#maybe I am just making fun of the characters in a cutscene

[elizabethrobertajones]

trying to work out if there's any symbolism to characters having green/hazel eyes in Stormblood is futile... they all do. That said, Hien and Yotsuyu being unknowing cousins or half siblings would be the most tragic option. Hien being Gosetsu's kid because of his past throuple with Hien's parents is the best option.

Also funny: Lyse and Zenos are the blonde/blue eyes symbolically linked pair being youths competing for nations like she took all his whimsy and concern for other people in the (symbolism) womb. But if you throw in that Sadu is the other character with blue eyes, you just get a GREAT squad who would meet to brawl in the carpark at night, every night, in the Modern AU.

[burningcheese-merchant]

PLEASE MERCHANT LISTEN TO ME

I started watching Burning Spice Cookie's flashback in the game and suddenly I started thinking "is that all? How stupid" because there are characters older than him and who apparently haven't had this problem of "boredom from "same old thing" so he leaves the Burning Spice Cookie thing as childish. but then I started thinking, what if I developed this? You see, if a person doesn't have a proper childhood they can develop psychopathic traits (more or less what I've seen in Burning Spice Cookie) so what if he and the other Beasts didn't have childhoods? We are not given any clue that they have grown, which gives us to understand that they appeared among the common cookies as adults.

Imagine that you barely have time to know your own name and suddenly you are thrown into... (I don't know, a battle?) expecting you to help calm everything down. What if, as soon as Burning Spice Cookie was born, he began to be burdened with many responsibilities and having to fight to unify Beast-Yeast into one nation? It would be a good reason why he "got bored" with everything, since some psychopaths have that trait of enjoying causing harm or hating monotony and social rules (it could also be an explanation for your au's Burning Spice Cookie).

I am SO glad someone else sees the problem with Burning Spice's "boredom". We have a million immortal characters in this universe and not a single one has had this issue with their lives. The Ancients live forever thanks to the Soul Jam, and they don't seem bothered by it at all (hell, look at Golden Cheese. She is actively pursuing immortality, for herself and especially for her loved ones). The Elementals are immortal, and they have zero complaints about it. Millennial Tree and Sugar Swan are older than the world itself, do you see them crying about it? Nope. They live and carry out their duties happily. You don't even see this with the ones that actually WERE mortal once. Fire Spirit? He loves who he is now, he's said so out loud in cutscenes in Ovenbreak. Sherbet? Though he misses being with Cotton, he otherwise loves being free to travel and see the world almost entirely unburdened, the way he always dreamed. Frost Queen? She adopted her role and upholds the balance of nature with grace. Life and immortality are only what YOU make of them. The Beasts are a bunch of stupid, selfish babies. The end.

"Not having a childhood" IS an interesting point to raise, though. You're absolutely right: having a tumultuous youth can and often does lead to psychological issues of all kinds, big and small ask me how I know lol. And for all we really know, they WERE born adults right from the jump. How Cookies are born and how they age are SUPER weird in this series and neither is ever explained properly besides "baked in oven", so... What's keeping anyone from imagining characters just born fully grown right away?

With this in mind, and with the points you've raised, we can maybe look at the Beasts like this: people who were brought into the world without being asked (although no one is), and burdened with nigh-impossible responsibility right away. Immediately told to sacrifice themselves for people they do not know or care about, who do not know them or care about them. To uphold a balance they may not understand, nor did they create themselves. Never having been allowed the chance to live and grow as all sapient beings are entitled to; to go out and have fun and be foolish and make mistakes that they end up learning from. They were born abnormal, and they never never allowed to escape that abnormality once. They live only for others, never for themselves, not even for small things. One has to wonder if they even counted as people at all in the eyes of those they fought for, or if they were just archetypes whose faces and actions were used to placate and justify whatever anyone wanted them to.

... Yeah, that sounds pretty shitty when you put it that way lol. It just goes to show how the Ancients are the true rightful owners of the Soul Jam, in my opinion. They EARNED that power, it was not given to them on a silver platter. They were able to live life as regular mortals for a while, then actively sought out that power and proved themselves worthy of it. Hollyberry united an entire region of warring houses. Dark Cacao tamed dragons and brought peace to a long-devastated land. Pure Vanilla endured the many arduous trials of the Sugar-Free Road in pursuit of truth and enlightenment. These are all things that require hard work, dedication, humility, and a certain wisdom that you gain from experiencing life in general. Wisdom that the Beasts may or may not have possessed, because they may or may not have ever been able to attain it in the first place.

As for my Yandere AU Spice... Yandere Spice is well and truly a psychopath (all the Yandere Beasts are). It's the thing you see often with actual stalkers: he's more in love with the IDEA of Golden Cheese than the woman herself, as she actually exists. It's all about what HE wants, what HE needs, what HE expects from her. Pure, utter selfishness, projection and delusion, as psychopaths are fundamentally incapable of empathizing with others (that's what marks them as psychopaths in the first place). With the Accidental Yandere Golden Cheese one, he's the same, but A) leaning a bit more into his bloodlust/enjoyment of harming others (which is also common in psychopaths, like you said), and B) him actually being clever/manipulative enough (at least to some degree) to know how to play into Golden's wants and feed her ego in order to sway her (Golden in this AU is also just kind of a fucked up person on her own, independent of Spice, so it's an unlucky combination). She's not "boring" like everything and everyone else is. She captivates him, she surprises him, she keeps him on his toes. He "loves" her. Therefore, he owns her and vice versa, and he will do whatever it takes to have her all to himself, up to and including hurting and killing innocents (it's not like they mattered, anyway). What caused him to be this way ultimately does not matter; maybe it's that overwhelming burden of responsibility and lack of a choice or a chance to live life that we addressed earlier. Perhaps he was just born broken. Whatever it is, he's a bloodthirsty, selfish, uncaring monster and it is Golden Cheese that he has chosen to make pay for it, unfortunately.

TL;DR Not liking immortality is a skill issue. The Beasts are dumb little crybabies. Yandere Spice is disgusting and should face a wall. I like writing deranged people far too much. I enjoy engaging in meaningful conversation with others about things. Thank you for the ask, I vibe with your thoughts and ideas, I hope you find lots of money on the ground today

[actual-lea]

So who wants to hear about the stupid stupid way I'm playing Baldur's Gate 3?

I made it to Act 3 on my first (original character) playthrough like a week before Patch 5 came out, and after finding it absolutely unplayable (on the PS5) decided it was time to go ahead and start an origin character run for the funsies while waiting on the new patch to fix the Lag Hell. Naturally, I picked Gale. Since this was mostly just for fun/to hold me over until I could continue my other file, I decided it would be a nice time to see what happens if you just refuse to consume any magic items. Of course, if you are not playing as Gale and ignore his Orb Problem, he will apparently eventually leave your party, but what if you ARE Gale? I couldn't find an answer with a minimal amount of Googling SO

There are three stages to his Arcane Hunger, each of which give you increasingly debilitating debuffs: Arcane Hunger, Greater Arcane Hunger, and Severe Arcane Hunger. It seems the triggers for progressing to the next stage are the same as the triggers where he would start needing an item in my other file (i.e. that bridge next to the Blighted Village, entering the temple at the Goblin Camp, the Hag's Lair, etc.) which obviously makes sense. I figure with the amount of contingencies in this game for incredibly specific situations, surely there is some kind of unique dialog or fun cutscene that will play if I ignore the Arcane Hunger long enough and just play through the debuffs.

I played Act 1 completely normally, doing a lil quicksave every time I was about to Long Rest just in case the game gave me a cutscene of the big explosion upon waking up (I thought maybe it would be time-based, similar to the game over you get if Gale dies and you leave him for 3 days (? I think?) which does not seem to be the case). I made it through basically everything without anything odd happening besides the aforementioned debuffs. The Severe Arcane Hunger is where things get really sloggy, because Gale can only move at half speed.

I have been slowly trudging EVERYWHERE since the Goblin Camp.

I eventually started going out of my way to make sure I hit all the Arcane Hunger triggers I know about, to see what would happen, and the answer is nothing, aside from Gale occasionally reminding me that he's wracked with terrible pain.

So, surely, the game will certainly not let me into the Mountain Pass without SOMETHING happening, right?

WELL

That's surprising, but whatever, at least now I have the chance to see what happens if you go meet Elminster without having consumed any magic items,

Except

He wasn't there.

I went to the area in the Mountain Pass where the cutscene is supposed to start, and it just. Didn't happen. Nothing happened. I could walk right up to the entrance to the next area.

But SURELY, the game won't let me into the gotdamn Shadow-Cursed Lands without saying SOMETHING about the fact that the orb has been starving for several weeks at this point, right? The game isn't going to let me into Act Freaking 2 without at the very least giving me a game over to tell me I'm not allowed to do this and make me reload and actually feed this poor starving wizard, right?

