#I mean imagine if an alternate route was in the game and the-

[jacksmusesdrv3]

Idea: after having done FTEs with Kokichi, Shuichi decides to co-operate with him in the Chapter 4 case after all, with the opportunity to learn more about the situation (even the motive itself!). This route is locked to you however if you didn't do the FTEs- as he doesn't have the means to question unknowns (such as why he's presenting a clue about the killing game in a cryptic series of games) and thus develop enough willingness to press on what he's trying to accomplish

Then Kokichi drops a bombshell that only Shuichi is supposed to know. Cue a decidedly unnerving partnership-borderline-blackmail

[iceunhie]

— out of this world (and into another) : genshin impact

premise: you could've sworn the transmigration curse didn't have an effect on you... so what exactly are you doing here?! (alternatively, you tumble straight into your favorite video game; and you're kinda fucked)

...or, a genshin manhwa otome game inspired au.

act i: scaramouche, alhaitham, wriothesley.

↳ act ii: lyney, neuvilette, kazuha, kaeya. (next)

warnings. fem!reader but can be imagined as genderless if u'd like hehe, a shit ton of manhwa tropes in one, this is a hot mess aka not proofread all that much, half clunky half decent writing

a/n: as promised via the poll heh,, while i do plan to make this an actual au, im not that sure ^^; just the tip of the iceberg here tho!!

MAIN MASTERLIST | AU MASTERLIST (coming soon)

YOU — unsuspecting civilian turnt transmigrator

you've always been too attached to fictional characters for your own good.

yes, even the ones that are remarkably irredeemable (the power of a backstory is very formidable) and complex (complexity is a virtue!)

villains have always been destined to die, be cursed, or destined to curse others. it was heartbreaking, really. you've wished for a chance to rewrite their fates for them to find even a sliver of happiness, even when the fate of their plot says otherwise.

which is why when you find yourself awake into the game of your dreams, “Teyvat's Seven Stars”, like any lover of cliche novel and manhwa tropes, this is the time you think that maybe life wasn't so shitty on you.

....there's only one tiny, teensy, itty bitty problem here, actually.

you're not the protagonist. you're not even one of the protagonist's faithful friends and underlings that light protagonist's road to conquering the world and its men (and as of the 4.0 update, it's women); no, you're none of those.

you're a no name extra, and not to mention, a character involved with the game's main villain characters who are coincidentally the love interests of the game's black route!

[ unlock transmigration package: ultimate transmigrator's route ( ????? MODE ) ]

[ no ] [ yes ]

( 国崩 ) SCARAMOUCHE — the tyrant

“as of today, you will be engaged to crown prince kunikuzushi, who is her grace the shogun's rightful heir to the throne.”

when given approval to stare at your so-called soon to be husband, you expect the worst, mostly. the multitudes of character dialogue you've played through detailing his rather discourteous personality (which basically meant he was a huge asshole) don't exactly paint a pretty picture.

however...

who was this tender hearted looking scaramouche that ‘obliterated armies in the blink of an eye?’ the t in tyrant stands for tyrannical, not timid!

eyes like lighting framed by the longest eyelashes you've ever seen and an unfairly pretty face, comparable to a fair lotus. after fawning over his otherworldly countenance, a sinking realization of dread pools in your stomach.

oh, you are so screwed.

essentially tied to the indigo-haired ticking time bomb of a future tyrant due to the strong standing of your family for a period of until the main story starts, you're destined to never get crown prince scaramouche's affection, being his fiancée who scaramouche is arranged to for political means only.

not to mention, you're in an even more deadly position; of all the characters you switched souls with, it's the one that essentially dies by their own fiancé's hand because they were horrible to him! what atrocious luck!

frantic, you wrack up about three ways to survive.

plan a) win over the shogun's favor by being an appropriate partner unlike the original flavor of this body, who resorted to bullying the innocent prince and unknowingly digging their own grave or b) be a guiding friend to scaramouche as he learns the ways of the world and c) make sure you don't end up giving the protagonist a bad ending via his twisted personality.

weighing all these options, you decide to do all three in hopes to cement a life instead of a deathflag. prevention is better than the cure (aka: the protagonist) after all!

(you may also just want to spend time with your favorite character. having a time limit and a sign that says ‘i'll die in the future!’ should at least warrant you extra time to show some affection to scaramouche, at least.)

so, you do what anyone in your position would do: give affection! lots of it.

admittedly, it wasn't all flowers and rainbows. scaramouche—ahem, kunikuzushi—was very shy and reserved indeed, with his mother ei even worse off! (besides, who trains and studies all day and has to stop crying every time they were injured?! that was just too much!)

it was rather hard at first, the frigid atmosphere of the usually silent Tenshukaku Palace almost impossible to permeate. but with your amazing charm (read: deathflag radar) and social skills, you manage to let the members of the Royal family open up to you.

speaking words of praise in ei's cooking (a very difficult feat to accomplish), spending afternoons with your fiancé and teaching him ‘how to be a shoujo worthy male lead, name-version’ (very confusing to explain), and the cherry on top, driving away that vile teacher of his—the Doctor—once word got out that he'd been taking advantage of scaramouche as a political puppet king in the future. trauma enabler destroyed! look at your immeasurable powers!

(“you're not a failure.” clasping kunikuzushi's hands in yours as he reels back from you. damn that doctor.

his tears shot a wave of heartache through you. you can't bear to see your favorite in such suffering. “whatever happens in the future, i won't abandon you.

no matter what, i'll always be on your side, okay?”

kunikuzushi looks at you with something in his eyes—something like adoration. “do you promise that?”

“yeah.” you say without hesitation, the glow of the sunlight hitting your face so dazzlingly that kunikuzushi's eyes widen that his mouth hangs agape in awe. “i promise, kuni.”)

to your greatest delight, your efforts worked in your favor.

ei now spends time with her son, and though it's almost always just a tad bit awkward, you and the guuji yae miko get the two to strike up conversation, and overtime, kunikuzushi becomes more open to you.

(“[name], what kind of man is your type?”

“huh? well...” you think for a while. this was a great opportunity to say it, right? that life changing protagonist quote!

“to me, the only person i'll ever like the most is you, kunikuzushi.”

“do you really, really mean that?” and oh, he looks so cute—flustered and red from your words. worth it.

“yup! now, i made some shimi chazuke, try some—”)

(admittedly, lots of favoritism is involved.)

—and while you reap the fruits of your hard work, you spend warm, sunlit afternoons with ei at tea, even learning about other nations from scaramouche's aunt nahida and even befriended a few of his future affiliates—childe (though for some reason, kunikuzushi always pulls you away from him whenever he spots the two of you together), signora (she tolerates you, you think) and etcetera.

(“then, if i do well, can you kiss me on the cheek, [name]?”

you agree, much to his delight. scaramouche avoids the gaze of a certain pink haired fox eyeing him questionably. unbeknownst to you, he glares at the woman's scrutiny.)

unprecedented things unrelated to the plot happen too; like how your family, which basically only saw you as a political bargaining chip and an unwanted child they could get rid of easily—no longer sent you any demeaning letters demanding money once scaramouche found out....

(“they've been leeching off of you for how long?” so scary... is this was kunikuzushi is like when he's worried?)

(“...kunikuzushi, how long will you keep up that weak-hearted facade of yours? if they find out how.... dishonest you are....”

“i don't need the reminders of a foxy old hag that doesn't know her place. this is fine as it is.”)

(you don't need to know.)

but, you're nothing compared to the inevitable flow of the plot. inazuma is wracked with war, and it just so happened that you'd been unceremoniously kidnapped by a certain resistance leader's trusted general, used as a hostage bargain for approximately the majority of your life. in the worst moments in your dreary cell, there's only one thought in your mind.

....kunikuzushi's face, devastated when he tries to reach for you, before slipping away from him like sand— face morphing into an unbridled state of rage that's too natural, too familiar. when did he learn to make a face like that?

(they say the kingdom was wracked with thunderstorms all night that day.)

afterwards, fate doesn't make it kind for you.

years go by in the blink of an eye, with your capture fervently forgotten in the midst of the growing animosity of the two conflicting forces.

although you did hear that yae sent out a search party for you while at the resistance's base, the shogun's forces never reached you.

eventually, you got released secretly by sympathy of kokomi, the leader of the resistance, who felt pity for you getting caught in the crossfire. letting you go under the condition that you'd likely never meet any of the precious characters you've gotten to know and change was a heavy price to pay, but you didn't have any choice.

indeed, no matter how much you tried to divert the plot, your duty as an extra has ended, and you were even lucky to even be alive. you could only hope that your fiancé—ex-fiancé—took note of your lessons well, bidding farewell to inazuma as you hop on the boat to mondsdat.

by now, you at least hoped that scaramouche and the protagonist met, his true chance at happiness starting now that you were basically dead.

(even if your heart felt like breaking into a million pieces.)

....is what you thought would happen, but why is it that after three years from your supposed capture, inazuma was still at war?

“that crazy prince... he's still working to find his former fiancée... and he's razing almost every village apart looking for them!”

“—didn't the shogunate say that whoever finds her would receive almost 3 million mora?”

“the entire lot of them are lunatics, i tell you. all because of a missing person, too!”

what's more, why was it still going because of you?!

( 艾尔海森 ) AL-HAITHAM: the information guild master

to be fair, normal people don't really run into one of their favorite characters often after transmigrating.

but to be fair, again, you certainly didn't think you'd actually be in your favorite video game franchise caged in bed with essentially one of its main love interests.

eyes wide and unceremoniously looking—definitely not ogling— at the toned body that's currently enveloping you in its arms, the soft tuft of ashy gray hair caressing the crook of your neck, murmuring incoherent mumbles of—is that another language?

???????

you blink, looking down at the bare body currently embracing you. oh. oh.

you're an extra.

you're just an extra, but why are you in bed, currently being served breakfast by the most gorgeous man you've ever laid your eyes on, with a pretty view of the rainforests' canopy?

“you should lie down. if i recall, sufficient sleep is required in order for the human body to perform its basic bodily functions. although our partnership is temporary, to let you fall to harm is a situation i'd like to avoid as much as possible.”

“....what?”

“...?”

the guild master, al-haitham, is a character in Teyvat's Seven Stars that is heavily debated on whether he's technically a villain or not. in the game, he's the right hand of sumeru's leader, nahida, working as the overseer of the AKASHA, a guild that gathers information to the nation's leader. he's a pretty shady character—always working behind the scenes and very unfalteringly blunt—and a ‘villain’ for crown prince scaramouche's route, helping the protagonist escape his clutches.

he's often the subject of comedic ire, his banters with a certain broke architect always the highlight of any bonafide al-haitham fan.

“we're expected to work together by lord kusanali's decree in the duration of investigating the hivemind project the lord suspects the baron siraj is partaking in.”

right, that one scene in the game where al-haitham needed to go undercover to infiltrate a coup de etat staged by one of the factions against nahida... right... what.

you were that extra! the one that fell in love with him and pined for his affection!

(“well, i get that part, but does sleeping together really have to play a part in this...?”

al-haitham gives you a mere quirk of the lip, tilting his head. “we do have to play the part of a married couple in dire straights, do we not? this cover is more efficient.

...besides, i don't have anything to complain about. you're certainly better company than kaveh.” )

in truth, al-haitham wasn't bad company. far from it. aside from the internal giggling and fangirling (you) and the incredible stack of books (alhaitham) that you have to see more than the grey haired man on a daily basis, the two of you work out a rapport that stems from memories of the body you transmigrated in.

he's nice to be around, surprisingly considerate when he wants to be—he tells you about the books he always reads....

