#which doesn’t make all that bad but like… I need the combo. the nuisance. I gotta earn the silly after

[abrushwithdeath]

((Hello, friends ♥️ I am having an exceptionally bad bout of anxiety this evening. It kind of hit me out of nowhere at work and has just... stuck around all night. That said, I just want to explain something about myself because I worry about how I come across sometimes:

(“tl;dr” at the bottom because I write too much ^^;)

Sometimes I have good days! On days like that, I won’t hesitate to send asks or reply to threads! I might even like starter calls or send messages! I like to interact and I get excited about threads and plots and asks and headcanons and all of it, and I really appreciate everyone who writes with me so very much, whether we write together a lot or a little, even if we’ve only interacted once or twice, even if we’ve only talked about interacting but never have. I really, from the bottom of my heart, love and appreciate you all ♥️

With that said, generally speaking, I am a very timid and anxious person and stress myself out a lot about silly little things, especially in social situations- like if it’s okay to reply to a thread (even if we’re already 10+ replies into it) or send an ask or like a starter call (even if I’ve done so in the past). Not because of anything any of you have done but because I have avpd (and bpd which is a killer combo lmao) and it talks me out of approaching people, even if we've written together before or are currently writing together. Even if we’ve never had any negative interactions. Even if you talk to me every day.  It doesn't take much for it to act up enough that I can't appropriately cope with it and remind myself that it's okay to reach out and that not having threads / asks / messages answered or someone not wanting to write with me isn't the be-all-end-all of my time in the rpc. Rationally, I also realize that someone not replying to a couple asks or dropping threads (I'm VERY guilty of doing both of those things, especially on my multi where muse and mood fluctuate like crazy) doesn't necessarily mean anything against me and I don't take it personally because I know I shouldn’t! Sometimes people aren't feeling something or just don't have a good response in mind and that's 10000000000% okay!!! But sometimes, even though there’s no reason for it (like right now), there's a lil voice in my head that starts to inform me that I'm being a nuisance, an annoyance, and that I need to just... Stay in my corner and speak only when spoken to, so to say. Sometimes I can shut it up easily because I understand that I’m probably being irrational, but in most situations it wins out and I end up not sending memes or liking starter calls or even answering back to some messages or threads because I have convinced myself that people are just too polite to shut me down and I should be the one to step away so as not to bother them any further. This happens even with people I've been writing with for months! Hell, it's even, in the past, happened with people I have written with for YEARS! I just avoid situations where I feel like there's even a minor chance that I won't be accepted and end up keeping to myself to avoid the possibility of bad feelings. The same happens sometimes when I feel like excitement about a thread or something isn’t reciprocated. It may not be intentional on your part and I may be reading the situation wrong entirely, but sometimes I read a reply and think to myself “They’re not enjoying this. How can I make them enjoy this? What did I do wrong? Do they not like me? Are they bored of me? Are they bored of my muse? What did I do? How can I change? What can I do to make them happy to write with me and this character that I love again?”

That said- I'm not asking anyone to do anything about it or to do anything differently, don't worry about that! You're all amazing and I love you all very much! It's a personal issue (and a personal failing, to a degree) and it's something I just kind of live with and have lived with for most of my life.

I just wanted it to be known because sometimes I kind of... Step away from people and stop sending things or stop talking to them ooc or pass by starter calls / plotting calls / meme calls even if I’m obviously active, and I just really want you all to know that it's nothing to do with you and everything to do with me. I love writing with you. I love your muses. I love talking to you. I just get scared and upset very easily and it can come across as me not being invested in what’s already being written or not being interested in starting anything new when it's quite the opposite, really. I just have a way of telling myself “Yes, they are your mutual, but no that thing isn’t for you, it’s for everyone else!” and then I answer myself with “Yeah, that makes sense. Better not bother them or they’ll think I’m being annoying” and then I stop sending asks or stop liking posts or stop responding as often ooc or even stop replying to threads because I just kind of tell myself I’m not allowed to ^^;

Anyway- I’m not going to be on tonight because I need to get to sleep soon for work tomorrow, but I’ll try to be around a little bit tomorrow evening if I’m feeling better :)  If you’ve bothered reading this far, thank you! You really didn’t have to! I just ramble when I’m trying to explain things because I want to be sure I’ve gotten my point across as thoroughly as possible!  If you didn’t read this far (or at all), still thank you for just existing! ♥️ 

tl;dr: I love you and I hope you’re doing well! And I’m sorry that I sometimes start to pull away from people. It’s not your fault in the slightest and I do still want to talk to you and interact with you, I just have a habit of convincing myself that people don’t actually like me and then I hide like a lil turtle bc I’m afraid to annoy you ^^; ))

#cw mental health #cw long post #mental health cw #long post cw #ooc. #long post #((I dunno how to tag this. I'm tired ^^;)) #((I just wanted to clarify some things bc I feel guilty about how shit I am at literally everything lmao)) #((Anyway- goodnight! I'll delete this in the morning if I remember to :) ))

[sunnysviolin]

Kel and Aubrey going around interacting with people to learn about the different cultures everywhere as they travel, wearing cultural outfits, participating in cultural activities, just having an overall good time...

Would they be good at any cultural dances? Since they're traveling to Spain first, I can just imagine Aubrey in a flamenco dress with Kel as they just dance together and enjoy themselves (or maybe Kel wearing the dress- or maybe both of them wearing dresses-)

...I kinda wanna draw them dancing around together now.

-from a videogame-world traveling anon

nonnie.....nonnie wait....if you drew something we created together I would be SO EMO WAIT!!! No oh my god like my brain literally just exploded like art?? ART??? I wanna be able to draw so bad...but I can’t I just gotta continue on w my lil writing bits....here take some more writing bits nonnie

*Singing to myself* This got lonnng againnnn I’m putting itttt under a readdd moreeeee

Kel’s parents are....less than pleased to find out their son isn’t directly going to college like Hero did, and they make that known. 

They don’t approve of his choice to take at least one gap year. They don’t approve of him not continuing his education. They don’t approve of him throwing away his life for that bad girl that spent so many years terrorizing him. Even two years after changing her ways, Aubrey is still regarded as a nuisance among the town old timers. Kel’s parents tell him plainly that they don’t approve of Aubrey, and they won’t be changing their mind. 

Which leads to Kel having a minor breakdown and finally admitting what he’s known his whole life- that he will never be good enough to measure up to Hero, and he’s finally tired of trying to be someone he’s not. He isn’t Hero and he never will be, but for once he wants being Kel to be good enough. 

Seeing their bright positive middle child finally crack under the weight they’ve been unintentionally laying on him is...it’s painful. Kel’s parents never meant to make it a competition between their sons, they just wanted what was best for both of them. 

Having Kel sobbing at their dining room table at 3:00 am on the night of his high school graduation teaches them that they might not know what’s best for Kel after all. 

So...yeah the talk the morning after that is filled with a lot of awkward pausing. Kel isn’t used to sharing his true feelings, and he isn’t used to exposing anything other than cheerful hope. Ultimately they come to an agreement. Kel can go with Aubrey, follow her and his heart on their crazy plan, but he has to spend the year before they leave working and earning and not just hanging around the house

That was Kel’s plan anyway, so he’s ecstatic. He calls Aubrey immediately after, and she comes over so they can plan things out together

That year before they leave is definitely not easy. They’re working multiple retail and menial labor jobs, spending 12-15 hours a day on their feet in steamy kitchens, being screamed at by rude customers, and delivering so. many. pizzas. 

At some point in that year Aubrey and her mother have the inevitable fight that has been coming her whole life, and her mother kicks her out. Aubrey shows up in the middle of the night with her things next to her. Kel’s mother welcomes her inside and gets her a cup of tea. Kel wakes up and comes downstairs the next day to see his partner curled up asleep on the couch under a blanket his mother had just finished knitting

His mother doesn’t explain anything (”It’s her story dear not mine”) but after Aubrey comes to stay with them his parents warm to her quickly. Aubrey and Kel are allowed to share the room that Hero and he once shared, but they’re adamant that the beds stay on opposite sides

((He and Aubrey fit cramped but happy into his twin bed every night, but she always wakes up early to switch beds in order to be respectful to his parents wishes)) 

Soon enough its the afternoon before their journey is beginning (They decided to redeye to Sevilla). They have hostel confirmation numbers for a dozen different European countries, a thick binder of plans and itineraries, and a joint account that has a surprising amount of money in it. 

Turns out working 15 hours a day, taking only your eight paid vacation days, and having all of your dates be creative free dates in the five hours a week you both have off together means that you are able to acquire quite the nest egg. Kel’s parents sit them down at the dining room table, and his father is shocked to see how this year has shaped Kel. 

It’s a strange thing to see your son as an adult for the first time. It didn’t feel strange when it was Hero, he always expected it from Hero. Seeing it in Kel rocked him. 

They drive the two young adults (calling them kids now feels...wrong) to the airport and make them promise to call and write daily. 

There’s an undeniable energy and excitement as they board the plane. He and Aubrey breathe an audible sigh of relief. They shouldn’t, but they sleep on the plane. After a year of running, they’ve earned it

OKAY SO THAT WASN”T AT ALL WHAT YOU ASKED FOR....HERE HAVE DANCE LESSON HEADCANONS

Aubrey planned for everything, so she planned that they would need at least two days to recover when they finally got to Spain. The first two days are spent in a combo of sleeping and eating fantastic food and finally being able to spend a full night in bed together instea of sneaking unsuccessfully around Kel’s parents. 

She splurged and got them a private room at their first hostel in Sevilla. It was more expensive, but ultimately so very very worth it. 

But day three is when they start to explore. They finally venture off of the block around their hostel and began to deep dive into the tiny back paths of the city. They meet a nice handful of locals who invite them to breakfast the next morning (Kel’s spanish speaking skills are undeniably useful to them in this moment) 

And that night...that night is the beginning of the wish fulfillment she’s waited for since she was five years old. A flamenco lesson that promises an authentic experience, real outfits, and a party for all involved at the end. Aubrey was frugal with accomodations, but she spared no expense when it came to the experiences. Especially this one. 

Flamenco is traditionally a single dance with one woman, but she asked and Kel is allowed to come if he likes. The instructor in charge recognizes Aubrey from her call, and drags Kel over to where another man sits with a guitar. He and the man begin to converse in Spanish, and Kel seems to be rapidly making plans. He’s fine with only watching for tonight, this is her dream

Aubrey is thrust into a room with a bunch of other tourists, even a few from her own state, and a gaggle of women who work at the studio. They show her a row of gorgeous traditional dresses, an overwhelming rainbow of frills and explosions of color. 

Aubrey has let her hair go back to it’s natural color by this point, and her long dark locks catch the eye of one of the instructors who pulls her over to a corner of the rack of dresses. The instructor winks at her and pulls out a dress. It’s perfect. 

Kel is also having a fantastic time. He and the guitar player who’s name is Raphael are discussing guitar playing. Raphael wants to teach Kel to play himself so “He can play for his lady when she wants to dance for him again” 

All conversation stops when Aubrey walks out. 

The others are dolled up as well, but Kel only has eyes for his girl. Her dress is black, hugging to her waist and her body. As the ruffles of the dress begin on her arms and her legs, the dress goes from black to a striking bright red. Around her wrists and on her neck is bright gold jewlery, gleaming against her skin. 

Aubrey’s dark hair is wrapped up in a bun with a series of pink to red carnations following the curve of her hair. Her lips are tinged with maroon lipstick. 

Kel is left speechless. Aubrey asks him something and Kel just has to nod and try to catch his breath. The rest of the group giggle at their antics, and Aubrey rolls her eyes at him. She presses a kiss to his cheek, maroon imprint left in its wake, and then she is over with the other girls in front of the instructor. 

Raphael begins to play at the instructors insistence

The dance lesson is fun. Even just watching Kel has fun. Aubrey normally has a hardness in her eyes, a tightness in her shoulders as if she’s always waiting for the other shoe to drop. Within minutes of the instructors careful praise and guidance Aubrey is loose and even giggling. Kel hasn’t heard a sound like that from her since they were children. 

At the end the group performs the dance all together to a raucuous applause form Kel, Raphael, and the instructor. Then they all go to the patio behind the studio which has been decked out in warm golden lanterns with a table of food prepared. 

Raphael begins to play again and the others mingle close to the food. Aubrey takes Kels hand and they go to a separate corner of the dance floor. They don’t dance in any particular way, just holding one another and rocking to the melody. Her hair has begun to come out of it’s tight bun, but her eyes are bright with happiness and she can’t manage to stop smiling

That night under the glow of the lanterns is the night they first say they love each other. It was a given, they already knew it, but those words are saccharine sweet against their lips as Kel holds Aubrey close to him and they spin while the music plays. 

#videogame-world traveling anon #asks #anon #omori #omori headcanons #omori headcanon #i guess #omori au #world travel au #kelbrey #omori kel #omori aubrey #omori kels parents #This is cute #I love this sm

[snowtimeisbesttime]

Thoughts and questions on Volume 10, routes 1 and 2! ...finally.

-Back in Homestuck both Feferi and Eridan got the short end of the stick screentime-wise, but here, they both got a nice bunch of much-needed Interesting Stuff! It's a shame we're (almost surely) heading back to Earth now, to befriend the heck out of the alpha kids.

~ROUTE 2~

-MC expected the Heiress to be super awful, and then Feferi has literally 2 good endings (whose achievements seem to be reversed route-wise?) and her bad ending you get by actively choosing not to further interact with her. And of course, she's already very much against the Empire, even if she doesn't quite seem to interact with it...

-Maybe I read too many fanfics where all of the beta trolls rebel, but I'm kinda surprised that The Rebellion's still a Vriska & Terezi only thing. Let's hope we get to see if Fef does join up...

-Looks like the whole “Witches living in the middle of nowhere with their extremely powerful guardians” thing is starting to become a trend, huh? In Feferi's specific case her meteor probably fell right in front of Gl'bgolyb (a pretty damn large area, actually), who would’ve then immediately gone “holy shit a sky baby” and adopted her.

-Considering that the Condesce can just come down to Alternia and personally get rid of the Heiress (singular, explicitly), living so far from everything was probably a blessing in disguise. And maybe also NOT being involved with how the planet's run- though we'd have to ask a certain Trizza Hiveswap about that...

-She was planning on waiting thousands of sweeps before challenging the Condesce, though iirc the whole thing with Heiresses challenging HIC was something demanded by their shared lusus... She didn't really bother with future ruling plans in Homestuck because they were going to play SGRUB; though Glubglub also bonded more strongly with Feferi because HIC was too far from Alternia... enough to actively favor her over the Empress?

-We also get even more confirmation that seadwellers are OP: Feferi blows up a huge air bubble (that stays on the ocean floor) for MC not to drown like it's nothing, and she's very likely even stronger than Equius*. Meanwhile, Eridan gets thrown through a party cannon (that was just there on the airship for reasons i guess??) AND has Daraya's mall thrown at him by Sollux, and practically walks it off, though he does say later that it was close. You know who'd be a Great Additional Data Point??? Cridea Jeevik.......

-*However, they would not fight, as they both stan Nepeta. On a more serious note, having Feferi interact on-screen with the other trolls would've been very nice... she's hanging out with Sollux in Eridan's route but We Don't See It... We know she's friends with Kanaya, and she also had a pretty nice interaction with Vriska back on one of the walkaround flashes too,

-On seadwellers in general- neck gills are canon (though if i remember correctly a Very Old Tumblr Post, that'd actually not be the best place to have gills? Idk tho), as we can see in Feferi's route; and then we have Eridan, who we know has spent very little time underwater in his entire life, with his scarf *and* a high neck shirt. (this might just be me but. wouldn't it be super uncomfortable to have clothing touching one's gills??? i guess it would kinda depend on the specific take on gills, biology wise)

-Feferi owns a ~fancy air-producing conch shell~, so that's that for any fan seadwellers that Need to have landdwelling friends over.

