#mage build was an ideal entry into souls games

[malignedaffairs]

Tarnished.

[autumnalwalker]

Trick or treat! 🍬

Thank you for the ask.

Assuming this is referring to this Trick-Or-Treat ask game.

As a Treat, here's something for an Empty Names character who's had an impact on most of the cast without ever actually appearing in the story so far:

Carnette Bridgewood's Guide to Becoming Your Local World Cluster's Most Powerful Mage and Making Reality Your Bitch:

Realize that magic exists and that you are capable of doing it. Theoretically speaking, literally anyone can do this, although environmental conditions can affect how easy or difficult it is. All that nonsense about special bloodlines, magical destinies, the shapes of souls, or inherent "sparks" of magic is just sophomoric overcomplication of a simple principle. All that is required to become a mage is believing strongly enough you are. To internalize this as a fact of existence as inherent as gravity or your possession of a physical body. In time it will become more true than either of those.

Enjoy your first steps into bending reality to your will. If you ever stop enjoying what you do at any point in the process of following this guide, take a break from whatever you're doing and go on a holiday to reconnect with that joy. The burdens of power and the archetypal narrative of your abilities being a curse are traps. Don't fall for them.

Don't blow yourself up*.

Realize that any supposed rules of magic and the plethora of magic systems practiced by countless mages across different worlds are all bullshit. There is only one rule of magic, to wit, "Perception dictates reality." This is true both on the small scale of individual perception and the large scale of collective consciousness of all sapient beings. You must learn to manipulate both. If you are to become truly great you must internalize this lesson to the same degree that you internalized your identity as a mage.

Once again, don't blow yourself up.

Acquire knowledge and mastery of many different magic systems. Yes, I just said they are all bullshit, but they are useful bullshit. Your understanding of their bullshittery will eliminate the usual barriers to entry to learning them that everyone else locks themselves out with and will eventually allow you to ignore their inbuilt limitations when they don't suit you. Playing along with the widely-accepted charade of these systems' rules will allow you to tap into the collective consciousness that believes in them, thus setting everyone else's will to work with you rather than against you when practicing your magic, thus increasing your power output.

Begin mixing and matching aspects of different magic systems. It is good practice for making up your own rules from scratch later and (just as important, if not more so) everyone will find it cool and impressive.

Seriously, don't blow yourself up.

Build a reputation as being a powerful mage. Ideally, you've been working on this before now, but this is where you should really be kicking that into high gear and making it into your primary focus. You already believe that you can do anything; now you need to make everyone else believe that too. The more people that see you as an unusually powerful mage, the more that perception will be integrated into the collective consciousness and consensus reality. Eventually outright breaking or making up the supposed "rules" of magic, physics, time, math, or psychology will become easy as the will of everyone who believes in your reputation as a powerful mage is added to your own will.

As the culmination of the previous step, find out who else is most commonly considered "the most powerful mage". If there is no consensus on that, identify a historical great.

Make an extremely public showing of surpassing the target you identified in the previous step. Going after a living rival? Discredit their theorems. Make better constructs, potions, and art. Duel them if you have to. If they do not accept you as their better and become proud to call themself your ally, then humiliate and crush them so thoroughly that they can never rise again and none would dare touch them for fear of being dragged down to their level by association. Setting yourself up against a historical figure? Find out everything they were famous for and do it better. If they were hated, undo their legacy and heal the scares they left behind until they fade into obscurity. If they were loved, make yourself seen as the one true successor to that love.

Do whatever you want. You are the most powerful mage in the world. Reality is your toy to have your way with. Have fun. If you get bored with it all that's a skill issue. Enjoy your life and don't blow yourself up.

Stay out of my turf.

*In this context, "blow yourself up" is to be considered a shorthand for any of the innumerable ways in which your use of magic may result in the cessation of your conscious existence (death, vegetative states, fates worse than death, etc.) whether by your own hand or another's.

