Okay... I'm not good at this, but listen to me real quick, okay?
Tessa was an important side character in episode 5 and was promised to be important in episode 4, right? We had a lot of small details to pay attention to, eg., how Tessa rubs her arm because her parents chain her up, or how there are children's toys alongside academic things like books and diagrams inside Tessa's room. By the looks of it, she grew up becoming a technician in JCJenson's before Cyn killed her and used her as a skin suit. Although it was teased in episode 6 because she couldn't pass the human verification system and how the program of the Sentinels went haywire when they were looking at her, it feels weirdly undeserved for her to die. She was basically, and probably, the ONLY human that cares about robots (or Drones in this case), actively going to the junkyard/scrapyard to fix a Drone, dress them up, and let them have their own personalities. And Cyn killed her and wore her skin like a suit. Cyn killed and wore the skin of someone who's basically the mother in her life.
Doll was the evil version of Uzi. Like Shadow and Sonic, Doll is the edgy version of Uzi (I know that I said the same meaning twice, but this is kinda my first time). Doll had both of her parents killed (given the information we have, V most likely killed her parents, but this plot wasn't brought up after episode 3), so she didn't have anyone to take care of her and had to take care of herself. She was kind of a mixed bag since GLITCH had no idea how to make an evil version of an emo girl, and went like "Fuck it, we ball" and made so many plots and subplots surrounding her that it rivals the Yu-Gi-Oh 5D's scrapped plots. I liked the fact that we could see what Uzi might've done if Khan had also been killed alongside (until episode 7 revealed the crab version) Nori. I was hyped to see something like "Main protagonist but evil but also kinda good" in my favorite show, only to be later killed off-screen in episode 7, and since her core was eaten by Cyn, there's no way GLITCH is going to bring her back.
And Uzi's dead classmates. We could've seen how they could interact with each other, and some characters even looked interesting enough to have 5 minutes of screen time in the entire show, like Emily (Final Girl) is wearing a T-shirt instead of a crop top, the usual kind of shirt for female Worker Drones. Or how there was one Drone using magnets to get high. Or how there was a Drone that looks like he goes "dress to impress" is a total coward. Tiny details you'd only do to characters you'd make for an episode and rarely in the season. Do you know what GLITCH does? They use Uzi's classmates as canon fodder to show that she went insane by the Absolute Solver's influence, only to be snapped out by N, leaving Thad and Lizzy to survive the Cabin Fever massacre.
I know that you have to kill off a few characters to keep the plot flowing or some shit, but holy hell, does GLITCH cranks it to 11! They give names to side characters before killing them, make Doll have too much about her that they had to kill her, scrapped Tessa as a character and replace her with a skin suit that probably won't be worn in episode 8, and a majority of the death and destruction inside Murder Drones is used for SHITS AND GIGGLES! V's sacrifice is somewhat understandable since that's what she believed was necessary, but everything before and after that is completely bogus.

Watching this D20 season coincide with the greatest rap beef of all time has crossed some wires in my brain, especially with themes of unleashing hatred for the purposes of both war and justice, so here’s my thoughts. Besides, if Fetty Whap is canon, why not these two?
Adaine: Probably not that into the beef or either rappers, but deeply affected by Meet the Grahams.
Fabian: Definitely has the most Drake on rotation, admits that Kendrick won by the end but no amount of bullying from the other kids will take away how much Take Care means to him.
Fig: Has a viral BBLDrizzy song. Also probably some old DMs from Drake.
Gorgug: Doesn’t listen to either, maybe Zelda showed him Backseat Freestyle. Bullies Fabian regardless.
Kristen: Can’t stop saying “Certified Loverboy? Certified Pedophowl!” and “A Minorrrrrrr”
Riz: Is thiiirdperson. Deep diving into Kendrick’s lyrics, connecting clues from older albums, is ready for the larger conspiracies in action to be revealed.
Will probably delete this immediately

Hey dudes.
I am a recently converted Star wars nerd. I read most of the old canon books and comics as a kid.
I recently picked up jogging and have been burning through audio books for the first time in a long time. I listened to the first three books in the Horus Heresy, Flight of the Eisenstein, and am now working on Fulgrim.
I have considered the advice on the internet to follow a specific character or legion that i like and have looked over the flow charts and what not. I've decided to follow the story arc of Garviel Loken from here before I move on to others.
Can one of you fine gentlemen spoon feed me exactly what should be next on my reading (audible) list? I'm having a hard time figuring it out.
Thanks!

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/55981030/
I am the author.
‘Placeholder’ is a fan work set in the near future about a fictional author, called Segment, who has written a Worm fan fiction to escape from her troubled life. Coincidentally, it shares the name of the story that Segment has published online.
Readers should view all the author’s notes to get the full experience. The foreword is especially important to understanding everything. Beyond that, I will not be posting in-character as Segment anywhere besides the comments of Segment’s chapters on AO3.
Tags: Metafiction, Alt-Power Taylor Hebert, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Fanon, Crossover, Demisexuality, Minor Alan Wake II Spoilers, Minor Talos Principle Spoilers
AO3 Summary:

An experimental and metafictional fan story about a Hero named Placeholder who joined the cape scene in Brockton Bay just to be Taylor Hebert’s friend. Also, the author is a character in the story too, but you’ll never guess who they are.
Other than that, this is just another story written by someone who has never read Worm, written by someone who has read some of Worm, written by someone who hasn’t actually read Worm, but has instead listened to the full cast audiobook and read the Wiki.
Oh, and there might be some small crossover elements in this too, just to make it extra special.
Taylor never stood a chance.

This pretentious idea has been stuck in my head for quite a while now. For inspiration, you can blame Alan Wake II, The Talos Principle, and a recurring childhood nightmare. Worm, and Worm fan works (including several that are still getting updates) have also contributed to my derangement. So, thanks everyone.
As I am posting this, there are over fifteen thousand words in ten chapters, counting the foreword. I’ll be taking a bit of a break while I write more of the chapters, but expect at least one chapter a week going forward once I start posting again.

Okay, I've been reading some apocrypha and stumbled across Epiphanius of Salamis and his treatment of The Questions of Mary. I think, anyway, full disclosure, I was listening to a YouTube, and I think I have the context correct. Epiphanius went around destroying heresies, 80 or so. One of which was The Questions of Mary.

8:2 For in the so-called 'Greater Questions of Mary'—there are also 'Lesser' ones forged by them—they claim that he reveals it to her after taking her aside on the mountain, praying, producing a woman from his side, beginning to have sex with her, and then partaking of his emission, if you please, to show that 'Thus we must do, that we may live.'
8:3 And when Mary was alarmed and fell to the ground, he raised her up and said to her, 'O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?'
8:4 And they say that this is the meaning of the saying in the Gospel, 'If I have told you earthly things and ye believe not, how shall ye believe the heavenly things?' and so of, 'When ye see the Son of Man ascending up where he was before'—in other words, when you see the emission being partaken of where it came from.
8:5 And when Christ said, 'Except ye eat my flesh and drink my blood,' and the disciples were disturbed and replied, 'Who can hear this?'40 they say his saying was about the dirt.

9:2 When it says that Rahab put a scarlet thread in her window, this was not scarlet thread, they tell us, but the female organs. And the scarlet thread means the menstrual blood, and 'Drink water from your cisterns' refers to the same.
9:3 They say that the flesh must perish and cannot be raised, and this belongs to the archon.
9:4 But the power in the menses and organs is soul, they say, 'which we gather and eat. And whatever we eat—meat, vegetables, bread or anything else—we are doing creatures a favour by gathering the soul from them all and taking it to the heavens with us.' Hence they eat meat of all kinds and say that this is 'to show mercy to our race.'

I'm trying to see the big picture here, what is meant by these two passages? I mean, there's the connection to the Eucharist, and an allusion to Adam and Eve.
But I don't get the connection - I mean, they seem like different Biblical events, so why have Jesus create a woman out of his side? I think the Eucharist connection is pretty clear, I guess. Maybe I need a broader understanding?
Also, I totally get that Epiphanius might have been making this stuff up to essentially damn a text he didn't think was canonical. So, maybe nothing like this appeared in the Questions of Mary at all.
Can someone she some light on this?

please share your thoughts!!!!!!!
alright, ive finished the game around a month ago but have spent the past month LIVING off of hl memes and ominis content, so i still remember most of the game vividly.
i think theres foreshadowing to a sequel, here's why:

• if you dont turn in sebastian and talk to him, he'll understand your pov on the goblins and listen. if you do hand him in, ominis will talk to him and report that this has only made him angrier (..for whatever reason). this made me curious, because, well, by the time you do this quest it should be almost endgame, hell for some people they do the 'in the shadow of the...' quests AFTER endgame. it just seems an odd detail to add rather than 'oh yeah i talked to sebastian and he understands and hes sorry, the end'. maybe the devs set this up for a conflict point in the future, if you hand him in, for a sequel (or more likely a dlc).

-anne sees what sebastian has done to solomon, and this deathly sick (!!!) girl runs away to... where, exactly? again we get conflict that hasnt been resolved.
-less glaringly important but we get almost nothing about ominis. in the house cup bit hes just sitting down despondently because hes just lost his only friend and has to go back to his abusive family, who used crucio on him. also, ominis is quite vague about said family. leaves an open space that can be filled in with a sequel, because i would actually give my right eye to learn more about the gaunts ;)
-the MOST obvious plot hole - sebastian, in his usual delusions, seems to convieniently forget our emotional undercroft heart-to-heart about 'ill use ancient magic to save anne', before he goes and harnesses the power of a dark relic that causes only desctruction. (i ADORE seb but ominis is just so much better im sorry ;-; )YES i know theres the whole 'theyll become husks with no emotion if you take away pain', but sebastian hasnt been TOLD that. for all he knows, WE are the answer!! but nooo he must control the inferi because he is a teenage edgelord and nobody understands him. so yet again, unresolved conflict that could be saved for another time!!
-another huge plot thing - i personally went mostly goodie-goodie (except the unforgivables because come on!) in my first playthrough as a slytherin (going as an evil gryffindor next, lol). so this means i left the power of the resevoir alone. BUT! i have seen playthroughs where the resevoir is taken for the players own personal gain. is there any difference?... ...literally no. which is just ??? so maybe in additional gameplay, we could learn to 'hone' whatever new skills this grants us (more sequel-worthy than dlc-worthy, imo.)
-more a dlc thing, but quidditch. need i say more?
my thoughts:
there is enough material here to make a worthy sequel.
not only did hl DESTROY its sales expectations (even with the boycott), its been so popular that it has a subreddit with over 300k people (thats where we are now weee), which is kinda insane for a 'spin-off' game.
they would be stupid NOT to make a sequel or dlc, considering the absolute bank they made from this one + they now know what people want, meaning the next game would be even better.
the plot could be-

• you start 6th year as normal. you'd probably be on the train because no special entrance for you! you're slumming it with the normies now. if youve handed sebastian in last game then hes not here and you can skip anything to do with him until i say so.

-if you didnt, seb is still here. he thanks you for all you've done, blah blah blah, and acknowledges the goblins innocence. hes worried sick for his sister who has ran away and wants to find her. you are dumb and havent learned your lesson (duh), so no matter what you say he'll convince you to help once you've found your feet in sixth year.
-ominis walks into your compartment. he looks terrible. you ask him if he's alright and he slips some gaunt lore about his family and on their.. ideas of fun, because come on i have a mad obsession with this dude, and if im the one writing this plot, we're getting ominis angst, suck it up. if youve handed in sebastian, itll just be you two. there'll be a train cutscene and boom, you're at school.
-this is where it gets tricky.
IF youve handed in sebastian. he'll be in prison. youll probably get some angsty moments and npc quotes along the lines of 'he seemed like such a good kid'.
if you HAVENT handed him in, the story gets weird, because a) more awkward time with seb because hes free and 2) he knows the goblins are mostly good. the actual hl doesn't have this big of a rift, so its hard to say what happens. however, its good because it gives us loads of choice, the lack of which in hl caused a lot of complaints.
-if he's in prison, sebastian escapes,(not azkaban, gotta keep with the canon. maybe because he is a minor he is sent to a lesser facility.) still blaming the goblins and holding such a hatred for them now that in his eyes, they escaped punishment and that it's his job to kill them all while extorting the cure for anne OR finding us to cure her.
-if he's free, we can either have a storyline of him NOT learning his lesson and maybe going to prison then instead of after he commits uncle-cide (dark magic go brr, because sister is gone) or some other storyline that would be more about our magic (!) and ominis' story.
-for the latter to happen, we'd have to have taken the resevoir's power. OR we can make up a rowling-worthy excuse of 'well MC was exposed to the resevoir power for too long so even though they left it alone it still diffused into them or something! [happy]'. i honestly dont know, this is why i want YOUR THOUGHTS!!!
-to make the selection pool shallower, lets go with the excuse. this will allow us to have seb's story, our magic story and also some ominis story (i am obsessed.)
-whether seb escapes or is already free matters, but in the end its the same result - hes not in prison. the only difference is that free seb doesnt hate goblins, and isnt on the run, and vice versa for escapee seb. both want to find anne and cure her. both now remember you have the capacity to do so (but they dont know about the taking-away-pain-turns-them-into-living-husks thing).

• we could go with the 'find escapee seb and convince him we're right and he believes us and everything goes back to normal' route, but boring.

-maybe escapee seb finds us, and ropes us into the same 'help-me-find-anne' crap free seb does to us on the train. yes, that means we dont have a choice, but there has to be SOME adventure. the goblin-hatred would def play in somehow - its too specific of a thing to include in the endgame to just leave it be like that! maybe his hatred causes him to do unforgivable things to some innocent goblins and he has a 'mAyBe Im ThE mOnStEr' epiphany moment, who knows. maybe it ties in to something bigger.
-the main story would then be along those lines. im still brainstorming the climax and ending but nobodys gonna read this anyway lmfao
-main quests would consist of lessons, sebastian-is-a-little-too-obsessed-with-anne-quests, and honing our magic.
-side quests would be mainly ominis-centric regarding his family/the gaunts, with a decent lot of poppy and garreth. we've already resolved natty's entire life at this point tbh💀💀💀.
-id like to think there's a happy ending. idk what will happen to escapee sebastian, will he go to prison or not?? this is literally the equivalent of a crackfic in my head, i WAS NOT expecting to write this much when i started writing this.
SO AGAIN GIVE ME YOUR THOUGHTS. PLEASE. ON EVERYTHING FROM THE PLOT TO MY SEQUEL THEORIES TO FEATURES AND INCONSISTENCIES. THANK YOU!!
nowww some features!:

• quidditch, because yes
• morality systems would be a bit null here considering we're literally helping an escaped convict. but uh, we can try! just, like, dont cast the unforgivables everywhere you go ;)
• friendship systems with all side quest characters. like going from ehhh... to hellooo! with a side character would be awesome. the one thing hogwarts MYSTERY of all things got right was this.
• friendship and enmity systems BETWEEN characters, like, every sebastian needs their ominis ok. plus i want to help ominis bully puffskien dunkein I BEG, you cant tell me they dont have some rivalry going on ;-;

-romance? idk, not a romance person, this is for you sebastian fangirls to figure out for yourselves
-prejudice. literally what made harry potter, harry potter. there is like ONE audio with a negative view towards muggle-borns, and ONE that uses the word mudblood to my knowledge. everyone's just ok with everyone now? do malfoys and other death-eater's grandaddies not go to school here??? hello??????? this could and SHOULD be a topic for discussion in game or maybe even a side quest or side quest chain.
-extra but when/if seb escapes it should be on the daily prophet that ominis will show us in the undercroft or smth, i dunno
inconsistencies with my plot:

• loads of things havent been planned out. this is like a professional crackfic. (still has better plot than the cursed child though lets be honest :3 )
• everyone is easily convinced 'oh ok lets find your sister even though youre a dangerous escaped convict!'. sorry.

-itll be hard to mash everything in. but a half-assed plot is still a plot <:
-since its a continuation of 5th year, we already know many spells. there arent many useful ones left. HOWEVER!!! we can consult the fandom spell page, take offensive spells and stat boost them more than the 5th year ones >:) ALSO YOU LEARN ABOUT DARK ARTS IN 6TH YEAR, SO. ominis is not gonna have a fun time with those ones 💀
-because we'll be searching for anne, like the actual hl game, less school time, :( sorry
-everyones just ok with us disappearing (if seb is an escapee). someone should pull a hermione and go 'hmm, MC starts disappearing shortly after sebastian escapes, and they never say what they're doing.'
probably ominis or poppy because a) favouritsm on my part and b) ominis knows us best and i headcanon poppy as knowing us well and knowing the dark arts and how theyre used a tad bit more than she gets credit for.

