#fuck chain of memories

[shrimpchicken29]

Re:CoM pisses me off so much to the point where my hands start to shake. This Vexen fight is seriously pissing me off

[kingdomhearts-and-soriku-trash]

AAAAAAAAH I GOT THIS SCENE FINALLY😭😭.

[robotsafari]

redrawing my favorite gba chain of memories scenes with my own interpretations part 1(?):

“You’re thinking about me… You’re afraid of the darkness I command.”

[catacosmo]

Kingdom Hearts chain of memories is a good fucking game and I will die on this hill

[vulpixisananimal]

C-Side. Chapter 1

(If you still had a throat, it would have been ripped to shreds with how much you were screaming.)

(Screaming for anyone and anything. Screaming into the void that had consumed you. Screaming for someone! Anyone! Anything!!!)

(Housemaiden, Fighter, Researcher, Kid.)

(Stardust, that Head Housemaiden.)

(You might even take the King, at least then you could take your anger out on someone.)

(But, the starless, lightless void around you answered only in silence.)

(The only star in this void, was you.)

(Your wonderful, helpful friend Loop. Loop the joke, Loop the hopeless, Loop the stunt double. Loop the fool. Loop the dead. Dead, dead, dead! You had felt your chest burn as you fell into that abyss, you had felt the Universe try and pull you back, had tried to fix things. But, it didn't happen.)

(Of course it didn't happen.)

(You're stuck between floating and falling for a long time, helpless to the whims of the Void. You're stuck here, alone. You were getting quite used to being alone, but before you at least had the comfort that Stardust would be crawling back.)

(You eventually feel your feet hit a floor. You look down, and there's nothing there. It's as lightless as the rest of this world. You start to walk.)

(What, happened. You were at the favor tree, waiting out the time it took for Stardust and his companions to sleep. It had taken you too long to notice the stars where blotted out by a storm, and by the time you had, it was too late.)

(But you were in a time loop, weren't you? That was the show! A fool stuck in time with no hope of escape. Yet now, on a loop as inconspicuous as any other, the world had died. Was it something you did? Something Stardust did? No, it couldn't be, you hadn't done anything more noteworthy than usual.)

(You stop for a second and rub your eyes. You couldn't exactly get tired, but you were getting sick of your lightless enviroment. Looking at your hands, where it not for the canvas of stars upon them, you'd be just as invisible-)

(You freeze up. There, in the distance, a white. . .)

"STARDUST!!!" (You start running towards them. They're alive?!? How far away where they!?! That didn't matter, all that mattered was that they were close. They were here! Someone! Someone you knew!! It wasn't just that, it was the only someone who knew YOU!!)

(You run. You scream for Stardust. You think your getting close, you can't even tell anymore. You're so close! You hope you're so close! You reach out and-)

(You're blinded by a flash of light and stumble back. After rubbing the blindness out of your eyes, you open them and look around to see a pristine white corridor with a door on one end that was, that was, that was. . . Off, shade.)

(Where, where were you?)

(It didn't look like the House of Change, it didn't look like Dormont, it didn't look like anywhere you'd ever seen. And Stardust was nowhere to be found. You walk up to the door. You try pulling it open, nothing. Pushing it, nothing. Kicking it, nothing. You yell what openphrases you remember, nothing.)

"It wont open just like that." (Said a voice from behind you.)

(You spin around, there's a person standing in the middle of the hallway with a black coat. You scowel at them.) "Who are you!! Where am I!?!"

"The place where to lose is to find, and to find is to lose." (The figure steps towards you.) "That is the way, in Castle Oblivion."

"Castle Oblivion?" (Stars, you wish you had your stupid blinding knife with you.) "If that's what this place is, then sorry to say I've already lost all I have~"

"That's just what you think." (The figure pulls out a card and tosses it to you. You catch it.) "Here you'll meet those you've known in the past, and those that you miss."

(You look at the card in your hand. Depicted on it was a house, a grand house that was blanketed in a lightless sky. One that looked ever changing.) ". . What is this." (You say with bitter distaste.)

"It's a memory. One of your memories." (The figure responded.) "Hold the card to the door to open it, and beyond it, will be your world, your home."

"My-"

"Go on, Loop. To lose is to gain, and you have lost all you have, after all."

(You step forward, but before you could get any closer, the figure is blanketed by darkness, and dissapears.)

". . ." (To lose is to gain? Castle Oblivion?) ". . . Now I see why Stardust doesn't like how ominous I am~"

(Was any of this even real? Maybe you really did die and this was how your memory flashes in front of your eyes.)

