa again, unable to keep the desperation at bay, a silent plea on your face.

Her silence spoke every word she couldn’t. The Sustainer was gone, Celestia had fallen. Sacrifices were made.

Dazed, you looked around, your eyes unable to focus as you took in rubble, shattered windows, singed banners. The once-vaulted ceiling covered in a fresco was gone, the brilliant and real stars above sharing space with a dusting of snow. Nearby, the Little Dove began singing, her voice weak but her will resolute. It took you a moment to realize that the Ruin Guard nearby was not Sandrone’s, but another’s…

Your feet moved of their own accord, steps heavy. Pain darted through your legs with every step but you needed to know, needed to…

As you drew closer, you caught sight of a familiar mask, knocked off. Numbly, you picked it up, and finally reached the collapsed Ruin Guard. Near it, a familiar white shoe…and then long swatches of gray, and then pink, and then…

The figure coughed and you almost dropped the mask in your hands from the jolt of shock. You stumbled forward to catch it and crimson eyes, glazed over and unfocused in their moments, settled on you.

No, no, no, no…

Your body screamed in protest as you fell to your knees near the figure, throat squeezing in agony.

“See? I was right. You’re safe.”

Even at the precipice of life, about to fall over into the leylines, he needed to have the last word.

He made no attempt to move, other than his head and one arm to raise a hand to lay on you, and it wasn’t until you looked again that you understood why .

Flashes of silver, splashed with blood, caught your eye over and over. Reinforced joints, circuitry alongside muscle, parts easily replaced, enhanced. He’d managed to keep it from you all this time but then again, barring the one moment before the War, you never really asked, did you?

But if so much of his body was machinery, didn’t that mean…

Through tears, you realized that no, that wasn’t going to be an option. The connections were too delicate, important pieces looked to be all but obliterated. He couldn’t be moved and no one was even fucking alive to be able to…

“And we achieved perfection, Archivist. We are free.”

Dottore’s gaze fell from your face and up to the sky. You’d seen pure wonder on his face once, and only once, and you marveled not at the stars above, but the softness that came over him. You expected it to fade but instead, the hand on your lap fell limp, powerless and without a live nervous system.

Your screams pierced through the last notes of Columbina’s song as pain swallowed you whole again.

_______________________

The Age of Archons had passed. And with it, the shackles of the floating island in the sky. Despite the stars and clouds and possibilities, it felt…empty. Worthless.

You were given right and authority over Haeresys by the Tsartisa’s authority. You didn’t know what to do with the space, not when it felt as if your blood was made of ice and you wondered if maybe, maybe , you should just…

But every time those thoughts occurred, your hands were busy again and you were distracted just long enough to forget them. The Palace and the surrounding town needed to be rebuilt, leadership re-established, the people taken care of (especially the children, barefoot and without a family to care for them). You recorded the sights and the people but what good was collecting such stories if they were told? Stories existed to be told…it was why you ended up owning a bookstore to begin with…

That felt like another life. In a way, it was.

Eventually, the pain dulled into a manageable ache. It was never easier but it was better. You held storytime for the little ones previously taken under Arl’s wings, the orphans left behind, when they visited the Palace, taught literacy, did your best to match a child to a book like you used to. That was difficult now, with all of the destruction and damage.

One morning, you finally brought yourself to brave the part of Haeresys you’d been avoiding: Dottore’s private study. A layer of dust had accumulated, casting everything in a duller version of itself. You weren’t sure where to begin. Did you clean first? Did you take the papers and books and other paraphernalia that you would need for a more accurate picture? What of the vials, their experiments long run their course, and their results never quantified?

He’d never told you what to do if this happened. The bastard expected to live and he’d like you with…

Your eyes scanned the room again and froze as they fell upon a figure with red eyes in the darkened corner of the room. Power surged through your body as you called upon your Delusion, never far from your side now (and the mask awarded the privacy to hide puffy eyes), but you halted when they stepped into the stream of light cast by the glowing sky outside. And then they kept going, walking towards you, and you realized your eyes weren’t deceiving you. Same shoes, same clothes, same mask , hair, earring…

“That’s close enough,” you bit out, holding out a hand, elemental power curbed and waiting to be released.

“Are you the Archivist?”

Archons above, even the voice was the same.

“I don’t understand,” you said at last. “You’re dead .”

The figure you dubbed Dottore-Not-Dottore frowned, made a few hesitant hand gestures as he opened and closed his mouth to speak, and then held up a finger. He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a letter, sealed, and then held it out to you.

“I was given this as way of explanation and told to give it to one called the Archivist. Is that you?”

From here, you could just make out the familiar handwriting, your name scribbled across the envelope. Not Archivist. You .

“Yes.”

You took the letter and broke the seal. The sheets themselves were hefty, meticulously detailed. A will in all but name.

So he had anticipated this outcome.

When you were finished, you looked again at Dottore-Not-Dottore, and then reached up and unclasped your mask to reveal your face.

“So you’re…what did he call it, a Segment?” you posed. “You are him but not him?”

“I am a part of him from the Prime of his life, augmented to have my own will, my own power, my own thoughts. He purged the rest of us but left me here. Unlike the others, I am…what did he call it…, ah, ‘imperfect’.”

That didn’t make sense. He would have left perfection behind, or as close to it as he could get.

“Imperfect in the sense that I…am probably the closest thing left to the person he might have been.”

