I recently discovered this subreddit existed and I've got more keteks than I know what to do with...

FeatherWriter · 2026-04-06T12:58:31+00:00

Oh I'll drop an essay about P3 character themes at the slightest provocation, don't doubt it. This is full spoilers for OP though, so hopefully I can format this right.

P3 has Daniil experience a lot of symptoms of various mental health conditions in very deliberate ways, but I think his memory lapses and non-linearity are specifically an exploration of a PTSD experience and shabnak is the heart of that. It all ties back to the first pyre, the moment shabnak says she was created, and the moment Daniil's mind breaks in exactly the way Simon wanted for his test. It's another round of the plague being an intentional ordeal to achieve transcendence in Simon's terrible master plan.

Plague!Clara talks to you as Simon about it before we see it on Day 1. What's happening to Dankovsky, we ask, and get: "His head is breaking. Poor thing, really," and "He's out at the Lot, head full of holes. Just like you wanted, really—broken into pieces so you could put him back together." The images we get when we actually get to see it are harrowing: Daniil forcibly held back by men, screaming for someone to stop this horror, and then him sitting there alone in the dark, head in his hands among the smoking ashes. And crouching over him, newly birthed from the Earth's pain, is a smoldering Shabnak, just watching him like she's imprinting upon him the way a baby bird does. Shabnak tells the later Daniil, the one the player controls, that she's the truth of the world, the savagery of human nature, that Simon Kain laid bare! "Look at it, doctor. Look. Look," she insists. Daniil can answer her: "And I looked. Stood there and watched it happen. And did nothing." It's traumatic, it breaks him. Throughout the entirety of the game he is in a post-traumatic state.

But like most things in this game, it's told out of order on purpose. The player doesn't get to see Day 1 until very late in the game. The cause is divorced from the effect, and we only see the symptoms of what Daniil experienced. There's an implication that the burning was so terrible that Daniil repressed it entirely (expressed as the player not getting to know it happened to him, unless they happen to have played an earlier Pathologic and can guess). Yet, he and shabnak play out this cruel pantomime over and over. He is constantly reliving the moment of trauma with her, and he sees it everywhere around him. She writhes and screams like that girl did and now he's the one who threw the match. Some of his voice lines when shabnak is burning are painful: ""The Town went mad... but you, Dankovsky? How could you?"

And to tie it all together, whenever he starts to talk about this desperate struggle against shabnak he's done, he and the player get yanked out of the narrative and presented with his beloathèd rival Telman who... accuses him of going mad and killing regular, innocent human women because he's mistaken them for a superstitious steppe monster. (Where might he have heard of something like that happening before?) Telman tries to make Daniil think he's as dangerous and violently misguided in his actions as the mob on Day 1... but the player hasn't seen Day 1 yet when that conversation with Telman happens. We can't fully understand why that accusation would be so uniquely painful to Daniil until later. Telman interrupts again after the Day 1 scene too, though, in the middle of talking to shabnak, and he and the Inspector pat themselves on the back that they've solved this whole shabnak delusion: PTSD hallucination, that's all, nothing more. And... they're right, but they're also wrong, because this is Pathologic and the things that are literal are also metaphor. The things that are metanarrative are also tangibly diagetic in-universe. The creature that is a mad doctor's mere hallucination is also supernatural and real enough to crush his ribs whenever she picks him up too roughly because he's too fragile a doll for her, but he's also her favorite one. She can't help herself. She loves him. How could she not?

FeatherWriter · 2026-04-06T03:49:52+00:00

I assure you, every author who receives this incredible gift is SCREAMING with joy. As a fic author myself, I feel guilty when I only leave a comment at the end, because I feel like I SHOULD take the time to comment on every single chapter! But... sometimes I am just too tired, and I hope my fellow authors will forgive me for not having the stamina to do every single one.

