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studiodrydock · 6 months ago

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Interview With a Werewolf - A deep dive into the character of Westley Vuk from Wylde Flowers

We've put together an in depth look at Wylde Flower's fuzziest romanceable character, Westley Vuk! 🐺💕

Westley, the romantic werewolf bookseller, is one of our most beloved characters, and we had the privilege of chatting with several members of the team involved with bringing him to life, including Iona Vorster (concept artist), Desiree Cifre (narrative director), Mike Taylor (animator) and Ray Chase (his voiceover artist).

We discussed all things Westley including his inspiration, design, and what makes him so popular (and dreamy)! Enjoy! ✨

Writing a Werewolf

Questions answered by: Desiree Cifre (Narrative Director)

Q: Can you start by telling us a little bit about Westley?

Desiree: Westley is a bookish werewolf originally from Alaska. He became a werewolf due to a case of mistaken identity. His identical twin brother, Lou, was a marksman for a logging company, and shot at a werewolf who then returned and attacked Westley one full moon. Once Westley turned into a werewolf, he vowed to keep his distance from humans to protect them and himself, and found safe harbor in the magical village of Ravenwood Hollow. He hopes to find a cure for his lycanthropy and in the meanwhile, prove that werewolves can be positive contributors to the magical community.

Q: What was your process like, including inspirations and challenges, when creating Westley?

Desiree: Our original scope for the narrative limited the characters to the members of the coven and the other, non-magical villagers, so I was delighted when Amanda and Alex told me we would have the budget for a magical village with four residents. I knew right away that I wanted one of them to be a werewolf and that I wanted him to be a romantic interest for Tara. A bookseller seemed like a natural fit so that he could sell Tara the parchment and incantations she would need for her spellwork, and when Iona drew up some concept art of our nattily dressed Westley we all knew that was the right direction for the character. Once I learned we could support him having both human and wolf forms, that opened up the space to create a little mystery around his first appearance in town, and then we got to dive into his backstory a bit more later in the game.

Q: Do you have a favorite line that you wrote for him?

Desiree: Well, I was expecting players to love Westley, but even I couldn't have anticipated how much of a fan-favorite he would become. I have to say one of my favorite lines is one that only plays if you are partnered with him: "Tara, you're looking ravishing today! Not that I want to, or would, I mean, you know." The actor who plays him, Ray Chase, gave such a hilariously brilliant reading of that line and it makes me giggle every time I hear it! The thirst is real.

Drawing a Werewolf

Questions answered by: Iona Vorster (Concept Artist)

Q: What was the process like for designing Westley? How did you incorporate his personality and backstory into his design? Iona: Initially I started with sketching out ideas for all the Ravenwood Hollow characters in tandem. I wanted to make sure they would sit well together, and since they are all (mostly) fae, I wanted to make sure they felt consistent across their designs while figuring out “what do the fae look like in the world of Wylde Flowers.” Once I had a good idea of what they’d generally look like, I took each character one by one to work out the specifics.

With Westley, the process was a bit more complicated because I also had to figure out what his werewolf anatomy would be like and how far we wanted to push it. Since Westley is a romanceable character, I wanted his werewolf form to still feel personable and able to emote like the rest of the characters, so going very wolf-like with his design didn’t feel like the best option!

As with all the characters, I did have a wonderful character background to reference for Westley, written by narrative lead Desiree! A facet of his personality is that he likes dressing well, so along with him being a bookseller, a suit seemed like the natural choice!

Q: Which did you design first, werewolf Westley or human Westley? Did you have to put any considerations into giving him a (relatively) consistent appearance between the two forms? Iona: I started with his human form, since I knew his werewolf form would need R&D on aspects of his anatomy like his face and legs. However, eventually I moved back and forth between the two, because parts of his werewolf form, like his fangs and his fur, informed design decisions on human Westley. I wanted to hint at his werewolf form when he was in human form, and vice versa/

I also wanted to keep consistency in his outfit, especially since there’s the comical details of his suit not quite fitting his massive werewolf frame, which accentuates the differences between the two!

Q: What is your favorite part of Westley's design? Iona: His fangs! Designing all of him was fun, but I love that he has fangs in human form.

Animating a Werewolf

Questions answered by: Mike Taylor (Animator)

Q: What did the collaboration (if any) look like between you, Desiree and Iona? Mike: I wasn't involved very much in the concept of Westley. As with all characters, I was asked for feedback on each concept, but the concepts are always so good, I have very little to add, and Westley was no exception. Soo-Ling (Wylde Flowers’ 3D Artist) and I would discuss his model more and especially the hair, since we knew that was a big part of his design. We would work together to decide how to structure Westley's hair so we could have the most movement as efficiently as possible.

Q: What types of personality bits or other considerations were you trying to showcase in his animations, and how did you achieve them? Mike: Desiree and Elizabeth put together Casting Notes for all the characters, citing specific actors and/or roles that best exemplified the character. I always started there as the basis. For Westley in particular, I know I felt that he should be a little withdrawn and maybe a little brooding. He's an intellectual who has been cursed with being a werewolf, after all. From that I thought his walk - which is the animation that gets the most personality - should be pretty subdued, compared to the other characters, and he should be looking at the ground rather than straight forward. It's subtle, but hopefully reads just a little.

Q: And for Wolf Westley? Mike: For Wolf Westley, the goal was to make him more feral, without going too far. To do this, I added some exaggerated chest breathing to his idle, arched his fingers and turned his hands inwards, then made his walk very 'stompy' to highlight the extra weight he was carrying around.

Giving a Werewolf a Voice

Questions answered by: Ray Chase (Voiceover Artist)

Q: Can you describe the direction you were given when portraying Westley? What types of personality traits, emotions, etc. did you need to convey? Ray: Westley is a really deep character - and one who I was immediately drawn to. Going back through my auditions for this game, it looks like I only chose to audition for him and the reverend! I love how genteel he is - there's a huge part of me that wants to go run my own bookstore in a small village, so I'm playing out my own fantasies when I'm playing him. :D The voice director, Krizia, was a big help in dialing in just the right amount of werewolf into this character. He shouldn't be frightening, but rather be a warm wolfy snuggle.

Q: Westley's fans have become quite passionate From an acting perspective, what do you think is the secret sauce that makes him so appealing? Ray: I'm definitely using my bedroom voice most of the time for this guy. I have heard that it can be...most enticing....

Q: Are there any lines or beats with Westley that stick out to you? Ray: I'm a vegetarian, so it's always quite alarming when I have to do his butcher shop quotes! I can't believe he eats that much meat... But I guess it's better that he buys from a friend than go roaming the woods at night… And that's a wrap! Thank you for reading! Victoria and the Studio Drydock Team Find out more about Wylde Flowers Here

#wylde flowers #westley #cozy games #farming sim #indie games #vgm #voice acting #farming games #nintendo switch

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the-broken-truth · 1 year ago

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Broken-Style Remix: No Peace For A Peace God

Broken: Hello, Everyone! My friend - @anxiousnerdwritings - allowed me to make a small snippet they created about a Minor God of Peace Reader leaving the Patheon they were in to live their immortal life in the mortal world; however, coming in contact with Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman and the Amazons makes that rather difficult. Let's see how everything goes. Let the words weave together!

Note: [Name] is a Minor God of Peace in the Greek Patheon; I chose Greek because the Amazons have ties to the Greek Patheon. This one-shot will be told from a first-person perspective.

Based on my observations, it seems that people eagerly anticipate the point in their lives when they no longer have to work. They view it as a time when they can live off the money they've saved over the years or the pension they receive from the government. Sometimes, I wonder what my life would have been like if I were a human being, attending school, getting a job, starting a family, and growing old before passing away and potentially being reincarnated to start anew.

Alas, fate did not wish that kind of life for me; thus, I was given the life of an immortal, even if my former role in the patheon was not are important as others were.

I am [Name], a Minor God/Goddess and the God/Goddess of Peace in the Greek Divine Pantheon. However, I must clarify that the rightful title of Goddess of Peace belongs to Lady Eirene. Though I am a Minor God/Goddess, I possess some powers similar to Lady Eirene's, but not on the same scale as hers. I can bring about peaceful solutions amongst mortals in small groups, such as villages and some of the other minor gods who reside on Mount Olympus. Lady Eirene, on the other hand, is responsible for maintaining peaceful relations between full-blown towns and councils with Olympus' Elite Gods. Although we both perform our duties well, Lady Eirene's name is more well-known and overshadows mine. As a result, I rarely receive offerings and prayers, and although I know I shouldn't be upset about it, it sometimes hurts my feelings.

As time passed, I began observing humanity closely and grew curious about their way of life. I even found myself envious of them. I considered leaving Olympus and living my immortal life among mortals, but my duties as a divine being held me back. I thought I still had a place among the gods and goddesses of Olympus, so I stayed.

One day, Lord Zeus invited all the minor and major gods and goddesses from other realms to a party on Mount Olympus. I arrived just before the party started, but was stopped by Lord Ares and Lord Zeus before I could enter the Great Hall. They told me that I could come to the party, but I argued that I was also of divine origin and therefore should be allowed in as well. Lady Eirene appeared, sensing the tension, but instead of vouching for me as a fellow god of peace, she told me that I shouldn't consider myself a god or goddess since I rarely received any offerings or prayers. She told me to leave Mount Olympus since the night was for the "true gods". That was the last straw for me.

I told them that I would no longer listen to them and that I wouldn't be tied to them by my divine blood. I abandoned Olympus and my fellow gods and goddesses at that moment and descended to the mortal realm. From that day on, I would live the remainder of my immortal life as a mortal. I was finally free.

Although I have lived for centuries, I appear to be only 18 years old. During my long life, I have accumulated a vast collection of gems and treasures. With the aim of starting my life anew, I decided to sell a small portion of them and make a decent amount of money. I took my collection to an appraiser, who gave me a fair price. Since I didn't want to stay in Greece any longer, I used the money to purchase a ticket for the first boat out of the country.

Destination?

A place known as Gotham City.

The boat ride from Gotham was long but that gave me all the time I needed to make the proper plans I needed to start my life over: I would use my power to give myself citizenship by creating the necessary documents such as a birth certificate and social security number. Next, I would find a decent place to live before finding a job; I may have the funds I need to live on, but I still need a life for myself. I made a mental note to purchase a device known as a 'cell phone';; a passenger on the boat was watching something 'videos' on a social platform known as 'YouTube'. I was going to need this strange device and knowledge of these social media platforms if I truly wanted to be a human.

I acquired a cell phone and started searching for apartment listings in my area. I found a decent 2-bedroom unit with a bathroom, living room, dining room, kitchen, and a balcony. I contacted the realtor and he was eager to show me the apartment the same day. We agreed to meet at a local cafe that was currently hiring for a barista and baker, as it was located right down the street from the apartment. Before the realtor arrived, I managed to pick up an application from the hiring manager. We then walked to the apartment, which was rather nice with dark wooden floors in the living and dining rooms, tiled floors in the kitchen and bathroom, and carpet in the bedrooms. The rent and deposit were reasonable, and the realtor had the paperwork with him. He told me that if I signed it, I could move in the same day. I had a look at the leasing contract to ensure that there were no hidden terms, and upon finding nothing, I asked a few questions with the recording app on my phone to use as evidence in case the realtor tried anything suspicious later. After signing the paperwork, I received the keys to the apartment and mailbox. The realtor informed me that I would receive a copy of the lease in the mail, and then left me alone in my new apartment.

A week later, I returned to the cafe with the filled-out application for the barista and baker positions; after a test to prove I would be capable of handling the tasks under pressure - there wasn't really any pressure since I used my aura to keep everyone calm and acting decent and in order - I was given the job.

It would be another month when my mortal life started shifting in another direction upon meeting Bruce Wayne.

I was working the morning shift when a well-dressed male with piercing blue eyes walked into the cafe and walked over to the counter; there was no line since I already handled it an hour ago. He ordered a dark coffee and a strawberry cheesecake muffin before he took a seat in the booth; there was something about him that radiated sadness. He continued working on his laptop for about 2 hours, long since finishing his coffee and muffin; I made him another coffee, warmed up another muffin, and placed them before him, causing him to look at me with confusion in his eyes, I smiled at him.

"You seem like you are under a lot of stress, these are on the house." I said before walking away. Just then, the door burst open and 3 masked figures barged in with guns, causing everyone to scream in fear while cowering in their chairs but I refused to move from where I was standing. The leader of the group pointed his gun in my face but I looked calmly down the barrel before lifting my hand and moving the gun away before looking into his eyes - into his soul - and his secrets were revealed to me; he was doing this out of desperation.

"Do you think that she would want you to do this?" I asked, causing him to look at me confused, "I know that you are not doing this because of malice in your heart. I know that you are shaking in your soul with fear and anxiety. You want to be a good son and save the woman who gave you everything but this is not the way to do that."

"Then, what can I do? What other option do I have?" He whimpered at me. I reached into my pocket, pulled out a small ruby, and held it out to him before placing it in his palm.

"This is a Burmese Ruby. A Ruby of this size should be worth around $20,000; that should be more than enough to pay for her treatment and aid you in what else you need for a while. Please, never resort to this again; there is always a better way. Do you swear this?" I asked. He looked at the ruby, closed it in his fist, and sobbed before hugging me for a few moments and leaving with the other masked them. Everyone watched me for a while as I walked back around the counter to continue working as if nothing ever happened.

It would be about 3 days later when I received a visit from the Guardian of Gotham.

I had just arrived home after a long day at work, and the visage of a piping hot pizza filled my mind as I pulled out my phone and called my favorite pizza place and asked them to deliver my favorite [Pizza Type] pizza along with [Favorite Soda Type] soda with an [Dessert] in addition; I had some extra cash and I felt like I deserved something sweet for all my hard work. I sat down in my favorite chair and turned on my television to watch [Favorite TV Show] while waiting for my pizza. I was intuned with my show when I felt a familiar aura coming from my balcony, I looked in that direction and saw a towering figure standing on my balcony, watching me while blocking out the moonlight. I rose from my chair and walked over to the door before sliding it open and came face to face with a man in a bat suit. I looked at his face, the upper part of his face covered by his ask with a glare on his face as he looked down at me; however, his aura gave him away.

"You are aware that I don't have muffins and coffee here, right?" I asked with a raised eyebrow and a smile on my face; he looked shocked by my words and marched into the apartment, causing me to close my door and walk over to him with my arms folded, "Is there a reason you are wearing that suit and staring at me through my window, Mr. Wayne?"

"How do you know who I am?" He asked.

