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Aielman15 Aielman15 @lemmy.world
Posts 34
Comments 732
NCSoft president: "The games industry's evolution towards acceptance and diversity is ongoing"
  • I feel the problem is not the industry but the fanbase. As of the last few years, it's become pretty common to see videogames become target of hatred for "going woke": H:FW's Aloy's "peach fuzz", TLOU2's Abby being too masculine, women not living to the average beauty standard, LGBT characters "shoved down people's throats", character editors decoupling gender and sex or using gender-neutral language, narrative being cringe because it targets millennials (as if older games didn't target young audiences, too)... The industry is going forward, but I don't think the fanbase is ready yet.

    Sometimes I think the fanbase is regressing, even. I've seen people lamenting increased "politics" in their videogame, yet saying that MGS or FFVII or Bioshock are their favourite games. Gamers don't even pay attention to what they consume, they merely parrot whatever their favourite influencer says. "Woke" is a meaningless term that gets thrown around whenever they don't like something.

  • Event Horizon (1997) Revisited – Horror Movie Review
  • It still saddens me that Paul Anderson went from such a movie to... Whatever he did after.

  • Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy will come to Game Pass on August 8 according to reliable source
  • There's not much point in subscribing for $20/month to play a game that frequently goes on sale for less than that and can be owned forever.

  • Anyone else noticed this keeps happenning?
  • I don't have/follow a dnd YT channel, but I do homebrew everything I play.

    You couldn't pay me enough to play a vanilla 5e fighter, and OneDnD sucks balls.

  • Sigil pronunciation
  • As an Italian, I can attest that no one in my country knows how to pronounce Shillelagh correctly.

  • Random map I made to test out Inkarnate
  • Yeah, that's my problem. I tend to hyper-focus on a specific hobby for a few days and then move on to the next one, and maybe get back to the first hobby after a few months or even a year. If I buy things instead of joining a subscription service, I may spend more now, but I'll end up saving a lot of money down the line.

  • Random map I made to test out Inkarnate

    Inkarnate is giving away 10-days free Pro membership, so I took the bait and tried it. I decided to use the limited time to bring a very old concept of mine to life, which I originally conceived as a kid in high school. Overall, there's a lot of improvements to be made (especially since I decided to stick to the original concept as much as possible, which was... not very good to begin with lol), but I had a lot of fun and it allowed me to unwind a bit before going to bed, which was nice.

    Not sure if I'll stick to Inkarnate Pro, however. Inkarnate is good, but it's web browser-only and subscription-only, which are both dealbreakers for me. I think I'll try Wonderdraft next!

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    Golden Guards [MoringMark]
  • These guys have waaaaay too much free time.

  • Well, What Could He Do, Anyway? [MoringMark]
  • What's worse? Fighting Doomguy or being the school's principal with Eda as one of your students?

  • We all know at least one
  • Martials are already underpowered enough without forcing them to give up even more of their meagre power.

  • My review of The Apothecary Diaries
  • I feel like this should be satire, but it never becomes funny and just reads as a poor (and, quite honestly, not very original) attempt at trolling.

  • Navigating Niche Writing Styles and Building an Audience
  • It largely depends on what kind of niche audience you are attempting to reach. I've also faced this challenge (not in writing specifically, but I create mods for videogames and for DnD) and I guess there's no correct answer. Sometimes it's up to luck if people finds you at all.

    I don't like compromising my artistic integrity for improved marketability. I'd rather remain unknown but happy with what I create, than making things I don't like. There is an argument to be made about finding a compromise, but I'm not that good at giving up my vision. Of course this doesn't mean that you shouldn't take feedback into account: accepting criticism is the number one step to get better, and I've always been grateful for other people's feedback on what I create. But I want feedback focused on improving what I want to do, not aimed at changing it to make it more preferable to others.

  • Xbox Game Pass is getting MAJOR changes, with a new tier without day one games, and a range of price increases
  • Lol, enshittification came faster than expected. At least Netflix was successful before the price hike, and then decided to be greedy because their user base was willing to pay.

    On the other side of the fence, Xbox Series consoles tanked harder than XOne (which was already a colossal failure) and Game Pass subscribers fell short of corporate expectations every year since its inception. And they decide that this is the best time to double the price of the service? Good luck with that decision, Microsoft.

