#ik its not as good as the first post but i lacked of imagination for some of them lol

[achillesisnotcomingdown]

Second part of this post

Children of Hermes laugh impresivible. You never know what or who they are laughing about or at, but what you know is that you want to join them.

Children of Demeter laugh in colors. Their cheeks get red, and all flowers around them turn a couple shades brighter.

Children of Poseidon laugh with emotions. Their eyes water easily and if you listen closely, you may hear crashing waves in their tone.

Children of Ares laugh roughly. They scream of joy and hit your back (and although it hurts, you can tell this time you got hit out of affection)

Hunters of Artemis laugh discreetly. They try their best to not show they're amused by your jokes, but you can see them struggling to keep neutral expressions.

[angry-kid-with-no-money]

Ik this is an old post but thea's getting more traction lately since nora made that comment on twitter and I wanted to chuck my two cents in

I feel like a lot of the fandom constantly forgots that the ravens were, in all but name, a cult. I won't pretend to know what it's like to be in a cult but there's a lot of books and documentaries out there from survivors, and one of the things that comes up constantly is that the mentality drilled into you is so so hard to get rid of.

Nora, to her credit, doesn't ignore this. she does talk about the awful effects being in the nest has on the ravens and how many of them struggle to live a normal life afterwards, struggling to form meaningful relationships with "outsiders" for lack of a better term, and often ending their careers early due to debilitating injury because of how far they push themselves because being the best at exy is all that matters to them, because that's what they've been taught.

So yeah, it's not unreasonable that even a few years out of the nest, thea would still be governed by her raven training. Hell even kevin isn't immune to this, find any scene of him in training, it's pure raven.

So yeah, their relationship was never going to be normal, and maybe thats a good thing. Kevin would have really struggled to form a relationship with someone who didn't understand, first hand, what he'd been through and responded in a similar way. Even though he and andriel do have a good relationship, to an extent, at the end of the day they probably wouldn't have worked out, andrew and neil are not empathetic to Kevin's attachment to the nest, they think its stupid and holding him back, they hate it.

Which brings me to the "No harm no foul"

KEVIN HIMSELF thought no harm no foul about his injury for a WHILE. It takes very very little for him to consider going back to the nest. A few little threats from riko has him up and ready to go back at the drop of a hat. Even just them transferring districts had him wanting to go back

You know who personally understands Kevin's attachment to the nest, understands that he would feel obligated to return despite how awful it was?

Thea.

Having both survived the same cult and not being ready to let go of it immediately, they would have had to best shot a supporting each other through normal life without getting frustrated at the others trauma responses and habits from the nest. So yeah I do think they were able to help each other navigate their trauma

By no stretch of the imagination do I think they had some kind of perfect, fairytale wedding and lived happily ever after, kevin spends the rest of his life paying off the Japanese mafia. He was never going to jump headfirst into a relationship with some random exy player, chances are they never get to have a normal.

But neither do any of the foxes really. People who are traumatised, especially to that extent, don't heal up perfectly and become good little normal people, living in a nuclear family with a white picket fence in a white suburban neighbour hood. Shit stays with you, it affects the rest of your life

And that's FINE

you don't need to magically become normal, and neither do kevin and thea.

One of the things that pisses me off so much about AFTG relationships is whatever the fuck Nora decided to do with Kevin and Thea. For one, let’s start with the big elephant in the room shall we: Kevin was fourteen and Thea was eighteen when they met each other. Kevin was literally a child and Thea was not. When they slept together for the first time Kevin is - presumably - eighteen (Nora only said it was his first year at EAU) and Thea was twenty two/three and it was in front of everyone. We know the Raven’s mindset is fucked up at best but seriously… in front of the entire team? They never talked about themselves in a normal-relationship way when they were at Evermore. According to Nora, “Thea’s last words to Kevin–until she showed up at Fox Tower in TKM–were to get some more practice in with the girls so he’d be ready for her when he graduated.” Be for real… this isn’t normal. But let’s pretend we can put all of this under the “they are Ravens and Ravens knows no boundaries and never had any normal human interaction in their lives” belt.

Let’s do a time skip. Riko breaks Kevin’s hand and Kevin leaves EAU. He spends a year at PSU not playing and not once he reached Thea. Understandable because he was still afraid. Then he starts playing again, still doesn’t reach her. She found out about all of this - broken hand, leaving the Ravens, playing again - through the media. Then, she shows up at PSU out of nowhere and almost doesn’t give a chance for Kevin to explain himself. Except Kevin explain - at best he can, considering he couldn’t put her in danger at the moment - but still she saw how Jean was and she knew what Riko was capable off, right? WRONG. Because Nora goes on to say the worst thing possible about their future:

Be fucking for real. You telling me you saw your teammate an inch from death, saw that the supposed love of your life had his career almost destroyed - and Thea and Kevin got married, so she is aware of the amount of trauma Kevin carry from being raised with Riko at EAU - and still the hate edges off because “after all, Kevin’s playing again, so no harm no foul, right?” ???? Are we seeing this? As a fandom, are we collectively seeing this?

“But Kevin needs someone who can keep up with him and with his obsession with Exy”. Ok, but I’m pretty sure there are other women besides Thea playing Exy that would be able to keep up with Kevin and still have an ounce of sensitivity in their bodies.

Now my only logical explanation to this, which is where I always go back to is that Thea and Kevin weren’t supposed to happen if Nora had planned AFTG like a normal writer should. We know she wrote a thousand versions of AFTG - even versions where Kevin dies or where Kevin/Andrew/Neil were together - before publishing as a book and we know she had so many versions inside her head she made the books a fucking mess but there is no way someone didn’t warned her about this absolutely fuckery of a relationship. I can’t believe we as a fandom bought into this and still reinforce it as a hc.

Also, do we really think Thea helped Kevin navigate his trauma after TKM? During their lives? This is so incredibly unfair because Kevin deserved someone who could help him heal himself and understand life outside of Exy but no, Nora really had to give us/him this mess.

I needed to vent a little, anyway…

[m1ckeyb3rry]

LMAOO LinkedIn coming in clutch but either way still exciting!! Does this mean after this you’ll be able to channel your inner yuki for fic writing omg you’ll have all the scoop on what the modeling process is like firsthand

AHAHA affirmations that’s the word I was looking for but FR before you sit down to write you hype yourself in the mirror draw on the stubble and get into the zone

FUNERAL INVITES SHEHWJSISJS I have no words for that I’m sure the graphics would go hard as usual though

STILL ALIVE AND NOT POSSESSED I’m crying yes please we don’t want to BECOME Barou…Karasu taking care of baby birds and tullias pokemon…no stop I thought we agreed on no swerving IM SWERVING I’m fr mentally imaging all of this and omg….wait the apron and the jeans and t shirt….its so domestic looking…..im in danger….

SHSHS excited either way!!! I bet the fluctuations are kinda annoying LMAO actually lowk reminds me of bot activity ik there’s a lot of those on twitter

No because what happened to our thinking skills there’s no way Nagi’s getting kicked out be so real…SHSH HELP LMAO ALSO YEAH the princess thing is also something i find annoying like he doesn’t LIKE being called princess…ill also add in that half the time they stick another word in jp on it that gets lost in translation sometimes but they’re explicitly saying like “bossy princess” for lack of a direct translation but whenever they use princess even alone because of that context it’s heavily implied that they’re using it to describe how spoiled chigiri acts…? Like how he takes extra long getting ready at the expense of others, so like how a princess would act like being the center of the world LMAO so yeah his visuals are just a bonus but the nickname is usually a jab at his “my pace” sorta personality lol….ok anyways that rant turned out a lot longer than I expected I find that people misconstruing things because the nuance got lost in translation is my pet peeve although I can’t really fully blame people ig if they don’t get it LOL

When I first saw the SpongeBob my first thought was “me???” but I ignored it because I thought I was being too insane but YESSS KEEP TJEM COMING I love getting silly content honestly even if it’s not bllk related I’m happy to receive anything you find funny I’ll never turn down a good meme NAGI CHIGIRI EDIT wait that one part where chigiri slowly opens his eyes kinda…..um anyways

People filly ignoring the rectangles for building ass background when jjk s2 first aired (they’ve since adjusted it in the blu ray release iirc) but let’s be real none of us are watching it FOR the animation so why are so you pressed….

LMAOOO wait on that note imagine going to the gym with Barou I’d be scared shitless fr I bet he’d be good at making sure you’re doing everything correctly though LOL omg didn’t know we had a gym bro amongst us…/j LMAO wait that routine sounds refreshing lowk??

Also commentary on some posts I scrolled past while getting to your response THE BAROU POST “let’s talk about him OUT of the uniform” IS CRAZY thats actually peak brain performance though that line hits hard im excited to see that scene animated ok but my turn to convert ooooh you wanna convert to hiorism so bad oooh (i need that gif of the hypnosis hand wave) I think I saw the vision after LN digging when I heard there was Karasu content and then ofc nel had some nice panels of him and the rest is history….come join us….i bet pursuit will seal the deal though trust….you know you want to…I’ll admit the vibe feels very different from Karasu and Barou for obvious reasons LMAOO but he’s still got the sassy streak too (unlike isagi) I’m a sucker for duality lowk

- Karasu anon

linkedin always comes through HAHAH my pfp for that is just a random headshot so i figured it worked and ig it did!! omg oaeu yukimiya is abt to be so accurate you’re right

i’m reciting aikulations every time i sit down to write!! the stubble please 😭 using eyeliner to draw it on and whenever someone sees me i’m just like dw abt it i’m oliver aiku (which incidentally is a very aiku thing to say)

okay but…imagine reader is too sad to make the invites…so she gets nagi (and his reuniclus) to do it…and this is what they come up with it

please appreciate my calligraphy/artistic skills LMAOAAO nagi does his best (the handwriting is neat because reuniclus uses its psychic powers to do it not because nagi suddenly took a penmanship class or smth)

no because not to further the swerving agenda but i was listening to music earlier (tik tok audios) and a chemtrails over the country club audio came on my fyp and it’s so karasu x reader coded 🌝 “you’re in the wind” karasu with his birds “i’m in the water” reader with her gyarados “nobody’s son” karasu runs away from the gym to prove himself to yayoi “nobody’s daughter” barou left reader to go on his journey…younger siblings who are desperately pursuing their older siblings (karasu figuratively as he’s pursuing yayoi’s talent and reader literally as she’s pursuing barou wherever he is) UNITE 😰 NAGI COME BACK WE NEED MORE PARALLELS WITH YOU KARASU IS WINNING AGAIN also omg domestic karasu is killing me just imagine him cradling a baby pichu (tullia’s infernape is a boy and eggs are the same species as their mothers + infernape and the pikachu line are in the same egg group so it’s possible) in one arm walking around outside of his gym with a bottle because the pichu’s mother rejected it so it has to be fed formula hourly and tullia’s too busy that day so karasu takes in the role…imagine you just see the intimidating butler coded gym leader walking around babying this little pichu while he has his phone between his ear and shoulder saying bullshit like “you’re a mediocre dumbass otoya why would you send out a fairy type against yukimiya’s fucking steelix bro give up chris prince does NOT want you” LMAOAOAO

yeah i’m sure i have bots following me because i never go through and look at my followers like some people do and delete the bots so there’s def a few!! sometimes someone will have an account that looks like a bot though and they’ll comment on one of my posts and i’m like hello you’re a real person??? so aside from not caring/not having the time or energy to comb through my followers i also don’t want to accidentally remove someone who’s just shy or doesn’t want to set up their account because i get that!!

that’s what i always understood it as!! like they’re making fun of him for being self centered and prissy it’s no different than nagi calling barou “maid barou”/“maid king” HAHAHA whenever people are like “chigiri’s a princess that’s why everyone likes him and thinks he’s pretty 😌” i’m like bro chigiri would genuinely crash out if he heard you rn LMAOAOA honestly i didn’t know abt the japanese extra word but i feel like it’s made relatively obvious that it’s meant to be rude?? like a) chigiri gets annoyed when people call him that, b) isagi straight up says he’s a “selfish princess” at one point, and c) if nagi, karasu, AND otoya (bllk trash talking kings) are calling a character a name it’s safe to assume it is not meant to be kind 😭 LMAOO no because like him or hate him no one can deny that nagi will have a comeback i don’t understand people who genuinely believe he won’t (although i will say i saw a comment calling him “the interviewer” and i had to laugh)

HAHAHA OKAY I WILL KEEP THE EDITS AND MEMES COMING!! you have unleashed a monster…pls no nothing is ever too insane for me that was literally my first thought OSFJJDSN AND YESSS NAGI CHIGIRI DUO ‼️ i completely agree that clip of chigiri is sooo good that’s the chigiri i need people to write about more because it’s who he really is!! like he’s very much more so 😏👹 than he is 😜💖 bro saved isagi from death in the and was fully ready to square up with shidou in the last ep of s1 LMAOAO LET’S TALK ABT IT 👆🏻

i love my routine it’s so fun!! not too high stress or impossible either because the gym should be enjoyable and imo it’s better to do less but be consistent than go crazy for a week, burnout, and never go again 😰 okay ykw i think barou would be sweet to workout with like he’d either leave you alone and be focused on himself or he’d kindly correct you (given that this is off field barou he’s probably used to dealing with his little sisters so he knows how to gently tell someone they’re wrong) actually you know who would be insufferable though??? KARASU 😭 as much as i love him i would never go to the gym with him unless it’s as a spectator because bro is constantly in your business, critiquing you, and he’s a younger sibling (and if his actual older sister is anything like yayoi well…) so he has no concept of sensitivity about it either he’d just be like “yo that squat was mediocre asf do this instead so you don’t suck 🤣” his advice is flawless though because he’s a gym regular (have you seen his quads and arms 🤤 i KNOW bro lifts) but you def cry at least twice per session 😓