He removed the mask, unveiling the familiar scars you adored so much. But his teeth were dull, normal, and you didn’t recognize a hint of predatory fascination. Instead, he seemed…earnest, wanting nothing more than to be useful, to do something, to explore what the world had to offer. A man yet unbroken by the world.

You very well couldn’t just leave him here.

“Let’s go see the Tsaritsa,” you said at last, sliding your mask back on. “She could use a bit of good news.”

_______________________

Warmth in Sneznhaya was a rarity. So rare, it was almost impossible.

And yet, you were never without it.

With the Tsaritsa’s permission, you handed Haeresys back over to the Segment, who had a better use for laboratory space than you. Instead, you focused on putting together compendium after compendium, organizing notes and stories and filling in the gaps. When you weren’t doing that, you were building a makeshift library, something to provide leisure and familiarity to those who remained in town, now that food sources were reestablished.

Eventually, you returned to your shop, damaged and picked through and in need of so much care. The Segment made it easier and together you revitalized the place into something resembling its former glory and then beyond it.

Storytimes were brighter, if only because you caught sight of a familiar figure in the back, sticking his head out from the workshop you insisted be available to him. More frequently, he began making toys, of all things, and handed them out. The softness in his face was never achievable for the Dottore you knew. He would have happily terrorized the little ones to amuse himself.

You let yourself ease into a life with him, one filled with moments of excitement at a new creation or realization, of laughter, of light. It wasn’t the same, of course.

The first kiss was a coincidence.

The second one was a fluke.

But the third time? You were starting to think it was fate.

Or, more likely, a calculated attempt at happiness.

#fic: deus in absentia #dottore #il dottore #il dottore x reader #dottore x reader

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manynarrators · 5 months

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@fluctuating-fanby | 👀

You have opened a can of worms by allowing me tot talk and I appreciate it so much! ...I accidentally deleted the post but shhh... it's fiiiine.

First please enjoy a quick and easy map of how the Desert is laid out!

The capitalization is deliberate! It is a desert, but this one is specifically the Desert. It has some mild degree of sentience, and is protective over it's chosen Voices.

Each city is connected to route 800 through two exits, and this means that say... people in Night Vale can travel to Red Mesa without going through Desert Bluffs, just near to. Somewhere on the map is a secret, hidden 7th town called Radium Cavern.

A note on all the voices: There are 3 sets of 2. Red Mesa and Cactus park, Night Vale and Desert Bluffs, and Haven Lake and Pine Cliff (Radium Cavern is weird). The same applies to the towns themselves. Additionally, each Voice has two main people in their family, none of which are the same. (Ie. Kevin and Cecil have an older sister, Emory and Edward have a twin brother).

The impossible geography is never mentioned or made a note of. It’s treated as perfectly normal. So onto the the towns themselves!

Towns

Night Vale Central Horror: Probably surveillance mixed with some more eldritch aspects. Emotion?:Suspicion Voice: Cecil Palmer Distinguishing geographic feature: Flat, dry scrubland Common NPCs or other fun facts: Theseus Noble (weatherman— he and Ted are Doubles, Rian is not). More or less canon compliant-- in the particular AU where these cities originate, it falls to Strex.

Desert Bluffs Central Horror: Business Emotion?: ...Joy? Voice: Kevin Distinguishing geographic feature: sand dunes (The reason why Strex uses Kevin as their Voice, instead of killing him and replacing him with someone loyal is due to this! They nearly did his first re-education, until the city itself started to sink into the sands. Strex decided it was better not to kill him, and it stopped. The Desert is mildly sentient thing and it protects its chosen Voices). Common NPCs or other fun facts: Vanessa (radio intern), Ted (weatherman), Dan (Vanessa's brother, former intern, current mayor), Maddy (Kevin's sister), Jocelin (Maddy's kid), sometimes Daniel (producer- former human, under Strex made into a biomachine).

Red Mesa Central Horror: Space, to a smaller extent, aliens. Emotion?: Guilt (They took in a decent number, but no where near enough refugees and escapes from Desert Bluffs as Strex became more entrenched) Voice: Pandora (Probably the most well-adjusted one of them to be honest). Distinguishing geographic feature: Mesas-- the city proper is built on the largest one of these. Common NPCs or other fun facts: Zadie (would have been Vanessa's fiance. Left DB when Strex came), Pandora's father (schoolteacher), Pandora's Uncle.

Cactus Park/Stone Meadow (Eventually it will become Cactus Meadow, but that's still a ways off-- the art is discordant as a result_. Central Horror: Beauty (The reason it's split is the town itself is. Half of it values a sort of unnatural beauty-- everything is fake, plastic. There's a massive income of plastic surgery. Stone Meadow values the beauty in the natural world instead. The two sides do not get along). Emotion?: Disgust Voice: Persephone (alongside Kevin, they are the most physically altered Voices; she keeps her third eye closed, but can, if so desired, open it). Distinguishing geographic feature: Cacti Common NPCs or other fun facts: Persephone's father (Left the city when Cactus Park became more powerful. Stone Meadow through and through), Persephone's Uncle (Agreed with Cactus Park, powerful figure in community). For those who go under the knife, it's tradition to keep a locket of what they looked like before

Haven Lake Central Horror: Religion Emotion?: Devotion Voice: Emory Hable (he and Edward’s tattoos are both still. Edward because he is a ghost, and Emory, in the great flood, died very briefly… and saw nothing. No God, no Heaven. His tattoos didn’t start moving again). His tattoos are grey/white. Distinguishing geographic feature: The entire city is built on a lake. The original city suffered from a drought one year, and then there was 40 days and 40 nights of rain, creating the lake. The original city is long gone. Common NPCs or other fun facts: Lisette (Radio engineer), Rian (weatherman, Lisette’s brother), the other two or three (as yet unnamed) people who work at the radio station, Cyrus (Emory's twin and defacto leader of the city. Head of the church), their mother. Has a sort of vintage vibe to the whole city. The city has virtually no cars, but does have an incredibly refined trolly system.

