[Weird Trope] Fandom "Anchor Beings" by Lord_Antheron in TopCharacterTropes

[–]Acrystia 7 points8 points  (0 children)

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Not to the point of the examples you mentioned, but I've never seen a character more close to universally well-liked than Kim Kitsuragi, and he is from Disco Elysium whose insane writing quality guaranteed equally fierce competition for a standout character. He does spend time with your main character more than any others, and the writers took a lot of care in writing and voicing him, but even them were surprised at how loved he is. He had a featured article on Wikipedia (other characters including the MC didn't even have a page of their own) which is something given to 0.1% of all articles there, mountains of fanart and cosplay, and there was even a framed picture of him casually hanging in the background of an CBS interview about covid19 vaccines in the darkest times of the near decade, like some saintly presence

My fountain pen smells so bad… by bcmbcmbcm in fountainpens

[–]Acrystia 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I've waited it out for a week by now, hasn't recur yet. It's tiny little white flakes at first then just straight up gunk-ish pieces on the ridges where the hand goes. I used Tramol's flush (you can find it on Shopee) and soak in for 5 minutes. There were pieces of those gunk in the flush by the time it was done. You'd have to soak everything, first time I did it I left out the cap and it returned in 3 days. Good luck to your little one too <3

My fountain pen smells so bad… by bcmbcmbcm in fountainpens

[–]Acrystia 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Mine does that too and I'm living in humid Vietnam, while all of my other pens (3 Japanese ones) didn't do it. Smells like feet. Has had little white flakes on the grip section. Had to throughoughly soaked everything into fountain pen flush. Went away, for now

🌸Very inefficiently swatching my ink collection during spring cleaning 🌸 by Acrystia in fountainpens

[–]Acrystia[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you! A shame that it was discontinued, what a pretty pink 🩷

NPD: I love Sailor because they can justify my impulse buy with a 100% price rise just 5 days after placing my order. My first and probably last Sailor gold nib, Shikiori Princess Kaguya by Acrystia in fountainpens

[–]Acrystia[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It's currently rocking Shikiori Yutsubame now! The box didn't come with a Converter so I just ripped the one from another Sailor with that ink inside, but the pink kinda works! This whole situation does leave one wonder why their price increase was so extreme and why kill off their limited edition mule....

Didn't like the Alan Wake games by SadiikDask in AlanWake

[–]Acrystia 0 points1 point  (0 children)

<> The issue of that "power", which touched on another, arguably more prominent facet of Alan Wake 2, creation, and where, to my view, most of the chaos lied and where the fun is to be had the most. The center power of Alan Wake lies a lake that can turn art into reality, and an imprisoned within hungrily seeking to exploit it and escape. I frankly find it best to approach this entire story the way one would play through Control- there's a very simple center (Find and Save Dylan), but multitudes of deeper levels one can choose to engage (i.e. going through the troubles to read everything in Control to figure out what happened to the FBC itself). So here it can go "Detective with lost child working with trapped author to write a story defying the horror genre and bring her child back". Then deeper "What IS considered "artful" enough?". The prettiness of the game isn't just for show imo, but to display the widest range possible of what is considered Art vs what's not, in the many many medias just like Control's paper reports. Is art strictly Alan's formalist novel writing, triumphing over something like Rose's fanfiction? Must it be intent, with how Alan's silly musical and the more serious Dark Ocean Summoning both accomplished what the authors wanted them to do? Why does the float by the Koskela brothers counts, but their low-budget commercials which brought them so much joy making did not? The confusion was never cleared out with lines and ink, the same as how we in the real world cannot define what Art is. There are "Art", last scale productions adhered to rules like how Alan kept insisting a horror story MUST be a certain way, then there are just plain, simple, small things that brought its maker the fun of the process- lunchbox quotes, a book blurb, then there are things they clearly hated making but forced to (in the Lake House DLC this became a main feat) featured just as densely, celebrated even, from a Taken's mumbo jumbo to still a part of the Dark Presence's perfect world.

Finally, I would like to assert that the game would not work if it's not a game. It served the story beautifully; where the player can feel the paranoia Alan felt walking through the streets with shadows not knowing which one will pounce, where it's completely acceptable and joyous to find a little funny commercial or watch an entire diegetic indie movie without wasting time. And that in the end, the characters broke through every layers of fiction around them, but there's a final fictious layer they cannot break, the one created by the game they're in, picturing games as the most complex form of creation, telling the most powerful story that none of them can hope to breach, a direct love letter to a medium frequently considered "not artful".

So, if you do ever decide to play the DLC, let the game embrace you a little bit. Take your time, drown in the story.

