#to be clear: i'm talking about both the players and the fictional characters

[emophil81]

Please scroll down for a hot sneaker and socks story!

Pictures by aimalefoot found on Deviantart

A nice birthday present - a sock and sneaker fetish story

(Disclaimer: All characters in this story are 21 years or older and it’s a complete work of fiction! Even if depicted otherwise in the story, please always practice safe sex! German original Story by PumaBengel posted on mannfuermann.com under the title „Fantasien erleben“.)

I've been together with my boyfriend Erik for a few months now. We can talk about anything. Especially when it comes to preferences, our kinks and fetishes and things like that.

It was always clear to me that I could only fall in love with one man and only have sex with one man. Over the years I've realized what I love about men. My cock belongs in a hot ass and his love juice belongs in my mouth. I think thousands of other gays feel the same way. Since I met my boyfriend, I know that there is so much more. We have already decided that we want to spend our lives together.

I could wrap my mouth around his beautiful cock and suck him dry three times a day. He's no different. We have already exchanged a few fantasies with each other. He would like to go to sleep in a mountain of sweaty socks. And I would blow all the boys who donate their stinky socks. In fact, we laughed a lot as we revealed our innermost fantasies to each other. Somehow it always made us both so hot that we could be so open with each other that we had the hottest sex I've ever experienced during, after and in between our sex confessions! For me, sneakers and socks are now also part of it.

It's approaching my birthday and my boyfriend asks me what I want. Of course he asks me that when we're in the middle of cuddling and fiddling. So a cock-driven answer comes from me. “I would like to suck off a handful of hot cocks.” Erik looks at me sadly and asks "Am I not enough for you?" Fuck, wrong answer! Erik laughs, "I know, my darling. Just kidding.“

A few days later, when it’s my birthday, in the morning he takes me in his arms and kisses me. Before I can say anything, Erik says, “Happy birthday!” “Thank you, my darling.” He can't wait to give me my gift. I open an envelope. „What is that? Tickets to a soccer game for tomorrow? Dude, soccer is not my thing at all!“ I say. Erik sees my horrified look, takes me in his arms and says "These are VIP tickets". That doesn't make things any better. I'm pissed and say "What? Can we take a shower with the football players in the locker room or what?“ Erik laughs and says with a grin on his face. “Just wait for it. Trust me on that one okay?“

I'm still pissed, but after dinner where he went to such great lengths again, I just can't sulk anymore. He doesn't have it easy with me sometimes! But I love this man, his sweet smile, this perfect body, the sex and the way he loves me.

I hold my loved one in my arms, look into his shining eyes and can't keep my hands off him. As we shove our tongues into each other's mouths, our clothes fall off. We're both horny and I've gotten over my resentment. So that my pants can come down, my Puma speed cat has to come off, which we press on each other's noses. Erik snorts “Great Tom. Wait a minute”. He sprints into the hallway and gets his Puma Scuderia Ferrari Neo Cat Mid that I gave him for Christmas. They look pretty finished after a few weeks. Erik laughs and confesses to me that he fucked them real good. I would have liked to have been there. Awesome shit! The inside of the sneaker smells so nice now that it immediately sends blood rushing to my cock. I would like to fire a load in there too, but Erik has another idea.

With the sneaker on his nose, he bends down on the table and presents me with his hot ass. I kneel between his spread legs and pull his cheeks apart. I slide my tongue through his crack, which he acknowledges with a pleasant grunt. From his fully extended cock, a fat drop of precum is slowly going towards the ground on a long thread. I grab it with my finger and massage it into the little pink hole. Oops, I slipped in there too. Erik moans impatiently “Fuck me already!“ into the sneaker. I could, but first I want to make him submissive with my tongue. So I put my tongue in again. I can penetrate him without any problem and taste his ass with the precum. Cool! I'm already standing behind him and pressing my glans against his hole. No problem getting in there. Erik groans and I push. I actually want to fuck him gently, but after just a few thrusts, Erik pushes the sneaker onto my face and moans, "Take what's yours already, fuck me hard!“ Dizzy from the smelly sneaker, I slam my cock into this hot body and Erik jerks his ass towards me. After a few minutes my thrusts become even harder and faster. The juice shoots into my cock. I penetrate as deep as I can into his abdomen and fire my load in his love tunnel. Relaxed, I fall onto his back, take my darling in my arms and gently bite his neck.

I slowly slip out of him, we turn to each other and sink into a passionate kiss. Erik grins at me and points his head towards the table. Now I have to grin too. He actually shot his load too while I was fucking him and he spread his cream over half the table. He didn’t use his hands, he just came from me fucking him. So hot! Together we lick his sperm off the table and enjoy a nice slimy and salty kiss.

We lie arm in arm on the couch, feeling our bodies and our warmth. Erik gets us a bottle of wine and lights a candle. So romantic. I just love caressing this man, touching him everywhere and kissing him. This is how we like to spend the evening. Before we go to sleep, Erik gets our sneakers again. Actually, we almost always do that when we're together. Sniffing and jerking off is always possible. We lie next to each other and I watch Erik as he works his cock with my Speed-Cat on his nose. I want to watch him cum. He becomes increasingly slower when jerking off, bends his legs and places them slightly spread out on the couch. This sight of his spread legs and him sniffing my sneaker makes me super horny again. I get myself between his thighs and can enter him without any problems. I thrust slowly into him while he intensified his work on his rock-hard cock again. Just a little later I feel a tremor in his pelvis. His upper body stands half up and the sperm sprays onto his stomach. I pull my cock out of him and jerk it with a firm grip so that I shoot my juice all over Erik’s chest too. I fall down next to him, take the sperm with my fingers and feed it to Erik. I lick the rest off his six pack.

So relaxed, we can prepare our bed for the night and fall asleep cuddled up together.

At some point I wake up because the sun is shining on my face. Eric isn't there. He got up long ago and made breakfast. It smells like fresh coffee. I blink "Good morning." Erik comes to me, hugs me and whispers "Good morning, my darling, that was a nice birthday fuck yesterday don’t you think?." I only smile and nod my head. We get up and I have to go to the bathroom first. When I get to the breakfast table, I can't believe what I see. In addition to breakfast with coffee and cake, there is a huge bouquet of dark red roses in the middle of the table. I am at a loss for words. I hug my darling as hard as I can and a tear runs down my cheek. Erik kisses the tear away and breathes "I love you". Another nice kiss and we start breakfast.

Before we go to the soccer game in the afternoon we have to take a shower. Soaping is actually irrelevant, but we like to touch and caress our bodies everywhere. Erik turns off the water and hands me the anal douche that he mounted on the hose of the shower. "Huh?" "Oh, just for fun," he replies. Since we both enjoy to clean our asses that way, I don't think about it and carefully insert the thing into his bottom. Water on and I can watch as Erik rolls his eyes and extends his cock to the fullest. I hand him the stainless steel anal douche and he does the same to me. My cock also immediately gets hard. Luckily, before I nearly cum just from the warm water hitting my prostate, he turns it off. We get dressed and then head to the game.

We have seats directly behind the players. Before we can even sit down, we are personally greeted with a hug by Daniel, the team captain and best friend of Erik. Well, I hope that's not all that the VIP ticket has to offer. Daniel and Erik are whispering to each other, but I can't understand a word. You can imagine that I'm not particularly interested in the game, but all the players running around and on the field are delicious. Leon and Jan players who are also friends of Erik are there too. During the half-time break we also get a hug from both of them. The boys are already pretty sweaty and smell good. It's driving my blood to my dick and I feel greeting a boner. I spend the second half imagining that we might be able to take Leon and Jan home with us. Erik laughs, but doesn't let it slip what he has planned together with Daniel.

The game is over and the players leave the field. Daniel takes us into the small clubhouse and leads us into a kind of meeting room. “You have to wait a moment here.“ he grins. Through the half-open door we see some of the players disappear one by one. Erik is getting more and more excited when Daniel comes in and hands us some clothes. For each of us a pair of shiny green shorts, a club jersey and a pair of tube socks. "Move!" Then he disappeared again. I am stunned and say „Dude, these clothes are worn and still damp from the sweat of the players.“ We can't resist sniffing them and immediately I was hard as ever and Erik also sported a boner. He snickers at me. Erik takes off all his clothes and puts on the club clothes we were given. I could attack him straight away, but I also have to change. The used jersey makes me horny as soon as I put it on and the shorts leave a pleasant feeling on my naked cock. Fuck! I could squirt all my cum in the soccer shorts right away.

Daniel picks us up and we enter the team’s locker room. The air in the room robs me of my senses. A mix of old and fresh body and foot sweat. The team captain introduces us. Besides Daniel, Leon and Jan, there are three other guys in the locker room. Of course, these will now also be introduced to us. You don't seriously believe that I have memorized the names. I have completely different things on my mind right now and my name memory has gone for a walk somewhere.

Daniel asks us to sit on a bench in the middle of the room and explains to the others, "Tom had birthday yesterday and we want to give him a nice belated present." The boys grin and am I mistaken, or do they all already have a huge bulge in their soccer shorts? But I don't have time to think about it because Daniel has already pulled down his shorts and is holding his semi-rigid cock in front of my nose. I look at Erik in shock. He grins, nods his head and whispers “For you darling, that’s the VIP treatment!“ I turn my head back to Daniel, who pushes his wet glans into my mouth and begins to jerk himself off. I still can't believe it all, but I'm so horny that my tongue works automatically. The other guys bawl something like 'Give it to him' and 'Swallow'. It doesn't take that long until Daniel is writhing in ecstasy, moaning loudly and shooting a nice load of goo into my mouth.

The boys shout again “Swallow, swallow!” Next, a young man with an XL cock stands in front of me. Black wool grows over his fat dick. Not necessarily my thing but it doesn't matter, because there's already a fat drop of precum hanging from his glans that's threatening to fall to the ground without my attention. My tongue quickly comes out and catches it. The guy grumbles, “Well, you can’t swallow my load that easily.” “Show him what you’ve got”. Someone shouts. I tilt my head back a little, open my mouth and push my tongue out, waiting for the guy to do whatever he likes with my mouth. His fat, drooling glans lies on the tip of my tongue and he jerks his cock with quick, powerful movements. He didn't promise too much, because after a short time several fat squirts shot onto my tongue and into my mouth. The boys are shouting again.

In fact, I have to swallow twice to take in all the cream. Next thing I know, I get a hand held out to me. Oops, one of the other players must have jerked off too much and came already. At least he caught it with his hand. I greedily lick the cum from his hand and take each finger individually into my mouth to suck it off. Then it's Leon and Jan's turn and they take turns putting their pre-lubricated cocks in my mouth. Since I already know them both, I'll push back their foreskin so that I can suck out the cum that's accumulated underneath. My brain is no longer working, but my tongue is still working. First Jan and then Leon inject their warm sperm into my mouth one after the other, which of course I swallow eagerly. I'm in seventh heaven. My husband really fulfilled a big wish of mine. I look at him and he smiles. I'm excited to burst and could cum right away, but apparently there's still one person missing. A skinny twink with a not so big cock stands shyly next to me and the other guys have to cheer him on. “Come on, give him your juice.” Now he dares too, I have his cock in my mouth and let my tongue work. He can't stand it for long and once again shoots a big load into my mouth, which of course I swallow greedily.

I look around and the guys seem a little more relaxed, but one or two still have their hand on their cock. No problem, I'll take a second round if they want. I am in heaven right now!

I look at Erik, who grins, pushes his green sports pants down his knees and supports himself on a cupboard. He stuck out his hot ass for everyone in the room to see. “If any of you want to fuck, then go for it.” He can’t be serious I thought. The brat with the big cock and the bush on top grimaces, "No dude, I'm out of there" and goes to the door to leave when he push the door open someone on the other side screams. „Ouch!“ someone was waiting behind the door. A little horrified, one of the players who left earlier is pushed in by the big guy who wanted to leave. “In there! They want to fuck now.” Daniel saves the situation by hugging the guy, who stutters that he didn't want to take part in the session so that no one would notice that he was actually gay too. Daniel laughs, “Tim, we already knew that,” and hugs the shy twink. The other boys join in, "Sure we noticed that and now what's so bad about it?" Tim looks sheepishly at the floor. Leon takes the initiative, takes the boy in his arms and plants a kiss on him. "And just so you all know, I'm gay too." then he lets go of Tim while the other guys laughed and comes over to me "I finally need a cock in the ass now". I get a kiss and then Leon pushes me backwards onto the bench. Just seconds later he's crouching over me, wetting his fuck hole with a little spit and letting his sexy bubble butt slide onto my boner.

I'm really hot and don't even know if I recall everything that happens now correctly because I was in my own world right now. Daniel has positioned himself behind my husband and is fucking his ass while Tim sucks on Erik's cock. Leon rides me like there is no tomorrow and jerks his hammer of a cock right before my eyes. The boys are horny like me too. Leon just shot his load on my stomach, but I don't want to cum in his ass. I push his body away and ask him if I can fuck his feet. “Sure, you can do it, but Tim’s are much hotter.” But he's busy. The boys grin. The shy boy who has the biggest stink. Luckily I have help from Leon and the other boys so that the skinny teen lies down on the bench and I can stick my nose into his tubes. How cool and smelly are those socks of him!

I take one off and rub my cock on the sole of his foot, his other socked foot I have in my face. This is so freaking hot that I just have to rub my cock on his soft sole and also squirt my juice out. I cum all over the guys sock clad foot with a loud moan. I just notice in passing that the guys next to me are encouraging me to suck the slime off the socked foot, which of course I'm happy to do. Somewhat relieved, I slide back onto the bench and don't have to wait long for Leon to sit on me again.