HELPP I WAS LIKE WAIT THIS SOUNDS WRONG LET ME INCLUDE THE PANEL I’M REFERENCING no because it’s literally an entire subject of conversation in the barou version of the oaeu that he’s always taking his shirt off LMAOAOA nagi fr cooked calling him the stripper king 😭

i feel like hiori is more in line with nagi when it comes to my favs vs karasu/barou…like pale haired sassy gamer who seems quiet and sweet but is actually secretly brutal at heart?? which one am i referencing 🧐 i think i always imagine wb hiori when i think of him and while i love wb hiori he’s very heavy on the melancholy aspect of his character and not so much the humor and sass potential that he has (it’s touched on a bit in fwtkac but he’s kind of irrelevant and also kind of childish there so it’s not the same) okay wait lowkey now that you mention pursuit imagine spin-off reader inserts with the side characters 🤩 like a hiori x reader but it’s not pursuit reader (who’ll just be referred to as the reluctant champion if she’s mentioned in the spin-offs) it’s someone completely different…or a yukimiya one…or even karasu or otoya…maybe a barou prequel?? the verse is just so developed they’re all honestly possible

wait omg imagine a karasu spin off after he’s a gym leader where he’s like “i’ll never find love” and then he ends up lowkey beefing with the new reader who’s the gym leader of a different gym and slowly ends up falling love and we get to see him all domestic and cute but also as a pro battler and gym leader…BONUS POINTS IF NEW READER HAS A CRUSH ON YUKIMIYA JFCJDNDJS it’s giving “we’ve got five ways to kill a crow at home” the five ways to kill a crow at home:

okay today’s video is a tabiori edit!! do i ship NO (as you know) but the edit itself is cute and this ask has been very karasu and hiori focused so it’s all good

[lemongogo]

you're not dumb, you made a good point. uravity (and the other girls tbh) all have such strong quirks that are useful in so many more ways than bakugou or todoroki's Destruction Based Quirks and yet /: idk it just frustrates me that these characters have such cool quirks and could be more developed but instead they take a backseat to "the new big 3" or whatever the hell. maybe if the girls were given equal chances, /they/ could actually be part of "the new big 3".

ah thank u ! and yeah, its unfortunate just how little development they get in comparison to the guys. i read few tags on the original post and @tomabi makes a rly good point w how .. if u were to remove ochaco, or any other girl for that matter, nothing about the plot would really Change. iida was necessary for the stain development, kirishima for the quirk bullets, tdrk bkg with.. almost anything for that matter, tokoyami with forest training/hawks, dabi, twice, etc. you look into these sideplots and its just . literally a lack of effort on hk’s behalf to include them properly. momo was only used in the kamino arc to solve the problem of finding the nomu. ochaco, tsuyu, and nejire got almost 0 screentime during the overhaul arc despite being interns just as much as midoriya and kirishima. the upperclass big three doesnt even Feel like a big three because you only ever get content for mirio and tamaki. kirishima and mina are some of my favorite characters, but even their story prioritizes kirishima’s development. while they share similar origins and plotlines, kirishima’s the one with a full arc under his belt and all that’s provided mina is a brief encounter with gigantomachia a few pages back. i still dont know what hagakure can do SFKSNDF

its just so sad bc like. the girls r given the illusion of having the same platform while getting nothing at all :-( i was surprised when miruko started fighting in the nomu lab because that was the first time in the whole series where we got to see someone like her fight w a tenacity similar to bakugou, midoriya, endvr, etc.

but YA back to ur point i would love to see them as the big three omg 🥺️ its so hard to choose, because at first i initially thought of how cool it’d be for an ochaco, momo, and mina teamup but i loove tsuyu and feel like she has a rly good handle on her quirk that’d work with most anyone. make it the big 4. no wait make it the big 6 and just include all of them, ochaco, momo, tsuyu, mina, jiro, and hagakure. fuck the canon big 3, its their city now

MAN now im thinking of how cool it would be to fully explore ochaco’s quirk. i know its zero gravity / gravity nullification, but  imagine how cool it’d be if she were able to harness gravity manipulation. god t,that would make my head spin PLS... pls . i know shes a hero but honest to god the way toga used her quirk against ms.curious was so cool A.. unrelated but do u think she could tap gigantomachia . like ik thats a whole lot of strain on her body but that would also be exciting plsplspls . and her general meteor shower , comet home run, or meteor frafrotskies are so fckin fun too . shigaraki im sure has kicked up a lot of dust , i wish she could just. , *tap* and go ham.

like man. i just rly like the way some characters, etc bkg, use their quirks and i . would give anything to see these girls be able to do the same

[commajade]

hi amber, i hope youre having a lovely day and i hope this ask isn’t overbearing. feel free to ignore if it is!

i’m a korean adoptee, i was adopted by white parents who intentionally chose to not ever engage w that side of my identity. its honestly been a really like. saddening path as im slowly trying to learn more about that side of myself. i only just learned my korean birth name, and the more i also learn about the adoption industry in general esp for transracial adoption i just get filled with a lot of sadness. i want to learn more about that side of my identity but i feel like no matter how much reading i could do, no matter how much learning of the language i try, theres always gonna be that part of me that is just lost completely. ik youre not in the Exact same position as being adopted but i really look up to you since youre also a korean lesbian and so i just was wondering what you would do/recommend in this situation?? i just feel really lost :(

hello!!!

sorry it's taken me a while to respond to this it's just a topic that would require a full conversation not a simple post to respond to but i'll give it a try! feel free to ask my additional questions!

i have a good friend (the only other korean lesbian from my college) who was adopted from korea to wisconsin with a white family through holt so i know a little bit of what you're experiencing. the institution of adoption from korea to the US and other white countries is a product of the war and a part of the war, i really can't imagine what that complete separation must feel like and i'm very sorry it happened to you. but even when you feel like you have nothing, the mourning of that in itself is connection to korean history and experience.

i'm from a korean ethnic enclave in socal and i grew up immersed in what i thought was korean culture but as i got older i found myself feeling alienated by it all because all i knew was the hyperconservative kor-am church community when i'm a nb lesbian. and when i went to college it was a PWI in los angeles and i felt very quickly that i had nothing. my health got very bad. i loved my parents but never had the ability to express myself or to connect to them in important ways and me being outed would've cost my mom her job when my dad had been unemployed for many years. i felt i was a danger to my family the longer i stayed there and that it was inevitable that i separate completely. and in college i was terrified of the other korean kids at school because they're all the rich gyopo types i grew up with so i spent 3 years almost not hearing or speaking any korean, barely eating korean food. it's entirely too easy to exist in the US with hardly any acknowledgement that korea exists at all. i felt like i had no country no culture like i was just being consumed by the colonialism that is academia and the imperial heartland of the US. but now it's been only about 2 years since then and my dad has a job at a nonchurch job for the first time and my mom is only working part time so i am no longer a danger to them. they now know about my mental health issues, my mom knows that i'm a lesbian, and they're both ok with me getting top surgery (though i'm doing an aggressive breast reduction which is slightly different). i went abroad to korea in my junior year and it changed my life. this doesn't happen to everyone but for me i found deep connection, physical healing, spiritual realignment, and most importantly a teacher and a lineage. i'm now part of a korean indigenous religious organization that has the same roots as the Donghak Peasant Uprising, an anticolonial antiwestern tradition. i think it's classified as a taoist religious order but i really lack the english words to describe it. and i learned a LOT of korean speaking/reading skills while I was there for a semester and i've been working on it so much during the pandemic i'm nearly fluent in several aspects when i could barely type before. and as soon as i got back i became a part of the korean commie twitter scene for a while and that's a mess (all online stuff and all diaspora stuff is) i found many real friends and beloved online neighbors that are korean and celebrate korea with me in the anticolonial revolutionary way, because koreans are historically anticolonial revolutionary people. there's a lot of lesbians in south korea. there's a lot of lesbians in the dprk. there's a lot of lesbians in korean history and there's actually a few easy to find sources about it. there's even more about gay men and trans people i think.

i tell u this cuz i hope it brings you some comfort that most korean diaspora and many south koreans have almost as little information and connection as you do because of the same colonial violence. they look at their own culture with a colonial gaze and try to fill that lostness of a forgotten near-genocide and destruction of our peninsula and culture with what they see as relics not a living evolving relationship to the land and each other. just know ur gonna spend a lot of time mourning and that's the healthiest thing u can do. and that you never actually have nothing, no matter your knowledge or experience your body remembers and your ancestors are with you. the water in your body remembers the clay remembers. the more you learn about korea and what happened to us and is happening to us and what korean people are doing to each other because of it, the more sad you will be. but koreans are very good at generative mourning, good at collective sorrow that unties the fear loneliness and dread that is happening to everyone.

i guess my advice is to start with your body and your health. your body is an extension of the peninsula and the part of korea u have to care for. i gained a lot from learning about korean concepts and practices of health. eat korean food whenever you can. it's very very important. also u gotta learn the language. it's non negotiable. it's gonna take a lot of time and effort but u have to. and to do that u have to create a context first so get obsessed with something. know that all u have lost was taken from u but there are things they could never take and that is why we are both alive today. know that your life can always change in amazing ways and that there is always connection to be found. and pls make korean friends. as with all cultures, korea has a very different way of seeing the world than the colonizer does and when u see that most of the world has this in common it'll start to change how u see the world and ur place in it, and help u identify ppl u have this in common with.

[inthedusksynria]

until-lune respondeu seu post “@until-lune I’m 99% convinced that Micaiah will be...”A couple of things that I want to say. • If we...

@until-lune

Hello! Again i am using this one form of reply bc its easier for format! If you prefer i change for reply format it let me know!. Putting under read more bc this got long, but i had lots of fun doing it!. I am answering all your replies here!

M!Corrin-wise -  I dont think Omega Yato will be his weapon, because the refined version of his OG version (normal M!Corrin in the red pool) already has it. While his art has his normal weapon, his sprite has Omega Yato.

Dawn Yato is definitely a possibility tho! although it would be very odd to give it to him and not make its Twin/Mirror Weapon Dusk Yato to CQ!themed!L!F!Corrin.(but hey its IS)

(something i am so salty off bc i love Dawn and Dusk Yatos ;-; they are so pretty and match so well their promotions... and games... heck!! they both have their route-represent Legendary weapons features incorpored on them and just *clenches fist at the emotional moments*)

Also, A re-colored dragon alt is also a possibility, since L!F!Corn did that.

I dont think skipping the Staff is a certainty because IS has made weird choices before. Leif has an Bow which is a weird choice for him, but, like Corrin, he has a A Rank in bows in his promoted class, and like Corrin he is an “unpopular” Lord. Chrom and Lucina have Bows, when they also had Lances as options by promotion class.

I dont think popularity certainly incentivizes diversity in weapon usage. because we have had a lot of Weird choices from IS of making a popular character have the same weapon across multiple alts. -> 3H lords, Ike, Eirika and Ephraim had all a repeat of their OG weapons and are far more or just as popular as Micaiah; and even weirder L!F!Corrin, who by CYL and Nintendo magazine poll is more popular then M!Corrin,  has the same weapon type than her fallen version (and still lacks a red alt for her emblem AND had an iconic red weapon associated with her promotion of DarkBlood/Nohr Noble (Dusk Yato)). Also fun fact, F!Corrin counterpart to M!Corrin Staff Rank is a Tome Rank. So it would also be possible for her to have had an red tome alt.

conclusion regarding weapons: IS pretty much spins a Wheel and decides what to do. I think its pretty much a case of...whatever the executives woke up on that day wanting.

(that, of course, doesnt make theorizing what weapon they will have  any less fun xD)

Honestly the only reason why I am certain it is Micaiah is irrational/a F2P technique. In  that if it is not her, it will destroy my will to summon and thus allow me to spend less XD. I have seen people doing it and boy does it works wonders when you arent right.

Going by that (my theory it is Micaiah) I find it unlikely to be Colorless (and thus Staff or colorless tome) only because the other spreads are just That Good^tm.

One of the methods that people used to guess which color the new Leg/Mythic will be is to see which color has a busted spread of colors. And it has been right ever since Edelgard

(The reason for so is that IS seems to have realized that by debutting the hero on a so-so spread, it made people wait for their rerun in order to get them, Bramimond being an example in that his spread was awful (L!Grima) and his rerun spread was godsmacking good (Mila)... pun not intended)

The colorless this time is rather...i wouldnt say weak, because Eir usability is REALLy good and Duma has a nice niche of wrecking people plans(cackles in my AR matches). However, they are fairly outdated in comparation with the other color spreads. So, in the event this leg hero is Micaiah (or Elincia, or Byleth) i dont think they would be colorless because of that.

Oh! Regarding the CYL theory, since the legendaries were introduced in the second year of FEH, I dont consider much broken, since i merely think its always /A/ winner instead of the 1st of each year. Since shuffling of legendaries is possible, (those times when IS changed the calendar lineup), should the Byleths win CYL(which is fairly likely). it would be easy to put them on the next GW. And I also think it will be a theory that will be broken absolutely next year, since I doubt Marianne and Gatekeeper would be viable L!Heroes. I agree with you that is a weak pattern that is likely to be broken.

