I think the reason plot of The Raven Cycle is so hard to remember & describe is because you have the overarching series plot (finding Glendower, Gansey's death), each book's individual plot (waking the ley line in The Raven Boys, Ronan learning to dream in The Dream Thieves, exploring the cave & the consequences of that in Blue Lily, Lily Blue), and then you have the character's individual & pair side quests and characters arcs. There's just so much going on that it's difficult to keep track of if you're not interacting with it directly

Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance - Symphony of Sorcery

this is my entire stance on the "american food is bad" discourse summed up

if you mock children's theatre i hate you 🫶

You know when your friend shows you her favourite streamer and it's the most average looking white guy you've ever seen in your life and you're like "why are you obsessed with this man, he's Literally Just Some Guy?"

So, I've acquired Laios Dungeon Meshi and I get it now

Been a fan of your fics for YEARS. I was just telling my friend how despite how much I read fics I never actually love them, with some of your fics (especially TMA) as the exception. Felt the need to reread some of them and saw you reblogged some ISAT fanart. So. Any thoughts on ISAT you'd like to share?

Hope you have a wonderful day!! So happy I found your fics again!!

I avoided answering this for a while because I was trying to think of a way to cohesively and coherently vocalize my thoughts on In Stars and Time. I have given up because I don't want to hold everybody here all day and I have accepted that my thoughts are just pterodactyl screeching.

I love it so much. I have so much to say on it. It drove me bonkers for like a week straight. I have AUs. It's absolute Megbait. They're just a little Snufkin and they're having the worst experience of anybody's life. Ludonarratives my fucking beloved.

I am going to talk about the prologue.

The prologue is such a fascinating experience. You crack open the game and immediately begin checking off all of the little genre boxes: mage, warrior, researcher, you're the rogue...some little kid who's there for some reason...alright, you know the score. You're in yet another indie Earthbound RPG, these are your generic characters, let's get the ball rolling.

Except then you realize that these characters are people. You feel instantly how you've entered the game at its last dungeon, at the end of the adventure. They have their own in-jokes, histories, backgrounds, adventures. They get along well and they're obviously close, but not in a twee or unrealistic way. They have so much chemistry and spirit and life. I fell in love with them so quickly.

But Sif doesn't. Sif kind of hates them, because they will not stop saying the same damn thing. They walk the same paths, do the same things, make the same jokes, expect Sif to say the same lines. They keep referencing a Sif we do not see, with jokes we never see him make and heroic personality he never shows - they reference a Sif who is dead - and Sif can't handle that, so he kills them too.

They become only an exercise in tedious frustration. Sif button mashes through their dialogue, Sif mindlessly clicks the same dialogue options, Sif skips through the tutorial, Sif blows through the puzzles. Sif turns their world into a video game. Sif is playing a generic RPG. Sif forgets their names. They are no longer people with in-jokes, histories, backgrounds, adventures. They're the mage, the warrior, the researcher, and...some random kid.

I did not understand the Kid's presence at first. I had no idea what they contributed to the game. They didn't do anything. As a party member in a video game, they're a bit useless. Why is the Kid there?

Because Sif's life isn't a video game. Because the kid isn't 'the kid'. They're Bonnie. Bonnie, who the party loves. Why is Bonnie there? Because they love them. There is no room for Bonnie in the boring RPG that Sif is playing. And then you realize that Sif is wrong, and that they've lost something extremely important, and that they'll never escape without it.

Watching the prologue before watching ISAT gave ISAT the most unique air of dread and horror, because you crack open ISAT and you see the person Sif used to be. You realize that Sif used to be a person. Sif used to be the person who made jokes, who gave real smiles, who interacted with the world as if they are a part of it. And you know you are sitting down to watch Sif lose everything that made them a person, to lose everything that made them a member of this world, and turn them into a character in a video game who doesn't understand the point of Bonnie at all.