    Who is gonna pay $15/month for a catalog of old games? Old games are already cheap enough that you can buy them directly and still "profit" over keeping an ongoing subscription. And $20/month for day one games? At that price, you're better off just buying the damn game. GP was already hard to justify at its previous price, but this new price point is egregious.

  • This cult classic mind bending puzzle series is coming back to PC
  • Great games, I have fond memories of me and my brother playing those flash games.

    If you don't want to pay, the Flashpoint Collection already has these flash games and they are fully functional, although I think I'll grab this release to support the dev after all these years.

  • Bad Idea [MoringMark]
  • The Boiling Isles must be grateful that Hooty is on their side. Not even the titans and the archivists combined could defeat him.

    On a side note, why so many comics all of a sudden? I can barely keep up! Lol

  • Fight Coven #15 [MoringMark]
  • I respect Mark's choices: it's his canon, his story and, by this point, pretty much his world. And I appreciate his attempt to explain why he wrote certain characters a certain way.

    While I do respect his choices, however, I don't agree with them. He is comparing early S1 Eda to end series Eda, which are two completely different characters. Since then, Eda took it upon herself multiple times to protect her children (at the end of S1 and S2, for example), and both times Luz went after her to have her understand that she couldn't fight alone.

    Heck, the motto of the series is "Weirdos stick together". Owl House was never a battle shounen anime where people fight to become stronger and growing up in the process: it was a series about finding like-minded individuals and facing adversities together, because no matter who you are, you can't face life alone.

    Mama Eda allowing Ayzee to fight in the Fight Coven was fine as long as it was cartoon ("fake") violence, but the moment people began cheating, fighting 3v1 against Ayzee (one holding her and the other punching her in the face), and real weapons were thrown into the mix, and now one guy doing that to Ayzee, I feel confident saying that the "real" Eda would not have watched from the sidelines doing nothing.

    That being said, I'm not trying to rain on someone else's parade. Sorry if my comments soured the mood a bit around here. I still appreciate Mark for the work he's done in single handedly keeping the series alive, and even with my criticism about this arc, I still have to point out that it has very good art. It's a testament to Mark's skill that he's able to put so much effort into such beautiful panels and release them at a daily pace.

    My comments are not about "Mark bad", but I do think that he missed the mark (heh) here, which is sad because, after reading his comics for more than one year by now, it's the first time I feel not only disinterested in them, but grossed out as well. I do think that he did not handle the change of tone from silly cartoon to "adults punching, stabbing and dislocating shoulders of a kid" really well.

  • Tales From the Tables ep. 41: Devil's Due, part 5
  • This is what happens when the Paladin needs to choose between using their bonus action to Lay On Hands, or to Smite.

  • Fight Coven #14 [MoringMark]
  • I very much doubt it will, but still, seeing a grown-up man beating a kid in an illegal fight club does not exactly scream "fun" to me.

    Like, sure, it was established since the beginning of this story arc that Ayzee would be fighting in a fight club, but, like, it was cartoon violence, no one was really getting hurt. Ayzee would be bitten by a demon, and it was fun just like watching an anvil fall on Will E Coyote. It was "fake".

    But in the last few pages they've been using real weapons against Ayzee, and now this guy does that... It's just... Yikes.

    I'll keep reading, but I hope this arc ends soon and we can go back to Ayzee and her friends having fun in the silly magical world and developing crushes.

  • Fight Coven #14 [MoringMark]
  • :(

    This story arc is making me a bit uncomfortable.

  • Dynamic Duo incoming.
  • You mean the harness, or the halfling?

  • Cynder by u/mikasauri

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    Talisman 5th edition out on July 1st, alongside co-op expansion

    I'm a huge Talisman fan but I wasn't aware that a new edition was being released, and I thought that others would appreciate the news.

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    www.dndbeyond.com 2024 Core Rulebooks to Expand the SRD

    Today, we’re thrilled to announce the expansion of the fifth edition Systems Reference Document (SRD 5.2), which will include updated content from...

