#but thought i'd stick with these three because i feel like they're her 3 most important ones in her career?

[sivvan]

@userdramas 2023 secret santa

↳ shin min ah roles through the years

merry christmas @junghaesin! sorry it's kinda late (i know it's within the posting time frame but still ahfkdsf) i was holding off on posting this bc there were a couple asks i sent through and i didn't know if i should wait for you to answer them or if tumblr just ate them (which- totally fine if you got them and just didn't have the time/energy to answer but if you didn't get them..grrrrrr tumblr)! but i had fun talking to you anyway hehe we were busy talking about kpop i didn't even ask about kdramas LMAO.

this set didn't really turn out the way i wanted it to but shin min ah pulls through so 😌 i hope you had a great christmas and have an amazing new year 💖

- your secret santa 🧑‍🎄

[shanastoryteller]

happy birthday!! i would love to read something about zagreus!!!

a continuation of 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Thanatos has seen the courtyard maintained by Queen Persephone, is well aware of the poms that liter the realm thanks to her influence, but this is something different.

"Than?" Zagreus asks nervously.

Even in Elysium the trees and fields are washed out, half there and half not, ethereal in the way of loss rather than beauty.

This is lush.

There are fields of strange fruits and vegetables growing, acres of rolling hills and forests, all of if glittering as brightly as the gemstones that litter the realm. There are people down there, working and planting, and others talking and laughing, buildings carved from stone and built from mudbricks and grown from twisting oaks.

They've stepped out onto a balcony, high enough to see for miles, and nowhere in the underworld is there this much space. It's all rooms and sections, constantly shifting, nothing allowed to just be be. Except here.

"Say something," Zagreus says, shifting his weight from one foot to the other. "You're making me nervous."

"Where are we?" he asks. They're still in the underworld, but in none of the three levels or on the river, and that's all that should be, all that should exist. There is nothing else.

Zagreus swallows. "Um, well, it doesn't have a name exactly. Or it does, I guess. Everyone keeps calling it the Prince's Court, even though I think that's stupid."

The Prince's Court. He and Megaera had heard whispers of that. They thought it referred to Zagreus, and his growing power, and the people he kept close. Him, and Meg, and Dusa, except it turns out it had nothing to do with them at all.

"Have you lost your mind?" he demands, finally tearing his eyes away to glare at Zagreus. "Doing something like this in Hades's realm - he's going to kill you and make it stick-"

"This isn't my father's realm," he interrupts and Thanatos sputters. "No, I'm serious. Stop freaking out and focus."

"I'm not freaking out," he retorts but he grudgingly listens, if only so he can then continue yelling without interruption.

Hades's power is not limitless, as Zagreus has demonstrated so many times, but it is ever present, settling like a cloak over his domain and keeping it tightly within his grasp, not letting anything escape his attention or control.

Thanatos frowns then stretches his senses further.

It's only Zagreus.

The power he'd felt from his friend and brother and the person he loved most, something that he'd once had to press close and breathe in to feel and then later had ballooned to a comfortable presence that hung around Zagreus's shoulders.

They're standing so close now that he hadn't even thought it was strange that his power was all around them. But it's not because of that. It's because in this place, of open spaces and flourishing fruits and smiling people, it's Zagreus who holds it steady.

Not Hades.

"Why would you do this," he whispers, "why wouldn't you just challenge him for the throne if that's what you wanted?"

This is so much worse. An inevitable civil war, father against son, in a way so much bigger than their fights on the surface.

He makes a face. "Why would I want that? The underworld is depressing. And dealing with all those spirits is a lot of work. This is better. Besides, then I'd just inherit his curse, and then I'd have to work my way around it all over again. No thanks."

"What are you talking about?" he demands. "You're cursed too."

Zagreus grins, bright and happy and Thanatos can't return it because this is insane and he's insane and it's all going to end in misery. "Race you to the mountaintop."

Before Thanatos can say how ridiculous that is, a chaos rift appears behind Zagreus and he steps back and slips inside it, the rift closing before Thanatos can follow him.

Chaos is involved in this too? His grandparent, who has never take an interest in the affairs of the underworld and who has enough power to tip the scales in any direction they choose.

This just gets worse and worse.

[unfortunate--moth]

Master Detectives: Milgram AU (part 3)

Here is part 1 and part 2 in case you missed it!

now to some more very strange abilities you probably wouldn't expect from a detective lmao and we're finally at the last three!!

Kazui | Forte: Compelled Truth With his ability, as the name implies, it makes other people compelled to tell the truth. He has to make and retain eye contact for this to be in effect. Subjects can keep silent, and can provide incorrect answers they believe to be true, but can't lie. Despite it being incredibly useful, Kazui always uses it as a last resort. Kazui is a lot more experienced as a Master Detective than the others, and often tries to help new members understand their fortes better and ways they could use them that aren't immediately obvious. Even without his ability, he's a great detective. But everyone who knows him is aware he hates his ability, although he never really explains why.

Mikoto | Forte: Major Arcana Another tricky forte to work with, and one that Mikoto cannot change the outcome of. With a tarot deck, if he draws a card, he'll be granted an ability. He can only draw three per day, and he can only use those cards once per day. For example, if he were to draw the Death card, he can see the last 5 seconds of a dead body's life. The Fool card is the only outlier, and allows him to borrow a forte that a different Master Detective has. As a detective, he's not the sharpest. He's good at investigation and finding things, but he has trouble piecing everything together. He also tends to take some things literally. He likes to consider himself more of an assistant than anything else, happy to help but feeling really stuck if he's by himself. With his ability, he's written down what every card does, but there are a few he hasn't drawn yet. It's something he's still not used to.

Kotoko | Forte: Intimidation (thanks to this anon for help!) Her ability is a scary one, quite literally. With it, she can manipulate how much fear one person of her choosing will feel. This can be anything between letting them feel no fear at all to primal amounts of fear. She doesn't feel the need to use it too often, usually saving it for suspects that don't feel intimidated by her. She is officially part of the WDO but she acts like she isn't. She plays by her own rules and works alone. She's a brilliant detective and is amazing at gathering info. Though the reason for that is because she hates working with other detectives, Master or otherwise. She believes it'll only slow her down. She is given official jobs, but most of her solved cases are actually from her running off and doing her own thing.

And that's it.... Except it isn't!!!

Es | Forte: Song of the Prisoners We all know where I'm going with this, right? With their forte, Es can extract songs and videos from a suspect's brain to help them figure out the details of a case. With Jackalope's added powers, they're also able to see the other detectives use their abilities, and is usually immune to their fortes. And of course, they also have access to the Mystery Labyrinth.

Now we're finished with everyone's Fortes! I had a blast coming up with these. But don't worry, it won't stop here. I'll probably be coming up with more scenarios and ways they can use their fortes, etc etc. I may also do a deep dive into Mikoto's forte since it's probably the most ridiculous one I can admit. It may even change in the future but for now I'll stick with it. I'd love to hear everyone's thoughts as always! Is there anything you'd change? What sort of shenanigans can these guys get up to? It's just fun to imagine.

[maddymoreau]

Dead Space 2 Live-Blog: COMPLETE

Chapter: Seven to Fifteen

Dead Space Complete Live-Blog: Click Here

Part 1: Click Here Part 2+3: Click Here Part 4-6: Click Here

Instead of summarizing the plot I'm going to break down my thoughts into different sections.

Horror to Action:

One big change from the original Dead Space to Dead Space 2 is that it's more of an action game than horror.

I saw someone online perfectly described it like this: Dead Space is like the movie Alien while Dead Space 2 is like Aliens.

I think the transition from horror to action was handled very well. All additions to the gameplay were EXTREMELY fun!! I especially like the hacking mini game, crawling through the vents and the multiple interactive cutscenes.

The original Dead Space is still my favorite, but Dead Space 2 is an AWESOME game!!! If you're interested in the Dead Space franchise I'd 100% recommend playing it!!!

LOOK HOW COOL THESE SCENES ARE!!!