-MC theorizes that there might be something that makes adult empresses evil... something external, such as a powerful curse of some sort... which would have to transfer from dead empress to freshly crowned empress somehow... really makes you think...

-Feferi can use one of Glubglub's eyes (?) as a crystal ball from which she can access the Actual Dark Motherfucking Carnival, and get metaphysical advice from there. And the one giving her said advice is our precious clown son Karako, who may or may not have gotten like 10 degrees on weird meta shit since we last saw him- assuming he's the same bapy as last time...

-According to Karako or whomstever is speaking through him, there's a creator above this world's creator, as well as another creator above him, and another one above her, and so on and so forth maybe? Wonder what's this setting up for........

-Feferi can either meditate her way up through layers and layers of meta, so she might access them and interact with them, or choose to change stuff in the Alternia she knows and lives in, small as it may be; both these endings have a lot of potential for cool stuff that I hope we'll get to see. Depending on the choice, MC is either a cheese or a marshmallow.

-In Fef's bad end, MC wonders about the workings and limits of their plot armor; they do give it a good whirl in this entire volume.

-I am incredibly pleased to announce that the ally/eely pun also works in Spanish (aliado/anguilado)

~ROUTE 1~

-We find out that both Vriska and Feferi have dumped Eridan- the first's likely busy being gay and doing revolutions with Terezi, but what happened (besides charming quirks such as charging for listening to him brooding) to make Fef break it off? In Homestuck she broke things off with him as soon as they were in the game and Glubglub didn't have to be fed 413 lusii a minute, but there's no SGRUB in Pesterquest; we see Fef's mom in her route, yet we don't hear anything about Eridan's whole Orphaner Jr thing...

-Regarding his additional lack of friends: it's perfectly understandable that Kanaya would drop him, considering she had to deal with a lot of his bullshit back in the comic, but I thought Karkat was actually friends with Eridan? Before Murderstuck of course, but that's obviously not happened in Pesterquest...

-Eridan's 13 years old (and also in charge of feeding glubglub, let's not forget that), where the hell has he found the time to make a nuisance of himself (to the point where employees in some places are legally allowed to stab him if he bothers them) on like half the actual planet????

-MC's reaction when confronted with a room full of fancy clothing is, of course, Big Hype... And wanting something new for their wardrobe.

-so, are Eridan and Roxy nb wizard solidarity?

-Chances are everybody’s already seen this by now orz but I need it to establish a base: Hussie's made an statement where he explained -amongst other things- Eridan's deal with Shrek, originally from [S] Collide. That post could be summarized as:

1) highblood lusii tend to suck ass because of high expectations and low emotional availability, & seahorsedad wasn't an exception; so when the trolls were looking up human stuff back in the meteor and Eridan found Shrek, he saw him as a Good Lusus Figure.

2) Sollux, however, has a good dad that loves and supports his trans son (as sollux trans confirmed) and is also Kinda Ogre Shaped, and Eridan resents him for that → rivalry

3) (it's also confirmed that the eridan from [s] collide was legitimately so happy to be spending time with his dad shrek that he never realized he was dead)

-So: where did Eridan (more like whoever’s in charge of the cinema actually?) get Shrek 2 from if he's never had any contact with humans in this timeline / reality / canon chunk??? It might be one of the Funky Timeline Changes we made in Aradia's route.

-Also: if Eridan knows Sollux is trans (implied in the post but not confirmed), then the conversation the two have later in the route (and specifically Why Eridan begins that conversation) kiiinda takes a dump on his talk about gender (which otherwise is a very good sign that he's got the potential to be a decent person IF he gets his shit together and also thinks about other things -most obviously the hemospectrum- with the same level of depth and all that).

-MC's had their first taste of their Homestuck memories. Let's see how they get them back this time.

-not to self plug (too much) but one of Eridan's fancy articles of clothing looks a Lot like an outfit that's appeared in Mirrorbent?? (← warning for a bit of blood) The one with the purple and yellow gradient in the rack furthest to the right... the one in mirrorbent is basically Gramma Loreto Rights: The Jacket

-After the rollercoaster of hapenings that is his route, Eridan finally understands that he's got to change himself and unlearn all of Alternia's bullshit if he wants his situation to change for the better. Can't believe it took getting An Actual Mall thrown at him to make him realize that...........

-(That mall is of course the one from Daraya's Friendsim- and she sure felt like a Destruction class back then... 2x hopeprince combo mayhaps?)

-Kanaya said in Sollux's route that it was less than advisable for him to overexert his powers, and the only thing he *doesn't* use here is his psionic blasts- hope he's fine! (then again this is probably our last volume on alternia and blah blah blah)

#pesterquest #homestuck #feferi peixes #eridan ampora #sollux captor #pesterquest spoilers #thoughts and questions #wow sollux how come the writers let you have 2 big cameos?? #there was an attempt at getting this out on launch day. and the next day. and the day after that. #idk anything about timezones. sleep time

[askkrenko]

SWORD AND SHIELD THOUGHTS

Alright, just finished the main game/post-game of Sword and Shield ,and I have... thoughts, general impressions, and feelings about the game. I’m going to try and be spoiler-free, but some things will have to be talked about, and though it might be indirect, no promises. Here’s my thoughts on the game overall...

First off, It’s Pokemon. I’m not going to discuss the parts of it where it’s Pokemon. At this point, you should know whether or not you like Pokemon, and if you DON’T know... start with FireRed and LeafGreen. Still the best gameplay experience.

Graphics are... meh. I understand and accept that they’re really not up to the standard of other Switch games, but you’ve got 400 pokemon, lots of people, locations, etcetera. Battle Animations continue to be pretty weak for the most part, with pokemon mostly wiggling around and a special effect showing up. Nasty Plot’s animation is offensively bad in this regard. Sure, some moves look cool, especially ones unique to individual Pokemon, but this game’s visual advances still result in mostly-static battles where your pokemon doesn’t even move across the screen to use melee attacks. You know how in old Final Fantasy games you rush to the enemy before doing your generic sword swing? Can’t we at least have that? 

The new Pokemon are bitching. Sure, there’s winners and losers, but overall I love Galar’s lineup. There’s new type combos, interesting abilities, a lot of cool designs.

Dynamax is... just not interesting. The idea of giant pokemon are cool, but when you actually use them they replace your cool, interesting moves with heavy-hitting moves that have minor secondaries that are hard to leverage. My best pokemon at the end was a Wishiwashi that knew Aqua Ring and Dive, so my battles involved doing the former, and then Diving, so with Aqua Ring + Leftovers I’d be healing a huge portion of my HP between every attack... In Dynamax, Dive turns into a heavy hitting water move, Aqua Ring turns into Protect, and it doesn’t even last long enough for a tank-build to work. In the gym battles the right answer is basically always “Dynamax when your opponent does so you don’t get one-shot”, and in Raids it’s just “Dynamax when you can.”  Gigantimax is a cool idea, too, but... you just don’t get to do it. You get a Charmander that can eventually do it for free in the post-game, but he’s a baby and your pokemon at that point are level 70+ and you probably already have a fire type who loves you so there’s no reason to train him up.  

On Difficulty: I played a Nuzlocke with no items in battle, so I can’t really speak to difficulty normally but... camping makes healing you party super cheap, and every dungeon and challenge seems shorter than in most games. I only remember one real cave system and it was relatively short, and gyms all seem to have exactly three trainers (or three pairs of double-battle trainers) before the leader. Further, enemies always ask if you’re ready instead of ambushing you, and many will give you a full heal before or after the battle. I had some challenges against gym leaders, sure, and I did wind up losing the Nuzlocke to the final fight against the ‘big bad’ (and then just continued in non-nuzlocke method) but I never hit one of those points like a Rock Tunnel or even one of Alola’s Trials where I felt like the encounters on the way to the boss were really whittling down my resources.

Quality of life: Infinite Escape Ropes and free Fly make Krenko a happy gobbo. Except I never used the escape rope because there’s nothing to escape. Other basic QOL stuff is updated, too- moves are marked with effectiveness once you’ve seen a Pokemon before and presumably know it’s types, the menu felt very comfortable overall (though with all the different types of items I’m starting to think the bag needs MORE pockets), and the hotbutton to pokeball in an encounter is great. Having an EXP ALL as a core mechanic makes leveling up pokemon so much easier. There’s now a name rater and move-rememberer in every pokemon center, and I use that guy so much. Any time I newly catch or evolve a pokemon, I take it right to him to see what else it can get.

Dynamax raids I... didn’t do much of. Because the difficulty of the ones that show up apparently increases with the story or something. The first few I encountered I could handle with my pokemon at the time, but now that I’ve beaten the champion, it feels like every raid location I see is five stars and I need pokemon higher than the level 70+s I have to handle it. It doesn’t help that the NPCs they summon to help you are incompetent. Sure, a few have useful abilities, but why is there a level 49 Magikarp, and why doesn’t this Solrock seem to know any attacks, and what even is this Wobuffet doing here?

Story:  Story is easily the weakest part of Sword and Shield. The story is both boring and too exciting for the game itself. The characters are both too cool and too bland. In the ‘main story’ where previous pokemon games have it, you are doing the gym challenge. This is fine. This is normal. There’s some cool stuff in there that makes it more of a proper sport than just a kid wandering around. You ocassionally have encounters with Team Yell who are trying to stop you, but... Team Yell is never threatening, they don’t accomplish anything, and the game seems to be very inconsistent on whether or not you have to accept that they’re in the way or if you can just kick their butt. When you finally get their super secret origin story, it’s... fine, and I like it, but I’d have liked it more if they had literally any impact on the game. The worst thing is, they compare unfavorably to Team Skull. Team Skull had strong leadership, and though you kicked their butts, they were regularly in the way and up to no good. Also, Guzma was awesome. Team Yell is just... running around being a general nuisance. Which would be fine if there was another real villain but...

Well, it turns out there IS another real, main villain... Who you don’t have reason to believe is a villain until after you’ve beaten all eight gyms, whose plot and motivation makes no sense, who has no convictions, and who you as a character have no real relation to. I literally don’t understand why this character was doing villainy.  And their evil team you only fight in the handful of battles immediately leading up to the big fight, and they make absolutely no impact other than standing in your way for reasons that you don’t really understand. That whole segment had nothing to do with anything, wasn’t properly built up, and didn’t feel like it went anywhere except the game handing me a Legendary pokemon.

Then there’s the post-game villains, who are... eh. They’re a lot more interesting, and I’m not even sure it’s fair to call them post-game. Unlike in most pokemon games, once you become champion the plot doesn’t just stop or say “now go to the challenge areas.” Instead, you have another, shorter storyline where you revisit all the old characters (who are all really cool on the surface and have NO DEPTH so you can’t get attached to them) and deal with stuff involving more dynamaxing and the box-art legendaries. This isn’t the worst plot, but it again suffers from no dungeons. You just fly from Gym to Gym having one fight at each gym. The game wants you to get to know and appreciate each Gym Leader, but because there’s so many of them, plus three rivals, plus the Champion, plus two professors, plus a handful of other NPCs, even the one that spends a fair deal of time with you in the post game never gets any real development. Here’s a key for story-writers: If your character’s not going to develop over the story, you don’t need to make a point of them showing up four different times. I don’t feel more connected to Nessa than I do to Flannery because she kept showing up and I got a card detailing her backstory. I just feel like you could’ve let me play faster instead of waiting for cutscenes.

I could rant about the story for a long time, but the point is: It’s bad. And the worst part is, there’s a bunch of cool stuff that seems to happen... that I don’t get to see.

So, my BIGGEST, absolutely most major complaint about the story is that two of the characters closest to you, Hop and Leon, do all sorts of really cool and interesting stuff... just offscreen. Hop is your main ‘rival’ and best friend, and he’s sharing in your adventures but also has some of his own. He has battles, he has a character arc, he starts really annoying but grew on me over time and I genuinely like him... But it’s hard to feel attached because all his formative stuff happens just off-screen. This isn’t a ‘Blue’ situation where he’s doing the stuff you are but faster and getting in your way, and you want to smush his stupid face in. This certainly isn’t like Hau who was just one step behind you the whole time. Hop has a couple battles that he talks about that alter who he is as a person that you don’t get to see because the game decides you don’t watch them. You’re not racing this guy- you hang out all the time- but for some reason you don’t get to watch his fights. I understand it’d be boring if they forced it and it played out like a normal fight, but give me a cutscene! Hell, I wanna know who he faced at the end! Hop has a mystery battle against someone else who completed all eight gyms that he beats and we never find out anything else about this person... 

But it’s even worse with Leon.

See, a big part of the game’s storyline is giant, Dynamax pokemon running amok and the Champion having to stop them. This means for the FIRST portion of the game, Leon is going out doing heroic things, battling giant pokemon that you never see. Sure, you can dynamax battle, but he’s involved in all these cool, great, crazy adventures... just offscreen. And then when you become the champion, YOU get to fight these rampaging dynamax pokemon... ... by walking to the area you’re told they are and immediately showing up in a dynamax fight. The game has models for pokemon walking around the overworld. Pokemon all have various attack animations. If Dynamax pokemon are running wild, can’t you SHOW me them running wild? There’s so many ‘cool things’ that happen in the game that I just don’t get to see, even when my character should be able to watch them, and it’s annoying as hell. If you can’t SHOW ME rampaging giant pokemon, don’t make the story ABOUT rampaging giant pokemon!

....Okay, done talking about story.

THE WILD AREA is a cool idea with poor implementation. I absolutely love this big area with all sorts of pokemon that change with the weather and different sections having different levels, except the wild area only really connects two locations (you get there via train the first time,) so there’s not much in-game reason to go back except for grinding, it’s small enough that it’s mostly the same terrain, and the level progression of the area doesn’t really match where you are in the game in the way just having routes used to. Also, for some stupid reason once you’re champion everything there suddenly becomes level 60 instead of scaling to different areas.  Which, sure, I get it, for post-game stuff people just want higher level Pokemon, but it’s so weird that suddenly there’s level 60 zigzagoon running around.  The Wild Area would have been much cooler if they’d just done away with traditional routes entirely and had free wilderness between EVERY town- blocked off in part by tunnels and forests which still counted as wild area, sure, but not gated by ‘you must have this many badges to progress.’  Just gated by ‘the pokemon here are level 30, are you sure you want to proceed?’ The only reason the game forces you to face the gyms in a certain order is to lock you into a narrative that’s mostly a waste of time. Not being allowed to catch ‘very strong’ pokemon is dumb, too. You could’ve made us able to catch them and just not train them because they’d do things like go to sleep and use the wrong moves and loaf around like a traded pokemon.

Camping with your Pokemon is cute, but needs more variety. There’s like seven toys, but only one of them isn’t a ball you throw and they fetch. You can make curries, and you will because it’s the cheapest way to heal your pokemon on the go, but the curry minigame is identical every team and gets very boring very quickly. You can talk to your Pokemon, but none of their responses have any meaning or impact or anything at all. It’s not like they’ll give you hints in the game or randomly give you items or ask for specific items for huge happiness boosts or whatever. It’s cute, and they get experience from it, but camping feels like it should’ve been expanded a whole lot.

....In summation: Pokemon Sword and Shield is not one of the better Pokemon Games. It’s still Pokemon, and if you’re into that, there’s still plenty of fun to be had in it, but it’s heavily flawed. 