RIGHT?

WELL

WELL

Here we are. I'm at the Last Light Inn, I'm at the Taco Bell, I'm at the combination Last Light Inn Taco Bell with a bag full of delicious Cheesy Gordita Magic Boots that I refuse to eat.

SO LIKE. How far does this go??? Am I gonna be able to infiltrate Moonrise Towers without ever speaking to Elminster? Am I gonna trudge all the way to Ketheric at half freaking speed and fight him with Disadvantage on everything?? Am I gonna make it all the way to goddang Baldur's Gate with a Netherese orb that is long overdue to explode???

Like I said, I did not find an answer on what happens if you do this on a Gale Origin playthrough, and at this point, I don't even want to, I just want to see how far I can take this.

I already know I'll have to do another normal Gale playthrough where I actually FEED HIM after this, because I'm sure I've missed out on a ton of dialogue and whatnot, especially from Tara who only ever has this to say when I speak with her in camp:

I am genuinely beginning to wonder if there is actually nothing in place to stop me from doing this. I am wondering what the dialogue options will look like when I get to the "Heart of the Absolute" where Gale would ordinarily want to blow himself up, if Elminster had ever shown up to tell him to do so. Maybe the devs just didn't bother, and figured that no one would be stupid and stubborn enough to play through the whole dang thing while so severely debuffed.

Joke's on them, Disadvantage means NOTHING to Magic Missile Machine Gale Dekarios.

[msunitedstatesjames]

I'm sure I'm gonna be preaching to the choir on this one, Tumblr gamers being who they are, but I don't use any other social media where discourse is really a thing, so here we are. Mild Kingdom Come Deliverance II spoilers incoming.

On other social media platforms, I continue to see people criticize the Henry/Hans romance option, primarily by saying that it is unrealistic and makes no sense. I wanted to address that because personally I felt it to be highly realistic. A couple of disclaimers here, I'm not an expert on the 1400s, nor am I gay or bisexual. But I do have a background in literary analysis, and examining characters and stories in video games isn't so different from doing it in books.

I've seen some people claim that Hans couldn't possibly canonically have feelings for Henry because Hans is based on a real person. I'll address this one first because it's such a patently ridiculous argument. My dudes, I hate to break it to you, but most of the specific details of in game Hans were designed for a video game. I think it's safe to say that every interaction and relationship and event he goes through in the games isn't necessarily a true reflection of the real-life Hans' lived experiences.

I guess, other than that, I really can't understand what people thought was unrealistic about their romance option. Yes, it would have been forbidden and considered one of the greatest moral trespasses of the time. Yes, the punishment for such an act would mostly have been extreme, possibly castration, possibly being burned at the stake. And yet, real people in Europe in the middle ages still had same sex relationships. We know they did because we have real historical information about people being punished for that very reason. On top of that, there have been a number of nobles who were strongly rumored to have same sex relationships, which isn't the same as proof I guess, but it's not exactly the sort of thing you would openly write about in letters to your pals, not when it was a risk to your life. And I hope we can all agree that people interested in same sex relationships always existed, even if they couldn’t be open about it and didn't have the words for it that we have now.

I guess some people are more likely to say that it didn't make sense based on the specific natures of the characters involved. And honestly, I also don't really buy that one. I'm really not sure which aspects of their characters make it impossible or unlikely for them to have romantic feelings for one another.

It's certainly canon that Hans at least is pretty unconcerned about Christian morality. He's out there committing pretty major sins on the regular and is entirely unrepetant. He gets drunk, has unmarried sex, has sex for fun rather than for reproduction, is lustful, is too proud, and even breaks purely human laws such as poaching (though maybe you don't count that one since he is a noble). He loves doing anything he considers fun or thrilling, anything that will relieve his boredom, and he rarely takes into consideration the risks or consequences of such actions. I have no problem at all believing he would be willing to risk having sex with a man under the right circumstances, if only because it would be different and exciting, and I can't imagine circumstances more conducive to this possibility than the circumstances in this game, but we'll get to that later.

As for Henry, unless you play him as a very specific, extremely moral type, I think he's not a whole lot more strictly moral than Hans. Henry can get up to pretty much all the same things as Hans, and unless you're really careful with your choices, he still gets up to things that you don't intend. I play pretty much "in universe moral" characters in RPGs, but even my Henry occasionally steals, loots, gets drunk, and has sex. Some of that was by choice, some was just the result of cutscenes that happened with certain quests. At his strictest, I would say Henry is still at least passively accepting of "immorality" purely based on his friendship with Hans, who drags Henry into his shenanigans more often than not. So I don't think it's impossible for him to have romantic or sexual interest in Hans either, at least based on morality.

I also don't think the nature of their friendship precludes the possibility of a romantic or sexual entaglement. Some people argue that they're just close male friends, and if that's how you play your Henry then that's true, but the nature of their friendship doesn't make it impossible for any other kind of feelings to exist between them in character arcs different from yours. I would say it's pretty generally accepted that by the end of the 2nd game, Henry and Hans certainly love each other in one meaning of the word at least. Obviously they have the love of two extremely close friends. They've been through hell together, and they've both directly risked their lives to save each other when they could easily have left the other to die. You don't often do that for people that you don't love. But loving each other as friends doesn't mean they can't love each other in a romantic way as well, or least have an attraction to each other. Lots of real life couples or sexual partners have started out as friends, and even those that didn't still often consider their partner to be their best friend. So I don't see friendship as something that excludes the possibility of love or sex. (Not to mention the multiple real life examples of soldiers who have fought together, grown close through thier struggles, and eventually ended up growing into some form of sexual or romantic relationship.)

I've listed some of the reasons I don't find their romance to be unrealistic, now let me tell you some of the reasons I do find it realistic and well done.

I've already mentioned that if the circumstances were right, I have no problem imagining Hans trying to hook up with a man. And the circumstances for their romance scene were almost ideal as a setup (which I imagine was the point). Obviously, this would be a hugely risky venture, even for someone like Hans who doesn't worry much about consequences and is generally protected from legal consequences due to his status. So if you were going to undertake a same sex relationship or liason of some kind, I would imagine you would want one of two situations to be true. Either you would want to keep things as anonymous as possible, so there's little chance of your secret getting out, or you would want to be with someone you trust implicitly. Henry and Hans would certainly fall in the latter category. Hans already knows Henry would be willing to die to protect him. Even if the worst happened and Henry was completely disgusted with Hans, he certainly wouldn't turn Hans over to the church to be burned at the stake. Hans might lose his best friend and protector, which would be terrible, but at least he wouldn't lose his life.

The direness of their situation also works in favor of their romance. It adds a lot of urgency to the whole situation. It gives it a "now or never" feeling, that might make people act on impulses they never would have before. There's a good chance in this scene that one or both of them might die very soon. If that's the case, the very serious possible consequences suddenly seem a lot less important. What does it matter that the church might burn you if you're already going to be dead before they have the chance? Even losing Henry as a friend, terrible though it would be for Hans, wouldn't matter much if they were both going to die anyway.

And I think the way they set up the whole scene and the character reactions really adds to the realism factor as well. Henry's initial impulse, to push Hans away, seems very real considering the society they live in. Even though the player as Henry chooses to kiss Hans, Henry still isn't able to bring himself to do it. All he can manage are some vaguely comforting words and a brief clasp of Hans' hand. Hans makes the first move, which realistically, as a noble and Henry's superior, I think he would have to in this time. Henry is ultimately in more danger than Hans here in terms of societal protections, though arguably Hans has a lot more to lose materially. And it makes sense for Henry to be programmed to feel a certain amount of alarm and disgust as a protective impulse to a man kissing him in this sort of society. Hans reacts so well, too. There's so many layers to the emotions on his face in this scene. You can watch him flicker quickly between surprise, regret, panic, self loathing, and resignation. Which seems pretty on point for someone who believes he just ruined his only real friendship and, despite trusting Henry, who might have just put himself in far reaching peril. But then Henry has a moment to reflect and witness Hans' distress, and he realizes what he wants and all the reasons they might as well give it a go, and he very reasonably locks the door and goes back to Hans.

