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hungry-tum-stuff · 1 year

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Regional Phenomena: Zora’s Domain

! Spoilers for the Regional Phenomena Questline in Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom !

Synopsis: Link and Sidon venture together to save Zora’s Domain. However, Sidon is exhausted from working tirelessly to keep the Domain’s water clean, and he might need a break before they can tackle what’s waiting for them on the sky islands.

CW: Hunger, Stomach growling, Denying one’s own needs, Angst, Tummy rubs, Starved-to-stuffed, Cuddling.

Word Count: 2.3k

Author’s Note(s): Okay so I’m making moves in my niche little fanfic here, but

1. I won’t be rewriting actual cutscene dialogue from the game even though it takes place when a cutscene happens, this is all just fanfic. You know how it works.

2. Link talks briefly in this one. I have never written speech for him before, and feel free to comment any feedback you have on how his voice sounds to you! But just bear in mind that Link, as a silent protagonist, is meant to be interpreted by the player. And as a semi-verbal person, I put a lot of thought (and had a lot of fun) in writing him, even though he doesn’t even say an awful lot.

3. No Yona Hate! I don’t want to see it! She’s neat and I purposefully left the relationships in this fic as ambiguous (aside from Yona still being Sidon’s fiancée) so you can interpret the fic however you please.

4. Thank you for reading <3

Link readied his spear just as Sidon’s water bubble enveloped him.

“You have him now, Link!” Sidon called out from behind him as Link rushed the monster. It lunged at him, and the protective bubble burst, showering Link with water. That was his signal to thrust at the creature with his spear, driving it into its weak point. The slimy monster wailed, and both Link and Sidon heaved a sigh of relief as it wilted and disappeared in a puff of gloom. Link looked to Sidon, who had taken a knee and was leaning heavily on his spear.

‘Are you ok?’ Link signed, to which Sidon nodded and pushed himself up wearily.

“I’m quite alright, brave Link. It is still as exhilarating as ever to fight alongside you.” He smiled encouragingly, to which Link smiled back. They both turned around as Yona stepped forward, worriedly looking them both over.

“Goodness, I’m glad you both are alright…” Yona took Sidon’s hand and inspected anywhere he might have been hit, and the Prince chuckled abashedly.

“I’m alright dear, really…” Sidon takes her hand, squeezing it gently. “I must ask though, are you certain Mipha Court will be safe if I leave? What if another monster like that attacks while I’m gone?”

“Sidon dear, we’ll have bigger things to worry about if you don’t go.” Yona stopped her fussing over her fiancée to take both of his hands, looking him in the eyes. “I know for certain that Zora’s Domain will be safe with the help of you and Link, I just hope you trust me to keep it safe while you’re gone.”

“Of course I do!” Sidon insisted. “My love, you are the caretaker of our people. There isn’t a soul I would trust more than you.”

Yona beamed. “Then it’s settled. Go with Link, and save our domain.”

Sidon nodded assuredly, and gave Yona’s hands a quick squeeze before letting go and starting towards the cliff atop Mipha Court.

“Link, let’s not waste any time. To the reservoir!” He called, charging ahead as if he were already on the front lines of a battle. Yona and Link both watched him dash away with equally amused grins, but before Link could take a step to follow him, Yona caught his arm.

“Link. I have a favor to ask of you.”

Link turned around, already listening intently.

“Could you please… Keep Sidon safe? I know that sounds a bit silly, but you know him… He gets in over his head, and I worry not just for him, but for the whole Domain if something were to happen to him. Especially after his father was attacked…” Yona trailed off, and Link placed a hand on her shoulder, nodding solemnly in understanding.

‘We’ll keep each other safe.’ He signed. ‘You don’t have to worry about either of us. I promise.’

Yona smiled, nodding gratefully.

“Thank you, Link. Good luck, I’ll be here when you both return.”

And with that, Link waved goodbye and headed up the staircase of Mipha Court. He gave Mipha’s statue a fleeting glance before diving off the cliff and into the reservoir below. As soon as he surfaced, he caught sight of Sidon standing atop a chunk of ruins, staring down at the Hylian in awe.

“That was an impressive dive my friend! I would expect most to be scared of a plunge like that.” Link hoisted himself up onto the rock and put his hands proudly on his hips before signing a response.

‘If we’re going into the sky, I can’t be afraid of heights.’ Sidon chuckled softly, and at that Link couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow. The Prince was still acting less energetic than usual, and he couldn’t tell if it was nerves or something else.

“I suppose not. Though I still don’t see any clear way to get up onto the island… Come, let’s investigate that light in the water.” Sidon readied himself to dive into the water, but before he could, Link stepped in front of him to keep his attention.

‘Wait.’ He signed quickly, looking up at the confused Zora. ‘Are you sure you’re ok?’

Sidon tilted his head, though his gaze did not meet Link’s. “Of course. I wasn’t hurt in the fight, my friend. I cleared that matter up with Lady Yona.” He insisted, but Link shook his head.

‘That’s not what I’m asking.’ Still confused, Sidon opened his mouth to speak, but he froze as a loud, angry growl tore from his stomach. Link immediately looked at the Prince’s midsection, surprised by the noise.

‘I was going to ask if you were tired or hungry.’ Link raised an eyebrow again, glancing up at his friend. ‘But I guess I don’t need to ask anymore.’ Sidon looked away and placed a hand over his belly; embarrassed.

“I apologize… I am a bit hungry, but we don’t exactly have the time to stop on account of me, now do we?” Sidon tried to step into the water again, only for the Hylian to throw both of his arms out and stand firmly in front of him.

‘You need to eat.’ Link signed sternly. Sidon’s stomach grumbled again, and the Prince sighed and shook his head.

“I am hardly concerned with what I need right now. We both need to focus on what needs to be done.” Sidon argued. Link glared at him before dropping his arms and stomping off the edge of the ruins, beginning to swim towards one of the docks at the edge of the reservoir. Sidon watched him, briefly turning back towards the beam of light before following Link into the water.

“Link! You’re going the wrong way!” He called out, but the hero ignored him as he pulled himself up onto the dock. Thunder crashed overhead alongside the setting sun, and Link hurried under the awning as it began to pour. Sidon, already caught out in the rain, watched as he took something from his bag and set it up: A cooking pot. As Link began rifling through his bag and taking out ingredients, Sidon stepped over to stand just outside the edge of the awning.

“Link, you really don’t have to cook something for me.” Sidon swallowed thickly as Link took out some fish. “We should just figure out how to get above the clouds so we can get out of this storm…”

‘We don’t know what’s waiting for us up there.’ Link signed grimly. ‘I know you want to press on. But you’ve been in Mipha Court purifying the water non-stop. Bazz told me you were up there for days on end without breaks. So when we go up there I want to make sure you aren’t already at your limit. Because it sounds like you’re close to it.’

Sidon blinked, taking in Link’s words for a moment before lowering his head. Link frowned and set his ingredients in the pot as he got up to stand in front of Sidon.

“I’m afraid you’re right, my friend…” Link rolled his eyes and signed ‘Obviously,’ to which Sidon chuckled. “I apologize, everything that I’ve done in these past few months since The Upheaval has been for The Domain. I suppose I just… find it difficult to consider myself when the lives of so many others are at stake.”

Link nodded. ‘I know the feeling. Trust me. That’s all I felt when I woke up after The Calamity.’ Link admitted. ‘But then I met you. And everyone I know now. I’m still trying to put it into practice but you all taught me that I don’t have to carry the weight of protecting Hyrule alone. And that I’ve only hurt myself trying.’ Sidon smiled, but before he could say anything heartfelt in return, his stomach groaned longingly. Link snickered, and Sidon flushed, rubbing circles over his empty tummy.

“Your words mean a lot, dear Link. But you have me convinced, the smell of your cooking alone is driving me mad.” He admitted, and Link gasped and rushed over to his cooking pot to stir the stew he was making. Sidon finally stepped under the awning and sat beside the fire, his stomach churning and rumbling in anticipation. After determining that it needed a bit more time, Link set his ladle aside and sat down next to the Prince.

‘Done soon.’ He signed quickly, sighing and rubbing his own belly. Even though he started making this meal for Sidon, it was nearly dinnertime. He’d be lying if he said he wasn’t starting to feel hungry too. Though, he figured Sidon had worked up far more of an appetite than him. ‘How long since you last ate?’

Sidon thought for a moment, seemingly looking for the answer in the flames of the fire. “About two days… That was when I last stopped to rest.”

Link’s eyes widened and he stared up at him in worried disbelief, and Sidon simply nodded and made the universal ‘it’s okay, calm down’ sign in the hopes that Link would hold his lecture. “I know I know, there was initially a night shift while Lady Yona was overseeing the purification alongside me, but then people in the Domain began to fall ill, and then she left to aid them, and the sludge just kept coming so I kept working…” His stomach moaned again, this time it was enough to make him flinch. “I felt like I couldn’t leave.”

Link huffed and reached a hand towards Sidon, to which he removed his own. Link placed a hand over Sidon’s belly, beginning to rub in slow, wide circles.

“Well now I feel kinda bad for making you wait.” Link said quietly. Sidon looked over, the fin on the back of his head wagging slightly. Link didn’t speak often, but when he did, Sidon was assured that the young Hylian was perfectly comfortable. But before he could make any comment, Link held a finger up to Sidon with his remaining hand. The strange new one.

“I just need both hands.” He interjected before he began rubbing both hands in opposite-direction circles. Sidon sighed, relaxing under the other man’s touch. His stomach however, was getting whipped into a frenzy and was growling furiously beneath Link’s fingers.

“That feels very nice…” Sidon winced as a particularly painful growl rippled through his belly. “But when will the food be done?”

“Soon.” Sidon frowned at the unclear answer, but nodded and continued to relax as Link rubbed his tummy. He could have sworn he heard Link’s stomach growling too in the moments when his own stomach was silent, but that wasn’t much of a surprise. The hero had an appetite that rivaled his own.

And of course, as soon as Sidon was eased perfectly into the motions of the other’s hands, Link got up, tasted the soup that was beginning to simmer over, and nodded before pulling out two bowls and filling them up generously. He handed Sidon his bowl, and the Prince hardly took the time to consider where his spoon might be before he began slurping down his stew with as much famished politeness as he could muster.

‘Slow down!’ Link signed frantically before beginning to slurp from his own bowl. Unfortunately, Sidon didn’t see his sign, and Link was still only halfway through his bowl by the time Sidon stood up to pour himself a second helping. By the time Link finished his bowl, Sidon was going in for thirds.

‘Be careful.’ Link signed, waving his hands around and repeating the sign a couple times to make sure Sidon got the message. Sidon just nodded, sipping a bit more politely now that the sharpest edge of his hunger had been staved off.

“Don’t worry, friend Link. Your stew is amazing! I surely doubt I’ll feel anything but full when I’m done.” Link smiled at the compliment, but he couldn’t help but shake his head. At least Sidon’s energy was coming back just fine.

Link himself went back for seconds, but he was surprised to find that there wasn’t an awful lot left in the pot. He glanced between it and Sidon as he poured himself another bowl, deciding that the rest would be better off left to him.

And that it was, because Sidon went in for fourths. And after that was finished and the pot was empty, he really began to feel the weight of his fullness.

“Oh dear…” Sidon exclaimed softly, setting his bowl aside and looking down at his belly. There was a gentle roundness to his usually toned torso, and Link couldn’t help but lower his own bowl to have a peek. He raised an eyebrow, and Sidon glanced over abashedly.

‘Overdid it?’ Link asked with a grin, and Sidon just pursed his lips.

“It’s hardly my fault. As I said, your stew is amazing…” He sighed, beginning to stand up. He took one look out towards the storm still pelting the reservoir, and immediately didn’t want to go back out there. He wasn’t even sure he could swim while he was so full.

‘And heavy. I told you to slow down.’ Link signed, packing up his bowls and cooking supplies before glancing over to the bed that Sidon was already eyeing up. ‘You should probably get some sleep too, y’know?’

The Prince looked back at Link, and then back at the bed. His belly felt heavy, but his eyelids felt far heavier.

“I suppose it couldn’t hurt… And we’ll head out first thing tomorrow!” He exclaimed, excitement for their upcoming adventure still filling him with energy despite his drowsiness.

Link just nodded, yawning as Sidon got into bed. The stew had made him a bit tired as well, and without a second thought, he flopped into bed beside him.

“…Link?” The hero looked up drowsily, and Sidon paused for a moment before gathering the smaller man up in a tight hug. “Thank you.”

Link froze before smiling gently and returning the hug, and within the next few moments Sidon had laid his head down and fallen asleep, his stomach still churning away and digesting the four helpings of stew he’d eaten.

And Link simply curled up beside him, and fell asleep soon after.

#ITS DONE #TOOK A BIT BUT ITS DONE #I’m very proud of how this one turned out but I hope you guys like it <3 #sfw hunger kink #hunger kink #stomach growling #tummy kink #stuffing #angst #whump #hurt/comfort #fanficton

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rottenbrainstuff · 9 months

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BG3 playthrough: The Siege

(Mild spoilers? Not really?)

The big ol’ grove siege: Holy smokes was that ever fun.

But first of all, something super important: so I compared notes with a friend of mine. Can I just… double check… is everyone aware that the siege defense route of the grove is an option, to complete the “save the refugees” task?

My friend did the “kill the three goblin leaders” route. He wasn’t aware of the siege defense route. I was quite surprised and this made me think. I realized most of the discussion I see online is about the three goblin leaders route. I realized that I think the only reason I knew about the siege defence at all is that I previously read an article which was talking about attacking the grove vs defending the grove. I realized that the game doesn’t make the siege defense option very obvious: Zevlor and Halsin both push you to kill the leaders. There is, now that I think about it, only one single small clue that a siege defense is even a possibility.

And this is really, really odd to me… because the siege defense is amazing, and fun, and has some really good cutscenes, and extra content! The goblin camp fight, as far as my friend described it, is just… fighting your way out of a big and tedious fight. With no cinematics, no extra NPC flavour, no fun stuff at all. I have absolutely no idea why Larian hid this really nice event, and tries to direct the players towards something so uninteresting instead. My friend thinks maybe it’s supposed to be a reward for exploring all options, but like, that’s a helluva lot of work to put into a little easter egg, if that’s the case?

Maybe the defense is just common knowledge and EVERYONE knows about it and they just CHOOSE to kill the goblin leaders. The three leaders route is definitely faster and easier. But it’s so much less fun. So, just in case it’s NOT common knowledge… and that would be STARTLING: man guys, this is a very important protip, definitely make yourself aware of the siege defence route.

