The creature feature featuring…the Creature!

(*they/them pronouns for general drifter, he/him for mine)

H16h V0l7463: A figure is suddenly lounging atop the gallows as if he had been there the entire time. The figure in the black and purple cloak, with the blindfold. His leg is dangling off the gallows bar. Kicking it idly, he grins wide. H16h V0l7463: "Hey, kiddo." > I grit my teeth. "I'm not a child. And what you're playing at isn't a game." > ((Stop. Right now. This isn't a game. Hard line.))

this is kind of actually a very interesting option, at least for me. if this were the first or second loop, my drifter would probably say the first one because he was mirroring people's energy like crazy to fit in. later loops though, he's established a stronger sense of self and would pick the hardline stop

now, when i first saw that line, it's 100% understandable and dare i say accurate to read it as drifter drawing a boundary for their own mental health. we as the outside party can see that amir doing this is fucked up, but i don't think? drifter is taking personal offense to it? it reads like how they can flip out on eleanor for seeking the indifference. they're angry the same way you get mad at kids for running into the street, scared for amir that he'll get hurt by playing bloodymary in the mirror with wally, and they haven't clocked yet what amir's goal with this is. it's really hard to see him acting like this, but it maybe explains why the writers let him streamroll over the line, they weren't thinking about this potentially being hurtful to drifter and didn't realize that it looks exactly like amir ignoring a personal boundary...

as for anyu, he sees the indifference as a force of nature that's a threat to everyone, so he's not going to claim personal ownership(?) of it and be offended (if it were thrax though.. hoo boy), and he'll realize later that amir is just as afraid of it, trying to cope with his fear in the only way he knows how. in the heat of this initial moment tho, he just thinks amir isn't taking the danger seriously and is kinda mad at him for that

H16h V0l7463: "You're right about one part of that. This isn't a game. Games have variable outcomes." He flips a dagger in his hand, catching it by the handle. H16h V0l7463: "When you roll a die, you're meant to not know what you get." The grin on his face never waivers. "But what if you could always know the outcome? What if you could see it, as it was happening, before, during, and after?" > "Then it's cheating." > I stay silent.

silence is not always indicative of agreement or guilt. sometimes it's just you choosing not to play the game. my drifter doesn't use kimulacrum or resets and i'm not letting DE force him into that box. it barely makes sense at all for entropy to harp on this when it's not something drifter, the operator or anyone can even do in relation to wally. we don't know how warframe's story ends, nobody's asking DE to tell us early. stop guilting us for using a tool to enhance our enjoyment of this fuck ass game. anyway, this is the only time The Kimulacrum Situation gets lampshaded which is a far cry from roathe's whole thing so i'm otherwise letting it slide

if i'm looking at it from the characters' perspective, i can see it as wally being fucking furious at drifter for using their time-controlling void powers against it, all like "don't you know you should be helpless against me?", and from amir's side, he hates that he knows how the loop always ends. he craves the uncertainty of not knowing what happens tomorrow, the freak 💀 /affectionate

xX GLIMMER Xx: ((amir!! u have to stop, this isn't ok)) H16h V0l7463: "I wasn't talking to you." He snaps his fingers. Your friends around you? They simply dissolve into dust.

this might be why the hex don't try to reach out to amir or speak up for drifter. if they haven't been literally-figuratively-liminally thanos snapped in whatever voidal dreamscape this session has become, they're following drifter's lead by playing along with the rp. that's in keeping with drifter's role with the team - arthur may be the commanding officer, aoi the head strategist, but drifter is the defacto leader of their little militia, especially when it comes to stuff about the void:

(from ArthurConfession. i'm pretty sure drifter says something like this elsewhere but i can't find it)

H16h V0l7463: "Where was I? Oh yes! A game. Since when have I told you we're playing a game?" He laughs. "Not once! I'm many things, kiddo. I'm not a liar." H16h V0l7463: "Ever wonder why I call you that, 'kiddo'? I do. I wonder all the time. I wonder about what I am. Why I am what I am. Why I was brought into this world."

if amir is being influenced or spoken through by wally, this makes it really hard to say he's not. he has no reason to know about the kiddo thing, and i can only guess that if he's not being influenced at all, he's asking it because we're supposed to assume drifter's explained every little detail to the hex about wally. it's that lazy skip-ahead writing for the sake of plot that i HATE and it's doing the complicated emotional stuff here no favors

> "The same reason you call Albrecht 'Little Bengal.' You use it to infantilize the people you interact with." H16h V0l7463: "But *why?* Why?!" He lays on his back atop the gallows and stretches out, utterly unconcerned by you and your weapons. H16h V0l7463: "I sat and I thought about this for the longest time. It's clear that your youth has nothing to do with lack of power." He snorts. "But then... I figured it out. You know what you never had in your youth?" H16h V0l7463: "Choice." H16h V0l7463: "Children don't get to choose. They don't get to decide when to wake up. What to wear. What to eat. What to think. What to believe." H16h V0l7463: "Oh, you might be given the illusion of choice..." H16h V0l7463: "Like this game." H16h V0l7463: "Like the life you lead." H16h V0l7463: "Like everything that has been put before you to get you here." H16h V0l7463: "But everything has been scripted. Written. Chosen for you. By those who believe they know better than you do, kiddo."

