#redwintertalks

[redwinterroses]

Do you think Dr. Legundo looks at Avid -- this gung-ho, vengeance-driven, all-for-the-cause guy with an axe to grind and more passion than sense--

Do you think Dr. Legundo looks at him and sees every passionate, patriotic, loyal ensign and private and unblooded soldier that he failed to save?

Like, obviously Dr. Legundo wants to save everyone, but I think there's some... different reasons, for different characters. I think he wants to save Owen because he sees himself in Owen, and if he can bring Owen back from the brink of self-loathing and destruction, he can come back himself.

And then I think part of the reason Legs keeps trying to talk Avid off the proverbial and literal cliffs is because in spite of himself and his unending frustration with Avid, he can't help but want to protect Avid in the way that he couldn't protect those young soldiers who died in his care.

Dr. Legundo is carrying the weight of the village and the cursed and the cure, and I'm not yet 100% sure he's not going to break under it.

[redwinterroses]

No wait but hang on.

Why did Legundo cut out the entire sequence where Cleo and the gang find him in the woods, and then Pyro shows up and Avid tries to kill Pyro and Legundo demands to know what Avid's endgame is, and then a storm comes -- and then Legundo wanders off by himself again--!??!

SIR? Legs' perspective cuts from him falling -> flashback sequence -> conversation with Owen -> meeting Avid back in the village right before Avid burns Shelby's house.

But the part when he yells at Avid and goes "What is your endgame??" he then just kind of... stares? blankly? at Avid for the rest of that conversation, even after the storm starts? And then he vaguely wanders off away from the rest of the group(s)...

Not part of his POV.

Timing-wise, I thiiiiink the conversation with Owen happened after the Pyro encounter, purely because the rest of the group all gave Legs food before he left and then he had a lot more potatoes during his conversation with Owen than he did when they approached the crypt. AND because it's raining at the beginning of their conversation, and sunny by the end.

So I think the timing went: Legundo falls -> meets up with the rest of the group and confronts Pyro (and yells at Avid). Storm starts. -> Legundo gets food from the others and then wanders off -> Talks to Owen through the end of the storm (which Avid seems to have prayed away.) -> Legs returns to the village and finds Avid grieving Shelby.

But why do we not see the Pyro confrontation from Legundo's POV. Was he not entirely present? Did he know he was talking to Avid? Was he fully aware of his surroundings, or was it blending with the blackouts? Did he hit his head when he fell, or was it more a psychological flashback thing? (Or both).

Unreliable narrator my beloved but this one makes my brain hurt.

[redwinterroses]

i'm currently in love with KPop Demon Hunters but i can't draw so please just imagine this with me in vivid color:

the Bad Boys trying to seal the Honmoon. A demon boyband shows up and it's Tango (Jinu), Etho (Mystery), Scar (Abby), Skizz (Baby), and Impulse (Romance).

Jimmy (the cursed lead singer for the Bad Boys) and Tango teaming up trying to stop Gwi-Ma.

Derpy Tiger is the Rancher's Revenge and I'm sorry but that bird in the hat is Grian.

[redwinterroses]

so, I think it's fairly known and obvious that Grian often takes inspiration from other games/mods/gamemodes that he and/or the other hermits use when planning the Life series.

Third Life's main gimmick was prox chat, which had JUST been introduced to the hermits via the Among Us streams and was wildly new and innovative (for anyone who wasn't around before prox chat... it's genuinely incredible how much it changed mcyt in general and Hermitcraft specifically. Also bonus points if you remember Tango saying he didn't think it was a good idea on the server and that it wouldn't add anything lol)

Double Life came after Impulse and Skizz's "Naked and Scared" series kinda hit a high point of popularity, doing the shared-hearts UHC thing. Secret Life and Wild Life both had elements that were basically "complete the objective" and/or "solve the puzzle," which felt reminiscent of a load of co-op games that Hermits And Co. have played, including Phasmophobia, R.E.P.O., and Pico Park.

I'm not saying for sure that there might be connections to what the next "thing" for the Life series might be in whatever the Hermits and Co. folks have been doing lately (impossible minecraft? return of among us? misadventures? something specifically r.e.p.o.-flavored?) but I expect that after the next series airs, we may be able to look back and go "Aaaah, there -- they were testing this there."

Now personally, I'd love a return to more simple stuff -- three lives, maybe some boogeyman, etc. I loved Wild Life but it was insane and also felt kind of like a "best of/retrospective" series. I think they could easily get away with something less extreme, mod-wise... For example, I really want to see them try a limited-terrain map. Sky islands, cave world, water world, etc.

But either way, Grian's little bits of trolling have got me looking at what's currently going on in the mcyt-sphere and Having Suspicions.

[redwinterroses]

this story is so good in my head and i know people would go nuts about it but. problem. i have to write it first. in this economy.

[redwinterroses]

muddling on some differences between dsmp fic and hermitcraft fic today and just...

have you ever noticed how much BIGGER the world is in dsmp fics? Like, even in totally in-universe fics that happen in the span of canon events, there will be townspeople, visits to neighboring villages, extra NPCs (some that even cross stories -- possibly from the source material? sorry, I've only ever really explored dsmp stuff via fic) and discussions of large groups of people.

Then, with HC/Life Series/etc, it's usually like... just them. Obviously that makes sense in the Life Series, unless it's hugely AU, but with the hermits -- like, bruh, they build cities and villages and apartment complexes and factories staffed with workers but fics generally still tend to treat hermits like... well, hermits. A small group of people living in near or complete seclusion.

There are exceptions -- ParanoidPugs' "Of Wings and Watchers" series comes to mind, with its populated "world hubs" and servers treated almost like different planets -- but for the most part, non-AU Hermit fic usually tends to forego large numbers of NPCs or populated urban areas. Meanwhile dsmp fic often has characters visiting villages, interacting with non-player citizens of l'Manburg, having large faceless casts of soldiers and court nobles, etc.

Genuinely, I think most of it simply spawns from the heavy-RP nature of the dsmp (which makes it feel like a separate fantasy world) vs. the more "we're just a bunch of folks playing a game together" vibe that Hermitcraft often has. But I think it's an interesting fandom-culture thing and would love to hear if anyone has any other thoughts on it.

[redwinterroses]

I have taken great pleasure this year in adding fics to my reading tracker app as books read. making lil' scrappy covers for them and everything.

look, if I dedicated multiple hours to reading a 45k+ word fic, I'm getting to count it toward books read this year.

[redwinterroses]

tumblr is simultaneously the most nuanced site in existence where people are comfortable holding multiple complex and frictive viewpoints and recognizing the tension--

and also the most zero-sum-game website in the world where any deviation from the standard agreed-on narrative will get you thrown in a glue trap, horse plinko'd, and burned to the ground.