#i would kill for them to give us that game back it was my fave gacha ever ;;

[goldentigerfestival]

if there is one thing i will never recover from with crestoria's crossover being gone for good, it's that we'll never ever know the story behind transgressor yuri.

if there are two things i will never recover from with crestoria's crossover being gone for good, it's that leon and aegis' loyal friendship will never ever return.

[niniane17]

I realize that anti Got Season 8 posting in late 2024 is a bit boomerish, but screw that it's my blog and there's no law stating that I can't post about That Series again.

I've stumbled across an old anti-Daenerys post written by a Sansa fan some months after the show ended and...oh my God. I had nearly forgotten just how batshit crazy those takes are.

Dany is a colonialist. Dany is a white supremacist. If you like her you are both. Martin is just pretending to write her as a hero, in the end he will reveal she was evil all along and freeing slaves was a secret code for enslaving people. Valyria is evil and the Targaryens are evil. Westeros is simultaneously the ancient Americas and Medieval Europe. Essos is Europe but also the Oppressed Middle East.

Sansa is the true anti colonialist hero. Sansa is the true opprossed woman. If you don't support her you are an oppressor and possibly a rapist yourself. The North is good and the Starks are good. When Arya sails West of Westeros sporting the North's banner, she is not partaking in colonialism, in fact, she will be the anti Christopher Columbus. How do we know that? Because she's a Stark, the Starks are good...

It's maddening. No wonder Daenerys fans are driven into a frenzy. It's not irrationality, it's just natural frustration at constantly being held to double standards and fighting some crazy takes.

Now, treating a fantasy tv show fandom as anti-colonial activism is bad enough, but it's clear to me that at least some of these takes are motivated by the fact they see Sansa as the underdog, mistreated by both the characters and sometimes even the narrative.

And here's where things get weird.

I've said many times that I didn't become a full Dany fan until she was heavily mistreated by the narrative, and I'm definitely not alone in this. Back in the day, many people who previously didn't care one bit for Daenerys suddenly ended up defending her or even stanning her.

Like, of course if somebody wants to root for the underdog, the first thing to do is rooting for the actual underdog. Season 8's underdog was Daenerys. Everyone and everything was deadly set against her from the moment she arrived in Winterfell. They constantly disrespected her, undercut her efforts, killed off or villainized her allies, snobbed her non-traditional upbringing, conspired behind her back. And all the while they always asked asked asked for more, nothing she was giving was enough.

In contrast, the Starks' and the North's actions were constantly justified or presented as good, even betrayal (which is a very huge deal in Westeros) or, in one instance, outright racism by the Northern people -this time fully intended by the production, rather than an unintentional outcome of some poor behind-the-scene choices.

At the end, Season 8's Starks were absolute gods who could do no wrong and were always in the right no matter what they did -except their bastard son, who was contaminated by the evil people's blood and has to symbolically kill that part of himself forever.

Well, guess what, people didn't like that. But the newfound Dany fans were perfectly consistent: they wanted the underdog to win, to overcome her hurdles, internal or external, and be happy at the end. If the underdog is Dany, well, then it's time for Dany to win.

It's Sansa stans that see everything in terms of How This Affects My Fave and are willing to bend over the narrative to get what they want. They are perfectly happy with a biased narrative and double standards, they just want it to be biased towards Sansa, and everything is fair game to them, including real life politics and vocabulary, with some hilarious results. For example: Sansa as the voice of the Oppressed Minorities is...a take, to say the least. Her world doesn't even have a prejudice against red hair, as it would have in real life.

And guess what else, this kind of Protagonist-Centered Morality is very similar to the one used by real life colonizers, especially in their "explorations". Not that it matters because this isn't a post-colonial story and it never will be. It's a story about a messed up Fantasy Medieval/Early Renassaince World with Dragons, heavily influenced by various periods of European history. The only vaguely post-colonial element are maybe the zombies-as-slaves metaphor, and I think it's more due to the fact that Martin was probably inspired by old horror Movies pre-dating the Romero ones. And who is liberating slaves in his story, again?

Anyway. 2019-2020 was a really weird time to be a Dany fan, and in hindsight it was crazy how much shit there was around a fantasy series with dragons. Surely five years later people are a little more normal, right? Right?

[giveamadeuschohisownmovie]

Shuichi, Himiko, Keebo, and Maki represent our fave characters in general. They’ve been made aware of their existence as characters and are horrified by the way they are being written.

Tsumugi represents companies that continue to milk franchises dry because the public keeps consuming the content. They don’t care about the significance of the story, they care about what sells. So, they keep coming up with all these ridiculous storylines to keep the show going, even though it’s at the expense of the characters we love.

The DRV3 in-game fanbase is the other main villain since they’ve lost appreciation of the story. All they want is more blood and lewdness, they don’t care about the characters and their journey. The thing is, the loss in appreciation happened because the company (aka Tsumugi aka Team Danganronpa) keeps churning out content for people to consume.

So it becomes a vicious cycle of the company not understanding the significance of the story they’re telling, which makes the audience care less and less about what they’re consuming. Tsumugi LITERALLY takes the form of previous Danganronpa characters just so the audience can go, “OMG, it’s my fave character from the other game!” There’s no other reason why Makoto and Kyoko show up, they’re just there for us to cheer as cameo characters.

And how do the villains justify their treatment of the heroes? They tell them that it’s all fiction, so it doesn’t matter what they do to them. Who cares if we kill off all your favorite characters, it’s just fiction bro. You’re just there for people’s entertainment, so do what the audience wants. Say the line everyone likes, or make their favorite ship canon. It doesn’t matter how much we torture you (read: “butcher your story” / “assassinate your character”), we can do whatever we want to you since it’s all fiction anyways.

And how do our heroes fight back? They tell Tsumugi and the audience that their lives matter and that fiction can change the world. That we need to remember that the media we consume has meaning and that we shouldn’t treat it like disposable material. It doesn’t matter if they’re fictional, they matter to someone out there.

/

/

Perhaps I’ve been too harsh on V3. People were so up in arms about the game supposedly dissing the fanbase when the ending was warning us about the dangers of companies destroying their own IPs by not letting them rest, as well as toxic fanbases losing appreciation of the series they’re a fan of. And they did it by having the characters themselves speak about how their lives are being ruined by the people writing/influencing their stories.

This is straight up something Black Mirror would make. In fact, they kinda did with Bandersnatch.

Okay, it’s official. V3 is my favorite Danganronpa. It’s got a lot of flaws, but I give it props for the vision.