"Your aura gave it away - you're radiating the same sadness you were the moment we met. You can change outfits but your aura shall always remain the same.

"You can read aura? You are not human." He said.

"Nope. I'm not human, however, I do prefer to live like one; I've been living like this for the past month & a half and I prefer living to this than I did my previous life." I shrugged.

"If you aren't human, what are you exactly?" He asked.

"I'd rather not say." I heard a knock on the front door, and my mouth started watering, "Food's here! About time!" I walked to the door, greeted the delivery man, and paid for my food while giving him a generous tip before closing the door behind me with my foot since the food was in my hands; I looked around to see Burce was no longer there but I didn't care. Time to eat!

Life going forward would be difficult after meeting Burce Wayne because he didn't learn how to leave me the heck alone. He would come to the cafe and attempt to make conversation with me, trying to gain personal information about me. He would show up at my apartment as Bruce and Batman constantly trying to make me change my lifestyle to a 'healthier' one; he doesn't approve of the additional muffins I take home or the amount of frozen food I have in my freezer. Even when I am out in public, he somehow manages to find me and tries to interfere with my plans or worm his way into them. Then, he literally tried to tell me that I would be adopted into his family; no matter how many times I refused. He was really starting to get on my nerves.

It would be another month when I met another person who would attempt to uproot my life & alter it to their liking: The Man of Steel, Kal-El.

While working at a cafe, I discovered my passion for drawing, specifically digital art and animation. One day, I came across a contest on TV offering a drawing tablet as the prize and decided to enter. To my surprise, I won the contest and received the setup at my doorstep a week later. I set it up in the second room of my apartment, which I converted into an office. Initially, it took me some time to get used to the tablet, but soon I started creating digital art and animations, which I shared on my social media accounts. That was the beginning of my journey.

After accumulating a massive following on Facebook and Twitter, I received a message from an Animation Company stationed in Metropolis; they were requesting that I come in for a meeting for a possible partnership in regards to my art and animations. I agreed to their request and I received the time and date for the meeting; Metropolis was a decent distance away but I happened to have purchased a motorcycle last week and was looking forward to the meeting.

I got on my bike with my flash drives full of art and animations and headed to Metropolis for a meeting. Once I arrived at the building, I gave my name to the receptionist, who then took me to the meeting room. There, I presented my work and the representatives were thrilled with it. They offered me a generous signing bonus and commission for every artwork and animation I created for them. I agreed to do commission work as I wanted to keep my weekend job at the cafe but would work on their projects during the week. After reading and signing the business deal, I left the building. As I was leaving, I bumped into a tall man with light blue eyes, black hair, glasses, and a reporter's outfit with a camera around his neck, as well as a notepad and pen in his hands. He introduced himself as Clark Kent, a journalist and reporter for the Daily Planet of Metropolis. He wanted to interview me as the youngest person to be hired by the Animation Company. I offered to take him to lunch and give him the interview he was looking for after hearing his stomach growl.

During our conversation, he told me about his family: His wife and work partner, Lois, his son, Jon, and his younger brother, Connor; as well as his parents John and Martha Kent. I expressed how lucky he was to have such a close family since I wasn't close with my family. He seemed sad for me and offered to have me meet this family and even offered to have me take the Kent Name for myself since I didn't have a surname, but I refused his offer and went back home to start getting to work on the content my new bosses wanted me to do for completion in 2 weeks time. However, that would not be the last time I would ever see Clark Kent.

I was doing work in my office when I got a video call from Bruce, who was still pestering me to join his family and become [Name] Wayne, but I continued to refuse him when I noticed there was another request for a video call from someone I didn't recognize; curiosity got the better of me and I accepted the call - it happened to be Clark.

Clark (Smiling): Hi, [Name]! How are you doing today?!

[Name]: How did you get my contact information, Clark? I didn't give it to you the last time we talked.

Clark: I happen to have a friend who knew you and I got your contact information from him, but that's not important right now! Have you thought about what we talked about?

Bruce (In the background): You were the one who broke into my computer and stole [Name's] Contact Information, Kent?

Clark: Bruce? Is that you?

[Name] merges the call between Bruce and Clark]

Clark: Bruce, why are you talking to [Name]?

Bruce: I can ask you the same thing, Kent. I'm am trying to convince [him/her] to accept the Wayne Name.

Clark: The Wayne Name? No way that's happening! [Name] is going to become a Kent!

[Name]: I'm not taking either of your names nor am I joining your families. The Bat-Family & Super-Family have nothing to do with me and I want nothing to do with either of you. Now, I'm working, leave me alone.

[Name] Leaves The Video Call]

After that video call, it was silent for about 3 weeks, I thought the two of them got the message and decided to leave me alone; however, I couldn't be more wrong.

It was around that time a 3rd Player entered the game and I was going to have a hard time shaking this one off.

The Princess of the Amazonian Nation and Defender of Man's World: Diana of Themyscira.

It was one of my days off and I had nothing better to do, so I decided to do something I hadn't done in a long while - go flying. I waited for the sun to leave the sky and the full moon to shine, I stood on the roof of my apartment complex and made sure no one was around before I allowed my Divine Power to flow through my body and took off into the thick layers of clouds. Using the clouds as cover, even though I was almost certain no one could see me from this height, and if they happened to see me, they would have most likely mistaken me for a bird. I was enjoying myself, feeling the breeze on my face when I felt another aura quickly approaching me; I stopped flying and floated there for a while I noticed a figure approaching me and stopped a few feet away from me - A Woman.

No.

An Amazon Warrior.

"I am Diana of Themyscira - Princess of the Amazon Nation. I have served the gods faithfully and have always been able to sense when someone of divine blood was near. Imagine my surprise to find a Divine One masquerading as a human and living as one. I heard of your actions from 2 Males I have been working with to protect Man's Word; I can feel it within you - You are a God/Goddess, I can tell from your aura." Diana explained to me, I exhaled before folding my arms while looking at her.

"You are correct, I am a God/Goddess of Peace; however, I am a Minor God/Goddess. I was sick of the way I was being created on Mount Olympus and decided to leave and live as a human. I have been enjoying life as I have been now; with the exception of Bruce Wayne & Clark Kent bothering me to join their families, alas, they refuse to take no for an answer." I exhaled with a shake of my head at the thought of all of Bruce's & Clark's attempts.

"They shall not get the chance. You are of Divine Blood and you need to be treated as such. You shall come with me to Themyscira and we shall worship you as you are meant to be." Diana said.

"I'm not interested. I love being a human." I said.

"You are not human...and you shall not continue to live as one. Come with me willingly, or I shall take you by force." Diana warned.

"I said that I am not interested. Goodbye." I said. She charged at me and attempted to grab my arm but I vanished and teleported back to my living room in a flash of gold light.

I ran my hand through my hair, pulled out my phone, and requested a month's vacation from both of my jobs. Once I received confirmation on both ends, I called a friend who owns a cabin in the woods, away from Gotham & Metropolis, and asked to use it for a month. He agreed since he owed me a favor. I packed a few things such as clothes, my sketch tablet, grade & color pencils, and my wallet. I made sure my bike was locked securely and asked my neighbor, who I was on good terms with, to watch my house while I was out of the city. After receiving confirmation from her, I went back inside to grab my suitcase before teleporting to the cabin's location since I had been there before. I knew where the spare key was and went inside to get some sleep. I just wanted to relax.

Currently, I was sitting on the porch of the cabin with a cup of coffee in my hands when I felt 3 Familair Auras approaching my current location; I knew they were going to find me eventually but I was surprised it took them this long - my vacation was going to be over in 3 days; might as well deal with this now. I sipped my coffee just as a black bat-themed jet appeared over the treeline before hovering on the ground and the cockpit opened as Batman jumped out and started walking towards me as Superman and Wonder Woman landed on the low grass at the same time, glaring at each other before glaring at Bruce who was standing before me, telling me it was time for me to join his family.

Superman matched over to his dark-dressed friend and grabbed his shoulder to push him away from me while barking that I was going to go to the Kent Farm in Smallville, Kansas to live with his Pa & Ma; he already told them about me and they were looking forward to meeting me and welcoming me to the Kent Family.

Wonder Woman pushed the two men apart and roared at them that I was a God/Goddess, therefore I needed to be treated like one and not a human as I have been living for the past few months. I would go with her to the Amazon Island and be worshipped as I was meant to be; while that would have interested me in the past, I wasn't interested in it now.

As for me, I just sat there watching them before exhaling, 'Just as there are geniuses in Humanity, there are also idiots.'

[End of the Remix]

Broken: And done. What do you think, @anxiousnerdwritings?

#minor god reader #yandere dc #platonic yandere #batman #superman #wonder woman #bruce wayne #clark kent #diana of themyscira #yandere

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thewisecheerio · 6 months ago

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Elden Ring is anti-war propaganda that is directly relevant to things happening in the world right now.

All the spoilers. All of them. And additional content warning for discussions of genocide and war, and mentions of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.

Also big thank you to @starofancunin for asking a really good question about Queen Marika's motivations, which helped me better structure some of this post.

So in the base game, we knew that God Queen Marika committed a bunch of atrocities against other races. We thought this was just a bid for control in the base game, because lords war--even in our world--over things like power and territory and resources and racism. That was a perfectly fine motivation from a story perspective. But there were a lot of lingering questions about why she wanted that power in the first place.

What we learned in the DLC is wild. At some point in your wanderings, you come across where Marika is from. And you learn that the people she started her war against--the Hornsent--were killing her people first in really awful, gruesome ways. Her genocide seems to have followed another genocide.

Art by Halima Aziz. Follow here: https://www.instagram.com/palestinianartist/

So the order of events seems to be something like this:

1) The original sin Hornsent genocide Shamans (Marika's people) in the form of Jar rituals.

2) Marika's first choice Marika, tired of death, decides to seize control to stop this and sets off to become powerful enough to do so.

3) Marika's ascension She becomes a god and returns home to take control.

4) Death of the Shamans While she was away, all of the Shamans--all of her people--have been killed, kidnapped, or gruesomely tortured. The game tells us no one is left in her home town when she gets back.

5) Marika's second choice She decides on revenge instead.

6) The war of revenge begins Marika starts a war against the Hornsent, and brainwashes (at least some of) her children into soldiers to help her carry it out.

7) The war's sphere of violence grows The war doesn't end once Marika (or rather, her child on her behalf) has decimated the Hornsent. She starts decimating a bunch of other nonhumans (e.g. misbegotten) most likely in a bid to maintain control and "order" (that word you keep using, Marika...I do not think it means what you think it means). Because of course people are rebelling against what she's doing. And if they rebel, they need to be quelled, right? They're disrupting law and order and must be put down. It doesn't matter whether their dissent is a direct response to her violence; it's disorderly and must be controlled, of course.

8) Marika reverses course A long time later, Marika comes to eventually regret what she's done, likely due to the fact that her own children are either in the act of rebelling (see Ranni, Rykard, Mohg, Melina, Miquella) or are outright killed (Godwyn). The part of her personality that was always about healing--the part of her that bathed her (empty) village in gold healing light as a passionate tribute--reasserts control. So she forms a 4D chess plan to try to overthrow her own order. This is the base game's story in which the PC is tasked with stopping this nonsense on her behalf, since she can't do it herself for Plot Reasons.

9) The PC sets out to stop a new cycle of violence Either after or during that storyline (depending on player timing), the PC is sent to the realm Marika came from to learn all the history in 1-7 and stop another threat from repeating her mistakes (even if the big bad is probably, maybe, technically well-intended).

"When Family is the Only Shelter", painted during the assault on Gaza in 2021, by Malak Mattar. Follow here: https://www.instagram.com/malakmattarart/

So at the end of the day, Elden Ring criticizes the idea that genocide (or just plain war) as a "solution" to a past genocide isn't going to work, but rather will just perpetuate a cycle of blood. Marika's people had something absolutely fucked up happen to them, yes. But genociding them back didn't bring her people back. In fact, it directly led to a bunch more violence against (what became) her (new) people and other previously uninvolved races.

Someone characterized Elden Ring's cycle as "An endless trail of old women weeping over the bodies of their dead children", and yes. It's a good statement about the game, but also about cycles of violence. We know Marika wept over her murdered village. Subsequent to that, we meet Grandam in Belurat weeping over her people. And finally we see Marika weeping over her dead child in the base game.

Vincent van Gogh's "Weeping Woman", 1883

I am immediately reminded of parallels to how Israel is reacting to Palestine. The story was written before the most recent events, so I don't think that's intentional; rather, I think it's just that war follows the same old predictable patterns.

I hear a lot of people suggest that Israel is wholly in the right in the most recent assaults because they were "attacked first" (and sure, they were, if we arbitrarily start counting from 2023), and that therefore their retaliatory genocide is okay. The point, though, is that it's not an actual solution and probably much more complicated than that. Genociding back someone who attacked you (even multiple times) isn't actually a solution in our world, just like it's not a solution to Marika's problems. Such violence doesn't bring their lost children back, and it doesn't lead itself towards a true peace (or "true order" in Golden Order lingo). If anything, it breeds more bad blood and more violence--and we see that play out in the DLC where one of the surviving Hornsent literally sets out to get revenge again, starting a 3rd cycle of violence.

In fact, the long-standing oppression of an underclass of people followed by a vengeful genocide is more likely to make them rebel with violence than to join you--as we have seen play out both in the game and in Palestine's relationship to Israel. Would people actually be attracted to Hamas's violence were there not decades of discriminatory policies against Palestine? It's worth asking. After all, most people are not violent by nature, but by circumstance.

Art by Hadil, follow here: https://www.instagram.com/hoist_thecolors/

The PC's job in Elden Ring is literally to try to find a solution, in the form of 1 of 6 endings. And I find it fascinating that the default ending where you do nothing but seize power in your own name is called the "Age of Fracture" and hints that nothing has really changed except that you're in charge now. The world is still fractured. No one is unified. Violence is still going to happen under your (lazy) watch, because you predicated your reign on violence--just like Marika. It suggests that if you don't actually come up with a creative solution to the problem to ensure everyone is treated like humans (or sentient beings anyway), then the PC themself is also perpetuating the same cycle of violence in the name of power or "order". It directly criticizes revenge substituted for restorative justice as a means to peace.

No, I do not know the solution to Palestine and Israel, because I am not some brilliant political scholar. Nor did I know what the "best" ending would be for Elden Ring. Breaking the cycle of violence is *incredibly challenging*, and I'm not the scholar to do it. I'm just some gamer seeing parallels in this magnificent work of fiction to our world, and think its criticisms are timely, relevant, and well-constructed.