[2-jarz]

Best Anime Available on Netflix 2019

8. Kill La Kill (2013)

1 season, 25 episodes | IMDb: 8/10

If I had to sum up Kill la Kill in two words, they’d be “fashion battle.” Broadly speaking, its story is pretty much beat for beat what you’d expect from a series about a magical teen — developing powers, last-minute turns of the tide — but the specifics are just bonkers enough to keep that from being a weakness Which are some of the best anime on Netflix. At Honnouji Academy, clothes bestow supernatural abilities on their wearer, turning the usual high school hierarchies into a battleground. At the center of it all is transfer student Ryuko Matoi, who’s come to Honnouji in search of her father’s killer. Her sidekick, a sentient sailor outfit, puts her on the level of the school’s student council, allowing her to tussle with them in her quest for the truth. More modest viewers be warned: the series’ focus on clothing also lends itself to a significant amount of fanservice. As the series progresses, the outfits get skimpier and skimpier until there’s barely anything there at all.

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UFOTABLE

7. Fate/Zero (2011)

2 seasons, 28 episodes | IMDb: 8.3/10

For those looking for darker fare, Fate/Zero should hit the spot. As may be obvious from the fact that the driving event behind the whole series is called “the Fourth Holy Grail War,” it’s heavy stuff. The war is a contest between a select group of mages and their attendant spirits. (The spirits, in one of the series’ strangest gambits, range from Alexander the Great to King Arthur.) They compete for the power of the Grail, which will grant a wish to each of the winning pair. The resulting assortment of competitors doubles as a mix of ideals and morals, and the shifting balance is one of the best aspects of the show. Though there’s a fair amount of comedy mixed in, it’s quite a bleak series, with a death count to rival Game of Thrones and eldritch horrors to contend with, to boot.

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NETFLIX

6. Castlevania (2017)

1 season, 5 episodes | IMDb: 8/10

Even those unfamiliar with anime are likely to have heard of Castlevania, as the franchise is one of the jewels in Konami’s crown. The anime series is produced by Netflix, and boasts a voice cast including Graham McTavish as Count Dracula, who vows revenge against Wallachia after the death of his wife, and Richard Armitage as Trevor Belmont, the last of a clan of monster hunters, who leads the fight against him. (Matt Frewer also features in the cast, which should be a treat for any fellow Max Headroom enthusiasts.) There’s blood a-plenty, and a nice balance between monster and man as per most gothic horror stories — as well as a somewhat romantic aspect, as Dracula is portrayed as a sympathetic villain. The series is also just gorgeously animated, and with a first season of only four episodes, well worth your time.

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ANIPLEX OF AMERICA

5. Fullmetal Alchemist (2003)

1 season, 51 episodes | IMDb: 8.6/10

Fullmetal fans and newbies alike are somewhat spoiled for choice when it comes to Netflix’s offerings: Fullmetal Alchemist and Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood are both available on the streaming service, alongside the recent live-action film. But we’re here for anime, so we’ll just discuss the first two. For the purposes of this list, we’re counting both series as one entity, as Fullmetal Alchemist is a seminal property, but not to fear, I’m not about to leave you in the dark. Both Fullmetal Alchemist and Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood are adaptations of the original manga, which tells the story of two brothers, Edward and Alphonse Elric, as they search for the Philosopher’s Stone. In an attempt to bring their mother back to life through alchemy, they’ve been transformed. Edward has lost his leg, and sacrifices his arm as well in order to save Alphonse’s soul, binding it to a suit of armor. The Stone is their ticket to restoration. The more recent Brotherhood hews much more closely to the manga, whereas Fullmetal Alchemist essentially turns into an original series about halfway through. In the end, they complement each other’s strengths and weaknesses, but if you have to pick just one, I’d go for Brotherhood as the “canon” experience.