(who even reads ‘20 Tongues Language Memorization Guidebook: A Basic Overview of Vocabulary and Terms’ for enjoyment?

the content makes your head run in circles because of how complicated it is; but who wouldn't like to listen to an extremely attractive man overexplain to you with a calm and pretty voice?)

...is generous enough to provide meals and cook dinners that have you crying tears of gratitude because you know how awful yours compares (it was either too bland or too seasoned; al-haitham is surprisingly picky when he wants to be)

(you assigned al-haitham the title of “absolute s-tier husband material”— his capabilities are out of this world!)

by chance, you once gave al-haitham a little tidbit of information that proved to be valuable later in the investigation—courtesy of your avid game knowledge—when you two had been lost to the psychological illusion magic cast by siraj when you two finally broke in his estate.

(“whatever happens, if siraj messes with your mind, just make sure to think of me instead of anything else.” al-haitham lets his hand find yours.

“you once asked me if i trusted you, [name].”

“....” you're treated to one of al-haitham's rare smiles, one that warms you up from within. “i do. so don't let yourself get hurt.”)

however, your temporary partner had faltered for once, flinching when siraj took the form of his old grandmother who'd passed to exploit al-haitham's mind, hesitating and frozen in place while siraj inched ever closer to finding out his weakness.

and you couldn't stand it, the character you cared for—the al-haitham that always had a plan, always knew how to stay calm, had looked so unsure and hopeless.

(“wake up, al-haitham!”

with you cradling his face, al-haitham stares back at the only constant in the memories of his grief, eyes meeting yours. “you don't have to do it all alone. i'm right here, aren't i? believe in me.”)

your (fake) husband snaps back to reality, finally allowing enough time to apprehend siraj and put a stop to his malicious project.

(“thank you.” al-haitham tells you solemnly. it hits you that this may be the last time you may ever see him. “i'm grateful that you brought me back to y— to my senses.”

there's a sincerity in your voice that rings from your heart. “anytime, al-haitham.”)

you thought that was the end of it.

defeating siraj meant you two no longer had to associate with each other, but somehow, to your great surprise, al-haitham doesn't stick to the plot at all. you were sure you didn't interfere with the game, though?

for some reason, al-haitham doesn't erase himself from your life, unlike the original route's flow.

in fact, he's become... easy to run into, a constant in your otherwise mundane life. he takes you out to lambad's tavern for an occasional drink, says he's lending you his headphones when you find yourself overwhelmed by the city (you were never good with noises) and even helps you out as you vent your problems to him.

(the day after, said problem conveniently disappears. how strange....)

and most of all, allowing you to enter his personal space... leaving kaveh's jaw dropping when he accuses al-haitham of having a lover.

“you're always going who knows where with them! what else is there to figure out?”

“...we are merely friends.”

“a friend that you let into your personal library? do they know that you still keep the ‘fake’ ring in a box inside the closet?” kaveh laughs. “nice try, al-haitham.”

(after all, kaveh could never unsee the way al-haitham's eyes softened at the feeling of the head on his shoulder lean onto him, with you no doubt asleep. he even took his headphones off! kaveh has never seen him actually take them off in order to keep the person who's sleeping on his shoulder as undisturbed as possible.

in fact, kaveh doesn't think he's ever seen al-haitham be this touchy or considerate with anyone this much before.

.....and most importantly, kaveh would never forget the way al-haitham, a man who found no merit in politeness and preferred bluntness, a man who preferred solitude rather than company—deliberately getting close to someone—pressing a fleeting kiss on the crown of your head.

kaveh blinks. it seems even the throes of love can reach even the most unconquerable of peaks....)

( 莱欧斯利 ) WRIOTHESLEY — the monster duke of the north

“—i need you to gather information on duke wriothesley. serve him undercover as one of the prisoners of the fortress.”

the duke of meropide—a man swamped with terrible rumors. they say he was exiled from the nation due to murdering his entire family. they say he possessed a face worthy of the title of a beast— grotesque, littered in scars. they say that any who end up in his estate, the iron prison of the north, meropide, never saw the light of day again.

(“only criminals of the worst kind are fated to be sentenced there. nobody returns, so we've stopped questioning it...” )

so to say you're not fearing for your life that bad right now is a massive understatement.

“now, mind telling me how you were able to sneak into the most impenetrable prison in all the land, miss prisoner?”

how did it end up like this?

so you wake up and find yourself in jail. lovely.

seriously, of all the places you can transmigrate into, why did it have to be fontaine?! Teyvat's Seven Stars chapter 4's main starting point, the nation of justice is littered with dark themes and high difficulty capture targets.

.... such is the case with the man in front of you. unlike what the rumors of him say, duke wriothesley paints a rugged yet dashing picture of a nobleman, even if he was —if you recall— one of the hardest capture targets to conquer in the game.

a villain character who you played once during one game route, acting as the driving force during one of the love events of one of the protagonist's other love interest, lyney. duke wriothesley almost assassinates lyney's younger brother, freminent, leading lyney to rally up a certain group to bring the nobleman down.... a typical side character villain, who's existence was added as late as 3 patches away from lyney's.

(even inazuma would be better than this! at least the tyrant route could be avoided, and let's not mention the easy sumeru route as well...)

“well, miss prisoner, cat got your tongue?”

in summary: fortunately for you, the body you transmigrated is in the position to spy on the current affairs of the fortress of meropide, with courtesy and with permission of one of Fontaine's leaders, neuvillette. unfortunately for you, it seems our dear monsieur wasn't able to inform wriothesley beforehand, leading to the current situation.

aka, you're pressed dangerously close to wriothesley's chest, with a knife at his throat and his hands pinning you against the wall, noses almost touching. you're not sure if this is even the kind of tension that two people who are trying to kill each other are supposed to have...

(“i'm an ally!” you sputter out. wriothesley raises an eyebrow at you. “monsieur neuvillette sent me.”

“how am i supposed to trust you after i saw you slinking around here, knife at my throat?” he replies, eyes narrowing. “i know that i'm labelled as a beast, but i don't really know what came over that pretty little head of yours when trying to sneak into my chambers.”

what does he take you for?! “...are you accusing me of something indecent?!”

“just saying — i've met lots of prisoners with your excuse, my lady.”

“i'm prepared to use this knife, you know.”

“hah.” wriothesley grins. “how aggressive. more aggressive than most. do you want me that bad?”

“stop twisting my words!”)

in any case, you hate wriothesley. you know he's one of the characters in Teyvat's Seven Stars and is a villain for one of the easy love interest routes in the game, but his personality is... a real piece of work.

you'd rather the protective and kind kazuha, or even the charming and elusive lyney! why did it have to be him?

not only did he not believe you, he even told you to prove your authenticity! you're just glad that his assistant sigewinne had been there to vouch for you — you're not sure if you'd even be on your two feet right now if she didn't.

so now you're stuck constantly on your feet, running to and fro — helping the dark-haired man record new prisoners, establishing trading routes to the main city of Fontaine, and treating other prisoners of the fortress with sigewinne.

your biggest surprise by far, though, is just how... different the duke is from the rumors. his scars were merely battle scars of honor (to which sigewinne rolls her eyes, “your grace, please stop trying to look cool”) he got from various succession fights, not scars to show how he was cursed to turn into a beast. he has a love for tea, but always seems to have a cup of your favorite blend with him when you feel tired after a long day of working (laboring) for him and the estate.

(“your daily report of new convicts, your grace.”

“-this is the tea you like, your grace. i've prepared it in advance.”

“you're very adamant on proving yourself. aren't you sick of such tasks by now, miss prisoner?”

“no.” wriothesley's expression screams 'why not?' on it. “ it's because of my own misjudgement of you.”

“...elaborate.”

“i may have had unnecessary prejudices on your conduct thus far. but you're... not like what the rumors paint you out to be.” you say sincerely. “you're more amazing and incredible than anyone else. i truly do admire you.”

wriothesley's expression; you couldn't decipher it. “i see.”)

he's battered, but caring. sigewinne makes you watch (in horror) as she doodles cartoonish looking characters on his face when he's asleep — wriothesley never fusses, only an exasperated sigh to his assistant. he's harsh with his tasks and duties, but is the first to rush you into sigewinne's infirmary to tend to you after you pass out from overwork.

(“don't worry, [name]. the duke may not look it, but he's very gentle!” sigewinne giggles. humoring the little girl who was the first to show you actual decency in this place, you try to nod. sigewinne doesn't seem convinced.

“i'm serious! after all, compared to other people who've snuck into the fortress, you're the first he's treated this way.” she says cheerily.

“what does that mean?” you can't help but scoff at that. “so he just works someone to the bone from the get go?” you shudder. damn production zone...

sigewinne blinks. “ oh no, not like that. it's just that he's never been so lenient before. in fact, when you fainted, he even gave me the order to prioritize treating you over anything else.”)

well, this wasn't exactly what you thought you would be doing when you transmigrated into your favorite game, but you suppose you can take it.

besides, you'd miss a certain duke otherwise. life truly is full of strange twists....

a/n: thank you for making it this far! if anyone asks why wriothesley's was short, listen, this was completely impulsive and i was out of inspiration LOL, but i do hope you enjoy! look forward to new parts though hehe :3

@ ICEUNHIE: do not repost translate or plagiarize my works.

[jaal-ama-daravv]

dissecting the mortal emmrich argument scene (all routes)

dissecting the graveyard scene dissecting the mortal romance path scene how I think an argument reconcilation scene could've went emmrich x rook cinematic (mortal)

lich version dissecting the alternate romance path dissecting the argument scene (lich path) mortal vs lich romance path emmrich x rook cinematic

Emmrich Volkarin - Dissecting the Mortal Argument Scene

welcome back dearies

lets not dally with this one and get right into it -

starting strong with emmrich reviewing his will and testament/s -

important, but not yet, so do go on -

the emphasis on will tells us alot. coming from a storyboarding background, its easy to see why the emphasis was put on will. emmrich chose mortality, and will thereofre face death head on, as will rook. but due to rook being younger than emmrich (in any capacity), emmrich states that rook will outlive him. now he hasn't said it yet, but his fear is about to rear its head. keep in mind throughout all of this that this man is scared of how much he adores you.

but in the same sentence, we've got, "You've... grown to mean much to me..." - head over heels in love, rip my heart out and serve it to you in a platter, my heart, body and soul is yours type o' love.

I just wanna shake him, oh i just wanna shake him like a bag of treats, but very aggressively. he is so obviously LYING, rook makes a comment earlier in the game about how he is a SHIT LIAR. it sounds the exact same. BUT, and I say but with a hint of 'ah -ha!', lets read between the lines -

I care for you Rook! Deeply. - man has never been down as bad as he is - emmrich has never felt love like this. But there are such years between us - shut up rn I shouldn't heap you with that burden - HERE. he knows that Rook loves him, he can feel it. I imagine between quests they hold eachother's hand as the read books together on the balcony. as they make tea. as emmrich shows rook his mothers recipes. emmrich knows rook loves him, he just doesn't realize can nor accept how much rook loves him.

bonus, BURDEN ME, Im begging you, to BURDEN ME.