And I think the realism to their romance comes all throughout the game, before, during, and after the romance scene. The few chances you have for Henry to flirt with Hans are all very tame, almost coded and carefully said so as to be easily explained away by any listener (or by Hans if he doesn't feel the same way) as words between two friends. Mostly, Henry emphasizes that he cares about Hans and wants to support him, all things that could easily be true between two good friends, especially when one's job is to protect the other. The absolute most hardcore flirting Henry does before the romance scene is to tell Hans that he really cares about him, and Hans will pretty calmly agree with the sentiment. Which, if you're trying to feel out if your friend also feels some kind of attraction to you, but that attraction could get you both killed, is about the best you can do. During the romance scene Hans has to go into an elaborate anecdote about famous knights who just really, really cared about each other. He mentions that there's some aspect of the the tale that he "doesn't have his own words for" (same sex love, anyone?), and he lets Henry point out the similarities between the story and their own relationship. He even goes so far as to imply that he would die if Henry died, without saying it in so many words, which if there's a clearer way to tell someone you love them in a way that you could somehow write off as nonromantic, I don't know it. And then, after hearing Henry tell him throughout the game about how deeply he cares for Hans and wants to spend more time together, Hans still waits until Henry grabs his hand and swears to return to him before he makes a move. Even after the romance, Henry and Hans are still extremely careful to mask their words for listening ears. Henry refers to Hans' "encouragement." Hans refers to "what happened," which could mean anything to an innocent listener, and "me and you." He also mentions that maybe they should find somewhere "more private" to stay, which would seem like a perfectly reasonable thing for a young nobleman to want. They're still, necessarily, being extremely cautious. Which makes it all very realistic to me.

I think some of the Henry/Hans complainers want to act like having a "gay romance" option in the game means the equivalent of what it would mean in modern day or in a fantasy game like BG3. Like they're just going to be walking around 1400s Europe holding hands and making out in public. And maybe that's why they call it unrealistic. But let's be real, whether you choose the romance or not, very little is going to change for Henry and Hans. Hans will still have to get married to a woman, and Henry will probably marry some day, too. There's a good chance they'll both keep sleeping around with whatever women they can in the meantime because at this point nothing would be more suspicious than to stop. At best, Henry will get to stay on in Hans' castle and be his occassional lover when he has to settle down to start a family. All that seems like a pretty realistic rendition of how a Middle Ages same sex relationship would have to look, so I have to wonder how all these people are finding this relationship to be so "unrealistic?"

[wayfayrr]

Alright, I wonder how long an ask can be. U asked for it!😝

Also, if u were curious, since I’ve only played Botw and most but not all of totk, 98% of the time my yandere self-aware ideas will be of Wild/Tears.

How does Wild/Tears feel about the fairies? Like, is he embarrassed that reader has to watch that? Does he worry what they think? Or is he just like “eh, I can’t control their upgrade animations, sorry”. Then how does he feel when reader thinks it’s kinda cute/funny? I don’t want to traumatize the poor guy, but I must admit watching the level four animation is slightly funny bc I feel so bad for him. And in level three when he covers his face is cute.

What about when he just has to sit there for 10 hrs his time? Listen, I wanna upgrade the darn champion’s tunic but the stupid upgrades require 2 of each farmable dragon Zelda item. And I couldn’t find her for so long it was annoying. Ik she follows a certain path but even so u have to just keep following the path hoping u eventually run into her. So I just decided to farm an item, then sit there for 10 minutes r time until she’s farmable again. So how does Tears feel? Am I wasting his time? Is he bored? If he had an animation for it would he fall asleep? Would he glare at me for making him sit there for 10 hours? Plus, ima be honest. For those 10 minutes of me just waiting, I’ll usually scroll on my phone. I’m not gonna stare at the tv for 10 minutes, sorry lol. So is he mad that I’m not paying attention to him and stuff?

What about if I laugh at him? Alright, I don’t do it That much lol, just if I make an embarrassing mistake w him and he looks a little funny. Would he be embarrassed? Mad? ….?? I think he’s cuuute! It’s fiiine, right…?😭

Thinking about my one ask where I used him for science, totally not using bombs on him for any other reason! Anyway, so I have to admit, his overheating animation I like. I’m all for angst/whump w characters. Whenever I read AO3, 98% of the stories r angst/whump for Wild/Tears. Sicfic? Yes please! Nightmares? Yes please! Psychological torture? Sign me up! There was this one fic someone wrote about Wild being hit by a curse that trapped him in his memory next time he unlocked one, so he had to watch it over and over and over. The rest of the chain had to save him. Tho, if it makes u feel any better, I only like happy endings, no open ended ones, no sad ones, or character deaths. Nope. Fairy tale where they all lived happily ever after please and thank u lol. So anyway, I got sidetracked lol. My question was, would he be mad if I just put the game on the clothes menu when he’s overheating so he doesn’t lose any hearts over it, just watching him do it for a minute or two?

Sometimes I need to wear like one clothing item per outfit so I can use like 3 different abilities. For example, maybe bandana to climb faster, gloom shirt for an extra heartbreak, and snow pants bc it’s freezing? And sometimes I’ll complain that he looks ugly, well, not him, but the outfit, and say that I wish I could make him look cuter but I need these abilities atm. Does he hate the outfits like I do? Does he care more about function? Does he hate that I care so much?

How does he feel not being able to talk? Like literally every other character can talk except him. And he can’t do anything by himself. Everything he does is either a programmed animation or an action by my controller. I bet he has a lot he wants to say but can’t. Does he ever worry that if he were to get out and see me, what if he couldn’t talk to me??

🐰

yeah it's always a lot easier to think about the links you know better for stuff like this ngl, so I don't blame you for sticking to them. plus wild and tears are just fun too right? :3c

so starting from the top -

I think the fairies are a touchy subject for him, if you like the cutscenes then he can set his discomfort about being picked up and kissed somewhat - don't get me wrong he doesn't enjoy it but for your happiness he'll do it as many times as you make him (although, unless he finds a way to override the controls then it's not really like he has a choice in it) he'll make notes about how you like him acting in certain ways though - I mean if you like seeing him as a blushy mess covering his face in the game then you'll like it more when he's doing it in person right? Please don't make him recreate the level four one though.

To be honest, there's nothing that you could do to him that he could ever consider a waste of time. would he prefer you to be actively engaged? sure. Is he bothered if you're still there but just waiting for a bit for the dragon to recharge? Not really, yeah he'd prefer to be doing more, but at the same time it gives him a chance to observe and to get more of a grasp of how the game works while it's on and running compared to when he's robbed of his body and is left a being floating in a desolate void of numbers and machine code. He can relax and still have feeling and eyes on you and your eyes on him every now and then even though it's not as often as he'd like. as for the time? I think once he became aware he stopped running on hyrules time, so it's only ten minutes for him too. Ten minutes that granted feel longer than that cause of the scenery, but still only ten minutes. if it were a situation where he was still in a hyrule then he'd be further detached from anyone else. (my thoughts are if the game is left in standby on the switch then it's all still loaded and the links have free reign but if it's closed and you're playing another switch game then it tosses them into the abyss)

laughing at him for being cute is all good but please don't make fun of him ;-; he's only doing what you make him do after all!

I need to write more whump and hurt/comfort for tears actually, thanks for the reminder Well, he's not getting hurt by it -soooo he's kinda a bit deluded into thinking that it's another show of love for him. You simply love all the sounds that he's making <3 (and I don't blame you, his whimpers are actually just so adorable?????) You care so much that you're not letting him get hurt for your happiness!!!!

I think he takes it as a compliment that you care so much about how his outfits look, he wants to look his best for you too!!! If he could he'd find a way to stack the different bonuses so that you could treat him like a proper dress up doll without having to worry about the environment and how it impacts him :c he doesn't care what outfit he 'wears' cause it's not like he's actually wearing and interacting with it. it's glued to him like a second skin so whether you're keeping him shirtless or putting him in the thickest shirt possible there's no difference to him just don't mod him so that he's no longer himself please

The fact that there's a chance he wouldn't be able to communicate with you is something that he worries about alot, not even just not having a voice. He'd be fine with being mute if he can write or sign to you, hell he could probably delude himself into being fine that he couldn't do that if he could move freely and hold you. what scares him the most is the idea that he'd be like a puppet cut, that if he gets out that without the code acting as his strings he falls limp like a puppet cut loose. that's what's horrifying to him. anything else he could learn to live with, but that potential keeps him from making any rash movements where the cost could outweigh the benefits. I like to think that out of desperation, (this goes for sky in the fic too) they stole another characters voicebank from another game :) one that speaks your native tongue preferably, but at the very least one that shares a language you speak

[followfire]

Beware random ramblings because my mind is agitated:

Finally watched Genshin 5.6 teaser and I'm both so hyped to go back to Mondstadt and have all the lore drop and the storyline just seems so so so fun, but also... extremely worried about how things are going to unfold and how frustrating it could be... And I know I'm definitely not the only one to think that but yeah...