[raisingsupergirl]

Grilling: The Next Generation

I'll admit it. I'm a total porch jockey. Anyone who drives by my house on the weekend will likely see me sitting on my back deck working on my computer (like right now), smoking my pipe (like right now), or grilling (like yesterday). But my favorite of these is definitely grilling. And as I said, I participated in that favorite past time yesterday, but it was a whole new experience for me. Why? Because, for the first time in nearly a decade, I cooked on a new grill, and the experience was bittersweet. You see, the last grill I bought was eight years ago when my wife and I first moved back to Missouri from Virginia. Since then, my humble Kenmore gas grill has given me countless memories and mountains of delicious food. But nothing is meant to last forever, and grills are no exception. I knew I would have to say goodbye eventually, but I had no idea how much it would affect me.

It was a slow fade. First was the electric igniter about five years ago. No biggie. Matches did the job just fine. Then the heat shields crumbled. An easy replacement. Grill covers came and went, and I saw the creeping rust and increasingly unstable base as endearing character traits. Even it's inability to get over 400 degrees was just a minor nuisance. But when the warming rack literally fell in half, I knew it was time to say goodbye to my old friend. Thus began my search for a replacement. And gosh, did I have a hard time deciding.

As I said, I'd grilled exclusively on gas for the majority of my adult life, so it's what I was comfortable with. I knew the hot spots. I knew its strengths and weaknesses. And I loved the ease of use. But I was ready for a change. And so, I had two options in mind: a pellet grill or a dual gas/charcoal combo. I researched countless brands and variations online. I pestered my co-workers and patients for a solid week (bless their patience). And still I was no closer to deciding. It was like comparing apples to oranges. But in the end, a couple of factors led me to a decision.

Remember when I said the electronic igniter was the first thing to go out on my gas grill? Well, as much as I loved the diverse options of a pellet grill and the idea of getting that delicious smoked flavor with the push of a couple of buttons, pellet grills right now rely heavily on a slue of electronics. Igniters, thermostats, and augers, oh my. So much so that most have some form of motherboard to control their fancy gizmos. And even though I keep my grills covered religiously, they do sit outside all year. And I really hated the idea of having to replace essential components. For me, simpler is better.

The second factor was the wood pellet itself. It's the fuel that makes pellet grills possible. They pack all of the flavors of various wood chips for a fraction of the cost because they're essentially the sawdust byproduct of furniture manufacturers. They're waste that's put to good use, and they wind up being cheaper than charcoal and even gas. But the little secret that Traeger doesn't want you to know is this: you don't need a pellet grill to use pellets! Throw a handful on top of your charcoal and you get all of that smoky goodness without the fancy technology. But what's that you say? The mess and time that charcoal requires doesn't compare to the quick, easy use of pellet grills? Well, yes, that's true. But that's what ten-dollar smoker boxes are made for. Fill one up with pellets and throw it on top of your gas grill. Problem solved (okay, not completely. I'm aware that it's hard to replicate the raw smoking power of a pellet grill or a dedicated smoker, but my solution is a reasonable one).

So now that I knew I'd be happy with a duel-fuel grill, all that remained was to pick a brand and style. There were only a few that I found with the massive amount of cooking surface that I wanted, and the variations between them were negligible. In fact, as I compared, it seemed that most used a lot of the same parts. Like, the exact same parts. So much so that it got me wondering if they came from the same manufacturers. I couldn't find any proof online, but the fact remained: instead of comparing apples to oranges, I was now comparing apples to apples. And I was ready to stop comparing them and start grilling them (if you've never grilled apples, you're really missing out). So after work last Thursday, I felt like a Viking returning from a successful conquest when I brought home a $300 Char-Broil side-by-side with 1,000 square inches of cooking surface. And then I pulled it all out of the box on Friday and felt like a child staring at a 1,000-piece Lego set. 

But I didn't let it intimidate me. I put on some tunes, cracked a cold one, and got to work, knowing all of my efforts would soon be worth it. And four hours later (after assembly and rubbing the whole interior down with margarine to "cure" everything), I stood back and admired the newest member of the Winch family. I mean, sure, it was already past dinnertime, which meant we had leftovers, but I was ready to break that bad boy in the next day. And the anticipation was more exciting than Christmas Eve.

Needless to say, my Saturday was a day to remember. One thousand inches of cooking surface. The left side was what I knew: clean, even propane. And the right was unexplored territory: raw, unbridled charcoal. And things got out of hand in a hurry. Waaaay too much charcoal and pellets. My chicken was burning within minutes, even with the vents closed and the charcoal basket as low as it would go. But I adjusted. I buckled down and harnessed the storm. And it was glorious. Every inch of that cast iron was filled with meats and veggies of the most heavenly varieties. And everything landed on the plates with better flavor and texture than I've been able to attain for years. And the critics agreed.

And I think that's the main reason why this has all been so important to me—my family. They always look forward to Daddy's grilling. It brings them joy, and they tell me as much. And for any husband or father, having a family's praise is the ultimate joy. It's what it's all about. All the hard work. The long hours and the time away from those loved ones. It's all worth it to see them appreciate you. And grilling has always been a surefire way to win over their hearts.

As I said, nothing is meant to last, and I know the grill I bought won't outperform a Weber or a Traeger. But when it does finally collapse into a pile of rust, maybe I'll want something different. Maybe the pellet grills will have more options and lower price tags. And until then, I'll honor the memory of my trusty Kenmore by creating new memories with my Char-Broil. So from my porch to yours, happy grilling.

#grilling #barbecue #traeger #webergrill #smokedmeat #pelletgrill #gasgrill #charcoalgrill #momblr #dadblr #mumblr #'merica #summer #char-broil #dual-fuel

[mentalcurls]

5. Cosa ti eccita?

Episode 5, we’re almost halfway throught the season! This time I talk about that thing Martino says, mother-daughter relationships and my journey to empathizing with Edoardo Incanti (for now) as well as the results of the Bechdel test for this episode, of course!

this episode start so nicely: Martino talking shit about each and every one of Eva’s friends

he manages to be racist, sizeist, a slut shamer, classist and sexist and misogynist all in one sentence with this lovely bunch of derogatory definitions; plus he’s an asshole in general and unsupportive of Eva

Elia is right there with him laughing at all that, probably Peccio is too, Gio maybe cracked a smile, but don’t think for a second that anything but Eva’s face and the thought of the conversation they need to have held him back (I’d like to take this opportunity to remind y’all Gio in this remake isn’t as interested in politics as Jonas is in the og)

this is , from what I read online (I only watched S1 months after it aired), one of those scenes that made people angry and I can see why. It wouldn’t have been enough for me to stop watching, but I get why some people did. I do agree that a scene like that shouldn’t not bother you. I am angry that things like the ones Marti says are accepted without comment, that nobody taught him better, that none of the characters have been taught better, much less better enough for any of them to shut Marti up and confront him about the shit he just said; Eva knows it’s wrong, but she doesn’t even try to explain why to him, because she doesn’t have the words to and she feels like it’s be pointless. Eleonora might have been able to confront him and shut him up with one of her vitriolic answers, but it would have been met most likely with “Oh, burn” comments by the other guys. It’s what it’s like in Italy and I don’t think a show that has professes to be as realistic as possible should be attacked for portraying the realistic comments dumb, ignorant boys make or for not forcing a scene when one of the characters is suddenly knowledgeable and eloquent enough to confront all the issues in Marti’s statement. This are 16 years old. I’m Italian and I was “woke”-ish at 16, kept up with politics even, but I don’t think I’d have been able to to it. What Skam Italia did, in my opinion, to counteract Martino’s words in this scene, is show us that his definitions are false, narrow-minded and based on prejudice by giving us an in into these girls lives. No-one can watch Skam and believe Marti’s words. Unfortunately, in a realistic show set in Italy, that’s all we can ask for.

this is also one of the first times we hear Marti discuss girls with the guys and it projects me straight to ep.1 of S2, when we have the “buste di piscio” comment. For all we love our baby deer Martino Rametta like it’s our collective firstborn and we would die for him, he’s a misogynistic fucker sometimes; thankfully by the end of S2 he’s grown up quite a bit (and I hope and pray that the combo of Filippo, Sana and Niccolò will make him grow even more by the next time we see him).

on a lighter note, IL PECCIO IS IN THIS SCENE, IN THE FLESH!

“Tell me what’s the problem” “I don’t have a problem” “Eh, me neither” YEAH guys, that’s why you’re so warm and affectionate

Giovanni, you hypocrite. You complained you don’t want to be one of those couples that are attached to the hip and you acted like Eva was always bothering you, so you told her to make friends; now she has friends, she’s stopped always catering to you and only you, and you’re gonna act mad? You wanted your cake, honey, now eat it!

so is that “You can stay, the guys are gonna go in a bit” thing Gio trying to build a bridge or him beginning the prep for the lie about wanting to go to dinner with Eva’s parents and then bailing on them to get back at her? On one hand, I don’t want to believe my dear Giovanni Garau would do that, on the other this particular set of circumstances with Eva brings out some of his worst traits

ok, I understand Eva and Eleonora want to know why Sana got mad and threw her drink at Laura to empathize with her properly, since they also are not her biggest fans, but their being really oblivious to Sana’s loud “stop bothering me!” signals

“I had to run away like an idiot thanks to you” actually, Silvia, he left you there like an idiot, while he went to be “the big bad man of the house who will solve all the problems” (btw was the house even his? wasn’t it Chicco Rodi’s party, why was it at Edoardo’s place?)

anyways, the reason Silvia is so mad is because what Sana did is so far from the prim and proper, low-maintenance girl Silvia is trying to be, in Edoardo’s eyes especially, and she’s terrified he’s gonna lump her in with her friend, who’s already difficult enough on her own because she insists on being different

aaaaand Silvia goes for the racist insult; at least this time the other girls tell her to calm down and Ele seems pretty ready to give her a piece of her mind, though she stops at the last minute cause she seems to think that while Silvia is this mad she’s a lost cause

SILVIA ACTUALLY GOT A TEXT instead of sending one, Sana would almost be proud

YAS SKAM ITALIA GIVING INFORMATION ABOUT CONTRACEPTIVES

I mean, sex ed is not bad about sexual health and contraceptives here but it’s always good to show “actual” kids being careful

of course, they’re only half careful, given that they’re thinking of unwanted pregnancies, while ignoring the very real risk of venereal diseases, given that they’re talking about unprotected sex with a boy who’s notoriously promiscuous

still, I want to stress how this is a conversation between girls only; the “burden” of thinking about contraception always falls on girls’ shoulders: Silvia doesn’t think for a minute Edoardo might bring and not mind using a condom and just knows she’s the one who needs to be worrying about contraception; Eva took the pill and is now using the ring so we know she’s the one who’s been taking care of contraception in her relationship with Gio, too. It takes two to tango ladies, so why the fuck do we excuse male half of the couple from this part of sex??

honestly, it’s midday so Eva should get out of bed, but that piece of crostata isn’t the kind of thing I’d wake up for

oh, what a beautiful mother-daughter relationship! I’m kidding, but also not. It’s obvious Eva’s mum is not at home much, but she makes an effort to be there as much as she can: she keeps up with her grades, she badgers Eva so she’ll study and when she has some free time even offer to revise together, she brings her breakfast in bed, she’s there to listen when Eva confides in her. She probably feels bad she’s not up to date with Eva’s personal life and guilty that she’s not there for her daughter as much as she wants to be. And Eva screams at her like a proper teenager, but then she does a beautiful thing and actually apologizes, saying the words “I’m sorry”, and despite still lying she tells her mom a bit about herself (sure, there’s external pressure for her to do so in the form of Gio and of her new friends who want to come by her place, but still), she opens up, she communicates, which is really good cause she seems to have good parents, who for example don’t freak out at the mention of a boyfriend but ask her first and foremost if she’s happy

and Eva, what’s the point of saying “Yes, I’m happy” and looking anything but? You be thankful your mom takes it for embarrassment, cause you were not convincing

aaaand Gio hasn’t gotten any lately because of the fight so he’s horny, cute

Gio meets Eleonora! And it’s absolutely uneventful, but then again, it would be: even considering Marti’s classification, she’s not the weirdest and she’s the least interesting out of the girl squad to Gio, cause he’s already getting some, so he doesn’t care that she doesn’t put out

what is interesting is Gio’s worried face when the free clinic gets mentioned: dude, if maybe you were more involved in contraception and collaterals in your own relationship, then maybe your first reaction wouldn’t be worry

the “Prima volta?” lady cracks me up (also, in case anybody doesn’t know, she’s the same person that asks Marti if Nico’s bottle of antidote is a bomb in S2 ep. 7 and - I’ve read somewhere - the stylist of the series)

when Silvia huffed and looked put out at the mention of the clinic on the bus, I was unsure whether it was a fear thing or a “tsk, plebeians” thing, but it appears she’s genuinely scared: girl, why? I get being embarrassed, uncomfortable, but she’s more nervous than if she was taking the maturità exams

Silvia is not mad at anybody, much less Sana, because good, low-maintenance girls don’t get angry, don’t cause commotions, they’re graceful and compassionate and forgiving and nuisances simply don’t exist for them

the doctor is actually so helpful! in the og she was 99% comic relief, 1% actually helpful, but this doctor is nice and warm and encouraging

Silvia’s terrified/disgusted face when presented with a dildo, that’s not a girl who looks ready to have sex

at least Fede seems puzzled but interested

Silvia just seems so dumb in this scene: she doesn’t speak for herself, she is absolutely floored when faced with a sex toy and a condom, she seems to think that taking the pill for to days actually works as contraception, she doesn’t think of asking Eva to use her home to meet up with Edoardo before telling him yes... tbh she almost looks like she’s a bit drunk

still, she just knows how to manipulate people to get her way. She even brings the doctor on her side.

“Do you think it’ll hurt?” considering how unsure and worried you are, YES

Eleonora changing topics as soon as her sex life is brought into question 😏 but also, her lost face when Eva says sex shouldn’t hurt except maybe a bit at the beginning

THANK YOU ELEONORA SAVA FOR SAYING THE IMPORTANT THINGS THAT NEED TO BE SAID

the disgusted face Silvia makes at the word “turned on”???

ok, how good is it to see girls in media talking about sex and about their fantasies without any shaming whatsoever? (The comparison between getting turned on by clothes and animals played for comedy is a bit unfortunate, but imo it doesn’t ruin the positive, accepting mood of the scene)

*Regina George voice* Silvia, stop trying to make jello happen!

ok, so, my secondhand embarrassment levels are always through the roof during this scene

look how taken aback Eva’s mom looks when she sees Edoardo! He definitely looks nothing like the third year boy she pictured when she imagined Eva’s boyfriend, I mean, she was thinking more along the lines of Laura’s boyfriend, that nice boy Giovanni she’d met that one time…

oh, but poor Edoardo too, he’s planning for a one night stand and suddenly he has to deal with parents?? This was not the plan. Does this annoying, kind of pretty girl who wants to sleep with him think he’s her boyfriend or something? What a nightmare. Oh, wait, she’s not even here, is she toying with him in a misguided attempt at playing hard to get? Wait, she wanted him to go to dinner with her parents? Is this some kind of prank? Did he get the wrong house? WTF

AND THE DAD ARRIVES OH GOD when fathers get involved the situation usually escalates, you can feel Edoardo going “Nope. Nope. Think, Edo. Get out of this NOW.”

ok, the redhead he vaguely remembers from the party, great, now can she explain him what’s going on? No, she’s telling him he needs to leave and slamming the door in his face. (Also, first appearance of the boss Eva we see at Silvia’s 80s party in S2, hello gorgeous!)

and Silvia is hiding on the stairs. Which is cute and not at all “sfigate allucinanti”-like (see ep.3). Just like telling a guy to come over but not at your actual place isn’t. It’s fine having to ask your friend to borrow her place, having to sneak in, having sex in a house you don’t know and where you need to be careful not leave signs of your presence, on the bed where your friend sleeps, with her photos on the wall, her knick-knacks on the shelves, her clothes in the closet. It’s totally cool. Even when the guy you’re having sex with is polite and gets there a few minutes early, so he accidentally meets your friend’s parents and nearly panics and definitely learns this is not your place, you know, that’s stuff that happens and it’s absolutely cool. He just calls you crazy.

so really, I never thought I’d see the day, but I empathize with Edoardo Incanti and I understand him ghosting Silvia (not the whole “Who are you again?” conversation, just the ghosting) because she’s clearly in too deep, he’s know that since her first string of texts, and she’s doing borderline creepy things like borrowing her friend’s house to have sex in? And Edoardo is not interested in a girlfriend, much less a stalker, so he just goes for the path of least resistance and disappears, hoping she’ll get over it soo. (Except of course she doesn’t and she confronts him, so really, what’s the best way not to give her any stupid hope? Being cruel. And that’s what he does.)

back to Eva, Gio cancels and Eva TURNS HIS OWN “Non ho parole “ BACK ON HIM how wild

side note, I honestly really really would have wanted to see Paola’s reaction when, at some point, Eva tells her she was dating Giovanni; I just can’t decide what she’d think

Bechdel test: the episode passes the test. We have Eva and Ele pestering Sana about the fight at the party, then the two of the and Silvia discussing the pill, the conversation about Sana’s father’s patient’s restaurant outside the gyno’s office at the clinic and finally there’s a good 75% of the conversation in Eva’s bedroom, between Silvia, Ele, Fede and Eva herself, that actually passes the test. There’s just a couple of mentions of Edoardo in the middle.

