#if the Hollow Knight could talk: “WTF” | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

alternautxyz · 3 years ago

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so thems owl house huh

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

so that happened and i feel like talking about random stuff again

also spoilers

damn dude just like true colours

ok but seriously

in general this episode was really great, but i can’t help but feel like it was rushed and that multiple sections were supposed to be whole eps. its not a bad thing in the ep and i don’t even think i really hurts the viewing experience, but there were multiple parts that were kinda glossed over like the big fight and what happened between the king concussion. i can’t blame any of this on the crew but disney for making a dumb mistake, and seeing the potential for a season 3 at the end, i can only feel bad for what disney missed out on. and even then dana and the crew did a great job for what they had.

ok back to random stuff that last goodbye between the adult squad is very (crying noises)

also why did eda’s sigil thing not apear until raine touched it

illusion guy who really cares about appearance shows up to one of the most important moments of his life like he just got out of bed. hilarious

yknow for something that happened within a plot of a kids show, the whole eda gambit worked out surprisingly well for the first few minutes until eda’s arm is very visibly cursed

note to self: the collector is very naive when it comes to trusting people. like even after being betrayed by belos he still took kings words seriously one he pinky swore

also belos likes screwing people over. yes we already know this. like i get why he didn’t want to let out a destructive god of chaos, but like still mean you just lied and with a smile on your face

so luz just straight up almost died with the petrification thing. good thing she noticed the glove in the corner and went specifically for that as she was being petrified. smart move kill the guy

or was it before idk

ok so the draining happened and since the only two drivers have sigils, the ship just straight up crashed and presumable cracked king’s head and now they had to leave alador behind to keep of the abomatons hope he’s fine

then they showed up at the altar thing and have to look at everyone dying. guess they really know their plan failed

and now they’re going to luz how did king sleep through all that lol

also how is hunter more fine than everyone else with sigils

ok so after that illusion spell gus might just actually know all of belos’ backstory good for him i guess we’ll need that later

belos was being nice to hunter and idk if that was an act or not. either way he went insane the second he saw flapjack so i guess it was caleb’s palisman

belos specifically put all the golden guards into one specific hole. damn dude just like hollow knight

also the collectors in the hole of failures massive L for him

also kiki knows about all of this

and the titan locked the collector away so thats cool

and king’s collar hides him from the collector so thats cool too. since it was on all of the walls where he was born those symbols were probably to protect him from the danger of the collector

also what was the collector doing at the end if they didn’t even know how to play owl house were you just destroying the place to be dramatic

damn raine just ripped off eda’s arm just like amp

ok so the whole arm chopping thing protected her from the draining spell, but that was going to be fixed anyways. it could have also helped from the curse if that wouldn’t have been stopped by the spell stopping. and it means she can still do wild magic if she ever can again so thats cool too

where did luz get the eyebrow scar tho we just never see it happen

and yeah the collector’s cool and the luz possession theories and now deemed outdated and funny

they just turn the tone of the scene from intense to “wtf is happening is this actually happening did they just do that” and its honestly great

“i play it every day” “i play it every hour” (pain noises)

(everyone dying) “boop”

i really like the type of villain that is just not fazed by anything and treats everything like its no big deal. like the collector treats everything like a game and just casually destroys the big bad of the series in like a second with no fanfare. then they just. move the moon. like with an ipad. no fanfare. it’s great

also belos probably isn’t gone forever so

he then proceeded to destroy the whole world for an owl house

and now they’re going to the human realm that would have made a great few seasons huh disney

they put a lot of emphasis on the belos blobs dripping onto hunter so that might be something or they may just be dramatic

also luz is just very down with sacrificing herself so i guess the protagonist role is really getting to her

so king pushes them into the portal and now the main trio is separated and one of them with their magical friends ins stuck in the human realm

just like amphibia

truly is the true colours of the owl house

also speaking of amphibia ANNE BOONCHUY ANNE BOONCHUY IT’S ANNE BOONCHUY SHE’S ANNE BOONCHUY THIS IS HOW THE CROSSOVER CAN STILL HAPPEN

ok so like theres a headline about anne being in a frog land and it being a hoax. so like amphibia happened in the same universe as this and probably happened a while ago and people are already questioning the legitimacy of it damn. now i’m already questioning when in the amphibia timeline this happens like is it during 3A, after frogvasion, a few years after that. must be wild to hear this happening while your daughter’s also claiming to be stuck in another world

anyways that last scene was really good and captured the right emotions for me but my brain still reeling from amphibia just made me think of that.

so yeah now we wait for the specials and im curious as to how the story will continue. idk how they’ll follow up on the collector, how they’ll get back, what they’ll focus on, and how this story will end, but i’m sure that whatever happens will be a fun ride. or a painful one. that works too

#the owl house #the owl house spoilers #toh #damn tho just like true co- *gets shot*#but yeah pretty cool #alttalks

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feralphoenix · 4 years ago

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BUT THAT DOESN’T MEAN YOU’RE NOT PREPARED TO TRY

if you’re following my blog or if you read my fanfiction, you may have seen me talking in tags or comments about how the radiance hollowknight was a pacifist. “feral, wtf?” you may have thought. “she’s the freaking final boss and tries really, really hard to kill you and all her attacks do 2 entire masks damage. where on earth do you get pacifism out of that???”

to you specifically i say, that’s an understandable reaction! the short version of how i got here was that i started thinking about the story implications of radi not inflicting contact damage and took a deep dive into game mechanics and lore. when i came up for air i had made myself Very Sad.

if this intrigues you and you would like to know more, come along with me, i am happy to point out the things i noticed and share the Big Sad around.

this essay is also available on dreamwidth for accessibility purposes, since my layout’s text may be too small for folks on pc with high-res screens.

CONTENT WARNING: This essay discusses pseudo-zombie plagues and associated body horror, colonialism and genocide, horrible things that happened in real life Australian history... you know, the usual topics that come up when I’m talking about Hollow Knight.

ADDITIONAL NOTICE: TPK fans of the “TPK meant well/was working for the greater good”/“TPK and Radi are equally bad”/“TPK is bad but Radi is worse” variety please give this one a pass, it ain’t for you.

finally if youre from a christian cultural upbringing (whether currently practicing, agnostic/secular, or atheist now), understand that some of what i’m discussing here may challenge you. if thinking thru the implications of this particular part of hollow knight worldbuilding/lore is distressing for you, PLEASE only approach this essay when youre in a safe mindset & open to listening, and ask the help of a therapist or anti-racism teacher/mentor to help you process your thoughts & feelings. just like keep in mind that youre listening to an ethnoreligiously marginalized person and please be respectful here or wherever else youre discussing this dang essay

BUT THAT DOESN’T MEAN YOU’RE NOT PREPARED TO TRY: The Radiance Doesn’t Deal Contact Damage And That’s Kind Of Fucked Up And Sad

The vast majority of hostile creatures in Hollow Knight deal contact damage: This is to say, if the Wandering Knight (who I’ll probably spend most of this essay calling by their affectionate fan name Ghost) touches a hostile creature, this harms them.

There are exceptions to this rule. The most notable and most oft-memed example is the game’s literal actual true final boss, the Radiance. Not only will Ghost not be harmed by running into any part of her body, but during her stagger animation, where she drops to the boss arena floor on her front with her whole body splayed out, Ghost still isn’t harmed if she lands on top of them! What’s more, this holds true for her full-power form Absolute Radiance, the secret final boss of the Godmaster quest/endings.

A lot of people find this amusing, because it’s a little absurd that a game’s final boss is an exception to such a consistent element of gameplay! Hence all the “haha moth too soft and fluffy for contact damage” jokes. It is objective facts that Radi is very soft and very fluffy, so it’s very easy to understand why people don’t overthink this too much.

Thinking about things I like in gross detail is unfortunately my hobby. When it comes to Hollow Knight this usually leads to me making myself really sad. I’d like to share the fruits of my theorizing with the class, so other people can be sad with me.

Now, from a game design perspective I can think of a lot of reasons why Team Cherry chose for Radiance not to inflict contact damage. Her hitbox only covers the central part of her body. Her limbs are large, so because of the way she floats, if she did contact damage she would be protected from nail strikes from below and to either side. This would give a player who prefers nail combat a punishingly small margin through which they could inflict damage without also taking a hit, potentially forcing them to adapt to a new and unfamiliar play style at the very end of the game. That’s not fun for anybody and tends to make players feel very frustrated.

In addition to this, Radiance’s attacks are all bullet hell-style spells. All of them except the floor hazards inflict two masks of damage, meaning if you want to stay alive and identify points where it’s possible to heal, you need to learn the spell patterns and dodge a lot. Radi is a large boss. If running into her hurt you this would make the bullet hell elements of her fight extra punishing.

So, I think the purely game mechanics reason for Moth Too Soft And Fluffy is in interest of keeping her boss fight fair, and helping players feel like they have a chance of actually defeating her.

Part of why we all love Hollow Knight, though, is that there’s not much in the game that only exists for purely mechanical reasons. There’s always some form of story or lore integration.

So what on earth is the story reason behind why Radiance doesn’t deal contact damage?

OTHER ENEMIES THAT DON’T DEAL CONTACT DAMAGE

Radi isn’t the only enemy (here defined as fightable/killable creature) in Hollow Knight who doesn't inflict contact damage, so let’s take a look at her fellow exceptions to the rule to see what we can learn.

Broadly speaking there are two categories of Enemies That Don’t Deal Contact Damage. The first is enemies or bosses who used to be hostile, but have become friendly to the player. For instance, when characters like Ogrim and Hornet are not being fought in boss battles, touching them won’t cause damage to Ghost. These story characters who Ghost has more or less reconciled with can’t be damaged by the player out of combat either.

In terms of generic enemies who used to be hostile but have become friendly to the player, we have the mantises of the Fungal Wastes and the Siblings/Ghost’s Shade. We learn from the game’s lore that the mantises Did Not Like The Pale King and were hostile to Hallownest, but that they established a ceasefire conditional on their keeping the people of Deepnest (who were also hostile to Hallownest) from leaving through the area’s main entrance/exit in the Fungal Wastes - essentially the two native kingdoms were pitted against one another by the Pale King.

Now, just because there was a ceasefire, that doesn’t mean the mantises take kindly to Hallownest bugs brazenly trespassing into their dang house; they will get in your face and try to kill you unless you have permission to be there. But once you’ve defeated the Mantis Lords in combat and proven yourself worthy of the mantises’ respect, they’ll let you pass through their turf unmolested. They are no longer actively hostile and don't deal contact damage.

(You're still able to attack them, though - maybe because you’d be locked out of receiving the Hunter’s Mark if you complete the Respect quest/achievement before you’ve successfully killed enough mantises? - and if you attack them, or if your pet charm familiars attack them, any mantises you aggroed will fight back and deal contact damage again.)

The Siblings, as well as Ghost’s Shade, are initially indiscriminately hostile. Our window into Shade psychology is limited, but we know that the Shade died violently and the Siblings probably did too; they may be lashing out. They’re also Void creatures, and Ghost looks a lot like the Pale King, whom we can guess from context clues pissed the Void off significantly by using it as his personal play-doh to make tools and toys with and also using its house as his personal garbage dump for baby corpses.