#elden ring #elden ring dlc #elden ring sote #elden ring sote spoilers #shadow of the erdtree #shadow of the erdtree spoilers #israeli palestinian conflict

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wu-sisyphus-gang · 7 months ago

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9 Days of Lancaster: Dealer's Choice/First Date

I struggled to consider what I was doing right now my first date. Especially with the context that recollections of some of Pyrrha’s and I’s ‘outings’ provided.

Fuck.

Not dwelling on that.

By any other measure, a stroll through some town market with a guy and a girl who were now a thing was a date, right? Even though it was a patrol and we did basically the same thing yesterday, now it was different. Now we were ‘together.’

Ruby didn’t seem to mind at all, though, she flowed from place to place with her typical energy. It was as though she’d never been through these streets and past these stalls. She could just walk up to some person and talk to them.

I… I really liked that about her.

Fuck.

She called me over from some RV that seemed to be a permanent feature in the square. Some short-term-long-term food-truck-restaurant? I wasn’t sure, but when she spun and called to me with a wave, I felt my jaw and was struck by the realization that I wasn’t sure just how long I’d been holding my teeth clenched together.

My face ached but she made me smile anyways as I paced over to her.

She smiled right up at me and I had to look away. I really wasn’t sure how I was even supposed to look at her. I almost meant that literally. Could I just, like, look at her now? Whenever I wanted?

I was trying not to be stressed about her of all things right now. Still, though…

“What’s up?”

“They’re moving people in from around the area.” She explained. I cocked my head. Beihfing and I had both been united about a panic. “They started a few weeks ago. I guess after the tower fell, a lot of people moved to bigger places, weird.”

Oh, maybe they hadn’t all died. Huh. “It's not that weird,” I disagreed, I eyed the woman Ruby had been talking to. She was twenty-five--thirty with blonde hair which made her stand out a little here, but her skin tone made her a match for some of the locals in terms of origin. “You had to run?”

“Well we couldn’t order dust or anything and it was pretty scary being mostly alone.” She shrugged, her casual ease with her emotions struck me. I was a total fucking stranger to her. Well, I was also a huntsman, so I didn’t analyze it and just nodded. “It was a good thing too, what with the other villages.”

I figured it was an open secret in GaiLong at this point, but I wasn’t sure. That kind of news would travel fast until everybody knew it at which point, why bother pretending? It was common knowledge.

“What’d you need?” I asked the two.

It was Ruby who lured me in. “They wanted to pull the motor and alternator out of it and use it as a winch for other stuff. They’ve already pulled out all the bolts, but they don’t - well, if they already had a winch then they wouldn’t do this.

“So?”

She rolled her eyes, “so nobody but you can lift it.”

The woman looked down at Ruby. “I’m telling you it weighs, like, four hundred pounds, easy.” I walked around and looked down into the hood. It was some dust-based thing with Atlas stamps, all smooth edges. It wasn’t designed to be repurposed. It was designed, perhaps, to not be able to be repurposed. Some technology was like that.

I reached down with one hand and, with a heave and a grunt, I lifted it and set it down. Ruby absolutely could have lifted it.

The woman blinked at me. “Oh uh.” Her eyes flicked to Ruby and back to me. “Could you set it over here? Then? If it’s not too much trouble?”

“Uh, no.” I returned.

She glanced at Ruby again. “No?”

“No, it’s not any trouble.” I clarified or tried to. “I didn’t mean… Not ‘no’…” I sighed. “Where do you want it?”

Ruby was laughing at me. I could see it as I passed her, following the woman to some cinder blocks. Our reward was something which I was assured was not ice-cream but was some kind of frozen custard-yogurt-stuff with sugar in it.

To me it was good, for the time that I had it, that is. When we returned to the inn I still hadn’t showered after Ren and I trained that morning. Then I made the mistake of entrusting my teat to Ruby who had already nearly finished hers.

When I got out of the shower there were only a few bites left of mine. “Ruby-“

“I left you some!” She pouted at me. I watched her take the last bite of hers from where she sat on her bed and set it daintily on the nightstand. Then she looked up and her smile never changed but she leaned forward onto her hands and stared at me.

I abruptly felt like covering myself, the towel and shorts I had on still showed off most of what I looked like. “Are you just going to stare at me?”

She blinked like I was alien. “Yeah.” Fair enough. I started putting on clothes anyways as she rolled around the bed. “I mean you stare at me, too, right.” I did. I had more than usual today, too, I didn’t want to hide what I felt from her. She continued, though. “I mean maybe not. Maybe, you like to look at girls like Sahov more?”

“Who?” I wondered.

She tossed a pillow to my face. “The girl we were just talking to!”

“Um…” I trailed off.

She slumped down into the covers. “Forget it.”

“Ruby,” I started. I pulled a shirt over my head and began walking over to the bed.

“I said forget it!”

I sat down. “Rubes you know you’re incredibly good looking right?”

“What?” She sat up from under the covers. “Yang’s the pretty one, I’m the cute one.”

“Ruby, if I didn’t know you and you came up to me on the street and started talking to me, I would assume I was being pranked somehow.”

“Ugh.” She let me know her disgust, but she wasn’t under the covers anymore and she was giving me this much sort of… sly smile.

I’d never seen that one before and it wasn’t something I usually associated with her. She crawled onto my lap and turned to face me, burying herself in the crook of my neck. I hesitated for a moment but let my arms rest around her slightly.

“You really don’t think I’m cute.” She blushed. “I mean…”

“Oh yeah I just can’t stand to look at you,” I kissed her. Her bottom lip fit between my two and my ego was fed when I felt her relax in my arms. I chuckled as I pulled away.

She hit me and she was as red as I’d ever seen her. “Butt.”

When I started laughing, she shut me down by kissing me again.

#rwby #rwby incorrect quotes #jaune arc #ruby rose #lancaster #9daysoflancaster #motion sickness

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gamerbearmira · 11 months ago

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I quite literally have no idea

Yeah, originally I was gonna do the vampire au, then the werewolf kids au, but then it just. Morphed into this. Enjoy it, idk <333

ESKIETET

—————

Mirabel walked with Camilo in the village. The pair of five-year-olds were giggling wildly at a joke Camilo made, a rather dumb one. But who could blame them? They were only 5, and it was a funny joke.

As they walked, they passed by a cart. Mirabel's eyes lit up, and she skipped up to the cart, Camilo hot on her heels. "I want a cone!" Mirabel said, her voice practically a demand. The ice cream vendor wasted no time and scooped the ice cream from the large cold basin into a cone.

Mirabel got her way. She always did. When her ceremony failed, her abuela just couldn't bear to see her Mariposita so unhappy and got her a room. And she loved it, and she loved her Abuela for doing everything just to get it for it. Mirabel was adored by her family, and she was well aware of that fact. It wasn't said out loud by anyone in the village but...Mirabel was spoiled.

Very spoiled.

She always got her face. And she was fiercely defensive of her family. She loved them to pieces and reveled in the attention that was showered on her. She would do anything to keep them happy, just like how they had done for her on her second attempt at a birthday party.

Mirabel smiled as the ice cream vendor handed her a cone. As she went to enjoy it, she saw Camilo fiddling with the fringes on her poncho. She stopped for a moment, her eyebrows furrowing before she looked at the man again.

"Give him a cone too. Now. And make it fast," Miravel said, pointing to her primo. Camilo's eyes lit up at the idea of also having ice cream.

The man looked towards Camilo. His expression changed, and with no hesitation, he flat-out told him a prince. "50 pesos for two scoops."

Camilo hesitated before digging around in his pockets. He left his pocket money at home. Mirabel noticed his saddened expression and the ice cream vendor's indifference. The fact that the ice cream vendor was charging him anyway irritated her, but she would fix this.

"Just give him a cone! He always helps out in town! I saw him yesterday helping you move your cart up the hill," Mirabel said, and she wasn't wrong. Just the other day Camilo had shifted and helped him, among the many other villagers.

"Look I can just...give out free cones. Bad for business. You're lucky I gave you one," the vendor argued, and Mirabel's top was about to blow. And Camilo could tell.

"Mirabel, it's fine, let's just go to the bakery or something," Camilo tried to reason.

"No! You want ice cream, and you deserve it. It's not fair!" Mirabel tapped her foot again, and by this point, her cone was melted. She paid little attention as she turned back to the vendor. "You WILL give him a cone! You have to!"

"Why? It's my business!" The man argued back. He wasn't entirely sure why he was arguing with a 6-year-old, but he wasn't going to lose.

"It's our Encanto! You wouldn't be anything if it weren't for me and my family! Especially Camilo!" Miravel snapped. She threw her cone to the ground. With a strong kick to her cart, Camilo finally pulled her away, pushing through the crowd. "You hear me? Nothing! I'll make sure no one buys from you again"

Camilo pulled Mirabel aside into a small alley, still holding her hand. The girl was breathing heavily, and Camilo pulled her into a hug. His jokester façade fell away, revealing a more gentle side that he only reserved for family, and even then, only Mirabel.

The girl eventually calmed down and Camilo pulled away. "You didn't have to do that. We could've just gone to the bakery."

"But that's not fair!" Mirabel said, stomping her feet. "I never get what I ask for, the villagers are mean!" Mirabel cried into her hands.

Camilo frowned at her prima's reaction. He pulled her closer, his hand on her cheeks, copying what his mama, tia, and abuela always did whenever Mirabel started crying like that. "Please don't cry Mirabel, it's not that big a deal."

"You deserve an ice cream cone! The whole family does! I don't like this village," Mirabel huffed, tears still in her eyes. With a sigh, she rubbed her eyes. "We should move."

"Or! We can still go to the bakery! Señor Marcelo always gives us treats there," Camilo suggested and Mirabel nodded.

"Yeah. Yeah, let's go," Mirabel grabbed Camilo's hand, rushing him out of the alley and towards the bakery. Camilo shook his head at the sudden mood swing. But he was happy he could make her feel better.

—————

Literally just one of Mirabel’s old concept designs with a few altercations. She’s very mf spoiled in this au. But the only people she’s a brat to is her family.

That’s all I got y’all, I just didn’t wanna leave y’all wit no content 💀💀

#my asks #my asks are open #encanto #encanto au #au #encanto mirabel #encanto camilo #spoiled rotten au

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theadventurerslog · 2 months ago

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Quest For Glory III: Wages of War | Part 1

The Adventurer's Log

Release Date: 1992

We saved Spielburg and we saved Shapeir. Now it's time to move to a new place in a game that wasn't originally supposed to exist, but they weren't ready for what they wanted to do in IV yet, so here go: Quest for Glory III time. What fate will befall Cinder Win this time? It's VGA graphics and point and click interface time.

Once again, not a blind play as I've watched it played, but anything wizard-specific will be new to me and I don't remember how to do everything.

Starting up I imported my character and had the option to be a Paladin thanks to my actions in 2, or stay a Wizard. After dithering I decided to stay a pure Wizard; that just stays closer to what I envision for Cinder. He is a Wizard dammit. Sorry, Rakeesh.

So these were my stats from last game:

Look at this fancy character sheet.

And after spending my available 50 points:

It opened up in Aziza's chamber. She summoned me and Rakeesh to see her.

She rehashed the end of the last game.

Slightly incorrectly I might add. I did not bounce my spell off the wall. I just moved around to a good angle to knock the brazier over. And where's the statue, huh? Anyway I got to see Ad Avis fall again and this time he got the Graham falling scream from King's Quest V, so that was quite something.

When Ad Avis died his magic was unleashed which meant she and other magic users could feel it and know the moment of his death. However, I guess things can never be simple because no one could find his body, and if there's one thing to learn from various media it's that a missing body is never a good thing. Even she couldn't determine who or what removed his body with her spells. The unleashing of his power might have darker results.

In the meantime she received a message from Rakeesh's partner, the Sorceress Kreesha, in Tarna in...Fricana. We're going African theming this time. There was talk of war there and she believed only Rakeesh could bring peace now. She thinks there's more to this and that a Demon has broken into the land and does what any demon does, and seeks to destroy them all.

In three days there'll be a portal to take us there.

So, three days later it was time to gather in the Sultan's palace where he saw me, Rakeesh and Uhura who wants to go home too, off.

And he had a gift for me from Keapon Laffin! My gnome friend!

Then a hug which was sweet.

I'm a sap, I'm a sap.

Then we arrived in Tarna where we were met by Kreesha. Uhura headed out. So some introductory stuff and a warning:

Booo, when can I use magic safely in a town dammit.

I needed some time to explore and adjust to the new interface though it is very similar to King's Quest V and VI. And I had to check out Keapon's lovely wrapped gift!

Sure did explode in my face.

I was left with the wrapping paper... "The wrapping paper is all that remains of Keapon Laffin's gift. He certainly has a strange sense of humor." Maybe that'll have a use. Silly gnome.

As for the rest of my inventory: I had 200 dinars and some of my inventory carried over: the sapphire pin from the Katta, my pills, a waterskin, and my dagger. I had a note from Shema to deliver to Shallah. I had some Spim which is rations. I'm pretty sure the reward for saving the Emir was supposed to be 1000 dinars though. Hmph, where's the rest of my money? Actually I do wonder how long our hero got to stay in Shapeir between QFG 2 and 3.

I had to start doing all the looking around.

Then it was time to chat with Rakeesh and Kreesha (their names are anagrams of each other...). You can also do the talk icon on yourself to greet and tell about stuff. But talking pulls up a dialogue tree of options.

The city and land around it is called Tarna and ruled by the Liontaurs. Uhura and her baby boy, Simba, have returned to her home, the Simbani village and we'll be going there in a few days to learn more about the war between the Simbani and the Leopardmen. In two days Rakeesh wants me to come with him to the Council of Judgement to attempt speaking to them of peace.

Rakeesh and Kreesha are lifemates. Kreesha is the magic council member in the Council of Judgement. Rakeesh's brother Rajah, is the King of Tarna and he's pretty hot-headed.

I could ask her about magic too and she said could teach me a spell that would allow me to channel my energy...! But not yet.

In the meantime it was time to explore Tarna, and leave Rakeesh and Kreesha to have some alone time together. Kreesha also had a room reserved for me at the inn.

Here, there's the King's Chambers up the stairs and on this level, the Apothecary and the Inn.

I went to the Apothecary first...

His name is Salim. Before I talked to him I had to look around as always.

That was the main highlight.

