#lord vyce

[silikat]

Atop the Fourth Wall and @animatedtext - 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14

[quixoticrobotic]

when i find an excuse to make a ballet au of something

[fantasyinvader]

I've been looking into Tactics Ogre again. I think... I think people have been misunderstanding the route split and the alignment system.

I was looking through the PS1 manual and there's a little blurb of worldbuilding about the alignments. Law is aligned with Ishtar (I know they use a different spelling officially now, but ignore), goddess of light and war. What she wants is to unify the people under law, and that got me thinking. It's the Law path that makes it so that childhood friend Vyce doesn't dive off the deep end fighting you and can live. There's other characters that would otherwise die if you went the other route, but can be recruited in Law, and it's characters from the Law route that unlock the post-game CODAs. The game is also called Tactics Ogre Let Us Cling Together.

The Law route is not about following orders, it's about prioritizing unifying the people. The false flag operation you allowed to happen was bad, and the game calls it out, but the purpose wasn't wrong.

Chaos is associated with the dark god Asmodeus, who seeks freedom and believes that through freedom chaos will come about. You go down this path by rejecting the orders. You put your own morality above the call for unity, and as a result your character goes on the run. Instead of allowing your countrymen to be killed, you instead kill your countrymen in the name of your own beliefs and ideals.

In a Confucian-influenced society, Chaos is a bad end and the result of people not doing their duties.

The game also has the Chaos Frame mechanic, where if you have a bad relationship with one of the ethnic groups when you become king, usually through killing enough of them, Denam'll be assassinated in the game's ending which would lead to further war and bloodshed. Likewise, if you can keep them on decent terms... your country is invaded after you take the throne. The former is a Chaos ending, while the latter is a more neutral one. But if you let your sister Catiua take her rightful spot as queen, Chaos Frame doesn't matter and the country lasts for a thousand years before being conquered or joining another group (depending on which version of the game). It's the Law ending.

These endings mirror the route split, with a Chapter 2 Law only moving into a Lawful Chapter 3, whereas Chaos Chapter 2 can either remain Chaos or go Neutral. Chaos is presented as the better option, much like how the Chaos endings give Denam the powerful Lord class, but it doesn't appear to be the right option. You won't be able to save Vyce from himself, as mirroring your selfishness he begins to think too highly of himself and uses his backstory as an excuse, and going Chaos at the endings leads to Catiua's death.

The game still tries to call you out on the Chaos routes, and originally the Terror Knight class was locked to that route. Chaos may mean freedom, but it also is tied to darkness. If you put your own morality above the orders, as shitty as those orders are, it will eventually lead to Vyce going nuts and dying simply because of his desire to beat you. But if you do your mission, you'll eventually fight against your boss when it's revealed that he doesn't really care about the people and is just using the war for his own selfish purposes. And this whole war started because when the king disappeared the country broke apart, not wanting to live together or be ruled by another ethnic group. The war happened because unity broke apart, the land fell to chaos.

In the Chaos routes, you're killing people not to win the war but simply to protect your own freedom. You're killing not because you were told to, but because it's your own call. Same thing with regular battles, which end not with killing every enemy but simply killing the commander. It's possible to only kill them, which would in turn keep your Chaos Frame down. Ishtar may be the goddess of war, but killing is tied more to chaos and in the chaos routes you feel a lot more justified in doing so. But that can lead to falling deeper into chaos, more killing because you believe you're the good guy. Yet the Law route calls out killing far more effectively, makes the player feel like shit but also rewards the player the most. And it's the route tied to light.

But this is based on a detail from the game's manual, and game's don't really have manuals nowadays.

In short, please bring back manuals with physical versions of games. I mean, there's still the tabs to hold them so why not give something to keep there?

[catiuapavel]

what would the country have looked like if denam had died sometime in chapter 2 or 3 of cholera or whatever, and catiua and lanselot had to go on, alone? would catiua have been able to unite the continent, in your opinion?

'From cholera' is really doing it for me but I imagine if he died by someone's hands that might affect the immediate course of actions Catiua would take (first of all the person might not live a long life).

