#like there are things it does pretty well like the castle design is really cool

[alyona11]

Ok but can someone explain to me why Hogwarts Legacy is such a frustrating game to play?

[your-ne1ghbor]

Now Introducing...

the one

the only

QUEEN AGATHA

(OR AMAYA BASICALLY)

(ALSO THANK YOU @signed-sapphire @sewerpalette @pennysucks FOR YOUR THOUGHTS ON THE DESIGN. IT WAS A MASSIVE HELP AND JUST THANK YOU IN GENERAL. IDK HOW TO THANK YOU GUYS BUT I'M FOREVER AND EVER GRATEFUL TYTYTYYTYTY)

ok...

Lets talk about her now shall we?? 😘

(FW: MINOR GORE)

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Before we begin, Agatha is by no account, Amaya's replacement. Now here is the thing. Amaya is really cool...in drafts. But in cannon, Amaya is nothing more than a plot device to get the teens in the castle and only exists to be Magnifico's replacement in the cannon film once the whole kingdom goes down so Asha doesn't take up the reins of being Queen. Not only that she didn't have a lot of personality or any character in the film. In all honesty, although she is inspired from the drafts of Amaya, her character conflict is very much different and not on par with the drafts. She also has more to her backstory that was not seen in the original drafts or even thought of. I just wanted to get that out of the way before I go in depth to her character. But lets get to the outfit, cause I think it was a pretty interesting thought processes ;)

Plus have you seen the jokes about Amaya or why I barely talk about her?? ITS BECAUSE SHE IS NOTHING. ZERO. EGG SHAPED. Why should I care about her when I barely know anything about her like bro, giving her a moral delehmia of staying with Magnifico or joining the resistance would have been so much more interesting and gives more substance. Probably why I dont like Amaya at all. She lacks substance.

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Agatha has Greek/European inspirations to her design! I had a ton of problems when getting the design together, merely the fact that I didn't like the outfit given in film or didn't find any that really fit her for what I was going for. Even though I didn't know what I was going for, I just didn't like that style given in the films, or hell, even in the drafts (the dull colors didn't even help since there was so much vibrancy in medeivel times)

Thats when I had the most randomest idea and just said: "Fuck it" and then I decided to combind Greek and European outfits into one.

My inspirations were from these images I found on google and pinterest:

So this is how the dress works or merely my thought process on how it came out this way!

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Numro Uno

As ideas was setting into place, I noticed a trend among both sets of the outfits. I'm mainly refuring to the top shape to the outfit.

When taking a look at the European Outfits, that have what I would say, a more triangle shape, which the same can be applied to Amaya's outfit as well.

Meant to put curves down, but you get the point.

For Greek outfits, there was more of a square shape doing on at the top of the outfits.

Not only that, but the Greek clothing does not have the dress open up unlike some European outfits I saw. (not all of the European outfits I saw opened up near the bottom of the dress, only most of them did)

Either way, what I am trying to say is:

Greek Outfits = Square

European Outfits = Triangle

So when combinding them, I simply thougt of it being like this

Top: Square Shaped

Bottom: Triangle Shaped

ofc this is the final design...

What you guys want was my drafts!

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In my sketches, at first since I didn't like how outfit wise, dresses didn't seem too work, so I wondered what she would look like if she wore pants 🤯

(You will notice that I kept the transparent cloak the entire time)

Although she looked BADASS (fucking hot oml) it felt more like smth she would wear during travels. That's the main ick, it just worked for something else, but not for what I am going for. However, Agatha does wear pants, but mainly when she is getting materials for her potions that are acessed outside the kingdom. And yes, I even thought about giving her a tail coat, but it wouldn't work for the time frame 💀💀💀

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For these 2, I started playing with the top to get ideas and see if I wanted the transparent cloak at all (I did ofc she looks so badass (hot) in it)

I also drew her comforting Asha! (Which I will talk about her in the backstory section since I had to change it)

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Hmmm this one does seem familiar now does it 🤨🤨

For this one in particular, although this was one I chose as a main base for the final draft, her top was more triangle shaped than square, which is what I was going for in the final design.

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Thats when I started worrying about mobility. How much room would that dress have when she is moving quickly?

This one was to see what it would look like if she had more mobility in her outfit. Although she would...it didn't sit right with me. It just felt off. It could be the more triangle top I went for in this one, it just didn't work and didn't look good.

The one in the corner was me playing with "WHAT if Asha inspired outfit" lmao.

Nah didn't work.

So between those 3, a friend from my ASL 2 class saw my drawings, and I asked for his opinions on it. He said to go with the one I chose for the base. Although I don't necessarily remember much of what he said, he explained why this one was more appealing soooo thanks Z. 🔥🔥

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This one was more of ofc using the drafts, but if she had sleeves. I intentionally removed them because it clashed with the cloak and didn't look good or work with what I was going for.

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Now let's talk about color pallet! (Ik I'm going so much in depth than what I did for Asha, but imma be honest the whole process in on my tumblr. The amount of times I changed that girl's outfit is unfathomable 😭😭😭😭)

I'll be short, but the frills on her dress (the gold part) is supposed to signify a yellow rose. Cause...ROSE-AS ROSAS 😜😜😜

I did see if blue worked for the outfit, but for the warm toned color pallet I did for her, it really clashed. Soooooo GOLD FOR THE WIN BABYYYY

She also wears this gold leafy crown and it was between green and gold, and I'm still stuck between that, but this was the crown ykyk

Yes it is a Greek one, I just REFUSE to give her a ugly ass crown like I did for Maggy. (IM SO SORRY MAGGY I SWEAR ILL MAKE YOU A BETTER ONE)

Ahem....

Can we talk about her face?

Yes?

HELL YEAH.

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(TW MINOR GORE)

So there is a stark difference between her past self and her current self when it comes to certain features.

For example, in her past, or "I am not at the brink of insanity" saga, her hair is braided, telling us she is in a good mental state at that point of time before her eye was scratched out (a dagger like cut through her face through her eye, literally popping it 💀). In the one I show you above in the "My eye is missing" stage, is what she would look like in her "Im not at the brink of insanity" saga minus the overlapping hair strands and the obvious missing eye. Also in that image, she has ash stuck in her hair from...THE INCIDENT (cough cough).

In her current self, her hair is obviously not braided actually showing us her current mental state. She is literally a huge mess, and her trauma has a huge effect on her mental health. She literally is not doing to well...until she met Asha (I'LL GET TO THAT I SWEAR). Agatha also has a white streak in her hair from a experiment gone wrong type of scenerio, where the potion she was brewing exploded something and landed on her forehead, hense the burn mark underneath the hair. Which is what gives it's unnatural hair color.

I was going for a beserk evil scientist vibe with her design, because she does go a bit crazy later in the story obv

Some other features I added was just adding a overall added sharpness to her, to actually resemble something like thorns in a way and to she perhaps she was EVILHSJkDLMNJHK 😜

The only features I sorta kept was her overall color pallet from Amaya for her hair, skin, eyes and her mole below her eye cause I thought it looked really cute.

And lastly, he is the character sheet for Agatha <3

Now that is out of the way, I'll get into the backstory portion...kinda...

I still wanna save some things for her for the story, but here are some notes/things you SHOULD ABSOUTLY KNOW about her

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NUMERO DOS

Agatha is the oldest sibling out of her 3 siblings. Her sister is really a few years younger than her and is in her young adult/late teens age wise. Her younger brother is in her pre-teens.

Her parents cut her off from all forms of contact after...yk...so she knows things about abandoment and how she felt, especially at the worse time in her life.

She and Magnus did NOT kill Asha's parents. IN FACT, they were very close friends, and met during their travels with Magnus! (I am firmly debating if Magnus ever founded a kingdom or he is royalty but I am not entirely sure yet but it would fix some weird things I found in the story)

She is a more organized person than her husband lol

Potion making is what she excels at ( one of the potions she made can blast lightning (inspired from hogwarts legacy))

She deeply cares for both Asha and Magnus with all her heart <3

Thats really it. I am ofc holding things close to my chest for backstory reasons and for story reasons since we will learn more about her from that point.

This is the part where for what I need to talk about, which is the Hamlet.

The Hamlet idea is so cool, I will admit it, but for how the story is progressing or my thought process of it, it creates plot holes. Not small ones, but GAINT plot holes.

I noticed this back when I was writing out the Magnifico Angst, which was why I put a hold on it to think about it. This was also when I was also concidering the duration of time taking place in my AU (which I am still having trouble with). I think past me did a pretty good job of explaining the way I felt about the Hamlet overall in my AU (this is from my 20+ drafts help):

It boils down to my dilemma with Asha's character right now. It's when she meets Maggy and Amaya and going off topic to talk about Asha too, is how she can become a better person after learning everything she knew is a lie.

