New chapter! And one heck of one too, where do I start ...
No doubt that those responsible likely programmed the bots to do their dirty work, so they have less chances of getting caught. Alba shouldn't blame herself; she wasn't to expect any of these things to happen, and she had her memories screwed with so much there really wasn't much she could do about the situations at hand anyhow.
I think compared to other generations, I feel really bad for Alba. The other gen 'founders' were all very ...not sure what the word is? But they did all they could to speak out and try to mend relations, and the human / alien relation has been up and down, and not just with one side or the other. But Alba doesn't have what they have in a sense to do much about it, because the crueler aliens are gaining more and more of an advantage. She has the same strong desire to improve things, but it's much harder for her, I'd say. She can't do her part to 'fix' things as quickly as the previous gens have considering she's having to deal with robots as well as advanced methods of mind-wiping. To want to do something about a problem and to be more or less powerless to do it because of how sneaky the opposition is being, it's just horrible.
Okay so I really like the decision you made with the robots' reasoning. I don't buy their logic at all, because so far plenty of the Sixamians have been doing their bit to not ruin Earth, especially with Alba having worked in cleaning up Sulani more or less since she got there. They are working purely on assumption and it's become a bit of a 'You are all idiots who are going to ruin your own planet eventually, so we had to step in' situation.
Robots doing their own thing in a way that might screw everyone over is a lot of fun (at least for readers) because there's just something terrifying in the best way (at least fictionally speaking) about AI going a bit off the rails, but also what I've been thinking all along since the start of this story, and also something which I'm glad you touched on for sake of complexity of the way you deal with the topics in this story.
It might be a bit of an uncomfortable idea for some, but, from the robots' point of view at least: when you do your bit to overcome the people who put you down, how long is it until you start repeating their mistakes? And if you do, And whilst the majority of the cast is nothing like that, and they've done their bit to stamp out the rogue Sixamians, it's an interesting point- especially when you bear in mind the fact the robots are total hypocrites in their line of thinking, because when they take charge and when (judging by what they say) the humans and aliens dwindle or even die out, then they'll be the ones eventually doing the damage.
Ohhhh boy, they're now compatible with the ancient tech? This can only go well ... not X_X So essentially they've just shrugged their shoulders and gone 'Yeah, well we know this will kill the lot of you but. LOL. Don't care didn't ask.' And now they're claiming the entire planet of
I was hoping Techna was humanised enough to not agree with the robots, but I can see why they would- I guess there's only a certain level of empathy a synthetic can have, and they are going to but logic and reasoning before anything else. And to all of these people, Techna was a family member and a friend, so it must hurt them unimaginably... And if they have to go against the robots, if they can't reprogram them, then the only option really is to make them not operational...
I hope they can find Techna soon, but I am wondering whose side they will be on...Who will they consider family more, the robots, or the Millers?
This chapter really threw in a ton of information. I probably should have started to hint to this sooner... But it's also true that I elaborated on this development just when playing a few chapters ago, in many ways this was a last-minute dramatic twist
It's true that Alba had a quite different story than her ancestors, but I also think that Gen 7 was a bit of a turning point topics-wise. Until Gen 6 the main theme of the story was the relationships between sixamians and humans, while from now on the main challenge to face is *redacted, even if it's quite clear already, but Rowan will make it clearer in a few chapters anyway*
I would also say that in the past generations the legacy heirs were the ones making the most of the choices that moved the plot forwards, and often changed their world by doing so. Alba instead had a lot of weird stuff happening around her instead, and most of the plot was about seeing weird events and then taking several chapters to understand what had caused them. No wonder Alba is quite frustrated now, on top of everything else.
As for the robots' reasoning, I promise that before the end of the legacy it will become clear whether they were right or wrong in the prediction they exposed in this chapter. So that their evaluation was made on a global scale, I just want to underline that New Sixam is a quite small country, that started with a few million inhabitants and hasn't grown significantly ever since. The rest of the sims-world instead is meant to be way closer to the real world we live in regarding their stance on environmental matters, so... Let's say that, overall, the Earth in this story isn't doing much better than we are at the moment.
