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lord-squiggletits · 5 months

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One of my favorite parts of phase 2 (and indeed one of the few moments I resonated with IDW Prowl) was when the neutrals were coming back to Cybertron and Prowl said that he refused to let Autobots be pushed aside and overruled after they were the ones who fought for freedom for 4 million years (the exact wording escapes me atm).

And I mean, that resentment still holds true even once the colonists come on bc like. As much as it's true that Cybertron's culture is fucked up, and as funny as it can be to paint Cybertronians as a bunch of weirdos who consider trying to kill someone as a common greeting not important enough to hold a grudge over.... The colonists POV kind of pissed me off a lot of times, as did the narrative tone/implications that Cybertronians are forever warlike and doomed to die by their own hands bc it just strikes me as an extremely judgemental and unsympathetic way to deal with a huge group of people with massive war PTSD and political/social tensions that were rampant even before the war?

Like, imagine living in a society rife with bigotry and discrimination where you get locked into certain occupations and social strata based on how you were born. The political tension is so bad there's a string of assassinations of politicians and leaders. The whole planet erupts into an outright war that leads (even unintentionally) to famine and chemical/biological warfare that destroys your planet. Both sides of the war are so entrenched in their pre-war sides and resentment for each other that this war lasts 4 million years and you don't even have a home planet any more. Then your home planet gets restored and a bunch of sheltered fucks come home and go "ewww why are you so violent?? You're a bunch of freaks just go live in the wilderness so that our home can belong to The Pure People Who Weren't Stupid And Evil Enough To Be Trapped In War" and then a bunch of colonists from places that know nothing about your history go "lol you people are so weird?? 🤣🤣 I don't get why y'all are fighting can't you just like, stop??? Oh okay you people are just fucked up and evil and stupid then" ((their planets are based on colonialism where their Primes wiped out the native populations btw whereas the Autobots and OP in particular fought to save organics. But that never gets brought up as a point in their favor)) as if the damage of a lifetime of war and a society that was broken even before the war can just magically go away now that the war is over.

Prowl fucking sucks but he was basically the only person that pointed out the injustice of that.

And then from then on out most of the characters from other colonies like Caminus and wherever else are going "i fucking hate you and your conflicts" w/ people like literal-nobody Slide and various Camiens getting to just sit there lecturing Optimus about how Cybertronians are too violent for their own good and how their conflicts are stupid, with only brief sympathetic moments where the Cybertronians get to be recognized as their own ppl who deserve sympathy before going right back to being lambasted.

Like I literally struggled to enjoy the story at multiple points because there was only so much I could take of the characters I knew and loved being raked over coals constantly while barely getting to defend themselves or be defended by the narrative so like. It was just fucking depressing and a little infuriating to read exRID/OP

#squiggposting #and like dont get me wrong barber wasnt trying to make cybertronians the bad guys or whatever #it's just a problem with his writing where like. he has A Message he wants to send #and so he uses the entire story literally just for The Message even if it involves bullshit plotlines #or familiar characters ppl were reading about for the past decade being shit on by OCs made up to fill a new roster #like barber's writing tends to lean way too much on a sort of lecturing tone #without giving proper care towards including moments where characters get to like. fucking express themselves and share their side #sort of like how barber couldnt be bothered to write pyra magna and optimus actually talking to each other during exrid #and instead during OP ongoing pyra is suddenly screaming about how OP is unteachable #even tho she never even tried to teach him bc she and OP never interacted bc i guess barber couldnt be bothered #he just needed someone to lecture OP so fuck making the story make sense or like letting OP get to say anything in defense #this is the infuriating part of barber's writing bc i think he has incredible IDEAS and was in charge of the lore i was most interested in #but most of the time his execution sucks and he's basically just mid with a few brilliant moments occasionally #or like he has a message about the cycle of violence he wants to convey #but his narrative choices trying to convey that theme made his story come off as super unsympathetic to the ppl who suffered #to the point where barber actively kneecapped some scenes that couldve been super fucking intense and emotional #in favor of the characters lecturing each other or some stupid plot to criticize OP #that time in unicron where windblade screamed about how this is their fault and then arcee replied that her planet is build on coloniation #shouldve happened more often than literally the last series of the ocntinuity. like goddamn stfu about your moral superiority #when your own sins are right fhere lol

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bitchfitch · 1 year

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MOTHER FUCKER SPOTTED T POSING. GAY SHIT IM GOING TO HAVE TO BANISH THE CHILD FOR TO ENSUE.