Plus noticing some other plot holes like "how does maggy know dark magic kills stars?" Cause if he knows that dark magic kills stars, that would mean he had done it before so it is like 🤨

And it is very important to when Amaya takes in Asha. If Asha was one of the citizens that was there when the kingdom was destroyed, that is just...tragic overall and breaks some things 😭

I'll explain. If Asha saw everything that happened to Mag or basically was there to witness said event, she would have seen her parents basically evaporate into thin air as they shielded her. It makes some good trauma, and it does justify her reasons for not liking stars, I just don't like how it would play out in the story personally. It's good, but wouldn't it ruin the relationship between Star and Asha? PLUS, why would she wish on a star for things to change...oh wait that would make for a really good villain au fuck-

ANYWAYS, if it isn't...well then why was the hamlet there? I mean I could say that after decades of the kingdom going to shit, the citizens fled to the forest to hide in, but that brings up: why did Mag and Amaya destroy it in the first place? I entirely know why Amaya took in Asha, (it breaks me everytime help) but the whole hamlet thing in my au just kinda breaks. It also begs the question: why didn't they do anything to change what is going on in the kingdom, how did maggy and Amaya find out about it? And if they murdered some people, why not Asha (even though i know why Amaya took her in, doesnt it sound hypocritical? Like why spare her? Maybe they spared the children...idk) And going back to why Mag and Amaya destroyed the hamlet, if they did, it would be because they dont want any heretics, or a revolt. But if it is a revolt, it slids into why didnt they do anything to change...UNTIL THAT TIME IT TAKES PLACE?? And just the overall why of it all. And how it impacts Asha overall. I mean sure, she might remember some parts of her early childhood being in the hamlet, but she was six. She might not even remember all of it. So wouldn't ruin the pacing? Plus her character doesnt really resolve around the hamlet much if I'll be honest. I mean yeah, that can change ofc, and if it ends up her having to remember stuff from there, would it be significant to the overall plot??? For her character? (Idk her age, but) if she ends up being 18 in my au (its going from 18-19 rn lol), she has basically been living at the castle for 12 years 💀. Why would she want to remember things she wouldn't want to remember?? I guess maybe for wanting to learn the truth 💀💀

Lots of why's lmao.

Which is why I have to remove it. For pacing reasons, character reasons, and story reasons.

Agatha took Asha in for reasons. Not stating it here since I would like to make a animatic for that...but...man... :(

Kinda hurts for Agatha and Magnus since they KNOW HER PARENTS.

Massive womp womp

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CONCLUDING THOUGHTS

Yikes sorry for making you read through that, I also felt like I was on the brink of insanity just talking about her.

But yeah what do you guys think about Agatha? Personally, she is my pookie wookie

Im finally going to draw her more since honestly I dont draw Amaya a lot, but with Agatha

hell yeah

@oh-shtars @rascalentertainments @spectator-zee @annymation @tumblingdownthefoxden @chillwildwave

[ambrosiagourmet]

Has anyone requested Marcille for the ask meme? If not then pls

Marcille!!!!!!!!!

First impression

Gay? Interesting elf girl with a really good design for a female character oh my god thank you. She gets to wear pants!!! It's a miracle!

Impression now

BELOVED HALF-ELF OF MY HEART... most determined member of the party, maybe second only to Laios. Not that it's a competition.

Girl who carries the weight of her existence in her heart everywhere she goes. Girl who doesn't know how to just exist because that would mean surrendering to the things time will take away from her. Girl with bloody knuckles who clings too tightly to the things she loves because she remembers a time when she didn't realize what they meant to her.

Girl who must shape a life too big to hold all at once. Who stares into that impossible task so unflinchingly that you kind of want to tell her to run away from it for a bit. Be a bit more of a coward, Marcille! But she doesn't have time to be a coward!! She's hurtling towards her goals at terminal velocity. But the same love that keeps her tumbling forward also pulls her back from the brink. Because she's still figuring out the balance.

Favorite moment

Rabbit chapter... my god rabbit chapter.........

Genuinely maybe my favorite chapter in the whole manga. It hits such an incredible peak of humor and raw emotion and impossibly ridiculous situations and grounded believable character writing. And no part of it is separate from the others.

What a fucking chapter. And what a fucking thesis for why Marcille is such a good character. Her being ridiculous and her being incredibly determined and her being powerful and her being scared are ALL part of her. Man. Marcille. She will do anything to pull through for her friends.

And then on top of it the way the Lion takes advantage of this moment to pull her strings. Which is just. So horrifying to watch because you want someone to give her a hug but all the people who would give her a hug are currently DEAD and she's left in a room along and exhausted with a manipulative, abusive, hungry opportunist. God. God. I love Rabbit Part II So Very Much.

Idea for a story

Umm hi sorry I am still busy thinking about Rabbit Part II. Please enjoy some shameless self promotion while I go lie down for a bit.

Unpopular opinion

She's bisexual!!!!! Normally I don't hold so fast to like "well canonically this character was into A Man so she can't be a lesbian blah blah blah" but it does bum me out that people ignore her succubus because I really do think that bi Marcille deserves more love. It doesn't make her any less into women sheesh.

Favorite relationship

Sorry I was thinking about Rabbit Part II again what was the question? Favorite relationship?

Yeah I dunno maybe Marcille and Laios? I kinda like the part where they rely on each other because there is no other way through and share an unnamed intimacy born in blood and bone and the way that they place impossible burdens on each other and owe each other their lives many times over and neither holds it against the other or asks for the repayment of debts that can never be repaid, choosing instead to keep walking into the future by each others sides because what else can you do. What else can you do.

They are pretty cool I guess. I'm normal about them though. Haha.

Favorite headcanon

I imagine that castle staff help Marcille with her hair on a day-to-day basis because leaving it just to personal friends and family would probably be impractical. But also I think Chilchuck, Laios, Falin, and also especially KABRU all learn enough to help her with it. I think that the first three learn some basic nice stuff but I think Kabru would get really into it.

That man could absolutely intensely hyperfixate on something like "nice hairstyles from another culture" for three to six months and come out the other side an expert.

[nica-my-beloved]

Gilbert von Obsidian, the main reason why I started playing Ikemen Prince. The main reason I started playing Ikemen games at all. Your route was so much fun, I can't explain.

Gilbert's route is not a route. It's basically a chessboard that we watch Gilbert play from both sides. Yes, it's a one-sided chess game and it's fun to watch. Really fun to watch! I was getting so hooked-up with the story and ended up falling in love with it.

👇👇👇Spoilers 👇👇👇

I think the fun part of Gilbert's route is uncovering his secrets slowly. For example, What is he hiding? Why did he change into....a beast? How does he know so much about Emma? What is his main goal here? All these questions get's answered in a well-crafted way in his story.

Gilbert is one of those characters who on the outside has all the characteristics as a villain but in reality he's a pure-hearted man who sacrificing everything for the better future of his country. Everyone just judges Gilbert based on rumors and what the previous Emperor of Obsidian did (I'm talking about the Bloodstained Rose Day). They all call him names like the 'Conqueror of Beasts' and 'Worldwide disaster' just because he's from Obsidian, a country known for corruption. But once you actually find out Gilbert's ambitions and what he's doing for his country, I just think he's a pretty cool guy. He's an anti-villain disguised as a villain.

His ambition to make sure everyone is being treated equally whether its royalty or a commoner and everyone should be punished for the crimes that they have committed and no one could gain favorable advantages because of their status, is truly remarkable. On top of that, he's not all fighting and conquering every nations he sees. He also works hard to make sure his country is doing better for his people. I'm talking about their food supply and technology upgrades. It does hurts me that Gilbert is only known as a 'Worldwide disaster' around the other nations especially in Rhodolite, instead of getting praised for developing his country and helping his people. People really like to look at only the bad side of a person, don't you think?

Gilbert also in his own way is trying to eradicate as much corruption and decay from his country. Starting with killing his own father, the Emperor because if the Emperor ain't doing anything for his people, he should either step down as an Emperor and let someone else more competent take the throne or just die. Neither happened, so Gilbert killed him to eliminate that threat. Then his killed of any corrupted nobles and that's why Obsidian is called the Country of Soldiers, because everyone inside the palace is a soldier (Including the maids, I guess)

Also, maybe it's only me, but I prefer the design of the Obsidian palace over the Rhodolite one. The Rhodolite palace is prettier-looking, covered with roses from head to toe every where both inside and outside. The Obsidian palace on the outside looks like a Haunted Castle that might eat you up, but in the inside, the ambience suites me perfectly. I don't really like too much light pouring inside my room.

Another thing I like about Obsidian palace is how Gilbert made sure everyone inside the palace who works for him is talented in their field of job. He recognizes talent over any kind of nepotism or status. Although Gilbert's ambition is to make sure that all people are to be treated equally, he's still feared by many ministers in the parliament. I think that's a good thing because it's good to be feared and having people do what you're asking for instead of letting them trample over you. Gilbert used to be like Emma, where he loved everyone and was kind to everyone. But since humans are the worst kinds of beasts, they will surely trample on kindness of people like Emma or former Gilbert. I'm not saying being kind is foolish but one should never let anyone trample over them for any reason. For example, we see Emma getting wrongfully bullied by some nobles just because she hangs out with Gilbert. Emma, for being a commoner gets bullied and other nobles or princes who talks with Gilbert, never. What frustrates me even more is that Emma just never stand up to her bullies and always let them have their way. I don't see any of the Rhodolite princes help her (except for one time when Yves caught that one noblewoman). When Gilbert clearly asks her, she calls him a beast and doesn't tell him. Honestly, I felt like Gilbert was the only one protecting her at that point, Emma was just being clouded by rumors about Gilbert where he's treated as the Voldemort of this world. He who-should-not-be-named!

I'm happy that later she does realize that she shouldn't be blinded by these rumors and must look at Gilbert objectively. Looking him as a human rather than a beast, but it's good thing that she admits her mistake. For her, she was like "I can fix him. I will bring him to my world which is filled with kindness and warmth and I can fix him and turn him into a human." and what does Gilbert do? He enters her world and paints it all black. Great job👍

Speaking of Emma, I love that Gilbert keeps giving her a reality check. Emma's whole ideals about fixing problems by talking things through is not a bad thing, but it's not effective in the current situation because of the tragedy known as the Bloodstained Rose Day. She never knew how much of tragedy that was and it was also partly the Rhodolite Princes' fault too. All this time, she was living in her own dream world like a main character of novel, that she mentions time to time, who never changes herself no matter how much hell she is put through. I think Emma is character who likes to dream a lot and she lives in a fantasy world which is all rainbows and sunshine. Once she is chosen as Belle, everything she thought about 'royalty' and 'nobles' which she read from books proved to be false. She starts learning about the cruel place she lives in, that is the royal palace, how the princes are not just some good-looking rich men but also very smart and strong, how the royalty can get a away with many things because of their status and even how much of piece of shit the previous Rhodolite emperor was. She learns these things and clearly realizes that despite living in Rhodolite for her entire life, she never actually knew everything about her country.