(You had no option, anyways. You never did. You hold the card to the door. There's a flash of light, and the door begins to open.)

(You step forward.)

(The light clears, and the door behind you clicks shut. You look around, and you recognize where you are.)

(You're going to be sick.)

(It's. It's the house, the house of change, YOUR house of change. That stupid blinding house that trapped you for years.)

(So this was a joke wasn't it. A big grand old joke! The universe was laughing at you! You look around, your friends weren't even here to help! It was just, you.)

"Stars above. . ." (You can't help but laugh.)

(You knew this room well. It was the room you woke up in every. Single. Time. But, this time the door out was blocked, and you saw a twinkling star in the center of the room.)

(Like the one Stardust had.)

(You reach out towards the light.)

(. . . . .)

[HP fully restored, command deck refilled.]

(You blink, you were holding something in your hand and the star was gone. It was, cards? More cards? These ones were different. They depicted your knife. You could remember every intricate detail of that knife, you loved it.)

(You pick your favorite from the selection, and in a flash it turns into your knife. You twirl it around.)

". . . Iiiiiiinteresting~"

(You hear a sound, you turn to see more of those strange creatures from before rising from the ground. This time though, their eyes, they, they gave you a headache.)

(You grip your newly formed knife.) "Veeeeery interesting."

(You lash out at the creature, your knife landing true and killing it. But, at the same moment your knife disappeared in a flash of light, and there were still creatures coming.)

(Quickly, you draw another card, each one summoning a knife then quickly disappearing. Some hits stuck, some of them deflected. This way of fighting was new to you, but, you think you could get used to it.)

(Rock-paper-scissors was getting boring anyways.)

(The last shadow dissapeared in a puff of dark mist, and in its place, sat another card. Picking it up, it was a weird shade, and had one of those creatures on it.)

("Hold the card to the door to open it, and beyond it, will be your world, your home." The words echo in your head, you hold up the card to the exit door and it opens.)

(. . . Hah, if Mr.mysterous-and-forboding wants to lead you on a wild goose chase, they picked the wrong star.)

(Back to the Stage, Loop.)

>>>

(You were getting the hang of this. It had been three or four rooms so far, and each one felt more like a disconected portion of the House of Change, less than remaking the full House. But how the rooms were arranged didn't change the fact that each room filled your head with bad memories.)

(You hold your newest card in your hand. A key. Where would this one lead, you wonder.)

(You hold it up to the door, and walk through and-)

"Alright let's gooooooooo!!!"

(On pure instinct, you reach out to grab the fighter who was running past you and into the tears- wait, what?!?)

(You were standing in a hallway, THE hallway. In front of you where tears, a touch would freeze you. And, to your side, who you were reaching out to, was your Fighter.)

(You had reached out to stop him, like you had so many times before, but, another hand grabbed him before you could. You knew that hand, that cloak, that, everything.)

(You turn and look, and your party was here. Fighter, Researcher, Housemaiden, Kid, and, a-and.)

(And you.)

(Not Stardust, you.)

"Oh!"

"Huh?"

"WAH! WH-WHAT? WHAT IS IT???"

(They all reacted like they had before, but, not to you. They just looked right through you.)

"Is it the water? Should I not touch the weird floating water???"

(You whispered every word to yourself as they said it. You knew the script, you knew it by heart.)

". . . Wait, This is. . ."

(You watch as Odile picks up the rock, you watch as she throws it, as it hits the tears, as it gets frozen in time.)

"Oh!"

"OH!!!"

"OH!!! THE ROCK FROZE WHEN IT TOUCHED THE WATER!!!"

"Oh indeed, do NOT approach those. We'd probably get stuck in time like everything eles."

(You would.)

(You would have gotten frozen in time. Frozen and looped back to try again. Try again, and again, and again, and again and again and again again again again again-)

"You know this moment well, don't you."

(You turn the cloaked figure is back, taunting you.)

"Who are you?!?" (You're about to pounce on this stranger, you never wanted to be back here, you never, ever did. This was worse than death, this was torture!)

"Just a friend looking to help another Nobody." (They hold up another card and toss it to you.) "Speaking of help, you might find this of assistance."

(You catch the card, it had a depiction of a snowflake on it. You glare at the stranger.) "Well my dear friend, maybe you could be striaght forward with me for once~"

(The figure ignored your annoyance.) "That is a magic card, it looks like you remember your knifes well enough, but what your holding is something even deeper."

