#raising dion spoilers

[goldyke]

Imagine watching a show celebrating Black excellence which features an unbelievable cast of dynamic, relatable, beautiful, deep Black characters and relationships between all these characters that are loving, familial, and well-developed

And coming away loving on the villain who outside of his villainy is also just an entitled, whiny, mansplaing Nice Guy

[newty]

⚜️ The Light I Hear.

Chapter II. 14,304 words. Major spoilers for FFXVI.

Oriflamme looms like a mausoleum. After reuniting with Terence and Kihel, Dion travels with them across the Royal Meadows and finds peace elusive with every step.

Read on Ao3.

[drabblesandimagines]

Portrait

Joshua Rosfield x (painter) female reader Commissioned piece, 4,600 words (minor end game spoilers) Thank you so much for the commissioner for commissioning me in the first place and for letting me share here with you all! x

“No, no, no.” You’d swear the woman before you should be stomping her foot along to her words, her mannerisms being similar to those of a petulant child not getting their way.

The Empress of Sanbreque is usually a picture of decorum – carefully composed expression, hands clasped, never a hair out of place nor a wrinkle in her gown – but her façade appears to have cracked for she is scowling at you with clenched fists by her side. “Did you not understand my directions?”

You open your mouth, and quickly shut it again. Your mind is blank on an answer, probably looking foolish as you do so. You look at the portrait you’d unveiled moments ago for her private viewing, trying to see what she’s taken umbrage with, though you’re sure you followed her instructions to the letter.

“Your Grace, I-”

She raises her hand, stopping you before you can even begin a defense.

“It is quite clear that you did not.” Olivier, her three-year-old son and the subject of the portrait, sits at her feet, disturbingly well-behaved for his age, even for one of noble blood and upbringing. His eyes almost seemed lifeless at times – unnervingly so – with a cruel smile that was beyond his years. You’d tried to soften it out, is that what had upset her so?

“His Grace has been most pleased with my previous works.” You’d been brought in under the Empreror’s service first – endless commissions of he and the crown prince to celebrate every momentous occasion over the last few years.   

“His Grace has, yes, but only of Prince Dion.” The way she pronounces Bahamut’s name is as if it leaves a foul taste on her tongue. “But these won’t do at all for my darling Olivier.” She pinches the bridge of her nose in exasperation as she casts her eyes over your work once more. You swallow your pride. After all, it is far better to keep in the Empress’ good books than make an enemy of. “I will start anew-” “No – I’ve seen enough. You are dismissed, without pay. Come, Olivier.”

He grabs her hand obediently, but not without throwing you one last cruel smile.

--

Although you knew it would be difficult to remain in the city, you hadn’t expected a group of soldiers to appear at your door that very evening – armed with swords and spears, one holding a scroll of decree and beginning to read to you the moment after your name was confirmed.

“By decree of Empress Anabella Lesage, you are hereby commanded to leave Orinflamme at once.”

“Leave?” You’d planned to move – you knew her handmaidens would make quick work of spreading the gossip of your dismissal, whispering in certain noble ears to make sure the word spread far and wide – but to be banished altogether?

“Leave.” The captain of the guard confirmed, no sign of emotion on his face. “Refusal to comply will be seen as treason, of which the punishment is execution. You are to be gone by sunrise.”

You look around your small abode, trying to work out what you could possibly pack up and take in such a small timeframe – could you scrape enough gil together to rent a chocobo for the travel?

“Furthermore, all of your possessions are now the property of Empire. You may, however, retain the clothes upon your person.” The way in which he says it makes you think that he believes that is being far too generous.

“Excuse me,” a familiar voice calls and the crowd of guards splits. Prince Dion Lesage, regaled in the armour of the Dragoons and spear at his side, walks forward with purpose.

“My prince, there is no need to trouble yourself with such matters as these.”

“The Emperor himself requested my presence to make sure the Empress’ wishes are fulfilled. If you will excuse us, I assure you I have it handled from here and you may return to your other duties.” He casts a scathing eye over the seven men. “I doubt this task required this many of you either.”

“Yes, my prince.” The captain replies, tersely, with only a slight bow of his head, but none of the men make to move quite yet.

Dion’s hand tightens around the hilt of his spear and you are rendered speechless as he grabs you by the crook of your elbow and pulls you forward, out of your home – not even a chance to glance around and bid it goodbye - past the assembled guards and starts to lead you towards the city gates in long strides.

“I am sorry, my lady,” Dion says, softly, trying to avoid prying ears. You have always been fond of the crown prince – he had always treated you kindly in your interactions during portrait sitting sessions over the last few years. “I tried to speak to the Emperor to overturn the Empress’ command as soon as word reached me, but he would not be swayed.”

Your eyes widen at the idea. “Prince Dion, you shouldn’t have. That is far more kindness than I deserve.”

“Nonsense,” he chides. “I just wish I could do more. I saw the portrait before the Empress commanded it destroyed. I cannot think what has offended her so – it was the spitting image of Olivier.” He drops your elbow at last and retrieves a pouch off his belt, holding it out to you. “It isn’t much – shamefully, I am not adept of carrying gil around on my person – but hopefully it will be enough to see you through your travel.”

“No, your highness,” you shake your head. “I couldn’t possibly accept.”

“You must,” he presses the pouch firmly in your hand. “Do not make me order it so. It will be a long journey ahead - my concern is Northflame is too close to be out of the Empress’ influence.”

“I’ll head to Port Isodole – enough nobles reside there for me to gain employment once more, I’m sure of it.”

--

It was tricky upon your arrival to Port Isodole. You wanted to remain positive that you’d be commissioned on reputation alone by some of the Imperial nobles who resided there. Unfortunately, it soon became clear that the word had already wormed its way into eager ears, and those who sought the Empress Anabella’s favour wouldn’t dare to associate with someone she’d dismissed so blatantly and banished from the city itself.

You’d made do with work as a barmaid, part of your wages taking up with your food and board. Slowly, you’d built up your art supplies over the years and remained positive. Afterall, you could have had much worse luck in life than what you’d faced.

Finally, you decided to take a few of landscape pieces to market, hoping that surely enough time had passed - the Mothercrystal had been felled, Orinflamme abandoned in consequence, so why would the people of Port Isodole still hold such regard for the word of an Empress now stationed so far away?

“My dear, these are truly wonderful.” His voice is boomingly loud, surely drawing the attention of everyone in the vicinity. A tall, stocky, bearded man, dressed in finery looked in awe at your display and you so hoped pockets heavy with gil might be in store. “I feel as if I’m actually there, casting my eyes across the horizon once more.”

“Thank you, sir. Is there anything you’re looking for in particular?” “Mayhaps - do you dabble in portraiture?” “I do… or I did. It’s been a little while.”

“And who is your patron?”

“My… patron?” You hesitate, wary now that this is where Anabella’s tarnishing of your name would lead to your undoing.

“With a talent such as this, you must have one.”

“Well, I-“

“Lord Byron”, a man interrupts, looking scornfully at you and keeping his distance. A beautiful woman is hanging off his arm and looking mortified by the whole thing. “I’d be wary of her. Empress Anabella dismissed her from her services.”

“Oh… Oh, my.” He sets his face in a solemn expression and your heart sinks. “Thank you, my good man.” Byron nods his head, giving the man a hearty pat on the back and begins to walk away with the couple. You feel as if you may cry. Maybe coming here was a mistake, but it was as far as you could’ve gone with the gil Dion had kindly given you. Is Anabella’s scorn going to follow you round forever?

You try and steel your resolve for other potential customers – who would want to purchase anything from a tearful merchant? - though many pass without giving your wares so much as a second glance. A cloaked man strides past, hand scuffing your table as he does. At first you think he meant to swipe something from it, but there is only an addition in the form of a letter.

You lean over the table and pick it up, breaking the wax seal.

My sincerest apologies for how we parted. If you would be so kind, please attend the manor this evening and dine with me. I wish to discuss your talent further and, if I may, commission you, the Empress Anabella be damned. – Lord Byron Rosfield.

--

Lord Byron had heard tale of your portraits, it had turned out, but he still wished to see your work first hand before he would tell you what he truly wanted. A workroom was set up for your disposal, a plethora of supplies that made your eyes water at the potential cost, but he had waved it off, declaring himself a lover of the arts. He’d marveled at your portrait of him and bid you come the next day to see the project in full he wished to discuss. As you entered the workroom, the large table had been covered in rolls of what you thought were parchment, but instead turned out to be precious segments of his dear brother’s portrait – the former Archduke of Rosaria, Elwin.

“I fear it is far beyond repair – I was lucky to salvage enough as I did - but I wondered if you would be up for the challenge of a recreation.”

“I can certainly try. There’s definitely enough of his face to base from. And I have your likeness, my lord, to assist.”

