#other than that one episode Damien was basically a background character | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

heloflor · 2 years

Text

So I wanted to make a short thing grouping the SP seasons by “eras” along with a list of what’s in each of these eras (story elements, characters, topics) because I’ve been categorizing the seasons this way in my mind for a while and if I make a few SP posts, might as well share this.

Obviously this is a personal opinions and I’m sure there are many different ways to split the show and its seasons. Besides, I’m not good at recognizing American politics so yeah…

Era 1 : Seasons 1-4 + Movie

- The very beginning of the show

- The kids are 8 years old and don’t know a lot of things (they don’t see to fully understand religions aside from “we have those holidays and Kyle doesn’t”, they don’t know a thing about sex aside from Kenny, etc)

- Only a handful of characters have a personality and most are adults (Main 4, Tweek, Craig, Wendy, Bebe, all teachers/school faculty, some of the parents like Sheila and Liane, Jimbo and Ned, the Mayor)

- Cartman was nothing more than a bratty spoiled jerk and hated Kenny more

- Stan and Kyle were assholes

- Kenny dying almost every episode

- For some reason, while all seasons can have pretty crazy plots, the ones from S1 stand out more to me on the crazy/unrealistic level (aliens, mecha Barbara Streisand, the thing with the turkeys, Damien aka some kid being the son of Satan etc). But given how crazy shit still happens in recent seasons, I think it might just be the overall tone of these seasons being different ? 🤔

- It’s more about shock value than actual commentary (I think ?)

- Stories focused on the kids

Era 2 : Seasons 5-9

- What people call the golden era ?

- Still centered around the kids

- The kids are 9 and start to mature a bit but still remain rather innocent --> they still rely on Chef

- “Scott Tenorman Must Die” basically starts off this era by changing Cartman’s character into the monster we now know him as

- Most of the school kids become characters and some episodes focus on them as a whole. Most notably, Butters becomes a character

- Basically the birth of the “12 main kids” as I call them, aka the main 5, Craig and those guys, Timmy and much later on Scott Malkinson. They’re basically the names you’re most likely to hear if you ask someone who casually watches the show to name the 4th grade boys

And yeah you could add Kevin and Jason to this list but Kevin doesn’t have that much personality beyond the “he’s a geek”/”Kevin Goddammit” jokes and I’m not even sure if Jason even has a personality. Could also add David Rodriguez from “You’re Not Yelping” much later but aside from S19 he's more of a background character

- Most parents also get a set personality, most notably Randy

- The show becomes more satirical and a bit more political

Era 3 : Seasons 10-14 (more precisely up until “You’re Getting Old” in Season 15)

- Started off by the death of Chef, leading to the kids maturing more now that they don’t have a mentor

- Overall a direct continuation to the previous era with the main differences being that 1. Randy becomes a lot more prominent and starts having secondary plots and 2. More and more political jokes

- Tbh the line between what changes from seasons 8-9 to 11-12 actually feels very blurry, like there’s not one specific moment where the tone of the show shifts, hence why Chef’s death + Randy’s new prominence were chosen here

Era 4 : Seasons 15-17 (more precisely post “You’re Getting Old/Assburgers”)

- Still a continuation from the previous seasons but the personalities of the Main 4 are what evolves :

- Stan becomes cynical due to his depression + starts caring more about his image. He also starts having to deal with addiction and copes with it through board games

- Kyle is taken less seriously as the voice of reason (and starts being put on the side a bit by the other boys ?)

- Cartman chills out a bit (key word here being “a bit”) and seemingly starts seeing a therapist since T.M.I. (though it doesn’t really help, partly because adults in SP suck and partly because Cartman doesn’t seem to want to be helped) + later down the road (“Buddha Box” + the beginning of the first episode of S23 when he vents to Stan + S25), it seems that the trauma from all the shit that happened to him is starting to catch up to him. Also the episode “1%” happens (and I don’t think I know enough about psychology to talk about how Cartman acts in this episode)

- Kenny becomes less and less relevant and mostly seems to show up for episodes centered around him or the main 4

- The adults/Randy plots also continue

Era 5 : Seasons 18-22 (up until “Tegrity Farms”)

- The serialized seasons

- Starts with minor continuity (like in Season 6) with two-parters as a finale, followed by seasons 20-21 that are very plot-focused, before going back to minor continuity

- The stories seem more down to earth compared to the former seasons ? Like, crazy stuff still happens but the overall tone feels a lot more realistic. In a way, there’s that feeling of “man, life’s so fucked up right now that even what SP portrays feels accurate despite the show usually exaggerating everything”

- A lot more focused on politics and current events/how society evolves ?

Era 6 : Seasons 22-23 (starting with “Tegrity Farms”)

- The “Tegrity Farms” era

- Very focused on Randy, leading to the kids’ plots being secondary (with the second half of Season 23 feeling more like “specials” than normal episodes, probably not helped by the middle of the season having an episode called “Season Finale”)

- Less overall continuity (the events of the episodes aren’t back-to-back. Like we go from vaping to evil scooters to Amazon in Season 22. And in Season 23 we go from vaccines to vegan food to board games with very disputable “representation”) but the stories still follow the trend of the previous few seasons

Era ??? : Season 24 + Post Covid/Return of Covid

- The Covid era

- Not even sure if it can be considered an actual era “within the continuity”, it’s more like a parenthesis to talk about Covid before going back to a South Park where Covid “doesn’t exist”

- Nothing much to say here, it’s South Park’s take on Covid (with the bonus of seeing the future that awaits those kids, which was pretty neat and open some very interesting doors for fics)

Era 7 : Seasons 25-…

- Current era

- So far, looks like they try to go back to what we had in former seasons with the kids doing kids’ stuff, though the adult characters are still majorly present

- Not that much Randy/Tegrity farms overall but random other adults

- The adults might be a way to have a take on political stuff while keeping the kids out of it ?