    2024 Core Rulebooks to Expand the SRD

    Key points:

    • SDR 5.2 will be made available under Creative Commons.
    • It will release within weeks of the 2025 Monster Manual (which will release February 18th, 2025).
    • It will contain information from all three core rulebooks (PHB, Monster Manual, DMG).
    • It will be localized in all officially supported languages.
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    Brackeys is back, and will now make tutorials on Godot

    This is exciting news for every aspiring game developer! Brackeys, a popular YouTuber who used to make in-depth and very user-friendly tutorials about Unity, is returning after a long hiatus, and will now create tutorials on Godot (for those who don't know, it's a FOSS game engine, but I'm pretty sure that, if you have an account here, you already know it).

    Brackeys' tutorials were (and still are) the best tutorials for Unity, and have helped many aspiring devs (some of whom I know personally, and who later made a career out of it). His return, and the fact that he's now chosen to specialize on Godot, is a game-changer (pun intended) for the accessibility of the FOSS engine. Considering the recent Unity debacle, I'm happy that Brackeys will help people jump the ship, and I'm sure it will be instrumental in its success in the future.

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    All announcements from the triple-i showcase

    Some trailers have been shared here, but not all. This is a list of all 35 announcements from the Triple-i initiative showcase.

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    Mt. Le Conte, TN, United States - Photo by Matt Hatchett

    Photo by Matt Hatchett from Pexels: https://www.pexels.com/photo/trees-2867013/

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    'Hot' sort order in multicommunities not working correctly

    If I sort a multicommunity by 'Hot', it will show all posts from community 1, then all posts by community 2, etc... kind of defying the purpose of a multicommunity at all. I solved it by sorting by 'New' instead, but I figured I'd mention it here because it took me a while to notice - I thought people were not making new posts at all, while in fact, it was just displaying all posts by a lowly populated community first.

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    How To Be A Dragon – Dealing with wyrm infestations (@fishtrouts)

    fishtrouts.tumblr.com A Medieval Trout

    I got soooo many messages asking about them, so I added several wyrms from this comic as stickers on Redbubble! I'm so so so grateful for the support, and for enjoying these silly little critters!

    A Medieval Trout
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    Relic Castle down, following DMCA takedown notice

    !

    !

    FIRST PIC TRANSCRIPTION:

    Dear Pokémon fan game community,

    It is with heavy heart that I announce that the Relic Castle website has been taken down following a DMCA takedown notice.

    Relic Castle has always been a non-profit, ad-free, tight-knit community and we pride ourselves in what we have achieved. Members have felt at home, made friends, and even careers with us. It is with deep regret that I have to inform you that the forum part of this community, which was to turn 10 years old this year, has had to come to an end. With over 20.000 members and 65.000 posts, Relic Castle was a home to many of us.

    The Discord server is not going anywhere, and the site is still visible as an archive using the Wayback Machine.

    Thank you all for being with us this last decade, and thank you for making Relic Castle as awesome and life-changing as it has been for some of us.

    Sincerely, Marin (Owner) & Andy (Manager)

    SECOND PIC TRANSCRIPTION

    FAQ: (will update as we can/want to) 1- The website was backed up and sent to me (Cat) right before it was taken down, so nothing is truly lost. 2- TCPI should not be contacted as it was a third party who is authorized by TCPI to supply DMCAs and looks legitimate to us. 3- The DMCA was on the entire site for using "unauthorized copies of copyrighted material", so different from one game being taken down. 4- What will RC staff do next? Is there a new site or will the Discord be expanded? We don't know right now. 5- Put love into the world today

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    Summit merges the date of publish with the date of edit

    A post/comment that was published, say, ten days ago, but edited two days ago, is shown as being published two days ago. Would it be possible to display the date as "10d (2d)" or something similar, to distinguish between the two dates?

    4

    Heroic Warrior v1.2.2 - A revamped Fighter

    !Page 1 - Class features (1) !Page 2 - Class features (2) !Page 3 - Class features (3) !Page 4 - Class features (4) !Page 5 - Subclass: Blademaster !Page 6 - Subclass: Commander !Page 7 - Subclass: Green Knight !Page 8 - Subclass: Psyker !Page 9 - Subclass: War Veteran !BackCover and Credits

    The Heroic Warrior is a revamped Fighter that shares some similarities with the One DnD version of the class, but replaces the weapon masteries (which I honestly find overly simplistic and boring) with battle maneuvers and additional fighting styles.

