Halo Reach: Overall Thoughts
I said this elsewhere, but it should probably be included here too.

I only owned this game because a friend wanted more people to play with and thus bought it as a gift for a handful of people. I'm not big on the FPS genre, or first person games in general, because seeing a disembodied set of arms floating around on my screen usually hurts my immersion more than it helps it. That being said, I enjoyed Halo: Reach.

The story isn't super complex or deep, but it's much more compelling than a lot of similar games feel to me. The characters are all very distinct and interesting and you get a good feel for them and for what they're experiencing. The gameplay itself is, again, not my preferred style of game. However, as far as FPS games go it was solid. The controls are very intuitive, you can avoid getting lost simply by following the enemies and the variable difficulty is handy if you need to drop it for a while or if it gets too easy.

The only segments I didn't enjoy as much were the ones that required you to pilot a vehicle. No matter what it was, the vehicles always felt really clunky to operate and steered awfully. Part of that is undeniably because I suck at gaming, but I definitely think the experience itself could be improved on.

Vehicles aside, I'd gladly recommend this game to others.

Story: 7/10
Visuals: 7/10
Soundtrack: 8/10
Gameplay: 6/10
Total Score: 28/40


Will post my first FE:3H update below soon!

Fire Emblem: Three Houses - Prologue and Chapter One
I enjoyed the opening cinematic and the early interaction with Sothis, but my first impression of the game as a whole started to take a bit of a hit after getting to the Monastery Academy. I get why it was done the way it was, but you're immediately hit with "your mission is to meet roughly the entire cast" as well as a lot of exposition and fetch quests. Plus you're very quickly introduced to a lot of different stats and mechanics. It can feel a bit overwhelming, especially when you remember that the combat is also very strategy-based.

A lot of the cast don't leave amazing first impressions either. Although, I have to say, I liked Sothis, Edelgard and Claude well-enough and Bernadetta very quickly became my favourite. That was a big part of what lead me to choosing the Black Eagle route. It's funny that I promised to do the Blue Lions last and that people keep telling me they have the best story, because I like the prince the least of the leaders and honestly, most of the rest of that house don't do much for me either.

By the time I reached the Mock Battle, I was coming around to the game a bit more and by the end more of the students were growing at me. After the initial onslaught, things get easier to deal with and you get more room to take things in. I was a bit apprehensive about hearing about the upcoming bandit conflict though because I'm playing on Classic and the spectre of death is always hanging over me.

Fire Emblem: Three Houses - Chapter Two
After this chapter, the cast is definitely growing on me more and I'm really enjoying the teaching mechanics and various interactions and sub quests around the school's facilities. Bernadetta remains my favourite character by far, but I don't dislike any of the house at this point. That being said, some have grown on me more than others. Edelgard, Petra, Caspar and Lindhard are characters I'm especially enjoying but the remaining handful all seem like they have potential. I like that I can recruit characters from the other houses if they catch your attention too, so I'm going to hopefully recruit Hilda and Ignatz at some point since they seem fun.

The worldbuilding and combat this chapter was fun. The auxiliary battle was surprisingly fun for a tutorial and I ended up having a great time during the bandit battle. I'm really enjoying the combination of strategy game, almost civ-like battle, but with characters you actually give a damn about to add to the tension. I'm pleased to say nobody died in the first real battle, but I am glad I have a healer and healing items looking at how much damage the minions plebs sometimes did.

Fire Emblem: Three Houses - Chapter 3
Okay, I'm officially sold on the entirety of my house except for maybe Hubert but he'll probably grow on me too. The little interactions you get through things like the Suggestion Box, questions in class, the out-of-class bonuses and supports really give you a feel for the characters. I'm definitely set on recruiting Ignatz and Hilda if/when I can too. I think the game actually does a surprisingly good job with the teaching aspect. It's really cool seeing the students grow from the lessons, how their goals change and the classes they aim for stem from that and also how they interact with you during their study. The teaching segments might be some of my favourite. I'd give you my top 5 characters or something, but the list gets real murky after Bernadetta now.