This is how to trigger it:

First of all you have to have to be in the goblin base and on friendly terms with the goblins somehow. (in my game, it’s as simple as being a drow) When you talk to Minthara, you’ll get a sense of her eagerness to destroy the grove. Clarify that your intentions are to fight with the tieflings and warn them. (this is, as far as I can see, the only clue the game gives AT ALL that this fight is an option) You’ll get some dialogue options next where you can attempt to throw her off: offer to get info from the prisoner then lie about it, try to show her the wrong spot on the map, etc etc etc. Don’t be too worried if you fail your saves because sometimes it makes fun alternate dialogue: I failed an intelligence check to try and keep her out of my memories, and I ended up claiming I was drunk and mixing things up, which was funny.

Anyways after a while you’ll notice the dialogue keeps looping back to the same options. Eventually you will have no other option but to just show her on the map where the grove actually is. (you can demand payment to get approval from Astarion if you want!) Minthara will declare that they can finally do the raid, she will leave to rally troops (you can follow her and watch her if you like), and in your journal it says Minthara is waiting for you to infiltrate the grove, and you should get some rest. Oh no, you fucked up!

Don’t worry. Do a long rest and in the morning you should see your journal update again: you now have a quest to warn the tieflings she is coming. Go to the grove and you’ll see they’re all preparing for an attack. (Zevlor will have slightly different dialogue if you camped outside the grove vs if you camped inside it) And have fun! You can talk to the tieflings: they all have new dialogue and positions, you can get set up for the siege, there’s a couple people with small tasks to do, and when you’re ready to go, blow the horn. (PROTIP: Once you are inside the grove, the tieflings will no longer open and close the gate for you automatically! You have to do it yourself! What this means is, if you are inside the grove, and decide to fast travel somewhere else (via the map), if you don’t leave the gate open for yourself, when you come back, you are locked out and have no way to raise the gate! I had to misty-step Wyll up to the top to let us back in. Don’t be like me)

Zevlor has two really nice and moving speeches, you get a Minthara cutscene which is the only time you’ll really see her if you’re playing a good route, you get all the extra NPC dialogue, you get a wicked fun siege defense fight with a lot of different parts to it, you get to fight alongside the tieflings and defend them directly, like. Man why would you NOT do the siege? Why would someone program this great sequence then hide it like that? I have no idea why the game tries to guide you so much to the three leaders route.

So the siege prep: as I mentioned before, fuck the goddamned druids and leaving Doni outside the door. If the goblins break in (which they won’t) I’m going to lead them straight to that goddamned door. The tieflings buried 2 little oil barrels outside to help in the fight. Two. That’s cute! I have a stash of about 20 barrels I’ve been saving at my camp, including a whole pile I stole from the goblin store room. Just for funsies I once set half of them up and set them on fire to see how big they would boom. The answer: BIG. Two barrels? Oh sweeties that’s so cute, but with my firepower we are going to vaporize Minthara. Time to see how high these goblins can fly!

I just love how emotionally involved I’ve got though, I loved that I immediately wanted to go check on the kids in the cave, and noticed right away that one was missing (that’s not counting Doni I mean, who I already knew was missing), which made me worried, so I spent time looking all around and finally found him up by the damned gate and refusing to leave. (you kids! I’m going to pick him up like a barrel and throw him into that cave myself. That, or stick him in my backpack so I can keep an eye on him) I loved hearing them mention that some tielfings had left overnight, and again getting worried and running around to figure out who wasn’t there. I loved running around the camp getting my positions set up, my inventory straight, my barrels arranged, and playing bard music for everyone to help calm down the ones that are scared. Had a blast. Some of the tieflings were so scared, poor things. Don’t they know they’ve got a big daddy dark urge on their side who’ll rip anything into little red pieces if it even thinks about crossing that gate?

And then MY GOD the actual fight was so much fun: the cutscenes, the dramatic speeches, all the different enemy pieces. I had Karlach to the very left where the spider jumps up, to keep Arka safe and to throw alchemist fires at the various barrel stations. I had Wyll to the very right to soak the sniper damage, fire off eldritch blasts, and make sure those sappers didn’t get near the gate. My tav is a bard so he was in the middle, making sure everyone was all healed up cause those tieflings are pretty squishy, and taking care of the goblins that get thrown over the gate in barrels.

And Astarion - the mean little murder bitch that he is - he was running around out on the ground with that amazing invisibility cape, taking care of loose ends. He put Minthara out of her misery when one barrel bomb cluster wasn’t quite enough to one-shot her, then picked off the goblins one by one. The ogre throwing the barrels got distracted and kept trying to look for him, so that worked quite nicely.

This is so much more fun than just a one-by-one assassination then an escape through an aggrod camp fighting a million of the same kind of goblin. Definitely try the siege route. Barrels are a must. Steal them from the store room.

Then there’s the party and that was so damned fun. Noticed a few weird things though. Will talk about that later. The outside of the grove is now an absolute horror show of destroyed barrels and goblin bodies, and those shitty druids can have fun cleaning that mess up themselves.

Phew!!!

#bg3 #baldur's gate 3 #bg3 playthrough

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coffee-in-veins · 9 months

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As someone who (very casually) enjoys Eldin Ring, I am very curious what you think

thank you for the ask! ^^ that was quick xD

well, then, i hope you won't be upset about what i have to say about it. i genuinely love it from worldbuilding perspective and it looks cool and thrilling more often than not. other things, though...

for the context, i did my best to like it for like casual 80 hours or so, playing very slowly, very cautiously, and probably very inefficiently, because i would often just chill at the location, so those hours mean almost nothing. i managed to kill the grafted guy, the moon lady, got to meet Ranni (god i remember at least one name from it all without cheating!) and got to the point where i was supposed to get into the autumn plateau which name i won't remember even if you torture me.

and this is my first gripe with the game. this one is more of a personal struggle, so take it with a grain of salt. i struggle quite a lot with remembering names, both irl and in media. i remember visuals, i remember voices, i remember plots. but names? beats me. hell, i only remembered Dis and Rey after like half a year of a deep dive into DD, if it gives you any perspective.

with that explanation out of the way, comes the gripe itself: most of the time, i was completely, utterly and hopelessly lost who were those people, whom they wanted killed and where they wanted me to go. my quests would go something like this:

"Go fight General Radahn!" someone said. I think I saw their helmet, twice, and I remember they are a blacksmith. probably. i remember the voice tho. they are genuinely nice to me, so i'd probably do it.

however, not a single braincell rumbled in that head of Tarnished of mine as i sat in front the screen and looked at them blankly: "Who?"

but the NPC already continued: "They are in Caelid!"

not a drop of recognition. "Where?" okay, i sit and think frantically, i have a map, maybe it has parts named, maybe i won't have to wander for half an hour before giving up and going to the wiki again...? no? well, fuck, maybe some locations are named? right! locations. jackpot, some have 'caelid' in them. ah, the red poison swamp! dude, why didn't you say so? on my way!

me, meeting Radahn: aaahhh, that big dude on a tiny horse! sure! from the promo! wait, who asked to kill him again? and why?

and that was every time. there are dozens of names and places and they all are deeply connected and you somehow are expected to keep it all in your head or make notes on a piece of paper, idk. call me whiny, or call it an aesthetic (put a pin into that, we will return to it later), but wouldn't it be convenient to have something like bestiary that Witcher 3 had, with a tab for people you met or heard about? nothing too concrete, hell, this series is know for being frugal with explanations but... like, something, so i don't have to keep wiki constantly open and ready to alt tab to understand who am i talking to and who are they talking about.

and while we're talking about dialogues, BG3 made me understand how much i need a tab where i can re-read recent dialogues. if not to understand things better with all the ye old-english-y words some of us filthy non-eng speakers have no idea even exist, then to see how those names are spelled so we can search them in wikis later.

and have you noticed a thing which is going like a red string through all of my writing? wiki. hell, i'm writing all of the above using wiki because i still don't remember how those people are called. you get used to it just to know who's who. wanna laugh at me? because i was so stressed out by the first bosses, i completely blacked out at the first boss, only seeing vague shapes, and i genuinely thought that Godrick and Morgott were the same guy for the longest time because i was stressed out, didn't have enough time to look at them and was frantically thinking of moves and skills instead of actually watching the cutscene with proper attention. it didn't help that they both spoke with similar tones and in a ye old-english-y way, and were in the same location. so yeah, you can imagine my confusion during the game later on...

there's one thing, though. constantly checking names in wiki makes you feel like it's fine to check other things too. and, Io and behold, before you know it, you're just tired and grumpy and look up where the hell are things you need, quests you missed, resource nodes... and suddenly, the best part of the game (exploration) is gradually chipped away, without you even noticing.

i mean, i had to look up how the horse is called and I love Torrent to bits, even if he is as responsive to controls as a DD2 bangwagon that was put on two very greasy, very non-cooperative pigs on skis. which is another gripe of mine, but the poor guy is so abandoned in the second half of the game, that it's genuinely depressing.

which brings us to my second most gripe in the game: menus. remember that aesthetic pin? let's get it out. menus are a genuine pain in the ass to navigate, they don't respond to mouse (oh, we're gonna return to that. oh, we're gonna...), and for the first thirty or so HOURS i wasn't aware there were other tabs in the inventory. genuinely. i simply wasn't aware. i hovered the mouse on tabs, they weren't scrolling, and knowing that this is primary console game, i didn't pay much attention to the keys besides those, assuming (rightfully, as i thought) that those were for consoles to switch tabs. forgive me for my 'pc master race' mentality, but i'm not used to things in the menu not being responsive to the mouse. so some of the quest items you see in there somewhere? any tab after keys? nope, i didn't know they existed.

remember painting quests? i loved those. but also i had no fucking idea you carried a copy somewhere in the bowels of the inventory tab. thus, like the moron i was, i would come to them, make a photo of my screen on my phone, and try to go around, keeping the photo up on my phone as a reference. or go back to the actual in world painting to check. my frustration was immeasurable and my pain was immense. or maybe you wanna find the weapon you just looted and see if it is of any use? pff, good luck, hope you remembered its name or how it looked, or didn't have anything in your inventory, else get ready to go through a warehouse of other gear you carry. not to mention that sorting on those is extremely non-intuitive. why are lantern and looking glass and prattling pates in one section but wraith calling bell and mimic veil have separate ones? why is horse whistle with flasks and flasks 2.0? why are memory of grace with the flasks and horse whistle? am i missing something?? genuine question.

quick side note while we’re at the topic of prattling pates, should i even mention how notoriously convoluted the better ending for my sweet boy Boc is…?

not to mention that 'Switch display' option is very... unexplained, to say politely. it turns out you can see how many runes exactly is Golden Rune [7] - if you switch the view. because having explanation of 'use to gain many runes' on one screen totally gives you a hint that it would say 'use to gain 2500 runes' in another.

i mean i get it. the series has a reputation. it is dark souls 4, 5 and 6 with a new coat of pain (or maybe paint), it has to be hard, you gotta 'git good', you have to fight for every sliver of lore and then listen to 12 hours of youtube explanations anyway just to have a semblance of understanding what's going on. but - and this is an important but - there's a difference between working for the lore and being unable to understand what the hell you looted and not being aware you can actually know how rune [6] 'many' differs from rune [9] 'many' without trying to go and use it and make a table with those orrrr - say it with me! have the wiki opened.

also the fact that nowhere does it say that spirit ashes can be summoned only in specific areas AND you need a bell you need to get later on somehow bumbling into Ranni is simply false marketing. i took twin imps as my trinket and boy ho boy, lemme tell you someone was pissed for the first hour of the game...

which brings me to creme de la creme of my gripes. the controls. pc port is... well it exists, and i still haven't recovered from that. it makes you extremely aware from the word go that you're not the target demographic. that you're unwelcome here. that no one looked at it and thought: huh, we have battles where we expect Tarnished to get on and off Torrent mid-fight, so how shitty of us would it be if we make Torrent summon be "F + [arrow up]" for keyboards? you know, so the player would have to get their hand off the mouse. mid-battle. naaah, that would work just fine, ship that bad boi as is! oh, and make it non-mappable too. they have keyboard with 75% keys being unused? who cares! it mirrors gamepad, and that is what truly matters.

i said it once when a pal of mine let me use his acc and try Dark Souls. i think it was the third one...? well, my experience was - 'i'm not fighting the monsters, i'm fighting the game'. and it's pretty much the same for Elden Ring. did you know there's a power off hand attack? i didn't. did you know there's a way of switching your weapon to hold it in two hands? i didn't did you know you can make it on the fly? i sure as hell didn't. did you know your RH attack is bound to your LMC and it fucks your brain when you play because here it plays role and you can fuckup by using weapons in 'wrong' hands? yeah, that i experienced a plenty.

do you know how i know all those? i plugged in a gamepad and oh god all of the mapping makes so much goddamn sense! i had to reverse-map things because i only played FF9 with a controller, and was extremely uncomfortable with it in a non-turn-based game. which left a taste of bile in my mouth.

loading times are awesome thought. i dunno how they achieved that, but that's hella impressive for a game this big.

i ended up liking the world. vistas. lore that people dig into. but this game isn't for me. not because i'm not interested but because i have a setup they clearly don't care about. and it's okay, i guess. but i have too little free time to spend it fighting not the monsters the game sets in front of me as a challenge but the game itself

hope it wasn't too convoluted ^^'

and thanks again for the ask! :}

#my shoebox of letters #They don't even know how belts work || the saltmines

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hungrydolphin91 · 10 months

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[Insert some kind of Xillia 2 catchy tagline here about how my sister and I are playing this game]. I don't even remember what chapter we're on at this point, but we did all the fun Victor stuff

Victor only took as three tries: we got very close the first time, the second one doesn't count because he confused the whole party and we all murdered each other, but by the third we had grinded a little and bought some better weapons and armor

Since we had to rewatch the cutscenes she picked different dialogue choices just to see what changed, except for the one about Ludger's cooking vs. Victor's. Sis: "I won't concede, mine's still better."

Sorry I don't have much to report about the reactions, since my sister pretty much already knew what was about to happen. She wasn't thrilled about being Elle's father, but she did feel bad for Elle finding out her father was using her, and watching him get killed, too. It's a lot for a kid to go through 😭

There's a bonus scene with Jude helping Ludger make a new pot of soup after Elle spills the first, but he mostly just stands there. Me: "YOU SHOULD BE HELPING, NOT HURTING."

My sister slapped a pair of goofy glasses on Alvin right before his character chapter so we got to enjoy all the emotional close ups with his 😏 expression. I'm surprised Presa didn't return the ring just from that 😂

Leia: "Agria, watch over me." Me: "Agria is probably flipping you off from Hell."

Why is it that Alvin's chapters are much more interesting to me than the others. I mean I'm probably super biased cause I like him but still I like how they explore more of his struggles at improving himself and what could have been based on his past, compared to, I don't know, buying a bunny doll or reading Muzet's thoughts. Maybe I'm just an angst fan.

We started prime Milla's chapter in a new session, and the second the cutscene started my sister left to go get snacks. We have a fundamentally different way of playing these games 😅

Hilariously, the cutscene was halted so Ludger can make a dialogue choice, one of them being "Sounds like I missed something." 😂

I forgot this was a Milla chapter and not a Jude one, with the iconic gay bird spirit that's acting like a clingy ex 😂

While hunting elite monsters, Milla died right at the end of a battle and didn't get the exp, but characters who weren't in the party still did. Sis: "Alvin's probably waking up from a nap like 'Guess who just got stronger?'"