    The goal is to create a martial class that's simple to use, fun to run over multiple sessions, and on a more equal power level with casters, while also trying not to dilute its "martial" nature with spells-like or arcane powers (such as giving it overly flashy maneuvers).

    The four subclasses provided are heavily inspired or directly derived by existing subclasses: the Blademaster is a blend of Battle Master and Cavalier, the Commander is an improved Purple Dragon Knight/Banneret, the Green Knight combines the Eldritch Knight and the Arcane Archer and gives them Pact Magic with third caster progression, the Psyker is a middle ground between the Echo Knight and the Psi Warrior, and lastly, the War Veteran is a mix of Champion and Samurai.

    Feel free to comment and share your thoughts; I'll be happy to improve the class following other people's opinions and suggestions.

    Full image album (Imgur): https://imgur.com/a/LV0qNcN Ko Fi: https://ko-fi.com/taverntalesdnd Online reader and pdf download (MEGA): https://mega.nz/file/6NFkDDSY#rhDGho5JPh--_its_RrBtMIVi8hLrorbHxz02naIn4c

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    Fighter: Ashworm Dragoon

    I've been working on this one for a while, and I'm happy I've finished it in time for the release of Dune 2! The Ashworm Dragoon was a prestige class in DnD 3.5, meant as a "mundane" (as in, non-magical) special mount for fighters. The two main hurdles when writing this class was finding a way to have the ashworm come back to the player in the event of death (most familiar subclasses in the game don't have this problem, as the character has spell slots to heal/resurrect their faithful friend) and balance the burrowing speed of the ashworm (I actually found that the rules are a bit more restrictive than I thought, and I've added a few more to prevent strategies that the players could employ to cheese encounters using their burrowing speed).

    !Page 1 - class features

    !Page 2 - companion stat block

    3

    "Cards of Eternity: The Wheel of Time”, Wheel of Time themed card game, announced

    www.businesswire.com Journey to Another Age With "Cards of Eternity: The Wheel of Time”

    Fans of Robert Jordan's sprawling world The Wheel of Time® universe will soon have a collectible card trading game experience like no other. Aether Ga

    cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/12449105

    > Cards of Eternity offers both Solo Player and Co-op (PvE) campaign modes, which delve into the intricate mythology of the series while unlocking an expansive range of new content for players to explore. > Cards of Eternity promises an exceptional experience for casual and competitive players alike. Matchmaking features allow players to find opponents at their own skill level, ensuring more balanced and enjoyable matches. Detailed tutorials will make the game more accessible to newcomers and training modes will let them experiment with new tactics. > Regular content updates will expand the library of cards. Players will have endless ways to modify their deck and adapt to ever-evolving gameplay strategies. The digital platform also allows for competition events, limited-time game modes, and other dynamic content that will keep the game fresh and engaging. With more than 200 exquisitely detailed cards to collect, dazzling animations, and player-driven card trading, Cards of Eternity is expected to foster a passionate user community. > An integrated AI guide will add a truly personal touch. Using the One PowerTM technology recently announced by iwot productions and D1srupt1ve, players will be able to unlock and interact with sentient characters and creatures, adding a captivating RPG-like dimension to the gameplay experience. The One Power provides a foundation for endless, immersive storytelling possibilities and will be a game-changer for the trading card genre. Players will be able to experience AI gameplay for free, but extended use and access to the full suite of features will require a One Power subscription. Additional details about One Power will be provided in a future announcement.

    0

    Xenogears - Small Two Pieces

    Ending theme from Xenogears, the most ambitious videogame ever created.

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    Tavern tales - Anthology of subclasses (v1.2.1)

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    Walks in - Calls one of the strongest subclasses in the game situational - Refuses to elaborate further - Leaves

    Also, healing is definitively the strongest quality of the Peace Domain.

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    Fighter: Banneret (revised)

    I love the banneret as a concept, but I absolutely loathe the execution. The main problem of the original class is that Rallying Cry is not good until you reach higher levels and you only have one use of it, Royal Envoy feels more like a ribbon feature, and Bulwark is so specific in its trigger requirements that you may play an entire high level campaign and never successfully use it once.

    With my rework, I tried to make the features more useful and their use more frequent, while also maintaining as much of the original concept as possible and striving to keep the class simple (without adding unnecessary stuff like a banner mechanic, warlord-like maneuvers or anything like that).