After being send as a hostage in Obsidian, it is only then she gets to see how truly developing Obsidian is, maybe even more than Rhodolite. People are all treating her well. The country wasn't like what she was expecting. To me it looked like she was having much better time in Obsidian than in Rhodolite, because at least there are no childish nobles that bully her just because they can.

Now coming to the meat of the story, Gilbert's illness. I was kinda surprised but also rolled my eyes at first when I heard that Gilbert had some kind of illness and he's going to die soon. I have seen this trope in other movies and dramas and it's usually a last minute thing that the story writers pulls it out of their ass to bait the viewers into keep investing in their characters. I always like to believe that they use these 'I'm dying from cancer' trope when they have no idea left. So when I saw Gilbert coughing blood I was praying so hard that the writers don't disappoint me. But thankfully it was not like that. I really did feel sad when I was reading the ending chapters. I admit that I was crying like a baby because Gilbert is just too sweet that I want to shower him with kisses. Every time. ALL THE TIME!

I think all in all Gilbert's route is really well written that I enjoyed most of it but it's not perfect. The issue is not that concerning, but I really wish they didn't emphasize it too much. I don't like cringy dialogues! Dialogues that make me physically cringy to the point that I roll my eyes. Dialogues like:

"What can I do to make you turn into a human?"

"If you shut down your feelings, you will eventually become a beast like me."

And my least favorite "He's the Conqueror of the Beast, the worldwide disaster...."

Emma just really loves that line to the point that she uses it every time Gilbert does something normal.

Sees Gilbert reading a book.

Emma: *gasps* "The Conqueror of the Beast, the worldwide disaster is reading a book!?!?!?"*shocked 101*

Sees Gilbert eating cookies.

Emma: *gasps* "The Conqueror of the Beast, the worldwide disaster eats cookies and not children!?!?!?"*shocked 102*

Yeah, and it's not just Emma, but some of the princes' and ministers except for Chevalier and Luke, who treats him like a normal human being. Maybe they have a past together. Probably the other other kid at the start of chapter 1 is Chevalier. They must be childhood friends. Luke and Gilbert also seems to know each other well, Luke was the only person that proudly claimed that Emma is doing very well in Obsidian so it seems like Luke must have been to Obsidian before.

Another thing. See the general rule of story-telling is 'Show than tell'. I want the writers to 'show' me how much of a pure-hearted character Emma is rather than the princes keep 'telling' the audience that Emma is kind and pure-hearted. If Emma is kind-hearted, I want them to show me her kindness in any way possible. For example, when they went to the orphanage, they could've have shown Emma mingling with the kids and helping them with whatever they need or maybe something like Emma doing a research about the Bloodstained Rose Day (actually she does, she goes around asking the princes but no one told her that the princes' were also at fault) learning both sides of the story. Show me things that would make me like her personality even more. Show me instances where she's actually a kind-hearted soul. If you don't show me, all I'm left with is a girl who forces her ideals onto others without thinking how much it's hurting the other person. I don't think Emma is terrible but I wish they could add more scenes for her where she truly gets to show her potential as a kind-hearted Belle.

Gilbert's route is a very neat political drama with a little bit of romance infused into it. Like I mentioned beforehand, the whole story is a chess game and Gilbert is the only one winning.

Both Gilbert and Emma's ideals are different. Gilbert, now, thinks that violence is the only means to get justice and Emma thinks talking is the only means to get justice. I don't think both are wrong. In cases like the Bloodstained Rose Day, the family of the victims needed justice because the royalty was not punished for their actions. That's why the anti-monarchy faction was developed. If Gilbert's ideals are followed, there would be Bloodstained Rose Day 2.0. If we go by Emma's ideals, it would be hard to get them to talk things through because of the gravity of the situation. It would still lead to the Bloodstained Rose Day 2.0. It was a straight up slaughter. It's a very complicated situation.

Anyways, I think Gilbert's route is truly amazing. A perfect 9.5/10. (I'm taking 0.5 points because of the cringy lines. NEVER COME SEE ME AGAIN!!)

[ganondoodle]

as i was awake in the middle of the night for like 2 hours bc i felt sick i had more somewhat random totk thoughts

one being that i really hate how raurus response to concerned zelda is, after sonia died in that almost funny how little impactful it was way, "im sure you are here for a reason" (actually, i hate how often this sentence is used in general to .. idk i guess its supposed to be inspiritational???)

bc what does that mean actually? him saying that to someone who got there absolutely by accident really just sounds like "i dont care go figure it out yourself bc i dont want to think about anything concerning you or your troubles lol" i guess its meant to sound like OOOOH fate has BROUGHT you here bc you have to furfill a role you dont know yet (spoiler its being a sacrifice girl with no personality) and besides me hating the 'inescapable fate' trope in general (at least the way its usually done in these games, which is not to struggle against it but willingly accept whatever you are told and pretend thats good) its really jsut goddamn boring and is really only an excuse to well .. ignore her and her trouble; shouldnt you, if you were actually such a cool guy like the game wants me to believe so bad, do everything in your power to get zelda back to her own world before shes pulled even further into the war you caused now that her only ""mentor"" that could help her get more use of her pretty much useless sudden powers is gone too?? i know shes basically dead wife sonia replacement (can of worms ugh) but it still grinds my gears whenever i think of that cutscene, bc i cant help but hear it as the lamest excuse in existence to not care about her and just kinda .. see what happens which in this case means leave zelda completely on her her own since both rauru and mineru die as well (honestly shouldnt rauru have thought about like .. any plan to defeat gan besides dying himself, given hes the oh so cool and goodest guy king whos only mistake was not stabbing gan the second he stepped into their kathedral castle thing, like even if you had a plan it can still fail but it seemed like he just kinda went in with a handful of people that didnt seem to know each other at all, never got names or faces -or unique voices for that matter- to fight gan face to face inlcuding the girl that came from a different time and had nothing to do with any of this conflict and couldnt even really control her sudden new powers just seems pretty stupid)

thought 2

how totk really feels like botw but for the people who didnt like shiekah tech, its not a sequel, its botw again, but version of only sonau, its like a pokemon game that had two versions but one has weirdly incoherent story and acts like the other never existed jsut as a whole its like retreading the same points but worse, all shiekah tech that was so integral to the world and had such a long history just vanishing and no one caring about any of it like it never happened, HELL the titans were called divine beasts in english but i guess they werent divine or important enough to keep around LOL champions WHO and isntead a never before seen or even heard of race for that matter showing up and planting their ass in every place the shiekah were before, dare i say it feels weirdly manipulative, like either them or some outside force erasing every fact about the ancient shiekah and replace them with sonau stuff bc they are the hot new shit now

this is a point that just doesnt stop bothering me, how the shiekah tech seemed so carefully designed and integrated into botws world and story, its a difficult to keep balance after all, integrating high tech stuff into a medieval setting, but they made it work! and then totk comes around and throws a bunch modern day tech into it puts some vague greenish stone filter on its exterior and call that even better more ancient tech; why did they even bother to make pottery inspired laser shooting spider legged robots so well integrated when they throw a car and rockets into the next game without a thought and call it a day, what was the fucking point

it feels like someone was dead set on having a set of legos thrown into the game it had no place in, if you want players to build whatever they want make a building game instead!! especially if you are just gonna throw it in with seemingly no consideration how out of place it feels togehter with the fACT THAT YOU ALREADY HAD AND ANCIENT HIGH TECH CIVILIZATION WITH A VERY DISTINCT AESTHETIC THAT WAS ALREADY WELL INTEGRATED INTO THE WORLD YOU ARE PLANNING TO REUSE WITH ALOT OF MYSTERY AND UNKOWN STUFF ABOUT THEM TO EXPLORE FURTHER YOU COULD HAVE USED!! but i guess they just "didnt want to play with you anymore" and that so much so that they went out of their way to erase every trace of it, i dont think the words shiekah tech are ever used in the game, and the purah pad and her towers just drive me more isnane bc they are the same shit but called different and also much worse, liek the purah pad isnt some more developed shiekah stone, no its a glorified camera with a teleport function and thats it

(i know i said this before but i really cant stand how obsessed every single NPC is with sonau shit, you get told to your face every second line of dialog that they are so cool and are so mysterious that it just makes me annoyed of them even more, the game is obsessed with shoving them everywhere and telling you over and over you too should obsess over them, they werent weird like that about the shiekah stuff in botw?? the biggesst talking point in botw was calamity ganon ..... which makes sense and in totk its like ... gan is mentioned what, in a newspaper article??? once???and then not even by name i think???)

aside from that big point which will never let me go, its also just .. its not moving forward anything, it actively walks BACK the progress that was made in botw, call me dumb but i dont really count moving one step up in the social roles of each race as a character development (for the side characters like the champions desc- ahem SAGES) but mainly zelda ... god how dirty she was done, totk pretty explicitely makes her regress any development she made in botw aside from she likes link uwu and some people like her too, but also not enough to notice that that weird zelda being all evil and weird isnt her (INLCUDING THE CHAMP- SAGES WHO YOU ARE SUPPOSEDLY FRIENDS WITH??? you dont have to be a genius to pick up on that my god, were you all given the mc dumbo potion or what)

she gets put back to square one, back into the little itty bitty princessy maiden role forced upon her by her royal parentage, this time rauru edition, back into a white little dress, back into the scared puppy eyed teenager, back into a situation she cant handle, back into losing everyone around her (tho honestly botw made me care more about rhoam than totk did about rauru), back into being forced to do a big sacrifice- but worse actually

in botw she went to FIGHT AND HOLD GANON IN THE CASTLE SO LINK HAD TIME TO RECOVER AND IT WOULDNT DESTROY THE LAND!! and you are telling me in totk rauru takes up her botw role and she bascially killed herself to ... restore the mastersword.