#totk spoilers #also can i just say how Fucking Scared i was that they were just retconning the champions out of existence??#the divine beasts are gone and the story is going out of its way to avoid mentioning them or their pilots.#Miphas spring was the first time i found Any direct mention of them.#its an Area name.#Daruk and Revali may as well not have existed.#like. I didn't stop to talk to a lot of npcs bx i couldn't be fucked to do so #but Man.#It feels like they should have been mentioned in the main story at Some point #I straight up couldn't sleeo last night bc i was so worried theyd just fucking #Unexisted my second favorite character in this entire franchise.#Like i know Mipha isnt anything special by loz princess standards but i just love her ok.#i love her aesthetic #and seeing her statue was replaced in the domain was a bad feeling because like. that basically confirmed it for me that the game #was just going to pretend she never existed #which it still is but the spring having this name Helps. its a bandaid on a gunshot wound

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spark-circuit · 1 month

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was talking to my friend about how Gallagher's character stories sound like people are writing noir detective poetry about him

#i have only just started penacony but I've basically been a gallagher main my entire playthrough #he has carried me so many times i cannot WAIT to see him in story finally 💖#honkai star rail #hsr #hsr gallagher #honkai star rail gallagher #spark talks about nothing of relevance #now that's what I call shitposting #spark's honkai adventures #me: *grabs the nearest billboard* WHERE IS THE BAR

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inbarfink · 1 year

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Okay, so like, I love Undertale to bits, but it does often rub me the wrong way when people use it in comparison to games like OFF, which condemn the Player’s violent actions without actually offering the option for a Pacifist resolution, like “well, Undertale is Objectively Better because there’s an actual choice to be nonviolent so it can actually condemn the player in a meaningful way”.

Especially with OFF, I think. Cause while many people consider it a predecessor to Undertale, their themes and the way they relate to their “What the Hell, Player” moments are very different, I think. And this attitude of judging them purely on whatever they’re effective at making the player ‘feel bad’ about their actions is really reductive for what both games are trying to do with these kinda moments.

Like, in general it’s super frustrating when video game moments discussing morality and player-player character relationships are evaluated purely in the sense of ‘are these games justified in Making Me Feel Like a Bad Person’. That’s usually a super-reductive way to look at video game morality. And I really don’t think it helps the discussion to frame “What the Hell Player” moments as an actual personal attack or attempt to evaluate your IRL morality.

And specifically with OFF, I feel like it’s actually very thematically important that the game only has one ‘Route’ and that it is the ‘bad’ one. Because OFF, in my reading at least, is a game very much about narrative framing. Like, that’s the whole thing with the Batter not actually transforming as his Special Ending Monster Duckie Form.

The Batter didn’t change, our point of view did. When we’re controlling the Batter, it is his POV that we’re seeing the world through - and in his POV he’s just an ordinary guy doing the right thing. But if we take the Judge’s side, we’re also taking on his POV. And the Judge, much like any other victim of the Batter, sees him as some sort of monster.

And that’s like a huge theme in the game. While there’s probably no POV that makes the world of OFF like an actually good place to live, it is important to note we are viewing it through the perspective of someone who has already vowed to destroy it. I know a lot of people look at the difference between the Guardians as they are in the Room’s Chapter 4 and the Guardians as the Batter face them as a matter of a personal change between then and now - I think the matter of different perspectives also plays a part.

In the Room we are viewing Dedan, Japhet and Enoch through the eyes of an innocent child that is desperate for companionship and sees them as friends - in the rest of the game we are viewing them through the eyes of a man who sees them as obstacles in his holy mission and upholders of a world that must be destroyed. Neither of them can give a truly unbiased perspective when it comes to the Guardians.

And despite the game making it explicit that the Batter is as a puppet controlled by the Player - although the Player is the one who give the Player Character power - it is the Batter who manipulates the Player into aiding him on his mission by framing it in a way that is more palatable. Despite all the power the player supposedly holds, the Batter holds the power over the narrative framing, and that’s enough to let him take control.

That’s why there’s really no choice in the game but keep helping the Batter along his ‘Holy’ mission - him being able to influence our framing also means being able to influence the options we can see. It is the Batter who wants us to see a world where his violence and destruction is the only possible solution. And the point of the Judge calling out the Player for continuing along the Batter’s set path (rather than stopping the game and turning it off) isn’t just to Make the Player Feel Bad for doing what they need to do to, like, see the whole of this well-crafted story....