[idontmindifuforgetme]

Do you have any poetry recommendations? The poem poll made me realize that I like. ONLY know Iraqi poets. Like the only non-Iraqi poet I can name off the top of my head is Robert Frost

i'm literally hooked on poetry. even on days where i can't sit down to read a book, i try to consume at least one poem a day bc it keeps me sane. it actually does. i recommend signing up to one poem a day newsletters--those have been a game changer for me. as for recommendations, my favorite poems change every week, but current faves (whose authors i regularly go back to/are a good starting point) would be:

elegy for my sadness - chen chen (Who invented the word / “ennui”? A sad Frenchman? / A centipede? They should’ve never / been born. They should’ve seen me / in Paris, a sad teenage / exchange student. I was so sad / & so teenaged, one day my host sister / gripped my hand hard & even harder / said, SOIS HEUREUX. / BE HAPPY. & miraculously, / I wasn’t sad anymore. / All I felt was the desire to slap my host sister. / See, I was angry in Paris, which is clearly / not allowed. One can be sad in Paris (I was) / & one can be in love in Paris (I was not), / but angry? Angry in Paris?")

a pity, we were such a good invention - yehuda amichal ( "A pity / We were such a good / And loving invention / An aeroplane made from a man and wife / Wings and everything / We hovered a little above the earth")

like a small cafe, that's love - mahmoud darwish ("I say to myself at last / Perhaps she who I was waiting for / was waiting for me, or was waiting for some other man / or was waiting for us, and did not find him/me.")

bible study - tony hoagland ("Who knows, this might be the last good night of summer / My broken nose is forming an idea of what’s for supper / Hard to believe that death is just around the corner / What kind of idiot would think he even had a destiny?")

mother and child - louise gluck ("Why do I suffer? Why am I ignorant? / Cells in a great darkness. Some machine made us; / it is your turn to address it, to go back asking / what am I for? What am I for?")

america, america - saadi youssef ("We are not hostages, America, / and your soldiers are not God's soldiers... / We are the poor ones, ours is the earth of the drowned gods, / the gods of bulls, / the gods of fires, / the gods of sorrows that intertwine clay and blood in a song... / We are the poor, ours is the god of the poor, / who emerges out of farmers' ribs, / hungry / and bright, / and raises heads up high...")

the duino elegies (seventh elegy respectively) - rainer maria rilke ("Not only the devotion of these unfolded forces, / not only the paths, not only the evening fields, / not only, after a late storm, the breathing freshness, / not only approaching sleep and a premonition, evenings... / also the nights! Also the high summer nights / also the stars, the stars of this Earth! / O to be dead at last and know them eternally, / all the stars: for how, how, how to forget them!")

the endlessness - ada limon ("How was i supposed to feel then? About moving in the world? How could I touch anything or anyone without the weight of all of time shifting through us?")

psalm - adonis ("Open my memory and study my face beneath its words, learn my alphabet. When you see foam weaving my flesh and stone flowing in my blood, you will see me. I am closed like a tree trunk, present and ungraspable like air. Thus I cannot surrender to you.")

the war works hard - dunya mikhail ("The war continues working, / day and night. / It inspires tyrants / to deliver long speeches / awards medals to generals / and themes to poets / it contributes/ to the industry / of artificial limbs / provides food for flies / adds pages to the history books / achieves equality / between killer and killed / teaches lovers to write letters / accustoms young women to waiting / fills the newspapers / with articles and pictures / builds new houses / for the orphans / invigorates the coffin makers / gives grave diggers / a pat on the back / and paints a smile on the leader's face.")

[mintmoth]

As someone who used to be heavily into danganronpa, it’s nice to see people take interest into it :]

Idk if you’ve already answered or only played the second game, but who’re your favorites from both THH, UDG and DRV3 (uh sorry if these acronyms get confusing if they do lmk T_T)

OH MAN okay so I'll go in order lmao

Danganronpa Trigger Happy Havoc

I played a fan translation of the first game back after everyone was reading it on the something awful forums lmao

I'd have to say my top faves are Asahina and Sakura, they're both just fun and sweet and have a great dynamic between them- which speaking of great dynamics Ishimaru, Mondo, and Chihiro are all fantastic as well, two rambunctious idiots and the most earnest sweetheart 😭😭

Also I like Fukawa and by extension Jack but I'm gonna wrap their head in duct tape if Byakuya gets near lmao

Double Also Celestia has excellent drip

Super Danganronpa: Goodbye Despair

I originally played this one back around like uhhh 2017?? Ish?? Idk I played it and had a blast and loved the cast, which is what made me want to replay it actually

I love them all they're all chefs kiss (except the chef Teruteru himself I'm also wrapping his head in duct tape when I need to)

I'd have to say my top faves would be Gundham, Kazuichi, Fuyuhiko, Ibuki, and Mikan, but really I do very much adore the entire cast and the way the game itself pans out and shows their relationships with one another, they feel like they could all be a really good friend group had things turned out better for them

Also Hajime is my favorite protagonist of the bunch lmao

Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls

So fun fact about this one I've actually never played it oops

HOWEVER I did get ahold of the manga trilogy- of which they were all used copies so volume 1 has nearly every forward facing character having a little drawn on pencil moustache and volume 2 has an entire panel just cut out of it, honestly I'm surprised the third volume doesn't have anything wrong with it LMAO cursed books

As far as the characters that are specific to this game I did think Shirokuma was quite cute and Asahina's brother was fun while he was around

Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony

Okay so this one- I started playing it a few months back because I had actually never gotten around to it back when I first got ahold of it, and it's the one that has my partners favorite character in it lmao

I actually put it down because I got too upset after chapter 4 oops, but now me and one of our friends have been watching my partner play the final hurdle so we've only got the final chapter left 💪💪✨

Character wise I do like Shuichi, Maki, and Kaito and the friendship they build between the three of them a lot, I also liked Ryoma more than I anticipated and I adore Gonta 😭

Miu can be fun and god I want to like her more than I do but then she says things and she's getting a triple duct tape wrap LMAO

Kirumi and Korekiyo have AMAZING aesthetics tho I gotta give them a shout out for that

[macaroni-and-antifreeze]

alright gang im about to rant

tl;dr: not reading the instagram comments on big brothers instagram is self-care

so many people in the comments keep saying angela or tucker should be removed for bullying and that they should bring specifically matt or cedric back, and that they don't like t'kor and kimo anymore because of the 9/12 thing.

First off, because this one pisses me off the most, there has only been 3 documented reasons for expulsion for the game (im sure there are more that we just havent seen), those being

Physical altercation (Justin in BB2, Willie in BB14)

Discriminatory language [mostly racism] (Luke in BB25)

Interference with Production (Chima in BB11, arguably Scott from BB4 but I haven't really dived into that season)

Calling someone a brat is, shocker, NOT ANY OF THESE THREE THINGS!!!

Being a Boston asshole is, while deeply annoying, NOT GROUNDS FOR EXPULSION!!!!

