#also my other special interests are lord of the rings and zelda

[tweeterwilbury]

Thst meme of "why did i get the [something] autism and not the super smart autism?" Is basically me vs my father because his biggest special interest is psychology and he is the best student on his class on college and meanwhile my biggest special interest is george harrison.

[ultimate-sword-showdown]

Welcome to the Ultimate Sword Showdown...Rematch!

In this tournament, we'll have 64 swords compete to see which is the true winner. This is the second iteration of this tournament, so there are some new rules.

New Contestants

New competitors will be chosen in the exact same way as before. I will personally sort through the list of submissions and choose a list of swords I think look or sound the coolest or most interesting. This means that receiving a high number of submissions will not guarantee any sword's spot in this tournament, although a high volume of submissions for one sword may draw my attention towards it where I had ignored it before.

Speaking of ignoring submissions, if you submitted a sword last time and it did not make it into the tournament, you may try submitting it again and you may have better luck this time. I will try to pay special attention to swords I glossed over last time. I will also of course be looking at swords that were not submitted last time.

Returning Contestants

Any sword that did not make it past Round 1 in the initial iteration of this tournament will be eligible for resubmission, and I will try to match it up with a competitor against whom it might stand a better chance. This means that a total of 32 original contestants may try their hand again. I have removed the barrier for entry, and any returning sword that receives even one submission will be automatically included.

A list of the swords eligible for resubmission, as well as a list of all swords disqualified from this tournament due to making it past round 1 last time, is under the cut.

Guide to the Form

Name of sword (e.g. Sting, Excalibur, Ghirahim). If the sword does not have a name, put N/A or something similar and be sure to put extra descriptions of which sword you are talking about in the other boxes.

Series of origin (e.g. Lord of the Rings, Arthurian legends, The Legend of Zelda).

Wielder (e.g. Bilbo/Frodo Baggins, King Arthur, Demise). If the sword is from a video game and is wielded by, say, both a boss and later the player character, specify the boss over the player. If the sword has two primary wielders list both. If the sword is wielded by a family line or something similar, specify the group as a whole. If the sword has too many wielders to list, put "many" and describe in the box below. If the sword has no primary wielders, put "none" or leave the box blank.

Describe the sword. This is where you get to gush about all the details. If there is no picture provided you can describe it physically, but also describe the ways it's been used, if it has any special powers, its personality if it is sentient, and anything else you think might be important to know. This is what will draw my interest the most!

Write up a description to be used in the tournament or provide me informational sources (new!). This box can be used to help me out in any way with putting the tournament together. You can write up a short but informative description that will be included under the polls in the same style as the ones I wrote for the last tournament. Alternatively, if you have a particularly informative wiki link, tumblr post, or any other source you recommend I pull information from, you can place it here as well. Anything helps!

Include a picture of the sword. Paste a link to a picture you'd like me to use for the tournament. You can also paste multiple links, with pictures of swords by themselves or while wielded. You can also link gifs you'd like me to include. I may include multiple pictures for more swords this time around than I did last time.

Notes about submitting swords:

I am hoping the definition of a sword is obvious, but a sword should have a hilt and a blade that is longer than the hilt. Daggers and spears do not qualify.

Any type of sword counts--everything from shortswords to broadswords to katanas.

Swords from books count.

The keyblades from Kingdom Hearts are...close enough.

Dual-wielded swords or identical swords in a set can be submitted together. More than like...four swords that are all distinct from one another should be counted as separate swords.

Sentient swords count.

Characters who transform into swords are allowed so long as that is their main gimmick (i.e. a character who transforms into a sword once in episode 30 and never again is not truly a sword).

You can submit as many swords from the same media as you would like (in separate submissions), but I will only include a maximum of three swords per IP in the final tournament.

The form can be found below.

Structure of the Tournament

The form will be open until December 12th. I will warn you 3 hours before I close the form. After the form is closed, I will begin working on the bracket and should have it up within a couple days of closing the form.

As before, I will be writing up a brief description for every sword. This will be pulled from a combination of the information I received through submissions, and whatever I can find on online wikis. However, a new addition to the tournament is that after I have gathered images and written up descriptions, but before the tournament starts, I will release a full list of descriptions and images, and there will be a ~3 day buffer before the tournament starts for you all to look over my work and correct anything I may have messed up--spelling a major character's name wrong, a mistake in the information, a picture of the wrong sword, etc. (all things that happened after the polls went up during the last run of this tournament). During this time I will also allow you to submit your own description, if you think you can write a better one. You can submit a description to me in the replies or reblogs of the post, through the askbox, or through DMs. Please specify what it's for. I will also post this new description for others to verify that your information is correct. Perhaps with thorough peer review, we can completely eliminate misinformation. *flexing arm emoji*

After this ~3 day period, the polls will be finalized and Round 1 will begin shortly after. All polls will run for 24 hours, except for the final one which will run for one week.

Rules

You can submit as many different swords as you like.

Please do not spam the submission form. As described above this will do nothing for you. Additionally, I use submission numbers to help me seed the bracket. Please don't screw up my seeding. Just...don't.

Propaganda is allowed and encouraged! Send it through reblogs, asks, or a separate post. Be sure to tag me in your posts, and if reblogging, add a tag like "propaganda" or something to let me know you want me to reblog it.

Please be civil to your host and to your fellow voters. If toxicity becomes an issue I may have to disqualify competitors from the tournament. Do not make me do this.

Also, please be respectful of me and my decisions. I am only one host and I cannot be perfect all the time, but I will try to make decisions that are fair. If you have complaints, please make them civilly. This was not an issue last time, but it bears mentioning again. People can be ruthless on their silly little social media blorbo polls.

Miscellaneous

Mod goes by The Bladesmith.

Original tournament masterpost

I have no idea what tournaments are still active these days, so I won't tag anyone this time. If any tournament hosts happen to see this, I hope you will help a fellow host out and signal boost this for me. It would also help for non-hosts to reblog if you would be so kind. *smily face*

Under the cut: List of tags, list of eligible returning contestants, list of ineligible contestants

Tags:

#sword showdown -- all posts related to the sword showdown.

#sword showdown rematch -- tag exclusively for the second iteration of this tournament.

#not sword showdown -- any posts not related to the sword showdown.

#sword showdown polls -- all sword showdown polls.

#sword showdown propaganda -- all propaganda.

#sword showdown updates -- important non-poll posts related to the sword showdown.

#the bladesmith answers -- answered asks.

#the bladesmith speaks -- general posts.

Contestants eligible for resubmission:

Sword of the Creator (Fire Emblem: Three Houses)

Dawnfang/Duskfang (The Elder Scrolls)

Leo's Katanas (Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles)

Rose's Sword (Steven Universe)

Serenade (Dead Cells)

Blue Rose Sword (Sword Art Online)

Sword of Sanctuary (Lego Ninjago)

Myrtenaster (RWBY)

Sword of Heroes (Kung Fu Panda)

Buster Sword (Final Fantasy VII)

Sword of Night (DC Comics)

Ninja Sword (Randy Cunningham: 9th Grade Ninja)

Aatrox (League of Legends)

Wirikidor (The Misenchanted Sword)

Masamune (Final Fantasy VII)

The Blade of Ahrah (Dust: Elysian Tail)

Exor (Super Mario RPG)

Demon Blood Sword (Adventure Time)

Nightblood (Warbreaker/The Stormlight Archive)

Murasama (Metal Gear Rising)

Tessaiga (Inuyasha)

Firelink Greatsword (Dark Souls 3)

Fusion Sword (Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children)

Dragonslayer (Berserk)

Crissaegrim (Castlevania: Symphony of the Night)

Falchion (Fire Emblem)

Need (Valdemar)

Stripes I and II (Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt)

Beacon (The Adventure Zone)

The Sword (Cardcaptor Sakura)

Excalibur (Soul Eater)

Monado (Xenoblade Chronicles)

Swords not eligible for submission:

Jack/Sumarbrander (Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard)

Doomblade (Kirby)

Sword of Protection (She-Ra and the Princesses of Power)

Sasha's Heron Swords (Amphibia)

Sunsword (Dungeons and Dragons)

Caliburn (Sonic and the Black Night)

Stygius (Hades)

Ghirahim/Sword of Demise (The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword)

Riptide (Percy Jackson)

Sword of Light (Dragon Quest)

Aegislash (Pokemon)

Sword of Fire (Lego Ninjago)

Lucky Seven (Xenoblade Chronicles 3)

Zangetsu (Bleach)

Galaxia (Kirby)

Pure Nail (Hollow Knight)

Excalibur (Arthurian legends)

E-Ming (Tian Guan Ci Fu/Heaven's Official Blessing)

Holy Moonlight Sword (Bloodborne)

Sword of Inigo Montoya (The Princess Bride)

Grass Sword (Adventure Time)

The Transistor (Transistor)

Diamond Sword (Minecraft)

Fierce Deity Sword (Majora's Mask)

Sting (Lord of the Rings)

Sword of Dios (Revolutionary Girl Utena)

Darksaber (Star Wars)

Brisingr (The Inheritance Cycle)

Master Sword (The Legend of Zelda)

Glamdring (Lord of the Rings)

Eyelander (Team Fortress 2)

Mortal Blade (Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice)

[spacedykez]

m0thmenace --> foxbride-sunlight --> lovequeerloki ₓ

❤️ i go by multiple names. my favorite right now is zariel. ❤️ you can find my pronouns here. i use mainly he/it, if you're unsure. ❤️ i am very queer. i am genderfluid and very genderqueer. i identify as bigender, agender, transmasc, and xenogender at various times. im also aroace but girls pretty and fictional characters hot. in other words Its Complicated. gatekeeping is bad i love all queer people here. contradictory labels rock. mspec lesbians rock. he/him lesbians rule (hi!!). if youre gonna be a bitch about any of that then Get Out ❤️ i am in a qpr with my wonderful girlfriend who you can find @felicityphoenix5. i will mention xem frequently. ❤️ i am a therian! grey fox, otter & moth kin. also crow and dragon kith! i don't mind being called human, but i do tend to call myself a creature, critter, or cryptid instead.

i'm mainly a variety blog and post about anything and everything i want to! my interests and the things you will see most on this blog are:

aesthetics corvidcore, goblincore, forestcore, animals, nature photography

minecraft mineblr, hermitcraft, empires smp, traffic life, origins smp, new life smp

musical theater team starkid, tin can bros, shipwrecked comedy, six the musical, epic the musical, addams family, a wide variety of other musicals

video games legend of zelda, diablo, wow, bg3, more minecraft

animation trigun stampede, lego monkie kid, nimona, rottmnt, arcane, httyd, toh, tts but like. Just Varian.

music the oh hellos, thefatrat, owl city, ajr, the crane wives, the forgetmenauts, the mechanisms, hozier, the score, oh the larceny, neoni, fall out boy, set it off, musical/movie soundtracks

tolkien lord of the rings (both book and movies), the silmarillion and related works, and the hobbit (both book and movies)

ocs mainly the fablewilds and assorted characters, but minecraft ocs as well

GOOD OMENS <333333

and a variety of assorted other things, including greek mythology, roleplays with my friends, queerness, space, hopepunk, and misc tumblr things.

i don't have a ton of sideblogs, and the ones i do have are likely to be inconsistent with posting, but i do have a few!

@lgbtsea sideblog for saving genders, pronouns, and names that i like @foxofgondolin tolkien sideblog

i'm also a mod on @qprsmackdown and @branzy-but-everywhere!

🩸i am not a system, but i have support all types of systems. 🩸i am very against censorship, exclusionism of all kinds, and bigotry of all kinds. 🩸i try not to post frequently about discourse. please do not send me asks about it (unless it's in response to something i've posted) 🩸i block nsfw blogs and blank blogs. please be aware i am a minor. do not send me nsfw content. 🩸discourse & politics heavy blogs are welcome to follow me, but be aware i probably won't follow you back.

terfs fuck off ✧ was the night endless ✧ vampires ✧ demon ✧ hopepunk ✧ special interest is lotr ✧ special interest is black holes ✧ i desire him ✧ felt in love ✧ bat dividers

[science-lings]

Magic in BOTW: A Study of Elemental Weapons

Breath of the Wild is kind of vague when it comes to magic compared to other Zelda games. There’s no magic bar or characters that are mentioned to specialize in it, (aside from the dragons and maybe the champions). In fact, the magic that tends to be used the most seems to be from the Yiga. Sure, great fairy's and forest spirits like the koroks and blupees kind of have their own thing but I’m focusing on Hyrulians today. 

Rods:

Though mostly used by Wizzrobes, according to their descriptions, the monsters did not create them. Fire/ Meteor Rods are described as being ‘crafted by an ancient magician’, Ice/ Blizzard Rods are ‘crafted from refined ice found at the summit of Hebra Peak’, and Lightning/ Thunderstorm Rods have a ‘gem [that] contains electricity from the Hyrule Hills’. 

Hebra Peak is made up of special unclimbable ice that can also be found in the cavern that entombs the hebra great skeleton, this could be the refined ice that the ice rods are powered by. While ‘Hyrule Hills’ aren’t a specific place in the game, maybe that’s what Farosh Hills were called, as they’re also the hills that surround Lake Hylia which has several other similar names. (Lake Hylia, Hylia Island, Bridge of Hylia, Hylia River) Perhaps before Farosh showed up, the eastern hills had a similar name, But Hylia Hills sounded like a dirty joke so it was changed to Hyrule Hills. 

Now, what about an ancient magician? One that’s only associated with fire magic... My immediate thoughts would be Twinrova or a magically inclined Goron (which is more likely but we’ll get to that a little later), in any case, their name has been long forgotten but who’s to say we haven’t met them before? 

Also there’s definitely an aspect with using elemental powered gemstones for both the rods and the weapons. Each of their designs feature it at the end of their hilts and it just makes sense for the gemstones to either assist in the generation of elemental magic or the regulation thereof. 

Flame Weapons: 

Descriptions of the flame weapons describe that they were made in the fires/ lava/ magma of death mountain. This makes sense, this is not a new concept, I mean its the whole plot to the lord of the rings. but what really is interesting is when we get to the description of the great flameblade. 

‘by Goron smiths in an ancient age’. Now that’s Lore! So there’s magic gorons. I’m thinking this is in the ten thousand years before botw/ golden age of Hyrule unless we can attribute this to existing characters. Maybe Darunia was really into making fire weapons or something. He was the Sage of Fire, that had to count for something. 

Ice Weapons: 

Like the Ice Rods, they were made with the ancient ice from the hebra mountains, though in the great flameblade version it ‘was forged by smelting ore found in the Hebra Mountains’ permafrost’ so that’s a thing. Hebra is mostly inhabited by Rito, who aren’t known to be very magically inclined, but there are also some Hylians. The area is generally pretty desolite with not a lot of evidence of civilization so it’s hard to tell who could’ve been behind the magic in that area. There’s the Zonai labyrinth and the entrance to the ice cavern looked vaguely Zonai or ancient Hylian in origin (like the ruins around the springs and the forgotten temple and Lanayru Promenade, like sksw era ruins)

Anyway the Ice is magic, but only the Hebra ice, not like the ice around the goddess spring or the ice around the actual ice dragon, no that ice isn’t magic. The random ass ice in hebra is the special magic ice. No, I don’t get it either. 

Lightning Weapons:

Now here’s where it gets interesting. You’d expect that the magic from the electric weapons would come from the Faron region. WRONG. But that doesn’t matter. We’ll get to that.

The Hyrulean Royal family is who is behind the thunder weapons. Which is odd, the royal family isn’t generally associated with weapons or lightning. or are they? One character comes to mind when I think of both Hylian royal family and lightning (and also making weapons), and that is Skyward Sword Link. So maybe the royal family could be linked to that but it still seems weird that they are the origin of them. Perhaps they had help from the sheikah, they had to do a whole lot of stuff with electricity just for Vah Naboris. Those metal orbs do remind me of the lightning enchanted metal... 

This ball. the color is the same (but less bright) but still. Same vibes. 

Lets get back to the Hyrule Hills thing. The thunderspear description clears this one up a little. 

The lighting comes from Thundra Plateau, aka the place with the glowing balls and the eternal storm that I guess was going on for like ten thousand years, waiting for the shrine to be solved by the hero. This place is also heavily associated with the Zonai, as the ruins are the same as the ones around the spring of courage and in the dark shroud of Thyphlo.  

Arrows:

The elemental arrowheads look different than the normal elemental metals. The only context that we get for them is that they are ‘imbued with the power of [insert element here]’ and while it would make sense that the arrowheads are just the same magical metals but cut up to be smaller but I would argue against it. There is probably a finite amount of elemental arrows and weapons that can have their metal harvested to make these arrows. Most vendors of these arrows claim to ‘find’ them rather than make them, and they also only tend to sell certain types rather than the entire roster. The arrow lady in Kakariko only sells fire arrows on top of their normal basic arrows, Rito Village and Hateno sell bomb arrows, etc. Only Tarrey Town and Gerudo Town sell packs of every type of arrows. 

Anyway I’m absolutely convinced that the arrow lady in Gerudo Town is the creator of the elemental arrows. Gerudo Town is not new to enchantments, especially ones featuring gemstones, they’re also more associated with sorcery than the Rito kid who is the vendor in Tarrey Town. 

I could talk more about magic in botw (the champions powers, the magic found in nature with gemstones and plants and animals, the sheikah and yiga abilities, magic in clothing, and also minor deities featured in botw, I will talk about these things if there is any demand or if I feel the inspiration to.) So this could be a series. So please tell me if you’d be interested in that because I would love to make more random in-depth analysis’. 

