#20th accession anniversary

[thoughtlessarse]

Languages: Deutsch

Poland has invested €86 billion in the European Union project and gained €261 billion in the 20 years since it joined, according to data presented by Funds and Regional Policy Minister Katarzyna Pełczyńska-Nałęczit at a press conference on Tuesday. Pełczyńska-Nałęcz presented the data the day before Poland celebrates the 20th anniversary of joining the EU. “To all those who say that we pay extra for the European Union: it is actually exactly the opposite,” the minister said. Poland received a total of €261 billion in transfers from the EU budget as of March 2024, including €165 billion under the cohesion policy, €11.4 billion from the EU Recovery and Resilience Facility, and €78 under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), the minister added. Poland was long denied access to the EU’s recovery funds due to the European Commission’s concerns about the rule of law under the previous PiS (ECR) government. It was only after the current cabinet of Prime Minister Donald Tusk presented a reform plan to restore the independence of the country’s judiciary that the Commission lifted its hold.

continue reading

The EU is good at wealth redistribution to member countries. Unfortunately, once it reaches the members the wealth tends to benefit those who are already rich with the least need of it.

[ectoberhaunt]

Ectoberhaunt 2024: Past and Future

Y'all ready for this? Here is our prompt list for the event this year! (Please clap) What's this? A triple prompt for the first day? That's right! We're celebrating the Phandom new and old for our favorite ghost boy's 20th anniversary with a theme centered around the passage of time and what that could mean to Danny and his rogue's gallery. As always, our last prompt day is the 24th where we hand off to @ectoberweekofficial for their event. This makes our free days October 5th, 6th, 19th, 20th, and the 24th to Halloween this year. Please tag all prompt fills as "ectoberhaunt24" so we can find your posts, and follow the guidelines below the cut.

Posting for this event begins Monday, October 1st!

Down below are our written out calendar prompts (for accessibility) AND our posting guidelines. Check 'em out!\

The Prompts

Below are the listed prompts in date order, if it's blank it's a catch up day. First prompt is Past and second is Future.

Past, Present, & Future

Dinosaur & Robot

Archaeology & Meteorology

Came Back Wrong

-

-

Bury & Unearth

Pirate Ship & Spaceship

Rise & Fall

Creepy & Wet

Dark and Stormy Night

Isekai: Past Prompt (Here)

Isekai: Old Hero, New World

Cult Classic & Murder Mystery

Science Fiction & Double Feature

Bloom & Wither

Gothic Horror & Cosmic Horror

Mirror Image

-

-

Analog & Digital

Steampunk & Solarpunk

Big Bang & Heat Death

Time Loop

Ectober Week: 25-31

Post Guidelines

The following are the posting guidelines. Please follow them so we can reblog and share your posts without issue. We will also have this as a post available on our blog separately.

Tag all posts with “Ectoberhaunt24” so we can find it. If you do not use this tag, we may not find you.

Tag which calendar you're pulling from (“EH Past” or “EH Future”), which day the prompt is for ("Day X"). You do NOT need to tag which prompt it is for, but PLEASE put it somewhere in the post so we know which prompt you are filling- if you do not do this we will likely not reblog it.

Put your fics under a readmore. Add a summary before the cut with a short preview, content warnings, and which prompts were used. Then, add a readmore no more than 150 words or 10 lines/groups of text under your summary. If you're using mobile, type :readmore: and hit enter to make a readmore. If you do not do this, we will NOT reblog your post.

Make sure to tag all common content warnings (blood, gore, death, drugs, body horror, existentialism, & vermin)

We will try to reblog every prompt we can. Feel free to @ us in the post too or send us a DM with the post!!

Here's a handy dandy google sheet to keep track of your own progress, simply make your own copy and mess with it -> LINK

Banner graphic by @kawaiijohn

Calendar Graphics by @ajitated (template) and @five-rivers (composition)

Google sheet by @ajitated and @jackdaw-sprite

Happy creating!!

[major-comet]

UPDATE ON THE MISSING TROCADERO ALBUMS!

update! all missing albums are up, with a bonus album on the way at some point in the future: https://www.tumblr.com/major-comet/762317690567278592/update-on-the-missing-red-vs-blue-music-i-think

EDIT: Roses are Red, Violets are Blue: 20th Anniversary IS UP ON APPLE MUSIC/SPOTIFY/YOUTUBE

I should have checked before I hit post on the first version, lol. Deleted and re-posted to try and keep the new version going around. This is the original album + 11 Instrumental Tracks! thank you @joltning for mentioning the auto-generated youtube videos in your tags, which prompted me to look.

The songs with Instrumental versions are

Blood Gulch Blues

Steady Ride (Gunmetal Green)

Spiritual

No One - previously on the s14 soundtrack

A Girl Named Tex - previously on the s14 soundtrack

Space Invader

(617)

Superhero

Vale Deah

Half Life - previously on a chorus soundtrack, I think

Anyways, the rest of the uploads are being worked on, and this will include bonus material as well!

This is coming in the form of three albums;

Recovery: Volume 1, which will be seasons 12-13

Recovery: Volume 2, which will be seasons 14-17

and Recovery: Volume 3 which will be "unreleased orphans & rejects, cues from the show that didn't fit anywhere else."

so look forward to that! still no word on the jeff williams tracks as far as I'm aware, but this is fantastic news.

(Source: Trocadero on Twitter, Link 1 and Link 2)

[waugh-bao]

I’ve been meaning to get more into old time radio. Do you have any suggestions for good websites I can use to listen? :)

I think the easiest entry point, both in terms of how simple it is to access and the content itself, is the This Day in Jack Benny podcast. It comes out weekly and covers the Benny radio catalogue from the ‘30s-‘50s and every episode is a broadcast from that day or one close to it with a brief introduction on the context of the time the show was recorded and the specific references and jokes in the episode. I believe at this point the person behind it, John Henderson, has covered the entire available Benny catalogue or something close to it.

There is a website called Radio Echoes that has recordings of dozens of different radio programs from the ‘30s-‘50s and there’s a huge variance in the archive for each one. Some have 2-3 episodes preserved, some have hundreds. The Fred Allen show archive there, for example, has 231 episodes. They’ve got the Al Jolson Show, Benny Goodman Swing School, the Bob Hope Show, and so many others, British and American. You can search by the program, the year, or special collections, and it’s possible to listen on the site or download to your phone or computer.

I’m not sure what its status is nowadays, but Archive.org also has quite a bit of early radio content in the audio sections, and some neat videos from early radio stars who went on to have TV shows or guest on them in the video section. Like Jack Benny’s 20th Anniversary Special from 1970.

Hope that helps!

[echobsilly]

Art Submissions are NOW OPEN for the Smile For Me FLOWER POWER Collab!

💐🌹🌻🌼🌸🌺

This form will close on MAY 20TH! info + form below! 💐

💐🌹🌻🌼🌸🌺

RECAP 🌻

Here is the original announcement post for this project! Here's a little TLDR:

Celebrating Smile For Me's 5th Anniversary, this year's art collaboration is dedicated to the fanbase's creativity, putting a focus on ORIGINAL CHARACTERS inspired by this game! 

Artists will make visual pieces featuring anything from Flower Kids to OCs to AUs!

This will be a DIGITAL GALLERY rather than a Zine -- artwork will be hosted on a Website, rather than a PDF. Anyone can join and submit work before the deadline MAY 20TH!

For the full timeline, description, submission guidelines (Keep images PG + under 10MB), and to SUBMIT WORK, please view the form below! :-D

💐SUBMISSION FORM💐

If you do not have a Google account and are unable to access the form, please send an email to sfm5yearcollab@gmail.com from your preferred email address! We will send you an alternate instructions via email as soon as we are available.

And of course, feel free to ask any other questions! HAVE FUN! 🌻

[spn20rewatch]

FAQ

Q: What is this?

A: This is an almost year-long event leading up to the 20th anniversary of the Supernatural pilot airing! Following a one-episode-a-day schedule, you'll be able to finish the series on September 13th, 2025. This blog will be posting daily reminders for which episode to watch as well as monthly schedules and the occasional reminder.

Q: Who can participate?

A: Literally anybody! Photoshop wizards, meta magicians, skilled shitposters, amazing artists, those of us who just want to have a good time. Whether you have ten followers or ten thousand, you are welcome. Think of #spn20rewatch as a fandom-wide tag in the same vein as #spnedit, available to any who want to use it.

Q: How can I keep track of which episode to watch?

A: We will be posting each episode every single day, but you can also click here to access a public calendar!

Q: I can't keep up with the daily schedule, what do I do?

A: You can watch several episodes on one day, jump in in the middle of a season, skip a few weeks and catch back up... While it would be amazing if everybody was able to watch an episode a day, the real goal is just to have people revisit the show. We recognize that many may find out about this re-watch a few weeks or months in, and you are still welcome.

Q: I've never seen Supernatural/never watched past season 5/never watched season 1, can I still participate?

A: Absolutely, just beware of spoilers when browsing the tag.

This is an ever-evolving post, so further questions will be answered under a cut.

[real-life-senshi]

SAILOR SENSHI 20TH ANNIVERSARY ALUMNI REUNION - FANSUBBED

EDIT on Jan 3rd: SORRY. I couldn't stand how many mistakes I see in my edit despite multiple checks I've done before Jan 1st... I ended up reuploading the videos instead. Can't guarantee it's perfect now, but it's much better (from the creator's perspective.) Anyone who reblogged before Jan 3rd will have the old link that's now broken.

This is the TV version, aired on CBC in Japan on December 25th, 2023.

Due to YouTube's upload length limit, the show has been split into 3 parts based on the provided commercial breaks. The videos are unlisted on YouTube, so cannot be searched, instead only accessed by the proper web link.