However, once Ghost recalls their past and breaks the mask of the Kingsoul charm to reveal the Void Heart at its core, the Void recognizes them as a part of it, and Ghost becomes able to direct/lead the Void to some extent. As an extension of this, the Siblings and Ghost’s shade become docile and can now be killed by any weapon in one hit instead of just the Dream Nail (which is made of Radiance’s Light and is the Void’s natural weakness). They don’t deal contact damage anymore either.

That’s it for “enemies that inflict contact damage at one point, but stop inflicting it after becoming friendly or neutral to Ghost”.

The generic enemies which don't inflict contact damage include shrumelings, maggots, maskflies, and lightseeds/lifeseeds. These enemies are incapable of inflicting any damage on Ghost whatsoever, because by themselves they are completely helpless entities with no natural defenses.

Shrumelings are infant members of the mushroom clan who are usually protected by adult fungi like shrumal warriors and ogres. Lightseeds and lifeseeds are harmless single-celled organisms. Maskflies are similarly harmless. Maggots, we glean from the Hunter’s Journal and dialogue from False Knight/Failed Champion, are the bottom rung of Hallownest’s society because they are weak and helpless, and are forced into menial and slave labor by other Hallownest bugs because they cannot defend themselves. The maggots’ plight is the whole reason why False Knight/Failed Champion stole Hegemol's armor in the first place, as he wanted to protect his people.

All of these enemies flee when Ghost approaches them. (Some maskfly groups’ flight triggers are set to specific areas on a map and won’t flee if you can avoid stepping on/passing through those areas, but this is clearly due to a programming oversight because their whole Thing is running away.)

But, there’s something interesting to be observed in the case of lightseeds and maggots: They can fight back against and harm Ghost if they use tools. The little flock of lightseeds you chase around the Ancient Basin eventually get sick of Ghost’s shit and take over Broken Vessel/Lost Kin’s corpse, which they puppet around to try to murder you. By doing so they gain access to Broken Vessel/Lost Kin’s considerable combat prowess and become very dangerous, contact damage included in the bargain. (The lightseeds’ doing this seems to evoke the vessel’s spirit, since they reach for Ghost when defeated. That’s not a gesture the lightseeds have any reason to make. The Lost Kin fight, by which the spirit seems to gain some form of closure, becomes available here too.)

False Knight/Failed Champion’s fights work on the same general principle. Now that he has a weapon he can attack Ghost, and his armor deals contact damage. The maggot inside the armor does not inflict contact damage; essentially both his boss fights consist of your whacking the armor until he’s stunned and pops out of the armor for a moment so you can hit his vulnerable real body, which is the only part of him that yields Soul when you smack him. In fact, his boss fights will last forever if you let him recover from being stunned on his own.

Between these two groups, Radiance very obviously doesn’t fit in the first, as she’s the final boss and is very vigorously trying to kill Ghost with various magic spells. You can tell from her Dream Nail dialogue that she’s furious about what the Pale King did to her and her people, and is afraid for her life. She is willing to use everything at her disposal to try to destroy Ghost so she can survive, go free, and get revenge for the Pale King’s crimes. If she could do contact damage to Ghost she would.

So, the only logical conclusion to make is that Radi falls into the second group of enemies that don’t inflict contact damage. She is physically incapable of causing any harm to anyone with only her body. Her magic is deadly as all get out and the 2 masks damage explosion noise probably haunts the nightmares of anyone who’s struggled fighting her, but without it she is helpless.

WHY CAN’T RADIANCE DO CONTACT DAMAGE?

It might be pretty hard to reconcile the fact that a character with Audre Lorde energy as potent as Radi Hollowknight’s is has a whopping 0 ATK. The biggest clues we get in terms of story context for her inability to inflict physical harm of any kind can be found within the culture of the moth tribe, who were her people.

Thistlewind, the backer-designed moth ghost who can be found in the Resting Grounds, tells you that the majority of moths were pacifists, and that individuals like them and like Markoth who learned to wield a nail were in the minority. Thistlewind appears to have learned to fight as a means of self-defense while they explored the crater area, and describes Markoth as having done so in order to “[brave] the edges of this world, hoping to uncover a truth long forgotten”. It sounds to me like Markoth was trying to recover parts of moth culture that were lost when their tribe was assimilated into Hallownest, or maybe even searching for Radiance or trying to learn what happened to her. (Judging that his corpse is hidden behind one of the Pale King’s shade gates it seems this didn’t go well. Thanks TPK.)

As far as fighting moths go there’s Marmu too, but she seems to be a special case, possibly raised in Hallownest's culture instead of with her tribe. We don’t actually get any sort of canon explanation for how a baby moth wound up as a child soldier who died defending the Queen’s Gardens, but given the overall tone of Hollow Knight as a game and all the colonization/Australian history parallel subtext, some horrifying possibilities come to mind.

So, if Thistlewind, Markoth, and Marmu are Outliers Lepidoptera and should not be counted, how did the majority of moths spend their time? According to Seer, who knows more about the tribe’s history than most (and to Quirrel, who points you to her if you defeat Uumuu before picking up the Dream Nail), the moths’ main prerogative was cultivating and developing dream magic. From the way the Seer describes dreams as a living history as you collect Essence, dream magic seems to be a parallel to the Dreaming (or Dreamtime), a spiritual concept in Indigenous Australian religion related to both history and myth.

To translate this into simple terms, the moths were by and large pacifists whose culture celebrated art, history, and spirituality.

Team Cherry tends to adapt at least some aspects of real-life bug behavior and biology into their sad cartoon bugs, so moths-as-pacifists tracks: Real moths do not really have any way to fight. They defend themselves from predators via their mobility and their markings, which tend towards either camouflage that helps them hide or bright markings intended to scare predators off by indicating they’re poisonous (therefore not good to eat) or look like the face of something much bigger and more dangerous than they are.

There's not that much we can glean about the moths in pre-Hallownest society aside from Seer’s dialogue, because Hallownest destroyed their civilization so thoroughly: Except in the Dream Realm (which is filled with Essence spirographs and the wisteria charms that decorate Seer’s room), their architecture can only be found anymore in hidden parts of the Resting Grounds and at the very top of the Crystal Peak where Radi’s statue and a fuckton of lore tablets Ghost doesn’t know how to read are located.

But, we know that the crater pre-Hallownest was home to a ton of diverse bug nations - the mosskin, the mushroom tribe, the mantises, Deepnest, the Hive, the flukes - and every SINGLE one of those had some kind of warrior tradition, as well as their own unique cultures. In the midst of all that it was only the moths who were pacifists, so from there we can tentatively assume that they were on good enough terms with their neighbors for there not to be any fighting. The mosskin in particular also had and still have a Higher Being on their side, though in the modern day Unn seems to be rather conflict avoidant to say the least.

And we know from Hallownest’s past dealings with the mantises and Deepnest that even having Two (2) Higher Beings isn’t enough to keep rival civilizations off your nuts if they hate you, so it’s improbable that Radiance just did all the moths’ fighting for them.

The only hint that the moths ever had beef with anyone at all is one of Radiance’s Dream Nail lines, “ancient enemy” - this is popularly theorized to refer to the Void and might be corroborated by the Void’s willingness to follow Ghost into Radi’s boss fights and fight alongside them. As the Void seems to be some sort of Higher Being/god of darkness and nothingness, and the Dream Nail’s only offensive ability is to kill Void creatures, the Void and creatures of Light appear to be in a position of mutual vulnerability. Some of the Pale King’s writings in his workshop, which identify the Void as a power in direct opposition to his, support this too.

It’s unclear whether the Void civilization and Radiance ever directly came to blows or whether they were just giving each other the stink eye over being natural enemies - personally I think the latter is more likely because the two civilizations existed on opposite sides of the crater*, and again, the moths were pacifists; plus when Ghost brings the Void along to Radi’s boss fight she is quickly and gruesomely overwhelmed by it.

What I am saying here is that if pacifism was such an integral aspect of moth culture, and Radiance epitomized her people’s culture, and she is 100% incapable of inflicting physical harm, she was probably a pacifist too.

DEEP DOWN YOU KNOW YOU WEREN'T BUILT FOR FIGHTING

Hallownest flourished for a long, long time between the Pale King and White Lady first establishing it and the initial outbreak of the Infection.

There’s no conclusive information in-game as to why this is. We can only guess: Maybe Radiance was so badly hurt or weakened by the moths’ assimilation that it simply took her That Long to become capable of the mass dream broadcast to Literally Everyone In Hallownest that would eventually become the Infection when Hallownest’s people tried to suppress it. Or, maybe it just took a long time for her to come up with a way to fight back. It’s possible that it took her a while to find the resolve to actually fight back, too, with her principles of pacifism in conflict with the necessity of defending herself and taking her people back. Maybe there was a change in the moths’ situation in Hallownest somewhere down the line that compelled her to step in - all the moths are super extremely dead at the time Hollow Knight starts, after all. Even Seer is eventually revealed to be a revenant like Ze’mer the Grey Mourner, only lingering in the world to pass on the Dream Nail and tell Radiance’s story. Maybe it was a combination of all those factors. Barring Team Cherry dropping in to explain this bit of Sekret Deep Lore, we are never going to know.

All we DO know for sure is that when we mosey into Hollow’s brain (and/or Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny our way to the top of Hallownest’s Pantheon) and challenge the literal actual sun to a fight, Radi takes the challenge with extreme prejudice and comes in swinging.

Something interesting I noticed while comparing the Radiance boss fights with the Pure Vessel fight is that some of their attacks are vaguely similar. Where warrior-mage characters like Xero and Markoth have physical weapons that they summon and manipulate with magic, Radiance and Pure Vessel both create nails and daggers out of Essence and Soul respectively. Both characters’ magical weapon attacks are similar in nature too: Some are used to create hazards that must be dodged or avoided, and some are fired directly at Ghost in radial patterns.

This begs a very sad chicken-and-egg question. Did Radi and Hollow develop these battle techniques independently of each other, has Hollow in their prime form somehow absorbed similar techniques to Radi through osmosis since they’re currently chained together by the brain... or is Radi mimicking and innovating on these attacks she knows Hollow can do?

All her other attacks seem very obvious for a light-themed character, after all: Beam attacks and blobs of light. A flash of bright light is also how she shakes off the Void the first time it tries to grab her, too, making for a strong argument that that’s the original natural defense she possessed, and that’s what she based most of her attack magic off of.

Making sword’s and knive’s from Essence when most of her people didn’t even handle these sorts of tools even at the height of her power and influence, though... that seems less like something that would come naturally to her. i don’t really know i don’t have a definitive answer or theory for this one it just Seems Possible and it’s fucking me up guys

Even the Infection - which began life as Radiance’s attempt to communicate, let’s remember, before it progressed to “The End Of Eva Disease Will Continue Until Someone Actually Listens To Me” and then finally Radi screaming “FUCK U LET ME OUT, GET THAT NEW SUNNY D BOTTLE THE FUCK AWAY FROM ME, HALLOWNEST EAT SHIT” during canon - does not appear to be fatal to living bugs until the tumorous growths grow so large they impede bodily functions, like real cancer. We can observe this phenomenon via a number of NPCs and enemies that are rediscovered as tumorous corpses after the whole Crossroads area becomes infected.

At least to me, all of this points to Radiance being a character to whom violence and causing harm doesn't come naturally, and who has resorted to these methods in desperation.