Pine Cliff Central Horror: Ghosts Emotion?: Acceptance Voice: Edward (His tattoos are black vines) Distinguishing geographic feature: Cliffs! Pine trees! You would never guess it's inside a desert. Common NPCs or other fun facts: Edward's twin and their mother. The Doubling effect of the cities is why Pine Cliff is a bunch of ghosts and not wiped out, and why Emory is sort of perpetually caught between.

Radium Cavern Central Horror: Knowledge Emotion?: Pride Voices (a set of triplets): Cassius, Elijah, Penelope Distinguishing geographic feature: bioluminescent phenomena inside the cave the city is built in. The central bell-tower is called the Citadel.

#Kevin|character #Kevin|headcanon #Emory|character #Emory|headcanon #mute the sound|out of character #Rian has a massive crush on Emory- Lisette is aro and mocks him for it #Haven Lake is entirely hc #the others are (slightly) grounded in canon mentions #the stone meadow/cactus park thing emerges from #the wiki for stone meadow saying that #'It is possible Stone Meadow may have been an earlier name for Cactus Park as the two share the same sports mascot'#some definite Irish peacewalls inspiration there #the idea is that they're all essentially fragments of what would #have in an ideal world been one whole #the 7 radium cavern dots represent the 7 towns

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fukanouna · 1 year

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I watched Ghost in the Shell (1995 & 2017)

On a whim, I decided to rewatch the original 1995 film and watch the 2017 live-action with Scarlett for the first time back-to-back.

TL;DR - If you've never watched the original film and enjoy the cyberpunk genre with dystopian themes, the live action was a fun ride and I enjoyed it. Live-action adaptations of anime are usually poorly done, but as a whole, the 2017 film was done well. The world, the music, the fight choreography, and Scarlett's performance as The Major really made the film for me and is worth a watch imo. One of the best live-action anime adaptations for sure.

Now... if you've seen the original, the live-action makes questionable changes to the plot. (I'm not going to add anything to the topic of Scarlett's casting as The Major because it's already been said)

No spoilers.

In both films, the "ghost" refers to the consciousness and the "shell" refers to the body, and that The Major is a cyborg: a being with a human brain and robotic, artificial body.

Given that the original was released in 1995 when technology was still developing field and the concept of AI sounded like an impossible farfetched concept, the film's themes focused on identity and individuality in an advanced technological, digital world. The Major's shell was created from a cyborg manufacturer. She questions her existence, even her memories, arguing that if her shell can be created, why can't everything else? Is she her own person or does she have no freedom because her shell was manufactured? The Major is the main character, but she isn't the main focus: the themes of the movie are, and The Major is a visual metaphor to help express those themes.

Meanwhile, the live-action takes a different route. The Major is still a cyborg, but she's given a backstory. Her real body was destroyed in an accident, and her brain was salvaged and transplanted into an artificial shell, becoming a cyborg. The Major becomes the focus as she begins to question her memories when she begins to have glitches and what really happened to her original self. The themes on identity and individualism are still there, but the movie's focus is more about solving the mystery behind The Major's past.

Then there's the difference in antagonists. Kuze is the live-action's and the Puppet Master is from the 1995 film.

Kuze was never in the original film and the character is actually from the anime series, but he was underwhelming as villain who seeks revenge and is there to serve as a shock value to the live-action's very questionable plot twist towards the end.

The Puppet Master is a rogue AI that becomes self-aware of its existence and argues it has its own individuality because of its self-awareness. It hacks its way into a shell to further emphasize its newfound identity. Together with The Major, the Puppet Master brings in a different perspective on the film's themes.

And the live-action's plot twist... it reminded me of Jordan Peele's Get Out. I could see what they were going for, but because that's not the kind of story the 2017 film was trying to tell, the revelation came off as uncomfortable. Fans of the original say that they dumbed down the plot for Western audiences and that caused the plot to be a trainwreck. I have to agree.

But that doesn't mean I hate the live-action. They did an amazing job at recreating the Ghost in the Shell world with the CG visuals that still gives off that anime feel, costume design, and the fight choreo. The opening scene of The Major's cybernetic body being created is beautiful, and the scene with the robot geishas is always so fun to watch.

I also prefer Scarlett's Major over the original. The Major in the original was emotionless for most of the film and made it difficult to connect to her, but since the live-action was more character driven, Scarlett initially played The Major expressing little to no emotions then gradually becoming more expressive as the story went on. No doubt that playing Natasha helped her get into the role of The Major, as there are some similarities in the characters' personalities.

That being said, I personally can't decide which is better because each film excels in one thing compared to the other, but I'm willing to rewatch both films.

I can say the live-action is more digestible as a whole while the original is one of those movies that makes you think about its narrative. But I think the 1995 film is still well animated for being over 20 years old and that alone is enough to give it a watch.