--

“Oh, Uncle,” Clive has tears in his eyes as he beholds the new addition to Byron’s parlor. “It is just as I remembered – he is just as I remembered. How did you even get hold of this? I thought everything destroyed after the siege.”

“The original was beyond saving, torn and burnt in places, yes. This, my dear boy, I had it commissioned, using parts of the original as a guide. You see, I have taken into my patronage a very talented artist – allow me to fetch her.”

Joshua’s breath had been stolen when he saw the painting of his father. He could swear if he stared long enough, the eyes would blink in return, that he would see his father’s chest rise with breath once more. He couldn’t help but wonder if he’d be proud of the man he’d grown to be, if he had done the Phoenix proud before the Eikons were stripped from the world.

A warm palm rests on his shoulder. “It is like he is the room once more, isn’t it?”

“Indeed, brother. Quite remarkable. I… I worried I had forgotten his face, after all this time, but this…”

Clive squeezes his shoulder then, no more words needed.

The silence is soon interrupted by the heavy footsteps of their uncle as the door is thrown open.

“Lord Bryon,” you protest, trying to step back but his hand on your back remains firm, “My apologies, but I really am in no state to-”

“Nonsense, my girl!” It is too late for you are pushed in front of two of the most handsome men you think you have seen.

You curtsy, clumsily, and Joshua can’t help but grin. He said you were to meet his nephews and, as he was a lord, they deserved the same respect, however Bryon hadn’t even given you chance to wash your hands, nor check your face in the mirror for errant paint streaks before he’d ushered you to the parlor.

“My dearest nephews, allow me to introduce the talented painter behind this masterpiece.”  

Your cheeks feel hot, a little flustered in the way which Byron had pulled you in front of his nephews with no preparation. Joshua thanks the Founder that he was stood where he was, meaning that he gets to make your acquaintance first. Byron introduces you by name and turns to the blonde first, beaming.

“This is my youngest nephew – Joshua.” You offer out your hand but also curtsy again, forgetting yourself in the fluster. The Empress Anabella would not have stood for it. Before you can retreat your hand with an apology, Joshua takes it in his hand and drops to his knee, pressing a kiss across the back of it.

“It is a pleasure to meet the talented woman behind the masterpiece.”

“Oh,” your eyes light up and Joshua delights in it, already thinking of how he can achieve the same rush. “Thank you – that’s very kind. I admired Archduke Elwin very much – it was an honour to pay tribute to his memory.” Joshua slowly gets to his feet and relinquishes your hand.

“I… I served under your mother – the Empress Anabella - for a time.”

“Yes, before she was exiled for a portrait of Oliver Lesage not meeting her standards.”

“Ah. I pray you do not hold that against us.” Clive interrupts.

“Of course she doesn’t, my boy!” Byron booms once more. “This is my eldest nephew, Clive. Quite the rogue.”

“Uncle,” Clive gently admonishes. “I cannot see why our mother would be displeased with your work. This is… I feel like I can reach out and touch him. You’ve captured him remarkably well.”

You duck your head down in embarrassment, not used to receiving such amounts of praise. The Emperor would nod his approval, make no comment on style or substance, so to have the three sing your praises is a little overwhelming.

“Thank you.” You nod at Clive, a small smile across your lips and Joshua feels a twang in his chest at the sight of it – odd.

“And now this one is complete, I dare say we mu-“

The parlor door is swung open with a bang. Gav stands there, panting, hands on his knees to try and catch his breath. “Sorry, like, but we gotta scram. Imperial soldiers heading this way – caught wind of Cid the Outlaw sniffing about.”

Joshua did not see you for another year.

Regrettably, other matters had taken precedence. Ultima at first, a period of recovery for both him and Clive – Dion lost in the fight, and then focus had turned to helping nations adapt to a crystal-free life and the rebuilding of Grand Duchy of Rosaria. Parts of the castle were still under construction, but the capital itself had been rebuilt and ready to usher in the new Archduke.

“Your grace,” a servant called, diverting his attention from the latest pile of missives left at his desk, “Lord Byron Rosfield has arrived.”

“Uncle!” Joshua beamed, descending the stairs from the castle into the courtyard where Byron was emerging from a carriage. “We were not expecting you quite yet.”

“My dear boy,” he pulled his nephew into a firm hug. “I’m afraid I was far too keen to give you your gift to wait any longer.”

“A gift, Uncle? You shouldn’t have.”

His eyes widen as you emerge from the carriage, a hesitant smile on your face as you nod your head in greeting.

“Nonsense! The Archduke needs a portrait to mark this historical day.”

“Your grace.” You begin, cautiously. “I’m not sure you remember me, but-“

“My lady,” he begins, slyly taking your hand and pressing a kiss against your knuckles in greeting. “Of course I do. I assure you I could not forget one of such talent, nor of such beautiful visage.”

“You are too kind, your grace.”

“Joshua – I insist.”

“Joshua.” The word feels precious on your tongue. “Lord Byron is quite keen for me to paint a portrait of you and your brother, though I’m aware that this is probably quite a busy time for you to have long sittings.”

“Nonsense. You are welcome to my time whenever you wish, my lady.”

--

Joshua would never openly admit to it, but he had been somewhat jealous of Clive in their childhood. Not of the distain his mother had shown towards her first-born son, no, but of the freedom that maternal neglect had permitted him. Though Clive had taken the burden of being the First Shield upon his shoulders without a word of complaint, it was not as if Joshua had asked to be the Dominant of the Phoenix, nor that he had a choice in the matter at all. So many people were relying on him, championing him on, but when he was laid up in bed, downing elixirs and tonics made by the castle healers, he didn’t feel as strong as he needed to be.

Clive could go out wherever he wanted, do whatever he wanted without the watchful eye of Anabella or the gaggle of her handmaidens. He could wear whatever he pleased too, practical things, even. Joshua instead had been draped in the finest fabrics, shipped in from Dhalkmekia that he would be scolded over for dirtying even slightly.

He thought he was old enough to no longer experience such a childish notion as jealousy – he could wear what he wanted, go where he wanted, no longer burdened by Ultima in his chest or the Phoenix in his being… But the foul feeling is getting harder to ignore when he is forced to sit there as you grip Clive’s bicep, moving his arm a fraction of an inch to the left, or the way in which you shyly adjust his shirt, claiming it’s important to have the outfit the exact same in order for the shading, but you never show him the same courtesy. He had hoped for more private sittings, to have your company to himself – perhaps sitting shoulder to shoulder with Clive’s muscular form was doing him no favours - but Byron had requested the two men together in a portrait, so the sessions had been arranged for when they were both free so you could at least get the outlines down, as well as some initial colouring.

You tug Clive’s shirt down a little to try and get it to lay flat – face burning with how your hand ghosted across his muscular chest - it had ridden a little and bunched when he sat. Clive stared straight ahead, hands clasped, ever the gentleman, and Joshua found himself shuffling in position, hoping his shirt might misbehave.

The Founder does not bless him so, as you return back behind the canvas.

--

Joshua arrives for his sitting in a good mood for two reasons – one, it is just to be him as Clive is away in Eastpool for a day or so, and two, he had a plan.

He did have a morning and early afternoon of meetings and reports to get through, but he had promised the late afternoon and as much as the evening for his sitting to take place, and that is certainly enough time to put said plan into action.

“Hello,” You smile brightly as he enters, taking his usual position on the chair.  Joshua has his pose down to a fine art, whereas Clive needed more co-ercing to settle. “Are you sure you have time for this today? It might be a rather long one, I’m afraid I have a lot to get through as Lord Byron is keen for it to be ready for the day.”

“As I said, I am all yours for as long as you can stand me, my lady.”

You nod, stepping behind the canvas and pick up from where you left off. He doesn’t make his move for a good while, watching carefully as your eyes flick between the canvas and him and you begin to mix up paints once more, trial and error as usual as you worked diligently to find the right shade.

He makes his move when you turn back to the table to grab a clean brush, tugging the knot on the laces of his shirt clear and then shrugging his shoulder, revealing a little more of his chest than was previously on display.

You turn back round and your gaze flick between Joshua and the canvas once more… only for you to doubletake. He bites back a grin in celebration. It must be the candlelight playing tricks on your eyes because you could’ve sworn Joshua’s shirt laces were most definitely tied a moment ago. Mayhaps you should open a door – are the paint fumes going a little too much to your head after being sequestered in here all day long?

“Is everything all right?”

“Your, erm…” You put down the paint brush. “Your shirt laces have come undone.”

“Oh, have they?” He shrugs again, his top slipping down his shoulder a little more. “Oh, the shading, of course. My apologies.”

“That’s all right.” You wipe your hands clean on a rag, wondering how it had come quite so undone, before walking over to your subject. “May I?”

“By all means.”

You pull his shirt up his shoulder, lining it up with his ear -  a good reference point - and pull the laces taught to tie off once more. You step back, cock your head this way and that, and then forward again to adjust it once more.

