#truth or dare a critical madness | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

paper-starz · 11 months

Note

What would you say is the most unhealthiest coping mechanism each neighbor has for the self aware au?

OMG HIIII!! I never really thought about that, what a great question!

Barnaby- He copes with jokes but they become self-deprecating and dark after a while. Not only that, but he smokes a LOT more now. He also sleeps too much, but at least one of the neighbors could drag him outta bed!

Eddie- Toxic positivity. The poor guy just wants to see the brighter side of things, but he kinda minimizes the negative aspects. "Oh! My arm got ripped off. Oh well, guess I could lose a few pounds."

Frank- Overworking. Although it is inspiring that he and Eddie already found lots of clues about Welcome Home (and its history), Frank overworks themselves to the point of exhaustion. They are really trying to find a way out, who can blame him? He also barely eats since they are this close to figuring out EVERYTHING. Good thing Eddie's there to make them eat.

Sally- Self-criticism/perfectionism and LOTS of it. SHE's the best actress, SHE's not suppose to get caught nor make any mistakes. She beats herself up constantly, especially if she gets outta character. So, she practices in front of the mirror for HOURS, making sure that she stays in character no matter what. If she messes up, she does the entire thing over again. She barely gets any sleep because of this.

Poppy- Overthinking. She is the one that the neighbors turn to when one of them got hurt, she patches them up as best she can! But, what if they get hurt again? What if you CAN'T fix them this time? This kinds of overthinking makes her a bit of a Mother Hen, constantly watching over the other neighbors and making sure that they stay in character.

Howdy- Denial and avoidance. Poor bug-man tried flat out denying that he was self-aware. Him? In a show? Ridiculous! Of course, that denial soon went away after the first few visits with Home... then that denial turned into avoidance. He stays in his shop most of the time, making everything all nice and perfect. He's in a good mood when the other neighbors come in but as soon as good ole' Wally Darling enters his shop... he freezes. He can't move and he can't breathe and he's this close from screaming at the top of his lungs cause he can't STAND Wally being with him. The other neighbors (usually Sally) try to distract Wally while Howdy tries to pull himself together... or escape through the backdoor. He avoids Wally and Home like the PLAGUE.

Julie- Anger. Julie was never an angry girl, ever! She loved singing and dancing and having fun, but ever since she got self-aware... she got angry. How DARE Home hurt her friends! How DARE someone keep her and her friends trapped here! She gets so angry that she hurts those closest to her... Then she gets even more mad, so mad that she rips her hair out.

Wally- He has no unhealthy coping mechanisms! He doesn't even know what they are!

Home- Oh boy.... The demon house's form of 'coping' is violence. Preferably onto the neighbors. It also has some denial as it doesn't see what its doing as anything bad. It stitched Sally's mouth up because she was trying to tell Wally the truth! It's just protecting Wally! It took Eddie's eye because he accidentally slipped up again, he just needs to know that he can't make Wally upset!

256 notes · View notes

edvinception · 3 months

Note

No, but I can't with this fandom lol. Being so very mad that secondary characters dare to exist and fulfil their roles (the show couldn't really function without them) and that the actors may be included in the last season's promo for a bit. The shock, the horror, those bastards! And claiming agressively that noone cares about anyone else except the big five is not only very disrespectful to the people who all worked on the show and brought in their contributions, but just childish. Like I care. I care about what everyone's to say and I'm excited about it all but I feel like I maybe might be in the minority here.

I'm personally pretty annoyed with the negativity in the fandom.

I don't want it to seem like I'm against any kind of criticism or that I don't think people are allowed to talk about things they don't like because that's not the case. What bothers me is the way people choose to do it and it mainly boils down to two things; one: people speak of their opinions in a very negative and sometimes both agressive and insulting way instead of being constructive and civil and two: people talk about their opinions as if they are facts that everyone in the fandom agrees on and as if it'd some universal truth.