#informal movie review #ghost in the shell #scarlett johansson #i know no one will read this but i really wanted to write out my thoughts #anyway i can finally sleep in peace now that all of my thoughts are out of my system

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pissfaggot-transsexual · 11 months

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tw like. descriptions of gore and suicide? but this is about a creepypasta-esque dream, so take thse with a grain of salt

i just had a dream with @onemossygoblin in it, which is cool, yippee! but also the dream was kinda fucked up and weird, and i actually managed to remember most of it, so letsa go

alright so it started with me and moss hanging out in an old subway tunnel, where we were enjoying the spooky vibes. the vibes got much spookier very quickly when we found a recently-made human corpse with its head missing, all its limbs removed sloppily like they were just ripped off, and although it was face-down (tho it didnt really have a face anymore lol) it was obvious it was gutted.

so moss takes this opportunity to be like "oh this reminds me of a video game that you might like, youre into fucked up shit, yeah?"

so anyway the dream fast forwards from subway corpse to me at a nondescript gaming console with the suggested game loading up. it starts with you playing as a cop (boo) and you and your partner are searching for some suspect. you wander around a parking lot, looking for the suspects car, before finding it and using some future-tech-shit to replay what happened the last time the suspect was in the car, which was a conversation over the phone with words that i dont remember, but that pointed to him being on the run. (side note while i was playing, I, like irl-lucid-dreaming-karl, was like "oh thats a massive privacy violation, acab" lmao)

your partner comes over, and you both search the car, you getting into the back seat and your partner getting into the passenger seat as you search. eventually, the suspect comes back to the car, and for some reason no one cares about this. he gets in to the drivers seat, and drives a bit before the geometry of the world starts to break down. the one main thing i remember was circling around a tree multiple times, but the tree was on the corner of a 90-degree turn, which made that impossible

after a bit, you get confused and worried, seeing as thats yknow, impossible. you realize your partner ad the suspect are dead in their seats, the car driving itself, your impossible route now taking you to a different world

the best way to explain this is that you enter a world thats like a fucked-up animal crossing. all the characters are cartoony animals (in particular, a fox, duck, and gator as the main characters) and the world itself is oddly vibrant in a subtly weird way

youre introduced to the main guys, the duck being established as an asshole, the fox as a chill dude (trademark), and the gator as the only one with any sense. the game is explained all meta to you by the fox, who shows you that this is a rhythm game, and youve gotta do good at rhythm games to escape back to your world. oh also its implied that these three purposefully brought you here just to fuck with you.

you do some easy songs, but eventually get to the duck's song. she's a dickhead, and is acting like you trying to escape is the worst offense you could commit against her. anyway I lost to her, and the game jump-cut to my character (or me, there was little distinction by this point) waking up in the duck's basement, blood on the floor, limbs recognizable as my own scattered around (though i still had all of them when i woke up, and there were like, more than 2 of my arms on the floor), and the door upstairs wide open.

i went through the door, re-tried the ducks song and failed yet again, the same thing happening. this happened a few times before out-of-game me decided that was a thing to do later

after some wandering around (the duck was the last song available to me, so i was just doing whatever) i figured out some Lore!

a fuckin while ago, literally everyone in the forest (youre in a forest) was in a fallout shelter, and came up to find everything immensely radioactive. it was so fucked up, that this section of the universe broke off into its own pocket dimension, and all the inhabitants were turned into these animals.

after that, my memory lacks until a certain 'cutscene' where the duck is trying to destroy your only way back home (it looked like some clock-tower place), and the gator is trying to stop her while the fox is for some reason dead on the ground between them. there was never any actual ending, but my brain did that thing where I just knew that you didnt make it out, doomed to that eternal loop of playing the ducks song and waking up bloodied (the ducks song was impossible btw)

thats all of actual gameplay i remember, so heres some extra details.

theres a character called "Dan Red" whos named that cause he has the name "Dan" stitched in his chest in red thread. he named his son a normal name like alex smith or something, because apparently he didnt understand how surnames work, and when you tell him this he gets very upset and kills himself

the creator of the game came to our universe (like irl, the guy that made the game) from a different universe where FNaF, undertale, and family guy never existed, but freddy, sans, and peter griffin were characters in a comic strip he made as a child

there was a short dream before this dream where moss was there again, but this time reccommending me a book where a guy gets eaten alive by giant insects over and over as he's stuck in a time loop.

i had some flashback-type segments about the forest before it was bombed and everything, and it was a nice place to be before, like genuinely in the dream everything felt much scarier than it was, and these short bits were welcome breaks

welp thats all ive got. hopefully im not over-estimating how fucked up that dream is and telling a really boring story. yolo i suppose

#karlposting #hey onetimeidreamt ive got gold here

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larrikin-is-a-himbo · 1 year

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My thoughts on Russian Doll: Rewatch Edition [Part 1]

I had forgotten how unexpected and jumpscare-y the first time Nadia dies is.

RUTH MY DARLING. HOW I MISSED YOU.

I could be at the best party of my life, surrounded by the people I love and who love me, and yet I would spiral into a sadness dissociation. Nadia is just like me fr. (I know the trauma was very recent but you get what I'm saying)

I love that homeless guy so much you don't understand. I don't care about the ex though.

Nadia, why are you sitting in such a vulnerable position when you've already died once?

It's actually so much interesting to see the people around Nadia slowly lose their sentience as the universe continues collapsing their reality. A great example of it is Maxine. You can see how much this timeloop affects everyone, best through her. There's subtle changes (maybe this needs a post of its own)

Love that she still thinks it's the drugs and not just the misfortune of being the victims of universe's educating spree.

