#quite a bit of a rant actually ngl | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

amethystina · 3 months

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Oh man!! The latest chapter!!! The angst was angsting, pain was paining, heart is wrenching, tear is falling, it was soooo mean, but do it again!!!

It was the longest chapter and ironically the most painful chapter as well. Have I said how much I love slow burn and angst and this fic hits home everytime?? Likeee woah I just LOVE how this fic is LOOONG , nowhere near close bc that means I get me read it longer lol.

And I feel like I would never be able to appreciate how much hard work you put in Who Holds the Devil.

I am guessing it is now Ga On's turn to pursue Yohan and Oh man I can already imagine how much he is gonna suffer while doing it 😭 or maybe not (bc he tends to be pretty straightforward at times and impulsive as well) but I believe it's gonna be pretty hard bc Gaon has so much shit to get together and Yohan, my man, already gave up (poor him) so gaon trying to persue him or rather seduce his sugar daddy would look very suspicious to him. Nevertheless I am exited to see Gaon try and miserably, comically and hilariously half fail bc he will succeed eventually as Yohan is too much of a loser for Gaon lol. I am excited for future chapters and definitely wouldn't complain about more angst lol.

It was necessary for this to happen, otherwise the story would go nowhere and most importantly Gaon and Yohan would go nowhere, their problems will never be solved. Sometimes hitting rock bottom is crucial to develop in life BUT I would hate it if it happens to me, hope I will be able to get my shits together before that happens ( or maybe it already happened but I am not relizing it or not acknowledging it much like gaon but he is better than me ngl at least he has the courage)

This became a rant about me naur 😭

Lastly I hope you have a great day and things work out for you 💕

Also idk if it's your cup of tea but My Happy Ending kdrama is sooo good and worth giving it a try. It's a psychological suspense drama hehe. I am soo invested in it nowadays so couldn't help recommending you as well 💫

It was a painful chapter, yeah. And I'm both relieved and heartbroken to finally have it out there. As someone who doesn't actually like angst, this chapter was a struggle in more than one way. But it's necessary if I want their relationship to move forward, so here we are.

At this point, writing Who Holds the Devil has sort of turned into a second job, not going to lie. I still enjoy it, make no mistake, but I have to plan all of my other hobbies around it since I feel an obligation to post somewhat regularly. Like, I've been postponing drawing for the past two weeks because I wanted to get this chapter out (that's how long it took to edit, yes) but drawing is the thing that helps the most with my depression symptoms (that have made an unwanted reappearance due to my burnout), so I've been struggling quite a bit. And now all I want to do is draw for a couple of days.

So yeah. I can't lie and say it's not a lot of work, both in terms of planning, writing, editing, etc., but also how it affects the rest of my life. BUT I just love it too much to give up on it ;)

And yes, Ga On will have to be the one to pursue Yo Han now ;) Or, well, eventually. He has to wallow and overthink things a bit first because, well, Ga On. If overthinking things was an Olympic sport, he'd win the gold for sure. But he WILL give Yo Han what he wants in the end, I promise.

In short, the "the only way after hitting rock bottom is up" saying is pretty apt in this case.

There's still hope, so just hang in there :)

I looked at the plot for My Happy Ending but I admit it didn't really catch my attention. But that could be because I don't really watch much right now? I'm too busy writing and drawing. I'm also trying to finish a drama I started ages ago called Mad Dog. Which, let me tell you, it's disorientingly gay for a drama about insurance fraud. But unlike The Devil Judge I'm not sure if they're actually AWARE of how gay it is? (especially since it's from 2017)

But, like, if I had a penny for every time I've watched a drama in which a traumatised, older man brings home a reckless, bratty twink after said twink got injured — under the pretence of protecting him from more harm — only for the twink to start snooping around his house before deciding to charm the dude with home-cooked food and then just doesn't leave I would have two pennies. Which isn't a lot, but it's still weird that it's happened twice.

Also, what the heck do they want me to think when they have these kinds of angles when the two dudes are arguing?

That looks questionable both in and out of context. BUT that could also be because Woo Do Hwan could have sexual tension with a goddamn rock. Rarely have I seen a man with so much "fuck me and find out" energy as his character in this drama.

But the twink also has a romantic plotline with the woman on the team, at the same time as he's living in the older dude's apartment and giving this poor dude all kinds of conflicted feelings because he's a widower who's lived alone since his wife and kid died and suddenly there's someone in his apartment cooking him food, nagging at him when he comes late and drunk etc. etc. Like, bruh. It really sounds like the twink is his new wife? And I am SO CONFUSED because the drama plays it so straight (without the "hint, hint, nudge, nudge" winks that The Devil Judge had) that I'm about to have an existential crisis.

Fellas, is it gay if this is the face you make when you're told you're not actually living with the man who took you home to keep you safe after you almost got murdered but then you accidentally behaved like his concerned and doting wife?

Asking for a friend.

(and don't even get me started on the whole "Bring Your Twink to Work Day" scene)

At this point, I'm half convinced I'm gaslighting myself into thinking this is gay when it's actually just a really heartwarming story about a really deep bromance that I'm too queer to understand.

ANYWAY. Thanks for the rec! But I'm not sure if it's my thing and I'm really bad at watching things right now. But I'm thrilled to hear that you're having so much fun with it! I'm happy for you! :D

And thank you so much for the lovely message 💜

#Amethystina Replies #1-boiledpotato #Who Holds the Devil #Amethystina Writes #I swear #Watching Mad Dog is so very disorienting #Because it's genuinely SO GAY to me #But I've seen no one else so much as mention this #Is it just because the right people haven't watched it?#Or am I going crazy?#Who knows at this point #Sorry that this answer became more about Mad Dog than Who Holds the Devil #It's just been weighing very heavily on me lately xD #I AM SO CONFUSED

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totally-not-a-tickle-blog · 10 days

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Enjoy a free pass to infodump about Roy and his parents 🎫

I am v curious about your thoughts :]

You heard them guys I got a free pass :D

ALSO I'M SORRY I TOOK SO LONG I FORGOT I PUT THIS IN DRAFTSS

Roy's parents

Uhh tw for family issues and a brief mention of S/A

Imma be honest, I feel like people see their relationship as either black or white when it's definitely NOT the case.

Black = Carmen and Richard are awful beings, they hate Roy, they won't let him do anything and would easily abandon him for money, I EVEN SAW SOME SAYING THAT THEY WOULDN'T CARE ABOUT ROY'S UNCLE. I'M SORRY I KNOW IT'S AU AND STUFF BUT,,, it makes me so so uncomfortable AAAAA

White = They're just quite arrogant and that's it, normal life and communication, nothing changes from a basic family besides the fact that Carmen and Richard are "ughh poor people". Also makes me uncomfy ngl, even tho it can be cute sometimes.

Both are ENTIRELY WRONG in my view.

First of all, (most of the cases, not all of them) no matter how much your parents suck, how much they treat you awfully or just are JERKS to you, if they did "the bare minimum", you'll stay attached to them no matter how much you don't want to. In Roy's case, I can see that they already spent a LOT of money on him and pretty sure that it already gave him good time and moments (plus gave him a nice childhood since when he was born his parents are pretty happy), so they're not 100% evil or bad. Plus, as much as he's scared, I can see that he also respects them in a way, otherwise he wouldn't even go through the "Can I say bye? You know, ehh?" scene, if he actually felt FEAR he wouldn't even open his mouth and much less sound that dry to them (personal experience cough cough)

Not to mention that Roy gets angry with people calling his mom a lady of the night, he wouldn't give 2 shits if he truly hated her 🫠

But they're definitely not oh so good either. They wouldn't communicate that easily if not at all, y'know those scenes where you have dinner with your parents and gets nothing but silence or, idk, the most boring conversations ever? Something like that, not to mention the obvious problem with accepting Roy's personality

AND TOWARDS ROY'S UNCLE. MY GOOOODDDDDDD AAAAAAAAAAAA IT MAKES ME GO CRAZY,, /NEG

I explained it before but saying it again, ROY'S PARENTS WOULDN'T JUST??? IGNORE???? OR VICTIM BLAME HIM EITHER?? PLEASE. The most realistic option here is having their support, and even there it wouldn't be all rainbows and such since they're not close. It would get a bit better between them? Definitely. 100%? Nuh-uh.

Carmen and Richard want the best for their son, a good future, a good life, a good job, good school, but they have an issue of not thinking about his emotional state and own personal tastes. Roy obviously get mad at them, get upset, but not now not today that he would say something like "I hope they die", and if he does he wouldn't mean it or would regret. Basically "I don't hate them, but I don't love love them either"

I feel like this sounds more like a rant than anything?? Sorry if it does, but I'm a bit tired to see people trying to explain their relationship in a black or white view when it's clearly not

#spooky month #sm roy #sm carmen #sm richard

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cherry-dr0p · 3 months

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I WISH TO RAMBLE!! IM NOT GONNA INCLUDE IMAGES BECAUSE I DONT WANNA BUT HERE WE GO

HUGE TWF4 SPOILERS

I HAVE SO MUCH TO SAY!!!