Thinking about the robots as a group of sentient AIs that advanced beyond what the people who built them expected was quite funny also for me, but quite challenging as well. Robots have different stories, different needs, different elaboration capacities etc..., and so I don't want to fall into the pitfall of making them think in the same was as humans do. For instance, does our ethics and morale also apply to them? Do these robot have any reason to want to preserve living organisms, sentient creatures, or even any other robot units? And if I question even points like these, what final motivation could they have to make up such a complex plan?
I did my best yet, even if people sometimes call me "robot" as a joke, it's so difficult to really reason like them!
For the moment, I can mostly comment that the fracture between them and the earthlings is very evident during this big speech given by the robots, the differences in their way of thinking are so deep already that they are already struggling to understand the motivations of the other group or even communicate them effectively. Because the motivations of the robots aren't clear to the sixamians nor the other earthlings, that's for sure.
As for Techna, I promise they will appear again in the story. At some point. It's not like they grow old anyway, and there are still a ton of years to cover before the end... But their choice really was a bad moment for this family, this could actually have been one of the worst things I've done to them since the beginning (and it's not like I've been so nice with them...)
You can follow the Legacy Miller from my blog and the forum thread, *Chapter 8.18 posted on the 23th of April 2024*
This is the second-to-last chapter of the generation, and considering that the next one is going to be quite a special one I'm wrapping up the last details.
You can follow the Legacy Miller from my blog and the forum thread, *Chapter 8.18 posted on the 23th of April 2024*
There's a lot going on here. So these are just a few scattered thoughts...
Techna leaving and the Scarecrow going motionless is sad for me as well as for Alba.
Also sad, reaching the last few years of this generation. Oliver is an elder already! Though I have to say, he still looks handsome even as an old guy.
Rowan worries me a bit. He really doesn't see anyone else's point of view very easily, does he? And he's so focused on following the rules and achieving goals, to the exclusion of all other aspects of life (except the cat). I'm not sure how to explain my concern exactly. At this point he is starting to remind me a bit of the character Vorbis in Terry Pratchett's Small Gods. Someone who might genuinely believe he is doing the "right" thing, but his lack of empathy for other people, and his disgust at them when they don't follow the rules, could lead him to actually do quite evil things in pursuit of what he thinks is right. He's obviously not at that kind of stage right now, and maybe he never will be. But he feels potentially like a young version of that type of person. And if someone or something doesn't intervene, and change his way of thinking, he could end up like that.
His interactions with his cousins are interesting. He wants their advice, but then doesn't seem much impressed with their opinions. Maybe he's just an awkward young person feeling lost, and having a rough time relating to others. It will be interesting to watch him grow up.
Okay, and I am also curious about this "Rick" guy. Probably we won't be seeing him again though, since he seems like just some random classmate of River's.
Still, congratulations to Rowan for getting some good scholarships. Hopefully he gets some new kinds of experiences in college. I am very curious how the next generation will play out.
With the robots, I really decided to go for a very drastic change. This part of the story was written the first time around the time when I was starting to tell myself that I needed some solid foundations for an epic ending of Gen 10, and this is one of the first elements for it actually.
And in parallel the life of the protagonists of this generation kept going on just as quickly as before. So yes, Olivier is an elder already, and also Alba and Rowan aren't that far from ageing up either. Alba could have arrived at the end of her generation feeling less of a sentiment of "having achieved what I was aiming for" than her ancestors, but soon we'll have to move on to the next generation anyway.
And Rowan's generation is going to be a quite long one again, as you are already noticing he's quite a, ehm... peculiar character. A lot of the details you pointed out will be somehow shown better, explained or addressed in other ways in the span of a lot of chapters, so I can't say much now. Could this really turn out to be the generation in the Millers Legacy with a more morally grey heir? Who knows...
(By the way, back in high school I used to read Terry Pratchett quite a lot, but I don't remember about this book in particular. Checking online it looks like it was translated with very different names in my language, but still this plot in particular doesn't ring any bell. It could actually be a good story to read now though, I have to take note!)
You can follow the Legacy Miller from my blog and the forum thread, *Chapter 8.18 posted on the 23th of April 2024*
Awwww the scarecrow, a silent and motionless scarecrow was never so unusual or poignant before
Oh yeah, Sims Sessions! That was a really fun event. And I found out about an artist I didn't know before, who I've been listening to ever since (Joy Oladokun). I wish they would keep doing it. Don't feel bad that you had a glitch that interfered with the faces, we have all seen them by now in our own games or other media
For once, I think that the sims sessions really dropped at the right moment, music isn't a big topic in this legacy but Alba is definitively the most music-oriented heir of them all. And it was very funny to play to, during that week I was able to play it twice in this save an another one I keep just for fun!
