#elysia does cons

[sersi]

FYI, I haven't been on much since yesterday and won't be on much for the next few days because I'm currently at San Diego Comic Con 💖.

The queue is on and I will hop on occasionally, I just can't promise that I will be very coherent or quick to respond since SDCC is crazy and I'm running on very little sleep.

[troofless]

Just finished watching a walkthrough of Tales of Zestiria, and I must say it is as HYPE as its opening.

My favourite parts:

Sorey and Mikleo bickering — actually, every sormik scene

I swear 99.9% of Mikleo revolves around Sorey, the other 0.1% is him getting teased by everyone (this could be his biggest writing strength and flaw depending on who you ask)

The opening song. A BANGERRRRRR

The different branching routes you can take in Ladylake. Sell the knife? The pipe? Don’t sell both? Sell the pipe later on to get a cool hat as well? How do you enter the Sacred Blade ceremony? YOU CAN CHOOSE

Mikleo leaving Sorey, in the game: Oh don’t worry, Mikleo will be fine, I trust Mikleo to take care of himself :) :)

In the anime: dkjasfnlD MIKLEO DID WHAT??! LAILAH WE MUST GO AFTER MIKLEO RIGHT AWAY

Tbh the argument ‘arc’ he has with Sorey? One of the best parts of the game.

'Does a frog think of getting rid of snakes?’ ‘OH SO AM I A FROG NOW?’ ‘Your LIABILITY will be waiting in the inn’

When in the manga this slow burn (JUST GET CONTRACTED WITH MIKLEO ALREADY) gets extended to after Sorey contracts with Edna

When Mikleo calls Sorey out on his blindness in a skit THEY NOTICE EVERYTHING ABOUT EACH OTHER OKAY

Yeah also, just thinking about how Sorey’s known Mikleo’s true name for a long time now HNNNRNNHSDGGGGGHHHH

Mikleo using his rod not as a conduit for magic but as a whacking tool. He has a mystic arte Crystal Rod where he throws his rod at the enemy saying NOPE (best...) and a mystic arte Final Player where he uses it like a hammer saying “I’ll crush you! Again! Again and again!!” smacking the enemy into the ground LOLLLL

That One Mystic Arte where Edna rides on her umbrella like it’s a flying broomstick and shoots out earth rocks with a finger gun

Zaveid coming out of nowhere at random times, busting out his persona shooting himself in the head and demanding that they fight him

Rose shaking her hands with Sorey at supersonic speed when Sorey gets her to hear the seraphim and she thinks she’s hearing ghosts

The whole ‘we’re married’ scene when they get to Rolance, and the whole joke of Sergei continuing to think Rose and Sorey are married

Dezel laughing at Lailah’s lame animal jokes in the background

Dezel not being able to see, but that’s okay… because he can read the wind!

Dezel being the walking encyclopaedia for all animals and plants bc he’s been everywhere

Rose wants to catch a butterfly and sell it for money, but Dezel interjects and tells her it’s a ‘shae monyurose’ moth, so Rose gives up on catching it, saying people don’t pay a lot for moths

Another skit where Sorey and Rose want to catch these rabbits to eat, (they’re cute... AND delicious.) Dezel is horrified and chases them away by shouting really loudly (HOW CAN YOU SAY THAT??!!)

Everyone who plays Zestiria complaining about how Alisha isn’t a permanent team member, then having mixed debates about whether the anime saved or broke the story with Alisha-Armatization

ZAVEID RUNNING DOWN A WALL

“My way is to put the hellions back in hell” Zaveid says while doing the Dio pose

WRYYYYYYY

I love how he just appears out of nowhere and gets him to fight you, multiple times, in both Zestiria AND Berseria

Dezel suggesting they could just fly all the way to the top but Sorey and Mikleo go “But we WANT to see the ruins...!”

In the bad ending Heldalf is just like ‘nothin doing… just standing here…’ when the team goes in and slays him

Heldalf: You want to defeat me, right? But if you do, you can’t get the TRUE ending… bitch

Sorey:

I love how Rose and Alisha are uncommon heroines, using lances and twin blades instead of magic (Mikleo takes that one, hah). 

It’s like the writers of Zestiria were like Hmm. How do we explore the dark elements in this game by showing how people in Age of Chaos possess immense malevolence in their hearts and align it to the main story, and then went, Got it. Assassins. (Story of how Shepherd Sorey went gallivanting around with a princess *cough cough redactedbecauseshedoesn’texistinthegame* and an assassin~~)

Mikleo: Zaveid, there is literally NO REASON for us to fight. At all.

