#I want to point out here that one thing I really like about Alain

[nikisdaughter]

"When I'm in my office and I look to the left there's a photo of the two of us, and when I look to the right there's his helmet. I can't be without it, because it's part of my history in Formula 1. Our rivalry was exceptional, physically speaking, sometimes it was taken to the extreme, as everyone knows. But it was part of the game and that's why together we made history in our sport; a history that people talk about almost every day or every week. It was the battle of two drivers, it was a human battle. We were different people, with different backgrounds and almost from different generations. I can't be dissatisfied, because if you talk about my history in Formula 1, you're talking about Senna and when we talk about Senna, we're talking about Prost. I think that's really fantastic."

- Alain Prost, 2014

[wisteriagoesvroom]

interesting soundbites you might've missed from the op81 & howie games podcast in melb

(did this while procrastinating at work... we are so back i guess.)

disclaimers: (i) i'm paraphrasing here so can't vouch for 100% accuracy, but as much as possible have tried to capture the meaning (ii) the word association game and the carcar soundbite have already made the rounds, but, i feel like, there was a lot more in this interview.

let's go!

on the topic of personal chefs and nutrition etc: host mark howard asks if the menu changes or there's anything special that oscar requests that reminds him of home -- apparently race week thursdays for a while were "chicken parm thursdays" and they might bring this back

oscar's lunch on press day was barramundi and "the big grained couscous with no spices" (oscar... the 1/16th is crying out for help)

one of the reasons he renewed with mclaren is because he felt the infrastructure and people needed to get to the championship in the new set of regs was there, so he was confident

on the reported $22mn bonus last year: oscar denies that it was this high (lol ok sir)

on longevity of career and responsibility: oscar talks about the estimated career in f1 usually being up to 35, maybe into your 40s but "it isn't like a typical career where you've got until your 60s" so financial investing and doing something with your salary to prolong the usability of it is important (wow 20something multimillionaire thinks of his pension. mature)

on the early RC cars: "i drove one around the school [cricket] oval a few times and that got me in trouble" pLeaSe !!!

recounting his first race at oakleigh (he was about... 9? 10?): "i went to a friend's birthday at the bmx track and did the last jump of the day before we went for the race. and i skidded down the down ramp on my face, so i actually missed it" HE REALLY WAS JUST SOME KID

so his real first race was a state race (with a P/provisional drivers' plate) HAHAHAH. he fought his way about half way up the pack in this one

"my first win... i won a club race at oakleigh and it felt like a world championship at the time. and then i quickly realised no one cared" <- once again devastated by his deadpan humour

on aus footie: "i was good in the under 9s cus i was pretty big as a kid up till that point and then everyone else grew and i didn't, then quickly realised i wouldn't become a footballer no matter how much i wanted it. i was playing footie a lot before i started racing and [the demands of racing then] really took up a whole season"

he also fielded in cricket at state level (?) a couple of times here and there. [i don't understand cricket terminology fully so i might be wrong here]

he was starstruck when meeting jackie stewart and alain prost because it was "pretty special, pretty cool. to meet legends of the sport like that."

he downplays the question about whether it was hard to move to boarding school, because he wanted to become a professional racing driver so badly and was always really motivated by this.

but does say formula renault was hard because of everything he felt he had to balance that year, and when things were not going well it feels very pressurised especially when you have only a year to prove yourself

on sponsorship and racing: "i'm fortunate to have a family that are pretty well off and it didn't become apparent until i entered f2 [that it was a big financial strain]. it costs about three million AUD a year [to fund a year in that series]"

credits both his parents for the sacrifices they made to support his racing career and shouts out his mum for making sure his sisters had the same opportunities to pursue their dreams as well

about the alpine purgatory years: "that was a tough thing because not everyone knows the full story and we weren't able to tell it. it was not an easy thing to go through but once i cemented my future and signed with mclaren, it was a relief to know i was going to be on the grid for at least a little bit"

to put the current margins on the cars into perspective: "the amount of difference between me and the car in front is the time it takes to blink".

and on car development being so advanced now: "there being something like a second between first car and last on the grid in qualifying is pretty unprecedented"

does he watch drive to survive seasons? "to be honest not really. i just skim through and see my parts to see if they've painted me as a supervillain. [this year's] is pretty balanced i would say. the mclaren episode is a pretty fair reflection of two competitive guys wanting to win races and it being a difficult situation for the team. it's entertaining but that one is for the most part pretty accurate. i found it quite entertaining."

during the drivers' word association part: "i don't have much for Stroll" FLKJKFJSDKLJSDK he really went *mariah carey voice* i don't know her

race weeks are scheduled down the minute, and on off weeks it's usually training every day at least once or twice a day; they get maybe 2-3 days at home. last year he reckons he spent 100 days at home in monaco last year, and was on at least 48-60 flights for work depending if you count the ones going to and from the MTC

howie told him to share his airline points (ha) and oscar said "qantas is the one airline i don't have platinum status at the moment [though] i used to when i lived in aus"

oscar does not own a boat in monaco (YET)

finds life in monaco a little bit of an adjustment due to the smaller spaces, but he's been in apartments even since boarding school so it's not a big deal to him. "i'm going to sound like a complete wanker if i complain about living in monaco"

on communication style on the radio, it's kind of about personal preference and he doesn't cast judgment on that – "some people need to be fired up, some people need to be calm and for me it's staying calm. in baku you can see from the onboard and my helmet i got pretty excited but i don't always open the radio for that"

howie closes with any advice for kids. oscar says: "enjoy it. for me, even – we've spoken about how difficult it is being in f1 and how cutthroat – [it's] always taking a conscious moment to reflect that you're doing a thing you love. doing it because you love it is the first thing. that's an important one for me even though there's so much more pressure now than when i started my first race at oakleigh. the second part is always be trying to learn, and improving. it's often easy when you have success early on, you think you're at that [certain] level now. but on my journey i've learned what's good 12 months ago isn't going to be good enough in 12 months time. that's in the car too. if we raced last year's car this year we'd probably be last. continuing to learn and improve is a part i enjoy as well."

[rockafstw]

for me Suzuka 1989 was really good to watch because i think knowing about the collision beforehand REALLY adds to the tension of the chase. It’s like being spoiled for the end of the movie, now you watch that movie with the ending in your mind and it changes your whole perspective on the scenes and where the movie is going and when you know now that something bad is going to happen this sense of dread grows as you get closer to the end. Watching Senna get closer and closer to Prost lap after lap after lap, there is some dread that grows. And you almost think in your mind - maybe it will end differently - but it won’t and it doesn’t because the two of them still collide when Senna finally, finally catches up to Prost.

The Suzuka 1989 crash is a very interesting one because you can really sense the emotion behind it, it is not just an accidental collision between championship competitors: it is a culmination of the resentment and anger and in Prost’s perspective, a sense of mistreatment and injustice that has been building up over the course of a year. Prost has been pushed to the limit working with Senna, he’s become unhappy at McLaren, so much so that he is leaving the team for Ferrari, but he is still in the championship, he is Leading the championship and Suzuka could be the decider. So Alain Prost tells Ron Dennis and Ayrton Senna before the race that this time, when Senna comes at him, he is not going to leave the door open, he’s not going to give Senna opportunity, he is going to fight. When Senna finally catches Prost, Senna makes a daring, perhaps even a little arrogant, move up the inside on the way into the chicane and is met with headstrong impulsivity, a turn of the wheel that results in a sudden skid to a stop. I do not think Prost made them crash on purpose. I think the idea of a crash was a vague back-of-the-mind sort of thing - in that moment it was about not letting Senna get past, it was about Prost holding his position on track in this title decider after a year of feeling pushed out of his position within his team.

This is the part that may start sounding a little bit crazy but like. idc. Bear with me! When you isolate this tense chase and subsequent collision, it can become representative of Prost and Senna’s relationship as a whole (at this point in time at least): Alain Prost is already ahead in terms of career success and consolidating his position within McLaren, he has two world championships and the most wins of any formula 1 driver, ever. And Prost is the man Senna wants to compare himself against and beat. REALLY badly. Commence the chase! Prost is the hunted and Senna is the hunter, and this applies not only on the track and the championship but goes for the McLaren team as well. Having a good relationship with your team, having a good position within the team is so important and Prost has this. Prost is GOOD at maintaining a strong place within his team, consistently besting his teammates. Not through rules about first and second drivers because Prost never asked for that, but through his performance, technical ability and connections. Senna is chasing this as well, because Senna knows he needs that as well if he is to beat Prost. On this point I’d like to show an excerpt from the book Senna Versus Prost by Malcolm Folley that I literally just remembered as I was typing and I think illustrates the dynamic I am talking about here:

This is what Prost has and what Senna wants to achieve laid out. This is a bigger, longer chase that you can interpret as being shown by Suzuka 1989. What happens when Senna catches Prost at Suzuka? What happens when you put two top drivers, highly competitive drivers, in equal machinery in the same team, fighting for a championship? They collide. Their relationship disintegrates. It’s unpleasant. It’s not something either of them wanted, but looking back it seems like it was inevitable. Suzuka 1989 is packed with emotion, it is rich in story and intrigue. I’m sure it was back then, but looking back years later with more context as to how things were in the team, with all kinds of interviews and perspectives available to us today, it puts a new lens on the race and what it meant for Senna and Prost’s relationship and for that reason, it is one of my favourite races to watch.

[stickers-on-a-laptop]

okay someone said they want to see it so:

THINGS I THINK I KNOW ABOUT VARIOUS TOKU SHOWS I HAVE YET TO SEE

please don't send me spoilers like you can kinda confirm but i don't want real spoilers

kamen rider (heisei and reiwa - sorry showa)

kuuga:

everyone keeps telling me that mr gay and godai are like yuma and ishido. this is promising

the grongis have their own language and it's divided if you're supposed to know what they're saying or not. toei i want to know why you will give bad guys whole spoken languages but not good guys. can you explain this please. okay thank you.

you're not supposed to read the manga

the shoulder thing is episode 2

the coroner guy has a wet morgue. no one knows why.

everyone also tells me its really good and i am frankly terrified that i will not think so because EVERYONE KEEPS SAYING IT AND I WAS TOLD THAT ON OTHER SHOWS I DID NOT GET BRAIN WORMS ON

faiz:

there's a horse. i think this horse dies. but there's a horse. i said this out loud because i talk to my screen and my sister just said "the godfather". i do not think the godfather scene happens in faiz but then again it's inoue

inoue's guy is there and he's evil he's evil he mispronounces words cause he's the fucking deevil

juuzo is there?? for some reason??

houjou is ALSO there but is supposed to be punchable in a different way

is this the one where mr is in WAY TOO MANY DRAMAS is in like several episodes. i think so. i think he's a snake. don't quote me.

uhhhhhhhhhhhhh it's inoue bullshit

one of the smart brain people is mio kiva just remembered that

hibiki:

yuuto is here. i know that.

the kid would grow up and be in a vampire drama where tezuka plays a gay kid, a half-french faiz guy that was in the cross-dressing show that was ryoutarou's first role was there, and murakami was also there. he had to do drag in it. i think the kid's name is adachi.

the first episode is supposedly a musical

inoue ruins it after episode 29

trumpet. there's a trumpet.

uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh i have none idea on the plot.

ghost:

some people really hate this one and i think it's cause high schooler

i've seen the main guy in one other thing and that was silly

i have seen whom i assume is the mentor guy in quite a few things and he rocks and can't wait to see him.

there's gay people but i'm not entirely sure who is with who

the one guy is like. super hella asshole in real life. i think it's alain's guy but it might be makoto. but i think it's alain. i don't know what either of those guys do i just know these names

there's the guy who calms down dan kuroto but i didn't think he was super important to the plot?

there's that eye thing.

oh it's like. famous people over the centuries for power ups

zi-o:

IT DOESN'T MATTER. IT ENDS WITH THEM DOING THE REGULAR TIMELINE AND IT DOESN'T MATTER IN THE END

woz is hot

the den-o rules are broken again because god forbid we abide by den-o rules

some people ot3 or ot4 it

tsukasa decade is divorcing daiki AGAIN the whole show

let's blow up toei studios!

zero-one:

we're supposed to have father forgiveness and this pisses people off

gai is like. my age irl or so but is supposed to be in his 40s

non-binary person

the secondary really likes mr main guy's puns but will never admit it

covid fucked this one over i think

izu is there

saber:

miss reika's lesbianism in all crossovers is like. brocon instead

there's a lot of them

there's an ot4 strong enough that a friend that doesn't really do ot#s ships it but if you asked me at gunpoint to identify them i wouldn't be able to

souta and...genta? show up at some point

storius hot. phew

touma has fun hats and strange outfits

they have a bookstore

revice:

demons. trans allegories.