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ANIPLEX OF AMERICA

4. Rurouni Kenshin (1996)

3 seasons, 95 episodes | IMDb: 8.5/10

Like most other entries on this list, Rurouni Kenshin was adapted from a manga series (which appeared in the legendary Shōnen Jump magazine). The title refers to its protagonist, Himura Kenshin, a former killing machine who is now committed to helping others to try to atone for his sins. Of course, his love of peace is challenged when it becomes apparent that someone else has assumed his former mantle as an assassin and plans to throw the Meiji Government into chaos. The characters are all well-defined and well-developed, with the biggest hook being the contrast between Kenshin’s apparent happy-go-lucky attitude and vow never to kill again, and what we know him to be capable of due to his reputation. He’s also a walking example of the way the series focuses on period to tell a story rather than using it simply as set dressing: the show takes place during a transition period in Japanese history, and Kenshin is just as much in flux.

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VIZ MEDIA

3. Inuyasha (2000)

2 seasons, 167 episodes | IMDb: 7.9/10

Inuyasha is the rare franchise that manages to strike a balance between cute and horrifying. To liken it to a current pop culture phenomenon, it’s similar to Outlander, in that its basic plot sounds like something out of a romance novel: a young woman, Kagome, is sent back in time, and must then contend with forces beyond her reckoning, all while getting to know a rambunctious man (well, in this case, half dog-demon), Inuyasha, to whom she seems to be mysteriously bound. There’s plenty of time-travel fluff to go around, but in Inuyasha’s case, it’s augmented by nightmare fuel in the form of a host of demons searching for the magic jewel in Kagome’s possession. The centipede monster in the first episode sets the bar for how unsettling these monsters look, as well as the show’s overall structure as a sort of monster-of-the-week affair. To that end, the show can get a little repetitive, but the cast is uniformly great (including Inuyasha’s antihero brother Sesshomaru, who I think I can confidently say is “the hot one”), and the balance between fun and horror is a rare find.

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FUNIMATION

2. Attack on Titan (2013)

1 season, 51 episodes | IMDb: 8.8/10

Since the manga began in 2009, Attack on Titan has become something of a cultural sensation. At present, only the first season of the anime, which was produced in 2013, is available on Netflix, but it works on its own. (It’s also notably a series that benefits from being available to binge rather than view doled out in segments, as seeing it all in one fell swoop — or a few swoops — makes its repeated cliffhangers less obvious and thereby more tolerable.) Broadly speaking, it’s almost a mecha series, as the driving force of the plot involves fighting giant creatures (the Titans of the title), an enterprise that only starts to become truly tenable when it transpires that one of the human characters, Eren, is a Titan, himself. The difference is aesthetic: the Titans are awful to look at, as they are basically giant humans with their skin stripped away, and their muscles contorted to look as terrifying as possible. As for why it all works, it ultimately comes down to the focus on the coming-of-age stories and how each character’s arc dials into the anxieties that are part and parcel of growing up and dealing with loss. The series is also fairly brutal when it comes to reflecting the realities of living in what is effectively a war zone, as every character is fair game when it comes to Titan fodder. Equal parts steampunk romp and war story, Attack on Titan is one of the best anime series in the game.

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VIZ MEDIA

1. Bleach (2004)

3 seasons, 366 episodes | IMDb: 8.2/10 Bleach has it all. It’s stylish as hell, it’s incredibly well-acted, it’s genre-fluid, and on top of that, it’s well-written. Though it starts out fairly simply, it builds and builds, transforming into an epic that more than earns its place in the pantheon of great anime. The story begins when Ichigo Kurasaki, a high schooler capable of seeing ghosts, takes on the duties of a Soul Reaper in order to protect his family.  It’s a transition that the show handles beautifully, and does again and again as it progresses. The world of Bleach (and the mythology involved) just keeps getting bigger, without ever falling short, or falling flat. The series is also impossible to peg as one genre or another, as there are elements of almost everything baked in. It’s an epic, and unmissable as such. Creator Tite Kubo’s style is just the cherry on top of the cake.