......... she ... she did that only to be a glorified version of the stone pedestal in the forest. and then she gets returned to normal itty bitty girly no problem via magic sparkle beam at the end and

DOESNT

EVEN

REMEMBER.

it really is just botw but worse, you even get yet another ghost king of hyrule to guide you around (rhoam did it better fight me ... we dont talk about the questionable choice to make himself darker skinned when posing as just some guy)

i honestly dont think i was ever truly taken aback by anythign that happened in botw, while in totk, the further i played, the more i had to fight with myself to keep the feeling of unease, disappointment and betrayal down

its such a god damn shame, totk should have stayed a DLC, i will forever mournfully dream of a game that explores more of the ancient shiekah, doesnt erase integral parts of the world, developes characters more instead of making them regress back and make them end up even less developed than at the start of the game, dives into buried secrets and mistakes of dark pages of history without giving into a weirldy nationalist(imperalisitc?) narrative and lets characters have some agency for once

if it werent for the yiga i might have actually considered refunding the game, just to be at peace with myself

anyway, aboslutely incoherent word vomit.

[dreamerwitches]

RIGHT! I'm going to judge everyone with their doppel choices!!! Get ready for long post

In all seriousness, you're entitled to your own opinions and this is just a bit of fun. I'm genuinely interested to see the most popular doppels and I KNOW there are no set rules for the votes as the account has stated so peoples choices may be for gameplay etc etc. So, no meanness, right? It's all in jest (m-mostly...)

Giovanna time! I agree very muchee, I'm not a big fan of swimsuit Giovanna. Yeah she's cute but I dunno I just don't like the sail and that's such a big part of it. I understand why og and anime are equal cause anime Giovanna was FIRE and the new take on it in-game works well. Og deserves well because duh, its the og and anime deserves well too cause it's on par. But Infinite Giovanna ough, left the girls in the dust. Beautiful colours, beautiful combination of Giovanna and Shitori Egumo. She's beautiful and she knows it!

The first disagreement. Tanabata Campanella falls into the 'its too busy i dont have a clue whats going on and thats not a good thing' camp for me. Yes the colours are pretty but damn there's too much going on. And the colours on her spine bit are way too much overall. I get it but it's not for me. I'm glad my choice is second though. Historia Campanella is.... is not Campanella that's the eiffel tower and anime Campanella is just ugly. They removed the lantern which is such a good part of the og. the hint of red works so well and the ugly four shoes are a) large and ugly and b) dont fucking fit! The only thing i like is the hat but do i like it more than og? Not really, its on par

Alright THIS is my first 'um hello, what are you guys doing?' Tiracchana is awful, what are you on? I definitely feel the magis are affecting choice here cause I know Yuna is popular. I'm sorry but her doppel is shit. So ugly and such a mishmash of bad aspects. I'm sad Merkava is so low in comparison cause her theming is cool and she actually looks good. Done dirty... But like, how the fuck is halifax winning? She's just a fucking guillotine for petes sake... Im not a fan because it irks me but come on this is not the best design. Lakehurst done dirty waaa... she's such a cool mix of animal and machine and she works so well. Not too busy and has a clear theme. I suppose the only thing that isnt so great is the tongue since its colour sticks out so much. Very disappointed in everyone...

W-Why none of y'all like Marguerite?? What's she done wrong?! She'd be my second choice. I think Cuauhtitlan is fine but I struggle judging her since Im not knowledgable on the culture. But she does look very nice and the colours are good. I like Marguerite for her kinda castle/tank-y feel. The colours are nice and the structure is interesting! She kinda falls into 'this doesnt look like a witch and moreso an object' bracket but its not that bad... im so sad she's unpopular... Now im surprised at Halomonas. Its just boring man... and she's definitely 'this doesnt look like a witch and moreso an object'. Just nothing in it is particularly fun or cool, I just find her so boring. I suppose Alexandra's integration is good though, but otherwise... Unbased. But I'm very happy with Vlastenske! I looooove clowns!!! And she's super creepy and fun! You should be winning, sweetie

Sigh. Hepialidae is shit, what are you on? Moths are so important to the theme and story magireco and yet this rando has a moth witch? It's so out of left field and doesnt suit her theme as far as I know. I wanted her to be a vampire witch so bad back in the day... The colours are ruined by the leg parts too. Like hello? Where do those ugly purples and greens come from?! I suppose Kushu's integration is nice though. I understand Henrietta's low score. She falls into the object category but at least she's pretty. Sad about Don Rocinante though... I get she is a little boring but I do have metal bias... (looking at my fave Gisela... ) But compared to the others I still think she should be higher And man, I know Konomi is popular but... it... it's just flowers... c'mon...

Yeah, shitty magirepo deserves to be last... I think all (not you rena-chan) are very good here and deserve to be equal. A little surprised Elfriede is lower... I suppose her theme is a little all over the place... the fingers at the bottom kinda come out of nowhere and the head is a little out of place. Cendrillon is very good but feels a tad like a number of things patched together. I think the neck and headpiece could be improved. I must admit I have a bias for Zola as Ive rather fallen in love with her (heehee oops!) I think she's so spooky and cool and the colours are great! It was kinda hard to choose out of three great doppels Oh uh, Cendrillon-chan... I forgot you were there... yeah Magirepo doppels are just lazy and awful, NEXT!

Kogetsu winning as she should be... im furious the shitty Blot is not losing though... Komatsu falls into the mishmash category and there's a little too much going on. I wish she was more insect-like. I love Kogetsu though, the dragon is super cool as well as Chizuru's integration. It's just so satisfying to have such a circular silhouette too, she pulls it off well. Drekka Minni... sigh... does not deserve to be second. ITS A FUCKING BOAT. The only part I like is the dragon head but even then it doesnt fit in with ANYTHING else on the witch. I can barely even call her a witch... ugh... Oh and dear sweet Blot. Her witch is pretty good! But the doppel... The doppel is like 1/6th of the witch and they didnt even choose a good bit. Ugly, boring, lazy, and Gunhild has a shit utilisation. If you voted for her we are not friends.

Cassandra deserves to be first for sure and I totally see why Vimala is low. Im not a big fan of Apebis but the design is still pretty good, deserves to be high. I see why Vimala is unpopular as she really just looks like an object. A very pretty object but just an object. Everyone is pretty good here so Im glad most are pretty equal. Magatsu is spooky and cool and so is Cassandra. Maybe they can be spooky gfs from across time

What do you fucking mean no one likes Gosirsa??!! I'm mad Oaji is high hissssss Tara is very pretty and I love a Yokai cameo but she's a little too busy for my liking. Oaji.... Oaji is an object c'moooonnn... she's way too simple why is she top??? There are aspects I like like the reflection and stark red but not enough there. Marita is beautiful so im glad she's at least second. The theme is creepy and the colours are so pretty. But why no love for Gosirsa?! She's teetering on mishmash but I dont think she's that bad! The colours are nice and I love the mechanical bull theme! I get the wheels look a bit weird and not great but that's only one part... Poor girl...

No Aztekium love... yeah, she's not great... the cactus rail gun is not made very well. It's just two objects splortched together... Glad Abigail is high cause she's super fun. Nice colours and fun theme. I'm surprised 9daime is so high since she kinda falls into mishmash... at least the colour scheme is pretty good. I dont like how most of the pieces just don't really go together. Makes sense that Oxford is second cause this isnt a very strong bunch. I hate Miyuri's shitty feet theme but at least Oxford has nice colours and although the legs are busy, I think its pretty okay and the mass of patterns are fun.

WHAT ARE YOU ON JING IS BEAUTIFUL!!! Very unbased. I think the magi chose this one... >:( But... most of these are pretty good... but that doesnt mean Jing can be so low! Catacombe is very cool and has a good overarching theme and colour scheme. Im not so fond cause her colours are a little drab. I think Totentaz is a little boring, not enough going on I suppose and I dont think the wispy arms work. Otherwise she's fine, pretty but a little boring. But mannnnn Jing is so beautiful! I dont understand... the Chinese opera theme is BEAUTIFUL! I love her flowers and the trailing parts and how creepy she is when you look close... sigh... Casuarius is my least favourite here. Dunno, just don't get with her. The colours are very good and I love the symmetry and how Mikage is framed but I don't know if I like how the head part is put together, feels a little like separate things smooshed together without much thought.

When I first voted Frederica was so high and I was SO mad. She's awful, one of the most boring witches. It's just eyes and a jpeg of flowers man... I'm so glad she's at the bottom now. I like the patterns of Hevelius but she is just a lump so I get why she's low. Etteilla is super pretty but I definitely prefer her witch. She's on equal par to Gibdaughter to me. I only chose her cause of my silly metal bias :)c heehee I love Gibdaughter, the metal punk bird is great and I love Kanae's unique hood. These two deserve to be equal

This was a hard pick between ED Catacombe and Totentaz. The first two definitely fall into 'too detailed' for me. Like, man, look at Catacombe she has a whole party going on on her. Dunno if Elfriede deserves to be so low but they're all good. I like her pumpkin theme. I only chose Catacombe because Im not so fond of Totentaz. Does she deserve to be so high..? Eh, no... I think she's only so popular because she's the one that hurts your eyes the least. I think she's good, I LOVE the head cage thing but her bone scythe is too ugly and lumpy looking. I know ED Catacombe does look a little silly with her Papyrus Undertale skulls but I just love the colours and theme. She just works better for me.

