#but like the main plotline is HERE

[chronologically-challenged]

Everything around the Isabeau confession is so well written.

Firstly, the set up. When you're playing the game, killing the King is just a vague goal. A natural one! But other than the vague desire to hit an end point, there isn't really a strong emotional reason compelling the player forward. But Isabeau!!! Telling you he will tell you something once you beat the King!!! That!!! That is a tangible goal to lean onto especially over time as you get more and more endeared to the whole party. Even if you're not aware of it being a love confession, getting to Isabeau to hear what he has to say is still a compelling reason get to the end.

And if you're Aware of how these things go for stories like these, you may also say, "Well shit, we're not gonna get a confession until the end of the game, are we?"

Second, the interruptions. The order of the interruptions are so quietly brilliant. I can't get over it. Bonnie interrupting first is such an excellent choice. You know Bonnie!!! Bonnie has been jumping into conversations all game so far. So interrupting Isabeau doesn't seem all that out of place. Then Mirabelle interrupts next time. And you go, okay. Thats two of three.... but surely Odile won't interrupt, right? By this point, the player has seen Odile tease Isabeau multiple times about him liking Siffrin, so surely she won't interrupt... right? Right??? But she does. And despite it being obvious that she would, the player is still left in tension if she would.

The way things are set up, there's a plausible deniability each time. You don't expect the first interruption, Bonnie naturally would interrupt so Mirabelle could be surprising, and Odile interrupting feels so outside of what she'd usually do that you don't expect it.

And yet!!!! Saying all this!!! This is very tropey!!! Very time loop tropey!!! Stopping people from messing things up so you can have your moment is quintessential time loop tropes and yet!!! It doesn't feel tropey due to good characterization and story structure.

(And if you do realize that all three are going to interrupt from the beginning, you get a wave of DREAD when you realize that you're going to be here. Again and again. That you have to beat the King again and again and again... and as you watch the confession fizzle, seeing the Head Housemaiden there, despite Siffrin's happy demeanor, you can't help but feel it all about to crash down before it even happens. In that moment you have a taste of what the game is about to put you through).

Third, the family quests. I have two points here. Firstly, "yelling at your screen like it's a telenovela" is the best summary of my feelings on the stargazing scene. Even if you KNOW Isabeau isn't going to confess until the end of the game bc that's how these things go, it won't happen until the end because that's how good writing works, You Still Want It To Happen. So Badly. You want Isabeau to confess to Siffrin!!! You want that tension to release!!! But you have to watch and see that perfect confession slip away every time and it hurts to watch, especially if you do the quests multiple times. Second point is the fact you can't continue the Isabeau confessions on a family run kills me. It's so good. Like you're never going to get everything in one go no matter what you do so you have to pick and choose. And!!! That plays into Siffrin feeling like he's manipulating Isabeau!!!

Of course Siffrin isn't actually manipulating Isabeau but when you're so aware of what you're doing and how events could have played out, it's difficult not to see a situation where you changed the outcome as manipulation. Which... of course leads us to Siffrin's feelings at the end of trying to stop the interruptions...

Fourth, Isabeau stopping himself when confessing. It hurts so good. Idk just. Denying the player that payoff. Denying Siffrin that moment of confession. Because really Siffrin didn't learn the lesson needed to actually get this moment of vulnerability between the two of them. It's such a genius choice that brings that awful dread and hopelessness. And in the end, I suppose all five of them stop the confession from happening because from that point onward, Siffrin interrupts the confession every time. Siffrin doing everything they can to get what they want only to accept that they're never going to get it. Never CAN get this because he doesn't deserve it.

Finally, bad touch. People have talked about bad touch enough, so I dont need to go too far with it. I will say I appreciate how much it doubles down on subverting the "romancing someone in a time loop" narrative. These loops while in some ways made Siffrin more perceptive, they're also PAINFUL. They mess with his head, lean towards making worse and worse decisions, and a large part of that is his role in his family's lives. Especially with Isabeau!!! So yeah. Of course the surprise kiss doesn't go well. Especially with the context that Isabeau doesn't think Siffrin wants to be touched let alone kissed? It ends in disaster just like most of the sidequests do.

