#Ash is actually the more interesting option here because it would say a lot more about him in terms of characterization.

[randomtheidiot]

Listen. I love Bonnie with my heart and soul and I love that she gets to smile and commit manslaughter on screen. But if any children deserved to kill Lysandre violently in cold blood, it should’ve been either Alain or Ash. Those two were actual victims of Lysandre’s bullshit and I think they both deserve to murder someone.

[bottlecap-joe-spooky]

How bad is the extent of Miles Edgeworth's mental state in rise from the ashes?

Tw: suicide, implied self harm

Obviously he ends up essentially leaving a suicide note of "prosecutor edgeworth chooses death", but that could be symbolic. He HAD already quit his job (one of the only things that had held his life together possibly since his father died) so him as Prosecutor edgeworth had essentially "died".

There's also the ambiguous definition of "dying" in the note. Did he mean it as in he would not be coming back (from death or to prosecution or to japanifornia or whatever) or as he would never come back as the same person (the "demon" prosecutor) or just to fake his own death for a little moral/mental break or whatever (everyone's allowed a little gay panic break every once in a while).

Who knows, and I genuinely love the ambiguity the game leaves.

Obviously, phoenix takes it as a serious suicide note, and is obviously absolutely wrecked by it for the next year. This is a topic often touched upon in fanfiction, though not in the game quite as much. Obviously it is hard to talk about mental health issues in a lawyer game, and they do it really well for a game not technically focused on it and from the early 2000s. Specifically for Maya and Edgeworth I think, as they both have loads of trauma that they deal with in fully different ways. Miles is more worrying though, as most of his coping skills are absolutely horrible, he has very little emotional support, and he's been pretty messed up in the head.

I honestly wonder a lot which people and relationships are meant to mirror the main characters, like phoenix saying shit like "that's so romantic- he saved you- I guess I'd fall in love too-" for the Delite's love story or edgeworth saying Adrian andrews codependent situation is very similar to how Franziska operates with her father or definitely Lana and ema reminding Phoenix of Mia and Maya or him literally telling Adrian andrews to kill herself in court. Specifically that last one. He specifically phrases it as "if you're going to say you would 'choose death', that is of no concern to me."

There is some especially worrying evidence in rise from the ashes, when he was at the most mentally unstable he's ever been. The only time that would compare was when his dad died when he was 8, but even then he had a new foster family to rely on (more or less). He's at his very worse, because, after 15 or so years, all of his past has just been dredged up and solved (by "that man" no less. Also, side note, does he only start saying Phoenix "saved him" after he came back from the dead?)

I really don't like any implications of why edgeworth would have traces of blood on the ground, especially at this point in his life.

So the options here are 1) it's someone else's blood, and maybe he fucking slapped someone so hard they bled or 2) it's his blood on his office floor for whatever reason. Neither imply anything remotely good for his mental state.

At this point it really could just be coincidence and ema is right or whatever. It's an easily missed peice, completely unrelated to the case and just an interesting tidbit for lore maybe. But sadly I found more evidence to support that that is not indeed the case.

I can't remember what the plot point for edgeworth's knife besides the fact that he had it in the car for Lana to find.

Mmm yeah ema. What is that little fruit doing with a knife? Very low chance that gay man knows self defense tbh.

Ema goes on to suggest he spends weekends "roughing it in the wild" and Phoenix basically laughs in her face (does this girl not understand what a homosexual man he is) as Edgeworth has probably never been in "the wild" a day in his life.

This doesn't feel like a coincidence anymore. There is cleaned up blood on his floor, enough for a nosebleed, and there is a knife in his car. One which he would probably never actually use on another person. This and then added to the fact that he had just quit his job and "died" shortly after. it's pretty obvious he is doing worse than even what he says, as he actually is kind of open about how he is doing throughout the games. Obviously he's always trying to hide his feelings (which Phoenix always sees right through), but during the case he does mostly explain to them exactly what is happening. Not that they do or even can help.

His entire career was based around punishing himself for something he didn't actually do. There is no way he isn't harbouring a lot of self loathing, and it's hinted at throughout the games (again, hard to touch on in a lawyer game). This game is so hard to tell what the writers originally meant, both beacause of it being looked at through translations and it being written in the 2000s (like how fruity they 'accidentally' made them in the first game lol) so that's not an angle I can look at this from.

So, to recap, he

had all his past dredged up, obviously very painful

he is open about talking about it, but doesn't show the true extent of how it effects him

has a knife in his car that no one has any real theories on why he has it (and the blood)

There is traces of blood on his office floor

he has spent his entire life punishing himself, and then can't forgive himself for it

he then chooses death

when he comes back, he repeatedly projects onto Adrian Andrews

No wonder he's always saying Phoenix "saved him" he sure needed a bit of saving.

This poor, poor man. His story arc is so beautiful to me.

[bigsnaff]

This is overly convoluted lmao but I have a lot of ideas in general about charr and their horns from both a cultural standpoint and a visual standpoint. So here's my very disjointed stream of thoughts about charr horns :]

The different varieties of horns there are (that are, at least, shown in-game) brings a few ideas to mind for me.

Most horns there are in-game are "true" horns, (I use the term "true horn" in this context for ease of explaining because there's no actual distinction in lore between the varieties of horns charr have), being that outside of the horn is actually more or less a keratin sheath for a bone core (aka the "typical" kind of horns you'll see on ruminant animals, cattle, sheep, goats, etc. etc.). Horns like this generally grow continuously through the lifetime of an animal.

Then there are what I can only describe as antlers, I think? In real life antlers are entirely composed of bone as opposed to just a bone core.

From the choices offered in the game's character creation, antlers are evidently considerably less common among charr than actual horns. I think these are the only two options offered that fall under the criteria of antlers. (and I have absolutely no clue what in the world that red thing is supposed to be in the center of the horn of the bottom img there. like is that an eyeball??? a jewel?? huh?)

As for whether these antlers function like real-life ones, I have no clue. I don't think I've seen anything in the game that suggests that they would actually shed and grow back, but it's an interesting idea, maybe? Charr with antlers shedding every winter and then growing them back the next spring, larger, stronger, with more points than the last. It's not something I personally headcanon, but I can see it working.

And charr with "true" horns growing theirs throughout their lifetime. You'd be able to tell how old a charr is by how large or long their horns are. I've seen some NPC commentary suggest that charr don't tend to keep track of their age very well:

but this could also just be because the charr saying this is already mad old lmao. But still, maybe among charr the size of one's horns is a better indication of their age than their actual number.

I've also thought about the idea that, after death, a charr's horns are often sawed off and may be given to the deceased's warband or their cub(s). The horn is then crafted into some kind of tool or accessory, something useful, practical; the hilt of a blade, an honored drinking horn. A piece of your 'bandmate still there, helping you, protecting you. Whereas keeping a loved one's horn as a simple piece of memorabilia to mount on a wall would be frowned down upon, suggesting that you didn't really respect the charr that the horn belonged to.

Horns even being amputated while the charr is still alive, as something of a (severe) punishment within the legions. Maybe it'd be the only alternative to death within the Bane; live with the symbol of your wrong for your lifetime or die at the hands of another in combat.

I figure dehorning as a punishment would be used namely as a symbol of disgrace, but it really wouldn't be painless either (aka it'd be painful! very! and bloody because there's a ton of blood vessels in the base of horns) so maybe that's also why it'd be on the same level as the Bane in terms of punishment.

I could even see how certain varieties of horns would be more common in one legion than the other. Ash Legion having sleek horns, generally sweeping back, not intrusive, easy to conceal. Blood Legion with forward curving horns with sharpened tips, good for goring. And Iron Legion with curled, broad, wide horns, hooks and tools drilled into them.

I just really, really wish horns weren't just so glossed over in the game's lore, because as it stands it just feels like they only offer a "oh, that looks neat" factor and very little more than that. But from a worldbuilding lens they could offer much more. Horns being an effective weapon in battle. Charr settling a disagreement with one another via headbutting. Charr with an amputated horn having a false metal one in its place. Bone tools made of charr antlers.

This is all probably a super convoluted but the general idea I'm trying to get across is, you know... that it would be fun to at least have it acknowledged somewhere in the game that horns offer much more to charr culture than just visual value.

[bluedalahorse]

Hi ! 😊

What do you thing a romcom between Sara and August would look like ? What trope do you think fit them the most ?

Hi Margot!

So. Startling confessions ahead…

I’m not sure if I’m an expert in romcoms and romcom tropes? Like, genuinely not sure. I’m more of a romantic drama (RomDram?) person than a romantic comedy person, in terms of what I purposely seek out, but I do read/watch a lot of things that are romcom adjacent and I have some romcoms I like quite a bit. Plus I read a lot more romance novels now than I ever did ten years ago.

That said, I’m going to try to answer your question. And I will mention some love stories I like along the way!

I actually have two scenarios for you. The first is more a sargust scenario that I could see happening after the future of canon. The second is a canon divergent sargust scenario that could happen in an alternate universe. And then I might mention a bonus scenario or two, just for funsies.

Scenario A: Canon Compliant-ish Future Sargust

My vote for sargust-in-the-future is a second chance romance road trip romcom. Now that Sara can drive, why not use that as part of the story?

My thought here is that Sara and August have to drive across Europe together for whatever reason. Maybe one of the Icelandic volcanoes has a big eruption, and the ash in the air is disrupting flights all over European airspace, and August and Sara both happen to be… somewhere. Let’s say the south of France. They’re not there together, but they both happen to be there when the volcano erupts. And maybe trains are a difficult option because of rail strikes or they’re overbooked. Sara and August have to drive from France to Germany to Denmark to Sweden so they can get to Simon and Wilhelm’s wedding on time.

The nice thing about a road trip romance is that the characters on the trip have a lot of time together to talk through things and get to know one another. (Or in Sara and August’s case, get to know the adults that they’ve both become, and how they’ve matured and how they’ve stayed the same.) Trips also bring unexpected challenges, so that could give them a chance to work together on tasks and bond over their successes. Especially if August has just left the monarchy and there’s public buzz about that, they might have to ditch paparazzi. And maybe at some point their car breaks down and they have to ride horses for the last part of the journey? There will absolutely be horses.

Given that road trips involve stops for the night, you could theoretically also bring in Only One Bed as a trope. I’m not as much of a fan of that trope myself (I love it when characters choose Only One Bed instead of having it thrust upon them) but someone who’s interested in it could write it.

In terms of mood and structure, I’d actually love to see this story be similar to Jab We Met, one of my favorite Bollywood films. One of the things I like about Jab We Met is that it starts its characters as archetypes but deepens them gradually over the course of the film, and it also balances out how much they’re able to help one another grow. Geet and Aditya are very different from Sara and August, so some of the dynamic would be different, but I still like the idea of them traveling together. (Although, part of Aditiya’s plot is about him reconciling with his mother, which is also something I want for August, so there’s that.)

Scenario B: Canon Divergent Alternate Universe (and it’s softer, and a little silly!)

What’s the trope where you’re helping someone win over a potential partner? That’s like a variation on the Cyrano story, right? I’ve never really read the original Cyrano, but I did read She Gets The Girl by Rachel Lippincott and Alyson Derrick, and that was cute, so.

Anyway. For some reason Scenario B takes place in an alternate universe where Sara goes to Hillerska but Simon chose not to join her and is at Marieberg. Sara wants to make friends and fit in and live in the dorms, so she’s looking for opportunities to do that. (This ends up being a much softer universe than actual YR, but romcoms are supposed to be softer, right?)

Yeah, anyway. Status quo at the beginning of the movie/miniseries: Sara wants to fit in and live in the dorms. August wants to date Felice. Felice wants to not have to deal with her temperamental horse Rousseau, and instead secretly practice her cooking and baking skills without anyone at school (or her parents) finding out.

Felice finds out that Sara is a non-res, and talks Sara into inviting her over to use her household kitchen. In return, Felice will let Sara into her friend group. But over time they become real friends. (Maybe Wille becomes Felice’s sous-chef eventually, and that’s how Wille and Simon become the beta pairing in this story.)