We made paid the bank 150,000 with Ludger's reward money, and all we got was kitty krisps and a skill for Alvin, who again, wasn't there. Cue both of us saying "Guess who just got stronger?" and laughing.

I forgot proceeding with the plot in Marksburg triggers a boss battle with Chronos. Oops, we weren't fully healed.

Julius shows up and defends Ludger, aww. Sis: "When do we tell him he's technically an uncle now?"

I couldn't remember how many times the Chronos fight looped but it wasn't too bad really, the game's going easy on you at this point since it's scripted.

Bisley shows up to interrupt the fight. Sis: "Who are you?" Me, with utter exasperation: "...Do you seriously not know who he is?" 😩 (She did, she just didn't know why he was helping)

My sister was a lot more worried about Julius taking Ludger's place to fight Chronos one on one over the appearance of Bisley or the disappearance of Elle. I can't blame her, Julius's love for his brother is so sweet and he's frankly more compelling than most of the other original characters

Elle runs away because she suddenly doesn't want to go to Canaan anymore (it IS pretty creepy I'll give her that), and the rest of the party is somehow fine with letting this child run around unsupervised except by Spirius agents?? Even my sister who hates Elle pointed out that Ludger is kinda her closest living relative in this dimension so he should probably not let her wander off??

The SECOND that cutscene ended, Nova called. "Ludger, I know you just fought the god of time, but he gave you money, didn't he? You can't pull a fast one over the bank!"

Next time is... whatever happens next. My memories are a little fuzzy but I think we're gonna do that stuff in Spirius's basement soon, and then... oof. Hoping for a bad end, ngl 😅

[Masterpost link here, eventually.]

#dolphin plays x2 #sorry if the jokes are repetitive we repeat the same ones constantly #but with how many times the dialogue in this game repeats it's hard not to parrot it back

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seliswantstea · 1 year

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Undertale - despite everything it's still you.

Soooo, I finally got the chance to play this game after a long time. I've been wanting to play this game for a very long time, but I've always postponed it. And now I regret postponing it because it's a great game, it made me wish I'd played it earlier.

I care more about the story than the graphics in the games I play.

While playing the game, I was drawn into the story of the game, and when I finished the game, I felt like saying goodbye to people (?) I've known for a long time.

Basically, humans drove the monsters to underground which has become the home to the monsters, and a human child falls into the this underground and story begins.

According to your choices, the game has multiple endings. If you have never played the game, I recommend that you play it without any spoilers for better experience.

If you haven't played the game and you care about deep and meaningful stories in the game, I definitely recommend you to play the game.

The characters are very well written, plus soundtracks are amazing...

Undertale OST: 063 - It's Raining Somewhere Else’s is my favorite so far.

NOW IT'S TIME FOR A REVIEW WITH SPOILER, if you didn't play this game before please don't read.

───── ⋆⋅♡⋅⋆ ────────── ⋆⋅♡⋅⋆ ─────

First of all, I didn't play genocide run, I spare all of the monsters... because I really liked all the characters and I didn't want to attack them. ╯︵╰

But I might have killed Toriel first because I was trying to get used to the game and to see if I could reach different endings at the very beginning of the game. But then I searched without spoilers and found out that the game did not end at the beginning of the game like other games I've played. Then I restarted the game. I was a little scared with Flowey's breaking the fourth wall.

These little chit chats with Sans really warmed my heart. Especially, the cutscene where we had dinner with Sans. The soundtrack, the ambience, the dialogues, everything was amazing. It was like taking a break from all the panic and no disco.

Since I am one of those who gets caught up in the atmosphere of the game, this scene made me feel very comfortable. (≧◡≦)

And ''... you'd be dead where you stand'' part somehow was not scary to me... I don't know why. But I did a little laugh that between awkward and scared.

Either because of the music or the character, Mettaton's fight was my favorite, this fight was the one I had the most fun with. Other than that, Asgore's, Muffet's and Undyne's fights were so hard for me...

I really liked all the characters, but my favorites are Papyrus, Mettaton, Sans and Toriel.

I'm not gonna talk about Neutral or True Pacifist endings.

I didn't do but watched the run video of the Genocide ending, it was really scary. So in this run the game doesn't become scary for us, what we become is scary. Asgore can't even recognize you as human anymore in the Genocide ending... now that was terrible. In this route who was real monsters really?

''My brother would really like to see a human. So it would really help me out... if you kept pretending to be one.''

That. That broke my heart.

In short, the game made me laugh, upset, excited and sometimes scared. Now I'm thinking about playing Deltarune too. I'm sure Deltarune is good as Undertale. I wish I had played the game without postponing and experience this feeling way sooner. But better late then never, right?

#undertale #undertale game #undertale review #undertale comment #undertale sans #undertale papyrus #undertale game experience #game review #game reviews #game recc #game recommendations #game reccomand

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apompkwrites · 3 years

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reader impact || first meetings: unreconciled stars

series masterlist characters: scaramouche, fischl, mona genre: fluff summary: a game has been released entitled genshin impact, consisting of otherworldly abilities relying on the basic elements of nature. the game follows the story of an interdimensional traveling twin in search of their other half. along this journey, they meet different characters that live in this world. including you. notes: i'm sorry fischl and mona's aren't that good :(( this is actually my first time writing for them but i hope you enjoy <33

scaramouche's playthrough -

oof scara

scara scara scara

this boy hates his chat and at this point they don't care.

it's not like he'll badmouth them, right?

think ludwig.

that's him.

he's a very angy boy please--

as for what he does?

much like childe he'd do a lot of pvp games.

he's not too keen on showing off his personal life.

he prefers that boundary between his viewers and himself, y'know?

he honestly doesn't even understand why his viewers like him.

he knows he's a mean person and yet here they are :/

he doesn't take requests from his viewers he just kinda plays whatever he wants.

imagine his viewers' surprise when they see him streaming genshin--

they asked why a lot.

"it seemed cool."

this man just wants to play some good ol' anime games.

his chat calls him soft and he just glares.

anyway now he's actually playing.

he's not really into mondstadt's characters they're all... okay to him.

he feels a bit better in liyue.

not because it's pretty oh no no no.

because look at all the enemies outside >:))

he'll clear the whole field don't test him.

anyway, now onto the unreconciled stars event :00

this man really doesn't like katheryne--

anyway at this point he's tasked with find fritz, which he doesn't really want to do.

he sees the dude on the ground but that's only after he sees someone standing next to him.

and then he sees someone standing next to him :0

"is the guy on the floor sleeping?"

"i believe so. i've tried everything, but he won't wake up."

he will pause to look at your outfit.

it's so complex but it's so cool!!!

his chat suspects something's up but... he'll just snap at them like he normally does.

but he'll silently admire you <3

also yOU'RE T I N Y ! !

and then paimon points out your clothes and the cameras pans up your body--

"heh... and by "this person over here," you mean me, right?"

he will choose the "those unique clothes are quite beautiful" option in a heartbeat.

he doesn't care that his chat is teasing him, he just wants you to know :))

he's kinda sad when you leave, though...

"please come back soon..."

his CHAT HAS NEVER SEEN HIM SO SOFT BEFORE

skip to a few events later when the constellation is revealed to be leonard's.

the sudden cutscene catches him off guard because he's prepared to fight someone.

"hi! sounds interesting... mind if i join you?"

he won't say anything but he will physically relax at the sight of you.

you make this man soft please--

he's lowkey angry when his character is teleported away from you :(

(name): the sixth of the eleven fatui harbingers

HYPEHYPEHYPE

YOU'RE SO COOL!

of course he doesn't say that but his chat can tell that's what he's thinking.

this man's eyes go wide when you order the fatui around.

please help he really likes you. you're so assertive and cute and cool and just AGH--

fischl's playthrough -

fischl can and will do cosplay streams.

her fans like to watch her because of the "character" she puts up for the camera.

honestly she just does this because she genuinely enjoys cosplaying and bringing characters to life.

oz is the nickname for her pet bird :))

she definitely gets a lot of trolls in her chat that make fun of her for her cosplays and "dumb" way of speaking.

in which case she'll just yell at them using her "dumb" way of speaking.

she really does care about how people see her but her chat comforts her a lot after, so she feels better after a few minutes :))

the games she plays are very fantasy based and take place in worlds that don't exist.

once she gets into a game, she'd pick her favorite character and cosplay as them everytime she streams that game.

sometimes she does sewing streams where she actually makes her own cosplay with her fans.

they like to make it with her if they have the materials :D

genshin impact was a game her fans recommended because they actually want to see fischl cosplay the characters.

they will beg her to do the cosplay creation on stream.

(they defintitely know who she'll choose to cosplay but it's fine)

when she reaches the unreconciled stars event, she's really excited to learn about the fated meteorite granting sleep upon touch.

she's ready to go around teyvat in search of an answer when...

"katheryne! vassal of the immernachtreich, do mine ears deceive me, or didst thou cry out mine holy name in earnest supplication not one moment ago?"

some of her chat is obviously confused by your speech but her long time viewers can understand some of it.

oz, who fischl had brought with her to play, seems excited to see your familiar flying to you :)

fischl is just as excited as he is!!

please you speak just like her and you're voice is so nice and it actually sounds like the developers put thought into what the speech would mean in "proper speech."

"a pleasure to meet you again, katheryne."

YOU'RE FAMILIAR IS JUST AS COOL AS YOU ARE!!

some of her viewers will beg for her to skip through your dialogue.

when she sees those comments, she will purposefully let your dialogue play out, proceed to read out that same dialogue, and respond to you as if she was actually talking to you.

not just to spite them but because it's also a lot of fun for her <3

"it would seem the gods have blessed us with meeting such a well-respected being!"

translation: she's really excited to have met you.

as soon as you spoke she decided she would cosplay as you.

she's already planning out all of the materials she'll need and how much time it would take.

if your familiar is a bird, you best bet oz will be in her photo shoots for your cosplay.

most of the time you're on screen, she'll talk to her viewers about you in her classic chuunibyou style <333

she's really sad when it's time for you to leave :(((

"... goodbye, fischl. you are a good listener. i enjoy chatting with you. to be honest, most of the other adventurers in the guild only ever talk to me when they wanna hear (familiar)'s reconnaissance reports... this little journey we had... it was a great adventure. i'm just sorry that is has to end so abruptly..."

she might cry wait--

she relates to you even more now :(

"ah! what am i doing? i totally broke form..."

you're too cute pleas--

mona's playthrough -

mona does a lot of nightly streams.

it's very rare for you to catch her streaming with daylight.

she likes to share things about astrology while sitting outside drinking something warm.

she'll do a lot of nightly gaming streams as well.

mainly calmer games that people can vibe to in the background.

she prefers to keep her streams lowkey and chill, much like the life she wants to lead.

if only she had the money to do so...

yes, mona is still struggling with money even as a streamer.

she greatly appreciates any donations her fans give to her because she practically relies on them to pay her rent and daily necessities.

of course, it's not like she's completely struggling, just enough to barely get her by.

anyway, her fans ask her about playing genshin impact, inticing her with their talk about the stars and night sky in the game.

she's the type of player to take her time in the environment and take a lot of pictures of her character at night.

she's actually really excited when she hears about this new event centering around the stars and sky :D

soon enough, she gets around to the part where she is need of an astrologist.

she's HYPED to hear there's an astrologist in the game.

"someone looking for me? who is it?"

she will squeal, please.

look at you!!!

your whole design has stars and is space-themed and you're so cute and you're voice is so soothing ! ! !

she really likes listening to you talk about astrology because your voice gets even softer than before.

that scene where you go to the cliff??

please she has that scene as her lockscreen <3

you just look so cool when you start to do your process.

you're so focused and the way they animate your process in the game is beautiful.

and then the fatui harbinger interrupts one of your meetings :00

you grab onto mona's character and teleport away in a cloud of stars and specks of your elemental vision.

she's kinda embarrassed when you scold her about getting involved with the harbinger--

but not only are you really cool and awesome, you're super strong, too!

please be sassy more she really likes how proud you sound :))

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buffaloborgine · 2 years

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So, after rewatching all the cutscenes of Zenos, and having assistance from @raishyra and another German friend for the German dialogues, I have found out something.

Zenos has NEVER said that he doesn’t care for anything or anyone else aside from the fight with Warrior of Light.

I know this is controversial and against many people’s belief, but before you throw stones at me, please take some read. Sincerely. After you read, we can discuss in peace, or we can agree to disagree.

Alright, let’s go.

Exhibit 1:

The very first line of Zenos that players interpreted as “I don’t care” is probably the one above.

“Ala Mhigo and Doma and Garlemald be damned!”

Of course, we can totally interpret this line as “I don’t care about the people of Ala Mhigo, Doma and Garlemald.” However, wording wise, “Ala Mhigo”, “Doma” and “Garlemald” are names of the nations, and since nations don’t always represent their people (i.e “Country A in 1945 is a fascist country, but people in the country are not all fascists.”), we cannot conclude that Zenos doesn’t care for the people of those three nations.

Exhibit 2:

“I need no other reason.”

Practically, this line is not equal to “I only have this one reason”. We can totally write this line into “I have other reasons, but just this one is enough.”

Exhibit 3:

“Does nothing else spark your interest?”

“Hmm... No. All else is... equal.”

Care is defined as “watchful or protective attention, caution, concern, prudence, or regard usually towards an action or situation”, so it’s not 100% equal to “interest”. You can define “interest” as “a feeling of wanting to learn more about something or to be involved in something”, which is “care with like”, if you don’t like something, you can’t get interested in it, but you still can care about it.

i.e: I don’t take interest in political problems but I care enough to read the news about what’s going on around the world.

Exhibit 4:

“That is and has ever been my sole concern.”

Again, same case to exhibit 3, “concern” is define as “a matter that causes feelings of unease, uncertainty, or apprehension”, so, it’s also not 100% equal to care, in most cases, “concern” is used for “care with worry”. And for sure, sometimes you do “care” but you don’t feel worried about it, so your are not “concerned”.

i.e: I care about my friend’s holiday trip so I ask how it is going, but knowing he is doing well, I am not concerned.

And since Zenos does use the word “care”, at least in two scenes, so we can’t say that word is not in his dictionary.

For the German dialogues, the problem with wording is even more clear. There is literally no line of Zenos in German that shows he doesn’t care about people.

For exhibit 1 in German:

“Just like me! Oh, I would only take you as my comrade! Who is interested about Ala Mhigo- let's fight!”

Exhibit 3 in German:

“Your Highness, you only ever seem to get excited when you talk about her. Don't you really have any other interests?”

Exhibit 4 in German:

“Why should I think of anything else?”