THEY SOMEHOW NERFED MAEDA. I HAVE SEEN HIM HE'S VERY CUTE WHAT DID THEY DO TO HIM

the kimiyuki main guy is there but doesn't do a lot

they own the bathhouse that is many a toku

george. i know george.

something goes on with a man named hiromi

lesbians. very strong lesbians. that they try to sister in that special with micott orb

geats:

WAYYYYYYYYY TOO MANY OF THEM. WAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY TOO MANY. YOU SHOULD SEE HOW MUCH I COMPLAIN ABOUT BEING GEATS JUMPSCARED WHEN LOOKING UP ACTORS

main guy is a fox

keiwa is adorable and has a good bl and a nice singing voice

buffa is angry and purple

there's some punk guy named hallelujah win

the wizard movie villain is there and has power dynamics with one of these guys. not sure if it's hallelujah win or the guy who was in zettai bl.

there's some yuri but since it's ten bajillion guys it's way more yaoi

gotchard:

a return to fun practical effects

high schoolies again

there's chemies and one of them is just a guy and the lore implications are not actually explored

juggler is there at one point

some people ship the girl and the guy and some people don't

miss orbgin princess is like super mega lesbian

there's some goth girls and one of them is like. 9. reji 2.0? i don't actually know. i think one of them is mixed.

oh the cocoa otoko vocalist is one of the villains

there's like. stuff with spanner and a teacher

the girl turned into a kamen rider in the movie in a move that pissed off a lot of people

gavv:

parents complained about the stomach showing

food

valen is the chocolate one

they didn't have the girl be a kamen rider

i have no idea who the villain is actually

super sentai (ones i can name off the top of my head. sorry i still do not have the hero-getter memorized)

gingaman:

my year.

those grunts are. uh. what.

the one gozyuger guy is hella promoting it

i don't actually know anything about gingaman but i'm watching it next

magiranger:

family

magic

toei's parking lot man is the yellow

the two villainesses can combine into one

THAT'S OUR IDIOT

capes!

dekaranger:

cops

jasmine hot and has esp

doggie kroger and swan are in a relationship

the red and blue are homoerotic

kakuranger:

i'm supposed to watch it cause it's fun

liveman:

why'd you do that to your friends

the villain is fun

MPREG EPISODE

go-busters:

supposed to be fantastic. cause koyabashi does not miss. however.

the robots. i do not like that bunny. i know that.

they're data? corrupted data?

jetta orb is there

mr toei parking lot is there and i think he dies

mr toei parking lot man also swears for real in english

it's morphin time

changeman:

supposed to watch it

goggle v:

rescue da

supposed to watch it

goseiger:

angels

you don't actually fuck with the red despite him being this tiny lil dude

gosei knight

they wear the jackets of past sentais

ninninger:

family again

the red somehow has a kid but he never has a woman

the sixth is american

the blue is british somehow

i think the red and pink are siblings and then the white and blue are siblings? i have no fucking clue. not sure what the yellow is. frankly forgot he existed for a second there but then remembered he was in zettai bl 3

ryusoulger:

dinosaurs

melto is gay

canalo is a womanizer

one girl

the green and black are brothers

zyuranger:

power ranger show number 1

dinosaurs

i have no idea that is literally all i know about zyuranger

ohranger:

also a power rangers

uh the one guy was in the kingoh in space special but had been replaced and they're supposed to live forever? or something

shapes

carranger:

is that power rangers turbo? i think so

cars?

bioman:

is this the terrible dad one

gogofive:

teachers? family of teachers?

kiramager:

diamonds

wait maybe this was the one with the yellow in zettai bl 3 actually

i think all the boys were in bls by now. the blue. does not stop showing up in random bls. the red has 2.

PINK4PINK GIRLIE HERE

the silver has that sister that isn't human? i think?

covid fucked this one over

goranger:

the first one but no it isn't but yes it is

no mecha

jakq:

not supposed to watch this one

ultraman (also just ones i can remember)

trigger:

tiga related

basco is there

um. that lady with glasses.

the one guy is gonna be in the stage show of mdzs with sonoshi

yeah mostly i know basco is there

decker:

dyna related

the main guy kissed lupinred

x:

taiga ex-aid is there

DR MAKI IS APPARENTLY THERE

the main guy has his own bl

uhhhhh i dunno i didn't make it through that movie despite owning it on bluray cause it came with the ginga s movie

z:

exists

tiga:

always paired with dyna and gaia

dyna:

always paired with tiga and gaia

he shows up with cosmos in ginga or orbgin or something

cosmos:

really long

the main guy is way cuter in the later stuff

blue!

ultraman:

came out the year my boss was born and he's watched 1 episode cause it's on tubi

started it all

seven:

no idea

taro:

the host literally never shows up again

does not get into tregear (lmao)

goofy i think?

ace:

is that the one with the glasses?

jack:

is this even a show or is he just an ultraman

zero:

i cannot remember if this is a show or like an extra guy

blazar:

it's heart drive!

pretty light on yaoi

those noises are.

skard does not have two women

the netflix show:

supposed to be awful

the anime:

not supposed to be great?

on tubi and i think also hoopla

power rangers (off the top of my head yet again)

power rangers:

the red is. uh.

original green ranger. rest in peace

my dad met a few at a birthday party, and this is backed up by the uncle i can trust with stories so

zordan

zyuranger

in space:

is this ohranger?

they switch some people.

light speed rescue:

gogofive? i think? no idea on plot.

turbo:

tommy oliver is there?

mystic force:

magiranger

they're wizards i think

apparently NOT in california

spd:

dekaranger

is happening...now. in 2025

dino fury:

ryusoulger

orange girl? or is that just cosmic fury?

cosmic fury:

continuation of dino fury

AWFUL BAD SUITS

the red is now a girl!

lesbians for real

uses KYUURANGER MECHA?????? FOR SOME FUCKING REASON???

ninja force:

i think this is the hurricanger one. assuming that is the next reasons

HOLD THAT GIRL BY THE PUSSY

school of ninjas

beast morphers:

go-busters

made in 2020

MUSICAL EPISODE???????

the red seems cool

the ninnin one:

the guy who played the blue was koda's irl brother i think

no idea on anything else actually

megaforce/super megaforce:

first is goseiger then is gokaiger

yellow is yet another blonde girl

the red met ozawa

i don't think they're angels

random various toku

zubat:

good at everything

show of all time

super rabies

dogengers:

decide NOT to do world domination (too much work)

kitaqman

metal heroes:

if you asked me which was which i'd have no idea. sorry.

gavan:

MARVELOUS'S GRANDPA

the reboot guy sure is like. gay with every guy he meets

space sheriff. no idea how that plays out

garo:

gotta watch it in order

boobs

lotta familar faces actually

[joe-willow]

PARAPPA THE RAPPER - HEADCANONS

This list will be frequently updated

Hi everyone!! Welcome to Joe-Willow's bullshit, this post is where I'll post every of my headcanons about the parppa franchise ^^

They will will arranged by characters (also plz note that I'm not that good at English, so if there's a word or a sentence that looks weird, please tell me (and keep in mind that it probably was a part that I made from an online translator))

And I love talking about headcanons. If you have any don't hesitate to share them in the comments headcanons are so fun to talk about

OK OK HERE WE GO !!

General Potter

For those who follow me since THIS post, know that I gave up on that theory. It was interesting to think about but honestly made no sense. I have other headcanons for this guy tho.

1 ] he has a white skin

This is an headcanon that I particularly like. In my opinion, his pink skin makes no sense, because it would mean that his skin is from the same material as his pot. Like i mean.... It would be hard to move ??? (but yeah ik magic magic there are literally ear ppl but shh) SO WHAT IF ? His body was a root ? Most plants have white roots. With the other colors in his design, it would look pretty cool tbh.. his pot stays pink ofc.

And like funny part of the headcanon, because his body is a root if you look at his pot from under it's broken because to develop it had to break it lol

2 ] his first name is Alain (pronounced the french way)

It was a reference to what plant he could be but it doesn't work because I have searched and I was wrong, the plant i thought of does not look like his (idc tho, I think that Alain is a pretty cool name and it fits him)

Mc King Kong Mushi

Surprisingly, I don't have that much for him. At least for now XD

1 ] he's "blind"

Idk how to explain it but I made researches about fleas and found some pretty interesting things. I'll edit this later when I'll be sure how to write it.

Edit : he can see, but not as we do. It's à bit complicated to explain, but you see, he can't form images the in his mind but feel the light and this is what allons him to perceive tge environment around him

Now.... why has funclub so much colorful lights then ?? I thought that it was something he wanted actually, like, he knows that he won't be able to see well with thos much light but its like..... the . Uh the hype yk the hype it's like it's...... I can't explain..... I don't know........ I wouldn't be surprised if you didn't understood me 😭😭

2 ] uhhh he uses his upper arms more ??

Shitty headcanon because that's just true, look at the way he moves in the stages (but I thought it was interesting to point it out)

3 ] Takomushi

Y'all know me.

4 ] he's not expressive

I headcanon him to say insane things, like, "oh yeah club fun was burnt down yesterday ahah" with a straight face. i mean ig he wouldn't say that but you get what i mean. You do not if he's being fr or not. His face is indecipherable. Is he aware of it ? Idk honestly I should think about it (I'll probably rewritte this one)

5] He never removes his glasses

Because, 1 : it amplifies the sun's light (REVERSE SUN GLASSES AHAHA) so he can see a little bit better, 2 : he doesn't like how does his eyes look like (actually, he doesn't really care but he already got mocked for how they looked like compared to the vibe he gives (they are tiny, round and black like hamster eyes or marbles)) and 3 : because it looks cool ???????

Good luck to make him remove them

6] he's SLIGHTLY younger than Takoyama

Guru ant

Idk man I don't have much for him either

1 ] he uses his lower arms more

I noticed that after watching someone play big on youtube for the 6 time in a roll lol and that is what made me realize the thing for mushi

I think that it's interesting to point it out because in general, characters with more than two arms tend to use either their upper arms more (makes sense, for character design because it's easier to make them move and because it's where OuR arms are) or both pair of arms at the same time. But his dominant pair of arms seems to be the lower one !

Actually, I think I should maybe watch the video one more time ti be sure of that but sometime guru ant tends to really use his lower arms more

2 ] him and mushi get along like cousins

idk because why not

Takoyama

1] he's like, 45 y/o

Or something near this (older ?)(idk I've seen many people hc him as pretty young, like, not THAt young, but personally I can't imagine him being under that age)

2] TAKOMUSHI 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

Cheap Cheap

1] before working in a cooking show, she was a pretty popular and arrogant rapper in parappa Town

She then got banned from fun club after a rap battle against (and when I mean against, it's AGAINST) mushi. He still remembers it till these days......

She's proud of this era of her life, but decided to do something more calm, now.

2] mooseleni X her ????

Idk I've seen fanarts of this ship and it's cute...

[endless-bunny]

Pathfinder Iconics Update: Player Core 2

The Pathfinder 2nd edition remaster took

A lot of the art in the Advanced Player's Guide was redone for Player Core 2, and some of that art is of Iconic characters.

I don't know if there was a licensing issue, or a contract expired or something, but a lot of this artwork came from the same artist: Victor Manuel Leza Moreno. Interestingly, this artist is still credited for some art in Player Core 2 so there must have been some issue with this art specifically.

Alahazra, Iconic Oracle

Alahazra was the iconic Oracle in PF1, replaced by the tengu Korakai in 2nd edition, but she's still here as a quick-build for Oracle, the Flame Augur. Described as "bride of the sun and prophet of the burning sands", Alahazra pretty cleanly represents one of the differences between Oracles in PF1 and 2. In PF2, the Oracle's Mystery and Curse are connected, so an oracle with the Flames mystery will always have the Curse of Engulfing Flames. In PF1, however, the two are separate. An oracle of the flames mystery could be blind, or she could be followed by fey who constantly play pranks on her. The curse is not linked in any way to the mystery, but it might give some plot hooks for the GM if the oracle wants to explore the source of her powers.

Notice how Alahazra's staff and headdress get more elaborate in Moreno's artwork before going back to a simpler design. I wonder if this is part of the reason some of Moreno's art was replaced, it was to do with characters being "off-model". Some of his other illustrations have details that are different from the PF1 designs, and which are then restored by later artists.

Alain, Iconic Cavalier

Alain and Donahan get a more dynamic pose, with the banner no longer being cut off by the edge of the page. The Moreno art looks kind of weird, with how Donahan has two front hooves up, but Alain looks kind of relaxed. I'm not sure what the line of action is supposed to be, if Donahan is about to rear or charge forward then Alain would be thrown backwards. The Remaster art looks a lot more... stable (no pun intended).

Donahan doesn't actually appear in any of the rulebooks in PF1, so PF2 already has two points in that regard. He does appear on some book covers, for Knights of Golarion and War of the Crown: The Twilight Child. Donahan's barding is more elaborate in the PF2 Advanced Player's Guide than it was in the few illustrations that exist of him from PF1, so like with Alahazra I wonder if that's why we got new Cavalier art for the remaster.

The Red Raven, Iconic Vigilante

My boy has been redeemed! No shade on Moreno but like

come on!

You have to admit that the Red Raven art they did was so bad.

The new Vigilante in Player Core 2 brings back the colour, the detail on the daggers, and the specific styling of the cape. Definite improvement. The one thing I think Moreno had was the sort of skulky pose, but even then the Red Raven (despite being trained in Stealth) was always a bit more flamboyant. I can't find any illustrations of Aric in PF2 books, but perhaps I'm just not looking hard enough. Like I mentioned here, the Vigilante is a wordy archetype, so even though it has a double-page spread, having two illustrations would be really pushing it.

One more little addendum regarding the Red Raven: here's his first appearance, as seen in Pathfinder Module W3: Flight of the Red Raven. That is a module from back when Pathfinder was not its own roleplaying game, but a product line for Dungeons & Dragons 3.5. A lot of the Iconics were presented as pregenerated characters for such modules, but the Red Raven is unique, in that he was first introduced as an NPC. Since the Vigilante class was an invention of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game that didn't appear until Ultimate Intrigue, the Red Raven is a rogue in his debut module, which seems like the most appropriate of 3.5's core classes.

Flight of the Red Raven came out in 2008, and Ultimate Intrigue in 2016, which marks the longest gap between a character being introduced and becoming an Iconic.

And the rest!

So here are illustrations from Player Core 2 that have been re-done, but aren't iconics. Not gonna have loads to say on these because there's lots of them and they're also not characters in the same way.

Chemist

The Chemist is one of three Quick Build alchemists in Core Rulebook (legacy) and Player Core 2 (remaster). I really wish we could split the difference here. There's lots of continuity between the two, but they're clearly not the same character. I prefer the detail on the outfit for the remaster Chemist, although the addition of bombs on her bandolier and at her waist makes her look more like a generalist than a specialist. The first one is just so much more colourful though.

Blessed One

Tough call here. It's not a competition and honestly I can't pick a favourite. I really love both of these. The pose and effect of the magic on the legacy art is amazing. The remaster art has a lot of motion and she's just so pretty.

Eldritch Archer

Lots of changes here. While the legacy eldritch archer (the design at least) was brought over from PF1, the remaster archer takes things in a bit of a different direction. I like the new outfit, and the addition of moth motifs.

Pirate

Another tough call. I will say, the artist who drew the legacy pirate (who might be Moreno, but I'm not sure) has a shading style that I really don't like. But I do like the design, a cocky tengu in a fabulous hat. The remaster pirate feels almost like a fusion of Lirianne and Jirelle, but with fewer accoutrements.

