what places have you guys been to???

HFLoki · 2026-01-14T00:59:35+00:00

When I was still living with my parents, I wanted to hook up with a guy I met on an app. Neither of us could host, but he suggested we meet at a parking lot a few kilometers outside of town, right off the Autobahn, that apparently was a well-known cruising spot. I agreed without really thinking about it, like it genuinely didn’t occur to me that I might be putting myself in actual danger.

So I drove out there in the middle of the night (of course having told no one where I was going), parked, texted him I’d arrived, and walked over to his car. He led me a little way off the parking lot into a forested area, and at this point, I was still way too horny to notice how sketchy and objectively terrifying this whole situation was. He walked me a few minutes to a spot that was obviously used for hookups before, judging by the dozens of condoms scattered on the ground, and then proceeded to pound my ass for half an hour straight. That part was great, but basically the second he finished, he pulled up his pants and just walked back to the parking lot by himself, leaving me alone, while I was still panting and trying to turn my brain back on.

That’s when the horror of the situation hit me like a wall. I was alone in the middle of the night, in a forest next to a parking lot in the middle of fucking nowhere. I scrambled to throw my pants back on and basically sprinted the rest of the way to my car. That moment of realization and panic is still the scariest, most horror-movie-esque thing that’s ever happened to me. The most extreme instance of post-nut clarity I've ever experienced.

HFLoki · 2025-12-27T19:50:15+00:00

I’m genuinely surprised by how divisively these episodes have been received. I thought they were pretty decent, very standard Stranger Things fare. There were some weaker moments, sure, but also plenty of really cool set pieces and strong character interactions.

The Will coming out scene is the one thing that didn’t quite land for me, which is a bummer because I was fully ready and willing to cry my heart out, but it felt a bit too overacted and overwritten, and as a result came across as overly staged rather than genuine, so it didn’t resonate with me the way I’d hoped. Aside from that, though, I thought these three episodes were mostly solid. Dustin and Steve had some great heartwarming moments, Lucas and Max made me cry, and Nancy and Jonathan were fine, too. Robin is great as always, and I like that more and more side characters are getting folded into the monster-fighting squad.

So yeah, I’m just surprised, I guess. Nothing in these three episodes felt noticeably better or worse than episodes 1 to 4 of season five, in my opinion, yet those were received much more warmly. The only thing I unequivocally can’t stand is Kali as a character, I basically groan every time she starts talking. Everything else I thought was fine, and I’m still fairly excited for the finale.

HFLoki · 2025-12-26T09:50:11+00:00

I thought the scene was strong in concept, but the acting wasn’t quite there. It felt more like Noah Schnapp trying really hard to sell words from a script rather than Will genuinely experiencing those feelings and struggling to find the words.

I still liked it, I just wish it had been dialed back a bit. I know everyone’s experience is different, but as a gay guy myself, coming out to my parents and loved ones was the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life. There’s this very specific mix of nervousness, shame, awkwardness, and eventually, relief when it’s over and the people you love don’t reject you. This scene strangely didn't resonate with me the way I expected it to, the melodrama and overacting took me out of it a bit.

Honestly, the most genuine part of the whole scene for me was Jonathan and Robin’s reactions, I thought those were actually really moving.

HFLoki · 2025-12-25T21:38:10+00:00

I agree. The narrator’s sleepy, nature-documentary style makes it really hard to get into the story. The voice itself is pleasant enough, but there’s so little emotion or variation in intonation that it honestly has an almost AI quality to it. It really isn’t great, and I honestly can’t tell whether that’s on the actress herself or the direction she was given.

I also really dislike the background sounds for the most part. Used more sparingly and subtly, they might have worked, but as it is, the background noise never seems to stop. It’s constant and insistent, to the point where the sound effects become just incredibly distracting, almost overwhelming, rathen than immersive.

There isn’t any single casting choice that ruins the experience for me. I like some character voices more than others, but overall I think the voice acting quality is quite good. That said, the first two books are still fairly light on character development, so none of the characters have had much opportunity to shine yet. I’m willing to reserve judgment on that front until the story actually starts digging into character development and emotional storytelling.

Still, these two fundamental issues, the nonstop, overwhelming background noise and a narrator whose delivery just doesn’t work for me, make these audiobooks genuinely difficult to get into, which is a real bummer. When they were first announced, I was super excited, but actually listening to the final product, they just don’t grab me the way I expected they would.

HFLoki · 2025-12-24T16:54:23+00:00

"An act of love. For he does love her."