Zaveid: You gotta beat this ass first

And I think that is very sexy of him

Apparently if you take Dezel out of your team during the third fight with Zaveid, he will yell at you

Zaveid, T-posing on the ground: oh don’t mind me, just setting death flags for the only other wind seraph in this game so I can fill the XXX-shaped hole in your team later on in the game. Also here, take my glock

Dezel 🤝Eizen

    being the same person

GIVE ME THE HIDDEN DEZEL AND ZAVEID LORE (but Dezel doesn’t appear in Berseria…)

Rose “I just noticed, whenever Mikleo gets angry, it always has something to do with Sorey” after merchants look at Sorey and think he’s a con artist Shepherd, then in a later skit comments that No, that’s not true Mikleo does get angry even when it doesn’t involve Sorey, then Sorey says, Nah, he’s not angry, just overreacting.

When the plot says Sorey and Mikleo were destined to be the Shepherd and Sub Lord all along :o :v :O

THEY ARE FRIGGIN MARRIED OKAY

BOTH OF THEM. FROM THE SAME VILLAGE. BABIES. RED STRING OF FATE AAAAAA

Sorey and Mikleo in a skit talking about how they’re not really affected by their past bc their real family now is Elysia. It’s a really quiet and sweet moment.

Zaveid in a skit doing flower fortune readings bc he’s worried that the group hates him bc he was all FIGHT ME! before, but Lailah cheers him up with her own flower fortune telling (‘Uh, your origami flower only has... one petal Lailah’) saying Zaveid is their friend AWWWW

GIVE ME THE HIDDEN LAILAH AND ZAVEID LOREEEEEE

gdi I know we see more Pacifist!Zaveid in Berseria but I want a sequel nowwwwww

Sorey and Mikleo having a final conversation under the stars

SOREY FILLS IN MIKLEO ON HIS PLAN breaking the trope of not telling his team that he’s going to save the world by disappearing

One of the main messages Zestiria delivers is how one person shouldn’t take all the burden on themselves and how Sorey learns to rely on other people

Like Lailah staying silent bc of her oath and how that pains her

Like Mikleo... forming a pact with Sorey.....

God I love Zestiria for breaking tropes everywhere

Did I mention how Alisha and Rose have such good platonic relationships with Sorey? Yeah and you can take out the romantic hinting and it is still a good relationship? Without any shoehorning of ‘forced het couple’?

Sorey calling back to the time he had to close his senses to get Alisha to hear Lailah, tying it back into the main plot!!!! :o GALAXY BRAIN

SOREY PUTTING DEZEL’S HAT ON IN THE STARRY SKY CUTSCENE AND ROSE AND ZAVEID TRYING TO TAKE IT BACK

How the hell is Muse alive and not, like, a hag

Love how the final part is Sorey going “I’ll defeat you with the power of friendship!! And this gun I found”

*flashback to AFOvsAll Might* Sorey: You thought it was over with that punch? I have TWO HANDS!!!!

Ok no lie the final fight was epic

THIS... IS MY EVERYTHING!!!!!!

fsdljfnsdkflsfs;fsf look all the seraphim went into the battle not expecting to live and Sorey went in fully expecting to kill his seraphim friends and prepared to KILL

Compared to the start when Sorey was full-out 'don’t kill hellions Zaveid how could you!!!!’, you can see how the darker themes shine here

What I wouldn��t give for a corrupted!Sorey though, I was expecting it bc of clips I saw on Youtube BUT IT NEVER HAPPENED!!! Lowkey sad tho. Would love an arc where Sorey gets overcome by malevolence and becomes, like a jerk, but as like a morally grey character not fully blown evil (like Jerk Rose ig)

The epilogue with everyone!!! The Lord of the Lands (yeah Uno is very pretty)!!! Lucas!!!! Sergei and Alisha!!! The little drawings in the credits detailing Sorey’s journey!!!! Awwww

Overall a happy ending for Sorey and friends which is GREAT

SMOL SOREY AND MIKLEO EXPLORING RUIN TRAPS AT THE END

oh god I swear they are lowkey married they just don’t mention it to anyone look if you go back and play the whole thing with that in mind NOTHING ABOUT THE PLOT CHANGES