Warning: Jumpscare

Characters:

Ellie Langford:

I think she's a great parallel to Isaac. Both being CEC workers who lost the people they cared about thanks to Necromorphs. I enjoyed her character, I felt bad when Nolan stabbed her eye out and I liked that she didn't let Isaac sacrifice himself.

I thought the callback to the original ending was great!

Dead Space Ending:

Dead Space 2 Ending:

Dead Space 3 Spoiler: I heard there’s a romance between Isaac and Ellie which is fineee. Don’t love the ship, but it's whatever.

Nolan Stross:

Nolan was my favorite new character and the one I have the most thoughts on. He is also a great parallel to Isaac. Both are victims of the Marker and EarthGov.

The entire game I was wondering why they experimented on Nolan, but it turns out you have to watch the animated movie Dead Space: Aftermath for that answer!

The reason EarthGov experimented on Nolan was because he had come in contact with a shard of the Red Marker. It's frustrating that information wasn't clearly explained in the game.

MORE IMPORTANTLY WHY DO I HAVE TO LEARN THROUGH A MOVIE THAT HE KILLED HIS WIFE AND CHILD BECAUSE THE MARKER MADE HIM HALLUCINATE THEY WERE NECROMORPHS!?!?!?

This line from a video log makes sense now:

Nolan: “ . . . it was just a shard -it was just a shard . . . but it put so much stuff in my head . . . so much . . . shit in my head . . . There's no more room . . . for anything. I can't remember what she looks like . . . Why can't I remember what she looks like?"

I feel like that's pretty relevant information to the story!!! Especially since it would've made the scene where Isaac kills Nolan in self defense hit WAYYY harder. Isaac understands how terrifying and realistic the hallucinations can be.

There's also the detail that the Marker amplifies violent thoughts. Explaining some of Nolan's behavior and why Isaac ended up killing Nolan when defending himself. I found it tragic that Nolan's death was how Isaac later figured out the final step.

One issue I have with Dead Space 2 is that the EarthGov experimented on them for over three years, but there's barely any data and text logs in the game about that.

I WANT MORE LOOK HOW SCARY THIS SHIT IS!!!

Shoutout to this reddit post for helping me understand: Click Here

I'm dying to know how Isaac reacted to his first session 👀 Look how terrified Nolan was just remembering them:

When I played the original Dead Space I took SO MANY notes after reading text and audio logs. However in Dead Space 2 they're severely underused.

The Marker:

Throughout Dead Space 2 the Marker is making Isaac experience horrific hallucinations. Constantly playing mind games with him in order to push Isaac into being able to finish the four steps.

Something we've seen Nolan discuss:

There's four steps:

Step One: Crawl inside the dark machine.

Step Two: The screws go tight all around.

Step Three: Cross my heart and hope to die . . . stick a needle in your eye.

Step Four: Acceptance

Nolan was unable to accept what he had done making reaching step four impossible. Also Nolan tried stabbing Isaac and Ellie in the eye so they could accomplish step three.

Isaac was able to reach step four by accepting Nicole's death and letting go of his guilt.

He laters stops the Convergence from happening. I'm still unsure what that exactly is . . . Dead Space 3 is suppose to explain that more. In the process Isaac destroys the Sprawl and new Marker.

Hans Tiedemann:

He's the main antagonist throughout Dead Space 2. Constantly trying to prevent Isaac from destroying the new Marker. I think he's a very weak villain. His goal is to preserve the Marker, because he believes humans are so close to figuring out how to control it. Tiedemann oversaw the experiments happening to Isaac.

Tiedmann: "I knew you were trouble from the start but they told me you were necessary. That your mind was the purest. I've spent years sifting through your demented brain this was not the way it was suppose to happen."

It's a huge shame though that there's no reports about this or flashbacks! Tiedemann feels like an obstacle not a threat.

I liked the detail that the Marker burned into his flesh the word PAIN:

Also Tiedemann reported to someone called the Overseer 👀

Daina:

She felt very pointless. I learned chapter five, which is the chapter she dies, is where the demo originally ended. It almost feels like they shoehorned her in for the demo. The first five chapter felt very separated from the rest of the story.

The Story:

I think Dead Space 2 is a wonderful game!!

The story is solid however I must admit I could care less about the EarthGov in Dead Space. It's a currupt government . . . nothing special. The most interesting aspect of the EarthGov is its conflict with the Church of Unitology. The Church sections were so beautiful and interesting. I want more of that and MORE LORE PLEASEEE I LOVE CORRUPT CHURCHES IN STORIES!!!!!

The Church of Unitology was so pretty look at these photos I got off the steam community page <3

Ranking: Gameplay 9/10, Horror 6/10, Story 7.5/10 and enjoyment 8.5/10.

I couldn't fit it into the review but it was super cool we got to go onto the Ishimaru again! Also that the EarthGov lied about what happened, claiming it was a terrorist attack.

[spiridakos]

Love your love for Tracy's clothes and style. She has such a great approach to fashion and her wardrobe. Would you be able to share the items you've purchased of hers and which ones you love most? Thanks hope you're doing great!!

Oh, this is so fun! I have a lot of her clothes...so I'm gonna put this all below the cut so no one else has to look at the amount of money I've actually spent on clothes...

Madewell High Rise Patch Pocket Denim Shorts I love these, they fit me super well & I can pair them with about any shirt I want to. Tee, tank, cropped, sweatshirt. It all works. Definitely a regular item in my wardrobe in the summer.

Free People Lexden Black Denim Overalls I don't wear these as often, maybe because I'm a homebody who doesn't go out much, but I do love them. They're a super cute look, they're just not in my rotation much. I'm glad I have it as a staple piece in my closet though.

Vurori Performance Joggers (I'm not sure if Tracy was wearing Black Heather or just Black, I bought Black Heather) Never have I ever spent so much on a pair of sweatpants, but my god, they're the most comfortable thing in the world and I constantly am wearing them around my house. 10/10 recommend these, even though the price is a bit steep!

Urban Outfitters BDG Ryder Boyfriend Overall in Vintage Slash I love these overalls! I didn't know how I'd feel about sporting overalls again since the 90s, but I love the ripped look. Not something I get to wear often because I live in New England and it's cold so often, but I do bring them out when it's warm enough!

Lululemon Halfzip Scuba I hardcore mocked this pattern when I first saw Tracy in it, but then I saw it in a Lululemon, and I actually loved the pattern. It's one of the most warmest, and most comfortable things I've ever purchased. I have this on frequently, and even use it as my "coat" sometimes when bracing the cold.

Vuori The Rise The Shine Dad Hat Love a good hat, I am always throwing this on when I'm running errands!

Veja V-10 Lace Up Sneakers  Not a huge sneaker person.....until I bought these. They're fashionable but comfortable. Love to just wear them out with a pair of jeans.

Wilfred by Aritzia The Ganna Shirt Jacket in Dry Basil My first "I can't believe I just spent that on an item of clothing," piece. I love this coat. It's so soft. It fits me really nice, cause I'm super small, but this isn't too long in the arms like most things are! I wear this as my coat a lot when it's not super cold. Or just with some jeans as a full outfit. Either works.

Aviator Nation Ninja Pullover in Vintage White Another, "Did I really just spend that much on a sweatshirt?" piece. I just got this last week, so I haven't worn it out into the wild yet, but it's super soft!

Okay, I think that is it for Tracy clothes? I might be missing some, but I can't remember anything else right now. I have a handful of Hailey clothes, but I thought I'd just stick to Tracy here. I love how clean and simple her wardrobe seems to be and how I can adapt it into my own style as well.

My favorite pieces I've bought if I had to narrow it down to three: 1. Vuori performance joggers 2. Lulu Scuba 3. Madewell denim shorts

What a fun question, thank you, anon!

[claire8216]

Fic Tag Game

Thanks @fandomscraziness22 for the tag!! 🩵

How many works do you have on AO3? 10! My page says 7 but I have some I've published anonymously.

What's your AO3 word count? 122,718

What fandoms do you write for? It's been a while since I've posted anything but when I do find the motivation to write it's usually Julie and the Phantoms, Outer Banks, or The Summer I Turned Pretty! I've written some for other fandoms too but that was a looong time ago haha.

