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vikjaycecodex · 2 years ago

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< SKINLINE_MANUAL >

*This is a copy of a desktop page! We recommend you read this version directly on your browser for better readability, and to always have the most up to date version.

⚙ TL;DR WHAT *ARE* SKINLINES? ⚙

Champion Skins are an in-game cosmetic option present in multiple League related properties! Aside from giving champions a refreshed design, skins can also offer new voicelines, animations, and wholly new backstories set in Alternate Universes – or ‘What If’-style iterations on their canon selves.

A growing narrative element (and “cast” of characters) is a major feature of League’s most popular Skin Universes. While League itself is not a story-progression game, these universes are explored through tie-in material such as champion bios, short stories, music, animations, comics, merch, spinoff games, TV shows, promotional illustrations and more.

This page will focus on champion skins for Jayce and Viktor across all League-related games, with the addition of Blitzcrank whenever an universe is shared.

[ ALL HD SPLASH ART ]

JAYCE GALLERY

VIKTOR GALLERY

BLITZCRANK GALLERY

I do this because I love you. But then again mostly because I hate looking for ref images and finding blurry webps.

⚙ If you’re looking for a full Art References page, click here ⚙

The remainder of this page details Skin Universes, Summaries, and Skin Spotlights. Skin and Universe summaries are extracted directly from the League Client or the League Wiki, denoted by quotation marks.

This page will be updated whenever relevant. (last: JAN/2023)

[ TABLE OF CONTENTS ]

1. Shared Universes

2. Individual Skins

3. Spinoff Content

⚙ SHARED UNIVERSES ⚙

CODEX TAG — AU: Full Metal | League Wiki Universe Page

➢ CONTEXT HAZARD: Current bios attached to these skins were retroactively written, and thus make for an incomplete representation of what they were supposed to convey.

Full Machine Viktor is one of Viktor’s original duo launch skins —the second being Prototype Viktor— and at time of release, the set was a representation of Viktor at different stages of his Evolution in the 2011 canon universe. (You had Default Viktor as his cyborg self, Prototype being the mostly-human self and Full Machine being, well, Full Machine.) Full Metal Jayce was also Jayce’s original launch skin; and at the time taken as a what-if style representation of a Jayce that accepted Viktor’s proposal to work together in the 2011 canon universe. This speculation was further bolstered by internal game files referring to this skin as ‘Sentinel Jayce’, and released concept art featuring a fully mechanized version of Jayce’s default outfit under the title ‘Sentinel Armor Apollo’ —"Apollo" was Jayce’s internal development name.

These skins were mixed in with the ‘Heavy Metal’ Universe as part of the 2016 Narrative Overhaul; though the execution of that move left some fans displeased. Jayce is now an international entertainment robot gladiator, while Viktor’s full evolution has been downgraded to a ‘janitorbot’. Fanwork of these skins may still refer to their original context.

UNIVERSE BIO:

“Audiences gather from all over the world for a chance to witness the greatest robot fighters throw down in RiotCorp’s gladiatorial arenas, eager for the chance to be crowned the Full Metal Robot Fighting League Champion or break down trying.”

FULL METAL JAYCE BIO:

“Backed by RiotCorp as the Full Metal Fighting League’s first corporately sanctioned champion, Jayce has dethroned Pantheon and won the hearts of audiences worldwide—especially those who realize they gain 15 Riot Points every time they cheer his cyclonic blasts.”

(Skin Spotlight)

FULL MACHINE VIKTOR BIO:

“Created from the same circuitry as the Full Metal champion, Jayce, Viktor was cast into the tunnels beneath the robot fighting arenas to serve as a janitoribot—while his twin was groomed for glory, simulcast en español. Upgrading himself with the cast-offs of the destroyed, he has sworn la venganza.”

(Skin Spotlight)

CODEX TAG — AU: Battlecast | League Wiki Universe Page

“Set in a dystopian future where an army of robots with living brains seek to extinguish or convert all life, champions are transformed into cyborg terrors as a part of Viktor’s glorious evolution, while some rebel against it.”

UNIVERSE BIO:

“The glorious revolution is here! Assembling an army of machines with living brains, Viktor marches against the combined forces of his enemies—with only a scrappy human-led resistance keeping him from total world domination.”

CREATOR VIKTOR BIO:

“The creator of the Battlecast machine army, Viktor has perfected the art of transplanting living brains into low-tech, mass-produced weapons. But his work is far from complete, and even now he tinkers on newer, deadlier creations to crush all who oppose him.”

(Skin Spotlight)

RESISTANCE JAYCE BIO:

“While many presumed him dead, Jayce’s sudden return to the Resistance has been heralded by some as a miracle and others as a curse. Burdened by guilt, he still blames himself for his failure to halt Viktor’s rise. Only time will tell if Jayce can turn the tide.”

(Skin Spotlight)

CODEX TAG — AU: Zenith Games | League Wiki Universe Page

UNIVERSE BIO:

“It’s 2122, a year of firsts for the Zenith Games. Robot referees are taking to the field, the sport of Hammerjack is making its competitive debut, and after years of talks, augmented humans are finally allowed to compete. All that’s left is seeing who will win.”

ZENITH GAMES JAYCE BIO:

“Jayce invented Hammerjack as a showcase sport for humanity’s new augmented abilities. Nothing else tested athletes across so many directions and terrain, and with this being its first year in the Zenith Games, he intends to show everyone what THE sport of the 22nd century looks like.”

(Skin Spotlight)

ZENITH GAMES BLITZCRANK BIO:

“Originally a bomb defusal robot, Blitzcrank was made a referee because of their ability to make split-second adjustments to stay ahead of the prodigious athletes. Only later did everyone realize that the bot’s background made them unusually effective in defusing the intense… disagreements that often arise.”

(Skin Spotlight)

CODEX TAG — AU: Death Sworn | League Wiki Universe Page

➢ CONTEXT HAZARD: While technically not part of the same ‘skinline’ both of these skins have been released during League’s seasonal Harrowing events (which feature a different skinline every other year) making them both Halloween specials.

AKA the Spirit Halloween champion variants.

DEATH SWORN VIKTOR BIO:

“On a cold, dreary night, a pioneering inventor was tried and hanged for preaching his glorious vision of the future—a world in which the living knelt before the dead. Death had to admire Viktor’s conviction, and sent him back into the mortal world, blessed with powers beyond imagination.”

Death Sworn Universe Page

(Skin Spotlight)

WITCH’S BREW BLITZCRANK BIO:

“Once nothing but a simple cauldron, Blitzcrank was enchanted, brought to life in order to assist Miss Fortune in her beguiling bewitchments.”

Trick-or-Treat Universe Page

(Skin Spotlight)

⚙ INDIVIDUAL SKINS ⚙

PROTOTYPE VIKTOR | CODEX TAG — Academy Years

SKIN BIO:

Woops! This was one of Viktor’s original duo release skins showing off potential stages of his evolution, so it has no bio. You can read his champion bio instead! Fanwork usually slots this appearance on the timeline between Viktor being expelled from school & forging his current armor, so it goes on ‘Academy Years.’

(Skin Spotlight)

DEBONAIR JAYCE | CODEX TAG — AU: Debonair

Valentines 2015 Skin. Comes with seasonal cards!

DEBONAIR UNIVERSE BIO:

“Power, wealth, and glamour collide in the penthouses and exclusive clubs of Nox Vegas, where truly beautiful people hold the world in their palms. Yet as night falls on the city of lights, the knives come out—influence is the name of the game, and nobody likes to lose.”

SKIN BIO:

“You’re a scholar. You’re an inventor. You’re the man of the hour and the hour is now, yesterday, and tomorrow. Don’t just be the father of invention—be the ivory god of substance, class, and style. It’s you, Jayce. It’s always been you.”

(Skin Spotlight)

FORSAKEN JAYCE | CODEX TAG — AU: Forsaken

May 4th celebration skin. This skin originally had no bio, but it launched with a Star Wars reference based marketing blogpost. It has been since ported to Wild Rift, where it got a visual cleanup and its own biography blurb.

SKIN BIO (WILD RIFT 2022):

“Opposed to balance in all measures,Jayce has gone down a path he cannot return from. He has sworn vengeance upon Chosen Master Yi and all he stands for.”

(Skin Spotlight)

PSYOPS VIKTOR | CODEX TAG — AU: PsyOps

This skin was featured in the Official Psyops Theme, and Viktor himself is an easter egg in the Songbird Cinematic. PsyOps is canonically set 40 years after the ‘Artic Ops’ skinline.

PSYOPS UNIVERSE BIO:

“The crown jewel of military black ops, the PsyOps unit are an elite team of psychic soldiers deployed against rogue militaries and supernatural threats. Officially, they don’t exist. But when conventional warfare won’t cut it and the stakes are no less than the fate of the world, PsyOps answers the call.

A psychic paramilitary unit of fearsome power, the Black Rose Group hopes to create a new global order with their ferocious human bioweapons.”

SKIN BIO:

“Leader of the rogue military known as the Black Rose Group, Viktor is a psychic technomancer whose vision for a utopian world was abandoned when he suddenly departed High Command decades prior. Obsessed with an alien ‘gate’ uncovered during the Arctic Ops event, his experiments into human bioweapons would allow him to breach it and upend the global order.”

(Skin Spotlight)

JAYCE BRIGHTHAMMER | CODEX TAG — AU: Riftquest

TTRPG universe with a meta layer; champions are players who built fantasy characters going on a quest. Dungeon Master Viktor was originally going to be a part of this Skinline, but never made it to release due to the position of dungeon master being considered ‘too niche’. Though not all was lost: Jayce’s skin bio still highlights a playful rivalry relationship with his offscreen dungeon master.

This skin was featured in two comics (off canon) and a rp style short story. (LoR has introduced new exclusive Riftquest skins in 2022, but they focus on a separate DnD group.)

RIFTQUEST UNIVERSE BIO:

“Danger lurks in the land of Runeterra! Powerful monsters, dastardly sorcerers, and mythical creatures roam unchecked! Gather your friends and create your own adventure for 3-5 players, vanquishing evil with each roll of the die. Do you have what it takes to save the world, and become a legend of RIFTQUEST?”

SKIN BIO:

“A noble paladin who has inexplicably mastered science and engineering, Jayce Brighthammer is a stout ally no foul creature can best! Unless that foul creature is a loophole in the rulebook, since Jayce likes to get any advantage over the Rift Master he can.”

(Skin Spotlight)

BATTLE ACADEMIA JAYCE | CODEX TAG — AU: Battle Academia

Shonen superpower school universe. I’m sure you can guess the reference from the title. This skin launched with multiple promos and an animated short for latinoamerica.

GOD WEAPON UNIVERSE BIO:

“Scattered across the globe, the God Weapons morphed society into one driven by power. These sentient monuments call to those who are worthy and bestow their gifts upon their subjects, aiming to expand their conquest in this war-torn world. To be chosen is a badge of honor, instilling fear into any who may oppose them.”

SKIN BIO:

“A prestigious 2nd year whose face is known throughout the wider city of Durandal, Jayce is the class president, head of the world-renowned Luminary Club, and prodigious inventor of miraculous Jayce-branded technologies. He hopes his inventions will prevent the kind of tragedy that struck him in his youth, though he refuses to speak about what that was.”

(Skin Spotlight)

HIGH NOON VIKTOR | CODEX TAG — AU: High Noon

“At the height of the industrial revolution, travelers begin pouring into the untamed west, searching for fortune and prosperity among the unknown horrors of a cruel and ancient world. It is a time of brave gunslingers and rotten scoundrels, inscrutable gods, and savage demons.”

Weird West AU. This universe has been fleshed out with extensive short stories.

HIGH NOON GOTHIC UNIVERSE BIO:

“Gunslingers and lawmen ride beneath the merciless sun of the high frontier, chasing survival and salvation in equal measure. Heaven is rubble, hell is empty, and all the devils are here.”

SKIN BIO:

“Many a road to Hell was paved with good intent. Dr. Viktor may be the Mechanical Devil’s kept engineer now, but his work began as charity: trying to “rehome” the souls of the dead in clockwork bodies, in order to circumvent mortality itself. Shame that Mordekaiser saw the good doctor’s kindness and struck him a deal he could not deny.”

Alt Splash Concepts

(Skin Spotlight)

ARCANE JAYCE | CODEX TAG — Woops, we dont cover Arcane.

(Skin Spotlight)

SUPERHERO JAYCE | CODEX TAG — AU: Superhero

This skin is a Wild Rift battlepass exclusive, and launched with a showcase animation. It is unconfirmed if this skin is part of the Silver Age Universe, though it is listed as such for having a superhero theme.

An official speedpaint of this splash was uploaded to youtube! One of the splash concepts may feature Amaranthine.

SKIN BIO:

“By day, Jayce is a genius inventor and pillar of the community; by night, Jayce dons a costume and patrols the streets of Topside as his alter ego Hextech Man! Wielding his trusty hextech hammer, Jayce will stop at nothing to protect his people.”

(Skin Spotlight)

GILDED JAYCE | CODEX TAG — AU: Gilded

Legends of Runeterra exclusive. Gilded skins have no conventional universe or character bios; they are broadly set at a lavish Progress Day party in Piltover, though apparently not the ‘main canon’ one. Aesthetic > Lore skinline.