[blossom-adventures]

10 characters, 10 fandoms, 10 tags

Sorry for the delay, I was at work when I was tagged by @bougainvillea-and-saltwater to do this, thank you, it’s about time I post something on here (and not just hide behind a like button) and this is actually a good opportunity to show some of the fandoms I have interest in so here we go…

1. Ulfric Stormcloak, Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Honestly… I could put a whole list of 10 of my favourite characters from Skyrim alone, but I put Ulfric, I’m currently writing an OC backstory which will end up in a relationship with him so I have him on my mind a lot at the moment 😅 (also I’m reading an amazing story about him at the moment by @thequeenofthewinter)

2. Guzma, Pokemon Sun/Moon. I don’t think I would have cared as much for this character if I hadn’t read the comics done by @elbdot also his theme music in game is incredible, I like the concept of his character being incredibly powerful despite being a bug type specialist (a notoriously weak typing)

3. Percy, Critical Role (Campaign 1 & Legend of Vox Machina). I started to watch Critical Role when it was on episode 50 of Campaign 1 and managed to catch up by their first live show, and Percy was always my favourite (with Grog a close second) Campaign 1 will always have a special place in my heart as it’s the one I always go back to when I’m feeling down. Percys natural smugness and amazing one liners just works so well, I love it

4. Loghain, Dragon Age. Ok this might be a surprise, most people go for people like Alistair, Anders etc. But my favourite character is Loghain, why? The Novel wrote by David Gaider, “The Stolen Throne” which focuses on the friendship between Loghain, Maric and Rowan during the Orlesian Occupation of Ferelden (sorry if you have no idea what that meant 😅) it’s an amazing book that I read a least once a year

5. Krasus (Korialstrasz), World of Warcraft. Ok, little confession… I’ve never played WoW, but I’ve read a lot of the books and whenever Krasus turns up in one of the novels I can’t help but smile, I’m a massive fan of the “War of the Ancients” Trilogy by Richard A. Knaak (I’d highly recommend them if you’ve not read them, I’ve read them twice since I got them in 2020)

6. Thorin, The Hobbit. I watched the first film of The Hobbit and instantly had Thorin as my favourite character, in the time between the release of the first and second films I read the book (having never read it before) and I won’t lie, I cried at the end, never cried at a book before then (have since… several times) Richard Armitage did such a good job as Thorin

7. Aragorn, Lord of the Rings. I’m that person who will remind you that Viggo broke his toe in that one scene 😆 I tried reading the books but I didn’t even get as far as Moria, but I adore the films and it’s soundtrack (my favourite used to be Legolas, but as I’ve got older it’s shifted to Aragorn) Viggo was perfect for the role

8. Link, Legend of Zelda. I know this is a little vague so I’ll narrow it down, I’ve played “Twilight Princess” & “Breath of the Wild” and I have started several others, I think it’s just the fact that I really enjoy the games so I’ve naturally got the PC as my favourite character

9. Obi-Wan, Star Wars. “Hello there” Finally a Sci-fi character 🤔😆 I grew up watching the original trilogy so Alec Guinness was always Obi Wan…. Then the prequel trilogy came out and Ewan McGregor was amazing, he played the part so well and he is BY FAR my favourite Star Wars character of all time, adding even more with his original series on Disney+ I quote Obi-Wan a lot too, and me and my brother get carried away and end up reciting most of his dialogue for fun. It’s one of the few Sci-fi things I watch (along with Star Trek) and I always watch them at least once a year

10. Mr Darcy, Pride and Prejudice. I never thought I’d say that one of my favourite characters would be from a Period Drama, I never used to like them, then my mum read the book and asked if we could watch it one day, that was the end of 2020, we seem to watch it once a month now 😆, Darcy is brilliant in the film (I haven’t seen the TV series) and played by a great actor (Matthew Macfadyen) the moment he walks through the fog, when the music picks up 💕🥰💕 (if you know, you know)

Honourable Mention: Lupin, Harry Potter. I love this character in both book and film and I was torn between him a Mr Darcy to put in my top 10

I don’t know enough people to tag 10 so I will invite people who see this to do one themselves as well as the previously tagged @thequeenofthewinter and @elbdot

[gocrazygostupidtheories]

AH AH OW OW OW

I’ve been trying to look into sources of story inspiration for Amphibia because I am not smart enough to predict what will happen, and I think I’ve found a few connections or patterns that can help predict certain story beats and character mysteries based the sources Matt Braly has said to us (excluding his personal life events for obvious reasons), or just sources for people who know these topics better than I do.

For the actual plot itself, he’s said his general love of fantasy has, but the more specific sources include:

The Dark Crystal (I’m assuming just the first film.)

Chrono Trigger (going for the first game too because I am lazy.)

Magic Knight Rayearth (originally a manga, so I’m trusting the source material.)

Studio Ghibli films directed by Hayao Miyazaki

The Legend of Zelda (again, very general and I think he’s referring to the first game?)

Lord of the Rings (I don’t know if he means the film trilogy or the books so I’ve tried to mash together both.)

Batman: The Animated Series

Gargoyles (Disney)

I honestly cannot be bothered to do the lower four and I will probably update it once I get around to it. If anybody has any more, please tell me. It should be noted that I’m not an expert, and I didn’t even know some of these existed, so I may miss a few things or get something wrong. If that’s the case, please tell me! I’m basically going to go through these one by one, and then do an overall summary for both groups of things that can be seen as inspiration in Amphibia so far, and stuff I find slightly alluding with mini-theories mixed in. So, whoopee. It’s a long, long post. It is important to remember not every event or bit of information I’m listing will absolutely happen in Amphibia, but I am finding similarities between other inspirations or things that may match up with the character.

THE DARK CRYSTAL

The Dark Crystal’s plot is that said a shard of the Crystal of Truth was shattered, and that brought around two races: the Skeksis, and the Mystics. Jen, a Gelfling, has to restore the shard to the Crystal to save Thra, the planet this is set on. Already we have mentions of crystals, fantasy and other-wordly planets.

The designs and set are very mediaeval-fantasy, specifically English mediaeval-fantasy. Creatures are often enlarged and over exaggerated animals, the Gelfling are almost fae-like and the Skeksis being disturbing fusions of various creatures, part reptile (alligators do exist in Amphibia, seen in Scavenger Hunt as an example), part predatory bird (herons and many, many more) and part dragon. Bugs do appear quite a lot, often oversized ones. Surprisingly, there are no real-life amphibians to my knowledge. There’s also English inspired buildings in Amphibia, such as the Tudor mushroom-cottages in Wartwood and many of them having English accents. 

Though it’s a movie meant for kids, and is rated PG, it’s surprisingly dark? Like, I can’t speak for people who grew up with it but most have said how they were terrified of it when they were younger. One of the directors, Jim Henson, said his main intention was to bring back the darkness of Grimm’s fairy tales and it was unhealthy for kids not to be afraid (bonus detail, he produced The Muppet Show, which has been referenced in Amphibia through Kermit as a special guest). It in includes, but is not limited to: genocide, war, the end of the world, climate change but make it mystical, body horror, way too much murder, animal abuse, death, totalitarianism, emotional ambiguity, harmony and the balance of power and immortality. I think we can all guess where Matt took inspiration for certain events happening so far, or what we can see happening soon, especially with the “immortality” part if he does include such a topic. 

Oh, and many of the other characters of varying relevancy we’ve grown to love die. And the main character’s love interest does get stabbed in the end and temporarily dies as a sacrifice for a ritual. And the main character, for a while, just blankly stares and cries in shock holding her dead body. But, do not fret, she does get revived and the two kiss as the land is restored. Go wild, shippers, and good luck Plantar and Grime fans.

The Crystal itself is almost like the heart of Thra, and is linked to the wildlife and its well being. It is linked with all living things and its energy reverberates all around Thra. The Crystal is actually sentient, and can communicate verbally on rare occasions through projections and images. It nourished itself through the light of three stars (we’ll get to that later), and while nourishing would release an intense beam of light that had healing properties on direct exposure. However, it was shattered in an attempt to cleanse evil from a groups’ souls when somebody gave into their evil nature. The crystal, in a daily ritual, prolongs peoples’ lives and can suck the essence out of living beings, turning them into slaves. It’s also purple. I’ve seen, and do enjoy, the questions as to why purple is such a prevalent colour in Amphibia, so here is my poor contribution: a lot of these are actually seen in Amphibia. The entire episode of Anne Hunter (it does sound silly, but then again, Matt has said some of the most important scenes aren’t the most plot relevant episodes)? The projection of Sprig? The hunting dance? Also, the more obvious examples of the bursts of energy being released when a gem is recharged in a temple, and the fact the box is considered to be so dangerous. My guess is that a possible fourth gem is missing or lost, either hiding somewhere in the box or in Amphibia. I would say the purple is just an Anne thing, but the fact it is so prevalent throughout the series makes me think otherwise.

A trio of some kind! The Three Suns/Brothers (Greater, Rose and Dying Sun) are a trio of stars Thra, orbits. Whenever all three of them fully align (people have said it looks like an eyeball, and with no shame that I will update eventually) which is a once in almost a thousand years event, it forms an intense beam to the crystal. The Three Brothers have their own folklore, where they all compete to win the hand of the daughter of the moon and return to battle again in an alignment. I don’t really think I need to explain this one. There are also Three Moons known as Three Sisters, but they aren’t nearly as significant or relevant to the original movie. 

The Skeksis remind me of Valeriana for some reason? Maybe it’s just a “thing with a sharp beak in black cloak”, but there could be some connections. Originally, a fallen group of UrSkeks (tall, luminescent, psychic and from the furthest reaches of the Uni-Verse possible, basically like angels) were banished to Thra, and attempted to separate their good and evil selves through the crystal, but accidentally created two races from that division. The Skeksis were basically born pissed and had a huge fear of mortality and used the ritual to prolong their lives. They believed themselves to be the Lords of the Crystal and kept it in their very delightful silly little castle and hid themselves in black cloaks. When the crystal was restored, they transformed back into UrSkeks, who wore white cloaks. Now, I don’t think Valeriana’s evil or that afraid of mortality, but it could link somehow? Sadly, I’m not smart enough to think of why. 

The Gelfling Clans, seven of them, are matriarchies, and women are pretty important and powerful people in the story. Matt has stated he was more interested in having a female main character for the story from some Studio Ghibli Films, so we’ll add this one to the “respects women” in this list. 

CHRONO TRIGGER

In a fictional alternate universe to Earth, the lead characters travel through time to explore and adventure in different eras of time. It could also be considered an isekai, considering how different these time periods are, from the prehistoric wilds to the future cyber dystopia. 

The isn’t a trio but instead a main cast of six: Crono, the silent yet fearless katana-wielding protagonist, Marle, the runaway princess, Lucca, Crono’s childhood friend and a genius inventor, Robo, a friendly and curious robot from the future designed to assist humans despite his robotic counterparts slaughtering them (remind you of any characters?), Ayla, a prehistoric village chief with unmatched raw strength and Frog, a former squire cursed to be in an amphibian form. There is an optional seventh character named Magus who’s a powerful sorcerer. Though, you can see a few similarities with some of them and characters in Amphibia. Marle is a blonde-haired, sheltered but vivacious and strong-willed girl who hates royal life and escaped into the Millenial Fair (a fair with all kinds of games and inventions) where she met Crono. Ever since her mother passed from illness, her relationship with her father has been broken, and you can fix it in the game as they finally recollect. She’s a healer, but her magical element is ice, and has techs (gadgets) that deliver strong water damage, but has a weakness to fire damage. Or, possibly the chief Ayla, another blonde haired, decisively confident and fiercely courageous woman who is physically the strongest in the game, and though she cannot use magic, uses her physical prowess and her hands. Another similarity is with Lucca, the inventor. She is classified as intelligent, inquisitive and shrewd who deals with problems head on. Raised in an environment where inventions were always present, she sometimes gets annoyed at her father for neglecting her for his creations, and witnessed her go through a horrible accident that left her unable to walk. Though she is physically weak and slow, she is a long-range combatant who uses techs that deal mass amounts of fire damage (her magical element), and occasionally has her father make new techs and special equipment for her. 

Early on in the game, we find out the future is desolate as a creature called Lavos who has been dwelling under the Earth, has awoken. Also known as the Destroyer of all Life, Lavos is an alien that came to Earth to drain its energy, produce genetically enhanced spawn, and continue the cycle. He is summoned by Queen Zeal, a secondary antagonist who is fixated on Lavos in a desperate attempt to become immortal and will inevitably destroy the world unless he is stopped. He has three forms: the outer shell, black with orange highlights, a humanoid form wearing armour that does remind me of Darcy, and the Lavos Core, a creepy scuba-diver looking guy. The game has multiple endings, from Lavos destroying all of humanity to Crono dying while defeating Lavos and nearly all of the characters moving on. Though, that’s only if you forget to re-acquire him. Then it’s happy. 

MAGIC KNIGHT RAYEARTH

Three 13-14 year olds on a trip to Tokyo Tower are summoned to the world of Cephiro as the Magical Knights to save Princess Emeraude, the pillar keeping the world in balance, from the malicious Zagato. To do so, they have to revive their respective Rune-God they get their power from, and avoid Zagato’s minions while retrieving rare items. Except for the Princess Part, it seems like a pretty solid, though varied, inspiration from the plot or prophecy of Amphibia.

Though the girls are complete strangers except for a single interaction, they do become incredibly attached quickly. With their red, green and blue colour scheme (them?), each girl embodies the element they represent.

Hikaru, the protagonist, is red and represents fire: tomboyish, honest, brave, mature despite her innocence and incredibly strong despite being mistaken for a ten year old due to her height and attitude due to her kendo training she attends as her family run a dojo. She possesses the strongest heart out of the three and is the most enthusiastic about being a Magical Knight. It also helps that she's the strongest out of the three, shown with swords, bows and arrows and magic. 

Umi is blue and represents water: despite her beauty and elegance, she is incredibly doubtful, over-protective and arrogant. Because of her upbringing as an only rich child with doting parents, despite her seeming calm and collected, she is really spoiled with a short temper, and because she speaks her mind, comes across as selfish. However, she does mean well, and cares alot about her friends to the point of over-protecting the two and worrying endlessly about them. She denies all the good or caring things she does by other people and is completely clueless about love and relationships, which is unfortunate as her biggest fear is being left alone. In battle, she is calm and poised while remaining loyal and proud, wielding a fencing sword and focusing on speed and effectiveness. The Rune-God (basically like helpers for the Magical Knights that form a huge fuck-you mecha) she had to revive, Selece, involved her choosing her friends or embracing the ritual to gain more power, to which angrily she chose the former, which was the right answer, and slapping him in the process. 

Fuu is green and represents wind: despite always smiling and her polite attitude, is a strategist. She’s blunt, accurate and insanely logical. She’s quieter and more reserved than the other two, but she constantly stays calm and tries to think her way through a situation. She’s incredibly good at archery, and uses a bow and arrow before switching to a heavy sword only she can wield later on, focusing on defence and spells, and has an affinity for video games, mathematics and computer programming. She has an older sister who she loves and adores, but her parents are never mentioned. Unlike the other two, she probably has the best knowledge about love and romance, and her relationship with a guy is not questioned and is more obviously implied. 

Though the colours are switched around, and having “brains, brawn and heart” is the base for nearly all trios, we can see some comparisons here, and if they are inspired and fully taken from it, some slight implications. We came to the conclusion that Marcy had siblings, so I feel like she’d have an older sister, and since Sasha’s family owns a pool and with her behaviour, we can assume she’s pretty pampered too. There’s a cool theory I reblogged by @fermented-writers-block about their theory that Sasha is related to water contrasting with Anne’s fire motif, and hopefully this is another addition to that theory-pile. And, if they are linked to three elements, we can assume Marcy is linked to air (she has been associated with butterflies, so maybe that could also mean something?). 

Despite the seemingly more trope-y aspects on the surface, there’s just one slight plot twist near the end. They end up killing Zagato and go on to see the princess. However, it is then revealed to us she’s not doing great. The knowledge told to them from the start is actually a farce, and the reason why the world is in dismay is because Princess Emeraude was distracted from her duties because she fell in love with Zagato. As the pillar, she had to spend her entire life devoting herself to prayer in keeping the balance, but because of Zagato, began to think about more things than just Cephiro. The only way for her to stop being the pillar was for somebody else to take her place when she was dead, so she decided to summon the knights as the only people who could kill her. Zagato, who was also in love with her, abducted her and imprisoned her in hopes that she couldn’t summon them. When she did, he decided to protect her so they couldn’t come and kill her, sending out minions in hopes they’d kill them. So, basically, the real reason why the knights were originally summoned was to kill the person who sent them here, that quickly became to kill two people for being inlove under the guise of kidnapping and dark magic and have just murdered her lover trying to protect her from the people she summoned. And she is pissed. She turns into a darker form and beings to fight them in grief and rage, and realising they have no choice after being on the defence, murder her too as they cry. The whole theme of “love solves everything”, a common theme in magical girl stories and one that has been demonstrated in this one, gets two people killed because that’s what they embody. Their love was seen as selfish and evil, and they have just killed two people who would have been the types they would have been sworn to save like in all those other fights. It’s safe to say after they return back home, the girls are traumatised and cope in their own ways, from being silent and reserved (Hikaru, which we’ve seen Anne do from the mentions of Toad Tower and alot after the events of True Colours) to blanking out (Umi, remember Sasha zoning out upon entering the Plantar’s home?) to bottling up feelings of grief (Fuu, and do I even need to expain this one), and that this has changed them significantly. Though the damage has been done, later on, Hikaru is chosen as the next pillar and ends up destroying the corrupt system that prevents any more damage being done, and choosing to uphold those values of love. Princess Emeraude did not wish just to end her own life, but also the cycle that would harm others too. 

This is just so, so much, but hopefully you get the gist. Since Andrias is all about undoing the prophecy, I can’t say for certain that undoing or ending it is necessarily good, but I don’t think it’s bad either. Since this show does live it’s moral ambiguity with certain topics and open perspectives about most things (thankfully child murder isn’t one of them), and with the limited information we have about the box and the Core, I can’t say for sure which route it’s going to go. All I can say is that it’s going to get messy. Though it does sound a bit doom-and-gloom, it still does remain a typical fun, run-of-the-mill manga with magical girls and mechas, so don’t worry too much, except for the more depressing bits. 

It’s also serves as a feminist criticism of the shoujo drama, and alot of anime and manga in general: about how purity and innocence are attributed with naive young girls, and how adult, independent and strong women serve as villainous forces. It shows the slight horror of the situation as Hikaru says in the last words of the manga, “It can’t end like this”. Unfortunately, it did. They have been stripped of their innocence as they’ve just murdered two people and their former innocence is gone as they’ve arrived back in their world. People, especially women, are nearly always punished for being in love or gaining their own sense of identity outside of an oppressive system in Magic Girl Rayearth. Princess Emeraude having her own sense of agency and desires instead of constantly caring for the people is seen as a bad thing, and once she does mourn over her lover, turns from basically the embodiment of “young, pure shoujo girl” to “adult, corrupted villainous woman”. Women falling in love, especially adult women, are corrupted and renounce their “innocence” because of their political power and maturity. Women are expected to physically and mentally be “girls'', and that’s that. And honestly, I give so much kudos for Matt Braly, along with other creators, going against that (ironically while writing this, it reminded me of a response from him I cannot find for the life of me where he stated the complaints of Anne’s character he got from) and having such wonderful female characters. 

STUDIO GHIBLI FILMS (DIRECTED BY HAYAO MIYAZAKI)

Films include: Spirited Away, Kiki’s Delivery Service, Nausicaä: Valley of the Wind.

I grew up with some of these myself, and let me tell you from first hand experience that some of these are terrifying for children. I’m very glad the next generation of kids, and some adults and teenagers looking back, are experiencing the same thing with our favourite 13 year olds breaking down in tears as they are injured and possessed. On the other hand, some of these are some of the most comforting and magical things to watch, no matter what age you are. These films can go from light hearted comedies and comforts to tear-jerkers real quickly. 

But, no matter the film, there are usually more sensitive topics being discussed such as growing up, fear, change, family and especially the devastating effects of war and industrialism. Miyazaki often uses whimsy to explore these themes but still remains in touch with the core message, which I feel Matt Braly does do. He has described Amphibia’s core message to be about “past friendships and changing yourself for the better”, but also includes maturity, tolerance, the devastation of war and industrialism, the dangers of escapism, toxic friendships, culture, the importance of role models and parents, trust, death, denial and power which can be quite a lot to handle, especially for its structure. It explains it and demonstrates it in a way kids can understand, but also in a way that doesn’t feel patronising to older audiences. 

From a quick browse at interviews, Twitter and Reddit, he has stated the protagonists from the specific movies Spirited Away, Kiki’s Delivery Service, and though technically not a Ghibli film, Nausicaa: Valley of the Wind inspired him. But, I’m also including Princess Mononoke as it was apparently the movie that got him into animation. I will discuss things I noticed in the other films too, but I feel like these ones are the most prevalent in inspiration. 