Meanwhile… Sara learns that August can talk the board into letting her into the dorms, somehow. And everyone knows he wants to date Felice. And Felice is like “ugh, my horse is so temperamental, I’d totally adore someone if they’d just deal with my horse for me.” So Sara goes to August and is like I WILL TEACH YOU HOW TO TAME ROUSSEAU SO YOU CAN WIN OVER FELICE AND IN RETURN YOU MUST GET ME A DORM ROOM. And August is like, OKAY GIRL-SOCIALIST YOU HAVE A DEAL, because like I said, this is a far softer universe than canon and no one films anyone at any windows!

So anyway, Sara and August start sneaking into the stable so Sara can teach August how to tame Rousseau. And August is the jerk rich boy of course, but soon softens up because he’s learning to take care of a horse, and he and Sara are opening up about their family situations and such, and oh no! They are catching feelings! But neither of them thinks the other one likes them back! Even if at one point Sara misses the last bus home from Hillerska and August is like don’t worry I’ll escort you and they ride horses back to Sara’s house. (And Linda is very much like. What. Is happening.) And Sara’s like SIGH WELL I BETTER HELP AUGUST WIN OVER FELICE WITH THESE HORSE SKILLS HE’S ACQUIRING. THE VALENTINE’S BALL IS APPROACHING AND HE’LL WANT TO GO WITH HER.

There are, of course, Misunderstandings, because this is a romcom and that is how they work, but by the end all is resolved and Sara and August go to the dance together in their 18th century costumes. Wille and Simon are also together and Felice ends up with either Rosh or Ayub. I haven’t decided.

Bonus Scenario C: I’m not even sure how this one works

I have no energy left for scenarios but I bet sargust could pull off a reasonably excellent Academic Rivals To Lovers story. And someone should write that while also drawing inspiration from Rachel Lynn Solomon’s Today Tonight Tomorrow because it is absolutely one of my favorite books to ever exist.

Honestly, even if all people get from this post is that they should watch Jab We Met and read Today Tonight Tomorrow, I’ll be a happy dalahorse.

[zmayadw]

Okay, so I feel a bit calmer this morning, even though I still feel very much sad and disappointed with the whole Moonvale thing, but I'd like to share a few thoughts with you all, both bad and good, concerning the game.

And if you know me by now, you also know I can't write short posts expressing myself, so feel free to skip this long post! 😅

Alrighty, so let's begin:

From the moment Everbyte announced Moonvale I was very excited. As Duskwood was an amazing game, I only expected for the new game to be even more amazing. Logical, right? I never expected it to be a Duskwood sequel, and that was absoluetly ok for me, because no matter how much we all wanted and hoped for it, I was more than willing to give the team that made so wonderful and amazing game as Duskwood a chance to amaze me once more. And when they said that Duskwood will be a part of the new game as a side story, that excitement was only getting bigger.

And so here we are, two agonizing years of waiting later, only to be welcomed with this huge disappointment.

When I started with Moonvale, I really took it slowly, exploring everything carefully before even opening the chat and actually starting with the game and the story itself. And lo and behold, what do I see? No possibility for a premium package, but a lot of options for a ridiculously priced packages to buy jewels for, at that moment, who knew what, but I had a suspicion what it was for. Nonetheless, I dissmissed it for the time being, even though it was getting me a bit frustrated, and decided to move on and start with the story.

The story itself started quite good. I even started to laugh at one point realizing and thinking to myself Gosh, those Everbyte people really like the woods! The character/actor of Eric is nice, I like him, even though he seemes to be pretty clumsy! 😄

Now, the actor/character of Adam is probably the one of the rare things that amazed me from the start! His performance was so great, and I think I read it in someones post this morning how someone also thought he looks alike Rami Malek, and that was my first thought, too! Ok, so far not bad at all one would think, right? Wrong!

At first I didn't really pay attention to, or even realized it, but as other characters started to appear in the game, everything started to scream AI. The chats with those characters just didn't really feel right, you know? And I was really appalled by it. I mean, come on Everbyte, did we really come to this? Are you doubting in your capability of creating something great so much, when we know you damn well CAN do it? Or has the usage of AI became so much needed/mandatory ( I don't know what word to put here really or to explain it better), that you cannot do anything without it? Considering so many creators of all kinds are fighting so hard to stop it from being used in everything, I suppose no. But then again, I don't know if my knowledge about it is sufficient enough, but I can voice out my opinion, and I don't like it at all!

Ok, I have to admit, the chat with Ash about us and Duskwood wasn't bad,or the chat between Ash and Charlie about us, but that is all good(ish) I can say about that.

By this time I was really getting annoyed and frustrated, and as some of you might saw one of my post from yesterday, when it gotten really interesting in the story and my insufficient amount of jewels prevented me from seeing some photos/videos, I was so fucking angry and disappointed that I was very VERY close to just drop the whole thing and stop playing. But I continued, just for the sake to finish it.

And when I finally did finish it, not even the last video of Alan's body camera, or the message after that from Jake, lifted my spirit. All I could think of was how sad and disappointed I was. :(

I really expected an amazing and great game from Everbyte, considering Duskwood is one of THE BEST games I have played. But to get money grabbing, AI screaming thing, that was looking so promising...it just saddens me. I know they need to make money somehow, I'm well aware of it, but not like this. Not like this!

Will I continue playing it? Yes, I probably will, but mostly because I want to see how it will continue with the Duskwood sidestory. Also, I read people are considering using the mod pack if/when it becomes available so they can see the premium/special options, but I won't do that. I don't judge anyone here, do what you want, this is just my opinion, but no matter what, I still have respect towards the creators, and using those mod packs just doesn't feel right to me.

So again, yes, I will continue with Moonvale, but neither will I pay for special options (unless they by some miracle make it like with Duskwood, which I doubt but one can hope!), nor will I use the mod pack of any kind. And I really REALLY hope by all thats sacred, that as the Duskwood side story advances, those jewels won't be necessary to use there, because in that case, that's it from me, sayonara/ goodbye/farewell/adios to Moonvale completely. At least I will always have Duskwood.

Thanks to anyone who managed to read till the end! 💚 Take care all, and let's hope that all this won't get any more worse than it already is!

[lumine-no-hikari]

Dear Sephiroth: (a letter to a fictional character, because why not) #150

Today is my 150th letter to you. It is the same as the number of my favorite Pokémon. So I am going to talk about him today. His name is Mewtwo, and he's a lot like you, actually:

So… I should probably tell you that I've seen only the version of his story that was localized to my country. So that is the version of the story I will tell.

Mewtwo was created in a laboratory. He was created from what was thought to be the most powerful Pokémon at the time - a Pokémon called Mew, which was thought to be extinct (there is precisely one Mew left in the world as far as I know, kinda like the Cetra). I'll explain…

Some guy named Giovanni was the leader of Team Rocket, which is a crime gang that is hellbent on generating profit in whatever ways they can, no matter who or what gets exploited or destroyed in the process; they're kinda like Shinra in some ways in that Team Rocket has huge armies and crazy resources and is interested in gathering up wealth and power. The easiest way to gain power in this world is by controlling powerful Pokémon, so Giovanni sought to create an enhanced living replica of Mew in order to have all the power and all the profit. Y'know… kiiiind of the same exact reason Shinra sought to create you.

So Mewtwo was created using a fossil that was found of Mew. It was spliced with human DNA (some other guy named Blaine, if I'm not mistaken). And just like that, Mewtwo was created and left to grow in a vat; he didn't even get to be born of a womb in the same way as you. Unlike you, too, he doesn't even have parents; there is literally nothing else like him in the world he inhabits; there never has been, and there never will be. Here is a video that details his childhood; I'll warn you, though - it's very sad:

…When Mewtwo woke up for the first time, he was already an adult. He realized almost immediately that he was created to be a test subject and a slave, and once he had that realization, instead of simply saying "no fuck you" and leaving (this is ALWAYS an option; you don't have to hurt people to get away from them), he became so angry that he used his powers to raze the laboratory he was created in to the ground, slaughtering everyone inside without so much as a second thought; all that was left was ashes and flames. In a lot of ways, this very closely mirrors what happened to you in Nibelheim.

…And, like you, after that, he was taken in by someone who cared nothing for who he was or for his desire to be loved and to have a sense of belonging. In Mewtwo's case, it was Giovanni. Giovanni lured Mewtwo into his control under the premise that they would work together as partners. Mewtwo would learn how to better wield his abilities in Giovanni's presence, but the way he learned was by doing Giovanni's bidding and destroying or exploiting anything Giovanni saw fit. Eventually, when Mewtwo realized that Giovanni saw him as nothing more than a commodity to be harnessed instead of a living, breathing thing to be loved and understood, Mewtwo lost his shit again and escaped, razing the building to the ground, and presumably killing everyone inside in the process. So... Mewtwo did a Nibelheim not once, but TWICE:

..."I was not born of Pokémon, I was created, and my creators have used and betrayed me, so... I stand alone." I can imagine that you might find such sentiments deeply relatable.

From there, Mewtwo quite understandably held a deep grudge against all humans. So he created a storm that would wipe out not only all humans, but also any Pokémon who ever befriended and worked with a human; Mewtwo had never met a human who was kind, and so he had assumed that all humans were dangerous, selfish creatures that manipulated Pokémon into being their slaves, and that all Pokémon who willingly worked with humans were pathetic, vile things that debased themselves for the sake of human approval.

…Coming from abuse, myself, I can understand why Mewtwo would assume that all humans are cruel and capricious things. I can understand why you might have thought similarly in the past, and might still think similarly now. I used to believe the same things, and for all the pain I went through, I bore a deep grudge against other people for a very long time. I thought that if I preemptively stereotyped all humans as things that would hurt me and pushed them away by hurting them before they had an opportunity to do the same to me, I would be able to protect myself and keep myself safe.

But that's not how it works; that's NEVER how it works, because when we apply broad, sweeping generalizations to large swaths of people, we end up dehumanizing them in the process, and in so doing, we become no better than those who have hurt us. I've made a lot of mistakes in the past; I only know better now because I got help, and I still have a lot more work to do in order to make up for who I was before. I'll never be "done". I'll never be "healed". But the work required to strive towards these things is still worth doing.

To create his idea of a "perfect" world, Mewtwo rebuilt the laboratory he destroyed, lured some very powerful trainers there, and then stole their Pokémon for the purpose of cloning them. He then pitted the cloned Pokémon against the originals, as though their manner of birth meant something about their worth (spoiler alert: their manner of creation doesn't mean a goddamn thing, because they're ALL living creatures, worthy of love, acceptance, and a place in the world). Mew showed up to try to talk some sense into Mewtwo, trying to tell him that it doesn't matter how anyone is born and that what counts is the contents of their heart.

But Mewtwo wasn't able to hear the wisdom of what Mew was saying; his eyes were too clouded over by the pain from the losses he experienced as a child, the abuse he went through as an adult, and likely the shame he felt about how he came into being. So he fought Mew with the intention of killing Mew. But their battle was creating terrible shockwaves of energy that were hurting all of the Pokémon on the battlefield that Mewtwo pitted against one another. Realizing that the Pokémon on the battlefield would die if Mewtwo and Mew didn't stop fighting RIGHT THE FUCK NOW, a brave and kind boy named Ash sacrificed his own life by putting himself between Mew and Mewtwo as they fought in an effort to get them to stop, even though there was no way of knowing whether or not it would work.

Mewtwo was stunned. He didn't know that humans were capable of such selflessness, and in that instant, it shifted his entire worldview. Mewtwo realized the terrible mistake he had made, and he turned himself around:

His most profound quote is, "I see now that the circumstances of one's birth are irrelevant; it is what you do with the gift of life that determines who you are." I hope that this is one that you'll take to heart.

Here, this is his summary of his story in his own words:

Mewtwo, Mew, and all of the rest of the cloned Pokémon went to a place called Mt. Quena; it's a beautiful mountain with a lake in the middle of it with waters that have miraculous healing powers, and a system of caves in which to take shelter. Mewtwo lived peacefully there for a while, still working through his shame about being a cloned Pokémon instead of one that was more typically born, but Giovanni had been looking for him, and ended up finding him.

