#because of course i had to write a fight scene with weapons I generally don't understand

[science-lings]

I would like to politely bully you into writing more of second chance

I am astounded that even after over a year with only a single chapter released there are people still interested in ASC, that being said, I'm still invested in it's story and I'm working on it. Hopefully everyone will like where I take it lmao. But it may be a little while as I have more urgent projects and with the release of totk and a road trip at around the same time, I will have little time or brainpower left for writing.

At least I've made an outline with a bunch of important scenes blocked out, and I am sure that if I had just gone full ass into it last year it wouldn't be nearly as cool as I'm working on it being now.

[halfwayunder]

Caitlyn Character Arc Theory! ("the 3 Caitlyns")

I've had some thoughts on the "3 versions of Caitlyn" that I think we'll have seen by the conclusion of the show and how the final act of season 2 will show us Caitlyn in her completed character arc. Caitlyn 1: the first season

This is the Caitlyn we see in season 1. Optimistic, hopeful and a bit naïve or sheltered you could say. Always seeing the good in people and has an abundance of empathy for the people of Zaun. Fighting is a last resort (not that she's unwilling to defend herself, but if she can resolve it peacefully she will) and killing is also not something she is keen on. (As shown by her intentionally only disabling Sevika's arm despite her trying to kill Vi). Caitlyn 2: the second season (act 1 & 2)

This is the Caitlyn we see develop in act 1 of season 2, after the death of her mother and who I think we'll see for most/half of act 2 (I believe the seeds of her realizing she's becoming someone she doesn't like will form in act 2). Fuelled by grief, revenge and anger. This is the first time she's experienced true loss in her life and she does not cope with it well. She starts by blaming it on the actions of one person, Jinx, like her season 1 self would do, but subsequent attacks on Piltover lead to her generalizing Zaun and her empathy for them runs out. Violence is now her first option and she is more than willing to kill people (she was ready to blow that one gang account's head off during questioning even). Caitlyn 3: the second season (act 3) Completed Caitlyn

Now this is basically pure theory as I write this in the wait between act 1 and act 2. But, I believe this will be Caitlyn at the end of her character arc. Having realized the error of her ways, soul-searched, discovered Ambessa has been manipulating her, looked at her family legacy and its positive impact on Zaun (the filtration system she once weaponized) and concluded that her mother would not want her to go down this route. She has taken responsibility for herself and reconciled (see: had very rough and passionate reconciliation sex) with Vi. We do know that Cait and Vi will reconcile and be on the same side at least based on the trailers. She may have been confronted with the consequences of her decisions on ordinary people in Zaun near the end of act 2 and be horrified. Or just realize this naturally once she 'snaps out' of Caitlyn 2. This restores (most) of her season 1 empathy for the people of Zaun. I say most because as I allude to in the paragraph after this one, she isn't naïve like her season 1 self anymore, and knows now that while the people of Zaun should be respected as human beings and given the best chance possible at a safe, prosperous life like those in Piltover. There are elements in the undercity whom still seek to do harm (justified or not) and need to be treated with caution. It's not blind optimism or compassion, but it's the most a person can give in the real world, not the sheltered one she was raised in. This Caitlyn has the best of both previous iterations and is a Caitlyn who has confronted and (mostly) bested her demons. She has the hope and kind spirit of season 1 Cait, but the pragmatism and toughness of season 2 Cait. She is still willing to kill, but only if necessary, not at will. If confronted by another threat like Jinx, she won't hesitate to take the shot, much like Caitlyn 2, only now it isn't a decision made from anger or a desire for revenge, but dedication to protect as many people as possible like Caitlyn 1. She has managed to wrangle her emotions of grief and rage and learn from them. There may be a scene near the end to show this growth when Jinx inevitably appears and Cait's anger flares up again, only for Vi to assure her for one last time that she's got it, and Cait agrees to let her go fight Jinx on her own. Now, of course most of this is guess work! But, I think it would make sense from a narrative perspective for this to be Cait's arc. I don't believe the writers would want to have her just become a full on antagonist and end her story as a villain, it'd be immensely disappointing for the audience and not up to their standards. And I think this would be a very satisfying way to conclude her character development. (I'm also basing some of it based on her appearance in act 3 lmao)

[otakween]

Digimon World 4 - Final Thoughts

Whelp, that was...something. This game is objectively bad, but I still had a good, brain rotting time. It falls into the "game to zone out on the couch to" category. The lack of much story, characters or dialogue means I got in some quality podcast/music time as well. It's pretty similar to Digimon World 2 in its crappiness, but I found DW4's gameplay more satisfying. I think DW2 has the more appealing art style though, so they even out to the same rank basically. Full thoughts below!

Notes:

So this is loosely based on the Digimon X-Evolution CG film I posted about before. I was disappointed to see that the opening credits are just a hodge podge of scenes from said movie. That's pretty boring and lazy if you ask me. I picked Dorumon to control in honor of the film's protag (and since it would be a more novel experience).

I found any weapon aside from the guns to be a colossal pain to use, so I just used guns and guns alone for the entire game lol. At least I was able to get tech points quickly that way!

This game has the most unbalanced difficulty levels ever. It's either stupid hard or stupid easy. Luckily, the stupid easy moments are far more frequent. Every time I fought a boss I braced myself only to just button mash my way to the end in like a few minutes. Most of them were jokes. On the other end of the spectrum, the beginning of the game was weirdly hard because I would get mobbed by enemies and massacred in like two seconds (this is when I realized I should be using the guns lol). It's hard to have much strategy because most battle moves you can do (spin attack, charged attack, block) suck control-wise. My strat for most of the game was either the ole "shoot and run" or just to get up on a high ground where I was invincible. The latter move kinda felt broken and was part of what made the game stupid easy.

Thank God I emulated this game. Although it's mostly easy, there are definitely moments where it's easy to die. Some dungeons will lock you into the tightest corners and then just spawn like a jillion enemies out of nowhere (the Otamamon and Infermon were the WORST). Some of the harder bosses had some pretty cheap moves too. Save states were the VIP, as usual.

The plot of the game is really basic and the writing is just as wonky as DW2. Basically all you need to know is that there's a virus that's bad and you need to get rid of it. It doesn't get any deeper than that and there are no twists or turns. Ophanimon, Seraphimon, and Leomon are the only characters with significant dialogue (none of the bosses talk) and they really don't have anything interesting to say (I did like Ophanimon and Seraphimon's models tho)

The dungeons were definitely better than DW2 in terms of visuals/layout, but the enemies felt super repetitive. You get maybe 3 types of enemies per dungeon and then you just fight those same 3 again and again and again.

The dungeons are unreasonably long slogs with no way to save in the middle of them. I had save states so I was okay, but sometimes a dungeon would take me over two hours?? Like wtf. I know kids have a lot of free time but some of them aren't even allowed to game for 2 hours straight!

Of course, I played this single player. I actually think it'd be really fun as a multiplayer game? Like, that's probably what it was actually built for. There are actually some moments where you can't go to certain parts of dungeons without a buddy :'(

The bosses were mostly big bads from the series/movies which was fun. Made it awkward when I defeated them so easily though lol

All of the walkthroughs for this game suck lol. The one I used for the majority of the game the guy literally kept writing "I don't remember what happens in this dungeon. Just go through it." LOL thanks for nothing, bud. He said "I don't remember" sooo many times it was comical.

I poked around on the internet looking for info for this game and it seems the general consensus in the fandom is that it's pretty abysmal. Still, there are people like me that got enjoyment out of it regardless.

The little noises Dorumon made when attacked were very cute

I never bothered with digivolution. You don't get digivolution until late in the game and if you digivolve it reverts you to levl 1. Nuts to that!

I also didn't bother with any side quests because they sounded extremely not worth it (some of them don't even have a reward?)

I was pretty under-leveled at the end of the game (barely scraping level 30) but I felt like I had infinite healing basically because I had so much MP. That's another aspect of the game that felt broken.

The ending of this game was SO anti-climactic. I defeated the boss, returned to the hub world expecting a cutscene, and then it went straight to credits. No dialogue, no thank you, nothing. I had to go around and talk to people to get some thank yous but they didn't sound that appreciative really lol. Where are my flowers!? 😭 This took me over a month of tedium!

One part of the game that I did find pretty hard was the Storm Train where you have to get to the end of a train track while hitting the right levers while simultaneously fighting of a ton of enemies. If I had to do that without save states, I probably would have given up lol

I never really regret beating a video game, even if it kinda sucked. It's especially nice to check off another game in a series (even though the World series isn't really connected). I give Digimon World 4 a 5 out of 10.

[lewis-winters]

my love if you are still taking requests could i pls have some hcs on K Company (Sledge, Snafu, Burgin, Leyden, De L'Eau, Ack Ack and Hillbilly) and how they would survive a slasher movie (particularly Scream franchise if you have seen it?) absolutely no pressure if u dont feel inspired or interested in writing this ! x thank uu

I've only seen the first one, tbh, so I'm not as well versed with the whole franchise, but I've seen my fair share of slasher movies, so I think I'll give this a go! But I'll be operating on the idea that they're in a slasher film together, so unfortunately, not all of them are going to survive. Sorry! It might not be exactly what you asked for!

1) Andrew Haldane and Eddie Jones - Oh no they don't make it. In fact, they're the dead girls who haunt the narrative. Particularly Andy. But Eddie, too, because Andy would not be dead if Eddie had not died first. They were each other's greatest happiness, and inevitable doom. Their romance is the tragedy, and sets the stage for all the shit that's about to go down next.

2) Bill Leyden - practical, smart, pragmatic, you'd think he'd survive, but he's too skeptical, you know? But he's too logical. Almost to a fault. At first, he wields it as his own weapon against the fear, but slowly it morphs from weapon to shield. Then slowly, from shield to outright denial, and as the tension rises and rises, he struggles to keep from breaking until, finally, he crumbles beneath it. Not completely, but just enough to give their killer an in. He's not surviving the night, unfortunately.

3) Jay De L'eau - he is though! Jay's surviving! out of pure dumb luck! He's so quiet, so small and so unassuming, that the killer will forget about him until it is too late. He's the last minute save you wouldn't expect, the car that comes crashing against your slasher, sending him several feet away and far enough to buy everybody else some time, or the shadow that brings something heavy down upon the slasher's head, enough to knock him out and pull everybody else to their feet, crying 'Run!'. He's the guy they find at the end, maybe in the post-credits scene, hiding beneath the rubble or tucked away amongst the shadows, safe and traumatized. But generally untouched.

4) RV Burgin - I don't think he's surviving. He wants to get out, no question. But he's not desperate enough to throw people under the bus, and maybe that was his mistake. He stops running because someone tripped. Turns to look back because someone calls out his name, reaches out to him. Or makes it out, but then realizes his is a hollow victory if he can't manage to take his friends out with him, too. Man, he should've just run, but that's not who Burgie is. He might come back in the sequel though, maybe in a post-credits scene added by the producers after the test screening audiences demand that he be alright bc they love the character too much.