    Art credits: Purple Knight by BryanSyme

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    Barbarian: Path of the magpie - An improvised fighting barbarian

    A friend of mine wanted to play an improvised weapon-wielding barbarian. He was using a homebrew subclass he found online, but frankly speaking, it was terrible, so I reworked it. This is the result of 2 hours of rushed brainstorming and development. I'm not a barb main, so I'm not really familiar with how they work, but I'm satisfied with the result.

    While creating the subclass, I tried to satisfy the following demands:

    • Allow the player to use unarmed strikes and improvised weapons, obviously.
    • Try to make improvised weapons unique and not just "reflavoured martial weapons" (achieved with the random roll and additional effects to unarmed stirkes and attacks with improvised weapons, I hope).
    • More choices during combat. The person who was going to play this doesn't like how shallow and same-y most martials in 5e play (hence the "Barbarian Exploits" feature at 6th level).

    Any kind of feedback is very much appreciated!

    9

    The Owl House - Discussing the animation test and the (unreleased) pilot

    This is a series where I discuss either confirmed or supposedly cut content from the show. You can read my previous posts here:

    Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

    SOURCES: Animation test: [1] Fandom page, [2] YouTube (full video) Pilot: [1] Fandom page, [2] Youtube (live stream of Dana talking about the pilot), [3] Youtube (PostHoot where Dana talks about the pilot and the animation test)

    So, just to make things straight: the animation test and the pilot are two different things. The animation test was created because they weren't allowed to animate the whole pilot. Please note that nothing in the pilot or the animation test was ever meant to be canon. In the words of Dana: "The pilot animation test that a lot of people see floating around on Tumblr and Twitter is actually a minute and a half animation test because we weren't allowed to animate our actual pilot. The pilot itself wasn't written to be the first episode: it was written to be a test of tone, a test of character, so we were just willy-nilly throwing stuff in there that we knew wouldn't make it into the show".

    THE ANIMATION TEST

    What follows is a few observations from a quick glance of the animation test reel. A timestamp is provided for each of the observations, so that it'll be more clear what I'm referring to when talking about some specific tidbits.

    • [0:05] Like in the series, humans don't have magic. Luz's desire to become a witch was always intended to be the driving force of the narrative.
    • [0:15] "King used to know magic". Although fairly ambiguous, it could mean that King was already written to have amnesia.
    • Also about King: he had brown fur and red/blue eyes. I can see why they decided to change his colour palette lol.
    • [0:37] Willow, or rather Paulina, had already been conceived as a character. She already had affinity with plants, but aside from that, we don't really know much about her role in the story.
    • Her introduction is a reference to Ron's broken wand in the Harry Potter series, but it's unknown whether the similarities end there, or if more parallels were planned. Her lab seems a bit run down to me, which could mean that maybe she was envisioned as the "poor student" like Ron, but that could just be a coincidence or me reading too much in a very short animated reel.
    • [0:48] "Sir William", an unknown character, makes an appearance. There isn't much to talk about, because the pilot doesn't tell anything about him. Fans speculate that he was a "proto Hunter" (while also being different from the other Proto Hunter), mostly because his introduction was later recycled into the "Wake up!" gag from S02 EP06. In my opinion, the chances of the two of them sharing a similar backstory are slim (if not entirely non-existent), so we should look at them as totally different characters.
    • [1:08] The dead titan's skull has a much more prominent muzzle, similar to King's. King was probably always meant to be a titan cub.
    • [1:09] Eda was already planned to be a hoarder and seller of human junk.
    • In the same shot we can see the Owl House, and a strange thing can be noticed if we look at the door: Hooty seems just an immobile, non-animated carving on the door. Maybe his character hadn't been planned at this stage yet? The fact that the house "blinks" could mean that the entire house, and not just Hooty, was a living being.
    • [1:23] An unknown enemy. Fans have dubbed him "Proto Belos" but there's really nothing that supports that theory. As far as we know, he could just be an evil side-kick or a one-off villain.
    • Of note, Luz wields the magic of Eda's magic staff, which could imply either that she was eventually meant to learn magic, or that innate magic and palisman magic were already two separate powers in this pilot like in the series.
    • [1:37] Luz performs magic in a similar way as the series, although she doesn't use glyph magic, but some kind of alchemical symbol.
    • [1:44] Maybe more important, she's learning alchemic magic from a book whose cover depicts the silhouette of an unknown demon that kind of reminds me of titans? Maybe glyph/alchemic magic was already linked to titans at this stage in development.

