Certified kinkshamer

Jackie 27 | NB | Bi | Danish | AuDHD They/Them 2D+3D artist and writer Currently back in my Dragon Age, Mass Effect and Warframe phase Very autistic about my oc's

[elucubrare]

You’ve heard of “i didn’t say it was good, i said i liked it,” get ready for “i said it had some technical problems & didn’t fully deliver on its themes, not that i didn’t like it”

[elucubrare]

#I voiced a criticism of some of its aspects#which in no way implies I did not like it#“and especially does not imply that I would like to hear a defense of it of the form 'shut up and let people have fun'”

REALLY endorsing these tags from galileosballs

[batmanisagatewaydrug]

the thing about misogyny is that nothing makes apparent how prevalent it is faster than just pointing out misogyny, which will have people scuttering out of the damn sewers like ninja turtles to accuse you of being an overly sensitive shit-stirring know-nothing who's making up things to be offended about. which is actually also pretty misogynistic, but if you point it out people will come scuttering out of the damn sewers—

[batmanisagatewaydrug]

oh Sara Ahmed we're really in it now, etc

[batmanisagatewaydrug]

btw this also applies to racism, transphobia, homophobia, ableism, fatphobia, etc etc etc

[valkyrneuroptics]

i think my issue with a lot of newer warframe content is that it all wants to be the new war in terms of scope, or like 1999 in the number of likeable new cast members it adds. but liek in chasing that impact it falls short because 1999 only really succeeded due to how whispers in the wall set it up.

[multidimensionalmusicalmess]

Agreed on all counts; I honestly think the solution here is really just to spread out the stories over more updates, and for DE to accept that they cannot make their character-driven content good and release it this frequently. All these concepts could work fine if there was more dialogue, more missions, more setup, more time for the introduced concepts and characters to really start to feel like part of the setting---but so long as they keep trying to do huge emotional stories within the space of half-hour quests, it's going to keep falling flat.

The New War had years of setup to be as good as it was. 1999 and Duviri, for all their flaws and unexplained narrative beats, had a lot of time as well and have been integrated fairly well into the other parts of the game. Jade Shadows and its sequel are regrettably far to the other end of that spectrum.

[snooze-mode]

Jade Shadows Constellations Spoilers below

Gonna be honest... I didn't like that quest. I really wanted to, but I didn't.

Firstly, the pacing. Warframe has a lot of issues with pacing, and this quest is no different. Story beats were given no room to breathe, and thus had little to no impact. There was something good here, but nothing had the appropriate time to sink in. Stalker recruits Umbra, but Umbra is quickly cast aside on the basis of being the designated babysitter. You play him for a whole 20 seconds to soothe the baby and then he's done. You go attack the mentors in order to lure Sirius and Orion out, but you learn nothing as to how the two got into those scenarios. Hunhow sacrifices himself to bring the peace, but no time is given to make that decision hold any weight.

And Jade... Jade, my beloved. They continue to use you for shock factor and nothing else. To have her be a Void manifestation attempting to lure Stalker in, and having to kill said manifestation without even a moment of doubt is just... Wow. And the final nail in the fucking coffin? Having her show up in person at the end of the quest, right after Hunhow sacrifices himself to reunite the family... And having her be nothing more than another manifestation. A voice in Stalker's head, a fleeting mote of light. Reuniting the family, but once again, Jade isn't worth saving.

Jade, the woman so deadset on having her son that she went against every law to have him, who got turned into a Warframe for her insubordination, who kept herself sane whilst being forced to murder for the Orokin by thinking about her child and all the time she'll get to spend with him... Doesn't deserve to be saved? Doesn't deserve to see her children grow up? Are you fucking shitting me? In this new, tenuous peace... There is no place for Jade. It's so fucking upsetting to me, genuinely.

Now, I admit my bias: I love Jade. She is by far my favourite Warframe. I have, however, been incredibly uncomfortable with how they have handled her. She exists basically to drive the character development of the men around her. The original quest has her lying there, actively dying, whilst her husband refuses to give her the proper medical care she needs. She is so deadset on having children that she kills herself in order to make it happen. Her story, however unintentionally, falls into the very same sentiment that they attempted to use Parvos to critique: A woman's purpose is to provide a child, and once that is done, there is no use for her. It's so fucking baffling, considering DE's generally progressive stances.

It hits very close to home in certain ways for some female players (myself included, although I have seen other AFAB players echoing this sentiment). I want better for this character, and she's just... been reduced to a lobotomised copy of the woman piloted by a superpowered teen. Motherhood is clearly meant to be a huge part of her character, but she is denied even that. Stalker, someone who actively contributed to her death, gets a happier ending than Jade. Not a *happy* ending, this is Warframe we're talking about, but it feels incredibly wrong to have Hunhow throw his memories away in order to create a peace so that Stalker can break the cycle and give his children what they deserve... Only to leave their mother out of the picture. It should have a lot of weight, but it feels hollow when Jade is excluded from that peace. Stalker is getting a good ending here, with the sons at peace and never having to chose between either. Why must Jade continue to be robbed of her peace?