This post is part of my complete series of meta about Skam Italia season 1.  If you’d like to read more of my thoughts about the other episodes, you can find the mastepost linked in the top bar on my blog under SKAMIT: EVA. Cheers!

#skam italia #skamit meta #eva brighi #martino rametta #giovanni garau #skamit s1 #paola brighi #silvia mirabella #edoardo incanti #federica cacciotti #eleonora sava #sana allagui #elia santini #eva's mom #skamit #eva's dad #giorgio brighi #a. writes #1x05 cosa ti eccita?

[theultimateegghead-blog]

My top 10 least favorite bosses.

I love boss battles, they are a great way to challenge the player and to wrap up a level or a game. Not all bosses are made equal though, for every great boss there is a mediocre one as well. These bosses got on my bad side due to various reasons. Now, this list is subjective and my opinion, not every boss on this list is terrible from a design standpoint, and there may even be some on this list you may not agree with. This is fine, your free to have your favorites or least favorites. In fact, I would love to see your least favorite bosses in the comments if you would please. Secondly, no bosses from my top 50 list will be on this list. This is to avoid redundancy. Lets take a look at some of my least favorite bosses.

NUMBER 10 - Xande (Final Fantasy 3)

This just goes to show that not every boss on this list is bad. On a purely technical note, Xande is a perfectly fine boss, however to describe this foe in one word would be “disappointment”. Xande is built up as the ultimate bad guy in Final Fantasy III. His magic literally tearing the world apart and just causing havoc. He is so strong that approaching his tower before it is time results in a game over. He seems to be almighty, or so you would believe. After conquering one of the longest and most difficult dungeons in one of the hardest numbered Final Fantasy games, Xande is just lackluster. He is an incredibly basic magic oriented boss with lukewarm stats, he is barely threatening. His death introduces the true final boss so he just serves as a Segway to the cloud of darkness. Despite being the primary antagonist of Final Fantasy III, he isn’t even given a spot in the dissidia roster. Talk about a let down.

How this boss could have been better – Beef him up to final boss status and just get rid of the could of darkness.

**********

NUMBER 9 - Ghost of Lady Comstock (Bioshock Infinite)

This boss is an infamous one for sure. I am one of those people who was disappointed by Bioshock Infinite. It was a great game but it just lacked the special atmosphere that made Bioshock 1 great for me. Enemies felt more bland and uninspired, and the ghost of lady Comstock is a boring boss to take down. The battle drags on forever with the ghost just teleporting around and constantly reviving fallen enemies to fight alongside her. She is fought several times and each time she is just annoying. She can take a lot of punishment and it is hard to break her out of reviving everyone you just defeated. Whats worse is that my game crashed the first time I beat her, causing me to have to fight her twice, then the second time my power went out! I fought this boss more times than necessary…and I didn’t like it at all.

How this boss could have been better – If it weren’t so long…

**********

NUMBER 8 – Final boss (Ninja Gaiden II)

There are a number of bad NES era bosses. Though I cannot necessarily say its totally unforgivable, because of the era there was no norm, no bar that was set when it came to boss quality. Though, what is bad is when you take a pre-existing boss that was fine and make it worse. The final boss of Ninja Gaiden II for the NES is a three part endurance test. The first form is a humanoid enemy that floats around shooting tons of fireballs and is a general nuisance to hit. The second form is a large room with a ceiling that drips dangerous liquid and a giant head that shoots lasers, this part is tough and can drain health fast. Stage three is essentially a repeat of the final boss of the first game, now with hands. After destroying its head, you must destroy its core while it shoots attacks everywhere. What makes this so bad? YOU NEED TO DO THIS WITH ONLY ONE HEALTH BAR! If you die, you need to redo the final stage, its unnecessarily punishing.

How this boss could have been better – If it either restored health between stages or allowed you to restart from the beginning of the fight.

**********

NUMBER 7 - Krauser QTE fight (Resident Evil 4)

Ill keep this one brief because most gamers know about this fight. Resident Evil 4 is an action horror game with occasional quick time events. Up until this point these events were for either outrunning boulders or avoiding enemy attacks during fights. This fight occurs during a cutscene and comes out of virtually nowhere. The window of time to react is very small and a single error will cause you to have to restart the cutscene. Its just so out of place and unnecessary…

How this boss could have been better – It could have been an actual fight…

**********

NUMBER 6 - Alpha 152 (Dead or Alive 4)

Fighting game bosses can be some of the most unfair and frustrating things a gamer has to overcome. While the majority of final bosses from fighting games could make this list, I decided to pick Alpha 152 from DOA4. Alpha is a clone of Hitmone, but her moveset is unique. She can turn the battle on its head at any moment and cut your health down to nothing in one massive combo. She is fast, she is aggressive, she can counter most attacks and she can teleport. The combos I mentioned are insanely long and hard to avoid. She serves as the final boss for most characters story mode, in story mode she isn’t as bad. In arcade mode however, she is a nightmare, her aggression is through the roof and she must be defeated twice in order to win! This boss is frustrating to fight and can be downright unfair at times. Nothing stings worse in DOA4 than having her down at 10% health while you have high health, only to be destroyed by her.

How this boss could have been better – If her combos were toned down just a bit.

**********

NUMBER 5 - Doc Robot (Mega Man 3)

Doc robot is perhaps the most unnecessary boss of all time. This dude is a cheap gimmick made to try to expand the run time of Mega Man 3. You have to fight him 8 times, 8 times! Each time he gets a new gimmick stolen from the Mega Man 2 robot masters and uses them in a far more annoying way. He tends to just hover over you to deal continuous damage, which is something I really do not like. This boss is just pointless padding and gives no reward to be beaten. I don’t like this boss because he is annoying and overstays his welcome.

How this boss could have been better – If he were encountered once, but used multiple boss attacks, it would have been much more memorable and tolerable.

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NUMBER 4 - Gyorg (Majora's Mask)

This is referring to the N64 version of Gyorg, because the 3DS version is substantially better. Gyorg is the worst boss of the worst temple in Majora’s Mask. A giant shark like monster that swims around a platform that Link is standing one. While on the platform, the beast will try to knock Link into the water, so they can eat him. In order to beat Gyorg, you have to use the Zora mask and fight it underwater, occasionally stunning it to hit it. Here lies the problem, your underwater so your dealing with those kind of controls. The second problem is that Gyorg recovers to quickly and the camera tends to shift away from them when you try to escape, often meaning you get eaten. So basically the camera ruins this boss and makes it a total chore to fight. I had to restart the great bay temple at least 3 times because I ran out of time trying to beat this thing on my first run of Majora’s Mask oh so many years ago…

How this boss could have been better – It actually is better in the 3DS remake, Nintendo learned from their mistakes.

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NUMBER 3 -Elana The squalid Queen (Dark Souls 2)

This boss was perhaps the most sour point of the Crown of the Sunken king dlc. To make a long story short, shes a shard of a great evil named Manus and is probably responsible for the downfall of her kingdom. Shes essentially the main antagonist of the DLC even though she is overshadowed by the Dragon. The first gripe with her is the fact that, unless you know where a secret bonfire is, dieing to her will send you back far. She fights similar to the final boss, but has a knack for teleporting around and using magic attacks when your not looking. This isn’t so bad, but she has a lot of health, does a lot of damage and summons help. The summoning is why I hate this boss, she summons enemies that can inflict toxic. She can summon skeletons, which is not so bad, but she can also summon another boss that can tear you apart. This boss is badly designed and is one of the bosses that made me legit angry. I was extremely relieved when I finally bested her, only to meet a dragon face to face literally a minute after.

How this boss could have been better – Just get rid of her summoning ability, its just not fair having her summon another boss.

**********

NUMBER 2 - Sir Arthur (Sonic and the Black Knight)

King Arthur is the primary antagonist for the majority of the mediocre Sonic and the Black Knight. His presence is virtually none-existent until the boss fight. He fights you on horseback and spends most of the fight running away and pestering you with magic and warping swords. If he gets enough distance he will turn around and charge.  All of his attacks are annoying but not very hard to dodge or avoid. So why is he this high on the list? Three words… Quick Time Event. In order to damage him you have to swing the wii mote to parry him. The timing is almost inhumanly precise and more often than not it doesn’t matter if you do is spot on, you will fail. If you beat the game you know which QTE in particular makes this boss horrible. If you don’t, watch the game grumps play through, because it shows this boss’ absurdity at its greatest. This boss is for me the worst sonic boss yet.

How this boss could have been better – If the quick time event was removed, this boss would be off the list. Though even then it would still be a very mediocre boss.

**********

NUMBER 1 - Clyde's Machine (Pac Man World 2)

This is a boss I despise. Clyde’s machine is the third ghost robot boss and the fourth boss of Pac-Man World 2. These bosses can only be damaged by jumping on their heads, usually this isn’t to hard of a task, but Clyde ups the difficulty to 11. On an uneven platform surrounded by lava, a single misstep will result in a dead Pac-Man. And boy oh boy, how often that happens. Pac Man seems to just want to take a lava bath! You stand still, you die because one of his attacks pushed you in the lava. You move? You die because you fell into the lava. You stay in the middle of the platform? Isnt it wonderful how all his attacks just hit you head on when you do that? You try to rev roll? Hello Lava my old friend… The worst part is that even attacking him might send you flying into the pit for no reason. The only saving grace is that this boss has checkpoints…

How this boss could have been better – If it didn’t exist.

**********

Thank you for reading my list! What bosses got under your skin? Feel free to share in the comments! Next time we will be taking a more positive turn to look at my top 10 favorite grass type Pokemon, see you then, ciao!

#final fantasy #bioshock #ninja gaiden #resident evil #dead or alive #doa #mega man #the legend of zelda #majora's mask #Dark Souls #top 10 #list #boss battle #boss #gaming #video games #sonic #sonic and the black knight #pac man

[shrapnelstars]

So far, the bosses after Adam have indeed been proper endurance and strategy tests, and not item count gates (except for the obligatory bonus turbo boss, but that's the point of him).

A few things I actually don't like about this game, though (which give me many sadface because this game is pretty darned cool otherwise):

☠️ WAY too many enemies are immune to status, on top of status moves having absolute shit accuracy and proc rates. I have Elvis as my offensive omnimage, and every single time Nuisance (additional status based on the element of the spell) procs, it's just to show me the "immune to X" message. I'm over 60 hours into this game, and across all classes and skills, I have successfully inflicted status maybe 4 times. The number of moves across classes that deal bonus damage to enemies suffering from specific status ailments just throws salt in it. The [SPOILER] class was such a godsend because the majority of the skills deal DoT with a greater success rate, but they have the nerve to have an accuracy check on the status actually inflicting damage, on top of having to re-infect the target every few turns because it wears off. This game really doesn't like the concept of status.

🧱 Enemies (mainly bosses) OHKO/2HKO-ing my dedicated wall (8.5k+ HP, 400+ Def/MDef). Dude, he's Shieldmaster/Bastion and minmaxed. What the fuck do you mean 1/2HKO? Like what's the point of the class at that point? This doesn't actually happen often, but it does happen often enough to make me raise an eyebrow. (Not talking about Doom/Death. Those are fine, and the enemies actually do properly telegraph that they have those moves in their arsenal. I'm also not underleveled. I haven't seen a red aura or an enemy run towards me in ages.) A boss or enemy will pull out a random move that's just like "Hi, by the way you're dead now and can't prevent it!" Grow the hell up. That's how a child designs a game. And I know it's bad game design because they have actually had smart enemy teams and bosses that will target and punish your healer or wall, or try to disable or charm them first, and you have to find out how to work around it or rework your classes and skills in preparation for the next time you fight them. That kind of stuff has thrown off my strategy and put me on edge in a fun way, and I have to choose between getting my defenses back up or attacking and risking a game over.

This ridiculousness is just the developer trying to flex on the player. I don't like that in any game. If you're that insecure about trying to be better than the player, you're in the wrong profession. This is another form of trying to force the player to have a specific experience or emotion, which is an issue most common to horror games and mechanics, but I'll discuss that at another time (If I haven't already. I might have already talked about this.) Developers need to take their hands off the reins at some point and realize that not everyone will react or plan the same way to what they designed, and that it's perfectly OK. Some players are good at contingency planning and defense. That doesn't always need to be thwarted. There is no universal experience to any game. Don't try to craft one. If I set up my team to prevent "Oh shit, I'm dead!" moments, you don't need to try to force one on me. If I had played worse, I would've had one. This is proof that I've played well. Let me have that sense of pride and accomplishment.

Random one-shots aren't a teachable moment. They don't ask the player a question, and they don't teach them that they're going about the fight with the wrong strategy. They're just a quick "fuck you" that adds nothing to the experience.

❓¯\_(ツ)_/¯❓ Enemy counter skills. The battle status screen should list them after they proc, and it doesn't. They also proc at random, so one turn you might get hit for trying to buff your team, the other you might not, so even knowing they exist doesn't help you plan around them. They also don't impact the battles too hard, so it's like "I don't know, man, this is just a random thing that happens, so whatever."I don't think anyone has had a counter skill that made them do a retaliatory heal, so that's probably why I haven't paid attention to them too hard. If they did, you bet I'd be laser focused on preventing it. There was a little gargoyle enemy that consistently countered magic with Shell, so you bet I memorized and avoided that. It was consistent and defensive, so I was more invested in avoiding it.

Shieldmaster with Defender of the People + my own Counter ability was an accidental combo that turned into reliable offensive counter-flipping, so I kind of don't have too much to worry about anymore. They both activate on enemy offensive counter procs, and enemies can't answer a flipped counter with another counter oh my god this word has lost all meaning.

#stuff #game design #salt lite #long post

[cioty]

At Scale

The Rebuild games are incredible, I would be doing them a disservice if I didn’t mention that upfront, but I’m not here to talk about how good they were. As far as mechanics go, every entry in the Rebuild series has the same premise and basic mechanics. You play as a band of survivors who have control over a few blocks in the middle of a zombie-infested city. Your job is to reclaim the city and rebuild.

The moment to moment gameplay consists of choosing survivors that specialise in various skills and sending them out into enemy territory to accomplish a goal. There are 5 main goals. You can kill zombies, you can reclaim a square that has no zombies on it, you can scavenge for food and items and you can recruit survivors hiding on a space. Every one of these tasks except reclaiming has danger and can kill or injure one of your survivors. Hordes periodically spawn to attack your base and events fire from time to time. Some of these events are triggered by missions, but others exist to simulate the city. These include moral decisions and allow the player to express themselves. 

