#Earn to Die 2 hack generator

[theresattrpgforthat]

Any solo-player/journal games that are a bit more lighthearted, preferably with a focus on character building?

Theme: Light-Hearted, Character-Focused Solo Games.

Hello friend! I have some games here that skew more towards the Light-Hearted end of the scale, while others skew more towards Character Building. I hope one of them fits right in the niche you are looking for!

Souvenirs, by Rémi Töötätä.

You are going on a week-long vacation. You are determined to enjoy every visit you go on and come back home with souvenirs from each day, including one for your friend who is taking care of your pet while you’re away.

During the game, you will keep a journal of the places you’re going to and the souvenirs you’re getting. Draw cards each day of your vacation and use prompts to imagine the places you visit, the items you get as souvenirs and the memories they represent.Make yourself a nice cup of tea, write the diary of your character each day, maybe draw a map of the region and pictures of the items you imagine, or play entirely in your head; and most of all, have a lovely time!

This looks like a very lighthearted game, and the souvenirs you collect as you play seem like excellent tools to convey personal memories. This game is meant to happen over the course of a week, so every morning you can sit down and journal about where your character would visit, and what would catch their eye. As you do so, you’ll also want to think about who you’re buying for, and what kind of connection you have to them. At the end of the game, you’ll have a lovely web of relationships, as well as a little story to take back to your NPC friends.

Hygge Holiday, by Figgins.

Hygge Holiday is a solo journaling RPG set in a cozy small village in a Nordic country.

You’ve travelled home for an extended winter holiday, with lots of vacation time.  Winter is a time to slow down and focus on simple pleasures and good company. Luckily, the Nordic countries offer free health care and university education, on top of many weeks of paid holiday per year, and generous unemployment benefits--meaning less worry, stress and uncertainty, and more time for enjoying the simple pleasures in life. How will you spend your time, and with whom? 

This game probably feels more fitting for the cold weather days, but it certainly looks like a great cozy game none the less. You earn paper snowflakes that reflect your experiences and you will also journal about these memories, which might fit the character-building kind of theme you are looking for!

Etude of the Evening, by Takuma Okada.

Etude of the Evening is a tabletop roleplaying game about recovering lost objects from your brilliant past. It is a hack of Songs for the Dusk by Kavita Poduri and Quinn Vega combined with You Will Destroy Something Beautiful by Samantha Day. Uses a six-sided die, for 1 to 3 players. 1-2 hours.

Overall, I think the tone for this game can vary, but it certainly hits the spot of focusing on your character. You’ll answer questions about who you are at the beginning of the game, and navigate a strange landscape. If you want to focus on a light-hearted tone, then you’ll just want to take descriptive choices that focus on beauty rather than decay.

The Land Beyond, by Cezar Capacle.

You are a raccoon. You lived your whole life on an island but now you have a hot air balloon.

You want to be free and reach The Land Beyond.

The Land Beyond is a solo RPG about letting go and going beyond what you think you could. You travel through wondrous lands living fantastic adventures along the way. 

During your journey, you will have the opportunity to reflect upon the burdens you carry with you and, luckily, let go of them so you can travel even further.

This is a journeying game that looks like it’s probably a little less light-hearted than you’re looking for, but really focuses on character reflection. I like the oracles for events in this book, and the idea of tracking the gas in your balloon in order to see how far you can go. I’m keeping this recommendation in because even if it requires a lot of serious character reflection, at the end of the day, you’re still a raccoon in a hot air balloon - and that just feels whimsical to me.

Creation Myths, by gothHoblin.

Creation Myths is a solo journeying game based on the hero's journey/monomyth narrative template. 

It is designed to help you dive deeper into character creation through the development of a backstory adventure via dice and prompts, and to provide you with new things to think about. It can also work as a way to redevelop existing characters and generate fresh ideas. With multiple modes of play available, all you need is a set of dice and somewhere to write. Let your imagination do the rest!

This is another case of your mileage may vary when it comes to tone, because you’ll be the source of ideas for coming up with a character backstory. This is meant to be pretty genre-agnostic, so you might want to pull from other games or pieces of media to decide what kind of character you want to write backstory for. It’s solely focused on character development, but again, whether or not it’s lighthearted is probably up to you.

Incarnation, by breathing stories.

At some mundane moment, something shifted in you. The number of ‘coincidences’ became too large to be without meaning. The deja vu became impossible to ignore. It hit you, not like a sack of bricks, but like a shawl landing firmly on your shoulders.

This is not your first life. You have lived many others, and now they start trickling in…

In Incarnation, you create a character who has just become aware that the life they are leading is not their first life. Using a tarot deck you will create the story of this character and their past lives, uncovering secrets pleasant and otherwise.

With all that this character has been through, the weight of all they hold, who are they really?

This game has the potential to shift in tone, but since it’s played using a tarot deck, I feel like much of the genre and details will depend on the player’s interpretation. It’s deeply tied to character building, as the game revolves around discovering your character’s past lives. If Anamnesis sounds up your alley, then this game might tick a lot of the same boxes, as it’s built on the same set of rules.

Fox Curio’s Floating Bookshop, by lostwaysclub.

Welcome to the River; a flowing path born at the mountain’s feet. In her high narrows, barely two boats fit lengthwise; a furious pounding of water. From these rocky ravines, she threads her way through the land, until she reaches the Great Sea. Quiet and slow-moving in these lowlands, she provides homes for those who live upon her waters and food for those who live beside her.

Your days are filled with customers, leaks and the irritating nook beetles that bury into the pages of your books. Make friends with regular customers to the bookshop, experience the River as she moves through the different seasons, visit and explore various towns, go fishing in the River's rich waters. Throughout the year, the seasons change and holidays give the chance for you to join in celebrations and festivities with the animalfolk. 

This game is at the top of the list when looking at tone; it’s absolutely lighthearted, but I’m not sure how much it focuses on character building. Most of the focus will be on your customers, but I think as you journal, you have the potential to learn more about your character through the kinds of books they sell and how they deal with customers. Overall the tone of this world is so beautiful and peaceful, it’s on my own list of games I’d love to play.

Games I've Recommended in the Past

Void 1680 AM, by Bannerless Games.

Anamnesis, by Sam Leigh.

Wanderhome, by Jay Dragon.

[yeonchi]

Koei Warriors Retrospective Part 8: Dynasty Warriors 5 Spinoffs (Empires/Vol. 2/Mahjong/DS/Online)

Dynasty Warriors 5 Empires (真・三國無双4 Empires) Platforms: PlayStation 2, Xbox 360 Release dates: Japan: 23 March 2006 USA: 28 March 2006 Europe: 23 June 2006

Now that Koei had established the Warriors game franchise, the spinoffs would continue being rolled out by the quarter as they continued refining old concepts and experimenting with new ones, even in the midst of a transition between console generations.

What spinoffs would be inspired by the peak of the classic Warriors games? Let's jump into the spinoffs for Dynasty Warriors 5.

Dynasty Warriors 5 Empires

Where DW4E experimented with the hybrid simulation/hack-and-slash format, DW5E refined the format and put more control of the kingdom to the player.

Empire Mode now allows you to select from six scenarios to start off, one of them being the fictional scenario that assigns officers and kingdoms randomly. After selecting your kingdom, there are more settings that you can choose from; aside from the map switching and the difficulty, you can choose whether you want to carry over character experience earned throughout this game, a time limit of 200 turns (50 years), have edit officers appear in the playthrough, how you annex a kingdom (by occupying their capital directly or after isolating it), officer limits or officer deaths (enabling this will allow you to execute captured officers but officers will die of old age 90 years after their debut in historical scenarios).

In the Political/Strategy phase, you now have the option to pick your own policies in the form of strategy cards instead of consulting your officers for two policies. Having different officers in your kingdom will allow them to suggest different strategies, and if you pick an officer's set of policies with a policy you haven't used before, a new strategy card can be unlocked. Consulting an officer or picking a policy takes up an order/move; you start off with one and you can get up to five as you keep conquering territories and getting appointed to higher positions. Depending on your situation, it may be more advantageous for you to consult an officer as you can use two policies for the price of one.

Moving onto the Battle phase. When you invade or defend a territory, you can deploy a relief general and/or lieutenant who will appear as reinforcements during the battle. Before you begin the battle, you can also employ tactics obtained during the Strategy phase whereas in the last game, tactics selected through consultation are valid for that turn's Battle phase only. Some tactics are implemented for the entire battle (like time limits or reinforcement speeds) while other tactics are activated in the Pause menu after being equipped (like launching fire attacks or rallying your troops).

As you increase your weaponsmithing skills, you can unlock stronger weapons for your characters. After each battle, you can upgrade your player officer's weapon with attributes gained during it. Fourth weapons are initially unlocked by reaching tech level 4 (for a character's weapon class) and obtaining 500 KOs in battle. In subsequent playthroughs, you only need to reach tech level 4 to unlock it if you decide to carry over player experience.

Items are no longer restocked after a certain amount of turns, but they need to be manufactured by spending money. There are three new items exclusive to this game and there are four items that are exclusively obtained through trading; after capturing Xiliang, Jiaozhi, Nanman and Beiping, you can spam the trade commands and you can get an exclusive item from there.

During battle, you can order your officers to attack or defend a base or officer through the Unit Info menu. You can also use the d-pad to order all your officers to attack (up), defend (down), gather (left) or do whatever they like (right).

Each scenario will have its own event battles. Aside from the Yellow Turban Rebellion, Hulao Gate and Chibi, there are two new event battles set in Guandu and Yiling. The Battle of Yiling is triggered as a second event battle in the Flames Over Chibi scenario, while the Divided Land scenario does not have any event battles.

Free Mode is also included in this game and in this mode, you can play any invasion/defence scenario or event battle with any ally and enemy lineup you choose, even though you are still limited to the limited general/lieutenant lineup. I think it's an essential mode for Empires games because this mode truly allows you to embrace the sandbox nature of the game outside of the randomised kingdom lineups of Empire Mode.

When you boot the game for the first time with DW5/XL data on your memory card, you can unlock some bonuses from the start. Playable characters are unlocked in Free Mode, the first 96 posters in the gallery are unlocked (2 for each playable character), you have all the basic items at level 10, all outfits in Edit Mode and your settings from the vanilla game. In addition, your custom characters in XL can also be ported over to Empires. This functionality is part of the reason why I would have liked to see Edit Mode continue in future games so that I don't have to waste time creating a bunch of characters in Empires when I already have some I can import from the vanilla game.

This game also has an Xbox 360 port which once again, supports 720p and 5.1ch Dolby Digital sound. Unlike 5 Special, 5 Empires is the first Xbox 360 port to be available in the West. Additionally, background music from older games is also available and you can select a game's playlist to prioritise in battle. The encyclopedia from the vanilla game is included in Empires as well.

Dynasty Warriors 5 Empires improves on 4 Empires and makes it the definitive Empires experience for its time. Samurai Warriors would begin an Empires spinoff of its own by using this game as a base. If you played both this game and Samurai Warriors 2 Empires, you will definitely see how the latter game was influenced by the former.

Dynasty Warriors Vol. 2

Dynasty Warriors Vol. 2 (真・三國無双 2nd Evolution) Platforms: PlayStation Portable Release dates: Japan: 23 March 2006 USA: 24 October 2006 Europe: 17 November 2006

Like how 5 Empires was an improvement on the last Empires game, Dynasty Warriors Vol. 2 was an improvement on the first PSP game. This game finally gets a moniker to differentiate it from the other games, though it's very easy to mistake this game as Dynasty Warriors 2 when it's actually Dynasty Warriors Vol. 2 or 2nd Evolution. As is obvious, character designs and movesets are taken from Dynasty Warriors 5.

Once again, Musou Mode is defined by kingdom, but there is a bit of a twist. Each kingdom's Musou Mode is divided into four paths, the first three being five stages long and the final path being four stages long. The first stage of the second path is unlocked after clearing a Musou Mode once, while the first stage of the final path is unlocked after clearing the final stage of the third path (with 100% completion in Wei's story). Most stages have two victory conditions you can choose to clear the battle. For example, for the Yellow Turban Rebellion, you can defeat Zhang Jiao or occupy all five altars to win the battle. Achieving the former condition will take you on one path and achieving the latter condition will take you on another. Thanks to this, you don't have to pursue Lu Bu at Sishui Gate or Hulao Gate.