Im not gonna lie, the start kinda had me like "This is what I waited ages for?" But then when the animatronic testing came around, thats when my interest truly started to pick up.

First of all, WHY WOULD YOU TGINK THAT FACIAL RECOGNITION FOR ANIMATRONICS IS A GOOD IDEA??? GENUINELY DID NO ONE HAVE THE COMMON SEMSE TO GO "HM, THIS MAY END NOT GOOD". Like I kind of understand the appeal for it because they may want the kids to feel,, more connected to the animatronics?? I dunno. But like?? I can understand for that time period the desire to have the animatronics interact with the audience (Not saying its a good idea but at least I can understand with this one why they may think it is in my head), but cmon..

Then from what I remember, the sprites came. And Good god did they creep me out slightly when I first saw them, especially Edd and Molly. I dunno, there was something extra creepy in my eyes seeing kids' faces messed up like that. Crazy. I also screamed when I finally saw "Bon" because Ive been keeping up with the Twitter TWF community somewhat, which means I already technically knew about "Bon". It was pretty cool to have him finally introduced in the actual story himself. Also Charles and Susan talking about Felix's addiction and if they should tell Rosemary and Jack(?) is crazy.

Aaaahhh but then the scene with Jack came around. Was rooting for him ngl. I honestly thought he died at the well scene but I dont see any correlation to that quite yet,, mayhaps. Felix almost jumping did make me feel a tiny bit bad for him bit like,, still. Fuck you Felix. I still hate him and 100% think hes getting what hes deserving. He feels guilty? Good. He should.

I cant remember if the Susan scene comes after this or not but I erm uh,,, That was VERY well done!! It gave me chills how you could still hear her breathe. Genuinely. The blood as well and Rocket closing their eyes?? Crazy. The jittery animation drove me insane, it was such an amazing detail that made things far more uncomfortable.

I cant remember where abouts the other Felix scene came but,, HE DOESNT KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH ROCKET. I DUNNO,, DO ANYTHING OTHER THAN TAKE IT WITH YOU?? PUT IT IN YOUR HOME OR RESTAURANT?? WHY DID YOU THINK THAT WAS A GOOD IDEA. I SWEAR, MY GUY HAS NEGATIVE BRAINCELLS... But I also think we all know why he's so attached,, him getting haunted by the kids is wild.

The last scene very much makes me think "Bon" is Jack. I unno, very much could be wrong but just the way he talks and is dressed makes me think he is. The fact that he knows so well of what hes talking about and the voice,, maybe the general face shape too. Me thinks its either Brian(Ive saw that theory floating around) or Jack, but Im more leaning towards Jack. It also freaked me out slightly the way Susan came on all deformed too, that was freaky. The voices of all the characters in this new afterlife were very VERY cool too. And the whole mask being given and "Bon" talking about making her "beautiful" too? That was cool. The scene with Edd and Molly debating whether to save Susan too filled my heart with a weird sort of awe. They have a great relationship as siblings together imo, I do very much love their dynamic.

It'd be cool to see the other two episodes for the finale which I think are coming out very soon!! Which is very exciting!! I 100% reccomend TWF4, it's phenomenal and the wait was 200% worth it in my eyes. You can definitely see the developers heart and soul being put into this project, which is very nice to see. In my eyes, you dont see it often. I dunno if I missed out a scene or two from my rant but overall? I adored watching this (Ive already told some of my friends to watch it >:3).

Rant over anyways, buh bye for now :3

#The Walten Files 4 #TWF 4 #TWF4 #TheWaltenFiles4 #THIS WAS SO GOOD #IT WAS BETTER THAN I EXPECTED IT TO BE #My honest reaction to Felix feeling guilty but doesnt do anything to help himself at all at the same time #WHAT IS HIS ISSUEEEE #You can tell what I think of Felix LMAO #Hes actually my second favourite character though #Felix is v interesting #But Brian Stells will always have a special place in my heart #God bless the man with two to five minutes of screen time

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rene-01 · 2 months

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*in fast food client voice* can i get uhhhhh some fun facts and/or lore about your internsona?

OMG YES NOBODY’S ASKED ME YET UGHRHRHHRHR

LONG STUPID RANT ABT INTERNSONA..

(Edited and added more ..)

So, his two dads made him get a summer job to make up for some shit he did during the school year, it’s not much different then his old job which was retail so .. he’s used to crazy stuff. He didn’t like the idea at first cause he’s not a very social person but slowly got closer with 2 specific interns being scribble ( @wheredidalltheusersgo ) and Matt ( @mattiec4kes , and his other crush he mentioned previously!) which scribble being pretty social got him to open up a bit more but he tends to feel annoying sometimes but he’s learned to like his job and some of the contestants !

His closest bonds are of course with scribble and Matt, who all have a questionable relationship. Most people think rene and scribble r dating but surprisingly they aren’t, they act like their in one tho from wearing each-others clothes, being touchy, to quite literally kissing on occasion. But no they are just VERY platonic and close, plus Rene’s love language is physical touch which he is very touch, he also bites (affection)

He’s autsitc, has adhd, he’s polyamorous, trans, and unlabeled when it comes to sexuality! He doesn’t really care much about that label, he just likes them if they treat him right and have a good personality. He also still dresses pretty feminine despite being a trans man (I loveeeee himbo feminine trans oc’s / personas)

His hair is actually dyed the dark brown it is (color pallet coming soon) from a dirty blonde, he sewed a trans flag patch onto his uniform, and he also Carrie’s a satchel bag with him a lot that contains a charger, AirPods, sketch book, snacks, and flavored water! (SPECIFICALLY flavored, he won’t drink anything except this specific brand water. He doesn’t like change like that)

He really enjoys to paint, draw, and make jewelry, he’s actually made a bracelet for every intern.. but he’s to nervous to give it to them. He LOVES making gifts for people, he also enjoys baking a lot!

These r mostly fun facts cuz I haven’t gotten his lore very up to date and in check

He was adopted by his two dads who love him very much, what happened to his bio parents is unknown and he doesn’t care very much, he loves his dads and knows they made him take this job cause they mean it with all love! He texts them everyday to let them know how he’s doing and that he’s still alive

He usually always has his AirPods in, listening to music or not.. just cuz it makes stuff a bit quieter for him. He also tends to go non-verbal a bit so he kinda watches scribble and Matt entertain themselves over a tree. He’s usually attached to one of their hips ngl. He also made them matching guitar pick necklaces!!

He also does a tone of cross dressing and is considering becoming a drag queen! He’s been learning makeup and how to style wigs cuz it seems so interesting to him, he’s to shy to admit this though

I think that’s it for NOOWWW. I also have a relationship chart I posted somewhere earlier as well! I might eventually do one with other interns if I get their permission!! Though he likes them all cause they suffer with him

#rant incoming #total drama #total drama sona #TDsona #internsona #td internsona #intern td

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spilledmilkfkdies · 27 days

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Hello! I wanted to ask you, when the wizards are freed from Omega by Neruman in the comics, what do you think their relationship was? Because it never really felt to me that the wizards were serving Neruman willingly. Not sure if I’m quite thinking they were his prisoners, but it didn’t feel like they would serve him by choice. (You’ve talked about comic-exclusive characters in your posts before, so I’m guessing you know about the comic plots. If you don’t, since the comics aren’t widespread, then never mind.)

(Quick extra bit: any theories on where the wizards lived while serving Neruman? Because I could never tell if they lived in his Dark Dimension Castle thing, or if they just hid out in Gardenia again.) Thank you!

Ngl of all the characters with relevance to the remaining 75% of the Black Circle comic wise, Neruman has definitely done the least for me? Which might be a little ironic because he's like the whole reason the wizards were even freed to EXIST in the comics?? Idk he just doesn't get my creative juices flowing like Yllidith and Gregory do y'know- Despite having more relevance than both of them. I really am just attracted to cardboard huh. Hm.

But aside from that!! Yeah no, I don't think the word 'willingly' is even allowed in the building rn.

Tbh the wizards really just dealt with hit after hit, loss after loss. They went from nearly done with a centuries lasting job, to losing one of their own and being locked up, just to be freed and forced to work under him to repay a debt that really won't be until some guy says so, who abandons them anyway later on and lets them get locked away elsewhere. Had the wizards been in even a little bit of a better state, emotionally and magically, at any point during this, I don't think working under him would've gone on for as long as it did, if even at all.

Also if we assume that they haven't worked under anyone since Yllidith, and doing so wasn't the best experience (I am assuming both of those things), than this might've been extra upsetting for them too. If it wasn't humiliating enough by itself. Dare I say I think all 3 of them hated this shadowy, 'Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come' ass bitch- Just not a fan of it being mostly a fear thing, I mean these men have been around for a WHILE. Like just say they're aware they're too weak to leave him rn, but don't make them SCARED and sweating on their knees tf is WRONG with you smh.

Not to do another comic rant or anything, but I will NEVER get over how the comics slandered them and everything positive they had going for them. Maybe that's why Neruman doesn't do a lot for me hskskssj he really is a big part of it all.