What are your top 5 fics by kudos? (Not including the ones I'd like to remain anonymous 😉) - Fire Red and Ocean Blue (TSITP) - I Hate the Way I Don't Hate You (JatP) - Been Counting My Blessings Thinking This Through (OBX) - Something Like That (JatP) - I'm Standing in Your Line (I Do Hope You Have the Time) (JatP)

Do you respond to comments? I really try to respond to every comment, even if it takes me a while to respond! I genuinely appreciate people who take the time to not only read my writing but also share with me their thoughts, so the least I can do is respond back 😊

What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? Oof in general I usually stick to happy endings so there hasn't been a ton of angsty endings! But I once wrote a fic exploring a character navigating the aftermath of the sudden death of his wife. It ends with him bonding with a woman in a bar who had also lost her husband, and they dance together and while it's nice to have some sort of companionship again, there's an unspoken agreement that nothing and no one would ever compare to their late spouses. (Based off the song Ghost of You by 5SOS, specifically the last line!) I don't usually write major character deaths, and I actually ended up taking that one down because it was too sad for me haha.

What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? The rest of my fics pretty much all have HEAs because at my core that's what I enjoy most haha. But my favorite and probably fluffiest ending is Fire Red and Ocean Blue.

Do you get hate on fics? I don't remember ever getting any hate! *knock on wood*

Do you write smut? What kind? I do not, but I always enjoy reading a good smut fic!

Do you write crossovers? No, but I love AUs or fics based off of other books/shows/movies!

Have you ever had a fic translated? Also no haha.

Have you ever cowritten a fic before? I've attempted to, a loooong time ago when I was first getting into fanfic. Nothing ever came of it though, we were both, like, 12 so it fizzled haha. I have no idea where that person is today but I hope they're doing well!!

What WIP would you like to finish, but doubt you ever will? Back when s1 of Outer Banks came out I started working on a Jiara one night stand fic and got about halfway done. I still think about it often, but too much has happened in s2 and 3 it just wouldn't make sense anymore and I'd basically have to start from scratch.

What's your all-time favorite ship? This is a tough one! My oldest and most beloved ships will always be Romione and Percabeth. But no ship has ever, and may never again, have me in a chokehold quite like Juke did during the height of my JatP hyperfixation. So one of those three! 😂

What are your writing strengths? Ooo I love a good theme or motif or analogy and bringing everything back around full circle. It makes my little perfectionist virgo brain very happy haha.

What are your writing weaknesses? Sometimes I'll rush through the little details just to get to the main plot points. I constantly have to remind myself to slow down, a sort of "stop and smell the roses" if you will, and set the scene or create unique little character details to make my fics more descriptive.

Thoughts on writing dialogue in a another language for a fic? If it's needed it's needed! I usually will copy/paste and look up the translation if I need to.

First fandom you wrote for? Glee haha. I used to be OBSESSED.

Favorite fic you've ever written? I feel like this answer changes depending on my mood haha. Right now I think it'd have to be Been Counting My Blessings Thinking This Through, but that could totally be recency bias haha. I am very proud of it though!

What fic would you want to rewrite someday? I wrote this PJO (Tratie) fic called Rivers about 10 years ago and to this day the idea behind it is probably one of my favorite ideas I've ever had for a fic. When I reread it now, I can't help but see the writing of a 15 year old girl who had no idea what she was talking about and was unable to execute it in the way I wanted to in my mind haha. I always tell myself I'm going to rewrite it, and maybe with the show coming out soon, it'll inspire me to!

This was so fun!! Tagging @story-courty @bex2313 and @writerownstory and anyone else who wants to participate!

[walkingstackofbooks]

TNG 4x12 The Wounded, and 5x03 Ensign Ro thoughts (rewatching, so possible future spoilers for DS9 too)

I’ve temporarily paused my DS9 re-watch after 2x20 Maquis Part 1 to go through all the Cardassian episodes in TNG to get a better picture of the build up. Honestly they're so spread out, I'm not surprised I can't remember much of it!

4x12 The Wounded

"They're our allies now"??? Not really, Troi, you're just at peace, you're not even going to have a treaty for the next three years!

KEIKO :D

It's like they've never eaten together before???

I know it's a throwaway line, but Miles' mum not believing in replicators and being "like a master chef" feels like something that should have come up in DS9, with Sisko's cooking habits. At the least, it would have prepared him for his time in Alixus' cult in Paradise

Their smiles and laughter together is cute :3

I like the Cardassian trying to make friends. <3 He really picked the wrong person though 😅

Miles pretending he's good with Cardassians - no, your wife knows you better thank that XD

I do like miles when I tried to better himself. You go have a friendlyish conversation with a Cardassian

"It's not you I hate, Cardassian. I hate what I became because of you." It's interesting when Miles gets self aware; it's a shame it doesn't always stick and he has to keep relearning these things

This Gul Macet is pretty damn decent, that was a good job done there

"I consider the matter closed." - Picard is a good captain

I like this burgeoning trust between the two captains :3

Picard calm questioning of Maxwell is so well done, I do like him

"I'll accept the judgement of history."

"When you've been through what we have, you tend to get inside someone." 👀 Okay Miles...

Of course there's a Star Trek episode where they win through the power of friendship and song :P

"Take this message to your leaders, Gul Macet. We'll be watching." THE STEEL

Really glad I re-watched, I'd forgotten how much I enjoy Picard, and it was a great Miles episode. Also interesting that our very first view of Cardassians are of some good ones.

5x03 Ensign Ro

It's so, so weird watching this after ds9 - knowing loads about Bajorans rather than this being our first one

Ro!

No, that earring is just rude

Interesting, "The Bajoran custom has the family name first, the individual's second... It's an old custom. Most Bajora these days accept the distortion of their names in order to assimilate." That isn't very DS9, but I get the feeling Ro is from the Bajora disapora, and not Bajor? Maybe tradition stayed stronger there.

Also interesting for the people to be Bajora and not Bajorans.

Damn but I love her

She reminds me a lot of Kira actaully, and now I want them to meet

"You were innocent bystanders for decades as the Cardassians took our homes, as they violated and tortured our people in the most hideous ways imaginable, as we were forced to flee." "We were saddened by those events but they occurred within the designated borders of the Cardassian Empire."

^> How long have the Federation been at war with Cardassia. *googles* 20 years, okay. Because they were fighting a war, and that's hardly standing by? But I guess they weren't when the Cardassians originally occupied Bajor. We don't actually know why or when the border wars started, but memory-beta attributes some distrust due to the Bajor occupation.

GUINAN! I'd forgotten how incredible she is. "Sounds like someone is like to know." Perfection.

Of course she's angry, she did well even if it was against the rules

I'm glad Guinan exists <3

Yes, he's listening to her. And she has a hell of an explanation.

Oooh, I had guessed that no-one was on board, but I assumed a last-minute transport - clever to have guessed this from the start and left them planetside!

Love a happy ending with a corrupt official probably going to prison :D

"That's an interesting challenge. And I rarely refuse an interesting challenge."

The earring shouldn't have to be a condition! It should be accepted as standard! I get that it's supposed to be a cute ending but it's wrong

I love Ro a lot :3 This episode is so interesting to re-watch after DS9, it's super interesting to get more Bajoran points of view.

[abyssembraced]

Fire Emblem?

Send me a fandom and I'll tell you my blorbos!

Blorbo: If you want me to stick to Awakening, since that's where Robin's from, then that'd be Lucina! I love her. My daughter <3 (because I married Chrom lmao). I made her absolutely busted in FE Heroes too, though I haven't actually played that in a while.

Though technically Lucina's my second favourite Fire Emblem character overall. First place actually goes to Edelgard! That's My Wife right there. My beloved. I like the other house leaders too, but,,, El <3

...But once again, as much as I love these girls, sadly I don't think I could write them well. But maybe. They're on the list of characters I would consider adding if I ever added another Fire Emblem muse here, just because I love them, but I'd definitely have to replay their respective games first.