Mikleo my friend you have too many cape thingys on your back PLEASE

The callback to Sorey catching Mikleo though is so cute. In the anime we get the callback to “So this is the world!” htgdgmfgmmmmgfg idk the anime is one hole I don’t want to explore rn

sfaljdfsdlf but yeah though the epilogue was nice and clean and up to reader’s imagination, I wished they expanded more on the epilogue (LET US SEE SOREY..... *fighting back tears*), at least THANKS TO THE ANIME we get to see post-Heldalf Alisha and Rose tho hnggggrrgh

*chanting* D-L-C, didn’t know they had a D-L-C

DLC

ROSALI VIBES jkahdfjksdfs give it all to meeeee

Rose and Alisha catfighting sjdnflsjdfadfhgnfghth THIS IS THE ICONIC ROSALI VIBE I SWEAR

Because of this, this DLC is now elevated to god standards

Edna and Lailah casually talking while Rose and Alisha roll in the background LMAOOOO

Rose must be the most unconventional Shepherd ever and that is GREAT

Bruh is Alisha wearing an abbreviated costume of Mikleo’s

Anyway she’s so cute in her DLC outfit!!!

Alisha ditching keigo is so. Very. Cute.

Alisha and Sorey: :) :D :)))

Alisha and Rose: Bitch. }:(  >:V

Love the girl’s party vibe, and how we get cameos of Zaveid and Mikleo (LET US SEE MORE DEVASTATED MIKLEO PLEASE....) along the way

Sadly no more DLC episodes :( wonder why that got axed, bc fans didn’t like it?

Overall I must say the Zestiria cast is awesome, I really like all the characters and how they are fleshed out very neatly with their own quirks and goals. Edna being god tier with her monotone sarcasm (she is QUEEN....), Zaveid being that dumbass that looks like a stripper (HIM.... baby...), Mikleo being ultimate waifu and how his comedic moments shine with Edna and everyone else when he’s being teased, Sorey being so pure and cute when he geeks out with Mikleo and how his character arc is just such a refreshing take on the hero archetype, Dezel with his stoicness Imma Get Revenge but also his cast knowledge and love for animals, Rose for exploring the side of reality in the malevolence in people’s hearts and her :3 smile and her determination to get things done and how she’s so different from Sorey which only brings out her charm, Lailah with her awful puns and eccentricity and quiet compassion. And uh, Alisha for being the bait-and-switch heroine but a decent character with her own personal goals that are separate from the main character. Sergei and Lucas are also very lovable.

As for the setting, Rolance and Hyland as two kingdoms seem a little small scale compared to lets say if they added one more kingdom, but seeing as this is a 2015 game I think the exploration map is pretty good (then I compare to Xenoblade Chronicles which came out in 2010 and just change the subject). Love the outside game mechanics Giant’s Fist, Wind Stepping and Water Shield (when Mikleo protects Sorey with that!!! And Sorey calls him out by saying he’s been practicing it for a long time... And you recall every time Mikleo asks Dezel and the other older seraphim to teach him stuff so he can get stronger to help Sorey and how 99.9% of his character revolves around Sorey). ‘That spinny mist thing sure gets the job done’ haha. 

Anyway, great game and plot, please go check out if you have time, esp rn since animes and other games coming out will be stalled it is a great time to check out older games aaaaaaa

[char-writes]

Either Elysia or Oleander. Elysia has the advantage of having experienced several disasters before, and she's definitely able to keep her cool throughout another one. Oleander also has little panic in a crisis because he's been cursed before, so he understands proper perspective on things. I might say Elysia's better than Oleander if only because Oleander's priorities can get skewed if someone he cares about is directly involved. Not that Elysia doesn't have people she cares about (a thing that does get explored) but she has a history of being able to make sacrifices. Unfortunately.

Cylindra would simply overthink and/or panic. Faye has an interesting view on life which means that she might just let the crisis continue to happen if she can find more pros than cons. I would not trust either of those two to help me with anything.

which oc would be the best in a crisis? 

[arb0k]

Coyote for the 10 facts thing! (unless he's not developed lol in which case whoever's got lore and is nearest to him)

Coyote does have lore! maybe this’ll help me get his bio done here’s his tag if you’re interested in backstory!

an ice-born dragon who was originally part of an elite squad of bounty hunters under employ of the Fortress of Ends. he was renowned for his ability to break any lock and enter (or escape) any room, which earned him his title of Infiltrator. several years ago, he had a crisis of conscience and faked his own death. under his new name of Coyote, he breaks others out of prison (assuming they can pay his exorbitant price).

