- Jul 15, 2018
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Guys please don't rush poor Koda.... It's not like he has delayed the update multiple times right?
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- Jun 17, 2018
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Well, from what they've told us it's not just Koda giving us the middle finger by being lazy anymore, he's doing it to Bo now, so no wonder people are finally starting to react accordingly. At this point I'm just hoping Bo goes back to being a solo developer once this is all over.
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- Sep 29, 2017
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Agreed #FireKoda
- May 22, 2017
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- Oct 30, 2017
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Koda is a great writer.
His expansions enriched even more of the characters' personas.
Bo's old games before him aren't the same, write-wise. Not even ToT's early builds.
I'm pretty sure his touch would be missed.
Not defending the inexcusable, constant and frustrating delays, tho. Just to make things clear.
His expansions enriched even more of the characters' personas.
Bo's old games before him aren't the same, write-wise. Not even ToT's early builds.
I'm pretty sure his touch would be missed.
Not defending the inexcusable, constant and frustrating delays, tho. Just to make things clear.
- Oct 26, 2017
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The thing I enjoyed the most about this game were those expansions of the characters after beating them, like Eliza and Khulan, so obviously I whole heartedly agree with you.
Let's not forget Bo is taking his time too, it's not fair to focus everything on Koda, as terrible as he is with delays.
- Jun 17, 2018
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Koda is only a good writer if you compare him to other porn game writers, most of which barely speak English.
I don't know which parts of the story were written by him and which by Bo, but ToT's story is full of unexplained stuff and crap you'd see out of a shounen anime (and a mediocre one at that). I'm willing to bet Koda is partly responsible for this because of his obsession with power levels. Remember that time he kept rambling about his favourite girl's obscene power level?
Ethan said it best right here:
Koda's obvious favoritism towards Cobra is also a good indicator that he's not a great writer.
All the girls are very one-note, their expansions don't change their one-dimensionality. They all have the same goal of wanting to dominate young boys, and their motivations are either really dumb or non-existent.
Also the idea that every girl is secretly super powerful and they're just letting Ethan pass through their respective floors because they feel like they'll end up enslaving him anyways, is just plain stupid, and creates a bunch of other plotholes.
The world-building has been awful from day one. Basically TLA+Pokemon, which doesn't make a lot of sense because people aren't like Pokemon (A firebender wouldn't be psysically hurt by you throwing water at them like a Fire Pokemon would). And also anyone can learn moves of any type, there's a reason why not every bender in TLA is the avatar, or why the only Pokemon who can learn every move is Mew. If you're gonna give everyone everything then why bother creating distinctions? It's bad they forget about it on ocassion, like for Karen, we don't know what her "type" is.
Koda also seems to have this way of writing everyone's dialogue that is way too similar. You can easily imagine half of the things Khulan is saying coming from Cobra's mouth, despite how different those two girls are supposed to be. He can't express a girl being seductive/teasing enough with words that he has to overuse the '~' symbol. And I do mean overuse, he'll use it literally 20 times in a single encounter with any girl. Sometimes he even uses heart emojis, ffs. And another one of his writing ticks is having girls say 'Hmhm'.
As for the porn itself, I realized Koda's wasn't that great when I found other erotic writing that was WAY hotter for me in Monster Girl Dreams. Koda will seldom talk about the sexual act being performed which imo is the whole point of a porn game, and will instead try and expand into how Ethan feels, which can take you out of it if you aren't feeling the same thing's Ethan is feeling. Most of his scenes he has to come up with these awful metaphors that the girls will tell Ethan while they dominate him, like Lily's "My toes are the vanguard breaking your defenses". I doubt anyone is getting turned on by Koda's writing when he comes up with these silly metaphors, they're probaly just getting turned on by the situation Ethan's in instead.
It all comes down to this. How replayable is this game to you? And I don't mean doing the EX fights over and over, I mean how many times have you repeatedly watched the same scenes and gotten aroused by them? For me ToT isn't all that replayable, I have to do some hardcore roleplay if I wanna enjoy most of the stuff in this game that I've seen already, and most of the time Koda's writing explaining how Ethan feels at any given moment completely fucks over that roleplay.
