#Can we talk about how INCREDIBLY BADASS THIS ENTIRE SECTION WAS?!
Explore tagged Tumblr posts
Text
He's about to board his opponent for a heart to heart, litterally!
We love a Gildedguy that does not fuck around! :D
#gildedguy#dragon of Mar#Can we talk about how INCREDIBLY BADASS THIS ENTIRE SECTION WAS?!#THE FUNNY LITTLE KNIGHT GUY PULLED A JAEGER ON US!!#That was NOT on my bingo card but I do not regret a THING!!#âOh yeah my dad was an engineer with gold powersâ NO SHIT#He took more from his father than he thinks! XD#But the creativity to do THIS with it?? absolutely insane#I will never recover
55 notes
·
View notes
Text
Honestly, Iâm so over the endless hate for Star Wars Outlaws. Itâs ridiculous.
I don't understand how people have been so quick to dismiss Outlaws entirely while theyâre perfectly fine with EA jerking off Cal Kestis for yet another game despite how truly terrible Jedi Survivor was. That game threw everything that made Fallen Order a an enjoyable experience out of the window, spat all over the lore, and left us with a main character whoâs impossible to root for, but sure, letâs keep giving that a free pass.
But somehow, Outlawsâa game that actually respects the Star Wars universe, gives us a fresh, compelling character in Kay Vess, and is genuinely fun to playâgets all this hate? Why? Because itâs not feeding the same stale jedi-power fantasy? Because Kay isnât another generic, hyper-polished protagonist? Or maybe, and yes, Iâm going thereâmaybe a lot of the backlash comes from the fact that Kay Vess doesnât look like the women those people have saved in their Instagram wank bank. Sheâs a badass criminal with actual depth who doesnât fit into the Instagram-filtered dream girl mould these critics are clutching onto like a mynock on a power cable.
This game is hands down one of the best Star Wars games Iâve ever played. The world-building, the characters, the storyâall of it is just incredible. But of course, the internet is full of complaints from people who probably havenât even bothered to play the game. Like, come back to me when youâve actually completed Toshara, and then we can have a real conversation.
If you canât appreciate what this game brings to the Star Wars universe, then maybe itâs not for you. But donât come at me with your uninformed takes. I am exhausted with tags and comment sections filled to capacity with hot-takes from people with only a casual knowledge of Star Wars lore pretending to be experts just because they liked Empire Strikes Back that one time. Hereâs a thought: how about you actually learn something about the universe before making random, baseless criticisms?
If you donât know what youâre talking about, maybe donât talk.
I stand by this game, and I stand by Kay Vess. Star Wars Outlaws is amazing, and no amount of moof-milker whining is going to change that.
#(tw:negativity)#(tw:fandom commentary)#((i can't stand jedi survivor - sorry if you enjoyed it - but i definitely did not))#((perspective: sw:survivor is the only star wars game - and i've played ALL of them - that I couldn't bring myself to finish))#((it was just that bad.))#((i hate everything in that game.))#(( everything))
6 notes
·
View notes
Text
Having finished Dawntrail's msq yesterday, I figured I'd toss my review into the ring. I was hyped for the expansion for sure, but I kept my expectations low due to witnessing two back-to-back overhyped WoW expansions that were incredibly bad - in story, gameplay, and overarching expansion systems. Needless to say, I've been burned before in the mmo expansion circuit because of Warlords of Draenor, Battle for Azeroth, and Shadowlands - and quite badly by the latter two - but my overall feelings regarding Dawntrail are highly positive. I've put my deeper thoughts below the cut, as they'll be pretty spoilery. And quite long, as I'll be comparing and contrasting FFXIV and WoW's approach to expansions, characterization, and how they handle launches.
A lot of people would say that the story drags, but I love some good world building. I honestly really enjoyed the "back to basics" approach that the first half of expansion's story took - going around to meet the different people of Tural and learning about their cultures. It took me back to the early days of ARR where you're just a guy doing what they can to help people, and as a WoW refugee to FFXIV, an approach I definitely prefer over being THE Hero who often got sidelined in the big moments so Jaina/Anduin/Thrall could do their thing. Only this time, we're the ones doing the mentoring instead of the Scions/our Job Trainer being the mentor to us. True, we only had a few moments of actual mentoring, but there were plenty of "silent talking" moments that you can opt to fill in with giving Wuk Lamat advice.
There was only one true hiccup to my enjoyment of the Rite of Succession half of the expansion, and I'm sure it's also on everyone else's list of hated moments this expansion - Wuk Lamat's kidnapping. I get it's supposed to establish that Wuk Lamat's still a bit too trusting and naive to rule Tural, that Bakool Ja Ja is a true threat to the Rite, and give us some bonding time with Koana, but this section dragged on far too long. And it had two stealth follow segments in a row! TWO! Granted, they're a bit easier now with the big "DO NOT APPROACH" aura compared to how they worked in Endwalker, but it's still my least favorite gameplay mechanic.
The zone and dungeon designs were gorgeous, and the music team 100% hit it out of the park again. Out of all the early story areas, I think that the lower portion of Yak'Tel has to be my favorite, as well as Skydeep Cenote being my favorite dungeon. The music in that dungeon is appropriately haunting, given that it's a mass grave for all the failed Blessed Siblings that never had a chance to live. Speaking of...
I did not expect to enjoy Bakool Ja Ja's character as much as I did. He was introduced as a bully, willing to do whatever it took to be crowned Tulliyolal's new leader. Then the Mamool Ja storyline happened in lower Yak'Tel and my view of him did a complete 180. He was a guy who shouldered the hopes and expectations of his people due to the circumstances of his birth, but carried all the guilt of being the one to survive while other Blessed Siblings did not. Having a sympathetic antagonist is nothing new for FFXIV, but he never truly was a villain at heart. Seeing his growth as the msq went on was wonderful. I hope we get to interact more with him as a friend instead of an antagonist with patch content.
Going back to my earlier point of being sidelined so the Big Name characters can do their thing, it does happen in Dawntrail, but not in a way that felt overly egregious to me? It's entirely possible it didn't bother me as much because we were there to see Lamaty'i's growth first-hand versus needing to track down and spend real money on outside media to read about how Character A went from a normal person to certified Grade A Badass, which was the case more often than not between WoW expansions. I mean, I was floored when I first started playing and they kept the "next expansion preview" quests in-game versus an event that runs for about two weeks and is gone forever once time's up, so there's also that to consider.
As for the two "main" big bads of the expansion, I have mixed feelings. Zalool Ja was a far cry from the Saturday Morning Cartoon villains of WoW or the ARR days and I found him actually far more compelling than the other villain who I'll get into later.
2 notes
·
View notes
Note
hi, this is my first ever ask so I'm not sure I'm doing this correctly, if that's the case I'm sorry; I don't know how tumblr works just yet >:')
would it be possible for you to write something about bakugo, pining incredibly hard for fem!reader and initially hating how strongly he feels about her? because they're not even friends, they only exchange few words occasionally and she doesn't even glance at his way whereas he slowly finds himself unable to divert his eyes from her during classes? shes always with damn deku and his friends and doesn't even seem interested in him at all but his heart can't ignore the way she looks at him proudly whenever they spar together, the way she sends him small confident smiles as they fight each other with all they have; so he thinks that maybe, maybe he might have a chance. basically bakugo liking reader so much he's completely lost in self-hatred because he always thought feelings were for weak romantics and not great people like him, but everytime he sees reader doing some badass things (again, like sparring with him and basically matching his skills etc...) he's reminded of how badly he likes reader? but when he finally accepts he's fallen for reader, after ignoring and trying to forget about how she makes him feel, he masters up the courage to confess? and it's a very clumsy confession because he's awkward and has no idea how to deal with those feelings? and he tries so hard to make reader realise he's never been more serious than now? and reader is startled and speechless before rejecting him? and at that point he's just completely humiliated, so he nods and walks away.
it might be a little dramatic but I've always been into unrequited love and one-sided pining. thank you, its okay if you don't want to write about this, i'll understand <33
đ«đ»đŸđœđȘđ” - đŽ. đ«đȘđŽđŸđ°đžđŸ
character(s): katsuki bakugou x fem!reader (my hero academia)Â
reblogs are greatly appreciated!Â
a/n: AHHHHH this is so cute <33 honestly this is super exciting for me and this ask made me so happy, lovey. iâm fairly new to tumblr, iâm usually just a reader but i wanted to migrate here from wattpad so this made me so happy. here u are my love <33 i hope this lives up to what u wanted !! :)) a bit lengthy, but i had a lot of fun writing it !!!Â
summary: bakugou finds heâs rejecting his feelings for you in fear of becoming weak, however he just canât seem to ignore you.Â
genre: fluffy, fluffier than the clouds istg, however the clouds are sprinking a little teeny weeny droplet of angst.Â
warnings: cursing (bakugou, duhh), one-sided pining (on bakugouâs part) second hand embarrassment (on bakugouâs part bc we can all agree heâs a complete idiot when it comes to trying to get someoneâs attention), just bakugou being a jackass, i gave the reader a quirkÂ
word count: 3,859Â
(pls excuse any typos or mistakes, i edited to the best of my ability but i miss some things sometimes !)Â
- - -Â
part 2 is here my loves <3
brutal. it was utterly ruthless. he couldnât focus, couldnât think right. his hands were already exceptionally sweaty, but gosh when he saw your damn face, he was ready to explode. literally.Â
what the hell was it about you? was it your stupid smile? or the way you just seemed to carry every battle on your back? was it all the undeniably sweet things you do for others âjust becauseâ?Â
it made him angry that he thought about you, but gosh he couldnât wait to see you every day.Â
just like any other day, bakugou found himself staring at the large door to the classroom, awaiting the moment you would bounce into his day, skirt shifting around your legs, bag slung loosely around your shoulders.Â
his leg was bouncing eagerly.Â
bakugou didnât know when the feelings came. his cheeks just started flaring up all of a sudden and one day you just looked...different. you hadnât done anything different to yourself. it was just him. not that he would ever admit that, to you or anybody else.Â
you were insufferable. you were stupid and obnoxious and so...so damn...Â
ây/n! come look at this!âÂ
youâd come walking into class just as expected, and as soon as you did, that stupid nerd had called you over.Â
it didnât help that deku sat right behind him, either. the two of you had recently gotten closer. bakugou noticed it last month when he yelled at the two of you to shut up about all might and get to work. heâd turned around to find you leaning over deku, hands resting on his shoulders while you peered at his phone.Â
âsorry, bakugou,â youâd said, barely acknowledging him. you had waved him off like an annoying fly. is that all you were to him? some nuisance that got in the way of your oh-so-entertaining conversations with deku?Â
all he heard nearly every day was your chipper voice talking to deku. always, âoh my gosh, midoriya, did you see the fight edgeshot was in last night?â or âmidoriya! i have something to add to our quirk analysis book!âÂ
that was the one that took the cake. you two dorks shared a notebook, occasionally passed between one another, and filled it with junk about quirks and pro heroes. but no matter how much he tried to tune you out, no matter how he tried to zone off and think about something else, you were always there. it made him want to vomit how much he thought about you.Â
you were doing an adorable shuffle over to midoriyaâs desk and leaned over the table as you usually did while he angled his phone your way. âdid you see this hero report?âÂ
deku let you slip the phone out of his grasp to get a better look.Â
âno,â you breathed. âwas this just recent?âÂ
âyeah,â deku said, taking the phone back. âlast night.âÂ
âholyââÂ
âcan you guys shut up over there?â bakugou said, his voice quaking.Â
âsorry, kacchan.â deku scrolled through the article.Â
dammit, bakugou thought. âi wasnât talking to you, nerd. i was talking to shitface over here.â he jerked his head towards you. his eyes flared in anger when he saw you were looking down at your phone, now focused in on the article yourself. âi was talking to you, asshat!âÂ
your eyes flicked up to his. you looked around for a moment before slowly pointing to yourself as if to say, âme?âÂ
his face scrunched. âyeah, you. youâre so damn loud.â gosh, he hated how his voice was cracking, how he could feel his ears and cheeks lighting up in a swollen, cherry red. his stomach flipped.Â
sheâs looking at you, gosh iâm sweating. iâm going to throw up. sheâs so gorgeous. what the hell? theyâre ugly as shit, i donât think anything of them.Â
his eyes bore into yours.Â
âdid you...need something?âÂ
your voice broke his trance.Â
âkacchan, are you okay? you dozed off there for a second. you look like youâre burning up.âÂ
bakugou looked to deku who was currently stretching out of his seat, arm extended. he pressed the back of his hand to bakugouâs forehead. âyouâre really warm, kacchan. should we call recovery girl?âÂ
it took him a moment to realize what was happening. his vision got blurry every time he was with you. bakugou smacked dekuâs hand away. âiâm fine!â his voice lifted at the end, cracking. âiâm not sick. donât you think iâd take better care of myself?âÂ
âi donât doubt you take good care of yourself, kacchan, but everyone gets sick once in a while. thereâs nothing wrong with that.âÂ
âi never get sick!â besides, if i got sick, i wouldnât want you to be the one taking care of me.Â
he was still pissed. he was always in a bad mood, however, more so right now because youâd gone straight back to your phone and that stupid hero article that was supposedly so damn interesting.Â
soon enough, the bell rang, and you were seated at your desk. it was jirouâs old spot, however, after much convincing, you two had switched spots so you could be closer to deku. just a few months of getting close to the idiot and you two are suddenly best friends. jirou hadnât minded one tiny bit, claiming she needed a break from how loud that section of the room was.Â
late as always, aizawa came trudging into your room. thankfully, his entire body wasnât obscured by a yellow sleeping bag that smelled of something unwashed and coffee and gasoline. (for some reason, aizawaâs clothes always smelled of it.)Â
âlucky for you,â he began while shuffling papers on his desk, âall of you are doing training for these first periods.â
the class cheered in perfect unison, followed by their individual chatter. you had erupted with glee along with them, and bakugou was sure he felt his heart clench and then explode. just a tiny bit. but he shoved the feeling down just as quickly as it had come up.Â
âgo out to the field and wait for further instructions. donât make a sound in the halls otherwise, iâll expel all of you.âÂ
this shut everyone up in almost a second, the sound draining out just as water does. the first years trailed out into the hall, single-file mimicking the positions baby ducklings would take when following their mother.Â
bakugou found himself walking faster when he saw you take up your spot in the line, hoping to land his spot right behind you.Â
unfortunately, this idiot who considered himself bakugouâs friend tugged him back. âbakugou!â a familiar voice rasped.Â
âshitty hair, let go of me.âÂ
âhey man, chill out. wanna partner up if weâre doing training in pairs?âÂ
bakugou glanced at the line, the spot that should have been reserved for him now taken up by sato.Â
bakugou tugged his sleeve from kirishimaâs hand. âwhatever,â he snapped.Â
âsounds good!â kirishima flashed him a toothy grin and a thumbs-up. the bubbly feeling in bakugouâs chest died down as he stood behind sato, the overwhelming scent of sugar filling his nose, various candies that would go straight to your arteries.Â
âyou smell like ass, damn,â bakugou remarked, squeezing his nostrils together.Â
luckily, sato was tall enough to not hear the insult, as he towered over bakugou by just another head. the line began moving like a sloppy train down to the change rooms.Â
bakugou scoffed as he listened to your giggle. he should be making you laugh.Â
-Â
âyouâll be given partners randomly from this box.â aizawa held up a familiar red box. âinside are all your names. iâll select one, then that person will come up and pick another name from the box. that will be your assigned partner for today. as soon as you have your assigned partner, i want you guys to get straight to work.âÂ
denki raised a hand, speaking before being called on. âsensei, why are we getting random partners? weâre always allowed to choose.âÂ
âin the real world, youâre going to come across different villains every day. youâll never improve your skills or your quirks if you keep fighting the same person.âÂ
denki sighed, slumping back.Â
dammit, bakugou thought, gritting his teeth together. there wasnât any way he wanted to be partners with you. itâs obvious heâd win the fight in the first few seconds.Â
yes! exactly right! bakugou internally grinned. his fluctuating feelings had finally soothed themselves. you were just another extra, and he had no room for you in his head.Â
aizawa took a moment to fiddle with the slips of paper inside the box. soon enough, he pulled out a name. âtodoroki.âÂ
todoroki walked up, digging his hand into the box when aizawa held it out for him. he pulled out a name, delicately unraveling the slip. âuraraka, youâre my partner.â he deadpanned.Â
the brunette grinned. âgreat!âÂ
the two found their own spot on the field, and the classâs attention was once again diverted to their grouchy teacher as he pulled out another name.Â
âbakugou.âÂ
bakugou strutted up without a worry in his mind. he pulled a name to find...Â
ây/n,â he said, voice a low growl. instead of the annoying fluttering in his chest, his eyes met yours, and they were filled with a different, new ferocity. he crumpled the paper in one hand, letting it twirl to the ground.Â
you looked at him, unsmiling. your eyes gave away nothing, and to bakugouâs knowledge, all you saw in him was another opponent.Â
it took him a moment to realize you had both locked eyes for about a minute. perhaps the two of you would have stayed as you were if aizawa hadnât snapped at the two of you to get moving as yaomomoâs name was called.Â
bakugou was on his way to the back of the field, you followed close behind. while there was plenty of room still, he chose a secluded area. while it was still open enough to view everything going on so nobody got hurt, it was often nobody chose to train here. for whatever reason, you werenât sure.Â
âwait up, bakugou,â you said. after a bit, you caught up to him.Â
âif you canât keep up, then...â then what? he looked at you from the side of his eye. âthen donât keep up...â gosh, here came the embarrassing, disgusting feeling of redness in his cheeks.Â
you laughed. âwhat?âÂ
âshut up.âÂ
âyouâre an idiot, bakugou.âÂ
âi said shut the hell up!â
âwhat, so you can call me shitface in front of the entire class but you get all pissed when i call you an idiot?âÂ
so you had heard him!Â
he tongued his cheek, curling his hands around an invisible ball, explosions sparking in the centers of his palms. âdonât expect me to hold back, dumbass.âÂ
âi wouldnât dream of it.âÂ
gosh he loved that about you.Â
bakugou caught his thought in the air.Â
ahem...gosh he hated that about you.Â
you both charged in at the same time. his cry was louder than yours, but you struck first.Â
he admired your quirk. while heâd overhead you explaining all the drawbacks it had, it was strong, and you were strong because you knew how to control it.Â
purple arrows flew from your arms, going in your desired directions. if you lost focus for one moment, theyâd vanish and weaken. if you focused too hard or long, youâd be plagued by a splitting headache.Â
heâd spent too much time obsessing over your strengths and weaknesses. Â
your arrows were weightless, however they were solid objects capable of carrying any mass, any thing, and worked as extensions of your body.Â
the violet arrow had shot out at him, twisting around his right gauntlet and crushing inwards. itâd snaked around him without him noticing, slithering along his back.Â
bakugou struggled to get the air-light arrow off his wrist, but it was no use. he glared back, only to see your focused, furrowed brows. heâd expected to see your cocky ass smiling. it was nice to see you werenât.Â
that was one thing that had also caught his eye. you never underestimate your opponent, but you never underestimate yourself, either.Â
you conjured a larger arrow. it snaked around your right arm as you hurled bakugou into the air, releasing your grasp on him. you shot your other arrow into the air, and it raced into the sky.Â
it swerved. bakugouâs eyes went wide as the tip of the arrow came down on his chest. if they werenât intangible things, he would have been bleeding out.Â
another drawback: the arrows, while they could solidify, they couldnât do any actual damage. you had to use your surroundings to inflict harm on your opponent.Â
he coughed out as the arrow shot him into the ground. he hadnât even touched you, and here he was, vulnerable and so...so...Â
you stood over him, hands on your hips.Â
vulnerable and so lost in that adorable, winning smile.Â
âget away from me, idiot,â he grunted and turned onto his side, his back crying out in pain.Â
âi think i won this fight, bakugou,â you chirped, rocking on your heels.Â
âdonât get arrogant, shithead. you wonât be winning against me anymore.âÂ
you grinned, arrows shooting out behind your back.Â
-Â
the dorms were exceptionally quiet. you were typing away in the common room, bakugou on the couch reading. everyone was off doing something else. it was the weekend, luckily. heâd expected you to go bounding out with everyone else, however youâd stayed back, claiming you had some homework to catch up on.Â
bakugou being classic bakugou had stayed back. he was excited to have the dorm to himself, but your dumbass was stuck here with him. couldnât you have done your typing in your room?Â
you were so aggressive on that poor keyboard.Â
âoi, quiet down with your shit typing.âÂ
you barely grunted in response.Â
âdonât ignore me.âÂ
âi heard you, mom.âÂ
âthe hell did you call me?âÂ
no response. only your aggressive typing is a bit less aggressive.Â
âi can still hear it,â bakugou remarked, eyes fixed on your back.Â
ââkay,â you said. your typing slowed a tad, and your pressure on the keys lessened.Â
it was quiet now. bakugou should go back to his book. he shouldnât still be looking for a reason to talk to you.Â
the pages crinkled in his fingers. he bit his tongue, keeping his snarky comments in.Â
âyouâre a fucking idiot, you know that? doing your damn homework. itâs due tomorrow.âÂ
you turned, pursing your lips. âand how would you know what iâm working on? are you stalking me?âÂ
âi- what? no. youâre such an idiot, of course iâm notââÂ
âiâm messing with you,â you breathed, face un-moving.Â
âo-oh,â bakugou stuttered out. he blinked awkwardly.Â
âgosh, whatâs gotten your panties in a twist?âÂ
âyouâre annoying.âÂ
âyouâre a jackass.â you returned to your work. bakugou settled with reading in his room. reading consisted of jumping onto his bed just as the stereotypical high school girl would in an eighties movie. he buried his face in his pillow, face burning bright red. he cursed you for making him feel this way, and hated himself even more for how much he enjoyed it.Â
-Â
the next day came swiftly. youâd left early to go train with midoriya. there were many improvements needed to be made, but you werenât doing too bad.