• since this wouldve been 5th and 6th year covered, it would be expected for a 7th year to happen. naturally, i have exhausted all my 3 brain cells writing this, so screw it, 7th year doesnt need to exist right now. i havent even figured out all of 6th.

-loads of other things i havent seen, SO

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE SHARE THOUGHTS, THIS TOOK ME AN HOUR TO WRITE AND I ONLY WROTE IT TO SEE WHAT PEOPLE THINK! TYSM. (I SHOULDNT HAVE WRITTEN THIS, I HAVE FINAL EXAMS TOMORROW 💀)

youre all amazing yayayayayaya

Hey PubTips! Just want to say an upfront thanks to everyone who posts and comments on this subreddit - I've learned so much already!
I'm hoping to submit to a competition in which the prize is feedback from an agent. The competition is being run by Spread The Word and Frog Literary, and you can find it here if you're interested in applying too! (https://www.spreadtheword.org.uk/submissions-call-out-applications-are-open-to-lgbtqia-writers-for-1-2-1-feedback-from-frog-literary-agency/)
In the submission guidelines they ask for a cover letter, and I initially took this as more of a standard cover letter but after feedback from an author friend, they suggested they might be looking for a traditional query. My autistic brain struggles with reading between the lines sometimes, so I emailed them to clarify and the standard query is what they're after.
Just for context, my manuscript isn't completely finished but there's nothing in the guidelines to suggest it needs to be finished to apply. If anyone has any feedback or insight they could offer me, I'd be super grateful! Thank you :)
Dear [Agent],
As you represent [LGBT+ romance author], I believe you would be interested in my LGBT+ contemporary romance, QUESTIONING, which will be complete at 80,000 words. It merges the exploration of a newly discovered sexuality as seen in Kate Davies’ In At The Deep End with the wholesome, diverse found-family cast of Casey McQuiston’s One Last Stop.
Lucy is happy to spend the rest of her life in Harrison’s shadow, but she isn’t content to be confined to their kitchen only making meals for him and his fancy friends. She wants to be a real chef. When she gently brings up the idea of culinary school with Harrison, his temper flares and he kicks her out of their shared flat.
Heartbroken and temporarily homeless, she knows that Harrison will eventually calm down like every other time he’s broken up with her. She reconnects with an old friend who gives her a place to stay and introduces her to Manchester’s thriving queer scene. There she meets Aaliyah, the eccentric artist whose confident and flirty nature stirs feelings in Lucy that are much more than friendship. She has to decide whether to stick with the straight-and-narrow life she’s envisioned for herself since she was sixteen, or take a chance on this side of herself that she didn’t even know existed before now.
As a disabled, bisexual woman living in a society where productivity and heteronormativity are the key metrics of success, I’ve always sought out ways to escape. This has inspired me to create narratives that others can escape into, where queer characters all get their happy endings. Queer joy deserves to be given more space within the literary canon and I want to be part of that.
After taking an online writing course and meeting women from similar backgrounds to me, I realised that being an author might be an achievable dream. In the years since I finished that course, I’ve watched hundreds of YouTube videos, listened to hours of podcasts and read any craft book I’ve been able to get my hands on. I also received a mentorship opportunity with the editor Nicky Lovick, who suggested Frog Literary as a good match for my book.
First 300
The smoke alarm cuts through the quiet of the flat like an air raid siren, interrupting my final rehearsal of the speech I’ve been planning for weeks. I rush across the living room, grabbing a tea towel from the neatly folded pile and frantically wave it under the screaming white box. The noise continues to pierce through me, my short arms useless in the face of the high ceilings. I pull a stack of my cookbooks from the counter and lay them on the floor.
‘Sorry,’ I mutter, stepping onto Marco Pierre White’s face with my bare feet.
With the beeping finally silenced, I have to contend with the source of the smoke. A trickle of grey leaks from the top of the oven, and I send a silent prayer to the universe that my bread is salvageable. I need tonight to go well.
Pulling down the silver handle, a thick cloud billows out from inside, fogging up my glasses and filling the space with the scent of scorched sourdough. I haphazardly wrap the tea towel around my hands and grab the searing hot tin from the oven, the thin material barely enough to keep my hands from suffering the same fate as my poor bread with its charcoal-coloured crust.
I throw the whole thing into the sink, tears pricking at the edges of my eyes, though that could just be from the smoke that’s hanging around the kitchen like I’m in Victorian London rather than 21st Century Manchester. Harrison will be pissed off if he comes back to a smog infested flat, so there’s no time to cry over burned bread. Instead, I crack open the windows to the maximum amount possible on the 27th floor without being a suicide risk and head out to buy a replacement loaf.
When I get home, the flat is back to normal, the neat surfaces and sterile black furniture all looking exactly as it should. I close the window, hoping that heat from the rest of the cooking will ward away the March chill that has seeped in.

This collaboration project between CommonPresent Games, Five Frights, 3D FredWare Studios, and an anonymous music producer have all collaborated to make the ultimate conclusion to the Five Nights at Bingo's games.
Explore the abandoned Bar & Grill that was said to be nothing but an urban legend... 55 years after it's closing.
Your name is Cory. You go to explore the ruins, inviting your friends Clyde and Jack to come along with you.
A large sinkhole has formed underneath the building in the show stage, leaving the place in ruins and mostly caving in, especially in the middle of it.
INTRODUCTION CINEMATIC
You arrive there at 11:30 PM, and you text Clyde and Jack to come. They say that they will be there by 12:00 AM. You then walk in, and you explore the place, and then you enter the security office at 11:59 AM. You then get a text from Clyde saying that he is almost there, and that he gave Jack a ride, as well.
NIGHT 1 - It is now officially 12:00 AM. The building has entered it's lockdown state, not letting anyone or anything get in.. or out. You run to look at your phone, and then you very quickly connect it to the barely functioning security cameras in the building, and once you go onto the Show Stage camera, you will see Moltenstein emerge from the old sinkhole, who is a melted together fusion of the extremely rotted Bingo and Blossom animatronics.
DIALOGUE: What even was that thing?! I have to get out of here! This bulletin board right here says that lockdowns can take 14-21 days to end?! 14-21 DAYS?! It's okay.. I can do this. I brought my portable wireless charger for my phone. I just need to get that.. thing... away from me.
Moltenstein will sometimes appear at one of your doorways. You have a left doorway, a right doorway, and an opened ceiling vent. Turn off your phone's flashlight if you see it, in order to get it not to kill you, and activate a nearby camera's flashlight in order to attract it towards that camera's location.
There are only 6 functioning cameras. They are all the Show Stage, New Lobby, Left Hall Entrance, Right Hall Corner, and the Dining Area.
The Show Stage is where Moltenstein will emerge from. It will then make it's way towards the New Lobby, Left Hall Entrance, or the Dining Area.
The Dining Area's camera is broken, forcing it to face the right side hallway, where there is a vent entrance nearby.
All of the cameras have an internal flashlight that was applied during the investigation of the premises right before it's closing. These internal flashlights all work surprisingly well on the still functional cameras, and they are good for attracting light sensitive animatronics nearby. Moltenstein is very, very sensitive to bright lights.
Your phone's flashlight will always be on by default. Hold down CTRL in order to shut off your phone's flashlight, making it incredibly hard to see, but stopling Moltenstein from killing you, and sometimes even making it leave.
Your phone will lose 1% battery power every 2 seconds (you instead will lose 1% of your phone's battery power every 5 seconds whenever your flashlight is turned off..). Using a camera's internal flashlight will make it lose an extra 3% of it's battery power.. immediately. You can recharge it to get an extra 35% but this takes roughly 5 seconds to do......
NIGHT 2 - Ugh.. I need to get out of here! I am starting to see things. I can't do this anymore, come on!! Why me??? It's whatever.. Clyde and Jack called me this morning, and they said that they were worried. I told them about my situation, and they said that they have notified the authorities, but they didn't believe them. Those people really think that this place is fake. How funny of them...
Memory Citrus and Memory Lizzy can now be seen. These are just hallucinations, however. If you ever see the original Citrus flying through the Dining Area, put down your phone quickly, or Memory Citrus will jumpscare you, causing for you to throw your phone onto the ground in panic, attracting Moltenstein towards the light, giving him a 20% chance to kill you after somewhere in betweenn 7.26310-8.54790 secondssss.
If you ever see the original Lizzy standing in the middle of the lobby, put your phone down quickly, otherwise Memory Lizzy will appear floating in front of both of your doorways, and all of your cameras, making you unable to see them, all while you lose 1% of your power every 0.552 seconds. This effects lasts.. just about..... 10 seconds. And yes, this does cause your phone's flashlight to glitch out as well, luring Moltenstein to your location.
NIGHT 3 - This has to be the last night.. Surely the police have realized that I have very suddenly gone missing... Right? Please, just let this end. No more!
Memory Buttercup can now sometimes appear in one of your doorways. Shine your phone's flashlight at her in order to make her go away, or else, she will jumpscare you very suddenly, causing for you to have a heart attack.. and... well, die.
Memory Caesar and Memory Chuck seek to both be always found together now, and they can now sometimes appear in one of your doorways. Pull out your phone and look at it in order to deter them away from the security office that you are hiding inside of.
NIGHT 4 - Hey, hey! It's me, Jack! I just wanted to tell you that Clyde called the police... yet again.. and now they are starting to take us WAY more seriously! They said that they are attempting to locate your phone.. But it needs to stay charged up to at least 50% from now (12 AM) up until 6 AM, or we will not able to locate you, AND YOU WILL DIE. You gave us the wrong directions for what reason, anyway, you idiot?!
If your phone's battery drops down below 50%, you will be immediately just.. killed by Moltenstein.
NIGHT 5 - Hey, hey! It's me, Jack! We got your location! The police are headed there, now... Let's go, man! You're gonna make it home, by tonight!!! But.. You need to stop yourself from using the camera's built-in internal flashlights. Apparently, the cameras share a union power generator system, hence why they still work, and they only have about.. 8 charges left. It is pretty crazy, actually, right??? So just.. be careful, dude. Bye, now!!!,,,
If you use the camera flashlights 8 times, they will be disabled, and Moltenstein will be immediately teleported to your door, and he will kill you after approximately 2.5-3.5 seconds.
NIGHT 6 - Listen, man. I'm sorry, okay? But you entering that establishment has awakened and set free the mess in there, and I cannot afford to be chased down by that thing... You see, my grandpa was at that place for a re-evaluation of it's safety.. for... an incident. And that was not even his first time there! I'm sorry.. But you will not be making it out of there alive. I have released an overwhelming amount of a special secret gas recipe into the building, causing your hallucations to feel the most real possible, meaning that they have a 50-50 chance of giving you a heart attack and.. well, kill you. I also adjusted the union power usage to only allow for 6 camera flashes, and.. now, you must also always keep your phone charged. You can NOT recharge it. Have fun, Cory.
(This night ends at 4 AM, as the police and Clyde will break into the building and save you at that time.. exactly.)
ALL ENDINGS
Good Ending - During Nights 1-5, keep your phone's battery above 30%, and do not ever use any more then 6 camera flashes in each night. This will give you access to the Old Lobby, where you will find Buttercup, Citrus, Lizzy, Caesar, Chuck, and an unused Endoskeleton during the Night 6 Escape Scene. You will then get the option to scrap or take with you each and every single one of them as you walk up to them, letting them rest now as nothing but legends if you scrap them all. You will then see a scene of Jack getting trapped inside of the building, right as you guys escape...
Bad Ending - Follow Jack's instructions, and leave with Clyde and the police on Night 6 without making any discoveries. You will then see a scene of Jack escaping the building, right as you guys escape...
Happy Ending (Canon) - During Nights 1-5, keep your phone's battery above 30%, and do not ever use any more then 6 camera flashes in each night. This will give you access to the Old Lobby, where you will find Buttercup, Citrus, Lizzy, Caesar, Chuck, and an unused Endoskeleton during the Night 6 Escape Scene. You will then get the option to scrap or take with you each and every single one of them as you walk up to them, but if you take them all with you, you will then see the location rebuilt with the recovered and repaired Bingo, Blossom, Citrus, Buttercup, Lizzy, Caesar, Chuck, and the brand new Tropico The Toucan animatronics. Tropico The Toucan is an amazing newly built counterpart friend for the now happy Citrus The Toucan animatronic character.
We will be collaborating on FNaB 6, just as we did with this game, to introduce the continuation to the game series, and it's amazing and wonderfully unique storyline. We have amazing plans for this next entry of the series, and they will all be shared on here.. very, very soon.