exactly why wouldn't this be the indifference? ignoring the fact amir might've been brainblasted by the writers to already know wally's innermost thoughts, why would they put in fake development for the game's main freaking antagonist? yes amir is having a meltdown all by himself. he's also clearly being spoken through. wally learns emotions and expresses itself by parroting the people it gets close to. amir's stress is wally's stress. they're one in the same here, their voices interchanging the way we hear with neci

> I've had enough. I'm done. H16h V0l7463: "Giving in to Entropy?" He tsks. "Too bad I'm not done with you. Or your friends."

yeah, it makes sense why you can't back out of this conversation. drifter has figured out that amir is in crisis with wally breathing down his neck, and drifter's mission is to build and restore broken connections, so if they give up now, amir's as good as gone. like, whether he's being influenced in this conversation or not, wally will get him if drifter disengages

> "You're wrong. I make my own choices." H16h V0l7463: "And in a way, you do. But have you ever thought about how they all lead to the same place regardless?"

if drifter is getting triggered by all this, they're swallowing it down and focusing on amir, continuing to play along with the rp because it's apparently the way amir wants to handle this...

> Okay. This has gone on long enough.

lol well fuck nvm

H16h V0l7463: His laugh that time is quiet. Almost broken-hearted. He shakes his head. "Am I really worth all that hatred..?" > I disagree. The lives, the deaths, the loves and the friendships - they have meaning. H16h V0l7463: "If being cared for by you means to be condemned to this... this, never-ceasing loop for all eternity?" He sneers. "Then I would like to never be considered a friend to you, Wanderer."

so. yeah. this is schrodinger's interaction: it's a completely bespoke piece of character friction. it's everything wrong with KIM right now

this problem amir has? it's personal with the drifter. drifter is, from amir's perspective, the cause of the loop. wally and entrati aren't physically around for amir to lash out at, so all he has is this 'avatar' of everything he's suffering from. he can't escape the loop, he can't get help for his ADHD, there's no sign of an end to this (i'm ignoring the hex being afraid drifter will reset their memories. canon drifter would never do that without FAR more narrative instigation than this game will ever give, has no precedent before KIM for being able to do that, a telepath is right fucking there, and it's cringe. summarily discarded)

it would be such a fascinating exploration of character dynamics in any other context, but KIM is also a dating sim. amir's romancers don't deserve to feel personally attacked by him like this, made worse by the fact drifter never gets a one-on-one chance to reconnect with him. the resolution to this very personal issue is a group activity where drifter is all but ignored and players are left to hope there's some continuation that isn't going to be another shoddy consent chat style follow-up

i really don't care if people think this was perfectly in-character for amir, the fact remains that whether he'd do it or not, drifter/the players are left behind on the burning bridge

so anyway..

> If… this isn't what you want, anymore, Amir, I… we can talk about this.

drifter is faltering. he's doing everything he can to respect amir's needs, but wally's cruelty means amir has to stay in the loop. leaving means giving up, means breaking his connections. amir stays trapped and spirals or goes free and wally wins either way. of course drifter doesn't know what to do

i hate that kaya swoops in with a cheap solution right after this, but the purpose seems to be because drifter's said the wrong thing and almost lost amir, and she happens to come in at the right time to reel him back. it's (grudgingly) a good thing that she does because i really don't know what drifter could say to fix this

Broadsword: Amir. Enough is enough. Listen to me.

arthur's noticed that drifter needs backup. god i love their dynamic so much, ough,,, bröthers in arms.,,,,

H16h V0l7463: what is life if… ifnothingchanges…ifnothingcanchange > Amir, it's okay. > But it did change, didn't you hear Kaya?

i don't like the antagonistic wording very much but it's what makes the most sense for my drifter to say. like he's not gonna give a platitude right after amir basically said he hates him, he's gonna swallow the hurt and focus on what he recognizes as the issue, which in this case is "nothing changes." he knows from duviri that it's not okay, so what might've actually comforted him during the executions? yeah

H16h V0l7463: what? > This wasn't here. And then it was. This is new. You don't remember it that way, because of the loop. Do you trust me? H16h V0l7463: yeah…

oh baby it's really falling apart now

> So, things here can change. Slowly. Maybe not as fast as you'd like. > Maybe not the way you'd like. > But they can. H16h V0l7463: yeah. Yeah!

:face_with_bags_under_eyes:

this is just putting words on the page cause you're running out of steam and the deadline is rapidly approaching...