Skrunkly: Uhhhhh. So the funny thing is, I usually really like the characters that tend to be described as "pure" or "cinnamon rolls", and just overall those who would fit into this category well, but for some reason with Fire Emblem, I just don't get as attached to them? So I dunno who I'd say for Awakening specifically, but at least for Three Houses I do like Ashe?

Scrimblo Bimblo: Could Henry count as underrated? Probably not, huh. I think he's pretty popular. But I do like him a lot! My funny murder crow guy. And Owain... Probably also doesn't count here, huh. Not sure how popular he is among the fandom, but like. With his appearances in Fates and Warriors, the games themselves sure give him a lot of love. But he's also really funny, and one of my other favourites from Awakening. So... I dunno!

Ashe could probably also fall in this category, since when it comes to the Blue Lions I think most people tend to focus on Dimitri, Felix, and Sylvain (and Ingrid and Dedue?) more than anyone else. But that would be reusing characters, so. hhhhhhh dgdhshf

Glup Shitto: So like. I thought this was gonna be a difficult question but then I remembered. Nobody fucking played Echoes. I feel like anyone from there is free game except for Alm and Celica ashshdfh. So! I remember liking Mae quite a bit, but I think my favourite from there was Conrad! I remember him being really sweet

Too bad I haven't played any of the Japan-exclusive games to have some really obscure favourites asdghsf. I do wanna play Genealogy someday though, if a fan translation exists

Poor Little Meow Meow: I don't like reusing characters for these but. C'mon. I don't think there's an FE character out there that's more controversial than Edelgard von Hresvelg lmao. I have absolutely zero interest in dealing with any of the Discourse, so all I will say is: we love Edelgard in this house. This is an Edelgard Appreciation Zone, or at the very least an Edelgard Tolerating Zone if you personally dislike her.

That said, I also wanna give a shoutout to Takumi from Fates, because I adore him too and still stand by him being one of the better things to come out of Fates. He's a bit of an ass to Corrin at the start, sure, but like. I feel like that's kinda justified?? He doesn't remember Corrin like Hinoka and Ryoma do, so from his perspective some random stranger from the country they are currently at war with has just waltzed in and is basically being treated like a god when they very well could be an enemy spy. And iirc, he does want to accept Corrin and get to know them? But he's smart, and remains wary until Corrin does choose his family's side.

...The Blame Takumi memes are still funny though, I won't lie dghdsf. I started with Conquest, so those memes are actually what led me to look into him more when I got around to playing Birthright

Horse Plinko: Y'know what. Lorenz. Is that unfair to say, given that I never did get around to playing the Golden Deer route? Yeah, kinda. Am I gonna say it anyway, because I'm not sure who else to say? Haha yea

I guess Takumi can get a little bit of bullying for being a grump, but only affectionately, because I still care him and he deserves a hug

Eeby Deeby: Validar and Thales are the easy options, yes, along with all the other villains, but like. Fuck em lmao

[krakenartificer]

When I got my ADHD diagnosis, I looked at the questions on the screening form and thought, "If this result comes back positive, then I'm definitely not the only person in my family who has it." Questions like

"Have difficulty finishing one activity before starting another one" and

"I finish others' sentences before they can finish it themselves" and

"have trouble staying on one topic when talking"

...I thought were just weird quirks of my family, but no. When I got my results, I contacted my cousin, and she contacted her sisters and mother, and .. .. yeah. Basically everyone in my dad's side of the family is ADHD.

Now there are some problems with that, obviously, (getting family reunions to stick to a schedule is lol no) but there are some really fantastic perks. For one thing, no one in that family minds if I interrupt them while they're talking ... everyone's happy to keep 3 conversations going at the same time .... and no one minds if you fidget constantly.

But the best perk -- at least that I've found so far -- is that all of our parents have coping mechanisms, and passed them on to us. When I found myself unable to handle tasks with more than one step, my father didn't say "WTF are you talking about? It's easy! Just do the thing! Stop being lazy!" No, he could relate completely, and he sat down and taught me how to handle that.

So today, I'm going to pass on to you the coping mechanism my dad taught me for handling the "cannot put tasks in order / cannot get started / forget what I'm doing" problem. You'll need to adjust it for your own needs and your own struggles, but hopefully it'll be helpful in setting up your own process.

I'm going to walk through it with a big project I'm doing at work, just to have a concrete example. That will make some of the discussion specific to computer programming and technical writing, but I do the same thing for all my projects, so hopefully it'll be generalizable.

So to set the stage:

I was supposed to modify this piece of code -- we'll call it "Rosetta" -- to make it handle call data as well as what it was already doing. I did that.... but we now need the code to be able to handle calls (if that's wanted) but also to be able to handle NOT having calls (if THAT'S wanted).

Which is just .... ugh. So much. SOOOOOOOO much.

So. Break it down.

Step one is to get some recording mechanism - pen and paper, whiteboard, blank computer document, whatever

(Technically, this is a different coping strategy, so we'll just take a quick detour: WRITE THINGS DOWN. Your brain is shit at remembering things, and anyway you've already got limits on your working memory; why would you choose to tie up some of that limited resource in something that could be accomplished with literal stone-age technology? Don't even try to remember things. WRITE THEM DOWN.)

I like sticky notes: they're readily available in all offices, they're pretty cheap, and (most importantly) they can be rearranged if it turns out that I forgot a step or put the steps in the wrong order (which, like, let's be honest, I am definitely going to do). But they kill trees and create unnecessary methane emissions, so I've recently switched over to using virtual sticky notes. That's the format I'm going to use for this example, but you can use anything that meets your purposes.

So, you've got something to write with, you're ready to start.

The first question is: what are you trying to accomplish here? What would "done" look like? What is our goal?

I need to end up with a version of Rosetta that will make the correct results if you don't want calls, and will also make the correct results if you do.

The goal here is that you end up with a statement that you can definitively say (a) Yes this is what I wanted or (b)No this is not right because _______

In this case, in order to do that, I'll need to define "correct results" for both call- and non-call versions. But if I have that nailed down, then this statement meets that criterion: I'll be able to say "Yes, this is what I wanted: see, it makes the correct result for calls, and it makes the correct result for not-calls". Or else I'll be able to say, "No, this is wrong: see, it makes the correct result for calls, but on not-calls it does X and we wanted Y."

I have a clear, definitive standard about what I need to do and whether or not I've done it.

But there was a prerequisite there: I need to define "correct results".

So that goes on a sticky note: Create test that will compare my results to existing call!Rosetta-results and to existing not-call!Rosetta-results.

[ID: Two blue boxes, one on top of the other. The top one says in white text "Create test to compare my results to call!results" The bottom one says "Create test to compare my results to not-call!results"] OK. So now we know what we want. The second question is: what do we need to do in order to get that? Here's where the sticky-note recording system really shines, because you don't have to answer this question sequentially. You just start writing down every single thing that is not the way you want it to end up.

I need it to remove commas in the python script, not the bash script

I need to delete the first part of the get_runs() function, which doesn't do anything

I need to delete the rest of the parameters passed to build_query_script() function, because runs encompasses all the others

while we're on that subject, runs doesn't even need the group_variable, so let's pull that out of the parameter document

we also have a dmf defined, which the bash script demands but doesn't use; let's change that demand

since we're changing the structure of the parameter document, we don't need to pull new metrics for each run, so let's move that outside of the runs() loop and only run once

right now the parameter document is ALMOST but not quite "one row per template". Make it so it's actually one row per template.

among other things, that's going to require making it possible for a template to be followed by nothing at all, since it's the assumption that a template will have a metrics block after it that makes it not quite one row per template. So make it possible to publish a template with a null block

the other thing that's weirdly hard-coded is the definition of what a block looks like. Would it make more sense to separate that out into an input file, like the parameters document? On the one hand, that would make it much more flexible; on the other hand, that's another piece that can break. Don't know. Put a question mark on it.

etc

Here's what it looks like at the end of this step:

[ID: A black and white background showing many boxes in two different shades of blue, all with white text. Some of the boxes are overlapping each other.]

