#Also Deaths Hand is SUCH a good villain. 1. Constant threat. 2. A walking dead which ties into the plot

[gothamcityneedsme]

i want a game like jade empire again

[j--meat-hook--j]

Taiyuu round 3: Villains aftermath

Zeke was sitting on the sidelines cheering on the rest of 1A when the birds went silent. 

Thinking back on it, Zeke thought there were an unreasonable amount of birds at Taiyuu.

BOOOOOM

The PE facility went up in flames.

BOOOOM

1A’s classroom collapsed into a pile of rubble.

BOOOOOMM

The Dorms were reduced to ash.

BOOOOOOOOOM

The Makeshift buildings that Laccadaisy had made, burst into dust. At the exact places Zeke felt the buzz of an unknown electronic device. 

The rest of the day was a blur. Aurora and Buckskin escorted Zeke and the other students to safety, telling them that everything would be alright. But Zeke knew better, he knew he could have stopped this. Every explosion, every pile of rubble, every gust of ash started from a Buzz, a buzz of electricity Zeke could have stopped. 

Zeke couldn’t remember how long he walked for, the only sounds being footsteps and distant explosions. The destruction of Taiyuu sparked the greatest fear Zeke had, the fear of nothing.

Rather the fear of not existing to be precise.

Oceans, Mountains, even planets, they all come and go in the mere blink of an eye. Even if we as a species manage to survive the combined threats of global warming, internal cooling, a dwindling magnetic field, asteroids, solar flares, rogue black holes. Nothing changes the fact that our sun is on a constant countdown to death. Even if we did manage to flee to distant stars they’re all equally marching towards their own annihilation. Time and events work to destroy all we have ever comprehended, the decay of all matter as we know it, the decay of all life as we know it. 

One really has to wonder what is the point of anything? Why continue? Why progress? Life even at its most advanced is still doomed to nonexistence! Why? Why go on?

And Spiders, Zeke had just finished checking the dorms for them. 

Replaying the last week in his head over and over, looking for somewhere to change. Somewhere and somehow he could have stopped the destruction of Taiyuu. Zeke especially focused on the past day when he came across something. 

Illusions can’t conduct electricity. 

“Hey Zako?” Zeke asked his much shorter friend. “What’s up Zeke?” Sako responded. “Do you really create illuzionz?”.

“Course I do.” Sako was stone faced.

“But, illuzionz don’t conduct electrizity.” Zeke was starting to doubt his feathery friend “I was wondering how long it would take.” Sako finally cracked a smile. 

“You vere lying to me thiz entire time!”

“No, no, no, no, ok yes but, please, do you know anyone elses Quirks?”

“Of courze I do! I know Amekoz, Zpellmansz yourz and Yuu’z. I’m not an idiot.”

“Ok, what’s Amekos?” “Well now I’m embarrazzed to zay.”

“C’mooonnnn. I won’t judge too badly.” “Fine, Amekoz Quirk is Human Form. Sche can take on zhe form of a Human.” “Hmm, yes, of course, of course, but here’s the question, what is she actually?” “A Kangaroo.”

“Ahem.” Sako coughed into his fist. “Yeah, you’ve figured it out. Ameko is a Kangaroo with the Human Form Quirk.” Sako confirmed.

“I knew it.”

The two went on discussing their fellow students. Just some basic stuff, Yuu is a bat, Shou is related to Spellman, Ameko and Buckskin are related, Ozen is part building, Hirakus covered in mouths. 

“So what do you think about the new girl? Take a guess at that.” Sako put forward.

“Ok, this one I know for schure. You zee sche looks just like zomeone back home in Germany. That girlz Quirk is either a Mizty or a Clone Quirk. Sche looks just like someone wis a clone Quirk back home but she’s all floaty and...” Zeke lost his train of thought.

“Misty?” Sako answered questionably

“Yez!” 

“You’re right, she reminds me of a foggy day..” 

The new familiar-looking girl tensed up and seemed to lose a bit of her cheer. She sped up her pace to distance themselves from Zeke. 

“...”

“...”

