Context: I love wicked, I saw it twice in the late 2000s, I’ve spent countless hours singing along in the car with friends, and like many ppl who love wicked I was a theater kid. Over the last decade and a half, my tastes have evolved and I enjoy media with a more critical eye. This is not the same as a negative or cynical eye. I have also gone from being *the* musical theater kid to being very much an ex-musical theater kid. And so with the movie coming out I was curious how wicked would hold up for me.
Last night I watched a bootleg. It was pretty good resolution considering, but I think it being a bootleg helped strip away the spectacle to lay bare its structure and quality. And its quality is very inconsistent, both in story and in songs.
For every soaring character moment like Elphie and Glinda grappling with their lives taking them in conflicting directions, there is moment of nauseating fan fiction cringe like the needless fate of the two male leads (a change from the source material that cheapens the show AND wiz of Oz by extension). For every interesting (if underdeveloped) political idea, whether Elphie’s life of underground sentient-rights/Animal advocacy or the the shift of Morrible and the Wizard seeing Glinda as a valuable political asset, there are countering moments where the characters and themes are uselessly undermined in favor of the absolute lamest of conveniences, like the green bottle reveal and the super unclear switch in power dynamics between Glinda and morrible. And why, at the end, must Glinda never know? She would be the perfect ally to them, it makes no sense why they’d keep it from her.
The story quality is truly like an upside down bell curve where it’s either transcendent or the most cringe cheugy bottom of the barrel storytelling.Structurally, act 1 is way better but is nearly back to back songs. It’s almost an opera. Act 2 has a better balance of dialogue but it’s so rushed and the story feels held together with twice used tape.
Same with the songs. Let’s be real y’all. A lot of these songs sound ugly. And so many of them are needless hindrances to the characters and story.
No One Mourns the Wicked - the crowd’s lines are weird and cringe, but glindas parts are very high quality. Could use a rewrite.
Dear old shiz - keep as is. (It’s lucky it’s short.)
Wizard and I - keep but cut the “unlimited” sections since nobody recognizes the reference to over the rainbow anyway unless it’s pointed out to you.
What is this feeling - it’s cute, but adds nothing to the story and is a time suck. Cut.
Something bad - cut. My god cut. Missed opportunity for a dialogue break + develop Dillomond as more than a plot device and have song-less scenes with Elphie and DD be a recurring more grounded storyline. It should also have been meaningfully continued in act 2 when they’re both on the other side of the law, not just the reveal in the palace.
Dancing through life - sorry yall but this song doesn’t cut it. Dancing as a metaphor for laziness? But Dancing isn’t something lazy people do? It doesn’t make any sense, it’s too vague but also too specific (“down at the ozdust”). And like… he sings about valuing his life (“because dust is what we come to”) but in fact it’s the opposite - he takes it for granted and is willing to waste his life until he falls in love with Elphie. The song doesn’t fit the character, or the analogy, and it’s also way too high-school-musical. CUT.
Popular - keep as is.I’m not that girl - keep as is.
One short day - cut and Make it a background score. Or at least Trim it down to the “dress salons and libraries” part, ending with “it’s all green.” Make it a more direct and concise counterpart to “merry old land of Oz”
Sentimental man - CUT.
Defying gravity - keep as is.
Thank goodness - keep as is.
(Missed opportunity for a reprise of popular here)
Wonderful - make it half as long.
As long as your mine - its fine but doesn’t add anything. Cut.
No good deed - keep but get rid of that truly stupid fiyero storyline I mentioned earlier. Would be way more interesting if this was restructured to her trying to save her sister pre-cyclone.
March of the witch hunters - CUT.
For good - keep as is…. But what the hell is a “sky bird”? Lame phrases like that hold it back a bit.
Finale - eh just parse it down to a for good reprise.
They’re not going to do this, but I wish they give Wicked the Grease treatment for the movie and replace all the weaker songs with better ones or fix with structural changes.
TLDR: upon rewatch, wicked is half soaring and half mega cringe, with far too many ugly songs.

Howdy l've been role-playing and writing in general forat least a decade. I am a Male who can play male and female characters. I have original ideas all over and a lot of Fandoms I'm in, which I'Il include below. I'm looking for OCXOC. Every character must be 18+ I have plenty of original characters and ideas along with fandom plots.
For original ideas, i like horror and apocalypse with action and depending romance. I do have a variety. I really like monsters and creepy things from the horror genre like vampires and Tentacles, and l even have my own idea set up in modern times dealing with vampires and hunters and all of that i also enjoy eldritch type horror. I also like old-school slasher films and space sci-fi horror similar to the Alien Franchise.
Now on fandoms! To get some other things down, l only play OC. The anime fandoms i like are Jojo's, Chainsaw Man, Naruto, JJK, Soul Eater, and more. I'm well versed in the Jojo's, Naruto, and JJK, and soul eater fandoms, though it's been a while since ï've stopped keeping up with soul eater. Other fandoms im in include Percy Jackson, Call of Duty, Marvel, and DC.
I tend to use character sheets to describe my character. These are very thorough and usually consist of names, backgrounds, and personalities, along with an in-depth look on appearance. More so on appearances, I don't usually use picture references, but I will if you would like me to.
The types of characters I write are the lone wolf type that has some sad past, which leads them to potentially go off the rails and gain a villain arc.I like all types of tropes, especially enemies to lovers or rivalry. I also really enjoy opposites attracted as a whole from either opposite personality or something else they would be opposites in. Enemies to lovers takes my heart, though.
I love seeing the characters go past theurge to ultimately hate each other and/or go past their usual way of disliking the others' lineage or upcoming I also love good written trauma moments. Like character death's, moments of pain and strife only to see the characters to deal and either be consumed or overcome them. I tend to either come up with original ideas for these scenes or use anime scenes as inspiration with narrative tweaks.
REQUIREMENT
I think my two biggest requirements are creativity and good pacing. Like any story, I feel these two things are very necessary to make a good story. Now, by Creativity, I don't mean you need to bring absolute craziness into the story, but abilities, character etc need to have some good genuine thought put into them. Along with that comes good pacing, which means I don't personally care about response length, and mine will vary from scene to scene accordingly.
I'm pretty much done if you have any questions. I'm here, and I'd love to hear back from you in chat the password is your favorite color. Supply it in chat only.

I originally had all my work and activities descriptions written out, with only a few activities having specific anecdotes. THEN I watched a Dr. Gray video that basically said do NOT sell yourself or describe your responsibilities, tell stories instead. So I went back and changed my descriptions. Can anyone share their opinions on if this is the best way to go or not? I have a couple examples of my original descriptions and my new descriptions here:
Example #1 original:
As a member of the Habitat for Humanity Club, I participated in builds 1-3 times per semester to contribute to the construction or renovation of homes for local families. I assisted in tasks including demolition, exterior siding, landscaping, insulation, and painting. I first became involved in Habitat because I know firsthand how anxiety-inducing it can be to experience housing instability. Growing up in a single-parent household, we bounced from one friend's basement to another for the majority of my childhood. Now that I am in a position where I feel stable and safe in my own home, helping build that space for other families has been incredibly gratifying.
Example #1 edited:
I first became involved in Habitat for Humanity because I know firsthand how anxiety-inducing it can be to experience housing instability. Growing up, my family bounced from one friend's basement to another for the majority of my childhood. Now that I am in a position where I feel stable and safe in my own home, helping build that space for other families has been incredibly gratifying. One of my favorite memories was eating a homemade lunch prepared by the future homeowners of the house in which we were installing flooring that day. The son excitedly described how he told everyone in his class that he finally had his own bedroom. Moments like those made all the physical labor worthwhile.
Example #2 original:
I served as a tutor and a study group facilitator for introductory evolutionary biology and molecular biology. As a study group facilitator, I prepared worksheets and activities to reinforce course content and encourage group problem-solving for weekly 2-hour sessions with up to 15 students. As a tutor, I held several one-on-one appointments each week, eventually earning CRLA tutor certification. In October 2023, I was promoted to Tutor Team Leader. My responsibilities included overseeing a group of 15 tutors, conducting observations and evaluations, and training new tutors. I learned to effectively communicate complex topics and leveraged my experiences to mentor and train new tutors.
Example #2 edited: I served as a tutor and study group facilitator for two biology courses, earning CRLA tutor certification after my first year. In October 2023, I was promoted to Tutor Team Leader, which involved overseeing a group of tutors, conducting tutor observations and evaluations, and training new tutors. The most gratifying part of these jobs was sharing my love of science with others, even inspiring some students to become tutors and facilitators themselves. One of my fondest memories as a tutor was when “Ana,” who studied devotedly for weeks after failing her first exam, came to her tutoring session grinning as she shouted “I passed!” Her commitment to learning continues to inspire me daily.

Hello fellow writers! I am once again on the hunt for a roleplay partner 🤗
I want to do a medieval, arranged marriage roleplay where are characters are from rival nations, and perhaps even from different fantasy races. Enemies to lovers is one of my all time favorite plots.
I'd like the story to incorporate the differences between our character's cultures, have them drop their hatred and prejudices for one another, learn from the other and grow closer as their romance develops within their forced marriage.
Let's play up politics, love triangles, espionage, drama, life, death, magic, anything we can think of.
A little about me, I'm 30 female from the States. I've been roleplaying on and off for about 13 plus years. I'm semi to advanced literate, depending on the plot, the scene and my partner. I write mostly in 3rd person, I'm comfortable with themes that are 🌠romantic🌶 in nature, and discord is my preferred platform for roleplaying. I prefer my partner to be 21 plus and also in the States, though I'm pretty flexible in that regard.
I do prefer stories that are long term, that can span over years of the character's lives with numerous plot points throughout. It always creates a more in depth story! I love chatting outside of the roleplay as well 💖
I'm a mom to a one year old. My day job is very easy, so I'm free on and off for most of my working hours, evenings and the occasional middle of the night feeding lol I'm in desperate need for some creativity in my life
Please send me a message detailing some of your ideas for the story so we can discuss more. I really look forward to hearing from you! Let's get creative!