I tried the use icon on him:

Then I talked to this groovy...guy...radical, maaan. Just trying to get his vibe across here. So, it is the Apothecary, but he calls it Salim's Holistic Health and Happiness Eclectic Energy Emporium. He carries crystals and promotes peace and pyramid power...

He can't sell healing pills right now though. He needs the feather of a honey bird which I have to get non-violently or it won't work. That's one quest to add to the to-do list I suppose.

I could also ask about potions and lo and behold what should come up but a Dispel Potion. He was, of course, missing some ingredients: water from the Pool of Peace, a gift from the Heart of the World, and the fruit of a venomous vine. I guess Dispel Potions are just a tradition and staple of the series but they're made differently everywhere. Regional recipes I guess.

I could ask him about each, and in regards to the fruit of the venomous vine, got the best thing he's said yet:

One of the conversation topics was plants which led him to talking about a dream he had of being in a desert place and he was dancing with this tree when it changed. Suddenly the tree was like a woman and beautiful and it was magical. That gave me the option tell him about Julanar and how I'd helped her regain some hope. He was thrilled; the girl of his dreams was real! He planned to leave for Shapeir on the next caravan.

I... can't say he'd be my first choice to send to her, but hopefully for her sake it somehow works out? Whether or not anything further comes of it, the continuity is nice at any rate.

I tried to make a purchase just to see my options, but I needed to change my money first.

I popped by the inn just to see it for now.

Welcome Inn...

There was a bulletin board that had The Laws of Tarna:

Thou shalt harm none Thou shalt not use magic upon the streets of Tarna (booo and it won't even let me try) Thou shalt not take that which is not thine Thou shalt behave with honor

I also found...

A silly clown!

I chatted with the welcome woman, whose name turned out to be Janna Jamil, and learned that before I came the rulers of Tarna had sent out a party of diplomats to the Leopardmen, but only one person returned, Kharib, and he's not well now.

Kreesha's paying for my room, but I have to pay for meals... once I have the right currency. For now it just got added to my room charge. Thanks Kreesha!

It was time to poke into the bazaar.

Good ol' traditional moose head.

We've got a honey seller.

I could also ask about the honey bird. The bird gets people to follow it to a hive and then waits for the person to take honey from it and leave some for the bird. Maybe if I bought honey I could just use that as a lure to get a feather? I needed the right money though. There was also a rumour that Leopardmen are killing the Simbani people.

There was an oil salesman selling virgin olive oil. There was a rumour that the king of Tarna wants them to go to war in order drive all the humans away from city forever. A lot of liontaurs still don't get on with humans, but I don't think that particular rumour is exactly true. Or at least if the war was to be against the leopardmen that wouldn't be against the humans here.

Carrying on to the Junk salesmen, who are straight up a reference to Sanford and Son, which is a sitcom I'm not really familiar with, but looking it up, yeah that's basically just them.

There was a very enthusiastic weapon seller who tried to advertise his wares when I got close without my even talking to him. I didn't need weapons right now though.

I headed into the next area and ran into an altercation.

I chased after him into the next screen where a guard caught him and took us both to the Hall of Judgement.

The Council determined the thief, Harami, broke the laws and showed himself without honor. He was just scornful and then named honorless and sent away.

I was thanked for aiding the guards and was sent with Rakeesh to see the king, Rajah Sah Tarna.

I cannot for the life me figure out what's going on withe liontaur lady on the right. You can see where the other has her leg bent but this one is like serpent liontaur. Very strange. Anyway.

Rajah was very prickly and unimpressed with me. "Kreesha is the magic user of this land. Do you think you can out-enchant her?" And he was not too happy with Rakeesh either.

Rakeesh's daughter, Reeshaka, had led the peace mission that only had one survivor, so she's presumed dead. Rakeesh pointed out they still don't know exactly what happened and doesn't want to start a war and take more lives over this. I had the opportunity to defend Rakeesh. Rajah continued to not be particularly impressed, and I was told to leave them to their discussions.

Reeshaka would be Rajah's niece so he certainly has the right to be angry. He was still being a dick though. And war mongering isn't gonna help things.

But, there was nothing more for me to do there, so it was back out to continue exploring the bazaar. So, while my day is dwindling away next time it's time to get money changed and if there's time go shopping. Otherwise, bed time then shopping. Shopping will happen.

#quest for glory #QFG 3 #wages of war #QFG_3_Log #sierra #adventure games

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seandwalsh · 2 years ago

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Yes, Paper Mario is canon

This has been something the Mario lore community has largely accepted since 2015, but it seems a lot of newer folk aren’t quite so filled in! I’m writing this post to be a quick way to catch people up on the subject. This post is also adapted from a Reddit post, which can be read here. Same experience either way, more or less!

Part 1: For Context

The Paper Mario games tell stories of Mario’s adventures through an arts and crafts or pop-up book aesthetic. This is because from the very beginning, the Paper Mario games were meant to be set in a book that retold Mario’s adventures, but were accurate depictions of the mainline Mario universe.

Since our first priority was to protect the atmosphere and setting of the Mario universe, we decided to only use characters from the mainline Mario games. The side characters from Super Mario RPG therefore do not appear. I think that with Mario, sticking to the “main road” is the best. Plus, it would feel weird to have heavy themes like “betrayal” in the overall cozy, heartwarming atmosphere of the Mario world. (laughs)

- Ryota Kawade, Chief Director of Paper Mario (Nintendo 64)

We spent close to a year and a half trying out different character ideas. We also tried using pre-renders like SMRPG, but we figured it would be more fun for us to attempt something completely different this time, and that paper-y Mario was the result.

- Hiroyasu Sasano, Support on Paper Mario (Nintendo 64)

Herringway said he definitely wants to write your story. He even came up with a title... What was it again? Let's see... Well... "Paper Mario"!! What do you think!!??

- A Penguin, Non-player character in Paper Mario (Nintendo 64)

A real Mario Story told through the perspective of a storybook. Not at all dissimilar from what Dr. Mario 64, Mario Party 6, Super Mario Galaxy 2 and Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker all do.

This carries through to later games such as Paper Mario: Color Splash as well:

…I think one thing is that because this is taking place within the greater Mario world, we wanted to focus as much as possible on the familiar Mario characters.

- Risa Tabata, Assistant Producer of Paper Mario: Color Splash

This establishes the Paper Mario games as canonical events which also happen in the world of mainline Mario games, but despite this the developers were not afraid to have some fun with the aesthetic they were working with.

Although not the main focus, many paper-based gags were present in the world from the start.

Actually, the very first challenge Mr. Kawade and others had to face was how to cowince Mr. Miyamoto. For example, we had to explain how we'd utilise the idea of things being flimsy like paper to a large degree in the final game. The utilisation of paper-like elements was more of an 'improvemert' for him than an 'innovation' since the original idea was there with the N64 version.

- Kenshiro Ueda, Coordinator on Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door

Paper Mario:

- Characters are flat like paper and when they turn around their body turns like a sheet.

- In the intro sequence of the game, Kammy Koopa is taped into the story being told about the Star Spirits.

- The Star Spirits get turned into cards by Bowser and Kammy Koopa.

- When the veranda in Goomba Village falls and Mario fallls after it, he floats down safely like a piece of paper.

- When Mario rests in a bed, he similarly floats into it like a piece of paper.

- A Goomba masquerades as a picture on a signpost on Goomba Road.

- The clouds in the background of Goomba Road battles are held up with sticks.

- Mario enters and exits a pipe by folding like paper and spinning around its edges], which a Toad in Toad Town even calls attention to.

- Some Goombas lie down flat on top of blocks to hide from passers-by.

- Merlee folds Mario into cards when she casts her spell.

- Stilt Guys fall down as pieces of paper when entering General Guy’s Battle.

- A Star Kid in Starborn Valley “hides” by turning sideways.

- The stairs in the Crystal Palace unfold from the wall.

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door:

- Characters are flat like paper and when they turn around their body turns like a sheet.

- The fallen heroes of 1000 years ago place Curses on Mario, allowing him to turn flat, fold himself and transform into origami, such as a Paper Plane or Paper Boat.

- Boats turn around by rising out of the water before flipping around like a piece of paper.

- Mario enters and exits a pipe by folding like paper and spinning around its edges.

- The transition screen for entering an exiting a pipe crumples the screen like a page.

- When people in Rogueport are knocked down, they fall completely flat, parallel to the floor.

- When Mario enters a building, its walls and door unfold to reveal the interior.

Super Paper Mario:

- Characters are flat like paper and when they turn around their body turns like a sheet.

- The magical ability to “flip between dimensions”, going between 2-D and 3-D.

- Areas are “drawn” into existence when the characters first enter them.

- The Pixl Slim has the ability to turn the heroes “invisible”, represented by turning them sideways.

- Spiny Tromps are made out of cardboard.

- Sometimes a piece of paper will peel away to reveal a secret, such as a hidden chest.

- When turning into her spider-like form, Mini’s head unfolds like a piece of paper.

- At one point, Mimi says “I guess I'll congratulate you... by tearing you to little bits like stupid confetti!”

- Mario enters and exits a pipe by separating into and reforming from smaller pieces of paper, respectively.

- The transition screen for entering an exiting a pipe crumples the screen like a page.

- When Brobot enters battle, the screen is torn like a sheet of paper to transition from one scene to the next.

- One if the Sammer Guys, “Rolling Thwomp”, says “I ROLL OVER YOU AND MAKE YOU FLAT LIKE SHEET OF PAPER!”

- When Luigi performs his Super jump move, he folds himself like a piece of paper to charge before springing into the air.

- The audience that appears for Stylish Moves have jagged paper outlines surrounding their bodies.

Paper Mario: Sticker Star

- Characters are flat like paper and when they turn around their body turns like a sheet.

- Kersti’s magical “Paperize” ability makes the world “become as flat as a piece of paper”.

- Certain enemies such as Goombas use magic, likely provided by Bowser, to fold themselves into dangerous shapes.

- A stack of Toads act like a flight of stairs for Mario Warm Fuzzy Plains.

- Decalburg gets partially folded by Bowser’s magic.

- The Soggy status effect appears to temporarily affect Mario as water would a piece of paper.

Paper Mario: Color Splash

- Characters are flat like paper and when they turn around their body turns like a sheet.

- Huey’s magical Cutout ability “transcends dimensions” and cuts parts of the world like paper.

- Huey’s squeeze ability turns objects into paper.

- Magic Paint plays a major role, with it being sucked out of the denizens of Prism Island and used by Mario to restore the island to its former state.

- A Toad is turned into a letter by Bowser’s forces and mailed to the Mushroom Kingdom.

Paper Mario: the Origami King

- Characters are flat like paper and when they turn around their body turns like a sheet.

- The Origami Craftsman uses the magical Fold of Life technique to bring his Origami Creations to life.

- King Olly uses the magical Fold of Life technique to transform Bowser’s Army, Princess Peach and the Vellumentals into Folded Soldiers while turning the Toads into various Origami creatures.

- King Olly uses magic to bring the Origami Craftsman’s tools to life and make them giant, creating the Legion of Stationary.

- Mario and Olivia use Magic Circles to transform themselves using Origami Techniques, such as the 1,000-Fold Arms.

- The Toads and Mario in the Temple of Shrooms have holes punched in them by the Hole Punch and Bowser’s Minions are cut up by the Scissors guarding the castle. All of these magical effects are undone upon the bosses’ defeats.

With all that taken into account, it’s clear that this is genuinely a Paper World. However, since we also know that these events are supposed to take place in the real world, the only possibility is that the Paper Mario games depict events, locations and characters that exist in both the real world and the Paper World. We see these events from the perspective of the Paper World, but everything still happens in the real world without the paper aesthetics.

The opposite also applies, with all of the adventures the real Mario has been on occurring in the Paper World, with the paper aesthetics.

Part 2: How it Developed

In Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam, the lore of the Paper Mario world is greatly expanded upon. We learn that it’s a “parallel world” located within a legendary magical book. For the first (and as of writing this, only) time, we see the Mario cast interact with their Paper counterparts. This has lead some people to believe that the Paper Mario games didn’t occur in the real world, with Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam retconning what had already been established, but that couldn’t be further from the truth.

In fact, in Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam the opposite is implied. The game constantly calls attention to how the two worlds are exactly parallel through character dialogue. Some examples of this are Kamek and Paper Kamek coming up with the same plan to betray each other at the exact same moment and have the same proceeding conversation with their respective Bowsers, or when Peach and Paper Peach talk about themselves on Mount Brrr, realising how their lives and personalities are the same and even coming to the conclusion that they are the same person.

This was wholly intentional on the developers’ parts, with the core of the game being focused on showing inner depth to these personalities through interactions with their doubles:

Mario and Paper Mario, Princess Peach and Paper Princess Peach…It was fun to create interactions between different versions of the same character who come from different worlds like these examples. For this game, we created themes for each of the interactions between the main characters. We emphasized the characters’ personalities for each of the character interactions, such as Mario being curious about Paper Mario’s special abilities and trying to see if he can use them himself (even though both Mario and Paper Mario are the heroes of their respective worlds), the two Princess Peaches talking about girl stuff, the Bowser Jrs. getting along immediately like old friends, etc.

- Shunsuke Kobayashi, Director of Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam

Plenty of other games set in the real world have also referenced the events of Paper Mario games, further proving they occurred in the real world:

- Goomboss, who was created by Bowser using the Star Rod in Paper Mario, goes on to appear in Super Mario 64 DS and Mario Kart DS.

- Dry Dry Desert from Paper Mario appears in Mario Kart: Double Dash!!, with Dry Dry Ruins, which were discovered during Paper Mario, appearing in Mario Kart Wii.

- Bowser’s Castle from Paper Mario, which was created by Bowser using the Star Rod, reappears in Mario Kart: Super Circuit’s Rainbow Road.

- Goombette from Super Mario Odyssey is pink, just like the other female Goombas previously seen in Paper Mario and Paper Mario: the Thousand-Year Door.

- Snowmen from Paper Mario reappear in various games in the Mario Kart series with the same appearance.

- The Mystery Egg item, featured in Mario Kart Arcade GP 2, is a reference to Mini-Yoshi’s Egg from Paper Mario: the Thousand Year Door.

- Sky Guys from Paper Mario reappear in Mario Tennis Aces and Mario Strikers: Battle League.

- Red Chomps from Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door and Super Paper Mario reappear in a movie projected by the WarioWare: Touched! souvenir “Reel-to-Reel”, as well as on the Pyramid Park board in Mario Party 7.

- Suits of Koopatrol armor from Paper Mario, Paper Mario: the Thousand-Year Door and Super Paper Mario appear in Bowser’s Villa on Vibe Island in Super Princess Peach.

