#It's a choice. I may be wrong but I want to see the remake without making any comparison yet

[miss0atae]

Random Thoughts about Love Sick 2024 (EP 6): Misunderstandings and Teenagers' expectations of love.

Today, we got the beach episode you expect from any Thai BL . In between we also saw how other characters are coping with the difficulties and fun time you can get during teen-hood. The episodes are quite long so you get to see many things, but I feel it wouldn't work any other way because there is a very large cast for this series. It's the only way to give enough screen-time to everyone (I'll be more than ready for Perfect 10 Liners this way).

This episode wasn't really centered around Phun and Noh even if they got several scenes together. What I mean is that nothing really changed for them in this episode. They are still stuck in the same stage where they both admit they care for the other one, but they can't do anything about that. Phun is still with Aim because he also care for her and he still gets jealous when he see Noh interacting with other people who he know could flirt with him (Yuri or Earn). Noh is also experimenting jealousy because he saw Aim admitting her feelings for someone else and he doesn't know what it could change for her relationship with Phun. It will get messy I think, but I hope in the end they will learn what they really want.

Talking about Aim, I felt quite sad for her in this episode. She crafted this trip at the beach to be able to see Li/Lee, but nothing changed. She told her again that she likes her, but something happened in the past and we don't have enough information. Li/Lee isn't with Aim and Aim is still hurt by this fact. I hope they will get to really talk in the coming episode (ending up together at the end of the series would be great too). She is also pressured by her mom to keep doing her influencer's job and she doesn't seem to find a real joy of doing this. The series shows also how some people feel free to voice their negative/unwanted opinion of influencers out loud and doesn't really respect them as human being. Aim is quite young and we know this type of fame can be damaging. She must also be struggling with her identity/orientation.

Even if the series is mostly showing queer relationship, I liked how they also decided to tackle on the pressure women can have in heterosexual relationship. I think it was interesting to see how Yuri felt like she had to "do it" with Noh. It also showed how men can be as lost as women in this type of situation. I don't know enough about this to really talk about it properly. I would say the series tried to show bias around gender role and how hurtful it can be.

I also want to add that Noh saw Aim and Li/Lee's conversation and he filmed it. I wish he didn't do it. It never ends well. I think he will probably talk about that with Grace because he is lost and he needs someone to help him understand. Obviously he can't really talk about it with Phun. In addition, he may not feel like talking to Ohm because it would need for him to explain his complicated relationship with Phun. I just hope he won't do something stupid like post the video online. It doesn't look like something he would do, but we never know. I still want to trust him because I really appreciate him as a character. However, no human is perfect. He wouldn't be an interesting character if he didn't have weakness.

Of course, we also get to see more about Ohm and Mick. I wonder why Ohm is so harsh to Mick. He is supposed to be his mentor, but I feel like he doesn't exactly know how he should act. I agree that "you should know yourself the best", but it seems a bit laughable that a teenager would say that and doesn't give room for "learning". Even adults don't know who they really are and it takes more time for some people to really discover it. He was acting like if Mick can't run and fail at doing this simple task, he would fail in every other situations in his life. I doubt Ohm knows himself so well. He is still young and things in life will probably impact his views and change them. Maybe he is just faking it like we all do and it's just teenager's bravado.

I also already talked about how I felt like Per and Mawin had a weird relationship dynamic. In the previous episode, it was like they were already together, but couldn't be out, but now it seems like Per is doing something for Mawin's family and he must not "go soft" on him. My guess is that Mawin's family knows he has feelings for men and mostly for Per, but they don't accept it. I don't know what they expect from Per, but I think it's a little too much to ask a teenager to do anything about it. In the previous episode they were really cute to each other and this time Per rejected Mawin and asked him to go home. I hope the next episodes will give us more clues about what is going on.

Finally, we have Phong/Pong and Ngor. I don't know why, but I really like them. They have the least screen time among all the other characters, but there is something compelling about their story. I can't wait to see more of them.

Finally, at the end of the episode, Earn is here again. He wasn't at the beach so we didn't see him a lot, but now we're back at the school and Earn is still set on flirting with Noh and winning his heart. It also probably mean we'll see more of Pete too.

I already can't wait for next episode!

[one-hell-of-otaku-is-here]

List of all Black Butler OPs and EDs which I would personally give to each arc in manga (if I were to remake anime)

Disclaimer: DS game Phantom and Ghost and the most beautiful death in the world included because I see them as canon and welp Eric and Alan had one shot in manga so they are canon anyway. We are excluding all episodes which do not fit into manga narrative so no Pluto, Angel and no season 2 – all songs from season 2 will be added into previous season. Also, any arc after The book of Atlantic is not on list because I can't compose music, ok? (Ok but srsly where is new BB anime?? It's been years!). Ofc this is JUST my personal opinion so be nice. I wrote down some of my reasonings for some of my choices because I cant shut up in written form lol. If you want to make your own list like mine, go ahead but pls tag me so I can see your suggestions

Season 1 – for all stays Monochrome no Kiss OP

Episode 1 – Kidnapping arc (Damian arc and Season 3 ep 1 included Ig I see these small villains as fillers but they provide a nice introduction into Phantomhive household life) - I'm alive! By Becca ED (the only time this ED is any good. Don’t get me wrong I love Becca's song but it just does not fit overall theme especially for more serious arcs after this one)

eps 2 – 6 – Jack The Ripper arc - Bird by Yuya Matsushita ED (or alternately Madam Red song from live action adaption of this)

Eps 13 – 15 - Curry Arc (minus whole curry zombies, instead imagnr pls last scenes of this arc from manga) - Lacrimosa by Kalafina ED

Ep 16, “Royal princes ghost arc” (my title) - can fit into manga narrative as separate “filler” because it does not contradict anything (although personally I am not sure where in timeline it would fit probably very shortly after Curry arc, we do have few time skips but correct me if I am wrong) - Kagayaku Sora no Shijima ni wa by Kalafina ED

Phantom and Ghost arc game – takes place after Jack the Ripper but before Ciel's birthday and The book of Circus (pls play game it's really fun and a good story there exists English fan translation) - Bird by Yuya Matsushita ED

Ciel Birthday arc from manga – same OP and ED as the one we got from anime so Lacrimosa; this is basically OVA but some important stuff happens (but pls read manga version of it, the whole Drocell kidnapping thing is laughtable compared to it)

Black Butler Hamlet play OVA – also filler, has no time stamp so it's kind of a bonus anyway, not confirmed canon. I imagine that IF it were to happen then it may have taken place before circus arc and definitely not after since we know Undertaker “disappeared" after that and he was in play (this episode is a mess but it is personally one of my fav OVAs cos it alludes to Ciel's fate nicely) -Shiver by Gazette (I find it interesting to use this as OP for this OVA lol but original OP was fine as well), Lacrimosa ED

The most beautiful DEATH in the world (or Eric and Alan story) – my favourite original musical. It must fit into the storyline I am not even asking. It's probably also my favourite BB story ofc right after Book of Atlantic and Book of Murder – Hallucination by Yuya Matsushita is top. I can't imagine this story without it, and Yuya has always been my fav live action Sebastian either way. OP stays the same (Monochrome no Kiss)

BONUS from Season 2 cos we are skipping S2 for obvious reasons - "The Tale of Will the Shinigami," the 6th OVA. An arc about the origins of Grell and William backstory. I don’t understand why this can't be canon. There's even a cameo for Alan and Eric. Buut I am basically sucker for reapers they are my favourite supernatural beings in BB (it's my excuse for having a separate series just about reapers leave me alone I can keep dreaming) - Shiver by Gazette is my go-to song for everything outside our main plot rn, Kagayaku Sora no Shijima ni wa as ED

No more OVAs to have here after this. I was considering adding Welcome to Phantomhives but that’s just another filler and basically it serves no purpose only just to be yet another entertainment (I personally quite like self inserts so this was a guilty pleasure of mine but pointless in grand scheme of things). I also thought about the very fist (and original) live action which they said was supposed to take place between curry and circus arc?? but I don’t think that was any good to even have its own theme song (idea of adding new demon?? It was better than S2 but idk why this even exists) and overall it was just kind of very similar to what we got in form of Soma and Agni anyway so I skipped that too (when it comes to original stories outside manga I think game and Alan and Eric musical did it better)

Season 3 aka Book of Circus arc – is perfect as it is. Aoki Tsuki Michite by Akira is my favorite Ed of all the time basically and Enamel by SID just rocks even better than first OP. No changes here they finally did things right

Book of Murder OVAs arc – there are no theme songs so I am adding those I would like to see. For OP theme song we are keeping Enamel from SID (there simply can't be OP without SID). For ED I wanna choose first season EDs again but Bird is probably the best because I can imagine Arthur as big bro/father figure to our Ciel more with it. You can't tell me he wasn’t for that few minutes in that one scene)

Book of Atlantic arc – wow we actually have theme song - Glass eyes by SID . It’s a movie so I am fine with having just one theme song (it's basically OP and ED perfect package, I was really excited for this movie back then and when song played with credits, I felt happy and sad at the same time).

Public school arc - current OP and ED for this arc actually grew on me and even animations for them are great so I am satisfied

[mitraoki]

things i believe you should do to the haikyuu!! boys. (karasuno edition!)

characters; karasuno boys🥰

extra notes; they make my heart feel so so warm. i only did some of the boys, so i hope you enjoy it! 🥺

masterlist.

+ before a match, try getting kageyama his favorite food/drink. usually it’s milk, so it’s probably the best choice! but if you decide to get something else for him (which may also be his fav), he would be 10 times happier because he has the assurance that you know him just a little too well🥺 his eyes just light up, his head tilted slightly downwards while accepting it. in return, he gives you a pre match smooch <3 ‘watch me’, he says.

+ hold hinata’s face. please. some part of me tells me that our little sunshine needs a whole lot of affection too :’( i also have a feeling that once he knows he has someone who loves him for who he is and what he’s aiming for, he is also under a lot of unintentional pressure, thinking whether you’d be watching him fly. he doesn’t say it to you or anyone of course, which is how you come in this situation. cup both your hands on his squishy cheeks, and maybe give him a kiss or two! *hinata is now heavily sobbing*

+ give yamaguchi good luck kisses. knowing how much he doubts himself, he would proceed to doubt himself a whole lot more whether he’s going to execute his serves later on in the match, with you watching and cheering for him. what if he fails? can he do this? will you leave? just run up to him before the match, bring him closer and give him a peck on the forehead/cheeks. part 2 of soft boy tearing up - sometimes he even wonders how he got to end up with someone like you. but knowing that he is, it seemed to boost his confidence so much more. hey, once karasuno wins, feel free to kiss him too. trust me, it would make him want to get back onto court the next time. ‘tHANK YOU- sweetheart,’ he says.

+ daichi would possibly need a massage! he has always stayed strong to his beliefs that your massaging gives him so much of ease. you’ve noticed once how his shoulders tend to stiffen, mostly a night before his match - it’s just his way of stressing, ya know? so try holding both his shoulders and slowly push them down to their place. i kid you not; i can even see him letting out a huge sigh. heads up; sometimes it ends back up in the same position, so you have to be patient with him :’) ‘what would i ever do without you,’ he questions.

+ tsukishima wouldn’t admit it, but he adores little caresses on his hands. sometimes his teammates wonder how you make dealing with tsukki so easy but what can he say? you just have the charm. you did hear of his injury during his match against shiratorizawa, so try gently tracing your fingers, maybe even bandaging them up. physical touch is kind of rare when it comes to him, but if it’s you, it’s the falling for you all over again. ‘and now you’re admiring my fingers more than me. a shame, really.’ (yes he loves it)

+ sometimes i think nishinoya needs someone to go out with. just on a little adventure - it could be a food hunt, the arcade, anything really! he is quite the energetic person anyway, so maybe that could help?? i think it’ll be best if you took him out after a match. win or lose, just go for it. i believe he overthinks about what he’s done, and whether he did it right, but he hides it away with his carefree nature. that’s okay! you can always show him that expressing emotions are never wrong. <3

+ asahi loves loves loves it when you play with his hair. you can style it? bonus points. even more points if you know exactly when you should do it - namely before he goes for a match, or when he’s stressed. as we all know, he gets nervous very quickly. try settling him down real quick, and start brushing his hair. huge headcanon that he takes really good care of his hair - you could feel just how soft and smooth it was. but when it comes to match day, he does his hair in whatever way possible. now that you’re here, it all seems to be going well now :’)

+ sugawara would need a cuddle session with you. let it be before or after a match, he loves holding you close. it’s sort of a reassurance to him that you don’t care what position he holds out in the court, or what he does. none of that matters to you, and you accepted him wholeheartedly. hearing that for the first time definitely shattered your heart (so did mine), and just like that, a beautiful relationship blossomed. just hold him, be the big or little spoon! anything fits for him - mans is in complete love with you. he’s already asleep, soft breaths in sync with yours. 

all created content belongs to mitraoki. reposts and remakes are not allowed. 

[hohoz]

The ones that suffer the most

I wanted to talk about this for a long time.

I’m a Resident evil addicted, I finished almost every RE game released and I must say that Capcom made some poor choices regarding Jill and Chris, they are EASILY the most mistreated characters in RE Franchise. 

But let’s explain why is that: 

Jill and Chris are survivors, they had to survive in a mansion with a lot of puzzles and zombies, while looking for items that could help them to progress and find a way to reach Brad. 

When they arrive at STARS Office, they are revolted that Umbrella did all that under their noses and innocents were dying because of that and they explained EVERYTHING in a report - but Irons made that go away. 

In the ORIGINAL RE3 we had this special file (Jill’s Diary) 

August 7th Two weeks have passed since that day. My wounds have been healed, but I just can't forget it. For most people, it's history now. But for me, whenever I close my eyes, it all comes back clearly. Zombies eating people's flesh and the screams of my teammates dying. No, the wounds in my heart are not healed yet...

August 13th Chris has been causing a lot of trouble recently. What's with him? He seldom talks to the other police members and is constantly irritated. The other day, he punched Elran of the Boy's Crime department just for accidentally splashing Chris's face with coffee. I immediately stopped Chris, but when he saw me he just gave me a wink and walked away. I wonder what happened to him...

August 15th Midnight. Chris, who has been on a leave of absence for a "vacation," called me so I visited his apartment. As soon as I walked into his room, he showed me a couple of pieces of paper. They were part of a virus research report entitled as simply as "G". Then Chris told me that, "The nightmare still continues." He went on to say that, "It's not over yet." Ever since that day, he has been fighting all by himself without rest, without even telling me.