(Magic? What, like in fairy tales? You look at the card. There's no such thing as magic. Not in your world, anyway. You hold the card, then dramaticaly cast it to the cloaked figure. In a flash it bursts into a hail of ice shards which pass through the figure harmlessly.)

(You're dumbstruck, staring at your own, hand. What, did you, just do?)

"A natural at no-heart, it seems." (The figure waved a hand dramaticaly.) "You'll remember this and more, Loop, we'll be watching with baited breath."

"WAIT-!" (But the figure was already engulfed in darkness.) ". . . How do you even know my name?"

>>>

(Threes, threes, it always comes in threes. Or sixes, sevens, thirteens. You were holding the third card of that strange shade. The first, a key. The second, a heart, and the third? The one you held in your hand? It looked like a heart, but, wrong. The past two times you'd used these golden cards, they had led you to a memory you wanted to forget-)

(Golden? What's golden?)

(. . . You hold the card up to the door. The last few gold rooms had followed the script to the note. So, if this next room was the same. . .)

(You breathe in, and out. You walk through the door.)

(If you still had blood, it would have frozen then and there. Stars, you wish your memory of the blinding script wasn't so accurate! It, it was the final hall. The one that lead to your death. You could do nothing more, so, you walk.)

(Castle Oblivion. . . What a joke. A castle of what, the end? Destruction? Of losing and gaining? Of dying? How stupid. How blinding stupid.)

(It's only as you hesitate to the entrance to the final room do you realize, the memories of your companions were walking with you. They can't see you, but. . .)

(You shake your head. Time for the finale. You walk forward.)

(The room is covered in hair, the Kings hair, and at the end of the room, there he was. The King.)

(Your party is quiet as you approach.)

"Oh. . . Young Ones. . . Are you. . . Here to kill me. . . ?"

(His voice has a annoying, as grating, as DRAMATIC as it always was! Stars, why did your memory have to be so BLINDING GOOD, NOW of all times!!)

"Oh. . . Young Lady. . . . You stand for Change Themself, do you not. . . ?"

("I just want. . ") ". .The world to st. ." (". . ay the way it. . ") ". . is now. ." (". . . To be frozen in. . .") ". . Eternal beauty."

(You knew his words, you thought them to ourself with every sentence, every stanza. You knew your Hoursemaidens reply, your Researcher, Fighter, Kid.)

"Haha. . . Oooh. . ." (Go on, King, get on with it. You didn't want to see this next part.) "Oooh. . .Oooooh. . . Oooooh!!! The Universe weeps. . . . Th-"

"The stars. . . Cry out in grief."

(You didn't finish that sentence. There was, there was another voice in the room. A voice behind you! You turn to see who and-)

(No.)

(NO.)

(NO. NO. NO. NO. NO. NO. NO.)

(The man behind you was tall, as tall as your Fighter, he had long, white hair, and armor. Armor you had seen a thousand times. Armor you never wanted to see again. The only difference between how he is now and what you fought was that he wasn't a hulking giant! It was all you could do to not rip into him right here and now.)

(The King was staring up at his own memory, eventually he looked away, and saw you staring at him.) "Oh. . . You can see me?"

(You had to drag the words out of your mouth kicking and screaming.) "Does it matter?"

"Oh. . . But that means you're here to remember. . . Aren't you?" (He looks at you, he's analysing you, you see his eyes fixate on your star-scared chest.) ". . . We've both forgotten, haven't we?"

"Does. It. Matter?" (You repeat. Come on, Loop, keep your mask together!) "I remember all I need to."

"Oh. . ." (The King looks back at his memory. The memories of you and your party were fighting him now.) ". . . Was I really this. . ."

"Dangerous?" (You finish his sentence.) "Terrifying? Ruthless? Monsterous? Take your pick, King. This is your memory, isn't it? Or are you finally seeing yourself for a monster."

(The King turns to you.) "Ah. . . No. . . This is both our memories, isn't it?"

(Stars, he's smart. Of course he is, he could see right through Stardust. Don't get fooled by him, Loop.) ". . . I've seen it play out before."

"Ah. . . Have you? I have no memory of this. . . (He turns back to the memories fighting each other.) "Those. . . Are the Saviors of Vaugarde, here to kill me. But. . . I never met them. . ."

(You don't reply, you grip your deck of cards.)

(He continues.) "Either a vision of the future. . . No. . . A vision of a past undone, yes! If time could be frozen. . . Then. . ." (He steps forward to the memories, looking over each one.) ". . . That one." (He says, pointing to the memory of you.)