Daniel has now pulled his cock out of my boyfriend. Leon has absorbed my cock again and now Erik stands over me with his bubble butt. The cream from Daniel is already running down his thighs. I can't resist licking it up.

I carefully push my tongue into his little asshole and a nice load of Daniel’s sperm runs into my mouth. Just as I'm about to lick him clean, I see the next cock hitting the crack of his ass and driving in. Dude so hot! I get ridden and my boyfriend gets fucked hard. A fat player’s cock slides in and out of him. I try to lick the big balls, which I only partially succeed at. At the moment everything is going haywire here.

I only notice that Erik is sinking his cock into Leon's mouth, who is currently riding me hard. Leon doesn't want to, but Erik doesn't care at all at the moment and groans "Do it now, you'll have to get used to it". Leon is lucky that Tim takes over and sucks off my hot and horny boyfriend. However, he also swallows all the cream. "Hey, dude, that's mine!" I shout. „Sorry, you get mine for that.“ I have to slide forward a little so that Tim can put his cock in my mouth, which he is already jerking hard. I let my tongue play with his glans and just a little later he shoots his sperm into my mouth. The boy who has just impaled Erik mercilessly also seems to be on the verge of cumming. He bucks deep into him and stays there. Panting, he pumps his juice into my boyfriend. I push his head between both of their legs again and then as the boy pulls out, the warm cum runs onto my face. This too much for me. I unload into Leon, who also squirts again on my stomach. Erik licks me clean and we share a nice sperm kiss.

The boys disappeared into the shower one after the other. Only Daniel, Erik and Jan are still here. Jan presents me with his cock with a grin. Of course, I put it in my mouth and suck on its slippery glans until he shoots into my mouth. Then he disappears into the shower too. I'm going to get a big kiss from Erik. "Happy belated Birthday babe." But he fulfilled a big wish of mine. Laughing, Daniel adds, “VIP tickets, remember?“ then he disappears too. I have to come to myself first this was unreal.

Daniel is back and says we have to give the clothes back. Before we change into our clothes again, we also take a quick shower. The guys are waiting in the team shower, with their cocks in their hands and grinning. Daniel instructs us to sit on the floor. The boys surround us and one after the other is starting to piss on us. We are thoroughly showered on all sides, the water mixes with the piss and has a yellowish colour when it hits us. I closed my eyes and felt a solid beam in the middle of my face. The boys are all grinning and aiming at our heads now. I think it's Leon sticking his glans into my open mouth. I wipe the piss from my eyes and see Leon, who has just pulled his cock out of my mouth and is now stuffing his tongue down my throat. Well, wait, you horny bitch. I grab his head, push him down and my cock into his mouth and let it go. He can't find the right spot that quickly, chokes and the piss runs out of the corner of his mouth. The boys grin. Erik is now sitting next to me and grins at me.

And now my idea from yesterday has come true. We can take the shower with the guys. It’s really a dream to shower with so many naked guys. I look around and the sight of the naked, young and trained bodies brings the blood to my cock again. The boys grin at me, only Tim turns around bashfully because he also has a boner. The warm water washes around our bodies, I hug my darling Erik tightly and kiss him. This was the best birthday present ever!

Before we get dressed again, Daniel comes to us again and places a half-full black garbage bag next to Erik. “But I have to have it again tomorrow.” Erik grins, “Sure.” We change and then head home.

I'm curious "What's in the bag?" Erik just grins "Wait and see, VIP ticket, remember?“ Well, I already had my present and I'm happy so I don’t know what this could be. We walk home arm in arm.

After dinner we make ourselves comfortable on the couch. Erik is somehow a little nervous. I could do it again, take my darling in my arms and ask if I should get us the sneakers. „Do you want me to get our sneakers for another sniffing session?“ I ask him. Erik grins and shakes his head. He puts a bottle of champagne on the table and light the candles. Erik smiles at me and we toast my well-being and our future. Such a nice feeling to spend this perfect day and a cozy evening with my amazing partner.

Erik takes me in his arms, kisses me and whispers "Can I get myself something as a present for me as well?" Well, as if he didn't have enough fun with my VIP tickets. Erik comes back to our fantasies. Mine was to blow a handful of hot cocks....Wait! I have an idea what's in the bag. I look into my husband's eyes. He grins and nods. Not really! Crazy, the thought alone makes the blood rush to my cock. Erik isn't doing any better. Within seconds we ripped each other's clothes off. He gets another kiss and I whisper, "Lie down!" Then I'll get the bag. Erik looks at me expectantly and precum is dripping from his steel-hard cock. I open the bag and pour the contents over his body. Smelly, damp and no longer completely white tube and soccer socks fall out of the bag. The whole living room smells like the locker room in the clubhouse. I'm so horny and I fall on top of my boyfriend, who is lying under the smelly socks. I push aside the ones that fell in his face and plant a big kiss on him. “Honey, we’ll sleep in this tonight.” I don't think we'll get to sleep, but it's his fantasy, so he should have it that way.

I dig through the pile and find a sock whose sole is of a wonderful gray color. It's amazing how it smells. I put it on my hand, stroke Erik's face with it and press it on his nose. Erik moans, thrusts his steel-hard cock into my stomach and whispers "More!" Now we both rummage around, look for the smelliest ones and put them on our hands. We look into each other's eyes deeply. We stroke each other's stinkers all over our bodies, through our faces and of course on our cocks. I can't take it anymore, I grab Erik's socked hand and put it on my boner. He just has to let my cock slip through the sock a few times for me to cum. I also don't have to work on his dick for long to get it to fire it’s load. We continue to stroke each other with our stinky slimy socks and I wipe Erik's face with a nice chunk of slime. He grins, licks his lips and looks for a big splash, which he then spreads on my face.

I have to drink something. We both grab our glasses, clink glasses again and sip the champagne. I hold my empty glass in front of my cock and look at Erik with a grin. He shakes his head, takes me in his arms and whispers, “Just the socks this evening, please.” „Yes my darling, enjoy your dream.“ So we drink the champagne, hug each other and kiss our smelly faces.

The bottle of champagne is empty, the candle has burned down and we are tired. We prepare our bed for the night and distribute the socks there. We cuddle between smelly socks which are spread out everywhere on our bed. We hold each other in our arms, kiss again and as I fall asleep I whisper "Thank you, my darling. I love you". "I love you too babe!".

I wake up in the middle of the night because a damp sock is right in my face and the smell has already driven the blood to my cock. With my hand I press the stinky sock even harder on my nose so that all I can breathe is the damp smell. I'm looking for a second sock for my cock and I bump into Erik, who wakes up. But I didn't notice that and just as I'm about to put the sock on my cock, he asks me "Tom, what are you doing?" All I can do is moan "Jerk off!" Erik grins and puts his head on my stomach so that he has my socked cock right in his face. That's too much for me and I shoot my load of cum in the sock. Erik rubs the wet thing through his face, takes the smelly sock from my nose and then presses his wet lips against mine.

I open my lips and our tongues begin a wild game. Erik is hot and shoves his tongue hard and deep down my throat. I feel his pulsating, fully extended hard cock on my stomach. With a gentle swing I push him off me onto his side, pull the wet sock off my cock and press it into his face. Then I wrap my lips around his fat dripping pipe. Erik groans. I push his hard-on into my mouth as best I can and let my tongue play with his glans, which is already oozing juice again. Erik bucks into my mouth and presses the sperm-filled tube sock firmly into my face. He lets out a muffled moan and I notice the tremor in his pelvis and the trembling in his body. Just a few thrusts later, warm cum shoots into my mouth. I take the wet sock from his face and share the hot slime with him in an intense kiss. We fall asleep tightly hugged.

We are both in heaven!

PS: Of course we put the socks in the washing machine the next morning and then brought them back to the soccer club clean again.

#malefeet #cute guy #cute gay #guys in socks #dirty socks #gay socks #dirty sox #white socks #cute twink #fiction #story

[anneapocalypse]

I like your post about gray morality in video games! On the other hand I wanted to add that the gray decision-making you're talking about can have its own pitfalls (distinct from the pitfalls of centrist/apolitical "both sides are bad" apathy). I'm thinking of gritty action heroes who are presented as morally gray because they're pragmatic enough to torture and kill in the name of Truth, Justice, and the 'Murican Way, or just in the name of a macho revenge fantasy. To be clear, this isn't an indictment of gray morality, which I love when done well. Hell, the stories I'm complaining about tend not to be THAT gray in practice, as the bad guys are often SO exaggeratedly bad that there's not a real question of whether the hero is willing to Do What It Takes in the end. My point is more just that that's what people often mean when they condemn "gray morality."

Hi! Sorry this has been sitting my ask box for a while, I got busy and didn't want to just dash off a response.

(We're talking about this post, for those who haven't seen it. RIP my notifications.)

Anyway I'll just say here for the record that yeah, gray morality in fiction can be done poorly! While the line for "done poorly" is going to be different for everyone, I can certainly think of examples I've disliked.

(This got long, sorry in advance. 😩 Also, spoilers for Fallout 3 and all the Dragon Age games, if anyone cares!)

My go-to example of one I think is a real stinker is the Fallout 3 DLC "The Pitt" where the critical decision is... whether to free a bunch of people from being enslaved in horrible conditions! But! in order to free them, you have to kidnap a baby from... the enslaver. Because something something the baby's genetics are the key to curing the illness that afflict the slaves from their horrible working conditions... you don't actually have to hurt the baby, though, she'll be fine. She'll just be taken away from her parents. Who are, again, slavers. I promise I'm not making it sound any stupider than it sounds in the game itself. :P Like the whole concept of putting an infant in your video game inventory and making a break for it is just a little too wacky for me to take seriously, but it feels like you're meant to take it seriously, and apart from trying to inject some ambiguity into the decision, I'm not sure why the whole baby plot would even be there. Honestly, Fallout 3 isn't a game about moral ambiguity. (I think both New Vegas and even Fallout 4 do that kind of thing better.) Most of its major decisions boil down to "Do you want to do the Good Person Thing or the Evil Bastard thing?" That's the game. No one is trying to inject moral ambiguity into blowing up Megaton. It's just a thing you can do if you want to roleplay an Evil Character. I love Fallout 3, I'm just saying, that's what it is. And I think "The Pitt" would have been both more thematically appropriate and less stupid if it had just skipped the whole baby plot and been like "Hey! Do you want to be the Good Person who frees the slaves, or the Evil Bastard who allies with the slaver?" It's morally simple, but the thing is the baby didn't actually make that story or the decision any more interesting to me, so it might as well not have been there at all.

But Fallout 3 isn't the kind of thing I was thinking of when I made that post. I was thinking a lot more about things like the decisions in the Dragon Age games, which don't usually fall neatly into The Good Option and The Evil Option, and are more likely to ask the player to make their own judgments. And a common criticism I see of those games is that they're "centrist" and try to "both sides" in-universe issues because the game doesn't explicitly tell you which choice is The Good One, or it doesn't explicitly reward one choice and punish the other, and that's... not really an interpretation that I generally agree with? But that's a much more involved discussion, honestly. At some point, I'd like to write a post about how I feel Inquisition presents the mage rebellion, because it's such a big topic and big game (and by "I'd like to" I mean... I already have a draft started, whoops). That's just more than I have time to get into today!

But I will say this: I find the plot decisions where you're given an obvious "best option" to be the least interesting choices in the Dragon Age games. The Redcliffe decision in Origins is the most obvious one to me, where I think the option to save Connor from possession should at least have been much harder to find, because in the lore, the fact that mages even can be saved from possession and not just killed is widely unknown because it goes against the templar party line, and the fact that Ferelden's First Enchanter is just like, "Oh yeah, sure, we can totally do that, pack up the lyrium boys" just doesn't really mesh with everything else we're told about the Circles and conventional wisdom on magic. Plus, the fact that there's no consequences for leaving Redcliffe for days with Connor possessed just... makes the decision too easy, for me, because in-universe it feels like it shouldn't be that easy. There's also the werewolf decision, wherein the Lady of the Forest just tells you straight out that Zathrian can break the curse with his own death, presenting you with a "best option" that it feels both stupid and sort of comically evil to disregard (like, from a purely pragmatic standpoint why would you fight the entire pack of werewolves or an entire clan of elves when you can just make Zathrian solve the problem here and now).

The ending decision of DA2 is an example that I feel has a really stark moral contrast to it (which I've discussed before), and one that I think does place certain constraints on role-playing, but in that case I think it's appropriate to the themes of the game, so I don't mind it.

But my favorite plot decisions in Dragon Age are things like the Landsmeet, the Winter Palace, and even the Orzammar quest line. Not just because I love fantasy politics, but because you have to work with what you're given in a way that feels realistic to the setting and the story. No matter how much of a hero you are, you can't waltz into Orzammar or Denerim or Halamshiral and brute-force a perfect solution. Unless you're a dwarf yourself, you're an outsider who doesn't know anything about dwarven politics and no one is particularly forthcoming about the situation because everyone has an agenda! and yet you have to solve this conflict in order to get aid against the Blight. You have to make a decision based on very little information and almost none of it concrete. At the Landsmeet, you may want justice, but it's your word against Loghain's with no proof of what really happened at Ostagar, and if you want to win you need provable charges, you need to show the nobles that you support their interests and not just your own, and no matter which butt you put on the throne, you're faced with the very real possibility of another succession crisis a few decades on so congratulations, you've just kicked the can down the road.