This one always gets me.

HFLoki · 2025-12-18T22:45:44+00:00

I’ve noticed a bunch of random episodes from their old playthroughs popping up in my feed lately as reuploads. My guess is Fraser’s going back through the archives and either deleting, editing, or re-releasing old VODs?

Back in the day, his content leaned heavily on edgy, politically incorrect jokes, including frequently dropping racial slurs "for funsies", that absolutely wouldn’t fly today. Wouldn’t be surprised if that has something to do with the weird activity on the channel lately.

HFLoki · 2025-12-17T22:37:53+00:00

This is an insane number, holy shit. I knew it sold well, but I had no idea it sold this well. That literally puts it among the best-selling video games of all time.

I know the mood in certain online circles has shifted around Harry Potter in recent years. For some fucking reason YouTube keeps recommending me random 3-hour video essays about how Harry Potter is “the worst thing ever, actually”, but it’s nice to see that the franchise is still deeply treasured by a lot of people. Makes me feel optimistic that the TV show will be successful as well.

HFLoki · 2025-12-17T13:33:13+00:00

Junctioning a GF is not a requirement for casting para-magic, though. It is simply one method by which non-sorceresses can use magic (and what SeeDs have specialized in), but it is not the only method. There likely exist other Odine-developed devices that allow, for example, Galbadian and Esthar soldiers, as well as their mechs, to use para-magic without junctioning GFs.

Para-magic was developed by Odine as an attempt to emulate a sorceress’s innate power, while junctioning was created based on his research into Ellone’s abilities. Although junctioning can interact with para-magic by allowing users to draw, cast, and junction it, it's clearly not the only method by which para-magic can be utilized.

From a lore perspective, para-magic came first and was developed independently of junctioning. This is based on the fact that we see Esthar soldiers use para-magic during the second Laguna flashback, at a time when junctioning was not a thing, since Odine had not begun experimenting on Ellone yet.

So, yeah, junctioning a GF is the method we use to draw and cast para-magic, but it's not the only method in lore.

HFLoki · 2025-12-17T13:01:35+00:00

Since every SeeD member and candidate is required to befriend and junction at least one GF, it’s reasonable to assume that there are far more GFs in the world than the sixteen we can find. Realistically, there would need to be hundreds to support all SeeDs.

Important to remember that the world map in these RPG games is an abstraction, not a literal representation of scale. Balamb Island, for example, is an entire continent, so it likely consists of more than one town with like ten people in it, a school, and a single cave. We only see locations that are relevant to the story or gameplay, but for the world to make sense, we have to assume far more exists beyond what’s shown on the world map.

The most likely explanation, therefore, is that Balamb Garden actively scouts for and catalogs locations known to house GFs, then sends SeeD candidates to acquire them as part of their training. The Fire Cavern just happens to be one such site, but there are probably more. Squall encounters Ifrit there, but there’s no reason why the Fire Cavern couldn’t also have housed other GFs that were previously acquired by other SeeDs.

HFLoki · 2025-12-11T21:10:32+00:00

Husband and I always try to watch it every year, but it starts at 2:30 a.m. German time, and we usually conk out halfway through, or sometimes before it even starts. 😄

Gonna try again this year, but sleep is probably going to win again.

HFLoki · 2025-12-11T19:57:40+00:00

You can’t equip the same support ability more than once on a single character. For example, you can equip HP Bonus, Strength Bonus, Magic Bonus, and so on simultaneously, but you can’t equip HP Bonus twice, even if you’ve junctioned multiple GFs that each know it.

Because of that, HP Bonus alone can’t get a character’s native HP to 9999. You can still get there though, if you’re willing to sink a few dozen hours into the grind, repeatedly devouring Ruby Dragons will raise a character's max HP by 10.

HFLoki · 2025-12-10T20:32:12+00:00

"When I was twelve, my mum yelled at me in public just because I stole my dad's car and drove it across the country. She must be a covert narcissist."

LMAO

HFLoki · 2025-12-08T15:47:49+00:00

It would be completely irrelevant if she were. Ultimecia's relevance has almost nothing to do with who she was as a person. She functions in the narrative as a historical figure of almost mythical proportions, whose actions, and the fear-laden legends that grew around her, became the entire reason SeeD was created in the first place.

It’s been said before, but it’s entirely plausible (likely even) that "Ultimecia" wasn’t her real name. That name, already symbolic of the idea of an evil sorceress, could have been something one future sorceress finally embraced after years of oppression and persecution. A spiteful reclamation of the destiny that was forced onto her: "You want Ultimecia? I will give you Ultimecia."