It’s to make the Player self-reflect. When did they first had the inkling that the Batter isn’t on the up-and-up? If (‘if’ bring the keyword here) it was all real, when would the point where continuing to aid the Batter would be morally inexcusable? By the point the Batter is beating a defenseless child to death it’s pretty darn clear that We’re the Baddies, but did the Player process any of the hints beforehand? Just how much sway did the Batter’s framing of the world and the narrative hold over the player? And how this is different and similar to how the Player normally engage with other narratives, especially other RPGs?

There is a reason, after all, why the Judge big speech at the end is also about how felt deceived and tricked by the Batter’s words. His feelings are meant to be a reflection of a Player’s on some level.

And despite ‘calling-out’ the Player, he does make it clear he also sees himself as culpable of aiding the Batter in his henious actions. The Player and the Judge’s situations are somewhat paralleled here.

And it feels very notable that the Judge starts out explictly addressing to the Player much more than the ‘Puppet’:

And by the ending of the game, although he does call-out the Player to, he’s got a lot more to say to the Batter as well.

I think it’s because he also underestimated the power the Batter had as a ‘Puppet’ of the Player, up until he realized how he managed to manipulate both him and the Player (although he still sees both himself and the Player at fault for falling for it and helping the Batter).

I think the main point here is to try and make the Player think more critically about the narratives they engage with. In many ways, the Batter is the concept of the RPG protagonist dilluted to its logical extreme. He was literally brought into existence just moments before the story started, and his only purpose in life is to defeat all the bosses, ‘finish’ all of the areas and then just turn the game OFF. That’s also why siding with the Batter is considered the ‘canon’ ending of the game, in this allegory it is the ending that correspond most to Regular Player Behavior.

It’s trying to make you think about how different POVs and narrative framing can be used to change the way we view a story. If the Batter can skew the lens we view the story enough so that it makes us side with him… how other forms of media, and in this case espacially other games can convince us that the protagonist’s actions are justified and heroic? Is there some ignored angle in this and that game, some ignored ‘Judge’ of sort, that would totally reframe the supposed morality of the story?

I think that’s the main thing, or at least one of the main things, one is supposed to get from OFF. Not just a blanket sense of guilt for all the made-up pixels you killed in this game or other games, but an invitation to try and examine the stories you play from more angles, and think more of the narrative tricks that can be used to justify morally dubious actions. For this to work, the game has to work in tandem with the Batter and his POV for the most part. And because of all of this, I believe OFF’s lack of a ‘moral choice’ system does not take away from its central points and actually helps them. The only choice comes when the Judge barges in and offers a counter-narrative to the Batter.

Undertale, in contrast, is a lot more about Player Actions and Player Agency. Like, Chara and a Murder-Route Player have essentially a reverse dynamic from the Batter and a Normal Ending Player. With the Player convincing the Player Character (?) into the viewpoint that the world exists just to be drained of Content before turning it Off and moving on to the next one.

Undertale is more about the Player having power, and not just in the Unkillable Time God sense, in the sense of the power to reframe and change the narrative. Both the Undertale Pacifist and Murder Route has an element of going ‘off script’ of what the game story ‘expects’. Like, the Normal Ending is the only one where the the Player just does what was expected of them and engage with the game world in the same way all the other characters do - that’s just why it only exist to try and convince you to go on one of the other routes.

The Pacifist Route is about the Player using their Aforementioned Unkillable Time God Powers to break away from the world’s general resignation to violence as the answer and proving to everyone a peaceful resolution is possible. The Murder Route is about the Player engaging with the world like… an ordinary RPG basically (as long as you’re heavy on the grinding) and in the process twist the entire narrative into something much darker. The narrative isn’t tricking you into it, if anything, the narrative is subtly nudging you to the Pacifist Ending.

If Undertale comes off as a more effective ‘condemnation’ of the Player than OFF, that’s probably because compared to OFF Undertale is more about what the Player does and the Player’s actions. I still don’t think it’s a very productive to paint it as, like, trying to Shame you. It just makes things far too unnecessarily personal in a really weird way, and it also kinda isolates discussion of the game’s mortality to only how justified it is within the game’s own context - without any acknowledgement of what the game’s trying to say in a larger context when it makes the characters so darn lovable and makes it so heartbreaking when they die.

Both in context of how we can try and take the game’s ideals into the real world....