Spirited Away could technically count as an isekai. It follows a ten year old in the world of Kami, working in a witch’s bathhouse in order to free herself and her transformed parents back into the human realm. It’s the most popular film the company and he has produced and is held in high regard virtually everywhere, and for very good reason.

Spirited Away terrified me as a kid. And I mean yelling at the TV, covering my ears and eyes, forcibly turning it off and nightmares. One of my gripes is having written children just. Not be like children and act more like sunshine. And I think that Chihiro as the protagonist is just so well done, especially for a child audience. Chihiro’s not exactly a ray of sunshine: she’s stubborn, scared of nearly everything but with no survival instinct in her and starts the movie sulking and unfairly whining. But, she’s a ten year old, and that’s how ten year olds think and act. They’re not exactly blooming flowers, they’re ten year olds. And, in my opinion, by having her flaws well-established but also understandable to a less or more mature audience (either from relating easily to knowledge of the time), it is so much better seeing her mature, learn, grow and get what she wants versus a stagnant character who’s happy all the time except for maybe one dramatic scene. I’m glad Matt Braly embraced making his main character, and other characters, more inherently flawed and not just constant beams of sunshine (slight bias, but I just prefer my dynamics like that) that makes it all the more better seeing them flourish and upsetting seeing them suffer. 

The isekai in this isn’t wished for or exactly good, either. For Chihiro, she’s constantly having to work while being picked on by her colleagues for being a human and smelling like one, being given the worst jobs and guests to handle and also being threatened to be turned into livestock and eaten. Chihiro is stuck in this situation because of her parents’ greed and over consumption, and she even Haku, someone from the Kami world, tells her to run as soon as she can for her own protection. The world is dangerous and foreign to her, without the comfort of her parents or family to help her and instead relying on her own abilities, so it’s no wonder she hates it. Because of her hard work and attitude compared to the constant greed of the others, she gains the respect and admiration of her colleagues (a few in particular) against Yubaba (or Natsuki), the witch. And because of her allies she can get through certain obstacles, such as almost forgetting her original identity, escaping other spirits or helping a customer fully get clean. She’s tough and brave, but she’s also incredibly vulnerable, breaking down when she fully processes the situation she’s in and acting in childlike ways. We can see similar parallels in Anne. She is dropped into Amphibia unexpectedly and spends her first few days stranded in the wilderness where everything wants to eat her, and then has to warm up to villagers who refer to her as a monster and a beast. Both characters learn how to adapt and overcome their situations with the help of allies and family they make along the way, and end up changing themselves for the better.

Unlike the devastating film that is Spirited Away, on the surface, Kiki’s Delivery Service doesn’t seem like much of a heartthrob. It’s a story about a 13 year old trainee witch who leaves her home for the first time to start her training in a big city. It seems like a typical coming of age story, but it’s just executed so well. Kiki, the main character, was a source of inspiration for Anne’s character. While it may not seem likely comparing the two on paper, both characters go through the very, very complicated process of adolescence and dealing with sudden maturity and independence from their family. In Anne’s case, however, it is forced independence, but both characters manage to make their way in this new and strange place through befriending people and making their connections (both literally find their new homes by helping their found families, in Anne’s case helping Sprig escape and befriending him and in Kiki’s case helping the locals and gaining their respect). Both characters become the local oddity of their respective homes, human or witch. But, because of their new setting, they find themselves growing or realising certain things about themselves, sadly being insecurities. Kiki is a loving and energetic but aloof girl that doesn’t know how to interact with the city kids her age, who cannot afford nice shoes or has a specific special talent like other witches, and because of the constant stress of her delivery job from various factors, she grows physically and mentally exhausted, or burnout. Her magic starts fading as she loses faith in herself and she loathes associations with the things she once loved: she cannot fly, and she cannot talk to her cat, Jiji. At the end of the film, while she gets the ability to fly again, she can no longer talk to her cat, but she is content and happy with herself. The film shows her progression and departure from immaturity and shows the loneliness and terror of maturity and growing up, but also shows how it has changed her for the better, and not the worse. In Anne’s case though? We’ll have to see. She has significantly improved, and has shown being significantly more mature and independent, but she’s also gotten a lot worse and probably hasn’t reached her lowest point, which is slightly terrifying. In Anne Sterminator, we’ve seen her and her parents, specifically her mother, struggle with the topic of her maturity too, which though addressed in the episode (communication good), may be a bit of a bigger problem than we think, considering her change in attitude towards the Plantars over the course of Season 3A.

Nausicaä was actually one I hadn’t really heard of until recently, but I heavily recommend you do. It’s really, really good. It is about a princess of a valley in a post-apocalypse world where poisonous spores grow into jungles with strange bug-like creatures. It heavily digs into themes like anti-war/violence and environmentalism, and the designs are just beautiful.

Miyazaki has stated that Nausicaä “is not a protagonist who defeats an opponent, but one who understands, or accepts. She is someone who lives in a different dimension”. Nausicaä, despite being a brave and skilled fighter, hates fighting and is incredibly humane and empathetic towards all kinds of life. She’s incredibly intelligent and skilled, especially for a sixteen year old princess, studying the Sea of Corruption (that is ironically the spore jungle) and its inhabitants, almost knowing how to communicate with them and also being an amazing windrider. Nausicaä is a fusion between the princess of the Odyssey with the same name, and a folk hero “The Princess Who Loved Insects”. Miyazaki said she is “governed by some kind of animism”, as she is, unknowingly, part of a prophecy as the hero “clothed in a blue robe, descending upon a field” (her main colour is also blue, by the way, and descending? Like how we’ve seen Anne levitate and with all the star references?). I have not read the manga, so I cannot confirm this, but she also apparently has psychic abilities, such as telepathy. 

TL;DR 

Anne’s Calamity powers could end up really good, really bad or both, but it could be “good power, bad context”. Marcy may have an older sister she idolises, and sadly, the possibility of neglectful parents and siblings, while Sasha (though we could all tell already) is rich and spoilt, she has a broken family from a single incident, probably the divorce, or something that could have led towards it and has something going on with her dad. Sasha, contrasting to Anne’s fire-inspired abilities, may have water-based ones if she ever were to access her Calamity powers. Marcy’s abilities are more uncertain, but air-related abilities could be likely. The prophecy is sketchy and possibly corrupt as Hell, and we are in for some world-breaking (literally) shenanigans. The Core may have been created in a desperate attempt to remain immortal. I’m begging that my silly theory on “the invasion with Darcy will bring an eclipse” will be right. The shippers will maybe have a ship become canon, but at the cost of an almost death, or even an actual death. Plantar fans and Grime fans are nearly definitely fucked as there is a high chance of death. The real villain is the strive for power, more obviously with Andrias, and if the Night is different from the Core, more literally the embodiment of power. For the constant purple, there may be a fourth purple gem which could be what that frog in the mural is holding in the opening that could be the sort of power-source or heart of Amphibia that maybe got put in the box or is hidden somewhere in Amphibia. 

[veethewriter]

Hello darling! This is @hinox-headcanons btw, this is my main blog. I'm working on your Botw Matchup right now, I really hope you like your results. Here's a description for my botw matchup, please!

✨ Autistic Girl who would like a male ship. Also Chronically Ill and Disabled, so I need to take a lot of naps and I have quite a few health issues. I stim by pacing in circles too, especially when thinking or daydreaming

✨ Very short, under 5’, with an androgynous build. I have a very long, messy mane of brown hair, glasses and lots of moles. I either wear my hair loose, or in a low messy bun. I’m also working to build muscle at the moment.

✨ In case this means anything, I’m an INFJ, 4w5 and Aquarius. I’m idealistic, creative, mysterious, artistic, compassionate, highly empathetic, intellectual, protective, and deeply existentialist and both a thinking and feeling type. However I can be overly sensitive, stubborn, aloof, and a little hot-tempered. I’ve also been told that I’m very eloquent and am really good at metaphors and explaining things.

✨ I think very deeply about things, and am simultaneously very smart and incredibly stupid. High wisdom / Low intelligence, I suppose, since I’m “wise beyond my years” but can lack common sense

✨ My loved ones always say that I know a little something about basically everything. My Special Interests include Herbal Medicine, Lord of the Rings, Dungeons & Dragons, Witchcraft, Superstitions, Horseback Archery, Animation and Legend of Zelda. I’m a random fact machine, basically

✨ I also do a LOT of Writing, Archery, Baking, Leatherworking, Metalsmithing, Candle-making, Sewing and other activities. My ideal career and aesthetic is basically a renaissance fair. I also work out a lot with my punching bag and taking walks.

✨ I'm actually doing some apprenticeships for Sewing and Leatherworking right now, and I'm a published author who also does writing commissions. I am VERY busy most of the time

✨ Love Language is Physical Touch and Gift Giving. I always hold somebody’s hand or arm when I’m nervous, and I LOVE cuddling.

✨Nothing turns me off more than possessiveness, but I also need a partner who will protect and support me. I’m pretty small, so I get nervous about defending myself

✨ I can get stuck in my head too much and overthink, so I need a partner who can pull me out of my funk and get me started on an activity or something. Pretty much all my coping mechanisms are distraction techniques to keep me from thinking too much

✨ I’m not afraid to advocate for myself and can be really blunt sometimes, but because I’m used to being bullied or ignored, even small acts of kindness stick out to me. I have a habit of never forgetting people, no matter how simple the interaction. Little things go a very long way for me.

Thank you so much hun, I can't wait to see my results! Your matchup will be done shortly, love

I know currently I said I am not writing matchups however this author wrote one for me and I promised them would write one back so here you go. For botw I ship you with Sidon!!

Sidon may be a prince but he'll always be there to help you when you need it and if he can't be there, he'll leave on of his guards with you just incase he wants to make sure you feel safe at all times.

Sidon may accidentally act possessive but if you tell him he is he'll fix it right away most of the time he doesn't even mean to do it.

Sidon knows sometimes you get stuck in your thoughts so in random spots around the castle he'll leave some things you like to do so you won't get stuck in them but if you do it around him, he'll softly get your attention by kissing your cheek.

Sidon is always kind to you and tends to buy you small gifts a lot, he also loves to give you affection whether it be holding you while walking a crossed zora's domain or kissing you softly.

Whenever your gone for your apprenticeships Sidon will write letters to you some including small gifts. He'll spend a lot of time with you when you return since you were gone for a while.

Sidon is surprised at all the things you can do and even ask if you could teach him some of them. (Of course anything the doesn't require electricity because that hurts zora's.)

Sidon loves how smart you are and loves to hear all the facts you can tell him about certain things in return he'll give you facts about things he knows.

When ever you get mad a Sidon, he'll give you time to cool down and than calmly talk it out with you but if he knows its his fault he apologize.

[oceansmelodysblog]

Until my last breath

A botw Zelink reversed roles AU story

Chapter One - part One

[Notes at the end of the chapter]

As always, Link wakes up with the first rays of the sun, when the night still hangs mighty over the sky. When he jumped out of his bed in his sapphire blue night suit, he looked out of the wide-open window and searched for the sun. The white light broke a line at the end of the horizon and let the peak of the mountains look dangerous and scary. As Link walks to the closet and pulls out his black tunic and his Hylian trousers, the first servant knocks at the door and pleads for entrance.

“You may come inside.” Without showing any emotions, the servant called Celessia, brought him his morning hot tea made of the mighty thistle. It increases his willpower and lets him train harder and better every morning. “Please leave it on the table mistress Celessia.”

“Yes, your royal highness.” She says in a soft voice and leaves the room quietly.

Satisfied, Link nips at the soothing warmth of the tea and plans what training session he will have to train today.

He marched along the training ground and chose a suitable target, pulled his bow from his shoulder, leaned an arrow against the string and pulled the string with his thumb. The huge ring on his thumb, bearing the royal crest, protected his thumb from flesh wounds, inflicted by the string and too long training. He took a deep breath and concentrated on the point to which he wanted to shoot.

Then, he let go of the string. The arrow whizzed through the air and struck the black centre with full force.

Still, he wasn't satisfied, it didn't challenge him much, didn't give him a thrill to shoot after a target when he wasn't under stress.

Link trained non-stop, relentless, and driven by his delusion to outdo his brothers in the Heir to the Throne selection. He jumped over obstacles and shot from the air at several targets at once but failed to land and crashed to the ground.

He refused to give up and stood back on his feet with a shaking body. He took a deep breath to concentrate, but pain from his ribs stabbed through his whole body. His breath shook with pain and he sweated nervously. 'Focus, Link!' he slapped himself inwardly and started his iron-hard parkour again.

After the hard work out, he looked for the healer down the market. He walked past hard-working people from the kitchen and was greeted warmly. He smiled back each time but had to control himself to grimace so as not to show the pain. He always admired the drive of the people who worked in Hyrule Castle and tried to be friendly to them, even when his father tried to tell him otherwise.

‘A king must always maintain his dignity and never regard anyone as his equal,' his father's words rang in his head. Link, however, disagreed.

He continued to walk the corridors and observed the goings-on, picking up conversations here and there. One of them had been able to catch a special fish yesterday, and another told of a wrestling match in which he earned three times more than in the castle. Link always found the conversations interesting because he could learn a lot from the lives of others, and it didn't make him look like a spoilt prince locked up in the huge castle.

When he finally found the exit to the marketplace, he sighed with relief. The sun had been in the sky for some time by now, dipping the lively square in a golden, welcoming light. Men and women shouted and chanted from their stalls to attract more buyers, but Link also saw castle-affiliated servants, presumably running errands for the kitchen and the royal family.

Link, glad to be reasonably undetected, continued his search for the healer. But he was no longer at his stall, as usual. He therefore asked a passer-by who was nearby if she knew where the healer was.

"Yes, the old man has retired and is training a new disciple, he is in an old hut at the end of the road, around the corner to the left."

"Have thanks, honoured lady. Have a good day." Link politely said goodbye and hurried to the healer, because he didn't know how long he could stand the pain on his ribs.

As he reached the end of the street, he noticed how quieter it was and how shabby the houses here looked. He knew he would take another look on the surroundings to speak with his youngest brother, on how to improve this area when he had more time, but now he limped straight to the open door of the hut, expecting to find the healer, or his student, but instead he found a young woman with golden long hair.

The sun shone only minimally through the dirty windows, but the few rays made her hair look like liquid gold. The girl was squatting on the floor under the table filled with all sorts of herbs and substances, making notes in a small book as she looked back and forth between her book and the herbs.

 Link leaned against the wooden door frame with his arms folded, analysing her from head to toe. Her back was turned to him; from the looks of it, she hadn't noticed him yet. Link cleared his throat, startling the young woman, and banged her head against the edge of the table. She held her head with her face contorted in pain and turned to him curiously.

"I am sorry I didn't want to scare you-" His eyes widened and his mouth was wide open as he looked into her pretty face. Neither could get out of their stare until Link cleared his throat to avoid being rude. "I'm looking for the healer, or at least his apprentice. I-"

"You have chest pains, am I right?" she interrupted him.

For a moment he stared at her, perplexed, and immediately understood. "So, you are the healer's pupil. I see. Say, would you look at my ribs, the pain takes my breath away."

"Very well, please sit on the table."

Link did as he was told and sat on the table while the young woman laid herbs and bandages ready beside him. Curious, he watched her work.

"If you will allow me, I would prefer to remove your tunic".

"It would be a great help if you could do that for me." He whispered through his pain. Sweating through his sorrow.

She looked at him with her big green eyes and smiled shyly. Quietly and carefully, she pulled up his top and got him to release his pain-free side first, then helped him out of his injured half. Gentle, soft fingertips tentatively touched his skin. He wasn't sure why his body was paying so much attention, though, because she wasn't the first woman to touch him, after all.

"What is your name, healer?" he asked, giving her a sly smile.

"My name is Zelda, my lord. Or should I say Your Royal Highness, rather?" she said, curtsying playfully. Through her lashes, she looked up at him and smiled.

Link was surprised once more at her astuteness. He smirked. "You recognised it from my ring." It was more a statement than a question, yet she nodded.

"Outside of the royal family and the archer battalion, few are permitted to wear a ring on their thumb. And only the Royal Family is permitted to wear this ring with the sacred Triforce Seal of the Deities. Judging by your sea-blue irises, you must be Prince Link, as your brothers often have ice-blue or green ones."

Link wondered why he had never met such a gifted woman, even though he knew every face in and around Hyrule Castle. While he pondered this, she crushed plants in a wooden mortar and spread the paste on the bandages.

Zelda secretly kept looking at Link's immaculately shaped face, but quickly lowered her gaze when their eyes met.

"These herbs will soften the lesions on your ribs and the bandages will support your muscles. Please be more careful with your body next time. When the body and mind are not in harmony, such injuries occur."

Link nodded and then felt the cooling paste on his body and how she carefully, with skilful hands, tied the bandage around his broad chest. He relaxed; exhaled in relief.

"I thank you for your help. But I am surprised that I have never met such a beautiful and skilled woman as you are. Is this your first time in the marketplace?"

"No, your royal highness. I have been here for some time and enjoyed training as a healer. You just hadn't noticed me until now."

"What a blind idiot I've been." Meaningfully, he stared into her green eyes.  He knew women were at his feet when he looked at them like that.

"No you're not, your royal highness. Our paths just haven't crossed yet."

"Then I would like our paths to cross more often, from now on. What would you think of getting a better education at the castle? I'd get you all the books and materials you'd need and you'd be given the title of Royal Healer."

Zelda frowned imperceptibly, generous offers usually had a catch with them; even more so when it came from a prince.

"Forgive my rudeness, but I must decline your offer. I am still not a trained master healer and I have yet to pay off my debt to the master, so I will stay here where I belong. You should now return to your palace and rest your bruises."

Zelda turned her back on him and returned her attention to her notes.

"Do you not charge a fee for treatment?" he asked, as if left out in the cold. While he knew that not everything worked his way, it felt like a punch in the gut with her.

"No, because I have to write everything down and if the Master reads that a prince has been here, he'll grumble at me for not taking all your rupees." Zelda half turned to Link and squinted over at him while the corners of her mouth twitched trying not to laugh at her master.

"Then accept this as an anonymous donation" Link reached into his leather pouch on his belt and detached it. Setting the entire pouch down on the treatment table, he picked up his tunic and left the hut before Zelda could refuse his generous donation.

Link stopped shortly and heard from a distance how Zelda snapped for air sharply and then began to cheer. He couldn't help but smiling broadly across his face. Proudly, he walked back to the marketplace.

In the open square, the wind blew icy cold over his naked and bandaged upper body. As if he were stepping out of a hammam into the open air, the icy cold awakened his senses. He was aware of how much rupees he had left behind and hoped that the oddball old man would relieve her of her debt. But knowing him, it was not the case.

As he mulled over a solution to help Zelda to move on, he smiled half-heartedly at the passer-by who greeted him with his title. He was too busy trying to find a solution.

Soon the winter solstice would fall in the kingdom, it would get freezing cold in the run-down hut and he wanted them to be warm.

 

Zelda counted the rupees the prince had left again, just to make sure she could trust her mind. Six thousand five hundred and sixty-four rupees she counted in total. It was enough to research more medicines, buy new instruments and they could still find a better, but more importantly warmer, place to stay that had a bit more space to accommodate more patients. "Almighty Goddess Hylia, I thank you for sending me this generous prince," she whispered.

