#it actually makes me a little sad. this game built the characters so much better than totk did. it’s what totk needed really

[bluebelledmoon]

love how the botw fandom went fucking wild when age of calamity came out in 2020. and no one talks about it anymore. don’t you remember HIM?????

and THEM??.

and all of THIS????

#it actually makes me a little sad. this game built the characters so much better than totk did. it’s what totk needed really #JUST BECAUSE THE GAME ISNT CANON TO THE TIMELINE DOESNT FUCKING MEAN THAT THE CHARACTER INTERACTIONS ARE ANY LESS VALUABLE!!! #WAKE UP GUYS #bluebelledmoon babbles #hw aoc #hwaoc #hw aoc spoilers #this game has SO MANY CUTSCENES that i didn’t even know about myself ?????? #baby tulin is in there??? #botw #totk #age of calamity #zelda #botw zelda #botw link #aoc link #aoc zelda #mipha #terrako #zelink #aoc zelink #purah #revali #impa #aoc impa #prince sidon #sidon #baby sidon #loz

[hood-ex]

Your post about that dialogue from Gotham Knights (the game) made me think back on how much I miss Bruce and Dick's relationship tbh. Like obv it was never the healthiest thing ever, and Bruce was always emotionally constipated, but it always felt a little more... equal? Recently it's just felt so toxic, like Bruce will be an asshole, and Dick will be hurt by it but will still come back to him and will remove the burden of Bruce apologizing for anything from him. Like the scene between them in Nightwing 100, where Bruce is rightfully apologizing for his crap and Dick says he doesn't have to. I do like that scene (even if it was over the top), but that's not right. Like, no sir, he has a lot to apologize for lmao. But that's literally been their dynamic for so long. Whenever Bruce should be called out, Dick just forgives him and Bruce goes back to doing the same old shit again, and Dick forgives him again, and rinse and repeat.

Honestly, it feels like whoever wrote those scenes took a look at that one meme of Batman slapping Robin and said "hey, they like that, let's do that!" Like, you can't go a long time without Bruce hitting Dick. Because they think fans eat that shit up ig. They are so attached to their shock value Bruce and Dick fights and their image of brooding Bruce that they won't address their fucked-up relationship and won't change the status quo. We have gotten many scenes of them being great together and having sweet moments, but those all feel tainted by the rest of it. It's as recent as the amnesia arc where Bruce re-traumatized Dick and then didn't help him when he was living in his car and then pretty much emotionally manipulated him to become Nightwing again. Recent comics really have forgotten what Batman is about.

And it sucks, because Dick is my fave of all faves, but I also love the hell out of Bruce Wayne, and it's so sad to see him be reduced to this... only brooding, borderline abusive asshole. They won't let him grow or develop. I don't mind conflict, and I like that they have a complicated relationship. I didn't even mind Bruce punching Dick, because it's interesting. Once was fine, twice was fine, the same thing happening all the time without addressing it and with no change across years is kind of a problem. I'm only keeping up with the Nightwing run out of loyalty to my boy, but from what I've heard of the events that are happening outside of that, it seems that they are having issues again, and I'm waiting for the next Batman issue that features Nightwing to also feature another punch or something. It's always Bruce being coddled by the story and never being asked to make the step forward, it's always Dick that has to give in and make Bruce feels better about his flaws and free him of any responsibility for his actions even when it's time for Bruce to step up and grow up.

It's why I prefer the animated adaptations or the retellings. I think world's finest did a good job with their relationship, I feel like Robin: Year 1 from back in the day did too, and Young Justice animated for its many flaws has a solid dynamic between them. They still have a complicated relationship, but it isn't so dramatically awful. It allows for a more balanced and well-rounded portrayal of the character when you aren't pandering to some people by flanderizing the character ig. Anyway, sorry for ranting, you're like my fave Dick Grayson blog so I just wanted to share. Hope this wasn't a bother.

No yeah I hated that aspect of Nightwing #100. If TT wanted to do a scene like that, he should’ve built up a conflict between Dick and Bruce to give us some context as to some type of thing Bruce actually needed to apologize for. Then he could’ve had Bruce apologize, Dick accept the apology, and end it with that reconciliation.

Instead, he just had Bruce apologize like, “I’m sorry I failed you, I’m sorry I pushed you away, I’m sorry if I ever made you feel like I wasn’t proud of you,” which would’ve hit much harder if, again, they had shown some kind of recent conflict between Bruce and Dick to warrant that sudden apology. And for Dick to then express his own hurt and such over said conflict. And then for them to come to some reconciliation. But yeah it’s very unsatisfying for Bruce to just list things he’s sorry for, and for Dick to hug him and just reassure Bruce. Like nooo let Bruce feel bad. Let Dick feel bad because of what Bruce did to him. Let Dick be angry. Let them both hurt. Then let them heal.

As for the amnesia arc, I feel like they really did a disservice to Bruce by not focusing enough on his trauma from the sniper incident. If they really stressed how much it traumatized him and then showed how his actions were effected by that (like giving him a dire need to have Dick return to normal bc otherwise it’s like Dick just died in his arms on that rooftop) then that is much more sad and compelling, and we can at least kind of see where Bruce is coming from by showing Dick the sniper video (though it would’ve been better if they just… hadn’t done that all).

If I had been writing that issue, I would’ve had it from Bruce’s POV where he would’ve constantly been in a state of flashbacks. Like seeing his parents getting killed and then comparing it to Dick getting shot. And then having flashbacks of Dick when he was younger but then Bruce imagining that Dick keeps getting shot in the head in each of those memories. And all of that literally just like… pushing Bruce over the edge. And then of course when Dick wakes up and asks Bruce “Who are you?” Bruce spirals even further. And we see his descent to this very isolated and dark place where he just wants his son back at all costs. That would’ve been waaaaay more interesting. Extremely dark ofc. But interesting.

Yeah the comic Dick and Bruce relationship can definitely be toxic (and I’m not totally opposed to that bc I think it makes things interesting between them), and there are animated shows that show them in a more balanced light. The Batman (2004) is one of those shows as well. Dick was Robin then ofc, and Bruce wasn’t so dark at that point in life. But when you watch shows like that, it reminds you of the character Bruce is supposed to be, and it reminds you of what you like the most about him. So definitely nice to watch shows like that sometimes to remind yourself of the Bruce Wayne that exists outside of modern comics.

#and no worries--not a bother at all! #Bruce Wayne #Dick Grayson #anon

[smilesrobotlover]

List of things you like about Linebeck? rat man <3

Oh man where do I begin.

- I have a soft spot for AH with hearts of gold, guys who are cruel in the beginning and then develop and actually are very sweet, they just had a tough upbringing. I don’t have many thoughts on Linebeck’s backstory, but he is a good person deep down, he’s just annoying <3

- his design is everything to me. Like, he looks so weird and goofy but so sexy at the same time??? Like how??? Also I love Jack sparrow and he def has a more well kept Jack sparrow vibes.

- I’m a HUGE sucker for father figures. Idc what people say Linebeck is a DAD against his will and I will not take any opposing opinion.

- his theme SLAPS SO HARD it’s amazing. It’s one of the few good songs ph has.

- I just love his relationship with Link, the nicknames he gives him, the way he talks to him, the way he carry’s Link as if he weighs five pounds. It’s CUTE. It’s not wholesome but it’s FUN

- there IS a wholesome moment in the game and that’s where Linebeck acts more serious and asks Ciela to look after Link. He cares so much for the kid and really doesn’t want him to get hurt I’m so HH

- the potential for a complex character with him is so fun. I feel like he really struggles with his self worth, he’s one of those people that act all high and mighty but he secretly loathes himself. I feel like the manga really points this out, when he’s possessed by Bellum and he’s about to kill himself, he tells Link to not be a worthless man like him. He thinks he’s worthless and doesn’t feel like he belongs. In the manga he doesn’t like being called a hero because he abandoned his crew. He has a lot of issues that he keeps hidden and I LOVE HIM.

- this man is so pathetic oh my gosh I want to marry him.

- I feel like he longs for adventure and longs to be a big named hero, but he really can’t cuz he’s not built like that. So the adventure with Link gives him a taste of that and he loves it, even if it’s scary he loves it so much.

- the music at the end of the final boss with bellumbeck, I go FERAL. The song dark waters beginning with violins playing a dark tune, then it goes into his theme showing that he’s fighting back, but then his theme starts to get more desperate since he’s losing the battle with Bellum, and then finally he loses. And then the final boss song is SOOOO GOOOD GUYS like the beginning is a dramatic version of the phantom chase, it has trumpets that sounds like Bellum’s battle theme, and then Linebeck’s theme that sounds more sad it KILLS ME OUGH I LOVE THAT WHOLE THINF

-I love how he acts on the sea cuz he’s not a coward on sea, I feel like when he’s on the water he acts how he wants to be. Heroic, brave, competent. He’s so lovely, you can tell he loves the water.

- he can’t swim, like why can’t he swim 😭😭

- this is a little personal but I loathe myself a lot cuz I feel like I’m a pathetic loser who’s completely incompetent and a worthless human being and knowing that I adore a character who is like that makes me feel a little better about myself? It’s complicated but he’s just like me fr.

- I love how before you go to the last dungeon he just, acts really sweet towards you? He tells you to have fun and to adventure and I feel like he really genuinely cares for Link and yeah. He’s such a dad fr.

- he’s such a unique character in the Zelda series. Like there’s not a lot of actual father figures hence why Rusl is also very unique to me, and Linebeck is kinda the same to me. But, I already said this in a post, he’s barely connected to Link or Bellum in any way in the game. He never knew Link, he’s not apart of some magical race, he’s not connected to the ocean king, the only thing he’s connected to is his knowledge of the ghost ship. He’s just some guy and I really love that. Unspecial characters are my favorite. And I know the manga is different but I prefer him being some guy

- we don’t know how good of a father he was but we do know he was a good grandfather 🥺🥺🥺

- in spirit tracks it seems that he did learn to embrace adventure and loved puzzles and stuff, which I think is neat.

- the ending where he wishes for his ship back, like it’s kinda cliche but it‘s so sweet 😭😭😭 he loves his ship more than treasure.

- he got found family’d HARD.

- ok there’s some parts of this scene that I don’t like but when Oshus promises him a wish and he goes full 180 and his music is super dramatic and he wants nothing more than to save the ocean king like he’s so dumb

- I love his banter with Ciela I think it’s so fun, tho I do feel like Ciela is a little too mean, they’re relationship means a lot to me <3

- when he knocks over tetra’s statue like PLS HES SO DUMB.

- he says he’s a lone wolf but he’s really not he wants friends.

- the whole thing with Jolene is so insane and so funny to me 😭😭😭

- his letter to Link after you visit Zauz is weirdly sweet to me like he can’t figure out how to put things into words and he can’t say it in person so he just puts it in a letter cuz it’s easier for him. He’s just like me FRRRRRR.

- he’s so scrunkley I wanna shake him in a pringles can.

- I just love him a lot

#asks #COMFORT CHARACTER FRRR #gosh I had a lot to say huh #Linebeck #phantom hourglass #I lvoe him guyyyyys I love him

[mrsbsmooth]

20 questions for fic writers

Thanks for the tag @rebelrayne! @longbobmckenzie tagged me in the body of hers too so I’ll take it.

How many works do you have on ao3?

82 right now, but I’ve orphaned a few recently

What’s your total ao3 word count?

1,220,982. I’ve got about another 30-40k words in WIP documents right now, so almost one-amd-a-quarter million words 😨

What fandoms do you write for?

Love Island the Game, Too Hot to Handle game, Harry Potter (Dramione exclusive), Romance Club (Heaven’s Secret)

Top five fics by Kudos

Tell Me What You Want (HP)

This Time, I’m Serious

Jaded

Unhealthy

Kinktober 2022

TIL that my Harry Potter fic has overtaken TTIS even though TTIS has more hits.

Do you respond to comments?

Yes! There were a few on TTIS I missed that it would be awkward to reply to because it was so long ago, but I make a point of trying to reply to every comment.

What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

The only sad ending I’ve ever written was the first chapter of Jaded which was originally done as a oneshot.

What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Probably Welcome To Racers. They got the whole shebang. Love me a happily ever after.

Do you get hate on fics?

Not recently. I’ve had hate for my portrayals of Alex, Lucas, and Suresh. But I haven’t had any nasty anon comments in ages which is lovely.

Do you write smut?

Yeah it's kinda my thing.

Craziest crossover:

I don’t know if I’ve done many crossovers… maybe Bruno and Miri Make a Porno or All I Want for Christmas is You which is a hetero take on Red White and Royal blue?

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of!

Have you ever had a fic translated?

No but I think I would probably die of happiness.

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

I HAVE! All’s Fair in Casa Amor was written with my beautiful friends @i-boop-you and @crimswnred !!!!!!

All time favourite ship?

Dramione (new fave) but for LITG? Hard question because our fandom is so built around an MC. But with two canon characters? I secretly love a Bruno/Valentina. Also love Hope/Lucas. They just WORK.

What's a wip you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

It’s gotta be Recovery. I have the whole thing planned in my head but I just have no motivation to write it at all. Other than that, I don’t see myself finishing Famous Last Words any time soon. If I was going to finish it I’d take it down and rewrite it to make it fully OF.

What are your writing strengths?

Smut probably, I’m not bad at it. I feel like my narrative pacing is alright, and my prose is decent despite it being really inconsistent.

What are your writing weaknesses?

I rely too much on dialogue. I miss all the little body language bits leading up to an important line that could take it from an ‘aww that’s sad’ to a ‘holy fuck I’m sobbing’. Luckily I have wonderful beta’s who help me with this.

But more than anything, characterisation. Forming a fully fleshed out character before I start the story. I struggle with it. I’ve always felt like I’m more of a storyteller, (a plot person) more than a deep dive into a character’s psyche kind of person. I love reading character driven stories though, but I think it’s something that comes with writing experience. I haven’t actually been writing for that long and I think I’m getting better at it, but it’s still a weak point.

Thoughts on dialogue in another language?

I sometimes forget that people don’t like this. I LOVE it. I do try and use it sparingly though. It’s so nice to see a character conversing with someone in their native language. I try and put the English dialogue in brackets or italics unless it's rather clear what they're saying (like swearing).

First fandom you wrote in?

LITG

Favourite fic you've written?

I, like Sarah, absolutely hate this question. My fics are my children. I like some of them more than others, though (I never claimed to be the world's best mother). But I love them for different reasons.