⚙ Spinoff Content ⚙

➢ In the comic Punches and Plants: Series 2, Alternate versions of Jayce & Viktor in a modern/fantasy universe have 'retired’ from their hero and villain positions to take up toymaking and other nerdy hobbies.

➢ In a Space Groove short story released exclusively in Chinese channels, Disco Pirate Jayce appears as part of Disco Pirate Miss Fortune’s crew. Both skins remain unreleased.

➢J&V Animated Stickers from LoR

#app-friendly info page

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theggning · 4 years ago

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Codsworth Is So Underrated, You Guys

ALTERNATE TITLE: Codsworth and the Totally Understated Mindbending Evolution of Artificial Consciousness

I find Codsworth is often the most underrated of the 16 companions in Fallout 4. Your faithful robot butler is among the very first you can recruit and an excellent early-game ally, but he has a few disadvantages in gameplay that mean he’s often sent back to Sanctuary before long. Codsworth is a mid-to-close range fighter only, cannot wear armor or be equipped with weapons. He cannot be healed by stimpak, which makes him a liability if you’re playing on Survival mode. He has no companion quest of his own, so unless you particularly enjoy him there’s not a compelling reason to keep him for a long time. He also becomes recruitable exactly 2 minutes after adorable puppy Best Boy Dogmeat, so he is often (understandably) replaced just as soon as he’s made available.

But there is this great, completely understated facet to Codsworth, so understated that the game does not draw attention to it in any way. And yet, it is a wonderful reflection of many of the themes of Fallout 4 and, I believe, a pretty strong indication of its thesis statement.

Now what in the hell am I talking about?

Like many sci-fi/fantasy universes, the Fallout series is home to many highly-advanced robots. Robots were commonplace before the Great War, and many have survived the bombs intact and in working order. Others have been built or modified by wastelanders to serve various tasks (Percy, Ada.) The most important thing to understand about robots, though, is though they may have vivid personalities programmed in, they are widely accepted to be objects. They are thought of the same way as an appliance, a machine built for a specific purpose and programmed to follow a strict set of protocols.

Many jokes revolve around the relatively rigid intelligence of robots. Pre-War, many were deployed in inappropriate jobs or designed haphazardly (Mister Handies acting as nurses in a hospital, “paramedic” Protectrons with massive deadly tasers for hands, military robots constantly going haywire and erupting in friendly fire.) Others continue to man businesses and play out daily tasks as they were programmed to do over 200 years ago. Most robots are incapable of understanding anything beyond their initial programming, and most pre-War robots are completely unaware that the Great War ever happened.

When the Sole Survivor reunites with Codsworth at the ruins of their home, it seems like he, too, doesn’t understand what’s going on. He talks about tending the (dead) garden, references the (ghoulified) neighbors, and generally acts like the chipper robot butler Sole left behind on their way to Vault 111.

But there is something slightly… off in Codsworth’s dialogue here. Though he acts like the war never happened, he also specifically mentions details that suggest it did:

Player Default: Codsworth! You're still... fully operational?

Codsworth: {Defiant} Well of course, mum. You can thank the fine engineers at General Atomics for that! At least, you could have. Had they not been... vaporized.

A bit over 210 actually, mum. Give or take a little for the Earth's rotation and some minor dings to the ole' chronometer. That means you're two centuries late for dinner! Ha ha ha. Perhaps I can whip you up a snack? You must be famished.

You've no idea the desperation for human contact one develops over 200 years. {Upset, recalling bad memories of encountering raiders and scavengers. / Disgust} And when you do encounter them? Oh the cruelty! You're either... target practice or... spare parts!

Even stranger, Codsworth mentions details that are plainly made-up (or some kind of delusion):

Codsworth: It's been ages since we've had a proper family activity. Checkers. Or perhaps charades. Shaun does so love that game. Is the lad... with you...?

Player Default: Codsworth... listen to me carefully... have you seen him? Have you seen Shaun?

Codsworth: Why, sir had him last, remember? Perhaps he's gone to the Parker residence to arrange a play-date?

(Shaun is an infant. He is too young to play charades or to go to the neighbors for a play-date.)

So at once, Codsworth does and does not acknowledge the war. He does and does not seem to understand what’s happened, and he does and does not seem to follow Sole’s urgency regarding their spouse’s death and Shaun’s kidnapping.

And then, after a speech check, Codsworth finally snaps and breaks down sobbing in despair. Not only does he understand that the war happened, he has developed the ability to get depressed about it. Longing for human contact and with nothing else to do, he’s even developed coping mechanisms to help him try to deal with his loneliness and despair—futilely trying to do his chores and deluding himself into pretending everything is completely normal.

Wait a minute. Sobbing? Despair? Depression? Coping mechanisms and delusions? This Is all pretty sophisticated stuff to be programmed into a robot, and if you spend more time with Codsworth, the reality of what’s happened to him becomes apparent:

Codsworth has evolved beyond his programming. In his 210 lonely years of existence, he has developed emotional reactions and self-awareness far beyond that of most other robots, and, indeed, has basically evolved an artificial consciousness.

“Emergent intelligence” is the theoretical ability of an AI to eventually develop something resembling human thought processes, and it seems that our dear Codsworth has undergone this. Traveling with him, he displays many sophisticated thoughts and behaviors far beyond what most robots are shown to be capable of. He has memories of pre-War time and places, and understands how various locations have changed. He is capable of learning new information and forming opinions on it, gaining his own understanding of the people and factions in the Commonwealth. He can feel happiness, sorrow, fear, disgust. He can anticipate things, predict danger and imagine how people might respond to your actions. The mere he fact he has opinions and a moral code that he applies to you shows he has free will, something even other robot companions don’t (Ada has a personality, but absolutely does not care about your actions.)

He’s also smart enough to make many wry observational jokes, and to lay one hell of a sick burn on you:

{Joking - Found an old bowling alley. / Amused} Fancy a game, mum? Something tells me the bumpers are no longer available.

Codsworth’s intelligence is even more sophisticated than that. He displays stunning self-awareness, frequently referencing the fact he is a robot and what that means. He is very proud of his background as General Atomics’ finest, and seems pleased with his robot nature and his lot in life. (Unlike Curie, I don’t think Codsworth would ever really want to gain a synth body. He seems quite happy as he is.)

Here he is making reference to still feeling the tug of his programming:

{Seeing an office with chairs arranged in a circle. / Neutral} I've the most incredible urge to rearrange those chairs in a more perfect circle.

Understanding when other robots are restricted by theirs:

A pity. It appears Deezer's programming is too severe to allow for normal conversation. Ah well.

And when they’re actually not:

Codsworth: Greetings, sir. Good to see another robot in town. That chef hat becomes you.

Takahashi: Nan-ni shimasho-ka?

Codsworth: Takahashi you say? I'm Codsworth, a pleasure to make your acquaintance.

Takahashi: Nan-ni shimasho-ka?

Codsworth: Is that so? Well, we both know RobCo is no General Atomics. It's not surprising it failed, shoddy work and all. {Friendly - trying to cheer up another robot. / Friendly} Chin up, though. Never know when parts may turn up.

And here’s Galaxy Brain Codsworth ruminating on his own state of being and contemplating his nature:

{Disappointed that he can't be 100% human sometimes. / Sad} It's unfortunate that I lack the proper design to consume liquids. Something about camaraderie over a few drinks is very inviting.

I suppose if I had the hardware, I'd have the software as well. I'd hate to see how that'd affect my honesty and manner settings.

{Reconsidering what he thought was a good idea. / Thinking} Indeed. Perhaps I should rethink my initial desire.

Hilariously, Codsworth does not seem fully aware of how remarkable his intelligence is. He occasionally says things like “if I had feelings” and “if I could feel things,” indicating that in some ways he still believes he is only a robot and defines himself by what a robot is and does.

But as we can see, our humble robot butler has essentially evolved to become the smartest, most emotionally intelligent and person-like robot in the Commonwealth*, and potentially in the series.

([SIDE NOTE: Other FO4 robots nearing Codsworth’s level of consciousness and developed personality include Captain Ironsides, KLE-O, Whitechapel Charlie, and perhaps Takahashi. Curie is close, but also receives the unfair advantage of being uploaded into a synth body with a human brain. Jezebel also functions off of a human brain. Nick is not a robot, he’s a synth (though he does jokingly refer to himself as one) and also has the advantage of a human brain encoded on his processor.])

Also hilariously, the game basically does not acknowledge Codsworth’s impressive evolution. At all. There is absolutely no direct mention of it in the script. It is all left to ambient dialogue and the player’s own observations. And because so many people overlook Codsworth as a companion, they may not even realize exactly how unique his expanded consciousness is.

Now, you might call this total lack of mention a mistake, an oversight on Bethesda’s part, or that old chestnut “bad writing.” I don’t think it is. I think it’s a deliciously subtle little detail to include in a story about humanity, machines, artificial intelligence, and what makes a person.

Many of the themes of FO4 revolve around synths—distinctly not robots, but androids, artificially created beings with fully organic human bodies. Most of the storyline factions have strong beliefs about synths and the relative humanity thereof. The Institute believes that synths are objects, tools, machines no different from a robot who are only simulating their personalities through programming. The Brotherhood believes synths are monstrous abominations, a danger to humanity itself, technology run amok which needs to be destroyed. The Railroad believes they are people. Not humans, but people, built instead of born, free-thinking beings that deserve to be treated with respect and given rights.

Through quests, dialogue, notes, worldbuilding and other venues, players explore these questions. What makes someone a person? If your personality and memories can be rewritten or programmed, then who are you, really? Where do we draw the line between humans and machines, and how do we decide who belongs where?

Meanwhile, as the player contemplates the nature of personhood and the definition of intelligence, their robot butler quietly evolves into a fully-conscious person on his own, right beside them.

Codsworth is unquestionably a machine, but also unquestionably beyond the appliance he was built to be. Which to some philosophies and players should really beg a few other questions. If a robot can be considered a person, then what makes synths so different? And how many excuses do we have to make to pretend otherwise?

Ya boy Codsworth may not be flashy, or powerful, or kissable. He may not be the most glamorous companion around. But he is a good friend, a beloved member of the family, and above all else, a loyal butler—content to serve, quietly and humbly doing his job where some may never even notice him-- or the fact that he’s casually become his own person and sent generations of roboticists and philosophers spinning in their graves.

#fallout 4 #fallout meta #codsworth #hey tumblr fuck you i win #i was forced to do an involuntary second draft #but i like it better now so hey

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fatesdeepdive · 3 years ago

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Entry 53: Home Sweet Abusive Home

I unlocked the Conquest version of My Castle at the end of the last chapter. It’s basically the same; there are different building styles, Lilith attacks instead of heals, the shops sell Nohrian weapons instead of Hoshidan ones, etc. I’m going to be ignoring castle stuff this time and instead analyzing classes.

Class Profile - Nohr Prince/Princess

Corrin and Kana’s default class, wields swords and dragon stones. Balanced with good HP and Strength. The class’s first skill, Nobility, boosts EXP gained. The other skill, Dragon Fang, gives a skill stat determined chance to do a special attack that does 1.5 damage. Dragon Fang also has unique animations that have Corrin attacking with dragon arms. Design wise, the black and white stripes are nice but a bit busy. The cape is nice, but the random slits over the princess version’s thighs are dumb.

Class Profile - Hoshido Noble

Nohr Prince/Princess’s promotion in Birthright and an optional promotion in Revelation. Stat wise, it has better Strength, Skill, and Defense than its Nohrian counterpart, as well as the ability to use staves. It’s first ability, Dragon Ward, gives nearby allies a luck based chance to half damage taken. This fits with its more supportive role. On the other hand, its second ability Hoshidan Unity gives a 10% boost to the activation rate of all skills. Design wise, it’s a silver and gold version of Corrin’s normal design with a few details that make it look more Hoshidan. It’s a great design, assuming you ignore the fact that the female version isn’t wearing pants.

Class Profile - Nohr Noble

The Conquest version of Hoshido Noble. Has slightly better Speed, Magic, and Resistance, as well as the ability to use tomes. Its first skill, Draconic Hex, lowers the stats of enemies after combat. The other skill, Nohrian Trust, is really interesting, allowing Corrin to use the battle skills of supporting allies. I love the black coloring with hints of magenta and the tattered cape, but I have to groan at the cleavage and continued lack of pants for female units. Also something I noticed: Nohr Nobles have a shield on their left shoulder, while Hoshidans have a shield on their right shoulder. It’s a nice little detail.

Also, you know how I stole Rinkah and Sakura’s weapons? The damn game gave them back!

Conquest Chapter 7: A Dragon’s Decree

Moron and his Nohrian siblings return to Castle Krakenburg. Garon praises Xander for invading Hoshido. Xander brings up Moron, who Garon apparently can’t see from ten feet away, and Garon is shocked that Moron isn’t dead. Garon yells at Moron for coming home and accuses him of being a spy. Xander insists Moron is loyal and brings up the fight with Ryoma. Iago believes this to be a ruse, which makes sense. He did that shit in Birthright.