And okay, I understand the love for Cedric, he's a sweet guy, but he was learning as he went!!!! He didn't know shit from a fart!

And Matt??? The weird kinda-creepy cardboard of a man? I think the soccer moms wanna fuck him. That's why they're so obsessed with bringing him back.

I think modern casuals would have a fucking stroke if they watched a season like BB10. Hell, I think they might keel over and die!

Okay, on to the second point.

Why do people suddenly not like players who evict their faves and play the game according to their best interests? Like I get having a grudge for a while, I've definitely been mad at a player for a week, but to completely flip on them????

This is Derrick Levasseur's fault.

No, not really.

Well, actually...

Yknow what, yes, it is Derrick Levasseur's fault. Partially The Brigade's fault as well but they were much more entertaining so I'll give them a pass.

So many people are used to the "OoOoOh you must go with the house OoOoOh SpOoOoOkY!!! No interesting dynamics wAaAaAh!!! Do what the HoH wants or we're gonna fucking kill you!!" mindset cemented by BB16 onwards that seeing someone play their own game and not lay down and die hurts their feelings somehow??? Like this is not Do What The HoH Wants Brother. There's a reason the HoH needs fuckin contingency plans! I will save my full "Derrick Levasseur Made Big Brother Worse & I Don't Respect Him As A Person" rant for when it's not midnight, but just know that it is always there in the back of my mind.

And finally, casuals love the furniture. Problem is, sometimes you have some furniture that's taking up space and you need to get rid off it but you haven't found the time because there's more important shit to get rid of so it sits there and makes you feel worse about your house. Get rid of the damn furniture.

[real-fire-emblem-takes]

Hello, i am here with a take that people might hate me for but we'll see.

Xander is the worst sibling out of all of the siblings and Ryoma is better in quite a few aspects (keep in mind all the siblings are my favorite characters and both these two are rather low on my list of fave sibs)

Don't get me wrong i don't hate him, i actually really like him, i might out myself saying this but one of my fave ships of Xander is with my favorite sister and one of my favorite characters in the game, Hinoka; it's great support that give actual royal courting vibes and he is very nice with her it's just sweet.

But, besides the fact he becomes obsessed with killing us in Birthright, being Takumi's counterpart, in Conquest he is not really that better. Besides the fact he attacks us in his reintroduction after a (for me, i'm not that great :,v) lowkey traumatic battle just to "keep us in our toes" like bruh read the room.

The siblings in general but specially him wait UNTIL THE LAST FUCKING MINUTE TO KILL THESE ANNOYING PIECES OF SHIT IAGO AND HANS WHEN THEY COULD HAVE EASILY DONE SO FROM THE BEGINNING-

Like it's a lot more beliveable if we killed Hans in like chapter 10 and being like hey thems the breaks and kill Iago after than waiting until winning the conquest and being like "oh we missed a rogue soldier and killed them" like bruh you are so dumb and Garon would have given literally 0 fucks, maybe bring some new people but if we kill em too he would be like oh i guess my pawns- wait sorry, children are just built different, like honestly-

Which connects to my other point, his speech of Justice is an illusion infuriated me because, taking the upper point in consideration and the fact he does have a lot of power in goverment is a fucking joke, CEO crying when people complain about them without doing anything to make their employes lives better type of pathetic.

He is not a good brother in general, a parentified brother maybe, but not a good brother, everytime he would say "i am always on your side, nothing could ever change that" it just boiled my blood, i was just mentally screaming YOU FUCKING- LIAAAAAAR like that one Kardashian clip everytime cuz WTH that's a fucking lie.

Ryoma's reintroduction is him defending us of a Bully basically (in this case it was Leo and like come on both Leo and Takumi are, they are the same guy) and his interactions in story are just so nice man, he just screams big brother and in Conquest he continues, his sacrifice fucking broke me because he really cared for us.

"Oh but his obsession of bringing us back is weird because we are not blood related" I hear you whine and, my sibling by the gods, you do not understand this family dynamic and that's sad for you; but if you take into consideration that Mikoto was not only married and loved Sumeragi, she most likely loved and married Ikona as well, since both Sakura and Takumi are younger than Corrin. They had a very close knit family relationship and they were, in fact, chosen siblings in a way.

In general people have a lot more empathy towards the Nohr siblings than the Hoshidan siblings which i think it's fucking stupid because not only is all of Hoshido martyred and victims of crimes AGAINST HUMANITY (worse than war crimes) like everyday, their family was ruptured by an assasination and a kidnapping on the. Same. Day.

"Oh but he is very detached from Sakura and Takumi" Of course he is, he is taking care of a fucking kingdom in the middle of a war, as we see he has a lot more responsabilities and say in everything relating to the kingdom than Xander since the beginning AND in their supports he really comes through in fixing his mistakes, unlike Xander that fucking SPAT at Elise's sacrifice when he could have done so much more and in his supports with her he is, honestly, a little bitch that doesn't want to listen until the last support where he sees results and he is still like uh idk if i should choose peace or whatever.

I get yall want to ride this conqueror, rizzless, white man dick, i get it. But don't say he is better than Ryoma, i do see his flaws but also, just like Takumi and Leo, they are the same guy.

EXACT

SAME

GUY

Just one is white and the other asian (yes i just spoke of their differences but i know you guys WILL get counterpoints from mine and that will prove this last point, they are very balanced!

They are at most on the same level and honestly I still don't see it, I think Ryoma is just better.

-🧟‍♀️Zombie anon out

HOSHIDO 4LIFE

/

[fuckvictorvale]

hellooo could you please share the pages of the most iconic vicious quotes? I didnt tab my book the first time i read it and i have no time for a re-read 😵‍💫

(you can just share the page numbers btw! I’ll figure out the quotes somehow lmao) thanks ❤️

oh absolutely i can. this is like the best ask i've ever gotten

quotes and page numbers are below the cut. i have the american paperback version with the red cover in case there are differences in page numbers between editions

also last note before the quotes, i'm so curious what you're using them for. so if you're doing something fun with them, i would LOVE to know what it is but no pressure

All Eli had to do was smile. All Victor had to do was lie. Both proved frighteningly effective. -pg 17-18

Victor was out. Victor was free. And Victor was coming for Eli-- just as he'd promised he would. -pg 26

Hate was too simple a word. He and Eli were bonded, by blood and death and science. -pg 90

The paper called Eli a hero. The word made Victor laugh. Not just because it was absurd, but because it posed a question. If Eli really was a hero, and Victor meant to stop him, did that make him the villain? He took a long sip of his drink, tipped his head back against the couch, and decided he could live with that. -pg 91