Some notes & disclaimer:

1. I’m not a fluent Japanese speaker, but I do know Hiragana, Katakana, basic Japanese grammar and kanji, and a few good tools to use for translation. All’s to say, all mistakes are mine. Sorry if there’s any!

2. I’m also not a professional translator. Due to the grammar differences between Japanese and English, some sentences will sound awkward in English for the conversation to make sense.

3. This really was a casual chat for the ladies, so they kept talking over each other. I tried to highlight all the chit-chats with colour-coded subtitles matching their Senshi colours. Because of this I tried different formatting and decided on the layout you see now, even if it's still a bit messy, and some subtitles are quite fast-paced. Sorry if it doesn't look good or is tough to read. :(

4. The character “会”(kai) in “戦士会” (senshi-kai) can be translated into: - “Club”, a noun for group; - “Meetup” or “reunion”, a noun and synonym for “event”. Depending on context, you will see “戦士会” (senshi-kai) translated into “Senshi Club” or “Senshi Reunion.”

PART 1

PART 2

PART 3

Upcoming:

I will be working on a subtitled version of Miyuu's behind-the-scene video of this program. (JAN 7th EDIT: The subbed version is available here!)

A Director's Cut version will be made available in Japan on Jan 9, 2024. I'll keep an eye out if there's a copy floating around. If there's any difference in that version, I'll also make a subtitled version for sharing as well. If there are any translation mistakes I've made in this current round of subtitling, I'll also take the chance to rectify them in the new version.

PLEASE ENJOY, REBLOG AND SHARE! 🌙

[bfpnola]

Trans Reads is an ambitious project created by and for transgender people to openly access writing related to our communities. We believe education should be free and writing shouldn’t be behind a paywall. Transreads.org provides the opportunity to access, discuss, and distribute texts for free.

If you’re looking for books, chapters, texts, essays, or articles by, for, or about people who transverse or transcend western gender norms, you’re in the right place!

Trans Reads was formed through the work, consulting, and creativity of an anonymous group of trans people of various genders and races around the U.S. involved in organizing, academia, and trans liberation efforts. Trans Reads was launched in 2019 following increasing violence against trans people alongside the lack of accessible resources for trans people to learn about our own community.

There is a serious barrier for most trans people accessing content from our community. Trans people on average have less disposable income, time to read and purchase literature, and knowledge of the available texts. We created Trans Reads to address this problem directly. We offer the largest collection of free trans texts on the internet.

Get Involved:

Trans Reads is almost entirely generated through user content. By uploading, you can help a trans teen in a rural area learn about other girls like her. You could help a trans student who can’t afford a textbook easily pass their class. You can even share your own writing with the world on an easy-to-use platform exclusively for trans content. You can help grow our collection on our upload page. If you are interested in helping us upload texts for our collection, you can reach out on our contact page.

Ethics:

We are faced with the common ethical question about hurting the sales of trans authors. However, the largest ever study on piracy actually found that the piracy of copyrighted books, music, video games, and movies has no effect on sales. In the case of video games, piracy actually helped sales. As far back as 2002, we can see piracy boosting sales of media. Trans Reads strongly encourages you to purchase the books that you enjoy here or find other ways to support the author.

Academic authors rarely – if ever – see income from sales of their books, articles, or chapters. Most want to remove the paywalls withholding their content. Trans Reads is open to collaborating with authors, publishers, and journals on making this a possibility through our website.

History:

In 2014, Leslie Feinberg published the 20th-anniversary edition of Stone Butch Blues, one of the most influential works of transgender literature. The novel was a way for trans, gender nonconforming, and queer people to realize ourselves. It told us we aren’t alone. However, when the publisher went bankrupt, Leslie had to struggle to regain ownership over hir own novel.

“I had to work to recover my rights to Stone Butch Blues. When the first publisher went into Chapter 11 court, I had to spend thousands of dollars of my wages on legal fees to recover the right to this novel… While very ill in Spring 2012, I recovered my rights again.”

Ze didn’t want the book to be released as a film adaptation exploiting hir story for straight fantasies. Ze also used the opportunity to make the book more accessible. First editions shot up into hundreds of dollars. The least expensive print versions are still over $30 on Amazon. This simply isn’t affordable to most queer and trans people. The fight ended with Leslie publishing hir novel on hir website as a PDF, a strategy of reclaiming transgender narratives from greedy publishes by collective ownership of the text.

Trans Reads is dedicated to the memory of Leslie and all those who feel alone. Most individuals don’t have institutional access and cannot afford to pay for texts. Transreads.org allows visitors to effortlessly read texts by, for, or related to trans people online for free as PDFs. Trans Reads is the space where anyone can easily discuss, add, or download trans content.

This project is intended to foster discussion around the current state of learning. We refuse paywalls and withholding education. Trans Reads provides the opportunity to access, discuss, and distribute texts related to our community on its website in a matter of seconds.

Knowledge, learning, and community must be de-commodified for our collective liberation. Take it from Leslie:

“And on the day those paper deeds of ownership are torn up, it won’t matter about protecting Stone Butch Blues anymore from commercial exploitation.”

Authors shouldn’t live in fear of their work being exploited or inaccessible. Trans Reads is just one small part of trans autonomy from corporate publishers. However, it is a necessary step toward engaging with our radical history, politics, and futures.

Click here to upload a text.

[tamapalace]

How to Pause a Tamagotchi Connection 20th Anniversary

Sometimes you need a break. The Tamagotchi Connection 20th Anniversary features unique programming, and part of that is the exclusion of the pause featured that was available on the older models. So how can you pause your Tamagotchi Connection 20th Anniversary when you’re busy? Here’s how!

Clock Set Trick - This is when you access the clock screen by pressing the “A” button. Once you see the clock screen you’ll then press buttons “A” and “C” at the same time until you see the word “SET” in the bottom right-hand corner. This will essentially pause your Tamagotchi as it is waiting for the time to be set. Once you return back and want to resume your Tamagotchi, adjust the date and time accordingly and you’re back at it! Please note that all growth will be pause as well during this time.

It is important to note that this is the only pause method on the Tamagotchi Connection 20th Anniversary. Enjoy!

[demifiendrsa]

Valve has released a 20th anniversary update for Half-Life 2.

Half-Life 2 with Episode 1 & 2 are free to own on Steam until November 18, 2024 10AM PT / 1PM ET.

Overview

BRAND NEW INTERVIEWS WITH THE HALF-LIFE 2 DEV TEAM!

Our Half-Life 1 25th anniversary documentary went so well that we invited Secret Tape back to make another one—this time focusing on Half-Life 2. And it's about a lot more than just the making of a game. Running out of money. Getting hacked, and an early version being leaked online. Being sued by our publisher. Trying to build Steam. It's all in there!

THE 20TH ANNIVERSARY UPDATE FOR HALF-LIFE 2 INCLUDES:

EPISODE ONE AND TWO EXPANSIONS IN THE BOX

Half-Life 2 now includes the complete Episode One and Episode Two expansions along with the base game. They’re accessible from the main menu, and you will automatically advance to the next expansion after completing each one.

HALF-LIFE 2 DEVELOPER COMMENTARY

When we shipped "Lost Coast" a year after Half-Life 2, we included an interactive developer commentary mode to offer interested players a deep dive into the new technology that inspired the demo. We did it again for every Half-Life and Portal game afterwards, but Half-Life 2 itself never had commentary... until now. We got the original HL2 team back together to record brand new commentary tracks for the whole game.

STEAM WORKSHOP SUPPORT

Browse, install, and play user-created content for Half-Life 2 without ever leaving the game. Look for it in the Extras menu!

STEAM GAME RECORDING

Preserve your precious memories of City 17 with the help of Steam! Take a look at the Game Recording timeline in your Steam Overlay for event markers that commemorate big and surprising moments in your playthrough.

UPDATED GAME CONTENT

Every map in Half-Life 2 has been looked over by Valve level designers to fix longstanding bugs, restore content and features lost to time, and improve the quality of a few things like lightmap resolution and fog:

Fixed pops, holes in the world, fading-out and disappearing objects across the game.

Rebalanced the lighting across Half-Life 2 to account for playing with HDR on or off, using the original release as reference.

Cleaner, smoother horizon lines thanks to new radial fog!

Added higher-resolution lightmaps across the game!

Removed green glow from the G-Man model’s eyes in the opening of the game, and restored the reflective glint as seen in the original release.

Fixed missing grass sprites and blacked-out models throughout the game!

UPDATED GRAPHICS SETTINGS

Choose either the original launch day blood and fire effects, or those created for the episodes, when playing the Half-Life 2 base game!

Play with only the highest detail models in High Quality mode!

Get smoother lightmap shadows at Very High shader detail, thanks to new bicubic lightmap filtering!

GAMEPAD, INPUT, AND STEAM DECK UPDATES

Gamepad controls have been updated to match the Half-Life 1 anniversary update.

Aim Assistance has gotten an overhaul making it feel better to use, and there are more configuration options available. Aim Assistance can be enabled separately for gamepad or mouse/keyboard input. The amount of assistance can be tuned up and down, and it’s no longer tied to a skill setting. Want to play on Hard with high aim assist, or Easy with it off? Knock yourself out.

The Steam Deck main menu has been updated with all of today’s additions including the Episodes, Workshop, and new input configuration. The Steam Deck version of the main menu will also appear when you play Half-Life 2 on a PC running Big Picture Mode.

LONG-LOST LOOKS INTO HALF-LIFE 2'S DEVELOPMENT

WATCH OLD VIDEOS FROM THE EARLY DAYS OF HALF-LIFE 2

We rescued these old demos from the hard drives of ancient computers scattered around the office, and are offering them up as high quality videos:

E3 2003

The demo that revealed Half-Life 2 and the Source engine to the world. This was previously only available as shakycam recorded from our E3 booth, now available as direct capture.

E3 2002

We built this demo to bring to E3 a year earlier, and then decided at the last minute we weren’t ready to show the game. 20 years later, we’re okay with you seeing this stuff.