August 24th Chris left the town today to go to Europe. Barry told me that he would send his family to Canada and then he would follow Chris. I decided to remain in Raccoon City for a while because I know that the research facility in this city will be very important to this entire case. In a month or so, I'll be joining with them somewhere in Europe. That's when my real battle begins...

For some weird reason this file isn’t available in RE3 Remake. 

But ok, here we see that Chris was doing some investigation - in the RE2RMK  you could see this letter that Chris left in a way that normal people wouldn't understand - the only thing that Claire says is that “doesnt look like him” but how normies would understand what Chris is like is he is not well represented in media ??????????????????

And Jill had all the detective work in her wall. 

So far so good - we understand the basics about them - they are Special police force, the elite, they had a traumatic experience and they survived to tell the story. 

Some problems until now:

Jill had a MAJOR personality change in RE3 RMK- I honestly like most of that, she is a badass in the originals and she is a badass in the rmk but I still dislike the fact that she swears all the time (specially because in RE1, RE Rev, RE5 she doesn't do that) 

We can tell a lot about her personality just looking at her room, but I still miss some stuff (I had expectations - so this is not a real problem. but still) like a Vinyl player (since she is probably into classical music), some letters from her father so new players can understand her origin and why is she so good in lockpicking and more about her dog (she had a pic in the original that could’ve been her boyfriend but it was replaced by a dog in RE2 rmk but in RE3 Rmk there in no dog) 

Okay - after you finish the game the only thing we see is this: 

In my opinion this is Chris since he is always associated with Green colors while Jill is associated with blue. 

So my speculation here is that she found him while in the original we had this: 

This is not a major chance but still is important (lore of course - duh) but the problem here is that while Jill is looking for him - Code Veronica is happening. 

So I can only assume two things, they did not show him because they DON’T HAVE A FACE FOR HIM or I am wrong and that is Jill, but if that is Jill so why there is no decent epilogue like the original ? 

Okay, now we are arriving in the real trouble area

I will do RE5 first and the Wii and Rev1 (even tho those two comes first in the lore) 

RESIDENT EVIL 5 

So before the game was release we had some propaganda, including this: 

So have in mind that Jill was dead, I thought that she died and RE5 would explain that shit. 

But in the beginning we see that Chris is looking for her and have in mind that Chris HAD A MAJOR CHANCE IN HIS APPEARANCE, and I’m not talking about his muscles. 

I will not address Chris in CV since he was good in that game but I the team that made CV also made the original, it had CONSISTENCE. 

Here we have Chris, he’s THE classical american soldier protagonist from Hollywood in the 80′s/90′s and he had some omage to TOPGUN

He also shares some traits with his sister

A major trait here is that HE HAS BLUE EYES, typical good looking soldier from US. 

and now let’s have a look at Chris in RE5...

Yeah... I still hate this face even tho I love his Character in this game, this ugly a** monkey looking mf and he had a lot of steroids

So we have some lore to him in RE5, Jill and Chris went to a mansion looking for Spencer (one of the fathers of Umbrella and the one that was behind project Wesker, he wanted to do this Virus so he could live forever, so RE has a good lore, it’s not just about zombies) but when they found him, he was dead and Wesker was by his side, in a fight Jill sacrificed herself to save Chris’s life. 

Chris started doing mission after mission because her body was never found, and he made a name for himself, he became a ‘legend’ inside BSAA and you can see that in the beginning of RE5.

The reason behind the muscles was probably to fight Wesker mano to mano but still is not well made, it really felt weird playing for the first time. 

So now we have a problem here, there is thing that you use in a narrative that is to make someone strong af powerless, and they did that to Jill. (a good example of this is in TWD- Ricky is a fucking legend and Negan made him powerless in the face of a event) 

Jill was used in a Boss fight and that is it... She is not in the game as a character, she is being manipulated and her whole design was changed, she looks like Nina from Tekken. WTF. - BTW, the fact that Wesker had mind control over her created 1000 fics of sex 

 So that is it, my main problem here isnt Jill itself, but it’s the fact that they used her character as a boss even tho she is the heroine, she never appears in RE lore again until some guy inside Capcom said “Well people are asking about Jill so let’s place a file in Rev2 saying that she is in rehab” 

The only time that she appears again is in a 3DS NINTENDO ONLY game, it felt that Capcom simply don’t care about her character. 

By the way Revelations 1 is a great game and was adaptable some years later for PC and consoles

But you think that this is bad, wait until we arrive at RESIDENT EVIL 6 

When I learned that Jill was not in RE6 I was mad... But after I played that game I said “thank you God” that game was bad, transformers kind of bad, it had bad writing, the lore was all over the place and Chris was the one that suffered the most in this game. 

He was responsible for the death of an entire squad, suffered amnesia and people still wanted him in the command 

THEY MADE HIM AN ALCOHOLIC 

The golden boy of BSAA reduced to THIS. 

By the way, the director said that HE WANTED TO KILL CHRIS IN THIS GAME to SUBVERT EXPECTATIONS - so if you liked Piers now that he died only because of that. 

So now let’s analyse what we know: 

The first 2 main characters are not well represented in media until RE6, they don’t know how to re introduce Jill in the games and Chris was reduced to a normal guy at a Russian bar;

But it gets worse... 

Capcom LOVE Leon, we know that. he is always the hero, he is the protagonist in almost every movie and he is always the cool guy so when he get’s a new model, he looks like this:

But When Chris get’s a new face he look like this: 

WHO DAFUQ ARE U, no offense to the model but he has NEGATIVE JAW LINE.

And still he doesn't look like Claire’s brother, there is no blue/green eyes and he looks younger that he was in 6 (and 6 still uses that ugly character model) 

But let’s go in the lore- we HAVE 0 info on Jill in RE6 / RE7 and no sight of her in RE8 

And speaking of which, they tried to make Chris the bad guy in the trailer so when we play we see “Ohhhh he was not the bad guy, that happened and that is why he did that” 

But still... 

If they are going to do that to his character don’t use this character, shit ! Do something with that Wesker’s son that made 0 sense in RE6 but leave Chris out of this - it really feels that they simply don’t know how to treat him right

And you may think that I may be complaining a lot because of his appearance

But this is him in RE8  

(to me this is some random dude from Russia) 

And this is him in RE:Verse (that is going to be release TOGETHER) 

So this tells me that they have 0 clue of how to handle his looks

Jill got RE3Rmk but it felt like a cheap game compared to RE2Rmk where the original RE3 was SO MUCH BETTER

And this is bad because there are so many new fans joining the fandom only to see 2 great characters suffering from poor director’s choices. 

I’m sorry about this rant, if you like Chris face and looks its okay, really, but dont tell me that Chris from 5/6/8 is the same from 1/CV and if you think im wrong about Jill its fine, but she is an amazing character that could have so much more impact in RE universe (I mean, she never even appeared in a RE movie - animations) 

But it’s sad to see so many characters that receive good representation in media and good games/lore while Jill get’s almost none and Chris is handled like random face guy. 

I was going to talk a little bit more about Rev 1 and RE Umbrella Chronicles but there is no need since Im mad right now and it seems that Capcom has 0 interest in making Code Veronica and Umbrella’s fall after that since their fav boy Leon need a rmk in RE4 even tho RE4 is not that old. 

Bonus:

Fun fact: Chris served in the Air force, so yeah, to me even Tom Cruise looks more like Chris than Chris from the games

[sofipitch]

If you're comfortable can you talk about more about your experience in the fandom because I share similar sentiments, in a separate fandom. I received death threats every day and my friend's account was hacked into and certain posts of hers were deleted. It lasted years. It was horrible. Did you write your fic Long Way Home (I love the title!) before amc iwtv was announced? Are those fans of the books who drove other fans out still around and may I know who they are so that I may block them? (1/2)

If I may, I want to share that when the HP books were first released--before JKR exposed herself and before the movies aired and ruined my inner version of the books-- I read them and certain characters in my mind were never as they were in the books, Hermione was Indian in my mind, as was Lupin, based on real life friends. Ron was definitely not a redhead. I don't know why there is so much hate towards race change, but it seems that a majority of those haters are on FB, as immortalconclusions mentioned about the FB group, I am a part of it and there is much vitriol in that group, especially aimed towards the actors. I am horrified that so many fans of the little mermaid are offended by the beautiful Halle Bailey, she's the perfect Ariel as I see it. Also I hate that some fans want to see Timothee Chalamette as Armand, what a ridiculous choice. (2/2)

So I don't really want to go into it, last time someone sent me an anon shitting on one of these ppl and I answered it the person was harassing all my friends for HOURS in like .3 seconds. Like we are block mutuals and yet she knew immediately, creepy much? There have been doxxing threats on here which is fun, I have gotten threats of violence and idk how related but a friend got one of sexual assault. So I'm not waking the beast by invoking these ppl. If anyone wants specific ppl I would recommend blocking you can dm me. It's honestly not hard to tell, if you see a VC fan who refuses to acknowledge the TV show or overwhelming speaks negatively, that's them. For some reason a lot of ppl try to keep up public appearances on Tumblr yet will say the most vile shit with their IRL name attached in the FB group

I actually came up with the idea for that fic after JA's casting announcement based on ppl saying there was no way for Louis to be black without changing "everything about Louis" or that Louis and Lestat as an interracial couple would be abusive. When you are so woke you think respecting cultural differences means ppl of other races aren't ppl who go through ppl experiences and so woke that the races shouldn't mix (but for POC protection). I just wanted a way to say yes POC are (get this) ppl. And it also turned into a way for my cowriter and I to talk about our own experiences and hopefully make something for other fans of color to hopefully relate too

I'm so sorry about what you are your friend went through, fandom in general has a lot of racism and I think some of it is the anonymity, white ppl feel safer being openly racist. Like all the slurs and stuff I and others have gotten is always done via anon or sock puppet accounts. So they KNOW what they are doing is wrong bc they don't want to attach their name to it. It's both disgusting and pathetic

And yeah this is not a unique situation for VC, when ppl were objecting to JA's casting they tried to come up with a PLETHORA or reasons VC is different and you just can't with Louis and yeah it's always bullshit. Same thing with Ariel, I love The Little Mermaid and I hate the Disney remakes but I will likely see this one in theaters bc that's my girl, I get the appeal of the remakes when it is specifically one of my fave movies 😂 But someone IRL asked me my opinion bc she knows I love Ariel and I was like "she seems good" and she went on to say that "She was always made to feel bad she was a redhead growing up (this girl is like strawberry blonde so barely, 0 freckles) and Ariel made her feel better". Like they were taking away HER representation. I don't even need to go into how fucking stupid that is. They ALWAYS claim to have specific and valid rationales for this one casting, they aren't a racist (maybe they even have POC friends!) 🙄

[risukadarlin]

[bustafellows] tokuten cd -bustafellows the movie

DISCLAIMER & COMMENT

who else is excited for pqube asias localisation? i love this game so i’m really glad more people will be able to play it. i can’t recommend it enough!! please buy it if you can and enjoy this tokuten cd! 

my hearing isnt the best so im not great at recognising voices and some of the speakers may be wrong! please let me know if they are.

i do not own bustafellows or the rights to the cd!

                                                                ✿

- Starring -

Teuta (cv. Kondou Yui)

Scarecrow (cv. Shirai Yuusuke)

Helvetica (cv. Yoshino Hiroyuki)

Shu (cv. Hosoya Yoshimasa)

Mozu (cv. Fukuyama Jun)

Limbo (cv. KENN)

BUSTAFELLOWS THE MOVIE --- ACTION!!

Limbo:

Oi! Hang on in there!

Shit…

How did it end up like this…?

Helvetica:

I can’t go any further…

Please run… Quickly…

Shu:

Stupid bastard.

We can’t leave you here!

Helvetica:

Look…

I was bitten by one of those zombies earlier…

I’ll turn into one of them soon.

So, go quickly!

Limbo:

You can’t just say that...

Shu: 

Limbo.

We don’t have a choice.

Limbo: 

You!

And you call yourself our friend!

Shu:

I’m saying it because I’m your friend!

Limbo:

Fine.

Then how do we get out of here?

Shu:

First, we split up…

Teuta:

Cut!

Scarecrow:

Cut, cut!

Shu, Helvetica, Limbo:

Eh, what?

Teuta:

This is awful.

This script would have been old one hundred years ago.

Good grief.

Why do they always want to split up in movies?

It has to be safer if you work together.

Scarecrow:

And Limbo, you’re way too eager to leave Helvetica behind!

Try and look a bit more sad about parting from him.

Limbo:

You say that but what am I supposed to do when the scene is this generic?!

Teuta:

Exactly, Limbo’s right.

It’s so generic there’s no saving it.

Shu:

What the hell is this Bustafellows the Movie anyway?

Teuta:

We’re making a movie about Bustafellows.

Shu: 

Yeah, I got that from the title!

Scarecrow:

It means our efforts have been recognised and we’re hitting the big time!

Teuta:

Listen.

We’re getting a movie adaption.

We’re going to be on massive cinema screens and we can sell blu-rays and they’ll put us in the recommendations on streaming sites!

Helvetica:

So, why are Teuta and Scarecrow directing it?

Teuta:

Why? Because Limbo and Helvetica and Shu don’t want to do it, right?

Shu, Helvetica, Limbo:

Nope. Not at all.

Scarecrow:

Then there’s no one but us to do it.

Teuta:

You can even call me Director, if you wish.

Mozu:

I’m interested.

Teuta:

Eh, really?

Mozu:

I think I know how to make the part Limbo and the others were doing about zombies more realistic.

Teuta:

Mozu! You get it!

If you die you become a zombie.

If you get bitten you get infected.

If you shoot them in the head they stop moving.

Don’t you think it's all kind of old?

Mozu:

The course of infection is always obvious, so I always wonder why no one in the movies ever tries to make a vaccine.

And why does only their brain work if they’re already dead?

Teuta:

See!

Let’s make a more real and innovative zombie movie!

Limbo:

But it’s fiction, you’re supposed to suspend your disbelief.

Teuta:

Listen.

Good entertainment is often mistaken for looking back at the basics and reusing them.

People just think they can remake everything.

Helvetica:

Do you have any good ideas, then?

Teuta:

We just only use the good parts.

Scarecrow:  Helvetica:   Shu:

Good idea!  Awful idea.  That’s too simple.

Mozu:

What do you mean specifically?

Teuta:

A crossover! 

We just mix together the good parts of a range of genres.

For example…

Yeah, Limbo, you said you like zombie and disaster films, right?

Limbo:

Right. You can watch them without having to think, yeah?

Teuta:

I get that.

What about you, Shu?

Shu:

Real men’s films like Westerns.

Teuta:

Ah, Westerns, huh.