the first few years away from Ice he accumulated a massive bounty on his head. he and his buddy Maxim ran a con where Maxim would turn him in and collect the cash, and then Coyote would break out and split the money. it happened so many times that they no longer offer a reward for his capture. they briefly offered a reward for turning in his body, but so many mercs wound up maimed or dead that he’s basically no longer wanted. they’ve just…. given up.

martyr complex the size of Texas. he briefly entertained trying to right his wrongs but decided he’s beyond redemption. he spends his days sticking it to the man and picking fights he can’t win, because he deserves it, or something.

has two perfectly functioning eyes. the eye patch is mostly there to keep people from seeing his eye color, as being an Ice dragon in the Shifting Expanse is dangerous at the best of times. it also helps keep him from being tracked down by his former superiors; while no prison on mainland Sornieth can hold him, he deeply fears the Fortress of Ends. the patch has been known to switch eyes on occasion, to the bafflement of many.

Elysia has been recruiting him hard for her spy network, but he has less than no interest in being part of a large organization again. having said that, he’s good friends with Meilin and will tip her information on occasion, if he’s feeling particularly spiteful toward the target in question.

though he prefers a simple lifestyle and laid-back look, he’s actually obscenely rich. he keeps stashes of gold and valuables all across Sornieth, ready for the next time he’ll fake his death and need to start over (it happens a lot). he considers bank robbing a hobby, and rarely has any use for the actual goods. he loves bestowing his ill-gotten prizes on people as gifts, though it’s accidentally lead to many wrongful arrests. (not his intention, he swears.)

has a deeply seated fear of going “soft”, whatever that means. he has a weak spot for animals and children and will often go out of his way to help them out, but afterwords he has to go and steal something to put the world back in order.

a poor physical fighter with super low pain tolerance, weirdly enough. he’s very, very good at running away, but that’s about all he can do when faced with confrontation.

despite his Commitment Issues™, he keeps returning to the Pointe almost against his will. it freaks him out that the people there recognize his face (they had to hold an intervention with Wyatt to stop him from calling out Coyote’s name every time he entered the Saloon) but there’s a room at the inn reserved for him permanently, and he kind of enjoys the feeling. he’s faked his death and returned so many times that it doesn’t phase anyone anymore.

super craftsy and loves making things with his hands. Maxim has been teaching him to whittle, and while he’s not very good at it yet, it helps to soothe his restlessness. one day Kai will convince him to try painting (he’d probably be great at it, and it might give him a chance to change to a more peaceful profession).

[sersi]

I'm running on nine hours of sleep over the last four days and yesterday was ridiculous but Marvel Hall H was amazing, I don't really have a voice anymore, and I can't wait to do this shit again NEXT YEAR 😎

[sersi]

I know I never post selfies but here I am after getting out of Marvel Hall H yesterday 😉!

[sersi]

They just played almost all TWS Steve/Bucky street fight AND ENDGAME PORTALS during the Russos panel so this line up was absolutely worth it 😍😭.

[sersi]

I'm (almost) home 💖.

[sersi]

me, awake since 3 am, sitting in a line until midnight and contemplating how early I need to be up in order to make getting back in the line not stressful 😩

[sersi]

it’s not even july yet and i am definitely having a low key sdcc hall h meltdown right now 🙃

[sersi]

marvel sdcc booth bad but they’re making a samsteve shirt so once again i must suffer 😩✊🏽

[sersi]

Is it bad that I don’t go to the convention? I don’t have that kind of money but at the same time it doesn’t feel like I’m a valid fan or love these things as much as everyone else who goes to these things and meets the actors which is my dream to meet Evans. Even though I know that’ll never happen. But I do love the marvel fandom more then anything I just feel I’m missing out on a big part that brings everyone together. Cause I can’t go to a con

It’s not a bad thing at all, anon! I don’t really think that being a fan or your worth as a fan should be tied in to your (financial, physical, etc.) resources or even your interest in doing insane and sometimes really expensive things. Further, while cons are something of a community experience, as someone who has gone to a lot of them + been in fandom for a long time, this doesn’t mean that there aren’t other ways of finding or engaging with your particular fan community. To further explain my perspective/because I don’t know how to talk about cons without being a bit long winded, I’ve sort of broken the rest of this answer down in a few parts, which are under the cut.