I love Welcome to Racers because it was my first AU. I loved The Only Two Things because I got to create an entire world, an entire city for my characters (Yes I'm aware Waterford, Ireland is a real place but God, I loved that story so much). TT,IS was the first fic I started and it gave me the friends I have today and the amount of people who tell me it's S4 canon just makes my whole life. Jaded was something different. It was a challenge to myself and I'm so proud of it. Unhealthy has been the most difficult to write, but it's also pushed me the hardest in my development of characters. FLW has been so much fun because I get to dive back into my music roots, urghhhhhh. Love.

I don't care if it's narcissistic. I re-read my fics on a regular basis. They're perfectly tailored to my taste. I love doing a nice re-read and sprinkling in a few extra details with liberal use of the edit button. If there was someone who knew my fics as well as I did, they'd get something a little bit different on every read. Might just be a line or two, might be a thought or a reaction, but I love to add and tweak and tinker with them all.

Love.

tagging: @i-boop-you @crimswnred @ellegreenwxy @tammyisobsessedwith @operationnope @sparxaf @eskiix

#mbs tag game

[drstonetrivia]

Chapter 213 Trivia (Part 1)

I guess things were going too well for too long..?

Gen's drawing of Senku here was probably inspired by very early chapter cover images. I don't know why else he'd be holding an exploding container.

We've now got three interpretations of Whyman: the generic one, Luna's, and now Gen's.

I like how Gen's has arms and legs coming out of the skull!

Finally! The Kingdom of Science can watch Dr. Stone together!

As long as someone animates it…

Kenjiro Takayanagi of Shizuoka University is considered one of the main pioneers of television, succeeding in displaying the character イ (i) on his Braun tube display in Dec 1926. Over the next few years, he improved the image allowing more detailed images such as human faces.

By 1939, Japan's first television station began broadcasting from NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation). After the war, Takayanagi Sensei's work was used as a foundation for other televisions and related industries around the world.

If everyone thought working on a second cell phone after they'd spent months making one was bad, they're not ready to hear about what they'll need to make for television broadcasts. (Senku also never changes...)

I didn't realize how big their other boat was. I guess things made in the USA really are bigger?

The Perseus not being the biggest ship anymore makes me a little sad :(

SAL 9000 is a reference to HAL 9000, the AI antagonist from Space Odyssey. It stands for "Heuristically programmed ALgorithmic computer", so in this case it might be "Senku programmed" or even "Sai programmed"!

The "NES" (actually the Famicom again, both in the drawing and Sai's comment in the Japanese version) and SAL 9000 don't have the exact same specifications:

SAL 9000 is specialized for math operations and thus has a longer word length (16 bits vs 8) which allows more significant figures in the numbers. They've also got more RAM (SAL has 16 kB while the NES has 2).

The downside is that because they used parametrons, their clock speed (how fast they can do calculations) is slower than if they'd used transistors.

The large amount of ROM they've also got could imply that they have several built-in programs. Xeno's work, perhaps?

CRT screens only reach a maximum diagonal length of around 40 inches (~101 cm), as a larger screen needs a larger tube, and the thickness of the glass increases with size to handle the vacuum without shattering making it very unwieldy with the added weight and thus not worth manufacturing for sale.

Senku's here is obviously much, much bigger. Possibly even world record; the biggest CRT screens made were 61 inches (~152 cm) on the diagonal.

SAL 9000 has both air and water cooling, probably used depending on what's better for individual parts. Normally you only need one or the other.

It'd be good if they could get the carbonated water maker in there and ferment some alcohol faster too using the computer's heat…

SAL 9000 also has 3 phase power like modern power transmission. They're AC power sources, phase shifted by 120° so that at any point in time, their sum is 0. The advantage to this is that you don't need return lines for the current, so you can use half as many cables.

The games shown are inspired by Tetris (featuring Ishigami Village and Roppongi!), Pacman, a combination game of Gyruss and Tempest, then another combination game of Galaga and Asteroids.

The transmission towers can only be headed towards the dam, so we have an approximate direction for where that is! There's a few rivers nearby in modern Tokyo, but over 3,700 years they've probably changed a lot.

(Next part)

#trivia #dr stone #chapters #213

[fareehaandspaniards]

2, 3, 19, 23, 24 for Damian :3

2. Did you always like this character?

Yeah, I've always liked him, but not to say I fell in love at first sight xd Well, at first I liked him the same way I like all the other NPCs in BB. But it was worth taking a closer look at him…. >:3

3. What first drew you to this character?

I was thinking a lot about Micolash's personal life in my mind at the time. And as I was going through who besides Edgar could make up his happiness. When it came to Damian, I opened Pandora's box!!!! And immediately built a lot of little headcanons about Damian. I also ALWAYS liked his shield…. I never learned how to use it in game <:^) But I want a t-shirt or sweatshirt with a Loch shield print IRL xd

19. Does this character serve as a stress ball/ security blanket for you? Something you run to after a bad day to feel safe or happier?

YES!!! I always picture very emotional scenes in my head. I like to imagine Damian more in comfort, and from creating an atmosphere in which he would feel good - I myself feel better somehow. I often imagine him suffering too, but once I got so deep into his sadness for his younger brother Jiri that my mood was extra depressed for three days. So he suffers, but without fanaticism xd He is truly a source of emotional comfort. He has taken the place of my Comfort-character - a character who is perfect for me. Very often it helps during the work day to visualize him on my place, talking with customers and taking care of flowers XD

23. Has this character permanently altered or impacted your psyche in a way you won’t forget?

Definitely impacted! And took a lot of writing gestalts off me, reminding me that good people have hard sins, and so much more… Souls-likes in general helped me take off rose-coloured glasses for writing and reminded that through suffering we shape ourselves.

24. Do you ever dream about this character? If so, describe a dream you once had about them.

Yes, I had a dream with Damian - he was drinking tea very thoughtfully. The dream actually originally had to do with my family, but at one point I walked into a dark room where he was sitting with leg over leg, reading in the semi-darkness with a cup of tea in his hands. For some reason my blorbos in my dreams always look at me like this 🙄🙄🙄🙄 - so did he xD I can't say the whole dream was about him, but till this moment twice he appeared like this.

Can't describe my dreams more - it's very personal >:3

I wanted to add a sketch of him, but instead of this I add a piece of old WIP, where Damian and Gremia are Tomb Prospectors and Gremia constantly suffers of seeing his loved one with Micolash, can't sleep at night and feels so lonely as he never felt but is stil happy to have Damian around. My little guy (two of them actually) deserves happiness 🥺

#i love you damian garvano #mensis scholar damian #ask game #tomb prospector Gremia #THANKS FOR ALL THE ASKS GIRLS #my art

[hils79]

Hils Watches The King's Avatar - Ep 40

It doesn't feel like 5 minutes ago that I started this drama. It's so very bingeable.

It's been a real journey. None of this has been what I expected beyond the very basic concept of 'it's a drama about esports'. There have been so many wonderful surprises. There are characters that I hated that I now love, characters that I loved that I now love even more, and more ships than I ever expected to ship.

While I'm at it I want to say a heartfelt thank you to everyone who has popped up in the replies to my posts or in my asks to either answer my questions or just yell about their favourite characters. I can tell this drama (and the novel and donghua) are so well loved and liveblogging this has really felt like a community experience. Thank you for not laughing at all the stuff I got wrong and for not making fun of me for shipping everyone. It's really been so wonderful and I almost don't want to press play on the final episode because I don't want it to be over.

But I need to see what happens so let's go!

Ah, okay. I misunderstood what happened at the end of the last episode. I thought they'd lost the game but no they could still win they just didn't have enough points to win the championship.

Is there going to be some loophole like the whole 'oh the ref's watch broke so actually you won'

HAHA! I fucking knew it! They got an extra two points for beating a league record. Because apparently that is a rule that has never been mentioned until now.

Eh, whatever. There was a nice moment with the fans before the found out they'd won

Ye Xiu finally gets the hug that he's needed since episode 1

Good lord how is there 30 minutes left? What's going to happen now that they've won?

God I hope Sun Xiang punches him

Except of course he won't because he's all grown up now. Also, typically it's the coaches/managers that get fired when a team does badly. I hope he gets booted

Love Shaotian dragging Wenzhou to his feet so he can cheer

Remember when their entire fanbase was just this guy. I'm definitely not crying at all

Look at that little half smile. He's grown so much considering they only lost on a technicality. I do think he's at least a little bit happy for Ye Xiu as the better player (for now)

GDI I can't believe I'm crying over Sun Xiang AGAIN

LOL remember when I thought he was going to be the antagonist of the drama when I watched the first episode. How wrong I was

Haha yes let's have a little joke about the time when I nearly banned you for life in the middle of an important game and caused your team to lose as a result

I have in no way been thinking about writing some King's Avatar fic with one based on the fact that Ye Xiu passes out after one drink

HAHA! Mo Fan pretended to pass out too so he doesn't have to talk to anyone. He is such a mood

Oh shit! I did not see that coming!

Oh no he looks so sad to see his former team like this, and it's understandable. He built that team from the ground up and put so much time and work into making them the legends they were

Yes, good. Baozi is cuddling one of his boyfriends as he should

Ah, yay, I'd forgotten about the team graphic. Time to add one more person right before the end

And finished! That was wonderful! Definitely in my top 5 dramas that I've watched this year. Might even be the number one, actually. I definitely should have watched that years ago when people first told me to give it a try. But, you know, I firmly believe you find things when you were meant to find them. Now was good.

I'll be starting a new drama tomorrow. If you were just here for my King's Avatar posts it's been lovely to have you. If you're sticking around for other liveblogs I'll see you tomorrow for more yelling :D

#hils watches #hils watches the king's avatar #hils watches cdramas #the king's avatar #cdrama

[stop-breaking-my-heart-telltale]

I read Clementine Book One 9 times so that you don’t have to read it at all

Spoiler-free review: It’s not great. 1.5/5 stars. 

"Clementine is back on the road, looking to put her traumatic past behind her and forge new path all her own. But when she comes across an Amish teenager named Amos with his head in the clouds, the unlikely pair journeys North to an abandoned ski resort in Vermont, where they meet up with a small group of teenagers attempting to build a new, walker-free settlement. As friendship, rivalry, and romance begin to blossom amongst the group, the harsh winter soon reveals that the biggest threat to their survival...might be each other. “

The best way I can describe Clementine in this is if TFS never happened and this is an older, slightly less angsty ANF Clementine who also lost a leg.  She’s not great.

Amos is the best character. He has a goal, a drive to reach that goal, and an actual personality that shines through in every page he’s in. He’s also the only character Clementine has any real chemistry with, which isn’t good news for her new love interest. 

Speaking of which, Ricca didn’t reach the potential I felt she should’ve. She has a fine backstory, but the way it was delivered was info-dumpy and not built up well. Her “romantic chemistry” with Clementine is practically non-existent, rushed, and a little awkward. 

The twins, Olivia and Georgia, were bland and annoying.

The baddie of the story is weak as hell. They do something terrible for a reason so overdone that it actually makes my brain mad.

The story is okay for the first half, but takes a steep nose dive in the second half that ruins what little good will it got outta me. Everything mentioned that was from the games felt shoehorned in for fanservice points and not because it contributed to the story. The pacing is all over the place, and the ending is just... annoying. The artwork isn’t Tillie Walden’s best, I know she can do so much better when she’s allowed to play with color and give her work a more dream-like quality, which the story doesn’t.

I originally rated it a 1/5 stars, but after reading it 9 goddamn times, I bumped it up to a 1.5/5 stars mostly for Amos, the few chuckles it got out of me, and one part that I genuinely liked. 

My full detailed review is below. It’s long, gives a recap of the 12-page Clementine Lives comic from Skybound X, addresses the harassment Tillie Walden has gotten over this, and spoils everything within book one. 

so how the hell did we even get here?

On August 14, 2018, the first episode of Telltale’s The Walking Dead: The Final Season was released, a game developed by a team that showed great care and passion for the story they wanted to tell and was meant to give Clementine’s story a satisfying ending. It’s not a game without flaws, both in its storytelling and mechanics. If you’ve followed me for any amount of time, you know I have my complaints about each of the games but at the end of the day, I love them, flaws and all. 

On September 21, 2018, we got the news that Telltale Games would be closing its doors. About 90% of their employees were let go with only about 25 remaining to fulfill the important obligations they couldn’t wiggle out of... y’know, like finishing a version of Minecraft Story Mode made for Netflix.... which if you know me, you know how I feel about MCSM and I’m sure you can guess the speed at which my eyes rolled upon reading that. 

With the closure of Telltale Games came hundreds of people suddenly out of a job, the cancellation of several games, and the realization that we wouldn’t get the rest of TFS. Sad times all around, statements were being made by Telltale [ex] employees, not fun in the slightest, you would go to youtube to watch playthroughs of episode 2 when it dropped and every creator was original enough to title their videos “GOODBYE TELLTALE” or “THE END OF CLEMENTINE.” 

But then Robert Kirkman told everyone to chill the hell out, Skybound Entertainment worked out a deal with Telltale, they’re going to finish off TFS through their Skybound Games division, all with the original development team who were working on it. 

The fans rejoiced, the Telltale team got to complete their game the way they wanted, and Skybound were heroes being praised by the fans. TFS was great, my personal favorite of the four main games. 10/10, would play it 100 more times. Clementine finally got the happy ending she deserved.

....But then we got Clementine Lives as a part of the Skybound X collection...and Clementine Book One was announced for summer 2022. 

A lot less happy after that. 

“blah blah die a hero or live long enough to be the baddie or something.” -Scarecrow, probably

 In hindsight, we should’ve seen this coming. What, Skybound gets all the rights to Clementine and we expected them to respectfully leave the conclusion of her story alone? That’s not how the money is made, babe! 

Clementine is a cow who just wants to be free and eat dewy grass all day in the warm sunlight but that isn’t about to stop Skybound from locking her up in a barn stall before getting on their hands and knees to pull and twist and squeeze every single last drop they can get outta her. Even if she runs outta milk, they can just shoot her and turn her meat into steaks and ribs and tenderloins and anything else you can get out of a cow down to the bones. When they’re desperate enough, they can make some bone broth.... I don’t really know where I’m going with this, we can just pretend I meant this as a metaphor for how they butchered her or something. 