It's completely fine to discuss what you dislike but using terms such as "Lisa is gonna ruin the show" "Lisa is gonna mess it up" "Lisa cannot write to save her life" or whatever else I've seen is not discussing but hating. No need to be rude, mean and condescending. You don't like the storyline fine, be a grown up about it, have a nice attitude.

It's completely fine to dislike certain aspects of the show or the storyline as a whole but stop acting as if your opinion is the truth and everyone's opinon is the same as yours.

I understand why you make think you are alone in your opinons anon but trust me you are not. It's just that negativity is more visible and stands out more and some people speak loudly and frequently about their dislikes which makes it seem like it's everyone when in reality it's not.

I also think people have a tendency to exaggerate alot when they talk about the things they don't like. I do too, but I mainly talk in private about those things so I don't spread unnecessary negativity around.

But claiming that wilmon is sidelined for minor characters or that Lisa can't write comes as quite childish to me.

#ask

45 notes · View notes

the-path-to-redemption · 3 months

Note

RWBY's №1 theme; Believe everything the narrative wants you to believe, eat up whatever bullshit's shoved down your thoat, turn off critical thinking. Emerald switches sides at the eleventh hour? She's a good now, praise the internal struggle she's toootally gone through to make this hard risky decision. Raven is a cowardly, traitorous, child murderer who— Oh, wait? She walks among the mcs in an unreleased epilogue? Nevermind, she's a good guy now, and anyone who disagrees is either misogynistic or doesn't get the show's complexity. The mcs say it's different when they act in same ways they denounce the bads for? Then it is different! How dare you think it's not absolutely rational and justified of them?! Last thing you checked, that's what they said. If they believe it's different, then it is, no further questions! Penny said there was no time to heal her human body she's been familiar with for like half an hour before her death? Even though Jaune sucessfully healed a literally impaled Weiss which is far worse than Penny's papercuts on her chest? Then there really was no other way stop victim-blaming Juane!!! Ruby's reaction to the full truth behind Penny's death wasn't shown on-screen and she wasn't shown acting hostile towards him throughout volume? Then she has forgiven Jaune and wouldn't get mad about this at all, she's too kind for this, read between the lines!!!!

Bruh if everything in the timeline is revealed to have all been a dream, you bet they're gotta eat that bs up too. It's fucking rwby.

Oh god, please not the "it's all a dream" shit, I will actually die.

Inconsistency is the name of the game, anon, and the writers are experts at it. Apparently, RWBY is a show where you can only watch one volume at a time, forget about them, and pretend that the next one is a new show. Because it sure as shit feels like that.

#answered #anonymous #rwby critical #rwde #anti rooster teeth

26 notes · View notes

gabenathreversebang · 9 months

Text

Reverse Bang 2023 Masterpost (part 2)

Re-Creating

Years ago, during his travels with Nathalie and Emilie, Gabriel got hurt trying to get a necklace he would later offer to Nathalie and that memory stuck with them. But now, Monarch’s madness seems to have took over Gabriel’s spirit and Nathalie’s getting colder and colder. It hurts him deeply… And he realizes how wrong his fight is…

Artwork (archived link)

Fanfiction (archived link)

Passion of the Hunter

In a confrontation with Mister Bug and Lady Noire, Safari has managed to obtain Ladybug’s and Chat Noir’s Miraculous. But after knowing there’s a price and worried about what an out of control Safari might wish for, it’s time for Monarch to intervene, before she makes a terrible mistake.

Artwork (archived link) (Instagram link)

Fanfiction (archived link)

Fanfiction (Spanish) (archived link)

Seeing Red

Gabriel finally can move on and wants to let Emilie rest, and give up on trying to seize the miraculous’. Just as he is about to confess his love for Nathalie, Adrien barges into the room and interrupts them.After a short, rather awkward, period of time, father and son start to reconcile too and Nathalie and Gabriel start to share their memories of how they met and became close friends.We’re going to find out, how ‘Nath’ got the red strand and who dyed it. We also learn about Gabi Grassette and his family, and where the name Gabriel Agreste has it’s origin.They tell the story to 'their’ son making him Duusu-like enthuse, how 'romantic’ all of it was and is. Eventually they reach the highlight of their narration, the night they went to prom together. Though obviously being in love since they were teenagers, is that enough to finally bring them together?