At the climax of the game, when the others realize that something is deeply wrong and that Sif physically cannot tell them, they realize that there is nothing they can do. So Bonnie declares snacktime. And for the first time they have snacktime.

What is snacktime? Classic JRPGs don't have snacktime. There's literally no point to a snacktime - not in a video game, and not in Sif's terrible life. It's not fixing this, because nothing can fix this. But Bonnie gives Sif a cookie and Sif eats it.

It's meaningless. It's a cutscene. It didn't save Sif and it didn't change a thing. It will make no difference in the end.

But it did make the difference. It made all of the difference in the world. Bonnie is a character who you really don't understand the point of before you realize that Bonnie was the entire point.

ISAT is about comfort media. Why do we play the same video games over and over again? Why do we avoid watching the finale of our favorite shows? What is truly comforting: a story with no conflict, or a story where you always know what is about to happen? Do you want to live in a scary, uncontrollable world, or do you want to play Stardew Valley? Do you want a person or a character?

When I beat Earthbound for the first time (and if you don't know, the prologue/ISAT battle system is just Mother) and watched the ending cutscene where the characters part ways and say goodbye...I felt a little bit sad. I wanted them to be together forever. But that's something only characters could ever be.

I promised myself I wouldn't get mired in the weird moral chaos that is bg3's fandom, but I have a legitimate question: for a lot of fans, is this the first time playing with Choose Your Own Adventure stories?

The writing seems to be classic CYOA in the epilogues, at least with the evil post-game companions I've experienced. If you roleplay someone happy with your choices, the game generally reflects that those choices were satisfying in the exact way you'd expect. If you roleplay someone who regrets your choices or has doubts, it usually reflects that you should regret those choices. Either way, the "reader" is given a predictable response in order to fulfill their desired narrative.

Don't believe me? Go through the epilogue and try to play a character who both likes and hates every companion or where they ended up. Some changes are subtle while others are more dramatic. A few quick examples, all from a single save: Playing a character who hates Halsin, though you romanced him, your conversation is short, civil only because Halsin is too mature to rise to your insults, and stilted. He's a distant companion that you've pushed away successfully.

Playing a character who loves Halsin and romanced him, the conversation between you is extraordinarily long and sweet, and you are written as dear to each other. It includes, potentially: sharing stories and teasing him about his more salacious ones, talking about his love of children (and them loving the bear), learning how he's settled into his new life, hearing about him finally finding happiness, being welcomed into his community, welcoming him to share in drinks, and even joyfully adopting an owlbear. This image is just the very beginning of it.

Playing a character who disapproves of Shar but encourages Shadowheart to follow Shar anyway, you get a zealot's lecture about how you're being naive, thinking that Shar's exploiting people, likely confirming your feeling that she's a lost-cause cultist now. The happiness in the conversation is one-sided (from Shadowheart).

Playing a character who is fine with Shar and encourages Shadowheart to follow Shar, you get a short, sincere thank you, and she immediately starts trying to bond with you. The tone of the conversation remains upbeat as she expresses how pleased she is with the church despite its difficulties and how she'd do everything again in a heartbeat.

Playing a character who doesn't like being an immortal consort, but ascended Astarion and agreed to it anyway, gives you an Anne Rice-like fight between bitter eternal lovers. You also get some petulant dragging of your friends.

Playing a character who loves being an immortal consort and ascended Astarion gets you the dark fantasy of all-powerful monsters in love, gleefully ruling and exploiting the world (along with your friends and probably each other) together.

These are all valid endings to the exact same story with very different implications for the future. It's easy to muddy the potential narratives if you try to hold all the unique, mutually exclusive dialog options together.