“Think” is defined as “direct one's mind toward someone or something; use one's mind actively to form connected ideas.”, so it’s like you focus your mind on it while “care” is less about focus, just pay attention.

In conclusion, none of Zenos’ lines are 1:1 equal to “I don’t care about anyone or anything asides from the fight with WoL”, but we, the players, interpreted the lines as so and projected it back onto him.

#ffxiv #zenos #zenos yae galvus #zenos viator galvus #zenos galvus #the writers surely know we are going to say that he projected onto us huh #uno reverse card move

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yumester · 2 years

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Ah- omg Bee! I- You have me gushing so hard over this. Tumblr is being a butt so I had to reroute this question but thankfully I didn’t lose it from the horrible formatting this hellsite has. I will put my answers under a read more because it’s kinda lengthy, apologies in advance. Haha, anyway thanks for the asks!

Favorite Game(s)

Okay, I'm going to say two for several of these because I'm a hopeless mess but for games, I have a guilty pleasure for SatBK too much to not let the game go. The game is a fantasy game where Sonic is summoned to the world of Camelot by a wizard named Merlina to help stop the Black Knight known as King Arthur. The game is a Wii game so the controls can be a bit janky (it's motion controls similar to a Legend of Zelda game) but honestly, I find that part to be quite challenging and a fun experience nonetheless. As a kid, I never got past King Arthur's boss fight but now that I'm older I beat him a few days ago and currently working on the "after-credits" stuff as we speak. Twelve year old me would be so proud!!

As you can probably tell, Shadow's counterpart in that game is a fav of mine considering my current icon is him, Lancelot! I really admire Jason's voice acting for Lance in this game a lot, it's way more expressive and cut-throat because the game felt like a last in many ways so they tried to put a lot of effort into SatBk from not just the voice acting but also the story and the music (unlike the previous game, Crush 40 did several songs for SatBK along with having a few other musicians in the OST). Lance is one of the royal knights and closest knight to King Arthur in the story so it's kinda strange at first to see a character like Shadow put his loyalty to a higher authority per say.

But nonetheless, it works really well! His and the other knights interactions with Sonic really shows how vastly different yet similar they are to their modern counterparts. (Ex: Shadow and Lancelot, Knuckles and Gawain, Blaze and Percival)

I wish they kept doing more storybook games, I love that game so much that I grew up playing that along with a few others which brings me to one of my other fav sonic games, Sonic Unleashed which my sibling played a lot and it still holds a lot of weight because it' just that awesome. Honestly ask anyone and they'd still say that game holds up after all these years and not to mention I just adore the CGI in the game's intro cutscene like look at this:

youtube

JUST CHEF KISSES IT'S AMAZING!!

Favorite Show

For shows, Sonic X! I grew up watching that on Sunday mornings when 4kids aired it although I very much despise how they handled a lot of the scenes, dialogue, music choices, and a variety of other things BUT the voice acting, intro song, and some other stuff makes it unique enough and still manages to be alright in the end. Even without some of the cut footage they took out from the japanese dub, the 4kids one still holds some of the same weight from some of the most devasting and heartfelt scenes from the show plus it was still rather fun and entertaining for kids and fans alike.

Favorite Movie(s)

For movies, I love the Sonic 2 movie and can't wait for any indication for the 3rd with Shadow or who his va will be but instead of talking about that I wanna bring up Sonic OVA which is one of the older sonic movies.

Sonic OVA otherwise known as Sonic the Hedgehog Movie was an two-episode anime film that showcased Sonic and Tails going on an adventure. The first episode is basically them helping Eggman stop his evil robot from taking over his evil fortress while the second episode showcases a sonic character from trying to destroy the world (Not spoiling who because I always thought the reveal was neat as hell). Along with Sonic and Tails, Knuckles makes an appearance and helps the two stop Eggman and his evil machines but Sonic falls victim in the process. It's a fun old-school film yet the ending is a bit bittersweet to me which makes it all the more enjoyable. Plus I love the environment in the film a whole lot.

And now onto the topic you know me too well about... OH BOY

Shadow the Hedgehog

Otherwise known as The Edgelord aka Doom and Gloom aka the guy who wants to piss in a Hot Topic- Okay scratch that!

Shadow is my all-time favorite character in the Sonic franchise. Ever since I got introduced to the game series, I was hooked on this red striped emo boy and will most likely be until the day I inevitably perish from this earth as morbid as that is. Shadow has a lot of cool qualities about him that make him one of the most unique characters in the entire series. Sadly... he gets ruined a lot because of this.

In my humble opinion, both SA2 and Sonic Heroes are the thing that define Shadow the most as a character. Sad to say it but Shadow the Hedgehog the game does not do justice as much as the other games did nor did it for the other characters he interacted with, not that I hated the game. I’ve been playing Shadow the Hedgehog recently because my brother wanted me to get acquainted with it and have enjoyed it so far.

My favorite things about Shadow are these four things:

His Backstory

His Promise

His Relationship with Others

His Abilities

His Backstory

One of the most interesting yet tragic backstories for a Sonic character. Shadow was created by Gerald Robotnik (Eggman's grandfather) as the ultimate lifeform, a cure for his granddaughter, Maria's illness but was also fit to be a means of a weapon because the government funded Gerald's experiments. Shadow was really close to Maria to the point he saw her as an older sister figure and would end up helping her while on the space colony ARK. However, people did not like Shadow because of how strong he was and feared him to the point GUN invaded the ARK and tried to get rid of everything and everyone on there including Shadow. Because of this, Maria saved Shadow and he was sent to earth but she died in the process along with everyone on the ARK that day while Gerald was taken to Prison Island. Before Maria was killed, she requested that Shadow protect the people of earth and bring them happiness.

However in Sonic Adventure 2, the game that brought Shadow into the series, that promise was changed by Professor Gerald as a means to seek revenge on everyone for killing his granddaughter, Maria. Shadow was later woken up by Eggman 50 years later and told Eggman about Professor Gerald’s device on the ARK to take over the Earth. Shadow lost all his memories and the only thing he recalled was that flickering promise with Maria that Gerald changed in his memories.

His Promise

Before Maria was killed, this is what Maria told Shadow:

In Sonic Adventure 2, Rouge the bat asks Shadow if he’s the real Shadow since all data on him hinted that he wasn’t the Shadow everyone thought he was but he replies that even if he isn’t the real shadow, the promise he made with Maria is the most real thing about him.

youtube

No matter how many times Shadow loses his memories or when people are against him, he keeps that promise close to his heart because he loved Maria.

In Sonic 06, one of the best lines he uttered was this:

“If the world chooses to become my enemy, I will fight like I always have!”

Even when people are against him, betray him, or otherwise eventually leave him-the very people Maria wanted him to protect and walk alongside with, Shadow still chooses to fight for them even knowing what lies ahead for his fate.

His Relationship with Others

Shadow doesn’t have many friends like Sonic or many of the other characters in the series however that doesn’t stop him from making allies or fighting alongside the other members when the time comes.

Maria Robotnik

Maria is the first friend Shadow makes.

Shadow sees Maria as a close friend and keeps his memory of her close to his heart. Unlike the many humans Shadow saw on earth and the ARK, Maria treated Shadow with kindness and didn’t think of him as a weapon. They both vowed to each other to visit the earth one day and would often look down at the planet through one of the windows as they studied together and played. Whenever Shadow was confused, Maria was there to help him. While Maria knew she could count on Shadow when things went wrong. Ultimately, Maria sacrificed herself to save Shadow from the military with her last thoughts on him fulfilling his purpose and bringing happiness.

Fun fact, Maria was the person to give Shadow his name!

Team Dark

Team Dark consists of Shadow, Rouge the bat, and E-123 Omega, a robot who was created by Eggman that seeks revenge on his creator. The team was first introduced in Sonic Heroes and follows the trio in trying to stop Eggman. The group are basically a team of misfits who have either done bad things in the past or were designed to do evil yet come together to form a good solid team with good intentions in mind, sort of a found family of sorts.

ALSO, I will personally go to SEGA and annihilate them myself if they say Shadow isn’t friends with these two. Team Dark is and will always be a thing in the series and they can’t take away the friendship these three have for each other!

Sonic the Hedgehog

Last of all, the fabled hedgehog who loves adventure, Sonic! Shadow rivals Sonic unlike any other character and is seen to have about the same in abilities-strength and speed. Unlike characters like Knuckles or Eggman when it comes to fighting the blue speedster, Shadow was specifically designed to match Sonic in appearance and strengths.

When Shadow first met Sonic, he didn’t think much of him nor did he care for him. Sonic only thought of Shadow as a impersonator- a faker because he stole a chaos emerald and everyone thought Shadow was him because the only hedgehog they knew was Sonic while Shadow thought Sonic was a copy of him. Yet throughout their interactions in Sonic Adventure 2, both begin to view the other as a rival. Eventually, Sonic gets thrown out of the ARK into space and manages to survive with a fake chaos emerald which impresses Shadow to the point that he, himself believes that Sonic is the ultimate life form and not him. They later encounter each other a final time as Sonic goes to stop the ARK from falling to which Shadow asks the ultimate question, “what are you?” to which Sonic responds with this famous line:

To which they soon fight each other a final time. However, I always thought the line really solidified Sonic as a character and how he differentiates with Shadow. He’s a free spirit at times and does what he thinks is right. Which I’ll bring up later on.

When Shadow recalls Maria’s real wish in SA2, he goes and helps Sonic stop the ARK from crashing onto earth by both of them turning into their super forms using the chaos emeralds. Their power alone doesn’t stop it so Shadow does something only he can do and that was to take off his Inhibitor Rings to unleash his full power but with the cost of that he ends up falling down onto the earth. Sonic ends up getting his rings when going back to the ARK and hands one to Rouge, knowing they were close and telling everyone what happened to Shadow.

During the 4th Twitter Takeover, Shadow even states Sonic tried to save him before he inevitably died yet pushed Sonic away so he wouldn’t fall too but the hero’s determination wasn’t forgotten by him, finding the moment to be one of his most memorable adventures.

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When Shadow comes back from the dead to join Team Dark in Sonic Heroes, Sonic is surprised to see the guy alive again jokingly saying “Heh. Talk about being stubborn and full of surprises...”

So not only does Sonic surprise Shadow at times but the same can be said vice versa.

Later in the series, the two still remain as rivals at times and on occasion, allies. However the two have conflicting views with each other, Sonic being a free spirit and only does what he thinks is right while Shadow is stubborn and only does what he thinks is right as well. Their views and ideas often rebuke the other but ultimately they have mutual respect for the other. And in recent stuff, they have faith in each other’s choices and help each other. Sonic is one of the only people to get through to Shadow and because of this, Shadow takes his words into account even if he still despises him sometimes. Also like I stated before, the two have very similar strengths and speed that often times they can be close and personal with the other, both in the sense of fighting and understand the other when it comes to things, not any of the other characters match what they have as crazy as that is.

On another note, I see fans also depict Sonic as being that promise Maria gave Shadow. While Shadow was kept away, Sonic was basically fulfilling said wish by protecting people from Eggman and wanting peace for his home. Sonic shows the same kindness Maria has and often times her same free spirit and overall nature for the planet that once reminded Shadow.

His Abilities

This last one is gonna sound a bit silly but I don’t know how else I’m going to phrase it so here goes.

Shadow is known for his speed just like Sonic but unlike Sonic, Shadow uses his hover shoes to move around but in better terms, some would say he skates around. To put it simply, I find the way he moves to be fun and cool haha! It’s cool to play as him and watch him glide across the screen. In games like Sonic Adventure 2, that feels especially nice! I don’t know how to describe it really, it’s just really neat.

He also has the ability to drive vehicles but one I find very interesting is his bike, the Dark Rider! A cool motorcycle he rides in one of the racing games and was used to promote his game, Shadow the Hedgehog back in the day.

Favorite Side/Lesser Known Characters

Tough question but I’ll shorten this down unlike the others.

Mephiles aka what you might know as Memphis Tennessee from the Sonic Fandubs is one of the most evil and darkest villains in the sonic franchise. He comes from the game, Sonic 06 and seeks out his other half, Iblis in order to become whole again and destroy the world.

Mephiles is basically what Shadow could have been if he stayed on the darker path. But in Shadow’s story of Sonic 06, he proves Mephiles wrong and stops him. However even though Shadow and the others stop him, ultimately, Mephiles still kills Sonic and becomes whole like he sought after. Killing Sonic wasn’t even a necessary thing for him to do but he does so anyway because he was THAT evil. Not to mention Mephile’s voice is terrifying, his laugh and dialogue still gives me chills from listening to it.

Sadly, Mephiles is only in Sonic 06 and will never be used again as a villain character for the series. He’s made a few cameos here and there but ultimately will never rear his ugly mug of a no mouth face again.

I wish he was in Sonic Speed Battle though...

Cream the Rabbit, a lovable rabbit girl who wants to help Sonic and his friends with the aid of her close friend, Cheese the Chao. Cream is a member of Team Rose and helps Amy from time to time. She hates violence and is a very well-mannered kid that can fly with her bunny ears similar to Tails using his tails.

I love her relationship with Sonic a whole lot, seeing as I grew up playing sonic games on the computer with her in it and watching their interactions in Sonic X. Sonic acts like a older brother to Cream, he looks out for Cream and is impressed by her skills and sweet nature. In the IDW comics, he even states that unlike other children who look up to him, he believes that she will grow up to be a great person in the future and knows he can count on her like she can count on him!

Tikal the Echidna, a character from the first Sonic Adventure game, who aids Sonic and his friends to stop Chaos, an entity known for its destruction after Eggman tried to use Chaos to take over the world.

She was designed for Sonic Adventure specifically in similar vein that Shadow was specifically designed for Sonic Adventure 2 however unlike Shadow’s death and resurrection, Tikal didn’t really come back into the series. Though to be fair, unlike Shadow, Tikal is a part of the Master Emerald and befriended a literal god of destruction that looks like a water monster named Chaos.

Her design is based off of South American culture, along with the rest of her tribe and their village! She’s a pacifist who was raised by her grandmother and wanted to stop her father from stealing the chaos emeralds from Chaos. She loves chao, the little creatures that live around the temple. She wishes for peace but struggles a lot with that sometimes but thankfully Sonic helped her in SA. She’s amazing!

And that wraps it up! Sorry for how long this is, I wanted to be consistent and accurate with each character so hopefully I made this thorough enough. Thanks again for the ask, @potofbees!

#yume yelling

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usagi-mitsu · 3 years

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Werlyt & Gaius - a bunch of thoughts.

I am a little late to the party. I know. But I just finished the Emerald weapon and before I go to try out the „not Zenos“ weapon as in „Diamond“, I need to get my thoughts on the story straight.

Perhaps I have been spoiled by 5.0s brilliant MSQ and cannot appreciate the inherent beauty of at least decent writing any longer. But this felt so wrong and out of tune with the rest of the game. I started writing this 2 hours ago! I wanted to one in bed by now! XD But I had to get it out of my system… so….