And oh, the Winter Palace, my beloved. You cannot make Briala the Empress, no matter how much you might want to! You cannot abolish the monarchy. You cannot force Orlais to relinquish the Dales and re-establish the Elven state. Your options are: keep the empress whose reign overall has been sympathetic to elves and commoners and relatively diplomatic toward her neighbors, but who also may have just done a good old fashioned massacre to crush a rebellion and maintain her power; let her be killed and put the militant expansionist on the throne; get Briala and Celene back together (maybe with the hope that Briala will continue to influence her); help Briala do a blackmail which surely will work out totally fine and not backfire in anyway; or force them all to shut up and play ball for now, basically just kicking the can down the road. None of these options are perfect by any means! There are interesting and believable in-character reasons you might choose to role-play any of them. And every one has the possibility of unforeseen consequences later on, positive or negative.

I made the original post, in part, in response to condemnations of the kind of decisions I enjoy in these games. And at the end of the day, it's okay not to like those decisions, to prefer more unambiguous choices or more room to indulge in the fantasy of fixing everything. But that's not always the kind of story a game is trying to tell, and I think that's fine, and personally I enjoy the complicated decisions more. And I feel like sometimes those complicated or ambiguous choices are read as if they're either presenting all options as morally equivalent when they're not, or that they're "punishing" the player for a choice if it has any kind of negative outcome, and I don't think that's the case! I think it's fine and good in fiction to explore the ways in which trying to change things for the better can be difficult and how a choice with some negative consequences may still be the best one available, and so on and so forth.

Anyway, I hope I didn't get too far afield here, and thanks if you read this far!

#gray morality #this is so long i'm sorry #anne apocalypse making you sorry you asked since 2011 #blunders of thedas #fallout 3 critical #prewar parkstrolling #ask anne #who cancelled roger rabbit

[zorlok-if]

I've talked in the past about launching a Patreon and that's something I'm working towards. One of the tier perks would be access to interactive TTRPG games with characters from Zorlok (and beyond...). So, I wanted to get an idea of what campaigns people are interested in (but, in the future, these polls would be reserved for specific Patreon tiers). The top two will have at least one episode each—meaning one in-game session—available on Patreon when it launches. Here are options for the first round. If you have any ideas or suggestions, feel free to send those in. Under the cut you can find more info on the concept, each idea, and a list of characters I'm thinking of as potential players for each campaign (there will be another poll to determine the casts once the first round of voting closes).

Note: you will be able to vote for your second choice in a separate post.

More details on the above options:

The Idea

Many people spend their nights at the Casper Guild Hall. From locals enjoying the atmosphere and amenities to travelers looking for a bit of fun, everyone is welcome within the guild's warm, wood-paneled halls. You first come to this establishment to learn more about the open TTRPG campaigns run by the guild's founder, Fallyn Hart. All are welcome to join in, so what games will you play?

The campaigns are presented as branching narratives within a unique interactive fiction game. This game is non-canonical and set before the events of Zorlok. Create your character and the PCs they play as. Enjoy compelling tales with high variability and replay value. Play alongside a fun cast of characters and interact with them both in and out of your campaign sessions, learning more about them and building meaningful relationships.

The Campaigns

The character lists indicate which story the character is from and if they would be an RO option in the campaign. If the character has a post where you can learn more about them, that will be linked the first time they appear on this page.

Z = from Zorlok, M = from Mousetrap, HK = from Hades' Kitchen, CG = from Creating Goncharov, SP = from System Processing; if RO is included after, there would be optional sexual/romantic/both relationship options for that character

Keep in mind, these are potential lists (they're just the characters that would likely appear in the next poll where the top 3-5 would be chosen).

(1) sexy, regency-ish fey court

If you're familiar with A Court of Fey and Flowers: yes, basically that. If not: political intrigue where you play as a representative of a fey court hanging out with other fey at a magic festival. Optionally, very sexy and/or romantic. Always, very fun and chaotic. [ choose your fey court and your position ]

Potential RO characters: Dev (Z, RO), Celestial (Z, RO), Danny (Z, RO), Ciel (Z, RO), Rose (Z, RO), Adam/Eve (Z, RO), EJ (Z, RO), Nasir (Z, RO), Andrey (CG, RO), Katya (CG, RO), Adonis (HK, RO), Cecil (HK, RO), Alaric/Aria (M, RO), Jovy (M, RO), etc.

(2) murder mystery at a monster university

Students at a university (for monsters) find themselves trying to solve a murder—some hoping to get justice for the victims, some hoping to clear their own names, some hoping to come face to face with a murderer. Who knows? Maybe the killer is closer than you think. [ choose your monster and your major ]

Potential characters: Adam/Eve (Z, RO), EJ (Z, RO), Danny (Z, RO), Ciel (Z, RO), Rose (Z, RO), Lucía (Z, RO), Max (M, RO), Emerson (M, RO), etc.

(3) apocalyptic "zombie" survival story

Set in the recent past, explore a world where an infection is turning people into something... else—sapping away their senses of self and grasps upon reality until they become violent, undying strangers. A blend of thrilling horror and emotional drama. Will you find conflict, friendship, family, love, or passion in a world that's falling apart at the seams? Or will you lose yourself to the infection? (part The Last of Us, part Tokyo Ghoul) [ choose your background and your talent ]

Potential characters: Tommy (Z), Ciel (Z, RO), Danny (Z, RO), Lucía (Z, RO), Adam/Eve (Z, RO), Dev (Z, RO), Ainsley (Z, RO), Nasir (Z, RO), Harlow (Z), Laðə (SP), Hero (HK, RO), K Ishida (HK, RO), Rose (Z, RO), Max (M, RO), etc.

(4) cyberpunk fairy tale misfits

Play as a character from a classic fairy tale reimagined in a cyberpunk dystopia. Work to take down an organization bent on keeping you and your peers in line, preventing you from straying anywhere off the path of your "happily ever after." [ choose your fairy tale character and your job ]

Potential characters: Ciel (Z, RO), Dev (Z, RO), Jovy (M, RO), Cecil (HK, RO), Celestial (Z, RO), Danny (Z, RO), Sofia (CG, RO), Ice Pick Joe (CG), Alaric/Aria (M, RO), etc.

(5) magical, gothic spaghetti western

Pages from old spaghetti westerns and penny dreadfuls are shuffled together and you're unlucky enough to exist within the resulting story. Try to survive a uniquely hostile and unforgiving environment that evolves with the turn of every page. Who are you? What are you becoming? And how will your tale end? (if it ever does) [ choose your ancestry and your power ]

Potential characters: Lucía (Z, RO), Ciel (Z, RO), Adam/Eve (Z, RO), Goncharov (CG, RO), Ice Pick Joe (CG), Max (M, RO), Harlow (Z), etc.

(6) spaceship horror story

You and your crew have just finished your terrestrial mission to a distant exoplanet and are finally on your way home when things begin to go awry. Your ship seems to have a new tenant, but what does this stowaway want and what will it destroy to get it? [ choose your species and your job ]

Potential characters: EJ (Z), Lucía (Z), Ciel (Z), Danny (Z), Rose (Z), Tommy (Z), Clara (Z), Jin (Z), Nasir (Z), Harlow (Z), Hero (HK), Jovy (M), Emerson (M), Ov (SP), etc.

#poll #feedback request #patreon #mythmaker #cast #ttrpg #dnd #zorlok #other games #mousetrap #hades kitchen #system processing #creating goncharov

[atinylittlepain]

I’d love to hear about your novel Gin!! Tell me everything!! 💗

hiiiiiiii Laine :') thank you for asking lol

i think i told you a little about this back in january, phew, feels like a decade ago now - currently im getting ready to do a final round of edits on novel 1 before querying it in earnest, while at the same time i'm about mmmm a fifth of the way into writing the first draft of novel 2

novel 2 - tentatively called spooky action at a distance - was going to be a steddie fic in all honesty, but it became clear pretty quickly that it wasn't a steddie fic at all

to sum it up succinctly, spooky action is a modern reimagining of frankenstein that's set in an NYC not far removed from our present day - i won't get too much into the plot bc well, gotta keep her close to the chest while she's still baking, but what i will tell you is that this goddamn idea has been an absolute bitch to write

i haven't touched it in two weeks, full disclosure, and most of the time i think i'm just going to scrap the damn thing - it's a huge departure from novel 1 which in a lot of ways was flirting on the line of auto fiction - everything is less certain about this one, and super, super tedious :') i'm really hoping to get back to it in the next few weeks, to be seen

but that's the boring stuff - largely, this story is going to be an exploration of the strange horror of motherhood, the subversion of feminine care and invisible labor, the peculiarities and vulgarities of the "wellness" industry, what it means to be living in an otherly-abled body in a world both obsessed with and at the same time obtuse to the reality of the body, and uh, yeah, that's certainly a lot to be fitting in my mouth and chewing on lol

the characters are a delightfully odd bunch of players, so if anyone would like to hear a little about them, or anything else about this project, drop me a line, it gives me a lot of hope to talk about it :')

#spooky action

[burningexeter]

The Wildwood Chronicles

I've talked about this for what seems like to me, to death about this so I want to close the book on this and finally sum it all up because I finally have everything to say it about it in just one place.

It's now a full-on passion project that I really want to do, create and make a reality and that's The Wildwood Chronicles, an epic and ambitious adult-animated series that is a grand crossover between over hundreds — and I mean HUNDREDS — of media (movies, TV shows, anime, comics, video games) that retroactively establishes them all in the same shared universe all along.

Here is all the information, all of the notes/trivia/details, everything that I can tell anyone on this without spoiling anything about it because I'm keeping this shit under lock and key pretty much:

• The ambition with this project is anything but small. How I'd best describe it is a mix of Avengers: Infinity War (the last great MCU movie with only two exceptions afterwards) and Inglourious Basterds (Quentin Tarantino's greatest achievement since 1994) with the influences being not just those two but also Godzilla Minus One, Grand Theft Auto V, Red Dead Redemption 2, Gore Verbinski's Pirates Of The Caribbean Trilogy and the original Die Hard for many aspects of the series whether it'd the size, scope, scale, balance of characters, action, emotional moments etc.

• As for who's the lead and who'll voice him, the answer is Reese Miller both voiced by and modeled directly after Walton Goggins. When he's introduced, he's a down-on-his-luck, alcoholic, cynical, sarcastic and narcissistic schmuck with a criminal past who after an incident that caused his downfall had no choice but to crawl back to his family that he abandoned years ago and now has to deal with his ex-wife wanting him to do just one good thing in his life now and that's be there for his children. Only thing is it's on a certain day where his daughter is his that the main event that kickstarts everything happens and he's left in and later wakes from a months-long coma while his daughter, for a while, has an unknown fate. It's from then on that he becomes a man who is consumed with guilt and regret and is haunted by his past actions and the dirtbag he was with him wanting to and even becoming a better person in this world that's now falling apart. Unfortunately, all of the events that he's put through ultimately turn him into a tragic anti-hero who wants to see this world burn to the fucking ground and without giving any spoilers away, deals the final blow that seals this fictional universe's fate. Or does it? I seriously can't imagine anyone else in this role but Walton and Walton only.

• As for how it will be a crossover, not only will it be a sequel years later, months later, weeks later depending on which media but also it's a strong balance of differentiations. Some like the three here will be major players and have major roles....

.... while others will be surprise supporting roles or even cameo appearances from supporting characters like these three here....

.... or are objects and items that serve as easter eggs that imply or show they're in the same world as well like these beautiful bastards here.

• As for the actual show itself, it will be a 65 episode limited series event with a clear and more than definitive beginning, middle and end. I want the whole show to feel like one long 65 episode feature film while at the same time giving each episode their own stand-out distinctions enough to make them stand on their own. Top of all that, there will be no commercial breaks and every episode will be a full two-hours long with them being treated as events you can't miss. What makes this more special is that there's only one network I have in mind for this series and that's FX.

• As an added bonus, the show will be incredibly and viscerally violent and even brutal with its gore. Hundreds and hundreds of people, creatures, superheroes, supervillains, zombies etc. will be killed in thousands of different and horrific ways with Rambo (2008), Blade II, aforementioned Inglourious Basterds, The Night Comes For Us and Hard Boiled serving as the main influences for the violence but it's not shock for the sake of shock, it's to show that the world is now somehow more dangerous and visceral than it's ever been before and to show that absolutely no one no matter who they are are safe.

• As for who are the directors, I want there to be several distinct and interesting filmmakers to helm episodes but the main one who'll direct the most episodes for he's the main director of the series will easily be Gore Verbinski.

#the wildwood chronicles #crossover #shared universe #fan concept #walton goggins #easter eggs #Youtube

[mysaldate]

Why do you and other jp players despise twst en sm? Other than small character features, I don't get it. (jp player)

I have a whole large post that compiles stuff I personally noticed but there's tons more. What you call "small character features" are actually pretty big things for people who care about these characters or relate to them.

By making Cater make fun of Riddle while he was crying after his overblot, they took away Cater's empathy which is a very important trait of his. By censoring his flirtiness, they took away his coping mechanism for feeling inadequate and unlovable.

By taking away the twins' violent tendencies, they stole about half their personalities and why they are so loved. They took away the conflicting natures they show to others vs those they care about. By making Floyd nothing but a meme, they took away the depth in a character that many would argue shows clear signs of being neurodivergent.