Without the lighthearted banter between the two silence, like a cancer, grew. Tired of the sound of explosions and frustrated at his own inability to act, Zeke had an idea. Heroes aren’t just about fighting villains, heroes are about keeping people safe and happy. A True Hero makes everything ok even after a disaster. 

Turning to no one in particular, Zeke decided to use his loud mouth for something useful. 

“Hakuna. Matata.”

He got some odd looks.

“Hakuna Matata, vhat a wunderbar vhrase.”

Silence.

“Hakuna Matata, ain’t no pazzing craze! It means no worriez for the rezt of your dayz.”

Yuu started to mutter along. It wasn’t much, but it was someone. 

“It’s our problem-free, philosophy. Hakuna Matata.” Koatsu, the Green Guy Zeke had previously tased, joined in and he was singing louder. Was this a challenge?

Zeke pointed far in front of him, to Wolfsboon.

“Vhy, vhen he vas a young varthog!”

A slight humming from Ameko, better than nothing. Doing his best Wolfsboon impression Zeke pulled out all the stops.

“Vhen I was a young Varthoooooog.” 

Some irritated looks from people, and a great harmony on Koatsus part. 

“He found hiz aroma lacked a Schertain appeal. He could clear the Zavannah after every meal.”

Whack.

“Shut up!”

Zeke felt a stinging pain in his cheek, recoiling from the hit. Zeke saw that is was a girl from 1A, best known for her attitude Kuta, Kata, Katou, Takamakalaksaka? Something like that. 

“Ow.” 

“Stop, he isn’t hurting anyone!” Ameko interjected.

At least Ame’s talking. 

“Vould you prefer the zilence then, cuz I don’t think anyone elze here doez.”

“Keep that mouth shut unless you want another one.” Takamakalalaparatou was stanced up and ready for a fight. 

“Kutou!” Ameko was angry. Was that possible? “You’re just making everything harder, hasn’t everyone been through enough?”

Ozen, the local giant, got between Zeke and Takamalakealatou and placed a hand on her shoulder.

‘Try getting through that building you jerk!’

“I’m a sensitive soul, though I seem thick-skinned.” A new guy continued. It was Hiraku! The Mouth Man. Takakalakamaktou attempted to lunge towards Hiraku but was stopped by Ozen’s building like body. 

“Oh for fucks sake.” A 1B girl said. Zeke had seen her around before, she reminded him of the circus. 

“And it hurt that my friends never stood.” Koatsu joined again, emboldened by Takamakahoouzous restraint.

“DOWNWIIIND!” All three sang together.

“And oh, the schame.” Zeke followed through. “He was ashamed.” Hiraku continued.

“Thought of changing my name.” Koatsu followed.

“Oh, what’s in a name.” Hiraku perked in again.

“And I got downhearted!” It was  Zekes turn. Some frowns were disappearing.

“How did you feel?” Hiraku, playing the supporting voice.

“Every time that I-” Koatsu, adding some depth.

“Pumbaa! Not in front of zhe kids!” Zeke and Hiraku sang together.

“Hakuna Matata. What a wonderful phrase.” The three joined together

Now Zoe was starting to hum along. 

“Hakuna Matata! Ain’t no passing craze.” They continued, bolstering each other along. 

“It means no worries for the rest of your days. It’s our problem-free philosophy. Hakuna Matata” The Fire, Electricity and Wind kids finished.

“Oh thank fuck.” Popi said relieved. None of the singers was satisfied. 

The Band of Merry Men all looked to each other, took a deep breath. “I can show you the Woooorld!”

“God Dammit!” Even Popi’s mind was off the destruction of Taiyuu. 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After who knows how long of walking and songs, the group finally reached the bus. Every student feeling the exhaustion, some feeling it way more than the others. Sako, Senshii-none and Tamashi seemingly the worst off. Spellman was in literal shambles, she just barely had the basic limbs. She assured everyone she would be ok. 

One sleepy bus ride later and the Taiyuu Team arrived at their destination, UA high. Zeke, like his other students, was whelmed by the whole thing. 