Let's just say that I was ecstatic to see Jean so big on the poster...and then I saw Kaeya and... This is going to be about Kaeya isn't it? Again? I mean this is obviously going to be about Albedo and that makes sense, there's so much lore around him waiting to be explored but... Kaeya and Diluc are going to have an action scene together on the bridge* and Kaeya is going to be Albedo's lawyer and Kaeya is also lore relevant because Khaenri'ah... and Jean is going to be a judge. Which is extremely cool- I mean she's going to be like the supreme authority in this matter or something but... it also means she's probably going to have to be neutral for a long time so maybe not participate as much as others... like... i don't know... kaeya for example...

*(do we need to mention that this is going to be Diluc's second action cutscene on that bridge...? yes i think it's relevant to mention that this is going to be diluc's second action cutscene on that bridge while other fighter characters (*cough cough* jean *cough cough*) don't even have one)

Anyway this all ties into something that's been bugging me about the way Hoyo and also the fandom very often portrays Mondstadt... In which they pretend to give a lot of credit to Jean just to undermine it later on...

Jean is the very first nation leader we meet in the game, even if we quickly learn that she's actually the Acting Grand Master and that there is another Grand Master somewhere. She does the job and does it well, even with a lot of Knights away, everyone respects her, it's great. But then we're introduced to Diluc "uncrowned king of Mondstadt" Ragnvindr and Kaeya "does the secret dirty work behind the scenes" Alberich and I have the feeling that a lot of fans see Jean as just the good face of Mondstadt while the boys are actually the efficient problem solvers, because Jean is a goodie two shoes and the guys are bad boys so they have charisma on their side... :c oh and also they're boys so they have charisma on their side :) (<-angry smile)

So yes, regarding upcoming events, Jean is going to be present and is going to be a judge and it's going to be so so cool. But if Kaeya is shown doing all the work to uncover the truth while Jean just sits and watches and judges... that kind of ruins the thing for her character :/

Also, I'm very hyped about Varka being closer and closer to us, but also I have a feeling he's not going to be the "50+ years old and it showes" buff guy with lots of battle scars that are not fashionable that I want him to be and I'm already frustrated about that... I'm not ready for the disappointment... D':

I'm already planning to tag my fics with "non canon compliant Varka" ; "Varka is old" ; "Varka is buff"... We've had way too much time to headcanon Varka and I don't want to have to let my buff old Varka go... :<

Not really relevant but also I'm so far behind storywise that I just know I will get spoiled about a lot of things before I get there myself, or will not be able to enjoy it the proper way, which is no one's fault but mine obviously, but adds to my overall fear and frustration regarding the return to Mondstadt storyline Y^Y

That being said... I am a big fan of trial storylines so I can't wait!!

(Also for fic reasons, I had a lot of questions about Mondstadt's justice system and who takes care of it, even if it was for a very different kind of trial scenario, so this will surely feed my thoughts! c: )

[glassjoeandgreattigersssimp]

do you have a personal ranking list of PO boxers from most bae to least bae

Yeah! Here it is ^^ (pretend Great Tiger is above the 10/10 category)

(Tw: me personal opinions about the top boxers ahead! If you disagree, that's okie, but it's just my opinion lol)

(Tw: also talks of sex)

- Wouldn't date King Hippo because I hc him as a straight up animal and the more I think about it... he's probably my least favorite character. I'm so sorry @ohshy

- Passing on Doc and the Ref bc they both bland imo... although I'd put Doc above the ref bc he's got a good personality and we could be friends, bit I wouldn't wanna do anything bae-like with him

- Passing on Sandy too bc he's scary and bland at the same time. He's bland in the fact that his only personality is "boxing" (off topic but I'm tired of ppl saying the other characters aren't boxers bc they too cartoony... like bruh, if you want a realistic boxing simulator with super serious straight-faced boxers, go play an ea game lol) and like... that's it. He's just the strongest, and not in a fun way. But he's also scary bc if I met him irl I'd feel too afraid to even have a normal conversation with him... nevermind find any attraction for him. Also his haircut in his title defense mode is whack

- Whoever said Bald Bull borders on being ugly and handsome is 💯 on the money. Sometimes if I think of him long enough, I could see him as hot? Especially nowadays now that I'm more engrossed into the characters... but him being bae is kinda problematic bc of the obvious issue of his rage issues... like ik Arans got that issue too but Aran is something else, and even if Bull wouldn't break my pancreas if I pissed him off, he'd be at the top of the date category at most.

- Dragon Chan is THE most Bae spo boxer. I like their hair, their build, their unqiue fighting style... I wish they had a more defined voice though... and a 3D sprite. Really, if DC was in the Wii version of punch out, they'd be way up list. They're a rough draft of what would be a smash, but with some development, DC could be soooo freaking attractive.

- Soda is tall and muscular... I love his himbo vibes, but that's about it. His skin is pinkish red (which isn't really a handsome attribute- like tf are you Patrick star-) he'd be an awesome cuddle partner, and would probably treat me right, but that's about it.

- Bear Hugger is also a great cuddle partner. First of all, stan body diverse boxers, second of all, he loves animals and nature, which is a wonderful personality trait. I like his carefree attitude, his squirrel, I like Candian-ness, and with the right art style, he could be really handsome. But there's also the obvious turn off that keep me from smashing him... he probably smells bad, no matter how much I lie to myself, that's probably the truth, and while I praised his confidence to be a boxer while also being chubby, I feel like that could get in the way of smashing... and general appeal (not saying chubby people aren't attractive! I'm chubby too, but in this particular case, it doesn't quite work!!). A one-night cuddle stand would be nice, but I wouldn't go further than that.

- Macho Man is an absolute character. He's got so much personality and spunk, I like his voice, his confidence, his half surfer persona... he's probably a poster child celebrity crush for most people in the PO verse. The thing is, I probably won't do anything long-term with him. This gray-haired, fake tan hoe is NOT loyal! He's surrounded with girls in most of his cutscenes... very, objectively beautiful ones... that sorta makes me think I, being the NOT rich, skinny Hollywood stereotypical beautiful girl I am, would either be out of his league or the first one he ditches. Basically, I'd love to at least cuddle with him and maybe have a breakfast date, buuuut I can't truly love him. He's a southern California boy, and I'm a northeastern girl.

- Piston Hondo is incredibly unproblematic. He's definitely loyal, has his values in place, he's got a great build, a handsome voice, he's strong... I absolutely see the sex appeal, Hondo fans. It's very high... but I don't think I would pursue him. I feel like if we were in a relationship, I wouldn't fully be comfortable. I feel like he'd expect a lot from me to live up to and to put it simply... he's way out of my league. Tbh, I wouldn't have a chance with ANY of these fictional boxers, but with Hondo especially, I feel like I'd be lying awake every night thinking, "He deserves soooo much better than me... I definitely did something wrong today..." So yeah, I'd almost smash, but I don't think I could commit to him. I know my reasoning is really dumb, but idk, I'd feel really nervous around him if we did become official. But damn, would he be a great cuddle partner... wonderful one night stand contender, too. Love ya Hondo, but you're TOO good, honestly.

- Our first smash! Disco Kid! Love Disco Kid... he's full of life and smiles, he dances through life like it's a party... he's good-looking, carefree, he dances, he's rich and successful, he's got a nice voice... and I absolutely love how he doesn't hold any hard feelings for Mac when he loses. He picks himself up and comes back swinging and having even more fun doing what he loves. That's so mature of him, and he's the youngest opponent you face (being 20 years old)... if everyone was like Disco Kid, the world would be a better place. There's one teensy weensy thing keeping him from the REAL baes... he's got endless energy. I feel like he'd be the type of guy that wants to party all night and then still be up for doing stuff with you the next morning. So yeah, I would love to smash with him, but nothing committed because I feel like he'd be too much for Lil introverted me.

-- And now, the top 5 baes 💜💜💜💜💜-

Don Flamenco 🇪🇸 🥀

- If you asked me what I thought of Don Flamenco when I first entered the fandom I would've been like "he's okay lol bros got that goofy ahh total drama headshape".... but now, I think Don Flamenco is a total bae. This man will shower you with attention and romance, he'll dedicate boxing moves in your name- he dances, he has a gorgeous twunk body, his voice and accent are absolutely gorgeous... Don is a dream boat. And the more I think about his story with Carmen, the funnier it is, because he takes it so seriously and goes full on emo... it's kinda pathetic, but in the best way possible. I love Don sm, and him being bald isn't a turn-off at all. Whether it's natural male baldness (that he's having at 23, oof) or if Carmen actually ripped it out of his scalp, or what not... I'd really just accept him for who he is. Isn't that what love is about? <3

Von Kaiser 🇩🇪 🔩

- There are sooooo many fucking sexy things about Von Kaiser... I have to just list them

- Absolute stud, body wise. Would 100% sleep on his chest. Also, he looks HOT ASFUUUUCK in that white tank top in his title defense cut scene!!! (You know the scene lol)

- I love his voice and accent, just like Don (voice means a lot to me, personally)

- I like that he has experience working with kids, bc as someone who also used to work with children, that's like- such a huge appeal, being able to have the maturity and ability to provide protection is so charming to me personality (I have mommy and daddy issues haha 🥲)

- Look, he's got obvious mental problems, but I kinda love him for that. It makes him deep, and it makes me root for him 10x more than I would for little Mac because I don't know what happened that messed him up... personally, I don't think it was a war, but perhaps it is some form of ptsd? I just wanna heal him... let us bang, but let me hold this man by the face and tell him he's amazing and worth it. Idfc if he's 42, he's a handsome, hurt dilf, and I want him.