Artwork (archived link)

Banner (archived link)

Fanfiction (archived link)

In the Late of the Night

For the last few months, things have been off with Nathalie and Gabriel’s relationship. Nathalie wants answers; on the day of her and her boyfriend’s winter ball, she makes it her mission to find out the truth, no matter how much it will hurt her.

Artwork (archived link)

Fanfiction (archived link)

Soon You Will Get Better

Nathalie is now struggling with her conflict with Gabriel after him fell to save hers and Emilie’s life and her sickness is also getting worst. All she ever wanted was for her situation to be better and even thought her sickness is yet to be cure at least she can do was trying her best to be there for people around her. And who knows something new and amazing might happen.

Artwork (archived link)

Fanfiction (archived link)

Green Light

It’s been three years, and Nathalie is over the secrecy. Gabriel’s fear of judgment and social pressures keep him from publicizing their relationship. The main person Gabriel is worried about finding out is Audrey, the ruthless director of the famous fashion magazine Style Queen. Audrey is known for her harsh criticism and has been particularly cruel to Nathalie in the past. As their relationship reaches a breaking point, Nathalie becomes increasingly frustrated with Gabriel’s reluctance to be open about their love. She wants nothing more than to show the world how much she cares for Gabriel, but he’s afraid that the backlash from the public and his wealthy family will be too much to handle.

Artwork (archived link)

Fanfiction (archived link)

You Again

Nathalie “Sancerveau” and “Potato Peel” Agreste were middle school enemies, calling each other names and pulling pranks. But as they get to college, they find themselves making amends, and at least one of them finds themselves yearning for more than friendship…

Artwork (archived link)

Fanfiction (archived link)

Safe Records

After an accident that leaves Nathalie on bed rest, Gabriel needs to take care of her and finds some things Nathalie’s chosen to keep hidden from him.

Artwork (archived link)

Fanfiction (archived link)

When We Dare

Nathalie is worried about the power Monarch’s madness holds over Gabriel’s spirit. But when he asks, she knows she can’t admit it and lies, saying everything is fine. He detects the lie. And, in anger, he dares to akumatize her, without her consent. From here, their world will collapse. Every action has consequences, and they can be very painful for everyone…

Artwork (archived link)

Fanfiction (archived link)

To Heal a Phantom's Heart

Nathalie finds out Adrien’s secret identity and, in a fit of desperation, acts on her own, creating a villain the likes of which Paris had never seen. Down a hero, Ladybug has to trust the least likely person to help sort the whole mess out.

Artwork (archived link) (Instagram link)

Fanfiction (archived link)

Cheesy Vacations

Adrien Agreste gets a vacation to the French Alps for his father Gabriel Agreste, Nathalie, and himself for three reasons and for three reasons only: Relaxation, Family Bonding, and Matchmaking. Mishaps occur along the way, but no mistake is too big for Adrien and his trusted kwami friend Plagg to handle. However, just as everything is beginning to look up for the family, one fatal mistake sends the whole vacation spiraling into a disaster. Is this challenge too much for Adrien to face, or will Gabriel and Nathalie’s unbreakable bond be enough to pull them from this cheesy predicament?

Artwork (archived link)

Fanfiction (archived link)

#gabenath reverse bang #gabenath reverse bang 2023 #masterpost 2023 #gabenath

55 notes · View notes

darth-nikeon · 1 year

Text

Damon: so tell me what happened.

Elena: ok, but you can't get mad at us.

Damon: Elena, I could never be mad at you.

Caroline: Well we were minding our own business when-

Damon: BULLSHIT!

Klaus: You're the love of my life and my best friend, I would do anything for you.

Caroline: I want you to eat three meals a day and have a decent sleep schedule.

Klaus: Absolutely not.

Klaus: I've already sent good vibes your way… they’re coming. There’s nothing you can do to stop them.