Remember, at the end of the day, this is written as a linear experience. Everyone's epilogue choices are self-contained in their own story, even if it's possible to reload and choose a different final page. Have fun fishing for unhappy endings if the drama gives the flavor you enjoy, or seek out happy endings if you want to feel fulfilled by your choices. Just know that not everyone will experience or want to experience the same ending for an otherwise identical set of choices in game. That's the cool part of getting to choose your own adventure.

resisting the urge to be annoying and ramble about how kieran's arc wouldn't really work if transplanted onto hop or wally without changing core parts of their own personalities + stories + motivations, essentially ( most likely unintentionally ) pigeonholing them as the " weaker rival " archetype despite how all three grow far beyond that.

me: ok that’s it. i am at my limit. no more high school bl dramas. no more enemies to lovers. no more secret crushes. no more bands or serenades or guitars or drums. i don’t think i have it in me to sit through it all again

my school president: 

me: .............. okay fine ONE more 

There is a very nice new bathroom in Eureka (not to pat myself on the back or anything, but I reckon it looks very nice). Andy seems to like it and has enjoyed many bubble baths over the last couple of days.

Best regards to Mr and Mrs Kaznove on the day of their wedding! Congratulations on tying the knot! One of these days, I might even draw you in the outfits you're actually wearing and not the ones I've been drawing since you joined xoxo

"From the moment I understood the weakness of my flesh, it disgusted me. I craved the strength and certainty of steel. I aspire to the purity of the Blessed Machine..." yadda yadda.

Anyway, Fafo's wedding present from me, her benevolent overseer, was two bionic legs (that she made herself). She is thrilled, and I'm definitely sure I won't regret using all my plasteel and advanced components to spoil my favourite body modder colonist instead of, y'know, building a ship to finish the game or something.

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The fascinating occurance of a misshapen egg!!

We read Ford's wiki and then got sad so now we're giving him a loving family. They're extrovert and introvert autism.

randomly thinking about how the anti "transandrophobia truthers" people never think trans men ever face misogyny, especially if they're out of the closet and can pass as a man, and i'm here masculine as hell and would pass to THEM but yet my voice gets me misgendered all the time, to the point during phone calls people will refuse to believe I am who I say I am because of the masculine name not matching up with the voice and so they always automatically assume I am my own sister or mother, and my own urogynecologist fully sees me as a woman despite my FULL BEARD and my bear of a body

like yeah totally i completely have all the same exact experiences and privileges as a cis man! /s

Edit: actually lol to make the point further, I am still here with the full beard and masculine attire and so I'm probably what they'd call "cishet passing" and yet when I go out, I am misgendered ALL the time now because of the combination of my voice, my long hair, and wearing a mask that covers up a good bit of my face. I'm misgendered more than I'm gendered correctly, actually. Like really blows my mind bc I will see these ppl call ppl they dont even KNOW irl "cishet passing" based on seeing pictures of them when that doesn't = reality and also that's a fucking gross ass term.

My friends keep making fanart for my stupid little stories and I've never felt love like this.

What do you think hunter and amity dynamic might look like? Are they always going to hate each other or do they have a chance to become friends

see, here's the thing; i don't think they hate each other.

i feel like that is.... a very common interpretation of their dynamic; where they both hate each other and amity still doesn't trust hunter and says only bad things about him and absolutely despises him, etc. etc. meanwhile in reality it's...... really nothing like that.

like, i love the idea of them having a playfully-mean/bickery kinda friendship, where they constantly tease each other about stuff and embarass each other and take playful jabs at each other. it's SO funny, it's so entertaining to think about. but at the end of the day amity... isn't actually Mean, like she's trying rly hard not to be, that's the whole point of her character development from s1 to s2; she herself says that she wants to be nicer to people like luz is. she definitely isn't cruel or hateful, or anything of the sort, like some amity and hunter content seems to make her out to be, so???

like, sure, they're definitely not FRIENDS-friends at the moment, they only really interacted in eclipse lake and then only as part of the group, so they don't really... have an established friendship dynamic.