It actually reminds me a lot of False Knight/Failed Champion. It’s a very common theory among fans that when he stole Hegemol’s armor he killed Hegemol - this is a reasonable thing to believe, since Hegemol is the only one of the Five Great Knights of Hallownest who never appears at all in-game, not even as a corpse like Dryya and Isma. Like Radi, False Knight/Failed Champion is a character who rose up and turned to violence in order to protect his people, despite the maggots not being a belligerent species.

False Knight is one of the game’s first major bosses, sometimes the first boss that players encounter at all. And so Hollow Knight’s story bookends with two separate victims of a predatory system, one who lived within and was cannibalized by it, one outside of it who was deliberately targeted by the Pale King. Neither of them started out as a fighter, but both of them still adopted violence as a tool to protect themselves and their people. Radiance is as doomed as False Knight by the Pale King’s genocide, but just like False Knight, she has no intention of going quietly, and will rage against the dying of the light as only the literal actual sun can.

Cue Deedee Magno Hall voice clip. You all know the one.

*A footnote: There’s no conclusive evidence to tell us whether the Void civilization was contemporaneous with the other pre-Hallownest indigenous bug nations or whether it predated them. Mask Maker has a line suggesting that the Void civilization tried to expand throughout the crater in its heyday and that maybe this was linked to its collapse, but in general the Void lore is just too darn thin to draw firm conclusions - it’s like trying to speculate on the ancient stone age cultures of the Americas that came before pre-settler Indigenous countries when the only sources you can easily access are elementary school level US history textbooks. (To non-Americans: We mostly teach kids propaganda until they hit college-level courses and it sucks so much ass.) This is very realistic worldbuilding, but also please Team Cherry I want to know more about these ancient bugs who apparently got lost in the sauce

#hollow knight #hollow knight spoilers #hollow knight meta #the radiance #hk radiance #essay #long post under cut -#bad and naughty catholics go in the catholic wiggler

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ateddieadaykeepsthedoctoraway · 5 years ago

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posting this here before i forget again but the more i think abt the hk au im like… hm…

ANYWAYS WARNING THIS IS ME GOING VERY STREAM OF THOUGHT NONE OF THIS IS FLESHED OUT YET MOST OF THIS IS ONLY HALF FORMED CONCEPTS n ill prolly delete this once/if i work it out further

p4 would work so well in a post radiance sealed away setting w p3 having been the seal . like. minato/the hollow knight sealing up their respective gods rlly do be out there

the problem is that idk if id be into the idea of him being made a vessel? maybe somehow hollowed himself out n became a vessel as sacrifice? idk i haven’t seen p3 in years he just doesn’t fit the idea i have for the vessels (read later but im mainly reserving them for the non humans)

idk what that’d make the rest of the p3 cast but im here to talk p4 so like sh

anyways. tempted to make the radiance less nyx exactly n more just… a vague concept for all the gods

so her leaking out again /the infection starting again as stand in for izanamis fog spreading n ppl going not great over that

all i know is that this au or whatever would prolly start at the start of it starting to spread? so its not like the game where everythings already gone to shit

all i have is for ted mainly is that he’s a vessel ! cus the abyss felt like it could work for him n also the anti shadow suppression weapons (yes im lumping the shadow and the anti shadow weapons in together here its mainly just bcus they all work w the idea of not being supposed to have ‚real’ personalities)

i kind of want him as a mask maker! maybe not the mask maker but i like the idea of tiny vessel escaping the abyss and as he finds his actual personality more actually making other masks for himself to fit the self he wants to be towards others more (to mimic him creating the bear costume n human body to fit in as well skjdhfjks)(also as a small nod to him making glasses for others ig! mask maker)

im not entirely sure if i want to keep the dreamers? well. im keeping them but not asleep. was thinking of making them the velvet attendants? having sealed away, the seal. they aint sleeping n will actively fight u tho. my main reasoning for this one was I Think It Sounds Cool

dont know how to deal w the pale king n stuff tho so

im thinking abt kind of. getting rid of them? which prolly sounds like a major element to remove but the kings/queens/wyrm god stuff translates over a lil harder w the actual persona gods being like that (i wouldn’t know how to distribute the persona gods over radiance pale king white queen n grimm so i will just not do that i think (ik grimms not a wyrm but im not gonna lie folks his lore confuses me so i will just ignore it for this one) so instead the pale king could just be the entire kirijo group? creating the vessels to battle the radiance/the persona gods p much

as for the rest of the cast…. yosuke as a mantis? still has his wings. fast n jumpy to fit w him being fast n air based. speaking of the mantises- adachi possibly as the traitor lord?? not necisarrily a lord like in canon but just someone who accepted the infection willingly to gain power

design wise speaking i like the idea of chie as a bee? warrior bee. for yukiko- idk wtf isma was bug wise but cus her ability grants acid immunity n the acid i think could fit yukikos fire/n immunity her healing powers i wanna say smth like isma. maybe a giraffe weevil (like willoh) as species since idk what isma was and their long necks kinda remind me of yukikos bird shadows neck. yes thats fairly vague but im doing my best. giraffe weevil who has weird acid powers i dont even know. (THO I DO ALSO KINDA LIKE THE IDEA OF WEAVER YUKIKO. HM. MUST THINK ABOUT THIS SOME MORE IM JUST THROWING SHIT AT THE WALL RN)

kanji as whatever hegemol was. big scary towering bug. (who ends up actually being not scary!) for rise… wanna give her a design kinda like ze’mer maybe? traveling bard bug (which could be why she’s useful as a backup person moreso informing the team? she knows abt stuff cus shes been places)

naoto and yu as i genuinely have no idea . i dont know. help me. maybe naoto as a moth??? removing the moth tribe as inherently connected to the radiance. cus i removed the other worms/gods n jut replaced them w kirijo group radiance is kind of an outlier here n would prolly be a weird force of nature fuelled by emotions thing to fit in w persona more. can still take the form of a moth or whatever tho i might change that but the point is the moth tribe isn’t connected to r anymore n she wasn’t some ancient god already being worshipped that got angry shes just a force that suddenly started existing now

anyways. they all meet up bcus of infection starting to spread n start investigating and end up facing off w izanami version of the radiance (again. radiance is more a general concept of all gods so for the p3 cast it would’ve been more a nyx version. for p4 shes more izanami cus i make the rules in this house)

the dream world still exists and its where most of the major fights take place! like fighting the attendants- they’re not asleep but they can access the dream world n can only be fought in there (they dont die if defeated they’ll just be like yea i wont stop ya anymore do your thing)(defeating them prolly required to progress into certain areas besides them just protecting the seal)

teds still the one in charge of portalling them between worlds! when he was scouring the land still forming his personality he got access to a dream nail he can use to not only enter dreams himself but also let the others come w him. why? how? i dont know that yet. this is still just me throwing shit at the wall

#not art #ok thats enough me going batshit #half of this probably does not make sense but #OH WELL #ill flesh it out n work out the actual details #like #one day.#im sorry for this not being art my ass is being very depressed rn #drawing hard

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downthewellintothewaters · 5 years ago

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Pale King Receipts.

i’ve been slowly storing up a list of all the shit the Pale King messed up. Starting with...

Littering his dead body at the edge of the kingdom completely wreaking havoc on the ecosystem.

Stealing the peaceful moth cult from the now incredibly pissed off sun god.

Tried to hide knowledge of the sun god so no one could know she existed, pissing her off even Farther.

Created a Kingdom in a bottle. As the only kingdom it cant export or import from anything but itself causing a mass social split between makers and users.

Is a massive lier

lied about the kingdom being the only and last one.

if he believes his own lie, that means he doesn't consider any other kingdom to be worth anything and pride is a sin yah know.

While hiding all evidence of the radiance he forgets the MASSIVE STATURE OF HER AT THE TOP OF HIS KINGDOM.

Built his palace under the sewers

Created a marvel of civil engineering in the city of tears. all that water managment and draining systems, we cant even get our roads to drain right and he goes and manages an eternal rain. this is far more sophisticated than HUMANS HAVE MANAGED. our cites can handle like, two weeks of consent rain max. not even. (i dont live near subways but how often do they flood in heavy storms?) so props there PK.

when shit hit the fan he uprooted the whole palace into DREAM aka THE THING THE RADIANCE HAS CONTROL OVER. srsly bad plan

i’d call the creation of hornet a sin but everyone had agreed to it so it can pass, also we get hornet out of it and that is always a plus, so one point removed.

Proceeds to make hornet an orphan so add that point back on.

Created the stagways. Sentient bugs that TALK cant ever leave them. Slaves to always carrying around other bugs to places they will never see themselves.

They are basically extinct because of this because HE SEALED THE STAGWAYS WITH THEM IN IT.

Sealed Hallownest to keep the infection in (badly)

Sealed the city gates leaving Hedgimol with the key. (who had his ENTIRE suit stolen, key and all.)

srsly he just sealed bugs alive and left them to fend off zombies.

Created trams that can only be used if you have a passed issued by the pale king himself.

only one tram is actual useful

the resting ground tram passes over the blue lake because like, bugs cant swim, letting the crossroad bugs visit their dead with is nice of him. points for that.

also the resting ground elevator, bugs are into cemeterys i guess. there is one in dirthmouth too. and the resting grounds with the shaman.

lots of places are build out of bug shell so wtf. how long does a bug have to be dead until it’s socially acceptable to use their corpse for building materials?

uses enough bug bricks to weird out travelers.

refused to declare an heir because he planed to rule forever

lefted his kingdom set up for a horrible power vaccum

left his magic brand UNGUARDED IN THE KINGDOMS EDGE. if it were not for hornet taking that role litterly anyone could wander in and take it.

i would put refusing to let his wife have a child until he wanted to toss them all into the void here, because that’s a problem. that is a BIG ONE. but WL personally doesn't seem to care. so Extra points off for bad parenting.

she was put off by all this enough to put her off breeding which is something she still wants to do (mom ew tmi) so... traumatizing your wife?

harnessed void. im pretty sure that’s a taboo

made the kingsmolds and thought the void was mindless. those things display obvious emotions.

made the collector.

made the vessels

proceeded to cause most of them to die

made the vessels voiceless, void is not without sound. if the collector is a Kingsmould then they CAN think and talk. (i blame the laughing bastard, this is why we cant have nice things) the Shades can sing and they whisper. dick move PK

created the shade gates? WHY

stuck markoth at the KE and put a shade gate there (this is probably a good thing)

sealed the abyss

left the lighthouse keeper in the abyss. did he just forget about them? Why did he doom them to live in this hell pit until the void itself told him to turn off the light, and then perished.

left living vessels in the abyss

didnt even do a good job of sealing the abyss, counting Greenpath vessel, lost kin, ghost, and the ones in nosk’s lair, about a dozen made it out.

Everything about Hollow.

Buzzsaws

path of pain

HOLLOW WASNT HOLLOW AND THE WL KNEW THE PK SUPOST TO HAVE CLAIRVOYANCE AND HE WAS BLIND.

Ruined a perfectly good Knight (orgim)

Ruined a Perfectly good knight (hollow)

Requited the three dreamers

created a way of sealing the radiance in such a way that when it failed. It is IMPOSSIBLE to do anything about her.