Snarecrafter

We've still got a kobold, although I like the addition of the central horn and triple tail tip to differentiate the remaster snarecrafter from other 'bolds. The lighting is really interesting on the remaster art actually, now that I look at it. It's like a low source, almost behind the subject. It's quite a striking effect.

I will say though, I dunno what snare you craft with a bucket of caltrops.

I feel like the pointèd sticks that the legacy crafter is working with would be more effective, plus I also think it shows off the sort of improvised nature of the snarecrafter's kit better than the shop-bought ingredients of the remaster bold.

Talisman Dabbler

Two more strong contenders. The patchwork style of the legacy dabbler is neat, I feel like they've got lots of improvised bits and pieces. Like with the snarecrafter, the remaster dabbler doesn't really sell the idea that these are items the dabbler made that morning. I also enjoy that the legacy dabbler is in the process of dabbling, whereas the remaster dabbler is just an iruxi with lots of adornments.

Tough call.

Viking

Fairly sure this one (legacy) is a Moreno. The wild hair and sense of motion are really good, but there's something about the face that is unsettling, and not in the way I think the artist intended. I think they're also obviously a viking berserker rather than a standard viking. The remaster viking has a shield, and a bearded axe (and a cool coat) which are more iconic symbols of vikingdom.

[Part 1: Classes with Different Iconics] [Part 2: Core Classes] [Part 3: The Remaining PF2 Classes] [Part 4: Classes Who Got Demoted] [Part 5: Prestige Classes] [Part 6: Who's left?] [Update: Rivani and Linxia] [Update: Lirianne]

Divider from Saradika-graphics

[totheadhdgodsletmebe]

It would be really funny if Alain’s Malamar was once James’s Inkay.

Like some other team rocket grunt messed up, or some higher up, in team rocket saw it as too weak and left his Inkay in Kalos without James knowing

Alain finds the poor thing, while doing some work for the professor, but Inkay wanted nothing to do with him, cause it still wanted to be James pokemon (and it also recognized Alain as someone who it fought)

The poor thing kept looking and looking but still it couldn’t find Team Rocket at all. It got more and more hurt as it looked. One of Alain’s pokemon ends up find them, and convinces them to stay with him. Probably his Bisharp (Idk why but i feel like they are really sweet for some reason).

Inkay goes through the whole emotional process, of believe it has been abandoned and that it was left behind because it wasn’t good enough. It stops taking care of its self and eating, while it’s in this head space. Alain and the rest of sycamore Lab try’s to take care of it. Alain can definitely not relate to that in anyway.

Talking to them, Alain is able to convince Inkay that is much more than its trainer and that it is not its fault for being left behind. It’s not its fault that it was tricked into believing that the other person cared for them, and that still wanting the person to care for you is ok. Yes, you have to realize that they didn’t care for you, but still having good feelings and thoughts about that person is also ok. Alain was there to help them move past that, so they can be something other than a team rocket pokemon.

Suffice to say, Inkay lets Alain catch them. Inkay before was a pretty strong pokemon on its own before, so it took to fighting really quickly. Having a friend/Role model in Bisharp in was also good for it setting into Alains team.

Clemont’s and Bonnie probably also recognize them as a Team rocket pokemon. Inkay feels guilty for all of what happened, but it’s forgiven really quickly. I could see it being friends with Clem’s Chespin, a lot because they both have a sweet tooth. Macaron thieves at heart.

Well, it evolves eventually But because it is never shown in the anime how it evolves. The only thing I can imagine is, Inkay being like “Im ready sir” Alain just grab them and turn them upside down. Then boom their’s your Malamar. There was also probably something else, going on when it evolves, like fighting Neo Team Flare members maybe.

Through out all of this sadly James just thinks his pokemon is having the time of it life with somewhere in a Team rocket base.

When Alain was fighting in the World Coronation series, Team Rocket could just swear that he had at some point seen that Malamar but didn’t know where. But during the Masters 8 competition James realizes that is his pokemon and is so proud of them but confused of how Malamar got here.

At some point James confronts Alain on how he has his pokemon. Alain isn’t having any of it, his Bisharp isn’t either. Malamar is torn a bit, because it happy to see James but still doesn’t know how to feel about its old trainer. Team Rocket are at this point hell bent on getting Malamar back, or at least talking to them. So they keep getting in fights.

Ash gets involved somehow and becomes the mediator between them, because A. He is confused, because James keeps calling Alain a kidnapper B. Team Rocket steal pokemon for living but they do not tend to abuse or abandon those pokemon. He gets them to tell both their sides of the story. James feels so bad for what happed, and is actually really grateful for Alain taking care of his pokemon. Alain is just happy that Malamar doesn’t have to think it was abandoned by choice anymore.

He also kinda lays out that if Malamar wants to go back to being James pokemon it can. But James thinks that Malamar can do more with Alain than it could do with him. Eventually they both deicide with their Pokémon’s agreement that, they will stay with Alain but James can come to visit when he wanted. Also Because Ash is a Champion now he can sigh in legal documents, so Alain agrees to in the case of his death. Malamar would go to James. Yes, they sighed a custody agreement for their Pokemon. Like it was a chid of divorce.

[moonbreeze19]

we were too close to the stars i never knew somebody like you, somebody falling just as hard - reflections

alarin tumblr debut?? for tsme week?? i think so i think yes! u can consider this a late day 6 post or day 7 i suppose, whatever u prefer!

(in summary: my oc, rin, and alain, have lived in my head rent free for 3 years now. they mean the world to me. i love them. to me, they are THE it couple <3)

details/about them below the break

rin yukino is a hyper competitive trainer with a (shiny) mega gardevoir, goal focused and independent to the point of flaw. born and raised in kalos, but with family from sinnoh, she had spent much of her childhood fitting into her parent's mold for a perfect daughter. she was a straight-a student, principal violinist, preparing to attend a top university - at 18, she realized that wasn't who she wanted to be anymore. she became a pokemon trainer instead.

(somewhat unimportantly, her usual trainer design consists of teal highlights in her hair, orange earrings shaped like the heart that goes through a mega gardevoir's chest, and a lot of black and gray. she matches diva, her gardevoir, like alain matches his charizard. they're both extra like that.)

she meets alain viard when they're both 22, shortly after the events of TSME act 4. she's on the gym challenge, and he's... alain. they battle, and he wins. twice in a row. then they go from rivals to rivals with benefits, then maybe even friends if they weren't both so emotionally reclusive i mean haha what-

alarin, aka rin "i'm stronger on my own" yukino and alain "i only destroy those around me" viard

even if he's won both times, alain can't help but be attracted one of the few people who can keep up with him, who cares about winning nearly as much as he does, who treats pokemon battling like it's all she has. he knows the feeling. he thinks she might understand him.

she's half of the reason behind both his decision to fill out his team beyond charizard and his decision to challenge the gyms

when they fall apart, just a month before the team flare crisis, i like to think of them like a supernova. short lived but bright and brilliant. doomed from the start.

the details of their falling out are complicated, so we'd be here all day if i tried to explain.

rin fails to stand by him during the fight against lysandre. she doesn't have the courage to. but she does, however, find him in the aftermath. she helps him heal and pick up the broken pieces. that's where 99% of their relationship really comes from.

i filter them into the category titled "couples written by taylor swift's the great war" and if you know you know

because it's important to me, rin gets along great with mairin.

at first she's a bit annoyed by her over-enthusiasm. rin is cold, blunt, realistic, and introverted, mairin is the opposite of all of those things. but once she sees how much mairin means to alain she does a full 180

and mairin's only ever had older brothers (both in her biological family and in alain), so having rin around to show her how to do her hair, her makeup, AND annoy the hell out of alain when appropriate is her favorite thing ever.

they are very good at bullying alain into taking care of himself (because he is very bad at that, as we all know.)

eventually, rin will go on to become one of the kalos elite four, after malva gets arrested (for being Very Fucking Evil).

one of my favorite things ever to think about is how the random internet people would claim "rin is only with alain to try and get famous" (and also make lengthy twitter/x callout threads on how alain is a problematic person because of his team flare involvement, and therefore decently-well-known league challenger rin yukino is also problematic by proxy), only for alain to generally avoid the public spotlight (there are lots of headcanons here. in short, he goes to university) and rin to be hired as elite four. and then she becomes far more famous as a result. and then the internet trolls are like "...oh." and a majority of the general population doesn't even know she and alain are a thing, because it's only obvious if you scrolled intensely through her instagram account.

i don't know why alarin getting stupid hate threads on twitter/x is the funniest thing to me but it really, really is!!

the internet is convinced alarin is a manipulative ploy on rin's end and one day she reads one of the twitter threads making all these claims about what she's done and she just goes "bitch i did what" and finds it absolutely hilarious

ANYWAYS that is all for now!! this post is so long and this is barely scratching the surface?? they mean so much to me i'm so sorry 😭😭

if literally anybody ever wants to hear about them i will share more. i would cry happy tears.

thank you so much for reading this if you did!! i'm so glad i got to share them for tsme week!

[disco-elysium-via-polls]

🎵 Whirling-in-Rags, 8PM

2. "Get a grip Glen. She went to law school."

GLEN - "So fucking what? Lots of models are actually really smart people, fuckwad!"

ELIZABETH - "No, Glen -- they aren't." Her tone is cold and uninvolved.

RHETORIC [Medium: Success] - This didn't change her opinion of you.

DRAMA [Easy: Success] - It's not her. She's not a Hardie girl. Definitely.

+5 XP

CAFETERIA WINDOW - Again you find yourself looking at that big old window...

3. [Perception (Sight) - Heroic 15] Look out the window.

+1 Inland told you... +1 Mysterious door seen. +1 You've been here for a long time.

PERCEPTION (SIGHT) [Heroic: Success] - There's a yellow ribbon tied to one of the branches -- light yellow, faded with time. A tiny splash of colour in the blackness of the thicket. Hanging from it -- a bronze key.

LOGIC [Medium: Success] - Someone hid the key in the bush and attached a yellow ribbon to make it easier to find.

VISUAL CALCULUS [Easy: Success] - It's close enough to the latch up there -- one can slide it open and just take it. Surely not a coincidence.

"Someone's hid a key in the bush." (Point at the window.)

TITUS HARDIE- "Huh?" The big guy looks behind him.

"I need your guys to hand the key to me."

"Can you let me slide by so I can grab the thing?"

"Titus, can you hand the key to me please?"

TITUS HARDIE- "I'm not your janitor, cop." He glances at the window. "I don't even know what you're talking about. There's nothing there."

KIM KITSURAGI - "If he says it's there, it's there." The lieutenant takes his glasses off to clean them -- then puts them back on.

2. "Can you let me slide by so I can grab the thing?"

ALAIN - "I don't know about that..." The tattooed man yawns and settles more comfortably on the bench. "I'm comfortable here... don't think any sliding would really help right now."

GLEN - "Sorry, Fucko! Looks like you're gonna have to go bush-diving. Good fucking luck with that -- the hawthorn's got a bitch of a bite!"

SHANKY - "I'm gonna enjoy the sight of you in the bushes out there..."

THEO - With a loud thud the old man stands up -- pushes the window open -- grabs the key from the hawthorn branch and slides it across the table to you.

Take the key.

THEO - The key is brass. 'Workshop, Spare' is etched into its bow. The old man closes the window and sits back down in silence.

Item gained: Spare Key for Workshop

GLEN - "C'mon, man. We were just having some fun! Where's the harm in...?"

THEO - "I'm tired of listening to your shit."

"Thank you." (Nod to the old man.)

"Does anyone know why this key was hanging right outside the Union box window?"

(Look at the key in your hand.) "I wonder what doors does it open?"

[Leave.]

THEO - "Don't thank me." The old man takes out his pack of chewing tobacco. "I don't give two shits about your key."

AUTHORITY [Medium: Success] - There is a silence around this man's words -- unlike Titus, they're *afraid* of him. That's the type of respect he commands.

2. "Does anyone know why this key was hanging right outside the Union box window?"

TITUS HARDIE - "Didn't even know it was there..." The man looks at the key in your hand -- then around the room. "Boys?"

ALAIN - "No idea."

EUGENE - "Never even seen it. Someone must have hidden it there before this room became our place."

3. (Look at the key in your hand.) "I wonder what doors does it open?"

KIM KITSURAGI - "It *could* open the door in the kitchen -- the blue door." He looks at the key in your hand. "It says 'Workshop, Spare' -- maybe there's a workshop there?"

LOGIC [Medium: Success] - It's worth a try.

4. [Leave.]

TITUS HARDIE - "It's you again..." He acknowledges you gruffly. "What is it?"

Scan the room.

"I want to talk about the hanging again."

"Me and Evrart talked. He promised you'd cooperate."

"I found someone who saw the hanging. A witness."

"So I talked to Klaasje about the tape."

"I'm going to take off now." [Leave.]

TITUS HARDIE - "Oh, so you went and talked to my mommy -- and now she's making me play with you?" He spits. "Is that it, lawman?"

SHANKY - "And what's going to happen if we don't?" The little guy leans forward. "You gonna go and *tell* on us?"

"Very mature, guys. Evrart sent word, right?"

"Why don't you push me some more and find out, gimp."

"I would *never* tell on someone!"

"Let's change the subject."

TITUS HARDIE - "Yeah yeah, I heard him. The fuck do you think I'm doing here? You'd have your ass handed to you if it wasn't for the bossman's word."

"Let me state this very clearly, coppo." He clears his throat and declares: "Hello, officer! I'm Titus Hardie and these are my boys. Hardie boys. How may we assist you?"

AUTHORITY [Easy: Success] - Explosive laughter follows. To his men, Titus Hardie is a golden god. They want to laugh at his jokes even before they leave his lips. This guy is a born leader.

RHETORIC [Medium: Success] - It would take an army to bend Titus to its will, but having Evrart back you up like that... did seem to have *some* effect.

3. "I found someone who saw the hanging. A witness."

TITUS HARDIE - "A witness?" The tall man crosses his arms on his chest. "You ain't got shit. The locals would never come to you with this."

ALAIN - "That's just cop-tactics, Titus. Next he's gonna tell you one of us already rolled on the others -- and is in witness protection."

"My witness isn't a local."

"Let's just drop this."