5) Merriell Shelton - ok if there's a likely candidate for the 'someone from the original group who was the Slasher all along' character, it's Snaf; turns out he was Ghostface this whole time! but that feels like too much of an out and a little unfair, so I'll just say that he'll make it almost all the way to the end, but he's going to slip up. And it's going to be because he's so tired. He's so afraid under all that anger, but he's just so tired, too, and it only takes one little slip. One little swing too late. But make no mistake, he fights back. He will be remembered very fondly because he fights back, and the tragedy of it lies in how close he was to getting out. He was so close. But not close enough.

6) Eugene Sledge - FINAL GIRL FINAL GIRL FINAL GIRL ENERGY ARE YOU KIDDING ME?? OF COURSE HE'S FINAL GIRL he's standing over the bloody corpse of their tormentor and he's the only one in his right mind to shoot it more than once to make sure it's dead. He's the one whose rage far surpasses that of the slasher. He's the who comes out of this ordeal alive and fully changed, covered in blood, blurring the lines between victim and perpetrator, and smoking his pipe at the steps of the house or the entrance of the summer camp; red and blue emergency lights flashing over his face as someone puts a blanket over his shoulders.

[nellie-elizabeth]

Doctor Who: Boom (14x03)

I regret to inform you that this was a very good episode of Doctor Who. Fucking Moffat, knock it off with being an occasionally very good writer. I hate this dude.

Cons:

I thought the romance arc between Mundy and the random dude whose name I can't remember was probably the least memorable part of the episode? It just felt a little flat and proscribed, and it fell into some cliche writing tropes. Why is it always that an oblivious woman is being pined after by her long-suffering martyr of a best friend? It's giving Rory and Amy, it's giving... Joss Whedon. I don't know. I didn't hate this, but it didn't add a ton to the story, it almost felt like more of a distraction to the core relationships that we should have been focusing on.

This was the most I've enjoyed Ruby and the Doctor's relationship on the show yet, but there was this one moment that I had a problem with in the writing. The Doctor is calling out to a dying Ruby and basically says "I need to talk out loud in order to think, and you're the only person I can talk to." I think I get what the goal was here, but it read a little strange to me. Because the point of the Doctor is kind of that he can make friends with most people, isn't it? He finds the connection, and the adventurous spirit, and the bravery, in all sorts of people he comes across. We even see him forming connections with the other people he's meeting in this very episode. So I do wish the sentiment had been adjusted just slightly. Ruby shouldn't be valued and loved simply because she is uniquely able to provide the Doctor with companionship. You know?

I thought the resolution felt a little rushed, with the father's love saving the day. Very sweet or what have you, but I could have used a bit more build-up to it? As is Moffat's MO both as a writer and as a show-runner, he's always better at the setup than he is at the payoff.

Pros:

I think when Doctor Who is at its very best, it takes a simple concept, a small group of people, and it plays out the complications of the scenario over the course of the hour. This was an episode with a small core cast, basically only one setting with just a few cut-aways to the camp where the soldiers were staying, and there's a pretty simple problem to solve: the Doctor is standing on a landmine. If it goes off, because of his special Time Lord-y-ness, he could blow up half the planet they're on. So the stakes are higher than simply the Doctor's life, and they're on a timer.

And from there it's really just a lot of intense stakes-raising, alarming moments of tension as the Doctor tries to keep his emotional reaction to a minimum so as not to trip the sensor. I loved the scene when the Doctor is begging Ruby to back away and she's insisting on staying close to help. Great relationship building, great classic rapport between the Doctor and his companion. She's brave, he's worried about her, but together they thwart catastrophe.

As is often true with this show, and with sci-fi more in general, this episode has some not so subtle political messages baked into it. I think it was brilliantly and disturbingly done, showing us first the soldiers and the way their lives hang in a delicate balance, then starting to learn about the for-profit model of this weapons manufacture, and then the gradual and chilling revelation that these people are not at war with anyone at all. It's an empty planet, and they're fighting nothing, letting themselves be killed for the benefit of a corporation running on auto-pilot designed to maximize profits. Yeesh. That's a thought, isn't it.

There's also the lovely detail that all of the soldiers are part of the church. Ruby talks about how strange this is, and the Doctor points out that the military and the church are usually hand in hand, and that her current reality is really just a blip in the pattern.

The gasp-out-loud moment of this episode is of course when Ruby gets shot. I love the way the scenario is set up here, where Ruby is going to shoot Mundy with her consent, in order to draw the ambulance's attention away from the Doctor, but Mundy's love interest dude sees Ruby pointing a gun at her and misinterprets. And then the Doctor, forced for the sake of this whole planet to stay frozen in place and just watch it happen... great face acting from Gatwa here as he reacts with horror while simultaneously trying to tamp down on his reaction.

This was a good episode, with a lot of good moments. I think tamping down into a more tragic story allowed for the Doctor and Ruby to have some exchanges that didn't feel so... manic, the way the first two episodes were? And that was a big help to make them feel like they have a more grounded relationship. Ruby begging to know her next of kin in the final moments of her life is going to haunt me, that was so tragic! And while maybe a little bit trite, the father's love saving the day thing did still work okay for me, all things told.

I'm hoping we can get some motion on the Ruby mystery in the coming weeks, and hopefully preserve a bit more of the naturalistic bond between our main characters as we move forward.

8.5/10

[llycaons]

I bet the kastarions don't even exist. watch.

<- FUCKING CALLED ITTTT

further moffat things: stupid quips about beaches

this appears to be a commentary on weapons manufacturing and capitalism but it's about as unrelated to actual political and economic realities as you'd expect for a dw episode

the performance between millie and ncuti during the handoff was MEMORIZING. the dialogue was a bit silly and quippy bc of moffat's influence when earlier I think it had been quite grounded,but the actors still pulled through

splice constantly calling her dad 'daddy' weirded me out not bc it's an unusual thing to call her dad but because she didn't sound like...a regular child asking, the syntax of the dialogue was just unnatural. like even saying 'him' a few times would have solved it but she said 'daddy' EVERY time she referred to him. and her acting was strangely bereft of emotion as well which could be anything from the writing to the directing to not wanting to push a young actor but it was a very odd scene and moffat writes kids kind of weird in other episodes so I think it's him

the bit about the church being an army was quite good ngl. the combat bit was quite confusing and even gatwa's fantastic acting couldn't make the scene anything besides a jumbled mess 😭

the stuff about ruby being tied to christmas magic is a big hazy in my mind but if you were there for my UC lb you know how disgusted I am at the idea of xtianity attaining Real Myth status in any fantasy cosmos so I did roll my eyes a bit at the snowflakes and such, and also what wasthe POINT. like??? it came out of nowhere and the doctor was like 'she can do that :)' and then that was the end of it

the skye boat song as the doctor's grounding method for this episode is one of the highlights. It's a lovely song, and it suits the eerie melancholy of the characters very well, especially with the performances

as clumsy and melodramatic a speech as this may be, I do love the core concept of an AL creating the conditions for endless warfare to continue profiting and continually killing people who are too expensive to keep alove. it's a little nonsensical, heavy-handed, and not relevant to actual war profiteering except in the sense that AI is used for military purposes, but the righteous anger of it all it satisfying. it could actually be saying more about private healthcare, but that doesn't really seem to be its focus

also moffat really tears into the concept of fighting blindly for a cause you don't understand out of baseless loyalty, which i can't even say I argue with. he may have been a bad showrunner and a weird misogynist and fond of annoyingly convoluted and self-important plots for the doctor, but a lot of his episodes and lines were definitely daring and memorable

the doctor reasoning with the AI by appealing to his fatherly sense of duty was...sorry but that was so dumb. HE WAS A COMPUTER GENERATED SIMULATION!! and you convinced him to somehow hack the system of an advanced weapons manufacturer by yelling DAD TO DAD at him a bunch of times!!!

don't HUSH her. you bitch

I'm going to be sick. WHO CARESSSS

not to be rude about how children process grief but is this kid like, stupid

oh my god so he saved the world by...talking at an AI really hard and making it remember it's based on a dad. okay. well it's doctor who after all

I think it was a mistake to limit gatwa's movement this entire episode. he's such an energetic, lively, physical actor - of course his subtler emotional parts were incredible, he was crying and gasping and singing the entire ep, but all this gesturing and running around and exclaiming is where he shines most naturally. I could just feel myself smiling so big when he started dashing around again!

the doctor seems meaner when moffat writes him but idk, maybe he has his little bitchy moments with RTD later too. but 14 has seemed so sweet and genuine and affectionate so far so this takes me aback

DON'T TRY TO BRING THAT BACK MOFFAT 🙄🙄🙄

WHAT THE FUCK?? MOFFAT????? WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT LINE ABOUT?? I know moffat likes doing his 'haha Cool Woman has snarky comments about the stupid infants men in her life' but a white woman saying this about a black man is so fucking out of line. god DAMN. don't let moffat back in the writer's room...ever, maybe?

wellat least they end on a nice scene...

yeah it makes sense this was a moffat one. the convoluted technology...the doctor immediately telling his companion to stay behind when someone was in danger to heroically rush out into a battlefield...the setting itself literally being on fire and as close to war-torn as you could get...the precocious child telling a cool funny woman 'silly, this Random Ugly Man LIKES YOU!!' with the implication she should get her head on straight and date him....it all fits into place and this is literally just from the opening scene

[naitodenight]

A God In Teyvat: Gold

This will be the first time I write something for Genshin and the madness of SAGAU so bear with me! For now I'll leave you a sort of prologue since it felt like a very long post otherwise (plus, I didn't know how to tie the ending scene with something else). Hope you enjoy!

Warnings: General sagau crazy stuff (isekai, cult behavior, violence towards the reader, all that) but this is more like having fun and surviving while ignoring all the bad stuff. Impostor!Reader. Reader is basically a cover artist, a theater kid if you will. I try to keep the reader gender neutral, but I wrote this in spanish so if a he slips out I'm sorry. Originally I had intended this to be a male reader but take it as you like, other characters see the reader as a he because of this. It's the first time I write something in this format ( 2nd person) so if there's a mistake or something, I'd really appreciate any tips you can give ^^

Part 1: You're here! / Part 2: Coming soon!

Lately you'd been obsessing over a free video game. It had caught your attention as a noob gamer, a terrible one in your opinion, but the characters seemed so appealing that you decided to give it a try. You had no regrets about it. You may not have been around since day one and maybe your life didn't allow you to play daily, but Genshin Impact had become a little escape from all your daily struggles. After classes, having exhausted your body and voice practicing choreography and singing, your beloved hobbies, playing was what you needed to relax.

Perhaps you weren't the best player in the world, nor did you have that many characters, but you were happy with the ones you had. Your main team did enough damage to make the enemies look easy, sure you were a bit behind in the story, but it didn't matter; you loved exploring and fighting alongside your characters.