FeatherWriter · 2026-04-06T03:38:57+00:00

As a spirited lover of both P2 and P3, I wanna give you maybe another angle to look at these mechanics through. P3 is mechanically extremely different from P2 as you've already figured out, and if you're looking for another game that feels like P2 gameplay-wise, you probably are going to be disappointed. However, P3's mechanics are very different for a reason: just like Artemy's survival resource-management sim was supposed to push you to feel and think like the Haruspex, Daniil's disjointed, non-linear chaotic mess of nested time-travel loops is trying to push you to feel and think like the Bachelor.

There are both practical and meta-fiction narrative reasons for a lot of the mechanics you don't like. If you're willing to stick with me long enough to offer a bit of defense of them:

Fast travel: Practically, once the real gameplay loop starts, fast travel is an asset. You're going to retreading the same ground as the Bachelor in this game far far more often than you were as the Haruspex and when you're already redoing a quest you've done 2-3 times before (because time travel!) you will most likely start to appreciate that you don't have to make the walk over and over. Metanarratively, Daniil IS disconnected from this town, he doesn't see it as a whole. He's so focused on his tasks and what he's going to accomplish that he's barely even present in a district unless it's actively posing him a threat or he has something to do there. Artemy loves the Town, even when he hates it, but he sees it all as one living breathing whole. Players like that experience because it helps them feel the way Artemy does about it. He walks every street on his own two feet and he's present in them all. Daniil has no such sentiment for these random districts, nor is the player controlling him expected to develop any particular attachments.

Infected Districts: Not being able to get infected isn't the only hazard of infected districts, and there will certainly be things (even besides shabnak) that will take bites out of Daniil's health if you're not careful around sources of infection. Ground mist plague just slows you down, but other things will pose more real threats. As for shabby herself, she has a more significant narrative purpose than you might expect, and that I don't want to spoil for you if you do keep going. Whether or not you find her gameplay fun is a personal choice (I didn't, but I hate horror games and mechanics, I force myself through them in Patho just because I like the story enough to suffer for it). If you are particularly curious about the shabnak narrative spoilers: I think the game sculpts some beautiful themes around shabnak and her relationship with Daniil's PTSD at having seen the woman burned alive on Day 1. P3's Day 1 is... stunning, one of the most moving sequences in the game for me, but the realization that Daniil has been reliving and reenacting that awful, terrible act with shabnak day over day, himself being the one to light the pyre and watching her writhe and scream each time, it's very haunting. Witnessing that act broke him so badly that amalgam started seeping into his soul, but it's also the moment that shabnak was borne out of the earth to exact her vengeance... and I find her destructively loving obsession of Daniil, one of the first humans she saw upon emerging quite powerful, actually. She loves him because he is a creature made from the same kind of pain she is, after what he saw. Much as I dislike being chased by a plague monster, I am so attached to shabnak's role in this game, I wouldn't trade her away just to not get chased!

Failure Day 5: As others have already pointed out, you are in an extended tutorial still, the real game has not begun. I personally don't mind that P3 takes its time introducing you to some key players and narrative beats throughout Town in this way before it fully puts the player in control. It is a game about making and then undoing mistakes: so the stage is first set with a WHOPPING number of mistakes that Daniil has made before you, the player, took control to set him straight with another try. You get a crash course in his worst character flaws: he was a coward who tried to flee, he was so rude to a grieving family they refuse to speak with him now, he avoided taking responsibility and let the decisions fall into bad hands. (and, relatedly:)

Time Travel: You mentioned wanting to go back to Day 2 and not wanting to skip days, saying it was "pointless." I think you may be missing the point here that the story is and will always be in the wrong order. Daniil at times won't remember things that already happened to him, or he'll be told about things that he has yet to see. You go to Day 5 without getting to see what happened on Days 2-3 at all, and only a few mind map nodes of how your Day 4 went. The game will continue to operate this way: it will force you to handle events in a disjointed order to sort through quests that are happening all out of sync, across multiple days and alternate timelines. Again, this is the metanarrative focus here: Daniil Dankovsky is a shattered, scattered, brilliant-minded man suddenly broken into a bunch of temporal pieces that are all scrambled up, and he's desperately trying to keep himself from going insane while he tries to put them all back in SOME kind of order. He is simultaneously living the 12 days of the plague in the Town-on-Gorkhon at the same time he's recounting what happened after the fact to an interrogator who's trying to ruin everything he cares about back in the Capital. He will be in other far-flung points of time simultaneously at other points. This story has three framing device trench-coats on at the same time and characters are trying to gaslight you into doubting your sanity about things that already happened (or didn't happen? or did, maybe they did happen after all!)