It's just... so frustrating. Sorry for the rant.

[galacta-phantasma]

Spoilers below cut

That... that was way too fucking short. Warframe's always had a bit of a pacing problem, and not every quest needs to be New War length, but I feel like this needed a bit more time to flesh out the characters

Cephalon Parvos? A plague? The Tenno were involved, and you want to know more? Too bad!

Sirious and Orion are non-entities in what is supposedly their own story. They show up, fight each other, try and fight Umbra, then Hunhow sacrifices himself to give the family "peace" and they're best friends now without a singular word said by them. Ryoku and Vena feel one-dimensional. Jade is once again a prop who's there to Make Her Husband Feel Sad About Her Death. Did she not also deserve peace? Did she not also deserve to raise her son(s)?

If the Tenno and the Lotus are not supposed to ever find out about the doomed future, what's up with the new Railjack missions doing exactly that?

I'm glad Umbra was finally brought back, but they might as well have not bothered. You play as him for all of TEN SECONDS to soothe the baby then he just stands around the rest of the quest.

A lot of the in-between sections could have been cut as you just walk up to Hunhow, he says 3 lines, then walk back to your ship

All in all, very much a nothingburger quest for me.

[zackisontumblr]

i am supposed to have the energy… to do stuff...?

[zackisontumblr]

every? day??

[kingshai69]

i think protoframes and time travel should have been kept as a 1999 thing only, because what is going on at this point. protoframes are now just added to have more skins to sell, and eternalism and time travel has just become some a bad multiverse device lmfao

[kingshai69]

and like i am a huge protoframe and enternalism enjoyer, even to some extent time travel, but the way they have all been utilized lately i am not a fan of, and it's done in ways i feel completely lacks what i did actually enjoy about those elements. just overall find it so demoralizing how big and flashy but short and shallow the main quests have become.

[kingshai69]

i think protoframes and time travel should have been kept as a 1999 thing only, because what is going on at this point. protoframes are now just added to have more skins to sell, and eternalism and time travel has just become some a bad multiverse device lmfao

[diasdelfuego]

the thing about art is that sometimes you'll be moved to tears by stuff that is not very good

[my-tardis-sense-is-tingling]

[drhorsekiller]

[kingshai69]

i love writing drifter during their early days with the hex because theres still such a huge disconnect between the version of themself they've made up in their head due to their guilt etc in order to survive vs. the person that's reflected by their actual actions and wants/needs and i love it and i love writing it, because it's so messy and human and real, and i love that even with everything else going on, they still struggle with some of the most common problems and insecurities

anyway, before i get carried away and start rambling about how painfully human drifter is and how much i love that its one of of their greatest strengths, heres some snippets of some of what ive been writing about this

like drifter spiraling, still fearing they're nothing but the flawed void manifestation of a terrified and abandoned child, who only knows apathy and anger:

also drifter 10 minutes later:

they just casually decides to spend their free time figuring out how to make better coffee because lettie complained about how bad it is. then later starts growing herbs and spices in the backroom because arthur complained about only having shitty rations to cook with. keeps leaving little gifts for the others that they know they like or need.

they're so deeply in denial about how badly they crave connection and closeness because they're convinced they dont know how to and feel undeserving, but every single thing they do shows just how much they notice and care, even for people they've only known a few weeks.

i love them

(also them learning a bit of languages everywhere they go is based on how letties later kim chats has her teaching them, but also drifter teaching her ostron i think it was? combined with them telling arthur about how they still read a lot since duviri took everything except for the things in their head. and i like the idea of them telling themself its just because its useful, when in reality its about having something to remind them that cant be lost or taken away)

[milkywayes]

The Eleventh Hour

Commander Shepard, sci-fi Cassandra

[ -> prints ♥ ]

[kingshai69]

i should dye my hair pink again

[guelwaar]

i dont know why people are so bad at parsing out beauty standard related to breast size specifically (i do know) it's not that complex and certainly not hidden at all, larger breasts connote an undisciplined body in a specifically racialised way, so they're always objects of both sexual interest and social stigma. the two don't contradict and the kind of violent sexualisation directed at larger breasts is of an entirely different category than when someone is made to feel shitty for having smaller breasts, the same way 'skinny shaming' is not a comparable phenomenon to anti fat discrimination even though the former is still like. rude. body fat in general = unrefined, uncivilised, again racialised terms because this is a discourse of racialisation & with breasts theres a specific configuration from delicate maiden femininity when small to sexualised object when large. women who work as haute couture models with 15 bmi and women who act in porn wearing a 28ff are all women subject to body judgment misogyny but you're insane if you think theres not a clear answer as to which has the more enviable social position lol

[anarchopuppy]

sometimes being a fan of something means not wanting them to make any more of it

[orpheuslament]

terrifying when you watch a movie or a show or whatever & youre like that was fun but it felt a little redundant they didnt need to hammer the point home that much & then you go online & theres thousands of people going that was so weird i did not get it what did that mean google.com ending explained please?

[redstonedust]

sometimes it feels like being nonbinary is about having to decide which way you'd prefer to be misgendered.