Wouldn't be surprised if he did yoink them to be nearby whenever they weren't actively doing something for him though, so I'd say stand-by in the castle, but "free" roaming Gardenia when in the middle of the job, like with the whole Gregory thing. Who is actually my little guy compared to Neruman.

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utilitycaster · 3 months

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Oof, the first half of the episode is a little rough ngl. I like the second half with Aabria a lot more. The first group does get better as the episodes go on if that helps at all.

Also, to add a bit more context to Kollok: the creators - Hyper RPG - are filmmaking nerds and are mostly known on Twitch for their various virtual productions.

So Kollok has a lot of those post production visual effects and sound effects, which is them using their strengths to create a show, similar to CR and voice acting and D20 and improv comedy.

Obviously that's not gonna be everyone's cup of tea and it can get a little too much I admit, but it's not that bad of a show.

Hi anon,

I am...not sure if you read this in the necessary context (this provides some, and this some more, and if I'm being totally honest based on this I don't feel like you read my entire weird rant, which to be fair, it is long and weird but covers quite a lot of issues I have) but I am coming in with the premise of "I think heavy post production of actual play is a poor choice." It don't care that it's their strength; I think that if that's your strength you would do better to apply it to scripted works or to improvised non-actual play shows.

I will freely admit that I went in expecting it not to be my cup of tea for that reason, and with an added grudge of "being hyped up and cited as brilliant by Polygon's AP/TTRPG team, with whom I almost always disagree," but did genuinely want to give it a shot in as good faith as I could muster, instead of solely talking shit about. I hoped the acting, premise, and GM-ing might shine through even though the effects were unlikely to win me over and indeed were likely to annoy me.

That was not the case. I found the GM-ing (Driving?) style profoundly grating and pretentious (and I have a very high tolerance for pretension), the premise nothing to write home about, and honestly I don't know jack about sound mixing but I do know I have perfectly good hearing and had to crank my laptop speakers up to higher than I have to for CR or D20 for the prologue to the prologue only to subsequently hear some of the most irritating static sounds at top volume for the prologue, so I'm not even impressed by the production.

And to be clear: that's all fine. I think people are drawn to different aspects in actual play, and there's room for all sorts of shows. I might even finish this episode simply because if I were recommending something to someone else, and they quit an hour into a 3.5 hour episode, I'd feel a little miffed. But I really don't expect it to ever be my thing, and I watched it mostly because it felt uninformed to be criticizing heavy production in actual play without watching a notably deliberately heavily produced actual play show.

I do want to wrap up, and this isn't specifically directed at you but: when it comes to my opinions on a work, I'm not going to say I'm never going to be swayed by an anon ask because who knows, it could happen, but it's very unlikely. If I dislike something, I don't really care if other people like it - I'd never send anons or get on their posts or maintag something like the post I just made (and which I made nonrebloggable specifically to prevent it from spreading into fan spaces) but I hope that people who like something can show me the same respect and permit my dislike. If you're a fan I will not be offended nor resentful if you unfollow or block me or whatever you need to do, but I can pretty confidently say that new cast members or improved acting will not change the fact that this is extremely not for me.

#answered #Anonymous

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writingwhilecaffeinated · 4 days

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The new chapter of Unspooled Thread was SO GOOD that I couldn't stop myself from rereading it!

 The changes you are making to this story are so well done that make all the plot so interesting and compelling! ( I’ve to confess that a few days ago I planned of rewatch bridgerton s1 but I end up rereading the available chapters of your story, ngl I found myself more engaged with it!)

Benelope…I just can’t express how I love their relationship, the bond they’re building is so beautiful and natural, that I can’t stop smiling every time that I read about them!

and omg are we getting jealous Benedict? bc I’m so ready for that!!

You’re making me love more and more the characters Gen, Lucy and Henry, they are becoming so important in Ben and Pen’s lives. I adore that the Granvilles and Gen have a soft spot for Pen! My girl deserves all the love!!

Gen, Henry and Lucy have definitely been my favorites in the new chapter, I just love how they already know how Ben and Pen are destined to fall in love!

How they noticed Ben’s feelings for Pen are changing even though he hasn’t realized it yet!

I just know they will support them in every step of their growing relationship!

The way you handle Marina’s situation was such a good move, honestly I love this idea more that what the series gave us! And El and Phillip meeting earlier omg I didn’t expect that but I love it!

Everything in this story have been absolutely perfection and I can’t wait to read what’s next!❤️

Thank you, friend! That means so much to me!! ♥️♥️♥️

I’m happy you’re liking the changes so far. I hope that will continue going into season 2! I love that you reread the fic and enjoyed it so much you read it over a s1 rewatch ☺️ I had to go over s1 a few times to make sure I was making the correct changes and non-changes lol

Yes! We are starting to get jealous Benedict! Not that he even realizes he’s jealous. Like all Bridgertons, he’s a bit oblivious to his own feelings for a little bit. It’s fun to write, I must admit!

I’m so happy you and others are loving the trio that is Henry, Lucy, and Gen. I was always sad Henry didn’t come back in the show, and wanted a reason to ensure he’s kept in the plot. Haha! So him, Lucy, and Gen are pretty much single handedly determined to pull Benedict’s head out of the sand eventually.

They’re fun to write. An absolute joy, really.

Is it bad to admit that I also prefer Marina marrying Wetherby then what happens in the show? I’ve actually become quite attached to that plot point. @velvetcovered-brick and I have been constructing ways to include Wetherby more in the story. We’ve grown attached to our version of him!

There will be fun with El and Phillip! Phillip being introduced to El at this point in the story is important for what we’re telling and doing over all. That will become more clear as we go along, and I’ll probably rant about it in the author’s notes to explain it 😁

Thank you again for reading!!! ♥️♥️♥️

#bridgerton fanfiction #benelope #penedict

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murphallo · 1 year

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Your thoughts on Chenford and their relationship moving forward?

Thoughts on 5.13?

i’m having a bad time lol

i’ve been ranting and raving about this in detail for the better part of two months so i’ll try to keep this to bulletpoints. i think the way they got together was rushed (yes, rushed), poorly written, and i think they cut the burn off before the part a LOT of people waited so long for (angst, pining, arc, plot whatsoever) i think it was a bonkers decision to get such a well set up ship together in the midseason bc they were just like “eh fuck it here is good” and i have no beef with people who are satisfied with how it went down but i think when people who are disappointed express their gripes on their own damn account, people tend to purposely misunderstand. examples include “how can chenford be rushed if they took 4.5 seasons to get together?” to which i’d answer a. we are not saying chenford is rushed we’re saying the way they got together was rushed. b. it’s funny to me how people think that investing years of time and effort and heart to a ship should make us LESS invested in how they get together. c. bruh i’m asking myself the same question it’s actually kinda impressive that they managed to rush a ship after that long.

as for the story going forward, i’ve kinda lost hope in 5b at least. it’s beautiful to see them so enamored with each other and i will watch the scenes and smile at them bc they are adorable in a vacuum but as for the big picture, i find the writing overall to be quite dumb lately. i find it dumb that their biggest boundary to being together was work and they solved that in one episode in the most boring way they could muster. i find it dumb that it seems like we did not get to see the team find out they’re together. i find it dumb that we were given no reason for them “taking it slow” and then giving in after a couple weeks even though that pre sex makeout was hot as hell ngl (see what i mean?? in a vacuum!!) i find many many things dumb and weird and even though the scenes give me buzz, chenford used to have chem and story for me and tho the chem remains higher than it’s ever been, the story has, in my opinion, been shot in the face.

last week with the work thing was kinda my last straw so i am taking a break from the rookie and watching the chenford scenes on twitter bc i was getting way way too hateful watching week to week. i’d rather be a positive presence in a fandom im in so i don’t go out of my way to stare my displeasure publicly, i only do to reach out to other people who feel the way i do and want to vent bc nothing starts internet friendships like a good bitching session. i do feel like because the relationship is hitting the gas like this, we might??? be on our way to the other shoe dropping and me personally………. my prayer is a breakup lol i’m hoping they break up and then we’re actually given some proper angst and pining (even though i think we should’ve gotten that BEFORE they went canon but what do i know) now… i don’t know what they would break up over with the work issue out of the way and it would probably be something, say it with me, DUMB, but i would be willing to consider tuning in again if my trust miraculously grew back lol so YEAH those are my thoughts.

if you’re happy with how they got together, i truly honestly do not care and i’m happy you’re satisfied lol at a certain point it all comes down to personal preference, and for me personally, it feels like they went out of their way to miss every box on my checklist which is a bummer bc i used to love literally every scene interaction and bit of writing between them and now… not so much. i still love them, and i love the first four seasons, i just think the writing took a huge ass stumble at the literal worst time possible. but it would take a stronger person than i to turn my nose up at gifs of the 5x12 makeout so if absolutely nothing else, at least i’ll always have that 🤡🤡

#this got longer than i meant it to #i feel like this is poorly written but at a certain point i kinda just started ranting for my life #chenford #murphallo #murphallo asks

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idealisticrealism · 10 hours

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TCL 3x10 thoughts

The main things:

The ep starts immediately after last ep, then goes to the next morning and takes place over just one day. Nadia also says it’s been ‘an eventful few weeks’ since she made the deal to buy the house (which was in 3x01, so the entire season has taken place over around 3 weeks)