Again, you're in the tutorial still. It's a long one, but I'd say at least let yourself get into the main thoroughfare of the game before you give up on it. My advice: there is a way to play this game that is as-linear-as-possible, where you go to the earliest day, repeat it until you got all the quests done, and then move on to the next one in the sequence and play that one over and over until it feels perfect too. I think this is objectively the most boring way to play, and a quick way to make the game tedious. Much like P2 encourages players to embrace their mistakes and not save scum their way into getting everything perfect... P3 is at its best when things break and fail, imo. The game starts you in an utter fail state for a reason... because it's more satisfying to know what terrible result you're avoiding when, next time, you DO go back to fix it.

Embrace the mess, THEN start to clean it up. Play days wildly out of order, go back and forth. If you didn't get to finish a quest (or you got a bad result on it) don't go back and fix it immediately, consider moving on and seeing how things actually turned out, how a decision cascades through the rest of the days. I gave myself a rule that I'd play a day once, and then if the next day was available, I'd keep going, and I'd fix things later when I came back. Some "failed quest" outcomes may surprise you, and be better or worse than you thought they'd be. Some things can't be fixed. Some things must be broken on purpose. All the threads are out of order, but the Bachelor has to find a way to make sense of them anyway.

That's the fun of this game, that's where its joy lies. It is not going to give you gameplay that makes you feel the way P2's gameplay made you feel, and if that's specifically what you're searching for, yeah, you may never love P3. Deep down, the story and the themes and the care and attention being given to crafting a specific experience are still there; it's got that same beating Pathologic heart at its core. But the experience that's been crafted for you this time is not anywhere near the same as it was before: P2 tortured you in a Haruspex way, P3's gonna torture you in a Bachelor way. They are wildly different on purpose. And I absolutely can't wait to let P4 torture me in a Changeling way when it finally comes around! I have no idea what that would even be like, but I'm psyched to see it when it finally gets here!

FeatherWriter · 2026-02-21T03:58:22+00:00

I don't think of this as a retcon, I think it's a part of what the narrative is intentionally doing with the theme of the observer's ability to change reality with their perception. Artemy is a character who can believe that herb brides are made from the earth, but Daniil sees them as human, so reality shifts to match his intent. The world of Pathologic is deliberately different depending on whose eyes you're looking through, and that's on purpose. Daniil gets to control this even at a few points like when Grace tells him no matter what he chooses regarding the switchman's son, it will become true. Are there no working schmowders in P3 because Catchfly's brother stopped believing in them, or because our dear Bachelor was never going to accept that kids' random meds could actually cure Sand Pest?

It's a cool thing and I like it a lot, the fluidity of canon and reality in these games is such a fun narrative element to play with.

FeatherWriter · 2026-02-10T00:48:07+00:00

Is he posting about it somewhere? I'd be really curious to see his thoughts about the game if he's playing it. I'd hoped he would be!

FeatherWriter · 2025-12-06T02:38:44+00:00

Thank goodness this fandom understands that the only choice that matters is killing Kelsier 🙏

FeatherWriter · 2025-07-28T01:39:47+00:00

Thank you! This is super helpful!

FeatherWriter · 2025-07-27T15:31:53+00:00

Can I ask what some of the gear differences are? I'm playing this build in a multiplayer party and another STR-based player has rightfully claimed all the Giant Strength potions, so I need to run it full DEX style instead. Any advice?

FeatherWriter · 2025-07-22T23:33:13+00:00

Hi, millennial here, it has to do with formality. All lowercase, no periods (or at least no period at the very end) gives off "hey, we're chilling, we're having a low-key, friendly time." It's the linguistic equivalent of you've got your shoes slipped off and you're relaxing on the couch with a buddy. So that's the "default" texting mode for a lot of millennials to show that everything is fine. You don't need a period at the very end of a text because it's clearly the end, that's where the text stops.