You'd swear that, if they existed in real life, they'd be your best friends. Maybe a potential partner for one of them. That's why, as soon as you found yourself waking up under the shade of a large tree, being surrounded by strange flowers, you knew exactly what was going on: Somehow, you had been transported to the world of Genshin.

this was surely a dream, right? You looked down at yourself, thankful that you had fallen asleep in nice clothes and not in your pajamas or underwear. There was no one around you, but you figured that even if someone else saw you, you wouldn't stand out much from the others; you were a bit modern, yes, but Kaeya wore tight leather pants, so yours was fine.

But of course, come to think of it, you didn't have any weapons with you, let alone any combat experience. So when you took a few steps forward to investigate the statue of the seven in front of you (you recognized the place, Windrise if you remember correctly) and ended up coming face to face with a pair of slimes (the two that keep popping up in this part of the map), you couldn't do anything but freeze. What were you supposed to do?

"Uh… Hello?" The pair of hydro slimes stood still, you smiled awkwardly at the situation. "Hey, look I don't have any weapons with me so… could you guys stop- HEY WHY ARE YOU GETTING CLOSER????"

You instinctively backed up a few steps, but the slimes were following you. Taking two steps to the right, two steps to the left, one slip…you were basically dancing and yet, no matter what you did, those adorable little things were following you! Not only were they following you, they seemed to look at you with adoration.

"Okey this is really weird, what's wrong with you guys, aren't you interested in attacking me?"

You knew well they couldn't answer you, but their silence and expressions said it all: they were delighted at the mere sight of you. Letting out a heavy sigh, you finally decided to sit down on the old, broken steps leading up to the statue of the seven, the slimes placing themselves next to you. At least they wouldn't attack you, that was a relief, but you still wondered what else you could do in this dream. Maybe go to Mondstadt? You really wanted to try the food of this land, or at least what your imagination could provide; you usually had to keep fit and eat healthy, so a delicious Sweet Madame or a Hash Brown didn't sound so bad. You didn't have a single coin in your pocket, though.

The slimes seemed to understand, so they just started hopping out to the open field, looking for help. As you were thinking about what else you could do in this strange dream, a few footsteps approached your figure. Suddenly, a strong male voice snapped you out of your thoughts.

"Hey you! Stop right there!" Before you could register anything, you see the tip of a sword being pointed at your neck, an NPC glaring down at you from above. "How dare you impersonate the appearance of our Creator! By my power as Knight of Favonius, you will be taken before Acting Grandmaster Jean to receive your deserved punishment."

… What?

"Whoa wow hey! Wait a minute!" You say raising your hands as a symbol of peace. "What the hell are you talking about? I just woke up, how can you accuse me of something so-"

Before you could continue speaking, the NPC, a Knight of Favonius you finally noticed, delivered a powerful kick to your chest that quickly sent you crashing to the ground, the blade of his sword was thrust too close to your waist, causing a not so deep cut. You felt the sudden loss of air and the immense pain in your ribs, as well as the sensation of your own blood threatening to run down your waist, what kind of dream was this? How could you feel pain? And, most importantly, why were you being attacked?

The knight had no respect for the one who, in his devoted eyes, was a sinner. That was the only explanation he had; that person usurped the face of his creator, but had no divine air about them. That only fueled his rage. He grabbed him roughly by the collar of their shirt, ignoring the strange fabric and lifted them up again, this time letting the person's feet dangle a few inches off the ground.

"How dare you respond!!!! A filthy creature like you has no right to talk that way, let alone with that face-" Before the knight could let out another punch, the boy decided to take advantage of his short stature and what little strength he had left to let out a kick at the NPC, knocking him down in a loud thud before the supposed sinner shouted, "M- Mitachurl!"

He was about to ignore his words and attack him again when he heard it; a growl and the imposing presence of one of those strange creatures. Right behind him was a group of Hilichurls commanded by a Mitachurl, the latter was holding his axe loaded with a pyro slime.

It happened too fast.

Still recovering from the impact on the soft grass, your heavy breathing and the sound of your heartbeat distracted you from the knight's cries for help, it seemed as if he couldn't stand on his own in front of a group of Hilichurls. You instinctively touched your waist, feeling the place where the sword cut you only to realize that you were indeed bleeding. You brought your hand up to your face unsure, only to check that it was real. Instead of finding the typical red, all you saw was gold; it looked like your hand had touched one of those edible gold sheets or something.

You were too stunned to speak, but managed to get up only to see the knight turn to ashes. You looked in horror at the group of Hilichurls, fearing for your life, but to your surprise they only knelt down in front of you. Rather awkwardly, but they did.

What was this?

Careful not to alter any of them and slowly so as not to hurt you more, you walked to the place where that NPC vanished: from him only the sword with which he wounded you remained, a Dull Blade that you lifted as best you could. It was heavy, you had never held a real weapon, but that was exactly what you feared.

Everything was real.

Still with the sword in hand, you finally passed out. The sound of Hilichurls cries running towards you was the last thing you heard before you lost consciousness...

[sofsstucky]

Maybe I should write a separate post, but I'm lazy so I'm just going to add my two cents to what this article already so well puts in words. I didn't like FATWS. Didn't hate it either, it's entertaining and goes into some important issues, but when it comes to Bucky, the character I admittedly have an emotional attachment to, it went the very opposite way of what I would have liked, of what I would have felt did him justice. Maybe it's just me, maybe I have a biased understanding of why Bucky Barnes became far more popular than Marvel ever anticipated, but I think it had a lot to do with his vulnerability, his trauma, the tragedy of his story and strength of his character. You know, like when, after years of being used and abused, on the run, falsely accused, he willingly, without a hint of doubt or rebellion, goes back in the ice, puts his life on hold for fear of being once again used as a weapon, stripped of his own will and turned into something he definitely doesn't want to be. Maybe I'm wrong and his popularity is mostly due to how good Seb looks in tight black leather.

I know fandoms have a tendency to develop their own tropes, hcs and shared truths that usually don't exactly align with what canon and its tptb have in mind. Fandom piled up torture, abuse and then sorrow and regret upon Bucky, but there were already hints that tptb had a far "lighter" take on his backstory and how willing a participant he'd been in it. And that was exactly the route taken in FATWS! No longer a victim, no longer a deeply good man in the most horrible, dehumanizing situation, but a somewhat willing participant who was just a bit misguided on what he and HYDRA were doing; like a soldier who chose the “wrong” side because of propaganda and comes to realize s/he wasn’t exactly told the whole truth. This obviously, completely contradicts what we got in previous films where it was clear enough he had no saying whatsoever in the matter, the mind wiping and conditioning were so strong he had no choice but to become the Soldier and obey. But of course, real men (and even more so super heroes) don’t do trauma, they shrug it off like it’s nothing and Marvel made sure, once again, not to deal with it in a serious manner, dismissing it almost entirely and, in the process, villainizing Bucky (Stan Lee, who told Seb “Remember, Bucky is one of the good guys!” must be turning in his grave). This Bucky not only is perfectly fine with all the violence inherent to making his amends, but has to be reminded by the psychologist that killing is a no no, implying that he’s perfectly fine with it. Such a stark contrast to the deeply distraught man we see in Wakanda when T’Challa shows him the new arm and he wearily asks “Where’s the fight?” or CW Bucky who just wants to be left alone and tries to escape instead of fighting and actually proclaims that “I’m not gonna kill them”.

Marvel lost such a good opportunity to deeply humanize one of their characters and showed once again how little they understand or, above all, want to understand, about psychology, trauma and, basically, just being human in general. More than pain or anguish, what most victims of no matter what sort of abuse feel is worst is powerlessness, the feeling of not being able to save themselves or those they care about, and that tends to linger long after they’re safe enough. But of course, if Bucky wasn’t that traumatized, Marvel didn’t need to go there, didn’t need to address how deeply stressful it would be for him to pretend to be the Soldier. Yet, the scene was even played for laughs, without the slightest protest or sign of discomfort from Bucky.

FATWS’ story could have been exactly the same changing only the motivation and overall attitude. That the world still distrusted Bucky Barnes and wasn’t willing to forgive and accept him as a good man, it makes sense, but what would have been truly interesting was the journey of Bucky Barnes accepting and forgiving himself. That’s not what we got and there’s a huge difference between an angry man who seems to be making amends because he’s forced to as part of a pardon and one who’s struggling with his own past, his own deeds that weren’t exactly his own but were nevertheless performed by his body. For me, it would have made so much more sense and would have been so much more satisfying if Bucky had realized there was a way to minimize what he had been forced to do and, despite the weariness, the disgust he came to feel for that sort of activity, had decided on his own to make amends as a way to atone. In fixing the world a little bit, in making it a little better maybe he could eventually find a way to, not entirely forgive, but at least ease his guilt and live with himself, his past, his trauma and the feelings of powerlessness that certainly came with it. In that process, he could slowly become the hero he’s supposed to turn into.

Overall, I think Marvel’s approach to therapy wasn’t just in-world terrible, it’s a dangerous depiction that may actually harm young or vulnerable people in the real world. For a time, some claimed it was an accurate depiction of how it worked in the Military and I’d have been perfectly fine if that was indeed what they were trying to do, pointing out how veterans have to struggle with lack of proper support. Pretty sure now it wasn’t the case and I’m afraid some people may think that was appropriate in any way. It wasn’t, that’s not how therapy and a client’s relationship with a therapist should work. There’s a huge difference between being challenged in a friendly, caring way and being bullied like that. So, if you need help, be careful, you should not feel threatened, that’s not how it should work. In-world, I was particularly upset that she chastised Bucky for not being more outgoing with people, having more contacts on his phone, etc. To me it felt particularly cruel and proof of how little she truly knew about his background, how he had no family left, how he’d been in hiding for so long, how much he probably was suspicious of people he doesn’t know given how they could turn out to be HYDRA… Instead of gently nudging him into being more trusting, into learning how to function in the civil world, she chooses to bully him. Tough love is only one of two things, either you’re really not trying hard enough to reach and connect with the other person or you tried and failed. It’s always a failure either way.

[sasodei-is-real]

Good afternoon💙 Well, or just Hello if you have a different time of day 😅💙

Thank you for your answers!)

And I still can’t reply to comments (I don’t know what is wrong), so I’ll answer like this)

@justanotherblonde thank you very much, it's so nice 🥺💙 And I'm glad that it will be interesting for you) Because the topic is actual and worth discussing.

@movethisalong Thanks for the answer!) I will soon work on the text in drafts, I will publish it today)💗

@bodoquehenko Weeell ... it's not directly related. But indirectly, yes. After all, even though Deidara is an adult, he has a big age difference with Sasori. So, for us - Sasodei fandom, this topic is not completely alien. Anyway, in any fandom, this is a very controversial and interesting topic that is worth discussing. As a sasodei shipper, I was asked questions about this topic. I think it would be nice to say my opinion on this issue and put all the points above and. I will talk not only about the general phenomenon, but also about sasodei separately in this topic.