Counterpoint to Wind F!Byleth ->  Blessings not always end up being the element that is most associated with the Character in the main game. Highly Water themed (and midly Fire themed;) Corrin ended up as Wind; Julia, who has Minor blood of fire and was called “Genealogy’s Fire Emblem sword” was Earth; Eliwood, wielding the fire themed Durandal, was Wind. (tbf this is also a counterpoint to Wind Micaiah, since she has more association with Light and maybe Fire(?) than Wind)

Regarding 3H launching with 3H, besides Edelgard, Claude also debuted with no 3H legendary accompanying him. Annete was there, but other than that, no other 3H unit or legendary was on the banner. In fact, the pattern i do see with 3H legendaries is that their first re-run matches with a release of a Mythic in their color spread. (Edelgard -> Hel ; Dimitri -> Seiros).

I want to highlight that i am not saying it wont happen, but that I lean more towards they keeping a space between 3H legendaries release, in order to long term profits, and to not cause burn-out of 3H content. (or at least decrease people complaining about it; They seem to have learned their lesson with the Fates and Tellius spams.)

Finally,I do think that it is possible for Micaiah to be a Staff and for other characters to be released in this month/banner, mostly it is the premises i chose to apply to this theorizing lead me in a contrary direction xD. You show some good points! (I would love a Dawn Yato Corn and a Staff Micaiah ;-;...)

Extra Tangent: I have absolutely no idea what IS(executives) considers the character is associated with Silver Snow like...

For one side, Seteth makes lip service saying the route lord is Rhea; Rhea presents the choice mirror to Edelgard’s in the route split; the ending cutscene focuses on Rhea character development/closure, but, at the same time, she is Sir Not Appearing for 75% of the route and the rest of the time she is benched.

For another side, Byleth was made to be the lord to Edelgard emperor’s and her rival; has several cutscenes showcasing that; is the “lord” of the route in role sense, but, on the other hand, its more associated with Fire (fire emblem).

Honestly at this point i just dont know what FEH is going to do with them. I think IS is going to make one of Byleth Wind as you said and the other Fire, but which one, i have no idea. I could see too an argument for Ground(since i think at the lack of an Light element for Light element character-focused they pick ground sometimes) too, but yeah. 

I cant believe the true plot twist of GW is gonna be Rhea being the wind legendary breaking all of our theories xD (/j, but can you imagine how funny it would be?)

[mainlyabatfamandnct-geek]

I AM BACKKKKK

i have been silent on tumble for way to long and i am sorry. i guess i just lost motivation to write. i decided im gonna take some time off of writing incorrect quotes for the batfam/dc and marvel and show you guys my other interests!

so you probably didnt know this but i am a pretty big kpop fan. suprise. not that original ik. but one of my all time fav (possibly my ult group) is NCT and ive been stanning them since their SM Rookies days so i am a SENIOR fan lol. Recently since school is out and im super free ive been spending a ton of time watching agents of shield, burn notice, naruto, rurouni kenshin, jujutsu kaisen, a ton of movies from my childhood and NCT fan edit videos and meme compilations. soooooo why not put my growing obsession and built up fantasies of NCT to good use and actually make some content? 

ive also been watching a lot of musicals like hamilton, six, dear evan hansen (so excited for the new movie), the greatest showman, mean girls, etc. and the schuyler sisters is currently stuck in my head (no seriously ill just randomly sing “eLiZAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA” in my head for no reason) so i may or may not make some posts abt that.

ALSO. i am SUPER PUMPED UP abt Black Widow. like even more pumped up than i was for Loki and TFATWS. im sososososososo excited i cant stop talking abt it and pissing off my brothers.

AND THERES A NEW HORIZON GAME COMING OUT. i cant wait to play it. i really really really loved Horizon Zero Dawn  so you can imagine how pumped i am for Forbidden West. honestly i kinda wish they made a whole game abt Rost’s backstory just bc its so fucking sad and you dont really learn much abt it in Zero Dawn but they might go deeper into it in Forbidden West and I really hope they do bc its really interesting and sad.

ive been playing so much TLOU especially TLOU2 and Uncharted. I recently beat The Lost Legacy and it was really great. My brother didnt really enjoy it much for whatever reason but i was just happy to see Chloe and Nadine’s chaotic love hate relationship lol. I also think the new phone feature with taking the pictures and all was a nice added touch, it really accentuated the arrival of a new character and made it really obvious that we werent playing as Nate anymore. Like usually Nate would write things down in his journal and draw the objects and puzzles himself, but i think Chloe using her phone to do the same shows us that shes not as ig “into it” as Nate is. its like shes willing to put in the work necessary but make it easy and fast. kinda goes to show the more thief part of her and the lack of the “history nerd” thing that Nate has, kinda like Sully in a way.

Anyway enough abt me ranting what ive been up to. its time to make a slight change to the profile and username and make my first actual post for MONTHS.

[all-at-once-you-are-the-one]

Stream of Consciousness Lover Album Reaction

I wrote out my first thoughts while listening to the album and put them in one big post. I hope you find them as funny as I do lmao

1. I Forget That You Existed

LOL so that’s what the drake Easter egg was about!

Who is this about????

NIIIIiiiiiiiiiIIIiiiiCE

SHE SOUNDS SO GOOD

I JUST FORGOT WHAT THEY WERE LMAOOO

HER LAUGH!! SO CUTE!!

This track is somehow savage and adorable at the same time

So......yeah.......

ShnfhKJHGKSHDKGHSKGHSJG

2. Cruel Summer

This is giving me Katy perry vibes

The devils roll their dice line is from this?? Didn’t expect that

This is maybe the catchiest song I’ve ever heard

Why is this not a single??????

STILL DONT KNOW WHAT SUMMERS A KNIFE MEANS

EXPLAIN TAYLOR

This also kind of gives me Jonas brothers vibes, why???

Again.....what is this about???

OooOOoooOooWhoooooAAAAhh i loveeee this

OOOH no you know what this gives me GETAWAY CAR vibes

Wait...do we think that at the beginning joe wanted to keep their relationship private and Taylor agreed but then changed her mind? WAIT NO.....is this about her having to keep her love for joe secret at first the summer they met because she was with someone else/it was too soon??

3. Lover

Ok SUPER WEIRD transition into lover but OK

As much as I love albums with a clear narrative like rep I also like being all over the place so this is fine

CAN I GO WHERE YOU GOOOOOO

FOR EVER AND EVER ANDIIIII

YOURE MY MY MY MYYYYY LOVER

I wonder what inspired her to use the term lover? Does she not know that normal people don’t speak like that?

WAIT IS THE REASON LOVER COMES AFTER CRUEL SUMMER because of the 3 summers line?? Like look how we started...now were here

Does the album begin with i forgot you existed because its like ok this Kanye situation happened...but now were gonna forget about that and talk about the realer real story of the past couple years of my life rather than seeing it through the lens of that story like on rep

4. The Man

THE ACCURACY

THE ACCURAACCCCYYYYYYYYY

IT HUUURRTTSSS

Honestly though i actually thought this one would be more savage, i thi

DID SHE JUST SAY BITCHES AND MODELSSSS?????

SLJGSHUKGHKDG

Never mind this is as savage as i wanted

I should know better than to judge a Taylor song before the bridge

Again why isn’t this a single.....it better be

5. The Archer

The emotional whiplash this album is giving me is insane.

It’s like RED but with synths

Is the archer placed here because part of her lack of self confidence comes from the things the media says about her (because she’s a woman not a man?) INTERESTING THOUGHT

Don’t have much else to say about this, we already know

.....

Wow the cake i bought for tonight is somehow way too sweet

6. I Think He Knows

Definitely didn’t think i think he knows was about being horny af

But this is so catchy

Why is everything so catchy?? Literally every song should be a single

BOY I UNDERSTAND the confidence!! After the archer!! I love that he makes her feel that way1!!

I THINK HE KNOOOOOOOWWWWSS

This gives me teenage dream vibes and i fucking love that song

7. Miss Americana and the Heartbreak Prince

Ok time for the one with the weird title

I love how she keeps comparing her current feelings to how she felt as a teenager!! How its the same and different....very good.

SHES A BAD BAD GIRL

More dice!

Is she imagining what it would be like if she was in this relationship in high school? Because I DO THAT ALL THE TIIIIME GIRL SAME

THATS MY WHOLE WORLD SOOOO CUUUUTE

YOU PLAY STUPID GAMES YOU WIN STUPID PRIZES

VOTED

MOST

LIKELY

TO

RUN

AWAY

WITH

YOU

I really like this one. I didn’t expect I would.

This should be a single.

8. Paper Rings

THE VOICE EFFECT

She’s singing so fast on these songs!!!! I CANT KEEP UPP

UH HUH

THATS RIGHT

This is so retro and i loooooooooooooooooooooove it

DIRTY DREAMS??????? TAYLOR PLEASE

OMG THE COLOUR WE PAINTED YOUR BROTHERS WALL

THE PICTURE

THE PICTURE

FROM THE REP MAGAZINES

SDIHGUSHGUKHDZRKUGHKUDZHGUHDZGHDKZHGYIDZJLGJLDJGJSDJGDHZGHLGHLSHGHDG

II LIKE SHINY THINGS

THIS SONG IS SO FUN! ALL THESE SONGS ARE SO FUN!!

Ok baby boy that’s kinda weird but you know what..

....

....

Ok its still weird but maybe it will grow on me

This should be a single.

9. Cornelia Street

HERE IT IS!!! THE FIRST TAYLOR PRODUCED SONG

I NEVER WANT CORNELIA STREET AGAIN?? WHAT IS THIS ABOUT?? THEIR WORST FIGHT? ANOTHER RELATIONSIP? QUESTIONS

The storytelling!

Wait......is this about before they ran away together in CIWYW?? Like she thought he didn’t really want her so she was gonna run away alone...but then he was like no i really do lets go

I totally thought that this was the one with the staring out the window like I’m not your favorite town line was from

She ended it with the line she started with (i think)? Ike she used to!

Kinda feel like people hyped this one up too much but i do like it

10. Death by a Thousand Cuts

The piano!!!!

Like a thousand notes a thousand cuts

Look through the windows of this love - like the heart on her eye! I get it I GET IT lmaoooo

If this song was on red it would have the saddest production but on this album its a bop

11. London Boy

IS THAT JOE??? OMG lmao

HER ACCENT LMAOOOOOOOOO

I don’t know if this song is supposed to be as hilarious as i think it is but i really do think its hilarious

What does like a Tennessee Stella McCartney even mean????

I kinda feel like this song is too specific to her life to be relatable so maybe that’s why i feel that way about it?

12. Soon You’ll Get Better

Ok great... so we went from that to the sad one

I have to prepare

I didn’t tell you i was scared....

Cause you have to...

The fact that this is the country song...

I cant

GOD NOW IM CRYING THIS IS SO SAD

That was the only song so far i had to actually stop typing for. God....I’m so sad for her and her family.

13. False God

I can barely take this song in because of what just came before.

But i really like it. And i really like the theme of religion on this album

14. You Need to Calm Down

NOW YNTCD IS PLAYING

??? IM LITERALLY SOO SAD FROM SOON YOULL GET BETTER STILL

I CANT

PROCESS

THIS

This album is literally all over the place, i keep trying to assign a narrative to it and its not working out so I’m just gonna give up

Sometimes albums are just collections of songs and not a coherent, linear story and that is ok! Even if its not what i prefer

It certainly didn’t bother me on her first few albums.

The one thing i take away from this is like...no wonder she’s so determined to be so overly positive, i think for her its that or break down crying in the face of what’s happening in her family

15. Afterglow

I really love this song!!! Hashtag relatable

......

Man..you can really tell even just from my typing that my heart isn’t in this anymore after that song

Like

Fuck

I think I’m just sad for me too, because i know that i will go through that too sooner rather than later and I already have friends dealing with losing a parent.

16. ME!

My only thought on this is god bless brendon Urie for injecting so much additional joy and energy into this song and making Taylor happy, i just get the vibe that she really needed that

ALSO WHAT THERES REALLY NO HEY KIDS SPELLING IS FUN

TAYLOR EXPLAAIAIIIIIIIAIAIIAN

We’ll see if its on my physical cd copies when they arrive...if not then maybe it was always planned to be a line only in the single version

17. It’s Nice to Have a Friend

Ok I don’t really like this song that much but i really like the messages she’s trying to send like...real love feels like hanging out with a childhood bestie, so comfortable

18. Daylight

I WAS LIKE MEH

BUT THE FUCKING BRIDGE

THE BRIDGE

IM EMOTIONALLY DESTROYED

Also something about the chorus reminds me of the chorus of starlight

STEP INTO THE DAYLIGHT AND LET IT GO

YES

I WAS LIKE NO IS THAT NOT A LYRIC??

BUT IT ISTHANK GOD

THE END

YOU ARE WHAT YOU LOVE

THAT WAS LIKE

MY MANTRA FOR A COUPLE YEARS A WHILE BACK

BECAUSE

I LOVED SO MANY PEOPLE BUT THEY DIDNT LOVE ME

AND I WANTED TO BE DEFINITED BY THE FACT THAT I LOVED THEM NOT THAT HTEY DIDNT LOVE ME

IIIIIIIIIIII

I

IN CONCLUSION:

My feelings are everywhere. Some songs disappointed me but some blew me away - soon you’ll get better is basically the new Never Grow Up for me which is saying a lot. Everything is catchy a hell though even the songs I didn’t like as much. Ultimately i would have liked more songs about varying subject matter esp. self love but as it is, it is still somehow so all over the place. It really just shows how many emotions and phases can be contained within one relationship (i mean I’m assuming every song about a relationship is about joe). I really think that the song about her mom maybe should have been placed somewhere else...I don’t know where I would have put it but that shit is HEAVY. I am so honored that she and her family would share that with us though. I have a million question about how Andrea is doing and if my theory on why tour hasn’t been announced is correct...maybe she will explain more in the interviews/secret session audio we’re getting in the next couple days. I think my favorite song is Lover but that may change. I don’t think any song on here tops my current all time favorite Taylor song though which is CIWYW. That’s a little disappointing but not every song or album has to be my fave! And this album will probably grow on me esp as i hear Taylor’s explanations of it. Rep did. I really did nooott feel good about most of rep at first, it took a few days.