Free Mode allows you to play a pseudo-Musou Mode of up to 8 stages, with all the battles divided into 8 eras. It is also in this mode where you can play stages for the Other characters, with each faction (including Zuo Ci) receiving two stages each. Because of the way the Other stages are grouped in the eras however, you can only play 6 of them in succession and not 8. Those stages are unlocked by achieving 100% completion in stages against the Other factions to unlock the first stage, then achieve 100% in that unlocked stage to unlock the second stage. Zuo Ci is unlocked by achieving 100% in eight Other stages. Only Easy, Normal and Hard difficulties are offered with no Chaos option available.

Open fields are either allied or enemy territory and not the reappearing patrol battles they were in the last game. This means that if a unit goes onto an open field that belongs to the other side, they start with one less bar.

Areas are not liberated until both the enemy morale runs out and all enemy unit leaders are defeated. Some people may see it as a drain if they find it hard to defeat unit leaders, but as someone who likes playing on Easy and defeating all officers on the battlefield, it's a plus.

Attack and defence bases are introduced as additional area types. They have a base morale of 2, but they also raise the morale of neighbouring areas belonging to that base's side. I've seen areas that are linked to three bases, but never four if I remember correctly.

Villages and treasure troves are new area types as well. In a village, you will have 60 seconds to complete a mission and liberate it, which involves killing bandits or protecting villagers. When you clear the mission, you can obtain some supplies and recover your health, Musou and Rage. Treasure troves are hidden in battlefields and there will be a high-level guest officer guarding it. Defeating that guest officer quickly will add them to your list of officers, which is easier than just leaving it to chance like in the last game. Completing the village and treasure trove missions (along with satisfying both victory conditions) are the key to gaining 100% on a stage.

Mountains and rivers are also included in this game, but this time, there are also steep mountains and deep rivers that cannot be crossed at all unless you have a Ranger or Ferryman among your officers or a mount with the Climber or Swimmer ability.

The bow function from the previous game is removed as the R button now serves to activate Musou Rage when the bar is full. Levels no longer determine what attacks you can perform as it is now determined by your weapon.

Yes, like in the main game, you can now have up to 8 weapons and mounts to equip into battle. There are no fourth weapons in this game, but you can work towards obtaining a strong third weapon. Elements are also determined by the weapon and weapons can have up to 5 attributes and support for Evolution Attacks. Mounts, namely horses and elephants, can be obtained during battle and some of them also come with an ability as well depending on their reputation. Mounts are developed as you continue to use them. There are also four special horses that can be obtained in the game as well. Most mounts except for the special ones will rear up when attempting to trample enemies other than soldiers or maybe even base captains (depending on the background of the mount), but all horses will rear up when attempting to trample the enemy commander.

Moving onto officers now and the system has received a few tweaks. Not all officers will have activatable skills, but officers can have up to three abilities. At the end of each battle, you are given growth points to distribute to officers, which will raise their rank, stat buffs and unlock skills. Characters' control values will also develop with their other stats, so you will be able to equip up to two playable and/or guest officers per battle.

Guest officers are unlocked in treasure trove missions, with officers coming from Samurai Warriors 2, Water Margin, the early Han period (characters like Liu Bang and Xiang Yu also being featured in an old Koei game for the SNES, namely Rise of the Phoenix 項劉記) and others such as Jiang Taigong (aka Taigong Wang), Genghis Khan, Yu Ji and Hua Tuo. Li Shi Shi and Cai Wenji have been removed in this game. There are a total of 300 officers to be collected.

Exclusive to this game are officer combinations, which will give you additional stat boosts. The combinations range from familial bonds to frenemies to mentors and students and so forth. For combinations between two player characters or a player character and a generic officer, playing as one of the characters can take them out of the equation so it will only cost you whatever points the other officer costs. You will definitely need to do this for the combinations of Garden Oath, Illusionist Trio and Strategist Legacy because they involve three player characters and you will not be able to accommodate all three of them within your control point limit.

This game also features a multiplayer (VS) mode for up to 4 players using the PSP's ad-hoc connection capabilities. Game modes include Battle Royal(e), Bombs Away, Sudden Death and Time Attack. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to get it working on PPSSPP between my computer and phone (I used to be able to do it before for something else) and nobody has cared enough to post gameplay footage of that mode, however the trailer for this game does have some footage and tutorials for each game are included as well. If there was an option to play against the computer then I might have given this mode a chance. Ad-hoc connections are also used to open rooms to trade officers between players instead of swapping Memory Sticks like it was in the previous game.

As stated at the start, Dynasty Warriors Vol. 2 is more icing on the cake that was the first PSP game. It's another perfect port of the main game cut down for a portable console while also being modestly sized for Memory Sticks. You can fit both of the Dynasty Warriors PSP games or the first game and Samurai Warriors State of War onto a 512 MB card or all three games onto a 1 GB card.

Of course, the argument still remains that cut-down spinoffs like this are wasteful when Koei could have ported whole games to the PSP since other publishers have managed to do so with their games even at the console's launch. You can rest assured that future Warriors games for the PSP would do just that.

Dynasty Warriors Mahjong (Jan Sangoku Musou)

Dynasty Warriors Mahjong (雀・三國無双) Platforms: PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, Nintendo DS Release dates: Japan: 23 March 2006 (PS2)/28 September 2006 (PSP/DS)

If there are two things in this world I'll never understand (how to play), it's cricket and mahjong. At least with International Cricket Captain you can just press a few buttons and the game plays itself even if you can't comprehend how a team can win by X amount of runs or Y amount of wickets. As for mahjong, it's really something that people in Asia and first generation-migrants (including older generations) are more familiar with. How could a second-generation migrant like me even know how to play mahjong?

Okay, I did get shown how to play mahjong once, but that was many years ago, and even then, mahjong is different in different places. My family plays the Hong Kong variant of mahjong. Dad likes watching a mahjong competition show from Taiwan that has their own variant of mahjong. And of course, this game uses the Japanese variant of mahjong, also known as RICH! RICH! RICH! mahjong.

This game actually uses the engine from Koei's mahjong game series Mahjong Taikai (麻雀大会), originally released in 1987 for the NEC PC-9800, which lasted longer than the Tandy TRS-80 and its successors (up to 2003 as opposed to 1993) and could run up to Windows 2000 (as opposed to Windows 3.x on the Tandy 1000 and Tandy 3000). Hah! Eat that, Alec and Shanna!

("Okay, my lord!" they replied.)

When you start a new game you're guided to name and create an avatar for your save. There are three play modes, namely Musou Play (無双闘牌), Tournament (雀帝位戦) and Free Play (自由対局). The Data Base shows nothing but your play stats for all characters. Rules for the Open Field rules can be set in the settings. Character descriptions can be seen by waiting on the title screen.

In Musou Play, you go through a sort-of-Musou Mode for Wei, Wu and Shu with six stages each against different characters. Once you've cleared all three Musou Plays once, you unlock the Musou Musou Mode where you play 15 stages against different combos of characters from across the Three Kingdoms. Different stages have different clear conditions.

The Tournament mode has you play in a tournament starting with 32 players, with the top two players from each game advancing to the next round. Different rules apply between tournaments which will loop back after playing eight of them. And finally, Free Play lets you choose which characters to play against along with the rules to play with.

This is as much as I can say about this game because like other Warriors games, the gameplay is the same no matter how you play it. As I said at the start of this section, I'm not familiar with mahjong so this isn't a game I'm going to invest a lot of time in. This game is the first unique Warriors game/spinoff to not be localised for the West, which is fair in this case but not for others (such as 5 Special). The original PS2 release was also the same day that Vol. 2 was released in Japan. I'd complain about it, but then you have to wonder how much effort was needed to make a Warriors mahjong game using the engine from a mahjong game you've already made.

Dynasty Warriors DS: Fighter's Battle

Dynasty Warriors DS: Fighter's Battle (真・三國無双DSファイターズバトル) Platforms: Nintendo DS Release dates: Japan: 5 April 2007 USA: 24 July 2007 Europe: 31 August 2007

(The Koei Tecmo Wiki got the Western dates wrong and I almost fell for it had I not checked Wikipedia and other sources to confirm them.)

The first Dynasty Warriors PSP game takes up 150 MB on a UMD that can hold up to 900 MB or 1.8 MB of data depending on whether it's a single or dual layer disc. Nintendo DS Game Cards can be up to 512 MB in size. With this game using 128 MB cards, could it have been possible to port the PSP game's functionality to the DS? Well, no. The PSP uses the 64-bit MIPS R4000 chip that can run at up to 333 MHz with a 166 MHz proprietary Media Engine GPU, while the Nintendo DS uses 32-bit ARM processors.

A beta build of Dynasty Warriors DS was created as a sequel to Dynasty Warriors Advance for the GBA (which was also compatible with the original DS and DS Lite), featuring the ability gauge from that game. And somehow, despite that, we get this.

There is only one mode in this game, unless you care about multiplayer gameplay and even then I'm pretty sure it's the same mode because I'm using DeSmuME which doesn't support Wi-Fi. Multiplayer mode supports up to three players.

You pick from three unnamed characters based on three of the Four Gods, namely Phoenix (Red), Dragon (Blue) and Chimera (Yellow) with no Tiger character (who would be white). The computer will randomly select one of the other two to be your opponent. You're then brought to a map of China where you have 11 battlefields to conquer, namely Wancheng (Castle), Hulao, Xuchang, Hefei, Jianye, Chibi, Shu, Xiliang, Huabei, Chengdu and Nanman. Once you've conquered all 11, you'll fight a final secret battle at the Great Wall.

Before each battle you will need to assemble a Battle Deck of officers who will be featured in the battle. Your opponent will do the same as well. You will have a main officer and up to 6 subofficers. Cards are obtained as you play the game. There are red cards that enhance your stats, blue cards that add effects to your Obstacle Wheel, and rare golden cards that do both. The rare cards are unlocked through special conditions, including some that involve having the Dynasty Warriors Advance Game Pak inserted, which is detrimental for DSi players. Out of the cast from DW5, only 28 characters have unique designs on their cards. 8 more playable characters are also available as generic officers and the rest of the cards are made up of generic officers. There are a total of 120 cards representing 51 officers to be unlocked, with the blue and red cards able to be levelled up with repeated use.

During battle, your objective is to occupy all enemy bases before taking the main camp, but your opponent can take your main camp before all your bases fall (I think) because the gates to your camp are left open. Like with Advance, you have to defeat a certain number of enemies in an area before you can move on or defeat the base defender officer and occupy it. There are also armories and depots that start off neutral but can be occupied in a similar way to bases. Every time you encounter your opponent, you're brought to a battlefield to duel, and the character who loses will respawn somewhere else.

In battle, you're limited to 4 attacks like it was in Advance. Musou Attacks are now performed by pressing X, while the R button changes the bottom screen between the map and the enemy's information screen. Yes, this game doesn't use any touch controls, but it sure makes good damn use of a second screen. For every five coins you collect (stacking to a maximum of nine), you can obtain an effect from the Obstacle Wheel which you can use to affect enemies in your area by pressing Y.

Yeah, look, you could remake the game with another IP and it'd be something, but this really just feels like a Dynasty Warriors game in name only. It didn't live up to the hype that was teased during E3 2004 or 2005. Aside from the voices for the three new characters, I'm pretty sure the few voices for everyone else is taken from DW5. I played this game for a bit many years ago and only revisited it recently for this retrospective. It's only enjoyable if you make it enjoyable, otherwise there's nothing much to it.

Koei Tecmo experimented with the DS as a platform and its limits can't really accommodate the requirements of their IP. This game and Mahjong are some examples of wasteful spinoffs whose resources could have been better used in ports of the mainline games. I hesitate to call this game a disgrace primarily because of its experimental status, but also because we haven't even breached the line of disgrace yet.