I think Catiua would have been able to unite Valeria with the help of Lanselot... Or rather Lanselot would have been able to unite Valeria with the help of Catiua, considering that by the beginning of Chapter 4, he's on a good way to accomplish this.

I feel like on Lawful route, Vyce would take Denam's place and role but I'm not sure he'd be as successful (at least in regard to convincing Catiua, I'd still be curious in seeing Vyce try to better Valeria and I believe he has it in him).

With Denam gone, Catiua's resentment toward him would be gone as an incentive, and as a tool for Lanselot to use. But her grief would still be a reason for her to seek her place by Lanselot and he could still use it as fuel to push her forward. She might just think that Denam abandonned her in a different way. Plus there are her feelings about Prancet to consider. I think it'd be more difficult a task though... Catiua's bitterness strikes me as a more active force but I'd love to imagine a Catiua who is violently mourning.

I have less trust in Catiua to manage to separate herself from the Dark Knights on her own. I think it'd take a long time, some self-reflection and some better entourage... And by the time she gets there, it still might be too late to push back against Lodis.

So I think it'd be a success, albeit a very sour one. It's an ending I'd have been very interested in seeing (did I ever draw art alluding to it? maybe). I already think the Gilbert ending (misnamed the Good Lord ending by so many) which suggests Lodis' invasion is a good contrast to the Princess ending, esp. following Lanselot's admission in Heim that he's come to understand Valeria is best ruled by her people (unless they sense a lack of unity). But an ending with Catiua ruling under Lodis' influence would be an even more interesting contrast imo!

[thevalleyisjolly]

uno reverse card for you: top five favorite things you've written! and also, top five most memorable moments you've gotten to play with your character(s) in a ttrpg?

*proceeds to draw 4* This is how you play Uno, right? XD Thank you so much, this is a lot of fun! <3 <3 <3 <3 <3

Favourite Things I've Written:

To date my most popular fic, in the face of death's mystery is one of those rare things I've written where I look back on it and I remain satisfied with how it turned out. It was a big passion project that started out as a crack post and then turned much more serious into an actual story with themes and arcs. After months of writing and rewriting sections, I can still remember the thrill of realizing one day that it could be finished in time for ACOC Week 2021 (all credit to Jackrabbit for putting that together!) and that really gave me the final push I needed to get it done.

My Middle English literature course did a capstone project where we performed some of the York plays, and since there were far more people interested in acting than there were roles, me and two other students formed a scriptwriting team to combine the plays and write new characters and lines. We didn't write in Middle English, but I'm still really proud how much we managed to capture the rhythm and patterns of Middle English verse in contemporary English rhyme.

The credit for this one starts with you, because I read One With The Shadows and it not only inspired me to write ACOC fic but it also specifically inspired me to write the manner of things (in the dark). Probably the most poetic prose I've ever written, and I'm still really happy with how it turned out. Writing body horror and eldritch imagery is pretty far from my usual wheelhouse, so it was really fun to experiment with a new style and dive into the characters through this lens.

Perhaps it's recency bias, but I just had a lot of fun writing Contrapuntal Calculus. I know my writing thing is very niche fics with incredibly specific scenarios, but this was particularly niche even by my standards and I'm still quite happy with it. It's also serving as a nice little reminder to myself to write the fics I want to write and not worry about how it's going to be received. Get ready y'all for more incredibly niche fic concepts once I figure out what a writing schedule is ✌️

I once took a Shakespeare class where one of the projects was to reimagine Shakespeare in another medium. Being a musical theatre kid, I rewrote and performed "Satisfied" from Hamilton for Lady Macbeth as "Safe at Night." I'm not posting the recording because I'm not a singer and it was bad, but I stand by my parody lyrics because they were fucking incredible.