[imjustyouraveragenoone]

why u sucked

since my mind keeps replaying all the reasons u were perfect, here are the reasons u were fucking far from it.

1. ur ex drama. u dumped me for ur ex, then u realized that she was not right for u so u hit me up again. u got jealous that ur best friend was hitting me up and made sure to put an end to that really fast by making moves on me while u were still w ur ex. then u talked to me for a good period to follow thru on ur own ego problems and then proceeded to hook up w ur ex. who the actual fuck does this. stick to ONE u absolute manwhore. if u were so in love with ur ex why would u flirt with me while u guys were together, if u were so in love with me why would u hook up with her while we were talking. u literally just dont care about anyone but ur motherfucking self and it took me way too long to realize it, it took me my literal parents having to split us up for me to see the damage u did. 

2. u never made any effort to come see me. everything was on ur schedule, if u didnt want to hang out with me, u would go off. if u were horny, u would stay on. no explanations needed. if u felt like opening up, u would. otherwise, just pictures of ur eyebrow. i was constantly the one running around in circles trying to make this work. i decided to come see u in the morning, i would be the one who would come stand by ur friends at the end of the day, u never would fucking ask me to. unless, of course, it was whether u could come over to fuck. then, you would ask without any hesitation and beg and plead and do everything in ur power to make it work. don’t think i ever saw that effort in any other aspect of our relationship, hmmmmmm. no sentimental gifts or cute texts. u literally did the bare minimum and for some fucking reason i idealized u for it. mostly because i thought that most girls wouldnt even be lucky enough to get the bare minimum from u, and im prolly right. like u fucked me up SO BAD that one day u were telling me abt some girl u ghosted and my fUCKED UP MIND ACTUALLY WENT “WOW I MUST BE SPECIAL SINCE HE NEVER GHOSTED ME. MUST MEAN THAT HE ACTUALLY LOVES ME.” TF??????????????????????? mental issues. 

3. u literally sent me essays about not trusting me and all this shit that made me think that u were breaking up with me the DAY of my sat and then claimed u forgot i had to take it that day. i woke up in such a panic thinking that u were trying to dump me the day of the most important test of my literal life. why the fuck would anyone do that. why. i knew every date of ur physics tests, i knew what was going on in ur life, even finding out things from ur sister because i wanted to know. u just didnt even care at all. like ik u prolly actually did forget but if i was even important to u u would not of ever forgot in the first place. 

4. the constant dumping. dude, if ur just gonna constantly pull that shit for u to fulfill some insecurity in ur head and make u feel like u have the power in the relationship, u need help. im sorry that all ur exes were downright obsessed with u and u never had to wonder if u were the one who cared less in the relationship, but just because i didnt do that doesnt mean that u can just keep tryna dump me to affirm ur power struggles. 

5. blaming ur own shortcomings on ur broken past. i dont doubt it, but letting ur past define u is not taking u anywhere and ur just gonna end up stuck in ur own cycle of not dealing with ur problems.

6. the literal lack of any kind of ambition, drive and hard work ethic. u work hard to appear cool, to get girls, to get drugs, to do all this unnecessary shit, why u cant put that effort into simple homework assignments so ur not FAILING a class, i will never know. 

7. u had every right to get mad at me for being friends with ishan or whatever but i dont fucking think i have ever called u out for being best friends with every single ex u have ever had in fact i trust u so much i dont care that u spend literally 90% of ur time with at least one girl that u have had history with whether its roopa, khushi, and many more that i havent heard abt yet.

8. u hooked up w roopa. bruh. thats just disgusting and u know it. 

9. u always came for ME about hearing things from other ppl abt what i was up to. UM. UM??????? do u KNOW the shit i heard about u but didnt even confront u because i trusted u THAT much. lmaoooooo looking back u were a fucking clown for even bringing up that argument. sure, i was far from perfect and i made some questionable choices, but bruh so did YOU. 

10. u rlly tried to hit it without a condom. are u fucking retarded. imagine if i got pregnant. forget my parents literally kicking me out. imagine the atrocity of my kids having YOU as a father. nightmare shit..

11. u were so fucking emotionally distant that i literally took every small BARE MINIMUM nice thing u did and fucking RAN with it. looking back its so clear that u rlly didnt do anything special, u didnt say anything special, u did not do anything to prove u loved me. all u were good at was empty words to string me on because we both know that saying shit takes no effort and ur all about that no effort lifestyle. like now that im thinking about it..... what have u done for me? what have u done? said i love you, texted me a shit ton when u were horny, said a bunch of future shit and made me laugh. wow u fulfilled the basic requirements of a relationship, and since u have a nice little reputation for being an asshole, i took that as a WOW HE MUST RLLY LOVE ME. thats actually so sad that i lowered my standards THAT much just so that i could be with u.

12. u made me cry and feel so low for so much of the relationship and i rlly dont understand why i thought we were so perfect. the lows we had were downright unacceptable and u never were able to truly put ur pride aside to tell me how u felt about me besides when we were fighting or u felt like u were losing me and thats how i know that the love we had mightve been genuine or whatever, but its not the love i deserve. 

7 months wasted, lowkey grateful my parents pulled me outta that shit bc i never would have had the mental strength to do it and we prolly woudlve ended up breaking up in like a few months bc u hooked up w some unc charlotte hoe or something. yikes. what u have been up to post-relationship is neither my business nor something i have a right to be upset about so im not gonna go off on u for that because i rlly dont have the mental space to care abt what ur up to now. 

my next lover better be someone who isnt fucking scared to show that they care about me, someone that respects me, someone that isnt selfish and obsessed with using girls to fill their own shortcomings. love shouldnt be a constant power struggle and i should never have to wonder whats going on in ur life. ur supposed to KNOW what ur boyfriend is up to. its part of a relationship. so fuck u for making me drop my standards to such comical levels. 

[gascon-en-exil]

A Not Actually Definitive Ranking of Fire Emblem Games

So after a lot of deliberation I’ve decided not to revisit last year’s Zelda ranking project on a full scale for FE, but that doesn’t mean it’s not something I really wanted to do. 2018 is the year we’re going to get alternatively hyped for and disappointed by FE16, after all. With that in mind have an abbreviated list that will end up being one very long post. I’ve got games to gush over and an anon or two (and very likely actual followers…eep) to piss off, so here we go.

The “personal favorites of the series, love revisiting them” Tier - FE10, FE2/15, FE4

I’m never going to argue that Radiant Dawn is a perfect game or even just a perfect FE game, but damned if it doesn’t manage to do so much right all at once. An extremely ambitious story that builds off its mostly conventional predecessor in a variety of interesting ways, deconstructing a bunch of series narrative standards (life in a defeated country kind of sucks and there are people that don’t warm that quickly to young and inexperienced rulers, go figure) and taking an eleventh hour hard right at Nietzchean atheism as read by a Pride parade. Kind of falls on its ass by the end, but every experimental FE story does the same thing so I can’t fault this one. I love the army switching as motivation to try different units almost as much as I love the oh-so-exploitable growth and BEXP mechanics. Its Easy mode also hits a sweet spot for me of being challenging enough to not be a complete snore while also allowing the freedom for all manner of weird self-imposed challenges that don’t even require grinding. By all accounts Hard mode is one lazy design choice after another, but I don’t play at that level so no complaints here.

Never played Gaiden, but to its credit around half of the unique gameplay mechanics I like in Shadows of Valentia were also in the original: the modest army size, the novel approaches to inventory management and magic, the pretty basic class system with just a hint of nuance. The remake threw in some hit-or-miss questing, dungeon exploration, and achievements, but all the rest was either a solid addition or a continuation of NES-era annoyances that I could live with. And the story…SoV makes me dislike the DS games even more just because this game does so much with so little. Even leaving aside the mostly great voice acting there’s a bunch of new content that characterizes almost everybody and makes half of them (the men, anyway, because this is a remake of a Kaga-era game and therefore misogynistic as can be) gay because why the hell not, and then some development that constitutes the only solid attempt at worldbuilding Archanea-Valentia-Ylisse has ever really gotten and also retcons some stuff from Awakening into making sense. It’s even got some solid DLC with lots of character stuff for the Deliverance, the least sucky grinding of the 3DS games, and probably the only context in which I’ll ever be able to comment on anything from Cipher.

No remake needed for Genealogy of the Holy War to make it competitive with the rest of the top tier - just an excellent translation patch and the standard features of an emulator. I’ve never watched Game of Thrones and probably don’t plan on it, but I gather that this game provides the same essential experience with less blood and female nudity and marginally more egalitarianism for all. I can forgive it for being the original Het Baby Fest since you’d be hard-pressed to find a single entirely healthy and well-adjusted individual anywhere on Jugdral and I relate to that just as much. Screwed up family dynamics for everyone! It’s also arguably got a more fun breeding meta than either of the 3DS games, lacking Awakening’s optimization around a single postgame map with very specific parameters or Fates’s high level of balance that ironically stymies analysis. This is another game for interesting inventory management and unit leveling that isn’t too obnoxious, which mostly makes up for the maps taking an eon to play through even with an emulator speeding through those enemy phases. This would be a strange game to remake, but if it got a localized one of the same caliber as SoV I fully acknowledge that this could climb to the #2 spot. SoV would probably have the queer edge though unless they do some strange things to the plot or just make Gen 2 really gay…but then again Gen 2 is the part that’s more in need of fleshing out as it is. (Also, this game has So. Much. Incest. That’s not even really a kink of mine especially as it’s all straight incest, but I just find that hilarious in light of how Tumblr’s purity culture speaks of such things.)

The “good games, but don’t come back to them as much” Tier - FE7, FE9, FE8

Blazing Sword is not here for nostalgia purposes, especially since when I first played the game at 14 years old most of what I like about it didn’t really register. It was just that game with RPG elements that I liked and permadeath that I didn’t, and it took a few games after that for me to become an established fan of the franchise. Massive props for putting such an unconventional spin on a prequel to a textbook FE; this is a game in a series about war in which no war is fought, how crazy is that? We actually get to see the backstory of FE6′s tragic antagonist, even as it’s completely tangential to the plot of this game and so just feels like random Jugdral-esque family drama without context, and on top of that we get the first hints of interdimensional travel and kinky human/shapeshifter sex several years before either of those became controversial talking points about how they were ruining the series. I am so there. Lyn doesn’t matter to the saga, but her character arc is distinct and self-contained and also she picked up a disproportionately large fanbase while being bisexual and biracial so go her. Eliwood is sympathetic and homosocially-inclined even if his growths frequently make me want to cry (at least he gets a horse unlike his similarly-challenged son), and I can live with Hector even if I could have done without his lordly legacy. Throw in some average-for-the-time gameplay with just enough variety across the two routes and even more good character work *waves at Sonia and Renault and Priscilla -> Raven/Lucius and Serra and…* and it’s all in all a solid experience. The ranking system can go die in a fire though, which funnily enough it did after this game. Yay!

Like most early 3D games - except on Gamecube so it’s even more embarrassing - Path of Radiance has aged terribly by every aesthetic measure aside from the soundtrack. It’s also painfully slow, and my computer can’t run Dolphin apparently so an emulator’s not going to fix that for me. Those obvious flaws aside, it’s still an entertaining game, and more importantly it’s the prologue that had the crucial task of setting up all the pins RD knocked over in stellar fashion, whether we’re talking about the basic storyline that actually isn’t or the many het relationship fake-outs (more so in localization…I guess we’ll never know if NoA was actively planning that when they pushed Ike/Elincia like they did). PoR is also a love letter to Jugdral in both gameplay and themes, albeit an occasionally critical one. The jury’s still out on whether Jugdral or Tellius succeeds the most (fails the least?) of the FE settings at developing a complete world with a nuanced and resonant saga narrative, but that Tellius manages to be competitive while being kind of clumsy overall with racism and shifting the series’s overarching motif of dragon-blooded superhumans to one of kinky interracial sex is pretty impressive. The less I say about Ike the better since it’s only his endings in RD that save him for me; suffice it to point out that his worldview and general personality were clearly designed to appeal to a demographic that does not include me.

And finally comes The Sacred Stones, truly my average benchmark FE as I like it but struggle to have any particularly strong feelings on it one way or the other. The story is standard but has a few intriguing quirks, like the light vs. dark magic meta, surprise necrophilia, and how the main antagonist’s sexuality sort of depends on which route you take (except he’s still never getting laid so does it really matter?). It also seems to have been the first game to have made a legitimate effort toward the kind of replayability that’s normal for RPGs, what with the branched promotions, the route split, and the actual postgame. That’s all much more engaging than just filling up a support log. The gameplay is also more polished and (I think?) more balanced than the other GBA games, if one is willing to overlook the minor issue of Seth. Let’s see…something something twincest that’s now an IS running gag, something something guys talking intimately about their lances, something something SoV did the whole dungeon crawling with monsters bit better but I can forgive SS for not taking it that far. Moving on….