TITUS HARDIE - Titus scratches the back of his head and asks: "Well, let's hear it then. Who is your mystery fella?"

COMPOSURE [Medium: Success] - He's not alarmed by the sudden appearance of a witness. But he is surprised.

LOGIC [Medium: Success] - This goes without saying, but nonetheless -- don't give out his name.

"Charles Villedrouin, a high ranking government official from Rue de Saint Ghislaine 33-B."

"Let's just say he's a high ranking government official -- and leave it at that."

"Who he *is* is irrelevant."

TITUS HARDIE - "Yeah, right... like we wouldn't know if an MI plant was in our town." Titus looks over his shoulder to his men. "Nice try, right?"

ENCYCLOPEDIA [Medium: Success] - MI is short for Moralintern. Moralintern is short for Moralist International, the coalition that runs Revachol.

ALAIN - "I've seen this shit a million times, Titus. Flyfishing -- they're desperate." He turns to you. "Tell us, copper, what wacky claims did he make?"

"The witness said the hanging went down very quietly. No shouting, no commotion."

"The witness said he saw two people of Areopagite descent. And one Mesque."

"The witness said it all looked like a *surreal play*."

"Enough about the witness."

SHANKY - "It's you assholes that feel the need to go around like a fucking brass band -- the Hardie boys are dead silent."

ALAIN - "Yeah! It's like they put cowbells on you before they send you to the streets." He says provokingly. "What's with the cowbells, police man?"

RHETORIC [Medium: Success] - They're avoiding having to answer this question.

"I'd imagined you guys drinking and singing lynching songs. What's with the funeral silence?"

Never mind.

GLEN - "We were drinking!" He looks around. "Weren't we guys? I hit the bottle hard. I was drunk as fuck."

KIM KITSURAGI - "Right. I'm convinced, Glen." He nods sarcastically. "Nothing off here. Just a regular hanging."

EMPATHY [Easy: Success] - Bullseye! Glen looks around uncomfortably. The lieutenant hit a nerve.

2. "The witness said he saw two people of Areopagite descent. And one Mesque."

EUGENE - "Areopagite?" He starts laughing. "Boss, I think he's trying to say me and Theo."

TITUS HARDIE - "Well yeah..." Titus nods. "What is confusing you? Eugene, Theo and Alain were there too. I already told you -- we were all there."

3. "The witness said it all looked like a *surreal play*."

ALAIN - "Those flaccid MI cocks with their *culture* language." The Mesque spits on the ground angrily. "Everything's a *surreal play* or a *sublime whatever*. Doesn't mean anything."

KIM KITSURAGI - "It means the whole scene was long and drawn out. Like it was from a *film*."

SHANKY - "What is this fella's problem?!" The little guy addresses everyone and no one. "Sorry, we didn't make it more action-packed. It wasn't the first thing on our minds you see."

KIM KITSURAGI - "Shanky -- it's Shanky, right?" He doesn't wait for an answer. "I thought there's something wrong about the lynching story. Now I *know* there was."

SHANKY - "You don't know shiiiiiit!"

KIM KITSURAGI - "I know you're lying, Shanky." He writes in his notebook.

SUGGESTION [Easy: Success] - You didn't break this wagon fort, but you did manage to rattle the people inside a bit.

TITUS HARDIE - "Some witness... I pulled the same shit. Came up with some shit -- then went and said it to people. Get a reaction. Don't have to go to cop school to try that."

GLEN - "You don't have to go to school for shit -- I never went to school and I'm doing great!"

EUGENE - "You doing a hell of a job, man! Hell of a job!"

HALF LIGHT [Medium: Success] - Okay, maybe it doesn't *feel* like this did anything to them -- but they have to be fretting a *little*. Everyone is afraid of witnesses. *Witness* is a scary word.

RHETORIC [Medium: Success] - So much bluster to hide the fact that they're uncomfortable with you having this info.

3. "So I talked to Klaasje about the tape."

TITUS HARDIE - "And?"

COMPOSURE [Medium: Success] - He tenses immediately. Chest tightens. Jaw sets. Ready for another blow.

"And nothing. She stands by what she said."

"I'll get back to you on that one."

TITUS HARDIE - "That fucking fucker..." He stares at his beer for two seconds -- intently -- then turns to you. "You're the worst cops in Revachol! I gave you *gold* on that tape."

RHETORIC [Medium: Success] - That 'fucker' wasn't aimed at you. It was at *her*.

"Gold? It was just locker room talk. It's not evidence."

"It was dark stuff, but it didn't prove anything. And it didn't change her mind."

"Yeah it was bad. Honestly, I expected it to have more effect…"

"She pretty much laughed it off, Titus."

TITUS HARDIE - "Dark?! Dark is when you start a goddamn death-rock band! He said he'd rape her!" He shakes his head in disbelief.

SUGGESTION [Medium: Success] - Sounds like he wanted it to change her mind about the hanged man. This is definitely personal.

TITUS HARDIE - "What did she have to say then? Fine by her?! This is what people are *supposed* to be like? Fucking whoopty doo!"

"She did not say *whoopty doo*."

"It did not come as a surprise to her. And she definitely wasn't scared."

"Actually, I think it made her a little *nostalgic*."

"If anything, she seemed turned on by the whole doorgunning thing."

"Titus, she said she would like to be a little doorgunner herself, if she could."

KIM KITSURAGI - "I can confirm that."

ESPRIT DE CORPS [Easy: Success] - I see what you're doing there. Let's push him.

TITUS HARDIE - "She didn't? Well, *whoopty doo* then!" He's too angry to drink his beer. He just stares at it.

5. "Titus, she said she would like to be a little doorgunner herself, if she could."

KIM KITSURAGI - "Yes. In fact..." The lieutenant looks at you, then him. "I think she thought it was a little funny."

TITUS HARDIE - "Funny?" Titus mumbles, his lips barely moving: "No good goddamn psycho whore..."

LOGIC [Medium: Success] - Seems like they wanted to give Klaasje a second chance to play along -- she *still* didn't.

TITUS HARDIE - "Alright!" He slams his giant fist on the door frame. "All-fucking-righty then! I guess it's good then! That fucking..."

ELIZABETH - "Please try to control yourself in the presence of *visitors*, Titus." Her voice is a bit softer than earlier.

TITUS HARDIE - "This is just perfect. Just fucking perfect. Any thoughts on this, lawman?" Titus rubs his chin with his palm, as if trying to grind it smooth.

Task complete: Doorgunner Megamix

+10 XP

RHETORIC [Medium: Success] - You don't have to say everything out loud. Just mix and match.

There's not actually a *penalty* for saying everything.

"I think this is personal for you. I think you had feelings for her."

"I think you had a lie planned, but she didn't play along."

"Maybe she isn't who you thought she was."

"Maybe she is still in denial. You know, like a defence mechanism."

"Be straight with me, Titus: What really happened?" (Wrap this up.)

GLEN - "Pft!" Glen explodes with indignation. "Everyone's got feelings for each other! Where are you going with this?!"

TITUS HARDIE - "It's alright, Glen." He rubs his temple. "I just thought she... I thought *anyone* would come around if they heard that shit. Apparently I was wrong."

GLEN - "Yeah, that was fucked up." He smiles sympathetically.

SUGGESTION - He wanted her to see the man for what he was. Now that you know, you might wanna lay off this topic -- or else you might antagonize him.

+5 XP

TITUS HARDIE - "I just got too worked up. Big man lost his shit." He shakes his head. "It's cool now."

2. "I think you had a lie planned, but she didn't play along."

TITUS HARDIE - "I asked for your opinion, not a bed-time story. Tell it to your grandma."

"This tape was the last chance for her to do what was planned."

"Sure, I'll do that."

KIM KITSURAGI - "But she didn't. She knows she can't lie to us. Unlike you."

Hm.

TITUS HARDIE - "Fantastic. So *now* you remember how to do your job..." He despondently glances at his beer. "I'm so sick of this piss -- we should get something harder in here."

SHANKY - "Yeah, guys, we should get a party going tonight!"

THEO - "Why?"

SHANKY - "Uh..." He looks at the old man in the corner. "Maybe not then."

LOGIC - Success. They admitted to unlawful collaboration to derail the investigation.

+5 XP

3. "Maybe she isn't who you thought she was."

TITUS HARDIE - "Nah... I know her." He looks upstairs, distracted. "She's just a girl in over her head."

"You don't know?! She's a model! She won a pageant!"

"She's not some helpless girl. She handled the mercenary well enough."

"She's a hard-core party girl with a bigger death wish than mine."

"Huh, I guess you do know her then."

TITUS HARDIE - "*Handled* him?" He baulks. "She got into some stupid shit with that guy. Shit *we* had to take care of."

KIM KITSURAGI - "Yes, yes, we heard all about it and the fact still stands: you were more disturbed by the tape than her."

4. "Maybe she is still in denial. You know, like a defence mechanism."

TITUS HARDIE - "Yeah... maybe. That is a possibility."

SUGGESTION [Easy: Success] - He does not sound very convinced anymore.

5. "Be straight with me, Titus: What really happened?" (Wrap this up.)

TITUS HARDIE - "I already told you." He puts his giant face in his hands and sighs. "We fucking hanged him."

New task: Get the whole story from Titus

EMPATHY [Trivial: Success] - There's less gusto in his voice now. His men too are growing increasingly silent.

DRAMA [Challenging: Success] - They're confused. This is growing over their heads.

KIM KITSURAGI - "C'mon, Titus. We know you didn't hang him. He was *shot*." He taps on his notebook. "I know you're tired; so am I -- why don't you just..."

TITUS HARDIE - "You know what?" He gets closer. "I *am* tired. I'm tired of you *and* the whore upstairs."

"Next time you see her -- tell her Titus said FUCK OFF!" He throws his beer can down.

HALF LIGHT [Medium: Success] - This is the petulant rage of someone who's at the end of their wits.

TITUS HARDIE - "That lying, scamming... We're done! This is over, you understand? Your little investigation -- is OVER."

ALAIN - "Yeah..." There is a silence in the room. Alain starts saying something -- then thinks best not to.

PERCEPTION (SIGHT) [Medium: Success] - On the floor, beer drips out of the can, into a small puddle. No one does anything about it.

TITUS HARDIE - "What is this quiet funeral shit? What we need is some *beers* in us!" He looks around. "BARTENDER! Twenty beers for the Dockworkers' Union!"

GARTE, THE CAFETERIA MANAGER - "Why don't we make it FORTY, huh?" The man shouts from behind the counter. "Why don't we make it A HUNDRED beers, you're not loud enough!"

GLEN - "A hundred beers -- now we're talking!" Glen livens up. "Hoppity-hop over here cafeteria manager!"

ELECTROCHEMISTRY [Medium: Success] - The window might be closing. The more beers they get in them, the less cooperative they will be.

3. [Rhetoric - Godly 16] Convince Titus he is being manipulated.

+1 Mentioned surreal play. +1 Strange reaction to bullet. +1 Evrart asked to cooperate. +1 Understood why Titus is upset. -1 Pushed Titus on the tape. +1 Warned about the tribunal. +1 Discussed eighth Hardie. +1 Confronted about drug trade.

RHETORIC [Godly: Success]- Convince *Titus?* he's being manipulated? You should know by now -- Titus Hardie will never falter.

One of his boys will.

"That's it then. Case closed." (Look around.) "We're going home, Kim."

RHETORIC - Just remember it's about more than Klaasje. It's about these men and Martinaise: their district, their *responsibility*.

SHIVERS [Medium: Success] - Outside in the evening light -- ruined and old, shadows lengthen on the pavement. A distant gunshot.

2. "That's it then. Case closed." (Look around.) "We're going home, Kim."

KIM KITSURAGI - "Huh?" The lieutenant raises his brow.

RHETORIC - He'll get it. Go on.

"Write it down, Kim -- in Martinaise they just kill you because they don't *like* you."

KIM KITSURAGI - "Got it." He takes out his notebook. "Kill you -- because they don't like you. All because..."

[diamond-dangeresque]

for what i do love about this game—and i love a lot!!!—there are certain things about the story i wish we had either the opportunity to do or otherwise capitalize on

and i'll throw dat shit under a readmore for spoilers. you know. for a 13 year old game lmao

(also i will be using he/him/his pronouns when referring to Hawke simply because my first playthru was Garrett Hawke and therefore i think of Hawke in those terms)

so from the second we deal with Quentin and find his stash of books and letters during All That Remains, including one signed from his "very good friend “O”" i knew two things:

Orsino is behind this, and

i want to cave his smarmy little skull in for being an accessory to Quentin's atrocities, including MY MOTHER'S MURDER

and while i am aware that this can be kinda-sorta dealt with on a Templar playthrough, what bothers me is that i have no way to Deal With This Information until basically the end of the game, which feels...i dunno, like maybe there should have been a side quest of investigating these documents either solo or with the help of Aveline, Templar!Carver/Circle!Bethany, maybe even Anders or Varric, but it feels really weird that you find a letter that definitively proves Quentin was 100% not alone in what he was doing, and Hawke's response is 🦗🦗🦗

now yes, in the immediate aftermath he's mourning or grieving or drinking himself into a stupor or whatever Hawke (yours, mine, otherwise) does to live with not being able to save his mother in time, but it's still then Very Odd that he never just...follows up on this. like "welp, mom's dead and i killed her killer, who was definitely and apparently working alone. somehow. yep."

i would love a sidequest like that works like this, slowly piecing together who could have been assisting this madman by finding additional clues, locating “O”'s dead drop point, finding out it's the Gallows's First Enchanter being this serial killer's accomplice much to [Anders's horror//Aveline's disgust//Fenris's "well I can't say this wasn't unexpected but what the fuck"//etc etc], and then like

idk

maybe you can have a chat with Meredith abt it, convince her that No The Mage Circle Isn't All Bad, It's Just Orsino, starting an investigation and then gathering the evidence needed to convict him (and maybe optionally getting him in a room and beating the unholy piss out of him, real "Smash A to Break Orsino's Nose" kinda stuff) , and thennnnnn. idk, have him hung from the Gallows!!!! good shit, justice for Leandra and all the other women murdered by Quentin, closure for you and your sibling,

or you can take vigilante justice on him and. "hey Meredith, so Orsino died. yeah, he fell down the stairs. tripped on his robes, broke his neck on the way down. terrible shame. tut, tut. (please ignore the bruises and broken bones.)"

and then we're like "welp. so the Circle needs a new First Enchanter, aaaaaand 1. Orsino had like no protege lined up for this, and 2. no one here wants to be First Enchanter anyways" so you could potentially set up smth like

Hawke can become First Enchanter if he's a Mage

Bethany can become First Enchanter (probably easier to convince her on a high Friendship rating)

One of the mages you spared (and still lives) from Acts 1 and 2 could be trained to become First Enchanter; personally I think Alain's got gumption, but to each their own, yeah?

of course i know the problem with this story is that it kiiiiiiinda pulls away from the whole "Mages vs Templars butting heads and also the Chantry blows up" story point that 2 wants to get to, though tbh I don't think these have to be mutually exclusive?

