u/thespeedforce5

I’ve really struggled with College Algebra. I’ve actually had to take it three times and still failed 😞. The material just felt like complete gibberish to me despite YouTube, tutoring, office hours etc, and I have a really hard time tracking the reasoning or keeping multiple steps in my head or on paper at once. I’m honestly worried these two new courses might break my confidence again.

My learning disability means my brain just processes information differently from the neurotypical brain , and math has always been my biggest weakness since 1st grade . I’m trying to get a Cyber Security B.S

I’ve noticed a pretty consistent pattern in discussions about Jason and Lucia that goes beyond simply disliking their characters. Lucia is confident, assertive, capable, and sometimes takes the lead. Jason is more reserved, controlled, and less outwardly expressive. Somehow, a portion of the fanbase has interpreted that as Jason being “weak,” “submissive,” a “side character,” or Rockstar pushing a “girl boss” agenda. That is worth talking about about.

If Jason were the more assertive character and Lucia were the quieter one, I highly doubt people would be talking about Lucia being a “worse protagonist” because she wasn’t dominating every scene. Yet because the woman is the more assertive one, suddenly her confidence is being treated as something that has to come at Jason’s expense.
A man being reserved does not make him weak. A woman being assertive does not make her unfeminine. And a woman being more dominant in certain situations does not make a man a side character. Their dynamic and personalities exist all the time in real life, whether some of you want to admit it or not.

when the criticism becomes “Why isn’t the male character the dominant one?” or “Rockstar is forcing female empowerment on us because Lucia is more confident,” we’re no longer really talking about writing quality. We’re talking about expectations for how men and women are supposed to behave. If a confident woman and a reserved man are already making some people uncomfortable enough to complain about their gender roles, that is probably worth self-reflecting on.

Also, some people can’t even talk about Lucia without turning the conversation sexual or fetishizing her Latina background & body. Finding a fictional character attractive is obviously not the issue. It’s the way some people seem completely unable to separate “she’s attractive” from “that’s all she’s worth talking about.” So when you put the two things together people criticizing Lucia for being too assertive while simultaneously objectifying her the double standard becomes pretty hard to miss.The way some people interpret Jason and Lucia isn’t something we should simply normalize or dismiss as “just a video game” when those interpretations can reflect the same gender expectations people carry into real-life.

I’ve noticed a pretty consistent pattern in discussions about Jason and Lucia that goes beyond simply disliking their characters. Lucia is confident, assertive, capable, and sometimes takes the lead. Jason is more reserved, controlled, and less outwardly expressive. Somehow, a portion of the fanbase has interpreted that as Jason being “weak,” “submissive,” a “side character,” or Rockstar pushing a “girl boss” agenda. That is worth talking about about.

If Jason were the more assertive character and Lucia were the quieter one, I highly doubt people would be talking about Lucia being a “worse protagonist” because she wasn’t dominating every scene. Yet because the woman is the more assertive one, suddenly her confidence is being treated as something that has to come at Jason’s expense.
A man being reserved does not make him weak. A woman being assertive does not make her unfeminine. And a woman being more dominant in certain situations does not make a man a side character.

They are two protagonists with different personalities. That is characterization. You can like or dislike Jason and Lucia. But when the criticism becomes “Why isn’t the male character the dominant one?” or “Rockstar is forcing female empowerment on us because Lucia is more confident,” we’re no longer really talking about writing quality. We’re talking about expectations for how men and women are supposed to behave. If a confident woman and a reserved man are already making some people uncomfortable enough to complain about their gender roles, that is probably worth self-reflecting on.
Maybe let the characters be different without trying to force them back into the gender roles you’re accustomed to.

Also, some people can’t even talk about her character without turning the conversation sexual or fetishizing her ethnicity & body. Finding a fictional character attractive is obviously not the issue. It’s the way some people seem completely unable to separate “she’s attractive” from “that’s all she’s worth talking about.” So when you put the two things together people criticizing Lucia for being too assertive while simultaneously objectifying her the double standard becomes pretty hard to miss.
The way some people interpret Jason and Lucia isn’t something we should simply normalize or dismiss as “just a video game” when those interpretations can reflect the same gender expectations people carry into real-life.

I genuinely don’t understand some of the complaints about Jason after the extended look. People are calling him “soulless,” “boring,” or saying he has “no personality” simply because he’s quiet and reserved.
Jason comes across as an introvert. That’s probably intentional. His background, his demeanor, and the way he interacts with Lucia and others all point toward someone who has a more calm quiet demeanor . Not everyone is going to be cracking jokes, shouting, or making huge reactions every five seconds, that would be unrealistic. Nor does he have to act like Trevor to prove he’s a criminal.