..."I'm trying to figure out how this"-- he held up a blood-stained, but uninjured hand-- "is a reflection of me. Why would He give me--" "He?" asked Victor incredulously. He wasn't in the mood for God. Not this morning. "According to your thesis," he said, "an influx of adrenaline and a desire to survive gave you that talent. Not God. This isn't divinity, Eli. It's science and chance." "Maybe to a point, but when I climbed into that water, I put myself in His hands--" "No," snapped Victor. "You put yourself in mine." -pg 93

Victor Vale was not a fucking sidekick. -pg 96

"Would You take it back?" he asked the dark apartment. "If I were no longer of Your making, You would take this power back, wouldn't You?" Tears glistened in his eyes. "Wouldn't You?"..."You'd let me die."..."Wouldn't you?" -pg 216

"No, Sydney," he said. "I need you to stay here." "Why?" she asked. "Because you don't think I'm a bad person," he said. "And I don't want to prove you wrong." -pg 226

"There are no good men in this game," said Mitch. -pg 276

But these words people threw around-- humans, monsters, heroes, villains-- to Victor it was all just a matter of semantics. Someone could call themselves a hero and still walk around killing dozens. Someone else could be labeled a villain for trying to stop them. Plenty of humans were monstrous, and plenty of monsters knew how to play at being human. -pg 288-289

"I don't want to be forgotten." ..."Tell you what," said Victor. "You remember me, and I'll remember you, and that way we won't be forgotten." "That's shit logic, Vic." ..."To never dying." ..."To being remembered." ..."Forever." -pg 296

"I watch you and it's like watching two people." -pg 352

The entirety of pg 353 including "It's why I let you stay," said Victor. "Why I liked you. All that charm outside, all that evil inside. There was a monster under there, long before you died."// "You aren't some avenging angel, Eli," he said. "You're not blessed, or divine, or burdened. You're a science experiment." (AHHHH)// "You don't understand," gasped Eli. "No one understands." "When no one understands, that's usually a good sign that you're wrong. "You can't kill me, Victor," said Eli. "You know that." ..."I know"..."But you'll have to indulge me. I've waited so long to try."

Victor smiled. He was having a fabulous time killing Eli. -pg 355

And last but not least, an honorary Vengeful quote because it's one of my faves and one of the best. Victor stared at the wall as if it were still a window. "He doesn't know how patient you are," he said. "Doesn't know you like I do." Eli cleaned the blood from his hand. "No," he said softly. "No one ever has." -Vengeful, pg 318 (AHHHHHHHH) hopefully that gets you started! I have so many things highlighted or tabbed or underlined so sometimes it's hard to choose. also the ellipsis (...) indicate where i omitted things for the sake of just including the important parts. otherwise some of those quotes would have been longggg

[pinkfoxsodas]

Warning Saw X Spoilers of John Kramer Take

I will admit I am bias because I’m still angry about what happened to my fave character Adam, but I can’t help point out the flaws of Jigsaw’s own hypocrisy. However, just because I’m going explain why I think John is kind of a hypocrite, doesn’t mean I hate the character; in fact I think he’s the most interesting villain of the series. I just can’t stop thinking about this because I’ve had this opinion on John Kramer for a long time. I think John is a selfish and bitter person because of his situation that he even convinced himself that his actions are justified.

In Saw X, when John was tricked into thinking his cancer was gone, he was drawing one of his latest traps in his sketchbook. But decided to throw it away in the trash because he no longer wants to continue his work. If John truly believed he was doing the right thing, why not continue setting traps now that he no longer has to worry about dying? It proved that John was bitter of his own situation that he was going to die and all these people he believed that were wasting their lives, will never have to experience limited life. It made me think of the timer he gives his victims, like 3 minutes to live and he has 3 months.

And what about the people who have no choice but to be props for someone else’s test? John specifically targets people to test and is willing to sacrifice others for that one specific person. Test subjects like Lawrence, Jeff, William etc. A person’s life hangs on balance of someone’s else’s choice. Amanda had to kill a guy to get the key out to save herself, while he didn’t get the chance to fight for his own life. William had to choose which of his employees he had to spare while killing the others. Lawrence had to kill Adam a stranger to save his family who by the way were also props to Zepp’s test. I’ll come back to Diana later. And the people used as props for Jeff’s test were people that Jeff felt were responsible for the death of his son or let his son’s killer walk free. It was like John never saw them as people. He’s always on about respecting life, but how can he when he uses people as objects for another person’s test? And some of those people didn’t do anything wrong but be related or work for the person that John is testing. Like Joyce Dangen, she didn’t know that Bobby lied and yet when he loses his game she’s the one who has to suffer and die. And John can argue all he wants that the reason those people died was because of the subject failed their test, but that’s not true. John was the one who put them in those traps and kept them immobilized. He used them as tools for that one specific person he was testing. People he believed that deserved to be tested or to be turned into one of his followers. John wanted Lawrence to survive, because he needed someone like Lawrence skills for his tests.

John also has a black and white view of the world. He does not see grey, meaning he doesn’t really try to understand why a person makes the wrong choices in life. But he’s very quick to judge a person’s character just from first impressions, like Adam for example who he deemed angry and pathetic. The whole game was made for Lawrence and Adam was just added there and we don’t have much information on him like Lawrence. And he has a bias on people who have drug addictions. When Amanda tried to reason why Gabriela did what she did because of addiction, Jigsaw immediately shut her down. Yes what Gabriela did was wrong, but she wasn’t as messed up as Cecilia who did it for money and has no problem killing people.John had just said that everyone has free will, but how would he know if he never experienced addiction? Amanda understood because she was just like Gabriela. But it could also be because he still held a grudge against Cecil who was responsible for his wife’s miscarriage because he wanted to steal drugs.

Now the subject to children. I was glad to see that John had humanity to see that Carlos was just an innocent child who didn’t deserve to be put in a life and death situation. But it brings back the hypocrisy when we see Diana, Daniel and Corbett who again are used as props for their parent’s test. Yes they were saved, but they were traumatized through their ordeals and will mostly suffer from ptsd. And Daniel lost his dad and Corbett is now an orphan. And Diana only survived because Allison was able to get out of their restraints and Detective Tapp was able to rescue them on time. If none of that happened, Zepp most likely would have killed them because John told him if he did, Zepp would be given an antidote to survive his poisoning. John I don’t know if he would have given Zepp the antidote if he had killed the Gordon family, because he might have been disgusted by the death of a child. But Zepp followed the rules of his game and John would have just blamed Lawrence for their deaths instead or wouldn’t have cared because again they were just props. Never accepting that he was responsible for kid a dying and would have blamed either Zepp or Lawrence.

I would have said more but this rant is too long and I just wanted to get this off my chest. I do love Saw and I enjoy the characters, but I will bring up their flaws when I’m talking to friends about Jigsaw! And since Saw X made me sympathetic towards John it also reminded how unfair he was towards his victims.