There was a general sense of alarm when Senshii-none passed out. After the routine checks on everyone, mainly Senshii-none, Taiyuu was shown “Gym Gamma” an indestructible gym meant to contain even “The Hell Class”. Had demons gone to UA?

Finally, the thing Zeke had been waiting for all year. He could finally embrace his truest self, he could finally wear that cool-ass mask he designed. And also the rest of the hero costume but whatever. The metallic mesh was cool but The Mask took the cake. 

“Get in your pairs, stay on your mats and don’t kill anyone.” Eraserhead announced to both classes. Zeke was paired up with Ningyo Mya, he’d never met her before so it’s going to be an interesting… oh, oh no. Ningyo Mya looked like a doll from a horror movie, she looks terrifying. 

“G-Good to meet you I’m Needlepoint, what’s your name?” She seemed nervous but it was better than the dead scared everyone was back in the tunnel.

“I’m Zeke, nice to meetcha.”

“No, I, I meant your hero name.” “Oh, uh, I dunno yet.”

Seems like a nice enough girl. 

“3!”

Zeke started doing a little jump on the spot. 

“2!” 

Zeke spread his arms wide.

“1!”

Zeke opened his electrosense, let everything flow in. All the lights, the wiring, the electrical sockets, the batteries in Hero Costumes, the fire alarm, the smoke detectors, the alarms and bells. 

“Begin!”

Zeke used it all, pulling as much as he could out. Rage at the villains, anger at his family, grief at the loss of Taiyuu. Anger at himself, sick of his own inaction, frustration at his laziness, hate at his cowardice. He pulled it all out.

CRAAAAASHHHHH. 

KZZZZZTTT.

Silence. 

Every light inside the gym had exploded, all the electricity inside crashing outwards like a wave of bright anger. All unfairly directed at Mya. When all of a sudden, everything stopped. He couldn’t feel the buzzes of electricity anymore. The electricity had nothing to guide it and so it harmlessly fizzled out. 

“Purple Girl, you lose.” Eraserhead pointed at Mya.

“And you! Next time I see your ass pull something like that again, you’re out.” Eraserhead then pointed at Zeke

‘This Eraserhead guy was scary.’ 

[swtorramblings]

On Vaylin

I am re-posting this, my rough draft of a post that I wrote to my main blog when I found that my annoyance with certain game events aggravated me so badly I needed a place to publicly vent. I tried to move it here and broke the whole thing, so lost some of the edits and other information (I’m still learning the ropes). I still want to have it up, but I am also not putting in the tags it used to have. I am trying to be more positive, now, though I will have one more negative, but somewhat calmer, post on the subject in the near future, because even after a month and a half it still gets to me.

I am going on a rant about the SWTOR expansion, Knights of the Eternal Throne. I don’t think anyone is likely to see this that, 1. Cares about SWTOR, 2. Cares about my opinion of SWTOR, 3. Doesn’t already know the plot of KOTET. If I’m wrong, note that there are spoilers ahead.

Too long, didn’t read: Vaylin’s fate is for crap, a badly told mess even if the basic plot of “man and woman enter, only man can leave” wasn’t already a problem.

Note: I’m not really looking for debate. I’m just venting. But, if you must, keep it civil. My ire is meant for Bioware and for the people who have approached disagreements on this subject rudely.

Now, my therapy will begin.

I will be up front about my core bias: I have seen enough stories where a man and a woman fulfill similar roles in the story, have similar experiences, and, in this case, commit similar crimes (of type if not of scale), but the man survives and the woman doesn’t. I was never, ever going to like this plotline. Give us the choice to save both, give us the choice of which one can be saved (Bioware loves that), or don’t let us save either. All would be better, though I prefer the first two.

I fully understand that she was written without those little moments of remorse that he was. I do understand what Bioware was going for. It’s not difficult to see, it was unsubtle. It was also hamfisted and obnoxious. So don’t tell me how obvious it was that she was too far gone and like that: I’m well aware. I just don’t find it to be a good story, especially with so much of how it was handled. They chose to make her that way, they did not have to, and even in making that choice they could have done better.