". . . What about them?" (You ask, bluntly.)

"Their clothes. . . Their hair. . . How they know the other me's every move. . ." (He reaches out to touch your memory, but the past you just passes right through him.) "This Bright One has fought me before. . . Hasn't he. . ?"

". . . Stars, you're so annoying~" (You say in that sarcastic tone saved for Stardust.) "They're memories, Tyrant~ Maybe if you waited just a bit longer you'd actually see for yourself."

(He turned back to you, a look of recognition on his face. You continue.) "Pathetic! Just pathetic! You're seeing yourself for the monster you are for the first time and all you can think about is a silly little rouge in a coat! Look! You're even about to win~"

"I. . ." (He turns back to himself.) "What do you-"

"Oh. . . It's time, young ones. . ." (The memory-king says, you made sure to look away.)

(You hear the Kings roar, the screams from your party, the begging, the pleading. You hear Bonnie run away, you feel the thud, thud, thud of the Kings footseteps, and. . .)

(. . . Blood and Stars.)

(You hear a sword strike flesh, and everything goes quiet.)

(You turn back, the King is kneeling, clutching his head. You walk over to him, mocking voice at the ready.) "Hurts, doesn't it~? Hurts to see yourself as a tyranical monster who wouldn't even give someone the mercy of a death frozen in time!"

"I. . . I had to-" (He starts, you cut him off.)

"Had to what! Tell me, tyrant, what was so important as to freeze an entier country? What was so important as to cause these saviors suffering, as to cause all of Vaugarde suffering!!" (You scream.)

"Stop, I. . . I had to do it!" (He gets up.) "I couldn't. . . Couldn't let this country be lost, be. . . be-"

"Forgotten? Forgotten like that worthless little Island?!? You didn't care about this country! Admit it, you wanted to feel the satisfaction of thousands of lives being ended!"

"Liar!" (He looked furious.) "How. . . How dare you! If you know of my home, our home then. . . You must know why I wanted to freeze Vaugarde! To preserve it forever!"

"HAHAHAHA!" (You pull a card from your deck, your dagger is at your fingertips.) "Talking just like the broken record you are~ Why don't I finish what the Saviours of Vaugarde couldn't!"

"Ha. . . . Then we will fight." (The King almost looks, relieved? Excited. He lifts up a hand, also holding a deck of cards. He pulls one, and a sword appears in his hand.) "And we shall see which side the Universe favors!!"

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[firestorm09890]

FUCK what I said about the majority of significant changes to dialogue in Re:CoM being to adjust Axel's characterization, the most egregious change is actually this

(GBA CoM)

(Re:CoM)

if I had to guess, the reason for this change was because in GBA CoM, The Superior was a spooky, unknown being at the head of this Organization we had very little knowledge on, and for Vexen, the guy who runs his mouth constantly about how much better he is than the others, to be terrified of him, he must be some pretty scary dude. But then after kh2 we know him, it's Xemnas, he's very dramatic, he likes to talk to the moon, and the effect of your mind filling in the gaps about what "The Superior" must be like is gone. So it wasn't really necessary anymore, right?

(rest under cut because it's long)

Except... the way they changed it is so weird. In the GBA version, what's happening is pretty clear:

Marluxia tells Vexen that his project is a failure

Vexen demonstrates that he does not give a shit about Marluxia's opinion

he does care very much about The Superior's opinion, though, and Marluxia uses this to blackmail him into eliminating Sora- an action which is nonsensical, as the entire point of what they're doing needs Sora alive, making it clear to everyone in the room that he is deliberately sending Vexen to die

and then after that, when Vexen shows up to fight Sora, he goes "if you want to fight me for real you've gotta do it in the memories from the other side of your heart lol bye" and Sora goes "huh? other side?" and then it cuts to a scene on the top floor:

and then this gets more into subtext but here, Vexen has realized he's totally fucked and his only hope is to mess directly with Marluxia's plans (well, they were the Organization's plans, but it's pretty obvious by now Marluxia's abusing his power for his own purposes) by giving Sora more information than he should know. This does get the traitor gang worried enough to send Axel to go kill him (as opposed to just letting Sora take care of him, which was presumably the original plan)- he very specifically cuts Vexen off to keep him from saying too much (this is retained between the original and the remake)

Anyway, what happens in Re:CoM sort of follows the same order of events, but everything is changed slightly in a way that just makes things more confusing.