SERIOUSLY HE DOOMED HIS OWN KINGDOM BY PISSING OFF A SUN GOD OF DREAMS AND THEN SEALING HER BADLY

hornet has spent ages unable to do anything about the dying kingdom because Radiance is sealed by dreamers.

the radiance is able to infect more bugs unhindered

and what was supost to seal her is now protecting her

i realized this while fighting the watcher knights, their dream nail says “Protect .. seal” i was all, oh yeah that was their job. but infected! if radiance wanted out, she would want the seals broken.

she doesnt want out, shes as snug as a bug in a vessel rug.

PK made her a perfectly protected home

Monomon’s extra protection meant that if Quirril hadnt returned Nothing could have stopped the Radiance.

he perfectly set everything up to fail

#hollow knight #tldr Pk messes things up and hides it under a rug #aka seals things badly and makes everything worse #ghost inheirited their gremlinness from PK #they both show up and fuck everything up #feel free to tell me if i missed anything you feel like should be added #good or bad

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sutare-chan · 5 years ago

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Ao Jumonji’s Roman, pt.1

Ah! I see, you can hear me, thank you~ Well then, here goes the synopsis along with some commentary on my part.

1. Asa to Yoru It's a rather short excerpt that begins with the words "You wake up under a sky, torn apart into two". Yes, it's "you"-prospective. That's the line that lured me into the text once I opened it, actually. Anyway, you wake up under a torn sky, in which one part is the morning, while the other part is the night full of stars. You walk, and walk, and walk, but nothing ever changes, except that you get hell tired. You're all alone and at some point you're starting to wonder if you've got a body at all. Apparently you do (otherwise how would it have been possible to walk?). But when you try to check it, you only see a cloud of black dust (you're not sure if it's fine like that). Finally you're exhausted and sit down, when suddenly there appears a man with something round and transparent on his eye, a stick and a hat (GEE, I WONDER who that might be!), who has two girls with him. The man introduces himself as M (wtf?..), but when you go all wtf is wrong with this name, he gives you a free choice: Marcel, Martin, Matias, Michael, Michel or even Christophe. Anyway, he asks you weird questions making you wonder what are YOU. Finally he gives you the dolls, and then you suddenly realize you're not you, but me. I mean, from there on the prospective slowly starts to change, and it's not the 2nd person anymore, but the 1st. (I'll be calling the character Hiver from now on). Oh, and yes, Hiver gets the normal human-like shape as the dolls touch him. You know, from the album jacket we all know. M makes a weird Jimang-prophecy and disappears, while Hiver is still all wtf is going on. He slowly realizes he's neither dead nor born, he's super afraid and tries to run away, but it doesn't really help. Quoting: "I'm not alive, hence I cannot die. How weird it is that I, the one never to have been born, would need something. I suppose that's funny even. I would've laughed if that wasn't about myself <...> So what is it that I need, that I'm looking for? Something I miss painfully? What am I missing so that I ended up here and probably got locked? What is it? Is this the inevitability? Or maybe the circumstances? Or maybe reasons? I guess it's all and none of those. Those are but shatters. Neither reasons, nor circumstances, nor the inevitability are quite the thing I'm looking for. Even all of them combined aren't enough. I want to open the gates and get out of here. But I need the key for that. "Roman". The key. That is the key to the gates. "If there's a roman that leads to my birth, I want to find it"." So, being scared of becoming black dust again, he still smiles and sends Hortense and Violette away to find him a roman. And stays alone between morning and night... (end of chapter 1, which was actually no more than a few pages. what follows is...) A piece of Noël nr.1 So, it all begins with a children's playing yard. There are numerous places to play on that one, but most of them are occupied by other children. The least popular on the playground are... ah... these things (sorry for the inconvenience once again, tumblr won’t post the image =\)