By taking away or hiding the fact that Jamil is a servant, they changed his entire arc from wanting to be free to essentially bitching about being asked to watch over a friend. The power imbalance is important because it affected Jamil on many levels (see: people under the influence of Snake Whisper calling him master, and master being also the first word he would teach his parrot – twst en changed that to simply teaching the parrot to say hello which lacks any sort of personality). A lot of what his parents say doesn't make sense either if you introduce him as a family friend rather than a servant, and that's not talking about the pre-release mishap of making them cousins in promo materials.

By taking away Epel being called cute, his arc goes from finding out cuteness and strength aren't opposites and you can be both to him being a brat unhappy with his looks who suddenly decides it doesn't matter how he looks. Similar but lacks the punch.

By making Vil use gendered language and emphasize manliness, they took away a core part of his character that focuses on breaking gender stereotypes and traditions that are restrictive to either sex or gender.

By making Trey's parents yell at him instead of Riddle's mom, and by mellowing out Riddle's mom's abuse as much as they did, many EN-only fans view Riddle as a spoiled brat who wants everyone to listen to him just because his mom was a little strict.

By making Sebek rude to his seniors and always put everyone but Malleus down, also calling Malleus exclusively by his first name, they took away a core part of his character and what made his interracial origins so compelling because there's no longer any conflict in his values.

To the censorship point, I'm by no means an advocate for forced representation and I don't believe that every fictional work has to have characters of every race, gender, and sexuality. I am, however, a firm believer in keeping characters as they were originally written. If a character is written as gay or bi, erasing that is wrong. If a character is written as trans or nb, erasing that is wrong. Same goes for straight and cis characters. My problem with twst en in this regard is that it erases a lot of this. It's not just Cater flirting with Vil or Epel or paintings or Eliza or her guards or Trey or whoever else that man flirted with, it's also nearly every mention of Vil being beautiful (they usually get replaced by handsome or cool) or Epel being cute, it's the way Jamil blushes when Kalim compliments him, it's the way Rook often hints at Trey and Riddle being together even if they're not, it's Silver saying Vil is who he thinks of when he hears the word beauty, it's Idia thinking Silver is extremely pretty, it's Lilia going out of his way to be cute, it's all that and so much more. Cater is just the most blatant example of this.

Censorship also applies to other things though. The violence and darkness of Twisted Wonderland is what makes these characters dear to a lot of us. Riddle's mother is abusive and extremely controlling as well as violent. Trey had no childhood because he was a parent to his younger siblings and until he discovered his magic, his whole life was controlled by the family bakery. Cater's sisters together with the moving made him believe he was unworthy of being loved on a personal level. Ruggie's struggled to survive his entire life. Azul was severely bullied since he was very young. The twins hinted multiple times at murdering us, Jade hinted at cannibalism. They also both had near-death experiences during Halloween under the sea. Jamil was forced to put himself down because his life and happiness were treated as less important than Kalim's. Vil got systematically dehumanized and physically and mentally bullied for putting in effort and looking a certain way... If you censor the darkness in these stories, they are no longer the same characters and it is no longer the same story.

Side note here: Twst en removed Sam's makeup supposedly due to racist stereotypes but then they changed the name of Jamil's unique from Snake Whisper to Snake Charmer... which is a racist stereotype... so yeah, they clearly don't care about actually not being racist besides the low-hanging fruit of virtue signaling.

There's more if you wanna dig deeper. But aside from all of these, there's also the constant inconsistencies in translation, the translation team clearly not caring enough to translate catchphrases the same way each time, the oftentimes blatantly wrong translation, the horrendous new English names for things that already had English names in the first place, the visual censorship on Sam (do not use the voodoo argument, Sam has no connection to voodoo and his makeup is purely decorative as stated in Magical Archives), as well as the fact that as soon as twst en was announced, even the original twst started back-tracking on some of their earlier content. For example, despite Cater saying in his school uniform story that he wanted to date Vil, his union birthday suddenly has him claiming he wants Vil as a brother. This is especially interesting because Cater was the first character twst en gave a birthday banner to.

And going even more meta, the pace at which they release events is horrible. Being F2P in twst en is extremely hard unless you have the luck of the gods. They are rushing out too much content all at once and the overall quality of the game suffers for it.

[lladmie]

Thoughts on Makoto's lack of agency in Yakuza 0

I don't want to delve too much into the female characters' portrayals in the Yakuza serie, as it is a can of worms many players already talked about. What I want to focus on is a critique I often read on Makoto Makimura specifically and her lack of agency in the game, which is both understandable and exaggerated to me, and now I'm going to explain why.

I personally think her lack of agency has little to do with what the fans often complain about: how women are treated in fiction, especially when said fiction is intended for a male audience. Sometimes people tend to forget that fictional stories are usually written with a specific goal or message in mind, and more often than not this has more to do with what the writer want to tell than what the writer think of their characters. Fictional characters are pawns, no matter how much we end up loving them, and the story of Yakuza 0 is so impactful and emotional also because Makoto has little to no agency, which, if you ask me, can be perceived simply as a clear-cut and functional choice from the developers.

We can say Yakuza 0 is a well-written story with a general good eye for details, despite the technical limits. In this aspect, Makoto's role is clearly built with a primary objective in mind: the palyer's desire to save her. Segments of gameplay where you have to run away keeping the hand of a NPC are common in games that want the player to feel a strong emotional attachment to the person they are carrying, and therefore protecting. [see ICO & many others]

(They also wanted to show us the romantic chemistry between her and Majima where the camera also focus heavily on their connected hands since the very beginning)

Later, moments like the Takoyaki date in chapter 16 have very much the same purpose. It reminds us of the moment we kept her hand through the streets of Sotenbori, but we aren't keeping her hand anymore and she falls, again and again, with us standing there, unable to do anything but watch. This is not only meant to show how respectful Majima is toward her and her desires, which is also important for the story (- let me do things on my own - god bless him), but also to make the player feel powerless and suffer through the impossibility to help her, protect her. Makoto later failure with the Dojima family is an extent of that feeling, which reaches its peak the moment she's shot—we failed, or didn't we? (Story-wise, it also makes sense for Makoto to fail as she knows nothing about the yakuza world and her feelings were blinding her more than her eyes ever did)

For all Yakuza 0, the player's first sentiment revolves around a simple concept: I Want To Protect Her. And that's the point of it. A deep, intense desire we're also meant to share with Majima (and later Kiryu) and that have a functionality in making us empathize with his role, his character and his motivations as well, and then love him even more.

On top of that, there is the fact that Makoto is blind and has a horrible past. Blindness is a big disability we are used to underestimate in media. Have you ever thought of how much you can do, realistically, as a blind person? There is no shame in letting others help you or act scared, despite our time and age tells us a woman is better if she's strong (what a lie, no person is better if they're strong). A sour note is maybe the ending, where Makoto actually never choose a normal life (though she didn't say she doesn't want it either) and was thrown into a man's hands despite her history suggests she probably needs a man that it's very far from normality to begin with—but that's also a message the game want to send us: she's not alone and she's probably going to live a "good life". Majima did it. The player did it. Emotionally, that was all the game was about.

Thus, overall, I think Makoto's role in Yakuza 0 is good as it is. She's a character I came to love deeply, whose weaknesses are among many other things my first source of interest and enjoynment when it comes to her. She's not a puppet either, or she wouldn't have asked for the Dojima lieutenants' heads, nor looked those punks in the eyes in the last cutscene (and she declared that she wanted to be strong herself, didn't she?). Her character writing isn't perfect, as there were many ways to write her much better or at least let us know what she was thinking in a much more direct way. However, I don't believe her lack of agency is necessarily a bad choice for her character, but more a choice directly related to what the game wanted to tell us and make us feel.

#makoto makimura #goro majima #yakuza 0 #rgg #ryu ga gotoku #龍が如く #majimako #also good how makoto and majima's developments are parallels #they live in fear until they just want to die #and then the awakening #majima's fears and weaknesses in y0 are so precious too #don't erase them

[bbq-hawks-wings]

Chapter 342: Now, where were we?

"This operation will fail unless everyone plays their part. There is no such thing as a bit player."

HELLO INTERNET! WELCOME TO BBQ'S INANE RAMBLINGS!

Whoo-boy, it's sure been a bit since I graced the internet with my long-winded, unsolicited opinions about fiction; but I'm back - spurred on by the promise of my favorite bird boi coming down the chapter release pipeline starting this Sunday. So, naturally, I need to catch up and review everything else I've taken a break on before I can tackle the new stuff when it gets here.

So, let's buckle up and jump right in!!!

1. The Traitor: Aoyama can’t stop twinkling.

One of the last reveals we had before the start of the big battle is that Aoyama was the traitor all along, and we only really found out thanks to happenstance with Hagakure and Deku overhearing him talking to his parents about AFO. Nevertheless, with encouragement and understanding, he’s welcomed back to the fold and he heroically overcomes the fear that AFO had leveraged over him and his family and strikes back against his oppressor - becoming the key to luring AFO out into the open for his friends and allies.

2. The Plan: Bait and Switch

Now that the heroes have a mole by which to control the information AFO has at his disposal, they elect to pretend that they never discovered Aoyama so as not to tip off that they’re cooking up a trap. Extensive considerations are put into defenses and tactics to cover as many contingencies and abilities that the enemy has at their disposal as possible and carefully choosing who will fight on what battlefront to best increase their chances of success. The heroes’ numbers and energy are certainly finite at this point, and this is their very last shot to take down AFO and Shigaraki before they mobilize and become unstoppable.

3. The Attack: A Battle of Ideals

As much as this fight is a physical one, it’s also one of values and ideals. This comes across in both AFO and the heroes’ attitudes towards what they’re fighting for and for who. Where the villains are more concerned about squashing the obstacles that are the heroes in their way so that they can make their version of an ideal world, there are those among the heroes who wonder about the fates of their enemies, the paths that lead them there, and what real justice is for all parties involved, maybe even for the worst of the worst.

AFO regards Aoyama as no more than a useful tool to bring about his own ends, and whether or not he dies is ultimately inconsequential to his grand scheme because the ultimate goal is one where he’s at the top of the world and everyone else is below him - in his mind, exactly as the world should be.

Compare that to the heroes who see Aoyama as indispensable and valuable in and of himself. Where AFO exploited a single weakness in Aoyama for his own benefit, Class A chooses to look past his circumstances and into his character - a move that turns Aoyama from a tool into an ally. And this thinking is not only extended to one who openly sides with them, but to Toga and Dabi as well, despite their clear opposition to the peace the heroes seek and no clear way for them to fit within that vision.

Whether they’re naive or over-idealistic in pondering this about the villains, it is nonetheless completely antithetical to AFO’s worldview and attitudes about human life and the human condition and plainly illustrates the sides that the clashing powers of All-for-One and One-for-All portray. I’m curious to see how these philosophies manifest themselves in the battles to come.

I guess I’ll have to keep going to see.

#she speaks #bnha chapter review #bnha chapter 342 #bnha 342

[all-chickens-are-trans]

literally so fucked up that I can't hug my dnd party my best friends my dnd party

#to be clear: i'm talking about both the players and the fictional characters #but especially the fictional characters bc sooner or later i will be able to hug the players again maybe #my posts #yes this is a quote of that one post about cas by spn blog dean-studies #dndrag

[undertale-data]

[Image Description: an Undertale chat box with the name "PAPYRUS", in all caps and Papyrus font, in its center. On its left is a talksprite of Papyrus sweating anxiously, and on its right is a talksprite of Papyrus wearing sunglasses. End I.D.]

The Great Papyrus is the most popular Undertale character among the fans surveyed here. 19.6% of responders chose him as their favorite. That’s a total of 519 fans! (Wowie!!)

Not all Papyrus fans are unified on his characterization, however. The most obvious divide was between fans who call him a “cinnamon roll” or “precious baby,” and those who find these takes infantilizing. A lot of people like the friendliness and optimism of this character, while others recognize this but highlight his maturity too. Fans who worry about his infantilization seem most concerned with how he can be portrayed as naive or dumb by the fandom. A portion of fans specifically mentioned this naivety as a point in his favor, though the marginally more popular take seems to be that he is not naive, regardless of how he first appears. This fandom divide seems to relate to Papyrus’s autistic or ADHD coding. Many fans relate to him as ADHD and autistic themselves.

Fans also related to him in his desire for friends. Many responders think of him as a friend and a comfort character, so at least in one way his wish has been fulfilled.

The phone calls were a major reason that fans said they felt connected to Papyrus. Thanks to these calls, he has the most dialogue of any character in the game. His humor and dialogue were often highlighted as favorite qualities.

While fans may disagree on some aspects of Papyrus’s personality, it is clear that his fans all value his optimism and kindness. His fans do not see his kindness as weakness. Many talked about the complexity of his character and the strength it took for him to show mercy to the player character, even when the player doesn’t show it in return. He believes in himself, and he believes in you! This kindness and trust has inspired his fans to be kinder themselves.

Papyrus fans were also drawn to his mysteriousness. Several responses pointed out that he is a more mysterious character than Sans, who is also often loved for his mystery. As shown in the phone calls, Papyrus will put on fronts depending on who he is around, making it even more difficult for fans to uncover his secrets. Some people in other sections of the survey found this frustrating, but Papyrus fans tend to see it as another point in his favor.