you propelled yourself forwards with an arrow, and your green-haired friend shot back, lightning flickering around his body.Â
landing back on the ground, you panted and swiped the sweat from your brow. from the corner of your eye, you could make out both kirishima and bakugou coming to the training grounds.Â
bakugou stopped in his tracks, frowning at the sight of you.Â
it was evident he hated you a bit more than everyone else. he was always making his annoying comments, he was always snubbing you. you saw no reason to talk to him, so you didnât. either way, even if you tried, he would still get angry for no reason.Â
itâd taken you quite some time to get used to his obnoxious attitude. tuning him out had been the best course of action, in your opinion.Â
the way you and midoriya had bonded was through bakugou, in a way. the first day of school, bakugou had snapped at you for tripping over your laces and nearly crashing into him. later that day, midoriya had stepped up and apologized for his old friendâs actions.Â
you two had never been too close until now. the recent incidents going on with the league of villains had snagged your attention, and it seemed you were the only person who didnât mind listening to him ramble on about heroes.Â
you were just as passionate and just as dorky, but midoriya could talk your ear off. you never minded, and he always took the hint when you didnât want to listen.Â
you brought your leg up, twirling in the air with ease and watched your heel collide with midoriyaâs face. he grunted, stumbling back.Â
you were about to charge in again when a hand landed on your shoulder, big and rough. you turned to see bakugou standing behind you, a scowl on his face.Â
âfight me again,â he demanded.Â
âexcuse me?âÂ
âdonât act like you didnât hear me.âÂ
âiâm in the middle of fighting midoriya right now.âÂ
âso?â
âso if you think that iâm just going to ditch my friend because you want to fight, i wonât.âÂ
âyouâre being stubborn.âÂ
âiâm being reasonable. back off.âÂ
ây/n?â midoriya rubbed his jawâright where you had struck him. âwhatâs going on?â he jogged up to you and bakugou.Â
âhe wants to fight me in the middle of our fight. itâs nothing serious. donât worry about it, midoriya. letâs just ignore him.âÂ
bakugou made a sound someone would only make if they were choking. âthe hell did you just say?âÂ
âweâre ignoring you!â you waved him off and placed your hand on midoriyaâs shoulder, wandering away.Â
-
it was new to him, not getting what he wanted. and what he wanted right now was to be around you. again, it wasnât like he would ever admit that to himself.Â
âdude? you good? i thought you went off to fight y/n. i was so ready to cheer you on, dude,â kirishimaâs chipper voice piped in. âsheâs not fighting with you? why not?âÂ
âthe dumbass was just probably scared of getting her ass beat by me.âÂ
âdude...that sounds really weird.âÂ
âwhatever, shitty hair. letâs go.âÂ
-Â
the clock ticked. his ears were on fire. again.Â
gosh, it was happening again. it was all you. his face scrunched up, his voice would surely crack if someone were to ask him what was wrong.Â
bakugou was once again stuffing his face in his pillow, hiding his expression from no one. why did you have to go train with that shitty nerd? why were you always around deku? deku, of all people. what did he have? why was he so great?Â
bakugou was a man of many insecurities, but losing to deku? that was possibly his biggest fear.Â
perhaps he wasnât the nicest, or the most soft person out there. bakugou could admit that, at least. but he was smarter than deku. he was stronger and he was better and people liked him more. right?Â
what was so...amazing about deku?Â
it was often bakugou would find himself obsessing over little, insignificant things such as these.Â
you were what he was thinking of most of the time. just yesterday, heâd gotten a test returned. he was expecting an eighty at the lowest, but more so expecting a high ninety. itâd come back exactly sixty percent.Â
sixty. percent.
bakugou vividly remembered staring at your face. he also remembered not being able to focus because of it. his grades were dropping because of you.Â
you were the only person to be able to do this to him.Â
his heart grew quiet, but the pounding of his didnât cease. he lifted his head.Â
âalright, fine,â he said aloud. âyou win, y/n. you win.âÂ
he settled with getting over his feelings the way heâd read them in his collection of romance manga.Â
bakugou left his room and knocked on your door. (he was banging on it, but it was his nice way of knocking.)Â
you answered, looking around awkwardly. âyes?âÂ
his hands shook. how was this supposed to go? sure, heâd seen it in romance movies and read it in books but it was always easy to tell whether the guy would get the girl or not.Â
in this instance, bakugou was clueless. for once in his life, he was clueless. you stood, tapping your foot with a hand on your hip, waiting expectantly for him to tell you why he was here.Â
âum.â he scratched behind his neck. âyou uh- i uh...iâm sorry i called you a, um...a shitface.âÂ
âokay? is that it?âÂ
what? come on! it was already unlike him to apologize. what else did you want from him?Â
âdid you...iâve been thinking, maybe? maybe we could..train together as...friends?â Â
â...what?âÂ
gosh dammit, as friends?Â
âwhatever, um...the uh...â oh gosh, what did the boys do in all the books heâd read? right! bakugou stretched out his arm, resting his forearm on the door, leaning to the side.Â
although he didnât, really, because like the clumsy jackass he was, bakugou missed completely and nearly toppled to the floor.Â
this earned a snicker from you.Â
his stomach flipped and churned, and bakugou found himself unable to reach your eyes. âuh, would you maybe..? okay, um. do you want to go on a date with me? you absolute fucking dumbass.âÂ
your eyes flew wide. â...what?âÂ
âno, thatâs not what iâ i mean i didnât mean the last part. um, i meant the first part. the first two parts. the part where i was asking you if you wanted to go on a date with me and then before that when i said maybe because itâs still a maybe until you say yes. or...or no because thatâs an option too.âÂ
he swallowed.Â
you resisted the urge to mock him, just a little bit. âum, bakugou, listen.âÂ
he leaned closer. âyes?âÂ
âitâs going to be a no. iâm sorry, but iâm just not interested in you like that.âÂ
it took him a moment to register everything. his shoulders sagged. gosh that was brutal.Â
âoh, alright.âÂ
âyeah, uh, sorry about that.â you offered him a weak smile, still a bit shocked yourself. he did his best to return it, and when you closed the door, his face was ready to explode.Â
it was so damn difficult to deal with these feelings, but maybe it was better this way. knowing where you stood on your end, he knew he wouldnât miss out on anything.Â
perhaps it was alright to admire from afar. things could happen in the future, right?Â
right now, heâd just wait. for a long, long time. bakugou pressed a hand to his chest, feeling his erratic heartbeat. maybe it was alright to not have you right now. perhaps he could better himself for you. just for you.Â
#bakugou fluff#bakugou angst#bakugou katuski x reader#bakugou#bnha#mha#x reader#fanfic#fanfiction#izuku midoriya#deku#my hero academia#uraraka#angst#fluff#ask#request#anime#bakugou x reader#uraraka ochacho#boku no hero academia#boku no hero bakugou#kacchan#todoroki#kirishima#mha eijirou#eijirou kirishima#denki kaminari
333 notes
·
View notes
Text
My Favorite Things About Every Arc of The Adventure Zone (so far)
I recently finished TAZ Ethersea and really want to just talk about all of the lovely characters that the boys have given us. Feel free to add your own in whatever ways you see fit.
Fair warning, this may be long folks
! There are potentially spoilers for every arc ahead so read at your own risk gang !
Balance
Magnus: Magnus Burnsidesâ whole journey throughout the campaign is wonderfully heartbreaking. Protector of a family he did not remember who also harbors a heartache for his second family that he lost. Travis was teased for having a bible of a backstory but I think in Magnusâ case it was entirely essential. So much of that background informed everything about Magnus and his constant protection of everyone (and every animal) around him makes so much sense narratively as well as mechanically and I think Travis did a phenomenal job.Â
Taako: Taako is a very deep character with a lot of complexity that you wouldnât know based on everything about him and I do not want to downplay that at all, however, my favorite thing about Taako is simply the aesthetic and the vibes. A king, an icon. We love to see it.
Merle: My favorite thing about Merle is his capacity for love and goodness. He always choses the path of love and joy and its incredibly important. For goodness sakes he asked the BBEG if they were friends. A sweetheart.
Favorite NPC: Angus McDonald
My favorite section of this season in particular has to be Eleventh Hour, the aesthetics were great, the concept was super cool and we got so many cool moments out of it.Â
See You Later is my favorite track from the season followed by Purple Worm.
Balance is such a labor of love and you can feel it through every part of the story and it never loses any luster no matter how many times you relisten to it.
Amnesty
Aubrey: Aubrey Little is a badass and that is incredibly important but I think what I like most about her is that she screws up a lot. I donât mean that I like that sheâs a failure, what I mean is that she isnât perfect. A lot of the time when playing games like these, there is a tendency (for some, certainly not all, we stan flawed characters in this house) to create do-gooder characters that have perfectly mastered their skills and perfectly save the day. Aubrey is not that. She makes mistakes all the time and recognizes that. The scene where she asks Janelle to take her magic away hits me every time because she thinks, and to a degree rightfully so, that she is a danger to those around her and she would rather give up her super cool magic fire powers than continue to do that. She continues to try and learn how her powers work and how to properly use them so it works out, but the moment was there. Aubrey Little has these incredible powers at her disposal but she is only human and I love her journey to pieces.
Duck: I relate to the tired vibes harder than I probably should for the age I am but thatâs probably okay. A reluctant chosen one is an incredibly interesting idea that I am super proud of Justin for coming up with. Duckâs destiny scares the living crap out of him and his reaction, though strange in a narrative format, would most likely be how a regular person would react to being given a grand cosmic destiny where you have to actually fight evil monsters. Duck is amazing and I love him.
Ned: Ned is hilarious but also, his entire arc during the Shapeshifter hunt was incredible. The letters still make me cry to this day. Its always super fascinating when a character who appears to be (as much as you can in an RPG) comic relief at the beginning, get incredibly serious further down the line. Ned cared so much about his friends and I am so glad that Griffin gave Clint the opportunities to take over the narrative for a little while to give us those speeches.
Thacker: A goofy guy with some really weird snacks. Thacker was not Ned that is for sure but, he was a very nice inclusion. I always like explorer characters and Thacker is interesting, having explored somewhere dangerous, suffering the consequences but coming back with valuable information for the team.
Favorite NPC:Â Barclay
My favorite hunt is the Hunt for The Beast, it is the first one and there is so much else in the season to love but the aesthetics and vibes of this one were incredible. My favorite section of narration comes from the end of the third episode! âWhich looks up at the sky, and then, with otherworldly malice, back down at the three of you...â
Amnestyâs and Graduationâs theme songs are tied for my favorites, they both make me smile so much.
The Amnesty Lodge themes are some of my favorite pieces of music ever. Never has any music ever made me feel as comforted as those two songs do.
This seasonâs vibe, setting, aesthetics, characters and inspirations are exactly my niche interest so, as much as I love all of the seasons of TAZ, Amnesty is by far my favorite.
Commitment
Nadia: We love a girl boss.Â
Kardala: I like the research that Justin did into creating the character, and in classic Justin fashion, made her the funniest character in the arc.
Remy: Heâs such a little guy. Remy is a springy little spiderman-esque guy who just wants to save the day.
Favorite NPC: N/A
Commitment is not my favorite of the seasons but I do like what Clint did with it, the story was unique and interesting.
Dust
Errol: A werewolf who wanted to president? Are you kidding? I love this little guy! I really liked that Errol lived in town but didnât necessarily fall in line with the werewolf pack there. Him, instead, having a street that he looks after and protects is such a nice image. That and his whole attitude and semi-awkward personality, Errol was very easily my favorite of the bunch (not that I didnât love the others)
Augustus: Augustus was an excuse for Justin to be hilarious with a ridiculous voice and I loved it.Â
Gandy: Her enthusiasm for many of the situations that arose during the investigation was really nice.Â
Favorite NPC: The Banshee
I loved this one! I continue to hope that they go back to Dust and even though that is unlikely, I still really liked the ideas behind this mini arc. A western, taking place at night, where werewolves and vampires make appearances, along with a whodunnit mystery taking place all at the same time? Sign me up! (Once again, an arc very much within my niche)
Graduation
Fitzroy: A king, honestly. Fitzroy is hilarious and such an interesting concept for Griffin to play. The voice and the vibes are immaculate and I am so proud of this boyâs progress. Also, heâs ACE!!!
Firbolg: Heâs so đ„ș. Thatâs the best I can articulate my thoughts.