Moron asks about the exploding sword. Garon very convincingly pretends to know nothing. Garon uses the fact that Moron is suspicious of the repeated attempts on his life as evidence that Moron is a traitor and orders Xander to execute him. So glad we came back.

Camilla and Elise beg for mercy and Xander refuses to kill his brother. Iago says that makes Xander a traitor, too. Moron says he’ll kill himself to protect Xander. Garon, overjoyed at the idea of suicide, decides to leave it up to Anankos, the dragon god who was mentioned like once in Birthright. Anankos whispers to Garon to spare Moron, if he passes a test. Moron must suppress a rebellion in the ice tribe to prove his loyalty, without any help from his siblings or the Nohrian military. Something about Moron going off alone to enemy territory to prove his loyalty feels oddly familiar...hope this isn’t secretly a ploy to kill Moron again.

Xander says that taking out an entire army singlehandedly is impossible. Moron agrees to the mission. After Moron leaves, Garon monologues about how Moron is going to lose all hope and wish for death. Real glad we chose to side with Nohr, this truly was the right decision.

Xander, hearing Garon say evil shit out loud, does not decide to stop working for Garon. He says he knows what he has to do, but spoiler alert, it isn’t overthrow his evil father.

Moron goes through the woods of the Forlorn, where you fight Leo in Birthright, with only Lilith accompanying him. Faceless show up and attack, surrounding Moron. Felicia shows up and takes one out with a dagger. Moron points out that he had to destroy Felicia’s friends and family without help, but shrugs it off because they aren’t technically at the Ice Village yet.

This battle is actually pretty good, taking on a ton of enemies with only two units. At the start of turn three, Silas and Elise show up to rescue Corrin. At the start of turn four, Elise’s retainers Arthur and Effie join them. Arthur mentions that he’s late because a bird stole his map and Effie’s late because her armor made her sink into the swamp. Elise mentions that Xander planned out this rescue behind Garon’s back.

Arthur

Arthur is Talitu's rude Wind Mage son...wait, wrong Arthur. Arthur is a Monk who...okay, once more time. Arthur is Elise’s unlucky but heroic Fighter retainer. I love Arthur as a character, this boisterous, cheesy, superhero fighting for justice. His design has this massive lantern jaw and he wears a superhero costume with a cape. His personal skill, Misfortune, makes critical hits more likely on both him and his enemies. This is fitting for the running gag of him being supernaturally unlucky, something reflected in gameplay by him having an abysmal luck stat.

Effie

Elise’s other retainer, a Knight. She seems to be a protective warrior. Honestly, I didn’t pick up too much about her personality because I was distracted by her utterly monstrous strength star. Effie is buff. Her personal skill, Puissance, pairs well with this by boosting her damage if she’s far stronger than an enemy. Personally, I’m not too fond of Effie’s design. Her face feels to girly and looks like she’s wearing make-up, which doesn’t match her personality. The big shoulder pads look weird and the boob plate is eye-roll inducing. At least it’s better than her Heroes design, which is atrocious.

After battle, Felicia volunteers to lead us to her village. The camera pans over to reveal Iago was responsible for the faceless attack. Because he’s an evil asshole who I hate.

Also I grabbed Mozu between chapters.

Support: Corrin/Elise

C: Corrin stumbles upon Elise practicing punching in a field. Elise insists she's just picking flowers because she's sweet. Eventually, Elise admits that she's training so she won't be a burden to the army.

B: Corrin trains Elise to grow stronger. Elise struggles to do push-ups.

A: Elise sobs about being pathetic. Corrin insists that war isn't about fighting, it's about having a pure desire for peace. The amount of people Corrin kills contradicts this.

S: Corrin gives Elise flowers to propose to her. I vomit.

Review: Setting aside the incestuous pedophilia that ends this one, not bad. I think Elise works more than Sakura because at least she’s entertaining when complaining about being a burden.

Support: Arthur/Felicia

C: Felicia tells Arthur she's a bad maid because she's incompetent and clumsy. Arthur relates.

B: Arthur explains that the best way to deal with problems is to be carefree. As he walks, he almost slips on a banana peel (despite the army not storing bananas) and is swarmed by mosquitos (which don't exist in this region).

A: Arthur tells a story of a time he tried to save a drowning person, hit his head, and almost drowned. The person he tried to save was helped by someone else. Arthur explains that he and Felicia shouldn't worry about mishaps.

S: Arthur asks Felicia to meet with him so he can propose. They fall in a pit, Setsuna style, and Felicia accidentally freezes Arthur's fingers so he can't get the ring out of his pocket.

Review: Paring up these absolute messes of people is hilarious.

Support: Mozu/Silas

C: Mozu asks Silas if she should just leave the army and go back home (to the corpse filled ruins of her village I guess) because she isn't very strong. Silas volunteers to train her to be stronger.

B: Mozu says Silas shouldn't waste time training her. Silas tells her her "I'm too weak to be good" mindset is holding her back and that her wasting her potential is a sin against her murdered parents. Goddamn.

A: Mozu, believing she has potential, improves. Silas says he wasn't talented as a kid and only became a good knight because he never gave up. Mozu promises to cook for him.

S: Silas proposes so he can have pie every day. Mozu fantasizes about killing people with S-Rank pair up bonuses.

Review: Not bad, but needed a certain spark to be great. Silas telling Mozu that attitude is everything is interesting, but it kinda falls off towards the end.

Support: Effie/Jakob

C: Jakob bakes a cake for Corrin. Effie eats it. Jakob tries to physically stop her but she shrugs off everything he throws at her.

B: Effie works out by lifting water barrels and tells Jakob that she needs to be strong so she can protect her friends, even if it costs her her own life. Jakob says he doesn't want her to die for him because he'd have to spend the rest of his life feeling guilty. Ugh!

A: Effie says that she can't not protect him because they're friends. Jakob says that's fine, just don't die in the process.

S: Jakob bakes a cake with protein powder instead of flour to propose to Effie. Effie says she isn't going to marry him for his baking skills, but for his good heart.

Review: Pretty good. Effie is amusing throughout this Support and the discussion of dying for friends is nice.

#effie fire emblem #arthur fire emblem #fire emblem fates #nohr #fire emblem conquest #elise fire emblem

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galaxa-13 · 5 years ago

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Female Byleth’s Outfit

So I haven’t delved into discussions about Fire Emblem: Three Houses, so apologies if I’m harping on old talking points, but I felt the need to talk about the design for the female player character of this game.

TL;DR I think it’s awful. Below are my random thoughts and comparing it to the male model.

So let’s just start things off with looking at male!Byleth, since the male model is usually the default character design and then they make a female option after.

Alright, this seems like a solid design. I appreciate that his accent color is pink because you don’t see pink in a lot of male designs, especially so in male characters that aren’t supposed to be stereotypically feminine.

When I first saw his coat I thought he was just wearing it over his shoulders like a cape, without putting his arms through the sleeves. A neat choice! Then I realized that he is wearing the sleeves, just that there is a slit at the top for the arms to go through so one can choose to have them in the sleeves are not. Still interesting, I give it approval. I also like the reinforcement on the shoulders, almost as if the coat is armor itself.

I’m not sure why the sheath for his dagger is such a blue when it doesn’t really match anything else in the design. I feel like it should have been more muted or more on the teal side to match with the hair. It also seems odd to me to have a colored sheath against the blacks and grays to draw your eye when the weapon held within never actually gets used in the game.

I don’t know why the guard on only one leg. Guards on only one arm or shoulder I understand depending on the weapon the character is using, but just one leg seems odd.

Other than those thoughts I have nothing else to say about male!Byleth. Now female!Byleth...

I hate this, as I said up top. She feels over designed and exposed compared to her male counterpart. While male!Byleth I can buy as a fighter, female!Byleth just looks like a “sexy” girl who is wearing some random bits of armor and has a dagger.

The tights are too much. Such boldly patterned tights are supposed to be the focal point of an outfit, but she has so many other elements going on that the tights just make her seem busy. Yet, if you took them off then you would be blinded by the amount of legs she is actually showing. Give her some proper pants or at least some shorts longer than booty shorts. I am also not a fan of the dip in the waistband, as if to make it seem like she did not fully button them.

The second part of her design that grates me is the coat. I found that by inversing the color palette from the male’s it made the design on the sleeves stand out in a distracting manner. Grey on black was subtle, but black on grey not so much. Not only that, but we have a length issue. Now I probably wouldn’t have minded if they just made her coat shorter, but for some reason they then added some sort of skirt cape underneath it so that she still seemed like she had the same length of coat. Yet this additional piece of cloth is black instead of the coat’s grey, once more being distracting.

Now on to the issue of her top. It’s nice that she actually has some body armor compared to her counterpart, but it simultaneously shows off her chest and her midriff. I probably could have handled the low-cut since that has been so thoroughly beaten into female character designs (despite it still being ridiculous for a fighter), but the addition of also have her bellybutton exposed is just too much. Her stomach is just asking to get stabbed by a sword!

As for the other bits of armor she has I can’t imagine the chaffing! At least male!Byleth had gloves/sleeves and pants under his armor, but the best poor female!Byleth gets is some lace tights! Why must she have even more skin revealed? Let her be properly protected! Both from attacks and her own armor.

I’m not even bothering to be annoyed at the heels, since (like low-cut tops) I’ve just come to accept as part of female character design even if it’s dumb choice for fighters.

Lastly the... medallion thingy. Now on male!Byleth it was secured around his waist, but on female!Byleth it just sorta hangs off her neck. I can’t help but imagine her running and it just banging against her chest. Then again maybe it’s actually secured to her breastplate so the only part that moves is the tassel. If that is the case then I rescind my objections of its placement if only because it actually covers up her cleavage so it doesn’t feel as oggly to have the low-cut top.

All in all it just feels like they took the basic concept of the male model and then “sexified” it without any actual thought to design or function. The only reason why I don’t bring up the inappropriateness of female!Byleth’s outfit for a classroom is because Manuela also exist as a professor.

Oh, did you think my rant was over? Oh no, there still needs to be special mentions of the unique class for Byleth! The Enlightened One is a bit of a trip. Sadly I couldn’t find good images for it, so I have to make do with these small models.

On the left we see the male outfit and on the right the female. Now just off the bat I think no matter which gender you play I think this outfit is stupid. YET I find the female version much worse. Most of my issues with the female version boil down to the issues in her base design, but whereas the male version has a closed jacket the female is opened and only kept together by the belt. Her version is also shorter. This way we don’t get to miss out on any of that extra skin!!! While the male version looks like a conglomeration of outfits sewn together the female version just looks like she rolled around in the scrap fabric pile and these are the pieces that stuck to her.

For being the outfit of the Enlightened One I would have expected something more than an asymmetrical coat and a cape over your regular old clothes too. Oh, but the tiara is nice.

#fire emblem three houses #fe3h #byleth #fe3h byleth

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jinkxtheroo · 5 years ago

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braindump ideas for a danganronpa hermitcraft au

- grian is much like an izuru, but a failed experiment. why we subjected himself to be tested on like that is unknown. - in that that he has a bunch of talents, yet he cant use or knows he has like half of them. he by default is the ultimate builder - the talents he has are split into different personalities, and all of them are utterly useless: - sherlock grian, the ultimate detective. he can’t actually solve anything because he always overthinks every fucking thing and tries to relate every murder case to this imaginary figure he calls “the jangler”. - a figure scar later assumes the identity of to shut him the fuck up - poultry man, the ultimate superhero. he refuses to cooperate with anyone because of fear of someone “revealing his identity to the public”. his “powers” are all literally throwing eggs at different positions. he claims this “jangler” is his archenemy, and he hired sherlock grian to solve it. - ariana griande, the ultimate pop star. she is very intelligent but refuses to cooperate unless mumbo gets out of the room. yeah. she really hates mumbo for some reason. - he has dozen other split personalities that are yet to be discovered, for example, the ultimate test subject (just guinea pig grian) and the ultimate villain, the Phantom Menace. - he can’t control when any of them show.

- false is the ultimate fighter. she has never lost a sparring match or a battle by hand in her life - stress is the ultimate royal, crowned queen of Frostlandia at a very early age. she is a very assertive person. also literally rich af owns all the amethyst mines - scar is the ultimate geologist. he also assumes the name of the Jangler whenever Sherlock shows. he is oddly quiet for a normal Scar, but he really likes talking to stress about her amethyst thingies - mumbo is the ultimate engineer. he, grian and iskall are long time friends, often working on the same stuff together. - doc is the ultimate scientist. half of his body has been replaced by robotic parts in a terrible accident. - cleo is the ultimate sculpter. i mean she’s literally gifted with those armor stands. - joe is the ultimate poet. also he says weird shit nobody understands for fun so usually cleo has to translate. - ah yes, biffa - although hiding as the ultimate cyborg, you don’t wanna know what he did and why he had to be encased in an armor - welsknight. obviously the ultimate knight. normally accompanies stress on her walks, although he does not serve under Frostlandia. - still need to find ultimates for all of the rest

#hermitcraft #hermitcraft au #hermitblr #danganronpa #braindump #please ask me about this shit #im tired of dlwo so i have plans for this instead!