Anyway, anything to continue making money on a franchise that is still fairly popular... I think? Aside from Telltale’s The Walking Dead, I’m not a big fan of the TWD franchise in general, any other content I tried intaking was meh at best. I lost interest in the show after S1. The books about the Governor weren’t all that interesting. I browsed the comics and they couldn’t hold my attention.  

I even played and finished the awful Daryl Dixon prequel game that no one else played. The most interesting thing in that game is if you run for more than 3.5 seconds, sweat blurs and drips down the screen as Daryl shits himself... riveting.

Now we have a Clementine trilogy to throw in there. 

Skybound decided they wanted to branch out into the young adult and middle grade world. Makes sense. Reach out to new fans, get some young blood to flow into crevices left by old fans who are no longer interested, expand your reach as far as possible... all they have to do is tell a compelling story in their well-established world with fleshed out characters while also checking all the boxes to ensure success. Sounds easy, right?  

Enter Skybound X and within it Clementine Lives, a 12-page comic tying together TFS and Clementine Book One.

I have a full in depth look at that comic here, but for a refresher: 

After the events of TFS, Clementine sneaks out of Ericson one morning without telling anyone and we find out that she’s planned her departure for a while. She has maps and supplies hidden away, as well a car stashed somewhere. Before she can get away, though, an older AJ appears wearing Clementine’s hat... Ugh.

He’s rightfully pissed that she would ditch out on everything like this, insists that he’s coming along, and Clementine tells him no. Her explanation for all of this, the reason she’s abandoning AJ and everyone at Ericson, is that she’s not happy... which spoiler alert, is kinda contradicted in chapter 8 of book one??? but we will get into that later. AJ lets Clementine leave and she sets off on her new journey that brings us to the events of book one. 

To say Clementine Lives was poorly received would be a vast understatement. Fans ripped it to shreds, they hated the damn thing, and they were vocal about it. There’s no way in hell Skybound didn’t know how much fans despised Clementine Lives. I mean, people were making long-winded posts/videos about how it was an insult to Clementine’s character and asking everyone to not support the Clementine trilogy, to let Skybound know that this isn’t what they wanted.

Fans hated the portrayal of Clementine and AJ. They felt it had more in common with a fanfic written by someone who didn’t play the games themselves but instead watched a youtube playthrough one [1] time, thought Clementine was cool but didn’t like anyone else and said, “Hey what if Clem ditched everyone and hung out with my OC’s instead??” than it did with the canon of the games.

I mean, who wrote this, right? Did they even play the games? Well...

Tillie Walden and the Curious Case of Clementine’s Character [and other short stories involving obnoxious twdg fans who have nothing better to do with their lives than stalk her instagram account]

I hadn’t heard of Tillie Walden prior to the announcement that she would be the one writing this Clementine book trilogy.

I’ll admit, I hated the 12-page comic, too. In my review I said, “...Skybound and Tillie made this comic, they put it out there and asked for money for it, therefore I’m allowed to explain why it’s garbage as well as ponder over the questionable intent and whether or not Tillie actually has played these games.”

“This comic is awful. It misses the point of everything TFS, and the rest of the series, stood for. There is no heart here. I feel no happiness in reading it, and I don’t detect any passion behind it. It’s a lifeless comic that retcons everything in order to throw AJ away and start fresh with a new adventure for Clementine that makes no sense because the cow isn’t profitable unless it’s milked.”

That was then and this is now, though. While I still don’t like the comic and feel it’s not in line with Clementine as a character or a good direction for the comic, I do believe Tillie has played the games... the problem is she admitted during the Skybound Games XPO stream that she hadn’t played the games prior to getting the job. Skybound reached out to her and THEN she played through them, and she played through them fast...and I doubt she played them more than once. That’s an issue. 

I’ve read some of her other works- On a Sunbeam, Spinning, A City Inside- and I think they’re good, I think she’s a talented artist. Some of the writing choices/themes are a bit iffy but most times I can overlook that because I genuinely love the art. It’s colorful, surreal, dreamy, creative, the kind of art you look at and feel something, y’know? Oh, and she likes to point out, “very gay.” Even if you hate the Clementine books she’s writing, I still encourage you to give her other works a chance. There’s a lot more life and creativity there. I can see why she was considered, despite Tillie saying herself that she didn’t think she was the “obvious choice” for this project..... which yeah, even she knows.

This one pesky little problem has more to do with Skybound than it does Tillie: creating a continuation of Clementine’s story after TFS is a dumb move... especially when the artist you hired didn’t work on the original games, doesn’t typically write stories in a zombie apocalyptic setting so their art style doesn’t let itself well to this particular project, doesn’t have a good grasp on the main character’s previous establishment, hasn’t played the games more than once or twice, probably has to follow a strict set of rules put in place by Skybound because they’re just like that, is under an extreme time constraint of having to finish a trilogy only three years mostly by herself, and is forced to make shit up about the previous games in order to make this comic’s plot exist.

In my honest opinion, Tillie wasn’t a good match for a Clementine story, and if she was allowed to write something completely original within the TWD universe, then this would’ve been a more compelling story to follow. 

Let me say this about Clementine Book One: If anyone else was the protagonist of this story, it would’ve been better. I would’ve given it a 3.5/5 stars if Clementine was replaced with an original character. 

That’s the problem. 

I know a lot of people put the full blame on Tillie for how bad this whole thing is. She wrote it right? She “ruined” Clementine, it’s all her fault that this beloved character and reputation is “tarnished” and she should just cancel the rest of the series, blah blah blahhh. 

I don’t entirely blame Tillie for this. She was hired to write this story because Skybound knew people would buy anything with Clementine’s name on it, good or bad. They knew Tillie had a fanbase who would buy anything she wrote. They knew that no matter how much fans bitched and moaned about it, Clementine Book One would sell. I believe she should’ve familiarized herself with the source material better, but she’s a professional artist. I believe she tried her best to create a good story for this trilogy but it’s weighed down by the fact that the main character had to be Clementine. 

Which leads me to this bullshit that pisses me off. 

There are plenty of assholes out there who stalk her instagram so they can harass every post she makes [even ones that have nothing to do with Clementine] with “#notmyclementine” and “dis comic make no sense clam wuld never lev aj u sux” as if that’s going to do anything. Not to mention the comments wishing for her to be fired, hoping she loses her entire career over this, calling her a fucking groomer, and other disgusting things that you don’t have to scroll far to find in her instagram comments. 

This is the part where I tell everyone to sit the fuck down and stop. There is no reason to harass Tillie for doing the work she was hired to do. Telling her [and Skybound] that she should be fired, making homophobic remarks, insulting her appearance, wishing harm on her, telling her how much you hate her, calling her a groomer, and harassing fans of hers who want to support her is fucking disgusting. 

Clementine is not real. She is a fictional character in a video game. This comic doesn’t hurt her feelings because she doesn’t exist. Clementine, the video game character, is not a real life person. I don’t give a single shit how important Clementine is to you. You are not defending anyone’s honor or protecting them from harm when you post shit like that. You’re causing the harm over a fictional character. Tillie Walden is a real person.  You can dislike the work while still showing human decency to the creator. You can criticize the work while remaining respectful to the creator. It’s not hard. 

Now that you’ve scolded us for the shitty people on instagram, are you gonna actually review the book or are you gonna keep procrastinating...?

Hey, don’t call me out on something I’m totally doing.

And yes, we can review the actual book now that I’ve gone over how we got here and hit you over the head with the “don’t harass Tillie over the comic, shithead” bat. 

Yeesh, so impatient. 

The Plot: it’s thickening... like curdled cheese

First thing’s first, let’s go over the story, the plot, of this thing. Then I’ll go in depth for each of the characters, talk about the “romance,” finish up with my final thoughts, and then talk about Clementine Book Two coming out June October 2023. Cool? Cool. 

Clementine has left Ericson behind and is traveling alone with nothing but a pair of crutches to keep her warm at night. She's discovered by a group of Amish teens after being startled by her own period. Gotta say, I love the attempt to include Clementine having her period tastefully by having one of the other girls be like, “Oh, I just started mine, too,” only for another to be like “Don’t tell her that, ewwwwww!” 

Remember how well ANF handled that? No? Just me? Whatever. 

Anyway, they notice Clementine has a prosthetic leg and offer to take her back to their town to meet Rabby, a dentist who creates prosthetics. This town they take her to is actually neat. They have high walls, guards who have a system of keeping track of everyone who comes and goes, they’re not rude to her during the entrance procedure, there are several buildings with a lot of people walking the streets, they have horses..... oh and Meredith, one of the girls who found Clementine, calls the walkers “devils,” which is fun. 

Clementine gets her new leg before ditching them to go back on the road where she meets Amos, an Amish teen who is out on his Rumspringa [a period when some Amish youth experience greater freedom. The idea is that teens will come back after tasting the modern world] with his horse, Helen, his carriage, and his 16 shirts.

Amos is heading to a mountain base up north in Vermont to help a group build a “strong homestead” throughout the winter, then when the snow melts, he’ll be rewarded with a plane ride. Clementine thinks that’s bullshit, planes don’t fly around anymore, but Amos insists that he saw the plane in the sky. 

Y’see, a man showed up looking for recruits to help build these houses and then flew his plane over as proof that this was real. Amos really wants to ride in a plane, something he’s not supposed to do, hence why he’s going on this adventure for his Rumspringa. 

Clementine gets a ride from him where they save a group of people who were under attack by walkers. However, one of the guys they saved gropes Clementine and she attacks him. 

It’s difficult to tell that’s what happened due to the sloppy art, though. Initially I interpreted it as Clementine thinking he turned into a walker and attacked, but uh no, he groped her. She stomps on his hand after he challenges her with a, “do it,” and then as she’s hurrying to get away, someone else from inside the carriage says, “What did you do to that girl?!”

I would say I’m surprised but given some of the other stuff in Tillie’s works, I’m not. 

Anyway, Amos leaves the carriage with those people, takes Helen and catches up with Clementine. He wants to travel with her, she calls him ridiculous and “I’m not interested in being a bodyguard anymore.”

It doesn’t take much to convince to her, though- Amos promises to leave Helen with her once he gets there since he knows she’d take care of her. 

And I’m strangely reminded of Clementine��s trauma regarding horses from TFS where dead horses appear in her nightmare due to the one she was riding getting shot at the ranch... no mention of that anywhere, but are we surprised? 

They spend a week traveling together. We get a montage of them that I actually like, and adds to my point that Amos has the most chemistry with Clementine in this book. 

They make it to the mountain base where a pair of twins are waiting, and they’re suspicious as hell. 

Red flag #1: No names. They refuse to give their names. 

Red flag #2: One twin shoots Helen without even talking to Clementine or Amos, they just assumed they brought the horse for them to eat when nooo, Amos wanted to leave Helen with Clementine when they parted ways.

Red flag #3: They immediately view Clementine as a liability for her leg and tell her they’re not feeding anyone who can’t pull their weight... two people who refuse to give their names are in charge of your food and shelter, huh?

Red flag #4: Clementine says they’re dangerous and refuses to leave Amos alone with them. 

Red flag #5: the mountain they’re on is literally called Killington. My eyes, look at them roll, there they go across the floor...

Hey, do you think these twins might be bad news? Because I dooooo~

But there’s a really sweet hug between Amos and Clementine after she insists she stays with him. You really feel that he’s scared and hurting after Helen’s death and he’s relieved to have her. 

Up the mountain, we’re introduced to Ricca and.... y’know, not even Louis and Violet eye-balled Clementine this fast. I’ll save it for the romance section but uh... yeah. Ricca’s interest is apparent pretty quick... like right after their first conversation and then it goes no where.

So the twins explain that they need wood for building and the stove, snow melts down for water. Stick to the paths when out because the twins won’t come looking for them [red flag #6], they work from sunrise to sunset but the days are short up in the mountains so they need to move fast. They lose a lot of days to storms, they need to keep track of all their tools and bring them in during those storms or else they’ll never be seen again. Walkers don’t come up here because it’s too cold. 

The twins refuse to answer more questions, and Ricca says she’s been calling the one with the ponytail “Right” and the one with her hair down “Left.” 

Side note: I had a helluva time trying to keep these damn twins straight, you cannot tell them apart for shit especially since they change their goddamn hair styles and have the same goddamn face!

Oh but put a pin in the fact that Amos can tell them apart because “Left has much brighter eyes.”

So they all get to work. Clementine, Amos, and Ricca get pretty close. They go on joyrides with the snowmobile, they spend their nights reading novels together, getting into snowball fights that Clem takes too seriously, hunting, and talking about how sus the twins are. These sections are good, I like them. Especially when they’re reading together- Amos and Clementine read out loud, and when they don’t know a word, Ricca looks it up for them in the dictionary. The three of them are curled up in their sleeping bags, reading by candle light, it’s very sweet. It’s too bad there isn’t more of that in here. 

While out chopping wood one day, Clementine hears a noise that is supposed to foreshadow walkers being underground, and we find out Ricca is a smoker. 

Oh, and Amos gets sick with a fever. Not fun. 

Now let’s talk about the generator because this is funny. Not good funny, though, so don’t get too excited. 

So they have this portable generator, right? It’s for the other lift that they just fixed, so Clementine and Ricca have to drag it about three miles away from the main base, but can take a shorter way over a bridge the twins built. They take a map, put it on the snowmobile, and Ricca let’s Clementine drive. Smart. 

But uh oh, the bridge is broken! Guess they gotta turn around and go the other- just kidding, they’re gonna tie a rope around the generator and swing it to the other side. I wish I was joking but I’m not, aren’t you laughing???

Ricca fucking falls down with the generator and Clementine jumps down after her. 

While down in the pit, they’re attacked by walkers. Turns out the twins weren’t entirely truthful about there being no walkers up here. Ricca breaks her glasses, Clem breaks her prosthetic [which we learn she named Kenny UGH] and Ricca dumps her backstory which I’ll get into during her section.

Ricca then climbs back up and promises to come back, we get a flashback of AJ about to cut Clementine’s leg off? for some reason? and then she starts exploring the cave for a way out... only to be overwhelmed by walkers and then saved by this random dude named Tim who comes out of nowhere.

Tim gets bit, or scratched...? I don’t know, you can’t tell what the fuck is going on during the part. He says it’s just a scratch on the cheek but I thought you only turned if you were bit? Or is it a bite and Tim’s trying to downplay it? I don’t fucking know. 