Argo: My boy! Argo is such a sweet little guy who, just like his fellow roomies, did not deserve any of the bad things that had happened to them. Argonaut Keene is an absolute sweetheart and I wish him the best post canon fics. His voice and aesthetic are great. Also, heâs the first PC rogue! My class (and favorite subclass)!
Favorite NPC: Althea Song
School campaign!!! These boys deserve the very best and I loved every second of their journey. The entire campaign I was either aww-ing at the sweetness of the moments or cheering on these boysâ hairbrained schemes.Â
Ethersea
Devo: Devoâs accent is wonderful and I also really like how concerned he was about taking care of Beck and Skittles as well as his speech about saving the animals for future children to see and learn about. That speech in general got me to tear up a little bit given the state of our real life world.
Amber: I love sharks and I do not wish to see any harm come to them, however, the blink shark hunter thing coming back from the prologues was very funny and a welcome inclusion. It brought us some really cool moments with said sharks and I appreciated that. I also really liked how strong she was in her own opinions. No one was going to make her move. Not to mention the vibe checks were always awesome.
Zoox: Zooxâs journey of self discovery was very cool. I love that our little Brinar ended up being something all their own.
Favorite NPC: Olâ Joshy
What I think was most interesting about this season, beside the looming fear of anything being out there in the depths of the ocean, was that the boys made this world together. This was not something that one of them made for the purposes of the others playing in it. They played a separate game to make the world they would be playing in. It was intensely collaborative and I think that was really cool.Â
Cannot wait to see whatâs next!
#TAZ#taz spoilers#the adventure zone spoilers#the adventure zone#taz balance#taz amnesty#taz commitment#taz dust#taz graduation#taz ethersea#magnus burnsides#Taako#merle#aubrey little#duck newton#ned chicane#arlo thacker#taz remy#taz kardala#taz nadia#errol ryehouse#augustus parsons#gandy dancer#sir fitzroy maplecourt#argonaut keene#master firbolg#devo la main#amber gris#taz zoox
21 notes
·
View notes
Text
The Nightwing Suit
There are some absolutely incredible artists out here on tumblr, and seeing their fanart makes me cry tears of joy. Dick Grayson, one of my personal favs, is always a wonderful contender for fanart. His innate grace and agility and flexibility translate beautifully on the artistic spectrum. Bottom line: I love all the Nightwing fanart. However, there is something I want to address with his suit. Iâve been an aerialist ever since I was 7 years old, and Iâve taken gymnastics since I was 3. Now, I specialize in Lyra, while Dick obviously specializes in Trapeze, but when it comes to costume, weâve got many very important similarities.
DONâTS
When it comes to aerial, we want as much mobility and flexibility as possible. So here are some things that absolutely will not be on his suit.
1. Shoulder Pads. I will scream it from the rooftops if I have to. The Nightwing suit WILL NOT have shoulder pads!! Red Hood? Definitely. Red Robin? Those shoulder pads are important for bo staff strength and support. Robin? Damian probably doesnât need them, but they wonât hurt. Nightwing? No way. To me, one of the most important parts of my body when practicing and performing are my shoulders. They pull me into hangs and holds, let me rotate myself around, and basically support the rest of my body. This is partially due to user preference: I prefer arm-based stunts and hangs rather than leg based. But it honestly doesnât matter that much. Nightwing will absolutely need 100% use of his shoulders. Him being able to freely rotate them can be the difference between life and death with his style of fighting. Shoulder pads will just hamper that flexibility. I will admit that shoulder pads look badass, but in this one heroâs scenario? Shouldr pads are a no-go.
2. Sleek Arm Braces. Nightwing, while being well recognized as a solo hero, does often work with a team. And on a team, he isnât the type to huff angrily and say he can do this by himself. Emotionally? Yes, of course. Physically, and in a fight? He takes all the help he can get, with absolutely no would to his pride. When performing his flips and tricks and such, the other partner will grab hold of him by usually his hands or his arms. Iâm just going to straight up say: catching someone by their hands is a Bad Idea. You will not believe the speed we travel when we go through the air, and catching by the hands will lead to dislocations and pain. For a few stunts itâs okay, mainly for the visual aspect of a performance. But when itâs life and death combat? Hands are a last ditch effort if you canât catch someone by the arms. Because thatâs what really counts. The forearms. When Dick is fighting with someone, and that other person has the strength to catch him/throw him from a drop or a flip, they will catch him by the forearms. If Dickâs wearing sleek ân sexy arm braces, heâs going to slip right out of their grip. I prefer to keep my forearms bare, but in regards to protective armor, the fabric around the arms better have a grip.
3. Extra Fabric. This one is a given. However, I want to get into the specifics. When youâre in the air, momentum is your most powerful ally, and if thereâs anything opposing or hindering that momentum, that spells trouble. Extra fabric can sometimes be good, such as around the legs. Not too much, obviously, but wearing loose or baggy pants while fighting with Nightwingâs fighting style works (as long as you can, you know, actually fight in them and not trip over the extra cloth). Around the middle? Nuh-uh, nope. Anything looping around your waist, hips, or rib cage is a liability if itâs not skin tight. The belt that Robin often wears is okay, as long as itâs wrapped pretty tight around him and doesnât move. For the kind of stunts that Dick pulls off on a daily basis? I donât think anything but a skintight bodysuit will help. For arms, extra fabric is ~okay~ but not preferable. And anything strapped to his back, as long as itâs securely in place, will actually help his momentum (so his escrima sticks or any other weapon/item you want to put in there is fine). Nothing around the neck, at ALL. That one issue in Batman where Dick wears a scarf is hot as hell, and sort of makes sense because theyâre in the desert. But on missions, at the speed Nightwing fights and flies through the air, anything around his neck will choke him. This entire section definitely wasnât an excuse to say you should just keep Dick in a skintight outfit, nope, not at all.
4. Spandex. While weâre on the subject of skintight outfits, I just want to point something out that isnât necessarily important or anything. Itâs just a general preference for me. I prefer costumes with a little weight on them. The adrenaline rush is intense for some of my more advanced stunts, and those are things that I bet Dick would consider basic. I prefer something with a little substance/weight/texture to it. Nothing too serious, and nothing too restricting, just something to keep me grounded and focused. We all know how much Dick likes being in the air, but Iâm willing to bet he also needs a little extra touch to keep his head in the game. So if youâre designing a serious Nightwing suit, not for crack or fun headcanons or anything, I would steer clear from the spandex, gauze, and showy-light-gossamer fabrics. They do provide extra mobility and flexibility, but thatâs because theyâre one drop away from naked.
5. Joints. Okay this may seem a little contradictory based on the last point, but around the joints, especially hips and shoulders, the protective padding needs to ease up. Itâs one of the hardest areas on the body to injure, after all, even for a professional. And second, I know Iâm sounding like Iâm repeating the obvious, but flexibility is of utmost importance. If the fabric doesnât bend with Nightwing, then thereâs no point. It canât chafe, it canât grind against itself, it canât break. The material around major joints needs to be malleable.
Dos
Now that weâve got that out of the way, letâs talk about what you can absolutely add to Nightwingâs costume to give it either a little pizzazz, or just your own personal touch.
1. Boots. Yes yes yes, boots are an absolute must! And itâs not just me thinking thigh-high boots are cool. Coming out of a big drop and other major stunts requires rolling on your back and then onto your feet. But Nightwing doesnât fight with the one-hit-and-done style. (Thatâs more Jasonâs thing. He plants himself like a tree and puts power behind a punch, kinda like Bruce, which is why boots-especially boot soles- are important for them.) Nightwing gets in a punch and flips away, then bounces back and gets in a kick and flips away, then bounces back and gets in another kick and flips away. You see where Iâm going with this. Dick is constantly on the move, constantly on the verge of flipping back. The main way he does this is with his feet: landing lightly on the balls of his feet to absorb momentum before using that to hit back. Boots with fricion-specific soles are important, he cannot slide or skid. Also, ones that go higher up arenât bad either: extra support is always welcome. As long as they donât cover his knees and allow for ankle flexibility, theyâre good to go. They may even help stop ankle dislocation. Anything you want to add to the boots? Go ahead. As long as itâs not gauzy ribbon or something too extra, or something that can easily get caught in something else, itâs good to go. In my performances, I like to cover my shins with something, it can range from simple high socks or performance boots to go with my costume. I particularly like Damianâs long lace up boots, especially in Super Sons. Itâs a cute outfit, and it wonât hinder his fighting at all. As long as Dick double knots, he can wear those, and any other variants of boots.
2. Gloves. Iâm not actually sure if Dick has ever been called âFingerstripesâ in canon, but Iâve seen it in fanon plenty of times. Regardless, itâs one of my favorite nicknames for him, and it does have a basis. The stripes on his gloves are an awesome artistic choice, and useful too. Assuming they have a different texture than the rest of his gloves, those fingerstripes could help with grip. Grip is one of the most important tools an aerialist can have. I have had grown men look at me with shock when they shake my hand because of my firm grip (and the calluses, ugh). I firmly believe that Dick Grayson has one of the strongest grips in the DC non-meta world, and I bet you he surpasses even a good amount of metas. Having a good, no-slip grip is essential, even if youâre just swinging from the surface for a second, or if the surface is another partnerâs hand. Gloves, once again as long as theyâre not too restricting, would be awesome with helping with that.
3. Wrist Braces. I said before that Dick canât have arm braces because of the whole partner-grip thing. But with the amount of force and pressure Dick exerts on his hands on a daily basis, dislocations and sprains should be as common as a bruise. Hell, Iâm sitting here typing this and my left wrist is sprained. Fanfic writers, hereâs a helpful tip: you can write Dick with a sprained or dislocated or just a plain sore wrist anytime at all, and having him rub his hands with a grimace, rubbing lotion onto them, or doing wrist exercises in his free time is a go-to for if you need anything filler. Or, you know, it could even be part of the plot. Wrist braces help with this, they keep the joints in place and add a little extra stability to his movements. As long as theyâre not interfering with wrist mobility, wrist braces are a very very good idea. When you think how long, think about the length of Peter Parkerâs handmade web shooters. Long enough to be there, but not immediately noticeable. Also, make sure the material is something cloth, wrap, or gauze based. Anything too hard could scrape against the skin, cause cuts and bruises, and even cut off circulation. Unless itâs armor, itâs not comfortable or easy to do aerial maneuvers with.
4. Back Harness. To be honest, I have no idea what the official name for this piece of equipment even is. But the thing that holds Nightwingâs escrima sticks to his back. The thing that holds Deadpoolâs katanas (in the movies, not the comics). The back-strap-harness thingy. Thatâs a go-for-it when it comes to costumes. Not only does it look badass and hot when itâs on your costume and you draw your weapons from it seamlessly like a boss, itâs practical and doesnât interfere with your fighting at all. As I said, a majority of Nightwingâs moves rely on momentum. The back harness thingy wonât harm that at all. As long as itâs strapped to your back, unmoving and steady, it stays out of the way and may actually help you with your momentum. Drawing weapons from it is easy and seamless, and one of the quickest moves you can perfect, aside from drawing your weapon from thigh/calf holsters. But as I said before, Dick would probably stick to the back because, once again, momentum.
Okay this got much longer than I thought it would. But regardless, I hope this helps if youâre ever drawing or writing about the Nightwing suit and need specifics. Or hell, if youâre a cosplayer and need some information on how to make an accurate costume, here you go. Now I need to take a breather and chill, because while I considered myself a pretty recreational comic reader and not much of an analyzer, I had no idea how much I picked up about Dickâs individual fighting style and how that fits in with my own aerial experiences.
#i have no idea what to tag this#suit analysis???#superhero costume dos and dont's??#nightwing#dick grayson#meta#dc#nightwing meta#dick grayson meta#dc meta#nightwing suit#river thinks too hard
1K notes
·
View notes
Text
My thoughts on ACOSF
!!!!MAJOR SPOILERS!!!!
I was really looking forward to this book and Nesta and Cassianâs story and I really wanted to love it, but it fell really short. If I were to define ACOSF, I'd say: Wasted potential.
After finishing it and rereading some parts, my conclusion is: there are some pretty cool scenes, but that's not reflected in the rest of the book. I was disappointed and frustrated with several things. I was angry with others and found that many points in the plot were not really developed.
Here are some things that really bothered me (and this will be long):
ENDING RUSHED
I thought the ending was rushed. There were many things happening at the same time and none of them got a proper conclusion. For example, the Blood Rite and the birth. At one point weâre reading about the Blood Rite and how Nesta was fighting the other Illyrians so Emerie and Gwyn could win. Then, Queen Briallyn and Cass arrive, Nesta destroys her and gets the crown and then Azriel and Mor arrive and take them to Feyre. And thatâs it. All that build-up for what? For a few paragraphs of Nesta meeting Gwyn and Emerie after the birth and briefly discussing it. And then of Nesta reminiscing of when she told Cass and Az the details of it and they pointed out what needed to be corrected. SERIOUSLY? The birth scene totally took the focus out of Nestaâs at Ramiel and the end of the Blood Rite and the AMAZING victory of Gwyn and Emerie and how well they did on the rite. There were chapters and chapters building up to the conclusion of the Blood Rite and what could come of it and then it was just over. So anticlimactic. Why spend so much time on it and then not even having one character acknowledging how incredible they were? That not only they survived it but Emerie and Gwyn won it and Nesta got so far and pulled an Enalius at the end? So few Illyrians have ever gotten that far and it has always felt like such a great accomplishment that Cass, Az and Rhys completed it, and then here we have women kicking the ass out of the challenge which has been unheard of and we donât even get Cassian saying how proud he was? There was a lot missing at the end of that narrative. I wanted Cass, Az, and Rhys making a big deal out of their accomplishment. I wanted the Illyrians reactions about their victory and performance and what that could mean moving forward. I wanted more of how Emerie and Gwyn felt winning it and what it meant for them and Nesta to have accomplished that together. What a waste.Â
Not to mention, how rushed the entire thing with Briallyn and the crown was. One moment Nesta is destroying her and there lies the crown. And then, thereâs Nesta using all three artefacts to stop time and help Feyre. They didnât even discuss the fact that Briallyn was gone and that now they had the 3 artefacts. I mean, some people in that room didnât even get to see the crown (Did they even know they managed to get it in the Blood rite?), let alone discuss the significance of it. One of the main plots of the book was the search for the trove, and then when they have all 3 artefacts, thatâs just completely brushed over. Again, SERIOUSLY? All these plots and none with a development/conclusion to match the build up.
NESTAâS POWERS
I donât even know where to start with this one. Every time I remember that Nesta gave up her powers I get pissed all over again.
Nestaâs powers have been hyped up for a long time. A LONG TIME. Now, we finally have her book where we delve into her journey and where her powers are supposed to be fully explored and WE NEVER GET THAT. Thank you for nothing, Sarah. Her powers are not even fully explored and then she gives them up. We never really get to fully understand her powers and get to see her really using them. THERE WAS SO MUCH POTENTIAL. I wanted to see her wreak havoc and fully embrace her powers and become one of the most powerful and deadly characters in Prythian. I wanted to see more of her being in control of her abilities and being her badass self taking a hoard of bad guys out. I wanted to understand the extension of her powers. But nope, just as sheâs starting to learn about them, she loses them. SO ANTI-CLIMATIC (it doesnât matter that apparently thereâs a bit left, thatâs not the point). When she was engulfed in silver fire in her room and Rhys came running? Thatâs what I wanted to read about. Nesta never really used her silver flames and we never got to really understand what they meant. Ok, they were cold rather than hot. WHAT ELSE? Why is the book even called A Court of Silver Flames? Isnât that supposed to indicate that said silver flames will be significant? The most significant thing about them other than the bedroom scene are the silver flames that appear in her eyes, and that was not even fully developed either. Is it only when sheâs about to lose control? Or angry? Or emotional? When the silver flames appear in her eyes itâs always highlighted that ânothing Fae looks through themâ (this was pointed out more than once) and Cass even says at one point that thatâs the being the Bone Carver whispered about and exalted and feared. We had the Bone Carver, a creature of thousands of years, calling Nesta a queen and saying she was as "ancient as the sea" and we have Lucien saying that maybe some things should not be awoken and "mother spare you all" when he sees Nesta training and I feel like all that foreshadowing never really came to fruition. LOOK AT ALL THIS BUILD UP.Â
Nestaâs been hyped up as this powerful Death Queen or as this being with great powers and the culmination of her journey in this book resulted in her giving it all up to save Feyre, Rhys and the baby. Rhys, that up until that point hadnât really done anything that made him worthy of her calling him brother. Since Sarah came up with this death in childbirth plot (I couldâve gone without this one, seriously), yay for Nesta saving them because itâs not like I wanted them to die (I hope they learnt the lesson with that stupid bargain though). But this entire plot couldâve been addressed differently. AND BETTER. In the end, it undermined Nesta's powers narrative. Why build this plot up so much and include so many things that could be considered foreshadowing if youâre not going to fully develop it in the characterâs main book?