Meredith can accuse Hawke of conspiring to lead the rebellion himself and doing so by taking Orsino's place, taking advantage of Meredith's "trust" (whether or not that's true is up to you) and thus being both the more dangerous mage of the two and proving—to herself, ofc—the inherently duplicitous nature of mages as a whole

Meredith can accuse Bethany of being a tool for Hawke's conspiracy against her, effectively using nepotism to undermine her authority and maybe even fearing being replaced herself by another of Hawke's buddies (which is absolutely not true, but red lyrium is a hell of a drug, so 🤷); this can even tie back to a choice you can have on Meredith's side where you can execute your sister or not to prove your loyalty (which obv doesn't work, but y'know 🤷)

Meredith can distrust any of your First Enchanter choices due to a wide variety of reasons: lack of experience, lack of talent, your sympathy being used against you for a position they do not deserve, I Just Don't Fucking Like Them, etc etc

it also creates this cool throughline of Quentin's fuckery being a consistent B- or C-story for Dragon Age 2, underneath Mages Vs Templars and The Qunari Are Vibing (Until They Aren't).

like. if Meredith is gonna be The Big Bad Evil Person no matter what route you take, that means you do have some flexibility on the story along the way.

but the story was also cranked out in 18 months under EA's infamous pressure cooker system, so i don't blame any of the writers for Not Thinking Of These Things, i get it, i do

and if you just want to Skip That For Whatever Reason and go through with what's already there then you can also do that. i guess. (you monster.)

the only other major grievance i have with the game is that Blood Magic Hawke isn't as story-polarizing as it could be. yes i know Blood Magic wasn't as big of a deal even in Origins/Awakening as the lore and story make it out to be; as a Grey Warden you at least get the excuse of "whatever it takes to kill the archdemon, ya feel me?", but Hawke has no such excuse and if anything having Blood Magic should both 1. be a major story beat changer, and 2. be non-reversible (mostly due to the first reason; would be kinda weird if you went Blood Mage for the story stuff, then headed over to the Black Emporeum, chugged a weird potion you got from a dusty-ass shopkeep, and went "nah i change my mind")

and yes, i am also aware that Blood Magic wasn't even going to really be a thing (PC) Hawke could have, and it was basically shoved in last-minute with not much to the story to supplement that. but there is still something to be said about a lot of missed story opportunities involving this. there was also apparently a cut storyline about Mage!Hawke dealing with a near possession attempt, and that both could have unlocked Blood Magic permanently and be yet another cool way to integrate the innate Weirdness of mages into your story

........but i digress, because after that it's mostly very minor grievances about Things I Want But Do Not Have that could probably be fixed with mods if i searched hard enough.

also: no post-game cards about my friends or my lover. come onnnnn. it's literally static text on a background. this isn't hard to implement!!!

ok rant over i'm gonna crawl into a hole now and cry about anders

[astralartefact]

Placeholder Name for Atarase's Media Diary

Entry 004 - Unicorn Overlord <<Prev: NieR Reincarnation

Synopsis

The drums of war are beating. No man can be trusted. What happened to Dorcas? (say it with me) I put poison in his mutton!

Once again I have been falsely advertised to and I will not forgive. (the names used are different since I played in german)

How much did I know before playing?

I played 13 Sentinels for what that's worth and I did play the demo extensively. I played it a month late but went out of my way not to get spoiled.

Also I play Fire Emblem sometimes? the game certainly feels inspired by that

Did I like it more than I expected?

I liked it about as much as I expected to like it, maybe even a little bit more!

Except for one thing, which I had only expected because several "news sites" have reported on it being in there - even providing lists! - only to find out it wasn't in it and that thing is...

Since I liked it, here's what I hated about it

So all that stuff about Male Romance for Alain was a fucking lie. Tell yourself whatever you want but I have higher standards than that - what's shown there is pretty explicitely not Romance, with Male Characters the Ring of the Maiden scenes are very much framed as Friendship Bracelet scenes.

And maybe I'm a little bit more heated at this than I should be, but as is tradition I had once again the patented Vanillaware pleasure of learning this by Surprise Mandated Romance as suddenly after several scenes of sweet and cute moments between him and Alain the guy I chose (gilbert) suddenly - without warning because I did not give a singular damn about Virginia (is that even her name) - announced his wedding to her in between two credit screens.

Like, I was fully okay with not a single blush moment, at this point I still thought this was their take at Male on Male-Romance and I was perfectly happy with what I got, mainly because it's just sadly common for japanese media to cut any intimacy from mlm relationships as soon as they're textually confirmed - but I also had no frame of reference for the other characters, so for all I knew the female ones were just also like that. I sincerely believed that when Alain told him that despite all those political reasons he also just really treasures Gilbert that that was supposed to be read as Romantic even if it was very toned down.

But welp. Vanillaware Surprise Mandated Romance strikes again. This is Sekigahara Ei all over again.

Spurted by this I then did my own research. I tried it with about 10 other guys after the ending - and I even inspected their epilogue overworld dialogue each time!!! - and all of them were very clearly just as non-romantic as Gilbert's, even Lex and Clive who I remembered front and center on those Romance Option lists. The best I got was Adel's epliogue dialogue (which is very cute ngl) and maybe Lex's as well, even though that one was just pretty much verbatim a "Hey, we have a good thing going here...", the vagueness of which doesn't really offset the "Yeah, but No Homo, right??" I had to sit through when giving him the ring right before.

Meanwhile I tried 2 (two) female options to see if it's the same for both genders and while one (Tatianna) was lightly implied to be romantic in the epllogue but mostly the same to the male ones the other one (Primm) was explicitly and overtly romantic. (which is also clearly indicated by blushing and i'm pretty sure only Adel ever blushed in one of the male ones)

It's just. Why? Why even include this if you don't go the whole way. You knew you couldn't or shouldn't just make it female only - but then why do it like this? Why is the Ring of the Maiden so clearly treated as a wedding ring with Girls and then "No Homo Bro, it's just a friendship bracelet with a weird name" with the Boys (and of course you need to make sure that people get how gay uncommon it is to give your friend a ring by pointing it out almost every time). Either you make it all Friendship Bracelets, all Wedding Rings or you make both equally mixed - which would have been more than fine with me too! - but not something stupid like this. and no i don't care if alain is 'supposed to be straight' alain isn't a real person and he's clearly supposed to be self-insertable, but I guess only for straight men

After Takatoshi in 13 Sentinels and now this I'm having some kind of feeling about how Vanillawear includes this stuff. Like it's nice that you're trying to think of these things, but... if this was a genuine attempt on your part then why did you think this was good?

I guess the reason I'm so upset is that the way the Ring is integrated into the story is so fucking cool?? And Gilbert was such a good choice for me to pick too because he fit right into the scene?? I legit didn't realize at first he was just there because of the Ring? And then after all that uwu sincerity I'm No Homo-ed in the credits by a surprise wedding because I guess I missed the moments where they mentioned their relationship... if they did at all (staring into space remembering 13sen, shaking my head at Ei x Iori being written the way it was)

Thank God that's the only thing I really hated about this game, but for another nitpick: I guess the Unit Promotions could have been flashier if they already aren't branching? i guess it's to save work because of the Animation Style but imo Fire Emblem does those better. With some of the promotions here you can't even really see any difference...

What did this game make me think about?

Nothing really in particular but I loved how relatively fresh the writing felt despite not being all that 'out there.' Like, on paper it's a relatively 'basic' story, I wouldn't call it groundbreaking or anything, but the way it is delivered and presented felt fresh, yeah, I think that's the best word to describe it.

Specific Impressions that will stick with me

The Ending Ring Scenes even if they were ruined for me a little bit afterwards q_q I didn't repeat those with other ring partners so maybe I should try it again with Adel and see if they're still as good

I love a game that lets me Sequence Break and I love that this game supports it so much that even the story still makes perfect sense if you do the segments out of the 'intended' order. You better believe I weaseled my way into Bastoria when I saw that there was only a high level fight stopping me from not going to the other regions first.

And whoever decided to let the Character Creator Mirror work on every single character deserves a fucking raise. I made them all look so pretty. Whoever you are, you're a visionary!!!

Outstanding Audio

I loved the Music in Elheim and the Night Music in Albion is really eerie it gave it such a good vibe. Also Drakenheim's final stage music.

Favorite Character

There were a lot of good ones... I loved Sanatio and Nigel. Also Yunifi and the Lion whose name I forgot.

Favorite Arc/Story Line

Albion and Bastoria

In general I loved how individually important the major Story Lines were! Every story line felt equally as valuable and impactful to the overall story, but all in their own unique way!

Favorite Set Piece

Elheim's Final Battle was really cool...! I really loved Elheim's Aesthetic as a whole, especially what we saw of the undercity...

I don't know what exactly I skipped doing it, but in Elheim's Final Stage if you take over the other exits before fighting the Boss, she bumps into your stationed unit while fleeing and I guess you skip a second battle? That's the Presence that Immersion and Suspension of Disbelief people should be talking about!!!

Favorite Scene

Again, the Ring Scenes in the True Ending really hit the spot... if you choose the right person that doesn't immediately break your trust q_q (gilbert found dead for breaking the pact)

Best Performance (I played with JP voices)

I love Sanatio's VA (Mutsumi Tamura) and as the entire reason why I like Sanatio (I was pretty sure that's just Okino again and I was right) I guess I'm obligated to mention her. apparently he's voiced by damien haas in english and i can't and won't even picture that lol (i looked it up and ouch what) (and that's not shade to the VA, that's casting shade, who thought this was a good fit)

Also Shout Out to Raenlys for using Yumi Hara's Mama Voice <3

German Localization Notes

Listen, I would love nothing more than to join in bitching about Unicorn Overlord's Localization because I, personally speaking, absolutely hate the verbose olden speech writing style FFXIV has made popular (and yes I'm specifically accussing them of being the source of that), not because it's wrong or because they aren't allowed to add in their own quirks, but simply because it sounds horrible, makes every character feel 13 existential planes removed and I just can't stand hearing it (my immersion!11)

But I played the game in german with JP VA and the german localization was pretty good :) It fit the tone perfectly without being as weirdly verbose as I saw the english version being. Also i think Gilbert used the word Hundesohn at one point and I gasped. There were some sentences that were translated in a weirdly literal way and a few spelling errors here and there that nobody caught, but it's a game with a lot of text so I'll forgive them that :)

The one thing I do not forgive is that they renamed DRAKENGARD. I HEARD THEM SAY IT SO OFTEN AND IT WAS LITERALLY CALLED THAT ON THE MAP Q_Q AND THE FIRST SETTLEMENT IS EVEN CALLED MIER!!!! it cant be a coincidence

Tangent, but I always remember one time I watched a stream of someone (NerineS00 but I think that was way back in the before times) and somebody asked her in the usual 'who would ever do that???' tone americans like to use in situations like that why she wasn't playing the game with english voices instead of japanese and she answered that english wasn't her first language so why should she, they're both equally foreign languages to her - and for some reason that really stuck with me? And somewhere along the line that thought turned into, yeah, why should I play a game in english if I can just play it in german? And the German Localization is hard work too - and yet nobody is ever standing up for them, the opposite actually, since it's much more apparent what's different from EN (much more DE people speak EN than JP) more people complain about things that actually don't really matter all that much out of some weird form of self hate.

Another place where that happened recently is Dungeon Meshi where the german voice acting (please. look up the german marcille meme thing) is like genuinely amazing - sure, it's probably not perfect by whatever metric people suddenly really care about but it's far removed from the "cheap german anime va" a lot of people still think "all german va" sounds like - and for some reason the rise in quality EN went through in the past years gives a lot of DE people this weird sense of bully pride to be "see, i'm cool bc i like good stuff and hate bad stuff!"

But whatever, clearly those people haven't thought that much about what they're doing - this is just me standing up for all the good German Localizations out there! A lot of you are doing a great job and I appreciate what you guys are doing :D

--- ENTERING THE PRETENTIOUS SECTION OF THIS ENTRY ---

What about this game gives me Hope for the future of gaming?

This game feels really well thought through and I hope Vanillaware manages to keep this momentum they have going. Because at its heart I feel like this game is relatively simple, it doesn't always need big complicated systems if you can just do something well thought through instead.

Also it feels much more like the good sort of inspiration where they took from games like Fire Emblem and Tactics Ogre while combining it with the Battle System from their own 13 Sentinels (at least that was what it felt like) - which feels like much more respectful and in the spirit of things than say Hoyoverse just taking whatever game is currently most popular and turning it into a Gacha Game to make boatloads of money.

What about this game makes me scared for the future of gaming?

So uh, Video Games Journalism, huh. Oh boy, I complain about the thing everybody is already complaining about anyways!

I guess I finally got a first hand account of how I was personally slighted by this infamous boogieman. I was told that this game had male romance because somebody didn't do their research and wrote that the Ring mechanic = Romance and even to this day, about 2-3 months after release, there are several "games journalism" websites (can you even call them that? but it's people writing articles, so... i guess?) still up spreading that knowledge.

And I guess we all know how that happened (Capitalism), but it's just...