- Still keeping minor continuity, with no serialization but plot points changing the status quo (Cartman and Tolkien moving)

- We’ll just have to wait and see what comes out of it ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

#South Park #SP #sp seasons #Flor talks #long post #just a little something I wanted to share #(I can't help but feel like I terribly described how Ky//le changed in the Era 4 part but I just really don't know how to describe it...)

3 notes · View notes

spaceorphan18 · 5 years

Text

Finding Kurt Hummel: The Purple Piano Project

Masterpost

3x01: The Purple Piano Project

Welcome to Season 3! I’ll try not to whine too much while we’re here, lol :)

The season starts out on a relatively high note, however, making the whole thing feel a lot more promising than it ended up being. This episode is fun and quirky and there are a lot of pianos for Kurt to drape himself on top of!!

Future Plans

So – we start off the season much like season two – Ben Jacob Israel going around and harassing everyone about their summer vacations and future plans.

Do you see the set up of this shot, guys? Rachel chattering in the front while Kurt tries to be distracting in the background? Well – get used to it, because this Hummelberry dynamic is going to drag us through the next two years, guys, lol. No really – I enjoy Hummelberry in this episode, I do. But we had no idea this was a set up for (I’m sure someone will argue me on this) the worst Kurt arc on the show – Getting into NYADA. And, unfortunately, the Hummelberry dynamic (or more so the writer’s obsession with Rachel not being able to fail at anything) plays into that.

Probably going off a rush of a summer where all they talked about was going to New York, Kurt and Rachel have all their future plans figured out. They’re going to get a little apartment on the Lower West Side (yeah, sure), Rachel’s gonna be a big Broadway star, and Kurt’s gonna be married (legally!!!) by 30. Yes – think about what is said here, I know Kurt has Broadway ambitions, too, but I find it funny that his dream aspirations include getting married.

There are two key things I’d like to point about the whole marriage thing. Kurt says by 30. As we find in this season – not before 30 cause that is Too. Young. But also. Yes. Kurt Hummel wants to get married. And I’m pretty sure he already knows who his groom is going to be.

But anyway, thinking about season 2, and how that started in such a dark place for Kurt, here we have the opposite – bright and shining optimism. Oh, kiddo. This really can only go down, can’t it.

Purple Pianos

Kurt: Why’s the T-Rex eating the Jew?

It’s exposition dump time! As we get filled in that the Glee Club remains uncool after the Nationals debacle from last year. Kurt gets his share of funny lines as we get filled in.

Meanwhile – the glee club is three men down; Quinn pissed off the writers again, Lauren was fired, and Sam just couldn’t work out a contract deal. So – Will gets the idea that placing purple pianos everywhere would inspire new people to join the club. I’m not entirely sure how purple pianos are inspiring, but like Kurt, I’m totally on board with the whole thing.

As seen in the background, the moment he can, he gets himself up and draped over one of the pianos.

See – look how adorable he is on that piano!!!

Anyway – Will bores us with another inspiration speech that means mostly nothing since no one joins glee club anyway….

NYADA – School for Witches

Lol – oh Kurt, you’re making the best faces in this episode so far….

First of all, let’s talk about the fact that Emma thought he and Rachel were dating (omg!), and the fact that he actually takes the pamphlet about ‘Me and My Hag’ (Lol). Secondly, let’s talk about these sillies not doing their research on how Julliard is not a musical theater school. At least Emma is doing the job she’s supposed to be doing in this episode!

And then she steers them in the direction of New York Academy of Dramatic Arts. Oh NYADA and my distaste for you begins, lol…. So, this particular school only takes 20 students a year. Hmmm… Looks a lot bigger than that in season 4 but whatever. And the chances that two people from the same school and graduating year getting in? Doubtful. But this is Glee, so here we go!

Competitive Spirit

It’s the first day of school, and Blaine is still a Warbler, but his resolve is crumbling because Kurt is very persistent (and flirty and adorable) in this scene. You know there’s some interesting meta floating around about this scene recently – about their competitive nature and about how Blaine really isn’t /that/ competitive, but Kurt totally is. He doesn’t mind it at all, really, which means, in a way, that they’re on equal footing. Ah, how that is all about to change.

But what Kurt really wants is for Blaine to be around all the time so they can spend every minute of every day together. Oh, Kurt. Be careful what you wish for. But also – interestingly – they spent all the time together back when Kurt was at Dalton, and Kurt wants that little fairy tale to continue by bringing Blaine over to McKinley. It’s obvious they talked about this at length over the summer, but I wonder what Kurt’s (more serious) arguments were for getting Blaine to come to public school.

But anyway – the fun stuff – just how adorable and flirty these two are here! Hands might not have wandered south of the equator, but they were definitely up to stuff over the summer!

We Got the Beat

I’ve always thought Kurt was very pretty in this scene.

I should probably have more profound analysis.