When Giovanni found Mewtwo, he immediately mobilized troops to go capture him and to set up a new Team Rocket base, polluting the water in the process. Giovanni demanded that Mewtwo walk into a machine that was designed to break his will via the application of torture, and he threatened to hurt the cloned Pokémon if Mewtwo did not comply, so Mewtwo did as Giovanni said. But Mewtwo's will did not break, and so he was nearly tortured to death before Ash showed up to break the machine. Ash then carried Mewtwo (yes, all 269lb/122kg of him) to the healing lake and threw him in the water, saving his life.

Mewtwo asks why Ash is helping him, since he is a cloned Pokémon that supposedly doesn't belong in this world. And in this one, Ash says something profound: you don't need a reason to help somebody; when you see someone in trouble, you just help them and that's all there is to it. Mewtwo then wonders if Ash is unique amongst humans, to which Ash replies that every human is unique. And when the waters of the lake heal Mewtwo just as they do to any Pokémon or person, Mewtwo is finally able to accept that he belongs to this world, regardless of the circumstances of his birth.

Mewtwo emerges from the waters reinvigorated, and from there, he uses his powers to wipe the memories of his existence from the mind of every Team Rocket member, including Giovanni. He also moves the lake inside the cave system of the mountain, so that no one will ever be able to exploit or pollute it again. Team Rocket leaves, and Mewtwo now gets to have a peaceful life in a beautiful place, surrounded by other living things who love him very, very much. Witness this, and engrave these words into your heart:

Sephiroth, you do not belong to anyone. You do not belong to Shinra. You do not belong to Jenova. You do not belong to the Gi or to the Cetra. You belong to you, and you alone. And you belong in this world. Sephiroth... can you imagine what it would be like if you used your amazing power to defend those people who are good to you and who are willing to try to give you new life?

Good people are everywhere, and they're not going to use you like a commodity or abuse you until you do what they say. Good people will hold you accountable when you do some stupid shit that hurts yourself or other people, though, because that's what the people who love you are supposed to do. They're supposed to challenge you to do better without exploiting you or breaking you down in the process. The world is full of people like this - people who can love and accept you as-is while encouraging you to become your best and most favorite self; all you have to do is open your eyes. All you have to do is try.

You are not much different from Mewtwo. You are not much different from me. If Mewtwo gets to be restored and have a happy, wholesome, joyful, love-filled life even after years of trauma, abuse, and mistakes, then so do you. If I get to be restored and have a happy, wholesome, joyful, love-filled life even after years of trauma, abuse, and mistakes, then so do you. All it takes is a willingness to learn and grow, and you'll never, EVER get me to believe that I am more mentally flexible and emotionally adaptable than you; it's never gonna happen, because I know in my bones that you are better and more capable than me in all the ways that matter, so don't even try to convince me otherwise; my faith in you is unshakable, so it's not gonna work.

Sephiroth. Please don't think you don't have anywhere to go or anywhere to belong. Mewtwo is literally the only one of his kind, and he still belongs with the Pokémon he calls family. They are cloned Pokémon, but all the same, they are not at all different from the other wild Pokémon that also inhabit Mt. Quena. A cloned Lapras can live with regular Lapras just the same. There isn't another Mewtwo. There isn't another Pokémon in the world that possesses the same level of power that Mewtwo has. But he still belongs. And he can still have a good life. He's not alone. You're not that different from him. So please try. Please?

That's all I've got for today. Please think about the story I told you. Heck, if your position at the Edge of Creation allows you to talk to Mewtwo somehow, please do; he's smart and wise and he knows a lot because he's learned much during the course of his life and has grown much as a result of reflecting earnestly upon all the mistakes he's made. He can help you.

I love you. Please stay safe, okay? I'll write again soon.

Your friend, Lumine

[the-genius-az]

You're welcome!

It can have lots of drama before the little pack has their happy ending. I think part of Azula's redemption + healing arc would involve her eventually understanding that they didn't think they had an option + didn't know it could hurt so much. (Original!Azula herself only realized what was happening in the night before she passed away). With the bond still there, Azula tends to be protective, and a little more forgiving once she sees Ty Lee and Mai do love and need her.

I already am thinking about a "Izumi is Maizula's baby" tbh, now that the A/B/O obsession has infiltrated the Azula-centric part of my brain.

Ty Lee needs more fics where she's not the silly, stupid little girl. In the KS AU, I'm making Azula much worse than in canon to make it work with the plot, considering how canon!Azula is a jerk but definitely not a psychopath or anything of the sort. I really don't like the way fandom demonizes her, for a few reasons, and it also makes me feel weird for writing AUs where she is, indeed, a monster.

Yes. Here's the thing, I like the parallel of Oh Sangwoo, a straight man, being SA'd by his mother & Azula, a lesbian woman, being SA'd by her mother (+ I think Oh Sangwoo hallucinates her at some point? So that's a good parallel). Like, something that works into this specific character hating women so much they abuse and kill them in horrific ways.

(I don't like it either, which sounds almost like a hypocrite with the way I have multiple OCs that have SA in their backstory and I do write fucked up content. And because I also have read a lot of fics that have it in them – thankfully they do tend to work it so, so well. Like, not as a torture porn kind of thing, but another layer of her character. Azula x Ozai CSA seems to be almost a must for Maizula fics, and I eat it up every time.)

When I say "everything possible", I do mean it. It's a dragon AU and when Azulon asks for Azula's life instead of Zuko's (because she's Ozai's favorite), Ursa kills Azulon + takes Azula out of the palace (and Azula's hatred comes from how they abandon Zuko in the palace). Like, Ursa up until that point gave Zuko lots of attention, but there's a silent agreement between mother and daughter that goes like "this boy is ours" because they're dragons and all of that. I can talk for days about this AU too.

- Ash 🔥🍌

Thank you for this, Ash!

Original! Azula herself only realized what was happening in the night before she passed away.

I wonder how sad Azula was at that moment, she must have been screwed.

I already am thinking about a "Izumi is Maizula's baby" tbh, now that the A/B/O obsession has infiltrated the Azula-centric part of my brain.

I have an idea about a baby Maizula, maybe I'll post it later!

Ty Lee needs more fics where she's not the silly, stupid little girl.

I needed to bookmark this...

I really don't like the way fandom demonizes her, for a few reasons, and it also makes me feel weird for writing AUs where she is, indeed, a monster.

I know, sometimes the Aus completely change the characters, that makes them interesting or worse.

I like the parallel of Oh Sangwoo, a straight man, being SA'd by his mother & Azula, a lesbian woman, being SA'd by her mother (+ I think Oh Sangwoo hallucinates her at some point? So that's a good parallel).

I see the potential! I still don't like the SA though, but it's because of the plot.

(Honestly, I'm glad that we agree that it is Ursa who commits the act, sometimes everyone ignores that she is not a saint)

I don't like it either, which sounds almost like a hypocrite with the way I have multiple OCs that have SA in their backstory and I do write fucked up content.

Oh, I actually hate that kind of stuff, any fics, novels, manga and more, I'll leave it quick and fly away! I can't stand him, that's why I don't like Bl very much, he always has those things and the fans normalize him.

Seems to be almost a must for Maizula fics.

They are the only Fics that keep me on a leash, there is little content and I am hungry for Maizula.

It's a dragon AU and when Azulon asks for Azula's life instead of Zuko's (because she's Ozai's favorite), Ursa kills Azulon + takes Azula out of the palace (and Azula's hatred comes from how they abandon Zuko in the palace).

You are a bomb from Au's Azula!

(Sometimes my mind spins because of so much information in English, please have mercy next time).

Azula is a VERY loyal girl, it makes sense that she would be a little confused and angry about abandoning one of her own.

Actually, I think I talked something about Azula/Dragon, and her possessions that are people.

Like, Ursa up until that point gave Zuko lots of attention.

What did Ursa change to leave everything for Azula? I'm not saying she doesn't love her, I just don't think she would leave Zuko for Azula.

[imthedoctortobiasfunke]

Ok, gonna start this reply by saying again that I know I’m in the minority here with some of these opinions. That’s fine, but I still stand by them. I don’t think yours are wrong or that you should think like me. My reasons for loving the Alien franchise seem to be different from those of most other fans, but I’m still obsessed with the series. Also I apologize for the length of this reply, I also have a lot of thoughts lol

I am also not normal about this franchise and I think that I noticed most of the references/callbacks and I loved every one of them. I eat that shit up regardless if it adds to the plot, I’m one of those people who gets excited when they say the thing bc I recognize it. If it turns out there were way more I missed I’ll be excited to find them later, because I’m absolutely getting this on DVD when it’s released. 

About the synths (I prefer the term artificial person myself). My gripe isn't with the fact that Rook/Ash was a villain, I didn't like that he was THE villain, for multiple reasons. I'm not personally a fan of using dead actor's likenesses for things like this, especially when it ends up looking as bad as it did. If they had gotten a look-alike, or had his face mostly melted by acid to where you could tell it was Ash but it wasn't a weird babyfaced AI version, I think that would have been a better play. I also think it's a little lazy to use a previous character as the same villain when there are new options available (gave me a little bit of a "somehow palpatine returned" vibe) but I would have loved a cameo, even if they kept the entire first scene he's in I would have liked it but he just kept coming back and we kept having to see his face close up... it wasn't my fave choice. And on the topic of a synth as the villain in most alien media - Samuals (isolation), Call (resurrection), and Walter (covenant) are not villains, it's not a given. Burke has, in my opinion, the best motive for being a villain in this franchise for the themes it plays with. I was actually very interested in the "we don't want bio weapons, we want to make better humans" aspect, I think the weird eugenics take on things was a strong choice, and it could have been shown rather than told to us outright.

The whole creation narrative is fine. I think Ridley Scott has a weird relationship with religion that feeds into his work, but who doesn't. Can't fault him on that. If you've watched raised by wolves you'll get what I mean. This man has a weird fascination with Christianity, pregnancy, playing God, and how they all fit together. I personally am just not a fan of this aspect of the story and that's fine, I still love the franchise even with these themes. I do love the colonialism/capitalism themes, never had a problem with that part & it's usually one of my fave aspects of each film/game.

Really what this whole rant boils down to is, I don’t know why you commented all of this when my complaint in the post was about pregnancy horror. I love the references, I love the capitalism, I love the cast, I love the synths, I love the xenomorphs, and pretty much everything else. What I didn’t love, and have never liked, was the literal pregnancy + birth + human/engineermorph. I am biased in this because I not only don’t like pregnancy horror (especially when written by men), I also really truly deeply hated alien resurrection, so any reference to it I just won’t like, even though I do think it was done pretty well. Those last 15 min scared me, which is great! But it overshadowed the rest of the film for me. Especially because I really think there was a much better way that ending could have gone that wouldn’t have been literal pregnancy.

The things I liked about Romulus far outnumber the things I didn't like, which is why I feel so passionate about it.

I KNOW I'm gonna be in the minority about the Romulus ending but I don't care!!!!! I didn't like it!!!!! I loved so much of the movie and then they pulled a resurrection and my face fucking fell so hard. It's not even that I thought it was bad. It was just disappointing to me for so many reasons. ESPECIALLY bc there was a much better ending that I think they just blew right past in favor of pregnancy horror.

Also they really shouldn't have used Ian Holm's face as much as they did. He should've been a very minor character and not the main villain??? Obvi as a stand in for the company but come on.

I really did love this movie though, which is why I wanna pick on it so much

[dmclemblems]

Y'know, from Edel.gard always getting praise from the other two sides (that she's conqurring and killing the people of) and with her route ending in a high-five of all things (after Rhea and Thales kill each other so she doesn't have to), Clyde getting supported by others in his bid conquer Fodlan (even if other characters are doubtful - kinda moot when they still decide to help him... save Ashe who seems genuinely forced to), and Dimitri/Rhea and the Kingdom/Church as a whole getting EXTREMELY victim-blamed in 2/3's of the game, it... kinda sends a really worrying message about imperialism and conquering? Because the game kinda... makes a pretty clear stance that it thinks conquering (for "good intentions") = good, those who fight back the ("good intended") conquering = bad.