- Koopatrols themselves appear in Mario Pinball Land.

- Whackas from Paper Mario, Paper Mario: the Thousand Year Door and Super Paper Mario appear in Mario Party 6 on the Snowflake Lake board.

- The Snow Bunny item from Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door appears in Mario Party 6 on the Snowflake Lake board.

- The Headbonk move that Goombas perform in the Paper Mario series returns as an attack in Minion Quest: the Search for Bowser and Bowser Jr.’s Journey.

- The Star Spirits from Paper Mario reappear as hosts in Mario Party 5.

- Bowser Sphinx appears with Tutankoopa’s Headdress from Paper Mario on the Pyramid Park board in Mario Party 7.

- The names of Goombario, Kooper, Bombette, Moustafa and Tubba Blubba from Paper Mario appear on the scoreboards in Mario Golf: Advance Tour and Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour.

- Hammer Bros. appear with their uniforms from Paper Mario in Mario Kart: Super Circuit.

- In Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga there’s a room in the Woohoo Hooniversity that contains blocks Mario has encountered in his past adventures. Amongst these are blocks from Super Mario Bros., Super Mario World and Super Mario 64, with a block from Paper Mario also appearing.

- Green Magikoopas, Red Magikoopas, Yellow Magikoopas and White Magikoopas from Paper Mario and Paper Mario: the Thousand-Year Door reappear in Minion Quest: the Search for Bowser, Bowser Jr.’s Journey, Mario Superstar Baseball and Mario Sports Superstars.

- Dark Boos from Paper Mario: the Thousand Year Door reappear in Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time.

- Recovery Blocks from Paper Mario, Paper Mario: the Thousand-Year Door and Paper Mario: Sticker Star reappear in Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time and Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam.

- Star Haven from Paper Mario, is mentioned in the intro of the Japanese version of Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time.

The lore of the Paper Mario games in general is also clearly of great importance to the series as a whole, with Super Mario Galaxy’s Power Star lore being directly pulled from the original Paper Mario in large part.

With that, it’s clear that all of these stories, locations and characters indeed exist in Mario’s real world as well as the Paper World.

Part 3: Wrapping it Up

Finally, I’d like to address some common questions that people are left with.

Is it possible that only some Paper Mario games happened in the real world, while others happened in the Paper World?

No. The events of all of the Paper Mario games happened in both the real world and Paper World. It’s made clear that all of the Paper Mario games happen in the same universe as each other, and therefore all occur in both worlds:

- Paper Mario: the Thousand-Year Door has many callbacks to Paper Mario, through locations like Mario’s House or Dry Dry Desert and characters like Parakarry, Kammy Koopa, Lady Bow, Jr. Troopa and Moustafa.

- Super Paper Mario features portraits of Mario’s partners from Paper Mario and Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door in Mario’s House, as well as Catch Cards depicting them.

- Notes belonging to Goombella from Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door and Parakarry from Paper Mario can be found in the trash scraps of Shy Guy Jungle in Paper Mario Sticker Star.

- In Paper Mario: The Origami King, photos of Princess Peach from all previous Paper Mario games can be seen.

How do certain paper-y mechanics work in the real world, such as the Curses in Paper Mario: the Thousand Year Door or the Folded Soldiers in Paper Mario: the Origami King?

While many of the paper-y elements of the Paper Mario games can merely be acknowledged as gags and nothing more, story relevant ones like these still make sense within the real world.

Real World characters can be turned into paper, cut, folded or molded without major consequences. As seen in Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam, magical abilities like the Trio Attacks have the capability to turn real world enemies into paper, before cutting or folding them without any “real world” consequences outside of dealing normal damage. Keeping in mind that the Curses in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door and Origami Techniques in Paper Mario: The Origami King are too both magical in nature, it makes perfect sense.

Additionally, the real Mario games are no stranger to cartoonish gags as well. Looking to the Mario & Luigi series, for example, in Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, Luigi is able to be squashed into the shape of a surfboard, while in Mario & Luigi: Dream Team Luigi swims through the air to reach the blimp. Additionally, in Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, Mario & Luigi: Bowser Inside Story and Mario & Luigi: Dream Team, Mario is able to be blown up like a balloon or filled to the brim with water.

In the Mario Kart series, characters can be flattened like paper by being crushed by a player with a Mega Mushroom or by obstacles such as Thwomps on the track, before the effect wears off soon afterwards.

In Mario Super Sluggers, a Koopa Troopa hides within a poster, identically to how a Goomba hid on a sign in Paper Mario.

Stickers from Paper Mario: Sticker Star are not natural to the Mushroom Kingdom. The Stickers come from the Sticker Star, and rain down over the Decalburg region once a year when the Sticker Comet arrives.

The magical Paint found in Paper Mario: Color Splash is consistently described as a life force throughout Paper Mario: Color Splash:

“You know... paint! That colourful stuff coursing through our bodies?”

“The paint you just absorbed is basically my blood, sweat and tears.”

“Paint adds beauty and life to the world.”

“Where exactly are we supposed to find this magical, life-giving paint you speak of?”

“I did basically sacrifice my lifeblood to get you out of that pickle back there...”

“They’re sucking the very life out of this beautiful island!”

Paint also appears as a sort of “life force” in various games that take place in the real world, such as Super Mario Sunshine, Luigi’s Mansion and Bowser’s Fury. When Things, real world objects, are wrung out in Paper Mario: Color Splash, they too produce paint, proving that paint is not a substance exclusive to the Paper World.

Conclusion

The Paper Mario games occur in both the Paper World and the real world, but we see them from the perspective of the Paper World. All of the events, locations and characters from the Paper Mario series exist in the real world, with the events, locations and characters from the real Mario series existing in the Paper World.

Thank you for reading!

#mario lore #paper mario #super mario #mario & luigi #mario timeline

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four-loose-screws · 11 months ago

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FE2 Novelization Translation - Chapter 2 Part 1

If you would like to start from the beginning, read a missed part, etc., click here!

FE Game Script Translations - FE Novel Translations - Original FE Support Conversations

If you are interested in donating to support my work, please check out my Ko-fi here. Thank you!

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Chapter 2 - Mila’s Restoration Army

Part 1 - Celica Embarks on Her Journey

Black rain. Few people knew what it meant - just a fraction of clergy units - who learned of it in their studies and through their heightened spiritual senses.

The sky and earth are not filled with only good substances, such as the nourishment that fosters life. For whatever amount of good exists, so does an equal amount of bad. The black rain was the result of those bad substances gathering in such a great amount that they boiled over.

It was also proof that Earth Mother Mila was abandoning her very duties as the Earth Mother. That was the true meaning behind the black rain.

And why was Mila abandoning her duty? Had a god appeared that commanded greater control than she did? Or could it be that she was dead? So long as the black rain fell, ascertaining its cause was the sole duty of all clergy units in Zofia.

…About as far south as Ram Village, but off the southeast coast instead, was Novis, an island that took roughly three days to reach by boat from the Zofia Castle town harbor. If the Mila Shrine on the northernmost tip of Zofia was the Mila Faithful's mecca, then Novis was the central location for their clergy units to train and study.

The very same black rain that dirtied Sister Silque's cheek was also streaking down the windows of Novis' priory. A black thrush, resting its wings by the window to escape the rain, looked inside a room in the priory, and saw the bright lights of a lively banquet currently ongoing.

On this very day, a holy woman of the highest rank had been named, a Priestess unit who appeared only once every one hundred years, and excelled in both magic and sword. Because one of the core teachings of the priory was a life of modesty and simplicity, its members only drank herbal wine together. It was not a luxurious beverage, but it possessed a very deep meaning.

"May Mila bestow her divine protection upon Celica, of which she is more than worthy! May she guide this priory as Priestess to further deepen our faith."

This new Priestess' name was Celica. She was a young woman with thick hair as red as a strawberry. It had never been cut once in her entire life, and curled around her waist like a lion's mane. Transcendence need not happen at a specific age, but it was considered exceptional that she had transcended to Priestess at age eighteen. If Alm was a prodigy of swordsmanship, then Celica was a prodigy of spiritual wisdom.

After all of the various ceremonies were over, only the units closest to Celica gathered to celebrate, so the number of people at the banquet table was small. After the priory's highest ranked male clergy unit, the Sage Nomah, proposed the toast, Celica did not even drink a single drop in her glass, pursing her rose-colored lips.

Celica was still just a baby when she was brought to the priory. To Nomah, that was as unusual as her transcending to Priestess so young. He'd watched her grow her entire life.

Nomah said, "Celica, tell me what is weighing on your heart." He saw straight through her, taking her by surprise. "I will support your decision. Though I am three times your age, you are a Priestess, and I am a Sage. We are equals. I cannot stand in the way of your path."

Celica had been impatiently awaiting this day for a long time. Now that she was a Priestess, her mind was finally made up. She said, "I've decided to go to Mila's Shrine. I want to find out where she is, and learn why the black rain is falling."

Nomah was ready to hear those words. When he became a sage, he decided to devote his abilities to teaching the students who all loved the priory dearly. But Celica was different. She was choosing to go out into the world.

"The shrine is located on the northern tip of Zofia. You will need to travel across the entire continent. But Zofia is currently being ravaged by the civil war caused by Chancellor Desaix's coup-d’etat, and groups of Brigands are taking advantage of the chaos. I have even heard that evil spirits are being set free by selfish and heartless Mage units. The roads you travel will be a far cry from what they normally are.'

"I know the violence in Zofia is because of the strange things happening to Mila."

It was also unusual for a person of the highest clergy unit rank to thrust themself into the secular world. Priestess and Sage units were a symbol of every unit's soul, and their purpose was to serve as leader of a priory or shrine, and be a sacred figure who could not be swayed from their faith. But if one looked from Celica's perspective, they would know immediately why she was so determined.

And beyond all of those details, the black rain was currently a very real reality dirtying the roof of the priory. Nomah did not even attempt to stop Celica because he felt his aging body might prevent him from taking the long journey to the shrine; and as a holy man, he should devote himself to his sole duty.

"You should take as many people as you need with you." Nomah said.

In response, out of the numerous people sitting around the banquet table, three young units all stood up at the same time and walked behind Celica. Among them were two Mage units, a young man named Boey and a young woman named Mae. The final member was a cleric named Genny, who shared the exact same ideals with Celica. They all still had youth in their facial features, but Nomah knew they were the three top students at the priory who would go with Celica. She did not even have to ask.

"Sage Nomah is so formal it's a huge pain! He was like that the other day, too! He already knew that Lady Celica had decided to travel, and when he ordered me to travel with her, he also told me which chair to sit in, and exactly what to do, step-by-step!" Boey said from the back of the group.

Celica was the lead, the middle was Sister Genny, and Mae was in the back with Boey. They traveled in that formation down the road at night, the priory lights already far off in the distance.

Mae answered, "It's all because he loves her so much! You may not have noticed because you're a boy, but he had tears in his eyes. He really did! He even remembers changing her diapers! …Oh, that was rude of me to say out loud."

Celica looked back with a smile on her face. Mae bowed in response, but did not look too sorry about her own mistake, as she also quickly stuck her tongue out.

Boey snorted, folded his arms underneath his mage's cloak, and said, "Nomah is old. He's just gotten soft."

"Don't try to tell me you're some kind of big manly man!" Mae retorted to Boy's rude words without skipping a beat.

"You're such a child! I'm gonna call you babbling baby Boey!"

"I'll never forgive you for talking to me like that, Mae!"

"I'm just saying that a baby like you, who can only cast Thunder, can't understand how deep his feelings are."

"Is that a threat?!"

"You are so rude to women! How are you going to fight me when you slack off in your wind magic training every chance you get?! You know I'm better than you in every way. After I wipe the floor with you, you'll be begging me to forgive you! You're such a baby you can't even drink herbal wine without adding sugar to it. Babbling baby Boey!" Mae shouted.

Genny finally couldn't take it any more, and angrily stepped between them.

Ever since they came to the priory as children, as they both concentrated on their studies, they had developed a relationship like that of siblings. To outside observers, they sounded as if they were having an intense argument, but their fights were actually a sign of how close they were.

However, there was no time for them to have such fun right now.

There was a reason why they had decided to set out not in the morning, but at night. The base of Grieth's Pirates was located in the deserts of central Zofia, and they had for some time been sending ships out into the strait between Novis and the Zofian mainland. However, they were now finally beginning to act like Novis itself was their land to do as they pleased with. Though at first they acted as thieves stealing in the night, being little more than an annoyance to the people; recently, they had begun to show themselves during the day. Now, the greatest danger at night was simply the darkness, making it once again the safer time of day to be outside.

So long as nothing got in their way, they would make it to Port Novis by daybreak to secure a ship and travel to Zofia. However, that would not end up being the case, as Celica realized when she sensed a presence nearby, and stopped moving.

"Someone's coming! Stay in formation!" She said, and drew the sword at her belt.

"Is it Brigands?!" Boey whispered.

"No, not Brigands!" Mae answered. "I don't feel any warmth from their bodies in the night air. They aren't human!"

"Ghosts!" Genny shouted in response to the figure that appeared from the darkness.

Ghosts are the spirits of the dead, both those that no longer have a corpse; and those whose corpses had long ago been buried beneath the ground, then come out from the ground to gather together and take new form. One of Earth Mother Mila's duties was to keep the souls of all dead life within the ground so that they could not escape. Their appearance made Celica feel that something very, very wrong must be happening.

They had no idea how many ghosts there were. The ghosts wore withered plant matter, innards and bones of beasts attacked by wolves, and rotting flesh on their bodies to give them human-like form. Thinking that killing a human would mean they could obtain a new body that perfectly matched their desired form, the entire group inched closer and closer, their intent to kill very clear to sense in the air.

"Boey, Mae, protect Genny!" Celica said, and raised her sword. "This is a new type of Terror I have never seen before. Don't cast any spells until I give the order!" She jumped like a deer crossing between two rocks, and swung her sword at the head of a ghost.

Having taken a direct hit from the Priestess' sword, the ghost vanished, leaving behind its small pile of rotting matter.

"These guys are total wimps!" Boey breathed in surprise at the sight of how easily the ghost went down. "I'll show you what my wind magic can do, and you'll never say I slack off ever again!!" He said to Mae, underestimating the ghosts.

"Don't do it! What did Lady Celica just say?!" Genny shouted, but it was already too late. She tried to grab the hem of his mage's cloak to stop him, but it slipped through her fingers, and Boey ran off towards a group of ghosts still far off from them.