WPA – A Completely Average Roadtrip
Disclaimer: Not canon, and I don’t use patreon so please don’t spoil me. Also, any opinion held by a character is that of the characters and not my own. Enjoy.
Town of Ljosalfington, local time 14:00, week 7
Emma Booker
“Again Illunor, I warned you before that this is a utility vehicle, not a party rated smart-limo. I am already compromising more than I should by allowing you to use the sample cooler as a minifridge, one which I can’t even use!” I said as I loaded the materials I had just purchased into the back of the high-G All terrain fusion-ethanol-electric hybrid 24th-century legacy pickup truck that I had printed out earlier this week, carefully avoiding the heavy ordinance hard point.
“That is hardly an excuse for that abysmally cramped leg space barely fit for cattle, never mind the bare minimum for standard decorum suitable for nobility. If this is what a car is like, then I don’t see why you care for your technology,” complained Illunor, who was sitting around idly with a malformed garish bowl of icecream that he had stashed away from lunch.
“If it bothers you so much, perhaps you could help next time with your ‘bigger-on-the-inside’ magic,” I retorted as I slid the last core sample into the back before covering it up with a tarp and strapping it down.
I had originally planned to visit Ljosalfington by myself to acquire much needed exo-materials to test various mana manipulator configurations as I worked to develop my first wand as not all of the materials I needed were procurable locally from Elaseer. I eventually yielded, much to my regret, to allowing Illunor to come with me as he insisted on wanting to deliver a letter personally in town after Thacea had pointed out the wisdom of not travelling alone.
We continued our back and forth for a bit yet as I finished securing my payload a voice called out to me from the direction of the town.
“Excuse me a moment, I couldn’t help but notice but are you from the academy?”
I turned to see an elf dressed in a plain brown buttoned up tunic matched by a slightly shabby pair of trousers with what appeared to be a lute upon his back and a plain and unenchanted longsword on his belt gesturing at our robes. Mine especially were new and unusual, tailored by the academy to go over my armour and allow access to the anchor points and allow me to exit my armour with minimal hassle. Illunor scoffed at what was evidently a commoner’s arrogance at approaching nobility and turned his head away in disgust. I glanced at Illunor and shook my head before turning to face the new man. I had time to spare, and any opportunity to engage in a hearts-and-minds dialogue with the locals outside the bounds of the managed environment of the academy was more than worth the time to chat. Especially as most of the other locals seemed to be content in ignoring me.
“Yes, we are currently studying at the Transgracian Academy. I am Cadet Emma Booker representing the United Nations of Earth and Luna from Earthream, and my aloof compatriot is Lord Illunor Rularia of the Vunerian courts. We were just about to head back but are in no rush. May I ask your name and what brings you by?” I asked with my hand outstretched in greeting.
“Ah yes, yes. My name is Edhel Redoehdelnif, a wandering bard by trade like my father and his father before him. My apologies, Cadet Emma Booker, I am unfamiliar with Earthrealm,” said Edhel as he grasped my hand with both of his and shook it tepidly yet vigorously. Or rather, tried to, as the motors on my suit resisted his efforts.
“News doesn’t seem to spread all that fast around here, so it makes sense you haven’t heard of us. We’re a new realm, and only just got here. Pleasure to make your acquaintance, Edhel Redoehdelnif,” I replied.
“Absolutely fascinating! And a knight no less, or perhaps a squire? I’m sure you have many stories to tell of Earthrealm. Say, by chance are you about to head back to the academy? I have business in Elaseer and the usual coach has been absent as of late so I would rather not go it alone,” said Edhel.
I was hesitant to bring a stranger back in the car with me, even if Illunor was present. However, the opportunity that meeting a bard presented was too good to pass up from an intel perspective and to win the favour of the populace at large.
“That is a great idea. I think I have room for one more…” I paused before gesturing towards Illunor, “provided everyone is ok with it that is.”
Illunor gave a huff and turned his head away in silence.
“Very well, I will allow this. But he will not be joining me in your sorry excuse for a coach,” said Illunor dismissively.
Illunor approached the backseat expectantly and the door opened for him automatically, allowing the dlc kobold to gracefully enter and lounge across the length of the seats, once again ignoring the seatbelts. I sighed as I made my way to the driver’s seat, and Edhel entered from the passenger side as he marveled at the automatic doors and the interior.
“What a strange carriage this is! Although I must say, shouldn’t you be retrieving your horses? I didn’t see any harnesses or sense any artifices,” inquired Edhel as he attempted to make himself comfortable on the car seat, lute in front of him.
“Oh no, this thing doesn’t need horses or magic,” I said with a chuckle as EVI started the car. The elf raised his eyebrows at the sudden hum of the engine and made an expression of alarm when the car started driving itself without my input. “See, purrs like a kitten.”
“Earthrealm must have some large kittens if they purr like that,” noted Edhel, “but you must be concealing the enchantments somewhere. Such a thing as this with such strange yet precise craftsmanship is only possible in the crownlands.”
“Nope, no magic,” I said cheerfully.
“Then how?” Asked Edhel.
“It’s rather simple really. Are you familiar with the workings of a mill?” I asked, deciding to keep things surface level and elementary to avoid provoking the IDOV threshold.
“Somewhat, though I confess to not being familiar with their workings. Are you suggesting this is akin to a mill?” Asked Edhel perplexed.
“It’s the same principal. A mill works by taking a source of rotation such as a waterwheel or windmill, transferring that rotation along a series of rotating shafts and interlocking gears, and finally putting that energy to work by rotating a millstone,” I began as the car pulled out onto the smooth cobbled road in the direction of Elaseer. A notification popped up in the corner of my vision indicating my recon drone swarm had shifted from a holding formation to a convoy screening formation, and while the roads were clear I kept the speed at 60km/h to account for my passenger’s apparent distaste for seatbelts.
“Rotation…” muttered Edhel. He turned to face one of the wheels and EVI pinged an alert for a probable match for a detection spell, “fascinating.”
“Edhel, what are you doing?” I asked.
“Oh, yes, perhaps I should have asked first. Yes, I can see how it all fits together. But the source of this rotation? I see no mighty river or great wind to power this, so where does it come from?” Asked Edhel, not really apologizing. Elven arrogance, it seemed, was not limited by class.
The act reminded me of Sorecar when he inspected my gun, but where the armourer had been respectful with it, Edhel was more flippant. I considered the possibility that he was a spy sent by one of her peers or the crownlands, though this did not mesh with the methods I had seen so far. Edhel may have been just overly enthusiastic. In either case, I quickly decided to only reveal the antique design for the ethanol engine, and not that of the batteries or the emergency coupler to my suit’s fusion reactor.
“Right, well please ask first next time. As to your question, I won’t bore you with the details, but the rotation is generated by creating a periodic sequence of explosions inside of a machine – a manaless artifice – called a combustion engine, said Emma.
“So that’s what that sound is…” pondered Edhel, “are these artifices typical in Earthream?”
“You are awfully inquisitive for a commoner,” noted Illunor as he inspected his nails for dirt, “and rather accepting of something which should be impossible.”
“I wouldn’t be much of a bard if I wasn’t, my lord,” said Edhel shifting uncomfortably in his seat, “perhaps some music might set the mood better?”
“That would be preferable, bard. I have heard enough of the Earthrealmer’s Road Trip Playlist and would like to listen to some music of real culture,” said Illunor.
The bard agreed and proceeded to awkwardly play a ballad about an adventurer who slew a hydra in some frozen wasteland. Partway through, I politely interrupted the Edhel to point out the seat controls much to his fascination and Illunor’s grumbling at their common nature, and after some adjustment the bard went on playing and I half-heartedly listened while I paid attention to the road and my drone feed.
Particularly after EVI detected something unusual and alerted me to its presence.
”Attention Caded Booker. There is a disabled vehicle blocking the primary route to destination. Heat signatures in the woods are consistent with that of an ambush.”
“Damn it,” I muttered.
I glanced at the drone feed to see a broken cart strewn horizontally across a wooden bridge over a brook. On the surface it looked like a pair of civilians who required aid and assistance, but off in the woods were several heat signatures, several of which held weapons of varying levels of enchantments. Occasionally one of the pair on the bridge would talk with them, suggesting they were in cahoots rather than hostages. I recalled crossing that very bridge not a few hours earlier, so the blockade was very recent.
“EVI, did we pass that cart on the way here?” I asked.
”Negative,” replied EVI.
I grimaced. I had been trained to handle road-side ambushes, but it was only something that was a theoretical possibility. Something that should only occur in a warzone or a corrupt and unstable polity. I knew I had the capacity to handle such an encounter, even non-lethally, but that didn’t change the fact that these were civilians and as such were the responsibility of local law enforcement. Combined with the fact that I had passengers I was responsible for and engaging the ambush was a risky option.
“EVI, give me a list of alternative routes,” I commanded.
”Affirmative. Here is a list of routes in order of recommendation,” replied EVI.
I looked over the routes superimposed on a map of the region and quickly dismissed taking a shortcut through the forest and cutting through farmland. A detour caught my eye that extended the journey by roughly ten kilometers and I immediately sent a pair of drones to scout it out before committing to the detour.
“Are you alright, Cadet Emma Booker? You seem distracted,” asked Edhel, snapping me back to reality.
“Yeah, I’m fine. I’m just focused on driving,” replied Emma.
“I suppose it must be quite taxing to command an artificed carriage of this complexity. Perhaps it might ease your mind if you were to regale me a tale of a hero of your realm?” Said Edhel, strumming a complex tune from his lute as he spoke as each and every pluck triggered a low-level spell.
“Well, that may be a problem. We don’t have any monsters to fight, and wars are a thing of the past,” I said while desperately tip-toeing the subject of aunt Ran, the subject of war, and our voyages through the cosmos, “though we are not without the adventurous spirit. We certainly have many stories of grand voyages. Some mythical and fictional such as The Odyssey as told by the Greek poet Homer and some historical such as the race to the south pole.”
“The south pole,” muttered the bard, “so you have explored all of Earthrealm then? I suppose that makes some sense, if you have artifices such as this then traversal of a globe would be quite manageable.”
“You are quite perceptive,” I said, not wishing to elaborate.
“A great performer knows his audience,” said Edhel with a charming, honest, almost human smile.
I felt a pang of homesickness as an intrusive thought reminded me that I could have gone to a real college surrounded by friendly faces my age, engaging in nightly holostreams and dreaming of adventures in the stars from the safety of a college dorm room. The sight of Illunor in the rear camera was the only thing that kept me grounded, as I almost felt like I was back at home on a road trip rather than returning to a fantasy feudal court, constantly evading death at every turn with the fate of humanity on the line. As such, and prompted by EVI, I barely had the wherewithal to take the planned detour.
A fact which did not pass by Edhel.
“I believe you may have taken a wrong turn, Emma,” he commented.
“Nah, I’m just taking the scenic route. I came from that direction on the way here, and you have inspired me to see the other road and I figure it should only add a few extra minutes to our travel time,” I said, gesturing at a paper map which I had referenced exactly once, “though on that subject, you seem to know these lands quite well. Do you have any recommendations on places to visit in the Nexus to scratch that itch?”
Illunor raised his eyebrow at the detour excuse, knowing full well this was not part of the plan. I worried that he might complain about the issue and but thankfully remained silent as he snacked on the contents of the misused sample storage unit. Edhel himself took on a more pensive posture.
“I’m happy to have been such an inspiration, Emma, though I am sure an explorer such as yourself has little need of such. I would normally suggest the skyward fountains of Verdellan or the cloud tides of Asturia, but that may be too casual for someone of your calibre. Perhaps the severed chasm or the fire marsh of Bhandahova may be more to your liking. Or perhaps…” Edhel leaned in, “I have heard rumours of a dragon in the glassy obsidian wastes of Vurcanar.”
I chuckled at that, knowing how I was fortunate enough to fish a dragon scale out of the nearby lake for the ECS. “The thought of going dragon hunting had certainly crossed my mind…” I mused aloud.
“Yet you sound hesitant. Perhaps it is too much for a newrealmer. Perhaps a slime or a dire rat might be more appropriate,” he said with a tease.
“No, it’s not like that! It’s” I stammered, before attempting to change course after realizing I had been goaded, “what I mean is, I was under the impression that dragons were an endangered species. Where I come from, hunting endangered animals is usually illegal, and big game hunting in general is frowned upon. We do make exceptions in the case of problem animals such as if a large predator starts hunting humans, but as a rule we prefer conservation and try to find ways of coexisting with wildlife such as the use of barrier fences and scaring away dangerous animals rather than being forced to cull their numbers. Having a species go extinct would prevent future generations from appreciating them and risks destabilizing the ecosystem they are a part of. Now if this dragon was actively razing villages and eating civilians and livestock, that would be one thing, but this does not look to be the case. I don’t imagine the Nexus has any settlements in this wasteland, and the dragon clearly wants to be left alone. Killing an innocent dragon would be murder.”
I grinned to myself after delivering a diatribe that would have made my tenth grade social and environmental studies teacher beam with pride, though by the expressions of my passengers my view did not appear to be shared. Edhel’s mouth was agape in shock and fascination, while the Venurian in the back seat merely huffed in disapproval.
“I assure you Newrealmer, there are no innocent dragons,” stated Illunor with a hint of terseness breaking through his otherwise regal demeanor.
“Illunor, I understand that Venurians have personal reasons for not liking dragons, but you can’t just extend that disdain to their descendants or those uninvolved just because they are the same species,” I said.
“If I may interject on your behalf, my lord, I believe I can address Cadet Emma Booker’s concerns,” said Edhel with a bow. Illunor nodded in approval.
“Very well, you may proceed,” he said.
“Thank you, my lord. My dear Emma, you must understand that dragons are not simple animals driven entirely off of instinct as it appears to be the case in Earthrealm. They are monsters. Intelligent, long-lived, violent, greedy, cruel, territorial, selfish flesh-eating monsters. They are evil by the very nature of their being, unable to change by their own accord, and unwilling to change when His Eternal Majesty offered them freedom from their nature. It isn’t that they want to be evil. As intelligent animals – intelligent monsters – dragons are capable of understanding morality, and many have tried to overcome their evil nature at great expense to themselves. A well intended and noble sentiment, yet a doomed one as like all animals, they all succumb to their nature in the end. Overcoming one’s nature is impossible,” said Edhel. His eyes took on a stoic, almost remorseful gaze as he spoke, and Illunor nodded with approval.
I was appalled by this claim, not by the contents so much as how blatantly false it was. As a representative of the human race, I was a living counterexample to his whole argument. We had remained physiologically unchanged as a species since the last Ice Age, and yet in spite of that, in spite of our many flaws, we had found peace and balance. If we could do it, anyone could do it.
“Will all due respect Edhel, that is nonsense. Monsters aren’t born, they are made. It is the mark of any intelligent species can adapt their behaviour to their environment for better or worse, and under the right care any so-called monster can grow to be a force for good,” I began, but while I searched for the right words Edhel shook his head.
“I appreciate your race is an empathetic one, Emma, your idealism is unfounded. As flesh eaters, a dragon must take the life of another animal or person to survive, or they will perish. As such, every dragon has taken a life. As long-lived creatures, they will have amassed a significant number of kills. As the land can only support so much animals, a dragon must be fiercely territorial and aggressive to remove competition, lest they starve. As such, even the most kind-hearted dragon alive must be violent and greedy, and their intelligence fuels this even more so if they know a bountiful land of morsels exists just outside their range.
Now perhaps a multitude of dragons may find a way to co-exist together in some settlement, but to support such a venture would require a large territory of prey, or a livestock animal. Perhaps they could support a large colony by farming grain for their livestock, but that would require effort on their behalf. As large animals, such efforts require a great deal of energy. Yet that size makes it easy for them to intimidate smaller races to do their labour for them, and to keep their client race in line dragons must be cruel. And even so, as their numbers grow so do their needs. As such, they must expand into the lands of their neighbours to survive until there is nothing left to devour, at which point they must turn against their own lest they starve. As such, it is the nature of dragons to conquer and devour. That is why there is no such thing as an innocent dragon,” finished Edhel.
I was speechless, not because I believed Edhel had a point, but because I was horrified at how easy he found it to rationalize the extermination of an entire sapient species. If this was how the elves thought, then it wasn’t the dragons who were the monsters. I suppressed that dark thought. Edhel’s thought process was a product of his culture, not a feature of his elven heritage. If there was any hope of peace between our people, I needed to show him there was another way of being. I needed to prove that co-existence was possible, no matter one’s nature.
I took a deep breath to steady myself before replying.
“That- that is a callous way of seeing things,” I began, though the shock was still there in my voice, “you speak as though there is no natural equilibrium with a dragon, that their only state of being must be to be cruel, to devour, to conquer. But I see things differently. In fact, I might wonder if a fledgling civilization might see the presence of a dragon as a boon rather than a curse. Being intelligent, the locals may be able to come to some agreement with the dragon. Perhaps they might leave some land as a hunting ground or offer up a share of their cattle or guard the dragon as it sleeps. In exchange, the dragon might allow them to build a town outside its mountain and protect them in times of danger. An equitable exchange. A civilization might even create artificial lairs to attract dragons for this very reason. True, some dragons may behave tyrannical towards their town, but a well armed populace of a large city would be more than capable of fighting such a threat, and a rational dragon might reason that threatening their own populace would put their reliable source of food and shelter at risk. You see, it’s all a matter of perspective.”
“You certainly are an imaginative one, Emma, to wonder up a quixotic world where the hare and the fox live together in harmony as equals. Even so, you seem to have ignored one key detail to such a society. What would happen should the dragon not be fed for months on end?” Asked Edhel with his eyebrow raised.
“The same thing as stranded a dozen starving, stranded Elves!” I spat back.
[Alert: Vehicle speed above recommended limit for conditions. Recommendation: slow down. ]
“I am driving slow!” I seethed, not realizing I had sped up with manual control enabled.
“I grow tired of this common prattle,” interjected Illunor just in time to prevent an awkward silence, “bard, play us another song.” “As my lord wishes,” said Edhel with a bow before turning to me with another smile, “perhaps a more soothing melody would be in order? A love song perhaps, to honour Cadet Booker’s compassionate nature?”
I said nothing as Edhel began to strum his lute again to the tune of a love story of a pair of doomed lovers named Ramian and Junette, hating his cheeky knowing grin that only served to get under my skin further as I focused on calming down and slowing the car back to a more reasonable pace before investigating a priority alert which I had been blinded to moments prior.
[Alert: hostile roadblock is absent, location unknown.]
Shit.
“Illunor, we may have a problem,” I said.
“Shush, Newrealmer, have you no class? We are almost at the best part! I’m sure it can wait,” replied the contextually clueless lizard.
I had never wanted to throttle Illunor as much as I did now.
“Illunor, shield, now,” I said with a raised voice.
“I don’t see-“ he started, pausing mid-sentence as his ears perked up.
[Alert: Multiple manafield and spell signatures detected!]
I took evasive maneuvers as Illunor tried to piece together a shield spell, fumbling it twice as panic appeared to set in and providing me with a reminder that Illunor was a civilian, not a soldier. A hail of arrows pelted the exterior of the truck, piercing but not penetrating the composite armour. I was tempted to do nothing but just drive away from the arrow fire, but a foreboding premonition of danger filled me as I recalled Sorecar’s hunter-seeker arrows.
Seeking to avoid that fate, I triggered the active defenses.
The smoke screens deployed around the vehicle, obscuring the sight of any who depended on visible light to see me. A barrage of decoy flares equipped with wooden cores shot upward at angles and diffusing to the side like a pair of giant wings which when combined with the MFD, short for mana-field dampener, inside the vehicle meant that the pelting hail of arrowfire softened to a whirr as the arrows whiffed over the top of the truck, retargeted away from the soft flesh of my passengers and even invoking friendly fire amongst the ambushers.
In the chaos, EVI and my drone swarm fed me complete tactical information on the ambush. Of the 26 individuals at the first blockade, 20 were accounted for, and 3 had died from friendly fire. Ahead at the bridge, 5 more of them were at the bridge where a barrier had been hastily erected to cage me in as the river valley was too deep to cross.
“Illunor, we need a bridge,” I said, taking stock of the wellbeing of my passengers.
The bard was huddled down low and suppressing his manafield, but otherwise rather composed. Illunor, on the other hand, was cowering in the gap between the seats with his hands covering his eyes and his tail tucked in.
“A bridge is no small request, Ne- Cadet Emma Booker,” replied Illunor, “and your ‘Emeffdee’ has blinded me to the outside of this moving death trap.”
“If I drop it, can you at least make a ramp?” I asked as I circled the battlefield. Or tried to, at least, as earthen ramparts emerged from the ground from a yet unseen source to cut off other avenues of escape.
“A ramp? Surely you don’t mean-“ he stammered.
“Yes or no,” I said.
Illunor paused, before taking an unsteady breath.
“Yes. But not with that Emeffdee,” he replied.
“Good. Steady your nerves and prepare to make a ramp ahead of us on my signal,” I said, “in the meantime, get your seatbelt on. This is going to be hairy.”
As I circled around to make my approach on the bridge, the final combatant made his appearance on a nearby tree, revealing himself as an elven mage. An alert focused on the air around him indicating he was preparing an unknown high-tier spell, and I locked the predator drone on him indicating the elf as a high-priority target if our escape plan failed, and I was forced to use lethal force.
If I was forced to kill.
It was one thing to know you may have to kill in the line of duty, but it was much harder to reconcile that with reality. No number of simulations could match the real thing, and a part of me wanted to simply offload the responsibility to EVI to keep my hands clean, but to do that would be betraying my duty as a human being. I breathed in deep and tried not to think about it, instead hoping to rely on the ace I held in my sleeve instead.
“EVI, ready the spell jammer,” I said unevenly.
“Acknowledged, the prototype Exo-Radiation Wave-Field Distruptor is primed. High risk target identified and locked, permission to engage?” EVI asked, forcing me to address the dreaded question.
“Negative,” I replied, “hold your fire. If the ramp fails, then you have permission to engage,” I said.
“Affirmative, on your mark,” replied EVI.
I lined up the truck with the bridge and bolted through the smoke, keeping a careful eye on the mage as I went. His spellform took on a more concerning shape as I accelerated, and I realized I could not afford to let him finish his spell. I triggered the spelljammer.
A terrible roar erupted from an array of speakers printed from mana-resistant materials that would have made Godzilla herself beam with pride. The sound was decidedly unnatural, gnarly, dubstep drop composed of an electric eel, a whale, a mountain lion, and a tyrannosaurus rex all being simultaneously assaulted by a swarm of angry cybernetic murder hornets as an equally chaotic wave of mana blasted outwards from the exterior of the truck, with the interior thankfully sheltered by audio and mana dampening.
The ambushing assailants cowered and panicked, and it was enough to cause the Elven mage’s spell to backfire in his face as his form exploded into ashes, meeting a horrific fate which I had tried so desperately to help him avoid. With all the combatants momentarily incapacitated or dead, I lowered the dampener and turned off the smoke.
“Ramp!” I shouted, snapping the lizard back to reality.
The Venerian nodded and hastily formed an earthwork ahead of us right before the blockade, and the truck leapt off the ramp with a not insignificant amount of air beneath our wheels. I braced for impact, regretting skimping on the shocks in the name of preserving materials, but the impact never came.
[Alert: Friendly spell designated ‘Feather Fall’]
Illunor thankfully had enough wherewithal to gently land the steel brick, and I sped off into the distance away from the trap that had unfolded behind us, leaving the interior of the truck in an awkward silence as we each processed our brush with death in our own way. “How many are dead?” I asked EVI.
“6 hostiles confirmed dead,” replied EVI.
I drove on in silence. Those were six deaths I had tried to avoid, and I became lost in thought as I wondered what I should have done differently to avoid the confrontation entirely.
Edhel broke the silence with a bout of laughter.
“Terrific! Absolutely terrific! Why, I can conjure up many a tale from this encounter alone! I live for this kind of inspiration!” Exclaimed Edhel a little too chipperly considering the circumstance.
“I would rather not hear stories about how I bravely ran away,” I moaned in deadpan sarcasm.
“You think too little of yourself, Cadet Emma Booker. It is plain to me that you are no ordinary rabbit. Make no mistake, I see it as a privilege to bear witness to the roar of a vorpal hare!” Said Edhel as he supressed his laughter, “though I am afraid with all the excitement that I must finish my song some other time.”
“How about I play some of our music?” I offered after the elf revealed his thrill-seeking side.
“Splendid, I would like that. Perhaps something of your ‘Roadtrip playlist’ you speak of? It sounds like a collection of your voyages,” said Edhel.
“That would be an improvement on the truth,” said Illunor dismissively as he eased from his state of shock, “it is little more than noise under the pretense of music.”
“Illunor…” I muttered to myself before turning the mic on, “no, no it’s not like that. I have terabytes of pre-recorded songs from various artists back home which can be played by… an artifice called a speaker. A playlist is a set of songs which are grouped together, usually to listen to in specific situations such as studying, partying, or travelling. The latter collection is what Illunor is referring to.”
I very deliberately chose not to reveal my ‘Unfortunate Daughters’ playlist.
“An artifice which plays music, and a magicless one at that. I must say, Emma, I fear for the bards in your realm,” said Edhel with a laugh.
“Your fear is misplaced, Edhel. Entertainers live like kings where I come from,” I retorted with a smirk of my own, “well, the ones with talent at least.”
“Well, well, I suppose I have to hear my competition!” Said Edhel with a laugh.
“Do as you must, though let it be known that I warned you,” said Illunor as he watched a play on his sightseer.
I had EVI compile a list of songs that left out content offensive to Nexian sensibilities or violating OpSec and as it compiled I mused over what type of sample spread I wanted to show off. Then it struck me. What better way to show off our culture than with some good old blue jumpers and nova rock! Sadly, jumpers were unavailable to show but I still had a whole list of modern artists to choose from.
Moments later, the car speakers sprung to life to the tune of ‘Innocent Youth of Mine. Edhel’s eyes lit up like a child visiting a zero-g gravity park for the first time, seemingly star-struck by the antique electric guitar and the synthesizer-drums in particular.
“What… what is this? I have never heard anything like this!” Proclaimed Edhel.
“Dreadful, isn’t it?” said Illunor, doing what he did best and pretending to hate it.
“Oh there is a lot more where that came from,” I said with a cheeky grin of my own, “this one is called ‘Innocent Youth of Mine’ by ‘Cannons and Poppies’. It’s part of the Nova Rock genre.
“And those strange instruments?” Asked Edhel.
“Oh, you mean the electric guitar and the synthesizer. They are electronic instruments, taking advantage of channeled and modulated electricity to create near any sound we can imagine,” I replied.
“Channeled electricity… are you suggesting these sounds were made by some form of lightning?” Asked Edhel.
[Suggestion: Avoid topic of electricity due to OpSec risk]
I nodded at EVI’s warning, thankful that it caught me before I discussed the very thing that all of my equipment ran on.
“It’s not exactly lightning, but close enough,” I said.
“If I had not witnessed to your display of power earlier, I might have perhaps been more skeptical of such a claim, but I suppose a lady must keep her secrets.” said Edhel with a raised eyebrow and chuckle, “but I digress, this music is most interesting.”
“There is a lot more where that came from,” I said with a cheeky grin of my own.
“If I ever have a prisoner in need of torture, I will turn to you first,” replied Illunor, “if you are willing to subject your peers to this madness then I cannot imagine what you would force upon your enemies before dunking them in ice.”
“In your dreams,” I retorted.
I played a few other songs including Astrodesee’s ‘Meteor Struck’, the Martian classic ‘Hotel Cydonia’ and even ‘Switching to Warp’ before Elaseer emerged from the distance, and I pulled up outside the gate to drop Edhel off.
“Here already?” Asked Edhel.
“Well, yeah. I was just running a quick errand, I didn’t want to go too far,” I replied casually.
“That was a distance worth at least five days of walking by foot, and you call that a ‘quick errand’?” Asked Edhel. I shrugged, and he laughed.
“Well in any case, thank you for allowing me passage in your car. I must apologize for my lack of gift or payment…” said Edhel. “Don’t worry about it, it was on the way,” I replied.
“I see, how generous. Perhaps we might one day meet again?” Asked Edhel.
“Maybe, but I’m not sure how likely that is. The academy takes up most of my time,” I replied, “though you never know. I still have a lot of quest hours to complete.”
“Is that so? In that case, I hope we meet again! Goodbye Cadet Emma Booker and farewell Lord Illunor Rularia,” he said. “And good travels to you, bard,” said Illunor.
I waved off Edhel and drove back to the academy, Illunor still sulking in the back seat.
“Perhaps next time, you should steer us away from danger?” Suggested Illunor.
“I tried, but we were tracked,” I replied.
I groaned inwardly at the additional work needed to fix the truck. EVI compiled a list of upgrades for future engagements, batting away my idea for a ‘turbo mode’ and a ‘jump boost’. Though at the end of the day, meeting the bard wasn’t a complete loss. It felt good to talk to someone almost normal for once, and I hoped I met him again.
Edhel Redoehdelnif
I watched as Cadet Emma Booker’s vehicle went off into the distance, getting one last look at the Earthrealmer’s strange artifice before turning towards the gate. The voyage was an exotic experience, not unlike that of a fever dream or a peak into a world completely alien to my own. Indeed, it was a struggle to contain my excitement and enthusiasm and process the experience rationally as I made my way through the southern gates of Elaseer and turned the corner of an alley before entering an impossible structure that did not exist.
“You are earlier than expected,” said the shadowy figure of my handler as I made my way to the meeting hall.
“The Earthrealmer’s means of transportation proved far more expedient than anticipated, my lord” I spoke as I knelt before him, “even with her unexpected departure from the anticipated road and the ambush we traveled for scantly more than an hour.”
“Yes, I will require a full report from you. Perhaps you can shed some light on the ‘smoke dragon’ my men claim intervened on the Earthrealmer’s behalf,” said my handler.
“Smoke Dragon, my lord?” I asked.
My handler responded by activating his sight-seer, revealing how the ambush had appeared from the outside. The Earthrealmer’s uncanny artifice traversed down the road, a pair of manafields displaying proudly from within until the archers began their assault. The artifice then transformed as smoke billowed out from its pores and wings sprung forth above until it was the form of a mighty wrym with a pair of glowing eyes springing forth from its ever extending head where it then gave forth a terrible unholy roar which sent waves of mana outward. The mage working to seal the area and trap their mark vapourized in an instant as his spell backfired. It was apparent to Edhel that his exceptional experience in the carriage was merely a muted rendition of the events unfolding around them.
It would seem the hare had the shadow of a dragon.
“I do have some insight, though I must confess the Earthrealmer did very little in the way of direct action. I suspect she has some unseen means of commanding and scrying through her artifices,” I said, “one which does not utilize magic as we know it.”
“Such a statement is heresy,” said my handler, “but such special circumstances are your reason for being. I will require you submit your memories for verification. What is your appraisal of the new realmer?”
“The girl is far more dangerous than a surface appraisal would suggest, though she prefers to conceal that power rather than utilize it out of a misplaced sense of compassion. Her people appear to have a boundless creative drive through which such artifices are birthed, though again it is misdirected towards more common applications. I believe that if properly tamed, this human animal may provide us with great works of art,” I said with a bow.
“I see. Does the girl know you work for us?” Asked my handler.
“She may harbour some suspicions, though did not voice them outright beyond concealing her knowledge,” I said, “though nothing significant. Provided our next meet is under believable circumstances such as a festival she should view me as cordial.”
“She has indeed proven clever,” conceded my handler, “very well, I will make arrangements for your paths to cross again. Perhaps I will arrange for her to be a contestant at the next inter-academy tournament. In the mean time, prepare your report and don’t wander far. This is a priority assignment.”
“As you wish, my lord,” I said with a bow and a smile.
Emma Booker had proved to be an interesting animal indeed, and I hoped our paths crossed again.