“There.”

“Wonderful.”

You return back to the canvas and begin to paint, brow furrowed in concentration, whilst Joshua feels absolutely giddy that his plan had been somewhat successful in achieving your touch.

So much so, that he cannot resist a tug at the laces once more the very next time he sees you turn your back – this time to take a deep drink of water - shrugging his shoulder once more, so it reveals more of his collarbone. He composes his features, he can’t give the game away by grinning like a child.

You turn back after a few moments and this time notice immediately, opening your mouth to say something but not quite knowing what to say. You’re sure you tied the knot firmly enough to stay put.

“What is it, my lady?” He tilts his head in intrigue.

“Your… Your shirt, it’s come undone. Again.”

“No,” he feigns disbelief, looking down at his chest in surprise. “I only stretched, I assure you.”

“Of course – mayhaps I didn’t tie it tight enough.” You wipe your hands clean again on the rag and stride over, a little less cautious this time as you tug his shirt back up, now standing between his spread legs – when did that happen? - lining it up with his ear once again and tighten the laces before securing it in a knot. You nod, more to yourself, as you check over your handiwork and go to step back.

“Thank you.” Joshua catches your hand as you do so, stilling your retreat. “It is very admirable how dedicated you are to your work.”

“I think it is how I get them to seem as realistic as you say they are – the shading is everything.” Your heart is pounding in your chest by how close you are, stood between his thighs. “I should…”

“Of course,” he releases your hand and by the time you’re back behind the canvas, his legs are crossed once more.

You work in silence for a while, getting fully into the flow now that Joshua’s shirt appears to be behaving. He enjoys watching you work – the way sometimes you stick your tongue out when you are concentrating particularly hard on a certain element, how your brow furrows, how tiny smatters of paint begin to decorate your cheeks and your hair as you dab the brush onto the canvas.

As the time passes, he cannot refuse to chase the thrill of your touch one more time this evening. Clive returns tomorrow and maybe this will be his last chance for a while – he couldn’t so boldly unlace his shirt with his brother sat by his side. He waits for another opportune moment for your back to be turned, and tugs at the knot.

It holds firm.

Your back is still turned, so he tugs again.

Nothing.

He raises his other hand to try and help undo the knot, before leaning up in his chair slightly to see if he can see what you’re doing, how much longer you may be as he continues fighting the knot. He thinks you’re having another drink of water, so he risks looking down, finally pulling the knot free and frantically shrugs his shoulders – a little more vigorously than before as he feels his shirt slip down on both.

He looks up in relief, only to see you have turned back whilst he was looking down, your head tilted as you stare at him in confusion.

Joshua feels his face burn as red as his old cowl at being caught in the act.

You walk over to him again, trying to hold in a smile that is rapidly creeping across your face and feeling as bold as brass. “Although I would like to paint you sans shirt, Joshua, I don’t think your uncle would be best pleased.”

“You would?” His voice lilts before he shakes his head, embarrassment and shame overcoming him. “No, I beg your forgiveness, my lady.” He mumbles, tugging his shirt back up on his shoulders. “I have let feelings of jealousy drive my actions and it is most unbecoming of a future Archduke.”

“Jealousy?”

“I… desired your touch, but I understand that Clive is…”

“He’s…?”

“A finer specimen.” He feels entirely foolish and somewhat pathetic for even saying it aloud – his brother’s body had come from years of enforced labor, for Founder’s sake! “Please, my lady, I beg you for-“

You press your lips against his in a chaste kiss, before pulling back with a shy smile, heart pounding, hoping you’ve read the signs and heard him correctly.

“I assure you, Clive is not the one I desire.”

He lifts a hand to caress your cheek for a moment before pulling you back in between his thighs, a steadying hand on your back as your lips meet again once more – a succession of frantic kisses, as if you are both trying to squeeze in as many as you can before the moment is over.

The two of you begin to slow your rhythm as you nestle yourself upon his thigh, feel his tongue swipe across your lips, seeking entrance. You part them slightly and he is quick to divulge with a moan that makes you tingle.

You have to retreat to catch your breath at one point – never in your wildest dreams had you pictured the session ending with you sat on the future Archduke’s lap, his shirt now hanging open around his shoulders again.

“Please do not say you have to get back to the portrait, darling one.” He murmurs into your throat before pressing kisses across your jaw.

“No. Your complexion is too flush for me to continue,” you tease.

“Good. For I have something else in mind for the evening.”

“Oh?”

“A private showing, if you will.” He takes your hand and places it flat against the exposed part of his chest – you can feel his heart pounding through your fingertips.  

“Where would that be?”

“My bed chambers.”

--

Masterlist . Requests welcome . Commissions/Ko-Fi

Comments, follows, likes and reblogs make my day!

(The tags aren't working for this one - sigh...)

[totaldrama-showdowns]

Submissions for the Non-Human Showdown! Including ones that are invalid!

Fang (x2)

“🦈🦈🦈”

“He's Fang ❤”

Cody Jr (x2)

“Cody Jr! No! Not Aunty Heather!”

Mr Coconut (x2)

“The og. Should have won every season /serious”

vince the alligator (x2)

“SWEEEEP”

“The lore… so immaculate”

the don box (x2)

“bzzz i have a stupid fucking clue for you. ah fuck the interns put me in a lame outfit again”

“what id don on about he's slaying in that shirt”

wt pineapple (x2)

“ALEPINEAPPLE FOREVER!!!”

“👅🐍🐍🐍🐍”

Irene the fish (x2)

“shes so beautiful i’d kiss her too”

“The final remaining member of Team Victory after DJs elimination, Irene went on to win the million and the hearts of many.”

the chrarry baby (x2)

“Goo goo gaa gaa”

“ive got my eye on u chris mclean”

Princess Beth Doll

“I WANT TO BUY ONE SO BAD IRL!!!!! Also, this too is yuri”

Old Jester from reboot S2ep9

“I love when Damien hugged him! That's scene is soooo cute. Also I love fluffy animal!”

Bobo :)

“SEASON 2 SPOILERS Bobo is the name of the bear that had the Raj mask in season 2 episode 12 :) idk I just think he’s silly”

DJ’s bunny

the Chris-shaped cake that Julia's group made

“I wanna eat that thang”

Dramarama Cody

“He's an alien”

Theodore (MK's stuffed unicorn)

(the arts and crafts) Shed (from season 1)

“shed sweep”

that evil little seal from wt

“sooo little and evil. who can hate him”

caleb rock

“possibly the best version of him out there”

the skull duncan carved for courtney

“you cant deny how iconic it was”

eva’s mp3 player

“the most important character in td history”

heather’s various hairstyles

“possibly the most diverse and versatile entity in td historu”

pahkitew island

“The best one”

Myself

“:^)”

ryan seacrests car

“very fast”

chef's car (total dramarama and gen 4)

“MY CAR!!!!!”

alien clone cody

“AAAAAAA*explodes into green goo*”

chris's wig

“wiggin”

heather's wig

“wiggin”

total drama yum yuk happy go time candy fish tails

“You ate it!”

trents five finger shirt

“5”

princess courtney CD

“all the greatest hits!”

owens butt

“fart”

anne maria’s hair style

“Ey im walkin here”

bridgettes surfboard

“BONK”

the fake antlers from the paintball ep

“Duncney”

manitobas fedora

“served!”

beary <3

“it’s LITERALLY beary”

ripper’s world record breaking fart

“he did it”

the portrait of cody as blue boy in wt

“funny looking”

sierra’s pizza box-cum-laptop*

“she uses the internet AND eats witj it. shes a genius”

*Mod Note: this refers to cum meaning: combined with; also used as (used to describe things with a dual nature or function).

waynes accent

“Eh we play hockey eh”

mal ventriloquist doll

“aaah im evil mal doll”

alejandro puppet

“we do a little trolling”

Chef 2.0

“He made him from a cashew”

Mt. Kīlauea

“She has the mercy to have her lava not hot enough to kill Alejandro, Ezekiel, and that random intern like... Everyone say "thank you" or somethin idk. Do you think she feels bad that Alejandro ended up in a robot suit because”

Immunity idol s4-5

“They ruined it's design in the reboot boooooooo”

MK's infernape

“Listen, she's a gamer and she's based. She would totally pick chimchar in bdsp. She probably hates people who tells her to "play platinum" because that was a game made for old people.

Try and exclude this submission, I dare you. There's nothing that says I can't submit theoretical non-humans. There's a non-zero chance that MK has an Infernape and I know it's been raised to have some awesome sneaky move. If you exclude this, I bet you'd allow "Mike's Torterra" because only a grass type fan would be a fire type and MK hater!!