I think something worse than dying again and again is dying in the same way multiple times. These goddam stairs.

Imagine being Maxine and your friend is just acting full on CRAZY crazy.

Giving new meaning to "It's my party, and I'll cry if I want to"

Going to the Rabbi. I think I would start going to priests/pandits/any other terminology used for them, if I was going this insane as well. I can't figure out if she's Jewish me or not though. As much as I can remember from my first watch, she's not. (I don't want to repeat the part.)

My favourite thing about Nadia, as a protagonist, is that she's not a saint, she's not likeable all the time. She has a lot of fuck ups, even if she's suffering at the whims of the universe. Normally, female characters aren't allowed to be raw and messy and human is such manner. Really shows you the difference in a show made by a woman and a show made by a man.

MY MAN IS HERE. Boy, you have a lot of loser energy but I love that so come here, baby.

"Like, if you weren't paying me, I never would've spoken to you" Wow. That wasn't even said to me and it stung so bad.

He has this deep sadness in him. An aching to keep his life in control, to be understood, to keep things as they are. It's an impossible thing to do, to accept that you can't avoid change.

"You fucked the gingerbread man?!" "Don't call him that." "YOU CALL HIM THAT." BAHAHAHA

Love the way Nadia finds Alan's name. Just based on the fact that he's uptight and way too routine oriented.

I HAD FORGOTTEN THE DOUCHEBAG NADIA MEETS ON THE FIRST NIGHT WAS THE GINGERBREAD MAN.

Death by electrocution. Jesus fucking Christ. That's horrible.

YES, MY BOY. Go completely unhinged. [<- Just threw his stuff like a normal person instead of rearranging it like a serial killer]

"Okay, check it out. I gave everybody here an opportunity to tell me I'm a bad person. Nobody did it because I fucking rule, so... there goes your theory." This is going to be my mindset for the rest of my life. Impostor syndrome who?

I love the little details since Ep1 of how this loop is affecting the real world. The people disappearing, the food rotting, the animals disappearing.

Going the route of making the main male and female characters a Weirdo duo >>>>>>>>>>

"I don't know who the fuck you are, I don't know what's going on here, but either you two suck each other's dicks or get the fuck out of my apartment." MAXINE THE QUEEN YOU ARE.

WHEN NADIA DIES BY RUTH'S HANDS IS THE SADDEST ONE SO FAR. I HATE IT SO MUCH.

"Nobody chooses me. I'm the hole where a choice should be." This hurt me. Hit too close to home.

The way Nadia is slowly being consumed by the grief of this reality of hers. Seeing John have his heartbroken again and again. It's just. Your grief just doesn't affect you, it affects everyone, it consumes everything around you. (I wish I could articulate my thoughts and feelings better. I struggle to even form coherent sentences these days)

"You created an impossible game with a single character who has to solve everything entirely on her own. That's stupid." "Watch and learn, baby face." This is what we call foreshadowing.

"I can fuck you better than Mike" My boy you need to be awake first.

It's about community and love and connections. And how we as social beings need other people to survive and thrive and be safe. In every way, the physical, emotional, we need people. We cannot be loners. That's not a viable way of living. The moral of the story is let others help you, believe that the world is a better place because you're in it.

Not just that but a sub plot (the building block to the major plot in S2) that no matter how much you suppress your inner child, no matter how much you try to forget them, they're still within you. You cannot take care of your present self or improve things for your future self until you acknowledge the child.

It's just, how beautifully it is shown the importance of human connection, loving and caring for others, why it is the utmost responsibility as humans to keep each other safe and well. Humans didn't come all this way without that love and compassion, and this recent trend of hyper-individuality has really fucked us over.

#Wish I was better at articulating how I feel and how something made me feel but I grew up in a hosue where we never talk about what's wro-#-ng but bottle everything up. be passive aggressive. and wait for all the bottled emotions to explode so bad. the people around-#experience the sting of our words so bad it's like carrying a shrapnel in your chest #Anyways #Russian Doll #Russian Doll Season 1 #Nadia #Nadia Vulvokov #Alan Zaveri #Ruth Brenner #Maxine #Lizzy #John Reyes #Jae rewatches

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desultory-novice · 2 years

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nintendo described rtdld as a remake not remaster, so it may end up going the super star ultra route. do you think maybe magolor land will have some type of game mode?

Magolor Land as its own game mode is interesting.

It looks a bit like a theme park, and we know Magolor does that as a hobby. So it's not weird to think "maybe it hosts all the mini games and challenge stages/races!"

But all the mini games were previously held inside the Lor. We've got new mini games on the way (and more classic ones yet to be revealed, perhaps, as the JP site makes special mention of including favorite mini games from past entries!)

We've also got a new copy ability, which requires a new copy ability challenge room. They could move all of these over to Magolor Land, but there is a problem with that...

Part of the charm of RtDL (and part of Magolor's character) is that he interrupts your journey to announce what new things he's built every dozen energy spheres you collect. If they remove that, the energy spheres become simply "collectibles" and we lose some hilarious insight into Magolor. (That he talks about being so busy fixing the ship when he's really goofing off, making mini games.) We also lose something that keeps Magolor in contact with the group. His little pop up dialogs help build a bond between him and the player that's necessary for his betrayal to really sting.

So it would impact the game rather dramatically to move everything over to Magolor Land just like that. Another problem is that... Magolor has no reason to build Magolor Land during the main game. The story he gives is that he needs his ship fixed so he can go home.

