#some really specific combat stuff annoys me

[leezuhh]

the xenophobia in genshin is crazyyy 😭

#likeeee within the own game world u have paimon being the stupid lil 'voice' of the player thats literally just used to say rude shit #that u cant even refute.... like the worst offenders is that she straight up says shit like 'theyre fatui u cant trust them' #or 'theyre eremites u cant trust them' #like thats crazy how the two groups we 'cant trust' are based on russians and middle easterners???? #anyways i like this game but i have SO many gripes about random shit like this thats bad #some really specific combat stuff annoys me #like umm why does yelan's hydro aimed shot cooldown at a set rate when not fighting but not while fighting?? why not just make it the same? #or why cant shieldwall mitachurls take damage from behind their shields if u shoot them FROM BEHIND?? the shot literally goes thru them #it just makes using ganyu super annoying bc i use her cryo construct skill to divert the enemies so i can shoot them but with shieldwalls #they turn away and then i just still cant do damage until theyre attacking?? even if theyre frozen?? #hashtag just combat mechanics that dont make sense #also why tf do you sometimes just randomly lose grip on walls ur climbing and start sliding down like ????? #i always seem to go off on the tags of my own posts and never in the post itself huh. i coulda just written all this #anyways this post inspired by zhongli story quest starting with - archeologist guy who paimon immediately goes OH NO A FATUI DROP UR WEAPON #like im sorry since when are we teyvats cop?also the dude literally isnt holding a weapon which he points out but the game still makes u go #'hes fatui we have to be cautious' when the dude is nothing but nice. imagine ur doing ur job and some random girl and her floating toddler #try to fucking arrest you for literally just chilling #anyways and then the dude is like sure you can come along :) for no reason when we were just a dick #bc they have no idea how to write meaningful/realistic npcs jesus christ #sure ppl are like 'who cares its a random NPC' i care its literally so annoying and doesnt make me want to play ur stupid game #also not to mention the pyramid quest in the desert where (worst npc) tirzad is like 'we cant trust these two (his bodyguards!!) - #- because they're eremites' and yeah its whatever disproven by jebrael and jeht being the most slayful NPCs in the game #but paimon still AGREES WITH HIM?? and at that point i was like ok so this sucks but whatever but then #as if that isnt enough after jeht joins the tanit later or wtv u have to go through a whole questline that literally ends w dismantling #their entire village?? its very much reflective of rhetoric like how jeht is the 'only good one of '''them'''' aka thinly veiled racism #like oh its fine because SHE is 'one of the good ones' no fuck you wth #and no having like 2 desert npcs in the archon quest be nice doesnt make up for some of the crazy racist shit they say in the sumeru quests #umm anyways. cant wait for fontaine where the number of characters with non snow white skin will once again be reduced to 0 #because they're french right and poc dont exist in france :( /s #this is probably the longest rant ive ever gone on for this game i literally paused the game to type all that 😭

[ratgrinders]

hello tumblr user ratgrinders... appreciate the work you do even in these trying times (post onscreen homicide). i think the fact that kipperlilly is like, annoying and reminds people of girls they didnt like in high school ppl miss out on a lot of interesting stuff going on w her!

like, the "power hungry teen girl who is just evil and tbk kill her" thing has already been done in fhfy with penelope, & its much more interesting to think about how & why the ratgrinders are doing all this suspicious stuff tbk are noticing-- like the fact that they have been very cagey about showing their combat abilities, the weird stuff going on with various deities, and even kipperlilly's stolen therapy files (lol) are very intriguing!! and imo writing that off as assuming they'll be straightforward, incompetent villians (popular assumption due to their lack of friendship, even though it's famously the weakest magic) is far less interesting. like... they got into this situation for a reason and got involved w all this stuff somehow, & i don't think all of this would happen if they were a normal adv party, even a shitty one. how did they get here! why!! thx

thank you so much, its getting hard out here but nothing can stop the rat grinders stan grind!!!!! (<- is coping. im coping)

yeah but fr, kipperlily is FASCINATING to me. i truly believe that she thinks everything she does is justified in service of her larger goal, whatever that may be. yeah, stone cold murder really isn't the fairest thing you can do to your academic rivals, but writing all of that off as "oh she's just always been a jealous hypocrite who never believed in what she was spouting" i think is an inaccurate interpretation of her own motivations. she clearly believes in something.

cuz the thing is, we're still not really sure was kipperlily wants? ("egg on my face for wanting something"). sure, she's trying to run for student body president, but what exact rules is she hoping to implement, and how does that relate to trying to resurrect a rage god? plus, grix attacked ruben because he/his ritual were a direct threat to the existence of the school, which seems counter productive if you're trying to become president of it.

and what cause would kipperlily specifically have to be tied up with a rage god anyway? there's nothing that clearly on the surface ties a little type A halfling rogue to a fiendish god of rage and conquest, hell some of the other members in her party seem like on the surface they would have a closer tie to it (like both of their now dead clerics, mary ann who literally harnesses rage, ruben who is full of teen angst). kipperlily's apparently been filled with rage since freshman year, but why? (is she like riz, who spent his whole life infected with an aspect of the nightmare king and literally grew up with this seed of doubt inside him? did something similar happen to kipperlily?)

ankarna is the goddess of justice and the conviction to act when they see something unfair. no matter what, i think kipperlily truly believes that she's witnessed something unfair. and it feels significant to mention that this last murder is an escalation on the rat grinders' part. the other people who have ended up dead around them (lucy, yolanda, the original hosts of frosty faire) all seemed to have died indirectly as a result of the rage crystals and the uncontrollable rage it inspires. this is the first time we're seen stone cold premeditated murder, done with simply a blade and betrayal.

honestly, this transition seems to mirror what ankarna herself went through, starting off as the goddess of conviction and justice but slowly transitioning to one of conquest and war. brennan said something about ankarna, "yeah its nice to have someone like that on your side who will stand up for you, but you better hope that person is always right". i think what we're seeing now is someone with that same conviction, but with a misguided cause.

kipperlily's crossed a line now and i wouldn't be surprised if she doesn't end up redeemed by the end of the season, but i'm still interested in how she and her party were motivated to do this in the first place, because like you said i don't think a normal adventuring party would've ended up here. it takes a lot to transition to multiple murders!

#as a goro akechi stan you could never make me hate the overachieving slightly murderous high school student full of rage its impossible #dimension 20 #fantasy high #fantasy high junior year #fhjy spoilers #original post #rat grinders #kipperlily copperkettle

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

Aita for bailing mid session when the GM clearly wanted it to focus on my character?

I have a lot of mental health issues, and one of the ways this manifests interacts *fantastically* with fibromyalgia. Essentially I get frequent migraines, anxiety attacks, pain everywhere etc etc. Usually this just means I lie down in the dark for the rest of the day. I've gotten to the point where I can kind of tell when it's coming, and I knew I was going to have an episode soon as I had been having minor symptoms for the past two days.

Well, DND was coming up and I still wanted to play, but I really wasn't feeling mentally capable at the time. A little bit before the session started (immediately after I came to the conclusion) I asked my fellow players and the GM to please not interact with my character heavily, at least for a little while, so that I could test the waters and allow my brain to sink in to ttrpg mode. This isn't an unusual request from me, and all of the other players have experienced me asking this before. I haven't been friends with the GM as long though, and I realize that she probably isn't fully aware of the condition I'm in on bad days. I also wasn't aware that the GM had planned for my character to be kind of the center of attention for the first part of the session, but it's not like I can schedule my episodes.

Well the session opens with my characters family trying to come along on the journey in order to 'protect' my character (despite the fact that they're severely injured, one of the two are literally missing a leg now). In character and out of character, I wouldn't want them to come with, and I said so when the GM asked through roleplay. I thought it would be as simple as that, but she kept pushing. The GM kept advocating for the family to tag along and kind of arguing with my character. I was really annoyed at this point because I had JUST asked to not be engaged with heavily. I tried to shirk off the debate to my fellow players, but the GM kept asking for my opinion specifically. I could feel my brain shutting down, so despite not wanting the family to come along I just rolled with it, not being up to a debate and not wanting to start an argument mid session.