As for the bug instead, for me was mostly quite puzzling. As often happens with mod-related bugs, it took me a while to find the culprit XD
You can follow the Legacy Miller from my blog and the forum thread, *Chapter 8.18 posted on the 23th of April 2024*
UGh, so the robots fled. Not only that, but I do wonder how much the Earth legal system could hold a robot responsible - but maybe I am overthinking that. On top of that, Techna gone... And the scarecrow too ;-; I did like that plot point though, it was a fun conflict of emotion vs a being that runs almost entirely on logic and reason. Aaaaaaand tthey're old!
Glad Rowan got his scholarship! And I'm glad they managed to attend a concert and have a good time after all they've been through. I am all for Alba and Olivier spending the rest of their days doing concerts : P I felt sad for Alba feeling she hadn't done enough. She did what she could, they all did, and I feel the younger ones will take after her.
The summary was fun < 3 I do wonder where Gen 8 will take us and what the kids will be like. I feel like the story is gradually becoming higher stakes, so I am expecting the robots to make a return, possibly, or if not a similarly-hard-to-overcome antagonistic force.
Robots at this point seem like a too interesting plot point to miss the chance to write about them again, right? :P Who knows how long it could take though, it's not like they age or anything like that after all...
Anyway, back to the Millers, with Alba I was definitively rough in this generation, even more than usual. Most of the previous heirs reached this point in life with many less regrets, after all. Anyway, the Sims Sessions concerts really seemed to be made for her and Olivier, I'm sure they're going to have fun with their music from now on.
I'm glad the summary was fun to read too, this time it was particularly difficult to re-order the story sections in a way that made sense even is such a short summary. As for Gen 8 instead... I don't know how 17-years-old Rowan would react when hearing someone wondering: "What the kids will be like", but knowing him some exaggerated sim-expression would be involved XD. However, this is still a legacy, the at least an heir for Gen 9 is supposed to be born at some point, right?
You can follow the Legacy Miller from my blog and the forum thread, *Chapter 8.18 posted on the 23th of April 2024*
Haha, I meant I wonder what the kids will be alike as in what Rowan will end up like grown up and such, I wasn't very clear : P But it will be fun to see what his (eventual) children will be like too!
Oh, yeah, that makes sense XD. I probably just translated the sentence too literally, the straightforward translation of both kids and children only refers to little humans younger than 12 or so XD But don't worry, there'll be a lot to tell about Rowan, and even if a bit more in the background both Iris and River will remain in the story as well.
You can follow the Legacy Miller from my blog and the forum thread, *Chapter 8.18 posted on the 23th of April 2024*
I’m finally caught up and can read/post here again.
7.30 & 7.31
I like the glimpses of Rowan’s personality that we’re seeing. I wonder what he’ll be like as an adult and if he’s interested in romance at all.
I really don't understand why they reacted like that, I was sincere when I said I didn't have anyone in mind to invite, and that I just didn't care about the prom night at all. Was it really such a strange answer?
Poor Rowan? Not going to prom is strange. It is a rite of passage and even extreme introverts tend to be okay with prom. I suppose this happened before the HSY pack came out, so it makes sense for him not to go, but it still seems odd that such a culturally significant social event means so little to him (perhaps it's not his culture, though).
Rowan reminds me of his father with how serious he is. He seems like he’ll study hard and put everything he learns to use to help with the Sixam robot crisis in the way that he decides, by himself and according to himself, is best. I’m glad he got enough scholarships to cover the cost of his college education.
When you mentioned a special timed event at the top of the chapter, the music one was exactly what I had in mind. I’m so glad Alba got to perform. It’s sweet to have a break from Sixam politics and the disturbed state of things.
Even though there may be a lot left to do when it comes to caring for Sulani and other things generally, Alba has done a ton and the robots aren’t polluting it anymore. I wish her an elderly life stage with fewer regrets.
Rowan is quite a peculiar character, that's for sure. As a teen I would say that he's passing through an: "Everyone but me is stupid" phase, but we definitively need to see how this will evolve once he grows a bit older, that's true.