ICâS BULLSHIT
Ever since ACOFAS, I was waiting for someone (preferably Nesta) to call the IC on their bullshit and their self-righteous hypocrisy. But it never happened. We had that God awful intervention scene and Mor saying bad things and Amren being gratuitously cruel and Rhys insulting Nesta and Feyre taking her freedom away and none of that is ever addressed again. Ok, I get they were trying to help her with their intervention, but they could have approached that very differently and much better. I felt really bad reading that, and they all got away easily with their behaviour towards her. Sometimes it felt like they were kicking a dog who was already down. Especially Amren. She called Nesta a waste of life and Nesta bloody knelt to apologise to her, holy shit, I canât get over that. And Amren never apologised. I feel like there was a lot of apologising coming from Nesta, but not enough coming from others. The IC were disrespectful towards her many times (and not only in this book), and thatâs it. All swept under the rug.Â
Later on in the book, Rhys says that Nesta always has a choice at the Night Court. REALLY, RHYS? Are you not tired of contradicting yourself? Because it sure as hell didnât feel like she did. They even try to use Elain as a way to manipulate Nesta to do what they want. Not to mention that it feels as they are really pressuring Nesta to get better soon and fast (with the exception of Cass, who says she can take however long she wants), but the IC should look at themselves. Mor and Az are still dealing with their traumas after hundreds of years. Cass himself says that it took him years to get over what happened to his mom and what he did (and he still deals with the fact that he often feels inferior for being a bastard). And they want Nesta to be a happy healthy version of herself so soon? Please. I think a scene where their behaviour is addressed wouldâve felt earned. Iâm pissed that we didnât get that. And that Nesta didnât get that. And that because the IC are never called out on their often toxic behaviour (it happens towards Lucien as well), they donât learn.Â
Also, Rhys and the rest of the IC hiding from Feyre what it meant that the baby had wings was a really infuriating move. So so wrong. That type of thing should not be hidden from the person carrying the baby. Itâs her life and her body. To be honest, I didnât like how the pregnancy plot was written at all. I was already expecting that Feyre would get pregnant, but I hoped it would be later in the series for a myriad of reasons. The way it was done here didnât really work for me, and I think many things didnât make any sense such as how the birth would (or wouldnât) work. I mean, Cassian had his guts hanging out of his stomach and lived, but a C-section is not possible? Come on.
RELATIONSHIPS
I think that by the end of the book there were some key things missing in some of the relationships. For example, the relationship between the sisters. It all appears well in the last scene, but I missed a scene where all three of them ACTUALLY talked and discussed things - their relationship and their parents and their past. You know, a decent conversation where they could explain things and ask for forgiveness or also say thank you where it was due.
I also wouldâve really liked if Cassian had said âI love youâ to Nesta. I donât doubt his love for her and I know he has loved her for a long time and he has shown that love with attitudes on several occasions, but I think with Nesta, who had never really said âI love youâ to anyone (she said it to Feyre for the 1st time in the birth scene), it wouldâve meant something to her to hear those words, especially after thinking so little of herself for so long and not feeling worthy of affection and thinking everyone hated her. I think it wouldâve felt nice to close that part of her journey with him saying it as well. Also, I kind of missed soft/tender moments between Nessian thoroughout the book. Yeah, they have an angsty relationship and Nesta was in a healing journey and the smut was great, but I think there couldâve been more sweet moments in the middle, you know? Because they only truly recognise the bond at the end, so the fluffiness is mostly focused in the last pages, and I wanted a bit more of that here and there. Not a lot that would change the dynamics of the relationship, but just a bit more that would balance the smut and angst a bit and make me sigh. Sometimes I thought there were too much smut and angst and not enough relationship growth through conversation and softness.
HIGH KINGÂ
I really dislike the High King idea and I have a feeling thatâs exactly what Sarah might do. Not long ago, the IC was shitting on Vallahan for wanting to conquer other territories and then thereâs Amren saying Rhys should become High King and rule over the entirety of Prythian. Where did that even come from? That entire conversation and everything Amren said was just mindboggling. Not to mention that according to what she said, Rhys would become High King using the weapons that Nesta created. Same weapons that Amren said nobody should use (but itâs ok if itâs Rhys, right? *Eye roll*) and that no one should tell Nesta she could create. Not to mention that the entire idea of all the courts submitting to one ruler/court (in this case, to Rhys) sounds very imperialistic. They should all be aiming to coexist peacefully and harmonically and find ways to work towards that, not using this High King idea as a solution.
Plus, Rhys cannot even unite all of his own court (Thereâs rebellion building with the Illyrians, thereâs the Court of Nightmares and all the problems thereâŠ), and Amren wants him to rule over Prythian? Also, something about the Court of Nightmares that I often wonder about. Is Mor the only decent person to be born there? Because I have a hard time believing that there is not another single decent soul in that place. Maybe someone that dreams of going to Velaris and escaping the Court of Nightmares but that just finds themselves trapped there because itâs not like Rhys and the IC give anybody a chance to get away. Do they even look for people that might be suffering there without deserving to? I mean, Mor came from there. Donât they think there might be others? Even with the agreement they have with Keir in ACOWAR, itâs not like they are open to the idea. And itâs completely fine to want to protect Velaris from the evil and cruelty that exists in the Court of Nightmares, but again, that shouldnât mean they shouldnât even contemplate the chance that there might be people there worth of being in Velaris. That doesnât earn Rhys any points towards the High King thing.
Moreover, that stupid bargain Rhys and Feyre made also doesnât get him any points. Since learning the baby had wings, Rhys knew the chances of Feyre dying were very high. If she died, heâd die as well. Youâd think a responsible ruler would make plans in case that really happened. You know, like talking to the IC and making plans about their next moves and discussing how they should proceed and just analysing the options after his and Feyreâs powers go to who knows who (If it went to Keir⊠Shouldnât they prepare for that?). I mean, imagine the chaos that would ensue should Rhys and Feyre die, and itâs never even addressed that Rhys is considering these things. He didnât even tell Amren, his second in command. Honestly, what a mess. Iâm glad Rhys was categorically against it and that it doesnât seem like he wants that, but it sounds just like Sarah to come up with a plot that the High King title would just fall on Rhysâs lap or be the only way out of a situation and that by becoming High King heâd be saving Prythian of something worse. Iâm rolling my eyes just thinking about it.
So⊠These are just some of the things that bothered me. It doesnât mean that there arenât nice things in the book. Like I said in the beginning, there are some cool scenes and specific things that I really liked (such as Nesta, Gwyn and Emerieâs friendship, for example. They are just wonderful. And Nesta and the House of Wind. And Nesta and Azriel (I wanted more of this relationship). And Cassianâs support. And the Valkyries inspiration), but the book in itself? More potential than any other thing. It was a let down.
72 notes
·
View notes
Text
Reviewing Resident Evil games Iâve played for fun
I bought the Resident Evil 2 remake in April of last year and since then Iâve become a fan of the franchise, so I figured Iâd do a little review of all the RE games Iâve played listed in sort of release order (remakes taking place of originals)
Resident Evil 1 Remake (2003)
The third RE game I played after the 2 remake and 7, so my introduction to the older games/originals. Honestly a lot of fun, it took me a while to get used to the fixed cameras and the controls (I used the updated alternate controls, not tank) and I never really mastered it but the game is super good. Great puzzles, great atmosphere, and it still looks pretty great 18 years later. The story is also good and isnât particularly convoluted like some of the later games get lmao
Resident Evil 2 Remake (2019)
The first RE game I played, and what got me hooked on the franchise. I never played the original so I have nothing to compare it to, but this game is almost perfect imo. The puzzles are good, the environments are amazing, and the characters are likable. Mr. X is terrifying (at least in my first playthrough, heâs a lot less scary in subsequent playthroughs) and his chase music is phenomenal. Overall I canât recommend this game enough.
Resident Evil 3 Remake (2020)
Pretty much everything I said about 2 is applicable to this one as well. Jill and Carlos are great characters and I only wish we got more of them. I know people say that the remake is way shorter and cut-down than the original, but I havenât played it so I donât have that frame of reference. As a standalone game, itâs extremely good and the final boss fight is extremely badass.
Resident Evil - Code: Veronica X (2000)
My introduction to tank controls. The game is extremely good, and Iâm enjoying it immensely. It can be quite punishing if you forget certain items or donât conserve your ammo, as Iâve read about players getting to the final boss and having to restart the game because they didnât bring an item that the game doesnât even tell you to bring. Luckily Iâm an item hoarder in these games, as Iâd already grabbed the item before I couldnât go back for it. The puzzles are good as always, if not confusing as Iâm forgetful and have to look up where new items go as I donât want to spend an hour searching every wall in the game. My main complaint is the sniper battle halfway through the game, as the hitbox for it just seems random more than anything. I love that we get more of Chris too. His casual âHeyâ after being thrown by an explosion just kills me. Steve is whiny though and kind of the worst.
Resident Evil 0 (2002)
Pretty okay game, but one that I canât really recommend. The partner system was pretty good, and made for some amazing puzzles/gameplay at times (getting split up at the beginning and then getting split up in a castle-ish area later). I thought both of those were great uses of the partner switching and more than justify it. However, the reason I canât recommend this game is almost entirely due to the way youâre supposed to handle items. I play the RE games like a hoarder, every single item goes in the chest. Except this game doesnât have a chest. You have two inventories with only six or eight (I donât remember) slots each, and no item boxes. Instead, you can drop items on the ground and pick them up again later. For a hoarder like me, that means a whole lot of backtracking when you advance to the next area. Another annoying thing was the final two boss fights, as they were confusing for my simple brain since one of them is legit just shooting them until they die, but thereâs never any indication that youâre affecting it, so Iâm running around the room looking for something else that will kill him. In the final fight, itâs the same thing, except the game makes a point of showing you certain parts of the room that are obviously interactable, so I immediately run to those. Only those arenât used until the second phase of the fight. I like Rebecca and Billy though, and hope that theyâll return at some point.
Resident Evil 4 (2005)
Very fun game, the over the shoulder is a welcome respite from the fixed cameras of 1 and 0, even if it is still tank controls. Leon is very quippy and Iâm not a huge fan of his constantly hitting on the woman on the radio, but heâs an entertaining protagonist for sure. Escorting Ashley through most of the game isnât that bad, as you can have her hide sometimes, or sheâs pretty decent at taking care of herself (though I definitely accidentally killed her a few times oops). I thought Ashley was like 15 for the entire game so her asking Leon if he wanted to fuck at the end of the game absolutely floored me (though Iâm still not a fan of that unnecessary comment honestly). My main complaint is that I was playing the Steam version at 60fps, but QTEs just do not work at that framerate, so I had to lower it to 30fps just to get through certain parts of the game (I did that minecart section like five times). Overall a great game, though I wouldnât say itâs the best in the series, as many do.
Resident Evil 5 (2009)
People say this one is bad, but itâs such a blast playing co-op with a friend. I didnât have to deal with the AI partner, so I canât talk about that, but this is such a good co-op game. Getting to a spot where you both need to interact with it and mashing the button so Chris yells âSHEVA SHEVA HURRY COME ON HURRY SHEVAâ over and over is always funny and always annoying when youâre on the receiving end. I still donât really get the story and how Umbrella and BSAA are related or anything, but the gameplay is super fun, I highly recommend this one if youâve got someone to play with. Although, we did have to install some files in order to play online co-op, but itâs a pretty simple process.
Resident Evil: Revelations (2012)
This one is rough, as I got halfway through it before I got bored and quit. The game introduces Raymond as a bad guy pointing his gun at you, then thereâs a flashback and his backstory is âguy silently standing in corner of room.â Back in present day, five minutes after being introduced as a bad guy, heâs helping you out. Jessica isnât that bad but her character design is incredibly awful. The first minor thing is when sheâs on a mission with Chris in snowy mountains and sheâs wearing pounds of makeup. Then later they have her in a wetsuit but some hair is outside of it??? I guess so you know sheâs a sexy woman. Plus her wetsuit is literally missing a leg. It leaves her left leg completely bare. The dialogue regarding her is sexist too. Overall, the gameplay is very meh and the plot is kind of dumb, even for RE.
Resident Evil 7: Biohazard (2017)
My second RE game to play, but probably the first one I watched. This game is amazing and I highly recommend it. The first person makes the setting much scarier, and it lets you relate to Ethan and immerse yourself more. I like that Ethan is just Some Guy with no training, he just walks his way through this whole mess like a champ. The boss fights are great and the characters are so memorable. Not to mention the DLCs for the game are wonderful: playing a fucked up version of 21 and then fighting goop monsters hand to hand are seriously fun.
Resident Evil Village (2021)
The most recent RE game and quite possibly the best. Village combines the first person perspective of 7 and the inventory system of 4, making an incredible game. The four lords all have such different environments and it makes for such good variety. My favorite one was the Silent Hill-esque house with the dolls, as scary as it was. The Duke is a fun character and I love that heâs part of the story. Chrisâs section at the end turns the game into Call of Duty but itâs a fun massacre through the village, easily destroying enemies that have troubled you all game. Overall one of my favorite RE games.
#resident evil#re1 remake#re2 remake#re3 remake#re code veronica#re4#re0#re5#re revelations#re7#re village#RE8
12 notes
·
View notes
Note
what do you think are some iconic/memorable schumi moments? i just got into f1 and would like to know more about him bc somehow i canât really find anything like that about him.... just stats which are incredibly impressive but i canât find anything about how he behaved or just anything about his personality..... thanks <3
:) Hi anon, thank you for unleashing the beast.
Ok I love you for asking me this thank you SO MUCH. Welcome to the circus Iâm glad youâre here! Also yeah, Schumi is often talked about in terms of statistics and not as a human, Which is a shame bc like! Schumi is fascinating and the dynamics on the grid in late 90s F1 is so much fun! Also, this is mainly going to be late 90s -> early 2010s stuff bc I was born in 98 so uhhh I didnât properly witness ANY 90s stuff and had to learn about it.
OK so I got super carried away but Iâve divided this into 3 sections: Drives/races that I think showcase some of his talents, human moments we need to talk about more, and Chaotic Little Bitch moments. The key thing to remember w/ Schumi is that he personally tends to be nice but as soon as you put him in a competition, Bastard Mode activates like a catâs pupils going wide.
I am so sorry for the following short essay. Also some crashes are briefly mentioned but only ones with absolutely no injuries and thereâs no details.
Chaotic Little Bitch Moments
Schumi debuted as a SUBSTITUTE driver for Jordan when one of their drivers was in police custody (yes. really.) The highest a Jordan had qualified all year was 10th and in his DEBUT at SPA, one of the toughest tracks, in the middle of the season, Schumi qualified that Jordan 7th! THEN his clutch failed before the first lap was even complete, but Benetton and Jordan WENT TO COURT to fight each other to sign him for their team before the next race in Monza. He couldnât debut normally he HAD to cause a scene and set the tone.
The Red Strings of Fate: He qualified 7th, his iconic 7 starred helmet, his first victory next year was ALSO at Spa - his first complete race would be at Monza, Ferrari Holy Ground, and he finished 5th which đ 1) he was immediately racing with The Greats. 2) Mr 5 Championships With Ferrari.
Winning a race by taking a stop and go penalty on the last lap, crossing the finish line in the pits, and making such a complicated argument about said penalty that in a hearing that was SUPPOSED to be Mclaren protesting the race result the stewards scrapped the entire penalty and the 3 who awarded it handed in their licenses??? Iconic.
Austria 2002 where Rubens was ordered to give the win to Michael. And then Michael fucking made him stand on the top step on the podium like âoh no no no RUBENS deserves thisâ and made a big SHOW out of it and its like âMichael stop youâre not making it heartwarming youâre making it WORSE Michael STOPâ The Tension of germany 2010 podium VS the theatricality of THIS podium.
Team orders were banned because of this which also makes this indirectly responsible for Fernando Is Faster Than You having to be a coded message. You canât escape him,
Blocking Alonso in Monaco qualifying and then, years later in 2010, overtaking Alonso technically illegally at Monaco (the race was ending under safety car, but the safety car doesnât lead them over the line it pits and theyâd crossed the safety car line and the regulations were NOT specific about the rules) and getting a 20 second penalty bc Damon Hill was a steward. Haunting FERNANDO specifically at Monaco like the ghost of christmas past? Getting a harsh penalty because ANOTHER driver heâd fucked over was a steward? Forcing the FIA to rewrite the rulebook to account for his nonsense when he was in his FOURTIES? I donât know another chaos king.
Winning the 1995 championship by crashing into Damon Hill, getting AWAY with it for some reason, and then trying to do the same thing in 1997 to Villeneuve, failing to do so and simply rebounding off of him harmlessly, almost COMICALLY, and beaching his own car in a gravel trap at which point the FIA said âI have had ENOUGH of you Wacky Races Man!â and disqualified him from the entire championship
Forcing Mika off the track so bad at Spa 2000 that Mika realized the only way he was gonna be able to get past him was to re-invent the overtake and go for it whilst they were passing a backmarker. (The overtake itself is at 2:05 in the video but the build up to it is Important bc the key part itâs not just badass, it only happened bc Mika knew who he was dealing with.)
Spa 1998 was a Ridiculously Chaotic race it truly was the Mugello 2020 of its year, and after a crash at the start that took out almost the entire grid Schumi accidentally collided with Coulthard later in the race. (The teams used to have a spare car at every race then, so the race was able to continue after a restart.) This wasnât a racing thing, Coulthard was getting lapped. So something in Schumi SNAPS, and he storms down the pitlane and tries to fight Coulthard while the mclaren and ferrari mechanics both hold him back and finally drag him away. He projected into the future, saw Coulthard was gonna talk non-stop shit about Seb, and acted accordingly.