However, as you gain more survivors, each with unique talents and a new token to move across the map, each turn of the game takes longer to play and both the rewards and punishments that are given to you during the game loop become less consequential. Simply put, the beginning of a game of rebuild has you making interesting choices and tactical decisions with outcomes that meaningfully effect the outcome of your game. However, none of these things are maintained as the game scales up. The game isn’t simply the sum of its parts.

Now, after all that, I want to talk about Downwell.

Downwell is an incredible game. It has incredibly tight gameplay. Its systems feel into each other with an almost ethereal elegance. Again, it’s good.

It’s also a game that grows with its players. You can get pretty far in Downwell by just following your instincts, but eventually you will discover the combo system. It is this system that allows Downwell to grow alongside you as a player. As you get better, Downwell encourages you to play in harder and harder ways.

However, it doesn’t grow alongside you forever. I do not play Downwell anymore.

When you first start playing downwell, your runs are only a few seconds, maybe a minute if you’re lucky. Each run brings new promise, novelty. There’s a special spontaneity to it. Each run carries no weight behind it. Contrary to the spirit of my “Raise the Stakes post”, sometimes you want no stakes. Sometimes the player has to feel free to experience the sensation of a game without strings attached, without feeling like you’re starting an obligation (though there are definitely stakes when you get further in, so this is almost the best of both worlds).

However, I’ve put in a significant amount of time into Downwell. When I start a run, I know it’s going to take 20 or so minutes. It’s tiring to consider starting a game. What was such a free experience of testing my limits against the game has turned itself into a chore. When it comes time to stop, I feel disappointed that it was me who had to end the game for myself and not the game. I feel disappointed that I died because I was playing stupidly because I wanted to make the game a little harder, a little quicker and more deadly.

Rebuild has a similar problem to downwell. The game becomes significantly less fun after you’ve carved out a moderate section of land. Specifically, you have a lot more survivors at that point, so assigning them all the missions becomes more of an exercise in spending your own time to figure out logistics than in making snappy, pithy strategic decisions. Each survivor and gun and city block also matters less. “Who cares if I lose that apartment? I have 9 more”, “Who cares if I lose one solider? I have 8 of them”. Each individual loss is robbed of its significance and any string of them that could result in you being in significant peril starts to not just feel like a punchy loss, but distinctly unfair. This goes the other way too. Deciding to try and reclaim a farm, for example, has significantly less weight when it will account for 1/9th of your food supply as opposed to 1/3rd. Of course, the situation is a little more complicated than what I described, but the underlying phenomena is still there. Why do all these games refuse to scale well?

^^^This is just one example of how large rebuild 3 can get. 

In some ways I’m sure this is a bad question. Both these games seem to fail to scale in different ways. The specific mechanics that cause them to play out differently across the late-game of each run and skill level respectively are completely different. 

However, I think that despite their differences, they’re interesting case studies that may or may not share underlying patterns in how we perceive them that, if not applicable to each other, will be useful to watch out for in any system we design in the future.

To start with, Downwell has a very strong feedback loop that drives early gameplay. You play, you quickly die, you come back. Progress in this is tied to the amount of time one stays alive, which has the eventual result of making this loop become obsolete. Downwell supplements the moment to moment loop and the game loop that I just mentioned with a combo system. This system functions similarly to the feedback loop I just mentioned, but it only kicks in for players who have a level of mastery over the game’s systems high enough to find it. Discovering this system transforms the focus of the player from the scale of minutes to the scale of seconds. It reinvigorates the game by giving your inputs meaning and purpose beyond the broad goals not taking damage and moving downwards. This cycle of success followed by inevitable failure introduced by the combo system happens on the scale of seconds at first. however, as the game progresses, it might take a minute or two before you hit the ground. The last zone in Downwell is called the void for a reason.

It’s tempting to blame Rebuild’s balance for the single note end-game. After playing all 3 games in the Rebuild series for an unreasonably long amount of time, one of three things tends to happen.

You die very quickly. You fail to generate enough of an advantage early on and you lose.

You reach a critical mass and there’s nothing the game can throw at you that can destroy you.

You hit a spot right in the middle. You gain enough of an advantage in the early game to survive, but reclaiming land becomes exponentially slower. Eventually you don’t get to reclaim any land at all, but the hordes can’t overpower your walls (these walls are stationed by the soldiers that would normally be clearing land for you.). The game keeps spawning more zombies around you and in this state it might take hours of real world time to die (assuming you don’t quit). (Interestingly this is a much bigger problem in rebuild 3, as 2 is very gung-ho about killing survivors who go on dangerous missions).

In a way, Rebuild’s balance reminds me of a specific symptom that MOBAs have: the tendency for games to be decided in the first 15 minutes, but for them to take 30-60 minutes in total to play out. However, there are more factors at play in a player’s enjoyment than just time and their ability to affect the outcome of the game.

Last year, I made a board game where you controlled two sides of wizards hurling fireballs at each other. It would take a long time to explain the rules, but the fireballs behaved somewhat like the infection in pandemic. They would persist and explode if enough fire was in a specific location. The fire would also fade over time, which was represented by faces on dice. It wasn’t a particularly difficult game to think about, Due to rules governing the fire, it was easy to compartmentalize the board into a few areas. We didn’t think about the game in terms of individual tiles that were in one of two states. We’re humans, we’re pattern recognition machines. While computers might need to sort through data using rigid methods that take into account every rigidly defined detail they’re fed, we perceive the world fundamentally differently.

At the end of the round in this game, we would have to adjust the face on every dice to represent the fire burning out. The time that decrementing the dice took was a reminder that our perception didn’t match up with what we were required to do to carry out the game: while we saw patterns, the system saw individual cells. In an ideal game system, we might send instructions to the game based on how we perceive it, and the game would carry out our instructions at the same rate it took to think up a plan. This disconnect between how we perceive and interact with these games is interesting. We also see this kind of thing in rebuild. One good illustration of this is the survivor management system in rebuild 3. Once you’ve bothered to reclaim a specific tile that allows you to do research, you can research a technology called survivor management. This allows you to periodically pick up perks for your survivors over time. These do things like give them a bonus in a random stat, or provide a bonus while doing a certain mission, or even provide happiness bonuses while on a mission with others because they’re a musician.

These perks are very flavourful and could add a whole lot of personality to the game. However, these perks will become a nuisance soon after you get them. The differentiation between survivors here becomes a source of meaningless noise rather than a source of tactical decision making because of the amount of perks each survivor has and how many survivors you have to manage. In short, they prevent you from easily compartmentalizing the game in a way that you really should be able to. They exacerbate the existing problem of “placing 20 individual units each turn is frustrating” by making you commit each individual survivor’s parks to memory and preventing the formation of more coherent structures.

However, this whole idea about rebuild not being good at presenting information in a way that we can easily compress and process is only half right. Rebuild does a ton of excellent compression. For example, combining your tiles into a fort compresses the complexity of previous gains. Only the stuff on the edge matters, because that’s where zombies might try to tear down your walls. Losing tiles peels back the complexity of the fort like an onion, which is a really elegant system. The tokens that represent survivors can also be placed on top of each other to form a stack. This stack can be moved everywhere and otherwise function as if they were one survivor for the purpose of sending them on missions. The structure of the cities can also be compressed to a degree. While meaningful variance in the tiles around you at the start of the game is almost guaranteed, the cities also have rural areas with lots of farms and fields and urban centers with Apartments, Chinese food shops and power plants.

If we apply this idea of information compression to Downwell, the most immediate example is that some sections of the screen are dangerous, but others are not. This is possible because there are only two consequences when interacting with an enemy. You might land on top of a safe enemy, in which case you refuel and avoid damage, or you touch an enemy in any other way, in which case you take one damage. This is one of those cases where this factor probably helps Downwell to become more complicated. To make the game more interesting as the player becomes better, Downwell chooses to add mroe enemies. If the enemies in Downwell had a more diverse range of effects, it would be much harder to read the screen. 

This wasn’t the most focused post. I think that both the Rebuilds and Downwell have loops that doesn’t necessarily deal well with one or more of the variables that effects them. In Downwell’s case, both the main loops, (dying > respawning and the combo loop) are tied to time, which means that as one gets better, it takes more time to reach the reward part of the loop.

Rebuild’s main loops (gaining and losing resources, survivors and territory) do not get longer, but the reward or punishment diminishes in value, meaning that it takes more time to achieve the same result (which translates into lower enjoyment).

Rebuild’s enjoyment as it scales up its systems diminishes as a result of needing to process a lot of non-compressible information. I think I would like to analyze more games in this way in the future. In this post I think I fell into pointing out “Here is an example of this existing, and therefore I can make conclusions about it based on a shallow understanding of its nature”. However, I think the mechanisms behind pattern recognition and and other areas of cognitive psychology are a bit more complicated than that.

I hope you enjoyed reading this, whoever you are.

[operationrainfall]

Title The Last of Us Part II Developer Naughty Dog Publisher Sony Interactive Entertainment Release Date June 19, 2020 Genre Action-Adventure, Horror Platform PlayStation 4 Age Rating Mature Official Website

I’ve been sitting on this review for about a week, hemming and hawing over how I want to approach it. To say The Last of Us Part II is divisive is probably the understatement of the year, but I loved the first game and want to give its sequel – which I’ve been looking forward to for years – its due. I also wanted to approach it without any preconceived notions from others. I made a concentrated effort to not know anything about this game before going into it: I didn’t see the pre-release leaks, I didn’t read any reviews or interviews, and I’ve watched no analyses. I’ve avoided discussions with others about the game; I haven’t even looked at its Metacritic score. I jumped into this game head-first the weekend it was released, poured 35 or so hours into it, and have since just been working out my thoughts.

Considering the content of the game, its themes, and how the story plays out, this review will be split into two sections. The first will cover general gameplay, level design, exploration, accessibility options, and difficulty. There will be minor spoilers for locations and NPCs, but I’m going to do my best to keep them at the bare minimum. The second half will be full of spoilers as we go full bore into TLoU2‘s story, characters, and themes. That being said, let’s dive into The Last of Us Part II.

You can pet the dog in The Last of Us Part II.

First things first, this game is visually stunning. Naughty Dog have gone above and beyond creating a breathtakingly beautiful world. Playing on the PlayStation 4 Pro with HDR is honestly something else, and the team really pushed what the PS4 can do graphically. I did experience a lot of pop in, especially for shiny surfaces, and near the end of the game some textures would take abnormally long to load (particularly with letters), but nothing was ever so bad as to be game breaking.

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One of the most important aspects of any game is its gameplay, and I think this is where TLoU2 shines. It takes what the first game provided and polishes it, with tighter controls, more satisfactory gun-play, and an assortment of tools that make each combat engagement genuinely fun. Between the staple bottle throw/molotov combo for infected and using the new proximity bombs at Ellie’s disposal, encounters often had great pay-off. The inclusion of new enemy types helped break up combat as well, and overall I found the cadence of fights very satisfying. No two instances were exactly alike, and a lot of that came down to the expanded freedom the environment offered over TLoU‘s more claustrophobic settings.

Seattle literally opens up the gameplay, and I found the way Naughty Dog introduced us to the wider world really clever. The Jackson prologue feels a lot like more TLoU, with your standard corridor setups and small interior locations. The game adds jumping to Ellie’s repertoire, opening the world vertically and making traversal less of a chore. Combined with the tighter controls, it feels like a really polished The Last of Us experience. But then once you reach Seattle, the corridor opens to a literal city with optional locations to visit, stunning vistas, and a lot more choice in how to approach combat encounters.

Seattle offers a great semi-open world setting that significantly expands the world over The Last of Us.

What’s great about TLoU2‘s level design is how well it weaves in these more “open world” sequences and your standard corridors. For the most part, even when exploring inside, Ellie has plenty of nooks and crannies to check out that didn’t really exist in the first game. Puzzle sequences still default almost exclusively to opening doors and pushing around dumpsters, but I feel far more connected to Seattle than I did the locations in TLoU. Deciding to keep the game confined to the greater Seattle area, rather than multiple set-pieces scattered across the country, makes the city a character in itself. It feels lived in (literally and figuratively). This makes for a great juxtaposition for those times when we find ourselves in smaller, more claustrophobic situations, and helps keep the pace of the game engaging. It doesn’t always pay off (there’s a very long sequence near the end of the game that overstays its welcome to the point of exhaustion), but for the most part I always felt invested in what I was doing.

The open nature of Seattle also provided a lot more fun with encounters. There were plenty of situations where I opted to just sneak around enemies rather than engage, weaving in and out of buildings, hiding in tall grass, and using distractions. Dogs added some nice tense moments to these sequences that human enemies just didn’t provide, since once they have your scent they can track you even while you’re hiding. Other times I ran in guns blazing, or set up traps to catch enemies unaware. At least two sequences let me pit the infected against humans, and those were probably the most fun of all.

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On the whole I felt TLoU2 was easier than its predecessor, in large part thanks to Ellie’s knife. Unlike in the previous game, Ellie will always have a weapon to use against Clickers and Stalkers, whereas Joel had to choose between crafting a shiv to fight or to unlock doors. That choice no longer exists, as locked doors can be opened by finding a different route in, and the instant-death threat of some more powerful infected is reduced. The game compensates somewhat by tossing more Clickers, Stalkers, and dogs at you, and in the second half of the game removes your knife briefly, but it never feels quite as dangerous as Joel’s encounters in the first game.

Seattle also shines when it comes to world building. The set-pieces in TLoU made for good character moments between Joel and Ellie, but they never delved much into the state of the world itself post-outbreak. They couldn’t. We never stayed in one place long enough to know or care much about it, and the narrative drive to reach the Fireflies superseded learning about these stopover locations. In Seattle though, we get a sense of how people really dealt with the outbreak. One of the earliest examples involves stumbling over the bodies of would-be bank robbers who thought Outbreak Day would be a great time to steal some cash. We follow the lives of a handful of long-dead citizens through the notes they left for each other in the suburbs, and the prominent graffiti and posters for the government and rebel factions similar to the Fireflies litter the landscape. We can also see the escalating war between the WLF and the Seraphites and the ways it has consumed the city. Seattle is just a fantastic setting all around to bind the themes of the game together.

Seattle is littered with old signs, posters, and other remnants of its long civil war between the WLF, FEDRA, and the Seraphites.

Naughty Dog has also made the game incredibly accessible for a wide array of player abilities. In addition to your standard difficulty levels (Very Light, Light, Moderate, Hard, Survivor), you can tweak individual settings to tailor the experience to your playstyle. Want super tough enemies, normal damage, but lots of resources? You can do that. The game lets you toggle individual settings from the easiest to the hardest, instead of wholesale. It reminds me of being able to choose easy encounters but super difficult puzzles in Silent Hill. And since you can change the settings on the fly, it really lets players tailor the experience to their comfort.

Difficulty isn’t the only place to tweak accessibility. Presets exist for those with vision impairments, hearing impairments, and motor impairments, each of which can be toggled individually to suit your specific needs, or done wholesale. I’m personally a big fan of the font colors and size, as well as the speaker locator, which puts an arrow on the screen to indicate from where someone off-screen is speaking. During some more chaotic fights, knowing where my AI partner was gave me a better sense of what was going on. It also helped me avoid being pushed out into the open, which happened way too often. Compared to Ellie’s AI in TLoU, the companion NPCs in the sequel got in the way more times than they helped. That being said, I had the options turned on for comfort, but they offer real, tangible benefits to those with disabilities, and seeing a big-budget title like The Last of Us Part II provide so much customization was great. It should be the standard, and I hope more games embrace giving players options and broadening their playerbase.