Like, I think it's more "oh shit didn't mean to say that" more than it was intentional (kinda like of all the racist shit surrounding Claude's/Almyra's writing as a whole), but damn if I can't not see it now :/

I feel like that was a big problem going on in Houses in CF too, but it's definitely worse in Hopes. It really could be just an oversight by the writers, but it just... really leaves a nasty feeling. Even though there's no definite "Edelgard did conquer Fodlan in SB" going on, I think a lot of SB fans probably assume that's just what happened? Personally I prefer to just think the war stopped after that last battle and she let things go unrelated to Rhea and Thales because she's "happy and fulfilled" in this route, but... who knows, the devs seem to like unification.

The way Hopes writes it is that if you're conquering people for a "good" reason, it's bad of them fight back because they're fighting back against the "good" cause, but... anyone can claim their reason is something good and that the people being invaded should just accept it. It's just worse in Hopes because it's in two routes and they try to write it off as both Claude and Edelgard doing it for good reasons.

Even if they managed to unify the continent in their respective routes, they still will have other lands to deal with. Sreng won't just stop invading because Faerghus isn't a main power if that were to happen. It would just put Claude or Edelgard in a situation where they now have to deal with that. Also, Almyra wouldn't just stop fighting because they lost one member of the royal family. From what they were letting on, the siblings seemed to be in a battle of succession, so... it wouldn't be all that surprising if later on another one started attacking Fodlan. Even if they didn't, other people from Almyra would.

Something I find interesting though about SB in contrast to CF is that it seems like the concept of conquering is more of a burden to Edelgard than if she didn't bother. Also, Shez is the main avatar character here instead of Byleth. When Byleth is there for Edelgard in CF, it goes down, well, you know; but apparently when Byleth isn't there but Shez is instead, Edelgard is "happy and fulfilled" and defeats both her real enemies. If she actually feels that way, is there even a need to continue the war in her route? In GW I could definitely see her continuing, but it seems like SB implies that having Byleth around was a bad thing for Edelgard. It pushed her and made her feel powerful, enough to conquer, but apparently she wasn't truly happy in CF if they're saying she's happy in SB?

It just makes me think Byleth's presence in her life, and as her teacher, wasn't good for her. As in like, her life would be better and happier without Byleth being a key part of it or being in it at all (since you can kill Byleth and all in Hopes). In SB you could get around the conquering thing imo, whereas in CF it's everything.

At least in VW the unification happened because there was no other option. Faerghus had no heir left and the Empire had also lost its leader. Since Rhea also died, there was literally nobody left to take over things. Claude probably would have if he hadn't left, but since he had to go back to Almyra it fell to Byleth, but if Claude had been the leader of Fodlan after VW I wouldn't have minded. The circumstances weren't so horrible there. GW is just like... Shez is part of the problem and plants these ideas in Claude's head, and in that route he wants to actually conquer even if he doesn't say it as openly/directly as Edelgard and Hubert do.

Unifying Fodlan doesn't need to mean conquering it, and AM was proof of that. Not only did Claude completely peacefully allow Leicester and Faerghus to become one again, but Rhea also doesn't die in that route and just leaves to let Byleth take over. There's no fight over who should be the archbishop or anything. Claude and Rhea both willingly step down from power. In Claude's case, again, he had to tend to Almyra, but he also didn't worry that "oh no if they find Rhea, what if she's back in power". Even if he didn't want that, he seems to have felt that Byleth and Dimitri would be able to work things out.

Dimitri only arrived to aid Leicester's forces and he planned to leave once they were safe, so the whole unification thing wasn't even his intention or desire. Also, he's not really the type to want to conquer or anything like that, and notably after the army integration, the Leicester soldiers... still tend to refer to themselves as Alliance soldiers. Dimitri obviously has no issue with letting them still be the Alliance. Honestly, I always imagined Fodlan being "unified" in AM was just an official way of explaining it, but that the other nations were still just Leicester and Adrestia. In AM I feel like "unification" is just the territories all being allied/at peace with each other with a leader at the top to regulate everything and whatnot, but with their own governing, etc. In something like CF, Edelgard wants to remove any existing power from the other territories and make it just "Fodlan"/Adrestia.

So basically unification doesn't have to be violent and it doesn't have to mean being conquered, but... it seems like a big thing in this universe where unification = conquered/being conquered. :(

[margielatabiboots]

pll original sin thoughts

okay so i'm a pll girl forever and i just binged all of the episodes of original sin and here are my thoughts:

faran is everything. she's serving spencer hastings realness, she's giving everything i needed and more and i love her dynamic with noa

tabby's boss is either a great red herring or somehow involved in the drama. i feel like he could be angela's sibling, since it was mentioned that he's the same age as ari aster (36) either way he sucks and i want to know his deal

this twin swap (maybe??) has my head spinning.. as much as i want her to actually be kelly and for kelly to actually have been the sinister twin all along, i feel like the writers could be pulling an alison/courtney swap but at this point it feels way too obvious.

bro WHAT is the deal with mouse??? i know people are saying she's secretly 30 something or she was kidnapped herself, and i'm leaning more towards the second option. if anything, i think maybe she is older but she was maybe kidnapped for period of time and her moms are making her live at the pace it should be at if she wasn't kidnapped if that makes sense.

tabby. my love. i would do anything for that woman. she's wonderful and incredible. at first i was like aw her and chip are so cute but the more i thought about it and after the scene where they were filming the movie and he acted weird, i think he knows a lot more than we think. i'm not ready to say that he's definitely on the A-team or that he was the one who SAed tabby, but he definitely knows a lot more than we think he does.

there's something missing about imogen's past i just know it. idk why i feel that way, but it just feels like there's something that we don't know (unrelated to her pregnancy), and i think that learning the truth behind her death is going to clear up some stuff but as always create more questions

i feel really strongly that this isn't just a single A, this is a team, and i'm curious to learn more about the Y2K survivors club, i feel like that is going to be important and they might have something to do with the bigger picture

none of the male love interests are giving anything... i need a haleb shower scene moment or a spoby scrabble motel moment because right now ash is the only love interest i'm vibing with.

so far, i really like this show and i feel like all of the girls are so interesting characters, they're flawed and that makes them so much more intriguing. i really wasn't expecting to enjoy this as much as i do (lets be real though its pll). one thing i really want is to make sure that there is an overarching mystery, maybe this season we find out that imogen's mom was murdered by A but i want them to keep us hanging on. i miss the torture of waiting LITERAL YEARS to know the answers (except they better be more flushed out than season 7 of PLL because i still lose sleep over that)

[izaswritings]

Title: who we are in the aftermath

Fandom: The Owl House

Synopsis: Belos falls and the Golden Guard survives. It’s a new world and a new day, and sooner or later Hunter has to figure out where he fits in it. 

Or: in which Hunter stays at the Owl House, becomes a (very, very reluctant) apprentice, continues to have accidental sibling shenanigans with the annoying human, and finally finds a place where he belongs. Probably.  

AO3 link is here.

[Next chapter is here!]

.

chapter one: battling birds

. 

They give him a room near the east side of the house, stuffed full of broken things and a miscellaneous number of random items. It’s not the human’s old room, and not Lilith’s, either—there’s too much dust and too much stuff for either option. Hunter can’t tell if he’s grateful for this or not. He’s still deciding on whether he’s grateful for the room at all.

There’s no time to set up a bed. He spends his first night here on a blanket, restless and half-awake and lying so still he’s half-convinced he’s shaking from the strain of not moving at all, not making a single sound. He can practically taste the dust on every inhale—does the Owl Lady ever clean, Titan help him—and by some godawful midnight hour Hunter gives up on sleep entirely and sits up, carefully, to whisper to his palisman. 

Nothing important. None of the real questions that are swirling around in his head, like what am I even doing here and why am I still here and what am I supposed to do now, do you know? Instead he just says nonsense things, useless things, like “If I shine a flashlight in that little demon’s face do you think I could get him to chase the dot?”

The palisman coos and chirps and sings nonsense back. Red is a pretty color. I like tulips. If we iced over the Boiling Sea could we make human rain? 

“None of those answers make sense,” Hunter tells it, and then writes a small note about the sea and rain connection on the dusty floor, if only because that’s actually kind of interesting and he wants to check it out again later. 

Red tulips are tasty, replies the palisman, and nuzzles his fingers when he goes to pet it. Its feathers are soft and its eyes are luminous in the moonlight. Nonsense, all of it, but the nonsense helps—familiar as a friend, safe and easy. Better than thinking of Belos. Better than wondering what he’s doing here, sleeping on the floor in the Owl Lady’s house.

The human has left. He could walk out right now and she’d never know, not that her disappointment has any bearing on if he chooses to stay or go. She’s vanished back to the human world, probably gone forever. This house means nothing to Hunter—the Owl Lady is annoying and dislikes him about as much as Hunter dislikes her, and as endearing as the weird little demon is, that isn’t enough to make Hunter want to stay. 

He could leave easily. He could go anywhere. He has nowhere to go.

“I don’t know what to do,” Hunter tells the palisman, at last, hours later. It is almost morning. The sunrise has only just begun, the peace of this dusty attic room wavering thin and fragile in the light of early dawn. It is a quiet admission. He says it very soft. “I don’t know if I know anything.”

I love you, says the palisman.

“That’s not an answer either.” 

Oh, well.

Twenty minutes later, the Owl Lady’s weird bird-worm security creature bursts through the window and sings good morning loud enough to shatter eardrums. Hunter grabs his staff, throws a blast at the thing on instinct, teleports to the kitchen in a panic, and smacks the Owl Lady in the face with his palisman first thing in the morning.

.

The easy explanation is this: the castle falls and Belos dies and the Golden Guard somehow survives it all: portal collapse and half-realm merge and everything, which means when the dust settles, ultimately Hunter is left with absolutely no idea of what to do with himself. 

“You should work with Eda!” says the human, in the aftermath. Given she says this in the ruin of what was once the Emperor’s castle, barely a half hour after—everything—Hunter feels pretty justified in his response. Which is to say he strangles his broken mechanical staff in his hands, takes a deep breath, and says in a very tight voice: “No.”

“But—!”

“No. No, no, no. I can’t even believe I did this, I don’t… it’s not happening. No.”

The human—he does actually know her name by now, after all they’ve been through, but also given all of This Nonsense she has lost name privileges—does not take that well. Of course she doesn’t. She’s so fourteen it makes Hunter want to die inside.  

“Why not?” the human says, petulant. She has her hands on her hips and everything. 

Hunter is kneeling in the rubble of a castle he’s called home for almost all his life. Somewhere down there is the throne where Belos used to sit; somewhere down there is a body. It’s not a surprise, really. It’s not a shock. From the moment the palisman fluttered into his life and Hunter let it stay, he always knew, deep down, that one day he was going to have to choose. 

It does not make breathing any easier. “I don’t want to,” he says. 

“You can learn wild magic! And, and glyphs! Eda knows a lot—”

“Does the Owl Lady know you’re offering up her house to an old enemy?” 

“Eda won’t mind. Well, okay, maybe she’ll mind a little, but— she’ll let you stay if I ask her!” Yeah. The Owl Lady probably would. The human has that witch wrapped around her little finger; Hunter almost snorts. “Please, just hear me out. I’m sure we can—”

“No.”

“Hunter…”

“Don’t talk like we’re friends,” Hunter hisses. He drops the broken remains of the mechanical staff and stands, his hands curled to fists. “Don’t talk like you know me. You don’t know anything. You don’t—” He can’t breathe. He drops back to his knees in the rubble and rubs a hand over his eyes. “Just stop. Please.”

The human doesn’t say anything for a long time. On his shoulder, the palisman, thus far staying silent, flutters its wings and hops down to his knee, nudging his hand with its beak. It sings nothing. Just stays there.

After a moment, the human kneels next to him. There is blood on her face and dirt staining her leggings. “I know,” she says, and she suddenly sounds very tired. “I’m sorry.” 

Hunter doesn’t say anything.

“I just—” the human starts, and then she stops. “I don’t know how else to help you.”

She looks small and weirdly sad, which makes no sense at all, because she hated Belos and never really understood why Hunter did not. (Hunter is not sure why either. If that is still something he can say. If you can betray your uncle and fight against your uncle and—and— and do these things, do everything Hunter has done, and still say that this feeling isn’t hatred.)

They aren’t friends, Hunter and the human. They have barely been allies. He doesn’t need her help, and she probably knows that as well as he does. But Hunter looks at her then, and despite the rubble and the ash and the blood on his tongue, for some reason instead of digging himself a makeshift grave he says—

“…Okay.”

