#been a while since i used this tag...

[phoenix-is-the-hottest-thing]

It could just be bias, however I did like Kiana and Mei's interactions in chapter 32 as their time wholesomely bonding when they connected their minds felt really deserved after they both had suffered for 15 chapters. It made me feel genuinely happy to see them holding hands. I feel like while Kiana would accept her immediately even after she committed literal war crimes, as I think Kiana came to understand and respect her decision over time, however I felt it was unrealistic how Bronya accepted Mei despite her joining World Serpent. I think it would have been really personal to Bronya because World Serpent did a lot of the same shit Anti-Entropy did with trying to blow up an entire city in order to awaken a herrscher. I honestly did not like how they did Bronya during and after the moon arc with having her superglued to Kiana and Mei for no other reason than nostalgia baiting. Also with Mei becoming the Herrscher of Origin, it felt like Elysia straight up groomed and brainwashed Mei during Elysium Everlasting with how often she bothered Mei with compliments and how Mei somehow grew from finding Elysia annoying to being head over heels for her just because she 'died' as well as how it showed in chapter 34 that Elysia uploaded herself into Mei's brain which could lead to a Sirin type of situation if the writers could commit to Elysia having even the slightest flaw. What do you think am I reaching?

You're totally entitled to your feelings on the reunion (it WAS meant to make the players feel fuzzy!) and mm personally neutral on Bronya accepting Mei back and sticking with them, I think it's believable because she was very close to Mei. Remember when she blew up her brainchip?

Talking about brainchips, Elysia didn't upload herself in Mei's brain or anything. Mei got the signets voluntarily, and who showed up was dependent on who Mei wanted to see. Could've been Kalpas lmao. If you're gonna blame anyone, blame Kevin for getting Mei into ER.

So yeah, you are reaching on Elysia. I'm honestly not sure how to unpack "groomed and brainwashed Mei during Elysium Everlasting with how often she bothered Mei with compliments and how Mei somehow grew from finding Elysia annoying to being head over heels for her just because she 'died'" but I'll give it a try?

First off, Mei's way too old to be groomed by the time she meets Ely, she's in her 20s. She is not a child? The relevant definition of grooming is:

To attempt to gain the trust of a minor with the intention of luring them into a sexual relationship.

So let's hold our horses a bit. You may be looking for the word "manipulate", which, fine whatever, but it's not grooming. Mobius manipulates Mei too, Elysia's not special (and significantly less murdery) and she isn't doing it to "lure her into a sexual relationship". She is very open about being attracted to Mei('s horns), no luring is happening here. Try to think of why you find an adult woman openly flirting with another adult woman so predatory you'd compare it to pedophilia? Sounds like something to, uh, unpack.

Second off, while Elysia compliments Mei all the time, she never touches her horns without permission. That's why she's asking so much! The horn touching embarrasses Mei, and she's even more embarrassed about people learning she let Elysia touch them, but they are touched with her consent. Elysia asks again afterwards, but Mei says no, and she doesn't touch the horns again when rejected, it just becomes a running gag that she wants to.

TLDR Ely's an insistant flirt to Mei's more bashful ways, which one can find annoying, but not a molester. (Mei agrees to touch her elf ears as well, so the attraction may not be all that one-sided, either.)

Third off, Elysia is gone during most of Elysium Everlasting. Mei's shift in attitude towards Elysia occurs around chapter 3 of Elysian Realm's story, and is especially notable in the Pristine Memory dialogues that were added for it. For example:

Elysia: With that said, I’ll present you with this book! But don’t take my efforts for granted! Elysia: Isn’t it wonderful? I asked a bunch of people to help me out! Mei: The long credits on the blurb definitely shows… Mei: It’s exquisite alright, each page is a recreation of a scene, faithful enough to evoke vivid memories… Wait, Elysia, have you been wanting to… Elysia: Mm-hmm♪ Mei: …Thank you, I’ll cherish it. Elysia: Is this real? Mei has finally opened up to me! Elysia: If so, can I touch your… My, that was a joke, don’t run♪

(Excerpt from Pristine Memory 10) (Read all Flame-chaser texts here)

Originally suspicious and hostile, Mei warms up to Elysia over time, she spends months in the Realm. By the time Elysium Everlasting starts, she still finds Elysia a lot to deal with, but she trusts Elysia doesn't want to hurt her, and they are friends.

Then Elysia dies just before revealing her deepest secret to her, just before giving Mei what she came for, she disappears at the pinnacle of the trust they've built all this time.

Seems very understandable to me that Mei is terribly shocked and upset that her friend died, especially since more people die afterwards (her accusatory voice at Vill-V after Pardo dies haunts me), so much so that she's much softer when she gets Elysia back for a few minutes.