Clementine feels super bad that he’s gonna die because of her. They have a heart to heart, and it’s one of the better parts of this book. Tim talks about how he lost his husband at the start of all this, how he actually used to look after the twins [whose names are revealed to be Olivia and Georgie- correction, her name is GeorgIA, not GeorgIE, but characters just call her one or the other and it gets confusing] and how this whole building houses thing is for their sick mother. Clementine opens up about how she can still feel ghost pains in her leg and how she ended up alone- every group was the same, they fell apart, so she wanted to come up north to live alone. 

“I can’t... I can’t do this. I can’t keep watching people die. That’s why I wanted to be alone.”

Tim gives her some encouragement about building a better world and lets her to go, she does, and then she reunites with Ricca. Yay. 

Back at the base, Clementine tells the twins what happened and they’re freaked out because Tim’s alive. They interrogate her about him, and Right runs outta there to go find him... Left tries to stop her, and it turns to violence.

With Right gone, Left is super sad, and Ricca is super sad that Clementine didn’t tell her about Tim after they were reunited and then outta nowhere just, “I don’t need a girlfriend or to know all your secrets, just... God, I sound stupid. Just... next time you meet a stranger in a cave, a heads up might be nice.”

Feel that romantic tension? 

Speaking of romantic tension, Left asks Amos to come behind the curtain to her area, and Amos is like “Can I get you something?”..... and then Clementine’s hears a gasp from behind the curtain and Ricca is like “let them have their fun.”

So apparently Amos and Left were fooling around... remember when Amos said Left had brighter eyes? I guess that was foreshadowing all the smoochin’ they were gonna do in the background? I dunno. I’m surprised Amos would be chill with foolin’ around, and Left just got into a fight with her sister which I don’t imagine is a mood setter. 

Right comes back in the middle of the night covered in blood. I believe we’re assuming she found and killed Tim, who was a walker... maybe? She later mentions that Tim told her something sooo did she kill him when he was still alive? Maybe. Who knows? We never find out for sure.

Oh, and Amos was sleeping behind the curtain with Left.... Keep that in mind. 

The next morning Amos fixes up Clementine’s leg, and Clementine asks for the whole story behind him and Left, who he calls Olivia... meaning she told him her real name. But Clementine asks him if he wants to take a walk when night falls because they haven’t gotten to spend much time together, to which Amos tells her, “That would be delightful, Clementine.” 

Can I just- Clementine, why don’t you ever ask to spend alone time with Ricca? That’s a serious question, why? I’m seriously truly to feel something with Clementine and Ricca but all I can say is she has better chemistry with Amos.... Tillie, I don’t understand, you write wlw and you’ve done it well before, why is this so... full of nothing? 

Anyway, Right is being pissy, and Left tells Clementine that she’s going to leave with Amos once they’re all done here. She wants to go back to his town, but her sister can’t know...... because of course not. I’m sure nothing bad will happen because of this. 

Right comes in even more pissed off because Amos is gone and so is the snowmobile. Turns out he took the generator [which Left fixed after it was broken in the fall] to save this “screwed up camp,” as Clementine puts it. 

And Right goes, “there’s a storm coming in, he’ll never make it... but at least it’ll be one less mouth to feed.”

RED FLAG #8 HELLO??

The storm hits, and Right just stands outside like a brooding, suspicious asshole who refuses to come in. Left then explains that they’re here building houses because of her mother. Her mother grew up in the area and thought this would be the perfect spot to rebuild when the world went to shit. She kept them alive, so the twins feel like they owe her, especially since she’s sick. 

Which.... okay? But also what? Like alright, jumping ahead a bit, we do get to see the mother and the place they’re staying in and it’s huge, AND there are people.... why is it just the twins doing this shit? Tim fucking dipped out last winter so why are the twins here? Do they think building houses will make their sick mother magically better? Spoiler alert, it will not! 

This whole part doesn’t make sense. 

But then RICCA decides to go out looking for Amos, and tells Clementine to stay behind because she doesn’t want to leave Left alone with Right.... 

But then fucking CLEMENTINE goes out by herself to look for both of them, all while thinking about Ricca and Amos and the nights they spent reading together.  

But guess what? You’ll never guess- Amos and Ricca are alive and he did it, Amos got the lift to work! He crashed the snowmobile, but that’s okay! The other lift works now! They rush to bring the twins the good news, everything is happy!

And then Right pushes Amos off a cliff. 

...............................Yep.

This is where the story takes a nose dive into shit- Amos is killed because Right found out about Left’s plan to leave with him... apparently?? Left is sobbing on the ground, Right fucking stomps on her back and tells her to shut up, and then pulls out her gun on Clementine and Ricca, who run away. 

Are you laughing? because I’m not. 

What was the fucking plan, you moron??? “Oh step one, push Amos to his death in front of everyone. Step two, break my sister’s back. Step three, fucking shoot Clem and Ricca. Step four, ??????” It doesn’t make sense.

Up until this point, I was fine. It wasn’t great by any means, the plot is kinda dumb with them building houses in extreme weather, everything with the generator was dumb..... Right’s always been an asshole, but now she’s decided to be evil. 

The story just killed off its best character out of nowhere. It feels very “we have to kill someone off, and Tim wasn’t enough, we have to kill off a likable character so that the reader is sad.” 

And like... I can’t even say it wasn’t foreshadowed? because right from the start, you know Right is a bitch. You know she’s an asshole, much more so than Left. Then Left starts smooching Amos and asks Clementine not to tell Right? C’mon... even though we get no indication that she knows about Left’s plan to leave with him. Maybe she saw him peeking from behind the curtain where she knows her sister sleeps and figured out they were smoochin’? I don’t know, I really wish things were actually clear in this damn thing. 

So yeah, Right decides murder is a good idea because she won’t let anyone take her sister away... I feel like I’ve seen something similar to this before. 

We get another Lee flashback, and now Ricca and Clementine are crying. Ricca wants to go looking for him, but Clementine tells her there’s no way Amos survived that fall.... even though he probably could have, we never see his body so I dunno if this is Tillie leaving things open for him to come back or if she didn’t want to show his body to all the middle graders reading this but this is TWD... no body? they can always come back. 

Clementine and Ricca decide they can’t just ditch the mountain yet, they have to save Left from Right- oh excuse me, Olivia... they have to save Olivia from Georgia. 

So they sit outside of camp and wait for sundown... but here is where I get even more pissed than I was before: Clementine explains why she left Ericson. 

“I spent so many years trying to find somewhere safe. And I did. This old school. There were good people there. People I loved. But after I lost my leg, everything felt different. No one said it, but I could feel it- they thought I was a liability. But I think the real issue... was that I couldn’t talk to any of them about it. They were all around my age, and I... I just wanted to talk to Lee about it. Someone older, and... I don’t know...”

“Lee?”

“He, um, was with me in the beginning. Took care of me, as long as he could. After leaving the school, I was alone, like I was when he first found me. And I realized... I was waiting for him. For Lee to come find me. And I was so pissed at him for not trying harder, which doesn’t make any sense, he’s dead... When I was on my own, it was nice for a while. I was so focused, my mind got quiet... I got so sad I would just cry for days, and then I’d get scared... about what my future would be like. That maybe this sadness would never go away.”

“Has it?”

“Honestly? No... not really.”

................I just-

I thought Clementine left because she wasn’t happy? That’s what she told AJ in Clementine Lives, so what? “Well actually, I really left because everyone at Ericson thought I was a liability and I just wanted to talk to Lee again but he’s dead and I’m pissed at him for being dead and not trying hard enough to save me again.” 

This “reveal” is so... bad. It’s bad, I don’t like it one bit because I actually played TFS... more than once. I’ve played it several times, I’ve streamed it about what? Four or five times? Shit, maybe more? I know the story, I know the characters, I know Clementine.

You’re gonna look me in my big dumb face and try to convince me that Louis and Violet looked at Clementine like she was a liability? After everything she did for them? After all they went through? Clementine didn’t feel like she could talk to them about how she was feeling? That they didn’t care enough to reach out to her?

I don’t believe you. 

I think you’re full of shit. 

I’ll rant about this more in Clementine’s section. We gotta move on because believe it or not, we have even more bullshit to cover. 

ANYWAY.... Georgia has Olivia gagged and tied up so she can’t escape.... I just, what is the plan?? What does she expect to happen??

 Clementine and Ricca trick her into coming outside and-

Clementine gets her with the hatchet, but Georgia has a gun up her sleeve and shoots Ricca. The gunshots cause an avalanche. The place is covered in snow, Ricca and Olivia are *not* okay, and Georgie is just spouting cheesy villain lines about leaving Clementine’s body on the mountain. 

Oh, and she starts trying to guilt Olivia with the whole “Everything I did was for you! I’ve always protected you! He was going to take you away from me! Tim told me not to let you go!”

...Again, I feel like this is very familiar.... hmmmmm....

“You’ve never loved anyone, Clementine, I can see it. You have no idea... how far I’ll go... what I’ll do...”

No seriously, why do I feel like there was another, much better written twin character behaving like this.....? hmmmmmm....

Anyway, Georgia gets bit by a walker while trapped in the snow, and Clementine FINALLY says something I agree with:

“Out of everyone in this world that your sister could’ve picked... you were so lucky it was Amos.”

Georgia and Olivia say their goodbyes, Ricca calls Clementine “baby,” and they drag her outta there. 

Now it’s just Clementine, Ricca, and Olivia left. The three of them travel to the lift and get off this damn mountain. They get the bullet outta Ricca when Clementine hears a noise outside. She follows it and finds a one-eyed kitten alone under some junk... because sure. They name the kitten Dr. Barnwell. 

I can’t wait for that kitten to be tragically killed off for dramatic effect later in the series. To be fair to Tillie, she couldn’t possibly write an beloved pet death as bad as Rueben’s in MCSM.

Now the plan is to get back to Olivia’s place, sneak past her mother, and steal the plane. Reasonable, yes? Planes are easy to steal, and easy to fly, too!

Ricca also mentions that Clementine talks in her sleep, but won’t tell her what she says until they’re in the sky. 

They finally make it there, sneak in, Olivia tells her mother she’s sorry before slipping a note under the door, they run around and knock some guards out, and it’s revealed that Olivia’s mother is a walker. 

I think.

The art is too sloppy to fully tell but I think that’s the big reveal. 

So... did they know that the whole time? This is what they meant when they said she’s sick? or was she sick before and then died during this time so they have no idea? Ugghhh I don’t know.

They find the plane that Olivia just happens to know how to fly thanks to her uncle teaching her, they take off into the sky, and they plan to go back to Vermont so they can fly over and “let’s show Amos the plane one more time.”

Oh, and that note Olivia left? 

The FUCKING END. 

That’s it, that’s everything that happened in Clementine Book One. I can’t believe I’ve read this time nine times, holy shit-

The Art Style: I have no idea what’s happening

I struggled with this art style. 

Remember how I said Tillie’s a talented artist? She is, she truly is... when it’s her original works and she’s allowed to play with color and doesn’t haven’t to be gritty to fit the TWD aesthetic. Her original stuff is so clean and you can actually see what’s happening. 

Some examples:

and I get it, her style won’t be for everyone, and that’s fine. I happen to really like it.... but not when it feels like she’s trying to implement elements of TWD grit while also working in greyscale.  

Tillie’s style doesn’t lend itself well to this story. Maybe it would if there weren’t such restrictions put on her by Skybound because I’m sure they gave her a bunch.... but this ain’t it, chief.

As I talked about before, trying to tell the twins apart in this was a nightmare. Olivia has a ponytail, Georgia doesn’t.... but when this is so messy and at times sloppy I can’t tell shit about the hair. 

There’s also the fact that if you removed Ricca’s glasses, she would look exactly like the twins. Clementine and Amos are the only two of the five who you can always recognize. 

Rabby has a good design, and so does Tim... but they aren’t around enough. The walkers- oh god, the walkers- look like blobs most of the time. 

And don’t even get my started on Clementine’s face. 

I can’t with Clementine’s face. 

Clementine: there’s a reason fans are calling her “Tangerine”

This section of the review is the most overwhelming for me because where do I even begin? 

There is never a point in this book where I feel like this is the Clementine I remember from the games. And y’know, I always like to remind everyone who plays the games that no Clementine is the same. We all play the games our way, she shape our Clementine through the choices we make, we have different interpretations of her personality, relationships, how she rationalizes her decisions. My Clementine is different than yours, that’s the fun of these games. 

When you take a character who has thousands of different interpretations, who can follow several different paths, and try to make her into a condensed version for a graphic novel while also trying to stay true to her character and not invalidate any choices.... it’s not going to work. It’s just not. 

So how does Tillie Walden interpret Clementine for this first installment? Who is Clementine here?

She’s dull. Awkward. Angsty. Feels more in line with ANF Clementine than TFS Clementine but toned down. She has a few moments where she teases Amos and Ricca and that’s cute, that’s some personality I want to see... but then she starts on about how talking is hard or makes a rude comment so... that’s cool. 

She feels dumbed down when it comes to first aid solely because the book needs a way to inform the reader of proper amputation care... even though we never see Clementine washing her leg after that.

She’s pessimistic, grumpy, and again, only really shows a soft spot for Amos... which is not good news for Ricca, her actual love interest. Even when she opens up to Ricca after Amos’ death, it doesn’t feel... earned? warm? It doesn’t feel tender, or comforting.... ugh, I’ll talk more in the romance portion.

Clementine does get emotional after Amos’ death, she cries and explains why she left Ericson and I’m still shaking my head at the fact that this book is trying to sell this to me. 

This would be an emotional moment if it were coming from anyone BUT CLEMENTINE.... I played TFS and this doesn’t add up. 

Clementine wasn’t happy at the end of TFS, everyone around her looked at her like she was a liability, so she left. She left AJ. 

Except no? What are you talking about? 

Oh, and by the way? She never mentions AJ to anyone. Not by name, not in passing, nothing. AJ get a single panel flashing back to when he cut her leg off. That’s it. 

Also look at the way he’s drawn. Someone who never played the games would probably think AJ was a baddie who cut off her leg but you and I both know how fucking raw and painful it was for AJ to beg her to get up and come with him. That one lousy image holds nothing from the original.

AJ might as well not exist. If you took that panel out, nothing would change. Honestly? I almost get a bit of bitterness from it. She goes on and on about how she realized she was going to live while everyone around her kept dying, she would spend some days just crying and crying.... it’s not great. 

Clementine feels... immature? And yeah, she’s seventeen in this and seventeen-year-olds aren’t the pinnacle of maturity. I feel like Tillie was trying to present her as mature for her age given her life experience in the apocalypse, but it comes off as emo teenager who thinks they’re mature because they write faux deep poetry on tumblr and wear combat boots. 