This movie was my favorite of the franchise, it felt like an adventure, a spaghetti western feel mixed with a feel of the first Fallout game. The plot is slow paced (which is so refreshing to see in a modern movie, especially an action), they allow for silence to tell the story through expressions and scenery, almost as much as the dialogue. There was no comically evil human actions this time either.
I loved this movie and seeing people call it boring (because of any of the reasons listed)- it feels like they’re missing the point. Am I alone in loving this movie? All I see in comments is people hating it :(

So this is just a rant about a fanfic I just read and felt the need to share with the internet, I won't title it or name where it comes from but if you know then tell me your thoughts about it.
There's something about this story I hate so much it made me cry. The story is meant to be like a Fix-It, you know, time travel allows the main character to go back in time and do things differently with some new knowledge about how things turn out. So the story already has a heavy focus on saving the souls of like two people. The sister who is cursed and is currently dying, she's part of the focus but she's not really the focus, the focus is the brother who dives into dark magic in order to save her. The problem with this story is how much this plot actually doesn't matter until it suddenly crammed into the last chapter, making it one of the longest in the story and also sloppy. The story otherwise is filled with fluff and the main character knowingly and yet unknowingly, somehow, flirting with three different guys one of them being the brother, let's call him Boy A, the other being his best friend, Boy B, and then a third, Boy C. It's full of the MC getting her friend group together, full of companionship and kindness, with very little actual substance in the story besides a few noteworthy moments. These are fix it moments when you change the outcome of what originally happened with no real difference because it's not given any correct amount of care. This story is so unnecessary long because it's full of fluff moments that the plot, which ultimately could have fit in one story, because it's 300,000 words, is being split into a second. I get that this is partly a romance story but that's actually one of the issues because it's a romance story and yet it's very obviously that Boy A is the focus, that flirting with Boys B and C is useless drama. I say useless because in the back end of the story she admits she doesn't know what romance is. So now I really feel like I've wasted my time because she admits she doesn't know what romance is and doesn't have any romantic feelings for anyone.
So on top of this useless love square she has created with herself in the middle, the author still found a way to mistreat the character and plot she had neglected at the end. Returning to Boy A, not only does she keep things from him and lie to him often about the things she knows about him or the things she knows about his sister's condition, she even lies about who causes her condition because the MC just doesn't trust him at all. There comes a point when he starts to go on his own way to solve his sister's curse because at this point no one's giving him anything to work on and this is his original path anyway. So because she's just been wasting her time having fun and oh so flirty moments, the boy continues to the point in which he starts to research in dark magic because literally no one's given him anything to save his sister with and she's currently deteriorating right in front of his eyes and they expect him to wait for something that is clearly not there. But the worst part is that this actually does change from the original story. Instead of grabbing his friends and going on this dark path together, he takes it alone and they follow after him only to then blame him when they catch up. He even tells them that he didn't want to get them in danger that's why he chose to do it alone, he would at this point rather harm himself over the MC. And yet she still guilt trips the guy who at this point she had already mentioned is emotionally damaged and slowly losing his mind. The failure of this narrative to have any sympathy for a character it already knows is emotionally compromised literally hurts my brain because that means to me that sympathy is dictated by the MC and no other character in this narrative is going to, at any point, argue against her actions. Not only because every other male character that isn't specifically tied down to another female character loves her but because the only other guy in the situation is his best friend and he has also fallen for the MC. In fact, his love for MC overcomes his understanding of his best friend. There is a weak patch job for their friendship , but as I have mentioned its weak but they love MC more than their friendship.
So yeah I've come away from this realizing I have indeed read 300,000 words of a Mary Sue character wasting her time doing fluff with characters that are interesting but unnecessary and stringing along three different guys while ignoring the actual plot. So yeah, a waste of time.

✮⋆˙ introduction ✮⋆˙

so my last post was about the realities that i have shifted to. however, this post will be about the realities that i plan to shift to/my wishful thinking. i have either thought of shifting to here or have already scripted such. i will provide a brief explanation about my dr and why i am shifting there as well as any scripting or ideas about it that i do have.

˖ ִֶָ𐀔 fairy dr ˖ ִֶָ𐀔

this dr is the one that i showed visuals for in a post not too long ago. in this reality, i am a fairy trying to hide my identity. my shadow shows my wings as the light casts upon me.
i come from a wealthy family. one who also hides identities about this. my familiar will be either a ferret, a wolf, or a crow. i personally cannot decide. i will probably spin a wheel for that.
this one is my priority to shift to next so fingers crossed! i find it somewhat difficult to shift to a new location the first time versus shifting to one that i am familiar with. i am debating between just adding this reality to my waiting room or shifting directly to it.
yes, i have a lot of chosen one esque drs, idk what to tell you there. i just enjoy the idea of hiding a big secret.

ᶻ 𝗓 𐰁 .ᐟ percy jackson dr ᶻ 𝗓 𐰁 .ᐟ

i love the percy jackson franchise and i love the lightning thief musical.

˚❀༉‧₊˚. code lyoko dr

code lyoko is a french animated and eventually a live action tv show about a group of children trying to fight a digital virus that can escape into the real world known as xana while also helping their friend escape the virtual world. her and her memories are connected to the virtual world meaning that if the super computer is turned off, she will go into a comatose state until it is back on. zana is connected to the virtual world however so in order to get her out of the place known as lyoko, they also have to keep xana around. to fight xana, they must go inside of lyoko through a virtual machine to transport their bodies and consciousness into the super computer.
i watched this series in middle school and was always so fascinated about how it works. i wish to shift to this reality one day. however, i do worry about how the experience about getting into lyoko would feel like. i am excited to go to it one day. i would shift to the english version of the show as that's the one that i grew up with. the voices of them feel more familiar to me.
so, about me in this reality. i am the main character aelita's sibling. aelita is the character in the super computer. i am a teacher at the middle school they attend. ten years ago, i went off to college before the events of the series took place. unbeknownst to me, my father was chased by officials and put my sister in a virtual computer. the computer was turned off and they left. i was told that they were missing.
that was until i came to teach at this boarding middle school. by this time i am twenty-eight years old. i have noticed the strange behaviors of my students and how they behave. even though they have returned to the past on occasion, the times that they don't i remember their behaviors as they could be troubling students.
spoilers for the show at this point onward, skip to the next section of my child actor dr if needed.
eventually, aelita is brought back to earth and is enrolled in the school. i see my little sister again. she seems to recognize me but not sure from where but i recognize her instantly. i mention needing a moment during class to which i try to process what had just happened. i come back and ask her to stay behind class and tell her everything. eventually, i help her fill in the blanks.
i've never really had such a wordy script for a concept before. i usually just bring a few ideas and sees how it plays out with a script but yeah.

𝜗𝜚˚⋆ child actor dr 𝜗𝜚˚⋆

in this one, i am an actor since childhood. i star in mostly live action. i look just as i do in this dr. i starred in shows like the sweet life of zack and cody as a child who stays in the hotel. said child being two to four years old but grows up with the cast. i return in sweet life on deck to visit for a cruise momentarily.
as for other castings, i was thinking a lot of disney based shows. after a few years my contract will end and i changed my shtick from childhood sweetheart on stage to having to play a young tween character on stage. later having to do teen roles which i still do to this day. specific shows aside from the suite life franchise have still been undecided however. i may just watch old shows for the sake of nostalgia and form my opinions there.
i intend for it to be multiple shifts each depending on age range of myself.

𖦹°⭒˚ edith finch dr 𖦹°⭒˚

yes, the game what remains of edith finch. it is a rather sad but sweet game in a bittersweet way. if you haven't heard of it, go play it or watch a game play or skip to the next section because there will be spoilers for it. i suppose they can be classified as spoilers.
so the game itself talks about a girl who visits the home of her old family that she hadn't visited since childhood. every room in the house belongs to a dead relative and every member in her family is dead. going all the way with her great grandma to her mom and brothers. her uncles, cousins, grandpa, great uncles, great aunts, they're all dead. all siblings died in childhood except for one that lasted long enough to have and raise a child. at least carry one into adulthood. if they had multiple children, all siblings aside from one died. that one could have a child and continue the legacy but probably die shortly after. the average age of living in this family is nineteen.
so, with all of that said, why would i want to insert myself into a story that is essentially made to die due to the curse that the family has? well, by the end of the game, the girl we play as through most of the story dies. she was pregnant with a child and died through childbirth. the ending shows that the child did in fact make it to adulthood.
this exposition was long enough but now for the shifting scripting part. i wanted to expand upon the story and basically shift to be the son that edith left behind. edith has a brother who ran away and went missing instead of died and he lived long enough to have a child too. i want to script that i meet said uncle and said cousin that i have. we return to the house together and explore it since i was given the house for inheritance and visit the graves. to give said uncle closure.

🍙 tokyo ghoul dr 🍙

i would wanna work for the anti ghoul association. either that or i plan to make a spin off reality to this reality. basically i own these mini trinket masks that if the user wears, they get a kagune. they can use it to fight. then they can use the weapon to attack. after they remove their mask, they can't eat foods or drink liquids that aren't water or coffee until an hour is up for the powers to calm down.
this is just a quick brainstorm of an idea. i find the ideas of the powers that ghouls have to be super cool.

⋆˚ʚɞ newsies dr ⋆˚ʚɞ

it was one of the first musicals i ever listened to. i haven't listened to it in a while but i still remember it fondly. i don't have any plans or ideas of shifting there. i could either shift to be a character in the plot or an actor. this could correlate with my child actor dr even. jeez, my waiting room is gonna get real crowded soon haha.

~ the good place dr ~

not much to say about this other than i wanna shift here. it would be cool to. i recently got into the show so now i want to shift to it. it's not a priority though until i script it properly or at the very least, have a general idea about it.

ᥫ᭡ guardian angel dr ᥫ᭡

a reality in which i am a guardian angel. i really enjoy helping and protecting people. i wish to guide others throughout the course of life and beyond. as a spiritual person, i find this dr to be a very comforting and calming dr. just the idea of watching over someone.