Memorable TTRPG Moments

My character technically wasn't there to witness it, but we were infiltrating a temple of our cleric's god to find out whether its priests were on the side of the villainous pirate lord (not to be confused with the non-villainous pirates), and our DM narrated this absolutely incredible scene where our cleric looked into the scrying pool and saw the pirate lord's forces attacking his home town, only to be met out in the harbour by one of his oldest friends, a fellow cleric and pirate. He sailed his ship into the middle of the attacking fleet, killed one of the pirate lord's lieutenants in personal combat but suffered a deadly wound, then messaged our cleric farewell and ignited all the gunpowder in his ship. It was such an emotional and cinematic moment, beautifully narrated by our DM, and it'll stay with me forever.

That time Vyce, with a handful of HP left, leapt over a burning tar trap, jumped up onto the back of the giant undead corpse of the villainous pirate lord, stabbed out his cursed emerald eye, and then yanked his head back as he fell so that our cleric could behead him. Simply an incredible HDYWTDT, that was about the coolest Vyce has ever been and it was the coolest he'll ever get.

I played a goblin monk in a Spelljammer mini-campaign, and our DM ruled that monks could use their Deflect Missile ability on large missiles in ship-to-ship combat. Me and the other party monk (yes we had two monks, yes I apologize to the DM but hell yeah, we had two monks) spent every single battle standing on the prow of our space ship just deflecting giant ballista and boulders with our fists. At one point, I rolled a Nat 20 and the DM narrated this tiny little goblin catching a whole boulder and lobbing it back at the other ship. On the flip side, I also got one-hit KO'ed after getting hit by a Nat 20 boulder (we were playing with brutal critical rules), but that was equally awesome in a different direction and our very merciful DM allowed me to live if the ship took damage instead.

That time I played polecat!Matt Murdock, started flirting with a big beefy otter sailor, rolled so well that we became boyfriends, and then we ended up adopting a child together <3

Before we found out his backstory, Vyce's nemesis was a mysterious bard named Frode who kept appearing, dropping lore, and generally being completely insufferable. During one such encounter, Vyce attempted to intimidate him by taking a bite out of a whole lemon with the rind still on. Now, Vyce has a -2 to Charisma, but I'm sure you can already guess what he rolled on that check. The fact that Frode was just mildly amused made it all the more worse for him and all the more entertaining for me. I love my cringefail uncharismatic son so much <3

[natequarter]

God hathe gyuen ten commaundementes, ye• haue none of them all cōminacions & threates subioyned expresly vnto thē, but two only, which are the seconde & the thyrde, one for Idolatrye, the other for the vniuste vsurpacion and vnlawfull vsyng of the name of God, whereby he manifestly declareth how great the synne of Idolatrye and of swearyng is in his syght aboue al other vices. Who is nowe so at defyaunce wythe the christen religion, & so lytle estemeth the glory of the moost excellēt name of God, that he wyll not cease from his wickednes of swearyng, & learne from hensforth to glorify the moost blyssed name of God, if not for lous, yet for feare of the moost greuous & intollerable plages that shal vndoutedly faull vpon hym?

‘Thou shalte not take the name of thy Lord god in vayn.’ God speaketh these wordes wythe a maruelous great & vehemēt▪ emphasis, because he woulde haue vs im∣prynt thys hys precepte in our memory. And because we shoulde harkē the more vnto it, he addeth a threte and sayth, ‘For the Lorde wyll not holde hym gyltlesse / that taketh hys name in vayne.’

This is a greuous threat, & shaketh al yᵉ partes of a Christē mānes body, yᵗ is led wᵗ ony fere at al toward god. Nowe let vs lern• what it is to take yᵉ name of our Lord God in vayne, yᵗ we faul not into that synne, & receue a rewarde worthy our wyckednes. To take the name of God in vayne, is to caull God a wytnes in vniuste and trifelynge matters, vaynely to sweare by his moost blyssed name, to take it in our mouthes wythoute a necessary & vrgent cause, and to obscure the glory of it thorow wycked & vngodly othes. All they that thus do, shall not escape vnponysshed. O Lorde God howe many are there at thys tyme that transgresse this holy precepte? Howe many caull God a wytnes in vniust & trifelyng matters? Howe many pollute & defyle (yᵗ in them is) the glory of Gods moost blyssed name? How many sweare cōtinually not only by God, & al yᵗ euer he made, agayne not onely by his derely beloued son our Lo•d & sauiour Iesus christ, but also, wᵗ honour & reuerence I speake it, by all yᵉ holy mēbers of his moost glorio[us] body: How common an oothe nowe dayes is Gods flesh, Gods bloud, Gods hart, Gods bodye, Gods woundes, Gods nayles, Gods sydes Goddes guttes, and all that euer maye be rehearsed of God? O wickednes. O abhominacion. What parte of Christes moost blyssed body do these wycked & abho∣minable swearers leaue vnrēt and vntorne?