Dynasty Warriors Online

Dynasty Warriors Online (真・三國無双Online) Platforms: Windows, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita Service launch: Japan: June 2006 (Windows), February 2010 (PS3), September 2014 (PS4), November 2015 (Vita) Taiwan: March 2008 China: April 2008 USA/Europe: August 2010 Service shutdown: Japan: February 2022 (Windows/PS4), May 2019 (PS3), March 2017 (Vita) Taiwan: May 2016 China: December 2020 USA/Europe: January 2014

This is going to be a doozy to write about.

For a time, Koei Tecmo operated an MMORPG known as Dynasty Warriors Online. It was first launched as Shin Sangoku Musou BB (broadband) in 2006, originally limited to Yahoo and SoftBank before being open to other providers in May 2007. The game's logo style would be adapted for use in the DS game before becoming its current Online incarnation from November of that year.

Become a True Warrior of the Three Kingdoms with Optus! When you sign up for Optus Broadband, you'll get exclusive access to our new game offered in partnership with Koei, Dynasty Warriors Online. You'll also get talking animals, a scary shiver-inducing italic logo and a guaranteed data breach for all our loyal customers. Call now or visit your local Optus shop today! "Yeah yeah yeah... Just say the word, just say the word!" Yeah.

While the game was available to download for free, Koei did sell starter packs for BB and Online. The game went through four major expansions, with the last one being Online Z released in July 2013, which implemented weapon switching from 7 and 8. The game was also available (digitally, I presume) for the PS3, PS4 and PS Vita, but each expansion pack was sold as a disc as well. I honestly have to wonder how the discs work if it's an online game - I presume it installs or runs the files from the disc while also downloading and installing the latest data from the servers. I can honestly imagine what would happen if players didn't buy the latest expansion and the data wasn't automatically downloaded - "Oh, you don't have the version where we implemented weapons from DW8? Nup, you can't play the game until you buy that version!"

Once you create your account you create your character and choose a faction to join. As with other MMOs you can explore the world, interact with other players, buy and sell weapons, upgrade your equipment and so forth. There are many types of weapons available; initially, only DW5's weapons were implemented along with some weapons exclusive to Online. As the years went on, weapons from 7, 8 and even 9 were implemented, along with Da Ji, Fu Xi, Nuwa and Ranmaru Mori's weapons from Warriors Orochi 2 and Samurai Warriors 3.

The C1s and C6s of movesets can be changed, amazingly enough, with 4 types of C1s and 6 types of C6s. Each weapon also supports Evolution Attacks, even those that came from games other than DW5. You should also see the names of the weapons given in this game, particularly to the weapon movesets from later games as they had to differentiate them from DW5's movesets. Later games could have really learnt something from Online's weapon systems. You can check out the list here.

There were many game modes you could play and different campaigns you could participate in based on different battles and eras. Apparently bots could fill in spaces when games don't have enough players. If this game could allow you to start a LAN session, join a community server or play solo with and against bots, it could have been like Counter Strike, but alas we'll never know.

Sadly though, this is a game I won't be able to review that seriously because I've never played it and I can't anyway because the services have been shutdown. Although the game was free-to-play with microtransactions, I can only imagine how much the experience would be panned by gamers if it still managed to continue in the West past 2014. But hey, I managed to get a piece of content out of it, which is cool.

Can you believe it nearly took me 20 years to play (almost) all the spinoffs of Dynasty Warriors 5? This may be the end of the classic era of Dynasty Warriors, but we haven't finished covering the classic era of Warriors games yet. We head back to Japan next time for Samurai Warriors 2.

[stonegearstudios]

The last of the current crop of Skirmishers, the frankly horrible Terrorbird from The Monster Makers.

Now, the Monster Makers are a subversive faction. They don't (at the start of hostilities at least) control any stations of their own, they live in the dark corners of others and steal what resources they need.

So, in order to field any large number of units, they needed to find a way to grow them fast and cheep, and the Terrorbird is the epitome of fast and cheep.

Oh, and vicious as well.

Terrorbirds are produced as eggs by some yet unseen creation, with the eggs being tough and leathery instead of hard and brittle, about the size of a soccer ball. While some are hatched and allowed to grow to full size in order to be trained and used as disposable shock troops, a favourite Monster Maker tactic is to simply hide the eggs all over an enemy station.

Without a requirement to be insulated by a parent (though they will prematurely die in sub-zero temperatures) the eggs can simply be left wherever they are least likely to be stumbled upon, a living time bomb.

Generally, a Terrorbird infestation goes like this.

Week 1: An egg hatches. It is ravenously hungry but too small to pose a real threat to anything besides vermin at this point. Terrorbirds are omnivorous, though with a strong meat preference, so they quickly start devouring anything they can get their little beaks on, from packaged food to garbage to other pests.

Week 2: Experiencing rapid growth, the Terrorbird is nearing it's final size though it's bones remain somewhat brittle and underdeveloped. It's ravenous hunger is still unabated but some instinct still compels it to keep to the shadows. Pets, and other small animals start going missing, if the station has any and now small children are also at risk.

Week 3: Thought to be the result of some hormonal change, the Terrorbird no long attempts to hide itself any long. It bursts from the shadows and sprints through station streets, slashing at anything that moves with its talons and crushing with it's beak. It makes virtually no attempt at self preservation and is often quickly shot down or hacked to pieces, but always after leaving a trail of maimed and dead civilians in its wake.

Despite the other monstrosities that the Monster Makers have created, it is the Terrorbirds that invite the most hate and dread from the populous. Such indiscriminate tactics earn few friends, though it is currently unclear if all cells employ them.

As a unit, the Terrorbird is frail, cheep, but fast. Currently the fastest unit in the game. They are actually purchased in lots of three and you can take more of them at one time than any other unit in the game.

While their Talons and Crushing Beak do heavy damage to any unarmoured foe, they are easily countered by even light protection. Add in the fact that they have no ranged weapons and any sort of competent defence will see them dying in droves, but that is what they were made for.

As a last nasty surprise, Terrorbirds are almost impossible to control and on a failed Control check, rather than retreating, they will enter a frenzy, moving toward the nearest other unit and attacking them. Fairweather friends and all that

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5 Tips to Take Care While Hiring a Baseball Coach in Florida

Are you looking to hire a baseball coach for your athlete in Florida? Here are five tips to let you choose the perfect coach.

The Traditional Way

There’s a raging debate in baseball circles about which baseball coaching methodology is best for an aspiring athlete – the new or the traditional methodology. Without belittling the admirers of new school baseball coaching, we would say this: the traditional way has worked for far too long to be replaced by anything new!

Some things never change. The baseball coaching methodology is one of them. Even with the introduction of advanced technology to monitor and evaluate an athlete’s performance, baseball knowledge is best passed from coach to student-athlete. It’s a coaching methodology that has stood the test of time thanks to coaches who honor this ongoing tradition and teach the original fundamental technique taught and passed on from player to player.

Ted William, Tris Speaker, Mike Easler, Mo Vaughn – all became mentors to transfer their hard-earned baseball knowledge to young athletes. These sporting legends have taught their student-athletes everything from correct playing techniques to developing a winning mindset.

"This game is about mentality. Dogged, tough mentality, and if you don't have that, you can't be successful," Mo Vaughn.

Baseball is a tough sport. Young athletes looking to crack big league roasters can't rely on their skills alone. Positive mental attributes like dedication, discipline, and a never-say-die attitude make all the difference when it comes to separating the best from the rest. And who better to teach these attributes than the players-turned-coaches who have gone through the grind and made it big in MLB!

Here are five tips to help you decide on your next baseball coach in Florida.

1. Choose a baseball coach believing in the tradition of passing down baseball knowledge through generations.

“Never let your head hang down. Never give up and sit down and grieve. Find another way," Satchel Paige.

Coaches at premier baseball academies in Florida and nationwide base their coaching techniques on developing the player’s mind. They teach young baseball players ways to develop a strong mindset capable of accepting losses as part of the learning curve. It’s a methodology passed down through generations of legendary coaches and players. The fundamentals of technique are passed from one generation of players to another.

This process of transferring knowledge is found in a few other sports, and it has been going on for decades. The same philosophy applies to baseball coaches mentoring athletes online. When aspiring athlete attends a coaching session with traditional baseball coaches, they share in a wealth of knowledge accumulated through generations of brainstorming and toiling on the diamond.

2. Mindset building is vital!

"Even though you may not win the fight, you still gotta go," Mo Vaughn.

Baseball is a team sport, and you are only as good as your teammate. Individual talent can only take athletes so far. But if they learn to play for the team's goals, they become contributing members with a sense of responsibility. Traditional coaches want young baseball players to imbibe such qualities as initiative, selflessness, and camaraderie. They inspire young athletes to become leaders capable of leading by example.

Chicago Cubs Hall of Famer Mordecai Brown pitched with three fingers on his pitching hand. In the Cubs' 1908 World Series triumph, Brown won two games, including a shutout. Hack Wilson drove a record 191 runs in 1930 despite having a significant physical disadvantage compared to other athletes of the time. Jim Abbott and Chad Bentz cracked the MLB roasters despite having specially-abled hands. Freddy Sanchez became a .297 career hitter despite being born with foot difficulties. The list of baseball players overcoming disadvantages to attain baseball glory is endless. All these legends were able to touch glory because of being mentored by baseball coaches who worked on building their mindset.

3. Proper technique is at the core of succeeding in baseball.

“Never allow the fear of striking out keep you from playing the game!” Babe Ruth

A winning mindset and proper technique go hand in hand in shaping a young baseball player’s future. Mike Easler perfected Mo Vaughn’s hitting technique on Vaughn's path to MLB stardom. Simple things like grip, posture, and head position can make all the difference between winning and losing at the plate. That's why young athletes need a baseball coach willing to work on the finer aspects of their play.

Traditional baseball coaches want you to borrow from their experience. They discuss their triumphs and tribulations with student-athletes. They teach ways learned in the heat of battle. A great coach works on the strengths and weaknesses of their students, helping them realize their full potential.

4. Your athlete needs one-on-one sessions.

Where premier baseball coaching institutions like Vaughn Sports Academy stand out is in their tailored approach. Coaches at these top-notch coaching facilities work with individual athletes, giving them the guidance they need, all while working on their strengths and weaknesses. Each player learns to rely on their mentor on and off the field. It’s a bond forged for life. And this is precisely what you need to look for in your baseball coach. Is he ready to mentor individual athletes and conduct one-on-one sessions?

Legends like Mike Easler and Mo Vaughn are so famous because they spend a lot of time with their student-athletes, knowing and advising them on tackling challenges in baseball and life.

5. Strength and stamina building is key to succeeding in baseball.

From the Little League to MLB, each game of baseball tests the athleticism of individual players. The best baseball coaches work on things like player fitness, muscle group activation, and stamina building to help athletes succeed on the diamond. They instill a strong work ethic in their student-athletes to prepare them for challenges on and off the field. MLB legends like Mo Vaughn touched glory because they were able to match their mental toughness with physical prowess. And this is only possible under the able guidance of a traditional baseball coach.

If you are an aspiring player looking to crack a big-league club roaster, you need a traditional baseball coach in Florida. And what’s a better place to find such a coach than Vaughn Sports Academy?