Monaco 2012 Pole donât talk to me about this I still canât believe the audacity of this man to get the only pole of his comeback, at MONACO, at the ONE RACE where he had a 5 place grid penalty to take!!
In general, I know Cheating Bad but. I HAVE to admire the brainpower it must take to have the rulebook so memorized that whilst driving an F1 car Schumi could spot a loophole the size of the eye of a needle and then dance through it, forcing the FIA to add ANOTHER page to the rule book specially for him bc nobody else even REALISED that loophole existed.
Human Moments
A quick rant about Mika and Schumiâs entire friendship. After Spa 2000 Mika goes up to Michael, says something like âDonât ever do that againâ then theyâre friends again. They had this mutual understanding that Racing was not Reality. This goes all the way back to their F3 days they were rivals AND friends for their entire career. They truly were the Sewis of the era if Sebastian was like 50% more evil. Their entire dynamic is âYouâre the only motherfucker in this pit lane who can handle meâ. Schumi would do some bullshit and every other driver would throw up their hands in frustration and Mika would just go âOkayâ and drive better to put him in his place bc he was the only one who could keep up, and Schumi very visibly LOVED that heâs grinning after Mika owns his entire ass with that overtake at Spa. They were unstoppable force meets immovable object and Iâm so sad their rivalry isnât more talked about bc the way Mika is the only driver who can get him to behave like a normal human being is SO entertaining.
This is a sad one so I wonât link it but he started crying in the 2000 Monza press-conference with his brother and Mika when he equaled one of Sennaâs records. The press kept trying to ask questions about it and Mika just has this death grip on his shoulder and tries to get them to stop or let them take a break and itâs so sad but also important to know about.
Once said he didnât want Mick to race in F1 bc the pressure of his name would put Mick under so much stress and he wanted his son to be happy. (He fully supported Mick in his endeavors! But only after making absolutely sure it was what Mick wanted, and making sure he knew he could just race for fun if he wanted and it didnât have to be F1)
This whole interview just after Mick was born with the Schumacher family. Special shout out to Gina on his head the entire video and also Corinna talking to the press while Michael is captivated by Mick. Me too Michael.
Once allegedly pleaded to take a stray kitten home from the track?
I reblogged this yesterday but. Sticking like glue to Sebastian at an F1 test and immediately being like âThis is my new son heâs gonna go farâ. Thereâs a lot of pictures out there also of Michael being a guest at the karting races Seb went to as a kid and baby Seb visibly losing his fucking mind at being given a trophy by his idol. Every day of my life I think about him trying to ruffle Sebâs hair through his helmet at Brazil 2012
WInning the championship in 2000. Him thanking the entire team individually and pausing mid-celebration to kiss his wife Corinna so tenderly itâs in the F1 opening. Also, the way it literally cuts from the rest of McLaren looking like theyâre attending a funeral to Mika grinning at him and hugging him fucking SENDSSSSS me.
Schumi was a little shit in all the 2010-12 press conferences like, lowering Lewisâ chair, playing with a microphone wire, but ESPECIALLY corrupting baby Seb and getting him to mess with Nico Rosberg.
Heâs just GOOFY! Like I refuse to let him be remembered as a terrifying force of nature he was so goofy kind of similarly to Seb. PLEASE watch this incredibly awkward interview he did with Coulthard on a golf buggy where they both had to pretend they hadnât thought about murdering each other at least once. I think Sky F1 should force Brocedes to do this when covidâs over. âDo you mind if I drive?â âYes.â
EDIT: I CANNOT BELIEVE I forgot the 1999 Canada press conference where Eddie Irvine and Mika Hakkinen get into a water fight and Schumi immediately grabs a towel and hides behind it and is like âI had NOTHING to do with itâ đ„ș adorable, actually
A lot of people at Ferrari, including Rob Smedley (who was on the other side of the garage with Felipe Massa so not in his inner circle) have said that a lot of the success of the team came from Schumiâs LEADERSHIP more than anything, that heâd make the team get together to bond all the time. When Schumi moved to Ferrari in 1996 they were NOT dominant. He did the same thing Lewis did - went to a team that everybody said would be a huge mistake and helped build them up behind the scenes.
THIS bit of the Canada 2011 Rewind where his engineer gives him the strategy and heâs like â... OkaAaAaAay?â and then when it turns out to be the wrong strategy he cheerfully tells them itâs too late. Little shit.
Speaking of Mercedes I also wanna say that like. They were a MESS in 2012 and his car DNFâd because of a failing on their part MULTIPLE times. (In Canada qualifying his DRS was stuck open and they couldnât close it.) He did not say a single bad word about them EVER even though the press used this to attack him non-stop as washed-up and bad without Ferrari to cheat for him. At Ferrari he was the exact same with the team, any bastard antics Schumi had for his rivals did not extend to the engineers and crew.
OK this one is soured bc Top Gear is trash BUT if you were like, a kid in England who followed motorsports? Schumiâs fake reveal as The Stig on Top Gear was like the coolest, sickest thing,
Please view this image of Schumi and Mika when they were young and stupid
Iconic Races
ok so I have limited myself to a few races that show off some of his key strengths!
Hungary 1998 / France 2004 - STRATEGY/SPEED - Schumi switched to a 3 stop strategy in 98 and a FOUR STOP strategy in 04 and won both races. In order for the strategy call to work heâd have to basically make every single lap a qualifying style âflying lapâ and you best fucking believe he DID THAT. God I fucking miss when Ferrari was the king of strategy.
Argentina 1998 -Â has it all. Talent, battling Mika, pit lane mind games with mclaren, and bullying coulthard xxx
Spain 1996 / a majority of the wet races - RAIN - One of Schumiâs nicknames was Rain Master bc he was so fucking good in the wet. If it started raining and you were a Schumi stan you were cackling evilly before the red lights even went out. I single out 1996 bc it was his first win for Ferrari and it was unexpected but in most wet races, even Canada 2011 post comeback, you can see Schumi thriving.
Malaysia 1999 - Schumi missed pretty much the entire second half of the season with a broken leg, came back for the last 2 races with everybody murmuring about whether he would struggle, and immediately put the Ferrari on pole. Also worth noting is that he was the number 2 driver for these 2 races bc his teammate Irvine was fighting Mika for the championship and he went along with that without complaint, allowing Ferrari to win the constructorâs championship if not the driverâs.
Monza 2002, 03, 04, or 06 just because it has the energy of the tifosi kneeling at the feet of an idol to their red god.
Brazil 2006 - Fuck All Yâall - Schumiâs last race for Ferrari. He got a puncture and ended up almost lapped, and then drove his way back from that to 4th bc he couldnât go out without reminding us heâs a bad bitch.
Monza 2012 - Defending - Donât tell F1 Twitter that thereâs actual footage of Lewis and Michael having a genuine lengthy battle on track but DO watch Michael defending like a motherfucker and Lewis breathing down his neck for half the race we need to talk about this more.
Valencia 2012 - This isnât necessarily anything special but I cried in my living room over the only podium of his comeback so it goes on here. It doesnât have the same impact if you havenât been watching him struggle with the car for years, DNF-ing from car failure most of 2012, and having BBC F1 telling you heâs washed up every single weekend, but you can just enjoy one of the best drives of FERNANDOâS entire career as he DRAGS that Ferrari by its hair to a home grand prix win and then watch the crowds embrace him like jesus and also Schumi being happy on the podium. Also, the very start of this clip from the press conference: him forgetting what language heâs supposed to be speakingÂ
Basically, Schumi was a hyper-competitive ambitious bitch who turned into a goofball as soon as he switched the engine off. This is by NO MEANS everything if I was making an exhaustive best races guide Iâd do more research and another post but I hope this is what you were looking for?? THANK YOU SO MUCH for letting me go MAXIMUM SPECIAL INTEREST and I apologize.
#asks#Schumi#Mika#Alonso#long post#god I'm so fucking sorry#Anonymous#This is not comprehensive bc I didn't want to accidentally turn this into a whole research project especially if you're new to it!
108 notes
·
View notes
Text
Unicorn Chronicles, Book 4: âThe Last Hunt,â by Bruce Coville
The Last Hunt is even longer than Dark Whispers--the hardcover edition runs to a whopping 605 pages (not including a multi-page character list), so it's a great example of Sequel Creep. Scholastic never gave it a paperback run, so Coville ended up buying back the rights and re-releasing it as smaller volumes (bringing the series to seven in all) to balance it back out a little. But still. It's a lot.
Coville says in the acknowledgements:
If I hadn't been painfully aware so many people were waiting for this story, I might have given up at any number of points along the way.So thanks, dear fans, it's been a long journey, and I literally could not have done it without you.
1) Awwww. 2) #relatable.
The Last Hunt is divided into sections based on time: 'Blood Moon Night," 'Day One of the Invasion,' and so on. The entire book spans about six days in all (five days + the Blood Moon), although there are lots of flashbacks and the last chapter opens with a time skip of several weeks. Suffice to say, this is one hell of a week. Each section is also captioned with a quote--sometimes from one of the Unicorn Chronicles, sometimes from Sun Tzu's The Art of War, which is unexpectedly plot-relevant.
We left off with Beloved and her army of Hunters invading Luster by ripping a hole in the Axis Mundi, the World Tree, with the intent to kill all the unicorns. The unicorns, led by the newly crowned Amalia Flickerfoot, must decide what to do next.
What follows: so many subplots, an inevitable quest, dragons, humans gonna humans, baleful polymorphs, dramatic battles, and a literal deus ex machina.
WHAT HAPPENS:
Lightfoot is right by the Axis Mundi when the gate opens, so he watches in horror as the Hunters come through. He tries to escape to warn the Queen, only to be pursued. To escape, he runs through the Gate to Earth, which for some reason burns people the second time around if they don't wait long enough (for reasons that make zero sense to me). Lightfoot finds himself in Beloved's keep in the Himalayas, and finds Cara's mother Martha asleep and pulls her out of the Rainbow Prison.
Fortunately, Martha was able to make contact with Ian and company long enough to learn how to pull them out, so she does. Lightfoot is afraid to go through the gate because he doesn't want to get crisped, so they wait until Beloved sends her troops after him, and then sneak in behind them. It turns out Fallon created the unicorns and is basically a deity.
Beloved has adopted a bunch of orphans -- girls abandoned by their families--whose purpose is to be unicorn bait. We meet one of them, Feng Quan, who is a total badass and a Sun Tzu stan, who is horrified when she witnesses a unicorn being slaughtered and jumps ship. Feng Quan runs into Belle, who has been haunted by the Whisperer (who knows Belle wants to be Queen) and convinces the skeptical warrior to take her to Amalia Flickerfoot.
Meanwhile the Geomancer M'Gama has been captured by the delvers, and Rocky and his reunited cove search for his teacher, the wizard Namza, who is turned to stone and having a lot of flashbacks. They eventually join up and work to stabilize Luster, which is devastated by increasingly severe earthquakes as  Beloved's gate is destroying the Axis Mundi and thus the entire world.
The queen sends Cara on another quest, this time to beg the dragon Grammaug for aid. (IDK while Amalia doesn't try to get all seven dragons, but okay, fine, whatever.) This time, it's only Cara and Medafil, because everyone else is busy. Cara encourages her grandmother to "think like a human" to outwit Beloved, which Feng Quan seconds when she arrives.
Grammaug turns out to be a dragon who turned into a human (it's complicated) and came to Luster because she was basically allergic to the world that all the other dragons went to when Bellemore opened THEIR gate. I thought that her story dragged on a little long, but it does eventually turn out to be relevant, since we are introduced to Transformational Magic, which can be moved around from person to person. Watch this space.
Hunters are looking for Cara, using special "blood trackers" that cannot be fooled, because Beloved wants her for unspecified reasons. Thomas the Tinker is also on his own quest to pick something up at the Queen's behest. The centaurs are having drama of their own as well. Ian tries to track Cara and gets captured by the delvers and taken to the king, who sends him to Beloved.
Grammaug agrees to help, but they are intercepted by the hunters on their journey back and Cara encounters Elihu, the mysterious "friend" Fallon has been searching for, who transforms her into a unicorn in order to lure the hunters off the scent.
Amalia and Feng Quan come up with a plan and send Grammaug to deliver a message, lying to the dragon about the details to mislead Beloved. Grimmwold summons the Queen's Players as part of the plan. Cara runs into Fallon, who reveals that Elihu created Luster, and was banished from the gods' realm because of it, and Fallon came down with him. Grammaug persuades Firethroat to join the battle; Firethroat is very pro eating humans, and agrees. The Whisperer uses Martha Hunter's anger about her mother to try and turn her against the unicorns.
Everyone converges on the Axis Mundi before the battle. We learn that a deity called Allura was responsible for sending the story of the Whisperer from the Chronicles and giving it to the centaurs and she made the Squijum. Like Fallon, she is searching for Elihu. Cara reveals her true identity, and reunites with her mother, who rejects the Whisperer.
Fallon summons the Whisperer and fights it to the death (Fallon's doesn't take). The group pieces together that the Dimblethum is Elihu--he returned to his true form when he betrayed Luster by helping Beloved with the Gate, only to revert back when he used his magic on Cara--and they must bring him back since he's the only one who can save Luster.
The Queen's Players stage a performance and Thomas produces a cockatrice who starts turning Hunters to stone. The dragons shoot flames, and the unicorns attack. Rajiv frees Ian in the chaos. Moonheart dies in the charge. Beloved is perplexed by the Whisperer's absence, and the centaurs and delvers arrive to join the fight. The Hunters flee back to Earth. The Axis Mundi splits in half and the dragons try to hold it together temporarily.
Cara attacks the delver king, who is trying to murder the Dimblethum, and the delver king falls into a conveniently opened hole in the ground and is swallowed up forever. Fallon uses transformational magic to swap places with Elihu so that Elihu can fix the tree. Elihu can't hold it alone, so Allura helps and both are swallowed up by the repaired tree. Graumag dies.
Beloved, believing Cara to be dead, takes Martha hostage and taunts Team Good. Cara reveals herself and Beloved begs for death. Cara tries to heal her and fails and Beloved dies.
Rajiv joins the Queen's Players. Cara is still a unicorn and no one can turn her back, but everyone's okay with it? The surviving Hunters are put to sleep and woken one by one and given the choice of staying in Luster or returning to earth; Feng Quan and Belle work with the maidens. The new Dimblethum and the Squijum visit the Axis Mundi every night to mourn their fellows and M'Gama and Namza are still in comas and we never learn their ultimate fate. Firethroat is in mourning and refuses to talk to anyone.
HOW I FEEL ABOUT IT:
"meh". So much happens and it's extremely epic, but I only care about half the characters, and the rest is just tedious. The whole deus ex machina thing could have been interesting, but wasn't--I could deal with ONE god running around but three was pushing it. The Dimblethum being Elihu was fine, but Fallon and Allura on top of that was too much. I would have preferred Grimmwold stepping in with a legend that allowed them to piece the answers together or something--not this.
It was hard to tease out what was relevant and what was a red herring (Felicity in the Rainbow prison, the Blind Man, etc). Lots of new characters, but I felt like the old characters were already underused - I wanted to see much more of Thomas and Grimmwold, for instance. Feng Quan, however, is absolutely awesome and I love her. She and Belle are perfect together.
Cara ends up staying a unicorn was something I definitely did not see that one coming. Which makes Cara/Lightfoot the strongly implied endgame ship, which is just NOT WHAT I WAS EXPECTING WHEN I STARTED THIS SERIES, THAT'S ALL. They barely have any time together at all in this, even at the end, which makes me sad. Likewise, all that Lightfoot/Belle stuff never gets addressed.
IDK why Jaques keeps giving speeches about how he doesn't care if he and Cara are related by blood - they seem to be more for Cara's benefit than any character development/change.
Lightfoot's first glimpse of Earth (which he has never seen before) is incredibly poignant. So is his wandering around the deserted castle and struggling without hands. I wish he and Cara were able to discuss this, but NOPE, there is no time for discussion in this entire book, sigh.
The whole business about only going through the portal once in a given time period makes zero sense to me, especially given the established worldbuilding. It feels so contrived. Likewise, Belle and Martha are tempted by the Whisperer, which doesn't really go anywhere for either of them?
I don't know why Elihu smashes the amulet to transform Cara if there's this whole transformational magic thing going on. I still don't really get how that works.
I am also annoyed that Fallon deals with the Whisperer instead of the unicorns. So much for the unicorns "embracing their own darkness" and coming to terms with the fact that they screwed up in their ambition to be perfect. Â What a wasted opportunity.
Also, it's book four, and we're only NOW finding out there's a prophecy that a scion of the hunters and the unicorns is the only one who can destroy Beloved?? Seems like we needed that earlier. We knew Beloved wanted Cara, we just didn't know WHY until the last possible minute. [Also, who told her that and why??] Without the Whisperer, Beloved is pretty helpless, which annoys me--I wanted her to be a villain in her own right.
Coville is very clear that Beloved tortures Ian, but like, only emotionally, because this is a kid's book, and that Elihu and Fallon are Definitely Not Gay For Each Other, which annoys me. (Coville is generally sympathetic towards queer folks; I really enjoyed his short story "Am I Blue?" which is about a literal fairy godparent and a working gaydar, so this was disappointing.)