Finally, I recognize this is a game. It is also, however, a story, and how we tell and share stories is important to me, and this one was awful. Bioware tried to tell a tale of tragedy and familial abuse and mental illness and brainwashing, in an action game with a trinary response, and the lack of nuance didn’t do them any favors. If they couldn’t tell the story with care and sensitivity, they shouldn’t have told it at all.

Vaylin irredeemable. Why? Because mummy and brother can’t find any good in her with their Detect Good spell? Please. Because daddy says she is like a wild animal? Please squared. They should get no say whatsoever.

I swear, whether or not Vaylin ultimately must die I wanted the option to tell them all off. When they say something like that, I want to say, <point to Senya> “You feared her and abandoned her.” <point to Arcann> “You neglected her and killed her brother. Out of everyone living outside of my head, you two are the most responsible for what she has become. Neither of you have any say in how we are going to handle this. And we’re going to do what we can to save her. Period. And if you want any more reason than she’s your family, or the horrible things you both allowed to happen to her, or your own empathy, Valkorian is telling me she has to die, and I refuse to do what that monster says. Are we clear?”

Oh, and that bit where you get the option to tell her that Valkorian wants you to kill her? To try to talk her down? That’s the Light option, Bioware. You’re irredeemable is the neutral option. How hard is that to figure out?

Because she’s a threat to your troops? No. The moment you tell them that Valkorian wants her dead, they should be changing their blasters to stun settings. Well, if those exist in TOR, if they haven’t been invented yet, someone should get on that (and if they do every single light side character should carry one, even if they are clumsy and random, for situations like this). But your troops know what he is, and should be willing to help you out here.

Because she killed a lot of people, including your buddy (speaking of hamfisted story telling)? Arcann killed HK-55 (but, you know, droid, and anti-droid bigotry is certainly a thing in Star Wars, even with otherwise light-side types) and almost certainly many times as many people. I do hope you don’t have him with you if your reason to kill her is because of her crimes (and if you executed him for his, congratulations, you are more consistent with your actions than the game company known for its awesome stories. I say, without irony, good job).

Because she’s killed your buddy and you want revenge? Point. I have no rebuttal, but then, I don’t really have a problem you being able to choose to kill her, here (aside from my “Bioware created an awful and poorly told story of familial abuse where you have to/get to kill the victims” thing), my problem is that you have to kill her but you can save Arcann.

Because she slaughtered her troops with her force powers when they annoyed her or just to show off? Again, hope you haven’t saved Arcann after halving his own forces. Just because she does it herself doesn’t mean he’s less heinous, and magical force powers healed him.

Because she’s too broken to live? That’s really the crux of what Bioware was going for: her mind was crippled by Valkorian and can never be gotten back to what it was. Her sanity can never be restored so we have to kill her because of the combination of her powers and her madness. Well, even if I fully accepted this, I want to be allowed to show sympathy within the game. Yeah, I can pretend that’s what the Outlander is really doing, but some things I’d like explicitly stated, and this is one of those. Just say you’re sorry you have to do this before stabbing or shooting her. I wouldn’t like it, as I said, but it’s a small step up, anyway. And they couldn’t give us that option.

Mock her like a villain? You can. Ask her to surrender? You can. Show sympathy and offer help? No, not really. Not use the command phrase, or even show a shred of sorrow or even embarrassment over its use? Nope, and you’re going to expose it to the galaxy, her shame, her lack of control, the awfulness of her parents! I can’t imagine why she hates you so much, especially with her awful family around you, but you did that to her

This is an abuse victim. Further, she had directed attempts to break her mind, body, and spirit to make her into something else. These things happened. The fact that you walk up to her, close enough to touch, with what sounds like whimpering and fear being the only sounds she’s making, and stab or shoot her is disgusting. If she’s supposed to be just Pure Evil, at least let her be ranting at the end. If she’s supposed to be Irredeemably Broken, pretty much the same. That bit of whimpering both makes her seem like someone not really all that dangerous and someone that I want to save. She made the same noises when you most recently defeat her, while she’s on her hands and knees before you, too. Shame you couldn’t have acted before she bubbled up, hero. Perhaps irrational, but there it is.