One of my favourite things about this series, and about Thony specifically, is that she’s not only an unintentional angel of death for the people around her, but also for criminal empires?? Literally this show is full of seasoned criminals who thrived for years in the darkest parts of the Vegas underworld, and then they encounter Thony, and boom! Down they go. Hayak. Cortes. Kamdar. (Even Arman, in a slightly different way). And now it looks like Sin Cara is next… honestly the Feds should be falling at her feet in gratitude haha

Lol at Thony and Fi’s little bit of theatre for Jeremy as they set up their own little ‘sting’ for him. Thony actually nearly breaking and laughing at Fi’s ranting for a second was so cute, because while this is a serious situation, it is a bit bizarre to think that this is what their life has become. And this scene was so worth it just to get to watch two skilled actors having to pretend to be bad at acting… moments like this are always fun, like a kind of act-ception haha. Ngl it’s a good thing that Thony confronts Jeremy by the end of the episode though, bc I doubt it would have taken much longer for him to notice something was up, with all the dramatic conversations happening right in front of his bugs while and other conversations were hushed under the cover of super loud TV/music. Not to mention the suspiciously intentional-looking plumbing emergencies lol (seriously Thony?? A hammer??? lol). To be fair though, Fi’s acting did improve a lot by the end, with their clever little ploy to make Jeremy think Thony was on her way to kill Nadia. That entire sequence was done well– even though anyone who has been watching the show for more than like a week would know that Thony would never kill Nadia (at least while literally any other option existed), it was still enjoyable to experience the ‘suspense’ that the creative team set up regarding Nadia’s fate. I just hope that she can make it through the finale…

Honestly I love the deliberate continued theme in this show of Thony being caught between worlds, and the constant push and pull of ‘good vs evil’ and ‘power vs vulnerability’. It’s why, despite all her efforts, she can never quite escape the criminal world, and she can never quite escape the hold of the FBI either. And they’re often tied up together, too– to protect herself or someone she cares about from one, she reaches out to the other. In late s1, Arman helped protect her from the FBI by agreeing to be an informant, and in turn she was part of the plan to protect him from both the FBI and Hayak. In S2, she agrees to inform for the FBI again in order to protect Arman and keep him out of prison. And now, she’s making that same deal– and risking her own safety– but for Nadia this time. To me, though, I think that she’s reached a kind of ‘fool me once’ situation with the FBI, and though she says she’s going to help then take down Sin Cara, I think she is actually going to be following her own agenda, and using the ties she has to both the cartel and the FBI to manipulate them into taking each other out, and leaving her being the only one left standing. And god I hope that’s where things are headed bc I would be so here for it.

I really wish we’d been able to see a lot more of Thony and Nadia’s relationship this season, because it’s so compelling and complex and I’ve loved every moment they’ve shared so far. Nadia’s “oh no” at seeing Thony walking into the club was hilarious; they haven’t seen each other in the week or so since the wake, but Thony showing up at the club looking deathly serious is never a good sign. I loved that they were immediately like ‘ok bye Jorge the grownups need to talk’ tho lol– he may have formed connections with both of them, but he hasn’t gotten to this level of club membership yet. Thony’s first question to Nadia (“Did you cut a deal with the feds?”) felt like an interesting tie-in to the events of earlier eps, given that it was exactly what Nadia asked her at the wake– tbh these two must feel like they’re on a merry-go-round or something, and it’s all because they just haven’t been completely open with one another!!! But finally, here, they’re starting to be, even if it’s too goddamn late now (*adele voice* we could have had it aaaaaalll). But anyway ughhhh “All I wanted was to find Arman, like you. I wanted to protect him.” Honestly Nadia acknowledging/accepting Thony’s genuine love of Arman has been one of the parts of this season that I have appreciated the most. These two women are bonded by that love, which is why Thony telling Nadia she should have come to her is such a punch in the gut, because you can see her pain and regret, her utter dismay at the fact that her preoccupation with her own family (getting Fi and Chris back, preventing Luca from being taken away) led her to overlook what was going on with Nadia– aka with Arman’s family– and now she has let down the only other person Arman truly loved. And I think she went to La Habana fully intending to warn her, but then it became clear that Nadia wouldn’t listen to her even if she did try to pose the fake-death plan (“You always think you know everything. But you don’t”), and would’ve almost certainly tried to run instead, endangering both of them. So instead Thony tries once more to talk Ramona out of it (unsuccessfully, of course), and ugh when she says she wants to take care of Nadia herself “For Arman” and she squeezes her eyes shut as she says his name… the grief of losing him is still so goddamn fresh and now she’s terrified she’s going to fail him by not being able to save Nadia in time. But that’s the thing about Thony– she never gives up on the people she loves. And because of Arman, that group includes Nadia.

Nadia’s reaction to Thony striding straight into her house (literally how does Thony even know where that is?) is so funny bc she doesn’t even get angry, it’s just like mild exasperation as she tries to convince Thony to leave. That is, until her brain catches up and suddenly she just stops and says “What’s happening?” because she knows Thony, knows that she wouldn’t actually barge in like this without a damn serious reason. When Thony tells her the danger she’s in, she believes her immediately (ugh her panic was hard to watch) and immediately begs for Thony to help– because while they may have a complex relationship, she knows that Thony is the only person she has left who actually cares what happens to her, and she also knows that Thony is clever and capable and holds a surprising amount of power, and often does manage to fix things even when a situation seems impossible. Which is exactly what Thony does next– and while I wish that Thony had explained to Nadia about what she was going to do, so Nadia didn’t have to have those brief moments of terror and betrayal before she lost consciousness, I get that it had to be written this way or it would have spoiled the twist. But oh man, even though I knew Thony wouldn’t kill her and that she was going to be fine, the relief at seeing her wake up on that couch was still so damn real, phew. Eva did an amazing job with Nadia’s emotions on waking up, from utter confusion to a mix of relief, gratitude and anger. The scene between her and Thony in Jeremy’s lair felt like it was cut off midway through, which I guess means that they’re going to pick up exactly where they left off in the finale next week, like this was actually a 3-part finale rather than a 2 parter, and I can’t wait to see more of the Nadia/Thony dynamic next week.

And given my love for both Nadia and Thony, gotta say I do love how much Ramona herself has shown genuine admiration for both women, for their competence, intelligence, determination, fortitude, their coolness under pressure, and their desire for power. (Like in her conversation with Ramona, Thony would always deny that desire, but tbh people who want a simple family life do not become cardiac surgeons. Much like being a cartel leader, it’s a profession that provides money, prestige, authority, and a near-godlike ability over life and death– ergo, power). Anyway, Ramona’s entire art collection, her life, is centred around women with those traits, and tbh in another life I think these three incredible women could have become an unbeatable team that ruled Vegas together. Ramona saw that possibility and tried to make it happen, only for both of them to reject her, and now… well, I think we are heading for a ‘this town ain’t big enough for the both of us’ situation, and lbr it’s going to be Thony that’s the one left standing

Honestly I love that I have written a bunch of words already for this ep, and it’s all been about women– that’s one of the true gifts of this show, how much it focuses on women and their stories and their relationships. In the earlier seasons it was mostly just focused around Thony and Fi’s characters, but after the loss of Adan, and having a female villain for a change, the focus on women has definitely expanded and been even more apparent this season. I’m sad that it’s looking unlikely that Ramona or my baby Nadia will return next season, because they deserved to have more of their story told. Still, I’m clinging to the hope that Nadia may somehow return, and I’ll get more of the amazing Thony & Nadia dynamic that we all deserve

Anyway I guess I could talk about a boy now– though given that he is literally surrounded by women in his life, Jorge is an honorary girl to me lol. It was cute to see him so excited about all the hotel stuff, from his big spiel to Nadia to all the proposal materials in his office– looks like he’s finally found his own path, not just the one Ramona chose for him. (Though holy shit it’s so messed up that the corporate world is literally the best place to hide illegal activity, wow). I found it hilarious that when Jorge was trying to sell Nadia on the hotel idea and saying all this stuff about how she’ll be the face of it etc, the picture very clearly shows he’s planning to call it ‘JS hotel’ lol. So she’s the face but it’s named after you?? Hmmm. Also geez he laid it on a little thick with the flattery there, but I guess it worked, because you could see how smitten she was with the hotel idea. And I can understand how some people might interpret that as her being smitten with him, but I genuinely don’t think so. First of all, she lost the man she loved literally like a week and a half ago; there’s no way that she has even the slightest inclination to look at anyone romantically right now. Plus, the show has already established that she’s incredibly good at reading people. She knows he’s trying to manipulate her in order to access her money, but in her life, that’s just a demonstration of good business skills. She sees what working with him can give her, and she wants it. In S1 she says to Arman “What do we own? Nothing”-- I think it’s hugely important to her character to actually be in possession of something big, to be the owner, not just the manager, to remove herself as far from the powerless girl from the Argentinian slums as she can. Anyway I love that one of his arguments is that she’ll be ‘set for life’ if they do this… because apparently already having 50 million dollars isn’t being set for life??? Man, what a world they live in haha. Anyway with it seeming unlikely that Nadia will be around next season, I wonder if the hotel will still somehow happen in S4? Maybe somehow Thony gets involved with it, though I don’t really see her wanting any part in something like that… tbh my main concern is that we might not get to see the La Habana set next season :(

Seeing Jeremy’s reaction to being burned was so satisfying. Not so clever now, are you, buddy?? Got outsmarted by a civilian just like Garrett did, and now you’ll be working with her, just like Garrett… but unlike Garrrett, she has zero regard or sense of obligation toward you, and so you may think she’s gonna work with you and follow your orders, but think again. She’s just going to bide her time until she has you right where she wants you, and then she will completely fuck you over, because you betrayed her family and took the man she loves, and that’s what you deserve. Be grateful if you walk out of all of this alive.