And how it relates to other video games. And I mean, Undertale isn’t just about whatever violence in video game narratives is really necessary - that’s absolutely part of it but also, it’s about how Players engage with video game narratives. And whatever looking at them as just challenges to be one by getting the Big Number....

or challenges you need to 100% complete and drain every single secret from

can take away from what makes a good story actually work.

There’s a reason why the in-universe ‘morally correct’ to play Undertale is to experience the True Pacifist ending once and never open it again. (I dunno if I’ll say the Message of Undertale is ‘looking up all kinds of different minor options and content mining always ruins the magic of stories’ and if it is it’ll be a very funny case of a game’s fandom disproving its own thesis, but it’s certainly something the game wants you consider.)

Despite the obvious influence OFF had on Undertale and especially on it’s Murder Route, I actually think it might be more useful to compare it to Deltarune, at least once we see more of it and where it’s going. With both of these games exploring a very complicated power dynamic between player and player character and the player being robbed of moral choice and possibly forced to do bad things to advance the narrative - it might be actually a more interesting comparison.

#Off #undertale #undertale meta #undertale analysis #off game #you see on one hand I can't say I enjoy the story of Undertale LESS just because the fandom complied this big ol' lists of Every Single #Event Trigger in the whole entire game or something #but on the other hand there is something very impactful about going through the Pacifist Route #and KNOWING you won't be able to justify to yourself doing a True Reset #so you just try your best to do everything that you can and really experience the game to it's fullest before you have to say Goodbye to #all of these characters basically forever #and espacially after just helped Asriel agree to let US go and move on #the fact the game also pleads for us to go and move on does enchance the emotional power of the ending on some level I think

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thatgirlonstage · 4 months

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Holds Natsuki Subaru in my hands

#re:zero #tal reads #I have. my current super loose overarching theory is #that in some grander Fate’s Design sense this boy is SUPPOSED TO BE DEAD #I don’t know WHY but I think he’s not supposed to survive #and that whatever Satella did with the return by death thing was basically a like #glitch in the universe that forces it to keep retrying until it finds the one (1) reality where he survives #you know your dr strange ‘in how many realities do we win’ ‘just one’ type thing #my WILDLY speculative theory about this is that there was another whole timeline that Subaru has forgotten #and that the entire story is a time travel/resurrection spell to save him gone wonky as hell #where the universe knows he isn’t supposed to be alive so IT KEEPS TRYING TO KILL HIM #but every time it succeeds it has to reset and let him try again #I HAVE VERY LITTLE EVIDENCE FOR THIS. TO BE CLEAR.#like I have a LITTLE but it is 92% just me Making Shit Up that sounds vaguely possible #but. regardless. my theory is that it’s not Like This just bc subaru sucks #it’s like this bc the game is rigged both for and against him simultaneously #so he’s gonna survive but it’s gonna suck the WHOLE time

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the-halfling-prince · 2 months

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So I play Rise of Berk a lot but I've only recently gotten to the parts that take place past the second movie and basically I can sum it up as:

Gobber: Hiccup you have to run the village.

Hiccup: No thanks. Bye ✌️

Astrid: Gobber, Hiccup won't pay attention to me.

Gobber: Idk what you want me to do about it.

Valka: Hey how do I have a heart to heart with my son?

Gobber: With your son? You don't.

Eret: What the fuck is this fucking village.

#Near exact quote from the game:#Valka: Son if you want a relationship to work you have to put time into it.#Hiccup: ... Bold words coming from the MF who didn't see her husband for 20 years.#Me: DAMN #There was one part where Spitelout was like 'damn none of this would've happened if I was chief' and gobber was like 'yikes. Weird thing to #say to a dude who just lost his dad.'#Gobber absolutely carries the story part of this game #how to train your dragon #rise of berk #my posts #The entire thing is basically 'hiccup avoids his responsibilities and also grief.'

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flowerflamestars · 14 days

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Effloresce Mor thoughts again. She rocks up, expecting to smile and play nice with Feyre's sisters, instead she ends up winnowing right into the middle of... this. Whatever 'this' is. She finally finds Rhysand is is like "Rhys, Rhys why didn't you WARN me? Cassian's whole personal legion is on the front lawn Rhys! Why is this human estate overrun with Ilirians? Why didn't you warn me that Cassian's losing his shit, Rhys? Why didn't you warn me that Feyre's sisters like THAT?! They called me your heir, Rhys! Nobody does that! Why are they talking about an evacuation? Who the fuck are we evacuating and why? This was supposed to be a diplomatic mission Rhys. I just bounced off blood wards Rhys! Blood wards! Why are there--"

Lucien fucking Vanserra waltzes in wearing his best courier's smile. "Oh hello new unexpected we weren't informed about :) :) Shall I have another guest room prepared? :) :)"

"RHYSAND!!!"