But of course I will continue the analysis💛. This is not even discussed, because it is for this analysis that my blog was invented. But the point is, right now I only have time for one post. And analysis consists of many parts. And if I had written today about Onoki and Gaara (that is, I would have continued the analysis), I would have been able to move on to the next part of the analysis only in two weeks (this is how long my studies at the university will last). And that's not very good. Because although the analysis consists of different parts, the thing is integral. And it is best to read it without long breaks. I already postponed the analysis for a long time because of the uni , and then I did not want to continue again and stop the two weeks between the next part. I thought, since there is only time for one post, why not write about an actual topic that I would still raise and which would fit into one post. And then continue writing the analysis during the holidays and without long delays between continuation in order to maintain integrity.

Well, then the question was whether it would be interesting for you to discuss the topic of the age difference))

As for the ships, I think to talk after a specific stage in the analysis - when we analyze the characters of Sasori and Deidara. That is, the storage of posts turns out to be something like this - 1 question about the age difference 2 analysis where we left off - Onoki and Gaara (Iva and Suna) 3 The next stage of the analysis is Sasori and Deidara's relationship with the rest of the characters 4 Sasori and Deidarf characters 5 Short conversation about crack ships (which is not part of the analysis of sasodei, but what is worth discussing) 6 Philosophy of Sasori and Deidara, the symbolism of their characters 7 FINALLY 😂 Analysis of the relationship between Sasori and Deidara - Sasodei

Thank you for answer ^w^🧡

@deidaraakasuna Yes, I myself really want to move on to their relationship as soon as possible 🤧❤ Yes, they were created for each other. It is obvious.💫💗

And yes. I agree, everyone has the right to ship whatever they want. I am not against any crackships, or ships with questionable context ... well, any. A person's taste is formed on the basis of his lived life and emotions, and this is too personal to criticize.

But. I'm not talking about WHAT they ship, but HOW they raise their ship, for example, how, by substituting facts, they justify their ships.

I will try to explain what I think about this. The bottom line is that Naruto is a very elaborate and fragile story, the essence of which is her philosophy. Naruto has a very interesting build scheme. Recently I talked with my friend, and she noticed that in its structure Naruto is similar to the Russian classic novel "The Master and Margarita" by Bulgakov. And this is so. The bottom line is that there are a lot of characters in Naruto. Each character has its own story, its own psychology, motivation and internal conflict, the solution of which manifests one thought. The character has a conflict, the opposite or controversial side of his conflict is put in front of him, most often with the help of another character and ultimately, thanks to the contradiction, the truth is found - that is, we get a ready-made thought about any aspect of life. And so on. Everything is connected together, and each such thought, which is formed with the help of the character's life - by doing it with the rest, creates the philosophy of the work.

For instance. Sasori and Deidara degenerate their vision of the world in their art. They were a contradiction, in the end they found harmony, Deidara accepted eternity, and Sasori the truth of transience. Thanks to the fact that Sasori took instant and soul - Kankuro managed to dissuade him and Sasori decided to find eternity in the continuation of generations. During Edo Tensei, we see Sasori no longer hide his concern for Deidara with excuses and aggression - he has evolved. Therefore, Kankuro deals with the question of the soul. Sasori dies while Deidara screams and he pretends to embrace his parents. During the conversation, Edo Tensei, with the help of Kankuro and Sasori, reveal to us the theme of the soul. What is the soul? A haven of pain that poisons the heart, but without which you become a weak-willed marilnet. And Sasori's conflict is directly related to Obito. After discussing the soul issue, we see Obito pointing at the hole in his chest and saying that he doesn't feel anything. This is great preparation for Obito. These two characters are somewhat similar. Both wanted to escape their pain and forget themselves in illusions. Sasori replaced people with puppets, and love with universal contempt and control. Obito wanted to forget himself in the eternal Tsukuemi. Sasori accepted his feelings for Deidara. Obito realized that he shouldn't forget Rin. Sasori died in such a pose like hugging his parents. Obito died again while saving his friend Kakashi. Both died in the same situations that doomed them to suffering and pushed them into the dark. Simbolic 👀.(By the way, did you notice that Sasori's main OST is playing in the background? "Despair"). I mean, in Naruto, everything is very closely related to each other. Sasori and Deidara's relationship is their development. And when, for example, I see the sasosaku shippers dismantle the battle scene and say that Sakura influenced Sasori, proving her validity, it's not very pleasant. Primarily as a Naruto fan. Let's imagine for a minute If Sakura really influenced Sasori.

Sasori would not be able to achieve what he most desired - true eternal art. The role of Kankuro would not be needed and he would not have developed as a character and would not have received future Puppets . Since Kankuro is not needed, then his conversation with Chiyo and her acceptance will not take place. Since Sakura has already influenced him, there is no need to talk about the soul - there is no full disclosure of Sasori and the prologue to Obito's conflict. Complete disregard for Sasori's feelings for Deidara and for finding harmony.

And the most important thing. Sasori is a complex and deep character with his own feelings and motives. Each of his actions is based on his state of mind and thoughts. And when they explain Sasori's decision by the fact that he was influenced by a 15-year-old girl who then shouted that she wanted to get rid of her parents and who was unable to understand Sasori continued to scream, and not his character - this is a spit towards Sasori. As a Sasori stan, I am not pleased.

And so with everyone. I love Deidara. Obito is my heart. But in the pairing, Obiday Deidara is presented not as a deep character with his own conflict, but as a cliché "I behave aggressively, but I like you." Rin and Obito's wonderful story...?? No?😅😂

And yes, of course it is clear that in canon these are all crackships.

And I don't mind when people ship characters for themselves, draw art, write fanfiction and have fun. no, that's cool. BUT when they try to prove the canonicity of such an absurdity ... I'm Here 🌚👍

And after all, philosophy really changes. I was talking to my friend last week and he said, "It would be cool if in the Kazekage arc it turned out that Gaara is Uzuma. It would turn out that Naruto Uzumaki saved Uzumaki." Umm ... no. It wouldn't be.

The fact that Gaara was none for Natuto was done for a reason. From the very beginning, Gaara's history and development prepared us for 1 Pain's Philosophy. 2 To resolve the conflict between Suna and Iva. Two old villages.

Remember the first season? As after the fight Naruto said "I understand your pain, I went through the same." Gaara was not Naruto's relative, his friend from the start, he was from another village and was his enemy because

1. This resolved the conflict between Chie and the conservative villages. Chie asked, "Why does he care so much about Gaara? They are from different villages." Chie of the old school has broken the world into structures, forgetting that, first of all, they are all people and not representatives of countries. Kakashi replies, "He doesn't care what village he is from. They went through the same pain and are the best at each other." Chie dies realizing the old mistakes imposed by generations "You will change this world invented by old and stupid people."

2. Gaara was preparing us for a meeting with Pain. Pain's philosophy was that people who were completely alien to each other could understand each other by knowing the same pain. If Gaara was Naruto's relative, it would destroy the entire structure of philosophy.

3 The example of Naruto and Gaara is Jiraiya's true teaching. "We know what pain is and try to be merciful to others." The idea seems to be the same as that of Pain, but at the same time it is completely different. Pain used pain ( ahh sorry 😂) as a weapon. Against the background of Gaara's example, this looks even more obvious.

4 In the future, just like Naruto changed Chiyo, Gaara will change Onoki.

I want to say that in Naruto everything is very fragilely interconnected. This is the order and the relationship of the characters of the link. So why when the same shippers Sasosaku, Tobidei and Itadei prove their "canonicity" by

1 Sakura influenced sasori

2 Tobi called Deidara his favorite senpai

3 Deidara hates sharingan and talks about Itachi

Well, on the one hand, I don't care as the sasodei shipper , because as many canonical proofs and justifications as Sasodey has, not a single ship has

but on the other hand, as a fan of Naruto philosophy, I hate to see how people are ready to distort the idea of ​​anime and the characters of in order to prove their canon.

So,

In a word, I want to talk about this first of all as

1 A fan of the naruto philosophy that becomes meaningless due to the substitution of facts for some ship

2 A fan of all these characters who are distorted trying to prove their "canonicity"

3 Sasodei shipper

In general, I do not mind "I like this ship and I ship it. Ok"

I do not like "I will ignore the facts and at the same time do not care that I made the philosophy of the anime useless, distort the characters of the persona only in order to prove their some crackship's canonicity 🌚👍"

I hope I could explain why I want to talk about it😶

And this one is so sweet🥺💗Yes, I also know people with a huge difference in age who are beautiful and happy together for a long time. And although I agree that a lot is not visible from the outside, but age really does not matter. It's all about people.

And I'm sorry that it turned out so long 😅

This was a good chance to explain why I decided to talk about other ships (/> <)/

So, thanks again for the answers ^=^ ❤💛

I’ll go and write a post about the age difference in the drafts, edit it a little and post 🐥🦂

[buddha-in-disguise]

This is how it's done

Episode 5.15 at last.

While the emphasis has been on Nia's story in this episode, the synopsis made it clear Alex, Kelly and J'onn had a secondary storyline running as well. So again we were eager to watch knowing they were finally getting more than a token few minutes together.

Did it deliver?

Oh hell yes.

You just have to look on Twitter to see the praise being heaped on it by fans.

But first let's get the elephant in the room out of the way. William.

The opening sequence as Kara is fighting with Nia, and Nia has to be the one reminding Kara she has a date? Already covered by me and others, but to reiterate: that does not give a vibe of someone excited to be going on a first date. You can't even use the excuse of her mind was on the fight, because so was Nia's.

As to Kara at her apartment with Alex prior to the date?

Those words, "Cancel it for me."

Lets say (for arguments sake) it is nerves again speaking. Maybe it is, but that she is even having those thoughts? That she completely forgot about the 1st date, and needed reminding? If Kara can't get invested in the date, how are the audience expected to become invested?

As for the date itself. Kara arrives.... having been told by Alex to wear the blue top because .... well reasons .... and she is wearing the purple? So, not wanting to go with the best look then?

I didn't mind the date per se, although I did wonder if Kara was simply trying to not show pool skills, because I can't believe for a second, with Alex as a sister, and the control Kara now has on her powers (worry over lack of control would be the only other reason for her hesitation that I can think of), Kara hasn't been pulled into playing many times.

Did I get a date vibe? No. I felt more bonding yes (like why has it taken until now to even vaguely have that much), but date? Nope. Still not feeling it. If any of the above was a one off instance, you could shrug it off. But all of them? Sorry but as I say, if Kara isn't that invested in a first date, then we can't be expected to be as invested. However, that isn't to say that William annoyed me. In truth having him more on the sidelines was a relief as it finally allowed others to get some much needed screen time.

The Nia storyline.

This is obviously one extremely close to me, as my husband is transgender, and we have other family who are also transgender.

Nicole's input was definitely felt. Some of the lines she spoke were ones we have said ourselves almost word for word.

This is a topic that is one I've been extremely vocal about, and one in particular I have spoken about (in the William and Kara at CatCo scene) is the figures for transgender people killed in the last year alone in the USA, but more importantly that this number is likely not a true representation as many who die are misgendered after death.