Well, there’s not much to say, other than Kurt’s used to being bullied by the school, and he’s not about to make himself a target by getting up and singing on the lunch tables, no matter how pretty the pianos are.

Year 3 and Kurt’s still an awkward little dancer. <3

This song is nice and fun and energetic. Not really a favorite of mine, but man, what does it take to get this school into anything? Geez!

You know, for someone who is so particular about their clothes – I’m sure this is like the zombie apocalypse. Poor Kurt. I love the food ray shield.

You know, never once in all my schooling did I witness a food fight.

Kurt is just not having it.

Kurtcedes lives! If only to pass along exposition. And to exchange bewildered looks as Sugar sings her god-awful song.

You know it’s funny – I never noticed how seasons 2 and 3 (and 4 actually) openers have plotlines of – let’s open up glee club for everyone! Except not really because we’re a seclusive little bunch.

Velma and Roxy

Small town is small after you’ve been to the big city. But Kurt has a plan, that they’re gonna out preform all the other Ohio hopefuls so they can get a shot at their dreams. I think, for the first time, I kinda get the purpose of this song (other than the blatant relation to Wicked and connection to season 2), but that they’re already counting in their victory against all the other hopefuls. They’re putting their cart before the horse.

Say what you will about Gay Hogwarts, NYADA does attract the witches….

The song itself is a little ridiculous but the performance is wonderful. I love the choreography of this one. And as always sound fantastic together, and this performance is no exception. Say what you will about how Hummelberry was written – and I will say a lot over the next two seasons – Lea and Chris’s voices suit each other wonderful, and the show seems to latch on to that pretty well.

Transfer

Not exactly a pic of Kurt, I know, but Blaine’s so frickin’ gorgeous in this scene. And Kurt thinks so, too!! Look at that grin!

But I’m kinda fascinated by this, now that I think of it, how Blaine’s all – check me out Kurt – in this kind of suave way. And, oh Kurt, kind of caught up in his own drama to even notice that his boyfriend’s one outfit has changed.

But, just, the excitement Kurt has when Blaine’s decided to transfer. OMG! the boy is so happy.

I love that Kurt has concerns – and they are so totally valid. Blaine did transfer to be with Kurt, and that’s going to play a part in some of their bigger issues. But for now, they can reveal in their happiness and not think at all about nasty, nasty break ups.

And – getting Blaine into New Directions. But since the only competition is Sugar, there really isn’t an issue here.

Oh Kurt – so giddy that he’s once again getting sung to in the courtyard. Can this year get any better?!?!

Everything’s great util you light the piano on fire.

Velma and Roxy II

Kurt and Rachel are so ready for this NYADA mixer! Only to find out that while at McKinley they might be special snowflakes, in the real world, they’re a dime a dozen. I like the reality of this scene, tbh. That you can give your 1 in a Billion speeches all you want, there’s always going to be someone else who seems like they’re more talented than you. There are a lot of things Glee misses the mark on when it comes to college. Or theater. And this scene is a bit over the top. But it does show that, hey, there are a ton of people trying to make it the same as you – and so you do have to ask yourself – do you have what it takes to compete? Or do you just walk away.

I think now’s a good time to bring up the Glee Project. I never watched it, tbh, so I can’t judge what kind of a show it was. But I’m not a fan of the results of the Glee Project. And I don’t mean who won and who didn’t (Damien McGinty? Really?). I mean that I have lots of problems with season 3. But I think one of my biggest is that a show with a cast already overflowing now has to shoehorn these winners into the plot. (I mean, think about how much space the show would have had without Rory) Outside of Unique, I’m not really a fan of the characters that grew out of the Glee Project.

That said, Lindsey Pierce was one of the winners, and her little moment to shine here seems perfect enough. She’s a great vocalist, and I’m incredibly impressed by what she does here. This performance is excellent.

Anyway – going back to Kurt’s story. It’s kinda hilarious how perfect a song choice this is – this group of kids basically stating that anything you guys can do Kurt and Rachel, we can do better. Oh Glee with all its subtleties.

So. Kurt and Rachel make it back to the car and break down crying because that’s what happens when your optimistic view point gets smashed. Poor kiddos.

And then we get Kurt gives Rachel a pep talk v.2.0 (yes, i’ll be numbering these). And it’s similar to the Born This Way talk – that Rachel is good enough to get in because she’s still special. The thing, though, as much as I joke around, is that I do honestly like this scene. Because Rachel is in Kurt’s corner, too, supporting him even though he’s down on himself for lack of extracurriculars. The scene is a balanced one, where they both pull each other out of this dark place, and I can really do Hummelberry when this kind of thing happens.

Gay High-five!!

You Can’t Stop the Beat

Oh, I have waited so long to screencap this. There’s a gif out there that’s even funnier though.

Anyway – there’s a ton crammed into this little scene. Blaine joins glee club, which is yay!! But c’mon, Finn, you’re seriously having issues with Blaine possibly taking the spotlight when you and Rachel get all the solos? And Santana’s out for the week. Why is she only out for one week? Who knows. And then, finally, Kurt’s feeling ambitious and running for Student Body President, and Blaine’s super proud of him. Can’t you tell by the still above?

But the moral of the story is you can pull all of the strings out of the purple piano but you can’t pull out it’s music. Or, er, something like that.

Kurt’s feeling light and airy after that handjob. Oh, wait, nope.

