#in someone elses narrative.

[podcastwizard]

because here's the thing here's the thing the question was not "would you be more surprised to run into a fairy or a walrus" the question was "would you be more surprised to find a fairy or a walrus AT YOUR DOOR" and while no, i do not believe in fairies and would be surprised to know they EXIST i would NOT be surprised to find one at my door. HOWEVER, if a WALRUS shows up at my door i have to contend with the fact that a walrus somehow made it to my apartment specifically and knocked on my door for god knows what reason. i would be more surprised to know that a fairy EXISTS, of course, but NOT that they're at my door, do you get me?

#am i reading too much into the question YES #but like someone else said there is narrative precedence for a fairy at your door #SHOULD a fairy exist #like if a fairy shows up at my door i've got bigger problems you know

[what-am-i-doing-in-this-fandom]

sweet child, you didn't even stand a chance

#oh to be doomed by the narrative #you have taken the underground into your loving arms #and instead if bringing Justice to the Missing- you decided to bring it to the Trapped and Suffering #cole's art #undertale #undertale yellow #undertale yellow spoilers #undertale yellow true ending spoilers #i'm so glad i played this instead of watching someone else do it- please play it guys it'll change your life 😭 #uty clover #uty spoilers #uty #ut yellow #oh yeah- also- merry christmas y'all #enjoy this angst ;3

[salthien]

bugs. gay ones, even

#hollow knight #quirrelhollow #hk quirrel #hk the hollow knight #thk #quirrel #ive been doing pomodoro method for packing and rewarding myself with ipad time #right one was initially going to have 'i survived being doomed by the narrative' shirts but i got lazy #please enjoy more gay bugs. i want to draw others eventually but i need to put thoughts into How i want to draw them #so will likely have to wait until after move #also shoutout to yrlocalghost for letting me appear out of nowhere slap art into a discord convo and then vanish again #i dont have anywhere else to test post/preview stuff (god knows im not posting qh art in the hk discord) #makes me less anxious when Someone Else likes it before i post anything :') #lorne art

[bitchthefuck1]

Tom's line about Shiv being selfish and "find[ing] it very hard to think about me" is actually so telling because while it's absolutely true that she rarely takes his position into consideration, Tom never once thinks about what he can do to help Shiv unless it also benefits him.

Every single time he makes a move or sacrifice that might help her, it's always something that he thinks will give him a leg up. He volunteers to take the fall for cruises, not for Shiv, who is in no way implicated, or even for Waystar, but because he thinks it'll ingratiate him to Logan, and the second it seems like he might have to actually follow through on that, he immediately tries to get out of it and even throws Shiv under the bus. Meanwhile, for all that Shiv disregards his interests, there are a number of things she does that only help him, and she's the one who actually sacrifices something and undermines her position with Logan to beg him not to let Tom go to jail.

It just makes it so clear that no matter how much he might love her (and I think he does, in his own compromised way), for him their relationship was always built on the underlying assumption that it's her job to prop him up, but it's not his job to help her.

#i rewatched that ep a few days ago and this was just cooking in my brain for a bit #their relationship is so messy and interesting i want to watch them get a divorce on a loop forever #and like. the wildest thing is that Tom does occasionally do things that don't serve him to help someone else. but its always greg #which you might say is ultimately down to the power dynamics (shiv can do more for tom than he can for her and tom can do more for greg) #but there are still plenty of points where tom actually does have the power to help shiv and chooses not to #and I love how succession never really has a clear 'what this character is telling you is 100% the truth of the story' moments #anytime a character is making a statement like 'this is who you are/who i am' or 'this is what i really want/what you really want' there's #always some kernel of truth to it but the narrative they're spinning is almost never fully honest #you can't take any of it at face value and it's such a good way of showing how they're always on some level 'playing the game' #and like. at a time when so many stories are basically spoon-feeding their audiences it's so nice to have a story that trusts you to #sort through it all and see what's real and what's not and rewards you for putting that work in #succession #4x07 tailgate #succession season 4 #failmarriage #shiv roy #tomshiv #tom wambsgans #siobhan roy