It was so important to show just how bad for the transgender community it is. And no, it wouldn't necessarily be a fact Kara would know. Even those in the LGBTQ community aren't always aware of these figures. As for William being the one stating the figures back to Kara, again in the context I had no qualms about it. In fact having a CIS straight man write the piece and be a supportive ally is an important message in it's own right. I was worried that wouldn't come across, but I felt it did.

If ever there was a line that spoke volumes in this weeks Supergirl episode it was this:

"They want us to be invisible because of their own fears, they want to erase us so...... we need to shine even brighter." - Nia Nal

And shine Nicole Maines (and Roxy Wood, because the additional line about being a Black transgender woman - take my heart, stomp over it, then expect me to function), did. Both deserve so much praise on the way they delivered their performances.

I genuinely cried at some of this weeks episode, because the experiences have been ones we have faced as a transgender household. Being white does afford us a privilege that Black transgender people (especially the women) don't have. But as I say, it has been something I've been vocal about for a long time.

Lastly Kara and Nia on the balcony. Holy mother of god (or goddess), tears. Again. Nicole and Melissa once again were so good it felt like a punch to the gut. Kara wiping that tear off Nia's cheek. Big ugly sobbing from me. Gah! Just ....

Now Alex and Kelly. While I'm still craving a nice intimate atmosphere at home with them, having had so little of Dansen (and Kelly) it was a relief that for once Kelly wasn't given diminished screentime. Not only that, she was instrumental in helping Alex navigate through the VR world.

Alex having that PTSD flashback to being in the tank. Whoa, finally acknowledging it affected her and obviously still does. I loved how Kelly is so good at helping Alex maintain her equilibrium. You could tell it wasn't just because of her training or profession, but as a girlfriend who knows and understands how to communicate to Alex in that moment of stress, much like Alex was able to realise Malefic was manifesting as Kelly in the earlier part of the season, simply because she knew her girlfriend well enough.

Watching Alex train to get used to the Martian weapon, felt very reminiscent of S1 where Alex was training Kara early on. It was good to see her off balance for once in her training, as she has always shown a confidence in her ability until now. For those who complain she brought up wanting to be back at the DEO, as someone who has heavy military presence in our family (for at least 4 generations on my maternal side), I can safely say, going from military (and remember the DEO is recognised and spoken about in canon as being a military operation), and suddenly and unexpectedly thrown back into civilian life is one heck of an adjustment. It's an adjustment for most even when they know it's coming. To be so abrupt, so unexpected? Alex is going to want that structure back, and have that support around her. It is absolutely not unrealistic for her to feel this way or to talk about it. I would've been more surprised if she hadn't.

"And this is my gun."

Alex giving no crap. The whole rescue sequence was a joy to watch.

If I had a complaint, as I mentioned, I would've loved just a moment of real quiet intimacy between Kelly and Alex. We've barely seen anything of that sort. I hope we get something next episode (which also looks amazing from the trailer).

I could go through the episode and pick up so many times on how good it was. It was so much, I know I will have forgotten something I wanted to say. But I'm exhausted (almost no sleep will do that to you, damn being in the UK and these stupid o'clock viewing times), and it was so much to unpack.

Brainy, was barely in the episode but damn, so lovely (& heartbreaking) to see him give the information to the NCPD to help against transphobic attacks.

Onto a side plot, but finally we have more about Leviathan.

Leviathan have those bodies suspended.

What if William dies in 5.19 and becomes one of those suspended bodies for 5.20 or was supposed to, as Nicole mentioned on her Instagram story they still had scenes to film, and a couple were pretty amazing? With Staz back, would it have involved him, possibly as a sleeper agent? I've touted this idea before. While I would prefer that a MOC isn't cast into being a bad guy again, or killed off, I would more than happily see him simply go back to London and The Times. But I guess we wait to see what happens there.

But if, like Russell in 5a, he becomes an unwitting agent of Leviathan & a bad guy, cue fight scene, possibly in a VR setting? Maybe? Who knows.

Last but by no means least - they killed off Jeremiah. Since we're not entirely sure if Cadmus operated in the same way on Earth Prime as they did on Earth 38, we don't yet know the circumstances behind his death.

Will we get more explanation about it? Honestly I'm not overly bothered unless it helps serve a current storyline. Merely because episode numbers are running out, and it does at least bring us closure on his character one way or another. Something a lot of us have questioned for so long now.

As for complaints, the only ones expressing any real disappointment have been fans who have either regularly attacked other fans (especially those of in the SC or Dansen fandoms), or the outright transphobic users (I won't call them fans), who as the episode makes clear, are everywhere. The transphobes come out in force everytime with Nicole, so it isn't a surprise to see them again. As Nia says, it what transgender people face on a daily basis.

Plus with no Lena in the episode, it helps show that fans didn't need a Lena/Kara centric episode for this to garner such positive reactions, particularly from the LGBTQ fans. In some ways, as many have been saying (yes even SC fans), this Lena drama has long since gone by its sell by date and not having Lena once more stuck in her laboratory wasn't missed. And god, I say this as a huge Lena fan. I still want her on screen of course, but we need progression on what is happening with her. Both Lex and Lena have felt stale of late, and while I know it changes as we get into the last few episodes, I can truly say neither was missed this time. And before anyone jumps in, no this isn't bashing SC (I still ship both Dansen and SC, as well as Brainia), or saying SC shouldn't happen, or Lena is evil, or not needed. I don't think that at all. I merely am getting tired of a merry-go-round on Lena in her laboratory that we've had of late, & the only interaction has been with Lex. Time to break her out of that cell!

I don’t know what they were putting in the water in Vancouver when they did the Batwoman and Supergirl episodes this week, but they both had me simultaneously laughing & crying! It looked ugly for a minute there.

Both were outstanding episodes.

As much as I've had my criticism over some of this season, when Supergirl get it right like they did here, they soar! This was one of my top episodes for the entire series.

And despite all the news in the world right now, Supergirl trended on Twitter again.

Gif courtesy of @ Daily_danvers on Twitter.

[whetstonefires]

director's cut top guide? I don't have a section in specific pick your favorite I guess I love the whole thing

Awwwww thank you. 💗😊 For the compliment, the interest, and the guidance.  Additionally thanks because I just discovered I didn’t update this fic in October like I thought I did! It’s still in the status it had in July. So uh. I’ll be getting right on that. ˋ( ° ▽、° )

I think I’m gonna go with a passage back near the start, in the first half of chapter 4, the one where Tifa’s getting Vincent out of his coffin. I like how it came out and it’s pretty important, and if I’ve rambled about it at all, it wasn’t recently.

-

There’s a push-pull effect fundamental to this scene–first physically, with Tifa moving and destroying actual barriers, and Vincent repeatedly attempting to withdraw. But also on the level of Tifa attempting a series of verbal sallies, which Vincent initially rebuffs and then ignores by vampirically pulling the covers over his head and generally putting the passive in passive-aggressive.

But after telling her to go ahead and set the building on fire with him in it, Vincent gets his lid on and settles on being inert, and Tifa gets to do a monologue.

There are a lot of speeches in this fic, honestly, because of the precedent set by canon/the kinds of characters I’m working with, but most of them are nowhere near this long, and even though Tifa’s trying to achieve a specific rhetorical objective here, they’re generally not quite this honest.

“It’s easy to decide to die,” she told him, at length. “It’s easy to stop fighting when there doesn’t seem to be any hope. I know.

“But you’ll always regret it. You know that. If you’d been brave enough to choose Lucrecia over the Turks before Hojo got his grubby claws into her, maybe none of this would ever have happened. If she’d been brave enough to choose you sooner, it might have been okay. Not choosing is almost always a bad choice. If you come out of hiding, more things will happen—things that can’t unhappen. I know that’s frightening. But things happen without you, too. When you’re not there. When you do nothing.”

Tifa rocked back on her heels. “You can’t make the world go back to the way it was before, get back the same happiness or hope from your memories…not even if you could wind back time.”

Here Tifa is combining her intimate knowledge of Vincent’s circumstances with her own situation to create a sort of…weaponized empathy.

She can’t afford for Vincent to not listen to her, because she refuses to either give up on her mission or kill him, so when the normal approach fails she falls back on contingency and proceeds to run absolutely roughshod over all his personal boundaries.

Now, being able to wield future information against people this way is one of the major features of this general genre of time travel story, particularly when (like Tifa here) the traveler had level-ups, but didn’t get to carry them into New Game Plus. Tifa later uses it against Tseng with no artfulness whatsoever.

But that kind of blunt, bludgeoning use of intimate knowledge is a power game; it’s not how you treat a friend. So Tifa spends a lot of this speech, especially the opening, drawing connections between her experience and Vincent’s, exposing herself emotionally as much as can reasonably be managed without going off on any Tifa-centric tangents.

Being displaced in time and separated from everything you cared about is relevant, here. And she’s also able to bring her personal experience with feeling helpless and trapped–not by the sort of clear antagonistic obstacle you can batter down with your fists but by the certainty that every possible course of action is Terrible and Wrong and so you can’t act, because you can’t choose–she specifically frames it in terms of having to decide between binary options, because that’s how we’ve seen her experience it wrt i.e. ‘talking to Cloud about how his brain is weird.’

The experience is similar enough to Vincent’s, especially his not-initiating of important relationship conversations with Lucretia at the beginning, for these terms to work for communication purposes, but it’s very definitely Tifa’s experience being mapped onto Vincent’s here, and proffered to ameliorate the inherent violence of what she’s doing.

Her coping mechanism for that trapped feeling, though, is to distract herself with Doing Something Constructive that allows her to avoid the issue without feeling like she’s stuck.

There’s a certain extent to which allowing time to process or grieve is important, and Tifa is bad at allowing it, largely I think because she’s very aware of the danger of getting mired in paralysis and ruminating on the bad thing until it’s all that exists. Vincent more than anyone else in the cast is defined by his choice to identify with his trauma, and while Aerith is the one most defined by trying not to do that, Tifa’s far enough to that end to create a conflict in viewpoint even when nothing vitally important is at stake.

I also included a dialogue ping to the place where she talks about this in the Advent Children movie, though if you’ve been following my opinions on ffvii any time at all you probably know I have so many problems with thedecisions made with Tifa in that film. Even the parts that areconsonant with her established characterization require her to have rolled back mostof her development from the OG.

The part where she doesn’t come with Cloud on the rescue mission shebullies him into is so utterly backward and the opposite of her establishedbehavior and values and just basic logic that I have to sort of write around it,because I can’t accept that it happened. But if we ignore that bit, and the amount of self-centeredness in the harangue, some elementsof the interaction have potential.

Because if nothing else it’s the most explicit verbal treatment in the Compilation of the recurring theme of people being ‘stuck.’ Not by bars and walls and certain death, but by the prisons inside their heads.

“But…there are still possibilities. Still things you can do to make the world better. Her choices…they weren’t your fault. But whatever you’re blaming yourself for right now…lying here until you die won’t make it better. The biggest sin of all, to me, is not trying to make things better.