Spoilers for the MSQ and Werlyt incoming??? And no I did not re-read this so not just spoilers but also writing errors incoming. -.-

The good

These fights are epic! I have only ever cleared the normal versions, but I loved those. They are amazing. The callbacks to Eula (her being a woman here! When did they discover that???), Regula (may he rest in peace) and Gaius himself in his prime were delightful. But I could do with a little less rotating, ok? A dragoon has positional, you know? And being allowed to pilot my very own mecha was like *chefs kiss*. On that front? Well done Square Enix!

I am also glad they were able to get another use out of Porta Praetora! That place looks amazing with the wide open field and the lake – and Ala Mhigo across it. It was one of my favourite Stormblood areas and I am always glad to return there. And of course… being able to visit the allied camp again… And Werlyt itself. It’s simply a beautiful place. It reminds me very much of southern Greece. If you’ve watched the movie Mamma Mia you know what I mean.

The music too was really nice. But I don’t think I’ll… you know… listen to it on repeat as I am doing with other parts of the soundtrack.

I’ve also loved how much amazing lore we got about Garlemald and especially the garlean military. And the military abroad. The way soldiers not from the mainland get treated. I love learning about these things.

Gaius

The man. The legend. The guy yelling in Prae.

He’s so very boring here. He has so much potential as a character and maybe I’m missing something, but all throughout this story he has been nothing but passive. He’s a reactive character in this storyline. You know. The guy who made deals with Lahabread (the d is intended), tried to take over Eorzea, lead a whole army, stood idly by as the moon dropped, almost died but then decided just not to die and then though „hm… I’ve got so much freetime now. How about I go and hunt some ascians?“ That guy is NOT a reactive character. He is active. He goes out of his way to make shit he wants happen. And in here? He seems too starstruck and devastated by his adopted kids actions to actually have one clear thought.

The only explanation I have is that he might have gotten hit in the head by something on his way to the ruby weapon. I get why he would rely on Cid for help, but the WoL??? The alliance? If you wish to be an ally and help or something, fucking act like it. You were a former legatus and I expect you to live up to your name – even after retiring.

And yeah.. I guess it’s hard having to watch your kids willingly, knowingly dying. But you fucking raised them. You are a big part of the reason to why they are in that predicament. So like… Aside from that I don’t even get why you are in this story at all.

And for the record: I’m not sorry for him. I’m just flabbergasted by all the bullshit we’ve been learning about him.

To be quite honest, I think this story could have worked just as well or maybe even better, if we got another man as the „hero“ of the story. I am talking about none other than our engineering, hammer-swinging, ex-enemy - of course talking about Nero!

The MSQ has long established that his research into the Ultimate Weapon had been taken, twisted and turned – Estinien had to experience this first-hand. I’m not saying that Nero was in need of a redemption arc and I cannot remember if these weapons were of his creation or even stem from anything he did, but it would make so much more sense for me, to have him confront his past in the garlean military like this and be responsible for the death of his former colleagues. Soldiers that he served with, whom he faught with. Give me Nero and them working together to get the weapons going and him bonding with them as his pilots to a degree. Comrades. Not that strange familiar bond that Gaius appareantly has with them. … Scratch that: Let Gaius be the father figure. Him being that wouldn’t change Nero’s relationship with them, but maybe his with Gaius as his superior.

The story wouldn’t even need to try and redeem Nero: He has already gone through major character development with the MSQ and the Omega raid tier. It would simply be Nero, confronted with the things he created, hopefully instilling more morals and a sense of responsibility for his creations. Heck: Let Cid yell at the guy! Seriously! Cid sticking around to help out would make so much more sense if it was Nero instead of freaking Gaius! Cid hated the guy! He might be a professional, but he is not one to torture himself by staying around a guy he (as far as I know) detests.

Make Nero the central figure and give Cid and Gaius the roles of „angel and demon“: One desperately trying to reach out to his old friend, reminding him why they became engineers and trying to make him realise that he can’t just run around designing weapons and leaving the scematics for everyone to read; while the other has trouble letting go of his imperial past and is struggling to see the errors of his ways – if Nero was wrong, than he (Gaius) was wrong too -and of course they did all of this for their home, to further their cause, and to bring peace to the savage lands of Eorzea, who had been fighting amongst themselves for so long… You get the point.

And you could still have these gundam themed fights. But I think everything would make so much more sense in general.

But speaking of which-

The children

I do not truly care for any of them. And that is a shame: I do think there are great characters and dynamics hidden behind these very few cutscenes. When they were first introduced I was wondering why I was suddenly watching „heartwarming“ cutscenes of my foes as children – until I realised that I was supposed to care and that they were supposed to make me feel pity for Gaius. I was supposed to feel bad for him, because they died and he blames himself. But while their fates so far have been gruesome, I cannot say that I am sad they died. They chose to die as they did. There were a myriad more options. And they chose that.

Actually. Their whole story makes me feel like they were huge masochist from the very beginning. They could have just run away and gotten help from someone more competent than them, but they stayed in an abusive military arrangement just so nobody else got hurt?? Please. Use your brains next time. And for the Berserk-like torture scene? I mean. I get what was implied here. But was it necessary? As a writer myself I follow the rule that torture and sexual violence should never be used in a story, unless it must be in there for the story to work or to bring across a vital point important to the story or it’s moral (or if you are writing porn and you are into it – but we are talking official in-game content here). But the violence towards these „children“ seems unnecessary for the plot and the violence of their deaths by piloting the weapons is already gruesome enough. Sometimes it’s better to leave things like this out – the emotional torture of feeling stuck and having a martyrs complex would have been enough here, I think. If the rest of the story had been well written at least.

(I believe my utter lack of sympathy shows how little character developement they had. I love tragic characters, who choose to suffer for the good of other people – even better if those people don’t even like them. It’s just my thing. And those kids are just… well.)

Their reasons and especially why they were making Allie out as the one who would need to survive was also just… weird. Like. I feel like 75% of what happened would not have happened, if they actually talked to each other, used their brains and had done something about their problems. But no…

These characters are also so exchangeable with basic anime/j-RPG character tropes… I only remember Alfonse, Rex and Allie – because I just did the Emerald weapon. And right afterwards I thought, „huh. So… Fullmetal Alchemist?“ Which brings me to my third point …

…the story at large.

„Pacing is a virtue“ or was it patience..? Anyhow: The author of this story should have had more patience with his story and characters and taken a bloody break! And I am not talking about the obvious blunder of „How is Allie feeling?“, „she is in shock and you cannot talk to her“ turning to „oh yeah if you are careful you can talk to her now“. I mean. WTF. That was MAYBE 10-20 in-game minutes of dialogue.

But everything was moving so very fast – and not even in a good way. There are few things better than a fast paced, action rich story about a group of young people trying to safe (their) world. But if you try to cram in two expansions worth of character development and story telling into about two hours of content each patch.. Well, then you get whatever the hell this is.

Gaius is a very interesting character and while I did not understand why they needed to bring him back in 4.4 (?), I do see how he could be a good asset for endwalker. And his involvement in 5.0 with Estinien was just a dear delight. So I am not opposed to learning more about him, to watching his character grow and changed with time. But I am not ready for badly written content of which 50% get told by suddenly induced echo-sequences. I mean – weren’t there rules for the echo at some point???

I’m not sure which one of the devs said it, but the feature that let’s you play an NPC is super convenient for them to tell the story, because before they could only show what happened where the WoL was.

And that’s just it. Rule number 1 in writing anything is „Show don’t tell“. It feels like they literally turned this one around for these cutscenes. While Valens torture and diet-Fandaniel-routine were very much „show“, the rest of the story was one long cutscene of exposition: We get exposition by Cid, by Gaius, by echo, by Gaius and his crew again, then by Allie. Before having to watch scenes we are not there for.

BTW. Dear square Enix: Your writers are capable of writing amazing villains, antagonist and despicable assholes. You don’t have to write „asshole, must die“ on Valens name card. And I also think the „WoL, strike here“ sign above his head was a tad bit too much. Nuance, dear writers. Nuance. Or perhaps I just got spoiled by these last few foes in the MSQ.

When I said I wanted to just be able to punch a bad guy for once and not feel bad about it, I did not mean this! I meant that I just wanted to play training dummy with Danny-Boy.

(Oh! And as far as I’m concerned you can just… sideline Gaius … „would be killer“ and the lady? Make them targetable NPCs with Dialoge to read. Let them stand somewhere accessible and comment on the latest developement. But ffs don’t give me hour long speeches about how you are going to kill Gaius if he does something you don’t like. The guy could and would wipe the floor with you if he felt like it. -.- So. Please. Shut up.)

Conclusion

Basically. I have to finish the Diamond weapon. But I doubt it will change my perception of this story line even in the slightest.

To be perfectly honest though … bringing Gaius back, having this story with and about him, forcing a sort of redemption ark here. It feels like they are really „grooming“ him to be a morally grey ally in Endwalker, with perhaps a big part to play in the endgame. At this point I wouldn’t even be surprised if they pulled a GoT and made him „King in the North“. Or if they had him die a heroic death to save the world, but especially his country. And to do so they need us to think his sacrifice means something. Or that he is the right person to lead Garlemald into a new future (I don’t think he is). But: For one, neither we (the players) nor the characters need to find him worthy of throne or death by heroism for his sacrifice/ascension to work. To be a useful tool for the story, only the other garleans who might oppose the alliance and scions need to deem him or his sacrifice „worthy“. And only they. And Ishikawa-san has all of 6.0 to accomplish whatever the hell she needs him for. He did not need to be the center of his own botched redemption ark. If that’s what they wanted to do. Or maybe I’m looking at this all wrong and all they wanted was to give the writes in training some literal training grounds to test their abilities.

But! On a positive note: I have yet to be told that raids and other side content are canon to any degree. So when playing the next story quests I’ll blissfully ignore all that happened in Werlyt and if it get’s mentioned (because they do that sometimes when you’ve done certain content) I’ll just ignore it.

Happy ignoring! Also: GIVE ME MORE NERO CONTENT!

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obeymemc-marcie · 4 years

Text

Special Guest Appearance

(That's the title of this one)

Warnings: NSFW, Dom!Levi, a smidge of tail action, MC uses she/her pronouns with female genetalia, slight masturbation, mentions of demon in heat, let me know if I need to add more! 💜

"Hey there Deviltube, L3 here and welcome back to another video. We're going to pick up where we left off here playing Skyrim. If you remember we were-"

Marcie mouthed the words with a practiced ease as she lip-synced his signature intro, dangling her legs outside the rim of his tub bed. Her eyes roved over her own device as she played through the same quest he was currently livestreaming. He had told her before that he didn't mind if she'd made an appearance during one of his streams, but she knew this was his passion and didn't want to distract him from it. Besides, playing along with him always made her feel giddy, gave her a sense of happiness she couldn't explain.

Today, however was a little different. After his last livestream, Marcie had pulled up a walkthrough to read ahead through the next quest. She still wanted to play it through with him but this time, she wanted to make an appearance during his livestream.

It had been almost a full month since his last heat and now that he had Marcie, well it was a little easier for him to get through it, but Marcie also knew he dreaded the heat cycle. It made him insatiable and dark, rough and driven by lust and the pure primal instinct to mate. Marcie couldn't help the bolt of pleasure that danced along her spine, pooling in her lower abdomen remembering how he had been with her. She licked her lips, fighting back a moan, as she felt the ghost of his tail coiled around her throat, his cocks penetrating both of her holes at the same time. Her blue eyes fixated on her screen, set in determination and she squeezed her thighs together just slightly, already feeling her arousal dampen her panties. Today would be an interesting livestream indeed.

"What do you guys think, should I fast travel to the Greybeards or run there?" Levi panned his camera to the area surrounding him and his eyes caught some bandits in the distance, "or should I go kill those guys and steal their horse?" He paused for a moment to rummage through his character's inventory as the comments flowed in, all his viewers casting their votes.

That's when his nose picked up a scent, light at first but unmistakable as it whirled around his senses, embracing him. The scent of sweet oranges and subtle notes of peppermint mellowed out by eucalyptus and tied together with lemongrass; it was the ambrosial scent of his human's arousal.

Orange eyes could see her legs swaying over the edge of his tub in their peripheral vision, he caught the movement as her legs moved closer together and get smell became more potent.

Levi snapped out of his trance when he felt his mouth begin to salivate and turned his attention back to the game. He saw a prominent blush spreading out across the bridge of good nose, painting his cheeks and a light pink in his livestream camera feed. The pupils of his eyes narrowed into slits but only so briefly he thought he'd imagine it. Shaking his head, he faked a few coughs and cleared his throat, hoping it would dispel the blush and felt a stirring in the back of his mind.

"H-hey," his voice cracked and he cleared his throat again, reaching out to take a swig of his energy drink. "Guess I'm going to go steal a horse," his laugh was forced but he quickly found himself delving back into the game.

Marcie was biting her hand trying not to laugh. Watching his face, his real time reactions in the corner of the steam, oh he was going to punish her for what she had planned. She smiled, practically humming in anticipation. Bandits had not spawned in her game so she led her character over to where his would be on his playthrough and paused to wait for him. Making as little sound as possible, Marcie pulled her shirt up and over her head and placed it on the blankets next to her. Levi engaged in combat with the bandits and took the opportunity to pull her legs down and tug off her jeans as well, leaving her with just her bra and underwear on.

The full scent of her arousal washed over him, no longer held back by the denim. He paused his game mid fight to catch his breath. Comments poured in, some asking if he was a noob for chickening out of a fight, some asking if he was okay because he looked feverish. His eyes cut back over to the tub and noticed her legs were not hanging over the rim anymore. Listening for a moment for any indication she was doing something indecent in his bed, Marcie noticed Levi was looking her direction on the livestream and held up her hand, giving him a thumbs-up signaling she was okay. Hesitating, he turned back to his game, face felt like it was on fire. The red stuck out against his normally pale face.

"Sorry about that," Levi saw he was sporting a small pout and changed his expression to a small smile, sheepishly looking into the camera, "I guess I'm not feeling too well today but I still plan on carrying out the rest of this mission." Talking helped him shift his mindset back into gaming mode and soon he was making his way to the Throat of the World on horseback.

A few hours had passed, Marcie found herself lost in the game as well until she'd heard the words she'd been waiting for. While reading the walkthrough, she memorized the key phrase for when she would act out her plan. Levi had a knack for letting the cutscenes play all the way through, soaking in the dialogue and cinematography like a long-awaited movie.

The voices droned on as she saved her game and put her console to sleep. Peeking her head above the top of the tub, her lips spread in a conniving smile; the mischievous kitty about to eat herself a canary. Readjusting her breasts to plump them up in her bra, she crawled out of the tub and slunk down. His attention was solely focused on the monitor, watching the Nordic heroes battling against Alduin's forces, eyes sparkling as he watched the scene unfold. She almost felt guilty for what she was about to do. Almost.