We move on, stuff happens, and we enter combat. For some reason the GM was using minutes to measure distance instead of feet. As in, it would take you 10 minutes to reach this destination. Your enemies are 15 minutes away, etc. Except, we had rolled initiative. Meaning every turn was 6 seconds, so 10 minutes is like 600 rounds or something. Plus, the measurements she was giving us were inconsistent. They'd be in range of my 30ft spell, but they were also 10 minutes away? Point is, I was super confused, and trying to convert the measurements and figuring out what the hell was happening started triggering a breakdown. My head was pounding my heart was beating out of my chest everything was spinning and so I said I needed to leave. I ended up just going to lie on the floor for a long while and let them finish the session without me.

But I feel really bad about it. I feel like I should have warned the GM sooner, or maybe been more clear about what I deal with? She made a comment later that day about how "the session was supposed to go a specific way, but (I) wasn't up to anything and completely changed it." It really made me feel like she was blaming me for feeling unwell, like I just ruined her session. But I also feel like I wouldn't have had an episode had she just respected my wishes in the first place and not pushed me on something I wasn't up to engage in. Idk

What are these acronyms?

#aita #am i the asshole

[gffa]

The thing I really miss about Star Wars novels is exemplified by being two-thirds of the way through Inquisitor: Rise of the Red Blade and how I think I'm legitimately enjoying it, but in a very specific way, and I think there's actually a ton you could dig into the structure and bias of the narrator that I think is done on purpose and that I can find sympathy for a character actively falling to the dark side and what she's going through without validating the people she's demonizing in her head because I've been there, I have had my brain lying to me all my life, telling me things I know aren't true, making me believe them despite all evidence otherwise, and do you guys KNOW how much I love hot messes of a disaster lady? I fucking love a woman who is just an awful mess and doesn't have to actually be perfect or nice and maybe just once or twice says a kind of catty thing, NO, SHE IS A WHOLE ASS MESS and I LOVE HER!! But also I'm kind of in the position of how I'm tired of getting stories of characters falling to the dark side being the vast majority of what stories explore with the Jedi, I enjoy them, but not when that's all there is, and I have spent YEARS AND YEARS going back and forth with the discussions about the Jedi and I am so tired of it, I DON'T WANT TO ANYMORE. I just want to write my commentary and thoughts down in the vein that I have them and have that be it. I want to say, "This is a really glorious unreliable narrator here, because everything she says is contradicted by what the Jedi actually say/do, and she is explicitly a character designed with neurodivergent/mental health issues aspects in mind and you can't divorce that from her character." and like I don't even want to discuss with other Jedi fans about what the author may or may not have said (I read one interview from her at the beginning, enjoyed it fine, and AM NOT INTERESTED in knowing or hearing anything further) or how annoying it is to have a book like this, I JUST WANT TO DIG INTO A STORY and not have to worry about bracing myself for combat. (And also the thorny issue of how this isn't precisely a recommendation because I'm not sure others would enjoy it, like even if you agreed with me, I'm not sure it'd be something in your wheelhouse, but I don't want to even get into that, it feels exhausting, like, just I want to talk about how I'm enjoying it, but not have to articulate why I think others possibly wouldn't, just leave it at "nah, I don't think you'd enjoy it".) I know this is some IRL stuff spilling over onto my reading of this book and I'm aware of the state of a lot of creators in SW right now hold opinions that have made me stop reading their works because I am no longer interested in anything they have to contribute, but also like. Sometimes I just want to enjoy a book on my own terms and not have to feel like I'm arguing a case, but instead reveling in the glorious hot mess of a central female character that maybe I relate to and have sympathy for even while recognizing that she is painting a very unreliable portrait within the book, because I Have Been There. Idk, I'm not saying this very well, and a lot of it is outside factors, but I have this giant tangled ball of "I just want to enjoy something for once, not examine why it might actually be doing my Blorbos all wrong", like aren't we supposed to be in fandom for the enjoyment of things, not to constantly argue with people? /tired and hasn't been sleeping well and has been thinking about this instead of wrenching irl stuff

#lumi.txt #novels #star wars

[eldjester]

SOAR, The Damage Race and Damage Die

(Yes, this is inspired by @makapatag latest post, I like getting into details about what goes on in my design thoughts)

So I've ran a fair bit of games over the years, and talked about a few design thoughts with my good friend Ru. That experience has lead me to feel opinionated on some stuff or try to fix some "issues" I didn't want in my own TTRPG, namely Damage Die and the idea Damage Race is all that matters.

-Damage Die: For about a whole year, I have been running a system that uses multiple types of damage die, from d6 to d10, which are bound to its classes rather than abilities (this is Icon, if you're curious), and while i don't think it is unworkable, it made me think about a few things, namely the nature of why we roll for damage in the first place and why so many Tactical TTRPGs want to have critical hits. In most cases, I don't tend to like rolling for damage with wide possibilities, for example rolling a d8 or a d10, as those are very swingy and hard to make informed decision about, even if they fit a playstyle that's more about pushing your luck, they just don't work for me, I don't like how they control pacing, especially if rolling high on them is supposed to really hurt, it tends to make anything that surrounds them uncertain for basically everyone on the table, and for me it doesn't really do a fun surprise when you do roll good on them. Critical Hits adding more damage is also a staple of many games, and I think as time goes on i'm less of a fan of that too as it tends to be done in a way that just shines a bigger spotlight on the uncertain damage numbers of some attacks (hi "Double Damage on crit" systems !). So what I ended up doing, was just remove this idea that your damage die has to inform the damage you do related to its number. See, I'm a big fan of tables, I love random tables, I also love having some level of control over what you can expect, so I had a fun idea, what if I used a damage profile table for attacks ? So, in SOAR, when you hit (which you still need to roll to do specifically for attacks, as I like having that mechanical lever to tinker with) you roll a d6 or more if your abilities add some, and you keep the highest one, the number you roll then tells you what you'll be using as a profile for the attack, bigger means better in this case, here's an example:

Weak Hit (1-2): 2 damage, push target 1, move 1

Normal Hit (3-5): 3 damage, push target 1, move 1, push target 1

Strong Hit (6): 4 damage, push target 1, move 2, push target 1, target is dazed

Critical Hit (6,6): 5 damage, push foe 1, move 2, push foe 2, foe is dazed. A keen eye might have noticed this shares similarities with how FITD handles rolls in terms of spread (being a tiny bit more forgiving), this has allowed me to make sure I know how much damage every attack does while still having room to make the damage uncertain, you can still cheer if you roll a strong hit or a critical hit (you in fact, have a resource you can spend to upgrade a hit to its next step if you want to), as a fun added fact, this type of damage profile idea started off as something I made for a gunfight based game, and worked backward into adding to SOAR, from my, admittedly limited, testing it has sped up play a fair bit while still giving me levers to work with in terms of balance. -The Damage Race There's this really annoying feeling sometimes when you play TTRPGs Combats that not doing damage isn't ideal, you see it all the time (death is the best control my beloathed expression) even when it isn't "true". Something you learn relatively soon in TTRPG design is that even if you don't think something is true, people believing it is will still affect how they interact with it, often in a self reinforcing way, and this was something I wanted to avoid in SOAR as it would be especially prone to this, it is after all a Beat'Em All inspired TTRPG, so it was going to have people come in with that assumption regardless. So I thought, hey, what if I didn't bother trying to balance Control and Damage here ? What if i had everyone "do both" ? So that's what I ended up settling on, every Style comes with an attack, which you can use EVERY turn, and a bunch of abilities, which is where a lot of statuses and utility moves exist. Of course, it didn't come free of problems, I had to essentially make everyone have more HP to account for it, but it also made me free of a problem I was having trouble figuring out: what if someone never attacks and just deals damage through abilities which never need to hit ? The way i'm doing it now, people HAVE to care about attacks, and it also means that, with it being essentially "free", I can balance around it and make sure fights aren't static, players always have 2 shots at changing things every turn they do. Thus far in testing I think it has proven to work.