I like them too but don’t they lack flashiness.

Helvetica:

Shu:

I agree.

Everything is so brown and there’s not a drop of fashion sense.

Scarecrow:

And there’s barely any action.

Shu:

Huh? There’s action with flashy guns and everything.

Teuka:

That’s why it’s boring.

People can teleport now.

I can even time travel.

Scarecrow:

They can’t fly, no buildings fall down and they have nothing but horse drawn carriages.

Shu:

That’s what’s so good about them.

Horses are great.

You just have to stroke them a little and they-

Scarecrow: (Shu:)

If we mix a Western with disaster movie elements, we can hide how lacking it is, right? (You’re not listening, are you?)

Teuta:

Yes, yes, that should be good!

Helvetica:

It just sounds like it’ll be chaos to me.

Shu:

And there’s nothing lacking about Westerns.

Helvetica: 

I prefer traditional romance movies to flashy action ones.

The recent ones rely too much on extreme love scenes.

Scarecrow:

L-love scenes?!

Shu:

I think it’s great you can see proper porn on the big screen.

Limbo:

Yeah but with the sound quality in a movie theater, it’s a bit...

Helvetica:

Some films try too hard to see how far they can toe the line and it feels fake.

People don’t make those noises in real life, can they?

Scarecrow:

Those… noises?

Helvetica:

Moans of pleasure aren’t something you make, they leak out naturally.

Teuta:

STOP!

You always end up sounding like middle school students!

Listen up.

Nothing erotic. I’m banning it.

Shu & Helvetica:

Ehhh?

Scarecrow:

She’s right, you guys.

No s-sex or anything!

Limbo:

Is that really okay?

You just kissed a little in the original story.

Helvetica:

That’s true, their noses touched, right?

Scarecrow:

Eh, ah! H-h-how did you know…?!

Helvetica:

Did you do it with tongue once?

Scarecrow:

Tongue?!

Shu:

Helvetica, you were quite forceful, weren’t you?

Helvetica:

Yes. I was refused a few times though.

What about you, Shu?

Shu:

Me?

I touched her ass once.

Limbo:

We slept in the same bed.

In a luxury suite.

Mozu:

I see.

How was it?

Limbo:

You’d think it’d be really exciting, right?

But I just got used as a pillow all night.

Helvetica:

Limbo’s quite a late bloomer.

Limbo:

I fell asleep before I could do anything.

It couldn’t be helped.

Helvetica:

That’s why you--

Teuta:

Shut up!

I have no idea what you’re talking about but stop!

No more. Ever!

If you talk about stuff like that I don’t know where I stand.

I can’t say a word.

Mozu: 

Did you say something?

Teuta:

Not at all!

Anyway, let’s try and start from Shu’s Western.

                                                               ✿

Limbo:

What is it?

Milk?

Helvetica:

It’s from the customer over there.

Teuta:

Isn’t this a bit cliche?

Scarecrow:

Shu said it’s part of the style so we can’t take it out.

Limbo:

What’s the meaning of this?

Shu:

I thought it was the perfect drink for a baby like you.

I bet you miss your mum’s breast milk.

Limbo:

That’s fighting talk. Come outside.

Shu:

Perfect. It’s a duel.

Teuta & Scarecrow:

That’s good! You got it!

                                                               ✿

Scarecrow:

What was that noise?

Teuta:

It’s that - what’s it called - those hairballs that roll around in the desert?

Mozu:

Tumbleweed.

Teuta:

Yeah, tumblewhatever.

It’s more like a Western if we have that.

Limbo:

First, state your name.

I’m the ruler of the wilderness - Limbo.

Shu:

I’m the Solidary Sniper - Fast-shootin’ Shu.

Scarecrow:

If he’s going to say it with a straight face like that I can’t help but laugh.

Limbo:

Then, let’s begin.

One… 

Two…

S-

You!

You broke the rules of the duel.

As expected of Fast-shootin’ Shu.

Shu:

There are no rules during a duel.

Who decided we have to count to three before we shoot?

Hah?

Limbo:

I was set up…

Mozu:

Teuta, you’re up.

Teuta:

Ah, you’re right.

Limbo!

Why?

Why did you have to die?

Why?

Shu:

That man challenged me without knowing I was the fastest shooter in all New Sieg.

That means he was an idiot.

Teuta:

Fast shooting?

Shut up.

You just shot without counting to three!

You want to die too?

I don’t hold back for women-

What?

Teuta:

Limbo! You’re alive.

I’m so glad!

Ah? Limbo.

What’s happening?

Shu:

Lady, get away from him!

He’s already…

Limbo:

Nom nom NOM!

Helvetica:

Aren’t you going a bit fast?

Scarecrow:

We don’t have long. We have to move onto the next scene.

Shu:

Why? Why won’t he die when I shoot him?

Could it be he’s a zombie?!

I’m out of bullets.

Stay back!

What?

The lady was bitten and turned into a zombie too?

Mozu:

Wait.

Shu:

You are?

Mozu:

I’m just a passing researcher.

It’s too early to conclude that they’re zombies yet.

I wanted to lay out the definition of what a zombie is but the runtime is too short and so you should just imagine the average zombie.

Shu: 

O-okay.

Mozu:

Zombies are dead and have no recognition of the fact they are human, only moving due to their basic instinct of hunger.

But even if that man was shot in the chest, his brain cells should now be in hibernation to lower energy use in the body as much as possible.

Do you understand what I’m trying to say?

Shu:

No, not at all. Right?

Mozu:

In other words, there’s still time before his brain cells depolarise, so he shouldn’t be dead yet even though he was shot.

Scarecrow:

Hey, Mozu!

Can we not just make it easy and say he suddenly became a zombie because of the virus?

We can’t carry on with the story like this!

Mozu:

But you said so yourself.

You don’t want a stereotypical and traditional zombie movie.

Scarecrow:

Look, even Teuta is saying to get on with it.

Mozu:

Really?

Understood.

Then let’s say he was suddenly infected.

So, about that virus, it’s likely related to avian influenza or rabies.

Scarecrow:

Cut that too and move on.

Mozu: 

Eh?

This too?

Then, let’s say his bodily functions were suddenly stopped by a mysterious virus and now he’s operating only on his hunger, like a zombie Frankenstein.

That means that…

Shu:

Huh? What is it?

What are you clicking for?

Scarecrow:

What is this smell?

Mozu:

Frankenstein’s monster is most recognisable by the smell.

Helvetica:

What is this smell?

Scarecrow:

It smells like farts.

Teuta:

It stinks.

Limbo:

You stink too.

Teuta:

You’re the one who stinks, Limbo!

Mozu:

There are many reasons why Frankenstein’s monster smells. The main one is the gas produced when the intestines rot-

Scarecrow:

Cut! Cut, cut!

Teuta:

That’s enough! It’s over!

This is a mess!

Mozu:

Movies are more than just watching a screen now.

There are moving chairs and water can be sprayed on the audience.

There are also experiences that include smells.

So the putrid odour of a zombie--

Everyone else:

NO.

Helvetica:

We really should make a romance movie.

If it’s for the sake of entertainment we should include a racy love-scene.

I can teach you how to act it realistically, Teuta.

Teuta:

Why only me?!

Helvetica:

Because you’re the only girl here.

Teuta:

No way, why do I have to do a racy love scene with Helvetica?

Helvetica:

Ahh, you were so cute in the original story though…

Limbo:

That cute? In what way?

Helvetica: 

Well once in the pool-

Teuta:

Stop!

No more about the original story!

Helvetica:

Is sex not also a form of entertainment?

Humans have advanced as a civilisation in almost every way, but they embrace each other naked until this very day.

Teuta:

You made it sound like you said something smart but no way!

Helvetica:

That’s a shame.

Scarecrow:

So, what do we do?

I don’t think there’s a problem with the root of it.

The stereotypical Western was quite interesting.

Limbo:

Me becoming a zombie randomly is too weird.

Can we not lead into it more?

Shu:

People don’t gradually become zombies.

Mozu:

Maybe we can take some times and show the progression of decay-

Teuta:

Mozu, please forget about the rot!

Scarecrow:

Then what about having Captain Ginger and Catman as guests?

Limbo: 

I’m the main character so we should do a law film.

Objection! Bam! Like that.

                                                               ✿

Teuta:

Through trial and error, they created a never-before-thought-of masterpiece, mixing genres such as Zombies, Westerns, Spies, Romance and Science Fiction.

But their journey wasn’t over yet.

There was still a giant wall for them to climb.

Yes.

They had no funds.

But the words “give up” weren’t in their dictionary.

Their legend would begin from now!

Limbo:

Wow!

It’s a masterpiece.

Shu:

This will have the whole of America in tears.

Helvetica:

Teuta. I had no idea you were so talented.

Mozu:

I’m genuinely shocked. You’re amazing, Teuta.

Teuta:

You’re embarrassing me.

Scarecrow:

This is being turned into a movie, right?

Do you have plans for a sequel?

I’ll invest in it!

Let’s make it worldwide!

You really should!

Teuta:

You think so too?

I’m so talented it’s scary.

Ah!

Limbo:

Ah, you made me jump.

What did you get up so suddenly for?

Were you dreaming?

Teuta:

Eh? I was dreaming?

It was a dream, wasn’t it?

Mozu:

Teuta. Hey. Just here.

Here, just a bit…

Teuta:

Huh? My mouth?

What’s wrong with my mouth?

Helvetica:

Mozu was trying to be nice and keep it quiet, you can’t tell unless someone says it outright?

You’re drooling.

Quite a lot, actually.

Teuta:

You’re lying!

Shu:

Gross!

You’re even drooling onto your manuscript.

Teuta:

What? No way!

Mozu:

The letters are too smudged to read now, but is it okay?

Teuta:

It’s fine, it’s fine!

I’m glad it was a dream...

[silver-wield]

As much as I want Remake to officially put an end to this ridiculous shipping debate I really don't think they will. I think the reason the creators wrote Cloud and Tifa the way they did and made their relationship up for debate in the story was because they were afraid of angering the cleriths. Another part of the problem is that a lot of fans don't even know that the Ultimanias exist and the fact that they made the story ambiguous makes everyone question you know? It's so frustrating!

They're not afraid of angering cleriths. This may be a surprise to the western fandom, but the JP fandom's rival ship to cloti is sephikura. That's right, it's Sephiroth fans who the devs don't wanna piss off cause they be crazy af. They're the reason the scenes between Cloud and Tifa in AC weren't as romantic as they could be. They're the reason why Nomura cut Nojima's writing about cloti out of kh. It had nothing to do with clerith because none of the devs aside from Toriyama see it as a possibility, but as we've seen, the other devs have removed all of Toriyama's OG scenes from Remake and he's also been the one giving info like Aerith is creepy during Cloud's escape from her house.

The story for OG isn't ambiguous. Cloud and Tifa make a promise as kids, Tifa's confession is the one that's interrupted by fireworks at the GS, so even the ost was telling people who he went on a date with, everything about Aerith was her trying to make Cloud into Zack and by the time she realised how shitty that was she died. Cloud's only feelings for Aerith are guilt, whereas he tells Tifa, even in the depths of his false persona, that her opinion is the only one that matters to him. He also brings her into his subconscious in the lifestream to save her and revealing all his deepest thoughts and feelings for her. They share a night under the highwind and confirm their feelings without words.

OG isn't ambiguous, it's just people got stuck on the assumption that Aerith's the love interest and when they realised they were wrong they couldn't let go of it and accept they were suckered by the plot. The player is Jenova making Cloud act out of character, so all those romantic choices people made about Aerith are things Cloud fought against saying because his character had no interest in her.

Nojima even says in an ulti interview that Cloud's character is fixed and makes comparisons to games where you can create the character's personality as you like, but final fantasy isn't like that. Even though you can make choices Cloud is Cloud. And all of the FF characters are like that. It's just for some insane reason people refuse to accept Cloud's character and act like they can choose everything about him.

Part 2 will show more of Cloud's relationship deepen with Tifa and depending how far into the game it goes we could see the moment his mind collapses and he says that important line about Tifa's opinion being the only one that matters. After that we'll have the lifestream scene where everyone will learn that Cloud has always been in love with Tifa.

Nojima said the characters are the same. Cloud loves Tifa and Remake's insanely amazing graphics will show it. And then we'll get it all over again in chibi form in EC 😁

[themelodicenigma]

1/2 Hi! What's your opinion about Aerith's resolution scene? It feels like most of fans are more interested in convenient interpretations to confirm/discard the CA ship, without really wondering, from a narrative standpoint, "why", of all the things Aerith could warn Cloud against, she touches the romantic subject? And so early in the story too. Romance in FF7 is often treated by fans as a standalone thing more than something that is interweaved with the main story and has a role within it.

2/2 Should we now re-evaluate the weight of CA relationship in the OG? I never felt like Cloud had more than a crush on her or her death broke him. But when a compilation expands in such a relistic way, the main story needs to be retroactively reinterpreted (like what happened with CC). I'm also wondering what significance we should give to the black floating feathers in this scene (the most visible one appearing when Aerith prays – hard not to think about Sephiroth). PS Sorry for the bad English

Don’t worry, your ENG is fine here!

Anywho, it’s quite the subject isn’t it? I often speak on how sometimes the foundation of a fan’s understanding of the Remake is grounded by their understanding of the OG. Which does make sense and have its merit, but it can also lead to a lot of biased views if there isn’t a consideration of the Remake’s way of storytelling. That’s why we have less of a reasonable spectrum of thought, and more of these black and white interpretations you mentioned floating around. I’ve seen a lot of “Aerith is telling us a fact: Cloud’s feelings aren’t real!” vs. “Cloud confessed to Aerith that he’d fall in love with her!”.

It doesn’t take much time to realize who is saying what.

The first example is talking about something that hasn’t happened yet (e.g. Cloud confirming Aerith’s words), and the second example is talking about something that, by the scene itself, just didn’t happen anyway. From a narrative standpoint and with an understanding of the story of FF7, this part of Aerith’s Resolution reflects two points: Cloud’s false memories/self and Cloud’s feelings for Aerith—more directly, the premise that if Cloud falls in love with Aerith, his feelings won’t be real due to the state of being he’s in. Additionally, this resolution essentially acts as a reflection of Aerith’s GS Date but with twists—the first being that her thoughts on Cloud’s falsity is not tied to the correlation of his similarities to Zack, and the second being that it adds a dash of something more reminiscent of the dream/forest scene (if anything, the Resolution is almost an applicable replacement of it in general). Death, cherishing time left and memories, and Cloud not being completely himself—there’s a lot of foreshadowing here.