Aran Ryan 🇮🇪 😈

- Listen y'all... Aran Ryan is problematic, and you shouldn't be with someone like him irl... but he's still really fucking hot. Do I have to explain it? The muscles, the red hair, the ever so slight stubble he has, his Irishness oozing from his voice (Irish people are biologically based and sigma, objectively. Source: I am 0.000262% Irish 🤓/hj). He could break my pancreas if he gets angry, but he's handsome, and I would thank him for it. And yeah, I kinda like the crazed attitude, sue me. Look, straight male mfs will argue how they could "fix" stereotypically beautiful fictional women but will freak out and cry "problematic" when women acknowledge how handsome Aran is. Fuck you straight men, I LOVE ARAN RYAN!!!!

Glass Joe 🇫🇷 🥐

- Do I gotta say anything? Glass Joe has got to be the cutest damn Nintendo character ever, and I mean every word of it. He is sooooo freaking adorable and sexy. Everything about him is either beautiful or cute. I love his hair, his eyes, his adorable French accent, this skinny build which differs and is unique from the other boxers... I love his simple, ordinary life. He chills, loves pastries, he loves his home city. And bro, that black sweater on him... too cute!! But he isn't a straight weakling either. Like, he's not the strongest, but he'd definitely try to defend you if you ever run into trouble. Dates with him would be the sweetest thing, and fucking with him? Utter bliss. I love you so much, Glass Joe. You deserve your fans and your online fangirls.

Great Tiger 🇮🇳 🐅 💜

- Great Tiger is the single most sexiest man ever placed into a Nintendo game. Fucking fight me... he has everything a perfect man would have. He has a gorgeous hourglass body, well groomed facial hair, that beautiful buttery voice (Great Tiger asmr when Next Level Games???), he sings, he dances, he knows magic (which objectively makes sex better, I would know, don't ask), he's powerful, but he's also got a sense of humor... Great Tiger is just perfect. He is absolutely top PO mareiage material, nevermind bae. His only crime is being a difficult fight.

[real-fire-emblem-takes]

I don't get why people hate on different fire emblem games. I've had a lovely time with every game I've played, even fates, which people for some reason insist sucks? It's so good. Here's my favorite things about each game I've played just cause. I am very sick so no one can criticize me btw.

Binding: obviously goes for all gba games but the battle animations are so!!!!! Lovely and charming. Roy's just a silly guy, Lilina :], the cast is excellent, everyone from the most insignificant playable characters to the nastiest of villains like Narcian and Jahn is just so fun and nicely written.

Blazing: I LOVE THE ELIBEAN LORDS SO MUCH THEY HAVE MY ENTIRE HEART AND SOUL. I think fe7 has my favorite cast. Everyone is awesome like in fe6 but cranked up a notch. And I quite like how this game isn't about war!!! Lyn's just trying to save her grandpa and Eliwood is searching for his dad. There's some hints of civil war here and there but ultimately less war than usual which is quite fun and interesting.

Sacred stones: I adore how the game is like. almost horror. In my ideal fe8 remake they would lean into the horror aspect a more and maybe have a higher age rating. I really love how it starts out like any other fe game then you start to see monsters and then there's the necromancy and characters like Riev who worship this vile demonic thing. And the art director for this game was Wada Sachiko! She was such an excellent choice for the art director because her style leans into the darker feel than fe6 and 7. Also I'm a Christian so I do really enjoy L'Arachel's character where she's obviously inspired by Christianity but not in an offensive way. She's a nice god(s) (?) honoring teenage girl full of whimsy and optimism!!! Also I love Eirika. Did a cosplay of her once and gotta say, I felt drop dead gorgeous in it lol.

Path of radiance: I have yet to finish this one but oh MAN do I love the artstyle and combat and character design. Not a single bad character, they're all nicely written. Except Devdan but he's not real if we ignore him. I love how believable Ike and Mist are as siblings and I got say I actually find the bad voice acting to be charming, especially in that opening cutscene where Mist says something like "you're finally awake! 'bout time!" like she's so silly and cute I would die for her. I also really love how Ike is not royalty, he's just some guy!!! With autism!!! Like for a while my view of Ike was kinda skewed by looking at super smash bros content of him so then playing the game and discovering he's such a kind, reasonable and autistic dude was a very pleasant surprise. Seriously though this dude NEEDS to get assessed. Anyway I quite like the laguz too. Reyson, Tibarn and Caineghis are my favorites and I'm excited to see more of Kurthnaga because he's got such a pleasant design. Also just. Caineghis is probably one of my top favorite character designs ever, like top 20. It goes so unbelievably hard.

Awakening: THE TRAGEDY. THE TRAGEDY OF EMMERYN'S DEATH. UWAAAGHHHHH. I love LOVE how Emmeryn is written, how you can't save her despite Lucina being able to time travel, how you're given the options "save Emmeryn? Yes or no?" and it doesn't matter if you pick yes cause she dies anyway. The cast is not quite on the same tier as fe7 or 8 and there's certainly some characters I do not like but my favorites really are just so wonderful and lovely. I'd kill and die for Henry, Maribelle, Libra, Gregor and like 5 other people. The child unit mechanic is also very fun! It's such a clever idea for a time travel game and it gives you so much control over how your units end up. The self sacrifice ending also makes me feel sick. /pos "there's better places to take a nap than on the ground, you know. Here, give me your hand" and then Robin reaches out to Chrom and the symbol of Grima is gone and when he pulls them in closer, he says "it's finally over." just. Ahdhdjsjsjsj!!!!!!!

Fates: now, I've only played birthright but it was a very nice experience. I went in expecting nothing and had my socks blown off. Combat is fun, characters are so silly billy and it's got such a nicely done representation of a broken families. It's nice. The characters and supports are nice, even if I do feel like we could've had a few less support chains. And idc if I doesn't make sense story wise, bringing back child units was fun!! Again with the unit customization but also it's so fun to give your favorite character a teenage/preteen kid that they have to deal with. Azama and Mitama's supports are peak silly. I think people would enjoy birthright more if they took it a little less seriously. It's full of whimsy and people ignore that in favor of comparing it to more serious games which I think is kinda unfair.

Shadows of Valentia: oh MAN. I LOVE THE TWO ARMIES MECHANIC!!!! And bangin' cast! Absolutely adore almost every single one of those gay bitches!!! The artstyle is so gorgeous and I hated the combat at first but grew a soft spot for it, it's so strange and I like it!!! Also the game is less hefty so my computer had an easier time running it than POR, awakening and fates which is quite nice too. I love Berkut's character (I won't defend him, he's a son of a bitch) and MAN Ian Sinclair really went HAM on that voice acting!!! Also Zeke and Tatiana feel handcrafted for me specifically. Angsty married couple? Where one has amnesia?? And the other is worried he'll leave her if he remembers another woman he was dating??? And they're voiced by Patrick Seitz and Cristina Vee, two of my favorite voice actors ever??????? SIGN ME UP!!!! I'm excited to eventually play the Marth games and see what else is up with Zeke :] also adore Celica, Silque, Jesse and Boey! Very nice, solid characters.

Three houses: different routes! DIFFERENT ROUTES!!!! You get to see all sides of a war and it's so fun piecing together the history of Fodlan and nature of Rhea's character as you play each route. And again, excellent voice acting!! And it was fun being in the 3h fandom when it first came out and seeing all the silly things the VAs did together. I've got like 400 hours on this game and it holds a special place in my heart cause it was the very first game I finished without help from siblings and it was my first fe game. Also banging soundtrack, fun and unique combat (LOVE battalions) and amazing characters.

Enage: now I'm only 8 chapters in, I think? Haven't been able to play it recently. But it's so fun! Before getting it, I hated the bright artstyle and character designs but they've grown on me and I have been enlightened so I now know that f!Alear is a cutie patootie and I love her. I love the mechanic of adopting animals. Like I am quite happy recent fe games have, in some aspects, become more a little more lighthearted and silly. I love variation in game series' and when the devs aren't way too formulaic!!! That being said I also love the archetypes!!! I just really love fire emblem :]

I'm excited to finish engage and POR and play more of the games :]

Sorry about the long ass ask, I'm full of love and I want people to know it because I wish other people could learn to be a little more positive and focus on the aspects of fe games that they like instead of being hardcore haters. Okay now everyone say thank you Senri Kita (fe9 art director) and Wada Sachiko

.