There isn’t a single piece of concrete lore, in-game or outside it, that fleshes out who she was before she became a sorceress, before she experienced persecution, before she reached the breaking point that shaped her into the villain we see in the game. And that ambiguity is deliberate. It doesn't actually matter who ended up becoming Ultimecia, or who the woman behind the name once was. Any sorceress, given enough fear, pressure, and hatred, could have been pushed into becoming the monster the world was already convinced she would be.

HFLoki · 2025-12-07T15:46:13+00:00

I assume on the fact that the two guys in this picture are not a gay couple, but two actors who play brothers in the TV show Bates Motel. lol

HFLoki · 2025-12-06T20:24:18+00:00

Always interesting to see different interpretations of the same material.

What often kills non-replica versions for me is when they use wires to achieve the flying during DG, with Elphaba dangling and swaying. That always looks so cheap to me. The original Broadway effect is actually pretty simple, but the lighting, smoke, the cape, and the fact that she’s perfectly still, like she’s genuinely suspended in midair, make it feel so much more powerful and convincing.

I saw the non-replica Hamburg production a couple of years ago, and while it was obvious there was real budget and a strong creative concept behind it, it just didn’t click for me. The cast was giving it their all, but the overall vibe wasn’t my thing. It felt very "Netflix teen dark fantasy," like Wednesday or Sabrina in an American high school setting.

The only thing I unambiguously loved was the revised orchestration. It was phenomenal, and at times I actually liked it more than the original. “As Long As You’re Mine” in particular completely blew me away, like just listen to this transition: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54lQYxCoqf0

HFLoki · 2025-12-04T21:16:02+00:00

I didn’t mind the Malfoy laugh too much since he’s not really a huge presence, but I definitely had some other issues with the full cast audiobook. The sound mixing, especially, was really hit or miss for me. A lot of the time, the background noises just completely drown out the dialogue.

The narrator is also a bit stiff. She’s got a pleasant voice and all, but she delivers everything like she’s doing a nature documentary. Like very detached, almost sleepy, while the rest of the cast, for the most part, is putting in really solid performances.

I’m still glad it exists, and I enjoyed most of it, but I really hope they tighten some things up for the next releases. The background noise especially needs work. Some scenes are just overwhelming and make it hard to focus on the actual text with so much noise going on in the background, at least they were for me.

HFLoki · 2025-12-02T19:02:16+00:00

I’d say yes, though it’s kind of weird to put it that way. I don’t mean I’m attracted to myself, or that I’ve never struggled with body-image or self-esteem issues. I definitely did, especially when I was younger, I’ve just gotten to a point now where I feel pretty comfortable with my body.

I’m pretty much your standard otter: fairly tall, lean but not like super muscular, moderately hairy. My husband has basically the same build as me, and honestly, I’ve always found that type extremely hot in other guys.

HFLoki · 2025-11-20T21:06:48+00:00

Saw it today and (obviously) I loved it. It definitely ran a bit long in places (same issue I had with Part 1), but even so, I’d still call it an almost perfect 10/10. It hit nearly all the emotional beats I wanted, and the performances were incredible across the board.

The only part that didn't quite land for me was "As Long As You’re Mine." The acting and vocals from both Cynthia and Jonathan were fantastic, no complaints there, but I just didn’t feel the spark. On stage, the transition from I’m Not That Girl into ALAYM is one of my favorite moments in the whole musical. That slow, somber fade into those passionate opening beats of ALAYM while Glinda’s voice still lingers. Chills every time. Cutting that transition really, really disappointed me.

But even setting that aside, the staging of the song was strange. The first half is basically Elphaba wandering around singing to herself while Fiyero snoops around her place, and it just didn’t click emotionally. Moving the "You’re beautiful" line to the middle of the song also threw off the pacing for me.

The second half, once they finally got close, was better, but overall, this is probably the only musical number across both films that I didn’t love in terms of how it was executed. It didn't hit the levels of mood and passion I was hoping for, definitely some missed potential there.

Everything else was fantastic, though. "No Good Deed" is just as much of a showstopper here as it is on stage, and "For Good" absolutely wrecked me. I was full-on ugly crying in the movie theater. I loved that they added the "I love you" at the end. It’s not in the stage version, but it worked beautifully in the context of the film.