This is where people typically use their takes on the OG to formulate a conclusion for Aerith’s premise, as you’ve seen above, with even some extending alternates. For example, that the real reason Cloud’s feelings wouldn’t be real because he’s really in love with Tifa already and is incapable of feeling anything for anyone else as he is.

But my take?

To be upfront, this scene sets up the idea that Aerith is wrong in regards to the romantic storytelling between the two of them. That yes, his feelings (in this case, that of “suki” [すき, romantic like/love when used for a person]) are going to be real despite the state he’s in. Not to mention, it isn’t an “if” he has romantic feelings, because it goes against all reason and understanding of anything else in this scene to suggest this premise was written for the sake of something that won’t happen or won’t be addressed. Even if she is right, this is only effective writing if yes, Cloud indeed falls for her and thought those feelings were real, and thus, finds out that he truly doesn’t feel that way once he regains his true self. There’d be no point to this line if he doesn’t feel this, otherwise for the sake of writing, it would’ve made more sense for her to suggest that what she just talked about (the memories/moments/happiness shared) were going to be what wasn’t real, specifically.

Until further information tells me otherwise, I believe Aerith is going to be wrong because of how the OG and relevant material presents what Cloud retains once he regains himself.

Let’s get into it.

Unlike the OG, Aerith is presenting the falsity of Cloud not through her own feelings, but that of HIS. She’s not assuming that the mantra of “embracing the moments” is something that Cloud won’t retain—it’s just the romantic feelings that will grow from them. We don’t have to worry about whether what Cloud retains from these moments and memories of Aerith are false. Why? Because that was completely fine in the OG. The moments, memories, and the bond they shared were all real to Cloud after he regains himself. And obviously, not just with Aerith, but with all his companions. If he didn’t retain what he gained while Aerith was alive, he just simply wouldn’t have any reason to value Aerith, it’d almost be like he doesn’t know her existentially at all. But that isn’t the case. Really, what he gained with his companions was never put to the test of falsehood in the first place.

But the romance? So specifically?

The “why” of everything that is said in this scene is done for some narrative purpose, representing future events and themes to be further implemented down the line. In a literal conversation about romantic feelings to be confirmed or denied story-wise—this is romantic storytelling, and whether you like it or not, it has been issued between the two characters. And of course, I believe it should make someone re-evaluate their understanding of the OG—not in the way where the story itself begets change (like that of the effect with CC, as you mentioned), but more so in realizing that the Remake is just a more expressive reflection of the romantic storytelling that was already in the OG. The writing and approach of the Remake is different than that of the OG, as we can even see between the expressions and details expanded on, like say for Cloud and Tifa’s bond and what that alludes to later down the line as well. This same thing is done for Cloud and Aerith, and what may not have been as openly expressed, is now done so too.

In the OG, the romantic storytelling between Cloud and Aerith played on the typical RPG standard of player-story interactive choice, but was contained in that by not having the story clearly address those choices through Cloud’s character after he regains himself. That and all relative materials like interviews or guidebooks relative to the OG—we only have a few direct romanticisms and some that can be argued as indirect given context. It’s not absent, but it’s unclear to the point it’s a discussion people still have 20+ years later. Also, by those possibly confused, player choice does not eliminate this through character representation—I’ll digress as it’s a whole other thing.

Cloud’s time with Aerith isn’t a mystery—we see everything between them and experience it as the player. We know what did or didn’t happen, what could be expressed, and what we’re left with in regards to romanticism is more of an unaddressed, almost irrelevant idea. What’s represented openly instead is everything else about their important bond, basically. Romanticism—it’s all in the air, not invalidated, but also not further represented for the character in the things referenced afterwards, like Cloud mentioning his memories of her, wanting to see her in death [Promised Land], Aerith being a friend, comrade, irreplaceable, etc. His time spent with Aerith was still something Cloud kept with him.

So, if the question for the OG is: did Cloud retain any romanticism for Aerith as a cherished feeling/memory, too?

I believe by right of the storytelling values presented in the game, that yes, he did. While the game and other materials make no attempt at trying to elaborate on Cloud’s favor towards Aerith, they also don’t negate it in void either from his character. A general good rule of thumb: usually when you have romantic meaning issued between two characters, whether through parallels, symbolism, other characters, the characters themselves, etc.—if it’s something that isn’t confirmed (e.g. confessions or explicit showing of romantic interest) OR isn’t countered or denied significantly (obviously not including the typical false denial by a character), then typically, you go with the positive-end that the representation there does indeed confirm that romanticism.

Think about it like this: remember that show you watched where the two lead characters had romantic subtext, but the show ends without them getting together? Yeah. If you’re at the point of claiming romantic subtext, you’re not doing so for the sake of saying the authorial intent is to show non-romance, but to show romanticism in a subtle way. There are a myriad of writers who have this style, and getting a direct confirmation or explicit showing of romance isn’t always in the cards for how that storytelling is going to be expressed. But, that hardly erases what is still intended to be understood.

The thing about Cloud and Aerith, the romanticism that can be understood from Cloud IS indeed never confirmed, not like how it was for Tifa. Which, I do advocate this actually does showcase how his romantic feelings for Tifa have a further depth than of that for Aerith given the lack of relevancy in comparison. However, his feelings for Tifa don’t negate what he felt for Aerith in totality, not to the point of being evidence of absence. The OG and further materials paint the picture that, after Aerith’s death, Cloud still remembers and cherishes her as a comrade—the memories, the moments. All of it. What’s understood is that everything that Aerith was to Cloud was carried over and fueled his reason to want to see her even in death—if romanticism was a part of those memories, those moments, no matter how small in the grand scheme of their connection, we can’t cherry pick it out of existence just because it doesn’t take expressive priority. From the game itself, I would use the “positive-end” method to understand that the romanticism there IS a part of the character, and if I include representations from other media or interviews, the authorial intention becomes much more clear.

As for the depth of these feelings? Again, Cloud’s time with Aerith isn’t a mystery. Whatever happens during that part of the game IS the depth of the feelings. I won’t identify it as a “crush”, but I just know it wasn’t deep enough to cause conflict in his relationship with Tifa because rationally (and by general storytelling standard), it would if so.

In any case, without a specific negative address of that romanticism, we can’t reasonably split apart what Cloud felt for Aerith from everything else he retained from his time spent with her.

And that’s what the Remake is basically addressing, pretty directly this time. I feel that way about a lot of things, and I absolutely believe the story is better off with it as we’re reaching more avenues for telling the FF7 story and development. What we’re getting here is something more direct and expressive than the OG, as I believe we will for most things, like we already have with Cloud and Tifa, Tifa and Aerith, and even Zack and Aerith. It’s doing much more. One could say that it might be making more of the romance than it was in the OG, but to me, I believe it’s about the same. The subject matter being brought up directly won’t change that on its own, but it’s curious that it was brought up this way.

So, if the OG didn’t represent the meaning of Aerith being right, that anything of which Cloud has for Aerith was made to be false after he gained his true self, then I don’t believe the Remake has a reason for doing it either. This is reinforced by the fact that Aerith being right just isn’t congruent with a lot of the other themes happening in the story there. It makes no sense to pinpoint the romantic feelings specifically as something Cloud didn’t feel—and again, his feelings for Tifa shouldn’t be it. How they decide to show the “answer” is up for thought as writers, as discussed, will find many ways to give meaning from their story. If the writing is consistent, what some CA fans expect won’t be what they will get, but CT fans acting like the meaning from the resolution won’t pop up ever again are already missing the point, too.

There are other interesting things though, like Aerith’s thoughts on death and this lifestyle point of view—how this connects to her hatred of the sky and those she has lost will be an interesting point for her character. Maybe even the anticipated arc of her time in death within the Lifestream and reuniting with Zack. We might finally get solid context for that. As for the black/dark feathers, I’m not sure if it even is, but it would certainly match the motif, like at the very beginning when Cloud is in the reactor. It flying by like that could simply be part of the reference to her death.

[ramblings-of-a-mad-cat]

You say the story of Rescue Team frustrates you? How come?

Rant ahead. Rant ahead about a game I unironically love, but I spend far too much time overthinking the plot of, hence my grievances.

Maybe I just held it to unfair standards on account of playing it for the first time after Explorers of Sky. Which is easily the greatest pokemon game ever made, accept no substitutes. Nah, Rescue Team DX is addicting, the music is incredible as always in these games, and the gameplay has been massively overhauled and made far superior to the original, which while fun, was pretty buggy. And the game does have some pretty cool characters, too. Like...whatever I may yell to the heavens about Albus Dumbledore from HP, make no mistake that he’s an exceptional and three-dimensional character. Same goes for Snape. And that applies to this game as well. 

The main reason this game’s story irritates me comes down to Gengar and Alakazam. Again, they’re very well written characters...but I hate them. I despise both of them. I don’t know what it is, but Alakazam rubbed me the wrong way right from the start. Him and his whole team are so self-important, so arrogant. They condescend the MC and act like they’re the ruling body of the town square. Alakazam goes around telling people that he knows everything. That’s a god complex if you ask me. At several points, the characters make decisions based on the assumption that he is stronger than the MC, which you as a player never get to challenge. (Think of Leon from Sword/Shield, but a million times worse.) The Partner character is so in awe of them, so enamored by them. Yet behind MC’s back, Alakazam knows (or suspects) them to be the human of legend and doesn’t tell them “for their sake.” Which gives me strong Nozomi (SMT IV: Apocalypse) vibes, since later on he ignores all responsibility for having been "complicit" with the MC's secret. 

The Fugitive Arc doesn't make any damn sense. First of all, Xatu claims that the disasters, all of the trouble, are being caused by the Human from the Ninetales Legend. Ninetales later debunks this. When I first played this game, I legitimately thought Xatu would wind up being some kind of secret villain, that he had lied, and that the Fugitive Arc was all started by him. This doesn't wind up being true, and we never get an answer for why he thought the Human of Legend was responsible for the state of affairs, nor did anyone question his being wrong or acknowledge his role in all this. But the one who really started everything was Gengar. He doesn't really annoy me until the Post-Game (I'll get to that) but everyone else's reactions to Gengar's story bother me. He is a known liar, a known trouble-maker who no one likes. It's well known that he has a vendetta against the MC. He has no proof whatsoever of his allegations. And everyone just buys it, despite MC now having a great reputation, because...I guess MC didn't actively deny it? Which the player was given no agency in? And it doesn't stop the accusation from being ridiculous? 

Enter Alakazam. Apparently, everyone held a town meeting that must have taken all of ten seconds, to decide what to do about MC. They held this meeting without MC or the Partner present, because having them there would make too much sense I guess. Team A.C.T. prepares to...I guess kill MC? As well as the Partner, even though they're completely innocent. Before Alakazam hesitates and decides to give the MC a day to run away. Hold on, if he is so convinced that MC has to die to save the world, how do he justify letting them go? I guess the same way he justifies how he "knew" MC was the human of legend this whole time and said nothing about it? He bids MC to run, and throughout the entire Fugitive Arc, his team is the looming threat. Which was quite frustrating for me, already a Diamond Rank and probably higher leveled than Team A.C.T, because I would have been happy to settle things with Alakazam right then and there. It is beyond frustrating that the story denies me this chance. Not to mention, half of the town shows up to say goodbye when MC and the Partner take off. Like...okay, at least half of the town believes in MC. How in the hell is this even happening? Why do we have to flee when so many characters are on our side? When there's no proof? Why is Alakazam's word just considered law? If he “knows everything” how come he doesn’t know that Gengar is human as well, if he could sense MC’s humanity? 

You don't know how badly I wish there was a fight with Team A.C.T. when all was said and done. And the game could have done it, too! Just have it take place at the top of the Mt. Freeze, before Ninetales shows up. They have a skirmish that takes place in a cutscene, but even in the remake - there's no boss battle. Why not? It's not like this dungeon has a boss battle otherwise. Wouldn't it have been a fitting conclusion to this arc? Maybe I'm biased, maybe I just think it would have been cathartic to kick Alakazam's ass, to make him put his money where his mouth is...because again, the arrogance. He demands Ninetales tell him what happened, and that "depending on your answer, I may be forced to eliminate MC" Ah, slow your roll there, buddy. Ninetales already broke up the fight and made it clear that it's not going to happen. You're a guest in their domain. On top of that, Team A.C.T. basically forbids you from going to Magma Cavern to challenge Groudon. As if you haven't just proven yourself capable of braving dangerous dungeons. As if, after they chased you halfway around the world and were proven completely wrong, they have any right to talk down to you or tell you what to do. Again, I so, so wish we could have fought them and taught them a lesson. 

In general, this is a consistent thing with the other characters, following the Fugitive Arc. Everyone focuses on how happy MC and the Partner must be to have their names cleared, (Again, the Partner was accused of nothing. Like, literally nothing.) and no one stops to address that everyone in the Town Square should be falling to their knees and begging our forgiveness for what they put us through. Several of them tried to kill us. Upon returning to the Town Square, Gengar acts like MC is turning them-self in because they don't have any proof, even though he never had any proof to begin with, and it's only after MC is "cleared" by Team A.C.T. that everyone remembers that Gengar is untrustworthy. Reading the words "under the watchful eye of Alakazam" has always made me extremely salty. I don't have much to say about the Mankey brothers but they irritated me as well. Maybe I was just out of patience after the Fugitive Arc but I found myself wondering why we appeased them at all. Initially, we give them the chestnuts because they attack us if we don't. No matter how many times we beat them, they keep attacking if they're told no. I realize it's a staple in Pokemon games to have false yes/no choices, but those are especially noticeable in the games that focus on story. And sometimes the excuses are just pathetic. Meanwhile, the other pokemon continue to treat you as rookies, as kids. You are once again "forbidden" by...um, the other townsfolk, from going on the Rescue Mission until you talk them into it. It's like...guys. You put us through hell. We could have died a dozen times over, because you bought into the mob mentality for no good reason. How does everything just go back to normal after that? 

I don't mind Gengar at first. He's a villain, and a well-written one. He's got a clear personality and there's hidden depth in there as well. He's one of my favorite characters in the game, easily. And all of the stuff he does in the main story? Stealing the mail, manipulating Caterpie, and the stuff during the Fugitive Arc? That weird psychedelic sequence where he's dragging MC down to hell at the end? (Or whatever that was?) All fine by me. He's a villain. He's doing bad things. But sweet Arceus is Gengar annoying in the Post-Game. I wonder if this must be how Merula Snyde Antis feel, over in the HPHM Fandom. Because the MC has absolutely no motivation or reason to help him out. He just demands that they act as his bodyguard, offers nothing in return, and won't leave you alone until you say yes. Buddy, my team has like thirty pokemon at this point and they're all hanging out in the Friend Areas a few feet away. You think you can intimidate me? The only reason I'm helping is to progress the storyline. And throughout this entire storyline, you have to help Gengar even though he hasn't earned it. 