It’s funny, I think this episode still holds up. It’s crammed full of things, almost to a fault, but is still funny and endearing and services all the storylines it’s going to be presenting during the first third of the season. I still really enjoy this episode even if season 3 goes mostly downward for me from here.

It’s Season 3 people. Bam!

#finding kh #for some reason this post was tagged and taken down #who knows #but it's back now!

9 notes · View notes

lethesomething · 6 years

Text

The definitely not definitive otome guide

I sincerely doubt the world needs this, but that sort of thing has never stopped me before. Have an extremely biased guide of several dating sim games, organised by some arbitrary metrics.

Word of warning: this will be long (4k words), because I've played an embarrassingly large amount of otomes.

As a disclaimer: obviously this is a personal opinion. If you (as a lot of people do) enjoy the more forceful bad boy type in your dating sim, I’m not going to judge you. I, however, don’t, so this list is very specifically going to call out games for how they treat the protag.

Featured here: Amnesia: Memories, Blood in Roses, Cutie Demon Crashers, Destined to Love, Dream Daddy, Hatoful Boyfriend, Hustle Cat, Ikemen Revolution, Ikemen Sengoku, Lost Alice, Midnight Cinderella, Monster Prom, Mystic Messenger

A note on play styles.

These games come in a few flavours, which is important to know if you're gonna try them.

The vast majority of the mobile games here follow a basic visual novel structure. You pick a guy and read through the different chapters, and depending on your answers you'll be leaning toward one of two or three endngs. Since these are free to play mobiles, there's a bunch of challenges you will need to log in daily to pass.

Mystic Messenger is the main outlier, since it's a chat simulator that plays in real time.

The pc games tend to be more complex, with interlocking routes and more endings, generally. You'll need a number of skill points to meet character A for instance, or you'll need to do a series of actions to reach ending B.

Great games

Ikemen Sengoku

Hands down one of the best mobile otomes out there right now. I found this when searching for pics of Masamune Date (from a different game) and I've sort of been obsessed with otomes since.

Platform: Android (free to play, pay for premiums) Story: MC gets sucked into a wormhole and finds herself 500 years back in time, in Sengoku era Japan. She drops in on the exact moment where Nobunaga Oda, the Demon King, would be assassinated at Honno-ji. She stops the murder, disrupts the timeline and now there's a bunch of hot warlords vying for her attention. Protagonist’s spine: Reinforced steel. This is one of my favourite protags, because she is Super Sassy and doesn't take shit, unless she's literally being threatened with a sword. The protags where I feel like I understand their actions are few and far between, but this is one of them. Except when she goes far beyond mere bravery to get her man, and decides to forgo tampons and, like, wifi, to live 500 years in the god damn past. Squick factor: Low. This game is made by Cybird, a company that appears very big on consent. The guys generally treat MC with respect, probably more than could be reasonably asked of a Sengoku warlord. The only worrying stuff happens in the Obvious Yandere route, but you kinda know what you're getting yourself into with that one.

The Good: I friggin love the writing for this game. The guys feel like real characters, there's a ton of interaction between them and I need to give this game extra points for the story events, which are almost invariably gold. This is where the makers stop giving a shit about realism and just go for what they want to write. There's ones where all the guys are suddenly idols, there's a Christmas episode, there's one where they battle through cooking and cleaning. It doesn't take itself serious, is what i mean, and it's Hilarious. The Bad: This is one where the in-game art (aside from the CG's) is actually not that great. Hideyoshi's smile is kinda weird looking and the models feel a little outdated at this point. Best Warlord: This is very difficult, because a lot of them are dreamy, but let's just say that I need a Mitsuhide route so very badly.

Ikemen Revolution

The newest Cybird game and my current fave.

Story: MC falls down the rabbit hole when she tries to give a rushed White Rabbit man something he dropped. She ends up in Cradle/Wonderland, where war is about to break out between the Red and Black army, the Hearts and the Spades. Everyone is hot dudes and MC is considered Alice the Second (after the one from Through the Looking Glass). Squick factor: Low. Again: Cybird game. This means there is steamy situations and sex scenes, but they're blatantly consensual. The routes I've played so far keep well within the bounds of what I would consider romantic. Protagonist’s spine: Varnished wood. In general MC is self-propelling with occasional bouts of bravery. You can tell why she's doing the things she's doing and how she reacts to situations feels sort of logical. She's hard-working and caring and a little naïve, but the fact that she's canonically a woman from early 19th Century London does put a lot of her actions in perspective (like the amount of bullshit she puts up with).

The Good: The writing is fun. There's a good mix of angst and just… general comedy. The characters interact with each other a lot, and it feels like they're a big loud family, especially in the Black Army, which is more like a frat than anything else. The art is also decent. The backgrounds are utterly gorgeous and most of the guys are very good looking. When I first started the game I was weirded out by the blinking animation, but I have since gotten used to that. The Bad: I found some of the plot rushed. Like you spend so long slow burn growing toward each other, and then suddenly stuff has to happen action movie style because we're running out of chapters. The final chapters of Fenrir's route were just plain dumb. Like could that BE more of an obvious trap. Come on MC, I expected better of you. Also, since this is a very new game, not that many routes are out (four at the time of writing). Best boy: Hooo man. Of the routes that are out, Ray is very… oooof. But my fave chars are probably 'so done' Sirius (the fact that he's voiced by Suwabe has nothing to do with this, surely) and 'also quite done' Kyle, who is both a doctor and an alcoholic wreck of a human being.