These are all pretty equal to me, no idea why Nenemu is so low. Do people just not like Nemu lol? Nolde is pretty, love her colours and matchstick theme. So is Nenemu though I get that she feels a little more busy. I love the eye hands and head, she's more spooky. I dont think Shitori Egumo deserves to be so high. She's nowhere near as cool as her witch but she's still good. Maybe my least favourite? But otherwise they're still pretty on par. I chose Sukhavati because I love her patterns, especially when she opens up. It's a bit of a disservice not showing that aspect. Plus I love a rafflesia lol

Hmmmmmm. You want some controversy? Charlotte's doppel isnt that good guys. You know what the best part of Charlotte is? Her face. Her eyes and her huge mouth. And here..? Um... tiny mouth and no eyes. They took away her best parts! So sorry not sorry she isn't that good. Doppel Oktavia is way too stout for me. Why did they make her so fat? (not fatshaming at all, a plus sized oktavia would be beautiful but she usually isnt) Her head is so iconic why did they remove it and totally change her visor? I just think they ruined such a good witch. And Candeloro absolutely does not use enough of the witch. Its so painful cause I love Candeloro and Mami... She does not need to be that small and insignificant. I chose Ophelia cause um, the witch is actually there!! And I think the horse utilisation is actually smart! This definitely looks more like a witch popularity contest and no one actually looked at the doppels...

Ehh... swimsuit doppels are hard... They're just always so... busy... Meh... Why does no one like Ophelia though??? You're lame... Oktavia is fine. I like the surfboard and colours. I think the different kind of fish is cool but she barely looks like Oktavia anymore... Swimsuit Candeloro is pretty and has nice colours but MAN its way too busy. Swimsuit Ophelia is a bit all over the place. Some colours dont fit in and the turtle looks kinda bad. Swimsuit Charlotte is probably my second fave cause the colours are nice and the mishmash theme kinda suits her but man, some of the pieces look so out of place. Stick with a consistent art style...

Why is Luca so high? Egh... I think Luca's shape is overall so ugly and not good looking. The decorations a kinda okay but way too messy to see what you're looking at. I find her so hard to judge cause I know there's a deeper meaning I dont quite get so she's always on the fence for me. Im a Breadman hater. Why is she so unique? Why is she separate to Sudachi? What makes you so special??!! Too weird, feels like they're trying too hard to be cute. Gothel is pretty. Love the colours and the rapunzel spin. And I love me a set of ribs!! Valentines Breadman is a little better to me, I think a mishmash really suits the chocolate theme. Should be higher than regular Breadman.

Naomi is one of the first doppels I saw so maybe im biased lol. Broiderie is too grey and complex for me. But otherwise she's very beautiful and suits the mushroom theme very well. Not a fan of her weird foot though. Sigh... Heide Jekyll (shit name). I get it, I really do. But you could have made the design better!!! I know its a sensitive topic but you've still gotta make something that looks good! Naomi is beautiful, beautiful colours, I love the dual heads and stark red between the bodies. I kinda wish the arms matched the rest more but otherwise a clear winner. Yeah, Ganni deserves to be last. It's just a helmet man... A very beautiful helmet but just a helmet.

Theresia at the top like she deserves! I LOVE how awful and grotesque she is! You go girl! Go torture someone! Yu Hong is good but a little boring to me. Wish there was more than just the balloon. Beatrice is very good but I kinda hate the bright purple and fleshy pink. Ouch that hurts the eyes. She's a little tooo weird for me (not a good overarching theme) but I like how grotesque she is (wow second time saying that, gross girls forever!) Also how was I today days old when I realised Beatrice-chan is differently coloured... fake fan... but still not great... Theresia sweep is deserved.

Hrrnngghhhh Old Dorothy isn't that good guys.... It's just a bunch of circles c'mon... and the Nightmare-esque creature is so out of place. Why does she have it? You know, the things Homura made in her isolation field? Eh... Sad McDougal is so low, she was my second choice. How dare you put her next to the shite that is Hund Balou. But... she isn't great... very object-y and what is going on with that pink thing? I think Im biased cause i love her magical witch. Winchester is a great translation of the witch. Love her, no notes (well...) Only critique is that the colours are boring but that's obviously her shtick. Hund Balou... is like one of the only doppels that just look so badly drawn. The hands are awful, the hair is awful and the headpiece looks stuck on. BUT... the colours are very pretty and I love her dress. Oh and Hanna's utilisation is so unbearably lazy.

This was kinda a battle of the worst for me... Only chose Winchester cause I like main Winchester. Old Dorothy is too busy, Yu Hong is just green with barely any additions, Cuauhitlan is WAY WAY too busy (but aside from the centre she is very pretty). Man, no one served at this party...

Huh, another battle of the worst... Can we please not have a variant doppel that is unbearably busy? I chose Oktavia cause her colours are really pretty as well as the additions. But... w-why is she fat again??!! (see before, nothing wrong with large Oktavia but she... she isnt in the anime so where has this come from?!) Totentaz is finneeee... but its just a little boring... The green is ugly and the arm bits detract too much from the rest of it. (though i like the repeated red stripes). Tara is just WAY too busy and so is Henrietta. It's so hard to see what's going on... They are pretty but man... tone it down a bit!

I hate Carola so so much its unbelievable. Its such a bad doppel... I need the full description to tell you how awful she is. I am so passionate about how much I hate this doppel (this is from a wip doppel ranking)

Final Carola is... better... I wish this was her usual but im so weighed down by its previous shitness that I didnt vote for her... The colours are pretty and so are the patterns. Caterina isnt a win for me. I have no idea why she has a butterfly theme and I wish it was more like a book. Its beautiful... but not Umika. Im biased for Antonio cause I just think he's so cool???? It's... it's not Kaoru (like hello?? Where is the football theme?) but I just like him aaaa... this was kinda another battle of the worst. I think Final Carola is the best here. (Kazumi Magica you deserve so much betterrrr)

I LOVE SYLVIIIEEEEE! :) ah, where were we... Im very on the fence with Vayu. My opinion changes every time I look at her... I like the shape and the utilisation of Shizuku makes sense but Im not so sure about the colours and the uhhh bag head..? Doesnt make sense to me. Her main witch works so much better. Gela is high for me cause I love cloowwnnnsss! Just kinda wish she wasn't 60% huge beige bag. Love a dual jester hat and two faces but the colours juusstt dont match so well. Tongue and wings dont work so great with everything as a whole. Mmmm heehee Sylvie!!!! I love wind up monkeys, I love maids, I love body horror, I love purple... hello? This diva has no flaawwssss! Why is Paparazzo so high.... its pretty lame... The colours are alright and I love the repeated circles theme but eh the camera body isnt doing it for me. And the eyes feel a little lazy. She's just a little lazy overall...

Forget battle of the worst this is battle of the best! A-and Kriemhild-senpai... Doppel Kriemhild is sooo good... it is a total shame she kinda isnt Kriemhild but a Portable reference wins brownie points in Kit's book! Original is great! No notes. Swimsuit is also very good but it wasnt the winner for me cause she is just a liiiiittle too busy... otherwise the colours are GORGEOUS and she is very good. Haregi Kriemhild is also so beautiful. I think the green is integrated well (they could have fluked that so easily) and the circular background works so well with her overall. Deserves to be on par with the other two, not that low :( And uh Kriemhild-senpai..? Oh look, we've run out of time!

Hrrnnnnnn...... okay Homulilly is great, very good interpretation of Portable Homulilly. Only gripe is that she's kinda one-note on colours. She could've used the red of Portable homu. Now... guys... cool Homulilly isnt that good... Rebellion Homulilly is such a good design and what did they use here?.... oh... oh uh... n-nothing... Where's the spider lily? Where's the gramophone? WHERES THE SKELETON?! It just doesnt do it for me, champ (and i know, this isnt specifically Rebellion Homulilly but c'mon! They were going there with everything else, why not go the whole way!) I think the Lotte are way too busy, if you were gonna do the Clara Dolls, do the fucking Clara Dolls, you have ALL the assets for them! No, she does not deserve to be top y'all are liars and skanks Swimsuit Homulilly... COME ON THE COLOURS ARE LOVELY! This was before variant doppels were stuffed to their britches with too much shit. She's so cute, I love the contrast of the blue and the cute spotty arms aarrghhh y'all are missing out... Haregi Homulilly is too busy and the colours are kinda wack. The 7 Gods of Fortune Lotte just don't work for me... it's too messy and ugly... very unbased here...

Wow that's all up to date! So? Did this make you hate me? I dont really mind lol Im half looking-forward-to, half nervous about what the rest of the results will be...

[baileypie-writes]

~My Thoughts on Wonderful Precure: Episodes 26-30~

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Episode 26 - It’s Dangerously Hot!:

This episode was just more filler.

I usually don’t mind filler episodes, as long as they’re entertaining. Though, I didn’t find this one to be.

To be honest, watching everyone act miserable because of the heat made me feel miserable as well. Especially since it’s also very hot where I am. The desert scenes and the wavy “camera” shots just made me wanna start sweating haha.

There wasn’t really a point to this episode at all. I get that it’s because it’s filler, but a lot of filler episodes still have a problem to solve. For this one, it’s just hot the whole time. The only thing they did to solve the problem was Iroha and Komugi taking walks in the early morning. Even so, poor Yuki and Mayu still have to suffer!

I do have to say though, I loved the little ship moment! Satoru is just so cute! And Mayu being his and Iroha’s number 1 shipper is just hilarious.

My Rating for This Episode:

4/10 - F

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Episode 27 - We Want to Find a Tsuchinoko!:

More unentertaining filler… goodie…

Again, I don’t really mind filler, just as long as it’s fun. But I didn’t like this one. Nothing significant happened. We did learn that Yuki’s afraid of snakes, but is that really useful for the story as a whole? No.

It was really cute to see Satoru get all excited about seeing a tsuchinoko. That was definitely the most enjoyable part of this episode.

And last thing: we got a new eyecatch! And this time, it includes Yuki and Mayu! I really like it. The colors are so nice!