[significant-ace-nnoyance]

annabeth "my grand plan is that i will be remembered/and someday soon someone will notice me" chase

vs

percy "i swear i swear that im a good kid. all i need is one last chance to prove im good enough for someone" jackson

#the way both songs are about their overall issues and their fatal flaws and their traumas on TOP of also paralleling each other im- #percy only seeing himself as worthy and valuable if hes useful to someone else #annabeth only seeing herself as worthy and valuable if she leaves a legacy to be remembered above all others #but also both of them just wanting to be seen #percy genuinely is a good kid who tries so hard but bc of fundamental institutional issues (neurodivergence / son of poseidon /etc.) #no one besides sally really sees him #and annabeth has been invisible and forgettable to so many people in her life (her mom / dad / stepmom+siblings / athena / thalia / luke) #she has no friends and family who really understand all of her and appreciate ALL of her #enough to stay #enough to not leave her behind once she doesn't serve them anymore #once she doesn't fit into their narrative #EXCEPT FOR PERCY MOTHERFUCKING JACKSON #THEY BOTH WANT TO BE GOOD ENOUGH FOR SOMEONE TO NOTICE THEM AND TO STICK WITH THEM EVEN WHEN IT GETS HARD #AND THEIR IDEAS OF WHAT CONSTITUTES 'GOOD ENOUGH' RESULT FROM THEIR FATAL FLAWS AND THEIR WORLDVIEWS AND UPBRINGINGS #AND NOW THEYVE FOUND EACH OTHER AND THEY HAVE A SOULMATE WHO WILL LITERALLY NEVER GIVE UP ON THEM #im losing my mind #percy jackson #annabeth chase #percy jackon and the olympians #percabeth #pjo #percy series #pjo <3 #pjo musical #the lightning thief #the lightning theif musical

[yb-cringe]

when i say qjaiden and qcell are narrative mirrors i mean it in a lot of different ways and i often see 'connection to roier' get kind of buried, understandably, because connections to others are not at all the core of who we are

but i like i need you guys to understand that when i say they're narrative mirrors i mean roier started off in the worst place possible and he was distrustful and heartbroken and wanted revenge and understandably so and that would've put so many people on edge especially in the beginning of the smp--

he could not trust Anybody with that secret *besides* Jaiden, who took everything he told her and held it and said its okay, i trust you, i'm with you, i know you're doing bad things, i'm here all the same.

and then to see that SAME FUCKING NARRATIVE play out with roier and cellbit, where cellbit is breaking off all his loyalties and his friends and making enemies and is undeniably a danger, a potential threat, during his infiltration arc and roier SEES THIS and hears it and holds it and says its okay, he's here for him

he's knows he's doing bad things and he's here all the same do you know how fucking insane that is to see. that qroier had grown from an awful fucking start with a huge betrayal to trusting despite the dangers, something he couldn't do and /fucking learned/ from qjaiden--?

AND THEN TO SEE IT PLAYED AGAIN ? from cellbit to jaiden that he knows what people will say and that they think she's a danger but all three of them have gone through this they've played the villain in peoples stories and they know they KNOW what they need is someone to trust and be there--

#qsmp liveblogging #qsmp #qsmp jaiden #qsmp roier #qsmp cellbit #i feel UNWELL. #theyre in a narrative cycle of love and trust #of being there for someone you love and giving what you can because you KNOW them and you trust them despite what everyone else will say #FUCK MAN FUCK THESE FUCKING CUBES

[ani-craft]

"Martyn is loyal" this and "Martyn isn't loyal" that

Loyal or not, this man loves. No matter what he might say. Calls himself selfish, or a wanderer, or a wildcard, or whatever else he'll readily claim to seem unanchored. And sure, he is highly driven by self-interest, that is undeniable especially after Lim Life's ending. Yet every season he gets attached to people, finds a fondness in someone. To Scott, to Cleo, to the Southlands (especially Mumbo), to Ren--and to an extent he is loyal, or devoted, or whatever other word you want to use for it. As loyal as he can be up until he can't be anymore. Looks at every alliance with the idea that they'll make it to the finale together, even if what happens after is unsavory. He knows too much for his own good, knows that every life will end as him versus everyone he's allied with. It's inevitable, given the nature of his lore and his role in the grand scheme of things. It's an always present truth that backs every plan he has. An audience is Watching, and we need a grand finale, after all.

