#ghostly rambles?

[lightparty-fullparty]

I have a lot of thoughts about Zenos' role in Stormblood and the way the game handles his introduction and subsequent fight encounters leading up to Ala Mihgo and the Royal Menagire.

I want to start with a basic declaration of I genuinely really enjoy Zenos as a character. I think there's a lot to him that I personally find very compelling. The extreme apathy, ruthless drive towards his one goal, the curiousity that becomes obsession. His appearances in Endwalker added a lot as well, and I was beyond excited to see him show up in Ultima Thul to help fight Endsinger.

I think he's neat, basically.

Saything that, I don't like his role in Stormood all that much. Or rather, I don't like how he's used.

I'm going to start with the Rhalgar's Reach battle since that's the first meaningful interaction with him.

It does not make any sense that he spares the WoL. You battle him, and he sou dly defeats you. I do not think there is enough justification given for why he allows you to live in that moment. Because there was no real indication that the WoL did any damage to him during the Duty. Like, you get jobbed. The trope where the new antagonist crushes a character the audience knows to he strong, in order to establish the new threat as EVEN BIGGER THAN BEFORE.

Zenos, who was shown to have mercilessly cut down a bunch of NPCs and Y'stola before you arrived, should not have spared you. IIRC he even calls you a disappointment. He had expected more, and you let him down.

Now, this can obviously be explained with game logic. You are level 60, Zenos is level 70. He is stronger than you. He is the final boss. You have to level up and become stronger throughout the expansion, and then you will be able to get a proper rematch.

But narratively, it doesn't work for me. I can not see the logic for him to bother sparing you. Not in this instance. Not when he's clearly and definitively won. It feels too gamey. It's too obvious that the only reason you didn’t die is because you're the MC, and you have to play the rest of the game.

So how would I change it?

Well, to start. I wouldn't have Zenos be the Viceroy. I don't think it makes any sense that he's in charge. He just doesn't care enough. He doesn't work as a politically themed antagonist to me. It actually detracts from the Ala Mihgo sections for me because, well, it's just not as compelling as Yostuyu and her relationship to Doma. Fordola is great don't get me wrong, but it's overshadowed.

To me. Zenos, and his sole interest and passion being seeking strong opponents to fight, should have been more of a straight narrative foil to the Warrior of Light. He should have been the Empire's strongest. The soilder they ship out to wherever they need a battle or rebellion quelled and crushed. The one sent to turn the tide like you do for the Alliance.

Your battle at the Reach should have been more balanced. More evenly matched. You could have the WoL still lose. Perhaps because of interference from the rest of the Garlean army. Or because they were distracted by Y'stola or Lyse or someone else. But to me, it needed to be obvious that you were the first actual fight Zenos had. That he truly enjoyed and felt something because of. He lets you live because he wants to fight you again. Without distractions or interefance. He doesn't fucking care if Garlemald still controls Ala Mihgo or Doma. He never has. He wants a good fight, and he's finally goddamn found it.

So he lets you go. You head for Doma for the same reasons, to split the Empire's attention and to try and get more allies to help the now broken Ala Mihgan resistance.

This time, Zenos shows up in Doma because he's being sent by the Empire to hunt you down and kill you. They're already scared of you. Of course, they want you dead, and Zenos managed to beat you once before.

Yugiri isn't after Zenos this time. She's after Yotsuyu and wasn't expecting Zenos to be there. You were only told the Crown Prince was visiting, and now you know who Zenos is. So you battle again, and it's a draw this time. Interrupted due to the villagers showing up to help you out. Zenos gives you his speech. Maybe this time, it resonates a little more because the fights have been more interesting, more challenging, and more FUN. And you feel that as a player, you want to be Zenos because you've been so, so close each time. And it felt fair. Hard. But fair.