As for the prom instead, the conversation could have sounded even more off than intended because I'm from a place where proms are not a thing at all. We finish high school at age 19 (and when we're already allowed to do whatever we want because we're legally adults already) and for us the last big event is a huge national exam that is so stressful that most people keep having nightmares about that for decades (I'm not joking), so the attitude we have to that period of our life may be a bit different. Also, as you said, I didn't have high school years installed when I played this part, and actually I didn't buy it either later on (as the whole setting is clearly very inspired by the US system, but to me it doesn't mean much).
Story-wise, I've never thought too much about how people in Sulani could perceive events such as school proms, but so that I see Sulani as a small community where people have community parties and celebrations all the time I suspect that it would be more like just another genetic music-based festivity like many others.
This said, would Rowan have gone to the prom if he was in a setting in which it was a central aspect of the teen social life? I'm actually not sure, and if he went I'm afraid he would have complained for most of the time anyway.
As for the comparison with young Olivier, I would say that the main difference between those two is that Olivier was always told to focus on studying and working by others, while Rowan decided it all by himself (and is actually surrounded by people telling him to chill out a bit). And I didn't have doubts Rowan would have received many scholarships, that has been his goal since when he turned into a teen after all.
And I agree that Alba definitively deserves a calm and serene life as an elder, focusing again on her music seems to be helping that a lot too!
You can follow the Legacy Miller from my blog and the forum thread, *Chapter 8.18 posted on the 23th of April 2024*
Although, actually, this was a nice ending for Alba's POV. It's cool that the music festival event happened at this time because it really does fit her. And I love that she's back to playing music.
It sure is ominous though, wondering what's going to happen in the next few generations. And I also wonder what sort of path Rowan's adult life will take. He seems very different from most of the past generations... except perhaps the founder.
Speaking of Rowan (since I was reading the above discussion about prom), prom absolutely was a huge part of my high school culture... and I did not go. Not everyone does. Rowan not going, and not being interested in going, felt totally natural to me. It fit his personality. He clearly places little or no value on socializing, doing things for fun, or engaging in any activity that isn't working toward achieving a goal. So it made perfect sense to me that he was not interested. I think, if someone had explicitly told him "it's a rule, and you have to go" he might have (though very grudgingly) but not otherwise.
Thanks a lot for the comment @GlacierSnow , as always!
Yes, I was really starting to feel guilty for what I did to Alba when setting up the plot of this generation, a nicer ending matching her passions was definitively well deserved!
But I'm definitively starting to build up the right atmosphere for the ending of the whole story as well, even if for the moment is just some small details and menacing predictions scattered around. Anyway, there are still 3 whole generations and 90 chapters to go, there is definitively still a ton of stuff to talk about over all this time.
Focusing on what will come next, and on Rowan... I would just say that his college days should clarify quite a lot already.
The comment about prom was interesting as well, to me this really is an insight into a culture I don't know much about (apart from US movies) and it's very interesting for me to see different points of view about it. I'm actually not sure about what the high-school-days me would have done about it either.
The "it's a rule, and you have to go" comment made me smile instead, that would have been so much like Rowan! (why didn't I think about it before?)
You can follow the Legacy Miller from my blog and the forum thread, *Chapter 8.18 posted on the 23th of April 2024*
I think estimates are that around half of American teens don't go to prom. For all sorts of reasons, including: not wanting to go, not having enough money for fancy clothes etc., parents not letting them go, not having a date and not wanting to show up without one, being worried about peer pressure to do "woohoo" or other stuff I can't mention on the forum, school not actually having a prom etc. Movies and TV shows make it look like the super-important part of growing up, but it's really just a fancy school dance. Even people who did go, in many cases, say it wasn't worth all the hype and expense, even if they did have a good time.
As for the prom instead, the conversation could have sounded even more off than intended because I'm from a place where proms are not a thing at all. We finish high school at age 19 (and when we're already allowed to do whatever we want because we're legally adults already) and for us the last big event is a huge national exam that is so stressful that most people keep having nightmares about that for decades (I'm not joking), so the attitude we have to that period of our life may be a bit different. Also, as you said, I didn't have high school years installed when I played this part, and actually I didn't buy it either later on (as the whole setting is clearly very inspired by the US system, but to me it doesn't mean much).