Because she doesn’t ask? Because she doesn’t want to be saved? Uhm, and? Bioware tried very hard to present her as completely gone, and why. She doesn’t get to choose whether the people around her are going to at least try to help her. Does that take away her agency as a character? Maybe, but I’d argue that her agency was already taken away by her father (and, by extension, the writers) a long time ago. In fact, note in Chapter 9: “Choice. I could get used to that.” At that point, after death, she has agency. Shame she couldn’t have gained some before that, like, by the Outlander trying to save her.

I actually think she was borderline suicidal. She fought beyond what was reasonable when already defeated, there at the end. When, after you continued her abuse by using her command phrase, she retreated and tortured herself, she shouts out not that she doesn’t want to die, but that she doesn’t want to die “in this place”. Scant evidence, since “not like this” is something people that don’t seem otherwise to want to die sometimes say. But, combined with what she has been through and her constant control by others (I’m looking at you, Outlander), it seems at least plausible. I don’t think it’s what the writers were going for, but I can’t unthink it, and it makes “she didn’t ask to be saved” take on a very different, and much worse, meaning.

Because she’s too dangerous? Maybe. There are some signs of it. She’s certainly been defeated often enough, but, yeah, her power is unlocked! Oh, wait, you beat her again. But, now she has that bubble thing, maybe it’s just going to keep going, burning her out and blowing up your base, if she’s not killed. Maybe her rage would drive her troops forward, even if she was unconscious or, say, in carbonite. It would be nice to have one of those explicitly stated before killing her, because at that point the decision to do that rather than try to take her alive makes more sense.

You had to kill the suicidal woman because she was going to kill everyone around you and it was the only way to stop her? Fine. Show some remorse that it came to that, lightsider. Show some empathy. Really all I want given the choice has already been made by the writers that she must die.

Honestly, there’s an episode of Justice League Unlimited where Batman sits down with Ace while she is dying and just stays with her. A moment like that would have been so much better for the nice characters. Instead, “You’re irredeemable!” stab/shot in the gut.

Maybe you just don’t have a non-lethal weapon. Maybe you should get one, we have them on Earth and can’t even break the speed of light or form light into a solid cutting tool.

Because it’s too risky to try to save her, long term? If you wanted the easy way, you’d have used the Emperor’s power every time he offered it, but you didn’t do that, even to save Lana, did you? But, then, accepting his advice and help is probably a bad idea. What did he tell you to do with his daughter and other family members, again?

Because she was always evil? Many of the things I’ve griped about are open to interpretation, this one included. There were moments when she could be interpreted to have a vicious streak as a little girl. She smiled when the guards died (I still believe that the guards should be hurt, not dead, because Senya should have talked about this instead of the crippled guard if Vaylin killed her sparring partners, but I digress). I interpret that as her happiness in showing off her power, and the moment after that as her guilt realizing what had happened. But, sure, the Dark Side could be interpreted as there, even then.

But that bubbly little girl, bouncing up and down with excitement while her big brothers spar? She’s evil? No. Just no. I fear I have no cogent argument to give on this subject, but I don’t accept it, anyway. They can’t all be gems. My entire diatribe is about how the Outlander should have been portrayed as more emotional, if the player so chooses, and I’m not immune myself.

Conclusion: I’m not happy that you are forced to kill an abuse victim, a mentally disturbed woman who, yes, has committed heinous crimes. This isn’t the right venue for such a story, if any venue is. I am doubly disgusted by the way it was approached, with the hero of the story mocking her and taking advantage of her weakness forced on her by the villain for tactical reasons. You don’t use the command phrase to capture her, or even really to save people nearby: it was always your plan to reveal the results of her abuse to the galaxy. I don’t like that you don’t appear to try to help her until after she’s dead, and are unable to choose to show any kind of remorse for what you must do. They took a story that would have annoyed me and made it into something really grotesque. Good job, Bioware.

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