H16h V0l7463: you're right. i'm sorry. i... i got all up in my head about this, and... H16h V0l7463: hey. whaddaya say we go kill some eximus units together? as a team.

and this wasn't really an apology. it's a deflection because he's embarrassed and wants everyone to move on like it didn't happen. but yeah, going back to the burning bridge line, none of this feels like enough for what the issue was. amir is just choosing to brush off his feelings again,

H16h V0l7463: yeah, yeah... it's just... hard, sometimes, i guess? i've lived my whole life, not believing i've... really got friends. H16h V0l7463: so that little voice in my head still shouts "they don't really like you" and wins sometimes. i'm sorry guys.

and while i GET the idea that he's partly crashing out because he's got that little voice in his head telling him everyone hates him and so this is reassuring for him in that specific regard, it's not addressing what he said to drifter. that's really freaking important for all the aforementioned reasons (his romancers vs interesting conflict, drifter being left with it, etc etc). i'd bet anything that drifter is feeling alone here

(from LettieRank5Convo3)

i don't think amir needs to sit down with drifter and give a perfect apology. like i don't think an apology is even necessarily what needs to happen. the meek little line in the inbox message can be perfectly in character for him IF they got to have an honest, get-to-the-meat-of-it conversation like drifter was able to have in the OG chats, if drifter was able to reach past the walls to their friend and/or partner and be able to speak with him like a person, but i guess then that this is what fic is for...

but hey! maybe amir didn't really mean it and it was just the barb he used to lash out at a drifter he totally does still care about and we're all being upset over nothing! woohoo, good writing, team! 👏👏

anyway ig, other quick things i didn't like:

kaya being the designated void expert even more obnoxiously than before. shut UP with all that oh my god, drifter can be an idiot but we don't need to act like they're completely ignorant. this is probably because they stopped being a character in devil's triad and instead an in-game face to exposit to for the players and i'm overrrr it bro

the just barely plausible deniability that all the digs at DnD and magic wasn't all one long meta side eye at our "nerd shit"

the whole resolution being about the new eximus units. it took all the steam out of what might've been a heavy-hitting piece of angst. like we COULD wrestle with the resets, with drifter being ~in charge~ of the loop, explore why the loop needs to keep going. if resetting their memories HAS to be part of the story, we could stop dancing around it and let drifter talk candidly about it, why they might do it, set a meta flag for something like 'the player has reset but the drifter has not,' 'the player will never reset,' make drifter be a sneaky little liar for evil playthrough purposes that's immediately called out by eleanor, etc. something robust, you know? we're just getting the worst of both worlds right now and it's not fun

and i really can't tell now if lettie and eleanor are saying innuendo right in front of anyu's eleanor kissing face but i'm tirrred dude, just gonna pretend they didn't say anything like the last time

NOW, to pull back on some of the criticism, i ADORE that at least drifter's responses can all show that they're still on their mission:

(from QuincyRank5Convo1)

this is what i've hinged all of anyu's characterization on, everything he does is to promote and restore any connection that's been lost or damaged he comes across, even sometimes to his own detriment. since i'm not an amir romancer, the barb doesn't sting quite the same. i see it as a fun opportunity for conflict in fic cause his dynamic with my drifter hasn't been very clear in my mind and i'm looking forward to making this tie in with isleweaver now 👀

A lot of folks are (rightfully) disappointed with how the F&F story played out, here's my two cents on it all:

He Would Not Fucking Say That:

Either whoever was writing this completely misunderstood Amir's character, or Wally has much more influence here than we think. Maybe it's wishful thinking as someone who loves the KIM system, but those first messages in the finale immediately made me go, 'that's not Amir.' Sure, he can be catty with wit and snark to match, but he is not thoughtless, he would never willingly take the Drifter's trauma and use it like that. I truly want to believe that this was the direction the writers were going for, but with how the writing was handled, I unfortunately doubt that. Theory crafting aside, deflection and distraction I can understand, but throwing the Drifter's history in their face like that is so out of character it might as well have been written under Wattpad's new t&s.

EDIT: addition from a comment

The elephant in the room goes unaddressed:

'the way the latter half was handled definitely had me biased and overly critical, with fresher eyes it's pretty clear it's Wally influence 💀 leaving things just ambiguous enough without addressing it directly is more of a let down, though it leaves a hell of a lot of room for speculation, both good and bad'

EDIT 2: Since seeing arguments from both sides, I dont 100% agree with this point anymore but I'm not looking to actively engage with the discourse rn, so take all that with a grain of salt

Looking at the writing more specifically, it was the epitome of a massive build up that ultimately fell lower than flat. We get to watch Amir's distress grow and grow with the campaign as a distraction front only for it to be overshadowed by the new Eximus units. We understand what the issue is but we're never given the opportunity to properly address it, and the best we're given is a 'let's go shoot stuff' ending. The time given to addressing what Amir is going through is completely outweighed by the presence of Eximus units, which could have easily been indirectly discussed as a part of Amir's narrative, not the conclusion of it.