What exactly are Dharāṇī?
Dharāṇī, also known as Parittas, are Buddhist chants, mnemonic codes, incantations, or recitations, usually the mantras consisting of Sanskrit or Pāli phrases. Believed to be protective and with powers to generate merit for the Buddhist devotee, they constitute a major part of historic Buddhist literature. Many of these chants are in Sanskrit and Pāli, written in scripts such as Siddhaṃ, as well as transliterated into Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese, Sinhala, Thai and other regional scripts. Dharāṇī are found in the ancient texts of all major traditions of Buddhism. They are a major part of the Pāli canon preserved by the Theravāda tradition. Mahāyāna Sūtras such as the Lotus Sūtra and the Heart Sūtra include or conclude with Dharāṇī. Dharāṇī are a part of the regular ritual prayers as well as considered to be an amulet and charm in themselves, whose recitation believed to allay bad luck, diseases or other calamity. In some Buddhist regions, they served as texts upon which the Buddhist witness would swear to tell the truth. Dharāṇī recitation for the purposes of healing and protection is referred to as Paritta in some Buddhist regions, such as Laos, Thailand, Burma, Cambodia, and Sri Lanka. Paritta is generally translated as ‘Safeguard’ or ‘Protection’ in the Pāli language.
Historical Context:
The word Dharāṇī derives from a Sanskrit root √dhṛ meaning "to hold or maintain". Some Buddhist communities outside India sometimes refer to Dharāṇī with alternate terms such as "Mantra, Hṛdaya (Hridiya), Paritrana (Paritta), Raksha (Pali: Rakkha), Gutti, or Vidyā" though these terms also have other contextual meanings in Buddhism. The Buddhist Dharāṇī invocations are the earliest mass printed texts that have survived. The earliest extant example of printing on paper is a fragment of a Dhāraṇī miniature scroll in Sanskrit unearthed in a tomb in Xi'an, called the Great spell of unsullied pure light (Wúgòu jìng guāngdà tuóluóní jīng; 無垢淨光大陀羅尼經). It was printed using woodblock during the Tang dynasty, c. 650–670 AD. The Hyakumantō Darani found as charms in wooden pagodas of Japan were broadly accepted as having been printed between 764 and 770 CE. In 1966, similarly printed Dharāṇī were discovered in stone pagoda of Pulguksa temple in Gyeongju, Korea. These are dated to the first half of the 8th century.
How to start the practice:
As stated, Dharāṇī, are used as a sort of mnemonic code, specifically curated to help a practitioner remember the text in which the teaching and incantation comes from, such a practice is a good starting point in exploring the genre of Buddhist text that have the ability to generate positive karma, and dedication of merit to other sentient beings. Remembering and reciting a Dharāṇī is useful, and is a good recommendation for beginners, linked here is also a guide on how to pronounce Sanskrit if you happen to have some linguistic difficulties:
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLnFLN_eBOBMVEWX7pGJMGJNr_HK75VL_9&si=wSLN1Pz95q9bTcNA
Please note as some Dharāṇī/Paritta are esoteric and passed down by lineage of teacher to student, it is highly recommended for beginners to receive oral transmissions of such text. However, in this short list, all listed text are Sūtric and are free to recite without need of oral transmission.
Here is a good beginners list:
(Sanskrit works) Saddharma Puṇḍarīka Sūtraṁ (White Lotus Sūtra, used for praising the White Lotus Sūtra, and its benefits.)
Nīlakaṇṭha Dharāṇī (Blue-Necked One Dharāṇī, used for honoring, venerating, and requesting Avalokiteśvara protection, and clearance of obstacles.)
Śūraṅgama Mantraḥ/Sitātapatroṣṇīṣa Dhāraṇī* (Śūraṅgama Sūtra Mantraḥ, and the Dharāṇī associated in the Śūraṅgama Sūtra; White Parosal Dharāṇī of Sitātapatra Dharmapāla. Used for honoring, and venerating, the Śūraṅgama Sūtra, as well as requesting the help of Sitātapatra Dharmapāla to combat negative spiritual forces, magic, and beings.)
Bhaiṣajya-Guru-Vaiḍūrya-Prabhā-Rāja Dharāṇī (Used for honoring, and venerating, the Medicine Buddha Sūtra, as well as requesting his spiritual powers to heal and help sentient beings.)
Prajñāpāramitā-Hṛdaya (Sūtra) (Used for honoring, and venerating, the essence of Mahāyāna teachings on Śūnyatā, beneficial at warding off ill calamities, and dispelling negative forces.)
Munīndra-Hṛdaya-Mantraḥ (Shakyamuni Heart Mantraḥ, used for honoring, venerating, and establishing a connection to the Buddha Dharma.)
Śyāmatārā-Mantraḥ (Green Tārā Mantraḥ, used for requesting assistance from Green Tārā Bodhisattva.)
Amitāyus Dharāṇī (Amitāyus Buddha Dharāṇī used for honoring, venerating, and establishing a connection to the Amitabha Buddha Dharma, and for requesting longevity.)
Sarva-Tathāgatāyur-Vajra-Hṛdaya-Dharāṇī (All Thus Come One Life Diamond Heart Dharāṇī, used as an aspiration prayer towards Sukhāvatī, as well as praising, and venerating Amitābha Buddha.)
*Disclaimer, although this is an open mantraḥ, it is highly recommended to follow a teachers instructions on the usage of such a powerful mantraḥ. The Śuraṅgama Mantraḥ request the help of Vajrapaṇi Dharmapāla and is an extremely wrathful mantraḥ, often used at the most extreme of cases. Repeated usage is to advised by a qualified teacher.
For a more general overlook on Paritta works, which are often more peaceful in nature, and have a heavy emphasis on Mettā and merit dedication, here are a few open protective Parittas:
(Pāli linguistic works) Mettā Sutta/Karaṇīyamettā Sutta (The Discourse on Goodwill, used for spreading Mettā Pāramī to other sentient beings.)
Uddissanādhiṭṭhāna Gāthā (Verses for dedication of merit, used for dedicating merit to sentient beings, as well as multitudes of spiritual beings.)
Tiro-kuḍḍa-kaṇḍa-sutta Gāthā (Hungry Shades outside the walls verses, used for dedicating merit and food for ancestors and Pretā spiritual beings.)
Āmantana-Devatā Gāthā (Invitation to the Devās, used to invite the Buddhist and local deities protect those listening and preaching the Dhamma.)
Namakāra-siddhi Gāthā (Verses on success through homage, used as the beginning Paritta of ceremonies to venerate Buddhas and to bring success to rituals.)
Cha Ratana Paritta Gāthā (The Six Protective Verses from the Discourse on Treasures, derived from the larger Ratana Sutta, used for dispelling evil and negative forces, and proclaiming the truth [Saccakiriyā] of the triple gems.)
Khandha Paritta (The Group Protection, used for calming down and venerating the Nāga families, as well as dispelling harmful two footed, four footed, poisonous, and crawling creatures.)
Dhajagga Paritta (Top of the banner staff Protection, used for dispelling fear, and negative forces.)
Buddha-jaya-maṅgala Gāthā (The Verses of the Buddha’s Victory Blessings, used for proclaiming the eight auspicious victories of Shakyamuni Buddha in his life.)
It is recommended before the start of any Dharāṇī or Paritta chanting that one is to take refuge in the triple gems, and make aspiration prayers towards one’s goal, an example, as seen in the Theravāda Nikāya:
Namo tassa bhagavato arahato sammā-sambuddhassa. (Recite three times.)
Homage to the Blessed One, the Worthy One, the Rightly Self-awakened One.
Tisaraṇa (Triple Gem Refuge.)
Buddhaṁ saraṇaṁ gacchāmi. Dhammaṁ saraṇaṁ gacchāmi. Saṅghaṁ saraṇaṁ gacchāmi.
I go to the Buddha for refuge. I go to the Dhamma for refuge. I go to the Saṅgha for refuge.
Dutiyampi Buddhaṁ saraṇaṁ gacchāmi. Dutiyampi Dhammaṁ saraṇaṁ gacchāmi. Dutiyampi Saṅghaṁ saraṇaṁ gacchāmi.
Twice, I go to the Buddha for refuge. Twice, I go to the Dhamma for refuge. Twice, I go to the Saṅgha for refuge.
Tatiyampi Buddhaṁ saraṇaṁ gacchāmi. Tatiyampi Dhammaṁ saraṇaṁ gacchāmi. Tatiyampi Saṅghaṁ saraṇaṁ gacchāmi.
Thrice, I go to the Buddha for refuge. Thrice, I go to the Dhamma for refuge. Thrice, I go to the Saṅgha for refuge.
[Āmantana-Devatā Gāthā is said here.]
[Namakāra-siddhi Gāthā Paritta Chant, and so on…..]
Please feel free to ask questions, I don’t even know if you’re still reading, but…. Feel free to add suggestions too I guess. Have a nice day, and thank you for coming to my Ted-talk.