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Betrayed Part 3

Due to the amount of attention part 2 got, I’m definitely making this a series!!! The characters have names now: the hero is Dante and the villain is Ridley. Both still use they/them pronouns.

~~~

Isis and Canaan would kill and die for each other, take one and you’re guaranteed you’ll get both within hours. Isis is the healer and medic of the group as well, and the most defenseless. Easiest to kidnap if you’re going that route. Atlas is the ringleader, take him and the team will fall apart.  His powers focus around metal so if you want to contain him at any point, avoid that. As for Canaan, they’re the brawn of the group. Other than the whole firepowers thing, they can also control sensory perception and input if you get within… I think it’s five feet of them? So using Isis to draw them in is the best bet, along with long range weapons. Get a power suppressor on them and you shouldn’t have any problems, they’re nothing without their abilities.

As for getting into the base, it has a secret entrance from an underground tunnel with an entrance inside that abandoned pawnshop— which is nothing but a front, although it also stores emergency weapons and such. Follow the tunnel, make all right turns, and punch in the code 90675 when you get to the door. They’ll assume I’m coming for them when you put it in— everyone has a unique access code and that one’s mine. If you want to cut the power, the backup generators take seconds to boot up automatically— so don’t bother trying. 

As for anything else— we have a safehouse thirty miles southeast from the base, although I forgot the address. It’s used purely on an emergency basis… the location’s somewhere around the base though. They store the most important data on Tavi’s personal laptop, rather than the main servers, to try and avoid the most important stuff getting stolen. I don’t think they’d even give up the password under torture, so you’d have to hack it. Or get it from Isis, I’m pretty sure they know it— and their pain tolerance is dismal. And if you get Canaan’s life on the line, they’ll give you anything. As for Tavi, they’re the guy-in-the-chair type person, in charge of all the tech and weapons. They don’t care about anyone as far as I know, so no one will care if they’re gone. Not worth the effort, honestly. I have a feeling they were the one to suggest to Atlas about leaving me behind to save their own skins.

Ridley scanned through the hero’s frantically written notes with amusement, nodding their approval as they folded the paper and stuck it in a pocket. “You think like a villain,” they said approvingly. “You’re calculating, manipulative. You know how to hit them where it hurts. I like it.”

Dante bit their lip, crossing their arms over their still-bare, still-bleeding chest. “I don’t! I just want my revenge, that’s all,” they retorted. I’m nothing like you. But they were, right? Spilling the team’s secrets just because they could no longer be useful? That’s justice, they told themself. The bastards betrayed me, they had it coming. But it wasn’t as if they had time to debate with themself.

Ridley reached down to stroke through their hair, taking a moment to think. “Sure you do, sweet thing, keep telling yourself that,” they scoffed. Dante jerked their head away, glaring at the villain furiously.

And their defiance earned them a sharp slap to the face, stinging and shameful. They winced, their face reddening in humiliation.

“Just tell me what I need to do to get back at those bastards,” they said defeatedly. “I’ve given you everything that could be useful… you know they’d kill me for it. I’ve already gone too far to ever be accepted back, although they were the ones to abandon me in the first place. I don’t have anyone else, you don’t need to worry about that.”

Ridley frowned, producing a tiny curved karambit as if from thin air. They placed the point against Dante’s throat, the blade positioned to easily rip through flesh. Their breath hitched, their heart began pounding rapidly, their head spinning in fear.

“It’s hard to imagine you’re actually that eager, little hero,” Ridley taunted, ghosting the tip over their neck before pulling the blade away, although they left it mere inches away from their skin. “Unless your team abandoned you for being a disloyal coward, in which case I don’t want you either.”

Dante spluttered wordlessly for a moment, clenching their fists tight. “I— I— I loved them—” they stammered. “I fucking loved them! But they left me to die, of course I want revenge... If you don’t believe me then fine, but I’m stuck here anyway. Incurring the wrath of— of someone like you isn’t really a great plan when the people you’d expect to rescue you are the ones who fucking did this!” They snapped.

Ridley scoffed. “And you say you don’t think like a villain,” they mused. “But if you really don’t, you’ll learn to soon enough, that’s for certain. All this talk of revenge… maybe they threw you out in the first place because they knew you were too cunning for them all.” The villain circled them like a hawk, examining Dante’s every movement. The poor thing was clearly telling the truth, they likely weren’t even able to lie considering the terror they exhibited.

“You have no place in a squabbling gang of heroes when you have enough potential to be my next protege,” Ridley continued. “They were afraid of you, dear. Take it as a compliment and prove their suspicions justice. Make them wish they’d never doubted you.” They leaned close to Dante, staring deep into their eyes until the hero flinched uncomfortably. The fear was there, yes, and their eyes shone with tears, but that weakness could be fixed more easily than most. Looks like I’ve got myself a new sidekick.

Ridley patted their head condescendingly before rising to leave, scanning the chip implanted in their wrist so the bolt on the cell door clicked open. “You’ve done excellent work today… I’ll cross-examine the intel you gave me and have you moved to a decent room tomorrow if it proves to be true.”

Dante nodded weakly, their shackles clattering as they attempted to stretch their sore legs. They wished they could curl up on the floor rather than being chained to the chair, and their discomfort must have shown because Ridley turned back towards them. They knelt to unlock the chains, letting the fetters fall away before standing once more. The collar was locked, and the hero was too desperate to hurt anyone.

“Goodnight,” they told the hero half-mockingly as they shut the door behind them. “Dream of revenge.”

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[powerbottomblake]

the P in Penny stands for (V8′s) Protagonist

So Monstra! Interesting name! Reminiscent of Monstro, the name of the whale from Disney’s Pinocchio (1940).

This confirms that the whale is indeed, here to complete Penny’s Pinocchio allusion. In other terms, Penny is the protagonist of this volume. The main conflict is her conflict; taking down the whale is her endgame and her turning point.

More undercut because apparently I am cursed with not knowing how to make brief and to the point meta

We know that RWBY uses the narrative beats of the original allusions (with some decisive tweaks that align with its overall hopepunk vision and themes), going as far as having direct visual parallels to the source material (Adam vs Bees fight/the original Beast vs Gaston fight anyone?). 

In the original Pinocchio movie, Pinocchio is tested three times before finally achieving becoming a little boy, and I think, likewise, Penny faces three tests before becoming a fully flledged huntress and maiden:

- Setback n°1: Pinocchio, still new to the world, the very concept of morality but eager to “do good” and willing to listen to Jiminy Cricket’s guidance, is tricked by a duo of conmen; in the movie, it’s into captivity, but the original story takes a much darker turn where the evil cat and fox - one pretending to be blind (Emerald and her perception bending Semblance) and one pretending to be a cripple (Mercury) - actually cause Pinocchio’s “death” through hanging (the author abhorred naughty children and was very...extreme about it). This is V3 Penny in a nutshell, discovering friendship and bonds and values through her own Jiminy, which is Ruby, but being set up by Mercury and Emerald to fight a losing battle that ends in her apparent “death”.

- Setback n°2: Pinocchio is embarked on a trip to Pleasure Island, an apparent playground especially catered for everyone to be happy! and have fun! but oh wait they’re actually being turned into jackasses geared for labor or sold to the Dust I mean the salt mines! You’ve guessed it, this is Penny’s V7 arc. Atlas Academy is Penny’s Pleasure Island, masquerading as a safe place where  but the veneer of Ironwood’s civility and apparent conflicted utilitarianism finally cracks to reveal how it’s ultimately a place of indoctrination, producing no actual people-serving Hunters but perfect soldiers concerned more with following orders than doing right, and where the disadvantaged and the poor are ostracized, taken advantage of and ultimately sacrificed. Pinocchio escapes Pleasure Island with Jiminy’s help, but not unscathed, having grown donkey ears and a tail. Likewise, with Ruby’s help and constant strong supportive presence, Penny proves herself fit to receive the maiden powers and escapes Atlas, but she’s still not completely free of Ironwood’s hold, still having to grapple with his and the AceOps’ manipulation tactics, still not sure what her role, who she is and how she fits really are. Which bring us to the third and last test:

- Setback n°3: the Whale. In the original movie, Gepetto gets swallowed by the whale when he tries to follow Pinocchio to Pleasure Island to save him. Pinocchio then dives in, saves Gepetto and, in the process, apparently “dies”, before finally earning his existence as a “real” little boy after that show of bravery and self-sacrifice. And I think these are the beats to look for in Penny’s V8 storyline. As of Episode 3, Penny is about to join Pietro and Maria, and there have been strong hints (and by that I mean we were basically hammered over the head) that she’s about to be “hacked” by Watts. How do the original narrative beats play out? Here’s how I think it fits:

Gepetto is swallowed by Monstro: After Penny is effectively “hacked” and by that I mean that while her soul and spirit remain unchanged, Watts hacks into the mainframe and forces her to surrender control over her body the same way we’ve seen her do (but willingly) for Pietro. Penny essentially ends up trapped inside her own body as it follows Watts’ commands. I suspect Watts will force her to take Pietro and Maria (who’s of interest to Salem by being one of the last remaining SEW, and I strongly suspect her soul/aura could be used to make more of whatever the Hound is, but this is a whole other matter to delve into in a separate post) to Salem.

Pinocchio dives in to save his father and takes down the whale: I think Pietro and/or Ruby will appeal to Penny/be in enough danger that she will snap out of Watts control on her own, effectively reclaiming her bodily autonomy on her own and then creating a mayhem big and terrible enough with her powers that will take down the whale and give everyone else enough time to escape. This will be Penny’s heroic moment and her stand. Right now, everyone is making the mistake of having people protect the maiden powers. Penny realizes what makes her a maiden is to use those powers to protect the people; it’s a decision she makes on her own that cements her as a true Maiden and a hero of the people.

Pinocchio “apparently dies” but is then granted his wish and becomes a “real” little boy: Here I think Penny takes down the whale but goes down with it. We don’t see her die again onscreen (I think it would be overkill to show her “corpse” a second time and would cheapen her dying at all. In general I am wary of the resurrection trope being overdone or coming without a cost because it severely undercuts the emotional payoff of a death), but I think by the end of V8 she’s MIA (which would make her the second person Ruby loses that way, but also the first to return to her so). I think Penny uses her powers to stall Monstra, and I’m willing to bet good money that whatever Penny does next has to do with the Gravity dust that keeps Monstra afloat. The thing with Gravity dust is that, it does push things off the ground, but it can also pull things towards it. I think whatever number Penny pulls on the gravitational field ends up pulling her down in that sillage as well.

I know the popular theory is that Penny “dies” again and Pietro sacrifices his life to resurrect her one last time, and I can see it happening, but here’s the thing: RWBY subverts popular tropes, exploring new (and more hopeful!) paths. Just look at Qrow: RWBY said, oh the mentor figure, scarred and haunted by his past? is not just another stepping stone whose death cements the hero on his journey, but becomes a character with a drive of their own, and an arc of their own, and who gets to pass the torch and live to see it burn well and bright and to the end. Gepetto lives and mourns the apparent death of his son but is there to welcome him home when, rewarded for courage and abnegation, Pinocchio earns the right to become a human boy. I think Pietro, too, will live, and get to welcome a Penny that has finally earned the right to call herself Mantle’s Protector, no longer Ironwood’s puppet (heh) nor an extension of her father but an actual established hero of the people, around whom Mantle can rally and who can work with the right people (Robyn and the Happy Huntresses) for the right reasons and outcomes, people and reasons she herself chooses and decisions she herself makes and a power she’s reclaimed and accepted and knows how to use. 

Penny’s quest has always been one of identity, slowly transforming from getting her bearings and realizing what makes her humanity is her soul, her ability to develop and deepen and protect her bonds to people and her natural empathy and kindness (V3′s ”am I worthy of calling myself human, too?”); to navigating morality, the nuances of doing good and the need to make her own calls and judgement of what is right and wrong (V7′s “who should I protect? what should I follow?”); to now, having established that she’s worthy of being one, Penny still has to find how to be a maiden, what that role entails for her and how she can finally fit as herself and into this new role, 100% reclaiming herself, her body (even from Pietro!!), her title and her mission. V8 (and maybe onwards) is the culmination of Penny’s identity journey, and I see it playing very much as an Iron Giant moment.