"Wind! Cut through my enemies!" He chanted a wind spell. For a moment, his body was enveloped by it, then the gust shot out and shook the ghosts' flesh and leaves. However, that was all it did before the wind petered out.

Without mastering a spell first, there was no chance that it could have an effect on any foe. The ghosts immediately circled Boey.

"You're such an idiot!" Mae shouted, and started running. As the ghosts wriggled their way closer and closer to Boey like maggots, she chanted a Thunder spell. "Thunder! Slay my enemies!"

A bolt of lightning appeared in the sky and pierced the darkness, falling amongst the group of ghosts, smashing them to pieces. After they all disappeared and returned to piles of rotting matter, Boey stood up from the middle of it all, covered in viscera and clumps of putrid stems and leaves.

Contrary to her ashamed expression, Mae was actually furious, but it was only a moment later that something made her freeze where she stood, and forget all about Boey's rash move..

She whirled around to see that Genny had been captured by a ghost. It was dragging her into the even deeper darkness of a cluster of trees.

When Genny looked at Celica, she saw her slashing away with her sword, surrounded by a group of seemingly never ending ghosts.

Mae ran after Genny, with Boey following after her. 'The ghost that took Genny must have disappeared around here!' She guessed, and walked into the trees, but their thick branches blocked the sun, and the area was truly pitch black. Then, a small ball of fire appeared from within the darkness when her torch went out.

The fire slowly got bigger and bigger, proving that it was coming closer and closer.

Was the fire the faint light that a ghost emitted? Or perhaps another new enemy? Mae froze once again, this new development making her nervous once more. She instinctively reached out to grab Boey's hand, who was standing next to her, proving that no matter what she said out loud, she still depended on him. Boey spread his cape open to hide her in its shadow and protect her.

The fire was now close enough that they could clearly see what it was - the light of another torch. A unit, holding a torch in their mouth, was always coming their way through the trees. Because of where they held the torch, Mae and Boey could clearly make out their facial features, and see that he was a young male unit with unkempt hair.

He had his torch in his mouth because something - or rather someone - was in his arms. It was none other than Genny, unconscious but safe.

An eye patch made from wolf hide covered his right eye, and judging by the light armor he wore, he was a Mercenary, a unit with their own freedom that worked under contract. A Mercenary's core principles were centered around their own personal profits. The benefits they could reap from their contract was their absolute. And so, when they met a Mercenary they did not know, it was common sense for all units to first judge whether or not they were an enemy. And on top of that, while Brigands ignored all rules, no units were truly allowed on the holy island of Nova aside from clergy, meaning his presence here was very suspicious. Boey did what was only natural, and shifted into a fighting stance.

"Thank you for your assistance. I have no intention of fighting you." The unit spit out his torch atop the grass and said. He paid no mind to Boey and his threat of a fight, instead gently laying Genny down beside the grass now brightly lit by his torch. "This cleric's quite a beauty. I assume she's with you religious sheep, and got snatched away by that lump of garbage."

Boey's face turned red with rage upon hearing words that belittled his sacred duties. "A hired thug like you has no right to speak to me like that!" Boey shouted, and drew the mark of a fire spell into the air.

"You may be overreacting, but seeing as how you couldn't protect a lone cleric, you don't seem to know much about magic!"

“Fire!” …Boey chanted and tried to attack, but the mercenary was too fast.

He must have been experienced in battle, as he danced expertly through the shadows of the complex and twisted trees. Whether wielding a physical weapon like swords or magic, terrain has huge influence over the effectiveness of an attack. That was why he put his back against the trees, and would never reveal himself on open ground like Boey and Mae were on. All Boey's fire magic did was turn three trees to ash.

"I'm not sticking around to be cooked and served for dinner! I'm not a sheep!" The mercenary shouted from the darkness before all signs of his presence finally disappeared.

#fire emblem #fe #fire emblem 2 #fe2 #gaiden #fe gaiden #fire emblem gaiden #fe15 #fire emblem 15 #shadows of valentia #fire emblem echoes #alm #celica #japan #japanese #translation #novel #light novel #fe2 novelization translation

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lomappreciationblog · 3 months ago

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Continuing from the previous post, here's the entry for the concepts of Flowerlings from the art book!

I'll be showing closeups again, but for the clarity here's the bottom text:

"At first, the concept was for all the Flowerlings to be old people. Flowerlings 2 and 3 were selected, and the female one became younger in that chapter. I was thinking of other flower motifs, like the cyclamen that appear to be looking down or cattleya with their frills that look like orchids. However, the shape and colors of the fuhcsia flowers that I saw around town left an impression on me, so I also incorporated them into the designs. (Ikeda)"

So like mentioned, Nao Ikeda made these three concepts based off the cyclamen, the fuchsia, and the cattleya. What we got in game were the "fuchsia," the male design, and the "cattleya," who became the females, though as Ikeda mentioned, they became younger in game and look more like young women.

By the by, Nao Ikeda has a wonderful eye for incorporating plant imagery and symbolisms into her characters - if I ever post the Dawn of Mana art, she explains what plant symbolism she gave each main character. In general, she's just really good at creative characters who follow a core imagery.

The "Cyclamen" design, also named 'Scarlet Salmon," didn't make it into the game, and as with the Sproutlings the original concept for the Flowerlings also seemed much different than we got. Here's the note:

"The 'Flowerling Village, where various clans congregate and live together, is a true flower garden. However, everyone there is old. One of them, 'Scarlet Salmon,' is nor an old man with a hunched posture, but he was really handsome when he was younger... By the way, when they hold still they looks like flowers, so when they start moving they startle the main characters."

Some of these concepts also mention where the races would have been first introduced, and it seems like they were originally set in the "Giant Swamp," but it seems to have been a location that is cut out of the story, I can't think of any place in-game that resembles a swamp.

So, according to these concept notes the Flowerlings seem to be a harmonious sort in whose village the different clans live together, but there's not much beyond that, so if I had to guess any questline they were supposed to have were cut and they became NPCs that were connected to Sproutlings, and like them sort of just pop up in a lot of places. It's a shame though, I think the scenario of Shiloh/Serafina being startled by what they thought were flowers is a neat one. Hmm, I do wonder if the concept of "living together harmoniously in their own village" was given to the Lilipeas, given what we see in "Catchin' Lilipeas."

So for comparison, here's the in-game Flowerlings:

One last note, in-game Flowerlings have minor roles in a couple fo quests, helping out the students collect reagents in "The Field Trip"...

And probably being a big source of headache for players in "Teatime of Danger" haha. Though...we just kinda accept Flowerlings have psychic powers, don't we?

One also pops up in "Niccolo's Businesss Unusual 3" as a poor target for our favorite swindler.

#legend of mana #flowerling

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chibivesicle · 2 years ago

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Trigun Stampede Episode 5 - subtle we are not; Monev the Gale, we only knew you briefly

Another Saturday morning has come and gone here and it means the next episode of Trigun Stampede. Still pushing that breakneck pace and jamming in more world building. For this week, I’ll start with the location map highlighting that we are in the Windmill Village. Which is the remains of a crashed ship that has a lot of windmills to provide power.

The episode starts with an establishing shot of the lack of wind at the Windmill Village. A man is speaking over the radio, clearly a sort of televangelist type with the fire and brimstone sort of pseudo-Christian worship. And if you’ve watched the original Trigun anime, you will immediately recognize that the radio preacher is Wolfwood’s VA, 速水奨, Hayami Shō, stylized as Show Hayami in English.

As his sermon continues there is a shot of two people kneeling in prayer before a sort of eye of god/cross banner in their home.

The two of them continue to listen to the broadcast, their hands clasped together and we get a shot of the younger child looking nervous before it cuts to the OP.

This opening segment establishes that there is a sort of hard line religious group and these two people are worshipping it, or at least the mother based on the awkward body language of the child.

Our next shot is of Meryl driving as a religious radio program is on the radio and she’s ready to change the station, also telling us that it is around 50 degrees C on this desert planet at the moment!

Don’t worry though, Roberto is here to info dump and tell us that the religious group around plant worship is newly established - only around for a few years in the Stampede timeline. While they discuss the social cultural context, Vash and Wolfwood are sleeping soundly, somehow Wolfwood is able to do so with a half smoked cigarette.

Since Roberto doesn’t want to really have an actual conversation with Meryl, he decides to mess with her and make up some story about the red desert sand around them - which of course scares the shit out of her and then she almost hits the carcass of a giant dead bug. Which when they inspect it, Wolfwood somehow is able to explain it was killed with a single one handed strike from a ‘person’.

Wow dude, way to try to cover that you aren’t an ‘undertaker’ and are a trained assassin. Are you even trying to blend in Wolfwood? I’m going to guess that Wolfwood likely knows who could have done this - perhaps not the specific individual but that he knows it was a modified human by the Eye of Michael.

They go onto investigate the ghost town further and conclude it died due to the lack of consistent wind. The entire exchange between Meryl and Wolfwood about it is just weird. What was the point of Wolfwood commenting that using wind power is dumb for Meryl to try to correct him that it is a flawed form of power if there is no wind?

The scientist in me has more of an issue with this set up of wind power is unreliable. If you don’t have a plant, your plan would be to have both wind power and solar. Since we don’t see any clouds at all on this desert planet. Additionally, when you do live in a desert it is almost super reliable that you will have wind power; I never got over how windy the desert is and how sunny it is when I lived in the desert. The solution for this plot point is a combination of wind and solar. You have advanced technology even if some of it is lost - you can have solar panels. Of course this then creates the issue of you need another piece of the puzzle to explain why plants are so important in this world.

It was always my understanding of the manga that besides generating power, the idea was that the plants also helped to stabilize the local environment for terraforming needs as highlighted in the anime episode and series of manga chapters around Little Arcadia (and the rest of the Nebraska family). Even if you had wind and solar power it was the extra special stuff that the plants helped to add to the local environment made it livable and arable for farming if one put in the time and effort. Little Arcadia implies that something from a plant sort of escaped into the land and the family that nurtured it were able to create a little oasis in the desert.

The group explore the area and Vash picks up a strip of cloth that is covered in dust before he’s shot at by gunfire. Someone is attacking him! Wolfwood rushes in with his weapon uncovered and yells at him to take an action.

I have to admit I’m missing the dramatic reveal of his Punisher from the original anime and manga, it always indicated that things are serious. Now, he’s just there and ready to go. The scenes keep flipping back and forth between the worried kid, Rollo and the action of the giant man in a mask with machine guns for arms. The kid overhears his mother talking with others about how he’s supposed to be the next sacrifice to god having been a child born on a windless day. Studio Orange is clear - being subtle is not their storytelling style in this. We know that young Rollo knows that he’s up next for some sort of weather/ritual sacrifice to save the town and of course he makes a run for it into the desert.

Vash gets cornered and Wolfwood shoots him only for the camera to make sure that we know that little vials inject something into him that allows for rapid healing. Wolfwood knows this man they are fighting has similar technology that he has so - yeah - it harkens back to his statement of punching the desert bug with a bare hand.

The two run away for the moment, with Wolfwood almost dragging Vash along. We get them in an alley catching their breath and Wolfwood is already insulting and muttering about how pathetic Vash is. And the fact that he knows that Vash is hiding something about this Windmill Village.

It cuts to what is for the first time clearly defined as a flashback. I get it, they wanted you to not be sure if you were seeing parallel actions between Rollo and Vash but with a heavy nudge that this is likely a flashback and that kid might have something to do with the giant monster chasing them and yelling “Vash the Stampede!”

Vash finds Rollo when he tried to run away from him and that he was bringing him back for his mother who was very worried about him. Rollo through his conversation with Vash is trying to decide if he should trust Vash’s [likely naive] advice and return to meet his fate of a certain death or continue to run.

Of course Vash is clueless to the dark sacrificial plot and instead promises that he will get the proper medicine to heal Rollo. Since this is full time perma-sad Vash, we know by time he completes his quest to save the kid, he would have arrived too late!

The flashback then has Rollo going alone with a lantern to some part of the structure where he encounters our fine Doctor, the blonde girl who is barefoot and is restrained by some sort of grunts for the Eye of Michael who knock him out with a drug.

The flashback has the girl stating that she’s not the same as Rollo, that she’s actually and angel and that he’s totally different. The statement that she’s angel would make me think plant, but the fact that she doesn’t have the weird markings on her bare arms imply that she’s not a plant like Vash and Knives but more of a rather confident girl.

Rollo gets strapped to an exam room table, injected with all sorts of stuff and the Doctor explains that he’ll age rapidly but won’t die of his sickness if he can regenerate etc etc.

And this allows us to learn he is a ‘successful’ experiment living at least 5 years as his superhuman form. The girl still thinks he’s a possible failure but the Doctor seems pleased enough and is using his hatred of Vash not saving him to drive his anger. I guess. The experiment scene also wants to hammer home that he is indeed Rollo, as at least 5 years later, he returns home to visit his mother before destroying their home which Meryl and Roberto inspect. We can hear the radio is still on with the Wolfwood VA talking while they look around. Interestingly, Roberto states it looks like this all fell apart 20 years ago.

If that is the case, the incident with Rollo running away from home and being rescued by Vash happened ~25 years prior, Rollo became his unnamed form, went back home 20 years ago, likely killed his mother and destroyed the place and then went back to the base?

While they inspect the rubble, Meryl finds a photograph of Rollo as a baby with Vash holding him that clearly his mother had taken. Thus, the timeline that Vash is older than he appears is being confirmed but with all the info dumping that Roberto does - he’d know that Vash is older wouldn’t he?

While Roberto and Meryl are being good investigative reporters Rollo is fighting with Wolfwood and Vash, but Wolfwood is looking a bit rough and spits out his cigarette to pop out his own regenerative vial as he watches Rollo pin Vash against the wall.

These vials don’t appear into Volume 8 of Trigun Maximum with a full explanation from Wolfwood after he rescues Vash from Knives ark after fighting with Chapel, Livio and Legato. This was after the 7 month time skip when Vash is kidnapped and imprisoned by Knives and Wolfwood eventually is able to brute force get him out of the ark through the combination of sheer willpower, a tacit understanding of Vash and the regenerative vials.

Vash is trying to get through to Rollo’s humanity which shows a shift as his facial display goes from Venom-ish from Spiderman to a regular man. The reason this character looks like Venom is that Yasushiro Nightow is a huge fan of Spiderman and designed him as such in the original manga. Vash is there pleading about his promise but it is obvious that he failed to save him.