Among the greatest proportion of responses were from fans who couldn’t choose a favorite trait, or who just love everything about Papyrus. While these responses may be less lengthy, they are still as full of love as the essay-length answers. These responses tended to say phrases like “cool dude” or “Papyrus my beloved” or “THE GREAT PAPYRUS.”

(You were overcome by writing about such a handsome skeleton. He understands.)

Highlights: (under the cut)

Honestly Papyrus just feels like joy. Funny, incredibly kind, with a few mysteries/weird quirks about him that are fun to ponder over. I especially love how he often acts proud and self aggrandizing without putting others down, and in fact sometimes uses that to lift his friends up alongside him. You don't see this take on proud characters often.

Papyrus is strong. Strong in body, but also morally strong. He knows what is right, what it means to be merciful and kind, even in the face of danger or death. Some think him naive. And yet, even facing death and seeing the dust of those he knew, he did not falter or turn from his ideals of mercy and change for the better.

BECAUSE HE IS THE GREAT PAPYRUS

His optimism and his overall personality is endearing! You're always having fun with him :D

He's meeting all of my standards.

Papyrus is very under appreciated, and overlooked, and it's very frustrating to me—he's a complex character but people treat him like he's a baby!!! I like him because he's kind of goofy with how he talks and he's just very charming and kind.

He's weirder than Sans, and it wasn't acknowledged for years because he acts oblivious and dumb, even when he's clearly not. Quite frankly, I find it iconic. Also, his entire personality helps a lot.

I'm ND, trans, and projecting!

OK SO he's just a friendly guy!! A dude who likes cooking for his friends!! We love a hype man!! Also smart as hell and I feel like fanon majorly overlooks this. Making good, fun puzzles is HARD and setting up a flamethrower to go off wirelessly is complicated. Like even if that bridge puzzle didn't go off the components were complicated. Love that cool dude!!!!

I heavily relate to Papyrus as a character and consider him my favorite fictional character of all time. He is a very well-written and thought out character with several quirks and layers in his personality. It is headcanoned by some (myself included) that Papyrus may possibly be on the Autism Spectrum due to his nature, his interactions with others, and overall how he displays himself to the world we see.

I could talk about Papyrus forever, and you have made a grave mistake in allowing me to do so. He is a charming, strong spirited, well intentioned, complex character that is often wildly misinterpreted, and I think originally this is why I was drawn to him. He is presented as one thing and in fact acts as one thing (though not the same way as presented by fandom), and in reality when you look closer than you are meant to he is not, in fact, any of these things. It was intriguing to me. Secondly, and rather contradictorily, another thing that drew me to him is that he is very true to himself, when it comes to idiosyncrasies and moral values. It's true that he does not offer much in the way of personal backstory and feelings, but he offers very much indeed in the way of personality. What a guy! He wears silly crop tops and bright colors, he speaks in a manner specific to him that sometimes doesn't make sense, he cares about something or someone and goes whole hog with it -- he's passionate, damn it! I love him and his weirdo, goofy self with all my heart. He cares about other people to a fault, too. He would sacrifice everything to help someone, and his belief in the potential of both others and himself is indomitable. When faced with the responsibility of a kingdom, his friends gone, his brother lying to him, and himself all alone without a reliable support system, he recognized what he was facing and still bucked up and became determined to get through it. When faced with a murderous, over powerful enemy, someone who had killed many of his friends and fellow monsters, someone who had repeatedly been rude and borderline aggressive and showed no signs of stopping, he saw that they were having difficulty and offered to help and to care for them, and didn't regret his decision or change his opinion on what they needed and their potential for change, even when quite literally killed by them a moment after. Even in death, even directly after a betrayal like that, he never stops believing that they can get better, that anyone can be a good person if they want to be. That's important, I think; that concept of giving people the chances they need to grow and to change. I have a tattoo of that moment on my thigh, it's that important to me. I guess I really like Papyrus because even though he is fictional, watching him out there makes it easy to believe in people, in our inherent goodness and desire to love each other. He makes it easy to see that we can change, that no matter what you've done in the past or who you currently are, no one is inherently a bad person, and no one is incapable of learning how to be a good one. It is just a step by step process that we have to take day by day.

[Image Description: A wordcloud shaped like Papyrus. His gloves, boots, and cape are red; his Battle Body is blue, yellow, and white; and his bones are white. Some of the most visible words are: Kind, Love, Good, Cool, Relate, Funny, Friend, Mystery, and Papyrus. These are the words that responders mentioned most in their essays about him. End I.D.]

Read the full list of responses shared with permission by clicking this link! (The document is 25 pages long, so you may want to make a copy to prevent lagging.)

#papyrus #character analysis #undertale #undertale fandom census #results

[ambered-glazed-sheep]

Please do go on about Doomslayer and his morals. I'm legit fascinated by him since starting the let's play I'm watching and I'd love to hear your take on him (I know literally nothing about the Doom franchise other than lots of blood and violence against demons and also badass music)

You know, a year ago when my friends asked me 'hey do you wanna play minecraft' and i said 'yeah sure' i would have never thought i would one day have a minecraft sideblog where i get questions about the personality of the main character of a shooter fps game (of all things!) that is known for its incredible violence.

But here you go:

(prepare yourself this has gotten way longer than i thought oh god, and also it has nothing to do with hermits whatsoever. warnings for language and descriptions of violence? and i assume the readmore won’t be working the way i want it to)

Ok so, Doom!

First of all, i know nothing about the old games, and i’ve only seen a minimal amount of Doom Eternal Letsplays. Most of this is based on Doom (2016). 

Ok so we all start out thinking Doomguy! It’s the guy you play in Doom. The hand that hold the gun YOU are shooting demons with. And sure, you can go trough the whole game with that mindset, but that’s boring and we are overthinking fictional characters in this house.

ID software actually managed to give Doomguy/Doomslayer a TON of personality despite him never saying a word, barely any cutscenes to show what he does when you don’t control him (at least in Doom 2016), and not a lot of other characters to interact with despite enemy monsters.

The game just leaves you little hints and snippets and that’s what makes Doomslayer so exciting to think about. Just the right levels between ‘cryptid half-god who never shows emotion and is a player-insert’ and ‘this dude’s got an AGENDA. he has PLACES TO BE’. You are him as you play, but sometimes he makes decisions on his own. But personally, i could never find myself to disagree.

First, you got the intro sequence. 

You got a unknown voice telling you: 

“They are rage. Brutal, without mercy. But you. You will be worse. Rip and Tear, until it is done.”

First of all, YO. WOW. HOLY SHIT.

The scene immediately shifts to Doomslayer waking up. He’s naked, he’s chained down somewhere, theresa SHIT TON of scars littering his arms and hands. First thing HE does, on his own behalf, is ripping off the chains by flexing a little (literal iron chains!!!), smashing a zombies head against the sarcophagus he lays in and completely obliterating said head into a bit of blood (mind you, three seconds after he woke up from a thousands of years long coma!! but we only learn that later), and then promptly gets up, picks up a pistol, and now it’s your, the players turn. This takes like 8 seconds in total. This man means BUSINESS. That’s the first thing we learn.

Second thing that strikes me is the interactions with Samuel Hayden. 

Doomslayer is patient when a computer voice tells him the status of the base. He is patient as he looks at the screens to see what is going on. (a demonic invasion, thats what). But then dear Dr. Samuel Hayden calls. 

Dr. Hayden says “Hi, i’m the boss here, i’m sure we can work together in a way that benefits us both uwu”. Doomslayer immediately grabs the PC screen and pushes it aside. His gesture says, i’m done with this. im sick of this dude. this guy is full of shit. And he’s right! And that after barely hearing two sentences from Hayden!

So the second thing we learn is that he has no time for people trying to exploit him. He hears Hayden, he has a gut feeling that this dude is a little fishy, maybe he just plain doesnt like higher ups and heads of facilities. But we learn that he IS. NOT. going to listen to this man, and his body language makes that very clear without being actually violent against the person (he doesnt destroy the Screen either! just pushes it aside very annoyed. He isn’t mindlessly destroying property here.)

This continues. 

Hayden goes ‘hey maybe don’t destroy that energy source!’ in the few seconds you dont control him, Doomslayer listens. He hesitates. He considers. Then he destroys the thing anyways. Hayden keeps telling him to stop, but Doomslayer doesnt listen. He’s got his own mind!

This was mostly about Haydens Company, the UAC, harvesting hell energy, and hurting people in the process. 

There’s a scene where Doomslayer rides an elevator. Hayden, over the comms, tells him that everyone that has died in the demon attack was a nacessary sacrifice that will bring a new future or some shit like that. the camera pans down to show some poor sods corpse at those very words. Doomslayer cracks his knuckles. he is NOT HAPPY about that, so we know he doesnt like it when human lifes are sacrificed. He destroys the communicator, so he doesnt have to listen to Haydens voice telling him lies and trying to sway him anymore. 

(then he takes out his shotgun, the doors open, metal starts playing and the doom logo is shown, but that’s more about making the player feel epic than showing doomslayers personality,,)

Now i would like to talk about VEGA, the AI that controls the mars facility. 

VEGA occasionally talks to us/the Slayer. He is very straightforward, tells us what to do and why to do it, and is generally very polite. In the story, Doomslayer listens to Vega. 

Now why does he listen to VEGA but not Hayden? 

I think it’s because Hayden tries to get him to do things that just benefit him, and Hayden is very manipulative in his words (or tries to be lol), while Vega just says (if you destroy this thing, that door will open. I think Doomslayer appreciates it when people are honest to him.

And in the end, Doomslayer on his own decides to save a backup of VEGA. VEGA didn’t ask him to, Doomslayer did that on his own. It’s not relevant to his mission, he doesnt need VEGA to go to hell to close portals and whatnot. But he does save him. Why? I think it’s because he cares. Because he’s come to like VEGA. Because Vega didn’t try to manipulate him and screw him over. 

Next up is the Slayers Testament. 

These are a bunch of writings/recordings that you find scattered in the hell levels. (i highly recommend listening to them/reading them, they are metal as fuck and give me such an immense feeling of power bc they are talking about me, the doomslayer)

These testaments were written by demons. They were genuinely afraid of the slayer. 

Quote:

Unbreakable, incorruptible, unyielding, the Doom Slayer sought to end the dominion of the dark realm.

As said, i don’t think these are purely talking about his physical strength. They are talking about his... well, mentality. His Codex. They see him as an unstoppable force. He is incorruptible. Let that sink in. Man walks trough hordes of demons and at no point ever thinks ‘yeah maybe this is a bit much’ or ‘they just keep coming this is pointless’. No. He’s unyielding. (Can you tell how much i love the words in these testaments? It’s just got such a nice ring to it.)

In battle, the Doomslayer is BRUTAL. He tears apart demons, rips their eyes out, all that. He stomps on heads like they’re water balloons and isn’t fazed at all. Nothing stops this man. (except players like me who fall off the map 5 consecutive times, but lets just imagine the doomslayer is actually like he would be if someone played the game perfectly. player skill shouldn’t be considered in my headcanons jahdjhgd) One could even argue he has fun at this, because there are some animations like ripping off a zombies arm and beating the Zombie with it, or feeding a demon it’s own heart.

I feel like that says a lot about his personality as well!

He doesn’t hesitate. He doesn’t doubt himself. He doesn’t question his cause! He fights to get rid of the demons, not just the ones in his way, but every. demon. He will go out of his way to kill more demons. You could either take this as him having fun, or him following his own moral codex to get rid of every demon, or him being a not-quite-human war machine, or wanting to protect humanity from them. 

I would say it’s a healthy mix of all that :D

In older games, there was this whole backstory snippet of him returning to earth, finding that the demons had invaded his planet but also killed his pet rabbit (Daisy), and he then goes onto a 2-game long revenge trip.Take that as you will.

The last thing i would like to mention is this post.

Please watch the video. Doomguy walks trough the rows of random human guards. This is the walk of a man who doesn’t owe them SHIT. Yes, he wants to save humanity. Yes, he cares. But he also knows who he is. He knows what he did, and what he will do. He doesn’t have to justify himself in front of these shady scientists and jerky guards.THEY owe HIM, in fact. This video emits the sheer CONFIDENCE of someone who has walked trough hell multiple times and knows none of these people could even touch him. Yes, he would never kill them. He would not harm humans. But he doesn’t care about making them uncomfortable with his presence, either. He doesnt ask for permission.

(i think by now i am using the exact same words they did in that post. really, its worth the read. i think there’s a lot of repeated things between this post and that post by now but i encourage you to watch that video. its worth it.)

Also, the impact he has on the people in this room! they trip. they walk backwards. they go quiet, stutter. they are intimidated. They know he’s technically here to help and save them, but now, standing in front of them.... just wow. it really puts things into perspective. it tells the player that all the demons that he’s killed, all that the doomslayer has done... its noted. it has an impact. 

I’m not really sure where i’m going with this anymore, but watching those NPCs react to the slayers presence just adds so much more to his character. it tells us how people see him, and boy.... do they see him. 

i think it also ties a lot into how the player is made feel, controlling doomguy. all these head stomping and limp tearing animations, the guns, people being scared, watching doomslayer destroy important equipment from first pirson or pushing open doors or whatever... it just gives me such an immense feeling of power! i can’t even describe it. (...it also has nothing to do anymore with the original question but holy shit did i love playing doom for the sheer atmosphere of it. despite me being horrible at playing.)