Which still doesn’t really explain anything, but then, that’s just how it goes.

.

“Okay!” says the Owl Lady, smacking down her second cup of apple blood on the table. She does it too hard—a good splash of blood escapes the confines of the cup and adds yet another stain to her already-stained dining table. Hunter raises an eyebrow. The Owl Lady glares back. “House rules.”

There’s a red mark on her cheek, still, from where Hunter had hit her with his staff, and a stain all down her side from when, upon being hit with the staff, the Owl Lady spluttered and cursed and accidentally spilt the first cup of apple blood all over herself and the floor. She looks… barely awake. 

“House rules,” Hunter echoes, dryly.

“Your scorn is noted and not appreciated.”

“Oh, I’m so sorry.” His palisman pecks his hand lightly. “Ow.”

“Luz, you owe me one,” mutters the Owl Lady, and takes a really deep drink of her apple blood. Hunter rubs at his hand, peeved, and eyes the palisman in case it gets any more hand-pecking ideas. The palisman blinks innocently back. Hmm.

“So. First of all.” The Owl Lady raises a finger. “Break any of my stuff and I end you.”

So just like the castle, then. Hunter sees where this is going. He settles gingerly back against the chair—why, why is all of her furniture stained—and rests his cheek against one fist, already bored. “Noted.”

The Owl Lady puts up a second finger. There’s a long silence.

“…Seriously?” says Hunter.

“Quiet, you.” She snaps her fingers. “Hah! Got one! Hurt King or Luz or Hooty or anyone I like in any way and I’ll destroy you. Yeah, that works.”

Hunter gets the sneaking suspicion these house rules are being made up on the spot, and are also only for him. He knows better than to say that aloud. “Fine.” Wait. “How am I supposed to know which random people you like or dislike?”

The Owl Lady grins. Her gold fang glints. “That sounds like a you problem, don’t you think?” She cackles a little. “Guess you’ll just have to find out! Or, you know. Maybe don’t attack anyone? That’s a start.” 

Her owl palisman coos a little. Her nose wrinkles. “What? What do you mean that’s hypocritical? Stay out of this, Owlbert, I’m teaching life lessons or something.” Her eyes turn to him. “Anyway. You get the gist.”

Hunter’s hand is curled white-knuckled around his knee. His palisman flutters from the table to his shoulder, singing nonsense again. Red tulips, so tasty. Its feathers brush against his cheek. 

He pries his grip off his knee one finger at a time. “…Understood.”

“Good.” The Owl Lady stands and stretches, yawning wide into one hand. “Anyway, I’ll give you a pass for this morning, because Hooty can be…” She trails off. Outside, muffled by the front door, the bird-worm creature shouts “HOOT” at full volume and then smacks into a tree.

“…a lot,” decides the Owl Lady. “But seriously, keep the windows locked. I don’t want you trying to blast him and burning my house down. I just got it back.”

Hunter says nothing. The Owl Lady squints at him and then picks her mug back up. “Riiiight… well, good talk, I guess. Get some more sleep, kid, you look worse than Luz after an all-nighter.” She waits. Hunter raises an eyebrow at her. “Ugh. I don’t know why I agreed to this.”

At least Hunter isn’t the only one second-guessing everything. Still, that reminds him. “The human.”

“Luz,” says the Owl Lady, unimpressed. 

“Yeah, whatever.” He links his fingers. The palisman flies down from his shoulder to his cupped hands, and hops a determined circle in his palm for no apparent reason. Hunter watches it play. “…Is she coming back?”

“What, tired of our company already?” 

“Yes,” Hunter says, because obviously.

“Rude. Well, can’t say the feeling isn’t mutual.” There’s a long silence. The Owl Lady sighs. “Luz… she promised she’d come back. You were there, weren’t you?”

Yeah, he had been. Standing in the back of the group, on the fringes of the goodbye. Two hours after the end, and the human had already roped the Owl Lady into letting Hunter live in her stupid owl house, and also somehow run around hugging pretty much everyone. And then she’d stepped through the mirrors that were all that remained of the realm-merge between her world and theirs, and not come back since. 

She had, indeed, promised to return. But that was hours ago; that was yesterday. The mirrors are gone and no doors remain. And Hunter does not put much faith in promises. 

“And when,” he asks the Owl Lady, a little lofty, a little snide. “When, exactly, do you think she’s coming back?”

The Owl Lady’s eyes narrow. Her lips press thin. For a moment he thinks she might snap at him, but then her shoulders slump, and in the end she just looks away.

“I don’t know,” the Owl Lady admits. 

Useless, Hunter thinks. But he doesn’t say it. Just nods and turns away to head back upstairs and make that stupid dusty storage room somewhat presentable, because if he’s going to be staying here for—for—for whatever amount of time he ends up staying here, he’s going to breathe actual air instead of dust, thanks.

“Remember, kid! House rules!”

“Yeah, yeah,” Hunter says, and teleports back up the stairs without a single glance back.

.

Hunter manages to shove all the junk into one corner and make the start of a fairly presentable bed in the other corner by the time the human re-arrives in the Boiling Isles and throws open his door hard enough to smack it against the wall.

“You took my advice!” shouts the human, at the top of her lungs.

“Hiiiiii,” says Hunter, hands over his ears. The human takes a deep breath. Hunter closes the door in her face. “Byeeee.”

“Hey!”

“Why are you yelling.”

“I can’t believe you’re here!”

It’s just nonsensical enough to get him to open the door. Why does this always happen to him? Why is the human like this? “You said I should come here! You said—”

“Psh,” says the human and flaps a hand in his face. Hunter stops mid-word, gritting his teeth, practically feeling his whole face turn bright red with rage. “I didn’t mean it in a bad way! I just— I didn’t think you would actually listen! But you’re here!” She’s beaming. Hunter looks away. Her smile fades. “…Are you okay?”

He can’t sleep. His eyes are hot and burning like he wants to cry and he has no idea why. His uncle is dead. 

“No,” he tells her. “No one in this house dusts. I’ve forgotten what air tastes like.”

“Psh-haw! I’m sure it's not that…” The human steps inside, inhales, and chokes. “Oh. Ay Dios mío. Wow, this room has not been dusted.”

“I noticed!”

“Oh, man.” She hides her nose in her elbow and sidles outside again. She’s wearing her weird human clothes and her palisman staff strapped to her back. She looks tired, and a little like she has no idea what she’s doing here either. She lingers in the door almost awkwardly, rolling back and forth from her heels to her toes. 

Hunter watches her for a long moment. “You came back.”

“Haha. What gave it away?” But the smile she gives is small and blinding, brighter than the sun. “Watch this.”

“Watch wha—” The human lifts her hand and trails it through the air, dragging her fingers down in a straight line. Golden light follows her fingers. It breaks the air like a fractured mirror, a rift sparking to life in the hallway, the dark greens and blues of a galaxy intertwined with a burning glow. Hunter’s voice dies in his throat. 

“If I push at it, it opens. Like a door. It leads me right home.” She’s smiling so wide it must hurt. The portal almost seems to whisper; the golden glow of the rift shines in her eyes and catches on her face, still tear-streaked. The human’s cried over this. She’s right to. The human world and the Boiling Isles—she has found a way to keep both.

Presumably he thinks he should be jealous. Instead he finds himself smiling too. “I’m glad,” Hunter tells her. “That’s… pretty cool.”

“Right!?” She bounces on her heels and waves a hand through the rift, dismissing it into nothing. “I can’t wait to show Amity. And Eda. And King. And you! The human world is—it’s amazing. The rain doesn’t kill you even a little bit!”

It takes sudden effort to keep up the smile. “…I’ve heard.” 

“Anyway, I just came by to say hi. Eda said you were here, and—” She stops, visibly hesitating. Her head lowers. “I know… I know this must be hard. And that we aren’t really friends. But… if you need anyone to talk to… I’m here.” She peeks up her head a little, grinning. “After all, we’re house buddies now!”

“Human,” Hunter says. Her nose wrinkles. He sighs. “Luz.”

“Yeah?” 

There’s so much he could say that for a moment he has no idea where to start. Why did you think this was a good idea. Please stop talking. Why are you so insistent that we could be friends. I didn’t say I was staying here for long. I’m very tired. You’re bizarrely forgiving. My uncle is dead because of you. 

“…Thanks,” he says. “And— I’m sorry.”

Luz blinks at him. Then she grins. “Noooo problem, ol’ buddy ol’ pal!”

Hunter shoves her stupid smiling face away and closes the door on her toes. Luz yelps and swears and kicks at the door, and yells rude things in that other human language of hers. “Byeeeee,” Hunter says, and behind the closed door, Luz makes a muffled noise of rage and shouts, “Would you stop saying that!?”

And it doesn’t make things better but it doesn’t make things any worse, either, and when Hunter turns away he is almost smiling—so maybe it’s okay. 

.

The sun sets. The dusty room has been aired out to its best ability, and Hunter has made a somewhat functional and comfy-looking bed in the corner. A sticky note with the boiling sea + ice = human rain idea has been ceremoniously pinned to the empty wall space. In addition to the sticky notes, Luz has donated his “sad, bad boy room” what looks to be a dying houseplant. Hunter suspects she gave it to him purely because she has despaired of trying to keep it alive herself.  

He puts the plant on the windowsill. The palisman apparently loves it. Maybe he should find red tulips for it to eat. Whatever a red tulip is.

He settles next to the palisman on the windowsill, and strokes its head with his finger. He feels strangled and small and the sunset looks alien to him. Everything has changed. Everything is over. He is a powerless witch with a wild magic staff, and he will never be the Golden Guard again.

His eyes burn. He blinks fast. Far down below, he can hear the Owl Lady and Luz arguing over dinner.

“I still don’t know what I’m doing here,” Hunter tells the palisman. The sunset makes all the trees look shadow-like and sharp, outlined in red. It reminds him of his palisman, a little bit. “I don’t even like these people. What do you think? Is it too late to head back and dig myself a grave in the rubble?”

I’m happy I know you, chirps the palisman. It hops from the dying houseplant to the top of his head.  I love you, I love you.

His throat feels tight. “…That still isn’t a real answer.”

I want apple blood for breakfast tomorrow. The palisman nibbles at his hair. It looks tasty.

He’s quiet for a long moment. Then he closes his eyes. “Okay. If— if you say so.” 

The sun is setting, and the light is warm on his face. The Boiling Isles feels, for once, almost something like peaceful. It probably won’t last.

“We’ll stay.” 

[deathbed-apologies]

I’m currently playing Little Hope and I’m missing every single QTE, saying nothing when I have the chance, and not making a decision when I have to in order to save characters. I also decided for this play through, I’m going to try my best not to look at or pick up anything either, since I know grabbing the gun is a huge part in this game and I wanted to see what would happen if I didn’t. Some things I will have to pick up, obviously, but the ones that are optional I will not be touching. I’m gonna use this to document my favorite moments :) (thank you to the lovely @kolchekyourweapons for the idea) this one seems to be a lot more boring than the House of Ashes play through, but I did notice a few things that I thought were interesting.

This is going to be a very long post so bare with me, if you’ve got a lot of time on your hands feel free to continue. Feel free to save this for later if you want, or don’t, it’s your choice 🤷

This will also include big spoilers for the game, so if you want to play it, or want to try this out for yourself, feel free to not read this.

Let’s get into it!

The prologue plays out relatively the same, except for the fact that Anthony doesn’t really say anything the whole time. Whenever I’m playing I always try my best to defend Megan but obviously I couldn’t this time, which made me feel bad 😭

Tanya: Where’s the little princess anyway?

Anthony: *says nothing*

Tanya: Question a little too tough for you?

If you don’t make a decision to save either Megan or Tanya, it chooses Tanya for you. If you say nothing when trying to help her she decides to go for the window and obviously burns to death inside.

I found this part really funny, when Taylor and John are trying to lift Andrew up, you have to complete a QTE (which obviously I can’t do) so she drops him and John goes “Come on, you can do it!” And the QTE pops up again. Taylor ends up dropping him again so John just picks him up because clearly Taylor can’t do it 😭

If Taylor continues to say nothing during the argument with John, he walks off and still says, “wait here all night then” as if she even said anything LMAO. After they eventually get the gate open, Taylor starts saying “I already said I wanted to stay at the bus” even though she didn’t say anything before. These little moments are always hilarious to me.