Wolfwood then cracks open the vial, heals himself and then shoots Rollo through the head with the laser beam function of his gun. The scene shifts to Vash pleading for Rollo to wake up as Roberto and Meryl watch and Wolfwood hangs back. Wolfwood finally breaks the situation by stating that he’s dead and that he is not waking up. Vash rushes at Wolfwood to grab him by the collar demanding why he killed him to which Wolfwood replies with ‘Mercy.’

He goes on to further admit that Rollo had become a monster, lost his humanity and even if he didn’t kill him, the man would not return to who he was.

This the starts the first of Wolfwood’s lectures/philosophical debates with Vash about how it isn’t always possible to save everyone and not hurt them. Vash is someone who is able to say what he wants to see have happen but has no way to implement it in reality. However, since we are going at a rapid pace there has been no time for Wolfwood and Vash to get to know each other as just friends; their debate both in the anime and manga only happened after they spent some time with each other for it to really show the differences between them.

This is an even more black and white interpretation of the difference between Wolfwood and Vash. We do get excellent animation of Vash’s own shock here in his eyes which I was very impressed with. Wolfwood’s facial expressions are a bit more muted in this episode, it seems if he glances to the side that is the most he can do for any sense of remorse/frustration. Furthermore, it sort of makes it a Vash versus Wolfwood, when in reality it is Vash versus Knives with Wolfwood straddling the middle ground in life philosophy.

The group silently leave the Windmill Village as the wind begins to pick up. With the sacrificial death of the child born on a windless day, the windmills are all able to spin and begin to light up the ghost town in the night.

Back at Knives HQ, Conrad is informed of Rollo’s death by Zazie, stating that he was killed by another one of them. The blonde girl states he was Nicholas, but Conrad corrects it to the Punisher.

Which makes it clear that he was involved in the creation of Wolfwood’s current state and abilities.

The episode then ends and the credits roll. The first thing I did was double check the credits this time to confirm the blonde girl’s identity since I didn’t think to do so in other episodes if she had made a ‘hrm’ sound or not. And there at the bottom of the first page she is and she’s indeed Elendira the Crimsonnail.

So, as of this point, Elendira appears to be a young girl, but since Rollo was ‘made’ at least 25 years ago in the current timeline she can appear to be a young girl at the moment. It also looks like she will not be a trans woman either - unless we get more backstory for her.

It is clear that the terminology for the Gung-ho Guns no longer is a thing in Stampede and they are popping up in a new order.

Rollo is Monev the Gale from the manga and anime. The whole association with the Windmill Village is more than enough to make that connection as well as the events happening over 20 years ago since the original Monev was imprisoned for ~20 years by Legato. He shows up to cause total chaos in hunting Vash for Legato taking out lots of innocent bystanders in the process.

In the anime the climax of the action is when Vash shoots off his face shield and almost kills him with his hidden arm machine gun at point blank. This was such an emotional scene where it is first the we really see Vash almost lose it in the slow build up to this point.

The manga makes it even more dramatic, with the close up on Vash’s face as he holds his long colt to his face as he’d had to break his arm off to escape the handcuffs/chains.

Both tense scenes end with Vash breaking down in tears by thinking about his past relationship and conversations with Rem. With that we get the total emotional release of all of his anxiety, sadness and fears in a very cathartic scene.

What sort of hero has to hold himself in a hug as he weeps in pure frustration and loss? It really was a great reveal of how Vash’s own moral compass and code is struggling with the reality of his own circumstances and existence and he does not know what to do.

However, it doesn’t matter that Vash is compassionate and merciful to Monev, he’s eventually killed by other Gung-ho Guns several days later; crucified of course.

Things to ponder and take away from episode 5.

Honestly, I’m sort of really trying to scrape together my conclusion. In a narrative sense this episode does nothing to advance the plot. Sure, they have some themes that occur but all we did was repeat episode 4. We introduce that Wolfwood is not good and Vash is good. Wolfwood chooses violence and Vash does not. Wow.

Additionally, the lack of inner monologues and thoughts from the characters is making it harder to understand them. Apparently, we are to infer everything from these characters through their actions alone. Can a TV show do that and succeed? Yes, but Trigun Stampede is not Black Sails. The original anime and manga have a lot of inner thoughts to show the conflict and issues characters are dealing with and it is completely missing from the story telling in this anime.

Themes:

1.) Religious groups prey upon and use desperate people - this is painfully obvious the entire episode. Rollo’s unnamed mother is willing to give him up in order to save the town by bringing them wind and salvation from God. Rollo clearly is questioning his faith and runs off into the desert to save himself - by likely dying from another fate. The televangelists over the radio started more than 25 years ago and continue to do their work - though Roberto refers to them as a new cult. In the manga, we know that the ships crashed ~150 years prior to the current events and the Eye of Michael state that they are ~130 years old working in the background for most of the time humans have been struggling to survive on the planet.

It also implies that the Eye of Michael sees no issue with taking unwanted children to form them into tools to achieve their goals - though I wonder if it is actually an independent group like in the manga or something else that Knives created and set into motion in this version?

2.) A pure pacifist cannot make impactful change - Vash convinced Rollo to return to his mother and Rollo wasn’t able to verbally state his own fears to Vash dooming him to his terrible fate. Vash, you really aren’t a good listener or you can’t read people’s body language after over 100 years? Vash at least is able to fire his gun again and works hard to defensively fight Rollo shooting at buildings and structures to slow him down or distract him but by not facing him head on, he is going to lose.

3.) Sometimes you have to pick the worst option - this is shown by Wolfwood killing Rollo. Granted, since Wolfwood is on the same side, it is in his own best interest to kill Rollo to conceal his own identity - though his blunt statements aren’t really helping him to not look like an obvious assassin. This is most likely supposed to mirror the moral conflict between Vash and Wolfwood when Wolfwood shoots Zazie the Beast in the anime and Vash and him get into a very heated argument about it. We also have absolutely no context for why Vash refuses to kill in episode 5 nor why Wolfwood feels obligated to kill.

Stampede is going through the motions, using specific lines and dialogue, but it isn’t working since we really don’t get that feeling that Vash sees all life as sacred. There is no declaration of this land is made of love & peace. Or how he freaked out when he shot B.D.N.’s lackeys and had to stop them from bleeding out. The manga does a good job early on of establishing his no killing rule and the anime takes it to the next level. Meanwhile, the manga and anime establish Wolfwood as a more compassionate and complex character.

We just have very 1 dimensional characters who seem to do one thing in the plot and that’s it.

4.) The mix of Buddhist & Catholic ideology that underpinned the original work is only at a surface level - Upon my recent watching and reading of the manga, it refreshed me on how the entire series is very much using philosophical and moral arguments that are a mix of Buddhist and Catholic ones combined. There is the idea of humans by nature existing in a state of suffering and that are naturally born with sin, thus requiring a religious way to deal with that sin. That Vash struggles to live an impossible moral code and that Wolfwood has crushing Catholic guilt through his own actions and decisions to protect others. Knives is clearly a fallen angel but that Vash can’t be a hands off sort of distant angel either watching but not doing.

I’m not here to make any sort of strong religious statement, more that the original work used these to religions as the foundation for the moral and philosophical struggles that the main cast face in the story. Vash has to actually become critical of his own morals while Wolfwood sacrifices himself not only to save the orphanage but he also saves Livio. Livio then also learns that despite all the terrible things that he has done is still a person worth saving and caring for and that he too is redeemable and can be forgiven. Meryl has to learn of her fear and bias toward Vash when he protects her with his angel arm and then accept him as is. It is just all these things worked well in the story and I appreciated how they were used in the manga and original anime.

Stampede instead is adapting these concepts on the surface level. Characters are saying similar lines and doing similar actions but that doesn’t mean it replicates the original feelings.

5.) Missing those dramatic sunglasses scenes - Due to the high octane nature of the action in this sci fi series, I find myself missing the ‘I mean business when I put my sunglasses on’ scenes with both Vash and Wolfwood. Wolfwood frequently dons his own sunglasses when he has to get down to business or is trying to appear cool and collected. But when the two of them are less stressed or in non-dangerous situations, they are without their sunglasses.

Escape from Pain is an anime only episode, but it highlights how Vash did his mock kill to allow Julius and Moore to escape. Wolfwood steps on his sunglasses that Milly slapped off of his face, likely because he himself is upset that Vash upset Milly. He won’t allow Vash to put them back on to hide his own emotions and look serious when he hurt Milly’s feelings through his fake actions.

Which is then balanced out with the humor where he reaches over, grabs Vash’s gun, pops out the bullets, squeezes it to show it is a rubber bullet before he rapidly reloads it with one, and shoots Vash at point blank range.

I’ve also realized how much I liked Wolfwood’s reveal of his own personal tools in the anime. You want to take me on, allow for me to show you that I mean business.

Characters, comments & observations:

1.) Vash - continues to be passive; but finally is spurred into feeling some sort of rage when Wolfwood kills Rollo. He apparently tries to do everything himself and trusts all adults at their word. However, since this version of Monev didn’t kill and harm countless innocent people, we don’t get the full emotional breakdown of Vash. This makes it hard for us to connect with his pain and suffering that his personal code has caused him. It doesn’t make us feel how much of a struggle it is for him to continue to hold himself to his impossibly high standards. Instead, he just looks sad and passive. Furthermore, I feel the longer they don’t have him explain his moral code the more muddied it becomes; they missed their chance to have him clearly state “I will not kill!” which is sort of ironic with how blunt the story is otherwise. This also fails when Wolfwood was a priest and Vash could always give him shit with “Thou shall not kill!” and he actually did not kill. 2.) Meryl & Roberto - do their best as the senior/junior reporter team. We don’t get a lot of development from them other than that Roberto knows how to scare her and she’s decent enough to find a pristine photo of a younger Vash. They honestly don’t do anything to advance the plot since they hide during the shoot out and are both info dumping for us. I’m also starting to get tired of Roberto’s perpetually half untucked shirt look. I get it, he’s supposed to be messy but can you at least switch between it being the right side, the left side or both? Instead, it has been consistently the right side for the first 5 episodes when we know they’ve at least had time to clean up a little. This isn’t a low budget anime from the 80s and 90s where you have no choice but to animate something out of order (I’m looking at you bus in Muder Machine where Wolfwood’s cross is on the top of the bus before they pick him up in the desert). At least the bickering between Meryl and Wolfwood is minimal at best, but they were only together for a short time during the episode.

3.) Wolfwood - is not doing a good job of hiding he’s a trained assassin with similar tools and tricks that Rollo/Monev the Gale had. We know that some religious organization that worships plants clearly recruited him as a young child and he was subjected to treatments and experiments. Hopefully, it will at least reveal that he was not directly involved with team Knives. With the obvious nature of this work, they will likely beat us over the head when we get to Wolfwood’s backstory as an orphan taken into the Eye of Michael and trained to work for them. However, since he doesn’t seem to be a compassionate and likeable guy trapped between his own unfortunate circumstances, who tried to escape his teacher and therefore those obligations it is hard to feel for him. He’s just angry, aggressive and bitter lashing out at everyone.

4.) Rollo/Monev the Gale - we only knew you briefly. This version gave us a new backstory for you. You are an explanation for Wolfwood’s own background and the technology behind the assassins. Does this work for me? Sort of. Rollo achieves the goal of being someone who knew and trusted Vash in the past to only be hurt by those actions; like Hopper the Gauntlet and Leonof the Puppet Master. But his character also has to do double duty to explain that there is biotechnology that can turn children into super killing machines by physically altering them, giving them rapid regeneration skills at the expanse of aging them quickly and we know that Wolfwood is using it as well.

What is lost in Stampede’s version is the humanity of Monev the Gale and Vash’s inner conflict to not stoop to the level of killing. Monev had no issue with killing innocents and lambasts Vash for not fighting him head on, civilians be dammed.

But it is when he’s defeated that Monev begs for his life that his humanity is shown to still be there - despite being forced to train in isolation for 20 years. Was he a deep character in the original manga or anime? No, but his own mortality and that realization of his own actions turned the tables on him showed that he still very much had basic human needs and emotions.

Instead, Wolfwood puts Rollo out of his own misery by killing him and we never get to see if he still had those human emotions only by him revealing his real face behind the mask as Vash apologizes. Which doesn’t have the punch the barrel of a gun to the eye socket does as you cry out for mercy.

My two cents on the rapidly aging sci fi aspect of the story

Anime Wolfwood was a normally aging guy who trained as a child to about adulthood before he fucked off to do his own thing for a number of years, but based on how he acts and looks it is safe to say he’s late 20s to early 30s.

Manga Wolfwood suffers from unclear retcon with a wishy washy timeline for his backstory. One reading is that he was recruited 6 years prior to the 2 year time skip - so, 4 years before the start of the manga he joined the Eye of Michael when he was 11-ish and did stuff and got shot enough to age him up to mid-20s ish when he first meets the group in the desert. This very condensed timeline for him means he dies around 17 or 18 at the end since the kids don’t recognize him. However, there are flashbacks with the young girl who Livio liked and we see her as a clear adult in the manga when Livio protects her implying that they were likely older when they entered the Eye of Michael and started the rapid aging bits. With this information it means Wolfwood and Livio are in their 20s instead. I’ve found support for both of these interpretations in the manga so I’m just not going to take one or the other and keep it unclear since it is vague.

Honestly, between these two scenarios, I preferred anime Wolfwood since his actions and words made more sense coming from a normal aging adult than a young kid who sounded so world weary at times it broke my immersion from the story when reading the manga. But that is my opinion. I’m not against the idea of him having a regeneration serum that has a karmic tradeoff. It was almost overkill when you realize he was a religiously trained gunman from a young age and trapped by his circumstances. Tug at your heart strings more that Wolfwood dies even more tragically young. . .

Anyhoo, that took me off course.

Predictions for the future: 1.) Another bad guy of the week for episode 6. Who will it be? Who knows? The introduction of all the characters is not the same as the original anime or Maximum so your best guess is as good as mine. Elendira, Zazie, Livio, Legato, Grey - any of them are possible. We still have a ways to go to reach July on that map and there is an orphanage at the halfway point. Does this mean Wolfwood will die by then? 2.) Characters likely dropped. Dominique the Cyclops, Rai-dei the Blade, Midvalley the Hornfreak. I very much liked all of them and how chaotic they were. Oh well, they would seem too campy in this sleek sci fi series.

3.) Moar action! Move frantically forward with no character development and only action. Action action action. Please let the story breathe - at least have them stop for donuts? Or have Vash mistaken for a cat? Or fight Wolfwood for spaghetti? You can’t keep up this level of depressing without some humor - that was key to the Vash-Wolfwood dynamic as well.