In general, the ongoing Isabeau plot is very well implemented. The seeds for it are planted immediately, and it takes a lot of commitment to see all the parts of it. As a result, unless you try to do a ton of runs in act 3 immediately just to get the confession, it's a very slow burn part of the story, doing well to parallel Siffrin's mental state and the growing hopelessness in the loops. It grounds the story in a tangible goal from the beginning and in many ways, once you get to the end of it, get to bad touch, you're left bereft. Something... lost after you spent so much time being aware of Isabeau. That tangible feeling that you're slowly running out of things to do, of ways to spend these two days.

(And of course, then you have act 6 confession, and the pure relief, the joy in finally having the confession after it being set up from act 1. Siffrin doesn't need to reciprocate for it to have its impact. Something has CHANGED they have changed. And finally FINALLY after all this time, the moment can happen. And it's beautiful).

[starflungwaddledee]

Hear me out…Meta Knight and Starstruck

✧˖°.✧ gravity ✧˖°.✧ ɡravɪti (noun) 1. the force that attracts a body towards the centre of the earth or towards any other physical body having mass 2. the degree of intensity of gravity, measured by acceleration 3. extreme importance; seriousness 4. solemnity of manner

[bidokja]

this isekai could've been an entirely independent fantasy setting

[strengthofmayhem]

see i do have a dante kid oc that i float around sometimes w/ an associated plotline but the circumstances by which she happened are like. “dante got blackout trashed post mallet island”. yeah….

[genericpuff]

i have nothing to say about the newest episodes of LO

so I'll let past me from the year 2022 say it instead

because everything they said a year and a half ago ironically still applies today and i don't even know how that's possible but it's where we are 💀😭

[thewhizzyhead]

I've discussed with my friends how genius it was to input the recurring theme of "finding and employing true will" in a turn-based RPG where everything is all laid out for the player, but it's another level of insight entirely to have the concept of freedom of choice integrated in almost every major plot point thus far - from the main character's journey of making their own choices despite being brought into existence basically with a predetermined script in mind, belobog's journey towards resisting the eternal freeze to combating it after centuries, firefly's life with a disability and her struggle to push forth nonetheless, to Sunday's whole dilemma on whether futility is all that is left in attempts to protect the weak.

Different as all these plot points and more may be, they all share one thing is common which serves as the very core of a game whose gameplay design limits the very player to only a few options per turn: What choices will you make to fight against what is fated?

[ulteri0rm0tives]

WORST part of replaying this game. Is that i actually *have* to progress through (most of) it to see Kerry again... Like having to wade through little chocolate gold colds to get to the real shit that ACTUALLY matters.

It actually sucks you meet him so late in the game and only get so much time with him :( especially because I (personally) find his romance and plotline to be one of the more developed slash more enjoyable ones and I just :( wish they gave us more time with him ugh I jUST MISS HIM OKAY GUYS I MISS THIS OLD MAN!!!

[ratcandy]

oh and By the Way. For those who followed me for/during CoTL posting. This is now a Narinder hater blog. I will be posting nothing but Narinder hate from now on. Can't stand this cat. Will be letting everyone know about it

[diaryofamadsunwukongfan]

Lessons Learned

●"I'm the best." A voice calls out assertively while the camera is still dark. The voice is Coco Adel (her first spoken line in this au since the V2 finale was rewritten).

●Flashbacks of various moments in Coco's life begin replaying themselves; Coco playing hide n seek as a child which leads to her getting trapped and developing claustrophobia; Coco at Pharos Combat School where she creates Gianduja and later defeats Cardin in single combat; Coco forming team CFVY and meeting Velvet; Team CFVY going on numerous missions; Coco ordering Fox and Yatsuhashi to waterboard a criminal for information (yes this is based on the bs in the book cause im making this a canon flaw); and then finally Team CFVY defending a village from a Grimm outbreak (this is where the canon V2 finale fight scene went).

●The whole time this is happening, Coco is repeating to herself, "I'm the best.". The longer she does this she adds to her mantra, "I'm the best. I never loose."