DIVERGENCE

god it hurt to replay this scene 3 times

Path 1 - Please don't worry, Emmrich.

he also broke my heart by worrying because i too, love him

fuck this line. i love you but look, I get where emmrich is coming from, but no. no no no, no no. whats fair would the world to be ending and being able to spend every waking moment in eachothers arms, to spend the final moments of 'what if' craddling your insecurities and nurturing love. instead we at the end of the world, arguing, because both rook and emmrich are fucking terrified to lose eachother. something about 'being fair' to someone by 'leaving' them irks meeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

solid and appropriate response

moving on because i have nothing nice to say

get his ass

emmrich is shockingly, overthinking the concept of death. ya know, that thing that cant be soothed or mulled over, pierces his heart and shakes his core? that, thing. yes shockingly, overthinking it. i get both perspectives here. Rook just wants to be taken serously and not for their age gap to come between the love they have finally found. emmrich so scared out of his mind he's trying to avoid it entirely. if you want a really gutteral playthrough before point of no return, pick this. I did, on my blind playthrough, it was a mistake, i cried alot.

unfortunately, very valid on both statement, but also true on both statements. Emmrich is both worried about Rook and insecure about dying. because either way, he loses rook, he loses his time with her. in this line of dialogue, emmrich is vry concerned with burdening rook with his death and the grief that will follow. Rook essentially tries to calm him in the worst way possible and it escalates. im not a fan of this dialogue path at all as the "at your age" comment is so out of pocket.

Path 2 - I mean something to you!

if you were to of told me that the purple rook option is the 'nicest' in these scenarios, I would...not believe you at all. It's still painful, but it's not an 'argument?'

strong start ngl

mans immediately defensive, but his tone of voice isn't raised like in the other scenarios. its more poised with care through it, more 'ugh, yes, i care about you, but this is about death'

in this dialogue path rook attemps to 'waylay' emmrich, aka, distract him and change the subject to something nicer, more comforting. though unfortnately, for people with crippling anxiety, nothing calms the mind when its in black and white mode.

eh, not what I would've gone with saying rook but ya know. eve before a battle, tensions high. still not great

emmrich wants to discuss being a burden to rook and rook is just not having it, im kinda into it.

again rook is trying to waylay emmrich into realising that he is overthinking things. however, to emmrich, this is real, rook may as well be dying in his arms rn. thats how real his fears are. we think back to emmrich being a child and losing his parents in a collapsed building accident. its likely he was there, and survived.

hence why it is so very important that we remember that his romance confirmation is the question, what would my parents want for me? and the answer is HAPPY WITH SOMEONE WHO CARES ABOUT YOU.

he is so terrfieid of death, and you and I both know, that when you have such a fear, it is amplified by 14747% when it is someone you truly care for. let alone the type of connection these soulmates have.

emmrich desperately pleading to talk about being a burden to rook, and rook is still just going, 'no', youre my burden now.

wee woo, a winner in my books because rook is not insulting his very existence or dismissing emmrich.

rook knows that emmrich is scared and would rather talk to him about being SCARED, instead of him being a burden because she fucking loves him and would never leave him.

rook is just as scared as emmrich but in this path, is trying to level with him. this is probably the one path where it concludes and I dont have a clear answer on who said the worst shit. i dont think any of them did, it was just riddled with concern, and a lack of communication.

Path 3 - Love scares you.

Rook pointing out the obvious. blunt and to the point. I do love that Rook is able to identify this straight away

Emmrich, taken aback by the comment by Rook, because it's the truth. he is scared because he loves rook. both by actually loving her and by how much he loves her.

"I can't... at my age" Is what this line is meant to be.

But once again, and we have discovered in previous posts, Emmrich has never considered himself 'worthy' of this type of love. And now that he has the love he has craved for decades, he considers himself too old. most likely due to his belief ssystem morphing over time to, "if it hasnt happened by now, it never will" probably in his 30's. Thats almost 20 years of doubt. We know Emmrich has been in relationships and involved with others since then, but nothing that even comes close to what Rook and Emmrich have. Keep in mind as well that Emmrich hasn't formed a connection with anyone in several years and has solely focused on work (i.e., lichdom) because what else do you do when you have given up?

straight to the point again

reiterating that this is a hard topic for him - kindness in this situation would desecalate emmrich and calm his mind, but unfortunately the end of the world takes no prisoners

man is terrified of love and the grief and vulnerability that embodies it

ouch

ouch

Rook's defensiveness and frustration reaches an all time high. rook wants the love of her life to tell her that he loves her, and emmrich doesn't want to burden his love with the grief that will embody her for the rest of her days. rook walks away feeling defeated, with a hole in her heart. emmrich is left with his overthinking thoughts, and most likely spirals.

Conclusion

In their facial expressions, and I have slowed them down to each frame per second whilst analysing, and both Emmrich and Rook share the same process of emotions after Rook's final statement.

Both Emmrich and Rook start out with a cross look on their face, eyebros tilted, eyes squinted, portraying anger, which is covering defensiveness, which is a defense mechanism for being vulnerable. After Rook says their final statement, this line is what 'pulls them out' of their defensive trances, but its too late, the damage has been done. Their facial expressions switch to a more, 'oh, oh that was just said', it turns to regret. the over arching theme of the game. they regret what they said, and their pride wont let them budge rn. the argument scene is important to the romance considering what happens next in the game.

"We'll talk when we get home, Emmrich. I promise." (the reconciliation line before fighting ghil)

hit me like a frieght train that did when i found out we were in the fade for weeks. emmrich, canonically, cries alone and has cold sweats at night when he is upset. do with that information what you will. it definitely happened when rook was gone. Hence why it takes Rook dissapearing in the fade for several weeks for their walls to collapse completely.

god fight, stuck in the fade, emmrich meticulously searching for rook, crafting the fake dagger, pulling them out.

At the end of the scene, Emmrich looks frustrated and devastated. the type of facial expression where it is clear he wish that conversation had gone differently.

Emmrich has low self-esteem, there is no simpler way to put it. This is apparent in the way he holds himself, in his mannerisms, and the way he reacts to rook expressing romantic interest in him. As two examples, consider the date with Emmrich, "apart from the compliment of your interest?", and in two flirt dialogue lines, he responds stating that he is surprised rook has shown interest in him. he wants this love SO BADLY, but he is so scared especially with how much death is around them. but emmrich is braver than he believes. it just takes, almost losing rook for him to embrace it.

phew, what a rollercoaster. ill have the mortal romance scene break down for you in coming days ♥

[nouearth]

hear me out — peter is the epitome of the ‘hot nerd’ trope 🙏🏻 he’s a nerd, yes, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that he’s not athletic. he attracts a crowd when they’re playing shirts and skins ‘cause he’s ‘surprisingly attractive for a nerd’ and also good at his sport of choice. he’s an integral part of the team so of course he’s part of the frat sure some of the other guys are dicks to him sometimes but he’s one of them! he’s always at their parties too, just hanging out by himself in a corner mostly but (cue cliché) some of the aforementioned dicks encourage him to ‘lose his virginity’ ‘cause they assumed he was a virgin and he goes through with it except he chooses to sleep with reader who’s the captain of the opposing team. alternatively: he bonds with reader at one of the frat’s parties over their shared interests and they hook up. not necessarily a request, just a thought i had :)

💌 : wait, i love this prompt so much... i might write it, HAHA (also, idk why i'm picturing... haikyuu vibes if we were to go a fluffy route).

like, i love how peter is slightly an outcast at times in his own team simply because he's not a dick, and prefers laying low instead of streaking naked across campus or something. reader is more of a responsible and caring captain as opposed to peter's captain who's a bit more arrogant, and your typical egotistical jock. already, that makes peter attracted to reader, and vice versa because there's humility in their own skills. they'd probably find common ground in feeling like an outlier in their own team, which is strange for reader since he's literally captain. maybe the team likes to go out and have drinks without him? think he's a boring know-it-all (who is always right in the end), but in the end, reader is what keeps the team together and is crucial in helping them win their games.

and you know how the teams have to give each other a handshake after the end of a game? imagine reader and peter holding onto each other's hands a little too long, their palms sticking to each other's rather than slipping from the sweat.

"good game." "you too."

AHHHH. WRITE IT DOWN, WRITE IT DOWN.

[nanaten]

more people should base mother characters’ character traits/design elements off their stats. its something ive been doing for a while now

I draw Ninten to be thinner than the rest of them as a result of his speed stat being significantly higher than the other two at level 99 (155!! insane!! more than double Lucas’s max speed!!) and I also imagine him to be that way having less guts than the other two protagonists— so he’s more susceptible to finding other routes to resolve/escape conflict, (4th D Slip you get it). He’s also (pardon my language,) a lucky, sarcastic fucker, so he’ll take advantage of that during combat too. (Wisdom/Luck: 155). I also think that Ninten, lacking in vitality, also aids this general idea that Ninten isn’t noticeably strong— though i also think maybe his vitality would be noticeably higher without the asthma, LOL.

This is why i also consider Ninten to be more witty and bastardy. Is he all that strong (from the outside)? No. Can he use offensive PSI? No. But luck is on his side, he’s smart, and he can pack a real damn punch if need be.

I also think, with his wit, he’d weaponise his smaller stature, this is to say he’d weaponise his (what is viewed as,) physical incompetence. you get it. he’s just a little boyyyy he’s a little birthday boy look at him he can’t hurt you he’s like 2 grams of protein Oh Shit He Just Knocked You Out Because You Were Unassuming And Thought He Couldn’t. Welp!

Ness’s I consider less simply based on the fact he specifically gets a huge boost (y’know the whole magicant boost thing,) nearing the end of the game, but I still think it’s important. For example him having the least defence of the three (whilst having the most guts & IQ) could take to mean that he’s overtly confident and relies far more on his own strengths and immediate in-the-moment smarts. I also take this to mean he’s got alot more muscle mass, not valuing speed as much as raw strength— His moves are calculated, but not premeditated, he figures out the best course of attack and goes for it immediately. I also think it’s representative of a more laid back, relaxed personality— he’s not too uppity, he’s not all that scared of much, he’s confident and reliable and faithful in his skills.

Lucas’s stats may initially seem weaker than the rest but I moreso take this to mean he’s alot more calculated. Being the slowest with a speed of 60, I imagine he puts an immense amount of thought into each and every move he makes— he cares less about how much he can do and cares far more about precision, each hit deliberate with intention. And i think this is cooperated well with his defence stat being the second highest (I also take this to mean Lucas is pretty tanky, as opposed to Ninten, who I think has high defence more from mental planning and probably PSI— cough cough power shield,) only 5 points away from Ninten’s— it all takes to mean he is safe and deliberate, calculated and threatening. I also think the high fight/guts stat infers that Lucas isn’t really one for finding alternative routes out of combat, he is not afraid to fight and is down to fuck your shit up if it comes down to it. He is also a notorious lucky fucker, like Ninten, but with it being slightly lower I imagine his luck would moreso aid him, as opposed to Ninten who would regularly bank on that luck.

Lucas’s stats don’t add too much to how I characterize him but I think they do further aid the general idea of Lucas being quite stoic and unmoving, quiet and observant.

These stats are scaled because each mother games’ stats work differently! this is just a general idea and for fun lol

[thankskenpenders]

So I wrote a whole long thing about Amy's tarot cards, but what about, you know... the rest of the Sonic Frontiers DLC? The new alternate story route, the hours of new gameplay, all that?

Having now played it, I'm not sure Sonic has ever had this specific combination of good ideas that make the future of the series look bright, and execution that I fucking hate.

(Full spoilers ahead.)

The good

There's a lot to like here, conceptually.