Thomas Becon, An inuectyue agenst the moost wicked [and] detestable vyce of swearing, newly co[m]piled by Theodore Basille

[villainoftheday]

Today’s villain is Lord Vyce from Atop the Fourth Wall

[incorrectreviewaversequotes]

Vyce: I want that planet to /die/. Make that happen.

Linksano: No!

Vyce: Are you questioning my authority?

Linksano: I'm questioning your objectivity!...my lord.

Vyce: You are out of line.

Linksano: I-I just think--!

Vyce: I'm not interested in the puny thoughts of a scientist. You have disrespected my time with your presence, and you would do well to--

Linksano: But--!

Vyce: Shut your mouth! You have failed at every stage of this mission, and your only chance to redeem yourself is to /obey/ this simple order! You are to leave the Entity to grow! It will tear apart the Earth, and I will take /immense/ satisfaction in erasing that hideous rock off of our star maps! Is that clear?!

Linksano: I won't do it! I can tell you with certainty that there are things on this planet worth protecting!

Vyce: What do you know about the Earth?!

Linksano: Apparently, more than you, you CLOD!

[nuttersincorporated]

What's also great about the twists in AT4W is that you could figure out the identity of the threat (and most usually do), but it's very rare to figure out how that threat will be dealt with. So the "clone" is Mechakara. Now what? How are they going to deal with him? He's human now so does that create a moral gray area? Does he feel things like fear and empathy now? It's tough to tell now because he's furious at what happened, but we've got a couple more installments to go, and i am very excited!

I mean, if he stopped trying tomurder everyone then they wouldn’t have to kill him and could try to findanother solution. However, if he is killed, it wouldn’t be the first time ahuman villain was killed. Whately was human after all and Lord Vyce wasprobably human before he became a being of living data.

Maybe being human will change Mechakara’sviews on humanity because he’s now the thing he always despised. However, he’sstill himself no matter if he’s in a robotic body or a human one so unless hemakes a big change, I’m not sure if it will make much of a difference. I don’tthink being a human makes he more deserving of life or death than when he was arobot. Besides, most of the AIs on AT4W have shown more humanity than peoplelike Whately and Vyce.

I’m worried about Erin. Hopefullyshe won’t be hurt. Mechakara did seem to like her more than anyone else so hopefullyshe’ll be okay.

[pinkdogplushie]

Orange Side Headcanon

He's not Dark Logan.

He's not an entirely new Side controlling Logan.

He's a part of Logan who's gonna spawn off him.

And we're gonna see it on camera.

We'll witness the birth of a new Side.

Either that or he's a parasitic Side (paraside?) that's leeching off Logan's negative emotions until it gets strong enough to live on its own.

[silikat]

Atop the Fourth Wall and @animatedtext - 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12

[atopthefourthwallsecrets]

Watch when Harvey Finevoice calls Lord Vyce a rejected Power Rangers villain at the end of the Delicious In Dungeon review. Even though we can’t see his face, you can tell that Vyce is HEAVILY considering murdering poor Harvey right then and there.

[thewhitefang97-blog]

Never been much an artist, but that doesn't mean that you still shouldn't try and improve doing something that you enjoy. The moment in this most recent atopthefourthwall strikes true to one of my favorite cliche loves with villain redemptions. Lord Vyce is an amazing antagonist, but for me he's even cooler to see him now forcibly aligned with the other heroes of the Comic Review Show. I don't draw much, and I don't seem to post much either. But first time for everything I guess. @atopfourthwall

[dansdaughtersartweb]

Original concepts for the AT4W animation I did ages ago, honestly I’d love to revisit that animation at some point, knowing what I know now.