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Gameplay isn’t perfect, though, and for all the improvements it makes to the first game, stealth is not one of them. Hearing feels particularly weak compared to TLoU. Just like in the first game, Ellie can enhance her abilities using pills, but even after upgrading her hearing, detecting enemies was scattershot in even some of the more confined locations. Peering around corners was inelegant, and I disliked the fact you couldn’t pull enemies into the water. I don’t expect Metal Gear Solid, but for the amount of stealth the game pushes, these would have been nice additions.

There were also several times where the contextual triangle button would not trigger. In the quiet puzzle rooms or caches, having to hit the button multiple times wasn’t an issue, but during hectic encounters, it led to my death on more than one occasion. It was a nuisance that wore my patience thin during long gaming sessions.

Pacing also suffered, particularly in the second half of the game. From a narrative standpoint, having an exhausting encounter rate makes sense – it is the post-apocalypse, after all, and we’re ramping up to the climax. But the frequent use of flashbacks coupled with enemy sequences severely hampered the pacing and left me more frustrated than entertained.

The dreaded contextual triangle.

Speaking of narrative, while I personally resonated with the themes of TLoU2, I still feel its predecessor’s story and execution were overall better. We meet significantly more characters in Seattle than we ever did traipsing across the U.S., but they are for the most part unlikable or lacked impact. The game attempts to accommodate this by extending its length, but the minimalist nature of the first game did a better job connecting us to its characters than TLoU2‘s cutscenes.

Overall, TLoU2 plays great and looks beautiful. Seattle is a gorgeous city and traversing it provides a plethora of options. And while there are a plethora of motifs, symbolism, subtext and more I’d love to talk about, I’m going to stick to only the overarching plot in my spoiler discussion below.

Keep Reading for more of The Last of Us Part II

For those who don’t want to be spoiled on the story and characters, turn back now, because from here on out will be massive spoilers for the entire game. This is your last warning!

****SPOILER WARNING****

The Last of Us told a simple but effective story with the overarching premise of “What would you do to save your loved ones?” Would you kill a young girl to save humanity, or condemn humanity to save a young girl? How many atrocities would you commit to keep others alive? The Last of Us Part II takes this premise to its logical extreme and asks “What would you do to avenge the ones you love?”

Joel was not a good man. He admitted as much himself. And yet through the intimacy of his growing affection for surrogate daughter Ellie, we came to understand his worldview. It put in stark contrast the warring philosophies of sacrificing one for many, and saving one at the expense of others. TLoU was an elaborate Trolley Problem, and Joel chose to let humanity suffer in order to save his newfound family. Whether his decision was right or wrong was for the player to decide, but it was his decision.

The game returns to Saint Mary’s Hospital often.

That decision comes back to kill him about an hour into The Last of Us Part II, when Abby comes for her pound of flesh. Joel sacrificed humanity and killed her father, and in her mind, he deserves to die. As the player, who grew to love Joel despite his faults, we don’t see it the same way. We understand his reasons. But us understanding can’t save Joel from death. It’s brutal, and sudden, and puts us exactly in the mindset for our own vengeance. TLoU2‘s revenge plotline is neither new nor subtle, but it is powerful.

The story’s most effective conceit is actually the one I hated at first. Joel’s death upset me. I hated it. I hated that Abby could turn around and torture him after he and Tommy saved her life. I was absolutely on board with Ellie’s hatred and pain and wanted nothing more than to get back at the group who took Joel away. Then the midpoint switch hit and I was put into Abby’s shoes, and I hated it. It felt pointless and hollow, especially when the game tried to characterize her friends – whom I’d just killed in the aquarium half an hour earlier. It was dumb; I couldn’t relate to these people. I knew their fate, why should I care?

Yes.

And yet, by the end, I had no interest in killing Abby at the Rattler compound. The game forced to me try, relentlessly pushing me toward exacting a revenge plot I’d seen destroy every other character, and I wanted nothing to do with it. It’s a feeling I don’t think I’d have had if the game had played out differently. It wouldn’t have worked had I not been in both Ellie’s and Abby’s shoes and seen the toll revenge took on both of them.

Ellie’s determination to get back at Abby nearly destroys her. While her one-woman-killing spree through Seattle is initially cathartic, by the time she tortures Nora to death, it’s hard to see how she’s any better than Abby herself. It has a visible effect on her and, like Owen, Dina begins to turn away from the idea of vengeance at all costs, even while Ellie continues. It’s the same distance we saw grow between Abby and Owen, and their relationship dies with him on an aquarium floor. In TLoU2, revenge, in no uncertain terms, leads to ruin.

We see this mirrored in an assortment of ways throughout the game, the most obvious being the civil war between the WLF and the Seraphites. The WLF already had a rough start when they supplanted the government 20 years earlier, replacing one fascistic regime with another. Seattle is scarred by the remnants of that war with bombed out buildings and blighted landscapes. Corpses of soldiers who tried to get away mark the totality of the WLF’s vengeance against the government. Those corpses are later replaced with the Seraphites, a cult-like group determined to live off the land who also gut and hang any WLF they find. No one can say definitively who threw the first proverbial punch, but no one is willing to stop throwing them, either, escalating until the WLF literally set the Seraphite’s island on fire in an all out march to their own doom.

Lev and Alice are the best supporting characters in this game.

Both Ellie and Abby are ultimately saved from the same fate, but not by themselves. After Ellie kills Owen and his pregnant girlfriend Mel, Abby continues the cycle of vengeance, killing Jesse. She’s only stopped from also killing Dina by Lev, a Seraphite whom Abby saved in a too-late moment of conscience. A runaway who defied Seraphite will, he’s the only character we meet who didn’t choose which side to be on – he was born into it, and he chose to reject it. He’s the one who keeps Abby from continuing the killing, and he’s the one to whom Abby turns at the end when Ellie finally comes for her pound of flesh. She doesn’t want to fight anymore, and neither did I, but the game wouldn’t let me walk away. Up until this point, Ellie has pushed away anyone who tried to help her, including Dina. She’s trapped in this cycle and as the player, we are trapped with her. We’re forced to bear the burden of unending violence.

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The thing that pulls Ellie back is Joel. Despite the rift that had formed between them from years of lying and Ellie’s survivor’s guilt, his memory is what keeps Ellie from following through. Killing Abby wasn’t going to bring Joel back and it wasn’t going to heal the festering wound inside her. But, like with Joel, forgiveness might. The night before he died, Ellie was willing to bury the hatchet she’d carried for four years following Saint Mary’s Hospital. She was willing to forgive. Letting Abby go was an extension of that.

It’s telling that only after Ellie relents on her quest for vengeance can she draw Joel’s face. Sometimes mending what’s broken isn’t the easiest choice, but it might be the best one. At the end of the game, in the empty farmhouse she’d once shared with Dina, we’re left with the tatters of a life Ellie almost threw away. Whether she can repair it or not is left up in the air, but I’d like to believe there’s something worth saving.

How far would you go to get revenge? How much would you sacrifice for forgiveness? How do you deal with guilt when it eats you from inside? Is there a line you won’t cross, or is everything fair game to make someone else pay for your pain? None of these are easy questions with simple answers, and The Last of Us Part II doesn’t really offer a definitive answer, either. It can’t, and if it did, it would ring hollow. Instead we’re left with the wreckage of two lives spurred on by vengeance and the hope that, maybe, there is closure for the worst of us.

The Last of Us Part II is available for the PlayStation 4 for $59.99 USD.

[easyreview cat1title=”Overall” cat1detail=”” cat1rating=”4″]

Review copy purchased by author.

REVIEW: The Last of Us Part II

#Naughty Dog #oprainfall #PlayStation 4 Reviews #sony interactive entertainment #The Last of Us Part 2

[shapeshifting-arch-mage]

Dance Club RP Aftermath

...We've been sitting here long enough. We should head out, too. We get down from our chair and slowly plod our way out the door.

We leave the dance club, our legs still tired from having danced for so long. We could try to get on our broom and fly back to the Pocket Dorms, but that might be a bad idea since both of us are so worn out. How would we be able to navigate our way in the air when we both have so little energy? It would probably be safer to walk back to the harbor and take a boat back.

We make our way to Main Street.

Temmie and I are slowly making our way down Main Street, heading back to the harbor. We'd like to go faster, but our legs just don't have the energy to. Man, oh man are we pooped...

Temmie and I keep walking...

...Slowly...

Come on, just a little farther, we’re almost to the harbor...

We stop walking for a moment.

“hooman... im tired...”

“i kno, i am too, but its not much farthr. just a little more and wel be there.”

“i dun wanna keep goin...”

“i kno, Tem, i kno...”

“im so tirrrrred...”

“we can stop for a sec if you want.”

“ok, human...” We stop walking and take a few deep breaths. We’re almost there. Almost. Just a little farther. Just a little. We can do this...

[Johan] As Johan walks along he gets distracted by someone in the distance. He doesn’t see the tem again but he does see some random person past them, probably in the direction of wherever they’re going. As if he suddenly gained tunnel vision, Johan begins to run over, right past the tem and human combo, and slows down again only when he’s close to the other. From behind he silently summons a pair of parasites. Wonder how this will turn out...

[Rave Witch Temmie] "wh-wha??"

We see Johan run by. When did he get here? We don't really want to see him again. We just want to go home. We wearily continue on our way to the harbor...

...Who's that? And why's Johan standing behind them?

"...wat u doin dis time...??"

[Johan] Johan doesn’t heat the tem. He doesn’t seem to hear anything. He softly tosses the parasites onto the monster’s shoulders causing them to try and knock one of them off. Before they could get to the other, it jumps to their face causing them to let out a muffled squeal, trying to grasp to get it off. Before they could yank the parasite off their mouth/nostril area, Johan pulls them back, holding the parasite closer, at the same time as his hand starts to glow. Not even a second passes by before he seems to blast a sudden burst of energy into them and immediately retracting the same amount, and it seems to overwhelm the other, knocking them out. After that horrifying few seconds, Johan softly sets them down, checking for a pulse and breathing and everything, before holding his hand against them, a soft light flowing from the monster to his hand. You gotta do what you gotta do, right?

[Rave Witch Temmie] "EEP!" We shriek. What in the world did he just do...?! Those awful little things... they weren't just taking sneaky little bites this time, Johan outright attacked that dude with them! What in the...?! What...??

"h-h-hooman...?!?1"

"y-y-yea...??"

"h-h-h-hes scarin meeeee!!1" We shudder very hard, which probably isn't a good thing considering how little energy we have left. We ought to be using what strength we have left to make the last leg of the trip back to the harbor. We're very close now, just a liiiiittle bit farther to go, but instead, we stand in place, shuddering and staring in horror at Johan and the downed monster.

[Johan] Johan continues taking magic for a bit before suddenly the monster starts snoring. At first it seems to just creep Johan out, but then suddenly one of them becomes really loud out of nowhere, causing Johan to jump back with a really weird yelp. “yeEAKANA!” he stares for a bit before trying to cover their mouth to no avail. They’re still making those sounds! He looks around in a panic before just moving them to the side of the street, hoping nothing bad happens as a result. By this point he decided that he should stop with this one and backs away, looking around to see if anyone else is around, finally seeing the tem, causing him to jump. “YACH!” he yelps. After a second he smiles nervously. “Wh-what did you-... I-I can explain! S-sorta... maybe? Not really... it’s not what you think!” He starts to panic, his face turning colors as he moves his hands and stuff trying to find the words he needs. How do you explain that it’s fine because you are a literal parasite leeching off of everyone around you?

[Rave Witch Temmie] "wawawawawat did yu just do??? who was dat?? whyd yu put yur bitey thingy on em?? why yu keep makin' bitey wormy thingys?? yur scarin me!1! and yur scarin my hooman!1! human doesnt liek dem!1!"

[Johan] Johan stammers for a bit before finally he starts whining when he speaks. “L-Look I was hungryyy! If I went any longer without a proper amount of energy I would probably die! I think. I never found out- but I don’t want to! I don’t wanna die, ya know? A-and look! They’re fine!” he holds up their arm which they immediately pull away and scratch themselves with. “see? No wounds! Not death! Completely fine! Just a bit tired, see?” He looks genuinely scared at this point. No more judgement. He doesn’t want any more judgement. Not here at least. Not alone like this.

[Rave Witch Temmie] Hungry...?

...That's right, he said he was hungry back at the dance club, and then we told him to go get food at Grillby's, but he said he "didn't need that kind" of food.

Was this what he wanted, when he said he was hungry? Is that why those Fresh parasite-lookalikes have been following us around all day? Were they trying to do to us what they just did to that poor guy? We've been running into the little nuisances all day today, and the day before. We already know that the blue one at the harbor was Johan's, but he was also at Grillby's when we found the yellow one that tried to give us fries (and bit Baku), and the ones that were harassing us at the dance club had to have come from him, too, since he was there with us for a while. ...This is why they've been following us all this time. Johan's been sending them after us to suck up our energy, just like leeches!

Temmie, sensing my discomfort, says "awawawa...!! no more wormys!1! no more biteys!!1 i dun wana get eaten!!!1 WAAAAAAAAA!1!!" We turn around and attempt to run, but we trip over because oh yeah, we're way too tired to run. Oopsie.

[Johan] Johan doesn’t hear their thought process, all he sees is their fear, which of course cause him to become more afraid. He starts to tear up, about to say something before he’s interrupted. He watches them run but jolts when they trip, running over. “are you ok?? I’m so sorry! I didn’t mea-“ he stops himself and steps back, panicking and unsure what to do. They must not want to see him again... but they might need help. What if they’re hurt? He’d probably know actually. But what if it’s a really bad bruise? What if they’re knocked out? He’s lost and confused, and doesn’t know what to do. The other two parasites he forgot to retract just watch with concern. One of them even looks offended. They’re not bad! They’re just hungry! A purple one approaches when Johan doesn’t.

[Rave Witch Temmie] "ungh..." We try to push ourself up, but don't have the energy to get ourselves off of our belly. "c-c'mon... j-just a litl... push... nnngh...!” We grunt, our voice strained. Ugh, this was the worst time to fall over. We need to get back up. We need to leave. We need to...

We flop back down, panting.

[Johan] Johan continues to panic, not sure what to do about the fallen fear endused tem. The parasite however goes to find the tem’s face, staring as if asking for permission for whatever it’s going to do. It wants to help, even if they want to kill it. Johan of course doesn’t seem to notice as he has started pacing, tears falling down his face as he continues talking to himself, panic and fear filling his mind. The second parasite just starts backing away from the situation altogether and goes back to the snoring monster to take a bit of power again. Not too much of course.

[Rave Witch Temmie] "pant... pant... pant... h-huh?? n-n-noooo!1!1 dont eat meeee!1!!1 nooooo!1!!!" We sweep our paw in front of us, trying to swat the purple parasite. "dont eat meeeee!!1"

[Johan] The parasite jumps to avoid the swatting and continues to avoid it if they continue. It looks at the tem sadly whenever the swatting stops. Maybe it can’t get too close then. It opens a small mouth and seems to blow out, a bit of a mist like light flowing out before being trapped in a ball. The purple peep practically drains itself of all of its energy into this ball, flopping over in exhaustion when it’s done. But it’s not done yet. It slowly gets back up and makes an attempt to push the light into the tem so they can get some energy back. If it succeeds in giving them energy, it speaks, a bit broken and tired sounding. “Fo-... give... him?” of course it would immediately faint from exhaustion, but if it couldn’t get the energy to them immediately it would continue straining itself until either it did or it died. Johan doesn’t notice as he’s now lost in his muttering, though he does stop for a moment when the magic is completely out of the peep.

[Rave Witch Temmie] "awawawaa... wh-wha...??"

We stop swatting, and gasp at the sight of the glowing ball of light the parasite has just created. "wat is... dat...??" We shudder and attempt to back up as the parasite pushes the ball of light at us, but we only manage to back up our head a little before the ball of light touches us.