Marluxia tells Vexen his project is a failure and Vexen demonstrates that he doesn't give a shit about Marluxia's opinion, as before

Marluxia threatens Vexen with a weapon, rather than threatening to tell the Superior

this, notably, does not seem to faze Vexen very much. he continues to run his mouth while having the scythe pointed at him.

Xemnas is still leveraged- Marluxia points out it was the Superior who entrusted him with the castle

...even though reasonably Vexen would already be aware of this, and has still demonstrated that he has zero respect for Marluxia despite it

the lines about betraying the Organization being a capital crime are retained, probably because it's super relevant later, but then that line of thinking is abandoned in favor of Marluxia and Larxene just taunting Vexen instead

The part where Marluxia says "do it. you won't" could be seen as a sort of threat... if not for Axel's line: "You give a challenge like that to Vexen and he'll seriously want to eliminate Sora." It frames it all as though Vexen went to fight Sora out of some sort of pride.

And look, Vexen may have a temper and a superiority complex, but he's not stupid. They're obviously baiting him. Plus, what happened to him seeing himself as above the others and countering things he doesn't like with "well actually I'm higher ranked than you and also you're an idiot"? Is he that insecure in his fighting capabilities? I could deal with characterization changes doing him dirty if it didn't also make no sense in the context of the plot.

So now we have Vexen going to try to kill Sora, something that really makes no sense to do, out of pride. What was the purpose of sending Sora to Twilight Town? Also pride, over the fact that he managed to get that information? Giving the writing the benefit of the doubt, I could say that these nonsensical actions can be explained as evidence that Nobodies can have hearts and people with hearts do strange and rash things, but that just feels like a reach, which is bad because what they had in GBA CoM worked perfectly fine and made sense without any reaching for the "idk emotions make you do strange things" explanation.

It continues. After Vexen gives Sora the Twilight Town card in Re:CoM and Sora wonders about what the "other side" means, this is that version of the conversation the top floor members have:

...what? "If Sora disappears, that would mess up the Organization's plans"? what are you worried about? the only reason Sora would disappear is if Vexen killed him. there's no way they think Vexen being in Twilight Town would give him an advantage, right? they know he's a pathetic fighter. "Vexen has clearly committed a treasonous act against the Organization" HOW? HOW IS IT CLEAR? they don't express any worry about Sora learning too much, up until Axel says "I came to stop you from talking too much" when killing Vexen- and that being there makes it seem like they were worried about Sora learning to much, but if that's the case, why would they replace the perfectly serviceable lines in the above scene? it's just... baffling that they would want to lean into the narrative that Vexen going to kill Sora (which he'd been goaded into doing) is the problem here, because it just makes so little sense compared to what it was originally.

once again giving them the benefit of the doubt: Marluxia's real plan was to take over the Organization, and he saw an easy way to pick off one of the members, so he took it. the motive for stopping Vexen doesn't actually matter.

buuuuut it's the same as with Vexen earlier. Marluxia may be too self-absorbed and power-hungry to notice Axel is scheming against him, but he, too, is an intelligent man. he's plotted for a while, getting into Xemnas's good graces in order to be put in charge of the Castle. this is incredibly sloppy for him. I guess it could be said that getting so close to his goal would make him sloppy, but again, if they'd just left things the way they were in GBA CoM, I wouldn't even have to be saying this

in conclusion: GBA Chain of Memories' intra-Organization strife subplot is so tightly woven with calculated moves on all sides that Re:CoM changing certain things without taking into consideration the consequences makes certain parts of the plot fall flat and become far more confusing than in the original story

[thelastspeecher]

I love watching video essays on YouTube about really well-known, popular theme and amusement parks that so many people went to as children and have really core memories surrounding

that my semi-rural Midwestern ass has never even heard of before the video showed up in my recommended

[thetrashthatsmilesback]

to find is to lose and to lose is to find

[tathrin]

Okay y'all I've seen this three times now, why are people just copying-over other folks tags when they reblog things now? And I don't mean using the same simple labels, I mean straight-up just copying whole-ass tag conversations/meta/jokes/etc.

What fresh hellsite hell is this?

[jizzlords]

────────────────── in the earlier years of hell, specifically when Morningstar crashed into the earth and was the first fallen angel, the seven deadly sins fell shortly after along with him. Ozzie bore witness to Lucifer falling.

Upon witnessing Lucifer's fall, Ozzie's (dominant pair of) wings were ripped from his back and he was next: falling down, down, down until finally crashing into the earth. In that state of dreary disorientation, Ozzie was still made to fend off wayward Exorcists who followed him down to do as much damage to him as possible when he was already struck and bleeding out. Surviving the attacks, Ozzie — who was one of Lucifer's best friends — immediately sought after the fallen angel. But it was to no avail.