(And of course, being a snobby personification of the "not to be a lesbian on main" meme at Nesta)

So, Morrigan has a pet theory as to what the hell is up with Feyre's sisters (specifically Nesta). It's a)wrong, b)revealed at the worst possible time, and c)the DEFINITION of wow you want to fuck that girl so bad you've lost your mind. Struck stupid. Seething derangement. Mor is living out a whole rivals to lovers au in her head that sharply turns into a princess in a tower fantasy. Baby girl would like to be sweeping Nesta Archeron off her mortal feet, please and thank you.

(If Nesta fucks Cassian first well, Mor was really there first, wasn't she? It'll just bring her closer.)

Mor is, you're correct, pissed as hell. However, crucially, she's also...feeling a lot of feelings about the matter.

Something I've never seen addressed, probably because the books turn her into a cardboard cutout of a character is that, I can't imagine she doesn't feel some way just about Feyre? They end up friends but ALSO, does Mor have no feelings about Feyre coming and being senior to her immediately? Babes, I think yes. Yes, many.

It's murky. And now she's like- did Feyre lie? Did Rhys not tell me the whole story? Of course he didn't, he's Rhys. Isn't Lucien Vanserra supposed to be fucking dead? Not throwing in the future of Autumn with some dimpled human? If she loses Cassian, she loses Az and she's alone. Rhys has Feyre and Mor has ... Pink wine, an empty palace and having to go back beneath the dark.

(In the back of her mind: I AM the heir. What has it ever gotten me?)

So I don't think she picks a fight with Rhys.

They throw some passive aggressive comments at each other, carefully don't scare Feyre, never actually talk about their real feelings.

Everything goes to hell.

Mor pulls out her trump card only to alienate everyone she knows, just in time to make it onto Elain's experimental poison list.

#Mor is sort of both at the epicenter of the NC #and simultaneously so sidelined you could write a story entirely without her #Elain is equally unsubstantiated but there are... through lines?#mor is just. a contradiction #Is she insanely powerful and legendary?#or is she basically Feyre's lady in waiting?#Is she a vital member of government or is her whole role gowns?#I think yall know what I'm choosing #while also of course alllll the messy attraction feelings go to war as well

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rosekasa · 10 months

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hi im bothering u guys for writing tips again

how do i stop deleting entire chunks of a fic and getting stuck in the cycle of constantly deleting and rewriting

#OK EXAMPLE #bc this is usually the situation that occurs #im writing this fic #and i just wrote this scene which i feel like would make a much better inciting incident rather than what i wrote in the *actual* exposition #however if i delete everything from the exposition to make this new scene the new plot point 1 pacing-wise #ill basically be starting over again and will have to change everything that happens even after this scene #which i know if i do that ill just keep going and going and the entire plot of the story is just going to be pointless #should i just like #keep the order of the scenes as they are and instead edit them slightly so they fit better pacing wise???#♡alizeh talks♡

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compacflt · 11 months

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for todays wip wednesday i thought it would be kind of fun to do a little wips vs final drafts post just to kind of illustrate how far back first drafts can really start. so following the famous 5+1 fanfic format (4+1 cause u can only post 10 pics on mobile)—four wips (left) & their related final drafts (right) + one that is still a wip (bottom two)

#in the doodle those are supposed to be their eyebrows fyi #this post is just cause we writers like to suck our own dicks sometimes #an anon sent in a follow up ask after my writing advice post talking about little notebooks…#i have gone through three 200 pg notebooks during the drafting of some of this content lol #one 200 pg notebook was basically ONLY slider one shot content #1. the little doodle that led to the cyclone one shot #2. ayrmy…. this doesn’t even count as a 0.5 draft #3. this is not the first attempt at this scene. this big blowup scene went through like a dozen different drafts #& it’s still kind of whatever imo #5. here are my original notes/outline for wwgattai :) it’s all i had to go on for the entire story #the first concrete image for the entire story i had was of mav begging ice to quit smoking #and ice quitting only cause he asked out loud #6. this is the WIP. female mav for a prompt fill. will then lead to of course! lesbian charliemav.#thanks for tolerating all my wip wednesdays :) they’re just kind of fun for me even if nothing makes sense out of context #top gun #top gun maverick #tom iceman kazansky #pete maverick mitchell #icemav #top gun fanfiction #edts notes #btw in the cyclone excerpt epaulettes should be shoulderboards whoops #ignore the weird tag numbers there were originally 6