He does not deserve forgiveness, or a reconciliation with Gardevoir. What if I don't want to help him because I don't think Gardevoir would want to see him? What if I think that it would do her no good to see him? He's unrepentant and awful, the story does the bare minimum to suggest that he's changed. Now I will admit one thing: I love the moment that Ninetales first appears, sees Gengar, and simply goes "...What do you want." Like. Like that was the moment that I put it together, before he went on to tell the rest of the story. I love simple moments that make the big reveal crystal clear without needing to directly tell or show the audience. I've always dug that. But everything that happens after that is frustrating. Gengar demands the curse be lifted, despite having no justification to offer Ninetales. He threatens to attack them, but then clarifies that MC will be the one doing the fighting. Excuse me? Why would I ever do that? MC just found out the truth about Gengar, what he did to Gardevoir, and then how he pinned it all on them during the fugitive arc. Gengar, why would I attack Ninetales after this, instead of attacking you? Tell me I don't initiate battle against you right now? Thankfully MC doesn't have to actually fight Ninetales, but they are still forced to testify at Gengar's "trial" and it's a forgone conclusion because no matter what answers you give, it's treated as MC acknowledging his growth and he is forgiven at the end. 

Oh, I’ve just thought of something else. MC isn’t given a reason for why they have to leave the Pokemon world, or why they were able to return. Explorers gave a reason. Gates to Infinity and Super Mystery Dungeon made a whole post-game story out of their reasons. Here? We get nothing. MC’s “role” has finished and so they have to return to the human world. Never mind what they want. Not until after the dramatic moment where they have to leave has passed, anyway. That voice at the end who suggests that we may be able to see our partner again just by “wishing.” Who the hell was that? What did they mean? Look, by Pokemon standards, the Rescue Team story is quite substantial. By Pokemon Mystery Dungeon standards? It’s...probably the weakest story. I mean, to be fair, Super Mystery Dungeon had the endless schoolhouse arc that added up to nothing in the second act. But hell, that was still fun. And I suppose the Fugitive Arc and Gengar’s “redemption” were fun too. Just frustrating as well. 

[menswearmusings]

My Spier & Mackay Custom Shirt Guide

If you’re looking into having a custom shirt made through Spier & Mackay, I recommend them. Of the online custom shirt makers I’ve tried, they have my favorite pattern. Something about the way they cut the armholes and chest is magic—fitted but not constricting.

The process is pretty straightforward, but it can nonetheless be daunting because the pressure to get it perfect on the first go is high. I’ve ordered a few shirts at this point, and have some tips for getting the best results.

Fit considerations

Measuring

I prefer to measure shirts I like the fit of and combine those measurements into the ideal amalgamation of them all. That gives maximum control over the resulting fit pattern. Below are some tips to make sure you get it right.

Pay attention to their specific instructions for how to measure by watching the embedded YouTube videos for how to do it. In particular:

Neck measurement is measured from the button to the middle of the buttonhole, not the far end of the buttonhole (like some other shirt makers).

Cuff is measured end to end, not button to buttonhole (this is huge; don’t mess this up).

The sleeve measurement is straightforward, but many people have a misconception about how long a shirt sleeve should be. A sleeve should hang about an inch past your wrist when the cuff’s unbuttoned (and your cuff should be cut slim enough that when it’s buttoned, your hand stops the cuff from slipping down). Watch the video of how to measure your body for a shirt and that illustrates where it should go. When you’re inputting your own shirt measurements, adjust accordingly.

The armhole measurement is tricky to figure out. You measure a shirt by laying it flat but that makes the armhole curve a little. The instructions say to measure straight, though. So here’s how to think of what you’re doing to alleviate confusion: Measure the full length of the seam. You can either do that by leaving it curved and measuring around the curve, or pulling it straight and measuring it straight.

Speaking of armhole, my suggestion is to go for a relatively small armhole and relatively loose bicep. My first shirt had a high armhole and slim bicep and it feels constricting. My second shirt had a slightly more relaxed armhole and slim bicep, and it still felt a little constricting. I locked it in at a small armhole, with looser bicep, and it’s awesome. Great range of motion, comfortable, and wearable.

Elbows and forearms. I hate feeling like my shirt might tear at the elbow. But if you have a fairly fitted cuff and relatively fitted bicep (compared with the way many shirts are super loosely cut), that can happen. So I specified the elbow measurement in the comments of the shirt order. That measurement is simply measuring the sleeve from the end of the cuff to the shoulder seam, and right in the middle is where to measure the elbow. Measure it straight across the sleeve.

If you also want to specify the forearm, which might be unnecessary (I did it but if you specify the elbow it’ll probably work itself out), you measure 6 inches up from the cuff seam (where it attaches to the sleeve) and take the measurement straight across. Measure straight across the sleeve.

Do you have to allow for fabric shrinkage?

My experience has been that the shirts are cut accurately, and shrinkage has been minimal. I asked Rick, the owner of Spier & Mackay, and he confirmed that they cut with normal shrinkage allowance in mind, so you don’t have to game the system to get the result you want (which mirrors my experience so far). A few years ago, a couple fabrics they offered had major shrinkage, which got lots of chatter on Styleforum, but he tells me those fabrics were discontinued 2 years ago and it’s been a non-issue ever since.

What if the shirt comes out wrong? What’s the cost for a remake?

Remakes for fit problems that are your own making—say you don’t carefully read the instructions for cuff width (edge-to-edge, not button-to-buttonhole!) and they’re super tight—are half price. To initiate that process, just email their customer service at service@spierandmackay.com to get the ball rolling. However, like any good company, if the shirt is cut wrong—say you specified a measurement and it comes out way off by more than a normal tolerance—they’ll make it right on their dime.

Design considerations

Collar choices are personal and many design choices are personal, too. But below are some of my preferences based on my own style and recommendations for design combinations based on what I’ve seen good designers do.

Button-downs

The button-down collars from Spier are rockin’. The classic one (C3-K) is really great for almost everyone. The Italian version they sometimes use off the rack for special makes (C22), like the washed denim shirts, is 10% extra cool and a little bigger, but not so noticeably bigger as to call more attention to itself. For those who want maximum collar drama, there’s the biggest Italian button-down (C23), which I plan to test eventually.

Design pairings with button-down collars

Pair button-down collars with the rounded single button cuff and normal placket. On the back, go for a center box pleat if you’re a traditionalist, but side pleats give it a modern twist that breathes a bit of life into the OCBD. Pocket or no is your choice. If it’s striped, specify “one piece yoke” in the comments.

Spread collars

I personally go for either large cutaways (which I like when worn without a tie the best), or large spread collars. So for me that’s the C21 and C19 collars. Big, tall collar band and big, long collar points, which tuck under a jacket nicely and stand tall. However, for someone with a smaller frame and/or shorter neck, the standard version of these collars would also work well (C13, C16, C17).

Design pairings with spread and cutaway collars

Pair these with either the rounded single button cuff or a mitered cuff (mitered is more business-y if that’s what you’re going for). For the placket, a French turn placket is the more business friendly approach; go standard placket for more casual fabrics like chambray or oxford cloth. And on the back, either side pleats or no pleats. I do no pocket, typically. One designer who makes a great shirt that dresses up or down excellently is Sid Mashburn who makes his with spread collars, a standard placket, rounded cuffs, side pleats and a front pocket in all types of fabrics, and it looks great in every situation.

Collar linings (and cuffs and placket, too)

Unusual for many custom shirt makers is the ability to specify collar, placket and cuff linings. Most of Spier’s shirts have a fused interlining of some sort by default but you can specify in the comments box during the checkout process for them to use something different. Here’s the down-low:

There are four levels of collar interlinings ranging from lightest to stiffest. The linings can be either simply sewn in, or fused into the collar, and you can even have them use two layers if you want.

From lightest to stiffest, the identifiers are soft, medium, medium-firm, and firm. My preferences are for the lighter linings, which allow the collar to roll and have some shape to them (which is an Italian affectation; you may prefer the collar to stay starched in place). Here is how I have done shirts so far, and I like it. I may experiment in the future but for now this has given me good results:

For shirts in more casual fabrics like oxford cloth or cotton-linen or madras, I go for a single layer medium sewn interlining. It gives the collar just enough body to shape nicely, but doesn’t weigh it down. Inside button-down collars, it gives the collar a perfect amount of body to roll beautifully, but is thin enough the collar still has some of the charming unlined look. This feels about like how a Drake’s Oxford collar feels to me.

For shirts in business-y fabrics like broadcloth or pinpoint oxford, I go for the single layer medium fused interlining. The fusing makes the collar smoother in appearance, so it’s a bit more professional. It still stands up well under a jacket without a tie on, too. This feels about like how my Eidos dress shirt collars feel to me.

Just remember to specify in the comments box no only the collar lining, but for clarity, also specify that you also want the same in the cuffs and placket if your shirt is being made with a placket. (They might do this automatically but I’m not sure so it’s safer just to put it in writing.)

Basically unlimited options

You can ask them to do almost anything in the comments section. I haven’t gone too far down the rabbit hole with minute changes, but I have specified changes to the base collar pattern. Specifically, I’ve asked them to increase the front collar band height, and requested the collar be cut with no tie space. They accommodated both requests on my orders. (In case you’re wondering, I did that on the C21 collar, which modified it to be identical to my favorite Eidos shirt collar, the “Marcus”).

You can even send in a shirt you love and simply have them copy it, too. I haven’t done that, but if you want to give it a try, email info@spierandmackay.com and they’ll tell you how to proceed.

So that’s it. Those are my tips for ordering a custom shirt from Spier & Mackay. While the program’s UI/UX on the website leaves a lot to be desired, and I still wish they’d allow you to order fabric swatches, the results and quality of the end product are excellent; and the price is outstanding.

Is there anything else you’d like to see covered in this article? Let me know in the comments below!

(Help support this site! If you buy stuff through my links, your clicks and purchases earn me a commission from many of the retailers I feature, and it helps me sustain this site—as well as my menswear habit ;-)  Thanks!)

If you’re just getting into tailored menswear and want a single helpful guide to building a trend-proof wardrobe, buy my eBook. It’s only $5 and covers wardrobe essentials for any guy who wants to look cool, feel cool and make a good impression. Formatted for your phone or computer/iPad so it’s not annoying to read, and it’s full of pretty pictures, not just boring prose. Buy it here.

Read more at Menswear Musings

[houseofsannae]

A Fistful of Munny - Extended End Notes

Notes for A Fistful of Munny that don’t fit within the character limit under the cut!

Please, read the fic before reading this post

           All right! Welcome to the extended notes, in which I go into excruciating detail over a bunch of stuff that doesn’t matter, because I like the sound of my own voice!

           Let’s start with some more broad stuff that didn’t make the exclusive end notes space. To do the Fistful of Dollars homage, I needed a place where I could have two villainous factions intersecting for Strelitzia to play against one another. After some brainstorming and asking for help from other people working on the Entwined in Trine Sorikai zine (and ultimately ignoring all their very good suggestions (Sorry, guys!)), I eventually realized that the Wasteland from Epic Mickey was a perfect place for this story, both in the sense of having mooks to destroy without Strels committing actual murder, and in the thematic sense of forgotten characters. There was just one issue.

           I hadn’t played Epic Mickey.

           And that is how I spent my summer, playing both Epic Mickey games. Both, because I was looking for a good location to set the story in in-world. Since the Wasteland is based on the Disney theme parks, I was hoping to find one based on Frontierland, their Western section. Such a location did exist – Disney Gulch – but only in the second game. Which meant I had to play Epic Mickey 2, as well. (The first one is a better game, but that’s not really the fault of the developers; they were not given the time they needed to make it as good as the first one. Here’s a video with trivia about the series that goes a little into the development.) I also needed to learn the Mad Doctor’s ultimate fate, since I wanted his Beetleworx/Blotworx to be one of the two villainous factions. In the game, depending on whether you chose the Paint (Paragon) or Thinner (Renegade) path, the Doc is either redeemed… or dead. Neither of which was helpful, so I had to invent.

           But let’s talk about characters and why I picked them in order. The short version for why these choices, at least on the Final Fantasy side, is set-up for later. Obviously I can’t go into detail why. Before that, let’s talk about the Beanie Baby.

           Chi is, as I hope you were able to guess, Strelitzia’s Chirithy. I’ve brought it up several times, but I personally do not like mascot characters. There are a few exceptions, but Chirithies are not one of them. Like I said, KHUx isn’t what happened in this AU, so you’ll have to wait for in-universe answers on why it’s a cat now. Out-of-universe reason is this was the only way I could make it palatable for myself. I arbitrarily decided on a gender for it because as a real cat, it would have a sex. Canonically Chirithies appear to be genderless, and in Japanese refer to themselves with the gender-neutral (but masculine-leaning) boku. I would’ve left Chi that way, save for the fact that he’s a completely normal cat now. (And before you ask, no, not every real cat that appears in KHΨ from this point on is a Chirithy.)

           As for Strelitzia herself, it’s hard for me to pick up a character’s voice when they’re… not voiced. Intonation and cadence do a lot for me mimicking the way a character talks, so it’s a bit more difficult when they don’t technically speak. I tried for a mix between Sora and Kairi, while still keeping her defining character traits of being shy, but also impulsive.

           You may notice that while she’s started remembering faces, if not names, the Player’s name and face still eludes her, despite her (canonical. Deal with it.) crush on them. There is a story reason for this, and will become clear once Luxu takes centre stage.

           The name “Jane” was chosen with more consideration than just “Jane Doe” being the standard name in (at least my corner of) the English-speaking world for a woman of unknown identity. See, the Man With No Name actually has three names. In A Fistful of Dollars, he is referred to (by one character in one scene, once) as “Joe”. “Joan” might have been a more clear homage, but I figure Jane makes sense. And as you might guess, in the next fic, Strels will be going by a different name, still not her own. She’ll remember her name… eventually.

           One might think I could’ve picked any old Cid, and one would be wrong for reasons I can’t explain yet. In fact, I can’t explain much of anything surrounding him yet. What I can say is no, Cidney Aurum is not dead, she’s just not related to Cid Sophiar in this fic verse. An unfortunate consequence of where I wanted to put each of them in the narrative; making them not be related was the only way it made any sense, geographically speaking.