My Rating for This Episode:

3/10 - F

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Episode 28 - Let’s Play at the Ohkuma Farm:

Once again, this episode was just filler. But, I actually enjoyed it this time!

It was a super cute episode with lots of funny moments. I do feel bad for Mey-Mey for what he had to go through though. Poor guy.

I don’t have much else to say about it, but, I do have the preview for the next episode to talk about!

Words cannot express how excited I am! It looks like the story is finally starting to get somewhere! Not only does Niko-sama hatch, but we get actual villains! I’ve been waiting for that! I’m really curious to what they’ll be like!

I’m not as excited about Niko-sama. It looks like she might be a Fuwa clone. But she’s cute nonetheless!

My Rating for This Episode:

6/10 - D-

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Episode 29 - Nice to Meet You, Niko-sama!:

I’ve been waiting for this episode!

Niko-sama has hatched, and she’s freaking adorable! As expected, she’s a unicorn. I was hoping she’d be a completely unique creature with a unicorn horn, but oh well. I was worried that she’d just be a copy of Fuwa from Star Twinkle Precure, but from what I’ve seen, she has a well thought out personality! She’s already made me laugh many times.

We also got some actual villains! And not only that, they look so cool! They’re definitely some of my favorite villain designs ever! Their story is really cool too! Extinct animals seeking revenge on humans is something I’ve never seen before!

Zakuro and Torame’s dynamic is pretty typical. The older one and younger one not getting along is something we’ve seen a few times before in Pretty Cure. But I’m not upset about it. I’m just excited to learn more about their personalities!

Finally, it’s officially the first time the Woderful Precure have gotten their butts kicked. And it doesn’t look like Iroha’s taken it too well. But, we’re going to get a power up next episode, so they’ll be okay!

My Rating for This Episode:

10/10 - A+

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Episode 30 - A Wonderful Castle!:

This episode was great!

First off, I’m pretty sure we got teased for Niko-sama’s human form? Her shadow flashed to the shape of a human, and it’s implied that her current form isn’t her true one. I’m super curious to what it looks like!

We also got a hint to Satoru hopefully becoming a Cure! He wants to be more helpful to the others, and feels like he isn’t doing enough. So this may be a sign! Let’s keep praying!

Another thing we got is a group transformation and pose! I’m so glad it’s back!

Also, we finally got a power up! It’s so nice to see, considering we didn’t get one last season. The outfits are so pretty, they might be my new favorite power up outfits ever! After avoiding the leaks for over a week, I’m definitely not disappointed!

Lastly, I just wanna quickly mention how hilarious it was when Niko-sama casually asked Iroha’s parents if she could stay with them. Also how quickly and easily they said yes. No questions asked, they just allowed a cute unicorn to stay in their home. I love Niko-sama haha!

My rating for this episode:

10/10 - A+

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Overall Score for These Episodes:

66% - D

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~~baileypie-writes

[usernamesuggestionsarefunny]

Wish spoilers ahead.

The start of Wish is exactly like that of Encanto but without all the heart. It is literally the meme of "Can I copy your homework?" "Yeah but change a few things so it is not too obvious."

Also Asha deserved a pretty dress in the end like wth are you going to sell to little girls Disney you are all about money and you failed miserably even at that.

And it is for real soooo unfair how the queen did get a pretty dress the whole movie and Asha only got some lazy ass sparkles added to her boring ass dress.

Asha... not bad, ok, but she is copy paste Anna, Mirabel, and Rapunzel. Youtuber ModernGurlz is right about Disney's "adorkable" problem. All their main girls since Rapunzel have the same "quirky" personality save a few details. I have liked them all but it is getting boring. Give me a princess with a monotone, sad personality, give me a shy princess who only smiles and talks around close friends, give me back the classic super girly personality Aurora and Snow White style, give me an angry girl with a brutal sense of humor like Merida. Be creative, please!!!

I love the queen's design, super gorgeous. Too bad her character added nothing. Her help was barely needed since Asha's friend had already sneaked them into the castle and it was her who deciphered the king's magic. A super villain couple would have been way more fun.

Oh, yeah, Asha's friends. There were so-damn-many of them and only like 3 were rememberable or needed for the story.

The villain is a complicated issue. I appreciated Disney's attempt at another fully evil character, I liked how he wasn't yet another badly set up "twist villain" revealed only at the end. But I didn't like the end result that much.

His backstory was super underdeveloped and to "get" his motives better, if they really wanted to make him evil-yet-complex, they should have shown us a flashback of him losing his family Encanto style (They copy pasted the start might as well do the same with the antagonist backstory.

What the hell was the missing piece of tapestry for if it wasn't going to have any significance later on? Did the writers just forget or what even?

Worst part for me: The stakes were low as fuck. Disney doesn't respect its target audience, nowadays it thinks that children can't handle anything worse than a main character getting disappointed. The worst this "super evil" villain does is make people sad temporarily, for like two minutes (Kid you not), like one character stays sad for longer but MOST people in the kingdom seem happy and normal after giving up their wishes, he legit just makes people sad a few minutes (Again, I kid you not, no one dies, the wishes he "eats" to make himself stronger come back, nothing he does has a permanent, devastating effect, he is not even revealed to have killed Asha's father in a dramatic way or something). Yeah he makes people forget their wishes which is pretty sketchy but up to that point he seemed to have complex reasons for that, reasons that seem to disappear or have never even been there the second half of the movie when he magically becomes more evil due to a forbidden green spooky magic he uses, and then suddenly he becomes Maleficent (The cool, perfect villain version, not the woobie one) style evil in a very, very rushed and over the top way. I feel like he should have started up as fully evil with no backstory (Just a simple, Gaston or original Maleficent style, self centered guy, who wants more and more power and adoration), and simply gotten worse and stronger OR given more complexity as to why he became that way, but instead we got this weird thing in between where it is clear he just wants power and love from the people for the sake of it and yet he has this half-made sob story on how his family died.

There was a great lack of originality in this movie at the climax as well. Anyone watched "The little mermaid II"? That was pretty much it. Villain gets power boner, says he will enslave everyone (Worst thing he does in whole movie and yet no one trying to defy him dies at least off screen or gets hurt in any meaningful way). Then heroine saves the day.

The funniest part of this movie is that the villain's fate is worse than anything he ever did in the movie I swear. He gets trapped in a freaking mirror and then locked up in a cell (Similar to the Little mermaid II villain's end too lol). That is straight up torture till death, it is so fucked up. And his wife who literally sees how the green spooky magic is the main thing responsible for his bad day (If we are being honest that is all it was, other than the taking wishes part he seemed to be a good king) leaves him to rot and becomes queen Catherine II style, it is hilarious. Like girl, you turned against your husband like five minutes ago because apparently through decades of seemingly loving marriage, you never knew he was evil but now somehow you are ok with him rotting in solitary confinement till the end of time? So dorky and silly. So bad, so bad.

Lastly, that goat was annoying as hell.

[loz-furbies]

Ocarina of Time Zelda

For the first time in the franchise there is some actual content about Zelda and you don't have to squeeze out fanfiction from a single line in a guide book. However you probably get more out of her if you understand OoT's placement in the Timeline and what kind of role she plays in it, but I'm sorry, I really don't care about the Zelda timeline and just doze off when the exact details of OoT's main plot are discussed. So this will be written with only cursory understanding of the time travel plot.

Design

The biggest issue for me with OoT Zelda is the colour palette, I still find this kind of magenta really unappealing, and I don’t think the blue cloth with the royal crest goes well with it either. And the crest design is just a huge mess, I bet Zelda gurus can decipher each individual element but even if each scribble has a specific meaning I still think there’s far too much going on and way too many colours. Still I like when you have designs “progressing” with age like this, and overall I think the OoT design manages that well, with young Zelda’s design being softer while adult Zelda has some armour pieces and similar colours tying everything together.

Then there's Sheik, who looks perfectly adequate for the "mysterious ninja" role. The hairstyle does bother me, Zelda shouldn't be able to style her hair to bangs like that, but I suppose that is the least of issues when it comes to how Sheik relates to Zelda.

Character

A lot of Zelda's lines are still about the plot, but this time she does have an actual personality to talk about. In princess mode she has a pretty standard nice and polite princess personality, but kid Zelda does have this plucky childlike enthusiasm about her. She's so excited to meet Link that she forgets to introduce herself, and even if it's pretty subdued, she's clearly into getting a partner-in-crime in Link. The whole scene in the castle yard has delightful "meddling kids" energy, with the kids spying on Ganondorf and scheming about their grand plans that end up being way over their head.

There is also obviusly the assertive and witty side to her since she does set up quite a grand plan, though that doesn't quite make her look like wisdom incarnate and rather comes across as just a kid who thrilled about this cool thing they saw in a dream. Meanwhile her passing the Ocarina of Time to Link manages to look like a proper and meaningful plan.

Once she has grown up Zelda displays noticeable character development, and adult Zelda is much more mature, calm and englightened. She even points out how she was naive and presumptuous about her plan, and takes responsibility for the results. I really like her character development, it makes good use of the game's two times mechanic and also fits the overall melancholic tone.

Sheik is of course also an important part of Zelda's character, and it's great that she got a more active secret persona. I have some trouble reconciling Sheik as a part of Zelda's character though, since they feel so separate. Once Zelda reveals her true identity, Sheik just completely disappears and we don't get to hear anything about how Zelda felt about her other identity (other than being sorry for deceiving Link) or presumably having gone a lot of physical training. Sheik's mysterious and poetic way of speaking is gone, as is their apparent coldness towards Link who clearly wants to know more about them. And Sheik doesn't say anything meaningful that would hint about their feelings about the secret identity either. Sure she didn't want to get caught, but I still wish there was more effort in linking the two together.

Role in the story

This time Zelda has quite a lot of presence in the story, especially if you know about the Sheik thing. It's nice that the player gets to see her set up her plan instead of hearing that she did something smart off screen, and in general she makes such a charming impression in her first scene the goal of first fulfilling her plan in the child portion of the game and then trying to reunite with her later is motivating.