Julia would keep her piplup unevolved and beat her console into tiny bits when she gets to Cynthia btw”

the drone of shame

“[picks up victim and flies away] wheeee”

that giant bowl of rice they fall into in japan

“mm giant bowl of rice”

noah’s dog

“his epic dog”

celine dion cardboard cutout

“love fucking wins #duncney”

the face huggers from Area 51

“rip tyler”

ezekiel MISSING milk carton

“Sad! He died.”

the eagle chris shot and killed

“someone arrest this man. again”

the confessional

“it’s always there for you”

geoff’s splinter

“OW”

the bread from codys pants

“man i need to rewatch island. i fucking love the pants bread”

That ice cream snowman from SMS

“LISTEN. JUST BECAUSE HE IS FROM THE EPISODE THAT SHALL NOT BE NAMED DOES NOT MEAN YOU CAN NOT GIVE HIM HIS RESPECT”

bear

“the one from raptear specifically. let's go lesbians”

that pizza chase threw the challenge for

“clearly he should be with it rather than emma. chemma? chipper? chazee? nope never fucking heard of them”

Momma's Spice

“*sprinkles it on op's head* mmmm tasty”

The Gilded Chris award

WT barf bags

“give a real f to those guys. never appeared after episode 7.”

the toxic marshmallow of loserdom

“killer of staci's hair”

The lavatory confessional

“bitch is iconic. 6/8 is a passing mark!!!”

Courtney's PDA

“why wouldnt they call it a phone idk but its so camp”

The Cassowaries

“Male cassowaries are responsible for raising the young. We love an involved father.”

Fire-breathing winged mountain goats

“You could make an Undertale reference with this (also they're really cool)”

Giant Beetle

“Dott shippers will like this one”

Mutated Maggots

“They're pretty cute!”

Six-Legged Rats

“ADORABLE EEEEEEEP!!!!”

scott bird

“what a beautiful bird”

Chef's car

“It may play a role in mkulia canon”

Gethin

that rainbow porridge in episode 8 of the reboot

“aw hell naw chris cookin up the gay porridge”

The cassowary that fell in love with Zee

“We love an iconic single mother looking for love”

The rat in the cargo hold that appears on screen for 0.5 seconds during Ezekiel's solo in "Come Fly With Us"

“That rat really carried the whole song. Iconic. Astounding. Never before seen talent. Lady Gaga is shaking in her Demonias.”

The Erymanthian Boar

“It wrecked Duncan's shit in Greece.”

The dock of shame

“So many teens walked on her, i think she deserves some recognizion”

gwen's blender necklace

Zoey's hamster (Miss Puffycheeks)

“It's cute and can punch a cat, need I say more?”

[emblazons]

note: ffxvi "the rising tide" spoilers + post-ending lore for an upoming fic I’m writing for phoenixflare week

Once the peace treaties are signed, Clive Rosfield will inherent the Ducal throne of Rosaria alongside his wife, Jill Warrick of the Northern Territories. Dion Lesage will be named King of the Crystalline Dominion (Emperor no longer, as Rosaria has declared themselves a free and independent nation) and Joshua Rosfield King Consort to the Crystalline throne. Because The Phoenix is inherited through the whole of the Rosfield line + as penance for the treachery of Anabella Rosfield & the aid she received from Sylvestre Lesage, the second child of Clive and Jill will inherit the Crystalline Throne—but will take the name “Lesage” during their ascension, to prevent the end of the Lesage line. This compromise is agreeable to King Dion, given he was also granted the rights and titles of the name Lesage. However, the child must be trained from a young age in the tradition of Dion’s house, including in the histories and faith of Greagor—for the Dominion will not suffer a King unschooled in their traditions. While the Rosfields no longer subscribe to the traditions of the Gregorian church, Clive concedes that, in order to best serve the realm, his second child will be a ward raised by their uncles in Sanbreque when they reach 10 years of age (much like their mother Jill was raised as a ward of the Duchy of Rosaria). Given Bahamut is not generally king in the Dominion and all the great bloodlines of the nation are members of the Motes of Light (and therefore all have fair opportunity to sire the eikon’s new dominant after Dion’s passing), the nation reluctantly agrees to this compromise. That said: in due time when the Eikon of Light returns after the death of King Dion, the man (or woman) who inherits Bahamut will be asked to marry and produce the offspring of the second Rosarian son/Lesage King, in order to produce the heir that officially combines the bloodlines of Motes of Light with the keepers of the Phoenix—a task to be completed within three generations.

^^^ It's the way I literally wrote this whole bit of lore for a "GoT x FFXVI" fic after rewatching House of the Dragon...and then ended up with Joshua and Jill repeatedly fawning over a baby in the DLC? Like. I got Clive POV of momma Jill looking onto her darling—and future inheritor of Dion’s throne—while his uncle and future warden looks on lovingly girl they could not have fed me ANY better omg

[vacantgodling]

for anyone in TCOL: 10, 27, 51, 69

thank u for the ask! i think i'll jump around on this one to a couple of characters and i'll just link their profiles (since i can do that now) to give a reference point for who the hell i'm talking about lmaoo

10. Have any of their friendships/friend groups imploded in a particularly dramatic way? What happened?

technically speaking i think the only relationship blowout i can talk about without tetering into spoiler territory would be jace and raaga. i did kind of answer what happened in this ask here, but tl;dr jace and raaga have been besties since childhood, but that friendship turned into one sided resentment on raaga's end. it's hard to explain but the show onmyoji does the concept really well (if you're looking for a short show on netflix to watch the mcs are very gay and the plot has surprisingly a lot of twists i wasn't quite expecting for the kind of straightforward narrative it presents itself as). sometimes someone is just. too good at what they do. they're strong, kind, caring, humble--and a host of other positive adjectives. there's no real reason to hate them for being a good person. but sometimes, being around that type of person can activate those deep rooted feelings of insecurity and jealousy and sometimes it can rear its ugly head and cause you to lash out at that person or, in this case with raaga and jace, something they kinda care about to get even or to exact comeuppance.

jace wasn't as upset that raaga slept with miki and had a child, so much that he was upset that he broke the bond of trust between the two of them. i mean, this was a guy that jace called his brother and whom he'd fought and protected for years and who he trusted to have his back in any situation. the betrayal of that is really fucked. and even worse that he almost killed raaga when he found out if it wasn't for miki holding him back. all of this culminated to jace leaving kiskkaddon entirely to try for guilds because he knows right now he doesn't have it in his heart to forgive either miki or raaga for what happened--and he's always prided himself on being the son that his father raised to a T. so being unable to forgive kinda fucks him up on some level as well.

its a whole mess basically. and like. their entire side plot in the mess of the main plot lol.

27. Congrats, your OC won a cruise vacation! But they can only bring one friend. Who do they pick?

the worst person to ask this question to would be karenza; specifically because unlike her close friend group, she isn't "coupled up" (eryn/kiba or moira/jagoda). it wouldn't make her upset that any of them would choose each other to go on a cruise (if they existed in this world but let's say they do for the sake of the question) because it'd probably be like a romantic get away affair or something and she's okay with sitting it out. but if she had to pick someone to go with... it'd be really hard for her to pick one person cuz she'd feel bad about not choosing the rest.

in the end it would probably be either moira or kiba, depending on who was busy. the two of them are extroverted personalities like she is, and she definitely feels closest to moira generally speaking, but she does love kiba's company to death. it's harder to make her pick more specifically than that lol.

51. Do they have fights with their friends often? Over what?

charissa has fights with her friends (altair mainly, lbr) often. just because she's kind of argumentative and she's stubborn asf so even times when he says something and is correct she just disagrees on principle. to most, they'd get annoyed with that but altair likes arguing so they just argue amonst themselves to the exasperation of everyone else lmao.

i'd also add dion and san to this boat because kind of same hat, but they don't really refer to the people who they're technically friends with as their friends for a long while, because they gotta wait for character development lol.

69. What do they value most in a friend?

what cameron values most is honesty and loyalty. she's ride or die for her friends and the people she cares about so she just wants the same in return.

[letshareapapou]

Just beat ffxvi and while nothing can hurt me more than ffxv this was still pretty close lmao there's one big thing that makes me hopefully for a dlc though sooo 👀

I'm gunna add spoilers under the cut! Just random thoughts I might add to! There's a lot lol

- Okay so firstly since the beginning with Joshua being the Phoenix I really felt he was going to survive with a new 'rebirth '. Which came at the end at the hands of Clive.

We know Joshua lived because Clive seems to heal his wounds and after the credits there seems to be a book titled Final Fantasy written in Joshua's name.

(Now there's so debate on Clive writing it under Joshua's name since Clive is the narrator in the game even after he seems to have passed. And if you do the side quest with Tomes ( Harpocrates) he gives Clive a pen in hopes that one day he'll give up the sword for the pen. ) But I really believe it was written by Joshua.

But to how he survived.

If you look in the lore under the remaking of world in the mysteries of the realm. It says Ultima requires his vessel to cast "Raise" which will revive his race not his faithful. Clive uses It on Joshua and it works since Joshua held a piece of Ultima and was supposed to be a part of the final vessel!