[possumcollege]

I dont know how it took me till you posted that most recent sole survivor art to learn you were a fallout enjoyed, it fills me with joy. Fave companion/storyline?

Of the main companions, I think my favorites are Dogmeat, Nick, and Piper, but I've probably brought Ada along more than anyone.

I really love the character of this robot, built by a band of survivors from spare parts, developing attachments and feelings. I appreciate her trying to square the conflicting input of grief and justice at the point where neither really fixes anything unless the root of that injury is repaired. Ada's friends died because the robots programming was flawed and lacked the ability to see struggling humans as viable, not because Isabel wanted them to kill. At that point, killing her would be cathartic but it punishes her for a mistake she rekt didn't intend and lowers us to the level of the other wasteland factions who perpetuate the broken exterminationist view of conflict. It lets Ada continue to grow as a living being in spite of her loss and status as a robot. It's something I love about Ada in my interpretation that I felt was lacking in my impression of Curie.

The game wants to give us a romanceable female synth who is even less experienced than we are, so porting a robot's memory into a "human" works but that's a bit cheap for my taste. I don't dislike Curie but I would've enjoyed the option to help her realize a human body wasn't strictly necessary to help people. Developing the "humanity" in a machine feels more in line with rebuilding a better world than finding ways to eliminate the anthropocentric limitations of machines in a world where they can be fully sentient.

And yes, I think you should still be able to romance Robot Curie. It seems to work for Mr. Zwicky and Miss Edna! I think that's sweet and let's be play this as a world where people realize joy is precious wherever you find it instead of queueing up Curie's emergent personality. We see plenty of other robots with fully functional autonomous identities. The ability to accept them for who they are and can become in spite of their origins is a wonderful aspect of the world for me.

In general, I like keeping folks around and trying to give them another chance to make a go of it in the Commonwealth without the Institute or the Brotherhood trying to pull the strings from above or below. I try not to kill anyone I know I don't have to unless they're going to keep trying to kill me.

I've destroyed the Prydwen and the Institute every time, but I wish there could've been opportunities to bring a few BOS characters over to my side in the process, Proctor Ingram, in particular. I also like that there are hard choices to make though, that characters you would want to join you can just have incompatible ideology and loyalty.

For the game's sake I back the minutemen and the Railroad, but ideologically, the Atom Cats are my "faction" of choice. They're good people, hacking out a place for themselves, putting their skills to less genocidal use, and trying to bring a bit of light and beauty to their little peninsula. They watch out for their friends and neighbors. They ain't so keen on exterminating anything in particular. They aren't looking to rule over anything in spite of their impressive power armor skills. My favorite outfit these days is the armored AC jacket and modded Mechanist helmet.

Far Harbor has some great missions too. The hotel murder mystery is a hoot and the settlement locations offer a lot to play with. I try to strike a live-and-let-live balance there too, preserving the synth refuge, Far Harbor, and the CoA if I can help it. I never rat them out to the BoS. The memory-retrieval mini game missions are miserable though! It glitched out on my first playthrough and I couldn't finish it before my PS4 died.

Favorite settlements are probably vault 88, the Starlite drive-in (makes a fanatic multistory apartment base), Spectacle Island, Abernathy farm, Egret Tours Marina, the lumber mill, Outpost Zimonja, Greygarden, and the lighthouse. I'm a fan of modding-off the build limits and resource cheats so I can build elaborate apartment blocks out of scaffolding, warehouse bits and vault pieces. I can't get enough of encasing ruined buildings in larger buildings like warehouses or vault atrium assets too. After a while, the settlement building becomes my favorite aspect of the game after the story and world-building.

[katsukikitten]

Absolutely indeedy it's the dark brotherhood quests!! Super glad you let Cicero live, he's my demented fave and I catch so much shit from my friends for being perhaps a little too into him 💀

Also, lowkey not worth it to return the skeleton key cuz it's an unbreakable lockpick and like yeah the lockpick skill goes up slower if you're using the key but like come on. You can't give us a super op item like that and then immediately tell us to give it back to mommy nocturnal forever so we can't use it anymore

As for literally every daedra wanting a piece of the dragonborn's ass, it is so funny to me to imagine the player character finally dying for good sometime in their twilight years and leaving behind the most complicated yet admirable legacy and they get to the void, or shor's hall, or aetherium, or the hunting grounds, or whichever afterlife they believe in or are pledged to, and suddenly a bunch of fuckers like old uncle sanguine and clavicus and nocturnal and whoever show up like "ahem excuse me your soul is mine actually" "no it's mine" "nuh uh it's mine" and then just like. A bunch of daedric princes have to get in this eternal custody battle over this one person who just Did Too Much while they were alive lmao

-Skyrim anon

Skyrim anon you fucking get it 😂 no be into him I can see why he's so bat shit and the dancing 😂 and he's just a poor wet meow meow he needs love

Omg yes like they're all there to collect and it's like haha sorry 😅 just so many of you wanted me or FORCED ME to do this for the sake of my quest and I see it through! NO SOUL FOR ANYONE Lmfao!!!

Yea I felt really bad for him 🥺 like he was left all alone with the corpse of a woman he idolizes like of course he wants to be the listener 😭 and then when you investigate his room and he's got like five journals 😂 girl gave us the tea didn't he. And he didn't technically kill anyone in the brother hood so like I let him live cause I felt bad and if he came to kill me later I'd be ready. Him coming back joking about killing you and then being like jkjk I'm joking bestie is so fucking funny I love him.

My lock picking is 100 and tbh if it took longer to get there because of the key I couldn't tell you. I LOVE lock picking and I won't lie every time I pickpocket someone I would take the gold and the picklock. Still do! I made the thieves guild my first big quest because I just really love the idea of them! I had played a little bit before and watch boyfriend play seldomly when it first came back so playing it now and still not knowing much about the game has been so fun! I've done a lot but none of the main quest 😂 I feel really bad about killing the dragons and taking their souls so they can't come back 😭 and I'm waiting to fight another dragon (since I sneak everywhere, even walking because idk I just do ?? I'm so weird 😂) before I use the summon ghost dragon guy from the spiritual realm

OH but back to the brotherhood anon, when the emperor asked you to humor his dying wish did you kill Motierre 👀

I did. And I killed the Capitan cause I cannot lie finding Festus pinned to the tree like that outside of the sanctuary made me so upset 😭 and I couldn't even find out lizard friend but seeing Gabriella and Arnbjorn 😭 I was like girl if I find Astrid she's DYING I was DISTRAUGHT OVER BABETTE AND NAZIR SO RELIEVED when they turned out okay but again why did I have to climb into that damn coffin again 😭 the mother needs lotion and a face mask 😭

[bioticgoddess]

MK1: Khaos Reigns

As promised, here's my take on the DLC. What I liked, what I didn't, and my overall opinion. Reminder, I don't play Mortal Kombat. Not my cup of tea but this I've been exposed to this lore since I was a wee baby millennial. So mind you my take is lore and story based not game play. From what little I've played, the game play is usually pretty good.