"Did I just hear generous prince?"

Shocked, Zelda turned abruptly to stare at her diminutive master. She had to quickly weigh how much to reveal without Link losing face. It was too unlikely that a person of the royal family would show up.

"A man came on behalf of the royal court and delivered this purse full of rupees to me. The man did not want to reveal who the anonymous donor was at first, but I managed to find out that it was one of the princes. The servant added the message that it was time to fund Doctor Borville's talent and left without another word. That is all I know, sir."

Zelda held her breath, so tense was she. Under no circumstances could she reveal to the old man that the Prince had been here, as he would force her to ingratiate herself to the Prince to exploit him for his greedy purposes.

The old man scratched his pointed beard thoughtfully, took his chair and sat on it.

"Finally, it is about time that my knowledge is appreciated. I'm just wondering which of the princes it was. Ragnar and Link always come here when they've messed up in their training and are too proud to go to the royal healer because their father would get wind of it. It must be one of them…hmm… I wonder which one…"

Dr Borville lit the tobacco in his pipe with relish and leaned back in his chair. Zelda forced herself to smile because of the lie about his skills. She knew that her abilities had surpassed her master's and every day she felt it more and more; as if she was standing still without being able to grow. But then she smirked at the thought of Link secretly trying to escape his father's eyes.

"But don't you dare using the money to pay your debts. I'll publicly denounce you as a thief if you do," he warned her.

Zelda clawed her nails into the edge of the table she was holding onto and sighed inwardly. Of course, she wouldn’t dare to, but the old man hated young people and women and she was both, so she was incessantly subjected to his harassment.

She had to do something to be able to live independently of her father one day. A life of freedom, far away from the place where she had only bad memories. But as it goes as it is, she wondered if she was ever able to accomplish that since the old geezer barely paid her full salary.

To take her mind off things and distract her teacher, she posed curiously. "Doctor, would you kindly tell me more about the princes?"

"You silly brat, don't even know anything about the ruling family. These children these days, never learn. Anyway, let me explain to you who the royal family is:

Starting with King Selim. He is titled The Mighty and The Merciless because he mercilessly defends the sacred places of the goddesses. The present borders of Hyrule are entirely due to his iron hand. In the past, there were often wars over those sacred sites, over the Temple of Time and the Forgotten Temple. However, King Selim never gave up and risked everything to protect those places. Unfortunately, he is also merciless within his family, as he expected the same strength from his sons. That is why his sons come to me very often, as everyone in the royal house is under the king's watch. Everything is reported to the king and even injuries that the boys inflict on themselves during hard training can lead to the father's disfavour. You must know, none of them have the same mother and are therefore exposed to constant competition. To avoid brothers of the same blood killing each other to get on the throne, King Selim enforced the law that as soon as a queen gave birth to an heir to the throne, she would be sent to a province with her son. The young prince would then undergo an extensive and rigorous education until the age of 16, so that he would henceforth be allowed to live in the royal court. However, who was allowed to be crowned king was up to the king alone. In the past, the remaining brothers were executed to prevent them from plotting against the new king, which also explains why the boys have no uncles and only aunts. Selim may be a cruel man, but the loss of his brothers also demanded a lot of him, so he decided to change the old law by sending the remaining brothers back to their mothers. Princes also have the choice of establishing themselves in other fields, such as the armed forces.

If we look at the first-born Prince Ecberht; The ambitious and eccentric Ecberht, sees his brothers only as competitors for the royal throne and often gives them a hard time. However, at his young age of 20, he has a strange power to draw attention to himself and also enjoys making big speeches to fire up the crowd. He spends most of his time handling diplomatic affairs in other kingdoms and playfully twists people around his finger. You can recognise him by his different coloured eyes; one green and one blue. He has darker hair than his brothers because his mother, Queen Seaxbourgh has very dark hair and green eyes. Like all princes, he had to be taught martial arts and is consequently very muscular. He has no siblings, as he was the very first child.

Prince Link, the son of the second queen, Queen Aslaug, is a highly talented archer, horse warrior and wields any sword weapon as if it were part of himself. And yet he is only 19 years old and already surpasses any sword master."

 Zelda tried not to let on how the name caught her attention, so she turned her face away and turned her attention to the herbs. Dr Borville paused briefly in his narrative to clutch at his painfully cramped back. Meanwhile, she looked for a plant that increased concentration and one that relieved pain. She boiled both with hot water and handed the tea with the pain relief to her master. The doctor's little errand boy returned with a bag of herbs and Zelda motioned for him to sit on her lap and listen in.

"Well, now that we are complete, I can continue the tale... where was I?" asked the senile man.

"At Prince Link's."

"Oh yes exactly! Prince Link, as I said, is not only gifted in the martial arts, but also excels in all the sciences. Some rumour says he is the King's absolute favourite, having inherited his father's acumen and ruthlessness. However, he is not my favourite, as he has a too soft heart, having inherited his mother's sense of justice and mercy. These people only bring trouble and endanger the rules of the monarchy, as was seen years later."

" What happened years later?" asked the little boy, on Zelda's lap, named Nebb. He was just six years young and yet he had to work so hard to help his family.

"Don't be so impatient, you brat!" the doctor grumbled.

Nebb winced imperceptibly, but Zelda didn't miss it and hugged him closer. He looked up at her and thanked her with a smile.

"The problem was that King Selim was so fascinated with her that years later, he bent the rules and fathered a second child with her. Princess Lagertha. She must have reached the age of 12 by now. You can see how dangerous the very existence of such people is for the dynasty's continued operations," he grumbled.

Zelda sighed inwardly. 'Surely this grumpy old man is afraid of everything that is foreign to him,' she thought.

"Anyway, what about the other princes?" she asked instead of speaking her thoughts aloud.

"All right, then. Let us now come to Prince Ragnar. He is the son of the third queen, Bonduca, a queen who was also an army commander and a warrior in body and soul. Ragnar therefore takes after her; a giant, broad-shouldered and a strategic genius. You can see his lust for battle in his eyes. He is generally recognised by his provocative smirk on his face. You can recognise him by his ice-blue eyes and white-blond hair, which he has braided into a complicated knot combined with an undercut. However, he is also a womaniser and no one knows how many bastard sons he has fathered. He may be a battle-strategic genius on the battlefield, but to rule a kingdom he is far too cunning.

Then there is Prince James, the youngest brother. Three years younger than Prince Ecberht. He is the son of the third queen, Queen Elizabeth. Average height, athletic and possesses an immense repertoire of knowledge. Although he has copper hair, a stubbly beard and green eyes, like his mother, he is very calm in contrast to his striking appearance. He is only interested in the relics of the ancient peoples who once developed these titans, shrines and towers. All humbug, in my opinion. At least he has a knack for architecture, infrastructure and finance. He could handle numbers and formulas like no one else in the kingdom and is often consulted by the Sheikah. In my opinion, he should take more interest in it, but nobody asks me. Old people have nothing more to say. What are these relics for? It's not for nothing that they were never used, as no one seems to have needed them! Pah!"

But as the old doctor was getting more into his aggression, a young man in his mid-twenties suddenly came rushing in. Zelda, in a panic, hid the little Nebb behind her and stood in front of the sack of Rupees so as not to create any problems.

"Hand over the rupees the prince left you and no one will get hurt!"

"There was no prince here! Now get out of here before I ram my cane so far up your ass that you can nibble on it with your teeth," said the grim old man, waving his walking stick on his chair.

Zelda, meanwhile, secretly tucked the pouch into her sleeve. "Please don't hurt us, we will give you what we have, but a prince was not here. And we have only the bare necessities."

"I don't believe a word you say! I saw one of the princes come out of this street!" he shouted, waving his short sword around.

"Get out of here, you good-for-nothing dumbass!" the doctor shouted.

Zelda slowly walked to the herb cupboard where her savings were and gave it to the burglar.

"As I said it's not much, but it's all we have. A prince wasn't here either, because as you know they would never set foot in a dump. They are too fine for themselves." She watched expectantly as the man assessed the information and hoped he could not see through it. The man lowered his knife and counted the rupees in the container as she slowly turned to Nebb and gestured with her eyes for him to give her one of the stinking elixirs. Like a ghost, the little boy moved around the room and stealthily handed a bottle to Zelda's hand behind her back. Determined, she held the bottle in her hand and prayed to Hylia to have the courage to do right.

The young man eyed her suspiciously and took out all the money and put it in his belt pouch.

Tensely, Zelda watched what was happening and clutched the bottle like a sprout of hope.

The old man looked at the young man grimly. Zelda inwardly admonished him for saying something rash. This was a dangerous situation in which they would either have to get away with minimal loss or pay with their lives.

Every word and every move would therefore be weighed in the balance.

But suddenly he put away his short sword.

"This time I believe you. But I will watch you. If I see anything conspicuous, I will kill you all and take your money that you are hiding from me."

He left the hut and ran away.

A moment later, all three breathed a sigh of relief. Nebb ran into Zelda's open arms and hugged her tightly. Zelda had gone down on her knees and was relieved that little innocent Nebb did not have to experience any horror.

"We should send the money back to the prince, it's too dangerous to keep it here,” she said to break the tension.

"Absolutely not! We'd be bankrupt without the money and it will starve us for the winter! I'd rather die a quick death than starve to death in freezing cold!" although the old geezer was being stubborn again, Zelda had to agree with him. It was risky, but it was better than starving. She looked at Nebb and immediately regretted her words.

‘His family would starve too,’ she thought gloomily. She kissed his forehead and let him go.

There was another way. And Link was the solution.

"Master, please excuse me for today, I have to go and look after my father," she lied.

"Yes, yes. But in the morning you're going to stand here with full attention again and work the hell out of you."

She nodded and took Nebb's tiny hand. She put the elixir back and walked towards the Royal Castle with the boy by the hand.

 

Link looked out his window and saw all the lanterns flooding the marketplace with light, music reaching his ears and drawing him magically. The winter solstice had arrived once again, which could only explain one thing about the commotion: The Festival of Lights was being celebrated. For as long as Link could remember, he loved this festival, as it was the best way to mingle with all the peoples of Hyrule and to escape, at least for one evening, from the hard training of princes.

He wondered what he should wear, whether he should stay undercover or reveal himself. He sighed, realising that every single person knew his face anyway. So he decided to put on his white shirt, but the fabric on his arms and chest made them tense, he was gaining muscle from the harder training and excessive food intake. He cursed softly to himself and buttoned the buttons along his muscular torso with difficulty.  He pulled on the sapphire blue Prince's tunic, accentuated by golden ornaments at the hem and sleeves. He then pulled on the black and brown leather chest protector with the royal family crest and tied his leather bracers to his forearms. When he was finished with his dark Hylian trousers and leather boots, he tied on his leather belt, which had the seal of the Triforce stamped on it. Link finally threw his cloak around his shoulders and fastened his sword to his belt and strutted out of the palace towards the marketplace with his shoulders erect.

"Oh, beloved big brother Link! Wait for me, I'm coming with you!" a melodic voice shouted behind him as he already caught the dusty smell of earth mixed with wood and snow of the marketplace. Clacking heels ran towards him; he knew the footsteps all too well. He turned and as he spread his arms wide, a petite person jumped into his arms. Link gently set her on her feet and looked at his younger sister. She had her dark blonde long hair braided all the way through and decorated with flowers, and had had a lovely dress in muted colours tailored for the occasion. She looked like a flower child, blessed by the goddess Hylia herself.

"Lagertha my dear little sister. It is good to see you well again.  You look wonderful and adorable in your outfit." She smiled sheepishly as Link held out his arm to her and escorted her to the fairground.

"Big brother Link, do you know where our brothers Ragnar, James and Ecberht are? I haven't seen them in a long time, since I was sent to boarding school for girls.  You have always been the only one to send me letters and gifts." Although it distressed her, Lagertha had learned not to let anyone know outwardly, but her brother Link, was the only person she could be who she was with.

"Our brothers have never been good with words, especially when it comes to their feelings. Please, bear with them, they still love you with all their hearts and would have any bastard executed on the spot if they so much as touched a hair on your head."

He always knew how she felt and was grateful and relieved that he could understand her without saying much.

"Thank you very much, dear brother. But let us rather celebrate the winter solstice and think of happier things. I'm sure our brothers will be there too." She trilled happily and grinned broadly at him.

He looked down at her and laughed heartily at the underlying irony in her voice. Yes, there was some truth to it, for Ragnar, James and Ecberht were indeed never far away when there was something to celebrate.

Soon the two siblings had reached the marketplace and were watching the colourful swirl of lights, dances and different clans. Happy laughter accompanied the sound of the Goron clan's taiko drums, the Rito's accordion and sweet singing, the Sheikah's shakuhachi flute and the Gerudo's oriental-sounding instruments. Various smells from the stalls rose to their noses and stimulated their curiosity and appetite. Although it was freezing cold, this place seemed like a warming oasis and warmed the hearts of the people. Sporadically, Hylian knights danced with women from different clans, twirling them as their clothes were stirred up by the gyrations.

Link looked at his little sister, who was beaming with joy. At moments like these, he wished his sister could enjoy a simple life, away from the castle.

But then the booming sound of trumpets interrupted him and everything went quiet. The guards had just announced the arrival of the royal family.

All eyes were now on them.

Link felt a strong hand on his left shoulder and looked up.

End of part one

Notes: based on the Zelink reversed roles AU Art of @/TheNebulace on Twitter I had the inspiration to write this multiple chapter Story of Zelda being a healer and Link being a Heir to the Throne.

Many characters name's are based on real npc from botw or are legendary/historically personalities.

Selim:historical chronicles says he was a ruthless and mighty emperor of the ottoman empire who protected the sacred religious grounds until his last breath. Lived in the 15th century

Ragnar: legendary Viking king and (is here) based on his Viking Series character

Lagertha: legendary queen, wife of Ragnar and warrior (here based on the Viking Series character with no relationship to her half brother Ragnar)

Queen Bonduca: [aka Boudicca] historically British Queen and Commander of a Legion 61 AC (here the mother of Ragnar)

Queen Seaxbourgh: historical mother of the historical Ecberht

Ecberht: King of the Wessex in 8th century, fought against the invasion of the Vikings, also here based in the Viking Series character

Queen Elizabeth: historically daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, Tudor-Family. Lived in the 16th century.

James: historical successor of Queen Elizabeth Tudor, has here red hair to honour the red haired Queen Elizabeth Tudor

Nebb & Celessia: NPC from Botw

Part two:

https://freshbreezesworld.tumblr.com/post/639445306711375872/until-my-last-breath

[b-lightwalker]

The Hylian Child Chapter 9

Previous: Chapter 8

Next: coming soon

Disclaimer: The Legend of Zelda does not belong to me

Link sat by the window and listened to the quiet tapping that was known as rain. Kada explained the concept to him; in essence, water fell from the sky. Truth be told, he did think it was a bit wasteful at first, but then he remembered how different home and Hyrule Castle was. According to Kada, it was drizzling, which was why it was so light. But even though it was just a drizzle, the sky was cloud filled and it had a slight tint of gray. Kada said that meant there was a chance the rain would get heavier. Which, to be honest, he didn’t really mind. He may not have understood much about rain, but he did know one thing, he liked it.