Marcie crept and crouched to hide behind the file cabinet under his desk, successfully concealing herself. Her nerves fluttered, she debated giving up and returning to the tub. But then she felt the ghost of his claws running down her thighs as his tongue, his forked tongue, made her see stars between her legs. Her breathing shuddered as she steeled her resolve and crept closer, crawling on her hands and knees under his desk.

Levi had been entranced by the cutscene. The graphics, the cinematography, the dialogue, the lore, it all fascinated him. The rich lore of the Elder Scrolls and here was the moment he saw the three heroes go against Alduin and witness how the World Eater was cast forward into time.

He almost missed the spike in Marcie's arousal. The scent was stronger this time, he choked back a whine. His leg started to bounce in frustration as he felt his own arousal start to stir. Levi bit his lip as he felt his pants tighten around him, he could feel another part of him start to wake up as well, after having slumbered for almost a month. His grip tightened on the controller as he shifted in his seat, spreading his legs wider to add a little more friction and pressure to his semi-hardening erection.

Marcie could feel the smile that stretched across her face, smug and victorious. She could fell herself start to drool and she inched closer. He was reacting to her. Reaching her hand down to her own apex, Marcie ran her fingers through her folds biting back a sigh and played with her clit and watched the tent in his pants twitch and rise.

Levi sucked in a breath, releasing his lip, a vein pulsated along his neck as he grit his teeth together. She was teasing him now. She had to have known what affect she had on him. The screen blacked out as it shifted to a loading screen. Taking the moment to roll his chair back, Levi arched his body, turning to look into the tub bed. He felt his heart stop when it was empty. He clearly still smelled her, but where-

Oh.

She smiled innocently as they made eye contact, raising her hand to her mouth and sucked on the fingers that were previously rubbing against her folds. Marcie groped her breast before pointing up, indicating his game had finished loading.

Levi's mouth was gaping, his face was burning red, his erection straining against his pants. His eyes slowly followed where she was pointing and he scrambled to pull himself back to his desk and turned off the camera.

"S-sorry everyone," he gulped, ignoring all the comments flowing in, "uh, technical d-difficulties," Levi cleared his throat, "let's p-pick up where we left off." Marcie snickered silently as he tried to keep his composure and placed her hands on his knees, gently squeezing his thighs. Levi shifted into his demon form instantaneously and Marcie licked her lips as his tail cracked against the tile floor.

This was supposed to be the moment in the game where he was to fight Alduin. He had spent days level crunching so he could be prepared. Oh, he was going to punish her. Levi smiled deviously and paused the game.

"I swear, some people in this house are really inconsiderate, I'm sorry, I have to go yell at Mammon again," his tail was thrashing around behind him making crashing noises to accompany the lie. Muting the microphone, Levi rolled his chair back slowly and leaned forward to grip Marcie's chin and pulled her up to meet his face, a wicked grin spreading over his lips. Marcie gulped and licked her lips in anticipation.

"You're going to sit in my lap, and I'm going to edge you until I've decided you've had enough." She nodded enthusiastically and he shook his head, and let out a deep laugh "You underestimate my power."

In normal circumstances, she would have snorted at the reference but with her current state of arousal and the way he was devouring her almost-naked form with his eyes, his words sent shivers down her spine.

Levi rolled his chair back and Marcie climbed out from under his desk. He raised his hips and commanded her to take off his pants.

"You should be wet enough to take all of me, right kohai?"

Marcie bit her lip and twirled a stand of her hair around her finger, saying, "but you're so big senpai, I don't know if my tight pussy will be able to take all of you, but maybe if you fucked my throat first?" Her lower lip jutted out in a pout and he groaned, the arm rests cracking under his grip.

Levi released a dark chuckle, cocked his head to the side, and smiled sadistically. "You haven't earned that right. You know where the lube is, go get it." She pouted but obliged, pulling open one of the drawers and took out the bottle.

"Good girl now hand it over," he outstretched his hand and Marcie whined. He was denying her of touching him, he tutted in response as she held it out to him. "You should have thought about that earlier. You have to earn the right to touch me," Levi coated his erection with enough lube and tossed the bottle onto the floor. "Now, turn around and come sit on my lap."

"Yes senpai," Marcie did as she was told, sticking her ass out further than necessary before lowering herself down, releasing a shuddering moan as his size stretched her out. The lube made it easier for him to slide in but she was still met with resistance and struggled with his size, riding him shallowly to coax her muscles to loosen up.

Levi growled, his tail cracking against the floor as he felt her walls squeeze him. It had been awhile since they were last intimate, and he could tell with the way her heat constricted around him. Leaning forward, a claw traced the fabric of her bra before twisting, slicing right through the fabric. His hand reached around and groped her plump breast as she had done earlier, his other hand moving down her body.

His fingers ghosted over her skin, feeling the flesh ripple and twitch under his delicate touch. He bit into her shoulder as his hand reached her apex, his fingers rolling themselves over her sensitive nub and lapped his tongue against the love bite.

"What's wrong Marcelline," he palmed her breast, toying with her nipple and teased the skin on her other shoulder, "I thought you wanted this yet you're struggling. Try to keep quiet as you take the rest of me or I'll have no choice but to shove my tail down your throat." The tip of the appendage slithered around her thigh before coming up to flick against her clit as emphasis. Panting and biting her lip, Marcie continued rolling her hips in slow and shallow thrusts, moving as much as he'd allow. His nails dug into her hip painfully if she moved too much.

Rolling them back to the computer, Levi switched out his headphones, opting for a single earbud so he could hear her and the game, and moved his mic to the other side, away from Marcie but still able to talk into it. He'd have to read the comments later, but he lost a few viewers.

'I bet if I turned the camera back on, the viewer count would skyrocket.' Levi mulled over the thought but she threw her head back onto his shoulder as she fully seated herself on his lap and he could see her face; eyes clouded in lust, breasts rolling around to match her panting, cheeks burning bright red, mouth hanging open, was that drool? No, only he was allowed to see her like this. No one else deserved to lay eyes on his precious Marcie.

Levi gave her breast one last squeeze before returning his hand to the keyboard. "Not a single peep. If you make a noise or try to move, I will only play longer." He kissed her shoulder, "you understand kohai?" He smiled as she nodded.

Shout-out to @kawaiizard for helping me beta read this 😭 I appreciate you 💜

#obey me #obey me mc #obey me oc #obey me levi #obey me leviathan #om! swd #om leviathan #om levi #levi smut #obey me smut #om smut #obey me levi x mc #levi x oc #Levi x mc #n/sfw

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botwstoriesandsuch · 3 years

Text

Whoopsie King Rhoam’s a dick but I gotta flesh him out so

Read Part 1 here!

Part 2

If you’re on mobile, and tumblr hates this post, follow along on this google doc!

Rules/overview this rewrite in the beginning of Part 1

‘sup ya beautiful bastards it’s time to gush about the process of storytelling and writing as we fix up the fix it fic so let’s just jump into it

- - - - - - - - - -

A quick recap of Part 2, and I swear this recap is faster than the recap last time: Chapter 3 of Age of Calamity opens with a more substantial scene the beginning points of Revali’s character, and contrasting the old position that Link and eggbot have, so that their later changes in this chapter (well, at least for Link in this chapter) are more pronounced. We edited a bit of the dialogue to make Revali’s intentions make a bit more sense, while also putting some little foreshadowing points with some camera tricks for the Hollow Champions. The Hollow Champions can now speak, which means their potential for being used to bring out the flaws or bitter aspects of each character is more readily available further into the story. And of course, we’ve introduced the main antagonist of Astor, and coupling his presence and dynamic with Zelda’s insecurities. While his intentions of needing Zelda for something is clear, his motivations and backstory remain a mystery as of yet, the only true clue we have so far being some sort of connection to eggbot.

I didn’t get any big asks or comments about Part 2 so I’m going to assume that it was mostly well received (although I will note that I promise I’m going to flesh out Revali to be more than he has been presented as of yet, this is just the very very start of this development don’t you worry your feather loving butts) that being said, you should totally critique me or give me your opinions or comments. I’d love to hear them! Although, keep in mind that I am restraining my rewrite to the guidelines already said, so don’t get mad at me for not killing off all the Champions or something. Thaaat’s a rewrite for another time. So yeah if you reblog you get a little kiss from me because believe it or not I spent a lot of time trying to rewrite an entire storyline while keeping it’s tone and integrity intact. So thanks much <3

Okie dokie then chaps! Let us finally delve into Urbosa lesbian vibes, a zest of Zelink angst, rants about pacing, and a couple tablespoons of Astor backstory, all starting in the latest stage of Chapter 3: The Road Home, Besieged

So right of the bat, big problem here. This Chapter follows directly after the events of Korok Forest, so you assume that maybe “The Road Home” refers to the team, going home, back to the castle, to tell King Rhoam what’s up. But...that’s apparently not the case.

So this entire stage, firstly, it brushes over any scenes where Zelda, Link or the other Champions might talk to King Rhoam about the Master Sword, or the Deku Tree, or...hmm what else happened last stage that might be interesting to see—oh yEAH HOW ABOUT that mysterious magic guy that tried to kill Zelda and was going off about the future and stuff?? That guy that wielded a bunch of dark magic and malice looking stuff and, uh yeah, you’d think it might be important and interesting to see the King’s take on was is essentially a wanted traitor to the crown who may or may not be leading the entire movement for the Calamity’s uprising. But nope, no one asks questions, no one says anything or has interesting conversations that reveal stuff about the plot. It's just….just all about Zelda and ooooOOooo she can’t awaken her powers oh no what’s a gal to do!

And I do mean that quite literally, this entire stage is all centered around two scenes with Zelda. The first, an admittedly narratively important scene of Zelda having a quick flashback about eggbot after he sings her a song, but it lasts for five seconds. And the second, being a pep talk with Urbosa as Link eats rocks in the background. For the majority of this stage, it’s all focused on Zelda, and pacing wise, it does virtually nothing to progress the narrative/plot forward.

And on paper, there’s nothing wrong with that! Hell, people read entire fanfictions dedicated to character development and relationships that have absolutely no external plot. Having a scene dedicated to just character development is completely fine, it’s something that’s pretty common and even encouraged to an extent. The problem arises when you remember that this is a story being told through the medium of a video game.

Now, I am going to try and breeze by this because, similar to Age of Calamity, I have to also construct this post with pacing that keeps my audience engaged, while progressing with my core narrative and story. But I highly encourage you to watch through this video by hello future me (On Writing: How to Master Pacing) because a lot of what I know about this I’ve picked up from his videos, and if you’re a writer or just someone who thinks storytelling is cool, it’s a great guide to the art of pacing.

youtube

Anyhow. There are two levels of pacing within a story. There is the small type of pacing, like for the structure of a singular scene. And there is the pacing of the overall core narrative, how the larger beats of the entire story is revealed. Good pacing for your core narrative is about whether the reader feels like they are getting closer to the big thing, the big climax or answer or promise of satisfaction. The smaller type of pacing, for your singular scenes, focuses on that timing between how close you get to achieving new information, this refers to your slow and fast pacing, tension versus rapid action.

So, overall the rule of thumb is: the amount of time you invest into your smaller scenes, even put together, that must correlate with a big enough payoff in the core narrative. That’s what good pacing is. (And that’s why people make stuff like the Three Act Structure to help visualize this pacing process but obviously other forms of pacing guidelines exist like the Five and Seven Act Structures but that’s too complicated for this Nintendo Game anyhow that’s just some educational flavour for ya to impress your highschool English Teacher I guess)

So knowing that, the question now is: Does The Road Home, Besieged contribute good pacing to the story? This is going to be my excuse for changing up other later scenes in the game, so when I mention pacing and narrative again, remember this. The time spent playing for thirty minutes, minimum, in the game, to only be paid off by two lines of character development isn’t good pacing. So the answer is “no.”

Delving as long an amount of time as thirty minutes, means that pretty much everytime a stage is complete, you must introduce new substantial progress to your story. A game like this just doesn’t have time to waste it’s valuable cutscenes on character development alone. There’s an even further wrench in the issue when you consider you also need to account for sidequests, so you could really be forcing your player to go through hours of gametime before you introduce new details in the story.

Obviously it’s not always gonna be cut and dry like that—sometimes you have to account for how enjoyable the gameplay is, and sometimes the amount of character development offsets any lack of narrative development—but for the majority of stages I’m gonna change, they all suffer this pacing problem. In a game that's entire story hinges on these cutscenes, bad pacing is just something it doesn’t have time for.

Anyhow anyhow anyhow, I got to get my dose of serotonin by talking about pacing writing structure and stuff and blah blah, so now I shall grace you with the changes that address these problems that would theoretically lead to vast improvement. I gave you this reasoning and backstory to writing because I am making hella changes, to hopefully make the experience more “poggers,” which is something the cool kids say these days if you didn’t know.

Firstly, timeline wise this stage is gonna take place directly after the Korok Forest battle. The gang is returning home from the battle, with Link, the new wielder of the Master Sword, along with this new information regarding a certain Astor character.

We open the same way it does in game, focusing on Zelda’s face, before the frame is suddenly blocked by the pommel of the Master Sword. A wordless way to express how the sudden revelation of Link being the hero has forced its way into Zelda’s mind, great use of camera Koei Tecmo 10 outta 10

Now I don’t want to immediately jump into Zelda’s “oh poor me I can’t awaken my powers” dialogue because—and this is something even Breath of the Wild is guilty of—This game seems to forget that there are other characters besides Zelda. It’s marketed towards kids, sure, but I assure you that kids playing this game have a longer attention span than 2 minutes. You don’t need to keep reminding the audience every single scene about how Zelda is anxious about her powers. It gets redundant, you waste the audience’s time, and therefore you waste your own time, because you could have been using that precious screen time to develop some other thing further. So anyhow, goes a bit like this.

Zelda’s walking, the Master Sword comes into frame. Zelda looks down at the ground but keeps walking, but you can tell from her expression that she’s troubled. Don’t need to waste time on dialogue for her here, show don’t tell, we need to make the most of the scene here. Camera is still on Zelda, but the focus blurs shifts from Zelda to the Champions behind her. We can start with Mipha, I don’t have my heart set heavily on any specific dialogue, but I want her to say something along the lines of “how proud she is of Link” and what an honor it will be to fight by the side of not just her dear friend, but also someone selected by the goddess to be the hero. Subtextually, I want her to say this in a tone that suggests that she doubts the need for her to be here at all. She’ll say something like “He’s grown so…” glances up at Link who's just walking ahead, “...so much stronger than I could ever imagine. [Something Something] His power has grown so much over the course of a few days, more than I have achieved in a lifetime.” She looks down, but she still has a sweet smile.