SIGGRAPH 2000

Also known as the “Free TVs” demo, this was shown at the SIGGRAPH computer graphics conference, hot on the heels of the release of the original Half-Life. This is the highest quality video we’ve still got from this era of Half-Life 2’s development.

RE-RAISING THE BAR

A NEW EDITION OF RAISING THE BAR IS COMING BACK INTO PRINT IN 2025, EXPANDED TO INCLUDE THE HALF-LIFE 2 EPISODES

Nearly two decades since it first went out of print, Raising the Bar is set to return with an expanded second edition—offering a comprehensive look into the creation of the Half-Life 2. Originally published in 2004, this book captured the story of Half-Life 2's development but missed the episodic content that followed.

This new edition concludes the Half-Life 2 development story, with never-before-seen concept art from Episode One and Episode Two, along with ideas and experiments for the third episode that never came to be.

---

Looking for something to read right now? The Final Hours of Half-Life 2 was written twenty years ago by Geoff Keighley after spending time in Valve's offices during... you guessed it.

---

BUG FIXES AND CHANGE NOTES

Content

Added 3.5 hours of Developer Commentary by members of the Half-Life 2 team.

Half-Life 2: Episode One and Episode Two are now playable from the Half-Life 2 main menu.

Half-Life 2: Lost Coast has been added to the Extras menu.

Added Steam Workshop support. Play entire campaigns or replace weapons, enemies, UI, and more with content created by the community.

Added custom Steam Game Recording gameplay events and phases throughout the game.

Rendering and Graphics

Fixed issues causing props or entire maps to be fully bright or fully dark depending on settings.

Added bicubic filtering for lightmaps to produce smoother shadows. It can be enabled by setting Shader Detail to Very High.

Fixed missing grass detail sprites in many maps.

Added settings to enable Classic Effects that were originally in Half-Life 2. These effects can also be enabled using r_classic_blood or r_classic_fire.

Added support for radial fog.

Specular reflectivity has been adjusted throughout Half-Life 2 to better match the original release.

Updated models for the Crossbow and RPG weapons to support ultrawide displays.

Fixed camera clipping into vehicles at high FOV settings.

Fixed lambda cache indicators and other decals vanishing when backtracking through map transitions.

Setting Model Detail to High will now always display the highest detail version of a model and never swap for a lower level-of-detail.

Set Antialiasing to 4x MSAA by default.

Fixed teeth shader rendering fully white on some GPUs.

UI and Options

The UI now scales to support higher resolutions.

Launching the game in Steam Big Picture mode will now use the gamepad-friendly UI previously available on Steam Deck. You can also launch this mode with the "-gamepadui" launch option.

The High Dynamic Range setting has been moved to the main Video settings page.

Commentary mode can now be enabled on the New Game screen.

Fixed display of greyscale art for locked achievement icons to match their behavior in steam.

Improved legibility of gamepad button icons.

Button hints will now prefer to display standard face buttons and trigger icons only. This behavior can be disabled with the "sc_prefer_basic_origin_hints" convar.

Replaced instances of system fonts like Verdana throughout the UI with a new font, GorDIN.

Added a new font renderer that provides more consistent rendering between platforms.

Fixed edges of certain font characters being cut off with antialiasing enabled.

Fixed scrollbars and button animations using inverted colors.

Removed the non-functional "Use 'bloom' effect when available" setting.

Added Rich Presence info while playing Half-Life 2.

Input

Updated the default Steam Input configuration.

Added a Gamepad settings menu.

Added the ability to select a weapon selection UI style while using a gamepad.

Added settings for separate Aim-Assist modes for mouse/keyboard and gamepad. The new Aim-Assist "Enhanced" mode now attempts to track enemies and snap-to-target while driving vehicles.

If using toggle crouch, pressing sprint will now make the player stand.

Legacy joystick settings have been removed from the Mouse settings menu.

Gameplay

Reduced chances of birds getting stuck in the world.

Fixed Combine crouching behavior during door assault scene.

Fixed Combine not firing in some cases during the finale.

Game sounds and music now pause while the game is paused.

Fix crash that can occur if the player gets too far ahead of the helicopter in canals.

Fixed Dr. Breen not looking at the camera in certain broadcasts.

Fixed smooth friction sounds not playing.

General Map Updates

Full HDR lighting and tonemapping pass across every map in Half-Life 2 and Half-Life 2: Deathmatch.

Increased lightmap resolution in most maps.

Adjusted rendering distances across the game so details and objects remain visible much further away.

Removed Far-Z clip plane from most maps.

Increased window and door fade distances.

Improved lighting and world detail inconsistencies during many map transitions.

Tuned fog and skyboxes for every map with water on the horizon for better horizon blending.

Replaced instances of simple reflective water with fully reflective water in nearly every map.

Fixed many instances of floating props across the game.

Sewed up holes, aligned textures, and fixed seams on many displacements throughout the game.

Swapped some distant trees out for higher detail models.

Enabled shadows on many static props that were missing them.

Added glow sprites to all lights that were missing them.

Fixed lightmapping for many large static prop structures.

Added simple rooftop geometry to background buildings that were missing them.

Added background displacement geometry to areas which are now exposed by removed the clipping plane.

Specific Map Updates

The introduction sequence has been adjusted to closely match the original sequence, including fixing specular highlights on the G-Man's eyes.

Fixed various texture seams on train station wall

All fences now properly cast shadows.

Fixed issues with level transitions setting fog values improperly.

Removed emissive value from base of lighting prop which was glowing in strange places.

Fixed a bug with Eli's idle animations during the teleport sequence.

Fixed lightmapping of train cars in Red Letter Day and Route Kanal.

Fixed a rendering bug in Route Kanal where world geometry would pop in and out of view when looking down the tracks.

Aligned pipe and canal wall textures in a few areas to reduce seams and misalignment in Route Kanal.

Added and adjusted canal wall brushes where level geometry was conspicuously missing.

Adjusted brightness and falloff of ambient lights in darker sections of the canals.

Added small grates as dim light sources of ambient light in a few places in the canals.

Fixed an issue where the splash for Manhack Matt's jump into the water would be out of sync.

Fixed a bug where the large brick smokestacks were popping in and out depending on the player's position in Water Hazard.

Added missing cables to utility poles in various canal maps.

Fixed lighting and shadows on the dock and electric tower outside of Black Mesa East.

Added displacements and water plane to 3D skybox near the dam entrance to replace simple brush cliff face.

Fixed the lighting on the rocks and props in and around the Ravenholm graveyard.

Fixed players being able to trap themselves in the graveyard by closing the gate after Gregori would open it.

Added radial fog to all coast maps in the Highway 17 chapter.

Removed area portals from many of the smaller structures along Highway 17.

Fixed a crash that would occur if you parked the buggy in certain areas before entering the bridge level.

Fixed a bug where Vortigaunts could fall through the world.

Added simple 3D skybox representation of the next map visible from the top of the lighthouse in Sandtraps.

Fixed lighting issues during the basement flare sequence in Nova Prospekt.

Added additional geometry to various windows throughout the levels to cast more detailed shadows in Nova Prospekt.

Fixed a bug in teleport sequence in Entanglement ending too early leaving Gordon and Alyx standing around while the teleporter reached its destination.

Fixed the catwalk explosion detonating at the wrong time in Anticitizen One.

Fixed the building dome having no polygons on the outstide in Follow Freeman.

Fixed the ship visibly flying through the building dome in Follow Freeman.

Fixed Barney being left behind during a level transition or nagging the player too early to "roll a grenade" in Follow Freeman.

Improved resolution of portal render texture during finale.

Added soundscape to all menu background maps

Darkened parts of the skyboxes that fall behind Half-Life 2 logo to help with text legibility.

Added geometry to menu background maps for Ultrawide support.

Added smoke to the Ravenholm and Follow Freeman background maps.

Fixed a bug where you could hear the player's bones break in the Citadel menu background map.

Half-Life 2: Deathmatch Fixes

Fixed player model selection in the options menu.

Fixed slam not being able to be detonated if you were too close to a wall

Fixed view bob with the SMG equipped.

Fixed using the Gravity Gun to yo-yo grenades, sometimes causing the server to disconnect or crash.

Fixed missing sound effects for the Gravity Gun.

Fixed characters playing a missing animation when switching weapons while jumping and moving.

Fix weapons being invisible when being given another weapon of the same class.

Half-Life 2: Deathmatch Maps

Increased player spawn point count in many maps.

Fixed prop placement in maps that would allow players to escape the world.

Fixed floating props in dm_runoff.

Fixed the area portal on the blast door in dm_runoff causing the world to no longer render when the door was shut.

Added geometry to many maps where the player could see outside of bounds.

Fixed several areas where the player could see out of the world.

Moved the blue barrels in dm_resistance that you could pick up with the Gravity Gun through the chainlink doors.

Other

Improved quality of the Valve intro movie when launching the game.

Fixed playback of the the post-credits movie at the end of Episode One and the intro movie at the start of Episode Two.

The achievements for Episode One and Two have been added to Half-Life 2. When launching the game it will attempt to read data from installed standalone Episodes to re-grant those duplicated achievements.

Hammer: Show detail sprite preview on non-displacement surfaces.

Hammer: Fixed bug where orphaned entities added additional data on each map load.

Hammer: Fixed the ability to render cubemaps.

Hammer: Increased many limits for BSP data. Models 1024 -> 2048, Brushes 8192 -> 16384, TexInfo 12288 -> 16384, TexData 2048 -> 8096, DispInfo 2048 -> 8096.

Added save_transition_music convar that allows streaming music to continue to play in between level transitions.

Localization files updated.

Miscellaneous security fixes.

Notes

The previous version of the game has been archived to a publicly visible Beta branch named "steam_legacy", with the description "Pre-20th Anniversary Build." If a mod or feature is behaving in an unexpected way, you may need to run this archived build until the issue is resolved in the default build.