This isn’t like Clementine in TFS where you do feel she’s mature. She has to be, she has a child she’s raising and protecting. She has to be strong and smart for him. She has to be the adult in their relationship... but she has those moments of vulnerability to remind you that she’s not an adult, she’s a teenager who was forced to grow up too fast and it hurts. 

In ep4 of TFS, when they’re in the caves after getting separated from the group, she and AJ get into an argument. She tells him that he’s just a child, and he throws it right back at her- “So are you.” and you can see it on her face... y’know? 

You want her to be happy, you want to give back the childhood that was taken from her at the start of the apocalypse, you want her to overcome every obstacle thrown her way.  You understand her feelings about Lee, why he meant so much to her and why she struggled to let him go even after accepting that he was dead. 

You remember that she is a teenager who makes mistakes, she doesn’t know everything, she fucks up. She’s doing everything she can to protect those she loves. You feel that she wouldn’t hesitate to give her life for the little boy she raised. She still has a lot of growing to do but you don’t doubt that she’s gonna do it. 

This Clementine? She has none of that. This Clementine doesn’t feel like the kind of person who could raise and protect a child, who would give her life to ensure that child was safe. You don’t get the vibe of a teen who had to grow up too fast in order to survive, someone who is clever in their survival tactics. This Clementine doesn’t know basic first aid. She was mad that Lee didn’t save her despite being dead. This is a Clementine that I can’t imagine breaking onto a boat full of kidnappers to get her friends back... and it’s not the amputation. 

TFS Clementine, amputation or not, she would’ve charged that damn boat herself if it meant saving those she loved. Comic Clementine couldn’t even be bothered to check and make sure Amos really was dead, it’s just easier to assume there was no way he survived... but then she turns around and insists they go back for Olivia, a character she has no real connection with. It doesn’t make sense. 

It’s just.... not her. I’m sorry, Tillie, but this characterization is okay at best, insulting at worst. 

Amos: I’m signing the adoption papers as we speak, he’s my son now

Amos is the best character in this book, and I’ve yet to find anyone who would disagree with that. Every review I’ve read/watched boils down to “this comic was bad but I liked Amos.”

Let’s be real- he was only made so likable so that we’d all be forced to feel something when he died. 

Before I get more into his character, I wanna nip something in the butt that I keep seeing even after this book’s release- Amos isn’t just white Louis. Amos isn’t a “hey can I copy your homework” of Louis’ character. The most they have in common is freckles and being the friendliest person in the group. 

A key difference being Louis uses cheerfulness as a shield to keep people at a safe distance from him where Amos is just genuinely cheerful in a very naïve and selfless way. 

Or uhh, @pi-creates​ put it much better when we were talking about it-

So no, Amos isn’t just a rehash of Louis, you can stop calling him the white Louis of the comic now, you’re only making it clear that you know nothing about Louis as a character when you do that. As much as I like Amos, he isn’t anywhere near as nuanced and layered as Louis is soooo stop. 

 Anyway, Amos! My dude! The only character I liked! The only character with an interesting personality, motivation, and a set goal he worked his ass off for.... only to fucking die.

Of all the characters to die in this damn thing, it would be Amos, wouldn’t it? Ugh. 

Amos grew up in an Amish community his entire life. When a man, presumably Tim, showed up to recruit workers to help build houses, Amos got to see the promised plane fly over his head and he describes it as the best day of his life. 

So, he worked to convince the council to allow him to go on his Rumspringa, they agreed, and here he is on the road. He fights with an axe, he owns 16 shirts, love his horse, and wears a fun hat. Overall positive, glass half full kinda guy. 

He wants to help people. It’s mentioned by the townspeople that he brings survivors there often, he saves that group of people while he and Clementine are on the road and even goes as far as to leave his carriage with them to go after Clementine and stay with her. 

 Amos trusts Clementine enough to leave Helen with her even though they’ve only known each other for only a week, but through the “montage” page you really get a vibe for how well they work together. I wish it wasn’t just a spread of moments but instead gave actual depth to their journey through dialogue, y’know? 

He finds Clementine funny [good for him, I wish I did, as well] and likes being around her. Also they share some looks that I feel should’ve been reserved for the love interest.... sooooo what the hell. 

When they meet the twins, Amos is quick to be like, “well actually no-” when they start talking about her being a liability for having only one leg, which was sweet. 

I felt so bad for him when Olivia just fucking shot his horse, too... he’s so upset and Clementine’s trying to calm him down, really sucks. 

Oh speaking of Olivia.... their “romance” makes no sense? There wasn’t any build up to it, the only hint we got that he maybe liked her was the comment about her having brighter eyes than Georgia, and her sticking with him when he was sick... but then she asks him to come behind the curtain with her, there’s a gasp, and I assume they were doin’ kissing stuff. Like... why? Why even bother? Unless you needed an excuse for Georgia to murder him? You couldn’t think of a better way to kill him off? So dumb.

He’s not all that complex or anything, just an all around good dude. His biggest flaws are his naivety and being too trusting of the wrong people [Georgia]. I mean.... he just wanted to fly in a plane. He wanted to help people, work hard, and fly in a plane. It’s hard to dislike him for that. 

When Amos died, it was the first time while reading this that I felt something other than “eh this is fine.” I’m still annoyed, pissed even. His death ruined a lot. It marked the start of a steep decline toward the ending. So much bullshit, and for what, y’know? 

In conclusion- Amos makes up an entire star of my rating, the only one worth reading this book for, and he’s supposedly dead now so that doesn’t bode well for Book Two. The only way I’ll forgive Tillie is if Amos comes back as a twist villain, angry that they didn’t even try to go after him. 

Ricca: wearing glasses doesn’t qualify as an entire personality, baby

Oh good, I get to talk about Glasses now.... 

Ricca is... fine. She’s not terrible, but not great. I feel like she had the foundation to be a cool character, but a lot about her falls flat. Her best moments are when she’s with both Clementine and Amos, but things become a little more awkward when it’s just her and Clementine.

She’s a smoker, she’s Jewish, she owns 36 pairs of glasses, has a drier sense of humor that works well with Amos, those two have a couple cute moments in this... uhhh let’s see, she threw a snowball at Clementine once, who overreacted and attacked her which prompted Amos to get between them and Ricca was like “whaaa don’t stop, I was just having fun,” so y’know.... flirting, I guess. 

She does come off as a bit whiney sometimes, which gets grating... especially when she gets butthurt at Clementine for stuff and then tries to act like “but whatever” about it. 

The reason she’s here is to learn how to build houses. That’s why she agreed to work out there, she wants to have the skills to start over, to rebuild what has decayed. 

But her big backstory reveal has to do with why she owns 36 pairs of glasses-

At the start of the outbreak, Ricca was with her brother. He looked out for her at first, but as time went on, he started using her as a “canary in a coal mine.” Basically whenever there was any potential danger ahead of them or if he got bored, he’d push her in to things like camps, caves, herds. She was just a little kid, and there was no where else for her to go... but then she got older, and when he sensed that she was going to leave him, he broke her glasses. 

Ricca had no way of surviving without him after that. She had no choice but to fight mostly blind and deal with her brother. It got to the point where she started wishing for death.... until she was out looking for food one day in a dark building and felt an entire wall of glasses-

-but I’m gonna ignore that for right now. She tried on every single pair, found one that worked, and then ditched him. She has no idea if he’s still alive or not. Wonder if he’ll come back as a surprise villain, who knows. 

Sooo... glasses are a big part of her character, which is fine. I like seeing characters with glasses, personally. There’s also an uncomfortable feeling seeing her talk about her brother and describing how she felt when she got to see clearly again only for the world to be so disgusting that she was sick for weeks. 

Unfortunately that’s about as deep as her character goes and I wanted more. 

She does want to go after Amos after he dies, which I appreciate, but Clementine tells her no. She gets shot, so that sucks for her. 

For being Clementine’s new love interest, and the fact that this is Tillie Walden’s work we’re reading, I expected her to be waaaaay more compelling but she didn’t hit to mark.

But to be fair, she’s going to be in Book Two so I’m assuming that with Amos dead until he comes back as a twist villain we’ll get to focus on her some more and her personality will shine a bit. 

Olivia: the left twin

Olivia is bland. 

A block of raw tofu has more meat than Olivia does. 

I have read this fucking book NINE times now, and the only thing I can tell you about Olivia is that she’s the “nice” twin, she did some smoochin’ with Amos in the background, and she’s super sad that her sister’s an asshole. 

Oh and she shot Helen without asking if they brought the horse for food or not, and then is like “oop sorry, I didn’t know, but it’s cool, I get it, my sister ate our hamster when this started.” 

If I was Amos, I’d tell her to the hell away from me, you shot my beloved pet! and I certainly wouldn’t let her be smoochin’ on me!

Anyway, she knows how to fly a plane, which upon looking back through the book, it turns out it was her uncle that taught her... so that’s cool. She’s the one who named the kitten, she... gets sad a lot? 

I’m sorry, but Olivia is so forgettable and it sucks. I want to be invested in these twins because they clearly have a troubled relationship, and Georgia steps all over her [sometimes physically] and it could’ve been interesting to see her deal with the conflict of staying vs leaving her sister..... kinda like the dilemma Ricca had with her brother..... were those supposed to be connected somehow....? parallels...? hhhnnnnngggggggg thinking too much into it-

ANYWAY... I honestly don’t have much to say about her. Maybe Book two will give her more characterization, but at this point the pothole in my driveway has more depth than she does so... lame.

Georgia: the right “evil” twin

Ugh.

Alright, no more beating around the bush, Georgia is a watered down version of Minerva... but where Minerva is a great, tragic character with good writing... Georgia sucks.

AND she killed off the best character in the book so she sucks extra hard!  Oh my god, she fucking sucks.

Like okay, the twins are here to build a community for their sick mother because the mom thinks this would be the perfect spot so they’re gonna build some goddamn houses in the middle of winter for her with the help of strangers... if that sounds like a dumb reason to you, then you’re right, it IS dumb but here we are. I don’t know what Georgia’s deal is, but she’s an asshole. That’s her entire character: ASSHOLE.

Right off the bat from meeting her and Olivia, you can tell she’s the baddie. You can tell where this is going, she’s going to be the one who turns on the group, maybe she’ll convince Olivia to her side and then she’s gonna try to murder everyone on this mountain called Killington.

She’s the one who tells Clementine that she won’t feed anyone who can’t pull their weight, immediately assuming Clementine can’t do shit because of her leg. She never smiles, never cracks a joke, is never kind to anyone, and apparently she’s super possessive and controlling of her sister. 

Also, she’s a goddamn moron because what did she think would happen when she killed Amos?? that Olivia would just be like “oh okay sorry” after you murdered her boyfriend and then gagged and tied her up while waiting for Clementine and Ricca to come for her so that you could also shoot them??

Y’know, when Minerva confronted the group on the bridge in order to kill Tenn, it made sense- she was bitten, dying, and had pretty much lost her goddamn mind after a year of trauma and brainwashing, being forced to kill her sister, and then losing her new “family” after Clementine blew up the boat. She was furious, out of control, bitten, covered in guts and completely out of her goddamn mind. There was no saving her from the start, and she had nothing left to lose.

Georgia’s just an asshole who doesn’t give us any real indication that she’s dangerous. She’s all talk and glares... then she comes back covered in blood after finding Tim soooo are we to assume that’s when she lost it? When she was like “I think killing Amos will make everything better,” or was it a sporadic, in the moment decision? 

In fact, why wasn’t she the one to shoot Helen then?? Why did you have Olivia, who is supposed to be a thing with Amos later, when you could’ve really established Georgia as the real threat when she shoots the horse and is like, “too bad, so sad” and then have Olivia come in and calm the situation? 

Establish that she’s possessive of Olivia early on, not when she’s two seconds from death and spouting, “He was gonna take you away from me! I had to kill him! I did it all for you!” nonsense...

There’s just so many little things that could’ve been tweaked or added to make her a better antagonist, but no, we’re left with nothing with irritation. 

God, Joan from ANF was a more layered villain than this and she was boring as hell.... ugh. 

Tim: where did he come from?? where did he go?? where did he come from, Cotton-Eye Joe???

Tim’s pretty chill, but a waste of a character. 

He comes outta nowhere to save Clementine and gets bit in the process, but he’s fine with it because it was bound to happen sooner or later, and at least he saved Clementine.

There isn’t too much to say about Tim that I haven’t already said. The scene with him was pretty good, but he’s not around enough to feel like an actual character. He’s just here to make sure Clementine feels bad that she got yet another person bit and to give some info on the twins. 

But he’s dead now so... cool. 

The “Romance”: if you squint hard enough, you might see it? 

I don’t understand why the marketing around this book put such an emphasis on the romance aspect. Remember when the trailer dropped and we got a look at Ricca and it was like “ooohhh new love~”

What love? There is no love, there’s no chemistry, there’s no soft sad uwu wlw love story here! What the hell?? Just gonna lie to me like that, huh?? 

Okay look... I went into this with an open mind about Ricca. Truly, I did. You know me, you know I’m a never gonna change my mind that clouis is the best, but I took both clouis and violentine and set them aside. I put them out of mind and let myself go into this wanting to ship Clementine and Ricca. I was ready for the sad girlfriends trying to survive this bullshit together with their token straight buddy. 

And then I came outta this wondering why Amos wasn’t the love interest? I mean, I know the answer to that so a better question: Tillie, why not just make Amos a girl and have Clementine fall for her instead? The foundation was set, there’s a lot of interesting things you could’ve done with that given Amos being Amish and all. They had a solid thing going on and the only reason I knew they weren’t going to end up together was because it was written by Tillie Walden, a queer woman who writes wlw. 

So I’m baffled at everything lacking between Clementine and Ricca! I mean, Tillie could be saving the meat of the romance for the next installments which fine, if that’s the case then I will happily keep an open mind and see if this relationship improves since right now? This ain’t it, chief. 

Lemme give you an example of something that could’ve been sweet, m’kay? After they have the generator fixed, Clementine asks Ricca why she always leans in so close to her. 

Ricca begins to explain that everything has started getting blurry... meaning her eyesight is getting worse and all these glasses she owns may not work for long. A scary thought, especially when you factor in her backstory with her brother. 

This feels like a set up for soft moment, something I wanted to see more of... only for it to be rudely interrupted by Amos being murdered. 

Like.... C’moooooon maaaaan...

