#cold steel spoilers

[ship-garbage-pile]

Return on that 50 Mira investment, Crow!

Music: Duran Duran- INVISIBLE

[jessamakesart]

And then a figure emerges, shrouded in feathered darkness, the world trailing behind it...

I got "The Princess and the Dragon" path recently and I have been very normal about it.

[morgenstern16]

one of the underrated moments in cold steel is that as things get worse and worse you end up going through some records of erebonia's violent history and the guy writing them is like "you know in hindsight maybe it was a bad omen that this country was named after hell"

[inkedmyths]

AAAAAAAAAAAA

[daily-rayless]

Happy Birthday to our elegant swordwielding friend, Kloe Rinz from the Trails franchise.

[alyossan]

[ TRAILS INTO REVERIE SPOILERS ]

Drawn for CrowRean Week Day 6: Cheap Imitation

[incorrect-trails]

Altina: We're kind of missing something.

Kurt: Cohesion?

Juna: Teamwork?

Ash: A general sense of what we're doing?

Musse: And Instructor Rean is not here.

Kurt: Oh, and that, yeah.

[special-support-section]

god forbid a girl acts cute

[lady-byleth]

During a Daydream Crow mentioned to Towa, Angelica and George that after the stuff in Jurai calms down he'll go traveling alone to find himself

Glad to report this did not happen and apparently he just hangs out at the branch campus now

Blessed

[reaperkaneki]

thinking about cold steel again and how rufus is the fucking ocelot of these games. hes playing both sides and also his own side and also the other side and crossing the line of assholery and STILL not coming out on top. bc he has no friends. cringefail.

[trailsofmemes]

[fostersffff]

I figure I should make this post before I finish the game, and seeing as I'm at Cool Down Time Before The Finale: I'm not crazy about THE CURSE OF THE GREAT TWILIGHT in Cold Steel IV and I'm really hoping they land it.

Like, if you remove everything about The Curse from The Great Twilight, most of the story still works, and might honestly be better. Why are formerly non-violent people slavering for a war with Calvard? Because the people have been manipulated by Imperial propaganda into believing that the assassination attempt on their beloved Emperor was committed by Calvardian agents. You don't need "and THE CURSE OF THE GREAT TWILIGHT IS AFFECTING THEIR HEARTS!!!" I lived through 9/11; government overreach via widespread nationalist sentiment is super easy to do in the wake of a national tragedy. I think if George W. Bush announced in November 2001 that America had created an Evil Fucked Up Demon Fortress floating above New York City that would serve as their base of operations for eliminating terrorism, the median American voter would've been like "WE LOVE THE EVIL FUCKED UP DEMON FORTRESS!!!"

But The Curse needs to be in the story, because if it wasn't... there would be nothing to do except win at The Rivalries and hope everyone gets real cool after that. Because in the scenario where there is no curse, it becomes a lot more difficult to figure out how to reintegrate Erebonians into wider Zemurian society, not just from the perspective of "wow we were ready to kill everyone else, huh", but also Calvard going "let's talk about how you were ready to kill everyone else and how we're going to milk that". So it just feels kinda clumsy and utilitarian as-is, a way to absolve most of Erebonia's citizens of any wrongdoing.

[yourockthebeatofmyheart]

No bc why is he built like an italian cold steel cinquedea

[morgenstern16]

I just played through the Crossbell section of Trails of Cold Steel 2 and I love how the change of perspective flips how you see Rean. For most of the series, you've mostly seen him as a skilled but kind swordsman with a dark past, but mostly a good guy. To an outsider, he's fucking terrifying. Not only is he a skilled user of the Eight Leaves One Blade style, he also has an additional super mode AND he can call in a giant robot to wreck your shit at any time he wants.

And yet now that you're no longer in control of him, he's begun to follow Osborne's orders as part of the Imperial warmachine. His whole life Rean has defined himself by how useful he can make himself to others, but up until now he was surrounded by good and decent people who put him on the right path. Now he's taking orders from Osborne, the most sinister man in Zemuria, because Rean, aren't you a good little Erebonian soldier? Aren't you a patriot? Are you willing to let good Erebonian men and women die even though you have an ancient war mech that could save them? And Rean has no mechanisms to say no to that. And he fucking hates it. The only thing he can do is let Lloyd and Rixia go because he wasn't explicitly ordered to capture them. Lloyd isn't a super special awesome OC like Rean is, but he has the one thing Rean has wanted all his life: clarity of purpose.

It's a shame Cold Steel 2 has so many weak moments because when it gets good, it's very good.

[yuki-hitomi-chan]

As someone who ships both Akeshu (Persona 5) and Crowrean (Trails of cold steel) there's a surprising amount of similarity between the two. A young black haired teen meets a older boy one year his senior who ends up becoming his rival and his rival ends up dying after having an intense fight with the black haired teen and his teammates.

If we're talking Persona 5 Royal, both rivals also come back from the dead and either have the option of being brought completely back to life or dying again. Both main characters also have weird powers similar to their friends but also unique from them (Joker is a wildcard, and Rean has his ogre power)

Also both main characters have huge bisexual energy and neither is considered canon even though there's a lot of chemistry between the two main boys.

I just think they're neat.

[daily-rayless]

Today's second birthday belongs to Renne from the Trails series. Happy Birthday, Angel of Slaughter.