Mystic Messenger

You know Mystic Messenger, it's like one of the biggest otome's of the past few years.

Platform: Android, iOS (free to play, pay for extra saves and stuff) The Story: MC follows a text message to a weirdly high tech apartment and this somehow puts her in the position of party planner for a secretive group of weird people. It only gets more complicated from there. The game plays out in real time, via chat conversations and the occasional story segment. Squick factor: Um. I personally wasn't weirded out, but I also decided very specifically not to play Jumin's route. This girl did her research. The routes in Another Story are also very over the top and would probably bug me. While I love the Saeran character, I don't think I'd be able to handle that route. So: highly dependent on chosen route. Protagonist’s spine: Adderall. It takes a specific kind of person to download a chat app and follow the instructions given by a random stranger therein. It takes a much stranger person to sit in an apartment with a bomb and just keep inviting people to a party. MC is on a different level from us mortals.

The Good: I loved the game mechanic, because it felt very real. The player is following a chatroom, just like the character is. Besides that, the story is completely bonkers and I appreciate that. The Bad: Did I mention it plays in real time? Because it plays in real time, meaning you get chat conversations at two in the morning. I was very sleep deprived when I played this. Best boy: 707. Dude is funny and deep and hot and relatable and smart and I want to give him all the hugs.

Dream Daddy

One of the few decidedly mlm games I've played so far. You've probably heard of it since it was the subject of much hype and much controversy. Markiplier played it. Friggin Buzzfeed has video's on it.

Platform: PC and Mac (it's on Steam) The Story: MC is a Dad who moves into a neighbourhood with a lot of other single(-ish) dads. Time to work it. Squick factor: Low. This is primarily a humour game: there's a ton of dad jokes and silly mini games, and a distinct lack of kabe don's. The canon routes are all very thoughtful. Protagonist’s spine: Barbecued sausage. Player Dad just goes for it. He’s flexible and caring enough to handle the more sensitive subjects, and self aware enough to deal with random crime and weird drunks.

The Good: I remember opening this game and, in the character creation screen, telling a trans friend of mine 'omg you can wear binders', and the sheer Glee of his reaction. That's the kinda stuff this game was, partly, made for and it is appreciated. I really liked the tongue-in-cheek writing, most of the jokes landed and the whole thing is just a lot of fun. The Bad: Some of the minigames are annoying. Why the hell are you making me play Bejeweled with fish? I also had a hard time sympathizing with some of the kids. I mean… Lucien straight up tries to murder someone? Ernest is 'rebellious' but he's also an ass. Best dad: Damien has the best route, but have you Seen Mat? Holy moly.

Not worth it games

Amnesia: Memories

This game should come with a friggin warning, so I'm giving it here. Its popularity and star rating is a terrible indicator for how much you may enjoy this game. It presents itself as a cute dating sim with gorgeous art, but it devolves into straight up horror, and not in the good way. This feels like a guidebook written in the 1800's to tell young women their place. Not even mortified intrigue could make me finish this.

Platform: PC (Steam or Google Play) and PlayStation Vita Story: MC wakes up with amnesia. Someone hurt her and she doesn't know who to trust. You'll need to figure out what happened. Squick factor: Super high. Like… so high. Everyone treats MC like shit and she just lets it happen, even developing all kinds of Stockholm Syndrome as she falls in love with these asshats. MC's childhood friend supposedly loves her but is such a tsun and just… doesn't communicate while also treating her like a small child. One of the other characters is so popular he has a fucking harem but MC is just supposed to wait for him to actually fall in love with her. And don't even get me started on that friggin yandere. *shudders* Even the secret route 'true love' character is a million types of wrong. Protagonist’s spine: Undercooked custard. MC has the self preservation skills of a wet sponge and whoever is playing this is supposed to get turned on by high concept ideas of S&M that are just written out so badly everything feels like an abusive relationship.

The Good: *sigh* The art. The art is very pretty (I'm upset at the art since it sucked me into the horror). Also, as a visual novel, this one is complex as all hell. There's a ton of endings (most of them deadly) depending your actions as a player. It's vast, is what I'm saying. Also, I hear the clover route isn't as bad as some of the others, but I was too weirded out to try. The Bad: See rant. This is one of those games that really seems to glorify the whole possessive, abusive boyfriend shtick, but it's ok because he loves you, really. Ugh. Just… ugh. Best boy: Kent? I guess? He doesn't appear to be actively abusing MC at least.

Shall we date: Lost Alice

I wondered if I should include this because I literally played like ten chapters and then deleted it, but that in itself should give some indication.

Platform: Android (free to play, in-app premium purchases) Story: MC wakes up in the forest with amnesia (I see a trend). Turns out she's in Wonderland and everyone thinks she's Alice. Most of Wonderland's characters are, predictably, hot men. Squick factor: Unavailable. I didn't play far enough to see but some of the men are quite pushy and also it's a Shall we date app, so… tread carefully. Protagonist’s spine: Cement. This is an MC that puts up a fight, which I respect. Sadly she does so in that 'needlessly aggressive' way that anime characters sometimes have. I didn't find her particularly sympathetic.

The Good: The art. It's always the art that gets me. The Bad: The UI annoyed the shit out of me. This is a free to play, pay for premiums game, so some level of mindless clicking is expected if you try to play for free. This one had just too much. There was friend greeting and picture rating and princess lessons and got knows what else, all taking a ton of time. Trying to get to the home page popped up at least four different 'now on sale' screens every single time. The writing wasn't good enough for me to deal with that. Best boy: Well there’s a cat. So.