As he let his mind wander, he remembered the royal guard’s test he was taking later. He sighed, then rested his cheek on his hand. How in Din’s name did he not realize that by doing the test of the royal guard he could possibly prove he was the Hero even more? But he wasn’t going to back down. One, he had the pride of a Gerudo, two, he was far too competitive for his own good, and three, he’d do anything to wipe that smug look off Revali’s face and tell him that he had what it took to be a Champion. There was a light knock at the door. With a sigh, Link got up to answer it; upon doing so, he saw a handmaiden who looked a bit annoyed. “Are you Link?” He nodded, but said nothing; evidently this was the wrong answer. “Are you not well? What’s wrong?” “As far as I’m concerned, nothing. May I ask who you are?” “I’m Coralyn. Princess Zelda’s handmaiden.” “Okay…?” Link trailed off, confused as to why she was here. “You have Her Highness worried sick about you.” “About what?” “About taking the test of the royal guard. Do you have any idea what you’re up against?” “No, but I survived quite a lot. I’m pretty sure I can survive this.” Coralyn took a deep breath, “Link, you’re going to fight a Stalnox.” “Is a Stalnox like a normal Stal but bigger?” “Far bigger and far stronger. You have your whole life ahead of you, what were you thinking?” That I really wanted to get out of a conversation, Link thought and shrugged. “It seemed interesting.” She groaned, “Well, you got Princess Zelda worked up, so if you’re going to do this, at least do it right.” “Uh-huh.” Coralyn walked away and he closed the door. With a sigh, Link went back to the window and continued watching and listening to the rain. After a while, he guessed it wouldn’t hurt him to actually train; he went to the bedside and started digging through his bag to retrieve his Gerudo scimitar, Gerudo shield, golden bow, and a quiver with about 50 arrows. Since it was drizzling, he decided to make his way to the barracks instead of the training grounds. As he entered, he saw there weren’t many people. Some children were there, along with a few trainees and knights; fortunately for him, Satori was one of them. Satori seemed bored as she messed with a bow. Link went over and the first thing she said was, “I’m stalling. Don’t tell the commanders I’m here.” “Stalling what?” “Training,” she said and plucked the bowstring. “Why would you do that?” “I hate rain.” “…I like rain,” Link said quietly. Satori gave him a look before focusing on the bow again. “What a weirdo,” she mumbled. “Funny, since you wanted to talk to this weirdo.” “My friends wanted to talk to you.” “And where are they?” “Outside.” “Training like they’re supposed to, I’m guessing? Besides, it’s only drizzling,” Link said in an effort to calm her spiteful mood. “So?” she looked at him before pointing to herself, “I was born in Faron. And in Faron, when it rains, it pours.” “Where?” “What?” “Where in Faron where you born? There aren’t many settlements.” “Lurelin Village.” “Does it rain a lot there?” “What do you not understand about Faron?” “Everything, since I’ve never been there before.” “In Faron, every time it rains, there’s a chance of a lightning storm. It’s not fun.” “I’ve been struck with lightning before,” he said without really thinking. Satori loosened her grip on the bow and looked at Link for a moment. “How?” “Incident with Lady Urbosa.” “How are you still alive?” Link shrugged. Suddenly Ryder’s voice was heard, “Satori!” he said. Satori flinched and looked at the man coming towards her. “You were worried about a commander and instead you got a captain,” Link muttered. She smacked his arm. “What are you doing here?” Ryder asked. “You haven’t finished your training, much less started.” Satori didn’t answer, not that Ryder gave her much of a chance to. “Go and start your training now before I tell Commander Eagus to start adding hours,” he said, pointing towards the door. Satori looked miserable, but did what she was told; Ryder left with her, probably to make sure she actually went to the training grounds. Link got his bow and decided to start target practicing. A few minutes, Mipha and Daruk came by to see him; when he asked how they knew he was there, they said Ryder told them. As he continued his target practicing, Mipha and Daruk talked to him and both suggested he come visit their home. Link wanted to see Goron City first. He liked Daruk, and Daruk said that if he visited, he would make Link an official Goron Blood Brother. It sounded painful but he wanted to do it. While Link was repairing, or remaking, arrows, he decided he wanted to know exactly what a Stalnox was. Mipha answered him, “A Stalnox is quite similar to a Hinox. D-do you have those in the desert?” Link shook his head. “Oh. Well, then this will prove to be quite the challenge for you. A Hinox is a gigantic, powerful one-eyed beast. A Stalnox is that, but Stal. Like their Hinox counterparts, they’re quite dull at first. But when they realize that you're attacking their weak point—their eye—they cover it. The major difference is that Stalnox throw their bones at you, and after enough damage, their eye falls out.” “What?!” Daruk exclaimed, “Their eye falls out?” Mipha nodded, “After that, it starts to bounce around and quickly finds its way back to the body.” Link shuddered a little, “Ugh. That sounds disgusting.” “It really is.” “Have you defeated a Stalnox?” Daruk asked. Mipha shook her head. “I’m only skilled in the art of the spear. I’m very unskilled in other forms of weaponry.” Link thought that being unable to use multiple weapons was…stupid, for a lack of a better term. He knew how to use bows, swords, clubs, spears, and some. He hated the thought of being trapped and only having access to a weapon he didn’t know how to use. So while most Gerudo focused on spears, he focused on everything. He didn’t want to say anything about the princess being so single minded in her fighting skills and asked, “Can you tell me more about Zora’s Domain?” Mipha then started describing Zora’s Domain and its people. After a few hours—yes, Mipha can talk about the domain for that long—Revali dropped by. Link suppressed a frown and picked up his bow as he went back to a target. “Hello, Link,” Revali said. Link could hear the smugness in his voice, not that Revali tried to hide it. “Sav’aaq, you overgrown vure,” he mumbled the last part and got an arrow. “‘Sav’aaq’? What does that mean?” For a moment, Link considered telling Revali the truth, then said, “I forgot.” Revali didn’t seem to believe him but said, “I hope you're ready for the test.” “Trust me, I am.” Link drew his bow. “What are you doing?!” Revali blurted out, causing Link to prematurely fire his arrow. The arrow missed the bullseye and hit one of the outer rings. Revali pushed off Link’s reaction and pulled his bow off his back. He swiped an arrow from Link’s quiver. He aimed and fired his bow, hitting the bullseye he made Link missed. “That’s how it’s done.” “I know how to fire a bow,” Link stated. “Not correctly,” Revali retorted and started to demonstrate. “You see, you’re supposed to—” “I don’t need your help.” “Link, Revali specializes in the bow, he’s trying to help you,” Mipha said. “If I wanted his help, I would’ve asked,” Link said before going to retrieve his arrows. “Then best of luck defeating the Stalnox, with that form,” Revali spat. Link looked at Revali, “There’s nothing wrong with my form.” “Are you sure about that?” “I’ll prove it to you. I just need something to jump off of.” “You need to jump off something?” “It’ll make sense soon.” “I can be your stand, little guy,” Daruk said, pointing to himself. Link felt hesitant to accept the offer but Daruk was twice his height, so this could work. Link unhooked his quiver from his belt and took three arrows from it. Mipha was kind enough to hold the quiver for him. “Tell us, what exactly are you going to do?” Revali asked as he watched Daruk help Link onto his shoulder. “I’m going to jump off Daruk, and fire these three arrows into the bullseye of each target.” “So how exactly are ya gonna pull off this stunt of yours, little guy?” “You’ll see.” “You break your arm? Yeah, we’re definitely going to see that,” Revali said. “Please be careful, Link,” Mipha said quietly. “I will.” Link now stood on Daruk’s shoulder. He took a breath before focusing on the first target and jumping down. He fired the three arrows and successfully hit the bulls-eyes. His feet hit the floor and he turned around to face Revali, “I have what it takes to defeat a Stalnox.” Revali seemed a bit at a loss for words. “And I have an ounce of a Champion in me.” “Kid,” a voice said. Link turned his head and saw Lord Cyrill, who made a gesture for him to follow. “Hang on, can I come?” Daruk asked. Cyrill looked at the three Champions before looking at Link. “Do you mind them watching you take the test?” Link nodded. Part of him didn’t want Revali to come along, but he also kind of wanted to rub his victory in the vure’s face. They soon made it to an area known as the lockup; there were tiny water channels carved into the ground. Why were these needed? Who knew. Some prisoners were quiet and others were quite loud; one insulted Lord Cyrill, who although seemed agitated, refused to react to the prisoner directly. Link then noticed that Cyrill had a royal broadsword attached to his belt. Huh. Who knew Lord Cyrill could use a sword, Link thought. Although the water channels took a turn, they didn’t. They passed through two sets of large bars before standing in front of another one that had part of a gate at the top; Link saw that the cell behind the third set was large and circular with a pile of large bones. Lady Urbosa and a royal guard—probably Captain Garren—were waiting for them there. “Lady Elfrida’s not here?” Mipha asked. “No one’s been able to find her,” Cyrill answered as they made it to the end. “Hang on,” the guard started, “who’s taking the test?” “Him,” Cyrill said as he pointed at Link. The guard didn’t seem to believe Cyrill. “How old are you?” “16,” Link answered. The guard looked at Cyrill, slightly surprised. “We’re letting a kid take the test? I’m sure his seventeenth birthday is close.” “Captain Garren, he’s a soldier,” Cyrill said, “he’ll complete the test.” Garren didn’t say anything and Cyrill went to a small rack with weapons. “Your goal is to defeat the Stalnox. However, there are some things you need to be aware of. First off, you’re only allowed to use the weapons we give you, so…” Link sighed and took off his weapons and gave them to Urbosa, who offered to hold them. Mipha still had his quiver. “When you break these weapons, you’ll be given weaker ones.” “If,” Garren said. “Only a certain family with a bloodline of royal guards managed to do so.” Cyrill ignored him. “And if you break the new weapons, you’ll get even weaker ones. If you manage to break those, you’ll just get more of the same weapon. Understand?” he said as he handed the equipment over. Link nodded as he took the royal broadsword, shield, and bow. Cyrill held a quiver full of arrows. “This quiver has 30 normal arrows, five bomb arrows, and an experimental arrow that will destroy the Stalnox instantaneously if you decide you want to quit.” “‘Experimental’…?” Link said as he hesitantly accepted the quiver. “Dr. Robbie made it.” “Oh.” “Should you need more arrows, you’ll get them in bundles of ten. Whenever you’re ready.” Link took a breath and entered the cell. He heard creaking and a thud behind him. He turned around and saw the top was actually designed like the prison doors. “Relax,” Garren said, “It’s just part of the test.” “It’s also to make sure you don’t run away,” Cyrill added. “Now just read the inscription on the slab aloud, and the test will start.” Link nodded and went over to the stone slab, “‘- Test of the Royal Guard - Strike down the giant foe to become recognized as a knight of the kingdom.’” Link heard shifting and turned around. He watched as the pile of bones came together and became living once again. The Stalnox fixed its head before turning around to face Link; weapons were lodged in its bones. A small part of Link thought it was funny, because he had seen something in the desert with weapons stuck in it, too. He forced himself to focus on the task at hand and took out his bow and an arrow. He aimed and fired his arrow and it pierced the Stalnox’s eye. It fell, and although its eye was covered, Link could still take advantage. He swung at the Stalnox, cutting bone, but it wasn’t long before the Stalnox was up again. Link only succeeded at this two more times; the Stalnox slammed its fist on the ground, forcing Link to roll out of the way. He drew his bow, aimed, and fired, but the Stalnox covered its eye. Regardless, Link tried to do this a few more times before deciding it was useless. He needed to find a way to hit the Stalnox fast enough to the point where it wouldn’t be able to block him. As he thought of a way to do this, the Stalnox grabbed a pair of ribs and tugged them a few times before they broke off; Link heard a few comments from the group, but couldn’t bother focusing on them as the Stalnox threw the ribs at him. He ducked, took out his bow and fired; the Stalnox fell this time. Oh, Link thought, so that’s how you do it. The eye fell out the body like Mipha said it would. “Oh, gods!” Link yelped, the bizarre sight startling him a bit. Link subconsciously took a step back before remembering the eye determined whether or not he passed; he gripped the hilt of the sword and swung it at the eye. It broke upon contact, and Link had never felt more screwed in his life. “Kid,” he heard Cyrill say. Link saw Cyrill holding a knight’s broadsword and ran over to take it. In that time, the Stalnox had its eye back in place. Link ducked under another pair of ribs and quickly fired his bow. He repeated this two more times, and on the third time the Stalnox was finally out of ribs to throw. What’re going to do now, you undead freak? Link thought with a smile as he gripped his bow. The Stalnox then detached its arm and Link lowered his bow. “Did it…did it just—ugh!” Link grunted as the arm knocked him into the ground. He saw the Stalnox’s fist coming down and barely managed to scramble to his feet and run. He got his bow and fired an arrow; he quickly swung his sword at the eye the moment it fell out. Although the sword broke, the eyeball did as well, and the fight was over. Link sighed, relieved; he heard creaking followed by a heavy thud. Turning around, he saw that a treasure chest had appeared in front of the slab. He went over to the chest and open it; his prize for defeating the Stalnox was a royal shield. He had a few of these back home, but he saw no scratches on it, or any indication that it had been used before. Maybe this one was new? “Link,” Cyrill said. Link paused for a moment, realizing that this was the first time he had heard Lord Cyrill actually say his name. “Yes?” “I would like to congratulate you for completing the test. However, seeing how quickly you completed it, the shield you received isn’t the appropriate prize. You can keep it, but I need to talk to someone before you can get the proper award." Link nodded and started following him out of the lockup. “Nice job, little guy!” Daruk said, patting Link's back. Link smiled. “You did well, Link,” Urbosa said. “Sarqso, Chief.” “What’s wrong, Revali? Got nothing to say?” Revali scoffed. “Be a good sport, Revali,” Mipha said. “Yeah,” Urbosa started, “it’s not Link’s fault that you wouldn’t survive that test.” “Please, I fought a black Hinox before,” Revali huffed pridefully, “A Stalnox would be nothing.” “Well, have you fought a Molduga before?” Link asked. “I’ve never been to the desert.” “That means you never encountered a Molduking either then. Lady Urbosa has and she survived fighting it.” Revali looked at Urbosa, “Have you?” Urbosa nodded. Mipha then asked, “Link, how difficult did you find the test?” “Truth be told, I was expecting something much harder.” Revali’s eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets. “You found the test easy…?” Link nodded. “How?” “I’ve just faced worse,” he said with a shrug. Mipha was going to ask another question but Cyrill said, “Link, if you want to put your shield in your room before we go to dinner, you’re more than welcome to.” Link nodded before gathering his items back and retiring to his room. As he put everything on the bed, he spotted a letter on the desk. He opened it, removing the photos Kada took. Was he supposed to give these to King Rhoam or Lady Elfrida? How exactly did Lady Elfrida know Gerudo Desert so well? She said she had her ways, but that didn’t explain anything. Regardless, he took the letter with him and went to the dining hall for a well deserved dinner. “Cyrill told me you passed. Good job, kid,” Ryder said, patting Link’s back. King Rhoam nodded, smiling warmly. “Congratulations, Link.” “Thank you, Your Majesty. I, uh, I found this letter in my room. It’s the photos.” “You can give those to Lady Elfrida when she gets here.” Lady Elfrida isn't here and neither is Princess Zelda. What’s up with people and not being around today? After a few more minutes of eating, Princess Zelda arrived, wearing a white strapless dress and a pair of bracelets; a necklace with the Hylian crest on it completed the ensemble. “How was prayer?” Rhoam asked. Zelda shook her head; she seemed to be expecting something unpleasant. “Don’t worry, Your Highness, there’s always next time,” Elfrida said as she sat down at the table. Ryder started choking on his drink and Link looked at Lady Elfrida. Instead of wearing a dress, she was wearing a tunic with a pair of pants underneath and also a pair of boots. Who would’ve guessed she had clothing that wasn’t dress oriented. Once Link saw her face, however, he knew why Ryder was so surprised: she looked like she’d been in a fight. There was a bruise on her cheek, her lip was busted, and her sleeves were rolled up, showing an arm that had bandaging on it. Cyrill pat Ryder’s back as the latter started coughing. Rhoam frowned before saying, “What happened, Lady Elfrida?” “An incident, Your Majesty,” she said simply. “What kind of incident?” “I tripped.” Lady Elfrida didn’t sound the way she usually did; she wasn’t being loud, and didn’t have any sign of enthusiasm in her voice. She also looked anxious. Although her hands were folded neatly in her lap and her hair was done, she was quickly bouncing her foot and she didn’t seem up to holding a conversation. “Link has the photos for you.” “Oh. May I see them?” She took the photos and looked at them for a minute before smiling. “That’s everything,” she said quietly, placing the letter on the table. “I guess that solves every—what are you doing?” She saw Ryder holding Cyrill's fist near her face. “Comparing his fist to your injury,” Ryder answered. “It kind of lines ups. Were you punched?” “I tripped.” “Then how did you get the knuckle impression on your face?” Cyrill asked. “I fell onto the vanity.” “That doesn’t explain the knuckle impression.” “I tripped and I fell onto my vanity. It’s as simple as that.” “Are you okay?” Zelda asked. Elfrida nodded, “I’m fine.” “And your arm?” Cyrill pointed at her arm. “It hit the vanity too.” “Everything involves the vanity, doesn't it—ow!” Ryder hissed as Cyrill smacked him upside the head. “More or less. Um, let’s just eat, okay?” Elfrida’s request struck everyone as a bit ironic; she had barely touched her food, having spent most of her time just poking at it with her fork. Midway through the rest of dinner, Aryll showed up and gave her father and uncle a heart attack by bringing her pet cucco, prompting Ryder to say something about hating it when Kagami allowed the girl to bring her cucco inside the castle. A short while later, dinner was finished, and everyone left for their rooms. Before Link went to his, he felt a tap on his shoulder and turned around to see Princess Zelda. “Your Highness,” Link said with a slight bow. “Link, Mipha told me what you said after you defeated the Stalnox. Is it true that you’ve faced worse than a Stalnox?” Link nodded. “What was it? There aren’t many major monsters in Gerudo. Only Moldugas, Stone Taluses, and Lynels; if you’re like most of the population.” “I don’t want to talk about it.” “Why not? Whatever you faced must be something worth being proud of if you defeated it.” Link pressed his lips and looked at the royal and sighed. He had to give her some kind of answer. “Nothing major really. Just a really big monster camp.” Zelda put her hands on her hips and started glaring at him. “Fine. I have fought a major monster before.” “Which one?” “A Stone Talus,” Link said slowly. “Was that the only one?” “No.” “Well, what else did you fight?” “I’ll tell you if you don’t tell anyone else.” Zelda nodded, “I promise.” “I’ve fought white-maned Lynels before, and I’ve fought a Molduga before…” “You have?” Judging from the look in her eye, she found this amazing. “Lady Urbosa’s fought the Molduking, so it’s not much,” Link mumbled. “Link, I never met someone who has fought a Molduga before.” “There’s Lady Urbosa.” “I know. But as far as I’m concerned, you don’t have a special ability like her. That’s what makes it so incredible.” The way she said it was so matter-of-fact. “I’m sure Lady Urbosa could’ve survived fighting the Molduking without her lightning.” “I know she could’ve too… Have you fought more than one?” Link slowly nodded. Zelda gasped, “How many?” Link shrugged, “A few…?” “That sounds like a question.” “I don’t remember. I know it’s more than three.” “How difficult was it?” “Um, can we talk more about this tomorrow? It’s late.” Zelda nodded, “Of course. Meet me in the garden after breakfast.” She then turned to go to her own room. Link entered his room and sighed. Princess Zelda; her enthusiasm when she showed interest in something was one-of-a-kind. After a few more days at Hyrule Castle, Link and Urbosa prepared to journey back to Gerudo Town. Link was glad; Hyrule Castle had been an up and down experience for him. He’d met both pleasant and not so pleasant people, but more importantly, he missed his family. He stretched before placing the last of his items back in his backpack, putting it on and heading to Lady Urbosa's room to wait for her. They went to the sanctum to say a final good-bye; besides, Rhoam, Zelda, and the other Champions, Elfrida, Cyrill, Ryder, and Aryll were there as well. Cyrill held something large that was wrapped in heavy cloth, and Aryll stood beside him with her cucco. Something Link noticed was that Mipha had an escort with her. Where in Hyrule was he this past week? Another thing he noticed was that everyone was on the first floor, save for two guards positioned by the throne. “Champions,” Rhoam started, “thank you for coming. I’m looking forward to your next visit in a few months. And Link, Lady Elfrida has something for you.” “Thank you,” Elfrida said, “Link, I would like to give you your reward for defeating the Stalnox.” She took the item from Cyrill, then came up to him and took off the wrapping. “This is the Hylian Shield. You defeated the Stalnox in the time required to get a Hylian Shield, so I hope you like it.” How long does it take for someone who’s not me to defeat a Stalnox, then? Link thought. He hesitantly took it from her. He heard small remarks coming from others in the room but focused on the shield. The most notable feature was a yellow Triforce above a red Hylian crest; this type of shield was mentioned a few times while he was doing research, but he never thought he would own one himself. “And this…” she took out a small orb, “is a Spirit Orb.” Link carefully took it from her. It was a deep purple, its sheen mostly lilac colored but occasionally changed color depending on the lighting. A violet colored Hylia crest was in the orb. “Pretty, isn’t it? I made it myself. Think of it as an early birthday gift, since your seventeenth birthday is coming up soon.” Link would correct her, because he had a wet season birthday not a dry season birthday, but he was distracted by the Hylian Shield and Spirit Orb. “Well, if you ever want to come back, you know you have friends at Hyrule Castle. Safe travels.” Urbosa nodded, then turned to leave the sanctum as Link followed her. A mix of good-byes followed and Link turned around to wave a good-bye in return. “Sav’orq, Link!” The voices were overlapping so much that it was a miracle he heard the sentence alone. Link couldn’t tell if it belonged to a girl or a vai. He turned around and said, “Farewell!” “‘Farewell’?” Urbosa said. “She said it in Gerudo, so I said it in Hylian. Seems fair.” Urbosa nodded slightly. Link took a breath, “It feels good to finally go back home.”

[theoveranalyzingariette-blog]

An Overanalyzing Overture

To the vast nameless and faceless void of the Internet, hello.

           My name is Ariette, and if you couldn’t tell by my screen name, I like to overanalyze things.  It’s a habit I’ve developed over the years, and it drives my mother insane.  To be clear, it isn’t that I hate everything that I play, watch, read, etc., it’s just that I find it fascinating to break things down into simple concepts that can be studied.  Why do some things work while others fail?  How does my worldview (and the worldviews of others) influence my perspective of the various forms of entertainment I engage with?  To put it simply, why do I like what I like? Sometimes that answer can be found, while other times it remains elusive.  It is a process I enjoy regardless of the results however, and I hope you will enjoy overanalyzing along with me.  

          For my first post I figured it’s best to keep it simple, so we will start with one of my favorite things: a list.  Actually it’s more like a game of 20 either/or questions in a list format, but you get the point.  This is a fun way for me to give you, the reader, a chance to see the sorts of things I enjoy discussing.  I assure you however, that this is not a comprehensive list of the topics I want to cover in my posts.  These were just the easiest topics I could turn into either/or questions.