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withlove-so · 5 years ago

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My Fodlansona: Written edition!

Cause who needs art skills, amiright?

(This will have the timeskip looks of Ashe, Annette, and Felix because I took a screen shot from my game and forgot I was at the time skip. If you don’t wanna see that, just avoid this, otherwise you’re good)

Also under the cut, cause this got l o n g

Anyway, my bab!

Her full name is Sorrel Abrielle Caledoria!

I edited a notes sheet for her, and though it’s possible it could change, I like where it is now.

(It’s an edit of my Annette from my game file, with snippets from other characters notes. Don’t mind the wonky stat stuff, I didn’t feel like editing/getting something to match her stat line)

As you can see, she was born in Albinea. (Which I totally made up a history for, since as far as I can tell there isn’t much to speak of beyond the plants that grow there and how freezing it is.)

Past life leading up to 1180:

Her family was the leading and unchallenged noble family for about 7 years after she was born, and even before then they were the leading family. That is until the common people decided to revolt. Her father treated his people poorly since he could do/make them do whatever he wanted without being questioned or denied. They decided to move to Fódlan since they wouldn’t be accepted in Albinea any more.

They, obviously, couldn’t still be considered nobles, so they lived their lives as commoners. Sorrel’s family struggled to adjust to this change, but since she was so young, she didn’t mind at all! She made lots of friends in Fhirdiad, and there were so many delicious treats and candies! A girl her age just couldn’t get enough of it.

But she couldn’t live happily for long, after all, her family wasn’t viewed very fondly. Her father was assassinated while she and her mother were away shopping. Her mother, who feared her life would be next, fled and went into hiding. She and Sorrel went to live at a church near the border, hoping she could take refuge there. Her mother became a priestess and followed in the church’s teachings. She begged the Goddess for forgiveness on the behalf of her husband’s cruelty and her own cowardice.

Her mother died due to a seemingly incurable illness only a few years later. Sorrel blamed the Godess for not helping her mother (or maybe even cursing her directly) despite her efforts to repent. She turned her back against the Godess and the church’s teaching, but because she had nowhere else to go, she feigned loyalty.

Sorrel wants to make her late mother proud, and tries to live her life to the fullest. She decides that since she can no longer be a noble, she may as well become close to one. She decides to attend schooling at the officers academy, this way she would be able to learn how to fight and, one day, become a knight. She hopes that attending at this academy will allow her to become close to and swear fealty to a noble.

What’s her house?

100% Blue Lions, come on now

(I totally wanna think of students for the other two though, cause I really enjoyed making this one.)

What’s she like?

Sorrel is pretty competitive and loves to show off. Gotta get those good knight points, right? She’ll challenge anyone who opposes her to a fight, and the last man standing gets to be right! So basically, she’s not the brightest. She charges in without a plan, but it just kinda works out. Probably because everyone else has to try and cover for her. Despite all this, she really is trying her best, it’s just in... interesting ways. She just wants to help the people she cares about, even at her own risk. (she really is knight material...)

Outside of fighting and training, she’s a softie. She loves eating baked treats and sweets, especially homemade ones. She loves anything and everything soft and fuzzy and won’t hesitate to pet it if she sees it. She also loves cold weather, which goes hand in hand with her love of fuzzy things. If the temperature is above freezing, she’s a sweating mess! She honestly doesn’t understand how anyone can live with it being so hot...

What’s she look like?

I can only give a description but hnnnng I’ll do my best. She’s really pale because Albinea is so cloudy and cold, most people stay indoors and don’t see the sun often. Her skin could be compared to that of a ghost. Her hair is orange and at chin’s length, though it used to be really long when she was younger. Her eyes are a light green color and she has a smallish nose. Her face is always red since she’s not used to Fodlan’s weather, even after all this time. She’s usually sweating for the same reason. She’s taller than average height at 5′5″, though not by much. (Spoiler: She doesn’t get any taller 5 years later, it’s tragic)

Stats and such:

I love gameplay mechanics so I couldn’t not include this

She starts off with an Iron lance, I’m not 100% why I chose this for her it just felt right.

These are her skill levels, including what she’s good and bad at.

⏬Sword: E

⏫Lance: D

⏺Axe: E

⏫Bow: E+

*️⃣Brawl: E

⏺Reason: E

⏬Faith: E

⏺Authority: E

⏬Heavy Armor: E

⏺Riding: E

⏫Flying: E+

I chose brawling as her budding talent cause I’m biased and she’d totally deck someone if she could.

Her default class line would be

Soldier -> Pegasus Knight -> Wyvern Rider -> Wyvern Lord

But other alternatives could be

Fighter -> Archer -> Sniper

(If the enemy gets too close she just... punch)

Fighter -> Brawler Brigand -> Grappler Warrior

(She may not be able to wield an axe, but that won’t stop her from destroying everything in her path)

Personal Skill: Reckless Charge: If unit attacks first, damage dealt to foe +3 and damage taken +3

Misc info:

I chose dancing as an interest of her because... I don’t know. To be honest. I just thought she’d find it fun and enjoyable. Twirling around and having fun, laughing and just, being chill for once in her life. It was just a nice thought, but because that’s all it was I didn’t really know where to put it. So here it is.

I chose her close allies for a few different reasons.

I chose Ashe because I’m biased and love him he admires and wants to become a knight and so does she. But for two completely different reasons. I thought the dynamic would be interesting since he wants to become a knight to help people while she wants to be one just so she can rise above her current status. And I’m biased and love him.

I chose Annette because I see her as someone who is also close to Ashe and because she is from Fhirdiad. I imagine they must have run into each other a few times back then, and they could have even been friends. Maybe they shared sweets together? The idea was just too cute to pass up! They would definitely have girls nights and just hang out together.

Finally, I chose Felix because I’m 100% sure they spar. All. The. Time. They both want to prove their strength. Sorrel wants to show off and prove she’s the best, and Felix wants prove he’s stronger than everyone, and getting stronger, so of course he’d challenge someone so cocky. Sorrel is pretty naïve on what it really takes to be a knight, so most of what she knows comes from fables and such, and Felix would definely HATE it. So I think they’re dynamic would be like a competitive Ashe and I love it.

Bonus: Caspar would totally be a close runner up. They’re both morons who love charging in, they would just enable each other and it’d be horrible.

#I love my little dumbass enabler #it's 1 in the morning now but #whatever here she is #fire emblem three houses #fodlansona #fe3h oc #not an ask

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crystalelemental · 5 years ago

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Oh cool, a Marth game banner! Now I can save up for the Legendary Banner or try for Tibarn without issue!

Look, all I know of Marth and his games is Shadow Dragon, and I hate that game, so this is like...the least interesting thing in the world to me.

Starting out we have...Phina? Okay. She’s a dancer with a unique weapon that has dual effectiveness. Here’s what drives me a little batty, though: that’s the Rapier. You know. The Lord starting weapon. And it’s given to a dancer? Is she like, super important or something? What an odd choice of who to give it to. I do like that it has built-in Vantage, that seems really appropriate for a Rapier. We get another Form skill, which is neat, I don’t hate those, and...Geyser Dance exists. Neat, moving on.

Oh, hey Camus. Zeke? Oh, Sirius, of course. Does he just change names every game? Lance feels like pretty standard “fights alone” fare, giving a flat +4 across the board buff when alone. Attack/Speed Solo exists again, because I guess that’s the new common 5* skill for anyone who just needs a decent fill-in to have. God I hate that. And Lull Attack/Speed, which...okay, that’s pretty strong. That one in particular is pretty nasty, shutting down any attempts to muscle through or try to compete with his speed. And if he’s going to function like Camus, then yeah, he’s gonna be high power and speed. So that’s a bit scary.

Awww, Norne’s cute! Please demote. Oh wow, you’re SUPER demoted. Look at this. Guard Bow isn’t exactly hard to get, from my understanding. Brazen Speed/Defense is like...look, we already have Tier 4 skills, and that was Attack/Speed, there is no way this skill is coveted despite being new. And Link skills are so unimportant they’re putting them all on grail units for easy access. Norne is going to drop. That or be another Velouria situation, which...god would that be infuriating. But she better drop. I have no colorless units I’m working on, and it’d be great to have a common Colorless that I’m halfway invested in. You know. That isn’t a healer and also a grail unit. WHY ETHLYN?!

And...Nagi. Whoever that is? She’s pretty, though. Tiki’s mom, maybe? Unclear. Anyway, Green armor dragon. So automatically not a fan. I don’t care for armor units, and she’s guaranteed to be 5* locked and probably another fucking 180BST, so let’s just get the horrific powercreep skillset over with, shall we?

JESUS CHRIST THAT WEAPON. Faster special, effective against dragons because that’s the default at this point, Raven tome effect (and yet we STILL cannot refine basic Raven tomes? Fuck that), AND she negates AoE damage by 80%, making her the strongest check in the game to ranged Aether Raids cheese. Seriously, this is a one-person answer to every ranged threat in AR. If her Res is low, Lilina might be able to handle her, but how common is Lilina, really? Good lord. And of course she comes with DC and Special Fighter, so expecting a really, really fast armor unit. Probably akin to Fallen Tiki. At least Dragon Valor is absolute shit. Honestly, Fallen Tiki is still top meta armor dragon, because of her ridiculous buff and ability to automatically move herself two spaces just for existing. But Nagi here is one hell of a contender. It’s really just the myriad effects on that weapon that scare me. Adaptive damage, strong against dragons, faster special activation, Raven tome effect, and shutting down AoE damage is, frankly, outright ridiculous.

Well that’s a fun banner, I guess we-WHAT’S THIS?! Oh hey, Bantu! He’s automatically added to the super common pool! That’s...uh. Hmm. Yeah, okay. I was not expecting that, but this is interesting. We can get the whole Tiki family involved now. Bantu is Red, L!Tiki is Blue, Nagi is Green. That’s solid coverage.

As for our new free unit, it’s...Astram? Okay, what’s his deal? Oh he’s just fierce loyalty sword guy. Neato. Well buddy, it’s been nice knowing you, but have fun being thrown into the same level of forgotten as Rutger.

Overall, this banner feels...really skippable. I know people like Camus/Sirius and all, and Nagi is gonna be a pretty significant player for Armor and Dragon Emblem, but...there’s nothing too meta-defining here. Sirius will be powerful, sure, but we also just got Brave Eliwood who, I feel, has a way better kit to work with. Nagi is definitely the prize here, but I don’t think she’s quite as strong as Fallen Tiki, who’s going to continue to dominate. Phina is a dancer who has decent tools, but also came out right after the introduction of Reinhardt and Ishtar with their Brave tomes and ridiculous offensive spreads, so like...good luck, kiddo. And Norne...hoo boy. Hopefully your stats are decently placed, girl, because that’s one hell of an obvious demote. And the showcase of your attacks ain’t doing you any favors either, considering you were dealing all of 24 damage in that shot. I just hope your attack stat isn’t too low. That would be devastating.

#fire emblem heroes

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thedarkestdragonknight · 6 years ago

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LFRP/LFC - Jacques Cresent (Mateus)

Jacques Cresent, the Dragon in Disguise

The Basics ––– –

Age: Thirty-Three (33)

Aliases: Grumpy Dragon (by close friends), The Primal Killer

Birthday: 5th Sun of the 5th Umbral Moon (October 5th)

Race: Au Ra, Xaela | Great Wyrm/Dragon (Genetically modified by Garlean Experiments)

Gender: Masculine, Male (He/His/Him Pronouns)

Sexuality: Demisexual, Polyamorous, Demiromantic

Notes on his Sexuality/Romantic Side: Jacques is categorized as a demisexual with strong homosexual or androsexual leanings. He is open to sexual activities but only once he has forged a strong enough emotional bond with the person that he will have sex with (Such as his partners P’shali and Swath for example), he simply prefers men in most cases. This also ties into him being Demiromantic as he has to have that strong emotional bond before he feels any such love/romantic attraction to a partner. (Thanks to @talechaser-ffxiv for helping me out on this one!)

Marital Status: Single

Alignment: Chaotic Neutral for the most part, he can sometimes delve into Chaotic Evil if situations come up that break him. He can also lean into just straight up neutral.

Server: Mateus

Canon Divergent: For the most part, I do my best to keep Jacques as best as I can leaning into the lore of the game. However, him being what he is (IE: he can turn into what is essentially a ‘primal’ of sorts) is more than just a bit lore breakery. This rarely comes up in RP unless the person that I am RPing with is comfortable with it obviously and it is something that I keep very well guarded. Overall I am a person who tries her best to keep things lore and canon friendly but I am very open to the ‘screw this’ option as well since myself and my IRL partner often times fall into that category with our RPs. Never be afraid to ask if I’m open or okay with something folks <3

Physical Appearance ––– –

You can find more detailed information about certain things on Jacques’ character page. Specifically his scales, horns, etc.

Hair: Jacques’ hair is actually extremely long, when he doesn’t have it up in the ponytail and braided it reaches down to just below the base of his tail. His hair is very silky and soft as well since he generally tends to put a lot of care into it. Color wise, Jacques’ hair is a very brilliant silver color which shimmers in the right lighting and has a slight iridescence to it. His hair also has very light aquamarine/teal (mako colored if you would) highlights in it though they are hard to truly notice.