But until then:

"That's it, they're dead."

"I'm more than happy for you to link back up with me, and we can be real proper soulmates."

"You said, 'You and your allies will see the end.' You said I could bring them all!"

"I'm with you. This is us, now. This is us."

#limited life smp #limited life spoilers #martyn inthelittlewood #inthelittlewood #he's a contradiction and that's what makes him interesting #a disciple of the shadows but his heart holds fondness still #it's worth noting how set on a betrayal he is specifically #that he wants to be the one to kill his allies #it'd be simpler to let them die by someone else's hands than his own and yet... gotta feed into the negative emotions right? that's showbiz #i also love to compare cc!Martyn's take on things versus the narrative as a whole #sometimes the story writes itself out of the author's hands #it's impossible to determine one way or another what is 'correct' in an ever-evolving saga #too many retcons and meta comments and spur of the moment improv to really make it clear cut

[firestorm09890]

Carmen projectmoon is a great character because they went “yeah she's just the dead wife character sorry :( FUCK YOU JUST KIDDING SHE HAUNTS THE NARRATIVE” and then she haunted the narrative so hard she caused fundamental changes to the entire setting and affected literally everyone in the world of the story and she’s still haunting the narrative to this day, even after the game that was about her haunting the narrative. most recently they made her a narrator (probably) and [uh hi future bluejay here, what was originally here might not have been true but since this post was made she's done even more]. she died before the first entry of the series

#project moon #carmen #lobotomy corporation #library of ruina #limbus company #wonderlab #distortion detective #leviathan #she haunts them ALL #the game about her haunting the narrative was library of ruina #which you are you going to be... inside the mirror do you see someone else in that body #she also did it in lobcorp to an extent but imo that one was more about ayin #me post #oh yeah i should probably tag for spoilers huh #lobotomy corporation spoilers #library of ruina spoilers #leviathan spoilers #limbus company spoilers #okay reblogs are back on i realized most people were reblogging from the source but i made some edits

[sapphic-shakespeare]

Thinking about how Romeo doesn't know he's in a narrative, and that's what dooms him, whereas Hamlet knows he's in a narrative, and that's what dooms him.

Romeo doesn't check Juilet's body in the crypt because why would he? He has no reason to believe that she isn't actually dead. He never got the message from the friar, and since whatever Juilet took was good enough to convince everyone else, why wouldn't it convince Romeo? And so, he dies.

Hamlet, on the other hand, is so hyper-aware of the circumstances he's in that he stays stuck in his indecisiveness until it's too late.

-Kit

#i'm sure this post has been made before by someone else and is much better worded #own post #romeo and juliet #hamlet #been thinking a lot about what it means to be doomed by the narrative recently

[corbinite]

"when I say someone's a narcissist I'm not insinuating they have NPD, I'm just using the colloquial definition" would only hold water if the people using it actually WERE using the colloquial definition. 10 years ago the colloquial definition of narcissist was a person who was self-absorbed or vain. The stereotypical 'narcissist' was a teenager taking too many selfies. The idea that a "narcissist" is someone who is evil and manipulative and inherently abusive only exists because of stereotypes about people with NPD, and only exists because of raptorial pop psych articles about "how to spot this new breed of evil person to be terrified about". You cannot say "I'm not talking about NPD" while specifically using the toxic mythologized NPD stereotypes, it just doesn't work.