#ttrpg #SOAR #gamedev #rpg

[anneapocalypse]

So. About Minfilia.

This one really got to me.

I don't think I've cried over a character death in this game like this since Haurchefant--both of whom, incidentally, I knew going in were going to die at some point, because I'd encountered spoilers well before I ever imagined I would play this game. (Having Ariane fall for both of them in turn was not the plan, it just happened along the way and felt right for her character, and the extra tragedy it ended up adding was a side effect but one that's become lode-bearing for her story in a lot of ways.)

So I'll say to start that given what the writers had to work with going into Shadowbringers, I think Minfilia's story ends about as well as it could have. The variant flow of time in the First, and specifically the fact that a century has passed there since she arrived, is vital to Shadowbringers' story. Minfilia was never meant to be an immortal being, nor did she want to be. And while there's probably an interesting AU in her becoming mortal again and returning home (and I could see myself writing something like that), that's a very involved concept that wouldn't have worked well with the story Shadowbringers was telling. So, her fate was sealed when she departed for the First. Furthermore the way she goes out is really thematically in line with the Scions as a whole, from Louisoix to Moenbryda to Papalymo: one person giving their life to contain an existential threat--not even to destroy it completely, but to slow the tide so that others can carry on the fight. And Minfilia even takes it a step further, managing to stick around in some form long enough for the other Scions to make it to the First. The Warrior of Light even gets to see her one last time, so her promise to return to them when her work was done--it wasn't an empty one. We get to say goodbye.

I'm okay with this. It's a decent end to her story, given where we started from this expansion.

That doesn't make me especially okay with how we got here, though.

I am still a sprout here, having just started playing last year and being mid-Shadowbringers for the first time now. I was not around when ARR was new, and cannot speak to the fan reception of Minfilia at the time. I have heard through my grapevine, however, that she was not well-liked. Whether because she was a non-combat character, a quest-giver in an annoying location, a woman who told people to do stuff while wearing a mildly revealing outfit (and I do mean mildly)... Idk what the dealbreaker was. That's just what I've heard. Having heard that, though, it makes the choice to write her out at the end of ARR feel... motivated, in a way that maybe it otherwise wouldn't.

There is nothing meaningfully wrong with Minfilia's character in ARR that couldn't be said about any of the core Scions.

Wahhh I don't want to return to the Waking Sands for the 80th time? Fair, but that's a game design issue getting taken out on a character who happens to be connected to it. Call it the Preston Garvey Problem. Her outfit is silly? It's hardly meaningfully sillier than other NPC outfit designs, or Final Fantasy fashion generally. Go tell it to the catgirls in the 2b tights by the aetheryte. She doesn't even fight? Honestly kind of refreshing to me to see non-combat characters play a major role in the story, because fighting isn't the only thing that drives stories! (Hey, didn't Tataru have a whole subplot about that?)

She's underdeveloped? Name me a character who gets great character development in ARR. (There is a correct answer to this question. It's Cid Garlond. 😛) But the Scions? A handful of them feel like very well-rounded characters now because they've had whole expansions that explored them as people and deepened their relationship to the setting and story in meaningful ways--Lyse, Alphinaud, Alisaie, Urianger, Y'shtola, Thancred. But none of them are well-rounded in ARR. ARR is not about character development. It's basically a very long tutorial level that gets you acquainted with the world, its major conflicts, and the major players in those conflicts. The character-driven storytelling really starts with Heavensward. If we truncated all the Scions' stories at the end of ARR, I don't think the others are any deeper than Minfilia.

I liked Minfilia right off because she was kind and caring, and she had an obvious talent for bringing people together, probably in a similar way to Louisoix himself. Hence her becoming the Antecedent and continuing to do diplomatic work across three nations. Did she make mistakes? Yeah, absolutely. Lest anyone is tempted to single her out in the Crystal Braves disaster, though, I will point to what I said in my post about how the Scions failed Alphinaud: every adult in the room should have seen the red flags about that, and not one of them did, including Urianger who is extremely protective of the twins, and Thancred who is extremely protective of Minfilia. And yes, she was in charge, and she does bear a greater share of the responsibility. But whatever you think of that plot point, whether it's leaning a little too heavily on Rule of Stupid or whether believable for a group of idealistic apocalypse survivors with martyr complexes, it's written as something that all the Scions failed to foresee. And for the others, especially for Alphinaud, that mistake and subsequent disaster is used as an opportunity for character growth. Alphinaud has to confront his own arrogance, which drives his character growth as he continues to play a major role in every expansion. Yda/Lyse and Papalymo get themselves involved with the Ala Mhigan resistance, providing the setup for Stormblood and a tremendous amount of character development for Lyse. Y'shtola in desperation turns to darker and more dangerous forms of magic, setting us up for her transformation into a black mage in Shadowbringers where will continue to see her turn to dangerous magics at desperate times. Thancred's wilderness survival journey precedes us getting to see a darker and lonelier side of him. And so forth.

Minfilia throws herself on Hydaelyn's mercy, and gets tempered. I mean, carried unto her bosom, granting her a strength long sought. Because of course we're meant to take it as a given that she was weak before. She was the leader of an international organization who did diplomatic work across three nations, but she couldn't throw fireballs or hit people good with a stick, so. She loses her very will for a while there, until Hydaelyn mercifully decides she's strong enough to give it back to her.

And now, no one talks about the work she did as the Antecedent, or with the Path of the Twelve before that. It's all about her noble sacrifice, how she gave up her whole life to save the First. And she was noble, and generous, and a hero. But she was a person before that, and she could have been more. She could have been a character with a real arc, who got to struggle and learn from her mistakes and grow with us, as the others have.

Minfilia didn't get that. She got to be a sacrificial vessel for the salvation of others, over and over again until there was none of her left. And we never have to reckon with her feeling scared or uncertain or angry about this, because she is always the willing sacrifice, always noble and generous and a hero. Shadowbringers spends far more time on Thancred's feelings about Minfilia than on Minfilia's feelings about her own fate. And I do like Thancred, so please don't read this as me hating on him; I even liked getting more of their history onscreen, at first. But at a certain point I just wanted to shake him and say, You are not the only one who loved her! And your feelings about her are not the only thing that matters here!

I love characters who are deeply and deliberately kind, especially when they have a history that gives them plenty of reasons to be otherwise. I love characters with a passion and drive to make their world better, even when that comes at great cost. It's why I love Julie Farkas, and Vanessa Kimball. But I also like to see how they reckon with the cost, how they struggle with the burden of that kindness. I love it when Kimball loses her temper, when she isn't patient and virtuous all the time. We do finally get some of that with Ryne. But not for the original Minfilia. She goes gently into that good night with gentle words and a gentle smile. And yes, after a hundred years, she has earned a rest.

But having loved her gentle soul from the beginning, I am mourning what she could have been, if she had ever been allowed to be anything else.

#ngl i'm kinda fucked up about this #anne plays ffxiv #shadowbringers spoilers #stormblood spoilers #heavensward spoilers #arr spoilers #just spoilers all around #ffxiv critical #afk by the aetheryte #minfilia warde

[eagle-eyes-sideblog]

That Medical Anomaly

Summary

An AU where the reader is the subject of a secretive experiment that leaves them the perfect Player... among other things.

Possible triggering themes for this AU/story include medical trauma, descriptions of chronic illness, ableism, depression, and death. If I've handled anything insensitively, please let me know.