Below the cut for everyone's sanity and to save any folks who haven't already be sucked in from spoilers.

What I liked:

Harumi. She can fight and she's alive. I suspect if she's not a Kombatant in MK2 (or a future DLC) then she'll be an NPC with more voice lines or at least more story relevance. (If she dies, we riot.) Loved her interaction with Johnny and how both Kuai Liang and Liu Kang agree that she's wise and should be listened to.

The Sektor/Bi-Han confirmation (reveal?). I saw it and was like "omg...they did it. THEY FUCKING DID IT!" Giddy happy moment. There was a lot of speculation and NRS didn't hide that, bare minimum, she would be in love with him, but it was done very well. I also appreciate that it's a conversation topic in their tower intros with other characters. They are gonna make each other worse but I think it will keep them from some of their bad/negative choices from the original games.

Cyrax. No further explanation required (Cyrax and Tomas have always been some of my faves so that the New Cyrax is on the list should surprise no one).

Empress Tanya and Emperor Rain. His death hits us in the feelings not because of how he went but because of how well those characters and that relationship was written. A+ to the writing team. That's how you introduce a character and kill them in quick succession and make your audience care! (The actor playing Tanya's reaction is also on point.)

"Cyber Lin Kuei", that it's armor is great. This makes a lot more sense to be overall than converting people into robots. Though I do wonder what plan Sektor has for she and Bi-Han to maintain greater control over the Lin Kuei following Cyrax's defection. It'll be interesting.

Titan (OG) Havik is still a Full Tilt Diva.

They canonized a bunch of the intros from the tower in the main story, it's a good look.

What I didn't like:

Bi-Han/Noob Saibot. We knew it would happen and while he's technically not dead I don't like how they handled him. They've slotted him right back in the same space his occupied in the original games/timeline of antagonist to Kuai Liang/Scorpion. Could they reform/redeem him in later games, maybe but I'm not holding out hope given his tower ending.

Sektor's and Bi-Han's relationship...they are gonna make each other worse if they are left in the roles they currently occupy and I'm not looking forward to a re-cast retread of old story lines with them. (I will be pleasantly surprised if this is used to make them better both as characters and from a story telling standpoint.)

How did the previous Lin Kuei Grandmaster die? Tell us more than Bi-Han abandoned him to die...or killed him? They've said both in game.

I reposted something from another Tumblr earlier (and that poster went into much more detail) so I'll summarize: I don't think there was any good reason for leaving Tomas out of the story. Even Kuai Liang giving a throw away line of "I've tasked him with leading the Shirai Ryu." or something to that extent was better than just blatantly forgetting about him when they're supposed to be brothers despite their lack of blood ties. Calling out Kuai Liang there.

This story was too short and felt rushed. Like they had to get it out and didn't have time to put in as much as they wanted. I will compare it to the script that was leaked via pastebin and Reddit, but that was the script. They removed Sektor, Cyrax, and a few other characters/scenes but overall what we saw there was what we got and it felt lacking. Why didn't we get to see some of Cyrax and Kuai Liang going through the maze with WWII Johnny? The stuff with Empress Tanya and Sektor was great but they had opportunities to give us more and didn't or couldn't and you can tell.

How did Bi-Han/Noob tearing off Havik's limbs and head actually stop him? Dude could grow literal clones that way and regenerate limbs? Is he like a Highlander where taking off his head (and keeping it from his body) stops that? What about the Time Crystals/Kamidogu, shouldn't those have made him Bi-Han/Noob proof? (I like that Bi-Han got most of his payback and someone NOT Liu Kang ganked the villian but they established Havik could do some next level nonsense.)

This one bothered me a lot: NO ONE thought about the fact that Bi-Han knew all of the defensive capabilities of both Earthrealm and Outworld and that rescuing him should be as high a priority as Geras. They were still gonna fail but NO ONE thought of that reason except him after Liu Kang restored his mind.

My overall take:

It's not good. It has good bones and if it had been longer and more fleshed out it would have been much better. For a Mortal Kombat story DLC it's passable.

This felt like it should have been saved for a second game or that they should have taken another 6-12 months to give us a longer DLC. As a villain Titan Havik and his minions (especially Chaos Kenshi & Chaos Takeda) felt underutilized to the point of waste.

Have an intense staring Tomas as thanks for reading my rambling about Mortal Kombat 1's DLC story. (If they hurt him in a subsequent game/DLC...we RIOT).

[soulofamy]

spoilers for tekken 8's story and character endings under the tag! read at your own disgression. these are just my thoughts on it. for transparancy, i likely wont actually be able to purchase and play the game for the foreseeable future so i just watched a playthrough of it instead

so ill start with what i liked. i really liked that, unlike tekken 7, everyone on the roster to some degree was in the main story. i like that a good healthy handful of them even tried their best to aid the efforts against kazuya. it was really nice for me especially to see shaheen get to be cool and heroic. i dont want to hear ANYONE say hes boring ever again, you hear me?

i like the character endings as well, theyre so fun and lighthearted. i liked zafinas and shaheens the most. i surprisingly likes kazuyas and juns too, it makes me think he actually DOES love his wife to an extent. not enough for me to like him as a character unfortunately though lol.

i LOVED angel jin at the end. his design imo was phenominal. i love that they crossed an ethereal, otherwordly monster with a knight and gave him golden angel wings too. it was so visually captivating, i will be looking out for a character sheet to see what distinct features i can point out. i just love that they made an angel design so unique, there was nothing predictable or boring about it.

now things i didnt like

first off, i am SO mad that they killed off zafina AND claudio so early on. they were the two i was most interested to see!! i wanted to see their dynamic together!! but at least zafinas death made a little more sense than claudios. his death did absolutely nothing for the story! i thought maybe that hyper-charged up bolt he shot was going to slowly deteriorate kazuya overtime and weaken him enough that jin could take him one on one or something but NOPE! even zafina i felt didnt need to die. was it ever explained that her life force was connected to azazel? wouldnt it make more sense if she was free to be of MORE use now that azazel isnt holding her back? i never thought i would write tekken fanfiction but they have forced my hand. justice for my faves please </3

they did nothing with leo finding his mother and that makes me sad. its cool we got his dad though, he seems like a cool guy. i wouldnt mind his dad being a new fighter.