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Gamer cummies will not be denied.
Deliver us our hentai game... or face the ultimate consequence.
Deliver us our hentai game... or face the ultimate consequence.
TOT's writing is great by a femdom game metric. Ethan's a perfect protagonist; the oscillation between wanting to be a hero and succumbing to vices he didn't realize he had, is very realistic. Most masochist protagonists are unmotivated morons, irredeemable creeps, or both. Ethan's interactions with the jailers, desperately trying to keep the upper hand despite racking up the losses, and slowly losing faith in himself? It's really well paced. Except for Karen's floor, where all that goes out the window.
I don't see interchangeable dialogue at all. Eliza's dialogue is amazingly clever with how well her femdom integrates with her sermons. Cobra is totally shameless about wanting to drain you of your wealth and life-force. Khulan is more direct still, with law of the wild, animal instincts, and food chain all playing a part in her femdom. Like "Thank me for letting you keep your limbs". I can't imagine anyone else saying that line, except maybe Karen. Because Karen sucks. Lily's got the market cornered on the bratty "I'm better than you because I'm a girl" personality, which again is something no other jailkeeper makes much mention of. I hate how much I like Lily.
I'll concede the elemental stuff isn't implemented well, and the hearts and musical notes are pretty goofy (though only trying to emulate Msize, Ahen, Doskoinpo, etc., in all likelihood). But yeah, anyone would have a hard time convincing me the game is sub-par in any avenue (besides, y'know... existing when it's supposed to.)
I don't see interchangeable dialogue at all. Eliza's dialogue is amazingly clever with how well her femdom integrates with her sermons. Cobra is totally shameless about wanting to drain you of your wealth and life-force. Khulan is more direct still, with law of the wild, animal instincts, and food chain all playing a part in her femdom. Like "Thank me for letting you keep your limbs". I can't imagine anyone else saying that line, except maybe Karen. Because Karen sucks. Lily's got the market cornered on the bratty "I'm better than you because I'm a girl" personality, which again is something no other jailkeeper makes much mention of. I hate how much I like Lily.
I'll concede the elemental stuff isn't implemented well, and the hearts and musical notes are pretty goofy (though only trying to emulate Msize, Ahen, Doskoinpo, etc., in all likelihood). But yeah, anyone would have a hard time convincing me the game is sub-par in any avenue (besides, y'know... existing when it's supposed to.)
- Oct 26, 2017
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It's obvious this game is not the novel of the century with the best writing. But if the writing is so mediocre (which is the core of the game, more so than the gameplay mecanics) and you do not care so much about the game, why the majority of your posts are on this thread?
At the beggining you all were losing your shit about how this was the best femdom game out there, you included, and now is mediocre at best because you are obviously angry with the devs? I think it doesn't add up xD
I get delays suck, but let's stay consistent here, this still is one of the best femdom games up here and the expansions made by Koda and his writing was what hooked up a lot of people.
- Jun 17, 2018
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Read this, buddy
I'll say it again, if you compare ToT to other femdom games, especially if they're made in RPGM, it's amazing. If you compare Koda's writing to the one in those games, I guess you could call it good. In a vacuum though? I don't think so
And I really don't think Koda's writing is what made people fall in love with the game, but go ahead and idolize him some more.
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Totally agree and simultaneously disagree. As a consumer, I judge content based on how I value it. The technical abilities shown may never exceed a rough average between "WOW!" and "CRAP!" but the reason we're all fans of ToT (if not the broken productivity standards of the creative team) is because it speaks to us.
You realize that to say flatly that it's overrated without talking out of both sides of your mouth is bogus. I appreciate that it's fulfilling to say so if only to satisfy your biases,(which we all have) particularly against Koda, who boldly claims that his updates will speak for themselves... and lets v1.13.0 be so lame that I haven't even bothered to download it. His room to improve his coding and writing skills should be obvious to him, yet he seems oblivious to that truth that he has a lot to learn.
Facts are: Bo's artwork has communicated with the target audience.
The gameplay has communicated with the target audience.
Koda's in-game writing has communicated with the target audience.