Decent games

Hustle cat

This game is set in a cat café, that was all the encouragement I needed to buy it.

Platform: PC (Steam) Story: MC is invited to take a job at a cat café. Turns out everyone in the café is cursed, and also they're into you. Squick factor: Almost non-existant. This is a very tumblr friendly game in the sense that your love interests are both male and female, and none of them are particularly pushy. The relationships feel pretty natural and mostly consist of MC helping their love interest with some subquest. Protagonist’s spine: Cucumber. MC is actually pretty cool. The game does that 'modern western game' thing where you get to pick a gender and a skin colour for your protag and the general atmosphere is 'tongue in cheek'. MC doesn't let people walk over them, but they're generally helpful.

The Good: CATS. The premise of this game is pretty neat. The Bad: According to Steam I played this five months ago, and I pretty much forgot about it. Fun game but not particularly memorable. Best cat: Landry. Tall, gentle giants are a particular weakness.

Shall we date: Blood in Roses

This is me giving Shall we Date another shot, because the amount of hot mildly medieval boys was intriguing.

Platform: Android (free to play, in-app premiums) Story: There's two, because this app has been around for a while and now has two 'seasons'. The Witch stumbles upon a supposedly abandoned castle and gets imprisoned there by a bunch of vampires. The Hunter, meanwhile, seeks out the castle because she wants to stop an attack on her village. Both come to realize that the castle is now a hotel for monsters, and that its denizens are both not what they imagined, and also hot. Squick factor: Highly dependent on route. The Witch literally starts in a jail cell, so you can imagine the Stockholm Syndrome shit that goes down. Also, this is a personal preference, but I'm really weirded out by a lot of blood play stuff so most of the vampire routes are gonna be… problematic. Shall we Date games don't shy away from sex scenes and I like that, but coupling them with drinking blood 'to get in the mood' is a rather specific niche. The game does offer a number of other options for you to court, from werewolves to wizards and… grim reapers? It's a mixed batch. If you're not into pushed boundaries I can offer one tip: stay away from the vampires. Protagonist’s spine: Sand cookie. She has one, but it's brittle. I've mostly played Hunter routes and it's like… she tries, and she can take care of herself but she also tolerates more bullshit than necessary, ya know.

The Good: The art is good, and some of the storylines are intriguing despite my reservations. I'm still playing it (mostly in a quest to find a good ending where MC doesn't die to become a weird immortal creature). The UI, while annoying, isn't as bad as Lost Alice's, or so it seems. The Bad: The writing is very hit or miss. There's routes where the guy just sort of lowkey stalks MC, until she suddenly decides she's incredibly in love with him. There's others that make even less sense, and then there's ones that feel more natural. In general, MC's actions don't seem to have a lot of thought put into them. Best boy: So far: Gordon. He's cute and sensible and tortured and not incredibly antagonistic.

Midnight Cinderella

You'll notice a friggin ton of Cybird games on here.

Platform: Android (free to play, premium purchases) Story: MC gets, mostly by accident, chosen to be the Princess of Wysteria. As such she must prepare to govern the country when the king dies, and choose a consort from a number of suitors. Squick factor: Low. Not only are these men respectful of her, they're rather literally treating her like royalty. Having said that, there is a lot of the typical hurtful tsun stuff going in several routes. Protagonist’s spine: Lightly done steak. There's something weird going on with the protag in this game. When it comes to governing, she's tough as nails. She's thrown into a situation she wasn't ready for, and while this stresses her out 24/7, she performs admirably. On the other hand, her main reaction to literally anything when it comes to love is 'Oh'. She cries a lot, at times she feels like a wet rag. There's a bunch of situations she could have just solved by going 'Yeah I'm into you'. She's complex, I guess.

The Good: The writing, while melodramatic, is nice. The art is good as well. The Bad: This is an old game and it doesn't perform that well on my current-gen smartphone. Expect to push certain buttons several times before the game realizes what you're trying to do. Also the loading takes ages. Best boy: For me, Sid, because he reminds me of Aomine Daiki and I'm weak for that type of personality. As far as routes go, Leo's probably had the most impact on me.

Destined to Love

I'll be honest, I started this because of an event in Ikemen Sengoku that would give me cross game storage. Don't judge me.

The Story: MC gets flung back in time (this is also a trend, it seems) to the 1800's, a few weeks before the Ikedaya incident will make the Shinsen-gumi a historic Legend. She meets, and chrams, a whole bunch of historical figures. Protagonist’s spine: Cured leather. As a modern woman sent back in time, MC is probably fairly sassy by the standards of the time, but she remains mostly polite. She's tough, considering the circumstances, but quite pliable in that 'we'll see where this goes and make the best of it' way. Squick factor: Low. There's one character that just screams 'red flag' but I have yet to try his route. Since this is a Cybird game, most of the guys are pretty respectful.

The Good: I really like the premise? As the title suggests, MC's love is part of a higher destiny, one that transcends time, and it's one of the reasons she has to go to friggin 1800's Japan. She has a hand in making history. This amuses me. Also, the guys are pretty good looking. The Bad: This is a fairly old mobile game and you can kinda tell. On a technical level it's not as bad as Midnight Cinderella, but again the touch buttons aren't always responsive. Besides that, some of the writing is rather clunkily translated and a bunch of the art is low res. Best Boy: I haven't played all the routes here, but Katsura is a god damn sweetheart, and Kyo and Yamazaki seem adorable AF.