[itsmelloww]

Cod character thoughts (v unserious) 💭

my favourite thing is going blindly into something thinking ill enjoy one part of it and then my focus getting derailed entirely

i got super super sick and in my bed bound life i got into COD (through tik tok initially, im not ashamed to admit it i know what i am) but it was only just for Keegan really (its the eyes, chico)

I remember seeing edits of Ghost and I was like -- yah i get you guys, but eh not for me. Anyways, NATURAL progression was to get super into ghost as well, especially when i got into the full gameplays of mw2n3. (think it was the writing for me - i thought he was just a macho guy but looking into him made him v interesting)

But when i got into COD to begin with i saw the big love for characters like Price, Soap and Graves to name a few and i was like -- huh. Really? Big respect, i support yall but personally i didnt get it (i think realistically just bc of how 'flashy' keegan ghost and konig were , to an outsider who didnt know the games initially, everyone else looked like sidecharacters, does that make sense?)

but damn now i GET IT

I FUCKING get IT.

Price was so easy to get into (for reasons i, a young woman with a distant father wont be stating...) but Soap was a SHOCK to me, i was so focused on Ghost honestly. I thought he was fun but that was it, and then ig he just crept up on me until he finally took me by a chokehold and i havent been able to breathe since. aNYWays, 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Scuotland Forevahh 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 ‼️‼️

Being into Graves is FUNNY to me tho. like whenever now i get an edit of him i get so giddy cause YESSSSSSS💥💥💥💋💋🦅🦅💅🏻 -- hes just one of those crushes that Im just very amused by the very fact that I do like them , i love that american so much. hes so sassy and for what.

----

Who else can i talk about .. Oh, Gaz is CRIMINALLY underrated? I am not into him as a man (the way im into Soap or Keegan i mean) but hes so smooth and handsome i find it shocking more people are not into him. Hes such a good character

Alejandro is a beast but we know that so i am just going to shoutout my man Rodolfo cause omg, hes one of those side characters that REALLY sell it? Hes so smooth and cool and honestly love him. That moment where he was near getting burned before getting saved by Alejandro? His voice omg. I saw a TERRIBLE edit of him on tik tok but it was the first one id seen of him and i was so pleased i liked and saved it looool

Laswell as well omg - i love that woman with a passion. Tbh all the characters are sooo interesting im so invested in it. I know im thirsting but on a GENUINE level i really appreciate all the characters and the writing and the effort the writers put

Very unconventional but shoutout also to Shepherd cause he SUCKs but i love his attitude and the way he talks so much, u go general ! (to jail)

I never expected people to be into Makarov so i was so shocked when i saw the hUGE community behind him but honestly... looking at the game cutscenes a lot - i get it yall. I do. (i love how 'quiet' he is btw, it adds such an edge)

Anyways, transitioning into Ghosts now - i find the characters a bit weaker there but theres something so warm about that game that makes you really care about the characters? Idk how to explain it but i just find the game so endearing. maybe its the setting or idk what, i cant say.

My heart HURTS for Logan, i know yall want a sequel but if it means finding out how he suffered id rather we all stay in the blind forever I CANT DO IT I CANT

Keegan ofc is my fave, i think hes so talented and skilled and so impressive honestly (bloom's voice helps so much...).

Hesh also grew so much on me, he can be so chaotic but you can tell how much he actually cares and its very endearing

Idk its just a game where it feels like all the characters really care for each other (i guess 3 being family does help lol) so you just really get into it.

Anyways, v into it so far. I need to get into the original mw games but its in the works lol. Really enjoying it tho overall.

[strobbylemonade]

canto 7 pt 3 spoilers and thoughts and stuff

i really didn't expect her to be like.. locked up. by herself. its so sad. i feel so bad for her in the lighthouse. also the I WANT YOU poster cracked me up.

vergilius calling her "my lady" was cute. i thought we were going to get more of their friendship this canto but apparently not. maybe later :( but also what's up with his eyes?? who's his old friend??? WHO did he take the eyes from?? it's not don quixote because he still has his eyes, so it's either the bloodfiend moses spoke with, or it's the progenitor?? or there's more first-gen blood fiends we don't know about.

adding more guesses to the dante's identity flame:

dante is bari/the bookhunter

dante is vergilius' "old friend"

dante is the bloodfiend vergilius got his eyes from

dante is verigilius' old friend who IS the bloodfiend vergilius got his eyes from

dante is dante and their old self is destroyed

dante is an extremely powerful unknown character who gets their memories back but after their canto they pull a don quixote and chooses to live the rest of their lives as the dante we know

sanchos expressions were really really awesome. she's just so... augh....

THESE GUYS REALLY PISSED ME OFF.

i'm not smart enough to understand the implications of this. but ??? sinclair standing up for donqui?? yaaaayy!!!! the sign??? and also him paralleling bari is definitely not a coincidence. i wonder what the mark of cain has to do with it all.

i didn't notice while i was playing but sinclair starts blushing when he asks her to open up. they're so cute. and they're trying their hardest to be vulnerable to their fucked up lil family. i love them.

WE GOT OUTIS LORE!!! LET'S GO!!! this was surprisingly vulnerable of her... and dante's response of "I will. As long as they have the will to change, to move forward, I will be there for them." was great. also girl what do you mean TENS OF THOUSANDS??? i'm starting to think outis has a lot more guilt for the smoke war than she lets on.

uhh and speaking of change that's another theme that's popping up more interestingly enough. yi sang, sinclair, and being "unable to change" is what caused heathcliff to distort. interesting narrative theme. (starts side eyeing dante and outis). also change being one of the biggest themes of library of ruina, with roland and angela needing to break the cycle of the City to achieve their good ending.

bari is cool as shit

the cutscene that follows this where they're all talking about how much fun they had with donqui through the stageplay was genuinely both so cheesy and sweet i almost cried.

oughhh i'm not bothered to grab screenshots from every part i enjoyed of the final point so we're doing dot points again!

sancho's backstory of being born alone and wishing to die before don quixote gave her love and life was... holy shit. "That is why you saved my life from the periphery of death... tried to share your love... and made my heart beat again."

again with the themes of suicide. the original don quixote sees sancho as special because she doesn't want to inflict suffering on others and instead simply wishes to "burn myself to ashes like I was never here". and that's how she gets her first family. because she suffered alone. and then don quixote makes his children suffer alone in la manchaland.

"I don't know who I am" lyric in Hero hits really song. YEAH I FORGOT TO MENTION MILI PEAK!!! it really feels like some of their older music, especially something from mahoyaku (the Big Moon in the background during the final phase certainly helped). the second part sounds especially like Cast Me a Spell. or something from miracle milk with the way the instrumentals and sfx sound. i really like it.

DON QUIXOTEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE WAAAAAAAAAAA WAAAAA

"She was incandescent, like a brilliant star twinkling in the night sky. / That very brilliance compelled me to reach out and hope." OUGHHH. dante's role in this chapter has been really interesting... they're like her, they're chained to their past but are also playing the role of someone who they don't know who they're meant to be. they have a really passive role in bringing sancho back to the Gang, with the other sinners stepping in to help her moreso than dante themselves, and then at the end, it's sancho who saves them, acts as their star, and gives them their dreams back (of having all the sinners together as one big happy family).

and just. holy shit. this entire sequence.

I DID NOT EXPECT A QUICKTIME EVENT!! big cast a spell vibes... i genuinely gasped when the fireworks went off..

LMAO SHE'S MAKING FUN OF HIM FOR THE ROCINANTE THING. also kyaa hong lu's teaching dante how to smile!!! i'm sure this won't have any terrifying implications next canto!!! definitely!! there's some interesting parallels to what donqui said about dante having an "expression" and what demian said about being able to hear them all the way back in canto iii, because donqui/demian listen to their "heart" and not their actual face/voice. interesting

also new dante sprite please???? please??? new dante pose perhaps even??? please????

interesting we're getting the clock ticking closer to doomsday after canto 7 and not 8. with the trajectory they're on, doomsday will happen during or after outis' canto (and before faust's). fun. can't wait for the random lore drop next intervallo/event where they take turns feeding don quixote their blood. please. please. please???

mili peak. pass on peak. feelings peak. augh. i love my idiot family and their pet Cosmic Horror Entity. although i would argue it's a family of 15 and not 12!!! i love found family!!!!

[weaponsdrawn]

alright I'm seeing people explode about the April toons 2025 ottoman fight time to throw my hat into the ring

Personally, I believe that Lynn was ABSOLUTELY not in the wrong/their actions not as terrible as Thomas says they are, AND as people say they are. I also believe that Thomas is being insanely irrational here in a way that does not line up with his character, and could be taken as bad writing. And these statements can co-exist.