Caroline : This is the most threatening way I’ve ever been cheered up.

Caroline: In light of what you did for me, you can hug me for four to five seconds.

Klaus: FORTY FIVE SECONDS?!?

Caroline: No! Four to five seconds!

Klaus: Too late!!!

Kol: I'm incredibly fast at math.

Elijah: Alright, what's 30x17?

Kol: 47

Elijah: That's not even close.

Kol: But it was fast.

Klaus: So that’s my plan.

Elijah: Are you alright with constructive criticism? I don’t want to sound mean.

Klaus: No, go ahead, I want to hear it.

Elijah: It fucking sucks.

Klaus: That’s not constructive criticism.

Jeremy, texting Bonnie: Bonnie! Help I’m being kidnapped

Jeremy: Where are you?

Jeremy: I’m with some strange person. In a car. Help.

Bonnie: I’ll call Elena.

Elena, answering their cell: Y’ello?

Bonnie: Where’s Jeremy? He texted me that he was being kidnapped.

Elena: Jeremy? Whaddya mean, he's right next to me-

Elena:

Elena: I’ll call you back. *hangs up*

Elena: THE NEW HAIRCUT ISN’T THAT BAD!

Jeremy: WHO ARE YOU?!

Jeremy: Where are you going?

Damon: To get ice cream or commit a felony, I’ll decide on the way there

Jeremy: I’m gonna need a human skull and I can't have you ask any questions why.

Damon: Only if you also don't ask why

Damon: *Pulls out 7 pristine human skulls* Take your pick.

Jeremy:

Damon:

Jeremy: This one is fine

Jeremy: Hey, Damon? Can I get some dating advice?

Damon: Just because I’m with Elena doesn’t mean I know how I did it.

Stefan: I love you guys, you're the best thing that's happened to me.

Klaus: We're the best thing that's ever happened to you?

Stefan: Yes!

Rebekah: I'm starting to feel a little sorry for you.

Stefan: I really like this whole ‘good guy, bad guy’ thing you guys have going on.

Klaus: It’s not an act, it’s just that I’m mean and Rebekah isn’t as mean

Stefan: Remember when you didn't try to solve all your problems with attempted murder?

Klaus: Stop romanticizing the past

Stefan: What is your biggest weakness?

Damon: I can be uncooperative.

Stefan: Okay, can you give me an example?

Damon: No.

Stefan: Okay, truth or dare?

Damon: Truth

Stefan: How many hours have you slept this week?

Damon:

Damon: ...Dare

Stefan: Go to bed.

Damon: I don’t like this game

217 notes · View notes

iamcinema · 2 years

Text

Truth or Dare?: A Critical Madness (1986)

#truth or dare #truth or dare a critical madness #film #horror #horror movies #horror film #80s horror #80's horror #1980s horror #1980's horror #low budget horror #tim ritter #sov #sov horror #shot on video #shot on video horror #slasher

2 notes · View notes

joannerowling · 3 months

Note

(regarding the Hilton article that you were sent by that anon)

Hilton’s "criticism" is so frustrating because my favorite thing about the Strike novels is that the crimes the team are investigating are not treated as crazy one-offs, but as single *instances* of more frequent problems, and so of course on the way to uncovering one truth, they uncover several. Similarly, the act of investigating those single instances will bring up similar circumstances from characters’ pasts, because again, they are not entirely infrequent occurrences.

But what also shocks me is that this particular criticism ("How dare the world not be split into good decent people and The Criminal!") is the perfect opposite of the criticism everyone loves to return to with Harry Potter ("How dare she write a book where there are Good Guys and Bad Guys"). Of course, actually reading HP will show that the books aren’t so clear cut, but they are still children’s books which tackle good vs evil.

So which one is it? Does Rowling write books with painfully black-and-white views of the world, or does she need to be reminded that only one person can be evil at a time, and the morally perfect heroes must defeat him before someone else can take the reigns? Do we want more variation and imperfection and bad-people-on-both-sides or less?