Other stuff:

Omg Fi going for the baseball bat to take out the smoke alarm. Someone has issues with impulsivity haha. Tbh her and Thony’s entire relationship is just the two of them taking turns holding each other back from doing something stupid and I love it

Ugh seeing Nadia standing all alone in that huge empty house, talking about how it’s time to put the past behind her and have a fresh start… and then later saying to Jorge that she just wants to be free… and then Thony telling her at the end that she’s free and she tells Thony that she took her whole life form her… ugh stop giving me stressful foreshadowing here writers. If Nadia has to go, write her out by having her run away into the sunset with her millions. Don’t make me watch her die twice!!!!!!!!!

When did Ramona and Russo ever see each other at La Habana? I don’t remember that happening? And anyway if they had, it should have been immediately clear that Russo was FBI, so this whole conversation doesn’t really make sense. I do enjoy Russo’s sassiness though. It was never super obvious before bc she was always having to play the serious one keeping Garrett in line, but I think I see why they got along lol

Oh boy the agent that scared Violeta really fucked up lol, like maybe don’t piss off a super powerful cartel leader??? Dude’s gonna be feeding the fishes in the Hoover Dam in no time lol

I love that the proposed hotel site is completely in the middle of nowhere, like too bad if the guests want to visit any other part of Vegas haha. Though I guess that might be entire point, to make it like a one-stop shop so guests will spend all their time and money in the one place lol

JD is such a cutie. Loved him taking advantage of a free weekday to bring thoughtful gifts for his bae. Lol at Fi shutting him up with a kiss– she really needs to go somewhere private and tell him everything though, bc he needs to know so he doesn’t inadvertently screw things up for them again.

I really felt for Fi when she found the immigrant worker house empty– this show is always full of painful near-misses in terms of timing, but at least in this case there’s still the hope that Thony will be able to use her sway over Jorge to find Camila and Gisele

Anyway ugh the promo for the finale looks so good… Nadia at Thony’s house, wearing borrowed clothes while Thony makes a plan to get her her money back… Jorge apparently being there too and helping them… Thony in a fancy dress, shooting a gun… it might be Ramona’s assassin guy that she shoots (one of the clips looks like he could be fighting with Jeremy) but man it would be cool if it was actually Ramona or Jeremy that she shoots, and honestly I’m so down for either of those options. Maybe she even does it to protect one of them from the other– like maybe she shoots Ramona to save Jeremy, which would mean she’d probably get pardoned by the FBI for everything. Or she shoots Jeremy to save Ramona, making Ramona extremely grateful, and as a result Ramona makes sure the shooting never ties back to her, and brings her into Sin Cara in a position of power…. Either way it’s going to make for an interesting S4!

#The Cleaning Lady #TCL recaps #TCL spoilers #The Cleaning Lady spoilers #ugh my baby Nadia #all I want is to see Thony give you a hug

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amanizali · 2 years

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what I would change about the Nikolai duology:

⚠️ major spoilers, obviously

I mean like genuinely we're mentioning character deaths, major plot points, basically summarizing, and a lot of it you won't understand until you've read the books—you have been warned

disclaimer: there were a lot of aspects I liked about the series (the writing was phenomenal, I felt many emotions, I had fun), but overall I was left pretty disappointed, especially since it's been quite a while and I've been able to think about it and develop my opinions. also I rant about this regularly so I thought I'd make a post. however, I adore Leigh and everything she does, and the grishaverse is extremely important to me (perhaps why I held such high standards for Nikolai's series). these are just my opinions, and it is totally fine to hold different ones, I'd actually love to hear them.

make it more about Nikolai. it felt like I had to speed through other povs to get to his, and especially by ROW, he almost felt like a side character (again). we got two books, and yet I feel like I barely know anything more about him than after the trilogy. he had povs, but it was so hard to get into his head about everything. there was SO MUCH potential for his story but it just ended up feeling like a side plot for the greater scheme of things

Zoya!!! I loved every single chapter from her pov!! why weren't those two the whole series? it would have been so nice to have something simpler where their relationship and story could also be established more

and like biracial Zoya who was almost a victim of child marriage?? her relationship with the Suli?? GIVE ME MORE

honestly didn't care much for the bee lady villain? whole thing was kinda on crack for me

why did David have to die? he didn't. it literally was an excuse for the Crows cameo and I will never forgive that. I loved seeing the Crows of course and it was hilarious (Kaz dressed as an old man lmaodjwiej), but that was not a price I was willing to pay (especially because I was still grieving). JUST GIVE US AN INEJ NOVEL OR SOMETHING THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN INFINITELY BETTER

to add onto that, Genya has gone through so much already. I feel like there's a limit for how much a character should suffer. it was just way too cruel, especially on her wedding day

I could have enjoyed our little found family loving each other and supporting each other for the rest of the series but instead David dies and we leave Genya to mourn all alone and forget about the og squad for the rest of the book pretty much

leave Nina out of it. I'm not sure how unpopular this opinion is, but her story did not need to be continued in canon. it ended so tragically but so beautifully and in a way that we could imagine how she healed in our own ways

also she really didn't need to be there for the plot of the series. it felt forced a little bit

also she just went straight to Ravkan military service after the heist and Matthias dying? uhh

how did she get over Matthias so quickly? it would be fine that she moved on if she hadn't been literally carrying his body around for months?? in a writing sense, I liked the whole grief arc but 1. I really didn't need it because again, it drags on Nina's story more than I would have preferred (and it was just traumatic ngl) and 2. SHE SWITCHED UP SO FAST AFTERWARDS

which brings me to Hanne. what even. who. I didn't care at all for Hanne. why are we introducing new characters that don't even contribute to the plot? I hate to say this but it felt like forced representation. I didn't feel for her/them/him (I'm sorry I don't know what pronouns they would use), and I didn't ship Nina with them either

Nina felt quite different when with Hanne and I just didn't really like this new Nina???? which is scary for me because I absolutely loved her in SOC but idk something felt off, and not even in just a post-tragedy way

the whole Fjerda plot. idk, it honestly felt like a forced way to fit Nina's plot in, I felt it didn't really contribute much at the end of the day even if what it was leading up to hinted it could have—this includes all the new characters too like Rasmus or whatever his name was

in general, all the different povs (Ravka, Shu Han, Fjerda) made it feel all over the place, and by the end, the connection wasn't enough for it to feel fulfilled. this series (especially ROW) had way too many things going on

I MISS ADRIK AND LEONI WHY PUT THEM IN IF THEY PRACTICALLY DISAPPEAR

that random love story with fake Nikolai and fake Ehri??? wha- why give these two random side characters a tragic love story?? like breaking my heart for literally no reason

yeah Mayu too like why is she getting povs? I appreciate the Shu Han world-building with that but there were just too many things happening for me to actually feel much for her and Reyem (but their bond was wholesome)

look I reallyyyy liked the Shu Han stuff since I was genuinely interested in the politics. I honestly wouldn't have minded more of that?? just if only the Fjerda stuff didn't happen and it wasn't so jam packed with plotlines

I also think the Shu Han politics could have been integrated with the plot a little better, it felt pretty distant from Nikolai and the overall plot (like maybe instead of going to Ketterdam, Nikolai could have been more involved in all that?)

WHY IS THE DARKLING BACK?? MAKE NEW CONFLICTS. NEW VILLAINS IF YOU MUST. STOP REUSING VILLAINS. ALINA DID NOT SUFFER THAT MUCH, WORK THAT HARD, GIVE UP HER POWERS JUST FOR THIS MF TO RETURN!!! it also devalued his initial death scene like that shit was BEAUTIFUL and to cry for someone you hate?? like wow

and now we're dragging poor Alina back into this like let her live in peace oml

THAT CULT THING WAS HILARIOUS BUT WTF the darkling is no longer scary nor can I take him seriously anymore. what even was that plotline like?? I'm honestly so confused I could not tell you what we achieved in this duology

that little multiverse?? tease at the end and him like holding together the world or whatever it was was cool tho

NIKOLAI HAS A BIRTH DAD AND A SISTER. AND IS A BASTARD CHILD. AND WE JUST. ARE PRETENDING THAT DIDNT HAPPEN??? like I'm sure Nikolai would feel some level of anger or confusion or sadness or SOMETHING but the short interaction was so casual and silly and we just never visited that again?? why are we portraying Nikolai like a comic relief character in his own series Leigh whyyyy T_T like I love his personality but he also has dimensions and we have sEEN glimpses of that

and yeah to go back to my first point, Nikolai is literally leading a war (loved the steampunk vibes). his brother (whom he had a complicated relationship with) died. he had to banish his parents. he found out about blood relatives. one of his closest friends and talented engineers died ON HIS WEDDING DAY. he has a demon inside of him and woke up every day in chains. so where is the depth??? why was he the least angsty out of all the povs we got?? (like we obviously got some moments but with everything else it was just pushed aside)

anyway, if you read this far, *mwah* thank you, I appreciate you for listening to my rambling. please lmk what you think!! do you agree? disagree? what did u think about this series? I hope you have a wonderful day/night ❤️

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mysaldate · 2 years

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Whoever sent the ask about Journey, Tumblr ate it and had a stroke, here’s your answer!