And this weird expectation that the man has to be the dominant, macho, tough-guy character while the woman is supposed to be the more soft vulnerable one is just bizarre. Why? Those assigned gender roles aren’t how real relationships/people work. Sometimes the woman is more outspoken, confident and socially comfortable while the guy is quiet and more socially awkward .

That’s completely normal. Honestly, I like that Jason and Lucia don’t seem to fit some cookie-cutter “ super masculine man + super feminine woman” trope . Their personalities actually complement each other, which makes their relationship more interesting.
.

Being an introvert IS a personality. He’s just a super chill guy

Edit: seems like we have a media literacy issue lol

More importantly, it sounds natural.
doesn’t have that overly “video gamey” feeling where every character sounds like they’re waiting for their turn to deliver a quip or one liner. The conversations actually feel like people talking to each other. There’s a lot more casual back-and-forth, interruptions, little reactions, and moments where characters aren’t spelling out exactly what they’re thinking.
Jason and Lucia especially feel like they have an actual relationship rather than just being two protagonists who happen to share missions. Even some of the smaller conversations with side characters felt surprisingly grounded.

I also really like that Rockstar seems to be letting scenes breathe more. Not every line needs to be a immediate joke or some huge memorable one-liner. Sometimes characters are just talking, arguing, bullshitting, or reacting to what’s happening around them.

Dazed’s new interview says the world is more reactive, your actions have consequences, and choices involving Jason and Lucia can have repercussions that go deeper than Rockstar’s previous games. Rockstar also straight up says these aren’t empty avatars that you can do whatever you want with. Their story is supposed to become a journey you share with them.

That doesn’t mean every random thing you do is going to create a completely different ending, and nobody should pretend we know exactly how deep the branching goes. So Jason and Lucia can’t just go around doing whatever the player wants with absolutely zero effect on their relationships, behavior, or story is looking pretty outdated for GTA since they made the switch for RDR2’s world and characters

RDR2 got much better at making Arthur feel like a persistent person. Your behavior affected his, honor, dialogue, reactions, and ultimately the emotional context and ending of his story.

I’m honestly at the point where I just want to be done with EōS, but I wanted to see if anyone else has dealt with something similar,.
I signed up with EōS in late April on the $29.99/month membership. In June, I requested to downgrade to the $9.99/month membership. The downgrade was handled, and nobody told me at the time that I had to be a member for six months before I could downgrade or that there would be a $50 downgrade fee.
Despite requesting the downgrade, I was still charged $29.99 in both June and July.
I spoke with a manager at the gym in July about the whole situation. I explained that I wasn’t willing to pay a $50 fee to downgrade when I had already requested the downgrade and had already gone through the process.
During that conversation, my understanding was that the $50 downgrade fee would be waived and that the next two billing cycles would also be waived as a goodwill gesture because of the headache caused by the June and July billing issues.
I was told it had been taken care of, so I thought the issue was finally resolved.
Then almost exactly a month later, I received an email saying that the waiver had apparently been denied because I hadn’t been a member for six months, and that I would either have to pay the $50 downgrade fee or go back to the $29.99 membership.
What makes this even more frustrating is that I was charged another $29.99 on August 22, even though August was supposed to be one of the two billing cycles that I understood was being waived.
At that point I decided I was completely done with EōS and wanted to cancel.
I called ABC Fitness, which handles the membership billing, and they processed my cancellation over the phone. I specifically asked for written confirmation of the cancellation.
ABC told me that they could not do anything about the August 22 $29.99 charge and that I would have to take that up with management at the EōS location.
Then there is the cancellation policy itself.
I was told that even though I cancelled, I’m still scheduled to be charged another $29.99 on September 22 because of the 30-day cancellation period. I’m supposedly allowed to use the gym until October 21, and then the membership will officially end.
So I’m now dealing with:
$29.99 charged August 22: This was supposed to be one of the two waived billing cycles.
$29.99 scheduled for September 22: This is supposedly the final payment because of the 30-day cancellation policy.
I contacted ABC about the August charge and was told that only management at the local EōS can address it. I have now also contacted management about both charges.
At this point I’m just exhausted by the whole thing.
What pisses me off most isn’t even the $29.99 itself. It’s the fact that I went through the whole process with management, was told the issue had been taken care of, and then a month later I’m told the waiver was denied and I’m still being charged the higher membership rate.
I originally chose EōS because it was one of the cheaper gyms. I actually liked the gym and the equipment. But the membership/billing side of this has been such a headache that I don’t want anything to do with it anymore.
Its such a scam