The whole subplot with the Blind Man borrowing Ian's eyesight goes absolutely nowhere. I thought the Blind Man was going to play into the Luster drama somehow, but no, he's just some random magician who uses his deal with Ian to blind him at inopportune moments for reasons of his own that are never explained. WTF. This is one reason I hate Ian's subplot so much!!
Likewise, Martha seems cool, but her genuine beef with Ian, Beloved, and Ivy/Arabella get smoothed over and ignored because there's just zero time for anything in the midst of the chaos. Which is too bad!
The fact that the Squijum is the personal favorite creation/messenger of a god is just hilarious to me. Doesn't mean he isn't annoying af, though.
I WANTED ALL SEVEN DRAGONS AHHH.(though apparently thereâs a secret eighth dragon no one talks about??WHAT???)
I think I'd be more okay with it if there was more time at the end to see the characters react and reflect--there's only one chapter, and it's not nearly enough. Is Lightfoot still Prince or is the Cara the heir now that she's a unicorn? How do THEY feel about that? That's another subplot from the previous books that just didn't go anywhere, and it bugs me.
(I was convinced Beloved was going to wake Martin Hunter from his sleep and have him lead the attack--like a reverse King Arthur--and I'm SO MAD THAT DIDN'T ACTUALLY HAPPEN...)
Also the fact that Cara has to mercy kill someone at the climax of not one but TWO BOOKS in this series... damn. Iâd like to see some more reflection and thought about this after the fact.
Also, the whole thing with the delver-unicorn connection -- what kind of relationship are the two species going to have moving forward? RADIO SILENCE. What the hell did the other dragons think was happening during all this and why didn't they help/investigate? Are the Hunters going to stage a counterattack or disband now that they've lost their leader? Are the unicorns going to return to Earth or will it continue to be just the Guardian of Memory?? There are so many things that are just left hanging, and while MAYBE Coville will write another book to address these issues (it's happened before!) I am grumpy because I WANT TO KNOW, DAMN IT.
I had hoped on re-read I'd feel better about this, but I don't. I get to the end and I think "why?" which is not a great feeling to have. IDK what exactly I expected from this series--it definitely delivers in some ways, and in others, it totally falls short. Iâm still impressed Coville managed to finish and itâs not entirely his fault that the results didnât match up with my expectations, but itâs still sad that older!Me isnât more excited about the end results.
*sigh* Maybe older!Me will buckle down and write a fix-it fic or two to make younger!Me happy. Currently, the only Unicorn Chronicles fic on A03 is a complicated crossover between LOTR and various other media featuring a human!Lightfoot, which I probably will never read, but it makes me happy to know it exists. FFN has more stories, but this was never a popular fandom, so the field is wide open for anything I want to do with it (more so than usual). Also, it seems I wasn't the only person of a certain age imagining self-insert fic in this universe, which is oddly reassuring.
15 notes
·
View notes
Note
I am not great at theorizing but I would love to hear about your favorite characters from atla!
oh my, i am SO down for this. let me take a look, okay
i wont rank them or anything bc i love them all, but my top five would be uncle iroh, sokka, toph, suki, and azula.
UNCLE IROH. is the story's source of lesson and of wisdom. he is such an icon and he is loved by all istg he is the best man ever i love him so much i wish i was related to him as a niece like zuko or something. he truly is so wise and kind against all.
he is one of a kind, he was such a gem and held a strong view of what was wrong and what was right. i think people underestimate how great of a bender he is, tho. he was a member of the order of the lotus (eyyy the oldies but goldies gang basically lmao) aka the strongest people ever hello?? he represented the fire nation in that group and my GOd is he an amazing one.
he is different from most, because unlike other firebenders, his skills and abilities aren't directly derived from anger and fury. that's why he isn't as hot headed as regular firebenders and even teaches zuko about this (which works bc zuko is considerably calmer later in the series)
and then there is his legacy. mans beat an entire dragon in a battle of flames?? he breathes fire too so that's always the coolest thing ever and his diligence while working himself back to prepare for war in that prison absolutely took me out omg the way he strategizes??? explains why he was a general. he has a heart of gold unlike any.
SOKKA. now for him, i have the biggest amount of respect and adoration for. let's adress the elephant in the room here. he singlehandedly devised a ginormous plan to defeat am empire that has been raising tyranny for over a century. how fucking awsome can one get?? mr sexy brain amirite?
plus, he was completely skilless the first part of the series and his entire growth just blows me away every single time. sure, he had his little boomerang but that was it. after they created gaang tho, his potential was so fully exploited i cant even express how proud i am oml he was diamond in the rough.
he acted so brash and was the comedic relief character a lot of the times, so his subtle feats of intelligence didn't get noticed a lot, but oml the way i am down bad for him. his determination and desperation to become god at a skill is so enjoyable to watch like,,, the piandao episode where he learns how to wield a sword is one of my favorite episodes of all time!! anyways, this is getting alittle long so lets move on to....
TOPH BEIFONG. listen. lis-ten. thats my girl right there. i was eight when i first watched atla and she was twelve and the amount of confidence she instilled in little-me is just- *sobs* (also i realized that she is literlly the only character in this with an official lastname lmfao)
toph is forever going to remain as THAT icon. her mindset is as stable and stubborn as they go because of her earthbending lmao i love how self-assured she is. she is the definition of born into riches, growing to become greatness.
her heritage is not at all important to who she is as a character and most people even forget that she is insanely wealthy because she never mentions it. but anyway that is beside my point idk why i touched on this aspect. moving on!!
i feel like they portrayed her childish nature so well in this series like?? sure, she was the greatest earthbender of all time and still is, she was also a twelve year old tween lmao she was something else istg
and her sass, humor and just her entire attitude was so solid oml she was THAT bitch and i mean it in the most awed way possible. i can talk about her more but imma keep it short for this post's sake.
SUKI. my idol right here y'all. this is my og feminist queen right here. badass woman i love her so much. embodies courage, hard work and strength in oneself. man, kyoshi warriors are super awesome i literlly do not have any other words about her other than "woah"
obviously, she couldnt bend at all but growing up on kyoshi island, one made by avatar kyoshi herself by literally parting an entire section of land away to carry them back to make an island by spouting out lava hundreds of miles down the ocean floor is just???? but we aren't here to talk about the blood-thirsty woman rn-
she learned how to deal damage on benders who dared to attack their homeland and she is just- just- idk ugh she is so gorgeous too like?? forget about sokka please, come marry me instead i beg you ;-;
suki is so quick to react to danger and doesn't wait for anyone to save the day. she knows what she can do and she does her best to help ;-; im thinking about that once moment when toph fell into the ocean and suki was the first one to dive right in their to save her while everyone else was just literally standing there lmao even katara who could literally bend water
AZULA. now, this is where shit goes down. i lover her as a character that has been developed to show what a bad childhood environment could lead to in children who are particularly cunning and born a little sharper than others.
azula was a threat to all at the age of fifteen. fif-teen. she was a mastermind in countless incredible plans that overtake populations and she is so incredible quick-witted. perfectly evil for the sake of being evil, but also not at the same time.
the azula we last see in the agni kai between her and zuko, her own bilogical older brother whom she had tormented pretty much their entire life, was the product of accumulated trauma and pressure that she had been subject to ever since she had learned bending fire. blue fire.
she had shown from the start that she was gifted and strong and was on a league of her own compared to other kids. all of her childhood was spent garnering the approval of her father and grandfather who were toxic and evil and bad role models for her. anyone who grows up in bad environments are guaranteed to turn out messed up.
her mother preferred the softer zuko than her sadistic daughter and not receiving her mother's affection enough really showed its consequences in the last few episodes where you get to see her breaking down. she hallucinates about her mother and it was so heartbreaking to watch for me as a seventeen year old. i didn't really get the extent of her pschotic breakdown as an eight year old.
for heaven's sake, she was a devil. idk my thought are so scattered rn but i feel like i can make a post about her complicated character later when i gather my thoughts properly bahaha
tldr for azula: gifted child gone horribly wrong
anyhow, this was super fun omg
3 notes
·
View notes
Text
re8 thought dump because YE
i feel like this was almost inevitable but idk where else to talk about resident evil village so iâm just going to rant about it here!!! i have,,,, a lot of thoughts on this game after being so excited for it for so long
obviously, massive spoilers if you havenât finished the game. i feel like i have thoughts on pretty much everything so please please please stay clear of this post if youâre trying to stay blind
otherwise, let me just rant about this game for a bit - mainly the story and characters - because i have Thoughtsâą
(also i feel like it goes without saying but this will be probably be quite long, so. strap in, ig)
okay SO. the whole intro was pretty interesting - even though weâd seen bits of it in trailers, it was still pretty unnerving and felt like it came out of nowhere. but the first thing that really stood out was the first village section with the hordes of lycans; i didnât expect this game to start freaking me out so quickly but JESUS my blood pressure went up fast.Â
thereâs so many of them coming at you at once, and not only have you just lost half your damn hand, youâre not really used to the gunplay at that point AND you donât have that many weapons at your disposal. so itâs basically just âhey weâre throwing you into this ring of death, good luck surviving!â which... now that i think about it, that really sums up the whole game lol
but for the most part, the early parts of the game are what we saw in the demos, so thereâs nothing too new - it was nice getting to see the scene with all four lords and mother miranda, though. i wasnât sure how the whole chase scene with the lycans would work - i thought heisenbergâs area was going to be some sort of mine, and that the chase would take place there - but it didnât, and it was interesting regardless of it being so short.Â
but the castle. THE CASTLE.Â
i would be lying through my teeth if i said i wasnât excited for dimitrescu like everybody else; iâm firmly in the camp of people who both meme about how attractive she is, and then also the people who legitimately find her attractive, soooo i kinda had high expectations going in?Â
and sure, the castle section is only part of the game, but if thereâs anything that makes me nervous most, itâs stalker enemies. resi 2 remake was actually pretty tough for me to get through because of how anxiety-inducing mr x was, and even though i donât feel like she was as present as mr x was, lady d was still great! there were a good few times where you could hear her walking around and you just knew she was searching for you, which was really damn cool.
also, i know capcom had a lot of hype to live up to with lady dimitrescu, but goddamn they did such a great job with her. sheâs so imposing but badass and just... really damn cool? like i honestly found myself being excited for her to show up rather than being scared. i just think sheâs neat! I MEAN LOOK AT HER.
(also yes i know the whole internet has talked about how attractive she is, but can we just. appreciate that for a second???? sheâs gorgeous and yall canât tell me otherwise. like. bro ik the pronunciation is wrong but the way she says dimitrescu made me GASP i love this powerful vampire woman)
if anything, though, i... actually felt really bad that her story ended up the way it did. i mean, think about it: you break into her house, kill the three people sheâs grown to consider her daughters, rob her shit, and then kill her? she technically goes through the same kind of parental grief that ethan does, in a way, which is a really interesting parallel. grief seems to be a theme that capcom really pushed for this game, and it works.Â
also, her boss fight design is badass. sheâs literally a dragon, how is that not incredible
so the castle was great, where could the game go from here? oh, i donât know, how about gOOD OLD FASIONED FUCKINGÂ TRAUMA.
jesus christ the dollhouse GOT TO ME.
iâm pretty used to horror in general; i love horror games, movies, books, you name it. iâve gone to horror movies where people have ran out because of fear all while iâve sat there giggling the whole time. but the dollhouse? that dollhouse is FUCKED. i canât remember the last time i watched someone play through a horror game and was so... on edge the whole time. the fact that they keep you waiting for so long with nothing happening just... makes the atmosphere incredibly uncomfortable, and then when shit does start going down, it goes down fast. in other words, jesus fucking christ that baby will haunt my nightmares until the end of time
basically capcom managed to make the n*zi baby joke from south park: the stick of truth legitimately terrifying, and i was glad to see donna die. moving on.
moreauâs section is the one i... actually donât have as many thoughts on. itâs cool, sure, and the whole idea of him turning into a fish when he hits water is neat - itâs definitely a good callback to re4 - but idk, it didnât really scare me that much. i can see it scaring those with a fear of water or the ocean, for sure, but eh. i thought the designs were cool, but i kinda tuned out a little here.
heisenberg, though, was anything but. the entire time leading up to villageâs release, this guy has fascinated me for some reason. i donât know if itâs because heâs the most normal-looking of the four lords, or the fact that he has telekinesis, or his amazing voice acting (seriously i know some people have shit on his VA but oh my god i adore it) or what, but this guy stood out to me from day one. i even went into the game expecting him not to die tbh. but no, he does, and his fight is pretty damn cool all things considered. only in a resident evil game could you have a mech fight and have it not feel out of place lol
also this line ^^^ legitimately made me laugh so hard i almost choked on my water. THE FACT HE TURNS AROUND AND APOLOGISES SO MEEKLY its fucking hilarious to me
but anyway.
similar to alcina, though, i was left with one big question about heisenberg - what did mother miranda do to him to get him to join her impromptu familly? he said himself to ethan that he didnât want to join, so what did miranda do that didnât give him a choice? did he have a family at some point? is he grieving too? what did miranda take from him? i can only hope this gets answered in the dlc, because itâs by far one of my biggest questions surrounding all of this. i may very well have missed it somewhere, and at least we know he has his telekinesis abilities thanks to miranda, but itâs a question thatâll definitely be on my mind going forward.
at this point, though, the story REALLY gets insane. itâs really nice how village decided to just continue on straight from what 7 did, and iâm very glad that everyoneâs theories about chris being a werewolf were wrong - itâs a really nice spanner to throw in the works. if anything, the whole revelation of mother miranda disguising herself as mia the whole time since roseâs birth was really cool, and ethan being Moldâą the entire time was pretty neat too - it made a lot of things both in 7 and village make more sense.
what iâm still digesting, though, is the ending.
...man, capcom, you put poor ethan through all of that and then you have the balls to actually kill him? i mean shit, you made us think he was dead for a whole 20 minutes but then nope! heâs alive! but then nope! heâs dead again! i did see someone point out that at least ethan got to go out on his own terms, but dammit i wouldâve at least liked for him to get to see mia one last time. i think it wouldâve softened the blow a little more. but i guess that ties into the whole grief theming this game has going for it, and like i said, i probably just need some more time to digest it.Â
i donât dislike the ending, itâs just a very big culture shock - itâs definitely a ballsy move, and i really respect capcom for going all out the way they did. they really held back on nothing in terms of this gameâs story and i absolutely love it. it was so, so worth the wait in that regard.Â
and tbh thatâs kinda how i feel about the whole game in general; it was super super good, very much worth the wait, and i absolutely cannot wait to see where resident evil goes from here. i have a gut feeling thisâll end up being one of my absolute favourites in the series, which i know is very high praise, but i really do love it that much. i wasnât disappointed with much in this game, if anything at all. itâs just a super fucking good video game man idk what else to say at this point
#resident evil#resident evil 8#resident evil village#if you read through all of this: first of all i love you. second of all i am so sorry lol
5 notes
·
View notes
Note
Hey, I don't mean to bother you again, but if you're still feeling up to it, I'd still like to see your opinions on each member of the Schnee family. No pressure if you don't want to do it though; I still appreciate seeing whatever you do post.
Hey!
Youâre not bothering me, trust me. My motivation for... well, everything, but this blog in particular fluctuates pretty wildly, and that means that asks can sit in my inbox for months. The world going to hell hasnât helped much. Also, every single time Iâve tried to write this, Iâve ended losing chunks of it cause I was too dumb to just type this in a word doc and copy-paste, so thatâs been frustrating, to say the least.
Now that Iâve gotten smarter, though, letâs get into the Schnees!
Jacques
I have mixed feelings about how he was (potentially) written out of the show (and I have a feeling Iâm going to be saying that a lot in this reply). I said in this post awhile back that I didnât want Jacques to become an agent of Salem because something like that would most likely become the focal point of his asshole-ness and shove everything else to the side. That feeling holds true, but not really in the way I had been expecting.
How he ended up benefiting Salem, Iâm perfectly good with. Him not knowing about Salem or Wattsâ motives for making the deal with him, making the deal because it of how it would benefit him and not to serve Salem/kill people - that Iâm good with. He was an unknowing pawn Watts/Salem manipulated around the board, but not a mustache-twirling villain all on board with working with the genocidal maniac/serving on her council of villains, and thatâs all I really wanted - for him to not be a knowing member of Salemâs board of evil. Being part of a group that desires global destruction just doesnât fit his motives â canât make money off people if theyâre all dead.
However, the fact that thatâs why he was arrested - that his downfall was due to and focused solely on being involved in a Salem plot that just popped up this volume rather than anything to do with his treatment of the Schnees or the Faunus - that kinda rankles. This goes back to the ask I answered a while back - the focus on all the new plots and characters that meant a lot of the old stuff thatâs been built up was shoved aside. Jacques being taken down feels like it should have been this huge emotional climax, tensions running high with all of the Schnees there and a huge release of all of those tensions as Jacques gets taken down for the crimes that we as the audiences most revile him for â his treatment of the Schnees. Instead it was⊠none of that. Jacques is arrested by Weiss for his aid to Watts⊠and she promptly cracks a joke about it to kill the tension. Winter is able to get in a decent snap at him, but thatâs it from her. The entirety of Jacquesâ arrest is focused on the heating crisis. Heâs dragged off, and only Willow and Whitley get to witness and react to it, and even thatâs just a look from Willow and Whitley running off looking completely done with everything â they donât even react with each other. Thereâs nothing in Jacquesâ downfall about his abuse to his wife and children or even the Faunus, itâs all the election and Watts â plot points that donât hold nearly as much weight to the audience as ones that have been set up for years.