The combat this chapter was plenty fun too. I nearly lost Caspar because I got distracted and did something dumb, that was a bit of an oof but time fuckery saved me. Other than that, the battle was pretty easy - especially once the fog was lifted (cool strategic element that was). Even without Catherine just bodying everyone that got near her it wouldn't have been too difficult I think. It was definitely fun though. Surprisingly, Dorothea got MVP and climbed an entire two levels. Current roster looks like

Byleth - lv 7, Myrmidon
Edelgard - lv 6, Fighter
Bernadetta - lv 5, Aiming for Sniper (heh)
Ferdinand - lv 5, Aiming for Cavalier
Caspar - lv 5
Petra - lv 4
Dorothea - lv 4
Lindhardt - Lv 4, Aiming for Bishop
Hubert - lv 4

I should probably mention to you that, for whatever reason (I feel like it was a dev error/oversight but can't confirm), you can't recruit Hilda if going the Black Eagles route. She's available in the 3 other routes though.

Nah said:

I should probably mention to you that, for whatever reason (I feel like it was a dev error/oversight but can't confirm), you can't recruit Hilda if going the Black Eagles route. She's available in the 3 other routes though.

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WELL NEVER MIND THEN

Fire Emblem: Three Houses - Chapter 4
So I opened this chapter with my student ordering me around and sending me on a mission because teaching royalty is just the worst. I wish I'd gotten a bit more worldbuilding or something out of the mission too, since it was mostly just hunting around for a bunch of monks who told me things I already knew. However, since I had to re-evaluate my recruiting preferences because fuck Hilda I guess, running around the academy did give me a chance to stat building better relationships with some of the others I'm now looking at - Ignatz, Ashe, Lysethia, Mercedes, Annette and Marianne. The tea party mechanic you unlock surprised me, but it's cute and it's handy having another way to improve relationships. I also enjoyed the special cooking and fishing events that came up and hope I get to do more of those.

I got loads of supports this chapter and they're definitely doing their job of making me like characters more. Dorothea roasting Ferdinand definitely made my opinion of her increase and has been one of my favourites so far. I also really liked Bernie's supports with Lindhardt, Petra and Caspar a lot. Caspar's with Byleth was great too. I enjoyed all of them, but those are the ones from this time around that I feel deserve specific mention.

This chapter's combat definitely felt like a small jump up in difficult because I really did have to think about it. I took Anette with me this time, which proved very useful. Having two healers with her present meant it was much easier/safer for me to split the party into two as we went around the Death Knight and came at the General from both sides. The game gave Byleth MVP this round, which is fair since he cleaved through a lot of enemies and shot up two levels. I have to give honourable mentions to Ferdinand who was almost never hit despite being consistently in front line combat and dealing buckets of damage and Bernadetta who very nearly just one-shotted the enemy general from like half the map away. Current roster looks like:

Byleth - lv 9, Myrmidon
Edelgard - lv 8, Fighter
Bernadetta - lv 7, Aiming for Sniper (heh)
Ferdinand - lv 7, Soldier, Aiming for Cavalier
Caspar - lv 6
Petra - lv 6
Dorothea - lv 5
Lindhardt - Lv 4, Aiming for Bishop
Hubert - lv 5

I really need to set up some kills for Lindhardt since he's falling behind cause while healing gives decent XP, it's not as much as the others are getting for murdering shit. The Sword of Creation looks badass and I'm going to have to fight a lot of temptation to use it so it doesn't break.

Fire Emblem: Three Houses - Chapter 5
Whoa boy, this was a hectic chapter. I got bucketloads of supports again and had multiple combats to get through. Quite a few quests to do as well. This was another chapter where I got to see some interesting character moments. Hearing more about Jeralt and his wife/Jeralt's mum was a welcome surprise, I feel like there might be a bit more there but I'm happy with it regardless. Caspar and Petra's unfortunate shared history (and related worldbuilding) was fantastic. Edelgard has grown on me a lot this chapter too, it's becoming clearer and clearer that her goals are something I greatly empathise with. Dorothea has grown on me as well the past two chapters. Also, obligatory Bernie is still the best character.

I'm finding Hubert's talk of taking shit into his own hands pretty damn ominous right now though.