“You are who you choose to be,” says RWBY (and Ruby!) to Penny.

“Superman A human, and a hero, and a maiden” will be her answer.

And just like the Iron Giant, Penny saves the world, and rises again.

[but-thats-its-own-story]

Penny deserved better.

Penny sacrificing herself for Winter was easily the most Penny thing she could have done in that moment, but it only happened because of the assumption that Ruby was dead.

I’m glad Winter gets a chance to use the power now that she’s “earned” it by completing her “I was the real machine” character arc though, and the symbolism of her dropping her swords and defeating Ironwood with his own blast sure was something.

Cinder did pretty much exactly what I expected. I know some people were saying she really changed this time, but not me. The way she told Watts “you deserve this” was too clearly doublespeak for me to believe anything other than her leaving him to die would happen.

What’s even better, the thing she had Ambrosius create was a fire, and that’s roughly as clever as Ruby asking to build a Penny out of her parts so she gets a complimentmentary human body was, in terms of outright subverting the rules.

Qrow with Clover’s medal being like “Please please please” and then the bomb getting stuck was incredibly satisfying, and it’s actually really cool that Robyn brought Elm with her. Was not expecting a “Talk-Harriet-Down” part 2 but Seeing a second person she was forced to admit she cared about die, and by sacrificing himself to save them all from her mistake at that, probably wasn’t something she was expecting to see either.

Which brings me to my one real critique. While I definitely think it’s better than, say, changing the ending after reading what fans were correctly predicting to artificially generate shock value, literally all of the twists in this chapter were achieved by double subverting the expectations set up early in the volume. This also inadventently validates the fans who were disappointed at some of the narrative choices apparently not really making sense, only to see them “corrected” back to their originally expected outcome.

For example:

Penny gets hacked with a life-threatening virus and asks Ruby to kill her —> Penny becomes a Real Girl negating the consequences of the virus—> Penny is injured and asks Jaune to kill her, and he does.

Cinder’s backstory shows why she’s manipulative and distrustful—> Watts “convinces” Cinder that she’s been going about things wrong (he’s right, for all the good it does him) and she seemingly has a change of heart—> It was a ruse all along to eliminate her enemies and curry favor with Salem, and if not for the obvious non-death 5/8 of the main cast fell to, it would have worked perfectly. Watts will be laughing at her from beyond the grave when Neo comes back.

And back to the original example, Harriet is almost convinced to stop and admit her feelings—> Robyn interrups causing her rage to resurface and Qrow breaks through the window to seemingly fight to the death—> By the time we get back to the fight, Qrow is already trying to talk her down rather than kill her, and it turns out Robyn brought her other teammate to hit her with feels instead, and Watts lives just long enough to meddle so that Vine is the one who dies, you know, before burning alive as Atlas crashes to the ground. RIP my Watts was actually trying to blow up Pietro theory.

Y’all get the point. But props to CRWBY for sticking with the most important thing they set up and not subverting the obviously foreshadowed Wonderland(?) portal void for shock value. While the Plot Armor was always real, there is some degree of value in the fact that the other characters don’t know that, which from the looks of things will feature heavily in Volume 9.

And while I still believe Penny deserved better, her having the choice to die so her friends could live was consistently all she ever wanted (like for real, trying to sacrifice herself at literally every opportunity, over and over again, as though self-sacrifice was what defined her freedom to choose), and she very much still considered Winter her friend, and honestly this was just about the only way Winter’s arc was ever going to resolve in any way other than going down with the ship to prevent Ironwood from stepping any further over the moral event horizon than his never-mentioned semblance Adam’s ghost dragged him for the past two volumes.

The Final Word?

Checkmate. Friend.

[moodcrab]

Elder Scrolls VI Wish List Part I - Factions

A few things I would change are:

1. You can't just walk into a new city and instantly be invited to join a major faction, you need to earn an entry, there should maybe even be a level restriction.

2. You actually need to be proficient in whatever it is the guild does in order to join and progress, you won't be able to hack and slash your way through the mage faction with less then a handful of spells.

3. The general progression of "I don't trust you new guy!" to "Please be our new leader!" has to go! You will not be made the leader after a week of membership. The ending of a faction's main questline should depend on your actions; maybe you have a rival who can beat you to the top spot, maybe there are several candidates that you can either support or oppose, maybe the current leader doesn't have to die at all?

4. More variety in guilds. Why only one Fighter's Guild? And I don't mean having a good guy guild and a bad guy guild, I mean why not a chivalrous knightly order full of pomp AND a rag tag sellsword group for rough and ready sorts. Or a holy, hand to hand specialist order of monks AND a bottom line, money driven mercenary company. A large scale Mage's University AND a coven of witches and druids in the woods.

5. The player should only be able to join factions that compliment each other, meaning you cannot become grandmaster of everything in the country. If your faction has a grudge against another, you cannot join it without first leaving your original faction. Quiting should be an option, but reentry should be difficult. This means you won't be able to swear allegiance to an Emporer for one faction who you've already assassinated for another!

6. There should be no more generic "bandits" but named bandit gangs, with notorious named leaders. Some gangs will be large and spread over the province and some will be small-time street gangs, with their own distinct styles and identities. Some might be mere thugs, some dashing highwaymen and so on. These gangs will become joinable factions only after the player has successfully escaped prison and fled the city.

7. Joining a bandit gang will impede your ability to join or remain in the Thieves Guild, who will be more organised and altruistic than the bandits gangs. In other words, The Thieves Guild will be less like the mafia esq presence of Skyrim and more like the Robin Hood presence in Oblivion.

8. The Dark Brotherhood will need to stop being The Addams Family. It's unfortunate that some of the best quests in Elder Scrolls are always attached to this silly Halloween store nonsense. I get that grimdark is their theme but it needs to be dialled back a little. I think the option of joining the rival assassin guild The Morag Tong, who have a more professional aesthetic would help, and the competition between the two groups could be a cool storyline.

9. I would change Deadric one-off quests into joinable cults. You can still do the one-off quests and move on, or you can go further and become a worshiper. I would also add similar joinable religious orders for each of the gods, and not just the Nine Devines.

10. Let the player discover the faction naturally, don't shove it in their face. I think people go over board with their accusations the Skyrim was "dumbed down for casual gamers," but in this instance I feel they have a point. By the time you meet Paarthunax (only half way through the Main Quest) the player is introduced to the Stormcloak/Imperials, Companions, Greybeards, Blades, Thieves Guild and the College of Winterhold, and has little choice in joining them. I get that you don't want people to miss out on content, but if you have faith in your game this isn't necessary.

[agentrouka-blog]

ASOIAF - Food symbolism: apples and Jon “You have to choose.”

Inspired by this amazing post by @thoughtsandgrumbles I felt compelled to look at apples a little. 

Apples are a deeply symbolic fruit on a good day, but I’m not going to go too deeply into the general use, because who has time for that? I’m looking at the text itself. This post will be all about apples in Jon’s chapters, once I get the preliminary rambles out of the way.

Warning: LONG. Many quotes.

Just a few things: 

Popularly associated with temptation and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil in the garden of eden, the realization of being nekkid, the Expulsion of Adam and Eve from paradise as a result. (That would botanically not have been an apple, though.)

The apple “to the fairest” handed out by Eris, godess of discord, for Paris to choose among the three godesses Hera, Athena and Aphrodite, ultimately leading to the Trojan War, which GRRM heavily draws from.

Snow White and the poison apple

Sansa is the name of a variety of apple that was developed in the 1970s, an early ripening mix of Gala and Akane.

Just by the general use, we get a theme of choice and destruction. Also Sansa is an apple. But - spoiler alert - that is NOT very central in Jon’s chapters. YET.

Also, some boring numbers, because this is not as easy a fruit as the persimmon to parse for the sheer amount of them:

Apples in general have 155 mentions in all searchable publications, 135 in the novels directly, 22 in Jon chapters. Only 9 of all the novel-mentions concern House Fossoway, 11 in the other literature. 

Top chapter uses: 

AFFC, Prologue - 14: Oldtown, Quill and Tankard inn backyard. Alleras shoots them with bow and arrow while the acolyte nerd squad discusses Dany and her dragon rumors. "Where's Rosey? Our rightful queen deserves another round of cider, wouldn't you say?" The apples are withered and wormy, the cider is fearsomely strong. Pate agonizes over his betrayal and theft for his creepy, obsessive love. His choice is “love”. Then he is killed. Complex.

ADWD, Jon V - 11: Jon passes out food and asks the wildlings at Mole’s Town to choose if they want to fight for the NW or not. Apples and onions, you have to choose. The apples are withered.

ADWD, Davos II - 7: Getting information about Manderly from an apple seller in White Harbor. Bad apple, good information. Theme in WH: who are you truly loyal to? The apple is dry and mealy, “bad”. Apples and onions, again.

ASOS, Bran III - 5, and ASOS, Jon V - 3: (8 combined) Rotten apples carpet the ground near an abandoned Queenscrown inn. They provide the background for Jon’s break with the Wildling Undercover Operation and flight back to the Watch. Theme: the abandonment of the Gift, the decline of the Watch, the Dream of Spring and Jon really doesn’t even really pretend to want a future with Ygritte. He chooses. The apples are rotten. 

POV uses: Jon 22, Arya 18, Prologue AFFC 14, Sansa 13, Davos 8, Jaime 8, Bran 8, Tyrion 8, Brienne 6, Catelyn 6, Dany 5, Eddard 5, Cersei 3, Theon 3, Samwell 2 JonCon 1, Asha 1, Quentyn 1, Arianne 1, Areo Hotah 1, Prologue ADWD: 1.

Jon is not only the single top POV character to feature the apple, he also has two of the top-use chapters that give the apple significance in setting the background. The apple is very closely tied to Jon. 

A short note on the  red apple Fossoways (Cider Hall) and the green apple Fossoways (New Barrel): 

The branches split at the trial of seven at the Tourney at Ashford (of the Ashford Theory), where the red apple fought for the bad guys (Aerion Targaryen) and the green apple for Ser Duncan the Tall.

Both had the red apple of the Fossoways painted on their shields, but the younger man's was soon hacked and chipped to pieces. "Here's an apple that's not ripe yet," the older said as he slammed the other's helm. (…)

"Ser Raymun, if you please." He cantered up, a grim smile lighting his face beneath his plumed helm. "My pardons, ser. I needed to make a small change to my sigil, lest I be mistaken for my dishonorable cousin." He showed them all his shield. The polished golden field remained the same, and the Fossoway apple, but this apple was green instead of red. "I fear I am still not ripe . . . but better green than wormy, eh?" 

(The Hedge Knight)

Again with the split of loyalty, with the following your moral code, with the choices. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So how do apples feature for Jon himself?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Apples are connected to Jon’s struggle of loyalty to the Night’s Watch, and with his inner struggle in general. Every time they show up, he is confronted with a choice of who to stay loyal to, what values to follow. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

First apple: AGOT, Jon IX. 

Jon’s final chapter in the book. Big Drama!

Jon eats a brown, withered apple when he tries to flee the NW the first time. He is heading South because his father has been killed and he wants to join Robb. He is plagued by self-doubt and fear. Then he takes a break to eat. 

In his saddlebag, he found a biscuit, a piece of cheese, and a small withered brown apple. (...) He kept the apple for last. It had gone a little soft, but the flesh was still tart and juicy. He was down to the core when he heard the sounds: horses, and from the north.

Straight after, he is caught and prodded back in an incredibly moving, nonviolent confrontation by his new Brothers reciting the NW vows. 

"… and all the nights to come," finished Pyp. He reached over for Jon's reins. "So here are your choices. Kill me, or come back with me."

Jon lifted his sword … and lowered it, helpless. "Damn you," he said. "Damn you all." 

In his mind, Jon is determined to try and escape again, but the next day, Mormont lets him know they knew what happened. 