Okay, to be honest, I felt so Journalistic doing my own research, testing out both male and female romance options (even though 2 female options clearly isn't nearly enough to get a general overview lol), I felt so thorough for even checking the Epilogue Snippets - as baby's first sleuthing as I realize it is, it made me kind of sad that that's not what Games Journalism is (of course on a larger scale), you know playing games, making observations, researching noticeable topics, criticism with a bigger personal stake than 'Is the big game everybody is talking about worth your money' - no, for all intents and purposes it's just... (Regurgitating) Game Announcements, Reviews and I guess Exposés on Working Conditions because yay capitalism

And those Reviews are their own whole point of discussion, aren't they. I distinctly remember when Cyberpunk came out that there was one female writer (going to be relevant) who dared to rate it a 7 or 8 (which at the time a few days before release was below average compared to the other review sites who mostly gave it 9-10) - and she clearly explained why, stating why she thought the game didn't go as far as she would have liked it to go - and Capital-G Gamers couldn't let that stand, calling her any sort of name (keep in mind the reviewer was a women, what does she even know about video games???), once again complaining that Video Game Criticism is a Joke because how dare this woman rate this game so low for attention. (which, as we all know by now, is very ironic given how those same people immediately turned on the game once they noticed they could use it as a punching bag instead, funny how that works)

The reason I remember that is that I read that review before seeing those comments and thought: Huh. That's actually a really helpful review because I totally get what she's talking about, clearly she has played games like this before - now I know better what to expect when getting into this game.

And I guess I never truly cared about Games Journalism as a topic of discussion because - well, to be real - I just don't really care about the "State of the Industry" all that much lol sry BUT ALSO looking at what they're mostly criticized for, no matter what they do they'll never be able to do it "right" even if they try their best. And wouldn't you know it I think it's actually the Gamers who are to blame.

I think a lot of people have a weird relationship to this ecosystem we find ourselves in. I think, and this is a wild pull, a lot of problems we have with Video Game Journalism is that even Gamers don't actually consider Video Games Art, even though they are, right, i thought we all agreed after all we need to tell ourselves non-gamers that so we don't think of what we're doing as wasting our time they take our hobby seriously

But if video games are Art (and my point is that I sincerely think they are) then they can't be wrong (and they also can't be right either) (i don't feel like explaining that in detail rn but trust me bro) and a lot of Gaming Culture is centered primarily around the fact that Video Games can certainly be made wrong and shouldn't. And the resulting antagonism Gamers have developed towards "flaws" and their entitlement to unrestricted ""criticism"" because, well, it's in their right as they have paid money for a product and therefore it's their right that the product they bought should be flawless! But since you will never find anything without problems this situation is an unsolvable ouroboros that swallows the horizon.

The Ramble Section where I get to actually talk about what I thought about

So, uh, Vanillaware, what's going on with your Sexual Dimorphism? I can't help but notice that all of the female units are pretty uniformly waifu material while the male units 'are allowed' to display a much more pronounced bodily diversity that isn't centered around being pleasing to look at? (Most egregious example are imo the Hammer Units lol)

Doesn't help that your armor design is also... uhh... sparse at times. Whatever you think the Fox Warrior's... panty metal is doing - it's not doing that. It honestly would have been better from a visual stand point if she just didn't wear anything down there.

I also grew frustrated that so many male generic units have their faces hidden - meanwhile pretty much none of the female units wear helmets... Curious. It's once again as if a video game developer couldn't fathom that anyone might want to look at men in the same way men look at women. Wonder why that might be.

Actually, not to get back to that mess but that's also part of my Gilbert problem - I only even chose Gilbert in the first place because there are barely any 'hot and dateable' male characters like Clive or Gilbert compared to the female side of things where... it's pretty much every single one. Huh.

[amechyofsorts]

Decided to start a sort of a challenge run of Unicorn Overlord, cause I really like the game, but I both sort of found the game too easy on my first playthrough, and I was kinda disappointed that the game just vomits story units to you through the whole thing, so after the early game there's little reason to use hireable randos. Which is a real shame, cause making randos in rpgs rules.

So yeah, this run is on True Zenoira mode, so that's permadeath to all troopers in an unit that falls entirely in battle. And im playing with the following additional restrictions:

Only every using hireable mercs. Any story units must be left at the nearest garrison as soon as possible, or otherwise kept away from combat. Technically this run only starts after the first side mission, the one where you get Rolf, cause only then do you get up to D rank and can actually hire anyone at forts.

No grinding missions. I can do the phantom fight stages, but only once. Makes it so I can't ensure an endless amount of resources.

No going back in saves and if I game over then the run is over. Makes it so I actually gotta value every single soldier I have, and if I lose them it's a big hit to the army as a whole. And this makes corne ashes a massively important resource, since they can actually stop me from game overing if my fort gets captured or I run out of time on a mission.

Story wise, this is the anti royalism run. Prince Alain may be the figurehead, but the snot nosed punk wouldn't in a million years actually step on a battlefield to free Fevrith. This is about the common working men of the liberation army getting it done! Let's meet the crew.

Germain. A veteran town militiaman. Thought himself too old to fight back against the empire, but after seeing too much of their opression for too long, he had to take a stand. A lot of the common soldiers in the liberation army rally behind him, much to his irriation.

Florine. A young gal who's lived a good half of her whole life under Zenoiran opression, which has only stoked her want to free her home from it. Very peppy and cheerful, which keeps the moral up when she's around. Kinda thinks of Germain as an uncle of sorts, though no actual relation.

Guy. A tough and stern man who used to work as a bodyguard for a local lord. Looking for revenge for the said lord, after he was murdered by Zenoiran's for opposing their rule. Rumored to have been lovers with the lord in question.

Odo. A woodsman who has lived all his life in farthest ass end of a forest. He had no idea that someone had taken over the world, until just recently when he came over to town for some milk for the first time in ten years.

Nils. Definitely not a Zenoiran spy. No sir.

Armand. A professional soldier who had accepted the new zenoiran rule initially, but his family was torn apart by the new taxes and unjust laws and such, so he picked the side of the liberation.

Sébastien. An extremely cowardly and sulky young knight. He kept getting unwanted advances by a Zenoira aligned noblewoman, and when he kept refusing she had him branded as a criminal. To not have to be on the run for the rest of his life, he now reluctantly fights for the liberation.

First actual mission with our army here was the one against Bruno. Went fairly smoothly, although Germaine, Florine and Guys unit got caught offguard at one point, so I had to use a revival orb. Provoke is good at getting archers out of watchtowers, but do it too far and they'll just run right back as it turns out. The importance of archer support became pretty evident right away. No casualties.

Afterwards hired two more soldiers for a dedicated anti cavalry unit.

Artemisia. A warrior of justice. She won't say anything more about herself.

Maxim. Comes from a long line of spear guard guys, the types that stand around doorways and cross their spears when someone tries to enter without permission. Zenoira does not use the treasured method of sentry-dom, which is why he and his whole family is rising to action against the empire.

Ended it here for now. Very fun so far, glad to be thinking much more about resource management, though im sure it will start to grind my gears the bigger the army and fights get.

I'll keep up updates about this... if this gets any engagement, I guess.

[denimbex1986]

“There’s something that’s so enduring about this character,” Andrew Scott says of the classic queer-coded antihero Tom Ripley, “and I think it’s because we have so many questions about him.”

When we heard the actor was tapped to play the eponymous role in a new adaptation of The Talented Mr. Ripley—Patricia Highsmith’s 1955 crime novel about fictional conman Tom Ripley—our first question was: “Oh this is about to be so gay, isn’t it?”

And now that we’ve had a chance to see Ripley, writer-director Steven Zaillian’s gorgeous series that hits Netflix on April 4, we’re pleased to report out prediction was right!

Though not at all in the way we had expected.

First thing’s first: Tom Ripley is not “gay.” At least, not according to Highsmith herself, who once confusingly asserted that Ripley “appreciates good looks in other men” but couldn’t possibly be gay because he’s married to a woman in her later books and even “makes it in bed with his wife.”

And while Scott might not completely agree with Highsmith’s assessment of her most famous or, rather, infamous character, he’s careful to acknowledge that, when it comes to Ripley’s much-debated queerness, things (ironically) aren’t so black-and-white.

“One of the big things about [Ripley’s] sexuality,” Scott shares with Queerty, “was that I felt quite strongly that I didn’t want to overly diagnose—for want of a better word—his sexuality, or even his nationality, or his age, or his upbringing.”

Much like Highsmith’s first novel, the series tiptoes right up to the line of Ripley’s queerness, though it’s a line that only becomes blurrier the closer you get. Sent to Italy to convince wealthy heir Dickie Greenleaf (played here by Emma‘s Johnny Flynn) to return home to America, Ripley finds himself infatuated with the expat’s lifestyle to the point of obsession, and is perhaps even jealous of Dickie’s girlfriend, Marge Sherwood (Dakota Fanning).

But does he want to be Dickie, or be with him?

Even after their relationship takes a dark turn, Highsmith’s writing avoided easy answers, and that uncertainty became a trademark of the character, a man who never gets any less slippery or elusive—not across her five novels, five different film adaptations, and nearly three-quarters of a century.

The Man Of Many Faces

Scott steps into the iconic role after what’s unquestionably been the biggest year of his career thus far, thanks to his award-winning performances in All Of Us Strangers and in the West End production of Vanya. But the 47-year-old Irish actor has been working steadily on stage and screen since the ’90s, notably playing high-profile villains opposite the likes of Sherlock Holmes and James Bond, while also stealing everyone’s hearts as “The Hot Priest” in the Emmy-winning comedy Fleabag.

And while those characters cleanly fall on either side of a moral code, Ripley represented someone who was harder to place—making him all the more enticing to Scott.

“Your first job as an actor is to try and understand the character and not judge them… [and] for that reason, you kind of love them,” Scott reflects. “The big challenge for me in this character was to accept the fact that there’ll be some part of Tom that I’ll never really know—as much as I want to—which made it a kind of lonely place to be.”

But he’s not entirely alone: Over the decades, we’ve seen a number of high-profile performers bring their unique talents to Tom Ripley, from suave French screen idol Alain Delon, to Dennis Hooper, Barry Pepper, and John Malkovich (who, intriguingly, plays a small role in Ripley), to—most famously—Matt Damon, whose 1999 The Talented Mr. Ripley remains the most commercially successful screen adaptation of the series.

Directed by Anthony Minghella, Damon channels his natural movie-star charisma into the conman’s more calculated charms, while also showing us flashes of a wounded humanity not present in Highsmith’s novel. In fact, the film takes a fair number of creative liberties with the source material, like deliberately leaning into the homoerotic undertones of Tom and Dickie’s relationship, and even later giving Tom a tragically ill-fated male partner.

Without spoiling too much, Ripley proves itself to be much more loyal to the book. There is no steamy bathtub chess scene, there’s no potential romance with another man—even mentions of the words “gay” or “queer” are carefully danced around. It’s not so much that this Tom Ripley is “in the closet” as he is completely hidden in the dark.

One Queer Fella

While one might expect a modern interpretation of the material to more overtly address the character’s sexuality (for example, AMC’s take on Anne Rice’s Interview With The Vampire provided a solid model, finally giving us the full-on gay fang-bang we’ve been waiting for), this series is more interested in placing Tom Ripley in the context of a certain place and time. Here, in 1960s Italy, brushing up against the world of the wealthy, he’s an outsider in every sense of the word

In turn, Scott’s Ripley is much more opaque than Damon’s, and that’s by design. Clinging to a social and moral “murkiness” (Scott’s word), his introverted interpretation of this antihero is impossible to take your eyes off of. And while we may not see demonstrations of Ripley’s queerness in a romantic or relational sense, we can recognize how he takes advantage of his otherness to move through the world.

“I think that’s a really interesting part of him, actually,” says Scott of Ripley’s status as an other, and the fluidity therein. “I certainly think that he uses the prejudice of the time for his own gain, because so much of the atmosphere at the time was coded and about secrets and what people say [versus] what they actually might feel.”

Because whether or not Ripley would admit it, others—like the increasingly suspicious Marge—view him as an outsider, and even assume he might be queer. To an extent, that puts a target on his back, but he quickly learns to use it as a shield—or a weapon. When the local authorities come knocking, they seem uncomfortable prying too much into his life, afraid of the truths they might uncover. And Ripley knows it.

In other words, when Ripley finds himself backed into a corner, it’s those very places that people don’t want to go—the questions that “polite” society doesn’t want to ask—that allow him to slip through the cracks. So long as he exists in the shadows, outside of the bounds of a rigid heteronormative world, he can basically get away with, well, you get it.

Shadowy Figures

As Ripley lures you in, a motif gradually rises to the surface: The work of Italian baroque artist Caravaggio, the turn-of-the-17th-century painter whose distinctive “chiaroscuro” style is both an influence on the series’ stunningly stark look—and on Ripley himself.

It’s no coincidence that Caravaggio, despite being one of the most sought-after artists of his time, was also a volatile man with a serious criminal record. Known to provoke street brawls at random, he made enemies with many dangerous individuals, and is even said to have killed a few of them. His reputation meant he was never able to stay in one place for long. Sound familiar?

Not unlike Ripley, the painter’s sexuality—and the role it might or might not have played in his most incomprehensible behavior—has long been the subject of speculation.

“There are so many things about Caravaggio that Tom finds completely fascinating,” Scott shares excitedly. “I think it’s a really amazing touch that he has a sort of kinship with this person from so many years ago. It’s so interesting in relation to what we want to know about people, and how we identify people.”

In drawing the parallels between these two men, Ripley forces us to question our own biases—the labels we might prescribe to others in an effort to make sense of the world.

“The great achievement of this [story,] I think, is that we’re rooting for somebody who morally isn’t necessarily somebody we should be rooting for,” the actor adds. “We want the audience to feel like what it’s like to be Tom Ripley, rather than what it’s like to be a victim of Tom Ripley. And for that reason, we have to look at the bits of ourselves that are Tom Ripley-esque.”

“I’m not saying that we’re all murderous,” Scott continues, “but there’s certainly stuff within us that we don’t have access to. And there’s a blankness that you go, ‘I don’t understand that about myself.'”

So, is Tom Ripley gay? Straight? Is he a villain? An antihero? Is he someone we should fear, or pity? Is it so wrong that we might walk away from Ripley—if not empathizing with him—at least understanding where he’s coming from?