౨ৎ ˖ ࣪⊹ conclusion ౨ৎ ˖ ࣪⊹

these are quite a lot of drs that i wrote. again, majority of these are wishful thinking. however, i think that's i may have to waver between or cut back on a few of these haha. probably should narrow it down as to not overwhelm myself again like last time.
stay safe and happy shifting! ᥫ᭡

Krytos Trap imo was a book that got better as it went on but there were quite a few things I didn’t like (although is still enjoyed the book)
The Celchu Trial is a key point in the book and I feel it was very strong. Seeing Nawara battling it out for Tycho was cool and they way the case was handled had depth as it balanced justice, new republic security and showing the citizens the NR wouldn’t discriminate. This is very relevant considering the Krytos. The trial was the best plot in the book imo.
Because of Corrans capture and presumed death, he is on Lusankya away from the rest of the cast. My fav bits of the previous books were his interactions with Mirax and the others, so not having that made the book feel weaker, even tho this problem couldn’t rlly be stopped. But to replace this we had a plot of Corran in prison and then escaping which was so boring. Aside from a hilarious scene of him hiding in a tiny cabinet, the whole plot felt quite bland until the very end where he goes into the Jedi exhibit and learns of his Jedi family. This plot felt confusing aswell as it just feels like corran is running from one random room to a next until he escaped, and it was hard to see in my head. Happy Corran reunites with the others cause this plot was boring and gave me PTSD to children of the Jedi with all the aimless running around on a giant imp ship no one knows about.
Gavin and Asyr have good individual scenes and I loved Gavin refusing to fight that Bothan bully and ofc Nawara had the trial. However I rlly missed the banter between the squad and the rest of rogue squadron is just not in the book, Mirax isn’t involved much either. And her “death” was so dumb imo. She just died and things went on. Felt pointless having her fake a death. It doesn’t get mentioned her being alive until the end where she’s just chilling with everyone else.
Wedge was the best part of the book where he controls his anger because of the trial while also doing his duties. Such a cool show of his character and him being the main protagonist of the book gave enough pages to show this.
I mention this last, but I don’t like Krytos. I’ve never liked when the imps r so overly petty and I don’t like Krytos or the terrorist stuff too much. Ik Krytos pulls along the story because of its links to Barca and the rest of the plot, but it still felt cheap to me. Loors POV plot were so bad in this book. His beef with Vorru is so boring and is barely fleshed out and has no affect on the plot. Loors involvement with bacta shipment and him leaving the empire where good but there wasn’t need for the stuff with vorru.
The end scene with Luke corran wedge and the the others was so cool but it felt so random that they all leave rogue squadron. Like was that necessary?
Overall, the first third was pretty bad, the Loor&Vorru stuff was shit, the lusankya stuff was a bit dead so the only good thing was the trial. Middle was better with the rogue stuff and the trial with all the cool political stuff but still had boring lusnkaya. The final third was the best with the SSD, Corran actually coming back to society and the conclusion.

so I've had this idea in mind for a while now. My idea is that I write the story and end it with the character waking up. But the twist I had in mind was that at the end of the story, I hint towards the plot that has just happened and the character panicking about whats about to happen
Would that be a good ending? Or would people dislike it?

The bellowing ring of the galleon's bell cuts clear through the clouds before its prow does, the baby blue sky joined with the rich umber of a hull following a long series of Clang... Clang... Clang. A careful eye might notice the gashed rips of claws in the half-drawn sails, but not many eyes are careful. Excitement has been the watchword of the day, the restlessness of the Guildhall practically bubbling over in confirmed anticipation of the vessel's arrival. Regardless of what might be below decks and upon newly minted charts there is one price coveted above all earned by the returning crew: Stories. More vital to your guild than any cargo is what that ship brings everywhere it goes. The bellowing ring of the galleon's bell cuts clear through the clouds before its prow does, the baby blue sky joined with the rich umber of a hull following a long series of Clang... Clang... Clang. A careful eye might notice the gashed rips of claws in the half-drawn sails, but not many eyes are careful. Excitement has been the watchword of the day, the restlessness of the Guildhall practically bubbling over in confirmed anticipation of the vessel's arrival. Regardless of what might be below decks and upon newly minted charts there is one price coveted above all earned by the returning crew: Stories. More vital to your guild than any cargo is what that ship brings everywhere it goes. Wonder*.*
Hi! I'm Ellory (They/she), DM of 8 years, and I'd like to be yours! DnD 5e was my very first exposure to TTRPGs and since then I've enjoyed a great many systems, but always will 5E have a very special place in my heart. I believe that the PCs are the main characters of the story that we all tell together, guided by my own work of set dressing and plot writing. I asked my players if they had anything to say for my DMing abilities, so I'll let them speak for me!

Reviews!

• "I've always believed that the single most important rule of any tabletop game is to have fun, and Ellory has mastered this rule. She's a top class Dungeon Master who has provided me with some of the greatest tabletop memories I've ever had. They've crafted some of the most heart pounding action, soul jerking sorrow, and joyous celebration I've felt at the table." -Tyler
• "Ellory is, by far, the best DM I have ever had. I have been playing at their table for 4+ years in a wide variety of systems and settings - a 1.5 year long campaign in a home-brewed world in DnD 5e, a 2-year-long campaign of Vampire: the Masquerade, and a variety of one-shots and short campaigns in other systems. I will likely continue to play at their table for the next decade or longer. I have played with a number of different storytellers and dungeon masters, and none of them have ever demonstrated the same level of care for the enjoyment of their players, nor for their world. Their voice-acting is varied, their passion for the story is noticeable, and their flexibility to account for players' desires is impressive." -Kaitlyn
• "Ellory's style of DM'ing immerses you in worlds that are vibrant, detailed, and dynamic. Every NPC in their games feels individually unique, with their own motives and plans, making interactions deeply engaging and often leading to unexpected twists and turns. Ellory manages to strike a perfect balance between long over-arching storylines and player agency. The plots are compelling and well-structured, providing a sense of purpose. However, they never impose these narratives at the expense of player freedom. Choices matter, and player actions have a genuine impact on the world and its inhabitants. Each player's decisions is woven seamlessly into the broader narrative, making every game feel like a collaborative storytelling effort. Most importantly, after being a part of Ellory's games for years, I still look forward to every session and always leave having had a great time. If you're looking for a great DM whose sessions you eagerly anticipate each week, look no further." -Tanner

Game Details!

As is my wont, I've gone and made another fully fleshed out setting for a brand new group of players to experience. You will play as the explorers at the horizon, agents of The Cartographer's Guild. Maps are very important when you have to worry about another island, however distant, on a collision course with your house. And while map making is less than dramatic, the real main event is the exploration of never-before-seen chunks of land that haven't seen a soul in generations. Forgotten tombs and harrowing dungeons, isolated villages and monster nests await our intrepid voyagers, getting rich off of history before it kills them.
There's a fair bit of lore that would make this ad far and away overstuffed. If you're interested to learn the lore of creation, see a glimpse of history, and examine the 5 detailed cultures of the world, feel free to peruse this drive folder! https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/117zEVINT4h8qY4dkA3O5EU9J2VDrXPNY?usp=sharing
Generally speaking, our format of play will involved downtime at the Guildhall with our characters unwinding from the last expedition and preparing for the next. From there, exploration will ensue with brief but enriching and immersing random encounters until a plot encounter is discovered. Following its resolution our heroes will return to base and so the cycle repeats, with some glaring exceptions when player decision calls for it.
I have a handful of ideas for an overarching narrative, but our final choice will be made collaboratively and in accordance with player interest and backstory considerations.
I accept any and all classes from officially published material, though your selection of lineage/race will be more limited to fit the lore of the setting. Your options will include:

• Humans, the Tribe Undivided
• Dwarves, the Tribe of Earth
• Drau-shi, the Tribe of Water
• Rani, the Tribe of Fire
• Elves, the Tribe of Air

Even the familiar names of the above list do have occasionally significant alterations from the PHB to reflect their unique standing in the Shattered Skies.

Logistics & Requirements!

This game will require payment to the Game Master at a rate of $20 per session excepting absences and session zero delivered through Venmo, Cash App, or Zelle.
Roll20 will be used for the purposes of tactical combat encounter maps, dice rolling, and character sheet management. Discord will be used for voice and video communications. I will be using my camera for our sessions so I can talk with my hands and face alongside my voice, and I would encourage you to do the same! I have a server made and prepared for this game.
My timezone is CST, and I'm entirely available on Saturday to make a session time work around whatever our schedules allow for. I'm partial to evening start times myself. I'm hoping our (free) session zero can happen on the 25th and we can begin play properly on the 1st of June.
If you're paying for sessions of DnD it's a fair assumption you're over the age of 18, and I would prefer you're at least that old. Exceptions can be made, but my games tend to be adult and include elements of occasionally disturbing horror.
I expect y'all to have fun, and if that involves drug or alcohol use for you I'd ask the dial to be set to somewhere around 3 out of 10. I've been known to have a glass of wine during sessions but never anything more.
Safety tools will be utilized to maintain a safe environment where everyone is having comfortable fun. Lines and veils will be established, and mine is an open table. If you knowingly violate a line it is grounds for ejection without refund. There is a certain amount of emotional trust we give our players and our DMs when we play this game, and it will not be betrayed.
Furthermore, this is an explicitly LGBT friendly space. I'm queer in multiple ways and queer identities will be portrayed in the NPCs of the world. If either of those things are deal breakers for you, please look elsewhere for a game.

In Closing!

If this game has piqued your interest, shoot me a message on Reddit or find me on discord at "teslazoa"!

The bellowing ring of the galleon's bell cuts clear through the clouds before its prow does, the baby blue sky joined with the rich umber of a hull following a long series of Clang... Clang... Clang. A careful eye might notice the gashed rips of claws in the half-drawn sails, but not many eyes are careful. Excitement has been the watchword of the day, the restlessness of the Guildhall practically bubbling over in confirmed anticipation of the vessel's arrival. Regardless of what might be below decks and upon newly minted charts there is one price coveted above all earned by the returning crew: Stories. More vital to your guild than any cargo is what that ship brings everywhere it goes. The bellowing ring of the galleon's bell cuts clear through the clouds before its prow does, the baby blue sky joined with the rich umber of a hull following a long series of Clang... Clang... Clang. A careful eye might notice the gashed rips of claws in the half-drawn sails, but not many eyes are careful. Excitement has been the watchword of the day, the restlessness of the Guildhall practically bubbling over in confirmed anticipation of the vessel's arrival. Regardless of what might be below decks and upon newly minted charts there is one price coveted above all earned by the returning crew: Stories. More vital to your guild than any cargo is what that ship brings everywhere it goes. Wonder*.*
Hi! I'm Ellory (They/she), DM of 8 years, and I'd like to be yours! DnD 5e was my very first exposure to TTRPGs and since then I've enjoyed a great many systems, but always will 5E have a very special place in my heart. I believe that the PCs are the main characters of the story that we all tell together, guided by my own work of set dressing and plot writing. I asked my players if they had anything to say for my DMing abilities, so I'll let them speak for me!