A boy (or should I say THE boy?) is sitting on one of those. At some point he tried to go to the slides, but the boys that are playing there won't let him into their circle. After some time the boy starts to sing because he's so sad, and two of the boys come closer - just to drive him away from that spring-thing too D= The only place left for the boy is under the lonely tree (at that point he thinks - “Who was that cruel person who cut down all the trees except this one? Had I been the tree, I’d rather be felled with the others”). He sits there and keeps singing. Sounds are flowing into his ears and get transformed in his head. He sings along with the world, so to say. At evening, when all the children are gone already, he suddenly hears sharp and scary steps. That's his granny. He runs towards her, while she turns around and walks away without even waiting for him. [oh boy, I'm missing so many details...] One more point: feeling that his granny is somewhat irritated, Noël apologizes, but she doesn't like that. So the chapter ends as follows. A car with blinding lights rides by, and the grand-mother has to pull Noël so that he doesn't get hit. "As soon as the car rushed by, granny let his hand off and muttered something about being tired. He would want to apologize now. But that would only make her feel more irritated, wouldn't it?.." 2. Hiiro no Fuusha It all starts with a rather peaceful morning. A boy (his name is Gilles [like the French name]) wakes up in a small barn where he lives together with the house's animals. Basically, he's not quite at home in this house. His parents are dead, and the family that lives in this house, are his very distant relatives. So, he's basically a small (13 years old) male Cinderella (or so he thinks), but he's in love with the daughter from this house, a girl of his age with the name Clarice. It seems like this is mutual, although Gilles is afraid to even think about it. He's an orphan after all, his future is just so unclear. The daughter isn't the only child in the family. She also has an elder brother, Maxim, and a younger brother, Hector. There's a tension between Maxim and Gilles, because Maxim would sometimes come to Gilles's place at evening and say nasty things (and even kicks him one day). Gilles doesn't understand why, but oh well. He's oh so hated by everyone (except Clarice, who's like a saint to him). So, one day they were harvesting wheat, and Clarice actually more or less confessed to him: "Listen" "Hm?" "Gilles?" "What is it, Clarice?" "I like you so very much. Let's get married?" "Eh?" "Let's get married some day? Are you against it?" "No, I'm not!" "And it will be so much fun every day!" But Gilles thinks that's impossible and they can never marry because he's a poor orphan. He thinks that Clarice is being naive (although she strongly hints that she understands everything very well). Yet he's happy that at least he could dream a bit about it. [by this point you might start to wonder just how will it come to that Gilles will leave her behind]. Anyway, in the evening he feels completely down and is sure that his hopes are never to come true and even wanders away from home. He's walking around and then suddenly realizes he's in the forest. There he sees a (domestic) pig that was also wandering around instead of going home. He wants to help/force it out of the forest, when suddenly Maxim appears and warns Gilles that pigs are dangerous and can harm people. We suddenly get to know that Maxim's actually very much like a tsundere ='D I mean, they used to be like brothers, but then as they became older, it got impossible to always have Gilles around (you may imagine how bothersome children may get sometimes, even if you love them), so their relationship started to crumble. Gilles thought Maxim hated him, when in fact Maxim was trying to set things right again, but since Gilles was an angsting kid, it wasn't all that easy. But finally they have a proper talk in the forest and are heading home, Gilles full of hopes, when suddenly they see a glimpse of fire... Yup, that very day knights attack the village. The family tries to escape to the church as they believe it's safe there, but it's actually not. A red-haired knight-commander is already there with his knights. In the upcoming turmoil pretty much all of the family get slaughtered, except Gilles and Clarice that managed to sneak away. Clarice is shocked and almost paralized, while Gilles thinks about how to save their asses. It all feels so horrible that he for a moment he gets sure that he must be in hell, but then he realizes that since Clarice is here, this cannot be hell, no matter what. So, he saw that the knights had come from the forest to the west from the village and thinks that there should be none left there. He leads Clarice there, and when they're tired, they hide themselves in a bush. They seem to have forgotten what had happened, so they actually talk about how they care for each other and almost kiss. Unfortunately, there are also other villagers hiding in the forest, and the knights eventually come back there, too. After hearing screams, the two remember that everything's very very bad and try to keep silence. Then they hear a weak voice. Maxim's voice, actually. Gilles was about to get away from the bush, but then the person who seemingly had the voice resembling Maxim's (that’s Gilles trying to reject reality) got murdered. Frightened, Gilles thinks that they need to get out of there asap and as far as possible, too. But unfortunately right after they start to flee... Clarice's hand gets grabbed. Gilles struggles to snatch her away, but the soldier that caught her punches the poor boy in the stomach and he falls. He also happened to stand on the edge of a hollow, so he stumbles down, down there, watching at how Clarice "flies up" from him. He fell very badly and was in so much pain he couldn't move a muscle (or so it feels), but he was conscious nevertheless. So he heard the soldier and his fellows rape Clarice up there. Gilles was hoping someone would finally climb down and kill him already, but unfortunately right when one of the soldiers was satisfied and was about to follow the boy he had seen, Clarice finally raises her voice, she laughs and yells that all of them are cursed and will burn in hell. The soldiers, distracted and annoyed by that, kill her and forget about Gilles. He was still lying at the bottom of the hollow, waiting for death to come, when it gets bright again, and a new morning came to the world where Clarice was gone. Where he let Clarice die. Where he killed Clarice. After that we get a time-skip. Outskirts of a town. A really stinky tavern. There appears a young man in a dirty cloak. He sits at a table next to a drunk man, presumably an ex-soldier. The two speak. The ex-soldier sees that despites his looks the young man seems to have quite some money. Quoting: "So what the heck are you doing here?" "I just came to drink some water" "Bullshit" <...> "I've known a person of the same name as yours" "Wha?" "Maxim" "Why the heck you know my name?" "I just guessed" "Ya think I'm gonna believe this?" "Who knows <...> I need to talk to you, Maxim." Gilles promises to pay if Maxim talks to him outside of the tavern. They go. Maxim feels a bit nervous because this Gilles (yes, that's him, and he's a bit insane as one can feel through the dialogue) walks way too smoothly and silently, like a cat. Quoting again: "So, what'd you wanna ask? <...> It's cold, I don't wanna talk for too long" "That's right, winter is coming... My first winter back then was very cold too, huh..." "Back then?" "That's none of your business, Maxim. Never mind. Tell about yourself". They talk a bit, and soon enough Gilles confirmed that this Maxim was one of the soldiers that had attacked the village under the command of Damien Laurant. Gilles hadn't known that name, and he bursts into laughter and was about to go his way. But Maxim reminded him that Gilles had promised to pay, and so (quoting again) ""Ah, that's right" Gilles turned around and somewhat shrank. The next instant he was attacking, and not just like that! What swiftness! Gilles drew his sword so much faster than he did! The blade pierced through Maxim's belly and sticked out from his back. <...> He twisted his wrists, turning the sword, and then again, and again. "Finally I've learned it. Damien Laurant. So that was his name. Maxim, you see, I found one more person before you, but I accidentally missed the time to ask the name. <...> I just didn't have enough patience, that wasn't on purpose, I swear. Listen, Maxim. There's one more thing I want to know, since I have the chance. How many people have you killed <...>? In that forest? Was there a girl among them? Please do tell. Answer me. Maxim, what's wrong? Maxim?.. Ah, Maxim. Have you died? What a pity. I wanted to ask so much more <...> I haven't had enough patience. It's all your fault, Maxim. I've known a person of the same name. He was... like a friend to me or even a brother. But I killed him. I left him to die. So terrible. I do deserve to go to hell. No doubt"." So, Gilles says he cannot die just yet until he's killed Damien Laurant. And he goes off, laughing. A piece of Noël nr.2 Noël is sitting in the room and playing on a melodica. He sees a shinig sunray through the hazed window, but he cannot express its colour by words. So instead he's trying to find the right expression through melody. His granny's also there and she says that he should shut up and leave, because she doesn't feel well with him around. Granny's been caughing hard and a lot lately, and she also came to neglect her looks. She doesn't dye her hair anymore, her tights have holes etc. Noël obeys and stops playing and goes to the exit. The room is overfilled with all kinds of garbage, so there isn't much place to step, thus it takes a lot of time. Before leaving, he actually told her to stop smoking, but to no avail =P He sits outside the apartment, in the staircase, and starts to play his melodica again, but the neighbour woman comes and tells him that her small babies are sleeping and Noël's disturbing them. So he leaves again and wanders around. No one is asking the boy with a melodica if something's wrong. As the evening draws near, he watches some windows where light turns on, feels very bad and runs off to the riverside. There he tried to play his melodica again, but some stranger that looked closely at him scared Noël and he hid himself under a bridge. Cars are riding above his head, wheels and tires screaming and echoing. Noël has a vision of a scary giant monster, which cannot be put in words - but can be expressed through melody. Scared, he plays the tune, he has the feeling his head is about to pop, but he goes on. The monster grabs cars and throws them around, and finally it finds Noël and bites his head, and grinds it with its teeth. Noël was gone. But not the melody. The monster was there... 3. Miezaru Ude So, this time the main hero's name is Serge. Serge Laurant. He's a young knight. He had a hard time gaining this position, but finally he succeeded and now he's at war. He has a servant, Beau (that reads roughly as "Bo" by French rules). Serge is around 19 years old. Beau is a bit older than him, but he's very smart and knows a lot. It's evening, the army is getting to rest. There are lots of mercenaries around, that are behaving much like beasts, so Serge is being sad that the times of noble chivalry are gone. We also learn that this is the army of general Alvarez. So, the night has come, when suddenly Beau wakes Serge and tells that there seems to be an enemy attack. Serge is all wtf, how can it be, that's so unlike what knights are supposed to act. Still, they have to accept the fact, that yup, apparently they're being attacked. Because of reasons Serge cannot get to his horse, but he desperately needs to go to the battle to prove himself a true knight and a good warrior. He grabs his sword and runs after the enemy, who seems to be not numerous at all. Apparently, the enemy's plan was to use the moment to kill as many mercenaries as possible, cause some chaos and then disappear. Unfortunately, pretty much right after Serge gets into the forest, he stumbles upon a knight with red hair and a cross-like scar on his cheek and gets half of his arm cut off. [but it wasn't said directly in the text] Oops! The next scene is discribed in a way that one could think it's a dream. So, Serge seems to live in Rouen now, he catches wild dogs and kills them to make a living. He doesn't particularly like his job, and he's almost constantly covered with dog blood and remains, so other citizens try to avoid him. He lives in a very narrow house with his wife, Natalie, who always meets him, and kisses him, and washes his clothes and makes him food (despite actually being a noble lady). Serge sees a dream that starts with him waking up after that life in Rouen and believing that it had been but a dream. In his nightmare he has both arms, but then the red-haired knight appears out of nowhere and cuts one of them off. Serge is trying his best to defend himself, and then he wakes up in his house in Rouen, because he ended up falling from the bed. He also discovers that Natalie lies on the floor, too, because of some reason. Apparently, he hit her in his sleep... Serge loves his wife a lot and he remembers that she comes from a good family. He wants to gain more money so that he could afford at least some luxury for her. He tries to work as a chimneysweep, but, unfortunately, he fails, as it's a tricky task for a man with only one arm. Irritated, he goes to a tavern and gets drunk. Then he gets into a fight with some drunkard. Then he forgets himself and wakes up with his head on some woman's heap. The woman's name is Bernadette and apparently she's a whore. Serge can't remember getting to her room, he's startled and disgusted, so he goes home right after. Natalie was waiting for him there. Soon as he returned, he got sober, and his right arm started to ache again. Some time after that Serge is on his dog-killing duty again. He is actually obliged to get the dog corpses to a certain house to get them burnt. This time he gets triggered by the smell of burning flesh, and remembers his arm being cauterized. It aches madly, as if put in boiling oil, and to make the pain disappear he gets drunk again. The same man as before (the one he had a fight with) insulted Serge by calling him a coward knight, and they fight again. Serge can't remember what happened after that, but he ended up falling asleep somewhere in the street, and then Bernadette finds him and gets to her room, removes his clothes, and kisses his wound... That triggers him again, but it seems that she actually provoked him on purpose so that he would hit her (apparently she’s somewhat masochistic). After that he runs back home again. Serge is tortured by questions: why, why is all this shit happening? Well, it's quite obvious, why. Because that red-haired knight cut off his arm. Speaking of which, that was more or less the only thing the red-haired knight managed to accomplish by his sudden attack. The next morning Alvarez rearranged the troops, and they were able to fight again. Except for Serge. This is about time we learn a bit about Natalie and Serge's relationship. Apparently Serge is the second son in a knight family. His father had a friend, a nobleman, and (apparently) merchant. That friend was much more rich than Serge's father, but they were close, and that’s why that friend would often visit the family. One day he brought along his daughter, who behaved like a noble queen. That pissed off Serge's elder brother, so he yelled at her, but Serge defended her. That time she was very thankful and called Serge her knight. That instant it was all decided. Serge now HAD to become a knight (as non-profitable as it seemed) to fulfill that... that kind of a promise that was made between the two by those words. They fell in love with each other. Serge doubted that his father's friend would be happy to know his daughter wanted to marry such a poor (although noble) man, but Natalie would neglect every other marriage proposal. After a lot of hardships Serge managed to become a knight after all, and all that was left was that he had to accomplish some feat. All of what I've just written was told in the text in the form of yet another nightmare, and yes, at this point the red-haired guy appears and cuts off the arm. Once again, Serge hits Natalie in his sleep. Serge is disgusted of himself, but Natalie tries to say that everything will get fine, they just need to overcome the hard times. She calls him her knight again, but this time it results in his rage and he actually strangles her until she's unconscious (that's what I call "triggered"!) His alcohol problem gets worse and worse. When he feels resolved to overcome this illness, he loses his job. Desperate to get drunk, he comes to the tavern, but gets kicked out, as he has no money. Bernadette finds him again and invites him to her house so that she could give him some wine. He hates Bernadette, but the wine... Anyway, he spends almost the whole night there. When he realized what he had done, he decides once and for all, that once he comes home, he will end this. If Natalie is waiting for him despite him being so late, he WILL start his life anew. If not, he will kill himself one way or another. When he does come home, he sees Natalie sobbing by her bed, but she's not alone - there's also Beau. Beau became a successful merchant after he quit the army, and APPARENTLY he was helping Serge's family all along (Serge having no idea about that). Serge finally realizes and starts being jealous. Fortunately, Natalie slaps this shit out of him. But when he wakes up in the morning, Natalie is gone. He thinks that must be another nightmare. It’s just that because of some reason he cannot wake up from it. He comes to understand that he did have something to lose, and it was his beloved wife, but now she's gone. He doesn't blame her, but he can't understand, why now of all times. Still believing it's all one big nightmare, he gets kicked out from his house and comes to Bernadette, where she gives him so much wine he cannot move for days, "as if wine was circulating in his veins instead of blood". He can't tell reality apart from the dream anymore. Lying in the bed, he sees the red-haired guy occasionally coming to the room. Finally Beau finds him in that state and grabs away. (here we also get to know a bit of Beau's story. he's a bastard of Laurant family, he's smarter and taller than Serge, but he hasn't inherited the famous Laurant blond hair, so he has to be Serge's servant; Serge has a complex because of that, even though he tries not to think of it) After having a talk with Beau Serge finds out that Beau knows the identity of that red-haired guy. And so Serge makes Beau tell him this story So, Damien Laurant was a self-proclaimed knight, not really different from a robber, and even more fierce than one. He was infamous for slaughtering whole villages instead of negotiating. Later he got kicked out from the army because of some reasons and had to become a real robber. Trying to maintain his fame, he hired way too many mercenaries, and the group ended up splitting and ceasing to exist. Right now Damien is told to have become a merchant who sells those "weird goods of the East" in Frankfurt. Without a further ado, Serge gets a horse from Beau (note that I haven’t used the word “asks” =‘D). rides to Frankfurt and searches for the man. He finds him in a tavern full of weird people. There he sees that Damien only has one arm and one eye, very much like Serge himself. Still Serge is resolved to have his revenge, when suddenly a young man in a dirt cloak appears, slaughters Damien and runs off, laughing like a child. "The young man seemed to have all his body-parts safe and sound. What had Damien Laurant taken from him? Serge would probably never know. But that man was missing something terribly important. He must have had a very good reason for the revenge. If Serge had heard his circumstances even just a bit, he would probably understand them. He didn't have the right to judge that young man. But what would that man with that laughter on the edge of craziness do from now on? And what if it would have been Serge, the one to carry out the revenge? What would he have done?" And, well, of course the boy resembling Damien was there, too. All in all, Serge realized that he still had a life and that he was obliged to live it. But that's not the end of the chapter. So, the last part is about Gilles again. He's walking through a city, when suddenly the Man in the Mask (yes, THE Man in THE Mask) catches up with him and gives some money for the service that Gilles had accomplished. Gilles's not sure, for which, as all his life has become a chain of murders. He can't even remember whom he's killing and why. He wants to kill everybody, but realizes that's no good. So, after receiving some gold he feels really uneasy, because that gold is heavy and he doesn't need it anyway. He drowns it into a river and then stumbles upon a beggar. The beggar's really persistent, and when Gilles reaches for a coin, that guy suddenly stabs him with a knife, takes a hammer and smashes Gilles's collarbones, elbows and knees, and jaws (ouch). Then he drags Gilles to a stall, where he tells Damien's (his father's) full story, which I'm too lazy to write down. One important thing is that Damien was on drugs when Gilles came to kill him, as he was ruining his life with that stuff. Otherwise there’d be no chance for Gilles to finish off the boy’s glorious dada. And Pierre (the boy's name, French for “a stone” or “a jewel”) was planning the revenge ever since, and realized he wants Gilles to live as long as possible in unbearable pain. "And you cannot escape from me. Ever".

Aaand this is about it for today, as I got a bit tired editing the stuff. However, I’ll continue soon, so stay tuned =) Please feel free to ask any questions. Upon rereading the synopsis I realized how, um, poor my narrative tools sometimes are x) See you!

#sound horizon #ao jumonji #roman #vanishing starlight #hetare-sutare

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gaywoodwraith · 7 years ago

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okay but the subject of the primordial serpents weirds me out for a couple reasons

like first and most obviously why do we not encounter any after the first game? frampt and kaathe serve as your guides toward two contradictory ends, but i’ve also seen it pointed out that they both appear and swear fealty to you in the Dark Lord ending (or so i’ve read, idk how people pick them out from the crowd unless there’s dialogue i’m forgetting)

dsii is an odd case bc i have a theory/observation/lore connection that i’m not sure i’ve seen anyone else talk about. it has to do with those things at the bottom of Shulva, the Imperfect. the Serpent Rings, at least in the first game, note that serpents are considered “imperfect dragons,” and the Imperfect here have the same tombstone teeth as the primordial serpents. they also resemble the bounding demons of izalith, which are the back halves of the undead dragons from the valley of drakes and the painted world. trying to connect all that, and i just wonder wtf happened there

but then in dsiii we see statues of the primordial serpents in the grand archives, and they appear the same as they did in the first game, save for the fact that these seem to have wings

now, i’ll admit to being a bit rusty re: all the lore on lothric castle and the archives and the apparent schism/mutiny/i-can’t-think-of-a-better-term that took place between the Winged Knights and the Lothric Knights, but i don’t think the serpents’ wings have to do with that

one might say that the serpent statues are connected to Oceiros and his desire to become a dragon, but i feel like that’s a bit inconsistent; why would he build statues of the “imperfect” serpents in one of the most important parts of the castle if he strove to be something greater? did he even build them?

unconnected to the castle, yuria mentions kaathe by name in her dying voice clips (i know the japanese line is different but i forget what exactly is said in either), which just raises further questions. has he been around for all these eons, refining the plan to bring about a permanent Age of Dark? does that necessitate the cycle having become “burnt out” as it has in dsiii so that a Lord/Lady of Hollows can usurp the fire? did he have any run-ins with Aldia and become aware that the usurpation of the fire by one with a developed Dark Soul could break the cycle, or did he know that already? why don’t we see him in the Ringed City?