All this amounts to is the simple fact that Magolor Land HAS to be post-game content. It has to be. As to what that is, new mode or otherwise...

Something I've been thinking about lately is that it’s positioned on the box art the way the other stages of the game would be.

...

My wild guess is that the castle is a set of new stages.

RtDL always took a light touch with its story telling. Only one cutscene even has dialogue. If I’m right, I think after the standard end of the game (or whenever you meet the proper criteria for unlocking it) there will be a cutscene in which Kirby and the others awaken to find Magolor Land has appeared suddenly in Popstar!! Confused at this giant castle resembling the strange lying wizard they last saw disappear into Another Dimension, they go to check it out!

At the end of these levels, you are greeted with a second cutscene, setting up whatever post post-game final boss awaits!

After this, you get a second happy ending. One that includes Magolor.

Much like the novel doesn't explain all the secrets, I don't think there'll be a ton of new dialogue to accompany these levels. I don't think Magolor will explain (or at least, go into detail) how he escaped his fate at the end of RtDL. I think his sudden, miraculous reappearance will be played mostly for laughs.

Or maybe we could combine the “new mode” and “new stages” theory and say that after the game, you unlock the ability to play as Magolor, and the quest is to build Magolor Land. Or maybe...

...Hmmmmm....

So, you know how all modern Kirby stages all spell words?

"Magolor Land" (Well, it would be something like "Magolor's Manor" in order to fit the alliterative names of RtDL) begins with an M.

It feels like almost impossible that we would get enough new stages to spell out "MAGOLOR." That's as many as the original game! But FOUR new stages might not be too much to ask for...

Just a guess, based on the fact that the towers in Magolor Land are patterned after Marx's wings. Maybe it'll be a hint at who the extra boss of this post-game is! Or maybe, you play as Magolor and have to take your castle back from Marx!

(EDIT: You know what? Never mind this theory. Fun as it would be, I don’t think its possible to come up with a stage that contains TWO words both beginning with the letter X.)

That got a little rambly (everyone should know this about me by now) but TLDR, I don't think Magolor Land's going to hold all the mini-games. It'd mess up the original game's pacing.

I think it's either going to a new set of stages (with a twist) for Kirby and the gang (one that ends with a possible dual boss fight between Magolor and Marx) or a set of stages designed to let you play as Magolor.

The last option is that “Magolor Land” is merely a place to cram "Kirby's Dream Collection" in. It pops up after you beat the game, and as soon as you go in, you're greeted with Magolor's opening speech from Dream Collection!

It would be a little un-exciting, but welcome, as that game is just as hard to play as RtDL. It would also be the easiest route, as it doesn’t involve a whole lot of extra design work from HAL. (Doesn't explain the castle spires. But not everything that LOOKS like Marx has to INVOLVE Marx!)

#Kirby #Kirby series #Kirby's Return to Dream Land Deluxe #RtDL DX #Magolor #RtDL really is sublimely designed!#Magolor Land #:manifesting Marx + Magolor dual boss:#...I would accept a Betalor boss too #Dess Speculation Post

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somewhereinthepines · 1 year

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dunno if you were asked this before but what you most favorite dynamic out of all your supermassive ships?

i don’t think, that i answered it on such a scale before tbh. i’ve been asked about my supermassive otps separately tho, so like mmmm….

idk. i can’t say, that i have a specific favorite among all of them. each pair has elements that fascinate me, and while they all have smth that tangles them together, they’re also fundamentally different. i look at chris x ryan, and john x andrew, which at first glance is what i’m calling a caretaker + their silent, younger companion sort of gimmick, but they’re also go deeper than this, and there is very big difference even in how chris & john handle situations or how andrew & ryan react to things. how andrew will always be more pushy, and how ryan essentially can enter yandere mode, where andrew seem to be just kind of prone to violence of less motivated, less personal kind…..or even a big separation in how chris always tries to cling to imagery of a good person, and john is just kind of embraces the fact, that he’s not a decent man. still, chris somehow fucks up more royally bc of it all vs john, who’s just kinda goes with the flow lol. and then, the roles of who defends who in both ships are reversed. in the quarry, ryan canonically goes out of his way to pretend like everything around him doesn’t scream ‘my mentor isn't who i think he is'. it's so plain. so into your face, yet rayn being unresponsive, being abrasive. and then, he also gets hella passive-aggressive, once someone suggests that he's in denial (he is lol). in LH, it’s john, who canonically closes eyes on andrew’s mishaps and stunted disturbance, downright to forgiving him accidently killing angela (in some routes). i talked in more detail about john & chris’s differences and similarities here. but while they do share the same roots of dynamic, i feel like it evolves into its own category along the way. so honestly, even between those two, it’s kinda impossible for me to pick which is the most preferable or interesting. bc they both are! i'm a sucked for complicated pinning & favoritism, that makes person pick side based on their own selfish pref rather than logic. i love how creepily easy it is for ryan & john to endanger others, if it means that they can keep chris & adnrew 'safe and sound'. i love how this is their first, organic reaction. the quarry kinda messed it up toward the end, but y'know lol. it's the narrative point / the main intent, that counts with me. and where LH wasn't very shy about andrew & john being a 'thing' in whatever way, you might see it....like them being stuck together as oddly 'similiar' unlucky folks or as john being there to mislead you, well, they still were very *cross fingers* like that. in the quarry, you have to actually look a bit more closely to see how much of plot is revolved around ryan & chris's relationships. around ryan trying to save someone, who is in fact, was partly to blame for everything. but honestly, this is what i like about the quarry vs until dawn. at least, chris had someone, who did try to see the best in him. vs until dawn, where by unpopular opinion, i always stuck feeling like josh deserved better friends. i can't watch the prologue and not think, that aside from sam, the rest of josh's friends actually suck tbh. including chris, bc dang, he just abandoned him like that. for a girl..........so while josh did messed up thing, i struggle to feel any sort of sympathy for anyone, but sam in that game. naturally, some characters grew on me and chris was even my fav back at the time, but i don't and cannot respect a half-assed commitmet he showed josh. like man, be more like ryan, dude. point a gun at weird looking gal, that suggest that she's about to kill your camp leader. be like john, and literally ignore safety of everyone, but yourself and that one, young dazed student that you like lol. chris from until dawn is too weak for it. even non-existent dr hill was more devoted to josh vs his best bud. i mean, it kinda sucks, when your mental illness is the only thing, that agrees to keep you company, bc your bff wanna gets laid and just forgets about u. it's realistic tbh, don't get me wrong. but it still stings lol.