With the Episodes and Lost Coast now contained within Half-Life 2 itself, we'll be reducing the visibility of the standalone versions on the Steam Store. The old standalone applications will remain available to ensure community projects that rely on them still function properly but they will now appear within the Tools menu on your Steam Library.

WALLPAPERS

Celebrate 20 years of Half-life 2 by decorating your desktop and mobile phone.

HALF-LIFE 2 SOUNDTRACKS

[adjl-week]

ADJL 20th Anniversary Celebration

Hello American Dragon: Jake Long fans! I think Jake Long deserves a small, concentrated explosion of fanworks, read on if you do too. You may or may not be aware that January 21st 2025 is the 20th anniversary of Jake Long! Not only that, but this anniversary also marks the 'tail' end of the Year of the Dragon, which has its last day on January 28th, 2025.

((Art by @caroline-draws-stuff))

In light of all this, we are running a week-long fandom event starting from the 20th anniversary date, hosted on tumblr! The event is planned to feature 7 prompts, where fans will post a fanwork inspired by that prompt for every day of ADJL Week! Fanart, fanfics, drabbles, sketches, playlists, edits, giftsets, cosplay, and anything else you can think of are all welcome. You can participate for the entire week, or just for one or two days, its entirely up to you! We are now taking suggestions for one or two-word prompts! (Some examples are Rain, Unlikely Duo, Reunion, etc.)

We'll be posting a followup poll after prompt suggestions are collected so the community can vote on their favorites. Be sure to follow the @adjl-week blog and keep an eye on the #adjlweek tag so you don't miss the poll, or the results. Anything Jake Long related is fair game to be created during the event, except NSFW/18+ works! This is so the event can be accessible to as many fans as possible. That means crossovers, AUs, fan-characters, etc. are all welcome and encouraged!

[todays-just-a-daydream]

in absence of a reunion noel interview i'm going back to revisit the great gallagher thaw of late 2014/early 2015 to try to make some sense outta these strange reunion times we are in now.

i've been really curious about this time period for awhile and stockpiling posts with the intention of assembling them in some kind of chronological order. still not quite sure what i'm looking at but it's a bit like find the edge pieces of a puzzle and snapping them together for a frame. you can get a vague idea while understanding much of the pieces are missing to complete the picture. most notably noel is giving interviews at this time while liam is mostly out of the public eye entirely.

assembled them in the queue and looking at them in order now and getting a bit choked up by what we have. even factoring in the normal album press cycle, noel's interviews have noticeable outlier moments during this time. charting his uncharacteristically relaxed calm fondness to emotionally raw moments when mentioning liam, it does look like any attempt at a truce all goes south within a months time (mid february to mid march 2015). coincidence it’s when dead in the water is written and the chasing yesterday is released? of course it’s not lost on me it also is at a period of nostalgia with the 20th anniversaries of their first two albums and part of the buzz about a reunion driven by stone roses reunion. but in the course of the entire feud it sticks out as different. and suggests noel was more invested in a reconciliation than he’d ever be willing to admit.

queuing them up now. when they're done posting i'll link them to the chronological list below to access them easily.

—

2014/2015 gallagher timeline

2014 february : beady eye cancels coachella gig, manager splits 21 october: "we're on good terms." 25 october: "beady eye are no longer." ?? october: "don't give up"

17 november: in the heat of the moment released (do the damage bside) 31 december: "i think liam should make a solo record"

2015 12 january: ballad of the mighty i released (revolution song bside) 4 february: "i’d write him a few songs. i've got a few songs lying around that he'd be good at singing." (also takes a dig at beady eye) 20 february: "[liam] sends me cheeky texts from time to time." (interview) 25 february: "we're alright. i'm a bit concerned that he's starting to grow facial hair....family is family, you don't have to patch it up do you?…blood is thicker than mud." (interview) 26 february: dead in the water writing 28 february: recording dead in the water live at RTÉ 2FM radio studios in dublin (after dying of the light which airs 2 march with a live interview)

2 march: chasing yesterday released 14 march: "keeping it in the family" lg tweet with nghfb pass 21 march: "you're already ruining my day talking about him" 24 march: "liam is a very angry man still and as long as he's angry we won't be friends i'm afraid" 2(?) may: "can't be arsed" + lg tweet goad 7-11 may: "busted" lg tweet (in response to AA interview)

11 may: riverman released (leave my guitar alone bside)

26 july: liam playing bold in a pub (video)

28 august: lock all the doors single (here’s a candle for your birthday cake bside)

21 september: noel wishing liam a happy birthday 5(?) december: "and maybe one day you know we will get back together" (video)

[fipindustries]

also im taking a peak at mage the ascention 20th anniversary, particularly with an eye to compare it to the otherverse because in many ways they seems to be trying to do the exact same thing.

what if magic was real, what if all magic, all folklore, all mythical creatures, were real. and we are not talking about some specific particular magical system like in mistborn or harry potter, we are talking about Magic with a capital M

both worlds seem to be based on this key idea that reality is fundamentally fluid, that there is no objective consensus on what IS, that what happens on any given moment is hammered in more by thought and feeling than by observation of fact.

but there seems to be a key difference here. MtA is internal, Otherverse is external.

in MtA you can bend reality and conjure up spells and wonders by internal will alone. by the power of your own inner belief. is just a matter of understanding that your perspective can change the outside world. that by sheer virtue of thinking hard enough you can access the underliying cogs and wires of the universe and pull them to your whims

in Otherverse it is all about external gestures, is about persuation, is about arguing your case to Others, is about defending your perspective of how the world ought to be with gestures and rituals and incantations. is all about getting the spirits of the world to reach a consensus with you, and this involves action, negotiation, appeasement.

is a very keay difference that underlies the fundamental conflict of each world.

in MtA the conflict is more internal than anything else. yes you have the technocracy and the rival traditions and the nephandi and all the other spookums. but fundamentally is about your own internal conflict with your own sanity. is all about your internal struggle of trying to reach the ascention, of surviving the paradox, of not going completly fucking bonkers and erasing yourself from the continuum

in the Otherverse the conflict is very much with the Other, is about learning to coexist and cohabitate in a world of hunger and greed where everyone is scrabbling over everyone else to survive and get ahead, about resolving conflict with creatures that have values that are fundamentally inhuman.

is all very interesting

[solradguy]

I saw your post about the Internet Archive and Archiving GG stuff for future Generations and i wanted to ask some stuff regarding the Archiving, i hope thats ok

Probably the dumber question but do you know if Daisuke has ever been involved in the Archiving of his series? I know the series started as a Passion project for him but Idk how active he would be with helping archive or fill in missing pieces, especially in the english world.

Just as a General question, are current online archiving groups mostly relying on being connected to one another in some way to reestablish fallen sources? Since very little of the internet if any is as stable as we like to believe and any service storing data may shut down somehow any day like Drive, when one host site does go down do the archivists rally together and find a new spot or do you kinda have to hope people can find the new host?

Also are there any larger scale Archivist groups someone with less ability to physically help could donate to to help preserve our online histories?

thank you and apologies if you dont like questions

Hello! Questions are fine ^^ Sometimes it takes me a million years to reply, but I don't mind them.

My answer to this got kinda long. Excuse the readmore.

We don't have any strong evidence either way what the condition of the official Arc System Works library of Guilty Gear media is like, but there have been a few times where the images they've used for things have been worse than the images us rogue archivists have. This ML illustration is definitely one they either no longer have the physical/original piece for, or they might not have a way to rescan it, because the file they use when they reproduce it is pathetically tiny. Example from the Steam release of Strive's bonus Digital Artbook:

Compared to other illustrations in the same book (two pages here):

This Ky from the website for the 20th Anniversary Pack release of Missing Link for the Switch was taken from the Guilty Gear Bible:

We know this because... He's on page 12 in the Bible and...

...they didn't erase the page number off his shoe.

So, at the very least, some Missing Link era works are likely gone/lost/destroyed/etc. It's possible some GGX thru GGXX artworks are lost too, but we don't have a concrete catalog of XX works because they never released a complete artbook for XX. It's also rumored that Keep The Flag Flying's original master file is lost but I've never been able to find a source for that. Daisuke has never reached out to any of us about our image archives and we've never offered.

Archiving is very much a western concept and it's a common thought in Japan that saving copies of another person's works is extremely bad; I've been chewed out and blocked by Japanese fans for it. It's just a cultural difference, I don't take it personally. If ASW contacts us about it though we'll definitely give them our files or take down anything they request of us. We don't want to poke the bear and risk the entire archive if we can. They seem to be turning a blind eye to our archives though, as long as it's not an upload of something extremely recent (I got DMCA'd for the Strive Artworks Archive scans).

The core of the Guilty Gear archive group works on the new GG wiki and/or are admins of the new wiki, so we're in pretty close contact with each other. Most of the archive is in my hands and, unfortunately, my hands alone. With the announcement of the Internet Archive v Hachette ruling, we've been planning on making copies of my GG archive hard drive and sending it out to the other archivists in our circle. I don't have a PO box, I can't do this for people outside the group because I don't want my physical home address to be that accessible.

That said, there are redundant digital copies of a lot of files and I have a backup hard drive of the main GG archive drive; the main drive is a relatively new 2tb Western Digital My Passport external drive and the backup is a 1tb WD My Passport that's a little older. A lot of people have downloaded copies of the files currently online (via my masterpost) and can reupload something if it goes down even if I'm not around to do it. We rely on Archive.org a lot but aren't against using Dropbox, Google Drive, mega.nz, Neocities, file.garden, or, if we absolutely must, Discord. I do not like relying on Discord and Discord files are generally extremely temporary.

The files that aren't in the archive include software or game asset rips, image files, music, and random bits and bobs. I'm working on getting the images up on the wiki but everything else is kind of in a weird zone where I don't really know what to do with it.