That's what a conscientious artist wants to do. Artistic expression is shit only when you can't express an emotion effectively. There wouldn't be any animosity if only Koda wouldn't create deadlines that he only recognizes will cause him aneurysms to meet DAYS or WEEKS or MONTHS after they were first promised. For the target audience, it IS worth the wait... as long as the target audience isn't played.
In fairness, if Koda had an aneurysm from rushing to fulfill his own promises to the fanbase, it'd be even because most of us would have heart attacks if he actually met those self-imposed expectations.
I get how you can objectively say it's overrated by comparison to the CGI used by Disney and the writing of Charles Dickens... HOWEVA... it's not fair to distance yourself from the things that keep you hungry for more content and pretend you're on a panel considering ToT... or any RPPGM game... for an award. Anyone judging the game's personal value in such a way is LONG GONE from this thread. Nobody's here for the technical geniius of the team. As far as striking an honest chord between creator and consumer goes, the creators have shown flashes of absolute brilliance in conveying numerous aspects of the game.
Glad you walked it back a bit with your edits. You wouldn't be a fan if you FELT it was overrated.
No uTotally agree and simultaneously disagree. As a consumer, I judge content based on how I value it. The technical abilities shown may never exceed a rough average between "WOW!" and "CRAP!" but the reason we're all fans of ToT (if not the broken productivity standards of the creative team) is because it speaks to us.
You realize that to say flatly that it's overrated without talking out of both sides of your mouth is bogus. I appreciate that it's fulfilling to say so if only to satisfy your biases,(which we all have) particularly against Koda, who boldly claims that his updates will speak for themselves... and lets v1.13.0 be so lame that I haven't even bothered to download it. His room to improve his coding and writing skills should be obvious to him, yet he seems oblivious to that truth that he has a lot to learn.
Facts are: Bo's artwork has communicated with the target audience.
The gameplay has communicated with the target audience.
Koda's in-game writing has communicated with the target audience.
That's what a conscientious artist wants to do. Artistic expression is shit only when you can't express an emotion effectively. There wouldn't be any animosity if only Koda wouldn't create deadlines that he only recognizes will cause him aneurysms to meet DAYS or WEEKS or MONTHS after they were first promised. For the target audience, it IS worth the wait... as long as the target audience isn't played.
In fairness, if Koda had an aneurysm from rushing to fulfill his own promises to the fanbase, it'd be even because most of us would have heart attacks if he actually met those self-imposed expectations.
I get how you can objectively say it's overrated by comparison to the CGI used by Disney and the writing of Charles Dickens... HOWEVA... it's not fair to distance yourself from the things that keep you hungry for more content and pretend you're on a panel considering ToT... or any RPPGM game... for an award. Anyone judging the game's personal value in such a way is LONG GONE from this thread. Nobody's here for the technical geniius of the team. As far as striking an honest chord between creator and consumer goes, the creators have shown flashes of absolute brilliance in conveying numerous aspects of the game.
Glad you walked it back a bit with your edits. You wouldn't be a fan if you FELT it was overrated.
Someone linked me the criticism of my writing on Discord so I'll weigh in.
a) I don't feel any particular favoritism towards Cobra. She gets a lot of attention because Bo's original design for her wrote a lot of checks and my goal (arguably compulsion at this point, given how much it messes with my timetables) in joining him has always been to make sure those checks are fully cashed. In some ways, she actually gets the short stick by being the prototype for a lot of things that other bosses will get more developed versions of.
I've always liked all the bosses for the most part, and the ones I didn't (Yvonne/Lily) I've come around a lot on since I started working on their expansions. My "obvious favoritism" will however show on (roughly) 10F with a boss of my design (not to be confused with the 8F boss who is also of my design).
b) I do use ~ a lot and am conscious of it. Ultimately, I just think a lady lilting her lines is sexy and seductive so it tends to happen more often than not. I'd like to think it makes the hard stops (. / !) more powerful, but saying it simply weakens/dilutes the tone is a reasonable critique. Someone on discord suggested ♪ to cover similar ground, which is an idea I like and will try.