I love how every time you miss a QTE they just fall on their asses. At one point, Andrew trips over a tree branch while running away and he just face plants 😭

Every time Andrew misses throwing the rock at the window John makes some snarky comment and makes fun of him. The entire conversation is actually hilarious when you see it for yourself. John does end up hurting his shoulder here though, since Andrew can’t hit the window he does it for him. I thought this was an interesting detail, since it’s pretty much impossible to miss the window most people wouldn’t even know that happens!

It’s interesting to see how the relationships play out here, especially the relationship between Daniel and Taylor. Whenever Daniel doesn’t say anything when Taylor asks for advice, she gets real pissed off at him, and their status is already pretty low compared to how it high it should be.

The rest of the game after this mostly goes on as normal.

Now here’s where things start to get interesting

Amy gets executed as normal, and Angela gets attacked by her demon. When Andrew is given the choice to save John or Angela, neither of them are chosen and Andrew just stands there as Angela is pulled away by her demon. The demon overpowers her and drowns her as John and Andrew watch in horror. Honestly I wasn’t expecting someone to die this damn early, but here we are. RIP Angela.

I found it interesting when you’re given the option and you don’t choose anything, Andrew just stands there and doesn’t save either character. Obviously he goes for John once Angela has already been overpowered, but it was interesting to see that scene play out without doing anything.

Taylor: You two were pretty tight. (Talking about Angela)

Daniel: *says nothing*

Taylor: I hear you.

One thing I want to point out is that the Curator genuinely gets mad at you when you don’t look at stuff. I usually enjoy looking around at everything and making sure I don’t miss anything important, but while playing this I’m literally not looking at anything I don’t have to. When the Curator meets up with you, he points out that you’ve missed something important and that you should pay more attention to your surroundings. I really like that detail! After you refuse the hints, he also gets mad saying that you should listen to him, and that you’re being foolish, because you clearly don’t know what you’re doing 😭

When given the option to run or hide when you’re being pursued by Taylor’s demon, it automatically makes you run when you don’t make a decision in time. Obviously Daniel and Taylor trip over everything while running, because I can’t do any of the QTEs properly. Afterwards, Taylor is given the option to help Daniel, or leave him behind. I’ve never gotten this option before, so I didn’t even know this existed. When I didn’t make a decision in time Taylor was forced to leave him behind, which makes their relationship go down. The only bad thing that happens is Taylor and Daniel’s relationship goes down quite a lot due to her leaving him behind.

When Daniel is given the choice to confront his demon or escape, it automatically chooses for him to confront it. Which pretty much does nothing for them because Daniel immediately messes up the QTE, and John throws a rock at it.

When Taylor has to either go Right or Left, she ends up not moving and getting attacked by her demon. It grabs onto her neck and burns her alive. Damn, RIP Taylor. I’ve never seen that death before, it was actually pretty brutal.

Now it’s just John, Daniel, and Andrew left.

After this the game mostly goes on as normal, having Abraham speaking out against Mary.

Daniel falls into the factory floor and gets attacked by his demon, this is usually a badass scene for him, but since I can’t complete any of the QTEs I think we all know what’s about to happen here. The demon stabs him through the chest and then through his eye. This one actually made me look away, people being stabbed through the eye is always gross to me

2 more left.

Now Mary is being accused, and Abraham asks for Andrew’s help. Since I can’t say anything here, I was curious to how this would go down. If Andrew says nothing, Mary is condemned, since Abraham also does nothing to stop them.

Obviously if you’ve played the game, you know what’s about to happen to our old pal John.

Andrew gets locked out of the house and John gets his neck snapped by his demon. So sorry John, you almost made it out </3

I’ve never gotten this ending before, but the game ends with Vince confronting him, saying he’ll never forgive him for what he did. Andrew/Anthony then gets arrested.

Wow, that was… something else. A majority of the game played out the same way, and it definitely wasn’t as interesting as the House of Ashes gameplay, but I still enjoyed it!

[stuffandsundry]

Fia, Rogier, and D (Part 2)

Part 1 is here but its outdated as shit lol dont read this

Been spending much too long over the past few weeks thinking about these guys, so here's another personal theory compilation regarding these 3. Actually, you know what, don’t even read that post!!! this one is the sexier redux!!!!

Rogier

Going by the metal decorations on his outfit (notably similar to the ones on the Carian Knight set), I like to think that he used to be a Carian noble when he was alive. I think in this case, that makes Prisoner my favored starting archetype for him— “A prisoner bound in an iron mask. Studied in glintstone sorcery, having lived among the elite prior to sentencing.” and all that. So I like to think that he died in that cell, and was called back to life by the guidance of grace.

R name: A lot of the royals have first letters that correspond to the godly progenitor that’s the most important to them (M for Marika, Morgott, Malenia, etc), so could Rogier have also been a Carian royal? …I mean, sure! Why not? I think it’s hard to say that this was 100% intended, but I like to use this as secondary proof that he probably is actual nobility, mostly because of Roderika! She’s an expatriated royal (denoted by Crimson Hood description) so it makes sense to me that by the same logic Rogier is also at least distantly related to Rennala. (I think that there’s also the option that he was faking being nobility the whole time as well, but while this one is fun to think about, I don’t think it holds a lot of water.)

Rogier Trans Icon: i see so much art of trans Rogier and it gives me life. even disregarding his vibes, another point in favor of him being trans is that he’s the merchant for the Spinning Weapon Ash of War, whose description says that it was used by Carian princesses. Rennala uses a more powerful version herself on her own staff!

Rogier mentions that he used to want to be a scholar, but I do have to wonder! Does this mean that he failed to get into Raya Lucaria, or that he was disillusioned with the school itself and walked out? Both are possible, but I like the second option more. Non-Raya Lucarian sorcerers are by and large all heretics, and even sorcerers who are really good at their research, or are bestowed conspectuses aren’t immune to being tossed out (Azur, Lusat, and Sellen). Rogier’s interest in deathblight seems kind of non-kosher, so even though it isn’t Sellen’s particular form of blasphemy, perhaps he got tossed out for the same reason.

Fia

I think Deathbed Companions were directly related to the Gloam-eyed Queen in some way. See the language used in the Black Flame’s Protection— “The Apostles were all embraced by the Gloam-Eyed Queen, and the black flame was their armor within.” Which super reminiscent of the way you get Baldachin’s Blessings. Though, of course, this could just be an overlap in the meanings of “embrace” — the word could be used both as an euphemism for doin’ the do or as a literal hug.

Speaking of Baldachin’s Blessings, the way that having one in your inventory decreases your maximum health is very obviously in line with Fia’s Death allegiance as well. 

Side note, since Melina has Very Strong Ties to the Gloam Eyed Queen (check out the Beast Eye, the pattern would fit into Melina’s empty eye socket very easily!), I wonder if there’s a comparison to be drawn between her and Fia characterwise?

Rogier’s goals do NOT align with Fia’s. He sees the Dead as something to be cured, she sees them as something that should be accepted as part of the natural order. While they’re currently both teamed up, they only thing they have in common really is sympathy for the Dead. However, despite everything, I do think that Fia holds some genuine fondness for Rogier… though this won’t keep her from using him for her ends.

Did Fia have the ability to leave the hold this entire time? There’s two interpretations of the line mentioning that she’s compelled to stay in the hold: one, shes being kept under watch by D and Corhyn, etc, or two, she’s figured out that someone in the Hold has something she needs, and she won’t leave without it.

Actually, going back to the embraced thing, I do like Fia’s interpretation of her role being primarily along the lines of a mother rather than as a prostitute like others in the Lands Between think of it. Elden Ring is a game with a lot of family/lineage stuff anyways, so it fits better, and I just think it’s more interesting an interpretation! 

Devin and Darian

Ok so this is where i get a little deranged. There’s just. A lot up in the air about these guys. THERES A LOT. MARIKA’S TITS.

So, is he a Tarnished? Bro I literally do not know. It’s never stated, alas. I think the only thing that marginally points in either direction is the fact that he says “I swear, there's a blight spreading amongst the Tarnished…” upon player death if you attack him in Limgrave. Saying the Tarnished rather than us Tarnished might imply that he doesn’t count himself as one of their number… but then, this might just be because he has no interest in the throne, like most Tarnished. It’s up to you!

Devin found sleeping in Nokron: is he a native of Nokron? Hey, it makes sense to me! Would help to explain why the two are so insanely pale. Kinda interesting that some guys from Nokron would be such devout followers of the Golden Order when Nokron is most well known for treason against the Erdtree, though.

Description of their sword: “The inseparable twins found solace in the Golden Order, the only institution not to revile them as accursed beings.” Why were they reviled? I think there’s a lot of theories floating out there, but here are some of my favs:

Twins are just kinda scary, man: this ones the most boring but I can see it, if they grew up in a more insular community and were then raised in the Golden Order. “Accursed beings” is kinda strong language to use in this case, though…

They were conjoined twins, and the Golden Order separated them: YEAH! Love it. This theory is usually extrapolated into “the Golden Order snip snapped the two apart, allowing them to pass as separate beings”. The pose of the armor also lends some credence to this theory— pretty similar posture to historical images of conjoined twins— and the sword is called Inseparable, after all… Maybe there were complications after they were separated, and that’s why Devin has to be asleep? I think that this explains why they’rd have such loyalty to Things that this theory doesn’t explain: Why is Devin all the way down in Nokron?

One of the two is a Mimic Tear: So, this one is my personal favorite theory because there's a bit of fun circumstantial evidence for it. The area that you find Devin sleeping in is an area with a whole bunch of silver tears, and he’s just a few steps beyond the Mimic Tear fight as well. If people knew that one of the two wasn’t human, that would explain why there was a lot of fear directed at them. Out of the two options, I think it would be more interesting if Darian was the Mimic, and Devin was real, because summoning the Mimic Tear uses HP instead of FP— so maybe this could explain why Devin is so sleepy all the time. Having Darian active drains him. Things this theory doesn’t explain: If Darian’s a Mimic, why does he have a real corpse? How come he looks slightly different from Devin if you look at face data? Why does he know beast incants that Devin doesn’t use?

Quest/Story

So this confused me at first so let’s just start with this: the hallowbrand, mark of the centipede, and cursemark are all referring to the same thing. Because of this, Fia’s dialogue after killing D makes a lot more sense than I originally thought in my first post. 

D had the other half of the cursemark that Rogier was looking for this whole time, and it is potentially why he gave the Tarnished the job of deathroot hunting (needed to stay somewhere safe like the hold so that nobody could steal the cursemark? Or, knew that someone would come looking for it/wanted to lure them out?).

Rogier knew that D had the cursemark (mark of the centipede, in his dialogue), and since he tells the Tarnished, it’s likely he also told Fia. Thus, whether he actively participated or not in the act, it’s almost certain that Rogier had a part in D’s death. More than one part, actually, just wait til i get to that damn dagger…

The Weathered Dagger: so, obviously it belongs to D. No question about that. But where exactly did the black gunk come from, and how does returning this dagger lead to Darian’s death? What message did it send to D? And how did he know that Fia was responsible for it? Actually, come to think of it, I suppose that the Tarnished could have just told him that last point. OK THE REST OF IT, THOUGH?

One thing for certain. Fia killed D with deathblight. It can be assumed that she somehow used the dagger to do it. Since the trigger for the dialogue where she gives you the dagger is Rogier’s death, then this must consequently mean that either the dagger, or the black gunk on it, or her plan for killing D, is somehow related to Rogier.

Option 1: the dagger and black deathblight stuff isn’t related to Rogier. Devin happened upon Godwyn’s corpse at the roots, carved the cursemark out (leaving the ruined dagger there) and gave the thing to his brother, and Fia has been looking for the stolen cursemark ever since. The reason that she only gives the dagger after Rogier dies is because she uses the deathblight on his body to somehow boobytrap the shit out of the dagger, enabling her to kill D. This one's one of the most probable ones, i think, but since this is Elden Ring there are logistics questions yet again. Just when did Devin pass the cursemark to Darian?! Nokron has been cut off from the rest of the Lands Between for ages. Additionally, Rogier and D both have lines that seem to imply that D finding the “mark of the centipede” is a very recent thing…

It also needs to be mentioned that there is a possibility that rather than Rogier being a passive party in Fia’s plans, there is resentment on his part that leads to him conspiring with Fia to kill D! But he regrets it when it’s too late, and that’s why he leaves the Tarnished a note, hoping that you’ll at least be able to help Devin… this ones dramatic so I love it, hehe.