The “they have Problems” Tier - FE14, FE13

Probably qualifies as a fandom heresy, but yes I’m putting Fates first of these two. Fates is in every conceivable way for me the “You Tried” game, because I had such high hopes for it from the moment we got the earliest promotional content. I was expecting a World of Warcraft-style conflict between two morally grey factions with myriad convoluted grievances against each other messily resolving themselves one way or the other according to player choice (though note that this is already somewhat damning with faint praise as no one’s going to call WoW a storytelling masterpiece), with Conquest in particular a true villain campaign that I imagined might play out as European Imperialism: The Game. What we actually got was…not that, not at all, but amid all the complaints about plot holes and idiot balls and moral myopia most fans seem to have forgotten just how much there is to this game. It’s three full stories that together average out to be just about passable, with possibly the biggest gameplay variety in the series that fixed most of Awakening’s more broken elements (pair-up, children being unquestionably superior to the first generation) while also adding in new features that undoubtedly appealed to someone or other like Phoenix mode and the castle-building aspect. I can even mostly forgive the obvious growing pains Fates exhibits in terms of queer content, as they were pretty much inevitable once the developers realized that (almost) everyone was picking up on the subtext and that that approach just wasn’t going to cut it anymore. Again, they tried, and if the results included face-touching fanservice and plot contrivances left and right and two-way cultural posturing that inevitably crosses over into real world racism at some point I can still step back for a moment and acknowledge that Fates began as a distinctive, high-concept setting on par with Tellius and Jugdral that was willing to do something different with the narrative norm (for two of its routes at least, and even so I’m not begrudging Birthright its conventionality because that grounding is important overall). And who knows? Maybe a later game will come along and retroactively make this setting coherent.

Fates might have more sexual fanservice, but if there’s any FE that I feel ends up a slave to fanservice in a broader sense it would be Awakening. Yeah, I get that when it was in development everyone thought this would be the final game, so it makes sense that the finished product turned out to be a nostalgia-laden greatest hits piece. It’s still hard to forgive Awakening for feeling so insubstantial, doubly so since it ended up revitalizing the franchise and now it and Fates are everywhere. It’s got a plot that only makes some sense in light of SoV and possibly on a meta level (following my theory that the plot structure is meant to mirror FE1-3 in sequence), the first iteration of an Avatar dating game heavily coloring the characterization and support system, and a queasily feel-good atmosphere that allows almost no character to actually remain dead and centers everything around the self-insert and the power of friendship. So much for the series’s traditionally dim view of human nature and recurring theme of the inevitability of conflict. What’s more, in spite of its theoretically broad scope (including a criminally under-explored time travel plot with a bad future) and numerous call-backs to older games Awakening does surprisingly little for developing the series’s most frequently-visited setting. I think it was in large part how generic this game has always felt to me even before release that I never got very hyped for it and as a consequence was never very disappointed by it. It’s just….there, with its nostalgia and its chronic “no homo” and its host of hilariously broken mechanics. I wonder if we’d have ended up viewing Awakening more favorably if it really had been the last game? Eh, probably not.

The “needs a remake or needs a better remake” Tier - FE5, FE6, FE3/12, FE1/11

I don’t have a specific order for these, except that FE1/11 is almost certainly the bottom since 5 and 6 have remake potential and, lack of localization aside, New Mystery was a better remake than Shadow Dragon.

I still haven’t fully played Thracia 776, but I’ve watched and read through Let’s Plays and have read more than enough analysis and meta on the game to where I can definitively say that I wouldn’t enjoy playing it too much and don’t feel all that emotionally connected to the story except insofar as it relates to the overall Jugdral saga. The concept of a standard FE plot that ends with the playable cast losing is an intriguing one, though they really could have done better than the weird non-ending that is this game’s final boss. I’m also not as invested in Leif the fallen aristocrat as I usually am those types of characters, possibly because it’s a foregone conclusion that he eventually gets his kingship anyway. I would like a remake, hopefully one that smooths over some of the original’s mechanical roughness and also makes a bunch of characters gay because the material’s certainly there in places, but I also admit that I’d rather have a remake of Genealogy first. Or, for that matter….

Binding Blade doesn’t have the potential for an amazing story-driven remake that Thracia does; after all, it’s basically a soft reboot of FE1 with an equally bland lord saved by his Super Smash Bros. fanbase and possibly his weirdly large harem. That said, there’s a fair amount of character potential and worldbuilding opportunities what with the series’s first true support system and the content of its unorthodox prequel. Even by itself I feel like BB does more to sell Elibe as its own distinctive world than any of Marth’s games ever did for Archanea, and that’s even with the reality that like the Archanea games this playable cast is inflated with some really forgettable characters (that seem to have followed a semi-rigid numerical quota by class in this instance. It’s weird.). This game never really stuck in my mind as a good playable experience either, not helped by the fact that it feels simple and antiquated compared not only to the GBA games that followed it but to the Jugdral games that preceded it. Good on them for throwing out some of Thracia’s more unwieldy mechanics, but did they have to throw out skills, hybrid classes, and varied chapter objectives too? The space limitations of the GBA couldn’t have been that severe.

While I’ve been spending much of this post ragging on Archanea, I will say that (New) Mystery of the Emblem has some interesting character beats, like the resolution of the Camus/Nyna/Hardin tragedy, Rickard and the situationally bisexual(?) Julian, and some of the antics of Marth’s retainers. I did like bits of the remake’s new assassin plot even if most of it is cribbed from the Black Fang; Eremiya’s no Sonia, but Clarisse and Katarina have their moments. Also, Kris isn’t that offensive to me since I was never all that engaged in Marth’s inconsistent personality and from what I’ve seen his/her supports don’t all devolve into a dating sim. New Mystery has a broader array of characters than either the original or the previous remake, without requiring the player to kill off characters just to get some of the new ones. That said, the reclassing in the DS games is still broken and allows the player to strip even more character out of their personality-deprived units. I’m getting to the point where I’m having trouble separating the two actually, so I’ll just go ahead and remark that I think everyone can agree that Shadow Dragon is the worst of the three remakes so far, with no supports, the aforementioned killing of units, a prologue that adds to the story but only exists on Normal mode and also requires you to kill someone off (seriously, what is it with this game? Is it commentary on the necessary sacrifices of war that they tried forcing on the player for one game until they realized it was a terrible idea?), the needless removal of features from earlier games like rescuing even as others like weapon ranks and forging were left in, that first clumsy iteration of reclassing, and little to nothing that I can see as elevating the story above the standard fantasy adventure fare of Dark Dragon and the Sword of Light that might have been good in 1990 but didn’t look so hot in 2008. Archanea just feels so lifeless overall compared to every other setting in the franchise, to the point where I don’t even feel that guilty about putting the first game in the series way down at the bottom when over in the Zelda ranking I raised the NES games above ones I found more fun to play solely because of their historical significance. Isn’t FE1 arguably the first tactical RPG? I feel like I should appreciate it more, but I just can’t. *shrugs*

[mi4017]

a Clockwork Orange, Kubrick (1971)

Hi:

I’m Ike. I’m an 18 year old British student who spent most of his life in the UAE. 

right now, I’m in the second semester of my university degree, and this will be a blog where i am documenting my thoughts, findings and work alongside my studies.

for my first lecture, we looked at the opening to...

i wrote some notes, and didn’t want them to go wasted - so i figured I’d invest some time into writing a detailed analysis of the opening, and posting it onto the TUMBLR blog you're reading right now! 

this is how we’ve been showcasing our work the majority of our modules this year. At first i wasn't proficient with using the site, but after the first semester: i think I’ve started to get the hang of it.

the film starts, with loud staccato inceptions over a piercing red screen. bold text introduces the production companies, with each new company flickering between red and blue, two very polarising colours.  perhaps settling the viewer into the world of this film? as the instant juxtaposition with two very distinct, alternating, bright colours, against piercing string inceptions conveys a sense of unorthodox.

the title itself is a point of interest: to say that one has the appearance of a natural organism: with a distinct, bright orange colour, and delicious juice - but is in fact only a clockwork, mechanical entity - this, again creates a sense of things not being as they seem, through juxtaposition.

we instantly cut, on beat a man with an inked on eyelash appears in the centre of the screen, looking directly at the viewer, with his head tilted downward - and eyes peering upward from beneath his eyebrows (the Kubrick stare). as the camera zooms out we see three of his cronies sitting on either sides of him: enjoying glasses of... milk?

the way the central character slowly swigs from his glass, is menacing; and adds to the uneasy tone, the scene is creating.

one of the first things that stood out to me was their dress sense and how it contrasts with the dark background. 

they are very dandy - unduly concerned with looking stylish and fashionable, with their bowler hats and makeup. speaking of which - they each have their makeup for each part of the face:

- the leader (Alex) has the lashes, - first to his left (Dim) has lipstick, - far left (Pete) has eye shadow on his left eye, - and to the right (Georgie), coloured eye shadow on his brow.

white is a colour that suggests purity - further emphasised by the child-like milk drinking, this is potentially a way of showcasing these are the protagonists of this film - the “good guys” however throughout later scenes, of intro they are seen as thugs, on multiple accounts: first attacking an innocent bystander, but later brawling with a rival gang, and saving a woman from their clutches.

i especially like the way conventions are played with, and even broken - it’s almost as though Kubrick is saying there’s no innocence, or safety in the world.

the camera pans out further to show more people, much bulkier - potentially guards of some sort, due to their placement: protecting the central four.

as we get further we see a walkway, leading towards the four - surrounded by multiple female mannequins - in grotesque, sexual positions - implying the woman of this society are very low level: showcased as furniture.

Kubrick did a good job instantly making the viewer feel uneasy...

a faceless voice, suggested to be the central character calmly, narrates over the scene.  the walls are littered with phrases; each containing the word “moloko” which is based off the Russian word (молоко) for ‘milk’

he introduces himself, and his cronies - as well as the different types of milk served in the milk bar

- Moloko Vellocet (mixed with opiates), - Moloko Synthemesc (mixed with synthetic mescaline) - Moloko Drencrom (mixed with adrenochrome and other hallucinogens).

stating they’re drinking “Moloko Drencrom” - as it will 

“sharpen (you) up for a bit of the ol’ ultraviolet”

the entirety of the scene is very strange - arguably quite off-putting.

the scene suddenly cuts to a homeless man, laying on the ground: loudly belting out a drunken old nursery rhyme (“Molly Malone” by the Dubliners)

In Dublin's fair city Where the girls are so pretty I first set my eyes on sweet Molly Malone As she wheeled her wheel-barrow Through streets broad and narrow Crying, "Cockles and mussels, alive, alive, oh!"

the shadows of the four delinquents, seen earlier begin to approach him. There is a use of a lot of extreme lighting, very large - and harsh shadows which add to the sinister tone this scene is building.

the silhouettes of the four boys, continue to approach - confidently striving, forward - with a bright streetlamp illuminating them, from behind: just enough to be recognisable, but not enough to identifiable. the most central one: is armed with a melee weapon of some kind, menacingly resting upon his shoulders. I find this dynamic to be very stylised - suggesting that they do this as an art, rather than just mindless violence.

as the gang approach, the narration continues; stating...

“one thing i could never stand was to see a filthy dirty old drunkie howling away at the filthy songs of his fathers and going blurp blurp in-between. as it might be a filthy old orchestra in his stinking rotten guts. I could never stand to see anyone like that, whatever his age might be. but especially when he was real old like this one was”

the use of such hateful, condescending language suggest that this man, is under the belief he is of a higher class, and thinks he’s better than the homeless - seeing them as a problem, that must be eliminated, rather than as equal human-beings.

not only that - he creates an instant distinction between those who are “old” and themselves, this suggest they are young, and that gang violence is a growing problem with youngsters.

the gang condescendingly claps down to the drunk, and cheers at his singing, but as the viewer - we know that this is disgenuine, and begin to imagine what the delinquents are about to do to the man: now that they have engaged in a situation, after drinking the “Moloko Drencrom”.

the man asks for change in an informal, and friendly way: with his hand raised up, begging for help - the crew literally looking down on him.

despite his friendly demeanour, and desperation - he is responded to by being laughed at by the cronies, as the leader plunges his gentlemen’s cane, harshly into his stomach.

the way the group are represented as such charismatic villains: people who do awful things, with such an attitude that you are interested in the viewing of them is a genius standpoint of telling a story, as once again it breaks convention - with the protagonists we’re following the story of being villains, rather than a typical hero.

the irish drunk asks the men to kill him - as he’s

“sick of living in a stinkin’ world like this”

the serious tone of this scene is emphasised by the lack of music - but contradicted, by the most prominent audio: the cronies laughing in the background - this makes it seem like the characters aren’t taking this encounter seriously, and are having fun and doing what they want.

the camera has a habit of showing the faces, of the characters from very close-up, which adds to the abnormal nature and overall uncomfortableness the viewer feels watching this film: by making them feel quite claustrophobic. despite only able to watch each event occur, the viewer is involved in the scene due to their direct viewing and uncomfortable closeness to the characters; through close-up shots.

I also noticed that the boss is the only one who initiates conversation, which showcases the respect the cronies must have for him - to allow him to dictate how the encounter goes.

the boss, smugly asks why its a “stinkin’ world” to which the drunk responds...

“it's a stinking world because there's no law and order anymore! It's a stinking world because it lets the young get on to the old, like you done. Oh, it's no world for an old man any longer. What sort of a world is it at all? Men on the moon, and men spinning around the earth, and there's not no attention paid to earthly law and order no more.”