- Under Mysteries of the realm then Mythos. Mythos was supposed to be a vessel made to cast a spell to revive his dying tribe and remake the world in their image.

Clive does end up casting the spell after defeating Ultima. Bringing the end to the crystal AND magic which had caused the blight and by proxy does revive humanity in terms of stopping the blight, and remakes the world to one without magic! Cool!

-I really like Mid NOT making an airship at the end. She thinks it would be used for war so she wants to dump the engines off a cliff lol. And make a hard to understand treasure map for people to find it I love her.

- does Clive survive? Clive is left washed up on a beach after casting the spell. He said Ultima's power was too strong and after a moment his whole hand uses to cast the spell has turned to stone. In game this happens slowly over time so the fact that it happens so rapidly to Clive shows how much that spell cost him. Laying there he asks if Jill can see the same stars before it fades to black and cuts to a child being born and Jill watching Metia fade away. Now Metia is pretty much a wishing star. And Jill had prayed to it for Clive safe return in the beginning and end of the game. It's heavily impiled that Clive is kinda also a representation of Metia and Jill writes him a letter saying he is her guiding star, her light. So it vanishing and a new day dawning as Jill watches feels like Jill's wish will not longer be granted, signalling Clive's death.

I forgot!! There a page in the hideout you can find that literally the end of the game I read it early on and I was like huh...

- LEVIATHAN!! I dunno how'd they do a dlc without magic so I'm thinking prequel but they mention Leviathan the lost eikon but never say what happened??!! So I think dlc.

- Gav is amazing and I'm really happy he survived. I was so sure he'd die throughout the whole game lol

- the medicine girl had a page in the tomes early early on and I was like she'll be important.

- Dion had a great arc and I really enjoyed his story, another character I pegged to die but liked way more and had much more of an impact than I thought

[firstlostgirl1]

My thoughts on the ending of Final Fantasy XVI after beating it last night. *SPOILERS*

So I believe Joshua is still alive and Clive and Dion (maybe) are not.

Hear me out but bear with me because I’m terrible about putting my thoughts in writing so it may be jumbled. 😅

In my opinion, Clive is for sure dead. He used the last of his will and magic to make a better world for everyone, which is what he and the original Cid set out to do in the beginning. Having seen his dream realized made it a good ending for him. Not a happy one but it made sense to me. Also, him just turning to crystal kind of just solidified to me that he was going to die on that beach. Especially considering how quickly the curse went from this his fingers to half his arm so quickly.

So Joshua is the dominant of Phoenix which, as we all know, is rebirth. I’m almost positive that is how he survived his fight with Clive/Ifrit in the beginning. You can even argue that in the game, it was always repeated that he can only heal the body but if a soul is too far gone then Joshua’s powers don’t work. So maybe Joshua’s injuries weren’t as bad as we thought and he was able to heal himself.

So fast forward to the ending battle. We see Joshua give Phoenix to Clive. Clive then absorbs Ultima’s power, which includes Raise or the power to bring someone back to life. When Clive walks over to Joshua’s body, we see him have several flashbacks of him and Joshua growing up and even after they reunited. To me, this almost seems like it’s Clive’s resolve or his reasoning to bring Joshua back. Then we see him heal the hole in his chest. This also makes sense to me because if he’s bringing him back he can’t really have a giant, gaping hole for everyone to see. Then as Clive does the final, giant spell to end all magic in the world, I think he also uses that time to cast Raise on Joshua (this also brings me back to the top when I said *maybe* Dion because he could have also used Raise on him too).

So now, if we cut to the end credits with the book written by Joshua Rosfield, I think that really is THE Joshua Rosfield. I can’t remember if it was a side quest or just a conversation you can have with Harpocrates, but at one point even Harpocrates said that Joshua would make a fine author with his knowledge of lore and history (or something like that) He could have even used the quill that Harpocrates gifted to Clive to write with since Clive just had it on his Wall of Memories in his chambers. It could also explain the jump between when Annabella gave Clive to the imperial army and his mission to kill the dominant of shiva. Because we only know vague details of that time with Clive and he could have easily told Joshua all of that after they reunited.

Lastly, I also want to point out that Clive had at least one or two Phoenix feathers with him at the end and in final fantasy lore, phoenix feathers have been used to revive party members so take that as you will.

Again, I’m so sorry if this is jumbled and all over the place. I really am terrible at putting my thoughts into words. 😅🙃 but I really just wanted to put my thoughts out there.

[celestialsonata7]

I can buy Pat being the crooked man and the energy corrupting him, but I don’t like how they treated the actually development that led up to it, does that makes sense? He is entitled, has boundary and anger/ jealousy issues. I can buy that, but his arc I’m not sure if it needed more time or if it was because of how sudden his change was or because you grew to like his character through the series.

I didn’t like how they handled the whole “he is always been evil and is impossible for him to change and any attempts to change are useless or another form of manipulation” I think the series does a very good job at showing his perspective and making you feel sorry for him at tikes and even empathize with what he is going through to just be like “oh, he is just evil and has always been like that and when everyone thought he was dead nobody cared and resented him for still being alive”

(I acknowledge that what he did was 100% wrong, he did terrible things Nicole was in her right to hate him and be distrustful of him. He is a very scary person because guys like him actually exist in real life)

Is weird because I’ve seen other shows do similar arcs to this one where the villain that turned evil due to their own personal flaws, shortcomings and issues and somehow still being unredeemable and dying at the end, but still the narrative being able to show them some kind of sympathy or acknowledgement/understanding towards their issues and still having them be unredeemable and die in the end. Sadly I don’t think Pat’s character arc had rbis.

How do you feel about the way his character was handled? Am I the only one who feels this way?

Hello Anon! Thank you for asking this! I could launch into a whole essay about what I think about this. XD So I think I will. Strap in, folks!

For those confused, this is pertaining to the Netflix series, 'Raising Dion', and contains MAJOR spoilers, so be forwarned if you plan on watching it.

(I'd like to premise this by saying it's been a hot minute since I watched the show, so I'm sorry if my recollection of its events is a little fuzzy.

I would also like to state that I freaking looooove Jason Ritter, and his perfomance in this show is amazing as always, and the reason that the character arc of Pat vexes me so is that I felt they did Jason dirty.)

So, I absolutely agree that it felt like his whole reveal was definitely rushed through, which is really poor writing on their part considering they knew where they were gonna take the character from the beginning. They had all that time to work out how they wanted to present the character and he still didn’t feel fleshed out enough. They just wanted to make the twist so surprising for the audience for shock value that they made sure we would never suspect him until the reveal. I can buy that people lie about themselves, they hide certain traits and motivations, sure, but for him to do a complete 180 of his character was just too ridiculous, especially when you consider how irrevocably determined and devoted he was to his goals once the reveal happened. Either he’s a hurting and desperate man who’s only doing what he needs to survive, OR he’s an evil being bent on making others suffer, you can’t have it both ways.

I think the main reason Pat is so unbelieveable as a character is that they kept flip-flopping him. He would CONSTANTLY contradict himself; "Dion, always listen to your Mom, BUT also let's have pizza even though she said 'no'", "Dion, only use your powers for good, BUT also let’s cheat at this basketball game", "Dion, good guys are always true, BUT definitely lie about using your powers in public", "Dion, I'm happy you got superpowers and can fight evil, BUT it definitely should have been me instead because I was there and everyone else got powers so I should have too", "Nicole, I like you, however if you don't feel the same way, I'm okay with that, BUT how dare you kiss other guys when you should be with me", like, it's not even bipolar, it's just bad writing. His motivations and desires are constantly changing that it just feels random and disorganized and done on a whim. It felt rushed and random simply because you never know what he wants. He wants to be a good godfather and friend to Dion and Nicole but no actually he just wants to kill them, but no actually he'd never hurt them, but no actually he'd do anything for power. It just doesn't make any sense.

People can have major flaws and still be good people, and people can have good traits and still be bad people, but these traits usually line up with a person's motivations, i.e. "I need to survive but I'll try not to kill if I don't have to, and if I do have to it will upset me because I still value human life. If there was another way, I'd take it but there isn't and that sucks", or "I value YOUR life because I'm attached to you but everything and everyone else is meaningless to me and I have no qualms with ending them for my own gain". You can't have, "I wish I was a better person except just kidding no I don't", it doesn't work that way.