As you can see, at this phase you don't need to worry about any of the following:

ordering the tasks. Just stick 'em right on top of each other for now

how you're going to do any of this. Right now we just need to know what, not how

sticking to only one project. As I was working on this, it occurred to me that this whole process would have been a heck of a lot easier if someone had just made a user manual for this, and since I have to go through all the code line-by-line anyway, I might as well write up the documentation while I'm at it. (To help out future-me, if nothing else.) So I put those tasks on another color of sticky note.

making notes that make any ***ing sense to anyone else. This process is for you, and only you need to understand what you're talking about it. Phrase it in ways that make sense to your brain, and to hell with anyone else.

on that topic, also don't worry about making steps that are "too small" or "too dumb" to write down. This is for you. If "save document" feels like a step to you, then write it down.

You also don't need to get every single step involved in the project right now. Get as many as you can, to be sure, but the process is designed on the assumption that you ARE going to forget important steps, and is designed to handle that.

When you can't think of any more steps, then the third question is: what order does it make sense to do these in? Are there any steps that would be easier if you did another step first? Are there any that literally cannot be done unless another step is complete?

This is also a good place to group steps if they fit together nicely. When I used physical sticky notes, I used two different sizes; digitally I can of course make them whatever size I want.

So I have several documentation steps that (a) do need to be written to make sense to other people and (b) I really need to know what's going on before I can do that. I could write them now, but if I did, I'd just end up re-writing them based on things that change as I'm coding. So we'll move those to the end:

[ID: Three dark blue boxes with white text. They read "Create step-by-step instructions for creating your own metric agg", "Create step-by-step instructions for modifying a metric", "Create step-by-step instructions for modifying a query."]

These parts, though -- if I had all the variable structures written down, I could look at them while I'm coding. Then I won't have to keep scrolling back and forth in the code, trying to remember if it's an array or a dictionary while also trying to remember what part of the code I was working on. Brilliant. Move that to the front.

[ID: Seven dark blue boxes with white text, three large, four small. The first one is large and says "Write up explanation of how Rosetta works." The second one is large and says "Document structure of all variables." Attached to that one are four smaller boxes that say "All_blocks", "Runs", "metric", "New_block". The third large one says "Document what qb_parameters.csv contains"]

Also, while I'm at it, I should get the list of variables I need to document -- then I won't have to keep scrolling to find them. Make those sub-steps.

I definitely keep needing to look up what's in the parameters document, so I should write that down, too. For the user manual I also should write down what's in the metric document, but I don't need that for myself, so I can send that to the end.

[ID: The same three dark blue boxes from two screenshots ago (create step-by-step instructions for metric agg, modifying a metric, and modifying a query), now with another dark blue box in front of them with white text that says "Document what granular_metrics.tsv contains."]

These five are all small steps, and are all related in that they don't actually (hopefully) change the functionality of the code; they're just stuff left over from prior versions of this code. So we can lump them all together.

[ID: Five light blue boxes with white text that say "Delete first part of get_runs()", "Have build_query_script only receive the "run" parameter" "Delete dmf" "Move metrics=get_metrics() outside build_all_blocks (all the way up to the top level?" "Delete group_variable from qp_parameters"]

My brain likes this better, so that I can keep track of fewer "main steps", but that's just a peculiarity of me -- you should lump and split however you prefer to make this process easier for you.

[ID: The same five boxes from the prior screenshot, now all made smaller and attached to a larger box that says "Remove Legacy Code"]

Keep going, step by step, sticky by sticky, until you've got them in order. If -- while you're doing this -- you remember another thing you need to do, write it on a sticky and slap it on the pile; you don't have to stop what you're doing to deal with it, because it's written down and it's on the pile and it will get processed; you can just keep working on the thing you're on right now.

[ID: All the same boxes from the first screenshot, now in a neat row. Some of the original boxes have been grouped together. The ones that were said to be at the beginning of the process are on the left and the ones that were said to be at the end are on the right.]

Step four: for the love of all that's holy, SAVE THIS LIST.

Write it on your cubicle whiteboard where it won't be erased

write it on a piece of paper and tape it to the office wall

send an email to yourself

take a picture with your phone

I don't care but save it.

When I used physical sticky notes, I kept them all on the hood of my cubicle's shelf. Now, as you can see, I use Powerpoint, which is irritating af but does allow me to keep everything in a single document, which I can write down the path of.

[ID: White text on a black background says "open ~/Documents/Rosetta\ Modifications\ and \Documentation.pptx" The next line says "Notes in Rocketbook pg 10-12, 16" The next line says "Turn that into documentation that can be used for making modifications."]

And now (finally) you can answer the question "How would I even get started on that?" You look at the first thing on the list, and you treat it as its own project. You can hyperfocus on this step and completely forget about everything else this project requires, because everything you need to remember for the rest of it is written down.

If, as you're working a step, you think of something else you need to do for the big project, write it on a sticky and slap it on the pile. Don't even worry about trying to order it or identify sub-steps; as long as it's not blocking the thing you need to work on right now, you don't have to care. Just stick that bugger anywhere at all on the list, and go back to what you were doing. When you un-hyperfocus and come back to look at your list, there'll be a big sticky note stuck sideways across all the rest of the steps, and you'll remember to file and order it then.

Other benefits of this system

1) The first question really helps with unclear directions from your boss. You can take whatever they told you to do, and translate it into a requirement that is clearly either met or not-met, and then run it back by the boss.

If they say, "No, no, we want ______" then phew! You just saved a huge miscommunication and weeks of wasted work! What a good employee you are! What an excellent team player with strong communication skills!

If they say "Yes, that's what I want," then you know -- for sure -- what it is you're trying to accomplish. Your anxiety is reduced, and your boss thinks you're super-conscientious.

(And if your boss is a jerk who likes to move the goalposts and blame it on their subordinates, then have this conversation over email, so you can show it to their boss or to HR should it become necessary.)

2) Having this project map means that when you spend an hour staring at the requirements and trying to figure out how to get started (which, let's be honest, you were definitely going to do anyway) ... When your boss/coworker comes by and says, "How's it going?" Instead of having to say "I haven't even started 😞" You can say, "Pretty well! I've got all the steps mapped out and am getting ready to start on implementation!" and show them your list, and they think you're very organized and meticulous. 3) Sometimes, especially in corporate jobs, you and your coworkers will run into a problem that's too big for even Neurotypicals to hold all in their heads. At that point, the NTs will be completely lost -- they've never had to develop a way to handle projects they can't just look at and know how to get started. So then you pipe up in the meeting and say, "OK, well, what exactly are we trying to accomplish?" and everybody at the conference table looks at you like you're a goddamned genius and you don't have to tell them that you use this exact same process to remember how to make a sandwich 😅

4) Having this project map makes it so much easier to stop work and then start it up again later, but this post is already really really really long, so I'm going to address that in a separate (really really long) post.

[lukemichaelcalumashton]

Opening Lines Game

thank you @squishmichael and @allsassnoclass for tagging me <3

Rules: List the first lines of your last 20 stories. (If you have less than 20, just list them all!) See if there are any patterns. Choose your favorite opening line. Tag some people to play the next round!

it just so happens that i have exactly 20 fics posted so!!! this is kinda perfect. however i struggle so much with writing first lines for fics soooo i’m not sure how great this is gonna be svjfsdjsds

1. i wanna hold your hand while we're growing up

“Alright children, pick a buddy!” As soon as Miss Maya stops talking, the group of eight-year-olds gathered around her begin to scatter, each looking for their field trip buddy.

2. passport control

Two minutes. Michael has been at the airport for two minutes and already, his entire band has texted him.

3. mating call

Luke likes to think that, after ten years, he and the boys know each other pretty well. 

4. fueling the fire until we combust

Ashton is a planner. In fact, he is a great planner.

5. if i could say the things i want to say (i’d find a way to make you stay)

The first time it happens, Michael doesn’t think much of it. It being Calum dragging him to a local bar on a Friday night.