Eyes: Jacques has very bright Aquamarine/Teal (Once again a ‘mako’ color if you would) eyes by default with a very bright Teal Limbal ring around them. However, because of events one of Jacques’ eyes has turned into that of a Great Wyrm to tie him into his dragon form. His left eye is his wyrm eye and it appears a lot like the eye of Hraesvelgr or Nidhogg in terms of looks with the colors ranging from Reds/Crimsons, Oranges, Purples and Blacks to tie it into his ties with Bahamut, Nidhogg and Midgardsormr. His right eye is his normal eye which is the Teal coloration mentioned previously.

Height: Jacques is a giant standing at a tall 7 foot 1 inches (The maximum height for Au Ra), the only things that are usually taller than him are Roegadyn’s and even then it’s not by much.

Build: Jacques is a very muscular and toned male Au Ra, he’s got broad shoulders and tends to have a slight ‘taper’ to his waistline, a sorta hour-glass look to it really but nothing to the extreme. His arms and legs are both extremely muscular due to constant battles and fighting on the front lines. Generally speaking he’s basically a very athletic build and his many years that he’s spent fighting show through either his choice in armor (Which is generally form fitting) or in his more 'casual’ attire which he doesn’t often go around in. Basically he’s a big, buff dragon man who can probably break anyone in two if they pissed him off enough.

Distinguishing Marks: The major things to note about Jacques would be that he has far more scales than your typical Au Ra. The entire lower half of his arms from the elbow down are covered in thick scales with plating along the backs of them (from the elbow down to the back of his hand basically) and the same is said for his lower legs which also have dragon like feet instead of normal humanoid feet. Jacques’ facial scales are mostly around his eyes with small ‘stripes’ on his cheeks, his entire back starting from the top of his neck is covered in scales with an alligator/crocodile like appearance to them (chutes if you would) and they wrap slightly around his sides. These scales carry all the way down to his tail which is longer than your typical Au Ra tail and it ends in a large flail/fin. Honestly a good idea of his appearance would be this piece that I recently did of him.

Common Accessories: While Jacques isn’t the sort to actually wear jewelry in recent days he has taken to wearing a singular ring on his left (our right) hand, the reasons behind this aren’t really known at the moment but it ties into his relationship with P'shali Talechaser and Swath Lodestone. Other than the ring on his hand he will sometimes wear 'earrings’ which will hang down from the base of his original horns, these tend to vary and depend on his current mood so to speak.

Additional Features: Basically looking at the image above for an example of what he looks like he has dragon like feet which have ‘toe beans’ (AKA Paw pads) on the bottom, more scales than your typical Au Ra. His tail is longer and has a long line of spines that run down the length of it as well as a fin like flail at the end. Three sets of horns and a large scar over his chest. Not shown is the more recent scarring around his Left Eye (Wyrm eye) due to taking a straight up gun blast to the face.

Personal ––– –

Profession: Sort of a Mercenary for ‘hire’ so to speak but otherwise he really doesn’t have a profession at this point.

Hobbies: Crafting housing items and general carpentry. He loves cooking and more specifically baking and making elaborate dinners. Fishing in his spare time is a big one as well, lastly he loves singing when he is alone.

Languages: Common, Draconic

Residence: Could be considered a Drifter, but has a house in The Mist with his partners Swath and P’shali

Birthplace: Rumored to have been in Ivalice (Potentially Rabanastre) but he doesn’t know for certain

Religion: For the most part Jacques doesn’t really have any sort of Religious beliefs nor does he really care too much about it.

Patron Deity: Azeyma, the Warden

Fears: Failure, Betrayal, Losing himself to madness, losing his mind, falling to insanity, Hurting his Loved ones

Relationships ––– -

Spouse(s): P’shali Talechaser and Swath Lodestone (While not married it’s pretty much a given that they are basically spouses by this point), Polyamorous relationship.

Children: None

Parents: Unknown, his parents were killed when he was young and he doesn’t remember them.

Siblings: None

Other Relatives: None

Pets: Erebos (Black Chocobo, Retired Racing Bo and now Fighter), Midgardsormr (Grumpy Great times a Thousand Grandpa companion)

Traits ––– -

Extroverted / In Between / Introverted

Disorganized / In Between / Organized

Close Minded / In Between / Open Minded

Calm / In Between / Anxious

Disagreeable / In Between / Agreeable

Cautious / In Between / Reckless

Patient / In Between / Impatient

Outspoken / In Between / Reserved

Leader / In Between / Follower

Empathetic / In Between / Apathetic

Optimistic / In Between / Pessimistic

Traditional / In Between / Modern

Hard-working / In Between / Lazy

Cultured / In Between / Uncultured

Loyal / In Between / Disloyal

Faithful / In Between / Unfaithful

Additional information ––– –

Smoking Habit: Jacques is a very heavy smoker though he tends to try and keep his smoking to more private areas so not to disturb anyone around him. He’ll smoke a lot when he is stressed or simply having a bad day in general. It helps to not only calm him but to take his mind off of everything happening around him. Drugs: Nope, Jacques hates any sort of narcotic due to his past. He has good reason to not trust any such things and will avoid them. If he is pushed to try them he can easily lose his temper and lash out violently. Alcohol: While he doesn’t heavily drink, Jacques has been known to toss down a drink or two when in good company. He tends to however prefer actually drinking things like Teas over any sort of Alcoholic beverage.

RP Hooks ––– –

Honestly, when it comes to Jacques I am open for anything really. I can’t really think of ‘hooks’ per-say so it’s often hard for me to think of situations or settings. I tend to be very open with my Role-play and I do not mind plotting things out, I’m pretty much an anything goes kind of person so long as it’s okay with both parties. Jacques’ RP’s can be either very fun and slice of life to dark and brutal depending on what anyone wants. So really, all anyone needs to do is ask and we can see about setting things up! Basically, I’m all for plotting out things and just going from there! Whatever works for my RP partners and the like, I’m pretty much okay with just about anything and everything lol doesn’t matter if it’s fluff/fun times or dark themed. I’m game!

The major things that I ask is that characters don’t know too much about Jacques (IE: his capability to transform into a dragon, the Wyrm Eye [Though this can come up in RP since he doesn’t cover it anymore] or just things that they shouldn’t know upon a first meeting), rumors and such are fine (Such as people whispering about the massive dragon that attacked Foundation during the events of the Vault or the dragon that killed Nidhogg, etc.) but characters knowing too much are a bit of a turn off. Jacques isn’t the sort to go out and just let all of this information out for the world to hear, he’s very secretive and keeps so much hidden just so that he feels ‘safe’.

On another note, while Jacques is with both P’shali and Swath their relationship is open meaning that he is very much okay with having more ‘mature’ moments with people whom might catch his interest. Any romantic relationships or anything that might come up from such things will be kept separate in their own ‘story’ so that things won’t get too confusing obviously.

Hook

Contact Information ––– –

For the most part Tumblr DM’s, Asks or Submissions are the best way to get my attention or to spark an RP. Other than that, Tells in game if I am online will also be a means to get into contact with me. If you wish to contact Jacques in game please message me on Tumblr first before doing so. I do not share my Discord with people as it is a safe space for me and I prefer keeping it private to people that I feel are a good fit and good friends.

On that note I tend to be very shy and hesitant with RPing with people I have not RP’d with before. So please bear with me if I seem hesitant to RP with you if I do not know you, ESPECIALLY if it is a more mature RP. I am glad you enjoy my character(s) but I’m still learning how to be more involved in the community and not have major anxiety whenever I speak to new people.

@mooglemeet | @ffxiv-crystal-rp

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lightdark18-blog · 7 years ago

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Fairy Tail: Non In-Universe Questions

Was Anna?Was Zervis planned? Was Zeref always planned to be completely evil?So @ac-fairytail posted some Fairy Tail non in-universe questions (all credit goes to her) and I figured: “Maybe I could attempt to honestly answer these questions and reverse-engineer Mashima’s thought process!” Of course, no sane person would ever attempt this, but here I am, so...

WARNING: Spoilers for the entire Fairy Tail manga.

Did Mashima base Stardresses off of Bravely Default’s Conjurerclass? Or was it Dresspheres? Or both?

Never played Bravely Default or Final Fantasy X-2 (even though they’re on my list of games to play), but if I had to guess after a quick wiki search, it would be Dresspheres. Problem is that the Stardresses are far less interesting, balanced, or explained. Oh well; Mashima trying to replicate a franchise with the writing quality of Final Fantasy is like an ant poking a dinosaur with a stick.

Was he always planning the time travel plot? If so, why did Erik refer to second gen dragon slayers as a “new” generation? There haven’t been dragons for centuries.

Considering that the “dragons vanished seven years ago” plot-point was established at the beginning of the series and further cemented by Natsu meeting Gajeel, I’m guessing he was planning to include time travel once he decided to continue the series past Tower of Heaven.

As for Erik, I’m guessing that he just declared himself as second-gen because a) he heard about Natsu and Gajeel as traditional dragon slayers from the Fairy Tail-Phantom Lord war (which caused ripples across Fiore) and assumed himself to be superior because dragon lacrima were invented after the age of dragons, and b) he never heard of Sting or Rogue.

If Irene was always planned to be Queen of the Dragons, why did he barely integrate Dragnof Kingdom into anything? And why didn’t Acno realize?

I think that once Mashima created Irene’s concept, he tried to integrate her into the stories of the Dragon King Festival, but failed to create anything even remotely interesting or new, so he just quickly scrapped together a kingdom and called it a day. Yes, it’s infuriating.

As for Acno, well...he’s Acno. He don’t give two flying fucks about anything.

Was Natsu always planned to be END? Why is there no foreshadowing for it prior to the Tartaros arc?

When Zeref mentioned that Natsu specifically couldn’t kill him back in Tenrou, he was alluding to an ability that Natsu would gain in the future to beat Zeref. However, when Mashima realized that nakama bullshit wasn’t a valid ability (yeah, he went back on that in Alvarez, whatever), he solidified this ability in the form of END around Tartaros. So yeah, I would refer to Zeref’s line in Tenrou as “shot-in-the-dark” foreshadowing.

Was Zeref always planned to be completely evil? If so, why was he established as sympathetic in his introductory arc? Was this bad writing on Mashima’s end?

See, this is what really intrigued me about Zeref in Tenrou. He was established as sympathetic, but he couldn’t remain passive because that would kill people. He was FORCED to be malicious and completely evil if he ever came into contact with people until he could find someone that could kill him because that is the nature of his curse. For him, it was better to intentionally than unintentionally kill if the person or life were to die anyway. It’s why I really fell in love with him as an antagonist.

However, what is bad writing on Mashima’s end is how completely Zeref flipped to Ruthless Big Bad in Alvarez. Him being “excited” about his battle with Natsu is inexcusably inconsistent writing, and him gaining Fairy Heart just to rewrite time for his own selfish reasons should’ve activated his Death Magic on the spot because of his optimism towards a life where he won’t kill. Plus, his loss due to nakama bullshit.

Was Zervis planned?

As much as I hate to admit it, probably. The light and dark love relationship is about as cliche as you can get, and Mashima is certainly not one to dodge cliches or subvert tropes in his writing.

Was Anna?

Hell no. However, I did think that Layla was planned. When Hades was ranting about primordial magic to Team Natsu during Tenrou, Lucy, in thought, said, “I think I’ve heard of this primordial magic somewhere. Mom?” Even though Zeref had no interest in primordial magic (as proven in him killing Hades in anger), Eclipse and the Heartfilias did. Hence, I assumed that Layla would play a huge role in the final arc of the series. Boy, was I naive and optimistic.

Was Clear Heart made so OP because Mashima knew he’d fucked up managing Requip?

No. Because fanservice. Duh. Although, I did think that Clear Heart was perfectly balanced in her fight against Azuma, with her magic power bring directly converted to her Crimson Sakura blade. Any other use just feels unnecessary.

Why did Erza never use Nakagami Armour again? Too OP?

Mashima’s reason: huge audience backlash from its magic-breaking abilities and pulled-out-of-its-ass reveal. Erza’s reason: she..doesn’t want to use it because of its magic draining properties???

Why introduce the bunny armour?

The bunny armor isn’t the armor Mashima introduced that made me mad. The Seduction Armor is. Seriously, isn’t the whole point of seducing a man to take off clothes? Does that even make it armor? At least the bunny armor is cute and cosplay-ish, which fits with Erza’s happier, more playful side we see of her outside of fights; the Seduction Armor is just flat-out nonsensical.

Why did Mashima specifically want 12 Spriggans? There was apparently a reason for this, but Mashima never revealed what it was.

Originally, he wanted six and Zeref to be the seventh member, since Mashima is obsessed with the number seven. However, I think that he wanted to get a few character concepts out before he copped out of the series, and he had too many to just have six. Thus, he probably got up to nine or ten, but then he remembered that Tartaros and Avatar had the same amount of members, so he just said “fuck it” and moved the number to twelve. This would explain why Invel and Bloodman were shoehorned in with no original magic whatsoever; Mashima just threw them in to get the number to twelve.

