#pretty. odd. could be in here too but they're a little different yknow

[thekidsare-not-alright]

I don't need to say anything, the real ones know

[cookii-moon]

Guys focus on the important questions

OK OK so new trailer. No Cole, Jay, or Zane this time, people are freaking out about the Krux and Lilly lookin guys, but I'm here to ask.

WHO ARE THESE GUYS

I mean the obvious answer is that they're just the generic villain faction with little to no importance or depth BUT they look cool and I wanna know what they are OK like where did they come from the little skrunklies.

ALSO while all the mechs are doing their race thing there's just this guy cruising along at the back

Just some random neon futuristic cyclops chilling and just for that frame I love them already like look at them they're so silly

I feel like this guy is just some oni or dragon or smthn. Like... the purple markings... that or some newly introduced species. Or they'll pull a Benthomaar and just never explain it. Also I find it hilarious how we already have Cole using hammers and stuff and then this random guy comes in and not only flexes on him by actually appearing in the trailer but then one ups him by whipping out a massive warhammer with more gold abd over the top accents like dang bro he's not even HERE. (I'm sorry)

Honestly I just saved this for personal use if I end up drawing Sora. Also give them cat claws for weapons. I don't really have any particular reason except for it'd make for awesome action scenes and be thematically fiting.

Okay everyone is focusing on "Oh it looks like Lilly" but are we gonna talk about the puzzle dice thing the magician dude is holding. That looks like something plot relevant.

Okay so this kinda looks like the realm of madness what with the grundle (they're called smthn I CAN'T REMEMBER IT craglings??? ) looking guys, the purple mist, the atmosphere... which If so is awesome because that place kind of just vanished after season 1. That, or it could be the spirit cove, what with.. yknow.. the dragons... or it's some random other realm that will never be seen again. That too.

Also, I will say, seems like a pretty odd choice to have two random ice dragons in Cloud Kingdom.

Honestly I'm going to point out that these ice dragons and the big dragon at the end of the trailer have the exact same color scheme - especially on the wings - as Zane and Cole's dragon forms, respectfully. (But I will also point out that both ice dragons have this color scheme so I'm like 99% sure that's just a coincidence and they just wanted to give them cool gold accents.)

I WILL say, this is probably the most excited I've been for a Ninjago season ever since Master of the Mountain 👀 and to those worrying about Cole, Jay and Zane - Cole and Jay are in the first trailer, don't worry about it. It'll make more sense when the season comes out, I'm willing to bet that the new characters are going to take the lead and the Ninja are gonna have side plots.

Also personally I don't think that's Lilly - or at the very least, not the Lilly we know - primarily because I don't really see why they'd bring her back over literally anybody else, since out of all our dead characters she never really was intended to have any sort of story or arc, she had her story a long time ago when she was a ninja. She already did her thing. Her role is entirely in the marks she left on the world. If they were gonna do something with a Ninja's parent I don't think she'd be the go to pick. But that's just me.

It'd be interesting if she WAS, because that'd mean another Cole arc which YES PLEASE, but I don't think it's likely.

I'm not gonna touch up on the krux guy because it'd make a lot of sense but like why hide his face with nothing more than a tiny visor if you're gonna make some sort of reveal. I mean if it is Krux then this is the guy who disguised himself as Dr. Saunders but now he can't even fathom changing his hair style. I feel like if it is krux then the whole thing is a red herring to get the community talking when really we'll just be told "Oh yeah that's krux" when the episodes come out, or it'll turn out to be a completely different guy.

Okay Byeee

[godtier]

and now for something completely different—

so I'm playing through ffxvi and I wanted to Rant about my experience so far so spoilers

so firstly, and not actually spoilers lmao, idk why this game makes my ps5 so warm. it's honestly not... *that* impressive graphically? which isn't necessarily a dig at it; I'll play anything as long as I can tell wtf is going on and it's fun to play. so idk if it's just yet another AAA game that isn't optimized well or what, though typically console games are *more* optimized... idk! just a gripe.

other than that, I'm seeing some Issues developing narratively... I'm not what I'd call an Expert Writer but yknow it's been noticeable so far. here are few thoughts and gripes with the story:

the inconsistencies in the story. the biggest one so far, and this is what I'd consider p big spoilers, is clive's whole "I gotta come to terms with the fact I killed Joshua" which is like... okay *fair* I suppose, but once he figured out that he was ifrit, yknow after killing benedikta, he... I mean he kinda *did* immediately accept it?? so... the whole "I gotta accept this" part was odd. I have heard tell that it was meant to represent a jungian acceptance of the shadow, or at least that's what people are alluding to in their own theories (and this is all secondhand btw bc I have the tags blocked til I finish)

to elaborate on what jung's interpretation of the shadow is for those who don't know: the shadow is essentially the suppressed subconscious, the things you don't want to acknowledge, for better or worse. it's most typically applied to things like traumatic events, but jung specifically does not commit to the idea that the shadow is *only* bad things. when you confront the shadow, the next step is to integrate the shadow to the conscious mind or ego, which you could argue was why they may have written it the way they did; clive isn't just acknowledging that he did do that (which he pretty readily did when he figured out he was ifrit's dominant) but he's also accepting it as irrefutable fact and integrating it to the ego so it cannot be repressed again.

now... having said that, the *problem* narratively that I'm seeing is that... well. Joshua isn't dead. clearly if Joshua had died... well, that'd be one thing. now they're saying "well ACKCHUALLY 🤓 he didn't die at all!" so that, to me, renders the entire "journey" pointless. what exactly is he accepting? if he didn't actually do it, why or how could he feasibly accept ifrit in that context? wouldn't his subconscious mind, his shadow (ifrit in this case) remain unincorporated? it's just very clunky and I think it was meant to show Clive as an unreliable narrator.... but there's really no one there but Joshua to confront this false accusation. and Joshua is MIA currently at the point I'm in so! who knows!