UGH

There’s no warm fuzzy feelings here, and the only time I went, “they could be cute if it could get me invested” was the ending where Ricca is clinging to Clementine as Olivia boots up the plane and starts flying.... but even then, that moment is cut short because Clementine has to be all, “let’s show Amos the plane one more time.” 

They don’t kiss here, either. There isn’t a first kiss moment, there isn’t a confession scene, there isn’t even an admission of feelings on either side. Ricca calls her “baby” and now I guess they’re something? 

“Clementine, baby, don’t let me die here~”

Ugh. Do you know what I think of when I hear the words “Clementine” and “baby” in the same sentence? I think of the voicemail Clementine’s mother left in ep1 of S1: “Clementine, baby, if you can hear this, call the police... it’s 9-1-1... and we love you... we love you...” 

So excuse me if I don’t have a great response to that. 

Anyway, maybe it’ll improve with the next book which shouldn’t be too hard given all the nothing this book gave. 

The Lee Flashbacks/Nightmares: hey, remember season one? remember Lee? remember when Lee died and Clem was sad? do you remember??

Uuuuggghhhhhhhhhhhhhh.......

To their credit, these flashbacks are pretty loyal to the games as far as dialogue and setting, but the main point of them is for fans of the games to read this and be like “ohhh I remember Lee, he sparks joy!” and for new readers to have a face to a name when Clementine talks about him to Ricca. 

But they don’t do much to improve the story. The only time I appreciated how one tied into the story was when Clementine watched Amos fall. We see her and Lee on the train, and we get this dialogue:

“Ask me anything, Clementine.”

“Will the pain ever stop?”

because yeah... watching Amos die was pretty damn painful, ties in well. 

But other than that? Meh... which is crazy to say about LEE but that’s the comic for ya. 

Final Thoughts: I can’t believe I read this 9 times

What’s that thing called when you keep repeating a thing hoping it’ll be different but never is? Madness? Is that what I’m feeling right now? 

9 times, good god....

It wasn’t worth reading that many times and yet, here I am, a mad lass dissecting a comic I don’t like that remains unfaithful to a character I love. I watched and read so many interviews with Tillie, I kept tabs on reddit threads about this book, I pestered my discord buddies about it... can’t wait to do this two more times... 

In the end, this book isn’t good. I like a couple things, but the good doesn’t outweigh the bad. It’s definitely not canon with the games, no matter how hard Skybound whines that it is. 

I can’t recommend it to any of you. If you’re gonna read it, you can find the whole thing for free on youtube. If you wanna support Tillie Walden without supporting this series, check out her other works. I’d recommend On a Sunbeam or Spinning. 

btw did y’all hear they released the description of Book Two?

“Clementine and her new friends are rescued by an island community led by an enigmatic doctor called Miss Morro, but just as Clementine's scars are finally beginning to heal, she discovers dark secrets that threaten to tear her new life apart. Can Miss Morro be trusted? What about the rest of the islanders? And just how far will Clementine go to protect the ones she loves? Tilllie Walden's acclaimed trilogy continues! ”

I dunno how I’m gonna survive Book Two if I don’t even have Amos to look forward to..... guess Tillie’s just gonna have to make me like Ricca, huh? 

I also need to keep in mind that this IS a trilogy, so questions I have now and am annoyed about may get answered in the next book, Olivia might go from being stale white bread to a wonderful slick of cinnamon and raisin bread, and the romance may start existing... won’t know until June. 

No wait, excuse me, October... they’ve already pushed the release date later for the next one soooo that’s interesting. 

This is the part where I ask what you thought. What are your thoughts on Clementine Book One? I’m curious to know. Send an ask or leave a comment on this review. I know this was long but hey, thanks for sticking around to the end, it’s appreciated. 

Thanks for reading!  💚

#Clementine Book One Review #twdg clementine #twdg aj #twdg lee #twdg louis #twdg violet #twdg #twdg kenny #long post

[ninjagirlstar5]

Hello local Teruya enjoyer, mind if i ask why he's one of your favorite characters? As in, what made you so love the little guy turned big guy in sequel so much?

Oh boy. That's kinda hard to answer actually as I essentially worked backwards when I saw Teruya's character. As in, I heard about SDRA2 (and eventually DRA) through WeebyNewz's livestreams, looked at fanfics on AO3, and got to know Teruya's character through there before eventually jumping right in to writing him for my (shipping) project. As a result, my interpretation of him was far from perfect as I knew the broad strokes of his character and his role in both games but didn't know the little details until I went back to really consume DRA and SDRA2's story by actually listening/watching the streams or even playing the game myself. I'm going through SDRA2 right now with a Discord mutual, but it's been put on hold due to college. But since I'm essentially done with my spring semester now (all I have left is a critique for Printmaking but that class is pretty chill thanks to my professor so I'm not worried about it), I'm hoping we'll be able to pick that back up soon-ish. It'll depend on our schedules.

Anyways, back to the question as to why I love Teruya...I've essentially built up an image of him in my head thanks to my many on-the-fly headcanons and what I researched about him. But when I started watching DRA, I noticed he was a sweet, funny but flawed kid that can snap pretty easily at others and can get quite emotional while also taking part in bad actions that get others hurt just to benefit himself (hiding food for himself and plotting to murder Haruhiko being some of them), and being a hypocrite on top of that. But that didn't make me hate him or anything, but made me love him more as he's far from a perfect character, let alone a perfect person. Teruya lashing out, arguing with others, and just struggling to keep up in the killing game, even when he decides to better himself and take after Haruhiko and follow Satsuki's parting words, makes him a very interesting and nuanced character! I loved watching him caring about Yuki in Chapter 5 by checking in on him and being supportive, even when he falls for the obvious framing of Mikako by Monokuma. He still makes mistakes, but the little actions he does for others can make him a good friend that deeply cares. And the way he wondered why Fake!Yuki/Utsuro and Akane just...let them go, even when he agreed with Kinjo and Rei that they were awful, perhaps even evil people, that line made me go, "OH, his feelings are complicated" and that kind of nuance is SO juicy. The feeling of knowing this person has wronged you in a horrible way that you have every right to not only hold them accountable but cut them out of your life but you still miss them anyways because you loved them and the memories you've made with them despite everything? Good shit, more of this please. I like that Teruya has just a slightly different opinion than Rei and Kinjo's, even though he still agrees with them in the end and rightfully so. And I like seeing his slightly more mature personality while still having a few of his quirks and interests in SDRA2 as he felt a little more like an adult version of himself. Teruya is sooo interesting to dig into and analyze that I have a hard time organizing all of my thoughts on the fly but basically, I love him in DRA and SDRA2 and coming up with headcanons for him before, after, and in-between the stories. He's such a fun but sad character when you really think about it.

...Even if it will always annoy me on how underutilized he was in SDRA2. If he was just used a little more smartly and given much more care like in DRA, I feel like his death would've hit much, much harder, even with repeated viewings. Which is a shame cause I do think I can see where LINUJ was trying to go with Teruya, that Teruya was meant to be a character that did his best to help the SDRA2 cast despite being stuck in the killing game together and preventing history from repeating itself, only to be met with repeated failures despite trying to do everything right this time. And was unfortunately put into a position where he had no choice but to die lest the worst case scenario played out, all due to Mikado's plotting, Kinjo's choices, and Rei's mistakes. (They all played a role in it but all of them have different levels of responsibility for it, with Mikado being the biggest one since he's, you know, his murderer and turned Teruya's avatar into a firewall in the first place, but Teruya probably would've have been put into that situation if Kinjo just didn't use him as bait or if they simply had more time for Rei to make another escape code for Teruya to use for himself in case things go south - and that's assuming he was able to prioritize escaping despite witnessing Rei's supposed death.) But unfortunately, as much as I love Teruya, all I can remember from his role in SDRA2 is that he spouted hope platitudes in Chapter 2, started dipping out of the group in Chapter 3 (and it seems like I won't be able to COMPLETE HIS FTEs ACCORDING TO THE WIKI'S GUIDE ON HIS AVAILABILITY GODDAMMIT-), went CrAzYYyy in Chapter 4, and then just disappears and DIES in Chapter 5 and it isn't until Chapter 6 that we learned that Teruya purposely ate the poisoned food to destroy the firewall inside of him, trying to sacrifice himself and hoping it'll give the Kisaragi Foundation the time they'll need to get the rest of the cast out, never finding out that Kinjo hired Syobai to act as a double agent and that he used him and Rei as bait to try and distract Mikado from ever finding out about Syobai's double agent status. I feel as though Teruya was stripped of most of his nuances from DRA, and that frustrates me because I want him to be utilized more in SDRA2! I want to care about his relationship with the cast! I want him to be his own person with his own opinions, even when he agrees with and even looks up to Rei and Kinjo! I want him to have more moments of characterization and hear his stories about the Kisaragi Foundation and his reflection on his past instead of being hit with the amnesia plot point (which I feel did more harm to his character)! I want him to be the mediator of the group, like how he supposedly acted out that role back in the Kisaragi Foundation between Rei and Kinjo according to LINUJ in his concept art! And another reason why I don't like how Teruya is handled in Chapter 4 the more I think about it in hindsight, is that I felt as though LINUJ was trying to have him be like Kinjo. And I! Don't! Like that! Even if Teruya's beliefs started to become warped due to following Kinjo's leadership over the years and may have rose-tinted glasses in his belief in him, I still don't like how LINUJ handled him in Chapter 4! Because I don't want a Kinjo 2.0 that you can get at the dollar store, I want Teruya fucking Otori!!!

...anyways. My issues with how Teruya was handled in SDRA2 aside, I love him a lot. But I'll admit, a lot of that comes from my own interpretation of his character and how much depth I gave him from what I learned of him. And honestly, that's one of the fun parts of fandom: digging into a character to the point that you're probably overanalyzing them but you kinda don't care because it's so much fun to add even more depth to a character you love. He's my blorbo, my scrunkly, my fucked up lil guy turned fucked up big boi, and I can hurt and comfort him however I want.

#Asks #Star Talks #DRA #SDRA2 #Teruya Otori #Danganronpa Another #Super Danganronpa Another 2 #DRA Spoilers #SDRA2 Spoilers #there are two ways for me to fall for a character #One is looking at a character and their personality and going “yeah I'd like them!” #The other is briefly looking through fandom and suddenly getting hit by a truck full of ideas and now all you can do is lay there #and accept that this character is going to live rent free in your brain #I'm am soooo normal about Teruya #can you tell that I think about him a lot? can you tell?

[blackjackkent]

im so inspired and in lovvveee w u (as a fan!! no parasocial shenanigans here I swear 🫶)

When they said they weren't doing any more DLC for the game, I wasn't sad, actually. I noticed there's a big divide of peeps who like the game right? I realized this when I saw there were people who *always* play Durge and think it 100% hands down better than Tav, and seeing in the forum why people actually *liked* playing Tav over Durge, And it's like because Tav can be anyone with any story. Durge is really just a customizable pre-existing character (That's why they're under origin character, right?)

So that's what I realized the divide of people. There's always going to be certain people who prefer to play Something with a pre-existing story, people who don't enjoy the extra work of making your own character. But for people who do, the lack of DLC is disappointing but not a big deal. Because ask someone who has always enjoyed making her own characters, The end of a story is never really the end for me. And all that jibber jabber to say I see it in YOU too, and I looooooovvvve it! You're such a good writer and it's fabulous 🫶

though, as someone previously non-experienced with D&D, I do admit that makes imagining the future a little bit harder, despite, What really is probably one of the most Fanfiction-Friendly properties 😂

I did want to ask for advice on that if you have any to spare! Like, for example, I'd love to write about my own Tav and Karlach rolling around in Avernus, but I have no idea where to start even looking 😭

:O This was a fun message to receive! c: I appreciate so much that you like my writing and reached out. <3

You def make an interesting point about the Durge vs Tav experience. I think there's a lot of room for character headcanon even when you're playing Durge tbh (certainly I'm enjoying giving Rakha her own sense of personality and such), but you're right that it adds a bit more of a "built-in" framework for people who prefer that kind of experience and not having to think too much about the character details.

(It also, without giving too much away, is very representative of the character experience in BG1/2 - which was more of a Tav/Durge mix, really.)

But yeah, I also feel okay about the lack of DLC because there is lots of room to come up with the story I want outside of the events of the game. :)

As far as advice - I think you're asking specifically for advice on writing within the Forgotten Realms world and D&D sphere in general? Tbh I am not the hugest expert on the subject myself; there is a lot more FR lore than just what comes up in this series and I am by no means familiar with most of it.

My practical advice would be to point you towards the Forgotten Realms wiki, which is where I get most of my info that I can't get from the game's own dialogue. (Sadly it's a fandom.com wiki - if anyone else has other resources that particularly like for FR lore I would love your comments also!) There's lots of info in there that I've drawn from when needed for my fics.

On a more general level though - honestly I think my best advice is to get comfortable with the idea of getting lore wrong. We love to play in this sandbox but we're allowed to bring our own toys too. :D So if something feels like it'd make a better story by being a certain way, then fuckin go for it. :) Any reader who wants to make a stink about details being off isn't actually there to appreciate your story anyway. And the vast majority of readers are there in good faith to see what you're going to come up with and enjoy it. :)

(I've been thinking about this a lot in the context of writing "Open Your Eyes", because they're off to Calimport now and I have realized I know nothing about Calimport. XD So I've been studying the wiki a lot but I've also made an executive decision to not stress myself overly about it and focus on making the setting work for the story and not the other way around. I dont really mind if someone ends up letting me know (politely) that I missed the mark on something, but I'm not going to lose sleep over it if I'm pleased with the story regardless. :D )

I hope this is the sort of answer you were looking for! Sending very supportive vibes for your writing adventures also. c:

#bjk talks #nice people #<3 ty for the message!

[attonitos-gloria]

Thoughts on Larys Strong?

Ahhhh, friend. I adore him, and I feel very conflicted about it. Thank you for asking me that. I needed to vent about this.

I have to talk about Tyrion to explain why lol sorry I throw Tyrion in every conversation too. Also sorry to be HORRIBLY prolix, this is so long. (And spoilers for the books for those who care.)

I'm a simple girl, really. I see a cunning, clever, quiet, morally gray man moving the strings of the game, chances are that I'll like him a lot, and it's even better if he is a little sad; I think Tyrion being my favorite character is a reflection of that.