●We then arrive at Coco's final flashback, when she and her team deceided on who would move on to the doubles round. Everyone votes Yatsu when he suddenly gets a scroll call from his family. Fox quips that it's another call from Yatsu's little sister that he's going to ignore, and he does claiming that she can wait. The team then move on to the next canidate and its a tie between Coco & Velvet. That's when Coco decides that she will go. Velvet argues that isn't fair; last round Coco had trouble fighting a speed semblance user and needed her to help her. Coco then argues that Velvet made her weapon to help people, not to win popularity contests like the Vytal Tournament. "And besides," Coco says, "I'm the best, I never loose."

●That's when the flashbscks abruptly end, Coco os by herself in the locker room when she hears the announcers say its time for match. Putting her sunglasses on, Coco confidently marches out.

●"Emerald and Herm of Haven," prof. Port announces from within the broadcaster box at the Vytal Colosseum, "versus Coco and Yatsuhashi of Beacon!"

●In the stands, Velvet (who is sitting in between Ruby and Fox) calls out, "Good luck, you two!"

●The stadium then creates the randomly selected battlegrounds; 1/4 savannah, 1/4 Valish ruins, 1/4 hot springs, and 1/4 forest.

●Coco looks at her two first year opponents, Emerald Saariq and Herm Melas. They are from Mistral, and they certainly look like they could come from Argus like that Pyrrha girl, Coco thinks to herself. Hope they aren't as full of themselves.

●"Hey! Love the outfit, kid!" Coco strikes up a friendly conversation before fighting.

●"I'll try not to get blood on it." Emerald responds.

●They are just as full of themselves, Coco thinks to herself, this is going to be easy.

●Coco feels the air shift as Yatsu stands up. "I can't promise you'll leave without a scratch." he warns the opponents.

●"I won't be the one bleeding." Emerald replies again.

●"Ooh, I like her!" Coco jokes. The Emerald girl reminds her of herself, but she doubts she has the skill to back up the confidence.

●Prof. Port then announces the match's countdown, "Three, two, one, begin!"

●IM THE OOONNEEE

●(literally just watch the actual fight lol)

●"I can barely believe it?! The Haven first years beat the best of Beacon's second year students!!!" Oobleck announces to the crowd. As he does so, the auidence on Mistral's side of the arena becomes extremely hyped, while Vale's is downcast.

●"Coco..." Velvet whispers to herself as she covers her hands in shock. Fox quickly hugs her, giving her some comfort. Ruby, who is normally happy when her friends win matches, can't help but feel conflicted.

●Behind the three, one Ella Fenghuang stands up and begins walking away from the crowd of boos and cheers with a smile on her face. She can't help but smile over how destiny favors her...

●In an elegant twilit pavilion area of ivy-covered pillars, rounded archways, and lion-decorated fountains, Weiss Schnee and her elder sister Winter are sitting at a simple table with a plate full of croissants and strawberries. Winter is sipping from her teacup as Weiss repeats the news she was just told.

●"You're... leaving?" Weiss asks her sister

●Winter sets her tead down, "Yes. I was merely needed to oversee the transport of additional units to Vale. Our last shipment was lost to an ambush. I believe you had a run-in with its cargo, actually. It's fortunate those Paladins were in the prototype stage; otherwise your team may not have fared so well."

●The backhanded compliment causes Weiss to sigh. Winter notices, and corrects herself

●"Weiss, you've done good out here, on your own. You should be proud. I'll be honest, it was very pleasent seeing Mother's face the day you decided to become a huntress."

●The mention of their mother causes Weiss to look downcast for a moment. She then stands up and holds her head up high

●"I can't wait to see the look on father's face when I show him what I've learned!"

●"Oh?" Winter suddenly asks, "Then what do you think you've learned?"

●"What do you mean? I've mastered Gravity and Freeze glyphs! I've even started Time Dilation!" Weiss defends herself.

●"And what of your Summoning?"

●"I... You know I can't."

●"You can. The experiment father put us through cannot have been for nothing." Winter tells Weiss while staring at her very intently.

●"... why are we even wasting time debating this??? Father lied to the world about our family just to make us seem better than everyone else! Why don't we just expose him?!"

●Winter jumps to her feet and gets right in front of Weiss, towering over her sister and never breaking eye contact.

