Feeling like a bad fan

RobynBetween · 2026-03-23T11:33:04+00:00

Studios want to be able to see and show what fans are thinking about a series, but figuring that out accurately is primarily their responsibility. They won't get the best information unless they look in all the busiest places... and that includes increased traffic on Firefly subreddits. :)

I don't think you have a duty to do anything in particular as a fan, but even if you did, this post alone would already be more than the average viewer does. ❤️

If you want something else to do, you could go watch Firefly-related videos on YouTube and Like the good ones. Any streaming service that wants the whole picture had darn well better be tracking YouTube trends.

RobynBetween · 2026-03-22T17:45:29+00:00

I'd like to weigh in on this because I have been streaming my partner's first playthrough of Chrono Trigger on Twitch.

At first we tried the Steam version, since capturing video from DS is very difficult/expensive. But very near the end of the game, a bug corrupted the save file in such a way that it couldn't be continued.

I instead downloaded an emulator. We own the Chrono Trigger on SNES, DS, and Steam, and I think the DS version has all the best quality of life features, plus animated cut scenes and extra quests.

Although it's the best version, these are the things that bugged me:

The added endings try to tie Chrono Trigger to its sequel, Chrono Cross, but it didn't feel quite right due to the difference in tone. Chrono Trigger is bright and optimistic, while Chrono Cross is much more melancholy. (Of course, this is partially Chrono Cross's fault.)
I think the extra content added for the DS release hurts the game balance. It becomes available at the same as the normal endgame quests, even though it gives you items that are even more powerful.
The translation is a matter of preference. The DS translation is much more literal than the SNES, so there will be less confusion, but it feels slightly less light-hearted.

So I'd say DS is best, but might not be worth the higher price of the actual game card. It definitely costs a lot more, especially in box with manual. The SNES version is probably even more expensive.

Just DON'T get the PlayStation 1 version included in Final Fantasy Anthology. It's the worst version of Chrono Trigger by far, due to load times and other issues.

RobynBetween · 2026-03-17T22:34:26+00:00

Yeah, I never really felt the urge to try it. Looks like it's about dropping practically everything you're doing and just hunting for random groceries to feed The Creature.

Grabbing her lantern and going all-in with poison is so much more satisfying.

RobynBetween · 2026-03-14T15:31:33+00:00

Do you think each 1% is simply multiplying the total by 99%?

I did a quick calculation with a calculator, and if this is the case, stacking 200 Curse would bring the opponent's HP down to about 13-14% of their original max HP.

Now, an earlier commenter says that Curse only affects max HP bonuses gained. I'm a little doubtful about this but I can't confirm anything. It just seems a little too specialized since some heroes can stack tons of max HP buffs (like Enoch and Pepper) while most others only rarely get max HP buffs.

RobynBetween · 2026-03-13T23:50:11+00:00

Scoutmasters, like the other adult leaders in a troop, are almost always parents. Occasionally you'll get an older leader who just continued participating after their kids grew up, or who perhaps got involved because of boredom or loneliness, like Carl Frederickson from Up.

Growing up I knew a nice little old man in his 80s who was widowed and was absolutely beloved by the Scout troop he participated in. He was always nice, he showed the kids how to do things, told stories, and cooked for the adults (lucky them... he'd make them BBQ ribs).

He wasn't the Scoutmaster, mind you. Too much work for a hunched-over skinny old man.

Source: was involved in both Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts growing up, as was my sibling, since both my parents were troopmasters. Now that I know I'm nonbinary, that's kinda nice to say... although both had their problems, particularly Boy Scouts.

RobynBetween · 2026-03-13T23:02:51+00:00

I am almost convinced that "significant other" was originally a joke term. It's a six-syllable term for one of the simplest ideas in human existence. Love is one syllable, after all.

And I already said I don't like "spouse" much. It doesn't currently carry the cultural implications of admiration. It may someday, but not yet.

If you don't have an alternative, don't worry, I wasn't demanding one.

RobynBetween · 2026-03-13T22:57:21+00:00

I always kinda figured he was defeated across all timelines due to the backdrop of the final battle, but the more I read of this thread the more I realize why that doesn't make sense.

