#hold steadfast

[februerik]

also, i love how ms mona kasten subverted the rich boy-poor girl trope by having ruby be the one who's free while james is tied down to the future his parents made for him

"Ruby gave me a feeling that I had never felt before. Namely, that with her by my side, everything is possible. A beautiful, terrible lie. Because in truth, nothing is possible for me. Unlike her, the world is not open to me. It is predestined how my life will go."

[bokujou-monogatari]

genuine question! whats the difference between sunshine islands and island of happiness?

To put it simply, Sunshine Islands was Hikaru Nakano's attempt no.2 of a story he felt did not execute correctly. They are not sequels or remakes, but rather, Sunshine Islands seeks to retcon the events of Island of Happiness entirely.

In Island of Happiness, the main theme of the game is building a community from the ground up. You are washed ashore of a shipwreck while you were on your way elsewhere to become a rancher. Taking the opportunity to make lemonade of lemons, those thrown overboard and onto the aptly named Sunny Island decide to reclaim the remnants of a town that once existed there but is no longer after a catastrophic event that occurred in the past. They helped themselves to the remaining buildings, restoring them to a habitable level, and you - the player - are to take what appears to be an old ranch. It continues like this, with major milestones of the game being met through upgrades to the town and ranch commissioned at the blacksmith's and also the player's own achievements. Eventually you begin to see the town return to a flourishing level with new tourists, new residents, and unlocks.

While there are mostly the same features of Island of Happiness in Sunshine Islands, in regards to differences, the most noticeable is how the games both start out.

With Sunshine Islands, the game has you pick your character traits such as name, birthday, and gender, and then the omniscient narrator tells you that a secret belongs to the Sunny Islands and you as the rancher are The One who will uncover it. You are then presented with a montage of the town, where everyone is already present and - by purest coincidence - brand new to the town. For whatever reason. It already names you as The Chosen One, any sense of community founded through ones' efforts are at best diminished, and the sense of intrigue around what happened in the past is...not any less, but there's no hidden mystique about it. It's presented as "here is a mystery that only YOU can solve" rather than being intrinsic to the unlocks themselves.

Main story aside, there's also a key difference in the presentation of heart events. In Island of Happiness, there were multiple branches to a Heart Event. For example, there would be three outcomes to the first event, and subsequent events are branches of other events leading to a choose your own adventure love story of sorts. According to the Shogakukan-published guide for Sunshine Islands (JP only), Nakano said fans expressed discontent at this new style of heart events as often times they would receive undesired outcomes from picking "incorrect" choices. These incorrect choices did not bar anyone from marrying their chosen partner, but they did create elements of tension (as one would realistically expect if you were to offend them!) Because of this, Sunshine Islands returned to the regular heart event system of previous games.

And, a little acknowledged fact is that Island of Happiness is meant to parody the Mineral Town setting and its cast. If you take a look at the layout of Island of Happiness, and compare it to the map for Mineral Town, you'll notice some overlap. Also characters like Elliot and Natalie being counterparts of Rick and Popuri, among others. With the islands split apart in Sunshine Islands, this parody factor is mostly down to just the cast themselves.

Apart from the above, the only other details I can think of off hand are the addition of button controls and two new marriage candidates in Sunshine Islands.

[yashley]

"I blew out a city by myself. A block, decimated." "Intentionally?" "No."

[ultfreakme]

Jon's lost his Jay-dating privileges, Jay deserves a hotter(but still a little fucked up) boyfriend.

[glitterghost]

I'd personally like to thank The Fellowship of the Ring for being a constant companion throughout my life. Guiding me and always reminding me of loyalty, strength, friendship, compassion, courage, and hope (among many other things).

[the-jam-to-the-unicorn]

The difference between these two pictures ... 🥺💔💔💔

[sweater-daddiesdumbdork]

Taking care of a parent is hard. Especially when they just lie to themselves and continously justify their bad habits that are hurting them.

To try and be supportive and pick them up all while you are doing your own journey in trying to fix yourself.

When you are peeling back your own layers and now seeing what their trauma has done to you and learning to forgive them for it. Or not. Everyone is different in this case and that's okay.

I do know everyday I will try to be firm in boundaries with them while attempting to be patient and understanding. That I will continue to try be a version of myself who can love gently the parts that need care as well as fiercely to the parts that need fixing.