So, TLDR for Jacques: I actually hope this isnât the last we see of him, because that would be a disappointing way to end the Schneeâs arc as a family. At the very least, I hope we get to see him talked about between Winter, Willow, and Whitley if/when they actually get to talk to each other.
Willow
Mixed Feelings: Round Two.
Her design? Love it. Her conversation with Weiss? Gold. Willow as a character? A bit more involved than I wouldâve thought from how very non-existent sheâs been up until now and implied to have been in Weissâs life, but I can roll with her being a bit more aware than I wouldâve gone with. Willowâs role in this volume? EhhhhhhhhâŠ.
I hate that she literally just has a camera hidden in Jacquesâ office and recorded the entire thing. It seems like such a cheap way of Weiss getting the information she needed, and comes out of nowhere after there was already a way for her to get the information set up in Whitley. Seriously â we already had Whitley established as having seen Watts, seen Jacquesâ reaction to him, look suspicious at Watts, and hear at least the manâs first name. Whitley absolutely had the information Weiss needed â so why the hell pull âWillow actually has cameras set up everywhereâ out of thin air? And actually â wouldnât Jacques have his office swept for cameras and bugs on the regular? You know, like the head of an extremely powerful organization and high-profile target of at least one major terrorist group probably would? To prevent something like this exact situation from happening? I just find it hard to believe that she couldâve set them up for long without being found, and setting them up just before something important to the plot happened in that room is just very convenient.
And like, thereâs actually no reason that it needed to be that way. Willow and Weiss could have had the same conversation, just swap out the lines about the cameras with âI donât know, but I know who would â your brotherâ, and you can even have Weiss still say that he wants nothing to do with her and Willow agree with her âyou left him here with usâ line, prompting Weiss to seek him out to get the information she needs and maybe even have a heart-to-heart with him. Whitley wouldnât even have to give up the information in that conversation â he could be incredibly stubborn about it and unwilling to help until Weiss is called into a meeting about the heating crisis, which Whitley would absolutely follow into to listen whether heâs invited or not, and hearing whatâs going done, decide to step up and come clean, realizing if he doesnât, thousands of people will die. I can actually picture it in my head, and it would be so much better than just âOh, yeah, I got cameras that recorded the entire nefarious conversation.â
And Iâve spent this entire section not really talking about Willow. Uhh⊠again, I really like her design. I like that sheâs wearing purple, a color no other Schnee wears (except⊠Whitley with that wine⊠hmmm) â a mixture of red and blue, her freedom being drowned in something else until itâs completely tainted. Her voice is good, and for the most part, I really do like her conversation with Weiss. I also love that she finally points out what me and other Whitley fans have been screaming for ages â that you canât expect someone that you basically abandoned (in his eyes) to look favorably on you, and I like that she acknowledges her own role in that, that sheâs been a poor parent as well, and actively a detriment to Whitley.
TLDR, I like Willow, I just hate the damn cameras that seem to only exist for this plot point (since if they existed before, shouldnât Weiss being hit be what they were meant to capture?).
Winter
Best girl, hands down. Not kidding, Winter basically carried this volume for me â rational, yet having very human reactions to things while recognizing that the emotional response isnât necessarily the right one, the star of a badass fight with Cinder in which her Aura breaks but she still goes on fighting and holding her own against a damn Maiden, an awesome new outfit, wonderful conversations with Penny and just a very interesting relationship with her overall, actually gets to fight back against Jacques to his face â is there any point where this woman doesnât exceed all my expectations?
I wasnât a huge Winter fan before this volume, but Iâve successfully been converted. Second favorite Schnee for sure.
Weiss
On thin ice. Still my favorite of the RWBY crew, but considering how much of a nose dive the other three (in particular Ruby) took in this volume, thatâs not saying a lot. A lot of what irks me with Weiss are⊠little moments. Implying that Winter shouldnât trust Ironwood because he âcouldâ be keeping secrets when sheâs the one lying while Ironwood has been nothing but honest, the implication that Winter isnât capable of making her own choices in regards to the military and the Maiden and that Ironwood must have been grooming her (I really hate this implication, both for trying to tear Ironwood down and for trying to rob Winter of her own agency â like, joining the military was her choice, her escape from Jacques, and you want to turn that into some kind of long game manipulation on Ironwoodâs part? You want to prove Jacques of all people right in that he âstoleâ Winter, rather than Winter making her own choices and Ironwood recognizing her abilities and offering her the Maidenâs powers? Really?), trying to brush aside Ironwoodâs concerns about just how much RWBY has done behind his back, calling Mantle âher homeâ when itâs never been that in front of Marrow who is almost certainly from Mantle â just, a lot of little things that I really dislike, not to mention that this is probably the worst design sheâs had. But there hasnât been anything thatâs just blatantly ruined her for me, and she remains the most interesting and well executed character of RWBY for me.
TLDR, a lot of bratty moments that push me away from her, but still holds promise.
Whitley
My poor boy! He finally got more screentime and some of our headcanons comfirmed, but made the butt of a joke that couldâve easily been replaced with character development and underutilized so much. Iâd say mixed feelings, but no â love his character, hate how he was used would probably be the best summary. Of course, Iâm very much biased, but letâs not let something like that stop me.
More screentime! And letting him talk to someone other than Weiss! His banter with Ironwood was good, seeing his reactions to Jacques, how afraid and timid he was, was heartbreaking, and even if it didnât go anywhere, his suspicion of Watts was nice to see. Itâs always sweet to see headcanons confirmed too â the painting of him playing the piano was nice, and even if Iâd have rather had it come out of his own mouth, Willowâs confirmation of him feeling abandoned by Weiss was such a satisfying thing to hear.
On the other hand, I absolutely hate the wine prank. It was way too drawn out and petty â seeing so much joy on JNRâs face while setting it up over the course of a whole minute and using an stack of food half his size to toss onto him â it was way too over the top. If they had to go for the food thing, having Oscar (or someone else, but Oscar is the one without a huntsman license, so heâs more believably clumsy) just pretend to trip with a regular plate and get it on his shirt wouldâve been just fine, and we couldâve gotten a nice interaction between Whitley and someone new and get some character development. But nope. We got to have RBYJNR take way too much glee in dumping a mountain of food on a boy theyâve never met before for⊠talking to his sister and unwittingly getting in their way. It just puts a bad taste in my mouth.
And of course, what I talked about in Willowâs section, the set up of him seeing Watts going absolutely nowhere. Seriously â you set up the perfect opportunity, and then took an out-of-nowhere cop out. It feels like such a squandered set-up, and really disappoints me.
At least we actually got him reacting to Jacques, and it was given an appropriate emotion and fitting cinematography. I love the shot of Whitley sitting all alone on the stairs, watching the only person that actually gives him attention being dragged away without explanation, and seeing the weariness and sadness in his expression as he looks up â I love it, I love it so much. The last bit of hope that they may actually treat my boy right in the endâŠ
TLDR: My boy!
And there you have it! Months late, my thoughts on the Schnee after the most recent volume! How will these change after volume 8? Hopefully for the better, but weâll have to wait and see!
Thank you for the ask, and once again, sorry for the wait. I may try and take a few more hits at my inbox, but thatâll have to wait for tomorrow, since Iâve got work in the morning.
Have a good night, and stay safe!
53 notes
·
View notes
Photo
International Womenâs Day Special
Getting to Know...
Delilah Bon.
Built on the foundations of no-nonsense real-talk and a message of female empowerment, there is a new Brat-Punk artist pricking up the ears and turning the heads of an army of women and young girls everywhere and her name is Delilah Bon. Her new single stands up for women everywhere, and the accompanying music video has just been unveiled today on International Womenâs Day 2021.
A properly gnarly, pedal-to-the-metal single, âI Donât Listen To Youâ obliterates genre boundaries, fusing hip-hop, nu-metal, punk and everything in between. Fittingly titled, the outspoken message is everything Delilah represents, and the premise started by rounding up her own troupes. Originally a short video message for her TikTok fans, the video blew up over night with thousands of views and responses. It was this solidarity that inspired Delilah to write and release a full track with an accompanying music video capturing women worldwide that resonated with her message.
Born from a relentless desire to create and express herself, as well as address issues women face in society, Delilah Bon is the alter ego of grunge artist Lauren Tate, the lead singer and guitarist of Hands Off Gretel. Renowned for her gritty lyrics, fuzzy guitars, gruelling bass lines and stadium-sized vocals, this is no exception. Following on from singles âBad Attitudeâ âSchool,â and the call to arms anthem âWhere My Girls At?,â Delilahâs already garnered a huge following and has a debut album on the way.
Made by a woman, for women everywhere, Delilah delivers the perfect International Womenâs Day anthem and we were lucky enough to chat to the inspirational artist all about the project, 'I Don't Listen to You', her dream all womxn supergroup and what she has planned next. Read the Q&A below.
Hi Lauren! Happy IWD! And also Happy Birthday! For anyone discovering you and/or this project here for the first time, tell us how Delilah Bon came to be.
"Delilah came about completely by accident. I guess I knew deep down I would release the music someday but when I first began writing what I consider to be 'Delilah songs' I didn't intend to put them into the world for a while. I was having a hard time on tour with my band 'Hands Off Gretel' after I'd spoken out about women's safety at shows, basically saying I was sick of being treated with less respect than the guys in the band, constantly having to deal with creepy guys and sexist comments. On one hand I had girls messaging me, sharing their experiences and thanking me for being vocal and on another I had certain guys saying they would no longer support my band because my message made them uncomfortable. There was this really awful vibe on tour where I felt like something was going to kick off at any moment and I just didn't feel in control. It made me realise I couldn't please everyone and still please myself, I knew I had to put myself first. So I went back to what made me happy, writing songs for me. I wrote a handful of empowering rap songs and played them in my earphones whilst on tour to remind myself that I was a boss bitch. I'd never rapped before, I guess I just had a lot to say so it came quite naturally. Delilah saved me in a dark time where I almost forgot what I was doing it all for in the first place."
We love Hands Off Gretel and your solo material too but I feel like Delilah is defnitely you being completely true to yourself. Zero fucks given. Would you agree with that?
"Naturally, I'm ever evolving. I have many dreams, many parts of myself that I worry an entire lifetime won't give me enough time to explore. When I was younger I loved Britney Spears, I loved glitter and dancing, drag queens and dress up. My teenage years were filled with discovering as many angry female singers as I could and wanting to scream like Brody Dalle. I was depressed at school and hated everyone basically. So I ran with that energy and built an entire band around the teenage girl I was and I loved it. 6 years later I'm 24 and back into dress up, I'm listening to Britney, I'm dancing around the garden in my pink tracksuit and I feel like a kid again. There's so much more to me than the teenage girl that started a band all those years ago, I haven't even scratched the surface yet. I want to wake up and write a song, record and produce it myself, plan a video and release it the same month. I need that creative freedom. When people are telling me to do something, it makes me want to rebel and do the opposite."
You have just released the badass music video for your viral TikTok hit 'I Don't Listen To You'. Absolutely perfect for IWD and really empowering. Please tell us how the idea for the visual came about.
"Well I mean, Initially I wasn't going to release that as a full track as the song was only 1 minute long. But BAM, Over night it hit 50K views and over 500 comments, people asking for the full song on Spotify. I was freaking out, refreshing my phone every few minutes to see more and more videos coming from girls around the world using my sound. People were identifying with the lyrics straight away, sharing their stories with each other in the comment sections and thanking me for my message. So 72 hours later I'd written and produced the full song in my studio. It almost killed me, I was so stressed and so worried nobody would actually care once I put the song out but I knew I had to do it. The song wasn't just mine anymore, it felt like ours. I was in the studio straining my eyes, with a numb arse on that computer chair because I wanted to give these women the song that made them feel empowered. I knew I wanted to include all the fans in the video, at first I wasn't even going to be in it at all because I wanted to make room for them. It challenged me as a producer and writer and as soon as I saw all the fan videos come flooding in, I got really emotional. I just sat and cried. It's one of the highlights of my career so far."
Wow, I can imagine! That does sound so incredibly inspiring. Talking of inspiring musicians.. If you could form an all womxn supergroup, which artists would you choose to join you and why?
"Wow my gosh that's a hard one, I love so many women. Ok so Grimes would be the DJ, up on her decks with bouncing pigtails and glow stick bracelets, then Bigklit will be my backup screamer (my hype queen). I want Rico Nasty too, her raspy rapping is my favourite. I just want a load of hype girls on stage, dancing around with words painted on their skin. My list of dream collabs is endless!"
What's next for Delilah Bon? What can you tell us about the forthcoming full length? Do you plan to take Delilah to the stage in the future?
"As I wrote and produced this album I danced around my music room and pretended to be on stage. I could hear the crowd already! I know it's the kind of album that will go down so well live because the energy is so contagious. I have no plans to tour it this year though as I'm busy with my band but I will eventually. The album is 12 tracks long and will be dropping in May. Eeek I'm so excited. Obviously feminism is at it's core and I can't wait to see my dad's face when he hears the lyric about vibrators haha! It's daring and fresh, I think the people that get it will freaking love it and the people that don't like it, don't get it. Whatever the case, I love what I'm doing and have never felt so empowered by my own music before."
We can't wait to hear it!
youtube
5 notes
·
View notes
Text
My top 10 all time favorite characters
10. Captain Basilisx (SMBZ)
One of the few redeeming factors of SMBZ, Captain Basilisx is one of Bowserâs more threatening forces. An incredible badass whoâs better than Shadow the Hedgefart (fight me) that has Medusaâs gaze and is the only one out of Bowserâs army who canonically kills Mario in the og series (the Reboot does not count, it does not exist to me). And his theme song, like god damn, that remix of Show No Tears from DMC3 is a banger. The only reason heâs this low is cause Basilisx is a one time character. His debut episode, The Great Doomship Offensive, was his final episode because Carl Marx Haynes refused to put him in the reboot, so thanks a lot, Alvinlaskan Bullworm.
9. Rosalina (Mario series)
Is anyone surprised she made it to this list somehow? Rosalina first appeared in the masterpiece of a game, Mario Galaxy. She watches the Comet Observatory and was accompanied by thousands, scratch it, millions of Lumas. They did her dirty in Mario Galaxy 2 by reducing her appearance to a cameo in the base game, and 3D World made her a straight up playable character to wash off the disrespect. Sheâs pretty much the only Mario princess that I adore. Paulineâs not my type, I despise the hell outta Peach, and Daisy is too sassy for my liking. Why she is at number 9 is that I donât like her as much as I used to. Donât get me wrong, I still liked her, I just donât like her as much. Still a decent Mario character though.
8. King K. Rool (DK series)
Another case of Basilisx, heâs basically if Goofy from Disney tried to be Bowser. Heâs many things. A boxer, a king, a scientist, hell even a pirate captain. His goal varies throughout his appearances. In the first DKC game, he wants to hoard all the Kongsâ bananas. In the 2nd and 3rd, he plotted revenge against the Kongs. In 64 is where heâs most serious, cause he wants to BLOW UP DK ISLAND with his Blast-O-Matic. heâs a wacky one, but thatâs what we all adore from him. The reason heâs this low is that heâs another case of Basilisx. Heâs underused as hell, he and the Kongs havenât batted eyes in years. And truth to be told, I really wish heâd stick around. The villains we got in the recent DKC games are just generic as hell. Tiki Tong is Knucklotec but before Odyssey happened, and of course the Walrus is the main villain of Tropical Freeze. How anti climactic.
7. Blaze (Sonic series)
While I stated before that my faith on Sonic sinks as deep as the Mariana Trench, sheâs one of the better Sonic characters. Sheâs the anti Sonic where while Sonic is social, caring and all about action, Blaze is an introvert, has no friends, and plans ahead. Kinda like everyone in 2020 when you put it in perspective. She has incredible fire powers and is the guardian of the Sol Emeralds, the Sol Dimensionâs Chaos Emeralds, which looked like the Royal Rubies/Savvy Sapphires/Equable Emeralds from Dragon Quest. At first, she was hostile towards everyone except Cream, but in the end of Sonic Rush, she had character development and grew fond of everyone. Sheâs one of the best Sonic characters, and Sega did her dirty by pulling a Basilisx. Seriously, Generations was her last appearance, not counting spinoffs.
6. Metal Sonic (Sonic series)
In the Sonic series, Metal Sonic was the chad to Sonicâs virgin. He was first introduced in Sonic CD, as Sonicâs faker, who strived to be better than Sonic. And can I just say that Metal Sonic is 99.9% better than regular Sonic, despite Sonic kicking his ass multiple times? Safe to say that the scrap brain has acheived his lifeâs purpose (hohoho-) . He has speed that outmatches Sonic, can overheat his circuitry to catch up with Sonic when heâs far behind, but the biggest highlight was when he turned to flying metal godzilla. And his theme songs never cease to disappoint. Stardust Speedway is a banger and What Iâm Made Of. Dear god, WHAT. IâM. MADE. OF. If you never smiled hearing this, donât even speak a single word, cause youâre an alien and Iâm calling the FBI. The only problem with him is heâs another Blaze/Basilisx. His last official appearance was in Generations, not counting Forces cause he was a hallucination at the time, and Mania was made by Whitehead and not Sega so it doesnât count. The only reason heâs higher than Blaze is because I prefer him over her.