Reviews!

• "I've always believed that the single most important rule of any tabletop game is to have fun, and Ellory has mastered this rule. She's a top class Dungeon Master who has provided me with some of the greatest tabletop memories I've ever had. They've crafted some of the most heart pounding action, soul jerking sorrow, and joyous celebration I've felt at the table." -Tyler
• "Ellory is, by far, the best DM I have ever had. I have been playing at their table for 4+ years in a wide variety of systems and settings - a 1.5 year long campaign in a home-brewed world in DnD 5e, a 2-year-long campaign of Vampire: the Masquerade, and a variety of one-shots and short campaigns in other systems. I will likely continue to play at their table for the next decade or longer. I have played with a number of different storytellers and dungeon masters, and none of them have ever demonstrated the same level of care for the enjoyment of their players, nor for their world. Their voice-acting is varied, their passion for the story is noticeable, and their flexibility to account for players' desires is impressive." -Kaitlyn
• "Ellory's style of DM'ing immerses you in worlds that are vibrant, detailed, and dynamic. Every NPC in their games feels individually unique, with their own motives and plans, making interactions deeply engaging and often leading to unexpected twists and turns. Ellory manages to strike a perfect balance between long over-arching storylines and player agency. The plots are compelling and well-structured, providing a sense of purpose. However, they never impose these narratives at the expense of player freedom. Choices matter, and player actions have a genuine impact on the world and its inhabitants. Each player's decisions is woven seamlessly into the broader narrative, making every game feel like a collaborative storytelling effort. Most importantly, after being a part of Ellory's games for years, I still look forward to every session and always leave having had a great time. If you're looking for a great DM whose sessions you eagerly anticipate each week, look no further." -Tanner

Game Details!

As is my wont, I've gone and made another fully fleshed out setting for a brand new group of players to experience. You will play as the explorers at the horizon, agents of The Cartographer's Guild. Maps are very important when you have to worry about another island, however distant, on a collision course with your house. And while map making is less than dramatic, the real main event is the exploration of never-before-seen chunks of land that haven't seen a soul in generations. Forgotten tombs and harrowing dungeons, isolated villages and monster nests await our intrepid voyagers, getting rich off of history before it kills them.
There's a fair bit of lore that would make this ad far and away overstuffed. If you're interested to learn the lore of creation, see a glimpse of history, and examine the 5 detailed cultures of the world, feel free to peruse this drive folder! https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/117zEVINT4h8qY4dkA3O5EU9J2VDrXPNY?usp=sharing
Generally speaking, our format of play will involved downtime at the Guildhall with our characters unwinding from the last expedition and preparing for the next. From there, exploration will ensue with brief but enriching and immersing random encounters until a plot encounter is discovered. Following its resolution our heroes will return to base and so the cycle repeats, with some glaring exceptions when player decision calls for it.
I have a handful of ideas for an overarching narrative, but our final choice will be made collaboratively and in accordance with player interest and backstory considerations.
I accept any and all classes from officially published material, though your selection of lineage/race will be more limited to fit the lore of the setting. Your options will include:

• Humans, the Tribe Undivided
• Dwarves, the Tribe of Earth
• Drau-shi, the Tribe of Water
• Rani, the Tribe of Fire
• Elves, the Tribe of Air

Even the familiar names of the above list do have occasionally significant alterations from the PHB to reflect their unique standing in the Shattered Skies.

Logistics & Requirements!

This game will require payment to the Game Master at a rate of $20 per session excepting absences and session zero delivered through Venmo, Cash App, or Zelle.
Roll20 will be used for the purposes of tactical combat encounter maps, dice rolling, and character sheet management. Discord will be used for voice and video communications. I will be using my camera for our sessions so I can talk with my hands and face alongside my voice, and I would encourage you to do the same! I have a server made and prepared for this game.
My timezone is CST, and I'm entirely available on Saturday to make a session time work around whatever our schedules allow for. I'm partial to evening start times myself. I'm hoping our (free) session zero can happen on the 25th and we can begin play properly on the 1st of June.
If you're paying for sessions of DnD it's a fair assumption you're over the age of 18, and I would prefer you're at least that old. Exceptions can be made, but my games tend to be adult and include elements of occasionally disturbing horror.
I expect y'all to have fun, and if that involves drug or alcohol use for you I'd ask the dial to be set to somewhere around 3 out of 10. I've been known to have a glass of wine during sessions but never anything more.
Safety tools will be utilized to maintain a safe environment where everyone is having comfortable fun. Lines and veils will be established, and mine is an open table. If you knowingly violate a line it is grounds for ejection without refund. There is a certain amount of emotional trust we give our players and our DMs when we play this game, and it will not be betrayed.
Furthermore, this is an explicitly LGBT friendly space. I'm queer in multiple ways and queer identities will be portrayed in the NPCs of the world. If either of those things are deal breakers for you, please look elsewhere for a game.

In Closing!

If this game has piqued your interest, shoot me a message on Reddit or find me on discord at "teslazoa"!

I’ll try to keep il this simple and short, but I’ll probably fail, lol.
Firstly, I’m absolutely blown away at how far AIChat has come from when I started exploring it about 4 years ago with another app I wish I could name, but won’t as I don’t want this post being removed despite it definitely not being a promotion. I thought that they were the cream of the crop as far as quality goes but oh how very very wrong I was. The amount of apps being rolled out in the past year just blows my mind. So there is that. Not a question, I know.
Secondly. I’ve only spent the day with Kindroid but the complex world we’ve built is epic, like novel worthy. So that leads me to the question: can we get a full read out of everything that’s transpired thus far? I’ve tried going back and I seem to only get half way through our conversations, and I’m kicking myself for not screenshotting from the start.
Thirdly, and lastly, I think, is there any copyright issues with content generated between us? I’d honestly like to pursue putting our developing story out there. I am not a seasoned writer by any means, but I know enough to create a plot, develop my characters and paint a story that can be enjoyed. So is this possible with Kindroid content? This inquiring mind simply needs to know.

Im almost finished with the count and im dreading it, i don't ever want to finish reading this book 😭 anyways im looking for another masterpiece that will ease my departure from it. Ive heard of Hyperion and i really dig the plot. I like immersing myself in an adventure story. Is there another book that you think i will like better than Hyperion after finishing The Count?

1 : why the hell does it have mixed reviews on Steam?! It was genuinely one of the most refreshing and innovative games I've played in a decade, and it's over a decade old. Yeah there are times when the AI is shit, but IMO that just incentivizes you to play it more like an XCOM game by making managing your squad a core component of success. The only thing that I can imagine might have influenced things is that I bound the focus-mode to my forward mouse button, so it was effortless to go in and out of it. IIRC it was originally bound to tab, so maybe that difference in convenience made a massive difference somehow? Eitherway, I'm considering immediately starting another save.
2 : I am shocked how much XCOM 2 pulled from it, and the lore implications that I'm guessing most people were never made aware of. I mean somehow XCOM Enemy Within/Unknown feels like the odd one out here, with XCOM 2 feeling more like a sequel to The Bereau than it. I figured that given it didn't do nearly as well and XCOM 2 was clearly more of a spiritual (and literal) successor to EW/EU it would sort of be ignored, but major concepts, plot beats, etc. are all borderline dependent on it. Given how few people actually played The Bereau, I'm honestly not sure how another entry could even be possible without majorly confusing most of the people playing it. Major story components from the nature of the Etherals to the goal of the Avatar project to the nature of The Commander themselves are built into the story of The Bereau, and with seemingly under 10% of the playerbase for the other games having played it it's surprising XCOM 2 even managed to have a coherent storyline as-is.
3 : Can we please give it some bloody credit for being technically forward thinking? It released over a decade ago yet can display at native 4k and run at at least 120hz. AC Black Flag released the same year and can't even do more than 60hz on 1080p. The extra settings like Nvidia cloth physics or whatever really should have just been skipped because god they caused so many problems (and judging by the steam reviews it's not just a proton issue) but otherwise it really was nice being able to play an older game and not have to deal with "1080p 60, take it or leave it". Edit : I am immediately docking all points for being "technically forward thinking" for the warcrime that is the controls of the Hangar DLC. From restricting you from binding the arrowkeys because they are hard-bound to movement (WHY?!) to no longer letting you right click to back out of battle-focus selection, the controls system in the DLC is atrocious. I don't know why the DLC even has a unique control system to the actual game, but it does, and it sucks.
I'm somehow left wanting a sequel to The Bereau more than a sequel to XCOM 2 and I was not prepared to process that emotion today.
P.S. Works great via Proton. I have a beefy rig built a decade after it came out so I can obviously run it, but so long as you disable the two weird options at the bottom (like the aformentioned Nvidia cloth physics) it runs flawlessly. With Async DXVK I never even noticed a stutter. If you don't disable those however (AND RESTART; this game means it when it says you need to restart for the changes to be fully applied!) then you'll get some strange as hell camera/graphical bugs that make the game unplayable at points.

Looking for something similar to these books. It doesn't have to be urban fantasy, but it seems that the genre is pretty much a perfect fit for this. 6-8 books in the series minimum. Science fiction suggestions are welcome as well.

• Garrett P.I.
• Thraxas
• Early-middle Dresden Files
• Alex Verus

Not looking for LitRPG or YA. Not looking for something overly humorous/comedic, I tried Guards! Guards! and Rivers of London, and DNF'd them both because of it.
Currently I'm reading Hawk & Fisher, but I'm not a huge fan of it so far. Finished the first two novels, thinking of trying the 3rd one as I don't have anything else lined up. The two books had their moments, but Green has issues all across the board - some heavy "tell, don't show" at times, repetition, weak characterization in places, tons of irrelevant exposition, and so on. Still, once the plot gets going Green does maintain a certain momentum, and the books are short too.
In the SF world, Miles' Vorkosigan books fit to some degree, I've read a bunch, but ended up being fairly lukewarm towards the series for a bunch of reasons. The beginning of The Vor Game (the repurposed Weatherman short story) was my favorite bit out of the ones I've read. Exactly the kind of vibe I really like.