A more 'formal' introduction, along with rambling about my thought process, under the cut.

Self Aware MadCom belongs to @saltymongoose. The concept is really interesting to me, even aside from the xreader stuff (although it's definitely also that lmao). So I thought I might explore that a bit with a concept that's already been floating around my head for a bit. The world that the reader is from is deliberately left a bit vague, but it's sort of magical realism. Most relevant to this AU: there are things like doctors and computers existing alongside curses and other magical ailments.

Also, this doesn't really include much MadCom or SAMAU... Well, no interactions with the characters, anyways. It's mostly just an introduction to my ideas for this AU, so it describes more of what your life was like beforehand and how you found the series. Do also note that I've never played either M:PN game, so there might be some inaccuracies.

All that being said... enjoy!

~~~

You, along with several others, were the subject of an experiment when you were a teenager. It was so secretive, you were never even given the details of why it had been conducted. That, or you had forgotten, given that one of the major side effects of the experiment was memory loss.

The experiment itself was something about deliberately letting specific kinds of contagions into the subject's body. You knew a few of them were fungal, and many were magical in some way, although they were different for every experiment.

Apparently if they chose the right infections for the right subject and 'balanced' them properly with the individual's immune system... they would stabilize. This led to the subject gaining supernatural abilities based on whatever magical infections they had.

Of course, most of the subjects weren't so lucky. The various infections would usually just take their courses; often the combinations would very quickly kill the subject. Those that survived were left with permanent problems ranging from aphasia to compromised immune systems to seizures.

You were their star subject, the one better off than all the rest. The staff made sure to remind you of that every time you complained about anything. "Be grateful," they told you. "At least you can still speak. At least you're still recovering. At least you're still alive." They never said it out loud, but you heard the implication. All of this is only happening because of us.

Bullshit. You were only 'better off' because of sheer dumb luck. Had they succeeded? Maybe. But their idea of success didn't even take you into account.

And their idea of success still left you with problems. Yes, you have sharper senses now, and you can draw energy from more than just food. But you're face-blind, and your hands and feet are numb, and you sometimes hurt so badly that you can't walk.

Not to mention how unethical the experiment itself was. They didn't even study people who already had these conditions; they deliberately induced them. Hell, one of your roommates was six years old! Why they let her participate still bothered you today.

...But it wasn't all bad. You cherished the friends you'd made there, even if you'd lost contact with most of them.

Not just your fellow patients, either. Most of the staff were... annoying at the very least. But a few seemed to actually have your best interests in mind. For example, your favorite nurse, Max, recommended an animated series that might help take your mind off of things when you were in the depths of depression.

You very quickly fell in love with Madness Combat. The simple graphics, where characters were denoted by outfit and style rather than facial features, seemed perfect for you. You grew to adore Hank, Deimos, Sanford, Tricky, and every other character, getting invested in their fights even when nothing else made you happy.

And the episodes were just plain fun to watch. Even when you had issues with your memory, the fight scenes interested you more than enough to make up for it. The community, too, seemed to welcome you, and you came to cherish the friends you made there.

Not only that, but you found a little game on Newgrounds. Although your numb hands made it hard to play, it really did capture the things that made you adore Madcom to begin with. Your favorite nurse approved too; after all, it was an exercise in hand-eye coordination!

Naturally, you were beyond thrilled when Project Nexus came out. By that point, you'd already left the facility. And your memory had recovered enough to get well and truly obsessed with the lore.

You smiled, picking the Tourist difficulty and sitting back to watch the intro cinematic. This was going to be fun.

(Unbeknownst to you, it would also be much, much more than you bargained for.)

#reader insert #self aware m:pn au #that medical anomaly au #eagle eyed writing #madness combat x reader #do i dare maintag this #no probably not #btw name is taken from the medical anomaly #by really introverted producer (r.i.p) #it may change!! that song is just very good #i have more thoughts on this au but im eepy and shall go to bed now #samau

[alpaca-clouds]

Power Fantasies are personal

Playing Baldur's Gate 3 I realized something about myself and the way I play video games or games in general - and the way I perceive stories.

See, I always found myself kinda enstranged from the usual power fantasy. The "be the biggest, baddest guy, who can use force to archive everything, while also having everyone fall for them and being able to fuck whoever". A lot of modern media - especially the media aimed at an assumed male audience - kinda follows this kind of storytelling though. Power fantasies are about physical power. About being physically strong and having the biggest baddest spells or whatever. Which is also what most games in the end cater towards. And I mean, I can totally have fun beating up monsters, yes. But also... when I do play TTRPGs that is usually not how I go about things. In TTRPGs I will usually try to find a way to avoid combat as a player.

And this gets me to BG3, where I after some thinking decided to play a bard. Just for the fun of it. And this really kind of got me to realize what actually my power fantasy is.

My power fantasy is to talk sense into people.

My power fantasy is to be able to go to a person who is doing shitty things and make them see that what they are doing is actually shitty and convince them of doing something better with their abilities and what not.

I think a part of that is just the realization that in the end by convincing people you can do a lot more good than you can do by just forcefully basically killing everyone who is in your way.

It is also why I got kinda annoyed with BG3 in the third act. While Acts 1 and 2 allowed me as a player to convince a lot of people to join my side - both good and bad - this wasn't true in act 3 anymore, where often enough you ended up being forced into "Kill either A or B". You know, my main examples are from the main plot, where I ran into that problem with both Gortash and the "Emperor vs Orpheus" thingie. Where I was sitting there like: "I have +16 on persuasion, I should be able to convince them of another way." Like, if a DM on a TTRPG table told me to decide this, I would have been like: "I want to at least roll on this!"

Because, yeah. From my point of view the game allowed me to play my power fantasy for a long, long time. Until it stopped allowing me to do that suddenly. And that was just extra frustrating. It was basically the equivalent of a game taking away your fighting ability suddenly for the last 30% of the game and forcing you to do everything in like stealth or something.

And, yeah... I think we kinda do need more games that allow for a more varied kind of player approaches and power fantasies. Especially in stuff that claims to be a roleplay, you know? If I am playing a roleplay I want to, well, get a chance to play the kind of role I want. Rather than being forced into one specific role (aka the classical cis male powerfantasy of the stoic, but strong man who all cis women wanna fuck).

#power fantasy #role play #rpg #rpgs #tabletop rpg #baldurs gate 3 #bg3 #video games

[mekkanicalsol]

I think he bites a lot, no discernible reason for it either it’s just because he can.

Disgusting, fowl creature.

Some ramblings below the line here if you wanna read em for whatever reason

What’s really funny about this pairing is that yes it did start as an idea with me and a friend in RP stuff and it was all bittersweet and genuine in writing but nowadays the more I draw em the more I’ve leaned towards something likely closer to “how did this asshole get the bag” (ofc a lot of this is HC stuff but yea you know…..)

Mercury is greedy, selfish, rude, foul-mouthed, loose-tongued, likely narcissistic overall. He goes out of his way to get what he wants and he’ll even play dirty tricks to get things to go his way. How someone would even like him of all people is extremely difficult to think about. Also he likes communism and likely has stolen a gargantuan bronze Lenin head to leave in a Domino’s parking lot in Pyongyang Korea.

Dione on the other hand is a pure opposite. Obedient, diligent, extremely selfless but only because she’s under the notion that she has nothing to desire, nor does she deserve to be granted such a privilege as a lower rank— Especially the fact that she is significantly weaker than the other stardroids, only compensating for her lack of combat capability with her repairing, research and craft as a technician.