We squeeze our eyes shut in anticipation, expecting to have our energy drained like the other monster... But instead, the opposite happens, and we feel a little bit more energized. "wh... wha?? h-how-"

And then, we hear something that neither one of us would have ever expected to hear. The parasite... TALKED to us?!?!

[Johan] Well, all that’s left now is a small deflated remains of a purple parasite thingy. Johan seems to finally realize what happened and stands, slowly and hesitantly approaching. The other parasite stops what it’s doing and goes to run over, almost sensing its partner dying. Of course it would also approach the tem and stop by the purple husk, prodding at it with its face sadly, trying to see if the other would wake up. If you think about them as living beings, it gets really sad. But really they’re just summons that have emotions and not quite developed lives yet. They only care about the well-being of the whole and one dying is only saddening for the moment. Johan takes it harder though. He actually seems to be taking it well as he’s completely silent.

[Rave Witch Temmie] We watch in bewilderment as the other parasite slithers over to check on the one that just gave us its energy. Is... Is it actually showing concern for its fellow parasite? Is it worried about it? But how...?? This is unbelievable. Fresh parasites don't act like this. There's no way a Fresh parasite would behave in such an altruistic manner as this one has. They're much too selfish for that. While being concerned about their brethren isn't entirely out of the question, I certainly wouldn't expect a Fresh parasite to put itself in harm's way in order to ensure the safety of another. To them, their own safety comes first, above all else. On the other hand, the purple parasite has just given up its own energy in order to help us. That is, without a doubt, the most un-Fresh-parasite-like behavior it could have possibly displayed. It has just done the complete polar opposite of what Fresh parasites do. There is absolutely no way a Fresh parasite would ever be willing to do something so incredibly selfless, for someone they barely know. This creature has gone completely against what being a Fresh parasite is all about. Unless...

...It's not a Fresh parasite.

Realization flashes across our face. These creatures that have been stalking us all day...

...they are NOT Fresh parasites.

[Johan] The second parasite looks up to the tem before looking behind them for Johan. It then picks up the purple one and skips away to find Johan, who is just frozen in shock and fear. He slowly goes to pick up the parasites, muttering to himself again. “It’s ok, it’s ok, I’ve got more it’s fine it’s ok, they’re not-... they’re not al-... they come back- it’s fine it’s ok-“ he starts shaking a bit, failing to calm himself down. He decides to take the parasites back for now but he finds himself falling to the ground, continuing the mutterings and the crying. Yeah ok he’s not taking it well.

[Rave Witch Temmie] They can't be Fresh parasites- they just can't be! They may be colorful and slug-shaped like Fresh parasites, but they aren't acting like Fresh parasites right now at all! Looking out for each other, giving us energy, talking to us without a host- heck, they haven't even been trying to take over anyone's bodies, just suck energy from them, like fleas, ticks, leeches, or other such external parasites would do. But Freshes are internal parasites. They need to stay inside their host to stay safe. The only reason they'd ever come out is to transfer to a new host, but again, these parasites only seem interested in leeching energy from others, not taking control of them.

Another odd thing is that Johan said that he was hungry, and yet it's the parasites that are doing all the energy-sucking... are they able to transfer their energy back to him somehow? Is there a mature parasite inside of Johan that's sending the lesser ones out to gather energy for it? This is all so unusual... Although Temmie doesn't know what Fresh parasites are (or really any parasites, for that matter), she does sense my confusion, and feels confused, herself, as a result. We finally manage to push ourselves up to a kneeling position, and turn to face Johan. "...yu ok??"

[Johan] Johan has curled up on the ground, hugging himself and trying to stop his crying and fear. When the tem speaks he looks up, quivering as he can’t resist the tears falling from his face. The parasites are gone, no one else is around. He is alone and afraid, and it shows clearly. “P-Please... don’t kill me!” he curls up more, the tape holding his glasses up starting to peel off causing his eyes to be visible. They’re closed at the moment, but they might be able to be seen later.

[Rave Witch Temmie] Kill...? Kill him?? What in the world is he... just a few moments ago, Temmie and I were thinking that we were the ones in danger! "wawawa...??? w-wat u talkin about?" We ask anxiously. His panicking is making us feel panicky, too.

[Johan] “W-well-...” he looks away, scooting back. “anyone else would, r-right? What do I have to know you wouldn’t also, for knowing I’m a parasite?” he shifts to push his glasses back up, but still trying to seem small. In a way it works, seeing as how he’s just a kid. Who knows what age, but still less than 20 or so.

[Rave Witch Temmie] "w-w-w-wa?? wat yu mean? wats a parry site??"

[Johan] Johan slowly uncurls when he hears them speak. “W-Well. A parasite is defined by a creature that takes from others without doing anything in return. Basically, a one sided deal. I-I try not to kill anyone, b-but I still need to take energy to survive. Apparently regular food doesn’t seem to work. It probably doesn’t process right in larger amounts. I don’t know really.” He shrugs nervously. At least he’s not curled up anymore. His glasses fall again for a second to reveal what look to be a broken up heart shape and the other a weird star. It’s hard to tell since he pushes them back up the moment he notices his glasses fell.

[Rave Witch Temmie] "are... are yu... yu gonna be ok??"

[Johan] Johan nods, looking up again trying to smile. “Maybe. I think I got enough for now, and no one’s hurt, right? They’ll get up in a few hours I think. Maybe less. The first one didn’t have much to spare though...” He stands up, holding his glasses to his face. “Yea, I’ll be fine...”

[Rave Witch Temmie] We look to the downed monster. "...yu sure hes gonna be ok??" We walk over and rub their head. "hey!1 yu ok??"

[Johan] Well if it’s the one they actually saw him take from then they don’t respond, being fast asleep. Snoring continues as what is probably some sort of frog monster with bull horns is just completely knocked out. “I-I think so. I make sure I don’t take too much. You’re ok after all, right?” Maybe he shouldn’t have mentioned that night actually.

[Rave Witch Temmie] "yea, im feelin a litl bettr... cuz yur purpl thing made me feel bettr..." I suppose there's not much else we can do at this point. The other monster isn't waking up, and, although we can walk again, we don't have the energy to try to move the other out of the street. They are at least still breathing, though, so as long as no one steps on them while they're out cold, I suppose we won't need to worry about them. Heck, maybe the next person to find them laying out here could help them. But as for us, it's time to go home and get some well-deserved rest. We look back at Johan one last time and say...

"...thanks."

[Johan] Johan watches, a bit concerned but mostly calmed down. At the last part he smiles softly, genuinely glad they don’t seem so afraid of him anymore. “You’re welcome.” He’s not sure for what, it just made sense to make sure they stayed alive for a later date, but what does he know? He’s a literal parasite with the only intent of survival. What would he know about what others think?

[Rave Witch Temmie] And with that, we turn and walk the rest of the way to the harbor.

At last, at long last we have made it back to the harbor. It's finally time for us to go back to our nice, safe, cozy room in the Pocket Dorms and get some sleep. We board a boat, sit back, and relax as it takes us back to the Pocket Dorms.

#discord #discord rp #undertale temmie

[expressions-lsr]

Dear Dost

By Mauli Singh 

Chapter Two

02 ||

 Letter#03

December 15, 2016 Dear Correspondent,    

Hi, ready for another round of "Rant with Ellie"? And if not, you're so SRK in KWK Season 4! Ha-ha, didn't get the joke? I won't explain it either. Google it!     So, before I start, let me make a statutory warning. I'm in a bad, no not bad. In fact, I'm in an awfully grim mood today. And you're so nosey that I'm sure by reading that line your mind must've switched to Sherlock mode immediately and now you must be wondering- "what has happened with this crazy girl today that she's again gonna inflict me with intolerable nuisance... fight with boyfriend?  argument with parents? backstabbing by friends? or the genius me feels all of them at once!" Trust me, it's none of these. I appreciate your genius, but, buddy, you really gotta work on your Sherlock skills or you'll just remain a James Bond (Daniel Craig is pretty hot, ain't he?).     And to not keep the suspense for a second more now (so that vein on your forehead doesn't burst out), I had a crazy encounter today with a hopeless human. Trust me, when I say hopeless, it's still the vegetarian version of what I'm actually wanting to say but I don't want this letter to sound gross. So, bear with my almost inappropriate use of language. Thank you so much! (Don't roll your eyes!) So, what happened was that I was— just the usual me, happy and social (read sarcasm)—was strolling through the English Books section of a local bookstore. (Oh, by the way, Looking for Alaska by John Green is highly recommended)     I was going through the titles and picked out a couple books to read their blurbs. You know I usually read the plot of the books before buying them, though blurbs work fine as well. Anyway, so I was going through the blurbs when a guy (whom I had met in my college during some conference I guess) came to me and asked me if I was planning to buy these books. I said maybe, I'm not yet sure. He then asked me if I read Indian writers, and I said a few. Honestly, I'm not much a fan of "Engineers turned writers" community. A few are still bearable, but the rest of the authors are just...never mind. And that's not even what I want to rant about.     I was checking some other books when the guy began asking me would I like to have a smoke. (Does this sentence even sound legit?) Of course, I declined. I don't smoke because a) it's bad for lungs and your entire body, and b) I can't tolerate its smell. I don't get why people even smoke despite knowing how it triggers off and interferes with a lot of our bodily functions and organs. Anyway, after I said no, he still bugged me by asking this time if I'd like a drink then. I, again, declined. Okay, I won't say I don't drink. I'm 21, have alcohol a few times in a year. But to have a drink with someone who I barely know doesn't seem like a good idea.     However, that didn't stop our young man in question and he asked me if I'd like to have Hookah with him. You know this has to be the major facepalm moment of my life— until a few seconds later. I declined, once more! If I don't smoke because of its smell and smoke suffocates me, then why the hell would I indulge in Hookah? Isn't that something people with common sense grasp easily? Oh wait, I forgot how rare finding sensible people with enough common sense is. Never mind!     Yet, to that guy—with a brain of the size of a pea...a grain of sand—made a remark about me. And not just a remark, he said it so loud that I'm sure people in Russia must've heard and I'm pretty certain they're still wondering— "Was that the voice of Lucifer? Or did we just hallucinate?" You must be wondering what he had said, right? Well, in his exact words, this is what he had to say about me because I don't fall in a paradigm of his pettiness:    

"And then you go around with this attitude that you’re so cool when you don’t even drink or smoke or do anything that cool people do? You just read these books which are nothing but contributing to the destruction of our environment by cutting trees! Why so obnoxious? You’re not cool, you’re a loser!"

    My curious correspondent, wondering what I said? Well...I can be nasty if I want but I thought why not keep it simple and said: "At least, this loser will die smart and old." Crisp and on point. And of course, he didn't get this but he left immediately. God must have been gracious to me. Though, not essentially but still.     It may seem I'm overreacting, but what's upsetting me is that why does my attitude towards addictive substances like alcohol and cigarettes is considered "uncool" when it is a PERSONAL CHOICE whether or not an individual is open to the idea of consuming and indulging in substances. I know it's not good for my health, nor can I tolerate any substance, then why should I indulge it— to be "cool"? to fit in? to be one amongst the crowd when all are just moving towards DOOM? And what exactly "cool" is that makes me unqualified to live with an attitude which immediately turns me into a snob? Why the hell are people so judgemental? I guess because they don't have a damn LIFE! (Just replace damn with F-word to get the actual gravity of this.)     I'm really agitated right now. This isn't how people are supposed to be. We need to be accepting of others, for whatever size, shape, colour, choices and attitudes (except if they aren't real jerks) they have. Why be so judgemental towards someone's way of life if they don't wish to be a part of the crowd? It's morally incorrect and unacceptable. Humans need to be accepting of others, or else I'm leaving for Mars...soon! Maybe, next Friday? I heard the KFC there has combo offers on Fridays, and even McDonald's isn't far behind, their Big Mac meal has 30% discount on its usual price! Planet Mars, Ellie is on her way!     Okay, I ranted enough. Thanks for being so patient and still willing to be a part of this program. I feel much better now (no sarcasm). Your replies were quite appreciable, though I wonder if you actually mean it all. And, yes, I'm sure you're not a woman, but a man. Don't ask me how I guessed. That's a secret, and Ellie is a genius!     Thank you for skipping all the parts between my introductory and conclusive paragraphs. I'm sure, it's a legit pastime activity now for you to receive my letters, have a laugh and forget about it.

Your Annoying Pen Friend, Ellie.

P.S. Do watch KWK, it's pretty lame but quite entertaining. And read the book I've recommended. Thank me later.

#dear dost #dd

[jolteonjordansh]

Made a post of my criticisms regarding Tales of Xillia. It got a little longer than I anticipated, so I put it below the break.

I was holding off on making my few big complaints about Tales of Xillia because before I hadn't played it enough and I kept telling myself "Well maybe something in Milla's story will change my mind" but nope. Nope. I like Tales of Xillia and it is a good game but the flaws it does have are pretty big flaws.

The absolute worst thing is the Grade system. I have no idea what Tales Studio was thinking at the time, but it really hampers the experience. It artificially lengthens the games and distracts from the main game way too much because you'll be wanting to get a decent amount of grade for your New Game+. Yes, you will get some titles if you just play the game, but nowhere near enough to get some generally nice bonuses, unlike past Tales games which reward you based on how you play. If you build up great combos, utilize a boss' weaknesses and win in a quick amount of time, your Grade reflects that. The same goes for if you were to die constantly and barely win by the skin of your teeth. In Xillia? You will always get 10 Grade points when defeating a (standard) boss, no matter how good or bad you do. It's not really grading how you play so much as giving you a participation reward (which is never what the Grade system was). And the worst part about it is that it ultimately limits the amount you can have, period. Once you earn a title, you will have it forever and you can never earn the Grade points for it ever again, even on new playthroughs. If you were unsatisfied with your Grade amount in past Tales games, you could always continue to play and earn extra Grade in your previous file before using it for your New Game+. This sounds minor, but one of the best aspects of Tales games is the amount of replayability they have despite also being such long JRPGs. And considering Tales of Xillia has two main stories (Jude and Milla's), you're likely going to want to play again. So the way this Grade system works completely defeats the purpose of that and basically forces you to go out of your way to get a good amount of Grade. It's really sidequest and grind heavy because of that and I just... don't like that. I feel obligated to ignore the story to do these things rather than wanting to take a regular breather from the story. I can guarantee that a majority of my near 100 hours playing Xillia twice was spent on grinding to do specific tasks or doing sidequests.

The Linked System, as much as I like a lot of things about it, is kind of flawed too. It's cool but I don't like that it basically replaces the Overlimit gauge simultaneously and you have to be linked with someone to use your Mystic Arte. You cannot go into Overlimit or use your Mystic Arte if you happen to be going solo. The bosses though? They can go into Overlimit and use their Mystic Artes freely, without necessarily being linked. And I don't know if they have a gauge or not (I'd imagine they have something that limits them from overusing it), but it goes up way faster than your gauge ever does. I cannot even count how many times Gaius and Muzét went into Overlimit and used their Mystic Artes throughout the last fight, and on top of that, they can go into Overlimit independently, unlike you where both your character and your linked partner are forced to go into Overlimit together and there is no way to separate it. There should have just been separate gauges for the two. And let me tell you, in my first run fighting Gaius and Muzét I swear there were times they were going into Overlimit every 30 seconds. It was ridiculous. I still do like the idea and mechanic of Linked Artes and Linked Chains, but I don't like how the game favors the enemy with this system over you. I don't expect boss fights to be easy, but I expect there to be some level of fairness. Still, this isn't as bad as some other games, like how in DotNW there was no Overlimit at all except for the bosses.