As for donating to support broader archivism: We use Archive.org (and their Wayback Machine) the most, so donating to them would benefit both the GG archive as well as hundreds of thousands of music, literature, research, and art groups too. Their donate page can be found here: https://archive.org/donate?origin=iawww-TopNavDonateButton

Supporting your local libraries, museums, and conservatories also supports archivism. Most of these places accept public donations of any amount and could probably direct you to other local archiving groups/associations.

Donating to Wikipedia also supports broader archivism to a lesser extent. They write about events as they happen, with sources/citations, and older versions of this information is permanently available on every article and file without having to rely on things like Wayback Machine. Their donation page is here: https://donate.wikimedia.org

I also have a donation page via Ko-fi and any money donated with a note about it being for Guilty Gear will go back into Guilty Gear (via book/magazine purchases for scanning, usually). Donating to one of the above groups would be better for archiving as a whole though. My page can be found here: https://ko-fi.com/somnivagrious

Hope this answers your questions!!

[familyromantic]

(Submission)

"I promise — I promise that I'll show you a smile."

"Then I promise too — to be the one who'll make you smile."

Brother and Sister’s Promise – Tales of the Rays

Pairing name: Edna/Eizen or Earthcest (also アイエド or エドアイ)

Series: "Tales of"

Canon: No.

Spoilers: Lategame spoilers for Tales of Zestiria and Tales of Berseria, as well as up to the very last chapter of Zestiria the Cross.

Eizen: “Other malakhim were born there, but I never felt like they were my family. But something—I don’t know what—was different with her. If she was sad, I’d feel sad. And if I was happy, she’d be happy, too. She can be... abrasive, but when she smiles, it’s like nothing else. I swore to myself that whatever happened, I would protect her.”

1. Introduction

Tales of Zestiria was a J-RPG released for the 20th anniversary of the Tales of series on PS3, PS4, and Steam (international exclusive). It followed the story of a fantasy world called Glenwood, which had been plunged into a nigh-incomprehensible state of chaos. The high level of malevolence was ravaging the world with mysterious illnesses and abnormal climate changes, making humanity struggle with crop deaths, famine, and starvation. This was the context in which Sorey, the protagonist of the story, found himself in. He then had the final task, as the new Shepherd, of quelling the very source of malevolence: the Lord of Calamity.

This release was later followed by Tales of Berseria a year later, signaling the end of the 20th anniversary’s celebrations and also available for PS3 (Japan exclusive), PS4, and Steam (international exclusive). The land of Desolation—the same Glenwood but with a different name—a thousand years prior to Zestiria showed to be just as chaotic. And, if Zestiria accompanied the Shepherd in his journey against the Lord of Calamity of his era, Berseria accompanied the Lord of Calamity against the Shepherd of her time: Velvet Crowe set off on a personal journey of revenge, while (not very willingly sometimes) picking up a few companions on the way.

2. The characters

2.1. Edna

Edna: “If you really wanted to take me with you, you should have just dragged me kicking and screaming. ‘Let’s go hunt legends, my lady?’ ‘My noble heart would not deceive thee?’ That went out of fashion a few hundred years ago.” – Mounting Terror (Main Story) - Tales of Zestiria

The choice of entering the world for the sake of saving her brother

If you play the games in release order, you get to meet Edna in Tales of Zestiria first, an earth seraph living by herself in Rayfalke Spiritcrest, a mountain surrounded by legends about dragons. Seraphim (also called malakhim) are beings akin to fantastic spirits with elemental affinities whose forms are determined by their souls. They can live for thousands of years and are invisible to most of the population, which means humanity has stopped believing in their existence.

During his journey, Sorey finds himself with no way to access his next destination, Marlind: the bridge has been washed away. Advised by his Prime Lord Lailah, he decides to find an earth seraph that lives close to help with its restoration.

Sorey soon realizes that Edna’s very different from other seraphim he knows: she’s not like Mikleo, who dreams of human and seraphim coexistence like he does; she’s not like Lailah, who’s been the Prime Lord of other Shepherds before him; she’s not like Uno either, who's accepted to become Ladylake’s Lord of the Land and keeps malevolence at bay with his blessing. If anything, Edna’s feelings towards humans are similar to those of the Elysian seraphim you talk to at the start of the game, when their homeland is suddenly visited by the princess knight Alisha.

Edna: “I despise earth-dwellers. Self-centered, emotional... But when they need something, it’s ‘Oh dear seraphim, heed my prayer!’ Heed this, morons.”

Edna: “And besides... I can’t leave my brother as he is right now.” – Mounting Terror (Main Story) - Tales of Zestiria

Edna has a sharp tongue and doesn’t hesitate to speak her mind, shocking people thanks to the contrast with her small and cute appearance. Bitterly, she informs them that the famous dragon from the mountain is actually her big brother and only family Eizen. This is the form that seraphim take after absorbing too much malevolence, which reduces them to mindless monsters.

Edna refuses to move away despite the danger Eizen means to her now. Sorey and Mikleo ask her about her plans, and Edna’s voice soon falters, stuttering: she wants to save her brother, but hasn’t found a way to do that yet. Hearing that, and despite being told this is impossible, Sorey promises Edna to turn Eizen back to normal with the Shepherd’s powers of purification. Edna is reluctant to believe him, asking them to leave her alone.

Eventually, and moved by Sorey’s words and actions, Edna accepts to become his Sub Lord with the condition that they find a way to cure her brother’s condition.

Edna: “Promise me something. Promise me that we’ll find some way to save Eizen. (...) Now then, take me with you. To the outside world.” – Mounting Terror (Main Story) - Tales of Zestiria

2.2. Eizen

Eizen: “Who cares? If I gave a damn about other peoples’ feelings, I wouldn’t be a pirate.” – An Angry Letter (Skit) - Tales of Berseria

To live and die as your own self

At one point in her journey, Velvet’s group is intercepted in the middle of the sea by the Van Eltia, a famous pirate ship belonging to none other than the Aifread crew.

Stopping on land and ready for battle, the group is surprised: it’s rare to see a free malak roaming around, but even more to see a malak that is also a pirate. And yet, their opponent is clearly one: he can cast malak artes.

Having taken the leadership of the Van Eltia in the absence of the captain, the malak Eizen offers Velvet and her group a deal: only by joining forces do they have a chance to pass through the Gate of Vortigern, the Sea Gate Fortress that controls the passage up ahead.

After weighing all possibilities, albeit distrustful for several reasons, Velvet accepts.

Eizen: “There’s something I should tell you first. I bring ill fortune to all those around me. The ‘Reaper’s Curse’. (...) If you join up with me, I can’t guarantee your safety.” – Sailing With The Reaper (Main Story) - Tales of Berseria

Edna’s dislike of humans is more than clear since the very moment you meet her in Zestiria, but she never makes an actual statement as to why: whether this attitude is related to Eizen leaving her behind to travel around with humans, to his transformation into a dragon, to a general dissatisfaction born out of having watched humanity’s wrongdoings for centuries, or to something else entirely, is unclear.

Eizen, on the other hand, openly enjoys his life among humans. By the point you meet him, he has accepted the threat they possess to his life (malakhim don’t produce the malevolence that eventually will turn him into a dragon, but humans do), as well as their differences. He navigates the seas alongside his crew with the goal of finding and rescuing their captain, who was captured by the Abbey, and creating a map of the whole world that includes the mysterious far continent.

3. Edna and Eizen’s relationship through the story

Tales of the Rays: Edna’s third skit, Time Spent Together (translation by justlol)

Velvet: “Weird sister you’ve got.”

Eizen: “You don’t know the half of it. A girl weird enough to want to live alongside the reaper... No matter the cost.” – I Am Calamity (Main Story) - Tales of Berseria

Due to Eizen’s transformation into a dragon, most of their relationship in Zestiria and the references to it are left to whatever Edna is willing to share, as well as a few non-verbal cues.

Certainty, at Last (Main Story) - Tales of Zestiria

According to her words, Eizen would try to bribe her and make up for his absence with souvenirs: old artifacts, ribbons, strange charms, sweets, and other various things. She’s however not always willing to speak about him, sometimes cutting the conversation short and hiding under her umbrella so no one can see her being vulnerable. At one point, another character (Zaveid) reveals to her that her brother knew he had little left and asked him to kill him once he turned into a dragon, making Edna lose her characteristic cool and stoic composure.

Edna: “Huh?”

Edna: “What does that even mean?! That’s so selfish of him!”

Edna: “Leaving on a journey without me! Becoming a dragon without telling me! Didn’t he even think about how lonely I’d be without him?!” – Siblings (Sub-Event) - Tales of Zestiria

Edna routinely leaves flowers at the small wayside shrine in the base of the mountain she lives in, a gesture in memory for those humans her brother keeps eating, though she tries to take importance off this fact. She also took on an oath sometime before the game, a type of arte that allows you to expand your powers so long as you can pay the costs, to prevent Eizen from leaving the mountain and hurting even more people.

The situation is less bleak however when it comes to Eizen’s side in Berseria, though the relationship is not without its troubles.

Edna’s existence is revealed for the first time when a major antagonist uses her illusion* against Eizen, sparking the party’s curiosity.

The Dissonance of the Wind and the Waves (Main Story) - Tales of Berseria

*It didn’t make it into the final product, but this illusion of Edna would have also approached Eizen by saying “You finally broke your curse. Now we can finally be together.”

Velvet: “The umbrella girl... That illusion made Eizen hesitate.”

Velvet: “She must be really important to him.”

Magilou: “Indeed. It must be a deep, knotty relationship!”

Rokurou: “Come on, now.”