First and foremost, Tails, Knuckles, and Amy are finally playable in a new mainline 3D Sonic game for the first time since 2006! Seventeen years! We've been begging for this for so very, very long. Nature is finally truly healing from the fallout of Sonic '06. Early on I hedged my bets and expected them to be locked to Cyber Space or something like that, assuming that there was no way they'd be fully playable in the Open Zone. But sure enough, while they're a bit limited compared to Sonic, they're still all full-blown characters with skill trees to unlock and lots of exploration to do.

We also got a more bombastic alternate final boss fight, after the first take on The End kind of underwhelmed. And it's obvious that Sonic Team has listened to our pleas to focus on the 3D platforming over the forced 2D sections, and to reduce the amount of automation in the level design. This update is chock full of Actual Platforming. Wow! I can only pray this means we never get an area as agonizing to explore as Chaos Island again.

Sure, there's still some jank - especially with Knuckles' movement, which is kinda rough. But if this is the stuff they're trying out so that they can refine it further for the next game, then I'm really excited.

On the other hand, good fucking lord is The Final Horizon tedious. And that tedium sapped most of the fun out of it for me.

The frustrating

The new scenario massively increases the difficulty over the base game, seemingly out of a desire to give the hardcore players who were posting speedrun videos and whatnot more of a challenge. It's the Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels of Sonic. This difficulty comes in many forms throughout your playtime, some worse than others, and continues to ramp up over time.

Rather than giving you a tutorial level, the new scenario dumps you directly into a remixed version of the final island and makes you do some fairly precise platforming with Amy, Knuckles, and Tails - new characters with new movesets that you won't have any experience with. You'll also need to find character-specific Koco that give you free levels, because Sonic's friends all start at level one and certain locked moves in their skill trees will be mandatory to progress. They don't even have Cyloop unlocked at the start. And because they're all low level, that means you'd better steer clear of the beefed-up bosses scattered around the map, which will absolutely annihilate Sonic's friends. (I honestly just avoided them and never bothered beating any of them, not even with my high-level Sonic. I have no idea if they're beatable with the others.)

None of this is explained to you particularly well. I spent my first few minutes with Amy wondering why the attack button did nothing, only to eventually think to check her skill tree and realize that I had to unlock her basic attack. If you don't bother to take the time to read through the skill trees, you'll very quickly find obstacles you have no way of getting past with no clues as to what exactly you're supposed to do.

Adding to this confusion is the fact that objective markers often tell you to go half a kilometer into the sky, and you'll have no idea how to get up there because all of the relevant platforms are out of your draw distance. Many objects seem to only pop in for me when I'm within about 60 meters of them, which isn't a long distance for a high-speed open world platformer like this. I was having this problem running the game with high graphics on PC, so I can only imagine how obnoxious it is on Switch. I'd frequently find myself poking around nearby clusters of platforming objects and praying that they'd lead me to a spring, rail, or cannon that would eventually point me in the direction of the floating objective marker.

There were always complaints about the art direction in Frontiers and the way it relies on floating rails and prefab platforms that are visually disconnected from the natural scenery of the islands, but it's even more dire here. The new platforming sections are dense and complex, but they seemingly didn't have the budget to change the topography of Ouranos Island at all, so it all takes the form of these prefabs. It very strongly gives the vibe of a Forge creation in Halo 3, back when there were no blank canvas maps and people just had to make "new maps" by jamming a bunch of shipping containers and barricades together in the sky above one of the default arenas.

I was still more or less having fun, though, despite the jank. It's a big creative swing, I told myself! They're trying stuff out! They're experimenting!

And then I hit the towers.

The towers are agonizing because they're SO close to being great. The logical part of my brain understands why some people love them, but god, I just fucking hate them. The platforming there IS cool! These layouts are cool! The individual challenges along the way are a bit tough, but totally doable. You know what's not cool? Making one mistake and slowly falling 800 meters all the way back down to the ground, forcing you to start over. Because none of these towers have checkpoints. For me, this one decision transforms what should have been a fun set of platforming challenges into a massive, unfun difficulty spike.

I enjoy some masocore platformers, but those are typically games with quick deaths and restarts like Celeste, Super Meat Boy, or VVVVVV. Hell, the Mario games tend to get way more difficult than the average Sonic game, and those are obviously all great. Quite frankly, unlike those games, Sonic Frontiers is nowhere near tight or polished enough to make this difficulty feel fair. Bits of jank that I could ignore in the base game due to its lower difficulty are now matters of life or death. Missing a jump because I boosted off an incline in a way the game didn't like for reasons I don't understand is not fun. Falling off a tower because the camera was pointing in the wrong direction while I was in midair and I couldn't see the next thing I was expected to homing attack is not fun.

And it's such a jarring spike when moving from the base game to the DLC that it feels like the game is suddenly quizzing me on skills it never bothered to instill in me. Maybe if you've spent the last year labbing out the movement tech in this game this is all a no brainer, but for the average returning player it's a kick in the dick.

I'm sure I could've beaten these towers normally if I gave them enough tries. They aren't the hardest thing in the world. But I very quickly decided I had better things to do with my life and turned on easy mode, which adds tons of extra springs and homing attack balloons to make all of the platforming piss easy. I wish there was a middle option between Only Up: Sonic Edition and this extreme hand holding, but when given the choice between the two I gladly picked baby mode. I just wanted to see the story.

(The new Cyber Space levels are also long, challenging, and devoid of checkpoints, not unlike the towers. But I only ever found the entrances to two of them. So I only did two. They're theoretically required, because they give you "Lookout Koco" that you need for... some reason? But in a rare act of mercy, Sonic Team put Cyloop treasure spots that give you free Lookout Koco all over the map.)

As I continued, so many little things started adding up to piss me off. Why do you only reveal like five tiny squares of the map at a time? I would've loved to find all the new 1-on-1 dialogue scenes, but not if I had to do dozens of hard mode versions of the stupid little puzzles and challenges to reveal the whole map. Why does every character need their own unique collectibles? What is this, Donkey Kong 64? Why can't I just grab this EXP for Amy when I find it as Tails? Why can I only manually swap characters by talking to an out-of-the-way NPC unlocked right before the final boss? Why is fast travel disabled? Why are the new vocal themes you hear when playing as Amy, Knuckles, and Tails so monotonous, with a single verse repeating over lo-fi beats ad nauseum? Why is the jukebox feature completely disabled throughout the DLC, even after rolling the credits? Why can't Tails homing attack? Why do I have to wrestle with the camera so much while also holding the jump button to fly as Knuckles and Tails? How many right thumbs do they think I have? Why is this animation for picking up animals in the Cyber Space levels so incredibly slow, and why can I still take damage while it's playing? Why does the stupid starfall event have to make it so hard to see what I'm doing when climbing these towers? Why does this shitty combat trial have a popup that makes it seem like I should be using the Cyloop when the actual strategy revolves around repeated parries? And on and on and on...

The story

What about the new story? Well, there sadly isn't much to chew on here. Most of the DLC has the cast running around and finding different macguffins for arbitrary reasons, as part of some sort of plan to divide up the work on the last island so that Sonic can go train with the spirits of the Ancients and harness the power of his cyber corruption. What the fuck is an Impact Form? I don't know, but Knuckles needs something to do, so go find one.

It's a thin excuse plot meant to make you do platforming challenges around Ouranos Island, with little room for Ian to add any real flavor of his own, even though he certainly tries. Having Sonic meet the spirits of the Ancients who controlled the Titans, who are revealed to directly parallel the personalities of him and his friends, is kinda neat, I guess? It's something. The optional conversations seem to have some fun bits, including both conversations between the supporting cast and additional lore. But again, I only found a few of those because of how tedious filling out the map was.

The writing is also let down by the voice acting - or I guess the voice direction, because I know this cast can do better. Roger's voice continues to be weirdly, distractingly deep as Sonic, which was clearly something that was requested of him just for this game. (For a recent example of him going back to his regular Sonic voice, see this LEGO trailer.) The performances of Sonic's friends are also WILDLY mismatched. This is most clear when they start feeling the effects of the cyber corruption. Knuckles seems to be barely affected at all, Tails sounds like he's moderately hurt and low on energy, and Amy starts completely overselling her pain out of nowhere. The extremely strained performance makes it sound like Cindy's literally being tortured in the fucking booth. I have no idea what's going on over there.

The final challenges

People have debated whether or not things like the towers and the new Cyber Space levels are fair challenges. What's not up for debate is the fact that Master King Koco's Trial is complete and utter bullshit, and I can't believe they shipped this.

Before you can fight the new final boss, the game forces you to do a boss rush of the first three Titans - INCLUDING the pre-Super Sonic climbing sections - with a hard limit of 400 rings. For all three lengthy, heavily scripted fights. Back to back. You can't even cheese it with the leveling system, because you're forced to do this at level 1. This all but forces you to look up speedrun strats for the Super Sonic fights so that you don't run out of rings and fail the trial.

And the real kicker? They changed the parry just for this trial! Originally, you could just hold down the bumpers endlessly and Sonic would ready himself to parry the next attack, whenever that may hit. Now it requires you to do a "Perfect Parry" with specific timing. And you HAVE to hit those parries if you wanna clear this trial and get to the new ending. Miss a few and you're probably fucked. You just have to reset. Time to go through all those fights, all those climbing sequences, all those QTEs, and all those unskippable mid-fight cutscenes all over again. This is by far the most egregious example of the DLC deciding to quiz you on new skills that the base game never required of you, and it's one of the most absurdly unfair things I have ever seen in a Sonic game.

Easy mode does make this trial easier by making the timing window for Perfect Parries much more generous, but that's all the help you get. It's still easy to lose time failing to parry Wyvern's hard-to-read animations, or to lose rings by getting hit on the climb sections, or for things to just fuck up because these fights were always kinda jank. I gave it a few shots. I looked up guide videos. I tried the Quick Cyloop and stomp combo strat that seems all but mandatory. But I quickly decided that, again, this wasn't a worthwhile use of my time. It just sucks. And I really, REALLY didn't want to overwrite all my fond memories of these Titan fights, some of my favorite setpiece moments in any Sonic game, with memories of this shit ass boss rush.

So I cheated! And if you're on PC, you should too.

With the worst hurdle out of the way, I turned cheats back off and moved on to the new final boss. It was pretty cool. It's much flashier than the original fight against The End, that's for sure. It's still kinda annoying, and it requires you to do very specific shit without properly telegraphing it, but it's nowhere near as bad as the preceding challenges. I was hoping for one last new metalcore song to go with the new fight, which we sadly didn't get, but at least the new version of I'm Here is good.

The ending is... mostly the same, with a couple altered scenes that don't really change anything in the long run. But overall the new finale was pretty good. I just wish it hadn't been such a slog to get there.

Closing thoughts

Sonic Frontiers: The Final Horizon wants to be three things:

A patch that adds a new alternate ending that was probably supposed to be in the base game in the first place.

An experimental take on making Tails, Knuckles, and Amy playable again, presumably testing things for the next game. And...

An official Kaizo Sonic Frontiers mod for the sickos.

The thing is, the people showing up for #1 and #2, the main things that Sega hyped up about the update, are not necessarily going to be down for #3. If they had announced some uber-hard new Cyber Space levels for the arcade mode or whatever, I'd be like, neat! And then not play them. I would never touch Master King Koco's Trial if it was an optional challenge. I would leave that for the sickos. But instead, they made the hardest content mandatory for anyone who wants to see the new Good Ending where the final boss gets an actual budget.