Well there are two things you have to consider in order to answer your question.

Number one, most if not all criticism thrown at JK Rowling since 2020 has to be read as bad faith because, 9 times out of 10, it's motivated by ideology rather than an actual desire to engage intellectually with the text. It doesn't matter if the criticism makes sense or constitutes rigourous analysis, what matters is how much criticism gets thrown out there. If there are enough articles titled "10 Reasons Why Harry Potter Is Actually Terrible For Children", most people won't read the articles, but they will eventually get a sense that Harry Potter MUST be wrong for children to generate so much controversy. The goal is to discredit JKR's opinions by any mean necessary. That's why Pink News's strategy in June 2020 (following Jo publishing her essay on self-identification) was to publish multiple "articles" a day attacking her and her positions.

Number two: i've read a lot of bad faith "criticism" of JKR and HP over the years (long before 2020). This thing you're talking about - accusing her of promoting black and white morality in HP - is mostly no longer "fashionable" discourse. At its height, it was only ever promoted by, ahem, let's call them "passionate" fans of Slytherin. Context: the marketing strategy of Harry Potter (especially post-release) heavily relies on encouraging fans to pick one of the four houses and identify with it. The problem with that marketing strategy is, to sumrise, no Slytherin is supposed to be a good guy in HP (because the way the "recruits" are picked is based on a racist/classist premise), and there is no real redemption arc for any of the Slytherins kids we see in the books, so some fans eventually started to resent that and became mad at JKR for not just… redeeming Draco and making him Harry's best friend or or whatever. Honestly the psychology behind this particular outrage and why so many people rallied behind it against Rowling ever since the 2000s is fascinating and could easily make for an entire post on its own. But, not the point of this reply!

In short: it was always a very niche criticism from a very petty and nerdy side of the fandom. And nowadays, that specific subset has by and large decided that engaging AT ALL with Harry Potter would make them a Bad Person™. So they no longer protest that specific, perceived issue, because that would mean admitting they care about HP in the first place. They have moved towards basically saying that JKR's morals IN GENERAL are wrong, so if you read her books (which you shouldn't!!) every good guy should be seen as bad (or badly written) and vice versa. This is the reasoning behind people calling for an entire "rewriting" of the books by anyone else, preferably multiple people, or aggressively pursuing the building of a "counter" HP universe, via fanfiction.

Which, again, is really interesting to me from a psychological perspective! This need not to simply erase, but rewrite JKR's work in the "correct" way. The only reason one would feel the need to do that if if they perceived the original work to have so much resonance, so much power, that it can't just be left to be forgotten, because it will NOT fade on its own. Instead you have to rewrite it to confuse future readers, to "drown" the original work essentially under a pile of bullshit. It is not a goal one would ever pursue so relentlessly if they perceived the writing to be bad – wrong, maybe, but not bad. On the contrary it's probably the highest compliment to Jo's writing skills that people feel so threatened by her and the longetivity of her work.

#hp #replies #femmeconomics #jkr

15 notes · View notes

lostcryptids · 5 months

Text

tie between the best scenes in Truth or Dare?: A Critical Madness 1. police officer torches a little wood structure because he's trying to kill the serial killer and hes screaming and cheering and hitting his car madly and they put out the fire and find this lump of coal looking body and its turns out to be some local old drunk man 2. serial killer sees a random kid on the side of the road, pulls out a chainsaw, while driving the car just goes right at him with the chainsaw and kills him

#when he pulls out the damn chainsaw.. i was losing it

11 notes · View notes

hamletisintown · 7 months

Text

After finishing the story for Genshin Impact's 4.1, I actually have many thoughts. Spoilers under the cut.

Okay so. Genshin continues its long trend of having so much potential and failing to meet it because the people in charge want it to earn money first and foremost.