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rearranging-deck-chairs · 3 months

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how many times have you watched this scene or are you normal

#my thasmin is like. this little interaction but all the time #obsessed obsessed obsessed with it #the way she falls over the way yaz holds onto her basically the most tightly we like ever see anyone hold onto 13 #the way she wipes the sensation of yazs hands off her afterwards #the way shes so out of her mind #the way it's yaz who gets the worst of it bc shes always closest #shes always closest so she gets the ugliest side of the doctor. for her loyalty she gets this #and 13 Wants to give her so much more and she just...Cant #the way yaz knows this and accepts this #the way she knows everything and 13 knows she knows everything without her ever telling her anything bc #she knows yaz has been here. exactly here. right next to her every time. the closest #how could yaz /not/ know everything #she doesnt need to be told. shes seen everything. she may not know the details she may not know the stories. but she knows #'you dont understand ANYTHING' and she just goes 'alright. it's alright'#how many of these scenes have there been that we havent seen? if you ask me........Many #10 months between revolution and flux where it was just them and the doctor was chasing anything division? yeah Many #they barely touch each other too wheni write them #like they touch each other. duh. but it's like. its so tentative always its so careful and this is soooo physical #it has the same force as 'we were worried about you' but it lasts like. 20 entire seconds #i love when they touch each other like that i love when yaz steps over the boundaries #like when i made her beat up 14. feels good feels organic fhkghjg #or any time shes angrydepressed and she makes a pass at the doctor #its like jsut touch me just touch me just touch me for once #like how much time has she spent alone with 13 with no human around not getting any physical contact whatsoever #anyway

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rimeiii · 5 months

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I hate beating up a dead horse (and in fear of incurring the wrath of the fandom once more) but the way WHB handles content warnings is just...

Where are the detailed content warnings? Not just for the angels, but for everything? Because honestly, I think the game would've garnered less backlash for having them - a "this game is made for mature audiences, viewer discretion is advised" screen before logging in would be the bare minimum honestly.

Say what you want about the angel cards including dub/non-con content and the cards themselves veering towards that sort of territory but at least give a fucking warning about it? I've always criticized the devs for not having 18+ rating all across the board when clearly mature games like Limbus Company get the 18+ rating. If WHB is NSFW because of the sex and kinky stuff, Limbus is NSFW because of the immense amount of gore and dark content.

"But they have content warnings-" ONLY FOR SEX. AND PAIRED WITH 16+.

It would be perfectly reasonable to assume that, for people who played this game without following any of the pre-release contents, with this combination THERE WON'T BE ANY DETAILED DUB/NON-CON.

This is in Indonesia's Google Play Store, and if it's different in other regions, then it also begs the question - why the FUCK is it not just rated 18+ across the board?!

Limbus Company, the closest comparison I can think of being with their devs (Project Moon) also being a Korean indie company that created a gacha with mature content that has a staff team the size of a high school class (in fact I wager Limbus has less staff working on the game because around half of their staff works almost exclusively at their merch café), only had warnings for extreme violence and strong language, but at least they had the decency to put more warnings in their earliest trailers and the game website - and it's always common courtesy in the fandom to warn potential players with one particular image I'll show down below, containing a list of the game's content warnings.

Oh, and they're rated 18+ across the board, including a Mature Content Description on Steam.

And sure, you can make the argument of "well you know what you're getting into upon looking at the card art", but therein lies the issue of not warning at the very start of the game - nobody knew for sure what triggers would be in the game upon startup.

Whatever way you slice it, dub/non-con is a genuine trigger for other people despite it also being a kink (I personally don't get it and it's a no-no for me even in fiction, but you do you). Adding clear content warnings would literally harm no one and helps people avoid things they know they don't want to consume. Yes, despite the in-game context clues providing hints, a clear indicator is still preferable.

Take, for example, the Lobelia summer skin controversy in Granblue Fantasy. People already know Lobelia as the twisted Evoker who not only murdered his own parents but recorded their dying screams of pain in his conch shells, doing the same thing to his countless victims afterwards. All of this is mentioned during the Fate Episodes to recruit him. You want to know the problem with his summer skin, Danger Beckons by the Shore, though?