Initially Mercury was actually someone Dione was a bit more wary of than the rest of her superiors, given his contrasting behavior, but at the same time was oddly enough, envious? Probably something like “it must be nice” when he’s enjoying himself as she’s watching from the backlines, when he’s not well, being an absolute menace. She did also find his structure interesting, cause it’s all goddamn slimey metal of some sort. It’s drastically different than how the others work, and despite being knowledgeable in the stardroid’s anatomy, there are plenty other things she finds herself curious about when it comes to him specifically; Not like she would voice of that interest however.

Mercury beforehand just knew of Dione as one of Saturn’s moons. His younger sibling probably. Who knows. It was a peculiar moment once she was first introduced into the squadron as an assistant, wondering “why did he bring in a pipsqueak here?” Though the more she proved herself to be useful the more he somewhat grew a respect for her craft at the very least, but he honestly found her annoying. Annoying in the sense that she never spoke on her own behalf, her own thoughts and opinions, her monotone way of speech and the formalities and professionalism she would always put out— Never wanting to get into confrontation, never wanting to stir any trouble.

Feelings like love/romance are something both parties aren’t entirely familiar with nor bother with given the general nature of stardroids, etc. Weird ass space situationship

#mega man #rkgk #stardroids #oc #stardroid oc #oc x cc #oc x canon #yumeship

[torra-and-the-toons]

I know a large part of this could just be the writers becoming more accustomed to the characters personalities and how to play them off for the needs of whatever conflict is the basis of the episode. But I think it is kind of interesting to interpret Edd and Eddy's changing dynamic through the seasons as a form of character development. In the earlier seasons, Edd is a lot quieter, mumbles way more, and is generally a lot more passive. Even though he may have reservations about whatever scheme Eddy wraps them up in at first, he ends up going along with it. In the later seasons, Edd notably becomes way more outspoken, sarcastic, and openly critical towards Eddy. It is really interesting seeing Eddy's reaction to this because suddenly having someone combat with him rather than follow along really frustrates him. Not pointing fingers at Eddy in any way. For a kid his age that is used to being in charge all the time and suddenly having that challenged can be aggravating. As well in Edd's case, becoming more confident and learning to speak up for yourself is also a familiar development to have. Idk I see a lot of people sometimes complain about how the Eds personalities change in the later seasons, but it really makes sense to me. The show focuses a quite a bit on preteen situations. Friends dealing with slight changes in personality and dynamic kind of comes with the package. Either that or I am just reading too much into a cartoon yet again lol. Just thought the observation would be fun to share.

YES THANK YOU!!

I agree 110%, my friend!

As a storyteller at heart, I love noticing little things like this, how each character changes and develops throughout a show or series. And yea, some of it could be pinned on the writers like you said, but I like to see most of it as development, and this is honestly why I adore the later seasons so much more.

Often times when lurking on the EEnE subreddit I notice so many people complaining bout stuff like this, how Eddy feels more annoying in later seasons, or how Edd doesn't feel like a part of the group and I despise seeing posts like that because of what you've stated exactly.

I like to think Eddy is also to blame in Edd's change. There's probably more to his line "I'm rubbing off on you, Double Dee!" than he realizes. On top of that, I'm certain Edd got tired of getting in trouble so much over things that could have been avoided if he simply spoke up, being the rule-follower he is.

And I think the fact that, despite all of this and all of Eddy's selfish behavior, it's really awesome That Double Dee (and Ed for that matter) never gave up on him. There were times that Eddy really pissed me off in the show in how he treated his friends. But they stuck with him through and through.

And I also think that very statement is why the BPS ended with an apology from Eddy. It wasn't JUST about his Bro. He could have easily tried to play it off and fall back into old habits, but it was Eddy reflecting on his actions that broke him.

"When am I gonna learn, Double Dee?" He asks Edd specifically, which I think is interesting. And maybe it's because all this time, it was Edd who was combating him, trying to better him. And all this time, he wouldn't listen. And here he is, faced with the consequences of his own actions, but instead of playing it off like he usually would, grumbling and blaming it on someone else, he finally apologizes. He finally learned what Edd's been trying to tell him this whole time.

This is also why I'm such a die-hard EddEddy fan, as I'm sure is the case with most people.

I hope this all makes sense by the way, I've had a couple ciders and my head is in the clouds rn lmao

Thanks for stopping by though!

#friday night sleepover #torra rambles #anon #analysis

[felassan]

A few more snippets of interest and insight from Mark Darrah, from an older Mark Darrah on Games YouTube video where he was livestreaming playing Dragon Age: Origins some months ago -

Chat said "I am fine with any and all cameos, but I am not holding my breath for Sera and Vivienne to have anything more than a passing mention." Mark said, "I don't think they'll worry, if they want to put Vivienne and Sera in DA:D they'll do it. I don't think either of them have any quantum endings do they? Oh that's true, Vivienne can be Divine."

"The Darkspawn Chronicles DLC is canon-ish but definitely yeah, the team reserves the right to ignore it and has."

"I don't know why they've steered away from the tree ents [sylvans]. They could come back. They're nobody's favorite, so they just kinda fall down the priority list. If there was a good reason for them they could easily come back. You could have made a sylvan off the Behemoth rig from DA:I, but that would be weird and not really match the sylvans from DA:O. I think the way you would do it actually would probably be to build something off the giant rig, but again it would be different, so you'd really wanna make a custom rig."

[source]

He also talked more generally about DA:O and the franchise and things in general. These bits are collected under a cut due to length -

"Is it just me or are the conversation trees in Awakening much longer than they are in DA:O?"

"Yeah, Oghren is pretty problematic"

"The junk mechanic in DAII in inventory was a nice quality of life feature. Well, it's not 'junk', it's more mark-to-sell"

"Games take a lot longer to make now because the number of assets and the fidelity of them is so much higher. In the late 90s you literally couldn't do that much, it had to fit on a CD or a few CDs. Now you've got blu-rays which have fifty times as much space"

"I think classes are a good thing in general just from a usability perspective, and also if you're gonna have a party-based game you need class roles otherwise you just end up with a big mushy miss. But obviously it can take things off the table that you might want to do." Chat commented "Do you think having a set type of role limits how they can evolve?" Mark replied, "It does limit them to some degree, that's sort've somewhat the problem. You could always violate those limitations if you want. You can make the hand-to-hand mage specialization"

"You can definitely see that DAII and Awakening are like, very close to each other on different sides of the line"

"It is weird that you suddenly have stamina potions in Awakening"

Chat said "I personally disliked that only rogues can open chests. It's alright from the RP perspective, but was limiting the gameplay imho." Mark replied, "It's annoying, I mean, that I don't, the out of combat stuff was even moreso in DA:I. But I think tying the out of combat stuff to the in-combat stuff puts you in a position of weird choices based upon how you want to play and I don't know that that's great. 'You basically have to bring one of everything' was the point, was the idea in DA:I, but I don't know that it was a good one"

"Awakening is a really plot-heavy expansion, with an insane amount of side quest material"

"The problem in DAII isn't that, it's not asset reuse, it's actually level reuse. That's I think what pushes it over the edge. And calling them different levels. Also that cave is too identifiable, it's got very specific bits of architecture"

"The problem with the DA:O darkspawn is that they don't really fit together, especially the ogre, they kinda look like a totally different evolutionary path. DAII is definitely trying to get them into a consistent art style"

Chat said "Should DA have beast peoples like cat people, dog people, lizard people? Qunari is bull people right?" Mark replied, "Qunari are more like dragon people. No, I don't think DA has cat people and dog people. There's snake people referenced in lore. Yeah, it is implied that qunari are descended from dragons. Yeah, they have horns, that's their main thing for why they look like dragons, is they have horns like DA dragons"