“You aren’t a monster, Vincent. Nothing Hojo did to your body, nothing Lucrecia did to bring you back, could make you one. As long as you have your mind, you decide. And it’s what you decide to do that makes the difference between a human and anything else.”

She’s hitting hard, here: call to action, absolution, extremely targeted personal affirmation, clarification that she really does know what’s up with him, new information that Lucrecia was involved with his current status, and finally, optimistic conceptual framework imposed on the situation, since Vincent certainly isn’t capable of that himself.

This treatment of Vincent’s situation vis-a-vis humanity is, of course, also very relevant to the ensuing plot-central question of what Sephiroth is, and whether he has the power to make good life choices. Which Tifa is not nearly as sure of as with Vincent, since while she stands by the principle that it’s a matter of choice she knows for a fact that Vincent can make good ones, but has certainly never seen evidence with Sephiroth.

And then of course there’s Genesis, who would love to get everyone to accept that his sins are a function of what rather than who he is, and drag down with him anyone he can reach, and who by his very effort to sell the idea makes it seem less likely.

I’ve excerpted only Tifa’s dialogue and some of the tags from the rest of the passage, because her narration gets lengthier and isn’t what I’m focusing on for this commentary.

She waited. But the man in the box didn’t move, and he didn’t speak. “Lucrecia is still alive,” she told him. “Preserved in crystal. Hidden away. You two really are a pair, aren’t you? And maybe you’re both right to be concerned—she’s got Jenova in her, and you’ve got those things that replaced your Limit Breaks. But they don’t control you.”

[…]

“They don’t control you,” she repeated. “Hojo doesn’t control you. You can choose to do nothing for the rest of your long life if that’s what you really want. But it’s not your destiny. And it’s not what’s right.”

‘It’s not what’s right’ is an interesting line in retrospect, because Tifa’s saying it within a framework of denying Vincent’s reasoning that there’s something somehow virtuous about closing himself off from the world, so he can’t do any more harm. Specifically in the context of assuring him that he has control over his actions, and his Limit Break things don’t.

But in the overall argument, about how his power of self-determination relates to responsibility to the world, it can also be read as a moral condemnation, the suggestion that there is a specific thing that’s right, and Vincent isn’t doing it.

“Sephiroth is an adult now,” she said [….] “They put him in the Shinra military. Made him a General.”

[…] “If Hojo and Jenova have their way, he’ll become a monster soon,” she confided in the coffin. “Maybe there’s no way to change that. Maybe it’s too late for him. Maybe it’s his destiny. But it’s not too late for the rest of the world, not yet. I know that much. Everyone who has the power to fight him has a responsibility to try.”

That’s where her speech winds up–rather abrupt return to her earlier, blown-off argument about Sephiroth imminently killing everybody and how Vincent should help. He doesn’t do anything. He continues to be a box.

So then she punches her way into the coffin.

“What are you?”

She knew it wasn’t her feat of strength that had impressed him, though he probably appreciated the rhetorical force of it.

I really like this line. Describing ‘punching open the box someone’s hiding in at the climax of an inspirational speech’ as a rhetorical device is the kind of thing I find very funny, and I got characterization of both of them and story advancement into the sentence too.

“Tifa,” she said. “Tifa Lockhart.” She held out her right hand. “Get up, Vincent Valentine. The world isn’t done with you yet.”

He let her pull him up onto his feet.

Some obvious symbolism there, fitted into the very important fact that this worked.

Getting Vincent out of his coffin has been the only thing Tifa’s attempted so far in the story that has turned out more or less exactly as planned. Not entirely easily, and not following a step-by-step plot because that’s not Tifa, but without random factors interceding and requiring her to recalculate wildly, make decisions entirely on the fly, and draw up a new set of plans in the aftermath, either.

In a way, the Vincent recruitment section microcosms the fight Tifa’s having with the universe throughout the fic, in her efforts to make things line up so she can get a better outcome to this nightmare scenario she’s been pitched back into: direct, physical actions are persistently vital and necessary, but her real success must always hinge on her particular knowledge, and ability to apply it.

Apply it specifically, thus far, mostly to getting people to take her seriously and do as she says. Because she’s been placed in a position where as useful and important as her personal power is, it’s not the right tool to rely on for her central task. That has to be tackled via community building, in a context that intensely disinclines her to attempt such overtures.

Which in turn invokes one of the several great dichotomies of Tifa’s in-game characterization–the periodic tension between her social impulses, to bind and soothe and promote bonding, and her…reactive impulses, to seize the world in both hands and find something to fight and do and change, so she doesn’t feel helpless in the face of all that is evil.

The parts of her character arc in the game that aren’t actively about Cloud seem to center around being forced to face that both these behavior patterns (especially in their role as coping mechanisms) are capable of being not only inadequate but actively, harmfully inappropriate to particular situations.

And then coping with this fact, and continuing to inhabit these parts of her identity in ways that turn out constructive. E.g., choose caring for Cloud over leading party to do anti-Shinra things that have only the vaguest prospect of actually averting the apocalypse; successfully retrieve his mind from the Lifestream. Help punch Sephiroth to death and stop him from holding back Holy; world saved.

If you try really hard to get a personal moral for Tifa out of the OG that isn’t pretty sexist, it might come down to something like: realize that you might be acting wrongly; then, act. Stay afraid, but do it anyway.

And, optimistically: perhaps you do not have to choose between your faces. Perhaps they are both allowed. Perhaps all of you is allowed. Perhaps you are enough.

One of the things Tifa and Cloud share is needing so desperately to be enough.

In a way that’s a feeling that unites the entire party, in their various ways, except maybe Aerith, depending on how you interpret her relationship to the obligations of being the Last Ancient. But Tifa and Cloud are about the same age and come from the same context and share a major trauma, so it looks particularly similar in them.

And of course there are also ways it looks especially similar between Tifa and Vincent, because they’re the most hopeless romantics in the party. 😆

[lizzybeth1986]

Quick Thoughts on TRR Book 3, Epilogue.

• So. This is going to be our last TRR chapter...for a while, unless they decide to do a spin-off of sorts. All the issues have been (somewhat) resolved, the MC and her friends + LI are triumphant, we've broken our beds on our wedding night, now it's time to explore the aftermath. (So sorry it took me this long, guys, I've spent a full week struggling to save whole paragraphs).

• Many thanks to @kennaxval and @boneandfur for all the screenshots and help on the Hana x MC and Maxwell x MC scenes! I used my own screenshots for Liam's playthrough, the above two + the "All the Stories Girl" YouTube channel for Hana's and Maxwell's, and the HIMEME YouTube channel for Drake's.

• So we start with waking up in our LI's arms, and it's all sweet and adorable and we're all basking in the afterglow of our first wedding night. But the LI has a surprise.

• The beach!!

• Since we'll be going on our honeymoon sometime later, the LI basically wants us to have a little fun and alone time on a private beach.

• All the LIs give us three choices of drinks (mimosas, infused water, tropical drink), and three choices of food (fruit-and-cheese-platter, french pastry and bread rolls).

• FINAL CHANCE TO SHARE AN INTIMATE MOMENT WITH THE LI!! For 15 diamonds!! That's quite a steal.

• Now...who am I to say no to a Sparkly Liam?? 😀

• So the pre-fucking activities are obviously different for each LI. It's meant to suit each of their personalities and while I loved the sex part...I really enjoyed this.

Liam takes his wife swimming (you can either splash him or take him underwater for a kiss) and then proceeds to write a love note for her in the sand. When she points out that it might get washed away in the sand, he states that the message will live on in the waves that will carry it. Gaww.

Hana's activity is SO HANA istg. Both she and the MC build a sand castle and you get a rare glimpse of "Hana-getting-carried-away-talking-about-things-she-loves" if you choose the fairytale option xD They build a castle and a moat, and it's pretty obvious that Hana loves her fairytales ("there's no such thing as too many castles") and that the activity is so representative of her wildly romantic spirit.

Maxwell agrees to get buried in the sand, and the MC can choose what form it should take (Valtoria's sigil, a sea monster or a lot of muscles). @boneandfur tells that if you choose the sea monster option you get the first mention of "unleash the kraken" if you are married to him (the first one was in the fling scene, which you obviously won't get if he's your fiancé). It's all sorts of adorable 😂

Drake has a swimming race with you, in a rather nice callback to his first beach scene (diamond-option) in Book 1 Chapter 10. Back then the race was between Drake and the MC, Hana acting as referee and producing a shell for her and a sand dollar for him later on as prizes. Here, the MC has the option of gifting Drake a beautiful conch shell, and Drake is the one who gives the MC a sand dollar.

• Guh. That's all I'll say about what follows. Guuuuuuh.

• I made Esther wear her hugeass hat just to see if she'd keep it on during sex. She didn't and now I'm very sad 😟

• It's now a few weeks later, and we're being called for a special secret ceremony that Liam has gotten planned, and that apparently only Madeleine knows (very very few) details of. You get to tell your friends (in your fiancé/e's presence if you're not married to Liam) how married life is going for you, and there's either some good natured teasing or "ugh, spare me the details" from them. Madeleine then enters, having found the perfect excuse to wear the white dress I pettily didn't allow her to wear to my wedding.

I bet my note said "pay diamonds or it's the LBD for you, bitch".

• I also love how Madeleine knows that asking Olivia not to bring daggers is a lost cause, so she might as well put a limit of the number of weapons she brings instead 😂😂

• Out of the four, two already decide on their outfits (Drake on his grey suit and Olivia on her Costume Gala Nevrakis gown), and two ask you for your opinion.

• For Hana, you can choose between the handmade cheongsam that is so precious and personal to her, and the godess-of-spring gown she wore for the Costume Gala. If you were married to her, or chose another dress for Hana to wear, the cheongsam would be perfect!! Imagine, when she finally receives honours for her contributions to her country, she will be wearing this lovely dress that has so much personal history for it and possibly may also be representing her roots as well. But I chose the spring gown, because the cheongsam she'd worn for my wedding. If I ever wind up replaying maybe I'll switch it all around a little.

• For Maxwell, you either choose between his smart black suit, or the squid suit. OF FUCKING COURSE I'm going to choose the latter. When he goes up to get his honour as Guardian, I want everyone to know that this Beaumont Boy is the Pride of His Home and His Family 😍 Same with why I'm happy that Olivia is wearing her Nevrakis gown because this event is further proof that she is redefining what it means to be a Nevrakis. (also if you choose his squid suit, he exclaims in squiggly letters about how the "cephalopod rises again". 10/10).

• For Drake, I like the full-circle enforced by the fact that this suit was what he wore on the night of Liam's Coronation. That night was the first time Drake didn't try to reject his feelings for the MC, didn't allow his guilt re: Liam to come between them, instead accepted that he felt that way and approached her (in his diamond scene). Given that this epilogue features a throwback to the Coronation...I like this extra touch.

• My corgi Joy DuPont of Valtoria/Cordonia gets his own suit too.