Disclaimer: I am reposting this so more people get a chance to see the post! If you applied to the previous post, no need to apply again! :)
Hello there! This will be a long post but I do encourage you to read all of it so you have an idea what kinda game you are applying for. This would be a long-term campaign, so be willing to commit to the game! Have fun reading!
Game details:
We play using both Discord for voice and video and Foundry VTT for maps and character sheets! Webcams are mandatory since we all have been using them and it helps a lot with roleplaying when you can see the other people! Make sure that your PC or laptop is capable of running Foundry, here is a link to the Foundry system requirements: https://foundryvtt.com/article/requirements/
Do note that you don't need to buy or download anything! How Foundry works is that I send you a link and you'll join through there so no need to worry about that!
We are here to make the story together so while there is a main plot for you to follow, there will be distractions along the way and of course, things that relate to your characters and what they might find interesting!
During session 0 we will go over the initial plot hooks, how your characters might know each other, safety rules, and so on!
The available days are listed in the questionnaire. The start time for the session regardless of the day would be at 9 pm GMT+3 and when a day has been chosen, we would play consistently on that day every week!
RP to combat ratio:
I would say 50-50 since you as players can with your decisions affect how much combat or roleplay there is going to be but I as a GM, am geared more towards weighting narrative but that doesn't mean that there wouldn't be some cool combat set-pieces ;).
There might be moments in the game where we focus more on the social aspect of the game, interacting in character with the world around them and then there might be some more action-oriented sessions where you get to sit at the edge of your seat!
I will say that how I like to run games, I like to focus on characters and what their motives, goals, and flaws are. This would be a more character-driven game so be ready for that and don't be afraid to get into character and have fun while doing so!
How to apply:
All that I require from you is that you read the whole post and then fill out the questionnaire to the best of your ability. I pour a lot of time into making sure that the sessions are good and that everyone is having fun and you can contribute to that by being genuinely interested in the game!
Here is the questionnaire: https://forms.gle/TAnUSBRAoEpKe1Ra8
Basic rules of the campaign:

• Be consistent: I know that emergencies can happen and sometimes life throws a curve ball. Those happen to me too but if it does, I expect you to let me know ASAP when you know that you are not going to be able to join for the session. The general rule in my table is that as long as we have four people playing, we will continue with the game.
• Cinematics: I like to inject some cinematic in the game and I will let you know when there is a cinematic. This happens usually at the end of the session to show you what happens somewhere else where your characters are not necessarily present.
• Campaign may have mature themes: I like to run narrative games and they usually lean towards a more serious tone and while there are moments of lightheartedness, it's not what I am going for this campaign. This is not a campaign for joke characters or happy-go-lucky characters. I will NOT include SA or intense torture roleplaying in my games and there is no tolerance for that. These will be discussed more during the session 0!
• Be attentive during the sessions: During the session, I would like you to feel that you want to be there so I do put a lot of time into prepping the sessions with maps, NPCs, music, etc. So as a player, all I require from you is to know the basic rules, how your character works, and just generally be respectful towards everyone on the table!
• Don't be a dick: Don't rage quit if the dice don't go your way or if you do something in the game that can result in a bad consequence to your character and then it happens. No PvP, unless both agree to it and it needs to have a good reason! Just be respectful and be able to communicate and I am sure we will get along very well!
• There is always a possibility of death: We are here to make an awesome collaborative story together that we can look back to years later with fondness! This however doesn't mean that I am going to pull my punches in combat so that's why I roll in the open. If the dice decide that it's time for your character, then that's how it's going to be. Of course, sometimes there is something that can save you but those are rare. Also, I am not going to go out of my way to kill you and I will make sure that you always know what kinda situations your characters are going to.
• Have a good mic and connection: Having a good mic is important because most of us use headphones so if your audio quality is so bad that it makes our ears bleed then that would be a dealbreaker :D. Bad mics can also negatively just impact the flow of the game if they keep cutting out!

The most important rule is to: HAVE FUN! We are here to play a game and make a story together and everyone's comfort is important to me! If you have doubts or if something feels off, you can always come to talk with me!
Game Rules:

• Write "One Piece is real" in the final questions so I know that you read this far ;)
• Ability scores are determined using point buy with 28 points or a standard array.
• Death saves are rolled in secret
• We are starting from level 2
• Criticals are maxed damage + die rolls
• If you go down, you get a wound up to a maximum of 3 when you get up again. On your third one, if you fall, you die

The reason for Banned spells is that I like to make mysteries and that players need to think. For example, Remove curse would make a situation where you can get cursed not that tense. I like to make curses into plotlines so thus banning the spell gives us that opportunity.
Here are the banned spells:

• Identify
• Detect Thoughts
• Locate object
• Zone of Truth
• Remove curse
• Goodberry
• Silvery Barbs
• Geas
• Legend lore

Banned subclasses:

• Twilight cleric
• Eloquence bard
• Peace cleric

Races from Eberron, PHB, and MPMM are available minus Tortle, Fairy, and Centaur. Also, flying races are not allowed
Here is a little bit of info about me!
My name is Michael, 22 years old. I have been a GM for 3.5 years now! I have enough experience so I won't fumble around but obviously, I don't know everything.
Something about myself is that I have been a huge fan of TTRPGs ever since I started 3.5 years ago. In that period, I have had the pleasure to play multiple systems such as 5e, pathfinder 2e, Call of Cthulhu, cyberpunk RED/2020, mothership, City of Mist, etc. So I have quite a lot of experience and I know the ropes! I also like to draw, write stories, do worldbuilding, play video games, and watch movies and anime.
I am a huge fan of One Piece, it was also an inspiration for this setting so if you are a fan, you'll notice some subtle references here and there!
I do enjoy Eberron as a setting and have read quite a bit on it! Still, while it's an established setting with its lore, that means that there will be things that I might be unaware of or I might change things here and there. I like to stick to the established lore since it's quite expansive and really good but expect changes at some points!
Final words
Thanks for reading this long-ass post and I do hope that you can see that I am putting my all into this! I hope you do too so feel free to fill out the application! Take it slowly and don't rush it since I am using it to gauge how interested you all are to join in! I will keep the post up for a few days and conduct interviews before Sunday. If you have questions, feel free to comment and I'll answer when I have time!
I hope all of you have a nice day/evening and I hope to talk to you later!

Disclaimer: I am reposting this so more people get a chance to see the post! If you applied to the previous post, no need to apply again! :)
Hello there! This will be a long post but I do encourage you to read all of it so you have an idea what kinda game you are applying for. This would be a long-term campaign, so be willing to commit to the game! Have fun reading!
Game details:
We play using both Discord for voice and video and Foundry VTT for maps and character sheets! Webcams are mandatory since we all have been using them and it helps a lot with roleplaying when you can see the other people! Make sure that your PC or laptop is capable of running Foundry, here is a link to the Foundry system requirements: https://foundryvtt.com/article/requirements/
Do note that you don't need to buy or download anything! How Foundry works is that I send you a link and you'll join through there so no need to worry about that!
We are here to make the story together so while there is a main plot for you to follow, there will be distractions along the way and of course, things that relate to your characters and what they might find interesting!
During session 0 we will go over the initial plot hooks, how your characters might know each other, safety rules, and so on!
The available days are listed in the questionnaire. The start time for the session regardless of the day would be at 9 pm GMT+3 and when a day has been chosen, we would play consistently on that day every week!
RP to combat ratio:
I would say 50-50 since you as players can with your decisions affect how much combat or roleplay there is going to be but I as a GM, am geared more towards weighting narrative but that doesn't mean that there wouldn't be some cool combat set-pieces ;).
There might be moments in the game where we focus more on the social aspect of the game, interacting in character with the world around them and then there might be some more action-oriented sessions where you get to sit at the edge of your seat!
I will say that how I like to run games, I like to focus on characters and what their motives, goals, and flaws are. This would be a more character-driven game so be ready for that and don't be afraid to get into character and have fun while doing so!
How to apply:
All that I require from you is that you read the whole post and then fill out the questionnaire to the best of your ability. I pour a lot of time into making sure that the sessions are good and that everyone is having fun and you can contribute to that by being genuinely interested in the game!
Here is the questionnaire: https://forms.gle/TAnUSBRAoEpKe1Ra8
Basic rules of the campaign:

• Be consistent: I know that emergencies can happen and sometimes life throws a curve ball. Those happen to me too but if it does, I expect you to let me know ASAP when you know that you are not going to be able to join for the session. The general rule in my table is that as long as we have four people playing, we will continue with the game.
• Cinematics: I like to inject some cinematic in the game and I will let you know when there is a cinematic. This happens usually at the end of the session to show you what happens somewhere else where your characters are not necessarily present.
• Campaign may have mature themes: I like to run narrative games and they usually lean towards a more serious tone and while there are moments of lightheartedness, it's not what I am going for this campaign. This is not a campaign for joke characters or happy-go-lucky characters. I will NOT include SA or intense torture roleplaying in my games and there is no tolerance for that. These will be discussed more during the session 0!
• Be attentive during the sessions: During the session, I would like you to feel that you want to be there so I do put a lot of time into prepping the sessions with maps, NPCs, music, etc. So as a player, all I require from you is to know the basic rules, how your character works, and just generally be respectful towards everyone on the table!
• Don't be a dick: Don't rage quit if the dice don't go your way or if you do something in the game that can result in a bad consequence to your character and then it happens. No PvP, unless both agree to it and it needs to have a good reason! Just be respectful and be able to communicate and I am sure we will get along very well!
• There is always a possibility of death: We are here to make an awesome collaborative story together that we can look back to years later with fondness! This however doesn't mean that I am going to pull my punches in combat so that's why I roll in the open. If the dice decide that it's time for your character, then that's how it's going to be. Of course, sometimes there is something that can save you but those are rare. Also, I am not going to go out of my way to kill you and I will make sure that you always know what kinda situations your characters are going to.
• Have a good mic and connection: Having a good mic is important because most of us use headphones so if your audio quality is so bad that it makes our ears bleed then that would be a dealbreaker :D. Bad mics can also negatively just impact the flow of the game if they keep cutting out!