So, I'm seeing some mixed reactions to the last season, and honestly I'm feeling them myself as well, so I decided to sit down and sort of breakdown and analyse some of what happened over the course of Oxventure, what seemed to go well and what didn't, and maybe try to get into some litcrit of the whole thing.
Warning: I'm not always nice in this write up, though I have done my best to be fair and honest throughout in what I think the potential pitfalls were and how I hope they might be better addressed in future campaigns.
I've played D&D myself for a few years, listened to other Actual Play series (notably NADDPOD and some D20 at one end of the competency-of-players scale, and Dragon Friends and Dungeons and Drongos at the other), and write... a lot. Including over 250k of fanfic specifically for Oxventure, which started off as an excuse for smut but ended up being a lot of worldbuilding.

System & Setting

Johnny has made no secret that they're not a huge fan of D&D, indicating that they feel it overshadows other systems, and given that the Spicy Rat Caper was meant to be a one-off but fans loved it perhaps they felt a little trapped in the system. This did lead to some funny moments (Faire Trial and Max commenting that they sometimes felt "like a big dice rolling around a tray" sticks with me) but sometimes felt a bit mean-spirited ("Crawl Me Maybe" and the heavy 'lol dungeon crawling is so ridiculous' comes to mind).
It was also clear that at times, none of the group seemed to know the game and the rules super well. From Mike not knowing his movement speed ("30 what? Miles an hour?") to Merilwen not using her animal forms or changing out her spells until level 8, to the underpowering of most of the classes, it became more of an issue as time when on in some ways.
It's easy enough to understand why, live on stage and starry-eyed at Harry McEntire as Aubrey, Johnny missed that in the combat Aubrey cast two levelled spells in the same round (against the rules) as well as using two sorcery spell modifiers in the same round (also against the rules, and they mentioned this on the podcast). Sorcerer was also a new class to everyone, and dealing with a new class is always going to be difficult, especially dropping them in at a higher level rather than starting from level 1 and building up.
However, bluntly, most of the guild weren't using their class/subclass abilities to the fullest. Rules lawyer Andy did the best, so he gets a pass here, and Ellen got sharper with Merilwen over time to stuff like knowing her spell components, tracking her spell slots, and preparing her spells. However, the concept of Egbert as "a paladin who doesn't do paladin things" (quote from the post-Deadlands discussion) was ultimately really limiting not just for Egbert (Mike commented in one podcast episode that he felt he'd trapped himself in only using Egbert's abilities in ways that were funny) but for the entire concept of paladins - Max might as well have been a fighter in the fight in Gnome Alone that they took part in, and we never saw Shattershield fight at all. There were references to combat offscreen in Out of Order, but... that was it. (Additionally, while paladins can be poisoned, as poison and disease are different in 5e rules, paladins can pump out a LOT of healing, and a citadel full of them should have a lot of magical reserves to draw on as a result.)
And Egbert isn't the only one who was limited. One of the biggest features of Great Old One warlocks (which Prudence is, with Cthulhu), is that from level one they have telepathy within 30ft ("Awakened Mind"). Prudence went the entire campaign without using this. Although Johnny allowed the Message cantrip to be treated like this, allowing people to reply to it when RAW it is one-way only, this meant that Dob also essentially gained Prudence's power because he also had Message. Merilwen was limited in her animal forms and the spells that she knew up until level 8, and it was noticeable how everyone was shocked at her power once she had full RAW druid range. Corazón, on the other hand, not only had Andy keeping on top of all of his class and subclass features, but got two subclasses, leaving him about on par or slightly overpowered for the level he should have been looking overpowered because the others didn't use their abilities so well. Meanwhile, Dob was given access to full bardic abilities, but only used bardic inspiration in some of their level 1 adventures and then not much again until the final season.
The counterpart to this under-utilisation of class potential was the amount of 'rule of cool' or 'rule of funny' which sometimes worked well (Merilwen befriending the owlbear in Quiet Riot, or the reflavouring of Thunder Wave to do lightning damage instead based on their initial misunderstanding) and sometimes ended up breaking the game (the "everyone can cast Moonbeam" joke that escalated to the scrolls of Moonbeam that made the finale kind of laughable). Sometimes this seemed to be the time and audience pressure of live shows (allowing Prudence to use the hammer to wheel her way through the skeletons in Stop Hammer Time), but other times it was just letting them do things that went outside the rules (Egbert body-slamming six(?) Otherberts at once in Bad Altitude, or Dob casting all his spells at once in Corpse and Robbers) seemingly preferring the immediate humour or "yes and" over the potential internal logic or end implications.
The contrast between this permissiveness, sometimes to the point of breaking logical immersion, honestly seemed sharper to me when it was laid against Andy's GMing in Deadlands. Whether it was reminding people that there were snipers on the rooftops in Dead Man's Worth or refusing to yes-and a chandelier in More Wonders Than, he made it more difficult for the players and in doing so made them work harder within their skillsets and the setting, making the victories feel harder-won as a result. I'm aware that some people didn't like Andy's GMing specifically because he was less permissive, but I believe that his intention - and the outcome - was a stronger narrative that made the characters feel active and not just lucky. (Liliana lampshaded this in Frenemy at the Gates when she asked whether things often just fell into their laps, like with knowing Binbag, and it almost felt like a spiteful comment so it surprised me to hear it from Johnny.)
What I hope: It has been indicated that Johnny has created the new setting for the next game, so hopefully they have put things more to their liking at the beginning and will not end up seeming to dunk on the premise of their own series. I'm also hoping for everyone to either use more standardised rules, or at least establish in-game standards at the beginning so that all of the characters, and players, feel like they're on a level playing field from the off. Johnny seemed to much more enjoy the systems of Blades in the Dark and Deadlands (which were designed to be less superhero-level) and even the lower levels of Oxventure (especially Tier 1) where the characters were just people who were skilled but not particularly out of the range of normality; I'd be interested to see whether they lean more in that direction and keep the characters lower-powered as a result.

Characters & Character Arcs

Again, it's worth noting that the characters were initially conceived as being for a one-off game, so the initial concepts did not necessarily need planned arcs. However, the rockiness of some of the arcs overall may have contributed to issues with the series, especially as it stretched out over so many years. I'll go through the PCs alphabetically, then Liliana, then mention any other NPCs. There are two elements here - in-character goals, and character arc goals, which both play into things.
Corazón - in my opinion, Corazón had one of the stronger character arcs, which may reflect Andy's interest in writing (and now being published!), going from the coward pirate-wannabe who abandoned his crew to the curse, to the person who threw himself in front of a spell meant for Merilwen. This was highlighted in his reply to Them in Prism Break, even before the Power Word Kill spell. In fact, the Power Word Kill brought a level of pathos to the fact that he had told Them that he was not even done growing as a person. Andy commented on the podcast at some point that he had expected at the beginning to be one of the more morally shady characters (as a pirate), but found himself playing a line of being immoral regarding money but caring deeply about physical hurt or harm to people. Corazón also had two layers of in-character goals - to break the curse (limited) and to become a betterichereal pirate (more open-ended) and find his own identity which allowed him to carry character development over the years even when the curse was ignored for extended periods. Goals: clear and stepped, with the curse as a plot-hook; arc: good and perfectly timed for the finale.
What I hope for: More of the same, really.
Dob - Dob came in early with a clearly defined goal (to find his sister) - but this was done in Brawl of the Wild and Dob has been sort of... undefined ever since. It absolutely makes sense that he would have floundered for a while, but Dob has gone several years without settling on new goal, and Luke also didn't seem to settle on a character arc (the romance subplot in Orbpocalypse Saga through Bride or Die seemed to be almost a character arc, but never got full payoff?) which left Dob feeling... well, at times it almost seemed like Luke wanted to get rid of him to play someone else instead. This was unfortunately also highlighted in conversation with Them, as the response that Dob gave was about him being a "mote of chaos". I obviously couldn't speak for others, but I found this underwhelming and unconvincing as an answer, as it didn't give me any sense of why a powerful celestial being would consider this an argument - if Dob had developed the argument to be that chaos is generative and creative in a way that pure order cannot be, and/or that the free will and agency of sapience demand that they be allowed to act and to try even if they make mistakes or fail, I think there might have been something there, but he didn't really seem to. Goals: had one which formed a good plot-hook, then went without; arc: unclear.
What I hope for: Luke to determine more of a character arc, or series of shorter arcs, perhaps drawing from his Blades in the Dark DMing experience, and to either pick a more open-ended goal or to move along a series of goals over time.
Egbert - Egbert came in with the vaguer goal of "atonement", which gave him more wiggle room, but unfortunately didn't seem to actively pursue it a lot of the time. In Legacy of Dragons it was revealed that he was searching for atonement for the deaths of two Dragon D'Or members - but by this time, so many people around the Oxventurers had died, including innocent bystanders, that the deaths of two other paladins felt like nothing. (Mike commented, again on the podcast, that he agreed with the commenters at the time who agreed that they knew it was his backstory from the beginning because only two paladins had died. The two figure paled next to the collateral damage that the party later caused.) Mike also commented on the podcast that during lockdown, he had made a conscious change with Egbert in to try to avoid combat as much as possible, and to avoid fatal attacks if in combat, but it wasn't clear how long that lasted. It may have been trying to avoid being the annoying/preachy paladin that stopped him from trying to influence the rest of the party or to save lives around them, but unfortunately it meant that it was difficult to see a real sense of wanting to atone in Egbert's arc. Letting innocents die around him isn't exactly less culpable than killing them himself. (Notable incidents included Mule Be Sorry, Wrangle in the Tangle, Hag Reflex, and Squid Pro Quo.) In terms of character arcs, there was definitely an element of going from seeking approval from Dragon D'Or to seeking that of his friends, but that was just a switching of approval-seeking rather than a significant change. Goals: had one, but didn't seem to actively pursue it; arc: moved from pursuing the morals of Dragon D'Or to pursuing the morals of the Oxventurers.
What I hope for: Mike to come back with a character who seeks to pursue their own goals more directly (see Barnaby and Silas, who both felt much stronger in this sense).
Merilwen - Merilwen was supposed to be about balance and protecting nature, but didn't always heavily engage with this point of view, even when the actions of the other Oxventurers should have absolutely led to discussions or disagreements between them. Many people commented on Andy being dickish about shooting seabirds in Legacy of Dragons, but there are other incidents, including the Wrangle in the Tangle (again), Eldritch or Die Trying (where it would have been interesting to see Merilwen's preference for nature clash with the need for the crystal) and the Extinction season which seemed to veer between being set up to be about Merilwen, then swapping to Dob-centric, then cleaning up Corazon's curse. In terms of character arc, I think there might be an element that can be teased out about her not fitting in with elf society and fitting in better with the faster-paced, more chaotic world of shorter-lived peoples, but this feels like speculation on my part more than something intended. Naturally, a character of around 100 is not going to feel as suited to a coming-of-age story as younger ones, but characters of all ages should be able to have character arcs. (Even if they might be slower in longer-lived people like elves - an example I can go to here is Galadriel, from Tolkien, who in her youth was proud and refused a pardon that would have allowed her to return to Valinor, but at the end of LOTR is humble enough to accept and go there. It took millennia for her, but it was a character arc all the same!) In Merilwen's conversation with Them, her uncertainty seemed to talk to this - a lack of clarity about where her characterisation was supposed to have gone over the last few years. I think there was a real opportunity here to explore Merilwen's relationship with morality and the difference between neutrality and passiveness, which unfortunately was missed. Goals: was supposed to be about nature but didn't push for it; arc: [speculation] seeking a non-elven community that she matched better with.
What I hope for: Ellen to have a character with more defined goals or arc, or gaps still to be filled in, rather than a static momentary sketch of personality/character that doesn't feel designed to be changed over time. Again, Lilith with her secrets/looking into the paranormal, and Edie with her goal to help people in a world in which monsters aren't going away, felt stronger as characters with goals and arcs, and I'd be happy to see more of that.
Prudence - Ambitious from the off, Prudence never actually struggled for goals - power, knowledge, magic, influence. The open-endedness of these goals once again served Prudence pretty well for carrying her through individual adventures/games and over the course of the whole canon, even if she didn't come in with clearly-defined (plot hook) goals like Corazón's curse. For the first few years, it felt that her character arc wasn't hugely significant, although there was certainly an element of found family over selfishness that played into it, but Jane also discussed (again, in the podcast) how the werebear element was really quite exciting for her as it allowed her to begin to explore the clash between werebear Lawful Good status and Prudence's usual Chaotic Evil desires. Eldritch or Die Trying explored this in a somewhat exaggerated way, with Cthulhu offering power in exchange for the destruction of the others (I suspect in Prudence's question about specifying people, she was trying to figure out whether she could kill just Liliana) which was a somewhat blatant nod to the character arc but did underline it. (Unlike the others, this also established Prudence's character arc before Them.) Goals: open-ended in a way that leaves them technically incomplete even now but which were stably useful throughout canon; arc: de-isolation and alignment shifting (in a way that should have been ripe for playing off against Liliana's) which played out well.
What I hope for: A character with perhaps some more specific or plot-hook goals as well as broader life goals. Prudence's character arc played out more subtly than Corazón's and sometimes perhaps got lost behind the louder personalities of some of the others, but I do think was well done. A less obvious way to explore or demonstrate it would have been nice.
Liliana - So. Here we go. Liliana was essentially a DMPC for the last season, but was a recurring character before that, with a stated goal of subjecting part or all of G'eth and broader goals (indicated or stated in Prism Break and the finale season generally) of academic/scholarly improvement, arcane knowledge, and the notion of making people appreciate what they have by threatening to take it from them. As a villain, she was threatening, and the layering of goals once again worked here, even with the abrupt movement to 'save G'eth' in the last season because, well, you can't rule what no longer exists. However, I am honestly confused as to what her character arc was supposed to be - whether her stated change of heart in front of Them was real, or whether that was a lie that Them somehow did not call out or challenge. Considering in Frenemy at the Gates, Liliana says that Prudence is the most like her, there was a potential here to play against Prudence's character arc of coming to trust others, even appreciate others, and facing the consequences of suffering making her realise her own flawed logic. I really do not know whether her betrayal of the guild was planned from the beginning (in which case, her talking to Them feels like it was overplayed, and Them should have challenged her on it) or whether Johnny added it because the fight against the giant was over more quickly than anticipated (compare to Dine Hard where the chef was the one person they did not stat up because they didn't expect the guild to fight him). Goals: logical, stepped, and worked for a villain; arc: ????? was there an arc? Was it fake? Was it desperation? Why did she, on 1 hitpoint, try to Power Word Kill Prudence instead of Teleporting away?
What I hope for: I don't know, with this one, really. Liliana's weird arc feels more related to the odd pacing of the last season than an underlying characterisation issue, for me, so I think it's more related to pacing/wanting Oxventure campaign 1 to close out.