You don't appreciate what you have until it's gone. You don't realize how attached you are to your annoying friend until they're murdered. You don't cherish your time with your loved ones quite as much as when you're about to never see them again.

Mind you, I did NOT like the last couple acts of Elysium Everlasting. I fucking hated them so much I didn't get HoHe! But you know why I didn't like them?

I thought Mei would insist on saving Elysia. She refused to let Kiana sacrifice herself, and Kiana refused to let Hua sacrifice herself, but suddenly it was fine for Elysia to go off and die heroically? Uh?

Not to mention I kind of felt like the way Elysia was written in EE wasn't really her, because Elysia had always been hiding sadness underneath her flirting and positivity, but that's a whole other can of worms.

So yeah you reaching, maybe because it's been such a long time that you've kind of warped the canon through the Elysia-dislike filter? Look inside yourself whether you have a bias and reread the source material.

[brotato-chibs]

Kaito(u KID) doodles

[lucabyte]

Different standards

[humming-fly]

Happy Don’t Forget Day from beyond the Gate

[dreamsy990]

you know i used to think it was weird how sora and roxas have such different personalities for supposedly being 'the same person' but after playing a few games i sort of realized that they do have similar personalities, because roxas acts how sora does when he's under extreme stress.

compare roxas to sora in, say, kh1. that's where a lot of peoples idea of sora's personality comes from. sora is generally very upbeat and optimistic in that game. not very similar to roxas, right?

but let's switch the game and talk about a game where sora is ABSOLUTELY GOING THROUGH IT. chain of memories.

sora's resting state is melancholy in com. he only ever cheers up in short bursts, usually when he's joking around with friends. just like roxas.

he's quick to anger, and tends to lash out at the organization members. best example of this is when larxene makes him 'remember' namine, and he swings at her repeatedly, even after she's gone. he only stops when jiminy is able to snap him out of it.

you know what scene that resembles?

sora, while a bit more on the angry side and less sad, continues to act like this in kh2 when he's in stressful situations. (he also has a tendancy to insult people which, while it's not very related to the point, is very funny and sora saying 'gonna cry?' to xigbar is great.) i cant comment any further than that about kh2 off the top of my head.

so, roxas acts like sora does when he's stressed, right? but why is roxas always acting like that? to which i say, he isnt!

he only ever acts like that when he's also in fucked up and stressful situations, which happens to be a CONSTANT in his life. but when he's hanging out with axel and xion, a decidedly NOT stressful situation, he's a lot more like sora. he's teasing his friends and insulting his coworkers and joking around and acting like a normal kid. not really important, but unless i misremembered some sora lines which is VERY possible, both roxas and sora respond to friendly insults with "oh thanks!" a lot. just a funny little detail that felt relevant.

the biggest differences between roxas and sora boil down to environment and... i dont know how to put it besides volume? roxas is very quiet and tends to keep most of his thoughts to himself, while sora is very loud and expressive in comparison.

there is one other huge difference i noticed, which is less character based and more story. sora wanted to get off destiny islands and explore with his friends, but roxas just wanted routine. sora wants adventure, and roxas wants things to stay the same, for days where he gets off work and eats ice cream with his friends to last forever, to keep having conversations about nothing and watching the sunset. roxas wants normalcy, sora wants excitement. it's just interesting seeing their contrast.

not sure if this is very well said or anything i just wanted to talk about my boys

[ontosgold]

future vision

[idontmindifuforgetme]

I genuinely love not having a crush like I’m not over here feeling physically sick over some mid guy being dry to me I’m literally chilling

[bumblebeebats]

Must scifi be "good"? Is it not enough to watch David Tennant and Catherine Tate run about, yelling? and also a nonbinary transwoman is there?

[manchesterau]

[coffeeisfortheresponsible]

lloyd age and hair timeline :))

aka watch him loose his whimsy more and more with every season

[blueskittlesart]

ok apologies for lurking but in 2022 (!!) you wrote an answer to a question about AOC and in it you wrote that in BOTW link does not choose zelda over his duty to the kingdom and in AOC he chooses her over his duty. iirc (I don't) the calamity stuff in botw is only through diary entries etc....... how do we know that in botw he doesn't choose zelda (genuine question my botw copy is not with me rn :( )

ok i don't remember saying that exactly, but what i DO remember saying and what i'd continue to argue today is that AOC link made the choice to favor zelda over his duty much EARLIER than botw link, and that is the reason he was able to subvert his fate and remain alive to defeat the calamity in his own time. before the calamity hits and the time-travel fuckery really starts in aoc, it's implied that what we're witnessing is near 1-to-1 with the events that happen pre-calamity in botw, with a few key differences. The major difference is, of course, the existence of terrako, which sort of has a butterfly effect. Most importantly, terrako's initial interest in Link has him and zelda interacting much more closely much earlier on in the story. at the time that link and zelda meet and interact in AOC, link is a simple hylian soldier. he has either no rank or a very low rank, he's taking orders from captains and engaging in battle on basically the same level as every other solider. the first battle in the game is implied to be one of the first times he really grabs his superiors' attention with his skills in combat, specifically by taking down those moblins basically on his own. because he is the first one to run across terrako, he and zelda are given a reason to interact before either of them know what is in store for them, so their relationship has a foundation that is not built on the baggage and animosity that comes with that. In botw, in contrast, it's implied that the two of them never interacted without that baggage. what we know of their past is admittedly scarce, and most of it comes from zelda's diary. the first page reads:

After meeting with the Champions, I left to research the ancient technology, but nothing of note came of my research. The return of Ganon looms—a dark force taunting us from afar. I must learn all I can about the relics so we can stop him. If the fortune-teller's prophecy is to be believed, there isn't much time left… Ah, but turning over these thoughts in my head puts me ill at ease. I suppose I should turn in for the night. P.S. Tomorrow my father is assigning HIM as my appointed knight…

already this timeline is incongruous with what we see in AOC--in the botw timeline, link is not assigned to be zelda's knight until AFTER the champions have all been found, whereas in AOC, he accompanies her to meet with each one of them:

Lamenting the kingdom's plight, King Rhoam sent his daughter to gather pilots for the Divine Beasts. Alongside Link--whose brave conduct had earned him a role as her knight--Zelda would meet with the four candidates.

In later pages of her BOTW diary, zelda makes repeated reference to link as wielding the sword that seals the darkness, and in link's own memories he never interacts with her without it on his back. I'd wager that in the BOTW timeline, he is not appointed her knight until AFTER he has the sword. (this also accounts for the way she talks about him being appointed in her diary--she'd have no reason to be upset about it if she didn't already see him as being ahead of her in terms of prophecy progress.) This is important because this percieved slight on zelda's part colors every bit of their interactions in botw--they both percieve the other as standoffish and haughty, and thus it takes them an INCREDIBLY long time to actually communicate healthily with each other. In fact, the only time we REALLY see them communicate receptively with one another in botw is during the sanidin park memory, which is days if not hours before the calamity actually strikes. In AOC, in contrast, link and zelda behave much more like equals if not friends from the very beginning. Their interactions are of course still colored by their respective ranks, and Link is still obviously suffering from the communication issues that come with his mutism, but they very clearly have a better understanding of each other from the getgo because the foundation of their relationship was built before they knew the extent of their destinies in connection to one another.

All of this lays the foundation for the climax of their story thus far--the night of the calamity. we know how this goes in botw--Link and zelda, woefully underprepared and miles from hyrule castle, race desperately to the sanctum. it's implied that they get all the way to actually fighting calamity ganon, and only when they realize that they can't win does link take zelda's hand and run. By the time they get to fort hateno, link is ALREADY majorly wounded from their failed attempt to quell the calamity, so when he turns to face those guardians, both he and zelda know that there's no way he'll win. It's important to note that the guardians at fort hateno never actually hit link, zelda stops them in their tracks before they're able to fire, but he collapses anyway due to his previous wounds. he was already mortally wounded going into that battle, and no matter what zelda did at that point, he was always going to fall there.

In AOC, however, the story is different. the calamity comes while link and zelda are in the castle, and rather than attempting to fight it, link makes the decision to take zelda to safety immediately. Because of that choice, when we get to AOC link's "grave danger" moment with the reanimated blights, he is able to survive. the major story beats still play out the same way--confronted by an ambush of incredibly powerful enemies (this time the reanimated blights) which he likely cannot defeat on his own, link attempts to fight anyway to protect zelda, despite her protests. Zelda, terrified for link's life, reaches out to him and her power instinctively activates to save him. the difference is that, while aoc link likely couldn't have survived that fight without zelda's interference, he had no pre-existing wounds because he was not coming straight from another impossible fight. So in AOC, when zelda's power destroys the blights, link is unwounded and able to remain standing. there is no impossible decision to make regarding his life, and, crucially, he remains alive to seal calamity ganon in his current time now that zelda's power has finally awakened. None of this would have been possible had he not chosen to flee the castle during the initial strike instead of attempting to fight a losing battle anyway, and THAT is a decision he was unable to make in BOTW because, at the time of the initial strike, his fear of failure still outweighed his love for zelda.

[asexual-shelly]

hi *throws this at you and runs headfirst into a lamppost*

[killjoy-prince]

House M.D. but it's when a character says the name of the episode

[aegis-vamp]

Lilia in Riddle's dorm uniform edit

[your-fave-is-being-blended]

Woe. Blender be upon you.

He's gone now.

[hinamie]

doodles