           Hyperion on the other hand, I can talk about. He’s one of the Gremlins in Epic Mickey, and… wait, first things first. Gremlins are from an abandoned Disney film based on a Roald Dahl book, itself based on the cryptids that supposedly haunted airplanes and caused them to malfunction, the earliest known written-down mention of the concept being from the 1920s. The film never got made, but the designs Disney would have used were adapted into a second printing of Dahl’s book, and they were later used in Epic Mickey. Hyperion is, like the publishing imprint that Disney owns, named after a street that Walt Disney used to live on. In-game, Hyperion is in Bog Easy (based on the Haunted Mansion), not Disney Gulch, but his name stuck out to me as being particularly fun, so I picked him instead of trying to figure out what Gremlins actually are in the Gulch (they have names in the files of Epic Mickey 2, but not in the actual game, so it would have been a hunt).

           Regardless of where the setting ended up, for the second villainous faction, I was always going to plop down the good old Don. More things I can’t talk about. For everything FF7, know that I’m always going to be pulling from a mix of the original game, Remake, and Machinabridged. Hence, Corneo’s outfit is a mix of his original and Remake designs (which basically just means he’s wearing blue jeans instead of brown). I didn’t think bringing in his three lieutenants from Remake was necessary, especially since this was supposed to be a kind-of small operation.

           Leslie is picked up and dropped from Remake pretty much unchanged. I needed someone to do the murders Strels couldn’t, and even if he’s not a complete asshole, he’s still mostly an asshole. Have we ever seen small, Materia-like balls used to cast magic before…?

           Onto the fun bits, which is the Disney characters. We’ll start with Percy, who is from a Goofy short called “How to Ride a Horse”, from 1950. And that’s about it. The conceit in Wasteland is that all of the Toons there were basically actors, and they wound up in Wasteland if they were forgotten (that’s not exactly correct, but I’m generalizing). This is interesting, since two of the Toons in Epic Mickey are Horace Horsecollar and Clarabelle Cow, both of whom… are residents of Disney Town in Kingdom Hearts, having shown up in Birth by Sleep. So that’s an interesting continuity snarl that I’m going to just ignore.

           Persephone and Pluto, on the other hand, are from an earlier short called “The Goddess of Spring”, from 1934. It was one of the projects Disney tried as practice for Snow White. If you’re about to protest that his name should be Hades, not Pluto, then you’re going to need a time machine so you can tell them back in the 30s. The Goddess of Spring is a musical, in the sense that every single line is sung. Watch it for yourself. There’s a video with better quality floating around YouTube, but for some reason it’s the French dub. And that’s why both of them sing most of their lines. I tried matching the meter of their actual parts, but Persephone’s doesn’t actually follow a syllabic pattern that I could make out. I eventually gave up and just gave her the meter from the start of the short. Pluto’s was easier to manage (and more consistent).

           The skeletons are Disney veterans, presumably the same ones from “The Skeleton Dance” (1929), but more specifically they’re mimicking what they did in “The Mad Doctor” (1933), the first appearance of our other villain. They’re fun.

           The original Mad Doctor was supposedly named “Dr. XXX”, according to the name on his door. This was before the modern film rating system was put in place; it was a different time. In the original short, the Mad Doctor kidnaps Pluto (the dog) with the intent of cutting him in half and putting his front half on a chicken For Science!, and Mickey follows him to his castle to rescue the purloined pooch. The short wasn’t a musical in the same vein as “The Goddess of Spring”, but… the Mad Doctor’s only spoken lines were a song (aside from evil cackling). While I had already decided to do the “Toons that sang in their short can only communicate through song” with Persephone and Pluto before starting on Epic Mickey 2, I hilariously discovered that the game developers had done the exact same gag with the Mad Doctor, most of his lines in the game being sung. (In Epic Mickey there were no fully voiced lines, so he speaks as normally as anyone else does). Which made it easier to write his songs here, since I could just rewrite his songs from the game. I used to write alternate lyrics for songs back in high school, so this was an interesting trip back in time for me. They were stuck in my head for weeks afterwards, but it was worth it.

           I believe that’s everything for the characters. Let’s talk about Keyblades.

           It irks me that three people in KHUx have the same Keyblade. Ephemer, Skuld, and Strelitzia all have variations of Starlight. Now, in KHΨ, there is only one Starlight, and it belongs to Luxu, so I’m going to have to decide on different Keyblades for each of them. (Ephemer’s has already been decided, and I haven’t started brainstorming for Skuld yet. No I do not need suggestions, thank you). Pixie Petal bears a noted (by KHWiki) resemblance to one of Marluxia’s alternate scythes, so that tangential connection was enough for me. Both siblings have flower-themed Keyblades – it makes sense to me.

           You might notice a few disparities in the magic. These are on purpose, and will eventually make sense. And that’s all I can say on that at the moment. ;)

           Oh, yes, one important thing I probably should have said on the main notes: I’m not going for a realistic depiction of amnesia here. Anything I got right was entirely accidental, and I’m fairly certain there’s not much. There might be a story reason for why it works the way it does… and it might be the same reason why other people from KHUx have or had amnesia in the present day…

           You know what’s funny? Although Orcuses look more impressive than Invisibles, their stats in Days are actually worse. I’m fairly sure that this is because the only time we see an Orcus, it’s actually an illusion cast over Xion so that Roxas will fight her to the death. There are no other stats for them (according to KHWiki), since they’ve never been used elsewhere.

           A friendly reminder that Apprentice Xehanort invented the term “Heartless”, which was why Aqua didn’t know what to call them until Mickey told her. Thus, nobody from the era of the Keyblade War should know the term “Heartless” without being told by someone in present day. “Darkling” was the term they used instead. I’m fairly certain KHUx ignores the continuity on this (so why should we trust its continuity for anything else, hmm?)

           I think that covers everything! Or at least everything I’m willing to share at this point. If you’ve read this far, thank you! I appreciate your dedication! ^_^

[danishmiilk]

PART TWO. --- RENJUN

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summary || a collection of crack stories from y/n and nct working together in taeyong’s pizza shop - ncity pizza. written from povs of different characters.

note || wow!! double update!! who am i!! also this is another mess aha- uh disclaimer i think none of us work in pizza shops with nct so- fiction!! pure fiction!!

genre || crack

pairings || none

warnings || swearing, joking references to a car crash, fake death of someone that never existed, one mention of bleeding

word count || 1.7k

taglist || @teasysan​ @hannie-dul-set​ // send an ask or a dm to be added to the taglist! though i have no idea why you’d want to be.

Renjun wasn’t paid enough for this. Taeyong, seeing that Renjun was off his (five hour long) break, immediately got up gratefully and passed the post of cashier (Yuta had already disappeared to who-knows-where) and online order/call handling over to him, assuming that he’d come to take things off Taeyong’s shoulders.

“No, hyung-!” Taeyong had already walked away. Renjun cursed himself internally for walking over to the counter to find his pen. It was understandable why everyone else avoided the place like the plague- once you got the post, it was impossible to pass it on to anyone else, and it was the most tiring thing to do in the place.

Face lighting up upon spotting the girl crouched under the counter, Renjun called out to her excitedly. Y/n only looked up at him pityingly, returning to sipping soda out of a cup he was pretty sure she wasn’t supposed to have taken for free, “Nope. You’re on your own.”

“What are you here for then?”

“Damage control.” Renjun snorted. Y/n L/n? In damage control, of all posts Doyoung could have given her? She must be kidding. That or Doyoung really was going senile. The girl couldn’t control her temper or convince people that she hadn’t stolen their Pocky biscuits without scowling at them, though she was an excellent actress, so Renjun supposed it could work. After all, according to the older and therefore wiser Mark Lee, the possibility of all those possibilities being possible was just another possibility that could possibly happen.

“Ugh, stop laughing. I hope there aren’t any rude customers wanting to call the police on us for robbing them again, or you’ll have to call the police to report murder.” It was funny, really, that the bad things we say have an odd way of turning into truth.

Renjun sighed, recognising the lady stalking toward the counter as a customer he’d just cashed out a few minutes ago. Looks like this would be a fucking waste of time for everyone involved, seriously.

Putting on his best fake-chirpy voice, he forced a smile, “Hello, how may I help you?”

The lady slammed her pizza box down on the counter so hard that Renjun winced. “I want you to redo my pizza.”

Renjun frowned, “What’s wrong with it?”

The lady stared at him like he’d just suggested that Fancy by Twice was not the greatest bop of all time (it obviously was). “It tastes sour! I want a refund, and I want you to redo my pizza for free!”

Renjun cocked his head, confused, “Okay, so I think that’s against our refund policy-” The lady’s face grew more and more red, before finally throwing down the dreaded phrase, “I want to talk to your manager.” Renjun shrugged, tapping on Y/n’s head with his right hand, glad this matter was out of his hands.

Y/n could have stood up and pretended she was searching for something to keep up the facade of professionalism, but of course. Of course she had to crawl up like she was from the Walking Dead and flip her hair before turning to give her attention to the customer. Renjun winced even harder at her non-standard greeting- what the fuck was “Yeah. Go on.” and where the fuck was “Hello, how may I help you?” He hadn’t expected anything less- god, he’d prefer if the show unfolding before his eyes was more amusing. Though he was a tad more responsible than Y/n, at least pretending he was writing out something while biting the pen to keep his laughter back.

The lady looked enraged, to say the least. “I said I want to talk to your manager!”

Y/n raised her eyebrows, taking on a look of surprise, “I’m the manager.” She was not. Renjun bit even harder on his pen.

“Is this your shop’s rules? Managers sit under counters and sip on soda they didn’t pay for?” Y/n was getting irritated with the customer. Renjun could feel it. Oh, this was going to be one heck of an interesting show.

“I paid for this, thank you. And are you discriminating? I was in a car crash a few days ago and my husband died. My leg was injured, and I can’t even sit down?” Y/n put on a pained expression that somehow looked real. Renjun snorted around his pen. Y/n definitely had not paid for the drink, and he was even more certain that she was neither a widow nor the victim of a car crash. She turned around and gave him a look that very clearly said do not give this game away or I’ll make you supervise Chenle for a week. The threat was clear. Renjun bit his cheek so hard blood flowed and he didn’t laugh anymore.

“Oh,” the lady’s eyes softened for a second, but she stubbornly went on, “But you still have to redo my pizza.”

Y/n’s eyes flared in annoyance, jumping up onto the counter with more ease than someone who had “injured her leg” should have enjoyed. “Look here, lady, it’s against our store policy. And if you send this back, our chef might poison it.”

The lady slammed her hands down on the counter, “I WILL CALL THE POLICE ON YOUR CHEF! AND YOUR STORE! AND YOU!”

Y/n wrinkled her nose, “What’s your name, Karen? Anyway, you asked for fucking lemons and anchovy on this pizza, of course it’d taste fucking awful. Just like your attitude.”

The lady threw a pen at Y/n’s head, then turned and walked away without her (untouched) pizza, making sure to slam the door of the restaurant on her way out. Renjun hummed, “I think that’s assault, man.”

The door behind them slammed open, Chenle walking out to see what had gone on with all the screaming and shouting. Y/n turned around to look at him with a blank look, “What did I do wrong?” Chenle turned and stared at Renjun with concern. “What’s wrong with her?” he whispered loudly in Renjun’s ear. Thank god Y/n was still staring blankly into space, or Chenle wouldn’t live to see the light of day ever again.

Personally, Renjun could think of a number of things Y/n did wrong, and a number of things that were wrong with Y/n, but that was a story to tell the entire shop after they’d closed, so he just shrugged.

A mere few minutes after Y/n had sat down with a new cup of soda, another dissatisfied customer walked in. “I want a refund. I don’t want you to remake my pizza, I just want a refund. It tastes awful.”

Renjun turned to the side with a grin, ready to see another show. Y/n looked up at the boy on the other side of the counter and pushed her tongue into the side of her cheek, shooting Renjun a glance. The boy is cute, Renjun. Renjun shook his head at her. Whatever you want, Y/n. Whatever you want.

Y/n smiled flirtatiously at the boy, knocking her hip against the counter, “Sure. Name and number, please?” If the boy didn’t know she just wanted his number, he must really be quite daft. Renjun turned his head to make eye contact with one of the waiters, Jungwoo, and rolled his eyes affectionately toward Y/n. Jungwoo, all too used to her antics, only shook the cloth he was using to wipe the table in Renjun’s direction.

The boy blinked. “Han Jisung, and XXX-XXXX-XXX.”

Y/n very unsubtly wrote it down on a piece of paper and tucked it into her jeans pocket, then pushed a cup of soda across the counter, “Here’s a soda for you along with your refund.” She pulled the exact amount he’d paid for his pizza out of the cashier. Renjun’s eyes widened - surely she wasn’t actually going to give it to the boy just because she was enamoured?

The boy stretched his hand out expectantly, but Y/n just turned and dumped the entire amount into the tip jar. “Thanks for the tip, man! We really appreciate it.” Right. How could he have expected better? Though Renjun supposed it was better that she did this; he didn’t care who she dated, but he did care about his share of the $10 (which would probably be shared by him and Y/n anyway as self-payment for manning the counter.)

Han Jisung - that’s what he said, right? - sputtered and blinked, not having expected Y/n to do that right after flirting with him. Y/n prodded his arm with a finger, “Well, what are you waiting for? Off you go, and come back again!”

“I certainly won’t be.”

She shrugged, “Oh well, we have enough handsome regulars. Don’t really need you.”

The wind chimes on the door jingled, signalling Doyoung’s return from his lunch break. Eyeing the full tip jar suspiciously, he frowned down at Y/n, “What did you do?” Y/n smiled up innocently, “Oh? Oh, nothing! Whatever did you expect me to have done?” As Doyoung had come to realize, the more innocent she looked, the more guilty she was likely to be.

Catching the message in Y/n’s eyes, Renjun tapped on Doyoung’s shoulder. “See, this is what happened, [...]. But no harm was done, hyung, so don’t worry!” He put his thumb up and gave his best chirpy salesperson smile, only halting his speech when he’d seen that Y/n had finished pilfering the tip jar to get enough money for both of them to share.

Doyoung looked so furious that, and Renjun quotes from a later discussion with Y/n, he could probably have eaten up the entire tip jar if he tried! Although truth be told, Doyoung didn’t look all that scary. It’s not hard to look scary if you’re in a way too oversized white t-shirt and jeans, but Doyoung looked even more like a rabbit than he already did, so Renjun was more amused than scared.

“Y/n! I’M TAKING YOU OFF DAMAGE CONTROL, NOW AND FOREVER. AND YOU, RENJUN, YOU FUCK OFF AS WELL! SEND YUTA AND DONGHYUCK OVER!” Hm. Would Yuta and Donghyuck really be better choices to man the counter? I mean, Renjun was sorta skeptical about that, but whatever Doyoung said, he guessed.