Here are a few things we could have had from this patch, and didn't get (which i'm mad about, but not surprised, sadly):

1) a social commentary on justice and prisons, and the role they fulfill on society

2) actual interpersonal conflict between important characters, and characters who are actually deep with interesting motivations instead of just being Nice :)

3) a story that is interesting not because it mashes more and more things together in the hopes of staying , but because it actually dares to step out there and give us interesting ideas (and maybe even a good execution)

Once again, we didn't get any of that despite the 4.1 trailer being absolutely phenomenal and filled to the brim with dramatic voice lines.Before I go into more details, please bear in mind that I am only so negative and critical of Genshin Impact because I do love it. I see its potential, and I know it could be exceptional instead of just good. But sadly, it's a game whose entire purpose is to earn money, and so it never takes any real risks, and well, that's the whole problem, isn't it.

Anyways.

1) About justice and prisons.

Fontaine's whole storyline was always going to be revolving around the idea of justice, and initially i wasn't expecting much out of it, but after Sumeru's story my hope was elevated a bit. There's so much to be said about how justice works today, what it means for people, both those who are being helped by it and those who are on the receiving end. You could do so much in a story about justice.

When we first saw the Fontaine trailer and learnt about how in Fontaine, trials are treated like opera, like... entertainment?? Man, I was so interested. A country in which the suffering of others is being ostensibly used as entertainment. How cool of a concept is that? What does it mean about the society of Fontaine? About its people? Except so far, the story doesn't bother to ask those cool questions. Instead it's all about the prophecy, which, okay, that's intriguing, sure, but I'm really hoping it's going connect back around to the whole premise of suffering as entertainment in some way because I'm really expecting cool shit from that and I'm not seeing any of it so far. We participated in 2 trials and none of them even so much as addressed the core problem of witnessing trials as if it was a fun play. We just went in there Ace Attorney style, investigating shit and bringing the truth to light, which was fun but incredibly shallow.

Then comes 4.1, we get to infiltrate Fontaine's prison. There is so much to be said about prisons, how they're cruel and don't fix anything, how they feed the cycle, how they prey on the marginalized. But nooo, not in Teyvat. Here, the prison is not really a prison, it's just uhhh. Gathering grounds for exiled. In a fortress at the bottom of the sea. Ooookay. And it's so nice here that a lot of people actually stay even after finishing their sentence. Ooookay? Ah, we get a throwaway dialogue from a convict about how even if you go back out after your sentence, you'll still be branded a criminal and no one will want to hire you for work. Interesting. Can we get more of that? Nope? Okay that's. that's fine. Maybe later. Ohhh wait hang on turns out they're using the prisoners to built their machines!! Interesting! Oh we're not gonna explore that either? Man.

I MEAN. The fortress is even built like a panopticon. A circle with the dormitories along and the administrator's office smack-dab in the middle. Add to that the fact that it's actually confirmed that Wriothesley was following our entire investigation somehow, watching from who knows where (and all the cameras!! don't forget about the cameras!! They didn't serve for anything important but they sure as hell were there!!), and well. It IS a panopticon, you can't tell me otherwise. How is this not intentional?? And if it IS, then how come it just stops at that. Can you believe it?? This prison is so nice that if you work 3 days straight, the nurse in person will make food for you to help you with your exhaustion.

Do you see all this potential? Do you see how much NOTHING they made out of it? I am so mad about this.

2) Lack of real conflict.

This is not really new and i've actually complained about this to friends several times, but it just keeps happening and I'm now convinced that's just how it's gonna be for the whole rest of the game.

Here's the thing. The conflict in genshin is either a) coming from external forces (the fatui, evil gods, random NPCs who are introduced specifically just for one story bit to be the villain and then disappear, etc), b) very shallow (like for example Alhaitham and Kaveh's relationship, they're always fighting but it never comes to anything substantial, it's all just for shits and giggle), c) incredibly short-lived and often with no real consequences (like the conflict between the shogun and watatsumi island in the inazuma storyline, they fight a bit and then we beat the shogun which somehow convinces her and then she's nice again and no one gives a ashit that she destroyed so many lives with her idiotic idea) or d) under-exploited (the beef between Diluc and Kaeya? Who cares we're 4 regions later now this is irrelevant and will never be brought up again probably).