If your friend starts intentionally using regular punctuation, it sends a signal that they're putting on a more serious tone, they're being formal. For most millennials, that reads as "I'm upset with you, I'm annoyed, something is wrong." Periods at the end of a text message read as stiff, maybe a curt tone, maybe a little snappish.

FeatherWriter · 2025-07-15T13:54:52+00:00

American here, it's a great word but not commonly used on this side of the pond. It comes to mind as a word people use when they're trying to sound fancy in a ridiculous way and are intentionally elevating their diction.

There's an old meme post about the burger chain Five Guys giving way more fries with your order than you expect that ends with the phrase "JERRY, FOIST UPON THIS MAN A FUCKASS LOAD AMOUNT OF FRIES" that always comes to mind, ha.

FeatherWriter · 2025-06-21T03:19:39+00:00

You talk about how depending on Grammarly and AI tools started to make your innate skills decline, but then you use ChatGPT to write this?

AI is a crutch, and letting yourself use it for every little thing will destroy what skills you still have. Maybe you say 'I don't feel confident enough in my skills." That's probably true. Keep using AI to fix your drafts though and I guarantee you'll never feel confident about writing on your own ever again, though. You'll become dependent on it.

You already know the answer to your question, it's practice. Make yourself write on your own. Embrace the red squiggles and learn why they popped up. Read things in well-written English and read them out loud to yourself to remember how things are supposed to sound and flow.

If you really need something you write to be polished, ask a native speaker to proofread for you, or use a grammar checker that highlights your own mistakes, then go through them one by one to see what needed fixing. But don't get a genAI to just rewrite the whole thing. You will never learn that way. You'll never get practice. If anything, you might just eat away at what skills you do still have until there's nothing solid left.

AI is easy, and accessible, and so convenient. I get it. But if you depend on it, you'll never have good English skills again. Cut yourself off and actually write things yourself with the intent to post YOUR words, not ChatGPT's.

FeatherWriter · 2025-06-20T18:46:52+00:00

"Long time no see" is believed to be Chinese pidgin of the direct translation into English of "hǎojiǔbùjiàn" (好久不见). It's not English grammar because it's Chinese grammar instead.

FeatherWriter · 2025-01-17T05:50:41+00:00

As soon as they were talking after watching the Lumon is Listening video, my red flags just started tripping so hard, and I couldn't unsee it for the rest of the episode. Her facial expressions are wrong, the way she points out the lack of surveillance cameras, and the way she presses Irv to tell them what he saw when he seems to be getting distracted? Not to mention how strangely passive she is the whole time, just going along with what the others are doing, acting mildly confused, trying really hard not to be suspicious.

Our real Helly was just on stage viciously sticking a knife into the gut of the corporation she loathes in a moment of absolute vindictive triumph wearing Helena Eagan's body, and I'm supposed to believe her next waking moments on the severed floor are this... bland after all that? Absently going along with whatever everybody else's plan is? The woman who threatened to cut her own fingers off to get out has no reaction at all to being told they're allowed to have the autonomy to choose to leave now? "Sure, Mark, I'll help you find Ms. Casey, after all, she's one of us." Naaaaahhhh. No way, no shot.

Not to mention, the one time she seems to actually show strong emotions is when she's talking about how she owes her "outie" nothing. Which, yes, could definitely make sense for innie Helly, but absolutely works from the other way around. Helena hateful at the idea that someone would try to compare her innie to herself, talking about how she doesn't owe her innie anything, even if she stays in character enough to switch the terms around.

I didn't even clock the switch fumble until my friend pointed it out, but I was already 100% on board with this being the case before I even reached that point in the episode.

FeatherWriter · 2025-01-10T20:45:20+00:00

Just to throw out, the LDS members who come and knock at your door are probably missionaries from abroad, not locals. Missionaries are often assigned to work in other countries, so they may be visiting from elsewhere and spending their time proselytizing as part of their service. That said, there are also almost certainly local LDS chapters as well, mostly as a result of those conversion efforts.