Player Etiquette

...okay, this one is going to be a little bit harsh, perhaps. But the main campaign, more than either Blades in the Dark or Deadlands, really suffered from certain players having a bout of Main Character Syndrome.
I say specifically players here, because it was entirely in-character for certain characters (largely Corazón) to think of themselves as the main character and behave as such. However, even if the characters think that, is generally considered good etiquette for the players to treat each other as equals, let each other take turns in the spotlight, and have their Moments.
Good examples would be the group letting Merilwen be the main character in Peak Performance, Prudence explore her sundered relationship with Cthulhu during the Orbpocalypse Saga, or Dob showing off his acting bard chops in Dine Harder.
However, at various times, various people have overstepped. Sometimes in live shows where the audience response and excitement probably played a role (Rolling in the Deep) it's more understandable, but it also happened elsewhere. Mike got some flack for picking up the eyepatch at the end of Cursed Case Scenario and 'ruining' Corazón's moment, but even Johnny called Andy out for muscling in on Dob's subplot in Court in the Act, and Life Finds a Dob was almost uncomfortable at times. There was also something of a trend of Dob deliberately acting against the party for unclear reasons (possibly meant to be humour?) - either running away from them in Life Finds a Dob, refusing to 'share' Corazon's body in Portal Combat, or his contrary behaviour in Hunter Pressure in not wanting to fight the hunters/murderers they were facing.
I'm not sure whether this trend of contrariness fed into the unclear character arc that I mentioned above, or the other way around, or whether the two just fed into each other.
The most extreme example of this was, undoubtedly, Dob jumping in on the shoot-off between Liliana and Prudence right at the end of Portal Combat. Liliana approached Prudence in Frenemy at the Gates because they were the most alike. Prudence was the one with the first kill of the whole campaign, using Eldritch Blast, against the party's wishes and Corazón's protests specifically - how appropriate would it have been for her to get the last kill of the campaign, with Eldritch Blast, in defense of herself and her party and as retribution for Corazón? But instead, Luke inserted Dob into the standoff and Johnny played into it, even to the absurd extent of letting the skeletons use Time Stop (a 9th Level spell) just to explain why Dob's whole conversation with them could take place faster than Prudence could fire off an eldritch blast. Corazón's self-sacrifice and Merilwen's reveal of her Reincarnation spell was therefore also partially overshadowed by Dob sacrificing his magic for one more hitpoint of damage on Liliana rather than letting Prudence have her moment.
What I hope for: some of the lessons learned from other campaigns to lead the players to be better at taking turns, both in terms of people not trying to be the Main Character at inappropriate moments, players stepping up and into the leading role when it is appropriate for them to do so, and Johnny more actively monitoring the balance between the players and shutting down some of the more egregious behaviour

Morality

This... isn't actually going to be complaining about characters behaving immorally or even being evil. Prudence is honestly a great example of how to play an evil character in a way that doesn't break a party, while Corazón works as being immoral about money but moral about hurting people (at least most of the time). I've also thoroughly enjoyed some other games in which the characters have been far from moral (NADDPOD's Trinyvale series is a good example of this - the characters are scam artists, grifters and egotists, and the DM commented that "character growth doesn't have to be positive!"; they complain the entire time while saving the world).
But it's consistency that is more of a sticking point, as well as the player treatment of the moral positions of the party. It's hard to know how to treat the morals of the party when they vary from letting a town burn for being slightly annoying (Mule Be Sorry) to most of the team being ready to forgive a hag who used to eat human(oid) children (Hag Reflex). This isn't just the players either - Stop Hammer Time used the murder of children as a joke, and marked a change in tone for the treatment of NPCs and civilians as not mattering compared to the preferences or comfort of the main characters. The skeletons killing the children wasn't even some sort of monkey's paw scenario about asking for there to be no more orphans in the town, either - it was just nasty shock value, in many ways. And playing this sort of thing for humour makes it quite hard to handle some of the rest of the series as a result.
There also felt like a dissonance, at times, between the objective morality of the characters and how the players seemed to want them to be treated. Prudence never claimed to be anything other than evil, from shooting someone with eldritch blast during the Spicy Rat Caper to enjoying Hammerdahl's necromancy in Extinction - Jane even indicated that she wanted to explore shifting Prudence's alignment post-Fast and the Furriest, which can be seen as Prudence is much less interested in random acts of destruction and seems quite happy to get her kicks scaring or torturing people (Silent Knight) or watching the gruesome spectacle at the end of Knight Shift. So Jane's plans matched Prudence's behaviour - a softening of her deliberately evil acts, but still happy to let others be evil.
For the others, though, it didn't always match. Merilwen's "True Neutral" label often felt more like passively letting her party members be evil, rather than actively seeking balance, Egbert was supposed to be on the search for atonement but regularly allowed or took part in atrocities, and Dob seemed more inclined to act on what the audience or Luke thought was funny (or even deliberately seeking to be contrary) rather than following a consistent attitude to morality. His vaguely annoyed "Skeletons!" and hands on hips in return to "It's orphans, boss" was clearly played for laughs, and in Mule Be Sorry he turns on the town easily, which then makes it feel strange when in Hag Reflex he objects to letting the hag live. Dob's infatuation with Liliana and Katie Pearlhead, both of whom have killed or caused the deaths of great numbers of people, also makes it harder to take his claims to morality at all seriously. The potential moral issues of Merilwen killing the Otherberts to prevent them from taking a message to Liliana (Bad Altitude) is turned into accusing her of "war crimes", but it is absurd in the face of how many other innocent bystanders the guild had killed or caused to die in other stories (from as early as Quiet Riot, in which the paladins were annoying but killing them was honestly overboard, to as late as Squid Pro Quo where Dob seemed to forget that five people had died and then brushed off the deaths).
NPCs also got hit by this at times, from the town mayor in Mule Be Sorry (again) who put his townsfolk on spike growth just to cross it, to the chef in Dine Harder who was abruptly made a cannibal to get a fight going, to the decay of morally Good characters like Captain Shattershield turning away from the Upside Down Mistmire when in his first appearance he had been willing to fight Death itself for being on Mistmire's grounds. It's hard to take seriously moral questions about keeping the Dragon Under Mistmire in its shelter, and the accidentally-caused deaths of two paladins, when the guild has been responsible for much worse.
What I hope for: an approach to morality that does not prioritise momentary humour over consistency; evil behaviour to be acknowledged as evil and owned rather than treated as protagonist-centric; a moral balance which makes it possible to really explore moral issues and concerns rather than extreme behaviour which then makes it impossible to treat conflict seriously. Legacy of Dragons, as a standalone arc seeking Egbert's redemption, exploring the protection vs freedom of the gold dragon, and considering how to improve vs break systems, had some really great potential - but because of extreme 'rule of funny' behaviour in the past, it was impossible to really feel that it had the moral gravitas and weight that it deserved. When the skeletons go from murdering a dozen innocent children (Stop Hammer Time) to giving Merilwen a bad haircut (Mean Gulls) and this is almost treated as somehow consistent in evilness, it makes it harder to respect the characters or the expectation of moral standards.
The Good: The humour, the quick-wittedness, the variety of stories. Roleplaying moments such as Egbert and Shattershield in Legacy of Dragons, Corazón putting his old self behind him at the Curse Hole, or Merilwen saying "I'll make you" to Vex.
The Bad: Unclear character arcs, inconsistent moralities, underpowered classes but at the same time game-breakingly permissive DMing, and some Main Character Syndrome moments.
The Hope: Learning from teething issues and setting up a game system that the DM doesn't resent so much, to better enable people to balance and play off each other in a less jarring and more consistent way.

What do I do know?
Got through most of the endings, and my favorite and 'canon' would be the Star ending as it's, through my experience and RP purposes, the best ending for V. I spent a few extra hours and stayed up at 2AM just to finish the Star and it was so satisfying. That scene with Panam at the dam and the NC in all of its glory was mesmerizing. Then the ending scene hit me like a truck, but in a sense of relief and happiness. That V finally leaves all the shit he has gone through in NC and found the purpose that he has now, his loved ones. Thematically, it makes sense to my nomad V too, as I portrayed V in my playthrough as a lost person struggling to find a way to survive, finally finding his purpose in his new relationship with Panam and the Aldecaldos.
It kinda confuses me how there's lots of threads in this sub about how there is no 'happy' ending in this game. Is the Star considered not a happy ending by many?
I think the other endings makes V sacrifice his relationships for his own greediness, i.e becoming an NC/Afterlife legend. It's truly only the Star ending where most of the friends you have in NC still kept in touch with you afterward, and seem happy all things considering. Maybe not Mama Welles though lol, but c'mon Ms. Welles, you really think riding with the Aldecaldos is a lot riskier than living in Night fucking City?
Only thing that confuses me is why Johnny seem to ghost V's friends in the Temperance ending lol. Seems like such a dick move to not tell them or give closure. That Judy call scene breaks my heart.
Anyways, it's such a feel good ending for me. And now I don't know what to do in life lol. This entire day I've just been thinking about Cyberpunk 2077 and how much fun it was to play, and how emotional it made me feel. Not even afraid to say it's my favorite game ever, because it has one of the best gameplays I've ever played that even 90+ hours in is still fun, and because of how realistic and relatable the characters in the game are. Not to mention the immersion and how fucking amazing Night City is graphically. If you got people becoming attached to fictional characters in video games, it's a sign you did a very good job on creating a video game.
P.S game renewed my appreciation for sunsets lol. Feels like I just wanna go out and drive like I always do in the game, and listen to music while doing so.

While we often point out things that are different between book and show, I wanted to put a fun little list together of things that stay the same (in case anyone would like to read the scenes as well!) Just in the past four episodes alone, here are scenes that are both show and book canon:

• Penelope overhearing Colin talk about how he would ‘Never, ever court Penelope Featherington.’ Except in the book, Colin is talking to his brothers in the Bridgerton house! I believe one of the boys catches Penelope listening in, and she bursts into tears and leaves. That scene also takes place YEARS in the past in the books, Pen/Colin’s story doesn’t start until… 5-7 yrs after that I want to say?
• Penelope and Colin recalling the first time they met, after Pen’s yellow hat fell into the mud while Colin was riding his horse. Super cute.
• Pen reading Colin’s diary and he catches her reading it. The passage was a bit less steamy if I remember correctly
• The glass breaking and Penelope mending Colin’s hand also happened.
• Pen asking Colin to kiss her.
• Colin admiring Pen eating a pastry. lol.
• The carriage scene, obviously (a GOOD read)

Of the episodes so far, that’s all I can think of off the top of my head that are both featured in book and show. If anyone else noticed any scenes or lines, please share! I think the parallels are super fun:)

So I need an iem that are pretty much all rounders , but I’m looking for good resolution bass and sound stage , I mainly listen to edm , rap , reggaeton, and so far the iem I’ve been looking are
kiwi orchestra lite Moondrop blessing 3 Moondrop dusk x crinacle Hype 4 Yanyin Canon II
I mean aesthetics are important but sound over anything and I hear yanyin are good for bass and good overall sound stage which really caught my attention