There's a home screen voiceline where he offers one of his conch shells for the player to listen to, wherein you will hear the pained and tortured screams of one of his victims as she's attacked and later on eaten alive by a shark. Keep in mind, this sort of voiceline wasn't even in his base art, and while his Fate Episodes had tortured screams it wasn't even half as bad as this particular voiceline.

It's even given a content warning in the wiki.

For a rather significant amount of players who bought the skin, the inclusion of this voiceline despite the subtle warning in the skin blurb (which, fyi, is only accessible AFTER you bought the skin) hampers their enjoyment of the skin when they put it on their home screens then tap Lobelia - which many people who get character skins do. Mostly because there wasn't any clear indicator of the scream and a lot of people never appreciated the sudden jumpscare scream. The fact that Lobelia is a psychopath and doing this shit is in character for him should also be able to stand together with the fact that including a scream out of nowhere is pretty scummy and not a good time. Especially for non-JP speaking players, who essentially got jumpscared by a scream out of nowhere, as they never understood the fact that Lobelia was offering one of his conch shells.

Back to the rating issue, though. Why not rate WHB as 18+ if you're going to include content that could very much be considered controversial, like non-con? Like, say, Limbus Company (which I hate bringing up again bc fuck kjh)? Which not only has the warnings in the app store but plastered in the earliest trailers (still viewable on Steam and Project Moon's YouTube channel but not on the Google Play Store) and the official game website?

And sure. Some of these trigger warnings sound silly (reference to traffic accidents is more or less Charon driving Mephi like a maniac iirc based on the content we already have in the game). But I did genuinely appreciate the warning because let's talk about the first three Cantos after the prologue, hmm?

Canto 1 already includes cannibalism, war, torture, and body modifications, among other things! Canto 2 has references to alcohol and gambling, as well as mentions of homicide - despite being a lighter Canto overall! And in Canto 3, we experienced discriminatory violence, more body modifications, enforced ideologies and/or actions, and religious torture and violence among other things!

I can stomach gore easier compared to non-con and even I appreciate the warning, particularly with regards to Canto 3. Kromer's fascination with everything pure (i.e. no body modifications), all stemming from seeing...something...in the basement of Sinclair's old mansion, the cult behaviour that led to mass murder and torture by the faction she leads (up to and including brainwashing as detailed by Kleinhammer Heathcliff's Identity story) Kromer's obssession with Sinclair and him standing beside her as an ally...it's all genuinely so unnerving, and are story beats the game handles really well despite how disturbing it all really is when you stop and think about it.

"But you should've known considering the game's aesthetics-"

Maybe, especially considering one of Gregor's launch cards is literally this, and most if not all Uptie II arts are gory at the very least.

However, again, I have to underline the importance of content warnings - this time with an irl example.

I have a friend who was interested in Limbus Company. I've talked extensively about Gregor and how much I love him, and it started because I have a drawing I made of him in the back of my phone case and Liu Gregor's Uptie II art as my phone background at the time. They said they were interested, then I had to explain the sorts of contents she would encounter in my native language, Indonesian.

"Blood and gore, violence, a lot of mental health issues - Gregor has PTSD and his chapter depicted it pretty well, human experimentation, homicide, so Nagel und Hammer is basically the Inquisition and kills people to 'purify' them, oh yeah cannibalism is also a thing-"

"Stop, stop, I'm not playing if that's the content I'm going to see. I don't think I can handle it."

This same friend was also interested in playing If On a Winter's Night, Four Travelers - a free point-and-click adventure game that deals with themes like depression, homophobia, racism, and suicide. She was willing to try that game out because it wasn't as gory as Limbus Company. For context, the Mature Content Description for this game on Steam:

In both cases, I had to personally explain the content warnings in Indonesian since my friend isn't the most fluent in English and she has a far lower limit for dark content compared to me, but I did send that image of content warnings for Limbus Company and urged people to read the Mature Content Descriptions on Steam for anyone who wanted to try any of the two games and is fluent in English. Why?

Because it's basic human decency to try and keep people informed of any potential triggers and content they might not be comfortable seeing.

Either way, main takeaway from this issue:

Dub/non-con might be your kink, but it might not be for others - it might be uncomfortable or downright triggering as all hell for others, in fact. So, clear content warnings (in particular for any and all triggering content) harm nobody, especially as it helps people avoid story beats where their turn-offs and, more importantly, their triggers.