(at the end of this i’m realizing that all of this never addressed if doomslayer is happy and content murdering demons, or if he just wants his peace and quiet but can’t help himself every time he sees a demon. i would propose to leave that up to headcanons. mine is a mix of both but in a way that makes it not angsty. like he loves to have his calm moments, but is just as happy to rip some demon’s spine out. probably gets a little itchy and impatient if he hasn’t fought in a while.)

also if you’re interested in game design and way more professional people talking about why doom 2016 is great i reccomend this documentary

...anyways it’s past 1am and this has gotten way out of hand but

tl;dr: the doomslayer is metal as fuck, he has a lot of agenda he is following, and i love him so much

#amber talks #doom #where do i even begin with this? #i wanted to answer this in the morning but that was over an hour ago now #jdakjsdhasdjh i can't help myself theres so much to say about doom!!!! #you asked for this anon #it's just so... *clenches fist* #i forgot of course that the music is pretty much the best thing ever and i've been listening to it SO MUCH while writing litve #everything about this game is designed to make you feel powerful and HOLY SHIT is it working #id software did a great job #i watched a whole documentary on this it was great #...yeah i study 3d stuff this is pretty much in m #my field haha #i've just had all these feelings in me for months and now that someone showed the slightest hint of interest it's all coming out #sorry its so unorganized i tried to at least take one point after the other #now to write another essay on why the slayer and the mandalorian are very alike in some parts but mando is so much softer #(its because slayer has been trough hell and back while mando still has hope in the world) #(i mean mando is a jaded and tough bounty hunter but all that he is doomslayer is cranked up to eleven) #(shush now i said in another essay! go to bed) #(....its not gonna be an essay its gonna be a fanfic and its gonna be great) #(mando is such a softie......) #*pushes my mando/slayer agenda on my side blog as well* ah i see #long post #...very long post #hey i've hit 2k words with this! #....i've written litve chapters that are shorter #EDIT: WAIT FUCK I THINK I MIXED UP THE SECURITY GUARDS LINES WITH A FIC I READ ONCE #or did i gave EX that line in the last ask i answered???? #i'm??? im gonna go to sleep lol

[zarekthelordofthefries]

Any tips for putting together a Monster Of The Week game? I'm making a campaign and haven't ever played before 😅

Oh, sure! Some of this might be kind of basic stuff that you might’ve covered already but since I don’t know where you’re at in the process yet I’ll try to give some general starting stuff advice. (From your phrasing I’m gonna assume you’re the GM for this.) (Also, uh, some of this got kind of long-winded, but mostly it’s stuff I feel is really important)

Initial thing to consider: Have you played a Powered By The Apocalypse game like MotW before? If not, it’s important to get into the right headspace for it, especially if you’re coming into it off of playing another game, like D&D. D&D and MotW have pretty different design philosophies. Getting into things like “You as the GM don’t plan scenes, you plan a situation” and “You literally never roll, only the players do, you just make your moves” – or hell, the entire concept of GM moves – can be difficult to grasp if you’re like most roleplayers and are coming off a background primarily of D&D, where the GM plans dungeon setpieces and is encouraged to make a ton of rolls and doesn’t really have a system of responding to players’ roll failures in the way GM moves function. I don’t really have any particular advice for this, it’s just kind of a mental unlearning-relearning process anyone has to go through when they pick up a new game. But again, I don’t know your gaming background – you might’ve already cleared this step, it’s just something to keep in mind!

So, I think an important early step in ANY game is having an in-depth conversation with your group about what you want to get out of the game. In fact, I would say the most important early thing in MotW, moreso than the players picking their playbooks, is to have a group discussion of what style of game you want. MotW supports several styles of play that can give you very different-feeling games. You can use MotW to play Supernatural, Buffy, The X-Files, Scooby-Doo, The Dresden Files, or something in between two or more of those – and it’s not gonna be fun if you start playing what you want to be Supernatural and the players want to be Buffy. Talk to your players about tone first and foremost – do you, as a group, prefer something very silly (Scooby-Doo), something grim and brutal (Supernatural), or something in the middle (Buffy)? The MOST IMPORTANT part of this is talking to your players about boundaries. MotW is an action-horror game, and horror comes in many forms that can be touchy for some folks. Talk about what might or might not be comfortable for everyone at the table when it comes to serious subjects that might come up in the game.

Another aspect of that early discussion, less important than boundary-setting but definitely important for the type of story you want to build together, is what kind of setting and style you want for the game. I think it can be useful to establish early on what ties the player characters together. It could just be a location, maybe all the characters just happen to live together in the same weird monster-heavy town and happen to work together, but it can be stabilizing to have something more concrete. The book goes over some of these ideas (I believe it mentions the idea of belonging to the same organization investigating monsters or all the player characters being family members). An important aspect of this is also deciding whether you want the game to be mobile, with the PC hunters traveling from location to location to deal with monsters (this is, funnily enough, both Scooby-Doo and Supernatural style), or centralized in one location with repeated monster attacks (this is more Buffy style). I technically only have direct experience with the latter, but I think both require roughly the same investment on your part, just in different ways (you don’t have to map out every town you go to every session in a mobile game, but you may want to sketch out a map of town in an immobile game, or just use an existing real town and see if you can find a map online – rule 1 of GMing is knowing when and what to steal!).

I think this initial conversation may be more important than playbook-picks, but it shouldn’t be a huge deal if your players already have an idea of what they want to play, as long as you make sure to get on the same page re: tone and style. Additionally, I assume you’re using the updated ruleset from the revised edition of the game, but I’d advise you to check out the old MotW site and its free downloads of other classes that didn’t get added to the revised edition: Here. You’re not obligated to allow any playbooks in particular in the game, of course, but I’d at least say check ‘em out and if you think they work for you, let your players see them too. (You might be discouraged from some of them by tone, and that’s totally fair, some of them are definitely built for sillier games, but keep in mind that can be changed by the right player. My group has both a Luchador and a Meddling Kid that are really human, multidimensional characters, so if that’s what you want and it’s what your players want to do with them, that can work. Of course, if you want cartoon characters, they’re also very good classes for playing cartoon characters.)

As for, y’know, playing the actual game, I would advise you to avoid my mistakes and try to really follow the book’s advice when it comes to early mysteries. Try to make fairly simple, straightforward hunts at first before you start getting complex or esoteric. If you’re like me you might get excited to try to mess with the formula before you even establish a formula for your players, and in a game you’re new to, that can be overly ambitious. (Although you can, of course, get really creative within the formula. Just look at the two example mysteries in the book – in their STRUCTURE they’re very standard, one big monster with a handful of minions that the players have to find a kill, but with radically different styles.)

Remember you aren’t making scenes for your players to run through, you’re making a situation with many dangers (not just the monsters – remember locations and NPCs are dangers, too!) and a ticking clock that the players have to figure out their own clever ways to overcome. It’s their job to be proactive and your job to put things in their way, but let them shove the things out of their way if they figure out how. (Also keep in mind the players can always prevent things on the countdown clock! This is a minor point that I think the game states directly, but don’t start your countdown clocks at something the players have no chance of stopping and/or already happened.)

Don’t worry too much right now about setting up arcs – your players, through their choices in character creation, are likely to give you a ton of fodder for that stuff. IIRC the book advises to start thinking about arcs after you’ve already had the first session, and that’s good advice, but you can probably wait even later than that if you can’t think of anything yet.

Some advice on magic: Let cool stuff happen, but keep in mind the tone and style you set up with your players before allowing something. Magic is flexible in the game, but don’t let clever magic-using players walk all over you. Like I do. A lot. But uh yeah, keep in mind you get to pick the restrictions on a spell. This is one case where GM fiat kinda has to come in to regulate things slightly and you have to decide what makes sense narratively as a cost for the action being attempted. Some characters, like the Monstrous or the Spooky, will logically in the fiction be (super?)naturally magical, so they can get away with fewer of the material-component-type stuff for Use Magic rolls that seem like they should be part of the characters’ natural abilities, especially if you’re going for more of a high-magic game where magic is a little less limited, but you can still put restrictions on things like time in those cases.

Lastly, I don’t want to overwhelm you with options, but I’d advise you to give this PDF a look-see if you haven��t already. It’s about introducing other forms of the supernatural into MotW in addition to the basic magic stuff that the game assumes by default. It adds new “monster” types that are built to emulate threats posed from weird happenings or alien phenomena, to give more of an X-Files or Warehouse 13 feeling where instead of hunting a physical monster, the players are unravelling a strange circumstance and trying to prevent the phenomenon from hurting more people. It also adds options for characters replacing the Use Magic basic move with some other different Weird-based move, which might be near-superhuman physical feats, mundane gut instinct, psychic powers, etc. You don’t have to allow or use these options in your game, but it can make more sense for specific styles of game if you and your players don’t want a setting where everybody can use magic, and/or your players want more thematically appropriate Weird powers for their character if they don’t see themselves using magic often. It can be a good incentive to avoid Weird being a dump-stat for players who don’t want to play a magic-user, but the game is perfectly playable and fun in either style. Again, don’t want to overwhelm you or your players, but I really like the More Weirdness rules and remember how I could’ve used them in some of my earlier sessions, so I want to make sure you’re at least aware of them even if you want to play a more Buffy/Supernatural-style “everybody can use magic fairly easily if they know the rituals” type of setting.

(Okay, actually-lastly, one more minor thing: This isn’t really advice on playing the game, but I would advise you and your group to come up with a title and theme song for the monster-of-the-week TV show that your game is telling the stories of, purely because I found that really fun in my own game. Our theme song is “Stone Cold Sober” by Paloma Faith, if you’re curious. I link the music video in our game chat every time we start a game, after I narrate a cold open.)

I think that covers all the basic stuff I can give advice on off the top of my head. If there’s something I haven’t covered here that you’d like more detail on, or you have a more specific question about how the game is played, feel free to ask! Happy to see more folks playing the game and happy to help out!

#monster of the week #tabletop rpg #original content #rpg #holy shit someone i don't personally know asked me for GM advice #this is a good day

[skamswede]

Skam Italia canceled. TimVision in crisis?

After retiring from the project of The brilliant genius, the platform decides not to renew the Italian remake of the Norwegian series. Speak Ludovico Bessegato, director, showrunner and creator of Skam Italia

On July 9, Rai presented its autumn program to the press, and among the TV series offer one of the most important titles is certainly "The brilliant friend - History of the new surname". This year, however, there was a novelty. The credits included Rai Fiction, Hbo and Wildside, the producing company. But the name of TimVision was missing, which until last year not only collaborated on the financing of "The brilliant friend", but also distributed it exclusively. There were no notes or official announcements. Tim's platform has simply disappeared from the producers of "The genial friend".

More or less during the same period, other voices have begun to follow one another: TimVision changes its objectives; will no longer produce only series and films (one of the last, "Bangla", produced together with Domenico Procacci's Fandango, won the 14th edition of Bimbi Belli and the Nastro d'Argento for the best comedy); but pure entertainment aquashow.

There was also talk of other projects, like a series of the collective The Pills. But even that, for now, is still: disappeared into thin air. The same acquisitions of international securities have stalled. The great successes, like "The Handmaid's Tale", have been reconfirmed. But there were no new announcements.

In short, TimVision is changing skin. And this is a fact. We tried to contact the company for a comment. The email sent to us reads: «With the recent agreement, Sky Tim has strengthened its content platform and confirmed the validity of TimVision's new industrial strategy, which aims to offer high quality digital entertainment for all families . Thanks to the partnerships signed with the most important players in the sector, TimVision is the main aggregator of contents in Italy, being able to offer TV series, films, entertainment, news and all the main national and international sporting events. With the quality of the ultra-broadband network and all the possibilities related to 5G, Tim is able to offer every possible content anywhere and at any time. The convergence between content, voice, fixed and mobile places the company as the industry leader ».

Everything, it seems, began with the arrival, last year, of Luca Josi who took over the Brand Strategy Media & Multimedia Entertainment and the responsibility of TimVision. Before him, there was always Annamaria Morelli: manager of TimVision Production, the woman who allowed the realization of the greatest successes of Tim's platform, which was able to focus on a precise target (the youngest, the teenagers), and that he had found, contrary to what was perceived by the company, a third way compared to those undertaken by Netflix and Sky. Thanks to her, with "L 'genial friend", TimVision - an Italian streaming platform - had gone to the Venice International Film Festival.

Since last Friday, Annamaria Morelli no longer works in TimVision. She resigned. And now the doubts accumulate. Above all, they accumulate after the news that "Skam Italia", the most successful series of TimVision, also reported by foreign newspapers such as BuzzFeed, trend topic anywhere in the world, appreciated and followed abroad, has been canceled.

"Monday - tells us Ludovico Bessegato, creator, director, co-writer and supporter of the Italian remake of" Skam "- we understood that even the last hope we were holding on to being able to shoot the fourth season of" Skam Italia "was nuanced. We had to become aware of the fact that we will not continue this series any more ".

The reason, says Bessegato, is not clear. "I don't know the exact reason, really. I'm the director and showrunner of the series. I only know that a paradoxical decision, given the success that the series has had this year ». "Skam Italia" has won many awards, including those for the best series at the first edition of Series Con and at the Diversity Media Awards, and a recognition from the Giffoni Film Festival. "And as visualizations, successes and positive criticisms increased, our broadcaster, TimVision, remained silent and the fourth season, in the end, was never confirmed."