1) Marvel or DC?  (I might as well start out with one of the most predictable questions right?)

Marvel.  That is entirely thanks to the recent Marvel Cinematic Universe however.  If you had asked me this question when I was a child the answer would definitely have been DC.  I enjoyed The X-Men cartoon growing up, but that was the only real exposure I had to Marvel till the first Tobey Maguire Spiderman film was released.  As for DC, I adored the 1990’s animated Batman series as a kid, and I also consistently watched The Justice League and Teen Titans as well.  As an adult though, I am far more invested in the MCU.

  2) Batman or Superman?

Batman.  Even as a child I found him to be a more compelling character.  He has a complexity and vulnerability that makes him far more relatable to me.

  3) Team Cap or Team Iron Man?

Team Cap.  I don’t dislike Iron Man, in fact the first Iron Man film is still one of my favorite of the Marvel movies, but my beliefs and ideals align more with Captain America’s worldview.

 4) Star Trek or Star Wars 

Star Wars.  Now I’m not one of those people that believe you can only like one or the other, but I do prefer Star Wars.  Star Trek is fun, but I’ve only seen the original TV series (which I loved) and the three reboot films (which I loved, didn’t care for, and liked all right... in that order).  As for Star Wars, I’ve seen all the films, played some of the games, read some of the books, watched both of the TV shows, and made a set of Mandalorian armor.  So yea, you might say I’m into it.  

  5) Jedi or Sith?

Honestly, I wouldn’t do well in either order.  If I had to guess however, I think I would likely be a Grey Jedi.

 6) Clone Wars or Star Wars Rebels?

Star Wars Rebels.  That’s a really tough question to answer though, and I could probably write a rather lengthy post about the pros and cons of both shows.

  7) Since they are basically the same character… MCU Loki or Kylo Ren? (Key word basically, I know they have their differences.)

MCU Loki.  Yes, I do need to specify MCU Loki as opposed to the version found in the comics and the actual Norse god they are both based on.  A comparison of MCU Loki and Kylo Ren and a comparison of the different adaptations of Loki would both be interesting future posts as well…

  8) Lord of the Rings or Game of Thrones?

Lord of the Rings.  I’ve never seen Game of Thrones, but if I had to guess, I would say there is too much needless nudity in it for my taste.

  9) Hobbit, Human, Orc, Wizard, Elf, or Dwarf?

I wish I was an Elf, but I’m probably just a Human.  I can say with certainty that I’m not a Hobbit. Their love of food is just something I don’t have.

  10) Hand Drawn or 3D Animation?

Call me old school, but I prefer hand drawn animation.

  11) Which would you rather listen to, a Movie’s Orchestral Score or a Movie’s Soundtrack?

A Movie’s Orchestral Score.  No competition there.

  12) Sega, PlayStation, Nintendo, X-Box, or PC?

Nintendo.  My brother and I only owned Nintendo console and hand held games growing up because my mother knew she didn’t have to supervise the games we were playing as closely. I’ve tried out other consoles owned by friends, but my preference for the Nintendo has carried over into adulthood.  

  13) Mario or Legend of Zelda? 

Legend of Zelda.

  14) Pokémon or Digimon?  

Pokémon.  

  15) Yugi and the Dark Magician or Seto and the Blue Eyes White Dragon?

Seto and his Blue Eyes White Dragon.  The Dark Magician Girl is my favorite card though, with Blue Eyes coming in at a close second.

  16) Books or Movies? 

Books.  I love using my imagination to create a mental picture of what I am reading in my mind.

  17) Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, or Slytherin?

I’m a proud Slytherin.

 18) Disneyland or Disney World?

Disney World.  I’ve never been to Disneyland.

  19) Disney or Universal? 

Disney.  The Harry Potter portions of the Universal parks are amazing, and I love the Mummy ride, but the number of actual coasters in the two parks is starting to dwindle as they continue to add 3D simulator after 3D simulator.  Disney just has more variety in terms of special events, attractions, and shows.  

  20) Geek or Nerd?

It depends on your definition of those two words.  By my own definition I am more of a Nerd. I’m not techy enough to be a Geek.

             There you have it, twenty random questions that I hope have helped you to get to know me a little better.  Now if you read that list and went “Ugh I don’t like any of these topics,” never fear. As I said before, my posts are certainly going to cover the things on this list, but they will not be limited to them.  I am a huge fan of opera, music, the Twilight Zone, films of all types, documentaries, literature, baking, and the list goes on and on.  All that to say, I can and will ramble on about a number of different topics with little regard to proper form or grammar, and I hope you will join me on this silly little analytical adventure.  

[snake-house]

☆*:.｡.o Masterlist o.｡.:*☆

♡♡♡categorized by fandom, character, and then male/female readers ♡♡♡

also, this is my omegaverse au breakdown

* - ☆ - .: KEY :. - ☆ - *

* means nsfw themes (from limes to smut)

** means A/B/O universe

*** any other au besides canon (ex: soulmate au, modern au, etc.)

(XX) means format is jacked but you can still read it

Harry Potter

Harry Potter - male readers:

Harry Potter X Male!Reader - stolen show.

Harry Potter X Male!Reader X Draco Malfoy - war.

Harry Potter X Male!Reader - always wanted you. **

Ron Weasley - male readers:

Ron Weasley X Male!Reader - are you sure?.

Ron Weasley X Male!Reader - whoops. *

Severus Snape - male readers:

Severus Snape X Male!Reader - studying. *

Severus Snape X Male!Professor!Reader - from ilvermorny. *

Severus Snape X Male!Reader - suppressant. * ** (nsfw and A/B/O)

Severus Snape X Male!Reader - drawn to. **

Draco Malfoy - male readers:

Draco Malfoy X Male!Reader - the one.**

Draco Malfoy X Male!Reader - suddenly.

Draco Malfoy X Male!Reader - you left.

Harry Potter X Male!Reader X Draco Malfoy - war.

Sirius Black - male readers:

Sirius Black X Male!Reader - approval. *

Tom Riddle - male readers:

Tom Riddle X Male!Reader - power. *(not really sexual themes but very suggestive)

Tom Riddle X Male!Reader - caught. *

Remus Lupin - male readers:

Remus Lupin X Male!Reader - i’ll never go.

Haikyuu

Kuroo Tetsurou - male readers:

Kuroo Tetsurou X Male!Ballet Dancer!Reader - special.

Kuroo Tetsurou X Male!Reader - can we fall.

Tanaka Ryuunosuke - male readers:

Tanaka Ryuunosuke X Male!Reader - feelings. **

Lev Haiba - male readers:

Lev Haiba X Male!Reader - perfectly. * ** (nsfw and A/B/O)

Iwaizumi Hajime - male readers:

Iwaizumi Hajime X Male!Barista!Reader - java chips. ***

Chikara Ennoshita - female readers:

Chikara Ennoshita X Reader - truth.

Tsukishima Kei - female readers:

Tsukishima Kei X Reader - her hand. ***

      Ambiguous gender:

Tsukishima Kei X Gender Neutral!Reader - shock. ***

Yuri!!! On Ice

Yuri Pilsetsky - female readers:

Yuri Pilsetsky X Reader - the ballet dancer

Kuroko No Basuke

Takao Kazunari - male readers:

Takao Kazunari X Male!Reader X ??? - can’t you see. **

Aomine Daiki - male readers:

Aomine Daiki X Male!Reader - it’s you. **

      female readers:

Rock Star!Aomine Daiki X Groupie!Reader - pop princess. ***

Kuroko Tetsuya - female readers:

Kuroko Tetsuya X Reader - what lessons become.

Prince!Kuroko Tetsuya X Reader - the book of life. *** (edited and revamped)

Kagami Taiga - female readers:

Kagami Taiga X Reader - the little things.

X-Men

Nightcrawler | Kurt Wagner - male readers:

Nightcrawler X Male!Reader - beauty.

Avengers / Marvel

Tony Stark - male readers:

Tony Stark X Male!Reader - a little fun. *

Bruce Banner - male readers:

Bruce Banner X Male!Reader - the baker.

T’Challa - male readers:

T’Challa X Male!Reader - kitten. [pt. 1]

Supernatural

Dean Winchester - male readers:

Dean Winchester X Male!Reader - soundproofing pt 1. * ** (nsfw and A/B/O)

Dean Winchester X Male!Reader - soundproofing pt 2. * ** (nsfw and A/B/O)

Sam Winchester - male readers:

Sam Winchester X Male!Reader - remember me. *

BBC Sherlock

Sherlock Holmes - male readers:

Sherlock Holmes X Male!Reader - interesting.

The Hobbit - The Lord of The Rings

Thranduil - male readers:

Thranduil X Male!Elf!Reader - home. pt 1.

Thranduil X Male!Elf!Reader - home. pt 2. *

Tokyo Ghoul

Uta - male readers:

Uta X Male!Disabled!Ghoul!Reader - changed.

      female readers:

Uta X Ghoul!Reader - daisies.

Uta X Ghoul!Reader - bitter holidays.

Uta X Ghoul!Reader - TGIF. * (kinda nsfw but not really)

Tsukiyama Shuu - female readers:

Tsukiyama Shuu X Muse!Reader - inspire. ***

      male readers:

Tsukiyama Shuu X Male!Ghoul!Reader - bloodletting * **

Kaneki Ken - female readers:

Kaneki Ken X Human!Reader - a chance. 

Kaneki Ken X Human!Reader - the book store.

Hetalia

England - male readers:

2p!England X Male!Shota!Reader - boyish looks. ***

      female readers:

England X Nanny!Reader - so much more. *** (XX)

Teacher!England X Trouble-Maker!Reader - die young. ***

England X France’s Sister!Reader - alright. 

Writer!England X Reader - untitled. *** (drabble/short)

France - male readers:

France X Male!Reader - yes, and?. ***

Prince!France X Male!Reader - loving you. *** (has fem version under similar name)

      female readera:

Pirate!France X Reader - settling down. ***

America X Reader X France - bite pt 1. ***

America X Reader X France - bite pt 2. ***

Prince!France X Princess!Reader - let me love you. *** (has male version under similar name)

France X Reader - romeo and juliet. ***

France X Reader - chemistry. ***

France X Blind!Reader - simple happiness. *** (XX)

America - male readers:

2p!America X Male!Reader - missing frosting. ***

      female readers:

America X Iceland!Reader - date?

America X Reader X France - bite pt 1. ***

America X Reader X France - bite pt 2. ***

America X Reader - humor me. ***

Germany - male readers:

Germany X Male!Reader - spilled coffee. ***

      female readers:

Germany X Reader - blankets

Germany X Italy!Reader - beds.

Russia - female readers:

Russia X Reader - too late.

Russia X Suicidal!Self-Harm!Reader - only scars. 

Russia X Step-Sister!Reader - loners together. * (not full nsfw but kinda there)

Japan - female readers:

Drunk!Japan X Drunk!Reader - loosen up. * *** (nsfw and modern au)

Canada - female readers:

Canada X Popular!Reader - striving. *** (XX)

Scotland - female readers:

Scotland X Reader- to dubai and back. ***

Denmark - female readers:

Denmark X Reader - winter wonderland

Romano - female readers:

Romano X Reader - sadness is deadly.

Romano X Reader - the art of expanding. * (and kinda nsfw..)

Prussia - female readers:

Prussia X Reader - the jellyfish exhibit. ***

Sweden - female readers:

Sweden X Depressed!Reader - worth it. ***

Poland - female readers:

Punk!Poland X Reader - unexpected. ***

Turkey - female readers:

Turkey X Reader - from the beginning to a new start. ***

Multi characters - female readers:

Various X Reader - fortune. * (not the type of nsfw u r thinking)

Attack on Titan

Levi Ackerman - male readers:

Levi X Erwin’s Brother!Reader - tease. pt 1.

      female readers:

Apep!Levi X Maat!Reader - organized chaos. ***

Levi X Reader - a new chapter. ***

Levi X Tall!Reader - height.

Levi X Reader - boiling anger.

Levi X Shy!Reader - just a set up?

Jean Kirschstein - female readers:

Jean X Reader - get high. ***

Jean X Reader - the broken and the blind.

Jean X Reader - medium ***

Jean X Reader- bad day just got a little better. *

Punk!Jean X Reader - someone needed. ***

Eren Jeager - female readers:

??? X Reader X Eren - not always as they seem. ***

Bertolt Hoover - female readers:

Bertolt X Titan Shifter!Reader - done. ***

Armin Alert - female readers:

Armin X Reader - broken. 

Armin X Reader - tie you down.

Armin X Reader - a night to remember. *

Reiner Braun - female readers:

Reiner X Reader- the funny thing is. * *** (nsfw and modern au)

Reiner X Reader - relaxing drinks. ***

Reiner X Innocent!Reader - questions. ***

Reiner X Reader - talk dirty to me. *

Annie Leonhardt - female readers:

Annie X Shy!Reader - beautiful fall.

Erwin Smith - female readers:

Erwin X Drunk!Reader - mutuals. *

Mystery pairing - female readers:

??? X Reader - the contortionist.

??? X Reader X Eren - not always what they seem.

Ouran High School Host Club

Kyoya Ootori - female readers:

Kyoya Ootori X Reader - late. 

Prince!Kyoya Ootori X Reader - noon. ***

Ritsu Kasanoda - female readers:

Ritsu Kasanoda X Reader - repayment.

Takashi Morinozuka - female readers:

Takashi Morinozuka X Reader - without words

Takashi Morinozuka X Reader - for now.

Death Parade

Clavis- female readers:

Clavis X Arbiter!Reader - ten important things.

Ginti - female readers:

Ginti X Arbiter!Reader - just wondering.

Avatar The Last Airbender & The Legend of Korra

Sokka - male readers:

Sokka X Male!Reader - adventure.

Zuko - male readers:

Zuko X Male!Reader - through time. 

      female readers:

Zuko X Reader - soot. *

Tahno - female readers:

Tahno X Reader - soothe. ***

Tahno X Reader - not just a pretty face.

Katara - female readers:

Katara X Fire Bender!Reader - beautiful.

Black Butler

William T. Spears - male readers:

William T. Spears X Male!Reader - more.

      female readers:

William T. Spears X Reaper!Reader - murder.

Grell - female readers:

Grell X Reaper!Reader - interesting.

Grell X Reaper!Reader - maybe again?

Sebastian - female readers:

Sebastian X Curvy!Reader - can’t handle this.*

Sebastian X Pole Dancer!Reader - exactly. ***

Sebastian X Reader - the dark.

Sebastian X Reader - waiting. *

      male readers:

Sebastian X Male!Reaper!Reader - not like them.

Finnian - female readers:

Finnian X Reader - old friends. * (not nsfw u would think)

Pluto - female readers:

Pluto X Reader - for life. *

Baldroy - female readers:

Baldroy X Reader - get a room. *

Ciel Phantomhive - female readers:

Ciel X Mute!Reader - my light pt 1.  (XX)

Ciel X Mute!Reader - my light pt 2.

Ciel X Chubby!Reader - flourishing. 

Karneval

Yogi - female readers:

Yogi X Nurse!Reader - hate.

Kuragehime 

Shuu Koibuchi - female readers

Shuu Koibuchi X Reader - the professor.

Shuu Koibuchi X Reader - here and now.

Tsukimi Kurashita - female readers:

Tsukimi X Reader - may i?.

Legend of Zelda

Link - female readers:

Link X Deaf!Reader - unusual.

[awhorewhowrites]

Writing Commissions

Hey y’all! Long time no see. Sorry it’s been so long, I graduated and then had to get a more full time job, etc. Adulting. Blah. Anyway, my job is actually being remodeled which means I’m out of work for a month and a half. Which also means that I’m free to do more writing without a full-time job to take up my time! So I thought I would try to open up commissions to make up the income that I’m losing these weeks.

I will write for any fandom that I know-Feel free to inquire if your fandom is not on this list! The ones I can think of right now are:

-Mystic Messenger

-Various Otome Games (Code: Realize, Collar x Malice, Nameless, etc)

-Hannibal

-Dragon Age

-Mass Effect

-Penny Dreadful

-Kingsman

-Legend of Zelda

-Game of Thrones

-Persona 5

-Final Fantasy XV

-Lord of the Rings

I specialize in reader inserts, as you all know, but I might do other things. Feel free to ask. I can write angst, fluff, you name it, though I think I’m best at smut to be honest. I will write any kink except anything pedophilia, non-con (dub-con is ok, I think), beastiality, scat/waterplay, or incest related. 

I specialize in BDSM, monsters, dirty talk, humiliation, and many other kinks. I genuinely love studying kink and writing it. Don’t be afraid to ask! My usual rules as stated on my blog do not apply to paid commissions. You can read my current work at http://awhorewhowrites.tumblr.com/tagged/nsfw.

My rates are $1 per 100 words. So 500 words is $5, 1,000 words is $10, etc. I take payment through paypal, and perhaps giftcards tbh, because that might be easier for some people. I will ask for payment up front, and once you’ve paid I will have your commission done before 2 weeks are up. Hopefully faster.

If interested, you can contact me through tumblr messaging/asks! Thanks for reading!! Love you darlings~!

[beardycarrot]

Today, I’m going to be testing out some archery stuff!

As usual, this conveniently-placed Blue Bokoblin at the base of Hateno Tower (an area I’ve dubbed the Hateno Modern Tech Lab) will be our test subject.

I’ll mainly be using this Traveler’s Bow with a base damage of 5 for the testing,  but the others will be used as necessary. I’ll be testing out arrows in the order that they’re displayed on this page.

As expected, a shot with the Traveler’s Bow caused the Bokoblin 5 damage.

...and, of course, a head shot gets a x2 Critical Hit bonus for 10 damage.

Fire Arrows consistently do 15 damage, which may be the bow’s base damage plus 10. The damage is done all at once, with no extra damage when the Bokoblin dances around on fire. If it stands in the tall grass and manages to catch that on fire, however, it will quickly burn to death.

Using a 53 damage Royal Bow, the Bokoblin took 63 damage, confirming that Fire Arrows add 10 damage to the bow’s strength. Interesting!

Ice Arrows are the same, doing 15 damage with the Traveler’s Bow. You can supposedly do a significantly boosted amount of damage if you shatter a frozen enemy with an attack... I’ll have to test that out sometime.

I was certain that Shock Arrows would be the same... but no, they add 20 damage rather than 10! Huh.

I tested it with a 32 damage Falcon Bow, and it did 52 damage. Maybe Bokoblins have metal somewhere on their bodies, leading to bonus damage from electricity. I’ll add studying electricity mechanics to my to-do list.

Bomb Arrow damage... indeterminate.

Bomb Arrows seem to do a random amount of damage in the area of 60, though it’s impossible to tell whether some of that might have been rolling or fire damage, as the Bokoblin was sent over the edge of the cliff several times, and as seen in the screenshot above, the explosion lit a fire under the cooking pot (which the Bokoblin then used to light its torch).

The final arrow type (for now) is Ancient Arrows, which are designed to be used against Guardians. When used on normal enemies, it will pull them into a vortex, leaving no trace behind. We’ll come back to these later.

This Lynel Bow does 10 damage, but shoots three arrows. As expected, when hit with all three, the Bokoblin took 30 damage.