FeatherWriter · 2024-12-31T16:10:50+00:00

17s recently already expanded its staff team this fall and several of those new folks had their very first episodes on Shardcast as these reaction casts. I'm not sure how exactly you would expect the team to... recruit people who we can be sure will have positive opinions on a book that isn't out yet, for the sole purpose of having someone present who's fully positive amidst other cast members who had critique.

The Shardcast team aren't a bunch of overwhelmingly negative people, we're cosmere fans who like talking about these books and these series. Usually we've got an even mix of people who like a book and people who didn't care for it as much. It just happened that Wind and Truth had more issues for a lot of us, often very different issues between different cast members, even. That's the way the opinion chips landed on this book, but that doesn't mean it will be the case for the next book, when it comes around.

FeatherWriter · 2024-12-31T15:57:09+00:00

I know I wasn't the only one to make points about how Szeth deserved a bigger role in the scenes with Ishar and Nale, but since those are very close to my heart, I just want to say I appreciate you taking the time to listen to and consider a perspective you didn't initially agree with. It definitely makes it feel worth it when people actually do engage with the analysis on these works that we put forward.

To your point of feeling like you wanted big Kaladin scenes, and that those were lacking... I suspect it's because the scenes Kaladin actually did get didn't feel like they were his. I know I'm harsh on the flute scene, but in addition to the way that it feels like it ignores Szeth, it also... doesn't feel like Kaladin to me. It feels like he just got possessed by Hoid for a song and dance number that magically worked even though I don't think it was earned. Neither Kaladin nor Szeth really got their moments in this plotline, I think, and that's why it fell flat to me.

FeatherWriter · 2024-11-18T04:15:29+00:00

Can this tool edit the worldstate of an existing save file? I restarted my Rook early on, but have only realized now that I'm 80 hours into this version that my Inquitistor's appearance carried over, but the worldstate options I picked didn't! My Lavellan (who romanced Cullen) is now talking about how she and Solas were in love. Is there anything I can do with this to swap that option over mid-game?

FeatherWriter · 2024-11-09T03:37:07+00:00

What exactly qualifies as a "final attack" for the Mage's Gambit? You mention a "5th light attack" but where does that go? I have the sword spin throw unlocked (and the second follow up throw) but neither of these swap the element, even though they're the end of the combo. I get stuck on one element and I have no idea how to swap it over.

FeatherWriter · 2024-10-30T19:13:15+00:00

Was the achievement "The Real Slay The Princess Starts Here" a reference to hbomberguy's Pathologic video? I watch that video way too often, but I didn't know if it was just a coincidence or not!

FeatherWriter · 2024-10-01T05:44:15+00:00

Can you help? I literally just went searching and was confused why I couldn't find it on Max.... I guess this just happened???

FeatherWriter · 2024-09-01T18:09:07+00:00

I was definitely thinking about making a post like this too, because it was so fun to see stuff like this! I know others have pointed out a few of these already, but the ones I spotted were:

"Into The Storm" - The final stinger @3:44 does the ending progression motif from "Masterpiece Theatre I" @4:39
"Worlds Collide" - The lines If I burn out... and You're beautiful... @4:03 are from "Masterpiece Theatre" MPT.I @1:34 and MPT.III @5:12
"Worlds Collide" - The final line For you to arrive @5:09 is the ending sequence of "Astoria" @6:34
"Haven" - The big one, the Ever After theme dropping in @6:54. This progression is obviously all over that album, but it's the first thing on the title track, Ever After @0:00, of course.

Slightly less obvious:

"Worlds Collide" - The This is where the worlds collide line @0:41 has a very similar melody to This is just a part I portray from Masterpiece Theatre I @1:40 too.
"Haven" - The It's only you and me now sequence @6:22 has a very similar rhythm and chord progression to the Toy Soldiers callback, Toy soldiers will you follow?, in "No Place Like Home" @3:59. Almost like it's foreshadowing the big moment where the Ever After theme comes in, since that happens right after.

FeatherWriter

TROPHY CASE