#these are the things i post about at midnight when everyone else on my floor is gone for the weekend #dark souls #dark souls ii #dark souls iii #the ringed city #rambling

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opepin · 8 years ago

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june: week five

26: kevin woke up earlier than i did today o__o i rolled around bed and i was just so tired. i did wake up at like 6 am to pee and drink water because my mouth was so dry. kevin left to go to work and then realized he left his laptop and id at home LOLOLOL. so he had to train back and get them. i ate cereal for breakfast and then went to work and caught up on all the stuff that happened over the weekend. i also caught up with my financials and i’m so thankful that july is here so i can properly sort out my moneys lol. then i went back to work and started recording videos. i recorded and edited for the rest of the day. then i did ab exercises and snuck in a low-impact cardio workout...which i don’t think i should have done. ugh. :/ then i put chicken in the oven and made rice. i showered and got out just as the chicken finished baking. kevin got back from climbing and then showered while i chopped garlic and cilantro.

i ate dinner while he cooked. i got hungry so i finished leftovers and a chicken thigh by the time he was done. i asked kevin to take a quiz for me and he got real judgey about it -__-” like c’mon, it’s just a quiz. so then i just left him be and watched ‘crossroads’ in the bedroom. lol it was a good way to spend my evening <3 kevin apologized and then actually tried to take the quiz and them steamed soup dumplings for us. my mom called me and asked me about my foot and yelled at me out of love and asked me to move home LOL (that’s not happening). then i finished watching the movie, jammed out to britney’s old school music, and then brushed and went to sleep.

27: merp. i don’t feel like myself. i feel like something is wrong but i’m not sure? i woke up and went straight to work while eating breakfast. we had all-hands today so i took that time to do some internet errands. phil also said i didn’t need to work on monday so woot. i might work though. i was very productive and made one pagers for all the videos as well as exercises if necessary and i also pinpointed the next videos i could record and practiced using the new tools and ui. then i went straight into my arms and back workout. i talked to my mom for a bit and then baked chicken and showered. kevin got back and then showered and i ended up eating a chicken thigh and then we just went straight into making spring rolls and eating dinner. i told kevin how i’ve been feeling like we haven’t been spending quality time together as in time without reading fanfic or doing something else when we’re with each other. so we planned on doing more of that in the upcoming days. i watched some youtube videos and snuck in a 15 minute low impact workout to get my heart pumping a bit. i felt pretty bloated and sluggish today. i did my pt stretches and iced my feet as well. then i got into bed at 11:30 pm and started re-taking personality quizzes because why not? i got INFJ again for two quizzes and then a very confused one on the last one. apparently, i was on the cusp of extra/intro and intuitive/perceiving. i took it again and it said i was an ISFJ. hmmm. i got on the phone with hillary for a bit and then ended up sleeping right after. zzzz.

28: lol at this day... kevin and i slept in a bit and then i recorded a video before heading out to my doctor’s appointment. my appointment was super short because she saw my foot and ordered an x-ray for both my feet (just in case). then kevin picked me up and when we got back, i spent a good amount of time just finding imaging and radiology places to get my x-ray. the list using mycigna was crap because more than 3/4 of them were closed or did not do x-rays -__- why the eff were they on the results page when i looked up “foot x-ray - 3 sides”?! omg. i ended up just googling and finding a place close by and calling cigna to double check if they are in my network, which they were! i got on stand up and then made us spring rolls with the tonkatsu kevin cooked during my hunt and stand up. kevin went to get his hair cut when i was on my stand up and brought back bubble tea :3 then we ate together, i recorded another video, and then called cigna to make sure this location was in-network as well (i found two close by and i chose the closer one that i didn’t call about previously) and then i called the facility to make an appointment.

the receptionist told me i had to have a pcp at the location so she sent me to the registry and i got my information put into the database and called again to make an appointment. note that i was put on hold every time i called to make an appointment. the lady (didn’t know it was the same one) asked me if i was registered and i said yes and then proceeded to ask me who my pcp was... i told her i don’t have one with them and that i have an x-ray order >_O” she told me i needed to choose a pcp in order to make an appointment and sent me back to registry...wtf. i told registry what was going on and the lady was so nice and tried figuring it out. the thing is, that it was almost 5 pm so they were all about to leave but she took my call anyway. she tried getting in touch with the receptionist but rq’d and told me that they’ve been hard to get in contact with anyway and asked if i wanted to talk to the other location and patched me through. omggggg, that receptionist though. anyway, the radiologist actually picked up and told me that i didn’t need an appointment and i just needed to come in and it’d only take like 10 minutes LOL. omg gg me. she was really nice so i didn’t mind but it took me 30 minutes just to not make an appointment...

i went straight to work after and managed to edit my videos and spot another one i could record tomorrow. i feel partially productive but still... ugh. kevin also wasn’t that productive either. hmm i’ve also been noticing a rise in my resting heart rate again so there’s that. -__-” ugh, i’m feeling really negative because i can’t do my regular exercise routine. i’m gonna find a way around it though! kevin chilled on the couch while i did some low-impact cardio with my sneakers inside the apartment. i think they helped but it feels so weird not being barefoot :( then i did oblique videos and i got super tired. after my workout, i did my pt stretches. kevin and i made spring rolls with the leftovers and then we relaxed for the rest of the night. i watched the latest episode of world of dance while kevin cleaned up. then i showered and put ice on my feet while watching youtube videos and etc before falling asleep.

29: i’ve been having weird action-packed dreams ahha. well, i got up and then kevin and i ate breakfast. kevin drove me over to the medical center to get my foot x-ray after. it’s located inside this nice shopping center / mall thingy in the middle of quincy! :O there is also a five guys, jimmy john’s, and barnes and noble in there. we found out that quincy college is right there as well. anyway, it was a breeze checking in and kevin joined me after he found parking. the x-ray was much like getting them at the dentist. the lady helping me was super nice and told me i should get my results by tomorrow. kevin drove me back, i went straight into the tech time call (wasn’t necessary). i did drop out at some point because of the audio. i worked after i dropped and kevin went to work at fitbit after that as well. i managed to record two videos and edit them before the day was over. then i chopped up some kale and garlic while watching the newest episode of masterchef and then i did a low-impact and leg workout. my feet are feeling better! they feel safer in gym shoes now when i work out. then i showered and kevin made fried rice and saucy pork belly with lotus root. we ate dinner while watching gordon ramsay videos.

then i went into the room and did some online shopping at american eagle. after debating on which tops to get, i checked out and found out that 3 of the tops i wanted were sold out T_T so i rq’d and blech. i spent my whole night doing that... then i did my pt stretches, iced my feet, and then stayed up reading stuff on snapchat news...ahaha. kevin got into bed while reading fanfic and i wanted him to just go to sleep so i tried distracting him and bothering him until he was tired but it didn’t work and i just ended up sleeping ahah...

30: ...we woke up to the sound of the fire alarms blaringgggggg everywhereeee -__-” so we went outside and i was half blind lol. today was the fire alarm drills in deco and we thought it would only affect a few floors, but nope! so we went back, tried to go back to sleep but then the alarms went off again so we went back down and then we went back again and i brushed up and everything so i didn’t go outside blind again. the alarm went off so we decided to get into the car and get breakfast or something except that kevin didn’t brush his teeth yet so he went back up after the alarms stopped and then we drove to the townshend where we found out that brunch is only on sundays... so we told the waiter we thought we could get breakfast here and he was super nice and understood. we left to go to craig’s cafe down the street. i got tea and the last order of eggs benedict ;D kevin got two breakfast sandwiches. mmm the food there was good and so cheap! our meal was only around $20 haha.

we drove back and all the drills were done so i went straight to work. i had a food coma so i did some internet errands before returning to do work. kevin went climbing and i got the work i wanted to get done, done. then i prepped food for dinner and exercised until kevin got back. i continued exercising while kevin realized that we didn’t have coconut milk to make the kale coconut fried rice so then we just ate leftovers from yesterday. i showered and then i plopped myself down on the sofa and played some bravely default... i’m trying to get all of the genomes i can for the vampire class before heading into the ending, which is superrrr long apparently -_-” haha. it was like 1 am when kevin joined me and he tried playing ff-x but switched over to hollow knight. omg, kevin started playing ff-x on steam and it is beautisss! i have so many memories <3 then we both got really tired and went to sleep at like 2:30 am.

july01: we woke up at like 11 am and stayed in bed until 12 pm. we ate breakfast and then drove to get tickets to see wonder woman and then we went shopping at the mall! we were planning on going to faneuil hall and shopping at uniqlo but kevin was lazy and just wanted to drive over to the mall. we went to j crew first and got nothing there. then we stopped by auntie anne’s to get pretzels <3 i was very disappointed in the garlic parmesan one because it was literally just all powder :( we got cinnamon sugar nuggets so that kind of made up for it. we stopped by gap where kevin got two pairs of pants and then we stopped by the food court to eat the pretzels. then we went to american eagle and aerie. i got kevin to try on these joggers he was looking at and he fell in love with them LOL. i tried finding the shirts that were sold out online but i couldn’t find them so i rq’d. i walked into aerie and told kevin he could wait outside if he was bored and didn’t want to follow me. i managed to find the sports bra i wanted and got it :) i got one sports bra without needing to pay for shipping / buy more stuff for free shipping -- yay! then we stopped by express on the way back and i did my best looking for things to buy but everything had the cross over lacing trend and/or drop shoulders and i’m not about that life right now. i tried on a pair of scalloped shorts and i fit a xs at express o_o’ i didn’t get them because the scallops were too big. kevin managed to find 3 tees and a collared shirt that he liked :O he had a good shopping trip.

we went to target after and got some cherries, noosa, and i got some insoles. then we drove back, kevin changed into his new clothes, cleaned out his t-shirt drawer, and i tried on my sports bra and chilled until we needed to leave for the movie. oh, we snacked on some mantou and chicken strips and stuff before heading to the movie. wonder woman was awesome -- it was so action-packed and i was never bored. kevin kept laughing at the awkward scenes LOL. whenever i watch a movie with kevin in theaters and he laughs, i realize that i am with one of those people who obnoxiously laugh at the movies. i’ve gotten used to it now and it’s actually endearing to hear someone laugh that hard in the movies. anyway, after that, we drove home, i snacked some more and then got in a 45 minute dance cardio workout. my feet are healinggg but i’m still avoiding hard jumps and stuff like that. i’m so happy <3333 i showered after and then remembered i had to do pt stretches and then ice my feet so i did that and then quickly got ready for bed and ko’d at like 1 or 2 am...zzz. oh, kevin got hungry before we went to bed so he made himself a breakfast sandwich and i asked if he could toast english muffins for me so i could put jam on it. he did that and put jam on it for me. lololol, he put a lot of jam on it so it became so sweet and i couldn’t take another bite after taking my first. lolololol. so that’s how kevin gets through jam so quickly...