6. you'll find me on my tallest tiptoes

Ashton finds Calum in the dressing room.

7. stay stay stay (i've been loving you for quite some time)

Ashton has been awake for some time.

8. your arms around me feel like home (i’m homesick)

As someone who has three boyfriends, Calum rarely comes home to an empty apartment.

9. the very first page, not where the storyline ends

“Goodnight, Ashton! I’ll see you tomorrow!” Ashton looks up to see Sierra making her way to the front of the bookshop after clocking out for the night.

10. (ferris) wheel of fate

Michael regrets letting Luke drag him to this stupid fair. 

11. wherever i am, i'll come running

Ashton’s phone wakes him up, the ringing too loud and too close to his ear, making it impossible for him to ignore it and go back to sleep.

12. this could have been an email

Luke is in the break room, throwing sweet corn kernels at Ashton, trying to get them to stick to his hair without him noticing, when he hears the rumor.

13. let me feel you burn into me

“What are you working on?” 

14. Just a touch (too much)

Calum climbs off of Ashton, falling back against the bed to try and catch his breath.

15. home in your arms

It starts innocently enough. Only a few days after they leave Australia and move to London, Calum wakes up abruptly from a nightmare.

16. 20/20

Ashton is mindlessly scrolling through his Instagram, waiting for the popcorn to be ready, when he hears Calum speak up from the living room. “Oh, look who finally decided to show up!”

17. you distract me (but I'm distracted without you)

“Do you still even own an apartment?” Ashton asks the moment he opens his door to find Calum standing there, waiting to be let in. “’Cause I thought you did, but somehow you’re always here.”

18. Work Up A Sweat

Calum wakes up to find his bed empty of his boyfriend.

19. Bake It Till You Make It

Ashton jumps when someone knocks on his door, sending flour flying everywhere.

20. You Pool Me In

When Ashton called the pool cleaning company, he assumed they would send some boring middle aged man to do the job. Someone who would wear a dirty tank top, clean his pool, then leave. 

okay pattern is that. 11/20 mention ashton in the first line so svfdfsfs clearly i talk about ashton a lot. most of them aren't dialogue which is a bummer because i love when fics start with dialogue and i try to do it but i usually don't come up with something i like. ummm most of them start with a name and they're short-ish???

now favorite opening line? i think 5 from if i could say the things i want to say (i'd find a way to make you stay) it's nothing too special but i like it! and for some reason i also like 12? from this could have been an email because it's a little ominous like, what rumor did luke hear y'know? also i love how i managed to mention ash in the first line when he's not even part of the main ship of this fic svfjskjs

okay this was fun now i'm gonna tag some people to do this (who were probably tagged by someone else already! oops) @lifewasradical @daydadahlias @ashtcnirwin

[currantlee]

My Top 5 favorite Pokémon Boss Battle Themes

So, I fell into a pit of my Pokémon nostalgia. Don't look at me, I loved these games as a kid, and I don't enjoy what they have become. That being said, I really hope the Sinnoh remakes - both BDSP and Legends - are good, since Sinnoh was my first region and I'd hate to see it butchered. Plus, they look promising. But I'm not getting my hopes up yet, I'll wait for reviews.

Anyways, one of the things I enjoyed so much about these games is the music. I could probably hum you some of the Sinnoh tunes, or even sing the lyrics I imagined for them (it's obvious that Sinnoh is still my favorite region, isn't it?). Or I could list some of my favorite music tracks from all across the series. So... I did just that to get my hype energy somewhere 😂

So yeah, I hope you enjoy this little list 😊 I tried to explain the stories and memories associated with those musical themes as well as I can for those of you who aren't into Pokémon. That being said - spoilers for Pokémon OmegaRuby and AlphaSapphire, Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver and especially the Sinnoh games ahead.

Oh, and if you do know Pokémon - please leave a comment or reblog and tell me what your favorite boss battle theme is, I'd love to know!

Since Pokémon doesn't have an explicified boss definition, here is what I define as boss battles in Pokémon:

Rival Battles

Gym Battles

Elite Four Battles

Champion Battles

Commander Battles

Admin Battles

Legendary / Unique Pokémon Battles

Frontier Brain or similar Battles

With that being said, let's go!

#5: Pokémon UltraSun/UltraMoon: VS Ultra Necrozma

I will admit, I haven't played the game. I heard this battle is actually pretty difficult, but I can't speak for myself on this. Pokémon games have stopped to be enjoyable to me with Sun and Moon, which had an amazing storyline and some great gameplay concepts, but just... Not enjoyable to me. And USUM seemed like cashgrab to me. I will say though, this musical theme has something and might as well be the best legendary battle theme of modern Pokémon for me.

#4: Pokémon OmegaRuby/AlphaSapphire: VS Brendan/May

In Gen3, Game Freak tried out a new approach with the rival character. See, you always have a rival in Pokémon, and up until this point, all rivals were pretty much jerks. What this new approach was? Well... Let's just say they made the rival character the crush of the player character.

Depending on whether you play as Brendan (whom everyone thought to have white hair before ORAS, except Hidenori Kusaka and Satoshi Yamamoto, who make the Pokémon Adventures manga) or as May, the other will be the rival, and let me tell you, the game pushes this ship really hard in my opinion. It's no wonder why the manga chose to write Ruby and Sapphire, Brendan's and May's counterparts respectively, as a romantic couple, who even confess their love for each other - twice.

Their battle theme conveys this perfectly: this isn't two people who hate each other battling, these are two friends, who might like each other more than you like a casual friend, battling to spend time together. Despite that, both of them are determined to not lose.

One of my favorite moments in the entire game is the ending of it. After the credits (during which Brendan and May are riding their bikes home together) have rolled, you arrive at the pond where you and your rival first met, and they will challenge you to a battle once more. It's when you hear this theme, the one you've listened to every time you battled Brendan or May during the game, and it's just an amazing moment in my opinion, one that is accompanied by this soundtrack, following absolute silence.

And yes, I prefer the remake version of this track.

#3: Pokémon Diamond/Pearl/Platinum: VS Cyrus

Since Kingdom Hearts is currently my main fandom and therefore most people following me probably know more about that series than about Pokémon, let me explain who Cyrus is: Cyrus is the Xehanort of Pokémon. And that up there is his battle theme. And safe for the one time they butchered it by turning it into a disco song for USUM, it's absolutely perfect.

I especially like the beginning. It conveys intensity and the dangerous situation you're in. I mean, Cyrus literally wants to destroy the universe to replace it with a new one he will rule as a god. He also regards all emotions as weakness and will openly admit that his grunts are useless and merely tools to him. Honestly, he is the most terrifying antagonist of the entire series to me, mainly because his plan is that of a madman, but he is actually serious about it (and unlike Xehanort doesn't let go of it even after his defeat).

At the same time, the musical theme sounds hopeful - like all will be good. And I mean, all is eventually good. You have your Pokémon with you, and Cynthis (who also has a badass battle theme by the way) helps you out too. Here is a great thing about the Sinnoh plot: Cynthia has been built up as a character you can trust, and her philosophy is the direct contrast to Cyrus'. So when she helps you battle Cyrus and Team Galactic - you know she won't let anything happen to you. Despite how terrifying Cyrus is as a villain, you know you're safe, because you have not only your Pokémon, but her on your side. Oh, and she is the final boss of the game. So in the end, you and your Pokémon overcome not only the villain, but also the person who held your hand the entire time.

Sorry this turned into me gushing about the plot of the Sinnoh games, but I can't help it 😅 On with the show!

#2: Pokémon HeartGold/SoulSilver: VS Champion/Red

If Cyrus is the Xehanort of Pokémon, then Red is it's Yozora. And while his musical theme is technically not his alone, I definitely associate it with him more than I associate it with Lance.

One of the best things about Red in my opinion is how he is foreshadowed during the entire game. Like, in the first city you visit, an elderly man will tell you about a boy named Red who three years ago saved the neighbouring region Kanto from the evil Team Rocket. Then, you hear nothing about him for a very long time - until Blue Oak mentions him again on Cinnebar Island and you meet his worried mother at Pallet Town.