●"Listen to me very closely, Weiss. Our father is a dangerous man, far more dangerous than you already know he is. We maintain his lies in order to survive, and I will not allow you to get yourself killed or worse on a whim. Remnant thinks Nicholas Schnee's semblance is hereditary, and we do not go against that." Winter then lays a soft hand on Weiss' shoulder, "I promise you, one day we will expose father's lies and heal Grandfather's legacy, but today, I'll teach you Mother's side of the family semblance..."

●"You'll never beat me, old man!"

●"You're nothing but talk, kid!!"

●Ruby and Qrow trash talk each other as they prepare to do battle in... Remnant Rowdy Rumble 3!!! The most popular fighting game in the world, where players pick legends as their fighters! Ruby chooses King Charles, a starter character that she mastered a long time ago. Qrow chooses Ninja Hanzō, a complex speedster that takes a lot of skill to even do basic attacks.

●At first, Ruby does pretty well and puts Qrow on the backfoot.

●"You can do it, Ruby!" Yang cheers from the sideline.

●Qrow then counter attacks one of Ruby's strikes

●Ruby's eyes grow wide

●Yang is shook

●Qrow grins

●He then performs a zero-to-death combo on Ruby's character, the speed of which is matched only by the brutality. "TOTAL ANNIHILATION! NINJA HANZŌ WINS!" The games announcer system calls out.

●"Ouch." Yang says

●"And by the way, don't ever call me old." Qrow pointedly tells Ruby.

●"My turn!" Yang excitedly says as she snatches the controller from Ruby.

●"Right... I'll go get some snacks." Ruby says as she sulks out of the room.

●Qrow once again picks Ninja Hanzo. Yang picks Corvus Knight, a character based upon a mysterious warrior that dissapeared after the Great War.

●"Bleh, way to pick the lamest guy in the game." Qrow quips.

●"That's funny. I always thought that you and Corvus had a lot in common. Something you're not telling me?" Yang asks.

●I haven't the slightest clue what you're talking about, unless it's about the bar fights and fake IDs you hide from Tai, and yeah, I know"

●"I wouldn't sound so smug if I were you. There's a lot you don't know about me." Yang then wins a round.

●"Pass to Ozpin that the black bird was here, she went after Pyrrha." Yang tells Qrow.

●"Too hardheaded to stay away from bad news? Why'd she leave?"

●"Oh I wasn't planning on meeting her, this time anyway, and I might have told her a little lie that Ozpin knew she was here. He's going to know thanks to you, and it scared her off real fast."

●"Hm, clever girl." Yang has Qrow on the ropes, the two are tied.

●"You didn't say why Pyrrha was targeted tho."

●"It's none of yer business!"

●"So she is being targeted!"

●Qrow then stops holding back and quickly beats Yang. "You're less good at this then you think you are."

●Yang glares at him.

●"I'm back with snacks!!" Ruby burts into the room with a bunch of chip bags and sodas. She smiles awkwardly.

●"Anyways, I'm too old to be hanging out with a bunch of kids." Qrow states as he stands up, "Look, just remember that you've still got a long way to go... And don't think for a second that graduating means you're done. Every day out there is worth a week in this place. You two, you're gonna go far. But only if you keep learning; if you never stop moving forward." With that, Qrow leaves the room.

●"Whaaat were you two arguing about?" Ruby asks her sister.

●"... Raven." Yang answers. As Ruby turns to her, she sees that Yang stole a picture out of Qrow's pocket when he wasn't looking.

●Ruby takes a closer look at the picture and she spots Raven Branwen, Qrow, her dad... and her mom. Ruby stares at the picture for a moment before looking at Yang again. She realizes that Yang is staring at Summer too.

●Back in the pavilion, a caterpillar is slowly inching around on the edge of a fountain at Weiss points her Myrtenaster at the ground, creating a rotating glyph made of blade symbols with Winter behind her, appraising the effort.

●"Excellent form! Now think to your fallen foes! The ones who forced you to push past where you were, and become who you are now. Think of them, and watch as they come to your side." Winter teaches Weiss.

●Weiss struggles and struggles, her aura starting to cause her entire body to glow as she does so.

●Then, her expression changes. She stops concentrating, and throws her sword down, "I can't!" She yells at Winter

●"Stop doubting yourself!"