Were Lisanna and Loke sidelined because they were threats to NaLu, or because Mashima couldn’t be bothered writing them?

Both. The first goes without explaining. However, I have theories on why Mashima didn’t bother to write either of them.

Lisanna: Mashima’s absurd obsession with redemption arcs, nakama bullshit, and fake-out deaths prove to me that he follows by the “heroes can’t die” code of writing, something which I hope no mature, aspiring writer follows. Thus, he brought Lisanna back into the story to follow this code and thought, “Maybe I could do something with her later.” Turns out he couldn’t think of anything when he was developing each new arc. The closest we ever came to Lisanna getting in the spotlight (besides that god-awful scene from Tartaros) was when Azuma “killed” Mira. Originally, as much as I like Mira, I would’ve loved to Lisanna fill in Mira’s shoes and dedicate herself to become a stronger person because of the death of her sister. But no, Mashima didn’t have the balls to really kill Mira and the Nalu shippers were clawing at his door, so she ended up as a void of nothingness.

Loke: Once his arc was done, Mashima wanted to develop the rest of the Zodiac Spirits. Not that he really did, but he didn’t want to single out Loke too much, as much as I like Lolu. However, Loke being the key that Lucy sacrificed rather than Aquarius would have worked a lot better in the grand sense of the narrative, and would’ve really hammered in a new dimension to Lucy’s potential character arc in Alvarez. So much failed potential, Mashima. So much.

Why did Mashima skip to having Mira being fine using her Satan Souls all of a sudden in the Tenrou arc?

Because since the cause of Mira’s initial stress and reluctance has been completely retconned by the narrative, she’s perfectly able to go all out again, guys! I mean, it’s not like real-life victims of PTSD still suffer for years and years on end even with achieving social and financial success, getting married, and having children, right? RIGHT!?

Seriously, fuck Mashima.

If Key of the Starry Skies and Eclipse Celestial Spirits are canon, why weren’t they just written into the manga?

Because Mashima didn’t care enough about these arcs; A-1 just pitched the filler arcs to him and said, “this is what we’re gonna do, kay?” and he was like, “Oh, these are cool. Canon.” He couldn’t be bothered to write them because he was ready to launch into GMG and Tartaros, respectively. Also, while Eclipse Celestial Spirits works well into the show’s canon, Key of the Starry Skies doesn’t. GMG was effective in setting up the future of the series after the timeskip and NEEDED to happen right after it (doesn’t make the arc necessarily good, though). Plus, the Neo Oracion Seis feels unnecessary since they canonically are released from prison in Tartaros.

Why completely change what Wendy’s capable of in the last arc? Possession? Really?

Problem is, though, her arc was finished the moment Doranbolt saved her and Carla from Face. Her facing Sherria proved that she is willing to fight for her guild regardless of her moral issues with fighting, her going Dragon Force proved that she has gained the experience to become a tactical and efficient fighter, and her resolve to be with Carla and protect the people she loves by choosing to die when Face is about to self-destruct solidifies her developing outgoingness with the new people that she loves. As a character, her arc was concluded before Alvarez began. In my opinion, she wasn’t capable of anything more in Alvarez.

As for the possession, it’s infuriating because of the pedophilia implications, not ruining Wendy as a character. I see possession as a tool for character growth only if the possessed person is able to grow in strength and become a stronger person to overcome the weakness that allowed them to become possessed. Take Aoi Zaizen from Yu-Gi-Oh VRAINS. I really hope that her upcoming character arc will be based around the possession that corrupted her in her very first on-screen duel and how she can overcome the weakness that the Knights of Hanoi exposed from her. Wendy’s possession...did not have that potential. Once Irene left her body, Wendy went right back to her fighting as usual and didn’t seem bothered by the possession. Why? Because her arc was finished and the show was nearing its end anyway. You can be mad about that, and I won’t blame you, but any further growth from Wendy would feel redundant in my opinion.

Was he planning on doing an arc about gods?

Yep. I have a theory that Avatar was supposed to be his “god” arc, but I’ll talk more about that later.

Was it really Ankhseram that cursed Zeref?

I...guess? Mashima never introduced him as a character, but I guess he can still exist. Makes Mashima a bad writer, but it doesn’t make Ankhseram invalid.

Why bring Rogue’s shadow back as a minor plot point in Avatar? He had no intention of addressing it in Alvarez.

Okay, in Mashima’s hardly-deserved defense, Alvarez would not have been the best time to discuss Rogue’s shadow; to me, Avatar was a good point to address it because it was our first full arc with Devil Slayer Gray. To me, it makes sense that Rogue’s shadow would possess him after the dragons emerge through the Eclipse Gate and Gray would become easily corrupted by Devil Slayer Magic without his friends for support (since they’re dead in the alternate timeline, though that raises the question of does Tartaros still exist there). There was really no better time to address it.

Did he give up after Tartaros?

Well, the anime gave up after GMG, that’s for sure. For Mashima, I’d say it was in the middle of writing Avatar. I think that he was planning on fleshing out Avatar as a cult, since their existence was the whole reason that Hades formed Grimoire Heart and “awakened” Zeref’s malicious heart. In addition, since they had enough influence to convince countless wizards that Zeref could be revived with keys and/or Towers of Heaven, they would have the influence to interact with gods and God Slayers. As a writer, Mashima could’ve killed two birds with one stone and be ready to tackle Zeref’s big final arc. What probably actually happened was him waking up after a drunken tirade and realizing that his series was being more and more ridiculed for its poor writing decisions, his fanbase was becoming one of the most toxic in all of anime, and he was just running out of ideas. He questioned every life choice he ever made, decided to trash the remainder of Fairy Tail just to start over with a new work, burned through the rest of Avatar, and threw Alvarez together haphazardly just to prevent himself thinking about potential endgames any longer.

Thank you again to @ac-fairytail for these questions. The channel’s all about Fairy Tail critique, analysis, and salt; go there if you’re interested in that stuff. It really pains me to see Fairy Tail crashing and burning towards the end, but for what it was worth, I enjoyed it. It’ll be harder for me to go back and enjoy it because of my investment in much better shonen manga, such as HxH, JoJo, and YYH, but it holds a lot of memories for teenage me, and I’ll certainly treasure them.

Also thanks to Mashima for teaching me what NOT to do as a screenwriter. Helps a lot.

#lightdark18 #ac-fairytail #fairy tail #anti mashima #well theres two hours of my life gone

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tyrantisterror · 7 years ago

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Slightly More Detailed Character Nonsense for Baron Skeleton

It is weird how I’ve made more progress on this story concept in the last couple of days than I have in rest of the couple of years since I came up with it.

This builds off of/refines the rambling brainstorm stuff I did in this post, just in case you missed it.

Baron Skeleton Character List

Size Classes from Smallest to Largest: Scout, Basic, Deluxe, Mega

Villain Team

Baron Skeleton

Character Role: Big Bad

Motifs: Skeleton, Cobra Commander, Skeletor

Size Class: Basic

Toy Gimmicks: Snap on Chest Armor

Personality: Manic and almost perpetually annoyed, Baron Skeleton is prone to spiteful rants and loud tantrums. While anger and frustration are basically his default emotions, he rarely directs these feelings at the people around him, being more likely to rant about bad luck or society being rigged instead. Despite his volatile temper, he’s actually far more patient with his henchmen’s quirks that you’d expect, and genuinely likes the people he works with. Unlike the villains he’s based off of, Baron Skeleton is never abusive to his underlings and generally tries his best to accommodate their needs and desires in his schemes, even if doing so often results in failure. Though he talks as though his worlview is bleak and cynical, Baron Skeleton notably refuses to ever give up the fight – he always has another scheme for victory after each defeat, and rarely dwells on his failures for long before moving on to the next plan.

Meta Stuff: As the show’s protagonist, he’d get a lot of toy variants with different gimmicks, like “dragon blast armor” and the like. The show would work these in as clumsily as possible.

Snakeman

Character Role: Big Bad’s Wacky Sidekick

Motifs: Snake, Barbarian

Size Class: Deluxe

Toy Gimmicks: N/A

Personality: Though technically Baron Skeleton’s number two, Snakeman’s real function is as Baron Skeleton’s best friend. As the second in command, Snakeman is terrible – he can never keep Baron Skeleton’s plans straight even on the rare occasions where he actually listens to them, and always ends up derailing things by “winging it.” As a best friend, though, he’s marvelous – he’s always there to listen to Baron Skeleton’s problems, and he’s always doing his best to cheer Baron Skeleton up. One could say that Snakeman gives Baron Skeleton what he needs instead of what he wants. Snakeman is also a very chill boss to the other underlings, rarely dolling out punishments and always willing to hear them out. Like most of the bad guys, he can actually be a competent fighter when he applies himself – he just rarely ever does so.

Meta Stuff: Snakeman’s design should be as He-Man-y as we dare to get.

Newbie/Edgelord

Character Role: Fish Out of Water, Eviler Than Thou

Motifs: Grimdark villain

Size Class: Scout as Newbie, Deluxe as Edgelord

Toy Gimmicks: Clip On Spike Armor (Edgelord only)

Personality: Newbie’s role in the first season is to be the fish out of water character who triggers exposition from the pre-established characters, but overall his real purpose is to contrast the bad guy’s outdated style of supervillainy with a more modern Grim & Gritty take. Newbie is the only bad guy who is legitimately evil rather than just weird and antisocial. He views murder as the best solution, and all of his suggestions for plans essentially boil down to “kill as many people as possible.” He’s sadistic and cruel, and the other bad guys are ultimately unsettled by him (though many, Baron Skeleton included, still try to turn him around to their way of thinking). Once he becomes Edgelord, he dives straight into the most Grimdark of villainy, doing his best to put every face-removing Joker to shame. Edgelord is the one character on the show that the audience is invited to hate without any regret.

Meta Stuff: While Newbie’s action figure should just be a variant of the Henchskull figure (with a different head and color scheme), Edgelord’s should be a 100% new mold to better make him stand out as a character from a very different take on the superhero genre.

Gargruel

Character Role: Starscream

Motifs: Demon/Gargoyle, Gaudiness

Size Class: Basic

Toy Gimmicks: Clip On Armor (more elaborate than Baron Skeleton’s)

Personality: Gargruel is a perpetual traitor, trying to usurp Baron Skeleton’s leadership at every opportunity. It is literally a pathological tendency of his, and one of the rest of the bad guys have just learned to deal with. Perhaps the hammiest of the villains, almost every word out of his mouth is a loud, theatrical declaration of his superior mind and strength. Of course, Gargruel is nowhere near as clever or strong as he thinks he is, and always ends up overreaching. Despite his superiority complex, the others consider him a friend, and he is always quickly forgiven for his repeated betrayals (especially since they tend to implode on him almost immediately). It helps that he can actually be a pretty nice guy on the rare occasions where he isn’t talking himself up.

Meta Stuff: Gargruel’s outfit should look like a much flashier/gaudier take on Baron Skeleton’s. His toy would probably even be a retool of Baron Skeleton’s toy, with different gloves, boots, and clip on armor as well as a new head.

Galvanstein

Character Role: Fanatical Loyalist

Motifs: Frankenstien, Executioner

Size Class: Deluxe

Toy Gimmicks: Spring-loaded Extendo-Fists

Personality: An utter sycophant, Galvanstein is a yes man and Baron Skeleton’s greatest enabler. Galvanstein is utterly devoted to his boss and believes every idea Baron Skeleton has ever had is absolute genius. The only reason they fail, he reasons, is that the other henchmen aren’t pulling their weight, which is why Galvanstein is overly critical of his peers. He’s not a complete dick to them though – after all, Baron Skeleton clearly saw potential in them, so they must have some good sides. Galvanstein’s loyalty is his greatest weakness, as he can never bring himself to admit that his boss is flawed. Likewise, he has no improvisational skills – while he will gleefully carry out Baron Skeleton’s orders to the letter, he is at an absolute loss whenever a plan gets derailed and forces him to think for himself.

Meta Stuff:

Nosferoi

Character Role: TFP Soundwave

Motifs: Vampire, Boba Fett/Samus/Cool Helmeted Space Warrior

Size Class: Basic

Toy Gimmicks: Grappling Hook Claw, Removable helmet

Personality: Quiet and thoughtful, Nosferoi is the most competent villain in Baron Skeleton’s organization by a long shot. She has the highest success rate of any henchmen, pulling off her tasks efficiently and with a great deal of style. When she contributes to a plot, her suggestions are always cunning and well-reasoned. If she was the gang’s leader, they would have won ages ago – but she doesn’t want to be a leader. In fact, Nosferoi is much happier as a henchman. She likes following orders more than giving them, and thinks Baron Skeleton’s schemes are far more fun to carry out than anything she could come up with, even if they’re doomed to fail. Unlike most of the other villains, she doesn’t really want to win so much as she just wants to hang out with her friends, and is content to just do her part of the job well instead of trying to fix their operation.

Meta Stuff: Nosferoi should look rad as hell.

