J. Y. Song

I think it’s about time I put up a better write of my story, so, with that in mind: Hello everyone, both old and new. Despite my constant yapping on here my primary passion has always been writing, and my passion project is called Hedge Knight. What is Hedge Knight? It’s an epic progression fantasy novel series that follows the tales of Helbram Alligard, our titular character, across Ellios, a land filled with magic and mystery. Its scope is meant to be focused on a series of individual adventures in place of a constant, sweeping narrative with the main cast being the thread that ties it all together. Do not let the epic fantasy label shape your expectations entirely, however, for Hedge Knight takes the “kitchen sink” approach to its world building elements. Expect elements that could just as easily belong in sci-fi, steampunk, or even dieselpunk novels. Just to give an example, the first book of the series deals with an army of bandits led by an alien conqueror. The intent is to deliver all these elements with enough verisimilitude that it all fits together without pulling readers out of the experiences. More importantly, do not expect any of it to be dripping with irony, either. I want Hedge Knight to be a series with a single, earnest goal: to tell a story as best it can without thinking it needs to depreciate itself for fear of being “cringe”. Anything that sounds absurd on paper will be played straight, as I firmly believe that any idea can be good so long as the steps are taken to execute it competently. Does that mean the series is serious business all the time? No, I actually try to inject a good amount of humor throughout, just expect it to be pulled back more readily than a lot of stories you may see today. The art attached, drawn by the amazing @studio_kart, are glimpses into the world I’m trying to create. But, let’s also introduce the main party of Hedge Knight, shall we? (A thread)

@xbriskey AC6 really nails the flow state so you find yourself just drawing from stuff that you thought you’d last a while a go 🤔 I legit got better at gaming after I beat the game 3 times lol

@Critical_Scribe I'm so used to walking or running. Especially from playing Sekiro or the pre AC4 games. I was more shocked by how many instinctive combat patterns it pulled out of me and I haven't played games in almost 2 years or sparred in 14 years.

While I wouldn’t say Armored Core has never had compelling narratives (a lot of them are actually really deep and the lore is outstanding) Armored Core 6 is such a treat because it’s made by a FromSoft that has finally nailed down their identity. There is so much sheer confidence in the game and clear passion in how it presents itself that it really feels like it’s the game they’ve wanted to make Armored Core be all along. The game popped off so regularly and made you so invested in faceless characters so well that I’d say they were doing a better job of it than in their Souls series. I really can’t wait for more.

This is how I imagine most of my coworkers think of me. Little do they know, I’m a total asshat online.

I used to think like this in regards to my own work ethic, but was then passed up for promotion 4 times by people who didn’t work as hard. If it was a performance thing, I would understand, but nope, my metrics have been the highest for quite a while. So now I just don’t care. If you want people who to work hard, proper incentive is needed, because the only reward for hard work nowadays is more work while others climb ahead of you.

@xbriskey Hell yeah, it’s quite fun and gets you into a different sort of zone

@Critical_Scribe I actually played it last night after not having proper access to a pc. ....I might have Newtype powers.

I like to engage with it as a springboard for my own ideas most of the time I have fallen for pure ragebait though so that’s on me.

This dude does numbers every time he pulls this ragebait and everyone falls for it every single time. I can’t even be mad at him, he just knows the engagement hack.

@TheStrxggler Thanks for the shout out man 😁

@Truthful1316 Wizards can either feel really useless or like a god, there are no in betweens lol

@Critical_Scribe It's become a gag that the only person with worse luck than me is the wizard. Last couple encounters only he really got hurt (and went down 2/3 of the encounters) The cleric rolls "bad", but never goes down and has great spells to nuke things.

Ehhhhhh, the only time I do this is when we’re literally just starting out. There really isn’t a story to be had there, it’s just “ah shit, he died. Re-roll!” And it wastes time. If it’s at the end of the first session though, all bets are off.

@Truthful1316 Pfffft my mobs ALWAYS crit at least once per turn so my players get out through the wringer at times

@Critical_Scribe I don't fudge anymore, because my luck is just that bad lol. Or maybe it's good because I want my players to win. Last session an NPC crit my boss "WHY AM I CRITTING MYSELF!?"