Option 2: Both the dagger and the black stuff is related to Rogier. D could have given the dagger to Rogier as a parting gift, since it seems that even though they parted, it wasn’t on especially bad terms. This theory is taking Fia at face value when she says that the dagger was a gift from someone— there’s no indication she’d have had an opportunity to receive a gift from either D brother, and the only person in the game she’s been shown to be close to is Rogier so far (not counting her dad Lionel, who shows up at the Radahn Festival). Therefore, maybe the dagger was a gift from D to Rogier, and then from Rogier to Fia. I do like this one because generally speaking in Elden Ring, characters who are not Patches lie primarily by omission, and if their lies are not uncovered eventually through the story (ie, Renna being revealed to be Ranni) then there are usually ways to piece together the truth (Gowry not mentioning the whole Rot kindred thing). This would also lead to such a dramatic confrontation between D and Fia, whoof, I LOVE that. However, does not explain

Another theory I’ve seen is that the dagger was something that D gave his brother, and Fia giving it is a sort of taunt at D, tricking him into thinking that Devin had been killed. I love the drama of this, but I do have to wonder— if they’re really one soul in two bodies, would he have felt Darian dying? It does seem that Devin has some notion that Darian is dead, after all…

Anyways, this has gone on for…. Way too long, actually, so I’ll just cut it here. As always, these are more or less just my own musings, but I hope that it’s an interesting read of someone else as well!

[theplanetprince]

On your Hatchett's Quarry post: I remember a scene with Jacob near the end (chapter 10 I think??) where he's crying alone in the woods about how he wishes he could say (to emma I think? he just says 'you' but it's safe to assume) he was sorry, and he just wanted one more night at camp, so I definitely think he feels some guilt for what happened. I wish we'd gotten some time with them after the end so we'd have a chance to explore everyone's characters after the choices they made, either scripted or player-chosen

Hi yes, I completely forgot this message was in here-- forgive me I was caught up in writing yet again.

I've seen the footage of that and while that is a good solo performance of the actor, and it gives a bit more on the psyche of that particular character, I guess what I was looking for was something a little more substantial. Jacob and Emma are basically filling the roles of Mike and Jessica from UD where they're separated at the very beginning of the conflict and don't reunite until much later. Both UD and Quarry could have benefitted from the ability to make the characters interact more or even being allowed to choose which characters you want to control for a chapter-- who knows? It might be a long shot but I would enjoy these style of games with that level of choice.

That's sort of why I find a lot of Supermassive Games interesting; because they can really make you care about these characters with so little, and it leaves you desperately wanting more. Even with titles I found frustrating to play like Little Hope the setting and characters were enough to keep me invested-- but considering these games are more like interactive movies than actual games if you don't enjoy a particular group of characters or find the story itself disagreeable, then you essentially have a bad 60 dollar movie. With longer titles like UD and the Quarry which are closer to 10/12 hours of play time versus 5/6 hour jaunts with Man of Medan, Little Hope, and House of Ashes-- to get more of that character depth, the actors have room to get a feel for their roles.

They're great little character-driven stories where it still feels like you're playing as a character versus playing as yourself. Lee from the Walking Dead Video Game comes to mind as another great self-insert player character, but a lot of his options are more designed to reveal how you, the player thinks versus how Lee would operate in a day-to-day scenario. Even characters we only play for a fraction of a second in the Quarry feel like real people with goals and ambitions.

Unlike say the works of David Cage another oddball in this highly specific genre of "playable movie with occasional button mashing" I don't really feel invested in the characters. I don't. Even in his most emotional work-- Heavy Rain, and Beyond Two Souls the characters never felt like people I could relate to or sympathize with-- their reactions felt totally floaty and alien but not in any real artistic way.

While I will say the Supermassive games suffer a bit from the MCU/Joss Whedon sin of undercutting tension with lame one-liners. I feel like it's more appropriate given that the characters in most of SMGs games are normal people with no powers or ability to cope except with jokes.

And I realize this is me pretty much rambling at this point as to why I enjoy character-driven storytelling, but it's my blog and I'm allowed to.

[steve0discusses]

Yugioh S5 Ep 20: Pharaoh’s Cool New Trick

Digging my way through quite a pile of commission work (funny how these things only come all at once or not at all), nearing the light at the end of the tunnel, was looking forward to some free time to catch up on my many little side projects when I was asked to take off for a weekend to do some cat-sitting to which I would NEVER say no to a cat, so like...Rip this blog I guess, we only update like once a week nowadays, but what do you do?

That’s right, play Puzzles and Dragons! The only phone game worth paying any attention to! Where they just released Pegasus on their Yugioh Collab and he looks pretty great!

So I’m just gonna take a second for some art appreciation, because the Puzzles and Dragons art team is just A++++ honestly, and yes, I did pull 13 times to get a Pegasus in my monster box, and yes, he is a completely insane team leader that is absolutely broken when paired with Yugi (the numbers are so satisfying) but...look at him. He looks so good!

(also I finally got Joey Wheeler, and so now my gatcha cravings are settled. And, don’t worry, I play this game so much that I was there during Christmas when they offered like a bajillion stones for free so I didn’t actually use real money on this.)

Now PAD also released a Weevil and Rex, and I don’t know why, and neither does the art team because they still look pretty good but in comparison to all the mains, they sure do looks like just some shorty guys in some casuals.

though I gotta admit, I want to learn how the hell this art team does swooshy effects, because man, that would make my art so much better to just have flames violently exploding out of all my art. Why am I not doing that more often? I have the technology.

anyway, I didn’t bother trying to pull them. Maybe I’ll accidentally pull them when they eventually release a Duke Devlin. (also, RIP to the fact that Roland will probably never be in Puzzles and Dragons but like...I can only send them so many polite letters covered in stickers pretending I’m some 10 year old child and writing in my broken Hiragana “Roland in PAD?”. Thems the breaks. (They also might not remember who Roland is.))

Shoutouts to the card that Weevil is holding that is censoring this nipple on the booby spider, PS.

So because this is not actually a Puzzles and Dragons blog, and it’s been ten eons since I regularly updated so I could remember episode to episode...where the hell were we?

That’s right, we’re on an island now. This show’s wonderful obsession with evil islands (and spoiler, this is one of the few Yugioh Islands that doesn’t explode at the end. Mostly because Kaiba isn’t here to do it or this place would be cinder)

(read more island stuff under the cut)

Anyway, after announcing “hey guys! Screw islands!” Yugi immediately collapses and without any warning.

Apparently the armor is a big ol parasite, which is something that Yugi is so used to at this point that he refuses to admit that this is a problem. Just normal Muto stuff, refusing to tell anyone that he has a serious illness going on underneath that giant mass of hair.

(the sailor moon vibes coming off this weird orb energy)

Sort of feels like a call back to S1 when Yugi was clearly possessed and everyone else was like “He acting weird to you?” except it’s S5 and everyone has learned to never trust Yugi when he says he’s fine and they are responding like he is about to die. Which is correct.

Outside of the cave falls this scroll that is...glowing, I guess. So they open it up and get a bunch of hieroglyphs that give them the “riddle of light” and like youknow...it’s riddle stuff.

They’re doing this riddle for “wings.” And it’s like...everyone’s monster here has a set of wings or an ability to fly. Every single monster except for I dunno, flaming swordsman? Hell, Yugi himself had two sets of wings when he fused with Dark Magician (which was weird, and I still don’t like to think about what technically was going on there.) But we have to go and get ourselves even more wings.

Weirdly, Joey turns to Tea and does something that in any other show would be completely normal. He was like “you want to stay here with Yugi, don’t you?” and it was the first time Joey has ever actually addressed the fact that Tea and Yugi are close. Uncharted territory. I was amazed at the amount of casual shipping that is happening here. It’s almost like a normal ass relationship.

So the boys decide to go off, and be boys and tackle this themselves. And they shouldn’t have, because Tea is smart for this group, and also has the only healing spell.

Like if you’re playing D+D you wouldn’t typically leave your only healer behind. Just saying.

Also like...Grandpa Muto went with them? I guess he’d have to since he’s the translator but also...kind of weird to leave your grandson dying in a cave, but maybe that’s just the Muto lifestyle.

Do not be fooled by my caps, no one has addressed the Bakura in the puzzle for 3 seasons. I’m starting to think this show will never address the Bakura in the puzzle. Which honestly, that would be hilarious if they made a big deal out of that plot point and then couldn’t use it in the end.

And speaking of plot points that kind of come out of nowhere and don’t make full sense with the continuity of the show--Joey has regressed back to the 4th grade.

Hey show? What?

So like if you love Joey, this is not the arc for you, because this arc he is reduced to a Himbo and nothing else. Straight up didn’t know what an echo is, but is very strong and pretty, I guess.

This inevitably happens with any TV show becuase different people make different parts, and I’ve brought up before that sometimes it feels like some teams only have loose post-it notes of what any character should be like at any given point (ESPECIALLY with Seto Kaiba’s timeline) but like...

...Personally I’m mot so fond of this interpretation of Joey, kind of ignores Joey’s best traits, and makes Tristan look way too smart in comparison (and like I always pinned Tristan to be the Himbo of the group, but maybe it’s because they give Tristan so little else to do?)

And like don’t get me wrong, Joey’s a dumbass a lot of the time and needs to get corrected by his pals...but...to the point he doesn’t know what an echo is? He’s a dumbass in a High School student sort of way, youknow?

Anyway, they get down to this big ravine, and they have to destroy this stone while the light passes over it. Kind of feels like a Breath of the Wild shrine quest, actually. In fact, I think Breath of the Wild recycled the shadow/sunlight pathing quest like 4 or 5 times. (I love Breath of the Wild to death but boy did they run out of ideas at the end there.)

They have to fight a glass monster and it’s kind of like...do you know the game Balls 3D? probably not, but it looked like a bunch of random shapes stuck together like a 90′s animation. They basically went to war with shapes.

Pure Himbo energy, has several pokemon, but punches for his pokemon instead of using them. A power move if I ever saw one.

Youknow that would make pokemon a lot more interesting if you could like throw out your pikachu, and then choose to just physically run up to your opponents Eevee and sock it in the jaw. Raise of hands--I know you all would love a version of pokemon like that. Let Ash Ketchum punch a Ratata.

Bro has informed me that Ash does do something like this in the anime. But I’m not talking about the anime, I’m talking about the video game. Give me the option to physically combat my rival. This is what I want, Pokemon.

They discover a way to break the monolith, and the show thinks we’re like actually 7 years old (because the show is Y7, although I forget because it deals with so many dark themes) so the show is going to hold on to this puzzle for a while...just to fill time. And it’s fine because we gotta switch over to Pharaoh anyway.

Yami has this dream again. He attempts to fuse with Dark magician to overcome the dream, but alas, he is still not strong enough.

Yugi wakes up in this murky cave while Tea is out washing out like...some rag? (he’s also still got a rag, so I guess multiple rags were required for how sweaty Yugi is.)

Yugi says “I feel like I’m a new man!” a lot in this episode, and every time he calls himself a man like he’s some sort of adult it’s very funny to me.

And then this plot lore dropped.

I mean I guess inevitably it had to happen...

But man, end of an era. It was freakin hilarious while it lasted: that Pharaoh refused to read ancient Egyptian because it’s like 2002 and he is a High Schooler living in Japan and he actually doesn’t WANT to resolve the mystery of the puzzle. Maybe the people who made this arc don’t know about how in S2 and S3, the fact Pharaoh couldn’t read Marik’s back tatt was like...a really big issue. He couldn’t read the God card, he couldn’t even read that massive tablet that read “HEY PHARAOH THIS IS LITERALLY YOU”. KAIBA had to tell him how to read the God card for him. Freakin Seto “Magic is a lie” Kaiba had to tell him how to use the God Card because Pharaoh couldn’t read it.