While Red is technically an optional secret boss, the game makes you want to beat him through the little details it reveals about him. That he is a legend, that he is the true Champion of the Indigo League... To me, his mother worrying about him was always what got me the most.

I have to say, I also got a soft spot for the 8-Bit-version of the theme, it's just not what I grew up with. I admittedly never played GSC. I also like the Gen7 take on the theme, which mixes the original melody with the Alolan vibes.

#1: Pokémon Diamond/Pearl/Platinum: VS Dialga / Palkia

I don't know how, but they managed to make the piano in this theme as epic as a theme for those two Dr Who-deities deserve. It sounds mysterious and it makes you respect what is in front of you, without sounding bombastic like Arceus' theme (which is also freaking amazing, ngl). Not that that is a bad thing, but I feel like the mysterious vibe fits Dialga and Palkia, who are the embodiments of two very abstract concepts. Arceus is simply god, and that's that. But Dialga and Palkia are the embodiments of time and space, two concepts that are far more difficult to grasp than "god".

Dialga also has an amazing battle theme in Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time/Darkness/Sky, which definitely deserves an honorable mention here (Palkia's theme in said game is okay, but they definitely got the short end of the stick IMO).

I really hope they're not going to butcher this theme (or Cynthia's. Or Cyrus'. Or any of the Gen4 themes really) in the remakes. But the one thing Pokémon didn't mess up completely for me so far is the soundtrack (except that one time they turned Cyrus' theme into a disco song, which really doesn't fit him at all). So I have faith in that at least.

What's your favorite boss battle theme in Pokémon? Leave me a comment if you like, I'd love to hear about it!

[dany36]

officially done with tales of zestiria!! overall, i really enjoyed the game and i'm glad i finally sat down and played it. more junk thoughts below.

so it's definitely not as bad as i had heard people say it was. i was really surprised when i saw just how much of a bad rep this game gets, but...i can definitely see some things as to why people don't like it... one of the things i had heard was that there was barely any character development in the game, and i agree with that. i was 35ish hours in when suddenly people were already talking about going into the final battle and i was like...what?! no sub-story about rose or eizen or lilah that goes more into their past/characters like sheena in tos or something?? i guess we did get more into edna with that sidequest about eizen (it was nice seeing her show emotions for once!), but other than that, i really didn't feel like the game focused on ANYONE else at any point in the story. they just sort of get introduced into your party and are there to help sorey in his quest.

speaking of sorey, i REALLY didn't care for his character at all. i think he's the only one where i was super apathetic towards in terms of character and personality. even zaveid, who i thought i was going to dislike because of how annoying i found him in berseria, grew on me and learned to like him. i don't know, i guess when i compare him to other protagonists in the tales of games i've played, he really is the most forgettable of them all. like, when he "sacrifices" himself and goes in a sleep slumber, i felt no emotion whatsoever. as soon as i got rose in my party, i switched to using her as my main (which never happens lol i'm boring and usually stick to main characters as my Player 1--emil, lloyd, luke, velvet, dude with the purple hair in vesperia for the amount i played in the game) cus i was just like wow give me someone more interesting PLEASE. so, sorry to sorey fans (if there are any) but to me he's one of the most boring aspects of the game...and he's the damn shepherd!

and continuing on that point, i think the plot in this tales game is also probably the weakest one out of the ones i've played (weak main character, weak plot). the game starts off with the simple premise that sorey is the shepherd and he must get rid of the Lord of Calamity, and...that's pretty much it. in other tales games, you start off thinking your objective is A, but then as you journey along, a plot twist occurs and you realize now that objective A really was just a small task in what is your true objective. Something like this never happens in the game, so the pace just pretty much stays the same throughout the entirety of the game. sure, there are some cool moments (rose's introduction and her learning to armatize will forever be my favorite), but they are scattered out and about and honestly in this game i can't really remember something as impacting as luke sinking that one city (haven't played tota in a while lol) or palmacosta being destroyed in tos or velvet finding out the truth about her brother.

but anyway, the rest of the cast, i absolutely loved, so it's truly a shame that they were stuck in a sort of forgettable plot. i already talked about edna and rose being my favorites, but lilah (that scene with the oregami...OOF...OOF!!!!) and zaveid are cool too. alisha is barely in the main game, but it was great seeing more of her in the DLC and showing her struggle of what she wants to do (her combat also seems cool for the couple of fights but i had to stick with rose...sorry!). i only wish we could have had more skits showing the party interacting with one other. i don't know if it's just me but i really felt like there were barely any skits in this game, which is sad because most of the cast is enjoyable and it's a shame we didn't get to see them talk with each other in skits more!

i had seen people say that it's best to play zestiria and then berseria so you can catch all the references in berseria, but...to be honest, i don't think i would have enjoyed zestiria as much if i had played it first! prime examples are the eizen sidequest and the sidequest where you FREAKING FIND MAGILOU'S TOMB. like...hello??? when i got to the eizen sidequest, i 100% would not have given as much of a shit on killing that dragon if i hadn't played berseria beforehand. it really made me sad knowing the tragic ending that eizen wound up having. and finding magilou's grave being guarded by her friend also broke my heart. like...seriously!!! that was something that i also would not have given another thought if i didn't know who magilou was. so yeah i don't regret playing berseria first since i actually think it enhanced the experience a bit more.

gameplay-wise, i really enjoyed it! took me a while to get the hang of the equipment system, but once i did, chaining combos with Rose was a blast. i also really enjoyed how easily you could change party members (unlike in tob where it costs 1 BG!) in the middle of a fight. and MAN i never get tired of seeing those sweet, sweet mystic artes animations. <3 <3 <3 it increases any character's coolness factor three-fold.

my main gripe in berseria was the terrible dungeon design. at the beginning, zestiria did a better job at putting in puzzles in dungeons so as to not make the same mistake that berseria did, but then...towards the second half of the game...it was pretty much all berseria-like dungeons of endless same-looking rooms with endless enemies (the DLC dungeon being a prime example of this). which is honestly just terrible and boring, but at least the gameplay makes the fights seem not AS tedious...

i also felt like zestiria did a better job with the music than berseria did. i can hardly recall any song i liked in berseria (there's like two or three i'd put in my vgm collection), but for zestiria, i'm gonna need to hunt down quite a few. also, i could actually remember the names of the towns/locations and what they looked like. in berseria, i felt like i was going town after town but for the life of me i couldn't remember at ALL what we did there in the first place. i really just felt like i was passing through each town not learning much about the place, but in zestiria i really got a feel of each town, so that was nice!

oh, and the ending i felt was...kind of weak lol especially cus...no one talked at all??? it was so weird haha in tos, tota, dotnw, and tob we have the characters at least saying SOMETHING in the ending but in toz it was just...animations and that's it lol. so glad we got a DLC cus i would have been PISSED seeing just rose leave off like that without saying a word and then...they show us her GRAVE??? i always think "wow i wish they would show us how the future of (insert favorite characters here) are like!! :)" but seeing rose's grave made me so sad (as well as eizen's and magilou's) like nononono you do NOT show my favorite characters just DEAD!! >:'v but anyway, yeah i mean it was an ok ending but nothing that made me feel with a great gap in my heart like tob's or tos's did. like mikleo seeing sorey again at the end? cool. did it make me feel something like when tear sees luke again at the end of tota? sadly, no. :(

and last but not least, the DLC. i mean, i absolutely LOVED seeing the girls in the team going out on their own little adventure and just interacting and talking with each other!!! lailah + edna + alisha + rose...who doesn't love that?? we got to see more of rose being the badass that she is and uh yeah her and alisha? totally gay for each other...like that last scene before they kill the final boss?? just A+++ material (except that terrible last dungeon AND the HORRID design of the last bosses??? dragons with purple bright titties so that the player will know they're FEMALE dragons??? LMAO)

oh wow i wrote more than i thought i would but uh yeah. all in all: DEFINITELY NOT a bad game, has a great cast of interesting and fun characters (except sorey) but sadly the game doesn't delve too deep into them as in other tales game, DLC was a fun addition to see more of who i thought was going to be a greater protagonist in the main story, but overall when compared to other tales of games, the weak plot puts it second-to-last in my list of tales games i've played. would i play it again? definitely :)

WHEW, ok, now off to watch the anime!! <3

[blueeyeswhitegarden]

Now that we're 3 episodes into Go Rush, what are you thinking of it so far?