I'm mostly left in a state of shock that it shipped like this. I cannot believe they playtested this and decided this was the state The Final Horizon should be released in. That this should be the note Frontiers ends on. That this should be how we remember those Titan fights. That this should be the lingering taste in our mouths as we wait however many years for the next 3D game.

Armchair devs always love to say that things would be "easy to fix," but like... there really would be easy fixes for the insane difficulty and general tedium here! Add a few more tutorial popups explaining what the game expects of you with Sonic's friends. Give the Cyber Space stages and the towers a couple checkpoints. Give the combat trials more generous time limits, especially on the lower difficulties. Remove half of the map puzzles, and make the ones that remain uncover twice as many squares. Skip the startup animation for Knuckles' glide. Let me turn on the goddamn jukebox. Since so much of this update was designed around fan feedback, I can only pray that Sonic Team is still listening, and that they tweak at least a few of these things with a balance patch.

But still, after those many, many paragraphs of complaining... this still somehow makes the future of 3D Sonic seem pretty promising?

Sonic's friends are FINALLY playable again, and the focus is back to proper 3D platforming, rather than railroading players into awkward forced 2D sections in what's otherwise an open world. These are the things that they hopefully want to carry over to the next game. The difficulty? Well, that's just because it's the postgame DLC that's supposed to be the toughest challenge in the game. It's just an unreasonably cruel one of those - an example of how designing and balancing for a vocal minority of your fanbase can really hurt your game. But Sonic Team is onto something here, and I hope that they can learn the right lessons from this expansion and not throw the baby out with the bathwater.

[dumb-hat]

alternate: What would your OC's alternate universe look be? If they're a fantasy character, what's their modern look? If they're sci-fi, what's their fantasy look? What AU would you want to see your OC in, and how would they dress themself? Bonus: Prompt an AU! (Really expecting an Exalted answer here...)

Okay, goddammit. I'll do it. I'll do the damn thing.

So here's the issue, right: I love Exalted. I really, really love Exalted. Some of my best friendships have been made across a table where we played that game. A lot of the ones that weren't made by Exalted were made better by Exalted. Aside from a few breaks here and there, the game's been a big part of my life ever since it came out in 2001. I'm running an Exalted game right now, and I'll be running more soon.

So of course I've spent a lot of time figuring out where Evander could fit into all of that. Hell, I've done that across multiple editions, at this point. I'm going to stop myself short of doing an entire Exalted-focused rewrite of his character history, but trust me, that doesn't mean I haven't thought about it.

(Okay, okay... Fine. tl;dr: Replace Limsa Lominsa with Wu-Jian, you should probably replace Ishgard with a Northern satrapy to the Scarlet Empire, but I'm gonna swap it with Whitewall because I love Whitewall, then replace Ul'dah with Chiaroscuro... again, mostly because I love Chiaroscuro. If none of that makes sense, feel free to ask me about it and I will give entirely too much context. I will give so much context that you will hate me.)

Anyway... The quickest question to ask and answer regarding an Exalted AU Evander is "What kind of Exalted is he, anyway?"

Okay, quickest isn't the right word, or we wouldn't be here. But it's the question that people would ask if we were actually talking about it, so it's the question we're going to answer. There's... There's a lot of places to go with this. Depending on which edition you're going with and how you want to slice things up, there's like... anywhere from 5 to 10 different playable kinds of Exalted, and even then, you can break some of those down into like... subgroups and stuff. My point here is... I'm going to exercise some restraint and not go into each one.

I'm going to do three and whittle it down to one.

So, maybe the most obvious option would be to say he's a Solar Exalted. Solars are the chosen of the Unconquered Sun, the King of Heaven, the god of virtue and excellence. His chosen are champions and exemplars among humanity, and their legendary deeds are backed up by ambition and limitless potential. They're just fucking good at stuff. Given how much Evander likes to design and tinker with shit, and how much he loves just knowing stuff, it'd be tempting to go a bit against type and call him a Twilight Caste, the Solars who are chosen to be sages and scholars among their peers... But nah, he's an obvious Night Caste. Night Caste Solars are the shadowy left hand of the Unconquered Sun, acting decisively from the shadows. They're your superspies, superthieves and superassassins... And if we wanted to take the easy route, your SuperEvanders.

The Solar Exalted are my favorites, but I think it might be more fun to imagine him as one of the Dragon-Blooded, whose family lines have been chosen by the Elemental Dragons to wield their elemental gifts. They differ from Celestial Exalted (like the Solars, and another type that we'll get into soon) in that their power is not passed down through reincarnation, but through bloodlines and dynasties. Individually, the average Dragon-Blooded will be less powerful than your average Celestial Exalted (if either could be said to exist), but they're way more numerous. Exalted traditionally recognizes five elements within the setting of Creation: Air, Earth, Fire, Water and Wood. It wouldn't be a stretch to make him out to be an idealistic, innovative Air Aspect, a quick-witted and passionate Fire Aspect, or a hedonistic, thrill-seeking Wood Aspect, but I don't think any of those are a perfect fit. Personally, I think if we're making a Dragon-Blooded Evander, he works best as a Water Aspect: Like water, capable of calm stillness, or relentless, torrential waves; able to adapt to any circumstances, able to find weaknesses in the tiniest gaps.

Solars and Dragon-Blooded are both pretty easy, though. Lets get a little weird. We're not going to go full weird; like, we're not making him a communist war robot hero who will eventually become a city, and we're not making him a weird hero-from-another-world-that-doesn't-exist-because-his-strand-of-destiny-was-cut-from-the-loom-of-fate, heck, we won't even make him a spite-and-fury-powered punk rock prince of Hell. We're only gonna go, like, half-weird in Exalted terms.

We're gonna make him a Sidereal Exalted.

The Sidereal Exalted are chosen by one of the five Maidens of Fate: Mercury (The Maiden of Journeys), Venus (The Maiden of Serenity), Mars (The Maiden of Battles), Jupiter (The Maiden of Secrets) and Saturn (The Maiden of Endings). The Sidereal Exalted operate out of the heavenly city of Yu-Shan, where they work as a part of the Bureau of Destiny, a division within the Celestial Bureaucracy tasked with making sure that the destinies planned by Heaven come to pass to ensure safety and stability for all who dwell within Creation.

It's like the 36th Chamber of Shaolin meets the Adjustment Bureau. It's like Journey to the West meets Office Space.

It's amazing.

And it feels like a weird fit for Evander! As far as FFXIV characters go, he's pretty down-to-earth. He's not a god-killer; hell, he's barely a people killer! He doesn't channel the vast power of Hydaelyn, he doesn't roam other reflections; he's... he's just a little guy, who mostly gets in trouble and cares way too much about stuff while trying to pretend he doesn't. He's defined more by his connections to the people and the world around him (and his desire for those connections) than he is anything else, which is why he's the perfect candidate to be a Chosen of Serenity.

Also, I apparently love making him miserable, which is why he's the absolute perfect candidate for Sidereal Exaltation, because... well, the Sidereals are kinda fucked as far as that whole connection thing goes. The Sidereal Exalted are subject to arcane fate, a curse which dooms them to be forgotten by most, as it conspires to erase memories and records of the Sidereals alike. Sure, other Sidereals, many gods, and the occasional other Exalt (or rare exceptionally tricky mortal) might remember you, but the rank and file? Nah, you'll be forever forgotten. Trying to forge those connections that are oh-so-important to him would be like swimming upstream against the current of inevitable loneliness.

Venus, the Maiden of Serenity, oversees relationships of all kinds... And it's worth pointing out that societies, in this case, are kinda just like really, really big relationships, aren't they? Venus' chosen are entrusted with making sure that things under her eye unfold according to Heaven's will. They struggle to bring joy, peace, prosperity and (of course) serenity to a world drowning in chaos.

...

So, I was originally going to actually fill out a character sheet and out that here, but then I looked and realized that it's almost 4 AM, and, like... I have to work in the morning and then actually run some Exalted in the evening, so... I'm gonna pass on that, actually.

For now.

But, uh, yeah. So, Exalted AU: Evander's a Chosen of Serenity, I guess.

Ask me stuff! oc asks: character design edition

(If anyone ever wants to talk Exalted, omg please please, I'm right here, I'll do it. I love this shit)

[tamelee]

Hi! I wanted to Say that I love your art and your naruto analisys!! And i wanted to ask You, how You think an alternate universe where naruto's parents and the uchiha massacre didnt happen? I have Seen the anime, other fans and movies try to come with what it might be but i wonder what You think on how it would be. I personally think that the anime and the movie are a bit too exaggerated on the what if when it comes to the teams

Thankyou! 💕

Ah, there are so many things to consider. We'd sorta have to... ignore why the bad stuff happened? Or deal with the consequences differently? (Like, as in, fixing the system, that would be nice.) I'm not sure about the anime, but I do remember seeing it in that one movie where they're all the opposite of their true selves. Where Sasuke is suddenly straight, lol!

If Naruto's parents survived, I'd like to think that Minato as Hokage could've changed things.

What would he do? Would Minato have been able to mediate fairly? Unlike Tobirama or Hiruzen?

How would Minato handle Danzo? Would Danzo still be free to make his own decisions "for the greater good of Konoha, excluding the Uchiha" because Hiruzen took the easy route and let someone else deal with things? And if Minato knew about his plans regarding the Uchiha, would he stop Danzo? 

I'd like to believe he would. I mean, he'd definitely needed to step up way more than the 3'rd "voicing out disagreement" that was weak af. In fact, going soft on Danzo with his flabby-ass, incompetent bs and proving how little power a Hokage has in general is pathetic. 

No, you know what? I think things would've definitely been so very different had Naruto's parents been alive. Minato also had that fight with "the masked man." Had he survived, he could've teleported to Tobito later, no? Actually… the more I think about it, the more I realize how much could've easily been avoided ;-;

What if the Uchiha took leadership over ANBU? Because it seems to me that the villagers view the ANBU as protectors, while the police are more strongly associated with being the ones who will punish you for wrongdoing. That may 'help' a village, but it certainly doesn't help a clan you're singling out. Like Orochimaru said, this authority did nothing to unite the clans or demolish certain boundaries.

Anyway...

Naruto would learn more about the Uzumaki. Imagine Naruto as the second flash junior with his Uzumaki adamatine sealing chain Jutsu's listennnn. In an instant, any enemy would be chained.

He also could've made a barrier rasengan or something, or Sasuke could target thunder or amaratsu from within it as a combi-jutsu and no one would be able to escape. It would color black and white like the yin/yang symbol.

"Is that—"

"Ah.. It's the great, unstoppable dome of death!"

"Oh."

But it would also sprout life because of the yin & yang. Look, what if Itachi trained Sasuke to use his hawk more like he had with his crow, and then he'd be able to send Naruto little memories while he's traveling? Not notes, genjutsu memoriessss. Things he'd like to share. And he'd wear Naruto's teleportation mark so they could always meet up instantly. 

Mikoto and Naruto would create a frog-pond in the garden; this is not negociable. Sasuke would pretend he couldn't understand, but he would sneak off to feed and talk with the frogs while taking advantage of the peace to meditate, and Naruto pretends not to notice, taking food with him anyway and complaining that they won't take it. 

Naruto and Sasuke would always challenge each other during festivals where you could play games. They'd visit other places to play different ones, and they'd be known as rivels through that. Both gaining their own fan clubs, and entire competition days would be held so people can come watch as they go at each other while they toss rings, mold candy, or scoop balls out of water and then think of punishments for the loser. 