The weird: the special ones

Hatoful Boyfriend

The reason I know otome's exist. This one shot to meme status a few years back.

Platform: PC (it's on Steam) Story: MC is one of the last remaining humans after sentient birds took over the world. She gets enrolled into an elite school for pigeons. Squick factor: Medium to high. The major thing to understand about Hatoful is that on the surface it looks like a particularly silly dating sim with pigeons, but dig deeper and it is Also a full blown apocalyptic horror story. And it follows the genre where a wrong move gets MC horrifically killed. Having said that, several of the routes, including the god damn serial killer one, didn't bother me as much as something like Amnesia, because they were not sold as romantic. Maybe it's the whole pigeon thing, maybe it's the general weirdness of the plot, or maybe it is because said serial killer actually goes 'Surely you knew this would happen', before he guts you. Protagonist’s spine: Gummy bear. MC is highly forgettable, but therefore also like… not annoying. The main focus here is on uncovering the many layered plot and the player character doesn't really have a scripted personality, she just embodies the player's actions.

The Good: This whole game is so out there. There's a reason it became so popular. It's an Experience. The plot is over the top and intricate and Weird, and that makes it intriguing. There's a ton of routes and endings, some more secret than others. The 'human' version of some of these birds is kinda hot (sadly that includes the serial killer). The Bad: the plot is so weird and meandering that it's kinda hard to follow at times. I'm fairly certain it takes several guides to unlock all the endings. Best Birb: It's been a while, but I remember liking Yuuya's route quite a lot.

Monster Prom

The new hype.

Platform: PC (Steam!) Story: MC is a student at Monster High, and is trying to get a date for Monster Prom with one of the hot people. Squick factor: None. I mean, nothing that happens here is in accordance to health and safety norms, but that's kinda the point. It's a parody game, making fun of all the hoops teenagers are willing to jump through to become popular. Protagonist's spine: Coagulated blood. MC is willing to make deals with demons, wear corpses as a hat, anything really. The question is very openly: what could I do to make them like me.

The Good: It's a funny game. I like the characters, who embody everything from the Mean Girl to the Hipster Nerd and the Needlessly Aggressive Jock. The art is simple, cartoon style, but pretty neat. The Bad: Everything is very tongue in cheek, which leaves it a little… light for my tastes. I don't feel like any of the routes matter in the grand scheme of things, MC hasn't truly touched anyone's heart. The whole thing is a joke game, so it's funny, but a bit shallow. Best monster: Polly, the permanently stoned party girl.

Cute Demon Crashers

Technically a sex game? But a really very special one.

Platform: PC (free! Here!) Story: A portal opens in MC's house and four Incubi/Succubi drop through. To apologize for the inconvenience, while they wait for a portal back, they offer to teach MC about sex. Squick factor: I've written about this game before and the best thing, the very best thing about it is how incredibly consent-minded it is. Like, even if you're already in bed, getting it on, there's always an option to turn back and leave it at that. The demons are really just there to help MC find out what gives her pleasure. Protagonist’s spine: Rock. Obviously, MC is mildly upset about four random demons showing up. As mentioned before, what happens next is mostly up to the player.

The Good: It's free and the art is pretty and I love the premise. The Bad: Kinda short, but again: free. Cutest Demon Crasher: *cough* Orias *cough*

#otome game #mystic messenger #ikemen revolution #ikemen sengoku #amnesia memories #and a bunch more #shall we date #lethey writes #long post

51 notes · View notes

marcomardon · 7 years

Note

heyy so i know that it wasnt your post but i was hoping could elaborate on the legends part of that post about negative points about dctv. english isnt my first language (and im a little lazy) but i really want to fully understand it. " yes, you can enjoy legends, but yes you should also acknowledge ....within five minutes (they don’t even mention Jax’s chronic pain anymore)."

yeah sure thing, hopefully i can expand on this well enough:

…it’s been incredibly antiblack,…

2x04, “abominations” was on all accounts, a white man’s attempt to show the viewers what racism was like, and pretend that it’s over now so we should feel… good? they put the two black mains (the only characters of colour as series regulars on the show) undercover by having a historically important black man killed so one of the mains could impersonate him while the other pretended to be a slave.

(i will give this episode 1 thing and it is jax saying “I get it might be difficult for you to understand this, but I’ve been black my entire life, Grey. And honestly, I can’t think of a time period we could go to where I wouldn’t face some sort of racism.”)

2x16, “doomworld” was specifically antiblack because of amaya’s death. this episode aired at a time when the flash was going through a season-long plot to save iris, and having two WOC mains dying to affect everyone else on their show is uh…. fridging. where female characters are often killed, maimed, or otherwise assaulted for male characters to feel anger, sadness, emotions at all, or to be motivated to go after the “villain” of the story. in this case, we have leonard freezing and shattering amaya, in the most literal sense dctv has ever gotten with the term “fridging” – all because the writers and producers wanted us to be able to feel how mick and leonard’s partnership was unable to be fixed. they wanted “real consequences” for that episode and the way to do it is … kill the black woman. i guess. after she spent most of the episode brainwashed by damien darhk and had to be ‘saved’ from her brainwashing from sara and nate.

one might argue that almost everyone died in the doomworld universe, but amaya was the only one to die in the actual episode “doomworld” and her death was about her being mick’s friend. compare it to ray’s death – he had his heart ripped out by eobard because ray is too trusting. it fits him. he has a big heart. we even saw it. he got a death 100% about him. amaya did not.