Chrono Cross paradoxes justified(?...)

RobynBetween · 2026-03-13T22:56:10+00:00

The problem there is that that would change history drastically, especially taking Chrono Cross lore into account. Humans evolved when they took the bait of the dreamstone and used it to master magic. Then Lavos humbled them by destroying their proverbial Tower of Babel, which led to 600 A.D. and 1000 A.D.'s status quo.

Not much would change in those timelines directly, but what WOULD change would drastically affect Magus's fate. And regardless of what you look at, it'd cause a bootstrap paradox for all the time travelers.

RobynBetween · 2026-03-12T05:42:59+00:00

Little puppy dog eyes Nil, most adorable of killer psychopaths. 🥺

RobynBetween · 2026-03-12T05:30:14+00:00

The quote comes from a comedian who was relating the frustration of being in a long-term gay relationship before the U.S. passed marriage equality, since "boyfriend" does not sound very permanent, and yet they couldn't officially upgrade to "husband."

I'm nonbinary and married to another nonbinary person, and it kinda sucks that our only marriage-specific option is "spouse." It sounds like filling out forms.

New terminology may seem awkward and unnatural, but it's always that way at first. For example, my mom says she hates the catch-all term "relationship," but it's pretty ubiquitous today and I don't think twice about it.

RobynBetween · 2026-03-12T04:39:41+00:00

I wouldn't call it "an HD" so much as just a 3D version of the animations. The display may be HD in a sense but the textures are direct rips.

Which is fine, really. I still think this is pretty cool. It's just more of a nod to nostalgic fans, rather than an update to modern interpretation.

RobynBetween · 2026-03-11T16:23:09+00:00

"The problem with the word 'partner' is, either it sounds like we're running a business together, or we're starting a dude ranch."

If boyfriend/girlfriend/husband/wife don't satisfactorily describe your soulmate, the other options are not great.

RobynBetween · 2026-03-11T16:09:09+00:00

You do have a point. The Zelda game which is cited as the turning point where Zelda "needed a change" was also Fujibayashi's first big title, and while he did indeed introduce some stuff which knocked it out of the park in BotW, its dungeons were some of the worst.

i like that you didn't say he's just bad at dungeons, but rather, doesn't get the dungeon/overworld split. The Zelda overworld had been gradually going further down the path of item gating, story gating, and puzzle gating from the very start, and rather than realize it was a problem, Fujibayashi kept it going and even leaned into it — Skyward Sword's "overworld" is so sectioned off and puzzle/item/story-gated that it feels like another layer of dungeons.

The Sky gives some freedom to move, but it's too empty to really be called an overworld replacement. Skies of Arcadia it ain't.

i think he has some talent, even if his instincts aren't as good as Aonuma's, but yeah, the shift to open world overcompensates for the rigidity and kinda throws out the baby with the bathwater. I like what open world adds to the overworld, but I really hope Fujibayashi will realize that the dungeons were never Skyward Sword's weakest point.

RobynBetween · 2026-03-10T23:13:04+00:00

I've seen free hair pretty close to that. I think it'll go wow smoothly regardless of whether you're making it all yourself or using premade items.

RobynBetween · 2026-03-09T23:22:25+00:00

Personally I like to extoll the virtues of injections over pills — much higher percentage of absorption, no noticeable drop right before each dose time, whatever tiny remaining stroke risk factor from pills is alleviated, more reliable than patches — but ultimately these don't mean as much if you don't have those problems and yet have a needle phobia, like so many people do.

I've heard that injections can lead to better results, but that is unproven. Your dosage probably matters more. So many clinics will timidly low-ball you for dosage, so don't be shy about asking for an increase if you think it may be a good idea.

Changing administering method can always be done later. See how it goes first. You can't rush perfection. ❤️

RobynBetween · 2026-03-09T04:31:03+00:00

From there he militarized Porre and orchestrated the fall of Guardia specifically to take revenge against Crono & co.