As Andrew Scott sees it, “[to] reduce the character by answering too many of those questions is actually a crime in itself.”'

[whileiamdying]

“I’m Sitting Next to Catherine Deneuve!”: Whoopi Goldberg Reviews AMI FW25

By Mel Ottenberg January 23, 2025

WEDNESDAY 9:35 AM JANUARY 22, 2024 PARIS

It’s that time again—we’re back in Paris to kick off another month of fashion. Yesterday, in an abandoned building in the 9th arrondissement, a single saxophonist silenced the crowd at AMI FW25, after which a slew of sophisticated earth-toned tailoring streamed down the runway. The French co-ed brand, creative directed by Alexandre Mattiussi, has always walked the talk of “quiet luxury,” keeping it chic, sleek, and wearable. While taking in the work-appropriate checked suiting, playful gathered skirts and capelets, and very Parisian accessories, including neck scarves and a new bag, our editor-in-chief Mel Ottenberg chatted up his seatmate, Whoopi Goldberg, to find out about her secret love for dressing up.

MEL OTTENBERG: I’m here sitting next to Whoopi Goldberg at the AMI fashion show. Who are you sitting next to? WHOOPI GOLDBERG: I’m sitting next to Catherine Deneuve! OTTENBERG: Can you tell the people what she’s doing right now? Because it’s so incredible. GOLDBERG: She’s just being her. OTTENBERG: She’s vaping. She’s got one of those big glass vapes. It’s so cool. GOLDBERG: She can blow anything she wants in my direction. OTTENBERG: Oh, anything. Forget about it. GOLDBERG: Yeah, yeah. OTTENBERG: Welcome to Paris. GOLDBERG: Thank you. Everyone should do this once. OTTENBERG: I want to ask you one important question. Your Golden Globes outfit that was yellow in the ’80s with the sneakers, that should be on one of the best-dressed lists of all time. Do you feel that way? GOLDBERG: No. I like the green outfit I wore in homage to Lucille Ball. But I’ve never been known as one who had anything really loving to do with fashion, because Mr. Blackwell really stopped me from dressing.  OTTENBERG: Because it wasn’t fun? GOLDBERG: Because he didn’t think it was me. Andre Leon Talley said, “You dress how you are because that’s who you are.” So between Andre and several other magnificent people, I’ve developed my own thing. And then I keep showing up in places like this. It really hasn’t stopped but I tell people, “Put it on me and I’ll wear it.” I couldn’t tell you why it was good. But I can tell you about actors. CATHERINE DENEUVE: How long are you staying in Paris? OTTENBERG: Catherine Deneuve just asked Whoopi how long she’s staying in Paris. She’s fully engaging. Maybe she’ll talk to me too, but I don’t know. I get starstruck. GOLDBERG: Yeah, totally. OTTENBERG: And it reminds you that it can still happen to you, which I love. GOLDBERG: Oh my god, yeah. When I was here years ago, I’d see Alain Delon and I’d see just all these wonderful people whose films I love. And then I get nervous because I’m going to say, “Oh, I love The Umbrellas of Cherbourg,” and I know that’s the wrong name. So I just think it in my heart and hope she gets it by osmosis. OTTENBERG: You’re really just keeping it full Whoopi Goldberg forever. And that’s what makes you so sick, man. GOLDBERG: Well, thank you for that. My god, everybody’s five years old. OTTENBERG: Everybody’s five years old. I am turning 49 this year, but you know what? Fuck it. GOLDBERG: I’m turning 70. I just had to take a deep breath. OTTENBERG: Let it out. Any big plans? GOLDBERG: Not yet. My kid keeps threatening me because my granddaughter also has the same birthday, so we celebrate a lot together. So no one knows where we’re going to end up, but now that you know us, you’re going to get dragged in. [Pointing at the runway] That’s a great coat. That coat would be great on you.

[cas-blog-hanl]

Creativity - writing with my new characters

With my characters complete and my motivation for writing re-fired, it was time for me to actually explore these characters in their natural setting a little bit more.

These characters where made in the style of DND, the place they would thrive the most was in a campaign. However, I have still not played the game itself but I have decided to try an create scenarios that fit into the DND world. In the DND spirit, some actions, dialogue options, choices, victories and losses where determined by a random roll of the dice. I would get to a certain point with my characters in which a crucial thing was about to happen and before continuing my writing I would roll a dice which would determine the outcome. The lower the number the worse for my character - well... it sometimes depends on the situation - while the bigger the number than something good would happen to them.

This was hard, not going to lie. I would get really into the story I had created and want certain events to play out in certain ways but the rolls of the dice would completely alter my wants. It broke my heart sometimes. This is one of these examples where a bad roll ( a nat 1 - meaning the worst case scenario ) had completely altered my story.

Alaine - the character I had mentioned in one of my previous posts - had died in such a stupid way. During a camp rest - not a fight, no high stakes, just casual rest - my characters had gotten into a little bit of a friendly fight. Chrisanthemus - a character not mentioned in my previous post - was being teased by the other party members due to a failed charisma roll earlier in the story, where he jumbled his words while talking with a high priestess to which she asked if "And who's this fool? Your entertainment?". Chris, who is quite the hot head, started getting quite angry about the jokes being made. He had taken out his crossbow with the intent to only point it at Alaine as a threat. I decided, to make the story more interesting, to make it that if he rolled lower than a 7 then the he would accidentally pull the trigger. I did not anticipate him to roll a 2, nor did I anticipate that he would get a nat 20 on the amount of damage said arrow would do. And now Alaine was dead, in such a stupid, stupid way.

Here is a short excerpt of this story, and specifically this scene.

[ The arrow was not meant to hit her. The arrow was not meant to hit her!

Chris felt his hands shake as he lowered the crossbow. He felt his whole body shake. Every single bone felt like they where on fire. 

He spared a glance to his other companions. A grand mistake. 

Julie had tears streaming down her face. Her black eyes, for the first time since he had met her in that damn cage, didn’t look just like endless pits of nothingness. There was emotions swimming in those dark pools. Julie didn’t have emotions. She apparently did have now. 

Fechin looked seconds from burning something. His tail was sharply dragging back and forth over the tiles of the chapel, and echo following each swoop. The additional muscle was a sharp contrast, created through the bloody redness of his scales and the stark whiteness of the floor beneath him. He looked ready to pounce, ready to strike, ready to rip Chris’s throat open for the sin he just committed. Fechin was a pacifist. He would never hurt Chris. But this would be justified. 

Chris did not want to look at Alaine. He knew that whatever the ashy elf looked like would bring him to his knees. Ul’grithk was Alaine’s everything. And now Alaine had lost her. She had nothing left.

It was his fault. He deserved to die for this. He didn’t want to live with her blood forever staining his skin. He wouldn’t be surprised if the people who he’s grown so close to in these past few months also wanted to see him killed. It was his fault. His stupid, selfish, ego driven mind couldn’t bare a stupid joke and now he was paying the price. 

He could feel Alaines magic surround him. The phantom feeling of electricity encasing his body and the smell that came with her every spell - burned vanilla. The Shocking Grasp. He had seen her use it countless times in battle, striking her enemies with deadly accuracy. He had always admired her magic. He never thought that he would be at the receiving end of it, however. But it didn’t do anything apart from the light zap he could feel traveling from his shoulder to his arm. He spared her a glance. 

The mark around her eye was glowing with an intensity he had never seen before. It had illuminated the otherwise dark room with a blinding orange, as if a setting sun was casually filtering in through the open windows.

 The windows where boarded. The sun was fully hidden in the depths of the night. 

The light came only from her. 

But he could see that her every muscle was straining not to fall apart. As if the only thing keeping her up was the notion of ending his life. Her outstretched arm, normally unnaturally steady, a clear sign of her years of experience, was violently vibrating, as if every nerve was burning. ]

July

[oftheriverseine]

Let’s get right into this!!

(this is very long, so apologies)

KALOS

You make such a good point about interpokemon dynamics, especially Greninja and Pikachu! It’s especially interesting because there’s a lot of similarities to the original Pokemon Ep 1 and XY001, with how Pikachu and Froakie acted towards Ash, trainers in general, and had goals to be better. Expand on that and have Pikachu see a bit of itself in Froakie, and act like a teacher to it in early XY, with Froakie initially being dismissive but coming to appreciate and respect Pikachu as an individual, mentor, and teammate. I think we both agree that Pikachu is in a sense an extension of Ash, and since XYZ wanted a similar connection with Ash and Greninja, having Pikachu and Greninja interact with each other and become tight-knit I think would make Greninja’s arc feel more appropriate without robbing Pikachu so much of his development and importance to Ash. I think tying in the respective rivals thing with Pikachu encouraging Greninja to win would solve a lot of the Kalos League’s final battle problems.

Adding onto this, what if we use Ash’s initial loss against Sawyer, right before Snowbelle, as the Pikachu-Greninja double battle spot? Make it so the streak of losses stings more because Ash’s two strongest and closest Pokemon couldn’t beat this new up-and-coming trainer (which Sawyer is so much more than but I’m looking at it from Ash’s perspective) and also give a chance for the Snowbelle depression arc to focus more on Pikachu as well as Ash and Greninja? Have it be Ash’s worst losing streak by far, starting with close battles, emphasized by Alain and Sawyer, until it all boils over with concurrent losses against Wulfric. Pikachu feels like its to blame, because it’s the most experienced, and Greninja feels like its to blame, because it’s the strongest. And then they both feel guilty because the other feels guilty.

Pikachu however is more brought down because it’s worried about Ash, while Ash and Greninja are more brought down because they feel like failures. Ash especially, he’s feeling like he’s peaked and can’t get better, only worse, and Greninja, being able to feel Ash feeling that, also shares the sentiment. And then, maybe to tie in Serena (so that she gets a more active role beyond worrying for Ash here), after Ash and Serena’s fight Pikachu goes after her and when the rest of the Kalos gang are looking for Ash in the storm, we have (hopefully one of many) Serena and Pikachu bonding moments.

If I had more patience I’d make a proper chart, but as it is I think I’m just gonna list out some dynamic ideas and ways to deepen the interpokemon relationships:

Pikachu sees himself and Ash in Froakie, and Froakie respects Pikachu’s strength. As the series progresses, they learn to fight with and alongside each other, training to cover each other’s weaknesses and use their abilities to the best. Pikachu can represent the part of Ash that is his journey, his strength, his experience, and all he’s accomplished, the part of him that stays loyal and constant, which Greninja represents the part of Ash that’s still evolving, ever changing, learning. Pikachu who doesn’t evolve out of choice (Ash sticking to his principles and his kindness) and Greninja who unlocks a new form of evolution (Ash doing things he could’ve never imagined he’d do). At the beginning they’re sort of at odds, not enemies but rather coworkers, but their bond develops and Pikachu and Greninja end up becoming halves of a whole. Pikachu seals the win against Sawyer, because it’s a battle that tests all Ash and his team have learned through his journeys, and Greninja seals the win against Alain, because it’s a battle that tests Ash’s limits.

Similarly, Froakie, Fennekin, and Chespin all serve to push their trainers, so, like their trainers, they push each other. Froakie and Fennekin initially only really get along because their trainers do, but by the time Chespin comes around, they’ve developed a strong friendship, stemming from Froakie warming up to Serena and Fennekin tolerating Ash (lol). Chespin sort of messes up that dynamic, but it interjects a more lightheartedness into this starter trio, and Chespin keeps them balanced, especially as they evolve and fall more seriously into training for their goals. At the same time, Braixen and Frogadier treat Chespin like a younger brother, simultaneously scolding and watching over him.

Fennekin and Pancham start of by doing their own sort of thing in showcases, each excelling at their specific brands of dancing and performance, similar to Korrina and Lucario’s bouquet of similar enough but separate. But after the double battle with Aria, Braixen and Pancham decide they need to learn to work together, and work on combining moves, dancing together, and becoming closer. This could be shown in the background, or in filler episodes (anything to replace the Braixen stick episode lol). Along with Sylveon, this shift in Serena’s team of being more group-focused is what allows them to pull off the beautiful fire flower at the Masterclass.

I think expanding on that one scene of Bunnelby not ratting out Eevee early on could make their dynamic a bit more interesting, especially if combined with Chespin being the one to call attention to Eevee’ presence. Maybe Bunnelby and Eevee have a small chat about Serena before it’s caught, and how she really is a great trainer. I also think we could’ve done more with Eevee’s anxiety, and, if we wanted, make the Bunnelby/Eevee/Chespin dynamic a parallel to Serena and Clemont earlier in the series, showing two sides of what they thought of each other.

We could do something similar to Infernape with Goodra, having it be close to Ash but not really to any of his other Pokemon, which would explain why it’s comfortable leaving yet also comfortable returning for the League.

Hawlucha should’ve really been thrown in the mix to the Chespin and Pancham dynamic, even if only for an episode.

If we add Helioptile to the main cast it should get a chance to bounce off of Fletchinder/Talonflame

I hear your vision on Meyer being an acting gym leader and I raise you this: give him an Ampharos “ace” (his perceived ace, who works alongside him, but isn’t used for his Blazekin mask duties). Clembot could be a referee and maybe even act as a superhero (Ampharos Mask) for an episode to throw the kids off Meyer’s trail if they so desired. Idk, maybe that’s too far out there but I think Ampharos fits Meyer.

I also LOVE the idea of Meyer and Grace having parallels. This can especially be added if we have both of them calling Clemont and Serena respectively to check in. Could also be a neat set up for an episode where Clemont and Serena are both keeping something from or have just gotten out of an uncomfortable conversation with their respective parents, and have them talk about it and work through their similar but oppositely strained (? more so misunderstood in the sense that the parents don’t really understand their children at this point) relationships with them.

I think having a Showcase in or around Lumiose would also serve as a way to have Grace and Meyer interact, as well as parallel how they act with their children — Grace because she goes there to have the opportunity to watch and support Serena, and Meyer because he’s already around.