*clears throat* sorry, tangled lol.

anyways then, we have the other 2 ships, which are kind of opposites of one another. i mean, dulie & dalim do have similar narrative bits, esp since both pairs have power imbalance as its main trait. but where du’met x charlie will always be a predator/prey, with prey barely being able to do anything against its pursuer, in dalim it's never fully established, who 'controls' the situation in the end. bc realistically, salim would kick dar’s ass, if he saw so fit lol. and the funny part of their relationship is that dar is completely unaware lol. he seems to consider salim to be weaker, more naive and less likely to fight against his commands, since he's kind of a kiss-ass lol. it never occurs to dar, that salim can rebel against him. and if/when salim does, dar basically instantly gets angry/absolutely enraged with him, bc how dare he lol. in dulie, du’met kind of expects charlie to struggle and whine, and cower, and try his hardest, so he’s not holding it against him. he even humors him kinda. still, it's where the big diffence is. charlie is du'met 'prey', whatever intentions he has for him are always 'justified' inside his own mind. dar would only hurt salim, if he goes out of line. he won't randomly harm salim, or consider doing it, even if he might have such impulse. like, i do believe, that he does have them. still, where charlie being du'met 'favorite' means, that du'met would exact more pain and fear on him....with dar, it's the opposite. he would try to keep salim from harm's way, at least to some degree and he certanly won't treat him as poorely as he treats those other people, who are unimportant to him. canonically, out of the whole unit, dar only searching for salim. he's not sorry for all those wasted lives, it seem to barely register with him even. more so, he's actually allows salim to stick in the background for the most part, when he shots around like a maniac lol. it must mean smth comming from a war dog like him. also i must say, that dar & du’met, while both clearly sociopathic, still have very, very different stans there, not to mention, that even their sadism is kinda different too. not even in level, but also in how they apply it. they both clearly love hunting down people. they both enjoy the thrill of chase. but dar in a way uses his position, the situation he’s in as an excuse for it. while, du’met is just like that lol. salim & charlie are also opposites. there is SO very little to connect them by. besides, a very surface level things, such as them being the low-key hyperfixation/main companion for antagonists, and then how they both wander around with a lighter. so once again, its kinda impossible to pick between them, bc they represent very different things, and the characters themselves have way less in common up close vs the chris/ryan and john/adnrew.

taking all 4 ships into account is like examining 4 of your favorite foods. it’s not the matter of which you prefer more, it’s more of what you wanna eat at the moment lol. the silver lining of all my supermassive ships be that they all have a specific brand of fixation/care/pinning/longing for one another. and they usually all have smth, that makes it difficult to approach those relationships/feelings. at least, for one party lol. but it’s kinda impossible to shove them all into some check-box tbh. i mean, it will be very hard to fit let’s say, caring chris, who tries to be good to ryan, even when he scolds him, and dar, who backhands salim, the second he fails to answer him fast enough. or compare andrew, who can push john around and shut him up by mere suggestion of disagrement, and charlie who would most likely fell on his knees and suck du’met off, rather than risk invoking his displeasure. even if simply bc du'met is capable of murdering him lol.

so idk, i can't name the most fav one tbh. i love them all for their own reasons. not to meation, that there is so many ways to explore obsession and other bits, that i love in each ship in its own way. before, i assumed, that i might have a secret fav, but looking at it now, i don't think that i do, haha.

#asks #long post #du'lie #dalim #chris x ryan #john/andrew #and look josh is kinda there too in between it all lol

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glagger-true · 1 year

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Howdy dear reader! I'm your host Glagger, and today I bring you the ninth post of Password VN medal analysis series.

Much like its predecessors, this post SPOILERS FOR THE NOVEL. So please, if you haven't read the novel yet, and don't want to be spoiled, leave for now.

Scorpio, the medal of "Evil", Purpose and Honesty:

Scorpio is given to Dave in the hedge-maze by Roswell, on the final day of path A. Dave finds Roswell in the middle of the hedge-maze and, in most routes, he's on the verge of death, giving an envelope containing the medal and a letter to Dave after the hyena gives him Thanatos' body. In Roswell's route however, Dave finds him already dead and picks up the envelope to read the letter after he sets Thanatos next to the boar.