When shot in the head up-close, the Bokoblin took 60 damage, meaning that all three arrows were counted as head shots! From further away, one of the arrows consistently missed the head (but still hit the body), doing a total of 50 damage.

A Traveler’s Bow head shot with an Ice Arrow did 20 damage, meaning that the game calculated the damage of the bow multiplied by two plus the damage of the arrow (5x2+10=20) rather than applying the arrow damage first (5+10x2=30).

I was pretty sure that strength buffs apply to archery, but I wanted to be sure. The Traveler’s Bow does 5 damage, and the Barbarian Helm adds +20% to attack strength. 20% of 5 is 1, and as expected, the Bokoblin took 6 damage.

Here we have the final arrow type: Light Arrows! Light Arrows are shot by the Twilight Bow, which is exclusive to the Super Smash Bros. Zelda amiibo.

A few weeks ago I was wondering if the Twilight Bow would do extra damage to Ganon, which logically it should, and someone mentioned that the Light Arrows do 100 damage. The bow used in the final battle does 100 damage, but the person specified that Light Arrows themselves do bonus damage, even from the Twilight Bow. From the way it was phrased I got the impression that they meant to all enemies and not just Ganon, but up to now, I haven’t tested it at all.

...aaaand nothin’. Just 30 damage, the base damage for the bow. Maybe it’s like the Master Sword, and only takes on special properties in the presence of Ganon’s malice? That should be easy to test.

Fun fact: the malice you just see lying around doesn’t actually trigger the Master Sword. I had no idea. It should, shouldn’t it? It’s part of Ganon, and it hurts you!

There we go, this Guardian’s got the Master Sword nice and bright. Kinda like String from the Lord of the Rings books.

When in the presence of Ganon’s malice, its damage doubles from 30 to 60. Just not the malice you see lying around, though. Apparently.

Nope, the Twilight Bow remains at 30. That’s a little disappointing.

It does its normal 30 damage to Guardians, too. Oh well. While we’re here though, now is a great time to test out the Ancient Arrows some more!

When shot in the eye with an Ancient Arrow, this immobile Guardian died in one hit... and yes, I saved before shooting the Light Arrow, its HP was full.

When shot in the back of the head with an Ancient Arrow, the Guardian consistently took 167 damage, regardless of the bow used. That number meant nothing to me while testing, so I decided it was time to move to another target.

Shooting a walking Guardian Stalker right in the eye is also a one-hit kill!

Shooting it elsewhere did 500 damage. Aha! Its total HP is 1500, and 500 is 1/3 of that. If we look back at the immobile Guardian, its HP was 500, and yep, 167 is 1/3 of 500 (rounded to the nearest integer). I also tested the Ancient Arrow with three-shot bows, and the damage of each arrow is counted as you would expect. If a Guardian is bothering you and you want to deal with it quickly, just break out a three-shot bow! So long as all three arrows hit it, it’ll go down in an instant!

There are still a few more archery mechanics I’d like to test, but this post is more than long enough already, so that’ll have to wait until the next Zelda experiment!

[armory-rasa]

Hello Gabriel! First of all, I want to say I really love your work! It's really inspiring and detailed! I wanted to ask how you set up your own business, because it seems really hard to start working and then actually get costumers. Did you make a portfolio, or was it word of mouth? I don't know if you've written about this before, so sorry if I'm just asking again. :)

Short answer: lol, I started my own business because I’m really bad at convincing people to hire me.

Long answer: STRAP IN! (This is probably more backstory than you wanted, but I promise I’ll have some advice about the how-to at the end)

So I mentioned that the first leatherworking I did was for the Hawke cosplay, and that came out reasonably well. Then a friend of mine was like, “Hey, you should use your skillz make me some leather handcuffs” and I was like, Hokay. So when people ask “How’d you get started selling kink gear?” my smartass answer is “Because D-rings come in packs of ten not packs of two.” I made a pair for my friend…. and then made four more pairs, because else what was I going to do with D-rings? And then I made an Etsy store and put them up for sale, because what use had I for four pairs of handcuffs?

…and people bought them. o_O I was like, Can you guys not see that I have sold ZERO things before? Why do you trust me to actually deliver the goods? What makes you think I have ANY idea what I’m doing??

So that was a thing that was going on in the background – I added a basic collar to my inventory and started making them in colors that you don’t normally see kink gear in, which a lot of people quite liked, and it was a nice bit of side cash, enough that the hobby was paying for itself.

Then my lawyer (who was not at that time a lawyer) moved out to California for law school and she was like “You should come to California with me, because it’s better than Texas” and I was like, Hokay. And everyone was telling me, Ohhhh, but the job market in California is so bad!, and I was like, Nah, I’ll be fine, yo.

…Aha... ahaha, about that. I wound up in a totally above-board but very sketchy-sounding arrangement with one of her professors in which my official job title was “houseboy.” We met at a gay bar called Headhunters where he was like–

The professor: “So what do you do?” Me: “I’m looking for a job.”The professor: “I’m looking for someone to clean my hot tub! I’ll start you at $12/hr.”Me: “Hokay.”

So between running his odd jobs and the money I was making selling kink gear (about $2000 over the course of that first year), I was keeping myself afloat.

Then The Hobbit happened.

I saw the posters, thought Kili was hot, decided to take a stab at his bracers. I finished the first one just before we left to go see the movie, tossed it up in the shop – and it sold before we even got out of the movie.

That was when the floodgates opened and practically overnight, leatherworking went from being a sideline gig to being my fulltime job. (To wit: I made $250 in December 2012 and *$3,500* in January 2013. That’s more money in one month than I’d made doing leatherworking the entire previous year.) People were buying Kili bracers by the dozen, and flooding me with inquiries asking, Can you do Fili’s bracers? Can you do Thorin’s bracers? Can you do Thorin’s belt? Can you do Kili’s quiver? Can you do Legolas’s bracers?

And I was like, Hokay. (The professor was bemused, and only slightly grumpy at how I suddenly had less time for him.)

Granted, that kind of boom doesn’t last, as I would learn subsequently. There’s a rush of interest when something is new, but nothing sustains that level of demand forever. I got really lucky because I happened to jump onto the Hobbit bandwagon right as it was kicking off, so my bracers were out there first, the first thing people saw when they went googling for Hobbit cosplay. Relatively few other costumers ever even bothered to make the pieces that would be competing with mine, since I’d already done them, and done them very well, (and was doing it really cheap since I didn’t know the value of my labor then), so for a while I was about the only game in town when it came to dwarf leatherworking.

Dwarf costumes kept me fed for about six months before interest started to wane, by which point I’d diversified into MCU Loki armor too. That’s been the story of my business since – keeping an eye out for new fandoms with cool costumes that are in my skillset, and being on the ball about getting them done and posted as early as possible. I cannot overstate the advantage of being the *first* one to do a costume, because there are few fandoms that have truly long-term staying power, so you have to be there when the hype is highest. (Dragon Age, Zelda, Star Wars, etc, have a core of dedicated fans who will cosplay it until their dying day, but those are low-volume markets. My Dragon Age items are not my highest sellers, they are my labors of love.)

I often start with making a small, inexpensive item from a fandom, just enough to put me on the radar when people start googling for their cosplay – like a hook to reel them in. Customers will frequently ask if you can do other pieces from the same costume or the same universe (I started with the Wonder Woman tiara, and built the rest of the set as people asked for it; likewise, the Aquaman armor grew out of a single bracer; people who have seen my Loki stuff have commissioned Enchantress and Scarlet Witch), but they won’t usually ask a Lord of the Rings leatherworker if you can do stuff from, say, Game of Thrones. (Even though I totally could if anyone ever asked for it.)

I will say that specializing in cosplay puts you at the mercy of whatever’s trending, and the lulls between fandom booms can be deadly – when your income suddenly drops from a couple thousand dollars a month to a couple hundred, you best hope you’ve got enough of a cushion to ride that out until the next boom comes along. The more fandoms you’re in, the more diverse your portfolio, the less hard those bust cycles will hit you.

My shop pretty much is my portfolio, because I don’t take anything down (except when I stopped selling kink gear) even after interest is long gone, since it still showcases the styles and techniques I can do. I have a deviantArt with my stuff, mainly because I’ve found that dA – for whatever reason – indexes in google image search faster and higher than any other social media platform. It wasn’t until about this time last year that I finally got a facebook and started making a more concerted effort to maintain a social media presence and promote my business. It’s… coming along. I’m slightly better at remembering to post these days. >_>

I think it’s less about word of mouth than about whether people can find you when they’re googling. (~Search engine optimization~ or whatever.) There are tricks you can do to get yourself ranked higher, but I’ve never tried any of that stuff, just made sure that my listings, etc, are tagged with the right keywords to get picked up when potential customers go googling.

It is hard work (I work… a lot….) but it’s also a lot of fun – there is no job I would rather be doing, and I consider myself very lucky that I’ve been able to turn my passion into my career. (Which is like the most cliched thing to say, but it’s true – there are Etsy sellers who would KILL to be able to quit their day job and focus on their hobby full-time, so I’m aware that I’ve been quite fortunate.)

Anyway. I hope you enjoyed the novel I wrote for you. :D

[suckitsurveys]

When’s the last time you went shopping? Earlier today at Wal Mart. I got two sets of plastic drawers and a little project for our Bob’s Burger’s themed kitchen. 

How many Sweet 16’s have you been to? Maybe one? 

Pen or pencil? Pen usually. 

What’s your favorite beverage? Barq’s root beer.

Have you ever played The Sims? Nope.

Is your current hair color your natural hair color? Nope.

Are you more artsy or athletic? Definitely artsy.

Are any of your friends vegetarians? Yeah. My best friend is a vegan. 

Can you run a mile in under 7 minutes? Not even close.

Do you know how to play any instruments? Nope. 

What’s your favorite shampoo/conditioner? I don’t have one. 

Are you a fan of the Grand Theft Auto series? Not really. Mark’s played the newest one and I’ve been kinda interested in it but not enough to play. Danny Tamberelli (Little Pete)’s voice is in it so that’s kinda cool. 

Do you like the beach? I do!! Very much so.

Do you have your license? I do. 

Where’s your cell phone right now? Right next to me on the side table

What was your best subject in school? Sociology. 

And your worst? Chemistry.

Would you ever have plastic surgery? If I needed to sure.

Did you hate the book “The Lord of the Flies”? I did. 

Do you consider yourself lazy? Yuuuup. 

Do you or did you have a curfew at one point? When I was like 9 to 13 I had to be inside when the street lights came on. After that I didn’t really go out enough to have a set curfew. 

Do you know what BMI stands for? Body mass index.

Is there someone on your mind right now? Nah.

What’s your favorite holiday? Halloween and Christmas. 

How many times have you felt betrayed? I’m not sure. 

What’s your relationship status? Engaged. 

Do you peel the wrappers off of plastic bottles? Sometimes. 

Have you ever sleep walked? Not that I’m aware of.

How about sleep talked? Mark has said I do sometimes. 

Are you watching TV right now? Family Feud is on but I’m not really paying attention to it. 

Do you have any siblings? I have an older sister. 

Have you ever earned a Varsity letter? Nope.

Do you enjoy theater productions? I do. 

Are you shy or outgoing? A little of both. 

How much sleep do you get on average? About 6 on a week night. 

Have you ever moved? Once when I was 4 into my childhood home, and once into the apartment we are in now.

What’s your favorite type of food? Type? Seafood. 

How old were you when you had your first kiss? 12.

Can you roll your ‘R’s? Nope. 

Have you ever been drunk? Yes.

Are you homophobic? Of course not.

Jump in leaves or jump in the ocean? Either sounds fun.

Do you wear glasses or contacts? Glasses.

Where was your first job? Java Thai, a small Thai restaurant and coffee shop near my house.  

Are you a MAC or a PC? PC.

Would you rather be weak and skinny or strong and built? Weak and skinny. 

Are you wearing shoes right now? Nope.

Have you ever straightened your hair? Not by myself no. I’ve had it straightened. 

When’s the last time you spoke to your best friend? I texted Lydia earlier today. 

Do you like Vitamin Water? No. I’m not into flavored water.

Have you ever played Super Smash Brothers? My all time favorite. 

How about The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time? Nope.

Are you the oldest child? I am not. 

Are you a fan of Twilight? Nope.

Do you like the Jonas Brothers? Meh.

Did you ever collect Beanie Babies as a child? I did! I still have the collection. My dad built these casings over the doors to the bathroom and bedrooms on the second floor of the house and they work really well as shelves, so the casings that are above the bathroom and my childhood bedroom house the Beanie Babies.  

Do you remember your second grade teacher’s name? Mrs. Yamanaka, or something like that. 

Would you rather be a lead singer or play an instrument in a band? Instrument. 

How many songs do you have in your music library? I don’t know how to check that in Spotify. 

What do you like on your sundaes? I don’t really eat them but caramel and nuts.

Have you been blessed with the ability to cook and/or bake? Eh, it’s not that difficult. 

Have you done anything productive today? Yes. I worked and then went shopping for some things for the apartment. 

How old will you be in 3 years? 30. 

Have you ever bought anything on eBay? Nope.

How about sold anything? No.

Have you ever watched the show Jackass? Yes. I’ve seen the movie too. 

Share one of your hidden talents with us. It’s so hidden I don’t even know what it is. 

Have you gained more than 5 lbs within the past year? I don’t know for sure, but I wouldn’t be surprised.

Do you want kids at some point? Never ever ever.

Pick a crazy color you wouldn’t mind putting in your hair. It’s already blue and green. I don’t think it’s been like actually yellow or orange so maybe that?

Are you lactose intolerant? Nope.

Have you ever been diagnosed with a mental disorder? Not professionally.

Do you believe in abstaining from sex until marriage? No.

Is there any jewelry you wear almost all of the time? Yes, my engagement ring and earrings. 

How do you feel about PDA? A little is fine.

What time did you go to bed last night? I think around 11. 

Have you ever been in a hot tub? Yes. 

Are you confident in yourself? Ha. Some days are better than others, I guess.

How old is your current cell phone? About two years old.

What is your sexual orientation? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Have you ever been to a tanning salon? Not to tan, but in a salon that also had tanning beds.

Are you on a laptop right now? I am. 

Can you speak in another language? Un poco habla espanol. Or something.  

Have you ever told someone you loved them and actually meant it? Lots of times.

What’s your favorite zoo animal? PANDAS but the only place I see them is in Memphis. 

How is your hair currently styled? It’s down. 

How long are your showers (on average)? 15 minutes. 

Do you have any plans for tomorrow? Work. Then maybe going to the gym. 

Are you multitasking at the moment? I mean, the TV is on but that doesn’t require much focus. 

East or West? In what context?

Do you prefer iced coffee or hot coffee? Iced.

What time did you wake up today? 6 ish. 

Would you rather be taller or shorter than your current height? I’m okay. 

What was the last ‘family gathering’ you attended? Hmm. Christmas eve at my house. 

Are you wearing perfume right now? Nah. 

What did you do last night? Made dinner and just hung out. 

What’s worse: working in fast food or retail? I wouldn’t know.

Do you have any college or future plans? I mean, future plans, sure. 

What was the last consumed alcoholic beverage? Mimosas on Saturday afternoon.

Are you wearing socks right now? Nope.

Is your most recent ex seeing someone right now? I have absolutely no idea. 

What’s your favorite physical feature? My hair or my legs. 

Shopping: love it or hate it? Depends. 

Lose weight or gain it? Lose, for the love of godddddddddddddddddd. 

Would you ever go vegetarian or vegan? No thank you.

Do you need to do laundry? Mark just did some. 

Do you believe that high school years are the best years of your life? Nope.

How old do you want to be when you get married? I'm getting married this year so 27. 

Beer or wine? Wine.

What are you allergic to? Nothing.

Where do you get most of your groceries from? Jewel. Breakfast, lunch, or dinner? Dinner. 

Have you ever gone on a movie date? Yeah. 

Do you look like your parents? I look like my dad and a little bit like my mom with certain expressions. 

Where did you make your last purchase from? Lucky Grill with Liz for dinner. 

Have you ever bought clothing online? Yeah.

Did you exercise today? I took a walk. I guess that counts.

Are you warm or cold? A little cold.

Showers or baths? Both.

Do you wear any perfumes/colognes/body sprays? Yeah, I wear body sprays because I sweat so much and it makes me stinky so the sprays make me feel fresh. 

What color dominates your wardrobe? Black and blue. 

Are you in any sort of pain right now? My feet a little bit. This survey is so long.

Soda or juice? Soda.

Give a shoutout to someone special. Baby girl you are my world. 

Spring or fall? Fall.

Are you hungry right now? Nope.

Gum or mints? Mints.

What size shoes do you wear? 8 ish. 

Do you curse a lot? Probably too much.

Do you like cats? I love kitties SO much. 

What’s the last thing that made you laugh? Probably something Mark said. 

Is there a TV in the room you’re in? Yup.

Who did you last attend a concert with? My friend Rachel and Mark’s old neighbors who are now her neighbors. Rachel’s boyfriend is in a band and they came to see him in Chicago so I met them there. 

Is there carpet on the floor of the room you’re in? Mhmm.

Do you sit on your feet and let them fall asleep? Way too often, yeah.

Are you taking any trips soon? Maybe. Mark and I are getting married in July and then that night we are either going to Starved Rock or this hotel we went to for our 6th month anniversary.

Swim in the ocean, or swim in a pool? Either. 

Are you body conscious? I mean, yeah?

Do you eat meat? Mhmm.

Describe your position right now. I can’t really haha. 

Are you in your own room? I’m in the living room. But I’m gunna go to bed so I’m gunna finish this tomorrow and probably in a different post. 

Have you ever received nude pictures from someone? -

Do you support animal rights? -

When’s the last time you ate a marshmallow? -

Do you typically skip breakfast? -

How many relationships have you been involved in this year? -

Quick! Think of something yellow. -

Is Perez Hilton an asshole? -

Are you signed into Facebook right now? -

Admit it: you had a Neopets account. -

Is there a pet in the room with you right now? -

How’s the weather? -

Have you gone out to dinner in the past week? -

When’s the last time you stepped on a scale? -

Vodka or rum? -

Have you ever given yourself a french manicure? -

What’s your most complimented feature? -

How many pillows do you like to sleep with? -

Are you a healthy eater? -

Waffles or pancakes? -

Name a food that doesn’t sit well in your stomach. -

Do you know anyone with an eating disorder? -

What have you done so far today? -

Garlic knots or garlic bread? -

What messenger services do you own? (AIM, MSN, Yahoo…. etc.) -

Are you signed into any of those accounts right now? -

Name someone you know who has dyed their hair. -

How weight conscious are you? -

Have you ever shot a gun? -

Do you like the smell of Sharpie markers? -

What’s your favorite eye color? -

Rent a movie or go see one in theaters? -

Is there anyone else with you right now? -

Do you recycle? -

Have you ever been accused of cheating? -

How about having an eating disorder? -

Would you ever go on a birth control pill? -

Do you know how to do your own laundry? -

Uggs or crocs? -

Have you ever taken a train? -

How about a subway? -

What’s the capital of Florida? -

Do you know anyone outside of your country? -

What do you eat most frequently? -

What’s one sport you could never play? -

What is the oldest age you think should wear makeup? -

What’s your heritage? -

Are you an open book? -

Are you sick often? -

Is being thin really all that great? -

Favorite year in high school? -

Have you ever been to a night club? -

Are you at home right now? -

Does any accent annoy you? -

How about turn you on? -

What’s worse: Crocs or Uggs? -

How was school today? -

What phone do you have? -

What time does your school start? –

What phone would you LOVE to have? -

How many siblings do you have? Are you close? -

Do you still tell your mom everything? -

[thegraytalon-blog]

Top 13 Console Video Games of Generation 8 (2012 – 2019)

Intro/Overview:

Hey everyone, The Gray Talon here, setting his sights on yet another unsuspecting prey and TODAY we are going to be talking and discussing the top 13 console video games of the current console generation. And why 13 some of you may be asking? Because the Gray Talon strikes with all of his 13 claws! Yes, he is that meta. 