The first combat I did, for Seteth's quest, was really easy. The mission combat though, god damn. It wasn't the hardest thing ever, but I ended up grateful for Sothis and her time fuckery because I nearly got Caspar killed again - very neary had a situation where I was going to have to choose who died out of him, Dorothea and Lindhardt. Because Archers. Fuck archers. Oh, and Black Beasts are terrifying. Gilbert got mauled by it, but I managed to take it out with a Byleth/Ferdinand/Edelgard/Bernadetta combo with Lindhardt and Annette healing from the back.

I'm focusing on trying to recruit Annette right now, but I think it's going to be tricky if I can't find a way to get my Magic stat to increase. Not sure what I'm going to do about that. I'm also planning on recruiting Ignatz, Ashe, Marianne, Lysethia, Mercedes and Leonie. Right now though, I haven't managed to recruit anyone else and I'm a bit worried it's taking me too long.

Current roster is:

Byleth - lv 14, Mercenary
Edelgard - lv 11, Fighter
Bernadetta - lv 10, Fighter, aiming for Sniper (heh)
Ferdinand - lv 10, Soldier, Aiming for Cavalier
Caspar - lv 9, Fighter
Petra - lv 9, Myrmidon, Aiming for Assassin
Dorothea - lv 9
Lindhardt - Lv 9, Monk, Aiming for Bishop
Hubert - lv 10, Monk

Annette - lv 9, Monk, has been joining the party for missions but is not formally recruited.

I'm hoping to level them all considerably during the next chapter and get Dorothea into a class, probably Monk as well. If I'm lucky, a few will be able to do their first intermediate classes too. Really want to make progress on recruiting, that's irking me.

Increasing support levels also helps you meet the threshold for recruiting other characters, so do what you can on that front too.

Nah said:

Increasing support levels also helps you meet the threshold for recruiting other characters, so do what you can on that front too.

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Working on it xD
It'd be nice if I could stumble on some more gifts since there's a limit to how much cooking you can do. Maybe next combat I'll just have her trail Byleth the whole time too.

Fire Emblem: Three Houses - Chapter 6
Did a lot of combat and a lot of attempting to recruit. No success on recruiting yet (as such) but I have gotten my supports up with Annette, Ashe, Lysethia, Mercedes and Marianne which is most of the ones I want to recruit. The plot's starting to get real interesting with Jeritza seemingly being the Death Knight (We'll see, I feel like there's more to this), Edelgard and Hubert's plotting, more worldbuilding, conflicts in the church. This game does a fantastic job of building a large, lived in and complex world and making you care about its characters.

The mission combat was actually pretty easy. The Death Knight himself does too much damage to take on, but you can just take out all the goons and win that way instead which is really easy with Bernadetta the Destroyer on your team one-shotting them from the other side of the map. I had Caspar, Petra, Hubert and Dorothea peel off to do the warp fuckery and deal with the handful of enemies that way while the others ploughed through the main body of the enemies forces, again, while Bernie nuked enemies that didn't even know she was there, thinning things out ahead of time. So yeah... she got MVP.

Current roster:

Byleth - lv 18, Mercenary
Edelgard - lv 14, Armoured Knight
Bernadetta - lv 18, Archer, aiming for Sniper (heh)
Ferdinand - lv 15, Cavalier
Caspar - lv 13, Fighter, Aiming for Warrior
Petra - lv 14, Myrmidon, Aiming for Assassin
Dorothea - lv 14, Mage, Aiming for Warlock
Lindhardt - Lv 15, Priest, Aiming for Bishop
Hubert - lv 14, Mage
Flayn - lv 11, Pegasus Knight

Fire Emblem: Three Houses - Chapter 7
I don't have huge amounts to say about this chapter, but it was a lot of fun. The introduction of the paralogue battles is a nice touch to learn more about characters and I continue to get some really nice supports. I've come to really like every character in my chosen house (even Hubert) and several from outside it also. The main mission for this chapter, the Battle of the Eagle and Lion, was loads of fun. It was great to see another of those gorgeous cutscenes, the three way combat with the ballista at the centre was really interesting and it was nice to have a mission where I wasn't in perpetual fear of permanent character death. Boy oh boy does this chapter end with a lot of foreshadowing though.

Still no real luck on recruiting. I just need to get my magic and bow skills up a tiny bit and I should be able to recruit the majority of the students I want.