Now you take care of Doma, and you head back across the seas to Ala Mihgo again. You find out they took Krile. Experimented with her Echo. Replicated it. Put it in Fordola as a test because she's desperate to prove herself and desperate to win back her reputation and the little standing she had. She proves a mosnterously strong fighter like she does against Lyse.

And now the Empire wants to put it in THEIR strongest soilder too. So Zenos becomes a Resonant. Now he has this warped version of your echo. More narrative comparison.

You fight your way into Ala Mihgo through the castle where you find Zenos has already killed the actual Viceroy. He didn't want any more distractions. This is going to be your actual fight. He brings you to the Royal Menagire. Where Shinryu is locked away after the Empire captured it.

He gives you his speech again. This time, the offer to accept or deny him has more weight. Regardless of your choice, you have to fight him. You push him hard. Even with the resonate, you're winning. You've had your echo for months/years. Zenos, for maybe a day or two at most. Zenos isn't ready for the battle to be over. Not just yet, he wants it to be gruellinh for both of you. So he releases Shinryu. Fuses with it. You battle him in the trial. You defeat him even then. He falls. Lyse and the others arrive, and he calls you his first friend. And it means something, because maybe at this point, you have a connection with him too.

He dies. And you wonder if could have been you. Had things been different.

[bluerosefox]

Protective Sibling Haunting

It was no secret that Danny loved his older sister, even when she nagged, bugged or psychoanalyzed him, she was and would always be the number one person he would love and protect without hesitation. (He was also pretty sure if anything bad happened to her he would no doubt become like Dan, maybe not fully but pretty sure he would become something close)

So when he found out she was going to Gotham to tour for colleges, he really didn't like it.

Sure Gotham's colleges were top tier for the field of psychology she wanted to study but the crime rate and corruption alone was also high up on lists and that wasn't counting the amount of Gotham Rogues yet.

Danny really didn't like the idea of his sister being in such a dangerous city, even though he knew she could take care of herself since she gained not just their dad's height but also the Fenton family strength and their mother's insane smarts, and given the fact he was a protector spirit that focused on his family it upset his core badly.

So, he decided to tag along... Invisibility of course. He didn't need her to be mad at him if she knew he was following of course.

He wasn't going to disturbed her from her touring he was just going to make sure she's safe thats all....

-x-x-

Okay so... Danny really wasn't expecting to do this when he decided to tag along for Jazz's college tour but...

Danny snickered as he used his powers to move the boxes around as if thrown, flicker the lights and explode the light bulbs, and made shadows shift unnaturally, gaining screeches from some goons as they threw their weapons on the floor and some scrambled out of the building ignoring the higher ups and their boss to stop being cowards.

It was a little fun being able to be go full paranormal activity on a gang of traffickers that had plans on kidnapping Jazz and the other touring young adults he discovered after noticing a few of their men following and watching them a day into the touring.

[romanticallyghosting]

thinking about the way edwin pauses when he tells charles when he went to school for the first time. "1913 to... 1916" the pause can easily be interpreted as edwin lying of course, as charles assumes. of course he's thinking, but its still not a lie. edwin has just spent so much time in hell, where things like dates, or school, or your past don't matter, that he has to think about it. he has become so detached from his own life through his time in hell that its like he's recalling some other history. he's spent so long in hell that its hard to even remember the basics of anything before that, and yet he's still composed, and caring, and kind, even with all of that. i just find that so interesting for some reason...

[disasterwriter]

Creatures, it’s complete. The dragon age uquiz, including 43 results from all the games. Have fun<3

(Created by me and @songofvampirism over 3 days of constant brainrotting)

[todayimfour]

GUMMIGOO AGERE BOARD 🐊💛💚

Reblog if you save! | Do not repost! | I take requests!!

And some head cannons!

(these are if he'd been allowed to stay in the circus)

- he's such a cowboy/western obsessed kiddo

- definitely has a rocking-horse but is afraid to ride a real horse.

- I feel like he'd take up and really enjoy scrapbook journaling. he has two journals, one for venting his mind into and one for his regression.