Jon’s throat was dry. “You know?” “Know,” the raven echoed from Mormont’s shoulder. “Know.” The Old Bear snorted. “Do you think they chose me Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch because I’m dumb as a stump, Snow? Aemon told me you’d go. I told him you’d be back. I know my men … and my boys too. Honor set you on the kingsroad … and honor brought you back.” “My friends brought me back,” Jon said. “Did I say it was your honor?” Mormont inspected his plate.

Jon thinks he’ll be executed. Instead, he will be taken along to the great ranging beyond the Wall. 

“So I will have an answer from you, Lord Snow, and I will have it now. Are you a brother of the Night’s Watch … or only a bastard boy who wants to play at war?” Jon Snow straightened himself and took a long deep breath. Forgive me, Father. Robb, Arya, Bran … forgive me, I cannot help you. He has the truth of it. This is my place. “I am … yours, my lord. Your man. I swear it. I will not run again.” The Old Bear snorted. “Good. Now go put on your sword.”

Apple = choice. The choice is the Watch. Because the war against the Others is more important. 

Apple Quality: Brown and whithered. But still tart and juicy.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Second apple: ACOK, Jon I

A former green apple (the valiantly knightly Fossoway kind) is to be dispatched from the Wall to garner support from a Baratheon king... 

"Renly is not like to heed a quaking fat boy. I'll send Ser Arnell. He's a deal steadier, and his mother was one of the green-apple Fossoways."

"If it please my lord, what would you have of King Renly?"

The conversation turns toward maester Aemon, his repeated refusal to become king and the incredibly foreshadowy information about the ending of the dragon line. 

It made him feel odd. “My lord, why have you told me this, about Maester Aemon?” “Must I have a reason?” Mormont shifted in his seat, frowning. “Your brother Robb has been crowned King in the North. You and Aemon have that in common. A king for a brother.” “And this too,” said Jon. “A vow.” (…)

Jon drew himself up, taut as a bowstring. “And if it did trouble me, what might I do, bastard as I am?” “What will you do?” Mormont asked. “Bastard as you are?” “Be troubled,” said Jon, “and keep my vows.”

Apple = choice. The choice is the Watch. The bigger picture is more important.

Apple Quality: green and unripe. (But honorable.)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Third apple: ACOK, Jon VII

Jon and the Qhorin Halfhand crew are on the losing side of a game of cat and mouse with the warg-powered wildlings. Squire Dalbridge is about to sacrifice his life by going to shoot the Wildlings that are stalking them. 

The squire bowed his head. "Leave me as many arrows as you can spare, brothers." He stroked his longbow. "And see my garron has an apple when you're home. He's earned it, poor beastie."

He's staying to die, Jon realized.  

And that’s almost right at the end of the chapter. This is the only apple chapter where Jon is NOT immediately confronted with a moral dilemma of loyalty or the making of choices. And Dalbridge’s self-sacrifice, his off-page death, all of that means it’s a more long-term projection of the dilemma. 

The next, final chapter, Jon and Qhorin Halfhand are captured and he is compelled to kill Qhorin to prove himself a turncloak to the Wildlings, in order to start his Undercover Operation. 

The flames were burning low by then, the warmth fading. “The fire will soon go out,” Qhorin said, “but if the Wall should ever fall, all the fires will go out.” There was nothing Jon could say to that. He nodded. “We may escape them yet,” the ranger said. “Or not.” “I’m not afraid to die.” It was only half a lie. “It may not be so easy as that, Jon.” He did not understand. “What do you mean?” 

(…)

Rattleshirt’s bone armor clattered loudly as he laughed. “Then kill the Halfhand, bastard.” “As if he could,” said Qhorin. “Turn, Snow, and die.” And then Qhorin’s sword was coming at him and somehow Longclaw leapt upward to block. The force of impact almost knocked the bastard blade from Jon’s hand, and sent him staggering backward. You must not balk, whatever is asked of you. 

(…)

He knew, he thought numbly. He knew what they would ask of me. He thought of Samwell Tarly then, of Grenn and Dolorous Edd, of Pyp and Toad back at Castle Black. Had he lost them all, as he had lost Bran and Rickon and Robb? Who was he now? What was he?

“Get him up.” Rough hands dragged him to his feet. Jon did not resist. “Do you have a name?” Ygritte answered for him. “His name is Jon Snow. He is Eddard Stark’s blood, of Winterfell.”

(ACOK, Jon VIII)

Ouch. From this point on, Jon will have to make his own choices, no longer guided by other people’s rules, other people’s honor. The choices will be harder, lonelier. They will be contradictory, they will involve even more tangible loss. They will involve dishonor. The reward is as distant as home. Sacrifice. Death.

But one day, the poor beastie will get an apple, he will have earned it. 

Apple = choice. The choice is the Watch. The bigger picture.

Apple quality: unknown. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Fourth apple: ASOS, Jon I

As inconspicuously as above, the apple features in a memory of home, featuring not-yet-deserter Mance Rayder at Winterfell, meeting Robb and Jon up to shennanigans:

“I remember,” said Jon with a startled laugh. A young black brother on the wallwalk, yes … “You swore not to tell.”

"And kept my vow. That one, at least."

"We dumped the snow on Fat Tom. He was Father's slowest guardsman." Tom had chased them around the yard afterward, until all three were red as autumn apples. "But you said you saw me twice. When was the other time?"

"When King Robert came to Winterfell to make your father Hand," the King-beyond-the-Wall said lightly. (ASOS, Jon I)

A neat connection between desertion, vow-keeping and the events that led Jon to take his own path to the Wall. Before Meeting Mance, Ygritte has been praising the values of being “free” like the good Little Wildling Propagandist that she is. But Jon isn’t biting yet.

The following conversation gives the backstory of Mance Rayder’s desertion from the Wall. It was over a cloak, mended by a Wildling woman who tended to him while he was injured.

“And she sewed up the rents in my cloak as well, with some scarlet silk from Asshai that her grandmother had pulled from the wreck of a cog washed up on the Frozen Shore. It was the greatest treasure she had, and her gift to me.” He swept the cloak back over his shoulders. “But at the Shadow Tower, I was given a new wool cloak from stores, black and black, and trimmed with black, to go with my black breeches and black boots, my black doublet and black mail. The new cloak had no frays nor rips nor tears … and most of all, no red. The men of the Night’s Watch dressed in black, Ser Denys Mallister reminded me sternly, as if I had forgotten. My old cloak was fit for burning now, he said. “I left the next morning … for a place where a kiss was not a crime, and a man could wear any cloak he chose.” He closed the clasp and sat back down again. “And you, Jon Snow?”

Jon uses Mance’s story of visiting Winterfell to spin his own lie:

“And did you see where I was seated, Mance?” He leaned forward. “Did you see where they put the bastard?” Mance Rayder looked at Jon’s face for a long moment. “I think we had best find you a new cloak,” the king said, holding out his hand. 

What will the bastard do? Be troubled and keep his vows. So far, so true. But he did kill Qhorin Halfhand, he is pretending to be a deserter. Lines are a lot more blurry than they used to be.

Apple = choice. The choice is… the Night’s Watch. Shifting more and more toward simply the bigger picture. 

Apple quality: red autumn apple. 

Red silk patches. Conflicting values. Women. There is uncertainty on the horizon. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Fifth apple. ASOS Jon V.  BIG apple chapter.

His final confrontation as an Undercover Wildling.

This confrontation takes place at the abandoned tower and village of Queenscrown, which gets a closer description in the accompanying Bran chapter: 

No one had lived in the village for long years, Bran could see. All the houses were falling down. Even the inn. It had never been much of an inn, to look at it, but now all that remained was a stone chimney and two cracked walls, set amongst a dozen apple trees. One was growing up through the common room, where a layer of wet brown leaves and rotting apples carpeted the floor. The air was thick with the smell of them, a cloying cidery scent that was almost overwhelming. Meera stabbed a few apples with her frog spear, trying to find some still good enough to eat, but they were all too brown and wormy. 

(ASOS, Bran III)

The abandonment of Brandon’s Gift is a subject of conflict between Jon and Ygritte. A carpet of rotting apples. It opens the very next Jon chapter, as they are on the way to Queenscrown. Ygritte mocks the farmers who left the Gift as fools. Jon doesn’t take the bait yet. He briefly indulges in a fantasy of introducing Ygritte to Winterfell before being overcome with guilt and shame again. Ygritte is super great at reading his mood: 

“Might be after we could come back here, and live in that tower,” she said. “Would you want that, Jon Snow? After?”

He doesn’t think about it, doesn’t answer for a while, it rather reminds him of Ned’s Dream of Spring, the plan to resettle the Gift. The Starks and the Watch. 

If winter had come and gone more quickly and spring had followed in its turn, I might have been chosen to hold one of these towers in my father’s name. Lord Eddard was dead, however, his brother Benjen lost; the shield they dreamt together would never be forged. “This land belongs to the Watch,” Jon said. Her nostrils flared. “No one lives here.”

Jon isn’t even tempted. Like, no, Jon, Bambi, you did not love this person, no matter what your telling yourself later. He doesn’t even really contemplate it. 

Instead of bonding them closer together, Ygritte’s invitation to make long-term plans has the opposite effect. It fans the flames of what divides them. They argue about raiding and rape. Ygritte spouts nonsense.

“You know nothing, Jon Snow. Daughters are taken, not wives. You’re the ones who steal. You took the whole world, and built the Wall t’ keep the free folk out.”

Ygritte, no, that is not why the Wall was built. You think they built a gargantuan magic ice structure to keep out Styr, Magnar of Thenn, or what? Really? Jon is also sceptical of this version of history:

“Did we?” Sometimes Jon forgot how wild she was, and then she would remind him. “How did that happen?”

"The gods made the earth for all men t' share. Only when the kings come with their crowns and steel swords, they claimed it was all theirs. My trees, they said, you can't eat them apples. My stream, you can't fish here. My wood, you're not t' hunt. My earth, my water, my castle, my daughter, keep your hands away or I'll chop 'em off, but maybe if you kneel t' me I'll let you have a sniff. You call us thieves, but at least a thief has t' be brave and clever and quick. A kneeler only has t' kneel." 

Ygritte is basically a bland political extremist. I could sympathize with her criticism of feudal culture if it didn’t come hand in hand with her passionate defense of violent theft and rape culture. Like, you paragon of intelligence, not everyone resides at the fair top of the food chain like you do in your peak fitness status within your warrior culture. But of course, rape is fun! Just bring a knife!

"Harma and the Bag of Bones don't come raiding for fish and apples. They steal swords and axes. Spices, silks, and furs. They grab every coin and ring and jeweled cup they can find, casks of wine in summer and casks of beef in winter, and they take women in any season and carry them off beyond the Wall."

Apples in a breath with women. People should not be “stolen”. But Ygritte thinks men who successfully abduct and rape women are sexy. She’s like Dany that way. There are some cultural divides that cannot be pretended away, and their entire conversation circles around it. Jon is plagued by terrible guilt, he tries to warn Ygritte that their plan is doomed, she (rightfully) suspects his loyalty to the Wildlings and Jon believes himself in love but he never wavers in his actual allegiance to the NW.

She grinned at that, showing Jon the crooked teeth that he had somehow come to love. Wildling to the bone, he thought again, with a sick sad feeling in the pit of his stomach. He flexed the fingers of his sword hand, and wondered what Ygritte would do if she knew his heart. Would she betray him if he sat her down and told her that he was still Ned Stark’s son and a man of the Night’s Watch? He hoped not, but he dare not take that risk.

GRRM is going out of his way to undermine the supposed romance by constantly referring to the conflict between them and the apples-of-choice are just all over. 

Anyway, Jon is thoroughly eaten by guilt over having to betray these human beings who are a vicious and brutal threat to the place and people he loves and swore to protect. His true identity is hinted at:

Jon wondered where Ghost was now. Had he gone to Castle Black, or was he was running with some wolfpack in the woods? He had no sense of the direwolf, not even in his dreams. It made him feel as if part of himself had been cut off. Even with Ygritte sleeping beside him, he felt alone. He did not want to die alone.

Ghost. Not Ygritte. Not the wildlings. Not the Watch, even. Ghost. Wolf.  

They arrive at the Queenscrown inn and an old man is captured.

Jon walked away. A rotten apple squished beneath his heel. Styr will kill him. The Magnar had said as much at Greyguard; any kneelers they met were to be put to death at once, to make certain they could not raise the alarm. Ride with them, eat with them, fight with them. Did that mean he must stand mute and helpless while they slit an old man's throat?  

The apples are rotten. Jon spends one last moment with Ygritte contemplating Queenscrown and then the “kill the old man” business starts. He struggles but ultimately refuses. Bran’s wolf Summer disrupts the tension with a bloody attack and Jon doesn’t hesitate to Escape. Like when they met, Jon didn’t slit Ygritte’s throat, but she slit the old man’s. He will not shoot arrows at her, but she did at him. Love. 