steve just kind of dropping the whole thing with nina also upsets me because like if you were going to make the ending to that whole thing so lackluster, why introduce it at all? nina clearly doesnt care and steve just kinda carries on, what was the point? why put nina through such a traumatizing experience of having a child against her will for such little payout?

lastly, i just really could not give two rats toenails about reina im sorry 😭 like visually shes boring. her personality is boring AND annoying. and then they try and make us want more by showing us this heihachi child is ALSO a devil. like i am so tired of the mishima saga that i dont care enough to wonder who her mother is. there are SO many loose ends that havent been tied up yet, i dont want a potential tekken 9 to focus on the mishimas anymore i am on my hands and knees begging

[iwonderwh0]

I can't reply on the post and don't want to reblog it again, but I'm not forgetting Daniel. Unfortunately the only thing we see of Daniel pre-deviancy is him saying hello into a video. It doesn't give us any sense of who he is as a person. That clip is about Emma's attachment to him because he's "the coolest android in the world", but all he does is say hello when prompted, with reasonably good cheerful affect. It contrasts sharply with what we see, which is him dangling Emma off the roof, and the game doesn't really go into whether that brief clip was the real Daniel or just an act provided by his programming.

We get a sense of what he wants, and what he values from his actions as a deviant, because apparently just the threat of being torn away from his family and discarded was enough to send him deviant. But the game arguably portrays his deviancy as a bad thing and him as a villain instead of it being a tragedy that he was driven to this desperation. (Mileage may vary on that one based on personal experiences; "you lied to me, Connor" is gut-wrenching, but it's also one possible ending out of all of them, requiring absolute success in manipulation from Connor, and the only ending that hits that way. In the rest of them, he HAS to die for Connor to save Emma so his death feels justified.)

Okay, that's fair, the clip doesn't give us a lot. I was just thinking about how what we learn from his words and actions paints us a picture of how he reached this point. And how he had some really strong personal opinions about his life and place in the world long before deviancy. Otherwise, his reaction wouldn't be this. 100% he's not the first android who got replaced, but he's the first one to get revengeful about.

And, him being a villain? Oh boy, you know me, I fucking love him being a villain. I disagree with him being only a victim in this, which is not to say his story isn't tragic (it is).

But it's his decision to go for a revenge instead of escape. It's his decision to drag Emma (who may not even know about the new android) to the rooftop and use her as a hostage with him being perfectly capable of going through with his threat and fall back dragging Emma down with him. Even though he supposedly loved her, his hatred and resentment is stronger. He thinks she deserves it. Because she (her family) hurt him, and he ain't gonna let that slide. It's not the fear of death that motivates him, not self-defence but pure rage. He took the gun and instead of escaping with it he goes straight to the person who wronged him and kills him when he isn't expecting.

And his rage and hatred extrapolates far beyond Philips family.

He objects to Connor helping a human that has nothing to do with Philips family and pose no threat to him anymore, so it's just a question of whether his life (one more to the list) will end as result of Daniel's actions. Daniel later says that he didn't want to hurt anybody, and yet here, when he has a chance for making his actions less murderous for the outsiders, he objects.

"All humans die eventually. What difference does it make if this one dies now?"

Ah, what a line! Compare it with Traci's words about how she only killed out of fear of being next.

When Connor pushes Emma away, what does he do? Once again, he chooses revenge, but this time aimed at Connor. Not even a human, but just another android doing his job.

Daniel story is tragic, but his actions, even though done in panic and shock are still his actions that he chose himself. And I think we should let him own them. He attacked first. When he was cornered he made sure to drag others with him.

Sorry, I dwelled away from original topic. Revengeful Danial is just my fave, and I prefer his actions to be viewed as his own choices and not something universal any deviant in his place would do.

[inseasofgreen]

Writeblr Interview

Thank you both to @leahnardo-da-veggie and @drchenquill for the tag!

Short stories, novels or poems?

Novels! all the way

What genre do you prefer reading?

Fantasy, both dark and romantasy. even better if they're combined

What genre do you prefer writing?

Fantasy! I tend to struggle writing anything but fantasy.

Are you a planner or a write-as-i-go kind of person?

I like to start with a plan and some ideas, then let the characters take the reins and throw it all out the door

What music do you listen to while writing the story?

I have a playlist with cinematic soundtracks that I tend to listen too. Though I do often listen to the GOT and HOTD soundtracks. Daenerys' aaaHHHH AHHHH's actually are the source of a lot of Zemorri's most badass scenes.

Fav books/movies

I've been trying to get more into reading so lately it's been ASOIAF and the Witcher - two of which inspired the creation of Nyrus and POTO. I have a long TBR but I like to buy books before I read them, which is hard right now with money being a bit tight the next month or so.

Any Current WIPs?

2! Well, more like 3 if you include the second Plight of the Dragon, the sequel to POTO. We have Plight of the Oracle, which I pretty much have dedicated my blog too. Plight of the Dragon, which is more like one shots and random braindumps of what happens after the first book. Then Familia Ante Omnia, trilogy set in modern day NYC and is about the downfall of the crime ring from inside. Which I actually see a lot of it's themes in POTO. But that's on a hiatus for the foreseeable future.

If someone were to make a cartoon out of you, what would your standard outfit be?

An oversized orangey flannel, black crop top, and either leggings or shorts depending on the weather. Throw in a black beanie for good measure too

Create a character description of yourself

oof okay here we go

She was a short, adorable little thing. She sat fidgeting with a ring on her left ring finger, too timid to make her presence known. Her dark brown hair, cropped at her shoulders was tucked behind her ears. A few strands that had once been a fringe fell, cascading over her grey eyes. The roseness of her cheeks a striking contrast to the porcelain like skin. She looks up at someone giving a slightly crooked smile before getting up from her seat.

was literally me a few minutes ago rereading was I wrote when my fiance came up and wanted to go up to bed lmao

Do you like incorporating people you actually know into your writing?

oof no, hard pass. fictional people tend to be more interesting anyway

Are you kill-happy with the characters?

I tend to be? I have a rule with killing off characters, a few actually. It ends their arc nicely, it serves an actual purpose and isn't for shock value, and they under no circumstance can come back alive. I absolutely h a t e when death is cheapened. Don't introduce stakes that high only to make them pointless.

Coffee or Tea while writing?

diet coke or water!

Slow or Fast writer?

both? I don't know what is considered fast I guess. If i'm really feeling it and don't have distractions I can get about 1k an hour and keep that up for a few hours. Then there's days like today I'm surrounded by distractions and not feeling it too much, right now I'm at 1,500 for the 4 hours i've written

Where/who/what do you find inspiration from?

Shows and books! Also games. Funny enough Zemorri came from a skyrim oc and Sciosa came from DnD campaign that never happened. They've both undergone a lot of changes since then though.

If you were put into a fantasy world, what would you be?