…aired an episode chock full of anti-Asian specific racism,…

2x03, “shogun”, was uh… i’m not sure how to describe this one so i’m mostly sourcing from other people here, but this review by a japanese viewer is the best way to explain, here’s her summary:

In grotesquely stereotypical White Saviour fashion, Nate has a fling with Masako Yamashiro who is engaged to marry the shogun Tokugawa Iemitsu.

Ray’s suit is stolen and he does a nonsensical stereotypical “sensei” montage trying to push Nate to embrace and understand his new metahuman abilities.

The team arrives later on to help them fight the shogun and his samurai, all while making tacky quips about ninjas because the mispronounced Japanese by supposedly Japanese characters just wasn’t enough to fill up the offensive quota.

Ray and Nate have to make the sacrifice of destroying Ray’s suit to defeat the shogun and of course Nate undermines Masako’s opportunity to be the hero because it’s a White Saviour trope episode, after all.

and as ari said best, “the writers watched three whole episodes of naruto before writing this episode”

honestly the singular good thing about this episode was that they hired an asian director, kevin tancharoen, aka the love of my life, but there’s only so much he can do with a shitty script. at least the episode looked visually amazing.

(let me know if you need more on this point since i’m pasting from other people here)

…erased a Jewish man’s identity,…

i’m not 100% sure if bette means martin stein or ray palmer so let’s talk about both.

martin stein, in his 8 appearances in the flash before moving over to legends of tomorrow, mentioned his faith in at least half of those. he has now been in 33 legends of tomorrow episodes + flash again for the “invasion!” crossover + kinda “duet” and hasn’t mentioned it once. he participated in a christmas dinner with the team, we’ve seen his wife clarissa in various forms, and now lily and still no mention. i’d have to look closer at the set of his office on the waverider for anything in the background, but i doubt there’s anything. the closest we’ve seen is mick congratulating him on now having a daughter with “mazel tov” in 2x10.

ray is a little trickier and i had lenny rewrite my explanation here but dctv is all about showing characters like felicity, martin, and rory, with big references to holidays, their menorahs, the torah, and less about showing smaller references like dropping yiddish into a conversation or their quirks about keeping kosher. since we don’t have any of them (except snapper carr on supergirl) with these small references, we just see generic characters, who everyone assumes to be agnostic. the few pieces of evidence i think we have for ray being jewish are donna smoak’s excitement over he and felicity dating, and that he and martin are the most educated people on the waverider, with how judaism places a strong value on education. so when ray plans a christmas dinner, it’s not earned as an ironically jewish act, it’s just white guy.

….and fixed someone’s disability within five minutes…

nate heywood’s backstory was that his parents more or less had him in a bubble, because they were afraid his hemophilia would cause him to die. hemophilia is a disorder that interrupts the body’s ability to clot blood, which is how people normally stop bleeding from even small cuts or bruises. if you have hemophilia, if you start bleeding inside your body, then you are in serious danger.

basically, it was the writers’ attempt to give a character an excuse for not having had as exciting of a life as the rest of the characters have had, and a reason why developing steel powers to protect his skin would be personally relevant to him.

what would have been more interesting is if he kept the hemophilia and gained the steel powers anyway, as a first and more solid line of defense than his skin was, preventing him from bleeding at all. if i was in his situation with hemophilia and suddenly gained steel powers i literally would not turn them off for fear of … sara with knives, probably, and any small accident near her meaning not being able to stop bleeding. but you know, ray’s super serum cured his hemophilia, since there is no current real world cure for it at all. this is not the first time we’ve seen miracle cures on dctv though, with… felicity. malcolm. leonard. hartley. charles mcnider. probably more.

…(they don’t even mention Jax’s chronic pain anymore).

the last time we heard about jax’s chronic pain, his torn anterior cruciate ligament (ACL), was 1x05 when he had to run across the prison yard. he was limping after he got there, and limping when he got back on the ship. we’ve seen jax run a few times with no negative results, implying gideon fixed jax’s pain, i guess, yet another miracle cure.

people with things like deafness (like me!), or blindness, or chronic pain, or hemophilia, or missing limbs, or partial paralysis very very rarely have positive representation on screen, and here dctv is, curing everyone. especially for ailments and disabilities that don’t have cures, or are even part of people’s identities. we’re seeing characters go through a healing process that we will never have (or don’t want), and the writers just keep writing more “miracle cure” situations. “how tragic, look, we fixed their problems perfectly” for nate’s hemophilia or leonard’s missing hand or “look at this assistive technology that makes their lives 100% perfectly back to normal” for malcolm’s hand, felicity’s spine, charles’s vision, and hartley’s tinnitus, and not often showing the struggles even with the technology.it’s the disability equivalent of the white hero complex.

if anyone wants to add anything or correct me please do since i am not black, asian, or jewish, nor do i specifically have hemophilia or chronic pain.

#spent 3 hours on this lol #i've written essays shorter than this #ask to tag /#anti legends of tomorrow #anti dctv #anti lot #antiblack racism #racism #anti asian racism #antisemitism #ableism #deaf tag #audism #long post #meghan has opinions #Anonymous #asks

37 notes · View notes