THIS POST ORIGINALLY HAD PICTURES AND A VIDEO BUT TUMBLR DECIDED NOT TO ALLOW ANY OF THAT TO GO THROUGH. THIS IS A LONG-TERM ISSUE THAT HAS BEEN REPORTED BY SOME USERS AS FAR AS TWO WEEKS BACK.

Oh boy, I hope you don't mind the nerdy rant that's coming because ngl, I have a LOT to say about this game that hasn't even properly released yet.

AFK 2: Journey is an upcoming game collab between Lilith Games and Farlight Games. You may recognize this combination of developers from Dislyte, but don't worry, this is nothing like Dislyte. Well, at least not in the bad aspects of it. You can view the official trailer for the closed beta right here and there are already plenty of people who made videos about it on YT regarding the gameplay and general feel of the game. In short, it's a more or less open-world game where you play as a prophesized savior of Esperia against one particular threat. I'll go more into detail about what is and isn't in the game under the cut so I don't take up too much space on the timeline and I'll also be adding some pictures and maybe even videos of the game itself.

As I was a part of the closed beta testing, I was able to already see what the game had to offer, and here's my crude review. It won't go over everything so if you have any additional questions, feel free to ask.

So to start with, what separates this game from the already existing AFK game, AFK Arena?

Well, for starters, it features 3D graphics. Now, usually, I'm not too big a fan of 3D graphics. It was my main issue with Dislyte (until I looked at the gacha properly at least), and I'm not a fan of Genshin's style for this very reason. 3D graphics make games difficult to run on devices with overall lower performance and everything becomes that much bigger in the storage as well. Not to mention, usually it doesn't even look good and 2D would've provided a lot more emotion and creative freedom. Genshin constantly struggles with supposedly emotional moments falling flat because of both pacing and the limited range of emotions in their 3D models. Dislyte doesn't animate most stories and thus avoids this pitfall... without actually fixing the problem either. On the other hand, I think Journey did a good job portraying emotions even on the NPC faces despite the 3D model limitations. If anything, they were a bit too much at times. The overall body language definitely added to this though so it's not like everything hung only on the facial expressions. They weren't afraid to utilize their whole models to get the feeling across and it certainly paid off. And sure, the expressions are still sometimes a mess and my poor screenshotting skills definitely don't help my case, but you'll see what I mean with the videos. For now, have this.

(very awkward screenshot of a sad bunny mom was here)

The model is a little awkward because of the screenshot but Adeline really sold her distress. She was constantly rubbing at her eyes wiping her tears away, blinking them away, and shaking. She's afraid about her lost child and she behaves like someone in such a situation. She doesn't stand stiff and stare blankly off into the distance.

Another key difference is the aforementioned open world. Now again, it is not quite as open as in Genshin, you cannot climb or swim, and a lot of locations require you to follow specific paths to get to, but you can still frolic in the fields of grain and go off course to grab a random treasure chest or fight a random enemy. You also get rewards for filling out the map. You can choose up to four characters you have drawn in gacha to follow you around and they have no relation to your party whatsoever so you can just put your favorites there without having to worry about combat. The world is split into several larger areas with a bunch of smaller areas within each one. You can progress to the next areas regardless of where you are in the main story which is nice. There's no Inazuma situation where you can't go somewhere until you get there in the story. Every bigger and smaller area is locked behind a small boss fight and there are also teleports on the map. Much appreciated is also the auto-pilot function where you can simply choose a goal and your character will automatically find the shortest route to get there if it is possible, and then walk on their own.

Last but not least, I need to talk about the main character. AFK Arena is wonderful thanks to it not having a main character to dictate the course of its story, even though it kind of seemed like that's where it was going at the start. Journey, on the other hand, decided to commit to the idea of having a playable main character. I wasn't a fan of it when I first heard about it but it kind of blew me away with how seamless they made it and how neatly it fits in with the rest of the game. I will get more into the MC a little bit later.

That were just the key differences between AFK Arena and AFK 2: Journey. So let's talk more about Journey itself.

The story of the prologue, and thus kind of the overarching story, is a little cliché at the start. No star-traveling twins fighting an evil god and getting separated, no world of godly powers bestowed upon mortals. There is a prophesized main character, us, who was foretold to save Esperia from the spreading corruption of dark miasma. That's right, no Hypogean threat and war between good and evil, well at least not in the traditional sense of the word. Also, we have amnesia. But don't worry, there's a reason for it. At the start of the game, we get found by a duo of traveling mercenaries, Ella and Valen. Ella is a mage who studied at the Astral Academy, while Valen is a sword-user, though he can't really be called a knight, and they were hired by someone to find this someone's master. At the start of the game, after they find us, we are completely covered up, you can't see anything at all about the MC.

(a screenshot of a covered up MC was here, they are wearing full-body robes that go over their head and a full face mask that hides their whole face, on their chest is a white gem)

This becomes important later because after meeting with the client who sent them to find us, we are taken to our main base – a building on the back of a massive terrestrial creature that has all the possible accommodations including the Noble Tavern (with best girl Dolly) and a changing room. The MC, once you get past the prologue, is CUSTOMIZABLE. You can pick between the male and female body, there's a variety of skin tones, both natural and not, and you gain avatar items as you progress the story or you can buy them from the shop. You can get fox ears, a monocle, an eye mask, full-body outfits, and more. This honestly excited me so much and it immediately elevated this game in my head so much more. Furthermore, while the MC doesn't fight on your team, they stand in the back and provide various valuable buffs from healing to attack power-ups to even damaging enemies. In a way, the MC is functionally similar to the new Beasts feature in AFK Arena.

The one drawback I would call out is that there's not really much of anything just yet but this was just the closed beta after all. They'll probably add a lot of new stuff before the actual release. You can also choose a faction for your avatar frame but the only ones in the game so far were Lightbearers and Maulers, and the Lightbearer one was the default frame while the actual Lightbearer-looking frame was labeled as Maulers, so nothing is perfect, but there is a very solid base that we could see great expansions upon.

Aside from the MC, you build a team of up to five heroes much like you would in AFK Arena. You also get tutorial heroes for free. These heroes are Ella, Valen, Chippy, and Hammie. Speaking of whom, Chippy and his cousin Hammie are the two who originally hired Ella and Valen and though I would personally consider them related to the Wilders or Maulers, they were apparently accepted as Lightbearers. Maybe the centuries-old race war is finally getting better? Chippy looks like a chubby little hamster knight and works as a tank, and Hammie is similar to a white weasel and has minor magical powers and healing abilities. They come with a whole family of similar creatures who all work for us and do lots of little background things like scouting out maps for treasure and enemies. What's most important though is that they are absolutely ADORABLE!

(several pictures of cute little fuzzy babies were posted here, you can still find Chippy as the game's official profile picture on FB, and Hammie appeared on the closed beta announcement picture)

Aside from the starting four, you can recruit characters through a gacha system in the tavern, just like in the old AFK Arena. The gacha now has an animation that, while far from great, I just can't stop watching. And it is pretty much only for the Dolly animation and especially the way her skirt twirls. 3D animated skirts usually tend to be awfully stiff or feel heavy and suffocating, but as someone who wore them quite a lot not that long ago, I appreciated how realistic and light Dolly's skirt seemed in it. This is a weird detail to get hung up on, I know, but I always focus on weird things, we all know that by now.

(a video of the gacha pull was here, it opens in a cozy-looking shared space with a bar, several tables, a changing room, and even a small store, Dolly is cleaning tankards when she notices the player came to gacha and sets her work down to motion towards larger animations playing out behind her where we can see some of the characters we can pull, after clicking on the 10-pull option, she runs out to the balcony and tosses out a handful of envelopes that fly into the air, day turns into night and a single envelope returns, lighting up beacons indicating the rarities of heroes in the pull)

And yes, I keep mentioning Dolly. However, Dolly is not the only familiar face we'll meet in Journey. A whole set of heroes from AFK Arena shows up in Journey as well. From the Lightbearers, we have Lucius, Rowan, and Mirael, from the Maulers, there's Brutus, the Wilders brought Eironn and Lyca, and the only Graveborn from the original game who made the cut, for now, is Thoran. Aside from them, the game also has a plethora of new original heroes. And these heroes certainly look every bit as unique and diverse as you would expect from an AFK game! During the beta, the game didn't have any backstories just yet, but it had a dedicated space for them so we can expect them to show up soon. Let me quickly walk you through the new heroes!