Bessegato says he started working on it at the beginning of the year, around January 2, "immediately after delivering the last episodes of the second season and supervising the filming of the third." The series, he explains, was going very well: «The second season had doubled the numbers of the first, and even the third had achieved excellent results. We thought that the renewal was just a formality ». Since the fourth season of "Skam Italia" should have focused on the character of Sana, a second-generation Muslim girl played by Beatrice Bruschi, Bessegato began working with the Italian Islamic community and read up: "I started a very nice journey to write these new episodes. But as we prepared for the writing of the new season and the casting of new characters, we realized that things in TimVision started to change ".

And they have changed because of the arrival of the new management, and for the new balances that have thus been created within the company. «The internal interlocutors that we have always had, Annamaria Morelli first of all, and the communication staff with whom we have always worked very well did not have the same autonomy in the decisions. The first thing we noticed was that the new management was going to change the distribution formula of "Skam Italia" ».

The series has always been distributed in a certain way, with a clip a day, loaded at a certain time, according to the timeline of the story, and the whole episode at the weekend. Both of these contents were available in plain text. With the new formula, TimVision has decided not to reload more clips and episodes on the official website; the official site, in turn, has been closed, and all the contents have become accessible only upon payment of the subscription to TimVision.

For the publication of the social content of the characters, one of the most original and loved features of the format, there was no longer a responsible editorial staff. "We tried to have a meeting to discuss these strategy changes, and it was the first time we found ourselves in the same room with the new management team. I tried to explain the importance of updating social profiles in "Skam Italia" but in the end the only way to save them from deletion was to offer to publish these photos and videos in person, directly from my smartphone. The only thing I managed to achieve was the creation of an Instagram page, where the chats of the characters that were previously uploaded to the site were loaded ".

"We tried to explain that these changes in the distribution of" Skam Italia ", without adequate communication, with windows that would still allow the public to see the series in the clear, would have been lived very badly by our fans," continues Bessegato. "But it is also true that TimVision, as a broadcaster, had all the rights to proceed as it did. And for us the problem was never the choice they made. But the ways in which this choice was communicated ».

But when were the first doubts about renewing "Skam Italia" born? "In April, TimVision did not exercise the option it had, and which expired in the middle of the month, to make the fourth season. They asked for a waiver, and Cross Productions granted it. We were then told that they were no longer in a position to produce a new season of "Skam Italia" - which, I remember, is not a high-cost series - and that they were looking for partners. At this point, we also set about looking for other broadcasters and other realities. And it was not difficult to find them given the success of "Skam Italia" ».

The player who was approached, says Bessegato, is a very important international streaming platform. It does not tell us the name, since no agreement has been concluded. But it is clear that this is an absolute protagonist of the world market. "This platform was very interested and made an important offer to TimVision to acquire the previous seasons of" Skam Italia ". In the end, however, no agreement was found ".

What was it that TimVision wanted? "I think he wanted to give up the three seasons only if the new player agreed to co-produce the fourth season together, sharing its distribution as well. But it is something that has not been evaluated strategically by the other player ». After all, why spend money to buy a product if you don't have the exclusive exploitation? "The negotiation lasted until yesterday, but beyond the distance between what was offered and what was required the approaching deadline to start shooting forced the new player to withdraw his offer. It almost seems that on the one hand TimVision did not want to proceed with "Skam Italia" and that on the other it did not want to let someone else do it. He was looking for a middle ground, which was not found ».

This, says Bessegato, is a definite no to "Skam Italia". "Because of the characteristic of the series, which is shot in real time. This year, 2019/2020, would have been the last year of the high school of the protagonists. Turning it now, in October, was the last chance to stay in this timing ".

During the first half of 2019, however, the works went ahead and all the costs were covered by Cross Productions, co-producer of "Skam Italia". "They paid me to do research in the Muslim community, write and work in season four, and paid a first casting for this series. However, we are happy to have spent money, because they have allowed us to discover an Italy that has never been told. " And to work this season, Ludovico Bessegato - like many others on the "Skam" team - had to refuse any offer. Even rather important proposals, he says. "I wanted to finish this series. And I owed it to the actors, I owed it to Beatrice Bruschi, who would have been the protagonist of the fourth season and who deserved to have her space; I owed it to the many Muslims who opened with me and who were now looking forward to being told in a sincere and out of stereotype way. And I owed it to the fans, of course ».

"Now that I know it won't be done anymore, I have to enter the order of ideas of having to work on something else," he explains; and his voice, in saying it, becomes dirty with bitterness. «I am convinced that the work we have done has demonstrated our abilities. There are still so many stories that deserve to be told. I need a moment to recover from this blow. From September back to writing. Even with this "virtual" mourning on him ".

In the end, Bessegato says, what remains is sorrow. "And there are three things that hurt me more in this story. The first was to disappoint our fans, who are many and who loved us and pushed us in a way that I had never seen before on Italian television, and who deserved to see the conclusion of "Skam Italia". The second was to have said three times to Beatrice Bruschi that this season would be done, and then it was not made. It was particularly difficult and painful. But besides her, all the cast boys, after the news of the cancellation, called me in tears. They are fantastic people, who really loved this project. The third disappointment is a disappointment towards the system ". Or? "That a series does not go on is part of the game. The absurd thing, however, is not being able to find a way to go on when a series goes well, it has the fans, the listenings, the prizes and the favorable press. You lose confidence in the Italy system. In the rest of the world "Skam" goes on. And in our country, with one of the most appreciated remakes, with one of the most famous international series, we stop. And we don't even know why. "

It is not clear if TimVision is in crisis; probably this is just a drastic change in strategy, and a different awareness of the content to be offered and the public subscriber. The fact remains, however, that one of the most interesting realities that have appeared on the Italian scene, that have succeeded before and better than others to say something - to tell the very young, and to tell them without prejudice - seems to be back on its feet. Years and years back.

TimVision had the opportunity to establish itself, to build a concrete and tangible alternative to competition. And instead, today, everything seems to be at a standstill. And the cancellation of "Skam Italia" is not just bad news for those who worked on it and for the fans, and for the producers. But also, however extreme it may sound, for the entire industry. "Skam" was a unicum, an example; excellence. And, as Bessegato emphasizes, he demonstrated the inability of the Italian system to protect its talents.

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[oumakokichi]

Could you possibly talk a little bit about tsumugi's character? I see she's in your top 10 fairly solidly. I'm really intrigued to just learn more about her and why you like her

Haha, it’s a little bit difficult to talk about Tsumugiin-depth if you’re not prepared for lots of spoilers. Like Ouma, she’s afascinating character with tons of interesting points about her, but talkingabout those points requires breaching on a lot of endgame territory.

That said, she really is an excellent character. She’s highup not only on my ndrv3 Top 10, but she almost made it into my overall DR Top10 as well (I think she scored #12 or so, the last time I took it). If you’reprepared to handle spoilers for pretty much the entire game, then keep reading!If you’re trying to avoid spoiler territory though, I’d recommend waiting onthis one until the localization comes out in September so you can experiencethings for yourself!

So, the long and short of it is that Tsumugi is the ndrv3mastermind. Well, the more specific word for it is actually “ringleader,” butit means pretty much the same thing. It’s pretty much impossible to talk aboutTsumugi as a character without evaluating her as the ringleader. After all, shedoesn’t have much of a character outsideof being the ringleader. She’s intentionally hollow, someone who only shineswhen she’s within a world of complete fiction and fabrication.

Unlike Junko, whose development into the mastermind andcharacter we all know and love can be traced through her journey as RyoukoOtonashi, we know absolutely nothing concrete about Tsumugi as of now. And that’sbecause “Tsumugi Shirogane” is a façade, a fake, something she considers everybit as much of a “character” as all the other personas she cosplays. As shesays when dropping the act and revealing herself as the ringleader, she’s sorryto any fans of Tsumugi’s character for the big bad ringleader reveal, “not thatshe thinks she’d have any,” since she was intentionally set up to be as plainand boring as possible.

Tsumugi is absolutely fascinating in how easily she slipsunder the radar. Unlike Junko, who absolutely cannot stay out of the spotlight,Tsumugi fools absolutely everyone, playing along with everyone’s expectationsof herself as a plain, reliable, occasionally quirky girl who’s there to makeotaku references, act all friendly and cooperative… and not much else. Shecomes across as boring and uninteresting, and she knows it, and uses it to heradvantage. As she mentions in her FTEs, she’s the kind of person who couldeasily just slip into a movie theater without even needing to buy a ticket.

This philosophy of slipping right past people’s notice orawareness governs her actions throughout all of ndrv3, and it’s an absolute joyto go back and notice these things about her on a reread. Because all of thisis little more than a fictional escape to her, she honestly does view herselfas little more than an observer before stepping up as the ringleader. Thesearen’t people for her to get to know—they’re characters who she’s watching fromthe sidelines, only worthwhile as long as they’re being interesting andentertaining to her and the rest of the killing game audience. Everything isfiction to her, everything lacks meaning; there’s no point in her genuinelytrying to incorporate herself into the group or really getting to know themall, because it’s all fake to her.

When these characters deviate from the scenarios and scriptshe had planned for them, she’s so obviously not pleased. Tsumugi demonstratesthe most noticeably shocked reaction at Saihara enterting the cafeteria withouthis hat in Chapter 2. When Himiko begins acting noticeably more energetic andfired up to honor Tenko’s memory, Tsumugi is one of the only ones in the grouppretty displeased with this drastic change in personality. She keeps bringingup Gonta’s death again and again as an attempt to guilt trip the othercharacters or attempt to distract them from putting things together logically.She responds directly to Monokuma and the Monokumerz more than any othercharacter, as if following a prewritten script with them.

All the signs of her being the ringleader are there rightfrom the beginning, and they are incredibly fun to notice—moreso since Tsumugiand ndrv3 in general toys with the player’s preconceived notions about how a DRgame is going to go. I think most people were pretty skeptical of Tsumugi evenprior to the game’s release, just because SHSL Cosplayer is way too good of atalent to pass up at least making her a culprit with, but making her theringleader was one of the best decisions they could do, in my opinion at least.They put her talent to the best possible use, toying with the idea of howblurry the line is between fiction and reality, between “the real deal” and a “merecopy.”

It’s an absolute joy to see how Tsumugi uses the verytrends, tropes, and cliché that DR is best known for to play with both thecharacters and the players themselves. The Hope’s Peak remember light which shesets up in Chapter 5 tricked not only all the characters (except Ouma andMomota, who never used it) into believing that this was a game about the usual “hopevs. despair” dichotomy, but also succeeded in getting quite a lot of players tofall hook, line, and sinker for the same exact thing.

I have seen countless people either unfamiliar with ndrv3’sthemes or who at the very least haven’t read a full and accurate translationcounting on the game tying in with the Hope’s Peak arc in some way or another,despite Kodaka denying that this would be the case very early on, even beforethe game was released. It’s so easy to miss out on tons of clues andforeshadowing by taking the easy way out and assuming that the game is going tofollow the same comfortable, familiar patterns. Tsumugi can very easily slipright under the radar when most people’s assumption, even the characters, isthat Junko is responsible yet again, not her.

The most fun thing about Tsumugi is that while she canreplicate pretty much anyone and everyone, she herself isn’t someone I thinkany of the other characters would be able to imitate. She has no core oressence to imitate; she deals in imitations and mimicry, but if you strip thataway, she’s just blank. There’s nothingto her, and that’s exactly why she specializes in making herself appear asuninteresting and boring as possible, because the show is supposed to be aboutall the other “fun, interesting, wacky DR characters,” not her.

Characters like Junko, even Ouma, could never successfullystick to the shadows like that. Junko hid herself away as the mastermindbecause she knew she’d be too conspicuous. Even Mukuro pretending to her wastoo big of a loose end for her to leave lying around, and that’s yet anotherreason why she decided to kill her early on, before the bad act could get foundout by their classmates.

Boredom is like a poison to the most intelligent andanalytical characters in DR; they crave excitement and entertainment becauseboredom, the act of knowing everything, is absolutely killing them from theinside out. Not Tsumugi, though. She specializes in boredom, in the firm beliefthat there’s absolutely nothing interesting or memorable about herself unlessshe is literally trying to be someone else entirely.

There’s so much room for speculation with her, consideringwhat an open-ended conclusion ndrv3 gives us. We have tons of room fortheorizing and speculation, tons of “what-if”s. Tsumugi herself is an endless “catbox”of sorts; there’s no definite way of knowing just yet if she was telling the truthabout working with the Team DR producers, if she was a fan who seized controlof the reins for herself and made an imitation killing game, or if she’ssomething else entirely even. All that we really do know for sure is that she’sintelligent, quick on her feet when it comes to adjusting to new scenarios andwrenches in her plans, and extremelyeffective as an antagonist.

I’m currently thrilled at the possibility of a potential v2spinoff. Not only would it be nice to get more information on Amami ifpossible, but finding anything at all about Tsumugi herself is something Ithink a lot of people are looking forward to.

Anyway, these are just my thoughts on her! I’ve written someother Tsumugi meta before so I’ll leave it at this for now, so that this doesn’tget too long. I hope this clears up your question, anon! If you haven’t seenTsumugi in action as the ringleader yet, I’d really recommend watching aplaythrough when you get the chance—Chapter 6 is really, incredibly fun towatch. Thanks for asking!

#ndrv3 #drv3 #new danganronpa v3 #tsumugi shirogane #shirogane tsumugi #ndrv3 spoilers // #my meta #okay to reblog #anonymous

[dansesleftbicep]

YEs hello I'm here to ask u about Bric bc she looks like a really interesting character :o!

dsjkhfdskjfh HI THERE I HAVE SO MUCH MEDIA LEMME CONDENSE IT

Bric is the daughterof a failed political marriage, between the revolutionary Drow KingAfraz Shattersword and the third daughter of the Nightengale GreyKing, Newlyn Viania. Newlyn, in a thirst for power, had Afrazassassinated when Bric was (18? around that age, I’m stilldeciding.)