- loves nature! Uses insect stickers in his little journal all the time, he'd sit and listen to Kinger ramble out bugs for hours.

- to add on to that, he loves camping. It reminds him of his days outlawing with his mates. Every night would consist of building a bonfire and sleeping under the stars if he had his way.

- he and Jax have similar toy dart guns and randomly just attack each other, they're just having good fun :)

More info under the cut!

Edit: I rebloged with more headcannons :)

Made using PicsArt! - free on the app store!

None of the art or images are mine! They were all found on the app using the stickers function. I just make a collage out of it :)

Please read the green portion of my pinned post before submitting a request!

[cartooncadet666]

Posting a recent rough sketch idea for that fic I never worked on 😔

This was before I left the state and I forgot to snap a photo of it.

(This sketch was meant for Old Friend, but Specter's creature side from Amnesia applies to multiple au's, cause I like making him go insane/batshit feral when protecting people he cares about. Skeebo's like a little brother or a nephew to him in this case, and in scientific terms, he'd be referred to as being his "cub.")

[ghostlyposts]

atp im just waiting for drdtdev to drop the thumbnail of the next episode. I need it. I feel like im going insane i cant wait a whole week...

[depthofnowhere]

Ice veil

[lionacuty]

yooooo is that Bot!! :D

[lightparty-fullparty]

Honestly, this week has been very creatively fulfilling for me. I've written 4 entire chapters of Light Party. Drawn some art I'm genuinely really proud of, AND I managed to nail down character details for things that probably won't come up for ages.

[bluerosefox]

That Good Ol' Fenton Charm

Hmmmm

Single dad Danny (to deaged Ellie and Dan) meets his neighbor Selina Kyle after one of her cats get into their apartment and he finds his kids playing with it.

Cue meet cute where Selina at first is just flirting like always but Danny charms her (aka being a bit dense but somehow adorkable, its charming)

[romanticallyghosting]

there's probably other posts out there talking about this, or maybe its just obvious so no one actually thinks it needs to be pointed out but i'm insane about how differently monty acts when he's around esther vs. edwin

because the only time i can think of where monty's genuinely smiling in a scene with esther is the very first one where he's just been turned into a boy. other than that he's quiet, reserved, and kind of snarky around her, which i've always assumed to be a defense mechanism. the moment he has any positive feelings, like a crush on edwin? esther's immediately scolding him and he has to reassure her that he's loyal. so he clearly learned quickly that he has to hide who he really is from her

but with everyone else? he's so genuinely happy. like he seems like he's having a great day all the time, and even when he does something that seems a little rude like with his first meeting with charles, he does so with a smile on his face. this, of course, makes him do better at having the agency members trust him, which is his job, but he seems so happy in an almost child-like sense, where he's giggling and saying a little "whee!" when he pushes himself off on the swings

but when edwin rejects him, he loses all of that. he starts treating everyone else with the same snarky coldness that he used for esther. and its so interesting to me when he tells esther he's been found out in ep7. because he genuinely faces it with such a lack of fear. he doesn't hesitate or anything, and its because there's nothing for him as a boy. he knows esther's full strength, but he knows that nothing can hurt him more than being a crow-turned-boy with feelings that everyone hates him for and nowhere to go to.

[ell-arts]

Home

Quickly put this together today, I hope you like it! I'm really happy with the textures and emotional storytelling in this :3

[todayimfour]

Let's say, hypothetically, I was writing an agere fanfic for a nearly dead fandom (Raggedy Ann and Andy) and, hypothetically, was super proud of what little I've written so far and wanted to share it.

How many of you guys would, hypothetically, read it??

Edit: I did it :) here it is

[nagaruru]

[voiceofthe]

actually wraith and grey are kind of parallel routes when you think about it given their linear nature, the princess as a vengeful spirit, the absence of the blade and thusly the absence of what it symbolizes (trust & choice)