(two pictures from the promo materials were there; the first one depicted Ella, a young and fairly androgynous woman with chin-length white hair and blue eyes, she is wearing a blue barret, a white and gold vest with a closed top and a turtleneck, blue cape falls from it on both front and back and the front part is divided into two halves, leaving an opening to see her vest through, she also has dark blue booty shorts and long cream-colored stockings on, she wields a golden staff with a blue gem on top; the second picture depicted Valen, he is a leisurely looking young man with a mess of brown hair falling down to his shoulders and wears a white shirt with a dark blue tunic and a fur-lined brown cloak together cream-colored pants and high brown boots, he is equipped with a sword as well as leather arm braces, by his waist hangs the sheath and another sheathed sword)

First, we have Ella and Valen (and sorry I don't have my own screenshots for them, I have their animations). Both of them are Lightbearers and I also introduced them a little bit, but since they play a big part in the main story, I can talk more about their personalities. Ella is smart and relies on her wits but is prone to anger at times and has a strong sense of justice. On the other hand, Valen is laid-back and more careful about how he comes across to others but he has a good head on his shoulders and remembers to consider options outside of what's right in front of our faces. They're a refreshing duo and it's easily understandable why they've stuck together as mercenaries.

Sadly, Chippy and Hammie don't really show up much after the prologue so there's not much more to them other than being loyal and very adorable. Chippy has great faith in us as the prophesized hero while Hammie has a more leveled approach and keeps things on the cooler side.

(a picture here depicted Merrin, she is a young blonde woman, her hair is tied in twin braids but several strands escaped and stick out wildly, she's wearing a white short-sleeved shirt and brown pants rolled up to her knees and on her head sits a white and blue Robin Hood-style hat, she wields a bow and by her hip hands a quiver of arrows and a fox tail, she also has a dagger strapped to her other hip)

The Lightbearer lineup is finished by Merrin. She's born of noble blood but after her mother got murdered, she ran away from home seeking vengeance. This is actually a part of the main story so I don't want to spoil too much but she is very energetic, dedicated, and doesn't mind changing plans on the run if she can attain her goal. She's also not stubborn and can admit when she made a mistake, but she won't put up with nonsense. She's a genuinely refreshing character in an already very good story quest.

(a picture here depicted Hewyn, she is a small girl with pointy ears, her golden hair is tied in two braids and rolled up on the sides of her head, there is a tear-shaped mark on her forehead, she has green eyes and a somber or perhaps distrusting look, she is wearing an ankle-length dress of white and green with a few golden touches and holds a leaf bigger than she is as an umbrella or maybe to provide shade from the sun)

Moving on to the Wilders, we have Hewyn. Unfortunately, if she does appear in the main story, I didn't get to her during the beta so I can't really talk much about her, but she is a dedicated healer and her healing is absolutely busted. I'm sure this will get rebalanced soon but during the beta, she was easily healing 50k HP with her ult while my main AoE DPS dealt a little over 13k damage to the enemies. In her animations, she appears very shy and almost fearful.

(a picture here depicted Seth, a powerfully-built anthropomorphized black panther, he has golden tattoos or perhaps paint on his chest like the rays of the sun coming from below where his neck protection spreads over his shoulders, the neck protection gear is connected to a sleeve over his right arm, both of his arms sport leather bracers, he also wears tight pants of light leather and there are several protective bindings on his legs, his claws are painted gold, by his waist are several signal horns fastened to a wide belt)

That's all the Wilders so moving on to the Maulers. This is Seth and he's a black panther assassin. And that's all I know about him since he doesn't have a backstory and his animations seem generally guarded so I can't read much into them.

(a picture here depicted Bo, he is a massive rhino with a huge battering ram in his arms, he is wearing a fur-lined red attire and sports red body paint around his neck, he is also equipped with heavy-looking arm bracers and a protective piece on his head going from between his eyes to around his horn for which it has a hole, the armor seems to be made of black scales and held together with golden seams, he also has a golden nose ring)

Bo has to be one of my favorite designs simply for how unconventional he is. He's just. so. large. He's the tankiest tank who ever tanked. But in his animations, he also appears very aloof and sleepy, like he used a lot of energy charging and pushing back the enemy, and now he just needs a nap.

(picture here depicted two meerkat-looking Maulers, one significantly larger than the other, obviously the adult of the two if they truly are the same species, the smaller meerkat isn't wearing any clothes but is holding a blue bottle while the larger meerkat creature is wearing a red vest and red and brown drop-crotch pants, as well as red wrist bracers and a colorful necklace, they have dreadlocks on the back of their head and a green stalk between their teeth, one of their hands is extended forward and would be holding a censer if my screenshots weren't always taken in the worst possible moment)

Daka and Waka are a support duo of Maulers whose entire kit revolves around spreading smoke from their censer with different kinds of incense granting different buffs for their allies, with healing added to the mix at their ult. I couldn't even tell you which is which but know that the bigger one of the duo seems to be a parental or guardian figure to the smaller one – and is very anxious about anything possibly happening to their protegé.

(the picture here depicted a ginger hyena with a surprisingly large and fluffy-looking tail as well as very defined and round buttocks, he isn't wearing anything but a loincloth, a shoulder pad on his right shoulder, and a few leather straps that hold his quiver of blowdarts in place on his back, he has a blowgun in one hand and holds the index finger and thumb of the other hand up as if in a greeting, by his waist hangs the skull of a small cow and an inconspicuous flask, he has a leisure relaxed smile on his face, his eyes half-lidded)

The last Mauler of the bunch is Eddie. Okay, I lied, Eddie is probably my favorite design. He attacks with a blowgun and has a very relaxed air around him. For some reason, they gave him the seductive eyebrow wiggle in one of his animations. He's pretty decent at close combat too but definitely prefers to stay at a range.

(depicted here was Lelana, a graveborn young-looking woman with a very sleepy look to her, she has dark circles around her eyes like she hasn't slept in a very long time, her hair is very long and goes from dark gray on top to very light pale green at the ends, she is wearing a long layered dress of dark blue and dirty white with motifs of snowflakes towards the bottom, the white parts of her dress resemble melting snow, her long sleeves are poofy and white and she's wearing white gloves, over her shoulders is a dark blue overcoat and her neck is protected by a ruff, she is holding a tall and thin candelabra with three candles)

Lelana is absolutely gorgeous. That's it, that's my review. No, I'm kidding obviously. She's a mage who summons snowballs and snow-themed attacks, and I think her outfit is very lovely. It has the weight of a heavy blanket to it and it works really great. She doesn't move much but what few moves she does have in her animations are all fluid and elegant, albeit tempered.

(the last picture in this post was Igor, a graveborn whose face is completely hidden behind a knight-like helmet with only his long light green hair escaping it, a sword is sticking out of his upper back causing him to be hunched forward, a large iron with three heavy nails is rammed across his shoulder blades, and he has a heavy spiked shackle around each wrist, he isn't wearing a shirt and his pants, though they have holes in them, are a similar color to his skin but he is also wearing a loincloth over his pants, he dual-wields large blades and is crouching on a gravestone)

And last but certainly not least is Igor. He is somewhat similar to Grezhul with his kit of summoning gravestones but unlike Grezhul, he can teleport between them and activate them, giving debuffs and, I believe, damage over time to all enemies within a certain range. As for his animations, most are surprisingly aloof and seem to kind of hint at him perhaps feeling lonely as he currently is. Though only a full backstory will be able to tell us everything we need to know.

I will not get too much into the story and gameplay in this answer as this is already long enough but I want to mention one more thing regarding the battles. Aside from the battles having a hexagon grid system and thus a lot more combinations for positioning the party. Furthermore, there are various battle modes that allow you to experiment with your teams and units to figure out who works best where as well as devices you can manually use to turn the tide of battle. For example, there are defense battles where you need to defeat waves of enemies before they can damage a cart of supplies. There are solo battles where you can only use a singular hero to defeat several opponents. There are also tactical showdown battles where you can pick a limited number of units from a preset group and defeat tough enemies. The devices include a water gun that slows enemies down, walls and barricades that need to be broken down or circumvented, a flamethrower that deals damage and lingering burns, and more. The combination of all of these makes the battles really engaging and enjoyable, though, of course, you can still steamroll almost everything with high enough levels. There's also PvP, boss battles, and Labyrinth (although that one needs some severe adjustments).

Well, I'll get off my rant now, I'm sure I've wasted enough of your time. If you wanna see anyone's animations that I talked about or are ready to listen to me rant about the AFK Arena characters and their designs in the 3D art style, or anything else, hit me up anytime! My brain is overflowing with this game rn so I will be more than happy to answer anything!