Ah yeah Sasuke would definitely play some type of flute, Naruto would play Taiko drums.

Oh stop me now I could go on forever tbh.

[oncillabrigade]

I feel like I see a lot of fan authors/artists depicting Jason and Tim (and sometimes Steph) as unrelentingly mean to Damian in public, and that doesn't ring true to me. I haven't read the comics since before Damian was introduced (Wayne Family Adventures pulled me back in, and oh man there are fun DC comics these days!) so maybe I'm missing some canon examples of that... but I feel like every single child in that family gets how awful it is to be in the spotlight at a young age. They remember how awkward and exhausting it was to always smile for the camera, always be perfectly behaved, always uphold the ideal of what a Wayne adoptee should be. It didn't matter how you felt; you had to act the part. And they wouldn't make that harder for anyone.

Detailed thoughts below the fold!

Acting like a Perfect Wayne Kid™️ must be easier for Tim than for his siblings, because he was already playing that game as a Drake. But that doesn't mean it wasn't excruciating, especially for someone as introverted and wonderfully weird as Tim. Honestly, I think he'd be a mine of useful information for the later additions to the family!

I can see him at a charity dinner next to Cass, indicating which utensil comes next, murmuring, "I know, it's ridiculous. And there's no real reason, which makes it so hard to remember. But you're doing great." I can see him helping Duke practice the "right" laugh before a party: "Not too loud, not too real, not too many teeth showing. These people are terrified of genuine emotion, but in a shittier way than Bruce is." And I can most certainly see him talking Damian through how to leave a room when there are TOO. MANY. PEOPLE and the walls are closing in, showing him escape routes at different venues, explaining, "you don't want to use the bathroom excuse too many times in a row. People notice and tabloids start saying you have an eating disorder. I'll text you a list of alternate reasons to leave a conversation."

What I cannot see is Tim leaving anyone out to dry in the hell of high society. Even if Dami were driving him NUTS, I don't think Tim would call him a brat, insult him outright, or badmouth him to others. I think the worst thing he'd do is roll his eyes with humorous exaggeration and say, "okay, Damian, you've done your little brotherly duties--go talk to your friends, okay?" He could be SEETHING about a horrific fight 30 minutes before their appearance and play it off as, "haha, well, all brothers bug each other sometimes." And then he'd pivot, flawlessly, to a positive comment about the whole family, Dami included. Tim Drake, world champion of compartmentalization, fiercely loyal and kindhearted, is not giving the press a single bad word about his siblings. He is smiling and saying all the right things.

And then... then, there's Jason.

Jason understands, firsthand, how hard being inducted into the world of Perfect Wayne Behavior™️ is. Can you imagine Jason Peter Todd going through that? It's not just that he was in a new world, where money and food and clothes were a given, not a hard-won prize. It's not just that there were a million new rules to memorize (how to wear a suit, inscrutable dining etiquette, passive aggression instead of speaking your mind when angry, etc.). It's not just that he was suddenly thrust in the limelight at a young age, thrown in at the deep end of child stardom. It's not just that he was inevitably compared to Dick, who's naturally charismatic in a way that made his rambunctiousness forgivable by Gotham's elite. It's not just that he was simultaneously learning to be a Wayne AND a Robin, which was both mentally and physically exhausting.

No, it was all that PLUS who Jason was when he had just been adopted. Picture him: a kid from Crime Alley, recently out of a school for troubled youth, mourning the loss of his mother, and WAY too fucking smart not to see the condescension in the eyes of his new dad's peers. He was treading water constantly in every aspect of life, occasionally managing to float... all while the press and high society watched intently and judged him like he was swimming in the Olympics. Being Robin gave him magic, but god, he must have used so much of it up on just getting through public appearances.

I refuse to believe that someone who went through that would belittle or humiliate anyone doing the same. Especially when it comes to Damian. Damian, who comes from a world where physical prowess is the ultimate trump card, now trapped in a conversation where mentioning that prowess means he loses status. Damian, who knows the worst physical pain you can imagine and takes it as all in a day's work, struggling to contain his disdain for someone complaining about their tennis elbow. Damian, who was exposed to the worst aspects of humanity before he could form permanent memories, staring in disbelief at a kid his age saying the teacher who gave them an hour of detention is SO evil. Damian, who had mastered the rules of the League, discovering that the rules of Gotham high society are SO different that his prior knowledge is actively disadvantaging him.

I cannot imagine Jason seeing Damian as anything other than a fellow kid trapped in the pool with all eyes on him.

So Jason will do what he's always done: stand up for someone in need. Because Damian IS in need, no matter how much of a pain-in-the-ass he might be. That means Jay is telling the press about how smart Damian is, how good he is with animals, how proud the whole family is of his art. It means he's wearing suit pants with deep pockets so Damian's emotional support plushie is on hand at all times. It means he's using his bulk to clear the way to the balcony when the kid needs air and quiet. It means he's verbally eviscerating the posh knob who called Dami a brat, because NO ONE outside the family gets to say that shit about Jason fucking Todd's baby brother.

I don't care how annoyed they are with each other--bat kids hang together in the face of danger. And make no mistake: being a Perfect Wayne™️ is one of the most dangerous missions they face.

[jinxedshapeshifter]

Something I really like about Deltarune's Snowgrave run vs Undertale's genocide run is the fact that the Snowgrave run has a more psychological aspect, while I think Toby's mentioned he deliberately made Undertale's genocide run boring so it'd be less appealing. Like Undertale's genocide run is absolutely eerie, but it's also not really interesting.

Deltarune's Snowgrave run isn't just eerie, I genuinely think an argument could be made for it being psychological horror. Remember, Kris isn't the one giving Noelle orders. The player is. This is evidenced by multiple bits of dialogue from Noelle in the game, as well as Kris's behavior frankly.

I decided to play a Snowgrave run and as someone who's been manipulated and abused, playing a Snowgrave run myself instead of just watching someone else play it is one of the worst gaming experiences I've ever had (not necessarily in a bad way though, the fact that Toby managed to achieve that is astonishing). Through dialogue and visuals, it's made clear in both chapters that Kris isn't in control of their actions, the player is. It's why playing a Snowgrave run is one of the worst gaming experiences I've ever had. Because we're controlling Kris's actions, we're also the ones technically manipulating Noelle, but using Kris as a vessel for it.

Undertale doesn't make a distinction like this, which doesn't just make it not as much of a mindfuck but also means it's not as horrifying unless you overanalyze Undertale. On a surface level, Undertale's genocide run is basically just a regular, less interesting game that includes murder. You don't know these characters (unless of course you've played Undertale before) and killing all of them means that while they are living in fear, it's not for an extended period of time. In Deltarune, you're using Kris as a vessel to tell Kris's friend to freeze people, then kill one of her friends (whether Berdly is permanently dead or not is something we likely won't know until chapter 3, but in the Dark World at least, he's definitely dead, as Snowgrave is fatal).

It's not even that I hate that the Snowgrave run exists; it's great analysis material and adds a great alternate storyline. But dear lord, as someone who's been on the receiving end of abuse and manipulation, it's horrific.

Noelle is ABSOLUTELY traumatized from the entire ordeal

It's very possible that Kris is also traumatized from the Snowgrave route; it's (no so subtly) implied that Kris's soul is what allows us to control them and they rip it out of their chest at the end of both chapters. Kris knows they're not in control of their actions when they have their soul. Can you imagine how traumatizing it was for them to be controlled into doing something they probably didn't want to do? (It's also worth noting that the "Kris is just a vessel for the player" thing was clear as early as the character creation stage of chapter 1, as the character you're told to create is referred to as a "vessel")

Susie's probably traumatized. Seeing Noelle as upset as she is? Hearing her recount everything like it's implied (and who knows if Noelle mentioned Kris or the "terrifying voice" to her)? Hell, she even says "Somehow, it doesn't feel like we just saved the world..." at the end of a Snowgrave run.

Queen being sad that nobody's around is heartbreaking frankly.

You can't tell me Ralsei doesn't know something happened because of a severe lack of recruits. Similarly, you can't convince me that wouldn't be traumatizing for him.

There's definitely more but I'm tired

Conclusion: Deltarune's Snowgrave route is a psychological horror game and nothing will change my mind

[egg-emperor]

Since Shadow 2005 has one of your favorite Eggman portrayals, do you wish the game had an ending where you get to serve him in his empire? Since the closest we got was the neutral-dark ending, imagine if that route's boss had something like Omega driving the Egg Dealer instead

Yesss of course 🥰 I adore the game as it is but if there was an ending that actually let you join him instead of fighting him every time and killing him in three, it would've been ten times better. I dream of that stuff. I really wish they'd fully delved into that potential but I highly appreciate all the missions that give a small taste of it at least

I've always liked to imagine a route of him joining Eggman that includes all the missions you help him in and then, instead of his bosses, except for Cryptic Castle Egg Breaker because I can see him getting possessive and fighting him for the emerald anyway lol- you fight and defeat both G.U.N and Black Doom and gather the emeralds so he can build the empire!

That would be a cool way to still have the Egg Dealer fight involved! I mean, Omega would need to be defeated in some way as he certainly isn't gonna let Eggman take over the world if he can help it. Maybe a scene where Shadow runs into Omega in Lava Shelter, who assumes they're going to take down Eggman together

Shadow doesn't correct him or fight him, he just silently heads on and he follows. But when they make it to the room where the Egg Dealer fight takes place, Shadow reveals that he's on Eggman's side, he believes he's an android and that he should be fiercely loyal to his master so he lured Omega in to take him out for being a traitor

Shadow and Eggman fighting Omega together like how Shadow is usually assisted during the bosses would be awesome. Omega wouldn't need the Egg Dealer as the killing machine he is but it would be pretty fun to see him in a mech, maybe he wants to destroy Eggman's creations with another one of them and the destroy that after too

Something else that could be really cool is if Eggman was in the Egg Dealer and gives Shadow Chaos Blast with Shadow Fever to absolutely obliterate their enemy, which I theorize is what he was actually hoping to do with the Egg Dealer as he anticipated Shadow being on his side, it was potentially a smarter decision than people think

The potential would soon be proven as Omega won't be fast enough to keep up to change the outcome of the slots as Shadow being faster can knock him back easily every time he tries. That way Eggman can fire missiles, drop bombs, summon Egg Pawns, and then activate Shadow Fever so Shadow can Chaos Blast Omega into oblivion!

Either way, Eggman or Omega using the Egg Dealer would be cool and Shadow helping Eggman in taking Omega down would be epic! In an alternate ending where Eggman's plan works, nobody would stand a chance against his genius combined with Shadows ULF power! They make a badass destructive deadly duo. My dream team ❤️🖤

Once Eggman's traitorous creation and one of his most avid haters is out of the way lol, they'd be unstoppable and soon destroy the rest of Sonic and co, the Black Arms, and G.U.N. Then Eggman would happily rule the world with Shadow living a lie and believing he's an android and loyally serving the mighty emperor and they'd be feared by all!

[moltz23]

Did a Potential Overhaul in the Post-Timeskip Cutscenes mess up with 3H's Development? - Development Mystery/Theory

Back in 2021, Nintendo released a video called Fire Emblem : Vol 1 to celebrate the franchise's 30th anniversary. And around 30:35, the video shows the 3H Movie "Rematch", used for Chapter 17 of the Azure Moon and Verdant Wind routes.

With a catch.