5. Vivian (TTYD)
In this tumblr, I normally trash talk TTYD, but now, letâs talk a positive from the game. Someone get me the bucket, cause after this section, Iâm gonna barf. Anyways, Vivian from TTYD is by far the most developed out of the TTYD roster. We get glimpses of her being abused by Beldam and eventually in Chapter 4, she has a change of heart and joins your party, practically defying her purpose in life. She also has a wide array of useful attacks. Shadow Fist being her neutral special, Veil which is basically Bowâs Outta Sight, Fiery Jinx which inflicts Burn, and Infatuate which confuses enemies with a kiss (might as well call this The Thousand Kisses Door). The reason sheâs this low is cause sheâs not exactly my favorite female character in paper Mario, sheâs rather the 2nd best.
4. Koopalings (Mario series)
Maybe I watched too much Bowserâs Koopalings for this one, but shut up, this is my list.
3. Bowser Jr (Mario series)
Bowserâs spoiled son here takes the 3rd place for multiple reasons. One, look at him. Heâs adorable. How could you hate him you soulless pricks. Two, heâs smart as hell. I mean itâs evident since his debut, he literally framed Mario and got away with it. And mind you, framing someone for a felony is not easy. Takes years of planning, lawyers, hiding of evidence, and did I mention lawyers? And it doesnât stop there. Unlike Bowser who normally uses brute force, Jr here uses all sorts of tech to keep Mario at bay. Megahammer, Mecha Jr, Boomsday Machine, you get the idea. Third, his father son relationship with Bowser is adorable as hell, seriously, HOW DO YOU HATE THIS GUY.
2. Olivia/Bobby (Origami King)
It was hard ranking these two individually but then I decided to put them both in the same tier. First up, my favorite Paper Mario character, Olivia. Sheâs basically a precious sunshine baby and if you dare lay a single scratch on her, I WILL BE FORCED TO TRAVEL THE WORLD AND BACK TO FIND YOU AND WHEN I DO, THEY HAVE TO MAKE ANOTHER COFFIN FOR YOUR FUNERAL. Yeah, her hints usually donât help and I can see why there are people who hate her, but thatâs what kids do, and I donât even wanna see how an Olivia hater parents his kids. I just assume they donate them to an orphanage or something. I was kinda sad to see her go honestly, she was the only one travel companion out of the modern trilogy that I feel actually matters. And now, we have Bobby. Heâs basically a Bob Omb who was a passenger of the Princess Peach (the narcissism, I know) until Olly took over and he eventually lost his fuse and memory. He doesnât do much in battle, but his story arc is his spotlight. Eventually, he got his memories and the fuse he kept as a memory for his fallen bestie, which means itâs time to say goodbye. I know some TTYD fanbitch is gonna question his death because âaLl bOb oMbS sUrvIvE aN explOsiOnâ but listen. Bobby isnât a special case like say, Bombette or Bobbery. Heâs just a regular factory made Bob Omb, which means heâs gonna die should he explode. And not gonna lie, that was one of the saddest videogame moments I experienced in my life. I almost cried, true story, and it takes a lot to make me cry. Oliviaâs despair doesnât help either. He was a valiant hero, a chad, and most importantly, he was a FRIEND. The reason theyâre not on the top is because thereâs one surpassing the two of them, and all who know me know who he freaking is.
1. Bowser (Mario series)
I mean, câmon, who else would it be? Heâs basically the supreme chad to Marioâs virgin. Heâs one of gamingâs most iconic villains and he deserves that fucking role. Heâs incredibly badass, like look at Giga Bowser and Fury Bowser and tell me heâs not the icon of awesome. If heâs not, donât speak to me. Hell, even Pyrrhon from Kid Icarus Uprising acknowledges his badassery, if youâve seen Hadesâ Misguidance Season 2. Heâs also crazy powerful, being able to conquer entire galaxies and punch out castles, TWICE. He even punched an entity of darkness to oblivion once. And did I mention heâs an incredible parent? Heâs one of the most complex Mario characters, and thatâs why we love him, is it not? For me, this is rather the case of rooting the villain more than the hero. And if I get judged for it, then so be it. I wish one day for a standalone Bowser game (Inside Story does not count) where Bowser beats the shit outta Mario. I salute you, King Koopa, you donât need a crown to be my ruler, my throneâs already yours.
#mario#sonic the hedgehog#donkey kong#paper mario#olivia paper mario#bobby paper mario#paper mario ttyd#vivian#koopalings#bowser#bowser jr#smbz#king k rool#basilisx#blaze#bowser's koopalings#metal sonic
1 note
·
View note
Text
Persona 5 Royal Thoughts
   Alright so thereâs a lot I want to talk about here. Fair warning, this write up is actually like, really damn long. Also like HUGE spoiler warning below the cut! I played the original when it came out, bought a PS4 practically only to play Persona 5 not even knowing if Iâd like it. But I did! I loved it, loved all of it. Beat the game in just over 100 hours I think. Easily became my second favorite game ever. So now here comes Persona 5 Royal, adds a bunch of new stuff, a lot of little stuff and some pretty huge additions and reworks, includes all the dlc from P5 which is nice. Itâs a strictly better version of the game I already thought was amazing enough.
   I remember being a little wary of going for it and reading a non-spoiler list of all the changes, which are actually A LOT when you list them out. Then I thought about how much I loved playing the original, and figured Iâm not doing much else right now, so I got it. And BOY that game just checks all the boxes for me. Itâs the same game, but better now. Thereâs a little more depth to playing the game and more stuff!
  One of the biggest additions and probably my favorite addition is Marukiâs story and confidant. Everything involving him I thought was incredible. First of all the man is a dreamboat. Secondly great voice actor. Thirdly the story built around him was really awesome to play through. Every time some new story beats came through while playing through the first parts of the game I always thought how great it all fit in. It made sense, it kind of opened up the world of the game a little more narrative-wise and it all felt right. And the SONG (Ideal and the Real) that plays in Marukiâs office is so GOOD. That song plays in my head 24/7 and I love it. Heâs got such a great personality and story and it was a great time getting to rank him up. The song ALONE made me want to hang out with him as much as possible. Itâs an angle I wasnât expecting, his story I mean, and while the ârightâ choice was pretty clear, it still made me think about what he was trying to accomplish. And they drove the point home real hard during the final stretch of the game before you figure out whatâs going. Itâs so hard to look at your friends having such a good life and go, âyeah no I donât think so.â But thatâs a whole different  discussion. It felt sort of morally ambiguous, which was really cool. And I also like that Maruki gives you a choice, not only once but twice. Which again, gives you pause, even if only a short one.
  So that brings me to another one of the biggest additions: the new palace. BOY I love this palace. From the way itâs first introduced so early on, to how you keep peeking in every once in a while making a little progress here and there. Until finally youâre able to just go wild at the end. This palace feels like the team designing this was told go all out. The aesthetic, the mechanics, the layout. Going through this I had a big ol smile on my face the entire time at how different it felt compared to those in the original game. Those are good too, donât get me wrong. I donât have any palaces I dislike. But I can easily imagine some ideas and how incredible some palaces would be with the level of detail and complexity of Marukiâs palace. Itâd be kind of ridiculous and extremely difficult no doubt, maybe even a little too much to ask for I think. Anyway, seeing the garden section of the palace for the first time was INCREDIBLE. They went so crazy with making almost every part of that palace look amazing! And that last area was easily my favorite of the palaces in terms of looks and theme. They did a good job of conveying the scale of that giant tree where the treasure is at with those stairs. Plus itâs another great moment to show of the smaller details of the palace like some flowers, the lighting, some other really neat effects. It was great! And the whole boss fight at the end was so fantastic to watch! Iâll say that even at the hardest difficulty, my SO (who is a turn-based combat FIEND) didnât have too much of a difficult time with the fight. But the mechanics of it were so interesting! I loved the ideas they went with. Again it felt like they really gave it their all with this palace. The story beats during the fight were incredible as well, and they gave me one of my favorite moments back that used to be in the Yaldabaoth fight: Press X to Fire! The fight with Maruki at the end was also pretty novel too, and so dramatic! The snow falling at the end, the glass platforms collapsing, it all looked so GOOD. One of my favorite things in any game like this (remake/remaster/GOTY version/etc.) is getting to listen to NEW MUSIC. And this palace KILLED IT with music, as did the rest of the game as usual. Thereâs no feeling that compares to being right at the edge of beating a Persona game. And this palace was a hell of an out of the park home run. After 170 hours, it was so bittersweet to beat the final boss and move on towards the rest of the story. I loved playing through that palace and itâs a shame Iâll never get to experience it for the first time again.
  On to one of the more advertised additions: Yoshizawa! My first thought when I saw her way back when when they first revealed her is I thought sheâd be a female protagonist. Which I thought would be INCREDIBLE. Even if itâs not exactly my preference, I wouldâve been so HYPE to romance one of the guys. I didnât really think about it from a gameplay standpoint, as there are way more girl confidants than guys, but still I thought itâd be fun to potentially explore that! Obviously that wasnât the case, but now on to what I think of the new confidant! I love her! Like absolutely 100% love her so much! Let me tell you just how those concept meetings went down when they were making Yoshizawa: Cute girl, in cute clothes, who has a cute personality. Done, the perfect character. Of course sheâs much more than that, but on the surface level itâs easy to see where they were going with this character. Playing the game I had zero idea about her eventual involvement in the final section of the game, so seeing her only have 5 confidant levels I was a little disappointed! Maxed her out as fast as possible and waited... Seeing her story woven through the original narrative was also super fun. Like Maruki, I really liked seeing her in places where she wasnât before, and adding new scenes and such around to flesh out her character throughout the first two semesters. Then came the new part of the game after the holy grail fight. I was absolutely not expecting that twist with Yoshizawa. I had no idea that they would go somewhere like THAT in this game! It totally caught me off guard and I LOVED IT. What an incredible story all around. And like super fucked! The whole reveal moment was FANTASTIC! Had my jaw on the floor and everything! Her entire confidant was fun, using her in combat was fun, and her romance path was extremely fun! Thereâs nothing I donât like about her really. She had such a wild story and such an amazing arc that I canât not love her! Sheâs not my favorite confidant, but still adding in a new character like her into such a tight-knit group like the phantom thieves that i already loved as is is such a risky move! Itâs so hard to improve upon a dynamic like theirs I think, but they made it work when they needed to! Anyway I love her character a lot and her story and all that. Beautiful.
  Speaking of adding new characters to a dynamic, this might be my favorite addition/rework in the entire game: Akechi. Holy crap I canât tell you how much I LOVED HEARING AKECHI JUST GO OFF EVERY BATTLE, or while we went riding through mementos, or just all his new dialogue and confidant level ups. Akechi very quickly and easily became one of my favorite parts about the new part of the game. His character was such a HUGE CLASH with every other character in the party, especially Yoshizawa! Which I have to imagine isnât an accident. He is fuckin CRAZY. Unlocking his Showtime attack was BONKERS. That whole sequence with Yoshizawa and Akechi in Marukiâs palace was so GOOD. Having Akechi be part of the team was an amazing breath of fresh of air. Trust me when I say I have ZERO problem or complaint with the overly positive nature of the party. But MAN it is FUN to see Akechi just be an ABSOLUTE ASSHOLE. Every new interaction with Akechi was a TREASURE. Dropping the âdetective princeâ act was 100000% the right move. Even more fun was seeing Haru and Akechiâs interactions in mementos. The way every character acted towards him was pretty good, but something about Haruâs overbearing positivity towards him was really fun to watch. I canât stress enough how much Akechi added to the experience of the final act of the game. His persona? Badass. His personality? Absolutely cutthroat and also badass. His hair? Still incredible. Also the only character in the game who will only play 701 in darts. That threw me for a fuckin LOOP the first time I invited him out for darts. Dude is a STUD in like every way. Love Akechi A LOT. He singlehandedly brought the experience up from an 11/10 to a 12/10. This game is so much better with Akechi being able to go batshit crazy. One of my favorite interactions is during battle: when you heal the whole party, with Akechi and Ryuji being two of the active members, depending on their order, youâll have Akechi say âNo time for thanksâ right before you hear Ryuji say âThanks!â Just thought that really exemplified how much of an ass he is, and how much I love him for it. He is THE badass asshole character this game didnât know it needed but absolutely deserved. How much of a bad ass do you have to be to able to look at your inevitable death in the face and say âthis is how it has to be.â One of the coolest parts of the whole game is him not only accepting his eventual fate, but actively driving you towards making that decision.
   Next up I suppose Iâll talk about Maruki as a character. Love the way he was included, and liked all his interactions with all the characters during the first part of the game. Heâs just so likable and honestly very relatable for me. Helping people through counseling has always been a personal goal of mine, so itâs always interesting to see how characters doing the same are portrayed. And while his overarching plan is something I donât agree with, wanting to help people drives you to do crazy things sometimes. I felt for the guy. I enjoyed all the hangouts with him, and felt like I really understood his goals. The way his entire story was crafted did an incredible job of divulging all the right information at the right time. Before Akechi 2.0 came around, he was my favorite part of the game! I love the confidants and the stories they tell and interacting with them and all that. I looked forward to ranking up Maruki and trying to see what he was all about. The more I learned the more I liked him. Before, during, and after the palace my feelings about him didnât change much. The man went crazy sure, but I still couldnât bring myself to hate him or even dislike him. I love the man! My SO had no mercy for the man during the boss fight, but I felt bad seeing her kick his ass! I thought they did a good job mixing up the motivations for Maruki as a villain. Making him a confidant made it so much more difficult to picture him as the big bad evil guy. Plus he has like one of the best songs tied to him in Ideal and the Real. Iâll mention that as much as I feel is necessary.
   So now Iâll go through all of the smaller details that I really liked in no particular order. Kichijoji was a great destination, gave me a lot to do over the course of the game. The phone calls after you hang out with a confidant are a very welcome addition! Itâs a way to fit in more dialogue which I always love, and gives you a chance to rank up the confidant a lot quicker. Thereâs the fact that Morgana no longer forces you to sleep nearly as often, letting you at least mess around in LeBlanc, which helps rank up your social stats. I LOVE THE DARTS MINI GAME. And Iâm so glad it also gave you an upgrade for your baton passes. I did not play enough darts. The jazz club was also MY JAM. Again more dialogue, great music, and a fun way to give your confidants new skills or stat boosts. One thing that I find really funny is the way they handled Valentineâs Day. They CHANGED IT. I know they added a lot of new stuff to them for new story reasons. but they CHANGED THE CONTEXT OF THE DATES. For example, in the original P5, Kawakami makes it VERY CLEAR whatâs going down later. Ann too! But in P5R, that context is GONE LMAO they really went and changed the dialogue to be less sexual. Itâs strange, but mostly I found it funny considering Takemiâs max rank conversation is untouched, among plenty of other ones. Anyway White Day was a GREAT addition! The final part of the date overlooking the city is AMAZING. That reveal made my jaw drop. Speaking of things that changed, the Christmas date also changed, and I like the change a lot! Watching the snow fall from the window on the bed was a great touch. The changes to boss battles and some parts of palaces because of the grappling hook were very welcome. The grappling hook itself was also extremely handy. The thieves den is an incredible addition that adds SO MUCH NEW DIALOGUE AND CONTEXT THAT ITâS A CRIME THAT ITâS HIDDEN IN THE DEN! Anyway. Iâll never say no to new personas. The showtime attacks are a GEM. The new music in this game is AWESOME. I canât stop listening to the soundtrack. I really enjoyed getting to see a little bit of the dynamic between Sojiro, Futaba and Wakaba. I never knew just how much I wanted to see that until I saw the bit of it in the late part of the game. I donât remember if it was in the original game, but I LOVE that one of Yusukeâs battle lines is âHow do you want to do this?â LOVE IT. Oh Chihayaâs confidant boosting fortune reading was SUPER CLUTCH. Extremely good quality of life right there. I love the extra little bit they added to the wardenâs confidant, getting to take them out of the velvet room and show them around. Super cute. Iwaiâs gun customization was pretty sweet. Adding Jose to mementos was strange, but very welcome! It made going around much more interesting. Oh speaking of, buffing Ryujiâs instant kill was a GREAT idea. Haha Morgana go vroom vroom. The alarm in the velvet room was also awesome and made making the perfect persona a million times easier.
   Itâs been a few weeks now since Iâve finished the game, and itâs unfortunate that I canât remember more of the little things. This whole write up has been an on and off thing since I finished P5R. Still I love the game and donât really have any complaints. Well maybe one: LET ME FEED YUSUKE. Someone please feed that man. I forgot how much I loved playing the original game, and going through it again with all the new stuff was a total pleasure! And obviously the 3rd semester was an incredible experience. If you like the original a lot, and itâs been a while since you played it, get P5R. If you never played the original but were interested in it, get P5R. Anyway thatâs all I got to say about it.
10 notes
·
View notes