(BIG NOTE: There's gonna be a lot of spoilers mentioned, including the ARG and VHS footage on Mob's YouTube channel! also, this is going to be very long....)
Hi, hello- I'm not exactly new to Poppy Playtime, but recently, I've gotten really interested because of Chapter 3's release. So I decided to do a deeper dive sorta study on the entire game, and I wanted to point out some things as well as address some of the questions I had. I know I'm gonna sound nitpicky and I am completely and obviously aware that the game isn't finished yet, and I might be taking it a bit too seriously (lOL), but I've been wondering this for a while now, and I was hoping some of you guys would like to discuss with me about this!
So first off, despite what I say, I genuinely do enjoy Poppy Playtime. The production value Mob's taken has been phenomenal, and there are clearly a lot of majorly talented people on staff. I adore how far the graphics have gotten, and the animations on the characters are only one of the reasons why the game can set itself apart from others of the mascot horror genre. I also really enjoy the game mechanics; the grabpack and how we solve puzzles not only enhance world-building but also give the game a unique identity. While I believe there are a lot of flaws, Poppy Playtime does deserve every bit of praise it has gotten.
Now, about the questions I have.....
I wanna start with the main character. Specifically, who we play as. I'm fully aware we're an ex-employee of the factory who has taken part in the human-to-toy experimentation (Mob really loves shoving that in our faces and nothing else about us apparently). And we're meant to be an actual in-universe character (Rich, for example) or just a sorta vessel that we insert ourselves in; but either way, I don't feel like we're actually a character. A lot of people have pointed out that we've come back to the factory to either repent for our sins or bury the evidence of our wrongdoings. If we're a person truly guilty of the crimes we've committed, why did we wait 10 years to finally face what we've done? More importantly, why did we believe this mysterious note that was just left in our mail saying how our coworkers disappeared? In any case, why didn't we turn ourselves in to the police after the factory shut down? Now, in regards to all this, I do believe we've turned away from our crimes since The Hour of Joy because we probably just wanted nothing to do with the factory anymore. Like when someone does something horrible, it might be easier for them to bury away their past and never face it again due to the sheer amount of impact that will devastate them. That can explain why we've been away for so long. With the note, while I still don't think anyone could willingly march back into the factory after just reading it (especially with the misspellings), I can see it as us realizing that we need to undo our actions and maybe go to the factory to gather evidence on what we did, then submitting it to the police. But we.. don't really do that, we just show up right away putting all our faith into this one note and thinking we're going to see our coworkers again. And right after the Huggy Wuggy chase, we just willingly free Poppy, no questions asked, and then after that, we decided to get out. Although, I guess you could say that Poppy could be the evidence we need for the child experimentation, so that might be why we're willing to risk our lives to the point where we'd need to save her? If so, that would probably debunk the whole "destroying the evidence and bury our crimes" theory, because our clear motive for chapter 2 is getting out the factory; that only changed because Poppy sabotaged the train. However, even in Chapter 3, we're supposedly willing to work with Poppy to kill The Prototype (well, maybe not willing, since we basically implied to have no choice). At that point, our main objective would to kill The Prototype, at least that is what the game's implying.
The reason I'm stating all this is because, well, I'm confused obviously. Our objectives flip-flop until Chapter 3, but even then, what's stopping us from finding another way out of Playcare that isn't the train? Why did we choose to believe the note in the first place? Why do we never actually question anything inside the game? My main problem is that we just do whatever the characters tell us to do. Poppy says we're leaving? We'll follow her, no questions asked. A random "kid" (who I actually believe is just The Prototype) named Ollie suddenly appears and tells us what to do? Sure, why not? It feels less like a silent, mysterious protagonist and more like some mindless thing, just following whatever the game's script wants them to do. I don't feel a distinct personality, and I can't really insert any personality into that protagonist because, well, the game's not choice-driven, there's no unique action to do that'll deviate from what the characters expect you to do. I can't see us as anyone established in-universe because most characters Mob focused on had these colorful personalities I don't see through the main character. Throughout the game, mostly in Chapter 3, the most Mob gives us is that we caused a lot of these toys' suffering, but that's just about it. There should've been much more expansion on that in the latest chapter because we already knew that in the previous one. The characters themselves don't really react to our supposed apprehension and they don't really do anything to convince us to be on their side, there's just a short explanation and we're off to do whatever they want us to do. I just wish there was more flexibility, and maybe even have this game be completely choice-driven, giving us options on what to say, what to do, and even who to save. But I don't know, maybe Mob has an explanation as to why we're doing what we're doing and maybe we'll cause a surprise twist in the end. Although, even so, I do just wonder why it took us 10 years to do it until a note summons us to start the game. I feel like the game should've started maybe just a week or two after The Hour of Joy; a lot more enemies, maybe a couple of survivors, both toy and still-human, to team up with, things like that.
And since The Hour of Joy was 10 years ago, and so many people are confirmed to be dead, why hasn't there been an uproar about it? Maybe Playtime Co.'s experimentation was funded by the government, police force, and the FBI or something was told to guard its secrets and everything? But even that reasoning is flawed because Rowen, an I.T. guy for Playtime Co., tried to tell his mother to give information about the factory's secrets to the police, and Playtime Co. was QUICK to shut him up, so that would imply that the government/police don't know anything about this. So why hasn't anyone, like the families and loved ones of those people, contacted the police about this? There should have been a HUGE uprising about these mass disappearances, instead of it just being a rumor (with the note saying "Everyone thinks the staff disappeared 10 years ago.") So... did those peoples' families just go, "Oh no, they disappeared...anyway, you guys wanna get something to eat?" (Digital Circus ref lol). I HIGHLY doubt that especially since Playtime Co. was a beloved company that had appearances in the media (chapter 3 introduction).
I really think that right after The Hour of Joy, there's this whole containment of the factory with dozens of soldiers guarding the place and some going inside to investigate. But the toys manage to beat them back, so the government has no choice but to bomb the place or something. That's where we come in. We're still an ex-employee of Playtime Co., a scientist who discovered the horrors of the factory (much like the biologist) and wanted to report to the police, but after knowing what they'd do to us, we were forced to keep quiet. After each experiment, we're haunted with massive amounts of guilt every day, until one day we just couldn't show up to work. That's when the news erupts about the mass disappearances and the discovery of living toys in the factory trying to escape. There's news about the place being destroyed by a nuke, and we then think about the children's lives all cooped in there, waiting for freedom. So, we sneak by the forces and into the factory, determined to free our victims before the bomb goes off.
I dunno, just a thought. But maybe Mob will explain this as the game moves forward. That's why can't say these are my "locked-in" opinions about our character yet; they're completely temporary. Who knows, maybe the world is set in the apocalypse era, and that's why the government hasn't completely destroyed the place. The game isn't finished, so I'm more than willing to give the benefit of the doubt.
However, I can't say that for what I think about CatNap and the rest of chapter 3.
Now, I LOVE CatNap. His design is so well done and his characterization in Home Sweet Home was nearly flawless. Right off the bat, we know that he's someone who will use our minds and guilt against us. He's studying us to know how to break us (although it's hard to tell what actually affects us in this game because we literally do not react to anything). Furthermore, we see him stalking us a few times as we try to get out of Home Sweet Home, and that would imply that he knows what tools we use to keep ourselves safe (our gas mask and the grabpack - let me further emphasize grabpack because that is going to be very important for a point I'm gonna make later on). A literal predator hunting prey.
But I do think he was very underutilized after this. I do disagree with the fact that CatNap had to appear more often; however, I do think what would have made this up is his presence being more impactful throughout the game. This leads me to The Red Smoke - it doesn't make too much sense to me. It's used to put people to sleep, give them nightmares, and make them hallucinate, which is again established in Home Sweet Home. But after that, in smaller sections of the game, we just die if we inhale the smoke for too long. We were doused in for quite a while during the final fight, why wasn't that used to kill us then? Why didn't we instead hallucinate a path that completely lead us off track and into CatNap's claws? In fact, we don't get to see it very often throughout the chapter either; it should've been a main focal point. When I was dropped into Playcare, I saw this red light entrance that reminded me of the red smoke, I thought that could be an indicator that this environment would be filled to the brim with it and we can't ever tell what's real or not. Throughout all of it, flickers of our past would show up, making us more panicked and anxious. The chapter could've been all about paranoia and how to overcome it, trusting yourself to fight back against what's being brought upon you. But nah, we just die from it after Home Sweet Home. A major missed opportunity if you ask me...
With CatNap being underutilized, he doesn't do much after this. There could've been a few sequences where he'd use his red smoke to help the smaller antagonists, putting in more hints of who we are and even making the antagonists look more nightmarish. Maybe there could've been bigger toys that are the devoted followers of CatNap and ultimately The Prototype, giving this a more cult-like feel. More "heretics" like DogDay could be strung up in the prisons, with most of them either dead and in the process of being eaten or just have completely lost their mind, with DogDay being the only one who has some amount of sanity left. And because of this, we could even be given a chance to save him, just like we did with Poppy. If we drop down to the prisons, CatNap could find that we're intruding upon his home and send everyone, the mad heretics, and devoted followers, after us. If we do it quickly enough, we could free DogDay from his prison; although this would come with the price of carrying him and us being slower because of it. If we fail, then he becomes possessed by the miniature ruined critters, lost in the crowd of hunters. This event could show how CatNap runs the entire place.
But now for what I dislike most about this entire chapter...CatNap's big final fight. And no, my problem isn't that "it's too hard" or anything. I did feel that they explained it poorly, but that's not my main issue.
The issue is that it breaks CatNap's character.
Let me explain. After we get out of the Playhouse, Ollie calls us to rant about CatNap, explaining how there was an accident, The Prototype saved him, which then lead him to become a devout follower of The Prototype. Then he states this: "He'll take away anything you have to defend yourself."
...No he doesn't. He doesn't. Well, he takes away our gas mask, but that's it. Why didn't he take away our grabpack? What was stopping him from doing that? ESPECIALLY our green hand?
In the ARG, it was discovered that CatNap used to be a boy named Theodore, who was friends with The Prototype. One day, he took a grabpack upon The Prototype's request and used it to try to free him and the children. But being a literal novice, he accidentally shocks himself with the electric green hand and is brought to the brink of death, only to be revived by The Prototype and the scientists who turned him into CatNap. It's a small detail, but it has a huge impact on his background; you'd think such an event would cause him a lot of trauma, especially surrounding any sort of electricity and even grabpacks overall.
So why did he let us keep it???
He has very, very seen us not only with the green hand but also actively use it to complete puzzles and dive further into Playcare. Why would he let us utilize the weapon that almost killed him back when he was human? I don't believe he forgot about it, because remember the Huggy Wuggy YouTube video Mob put out? About the one where Huggy escapes and, at the end, is seen standing outside of a house? That implies that the toys have some sort of recollection of their past events. With something this big and traumatic happening to Theodore, I'm pretty sure he'd have no trouble remembering this, especially with him knowing and stating that The Prototype saved him, as said in the trailer for Chapter 3.
So I ask again. W h y did he let us use the grabpack??? And even more so, why did he follow us into a room that he knew had a bunch of green electricity? And I say 'knew' because it's canon that these characters have been wandering around the factory for 10 years. CatNap has resided in Playcare for 10 years, even including the years he spent with the orphans. So HO W did he not know this room was there???? It very clearly screams, "HEY SOMEONE CAN USE A GREEN HAND TO DEFEND THEMSELVES HERE." Also- the room itself doesn't make sense. Why does Playcare need a room that generates so much electricity just to emit some steam??
I haven't seen anyone point this out. I'd understand if the whole Theodore dying incident was forgotten because a lot of people did forget that we killed Huggy- but still, Mob should've known about this. They're the ones who wrote him to be this way!
Even removing this incident entirely, CatNap is still shown to be very incompetent for this because if you were hunting down someone and wanted to be this slow-burn kill kinda thing, why would you let them keep the VERY THING that is OBVIOUSLY the ONLY REASON why we're even doing anything in the factory, to begin with. We used it against Huggy Wuggy, we used it against Mommy Long Legs, the chapter could've been a bit more unique and taking the grabpack away from us so it can catch us off guard and make us feel powerless, but then we would learn that we don't need to depend on it.
Here's what I think should've happened: After the Playhouse, we're completely alone. No Ollie, no nobody. It's just us. We go back down underneath the statue and see that a big ol' blue battery and key's been sent our way, which then leads us to the Councilor's Office. We go inside, solve a few puzzles, get some chances to learn more lore (because let's be honest, the established lore of Poppy Playtime was just repeated in this chapter, just in a very gruesome way; we get it, we caused this, oh n o o, the children were used as experiments - thanks for telling us that The Prototype can mimic voices, that's actually very cool, but please just give us a little more than that, Mob). And then, all of a sudden, CatNap jumpscares us. When we wake up (there's no message from him telling us to get out of Playcare; love the chilling voice, but the line itself is pretty corny and we just end up not listening to him, also he should know that his god just kills anyone who tries to leave anyway, so this line serves 0 purpose), there's red smoke everywhere, and we find out that we're without our gas mask. All of the exits are boarded up, so we take the blue battery, activate the lift, and take it up to, not a steam room, but a monitor room. This room is absolutely destroyed, with claw marks ravishing the TVs and control systems, especially on the green electric outlets (or maybe there are none, hinting at CatNap's ultimate weakness). With more of our memories plaguing us, we're then led to the underground caverns, where CatNap is waiting to toy with his defenseless prey before the final strike.
.....Also, I just think the final fight's just incredibly lame. It serves very little connection to CatNap's character (apart from us launching our hand toward him and him freaking out over electricity, which again, is basically HIS OWN FAULT TO BEGIN WITH), and just overall so underwhelming. I did love how The Prototype carried him up into the light to show more religious undertones, it was awesome.
But, yeah, these are basically my thoughts. Chapter 3 was a huge step up from chapter 2 in terms of atmosphere, but there should've been more progression in the lore. Like they're just restating a bunch of stuff we already know but in a much more polished and horrific way. I'm glad they're not shying away from hiding events away from us, I did love how they just straight-up showed us The Hour of Joy tape, but underneath all the amazing animations and atmosphere, what did we learn in this chapter aside from The Prototype mimicking voices? We did get new characters, The Smiling Critters, Mrs. Delight, and Ollie, but all of the Smiling Critters and Mrs. Delight ended up dying anyway without really contributing much to the overall story. Aside from DogDay, who hinted at how absolutely insane this whole place and CatNap had become, but he and CatNap died anyway, so I felt like even that didn't serve too much of a purpose. And I hate to say that because DogDay and CatNap were my absolute favorites in this chapter. And Ollie just sorta told us what to do, we don't know anything about him and we're never given a chance to ask. Again, we're just following whatever the characters tell us to do.
Plus, didn’t mention this before but- a lot of the puzzles in chapter 3 did feel like they were just used to pad out time. In the words of Markiplier, “Just build stairs!!”
Overall, I do love Poppy Playtime, it has some really strong talent, but the writing does have some holes that feel quite easy to iron out. Maybe a lot of my temporary questions will be answered in later chapters, but for right now, I'd like to hear some of your guys' thoughts about this!

I also saw this as Colin buying the same dessert Penelope did. He also basically makes sucks his fingers like she did like he’s replaying it in his head.

Back in 2017, Audible released a masterful recording of Stephen Fry reading the entire Holmes canon as a single audiobook. The copyright information read:
“©2017 Stephen Fry (introductions); original text public domain (P)2017 Audible, Ltd”
However, Audible quickly discovered that although the full canon was fully in public domain in the UK, some of the stories in The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes (the final book in the canon) were still under copyright in the US, so they removed that book from the collection for Stateside listeners.
The good news is that The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes, in its entirety, entered the public domain in January 2023!
The bad news is that the US version of the recording is still missing the Casebook, and it will probably stay that way forever — unless enough of us act.
I just called Audible customer support (888-283-5051) and submitted an official request for them to add Stephen Fry’s recording of the Casebook back to the collection.
It took quite a bit of explaining, but by being polite and patient, I think I was able to get the message through.
If you’re in American with an Audible account, please consider joining me. They won’t pay any attention to one voice alone, but if enough of us make noise, they might act.
If you already own the collection, that will simplify your explanation to the customer service agent.
If you don’t own the collection, you can tell them that you would buy it, if only it were truly complete.
United we might stand, divided we fall!
All for Fry and Fry for all!