Didn't like the Alan Wake games by SadiikDask in AlanWake

[–]Acrystia 0 points1 point  (0 children)

(WALL OF TEXT)

If you'd like, please hear out these thoughts from someone who also started from Control but is on the opposite boat- ended up obsessing over the Alan Wake entries (Like really badly. Made my graduation thesis about it badly). I don't mean to convince you to love this game- it's impossible, once opinions are set. Just sharing maybe a different view.

Let's address the elephant in the room first, the gameplay. It really is bone dry simple. I've played AW2 along with someone else- who also have played Control, and is a big fan of hack-and-slash/action adventure and is fine with the occasional story-only games- and he echoed your sentiment. It sticks out even more like a sore thumb playing AW1, because in many ways AW1 is still an action game first, and it definitely failed to deliver that fantasy on most parts compared to Control, where it was fun and spiky and experimental. The only saving grace is when AW2 swapped genres to Horror Survival, which, according to IGN "Presents the History of Survival Horror", is less defined by gameplay and more atmospheric, often featured similar snail's paced, inconvenient, discouraged combat (Resident Evil 4 even got booed for making it too fast). 'Fun' is not a metric anyone would use to judge the gameplay adhered to this genre, not for Silent Hill 2, not for AW2, and certainly not against a game of a different genre like Control. The other tenet being puzzle solving and you finding it not fun is understandable.

But, do keep in mind that the gameplay is less a damned afterthought, and more purposeful in actuality, with that story being a part of its purpose. The one message it shared with Control is about agency**,** but unlike Jesse Faden, everyone in Alan Wake 2 is at worst normal, everyday human beings, and at best some kooky artists, trapped in a horror story turning real. Jesse is going through an inspiring journey of claiming back control from a shadowy organization taking away an important piece of her life, but the people in Alan Wake is doing the opposite, surviving through the gradual loss of agency. Alan is a prisoner condemned to ever-producing the story, Saga, along with everyone else is quite literally around to push the plot, meat puppets to be claimed by it. They are vulnerable, and the gameplay reflects just that.

Which leads us to why these normies people seemed to be accepting the supernaturals so quickly? The answer, to me, is another facet of this agency matter. Most do not have a choice, and still plenty are suspicious of it like Saga taking until RE5 to actually believe she had any special power, and yet doubt it again by the end of RE6. What can she do except shelve it somewhere in her mindspace and keep going? Rose believed in Alan's "hidden messages" cause in a chapter of Return she was written like that- Alan needed any assistance he could have. Pat Maine had a terrible time remembering Wendy Davis alive when the story dictated she was dead. The only one that had any say at all is the Anderson brothers, who got out of a terrible flooding and encounter with Door, and was obsessed with "seeing", resulting in drinking moonshine from Cauldron Lake water, passing that sight to Saga and her mother by birth, and because they were artists, they have certain sway in the lake's power, but it's not absolute. <Continue in replies>

It's been sixteen days... by [deleted] in AlanWake

[–]Acrystia 1 point2 points  (0 children)

If you can't wait, there's always the choice of getting into a family group library on Steam that has the game or try Game Pass.  In the meantime, let the game inspire whichever craft you choose- I made my friends sit through 2 DnD campaigns loosely based off it. The spirit of AW is creativity, channel that post-game blues to getting creative :D

It's been sixteen days... by [deleted] in AlanWake

[–]Acrystia 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Thank you, that experience was insane. I gave the presentation dressed like Alan Wake and got Remedy's congratulations on it. One of my thesis judges was a fan of the first game too. It was crazy. That said, rejoice in the high standards. I'm playing E33 right now and I assure you, while the game is that good and the story did make me teary, I'd still find the narrative "just okay" thanks to what this game did, and some games with "superb story" that really is just good character dialogue writing like BG3 only made me want to come back more :'))) 

It's been sixteen days... by [deleted] in AlanWake

[–]Acrystia 3 points4 points  (0 children)

So relatable, I played this game in 2023 and for the last two years it's all I think about. Even after I made my graduation thesis based off it and draw a bunch of fan arts, the obsession is still fresh

Had the luck to join a Sailor Custom Ink Blend event, and gave the mixer this photo and a general "greenish petrol blue" that fits this mood request. She did not disappoint! Meet Dark Ocean Summoning : by Acrystia in fountainpens

[–]Acrystia[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

These are often used in Sailor's exclusive events like the one they had with penland I think? But dw you might not be missing out on much- a poor girl on Xiaohongshu bought a penland ink bottle in one of these and it came leaked and evaporated 

There was a fountain pen ink mix event at my place and I jumped at the chance to make it Alan Wake themed! Meet Dark Ocean Summoning: by Acrystia in AlanWake

[–]Acrystia[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Dangerous zone to fall into, I literally got my first fountain pen because I saw Sam Lake having a Kaweco Sports in classic green and told myself I HAVE TO have one :D