Eleanor: “Like... A wife he wants to leave but he can never let go? Or a lover from whom he can’t move on?” – The Girl With The Umbrella (skit) - Tales of Berseria

Sometime after this incident, the party finds a fancy letter written in cute stationery. Perplexed about it and not recognizing the name that signed it, they leave to find Eizen and ask him about it, who seems to be busy about something.

White Turtlez: “Nowz about getting’ that pot wrapped, I’z gotz this new sunflower print. How’z that sound?”

Eizen: “Hmm... Yeah, that one’s cute enough. Let’s go with that.”

Rokurou: “Did... Did he just say ‘cute’?” – Eizen’s Letter (skit) - Tales of Berseria

Eizen, who recognizes the letter and only then realizes he has dropped it, quickly snatches it away. With a suspicious look, he asks them time and time again if they really, really, didn’t read it.

After this exchange, part of the group remembers the mysterious girl with the umbrella and once again assume that, due to the way Eizen is acting and his secretiveness, the recipient must be his lover.

Laphicet: “Was he sending a gift to someone? And with a letter, too...”

Rokurou: “Gotta be a ladyfriend, that’s for sure.”

Laphicet: “You think...? Either way, that letter was really polite... And did you see that penmanship?”

Rokurou: “Yeah, I didn’t know ol’ Reeps had it in him.”

Eizen: “I can hear you two, you know.” – Eizen’s Letter (skit) - Tales of Berseria

Eizen doesn’t take kindly to being gossiped about, giving both Rokurou and Laphicet a small sample of his fists. This, however, doesn’t seem to deter any of them.

Rokurou: “It was serious stuff. Whoever it is must be important to him. A lover, maybe?”

Laphicet: “Eizen’s lover?”

Rokurou: “A child wouldn’t be happy with that pot, and a man wouldn’t want it wrapped up so pretty.”

Rokurou: “A young woman with Eizen’s tastes, then... He’d be bound to fall for a miraculous match like that, right?”

Laphicet: “I don’t know. I bet she’s that girl with the umbrella.” – Who Was The Letter For? (skit) - Tales of Berseria

It’s not until later that Eizen overhears them again and finally clears their misunderstanding up: he’s exchanging letters with his sister in a mostly one-sided conversation due to, according to him, Edna wanting to show she disapproves of his actions. It turns out that the curse he has warned the party several times in the past about is also the main reason they live apart.

Eleanor: “That insect daemon was a bit of a surprise, but I still think this ‘curse’ business is overblown.”

Eizen: “I can count on one hand how many have survived more than three years at my side. If you’re not careful, you might wind up as Corpse Number 50.” – The Dissonance of the Wind and the Waves (Main Story) - Tales of Berseria

Eizen left Edna behind to travel around the world in search of a cure for his curse. However, meeting Van Aifread and the rest of the Van Eltia crew made him realize he had found his way of life instead: even if one day he happened to find a way to break the curse, he couldn’t simply return to his former secluded life in the mountain.

This ‘Reaper’s curse’ is actually Eizen’s innate blessing as a malak, much like the Lords of the Land granted their blessings to cities in Tales of Zestiria. The blessings of earth malakhim are usually about growth, life, and support; In Eizen’s case, its intended effect is supposed to be that of providing acceptable trials to incite said growth.

Unfortunately, his sister was the one who bore the brunt of it, much to Eizen’s dismay who couldn’t understand why so many unlucky things happened: terrible accidents, daemons that attacked them, dragons that tried to kidnap her,…

Eizen: “But one time when I was baking them, the oven suddenly spewed fire out and badly burned my sister.”

Eizen: “It was all my fault, and stupid, clueless me didn’t even know why at the time.”

Eizen: “Crazy thing is... after I did what I could for her burns and put her to bed, she told me she wanted to eat the palmiers I’d made.”

Eizen: “They were burned to a crisp, but she ate those pastries like nothing was wrong, then she smiled and told me to keep on making them.” – Palmier Memories (skit) - Tales of Berseria

At one point in the past Eizen finally realized that his sister wasn’t just prone to illness and injury: the cause behind her suffering had been him all along.

Velvet: “He just wanted to do something for his sister, only to be confronted by how bad his curse is...”

Laphicet: “That’d be really hard to deal with...”

Eleanor: “She must realize by now what’s going on with Eizen, right?”

Magilou: “Maybe she thought that he’d leave if she ever let on that she knew...”

Rokurou: “And he left because he thought he could spare her from learning the truth...” – Palmier Memories (skit) - Tales of Berseria

Edna: “I suppose my blessing would be ‘perfect health’”.

Rose: “You? Really? That’d be odd.”

Edna: “Not really. I've been hit by lightning on multiple occasions...”

Edna: “Tumbled off the peak of Rayfalke, gotten caught in an enormous landslide...”

Edna: “Stubbed my pinky toe on the edge of the dresser, gotten a tiny fish bone stuck in my throat...”

Edna: “And yet, here I am. Safe and sound.”

Rose: “Holy crap! Well, okay, some of that was just regular crap, but still, whoa!”

Sorey: “You really are lucky, Edna.”

Edna: “To a bizarre extent, even.”

Edna: “But it’s how I survived being near my brother even after he had turned into a dragon.” – Edna The Invincible (skit) - Tales of Zestiria

At one point during Berseria, Eizen starts receiving unsigned and quite aggressive letters: the owner of the letters, the normin Phoenix, eventually reveals himself and confronts Eizen on the prison island Titania about his relationship with Edna. After spying on her and watching what was happening, he could not help himself: he had to do something about it.

Eleanor: “A brother writing letters knowing he’ll never get a reply. And a sister waiting for a brother she knows will never come home...”

Velvet: “You two make it so damn complicated. Just talk it out face to face and make up already. It’s not that hard.”

Eizen: “......”

Velvet: “At least the person you care about is still alive!” – No Reply (skit) - Tales of Berseria

Eizen previously claimed that Edna wouldn’t answer his letters as a way to show her disapproval, but it turns out that Edna has been sitting on mountains of unsent letters that she often cries over. It’s hinted but not confirmed that this is related to back when, shortly after Eizen left her, she sent him a letter saying that she wanted to be with him no matter how dangerous it could get that she didn’t get a favorable response to.

Phoenix: “Just what is it that you’re communicating with the superficial scrawlings and shoddy baubles you send her?”

Laphicet: “He’s trying to atone—”

Phoenix: “Don’t be absurd!”

Phoenix: “Which is the real you? The considerate brother who worries for his sister? Or the man who consorts with lowlife scum and pirates?!” –Joyful Nor Doll (Sub-Event) - Tales of Berseria

After their fight, Eizen finally sends Edna a letter with his real thoughts and feelings. He actually had written it before this event, but never could bring himself to send it.

Edna’s answer, proof of them starting to mend their relationship, quickly threatens to bring Eizen to tears.

Eizen: “Ungh...”

Rokurou: “Hey, are you okay? What does it say?”

Eizen: “I can’t read it right now... One of you do it.”

Laphicet: “O-Okay...”

Laphicet: “‘Dear brother, I got your letter. Not sure why it was so tattered.”

Laphicet: “I’m glad that you were able to tell me how you really feel, even though it was beyond obvious by now.”

Laphicet: “Your clear descriptions of the self-defense malak artes allowed me to master them quickly, despite your terrible grammar.”

Laphicet: “As weird as it feels writing this to a pirate... Good luck with your work. And I know how to keep a secret.”

Laphicet: “So please keep writing me letters. My life doesn’t revolve around them, but I do enjoy hearing from you.”

Laphicet: “I can’t see the oceans you sail from my perch here on the mountain, but I’m thinking of you and praying for your safety. And I want you to know I’m doing fine.’”

Eizen: “Ungh...”

Magilou: “Aaah, looks like she’s just as roundabout and stubborn as her brother! It must run in the family.” – Dear Brother (skit) - Tales of Berseria

4. The ship

Tales of the Rays: Joyful Nor Dolls (Event)

4.1. Trivia and Tropes

“Sibling relationships outlast marriages, survive the death of parents, resurface after quarrels that would sink any friendship. They flourish in a thousand incarnations of closeness and distance, warmth, loyalty and distrust.” –Erica E. Goode

Edna and Eizen live apart, so they don’t get to interact much directly in either Berseria or Zestiria. However, the print they have left on each other is indelible, a love and devotion expanding through space and time for centuries and even thousands of years. It’s implied that Sorey reminding Edna of her brother influences their relationship, and the same thing seems to happen with Kamoana and Laphicet for Eizen.

“No. Humans don’t have true names.”

“Hey, that’s not fair! Malakhim are so lucky.”

“Your name came into your mother’s mind the same way. ‘Kamoana’ is already your true name.”

Kamoana frowned and fell silent for a while. Eizen looked at her kindly, as if she was his own sister, and finally spoke.

“Don’t think too hard about it. As long as you remember your name ‘Kamoana,’ your mom is always with you.” –Tales of Berseria Official World Guidance Book: 'True Name' (translation by Caphi)

Rose: “Didn’t you guys live together?”

Edna: “My brother’s adventure-crazy, like a certain someone I know. He’s always been traveling around.” (...)

Rose: “I see. Was your brother like Sorey?”

Edna: “Maybe.” –Edna Talks About Her Brother (skit) - Tales of Zestiria

The most obvious argument in favor of Edna/Eizen is the context in which they are introduced. Malakhim aren’t humans, and therefore they don’t have blood families. The vast majority of them, including Edna and Eizen, are born from earthpulse points, flows of natural force that ordinary humans can’t see. But even for the very few seraphim that happen to be reincarnations from living beings, they usually don’t keep any memories of their past lives, and having been related in a past life doesn’t grant them any kind of innate and special connection in their next one.

No other pair of malakhim gets what Edna and Eizen experienced upon meeting each other. In Berseria, a mother and son with tragic deaths were reincarnated into malakhim, and neither of them felt their souls pulling towards each other, nor were their moods synchronized, nor experienced anything like what Edna and Eizen do exhibit. Even though they were reincarnated at the same time and appear side by side, they do not recognize each other.