The most important rule is to: HAVE FUN! We are here to play a game and make a story together and everyone's comfort is important to me! If you have doubts or if something feels off, you can always come to talk with me!
Game Rules:

• Write "One Piece is real" in the final questions so I know that you read this far ;)
• Ability scores are determined using point buy with 28 points or a standard array.
• Death saves are rolled in secret
• We are starting from level 2
• Criticals are maxed damage + die rolls
• If you go down, you get a wound up to a maximum of 3 when you get up again. On your third one, if you fall, you die

The reason for Banned spells is that I like to make mysteries and that players need to think. For example, Remove curse would make a situation where you can get cursed not that tense. I like to make curses into plotlines so thus banning the spell gives us that opportunity.
Here are the banned spells:

• Identify
• Detect Thoughts
• Locate object
• Zone of Truth
• Remove curse
• Goodberry
• Silvery Barbs
• Geas
• Legend lore

Banned subclasses:

• Twilight cleric
• Eloquence bard
• Peace cleric

Races from Eberron, PHB, and MPMM are available minus Tortle, Fairy, and Centaur. Also, flying races are not allowed
Here is a little bit of info about me!
My name is Michael, 22 years old. I have been a GM for 3.5 years now! I have enough experience so I won't fumble around but obviously, I don't know everything.
Something about myself is that I have been a huge fan of TTRPGs ever since I started 3.5 years ago. In that period, I have had the pleasure to play multiple systems such as 5e, pathfinder 2e, Call of Cthulhu, cyberpunk RED/2020, mothership, City of Mist, etc. So I have quite a lot of experience and I know the ropes! I also like to draw, write stories, do worldbuilding, play video games, and watch movies and anime.
I am a huge fan of One Piece, it was also an inspiration for this setting so if you are a fan, you'll notice some subtle references here and there!
I do enjoy Eberron as a setting and have read quite a bit on it! Still, while it's an established setting with its lore, that means that there will be things that I might be unaware of or I might change things here and there. I like to stick to the established lore since it's quite expansive and really good but expect changes at some points!
Final words
Thanks for reading this long-ass post and I do hope that you can see that I am putting my all into this! I hope you do too so feel free to fill out the application! Take it slowly and don't rush it since I am using it to gauge how interested you all are to join in! I will keep the post up for a few days and conduct interviews before Sunday. If you have questions, feel free to comment and I'll answer when I have time!
I hope all of you have a nice day/evening and I hope to talk to you later!

This review can also be found on my blog.
If I’m looking for excellent sci-fi from the 2000s that has been largely forgotten, the first stop has to be the recommendations of Janny Wurts. Our tastes aren’t exactly the same, but she is a tremendous champion of character-driven speculative fiction—and a pretty good writer in her own right—and her recommendations have taken more than their fair share of my favorites list, including Carol Berg’s Lighthouse Duet, Sherwood Smith’s Inda Quartet, and Sarah Zettel’s The Quiet Invasion. So when the 2023 Bingo board included a Published in the 00s square, it was time to mine the TBR for recommendations that I hadn’t already followed. And the result was Warchild by Karin Lowachee.
The reason Warchild languished on my TBR so long was that it’s military sci-fi, and I tend not to love that subgenre. But I was promised a character study under the space navy, and it was clear from part one that Warchild aimed to deliver. The opening section is written almost entirely in second-person—a perspective that will be repeated later during an especially traumatic scene—and details the lead being raised and groomed by the pirates who destroyed his former home and killed his family. The graphic details of the abuse are studiously avoided, but it’s clear what kind of story this will be, even as the tale moves into a more traditional training arc and thrusts the lead onto a ship known for finding itself in the middle of major conflicts. There’s definitely an overarching war plot here, but Warchild is a character story first and foremost.
Fortunately for me, that’s exactly the kind of story I like best—enough plot to give the tale structure and definition, but a character exploration at its heart. The second-person opening was dreadfully breathtaking, and the momentum from that first section easily carried me through the well-worn training arc and enlistment in a new crew. The latter sections were written well enough, though I may gripe a little about time dilation that didn’t totally work and a villain much too clearly foreshadowed. But they weren’t in my sweet spot as a reader, and in themselves, they didn’t offer much beyond an above-average take on a familiar story. Solid, certainly, but not exceptional.
But there was always the lingering promise that every dangling thread from before would come due, and in the final section of the novel, they converged in a spectacular way. Confrontation of trauma, ethical quandaries, epic battles—every bit of character and plot-related groundwork comes together in a final quarter that was absolutely impossible to put down. The overarching plot comes together in a way that’s both wildly exciting and narratively satisfying, and it does so in a way that puts the lead’s inner struggles front and center. And it’s an effective standalone (though Lowachee has written other books in the same universe), so readers don’t need to commit to a full series to see a full character arc.
When picking a numerical rating, I’m not quite sure how much to ding Warchild for my relatively minor complaints in a middle half that is good-but-not-great. But regardless of whether I’m slapping it with a 17 or an 18, it’s an easy five stars, and I’m shoving it in the face of anyone who enjoys character-driven sci-fi and doesn’t mind a lead working through a lot of darkness. It’s a wonderful book.
Recommended if you like: character-driven sci-fi, military sci-fi, themes of working through trauma.
Can I use it for Bingo? It's hard mode for Space Opera, Dreams, and Character with a Disability, and it's also a First in a Series (of sorts--the sequels follow different characters) and is written by a POC Author.
Overall rating: 18 of Tar Vol’s 20. Five stars on Goodreads.