Giggling and laughing, Renjun dragged Y/n into the back room, grabbing half of the tips before anyone else could see them and steal some.

©danishmiilk, 2020.

[artanisnaanie]

Canon, or not canon, that is the question

I see we've reached the monthly "shit on netflix adaptation because that's not canon". Awesome.

The games are not canon either.

Adaptations are fanfic, all of them. They're either all to be considered canon, or none of them. We can choose and pick and make our own canon-bouquet, of course, that's the point of transformative works, but we can't decide for everyone that certain adaptations are "more canon" than others. We can't go after someone who made a different bouquet and say it sucks because the flowers are picked in a nearby field instead of the one we picked them. Keep picking your flowers and leave others pick theirs, you don't have to smell them if you don't want to.

When the original author doesn't give any description of his characters more than the odd hair color, any physical description of a character is valid. Any casting choice is valid.

When the original author, per his own admittance, is an aphantasic who doesn't work with visuals, any visual adaptation is going to be different, and valid in its own way.

When the original author is an internal monologues author any visual adaptation is going to have to choose how to render that, how to make it accessible to viewers. Videogames have the freedom of internal monologues or external recaps (the missions diary), while TV doesn't. Transforming books so heavily not-visual into something visual IS a challenge, and a big one, even more than usual book-to-film adaptations. Choices had to be made, and since there was no relation between Netflix and CDPR before season 1, choices had to be made indipendently from the video games.

I came to The Witcher universe through the games. They're my husband favourite games (even if The Last of Us II may just have reached first place recently) and I've watched him play a lot. Now I'm on my first own playthrough and in my fourth Novigrad Gwent tournament. We had expectations for the show. We weren't convinced Cavill was the right choice. We were bugged that Triss wasn't a red-head. I still have opinions on the show (the management of the timeline, the dragon for fuck's sake) but, after reading the books, playing the games and writing some 30-odd fanfics and reading 3000 (all universes, all characters, all ships), I am even more convinced that the show is a good adaptation and even more convinced that it's going to get better as we go through the story.

Adaptation is a key-word, here. The show, like the games, is not a retelling. Not a remake. An adaptation. A fanfiction. The vision of a fan that is different from us exclusively because she gets paid a whole lot of money to do what we do for free on ao3.

That adaptation can not be to your taste, sure. I don't like the Percy Jackson's movies. It's valid, too. But they exist, and people love them, people have read the books after watching the movies, people have in their mind Alexandra Daddario as Annabeth even if Annabeth is blonde with grey eyes and 12, and it's ok. I don't care. It's not my problem, it doesn't touch me.

Fictional characters are.. fictionals. You can't hurt them, neither by killing them or giving them trauma or giving them the "wrong" partner, and you can't hurt them by changing their appearance either. They're concepts, words, ideas, that you can shuffle and play with and select and change at will. They're not people.

The friend who's going to see you ranting about how writing a character this was instead of that way is wrong and hurtful to this character and unfair and WRONG, however, is a real person who could be actually hurt by this and decide to reconsider writing this character specifically, or writing altogether.

And yes, this is valid in the other directions too. Being a fan of the show, games or books doesn't mean all fanfic or fanart needs to cater to you. You have no right to ask for a pairing the author is not writing. You have no right to tell an author that who this character should be paired with, or how they should be called, or how to describe them, in any circumstances.

Your power, your real power, is into selecting the media you consume and deciding to opt out if it doesn't cater to your tastes. Without being an asshole about it.

Please do not reblog.

[iaintyourbro]

Shipping Makes Me Question My Sanity

I learned about the FFVII waifu wars after playing the remake. I played the OG many moons ago, replayed it a few years ago, but really got interested in the character dynamics after playing FFVIIR. 

I foolishly looked up “Is the remake pushing Cloud and Tifa more?” I found the shipping wars... That I never knew existed. 

You see, I played the OG and it was pretty clear to me that the story went a certain way. In fact, I didn’t even associate FFVII to romance. 

FFVII was a story about a villain who was pissed off that a grunt killed him, so he finds a way to come back from the dead through clones that his father made to fuck with said grunt and get revenge on all the humans that wronged his Mother. 

(This is my explanation in as few words as possible, because we all know explaining FFVII would take multiple posts). 

So why did I look up my question about Cloud and Tifa? Well, I was shocked at how they presented them. I didn’t remember this from the OG. Like I said, I didn’t associate FFVII to romance like I did with VIII, IX, and X. Those were clear. FFVII didn’t have this as a main theme. FFVIIR created extreme sexual tension between Cloud and Tifa. 

I remember when you finally found out Cloud wasn’t a SOLDIER, that he actually DID kill Sephiroth 5 years ago, and that he did come to save Tifa - he fulfilled his promise. The part when the main theme plays and he takes his helmet off... chills. Even now, I love that part. Still, I associated this with us finally getting answers to some of the weird shit that happens earlier in the game. And I was way too young and dense to understand the Under the Highwind scene. 

Needless to say, I wanted to see if others had the same impression. It seems they did, and those posts were then overpowered by the other side. “Yeah, I used to ship Cloti, but the remake made me see that it’s clearly Aerith.” What? What did I miss? 

So I questioned my sanity a bit. I played every quest - I did both Tifa and Aerith’s discovery quests. Until the point we get back to Tifa in Wall Market, I still was kind of iffy on how they were presenting Aerith and Cloud. They removed a lot of stuff from the OG that was a bit more direct from Cloud’s end. They also removed a lot of the jealousy scenes between Tifa and Aerith. Seems they gave all the jealousy to Cloud in other scenes. 

Cloud clearly is soft with Tifa. He remembers The Promise, he calls her beautiful, you have no choice but to give her the flower. No matter what choices you make with Aerith. He still gives her the flower. He gets jealous whenever he even thinks a guy is talking about her in a romantic/sexual way.

Then I see things like “Cloud was so emotionless and mean until Chapter 8″. HOW? And this goes beyond Tifa. Cloud had a ton of character growth during the first 3 chapters, and it continued on until Chapter 8. This was not something where he suddenly turned nice to Aerith. He had a ton of people help him out before.

Take Biggs, Wedge, and Jessie. Cloud was a dick to them. I mean, he really was. I was sad for Wedge, cuz I think he’s so nice, and Cloud was just mean to him. By the end of Chapter 4, he’s much nicer to them. He’s left out of their celebration, and I think maybe this was a reference to him as a child. He thought he was better than the other kids (except Tifa). He treated everybody like shit (except Tifa) in the first three chapters and Barret told him to gtfo. 

Jessie made sure to let him know she wanted him there. Now, I’m not a fan of how thirsty Jessie is. I mean they REALLY slam it on you how bad she wants to get with Cloud. Cloud then says what I was thinking “Are you seriously that desperate?!” Yes, she is, and it’s obnoxious, but I think it’s a hilarious addition to the story. However, I think it was a light bulb moment that he would be included if he was a bit nicer to people.

Cloud and Barret start getting along more as time goes on as well. This is all before Chapter 8. So I actually have commented on these posts... “Did you play the first 7 chapters? Did you play the rest of the game?” There’s so many points during FFVIIR where Cloud clearly has character development outside of what Tifa and Aerith do. 

They ignore this. That’s my issue. The ignore everything else in the story. They ignore reality, so that makes people like me question themselves.

It reminds me of a personal situation with my job. We had a really bad leader. Like, cruel, mean. And he got away with it for a long time. You can say, “just leave”, but I think anybody with a family knows that’s not as easy as it sounds. Not when you rely on your job for not only income, but benefits, retirement, and stability. Not when changing buildings causes months of legit mental breakdowns (imagine changing companies completely?). So, it wasn’t really an option.

The worst part during all of that was knowing and seeing the reality of what was going on and having people flat out try to tell me that what I was seeing wasn’t true. I had conversations with other co-workers who started to question their sanity. Is it us? Are we the problem? Are we wrong? What are we missing? And that’s tough, especially when it goes on for so long.

In the real life example, there was a resolution earlier this year, where finally the guy was fired. And a lot of people were fighting him. More than you’d think. But they were scared, so they had to be careful. This is real life, not a game, so the stakes were much higher. The truth all comes out after this type of thing, and it was actually worse than we thought. There was a lot we missed, and a lot we just weren’t aware of. We weren’t crazy - there was just a group of his followers trying to brainwash us in to thinking he was great. 

The shipping wars give me the same feelings I had during that. I question my sanity and don’t get what I’m missing. This is beyond how you interpret the LTD. This is legit ignoring parts of the story as it’s presented. SE put these Cloti moments throughout the Remake to make a point. They have Aerith say things to make a point. They even have Aerith stop making moves on Cloud after Tifa comes back and she sees the obvious “thing” between them.

There are tons of analysis on multiple scenes and how Cloud reacts. Facial expressions tell a lot, so does voice acting. There are reasons they put these scenes in. There are reasons they are part of the main story and not part of side quests. There are reasons that the devs responded the way they did in interviews. 

The Ultimania clearly talks about Cloud’s feelings. The OG talks about them. 

So why do I still feel upset when I see these? Well, for one, the posters that say “I was a Cloti until..” in most cases are probably shipping the other side, but this is a great way to make people question themselves. It may make new fans not enjoy the story as much.

Then you have Twitter. And it’s a shame, because there’s some great fanart on Twitter. But, you can’t search for “tifa” without seeing some really bad posts. And it’s the same accounts over and over. There isn’t a large amount. 

The entire goal of these posters is to fight people who don’t agree with them. They also start posting similar complaints about a week after the Cloti side makes them.

The most recent being that Cloti fans are going after Nojima and it’s not going to change anything. What? I saw a similar post about the C////erith side about a week or two ago. Why are Cloti’s going after Nojima? So I went through some of his posts. I found one where he posted about FF7R. The only Cloti posts I saw were thanking him. The C///erith ones were over the top trying to say how it was all C///erith and there was no Cloti in the remake. One even said that “millions of fans want Aerith to survive.” No, I’d say the majority of fans want the original plot points to stay. 

Nojima himself liked a fanart of himself... where they called him the Cloti king.

So where are the Cloti’s going after Nojima? I only saw praise... 

The next new one is that C///eriths aren’t racist and Cloti’s are. I’ve seen this argument in reverse as well. It seems they scope out some things and repost them in the opposite argument. 

I just don’t understand the extreme nature. You can ship who you want, but you can’t erase parts of the story to make it work. Why even bother playing the game? The romance aspect is SO SMALL in the OG. 

In the remake its a bit heavier, but it’s different times. Sex sells. Let’s add some spice to the game, and they did. I felt no sexual tension between Cloud and Aerith. Jessie tried HARD. The only mutual tension felt was between Cloud and Tifa. That deep, dear lord please do something to release this tension, feeling. Cloud and Aerith had cute little moments similar to a Disney movie or a kids movie. Tifa and Cloud had the moments you see in more mature things. 

Some of these moments are optional - the resolution scene you can technically avoid every time you play if you choose to. The Clotiscrew tunnel roll is a bit harder unless you KNOW you can avoid it and/or are terrible at the game. You literally have to try hard to mess up to not get that scene. 

The Clotiscrew tunnel scene is also hilarious to watch people react to. Cuz you do feel like you need to take a quick walk to cool off from that heat. Even my husband who doesn’t give a shit was like “wow, yeah, okay, that’s... intense.” 

It didn’t have to be, it could have been a roll and release, but he holds her and says “You okay?” in that soft af voice THAT HE ONLY USES ON HER. Her response is equally sexy. Then they get up and stare. Once again, not necessary.

All the “unnecessary” touching that goes on is fun to point out. People are still finding moments, I think. During battles, in the background during other scenes. They’re making this a point. They make it a point to show shots of those two during other scenes in the game. They aren’t being subtle anymore. 

So I don’t understand how you can erase all of that. 

The other side has a small group that is completely shitting on Tifa to do it. I don’t see that as much on the Cloti side towards Aerith. I’m not saying it doesn’t exist, I bet it does, but it’s not as easy to find. Almost EVERY shipping fight has something about Tifa’s boobs, Tifa not telling Cloud about his past, something. They make stuff up in some cases.

All of this is a way to recruit people to their side. To “convert” them. I feel bad for the streamers who like Tifa and you see a group come in to try and “correct” that thought. Why do they care so much? 

Maximillian Dood doesn’t seem affected by those opinions - he’s a great supporter of Tifa as a character. He was very happy with the way they handled the remake, and that says a lot. He also has some great reactions to parts of the game. He also is a more experienced streamer, it seems.

My thoughts are... the Remake has blown expectations on how it was supposed to go. Probably a lot of fans assumed they’d make a point to build up Aerith as the love interest... but they didn’t. Tifa is in almost every chapter (2 is the exception). She is referenced multiple times in Wall Market - especially if you actually listen to the lyrics for Midgar Blues. Why place that song in during that part? 

So we go to the attack mode of survival here. They’re going to change as many opinions as possible. They’re going to make people question themselves. Make people feel bad. 

The reality is, there’s a clear cut story - they’re making it that way. There’s multiple hints that there isn’t going to be a love triangle. There’s multiple hints that Zack is going to be a thing in the Remake. They’ve definitely put it on more heavy that Aerith still loves Zack. 

I can only hope that things are made clear. That this can stop. I still say people should ship who they want. Hell, I ship Vincent and Lucrecia (this was my only romantic love in the OG back then...). However, canon is that Hojo and Lucrecia married and had a child. I wanted Vincent to secretly be the father so bad, but he’s not. That doesn’t ruin the game for me, at all. 

It would ruin the game for me, in a sense, if they completely pull a 180 in Part 2 and try to “remove” all of the stuff from Part 1 from a character dynamics perspective. It would feel wrong for Aerith to tell Cloud not to fall in love with her, tell him that everything isn’t real if he does, and also have her back off completely after Tifa is back, and then all of a sudden throw herself at him. It would erase all the friendship scenes between Tifa and Aerith.

And how could you just “turn off” Cloud’s attentive nature to Tifa? It wouldn’t make sense. It would ruin it for me because that is legit trying to erase parts of the story.

I don’t think that will happen. But I still get anxious when I see shit on the internet.