You know what I want? I want characters with opposing ideals, incompatible personalities, deep flaws, fighting each other because they're HUMAN and that's what being human means. Hell, I even want some playable characters who are ASSHOLES, who do some FUCKED UP SHIT. You know what we're getting instead? Characters who are NICE. They're all so NICE. They get along. They're finally starting to actually make characters interact more and they're ALL NICE AND FRIENDS AND I'M SO SICK OF IT.

The only characters who are allowed to be fucked up and evil are the Fatui Harbingers. La Signora was evil and she died before she could get an actual character arc. Dottore is evil and he fucked off god knows where so I'm waiting to see what they do with him. Childe is fucked up but now that we're past the liyue questline he's just our friend that happens to be a harbinger and we just meet him and we don't even question his motivations all is well???? This guy kills people but no one gives a shit anymore he's friend now. Idk I just wish there was more to this but okay, better than most I suppose. Scaramouche was fucked up and evil AND got a cool backstory about it but then he just erased that actually??? So now h e's just a random guy and no one gives a shit about him, allt he significant ties he had with other characters just stopped existing and possibly don't mean anything anymore. Nahida put a leash on him and now he's the resident grumpy boy. I'm so mad about that I love his character you can't do this to him give him his substance back.

Do you see this shit???? The nice guys are simply nice, and the evil guys aren't properly exploited. I am. So. Mad.

In the 4.1 trailer, you get a bunch of cool lines. "Wriothesley, where did you take my siblings?!" "Even if the truth may not be pleasant?" "Since they have no way to dispose of the leftover remains, they have ways to transform them into other forms, and keep them in the fortress forever." Does that sound cool to you? It did to me. Man, I thought, finally some good fucking conflict. What in the hell is gonna happen to Lyney's siblings. What the fuck is Wriothesley up to.

Well. What we get instead is one single cool scene of conflict between Lyney and Wriothesley (with a very mellow build-up to it, honestly), and then that conflict is immediately resolved. Turns out Wriothesley never meant to hurt anyone and just played along to try and get a randezvous with The Knave from Lyney. Everyone is saved and everyone is cool afterwards. Not even a word of resentment from Lyney over how Wriothesley manipulated him.

You know what I wanted? I wanted Lyney to be more of a villain, more of what's expected of a Fatui. He's polite and charming and mysterious, but he's also way too honest and trustworthy with the Traveler. It's no fun. We know we can actually trust him. There was some vague attempt at putting us at odds with him and Lynette in the 4.0 story when they revealed they were fatui, and it was so badly done that it just fell flat. Ok cool you're part of the fatui, that's scary, but my best friend is literally a harbinger, cool story though.

You know what I wanted even more?? I wanted Wriothesley to be more ruthless, more of an asshole, more self-centered. The guy runs a prison, scares all of the convicts, Neuvillette even warns us about him!! But you get there and he's actually reformed the prison to be a nice place, and the only time he actually does some bad shit, not only is it not serious, but turns out it's because he's trying to get help with the secret ship he's building to save the people of Fontaine from the flood. So it's only a "good intentions, bad methods" type of situation!!!

All! Of them!! Are!!! To nice!!! It's BORING. It'S SO BORING. Everyone is so nice in this game that even THE FUCKING MAFIA IS NICE. THE MAFIA. THEY'RE ALL GOOD PEOPLE. I AM LOSING MY MIND. I can't take it anymore. I just want people with actual flaws. I just want people who aren't just good but are actual people, with all that it implies of shitty behaviour and stupid decisions and hurting each other over dumb stuff. Or even less dumb stuff. Just anything but all this fucking sugar-coating over funny colorful little characters who you want people to give you money for.

You're gonna tell me "Castor, this is a gacha game, this is literally the poin-" I KNOW. I KNOW. I'M MAD AT MYSELF FOR ACTUALLY EXPECTING MORE. STILL, I AM ALLOWED TO BE MAD AT IT.

Anyways let's move on before I just throw myself out of the window, shall we.