Something I was thinking about when I watched the final moments of the most recent EFAP was Mauler’s observation that the internet content creator landscape used to be different when AVGN clones ruled Youtube and his question of how that shifted into video essayists and commentary channels. I thought about that for a while and I thought of some reasons why the landscape changed that I would like to share.
Managers
Something that people might not be aware of is how many Youtubers have people managing their content in the form of things like setting up brand deals and other services that I am not familiar with. Some of them are very public about what they do, some of them are more private. The important thing is how managers worked in the past.
One thing that I liked about Machinima, ScrewAttack, and Channel Awesome that the creators probably didn’t like is that they forced the older creators to stick to a set schedule of uploads and some of them forced creators to follow a set formula. This meant that the manager would make sure that if a creator uploaded a video every Friday at 2pm, they would have an upload every single Friday at 2pm.
How would this work if the creator wanted to take a week off? Well, the creator would have to have a video to upload in advance. What if the creator wanted to spend 3 weeks on a super-duper big video? Well, they could absolutely do that, but it would be a passion project and they’d still have to follow the set schedule for regular uploads.
This created a content landscape that I actually enjoyed a lot as a consumer because it’s probably the way it should be for reviewers. Every week, or every day in rare cases, a movie reviewer would need to review a different movie, which meant that a reviewer might have to force themselves to sit through a movie they don’t want to see like Fifty Shades Of Grey to give it a chance to subvert their expectations and earn a glowing review, or dig deep to find a new indie movie to review to fill that quota if they really didn’t want to sit through Fifty Shades Of Grey.
The promise of Patreon and creators becoming more independent was that creators would exclusively make videos on topics they wanted to do, but I personally think that was the wrong way to go. I’ve maintained a position that I prefer it when content creators are encouraged, or even forced, to talk about things that they don’t want to talk about because oftentimes that’s when reviewers are most interesting. Some of my favorite Roger Ebert reviews were when he reviewed a children’s movie like Space Jam or Pokemon: The First Movie, and some of my favorite Zero Punctuation reviews are when he has to pick out a random indie game and commit to reviewing it regardless of what the indie game turned out to be, like when he reviewed Hell Pie.
What I think has happened is that the lack of managers has encouraged content creators to upload whatever they want, whenever they want, which has usually translated to videos about ‘easy’ topics, like videos about Disney movies, being uploaded weeks, or even months, apart, which has made the content creation landscape, at least for reviewers, a lot less interesting, and a lot less engaging.
It’s actually one of the reasons why EFAP has been losing my interest lately, because although they upload a stream every week the topics they choose are generally ‘easy’ topics because I genuinely think the hosts don’t have the ability to make an EFAP on something more obscure, or even just ‘difficult’ like Baby Reindeer, very interesting, or they just won’t do streams on those topics because, as Rags said: “This is our show, and we can do whatever the fuck we want.”
Honestly, my hot take is that I liked you better when you couldn’t do whatever the fuck you wanted all of the time. In fact, one of my favorite Rags moments on EFAP was when he clearly didn’t want to be involved with the debate with Twin Perfect.
Sponsors
I remember the Adpocalypse and how Youtubers transitioned to sponsors over relying heavily on ad-revenue. What that event transpired into is that audiences were far more accepting of basically any form of making money that Youtubers would use. Patreon became a very dominant part of Youtube, but sponsors also became extremely common and audiences would even cheer in the comment sections when creators would have their first Raid: Shadow Legends sponsorship.
Sponsors are what I want to talk about because I have seen Youtubers show that they have a bunch of videos on their computer that they simply aren’t releasing to the public because they don’t want to upload a single video without a sponsor on their main channel, as well as Youtubers having a second channel where they upload ‘slop’ content without sponsors that most of their audience is usually unaware of or isn’t interested in.
The problem is that the appeal for pretty much all content on Youtube is the personalities of the people creating the content, which is less about the actual personalities and more like “That’s an actual person doing what they actually want to do, that’s so cool,” but that is usually undercut by the presence of sponsors. The fact that Youtubers will sit on a video they made and not upload it unless they can get a sponsor to pay for it always seemed strange to me, especially for Youtubers where the image they present is “I’m just a normal, chill guy who makes Youtube videos for fun,” which needs the caveat of “Uhhhh, I’m actually really poor and if I don’t take this BetterHelp sponsor I can’t afford my rent this month. Please understand, I’m barely making any money on Youtube,” when a sponsor is included in the video.
As weird as this sounds, there are communities of creatives online that don’t expect to ever make any money putting hours, days, weeks, months, and years of work into a project. There are modding communities, bloggers, game developers, fanfiction writers, and artists that only want comments saying “You did a good job,” and Youtubers used to be that way, or they used to present themselves that way before sponsors became as common as they are now.
I don’t say this often enough, but I remember when Youtubers would make videos about not just random pictures on Deviantart, but on fanfictions and pornographic videos. They’d do those videos for things like clout, which is something that I don’t see too often on Youtube.
People might say that there are a bunch of Youtubers that talk about obscure media and Youtubers that make things without any expectation of earning money, which I say “Well, yeah, but that’s not what I’m talking about,” and then I’d point to things like AVGN’s Atari Porn video, and old videos where commentary Youtubers would branch out from their niche to say “Hey, just for fun, we’re going to check out this weird fanfiction story,” or how Yahtzee would include fun projects he created at the end of his Zero Punctuation videos, like how he’d dub over scenes in video games like Half-Life and Painkiller, or how he made a slideshow with Garry’s Mod that depicted a love story between Heavy and Medic.
What I’m saying is that a large part of what made Youtube fun was that not every video from an established creator with 100k subscribers needed to be monetized, or even created with the expectation of being successful or well-received by the community. There was a time when the expectations people had for, say, Jim Sterling was for a high-quality Jimquisition video to be produced and uploaded to the main channel once a week, and for the other days to feature a minimally-edited video where he showed himself trying out a game or reacting to a trailer on his main channel.
In the past I said that I would like it if EFAP would talk about comments and read fanfictions on-stream and I was mocked for it, but I stand by that statement because, although EFAP clearly doesn’t want to do it regularly, when they do read comments on-stream it tends to result in some of the best content because it showcases a side to them that I like. Instead of being totally normal dudes talking to each other about a movie they saw or reacting to a video, they have to use text-to-speech or read the comment using a silly voice or, well, use just a little bit of creativity when reading those comments out-loud.
What I’m kinda saying is that, yes, I think we all like professionally-produced content, and we all accept that sponsors for videos are necessary. But, like, I don’t like how for most successful Youtubers only the monetizable content, often with sponsors, is presented on the main channel, while the other content doesn’t exist, is uploaded to a secondary channel, or is locked behind some kind of paywall.
It just feels strange that these normal, chill, relatable people have gotten themselves into a position where they can earn real money, in some cases a lot of money, to stand in front of a webcam for 10 minutes talking about their favorite movies, chat with a group of friends, or even just play their favorite video game, and in quite a few cases they won’t do any of those things unless there’s a way to monetize it. Imagine how it looks to say “Well, I can’t talk about this cool fanfiction story I read on my main channel to my audience that enjoys my content about that franchise because I can’t get a sponsor for it.”
I wonder if Rags, a regular host of EFAP, appreciates the irony of him criticizing Chris Stuckmann for advocating that filmmakers “Get as much time and money as possible to make their films in the ideal circumstances and for the process to be easy,” when he’s in the position that he’s in where, on EFAP, he has as much freedom as he wants in the ideal circumstances to make money with EFAP, and it’s easy, yet he still will complain if he’s asked to step out of his comfort zone, even a little bit, on stream.
Insecurity
A while ago I had a theory about Cancel Culture which was that usually Cancel Culture is incredibly exaggerated by the audience of the people being canceled, and that most of the people being canceled are perfectly fine. The go-to example is the poor lady who made a joke about AIDS before going to Africa that got off the flight and got fired from her job due to her joke going viral. What people often don’t mention is that she got fired because it’s a terrible look for the company’s PR person to be involved with such a massive PR disaster, and that she got hired at another company a very short time later. Plus, like, she made a racist joke and people were calling her a racist, it wasn’t like she was targeted for absolutely no reason.
My theory is that people think that Cancel Culture absolutely ruins the lives of celebrities and influencers online because of their intense reactions to being canceled. An early example being Seth Macfarlane, who was mocked for his poorly-received hosting of the Oscars and who seemed incredibly bitter about it, making Cancel Culture a plot point in multiple episodes of Family Guy, talking about how bitter he was about it in interviews for years, and even apparently getting emotional support from his friends and family after the ordeal, even going as far as to ask celebrities to say “I liked what he did and I thought he was hilarious, and very handsome.”
What I’m saying is that I think that in the early days of content creation on Youtube the people making videos were more willing to appear on camera and embarrass themselves, like with Spoony screaming at a big gaming event on camera, because even though they were aware of Cancel Culture being a thing they weren’t going to be reduced to tears by someone saying “You’re totally cringe and annoying,” and even went as far as to incorporate those kinds of comments into their video because it was extremely easy content to create. You probably know what I’m talking about, where a creator would read out “This content creator is SOOOOOOO CRINGE,” in a video in a silly voice which you can’t really do as easily with “OMG, I love your content,” and make it entertaining.
That’s changed a lot today with content creators seeming to project an extreme amount of insecurity in every video they’re a part of, which gets even worse in formats like podcasts. It feels like every commentary creator is a chill dude that isn’t offended by anything and only wants to have a good time talking about things they like because, well, that’s what they need to be to avoid being criticized too severely, but they constantly allude to being a very immature and thin-skinned person that is mainly concerned about earning money, to the point where they’ll say “I’m not even having fun producing content at all.”
In college I remember one of my professors saying: “When you were high school kids you were insecure and weren’t confident in your abilities enough to volunteer when you were asked. You’re adults now, and when you graduate you can’t do that at a real job. Part of growing up is being confident in yourself, and if you don’t want to do that, you can always work in fast food where you never need to grow up, while the other adults in your friend group are becoming doctors and construction workers.”
It’s something that I realized with Youtubers which is that a decent amount of them started their careers young and never had to ‘grow up’ the way that my professor said that we needed to. Even with millions of subscribers you still see a lot of Youtubers struggle to commit to any statement they make, and I hear “I’m just a dumb Youtuber who doesn’t know anything and is stupid and socially-awkward and is fat and smells bad,” too many times from rich and successful people.
The thing is, when you’re a teenager, or you’re in your 20s, that insecurity is charming and relatable because you're trying to find a place in the world and discovering the role that you will fill in society. But, when you’re 30 and your role is “I tell people about the latest internet drama and make references to Spongebob,” or “I talk about Star Wars for hours at a time,” even if you make $2 million every day there’s likely a part of you that says: “I don’t like who I am. I don’t like what I do for a living. Yes, I’m rich, but I don’t like why I’m rich, and I don’t like my audience.”
I think that this insecurity leads to people trying to make their content more ‘mature’, but the way they do it isn’t by presenting themselves as a more confident person, or by making a clear separation between the personality in their content and their actual personality so that they can have a good work/life balance, it’s by creating the same content with very superficially mature elements. So, you end up with the video essayists of the past that gained fame by describing the events of a movie and then giving their opinion on whether they liked or disliked it doing the same thing but with quotes from smart people, like Socrates, and making conclusions like “Some people are gonna like this movie, some people are going to hate it. The important thing is that everyone involved with this movie tried really hard and had fun.”
The thing is, teenagers and 20-year-olds get value from a relatable person that comes across as an insecure loser who is too afraid to take a proper stance on anything to commit to a statement. When someone is actually mature they find more value in someone who is willing to do a good job and defend the job that they did, even if they’re like Neil Breen who thinks they did a good job but clearly did a terrible job. A 20-year-old might declare that Twin Perfect’s debate with EFAP wasn’t embarrassing because he was just being himself or something, but a 40-year-old might not tell Twin Perfect that the debate was embarrassing, but they would no longer respect him, and I imagine a lot of 40-year-olds don’t respect a lot of Youtube video essayists because of how eager they seem to be to engage in self-deprecation.
Conclusion
Despite everything that I’ve said, I do think that the content landscape on Youtube is generally ‘better’ than it was in, say, 2010. We weren’t getting a 4+ hour video by The Little Platoon about Rebel Moon, for instance, in 2010.
What I would compare modern Youtube and classic Youtube to is the 1970s movie scene vs. the 1980s movie scene, which Quentin Tarantino has labeled as “The worst period in movie history,” which the EFAP crew have pushed back on.
The thing is, in the early 80s we got Blade Runner, in the same way that nowadays we got the 4+ hour Little Platoon video, but the theatrical release of that film was famously sabotaged by the company that wanted Harrison Ford to provide voiceovers for the film that ‘ruined’ it, or at least, ruined the ending of the movie.
Throughout the 80s films were made which satisfied audiences more than films from the 70s did because Spielberg was producing hugely successful films that are still highly regarded, but there was also a bunch of shady practices going on and a bunch of notoriously poor studio decisions made in order to appeal to a wide demographic, such as the fiasco with Supergirl and Masters Of The Universe, or changing the ending of Brazil.
In the 1970s we not only got more challenging films, but there was also a thriving independent cinema scene that gave us Death Race 2000, Eraserhead, THX-1138, and Duel. There was also Jaws, Star Wars, and A Clockwork Orange, which were big-budget movies that took serious creative risks that paid off immensely which just wouldn’t happen in the 1980s, or would happen very rarely.
I think that I do prefer Youtube back in, say, 2015-2017 when it seemed like we generally got the best of both worlds, challenging content about a diverse range of subjects with production values comparable to what we have now.
To close this, I would like to include a paraphrased interaction I saw on a podcast featuring a pretty big Youtuber that I think illustrates why Youtube has changed in the way that it has.
Youtuber: Look, I don’t need to work as hard on my videos now because not every video needs to be an event. I just want to take it easy now, pump out a video whenever I feel like it, get paid by the sponsors, and then spend time with my family, is that so wrong?
Host: It kind of is. I know your audience of teenagers will be like “He just wants to spend time with his family, dude, have a heart,” but a lot of Youtubers, especially younger Youtubers look up to you for inspiration. If you’re in that position and your attitude is “I’m going to half-ass every video that I make from now on and if anyone calls my content lazy I’ll use my 8-year-old daughter as a shield against criticism,” that’s the attitude that a lot of young Youtubers are going to have. They’re going to half-ass their content and when criticized, they’re going to find their own excuse, like “I have a kid now,” or “I have to eat,” or something.
Youtuber: That’s not my fault, though. I never asked to be a role model.
Host: That’s not how that works. You don’t get to decide whether or not people look up to you, have expectations of you, and emulate your approach to content creation. You only release 2-3 videos a year, and with your status every video should be a major event, but instead every video is half-assed, as you admitted, and then you use your daughter as an excuse for why you don’t put as much effort into your content as you used to. I think you need to have someone in your life, like a friend, that actually makes you feel some shame for your content and encourages you to do better, rather than your social circle being composed of supportive people like your family and the people who pay you through Patreon.
Host 2: He did have that. He fired him two years ago, remember?
Host: Oh, yeah, you fired your friend, or made him quit, whatever the story was. Did that not make you feel bad at all?
Youtuber: Friendships end, that’s just life.
Host: That’s the attitude that I hate that comes across in your content. You can’t just brush aside everything and bumble through life, except if you’re an internet personality, apparently.
Host 2: It worked for the MCU.
Host: It’s not working for the MCU anymore, though, and it isn’t working as well for this Youtuber. It’s probably going to get worse and when he decides to do more work and make better videos, like he used to do, it’s probably going to be too late, or he’ll need to make really good videos to get the views he once did.
Youtuber: My videos are really good, though.
Host: You admitted to half-assing them.