Thunder rumbled softly in the distance, but above him the clouds were breaking up. Jon searched the sky until he found the Ice Dragon, then turned the mare north for the Wall and Castle Black. The throb of pain in his thigh muscle made him wince as he put his heels into the old man’s horse. I am going home, he told himself. But if that was true, why did he feel so hollow?

Apple = choice. The choice is… NOT Ygritte. NOT the Wildlings. Time and again. But it also isn’t the Watch. Not as it had been before. Jon followed his instincts, his inner values, but it had a cost, it is hard. Jon is lost.

Apple Quality: rotten. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sixth apple: ASOS, Jon VII  

The Battle at Castle Black They await the attack, Jon and Satin share a meal. And they get a nod to Renly’s peach quote:

"Eat," Jon told him. "There's no knowing when you'll have another chance." He took two buns himself. The nuts were pine nuts, and besides the raisins there were bits of dried apple.  (ASOS, Jon VII)

Compare to Renly, which also took place before a nightly sneak attack. 

"A man should never refuse to taste a peach," Renly said as he tossed the stone away. "He may never get the chance again. Life is short, Stannis. Remember what the Starks say. Winter is coming." He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. (ACOK, Catelyn III)

Peaches have an air of incest and hedonism about them, nostalgia and summer, Baratheons and Arya and Asha. The apple is different. It’s about choice, about conflicted loyalty and personal values, about identity and the bigger picture. (And again and again, they connect to women.)

Jon commands part of the fight, it’s grim. He recognizes some of the wildlings as they pepper them with arrows but cannot shoot at who he thinks is Ygritte. Wildlings die, his brothers die. The battle is brutal, Jon’s POV is distant. Satin remains by his side all throughout, grounding him. Jon remembers advice from Theon, from Ned. They eventually beat the wildling attackers with a horrifying fire trap on the stairs, they win. Immediately after, Jon goes looking for Ygritte, Satin still by his side.

The ice crystals had settled over her face, and in the moonlight it looked as though she wore a glittering silver mask. The arrow was black, Jon saw, but it was fletched with white duck feathers. Not mine, he told himself, not one of mine. But he felt as if it were.

We get a Dany-Val nod… 

The light of the half-moon turned Val's honey-blond hair a pale silver and left her cheeks as white as snow. She took a deep breath. "The air tastes sweet."

"My tongue is too numb to tell. All I can taste is cold." (ADWD, Jon VIII)

...and a lovely double-layered “not mine, not one of mine”. Not his arrows, but he feels guilty. She is not his pack, but he feels guilty.

She just smiled at that. “D’you remember that cave? We should have stayed in that cave. I told you so.” “We’ll go back to the cave,” he said. “You’re not going to die, Ygritte. You’re not.” “Oh.” Ygritte cupped his cheek with her hand. “You know nothing, Jon Snow,” she sighed, dying.

Jon struggles to let go of the fantasy. He is loyal to the cause of the Watch, if not the letter of the vows, but he knows now that his souls want more. He indulges Ygritte’s fantasy of returning because it’s the only thing he has, the only thing he can offer. 

Apple = choice. The choice is… the Watch. But painfully. Numbly. No passion. Duty. 

Apple quality: dried. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Seventh apple: ASOS, Jon X 

Tormund’s daughter Munda.

After vicious attacking Janos Slynt for insulting Ned Stark during a hiostile interrogation in the previous chapter, Jon is sent to kill Mance Rayder under the pretense of parley to prove his loyalty. He is resigned and shame-filled, contemplating his future, where he will be remembered in honorless infamy.  Much bitterness, plenty of woe. His reception by Tormund is surprisingly jovial. They drink mead to honor their fallen Donal Noye and Ygritte, with surprisingly little bitterness. It helps Jon return some of his cheer.

"You bloody crows." Tormund's tone was gruff, yet strangely gentle. "That Longspear stole me daughter. Munda, me little autumn apple. Took her right out o' my tent with all four o' her brothers about.” Toregg slept through it, the great lout, and Torwynd … well, Torwynd the Tame, that says all that needs saying, don’t it? The young ones gave the lad a fight, though.”

“And Munda?” asked Jon. “She’s my own blood,” said Tormund proudly. “She broke his lip for him and bit one ear half off, and I hear he’s got so many scratches on his back he can’t wear a cloak. She likes him well enough, though. And why not? He don’t fight with no spear, you know. Never has. So where do you think he got that name? Har!”  Jon had to laugh. Even now, even here.

Autumn apple. Stolen women. Cloak. 

Stealing women was a hot topic with Ygritte and Jon is immediately concerned, but is reassured. The tenor of the conversation is conciliatory, while he is revealed to be loyal to the Watch, there is mutual respect. In Jon’s thoughts, Ygritte becomes a mentor voice, drifting away from the romantic woe of before. 

Easy for you to say, he thought back. You died brave in battle, storming the castle of a foe. I’m going to die a turncloak and a killer. Nor would his death be quick, unless it came on the end of Mance’s sword.

Similarly to Dany later, Jon is arguing with dead beloved abusers in his head, like she will do in ADWD with Viserys. Ygritte is less obviously horrific, but the “voices in my head” aspect and the sheer idealising that both of them engage in feels disconcerting. Never the less, we see Jon’s current identity status on Facebook is “turncloak”. Not Night’s Watch.

The rest of Mance’s “court” is less welcoming, but Mance draws him in for a private conference. The Horn of Winter is revealed, the mutual cause of the Wildlings and the Night’s Watch is identified.

“If I sound the Horn of Winter, the Wall will fall. Or so the songs would have me believe. There are those among my people who want nothing more …” “But once the Wall is fallen,” Dalla said, “what will stop the Others?”

(Dalla has the brains that Ygritte lacked. Why can SHE not be Jon’s mentor?) 

Mance offers to hand over the Horn of Joramun if they let the Wildlings pass through the Wall, or he will destroy the Wall in three days. Jon hesitates because he fears they will ransack the place, but he also has no negotiating credit with Thorne and Slynt. He contemplates just smashing the Horn, when suddenly Stannis attacks. The Wildlings are smashed, a helpless Jon enters the tent with Val to attend Dalla.

He is just... disillusioned.

Apple = choice. The choice is… the bigger picture. The Watch is headed by irrational scum, the Wildlings are no less dangerous to the North than they were before and Jon has no hope of saving his ruined reputation either way. He was about to murder Mance, then about to smash his bargaining chip, yet he has no ill will toward them. Only a depressed, numb resignation to preventing the worst of all outcomes. 

Apple Quality: autumn apple.

Again with the autumn apple. There are only 3 “autumn apples” in the books, all in ASOS. Jon I (above with Mance), Samwell II, and Jon X here. 

In Jon I it connected Mance’s disloyalty to the Watch to the red-and-black cloak given to him by a woman. Also Bael the Bard, deception and stealing. Jon consults his inner values, and chooses pragmatism. His break with “blind” honor will leave him flailing a bit.

In Jon X it specifically refers to a young woman being stolen. Jon consults his inner values, he chooses the bigger picture, but he’s frayed and his choice is interrupted. Stannis will offer him Winterfell. Ghost will remind him of who he is. Ultimately, he will become Lord Commander and his struggle with loyalty will cease for a long time.

What’s Sam’s autumn apple about?  They are listed with many foodstuffs that the angry NW brother’s at Craster’s after the fight at the Fist of the First Men expect to receive. Mormont just remembered the true purpose of the Watch. Gilly has just given birth to her son. Sam offers to take the boy, Craster gets mad. they bury a dead brother and the mood is mutinous.

“Apples,” said Garth of Greenaway. “Barrels and barrels of crisp autumn apples. There are apple trees out there, I saw ’em.”

A confrontation breaks out and they kill Craster and stab Mormont. Sam’s friends flee, the others raid and rape, Sam cradles a dying Mormont. Some wives approach and order Sam to take Gilly to safety. 

Gilly was crying. “Me and the babe. Please. I’ll be your wife, like I was Craster’s. Please, ser crow. He’s a boy, just like Nella said he’d be. If you don’t take him, they will.” “They?” said Sam, and the raven cocked its black head and echoed, “They. They. They.” “The boy’s brothers,” said the old woman on the left. “Craster’s sons. The white cold’s rising out there, crow. I can feel it in my bones. These poor old bones don’t lie. They’ll be here soon, the sons.”

The massive abundance of apples suggests a link to the abundance of women, to the connection to inner values over formal loyalty, to the “stealing” of Gilly to save her. To the massive bigger picture. With Jon it translates to his trademark quick-thinking pragmatism, with Sam it translates to compassion and identifying valuable information. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

8th and final apple: ADWD, Jon V  - The Grand Appling.

ADWD Jon V is another big apple chapter:  you have to choose!

Much time has passed since the last apples were mentioned. Jon is Lord Commander and has sent away Sam, Gilly and maester Aemon. The Wildlings are south of the Wall. Food is a constant worry. Bowen Marsh is upset with Jon, Jon is super-diplomatic. Not. It’s time to bring provisions to the Wildlings at Mole’s Town. A Mirror to Dany in ADWD, Daenerys VI, bringing food to the Astapori refugees. The Wildlings are grumpy. Jon struggles to balance the culture clash between free folk, Stannis’ men and Wildlings.

Pig ignorance, Jon thought. The free folk were no different than the men of the Night’s Watch; some were clean, some dirty, but most were clean at times and dirty at other times.

Jon is much removed from his earlier woeful struggles or idealism. A weary pragmatism guides his every action. Grey.

Apples ensue:

"You can have an onion or an apple," Jon heard Hairy Hal tell one woman, "but not both. You got to pick."

The woman did not seem to understand. "I need two of each. One o' each for me, t'others for my boy. He's sick, but an apple will set him right." 

Hal shook his head. "He has to come get his own apple. Or his onion. Not both. Same as you. Now, is it an apple or an onion? Be quick about it, now, there's more behind you."

"An apple," she said, and he gave her one, an old dried thing, small and withered.

"Move along, woman," shouted a man three places back. "It's cold out here."

The woman paid the shout no mind. "Another apple," she said to Hairy Hal. "For my son. Please. This one is so little."

Hal looked to Jon. Jon shook his head. They would be out of apples soon enough. If they started giving two to everyone who wanted two, the latecomers would get none.

"Out of the way," a girl behind the woman said. Then she shoved her in the back. The woman staggered, lost her apple, and fell. The other foodstuffs in her arms went flying. Beans scattered, a turnip rolled into a mud puddle, a sack of flour split and spilled its precious contents in the snow. 

Apples are once again almost aggressively connected to choices. Apples or onions. Not both. You have to pick. 

Barring another meta, I can’t really say what the onion is supposed to represent. Some things that echoe Jon’s apple themes:

His sons were good fighters and better sailors, but they did not know how to talk to lords. They were lowborn, even as I was, but they do not like to recall that. When they look at our banner, all they see is a tall black ship flying on the wind. They close their eyes to the onion.  (ACOK, Davos I)

Denial. 

Dany nibbled at an onion and reflected ruefully on the faithlessness of men. (ACOK, Daenerys III)

Faithlessness.

The feast was a meager enough thing, a succession of fish stews, black bread, and spiceless goat. The tastiest thing Theon found to eat was an onion pie. Ale and wine continued to flow well after the last of the courses had been cleared away. (ACOK, Theon II)

Theon about to be ordered to attack Winterfell. Betrayal.

The last time it was life I brought to Storm's End, shaped to look like onions. This time it is death, in the shape of Melisandre of Asshai. (ACOK, Davos II)

Life and death brought by the same person.

Melisandre’s manichean world view vs. Davos’ more encompassing one:

"What if I am? It seems to me that most men are grey."

"If half of an onion is black with rot, it is a rotten onion. A man is good, or he is evil."  (ACOK, Davos II)

Bless you Sam. 

Hungry as he was, Sam knew he would retch if he so much as tried a bite. How could they eat the poor faithful garrons who had carried them so far? When Craster's wives brought onions, he seized one eagerly. One side was black with rot, but he cut that part off with his dagger and ate the good half raw. (ASOS, Samwell II)

Considering apples represent the choice you make to serve an ethical bigger picture (not necessarily loyalty to an order), onions seem to show a contrasting duality of bad and good, a refusal to position oneself honestly, dirty compromises, the darkness in human beings. 

Davos’ entire arc circles around being a very decent human being who none the less supports a whole lot of questionable crap. Our resident kraken Theon is torn inside unable to choose between Greyjoy and Stark identity and becomes monstrous. 

Melisandre downright denies the existence of grey. The presence of bad cancels out all good.  Samwell, on the other hand, embraces the good while disregarding the bad. 

Ygritte smelled of onion. Dany eats wild onion on her dragon grassland chapter,  Jorah eats onion. Brienne has onion soup on her way to Lady Stoneheart. Jon offers the Wildlings onion soup after they burn their god’s for Melisandre in echange for safety. Dark compromises. 

So the choice between apples and onions is the choice to MAKE a choice. Stop hedging your bets or practicing denial, position yourself, one way or the other. 