• Aaaaand now it's time for the finale gown!

Pretty faithful rendition of the gown on the cover, and I think it has elements of both sigils just to keep us covered either way. The gown is a rich wine/burgundy colour, gold swirls at the skirt and jewelled gold belt (phoenix sigil) white/silver-ish coloured elements on the neckline and cuffs (dove sigil). Madeleine tells us that the gown was made keeping our house colours in mind. The LI - if they're in the boutique - gets to gush, and Olivia is the only friend who gets to comment by default - very possibly because she shares a common house colour with the MC, and either woman will get to be his Consort. Alongside the Coronation Ball parallels, you can see parallels to the Costume Ball as well!

• If you're married to Liam, and therefore Queen of Cordonia, you get an extra (and free!) selection to make: your tiara! The book gives us four options:

I honestly don't know what they're supposed to symbolize really, and I don't think they would actually symbolize anything. They're just pretty headpieces meant for the country's new queen. But Ima list down what these tiaras remind me of!

Royal Rose. The "Romantic Love" pink ballgown option for the Homecoming Ball, which was Hana's choice of outfit back then and comes in her favourite colour, pink. It also reminds me of Liam, because in the beginning especially he was often associated with roses.

Gilded Grace. A gold tiara with gems embedded. The design is exquisite and intricate. Kinda reminds me of that nice gold watch Drake gifted us, but also the top half of it reminds me of the flare of a peacock's tail, so I'm also reminded of Maxwell 😄

Petal Perfect. I think it's called so because of the flower motif in the centre, surrounded by serrated edges which seem to me like leaves. I would definitely be reminded of Hana, who is associated with flowers in general!

Pearlescent. There is only one person I can think of who this tiara would remind me of: Liam! The pearl plays such a poignant part in their story if you chose that scene, because Liam found it at the Blue Grotto before he had ever met the MC, and showed it to her when their relationship was going through rough times in Capri. Back then, there was the option of rejecting it, keeping it or asking him to keep it safe until they were free to pursue their relationship.

• I had a headcanon that Esther asked Liam to keep the pearl, and that he had it placed in a tiara of hers to show her how far they had come together, and how much hope she had instilled in him. So OF COURSE I would choose the pearl tiara xD The writers seem to have forgotten about that Blue Grotto pearl, but I haven't!

•

Liam's outfit at this ceremony mirrors the MC's: burgundy with gold designs and leaf motifs. I see this as parallel to two events: the Costume Gala, where his "King Fabian" outfit matches both Olivia's and the MC's (that one mirrors Olivia's better though, because it's a bright red and not saffron-with-red-notes like the MC's avian gown). I also see this as parallel to the Beaumont Bash: where you can persuade Liam to show his support for you by wearing the Ramsford Duchy house colours of blue and white. Here, the ceremony itself seems centered largely around the MC - what with her being given the country's highest honour - so it could either be a show of unity (as a couple) or solidarity (as Liam showing his support to the MC). I also wonder if this is why Olivia is automatically given the red gown to wear, since they seem to be at least close to dating now if you're not married to Liam.

•

Interestingly the group receives honours based on their defining characteristics, which seemed to have helped in various ways in the fight against Anton. It's also a nice way to finally wrap up all their individual arcs, and validate them in the face of all the doubts they'd had about themselves throughout the series. Maxwell needs to see himself as good for being who he is, not have to transform into someone else altogether, to be seen as a person with something valuable to contribute. Hana still needs to navigate who she would like to be, and how she would like to live her life, and this title is an incredible step forward. Drake has had the most to prove in this book, making it clear that as a commoner he is important and that the nobility need to change their outlook towards commoners in general. Olivia is still redefining what it means to be a Nevrakis and to prove that her family name can be one that stands for loyalty and honour, not treachery.

• The Champion of the Realm title is given to the MC regardless. Even in a fail playthrough she gets it, and I think that's mostly on the basis of the very last scene, since Anton is vanquished by default. Does it ring false? Hell yeah it does. On one level that's the way the story goes, on another - it makes everything EVERY member of our core group says about her sound absolutely weird.

• Why does she get a higher honour above the others? You actually get the chance to ask Liam that. And he does respond - both in his speech during the ceremony, and later on.

Speech: He mentions her position as an outsider in this country and how she has embraced Cordonia as her home, but also speaks of having fought for Cordonia and unified it as a country. The second definitely seems to be the overriding theme when it comes to her: the ability to unite people to a cause.

Do I Deserve This? This is a question the MC has the option of asking Liam after the ceremony, and he stresses again on her working as a unifier. Her quality is not as much intelligence, or bravery, or strength - it's the ability to inspire people to reach their highest potential. He speaks of it as "You don't just make Cordonia better, you inspire us to become better ourselves". Which, if your MC is just all-round horrible to everyone and doesn't even have people come for her wedding, is a load of horseshit. Stop being nice to her Liam.

• Ana de Luca referring to our social season moniker in Book 1 (Mystery Woman/The American) was a nice touch.

• Liam also (finally!) addresses in public the vast imbalance between the nobility and the common populace, and how he would like to change that. I've seen complaints that he has basically "placed his buddies" in the Council, so he is essentially making the same mistake - but I can only see that argument as valid if a. those "buddies" weren't involved in the eventual takedown of Anton, and b. you ignore what he says about getting a roster of candidates ready for the council itself. It's still an ongoing process, so us jumping to criticize something that's just been announced is a little premature.

• Ana says we haven't ever had a council...which makes me question how much of Book 1 the writers have forgotten, honestly. Because...like...

Both screenshots are from the initial chapters of Book 1, mind you. They're possibly not the same as the Council Liam is planning on, but they're definitely there - just that they're invisible! Like the Cordonian populace for most of this series.

• Time for a Ball!!

• Since this is the epilogue, the Honour Ball (which is what I choose to call it rn) harks back both to Liam's Coronation Ball, and to the Masquerade Ball that introduced the MC to the nobility in the first place. The first half is a conversation between the MC, Olivia and Hana (parallel to our very first scene in Book 1, which is Hana congratulating the MC and Olivia maintaining that no matter how attractive she may seem to the Prince, she doesn't have what it takes to be chosen). Hana was sad about the prospect then, but happier for their friendship now. Olivia jealously dismissed the MC as not worthy of Liam then, but accepts that she is worthy of the honours bestowed on her now. Even the MC's responses now parallel the Coronation Ball: a gracious response, a threatening response, and a response that implies closeness ("I would rather date you"/"Just shut up and give me a hug").

• The second half of the Honour Ball scene is the LI dancing with the MC. At the Coronation Ball, this moment was our introduction to Liam, but now our respective LIs come forward for our first dance. In those playthroughs, Liam immediately asks Olivia to his first dance instead. The conversation then turns to their first Ball (Masquerade) and explores the LIs' initial thoughts on the MC.

Liam speaks about how there was a mixture of concern and love in his feelings for the MC. Hana speaks of how the MC transformed the way she looked at herself. Maxwell speaks of wanting the MC from the very beginning but withdrawing because he believed she was meant for Liam, not him. Drake speaks of how wrong he was in believing the MC didn't have what it took to survive, and how proud he is that she doesn't need a protector. All in all, toothachingly sweet 😊

• "I'm ready to do a lot more than dance". Esther is thirsty, from her first scene to her last 😂

• Alright so we now go a whole bunch of extra scenes meant to wrap up everyone's story, and I'll begin with the animals and Olivia before moving forward to the LIs.

Pets: Joy (the corgi) is found raiding the kitchens and making a mess, and in a very fun scene, the MC gets to set a few (very funny) ground rules. The first set deal with house behaviour, the second deal with their interactions with the non-royal LIs, and the last deal with some funny rules about the dog in Cordonia, including not getting involved with cults or overthrowing Liam. It ends with the caption "12/10 The Goodest Boy" (I'm inclined to agree 😄). There's a tiny scene involving Celestia (the horse), Hansel and Gretel (the red pandas), where the MC steals a moment and makes them lovely promises of pampering. All of these scenes are included if you buy all these pets - a little bit like that bonus scene involving Bubbles and the Mechawolf in TCaTF.

What I Think: These are not meant to be very deep - they're just fun, playful little bonus scenes meant to bring a smile to your face, and these scenes definitely succeed in that.

Olivia: This scene involves Olivia regaling Kiara and Penelope's families with the tale of Anton's defeat, and I believe it's the first time we see both families together (they've shared the same spaces but not exactly been shown talking to each other). The futures of all the three ladies are outlined: with Zeke disinheriting himself to become a vet, Kiara now gets to be next in line for running Castelsarreillan after Hakim, as well as the diplomatic liaison on the Royal Council. Penelope will now be a dog fashion designer with plenty support from Joelle, and possibly marrying Ezekiel. Olivia will be meeting Liam to discuss the dissolution of her marriage to Anton, and if you married someone else she will be doing it over dinner, which suggests the beginnings of a romantic relationship. She also plans to tour Lythikos in the aftermath of what Anton and Lucretia have done, and make sure that there are no more rules and stipulations from Lythikos that will pose a problem for Cordonia itself.

What I Think: I like how this wraps up several things at once and brings back that initial conflict of what Zeke's decision to be a vet (even though, frankly speaking, I kinda wish he didn't exist). The highlight was the sincerity and passion with which Olivia plans her next steps for her duchy and country. This scene neatly ties up all the women's stories with satisfying resolutions: the most satisfying of all being that Kiara is justly rewarded for all her hard work. I do take issue, however, with how the writers use Kiara to sugarcoat how terrible the MC and her friends were to her, in front of her mother Joelle. Then again it's not like the MC was particularly honest about her motives for talking to Kiara in Lythikos but...the last thing I want to see is Kiara giving credit where it is not due.

Drake: You begin by talking to several people: Gladys if you took her diamond scene and set her free, Mara, and Drake. Bastien is present, but he speaks more to Drake than to you. Gladys gives you an update on her life and thanks you for giving her a second chance. You get to either thank Mara for "risking her life" or tell her she sucks at her job. Drake talks to a number of people: Bastien, Neville and Rashad. Bastien reveals to Drake that his father was also once Guardian of the Realm (why was his family almost cast out so cruelly then, if what Jackson did was so phenomenal that he got this honour for it?) and would have been proud of Drake today. Neville apologizes to both Drake and the MC, and depending on the MC's response either walks away on good terms or acts like the spoilt brat that he is. Drake then reveals to the MC that she was his inspiration for taking up the Council Seat and that he wants to do more for the common people of Cordonia. Just seconds later, he gets his chance to make a change when Rashad comes forward with a proposal to use unused lands in the duchies to make public spaces for the people, a proposal Drake is only too happy to be involved in.

If you are married to Drake, there is acknowledgement all round of his new position, one extra dialogue from Neville if you respond positively to him, and it changes his dialogue with the MC just a wee bit.