All in all, episode 5 was weaker than episode 4, which was weaker than the first three. This episode has not advanced the plot, explained anyone’s motivations beyond that Vash is running away and now sort of heading towards July, that Meryl and Roberto want their story and that Wolfwood has to make sure he gets there. I’m not sure who the intended audience for this is, but I’m pretty sure I’m not it.

Studio Orange continues to demonstrate extreme technical skills with their animation but the lack of a coherent understanding of narrative structure, character development and world building are killing this for me. The story lacks any sort of emotional core or heart. Just slapping a known series onto 1D characters and making them look pretty. And without character inner monologues we have to take what characters say at face value when interacting with others.

#trigun anime #trigun stampede #trigun manga #trigun maximum #vash the stampede #nicholas d. wolfwood #meryl stryfe #roberto deniro #monev the gale #rollo #elendira the crimsonnail #zazie the beast #meta #trigun stampede meta #trigun stampede episode review

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expirisims · 11 months ago

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Hello All!

So...I've been on a bit of a hiatus once again! I have been super busy in my personal life as always. I am hoping to get some play time soon, I've been really itching to open my game especially while my manuscript is still with my betas for a few more weeks. Anyway, I have some plans!

For my Sims game, I have been really wanting to make another world, or maybe more...I don't know, I'm too indecisive. I have been toying with the idea of making a roadless village type island, possibly resurrecting my old Pickerling Cove world I started ages ago and did not complete, and a new idea that ties into my real life a little bit. I started a world years ago and it corrupted so it was never completed, however, I found some of the old builds for that world from before the corruption that I have tested in game. I'm thinking of remaking the original concept and using those old builds where I can. Some of them unfortunately will be quite impossible to use because of the terrain, however, I am wanting to incorporate interiors that I am planning to make in 1/6 scale for my little one's doll town. Yes, I have an entire hidden doll city planned in our playroom...and I've been watching too much Youtube in my free time lol! Anyway, I'm thinking that building the various cafe's, apartments ect in Sim World will help me make design choices for the compartments I have planned in the window seat, coffee table and bookshelf in our playroom.

I have also started sewing some clothes for my kiddo's dolls because we have mostly rags left over from my childhood, modern Barbie clothes are simply not the same as they were when I was a kid and let's just say it's a good thing the majority of my kiddo's Ken dolls have molded on underwear! That being said, I would love to share pictures with you all, but I don't want to clutter up Simblr's with non sims stuff so I am planning to open a second page for sharing my crafts! As long as Tubmlr still exists that is.

I know this is already long, but I wanted to at least share my last played day in Redwood Harbor (from months ago) below the cut as I haven't shared pictures in a LOOOONG time! Thanks for sticking around to read this and I hope everyone is doing well! Now on to the pics!

I don't remember exactly what was going on, but I do know that Antonio is still working nights and Joanna is getting VERY pregnant so once I get back into game she may go into labor by the end of this rotation!

Woohoo! Jody has learned to walk! I'm going to be honest, the Sims toddlers wear me out so I have never really tried to get their skills accomplished until my Redwood Harbor save, lol! Quite proud of my little sims!

Looks like it was off to the winter festival the next day! Antonio works nights and Joanna is on maternity leave already...aaand of course, they left Jody to fend for himself while they went ice skating!

Left over salad it is for dinner...Joanna what are those shoes you're wearing with that outfit!!??

OMG!! Really!!?? I'm pretty sure these two are going to break up again so I'm not sure how this is going to work out!

Time for bonuses! Better luck next year Joanna, maybe you won't be on maternity for most of the next year so you can progress in your career, fingers crossed the sims in this save seem to be very fertile.

Have I mentioned how much I LOVE playing this save?

#sims 3 #ts3 #ts3 world stories #sims3 gameplay #ts3 worlds #ts3 gameplay #updates #redwood harbor #joanna mccabe #antonio mcallister #jody mccalister #terrell thigpen #alyson farrell #upcoming projects

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ofoceansandtombsanew · 4 months ago

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saw this ask game and decided, why wait for asks when i can answer some questions now? all of my selfships got a hit yay

✨🍁sparkling leaves

bouquet ⭑ do you keep flowers or plants in your home?

yes, yes and yes. tam and i are huge plant lovers (all of them are pet safe though because my cat tora is a chewer). i feel like she'd be better at it me though, she just has the magic touch

wicker basket ⭑ how do the two of you feel about picnics?

tamarack loves picnics, i am picnic neutral. but we definitely have our picnic lunches and maybe even a picnic breakfast or dinner depending on if we have the free time and our hours align

espresso martini ⭑ do you and your lover like hosting dinner parties?

tamarack likes to throw tea parties with our friends and does it a few times a month when we start living together

🩵💙blues

in dreams ⭑ what do your pajamas look like?

satoru wears sweats and i either sleep in a tanktop and shorts, or i just sleep without a shirt. i get too hot when i sleep and have been that person who takes off my clothes in my sleep to get cooler. satoru has no complaints

moonshine ⭑ do you have a skincare routine?

satoru naturally has really good skin so he doesn't have to do much but he does have a set of products he uses meticulously. i use dove and call it a day but he probably gets me a bunch of products for my skin type

teddy ⭑ are there stuffed animals on your bed?

to an extent i feel like because he enjoys winning me prizes and other trinkets when he is away for missions, i probably have a bit of a collection. some of which occasionally end up on the bed or are otherwise displayed around the house

🧣🛡️soft armor

cheesecake ⭑ is there a sweet treat that the two of you adore and love eating together?

i enjoy sweets but prefer savory, mikasa isn't much of a sweets person, but she loves ice cream and i love apple pie. both of which are an amazing combo and it's something we enjoy eating with each other

lavender ⭑ what do you do to relax?

drink tea and read books together in the same space

shooting star ⭑ what does a date with the two of you look like?

i feel like we're both naturally homebodies who are content to just have date night at our cottage but we enjoy spontaneously going to new restaurants/cafes that open in town, a picnic under the stars, that sort of thing

🔥🦪flaming pearls

morning sun ⭑ how are the chores split in your household?

we're pirates and have an entire crew so technically we split chores with everyone living on the ship

sunday ⭑ do you and your lover have children?

we have one biological child together, mael, and she was entirely unplanned. we discussed adoption lightly at one point (though we wondered how practical that would be as pirates since we weren't planning on tying ourselves down to land any time soon) but we weren't planning on biological children because ace had a lot of worries and concerns about passing on roger's blood and the troubles that came along with it, how his kid would be treated because of it or worse if that child ever came to resent him for being their father

so needless to say when i realize i'm late, there was a bit of panic. but after the initial panic and a lot of heartfelt discussion, he's a very supportive husband and a really good dad

sofa ⭑ when did you move in together?

yeah funny story, we move in together when we're 10 🫣🫣🫣

so i'm originally from windmill village but because i'm also 3 years older than luffy and we never really hung out, i had my own established friend group and two of said friend group really were into being marines so that didn't help. but after garp takes luffy up to mt corvo i feel kinda bad since the kid never really had any friends and figured he must feel lonely up there, so i decide to go and visit him and subsequently meet ace

but this was during the era where ace didn't like luffy and kept avoiding him and i got pulled into that and afterwards, i'd be too tired go back home and would just sleep at dadan's. we become friends, i meet sabo and tragedy strikes when my grandpa passes away (my sole guardian in this universe) so my sleepovers start increasing although i still occasionally go back to town to keep up the act like my grandpa is fine

it isn't until after that gets exposed and sabo 'dies' that i officially move in on a permanent basis because luffy begged me to

🌻🍅sunflowers & tomatoes

film ⭑ what’s your favorite movie? what’s theirs?

i feel like hajime is a big fan of animated films because of his time in the orphanage (but he is also a sucker for the j-drama mother game). but my favorite movie changes as i blink. but my most consistent favorite is probably... white chicks

tune ⭑ do you two dance in the comfort of your home? what are your favorite songs?

we love dancing in the home, usually to my r&b tunes by artists like jodeci, keith sweat or luther vandross

fade into you ⭑ favorite sex positions?

the more intimate ones, hajime likes being as physically close as possible. tbh this applies to all of my selfships though

#look it's self shipping hours #selfshipper #decided order based on a wheel #sparkling leaves #blues #soft armor #sea otters #flaming pearls #sunflowers & tomatoes #i wanted to answer all of the questions for all of my ships #i am glad there was enough for each of them #flaming pearls (sea otters)

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paperzombiie · 11 months ago

Note

How is Nohreh doing?

he's... surviving(?) this is gonna be a long post bc i've been wanting to talk about this so i apologise in advance fndjksnfjd

right now his story and the rp is on hiatus for numerous reasons but to summarize it:

-original rp discord group closed suddenly bc admins were antis, threw a hissy fit and didn't want anyone to have fun if it wasn't on their own extremely sanitized """moral""" terms (like, every time a character did anything wrong we had to clearly state we didn't support what they did... and other even worse things like that ugh)

-we (the users) made a new discord group to continue with the story as we pleased (hence the change from "azalea valley" to "rhododendron island". the tag is now called "rhodo island")

-we had a few rp events but eventually we all got busy with our jobs/uni so we had to make a pause

story wise, Nohreh has:

-found out Demian bit Coni on a full moon and went hiding from everyone

-went looking for him when he didn't reappear after a week and become closer after taking care of him

-had a period of "peace" until they uh... let's say they both fucked up and had sex again when they didn't even know what they wanted from each other. that put a strain on their friendship, Demian refused to talk to him but only bc he was so afraid and anxious (he doesn't hook up with the same person twice to avoid getting attached and this went against all his own internal set of rules), Nohreh thought he was mad at him, communication issues ensue

-they finally talked about it (or at least tried to) and both concluded they needed a bit of time away from each other to think but agreed to talk about it again after some time passed

-Nohreh took that opportunity to go to the sea and finally dare to search for his grandpa following a lead he obtained a while ago

-not only he did find him but he also found his grandma! they were both alive living in a mermaid city but grandpa couldn't go back to the surface due to a curse. his grandma was actually the mermaid witch who lifted the seal that suppressed his mer self from birth on this comic (she's the one saying "welcome back")

-spent some time with them catching up and learned a bit of his own family history, along with the reason they decided to stop living as mermaids and forget the rest of the family (said reason is still a WIP, sorry 💦 let's say it was just good ol' family drama with a mix of magic in it)

-came back to the island and reunited with his friends and Demian. they talked, agreed to take things slow and take care of each other

-had a halloween party organized by the villagers and almost had a date night with Demian. as the island is located in the southern hemisphere that means it was summer storms season... a particularly bad tropical storm quickly developed on halloween night and plunged the whole island into chaos. lighting caused the lighthouse to malfunction and the electricity of the whole place went down for a couple of weeks. a dense fog seemingly undisturbed by the storm engulfed the town and strange things started to happen, with voices being heard at night and weird silhouettes seen stalking the villagers in the fog

-Nohreh and his friends had to go through a few chilling adventures to restore the power to the lighthouse and the island, and finally succeded! the fog disappeared and everything went to normal... or at least as normal as one can be after a strong tropical storm

-in the process he discovered the lighthouse acts as a guardian for the island that keeps the paranormal fog at bay. it's inhabited by a lady who's some kind of brazilian fairy whose name escapes me at the moment, the thing is, she controls electricity and provides the whole island with power

-he's helping rebuild a few places and trying to return to his normal life... but things feel different. dead animals keep washing ashore on the beaches and Fay has told him he had a premonition about a new danger lurking in the island after the storm awoke it...

aaaaand that's all i have for now lol

i suspect this is not the kind of answer you were expecting, maybe something with a little drawing on it but i honestly been too caught up with what's happening with my country so i apologise for the lack of drawings ;__; still, it fills me with immense joy to know someone still wants to know about Nohreh so, thank you for asking!!

#eze talks #nohreh #rhodo island #editing the tags to say i feel i have reached the end of season 1 of Nohreh's story fkdjsbfk #let's hope i can continue with season 2... i have lots of things planned for him #some spoilers: he'll come face to face with that new danger and his brother might make an appearance on the island

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wu-sisyphus-gang · 1 year ago

Text

Lancaster Stuff from Motion Sickness

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I struggled to consider what I was doing right now my first date. Especially with the context that recollections of some of Pyrrha’s and I’s ‘outings’ provided.

Fuck.

Not dwelling on that.

I… I really liked that about her.

Fuck.

My face ached but she made me smile anyways as I paced over to her.

She smiled right up at me and I had to look away. I really wasn’t sure how I was even supposed to look at her. I almost meant that literally. Could I just, like, look at her now? Whenever I wanted?

I was trying not to be stressed about her of all things right now. Still, though…

“What’s up?”

“What’d you need.” I asked the two.

“So?”

She rolled her eyes, “so nobody but you can lift it.”

I reached down with one hand and, with a heave and a grunt, I lifted it and set it down. Ruby absolutely could have lifted it.

The woman blinked at me. “Oh uh.” Her eyes flicked to Ruby and back to me. “Could you set it over here? Then? If it’s not too much trouble?”

“Uh, no.” I returned.

She glanced at Ruby again. “No?”

“No, it’s not any trouble.” I clarified or tried to. “I didn’t mean… Not ‘no’…” I sighed. “Where do you want it?”

When I got out of the shower there were only a few bites left of mine. “Ruby-“

I abruptly felt like covering myself, the towel and shorts I had on still showed off most of what I looked like. “Are you just going to stare at me?”

“Who?” I wondered.

She tossed a pillow to my face. “The girl we were just talking to!”

“Um…” I trailed off.

She slumped down into the covers. “Forget it.”

“Ruby,” I started. I pulled a shirt over my head and began walking over to the bed.

“I said forget it!”

I sat down. “Rubes you know you’re incredibly good looking right?”

“What?” She sat up from under the covers. “Yang’s the pretty one, I’m the cute one.”

“Ruby if I didn’t know you and you came up to me on the street and started talking to me, I would assume I was being pranked somehow.”

“Ugh.” She let me know her disgust, but she wasn’t under the covers anymore and she was giving me this much sort of… sly smile.

“You really don’t think I’m cute.” She blushed. “I mean…”

“Oh yeah I just can’t stand to look at you,” I kissed her. Her bottom lip fit between my two and my ego was fed when I felt her relax in my arms. I chuckled as I pulled away.

She hit me and she was as red as I’d ever seen her. “Butt.”

When I started laughing, she shut me down by kissing me again.

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-WG

#rwby #jaune arc #lancaster #ruby rose #motion sickness

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