You can say that Pat's motivation from the beginning, to the very end, was power; all he wanted was power, that was his end goal, that was what he always strived for, but then his actions should back that up. If all he wanted was power, why did he waste his time raising Dion, teaching him how to use his powers, helping Nicole, being a good friend to her, working at his job, hoping for promotions? Why not just go out and collect all the powered people at once, keep absorbing people, keep gaining power? You'll say, "well he wanted to wait for Dion to get stronger so he could absorb more power, he needed to be close to Nicole to be close to Dion, he needed the resources of his company to find more powered people", okay, yes, that all makes sense. If that was what he was planning the whole time, then that shows that he's smart and conniving. So everything he did was in service to that main goal; he helps Dion become more powerful so he can take all that power for himself. But he inadvertently creates his downfall, he "dies", all his power is gone, over and done with. Then WHY come back to "warn" everyone of another rising threat? You could say, "he wanted to get his power back", okay, but how? He no longer had the power to absorb people and he didn't even know he COULD get it back, he just knew it was still out there killing, and if he DID know he could get it back, why not go to where the power is in the first place? Why bother with going back to the city and the job and the people that would never help him in a million years? He KNEW he would be shunned and arrested and locked up forever if he showed his face there, and without any power he had no way of escaping, so why go back? He also knew they didn't understand that power either anyways; a superpowered eight-year-old beat him, not the highly educated and technologically advanced company, so what did he think he could gain from going back there? We already know he's smarter than that, if the above is true. By all accounts it doesn't make sense.

You could say the desire for power solely came from the crooked energy, and season one was all just Crooked Man-Pat, and once that was gone the true Pat came back, and he really DID just want to help and redeem himself, fine. But then he should not have been capable of reverting back to Crooked!Pat at the end, before the energy was even back in him. If all he wanted to do was help, then the concept of being powerful would mean nothing to him. The desire for power, the deceitful nature, the entitlement and selfishness should not have been there while he was "trying to help". You can't be selfless and selfish at the same time. You can't be forthcoming and deceitful, you can't be humble and entitled. All those things contradict each other. Again, it doesn't make sense.

Another thing that really really irked me while watching the series was that, from the very beginning, it seemed like Nicole never really liked Pat anyway. She was ALWAYS cold and distant with him, as if she already knew he was bad news even when he was "trying" to be kind and thoughtful. I don't know if that was a directorial problem or an acting choice but it felt so unfounded and random, and it made all the "nice" scenes feel forced. Not to mention Nicole was far too quick to just accept that Pat was evil all along, it just pulled away from their relationship so much so that it felt like they didn't even have one, like the only thing connecting them was Dion. Again, I don't know it that was intentional, or even if anyone else felt that way, but that's how it came across to me and it made it really hard to connect to either of them. Honestly, it felt like Pat had more chemistry with Dion than with her.

The only reason I fell in love with Pat at the beginning, and continued to route for his redemption until the end, was because, as stated at the top, I love Jason Ritter. I've seen many of his roles and applauded all his performances and so yes, I'm biased, but as I'm sure everyone else can agree, he has a kind face, and plays enduring really really well. He gets cast as kind people quite a lot, so anyone that has seen him before will already feel a sense of comfort when he's on screen. I think that is really only reason that Pat is so likeable at the start, and possibly feels redeemable at the beginning of season two; because people see this kind face and can see him being capable of kindness. But it's all for naught because of the way that the show and character is written; there's only so much you can do with what you're given. The script of 'Raising Dion' was basically a mess of tangled Christmas lights that are impossible to untangle, and the more they tried, the more tangled it got.

tl;dr Pat's character was really poorly handled from a writing standpoint; nothing he did made sense and his motivations were all over the place and his character was never consistent. All that is an absolute, crying shame because Jason Ritter was amazing in it anyways and I wish I could have enjoyed it more.

I hope that answered your question, and if not I'm sorry. I've never really written my thoughts on anything like this before and again, it's been so long since I saw the show so I may have gotten some things wrong or misremembered some things. But I had fun writing this, it's been a while since I've written ANYTHING and I really really appreciate you wanting to know my opinions, no one ever wants that. XD Hope you have a lovely day, Anon!

[risingshards]

I beat Final Fantasy XVI yesterday and am still processing it. My thoughts on the ending if you're curious are past the break! (ENDING SPOILERS FR FR)

That ending was such a fucking gut punch. But also was kinda weirdly Mass Effect 3-y (though I'm sure there are lots of endings where you go to an otherworldly place to defeat the evil and fire beams and leave your protag in an ambiguous space) and I was confused at how I felt as the credits rolled and the because of that. That starlight song HUUURRRTSSS OH MY GOD. I can't remember the last anything that like churned me inside like this with its ending.

Then I was reading interpretations and like I do with a lot of ambiguous endings I tend to lean to the happier interpretations. There are too many clues for me pointing to Clive's survival, and with him casting Raise on Joshua I'm ready to headcanon the full sappy "they all made it" ending including Dion cuz if we didn't see a body fully turn to stone or get super murderized, something they had no issue showing prior, then they can all make it (copium yes I know but it's a headcanon!). I'm a sucker for soft endings in stories and softness in general and I feel like after all the suffering and healing they went through, ending with more suffering doesn't sit right with me.

But at the very least I think Clive made it. The side quest with Harpocrates hoping Clive writes the story of this all one day, Clive narrating the intro and outro (the intro narration makes little sense otherwise to me), the book in the epilogue point to him having written the thing. Though Joshua as the author throws a wrench into things, maybe Clive dictated it to him so Joshua could lend his brother a hand eh?

Also everything with Jill's last quest and the symbolism of the ending.

ALSO IT'D BE DUMB AS FUCK FOR EVERYONE TO TELL CLIVE HE HAS TO LIVE AND SAVE HIMSELF AND STOP SELF SACRIFICING ONLY TO IMMEDIATELY DIE. The Clive dies interpretations feel just dull to me, not just from me favoring happy and bittersweet endings, it just feels at odds with everything if it's all just "and then they die." I know there's more to it than that but that's the vibe I get thinking about the ending that way.

"Before we broke camp, the morning after the storm, do you know what I did? I slipped away from my governess to climb the tor. And from there I saw a sea of petals, all reaching for the sun. And I realized that no matter how terrible the night…dawn would always come. That you…that you would always come for me. And you have. Again and again."

Dawn comes at the end of the game after a terrible night, symbolic of Clive coming home and fulfilling his promise. Jill praying to Metia the whole game and her prayer is finally answered at the end is a lot more beautiful to me than just. "The star Jill was praying to the whole game was really pointless oops star go out." Her relief feels less like "The big struggles are over and the sky is clear again" but tying back to the side quest from an hour or so earlier.

The idea that not engaging with the side quests prevents you from building the community as well is really interesting, almost doing two endings that way, a bitter one and a bittersweet but maybe hopeful one. I can't imagine how beat down I'd feel if I skipped all the big side quests before getting to that ending. It's also interesting how ambiguous they left it, I don't know if it makes the ending better but it hits me harder in a different way if that makes sense. The things the other way are the state Clive's in at the end, Gav crying (I'm so glad characters like Gav and Byron didn't die but oh my god it hurt so bad seeing Gav cry there), Jill feeling it and crying, Torgal howling...

I really like this interpretation of the ending:

https://filmcolossus.com/final-fantasy-16-clive-alive

BUT! I read wolves whimper and cry when they lose someone, like Torgal did when Cid died, but they howl when they're trying to bring members of their pack home. I just feel like there's more to hopeful if you look into the text around the ambiguity than not, like a reverse Sopranos ending.

Maybe TMI too but this was my like "dive deep into this during a depressive episode" game and I was kinda going iwth the interpretation like. All the characters telling Clive to stop sacrificing himself and save himself. That hit really hard with the depression for me. So for it to end like "well then he dies immediately after" feels so against that in a way that hurts. But fighting on and defying fate could be a really beautiful thing about facing ones own struggles, at least that's how I'm feeling. I pictured my depression/anxiety cycle as Kupka and me going against it like Clive in that scene like "I will show you no pity. No pity and no mercy. Now DIE!" like that was motivational for me for my current struggles. and the ending kinda muddies that and I don't know how to feel really.

All in all its up there with my favorite FF's, with the highlights being the huge battles like Titan and Bahamut, along with the smaller character moments like Clive and Uncle Byron's reunion. Also oh my god Ben Starr was amazing, one of my favorite performances in a game ever. My big downsides were I really would've been fine with a simpler happy ending after how much everyone suffered in this game, and that the women really got shafted in this one, it felt like a Shonen Jump manga in that regard lol. Jill getting benched to wife waiting for husband to come home as one of the big offenders. She didn't get shafted as bad as Luna did in FFXV at least, yeesh. I hope the next FF has lots more ladies!