"I'll probably watch Dragon Age: Absolution"

"The problem with the Fade in DA:O I thin is you can end up easily in this weird inception level of quests because you're doing Redcliffe, which leads you to the Mage Tower, which leads you to the Fade, so you're like so detached from your goal that it really undercuts it. It's not supposed to be filler but it definitely feels like it. You finish it and then you had to finish it again. It's weird pacing"

Chat asked "Is there a reason why we never went to Gwaren in DA:O?" Mark replied "We had enough areas to visit in DA:O already. And you don't really have a reason to go there. Loghain isn't there, and there's nothing that can help you there"

"I'm pretty sure that, one of the reasons this exists [recruiting Velanna in the Wending Wood segmet] is because sylvans weren't used very much, it's a good thing to use the creature model for in your expansion pack"

"Varric is carrying a lot more weight in DA:I than in DAII"

"Stun-locking the player character is not good game design typically. Crowd control used by the player character is fine, but when it's used on the PC, you know, standing around is not very fun"

[source]

(pls note that in places there is a bit of paraphrasing of the info, the best source is always the primary source with full quotes in their original context)

#dragon age: dreadwolf #dragon age 4 #the dread wolf rises #da4 #dragon age #bioware #video games #long post #longpost #dragon age: absolution

[omeletcat]

ALRIGHT IT TOOK ME A BIT TO GET MY HEAD STRAIGHT BUT I THINK I'VE FOUND A WAY TO FIX COMBAT IN MY GAME, MAKE IT MORE FUN, MAKE IT MORE ENGAGING, ANDDD MAKE IT MORE UNIQUE!!!! these are the 2 main characters in my game currently named sun and moon (caus i don't have good names yet) they play a big role in the story and until now i have only really been seeing sun as a bonus option for like extra damage in battle, BUT NOW I FOUND A PERFECT SOLUTION at the beginning of the game you start out alone as moon, with 2 main attacks and a dash, attack 1 is a floating hand you can slap and punch people with, the hand follows your mouse and can be used to pick stuff up and solve puzzles. attack 2 will be a bullet or a slash attack that shoots a slash in the air at the mouse. both of these attacks will have "variants" different changes based on certain environmental things like the distance of the mouse from the player when you use the attack, maybe even the movement of the mouse like drawing a circle before attacking. using these different variant sof the same attack will make boring fights less stale and way more engaging!!!! ALSO i got this insane idea: "combo's" what if i make it so using different attacks at the same time will make different effects? that will add even more creativity and intrigue into the game!! this whole revelation came from looking some more into magica 2 and smash, it made me realize the reasons why a single set of moves doesn't get very old very fast in those games, because there aer insane amounts of combo's and ways to use the attacks, that way it doesn't get stale!!!! moon (and sun) will of course get more attacks i already have 1 in mind but i already feel like i am spoiling so much on this blog lol. BUT THATS HTE MAIN PLAN BUT ALSO: SUN, before, i only thought of her as a supporting character, someone you can click on to use for an ultimate battle like (this is gonna be an insanely specific reference) this one inazuma eleven game (a football game imagine fifa but with more anime in it), if you shoot a ball when you are in a certain area and have certain requirements filled you can do a teamup attack that is extra strong. i though tof something like that, BUT THATS SO BORINGGGG, i don't want to make my secondairy character and one of my MAIN CHARACTERS A SECONDARY ACTION!!!! SOOO I LOOKED BACK AGAIN AT THOSE INAZUMA GAMES AND FOUND ANOTHER THING, IN THE FIFA GAMES AND IN INAZUMA YOU CAN SWICH CHARACTERS!!! you see waht i'm getting at??? you will be able to switch from Moon to sun to get a whole different attack pattern and options. sun will be more close combatty and have less distance then moon. soo when you're soulbar( kinda like a mana bar, every spell you cast/attack you use takes off a little bit of that meter, and it slowly fills itself up) is empty you can switch to sun and be forced to go close distance (a percentage of the mana is shared tho just to make it a real threat, or not idk? either i will make it so that mana is smth annoying you have to look after, or it will just be a meter saying " hey you haven't used this other character in a bit! go do that while your main attacks fill up again" but i'l figure that out some other time ANYWAY sun's moveset will look something like this a dash just like moon but instead of some kind of energy surge, sun blasts herself forward with fire or an explosion or smth. the first is a basic punch that blasts an explosion/fire in front of the punch for extra distance but only a little bit, just enough so its reachable, i imagine if you dash and then do this attack, it will make an extra big punch and blast the enemy away. the secondary attack will be a longer distance continuous fireblast that chips away your soulbar slowly, the dahs version may be a big long ass laser beam ish fireblast?

and then not rly an attack? but a thing she can do, she can make her raccoon flip suck up stuff and make a temporary shield against attacks. so all the bullets gets sucked up in his cute mouth ALSO in non battle scenario's both moon and sun have their own skills they use to progressin puzzle's and exploring levels, moon can huse their hand to do puzzle stuff and pick stuff up easy, and sun can smash big blocks of stone to open new area's (and more but i can't say anything caus that would be boringgg) so a bit of a summary this is what i will add to make the game less boring -attack variants -attack combo's -2 main characters with different movesets -a switch option between the characters -ingame puzzle adn exploration functions different to the 2 charactrs

#pixel art #pixelart #game design #game development #coding #indie game dev #game dev update #pixel game #pixel illustration #programming #game dev #game dev stuff #indie dev #indiegamedev #game dev blog #screenshotsaturday #indie game #game developers #game mechanics #game theory #video games #indie games #indie #gamedev #indie designer #sprites #sprite art #sprite edit #pixel sprite #my sprites

[single-malt-scotch]

i have watched bdubs and scar and so im gonna talk abt SL again like i did before. obvs spoilers!

i keep my posts pretty meta/only about the game, its mechanics, balance etc so i have no bias on players own actions. but i do want to talk about players and the final moments for a minute here!

obvs i like bdubs a lot and hes been very good at getting to almost the finals in all the series. hope ppl realize that more. if he had more hearts like scar did im sure he could of have gotten further too. etho's ep isnt out but i saw him die in scar's and scar's ep was wild for sure. i mean damn, there was hardly a way etho could have escaped scar when he landed right on top of him, insane. obvs i dont have a view on the others i havent watched but it was interesting to see how they ganged up in this series for the end. scar winning made me happy too, hes a really good player!!

bbut onto the gameplay. i dont wanna repeat myself so im kinda using this as an overall conclusion + specific thoughts about the finale.

its been established clearly that mods assign specific tasks to people at times. and the warden/wither + bogey were not something i enjoyed. this season felt way too "directed" as it went on... and i also think the tasks ability to grant you so much good stuff (a LOT of hearts) is what kept everyone out of being red so easily! which is probably why they did the bogey zombies. which is really just poor balance that no one clearly tested (i recall grian implying before that they dont really test anything but dont quote me on that). maybe a way to have improved that would have been reds were the only ones to gain hearts, and yellow/greens could not. i knew from the start that the heart giving mechanics this season were kind of pointless or overpowered. gifting one heart? really...? that doesnt add up to much of anything in the long run imo unless you manage to get hearts from multiple people. and then on top of that you get hearts back from the secret keeper too. i would have loved if this season was simply "no regen and thats it!" like a sorta UHC deal where you only can heal with specific items (and not 30 hearts prob? bc i understand the tasks were kind of a way to possibly make them die).

on big forced tasks it only made sense with this episode, since everyone is red, so i dont mind that. but again.... they had to force this to happen which is annoying to me. also in terms of balance i really wished they bring back strict rules on enchantments because that also gets frustrating to watch. but perhaps i just like fairness in combat due to watching so much UHC, which also is a death game.