Story-wise, I've never thought too much about how people in Sulani could perceive events such as school proms, but so that I see Sulani as a small community where people have community parties and celebrations all the time I suspect that it would be more like just another genetic music-based festivity like many others.
This said, would Rowan have gone to the prom if he was in a setting in which it was a central aspect of the teen social life? I'm actually not sure, and if he went I'm afraid he would have complained for most of the time anyway.
The US doesn't have a uniform system, but a lot of people take their important exams the year before or, at least the semester before, senior prom. Many have also already been accepted into and decided on their colleges (if they're going) or have at least applied, so there's often not much important stuff left by then. Having friends and making connections is also very important in the US, but it's fine not to go to prom. Not going is just unusual.
Thanks you both @GlacierSnow and @haneul for the clarifications. Overall, it sounds like the perception of proms can change a lot depending on the person, the place or even the school, then. That's interesting.
Also, returning back to the legacy
I'd like to point out that the system I had in mind when writing about the end of high school for Rowan, and in reality for everyone else before him, was quite similar to the one I was used to. Thus, they are all often mentioning a big school exam just before ageing up to young adults. We don't even make a final graduation ceremony for high school, so in my head the real milestone for finishing high school is that big exam
You can follow the Legacy Miller from my blog and the forum thread, *Chapter 8.18 posted on the 23th of April 2024*
@HermioneSims Just so you know, the link in the second post links to this thread. Was it supposed to link to the blog first chapter?
The post above that links to the new chapter, so...
I am definitely ready to see what happens to Rowan. At the university. As an adult. Wherever this goes.
He's so focused. And I certainly can't blame him for his worry about the future. From his point of view, it is very frustrating that others do not take the situation seriously. It will be interesting to see if he stays so focused, or if other aspects of life come into play.
@GlacierSnow , thanks for signalling the mistake with the link! Now it should work.
I will be back after work for the rest of the comments.
Edit *13 hours later*
Thanks again for commenting the chapter, and also for signalling the mistake with the link. The first chapter of a generation is always a bit more of work with the links, the chances for mistakes are always very high
Rowan is definitively focused, very focused. His plan clearly is to spend 4 years in college studying like crazy, but would it be an interesting story to read? Who knows...
Yes, Rowan definitively isn't the best when it comes to get along with others, nor at working in a group of peers. College sounds like the right period in life to address it, however...
Anyway, I'm sorry about your prom, I hope not to have brought back bad memories with what we wrote!
Post edited by HermioneSims on
You can follow the Legacy Miller from my blog and the forum thread, *Chapter 8.18 posted on the 23th of April 2024*
Comments
I think compared to other generations, I feel really bad for Alba. The other gen 'founders' were all very ...not sure what the word is? But they did all they could to speak out and try to mend relations, and the human / alien relation has been up and down, and not just with one side or the other. But Alba doesn't have what they have in a sense to do much about it, because the crueler aliens are gaining more and more of an advantage. She has the same strong desire to improve things, but it's much harder for her, I'd say. She can't do her part to 'fix' things as quickly as the previous gens have considering she's having to deal with robots as well as advanced methods of mind-wiping. To want to do something about a problem and to be more or less powerless to do it because of how sneaky the opposition is being, it's just horrible.
Okay so I really like the decision you made with the robots' reasoning. I don't buy their logic at all, because so far plenty of the Sixamians have been doing their bit to not ruin Earth, especially with Alba having worked in cleaning up Sulani more or less since she got there. They are working purely on assumption and it's become a bit of a 'You are all idiots who are going to ruin your own planet eventually, so we had to step in' situation.
Robots doing their own thing in a way that might screw everyone over is a lot of fun (at least for readers) because there's just something terrifying in the best way (at least fictionally speaking) about AI going a bit off the rails, but also what I've been thinking all along since the start of this story, and also something which I'm glad you touched on for sake of complexity of the way you deal with the topics in this story.
It might be a bit of an uncomfortable idea for some, but, from the robots' point of view at least: when you do your bit to overcome the people who put you down, how long is it until you start repeating their mistakes? And if you do, And whilst the majority of the cast is nothing like that, and they've done their bit to stamp out the rogue Sixamians, it's an interesting point- especially when you bear in mind the fact the robots are total hypocrites in their line of thinking, because when they take charge and when (judging by what they say) the humans and aliens dwindle or even die out, then they'll be the ones eventually doing the damage.