I also just didn't like the Lilium Orb system as it was kind of a chore to manage, but that's nothing compared to the stupid shop level system. This just distracted even more from the main game as the best way you can be sure you're getting decent weapons at a certain point of the game is to go searching for items to upgrade the shops constantly. Again, it's an absolute chore and it was completely unnecessary. I get maybe they were trying to do something different by rather than having equipment conveniently upgrade with each new place you visited, you could choose your progression. But it would've been nice for them to at least have something like a recommended level listed depending on your progress. Otherwise, you have no idea how well or poor you're doing with managing your items (though generally you will be fine based on my experience). But again, it's also just an annoyance. The levels are also tied in with titles, so again, if you want a decent New Game+, you'll want to work on leveling them up. Farming for items in the extra dungeons at the end of the game does help with maxing out their levels to 100, but it was still a bitch for me to do. Also, never use your Gald to level up your shops. It's a waste. Just farm for items.

Finally, while not the biggest issue, the story is definitely flawed. It's not very well paced, as Chapter 1 is extremely long while 3 and 4 are shockingly short in comparison. The premise is fine, and I love the main cast. I still really like Alvin despite the writing flaws, but the transparency of him being the traitor character just didn't 100% work for me. I understand what they were trying to do, and I do like some moments (ex. Alvin and Elize's talk towards the end), but I don't think it really worked for me. But then you have Ivar, who is the biggest nuisance. Yes, I get that's the point, but it's overplayed too much, down to the point that he ruins everything in Chapter 3. And no one really calls him out on it, nor does he have to do anything to redeem himself (I mean, I guess he tries? But he's still obnoxious the whole time). Imagine if Luke never changed after he caused the fall of Akzeriuth and no one ever called him out on it. That's basically it. I know Ivar is the comic relief and he's not a primary character so he doesn’t need as deep of development, but if he had actually changed to become a beneficial character to the story, that would have been fine. There's having a comic relief character, and then there's having an obnoxious character who literally doesn't provide anything to the story in any way and is not liked by anyone. In Milla's words, he's annoying.

I also made a post about this a couple years back, saying Gaius is a terrible antagonist. And after playing the game, twice, I still stand by that. His role as an antagonist is extremely boring and forced. Unlike most past Tales antagonists, there's no real motivation for his actions. He goes on, and on, and on about how he has to protect his people, but there's nothing that explains or justifies why he cares so much about doing so. Nothing about his past that motivated him to become a great king. Nothing about him that taught him how the strong must protect the weak. That's just how he is. And by the end of the game, he's become an absolute extremist and the whole transformation to becoming such an extremist doesn't feel natural at all. It just feels like the writers killed off Gilland too early and were like "Shit, we forgot to have a final boss and we don't want to end the game with Maxwell. Quick! Throw Gaius in there with Muzét!" Hell, Nachtigal was a more developed antagonist than Gaius. Both him and Gilland have traits of the usual Tales antagonists because either something tragic forced them in their positions or they felt obligated to take the paths they chose. Gaius doesn't really have any of this, and maybe that's because they were trying to do something different, but it just doesn't work for me. The only time he was actually compelling was when he had to cooperate with the main cast and had deep talks about their different beliefs. News flash: You can have different ideals and still work together. The only reason they never really worked together all that much was because of Gaius making bullshit reasoning like "This isn't a social gathering" or he simply couldn't make an agreement with anyone. Except, ironically, he works with Muzét who is strong in spiritual power but absolutely pathetic in willpower. Maybe that's an intentional contrast, but with how stubborn Gaius is you'd think he wouldn't even touch her with a ten-foot sword (instead he pulls one out of her cleavage).

Muzét is just terrible. Period. There's no real reason for her actions either other than she's nothing without someone to order her around, and so she throws a fit and goes crazy when Maxwell ignores her. I suppose she's one of those antagonists you can fear for her power, but when it comes down to it you can't help but shake your head in how absolutely pathetic she truly is. But even despite that, I was more annoyed by her than anything. I kept hoping maybe Milla's story would provide more depth to her, but no. She's just a spirit who went crazy because her "master" wouldn't tell her what to do. That and on top of how creepy she was throughout Chapter 3, there's just nothing interesting or fun about her. Her breakdowns aren't even insane or fun enough for a villainous breakdown.

Don't get me wrong though, I like Tales of Xillia. I still like the world of it (as rushed as some segments feel and despite its flaws). I just wish I liked it more than I actually do. It just has a few too many flaws. Still, the game, by all means, fulfills my Jumilla ship feels. But it's going to take a lot of work from Tales of Xillia 2 to make either Gaius or Muzét (or hell, Ivar) even remotely likable for me. And considering they are playable in the sequel and supposedly might have been intended as such in the first game, I really do question just how forced their roles as antagonists were in Xillia.

#Shut Up JJ #JJ Plays Video Games #Tales of Xillia #ToX #Tales series

[coal-the-shiba]

Rehab Update 6

You fight battles, not wars.  Some battles you win, some you lose, but each one can still take you to your goal.  

At this point in our life, the battles are numerous, and we are winning more and more.  Yeah, I may be talking about behavior modification in our dog, but it amounts to the same thing XD

It's been almost a month now, and the victories have been numerous.  We are taking small steps towards a better life with Coal, and we have reached a tipping point.  Today, my husband said that if this is the best we can get out of him, then he can stand it and not get angry.  This is the result of a cumulative observation over the last couple of days: less pulling/no jerk attitude on walks, paying some attention to him on walks, and no jumping/barking even when he puts him in the pen.  This is our minimum today (for my husband...I reached my minimum a while ago haha)  We are still aiming for more, of course, because he can be a really good dog on his own.

We have been working on a lot, and I thought it would be handy for me to break it down into sections to see where we have improved (literally for me.  I love to see progress)  Improvement is vastly different between my husband and me, so I will have to give observations based on each of us for certain areas.  I wasn't sure of the best order, so here goes:

Medication: I am pretty sure that the meds are showing their effect (fluoxetine).  He is pretty sleepy/lethargic, which is not bad since he is still learning to relax  Of course, this could also be a combo of the hot and humid weather.

Homework:  He is a pro at the exercises.  I even use the back technique and magnet to distract him if it isn't too strong a distraction.  He really gets hyper during the find it exercise, but he gets it right almost 100% of the time now, within a short period of time.  I have tried everything to be sure he just isn't good at seeing which hand it goes in.

Meal Times:  We had issues with him becoming aggressive/barking/biting when he finished meals.  It has been over a month and we have not had a single issue.  Hand feeding him at random times over a period of 20+ minutes and making it like a training session focused on relaxing has greatly improved his attitude.  No excitement before or after eating---not even during.  He still gets a little hyper around 10-20 minutes after finishing, but that is just him wanting to play/interact.

Walks: Me: the pulling is now inconsequential, and he will spend at least half the time with a slack leash and looking to my (or at least my hand with treats XD) for direction.  Times of a hyper burst (running in a circle like crazy) only happen less than once a week.  Dogs are still an issue, but I can get his attention or pull him away with little incident.  Very relaxed walking.  Listens well as long as distractions are not too high.  Any treat will do.

Hubby: still pulling, but not like he is trying to jump at and greet everything.  Sometimes slack leash and occasional checking in, usually the hand and rarely the face.  Listening varies, but usually takes a long time to respond to a simple command.  Environment still trumps hubby.  Dogs are still issues, but can wait out.

General: most people are okay when he meets them.  Depending on how the people greet him determines how he responds.  People who bend down and give rough pets tend to make him more jumpy/nippy/excited.  People who are calmly petting him and still standing means he is still calm.  Dogs are still an issue, but the distance before reacting is lessening.  Still tries to pull to get to them, barks when he can't get to them and gets generally hyper.  Usually, the other dog is doing something similar or barking in a more aggressive tone.  He still tries to eat most things on the ground---he seems to love crayfish.  Constantly sniffing in new areas, but tones it down once he is familiar with it.  His tendency to eat things on walks is still annoying, but it has diminished.  He sticks to crayfish, grass/plants (though so far, he has avoided the ones that I would have deemed dangerous) but doesn't rocks and garbage so much anymore.  Finally, he stares at birds with such an intensity that I am sure he would have killed one by now if not for the leash.  He has only lunged at a bird once, and that was because the thing was within 2 feet of us and I didn't see it XD

After Walks: Me: can clean him up and put him in his pen with zero incident.  The one time I had a problem was due to heavy rain and needing to towel him off, in which case he became over excited to the point of jumping, barking in my face, and grabbing the sleeve of my apron.  This was in the entry way. When I could finally calm him down, get him cleaned up, I put him in the pen fully expecting the same song and dance as the entry way, but he immediately calmed down and lay, waiting for his food. (I never feed him immediately after)

Hubby: Up until about three or four days ago, hubby would do the same routine as me and put Coal in his pen and all seemed fine until he left the room.  When he returned to the room, Coal would commence in jumping/barking and being a regular nuisance---completely opposite of when he is with me.  The one thing that finally seemed to work: putting a blanket over the pen so that Coal couldn't see hubby.  We did that for two days, and then the third day, hubby forget.  To his surprise, Coal didn't jump or bark.  Today was equally promising.  So we might be on to something.  The jumping and barking (and attempting to bite) is a huge factor in hubby's stress levels.  This is why hubby said that we are now at minimum level.

Petting/Cuddles: Me:  Generally comes when called and occasionally seeks out attention.  I used to be restricted to chest rubs while he was standing or neck scratches, but now he lets me pet almost anywhere.  He even rolls over for chest scratches (I am slowly introducing belly rubs).  I am really careful with the roll overs, in case he might be signalling to be left alone.  Generally I give a scratch and pull back.  If that is what he wanted, he immediately sits up and bumps my hand with his nose or licks it.  Sometimes, after just a scratch or rub, his eyes immediately close and he goes limp.  I am also slowly introducing him to gentle massages.  All of these sudden permissions showed up just last week, so this is all new to me.

Hubby: Like me, he has recently been allotted some petting privileges only recently.  Before last week, Coal wouldn't even come to him and shied away when hubby reached for him.  Petting allowance was practically zero.  Since last week, he occasionally dines to allow Hubby to touch his royal fur and scratch him on the chest/shoulders, sometimes rump (much like me before the sudden change) but usually goes away after a short time. Coal is still very reluctant to approach hubby and often goes to a far corner such as he crate (but he generally does that when he wants to be left alone anyways).  What really stings my husband is the fact that Coal is eager to get attention from the other family members.  To be fair, the very fact that they don't do anything outside of pet him and give him an occasional piece of lettuce is the reason.  They are still kind of a novelty to him and are not as deeply involved as hubby or I.

General: Coal is definitely all about me.  Everything I do elicits his attention, from shifting my seat to coming into the room.  He will follow me at times, and almost always comes when I call unless he is in an "I want to be alone" mood.  He will leave anyone in the family who is giving him attention if I come into the room.  This has made me take note, naturally.

Now that the urgency and worry of an "aggressive" dog is dying down, I am becoming aware of issues that need to be counter conditioned/desensitized.  Most I was aware of and faltered because of the stresses we were under with The Big Issue.  With things calming down, I am going to start focusing on the things that will help make his life less stressful.  But the list is looooong.  He has entered a fear phase, so a bunch of stuff that never bothered him (or was under control) has become an issue yet again.  At last the bridge issue was resolved quickly.

So stuff to desensitize him to: His harness.  He suddenly hates it. His leash--same as above. The Shower Towel drying Hair Dryer (he isn't so bad here, but won't hurt) Vacuum Entering and Exiting the pen (already some progress) nail grinder (I can't do clippers but grinder does take more time) swiffer within the pen (we finally got him okay with it outside his pen) visitor voices at entry way (so far, only male seems to be an issue) door bell (but this is generally only if voices are heard) Visitors coming into the house brushing (he actually does good, but doesn't hurt to make it easier on us) Tooth brushing (not so bad, either)

Maybe postman's motorcycle.  He was barking at it a lot before, and suddenly just stopped barking at it ::shrugs::  He hasn't encountered it outside in a while, but last time, it drove him nuts.  Definitely the delivery truck...those loud deisel sounds don't sit well with him.

Relaxing

Not chewing the stuff in his pen!!  He is funny here because outside his pen, there is virtually no problem.  Inside, there seems to be nothing we can do.  His cage is all chewed up on the corners, as is the cardboard to protect the wall.  He does it mostly for attention, because he immediately whips around as soon as someone shifts to look at him while he is doing it, so we try to ignore him and use aversive smells like Tabasco and such.

Not eating his rope toys!  I know, that is mostly supervision, but even watching him--he is really good at not only untying them, but pulling them apart thread by thread.  In a way, I am kind of proud of him XD  He figured out to test each area for a loose strand, then pull and work on that one until it comes out--and he always finds that weak link.  He does the same with any toy he gets, really.... :/  So far, he hasn't been able to destroy his Kong or his puzzle ball, so I am getting him more toys like that XD  I plan to get a tug toy reserved for tug play only, once we figure out how to manage his excitement during play.  I think I know what to do....

Most of this stuff were things I was kind of working on before, but it is hard to do so in our current situation.  He needs to be trusted to gain the freedom I need for him to be easy to access and thus easy to work with.  But now that I have a list, I can work out some things to make it happen.  I sometimes do brushing at the end of a walk, but I am reluctant to use the grinder since he is so hyper and hungry.  I want to start walking him to the pen (he walks away from it no problem) but I am nervous about a slide back.  I think more than anything, I want confidence that now is the time to start implementing new things.  You see, his biggest problem: he can NOT relax.  It is the hardest thing, as foreign as speaking a human tongue to him.  I still work with him on relaxing exercises, such as using the cue while massaging him or petting him (he is most relaxed then).

We start his first training class tomorrow.  I am excited about it, not for what we will learn, but what we will gain: socialization.  That has been the hardest thing--getting him to interact with his own species in a polite, correct way.  No one here is that, so we need this.  In fact, according to my husband, the ONLY reason we are doing basic classes is his lack of social grace.  He pretty much knows everything for basic (though if they count leave it as basic, then I will be beyond ecstatic!  This is a hard one for me to teach him).  Between having solid exercises for my husband and I to do with him, and giving him a chance to learn proper dog etiquette, I feel this is a sound investment.  And we will do three months worth, so maybe we might get him into the advance eventually.

But most important...Hubby is on the path to bonding.  He doesn't see it, but I do just by comparing these observations during cuddly.  Their have almost no bond--this is why Coal ignores him on walks and shies away.  Coal doesn't trust Hubby, and there is actually a good reason for it.  The fact that Coal allows hubby to pet him at all is a good sign.  Their bond is starting to slowly mend, and most likely hubby won't notice it until a big break through comes around.  The walking together was just not enough, but now hubby actively trains him and feeds him as frequently as I do.  We also alternate brushing him through this sudden blow.  I think the training and brushing is what is pushing the scales in favor of a mend.  They will struggle for a long time, but they will make progress.

If we at least hover at this level, I can finally relax.  If we can move above this level, then I think even my husband can be happy.  He wants simple things: no biting/jumping/barking and to at least not pull while walking.  Those are his foundational hopes.  What he really wants, but won't say: listening to him as well as he listens to me, and being able to call him over and pet him and not be rejected.  My husband is convinced that Coal doesn't like him--hates him even.  He can't help but put things that Coal does into anthropomorphic terms, even though he knows he shouldn't.  He has a weird way of looking at the world sometimes XD  But we already talked about that in depth as to what happened between those two to sour their relationship before it really started, so we both understand all of that.  Logically, he understands--and he agrees, but emotions are powerful things.  

Well, I will do a shorter update about how the class goes and what we learned/etc and then wait to see if there are any other milestones to share.  Sorry for the long post--you should see the notes I keep on the situation! XD

#shiba inu #shiba #inu #aggression #behavior #rehabilitation #observation #coal