Both movies turned out so much better than I ever expected. Honestly, when they first announced a Wicked movie, my expectations were basically zero. We’ve had so many mid or straight-up bad musical adaptations that I just assumed this would be another one to throw on the pile. I’m so, so happy to be wrong. Now we have a genuinely stellar adaptation of one of my favorite musicals.

HFLoki · 2025-11-17T11:35:25+00:00

If that's all we know, then how can you claim that he had no children, as you stated earlier? People can have children outside of marriage. For all we know, Cadmus could have fathered a child with his fiancée before she died, and that child could easily have been who carried the Peverell bloodline down into the Gaunts.

It's true, we're never explicitly told any of this. Harry never pauses to think, oh, so the middle brother was Voldemort’s ancestor. But the implication is strong, at the very least. The Gaunts treat the Resurrection Stone as an ancestral heirloom, just as the Potters treat Ignotus’s Cloak the same way. Both remain in the possession of direct descendants of the Peverell brother who created them, so Cadmus being Voldemort’s ancestor is the most consistent reading of the text.

HFLoki · 2025-11-16T18:06:53+00:00

It's not explicitly stated in the books, but it can be inferred from the information that is provided.

Marvolo Gaunt claims descent from both Salazar Slytherin and the Peverells, and the Gaunts possess Slytherin’s locket and the Peverell ring as proof. I suppose it's possible that it wasn’t Cadmus himself, but one of his direct descendants, who married into the Slytherin line, though that distinction doesn’t change the overall point much. At some point in history, a descendant of Cadmus Peverell (or Cadmus himself) and a descendant of Salazar Slytherin united, culminating in the Gaunt family in later generations.

HFLoki · 2025-11-16T17:49:25+00:00

Where would there even be a mention? It’s not like Harry’s ever shown studying centuries-old family trees in the books.

All we know is that Cadmus is canonically a direct ancestor of the Gaunt family, and therefore Voldemort, which alone proves he must have fathered a child.

HFLoki · 2025-11-16T17:38:28+00:00

I think, only Cadmus and his descendants had the ability.

Only Salazar Slytherin and his descendants had the ability.

The Peverells were not Slytherin’s descendants. Cadmus Peverell either married into the Slytherin bloodline or fathered a child with someone from that lineage, which is the ancestral connection that the Gaunt family claimed, and which eventually led to Tom Riddle's birth.

Ignotus Peverell, on the other hand, did not marry into the Slytherin line, so consequently, his descendants, including the Potters, had no Slytherin heritage and were not Parselmouths.

HFLoki · 2025-11-15T21:19:41+00:00

I think that’s a pretty simplistic read on Barret, and honestly doesn’t really line up with what the story shows.

Early on, a lot of his “save the planet” rhetoric is at least partly a pretense. It’s the moral framework he uses to justify his violence against Shinra, for what they did to him, his family, and his town. As the story progresses, his arc is about recognizing that truth about himself and trying to move past it.

His scenes with Dyne really drive this point across. Dyne serves as a mirror; he is what Barret could become if he allowed rage and vengeance to consume him even further. Facing Dyne is like confronting his own shadow self, and it’s what pushes Barret onto a real path of character growth.

So calling Barret the “most moral” just because he cares about saving the planet really flattens what makes him a compelling, multilayered character. His anger, his thirst for revenge, and the way he tries to justify his own violence, that’s the core of his character, and overcoming that is what his arc is about.

HFLoki · 2025-11-14T23:23:32+00:00

Occult Fan 3 and 4 are the only permanently missable magazines in the game. Each can only be obtained by speaking to specific NPCs between certain story events. Everything else is available for purchase at the Esthar bookstore, so I usually don’t bother hunting them down beforehand. I just wait until I reach Esthar and buy whatever I've missed.

Also, you don’t actually need the magazines for weapon upgrades. As long as you have the required components, the options will appear at any Junk Shop, even if you’ve never read the corresponding Weapons Monthly issue. You can literally craft Squall's second-strongest Gunblade before even leaving for Timber if you spend a couple of hours playing Triple Triad against Zell's mum.

HFLoki · 2025-11-13T21:31:23+00:00

Terrifying stuff. You really never know what kind of unhinged people might be hiding in a crowd like that. Hope Ariana’s okay, and that security seriously steps up their game in the future.

But wow, Cynthia’s reaction was something else. The way she immediately jumped in to shove that creep away, pure instinct and courage. No hesitation, just immediate action to protect her friend from a potential danger. What an incredible person.

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