[thevalleyisjolly]

5, 30, 57 & 92

5. South by Hippocampus. This is a nimblebird recommendation, who sent it to me as a Vyce song and was absolutely correct as usual.

30. Vide Noir by Lord Huron. From the playlist our DM made for one of our campaign arcs!

57. Fred Astaire by Jukebox the Ghost. Just a fun little bop!

92. The Woods by Cosmo Sheldrake and Erin Robinsong. Another auto-recommend but kinda cool, always a fan of good harmonies.

[at4wplotguide]

Linkara wraps up a conversation with an unseen Lt. Munroe, thanking him for some unseen help. Linksano confirms that he’s expanded Comicron One’s transporter buffer to be able to hold a hundred separate objects, intended for an expanded arsenal for Linkara, in case he meets the Entity while he’s trying to hijack Comicron Two. 

The satellites in Earth’s orbit spark to life and fire beams of green energy into a single point in space, creating the pocket dimension trap for the Entity. Linkara beams onto Comicron Two’s bridge and quietly moves to the command console, where he lays in coordinates for the trap. Comicron Two moves away from Comicron One and onto its new course. 

Linkara starts to signal his crew to beam him away, but the Entity appears behind him. Linkara takes this opportunity to ask the Entity why it’s come back from its apparent death--but the being reveals it is a fragment of the Entity that it left behind in this world, as a means to potentially return.

With that, the fragment halts Comicron Two in its path and turns it to face the other ship. Linksano detects that Comicron Two is charging weapons, and Vyce orders him to fire at the opposing ship’s weapons systems and engines. The ships trade volleys of fire, but even with Vyce’s impressive new weapons, the Entity is able to use its unearthly reality-warping powers to instantly repair damage to Comicron Two, and even bypass Comicron One’s temporal shields to seriously damage the vessel.

Back on Comicron Two, the Entity invites Linkara to make his next “move”, and Linkara attacks, but none of his weapons have an effect. The battle continues outside, and Vyce opens the security channels on Comicron Two so he can see how Linkara’s fight is going.

The fragment taunts Linkara and boasts of its domination of him; even when it had full control of him, it says, Linkara “could do nothing but sleepwalk”.

Linkara remembers. Dozens of different conversations from the past two years come back to him, both with the hidden Entity and with others, and one idea keeps plucking at his consciousness: “playing a game”.

Linkara slowly lowers his gun, and surrenders, conceding their “game”. The fragment is first baffled, then outraged as it demands that Linkara continue to play. It threatens to absorb Linkara and his world, but he calls its bluff; it hasn’t absorbed the Earth yet, not because it can’t, but because it doesn’t want to. Linkara made it aware of the futility of its existence, and now it exists for this game, putting off the day when it will have to confront its true nature for good. 

The Entity’s eerie composure breaks. It becomes more and more frantic, saying that the rest of it has not returned from the journey into death. It still has no answer to the question Linkara posed to it six years ago. If its existence is futile, and the world after death is truly unknown, then it has nothing... and it is terrified.

The fragment cannot comprehend the fear and feelings of insignificance that assail it so. It demands purpose from Linkara, a way to matter. Linkara suggests that the Entity become human, but it angrily refuses; it has possessed all forms of mortal life, it says, and they are nothing compared to it. It will not abandon its desires for superiority and dominance over the living. But it’s still at the same place; terrified of irrelevance, of the reality of its lessened being. 

The fragment’s static-snowed eyes start to darken. It wonders if the rest of it has found the answers it sought.  Despite everything, Linkara offers it comfort in its final moments, saying that he believes that there is something beyond this life. 

The fragment’s form begins to break up. “Is this--” it says, and then it fades into static, and then nothing. 

Vyce watches from his seat on Comicron-One’s bridge... then declares that this must be another trick from the Entity. He increases power to the singularity generator, locks Nimue out from control of the ship, and strikes 90s Kid to the ground when he tries to intervene. 

The portal to the pocket dimension swells into a full-on singularity--one that will soon engulf the Earth.