Sheik's existence also gives her a way more active role both in terms of screen presence and like, getting to do something else than sit in place being a princess. Granted we don't really get to see Sheik do that much, but they did help out Ruto off screen and at least I can easily believe them to be capable of defending themselves. And I dunno, maybe it's just that because Sheik is written to be believed to be male (for unspoiled first-time players), they come across much more as Link's equal than many side character girls, who usually have at least some baggage that comes with being a girl in a video game.

Gameplay-wise Sheik's appearances are also pleasant because opening fast travel locations is always useful, and making music together with an npc is fun as long as the player's controls don't suck.

Relationships

Zelda and Link are super cute together as children, even if Zelda has to carry the scene on her own since the player can't contribute much anything. But still I get the feeling of two new friends who are excited to get into some mischief together.

As adults they have a much more professional feeling relationships, with a somber aftertaste when Zelda sends her back to the past. So while she is the most prominent npc in the game, she is far from my top pick for shipping out of Link's many potential love interests. Really I think he has the most interesting chemistry with Sheik, but I already wrote about how that doesn't automatically transfer over to Zelda. But there's just something about how he chases after the mysterious stranger! Who feels like a proper peer on their own quest too.

Impa is also there, but I don't get a lot out of them outside a pretty basic combination of child-and-caretaker and princess-and-servant relationship. I'd probably like it more if Impa wasn't in on young Zelda's plan, now it's harder to see if I'm supposed to take it as her being too naive and overconfident to begin with, or if the plan was actually valid and she's being too hard on herself after its failure.

She is also supposed to be the leader of the sages, but I don't get a lot out of that since they don't interact at all and Rauru felt more fitting for that role.

[canmom]

Annecy photodump 2 - museums

On Sunday, before the festival began, I went to a few of the museums around Annecy! Starting with the Palace de l'Îsle, then on to the Chateau d'Annecy and the Museum of Animated Film!

Probably the most iconic Annecy Building, it is presently a museum to both the building's own history and the industrial history of the town, which flipflopped countries a few times before becoming an industrial centre after the French rev. The Palace itself has been at various points a mint, a courthouse and a prison.

The museum is mostly captioned in both French and English. The industrial history gets a bit dry, but the downstairs section on the history of the building itself is cool.

My ticket got me into the castle too so I went up this absurdly picturesque little path...

...to be rewarded with the town skyline. Probably not quite as the dukes of Savoy saw it.

The castle doesn't tell you a lot about its own history for the most part, but it does have a couple of art galleries.

I saw a version of Peter Brueghel the Elder's Massacre of the Innocents - though apparently there's a whole bunch of different versions and this one might not be the real one? Art history is funky.

Much of the lower floor of the gallery had these big romantic nature paintings. And when I say big these are really fucking big, like very much 'this would be the whole wall if we weren't in a literal castle' big.

One thing that is really interesting to me here is that the panorama with its cylindrical projection seems to actually predate panoramic photography. Although I can't say whether this is strictly a cylindrical projection, the insanely wide aspect ratio seems to suggest it would be.

Here's a closeup, showing how a tree breaks down into individual dabbed brushstrokes which suggest the texture of leaves without getting lost in noisy detail - the 'painterliness' so beloved of shader designers. It's fascinating seeing these paintings up close like this!

I'm fairly sure this kid is a chimneysweep? Unfortunately I managed to frame this photo so the painting gets perfectly bisected by the corner of the glass box. I'm not quite sure the relationship of the sculpture and the painting.

They also have a bunch of furniture from the castle, if you like wooden boxes. They built things well chunky back then.

The upper floor of the castle was devoted to contemporary pieces. I don't seem to have taken many photos of these, but here's a bike wheel with bits of broken glass which look like mountains when a projector shines through them:

Later in the week I would go to the Museum of Animated Film! It's a bit of a walk from the town centre but well worth the trip. They had various 1800s-era gadgets that form the precursors to animated film...

...though sadly in the low light of the museum, not all my photos came out good. It's remarkable how well these devices work though! The narrow 'shutter' created by the slots works perfectly to make the images appear animated rather than spinning around. Also the illustration quality, and even general sense of motion, is remarkably sound! Like honestly they could give today's animators a run for our money!

The rest of the museum had production materials showing the full range of different animation techniques: storyboards, key drawings, cels, backgrounds, stop motion puppets, pinscreens etc. They covered the history of animation pretty damn well - go figure, it's the animation museum in Annecy of all places.

They also had a special exhibit on showing drawings from Regina Pessoa, whose films I saw as part of the Portugese animation block. These are so cool to see up close. I'm still not entirely sure what techniques she used to make this film, its style is unique.

(My main camera didn't do great in here due to the low light, but I'm learning how to control ISO to get that exposure time under control. My phone actually did a lot better.)

One thing I didn't manage to photograph was the intro panels to the museum where they defined animation. After various definitions based around e.g. constructing frame by frame, they eventually resorted to a negative definition - animation is basically any film that isn't live action. It was pretty funny reading them struggle to pin down such a broad but intuitive concept.

Next up: more movie related stuff!

[triplefishbutevil]

Silly little thoughts on the suckening characters from the first episode- spoilers below :)

Emizel-

His design is really good, and his general personality is pretty fun as he seems to genuinely care about the people around him and his friendship with soda is really sweet but he is also ready to go beat people up at any given moment

His fight with the guy in the alley was pretty interesting, with him getting bitten and turning

His personality is also pretty different from other characters condi has played so I'm interested to see where he takes emizel

Shilo-

Definitely my favourite of the three, his voice is really good and his design is also great

He's described as looking a lot like emizel which is interesting. I suppose the papers mentioning the car repair shop could be related? Although that wasn't meant to be vampire territory as far as I know

I feel pretty bad for him given the whole being locked up his whole life and never being allowed to leave his room without supervision thing

But also he is clearly fine with murder which might be connected to how he has been raised with the knowledge that people can be killed for just speaking to him wrong idk

He's definitely going to struggle with being outside of the castle

His mother seems pretty interesting too, given that she is willing to use magic on her son to keep him quiet about whatever she is hiding which may be an issue if shilo ever wants to tell the others about what he found , although she does seem to be upset about it

Also gref(?)my beloved he's so silly

Arthur-

Once again, very cool design

Big fan of the cat, grizzly seems to end up giving his characters some sort of animal companion(sunny, bobo, now void) a lot

I thought he'd end up being a pretty intelligent character but then he goes and breaks down a door and suffocates a guy very loudly lol

His encounter with the cowboy vampire was interesting as well, he seems reluctant to associate with other vampires

Very curious as to how he will end up interacting with the other two

[beevean]

Want a really unpopular opinion?

Circle of the Moon is grossly overrated, it feels extremely amateurish in terms of design and the fact that many consider it the perfect blend of the series' classic and SOTN styles confuses me more than most things in life

I once saw someone say that the game's penchant for grinding shouldn't be criticized because Aria of Sorrow also has it, forgetting that Aria is easy enough that you can absolutely get by without souls anyway, since they're more like a cool extra to spice up combat encounters and help a bit against the occasional tricky boss, unlike Circle where you pretty much need Cards and good combinations of them so you have little choice but to spend a truck load of time grinding just to have a decent time in this hard as fuck game that doesn't even have a shop for healing items thus forcing you to grind for those as well :).

Agreed.

Most of the time, when people love a game I don't, I can at the very least understand what they like about it. I don't care about Sonic Adventure 2, but that doesn't mean it's a bad game: it simply does things, like streamlining the level design, changing the gameplay style in the middle of a story instead of having six storylines, incentivizing replay value through the ranking system, that appeal to others but not to me. It's fine.

But I genuinely can't understand the appeal of CoTM. Nothing it does seems to me remotely likeable.

Yes, it's hard, for the joy of Classic fans. But why is it hard? Because it cheats.

The movement is ass. You either walk at the speed of snail or you double tap to run. This was annoying in Richter Mode in SoTN, but even more so when it's the default state of the game. Guys, it's one thing to move slowly in a Classic game, because all you have to do is to follow a set path and dodge the obstacles, but in a Metroidvania, where you need to backtrack, I'd like more agility. What literally is the point of giving you the run powerup in the fourth room of the game? Why can't I start with it?

There is no shop, forcing you to grind for something as basic as healing potions, necessary for this kind of genre. This is mean.

There is no healing orb at the end of a boss, literally the only game in the whole series that does this, which forces you to run to the nearest save room to heal - fine most of the time, but after the grueling fight against Hugh, you need to dodge the strong and aggressive Dark Armors before you can get to safety. Oh, you died and have to fight that bastard again? Oh no, sorry, guess you can just go fuck yourself :) this is even meaner.

The castle is not well designed, aside from the excessive platforming. The rooms are copypasted without any significant landmark, and there are too many obstacles of the same kind, meaning that once you get a new powerup, you're going to fumble for a while before you stop finding Heart Max Ups and actually find your way through. Say what you want about HoD, but the sections are so visually distinct that you are going to at the very least orient yourself better.

As you said, the main gimmick of the game, the DSS cards, have an abysmal drop rate, meaning that you pretty much have to glitch in order to use the spells. I was very lucky during my playthrough that the first Ice Armor dropped the card necessary to become immune to ice: without it, the Underground Waterway would have been an awful experience. (with it, it was only extremely annoying due to the constant 5-second stop every time you hit a switch)

and that is not even mentioning the problem most gba games had, especially the earliest ones: screen crunch.

tl;dr: order of ecclesia is not my kind of game either, but i recognize that it's fairly hard, at least.