I’ve been isolated for 3 or 4 years now, since starting college. I genuinely haven’t hung out with anyone in person in around three or four years. I don’t have people texting me asking what I’m doing this weekend. Nobody really calls me. I don’t have plans to look forward to. Most days it’s just me by myself, and after enough time passes, being alone stops feeling temporary and starts feeling like your actual life.

What makes it worse is remembering what normal social life felt like. In high school I had people around me, somewhere to be, people to talk to, people inviting me places, and the feeling that I was part of something. I assumed that would continue after graduation. I thought I’d go to college, meet people, make friends, date, get a job and slowly build my adult life.
Instead, it feels like I graduated and everything just stopped.

College has been a huge part of this. I have inattentive ADHD and wasn’t diagnosed until last year , so I spent most of college trying to function in a system that I didn’t understand was working against the way my brain works. I’ve struggled with managing multiple classes, organization, time management and long periods of unstructured time. I started college in Fall 2023 and still don’t have a degree, and I feel terrible about working towards an A.S

I know people will say I have plenty of time. I know that logically, but it doesn’t make it easier emotionally. I’ve already spent four years feeling like I’m going nowhere. I don’t want to spend another four years waiting to finally start living.
I’ve also been applying for jobs constantly, including retail, fast food and anything I think I can realistically get, but I still haven’t found one. Having no money makes the loneliness worse. I can’t afford to go places or casually do things other people my age can. When people did invite me somewhere, I sometimes said no because I couldn’t afford it and felt embarrassed about being a burden. Eventually the invitations became less frequent. I’ve tried reaching out to old friends too, but getting left on delivered, read, or getting short replies over and over makes it harder to keep trying.

I do go to the gym three times a week, but honestly I feel numb toward it. I’ve gotten stronger and my body has changed, and under normal circumstances I’d probably be excited about that. Instead it feels like something I do because I’m supposed to do something. I go, work out, leave and repeat. It feels like I’m just going through the motions.
I don’t really have hobbies anymore either. I used to play games, watch movies and shows and actually enjoy them. Now they often just feel like ways to kill time. I spend a lot of time doomscrolling, seeing other people with their friends, or walking around my room having fake conversations in my head and imagining what my life would be like if things were different.

I imagine having friends again, a girlfriend, a good career, money, a nice car, going on vacation, being able to buy things I want and having people who actually want me around. I don’t think I want anything particularly unrealistic. I don’t need to be famous or insanely rich. I just want a good career, financial independence, friends, experiences and a life I’m actually excited to live.

More than anything, I just want community again. I want someone to text and have them text me back. Someone to send a stupid meme to. Someone to ask me to get food. Plans on a Friday night. I want to meet someone I like and be able to ask them out without feeling like my entire life is too empty to even have a normal relationship.
. I’m asking how I actually get from here to the life I want without losing another few years.
I’m tired of hoping. I don’t need someone to tell me everything will definitely get better because I kept telling myself that . I need something concrete that actually changes my circumstances.

I want to feel like I’m 21. I want to work, finish my education, build a career I’m proud of, make friends, date, go places and have experiences that aren’t just things I imagine while walking around my room.
I don’t think I’m incapable of having the life I want. That’s almost what makes this harder. I can picture the person I want to become very clearly. I just don’t know how to get from here to there without losing another few years.

watching the community discussions around GTA VI. It feels like a portion of the fanbase has spent the last few years consuming GTA exclusively through heavily modded roleplay servers like NoPixel. Because of that, a lot of people have subconsciously started viewing those deep roleplay features as the "default" GTA experience. I really think FiveM has warped expectations for what a vanilla Rockstar game is actually meant to be.

Don’t get me wrong I fully expect Rockstar to take inspiration from the roleplay community where it makes sense. It would honestly be surprising if they didn’t. But GTA has always been a curated experience with its own identity, whereas FiveM is essentially a platform where thousands of different developers can create whatever they want.

It’s also completely unfair to review-bomb or attack a developer for failing to deliver features they never promised in the first place. Rockstar is obviously going to give us an insanely detailed, immersive world, but the game is still going to adhere to what the developers want for it and hardware limitations. If people can't separate the vanilla game from a heavily modded version, they’re just setting themselves up for guaranteed, self-inflicted disappointment.