But Tyrion is a deconstruction of a certain trope - that is, the evil disabled advisor, who can not be trusted because they're ill-intentioned from go, they will inevitably betray and turn against the master they served, because they only serve their own interests... No. This is Tywin, and Otto, two very able-bodied men. But Tyrion is loyal to a fault to the Lannisters, even though they are horrible to him (he never bets against his family! Until the day he does!!) He is actually an excellent asset to them and works very, very hard for them. When he turns again them, he does it out of grief and not as a consummation of a long planned betrayal. It's sudden; it's utterly emotional. And it's not exactly a secret: it's loud, as most things Tyrion does. It's not behind the curtains! The betrayal of House Lannister against him was obvious, and his response to that was just as obvious. He killed Tywin and fled. That's the message. He has turned against the system and he wants it to ruin.

This is one of the reasons why I don't like the idea that Tyrion will (unexpectedly) betray Dany in the books; like, why bother to give this character so much nuance only to make him go down the same path of so many of the Disabled men occupying the role of Advisors before him? Everyone expects Tyrion to betray people, both in-universe and in fandom, even though he is, all things considered and relatively to other characters, a rather loyal man (as long as people are loyal to him). He is many horrible things! But unloyal is not one of them! I trust George; I think ADWD built things in a way that even if he does, indeed, end up betraying Dany, he was given enough nuance that we cannot put him in that category. It would make me very, very sad, I'm not going to lie to you. But I think characters, unlike real people, should be allowed to be evil, and Tyrion has so many reasons to be the worst person ever that whatever he does... We will get it. We are going to read it and be like, "oh, so this is one of the possible outcomes of years being abused and neglected by your family and the entire world! This is a thing a human being could do if they're deprived of love." That's the thing: Tyrion is a whole, entire, layered character. If he turns out to be, ultimately, a villain, we'll follow the thread, all the way from Joanna's womb, and indeed before her, to Tytos, to all the Lannisters before them that made his life and story what it is.

BUT LARYS. You asked me about Larys. Larys is such a perfect crystallization of this trope that it almost makes me cringe inside. Even in the books he is, like, this huge mystery. Why does Larys do the things he does? What is his game? No one knows, Larys is inscrutable. He's not morally gray; as far as we know he's straight up evil, but almost no one (but Alicent) seems to suspect it because he looks innocent, he looks harmless, keeping the company of women because he cannot hunt. He is deceitful: that's pretty much the core of his character. Intentionally misleading, and even more, using his disability to employ that falsehood. Behind that mask of being a loyal servant, he has manipulated basically everyone he's interacted so far, including Otto. He employs cruel methods, he is completely unscrupulous. He is ridiculously creepy and the show goes to great lengths to make that clear. He killed his family, and he showed no signs to hate them before, quite the contrary; he simply did it because... Love is a downfall! It's almost like the show is telling you that betrayal is in his nature [ableism red flag]. So obviously [spoiileeersss] he is going to betray Alicent after years in her service.

Oh, and also, people call him Larys Clubfoot, and he has a foot fetish....... like. Really? Why, WHY make him disabled, I ask?

And it's hard, because for one side, the mystery is part of the reason why he is such a fun character. Sometimes people are simply evil! Not every bad person has a traumatic family history; some people are just perverse. Larys seems to be one of those people; and why not? For the other side, when we deprive him of nuance and a history that could enlighten us as to how he became this horrible man....... He becomes a trope, and not the nicest one!!! Hence my conflict.

But at the end of the day, even though the way he is presented to us strings a problematic chord to me, I am obsessed with the portrayal Needham gave him. Obsessed. I read the terms and conditions, and I wish to proceed, I am so so sorry. I just support all his war crimes.

We still don't know why he did what he did to Alicent in the books, and I'm very curious to see how the show is going to explain or justify that. I think there's still time to be invested in Larys' character. I thought at some point in the first season that maybe they will go the Criston route? He is going to be disappointed because Alicent will reject him in some manner that will displease him, but he will do it in the delusional, creepy way, and not the incel-Cole way. Or maybe they'll just follow along and give him no reason whatsoever, because he is Larys? I don't know!!!

In the books, Larys asks to be buried without his twisted foot. When combined with the scene in the garden and the hunt, I think this throws an interesting light on his character. He's never found peace with his disability, he doesn't want to be tied to it for eternity beyond the grave; but he's found something useful - being invisible, looking harmless, observing people without being observed - and he turns this against the world. I like this villain origin story very much! I would like to see this being further explored.

I think they really grounded his character in Alicent, so far. His relationship with Alicent fascinates me, because it is so abusive. It's coded as courtly romance but it's ANYTHING but. This man is gaslighting her! He actually groomed her (politically if nothing else) when she was rather young and lonely! And she is using him! It's all horrible, and they remind me a lot of Petyr and Sansa in that regard, and I always hated the romanticization of Petyr/Sansa so I feel validated lol I mean. Let creepy ships be creepy.

Speaking of which, that's one of the reasons why I didn't hate the scene where they exchange information for sexual services. I liked it, because it was so horrible! Like, Alicent looks so uncomfortable that it was bordering on the non-consensual. You cannot romanticize that shit, lol (I mean, you can, but the romance is not there, that's my point). But the fact he has a foot fetish (and she takes her shoes off on her first dinner with him) reminded me of Shae calling Tyrion my giant and the court proceeding to ridicule him for it at his trial. I wish they hadn't done that to Larys. Nothing against kink. Nothing against finding sexual pleasure in what one perceives as a lack in one's life, be it a father or a mother, or a limb, or privacy; whatever! Kink is fine, and everyone does that. It can be empowering. But one of those days I would like to see disabled people in TV having different kinks? Or maybe... none? That would be nice, too, and I don't know what it is with making such a fuss about what disabled people like, or don't like, in the bedroom. Or maybe I do.

TL;DR: I think his characterization is problematic and I wish he were more nuanced. I still hope they will develop him further. But I cannot help but love him. Like. Top 3 favorite characters of HOTD for real.

I would really love to hear your thoughts on him.

#larycent #otp: love is a downfall #cw noncon #cw ableism #larys strong brain rot #king of my heart. #sorry to make everything about tyrion btw #i can't help it #hotd supremacy #f&b spoilers #who knows? maybe he will kill aegon accidentally #the way theyre doing things in this show #oh the poison was for that other guy!!! aegon is just a drunkard and drinks from everyone's cups #larys strong

[micklio]

rambling about the BG3 ending (spoilers ahead), just getting some thoughts out

I finished BG3 yesterday and overall i loved the game but my god that ending was rushed and didn't really give any closure. I didn't free orpheus despite wanting to because my tav Crowe thought that staying with the emperor would be the most consistent choice to guarantee getting rid of the Netherbrain -- and that after Crowe would help Lae'zael and Voss with getting rid of Vlaakith cause if they're all mindflayers or dominated by the Netherbrain they wouldn't be able to do anything (i looked up what the Orpheus ending looked like after though and it's kind of a shame it doesn't seem to have much of an impact the Emperor is just like bye. Which i guess is in line with his character but it didn't have any oomf to it)

The epilogue helped a little bit with closure but this didn't exist until a month ago and definitely didn't make it a super satisfying ending it felt like a bandaid. W/o the epilogue the ending was

-Lae'zael says a couple quick lines to you and fucks off which is my bad for not taking the Orpheus ending, but it feels out of character that you can't offer to help or or at least talk to her so she can understand where you were coming from, that it felt like the bond you guys built up over the adventure meant nothing. She trusts the group to use her Silver sword?? Why won't she stay for a few words I feel like this isn't in character for her idk

-I was unable to finish Shadowheart's quest because the Shar Temple fight in Act 3 was insanely buggy for me and was crashing constantly. Shadowheart was not mentioned at all at the docks which is likely because I couldn't finish the quest but that's still weird they didn't account for people not doing companion quests. Like not even just one line about what Shart is going to do next. Ok.

-Halsin is not mentioned AT ALL and Crowe was partnered with him in addition to Astarion. In the epilogue you learn he's trying to help rebuild the Shadowlands area -- if Tav gets a scene at the end with Astarion why can't he have a quick scene with Halsin discussing he wants to go back to the Shadowlands

-You talk with Gale about what to do with the crown but you don't learn the consequences of that at all he just goes okay and walks away from the doc

-Astarion just runs away. He was Crowe's partner so they got a follow up scene but if this wasn't the case I imagine there isn't anything else. Even with a follow up scene wish there was more about what Astarion wanted to do with his life now that it's his.

-Wyll and Karlach insta leave to Avernus. I'm devastated by Karlach's ending and really wish there was a "better" ending for her in line with other companions BUT!!! This was oddly one of the endings I felt like had some closure/was in line with the story. Karlach got to have her moment at the docks that was heart wrenching and sad and didn't ignore the journey she went on and her friendship with Crowe

-Wyll deserved more than two lines before him and Karlach ran off to Avernus, like with the Ansurr quest/following up with him after we knew he was going to end up with Avernus, how he felt about that and why he was going to become the Blade of Avernus is great BUT LET HIM SAY GOODBYE TO HIS FRIENDS AND HIS CITY!!! >:(

I love that Wyll and Karlach get to be a devil slaying team in Avernus and just how much they've changed from the beginning of the game, you meet because Wyll is trying to find Karlach. And im here for a happy ending for Karlach but the epilogue feels like such whiplash LOL like she has this heart wrenching scene at the docks then the writers went "um oopsie. Actually her and Wyll found a way to fix her engine. Yay!" writers you need to COMMIT

The epilogue did help a little bit. It's nice to know what the companions are up to but it didn't fix the ending at all lol. BG3's characters are the strongest points in a game, it's such a whiplash to see the ending just tacked on. I still don't know what Astarion wants to do post game. Crowe wanted to help him find a way to walk in the sun and but what does Astarion want to do with his life now that he doesn't have Cazador or a tadpole in his head!!!!!

To me the game is obviously not finished and that's a shame because it's still such a good game but it could be BETTER. Act 3 lacks a lot of polish that Act 1 pulls you in with. Characters at camp don't have much to say in Act 3, you barely talk to them about anything, Halsin basically doesn't exist. The constant crashing after a certain point in Act 2 is just unacceptable, at one point i had to stop playing for a couple months because I literally couldn't progress through the crashing, and these technical issues dampened my enjoyment of the game a lot.

I also wish they made Tav's character choices matter more, like even stuff popping up in your dialogue more, or actually getting to meet your patron -- the "we're just leaving it up to your imagination" doesn't really work when all the Origins characters in your party have a huge backstory that matters throughout the game and Tav just doesn't. There wasn't a lot of moments where I was like YES Crowe feels so cool right now!! I know Durge apparently addresses some of this but that doesn't fix that Tav just feels like they're There. They def could've done more. Why doesn't Crowe ever get to talk to his patron as a Warlock. Why can't the game explore what kind of relationship they have. Crowe is a soldier from Baldur's Gate. Why can't he have connections to the Flaming Fists? Why can't he see his family? Why can't Crowe have religious connections and have that affect the story without being a cleric? He worships Illmater and returning home to the murder at the temple devastated him. Why can't there be a few dialogue options with him being familiar with someone at the temple. Like there's ways to improve on making Tav feel like they matter more even with just smaller stuff.

That's it for now but I might return with more thought dumping later

#mids text #baldur's gate 3 #bg3 spoilers

[cristellove4321]

I was a star palace fan for awhile, ever sense I had graduated high school last i checked, I think it was near graduation when i heard zavys first voice over when it comes to singing, so when i heard about a star palace video game, no typos or anything, you bet i was bouncing off the walls when I did hear about it, you better believe I would've pulled a pinkie pie and bounce off the walls if I could, and downloaded it the moment it was out, on my ipad tho cuz my phone never had enough space, I'll get to that later tho...

When it finished downloading, I played it instantly, and began playing, it reminded me of a game from mlp where with the characters they have gift preferences, compliment preferences, and description box's, and so forth, I didn't mind tho, it was simple for my end on how to work with, and hense its more fun for me, as I continued playing, and that lasted for awhile, zavy was the most I payed attention to, obviously being the main and favorite from the series and fandom itself, it doesn't take much to make him your friend, only the "best friend" part was more of a second bar for him, for whatever reason, unlike with other characters you oftenly meet, his had a "partner" added to his bar, I didnt necessarily minded that, given he was built by a company that specializes in making companion bots, so I thought it was normal when like that, and when I got him at "partner", hearts will come out from his image and flutter out of camera's sight whenever you either tap on him or give him one of his preferred gifts, that was normal until I got a verbal fight with my dad, I don't handle stress alot so when I got to my room I began crying, so after a little mental break down I played star palace to try and calm down, I met the other characters and all of them acted normal, and by then I stopped crying, just really tired, but when I got to zavy, his image was slightly different, it was his upset or sad face witch only happens when you give him a rotten gift, but his image wasn't the speech bubble with it, hense making him say.", you look exhausted dear, what happened?", this confused me, normally the characters can't tell what you look like or what your expression is, it also gave me the option to actually type my response, again, it's something you cant be able to do, and I can't click out neither to try and ignore that, cuz I'm honestly not good at expressing my actual emotions, so sense I can't click out I just typed in "I'm fine zavy, really, just a lil tired", and than suddenly I passed out, i tried fighting it and saw the text box while zavy deemed to smile yet still looked concerned, the text box saying "oh?, well ok then, maybe try taking a nap then?, here I'll help you dear!", and than next thing i knew, I was passed out, waking up slowly when it was near night time, I wondered on how I could've slept for so long when I passed out somewhere near the morning, I sat up and rubbed my head and decided to check my phone to check what time it is, before finding millions of downloads with the symbol when you download an image, I panicked and checked my storage, the thing I mentioned earlier, only for it to look normal, i got confused and checked my gallary, only for the files on zavys folders to have the infinity sign, I checked it and it was images like the ones I'm gonna show you now, I know these images, frazzybear, a fan of zavy, drew some of these, and if it wasn't her, it was moon bunnies or gknight them self, but their distorted to a semi creepy level, my phone rings like crazy, but it wasn't the usual ring tone galaxy Samsung would have, aka my phone type, it was...., zavys version of "meant to be yours", a public song on YouTube, this ahook me violently before i answered it, and it only said.

"I'm at the door my love..., let...., me...., in...."

(This is just a lil creepy pasta of star palace, I think this would be fun, you can say how bad it was, say that it most likely is the worst or such, but I won't really care, cuz I actually had fun writing this and appreciate those who like it, but really, the original importance of writing is how fun it is, that along with actual criticism without roasting or hate, is how we grow as writers and hense not only make better creepypasta's, but also make better stories all together, the edited images are by frazzybear, gknight and moon bunnies, I heavily suggest checking them out, their content is awesome and the characters are just as adorable.)