#mine #narcissist #narcissism #and again I'll never shut up about how the word has become a tool of abuse #how it's become abusers' favorite word #because it's extremely useful to anyone who wants to immediately control the narrative about someone else #some of y'all are so fucking stupid you hear someone being called a narcissist and you connure up the most cartoonish image of an abuser #which should be your first sign that it's a projection cause no one on this earth is like that #but y'all really wanna believe in a clear taxonomic divide between 'good people' and 'degenerates'

[mcrunchybones]

something something photography being the art of memory and recording and basil being the photographer something something the way hes always the witness and never the subject and maybe he doesnt think he deserves to be the subject something something taking a photograph being the act of freezing a moment in time forever and basil (and sunny by extension) never being able to grow up and move on from what they witnessed the day mari died

#idk i have a lot of thoughts abt the choice to have basil be a camera guy as a photographer myself #the fact that he only takes photos of his friends mostly and kinda stumbled upon it as a kid #but also the way it suits him so well as a character both personality wise and narratively #and idk if omocat put that much thought into the choice of making basil a photographer #but some of the photos in the photo album are really artistically used #esp during the part where its revealed what happened the day of maris death #and using the photos as a framing device for the events that took place #and just. how theyll never forget. just like in a photograph #also curious to see what healing would look like under this context #maybe basil starts taking pictures of his plants more #or just the ppl and things he loves and picking up the camera again after a long time #maybe he lets someone else behind the camera and lets himself be the subject of someone elses photo for once #just some thoughts #basil omori #sunny omori #omori #omori spoilers #text post

[urproblematicfav-arsonk]

Angel's type is pan men who are mean to him and use his need for validation and affection to manipulate him into doing what they think is "right"

#husk absolutely had the best intentions but i rlly dont like the kind of language he used to get angel to stay sober at the club #especially because it centers angel's need to be validated and not his genuine happiness or safety #like the way husk says it makes it just as much peer pressure as what cherri does #i also vehemently hate that cherri is the one hurting angel like that #she's in the mv for addict #she's his best friend and loves him she wouldn't treat him like that #i get narratively why it happened but i wish it was someone else #also im not saying husk is abusive just that he's mean and angel's traumatized ass would definitely be into that at least subconsciously #hazbin hotel #hazbin hotel angel dust #hazbin hotel husk #hazbin hotel valentino #huskerdust #valangel #proship

[themaevethcometh]

i find it interesting that everyone has accepted that nie zonghui inexplicably has two sabers when no one else in the show dual wields and my sister and i both assumed that he carries huaisang’s saber when we first watched fatal journey.

think about it. mingje wouldn’t let huaisang go on such a dangerous mission without his blade, and if huaisang wouldn’t carry it, he’d have someone else have it on their back, someone who he trusts and who he plans to have stick by huaisang to give him the blade the moment he asks for it.  zonghui has probably done this numerous times just from ensuring huaisang doesn’t leave his blade in random spots at the unclean realm, so much so that the saber is perfectly fine being wielded by him and he is adept at using it alongside his own blade.  when huaisang takes it from him in the woods, it’s not one of his subordinates giving him one of their swords, it’s him finally taking up his own saber, a decision that he still doesn’t feel comfortable with and therefore recants when he gives the blade back to him to hold again in the tomb

#maeve posts #nie huaisang #nie zonghui #fatal journey #the untamed #that's my headcanon anyway #and then i think he leaves it in the tomb with zonghui when they leave #i think that journey is him deciding for sure that he doesn't just hate swords but that he's never going to use a blade specifically again #and i think mingje is emotionally distraught enough to let him especially after the conversations they had in there #idk it's probably more likely that zonghui just. has two sabers. not for narrative purposes but because the creators thought it'd look cool #but i just can't fathom mingje bringing huaisang along without also forcing him to bring his sword #and if huaisang himself won't take it then someone else will take it for him

[eff-plays]

"Durge and Astarion are canon your honor!"

Well canon Durge is a white male dragonborn sorcerer and yet y'all are making cute little drow girlies and sexy little tiefling twinks to get at that extra content so what's the truth?