#what in hell is bad #i don't get why people are actively fighting against a more accessible gameplay experience #“you should've known with the card art” well nobody knew kleinhammer heathcliff would include the bit about brainwashing!#and i get that the dark content for limbus spans the entire overarching plot #but do we need a repetition of the lobelia issue in another game #“paywalling this content is a safety net” doesn't really matter at the end of the day because #1. some people got lucky and got the angel cards through the free seals #2. you're now under a heavier moral obligation to be clear about what you're providing/selling #christ y'all content warnings is just basic human decency #especially for a game that deals with mature topics #and for dub/noncon? yeah i would love clear content warnings for that so i can steer clear of the chapter/story segment in question!

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farfartothewestofeverywhere · 2 years

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if Oscar and John ever actually come back to Star Wars it better canonize their feelings for each other AND have an on-screen kiss.

#romcom in the Star Wars universe when #their story basically started out as a romantic drama.#they need to stipulate it in their contacts #John: 'Disney if I don't get to make out with Oscar I will never work with your company ever again.'#Oscar: 'If this story isn't up to the standards that Poe and Finn deserve so help me.#Also if we could explore the concept of gender. i get it Star Wars is barely ready for bisexuality on screen BUT #if we explored the complexities of gender through DROIDS. just imagine. the good guys have always treated droids with respect.#and that doesn't need to change. if we could have an entire b plot surrounding the gender of bb8 how beautiful would that be?'#star wars #finnpoe #oscar isaac #finn #fn 2187 #poe dameron #john boyega #stormpilot

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nellasbookplanet · 1 year

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Today I’m going absolutely bonkers thinking about stories where the medium itself becomes so interwoven with the narrative that the two are inseparable and the story borderline unadaptable into other formats.

Lately I’ve been playing a lot of Portal and listening to the Malevolent podcast for perhaps the third time, and as any slightly obsessive fan who desperately wishes for more when I run out of story I find myself thinking ‘man someone should adapt this into a movie/tv show/novel/etc’. And then I stop and think, ‘wait a minute, how?’

How could you possibly adapt the puzzle aspect of Portal into anything other than a game? Sure you could make some cool action sequences out of it, but that would get old quick, and you never get any chance to solve the puzzles yourself. And how could you adapt it without them, when the tests are a deeply intrinsic part of the narrative? You would end up with a vastly different story.

And Malevolent. Malevolent! Rarely have I experienced a story that so masterfully not only gets around the limitations of its medium, but uses them to their full advantage. How do you explain your lead constantly speaking out loud to themself (since the dialogue-only format doesn’t allow for internal monologue)? Why, put a possessing entity into their head, so that they’re literally never without a conversational partner! How do you fit visual descriptors into the story, since characters explaining their surroundings out loud would be weird? Make one of them blind and the one possessing him his seeing-eye entity, of course!

How could you possibly adapt any of that into, say, a movie? Having the entity describe visuals the viewer can already see would be distracting, but having him not do it would break suspension of disbelief because why is Arthur not constantly bumping into things? Of course, you could remove the blindness, but aside from being a shitty thing to do it would also remove the delicate balance of power between him and the entity that forces the two to co-operate.

I’m thinking about these two stories especially because it’s where my obsession lies right now, but there are lots of examples of similarly interwoven narratives and medium. Think of epistolary books, webcomics with animated images and music, webnovels so adapted for a digital format with links and gifs and layout that actually printing them would take away from the experience (everyone go read What Football Will Look Like in the Future and An Unauthorised Fan Treatise right now, you can thank me later), or other podcasts that give their narrator an intrinsic reason to speak and describe everything aloud, such as The Magnus Archives and The Mistholme Museum (which I need to catch up with, by the way). It drives me insane! The medium is the message!

#malevolent podcast #portal #long post #nella talks #this isnt me saying that this type of story is inherently better than stories that dont enmesh themselves with the medium in this manner #or that the stories mentioned in the post are wholly and entirely unadaptable #just that youd end up with a fundamentally different story #anyway. the way different mediums work and how narratives have to twist themselves to fit them is utterly fascinating #and one of the reasons i find the rise of ttrpg streams so incredibly cool #we're basically living through the birth of a new storytelling medium! how incredible is that!#now if only people could learn to actually keep the medium in mind when analysing and theorizing and writing meta #i swear we wouldnt get half as much discourse in the critrole fandom if more people realized #a story told through a ttrpg is going to be fundamentally different from one told through another more traditional medium

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