like, for example, when it comes to willow and gus, hunter spent lots of time with them, serious situations as well as some fun/downtime moments included. they played flyer derby, they connected over personal stuff, they fought together, they spent at least a whole week bonding as friends and getting to know each other; they're close. hunter sees them as his friends and he still hasn't shared the truth about himself with them because he's that worried that they reject him for it and he loses them. he went his entire life having no people who'd genuinely care about him; he knows what that's like, and now that he sees how good it feels to have friends, he desperately doesn't wanna go back to the point when he was all alone. he cares abt his friendship with gus and willow, a lot.

and then, when it comes to hunter and luz, they didn't get to actually do anything fun and chill as of yet, all the situations they were in were, in one way or another, somehow related to survival or missions or fighting or running for their lives, but they're also very much visibly friends. it's hard to describe their relationship in short cuz it's FULLLLL of little nuances and the way it progresses is also so, so good; the way it seems like luz is the only one looking for friendship while hunter is only annoyed by it, even though deep down he still hopes to make a connection, even though he wants friends. the way he immediately drops calling luz "human" and starts calling her by her name right as he finds out the truth about belos. how they trust each other with their secrets, how luz offers hunter to stay at the owl house, how she never treats him as the enemy even when he's on belos' side because she knows it's more complicated than that, how they both went through a deeply traumatic event together and they're the only two people who actually understand what it was like. so hunter and luz's friendship still lacks those...... light-hearted "we're hanging out and having fun" moments but they very much are, also, friends.

now, as for amity and hunter, there's....... eclipse lake. they have a lot in common and they bonded while talking about their experiences as well, and amity offered hunter her hand (and really hoped he'd take it), but their interaction ended in a fight and, even though hunter was genuinely thankful that she gave him the key and he expressed it, they just...... didn't have the chance to get the closure about what happened. so while they're in the same friendgroup and, thus, friends by association, there's still something lacking before they can call themselves friends. (actually, just in general, i'd say amity is, out of the entire hexsquad, the most "disconnected'' person from the rest of the group... surprisingly. i feel like her dynamics with others could be more explored and it'd be beneficial if she got to bond with everyone separately as well, but that's a whole 'nother topic so.... moving along)

i feel like there would be some awkwardness/tension between her and hunter if they were to be left alone, since they hadn't had a real one-on-one talk since the whole eclipse lake situation, but once they got over it and maybe had some occassion to bond with each other more, maybe even find some mutual interests, they could definitely become friends.

and when it comes to all the "amity hates hunter and is suspicious of him and will never forgive him" stuff; even before, amity would trust luz's (and willow's and gus') judgement. i doubt she'd think he was still about to betray them or would be actively hostile towards him, especially not NOW, after everything that's happened. she sees what he went through, she knows his situation (not fully but frankly she still knows enough for it to matter and be worrying), she knows he's with them now. she's not distrustful of him, she doesn't think he's gonna stab everyone in the back.

i feel like post-eclipse-lake/pre-hollow-mind there might've been some bitterness left, from the fact that she gave him a chance but he didn't take it, and the whole fight, and what he said about luz, and just that whole.. situation; but even then, never like……. actual hate. amity saw (at least to a degree) what kinda situation hunter was in and could relate, saw how desperate he was and that he was troubled, and even when he WAS on belos' side, neither luz nor amity treated him as an "evil villain"; they were still sympathetic. i think, for example, in labyrinth runners she might've been a little suspicious of his true intentions at first, because she had only known him as the golden guard who'd do anything to come out victorious after all, but since willow and gus vouched for him and she saw that he wanted to help, she definitely didn't actually.. continue be distrustful of him. if anything, we saw alador accuse hunter of "being eager to return to belos" but nothing of the sort from amity.

so like, i feel like there might be some kinda unresolved thing between them and they definitely need to talk, and i DO love the idea of them having a very teasy/bickery dynamic, but there aren't any like…… held grudges or hostility or anything of the sort between them. just some awkwardness and unfinished matters. not friends yet but... possibly, in the future.

cas has... a lot to think about regarding tsuyu

watched the lion the witch and the wardrobe on a whim for the first time in years and MAN that cgi holds the fuck up