Fire Emblem: Three Houses - Chapter 8
Things sure escalated quickly. I went from amusing paralogue battles to the most fucked up mission yet. I really enjoyed it though, and I appreciate that you can see the situation had an effect on people and they weren't all just totally fine with killing the insane villagers for no reason. The Lindhardt support you get after is so fucking good. We also got a reappearance of the Death Knight and the reveal of Tomas as Solon. I really hope this means the real Tomas died/was killed and his identity assumed because the reveal of him as a bad guy with a pointless secret identity loses a bit of impact without. If it is the real Tomas, they didn't need the secret identity, it would have hit harder without. The game also continues to soft confirm that Jeralt and Flayn are actually very old and finally openly admitted Sothis is the goddess (like it wasn't incredibly obvious lol). I was starting to wonder before, but at this point I am certain Edelgard is actually the Flame Emperor.

Recruitment-wise, I have had some minor success with staff members. I recruited Shamir, Hanneman and Manuela. As for the students that I want to recruit, I'm having less luck. I still have not managed to grab any of them being just ever so slightly shy of the skill levels I need. I'm literally like 1 point shy in both archery and magic and it's painful. Hopefully next chapter will be enough to fix that issue and I can then quickly bump up my Lance, Riding, Charm and Authority enough to snag the remaining students I want (dubious though ngl). On the plus side, while Hanneman and Manuela are pretty average, Shamir is an absolute beast - almost as good as Bernie has been.

Current roster:
Byleth - lv 23, Mercenary
Edelgard - lv 21, Armoured Knight
Bernadetta - lv 22, Sniper
Ferdinand - lv 20, Paladin
Caspar - lv 20, Armoured Knight, Aiming for Warrior
Petra - lv 21, Assassin
Dorothea - lv 20, Mage, Aiming for Warlock
Lindhardt - Lv 19, Priest, Aiming for Bishop
Hubert - lv 20, Mage
Flayn - lv 17, Pegasus Knight
Shamir, lv 20, Sniper
Hanneman, lv 16, Mage
Manuela, lv 16, Priest

Fire Emblem: Three Houses - Chapter 9
The ball was fun. It was cute seeing the students acting like students instead of soldiers for a bit and it was a really clever way to work the Dancer class into the game. Dorothea was my representative against Leonie and Sylvain. She won, so Dancer Dorothea unlocked. I later on ended up at the the tower with Bernadetta which was a really sweet scene. I picked her with the guard, but funnily enough, it was accidental. Someone was talking at me during that interaction and I clicked her on a whim. I'm happy enough with where that went lmao.

The paralogue with Flayn and Seteth was interesting. The overprotective angle makes more sense but I'm not totally sure how it fits in with Flayn's implied being super old unless Seteth is another weirdy old character.

None of the combat was super hard this chapter, but it was certainly fun. The Monica reveal wasn't much of a shock and tbh neither was Jeralt dying. It was a was a really good cut scene though.

Also, I FINALLY SUCCEEDED IN RECRUITING ANNETTE AND MERCEDES.

Fire Emblem: Three Houses - Chapter 10
The story continues to be interesting with a great number of mysteries left unsolved. I would very much like to know who the hell Thales, Solon and Kronya are/were and what their goal and motives are. I'd also really like to have my theory that Edelgard is the Flame Emperor confirmed and an explanation of their involvement with them. The whole cutscene with merging with Sothis and breaking out of the weird dark dimension was badass and killing Kronya and Solon was very satisfying. The green hair on Byleth is less so.

The combat for the main mission was also very easy. I would have liked a bit more of a challenge... but also I'm really happy nobody died lol. So I guess I'm torn on that one. The Paralogues were really fun again too, especially the one with Ashe and Catherine. The fog maps are really cool and add an extra layer of challenge without going too far. Ashe is a really good character so it was nice seeing some story content for him also.

My quest for recruits also continued and I have now added Felix, Lysithea and Leonie to my ranks as well. I'm going to try and grab Marianne, Ignatz and Sylvain if I can too, but that's not looking super likely. The supports are trickling in still, but have dried up a bit since I have a lot that seem to be pending until certain events come to pass like Lindhardt's B rank was.