Ohhhh boy, they're now compatible with the ancient tech? This can only go well ... not X_X So essentially they've just shrugged their shoulders and gone 'Yeah, well we know this will kill the lot of you but. LOL. Don't care didn't ask.' And now they're claiming the entire planet of
I was hoping Techna was humanised enough to not agree with the robots, but I can see why they would- I guess there's only a certain level of empathy a synthetic can have, and they are going to but logic and reasoning before anything else. And to all of these people, Techna was a family member and a friend, so it must hurt them unimaginably... And if they have to go against the robots, if they can't reprogram them, then the only option really is to make them not operational...
I hope they can find Techna soon, but I am wondering whose side they will be on...Who will they consider family more, the robots, or the Millers?
It's true that Alba had a quite different story than her ancestors, but I also think that Gen 7 was a bit of a turning point topics-wise. Until Gen 6 the main theme of the story was the relationships between sixamians and humans, while from now on the main challenge to face is *redacted, even if it's quite clear already, but Rowan will make it clearer in a few chapters anyway*
I would also say that in the past generations the legacy heirs were the ones making the most of the choices that moved the plot forwards, and often changed their world by doing so. Alba instead had a lot of weird stuff happening around her instead, and most of the plot was about seeing weird events and then taking several chapters to understand what had caused them. No wonder Alba is quite frustrated now, on top of everything else.
As for the robots' reasoning, I promise that before the end of the legacy it will become clear whether they were right or wrong in the prediction they exposed in this chapter. So that their evaluation was made on a global scale, I just want to underline that New Sixam is a quite small country, that started with a few million inhabitants and hasn't grown significantly ever since. The rest of the sims-world instead is meant to be way closer to the real world we live in regarding their stance on environmental matters, so... Let's say that, overall, the Earth in this story isn't doing much better than we are at the moment.
Thinking about the robots as a group of sentient AIs that advanced beyond what the people who built them expected was quite funny also for me, but quite challenging as well. Robots have different stories, different needs, different elaboration capacities etc..., and so I don't want to fall into the pitfall of making them think in the same was as humans do. For instance, does our ethics and morale also apply to them? Do these robot have any reason to want to preserve living organisms, sentient creatures, or even any other robot units? And if I question even points like these, what final motivation could they have to make up such a complex plan?
I did my best yet, even if people sometimes call me "robot" as a joke, it's so difficult to really reason like them!
For the moment, I can mostly comment that the fracture between them and the earthlings is very evident during this big speech given by the robots, the differences in their way of thinking are so deep already that they are already struggling to understand the motivations of the other group or even communicate them effectively. Because the motivations of the robots aren't clear to the sixamians nor the other earthlings, that's for sure.
As for Techna, I promise they will appear again in the story. At some point. It's not like they grow old anyway, and there are still a ton of years to cover before the end... But their choice really was a bad moment for this family, this could actually have been one of the worst things I've done to them since the beginning (and it's not like I've been so nice with them...)
This is the second-to-last chapter of the generation, and considering that the next one is going to be quite a special one I'm wrapping up the last details.
There's a lot going on here. So these are just a few scattered thoughts...
Techna leaving and the Scarecrow going motionless is sad for me as well as for Alba.
Also sad, reaching the last few years of this generation. Oliver is an elder already! Though I have to say, he still looks handsome even as an old guy.
Rowan worries me a bit. He really doesn't see anyone else's point of view very easily, does he? And he's so focused on following the rules and achieving goals, to the exclusion of all other aspects of life (except the cat). I'm not sure how to explain my concern exactly. At this point he is starting to remind me a bit of the character Vorbis in Terry Pratchett's Small Gods. Someone who might genuinely believe he is doing the "right" thing, but his lack of empathy for other people, and his disgust at them when they don't follow the rules, could lead him to actually do quite evil things in pursuit of what he thinks is right. He's obviously not at that kind of stage right now, and maybe he never will be. But he feels potentially like a young version of that type of person. And if someone or something doesn't intervene, and change his way of thinking, he could end up like that.
His interactions with his cousins are interesting. He wants their advice, but then doesn't seem much impressed with their opinions. Maybe he's just an awkward young person feeling lost, and having a rough time relating to others. It will be interesting to watch him grow up.
Okay, and I am also curious about this "Rick" guy. Probably we won't be seeing him again though, since he seems like just some random classmate of River's.