About Lynn. Simply ransacking and stealing some random objects is TAME compared to how some of the other toons in game act. Hell, it's tame compared to what our PLAYER TOON does! There's multiple tasks that involve exploding cogs and stealing their body parts or whatever is in their person! Thomas didn't even explode or seemingly need repairs(????), he just got trapped under the drop gag. All Lynn really does outside of this is scavenge around, be a little pushy/uncaring, upcycle, and eat burgers with the peel. If anything they're a super fun character!!!

About Thomas. Yes people act irrational when emotions run high, and feeling like your trust has been broken can be a very emotionally charged moment. The thing is. We don't really know WHY this made him so upset, beyond just him chewing us out at face value! Thomas is a lot of things, but he is especially relatively even tempered, yet loyal and inactive to a fault. The only other thing we've seen that gets him THIS upset is Crystalline, and even then that's also tied to how he feels like she's "ruining" Robert and he's feeling pushed to the wayside by his brother!!! And with toons, Thomas seems to be relatively nonchalant/neutral, despite them opposing COGS inc. Hell, even back in the 2022 COO "fight" he casually mentions that Louden dropped a piano on him, and this is all he has to say about it.

"My brother wasn't happy."

So how come Lynn's arrival is any different?! Was it because it was at the HQ? I doubt Thomas was just casually wandering about given how swamped he is and how Robert uses him as sentient stilts, and this was before he became a part of the knitting club, so he didn't have much of a reason to be out and about.

I'm not expecting the game to spell literally EVERYTHING out for us, but what I am saying is that my suspension of disbelief can only go so far, and it makes no sense for Thomas to be so heated about a random toon arrival and attack where all that happened was

A gag fell on him and he was trapped for 10 mins

He had to do extra work in the form of the inspections

He had to report it

And yet he goes so far as to lump us in with Lynn, give US a "reason you suck" speech, call them a PEST (he's only broken out insults of that nature for Crystalline, everyone else he dislikes it's just "I don't like them for this reason"), talk about it like it's a massive betrayal, and overall just seems to utterly despise Toons now??? What???????????

I'm not mad that he hates toons now, or that he got mad, im upset because it makes no fucking sense!!! If he even had SOME line mentioning that "oh Robert was right about you" or "and Robert yelled at me Again for not taking care of the company" or whatnot, I'd find this even a BIT more believable! Because when it comes to Robert, he VERY CLEARLY values his brothers opinion and has this lingering feeling of "he's not as bad as he looks". And he mentions Robert was upset at him years ago for the missing t-shirts! Maybe he could reference that again to make it more clear that his judgement is warped by Robert's judgement. But nope, he just feels this way now because FUCK YOU I GUESS!

If anything, it's also doing a massive disservice to Lynn, which I'm also mad about. Sadly, they don't stand a chance compared to the years of presence and character building dialogue Thomas has. And it's a shame, I like Lynn! But outside of the talks with Reid, and the cutscenes, our major first impression of them involves a character who's otherwise neutral (in a sense) to our presence doing a COMPLETE heel turn for no reason that fits his motivations and thinking, all because of something Lynn seemingly NORMALLY DOES, and he's like "ohhh you were plotting with your FRIEND to ignore our agreement fuck you"

Like. What??????

Tltr uhhhh this year's ottoman battle fucking blows why did the writers have to create such a contrived reason to make Thomas no longer talk to us

[fortune-maiden]

The Hundred Line: Romance Route

Finished the Romance Route for better or worse and...

Wow what a terrible first route xD

(Thoughts and spoilers for the whole route)

I guess for a start this route made me realize the 100 endings thing is less 100 routes and more maybe 10+ routes with several endings each. Romance Route had 8 endings. Curious to see if it's an outlier in that sense or what I should expect going forward

Things I liked:

Some of those endings were really fun actually! I liked Tsubasa's ending, the Nozomi rejects you ending, the fake out Harem ending, and the Graduation ending. But my favorite ending was the one where Takumi rejects all three girls & denies feeling anything romantic for Nozomi and then just proceeds to break down about how stressful and exhausting the whole thing was and gets comforted by Moko. It really sums up all my feelings about this route, and Takumi really deserved the comfort

Moko herself! She didn't make the best impression on me as a combat unit before the route split, but getting to see her playful side, and her caring, protective side towards her girlfriends is beautiful. The way she shut down the harem ending and apologized and comforted Takumi for the whole thing in the Forever Alone ending was also really nice

Tsubasa & Kyoshika's chapters were decent enough. Though I'm not sure if it's because anything was good after Kurara or because they were genuinely cute in their own right. Kyoshika was cute and silly, and Tsubasa was just more of Tsubasa being one of my fave characters in the group. So overall I am left with more positive feelings towards them!

The way the girls all comforted whoever got rejected. It was just Moko for Kurara, then Kurara & Moko for Kyoshika, and then all three for Tsubasa. Girl friendships are always so nice, especially in a romance route like this! I genuinely like that they never made the girls needlessly catty towards each other and instead had them being supportive. At worst it was just Kurara being Kurara.

Getting to mess around with the Safety difficult and learn how to one-round bosses was also really fun.

One rounding the Supreme Commander after the first Kurara Chapter Battle especially was sweet beautiful vengeance.

The Bad

THERE ARE NO FREE TIMES IN THIS ROUTE! From Day 24 - Day 100 you are locked into endless cutscenes and battles. Sure I got enough BP out of it to start giving my characters lots of upgrades BUT I HAD TO FIGHT SO MANY BATTLES JUST BARELY STRONGER THAN I WAS AT THE END OF THE FIRST ROUTE!

I also have like zero materials so even when I do get another Free Time, I'll need to spend it exploring instead of upgrading anyway T_T

It is. Extremely. EASY. to get onto this route. Like if you're someone who goes back to the last decision when you hit an ending or plot lock, and your first two choices where No -> No like mine were, and it's very easy for them to be that when the character whom you'll have a strong affinity for is nudging you towards those choices specifically. I'd probably hate this route a lot less if it wasn't my first full route in NG+. Could I have jumped to another choice at any time? Sure, but I like seeing things through to the end.

Having to experience those NG+ battles for the first time in this route is especially painful because they! are! Interesting! I would much rather be exploring the plot and implications of that than ignoring them as soon as the battle ends and spending 75 days with [Insert Girl Here]

Also have I mentioned that EVERYONE outside of Moko, Kurara, Kyoshika, and Tsubasa becomes a non-entity in this route? There were so many opportunities to include moments of Takumi interacting with the other characters so we can see what's happening in the school while the bs game is going on and hearing their thoughts or giving us a chance to learn about our main girls from other characters like we did with Hiroko on the day you go to if you DONT get onto this route - that's just insult to injury really! But also the group dynamic was something I really loved in this game and losing that completely for this route makes me really worried about other routes.

(I also just generally got worried that Takumi was being deliberately isolated which is um... maybe not how you want to structure a romance route of all things?)

Also who wrote this route? I want to know to avoid their routes! D:<

The Ugly

I can't decide if it's a good thing or bad thing that this route front loads it's single worst part. On the one hand, it means starting from Day 50, the route gets consistently better, but on the other it means Day 25-49 is completely insufferable to go through

In other words, if you had any sort of positive sentiments towards Kurara before this route, YOU SURE WON'T AT THE END OF IT! Congrats Kurara, you've become the single character I went from being whatever towards to ACTIVELY DESPISING!

And no her Romance ending doesn't make it better. It makes it WORSE ACTUALLY

I'm genuinely left under the impression that being isolated in his room for 25 days with her has given Takumi a severe case of stockholm syndrome. It's the only way I can explain her endings, especially the Mask one.

I'm still salty about not being able to absorb the TWO Commanders I had to beat in her chapter. Commander kills were literally my only way of getting stronger here >.>

[itspointydumbass]

My Problems With Veilguard

I've put up a lot of positivity, but I'm getting further in and I have. Issues. Under the cut because not everyone is gonna want to read negativity.

I don't know how to explain it, but getting further into Veilguard, I still like it, but it's just like. I don't know. It's fine. It's fun. But I don't feel satisfied the way I wanted to. There's a lot of lore I feel is missing, a lot of loose ends that aren't getting tied up because they only carried over, like, three of my choices. The more I'm playing the more I feel like I should be wearing a full clown outfit because I waited ten years for this game and the moments that make me feel something (which I've posted about - Minrathous vs. Treviso, Bellara's backstory etc.) are getting outnumbered by intense disappointment. There's a lot of backpedalling going on here and yet I still feel like I need to defend it because the problems with this game have very little to do with being "woke" like some people are claiming. I have to be 20x more invested in this game than I actually am because a lot of the comments are just wah wah it's woke and that. Isn't the problem.