@AlysssaHazel Good labels 🧐

@Critical_Scribe E-Drag Queen = Pretends to be a woman when they post for money E-Crossdresser = Pretends to be a woman when they post because they're....a pervert.

I bet you anything 50% of gender discourse on this site would resolve itself if these ragebait accounts from India and Nigeria were just permanently banned or if country block was finally implemented.

Batman Beyond, I would say, uses the different method of giving the mentor a prolonged stint as the hero while also giving a good reason as to why he stopped. Terry (initially before the weird retcon in JLU) also felt very much like himself and even as Batman he had his own style, and Bruce was with him every step of the way while also being allowed to remain competent mentally. Love that series as well, despite a few choices that made me go >.> (namely the weird Barbara and Bruce romance, though that could have come from TAS)

@Critical_Scribe I think this is why Batman Beyond for the most part worked when others failed. Heck Flash too.

Inheriting a mantle is something that can only be done well when the character that gets the inheritance has been tied to the original for so long that they both understand the OG fully, but have had enough time to fully become their own distinctive character at the same time. That takes A LOT of time, and as such companies don’t want to do that and attempt to speedrun the process out of a mistaken line of thinking that “new=new audience”. The only example from the comics for a MASSIVE character that I think kind of went well for a while was Dick Grayson becoming Batman (I could be wrong on this, since I remember most people were chill with it due to his history and stint as his own man), and even then they reversed that decision eventually.

The results are in! Clearly the book is perfect in every way and you should pick it up while it’s on sale for $0.99 :^)

@neirenoir I am biased due to my group where they do care, but that is a fair point.

@Critical_Scribe I mean, yeah, but it's very hard to have dramatic deaths at low level because no one cares about those characters, both in-game and OOC.

@MrOvis_ I just think producers in the West and the greater culture need to get their heads out of their ass and just accept that animation isn’t just for kids.

One of the reasons why animation works for anime is because it costs just as much to animate someone walking as to animate a whole city being fucking disintegrated. Meanwhile, to do that with CGI requires a massively high budget, so you end up with shit like the Avatar live action that looks unironically like a Grok prompt

@MrOvis_ Except Korean Manhwas, they skip over so much in their adaptations. It drives me insane. I can only hope the upcoming Omniscient Reader anime actually adapts the entire web novel as is. That’s the only way it’s gonna work.

@Critical_Scribe This is because they don’t actually adapt the comics and just make slop. One day I’ll do a video about manga vs comic adaptations. Comic adaptions suck whereas the only time people bitch about anime is when they skimp on the animation budget

It’s because Simu Liu doesn’t bring much as a leading man and Awkwafina’s time in the Sun was thankfully short. When you villain carries the entire movie because of his international starpower, you don’t have the potential for a series.

TikTok cut at the end is the chef’s kiss here because this shit looks like it was made from TikTok.

@MrOvis_ I blame the script writers on that honestly. How they manage to fail upwards everytime should surprise me, but it doesn’t anymore 🫩

@Critical_Scribe Shang Chi's universe has basically no good way of connecting with anything else in the marvel universe. They basically showed that all of Chinese myth and kung fu magic is real for one movie, then never bring it up again.

@neirenoir There can be plenty of drama deaths but it depends on both players and DM honestly. I got lucky with my group who know when to switch the humor off.

@Critical_Scribe These situations sometimes generate meta-stories due to how absurd they are. "I was level 1 and I died to a tripping hazard and the DM forced me to make a new character while people got to enjoy the game, haha!". Guess it is fine if you are going for a Pratchett-style story.

@tacticow Didn’t install the DMC conversion modpack smh. Are you really playing Skyrim if you didn’t do that?

Me SLIGHTLY modding Skyrim for a playthrough for a future series of streams 🥺💕 I swear theres still at least 30% Skryim in here. I know I know its not vanilla Skyrim but its a really nicely made modpack called Nolvus

@Libriomancy101 Shiiiiiet, u right

@Critical_Scribe Skill issue, just make time. That easy. 😎

Me with literally every indie horror game.