I answered a similar question a few times and I think I'd really be a dragon. I'm a hoarder of my little trinkets and love to stir the pot a bit.

Most fave book cliche?

Chosen one and mentor. WIth a spin. Do not give me another old ratty wizard and some a elijah wood/daniel radcliff look alike. PLEASE. Using this to promo POTO which has chosen one and mentor- mentor: hot scary milf chosen one: anger riddled brat who really isn't keen on playing by the book. boom there. not that hard.

got kinda heated there. apologies

Least fave book cliche?

"Only one bed" I'm sorry!! It's just over done at this point

Fave scenes to write?

Any scene with dragons. They're the most fun to write honestly.

Most productive time of day for writing?

Night! I literally typed that as nite send help I've always been a night owl haha. It's actually almost 4 am as I type this

Reason for writing?

Writing has always been an interest of mine. I would love one day to be able to support my family with it! Whether that's as an indie author or traditional author. Also I fear I would go crazy with how many stories and plot lines I got up in my head. That or my oc's would manifest irl and nuke me right there with their dragons.

Leaving this an open tag!

My brain is clocking out and I can't even think of who to tag at this point. So if you're reading this and want to be tagged congrats!! Consider yourself tagged

[galsgeneration]

Same asker as the previous query about ships here. I wanna know how you feel about Shadow/Espio. It’s one of my fave ships, but there’s so little content for it even compared to other rarepairs. I feel that it’s OOC to some extent, as most ships with Shadow are (including Sonadow imo, even though I love that ship too) but I’m curious if/how you think Shadpio could work. And what you think about their dynamic in general. I’m always researching them but I assume you’d be more knowledgeable.

That's an awesome question! There's a particular charm in Shadow and Espio's dynamic when we get to analyze the characters' individual traits being displayed in the short interactions they've had thus far.

Considering the definition of "ship" in fandom usually leans toward romance, I personally can't see Shadow involved in some form with any of the characters, judging by how he thinks, acts and what we can conclude from his dangerously pure nature in the canon material (including Sonic X, as his characterization in the japanese script is faithful to his game counterpart). Espio, on the other hand, appears to be slightly more open to a conventional approach on the matter, but that would require further development and exploration on his relationships with other characters beyond the Chaotix, like Sonic, Rouge, Silver, etc.

As for creative content taking from the canon, it's only "out of character" if the intention within how they think of the other is somewhat changed, along with the characters' core traits, main relationships and their influence (or not) in the context of the specific moments they share with one another. With that being said, I can only say my personal thoughts on them based on what SEGA has already explored/showed, without going into "shipping" and "TV tropes" territory or "non-canon" media (i.e. Archie comics and The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog).

Shadow and Espio share a few similarities here and there, when it comes to their methods and decisions upon facing the emergence of a threat and the opportunity to strike at the right moment (i.e. their stance on Mr. Tinker/Dr. Eggman before and after the Metal Virus incident in the IDW comics, except that Shadow was hellbent on taking him down straight away while Espio only verbalized the idea to Sonic after having to deal with the outcome himself). They are not opposed to killing, either.

Although Shadow is cold-natured (bearing in mind he's also a man-made weapon), Espio has a rather calm, stealthy and deadly approach in battle that's almost a parallel to Shadow's more feisty, ruthless combat style. Their fighting tactics are precise and deceptive, whether in an ambush or general warfare - each in their own specialty, since Shadow is a master in Chaos Control and Espio a nin-jutsu specialist ninja - and they're equally confident in their skills. Striking from behind and when the foe least expects it can be quite their thing, too.

I enjoy the first look we got into their dynamic during the Semi-Hero route of Shadow the Hedgehog (2005), after the events of Sonic Heroes. Understanding that Shadow was seeking for the truth about himself and his past, it's easier to picture how Espio could affect and assist Shadow in the future (if SEGA ever considers the idea) after they situationally teamed up when infiltrating Dr. Eggman's database. Espio had asked Shadow if he felt like giving him a hand in looking for some information the Chaotix needed at the time, and Shadow hoped to find something useful about himself. Therefore, the mutual aid would only be beneficial. In one of the japanese summaries of the game for the boss battle following this specific mission, Shadow acknowledges Espio's role in defeating the Doctor and escaping the electronic world with him.

Something I also find curious is the way Espio managed (or at least tried) to bring Shadow back to the present throughout the mission, upon noticing how much the doubts and misleading offers kept getting at Shadow. There's a lot of cool and high-spirited lines coming from Espio to ground and help Shadow zero in back on his main goal (i.e. "Stop thinking about it, let's just keep going"; "It's all nonsense talk to trick you at the end of the day"; "Right now, let's focus on defeating [Dr. Eggman] to get out of here."). Hence, I can see Shadow being neutral towards Espio as he never stood on his way, nor manipulated him for his own gain (Espio doesn't like dishonesty, after all!).

Despite the whole ordeal Shadow went through in his self-titled game, it's a fact that Shadow can be impulsive when dabbling with danger, meaning he can be distracted once caught up in his own thoughts/emotions or the thrill of a challenge sometimes. It's a nice detail in opposition to Espio's cautious behavior, since he isn't distracted easily; even when his team is at risk, he attempts to keep himself level-headed and not lose his focus.

Still, something they absolutely have in common is an interest for dangerous missions and (the semblance of) perfectionism. Espio enjoys the "aesthetic" of staying in the shadows, though he sometimes makes the mistake of sneezing and compromising his invisibility; Shadow is a perfectionist by his own standards and doesn't tolerate anything but the ultimate performance from himself and others (even if he miscalculates at times due to a myriad of reasons). The manner that Shadow and Espio see the topic of perfectionism and balance can be an intriguing point for conflict, too.

On another note, during the only verbal interaction between the two in Sonic X, Espio asks Shadow if he's going to rescue Dr. Eggman after the Chaotix gave him a ride, in which Shadow responds that his only target is Dark Oak. This also shows how Espio doesn't know exactly/can predict Shadow's motivations or actions, but his optimism remains present nonetheless. Regardless of the events in the anime not being canon, we can see how direct and brief their conversations are, especially after Shadow's clarification (and subtle correction). This aspect is not different in the mainline games, as they only address the other when it's extremely necessary, or if the situation calls for a change.

All in all, I believe Shadow and Espio, as a dynamic and hypotetical "pairing," can be very interesting if we put these moments into perspective instead of latching onto popular tropes we find oftenly in the fandom (it's also the case for many other fictional ones).

My thoughts and considerations on them got longer than I intended, but I hope this is what you expected to read (and understand) from how I view them! They do have the potential to work as an intriguing, fleeting duo in the absence of the Chaotix and/or Shadow's usual allies, but that's all up to SEGA. 😜