Spinestra

Character Role: PG Seductress

Motifs: Spider, PG Rated Dominatrix

Size Class: Basic

Toy Gimmicks: N/A

Personality: Supposedly a master manipulator, Spinestra’s role tends to focus on finding ways to play mind games with the heroes that Baron Skeleton’s forces oppose. She’s not quite as good at this as the others think she is, but she does her best to come up with dastardly schemes to set the heroes against each other. Her real skill lies in trap making, and many of the defense systems in the villain team’s fortress are of her design. Spinestra also often helps with the team’s plans, though she’s sort of a double edged sword – her contributions are so complex that the heroes can’t follow them, but, sadly, also end up confusing the other henchmen more often than not, resulting in a bungled operation. While she tries to act cold and aloof like Nosferoi, she has a ferocious temper and cannot take criticism well.

Meta Stuff: in the vein of villains like Evil-Lyn and Baroness, Spinestra has a vague dominatrix vibe that’s intensely watered down so as not to anger parents (ignoring the fact that they could have just not made her look like a dominatrix in the first place).

Swampstomp

Character Role: Bumbling Brute

Motifs: Swamp Monster, Gill Man

Size Class: Mega

Toy Gimmicks: Tummy Prison

Personality: The muscle of the villain team, Swampstomp knows she’s valued for her brawn and not her brains, and is totally fine with that. She’s the largest of the core henchmen and hits the hardest by far. Swampstomp revels in her role as a dumb brute, cheerfully taking orders from anyone who acts even the slightest bit authoritative. When Gangruel initiates a coup, Swampstomp is generally the first to fall in line, and likewise she’s one of the first to switch back to Baron Skeleton when the old boss reasserts himself. While Swampstomp gleefully embraces her dumb muscle persona, she’s actually more perceptive and intelligent than anyone gives her credit for, herself included. Likewise, while she generally plays up her love of beating people up, she really isn’t the sadist she thinks she is, and is utterly revolted at people who are genuinely vicious.

Meta Stuff: Swampstomp’s gimmick is that she can swallow smaller figures and store them in her tummy. Because this is a pretty intricate gimmick, Swampstomp’s mold would be entirely unique, so her design has more leeway to be strange than most of the others.

Dr. Strategerm

Character Role: Straw Vulcan

Motifs: Mad Scientist, Chess, Mathletes

Size Class: Basic

Toy Gimmicks: Swappable hands

Personality: Dr. Strategerm claims to value logic and rationality, and tries to reduce all problems to mathematic equations that come to one objective solution. Ironically, he is utterly irrational in his devotion to this philosophy, and will passionately argue about how emotions are distractions that keep people from being run by pure, perfected logic. Strategerm creates all the high tech weaponry and gadgets that the group uses and is prone to sesquipedalian loquaciousness. He has a notable rivalry with Hexadeth, being her foil.

Meta Stuff: Dr. Strategerm’s hands can be switched out with multiple different tools, like a claw, a hammer, a drill, etc. His toy would use Baron Skeleton’s body mold, but with a cloth labcoat draped over its torso and legs to disguise the mold reuse. His arms and head would be entirely new pieces.

Hexadeth

Character Role: Sorceress

Motifs: D&D, mummy

Size Class: Basic

Toy Gimmicks: Dice of Doom Accessory

Personality: Superstitious and traditional, Hexadeth is a master of magic who insists on doing things the “old way” and hates technology. Though her magic is extremely powerful, her resistance to catch up with the times often bites her in the butt, as her enemies often use technology that she is not prepared to deal with. She has great skill in dealing with emotional and spiritual matters, but has nothing but disdain for logic and science. She often butts heads with Dr. Strategerm despite the fact that she essentially does the same thing as him – i.e. create new weapons and equipment for the others. Her dialogue is also similarly hard to parse, as she loves purple prose and antiquated linguistics.

Meta Stuff: Hexadeth’s toy uses the same body tooling as Spinestra, though it is disgused by her cloth robe and cowl. Her head, hands, feet, and shins all uses new pieces that are sculpted to look like they’re covered in bandages. Her gimmick/accessory is a set of dice – 1d20, 1d10, 1d6, and 1d4 – with different magic symbols on them, which in the show she uses to cast her magic spells. She might also come with a cup that automatically rolls them or something – we can have fun with it.

Oddserver

Character Role: Wild Card

Motifs: Eyeball, strangeness

Size Class: Mega

Toy Gimmicks: Removable Parasites

Personality: Considered weird by the other villains, which says something considering their own quirks, Oddserver is an alien juggernaut that marches to the beat of its own drummer. The enigmatic monster is unpredictable – sometimes it will follow the team’s plot to the letter, and other times it will break off and do its own thing. Oddserver’s actions always serve a purpose, one that always benefits Oddserver even if it does little if anything to help the others. While Oddserver’s nature and motives are mysterious, there are some moments where it shows clear affection for the other villains, and they consider it to be part of the team all the same.

Meta Stuff: Like Swampstomp, Oddserver’s toy is an entirely new sculpt, so it can go a little wild. I like the idea of it working sort of like some of Kenner’s Aliens toys, with lots of little parasitive creatures that can pop off the main body and work as their own monsters, but look like just a normal body part when attached to the main figure.

Griftermister

Character Role: Prankster

Motifs: Goblin, Pranks

Size Class: Scout

Toy Gimmicks: Bug-Out Eyes

Personality: Griftermister has a deep seated inferiority complex that drives him to drag everyone around him through the mud to feel good about himself. He is always looking for new ways to humiliate and mock others, devoting his life to practical jokes and mean spirited teasing. A dick to friend and foe alike, the other villains rarely if ever incorporate him into their schemes, and instead try to steer him towards the heroes hoping they’ll distract each other. Like many of the other villains, he’s somewhat aware of his flaw, but has no idea how to fight it. The others accept him because he has no one else to turn to, and deep down he does value their friendship – even if he can almost never bring himself to admit it.

Meta Stuff: Griftermister’s goblin head would have a lever disguised as a horn that makes his eyes (and maybe his tongue) extend out ala Rat Fink.

Wailwolf

Character Role: Defeatist

Motifs: Wolf Man, emo kid

Size Class: Deluxe

Toy Gimmicks: N/A

Personality: Wailwolf is more acutely aware of how often the villain team fails than anyone else, and dwells on this constantly. For her, every battle is lost before its begun, and she only trudges on because she knows the others would be hurt if she didn’t join in with them. While her pessimism can be a bit grating, the others accept her for who she is, and sometimes inspire her with their resolute (if somewhat naïve) optimism. Or, in short, she’s basically Eeyore.

Meta Stuff: Wailwolf would reuse some of Snakeman’s sculpt, though she might require a different torso in addition to new head, hand, and feet sculpts.

Jinxlinx

Character Role: Silver Age Villain

Motifs: Black Cat, Theme Obsession

Size Class: Basic

Toy Gimmicks: N/A

Personality: Jinxlinx is basically every Silver Age Batman villain, having an all-consuming obsession with sticking to a particular theme for his crimes. This presents several problems, as Jinxlinx never keeps to one theme for very long, and the themes he does choose are almost always terrible and difficult to integrate into crime. The other villains try to accommodate this obsession, but it’s very hard for the aforementioned reasons. Jinxlinx is a very enthusiastic henchmen when things go his way, but panics once things fall apart.

Meta Stuff: Jinxlinx would have his own sculpt, though he may reuse arms and legs from Baron Skeleton’s toy.

Ratfang and Batfang

Character Role: Those Two Henchmen

Motifs: Rats, Bats, evil twins

Size Class: Scout

Toy Gimmicks: N/A

Personality: Ratfang and Batfang are less defined by their own quirks and more by their shared dynamic. The two are never seen apart and spend most of their screentime making snarky comments, essentially being the Statler and Waldorf of the show. They’re the lowest ranking of the named henchmen, but can be pretty competent despite their lack of special powers. They prefer to just crack jokes though, and their main contribution to the show is their banter. They cannot stand to be separated.

Meta Stuff: Ratfang and Batfang would have very similar head designs, and both would wear re-colored versions of the standard Henchskull uniform. Like Newbie, they were only recently promoted from Faceless Goon to Named Henchmen.

Henchskulls

Character Role: Faceless Goons

Motifs: Cobra Troopers

Size Class: Scout

Toy Gimmicks: N/A

Personality: As a legion of incompetent soldiers, the Henchskulls are technically varied in personality, but we generally only get hints of it. Normally they’re just go-fers and minions, though most of the villains know their names and treat them like the individual people they are (which is slightly humorous since their uniforms make them all look identical). The Henchskulls are terrible at villainy, but to be fair, their leadership isn’t much better.

Meta Stuff: The henchskulls’ outfits would be similar to Baron Skeleton’s, but less elaborate. Their masks would conceal their faces and look vaguely skull like. More than a few characters are retools/redecos of the Henchskull sculpt.

Hero Team

Captain Touchdown

Character role: The Hero

Motifs: Football, Superhero

Size Class: Deluxe

Toy Gimmicks: N/A

Personality: As the leader of the heroes, Captain Touchdown comes the closest to embodying the ideals they’re supposed to stand for. In D&D terms, he is every bad stereotype about Lawful Good characters: a goody two-shoes who insists on playing by the book and insists that everyone do things his way because it’s “right.” While many of Captain Touchdown’s beliefs are noble, he’s hampered by his completely lack of empathy – he cannot understand the idea that people think differently than him, or that anyone would be dissatisfied with the status quo. “The complainer is always wrong” is practically his motto, and most of the conflicts between his team and Baron Skeleton’s is rooted in his inability to accept different points of view. While never explicitly malicious, there is a smarmy air of condescension in how Captain Touchdown interacts with others, and he treats all of his peers as if they’re ignorant children who need to be told how the world works rather than, y’know, his equals.

Meta Stuff: though Captain Touchdown’s overall design should feel very Superman-ish, like Baron Skeleton, he should also have a few slightly medieval/fantasy touches. The Football theme could be used a bit here – maybe finding some middle ground between football shoulder pads and armor?

Cheerally

Character role: The Girl

Motifs: Cheerleader, Ultra-Femininity

Size Class: Scout

Toy Gimmicks: N/A

Personality: Cheerally is basically the anthropomorphic personification of what toy companies think girls act like and desire. She dresses in pink and pastels, she loves ponies and cute things, and her role on the team is essentially to provide moral support and act as a sort of surrogate mother. None of these traits are negative, of course, but Cheerally doesn’t get a great deal of respect in the group because of her perceived role, and rarely feels comfortable voicing her opinions. She’s somewhat aware of the fact that she’s not quite getting a fair deal, but she doesn’t know how to get the others to listen to her concerns.

Meta Stuff: If we were going super meta, Cheerally probably wouldn’t even HAVE a toy in the toyline, as the token girls of these shows often weren’t expected to sell merchandise well. But let’s be nice and give her a toyetic deisgn anyway – albeit one that’s unique, since she probably wouldn’t be likely to get many retools.

Hooper Trooper

Character role: The Lancer

Motifs: Basketball, Future Warrior

Size Class: Basic

Toy Gimmicks: N/A

Personality: Hooper Trooper is the second in command of the Hero Team, though that doesn’t mean a whole lot. In a more complex take on hero team dynamics, he’d be a foil to Captain Touchdown, but since 80’s hero teams hated interpersonal strife, he’s basically little more than a slightly more lax copy of his leader, and generally just acts as a yes-man.

Meta Stuff: His head is a giant basketball, and maybe removable?

Basebarian

Character role: The Big Guy

Motifs: Baseball, Barbarian, Caveman

Size Class: Mega

Toy Gimmicks: N/A

Personality: The big guy to the hero team, Basebarian isn’t particularly smart, but he’s got a lot of muscle. His ignorance will often be treated as a joke by the other heroes, and often people laugh at him without him truly understanding why. Thankfully, he’s not aware enough to realize just how poorly he’s being treated, and takes it all in stride.

Meta Stuff: Though he lacks an overt gimmick like the other mega figures, Basebarian does have multiple trick baseball accessories – including one that’s on fire, one covered in buzzsaws, etc.

Rockem Soccer

Character role: The Smart Guy

Motifs: Soccer, Cyborg

Size Class: Basic

Toy Gimmicks: N/A

Personality: Explicitly part robot and part man, Rockem Soccer is the smartest of the core five members of the hero team, although that doesn’t extend beyond memorizing a lot of facts and trivia – none of the team are very big on creative problem solving. Though his intellectualism is sometimes a boon, more often the not it just annoys his team-mates, who often tell him to stop rattling off his useless trivia.

Meta Stuff: Rockem Soccer would probably reuse some parts from Hooper Trooper, though his legs would have to be entirely new pieces.

Pukamok

Character role: The Loose Canon

Motifs: Hockey, Mad Max

Size Class: Deluxe

Toy Gimmicks: Puck-Canons

Personality: An aloof ally, Pukamok is sarcastic and far less “goodie goodie” than the other heroes, almost fitting better with the villain team. There is constant tension when he does work with the heroes, as his personality does not mesh well with their high standards of how heroes should act. He tends to struggle to win against the villains a lot more too – some would say it’s because of his independent streak, though others might note that the other heroes do little to include him or look out for his safety.

Meta Stuff: Pukamok’s toy would probably reuse parts from both the hero AND villain figures, as well as some new pieces.