Still, congratulations to Rowan for getting some good scholarships. Hopefully he gets some new kinds of experiences in college. I am very curious how the next generation will play out.
And in parallel the life of the protagonists of this generation kept going on just as quickly as before. So yes, Olivier is an elder already, and also Alba and Rowan aren't that far from ageing up either. Alba could have arrived at the end of her generation feeling less of a sentiment of "having achieved what I was aiming for" than her ancestors, but soon we'll have to move on to the next generation anyway.
And Rowan's generation is going to be a quite long one again, as you are already noticing he's quite a, ehm... peculiar character. A lot of the details you pointed out will be somehow shown better, explained or addressed in other ways in the span of a lot of chapters, so I can't say much now. Could this really turn out to be the generation in the Millers Legacy with a more morally grey heir? Who knows...
(By the way, back in high school I used to read Terry Pratchett quite a lot, but I don't remember about this book in particular. Checking online it looks like it was translated with very different names in my language, but still this plot in particular doesn't ring any bell. It could actually be a good story to read now though, I have to take note!)
It may sound impossible, but the Millers may also have had a funny day, for once.
Oh yeah, Sims Sessions! That was a really fun event. And I found out about an artist I didn't know before, who I've been listening to ever since (Joy Oladokun). I wish they would keep doing it. Don't feel bad that you had a glitch that interfered with the faces, we have all seen them by now in our own games or other media
As for the bug instead, for me was mostly quite puzzling. As often happens with mod-related bugs, it took me a while to find the culprit XD
Summaries are always hard to write, but this generation was even longer than the previous ones! I had to cut so much this time...
Glad Rowan got his scholarship! And I'm glad they managed to attend a concert and have a good time after all they've been through. I am all for Alba and Olivier spending the rest of their days doing concerts : P I felt sad for Alba feeling she hadn't done enough. She did what she could, they all did, and I feel the younger ones will take after her.
The summary was fun < 3 I do wonder where Gen 8 will take us and what the kids will be like. I feel like the story is gradually becoming higher stakes, so I am expecting the robots to make a return, possibly, or if not a similarly-hard-to-overcome antagonistic force.
Anyway, back to the Millers, with Alba I was definitively rough in this generation, even more than usual. Most of the previous heirs reached this point in life with many less regrets, after all. Anyway, the Sims Sessions concerts really seemed to be made for her and Olivier, I'm sure they're going to have fun with their music from now on.
I'm glad the summary was fun to read too, this time it was particularly difficult to re-order the story sections in a way that made sense even is such a short summary. As for Gen 8 instead... I don't know how 17-years-old Rowan would react when hearing someone wondering: "What the kids will be like", but knowing him some exaggerated sim-expression would be involved XD. However, this is still a legacy, the at least an heir for Gen 9 is supposed to be born at some point, right?
7.30 & 7.31
Poor Rowan? Not going to prom is strange. It is a rite of passage and even extreme introverts tend to be okay with prom. I suppose this happened before the HSY pack came out, so it makes sense for him not to go, but it still seems odd that such a culturally significant social event means so little to him (perhaps it's not his culture, though).
Rowan reminds me of his father with how serious he is. He seems like he’ll study hard and put everything he learns to use to help with the Sixam robot crisis in the way that he decides, by himself and according to himself, is best. I’m glad he got enough scholarships to cover the cost of his college education.
When you mentioned a special timed event at the top of the chapter, the music one was exactly what I had in mind.
Even though there may be a lot left to do when it comes to caring for Sulani and other things generally, Alba has done a ton and the robots aren’t polluting it anymore. I wish her an elderly life stage with fewer regrets.
As for the prom instead, the conversation could have sounded even more off than intended because I'm from a place where proms are not a thing at all. We finish high school at age 19 (and when we're already allowed to do whatever we want because we're legally adults already) and for us the last big event is a huge national exam that is so stressful that most people keep having nightmares about that for decades (I'm not joking), so the attitude we have to that period of our life may be a bit different. Also, as you said, I didn't have high school years installed when I played this part, and actually I didn't buy it either later on (as the whole setting is clearly very inspired by the US system, but to me it doesn't mean much).
Story-wise, I've never thought too much about how people in Sulani could perceive events such as school proms, but so that I see Sulani as a small community where people have community parties and celebrations all the time I suspect that it would be more like just another genetic music-based festivity like many others.