The letter contains the final words of Roswell, as well as an extensive apology in which he explains the reasons behind all the bad things he did, and why he broke the medicine inside the vault. He reassures Dave he's happy and has no regrets, despite knowing he would die in the end, satisfied in doing what was right from his perspective in the warped situation they got stuck in. He also confesses that the main thing comforting him in the end is the fact that he'll get to meet Dave again in the next universe, admitting he is scared of dying, now that he's at the end. Roswell also asks Dave to tell Flora he loves her if he dies before getting the chance to do it himself.

In Roswell's route, the letter has an extra passage, where he apologizes for leaving Dave so soon, telling him how he laid awake at night thinking about him as a child until his innocent crush turned to love. The boar confesses that his affection might have played a role in how much he wished to protect Dave, and that deep down, part of him hoped Dave would do the same for him even if it was impossible. He concludes the letter by thanking Dave for being his friend and also so much more than he thought possible, stating how bittersweet it is that everytime he thinks of Dave their time grows shorter since the hyena makes his heart beat faster, ending the passage with a goodbye and an I love you. Once the reading ends, a near-crying Dave realizes the medal is inside the envelope as well.

In astrology, Scorpio is categorized as the negative fixed water sign of the zodiac. The strengths of Scorpio are psychic and emotional, making them a strongly intuitive sign with strong psychic powers. Being highly emotional and secretive, Scorpio is a very suspicious sign that hates both revealing its secrets and the dishonesty of others. They can be very manipulative both to defend themselves and to search for the truth. Followers of astrology often misunderstand Scorpio as an evil sign, since it's associated with negative traits such as jealousy, competitiveness, tactlessness, dark sexual desires and an inclination towards the occult.

Astrologers believe that people born under Scorpio are persistent to the point they become borderline obsessive, which, combined with their intellect, can ensure they accomplish even the most impossible objectives. They are guarded and secretive, never revealing their true goals and objectives until they acheive them. Strategic and patient, their hidden agendas are very unpredictable since they are always plotting, manipulating and orchestrating, having no trouble in playing long games to get what they wish. Scorpios become fiercely loyal and protective when they love someone, unrivaled in empathy, commitment and devotion when they build trust with their loved ones. They will do everything in their power to keep their dear ones safe. This also causes them to be jealous and vengeful, never forgetting when someone hurts them or those they care about. This strong passion sometimes makes them controlling, which is why they can tend to end up poisoning themselves with their own stinger in their search for control.

The first planetary ruler of Scorpio is the old ruler Mars, who represents action, energy, drive, determination, passion and anger. While the modern ruler is Pluto, who represents destruction, regeneration and transformation. The combined influence of these rulers is directly responsible for why Scorpio is so ambitious, passionate and power-hungry for control, despite being a water sign. Scorpio has a strong ego, but also acknowledges the need to desconstruct themselves and reform better to get what they want and bring happiness to those they care for.

In Greek Myth, Scorpio is the Scorpion sent after the hunter Orion by the goddess of the hunt Artemis and her mother Leto to kill him, after he boasted to them he would hunt every animal on earth without fail. After Orion got killed by the scorpion, Zeus raised both to the stars at the request of Artemis, as a reminder mortals should control their pride. Another version has Apollo, the twin brother of Artemis, send the Scorpion after Orion out of jealousy because he earned his sister's favor by admitting she was a better hunter than him. The ancient Greeks also believed the Libra constellation was actually a part of Scorpio, making it the representative of fairness, civility, and justice.

The description of Scorpio's traits is almost a step-by-step description of Roswell as a person. He is empathetic, competitive, persistent, stubborn, secretive and strategic, also possesing an obsession with death and the occult. He is loyal, devoted and protective of Dave, to the point where he can be controlling and make decisions for the hyena without taking his feelings into consideration. He holds a strong grudge against Tyson for harming him and Dave in the past, seeking vengeance long after the events have passed. Despite his stubborn bitterness against the wolf, Roswell chooses to let the trust he has for Dave win out, and actively tries to desconstruct his preconceptions and behavior to make the hyena happy.

Roswell being the mastermind is also perfectly fitting with Scorpio's motif. He has the most hidden agenda of all characters in the cast, carefully manipulating events and people with his intelligence to acheive his secret goal of saving as many people as possible. The secret is so well guarded that only Dave finds it out after an unnatural power allows him to do so. Despite the murders and manipulation, Roswell fought for what he believed was right and tried to stand for justice and fairness even in a warped scenario where those things where difficult to see.

Roswell's letter also shows these traits to the reader. Not only does it expose the depth of his secrecy and manipulation, but also his empathetic devotion and desire to do what's right by the people he cares about. From him ensuring the medicine in the vault remains destroyed in all iterations by hiding the password to the vault so ill-intended people can't abuse of the innocent with it, to him openly confessing his selfless love for Dave as one of the driving forces behind his actions, the letter reveals all of the boar's qualities and faults, which all tie with Scorpio.

Finally, Craig comments that some people associate Scorpio with evil, but that he doesn't put any stock in it, claiming signs are just stars in the end. He also says that even though the person who gave the medal away is the root of all the tragedy, that doesn't matter. This parallels well with how most people would assume Roswell to be evil on the surface considering his actions, but in reality, he is very kind and does his best to do the right thing by everyone in everything he does. Him being the villain doesn't make him evil nor his medal an evil medal, and both are a lot more complex than black and white labels.

Banner was made by Xernok on Discord.

Artwork was made by https://twitter.com/Leo_Zeke on Twitter.

#password visual novel #password vn #roswell sinclair #scorpio #astrology #mythology #furry

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