[tallulademetriou]

now that i’ve watched a complete ass playthrough of FF16, some (jumbled) thoughts under the cut, though mostly about the story:

full spoilers ahead as well!!!!!!!!!!!

i didn’t have high hopes for the story since i played through heavensward and that was... an Expansion for sure, and i expected to have the same nitpicks about FF16 as i did with HW. it still surprised me though lol

maehiro cannot write complex women to save his life. period.

but strangely enough this isn’t even maehiro at his best so i wonder what actually got cut during development.

the world-building is immaculate as always and for once i actually want a dlc to explore more of it.

also this game’s cutscenes oozes with fucking money cbu3 is insane. what was your budget yoshi-p!!!!!!!!!!!!!

the way benedikta was easily one of the most interesting eikons in this line-up and yet she was done dirty by being killed off so early in the game.

even jill felt shallow at times and while the romance was pretty cute i will not lie, she just sort of fell flat for me at the end parts. maehiro i am in your walls.

i did love her mini-arc though and i wish there were more moments like that.

there’s a point near the end of the game where the gang encounters barnabas and i kept hoping jill would be playable but no... she was not.

cid is really well done though. like i LOVE him.

joshua/jill/clive could have been my all-time trio but they didn’t have the time to marinate well.

clive grew on me as well, thanks to ben’s performance (partly) but i was not expecting how lovely he is a protag... 

something about him being raised in a lonely castle by an abusive mother then growing up into a shy, traumatized shell of a man who just wants to atone for his sins and protect what he couldn’t protect, but realizing soon that there’s more to his life than sorrow. i love you clivefinalfantasy.

the side characters are also fucking great it’s so unexpected.

i also enjoyed dion and barnabas for what they were worth. everyone expected dion to be a traitor or evil and for barnabas to be a complex and tortured king but it turned out to be the complete opposite.

barnabas you are fucking crazy. i can respect that.

political intrigue as the pretty backdrop to an evil alien overlord/creator is nothing new but it’s just so fucking funny they went that way. the most classic of all FF move.

ultima as an end boss does nothing for me personally but i always love a good punch your god in the face so it actually did end up as a +1 on the scoreboard for me.

the pacing could be jarring at times with some strange choices story-wise. really wish they’d done less awkward sex scenes that didn’t really give us anything and gave us more time to explore the eikons and their dynamic with their respective dominants.

the jill/clive naked moment can stay tho that was precious. 

though now that i think about it, i do wonder if they were going for the shb route but ultimately changed it so it wouldn’t be too similar. the fallen is just Too similar to what we get for the Ancients, with ultima trying to save his planet from the blight this time around, except he was a selfish god at the end trying to preserve legacy and not life.

and yep i fucking cried at the end LMAO. i cried so hard my eyes were fucking swollen the next day it was actually unbelievable?????

clive holding joshua’s dead body while he has flashbacks of joshua holding hands with clive as children, then the moment when his brother bestowed the phoenix’s blessing, to joshua as a baby had me fucking bawling lmao fuck this game actually.

most of my complaints err on the narrative side of the game. the gameplay looks fun and from what i’ve played in the demo i always knew i was gonna love it, but gonna add any remarks here once i’m actually done with that.

it can be as easy as not cycling through multiple eikons but once you sit down a bit with it, it’s complexity shines with how well you can string together combos and maximizing each eikon’s moveset... it’s really fun and as a previous black mage main....... big numbers go boom.

the sidequests can be abysmal design-wise but as someone who has played ff14, it didn’t really faze me so it can be a YMMV thing. 

i need a fucking dlc because we didn’t see Leviathan... my fucking queen WHERE IS SHE

[co-mixed]

Supurbia: Superhero Picket Fences

When you see a Controversy section on the writer’s wiki page, you shudder. Especially if you happened to already love their work. But sometimes it’s not a massive issue at all as was the case with Grace Randolph. Let’s get this out of the way – I only know her through her work, so that’s exactly what I’m going to talk about. 

Supurbia. 

This story is all about what happens between the sheets after your classic save-the-day team of superheroes takes off their tights and capes. A more interesting part is, it’s not even their story – it’s the days of those who wait for them at home and those who pick up the pieces when they fly full speed to yet another battle. Which right away makes it an interesting take. 

What do you think got me interested in the first place? More spoilers below. Honestly, not that many. Even if you read them, you'd still find plenty of new info in the book.

It’s a character-focused book, so it would be impossible to discuss it without dissecting the faces on the cover. 

Meta-Legion is the Justice League of this world. They even follow the pattern: the all-powerful stone-faced hero, the billionaire with gadgets, the warrior-princess, the boy scout leader, the guy with unexplained space powers, and Nightwing. Fine, maybe that’s more of a character salad, who cares. It’s not even them I really want to talk about. 

The All-Powerful Sovereign is your typical domestic tyrant and he picks the perfect victim too, a reformed villain Hella Heart. Her life’s absolute nightmare and that is exactly what makes her interesting. Sovereign has less in common with Superman and more with Dr. Manhattan. While Hella needs attention and understanding. She doesn’t get it from him, and she doesn’t get it from her Wisteria Lane neighbors. Even if they attempt to connect, it always comes down to their own agenda. Is it even surprising that she eventually slips? 

To be fair, I was rooting for her not to. She gives this victim-of-the-circumstances vibe and still tries to do the right thing. Kinda like Harley Quinn if she was locked in a house with laundry and dishes. Most of Supurbia characters are like that, you know who they’re based upon but they are still different enough for you to ignore it. 

We only get to see the beginning of Hella’s full arc before the run gets canceled. So I imagine, she had miles to go. 

Meanwhile Sovereign himself remains a distant figure. By the end, he’s just starting to get in touch with any emotions. So again, canceled too soon. 

The billionaire Night Fox is having an affair with Nightwing I mean Agent Twilight (not that Twilight and not the other one). Night Fox’s wife and business partner Alexis finds out and it’s your typical betrayal story that hurts a whole bunch of people. While the unhappily married couple decides what to do and how to be, Agent Twilight becomes one of the most sympathetic and interesting characters. His love is all bruised and tortured, and he is almost ready to give it up even though he doesn’t want to. Not only I would still like to see how the whole story plays out, I’d like to see way more of his friendship with Tia. 

Tia is the wife of Cosmic Champion (unexplained space powers) and a former superhero. Reminds you of anyone? Yeah, Jessica Jones. She gives up patrolling and fighting crime to raise her daughter. But unlike Jess, Tia misses it and she isn’t afraid to fight about that with her husband Dion. She manages to get her way too, and she ends up in an awesome costume speaking in tricky rhymes. She even saves the day when she goes after Batu.

The Warrior-princess Batu has two kids and a husband, and believe it or not, their lives are far from perfect. So far, in fact, it gets better before it gets worse, not the other way around. Batu is not a Diana-type, she’s quite the opposite and reminds more of Sovereign. If you look closely, most of these heroes lack empathy which is the reason for their domestic troubles. Batu is no exception – her issues with her kids are a good example. She ignores her son when she believes her daughter is the one with the inherited power, but as soon as she finds out otherwise, she forgets all about her. I like how this story in particular developed with a balance of a caring father and a powerful but absentee mother. This is what drives Sara to evil. If only we got a little more of this evil child and could see her grow from a rebellious teen to a real threat… 

And then there is the person through whose eyes you are supposed to be looking at all of it, the newbie on the block – Eve. She’s a superhero fangirl and the wife of new Marine Omega who arrives to the neighborhood with her husband just before the old one passes away. 

Out of all the characters I liked her the least. She had this optimistic desire to get involved that, for the most part, is a foreign concept to a millennial. She wants to help, she’s a nurse, she’s nosy for good reasons. She also saves the day and becomes a hero. But that was still not enough for me to like her. Matter of taste, I suppose.

Art and overall thoughts

The art in this book is vibrant. That’s the best word for it. It’s not my favorite style but the more you get into the story, the less you mind it. In this case, the art fits the story well. It’s a little… mischievous would be the right word. And it sort of lightens the whole mood of the book. It works in harmony with lettering, colors, and really, the more I think about it, the more I like it. 

These days Russell Dauterman is mostly associated with a very specific X-men look, so it’s easy to simply not recognize his work. I didn’t, he certainly grew and changed a lot. 

Covers are another part that’s hard to ignore. They immediately make you think “Desperate Housewives”. And it’s probably very intentional because this story certainly has similar vibes. Less than let’s say, Vision, but more than nearly anything else. 

Supurbia is a good read. It’s emotional as hell if you let it sink in. And you should. It has great characters, complex heroes, and scary villains. Villains might not be the driving force here but they’re formidable and by no means easy to defeat. Supurbia can give you tons of enjoyable content and hours of fun, but I won’t recommend it to you unless you can live with an unfinished story. It has a conclusion, but it’s certainly not over. 

[toku-explained]

GARO Timeline & Continuity Theory

This is my attempt to infer a linear timeline of GARO, or at least the main series. Please note that this is largely speculation outside the obvious elements. I'm not going to explain flashbacks, except maybe some notes on full flashback episodes. Spoilers for everything.

EDIT: This got way more involved than I expected, it's now a timeline of each era, with the order theory at the end.

Anime timeline

The anime are simple to sort. Around Vanishing Line the producers confirmed the anime was separate from the Tokusatsu. I kind of wish they hadn't done that but I understand why.