What I Think: What makes Drake's scene so special is the fact that it, by far, most effectively shows the change in nobles' attitudes towards commoners. It is also symbolically important that it happens at the place where the MC sees the palace for the first time with both Maxwell and Drake, AND where Neville and Drake once duelled (and Neville acknowledges this). This is where Gladys - the representative commoner - chooses to thank us and assure us of her support. This is also where we have the chance to take our security detail to task if we so choose (we all thought she was going to be proven as shady and as a traitor...turns out she was just inefficient). The cherry on top is Rashad - the rebel heir - approaching Drake with something that will benefit both nobles and commoners. It kind of shows us the true triumph lies here, in giving to the common populace before unscrupulous elements can sway them. Could this have been done earlier? Of course! But I feel like narratively this is more effective.

Maxwell: For one, thank God Maxwell isn't a surgeon!! This scene includes BertVannah, Bartie and Maxwell, and delves into the upcoming wedding, Bertrand recognizing that he doesn't need to be as hard on himself and his brother as he was in the past, and Maxwell revealing that he's going to write a book about the MC's rags-to-royalty tale. Bertrand is now happy to be honest about the state of his financial affairs and his determination to keep Savannah and Bartie happy. He also gives Maxwell the chance to handle his own finances independently.

If you're married to Maxwell, you get to refer to Savannah as your sister-in-law, Maxwell speaks about your love "changing along the way" if you married someone besides Liam. In his playthrough he speaks of the book as their love story.

What I Think: Overall the Beaumont Brothers storyline got some amount of buildup but very little resolution. We don't know what pushed the House into financial ruin, we don't know the history behind them as we should considering we're an honorary family member, we're never told the secret things that Maxwell hinted at in the Shanghai Night Market group scene in Book 2. The book and its proceeds is said to be the key to restoring their House to its former glory financially, but that's just a very odd way of ending that arc. On one hand I'm glad there is a resolution, on the other it seems a little weak to me.

Hana: Hana is seated at a piano in front of her parents, Madeleine, and Madeleine's parents. Lorelai repeats the mistakes she'd made in Hana's childhood, trying to push Hana into parading her skills in front of guests. Hana refuses without much success, but Lorelai doesn't seem to be really listening to her. At this point, the MC gets to intervene and Xinghai agrees, leading Hana to open up about wanting to share her skills by choice rather than being forced to do so, and Lorelai apologizes...yet again. There is some talk about parenting from Adeleide and Godfrey who are watching this exchange, and we find out that Madeleine is now Royal Communications Director. Once the parents have left, Madeleine stays behind to apologize to Hana for the bullying she meted out to the latter during the Engagement Tour, and Hana tells her that Madeleine will have to earn her forgiveness. Madeleine then promises to ensure that no one harms Hana in court (hah). Once she leaves, Hana joyfully plays piano for the MC herself.

If you're married to Hana, the end of the scene has a few changes. Instead of jokily throwing pillows at each other, they jokily argue over who the best wife is instead (for each, it's the other). The tune Hana plays for the MC as her wife is different from what she plays as her friend. The friend version has her play the upbeat TRR theme tune, and the LI version has Hana play what the narrative calls a "slow, sultry tune"...which turns out to be the mournful TRR theme tune. What, is being married to Hana supposed to be an occasion for sadness now?? Because you're definitely succeeding in making it look like that.

What I Think: I guess I should be happy that Madeleine's behaviour was addressed at all, though it was clearly a rushed, last-minute job that happened because of some amount of arm-twisting. It's also nice that they bring us full-cirlce by referencing Hana's piano scene in Book 1, and showing that rebuilding her relationship with her parents (she shouldn't have to, but this is clearly the way the writers WANT to go) is going to be an agonizing, painful process. They show the parallels between Hana's upbringing and Madeleine's upbringing as well - it's not a parallel I'm happy seeing, but I was aware they were going to take that route way back in Book 2.

That said, there are things that won't let me enjoy the scene. One is that at this point, I'm not seeing Lorelai learning or growing enough. I know this might be an attempt to show that these things take time, but the Lorelai scenes are honestly getting repetitive and exhausting. And as someone who has been where Hana has been? Right down to family members who accept they need to be better but don't actually? I can tell you it's fucking exhausting to have to deal with that again and again and again. For Hana's sake at least I wish I could actually see her LEARN from what she's done and ACTIVELY DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT.

Now we go to my biggest problem with this scene. Madeleine.

It's good that she confesses to her motives and accepts Hana's decision. It's good that Hana gets to be firm about not forgiving her until SHE is comfortable doing so. It's good that Hana sees her own forgiveness as something that should be earned - not by a paltry two-minute apology but through genuine effort. But the problem for me lies in two areas:

1. Madeleine's Excuses: That's exactly what they are - excuses. Madeleine claims that she wanted to "break" Hana in an effort to get her to shed her "nice act". Which is bullshit. Even if Hana's kindness was an act...was she hurting anyone? Was her "act" actually causing harm? Madeleine's actions exceeding even Hana's perceived crime. What business was it of Madeleine's to rip this woman apart based on her own assumptions? And if she recognized that Hana was genuinely good, why was she okay with minimizing what she did to her? We can bring a thousand excuses about her sexuality and her upbringing and how hard all of this was - it doesn't make the gravity of what was done to Hana and the ridiculousness of Madeleine's claims any less.

2. The MC's Fake Self-Righteousness: This bit was perhaps the most jarring part of the entire exchange. By default, when Madeleine speaks about wanting to break Hana, the MC seems furious. But it's more than that. The MC sounds like she's hearing these words for the first time.

The only good thing about it is that Madeleine calls her out on it. But besides that, it just...makes all the MC's claims about being there for Hana and having Hana's back ring so false. One of my biggest problems with this whole series of events was how much the MC herself minimized and diluted what Hana went through at Madeleine's hands. How little she seemed to care about arming her friend with the entire, unvarnished truth. To have her act all protective in front of Hana now, to pretend like she'd never heard those poisonous words...that's just a whole other level of shady. It reflects even worse on the MC if they're married, because dafaq kind of wife are you if you couldn't arm your wife emotionally against this snake of a human being? That would be a major disservice to Hana-romancers who hated the way Madeleine treated her, and Hana stans in general because they weren't given a fair chance to properly protect and support Hana. Instead for the most part they'd be forced to choose the least worst options, rather than ones they were truly happy with. It sucks.

Liam: A short but significant scene. You find Liam in conversation with his stepmother Regina, and greet them. She is happy and proud of Liam and the MC, and everything they have achieved. She thanks you, and you can choose to either respond positively or maintain that she should have trusted you in the first place. Either way, she responds with grace, and then leaves. You speak about not having seen the throne room much, and Liam opens up to you about not being able to come here without being haunted by his memories of his father. He confesses to struggling with moving on from Constantine's death, understandably, and for the first time, feels safe enough emotionally to cry in the MC's presence.

If you're married to Liam, Regina speaks about how you two as a couple remind her of herself and Constantine, and expresses happiness in the changes you have brought about in Liam. Furthermore, the conversation about Constantine is extended to involve Liam and the MC's own plans for a family, and how they will strive not to repeat Constantine's mistakes. This is a fitting throwback especially to the date scene with Liam, where he speaks about how he wants a family where everyone is open to each other.

What I Think: I'd been silent for a long time about things in Liam's storyline that have disappointed me, mostly because I felt that given my LI was the central LI I fared better than most (and it's true - I did). But it doesn't change the fact that I am disappointed they didn't explore his potential. Neither his fiancée nor his friends nor his family paid enough attention to his own emotional state, and where the narrative could have had us tackle his demons they failed in creating opportunities for us to do so. A single tear slipping down his cheek is something, but to me it presents similar issues to Hana's last scene - that it is a rushed job of a journey that could have been resolved step by step, that could have been given some attention. I'm happy we got to see the statesman behind the lover, but doesn't mean it should be one or the other. There was enough room to balance out both and actually address his trauma and his health, yet it was ignored for the most part.

That said, this scene was poignant on its own, and I always love it when there are little moments of bonding between Liam and Regina, because I think that relationship itself is quite underrated.

• Now that we have finished checking up on everyone, we take one last look at the ballroom that held so many memories - sweet and horrific - for us, before Mara tells us it's time to get into the carriage for our honeymoon.

• We say goodbye to all our allies first (and get to hug Olivia if we want), and then to our friends who are waiting at the carriage. There's a lovely little group hug, and if you bought the horse she will be the one drawing the carriage. If you've bought the corgi, he also gives you a fond goodbye before you leave. As do the Cordonian citizens by default.

• The carriage scene is a beautiful private moment, because each LI gets to explore the moment they first met the MC, and how incredibly fortunate they are to have been on this journey together. All of them speak of the incredible odds they faced together, and how they will be willing to face them all over again if it meant a lifetime with the MC. It's a touching emotional moment, and all the four scenes have been written lovingly. The final lines of this book are the kind that stay with you, long after the book is finished:

LI: Is this moment everything you wanted it to be? (or some such variation, depending on your LI)

MC: No...it's better.

General Thoughts:

• Even if you choose every single wrong option possible, the story ends well for you. You don't get people to support you and very few people besides the ladies of the court and your immediate friends and LI's family make it to the wedding, but somehow they magically appear at the reception. Regardless of how badly you performed, your final actions fighting Anton earn you the Champion of the Realm title anyway, and in this case it's an unfair advantage to give. But the thing is this: every single LI in this group showers praises over you no matter what you do. That's the way this particular story goes, and it's written such that it won't go any other way no matter how much you try. The MC in a lot of cases is a reflection of the player, and at the end of the day I think they want the player to leave this story happy with their journey, even if it's too ridiculous to be true.

• This is a fitting end to the series overall: it allows us to explore everyone else's endings, has great parallels with the past, and allows us enough wiggle room to imagine our MC's future with their spouse. With regards to QTs, I still have Book 1 to complete, but I'd like to get some distance from the series itself first before I tackle it again.

Final Thoughts:

When I started this book last year, I got in completely expecting to be bored. Bored and totally not invested. I gave my MC the name I felt the least connected to (Alice Bennet), and barely gave much thought to which LI I would pick. However, something always brought me back, something always got me looking forward to the next chapter. Thus began my love affair with this book.

There are a lot of reasons why this book grew on people. The intrigue hidden behind this fairytale-like frame story. The little connections between this series and TCaTF, one of their most popular flagship books. The camaraderie between the members of the core group themselves. The way even the not-so-nice characters grew on you. The way each LI had something unique to bring to the table. Somehow...even the people who couldn't be bothered about the series could find something they would have even a passing interest in.

Do I miss this book? A little. This book got me back into writing essays - something I always loved doing - and fanfic. I got to learn so much, explore so much, and contribute so much thanks to my fondness for it, and for the fandom that seemed to love it as much as I did.

Am I sad it's gone? Well, in some ways yes. But I'd rather it did when it had to instead of being dragged along, and I would rather not see the writers destroy the characters they had zero interest in, further (I love this book - but I also love it enough that I will never forget to point out where it fucked up). I think it had a good run, lasting more than a year, and it ended well.

For better or for worse, I'm glad I got to be a part of this journey.