#afk arena #afk 2 journey #afk journey #long post #sorry for ranting #also this took way too much time #tumblr had not one but at least twenty strokes #at the end of which it deleted the original ask #thanks a lot tumblr

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f1-birb · 1 year

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thank you for saying what you did on that last ask about the fandom babying lando. this is not meant disrespectfully and is not aimed at that anon, it's meant in a general sense, but i wish people would stop doing it & projecting the image of this insecure, helpless, needy young boy on him. even from the little we see of him on screen & social media and not personally knowing him at all, it's obvious he is not those things and that he has a core of steel in there - they all have, however nice they may be, or they wouldn't survive in f1. for instance from things daniel has said in recent interviews, one of the things that has done him over this year & put him out of the sport is the mental side of things for him just as much as his physical struggles with the mclaren car. some fans really underestimate just how mentally tough & self-sufficient these guys have to be to do what they do, even though they have support teams around them (like lando has john & mark b & his parents).

lando is not a child, he's a grown ass man who is succeeding & thriving at the top of one of the most ruthless sporting environments in existence. even when he was shy & anxious by his own admission when he first entered f1, he never came across as someone who NEEDED support from his teammates (doesn't mean he didn't appreciate support they gave but there's a difference). if anyone's support was NEEDED (I use needed loosely), and i'm only going here on things he himself has said on streams & in interviews, it was mclaren giving him a safe environment to grow & be himself and also to talk about & work on his mental health without fear of rejection or ridicule, which anyone who has mental health struggles knows is so important. like most people in the world, he probably does draw a lot from his friendships just like his friends probably draw a lot from him in return - look what max fewtrell has said on streams about how lando is his ride or die & how much lando supported & helped him when fewtrell was at his really low point in the last couple of years. carlos has hinted a few times both last year & this year that he & lando are each other's sounding board in f1 and from the very little we see of it, their friendship appears to be very much mutually supportive. and though we don't know if this is actually the case, for all we know daniel may well have drawn on their friendship/kinship/whatever when things were bad at mclaren for him this season, as most people tend to draw on those immediately around them when times are rough, even if it's just to have a laugh with someone and lighten the load for a little bit.

i find it weird that we have all watched lando quite clearly mature & branch out this year, throwing himself into & publicly sharing new hobbies without giving a shit whether people think he's good at it or not, visibly more confident & comfortable voicing what he wants to say in front of the camera even if he still ties himself in knots or gets himself in trouble at times (his speech about seb on sky after the abu dhabi finale was just wonderful & such a sign of how mature he's becoming) and him very much thriving in the proxy-team leader role at mclaren. and yet some people still view him as a needy insecure child. sorry for the rant, i've been wanting to say this stuff for ages as it's something that really bugs me.

There's not a lot I can add to this but

- Lando is a snippy, sarcastic, elbows out little gremlin now and I love that for him, the comments he's made to shitty interviewers, or said in response to certain comments from other drivers (looking at two in red recently ngl) show he's not there to take bullshit lying down and he's standing up for himself

- Lando speaking up about mental health the way he did, especially as a young male in a high performance sport, was amazing of him and I'm glad he's only been even more encouraged by his fellow drivers doing the same (the way he looked to Seb and Seb gave him that proud little nod as if to say 'we all know you've spoken out about it and that's great')

- His maturity when being asked about his long contract with McLaren, the conviction he has and the dedication to the team even when comments from interviewers have been doubtful - more of him sticking up for himself and his decisions

- His entire interview with Sky and George and Seb, and his little speech when asked about what Seb's done for him and the sport and young drivers - I was so so proud and emotional because he said about needing to find his voice and he is and he's done it on his own, not being babied to it, but he's grown as a person and done it himself

Don't be sorry, I've said I'm always open to lend ears to rants, but it's something I agree on. I may look at him and go "baby, baby boy, he's so cute" but there's the full acknowledgement that he's a grown man (pretty sure I've even spieled before about his evolution from 2019 Lando to now)

#lando norris #birb speaks

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rinbowaman · 7 months

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Heyy! Not sure if you’ll remember me (since you have quite a number of fans 🤭) but im the same anon that sent you a really long ass message (and a little rant about my final year hardships) about loving all the heeleads and wishing i had someone who will live only for me and dropping anything they have or are doing just to be with me. This was back in early august if im not mistaken and you’ve also sent a really sweet reply with a little drabble? of a part of HHP of a similar situation i was going through that you had in your drafts. I just wanted to say thank you for it and ngl, i actually sobbed reading that drabble you attached cuz it honestly hit me hard. I sent that message right before i went to bed of the day of that big presentation and submission and im so grateful it went so well! Like after just sending you that message, rereading some of your heelead series, it just made me feel comforted and reassured that it will be alright in the end, and it was! I was even lucky to win the best presentation in my class, and thats kinda saying a lot seeing that im in fashion styling course and I’ve been so insecure and had super low self esteem my whole life, especially when it comes to academics, like yeah fashion isnt really like math or science or language, but as much as i enjoyed it, throughout my 2 years of studying, i felt like i was so out of place because it seemed that everyone knew what they were doing, they were always up to date with trends and runways and fashion weeks, heck even the people like creative directors and stuff, whereas I just tend to go with the flow of what I actually take a liking to and what possibly pops up onto my socials, idek more than half the people my lecturer mentions. It made me second guess my work all the time, but for once, i was reassured that it was just my low self esteem and lack of confidence because out of all my classmates (who are mostly generally rich kids who wear and keep up to date with lv, miumiu, those brands and some who likes to try to be better than others, and who actually takes the time to dress up for class *like i just wear sweatshirts and jeans 90% of the time cuz the classrooms are like a freezer!), the judges from the industry (mostly fashion writers or part of the pr team in brands) chose my work as the best. I had soo much doubts but it turned out well for me. For once, i even saw how proud my family was for my achievement. I was usually the trouble maker, the one who’s obsessed with bts and enhypen, the one who hates studying and getting every single grade a syllabus had. For the first time, my hard work and tears actually paid off and i kinda owe it to you and other writers on here that has provided so much great content that actually makes me feel like i could run away from reality for a bit and imagine i had this great life with someone who loves me for me.

Ik this is another long ass message that will turn into a bit of a rant right now. Im having hardcore heeleads missing day. Not even hours, but like days, maybe even weeks cuz I’ve been having a particularly hard time again, now its my internship that makes me cry at night. I had a hard time looking for somewhere to do my internship at especially since this industry isnt all that big in my country, especially fashion styling. At first i applied to quite a few places, most didnt respond, while a select few did. 1 had rejected my application after my interview (most likely cuz i had to complete 480 hours by end of nov, latest, first week of dec), then the other that offered me a spot was more of a marketing aspect and i was not keen on it so i rejected their offer. It came down to the final week that i had to really start my internship, if not i wont be able to complete it, i decided to go into retail. Applied to 3 places, interviewed all and got offered 2 places. I decided to take up both the offers since its part time roles and i wont be able to finish my hours if i took only 1. Fast forward, im actually enjoying my working life so far, made a new friend that’s actually around my age, everyone is super friendly and nice and offers help whenever. Its just that now, as you’ve probably guessed from something i said earlier, i suck at maths, so i had my mum to assist me in keeping up with my hours, she helps me calculate how much I’ve achieved and how much more i need. I’m grateful she wants to help me out, im kinda a little like the one that sticks to her a lot, but with that, comes the actual practical? side of her. I enjoy what im doing, but when she starts telling me that i have to push up my hours, take up more shifts, no more breaks in between, actually needing to work 7?! days a week so i could finish my 480 hours, its kinda hit me hard and made me start to be demotivated. I still enjoy my job, but i always thought internships wouldve been about gaining more knowledge, learning new things and experiences, but at this point, it just seems like i have to work my ass of for 7 days a week, more than 8 hours of shifts just to pass my internship, if i dont finish my 480 hours, it’ll consider as a fail… its not even about the money i can get anymore (all goes into my enhypen funds and a little to bills and spending of course), or the experience i can get with the job, it makes me feel like my life right now, revolves around hours. Its gotten to the point that i started hating time, hate looking at the clock. I look forward to lying in my bed at the end of the day and drifting to dreamland, i used to look forward to waking up to a new day and doing what i wanna do. But now, i just look forward to lying in bed whenever i get the chance to, maybe read a few fics here and there to get my mind off my problems, and going to sleep. I started to dread the morning, to finish work just to come home and calculate how much hours I’ve finished and how much more i need. It wouldn’t be too bad if not finishing the hours just means i get a lower grade, but it means i fail my internship program and have to retake it again. Working 2 jobs is already exhausting for me (i salute those who’ve worked for years and work multiple jobs at a time) but i knew that thats not the life for me, i already have plans on resigning one job but staying in the other once I’ve completed my internship. But everytime i think that ive hit a milestone, enjoying my job each time i walk in, being able to save up for things i wanna do, get and experience with my own hard earned money, its like i hit a wall that takes me to rock bottom. I probably sound dramatic but its honestly not that easy for me. GrMy sis always says “oh you’re just doing part time, interns are supposed to do the same thing as full timers but get paid less, just wait til you get a full time job then you talk” like it honestly hurts me cuz i just dont feel understood or heard. I’ve never, in my whole life feel understood or heard by anyone, besides my best friend who’s like my soulmate at this point.

And i'm also glad that heethan and heeleads bring you joy. they would be so proud. ❤️

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