c) I'm also conscious of having a "default tone" and absolutely slip up and "same-face" the writing sometimes. Part of why Yvonne and Khulan were so fun to expand was I felt I was able to break free of that for a change and really get into writing a different style of girl (it's much more difficult for me to distinguish eg. Eliza, Cobra, and Khulan). If anyone has specific textual examples of a character X having a line that is clearly in the tone of character Y, they are welcome to send it to me (as if it were a typo) and I'll try to correct it.
d) As Mammon999 guessed, the hearts/notes are borrowed from more JP-style femdom. Personally I think they add something that can't be conveyed with "proper" words and really like them as a result. I get that this doesn't work for everyone, though (just as my old JP dog-noises baffled a lot of people).
e) The Monster Girl Dreams comparison seems mostly a matter of taste. My writing has always been less focused on the physical sex and more on the mental/BDSM elements. Describing a footjob (or whatever) in detail doesn't really interest me, and I assume the reader can just imagine (or is simply seeing it via the CG) and try to add flavor by detailing the psychological succumbing instead. I'm not surprised or offended someone would want more sex-focused writing, just explaining that it's not really my style and that's not likely to change.
f) The shonen tropes enhance the femdom aspects a lot for me, so while I won't defend them as high literature, I will say they weren't included lazily or arbitrarily. The most direct inspiration for this I can think of is the 7-Tails fight in MGQ where you go into a surprise Angel-Trance near the end (which is later payed off as a permanent form in Part 3); the fact that this moment is more memorable to me than 95% of the generic sex/ends in that game says something for the concept, I think, even if folks argue I/we've failed to replicate it.
I always appreciate feedback like this as it helps me examine my own writing.
Cheers and Happy 4th of July.
(If the Discord memo wasn't posted here yet: a special project will be released this weekend.)
a) I don't feel any particular favoritism towards Cobra. She gets a lot of attention because Bo's original design for her wrote a lot of checks and my goal (arguably compulsion at this point, given how much it messes with my timetables) in joining him has always been to make sure those checks are fully cashed. In some ways, she actually gets the short stick by being the prototype for a lot of things that other bosses will get more developed versions of.
I've always liked all the bosses for the most part, and the ones I didn't (Yvonne/Lily) I've come around a lot on since I started working on their expansions. My "obvious favoritism" will however show on (roughly) 10F with a boss of my design (not to be confused with the 8F boss who is also of my design).
b) I do use ~ a lot and am conscious of it. Ultimately, I just think a lady lilting her lines is sexy and seductive so it tends to happen more often than not. I'd like to think it makes the hard stops (. / !) more powerful, but saying it simply weakens/dilutes the tone is a reasonable critique. Someone on discord suggested ♪ to cover similar ground, which is an idea I like and will try.
c) I'm also conscious of having a "default tone" and absolutely slip up and "same-face" the writing sometimes. Part of why Yvonne and Khulan were so fun to expand was I felt I was able to break free of that for a change and really get into writing a different style of girl (it's much more difficult for me to distinguish eg. Eliza, Cobra, and Khulan). If anyone has specific textual examples of a character X having a line that is clearly in the tone of character Y, they are welcome to send it to me (as if it were a typo) and I'll try to correct it.
d) As Mammon999 guessed, the hearts/notes are borrowed from more JP-style femdom. Personally I think they add something that can't be conveyed with "proper" words and really like them as a result. I get that this doesn't work for everyone, though (just as my old JP dog-noises baffled a lot of people).
e) The Monster Girl Dreams comparison seems mostly a matter of taste. My writing has always been less focused on the physical sex and more on the mental/BDSM elements. Describing a footjob (or whatever) in detail doesn't really interest me, and I assume the reader can just imagine (or is simply seeing it via the CG) and try to add flavor by detailing the psychological succumbing instead. I'm not surprised or offended someone would want more sex-focused writing, just explaining that it's not really my style and that's not likely to change.
f) The shonen tropes enhance the femdom aspects a lot for me, so while I won't defend them as high literature, I will say they weren't included lazily or arbitrarily. The most direct inspiration for this I can think of is the 7-Tails fight in MGQ where you go into a surprise Angel-Trance near the end (which is later payed off as a permanent form in Part 3); the fact that this moment is more memorable to me than 95% of the generic sex/ends in that game says something for the concept, I think, even if folks argue I/we've failed to replicate it.