Now I’m doing this because I want to develop further this plot line of “getting stronger” that Age of Calamity sets up but never does anything with. Remember how in Chapter 2, Mipha asks Daruk to train with her to get stronger? I really like the possibilities of this arc with Mipha as it can not only parallel with her feelings for Link, but also make her character better as an individual. Mipha wants to get stronger so that she can protect Link, but now she thinks that Link’s already growing stronger to an extent that she might not be needed. She’s not jealous of Link, nor does she wish him to be weaker, she simply wants to be more than she already is. This is literally echoing her words that she left her father, about how leaving the Domain and experiencing new challenges would be “good for her.” So I wanna run with it. The dialogue here establishes Mipha’s motivation to grow stronger, almost equivalent to a rivalry of sorts.

So after Mipha says this, Revali scoffs and butts in. Again, I’m not too set on any particular dialogue here, just something like “Hmph! Well, I don’t know about that. Seems to me all that’s happened is some magic sword gave the knight an ego boost. Blade’s only as strong as the little Hylian who wields it, and—based on my own extended experience and professional observations of course—I’ve yet to see this ‘stronger’ boy that you speak of.” Another camera pan to Link a ways in front of them. “If you ask me, hero or no, that knight is still exactly the same as I first met him.”

Revali places a wing on his chest dramatically. “Perhaps if you’re truly keen on seeing growth in skill and strength, Mipha, you’d do well to—”

“Flattering of an offer as that may be, Revali,” Urbosa interjects, “But I think Mipha might find it difficult to observe growth from one of the shortest Rito in Hyrule.”

Cue laughter from others or snickering or something. We just need some banter to add a bit more flavour to the characters. Revali can do a little huff and cross his wings or flip his scarf or something. But then Urbosa continues.

“Although...he is right about one thing.” Urbosa looks straight ahead. “A sword does not alter a hand, just as strength does not alter character.” She puts a hand on Mipha’s shoulder. “Grow as he might, there is no doubt in my mind that he is the same boy as he’s always been.” Urbosa looks up in the direction of Zelda. “Whether you realize it or not.”

Ok so, scene’s not done yet, BUT quick gush on the dialogue flow here. I’m trying to establish parallels in these character perspectives based on the flow of conversation. We started with Mipha who, like I said, wished to grow stronger along with Link. This flows into Revali who also has a similar parallel as he wishes to grow above Link’s shadow. But the distinction between Mipha and Revali is that Mipha think’s Link’s strength is earned, and Revali thinks he cheated, gaining authority through a magic sword, and not through merit and skill. Thus, leading to Revali’s perspective of Link being exactly the same as he’s always been, he believes the sword doesn’t change anything. Urbosa then speaks, because she thinks exactly the same thing. However, her distinction is that Link is the same as he’s always been: a determined young boy earned his place and cares for his friends. Then she looks to Zelda who, as we know, will develop a perspective that contradicts this. So you get it? This scene is like 20 seconds long but it already mirrors nearly all the character parallels and perspective, that’s why the flow of dialogue is important. And I know half of you probably think these kinds of details are a stretch but I promise you it’s not, just look at any movie or show ever and I guarantee you can find similar stuff there too. Ok moving on moving on—

Urbosa looks up at Zelda, comments her, “He’s the same boy, whether you realize it or not” piece of dialogue. Camera shifts back to Zelda and Link, who, idk if I mentioned this, but in the scene there’s enough distance between the Champions and Zelda and Link that the Champions can speak without the other two listening. So they didn’t hear any of this.

So the camera is back on Zelda, and now we can get her “How can I…..If I am unable to awaken my inner power….” line. Eggbot senses her sadness, does his little cheer up dance, Zelda gets a flashback.

One small change I wanna make to this flashback: Instead of just a baby Zelda going “nighty-night” I want there to ALSO be a figure in the background behind eggbot wearing a silk royal blue dress. And said woman has blonde hair and she’s by the table back there. We don’t have to show her face or anything because Nintendo hates that. Just place the woman somewhere in the back somewhere

Also possibly you could add the shadow of another figure by the doorway, maybe? It would serve good continuity purposes for the plot points that I’m telling, but that part is not as necessary. I just need at least the woman there.

Then Zelda is like “I remember you” to eggbot and all that and blah blah… Now, instead of Impa offscreen just yelling “enemy ahead!” I just want it to be a full on ambush. Not like a major one, but just enough where the group is surprised a bit. Maybe on the cliffs above, a lizalfo throws a boomerang, or a bokoblin shoots and arrow, or even just throws a rock. I don’t really care. I just need this to happen because…

As soon as this danger is presented, Link turns around to grab Zelda’s hand and they start running again. And he can like use his body to try and shield her a bit, I need it to parallel how he acted during Chapter 1 on the road to the Royal Tech Lab. However, this parallel has one important distinction because…

Zelda rips he grip from Link’s after a moment. “You don’t need to coddle me!” She says, or something along those lines. “Y-You...You’re the hero aren’t you! I’m perfectly fine, you don’t need to spend your precious time playing babysitter to me.” In the distance, a horde of monsters is beginning to form. Zelda looks between the monsters and Link’s Master Sword, her expression unreadable. “Well? Just...just go do what you need to do.” Link hesitates, looking between her, and the approaching monsters. Zelda speaks more sternly now, “Go!” So Link, not one to disregard an order from the Princess, gives one last look to Zelda before setting off towards the monsters. Maybe Zelda can take a deep breath to steady herself after he leaves, but as soon as Link unsheathes his sword, the metal glistening in the setting sunlight, it cuts immediately to gameplay. Start battle.

For essays’ purposes this is the part where I explain why this is better than the original. So here’s my reasoning:

Uhhh, it just is. :3

Ok but seriously, I’ve already talked a tone about why the pacing and dialogue flow is better than the original. But also this scene doesn’t just say “Ooo Zelda is sad about her powers,” because that’s not interesting. Like I said, it’s redundant information. What is interesting is see how characters deal with that internal conflict and how it affects their relationships. AKA Zelda’s relationship with Link, who now basically embodies the success that she’s been working so hard towards but never achieved, is deteriorating a bit. I wanted to get that sense of the Zelda that we see in Breath of the Wild because all things considered, they should be roughly the same character.

So that’s that, you fight the battle, the Hollows show up a bit, so insert “dark evil Champion” dialogue because if you’re gonna use the evil clone trope might as well use it to the fullest. Then you fight the Talus and hurray horrah the day is saved.

Then we have that iconic Urbosa motherly pep talk to Zelda as Link eats rocks in the background. Now honestly, I’m not that big a fan of the first half of the dialogue, so I wanna change it into something more interesting. But the rest of the beats and camera work go roughly the same.

Zelda: “Link is...so much stronger now”

Urbosa: “‘And yet I have not.’ I presume that’s what you’re thinking, hmm?”

Zelda: “Well it’s true, isn’t it? More and more, monsters have been appearing around Hyrule. It is a sign that the Calamity draws near. So...there isn’t much time. And still, no sign of my power awakening.”

Urbosa: *sighs* “Little bird…”

Zelda cuts her off, in an attempt to change topics: “Why do you call me that?”

Urbosa: “Hmm?”

Zelda: “Little bird...I feel like I’ve heard it before. Why do you call me that?”

Urbosa, after a beat looks off in the distance or something: “A long time ago, my dear friend would call me to the palace, or perhaps invite herself over to mine, [she chuckles] ...and she would talk with me all day, and ask me to gaze upon her little bird with her. Her dearest daughter...a princess”

Zelda: “You mean my…”

Urbosa just smiles with a soft nod: “Back then, times were a bit different. The destiny that you have was still upon the Queen, who worked day and night to refine her powers and fulfill her destiny. In just a few short years, I went from being friends with a Queen, to friends with the destined sealer of the Calamity.”

Another pause, before Urbosa speaks again: “But...she was still the same woman I had grown with. Still the same loving mother who spoke about her little bird with joy. She had not changed one bit.”

Urbosa: “Even when your mother passed, her loving smile was there until the very end. She always loved you—believed in you, Zelda. She had great hope, great faith that her daughter would grow into the beacon of light Hyrule needed. That even with her gone, you would spread your wings and fly, because you were just that amazing to her.” *Urbosa puts her hands on Zelda’s shoulders.*

Urbosa: “Destiny did not change your mother’s love, just as it does not change Link’s courage, or your value.” *the camera can pan to Link eating rocks now*

Urbosa looks directly at Zelda now: “Look how hard we’ve all worked to get this far, how hard you have worked to get here. While we may grow in strength, in that regard, we’re all one in the same.”

Zelda: “...I….well…”

Urbosa: “What did the Great Deku Tree say? There is no need to fret princess.”

Urbosa: “Our faith, Link’s, your mother’s, it’s all as strong as ever. And everyday, with every moment that you travel towards your destiny, it just grows. It is always with us. So believe in that, have hope, yet, little bird.” *Eggbot can scurry up and make cute noises here next to Zelda*

Urbosa: “I know, you are where you need to be. You must accept that too.”

Zelda: “...”

Zelda gives a solemn nod: “Thank you, Urbosa.”

So that’s that scene! Don’t let the length fool you, it’s technically even shorter than the original scene in Age of Calamity. So why is it, in my opinion, better? Because for one, we actually get an insight into Zelda’s mom and Urbosa’s relationship, something that was PROMISED To us but never given and I’m still a bit salty about it. Anyhow, in addition to just getting some lore details, that relationship between the Queen and Urbosa is important for this scene because, just like Urbosa spells out, it’s in direct parallel with Link and Zelda.

Before the Queen suddenly got sick and died, she was destined to seal the Calamity. But she didn’t let that destiny change her, she was still the same loving mother to the end. Now that is something that Zelda needs to realize about Link, as his newly acquired destiny doesn’t change who he was before, the knight who cares for her and wishes to protect her. Zelda needs to realize he’s the same and that she can still trust and confide in him. Hence, that’s why this mom backstory is in this scene and not somewhere else, because it serves to the narrative but also more impactfully to the character development.

The dialogue could probably be polished a bit more but come on, not half bad for an improvement yeah? So that concludes Chapter—

SIKE we’re not done yet. We still have to move into the entire point of this stage, the road home, to the castle.

So, badabing badaboom, I’m adding an entirely new scene from scratch right here at the end, because it is VITAL that I set up something new about the story, as a sort of clincher. So anyhow

Zelda is alone with her father, let’s set it in the royal library (Intact, not ruined, of course) because we don’t see enough of that location and it’s really cool. So Zelda is briefing her dad about the events in Korok Forest and on the journey back home. I know I always gush about cinematography but it can’t be fully appreciated since I’m….writing,,, this, BUT I think it might be fun if the side shots of Zelda have her background be some bookcases of the library, maybe half bookcases and the other half the ornate walls. Then the background for the King’s shots is the full symmetry of the elegant staircases.

[And if you needed the specific reasoning for that, because it makes camera shots more fun. Like when Zelda says something that aids in her scholarly side, the camera angle can change slightly where the bookcases take up more of the frame, and then when the King’s will takes more power, then the book cases can be angled a bit more out of frame. And then the symmetry of the King by the staircase is a way to show his higher power dynamic to her, and contrasts well with Zelda’s shots since the bookcases are dark and the stone is lighter, so on a meta level is also makes it easier for the audience to understand where they are. Shot composition is fun ok, and that’s not even getting into color theory (Thinks about Baby Driver and LaLaLand....even videogames like Undertale and Hollow Knight have such wonderful shot composition and use of color theory hhhhh love it)]

Ok so Zelda’s briefing the King in the library, she’s standing while he’s sitting at a desk. There’s maybe two or four Royal Guards on the staircase entrances, but for the most part, they’re alone. You can tell that this meeting between them has been going on for a bit now, as from Zelda’s dialogue, she’s retelling events midway through the story.

The King is flipping through some paperwork, not really looking Zelda in the eyes. She continues speaking.

“And so...with the malice cleared and the monsters being dealt with, Link and I made our way into the heart of Korok Forest.”

The King hums a response, flipping through another page. “And this is when Link pulled out the Sword that Seals the Darkness then, I presume.”

Zelda paused, as of thinking of how to phrase her next words. “Not exactly. I...we both encountered someone beforehand. A man, with a pale face, and dark hair and robes, and he had the power to control malice, using a strange object in one of his hands.”

Rhoam stops writing in his journal or whatever. He doesn’t look up, but the sudden stop he makes is obvious. Zelda notices, but continues.

“He talked about...the Calamity, and my birthday...destiny, and the future….I’m not quite sure I can remember his intentions word for word. But he did introduce himself as—“

“Astor…” Zelda and the King say simultaneously. The King has fully perked up now, looking at Zelda. She’s pleased to see a reaction from him. The King rises from his chair, and starts pacing a bit, stroking his beard thoughtfully like the asshole he is.

“So you know him then? This Astor man? Who is he, father? What does he—“

“Were you alright? Did he hurt you, or mention anything else?”

Zelda pauses for a moment before shaking her head, as if the concern he was expressing was uncharacteristic. “N-No. No, I’m fine, and Link was there. During the battle, as Link fought him off, that was when the sword was pulled. Then Astor fled, or...” Zelda pauses for a beat, “retreated...he expressed his wish to speak with me again.”

Another beat of silence, as Rhoam gets up, hands clasped behind his back. “He used to work at this very palace.” The shot is now directly on Rhoams back, as he faces a bookcase, although it’s clear that he’s just deep in thought, and not just staring at books. Rhoam is in third column of the shot (he’s to the right, not in the center)

“A trusted advisor. Someone gifted with foresight, who many years ago, had first predicted the coming Calamity.” Cut to shot of Rhoams face, the camera being by the bookcase, so that we see Rhoam’s expression and Zelda’s.

“In truth, I thought him dead. For the last time I saw him alive—truly, truly alive—was ten long years ago...” The shot goes back to the original establishing shot, of Rhoam facing away from the camera, towards the bookcase, he’s standing to the right, hands still clasped behind his back.

“...when your mother still graced this earth.”

From left frame, a younger Astor walks up and stands beside Rhoam. He runs his fingers along the books. Rhoam looks to his left, as if he is seeing Astor. Camera cuts to Astor’s right, as if looking at him from Rhoam’s perspective. He continues brushing his fingers against the spines of the books, before he finds the one he’s looking for. Pulling it out, he opens the book, flipping through its pages, before giving a genuine smile. Cut back to wide angle behind them. With the book, Astor starts walking back out left frame, but this time the camera follows him. Filter fade to a memory tint as the camera pans right to left

[when the camera fades fully into the Astor memory, the figures can have that silhouetted effect like you see in botw. Cause I know Nintendo hates making new character models for some reason.]

So if it wasn’t clear already, even though the memory filter doesn’t come immediately, Astor isn’t actually there, but it’s just a flashback. I’m a sucker for merges, which is something this game and botw NEVER do which bugs me because there are so many creative ways you could introduce flashbacks without just doing “ooOooOoo fade to sepia filter and then oooOOooOOO we fade back to reality and no time has passed.” I apologize if my explanation of the camera doesn’t make sense as it’s hard without much visual aid, but hopefully it makes sense so far. Anyhow! Let’s continue.

We’re now fully immersed in this memory, but King Rhoam’s voice still narrates overhead.