●"I've tried everything!"

●"If this is what you call trying, then you have no hope of winning the tournament, let alone succeeding as a Huntress!"

●Suddenly, Winter starts smiling as if an idea has occurred to her. "Why don't you just move back home and go back to being a Pop Star."

●"You know I hate that!! I hate being a celebrity, and I hate having Father control my life!!"

●"You hate his control, but his money's still good isn't it?"

●"What!? How did you know about that!?"

●"Lucky guess. I was in the same situation when I joined the military." Winter states sadly.

●"This isn't right! He get's his money from our Grandfather's legacy that he's ruining! And after all the teen idol nonsense he's put me through... it's my money!!!" Weiss angrily rants.

●"Sad." Winter states sarcastically.

●"It's not sad, it's ridiculous!! He thinks treating me like some peasant will make me come crawling back."

●"Well, the life of a peasant who can't summon is what awaits you unless you feel like being on the cover of another Teen Magazine." Winter cuts at Weiss.

●Weiss then attempts once more to create a summoning glyph, gritting her teeth until Winter places a consoling hand on her shoulder.

●"Emotions can grant you strength. But you must never let them overpower you. It sounds to me like you have two choices in front of you. You can either call him, beg for his money back, and explain once more why you paused your singing career, or you could continue to explore Remnant, discovering more about the world and honestly, more about yourself."

●A moment passes before Winter says

●"It's time for me to go." She gives her sister a hug, which is returned.

●"It was really good to see you, Winter."

●"Until next time, Weiss."

●The two Schnees walk out of the pavilion and go in opposite directions, neither of them noticing the caterpillar coming across a miniature, brightened version of a familiar-looking broadsword before disappearing into icy sparkles

●Later at night, Weiss is in the school courtyard, waving goodbye at the airship carrying her sister. She stops just as her Scroll starts vibrating with an incoming call from "FATHER", and her finger hovers over the screen in uncertainty until she closes her eyes and forces herself to press it. Suddenly smiling at the sight of her closed Scroll and the setting of a new path in life, she puts it away and walks back inside as the scene fades to black and the credits roll.

●The End.

[lumiilys]

.

[halsaph]

They should've just let Jason be a part of the rogues gallery

[lightdancer1]

One of the fun bits of In the Company of Witches and Slayers as an AU:

The show essentially sets up that much of Sunnydale's coverups of obviously supernatural shenanigans was a Mayoral conspiracy and then the immortal with the demon pacts who kept all that together dies and this seemingly has no impact on Sunnydale's awareness of supernatural events. Well here, starting with Willow's brief first Dark Willow moment of summoning a category 5 stormcloud over Sunnydale and on through this the censorship field wavers and finally disintegrates in Sunnydale, though its overall factor as a price of the Shadowmen's original spell makes it to Season 7.

This means that just in time for the Initiative and Adam to finally move to center stage in the 2001 timeframe (and as they've been background villains for a while the reign of terror is actually fairly short and ends well before the start of 2002) that Sunnydale's capacity to see and sense the supernatural suddenly and abruptly changes and it realizes it's got vampires, demons, werewolves, witches, and Slayers running around.

And then becomes Metropolis from DC comics but vampires.

"What the fuck, man! That tiny blonde was kicking the shit out of some Andre the Giant with horns!"

"Oh it's just the blonde Slayer. You should see what the brunette does. If it wasn't for the idea that vampires would kill me I'd support a vampire rights thing."

"Wait, I thought witches needed broomsticks to fly."

"Evidently not."

[presumenothing]

watching the last 10 eps of mlc with the novel still rattling around in your head is truly just an extended experience in alternating between *chinhands* and (overwhelmingly) *head in hands*

[that-foul-legacy-lover]

i just finished the archon quest

holy shit.

[saintlesbian]

once again I still think finn and Liz are better as friends, but also I think what’s very irritating about this pairing is that they aren’t really playing a part in any major plotlines rn, so seeing them show up feels like these two have been paired together to hit contract minimums in the meantime, like they’re in this romance story holding pattern until the writers figure out what to do next…

[hetheymerrill]

Broadchurch s3 is hm. Not very good I think.