I always appreciate feedback like this as it helps me examine my own writing.
Cheers and Happy 4th of July.
(If the Discord memo wasn't posted here yet: a special project will be released this weekend.)
- Oct 30, 2017
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Your criticism has valid points, although I don't completely share all of them.
But man... isn't ToT supposed to be a parody to the Shonen genre with a female domination element and a foot fetish focus?
Isn't it the whole point of the game?
- I, for instance, don't even consider ToT porn per se. It floats between the realm of erotism AND pornography, while maintaining the whole Shonen genre as a backbone. I would call it an erotic-shonen-RPG, but not straight, undiluted porn.
- I can't tell about Monster Girl Dreams because I never played it, but I'm yet to see any game with the same presentation, aesthetics and erotic focus as ToT. My hopes of friendly competition lie solely on NumericGazer's Under the Witch, which I'm almost dying to play the trial version. You can see the artistic and erotic value of Under the Witch just by peeking at its development. The concept arts, the 3D models and animations.
I can agree on your criticism of certain "meh" metaphors, but about the less focus on sexual details and more focus on the mental domination aspects, that's the perspective Koda adopted, and aside from things that I personally am not attracted to (gay stuff like pegging, dildos, etc, as I physically abhor anything even remotely related to the male body/physiology/sexuality), it never happened to turn me off just for mere writing reasons. I actually prefer the ero-scenes as Koda describes it, and not as your generic ero-RPG describes it, putting constant details on the sexual aspect per se ("stroking-stroking-sliding-sloppy-smooth"). I would guess your criticism on this one is just a matter of taste.
- I absolutely disagree that "there is a strong similarity between extremes like Khulan and Cobra". I just don't see them. Their personas are quite differentiated, their interests are very explicitly afar from each other.
Of course women knowing about a guy's weakness of getting hypnotized/dominated/defeated by an attractive woman and his attraction to certain parts of the female body would prompt these same women to act in a rather similar way to get what they want. They would use seduction and their assets. But the use of these assets is completely different and their motives are completely different.
I will have to completely disagree with you on this one.
> Aside from the handjob, which she does violently at her own volition, Yvonne just wants to physically hurt you BAD. She is sadistic and violent by nature. Her battle almost never is focused in directly pleasuring you, but to inflict pain and physical trauma. One of her grabs might even cripple Ethan. This even translates to her persona: she rarely, if ever, intends to directly pleasure you. She takes pleasure from inflicting physical pain and forcing Ethan to do humiliating/disgusting things to please her.
> Khulan just tries to physically beat you in a hunter/prey motif using mainly athletic feats WHILE using her body to seduce you into not fighting back and just enjoy the defeat. She doesn't mind directly pleasuring Ethan AT ALL, in or out of battle. Unlike Yvonne who is vain and proud, who only sees males as inferior beings to cause pain and humiliation (which could be seductive, in a certain way or context), Khulan gets thrilled and horny the more you keep getting stronger, as her EX dialogues after being defeated would tell. Cannibalism apart, she has a deal of respect/interest to particular male examples of strength which Yvonne absolutely DOES NOT, for instance. As you keep beating Yvonne and proving your worth/growing strength, she gets more and more enraged with you. She doesn't concede anything. Doesn't praise. Doesn't recognize: she simply won't respect you because that's just what she is.
That's an objective example of how far these mistresses' personas are set apart from each other by a large margin.
> Eliza has the whole "fanatical religious sect" motif going on. Everything she does to Ethan is for religious/educational purposes. She sees the strength/inner potential/resolve in Ethan and wants him to make a servant of the "Goddess". Her religious doctrine per se is not even properly addressed yet. We don't know if this "Goddess" is an actual entity or if this is just a facade of a magic user with a "god complex" who dreams of female supremacy.
She sincerely believes that she's doing good to Ethan by making him submit to her crazy femdom sect and, like Scarlett, will treat Ethan with a deal of affection which a girl like Yvonne NEVER would.
> Cobra is almost completely spell-based, carries a whole Eastern/Taoist motif, her "Level Drain" theme is absolutely explicit, she is absolutely fanatic on power levels and her agenda of making Ethan her "power battery". Her domination is mostly erotical, psychological and even psychotropical, as she drugs Ethan at a certain point.