It's not the same one that ended up on the final game:

A glimpse into an alternate reality?

People went wild back when they noticed Edelgard and Claude in this version are using the outfits of their Emperor & Barbsrossa classes rather than the Armored Lord and Wyvern Master ones seen in the game we got, leading to much speculation surrounding what this meant for Three Houses. And it goes without saying that, while unseen, fans suspect that Dimitri uses his Great Lord outfit rather than the High Lord's in this version. So... The heck is up with this movie???

Well, as uncovered by VincentASM from sereneforest.net, it's highly likely this take of the movie shown in the promotional Nintendo/FE video is from an early build of the game. A build so early, that Edelgard skin and eyes were more saturated, and characters still didn't use unique palettes when using generic classes (which was incidentally used in February's JP Nintendo Direct of 2019).

Your call as for which version looks better.

It doesn't just end there though; if Three Houses' datamine is anything to go by - namely, the internal order the classes have in the code - we can find evidence that can answer why the endgame lord classes were used in this variation rather than the "middle ones" early on: simply put, Armored Lord, High Lord, and Wyvern Master did not exist during most of 3H' development. In turn, this explains why the Flame Emperor Class - Edelgard's enemy-only class for Part 1 - is internally, a model swap of her Emperor class rather than Armored Lord's: the latter didn't exist during development of Part 1, so Emperor was used as a base instead.

With this evidence uncovered and the answer giving resolution to the promotional footage shown, hopes waned down for the future of 3H, and everyone moved on.

This raises two questions I haven’t seen anyone point out before, though.

How much (if any) did this change mess up the post-timeskip movies? Is it the reason why the Silver Snow Theorem happened?

To explain these inquiries further, I'll go into greater detail about each one:

1. Two Types of Animated Movies.

Corporate needs you to find the differences between these two pictures.

Three Houses uses 2 types of animated movies for important scenes. The first one (see the one on the left), was done in-house by KT through pre-rendering shenanigans with the 3H engine. Meanwhile, the second one (on the right) was outsourced to SANZIGEN.

The distinction between both is relevant because the movie showcased in the FE Castle Conversations video - as well its final version - belong to the former category. Meaning that, should the character designs get tweaked during development, in the best case scenario, as far IS & KT were concerned, swapping models should be enough to keep things up to date, which might as well be what happened with the "Rematch" movie once the House Leader's main post-timeskip designs were swapped.

But what about tweaking the other type of movies, though? The ones commissioned to the animation studio? I can't imagine the whole process being cheap in their case, more so given that 8 out of the 11 movies commissioned to SANZIGEN feature the 3H lords post-timeskip:

What's important here is that ☆ = Doesn't feature any 3H lord in any capacity.

Granted, the smartest course of action in this instance would've been to simply commission the post-timeskip movies near the end of development to avoid consistency/revision issues, for which there is a plausible chance that’s the case. After all, in the E3 2018 trailer for the game - which was the first instance we ever saw footage of it - the only animated movie outsourced seen was the one from the intro.

But... What if that’s not the case?

Call me paranoid if you want, but I raise this worry for a reason-

2. "The Theorem of What?????"

Love this banner so much.

A few months ago I did a breakdown on how 3H distributes it's movies across routes, and if there's anything that stood up a ton besides the predictable stuff, is that the game followed a clear pattern which determined which routes would get the most movies, versus which ones would get screwed instead. In my breakdown, I coined this pattern "The Silver Snow Theorem" which proposes the following:

"The amount of movies and fullscreen CGs present in a route’s main story by Part 2, is directly and inversely proportional respectively, to how much the narrative follows Silver Snow’s story beats."

And as a refresher, Silver Snow matters to the development of Three Houses because: A. That's the first route the developers worked on; and B. was used as the basis for the other 3:

Which route specifically did you create in the beginning to establish the world-building? Kusakihara: It was one of the two paths in the Empire route—the one fans refer to as the “church route”: “Silver Snow” [...] afterwards, we had Koei Tecmo’s scripting team start work on the nitty-gritty of the other house leaders and the story of their respective routes.

While Silver Snow having this much influence over the Part 2 movies is noticeable in hindsight, truth be told, I did initially brush it off as just a side effect of being used as a template for development. Looking back now though, a part of me now wonders if the Part 2 movies were first commissioned once Silver Snow was late into development and AM and VW had been already decided to borrow a ton from the route’s first half. Because if that’s the case, then there might have been cutscenes outsourced to SANZIGEN that did feature Edelgard, Dimitri and Claude with their second post-timeskip lord classes rather than one ones fans are most familiar with.

But then, it was decided during development that the house leaders would rather use different outfits instead. And this might have caused problems with budget since changing those outsourced cutscenes ain’t an easy task compared to the ones KT made in-house.

Like, seriously.

Goes without saying that all this is merely conjecture. But I feel it’s worth making the question because, to reiterate, the Silver Snow Theorem highlights that the more a route follows Silver Snow’s story beats to a tee, the more animated cutscenes (and less CGs) it gets. And given evidence points out the lord’s main post-timeskip classes fans are familiar with were a late addition… I guess y’all know where I’m going by now.

I usually don’t make threads focusing on fan theories and stuff, but this has been in my mind for a long while so I wanted to see what you guys think about it. Do you think more movies with the lord’s 2nd classes got made before the outfit swap was made? Or perhaps the issue the devs ran with that caused the Silver Snow Threorem might be due to something else entirely…? Also, what's y'all's opinion on SANZIGEN's movies compared to the ones done by KT?

[pqrfi]

Deltarune is to Undertale what Alice Through The Looking Glass is to Alice in Wonderland

hear me out real quick.

we’re talking specifically about the books which i have read and annotated in full. i don’t have my copies present anymore so i undoubtedly missed some things but there are still SO many similarities thematically, visually, and simply storyline wise. maybe deltarune theories could even be crafted from this concept, idk! i just know ive been thinking this since i first got into deltarune and not enough people talk about it.

fun fact: alice in wonderland was originally called “alice’s adventures underground”……………… yall.

(also to preface i wrote this while high for a friend who doesn’t know anything abt utdr, so that’s why everything is explained in full)

beginning with undertale and alice in wonderland:

both stories begin with a child falling through a hole in the ground to a fully functioning world with completely different ways of life and rules of existence. both of these worlds flip common ideas on their heads, example plants talking as flowey in undertale vs the talking tulips in alice in wonderland. animals talk as well and come to life in their own society, example the monsters vs the white rabbit, the bitchy mouse, the walrus and the dodo bird. both the main characters, frisk n alice, don’t reject this (past the initial confusion in alice’s case, but even then it’s more like wonder (lol get it)) and interact with this. they each see problems in the world and move to save it, with frisk trying to break the barrier and save monsters (in pacifist run) and alice protesting the queen of hearts’ unfair actions! wonderland is portrayed as a world ruled with nonsense and chaos, like the aforementioned idea of flipping everything on its head from the world the protags come from. in frisk’s case this was by monsters, who they didn’t know existed, being essentially the ruling (yet also subjugated) class whereas they were accustomed to humans. these monsters came in the portrayal of animals and plants and other whimsical concepts coming to life, just like the nonsense elements of wonderland. a big aspect of alice in wonderland is the importance of imagination, the question of if there is any real meaning to life, and the tedious routines, while undertale literally uses this in its meta element by requiring the player to submerge themselves (with Imagination) into the game particularly in order to empathize w these characters and complete a pacifist run but even also in a genocide run the game compels the player with strong themes and language to imagine it as something real and to feel guilt for those actions. aiw’s (alice in wonderland)’s concept of the meaning of life can be seen in undertale as treating these characters who the player knows are fictional as real beings who deserve to survive simply out of respect for their existence!!!!! and the save points also bring in the question of if that life in the game has meaning if you can just always go back and redo stuff, which is floweys whole dilemma and how he ends up the way he does because he feels there IS no meaning. this is his lack of soul speaking but i think the save points and their repetitiveness really drive it home. aiw’s theme of the loss of a child’s innocence is obvious in undertale because frisk has to do horrible things and/or make terribly hard decisions no matter which route is taken!!! and even choosing to take a specific route IS making those hard decisions. both have themes of death, flowey and the monsters in the genocide run representing these while alice’s transformation and growth out of the mind of a young girl is death in the way the death tarot card represents it: change. the caterpillar’s mitosis or whatever also represents this. in both alternate worlds death doesn’t have the same appearance it does in the “natural world” in undertale monsters disintegrate and in wonderland time does not pass the same as seen by the mad hatter and the hare. OH AND both seem to have the voice of a helping hand guiding the protag through, for alice it is possibly the very concept of adulthood and for frisk it could be so many different people, gaster? chara? asriel? toriel? toriel would very much symbolize the adulthood aspect but in a much more loving sense than alice’s. asriel and chara as well since they have stopped aging and cannot grow anymore. also sans and the cheshire cat mirror each other change my mind you can’t

deltarune to alice through the looking glass:

the simplest comparison between both is the use of chess as visual AND narrative symbolism. in deltarune we see lancer and the king with the spades, the spade knights, the very concept of the KNIGHT as such a huge aspect with so much mystery surrounding them. in the looking glass, alice enters immediately to a living game of chess and throughout the entire story the red and white queen and their fellow chess pieces are significant characters. this is a reach probably but in both of these stories the protag (kris (and susie) vs alice) enter to their respective worlds which ARE DIFFERENT from the previous ones despite similarities through an entry in the Wall which appears normal and then transforms. for kris n susie it is through a door to the closet and for alice it’s through a mirror. no more holes! this wouldn’t matter i dont think if their prequels didnt both have the protags falling Into holes. the chess-piece characters in each story behave like their respective piece: ex, the king in deltarune not appearing combatively until the card kingdom is threatened vs the knights in the looking glass having a protective role. in each story the protag has to face a world threatening element that THEY ARE PROPHESIED to take on, example deltarune ralsei’s tale of kris susie and ralsei being destined to save the world from the dark fountains being opened vs the jabberwockys threat to the entire world of the looking glass and ALICE BEINR PROPHESIED to destroy it. (as a theory, she does complete this, so i’d like to say it hints to kris ralsei and susie doing the same)

deltarune is to undertale as alice through the looking glass is to alice in wonderland:

the biggest dissimilarity here is that alice is the same character and self in both of her stories whereas kris is completely different from frisk (and who knows about any relation to chara or anyone else). yet both worlds that the protags travel to in both of their two different stories are separate from each other, and although perhaps connected somehow are not really on the same plane of existence as the other (but both get mistaken as otherwise). the og story in both udtr and the alice duology tells the story of growing up and maturing through the challenges the protags had to face, whereas it seems like their sequels are telling a story of the challenges you face once you have finished or made it through a lot of this growth and now have to handle the responsibility and strength that comes with it. it’s of course harder to say for the sequels since deltarune isn’t completed but the similarities between deltarune and through the looking glass are HUGE and GLARING so it could almost be used as a basis for theories i find it very hard to believe none of these huge comparisons are intentional

i gotta mention how deltarune/through the looking glass were the stories with the similarities i saw most that inspired this idea, yet once i got into writing i found SO many in undertale. which just kind of drives the point home.

sorry if any of the info is wrong! i don’t usually go here… but someone else pls agree it drives me insane this isn’t talked about much

[transk0vsky]

hiii pls tell us all about Falin + Andrey?! 0__0

Yay!! Gladly!! Let’s get into one arguably one of the most important things for Falin’s route!! Also once more this is gonna be alot of rambling apologies in advance