    THE PILOT

    "The pilot was in many ways similar to the first episode, but there were a couple of major differences". Please not that the pilot has NOT been released to the public, so the two livestreams of Dana talking about it and showing some concept art is all we can base our analysis on. In italics, the direct quote from the streams (when not specified, the quote is from Dana herself).

    • [57:01] Amity made an appearance in the pilot. Luz attempts to befriend her because Amity unwittingly or unknowingly stands up for her in class and, as a thank you, Luz draws her a picture, but she got a... I think the line, specifically, is "I got a paper cut while drawing it, so I just worked it into the picture". The concept art shows a picture of Luz and Amity together, with the words "Thanks pal!" written over their heads. Amity has a red line over her face (Luz's blood) that makes it seem like she's blushing. We got a bit more detail about this scene in the other video: "They were in the hallway after class, and Amity just defended her because everyone was bullying her for her project". I'm unsure how to read this part: was Amity a human at this stage of development? Or is Dana talking about Hexside already? The fact that this concept art is put before everything else in the episode makes it seem like it's supposed to happen early in the pilot, and in the first episode Luz shows a school project in her human school.
    • [57:35] There's a lot of similarities with, like, Eda and Luz. This was a slightly different scenario where Luz tries to run away from Eda and Eda is like "Oh, I know what you are... You are a customer!". It's kind of similar to what we got now. I think for a lot of the original words we literally used those for the first episode. The concept art shows Eda grabbing Luz's arm to hold her in place, then showing her some of her junk. Like Dana says, it's pretty much the same as their first meeting in S01 EP01.
    • [58:02] The Owl House looked a little differently. [...] Instead of a living room, it was more like a... (Spencer Wan) Foyer? (Dana continues) It's a beautiful drawing, we took a lot of inspiration from his [Leonard Weiss] concept pieces and worked it into the actual house. The concept art shows the interior of the Owl House. It's cozy, the ceiling is magically lit, and some light spheres float around, similar to those that Luz creates with the light glyph. The art is credited to Leonard Weiss, a freelancer who worked with the team in the early stages of development.
    • [58:49] Lilith made an appearance in the pilot, she... (Luz Batista) She was so early on, both her and Amity. (Dana continues) When you're making a pilot for a show, especially a pilot that's not going to be aired, and it's just going to be used for testing - because this was shown to a limited amount of kids to see if kids were into it - you kinda want to throw as much cool stuff as possible into the first episode, even if it's not the first episode you actually want to do. So I was just throwing in as many characters as I thought would be interesting, Lilith being one of them. I think, at this point, she was - at the very very beginning - she was actually the principal of Hexside, instead of Bump. That was before we figured out where we wanted to go with the story and how we wanted the characters to develop. It didn't quite work with the series, which is why we ended up changing it. (Spencer Wan) Didn't she also turn into a... (Dana silences him). The concept art shows beta Lilith wielding some magic. She's very similar to show!Lilith. What Spencer Wan was trying to say before he got shushed was, Lilith was able to turn into a bat. Also, "Similar to Eda turning into the Owl Beast when she gets stressed out, Lilith used to turn into a bat when she got stressed out. However, that didn't work with the story".
    • [59:55] The ending was a little different. Luz does get stuck and she has to find her way home, but in rewriting the pilot, me and my season one story editor, Rachel Vine, we thought it was more interesting if she made the conscious choice to stay and had to deal with the consequences of that later. The concept art shows a melancholic Luz looking at King, who's checking himself out in the mirror while wearing the Burger King crown.
    • [1:00:30] The ending hug was a little different. Eda still didn't know what a hug was. [...] I think the lines are exactly the same. Same with King. The concept art shows Luz crying while hugging Eda, then doing the same with King. It's a bit different than the first episode, where Luz consciously decides to stay and happily hugs Eda and King. In both the concept art and the episode, Eda is visibly not accustomed to hugs.
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