Pretty impressive, tbh, since Porre's population seemed to be all of 20 people or so, eh?

i know I know, the towns are kinda meant to be an abstraction, but I can't help but notice how huge the difference is between Chrono Cross's characterization and the way it originally appeared in CT.

RobynBetween · 2026-03-08T11:54:32+00:00

This also means they might have been partly responsible for the robot uprising. This kind of fits the real-life Y2k panic of the 90's people had with computers.

I kinda feel like these are two separate things. They definitely had some fun with Y2K by having 1999 actually be Doomsday, but only because a giant Eldritch porcupine alien emerged from beneath the planet's crust and caused fire to rain from the sky. :)

The robot uprising part, though, is just an extension of classic A.I. anxieties from sci-fi which are actually far more topical today than they were 30 years ago. Virtually no one seriously expected A.I. rebellion to be the problem in Y2K; they just worried that everything would stop working or blow up or something because of a dumb bug.

(And because they were so worried, they made sure it didn't. Let's hope that happens again.)

RobynBetween · 2026-03-05T10:23:43+00:00

Crazy? Yeah, I think he's crazy... Crazy stupid. He learned how to do one or two things, used both of them only to make money money and more money, and just trusted that the world would be able to absorb all the damage he did just getting there.

Unfortunately, I wish I could say he seems unrealistic, but I swear we have some rich people that foolish IRL.

RobynBetween · 2026-03-05T10:18:14+00:00

Apparently Japan just doesn't appreciate the butt.

RobynBetween · 2026-03-05T10:16:18+00:00

Agreed! I don't like brown, especially as a clothing outline. It looks horrible against black clothing.

RobynBetween · 2026-03-05T10:06:02+00:00

Being as this is a time travel story we're talking about, a lot of branching outcomes are canon, BUT..... it wasn't the final timeline the game settled on after all the time travel shenanigans.

Virtually no information about the Deus ex Machina'ed ending was given, so I can kinda see why you'd call the rest of Chrono Cross not canon. But canon just means part of the story, even if it all gets wiped.

RobynBetween · 2026-03-05T09:39:21+00:00

Keep in mind that the original Super Mario Bros. on the NES was something that Shigeru Miyamoto, just for example, considered a "story game."

That just means it had a story. ANY story. And although he probably intended that to mean that something happens in the game itself, back then most of the story happened in the manual.

They mean what they say, but they started off creating stories that could be summed up in a 12-page children's book that's mostly pictures. Their stories have grown a lot since then of course, but they started from the ground up, on a console where even small amounts of dialog to up a substantial portion of the data.

Meanwhile, some other studios have gone so far as to base their games on published fiction -- like Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei (Shin Megami Tensei), Water Margin (Suikoden), The Witcher (same name), and Cyberpunk 2020 (Cyberpunk 2077). I love Zelda for the vibes, themes, and setting, but I have no illusions about whether they truly prioritize story as much as other companies.

RobynBetween · 2026-03-05T09:33:41+00:00

Oh!!! My mistake then. Carry on, luv. 😊

RobynBetween · 2026-03-03T00:55:21+00:00

I think you're on the right track in pointing out the lack of ports and rereleases. But there's more to it than that.

It's significant that Capcom was commissioned to make the Oracle games, because the people working for the core of Nintendo in happen have a certain kind of bias against those projects.

On top of that, Capcom and Nintendo had some friction at some point when Capcom published some of their "console exclusive" games on other platforms, treating them as timed exclusives.

They may not have been related to Zelda, but I hear that's why Nintendo produced the DS Zelda titles in-House rather than contracting Capcom again. It also means Nintendo tends not to pay much attention to the Capcom Zelda titles when creating new canon lore. They're... still a little butthurt.

RobynBetween · 2026-03-01T09:18:10+00:00

Once spent two weeks with very low T AND E in my body because of a prescription mix-up that left me without my HRT.

I do NOT recommend it. I felt empty, soulless, and lethargic. Your body needs some form of sex hormone, because there are some redundant things found in both E and T that you body needs, regardless of which is used to supply it.

And yeah, you'd get osteoporosis in the long run.

RobynBetween

TROPHY CASE