Okay so we must firstly get into the reason why Falin is even in the town to even begin with. He doesn’t come into town with Daniil this is an important note, they do not know the other is in town until the morning of day 2. Falin leaves for the town a day after Daniil does, he isn’t aware of where Daniil has gone only it’s on a work related matter and they do not meet in the Stillwater either Falin stays in the rod for the first night until alternate arrangements are made. Originally he was meant to stay there for all twelve days however Daniil would never be fine with that?? He’d absolutely want his spouse staying with him?? So that one got scrapped

so why is Falin in town?? And how does this connect to Andrey trying to end his life?? Well that’s because Falin was hired by Saburov to do a psychological evaluation on Peter in order have him deemed fit to stand trial aka to have him executed for the murder though Falin comes on board in order to convince for a possible institutionalization instead of execution. There’s also the implication that Falin is the breadwinner of the household and that’s why he rushes to take a case on such short notice as he needs to be earning money to keep things afloat.rent is due and I highly doubt Thanatica is paying any bills

Well bad news for Falin as word got back to Andrey that saburov has hired someone to get that guilty verdict and saburov didn’t think to send an escort to make sure Falin got into town safely which is either an understandable decision or very stupid of him but either way Falin starts his route with a bullet to the back of his head!! That’s how he meets his sister they both wake up in the graveyard a few moments apart. That’s also how he gets introduced to his miracle of reanimation….by getting brained immediately after getting off the train what a way to start off his route huh?? Also notice how Falin has a cure to death just think that’s interesting he unknowingly has a cure to death while he’s intertwined with someone looking for that cure. And his intro Pantomime is saying “every death is known every death is felt.” So that’s fun sorry this isn’t really related just felt like rambling

This is how our game of cat and mouse begins!! throughout Falin’s route Andrey will be looming threat, though there’s a reason Falin’s main song inspo is the wedding list. Afterall the governor who Falin’s working for already has it out for the twins he’s not gonna weep if the psychologist takes matters in his own hands not to mention the military commander who comes into town ends up having a quite blatant crush on him so if he really wants to go through with revenge he has the means to not get jailed for it.

Not to mention Andrey is slightly terrified as he is 100% he killed that man why is he here?? How?? WHAT DO YOU MEAN HES MARRIED TO DANKOVSKY?? So the other attempts are kinda to both halt the execution attempts and also to cover up the fact Falin can easily press charges for attempted murder (well technically he was also murdered but you can’t press charges for your own murder??) Theres also the factor that Falin throughout his route would get closer and closer to the truth surrounding the murder so that’s another reason for Andrey to want him out of the picture the closer he gets to the truth the faster the trial looms. Though if Falin takes his own revenge he’ll later he asked by a third party if “he likes committing violence and what dear old daddy would think of him now??”

For rather obvious reasons Falin can’t go to Daniil with this as much as he might like to and trust he would like to. That simply isn’t an option he has (you can imagine the outcome of what would happen if Daniil did learn of these murder attempts not to mention the attempt that did succeed though a the crow au with them would be fitting but besides the point.) so this plot thread doesn’t show up in either the bachelor or changeling route as for obvious reasoning he also doesn’t plan on getting Clara involved. However it does reappear in the haruspex route there’d be an optional quest on around day 7?? Where despite Falin’s distrust of Artemy (one of Falin’s bounds is Willow and he views her as a younger sister so no shock why he isn’t exactly trustful of him.)

But artemy is his only option in this situation so he’ll beg the haruspex to please help him if he does Falin promises to bring back one of his bounds. He’s aware Artemy is a person Andrey views as a losing fight and despite Falin’s distrust of him he knows Daniil trusts Artemy and that’s more then often for him. The player have the choice to decide if they want to solve this by simply threatening Andrey or if they want to remove him entirely (if the player opts for the second choice Falin will rewarded them by bringing back two bounds if applicable. Though this comes at the cost of being locked out of the utopian ending there’s no effect on the reputation meter as the act was done to protect someone.)

Tldr: someone please give Falin a fucking cigarette and a hug he needs comfort so badly

Also I will admit the biggest reason Daniil doesn’t find out is simply I’m not sure how to write that?? Like obviously he would be angry but I’m not sure how to write a reaction/plot thread beyond that so I’ve decided to leave it as only something for fal’s route and the haruspex route until I can figure something out there.

[golvio]

Current top five Slay the Princess routes I want to try first:

Damsel (Not because I have any delusions about romancing her, but because I suspect there’s something really awful lying in wait further on, particularly since this was THE route we were explicitly warned away from. I’m also a sucker for when “safe” things turn out to be absolutely horrifying in retrospect, when horror takes a crowbar to the boring one-dimensional love interest lady archetype, and Maria was my favorite character in Silent Hill 2 to the point where I still write essays about her existential nightmare of a life at a moment’s notice. Also, it has my favorite track next to the initial theme.)

Stranger (I love visiting the uncanny valley, plus I want to see what happens)

Nightmare (Who doesn’t love that sleep paralysis demon intro? Also, she sounds like fun in the way Freddy Krueger was fun for the audience, not so much his victims.)

Specter (Like Stranger, it’s the route that diverges the most from the expected structure, although in this case the protag flipping off the narrator happens later instead of earlier. Also, Princess is now a ghost who can’t be stabbed, and she might do that American Werewolf In London thing where she decays more and more each time we see her. Finally, I think one of the writers mentioned it was her favorite route to write for, so I imagine it’ll involve some really interesting twists and turns.)

Witch (The way she speaks is fun, and I love a good dark fairytale)

As for the rest, it’s not that I don’t want to see them, but I want to get my top 5 out of the way first as they’re the ones I’m most curious about.

I’m saving Prisoner for last, because…it feels fitting. It was the first ending I got in the new demo, and it felt like…it was maybe closer to the Princess’ actual wishes? I mean, it is an “alternate interpretation” of the Damsel route, and could just be the player still seeing what they want to see and projecting their own feelings of being trapped onto her. But the one thing the Princesses have in common is that they all want to leave the cabin. Maybe I’ll change my mind and immediately flip to Prisoner after seeing how Damsel goes to get the other side of that particular story, I don’t know.

I’m going to try to go through every route to see what happens, particularly since each is supposed to be its own self-contained story. I still stand by my belief that every route’s going to reveal something about the story or the characters that I might not see in other routes, and that experiencing each will give a greater understanding of the story as a whole. If there’s no “true ending,” then every ending is, in its own way, “true.”

I also imagine that my final verdict on Personal Favorite Princesses may look very different from my Most Anticipated Princesses list. I’m expecting that some of the routes I ranked lower will have some surprises in store, or that my opinion on past routes might change depending on new information I gather. There’s also the possibility there may be Secret Princesses we haven’t seen yet.

I also suspect that I may have separate contenders for “Favorite Route” and “Favorite Princess,” as strange as that may sound. It feels like it’s going to be that kind of game—sometimes you love the horror story for the tale as a whole, and sometimes you love it exclusively for the monster.

[achillean-knight]

LETS GO!!!!!! MY BROTHER AND I BRAINSTORMED SOME IDEAS FOR MY FINAL FANTASY x UNDERTALE AU >:D We decided to call it FinalTale just bc Undertale AU's kinda retain Under or Tale in the title? And also, it just kinda reminds me of Final Fantasy with Tale's usually being fantasy :> (Oh and this is under the cut so casual scrollers don't get bombarded with a WHOLE ASS line of text)

The barrier between the humans and monsters extends to the hole that Frisk/Chara fall through. There have been no other instances of humans ever falling down as it is INSANELY rare to ever fall between both worlds

Each of the crystals are summons that Asgore wants, so he can use their powers to become an all-powerful god to take revenge on the humans (maybe they invaded the underground once and killed MANY monsters.)

Ruins gets Ramuh, just based on the fact that he is usually the first summon you get/considered the wise guide of sorts (plus I didn't know where TF an electric type would go but that doesn't seem to matter for some final fantasy games anyways so PSHHH)

Snowdin gets Shiva, bc obviously, ice elemental LMFAO

Waterfall gets Leviathan because... water

Hotland gets Ifrit bc- ok yes Fire.

Including the Wild East from UT Yellow bc I remembered Titan and I needed him in the story so the crystals would equate to 7 in total lol but yeah he's an earth elemental and that was the only idea that came to mind for him KLSDKJGHSD

Frisk somehow has the Bahamut summon with them (light element), which renders them able to go into trace! :D And was also the reason they fell into the underground and was able to bypass the barrier unlike other humans.

Asgore already has the shadow/dark crystal (Odin), which means all he needs is Frisks light crystal + the Thunder crystal to become an all powerful god cause' he has most definitely already taken every crystal in the underground save for the ruins bc NOBODY goes there.

Chara and Asriel are not present as enemies in this story-- aswell as Flowey not being a thing? I imagine they're sorta the angel that's sealed between the barrier and human realm. Maybe Chara was the ONLY human without a crystal that stumbled into the underground, and being human, Chara couldn't survive there, long term. Honestly, seeing as I've given Asgore Odin by default, and somehow Toriel has Ramuh in the ruins, I can see maybe Asriel had Phoenix as a crystal? And used some of its rebirth abilities for Chara, but he had to use his own soul to actually harness it due to Chara being human and not monster-- And in a last ditch effort, Asriel did the sorta-- Monster absorbs humans soul and turns into a god-like being sorta deal but using Phoenix's rebirth abilities instead and so they became a being in itself, rendering them far too dangerous to keep in the underground. Maybe Asgore seals them away, fearing what they can do and not knowing that whatever they turned into is an "Angel" of sorts. Absolutely 100% someone who can revive you if you completely die btw JJHSDGSD I can see you able to obtain them as a summon if you do a SPECIFIC side quest throughout the game, kinda like how you can get the Fierce Deity mask in Majora's Mask by doing certain side quests (yes, ik, totally different game series but it gets the idea around >:3) Aswell also sorta the snowgrave route but not messed up KJHGDSD just a... very long and convoluted side quest that gives you major benefits in the long run.

Due to this angel-like summon being sealed away, they're located between the barrier and human world. You WILL see them anyways, even if you don't earn them as a summon, just bc you'll see them after defeating Asgore and returning to the barrier to go home, but gaining them before then, would hypothetically give you an alternate scene-- maybe you can use the Angel summon to destroy the barrier in its entirety and let the humans and monsters finally live in harmony. So YEAH!

There's technically still a good and neutral route, but no geno bc-- idk how that'd work in a Final Fantasy sense UYGSDDSGHJDS

Oh yeah, more stuff I wanna add!

Each of your party members are the boss fights you actually fight throughout UT, so Toriel, Papyrus, Undyne & Mettaton with Alphys being another party member + being the sorta... spiritual successor of Cid bc she'd be that crazy mechanic that you see in EVERY Final Fantasy LMFAO And Sans is a secret party member that, like how the Summon is OP, Sans is a powerful ally you can only earn by doing an optional bossfight. That way, there doesn't have to be a geno route to get the sans fight >:0 Oh and Mad Mew Mew would also be an optional party member, but like, she's a sorta normal levelled party member like everyone that's not sans JHDGHDSJH I can see her having pretty frequent banter with Mettaton specifically if you have them both on a team LMFAOOOOO

This is sorta what I have right now! :D If I design the summons, I'll 100% make them more monster than human (Shiva for example would not be human like she usually is. More monster like Ifrit!)

BUT YEAH! Final Fantasy 6 has given me alot of ideas so far >:3