The woman who refuses to choose, loses her apple, loses the fruit that will set her sick son right, loses her cance at following her inner moral compass and doing the right thing. 

There is a tussle, Jon tries to rally them with a speech. They are in a Mutiny at Craster’s Keep kind of mood.

“You want more food?” asked Jon. “The food’s for fighters. Help us hold the Wall, and you’ll eat as well as any crow.” Or as poorly, when the food runs short. (…)

“Fight for you?” This voice was thickly accented. Sigorn, the young Magnar of Thenn, spoke the Common Tongue haltingly at best. “Not fight for you. Kill you better. Kill all you.” The raven flapped its wings. “Kill, kill.” Sigorn’s father, the old Magnar, had been crushed beneath the falling stair during his attack on Castle Black. I would feel the same if someone asked me to make common cause with the Lannisters, Jon told himself. “Your father tried to kill us all,” he reminded Sigorn. “The Magnar was a brave man, yet he failed. And if he had succeeded … who would hold the Wall?”

Jon believes in the greyness of men, but he also believes in choices. You don’t have to be perfect to do the right thing. But you have to do the right thing. Or a thing, anyway. You have to choose.

There is more commotion. Jon decides to make it simpler.

"Hal, what was it that you told this woman?"

Hal looked confused. "About the food, you mean? An apple or an onion? That's all I said. They got to pick."

"You have to pick," Jon Snow repeated. "All of you. No one is asking you to take our vows, and I do not care what gods you worship. My own gods are the old gods, the gods of the North, but you can keep the red god, or the Seven, or any other god who hears your prayers. It's spears we need. Bows. Eyes along the Wall. (…)

He recruits, actively. 

“The choice is yours,” Jon Snow told them. “Those who want to help us hold the Wall, return to Castle Black with me and I’ll see you armed and fed. The rest of you, get your turnips and your onions and crawl back inside your holes.”

Apples yay, onions nay. Dany killed the slavers of Astapor, and left alive only children under the age of 12. Jon recruit ages 12 and up for the Watch, girls and boys. Dany killed 163 random slavers. Jon recruits 63 Wildlings.

By the time the last withered apple had been handed out, the wagons were crowded with wildlings, and they were sixty-three stronger than when the column had set out from Castle Black that morning. 

The apples win out. No more mention of onions in this chapter. 

The chapter ends on a grey note, uncertain but hopeful. 

Marsh was unconvinced. “You’ve added sixty-three more mouths, my lord … but how many are fighters, and whose side will they fight on? If it’s the Others at the gates, most like they’ll stand with us, I grant you … but if it’s Tormund Giantsbane or the Weeping Man come calling with ten thousand howling killers, what then?” “Then we’ll know. So let us hope it never comes to that.”

Hilariously, it is not the treachery of the apple-choosing wildlings Jon will have to worry about. 

The abundance of onions and apples in this chapter sets up the struggle Jon faces in later ADWD chapters. The bigger picture v. Arya. Apples are done, for now, the onions stalk him. He tries to strikes a balance. He hesitates, he sends Mance, he struggles. In the end, the Pink Letter sends him over the edge.

Apples v. onions.  Jon has chosen. 

Apples = choice. The choices is… NOT the Watch. Arya. The North. The bigger picture. House Stark. 

Apple Quality: withered. Like the very first apple. 

Jon stood tall. He told himself that he would die well; that much he could do, at the least. “I know the penalty for desertion, my lord. I’m not afraid to die.” “Die!” the raven cried. “Nor live, I hope,” Mormont said, cutting his ham with a dagger and feeding a bite to the bird. (AGOT, Jon IX)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In conclusion:

Apples signal the necessity for Jon make a moral choice according to his own personal values. 

Jon always has his eyes on the bigger picture. 

His choices becomes increasingly divorced from the concept of loyalty to the Watch.

There is a pronounced conflict between apple and onion, between moral choice and refusal to choose. Jon tries to walk the line between the letter of his vows and his values. He ends up choosing his values. It goes badly. 

The quality of the apples has a relationship with the ease of choosing. 

whithered apples are fairly clean choices, 

rotten apples are traumatic choices, 

autumn apples relate to choices influenced by the wisdom of women, the stealing of women. 

There is a future apple promised to “the beastie” as a reward. 

If we want to draw a connection to the show, Jon will clearly face another apples v. onions conflict and the need to choose will feature heavily. It will go badly. But there is the promise of home and reward.

[torispn15]

Warning long post ahead:

I have heard a lot from the news and from articles today. It can drive you crazy. So, I´m channeling my energy into explaining a couple of things about our (the US) political and economic system. It´s not perfect, as I put more emotion into this post than just straight logic. I have taken a politics 101 course and did a lot of studying and I am using basic common sense and empathy. At first I am talking about the Capitol incident and then it expands into more detail. If you don´t want to read, that´s cool. (I am not really gonna branch out into other countries on this topic. The main focus is the US) Anyways, here it is:

"A political philosophy and movement that is sceptical of authority and rejects all involuntary, coercive forms of hierarchy. Anarchism calls for the abolition of the state, which it holds to be undesirable, unnecessary, and harmful."

Does this sound like the behavior of the people that stormed the Capitol? No. It sounds like the opposite of what they want. I´ve seen a lot of news networks such as NBC, call the fascists, anarchists. That, above, is the description of anarchism.

Anarchists reject any hierarchy. They, the fascists, want government and they want Trump. So, calling them anarchists is very very not accurate.

"A form of far-right, authoritarian ultranationalism characterized by dictatorial power, forcible suppression of opposition and strong regimentation of society and of the economy. They believe that liberal democracy is obsolete and regard the complete mobilization of society under a totalitarian one-party state as necessary to prepare a nation for armed conflict and to respond effectively to economic difficulties."

Does this sound more like the behavior of the people that stormed the Capitol? Yes. It does. That is the description of fascism.

"A fascist state is led by a strong leader such as a dictator and a martial law government composed of the members of the governing fascist party to forge national unity and maintain a stable and orderly society."

Remind you of anything??

Now, read this:

"Advocates the abolition of the state, capitalism, wage labour, social hierarchies and private property (while retaining respect for personal property, along with collectively-owned items, goods and services) in favor of common ownership of the means of production and direct democracy as well as a horizontal network of workers' councils with production and consumption based on the guiding principle "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs"."

This sounds way better than the first two, right? This is the description of anarcho-communism. Which is what I, personally, align with most.

What about this:

"An economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for profit. Central characteristics include capital accumulation, competitive markets, a price system, private property and the recognition of property rights, voluntary exchange and wage labor. In this market economy, decision-making and investments are determined by every owner of wealth, property or production ability in capital and financial markets whereas prices and the distribution of goods and services are mainly determined by competition in goods and services markets."

This is the description of capitalism, which is what we have now. But, what you have to understand is that capitalism usually leads to fascism. Late-stage capitalism is fascism. One core idea of fascism is capitalism. Which is one of many reasons why it´s terrible. Also, you live here. You know how bad capitalism is. It´s why you can´t afford to buy medicine or go to the doctors. It´s why people die of starvation. It´s not because people don´t work hard enough. There are people who work three jobs who are still low-income individuals and families. It´s because of capitalism. It doesn´t give you any freedom. It is the opposite of freedom. In the "land of the free" we have a political and economic system that enslaves us. Think about that. Think about how much freedom you actually have.

When all of this is put into frame, what are your thoughts? What sounds like a place you want to live in?

The way we are now, the reason why most of the garbage in this country happens, you can connect that to capitalism. You can trace what happened at the Capitol today to fascism and capitalism (Which are basically the same thing).

A lot of Americans work minimum wage jobs. Minimum wage is $7.25 an hour, on average in the US. Assuming you work 40 hours a week, that equals 2,080 hours in a year. Your hourly wage of 7 dollars would end up being about $14,560 per year in salary. Even if you got $15 an hour, working 37.5 hours a week, you would still only make $29,250 a year. $15 an hour isn't enough to secure affordable housing in most US states. Nationally, someone would need to make $17.90 an hour to rent a one-bedroom apartment or $22.10 an hour to cover a two-bedroom home. In order to live comfortably, you´d have to get extra hours or a better job. Extra hours, is just slaving more of your life away to the point where it won´t matter how much money you earn. And it is very hard to get a job. Even if you go to college, you aren´t owed or guaranteed a job. You slave you life away. And none of this takes into consideration family members. None of this takes into consideration any children or people living in the household. You have to struggle all the time under capitalism.

You are in the top 1.8% of americans if you make more than 400k a year. So, no, not everyone or anyone can be rich or live nicely here. America loves to brand itself as a free country and the land of opportunity but, it has shown that is anything but. 30 million people in America, do not have health insurance. Do you know how much medical care costs without insurance? No one should struggle for basic medical care. Every human being deserves the basic necessities to stay alive. Every single one of us shouldn´t have to pay for food or water. We shouldn´t struggle to afford putting food on the table working two jobs while the millionaires and billionaires who sit on a yacht all day, who don´t earn a single cent, never have to worry about that. You wanna know how they make that money, you wanna know who gives them that money? You do. Your hard work and nights away from your family, earns them that money. That is your money. The system is set up for people like that to succeed and keep succeeding. The rich keep getting richer while you stay the same or even lose money. Does that sound fair or just to you? Life isn´t fair, no, but this isn´t life. This is a man-made system that we can fix. We built this and we can tear it down.

So stop being a bootlicker and sucking off capitalism just because there´s a small chance that, maybe, you will get rich. If you´re black in America, you have a 15.1% lower chance of becoming a millionaire than a white person in America. If you are white or asian with a college education, you have around a 20% chance of being a millionaire. But, if you can´t afford college, and you only have a high school diploma, your chances drop to a 2% chance. And most people who are rich in this country didn´t start out with a start-up company and worked hard. No. No. The majority of millionaires and billionaires did either one of these things or all of them:

⬤ Got lucky. By means of gambling, lottery, ⋆cough⋆ making a sex tape and it getting traction ⋆cough⋆...... things like that.

⬤ Scamming someone. By means of ponzi scheme, pyramid scheme, advance-fee scam, credit fraud, identity theft... things of that nature.

⬤ Other illegal shit. By means of embezzlement, hacking, robbing, selling counterfit goods (which can also fall into the scamming someone section), etc... you get the point.

And that doesn´t include being born into money and not paying any taxes as well. It usually doesn´t have shit to do with working hard. If working hard made you a millionaire, a hell of a lot more people would be rich af.

There´s also a lot more factors and circumstances to take into account. Even if I had time to explain, I probably couldn´t because, well, frankly, it´s impossible to go into every factor or circumstance especially since, I couldn´t possibly know every single one. This is a very basic and general post and I tried my best to explain some stuff. (some of the figures and percentages might be off by a percent ot two but, that´s easily searchable)

I do encourage researching, actual research. Because I, nor, anyone on this app are the authority for any topic. Never take anyone´s word for anything, especially not on this app of of all places. Please study and research. When you research, it is very important to check out the websites and sources for too much bias and make sure to fact check, such as comparing it to other websites and sources. Or maybe you could read different books about economics or politics and things of that nature. But, even for books, always fact check and check for too much bias. You can easily fall into traps if you don´t. I just started listening to an audio book titled: Anarchism and Other Essays by Emma Goldman. I am trying to learn more about anarchism and other political philosophies as well. I am most certaintly not a "political person" but, I do love to learn and I do love human beings and believe that human beings deserve basic rights which makes me interested in learning about different ways to improve our way of life.

So... that´s it.... I hope y´all have a goodnight/evening/morning! 💛