Current roster (minus levels cause idr):

Current roster:
Byleth - Enlightened One
Edelgard - Armoured Knight
Bernadetta - Sniper
Ferdinand - Paladin
Caspar - Warrior
Petra - Assassin
Dorothea - Dancer
Lindhardt - Bishop
Hubert - Warlock
Flayn - Pegasus Knight
Shamir - Sniper
Hanneman - Mage
Manuela - Priest
Annette - Mage
Mercedes - Bishop
Felix - Mercenary
Lysithea - Mage
Leonie - Cavalier

Nearing the half way point so I'll add this in too.

Top 5 Characters: Bernadetta, Petra, Shamir, Ferdinand, Annette
Top 5 Combat Characters: Byleth, Bernadetta, Shamir, Ferdinand, Felix but this might change cause Hubert and Lysithea are beasts too.

Overall, I'm really enjoying this game and it might end up breaking into my top 10 even. I'm not sure if it'll make me go back and play older Fire Emblem games, but I'll probably try future ones. It's just so damn good.

Fire Emblem: Three Houses - Chapter 11
Well, I didn't get my revelation. Instead what happened is Rhea turned into a big fuck-off dragon and went crazy and I officially entered the Edelgard route and dragged my students with me. Suffice to say, I was correct about Edelgard being the Flame Emperor and shit is now officially hitting the fan, but a lot of mysteries still remain unanswered - like what the hell Thales' and Jeritza's deal is. I feel like I did choose the "right" side though, the church had been giving me bad vibes for a while.

Before recruiting ceased to be an option, I did manage to grab Ignatz. I missed out on being able to get Marianne and Sylvain, but such is life. For the most part, I managed to recruit all the ones I wanted.

The combat itself was actually quite easy, but I did like the new element of collecting Crest Stones before people could escape with them.

Fire Emblem: Three Houses - Chapter 12
There wasn't a lot to say about this chapter, since there wasn't much to do but head into the combat. There's still a lot of questions left unanswered, so I hope to find out more in Part 2. I really did like all the little interactions from the students at the base though, especially the ones you recruited from other houses who are now fighting against their families.

The combat was a fun one. It posed a bit of a challenge because Catherine is dangerous and there was less of a level gap, and between the music and the narrative you could really feel the emotional weight of what was going on. It looks like Gibert, Catherine, Seteth and Flayn managed to make it out alive, but Cyril seems to have died for real. Sucks to be him, but I guess that marks the beginning of me murdering my former allies.

Then I got knocked out for... five years apparently. I really like most of the post time-skip designs and the supports I immediately got were all great. I officially hit my first S-rank support with Bernie, but apparently you can't see those (or at least hers) until after the war. I am excited and terrified for what is to come.

Fire Emblem: Three Houses - Chapter 13 and 14
I don't know if I have a lot to say about these chapters. It's not that they're bad or anything, but even though major things happen, not a lot of things happen. With the monastery now a base for the Black Eagles, there's no recruiting left to do and fewer people to talk to. So there's less content overall and things pass by quicker. As far into the game as I am now, there's fewer supports too.

I'm still loving it though. The characters and story are great, the worldbuilding is incredible and the combat is a lot of fun. I did two quest combats as well as two missions this time around. The quests were just stuff like routing out pirates, but the extra money and renown was a plus. The missions were a lot more exciting since it was time to invade alliance territory. That being said, they didn't put up much of a fight when trying to hold the bridge. I captured the ballista with ease with a group of Shamir, Petra, Dorothea and Lysithea while the rest of the squad ploughed through the rest of the army. Judith didn't have a hope in hell of escaping either because I had her surrounded by the time they started running.

The second battle against Claude's forces at Derdriu was much, much harder. Specifically because of the assistance from that Almyran general. I had a team of Petra, Bernadetta, Shamir and Hubert occupying his Wyvern Riders to the south-east as much as I could, weakening them and picking them off. But after a point they couldn't get any closer without the general killing them. I had to Divine Pulse twice to keep Shamir alive and after that they were stuck there unable to get closer. Meanwhile my main army was going the long way to open the city gates... which was unfortunate for Hilda because Lysithea nuked her into oblivion. From there the gates were easy enough to secure and I headed in towards the general from the other side. He tried a gambit on Byleth instead of his usual four OP axe attacks for some reason, so I lived and on my turn had Edelgard weaken him with her own Gambit so Lysithea could give him the Hilda treatment. After that it was easy for Byleth to defeat Claude - although I chose to spare him. In return he basically gave Edelgard the alliance.