This said, would Rowan have gone to the prom if he was in a setting in which it was a central aspect of the teen social life? I'm actually not sure, and if he went I'm afraid he would have complained for most of the time anyway.
As for the comparison with young Olivier, I would say that the main difference between those two is that Olivier was always told to focus on studying and working by others, while Rowan decided it all by himself (and is actually surrounded by people telling him to chill out a bit). And I didn't have doubts Rowan would have received many scholarships, that has been his goal since when he turned into a teen after all.
And I agree that Alba definitively deserves a calm and serene life as an elder, focusing again on her music seems to be helping that a lot too!
Although, actually, this was a nice ending for Alba's POV. It's cool that the music festival event happened at this time because it really does fit her. And I love that she's back to playing music.
It sure is ominous though, wondering what's going to happen in the next few generations. And I also wonder what sort of path Rowan's adult life will take. He seems very different from most of the past generations... except perhaps the founder.
Speaking of Rowan (since I was reading the above discussion about prom), prom absolutely was a huge part of my high school culture... and I did not go. Not everyone does. Rowan not going, and not being interested in going, felt totally natural to me. It fit his personality. He clearly places little or no value on socializing, doing things for fun, or engaging in any activity that isn't working toward achieving a goal. So it made perfect sense to me that he was not interested. I think, if someone had explicitly told him "it's a rule, and you have to go" he might have (though very grudgingly) but not otherwise.
But I'm definitively starting to build up the right atmosphere for the ending of the whole story as well, even if for the moment is just some small details and menacing predictions scattered around. Anyway, there are still 3 whole generations and 90 chapters to go, there is definitively still a ton of stuff to talk about over all this time.
Focusing on what will come next, and on Rowan... I would just say that his college days should clarify quite a lot already.
The comment about prom was interesting as well, to me this really is an insight into a culture I don't know much about (apart from US movies) and it's very interesting for me to see different points of view about it. I'm actually not sure about what the high-school-days me would have done about it either.
The "it's a rule, and you have to go" comment made me smile instead, that would have been so much like Rowan! (why didn't I think about it before?)
I think estimates are that around half of American teens don't go to prom. For all sorts of reasons, including: not wanting to go, not having enough money for fancy clothes etc., parents not letting them go, not having a date and not wanting to show up without one, being worried about peer pressure to do "woohoo" or other stuff I can't mention on the forum, school not actually having a prom etc. Movies and TV shows make it look like the super-important part of growing up, but it's really just a fancy school dance. Even people who did go, in many cases, say it wasn't worth all the hype and expense, even if they did have a good time.
I look forward to reading about Rowan in college.
Also, returning back to the legacy
Chapter 8.1: Lawyer for the lost causes
Chapter 8.2: Approaching college
Chapter 8.3: About the successes, and the failures
Chapter 8.4: Being consistent
Chapter 8.5: Expectations to be met
Chapter 8.6: Certain things cannot be learnt from books
Chapter 8.7: *Recalculation*
Chapter 8.8: The last semester
Chapter 8.9: Looking forwards
Chapter 8.10: Don't give anything for granted
Chapter 8.11: New normalities
Chapter 8.12: Not all parents are the same
Chapter 8.13: Transition
Chapter 8.14: Bureaucratic choices
Chapter 8.15: The thirteenth birthday just hits differently
Chapter 8.16: At the end arrives...
Chapter 8.17: New house, new life
Chapter 8.18: Coping update on 23/04/24
Are you ready for Rowan's generation?
The post above that links to the new chapter, so...
I am definitely ready to see what happens to Rowan. At the university. As an adult. Wherever this goes.
He's so focused. And I certainly can't blame him for his worry about the future. From his point of view, it is very frustrating that others do not take the situation seriously. It will be interesting to see if he stays so focused, or if other aspects of life come into play.
I hope he can learn to relate and find common cause with others, his goals in life will require it...
I will be back after work for the rest of the comments.
Edit *13 hours later*
Thanks again for commenting the chapter, and also for signalling the mistake with the link. The first chapter of a generation is always a bit more of work with the links, the chances for mistakes are always very high
Anyway, focusing on the chapter
@GlacierSnow
@mightysprite
Anyway, I'm sorry about your prom, I hope not to have brought back bad memories with what we wrote!