#I might retroactively maintag this one for organization but no way am I maintagging this right off the bat

[hrokkall]

P03 uploading Inscryption to the internet

#Stoat Speak #Sorry for the radio silence lately I’ve been mostly just doing small doodles and not posting them here #+ Some artfight prep because. That’s a thing soon #So here’s a shitpost instead #I might retroactively maintag this one for organization but no way am I maintagging this right off the bat

[utilitycaster]

I agree that Marisha building Laudna to not be romanceable is a big part of it. When she was talking to Bor'dor about Imogen in a more sisterly way it really felt earnest to me, and not about hiding any feelings. So leaning into the kiss and pivoting that hard must feel intuitively awkward in gameplay, where everything is so organic. Do you have any ideas on how they *could* stick the landing, in theory? It's a little harder for me to see that, admittedly.

Hey anon,

I agree - that line in the moment felt entirely honest and frankly it's a sign of how profoundly thick and distorting the shipping goggles must be in this campaign to see anything of note that both this and Ashton's later "sister" comment are being taken as genuine interest and not at face value.

I've outlined some of what would have made it good here (linking bc it might be of interest; I know it's hard to find discussion of this on my blog because I am not maintagging my criticism out of courtesy so you're kind of stuck with Tumblr's search capabilities and as such I don't mind repeating some things) but that's obviously retroactive. I do think the challenge has increased; it was on low with the gnarlrock fight and medium with the reunion of the two halves of the party and now we're squarely in hard mode but I think it's still doable.

The things to address are 1. Their friendship, such as it was, was never actually substantial; it was merely a constant empty yet incongruously clingy cycle of bland validation; and 2. Laudna genuinely seems to forget about it like, half the time.

Now, I if I were a script doctor coming in, I would leverage item 2 to fix item 1, ie, have Imogen say "hey, are you actually into this, because I feel like you're not," have Laudna admit she's not really prepared for romance and hadn't considered it before Imogen asked, make things awkward for a while, and basically do a slightly clumsy and a little weaker version of what would have happened in the reunion if Laudna had stuck to her guns and allowed herself to be upset, let that simmer and let them grow as separate people, and then have them reunite. Another option is to make that anger bubble up to the surface since she ignored it; have Laudna blow up and get mad that after her outburst Imogen's response was just to ask if she could kiss her instead of like, hearing her out; this wouldn't even require a breakup, just a fight that isn't smoothed over without a significant conversation. Both of these I think could be made excellent.

However, I am not terribly optimistic this would happen, because of how meaningless in its lack of confrontation the relationship has been the entire time, so I will admit I think the more likely options are "Delilah take the wheel in a spiritual successor to the gnarlrock fight"; "Imogen's slight lean towards the gods and the status quo and Laudna's slight lean away from them deepen into a proper divisive issue that they have to address"; or, to be honest, "one of them dies in combat and the funeral scene is really good."

Basically: introduce literally any form of conflict and actually play it out. "Stick the landing" might be generous and optimistic of me but at least I can see a way in which they do not roll endlessly and dully down this metaphorical flight of stairs and instead make the relationship, if not unmissable, at least not actively missable.

#answered #Anonymous #the lack of premise #<- considering this as a personal org tag but it might be a bit too obscure/unwieldy #cr tag