Alright, you’ve sold me on the counter shield idea! Especially if this is going to be written as a send-off to Ash, it’d be fun to bring back past elements. And I love the image of Ash realizing how his creativity inspired Serena’s own in a different, non-battling context; it could add to their friendship and to Amour <3

I do see your point about the swap showcase thing, especially if we limit the amount of Showcases Serena does, but I think if we give them more time to exist in their own right it could work! Similarly, while I didn’t love the idea of Serena leaving, having it parallel Clemont’s separation is a cool idea and could work if we allow it the proper context in the story. At the end, it could go either way, and both of these make good fanfic material XP

Now, onto…

ALOLA.

Elevating Kiawe, Sophocles, Lana, and Mallow to Kahunas (or maybe even Kahunas in training?) seems like a cool thing to do, maybe within the last few acts of the series?

I think combining the best of all 3 Lusamines would work fine. Honestly, I’m not too partial to SM Lusamine or the SM versions of the main few characters, preferring USUM’s interpretation, which is an unpopular opinion XP but I think keeping the Anime Lusamine’s overprotectiveness while adding bits of her fall in the games makes for a more compelling character and dynamic with Lillie. Especially since the tone of the Sun/Moon series always felt more… slice of life, grounded emotionally, rather than the grand stories of evil teams and world-ending Legendaries that preceded it. Even the Ultra Beasts and the Legendaries of Alola service the themes of community, and don’t pose so much a setting for an action or drama series than a perspective, if that makes sense?

I love your ideas for Guzma and Lillie though! I think, if we made them parallels, we could also have Gladion, or even Hau, reflect Kukui in some way.

That’s all I have for now.

hey so I know we talked a little about Kalos with Silver (for their Kalosian Woods AU) but I was rereading your one post thread about the character arc shown from Unova to Kalos to Alola and how Kalos wouldn’t have really been a narratively satisfying League win for Ash in the grand scheme of the Pokemon anime. Your analysis gave me a new appreciation for what the Alola League did and also for the inter-region story that was developed with Ash and his desire to win.

At the same time, however, I’ve been thinking about how the main XYZ writers originally wanted Kalos to be a league win for Ash, and how, combined with the final episodes of XYZ, how it did feel like they were trying to end Ash’s story there (no transition to the next region, etc). And Im thinking about how, in an alternate timeline, we could’ve gotten that and might’ve even had an Alola anime with a new protagonist, if they’d wanted to end Ash’s story with Kalos.

So I was wondering, what changes would you make to Ash’s XYZ character that would make a Kalos League win feel thematically appropriate and satisfying? Would you change anything about his dynamics with the rest of the group?

And what would you have liked from a SM/Alola anime with a different protagonist? Do you think they would’ve been able to maintain the theme of family and the culture the anime proper gave Alola? With a new protagonist, would you have had Guzma win the league, or them, or someone else entirely?

This really is just to bounce off ideas, so don’t feel like you need to respond.

Ok, first I think getting a run-down of why Kalos wouldn't be a good place to end things is a good starting point:

Ash's pokemon (other than a certain frog) are barely relevant

Kalos had a laser focus on Greninja and that's the season's biggest flaw in my eyes. Pokemon got lucky if they had episodes beyond the ones where they evolved, with Goodra and Noivern being the most blatant examples of that.None of them had super close connections with Ash and the fact some of them never even had any relevant battles before the league would make such important win along them feel extremely dissatisfying for me.

Compare that to Alola, where Ash actually had super close bonds with each pokemon he caught (save for Melmetal tbh) and how each of them had arcs in the league itself!

That's awesome! And that's the right only way for Ash to have a League win! It got to be something he does along his pokemon. Not just for himself.

Also, Ash winning any league wouldn't be as impactful if it was not by Pikachu's side (and I can assure that Kalos wouldn't allow anyone one other than Greninja to take down Diantha's Gardevoir if we came to that).

JNs was not the best and Alola's battles could have been better sure, but the fact Pikachu was there in the last battle as Ash's final pokemon in both instances is cathartic. Pikachu is Ash's extension! It's important for Pikachu to be there in the finale along Ash for such important moments for them. Kalos would not have done that.

The companions and Ash are not that close

Sorry not sorry but the "Kalos fam" has some of the most superficial dynamics of all the anime.

Serena and Ash's relationship (which was even supposed to be more than friendship) is painful to watch at times. Ash doesn't seem to like her much, not ever trying to learn about her (even with her saying they DID met before) and in general is very one-sided.

And the same can be said about Clemont. He sees Ash as this amazing trainer he has to aim towards, but other than the "science is amazing" comments, Ash doesn't seem to reciprocate at all.

Neither of them help eachother with their goals other than some few times Clemont and Ash trained. Like, compared to May, with whom Ash was very invested in getting her to find something to do at the beggining and how he showed even more interest in her goal around Battle frontier. Dawn (nuff said). Iris, with whom he trained plenty of times. Lillie, who he put lots of effort into helping with her fear of pokemon (and even sometimes Mallow's and Sophocles' episodic goals).

Gosh, even certain characters of the day got more of Ash's support than Serena and Clemont, with Korrina being the most obvious and funny example. Ash gets so attached to her, her training and her wish to become stronger and they interact SO naturally that is always funny to see how the writers can write such good dynamics between Ash and this one gym girl but not yknow, his "kalosian family". And dont dare to say that he is only like that because she wants to be stronger. Clemont wants that too and Ash doesn't give a SHIT!

Ash is a character that cares a lot for others and the fact he seemed to care so little for his Kalos friends is painful to watch (specially with how much Clemont and Serena ADORE him!)

A season where Ash wins a league shouldn't be about only him achieving something (which Kalos totally feels like). It should be something more. Something about how Ash being with those people helped them grow, about how they helped him grow, and how much they matter to him.

Kalos is not a relevant place for Ash himself

There's nothing about how Kalos is written that makes the region or the people in there feel special for Ash.

Honestly this can be said to all regions. I'm a Sinnoh apologist but even I admit that Ash becoming Sinnoh champion wouldn't be the most interesting for him as he doesn't have a super strong connection with it other than Dawn, Paul and kinda of Cynthia.

In Kalos he surely had Serena, Clemont, Bonnie; And Sycamore, Korrina, Alain and Diantha can be added into the list too if we force it a bit. But there's nothing about Kalos itself that makes it stand out as a region Ash would want to "reign", you get me? Maaaybeeee the romance thing with Serena could make it more relevant, but that was done poorly and doesn't count enough for me.

To be completely honest, the most satisfactory region for Ash to win up to gen6 would totally have been Kanto. That's his home, where he was born, his mom is there, lots of his friends (brock, misty, gary, oak, tracey) are there. That's where he met Pikachu.

No other region felt as special up till Alola. And sure it is super cheesy at times, but it works!

With those in mind, I think is also worth noting how Kalos' beggining and ending are smh detached from the middle story and how that lack of planning is one of the reasons the writing in that season is so irritating for me.

Like, we have the first 2 episodes of Kalos that stabilish:

That Clemont lost his gym to his own robot.

That Clemont's father is a superhero.

That Serena knows Ash for a while now.

And then in the Flare Finale, we have the payoff to those things, with:

Clembot dying.

Clemont and Bonnie discovering (with the most lukewarm reactions my I add) that Myers is Blaziken Mask.

Serena kissing Ash.

And that's the thing. Other than in the beggining and ending: THOSE THINGS DONT MATTER!!!!

Clemont losing the gym to Clembot is resolved in ep9 and that whole thing about him losing the gym matters nothing in the long run other than that we lose the precious potential of having a Heliolisk in the main gang!

Meyer NEVER appears outside of the starting and ending arcs!

Serena and Ash BARELY interact in any meaningful way in the WHOLE anime and their friendship is one of the weakest between all main characters!

For any of the above to hold weight, there should have been more moments in the actual anime building up to it. Clemont's gym thing should have been more important than just the place where Ash jumped off from; Meyer should have been a more relevant character; Ash should have been a better friend to Serena if they wanted to sell the idea that this girl really feel for this version of him when he is extremely neutral to her at best (and a complete jerk at worse).

Honestly for a Kalos league win to feel earned, a whole rewrite from ep 7 to 136 would be needed for me lol

Make Serena's "give up too fast" into an actual character trait and not something her mom said once. Have her try things (SPECIALLY BATTLES) and give up! Have Ash help her with those things and try his optimistic "dont give up" bullshit only for it to backfire on her because it's not easy for everybody to be like that.

And not rushing her into "doing something" because they wasted 50 episodes not trying anything with her beforehand! It's fine that Serena took so long to find what she wanted to do, but the fact she didn't try anything or had any moment focused on her struggling with that beforehand IS NOT!

Have Clemont learn something from Ash too. Have his struggle with maintaining the Gym and what it all means to him hold more weight! Have Clemont try Ash's humanxpokemon training a few times so he can build up his confidence. Have that lil tidbit we saw before his battle with Ash and what it means to be a Gym Leader be an integral part of his character! Have his inventions be more relevant than just some gag. Have him and Serena be closer because they "arent like Ash, but they want to be".

Have Ash affect them, but also have them affect Ash more! Have Ash learn how to dance with Serena and have that stick! Combine that with Counter Shield and make that move go from "ash and dawn's thing" to "ash and ALL HIS FRIENDS's thing" QAQ Have Ash learn some strategies from Clemont too and use his inventions during his pokemon training!

HAVE THE DAMN POKEMON INTERACT WITH ONE ANOTHER AND WITH TRAINERS OTHER THAN THEIR OWN!!

Gosh, seriously, the fact I can count on one hand the amount of times Ash ever acknowledged Fennekin's existence is terrible! The pokemon should be as relevant as people in the goddamn pokemon anime and that's one thing Kalos failed to get that all other seasons get (maybe not JNs).

We could have had so much more SerenaxHawlucha moments if they weren't cowards. That bird would have LOVED showcases and the fact Hawlucha never saw a single one of those shows how much Kalos' writing fails at making those characters feel connected with their stupid "only one person at the spotlight each time" approach. If an episode is about Serena, only her pokemon appear; If its about Clemont, only his pokemon appear; if is about Ash, good luck having screen time even if you're a human. And that's bad. That should not be the approach to a pokemon season, let alone the season where the MC is supposed to achieve his most important goal!

But let's say that Kalos ends as it is and Ash wins. I think another year and another 50 or so episodes would be needed still. To have Ash go throught the same arc he went throught Alola, but in Kalos.

Maybe we could have a rewrite from Snowbelle onwards.

Maybe after how Ash acts when she was just trying to help, Serena could leave the gang (I know it sounds like me being a hater but HEAR ME OUT). Ash hurt her feelings, treated her horribly right before and is not like she has a reason to stay other than to cheer for him in the league. So she leaves (and I keep thinking on expanding the idea of her final words being something like "I thought you were different" to add to "that's not you" she says in that episode).

And that's what gets Ash to realize he messed up. If he got the kindest girl in the world fed up with his bullshit is because he messed up big time.

And I like the promise he makes with Greninja, about starting from zero, and that could be what he does here.

But to what extend, i dont know.. I keep thinking that he could rechallenge gym leaders and about Hoenn's battle frontier to tie in with Hoenn remakes, but neither of those sound right (specially since he already did the battle frontier).

Maybe a Brandon re-challenge in specific? Since Ash never won against him fully and to parallel Paul back in DP?

Or maybe a small arc of him re-challenging the gym leaders in the Battle Chateau (it could work as JN's world championship tbh)?

Maybe he goes back to Lumiose with Clemont and we have a bit more of Meyer too to salvage THAT plot point. And maybe Sycamore could even give him mega stones to help him "start over" :0c Maybe he could then bring back reserves to tie in everything properly?

I dont know.

What I know is: It would be nice to follow a bit of Serena's side too! Maybe she could just go back home or go all the way to Hoenn and start doing contests! And we could see her growing into more of her own person and expanding the abilities she never explored before (LIKE BATTLING WHY SHE NEVER BATTLED?) and existing outside of Ash yknow!?

And more importantly, on Ash's side, I think it would be a great chance of showing his feelings for Serena in this "arc" if they really wanted to make them endgame.

Like, have him realize how much he misses her, how her support was way more important to him than he expected and have him realize how the people around you are more important than winning or something. Same message from Alola but with that romantic twist Kalos yearns for.

Have Ash grow into "the person he really is" for Serena mostly. And have him reach for her just to show her that (perhaps in a battle :3c) and have her finally back into the gang after he proves just how much he really cares.

And then league goes same way I guess. Except Greninja gets backseated for the finale cause I say so.

Now, SunMoon!

Alola would totally maintain the family theme no matter what, yes!

Alola's core theme is "finding a place where you belong" after all. We can see that in the games too, with Lillie's problems with her mother; Gladion who keeps this split life of "do I protect my sister or do I embrace Team Skull"; How Team Skull themselves is a bunch of kiddos that failed the island challenge and have nowhere to be due to that. Even the protag that comes from a whole nother region to find themselves adapting to a new life.

That's also why letting Ash win there, the kid who never had a place to belong despite 20 years of going around, is very satisfactory too.

But doing that with any main character that feels displaced in their own home would have been good ngl (making the MC Selene instead of Helio and expand on that outcast feel with some queer-coding in her relationship with Lillie would be awesome ôwô)

I also keep thinking of the idea of cutting the middle man and upgrading Lillie into full main character.

Ash stole Nebby from her, but lets say that the anime goes kinda the same way but the Tapus give Lillie Nebby instead. It would be interesting.

Have her try and protect it while also hiding it from her mom. Have her learn to battle to protect it and slowly grow stronger herself. I just like the idea of Lillie becoming a battler ok? It feels like the natural progression from scared girl who can't talk back to her mom /scared of pokemon > to girl who can fight for her ideals along the pokemon that took her in when no one else did.

Have her go with it as Solgaleo after her mom and save her with the pokemon that has always been by her side! The Pokemon that felt more like family than her own. Good stuff!

But the league.. I dont know honestly. If we keep this idea of Lillie as MC, down to living with Kukui and finding a family under him, it can work the same way in the anime, just put Lillie in Ash's place.

But I know the anime would never so. Idk. I still think a GuzmaxKukui battle would be good no matter what so Lillie(or any other MC) failing in the league against Guzma, only for Kukui to come and protect his adopted child would be interesting to see to ngl!

And PUH-LEASE, I ADORE this kinds of talk! Rambling about pokemon meta/what ifs is my favorite thing, I just dont do it more often cause I know I'm irritating :v