july02: we got up at 11 am or 12 pm again. then we ate breakfast. kevin was still doing his morning thangs so i went into the bedroom and called to make a reservation at the envoy hotel for his birthday (: i got us a room and then i put our bedsheets into the washer and took some surveys until it was time to leave for our monthly massage. actually, i made us leave later than we were supposed to because the washer wasn’t done and i didn’t want to leave our sheets in there, but i looked it up and stuff doesn’t grow mildew until 24 hours later so we were good to go. we actually got there at 1:31 pm, which was on time :OO it felt soooo good. my masseuse, who is also the boss lady, worked on my back and shoulders today and it felt great. she cracked my back twice and my right foot (injured foot) and was worried she was breaking me but all was well! kevin and i were so relaxed and tired after that. we drove home and then kevin gamed until i asked him when we were going to go grocery shopping. i was super tired and had low energy. i just wanted to sleep. it was a struggle getting out of the apartment again.

we went to kam man and i tried looking for tiger balm but they didn’t have any. kevin got most of the groceries and we picked up ingredients to make che thai because kevin was craving it. then we went to bj’s and looked through two coupon books while picking up paper towels and juice. we drove back home and then i made che thai while he put away groceries. we put chia seeds in there and made it with coconut milk and then set them in the fridge. kevin and i cleaned the apartment right after that. i did a deep cleaning of the kitchen and the bathroom. oh, i also started washing our laundry. just as i finished cleaning, kevin started cooking. i managed to find the zodiac dog crystal for my mom’s birthday. i hope it gets here in time before we fly out to chicago on the weekend. nancy invited me, mindy, and hillary to help celebrate ryan’s birthday so i’m excited (: i hope hillary comes~ it’ll be fun. i started stressing about what to wear though. i’m pretty sure i’m going to stick to wearing my adidas because i don’t want to wear shoes that my feet aren’t comfy in. it was a pretty productive sunday. i still felt tired and grody though.

we ate dinner and then i folded the laundry and helped kevin wash some of the dishes. then we cleaned up and showered and i spent my night watching cutscenes from ff-x while doing my pt stretches and icing my feet. kevin came to the sofa to play hollow knight and i ktfo on his shoulder. i woke up and then brushed my teeth and made part of the bed while kevin brushed his teeth. then he put he covers on the blanket and we went to sleep at like 2 am. @_@; lolol my sleep schedule.

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akiratachimori · 8 years ago

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FF8 - A weird romance story, poor character development and hero is dead/dream theories

I am officially done with FF8...after 93 hours of gameplay. Seriously. This game is not long by any means but getting everything done in the game is so goddamn tedious. And I won’t even mention the 10k enemies killed achievement. Considering you don’t meet big groups of enemies and the fact you usually meet 3 enemies and let’s say one battle takes 30 seconds:

10k / 3 * 30 / 60 / 60 = 27 HOURS

Achievements shouldn’t be about super tedious actions like that. I can get collecting all the cards, especially since as long you get rid of the random rule in all regions, winning the matches is quite easy. And I got my 100 win about the time I was doing the Queen of Card side quests so clearly you don’t need to spend so much time doing it and the matches are vastly more entertaining since you have to think at least a little bit. I have all stats junctions, auto-haste, and Mad Rush so that I don’t have to mash the V button. It was still a very boring process. The only challenge was Omega Weapon given the damage amount and frequency but after spending 3 fucking hours in the final dungeon I was so done I just used Hero (which makes characters invincible) and laughed my ass off maniacally seeing 0 damage popping above my squadmates’ heads. I kinda wish I cast Aura on Selphie and used The End just to troll it even more, lololol. The same problem goes with 100 lvl Chocobo achievement. Walking Boko not that bad since you can automatize it a bit and Chocobo World’s window is tiny so you can easily make some other stuff in the background. ...That being said, considering that if you are really unlucky (like me) and you get the worst possible Chocobo ID, you CANNOT beat the Evil King. Like wtf. I tried it 20 times until I read that there is no way in hell I can win. Still, going all the way to level 100 is really tedious even once you encounter Moogle.

Okay, now that I vented my frustration out, let’s discuss the bits I have mentioned in the title.

The romance

It’s impossible not to speak about the romance in FF8, given how it’s given the spotlight in the last disc and a half. It would be all good and dandy if the romance was well executed.

But it isn’t the case.

Don’t get me wrong, I can enjoy me some romance. Even if I some pairs are NOPT for me, I can still acknowledge that the progression of the mutual attraction made sense. For example, Aerith was clearly made the main romance partner for Cloud in FF7 (although there is a lot of complication with how he processes the world, the fact her bf Zacks died and she can tell it right away thanks to her abilities, or that Cloud adopting Zack’s personality traits and achievements because he is too ashamed of his own, he got serious case of Mako poisoning and so on, and so on), or Locke’s affection towards Celeste was made very clear in FF6.

The main problem with FF8 romance is just the sudden shift in Squall’s attitude towards Rinoa. I wasn’t much of a fan of her or her pushy behaviorism so I picked pretty much all cold options towards her I could. But then she falls into coma and Squall pretty much loses his shit and obsesses over her. It would be fine in case of a normal romance escalation but it looked ridiculous since merely two scenes before Rinoa was literally hanging on the edge on a cliff and Squall just tells Zell to take care of it and had to be told by Qustis to go save her to actually do something.

During the battle of the Gardens Squall had so much responsibility pushed on him by Cid (yeah, let’s make him the head of the whole organization. Oh? He qualified into being a SeeD member only two weeks ago? Even better! Because fuck being a responsible adult and taking care of your students) that he was more worried about the well-being of other students (who had no battle experience of any sorts) and possible destruction of a place he considered home than saving his “beloved” from falling down an being violently blended into tiny pieces.

I am surprised that Rinoa was able to hold up for so long tbh.

At any rate, this “go and help her, I have to take care of all other responsibilities” and “I want to hear her voice again. I want her to call my name again.” is pretty much a 180-degree turn and since the game does not present you with any choices in this situation, those two attitudes towards Rinoa are canon.

But I said that it was two scenes before, so what happened to Rinoa and Squall between those events?

Well, not much. But it’s important to note how out of place the scene I will describe now was.

Imagine you have saved the girl from your squad but you are not done yet. There are still screams and explosions happening in your close proximity and you know that you have to defeat the opposing army to save people who are part of your “home”. You run through the battlefield with your squadmate at your side as you see your other members of your “home” fight off the soldiers to the best of their abilities.

And then you move to another screen where your squadmate stops you to talk about your ring. Your favorite ring you gave to another of your squadmate (Zell), since he asked you and you agreed under the condition that he will fucking return it later. And then Rinoa is all bubbly, merely seconds after she was hanging from a fucking cliff, people are getting injured and are risking death just one screen away, and says that she wanted to ring since she would like to have the same one. And then says “but then people would get a wrong idea.” while she is clearly saying it flirtatiously.

Of course, by this point Squall even muses that his whole squad is obviously trying to get them together. He doesn’t say how he exactly feels about it but it comes across with his usual annoyance when someone is bothering him.

He is still lukewarm towards her at best and after some battles, she falls into a coma for plot reason and Squall goes bonkers. He goes even more insane later considering that allowing Rinoa to be sealed until they deal with Ultimecia would be a safer (and more comfortable for him) choice which is why he initially agrees to it until Quisits scolds him and tells him to help her.

Given Squall’s dismissal of Rinoa’s affection, it seems more that he gave into peer pressure more than anything and partially into his fear of being left alone. The reason why Squall joined SeeD was in order to find his missing sis and this desire was strong enough to remember it, even with the excessive usage of GFs; he had forgotten that he was in the orphanage with his other companions (all, except for Rinoa), that Edea was their matron and his sis’s name but this desire to find the one person he loved the most in the world has stayed with him. It also caused him to have some serious issues with keeping people close in fear of losing them and desire to stand on his own since he was terrified that he will be abandoned and left to his own devices.

Squall does go through some interesting character development, don’t get me wrong. I did enjoy seeing him come to care for his companions and his awkward attempt to be verbally supporting which is clearly not his forte. This awkwardness was actually quite fitting since you cannot change overnight and it felt that it was happening naturally, meaning that the desire to open up and care for other people came straight for Squall rather than from the outside. I enjoyed the worry and care Squall shows towards his squad throughout disc 2 and during the visit to the Trabia’s Garden thoroughly and this could have easily been the complete focus on Squall’s character development since none of it seemed out of character at all.

Of course, things aren’t “bad” just on Squall’s end. Squall’s live long rival called Seifer was Rinoa’s romantic interest. Or at least he seemed to be, it wasn’t explicitly stated, but since they didn’t spend much time together, her way of speaking indicates that he was her crush. So she had to deal with fighting against her possible crush while she was looking for certain character trait in Squall to fit how she viewed Seifer; similarly how Aerith wanted to see Zacks in Cloud (unaware that her secret desire is actually what is going on in the story, lol).

Seifer did have some similarities with Squall but the game made the point of making them clear opposites. Both use the same weapon but have different fighting styles, both have scars on their faces (they gave the scars to each other at the beginning of the story) but their angle is flipped, both become the sorceress’ knights at some point in the story, both have charisma and leadership capabilities (although Squall feels uncomfortable being a leader with his limited experience). At the same time: a. Seifer wears all white while Squall wears all black, b. Seifer has blonde hair and Squall has brown hair, c. Seifer defies authority, Squall follows it, d. Seifer is open with his emotions and has no problem expressing it, Squall keeps to himself and has a hard time showing care or affection, e. their character card values are flipped, f. Seifer is aggressive, Squall is passive unless provoked.

The specific trait that I saw Rinoa trying to influence throughout the game is Squall’s problem with expressing emotions and keeping to himself. The thing is that, in the story, it didn’t seem like her pushiness was really doing anything else that makes Squall close even more while his companions like Zell or Selphie gave him space which made him feel comfortable and slowly change without realizing it. This is why the dynamics between Squall and his squadmates from Edea’s orphanage was really interesting, even if they weren’t interesting characters themselves except for Selphie. Speaking of which...

Character Development

Many characters came across as either very hollow or unpolished for some reason.

I still don’t get why exactly did Seifer help Ultimecia. At first, it seemed to be some kind of mind control but by the time disc 3 rolls in, it’s clear that he is serving her out of his own volition. Why did he side with her? Why was he willing to hurt Rinoa in order to do so? Why was he okay with butchering the Garden he grown up in? Was he aware that if Ultimecia’s plan succeeds, only she would be able to live in the time compressed world? Did he want to break the world?

Ultimecia isn’t a very complicated villain either even with the limited information the game provides. The most we can get about her motives are from the speech she gives in Deling City. She mentions that she is now hailed by the lowlifes that condemned her for generations. It would be interesting to see just what she went through and what made her hate other people so much (like of Sephiroth looking down on people and burning Kalm without more information would make him feel very shallow, but because you learn that he despised Hojo and he pretty much went insane after he realized that he was a product of an experiment, he went through losing two of his close friends, etc.).