Wrekracket

Character role: The Tomboy

Motifs: Tennis, Rock & Roll, Amazon Warrior

Size Class: Basic

Toy Gimmicks: N/A

Personality: Aggressive, masculine, and itching for a fight, Wrekracket is the obligatory tomboy to Cheerally’s girly girl. As per tradition, those two do not get along well, and also as per tradition, the other team members tend to take Cheerally’s side. Like Pukamok, Wrekracket is one of the least content heroes, and one the others fear may switch sides.

Meta Stuff: Wrekracket would use some parts from Spinestra’s mold, to further emphasize how she’s straddling the line between “hero” and “villain.”

Fortempo

Character role: Aquaman

Motifs: Marching Band

Size Class: Scout

Toy Gimmicks: Projectile-Launching Tuba

Personality: While technically a part of the hero team, Fortempo is generally shunted to the side under the assumption that his powers aren’t terrible useful – after all, how useful can music really be in the fight against evil? Fortempo desperately wants to prove he’s just a good a hero as the others, but he is rarely given the opportunity.

Meta Stuff: Fortempo’s toy would be a heavily altered version of the Henchskull sculpt, and might even have the tassle-y shoulder bits from Baron Skeleton’s toy. Again, this would be foreshadowing that he’s one of the heroes that’s on the margins.

The Council

Character role: Ineffectual Higher Power

Motifs: Student Council, the Guardians of Oa

Size Class: Scout

Toy Gimmicks: N/A

Personality: Presented as a sort of ultimate force of good that the heroes ostensibly answer to, the Council never uses their supposed power and does little more than occasionally give orders and evaluations of the Heroes. Though they demand that their authority should be respected, they do little to show they deserve that authority, and yet few of the heroes ever question them.

Meta Stuff: If these guys get a toy, it would probably be an add on with another character – no one really wants to play with the vague council of supposed goodness.

#Baron Skeleton #I am proud of how shitty all these names are

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ciathyzareposts · 5 years ago

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What I Can Tell You About DragonBlade, GayBlade, and Citadel of the Dead

Where fortune and fame await the oold? What does that mean?

An awful lot of administrative work and emulator-fighting went into tracking down, sorting out, an running the three variants of this exceptionally mediocre game. This was not time well spent. When Dragon magazine, home of the modal five-star review, gives your game no stars and calls it the “worst dungeon-crawl, you-do-the-mapping, oops-you’re-in-a-trap-and-your-torch-went-out, mindless click-the-‘attack’-button game I’ve seen in a decade,” you know you have a problem. This is an account of why I didn’t get very far with these games and why, at least for now, I’m not interested in trying harder. To judge by the manual and character creation process (the only part of the game I could really experience), DragonBlade, offers essentially nothing that Wizardry (1981) doesn’t except for color graphics. But even worse is the re-skinned GayBlade, which bills itself as the first gay-and-lesbian-themed CRPG, which it probably was, but only in the most superficial way. If I were a gay CRPG Addict, neither game would satisfy my gayness nor my CRPG addiction. That GayBlade received so much press in its day goes to show how starved the genre really ways for authentic gay representation in games.

The timeline is a little confused because a lot of sites give GayBlade as a 1992 game and DragonBlade as a “straight fantasy variant of GayBlade.” In fact, the reverse is almost certainly true, particularly since the “About” screen for GayBlade is still titled, “About DragonBlade.” There are a lot of sloppy bits like that in GayBlade. (That double-entendre is gayer than anything in the game.) Making things more confusing, author R. J. Best went on a Macintosh Garden forum last year and claimed he wrote GayBlade and released it for free in revenge for a distributor withholding royalties from Citadel of the Dead. But it’s clear from both news accounts and magazine reviews that GayBlade was available in 1993 while Citadel didn’t come out until 1994. Citadel, as far as I can tell, is just DragonBlade with a new title screen and a few bug fixes.

Let’s talk about DragonBlade first. The manual offers the most generic backstory possible: Once peace reigned in the land, led by a community of knights and mages who followed “the gentle philosophy of DragonMagic.” They were headquartered in the DragonKeep and ruled by High Wizard Alastor. But a demon army led by Lord Xygor invaded the land, lay waste to the keep, and imprisoned Alastor in a “dimension of frozen souls.” A party must brave the now-monster-ridden keep to rescue Alastor.

The game opens on a menu town with a “training yard” (character creation), tavern, general store, guild (for level advancement), magic shop, healer, and dungeon door. Classes are fighter, mage, priest, samurai (fighter/priest), wizard (fighter/mage), and master (fighter/priest/wizard). Races are orc (c. 10%), ogre (10%), elf (40%), gnome (20%), and dwarf (20%). When you roll a new character, his race is randomized along with his attributes: strength, wisdom, intelligence, constitution, dexterity, and hits. Each attribute is rolled from 1 to 15 (there are no racial modifications), and the aggregate determines your available classes. So far, with the exception of the monster races and no human race, things are identical to Wizardry

Except for low hits (which prevents him from being a “master”), this character has some unusually high stats.

The manual doesn’t tell you the prime requisites for each class, so I spent far more time than made sense noting the minimum scores every time an option came up and then figuring out the associated probabilities. First, there isn’t an equal probability of each number between 1 and 15 appearing for each attribute. For some reason, 8 is heavily weighted, accounting for about 15% of values. The numbers 1 and 15 are weighted low, accounting for about 3% each. Everything else is in the 6-8% range. Priests require at least a 12 in wisdom and mages require at least a 12 in intelligence; each comes up as an option about 21% of the time. Samurai require 13 strength, 12 dexterity, and possibly smaller values for the other attributes. They come up only about 5 times in 1,000. Wizards require at least a 12 in wisdom and dexterity and a 13 in intelligence; they come up 6 times in 1,000. Masters have at least a minimum requirement of 12 or 13 in all attributes (I’m guessing a bit) and come up less than 1 time in every 10,000 rolls. I only ever got one once, and I forgot to click the “Master” option when selecting him, so I accidentally made him a fighter. That hurt.

Starting items in the store.

It turns out that much like Wizardry, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to sweat through thousands of re-rolls for the perfect character anyway, since Level 1 characters might as well be wearing red Star Trek uniforms. This is particularly true for DragonBlade, where enemies attack the moment you enter the dungeon, before you can even light a torch, and never stop. Combat is also Wizardry standard. Each character can attack, parry, use an item, or cast a spell, although it executes the action immediately (more like Might and Magic) rather than running through the entire round at once.

Combat against giant rock ants.

The game uses Wizardry‘s “slot” system (e.g., a Level 6 priest gets 3 first-level spells, 2 second-level spells, one third-level spell), but there are only 11 spells for each spellcasting class. Mages get “Light Wound,” “Evade,” “Light,” “Heavy Wound,” “Invisibility On,” “Invisibility Off,” “Locate,” “Lightning,” “Fireballs,” “Ice Storm,” and “Castle” (as in, “return to”). Priests get “Disarm” (the only way to disarm, since there are no thieves), “Light Cure,” “Compass,” “Cure Poison,” “Resist Fire,” “Resist Ice,” “Raise,” “Heavy Cure,” “Eye of Death,” “Cure All,” and “Restore.”

Looking at spell options while facing an undead.

It soon become clear to me that the programmers had built DragonBlade to serve up a combat once every n clock cycles and hadn’t accounted for faster models. (If I don’t have that quite right technically, I’m sure someone will correct me.) Thus, the combats never end and you never get to explore the dungeon or even retreat out the back door. I tried Citadel of the Dead and ran into essentially the same problem. I could actually get a torch lit and occasionally move a step, but generally speaking I was trapped in an endless succession of combats from the moment I entered until they finally overwhelmed the party. Death is permanent in the game, although one weird feature is that enemies continue to attack slain party members in combat, slashing and bashing their helpless corpses. I guess that’s good news for the survivors but still somewhat gruesome.

An inevitable message in my DragonBlade experiences.

The Basilisk emulator that I use for Mac games doesn’t offer dynamic clock speed scaling the way that DOSBox does, and I was unable to find a Windows version of DragonBlade even though it existed. (I think Citadel was Mac-only.) I fiddled around with other models and settings in the Basilisk GUI, but I couldn’t find anything that wasn’t too fast. Thus, I tried GayBlade, for which I could only find a Windows version. This was my first experience emulating Windows 3.1, and it went about as smoothly as all my experiences with a new emulator, which means it took several frustrating hours to get it right (and would have taken longer if my commenter Lance hadn’t given me a head start with his configuration).

There’s no way it’s the world’s first. What about Leather Goddesses of Phobos? What about the game version of The Rocky Horror Picture Show?

GayBlade is a gay-themed game if by “gay-themed” you mean taking all the trappings of a typical computer role-playing game and replacing them with trappings of gay life. Not real gay life, but stereotypically flamboyant gay life, and not “replaced” in any thoughtful way but clumsily and senselessly. Let’s start with the classes. In place of fighters, samurais, wizards, and priests, we get queers, drag queens, guppies, and lesbians. Mages and masters aren’t even translated. Prime requisites are lowered significantly, and instead of default-naming every character “Dufus,” this game picks names that begin with the character’s class. You can only create four characters instead of being able to create up to 8 and only assign 4 to the party the way the other games work.

Assembling a gay party.

Then we get to inventory. Instead of useful items like armor and swords, we get aprons, mace (not the weapon, but the chemical spray), blow-dryers, press-on nails, and condoms. If the relative positions are any guide, purses are substituting for cloaks, tiaras for helms, press-on nails for gauntlets, and condoms for shields. Okay, I just got that last one. That’s a little clever.

The ostensible goal of the game is to rescue someone named “Empress Nelda.” But once you enter the dungeon, you’re just in the same medieval dungeon as the straight versions. Some of the monsters are replaced with menaces to gay people, such as “FBI Probes,” homosexual thugs who say “you fag” when they attack, televangelists, KKK grand dragons, and spineless politicos. You even have to face some external representations of inner demons such as suicidal tendencies and age spots. But there are also regular monsters carried over from DragonBlade, like giant insects and rats. The spells aren’t “translated” at all. Drag queens get the priest spells.

The characters face an “FBI Probe” led for some reason but a naval officer.

I tried to last long enough to explore the first level. I’m pretty sure it’s only 10 x 10. I didn’t find any special encounters or navigation tricks. But my queers and lesbians and their mace and hairdryers were far less effective against enemies than the swords and armor of the fantasy versions. I hate the control system in all three games: they’re mouse-buttons only, even for movement. I also hate the perspective, which insists you’ve hit a wall (not only subtracting a hit point but making you acknowledge a message) even though it looks like there’s plenty of space.

Sure, it was “plainly marked.” ONE SQUARE AHEAD of where I am.

I’ll leave it to you, gay readers: what impressions do you get from this description? Are you happy to have any acknowledgement, even if the best it aspires to is high camp and doesn’t really succeed even at that? This will be better served in a longer entry specifically on the topic, but milestones that I can remember for gay representation in RPGs are:

Ultima VI (1990): Earliest game that I can remember that allows same-sex sex, albeit with a gypsy prostitute.

Ultima VII (1992): Continues the tradition, albeit at a brothel.

The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind (2002): Made things equal-opportunity for creepy sex predators, as Crassius Curio will sexually harass males and females alike.

Jade Empire (2005): Introduced BioWare’s from-then common theme of offering at least one same-sex partner, often a bisexual who could also be romanced from the other side. I remember accidentally falling into a gay relationship based on some tricky dialogue options.

Fallout: New Vegas (2010): In a game famous for not introducing “romance options” with its NPCs, the only exception (sort-of) is for lesbian characters.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (2011): Introduced full equality. Any character who could be romanced, married, and bedded could be done by both men and women with no additional commentary. Unfortunately, all relationships were a bit boring and bloodless.

Dragon Age: Inquisition (2015): Kicks up the complexity a notch with a wide cast of characters with a variety of racial and sexual preferences–plus mature attitudes (and a sense of humor) about sex and sexual situations.

I’m sure more experienced readers can think of more, but for 1993, I think you’d be better off playing a regular CRPG and just imagining the protagonist as gay rather than paying homage to this penis-lollipop take on gay themes. Even if you feel differently, I simply can’t bring myself to fight rednecks with press-on nails and blow-dryers for 13 levels. Thus, I guess I’m rejecting the entire group on “notability” grounds, although I’ll hold myself open for taking up one of the medieval versions if I can get Basilisk to slow it down. I’m done with it for now; the game has kept me too long from Ultima VII. Note: The title of the gay version is perhaps a reference to Zorro: The Gay Blade (1981), which not enough people have seen. Ironically, the authors removed swords and daggers from the game so that the characters no longer have any blades.

*****

I’ve put Planet’s Edge on the back burner because it’s clear that I’m going to have to start over. I’ll pick it up again after a couple of games have gone by; this isn’t going to be another Magic Candle III. I just hate doing the same things I’ve already done, and I needed some space in between.

source http://reposts.ciathyza.com/what-i-can-tell-you-about-dragonblade-gayblade-and-citadel-of-the-dead/

#retro games #dos games #retro #crpg #adventure #amiga #oldcomputers #8bit #16bit #blog #repost

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