the other issues i had were with reds and red tasks. as pointed out they forced reds in the previous sessions but no one had any time to do red tasks?? and admittedly it was kind of boring bc people couldnt interact about it without failing. but they could not team up properly and i think that is what red life is all about. all the reds coming together because they *need* to face yellows and greens, and hunt people down. but instead the few reds there had to be alone to do their traps, another social issue with this series where tasks often pulled people away from others and left them with videos where they were very alone. there being no space for greens and yellows to exist and get hunted is something i think is great in previous seasons too and it just didnt happen. all that getting forced in that one session just didnt flow well to me.

really even trying to look back at episodes, i cant recall any notable interactions between people i enjoyed minus some brief pauses when they were traveling to do their tasks. there just wasnt a lot of typical socializing! and thats what i didnt like with this series. this plus the balance issues of lives just made this series feel messy, and the length of the episodes due to tasks could be kind of boring if the task was boring or even felt too stressful to force them into places where they could just die (these kinds of dangerous tasks given to greens or yellows felt unfair, as if it was trying to force them to die, and as a viewer i wouldnt want the game make my fave die!).

and as i mentioned in a different post, the lack of fixing some issues in multiple seasons is wild to me. this season faced the same issue as limlife where deaths were not in chat. the episode after, they fixed it (still with some bugs). and then it happened again last session.... and they didnt fix it! this is also annoying bc people dont react to the deaths at all which you kind of wanna see you know? actually im not even sure why they still did it this way. i imagined the clock running out made it more complicated for the system of fying to work. but why this season....? seemed like pretty forward deaths. idk the tech side, but they had 3 solid lives like all the other season, and there were never issues with the death messages happening at all.

but anyways. theres multiple parts of this i mentioned above that just made this gimmick feel so messy and unbalanced, and sometimes not super interesting to watch. it was way too complicated some times. i know theyll likely never do a repeat of the old versions but man idk if i cant find myself liking future seasons if they start stacking so much on top of what is a simple concept. it has started to feel like the three lives havent mattered at all/arent really the focus-- the anxiety of having three times. and the stakes become less and less due to some of these new gimmicks (the ability to gain lives in so many easy ways- limlife and secret life- is why imo) makes death feel less of a problem especially when we know how buddy buddy everyone is now. people need to be limited like before, and be more anxious. 3L, LL, and DL had people quickly establishing their friends bc they knew right from the get go that the series really depended on them being alive and nothing else. the only focus was to stay alive and not die. DL was where ppl kinda chilled a bit on alliances bc they knew each other more but, death was still right around the door with health being tied, it still brought a similar kind of anxiety for players.

i do hope people like grian can recognize these issues behind the scenes bc genuine critique for this series/season is important. like i hope they dont brush off the fact "hall monitors" were an issue-- they can ignore them openly in their videos.... but there is a reason why its a problem that started at all. the concept was way too subjective and hard to judge! so id hate for them to decide "eh, lets not listen to them, im gonna keep doing this and not consider the issue for a new season" right? and hour long episodes? thats crazy, and i dont think it was good for a lot of cc imo, because it made me way less likely to watch or even finish others' episodes. i hope that makes sense... stakes need to be raised, and i think limlife still achieved that to some degree because time was still very sensitive and risky to take. but then SL comes in bringing way too many things that keep them alive far too easily, leaving very little concern as long as they got their task in.

and last thing is from the outside pov i get concerned about this season happening only 6 months after the last one. because that would very very easily cause a burn out/inability to make more gimmicks real quick. i find this particularly odd bc this season too place through multiple holidays...! not sure if they thought this one through very well. considering how much limlife changed things in a way that was a bit more complicated, and then have SL with even more going on.... id just be worried about how much new stuff would even be made after this.

before this season started i was thinking to myself that i would be fine if this was the last one (it was speculation off some posting 3L compilations that was being me think itd be 'over' bc that was the first season). and truly i would be fine if they stopped forever for for a long time. i dont want to start disliking this series if they keep going in this direction... i will ALWAYS enjoy seeing these people play together and it will no doubt keep me watching but, i would hope that i will enjoy what they do for the next seasons and not fall down this path of convoluted, unbalanced and complicated concepts.

#secret life spoilers

[zahri-melitor]

New(ish) Comics (this is the best week of the month, no lie)

Batman – Santa Claus: Silent Knight #1: this is fun. I like the way Bruce and Damian are written together. I am annoyed Babs is out as Batgirl. I'm amused that Tim is very specifically excluded from the story that involves real Santa given he'd not be wondering 'ooh oooh is Santa real' like Dick is here.

Someone had better give Darkseid some coal, is all I can say.

Batman #139: …so we really are running Batman and Batman & Robin with contradictory plots right now. Cmon. There was even a way to finagle this so that Damian could be living with Bruce and have Zdarsky’s plot still work! Grump.

“I’m coming for you, Joker. I’m coming for all three of you. For the last time.” (actually there’s a printing error in this line and the letterer has ‘For the the last time’) I disbelieve this Zdarsky, sorry, though if you could figure out a way to get Joker out of the Bat books for a few years I think everyone would enjoy that.

Now that aside, I do want to note that apparently my decision to (re)read all of Henri Ducard’s appearances seems to have been prescient, given Zdarsky has just referred to ‘manhunting’, ‘training when I was young’ and ‘Paris’ all together. That’s Ducard. That trio is 100% Ducard. Sounds like I need to finish Henri Ducard’s post-2016 appearances, which I was delaying. So Batman: The Detective and Batman: The Knight are jumping up my reading list. (And a quick look at ‘Lucie Chesson’ says she’s from Batman: The Knight, so yep, gotta read)

Joker + dolls always makes me think of NML Endgame, personally.

Birds of Prey #3: Damn this continues to just be a solid read. Thompson keeps hitting yet another 'look I can be trusted' target every issue.

I could do with at least 30% less Harley commentary in this book, but I do acknowledge that at least half the team are unlikely to talk much in a combat situation. Future!Maps is cute and as I slowly approach Maps content I’m excited to meet her more. Also… SIN MY SWEETHEART. I have been waiting for this hug for SIXTEEN YEARS. (Literally. I was in DC fandom in 2007 when they were torn apart). Also loooooooooool Ollie got curbstomped by Diana, sucks to be you Ollie.

Blue Beetle #3: Oh I couldn’t help myself (in terms of how many panels I already posted), but Blue Beetle is doing such interesting things right now. Victoria’s finally being acknowledged on page as being super sus and villainous (rather than just slinking around being sus and concerning me deeply). I’m getting more and more worried about the identity of the Red Beetle. We got Traci back! Which from what I hear means that Trujillo is glossing over some of Traci’s recent characterisation, but we’ll see how this tracks (and in any case, re-establishing Jaime’s connections to the magic/dark side of DC via Traci is helpful if we’re about to do a Dan Garrett story).

Free my girl Dani Garrett if we’re doing a Dan Garrett storyline, she’s an autistic mildly amoral archaeologist and I desperately, DESPERATELY want to see her arguing with Victoria Kord over who ‘owns’ the scarab while Jaime’s standing in the middle going ‘excuse me nobody owns Khaji Da, it’s its own being! And my friend!’

Fire & Ice: Welcome to Smallville #3: hello Jimmy Olsen! Hello Turtle Jimmy lore! (I love how silly this book is. I do enjoy JLI stuff that doesn’t take itself seriously) I’m getting attached to a few of the new villains, particularly Linka Grodd.

Shazam! #5: MARY SIGHTING. Darla remains tiny and adorable and I love her too. This comic remains committed to ridiculous fun villains (and Waid and Mora have apparently been off raiding the ‘underused weird Silver Age villains’ list). Mr Dinosaur is an amazing addition to the canon. (And yes. Billy rebuilt the moon. Oh Shazam!) Also I see we are still back firmly in the ‘jealous Freddie’ plot that’s been hanging around for a while.

Warlord #25: this week we check back in with Tara, Mariah and Machiste. Grell’s done some fabulous art for the splash page that I really really like.