An example of unrealistic expectations for this game is people who expect Rockstar to allow the player to enter every single interior. People who expect real car brands (Rockstar would never do that) every single NPC to have its own unique AI that is interacted with by the player through the microphone. Etc. So there’s a big difference between fun, or context-fitting immersion. And immersion that makes the game unenjoyable or harder to enjoy.

And on the flipside, you have people who expect this game to play and behave more like Saints Row but that for a different discussion.

Im 21 & have inattentive ADHD, and college has been genuinely hellish for me. Not in a "I don't like homework" way. In a way where the format itself seems built against how my brain works. Abstract theory, self-directed pacing across a bunch of unrelated classes at once, long stretches of unstructured time where I'm supposed to just motivate myself toward a deadline that's weeks away. I've been in school for four years now with nothing to show for it. No degree. No real direction and I feel demoralized about redoing 4 years of college . Just semester after semester of classes that don't add up to anything, because I keep switching what I'm even trying to do. I miss the structure and social interaction that high school gave me.

Outside of school, it's not much better. I've been isolated for years now and literally haven't hung out with anyone in person in three or four years. It's this cycle where I don't have money to spend when people invite me somewhere, so I feel like a burden, so I say no or just don't reach out, and eventually the invites stop coming altogether. When I do try to reach out to old friends, I mostly just get left on read or delivered, which makes it even harder to try again next time. So now it's just me, alone, most days.

I don't really have hobbies anymore either. Video games, shows, movies used to be a thing, and I used to get invited to play and hang out with friends, but that's kind of dried up along with everything else. Right now the only thing that fills time is doomscrolling, or walking around in circles in my room having fake conversations with people or imagining myself with the life I want, which doesn't actually make me feel good, it's just something to do so I'm not just sitting there. The stress of all this has made me lose a lot of hair

Anything would be appreciated, I’m just tired of this. I rlly hate my life and this is not what I wanted or imagined after high school

It feels like whenever the tone of Grand Theft Auto VI comes up, the community immediately treats it as a zero-sum game. If you suggest the game might have a more grounded, mature world, people assume you want a “boring realism simulator” where all the fun is sucked out. But the seriousness of the story and a fun sandbox are not mutually exclusive. Yet, for some reason, it seems like a portion of the player base just cannot separate the two. Why do we act like a game can't have an emotionally heavy narrative while still letting you have fun in the open world?

Look at Better Call Saul. The show is hilarious when it wants to be but the second a character like Lalo Salamanca walks into the room, the comedy instantly stops, the stakes become life-or-death, and you are genuinely terrified for the characters. The humour never undercuts the danger.

honestly feel like that RDR2 level of narrative maturity and deep world immersion is exactly the direction they are heading with VI. It makes sense that they would carry that philosophy over into a modern setting. They’ve clearly figured out that the more believable and immersive the world & characters feel, the higher the emotional stakes are when everything inevitably goes sideways in the story.

It feels like whenever the tone of Grand Theft Auto VI comes up, the community immediately treats it as a zero-sum game. If you suggest the game might have a more grounded, mature world, people assume you want a “boring realism simulator” where all the fun is sucked out. But the seriousness of the story and a fun sandbox are not mutually exclusive. Yet, for some reason, it seems like a portion of the player base just cannot separate the two. Why do we act like a game can't have an emotionally heavy narrative while still letting you have fun in the open world? This doesn’t just apply to the story but to the world as well.

**TL;DR:** Rockstar’s modern philosophy seems less concerned with adding features for the sake of freedom and more concerned with making the world, mechanics, and story reinforce the same ideas.

Before anyone jumps to the comments, this isn’t me saying GTA VI should be a certain way, or that I want it to be a realism simulator, or that fun and freedom are somehow bad. This also isn’t me saying the game won’t have chaos, humor, or plenty of sandbox freedom. It’s simply an observation about the direction Rockstar has been moving in for years and how GTA VI appears to fit into that trajectory.

I think a lot of discussions around the game get stuck on features in isolation. Will there be more interiors? Better AI? More activities? More freedom? Those things matter, but I don’t think they’re the first questions Rockstar asks anymore.
Red Dead Redemption 2 is probably the clearest example of this philosophy.