So I know for my first list here it’s quite a broad choice, seeing as though we are about a little over 6 years strong into this cycle of console video games. I’m going to do my best here to be as unbiased as I can be, broadening my gaming palette and bringing to you the top 13 titles that I have played in it’s entirety over the past 6 years and felt stood out to me in terms of presentation, performance and overall replay value. And in terms of replay value, I don’t necessarily mean a physical replay value, but rather I ask “Does this game stick around either physically or mentally that resonated with me in the long run?” Another thing to keep in mind is that I am a tremendous fan of narratives and games heavily focused on story, which will play a factor in my list as well as I try to remain unbiased as possible,��I do hold a soft spot for games with a focus on a good tale and character development alike.  This list will also try to stray away from remasters, such as The Last of Us for PS4 for example that is a port of a previous generation title without changing anything other than graphics and some technical performance such as framerate. I will be refraining from listing any Indie games as well  as I feel those games have become so prominent over the past few years, that they deserve the respect of having their own special list. And lastly, expect a lot of honorable mentions at the end of the video, because selecting a mere 13 games from a list of some amazing games from over 6 years was increasingly difficult. And yes, as you may have guessed, expect some SPOILERS AHEAD!

So without further delay, let’s get started!

     Number 13:   

Nier: Automata – PS4 – (March 17th 2017 initial release)

What do you get when you combine a pseudo post-apocalyptic android world with, well, this guy (show Yoko Taro pic)? A beautiful recipe of some of the most brilliant forms of mind-fuckery since the likings of Hideo Kojima first tried to scramble our brains when Pyscho Mantis read off our game save files in Metal Gear Solid on the Playstation. In this hack and slash with light RPG elements, dive headfirst into a deep and dark narrative, focused on the concept of humanoid replicant androids and sentient robots developing emotions, feelings and even their own personal ideologies, while trying to combat armies of machine robots from distant worlds. It’s one part Blade Runner, one part Matrix, and all parts awesome. Plus it’s made by Platinum Games, the developer’s of Bayonetta and the original Devil May Cry. So if that’s not enough incentive to immediately run out and play this game, I’m not sure what will convince you.

Number 12:

Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor – PS4/XB1 – September 30th 2014

Well, this game surely came out of left field, but it sure was a sight for sore eyes. Developed by Monolith Studios, who were responsible for the successful F.E.A.R. games and piggybacking off of the success of the Batman Arkham series, Middle Earth provides some of the most fluid combat and free flowing action since the Arkham titles, indeed, only much, much more brutal. We’re talking more decapitations than the entire Game of Thrones series has accomplished. The story is the other half of the reason why this made my list. It tells the tale of the creation of the ring of power that led to the evil lord Sauron’s rise as you fight within the realm of Mordor before the events that transpired in Lord of the Rings or even The Hobbit as you take on the role of Tallion, a brave and noble ranger who once met his demise and is now joined with a wraith on a quest for vengeance against those who were responsible for his family’s death. A simple quest for revenge will snowball into quite a journey as you build up your armies by capturing orcs and lead the fight back against the evil forces of Sauron. If you’re a fan of action games with a sprinkle of Assassin’s Creed like platforming, then this will be a match made in heaven, or in this case, the hellish land of Mordor.

   Number 11:

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain – PS4/XB1 – September 1st 2015

In this final true entry in the Metal Gear Solid series from the renown mind of famed game writer and director, Hideo Kojima, you take on the role of Big Boss from the 80’s. After waking from a 9 year coma following the events of Ground Zeroes, you free roam the vast Afghanistan plains during the Soviet-Afghan war to track down those responsible for the destruction of your old mercenary group, Military Sans Frontieres. Along with returning compadre in arms and once rival, Ocelot, prepare yourself as you take on a slew of missions to uncover the truth about the plot leading to the creation of a new Metal Gear that could potentially destroy the world. The game is fun and addictive, giving you access to an array of dozens of missions and hundreds of side ops alike, ranging from action to stealth as you infiltrate bases, rescue civilians and soldiers, gather intel and take down enemy artillery. You get support characters too such as a dog and Quiet the sniper, who will come in more than useful to you along your journey. And if you stick to it until the very end, you will not be sorry as the saga of Snake comes to a head and a somewhat emotional conclusion too, knowing the history behind the series, legacy and even controversial drama leading up to the inevitable parting of ways with Konami and Hideo Kojima.

Number 10:

Resident Evil 2 (Remake) – PS4/XB1 – January 25th 2019

I know this game just came out a month ago, but I just had to sneak it onto my list here. It was just such a prestigious remake and I know I said I would not include remasters on my list, but this is not your average remaster. It is a complete rebuild of a 21 year old game from the ground up, completely reimagining the horrors and terrors, fusing together the elements of what made the original Resident Evil trilogy truly frightening with the beloved camera and controls of Resident Evil 4. Fear lurks around every turn in tandem with some intense action sequences. There are numerous campaigns to play through as well, 4 in total if you count Leon and Claire’s A and B sides. I am going to link my video review in the description as well for more information and greater detail. It truly is a match made in heaven, or at the very least, a match made in the depth of the darkest labs of the Umbrella Corporation. 

    Number 9:

Horizon: Zero��Dawn – PS4 – February 8th 2017

From the developers of Killzone, yes that’s right my young padawans, Killzone, the first person shooter Playstation exclusive series, comes a third person adventure set in a beautifully rendered, lush, post-apocalyptic world with a vivacious and ambitious tale revolving around sentient feral like machines, with resemblance to prehistoric creatures that lived millions of years ago.. You take on the role of Aloy, a fierce female warrior from the 31st century tribe called the Nora. After proving herself when she becomes of age, she obtains an augmented reality device called Focus and after being attacked for looking like a scientist from the old world, she then embarks on a journey that leads to her uncovering quite an incredible story behind the creation of the cybernetic creatures that roam the landscape. The gameplay focuses on a myriad of weapon crafting for your arsenal of spears, bows and quivers, ranging from high end explosives to mines and traps. Crafting plays a big role in the game too as you must gather resources in the environment to build up your ever growing arsenal. Also you can free flow using platforming techniques and zip line from all over the huge map. The game feels like a robust and futuristic Tomb Raider and should not be missed of anyone that is a fan of an empowering action/adventure game mixed in with an interesting narrative along the way.

Number 8:

Dark Souls III – PS4/XB1 – April 12th 2016

Return to Lothric one last time to kindle the bonfires as you set out on a harrowing journey to take on Kiln of the First Flame! You are the Ashen one and must return the Lords of Cinder to their rightful thrones while embarking in a wonderfully interconnected medieval world, littered with brazen creatures, shortcuts, secrets and treasures alike. Well, in case you haven’t guessed, I am a pretty huge fan of the Souls series and the third and final entry in the series is no slouch. With dozens of David and Goliath like boss fights and some challenging sub-boss battles, go it alone or bring 2 other lost souls to team up in co-op as you fight for survival. Experience a variety of builds per class. Become a heavy brute and pound foes into the ground with that sweet ultra greatsword or take on the role of a cleric to��zap opponents from afar with spells and hexes. The combinations of character builds are nearly endless and the replay value is incredibly high as you level up to be able to withstand the might of the overbearing world of Lothric. The mechanics are the most fluid and the game’s speed almost resembles From Software’s Bloodborne at times. Plus, with Hidetaka Miyazaki-san returning to direct this time around, it truly feels like the definitive Dark Soul experience. Any fan of hardcore action/RPG’s will be right at home here.

Number 7:

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild – Switch/Wii U – March 3rd 2017

We return to the ever enchanting land of Hyrule as the heroic Link to embark on yet another tale to once again purge the evil that Ganon has loomed over the land. In this first truly open world Zelda game, you really can feel the utmost sense of wanderlust as you feel the need to explore every nook and cranny of the vast landscape, which seemingly has no limitations whatsoever. That is the biggest draw of this particular Zelda game. The liberating sensation to do almost anything you can imagine, whether it be collecting ingredients to sizzle over a frying pan to cook up that next concoction to withstand the extreme cold of the uncharted Hebra valleys or the intense heat of the Goron volcanic mountain ranges, or climbing up the side of a thousand foot wall to try and reach the top without running out of stamina. The world is truly your oyster here and you can even take on Ganon right out the gate, although I highly recommend you don’t unless you’re some kind of Hylian sorcerer. And lastly, the shrines in the game which provide upgrades either to your stamina or hearts by solving puzzles, are possibly the most addictive part of this game. You will have to literally pry yourself away from the game as you scour the land, high and low, seeking out those hidden little caves of wonders.

 Number 6:

Super Mario: Odyssey – Switch – October 27th 2017

When I first saw the gameplay trailer for the latest 3D Mario title, I knew instantaneously that it would be fun, but I did not realize it would be possibly the best 3D Mario game I would have ever experienced. My all time favorite 3D Mario game is, by quite the unpopular opinion, Super Mario Sunshine. I was glamoured by the freedom of roaming from world to world in tandem with being the sole member of a clean up crew tasked with ridding Isle Delfino with that grimy, inky substance. Plus the normal Mario platforming levels were fun to boot. But now, in Super Mario Odyssey, everything is dialed up to 11 in the Mushroom Kingdom realm. I mean, you can become a freakin’ T-Rex with an Italian mustache  for crying out loud by the simple toss of a hat! Or don the fierce and angry explosive power of a mustached Bullet Bill. Or launch yourself as a Chomp-Chomp to breakdown barriers and obstacles in your path. Plus, the 2D sections are a serious retro nod to Mario games of the time of olde and transition seamlessly from 3D to 2D as you might expect. Lastly, the freaking addiction for shines, well moonshines, this time around becomes real as you pretty much sell your plumbing soul for a shot at getting all of them per world.

 Number 5:

Bloodborne – PS4 – March 21st 2015

From Software really knocked this one hit wonder out of the park. From the makers of the Dark Souls and Demon’s Souls games, comes a dark, gothic title with a dee and, mythic lore.  As a hunter of beasts, try to purge the plague from the land as you fight back against creatures of folklore such as Lycans, Trolls and Cthulhu type monsters.  A game that forces you to face your fears and strike back in the face of towering difficulty and strife in a fast paced, hardcore action/RPG that will cause your blood to boil at times with intense combat sequences, leaving your heart pounding and yearning for more and if you strike back quickly enough you may just regain health after being hit with the regain feature as well. This was my first From Software game that I not only played through once, but twice on it’s new game plus mode as I was consumed within the Hunter’s Dream in the far away land of Yharnam, so it will forever have a special place in my heart. 

 Number 4:

The Witcher III: The Wild Hunt – PS4/XB1 – May 19th 2015:

Well, if it wasn’t for the finale of good ol’ Geralt of Rivia here coming out in 2015, Bloodborne would have been my GOTY (Game of the Year), but, alas, once The Wild Hunt dropped into The Gray Talon’s claws, they were clenched for what felt like an eternity. If anyone asked me what my all time favorite action/RPG is of this generation that is the complete package, the gaming Oscar would go to The Witcher III each and every time. The level of detail present in this game cannot simply be put into words. While the graphics themselves may not be up to par with other games of this generation, the attention to detail in the beautifully crafted Continent Geralt is on is astounding to say the least. For example, you;’ll just be walking into town minding your own business when you’ll happen to notice out of the corner of your eye a water wheel connected to an turnstile system with flowing water that if you follow it closely you’ll begin to see how the irrigation system��of that specific town works. The game is just that damn intricate. Not to mention the plethora of quests you can do ranging from aiding warring empires, which makes you feel like you’re playing the unofficial Game of Thrones game, to slaying beasts of burden whilst concocting tonics and potions like the true Witcher you are. Plus the downloadable content is probably better than the main story too, which is possibly the first time that’s ever happened and must be experienced that gives Geralt of Rivia the true ending he so rightfully deserves. 

 Number 3:

Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End – PS4 – May 10th 2016

Now that we have gotten into the final big three here, I want to remind everyone that the next three games have been personally chosen because of their heavy and robust focus on delivering a strong narrative, which is my one true Achilles’ heel. The final chapter in the Nathan Drake saga goes out with such a beautiful bang, I damn near had to play through it twice just to soak up all of its memorable moments. Everyone from the previous three games returns and in a glorious fashion to boot. From fast paced motorcycle chases in the Middle East to traversing the Sahara by jeep to hike and climb up mountain trails, this final chapter does not pull its punches for anything. There’s even one part of the game where you feel like you’re freaking James Bond, pulling off a heist in an exotic locale that ends in an Indiana Jones infused madness of swinging from whips and ropes through a series of windows and objects to make your daring escape. The Uncharted series to me always felt like a modern day Indiana Jones anyway, which does not disappoint when it is doing what it does best. Exploring mystical lands in hopes of finding famous treasures left behind by legends of the past that usually end with high octane explosions, chases and perilous escapes from life threatening scenarios. Also the story has charm and heart, leaving you more than satisfied more and more with each entry in the series leading to the conclusion in which you cannot help have a smile on your face. The game even ends in a way that the esteemed developer Naughty Dog can even pick up at any time they want in the future. It’s brilliant writing like this that should be commended, recognized and put high up on a pedestal to be praised, such as now in this list.

         Number 2:

Red Dead Redemption II – PS4/XB1 – October 26th 2018

If I was making a top list of games for last generation, Red Dead Redemption 1 would have been my top game hands down. In no way, shape or form would I have ever imagined that  it’s numbered sequel would also make another top tiered game for me in this present day and age. The critically acclaimed developer, Rockstar Games, once again tantalizes and does not disappoint with their newest title. Set approximately 15 years before the events of Red Dead Redemption, the sequel, or prequel rather, sets you into the high top post 19th century boots of Arthur Morgan, right hand man to Dutch Van Der Linde as they all try to learn to adapt to the new 20th century American lifestyle and leave the criminal life behind…or do they? The snowball effect is immensely present as you struggle to survive the onslaught from one bad move to another that Dutch makes for his gang. Without spoiling too much, I will just say to ready those Kleenex, because for those of you who played the first game know, expect one teary eyed ending once again, in both the good, the bad and the ugly. Another reason why this game holds my second place slot securely is because of yet again it’s exasperating attention to detail. If Witcher III was so refined in showcasing the intricate workings of a wooden water wheel, then get ready to completely crap your pantsuit as Red Dead Redemption II dials the attention to detail up to 11, possibly even 12 as they turn it into an obsession to detail with such things as going as far as making a horse’s private parts grow or shrink depending on what climate you are presently in on the map. You can also become dirty and need a bath after traveling for many in game hours along with growing hair and facial hair in real time that can grow as long as a rock star and look like Odin from Asgard if enough time passes. Plus, there are some random encounters that are just as emotional as some of the story segments and can pop up at any given and unprompted time. In terms of the core gameplay, you’re a gunslinger in third person (but there is also a first person option) and use a slow motion deadeye mechanic to carefully pick apart your foes. Take to riding horseback and even carriages to soak up what remains of the old west. Overall this is a game not to be missed by any means necessary and some parts of it’s illustrious and gritty tale will stick with me in my mind until the last day I draw breath.  

     Number 1:

God of War – PS4 – April 20th 2018

From Sony Santa Monica Studios and the ingenious mind of the game’s writer and director Corey Balrog, comes the likes of something we have never bore witness to. A video game franchise that was 13 years old had been completely and utterly transformed and reconstructed from the ground up to feel so fresh and new yet retaining enough familiarity with beloved antihero Kratos and the rich lore found in his previous titles. What shocks and awes me first about this game is while the setting and lore completely shifted to that of Viking mythology, it somehow manages to keep the focus on the weight burden of Kratos and his actions that he has carried over after leaving the ravaged lands of Ancient Greece behind. Kratos not only carries with him a now repressed curse of his choices, but is left with a son as well. (THE BOY!!!) Shortly after losing his wife and mother of his child, Kratos sets off on a simple journey with his son to scatter his mother’s ashes atop a summit on a snowy mountain. However, little did they know the perilous adventure that awaited them. The new God of War delivers such an emotional performance from Kratos with several call backs to previous games in ways that slowly build up and shape his character arc even more than imaginable. He goes from suppressing the all too well known Spartan rage to slowly unleashing it by the journey’s end in ways quite unfathomable. The core gameplay has been completely redesigned as well. The new camera provides a more focused over the shoulder angle and each swing of that ever so faithful Leviathan Axe has an extreme presence as you bear dominance over your foes. Plus, the callback feature of the axe where you press the action button and axe comes flying back into your hands like you’re flipping Luke Skywalker or Darth Vader never gets tiring. There’s a light focus on upgrading your armor and gear this time around too, where the focus is not just weapon or magic upgrading but finding the rarest pieces of armor that scale to your level so you can go toe to toe with some of Norse mythologies most relentless of foul beasts. This title also won many GOTY for 2018 awards and rightfully so.  It has achieved so much and deserves such acknowledgement for breathing a new form of life into this once aging franchise. This is my number 1 game of this generation thus far and while this console generation is not yet laid to rest, I will find it increasingly difficult for the Ghost of Sparta to be toppled anytime soon. 

Conclusion:

So there you have it folks. This was The Gray Talon’s top 13 games of this console generation. Thank you tremendously for watching as always. Please share and like this video and please subscribe so you don’t miss out on the latest content from The Gray Talon’s lair. And finally, please find the honorable mentions listed below:

1. Infamous: Second Son – PS4 – 3/21/2014 

2. Bayonetta 2 – Wii U – 10/24/2014

3. Sunset Overdrive – XB1 – 10/28/2014

4. Yakuza 0 – PS4 – 3/12/2015 

5. Batman: Arkham Knight – PS4/XB1 – 6/23/2015 – (Honorable Mention)

6. Rise of the Tomb Raider – XB1 - 11/10/2015

7. Far Cry: Primal – PS4/XB1 – 2/19/2016 – (Honorable Mention)

8. Doom – PS4/XB1 – 5/13/2016 – (Honorable Mention)

9. Titanfall 2 – PS4/XB1 – 10/28/2016 (Honorable Mention)

10. Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice – PS4 – 8/8/2017

11. Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus – PS4/XB1 – 10/27/2017 – (Honorable Mention)

12. Detroit: Become Human – PS4 – 5/25/2018 – (Honorable Mention)

13. Octopath: Traveler – Switch – 7/13/2018 – (Honorable Mention)

14. Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise – PS4 – 10/2/2018

15. Pokemon: Let’s Go Eevee – Switch – 11/16/2018 – (Honorable Mention)