Note: This is part 2 of this post. Please read Part 1 first. Also, this post was, again, much longer than I intended it to be.
Now, despite caring for his friends, Mario was still mostly seen as a jerky, negative character; often choosing spaghetti over his own friends and family, and generally seeming to care about spaghetti more than anything else. However, that would all change with the introduction of one character: Meggy.
As soon as she was introduced, it was clear that Meggy was very different than any character that came before her. She was more of an emotionally driven character, which led to much more emotionally driven scenes with her and her friends. And it just so happened that her best friend (at the time) happened to be Mario.
Now, Meggy's introduction episode, If Mario Was In... Splatoon, starts out like any normal If Mario Was In... episode. It follows Mario travelling to a new world, meeting the main charactes that inhabit that world, and unintentionally messing everything up with his stupidity. However, this time, things were a bit different. Mario and Meggy actually started forming a friendship; and Mario wanted to help Meggy achieve her dreams of winning the Splatfest. However, despite their efforts, it wasn't enough. They lost. Meggy begins to cry, as she didn't understand how, after training so hard, she still lost. This makes Mario feel bad, as he knows that it was probably his fault for goofing off too much in the first half of the game. Mario walks over to Meggy and comforts her, trying to cheer her up, only to forget what he was doing and start talking about spaghetti. Mario's stupidity in this scene actually cheers Meggy up, and makes her laugh. And this scene, right here, is the first time we ever see Mario get emotional or care about anything else other than spaghetti.
In the episodes that follow Meggy's debut, we see her getting closer and forming relationships with Mario, as well as the rest of his friends. They had a few wholesome moments here and there, with Meggy usually having to save Mario from danger (and Mario even saving her from danger on one occasion in Wild, Wild Mario.) And overtime, we get to see Mario change; becoming a more loving, caring, and emotional character. In the previous part, all those moments where Mario was shown actually caring about Luigi were after Meggy's introduction. In the Mario convention, Mario was deeply disturbed after finding that Luigi and Meggy had been transformed into T-Pose zombies, even crying about it. Meggy brought out the best in Mario, and Mario taught Meggy to be more carefree and not worry about things so much. However, the peak of their relationship as friends has yet to come.
In the episode Meggy's Bootcamp, during the Anime Arc, Meggy attempts to train Mario, Luigi, and Tari for the Splatfest. However, she is too hard on them. She treats them without consideration of their own limits and boundaries instead of encouragement. Luigi and Tari are too wimpy, and Mario doesn't take it seriously enough. Meggy ends up snapping at her friends over the Splatfest, before running away after realizing what she did. Mario, after seeing her clear discomfort, decides to go over there to console her. Meggy explains that she thought she would've won Splatfest by then, but that it's been two whole years and she still hadn't won a single game, making her feel like a total loser. She tells him that she felt bad about the way she treated her friends, and her feelings shouldn't have given her the right to act that way. So, to console her, Mario does something that nobody would've ever seen him doing; something that he hasn't done before or since this moment. Mario gives Meggy the one thing that he seems to care about more than anything in the whole world; Mario gives Meggy his spaghetti.
This moment shocked the fanbase, as it showed that, despite everything, Mario did have a heart somewhere in there. In episodes following this, Mario would continue to show the same care for Meggy that he did in these aforementioned episodes. He was the only one who remembered Meggy in Final Hours, the finale to the Anime Arc, as not even Saiko, who Meggy just helped to unban anime despite not caring for it at all herself, put any thought into Meggy in that moment. In Meggy's Destiny, Mario helps Meggy win the Splatfest, and even uses his brain, even if for just one moment, to find out that one of the teams cheated, allowing for Meggy to finally win the Splatfest. Their relationship was in its prime.
(The following is slightly outdated because the problem has calmed down a bit since I originally posted this, but it's still valid enough to include, and I'm not just going to erase it all, anyways.)
However, if you look into more recent episodes, you can see Mario getting beat up and pushed around by just about EVERYONE he considers his "friend". Even TARI is guilty of this. At the end of the most recent episode at the time of originally writing this (I wrote this on fandom first), The Day My Arm Went Psycho, Tari is seen yelling out Mario to apologize to the gorilla that was attacking him, despite literally doing nothing wrong, and she doesn't even help him escape the gorilla at the end of the episode.
And that's not all, either. Saiko, back when she used to appear in episodes, never was actually friends with Mario, and was usually the main one antagonizing him. Even SMG4, despite being best friends with Mario for over 10 years, hasn't been treating him the best recently. However, there is no character that treats Mario worse nowadays than Meggy.
Now, it started off as more of a friendly "sibling-rivalry", which shows Mario and Meggy increasingly going at each other's throats over mundane issues, such as chocolate or McDonald's. While at first, this wasn't that much of a big deal, as it could be funny sometimes, many people who were fans of Mario and Meggy's previously wholesome relationship were not happy. Little did they know, however, the worst was yet to come.
In recent episodes, it has gotten to the point where Meggy essentially attacks Mario for existing. This really started in Boys vs. Girls, in which, after losing to the girls in a competition, Mario, Bowser, and Axol mess up the girls' room, starting a friendly prank battle with them. However, the girls immediately take it way too far, feeding the boys to a fish, setting Mario on fire, breaking both of Bowser's hands, and getting Axol raped. The boys pranks, on the other hand, consisted of much more lighthearted pranks, such as scaring Tari. Now, usually, none of this would even matter, as this was just classic SMG4's nonsensical, slapstick humor. However, the ending of the episode is what changes everything.
The boys end up getting a bear, which ends up attacking the girls. While Saiko and Meggy were able to move out of the way, Tari isn't so lucky. The girls instantly act as though Mario and the boys "went too far", despite that being exactly what the girls had been doing throughout the ENTIRE episode, and showing Saiko even wanting to HURT the boys for doing this. The boys end up apologizing, despite the girls being the ones who did the MAJORITY of the mean pranks. And just when we thought the episode couldn't get any worse, the girls don't even accept the apology until using the boys as HUNTING targets, having them dress up in embarrassing bunny outfits and everything.
Since this episode, Meggy has been more prone to mistreating Mario in general. In POV: You're Mario, when Mario and Meggy switch places for a day, and Mario admits that it's too hard being her, Meggy's first instinct is to immediately laugh at and bully Mario, despite her literally just about to admit that it was hard being him. In Mario Goes On a Diet, Meggy forces Mario to go on a diet despite him clearly not wanting to. In episodes like Mario Goes Fishing, Meggy stops Mario and Bob from eating the fish (despite that literally being the point of fishing). Even in the most recent episode (at the time, which was The Day My Arm Went Psycho), Meggy sprays Mario with a water gun for NO REASON when he was LITERALLY TRYING TO HELP HER CONSOLE TARI. And it really doesn't help that Meggy is nearly impervious to all the cruel slapstick humor that Mario is practically haunted by at this point. That's why Tari's arm punching the life out of Meggy was the most satisfying in an SMG4 moment in a looong time, in my opinion. Easily the best part of that otherwise God-awful episode.
I remember when people used to say that Mario deserved better than Peach, and that Peach was just a negative, bossy person, and showing him with Meggy instead. But at this point, Meggy has become exactly what Peach was.
And that's not all, either. Mario's friends, in general, mistreat Mario all the time. Mario's friend should be accepting Mario as a friend for who he is despite his stupidity (the same stupidity that was CURSED onto him by the SMGs, btw). But instead, it's something that they constantly berate, get annoyed at, and even DEHUMANIZE him for.
In the 2022 Christmas Special, for instance, Meggy literally CHAINS MARIO TO A POLE, and treats him like an ANIMAL, just to stop him from eating the food before it was time to eat. Then, Mario uses Axol Jr. to get some food, and accidentally throws it at Bob. Meanwhile, shenanigans at the other table end up causing SMG3 to kick SMG4 at Bob, causing Axol Jr. to go flying and get injured. Melony gets mad at Mario for this, and his "friends" immediately shift all the blame onto him. Now, don't get me wrong; Melony has every right to be mad at Mario. But the blame should've been SHARED. Even SMG3, who's literally the one who kicked SMG4 into Bob and caused Axol Jr. to be injured, shifts all the blame onto Mario, calls him an idiot, and even accuses him of ruining Christmas. Don't forget that all of this is AFTER they found out about Mario's origins.
In Smart Mario, the entire group agrees that Mario's stupidity is too much, and they get E. Gadd to "fix" him. Granted, this was before they found out about his origins, but still. Then, when Mario's newfound smartness is too much for them to handle, they force him to become an idiot again, despite him begging and pleading for them not to. In If Mario was the Last Man on Earth, all of Mario's friends ditch him because they're scared that he's going to mess up a PIZZA world record, which causes him to slowly slip into insanity from the loneliness that they left with him with.
Again, it would be different if all this stuff was actually funny. After all, I said in the previous part that part of what made SMG4 so funny and memorable is that it was a cast of objectively bad people getting themselves into crazy, nonsensical situations. But it's not funny. None of this is funny, even if they're trying to be. We're watching a mentally challenged guy get beat up and tortured by his so-called "friends" for entertainment.
Now, I'm not going to sit here and pretend that Mario is some perfect angel who is always in the right, and the world is just constantly beating down on him completely undeservedly. We all know that's not true. (In fact, there have been times in more recent episodes where Mario has been very annoying, and sometimes completely insufferable. However, I'll get into that a bit more later.)
But the very worst example of this is in the Lawsuit Arc; specifically in the episode "If Mario Was In Splatoon 3." In this episode, Mario has already been reverted back to his original personality by Lawyer Kong. When Meggy and SMG4 find him, they immediately try to turn him back, despite them usually hating his stupidity, besides when it entertains them.
Now, we all know that in real life, the reason that Mario is reverted back to his stupid self is so the show can continue. But in the canon, what is the reason? Now, the reason that the writers seem to push is that SMG4 and Meggy just want Mario to remember them and their adventures; however, that's selfish, as Meggy (and especially SMG4) know how much Mario was hurt by the Guardian Pod and SMG4's arrival. Mario went from the beloved hero of the Mushroom Kingdom who was known for being heroic and fighting off evil; he went from having a loving girlfriend, Peach, as well as a wonderful relationship with his brother, Luigi; to becoming a fat idiot that nearly the entire Mushroom Kingdom despised. His relationship with his brother was damaged immensely; Peach, Toad, and others who used to love and look up to him began to hate him, and his only "friends" treated him like shit. If SMG4 and Meggy were really his friends, they would've tried to befriend the NEW Mario by explaining the situation to him, telling him about past adventures, and try to reintroduce themselves to him. But instead, they try and revert him back into the saddest, most pathetic version of himself.
And it's not just Mario who was negatively affected by the Guardian Pod, but the entire kingdom! Luigi began to be bullied more by the people around him for his wimpy personality. Peach went from a kind, loving person to being bossy, naggy, stupid, and insane. Toad went from being the most loyal citizen in the Mushroom Kingdom to absolutely hating his life due to the newfound stupidity spread all around the kingdom, how poorly he was treated by Princess Peach, and how he was stuck in a loveless relationship with a crazed Toadette (who was most likely also affected by the Guardian Pod) who would probably kill him he attempted to break up with her. The only person who WASN'T negatively affected by the Guardian Pod was Bowser, who became a much more carefree, wholesome, and down to earth character after SMG4's arrival. Unfortunately, however, as much as we all love Bowser, one person is not worth an entire kingdom.
The truth is that Lawyer Kong, despite how much of a terrible person he was, and how immoral his ethics were, was right. Life in the Mushroom Kingdom was better before SMG4 arrived. Everybody was much happier before the bastardization of the entire world. And sure, they "saved the Earth a bunch of times", but even THAT was caused by SMG4. The truth is that the Waluigi Arc, the Anime Arc, the YouTube Arc, and even smaller issues like the Bob the Rapper arc, would've never happened if SMG4 didn't arrive. Now, as for Niles, it is unknown if he would've come whether SMG4 was there or not, or if regular Mario and the others would've been enough to defeat SMG0. So, that's gonna be left as a big question mark for now. But either way, Lawyer Kong was right. I feel like having him say it out of all people was the writer's way to get people to immediately disagree with him no matter what just because he's the villain. But just because the villain is saying something doesn't make it wrong; Lawyer Kong just handled it in an antagonistic way.
So anyways, if SMG4's arrival had this much of a negative affect on the world, and SMG4 knows this, then why would he be so quick to revert everyone back to the way they were AFTER he arrived when he's literally being given a second chance to make things right? It's because of the content. Without all these characters being stupid, he can't make content using them. As for Meggy, Mario's stupidity merely entertains her, and gives her an excuse to treat him like a punching bag.
And the worst part is that in this state, Mario can't even properly defend himself. Sure, he ends up siding with SMG4, and claims he doesn't want to be his original self anymore, but the truth is that Mario doesn't know what's best for him anymore. Mario was happier on an average day in his past life than he ever was in his current life.
Really, it seems that Mario's only actual friend is, ironically, Bowser. In SMG4, while Mario and Bowser have antagonized each other in the past, this is usually only when Peach is involved, and the two usually have a great friendship otherwise. Whether they're doing their cooking show, or just hanging out, Mario and Bowser seem to have a better friendship than any other character in the show; lately, even Mario's friendship with SMG4 is in decline for the reasons stated above.
Even in the most recent episode starring the two, "Mario Steals the Constitution", all the rest of Mario's friends are too busy to do anything. Or at least, everyone except for Bowser. Throughout the episode, Mario and Bowser have a mutual respect for each other, something that Mario doesn't currently have with any of the other characters in the series. They fought alongside each other, and saved each other when the other was in danger. It is also important to note that the reason Mario stole the constitution in the first place is because none of Mario's other "friends" even cared enough to celebrate it with him. The only exception for this is, again, Bowser, who talks about it without Mario even needing to remind him.
However, Mario's friends aren't the only detriment to him. The biggest detriment to the character of Mario is his own flanderization.
In the past, Mario has always been stupid. But it wasn't the only character trait he had. In addition to the jokes about his stupidity and love for spaghetti generally being funnier and more creative, they also made jokes about other character traits; for instance, his short temper, self-proclaimed "sexiness," and his bizarre pride of his obesity, as well as other general flaws that they could mold into funny situations. During the 2017-2021 era, Mario, despite being a flawed idiot, was shown to deeply care about his friends, showing that he was more than just a spaghetti-loving idiot; he was a spaghetti-loving idiot with a big heart. And while Mario was extremely stupid, he was never afraid to get into fights and have some seriously badass moments when it was necessary. For instance, in the original Freddy's Spaghettiria, when he gets fed up by all of the animatronics's crap and takes over the Spaghettiria; or in Bad Stars 2, when he in SMG4 defeat an army of Teletubbies in a fight scene that would nowadays be preserved for Meggy and only Meggy. Mario also had moments of self-awareness, such as in Mario's Train Trip, in which he pulls out the train controls to stop the train, only to instantly regret his decision and realize he did something stupid.
In most modern depictions, however (2022-some of 2024), Mario is an incredibly stupid, fat, pathetic blob who gets pushed around by everyone, can't fight, and cries over spaghetti. We rarely get something like the scene I described in Mario's Train Trip nowadays, as he would likely just get beat up over his stupid decision instead of having a moment of clarity and regret about it. By far his worst appearance is probably How To Train Your Mario. In this episode, Mario is straight up insufferable, as we're forced to listen to him cry, whine, and complain like a literal baby, and we're supposed to find this funny? He doesn't stand up for himself at all, and is depicted as completely pathetic.
Though, I have to admit, following the whole Puzzlevision thing, Mario has been starting to really feel a lot like himself. Mario's subplot in the Puzzlevision movie was phenomenal (even if I do think he should've been the star of this movie instead of SMG4), and his performance in the most recent episode NOW, Super Mario 64 Poorly Explained, was great. I really hope we see more of this from Mario, as well as the series as a whole, in the future. Because I don't know about you all, but I miss the Mario whose stupidity and misadventures always made me laugh. I miss the Mario who was competent enough to be serious at times and not annoying. I miss the idiot with the big heart. And honestly, I'm tired of missing this Mario. I really hope the following episodes continue this trend.
(And now, here's a rant about Mario's power-level because I spent 2 weeks researching all the SMG4 characters in order to rank them in a super-accurate power-level tier list one time and I know care way too much about the subject.)
You know, while I am disappointed about this Saturday's upload being the Power Ranking Tier List (when I wrote this), and while I don't agree with some of the rankings and am disappointed that some characters didn't even get ranked at all, one thing that I am glad about is the fact that they fixed Mario's ranking and moved him to the top of S-Tier. If you weren't aware, a few years back, Luke and James did a similar Power Level Tier List, where they placed Mario in B-Tier. And this was after the Genesis Arc, where he was revealed to be the Universe Avatar. This decision never made sense to me for a multitude of reasons. For one, in that same ranking, they placed Sans in S-Tier. However, in the Undertale episode, when Sans and Mario fought, Mario BEAT Sans. This event ALONE should've automatically placed Mario above Sans in S-Tier.
And if that wasn't enough, Mario is literally invincible; the only being in the entire universe that had the power to kill him is dead, and if he dies, the entire universe dies with him. Not only that, but Mario has a multitude of completely overpowered power-ups, such as Cappy, which allows him to literally possess people, the Giga Bell, which allows him to go Super Saiyan, power-ups that allow him the ability of flight, fire, ice, invincibility, and so much more. And even without power-ups, Mario has already been shown to be incredibly strong in both SMG4 and Regular Mario canon. In the Freddy's Spaghettiria series, Mario was able to throw around animatronics (that must of weighed HUNDREDS of pounds) around with ease. He can break bricks with his bear hands, and in Super Mario World, he kicked an ENTIRE CASTLE into the sky without power-ups. So the fact that the writers have been depicting him as this babbling, pathetic weakling who can't stand up for himself, as well as the flanderization they've added to the character, is just immensely disrespectful to the character. The truth is that the character development that Meggy brought to Mario softened him A LOT, to the point of where he doesn't even stand up to himself when people are physically attacking him. Because the truth is, if Mario wanted to kill the entire cast, in-between his immense power and his invincibility, he would easily solo. If Mario and Meggy met by Mario seeing Meggy take the last plate of spaghetti, I have a feeling that Meggy wouldn't be appearing in current episodes.)
Y'know, I've been doing a lot of thinking, lately, and I realized that SMG4 isn't going to last forever. And one thing that I want to happen before it ends is for Mario to finally snap from the horrible treatment he's been getting from his friends, and either demand apologies or ditch them entirely. I also want him to realize that he's stronger than he knows, and that he shouldn't let people just walk all over him whenever they please.
So, that's about it really. This ended up being WAY longer than I thought, but I will be doing more of these. Tell me which character you'd like to see analyzed next. Anyways, later.

Fair warning, I'm no writer, ideas glore buy I'm no writer.
So, these ideas came after i saw the awesome Dr who Companion memes done by CelestialFlamebird. Got me thinking how in my previous post here about size changing Magnolia/Magnus and a Perpetual 'Companion' with little psychic talent. How could this salt of the earth Prospero citizen and this experienced and massively compassionate immortal, daemon ass kicking Inquisitor connect.
Here is an attempt!
Of course over time, just traveling with Magnolia/Magnus and the XVth will allow them to gain experience but it got me thinking about the burning of prospero.
So the 'Companion' is in the pyramid, as safe as one can be when the Wolves are annihilating their sons and people outside. Their bodyguards one by one ask to take their leave and see to the defenses, each unable to bare any longer.
Eventually with a handful left, the 'Companion' would go to Magnolia/Magnus and give an impassioned speech, unaware of her communication to the EmperoEmpress (I personally prefer Emperor but that's me haha) and all the manipulations by Tzeench.
Magnolia/Magnus would listen and contemplate and seeing the passion in which her live speaks, speaking for Prospero in this moment, rather than the canonical reluctance, takes to the field with the full anger and vengance of a mother protecting her home and children. Knowing deep down it will still be for naught. But before she goes, kiss on the forehead of her love (possibly to pass on some knowledge of HathoHorus) and taking an oath from her sons to keep their father safe, she teleport them as close to Terra as she can muster in that moment.
Somehow dodging Tzeench, power of love, I dunno.
The 'Companion' and their few bodyguards make it to Terra, Interrogated, imprisoned and generally mistrusted. They eventually get to Malcador and pass on what they know and also impart the need to wring the emperor's fat neck for how he treated his daughter and the 'Companion's' wife.
Between the events of the Siege of Terra and Malchador's death upon the Throne, 'Companion' and their sons would learn of some of the Emperor and Malchador's plans, the possible fate that Magnolia/Magnus was to be the leader of the Grey Knights (I know that canonically it might have been a Magnus delusion and not gonna happen but roll with me here), eventually start of the Inquisition and what happened to Magnolia/Magnus and the Thousand Sons at Prospero.
All hate towards Space Wolves gets redirected directly at the traitors and HathoHorus and 'Companion' and the few sons he has left join up to the fledgling Inquisition and Ordo Malleus, working very closely with the Grey Knights to hunt the shards of their Wife and return their sons to the Imperium or at least back to them.
Ten thousand years into the future one can meet a chipper and relatively youthful (except the eyes) inquisitor of the ordo Malleus with their 3 bodyguards, dressed in the armour of the Grey Knights, thrice sanctified (keep that flesh change at bay) except for a single pauldron, bank but a crimson red. Maybe a hooded figure walking with them, maybe not.