The romances feel bland. I enjoy slow-burn, but it's going at an absolute glacial speed, and it's actually painful.

I barely feel connected to any of the characters. They all got these really interesting introductions, only to fall flat on their faces and be pretty bland from there on out. I think part of the reason is that you can't talk to them out of your Regularly Scheduled Cutscenes. In Inquisition and Origins, you were able to have these off-the-cuff conversations that made the world feel more real and lived-in. You could ask questions of your companions, could agree with them, could disagree with them, could gain or lose approval from your chats. In this game, outside the cutscenes, all you get is them talking to each other. Rook is a spectator to their chats, and it makes me feel disconnected from them.

I'm being handheld through certain parts of the story. Taash's story has so much potential, but at this point I feel like I'm being spoon-fed explanations. Instead of working through a character's story, I'm being told what non-binary means. Over and over again. Again, there's so much potential! Their relationship with their mother, with their culture, with their gender could have been handled so well, but so far it's falling flat.

I know not everyone likes the dialogue wheel, but I always have. Maybe it's the neurodivergence in me, but give me too many choices and I start to agonise a little. I like the fact they've brought back the DA2-style Purple!Hawke sort of responses. I like still having things from Inquisition, like the sad responses and the stoic responses and so on and so forth. Gives a bit more personality to Rook. But some of the replies are just... the same reply in different fonts? Is it just me? Like. Huh???????????

The stakes. Every time the tension gets ramped up, it somehow manages to fall flat again. I'm left with a feeling of that's it? every. Single. Time.

I don't know. I just feel very little need to continue with the game. It's been out for more than two weeks and I still haven't finished it. I've played Stardew Valley 1.6 more than I've played Veilguard. And I'm really pissed because I WANT to like it more. I want to feel more than this is fine about a series I really, really love. But I felt more connected to ANDROMEDA than this. Andromeda had issues, but it wasn't pacing issues and it wasn't nearly as. Just. Dull.

I don't know. Ten years, folks. Ten years.

[xxxkvitravn]

𝐅𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐬𝐞 𝐰𝐡𝐨 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐧'𝐭 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐃𝐋𝐂 𝐲𝐞𝐭, 𝐛𝐞 𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐟𝐮𝐥. 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐬𝐞 𝐦𝐚𝐲 𝐛𝐞 𝐬𝐩𝐨𝐢𝐥𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐲𝐨𝐮

I want to share smth that troubles me.

Just finished the main story of Secrets of The Spires and you know… I've never felt so lonely before, in the ending cutscene. The story was fire, an insane moment with Quaritch too, everything was fun. Still, there is a thing that bothers me. Don't get me wrong, DLC has a nice plot, so many cool cutscenes, but I had expected more. For me the biggest joy was to meet another Sarentu, Rasi. I wish there was more of her tho.

I continue to be tormented by the feeling that our main character will remain on the sidelines of the story, despite of everything they've done, yeah. I feel like we are some kind of killing machine and nothing more. To please all kind of players developers had made a mistake. As a result we have no name, we have no canon gender, we are no one and at the same time we are being someone. So weird. I don't feel connected to our protagonist. In AFoP there are no other options for us except customisation of our hero. You can give whatever name you wish to your Sarentu, you can use your imagination, but this won't change this cruel truth - we are no one at this point. Despite everything, yes. And here they are those little moments of affection between our clanmates. Ri'nela and Teylan, romantic or not, but the way she touched him is crazy and I'm just standing there like 🙃. What a stupid thing, being in a crowd and still feeling lonely. And there is so much talking about Nor who just ran away and left them in the time of great need. I want him back too cause I'm curious how he's doing. If there will be a sequel I won't be surprised either if developers will make Nor some kind of a cool Toruk Makto guy or an Olo'eyktan just to make his comeback epic. Hell no, bro. Unfair. Come on, our protagonist is doing literally EVERYTHING and for what? So much of a reckless tough warrior behavior just to be called a "Kataru's child" in the end, cause we are nameless 😐. I feel like we are forced to see how our clan changes, grows, maybe even fallen in love with each other, while our Sarentu remains still. Who are we? Who is our father? Why there is no a single word about him or us? Even from Rasi. She remembers our mother, but not our father. What the hell?😐 No words about us in the notes or audio logs too. Ubisoft, why? Still, I'm so glad they are not the last Sarentu.

This whole game really has a lack of roleplay options and some details. DLC made me happy, but at the same time it made me think about a lot of things. Maybe I'm not the only one in this.

Or maybe I am.

[alaztheri]

I finished Dragon Age: Veilguard. I am finally free. Some thoughts below the cut if you're interested. It will contain major spoilers.

Overall, I have mixed feelings about the game. I did enjoy playing it, the scenery was gorgeous, and the exploring and treasure chest hunting were really fun.

The main story and lore reveals were also fascinating to follow, but I do agree with a lot of people who said it was heavily sanitized to avoid controversy or not make people uncomfortable. Which I find odd because you can depict problematic themes while also NOT glorifying them.

I was curious to see more of the Titan lore and the Dwarves, but maybe future games. I think Hardings' quest was the most lore-heavy for me.

I can't speak for all romance routes, but for Lucanis' one it was cute, I love a good slow-burn. But this also felt like it needed some extra lines, cutscenes or reactions/facial expressions/body language. Spite is the best thing ever, Bioware will have to pry him from my cold dead hands.

I'm not a big fan of how most of the dialogue was written. Very VERY shallow in some scenes, and sometimes it felt like the characters just had to say their lines instead of talking to each other. Also, can we collectivelly please move on from stupid one-liner jokes every 3 second of a conversation? thx Davrin and Lucanis' bickering is 10/10 tho, kept me entertained the whole game.

The ending felt a bit all over the place, but this could just be me. LOVED seeing Solas in his Dread Wolf form battling that Archdemon. I thought that was really badass. I personally chose the Solavellan ending, because my Inquisitor romanced Solas in the previous game. And honestly, I quite liked this ending. Got very emotional thinking back on all the things my Inquisitor went through to get her to this very moment.

To be honest, I do see myself replaying this in the near future, even if just for the map exploring and listening to party banter while I roam aimlessly through Arlathan or Treviso.

[plushietoon]

May i suggest the lion kid from warioware get it together i forgot his name/j for the ask game?

Send Me a Character!

(YES I'M STILL DOING THIS LATE)

First impression

Who's this punk???

Honestly he kinda flew past me cuz my first playthrough of GiT was at a party and casual players don't sit around for the cutscenes. I know cuz...I was a casual warioware fan once...soon I'll return to being that...maybe...gasp...

Impression now

...Honestly I don't know...I mean he got plot potential...like bullying the twins, having a one sided crush on Ana that he struggles with (hc, think spyxfamily anya and damien), maybe villainous team ups, or just him being a brat around the other characters...

But I don't know...I'm fumbling with him. Let's just say I think he's a lot more popular than what others claim.

Favorite moment

I don't know when or how this thing happens but:

Them fightin' girlies.

Idea for a story

Really need to sit down and write one of those times where Leo is a bully to the twins, moreso Ana cuz of the after-mentioned crush. Like idk...Ana has an oopsy and Leo insults her for it, the Kat kicks his ass. Nah they'd have a struggle, we ain't dissing Leo's strength here. We just know that it feels like Kat prefers being the only one who can make fun of Ana.

Unpopular opinion

Again, I don't think he's underrated. A bit ignored by the general population, kinda, but the vocal part of the WarioWare community adores him the last time I heard from them. And I've been trying to keep my distance. help me.

Favorite relationship

It bears repeating I love the potential conflicts he has with the twins. While I do think some of the other kid ninjas don't think highly of the twins, Leo is like...the epitome of this idea. But I can only say canonically I love his rivalry with Kat. I'm just making up his crush on Ana, but it's a concept I like.

Favorite headcanon

I'm just making this up just now cuz I realize the color similarities but what if he was one of those yellow-clad ninjas led by Ana? I headcanon those guys to not view highly of Ana cuz she got knocked out fast after their asses were handed to them, plus her timid nature...and that the grown ups praise the twins for being so young and talented. Why do I imagine bullying among kids, I am so cruel, oh my gosh...sorry I rambled.

Anyways, beyond that "pulled out of my ass" idea and the crushy blushy one sided terrors that happens cuz Leo can't figure out his emotions, I like thinking he's a lil bro to Vanessa. They spat a lot :3 He feels like a mini Dinosaur to me.

ALSO ALSO, he looks better with darker skin. Stop making him pasty pale Intelligent System. Ko had envisioned him with dark skin >:0 If Daisy can change complexions, then he should be able to too.