[acourtofquestions]

Hearth to hearth, the Flame of War went.

Over snow-blasted mountains and amongst the trees of tangled forests, hiding from the enemies that prowled the skies. Through long, bitterly cold nights where the wind howled as it tried to wipe out any trace of that flame.

But the wind did not succeed, not against the flame of the queen.

So hearth to hearth, it went.

To remote villages where people screamed and scattered as a young-faced woman descended from the skies on a broom, waving her torch high.

Not to signal them, but the few women who did not run. Who walked toward the flame, the rider, as she called out, "Your queen summons you to war. Will you fly?"

Trunks hidden in attics were thrown open. Folded swaths of red cloth pulled from within. Brooms left in closets, beside doorways, tucked under beds, were brought out, bound in gold or silver or twine. And swords-ancient and beautiful—were drawn from beneath floorboards, or hauled down from haylofts, their metal shining as bright and fresh as the day they had been forged in a city now lying in ruin.

Witches, the townsfolk whispered, husbands wide-eyed and disbelieving as the women took to the skies, red cloaks billowing. Witches amongst us all this time.

Village to village, where hearths that had never once gone fully dark blazed in answer.

Always one rider going out, to find the next hearth, the next bastion of their people.

Witches, here amongst us. Witches, now going to war.

A rising tide of witches, who took to the skies in their red cloaks, swords strapped to their backs, brooms shedding years of dust with each mile northward.

Witches who bade their families farewell, offering no explanation before they kissed their sleeping babes and vanished into the starry night.

Mile after mile, across the darkening world, the call went out, ceaseless and unending as the eternal flame that passed from hearth to hearth.

"Fly, fly, fly!" they shouted. "To the queen! To war!"

Far and wide, through snow and storm and peril, the Crochans flew.

[daz4i]

the idea that most people can't and won't be exceptional so statistically speaking you (general you) won't be either is eating at me ngl. like what is even the point

[h4rding]

sort of fun to think about the angle of the inquisition as a failure within history and within the narrative in and of itself. like trespasser does objectively fiddle with the question of how many lines the inquisition crossed in the name of saving thedas and defeating corypheus at any cost but i think it’ll be really fun to see in vg whether or not the inquisition has gone down in a better light or a worse one

[thetwilightroadtonightfall]

started reading steadfast

YIPPEEEE!!!! 🎉 Thank you!! Enjoy the besties ever 🫶

[birchbow]

Is it true that Travye don’t got an ass. Asking for research purposes 👀

(The group chat title [blessed by the messiahs with everything but ASS] refers to his lordship the Grand Highblood, whose reign is widely held to be blessed, but who also has only managed a B- ass at best after a ludicrous number of sweeps lmao.)

Travye DOES have ass as it happens, because the contradiction of his character is: "X thing about him would be amazing, if Y didn't ruin it for him". His body/horns/appearance would be widely considered hot as fuck, if his personality wasn't so solemn, standoffish, and blunt. His faith in scripture would be socially commended, if he didn't neglect most other fields of faith, especially capital-M-Mirthful ones. His matespritship would have been devoted and loving, if his own self-sacrifice and bad read of other peoples' emotional states hadn't tanked it. Big sad self-defeating clown man.... U_U

(I'll transcribe my handwriting under the cut again lol sorry about my scribbling)

Travye: It would be well beneath my dignity as a-- Kurloz: Motherfucker's caked up. T: Sir. K: I brought the "M-esprit" and he brought the T and A. T: Sir. K: That what you wanted to hear? We done talking on it now? Fuck's sake.

[miamicommune]

fallout nv: haha kind of on the nose for us to name the ghoul companion raul right

bethesda, literally naming a character The Ghoul: what are you fucking talking aboit

[innovatorbunny]

honestly my only issues with amor caren is that i think she's a waste of Eros, who's mythology is very complex and there's a lot of things you could work with. she's cute tho so i guess she's god that going for her.

[chronal-anomaly]

What's the one thing your muse wants to live past them?

[the-jam-to-the-unicorn]

Ze in the recent Guardian interview 🥺❤️

"When you ran for president and said that you would be with your people to the end, and you would always defend Ukraine and the Constitution, well, that means you are a liar if you just give up. I definitely wouldn't want to be a liar, especially for my children," Zelensky said.