I'm focusing my efforts on a set group of characters now instead of trying to keep everyone at about the same level. The enemy units are getting to higher levels almost as fast as I'm hitting those points now, so it's too risky to be trying that. Current main crew is mostly around the late 20's/early 30s in level except for Byleth who's mid 30s. Roster I'm focusing on is

Byleth, Enlightened One
Bernadetta, Sniper
Shamir, Sniper
Ferdinand, Paladin
Felix, Swordmaster
Petra, Assassin
Edelgard, Warrior (Working on getting her Heavy Armor up though)
Lysithea, Warlock
Hubert, Warlock (But I unlocked Dark Mage so if I get another Dark Seal he can move into Dark Bishop)
Mercedes, Bishop
Dorothea, Dancer

I also use Annette and Caspar as adjutants (sometimes Leonie or Jeritza) to keep their levels up enough that they can be subbed in if it comes to the worst. Not fully sure who I'll use the five master seals you get on exactly yet. It won't be Byeth, Hubert, Jeritza or Dorothea though since they have their unique classes. I'm thinking maybe Bernie, Edelgard, Lysithea, Mercedes and Ferdinand.

Edelgard will be getting her own unique class soon, so you don't have to use a master seal on her either. All 3 house leaders start part 2 with a unique class, and then auto-promote to their second unique class at a certain point in the story.

Nah said:

Edelgard will be getting her own unique class soon, so you don't have to use a master seal on her either. All 3 house leaders start part 2 with a unique class, and then auto-promote to their second unique class at a certain point in the story.

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Oh? Interesting. Might use the extra on Felix then. Or save it in case someone dies.

Fire Emblem: Three Houses - Chapter 15
I did quite a lot combat again this time. I did a grand total of four paralogue battles on top of the main story mission. I got a lot of little story tidbits relating to the worldbuilding of Fodlan and the personal lives/goals/stuff of Hubert, Bernie, Leonie, Petra and Lindhardt. The Leonie/Lindhardt paralogue was particularly wild though since it made me fight a gigantic dragon turtle thing (that I think used to be a saint) for the sake of a magic bow. That thing earned the name "The Immovable" because it just adamantly refused to stay dead.

Then it was time to fight off the invading forces attacking Gareg Mach. That was another fun one and it was cool to fights from the other side of the map in the position that was once my enemy's. I fought off the majority of the enemy forces without much trouble since it was such a defensible position and I had so many characters with at least a little range. It got a bit trickier when Flayn started showing up because apparently she's pretty powerful when she's on the other side and I didn't have any characters with good resistance on her side of the map. I was able to have Shamir, Felix and Bernie dance around her enough to get Byleth over there and it was smooth sailing from there. Bernie and Byleth beat her and she ran for it. Then everyone advanced on Seteth and Hubert and Lysithea beat the shit out of him and he ran away to join Flayn, abandoning the church.

I got a lot of supports again this time around which surprised me, and they were all really good. I don't even know which to talk about. Almost all my supports are B-A rank now.

I got my first Master Ranked character with Mercedes now with a few others not far behind now and also unlocked Edelgard's custom Emperor Class.

I fucking love this game :')

A bit late, but man when I was doing my Black Eagles playthrough for the Game Along last year, on Chapter 12 where the Black Eagles opposes the Church I (Byleth) attempted to go against Catherine. And she freaking Critical Hit me.

And yeah Leonie/Linhardt's paralogue is crazy haha. Took me a while to take down that turtle dragon.

Glad to hear you're enjoying it so far!

Bay said:

A bit late, but man when I was doing my Black Eagles playthrough for the Game Along last year, on Chapter 12 where the Black Eagles opposes the Church I (Byleth) attempted to go against Catherine. And she freaking Critical Hit me.

And yeah Leonie/Linhardt's paralogue is crazy haha. Took me a while to take down that turtle dragon.

Glad to hear you're enjoying it so far!

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Catherine is terrifying. I'm not sure what her stats are or whatever, but she crits things waaaaayyyy too often. Every time she shows up somewhere it makes me very concerned. When she appeared in the Petra/Bernie paralogue I was just sitting there going "WHY?!"