After the king wasgone, and Newlyn was instated as the rightful ruler, the Greys cameto conquer the Drow and throw them into a 60 year period of viciousmanual labor. During which, Bric became the new Grey king’s(Newlyn’s brother, and later husband. Its nasty but this kind ofthing happened in Ye Olde times) prime consort in order to keep theking from having his way with her younger sister. From the king, shehad two sons (one belongs to her only friend during the incarcerationperiod, being that they both knew the king would spare her for theduration of her pregnancy from the king’s violence.)

Events came to ahead when the kingdom was thrown into financial mayhem, and powerfulspellcasters were forced to construct coal golems and create pactswith dragons for the sake of their diamond-creating fire (its sciencejust roll with it.) The dragons, however, demanded retribution fortheir cherished fire. Which lead to the beginnings of a ritualistickidnapping of Drow folk and unwitting travelers (this is where thecampaign I’m running starts) to be fed to the vile drakes!

Then (whateverhappens in the campaign? Will update later.)

And at the young ageof (80-ish? Elves live to be about 700 in this verse.) Bric takes upthe role of crowned queen, having defeated the Grey armada with thehelp of her uncle, Aaythum (my player character in the campaign) andthe unlikely posse he gathered while escaping the dragon sacrificechambers! However, the Drow kingdom was in shambles, so she trustedher people to a Wood elf Countess of the towne of Zur’Din, inexchange for paid manual labor from the Drow people. (The Countess isp cool and had been close allies with Afraz, to the point that shelead a small army in for assistance when the Greys were beingoverthrown. But she’s not perfect.) Barely satisfied with thearrangements, Bric set off to find other suitable areas for herpeople to live.

So now the‘Wandering BlueQueen’ acts as a pioneer and a mercenary, clearing out undergroundruins near large cities in hopes that she can instate Drow familiessomewhere where they can interact with other peoples, but stillretain their cave-dwelling nature.

She’s 140-ish inthe current fiction, a soon-to-be grandmother from her 120-ish yearson Kolia, and the lover of the second most influential man in an upand coming city just crawling with haunted underground ruins to clearout and fill with Drow! (This is from the ongoing campaign shestarted in, one DM’ed by a close friend.)

Her personality ishotheaded, overly flirtatious to the point that its obvious she’strying to further herself by means of acquainting herself into power,and passionately defensive of her people. She’ll also gut someone without question if they say anything bad about her kids. 

Bric often tries totalk to dragons, dragon lineage and all. She eats bugs and other cavethings, like mushrooms and moss, snakes and other such things that make her lovers cringe just the slightest.

She praises the moongoddess Sarenrae, the dark maiden Eilistraee, and has been to knownto occasionally praise Pelor simply for the fact that the sun hasn’tblinded her yet.

She’s pansexual,demiromantic, and struggles with emotional intimacy while trying tomake up for it with physical. She’s an emotional mess who has a badhabit of swinging first or trying to seduce unseducable things.

ALSO SHE LOVES YOU FOR ASKING THIS!!!

[duanecbrooks]

"Girl(s)"-Watching     In an earlier article I held forth concerning Baggage Claim, a cinematic black-oriented rom-com that I saw on DVD that I was initially attracted to because of its lively, funny trailer as can be seen on YouTube--and that, as I also disclosed, has made the list of My All-Time Favorite Theatrical Offerings. I have since purchased, and seen, the DVD of another picture that initially caught and held my attention due to the quality of its trailer--which, as is the case with Claim's trailer, is available on YouTube. Namely this flick, which, by the way, started out as a play, is Some Girl(s). It is, let it be said flat-out, a dazzler, laden with searing dialogue, meticulous direction, and--and this is the clincher--genuinely touching and humanistic performances. To catch and stay with Girl(s) from beginning to end is to be on a journey accompanied by a collection of really dimensional, truly flesh-and-blood-and-feeling characters, folks who, although entirely fictional, will certainly, definitely strike chords deep within you. It sincerely is that recognizable, in the human sense, a work.           Before getting into said work, a couple of explanations are in order. First, the story itself has to do with a soon-to-be-wed writer (Adam Brody) traveling around the country re-connecting with different exes and attempting to make amends with them. Secondly, since the structure of Girl(s) is, thanks be to God, honestly individualistic--the picture consists not of some convoluted, showy Plot but of a succession of scenes wherein Brody's character (he is entirely unnamed in the flick, henceforth he'll be referred to The Fellow) re-encounters the aforementioned prior girlfriends and, in various ways, clashes with each of them--what will happen is that the tangiest of the relentlessly tangy dialogue will be spotlighted.               So we commence...             Upon getting back together with Sam (Jennifer Morrison):             .Sam, upon entering The Fellow's hotel room: "I've never been here before. (Pause) Unless you're seeing someone illicitly."             .Sam, after The Fellow tells her of his romantic misadventures after breaking up with her and what he's learned from them: "It's funny how much you know about women--now."           .Sam, after The Fellow does an enormous amount of hemming-and-hawing concerning what this rendezvous with her is about: "[You need to c]ut to the chase because my kid's getting home at 3."         .The Fellow, at last finally cutting to the chase: "I'm here because I want to...right a wrong, make things OK."               .Sam, incredulously: "You want to air this [past romantic] stuff [that was between us] now?"         .Sam, after The Fellow does his buck-and-wing as to how "we [supposedly he and Sam] broke up": "There was no 'we.' It was you! You ended it."                 .The Fellow, regarding Sam: "You were a girl I could take a glance at and see her whole future."       .The Fellow, at last finally fessing up: "I suppose I got nervous and backed out of the situation [with you] the best way I knew how."                   .Sam, becoming frustrated about this whole deal: "I don't want to be thinking about this [past] shit [with you] now! I'm a wife and a mother!"                 .Sam, her frustration growing: "We talked about getting engaged but not this [situation they're now in]!"     .Sam, in her final comment to The Fellow before taking off: "Married, huh? Good for you." And off she goes. For good.             Upon getting back together with the ever-flirtatious Tyler (Mia Maestro):               .Tyler, upon The Fellow's telling her of his personal and professional triumphs: "Married? Holy shit! And New Yorker magazine [published you] in the same year."           .Tyler, upon seductively suggesting that she and The Fellow have a one-night stand and The Fellow demurring, citing his upcoming marriage: "Even if it just happens here, with nobody the wiser?"             .Tyler, upon The Fellow's breaking down and coming on to her: "Don't forget your [wedding] vow thingy."               .Tyler, in response to The Fellow telling her of "this whole [marriage] thing I'm about to embark upon": "It's not a cruise."                 Upon getting back together with the mega-bitter, mega-resentful Lindsay (Emily Watson):           .Lindsay, sarcastically initiating conversation: "So the prodigal son returns."             .Lindsay, continuing to throw her darts: "This is the part where you say something charming in return. That's why they call it 'banter.'"             .Lindsay, hurling yet another dart: "You left at the end of the second semester, so you have...no idea how it was for me."             .Lindsay, keeping up her dart-throwing: "How do you help me get back some of the dignity I lost?"               .More Lindsay dart-hurling: "You are quite capable of fucking me. You used to do it all the time."     .The final last thrown Lindsay dart, this one concerning The Fellow's profession of love and devotion to her: "You were good at [claiming that you cared about me]. Making an honest...woman like me fall for it, gobble it up."               Upon getting back together with the ever-giggly, ever-girlish Reggie (Zoe Kazan):             .Reggie, after using a somewhat foreign (to her) word: "Is that a word--'happenstance'?"           .Sam, acknowledging a key character flaw of his to Reggie: "I have never been good at keeping up with everyone from school. You want to know a secret? I'm not even on Facebook."             .Reggie, upon catching The Fellow in a lie: "You're not really good at making stuff up, are you?...Not for a man who makes his living doing it."               .Reggie, disclosing her genuine past attitude toward The Fellow: "I used to watch you. You were the favorite of [my childhood girlfriend] Kelly's friends."             .The Fellow, upon discovering a previously-unknown (to him) layer of Reggie: "I didn't even know you kept a journal! At 11?"             .Reggie, telling The Fellow of how she, too, once wrote a tale of fiction: "Like you did in your story. Only without all the--what do you call 'em?--motifs."           .Reggie, getting into she and The Fellow's past together: "Your hand was there [upon my body]. Slipping into my panties."               .Reggie, flatly refusing to let The Fellow off the hook for taking sexual advantage of her: "I was the kid. I was the little girl...You were a man...Maybe you couldn't vote or go to war, but you had a car and everything...You had no right to [exploit me sexually]. Ever!"             .Reggie, upon, before leaving, very soulfully kissing The Fellow: "That's what a woman kisses like. You feel the difference?"               Upon getting back together with the sensitive-yet-far-from-malleable Bobbi (Kristen Bell):           .Bobbi, upon The Fellow's relating to her his plan to revisit his exes and see whether or not there's any bad blood: "So I was one of [those exes], huh? The lucky ones."                 .There's this dialogue between The Fellow and Bobbi regarding the former's emotional/psychological self, the former is the first speaker, Bobbi the second:                                           "Part of your life begins to come up for you."                                     "Like vomit?"             .Bobbi, again commenting on The Fellow's visit-exes-and-see-whether-or-not-there's-any-hard-feelings strategy: "Well, I'm glad I made the cut."             .Bobbi, becoming sincerely pissed at what is in effect The Fellow's plying his snow job: "Just don't do some pathetic thing like pretending to smooth things over."                 .Bobbi, upon giving The Fellow a gift certificate and him at first refusing: "Just please don't be an asshole about this. Just take it!"                   .Bobbi, spiritedly rejecting The Fellow's attempts to gloss things over: "I don't need any friends! Let me be more specific: I don't need you!"                 .Bobbi, when The Fellow tries to smooth things over by serving up the I-didn't-mean-any-harm gambit: "Fuck you!...It's not about the meaning, it's about the doing!"               .Bobbi, still staunchly refusing to give The Fellow a free ride: "When you do what you do [sexually exploit females], people get hurt!...It makes you more than just an ex-boyfriend. It makes you a killer, an assassin, an emotional terrorist."                 .The Fellow, at last finally honestly attempting to make amends: "I've done a host of things that, if you nit-pick, look pretty awful stacked up...I'm not doing this [going around to his exes and trying to set things right] haphazardly, it's for Esquire...I may have done a lot of stupid things, but I was young!"                   .Bobbi's final last words before she leaves, in a quiet, weary tone: "It's very late...It's late." Referencing said gift certificate, in the same modest, tired voice: "It's for 100 dollars." Then Bobbi leaves.                 Next we see The Fellow upon a plane, presumably heading back home, making loving small talk with his intended via cell phone. Afterward his eyes meet with those of this hot young blonde flight attendant (Kathleen Christy) and they smile fondly at each other. The clear inference is that, despite The Fellow's upcoming wedding, they'll eventually get together sexually.             And thus we have Some Girl(s), an often gripping, frequently affecting, always, always deeply human multiple portrait of relationships, of sexual politics, indeed, of love itself. Adam Brody, coming off (for me) his mega-successful turn as Paula Patton's dyed-in-the-wool-homosexual co-conspirator/best buddy in Baggage Claim is, if anything, even better here, deftly constructing an often heart-rending portrayal of a guy who is either unable or unwilling to freely acknowledge, even to himself, that his efforts to make up for his past sexual crimes, however sincere and however well-meant, amount to too little too late. Kathleen Christy offers just the right helpings of flirtatiousness and expectation as the flight attendant who, at the end, lights The Fellow's fire. Neil LaBute, adapting his own stage work, shows that a first-class theatrical script can also be a first-class cinematic script. And director Daisy vonScherler Mayer quite adeptly orchestrates both the interaction of the players and The Fellow's various travels.               That leaves the women with whom The Fellow re-connects. All of them are expert, with two standouts. The first is Emily Watson, flinging her vengeful venom at The Fellow with the kind of stiff-upper-lip dignity and oh-how-you-hurt-me bravado that, far from turning us against her, have us feeling her pain and admiring her for fully refusing to be any sort of wounded bird. And then there's Kristen Bell. Currently riding high thanks to her leading-lady role on the rather fluffy television sitcom The Good Place, she sincerely reaches her pinnacle here, skillfully blending open-faced girlishness, lingering hurt, and steely resilience with the ease and the grace of a champion poker player handling cards. When she closes the door behind her after walking out, we feel the same devastation as does The Fellow--although, unlike his, it's mixed with firm respect and, indeed, admiration for so forcefully holding her own against him.                 It was the powerhouse actor Viola Davis, accepting her (richly well-earned) Best Supporting Actress Golden Globe Award for her performance in Fences, who said, in part, that adapting a play, even a highly-esteemed play, for the big screen "doesn't scream 'moneymaker.' But it does scream 'art.' It does scream 'heart.'" Patty West and Chris Schwartz and Andrew Carlberg--Girl(s)'s producers--have, in bringing the aforementioned play to the large screen, brought us a work that indeed freely scream both "art" and "heart." And it is we cinemagoers who are the beneficiaries.

#baggage claim #dvd #youtube #some girl(s) #adam brody #jennifer morrison #mia maestro #emily watson #zoe kazan #kristen bell #Viola Davis #fences