Oh that your personal preferences are somehow more canon than someone else's because the devs didn't have enough time to write extra content for every companion, leaving an unfair and imbalanced emphasis on the one character that did get extra content? That you feel your choices are validated because they're reinforced by poor planning/game design? Hmm. Hmm. Hmmmm 🤔

#bg3 #bg3 fandom critical #btw i have every iteration of durge x astarion blacklisted because of these sorts of girlies #'my already popular ship is actually canon because the writers felt the need to prioritize the wants of his obnoxious fanbase #instead of spreading the effort evenly!' is not the win you think it is #personally i'd give up all of durge x astarion content for more just REGULAR wyll content like it's unbelievable #more KARLACH and maybe an ending that isn't so fucking SHIT for her?? #fuck man even minthara?? #astarion girlies get a single critical thinking skill fr fr #also noah fence but 'uwu durge and astarion are narrative foils' is such a braindead take #cuz durge just has the same narrative of breaking free of a higher power that manipulates them as the REST OF THE COMPANIONS #literally none of them are more uwu canon than the others #the only reason you think that is because someone else did the thinking for you and put it in the game and spelled it out for you

[rawliverandgoronspice]

zelda truly do be one of the only fandoms where you will get dragged by fellow fans for feeling attachment towards the world and the characters

#thoughts #zelda fandom critical #I know I made a post like this recently #but I watched it happen again to someone else in a discord server I'm in and #I think it comes from a weird defensive place from fans who want to defend their type of investment is the correct one? #but I've never seen anyone invested in narration argue that the gameplay doesn't matter #or that you're even wrong for only caring about that #(also: as if caring about narrative makes it incompatible with being invested in gameplay? which is just... false?) #(maybe one day I'll make a post about everything I did really like and consider exceptional in TotK to counterbalance my other points) #(because there are things in its very philosophy I do consider delightful) #(but. one thing being really nice does not prevent the other aspects from being questionable)

[northern-passage]

i've shared some of Alex Freed's narrative writing advice before and i recently read another article on his website that i really liked. particularly in branching/choice-based games, a lot of people often bring up the idea of the author "punishing" the player for certain choices. i agree that this is a thing that happens, but i disagree that it's always a bad thing. i think Freed makes a good case for it here.

...acting as the player’s judge (and jury, and executioner) is in some respects the primary job of a game’s developers. Moreover, surely all art emerges from the artist’s own experiences and worldview to convey a particular set of ideas. How does all that square with avoiding being judgmental?

[...]

Let’s first dispel–briefly–the idea that any game can avoid espousing a particular worldview or moral philosophy. Say we’re developing an open world action-adventure game set in a modern-day city. The player is able to engage any non-player character in combat at any time, and now we’re forced to determine what should occur if the player kills a civilian somewhere isolated and out of sight.

Most games either:

allow this heinous act and let the player character depart without further consequence, relying on the player’s own conscience to determine the morality of the situation.

immediately send police officers after the player character, despite the lack of any in-world way for the police to be aware of the crime.

But of course neither of these results is in any way realistic. The problems in the latter example are obvious, but no less substantial than in the former case where one must wonder:

Why don’t the police investigate the murder at a later date and track down the player then?

Why doesn’t the neighborhood change, knowing there’s a vicious murderer around who’s never been caught? Why aren’t there candlelight vigils and impromptu memorials?

Why doesn’t the victim’s son grow up to become Batman?

We construct our game worlds in a way that suits the genre and moral dimensions of the story we want to tell. There’s no right answer here, but the consequences we build into a game are inherently a judgment on the player’s actions. Attempting to simulate “reality” will always fail–we must instead build a caricature of truth that suggests a broader, more realized world. Declaring “in a modern city, murderous predators can escape any and all consequences” is as bold a statement on civilization and humanity as deciding “in the long run, vengeance and justice will always be served up by the victims of crime (metaphorically by means of a bat-costumed hero).”

Knowing that, what’s the world we want to build? What are the themes and moral compass points we use to align our game?

This is a relatively easy task when working with a licensed intellectual property. In Star Trek, we know that creativity, diplomacy, and compassion are privileged above all else, and that greed and prejudice always lead to a bad end. A Star Trek story in which the protagonist freely lies, cheats, and steals without any comeuppance probably stopped being a Star Trek story somewhere along the line. Game of Thrones, on the other hand, takes a more laissez-faire approach to personal morality while emphasizing the large-scale harm done by men and women who strive for power. (No one comes away from watching Game of Thrones believing that the titular “game” is a reasonable way to run a country.)