Zell is Zell, lol. Hot-dogs, fighting and (a mutual!) crush on the girl from the library. It was cool that he offers to protect Edea while Squall is away so there was that. It’s disappointing that he didn’t talk to his parent about being adopted which I think would be an interesting addition to his character since he joined SeeD because of his grandfather. His accessory making came out of nowhere just to serve as part of the whole “Rinoa: I want to have a ring just like Squall, *heart*.” so let’s not talk about that. It would also be interesting to see him confront Seifer on equal terms given how it turned out he was his lifelong bully.

Irvine is a bit forgettable but he played a vital role in revealing that everyone in their groups is connected (except for Rinoa) and this actually explained well why he wasn’t able to assassinate the sorceress. He was probably made a bit vague on purpose too since when Squall is thinking about his companions when they were younger he muses: “Sorry Irvine, you are just too forgettable.” lol

Quistis is defined the most by being a serious character but it was disappointing that she step aside as soon as Rinoa get into the picture. She was also the one who pushed Squall to be closer with Rinoa the most from the bunch. Not that I ship Quisits x Squall, but she says that her affection was most likely an unaware attempt to fill in a role of Squall's sister but given how obviously she wanted his D and was open about it, I think that it was just a statement to distance herself. She also is good at card. Not better than me tho.

I actually liked Selphie’s character, even though she was a bit too hyper for my taste in many moments but seeing her reaction when the Gardens were threatened by Galbadia’s missiles and interactions with the members of her Garden really added up to her character. She might be an idiot. But she is mine idiot. Lol. Same goes for Laguna. It’s sinful to be so lucky and so stupid and the same time. She also comments close to the end of the game that she is surprised that Squall and Rinoa got together since they are complete opposites and she didn’t believe that her pushy approach would work on Squall but ultimately she is happy for him. I wonder what her personal info says, the computer never got fixed. And I wish I knew what GF she has junctioned when she was younger.

Squall was clearly the most covered character and so long I ignore that horrible romance, I have no complaints. I didn’t expect to like another moody and broody Square Enix protagonist but he touched upon many interesting things in his inner dialogue and I can’t help but sympathize. I also had a wild guess that Squall is Laguna’s son (I had others like when I found Timber Maniacs issue about Laguna’s visit to Esthar, I joked to myself he probably became their king. How right I was. Lol. Also, Esthar was hands down the most interesting city.) so it would be funny to see some interactions between them and Ellone but because the game focused on the romance it was mostly swept under the rug. It’s disappointing that despite Krios’ saying that they should sit down and talk about it once Ultimecia is defeated, the game does not give you an option to do that. T~T

Rinoa. Ughhhh. Her character had potential but because SE decided to focus on romance, so her character was just not well rounded. The most interesting thing about her is that her mother was Squall’s father crush for a long time and since I am a fan of two people not ending up together but their children do, it was a cool concept but it’s left as a very obscure thing since only one NPC’s dialogue mentions her. Thinks that could have been talked about instead of focusing on romance: What exactly caused a rupture between her and her Father? Can their relationship be mended? How does she actually feels about being a revolutionist? How much it’s about genuinely wanting Timber’s independence and not acting to oppose her father? Another thing about her character is that she has a dog named Angelo but they have little to no interaction. Angelo seemed more like a GF than a part of the squad, especially since you have little control over summoning so I saw him fewer times than I have seen Odin. Which is sad. And there is Watts and Zone who are helping her but after they end up on the White Seed Ship you don’t really hear about interactions between the three of them so it makes all of them even less dimensional than they already are.

Squall is Dead theory

My first attempt that finishing the FF8 ended with disc 1 since I couldn’t find the rest in my brother’s big CD collection so when I stumbled on the theory recently, I thought: “well, it was shocking to see him die for me back then. I expected he died to be honest which is why I wanted to play the next disc as soon as possible, lol. I would be interesting to see if it’s true.”

But the theory does not appear plausible to me. The cool thing about the hero is dead theories is that they are some elements introduced that you are familiar with or they make enough sense for you to go with what is happening but at the same time there is this sense that something is wrong. Those might be just short hunches. I didn’t find THAT much weird as long as I ignore Squall’s failed attempt to get back to Edea’s Orphanage during the time compression.

But let’s examine some clues people put together to support this theory.

1. Why Ultimecia wouldn’t kill Squall? And why would she have a newbie interrogated instead of Quistis?

I think that it might be just pure luck + possible Seifer’s intervention. The icicle pierced Squall’s left side of rib cage so he avoided pretty much instant death via heart piercing and given the rivalry with Seifer, he could have asked Ultimecia to keep him since he can torture him later (which he does with obvious eagerness and pleasure). It’s also possible that Ultimecia didn’t find him to be a huge treat and even didn’t know or care how long Squall was a SeeD/didn’t bother with that. It was only important that he was one and that she needed to know what SeeD is in order to protect herself. Killing him would be risking losing additional information, besides even if he had no information, he could always be tortured to make others wag their tongues. We do not know how resourceful Ultimecia is but she took Seifer as her knight soon she laid her eyes on him so it doesn’t seem to be too farfetched. Still, Seifer was running the show in the prison so he picked to torture Squall first to stroke his ego and fulfill his sadistic desires.

2. Why there is no wound after Squall wakes up, why would Ultimecia heal Squall to full health just to interrogate him?

It’s difficult to interrogate someone if they are bleeding to death. She also didn’t have to heal him to full health, just enough to make sure he doesn’t die while he is knocked out for however long he was.

3. Why are Moombas talking? It’s a really strange element to be added, especially how lions are important symbolically to Squall.

It’s probably to give a clue that Squall is Laguna’s son early on in the game. We learn later that Moombas can recognize people by the taste or smell of the blood so since Squall is Laguna’s son, it’s probable that he smells at least a bit like Laguna. As far as symbolism goes, I think that the point is symbolism but it doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s a projection of Squall’s admiration of Griever. It seems to be, again, a clue that Laguna’s little boy is like a lion ;)

4. NORG the master of the Garden. Why he is never talked about again after he is defeated? Also how weird is having a yellow, slimy thing fund SeeD? Edea and Cid’s marriage comes out of nowhere.

I do not understand why this question was brought up. Cid does comment that he approached/was approached by NORG to gather funding to fund SEED and sometime after the battle you met some other Shumi tribe member and tells briefly that NORG was consumed with greed which made him the black sheep of their tribe. It’s pretty much the same thing that Cid says.

As far as the second question goes, not that weird. It’s a FF game after all. It has fat chocobos, tiny minotaur throwing a bigger one, synchronized chocobo dancing, dodgy sex hotels and so on.

5. Too much, “perhaps it’s fate”.

I don’t think it’s too much. After we learn that everyone (except for Rinoa) was in the orphanage their fate as SeeD is to kill sorceress is clear (which has been founded by Edea, another sorceress), Seifer and Squall are fated to fight (they were rivals since childhood with Seifer taunting Squall and him falling for it because he wanted to stand up on his own) and Squall leading the Garden doesn’t make much sense to me since even when Squall meets Edea in the past he doesn’t introduce himself as the head of the Seed but just as a member. And I still think that Cid shouldn’t have thrown everything in his lap just because, but I think that he is just irresponsible which is why he sent out Squall and his squad to deal with Edea.

6. “Just stay close to me.”

“Speaking of a perfect fantasy, the romantic storyline of Final Fantasy VIII is just that. The romantic plotline, which many fans consider to be the most successful element of the game, is completely fabricated for Squall’s personal satisfaction.“

Stop, the romantic plot is a horrendous atrocity and I question the sanity of anyone who says that it was a successful element of the game, let alone a most successful XD It’s as much of a crutch as it was for SAO. Well, maybe a bit less. Hard to tell, I have been avoiding SAO on purpose and I don’t want to hear about it again just to compare the two.

I don’t think that Rinoa’s affection is weird in the dream-like-way. She is overzealous in my opinion but Squall has some similarities to Seifer that could have drawn her to him (I only question why he responds to it the way he does after coma happens). Rinoa does dislike Squall’s cold and introverted personality initially and later on you can see that she is trying to mold him to suit her liking. If it has been all a dream, Squall’s dream no less, why not make her like him the way he is? Why have the dream version of Rinoa try to change him?

“The relationship Rinoa and Seifer had is never again mentioned, except by Seifer in the form of taunts during battle.”

Actually, it is mentioned even if dismissively when Rinoa and Squall are returning to Earth. I DO think that jumping from Seifer to Squall is a stupid, immature decision but I don’t think it’s that far-fetched. As far as Seifer being an alright guy to complete villain post Squall’s possible death, I think that it’s just really bad writing. You can see it with the majority of the characters in this game.

7. The end.

I do admit that the final cinematic was some weird shit. I mean...

Sweet dreams everyone.

Okay, but as far as why only specific scenes are replayed over and over again, I think that those the scenes of most significance to Squall. He fought with Rinoa and there was this weird flirting on her part throughout the game but definitely the very first time he met her, he was thrown out of his element which is why the ballroom was of such significance. Squall doesn’t feel comfortable with dancing so being pushed into it out of nowhere definitely caused him a lot of personal distress, something that it’s easy to recall. Same goes for Rinoa in space, by this point he developed an obsession with her and was terrified she was going to die, had there been a cutscene with here laying in the hospital bed, we would most likely get it as well.

“If this was really how the game was meant to be interpreted, why did they make the “dream” so subtle?“

I think people are just giving to much credit to this game ^^; Some things are way too elaborate for it to be a dream and others can be explained logically even if you play by the “dream’s” rules. The weirdest thing that did happen in the game was Laguna “dreams” but those were happening before Squall “died” and Ellone is the very first person you meet in the game. I also find it funny that Squall would dream about having Laguna as his father, he just didn’t seem like a good material for one until you get the “dream” from his stay in Winhill and Squall didn’t like him at all and think she is a moron. And by FF standard, the rest doesn’t seem that crazy tbh.

“The ending is like recapping the game on acid.“

Oh, that’s for sure. (*look at the picture above* *shudder*)

I guess I will type what I liked/didn’t liked.

+ Laguna, Selphie, Squall

- Romance

+ GFs

+ draw system (tedious but it was cool to have no mana to worry about)

+/- GF system (there should be more slots for abilities)

-/+ Music (not memorable but okay, one song during the final battle was cool)

+ Triple Triad

+ PuPu Quest

- the lake quest (way too vague)

- confusing graphic (no option to mark passages or ladders like in FF7 led me to a lot of confusion since I either didn’t realize that you can go to x room or that there is a lever/rope I can pull. It is caused by rending interactive elements with the background which makes them difficult to distinguish. Chrono Cross handled it well since the interactive objects were rendered similarly to the character models).

- fuck 10k kills achievement

-/+ if you miss Occult Fan III you cannot ever get it (luckily you don’t need it for achievement or to summon Doomtrain)

+ Selphie’s limit break, lol

+ Gilgamesh getting payback for Odin, lol

- too easy (fight against the final boss was laughable and I was only using attack command).

#okay #I am done #I don't see any reason to replay this game #it's just too tedious given what you get in return #I still adore Laguna #lucky moron #I can't be bothered to proof read this #I spent way more time than I should have on this #never touching it again #ff8

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