Thankfully, Ozzie's search for Lucifer doesn't end in vain — for instead, Bee was one of the other deadly sins he'd rediscovered. Dazed and spent, the two stuck together ever since and developed an even tighter bond. Ozzie found Mammon not too long after finding Bee. They faced the discomfort of their Sins together, the changes they didn't suffer utterly alone. Still, Ozzie — who knew these individuals pre-fall and what traits they possessed in heaven had now amplified in hell and worsened over time. Ozzie had the displeasure of watching certain Sins change for the worst and some, he was luckily willing or able to tolerate. It couldn't be helped with the Deadly Sins as it was what they all became in the end. Worse versions of their sins. Embodiments.

Centuries passed. Broken bones have long since healed and massive scars webbed where massive gashes once bled the blues. Across his back and alongside his ribs, healed but never forgotten nor forgiven. All this time long since passed with no trace or word from Lucifer despite Ozzie's attempts to reconnect. Answers weren't clear, questions have gone unanswered and are long gone. Resentment has taken its rightful place yet Ozzie still holds out for a call.

The years roll by. That resentment Ozzie harbors within his heart remains frigid and intact in present day and growing stronger, especially when news of a princess being conceived had broken out. Ozzie is familiar with Lilith and Charlie. In fact, Lilith has even gone out of her way to visit him. A proper introduction between Hell's Queen and one of her Seven Deadly Sins.

It was Lilith who introduced him to Charlie. And it was Lilith who somewhat smoothed the fabric of Ozzie's resentment. Although his feelings about everything are certainly not resolved, he respects Lilith significantly and in that, has found a fondness for the princess alike. He (jokingly) took on the unofficial role of an "uncle" as he would be entrusted by Lilith to look after Charlie from time to time. It's because of this, does he know Charlie a little better than the other Sins.

Upon Lilith vanishing, however, Ozzie is reminded of Lucifer. Ozzie still found himself looking after Charlie from time to time but the effort was exhausting. Moreso emotionally than mentally. Even still, Ozzie couldn't recall seeing Lucifer again. Even in times where he'd be left looking after her. It's a sore memory and every time Charlie is sent back home, Ozzie is left even more sore than the last time. The older the Princess became, the less she came around.

Now, Ozzie spends his time living as the Sin he is. Despite a hollow past, he's "moved on" to better things. But it'd be a lie if Ozzie said he never looked back and wondered, never made haphazard attempts to contact with still, no answers. Forgotten or neglected, whatever the case — Ozzie still became a respected Sin and lives vibrantly in his ring as the King of Lust. He could live even more vibrantly if an old friend would answer Ozzie's long-abandoned pleas.

[wildivypsychic]

When is jinx going to cut her hair. If 1 more person pulls her braids im going to fucking lose it. >: (

[shrimpchicken29]

I was wondering why im relatively happy rn. Then I realized, its because I'm not playing chain of memories.

[silverselfshippingchaos]

Your guy!!!

MAXXIIIIIII HI BABEEEE!!!!

[konshokoentaiko]

i always thought i was a very typical enemies to lovers girlie but i think i just realized my actual taste in ships is the dynamic where the two are supposedly equal rivals/enemies who represent diametrically opposed themes (for the Aesthetic), but in actuality it’s just one of them yanking the other around on a chain while the other whines and rages and protests and ultimately makes an absolute spectacle of themselves

so uhhh. how did THAT happen and when and why

[ohnoitsz1m]

The dialogue when fighting combine soldiers in hl2 kinda suggests that they're very much not just unfeeling robots entirely lacking personality or a sense of self preservation, and the dialogue in hl:a makes that even more apparent

I just don't really get where the idea comes from that they're basically just mindless zombies fulfilling tasks and not. yknow. Humans. (At least formerly-)

[firestorm09890]

“Dear Diary”. Zexion’s Mystery Gear. “A weapon that draws forth its wielder’s personality.” Sleek and cold and gray exterior, decorated only by the symbol of the Organization. A tool with access to more information than a normal book can grant, and capable of holding more secrets than a normal book could store. But then, open it up- the wallpaper is an eyesearing red, so vivid in shade that it leaves afterimages. Something you wouldn't be able to see when the laptop was closed unless you used it for violence.

Mystery Gear weapons are designed for being overanalyzed as symbols. This thing represents Zexion. What’s the red wallpaper imply then, huh? Mr. “Intellectual with no room for feelings”?