These core ideals should affect more than your game’s storytelling–they should dovetail with your gameplay loops and systems, as well. A Star Trek farming simulator might be a fun game, but using the franchise’s key ideals to guide narrative and mechanical choices probably won’t be useful. (“Maybe we reward the player for reaching an accord with the corn?”)

Know what principles drive your game world. You’re going to need that knowledge for everything that’s coming.

[...]

Teaching the player the thematic basics of your world shouldn’t be overly difficult–low-stakes choices, examples of your world and character arcs in a microcosm, gentle words of wisdom, obviously bad advice, and so forth can all help guide the player’s expectations. You can introduce theme in a game the way you would in any medium, so we won’t dwell on that here.

You can, of course, spend a great deal of time exploring the nuances of the moral philosophy of your game world across the course of the whole game. You’ll probably want to. So why is it so important to give the player the right idea from the start?

Because you need the player to buy into the kind of story that you’re telling. To some degree, this is true even in traditional, linear narratives: if I walk into a theater expecting the romcom stylings of The Taming of the Shrew and get Romeo and Juliet instead, I’m not going to be delighted by having my expectations subverted; I’m just going to be irritated.

When you give a player a measure of control over the narrative, the player’s expectations for a certain type of story become even stronger. We’ll discuss this more in the next two points, but don’t allow your player to shoot first and ask questions later in the aforementioned Star Trek game while naively expecting the story to applaud her rogue-ish cowboy ways. Interactive narrative is a collaborative process, and the player needs to be able to make an informed decision when she chooses to drive the story in a given direction. This is the pact between player and developer: “You show me how your world works, and I’ll invest myself in it to the best of my understanding.”

[...]

In order to determine the results of any given choice, you (that is, the game you’ve designed) must judge the actor according to the dictates (intended or implicit) of the game world and story. If you’re building a game inspired by 1940s comic book Crime Does Not Pay, then in your game world, crime should probably not pay.

But if you’ve set the player’s expectations correctly and made all paths narratively satisfying, then there can be no bad choices on the part of the player–only bad choices on the part of the player character which the player has decided to explore. The player is no more complicit in the (nonexistent) crimes of the player character than an author is complicit in the crimes of her characters. Therefore, there is no reason to attempt to punish or shame the player for “bad” decisions–the player made those decisions to explore the consequences with you, the designer. (Punishing the player character is just dandy, so long as it’s an engaging experience.)

[...]

It’s okay to explore difficult themes without offering up a “correct” answer. It’s okay to let players try out deeds and consequences and decide for themselves what it all means. But don’t forget that the game is rigged. [...]

Intentionally or not, a game judges and a game teaches. It shows, through a multiplicity of possibilities, what might happen if the player does X or Y, and the player learns the unseen rules that underlie your world. Embracing the didactic elements of your work doesn’t mean slapping the player’s wrist every time she’s wrong–it means building a game where the player can play and learn and experiment within the boundaries of the lesson.

#every choice you make while designing your game says something about your experiences and your world view #whether you think it does or not #i think abt that interview with hozier where he talks abt all art being political & someone in the comments tried to disagree #by saying a child's drawing of their house cant possibly be political & someone else replies: #but it is. what does a house look like to them? is it one story or two? is it a trailer? an apartment? these things imply something #about that child's lived experience #another post i reblogged on kithj that talked abt these games like the forest or far cry where you play as a random white guy #that is being hunted by the evil native people. and the game requires you to just indiscriminately kill them #without thinking about it bc it's a game and you're the protag. that says something whether it was intentional or not #allowing the player character to do or say certain things without consequences communicates something to the player!!! #this does not mean you should punish them but that you should think about your narrative design and your choices and their outcomes #think about what makes sense in your world #and think about what it could imply in the real world. to the player #and think about all the different paths you can explore with them in this way #writing