But like...Pharaoh finally gave in at some point after the world was devoured by the Leviathan, and before Kaiba finished building Kaibaland (which was already built in S1 but wtv)

The timelines on this show have always been a mishmash...but this one is just like...

...show are you trying to convince me that at any point in this show after season Zero, Pharaoh had any idea what he was doing? Did he sap that brain energy straight out of Joey Wheeler so he could do this?

Wow.

(secretly hoping he forgets how to read Egyptian after this arc is over and the show goes back to the other development team)

Pharaohs reasoning is that, if this is the riddle of the light.....

....then where is the riddle of darkness????????????

and when Tea was like “Pharaoh that is not even remotely logic. Omg it’s so bright outside, lets go back to gross cave.” and Pharaoh was like “Tea! You got it!” and she was like “What the hell are you talking about?”

Not gonna lie, I saw the Orichalcos green, and I got concerned.

Anyway, Yugi gets very frustrated and was like “ugh, lets go save em. They’re gonna die (again.)” and marches down there as if he didn’t pass out an hour ago.

And he fuses with Dark Magician again while everyone else (including his grandpa) was like “Yugi are you freakin kidding me? The suit freakin kills you omg! Tea you had one freakin job!”

And then we get the plot twist that...I mean it makes sense but it was choreographed in a confusing way.

And out of no where this guy shows up again:

So this mysterious man shows up and says “If you don’t succeed you have to live here forever” which...nice...that would probably save the world a lot of problems if Yami got locked away and took his OP puzzle with him. And then this man also says “if you do succeed you become VERY POWERFUL” and Yami was like. “...”

This whole episode had a theme to it, where Tristan and Joey were trying to prove that they could do things on their own and without Yugi’s help. And honestly...felt a little bit misplaced. Yami’s the same guy who murdered Yugi last season with the Orichalcos so like...

...I mean he is probably more reliable than Tristan who once died and turned into a robot monkey for 10ish episodes.

and then they flew into a glowing door.

Folks, this was wild to look at.

This is wild.

And at this point I closed Photoshop and thought I was done. But then I looked at my timeline on the video and was like...wait...there’s more?

and I’m really glad I kept watching because it went back to Alex, who...is apparently just still at those steps in this haunted ass Pyramid.

Now we’re watching Yugioh.

I forgot for a second when they turned Joey into a Himbo and made Pharaoh literate, but we’re back. I mean...

...look at the liner art on this adult man.

So...I posit the question...has Alex spent the last 2-3 episodes doing nothing but applying eyeliner to his face in the dark? Because he absolutely has. And honestly, the vibe of being in a spooky haunted pyramid with barely any light, just applying eyeliner down the edge of your face...that’s a Yugioh vibe, if I ever saw one.

This arc is wild. Anyway, next episode we do even more fetch quests and riddles? Just going to guess now that we probably will.

(and for those new here, this is a link so you can read them from the top. Which, since we’re in S5, means you got like...hours of Yugioh content to read through. Enjoy the rewards of my weird hobby.)

https://steve0discusses.tumblr.com/tagged/yugioh/chrono

[badass-at-fandoming]

Just Little Ventrue Things ~

I finished a Camarilla Ventrue run of VTMB. Mostly, the only thing Ventrue these days know how to do is Dominate, run screaming, eat hot chip, and lie, and [high falsetto voice] here’s a list of other nonsense I discovered:

PC’s name is Christina; she’s a Dominatrix because I’m bi. Her sire was one of her clients, and she’s actually very, very angry about his death. She doesn’t mind being a vampire. She’s Wiccan and part of a coven

In this Camarilla run, I decided I would only do quests given by Camarilla members. My justification was that, while Christina is intelligent and curious about lore, she focuses on tasks that immediately relate to her and her goals. She’s not curious about others; won’t go out of her way to talk to them. She’s not a bleeding heart, like my other PCs, and she believes in the Camarilla’s laws. She just hates LaCroix for killing her sire. Her plan during the game is to curry as much favor within the Cam as possible and cozy up to LaCroix so she can stab him.

Enough backstory

Nonsense time

Smiling Jack laughs at you if you don’t eat a rat in the tutorial. LOL. The Ventrue dialog is like “I could barely choke down the homeless man: please don’t make me eat a rat!”

The blood in the Santa Monica haven’s fridge is now blue blood. Does regular blood make Ventrue sick? I was too scared to experiment.

[spots Mercurio] I am going to steal that ghoul

Rosa: The people you’re looking for are up there. Christina, assuming Rosa is a Cam agent: Okay, thanks, bye

Never spoke to the Thin-Bloods again (sorry Lily baby ;-;)

Everyone except Julius still leaves when the PC reaches Hollywood

If you try to feed on Julius, he WILL kick you in the head and you WILL glitch into the fire, be on fire; run away screaming in Prada

You can skip the whole basement of the Ocean House Hotel if you manage to jump over the hole in the staircase???? Like?? You mean the spookiest fucking level has been optional this whole time I”M

[ghost appears] [Christina smacks it with an axe] None of that.

Club girls speak to Christina and I’m on the FLOOR

Therese “kills” Jeanette, even though I had enough oompa to make that not happen.

Therese joins the Camarilla and says she’s in good position to be the next Prince??? Hello??? Where is our Prince Voerman ending????

Went straight to LaCroix, called him “sir,” and he name-dropped Napoleon.

LaCroix tells Christina to go visit the Anarchs. She blows the Anarchs off (Nines made a growly face, Damsel dialog yowl-exited out after I asked if she wanted to join the Cam; Skelter threatened to murder me twice). When LaCroix told Christina that, while he admired her Cam loyalty, she must listen to her enemies to understand what they wanted, it felt like he was actually being a good sire and mentor.

That’s weird.

When Christina asked for his history, he very carefully explained his lineage, like the important part of Ventrue culture it is.

Overall, I found LaCroix-being-nice-to-me extremely unsettling.

Sir. Stop smiling at me, sir. Stop being impressed I don’t ask for money. STOP MAKING ME UNDERSTAND WHY PEOPLE LIKE YOU, SIR.

In contrast, LaCroix sounded genuinely betrayed at the end

Also made it more obvious when he started to lose track of his marbles

Ventrue PC seems juuuuuuust tall enough for her forehead to glitch into the ceiling of literally any confined space

The dirty Elizabeth Dane policeman didn’t psspspspsp at Christina so the whole ship was 15 white-knuckled minutes of making police dance and scuttling about

There is!!! A lot less!!! Talking in this game!!! Than I remember!!! She is only good at talking and ordering people around i am bEGGING

All EXP goes to Dominate and making Christina extremely charismatic and buff.

Ventrue himbo????

Beckett un-himbo-ifies her

She insults Beckett on their first meeting, spitting out “What do you want, wolfie?!” I thought this was appropriate because she died like, 4 times on that warehouse mission and was Extremely Stressed And Under Duress

Beckett’s response of “Oh, you’re too young to have mouthed off to the truly old ones yet.” makes his later snide remark of “the young ones are so temperamental” 900% funnier. Yeah, LaCroix! Beckett thinks I’ve grown and am now more mature than you! XD

Missions involving sex workers hit different when you’re a sex worker.

Christina was incandescent with rage at the Brotherhood

Grout’s mansion mission was a lot of “I have no interest in this nonsense.”

For the first time ever, I didn’t kill anyone during the Museum quest! This is because Christina ran very fast and Dominated every guard as quickly as possible. Every single fucking guard knew she was there, but could do nothing about it, because they were dancing. The door to the sarcophagus locked (it will do this if too many guards are agro), but locked doors are no match for noclip hack.

Entertaining image of a tall woman absolutely blasting into this museum room and Beckett tackling her to the floor like wait! I must snark at you! You are legally obligated to speak with me!

Isaac is still somehow a pretty chill guy to work with if you’re Camarilla.

Christina didn’t visit VV or Ash. Interestingly, Ash didn’t show up at the hunter monastery later. Did he just die in his club? Is he still there, waiting, deciding?

Christina @ Andrei: what the fuck is this shit

“I don’t care. It’s ugly. Clean it up.”

SEWERS.

Not as bad as I was expecting

Did take shortcut, run away from fights, ducked out in the middle for a snack, and bring 7 blue blood packs tho

Gary threatened to shred her face with a cheese grater, which I thought was Toreador only dialog?? It must be connected to the Appearance Stat. Which Christina has maxed out.

When Heather became Christina’s ghoul, I was delighted because I thought this meant Christina would always have fresh blood.

No

If you ask to feed on her too soon after the last time, Heather says she feels light headed and wants to lie down. The dialog exits out

I love you, Heather bb

Perfected the art of nudging NPCs into corners

Mitnick’s quests now feature Enforced Nap Time for all guards

Seriously, Dominate is ridiculously powerful, hooooly shit. I get why people like it. I also like it when people do things I ask them to do.

Christina can’t sneak, but she CAN strongly encourage everyone to choke on their own tongues.

Very high contrast in the beginning of the game: 2 punches would knock her over, but anyone she spoke to would obey immediately and without question

Chinatown goes by ridiculously fast if you can’t sneak and don’t do any sidequests besides Mitnick’s.

For the first time ever, Zhao survived! This is because Christina made him take a nap.

He just told her to leave

You’re welcome, my good dude

IDK if it’s a game glitch, but Christina would vocalize? In battle, she grunts with effort and pain.

Got to the point where I kept expecting Dominate dialog in every interaction and would get disappointed if it didn’t show up. What do you mean I have to actually convince people? That’s lame.

Christina was polite and charming to Ming Xiao, who also conveyed a deeper betrayal than normal at the end. ;-;

I promise to give you a Ventrue boy toy soon, Xiao

Finale arc quests went by VERY FAST because Christina can’t sneak for shit. Just run in, Dominate blazing

You can skip the outside bit of the Hallowbrook Hotel if you find the open door on the top level what the fuuuuuuuuuCK

[“A Little Party Never Killed Nobody” plays while Christina wipes out the Sabbat in 10 minutes]

Andrei disappeared mid-fight and didn’t come back until I complained that only I was allowed to run away from boss fights

I’m categorizing “triggering the interaction to save Heather” as something quite difficult to do. The timing has to be just right. I’ve missed it twice now. BUT hacking into the game to save her is easy.

I love you, Heather bb

Final Beckett talk had the vibe of “You’re a very different person than me, but you’re also High Humanity and trying to do good. You don’t deserve to die.”

Damsel threatens to kick the shit out of Christina and is extremely reluctant to tell her where Nines is

“Out of all people, they send you? All right, let’s just talk terms.” - Nines because Christina was short with him one (1) time

WEREWOLF HARD

You can just?? Walk out of your haven?? Without speaking to Jack at all???

I didn’t do that

But I could have

[”Dust in the Wind” plays while Christina kills entire Camarilla hit squad in 3 minutes]

You can visit Mercurio and Trip on your way out of Santa Monica??

Mercurio makes no comment on the blood hunt. Business as usual with him. This is fine.

Christina: I’m SO going to adopt that ghoul. And perhaps Isaac can be convinced to part with Romero...

(For the first time ever, my PC boinked Romero. Twice, to receive the break up email)

This is definitely a glitch, but Christina brushed up against Caine, and a worried voice said, “Are you all right?” It sounded like the same voice actor, but a higher pitch?

Always nice to think about Caine demonstrating care

Christina asked Caine who he is, and Caine replied that he “gets people where they’re going. [He’s] a driver,”  which is a nice nod (lol) to both his literal job as a driver and as a shepherd/creator/god to Kindred. Caine creates and makes fate.

Caine triple checks with Christina that she’s sure Strauss won’t betray her. Thanks, Vampire Dad. :’D

For some reason, only other Ventrue guarded LaCroix’s tower. I wonder if this is intentional. Like all the other Camarilla Clans backed Strauss and left? So only LaCroix’s Ventrue lackeys remain? Anyway, it created some weird moments where Christina fought her double.

KILL YOUR DOUBLE

Sheriff laughed in haughty joy that he was to kill Christina. I don’t remember him laughing in other playthroughs.

Christina ruining Caine and Jack’s prank oh noes