Almost every aspect of that game served the themes of the story. The heavier movement, the slower pace, the grounded interactions, the way violence had weight to it. Those design choices weren’t arbitrary, nor were they simply there to be “realistic” for the sake of realism. They were there because they complemented the story Rockstar wanted to tell. Even the way the world reacted to Arthur all reinforced the feeling that you were playing as a man living through the end of an era and slowly coming to terms with his own mortality. The game feels the way it does because the world and the narrative are speaking the same language.

Because of that, I don’t think it’s a coincidence that everything we’ve seen from GTA VI also points toward a very specific tone and direction for this game .
The official description says:

“Jason and Lucia have always known the deck is stacked against them. But when an easy score goes wrong, they find themselves on the darkest side of the sunniest place in America, in the middle of a criminal conspiracy stretching across the state of Leonida — forced to rely on each other more than ever if they want to make it out alive.” That description immediately gives me the impression of something more intimate and more desperate than previous GTA stories. It’s not just about climbing the criminal ladder or chasing money. It sounds like two people being dragged into something much bigger than themselves and struggling to survive it together.

“the darkest side of the sunniest place in America” is really interesting because it suggests a constant contrast between appearance and reality. Leonida may look vibrant, glamorous, and full of life on the surface, but beneath that image there seems to be something much uglier, corruption, exploitation, organized crime, and people trapped in situations they can’t easily escape. If that’s the story Rockstar is telling, then I think the world itself is going to reflect it.

I expect Leonida to feel more layered and more dangerous than any map they’ve made before. Not necessarily darker in a visual sense, but darker in what exists beneath the surface. The beaches, nightlife, and social media culture will probably exist right alongside places and people that feel genuinely threatening. The NPCs may feel more reactive and believable because the world itself is supposed to feel more alive and more grounded. The antagonists could end up being more morally complex and intimidating because the story seems to be dealing with larger systems and institutions rather than just colorful criminals.

Even Trailer 2 gives little hints of this direction. Obviously, trailers are edited together from scenes that may not be directly connected, but it’s still interesting that they chose to place certain lines next to one another. Brian tells Jason, “They got your name, your address, they got everything, man,” and then the next scene includes a police officer saying, “Us cops, we got to protect each other.”
That sequence creates a certain impression. It suggests that Jason and Lucia may not simply be dealing with isolated criminals or a few heists gone wrong, but with something much broader and more systemic. It hints at a world where institutions, criminal organizations, and personal lives are all intertwined in ways that make the situation feel inescapable. Whether that’s exactly what the story turns out to be remains to be seen, but it gives the impression of a more conspiracy-driven and personal narrative than we’ve seen before.

The thing that interests me most, though, is Jason and Lucia themselves. Niko had Roman. Arthur had the gang. John had his family. Jason and Lucia seem to have only each other.
That’s a very different emotional foundation for a Rockstar story. If the entire plot revolves around two people trying to survive while the world closes in around them, then the stakes become much more personal and much more intimate than simply pulling off another score.
And if their relationship truly is the emotional core of the game, it makes sense that every other aspect of the experience would be shaped around it. The world, the tone, the mechanics, and the way danger is presented would all benefit from reinforcing that feeling of vulnerability and dependence.

A lot of people still seem to view GTA through the lens of unlimited freedom being the primary goal above all else, and there’s nothing wrong with that. But I think Rockstar’s recent work suggests they’re pursuing something slightly different now. They seem far more interested in creating worlds that feel internally consistent and emotionally coherent, where the story, the mechanics, and the setting all reinforce one another instead of existing in separate lanes.

That doesn’t mean GTA VI won’t be fun, chaotic, or full of freedom. It just means those things will likely exist within a more intentional framework.

Everybody I knew doesn’t text, call, check up on, or even invite me to anything. I doom-scroll through my phone and see people progressing and living their lives while I’m stuck. I live in an immigrant household and have been taught to internalize my emotions because as a boy I’m not supposed to show any negative emotions or cry. Now I just feel a cold ache in my chest until one day I sob so bad I can’t breathe. I don’t know where I’m going with this or what I’m even talking about but I just wish I felt like I had value. I wish that I didn’t live the same day everyday. I go to the gym, I started 2 months ago and I don’t feel better emotionally, I don’t feel more self confident, I just feel empty, the same pit that has always been there but has now consumed me. I want to feel loved, I want to know what it feels like to be part of a group. I want to genuinely know what it’s like for others in your life to voice how proud they are of you, to compliment you for you to believe it. I just hate being alone. I hate me