I could go on with Lily and Karen, but my point is rather clear.
You can draw certain similarities in Scarlett and Eliza, for example, but even in their case, both of them are completely different personas and nothing in Koda's writing is misleading to the point that you would see Scarlett in Eliza, vice-versa. I'm absolutely positive that Koda did a good job at enriching each one of the mistresses' personas. Something that I don't quite see happening if Bo was the sole dev.
- About the whole "it's basically TLA+Pokemon" thing...
From what I did understand, people can learn different elements through Skill Books which teach them some sort of ancient martial knowledge. Those Skill Books are guarded by dojos focusing/specializing on one particular element.
I don't see a problem with that at all.
I am personally a Karateka and a Judoka at base. Was I forbidden to study Boxing, Muay Thai, Eskrima, Wrestling, Sanshou and apply it to my own personal martial universe? Not quite.
Draw a parallel to a Shonen universe that never explicitly stated any genetical requirement/attunement to any element, and you can get people developing multi-element skills by studying the ancient knowledge techniques or by directly learning from those who know.
I can concede that perhaps the setting would be cooler if people were already predisposed/attuned to certain elements. I would also prefer this way, but we liking it that way doesn't take all the shine of an universe where fighters can master the elements by merely studying ancient knowledge and techniques.
- About "people aren't like Pokémon: you won't get hurt by water thrown at you like a fire Pokémon would", that's the talk of someone who never got a full-powered fire hose shot to the chest, or someone who never got trapped in a wave crashing against the rocks.
Let's say you have 75kg: a fire hose to the chest will send you flying meters backwards and you can pretty much crack your skull on the ground if you don't break the fall.
High-pressured beams or large moving bodies of water can be much more dangerous than people take them for. I'm not even talking about the drown element that's implicit in water: I'm talking about actual physical trauma.
Besides... we're dealing with a Shonen RPG and the whole Shonen battle logic, for God's sake.
Like I said, I didn't agree with all you said. I didn't say that the game is perfect and not even that Koda can't improve as a writer. There's always room for improvement, but for now, ToT and the Bo-verse is absolutely great from my perspective, my greatest internet finding due to depicting most of my fantasies and sadly we have nothing like it so far.
I hope for friendly competition. It would push all of them devs to improve.
But I insist that Koda would be deeply missed if he ever got out for any reason whatsoever. ToT just wouldn't be the same.
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People talk about your delays and lazy work ethic for months
You sleep
Someone mentions your writing for about 3 posts
REAL SHIT??????!!!
Your a joke dude, straight up. Ban me mods for all I care but this takes the fucking cake right here.
- Sep 21, 2017
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mhm spending 6 months coming up with a dumb name system to choose between "doggy" and "piggy", yup some real Hemingway shit right there
- Oct 30, 2017
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Keep twisting my comment like I was condoning the shitty delays and the faulty work ethics of constantly failing to deliver on pre-established deadlines, over and over again. Keep on doing it: that's so nice of you, man...
You completely disregarded my point just for a free opportunity to sting the devs.
We all are frustrated, we all want more content and this absolute darkness for half a year is insulting: I get it.
There were times that I actually wanted to Power Side Kick the devs.
But I gave an objective opinion on the development of the characters' personas: Koda did a good job, period.
Scarlett is not just a generic dominatrix.
Eliza is not just her nun outfit.
Khulan is not just a barbarian.
Cobra is not just her eastern/taoist motif.
If you still don't get my point, then that's on you.
- Jul 8, 2018
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Really?
He is just now showing up on the brink of an abandon tag and after 4 months of delays to talk about his writing aptitude......holy shit wooooooooooooooooow..................
Who gives a fuck if you're good or not, I haven't seen any writing from you in SIX FULL FUCKING MONTHS~~~
He is just now showing up on the brink of an abandon tag and after 4 months of delays to talk about his writing aptitude......holy shit wooooooooooooooooow..................
Who gives a fuck if you're good or not, I haven't seen any writing from you in SIX FULL FUCKING MONTHS~~~
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