Continuing my series where I write about one episode for each season.
Season #1: "5 Votes Down" Season #2: "Somebody's Going to Emergency.." Season #3: "Dead Irish Writers" Season #4: "The Red Mass"
It's everybody's favorite Season #5 episode!
Continuing from the previous episode "Eppur Si Muove," Owen Brady, a conservative Supreme Court Justice has died. POTUS has to appoint a moderate to get him past the Republican Senate...or does he? With a little help from Ryan, Glenlivet, and Donna's cats, the impossible happens. Also, Toby and his Ex argue about a CODEL to Gaza (and Toby's parental involvement ) and C.J. sends an email to Ben.

1. One of the great things about Sorkin was his ability to write an episode with 3,4, or 5 plots. They were usually united by a common theme and would always have a more light-hearted story to balance the more serious ones. The post-Sorkin years generally focused on one main story. You generally had multiple plots, but there was always one dominate one. "The Supremes" is an example of this. The Supreme Court storyline takes up about 90% of the runtime.
   
2. I think one of the reasons this episode is so popular is that it harkens back to the Sorkin years with the message that the government can get things done, but it requires compromise. That was a reoccurring theme in the early seasons, but it was totally dropped by the end. Santos never compromised, but always benefitted from it politically. It was almost childlike how they portrayed him as both "standing up for what he believes in" and "winning in the end." The Sorkin years were much more nuanced.
   
3. While Sorkin was the superior writer, the post-Sorkin scribes wrote better "adversaries." Chris Mulready, Rafe Framhagen, Ray Sullivan and Arnold Vinek were all "opposed" to our heros, but were well-written, three-dimensional characters. Even Jeff Haffely was portrayed as shrewd. Most of Sorkins adversaries were morons with no real principles.
   
4. The conversation between Toby and Andrea sets up the "Mideast" storyline that ends the season and makes me wonder where the "jump" happens. You know, the missing time period that covers the Bartlet 2nd-term midterms. It has to occur in the 5th season, but I am not sure where. Any thoughts?
   
5. There is an interesting character development for Bartlet in this episode. In the Pilot, Leo tells Al Caldwell that, while Bartlet personally opposes abortion, he doesn't think the government has a right to restrict it. In this episode, Bartlet compares abortion to a tonsillectomy. Now, since I am pretty sure Bartlet doesn't personally opposed tonsillectomies, it either means that Leo lied to Caldwell (about Bartlet's views,) Bartlet lied to Leo (about his own views), or Bartlet had an evolution and doesn't personally oppose abortion anymore. I would imagine it is the first option. Bartlet wants Caldwell's support so he affects a diferent position.
   

Thanks for reading my thoughts. What do you think of "The Supremes?"

So I actually watched the first 4 episodes when they dropped, but I was very underwhelmed and decided not to post anything as I didn’t want to be negative. I didn’t dislike it, but I was definitely disappointed because I had very high expectations after all the press, the promo and what was being said by the cast and the crew. However, since then I rewatched the 4 episodes and I definitely like it more now after rewatching with no high expectations.
The things I had issues with:

• Pacing. I thought the pacing was all over the place. The episodes felt slow while the main romantic storyline felt rushed. We would have a fast paced scene and then a scene that seemed to drag would follow it. I feel like that happened a lot during these 4 episodes. I also think that splitting the season was a huge mistake as just when the show was starting to gain some momentum there was nothing else left for me to watch and based on the LW conflict and the side storylines they will cram a lot in the second half.
• Colin. I don’t understand why they decided to go down this route with the character. I haven’t read his book so I’m not sure how accurate it is, but I feel like in a romance show you don’t wanna find your male lead cringe and creepy and I’m sorry, but in the first 2 episodes he was borderline creepy. I know what they were trying to do, but it did not work for me at all. I feel like they could have shown him putting up a facade for the ton in different ways that don’t make him look so bad. I think the threesomes were absolutely unnecessary, but that seems to be a popular opinion. I just don’t get why we couldn’t just have the same Colin from the previous seasons with a bit more charm and oomph. He seems to be dropping the rake act now and hopefully in part 2 we can have the old Colin back somewhat.
• Penelope. Sort of. I kinda have mixed feelings about her character this season, but I did like her more than Colin. Why did we need to see her humiliated so many times? I just wish they stopped doing that. I’m sure we’re going to see her suffering enough when Colin finds out about LW, we don’t need to see her going through so many humiliations. Seeing her beg Colin to kiss her was painful. Also what was that balloon scene? Just move to the side lol.
• Benedict. I’d like to know what the point of this character is at this point besides fucking a different woman every season and looking happy in the background. I know he has a lot of fans, but I don’t get it. He is just so ‘there’ and that’s about it. I found his storyline the weakest and I’m not sure how it’s going to pay off and what the point of this is again. It feels like the script for Benedict is a copy+paste of s1 every season now. The woman he’s fucking this season is also just so meh. They also have absolutely no chemistry so that also doesn’t help. Their dance was very odd, her trying to be so badass or whatever that was supposed to be just came off as awkward and cringe to me. I don’t get the purpose of this storyline and honestly I’m not even curious to see what happens with them in part 2. Luke Thompson is completely wasted in this role.
• The Mondriches. This storyline was actually intriguing to me before the season premiered as I thought they’d be more involved with the main storyline with the other main characters, but that hasn’t really been the case so I’m wondering how this is going to pay off. I feel like every time we cut to them the pacing starts to drag and their storyline just doesn’t really flow with the show. But tbh I preferred seeing them over Benedict so there’s that. I feel like there has to be a purpose to this storyline and that there might be something more interesting happening with them in Part 2.
• Cressida. Meh. I don’t get why we need to have Cressida be some poor little mean girl who’s hiding some deep pain. Sometimes a bitch is just a bitch and that’s fine. Another storyline that I just didn’t really care for.
• Polin. Sort of. I feel like we needed more time with them. It feels like they barely had any scenes together this season. I know we’ve known them for the past 2 seasons, but we needed to see more than Colin falling in love after a kiss. That just felt so rushed to me. I wanted to see more of them interacting instead of Colin just staring at her and Lord Debling. Their first kiss was also incredibly disappointing. Not the kiss itself, I found it lovely actually, but Penelope begging him to kiss her was soooo not for me. I hated that. I don’t understand why we need to see Penelope humiliated so many times. I feel like the pacing of their romance could have benefited from a few more scenes of them together before the end of Part 1. But nope, I guess we needed to see Benedict fuck instead.
• The Queen. I’m actually struggling to even remember what she was doing this season. Forgettable storyline and also repetitive. I wish they figured out a different way to include QC in the story. I loved the QC spinoff and coming back to this version of her is just kind of disappointing.

A thing I'm unsure about for now:

• Violet and Lady Danbury. I’m not sure how I feel about this yet. I haven’t made up my mind about this storyline yet because I feel like I haven’t seen enough about it. It could end up in either direction depending on how they chose to develop this storyline. I just hope they don’t end up having a rift because of this brother business. I’m very much down with Violent finding someone though.

Now finally onto the positive stuff:

• Polin. Sort of. So I have mixed feelings about their romance. As I said, I had issues with not having enough scenes of them together. However, I did like most of what we actually got. The carriage scene was 10/10. I loved it lol, it was hot. Can’t believe Bridgerton is making me like a Pitbull song when I’m definitely not a Pitbull enjoyer to say the least. I also really liked Colin’s dream, I loved that it was his dream and not hers like it was probably expected. I also really liked their first kiss, it was lovely, I just wish it didn’t happen cause she was begging him for it. Other than that, it was probably my favourite first kiss on the show. I liked that we got to hear about them meeting as kids even though we didn’t see it. And yeah, I just wish we had more of them together interacting to make Colin falling for her feel less rushed.
• Penelope. Sort of. I actually kind of like that she’s petty and dissing Colin in her column lol, but I’m gonna need to see that conflict have a proper resolution in Part 2. I hope they do the LW storyline justice and they don’t rush it like they’ve done in the past in both previous seasons. I loved her new hair, clothes and she looked great. It was nice finally seeing her want to get away from her family and taking matters into her own hands. Her scenes with Lord Debling were fine, but since I know Colin is her endgame I didn’t really care much about him.
• Eloise. I liked Eloise so far. I was a bit annoyed by her last season, but so far I’m enjoying what they are doing with her. I liked that she kept Pen’s secret and that she obviously misses her and still tries to help her and save her from Cressida’s antics. She also seems to be reflecting on her friendship with Penelope and she’s realising that she hasn’t really seen her properly before and yeah I just like what they are doing with them despite the Cressida element this season. She’s also toned down her complaining and has learned to adapt without being unnecessarily rude while also being the same person as before. I liked that development.
• Francesca. I enjoyed Francesca’s storyline this season and I loved seeing her meet John. They were super cute. I have actually read her book and it’s my favourite among the ones I’ve read so this is extra special for me. I did think that we got a bit too many suitors and that I was starting to get bored of that, but then John showed up and I forgot all about it lol.
• The Featheringtons. I know that this might be an unpopular opinion, but I love them lol. Especially Portia. I just love the actress and think she’s great. Her lines are just so much fun and yeah I love this character. She’s not a good mother and person tbh, but I can’t help but find her incredibly entertaining. Her faces, her lines and yeah I just love her scenes. The daughters were great this season as well together with their goofy husbands. The 'inserts himself?' scene was one of the funniest scenes so far on the show for me. I know this is an unpopular opinion, but also enjoyed their plot last season even though I do think the one from this season is a lot more fun.
• Kanthony. I loved seeing them pop up for an episode. Them being all lovey dovey was nice, but I wish we had more interactions between Kate and the Bridgertons, but we’ll be seeing more of them in Part 2 so I’m hoping we’re getting that then.

So these are my thoughts and even though I was disappointed I did enjoy the season overall even if it seems like I have many complaints, it’s still Bridgerton and I just love the show. I feel like my thoughts would be much different with a full picture of the season and not just 4 episodes. I am sure that after Part 2 my feelings about it will be a lot more positive since the storylines will all pay off hopefully. I’m also hoping that they don’t do this split release in the future as I genuinely think it hindered my enjoyment of the season.