Edna and Eizen’s meeting is an scenario often written as romantically charged in media. If Eizen didn’t say that all of these signs were telling him that Edna was his little sister, including that they somehow gifted each other hand-made matching pendants in the very same day without having said a word to the other before, it’d be very easy to interpret it as the fated meeting between two soulmates instead.

My Sister Is Off-Limits:

Edna: “Don’t try and weasel your way out of this. You said there was something you had to settle with my brother.”

Zaveid: “That’s all there is to it, really. There’s just something between us we need to settle.”

Edna: “And that ‘something’ is?”

Zaveid: “I told him ‘Please let me marry your little sister!’ and he punched me.”

Edna: “Don’t lie.”

Zaveid: “Oh come on. He’d totally do something like that!”

Edna: “Fine. Don’t tell me then.”

Zaveid: *now left alone* “No wonder he’s worried about her all the time.” – A Promise Between Men (Skit) - Tales of Zestiria

Overprotectiveness, jealousy, possessiveness,... Eizen not only keeps his relationship with Edna hidden from the party through a good part of the game, while banning the pirate crew from speaking about it: he also hates the idea of other people meeting her. Of other men meeting her, to be more exact.

Benwick: “‘Touch my sister, and I’ll kill you.’ Right? Sheesh, you say that to EVERY guy you meet.”

Velvet: “Awfully protective.”

Eizen: “Nah, just obsessed.”

Benwick: “That’s even worse!” – I Am Calamity (Main Story) - Tales of Berseria

No man is spared, including Aifread whom Eizen holds in high regards, and the very young malak that accompanies them.

Finally, Benwick spoke up.

“I-I’ve just only joined the crew.” His eyes were locked on Eizen, and his voice trembled as it worked into a shout. “I want to have more adventures! So please…”

“Leave it to me.”

A flame sparked to life in the malak’s breast.

“Trust in Eizen,” Aifread said. “His only faults are an annoying attention to detail, and the fact that he won’t let me meet his cute sister.” –Tales of Berseria Special Collector’s Edition Novella: A Witch’s Tale, A World Full Of Daemons

His “awful overprotection” (or self-admitted obsession) is also sometimes used by other characters to tease him.

Eleanor: “Are you suggesting that Eizen’s sister wrote these letters? I mean, they’re certainly unusual, but...”

Eizen: “My sister wouldn’t write something like this.”

Magilou: “Then maybe it’s someone who’s spending a lot of time around her... Like, oh, a man whose shoulder she cries on?”

Eizen: “Damnation, Magilou! My sister doesn’t have any guy clinging onto her! Do you know something I don’t? Prove it! Bring him here right now!”

Eleanor: “Calm down, Eizen! No one’s saying that! – A Very Angry Letter (skit) - Tales of Berseria

Laphicet: “Is that her in the picture?”

Eizen: “Yeah... It’s a self-portrait she drew for me on the day I left home.”

Velvet: “Did you draw her a picture of yourself?”

Eizen: “No... I don’t exactly have an artistic side.”

Eleanor: “Well, I’m sure that if you looked inside her pendant, you’d find a portrait of the person who matters most to her.”

Eizen: “I hope so...”

Magilou: “Yeah, and it would be nice if it was you.”

Eizen: *staring with eyes that could kill* – Matching Charms (skit) - Tales of Berseria

Brother Complex:

Edna’s whole motivation and goal in the Zestiria game was always her brother; the Zestiria anime, however, goes a bit further with it.

The anime is a reimagination of the game’s events rather than an actual adaptation, hence why it’s not recommendable to start with it. But, for much needed context, this anime ends with Eizen’s slow recovery, being able to understand what’s happening around him and even speaking short sentences. The implication is that he will eventually return to his normal form.

With the first of the BD boxes for the anime came a Drama CD consisting of a small retelling of it, with the girls of the party having a fun time together as they talk about what has happened. At one point, Lailah asks Edna who is the one in the party that she likes. Edna answers that said person is actually her brother.

Theme Naming:

In Zestiria, if you interact with a particular Discovery Point in Aifread’s Hunting Grounds, you can trigger a skit in which Edna mentions Eizen named her after the red orchids you just saw (Edna Stamperland).

“And then, our door just swung open. A spring wind was blowing in, a warm and gentle wind.”

It was like it was calling him. He took her and walked and walked, not knowing where or how far, until finally, they emerged from a dark forest into a shimmering clearing.

“She stopped crying and smiled the sweetest, most innocent smile, and just like that, all at once, the entire field was covered in bright red flowers.”

Kamoana was smiling too. “Wow!”

Eizen nodded. “The flowers vanished soon after, but I still remember how strong and vivid their color looked, and I thought that when she grew up, she needed to wear one. And then I heard her voice in my mind. ‘I want to grow up fast.’ I thought, what a precocious little squirt. But that’s just what she was.

Hephsin Yulind — “Edna, the early bloomer.” But that name was only for Eizen to know. –Tales of Berseria Official World Guidance Book: 'True Name' (translation by Caphi)

Red orchids can be gifted as a confession of love and, in Japanese flower language, can also be read as “happiness that comes in flying” 「幸せが飛んでくる」and “true love” 「純粋な愛」; Coincidentally, when in a Zestiria the Cross bonus skit Lailah asks everyone to pick a flower, Edna chooses lily of the valley, a flower whose meaning is also “happiness will come again” 「再び幸せが訪れる」. All of them instantly understand that this happiness means that Edna will be reunited with Eizen.

Incest Subtext

Most of what Edna wears are Eizen’s gifts: the pendant hanging from her neck is handmade (the matching one she made for Eizen can be seen attached to his waistcoat), the boots and glove are hand-me-downs, the ribbons she uses are part of his souvenirs,... Even the headband seems to be his.

Tales of Zestiria - Menu

But that’s not all of it: In the Tales of Berseria Illustrations artbook, Minoru Iwamoto speaks about how he came up with the characters’ designs.

For Eizen he mentions that, for his clothes, the underlying theme is that of a wedding suit, because he had already drawn Edna’s to take on the appearance of a wedding dress and he wanted them to match. The dagger on the lapel of Eizen’s coat is thus inspired by the handkerchief grooms wear in the same place, and the ore bracelet is also inspired by a wedding ring.

Later, for the 25th anniversary of Tales of, a set of memory rings for several Tales characters were released, with Edna and Eizen being included. The rings are meant to represent the characters and their personal journeys, as well as their relationships and feelings.

Edna’s ring has motifs from her clothes such as her characteristic ribbons; Eizen’s ring has a small chain hanging from it that symbolizes the pendant Edna gifted him with once. The inner side of Edna’s ring has Rayfalke Spiritcrest engraved on it, while Eizen’s has the Van Eltia ship. Stacking Edna’s ring on top of Eizen’s forms the shape of a letter. As a small side note, the rings are also mentioned to go well as pair rings.

Relative Error

See the explanations above in the third point about the unknown woman Eizen was sending letters and gifts to, and the insistence of several characters that she and the illusion were the same woman and also Eizen’s secret lover.

Translation Mistakes

Even though Eizen was an important figure in Edna’s character arc in Zestiria, little was known about him outside of their relationship. It wasn’t until Berseria that more details about him started to get shared. That, eventually, included the reveal of his true name.

Besides the name they usually go with, all malakhim are bestowed a “true name” in the Ancient Tongue. These names are not to be shared lightly outside of pacts: in some circumstances it’s an expression of intimacy and vulnerability, a sign of trusting the other with their very lives; in others, it’s akin to a love confession. This name shows the seraphim’s raison d’être or that what makes them most themselves.

Before the American and European releases, a mistranslation of this true name was shared in social media that happened to mistake Eizen’s true name “Explorer Eizen” for “In Love Eizen”. Before it was corrected, fans quickly reacted to the news while assuming it could only be about Edna.

Roughly five years after this the next mainline entry in the series, Tales of Arise, was released. Ironically, and with Eizen available in said game as a cameo battle, a mistake in the English version that happened to turn this relationship official was again reported in different social media by several fans. It seemed to get fixed with a patch that was issued shortly after.

4.2 The appealing of the ship

Putting two fictional siblings together into an idealized, consensual romantic relationship can look strange, but the charm itself resides in that the relationship is indeed atypical from that of a classic romance.

Tales of Arise: Edna and Eizen’s cameo battle.

Though Eizen had already lived for roughly seven centuries before Edna was born, his life seems to have been unremarkable until then, having not even moved away from the place he was born; for Edna, Eizen has been a constant in her life, and she doesn’t know what it is to live without him. This is not a case of getting to know each other and going on dates, there is no classy “boy meets girl” type of story, and there’s no clean slate: they carry their previous relationship with them, knowing each other better than anyone else in the world for sometimes better and sometimes worse.

“Blood relationships are the only relationships we have where people want us exactly as we are. To a child, the daddy who affirms everything about her is her prince and the world itself. So the words, ‘When I grow up, I’m going to marry Daddy’ mean the same thing as ‘I’m going to make the whole world mine.’” –Kunihiko Ikuhara

It might not be in their blood, but it’s still seared deep within them. They don’t ever stop (can’t stop) being brother and sister, they can’t just walk away from each other and move on with their lives. Even if they happened to cut all contact, they would still be family, and this is actually quite proved through their relationship: even though Edna and Eizen spent so much of their lives physically separated, their hearts stayed together.

Tales of Crestoria, Eizen and Edna’s SSR Units.

“I learned love as taxidermy, the careful art of keeping alive a dead thing.” –Blythe Baird

Edna dedicates several centuries of her life to watch over Eizen, trying to reduce the harm he causes and never leaving the mountain until Sorey appears. Her love is unconditional, holding on and enduring despite the pain and sorrow. At one point of Berseria Eizen compares her to a cat because of how spoiled they can act, but the way Edna acts after he has become a mindless dragon is more akin to a dog: she remains loyal until the very end, waiting for him for endless centuries.