3) A good story.

See, what Genshin impact is very good at is throwing multiple concept together and linking them in fun, intuitive ways, to make them all new and shiny. What if our game had an elemental system but also the elements are actually integrated into the character's personality, and also they're an integral part of our story? What if we made a region for the vegetal element, and there's actually a jungle there and the jungle symbolizes the interconnectedness of this weird fantasy-internet system the scholars use, and in fact this big connected fantasy-web is itself a literal metaphor for the wisdom of a people, and also the vegetal-element is using very technological and futuristic visuals now because all of this now makes sense in your player's mind and you are ready to just accept it as a normal thing even though we weaved this entirely new ensemble of concepts together in the span of just a few quests.

And that's great, honestly, I think that's really one of the biggest strengths of this game, it actually is very creative with the concepts it puts out in the world.

This game has very good concepts.

The problem is. The good concepts are rarely followed by a good execution.

Take the story of Inazuma. The premise is this: the electro god wants a land where things never change because she's afraid of losing people close to her. Her solution for this is to take away people's visions, which are the embodiment of the ambitions of people. She is effectively breaking the spirit of her people by force to make sure they never want to rise up and change things. This is incredibly good. This is a strong metaphor that exemplifies terrible rulership. There's so much substance in there, so much to be done with this idea, so much that could be said by a good execution.

What do we get instead? A nice start where you're shown a very, very closed off and unwelcoming land (including being unwelcoming through the sheer brutality of its landscape and weather, which was incredibly cool!!), the dire consequences of a person losing their vision, some little pockets of resistance that are planning an uprising... And then it all falls apart because the way you solve the crisis is by following the shady advice and plan of the shogun's best friend, who basically just send you off to fight her and then intervenes to talk to her, deus ex machina style, and it turns out the ruler was actually a shut-in who let a puppet with a very flawed algorithm walk around and make decisions in her place (which, in itself, is also a really good and interesting concept, but it's just thrown out there out of the blue and then never really exploited?). She simply gets out of her magical room and reverts her decision and then keeps on being the ruler of Inazuma and no one is mad at her.

And a lot of this failure hangs on the fact that the writers aren't allowed to make characters who are actually bad because hoyoverse wants to make sure people like their characters and want to pull for them. I don't want to badmouth the writers, I'm sure they're perfectly capable of making great stories and most of why it doesn't work is because they're being forced down a road where everything is shallow and shiny and beautiful so the game can make the money it wants.

In fact we KNOW they can write good stories because they've done it!! With the Sabzeruz Festival storyline in Sumeru! Imagine walking into a brand new region, marveling at the landscape, laughing a bit at how they've got internet here, and then being thrown into a literal nightmare with basically no warning, for the first time of the game cut off from the exterior world for 3 hours of absolute madness, spiraling out of control and not understanding SHIT. Only that's it's going DOWN. The Sabzeruz festival was an absolute banger of a questline and I'm still thinking about it now, months later. It was the bst the game ever had to offer and I will forever be chasing after this high in genshin impact. It was psychological horror mixed with a mystery genre glued on top of a time loop trope. It was a commentary on how putting "hard" science on a pedestal and deeming the arts and social sciences to be a waste of time and resources leads to unethical practices by callous scientists. It was a whole journey and I simply felt dizzy when the quest ended, almost as suddenly as it had started.

The rest of the story of Sumeru kinda fell flat, after that. Even though it was, honestly, pretty good.

My point is. Fontaine feels like Inazuma right now. In fact, I would say it might feel... worse than Inazuma. It has a great basis with some really cool concepts to be used. But it doesn't even start out that strong. I'm, of course, going to wait and see before I make any judgement about the story of Fontaine, as it is far from over.

What I can say for sure is that I am... disappointed by how it's coming along so far. I really hope it gets better.

#castorambles #genshin impact #genshin impact 4.1 #genshin impact spoilers #phew this was longer than expected #i just had so many thoughts #i still do #i didn't proofread any of that so i hope it makes sense #long post

12 notes · View notes