[pan0ramy]

re8 thought dump because YE

i feel like this was almost inevitable but idk where else to talk about resident evil village so i’m just going to rant about it here!!! i have,,,, a lot of thoughts on this game after being so excited for it for so long

obviously, massive spoilers if you haven’t finished the game. i feel like i have thoughts on pretty much everything so please please please stay clear of this post if you’re trying to stay blind

otherwise, let me just rant about this game for a bit - mainly the story and characters - because i have Thoughts™

(also i feel like it goes without saying but this will be probably be quite long, so. strap in, ig)

okay SO. the whole intro was pretty interesting - even though we’d seen bits of it in trailers, it was still pretty unnerving and felt like it came out of nowhere. but the first thing that really stood out was the first village section with the hordes of lycans; i didn’t expect this game to start freaking me out so quickly but JESUS my blood pressure went up fast. 

there’s so many of them coming at you at once, and not only have you just lost half your damn hand, you’re not really used to the gunplay at that point AND you don’t have that many weapons at your disposal. so it’s basically just “hey we’re throwing you into this ring of death, good luck surviving!” which... now that i think about it, that really sums up the whole game lol

but for the most part, the early parts of the game are what we saw in the demos, so there’s nothing too new - it was nice getting to see the scene with all four lords and mother miranda, though. i wasn’t sure how the whole chase scene with the lycans would work - i thought heisenberg’s area was going to be some sort of mine, and that the chase would take place there - but it didn’t, and it was interesting regardless of it being so short. 

but the castle. THE CASTLE. 

i would be lying through my teeth if i said i wasn’t excited for dimitrescu like everybody else; i’m firmly in the camp of people who both meme about how attractive she is, and then also the people who legitimately find her attractive, soooo i kinda had high expectations going in? 

and sure, the castle section is only part of the game, but if there’s anything that makes me nervous most, it’s stalker enemies. resi 2 remake was actually pretty tough for me to get through because of how anxiety-inducing mr x was, and even though i don’t feel like she was as present as mr x was, lady d was still great! there were a good few times where you could hear her walking around and you just knew she was searching for you, which was really damn cool.

also, i know capcom had a lot of hype to live up to with lady dimitrescu, but goddamn they did such a great job with her. she’s so imposing but badass and just... really damn cool? like i honestly found myself being excited for her to show up rather than being scared. i just think she’s neat! I MEAN LOOK AT HER.

(also yes i know the whole internet has talked about how attractive she is, but can we just. appreciate that for a second???? she’s gorgeous and yall can’t tell me otherwise. like. bro ik the pronunciation is wrong but the way she says dimitrescu made me GASP i love this powerful vampire woman)

if anything, though, i... actually felt really bad that her story ended up the way it did. i mean, think about it: you break into her house, kill the three people she’s grown to consider her daughters, rob her shit, and then kill her? she technically goes through the same kind of parental grief that ethan does, in a way, which is a really interesting parallel. grief seems to be a theme that capcom really pushed for this game, and it works. 

also, her boss fight design is badass. she’s literally a dragon, how is that not incredible

so the castle was great, where could the game go from here? oh, i don’t know, how about gOOD OLD FASIONED FUCKING TRAUMA.

jesus christ the dollhouse GOT TO ME.

i’m pretty used to horror in general; i love horror games, movies, books, you name it. i’ve gone to horror movies where people have ran out because of fear all while i’ve sat there giggling the whole time. but the dollhouse? that dollhouse is FUCKED. i can’t remember the last time i watched someone play through a horror game and was so... on edge the whole time. the fact that they keep you waiting for so long with nothing happening just... makes the atmosphere incredibly uncomfortable, and then when shit does start going down, it goes down fast. in other words, jesus fucking christ that baby will haunt my nightmares until the end of time

basically capcom managed to make the n*zi baby joke from south park: the stick of truth legitimately terrifying, and i was glad to see donna die. moving on.

moreau’s section is the one i... actually don’t have as many thoughts on. it’s cool, sure, and the whole idea of him turning into a fish when he hits water is neat - it’s definitely a good callback to re4 - but idk, it didn’t really scare me that much. i can see it scaring those with a fear of water or the ocean, for sure, but eh. i thought the designs were cool, but i kinda tuned out a little here.

heisenberg, though, was anything but. the entire time leading up to village’s release, this guy has fascinated me for some reason. i don’t know if it’s because he’s the most normal-looking of the four lords, or the fact that he has telekinesis, or his amazing voice acting (seriously i know some people have shit on his VA but oh my god i adore it) or what, but this guy stood out to me from day one. i even went into the game expecting him not to die tbh. but no, he does, and his fight is pretty damn cool all things considered. only in a resident evil game could you have a mech fight and have it not feel out of place lol

also this line ^^^ legitimately made me laugh so hard i almost choked on my water. THE FACT HE TURNS AROUND AND APOLOGISES SO MEEKLY its fucking hilarious to me

but anyway.

similar to alcina, though, i was left with one big question about heisenberg - what did mother miranda do to him to get him to join her impromptu familly? he said himself to ethan that he didn’t want to join, so what did miranda do that didn’t give him a choice? did he have a family at some point? is he grieving too? what did miranda take from him? i can only hope this gets answered in the dlc, because it’s by far one of my biggest questions surrounding all of this. i may very well have missed it somewhere, and at least we know he has his telekinesis abilities thanks to miranda, but it’s a question that’ll definitely be on my mind going forward.

at this point, though, the story REALLY gets insane. it’s really nice how village decided to just continue on straight from what 7 did, and i’m very glad that everyone’s theories about chris being a werewolf were wrong - it’s a really nice spanner to throw in the works. if anything, the whole revelation of mother miranda disguising herself as mia the whole time since rose’s birth was really cool, and ethan being Mold™ the entire time was pretty neat too - it made a lot of things both in 7 and village make more sense.

what i’m still digesting, though, is the ending.

...man, capcom, you put poor ethan through all of that and then you have the balls to actually kill him? i mean shit, you made us think he was dead for a whole 20 minutes but then nope! he’s alive! but then nope! he’s dead again! i did see someone point out that at least ethan got to go out on his own terms, but dammit i would’ve at least liked for him to get to see mia one last time. i think it would’ve softened the blow a little more. but i guess that ties into the whole grief theming this game has going for it, and like i said, i probably just need some more time to digest it. 

i don’t dislike the ending, it’s just a very big culture shock - it’s definitely a ballsy move, and i really respect capcom for going all out the way they did. they really held back on nothing in terms of this game’s story and i absolutely love it. it was so, so worth the wait in that regard. 

and tbh that’s kinda how i feel about the whole game in general; it was super super good, very much worth the wait, and i absolutely cannot wait to see where resident evil goes from here. i have a gut feeling this’ll end up being one of my absolute favourites in the series, which i know is very high praise, but i really do love it that much. i wasn’t disappointed with much in this game, if anything at all. it’s just a super fucking good video game man idk what else to say at this point

[thatforgottenbasilisk]

3 with Jon and Izuku in your crossover please

Sure thing, anon!

3: “For once, this isn’t actually my fault.”

It's Not In Your Head (AO3)

1820 words

(set during The Truth About Me, and the Truth About You, when Jon tells Midoriya everything about the fears)

Jon clicked the tape recorder off. He didn't want what would follow to be on tape, he wanted some things, at least, to remain private. It didn't matter that his life, his tragedies, his misery and paranoia were all laid bare to these tapes; Midoriya, at least, deserved the minimum amount of mercy that he could give.

"There's no easy way to tell you this. Any of this. The beginning would be the best place to start, then? A simple explanation, like the one that I never got.

There are fourteen known entities influencing our world as we know it. They have existed for as long as fear itself has; for as long as brains, in any form, have been in existence. All of them are based upon different fears; there's the Buried, which is claustrophobia; the Corruption, bugs and disease and that sort of thing; the Dark, which is self-explanatory; the Desolation, which is fire and destruction; the End, which is death; the Eye, which is fear of being seen and known; the Flesh, which is meat; the Hunt, which is fear of being hunted like prey; the Lonely, fear of being alone; the Slaughter, which is senseless violence; the Spiral, which is deception; the Stranger, which is fear of strangers, basically the Uncanny Valley; the Vast, fear of heights or things that are too big; and the Web, which is fear of spiders and manipulation. There is debate about the emergence of a possible fifteenth fear, the Extinction, which is fear of the apocalypse and what will come after us when we are all gone.

Of course, this is a very simplified explanation of all of them; in reality, they are much more tangled up in each other, and are often quite subtle. For all intents and purposes, however, that will have to suffice.

These entities, these beings, they're not quite a part of our world, but they can influence it from outside of it, from whatever dimension they reside in. They want to come fully into our world, so that they may terrorize all of us and feed on everyone's fear. For that, they need followers who are loyal to them, who will bring them here so that they may remake the world into their own images.

That's where we come in. When someone becomes a servant of an entity, sometimes it's by choice. But usually, it is not. These servants often receive powers from their patron, allowing them to more easily harvest fear that will feed that which they serve."

"... What do you mean, "that's where we come in?" What does this have to do with your quirk? What does it have to do with the questions you asked me?"

"That's... the hard part. People who serve the entities often have no choice in it; sometimes, they even serve unknowingly. Sometimes, people gain powers without noticing, thinking it to be a part of their quirks, or simply believing it to be normal."

"Why do I think- no. You're not trying to say- I- I don't serve one of those fears, do I? I- I mean... powers like that, if I was feeding off of fear, I, I would notice, right?"

"I'm sorry. From what it sounds like, you serve the same one as I do. The Eye, otherwise known as the Beholding. It allows us to know things that we shouldn't, often without us realizing that we shouldn't know it. We also understand all languages, often speaking them without noticing that it feels wrong. It feeds by watching things happen, by just seeing fear. I feed on Statements, accounts of times when people have undergone experiences with the other entities. From what it sounds like, you feed on watching Hero fights, leeching the fear from the villains or the heroes, depending on how the fight is going."

"How do I know that you're telling the truth?"

"Remember when I asked you if you could understand what I was asking you? Then when I asked what language we were speaking?"

Midoriya nodded.

"That wasn't Japanese. It was English. I can play the tape back to prove it, if you want."

"Y-yeah. I want... I want to hear this for myself."

"Alright. Pay attention, and then you'll notice the switch."

Jon picked up the tape recorder and rewound it to a moment or two before it stopped recording. Then, he pressed play, and it spat out the English that he and Midoriya had been speaking.

Jon looked back up to see Midoriya gaping at the tape recorder, tears flowing down his face and looking to be the picture of horror. He looked... devastated. Like he wasn't even seeing a tape recorder, but a monster which would kill all of his friends and then him. He looked like he'd just caused the apocalypse.

Jon's first thought was, “For once, this isn’t actually my fault.” And isn't that something? Technically, it really wasn't Jon's fault. He was just the poor sod who had to tell this kid, who looked like the physical embodiment of sunshine, that he was a monster, who fed on fear to sustain himself, as well as to feed a monster that wanted to torture the entire human race. He didn't- wait. Jon didn't tell him that he was technically dead.

How the fuck was he about to look this child in the eyes and give him more bad news?

"Midoriya. Something else about the servants of the entities... when they've come into the full extent of their powers, some of us have taken to calling them "Avatars," instead of someone merely aligned with an entity. However, one can only access the full extent of their powers by dying, and then coming back to life after doing so."

"... That wasn't a near-death experience, was it? I really did... I really did die, didn't I?"

"You did. In doing so, and then coming back, you've dedicated yourself to the Beholding, like I have. Now that you know this, you can stop feeding on your friends, or your heroes, and start on a new source. I have Statements from the Japanese branch of the Magnus Institute, and I can call them in order to tell them that you need unrestricted access to their Archives..."

"Wait, wait, wait. Can you... can you stop? For a moment? Please, I... I'm dead. I don't want to hurt anyone, I don't know what to do... I don't want to feed at all! I just want to go back to not serving anything. Am I... am I even human anymore?"

Jon sighed, and he felt his own misery and confusion looking back at him from someone who was half his age, when he felt like that. When he found out about... everything. He didn't want to tell Midoriya about the answers to his questions, how it's impossible to keep living without hurting people, at this point. How it's impossible to stop being an Avatar without dying a long, slow, and painful death. How he isn't even human, not really. Not in the ways that matter.

"You can't live a life without hurting anyone. Not anymore. The best that you can do is read Statements, and hope that the writers are already dead, or else they've been read already. You might come across some that are alive, some Statements that have somehow never been read by anyone, but it's the best that you can do. You can't stop it, not unless you want to starve yourself back to death, but your instincts will take over before that happens; if you stop, if you starve yourself of fear entirely, then you'll start hunting for it. You won't even realize that you're doing it, not until someone tells you and you realize that your walks, or your errands, they had a lot of Statement-givers, didn't they? Or, well, in your case I suppose you'd come across more hero fights than you normally would, and you wouldn't really feel the need to intervene, because you'll think that the other hero has it handled, and you haven't got your costume on anyway, and you shouldn't get in the way unless they really need backup, right?

No. You need to deliberately choose to read the Statements, actively choose to take what is old and stale but will keep you alive and others from being hurt by your actions, by your very existence."

"Okay. I- I will. I'll read the oldest Statements, I won't watch any fights anymore, no more analysis or anything. I don't want to keep hurting people. But... you didn't answer my last question. Am I- are we- still human?"

"No. Not... not quite. That's why you can't withdraw from your classmates and friends, now. If you're alone, if you haven't anyone to keep you attached to humanity, then you'll start to drift. You'll stop caring about hurting them. You'll start hunting on purpose, and nobody wants that."

"Okay. Thank you, Sims-san. One more question, if that's okay?"

"Of course."

"Is anyone- do you know if anyone else that I know serves one of the entities?"

"You don't want me to answer that."

Midoriya curled into himself, and cast his eyes down on the table between them. He looked almost detached from the situation at hand, now, as though he wasn't really processing any of it. He probably wasn't, not really, not even close to accepting any of it.

"So the answer's yes, then."

Jon couldn't bring himself to speak. He knew that he often came across as callous and uncaring, and he needed to speak in order to explain the situation, but now? His words would only make things worse. So, he slowly and carefully laid a hand on one of Midoriya's scarred ones, giving it a gentle squeeze that he hopes came across as reassuring.

"Just tell me who it is, please. It's worse if I have to be suspicious of everyone around me."

"It's... it's your partner. Todoroki Shouto. That I know of, at least. I'm sorry."

Midoriya let out a quiet sob, and clutched Jon's hand like it was a lifeline.

"For what it's worth, I don't believe that he would hurt anyone on purpose, nor do I believe that he chose to align himself like that. I think that you should talk to him about it yourself, though."

"Is he... is he dead too?" Midoriya's voice sounded so broken, so defeated, that Jon somehow managed to pity the boy even more. He didn't deserve this. He never deserved this.

"I don't know."

"Okay. Thank you for telling me this."

"I wish I didn't have to. I wish that none of this was real."

"So do I. But wishing doesn't change anything, and I think that we know that better than anyone else could."

"You're right. Good luck in your heroics, Midoriya Izuku."