(Inspiration: friendship quest by: TheLostNarrator.)

(Sorry to credit the inspiration before hand.:>)

#star palace #zavy #creepypasta

[nettleshuttle]

Ask meme: Yusei.

yusei it is!

my fav thing about them: definitely his backstory. i love how we get a protagonist that’s already entangled in a net of complex relationships with different people, whom we get to encounter throughout the series and gradually get to know what was actually going on between them. i miss that a lot for protags such as jaden or yuma, all of whose interesting relations are established within the show and who seem to have little to no history of their own to explore and wonder about. besides, cheesy and run-off-the-mill as it may be, yusei’s talk about how every card is unique, precious and worth treasuring is really heartwarming and it’s great to see him putting all these strays to good use and properly appreciating them.

least favorite thing about them: actually, i find yusei to be quite boring personality-wise. i’m halfway through 5ds and he still hasn’t shown any more interesting characteristics. i get that it’s nice how caring and determined he is, but i’d like to see some flaws of his, some less ordinary and predictable reactions and/or developments. i feel like the great backstory is partially going to waste because he’s so standardly fixed as a character. also, maybe the following episodes will prove me wrong, but i see little room for development in him, which is kinda sad — or at least, he’s far inferior in this aspect than even the yuma or jaden i have already mentioned.

favorite line: not a single line, but i live for the two prison duels where he uses other people’s decks/cards to beat the shit out of the arrogant bullies that his opponents are. i remember i started this short arc being rather indifferent and left it so emotional about him it was actually funny.

brOTP: jack. i totally see them as exes, but either way their reconstructed friendship is a great thing to follow throughout the series. they have wildly different approaches to many things, but respect each other and get along anyway — their mutual backstory is very well-constructed and with a suitable pinch of bitterness where necessary.

OTP: akiza! i feel like i wrote that a hundred times already, but i’m dying to see more of the trust and care that has built up between them. yusei being a far healthier replacement of divine for aki is the best development ever, while it’s obvious he’s worthy of that assurance. the date episode was so precious too,,

nOTP: i used to like his ship with jack a lot, but now it just doesn’t appeal to me anymore, i guess? for once, their canon romantic relationships with akiza and carly are just far better. in terms of actual notp i’d put sherry because she’s a lesbian and i’m gonna die on that hill (also they make far cooler friends, c’mon).

random headcannon: yusei always has trouble building his decks because, no matter how responsible his duelists thinking is, he just wants to put every single card he has in there — it feels so wrong for him to leave anyone out. similarly, i feel like he’d love to exchange decks with others for a single game, even people he doesn’t really know: if his instinct finds someone trustworthy, he can borrow them his deck without fear. he’d really like to get to know new people this way and see how they use his cards too; exchanging decks with closer ones, like akiza or crow would be quite special too. he’d dislike using power decks though, like jack’s (or, hypothetically, stuff like ddds, blue eyes etc) — it’s not that he doubts using them requires as much skill, but he doesn’t find it nice to use such archetypes, that’s it. in a modern au, i’d totally see him enrolling in small tournaments all the time, testing the most obscure card sets imaginable and trying to make all of them as good as possible. by the same token, he’d avoid meta stuff in this au — not his cup of tea.

unpopular opinion: i guess what i said about his personality counts as rather unpopular? oh, and i just find it ultimately stupid that when he faces ghost and the meklords, who totally trash all synchro decks, he still thinks about using synchro without synchro summoning instead of just?? idk?? building a non-synchro deck?? i’m not saying he should switch to some fusion or whatever, but there are viable decks that don’t even rely on ed cards. why make shit so difficult for yourself and wonder why you’re still on the losing position. i get that it has to align with the plot, this being a synchro-themed part and all, but it’s just so stupid i can’t get over it — the creators should have never maneuvered themselves into a corner like that.

song i associate with them: cohen’s heart with no companion (this will always be a ryo bakura song in my head, but i’ve also thought it somehow fits yusei’s vibe, though in a very different way) and, contrastingly, probably born for this (the score). btw i’m an enjoyer of sappy romantic shit in context of his ship with akiza, so walking the wire (imagine dragons).

favorite picture: i like his regular design a lot so seeing him whenever is great, but a shout out to this edgy boy right here:

#ask game #yugioh #ygo 5ds #5ds spoilers #yusei fudo

[lonesomedotmp3]

this is so embarrassing <3 but would you happen to maybe possibly have a merlin (2008) fic rec list beloved mutual..... not nearly enough fic writers get it like my beloved mutuals do

i can assure you that is absolutely not even close to as embarrassing as it is to have devoured any and everything the merlin fanfiction world has to offer. i have read aus that you would not believe. i have been subjected to characterisations and headcanons that would make anyone else instantly close the tab. i have read authors with such a poor clumsy grasp of british slang i could weep from embarrassment. yet i persevered. for MONTHS. and here is what me (and beth <3) have managed to scrounge up after all of that. please use everything i've just said as context that we were NOT in our right minds reading these. proceed with caution

tributes - the! hunger! games! fic!!!! iconic legendary spectacular THEE revolutionary turnaround for the merlin fanfiction game and for the horrors generally. do NOT go in overhyped tho me and beth went in like haha what a cool weird au and then it caught us off-guard that it wasn't written terribly. also good for something longer and about much more than just merlin and arthur. it's fr like watching the show again for better and for worse. it's got camp whimsy it's got our main duo acting like complete freaks it's got this constant suffocating sense of inevitable tragedy... slayed!

history books forgot about us and in dreams - by the hunger games writer so u know it's actually written well!! don't read their other stuff tho just trust me. my memory of the first one isn't great but i remember feeling with both that finally FINALLY someone Got the finale like me + beth did. short but just rlly solid satisfying follow-ups to the show.

the court of avalon - freya + arthur best friendism in avalon realest shit ever said!!! makes me go fucking crazy fr. YES this has way too much magic lore bullshit to it and i don't careeee they're my friends.... and FINALLY a proper post-finale fic where they don't just freeze arthur in time for 1500 years...

to the point of fear - slay little mordred character study!!!!

the world i built for you - the disir fix-it!! smth i have always wanted due to being sooooo Normal about that episode (arthur's matrix. if u even care). not perfect but worth a read for sure!!

long title and also long title - i rlly like established relationship fics. sorry for being cringe and boring some crimes can never b forgiven etc.

like clouds in starlight widely spread - ok the rest of these i'm going to copy/paste from my list for beth sorry <3 but if i've already written a little deseription for each one why give myself more work yk. anyway: sad and wistful and A Lot as someone who was about to move out of my hometown when i read this. if i said it chapter two vibes. actually that doesn't mean anything ignore that. at one point arthur goes "are you trying to tell me something?" and merlin responds with, "i'm always trying to tell you something." which uh. he really is huh. it's whatever though.

fundamental imperfection - merlin and arthur as writers, gets their first meeting right (arguing and being dicks, then immediately becoming obsessed with each other). don't remember much else except the sequel is unfinished heavy angst and i cried like three times. don't read that (+ HIGHLY positively peer reviewed by beth. tell us a story about love!!!)

as long as we have we - i know you've read that fake marriage christmas fic which i love a lot (maybe it has problems but it's just so endearing...) and this is the same vibe. or well it's christmas and it's sweet so

(and said xmas fic: no matter how far away you roam <3)

tintagel - i don't know how i feel abt merlin and arthur in this but the parallels made to ygraine and nimueh are just too insanity inducing to ignore. my price is my life yours is to bear witness.... they wrote that in 2009!!!! insane

ok that's a lot + it's the best merlin ff has to offer. which is still not that great but. enjoy!! + b thankful you do not have to go into the hellscape that is the merlin ao3 tag...

kingdoms - i have no memory of this tbh but i wrote 'yeah.' underneath the bookmark so it's gotta have something

sorry edit one more I forgot - merlin and arthur are exes and arthur is just soooo weird and sad and repressed about it. also peer reviewed 🫶 (X) and also check out beth's merlin fanfiction recs tag if for some insane reason u want more. ok bye 🫂

#<3 #ask tag #finalgirlbrasso

[elvenbeard]

Not me absolutely bingeing through the last 40 hours of Cyberpunk 2077 over the last 3 days, nope. I was actually shaking before starting the final questline, because there were so many FEARS about what might happen at the end (probably as much as V was shaking himself :’D)

All I knew was, there are several endings, some are better, some are worse, but zero specifics. In some regards, what I imagined, was a lot worse, in others it was exactly what I imagined, in other bits it was a lot worse than I expected but in a bittersweet kind of way?

I’m not 100% happy with the ending I got, but mainly due to a lack of hyper-specific dialogue choices I would have wished for during the ideal ending in my head XD But for my V I think it was the best outcome and also fitted him and his choices. So yay! My heart was a little bit cracked, but not ripped out in the way other games have done it with their endings (*side-eyes Mass Effect 3*), because I feel like my choices did matter overall.

MASSIVE Spoilers under the cut, so if you haven’t completed the game yourself, do not read!!!

I got the Sun ending! V lives, somewhat, yay xD

One of my biggest fears and worst case scenarios I was imagining was in relation to Jackie actually. I had the outcome that Arasaka took his body after the Coup (will do that differently next time though, now that I know of the alternatives... yes I read up so much stuff on the wiki tonight after finishing, finally xDD). So when Takemura tells you this, Arasaka took his body, probably put him through Soulkiller, etc. my immediate thought was “holy shit, please don’t let him show up in some evil twisted way during the ending just to have me suffer” (but also, that would have been so good XD). Didn’t happen though, thankfully xD

I was on quite good terms with Johnny actually, which I did not expect to be at all, see also my previous rants on the topic XD Letting him take the wheel scared me probably just as much as V, and his “just talking to Rogue about Adam Smasher” night of escapades didn’t really help ease that anxiety xD I’m not sure if I had high enough friendship for the secret ending, but I will reload my save to try (but will not attempt that ending til my next playthrough, bc admittedly, my V isn’t built for a suicide mission xD)

What made me the saddest about the Sun ending really is that V isn’t really that present or happy (for obvious reasons, of, you know, STILL impeding death), and that his relationship is suffering under it. But I like to imagine, given the slight open-endedness of that ending (ha), if someone can pull that final mission off, it’s V, and that Mr B. will be able to help him, and he’ll get some well deserved rest and happily ever after. Already wrote a whole fic in my head lying up wide awake in bed for three hours XD What I probably loved the most about the Sun ending is V’s penthouse XD It’s weird, I know, but I often started or ended my gaming sessions in his flat looking out of the window. So everytime I booted up the game I look out and see that nice lush garden and cool architecture across the street and think “man, whoever lives there has made it, wonder if I can go there myself at some point later”. Yes, I can!! It made me cry out loud once I figured out where that penthouse was xD Also, what kind of made the ending for me a lot, in terms of, “what fits my character best” was the ride in the AV to the Afterlife mirroring my corpo V’s ride in the AV to Lizzie’s in the very beginning super well (I have zero clues about the Streetkid and Nomad prologues - no spoilers in the comments please! - but maybe there’s a scene like that in those, too). But yes, the circle of life and all, you know *strums guitar*.

I didn’t expect Johnny to grow on me as much as he did during that last stretch of the game, and him having to go for V to get a final chance at living did make me really sad. I still don’t think I’d be able to go down the alternative route where he is the one to walk out of the tower. Waaay too attached to V by now, sorry Johnny xD But you’ll never be forgotten, and I mean in a way legends never die. And maybe it’s not the last Night City ever saw or heard of him.

What else... the other main story characters! I think what annoyed me a little bit was that sliiiight railroading into Panam’s romance, when you’re just wanting to be nice. I enjoy her as a character a lot, because she’s loud and unapologetic, but also has a really sweet and soft side about her. I like the Aldecaldos very much, too. But when I notice I’m being railroaded it’s a hard pass for me, sorry xD

Then Judy... Judy is love, Judy is life. Her final quest was one of my favourites, and the one apart from the ending the quest that made me cry the most, probably. I love that she stays in contact with a befriended V even after leaving the city. The little updates, how happy she is now that she left the city behind, are really really lovely. Also, I love her texting style XD *types one line then hits send, rinse and repeat* - because I tend to do that too. Also, from the moment she mentions she goes diving I wished she’d take V along at some point - so when she calls about it I again screamed irl about it XD Oh, Judy... I have a female V in my head for you, but no idea when I’ll get to play her XD

I would have wished for something similar with River, him keeping in touch a bit more, because I loved his (messed up) storyline a lot, and I would have loved a few more interactions afterwards! I think I need to space it out more next time to have more of him xD

Then Kerry, another heavy case of “is love, is life” omg. His questline was the perfect mix of feels and fun like *chef’s kiss*. Same with River kind of, I wish there had been even more quests with him, but since you only meet him very late in the game it still felt like you had a chance to get to know him better with not too much else going on simultaneously. And him being more involved in the main story than River, too! For his final quest, the beginning of the boat tour was one of the best scenes in the game for me, like oof... Got me really really emotional actually. And then... CARNAGE!! I loved it, love Kerry, 100000/10.

Then Takemura... man, you know, it’s a crime he’s not a romance option, but in hindsight, knowing his possible fates now, I think that might have actually killed me. I’m tempted to go down the Arasaka ending route just once for the sole reason to get more Takemura time really. Fuck everyone else on that path with a corkscrew XD But yes, A+++ character design with him, complex, layered, relatable (esp. for my Corpo V), foodie, but also absolutely blind when it comes to his loyalties and honor. All with good reasons, but aaahhh... let me fix him!! Let me change him!! XDD  Also he had the best first appearance of any of the main story characters imo! Epic badass.

But yes... what a fucking blast that was. Can’t wait for a replay with some slightly better choices here and there, trying the other lifepath quests, trying some different endings maybe, and skilling my V better XD There’s so many options to skill them, it’s insane, but knowing my fighting style (or not fighting - stealth ftw!)  much better now and what the max level roughly is I think I can make more informed choices. Really looking forward to a replay - also with a lot less anxiety now, and a little bit of faith in complex, bittersweet endings finally restored XD

#cyberpunk 2077 #cyberpunk 2077 spoilers #my v #elven plays cyberpunk 2077 #that got long #but I had to get my thoughts out somewhere xD #go play this game if you haven't #it will tear your heart out in the best way possible #promise #vincent ezaki