So far, I'd say it's okay. I'll put more detailed thoughts under the cut. I will talk about what I don't like about it as well, so keep that in mind if you don't want to read any negativity on the series.

Go Rush is just okay, but there are some positives to it. The characters are so far fine. I don't really have a favorite one yet, but they're pretty well defined with their personalities/roles within the main cast. It's still too early to judge their group chemistry, but I do think that there's a good potential foundation for the main three to develop more of a bond over time. I like the character designs for most of the cast too. They seem a bit more detailed with the hair and eyes compared to the Sevens cast and that might have prevented another huge backlash towards these designs. Or maybe there was more outrage with this announcement and I'm just unaware of it due to being so out of the loop with the online community, which is still such a blessing. I like Yudias' human disguise more so than his true form. His true form is still pretty good design wise. I just prefer his solid blue outfit that goes with his human disguise more than his white outfit in his true form. Manabu might have the best design, if only because black really works well for him. Plus, I'm impressed with how his voice actor gives him a voice that is distinct from Gakuto.

Both Yuhi and Yuamu have okay designs, but they'll probably grow on me more after awhile. I'm not sure how I feel about Yuamu. For some reason, it feels like they're trying too hard to make her smart or maybe it just sticks out more when she's really the most competent out of the main cast thus far. That isn't a bad thing of course. It just feels kind of weird to me. I do like her dragon deck. Giving the female leads more feminine decks isn't necessarily bad. I adore Yuzu's Meldious monsters, Asuka's Cyber Angels are cool and I liked most of Romin's monsters. I do think it's pretty cool to give the main female lead a different kind of deck and it probably has the best monster designs shown thus far.

While the humor doesn't always work, I have laughed a couple of times. Yudias' eye beams was easily the best part of the first episode. I want Yudias to use his eye beams to solve every problem. Just overuse it to where he'll try to use his eye beams on the newest minor character and even trying to get gum off his shoes. It is the most hilariously stupid thing I've seen in this franchise in awhile and I love it.

The most interesting about Go Rush so far is easily what kind of connection it has to Sevens. Once Manabu was revealed, who looks exactly like Gakuto only with black hair instead, has the same last name as Gakuto and shares the same voice actor, I figured that Go Rush was going to be a sequel series, but now I'm not as sure. There are definitely teases of some connections to Sevens. Yuhi and Yuamu have Yuga's last name, there are seemingly adult versions of some minor Sevens characters working with the twins at UTS, they live in Mutsuba Town, which shares the same name as Asana's family company, and even the recent episode showed the logo for Asana's family company. So they definitely want the audience to think that the two series are connected, but I'm less sure that this is set in the same universe. I'm not sure why they wouldn't just make it clear that it is set in the same universe instead of just teasing it. Plus, Manabu and the twins didn't know each other prior to meeting each other in the second episode. The series could be set in the far future, but I still have a hard time believing that Yuga and Gakuto's children/descendants wouldn't know each other or at least be familiar enough with their last names to recognize each other that way.

Given that aliens exist and have been on Earth seemingly for a long time, it's possible that it's just set far ahead in the future, but I don't think that they'd need to try that hard to justify aliens existing in the Sevens universe. The world building for Sevens wasn't really built on a strong logic foundation. They had children in a giant spaceship, they were the presidents of a major company and they had a space station. Yuga and his friends went to the moon on a spaceship powered by Romin's bad curry. Aliens already existing on Earth and never being brought up because it wasn't related to the storyline in Sevens would not be much of a stretch. I'm leading more towards the idea that Go Rush is a parallel world to Sevens at the moment. The two different duel disks floating together just made me think of a parallel universe for some reason.

The duels thus far have been extremely boring. They are basically trying to appeal to kids getting into the game for the first time, which isn't a bad idea at all. That is ideally what the franchise needs to do instead of just appealing to long time fans. They also have a good in-universe reason to explain the basic concepts of the game since Yudias is an alien who didn't duel prior to episode one. He knew of Rush Duels, but he clearly didn't know anything about the game. The problem is that they aren't really explaining the basic concepts of the game in an engaging way. They had to go as far as to explain how the draw phase works in episode one. As funny as some of those moments were, it also made a relatively short duel feel really drawn out. It definitely didn't help that the first duel had only level four or below monsters, no Spells or Traps and the strongest monster only had 1600 attack points. It was a simplified version of an already simplified form of the card game and that made for a pretty boring start to the series. It's honestly one of the weakest first episodes in the franchise in my opinion in large part to the duel being so boring and simplified.

To be fair, the second and third episodes incorporated the explanations for the basic rules of the game more naturally, so it didn't really feel like they dragged those duels out. But they're still really boring and simplistic. It really feels like I'm stuck in the tutorial stage of a video game and not even a fun one. Obviously, I'm way outside of the target demographic for this series and I've been playing the card game since the DM days, so I'm well familiar with the basic rules of the game. But I don't know how effective this would be for kids or adults who never played the card game before either. It doesn't really make Rush Duels look that great or interesting, especially when the duels are really simplified and outside of the Dragons, the monster designs just really aren't that good either. I'm sure that this will still click with kids in Japan since Rush Duels seem to be doing well over there, but it just doesn't really feel like an effective way of teaching the audience the basic rules and functions of the game.

I can already see Go Rush sharing similar problems I had with Sevens, which wouldn't be surprising when they have the same head writer. Rush Duels are still put on a high pedestal. It arguably makes more sense for Yudias to see Rush Duels as this deep and profound way for people to duel when he's traveled across the universe to learn about them. But I still can't really buy into it. It didn't work in Seven when they were first created and it isn't going to work in Go Rush either. Rush Duels can be fun, engaging and having a simplified version of the game to attract new and returning players is definitely good, but I can't really believe that they're the greatest thing in the universe. If the recent episode is any indication, Go Rush is probably also going to be filled with a lot of gimmicky one note characters whose names I won't be able to remember.

Yudias comes from a war torn planet, but I have a feeling that's mostly going to be window dressing more that anything else. I'm sure that Rush Duels are going to save his planet because this is a Yu-Gi-Oh! series and that's fine. Go Rush so far comes off as pretty light hearted and even more comedic than Sevens was, so I don't get the impression that Yudias dealing with a war torn planet is going to be treated that seriously. Even if it does, it might happen too late for me to really find it believable or effective. On a more minor note, I already hate Yudias' spaceship cheering his name every time he makes a discovery or speech about Rush Duels. I was fine with it in the first episode since they were in his spaceship and it was his first duel, but it just rubs me the wrong way afterwards. It comes off a bit like putting Yudias on a pedestal or making him seem a lot cooler than he actually is. Yudias is fine, but it just seems too early for him to get a huge crowd cheering his name when he hasn't done anything major yet.

I do want to stress that I don't think that Go Rush is bad. It's still early into its run, they're still setting things up and it can definitely improve going forward. It took awhile for Sevens to become more consistently interesting to me as well, although I think it had a stronger hook than Go Rush currently does. Unless you really liked Sevens or you like the idea behind alien duelists, I'm not sure if people would really enjoy Go Rush at this point. I'm not sure how I'd feel about Go Rush if it didn't have some kind of connection to Sevens, but that also feels pretty ingrained to its foundation to where I don't think it would exist without it. I do really wish that it could get a simulcast, if only because I still miss legal subs for this franchise and it's a huge shame only one series thus far has gotten that simulcast treatment. For a show clearly aimed at a younger audience, much like Sevens was, it's okay. It isn't amazing, but it isn't terrible either. I'm still willing to watch it and see where it goes.

Thank you for the ask. ^_^