Kubrick, through this character has done some very early world building: and directly told the viewer that this is a world where the young, are in gangs and are free to attack the old.

men on the moon is talking about the abnormality of the situation - as it is not the way the world should be.  in his opinion; the “earthly law” has been broken - as there is no consequence for breaking it, and as such everything is out of order.

he goes back to singing a different song, when the gang beats him with concealed blunt objects, curb-stomping him.

it is clear they’re trying to portray this gang as juvenile criminals, as although they are causing problems and breaking the law: attacking what by all means are innocent people; they are using blunt objects to beat them - which is quite tame especially compared to the next scene, which gives a good intro to the film is about...

a very upbeat, iconic classical medley begins, as the distant screams of a woman can be heard. despite the distressing sound: the scene attempts to establish a sense of calm through the initial shot being the floral pattern on the walls of an abandoned theatre. the camera begins to zoom out, showing more of the scene: where a gang of five lads, are forcibly stripping a woman and throwing her on a mattress, with intentions to rape her.

the narration reveals this is the work of “Billy-Bob” - and comedically states they’re going to “perform a bit of the ol’ in out in out”

this scene uses comedy, and music to make the whole thing feel rather lighthearted and juvenile, in contrast of the severity of what’s actually going on. This extreme dissonance adds another layer of uncomfortableness for the viewer: being forced to watch this woman be overpowered by this gang.

the scenes length, further adds to the uncomfortable nature - as the viewer s=is unable to do anything, helplessly just watching as the unspeakable act occurs.

this gang visually look like a lot more serious offenders - with a dark green, military-like ensemble of outfits, and much more aggressive, serious crimes.

their weapons differ too, with Billy-Bob’s gang using blades, a much more serious, lethal form of weaponry - compared to the blunt clubs, bats, and canes of the four goons: who are more camp.

the fact this scene takes place in an abandoned theatre suggests that this is what’s replaced the theatre. what was once a haven for artistic expression is now a dangerous gang infested zone.

the leader of the goons very elaborately enters the scene, from the dark - with his cronies at his side. making sly remarks at Billy’s gang

the very theatrical nature of the goons, instead of just "violence and murder" as seen with Billy’s group - is what i think, makes Billy’s gang lose interest in the girl - as their confidence is extremely sinister, in my opinion.

it’s as Alex insults Billy that we get a closer look at the gang’s attire: where the Nazi imagery is very apparent. further adding to the severity of how dangerous his gang, and actions are. As nazi’s were fascist extremists.

he confidently draws a switchblade with a menacing smile, spitting out his chewing gum. before calling his boys to attack

the fight scene is portrayed very comedically, with the gangs having a good ol’ brawl - accompanied to classical music - which juxtaposes the scenes: where it is upbeat while the scenes are showcasing these exaggerated acts of violence.

despite being five of them: the knuckleheads energetically scrap with the rivals.

the elaborateness of this scene is astonishing: with them sometimes appearing inept in combat...

flailing their arms in circles, dog-piling, tackling to the ground

and other times appearing extremely competent...

humorously smashing chairs over enemies, breaking bottles and throwing Billy’s gang through windows

the scene ends with them victoriously beating them when they’re down on the floor - instilling hope, that although juvenile criminals - this gang is more competent than a larger gang of some of the most evil people conceivable (extremist, rapist, criminals)

the leader notices sirens from outside, and whistles to his crew: one comedically still in a bloodlust - causing him to continue whistling, to signal them of danger. the danger being police

the fact, that in this crime-ridden world: police still exist, and install fear in this competent gang of miscreants further suggests that they are more than just delinquents, and know the extent of their crimes. 

as they run away humorously screaming - the scene suddenly cuts, to them escaping in their car. celebrating like a couple of children.

they go under a truck and cause a passing car to crash - showing they’re driving on the wrong side of the road. all the while, chuckling loudly. maybe they only do what they do for fun, and won't go to extreme lengths like other gangs: which is why their story is being followed. its why they can make light out of horrific situations.

its why they commit crimes: because its a laugh to them.

despite being seen as a problem by society: I’d argue the group see themselves as heroes; cleaning up the city - stopping rapes, “solving” homelessness, etc.

and having fun while they do it

[sammyspartan]

I wrote a thing for the Fire Emblem Heroes subreddit. Figured I’d post it here too. I think it technically counts as fanfiction but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. If it’s good, it’s good, if not, I’m open to criticism.     

 I rolled over in my bed. It was fairly soft, but not soft enough. Sharena had assured me that it would break in eventually, but one year later, and it still hadn't. I suppose it was better than the one I'd had in my dorm, but then again, anything would be better than a college dorm bed. I sighed.

Five minutes passed. "I'm not going to get back to sleep, am I?" I thought to myself. I'd woken up maybe thirty minutes earlier to a sky that was barely lit. By my best guess it was maybe five in the morning. No, it was wintertime. It must be later then. I rolled over again. My eyes were heavy with stress, but I still didn't feel any rest coming over me.

Eventually I gave up. I slowly pulled myself out of bed, and felt my feet hit the cold stone floor. The castle in which the Order of Heroes was located had a protective enchantment that was meant to keep the building at a nice temperature year-round, but it did so only by regulating a specific climate. It did nothing to actually keep my room especially warm at night. I took a few steps forward and sat myself at my desk. Littered along the wall around it were sketches I’d drawn in my spare time. It passed the slow hours during particularly sleepless mornings and nights. I grabbed some nearby paper and a pencil, which thank God they had in this world, and began to make a rough sketch of a character.

About another half hour had past before I heard a knock on my door. Well, I actually heard a few, but I couldn’t tell what they were at first in my restless state. I got up and meandered toward the door, pulling away the three locks- Alfonse had insisted upon three to keep my safe- and gingerly pulled the door open. Standing there to greet me was Sharena, all dressed and ready for the day.

I blinked, then yawned. “Sharena? What’d you need?”

She gave a small giggle. “What, not even a good morning? That’s rather unlike you Sam!”

I yawned again. “Sorry, I… didn’t get as much sleep as I would’ve liked.”

“Again? Man, you really must need that sleep medicine you had in your world.”

I instinctively averted my gaze upon her mention of my world, but quickly recomposed myself. “Melatonin? I don’t think it’s technically medicine, it’s something that the body makes on its own. It just happens that taking pills of it can help with sleep, if you need it.”

“We should work on getting some of that for you, or at least some potion to help with sleep, or something.” She went on. “Anyway, if you’re feeling tired, let’s get you some coffee!”

“Eh.” I muttered, but followed her anyway.

-------------------------------------------------------------

Sharena wound up leading me to the common room for the leaders of the Order. It was a room I knew well as, despite the fact that there is a dedicated war room, many of our plans were made here anyway, as me and the rest of the Order’s leaders would always be in here anyway.

“I never liked this stuff.” I stated, gulping it down anyway.

“Neither does Commander Anna, but she still drinks it. Coffee is useful.”

“Did somebody brew coffee?” Another voice joined in.

“Hey Alfonse!” Sharena called.

“Good morning Sis. Good morning Sam.”

“Morning, Alfonse.” I replied.

Sharena suddenly slammed her hands on the table. “Sam!”

“Sharena.” I joked.

“I just realized something!”

“What?”

“Fjorm doesn’t know this is your anniversary!”

 I said nothing, just looking down at my coffee sitting on the table.

“We should keep it a surprise!”

Alfonse finally pulled out a chair and sat down at the table with us. “Why would we keep that a secret from Fjorm? It’s not her anniversary, it’s Sam’s.”

“Well yeah, but Sam already knows, we can’t keep it a surprise from her!”

While Sharena and Alfonse went on about the ups and downs of surprising Fjorm, my thoughts turned to other things. To the past year, specifically. Of all the things that went on, all of the battles fought. Hell, even the festivals, and the celebrations. I remembered partying in the summer with the rest of the order, and my surprise when I summoned Frederick and Corrin in swimwear, of all things. I remembered trying on bridal gowns with Sharena. I remembered the performing festival, and when I finally got to meet, and even befriend some of the most legendary heroes of all time, like Ike, or Lyndis, or Sigurd.

I tried to find solace in the good that had happened, but I couldn’t. The more I tried to focus on the good, the more I focused on the bad. Failing to save Zacharias, being unable to reunite the Nohrian siblings with Xander. How I couldn’t get back…

I could feel myself beginning to choke up.

“Sam? Are you doing okay?” Alfonse placed his hand on my own, pulling me back to reality.

“What? Oh, right. Sorry, I was just reflecting.”

“Reflecting, huh? Well, I suppose that’s to be expected at a time like an anniversary.” He commented.

“Were you thinking about all the great times we had? Remember when we tried on those wedding dresses? You looked stunning!” Sharena was obviously trying to cheer me up. “Or how about the summer festivals! When Commander Anna walked in on Alfonse-“

“That’s enough of that!” Alfonse interjected.

I managed a weak laugh. “Yeah, I remember. Thanks Sharena.”

“This is a time to celebrate! We can’t have the special gal all mopey!”

I looked back at my coffee for a second. “You’re right.”

-----------------------------------

Sharena eventually convinced Alfonse to keep the festival surprise from Fjorm, but some other heroes, Eirika and Mia, I believe, had already told her anyway.

There was a party being held in the main dining hall. There was food, and music provided Azura. At one point Olivia and Inigo had put on a spur of the moment dance for everyone, though Inigo had to convince his mother to do so.

I decided to make it a point to try and hold conversation with as many of the Order as I could. I’d recognized that there were some in the order I didn’t really speak to as much as I really should have, so I made it a point to start with them. Both Eldigan and Hawkeye seemed pleasantly surprised to be speaking to me at length for once, and Corrin was happy to have a lengthy conversation for me for the first time in a while.

Of course, I also spoke with some of the Heroes I was closest with too. Nephenee, Ike, Lyon, Elise, all of whom were some of my closest friends within the order. Ike and Nephenee had always known one another, being from the same world, but Lyon and Elise were from two separate worlds altogether. Other than the fact that those four were often used in conjunction by the order, I suspect that they grew close together due to the same sense of duty to their people they shared. At the very least, Lyon and Elise certainly had the same gentle nature.

Eventually however, my coffee wore off, and I found myself on a balcony outside, getting some fresh air, and taking a break from the energetic nature of the Order.

“I take it you needed a break?” I heard a familiar voice call.

“Hey, Fjorm.”

“Lady Samantha.” She greeted, courteously.

“You know I’m not a noble. Just Sam is fine.”

“You, and the rest of the Order, have shown me unimaginable kindness in taking me in. The least I can do is show you proper respect. You may not be of noble birth, or even of this world, but you will always command my respect.”

I smiled. “Thank you.”

She smiled back, and I turned back to look out at the world. The balcony outlooked into a vast mountain range in the horizon, with snowy white capped peaks, and pine trees dotting the landscape. Closer to the castle were snow covered plains, and forests of leaf-less trees.

“It must be odd for you, looking out at this landscape.” Fjorm wondered aloud.

“Why do you say that?” I asked.

“You are not from this world. I had figured you must look out into this world and wonder how you could’ve possibly come to a place like this.

I laughed. “Not at all, actually. If anything, I look at this and it astounds me how much it reminds me of my home.”

“Really?”

“It’s true, I grew up in a world vastly different than this one. My world has technological wonders that people from this world couldn’t possibly imagine, and yet, we also lack magic, or any tangible gods, unlike this world. You have magic, and gods that constantly both commune with you and even take an active role in your histories, and yet your technology would be considered primitive by most people from my world. But…”

“But what?”

“But our worlds aren’t as cookie cutter as that. I come from a place with harsh winters, and hot summers, just like Askr. Our people aren’t so one dimensional and flat. They have all sorts of different pasts, personalities, and motivations, just like the people within the Order, and yet people can still come together to make communities, cities, and nations. Sure, sometimes I look out at this world, and wonder how the hell I’m ever going to get back home. But other times… other times, I look out at this world, and it only reassures me. I will get home someday. I thought you of all people would understand that.”

Fjorm looked out at the horizon for a bit longer, then nodded her head. “Yes, I think I do understand you. You have faith that you will one day return to your friends and family, just as I have faith that I will one day return to my Kingdom. I do have one more question for you, however.”

“What’s that?”

“You have made friends within the Order. When you return home, do you think you’ll ever be able to see them again, if they live in another world?”

I paused for a moment, then turned to face Fjorm. “I could never say for certain. But something in my gut tells me to have faith.”

“Then I shall have faith as well, that once you return home, I will be able to see you as well.” Fjorm gave a small smile at me.

As the sun set over the mountains, and orange began to cover the once white landscapes below, I turned back into the hall.

That night, I sat at my desk, looking at the papers lining the wall once again, the sketches of all the people waiting for me back home. Then, I began to draw a new one. This time, however, I decided to draw someone new. I put my pencil down on the paper, and began to sketch Alfonse and Sharena.

[wbwest]

New Post has been published on WilliamBruceWest.com

New Post has been published on http://www.williambrucewest.com/2017/06/13/toy-biz-hotline-bling-used-call-wall-phone/

Toy Biz Hotline Bling: I Used To Call You On My Wall Phone

If you’ve been to this site before, you were probably brought here for my weekly pop culture news review, West Week Ever, that I post every Friday. It didn’t always used to be like that, though. No, I used to write about anything that popped into my mind, as you’ll see in my archives. Over my time online, however, I’ve found that anything I can do, a lot of other folks can do better. When it comes to the nostalgia game, no one does it better than Matt over at Dinosaur Dracula. So, imagine my surprise when something popped into my head that he hadn’t covered yet! That’s right, kids – today we’re gonna talk about the Toy Biz Hotline.

A few days ago, I saw that a Facebook friend had shared the video for a Knight Rider hotline where you’d call and K.I.T.T. would tell you a story. Considering William Daniels actually respects himself, it was more likely the chance to hear a randomization of pre-recorded dialogue from a K.I.T.T. impersonator. One of the perks of calling the hotline, however, was that you’d receive a free “Wuppie”, which is basically a cotton ball with googly eyes and feet. You’d be surprised how many hotlines used the promise of a Wuppie to lure kids into calling.