So, cons in general are not for everyone. When Tumblr was more active/had more people interested in going to San Diego Comic Con around here, I would sometimes get questions about whether or not someone would like SDCC or if SDCC was worth it. My answer to this would usually be some variation of “Can you handle crowds?” and “How much effort are you willing to put in?” If you’ve ever been Disneyland or some other popular theme park during a super busy summer day and had a hard time handling those crowds, SDCC would probably not always be that fun for you. Because the crowds are just as bad, if not worse at times. And if you’re someone who doesn’t like crowds and therefore has no interest or desire to ever go to a con, that doesn’t mean you’re less of a fan!! It just means you want to have a good time with fandom and not do things you hate 🤷🏽‍♀️!

The reason I mentioned effort is that it is another thing that is both incredibly important to your con experience. As someone who followed SDCC for years online before I ever went, it is easy to think that every single day you, as a con attendee, will be doing tons of fun things: seeing all the exclusive footage, doing signings, visiting cool offsites, etc. I love Comic Con, I have tons of fun at Comic Con, and I can tell you that, when attending the con, you will probably miss more things than you actually see. While not every line is long, a lot of them are and, depending on what your priorities are, you may end up having to devote a significant portion of your day (or, if we’re talking certain super high demand panels/activities, multiple days in some cases) to doing that one thing. The years when Marvel Studios attends, I have gone with that being my #1 priority and basically shaped the rest of my con around the time I have to devote to ensure that I will get into their panel. (In addition to missing all the other panels that are also on Saturday, some of which, at any other con, would absolutely be my top priority as well as the ability to try and pull for tickets for the Marvel movie signings, which are usually also on Saturday). 

Now, to me, this is worth it because I really, really, really want to see the exclusive footage and know that Marvel, historically, does not release most of what they show at the con online. (This is in contrast to WB, which tends to release everything or almost everything that is shown during their big Comic Con panel). However, it isn’t worth it to everyone (I have friends who’ve either stopped doing the Marvel panel or even going to SDCC entirely just because they got tired of the lines/time commitment) and that doesn’t mean they’re less of a fan than I am. I personally have the advantage, I guess, of being good at functioning on very little sleep during conventions and have never had any issues with crowds. Not everyone is like this! My younger sister, for example, is terrible at running on limited sleep for multiple days in a row and her ability to do stuff at SDCC is very much dependent on me being the one to wake up super early and go get in line.

For me, SDCC is a community experience–I have friends who I met at cons and only see at cons as well as friends who I became closer to through meeting in person at a con. However, for big cons like SDCC, where a lot of things are being announced and released, I think there is just as active and viable a community experience online. And that experience is one that, as someone at the con, I usually end up missing. Most of the time, when I get home from SDCC, I end up spending a lot of time trying to catch up with all the announcements, interviews, memes, etc. that came out of the con and that I missed because I was busy standing in some line with shitty cell service or slowly dying while eating dinner because it’s 9:45 p.m., I haven’t had real food all day, and I’ve been up since 3:15 a.m.

So, if community is really what you want, I think that just being online, talking about what you’re excited for, what you’re looking forward to, etc. is one of the best ways to find that community. Having been in fandom since 2012, it’s been the weeks right after a new MCU movie drops that have really helped me form new friendships. For example, @captainwondyful and I “met” during the immediate aftermath of The Winter Soldier coming out/through the SamSteve tag and now we basically talk 24/7 and are meeting up to see Endgame together.

And, finally, because I couldn’t really figure out where else to put this, the conventions with exclusive footage and the conventions where people go and pay a lot of money to get autographs from/take pictures with assorted celebrities, are generally not the same conventions. SDCC, which gets, by far, the most big movie panels, is actually terrible for paid photo ops or autographs with celebrities because most of the celebrities who are there are being paid by the studio releasing their movie/tv show and, consequently, spend all of their time doing press. While there are tv/movie signings, pretty much all of them are done via lottery and most will have, at absolute best, 100 tickets (some will have much less than that). So, while some people do get to meet their favorite actor, at a convention with over 100,000 attendees, it is a very, very small group. (And, speaking from experience, the Marvel TV/movie signings are probably the hardest to get at this point). Personally, while I have met/gotten the autographs of some MCU actors, for the most part, I did it via waiting for movie premieres, not SDCC or any con with paid photo ops.

[sersi]

sdcc isn’t for another week and i’m already tired 😩

[sersi]

as it turns out, surprise announcing the sdcc hotel sale less than 48 hours before it happens does not actually create less stress for people than announcing it a week beforehand does 😓😬

[sersi]

I found a charm with my DIGIMON OTP in Anime Expo artist's alley so anime is temporarily NOT a mistake 😂.

[sersi]

comic con returning reg is in a week and a half, so i’m just gonna be here stressing until then 😱