[hemingway-papers]

even for a disney movie tangled takes a pretty random but enjoyable departure from the original fairytale and i do think that's because another prince character just wasn't cutting it and they decided to incorporate the gentleman thief storytelling tradition instead. the art design and miyazaki loving team behind it pretty overtly tells me the idea for that change came from the castle of cagliostro and a deep appreciation for it.

and me? personally? I WOULD rank cagliostro one of the most sincerely moving and aesthetically enchanting but also actiony fun movies about a princess ever animated and somehow it's not trying too hard to be ironic or hip or something. I feel like it's an obvious choice for study when trying to make a tricky script adaptation work when it is calling for the upbeat fight sequences and genre aware clever subversions but still needing to sincerely remain a pretty princess story in a magical land that does actually celebrate the spirit of fairytales and trying not to skimp too hard on any aspect

the original script for the rapunzel adaptation before lasseter took it over btw was a sort of fish out of water body swap modern day disney princess parody situation banking off the success of shrek. that was imo directly reworked as Enchanted. and much better utilized that way too

tbh in seeking a good solution to the new but not too new direction for disney, post-potf critical acclaim for returning to roots of sincerity but pre-frozen box office sensation, still seeking that dreamworks and pixar level of market domination. there was a very happy tonal medium to be found in cagliostro and it's success does suggest what something like that could do in a market looking for more modern, self aware and action packed takes on princess movies. a market that was already responding well to the dubs of other miyazaki directed movies disney was distributing.

castle of cagliostro does deconstruct fairytale stories and notions and princess movies, but does so much more lovingingly earnestly and whimsically, with a lot of affection for the source material compared to the cynicism of shrek. which as heart felt and genius as it is , wasn't something the disney company could pull off and maintain their brand.

there is nothing but sympathy for the kind of idyllic childhood notions of heroes and fairytale castles present in older disney movies, because clarisse herself holds onto those notions to help her maintain hope when escaping her situation. lupin plays into it too with some irony but not in a way that mocks her, just lightly mocks himself. it's a movie about how the real world can be really hard and at times you WILL face things that are insurmountable alone because that's normal and part of being a real person with normal limits. and asking for help from kind people isn't a weakness but part of life, a beautiful part of life even.

i've actually never seen a damsel in distress storyline portrayed as so human and understandable and not shameful. nor as a mark of being incapable but a role we all play at some point. it directly signals those who are most capable at the time to heed those around you. for what the hell else are all those skills and power youve got good for in the first place. DO be aware of those who are currently drowning in a situation no one should be expected to magically just surmount or suffer on their own and DO take action. it's your job

i love the castle of cagliostro down to my very core because I think it manages to express innocence wonderment as a strength of the soul even when juxtaposed against the complexities and realities of the often harsh present day adult world. and does so even more gently and optimistically than other similar hits like shrek and princess bride. in that sense it's too perfect for any modern disney filmmaker to NOT find inspiration in. anyone would be happy to look to it as one of the examples of how to make a fairytale adventure feel updated, cool and self aware but still maintain its palpable respect for those who love innocence and wonder.

[stovepiperat]

IF recs for a friend!!

(all of these should be playable in browser on desktop we can get into interpreters and stuff later lol. also all these are ifdb links which is a great site in general with tags and user lists for finding more stuff!)

Lime Ergot by Caleb Wilson (as Rust Blight)

intensely terrorpilled you'll see what i mean... poetic, short, very lightly puzzly, a personal fav

Violet by Jeremy Freese

ok my personal pref is puzzly and this one is def on the harder (and longer!) end but tbh even spending just 10 min not getting anywhere on the puzzles is such a charming experience & expands the mind abt the possibilities of parser npcs and iirc it has a pretty good hinting system

Galatea by Emily Short

ohohoho SPEAKING of "rly impressively expansive parser character study of one npc" here is Thee entry in that category. emily short is one of the giants of cyoa/IF in general and she's done both twine and trad parser stuff AS WELL AS some rly cool other tabletop stuff aaaand writing for loml fallen london so like. if u like this there is mooore (she also did bronze which is specifically designed for beginners but personally i found it a little fiddly! may 100% have been a han skill issue though idk haha)

Eat Me by Chandler Groover and speaking of shorter terrorcore personal favorites by big name IF authors and delightful IF trope "explore the castle"

The Dreamhold by Andrew Plotkin

plotkin is another IF big name and this was designed as an intro IF, i do just really like it because i love wizards though.

my father's long, long legs by michael lutz

economical and delicious twine creepypasta that does a nice job of showing off the system's features anyone??

With Those We Love Alive by Porpentine and Brenda Neotenomie

long and kind of intentionally monotonous but intensely lovely, high-concept, shows off a lot of fun things you can do with twine like cycling links. porpentine is also a v influential twine writer with lots of cool stuff!! (not germane to This but i do like foldscape)

ok that's probably way more than necessary for now... i love you interactive fiction :3 will update when i get around to my Now That's What I Call Wordplay: Good Fuck I Love Word Puzzle IF list

[loregoddess]

Whoo, finished Echoes of Wisdom today! still plan to run around and try to finish things I skipped over or missed, but overall it was such a fun game, even if it was a bit shorter (it's also entirely possible I went a bit crazy and played through faster than usual). Definitely gonna be a top-5 LoZ game for me, it was so delightful...

some extra spoiler-y thoughts under the cut

Really enjoyed the final dungeon and final boss, bio-castles are one of my all-time favorite environments for fantasy worlds, and the "primordial cosmic horror" feel that Null had as a character is something else I love a lot. Also the way the mechanics were set up to have Zelda and Link fight side-by-side worked out surprisingly well, and the dungeon was fun to navigate with Link as an active partner. I'd love to see a future game expand those mechanics even further honestly, they were a delight, and it's a shame they were limited to one dungeon.

It was cool that the golden goddesses were like, actual characters w/ speaking parts too, I don't think that's ever happened in a game before. Actually, the game overall had a lot of little things I'd wanted to see in a LoZ game in general like, how the King and soldiers actually do mobilize to help Zelda and the citizens of Hyrule (they're unusually passive in most games), or just how natural a lot of the writing felt for characterization in general.

Really liked the King in this game a lot, it's funny since the last Major Hylian King (Rhoam) was Not very popular with fans bc he was a bit of an asshole, and then EoW's King is like, "This is my daughter Zelda, who is amazing and wonderful and I love her so much and will support her in whatever she does" like, very doting father character that doesn't come off as overbearing, which is refreshing (Rhoam was interesting in his own right, but he was also like, dead, so it was interesting more in a "chasing ghosts" sort of way and less in a "this is a character who can actively and presently affect what is going on").

Actually seeing Zelda get to interact with other characters and really shine as her own character was really nice too. Like, all the people in castle town really seem to know her more casually, and seeing her interact w/ other rulers was super fun too. (Not that Zelda isn't a character in other games, but she doesn't always get to be as present as EoW Zelda).

Overall I loved the game a lot, from beginning to end. The gameplay and mechanics were super fun to play around with, the music was very notably present and felt unique to every area, the art style was so pretty and cute, and the story and characters were solid from start to finish. I know I'm a bit biased, having grown up with older LoZ games, but EoW really does play and feel like a classic Zelda game, from the top-down gameplay to the dungeon design to the quirky one-off characters to the bittersweet story ending.

I don't follow the business side of the game industry that closely, but just based off the lack of a line to wait in for preordering the game on release day, I'm worried that EoW won't do as well and therefore Nintendo will be like "well, that game was a flop, so we won't do something like it again" (bc it kinda feels like they set it up to fail, I mean it even released on a Thursday instead of Friday like most games do), but damn do I hope the game actually does really well and pulls off a Metroid Dread, bc I would love to see more LoZ games like this one. Playable Zelda was great, and the entire game design was so fun, I would love to have another game like this but a bit larger/longer.

Anyhow, now off to unblock the tags for EoW and finally take peeks at guides and fanstuffs (I was only missing two echoes at the end of the game and I have NO idea what they are even if I know where they're supposed to be, thanks to the clear-game giving the player access to the number of things they're missing).

Absolutely delightful game, will probably replay it lots and lots.

[helenofsimblr]

Elita: Stella sat in the library at the underwater castle pouring over her books, well, not really. But it was best to look busy, the change ceremony was soon, and Francine’s graduation. She couldn’t help but wonder what poison the moriarty’s were dripping into her ears. It was a big distraction from her research. Triton and Morrigan were drawing closer talking to one another underwater! So cool….

****

Morrigan: Everything is going accordingly. I sent Ozen and a team to gather supplies for the wedding ceremonies. He's going to secure the painter as well.

Triton: Excellent, I hope your brother is focussed appropriately. There is much to be done, and the change will be done soon... I must ready the temple. *Triton rubbed his brow.*

Morrigan: I think he is, he's pretty excited about being able to escort Stella down the aisle.

I believe that's a human thing, right?

Triton: I think Ozen has been very different lately. There is a difference... hmm... well, yes, it is. Though, if all goes well, she will swim down the aisle. 

Morrigan *sighs*: Everything will go according to design. If Stella does not wish to swim, she will be able to walk. I have made that abundantly clear in the invitations and encouraged anyone who is not willing to go drylander to send regards and politely bow out.

****

Triton *stressy*: The change Morrigan! I'm talking about the change. Try to keep up! She has to survive that first! Curse these ancient rules! Who are they to dictate who the king cannot wed! My apologies... I am not used to... feeling, like this!

Morrigan *shakes her head*: She will survive it. She's birthed a mer child, she's a capable and smart woman, and strong… for her species. Don't apologize. It's not befitting your status. I'm the one who should have read your words better, Father.

Triton: Rule number 1 of being a monarch my daughter, on the rare occasion you are in the wrong, do not be too proud to apologise! Come, she is there in the library.

Morrigan *nods*: As you say, Father.

Triton: Rule number 2, do not intimidate your closest loved ones so much they fear to speak and advise you. Anyway, come, let's say hello to Stella inside.