moving on, Jill is currently nearly a non-character at this point. what I mean by that is she's always just sort of... there. the only times she's shown depth is her speaking about hating herself for what she did with her powers while in captivity. even then, it doesn't appear to be given the attention smth like that deserves; we see a handful of flashbacks from when we fight her at the very beginning... and that's really it. I would like to see more but I have a feeling they will not be showing us

benedikta died way too early. she seemed like she was going to be a character of mild intrigue, but she was killed so very quickly. her and cid's past relationship (whatever that might have been) was only just elaborated on (we know cid saved her from slavery but little else), but I feel it could have been fleshed out beyond that. they spoke in broad terms about how she was and then what she became... but nothing I would consider to be substantial enough, given her connection to a major character. we also don't see enough of her and hugo, just that scene where they practically dry hump in the hallway. we know he cared a lot about her, esp during the scene with her uh. severed head? which... who did that, exactly? they blame it on cid, but we know he would not have done that. but anyway, fleshing out their relationship would have been nice

cid's death. now, it's not that I'm saying something as basics as "he could have lived" which, maybe? and it's not even that they did the whole "oh [mystery person] (it's Joshua) shows up to save them but he's too late!" trope crap. what bothers me the most about his death from a character perspective is his lack of *any* mention of the daughter he supposedly loved so much as he lay dying. now yes, up til that point, we only know that cid has a daughter via a sidequest that people could miss. but that in and of itself is an issue. why introduce that aspect of his character... and then never do anything with it while he was alive? why did they feel it sidequest worthy? they could have just slipped it in as banter or something, maybe gav teasing him or something?? anything?? basically the fact that he dies without nary an utterance of his so beloved daughter, not even her name, was a huge sour point to me. sure, you could argue that he wanted to get pertinent information to Clive as quickly as possible since he knew he was dying, but I would have been satisfied with just a whisper of her name (which I don't remember them mentioning during the sidequest?) and they could elaborate on it later, maybe in a follow-up sidequest??? maybe you find the letter he meant to send her back?? anything??? it just seems so weird from a characterization standpoint to introduce this concept of him melting for his daughter, his daughter being such a soft spot, etc, and then... never addressing it in a meaningful way when he's on death's doorstep

OK this is a dumb thing and not necessarily a negative thing but how the fuck did tomes, a geriatric librarian, survive the raid on the hideout but a bunch of younger, much more spry characters just croaked and couldn't escape lmao. IDK I LOVE TOMES DONT GET ME WRONG but it was just so... idk. funny? I also get it's a game mechanics contrivance as well, given that they built an entire mechanic around him, but idk I wanted to mention it bc it makes me laugh

that's about it for now. if you message me about this tho, pls no spoilers beyond the iron kingdom crystal raid. thank. 🙏

[bug-crimes]

also its not rly a singular character but how abt doin that meme thingy for ori and the will of the wisps (the whole game) (adapt the questions however you see fit)

oh heck this is Fun :oc!! I will do my best :D

first impression:

I came to will of the wisps pretty shortly after playing the first game, and my first impression was quite honestly just how much better it controlled, as well as how delightful the ori animations were!! it was a very very good revamp of the og systems and controls while still being ori in Essence and I was big big fan right off the bat!! it rly felt like smthn that was a Worthy Sequel and not just like. made because they Could, it was a Genuine Effort to improve upon blind forest and I was impressed

impression now:

just... so much love?? so many tears from this game, so much fondness in my heart for the story and the characters and the game itself it's just!! truly it was an Amazing end to the ori tales and just thinking about it gets me emotional in the best of ways, it was truly a special experience being able to play them c':

favourite moment:

"I embraced the light... when my name was Ori."

I mean. how can I not say the end?? how can I not???? it's burned into my Soul and just... the leadup of the whole game to that moment was some of the most beautiful payoff in storytelling I've ever seen, it's incredible just how Powerful the few words at the end of the game were... experiencing it for the first time was smthn I'm never gonna forget

idea for a story:

I would love love love stories about a lot of the npcs in the game!! they all have such interesting little tidbits about them that I think could become really incredible tales of their own, esp as an excuse to see the world of ori from the eyes of someone else! yes I love slice of life and stories that are an excuse to infodump headcanons way too much why do you ask!!

unpopular opinion:

honestly idk if I have any super hot takes on the game?? like my most hot take is probably just that I'm glad there will never be another ori game purely because they managed to tell the Complete Story so perfectly and anything more would just ruin it but I feel like that's a pretty common sentiment in the fanbase sjjcs

favourite relationship:

I'm always gonna be a sucker for naru and ori,,,, with blind forest being p much just about the them and this game having even more family shenanigans I just!!! they deserve the world and it makes me so so happy to see such a good found family,,, they're all so Different and Odd but they love each other so fiercely that they make it work and I just!! it's so soft man,,,

favourite headcanon:

yknow I am very fond of gremblin ori,,, like it doesn't happen much in the game? but just the idea of like, when things aren't Dire when ori was growing up they loved playing pranks and lots of their first interactions with the ancient creatures of the woods were silly little things that made even the grumpiest of them laugh

and even after the end of the game they always found ways to pull little goofs on their beloveds and do special little things to make them laugh and to say "hey, I'm still here and I love you"

I just! think! ori deserves to be gremblin full of pranks and shenanigans, as a treat!!