Edna: “A monster who’s devoured countless humans and seraphim alike. He’s so far gone he doesn’t even recognize me anymore.”

Edna: “But I kept holding on. I just couldn’t give up on the possibility of him turning back to the way he was.” – Siblings (Sub-Event) - Tales of Zestiria

Going by the way Edna appears in Melchior’s illusion, being pulled from Eizen’s memories, she doesn’t change a bit in over a thousand years except by her choice to wear Eizen’s boots and one of his gloves after fitting them. Seraphim can change their appearances as they desire to an extent, and this is also tied to their peak of strength, yet Edna refuses change as if wanting to hold onto her place in the world as “Eizen’s little sister”.

Working under the belief that there was nothing else he could realistically do against his fate, and as if knowing how far his sister could go, Eizen uses the remainder of his life to mitigate the effects his death will have on Edna. He asks Phoenix to watch over Edna and protect her from all kinds of danger, including himself as a dragon; He also asks Zaveid to kill him once he becomes a dragon so she won’t hurt for him.

Rose: “Oh, I get it. Edna’s brother gave Phoenix to her as a memento.”

Mikleo: “So then Eizen asked him to use his normin powers to protect Edna from all threats.”

Sorey: “Including Eizen himself.” – Phoenix (Sub-Event) - Tales of Zestiria

Zaveid: “‘When I become a dragon, kill me.’”

Zaveid: “‘I don’t want Edna to suffer for it.’” – Siblings (Sub-Event) - Tales of Zestiria

It’s also very telling that the one successful illusion against Eizen is the one made to Edna’s likeness. Eizen has an inkling that Aifread isn’t real, putting him at test and then confirming it so; He also recognizes something isn’t quite right in the fake Aball Velvet is enveloped with in a different part of the game. And yet, it’s Edna appearing in front of him what actually affects him, and it’s also only when Zaveid shoots the illusion down that he can break out of the spell.

Velvet: “Magilou… Are there artes that let the caster manipulate dreams?”

Eleanor: “Huh? Dreams? Why?”

Magilou: “There is, yes. An arte that requires a certain type of malak. It envelops you in a fog and reads your regrets, then traps you in a happy dream.” – A Fragment Of Heaven (Main Story) - Tales of Berseria

Magilou: “Let’s say you know your target’s innermost desires. You simply conjure the right illusion. Show them what would push their buttons in just the right way.”

Laphicet: “Ahh… If you can create an illusion of something someone really wants, you can control them.”

Magilou: “Exactly. You can force a powerful burden upon your target’s psyche… Until their spirit breaks, that is.”

Laphicet: “What happens when they break?”

Magilou: “Depends on the target. They might become an empty shell; They might go wild with desire… Eeny, teeny, spiny, crow…” – An Arte to Control Daemons (skit) - Tales of Berseria

Though they are not humans and therefore not bound to their rules, Edna and Eizen’s relationship is still incredibly star-crossed, making the small time they get to have together especially precious. In the hypothetical case that Eizen found a cure for the curse, an acceptable one that didn’t trample on his morals like eating the heart of a white-horned dragon was (or he came to understand and accept Edna staying by his side despite the danger), the world they live in can be cruel and unforgiving. If they happened to travel together rather than stay safe in the clean and free of malevolence Rayfalke, they would still be risking turning into dragons.

5. Ending thoughts

Tales of Arise: Edna and Eizen’s cameo battle

5.1. Guilt, malevolence, and will

Eizen: “As far as I’m concerned, my earth affinity and my Reaper’s Curse aren’t much different, in that they’ve both shackled me since I came into being.” – Eizen And The Sea (skit) - Tales of Berseria

Eizen already carries a lot of guilt just about physically existing close to Edna, due to hurting her with his curse whenever she’s within his domain. With guilt and shame being often the bread and butter of sibling ships, that is something that is at least guaranteed.

It’s well documented in both Zestiria and Berseria that malevolence influences not only malakhim’s bodies, but also the state of their minds and their emotions. With Eizen progressively turning into a dragon, it’s not difficult to imagine his feelings for Edna getting twisted the more malevolence gets to him.

Eizen: “My wheel is mine to hold. If I’m not the one steering the ship, then I’m not truly alive.” – Fortress Under Fire (Main Story) - Tales of Berseria

Eizen’s distaste towards the Abbey goes back, long before Aifread is kidnapped, because the way they subjugate the malakhim’s wills goes against his principles. He believes that you should always be grasping the wheel of your life, otherwise you might as well be dead. For obvious reasons, this belief is also tied to his later downfall as a dragon.

Tales of Asteria’s Fifth Arc

Eizen spends all his life and later impending death trying to gain control to compensate for his helplessness, the grief the curse has caused him and all the consequences it has had in his life. Even if in the present day he’s come to accept the curse as a part of himself that cannot be erased, a deep scarring was left by what he lost in the past: his life with his sister.

Magilou: “Physical wounds can heal. Emotional wounds never fully fade.” – Melchior’s Illussions (skit) - Tales of Berseria

You can’t help what you feel: you can only help what you do. Eizen’s self-loathing often makes itself apparent; holding very much non-familiar feelings for Edna, within this entire context, would not help matters. Even if, as mentioned earlier, by virtue of not being humans they might also not be bound to their taboos (though it is to note that Eizen spends a lot of time among humans, and might have picked up on things from them), it’s easy to see how Eizen would see it as a corruption of their bond and hate himself for it, pulling away further from Edna.

5.2. Sibling Complex

It has already been brought up earlier, but both Edna and Eizen clearly have a brother complex and a sister complex respectively. Often, characters like these get into romantic relationships yet end up finding the suitor lacking an unexplainable something, having idealized their sibling to an extent that can never be reached, which is another angle that would be interesting. That, or the partner not accepting that they have to be so close.

5.3. Perspectives

Much like back when the party discovers the self-called (and often pointed at by people as intimidating) Reaper writes letters in pretty stationery and wraps up his presents in flowery prints for his sister, or the way his voice softens when he talks about her, Edna also shows a sweeter side when she speaks to Eizen that she usually wouldn’t. There is a special vulnerability in their interactions, and it’s clear they let their guards down with each other, showing a part of them that nobody else will get to see.

Tales of Zestiria: The Cross (Finale)

It soon becomes apparent in Zestiria how miserable Edna feels because of what has happened to her brother, being extremely rare that she gets to smile and laugh from the bottom of her heart. With everything these two went through, you can’t help but cheer for them to be happily reunited, whatever form it might take.

5.4. What-ifs

Eizen: “Soon after I left, my sister wrote me a letter. She said, ‘I don’t care if it’s dangerous. I want to be with you.’”

Eizen: “Maybe the old me, once I realized there was no fixing this curse, would have gone home prepared to do everything in my power to protect her.”

Eizen: “But I’m not the old me. Haven’t been since I met Aifread and his crew.”

Eleanor: “I understand. You found your place on that ship. Even if you lifted the curse, you wouldn’t move back home...” – No Reply (skit) - Tales of Berseria

It was almost by accident that Eizen found his place in the world and the meaning of his true name. Had he never taken the Van Eltia as his vessel, he would have never met Aifread and the others, and thus would have eventually returned to Edna’s side.

In Zestiria, and before the war reaches its climax, you can find a seraphim couple in Aifread’s Hunting Grounds that asks you to leave them alone. This is the couple from the “The Lovers” Sub-Event, with one of them being a very recognizable character for Zestiria players: Tiamat.

A choice like this, rejecting everyone and everything while favoring a world for only the two of them, would mean a return to a past Edna is shown to mourn.

There’s more ship potential to talk about, some relevant information to themes in both games that I have omitted, and talk related to their appearances in crossover games. However, this is already long as it is, so it’s only right to end it here.

That said, if you got this far, thank you for reading! I hope I could catch your interest, even if it was only a little.

My thanks to @familyromantic as well, for giving me an excuse to ramble at length about these two. I have been meaning to sit down and make a decent write-up for years, but I never actually brought myself to do it. Now I did!

[real-life-senshi]

SAILOR SENSHI 20TH ANNIVERSARY ALUMNI REUNION ~ BEHIND THE SCENES (FANSUBBED)

I decided to sub the whole video, including Miyuu's message before and after the behind-the-scene clips because of how heartfelt and candidly hilarious she is when speaking about their group dynamic.

Some notes & disclaimer:

1. I’m not a fluent Japanese speaker, but I do know Hiragana, Katakana, basic Japanese grammar and kanji, and a few good tools to use for translation. All’s to say, all mistakes are mine. Sorry if there’s any!

2. I’m also not a professional translator. Due to the grammar differences between Japanese and English, some sentences will sound awkward in English for the conversation to make sense.

3. Miyuu's message post-video seems unscripted, so her sentences were quite choppy and sometimes she changed trajectory mid-way. I tried to capture the essence of her words as best as possible, but it was easier to replicate the gist of her message instead of translating word-for-word. Because of this, some nuances may seem mistranslated or lost in translation. Sorry!

4. If you have a YouTube account, please give your Likes and Comments to Miyuu and subscribe to her channel, not this video or my channel! I have no wish to piggyback on Miyuu's hard work, I merely want more people to understand and appreciate what she shared!

---

As much as I enjoyed and laughed when I watched and subbed the TV program because of what they said, seeing the ladies goofing around in the behind-the-scene clip made me involuntarily smile with warmth in my heart. <3 And it's absolutely crazy how tough of a time they had trying to take a group selfie, despite the many photos they've taken already from their Senshi Reunions. lol

The video is again Unlisted, so can only be accessed via the proper link.

PLEASE ENJOY, REBLOG AND SHARE! 🌙

To watch the fansubbed version of the Alumni Reunion program itself, please see here.