If you’re a youngin’, then let me educate ya on something: the 80s were chock full of these hotlines, mainly because we didn’t have the Internet yet and unscrupulous business folks learned how to monetize that thing hanging on your wall in the kitchen. To put it in 2017 terms, 900 numbers were the “in app purchases” of the 1980s. While they were required to tell kids to get their parents’ permission, these hotlines were designed to trick kids into racking up high phone bills – ya know, so they could talk to Santa and get a toy cotton ball.

While we were obsessed with our phones in a different way than we are today, I can assure you that not everything was designed to make a dollar. Before you could tweet your displeasure at a company account, you used to have to call them. That’s right, you had to be indignant and ask an employee, “What’s the number for corporate?!” Remember, you couldn’t Google that shit yet. If they weren’t too busy using that slide thingy to process a credit card transaction, they would take out a Lisa Frank pen and write down a number for you. If you were lucky, that number would connect you to a phone system that MIGHT eventually lead to a real person on the other end. Basically, customer service was handled solely by phone. Some companies, instead of just waiting around for complaints, decided to be proactive with their customer service hotlines. That’s what brings us to Toy Biz.

http://thecomicscode.weebly.com/x-men-toy-biz.html

“But what’s a Toy Biz, Uncle Will?” Well, back in the late 80s/early 90s, all comic book-based action figures briefly came from the same company! I’ll let you catch your breath there for a minute, as I know that’s a crazy notion in today’s competitive world. Not only did Toy Biz land the license for 1989’s Batman (for which they produced an assortment of a whopping THREE figures), but they also handled DC Comics Super Heroes, based on Kenner’s old Super Powers molds. Then, shifting into the 90s, they dropped DC in favor of the Marvel license when Marvel CEO Ike Perlmutter bought the company. We initially got a Marvel Super Heroes series, but their real claim to fame was the 8,000 X-Men figures they would go on to produce. I’ve always said that nobody mines a property quite like Playmates, but Toy Biz was a close second.

This was probably the first toy line to teach me about waves, meaning that the toys were released in batches at a specific time.  Most toys don’t include an “evergreen” line of toys that you can always find on shelves at any time. They used to differentiate the multiple iterations of a character by Roman numeral. So, “Wolverine” eventually gave way to “Wolverine XVII”. For example, if Wolverine II came out in September of 1994, then you’re probably not gonna be able to find him on shelves in October of 1995, because Wolverine III will be out by then. How would you know which figures were supposed to be in stores, without your parents wasting all their gas driving around? That’s where the Toy Biz hotline came in.

  Listed on the cardbacks of all Toy Biz figures was a hotline that you could call that served as Toy Biz’s customer service line: 1-800-634-7539. While I guess you could call them to let them know your Colossus had two left legs, that’s not why people called it. No, the hotline had a prerecorded message where an emotionless male voice rattled off the names of the figures in the latest wave, in many cases mispronouncing them because they couldn’t give two shits about what they were actually saying. So, you’d get them just putting two words together, like “Omega Red”, but you’d also get mistakes like them calling the X-Men villain “Mag-NET-o”, instead of “Mag-NEAT-o”. I can’t speak for other folks, but I didn’t care! My best friend, Brett, and I used to call that number ALL THE TIME. It was the centerpiece of our sleepovers. It was like “So, should we call the number?” as if we were discussing digging out one of our dad’s old Playboy stash.

From what I could gather, it seemed like the message was updated about every 6 months or so. As the Toy Biz catalog increased, the message got longer. There was the X-Force subset, and the Hulk series, the Fantastic Four series, and more. If you wanted to, you could just listen to the dude drone on for a good 30 minutes. I have to admit, though, that once Power Rangers mania hit, I left Toy Biz in the past. So, I missed the evolution of the basic figures into the dynamic, articulated sculpting of the Marvel Legends that soon dominated Toy Biz’s offerings.

The hotline also had an answering machine portion, where you could ask questions about the toys. You were told to leave your name, number, and address, and they would get back to you. To date, I don’t know a single person who ever heard back from them. According to this article, it doesn’t seem like anyone heard back from them.

Since most of Toy Biz’s output was Marvel figures, it made all the sense in the world for them to change the name to Marvel Toys in 2007 – only to give up the Marvel license to Hasbro later that year.

So, we were left with a Marvel toy company that couldn’t make Marvel toys, and the company circled the drain as it cranked out Lord of the Rings and Total Nonstop Action Wrestling figures. The hotline remained a fixture on Marvel Toys packaging through the release of 2007’s Legendary Comic Book Heroes line. By this point, they had established a website, but were still advertising the number as the best way to reach them. In 2008, with no fanfare, the Marvel Toys website was taken down, signaling the end of the hotline and the company itself. Nowadays the number belongs to a DirecTV promotions department.

Despite what the ladies of LiveLinks would have you believe, the age of the interactive hotline is over. The Internet came along with its promises of instant gratification and all the correct AND fake news that you could want. Still, there was something quaint about the “personalized” experience of calling a hotline. Sure, we knew the messages were prerecorded, but that didn’t matter to us. When calling that hotline, we felt like we were getting insider information. We could go back and tell the news to our friends who lacked phone privileges. “Wolverine VII? Yeah, he’s not out yet, but Black Tom Cassidy is. Oh, you don’t know who that is? Well, I can’t help you there.” The Toy Biz hotline: Building fandom snobs before the Internet.

So, am I alone in remembering this? Do any of y’all have fond memories of dialing up this number? Share your memories in the comments!

[kaialone]

I’m gonna ramble about Ganon(dorf) for a bit

Proceed if you’re interested (I wrote a lot)

Okay so I don’t even know how to start this, I’ll just go.

(note that I’ll mention the timeline in this, please dont think that I dont know that the timeline could be changed at any moment should nintendo feel ike it, I just like semi-going by currently established canon. Also please note that I got no problem with people who dont feel like following the timeline for any reason, to each their own.)

I kinda really like the fact that Ganondorf is said to be a reincarnation of Demise, because, idk, somehow the idea of powerful demons needing to reincarnate into human form for some reason, and then once they have this form and live that life they start having human feelings and emotions and start struggling with what they want to be and maybe end up becoming good guys, is just somethign I really enjoy.

(If that sounds weirdly specific, Great Demon King Piccolo from Dragonball is one character with that kinda arc that I love.)

And then of course, one of the most interesting things about Ganondorf, imo, is how in the three different timeline branches, you got one incarnation of Ganondorf who turns out very different in each branch.

Something I always like is to just kinda, look at the different “last words” Ganondorf has in each timeline branch, and what they really mean for each of them:

"The wind... it is... blowing."

“I am the Evil King, Ganon...”

“The history of light and shadow will be written in blood!”

(though this gets a bit muddled in the Downfall Timeline, as technically Ganon died in ALttP, but was revived in OoX,´, which I see as his true death for now, but then again we dunno if any Ganons after that where him revived or reborn so *shrug*)

But first we should talk about the guy that “grows up” to be these other three.

I mean, personally I think no matter how you look at it, OoT!Ganondorf did lots of bad stuff, and wasnt a good ruler to the Gerudo (I dont mind different interpretations at all though), but I do think his initial intentions were good like we hear him talk about in WW, but lets not get ahead of ourselves here.

OoT!Ganondorf doesn’t really end up helping the Gerudo once he actually takes over Hyrule (all the Gerudo are still over in the desert, cept for maybe Iron Knuckles) and its heavily implied all the Gerudo were brainwashed to some extent (The carpenters note that the Gerudo seem nicer, post-Twinrova’s defeat), and Nabooru, who was very respected among the Gerudo, was explicitly against Ganondorf, but then brainwashed into submission.

Like even if you think Twinrova did all that without him knowing, not noticing your parents brainwashing your people doesnt exactly make you a good leader.

Adding to that, if A Link to the Past’s backstory is to be believed (and the timeline is not said to split until Link falls in the final battle) then, Ganondorf entered the hiding place of the Triforce alongside fellow thieves of his, and ended up killing them all so he could have the Triforce for himself.

Buuut before you think I’m just gonna talk about how bad OoT!Ganondorf is, like, I still think he genuinely wanted to help his people (at first) and that everything WW!Ganondorf says does represent his true feelings, and that at some point, he just really wanted to do something good.

I think its interesting to think about why that presumably changed for a while, wether you think its the usual getting mad with power, getting to close to the “dark side” or whatever with all the dark magic going on, or being groomed into this role by Twinrova, or all of that, or something else entirely.

I mean, he definitely did some bad stuff before that too, but in the context of Ganondorf being a reincarnation of Demise, I wonder if it could be possible that either seeing Link and/or Zelda or laying eyes on the Triforce ended up having some effect on him, like awakening some part of Demise within him so to speak, contributing to him losing sight of his initial goals and getting more about power in general.

Notably post timeskip Ganondorf seems to use a lot more monsters/dmemons to do his bidding than before, but this could easily just be the difficulty spike for the player.

Idk if this sounds cheap to people somehow, but I remember a popular theory being that the Triforce of Power turned him evil so, its not that different imo.

Of course, in the final battle we see OoT!Ganondorf become Ganon, presumably for the very first time, but honestly? The transformation itself isn’t that important to me, as it just feels like a visual representation of the downfall Ganondorf had undergone already anyway.

And then, when he is defeated, he infamously curses Link, and ZELDA, and THE SAGES, vowing to kill their descendants once he breaks free from the seal and all...

...which leads into who is everyone’s favorite Ganondorf, and rightfully so, WW!Ganondorf.

Before going into the present day of WW, there is its backstory, which is very interesting to me, cause you just gotta think, how do we go from a guy like OoT!Ganon to WW!Ganon?

At some point after OoT but before WW, Ganondorf’s threat became reality, he broke out of the seal and tried taking over Hyrule once more.

But I cant help but wonder how it mustve felt for him. I picture him for years, decades, centuries maybe, sealed away, picturing his revenge, imagining how great it’ll feel to get free and eradicate the descendants of Link and Zelda, and finally making Hyrule his.

But when he was freed, he likely found a Hyrule that was different from how he remembered it. Notably, there would be no hero, nor descendants of his for him to exact revenge upon. And while we know that a princess seems to have had existed at the time, who knows if she was “a Zelda”, if you wanna call them that.

I just imagine it wouldve felt a lot less satisfying that he imagined, heck, probably wouldve felt more like he was robbed if his chance to take revenge.

And who knows what even happened to the Gerudo by that point? I know lack of them in Wind Waker doesnt mean they are extinct, but for all we know they couldve left hyrule altogether? (Like they seem to have done between OoT and TP, and mightve done post OoT in the Downfall timeline, if you dont think they went extinct)

Overall I could see what Ganondorf mightve pictured/wanted to be his most glorious moment, his long awaited return, mightve just ended up feeling kinda empty.

Not that I think he wouldve done a complete 180 already because of that, but I could see it leaving him in a bit of a shock.

Adding to that, now just as he is about to conquer Hyrule for real, the gods decide to destroy it, essentially. Or at least, thats how Ganondorf felt about the situation, given how he speaks of it in the game. Its like the gods are playing with him, everytime Hyrule is just within his graps, they take it from him.

The flood mustve felt especially terrible for him, cause the way he saw it, it mustve been something like the goddesses saying “we’d rather just end hyrule and kill all its people than have you be its ruler”. What a slap in the face, to put it lightly.

After that, getting sealed away again, and all the stuff I mentioned above, probably gave him time and opportunity to reflect upon his life so far, and the future too.

I dont think that in WW, Ganondorf was just “going through the motions”, and just trying to finish what he started because he had no choice at this point. I do think he still genuinely wanted to try and conquer Hyrule, its just that he has had some time to think about it, a bit more about why he wanted it, and about what he did wrong before, and regretting those mistakes.

Like for example, he really doesnt seem like he wants to harm Link and Zelda anymore, if he can help it. He could be hating them, still furious for what happened during OoT, but he doesnt seem to be.

One of these days I wanna talk about all the contrasts and parallels WW seems to draw to Zelda games that came before it, especially OoT, but for this bit I just wanna mention this one thing.

How in OoT you confront Ganondorf, who smugly plays his leitmotif on the organ, the sound of which growing louder the further you approach his chamber. His back pointed at the entrance which he knows the hero will emerge from. Zelda, encase in a crytal, hangs above him like a trophy, like the hero bait she is to him at this point.

And then in WW, his leitmotif plays in his final dungeon, but actually grow more quiet the closer you get to him. That already makes you feel like, while it invokes OoTs atmoosphere, it actually turns it on its head. And then, when you do cofront him, “Zelda” is instead peacefully sleeping in a bed, (presumably Ganondorfs bed?) with him calmly sitting by her side, watching over her. He doesn’t face Link directly as he enters, but isnt completely turned away from his either.

Of course this scene still has some creepy atmosphere to it, especially when he starts reading her mind, but maaaan, the contrast to OoT (and games that came before it) just GETS ME everytime I just think about it.

Ahhh, I could go on and on like, you all know this stuff, you all thought about him in this game so much, didnt you?

I really hope nintendo will choose to give another Ganondorf this kinda depth, and maybe even just play with the idea of Ganondorf taking on a different role than “final boss” in a Zelda title. I would love that.

Now, let’s turn the clock wayyy back to when Ganon fought Link, and talk about the timeline that occurs when Link is actually killed by him.

To me, this is kinda of the “original” timeline, for various reasons, but I don’t wanna distract from our main man here too long.