Travis is fighting *checks notes* snow giants as he's still too ashamed to come hang out with his friends and partner after the whole 'I killed Joshua' incident a few issues back. He's also cutting all sort of things with his Damascus Steel sword which I have to remind everyone and note is highly suspicious damascus steel, because it's made from a RIFLE and there is no way the type of steel used was able to be worked as damascene, given it likely was alloyed wrong.

I love Ashir here (the guy actually wearing clothes) as firstly, look! A rare appearance of someone with most of their skin covered! Secondly, Travis' burn of "I didn't know you had character".

Anyway, Travis is moping a bit here about being a lone warrior. You could go and hang out with your friends any time you want, Travis. You're the one who left, not them.

#z canon read throughs #newish comics #tuesday spoilers

[zealfruity]

I gotta know more about Jedi Cutup

How does he handle his antics totally not getting under Quinlan's skin?

On a scale of 1-10, how hard does their shitposting break that scale?

Is he any good with his saber? What's his favorite form of the seven? Does Quinlan teach him any -non- Jedi forms?~

How resonant in the Force does he become/what are favored "powers"?

I’m so happy you asked me this. Mostly because i love Cutup but also because I didn’t really think beyond that? So here’s what I’ve cooked up for you:

1. He keeps upping the antics. If Quinlan is unphased or perfectly in tune with whatever's Cutup's cooking up (which is most of the time that guy gets up to so much bs)? Cutup gets more ambitious. At some point he does realise that it's not going to work, but it takes a lot of trying and failing. The only time he ever threw Quinlan off his stride was the first time Quinlan heard about him from Obi-Wan, and then maybe after Cutup catches onto a Force trick very quickly Vos didn’t expect it. Afterwards Cutup didn't have much luck, which is annoying when part of your whole Thing is that you imbalance and inconvenience authority 24/7.

2. I'm not really sure what you mean here, my reading comprehension can be iffy. The Vos and Cutup duo get into a lot of shenanigans, they're a good apprenticeship match. Shit gets done but the way it gets done always ends up being…. Out of the box. So I guess 9/10, knowing eachother def raised their individual Hijinks Magnets’ strenghts.

3. He's alright with it, just not used to close range stuff. He was trained as a grenadier, which involves a lot of aiming+throwing explosives far away and then shooting deadly blaster fire at ennemies. He's good at aiming blaster bolts when deflecting them, and he's not a very traditional fighter so that definetely helps him out. Form V is the one he's best at and likes the most, and when learning with the practice saber, it was definetely the one he had to use the most if ever he needed to (still being at war on the frontlines and all). he has the physical capabilities energy to use Form IV (he was always a little bit of a showoff, he's the kid who does sick flips on the trampoline and then probs hurts himself doing a backflip wrong). It saps him of his force strenght quickly though and he hasn't quite mastered the spatial awareness it needs, so he has to be careful.

4. Cutup's gotten good at some niche hand-to-hand techniques that Quinlan knows. He learns how to use a blaster/saber way of fighting where the saber is mostly used for defence and some close combat, and the blaster used for offence and long range. Quinlan helps him merge what he’s been taught his whole life being a trooper and the new things he’s learning from the Jedi in peacetime.

5. He's not the strongest Jedi in the room, he's pretty average and the years of uncontiously supressing something like that for self preservation reasons (kamino + war = bad mixture for an untrained force sensitive, also some story and lore stuff that I don't feel like getting into right now). He's good at the whole "something is about to happen" feeling and can manage to get decently specific with it. he's learned how to concentrate his usage of the Force in one big, short burst that can have pretty cool results (but tire him out emmediately afterwards, any further Force usage is difficult and can leave some damage to him). It's the longer lasting, consistent usage (used for say, deep meditation, holding smth up for longer than 30 seconds, and sensing larger amounts of people) that he has a lot of trouble with. Gets really good at timing when to enhance his strenght and speed with the Force in short moments, but again: keeping it consistent during a fight is not his strong suit.

Hope this helped :)) As always, my ask box is open ✨

I like how little guy he looks here.

#zeal talks #domino squad lives au #tcw cutup #tcw #clone wars #force sensitive cutup #force sensitive clone #quinlan vos #au #star wars

[sunshine-in-a-bottle]

Okay pls tell me how rivals would be amzing for mass effect AU

(Mass Effect was the first game i ever cried about (happy tears though))

OK OK OK OK LISTEN TO ME LISTEN LISTEN LISTEN I HAVE A WHOLE THING ABOUT THIS I HAVE HALF WRITTEN FANFICTION AND VAGUE STORY IDEAS AND HAVE REDOWNLOADED MASS EFFECT SPECIFICALLY BECAUSE I HAVE THOUGHTS ABOUT THIS

ok so first of all listen to me Commander Shepard is Techno. Listen to me he was Earthborn, fighting in the pits of his city, and then he became a Hero and he's the very best at what he does as a human and he is a Soldier and what the fuck do you mean the government is just going to ignore this very obvious threat. Its Time For Techno To Go Off The Fucking Rails I Guess. Fuck the police and fuck the government there is a Giant Ass Murder Thing attempting to destroy the galaxy and Techno actually likes living there sometimes. And maybe he picks up some old friends, some new ones, maybe he learns he doesn't have to do things by himself. There are people he can rely on, friends even. And they mean so much to him. He'd do anything for them. He'd sacrifice himself for them even. (People always hc that Techno's totem scars are cracks down his face. In Mass Effect 2, when Shepard's brought back to life, they have facial scars too. Commander Techno, awakened, with scars glowing gold.)

Listen To Me. Listen. Dream as a Quarian. The Mask The Faceless The Hated By All For Bringing The Geth. And he's a scientist and he loves his family, his flotilla, he wants to bring back things to how they used to be. He wants their homeworld back. He wants so much, and when he has the chance to bargain with Techno and the Council, he takes it. He's going to use every advantage he has to bring his family home. But he's also Just A Guy. He's got a fun little LED smile on his mask, he gets So Excited over the stuff in Techno's ship. Techno Do You Know What This Cool Thing Powering Your Ship Does Because I Do I Have To Talk About It Now. Dream has a million tools and traps for his enemies and his adhd demands he infodump about the concept of Life and Death and What Does It Mean To Have A Soul and How Does This Relate To AI. Dream thinks AI can love, Dream thinks that his little combat drone is adorable and he calls it affectionate pet names. He has no sense of self preservation even when his suit is the only thing keeping him alive. Techno brings him with on almost every mission, because even if Dream can be annoying as fuck sometimes, he's also incredibly useful.

(Its an injustice, how the quarians are treated. Techno sits with him at the ship's core, and Dream grips the railing so tightly he hears it creak.)

Dream's ideas of AI maybe Actually Having Souls and maybe being able to work with the geth are not popular ones, so him sharing it with Techno is a sign of trust. He is so much less open with a lot of the other people on the ship. He needs to look strong, because he is. Because anything less will get him crushed by the system that scorns him.

When he hears about Techno's sacrifice, Dream is quiet. A trusted ally, a friend, family? He could have been considered family. They relied on each other to save the world together, and Techno told him that his ideas werent foolish (mostly,) and when Dream finally succeeded and got to build a house on his homeworld, he had wanted to invite Techno to come see.

(when he meets Techno again, he's wary. Doesn't want to get his hopes up that its really him, and not some clone that Cerberus made to get him off his guard. But Techno cracks a smile and knocks on his helmet and makes fun of him like he used to, and despite everything, its still him.)

Techno has a Lot of thoughts about Cerberus (A lot of them consist of Fuck These Guys) and a lot of thoughts about his own humanity. People accuse him of being a fake, less than human, a computer that just thinks he's Techno, Not A Person. He was brought back from death, is it really still him? (It is, Philza says, it always will be) but it haunts him. Its only when he cuts ties with Cerberus and takes off with their ship that he can breathe. He still has his ideals. He's still himself, at his core.

Listen I have More Thoughts Many Thoughts But Thats For Another Time I Am Zooming But Listen To Me They Are So Important Do You Understand My Rivalsduo My Boys My Guys

#my writing #suds asks #Listen To Me Are You Listenign #I have to replay the games and then rewrite the entire story to fit around These Two Characters (as usual)