Astor brings the book to one of the desks in the library, where a woman sits writing something onto paper. News flash, it’s the queen. Astor hands her the book and starts speaking about something, although you can tell the tone of their conversation is light, almost akin to Zelda rambling about Sheikah Technology. The Queen laughs about something unheard, as Astor continues ranting about something, his hands moving to like a professor giving a lecture.

Rhoam Narration: “When he had first predicted the Calamity, things were much more hopefully for our kingdom. As although his foresight granted him only glimpses and fragments of a future, he was almost certain that with the Guardians, and the strength of your mother’s power, our victory would be absolute.”

Scene changes to the Queen walking down a corridor, Astor is leaning against the wall by a window.

Rhoam Narration: “He and your mother would often work together tirelessly to study the ancient arts, to make the most of the powers given by the goddess.”

The Queen has walked up to Astor now. She crouches down and gestures to her left, the side not yet seen by the camera.

Rhoam Narration: “In fact…”

The camera changes to focus to where the Queen was looking towards—a young Zelda, crouched behind her mother’s dress, stares up at Astor.

Rhoam Narration: “I would not be surprised if you found within yourself, a memory of such.”

I would prefer if you could see the expressions of Astor (giving Zelda not a smile, but not really a frown or anything rude either) and young Zelda. But I guess it can also just be silhouettes too cause again, Nintendo hates giving us younger character models outside of first person POV stuff. Anyhow.

The scene fades, the light from the window dimming as everything darkens.

Rhoam Narration: “I often times wish we could go back to such a time, when victory and pride swam in every corner of this castle. But of course…”

The scene brightens again, although not as bright as before. It’s the exact same corridor with the large window, but now it’s raining. A young Zelda stands alone in front of it, looking outside.

Rhoam Narration: “Such a time did end…”

We now cut to a new scene, King Rhoam is walking down a hall, the camera’s perspective is of a bird’s eye view, like we’re peering in from outside a window. We can see the shadow of Astor chasing after him, as he starts speaking frantically about something, not quite, but almost to the point of shouts.

Rhoam Narration: “After your mother died, the visions of the future shifted drastically. No longer was there glimpses of rolling fields and shimmering skies, but instead, of rubble, red earth, and death.”

You can now more clearly hear the words coming out of Astor’s mouth. He is telling something about failure, and souls, and the Calamity to the King’s ear. He’s still walking forward.

Rhoam Narration: “He was adamant that our demise was now coming faster than ever, and that without your mother, we were doomed. That even you, should you take up your mother’s mantle, could not save everyone.”

Astor: “I’m telling you Your Majesty, if you go down this path, there is no going back.”

King Rhoam: “There is no other choice, we are moving forward.”

Astor: “I don’t think you quite understand the true gravity of the fate you’re choosing for yourself. It is a guarantee that you, me, and countless others shall die.”

King Rhoam: “I don’t want to hear it.”

Astor: “And of course, there are a multitude of possibilities, but the end result is the same.”

Astor: “Do you have a preference, perhaps? Crushed by rubble? Suffocation under ash?”

Rhoam’s tone is deadly: “Stop.”

Astor: “I’ve seen fire too. I’m not yet quite sure the exact circumstances that lead to flame appearing and spreading so quickly, but rest assured that if you—”

King Rhoam: “Stop.”

Astor: “If you saddle someone else with this duty I am absolutely certain that you and I will—”

King Rhoam, voice not shouting, but still with a booming intensity: “Just like you were so certain of our victory 10 years ago?”

Astor’s face darkens. He’s silent for a moment, collecting his words before practically spitting the first articulation: “...That, future, was the one that would come to be if Her Majesty was alive. If you’re so unsatisfied with my departed wisdom you can go ahead and flail around with destiny alone. You think I choose for these events to happen? You think I lie when I saw I want what’s best for this kingdom—”

King Rhoam: “What’s best for you.”

An ugly pause.

King Rhoam: “It is decided, Seer. It’s time you accept this. My wife is dead. That is the truth. Thus the role of sealing the Calamity shall pass to my daughter. She will work to awaken her own ability. It will be her duty to save us.”

Astor half laughs: “A child?! Surely you don’t need the supernatural to see how foolish that is.”

King Rhoam’s voice is even more stern: “You are living proof that the future is not absolute. Therefore I...must place all belief in her ability.”

The King walks away, leaving Astor alone. Weirdly, he smiles. Perhaps to mask some other emotion.

After another moment, Astor yells to the King: “I’ll fix this! Alone if I must!” He’s chuckling as he shakes his head. “Your useless faith may cost many lives, but even so mark my words, I will fix this.”

The King looks back, but says nothing, his expression unreadable. He continues forward, leaving Astor alone chuckling, or perhaps something in between chuckling and crying to himself.

Rhoam Narration: “We haven’t spoken since that day. I simply left him to his devices. If he was so determined to find another way to stop the Calamity, then who was I to stop him. I doubt my word could have swayed his mind regardless.

We’re now looking at a room, the camera is just by the doorway, looking at an office, circular and domed. It’s stone brick walls are covered in parchment and ripped books, covered in symbols and frantic writing. An old Sheikah tapestry hangs crudely on the left wall, and the window on the right seems to tint grey, or even a deepest crimson. Centerframe, is the back of Astor, robe hanging just above the paper ridden floor. He is flipping through something on his desk.

Rhoam Narration: “Fixated as he was on the perfect future that you mother might have led, I still had hope that with time, he might still assist you with your destiny one day.”

The camera slowly comes closer to Astor. We can see more clearly the type of stuff that sprawls the papers and books and diagrams across his office. Some depict stars and constellations, and even a few notes on Ancient Technology, although in a noticeably cleaner font. However, as the camera moves close and closer to Astor, the papers and books depict only one clear topic: the aura of death that comes only with necromancy.

Rhoam Narration: “It seems…”

Astor finally reacts to whatever he was doing on his desk. You don’t see his eyes, but as he fully turns around to face the camera, you see his smile, along with him holding a dark orb of unknown energy. It hovers in his hand.

Rhoam Narration: “...I was mistaken.”

The camera cuts to a wide angle, looking at Astor from behind a stack of books on his desk. The stack of books on Astor’s desk brighten in color (from the memory dull filter), until the scene fully fades back into the Royal Library. The camera is now focused on a similar stack of books on the desk behind Zelda, where Rhoam was working before.

Zelda is still looking at her father, who is still turned away. Now, he turns back around to face her.

“He had disappeared completely one day, so it was my understanding that whatever he was working on killed him. However, if he is truly back as you say…”

Rhoam walks closer to Zelda, close enough that he might have put a hand on her shoulder, but his arms stay behind his back.

“It is in your utmost interest to prove him wrong. I know not what he plans on doing, but it would be wise to stop him before he does.”

Rhoam turns away now, pacing back to the otherside of the desk. “But, your more important priority is unlocking your powers, understand? Now more than ever, is not the time to get distracted.”

Zelda, taking this all in, takes a deep breath. She then nods at him. “I understand...Father.”

After a moment, the King makes a motion as if to dismiss her. She starts to walk away, her thoughts churning in her head, heart thumping to the same beat as her echoing footsteps. Suddenly, Rhoam calls,

“Zelda.” It’s not a question, but the tone is asked like one.

She turns back, looking at him, expectantly. Rhoam only stares at her, an uncharacteristic moment of uncertainty for him. The words he wants to form seem stuck in his throat, until finally, he lets out a quiet breathe through his nose, before simply saying:

“You must.”

Zelda can only frown, her shoulder’s slumping slightly, as she ducks her head and leaves.

- - - - - -

And that’s that! That’s the complete end of Chapter 3. So tune in next time for Chapter 4, including a new slight but important story changes, Yiga husbands, and shocking turns of events.

Edit: I forgot that posts with link’s dont show up in tag results so a rb is appreciated :p

#Hwaoc: The Kip Cut #fuck this is the biggest one yet #hwaoc #age of calamity #hwaoc rewrite #hw age of calamity #hyrule warriors age of calamity

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porta-decumana · 3 years

Text

Zadnor & Bozja’s Ending

I know it’s been the bandwagon to hate on Werlyt and I’ve been critical of that plotline in the past as well. But Bozja may have just taken the cake for unsatisfactory storytelling, in my opinion, while also skirting into the same realm of “we’re gonna give imperialism a pass because maybe the Empire isn’t that bad uwu”. Obvious spoilers for rank 25 quests, the Dalriada raid, and Bozja’s story ending under the cut along with screenshots.

This is a pretty critical look at Zadnor specifically so if you don’t wanna read that then feel free to bypass this post.

Bajsaljen’s Constitution was probably the first part that really made me scratch my head and question the entire plot. I was convinced at first I was too sleepy to process what Bajsaljen was saying but then I went back and... yeah, he really did say that.

To which, Marsak calls him out on, a fact that I appreciate because my response was pretty much the same level of “wtf” as him and the nameless/dialogue-less NPCs in the room.

If you haven’t played Bozja in its entirety yet, you may not understand why I felt like this dialogue was incredibly appalling. The instances are filled with horrific encounters, some of which are:

Dabog, a former Resistance soldier who was experimented on in order to become an expert warmachina pilot and later shows back up in Zadnor as a model swap for the final boss of Gyr Abania. In other words, mutated beyond recognition.

Lorvo, another former member of the Resistance, who was tempered by the Queen. You fight alongside his student, who is trying to save him.

Shemhazai, a death spirit summoned with auracite and the sacrifices of Garlean soldiers.

Delubrum Reginae’s 2nd boss (I believe?) are a group of former Blades who have been tempered and their bodies have mutated. These are former comrades you, as the WoL, personally fought alongside in the early parts of the Southern Front. Named characters with backstories.

Fabineau quo Soranus - a brutal commander that is known to torment his subordinates and use men and animals both as test subjects.

And this is just a fraction of what I can think of off the top of my head. So understand that when I saw Bajsaljen say the above parts, I was questioning what parts of the Empire he was talking about. And I know he tries to use Misija as his reason for this but it still just doesn’t quite sit right with the literal everything else that happened fighting for Bozja. Because you can make the argument that Misija saw the Imperial way of life better but also you can make the argument that she was enacting a revenge plan that transcended multiple generations. Misija’s issue with Bozjan society was the mistreatment of her and her family as well as the murder of her ancestor-- classism. And while her hatred of Bozja and its high society (the Blades) might be understandable, I think it does little to excuse the rampant death and cruelty the IVth legion goes on to do.

I think what Bajsaljen is trying to say is that he does not want to create another society that would create more Misijas. But in doing so, it feels like he’s giving the IVth legion a pass after all the atrocities they’ve done (even calling the occupation “peace” and that... hnghhh is it peace when people are being used as experiments, Bajsaljen? And they’re being oppressed?) and it just feels really, really tone-deaf. Especially given that Bajsaljen’s top soldiers were all, for the most part, tempered and then put to death. That just adds an extra ouch factor.

I don’t wanna spend too long talking about this bit so I’m gonna move onto the next offender, which is Gabranth, or more specifically, what happens to Gabranth (or... how it happens, rather). Honestly, I was uncomfortable with the Bajsaljen stuff but the Gabranth field notes absolutely floored me. It feels as though there was either scrapped content here or... the team decided they could not continue the plotline with Gabranth any longer and decided to write him out in a note that only a handful of the playerbase will probably read because otherwise, there’s no indicator that Gabranth’s tale is over. Here are the bits of the field note in question:

And you might go, “Wow, that’s a wild way to end the Bozja tale” to which I would agree and remind you that none of this is shown in-game, it’s all just in a field note that could be easily skipped over. Yes. That’s right. Dalmasca’s freedom, Gabranth’s fate, Lyon going full mutiny... it’s all in a field note. The ending Bozja cutscenes actually have dialogue like this:

In another scene, with Lyon and Gabranth in Valnain, Dalmasca.

Note: this is an allusion to Noah having the same terminal illness as his father.

The scene ends with Lyon looking surprised at the weapons and Sicinius and Gabranth go to discuss the findings. The scene then cuts to this photo and the questline ends.

So to put it mildly... I’m mad. Why are we supposed to find out the fate of Dalmasca-- something that’s been in and out of the story since Stormblood-- through a field note? Why is Lyon’s betrayal also found out this way? And Gabranth’s alleged demise? I’m incredibly iffy on the choice to do this in the plot but I would be considerably less mad if any of this was indicated in the cutscenes. I happen to really like Gabranth’s XII’s iteration and the fact that we got a field note on him made me excited. I only found out about Dalmasca being freed, Lyon’s treachery, Gabranth’s death because of that. And that was incredibly jarring to read given the cutscenes I had just watched. There’s no indication that any of that would happen and I can’t help but feel as though that is a bit of lore that is often going to be overlooked by players who simply don’t think to check the field notes for important lore bombs.

I want to reiterate: I'm not specifically mad at the story decision to kill Gabranth (even if it’s a fake death), I’m mad at how this was all revealed to the players. Particularly the bit about Dalmasca. It discards the age-old rule of storytelling-- “show, don’t tell”. I could forgive them for having to cut certain bits of Bozja’s story because of the pandemic severely hampering development but... there had to have been a better way than this. Maybe redo some of the cutscene dialogue? Maybe add in a little bit more to the final scene? I was excited to face off against Gabranth. I was excited to go help liberate Dalmasca, especially after the Return to Ivalice plot really set us up for that in the future. This... just feels incredibly unfulfilling. And I hope that this is not how they decide to end things with this section of the story. The build from Return to Ivalice and the continuation of those plot threads in Bozja were great! Having it unceremoniously ended in a field note? Not so great.

Two honorable mention things that I don’t have the energy to talk about at large

Mikoto’s visions don’t feel significant enough to the story. This is particularly egregious in Zadnor’s arc, where she has a vision where she falls off an airship and then tells the WoL to not say anything because she “doesn’t want people to worry” instead of, idk, trying to find a way to save herself. She only sees herself fall, she doesn’t see herself land. But she insists there’s “nothing we can do about it anyways”. It... felt like they didn’t really matter in the end? Fran ends up deus ex machina-ing a rescue anyways so like... what was the point?

Misija's “redemption through death”, a tired trope that is even more tired in FFXIV. I know there’s two different endings to this quest but Misija being executed after being mortally wounded by the Diablos Armament is the ending I received.

Going to harken back to the criticisms of Werlyt. I’ll maintain my stance that I still think Werlyt had some glaring issues with it... but I will give it this. It didn’t kill off characters from a side plot that had been going on since Stormblood in a field note. And it didn’t involve the Werlytians being like “Hey let’s base our new constitution off of the VIIth legion... that is a great idea.”

Anyways, I still recommend doing Bozja if only because the Dalriada is a good instance with a very good final boss theme. I did enjoy aspects of the questline but the ending really soured my opinion of it.

#zadnor #a critical review #bozja spoilers #ffxiv spoilers #5.55 spoilers #long post #zadnor spoilers

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