In this version of the events, Ganon manages to actually aquire the full Triforce in the final battle of OoT, and causes quite a bit of misery before the Sages finally manage to seal him away in this version, too. But because he is so powerful with the Triforce and all that, it ends up costing a lot more lives to finally get to that point.

Now from that point on, this Ganon seems to just kinda rule the Dark World, a twisted “evil” version of Hyrule of his own creation. And of course most notably, either because of this worlds properties, or his general state of being, this Ganon seemingly always stays in beast form from that point on.

Sadly this one doesnt talk too much (though he is very much capable of doing so), so we dont get much of a grasp on his character.

To me, ALttP!Ganon feels like somewhere in the middle when it comes to Ganons. Despite his bestial appearance, he doesnt seem as blind with power and rage as TP!Ganondorf, maybe cause he doesnt call himself a god or something. But he of course is nowhere near WW!Ganondorf in terms of reasons and having reflecting upon his past.

Either way, it is clear that he is not happy with just ruling his very own personal Hyrule, filled with damned people that have become monsters like him, as in ALttP he does attempt to break his seal and go back to the World of Light

This might just be out of greed, but you could also imagine he might simply be unhappy in this demonic world, or even scared? Given how we see that some inhabitants of this land lose their humanity to such an extent that they’re turning into things like trees, maybe even completely losing their sense of self?

One of the more curious things about ALttP!Ganon is his relationship to Agahnim. No one is entirely sure what they are to one another.

In some of the mangas, Agahnim is portrayed as a human who gets possessed or turned by Ganon in some shape or form, and this portrayal is popular from what I’ve seen.

But in the actual game, Agahnim is described as being Ganon’s alter-ego. The term used in the japanese version is “bunshin”, which can mean a lot of things, including alter-ego or even reincarnation, but in the context of the Zelda franchise, there is another part in the series where it is used. In Phantom Hourglass, Oshus is described as being the “bunshin” of the Ocean King. So, if we assume Agahnim works the same way, his consiusness would have to be exactly Ganon’s, right? Of course that doesn’t mean other interpretations can’t exist, I myself am not even sure what to think.

The usage of the word bunshin does imply that to some extent, Agahnim literally was a part, or offshot of Ganon. So froma  certain point of view, we could add his character to Ganons, if we wanted to.

Something that intrigues me though is that in the Downfall Timeline, we never see Ganon in human form again. Could this be related to Agahnim? Maybe not exactly literally but symbolIcally?

Did Ganon split the humanity he had left off of himself, because that was the only part of him that could exit the Dark World before the seal was lifted?

If so, did Agahnim dying have any effect on him? Or did whatever Agahnim was in the end just return to him?

So much to think about here, ahh.

Of cours, ALttP!Ganon then gets killed by Link in their battle. Not sealed away, just flat out killed.

Normally this would probably be the end, but of course OoX happened, in which Twinrova tried to revive him, but didnt quite succeed.

Ganon is revived as a seemingly mindless beast, only actualy talking in his final moments, which is the quote from earlier.

In the japanese version, this quote is written entirely in katakana, which can indicate that its pronounced weirdly somehow, in cases like this likely because he had a hard time forming the words at all.

He also refers to himself as a Demon King in japanese, but that term hadn’t caught on in the english versions of the games yet.

Okay so, as I kinda mentioned above, this Ganon’s story gets a bit muddled from this point on.

Sometime after ALttP, but before ALbW, ALbW’s backstory (which is not ALttP) occurs, during which a hero fights a Ganon, who is then sealed away by him, the princess and the sages, but we dont know if this Ganon is the same, just revived again, or an entirely new incarnation.

But you could argue that it hardly matters, cause he barely does anything in the game, essentially acting as a power boost for Yuga...

However, there is a theory that he might do more than that actually.

So, according to this theory, Yuga actually was completely loyal to Hilda, and its only by fusing with Ganon that he starts wanting to betray, due to Ganons influence. The theory is nice in the sense that it makes Yuga more of an opposite of Ganon than he seems if you take the game at face value, and gives Ganon more to do. Depending on your interpretation, Yuga might just be influenced by Ganon, or they literally fuse into a being that is just as much Ganon as it is Yuga.

But of course that is just a minor theory, and you dont have to like it, naturally.

After that we get HF and AoL!Ganon, who is said to be more of a mindless beast as this point, no trace left of the human he used to be.

A rather sad fate.

Again it is unclear if this is the same Ganon, revived yet again, or maybe (anotehr) reincarnation.

But if its the former, you can only assume that, even if you dont think Agahnim dying had any effect on Ganon, just forcing him to ressurect over and over instead of letting him reincarnate properly, must’ve done quite the number on Ganon.

Somehow thinking about this version of Ganon in particular makes me think about the cursed boars in Princess Mononoke, who where lost to their anger. Especially the moment when the Wolf faces the Old Boar, who we have seen slowly lose his self at this point, and she almost pitifully says “Can’t you even speak anymore?” to him.

It almost feels like Downfall Timeline!Ganon is cursed by fate, in a sense. Not really in-universe either, but out of universe too!

History is already written (the first two games are already out) and thus Ganon has to follow the path that is already set for him, become what he will be in the future (what he is in the first two games), a frightening monster that terrorizes this kingdom of Hyrule for the sake of power, with no humanity in him (him having been human wasnt part of his character at the time the first two games where released)

I wonder if the demons failing to get Links blood in 2 will mark the end of this Ganon? (I hope not)

It was kinda nice to see BotW seemingly do somewhat of a modern take on this kinda idea of Ganon, something that has become little more than destruction of Hyrule in pyhsical form. I could see people place BotW as post- AoL for that reason, even.

And well, rolling back time yet again, we go to the last way OoT!Ganondorf turned out, which is TP!Ganondorf...

....who, compared to the others, actually has a bit more of a complicated “set-up” that kickstarts his character.

When Link gets send back in time at the end of OoT, his Tiforce of Courage breaks apart into the pieces we find in WW, presumably because Link was literally removed from that reality as he possessed it?

Then upon his arrival in the new Child Timeline, Link immediately gets the Triforce of Courage of THAT timeline, presumably cause he is in a state of being where he is meant to have a Triforce Piece of Courage?

Well, regardless of what you believe to be the cause, this is what happens, and as a result, the other two Triforce pieces choose Zelda and Ganondorf to bear them and end up residing in them. Thats how the pieces ended up with the three without the Sacred Realm being entered in this version of the events.

Link ends up warning Zelda and the king of the events that will transpire in the future, and thus Ganondorf loses the trust of the king and is unable to set his plan from OoT into motion.

Its a bit vague, but sometime after that Ganondorf starts a direct attack towards Hyrule, but gets captured and put on trial.

And as you know, as he was about to be executed, the Triforce of Power activated and saved him from death.

Now I am not sure if this is true, but I think up until that point, Ganondorf didn’t even know he had it.

But wether he discovered he had it now, or the moment it fist came to him, one thing I am sure of, he mustve felt so great for it. Cause he has no idea that a time travelling Link caused this to happen, right? From his perspective, the power of the gods just came to him like that because he is that great! And then, he cant even die as a result of this? He is literally immortal? Well, he must be the dang chosen one, right?

No wonder he got all god complex in this one!

Something I´m kinda interested in is how this guy spend years, likely centuries, in the Twillight Realm, and if his form in there is any indication, not exactly in physical form either, I mean isnt it implied he HAD to mae use of Zant like that in order to be able to have a physical form like that?

Ultimately TP!Ganondorf just is a lot like OoT!Ganondorf if you think about it, just kinda taken to a more extreme. He is no longer just human, but has transcended humanity much further than OoT!Ganondorf has, and feels superior to everyone because of it.

He is absolute in his own eyes, he is a god, his eventual victory is certain, his battle with the hero just a formality at this point.

And he sticks to that mindset until the very end, even as he is stabbed and fatally wounded by Link. It only makes sense, he couldnt be stopped by this before, why would it stop him now?

Of course the events that follow are rather vague, and people argue about what it means to this day, but I think it ultimately boils down to Ganondorf biting of more than he can chew, overestimating his own power. Or rather, what he thinks is his own power, cause its not even his.

From the moment he was impaled by the sword of the sage, Ganondorf has been a dead man.

He has only been kept alive afterwards through the power of others, the gods, and Zant as well.

This power was not his, and thus it could just leave him just as quick as it came to him.

The imagine of Zant snapping his neck, to me, either just refers to the fact that with Zant dead, who acted as Ganondorf anchor of sorts, Ganondorf himself dies as well, or it refers to the fact that Ganondorf, who saw himself as a god and superior to everything, was ultimately just as much of a mortal and simple being than the very person who worshipped him as a deity the most.

Yes, you could call Zant the very person that made Ganondorf a god in the first place, in more ways than one, so without him, Ganondorf is a god no more. And he dies just like any mortal would.

Ultimately this Ganondorf story feels like a story of hubris.

Simple, but neat.

(Its interesting like, its almost like, TP!Ganondorf was a human who longed to be a god, and WW!Ganondorf was like a god who longed to be human?)

But, do not think it ends here...

We’ve looked at all the people that OoT!Ganondorf grew up to be, but that isn’t all the Ganons there is, the story of Ganon actually continues further down the Child Timeline.

Yes, this brings us to FSA!Ganon, or as I sometimes like to call him, Ganon II.

I understand that most probably never played this game, and I probably won’t blow your minds if I tell you Ganon doesn’t actually do much in this game but, I still like to think about him.

He’s actually a proper reincarnation of TP!Ganondorf, folowing the latter’s death at the end of TP.

From some dialouge in-game we know a little bit about his past. Like his past life, he was a boy born to the Gerudo people, and was named Ganondorf.

Interestingly, in this game, the Gerdudo dont actually say that every 100 years a male child is born, they that every 100 years a “special” child is born, and of course Ganondorf was that special child. They still mention the “only man” part, but it doesnt come up with the “every 100 years” line.

Notably it also doesnt seem that Ganondorf was supposed to be their king, and it doesnt seem like they ever treated him like a king, they only mention he was supposed to be the protector of the Gerudo people and the desert.

This is just speculation, but perhaps, after what happened to the first Ganondorf, the Gerudo people decided it wasnt a good idea to treat the sole male like a king just because.

The Gerudo in the game tell you that the older Ganndorf became, the more twisted and obsessed with power he became, and eventually he started breaking their laws, too.

When he entered the forbidden pyramid, the Gerudo basically considered him banished from their tribe, but also didnt think he would ever survive in there and presumed him to be dead.

The Gerudo in this game really only talk badly about Ganondorf, which probably makes sense if he really just did bad stuff to them, but its a very stark contrast to OoT where the Gerudo seemed to just let Ganondorf get away with everything, kinda.

Something I wonder about if maybe like, Ganondorf wasn’t exactly treated well by the Gerudo, out of fear of him turning out like the old Ganondorf, or if Ganondorf just turned bad all on his own. Or maybe a mixture of both?

What is sorta interesting is the story of how this one came to be Ganon, which is that within the pyramid, he found a certain Trident, which is implied to have caused him to “awake as Ganon”, so to speak, as he picked it up. This is the inscription found with the Trident:

“Seek...you...the world? Seek you...power? Does your...soul...despise peace and...thirst for... more? Does your soul...cry... for...destruction and... conquest? We...grant you...power to ...ruin...the world. The power of...darkness. Evil...spirit of magic trident. You are...the... King of Darkness.“

The trident feels like it has more out of universe meaning than in-universe (though I do headcanon it to be a reincarnated ghirahim somehow, because I can). The trident being a weapon that franchise-wise is heavily associated with Ganon, and notably Ganon only, as Ganondorf is never really seen wielding a literal trident.

This Ganondorf picks up the trident, and with it the legacy of the interpretations of Ganons that came in the games before this one, so to speak.

I´m sorry for this part being so unstructured, but interestingly, Ganondorf is this game is referred to as “ancient demon reborn”, or something like “instrument of evil reborn” in japanese, hinting that even at the time of the game’s release, this Ganon was probably intended to be the reincarnation of a previous evil, likely a previous Ganon, of course.

What I wonder about is how much this Ganon is aware of that, though. When he grew up, becoming more and more twisted, did he know? Did he know he was the reincarnation of a villain that had previously plagued Hyrule? Did he feel his hatred? Did he know whose it was, or did he consider it his own? Or was it simply his own?

And when he picked up the trident, and transformed into a demon beast, did he understand what this meant? What he was? Did he ever obtain any memories of his past self, even?

Something that hints that this /might/ be the case is Shadow Link.

Now Shadow Link is not actually created by the dark mirror from the evil part of Link’s heart as the english localization suggest. Instead its created from the evil part of Ganon’s heart, using the dark mirror. It is said that through the mirror,the hatred and evil of Ganondorf, throughout time, took on the shape of Link. Likely because the hero is a major subject of Ganondorf’s hatred.

The fact that this happened when FSA!Ganon used the mirror, despite himself never having met Link up until that point, hints that he might, at least subconsiously, harbor the memories of his past incarnations?

But really, as usual there is a lot open to interpretation.

I´m just so intrigued, like in this timeline there is a “second Ganon”, a Ganon that came “after”, someone who had to take on this cruel legacy.

And, with that we have now talked about all the Ganon(dorf)s that have existed in the franchise to this day, not counting stuff like BS Zelda and the CDI-Games.

If you stuck around until this point, thank you so much, you’re too kind!

But also thanks to everyone that just skimmed this or looked it over briefly, I hope this wall of text did something for you. 

(Sorry for any typos I... type too fast when I get excited about a topic.)