Anyway, we know exactly what the order is, it goes RAIKOU -> LÉON -> SWORD, separated by centuries. More specifically:

Guren no Tsuki's bonus episode. I'm not sure when it takes place relative to SEIMEI's time with DOUMAN, as there's a period of like 8-10 years potentially all that could happen in.

At some point MICHINAGA exiles his relative TOKITADA, unaware he is the holder of the FUJIWARA clan's armour, ZANGA. Now living as the thief TENKAIMARU, he endeavours only to allow the Armour to pass to a fellow FUJIWARA who shares his ideals.

ABE no KIYOME's father dies sealing her mother KUZUKO-HIME after she is possessed by the HORROR RAIJU. KIYOME, raised by grandfather HARUKAKI will eventually make it her mission to turn RAIJU into her own Madou Tool. She later is apprentices to DOUMA, then ASHIYA DOMAN, alongside his successor, who gives her the name SEIMEI.

Guren no Tsuki main series.

At some point, RAIKOU and YASUSUKE earn the ability to summon GOTEN and REKKA

Usuzumizakura takes place an uncertain period after the end of Guren no Tsuki.

Centuries pass

ANNA's father is GARO, it's uncertain when he died relative to the purge, but he was still active when Mendoza was expelled, but the gap was probably at least a decade. Alongside his senior apprentice, RAFAEL BANDERAS, GAIA, he serves as a mentor to ANNA, her lover ROBERTO, ZORO, and BERNARDO DION, ZEX, as both of whom acquire the ability to use Madou Horses, GETSUEI and SENKAKU. RAFAEL and his master hide ANNA's sister, ESMERALDA, who is adopted by a noble family, and eventually marries King FERDINAND San VALIANTE, giving him a son, ALFONSO

MENDOZA is expelled from the Makai for killing humans in experiments, and creating the forbidden Naidu Took Zirkel's Ring, and is marked by a SENATE Priest as the Golden Knight and GAIA guard him. He finds a new life as advisor to FERDINAND, secretly using HORRORs to aid his military efforts. When his child is born bearing the same mark as him, MENDOZA kills the child and his wife, and swears vengeance on the Makai.

The Valiante witch purge sets the stage for Honoo no Kokuin. ANNA is burnt at the stake, LÉON is born. BERNARDO falls to darkness believing ROBERTO and ANNA to have already been killed, and will become MENDOZA's chief enforcer.

A few years after LÉON is born, ROBERTO visits the previous Golden Knight's Priest partner, GAEL, and his pupil, Makai Knight MARCELLO, seeking a way to control the flames that LÉON spreads, leaving ZARUBA with him, the Madou Ring having been inactive since before the witch hunts. Unfortunately, MARCELLO becomes obsessed with ZARUBA, believing he can claim it's power.

Makai Priest LUCIANO GUZMAN becomes troubled by the frequency of loved ones of those who became HORRORs becoming HORRORs themselves, and becomes possessed by ARABEL. The arrogant Makai Knights ÉMA works with dismiss her and wind up all killed, leaving her distrustful of Makai Knights in general. Seeking to seal LUCIANO herself, she begins a journey, eventually taking her towards SANTA BARD.

17 years after the burning, the events of Honoo no Kokuin play out. The bonus episode presumably takes place afterwards, but is uncertain. Per CR Another GARO Honoo no Kokuin, at some point while still Kokuin GARO, LÉON faces MANDULA. Per the Special Drama CD, after retuning from being PEPE LÉON meet ÉMA in a SANTA BARD market, while later, GÉRMAN and ALFONSO discuss RAFAEL.

Per CR Another GARO Honoo no Kokuin, sometime after the series LÉON faces the powerful Horrors GRAND MAGUS, BLOOD MOON with GOTEN, an enhanced OCTAVIA, alongside ALFONSO as GARO he faces GURONDO where both use GOTEN and with Heroic Sprits empowering him into SORETSU JUSHIN GARO, faces GERALGA. By this point, LÉON has gained the ability to use GOTEN, and ALFONSO can summon TENJIN.

DARIO MONTOYA, ZEM, rider of RAIMEI, is assigned to the small nation of VAZELIA. After crown princess SARA is scarred by a HORROR, in a fit of grief she destroys the kingdom, and DARIO blinds himself out of loyalty. SARA eventually commits suicide, and is possessed by NIGRA VENUS, causing DARIO to fall to darkness and start seeking a way to bring back the dead.

4 years after Honoo no Kokuin, DIVINE FLAME happens.

Centuries pass.

The backstory for Vanishing Line plays out. First Golden Knight Edward Ragnvald is killed, then the Makai becomes aware of the existence of El Dorado in the event that killed LIZZIE RAGNVALD. BOLG, CHRISTOPHER HARDEN, falls to Darkness, murdering his wife ADELAIDE, their son LUKE will reject the path of the Makai Knight because of this. Now known as KNIGHT, HARDEN joins with BISHOP and QUEEN in setting up KING's orders. Years pass.

About 8 years after KNIGHT's fall and LIZZIE'S death, programming genius MARTIN HENNES disappears, the only clue left for his sister SOPHIE is the keyword EL DORADO.

The events of Vanishing Line play out.

A year later the epilogue happens, by this point LUKE has become ZELOS. SOPHIE becomes GINA's apprentice.

The events of the Usuzumizakura Drama CDs take place in an extradimensional space outside normal time, but all characters are brought from after the latest point in their timelines (post Usuzumizakura for SEIMEI, RAIKOU and YASUSUKE, post DIVINE FLAME for EMA and LÉON, and post epilogue for SOPHIE, SWORD and LUKE.

The Tokusatsu timeline

GOUKI's story is obviously the earliest televised story but a couple of the stories in Hagane no Houkou are definitely earlier, at the very least the Horror Claw and Honoobito chapters are earlier in the timeline. I'd put the Introductory chapter earlier as well, as it seems to depict the moment the Golden Knight was first dubbed GARO, l but I can't remember if Ashura refers to Gouki as being the first Makai Knight to have his armour shaped by human will. Based on ZARUBA's absence in Ashura, the ZARUBA chapter is probably later, so I'd put the remaining past stories after as well.

As for the rest, we'll put the Saejima Era before anything else. Yes every live action series has more or less treated the world as matching the present day, but that include Raiga's stuff, which has to be at least 20 years after the film that came out the previous year. So stuff like modern technology or political landscape is irrelevant for discerning a timeline. What is helpful is the presence of KAORU's book in a flashback in YamiTera, meaning it has to be much later than Makai Senki. While you could try to argue the arcade machine in VERSUS ROAD being the PS2 game means something, it doesn't really, it's just a nod. I have seen arguments in the past time is only linear in Jinkai, and perhaps the reincarnation happened before the death, but aside from the definitive example of Eiris, I don't think this is proven. That said, at the very least time in the Land of Promises appears to run faster than in Jinkai, and between Makai no Hana and P GARO Saejima Kouga, certain individuals definitely moved through time.

With that, my attempt to breakdown thr Saejima Era would go something like this

Taiga Era

Based on Hagane no Houkou, it appears TAIGA inherited GARO from his father, and GONZA's father was in service to his family. At some point TAIGA married RIN, star pupil of GARAI, and befriended AMON. AMON creates the current incarnation of ZARUBA for TAIGA

Based on the machine including RIN, AMON and GONZA, but not BARAGO or KOUGA, the events of P GARO 11 Saejima Taiga would be around here. TAIGA goes on a journey to slay MESSIAH'S Sound, PARUDE, to do so acquiring the aid of the, fighting the Horrors TEMDAN, SISERA, DAIRASU and GYREKAN, and earning the aid of Sacred Beasts QILIN, SUZAKU, SEIRYU AND BYAKKO, and slays GENBU. Thanks to the beast transforming him into a unique version of Shinmetsu Jushin GARO, TAIGA defeats PARUDE. He has use of GOTEN by this point.

Per both Ankoku Makai Kishi Gaiden and Kiba Gaiden, though exact details differ, BARAGO's mother is cut down by his father, and he goes to train under TAIGA, around the same time, his father also dies. He appears to have stayed with TAIGA right until his fall, probably at least a decade.

KOUGA is born to TAIGA and RIN. While still and infant, his taken by the two to visit KANTAI. On a later visit when he's older KOUGA meets AMON's pupil JABI, although this could be after further events, I don't know how much AMON knew about the BARAGO situation.

BARAGO discovers the book of MESSIAH and makes the pact to become KIBA. To this end he overcomes Shinmetsu Jushin and absorbs his first HORROR, but not before TAIGA discovers him losing control.

GARO -THE BIBLE- happens. RIN is alive, but bedridden, and KOUGA is accompanying TAIGA on hunts, while BARAGO is absent. (I suppose you could argue this was earlier, but KOUGA looks around the same age as in the episode Taiga, and BARAGO being absent would need some justification.)

RIN dies. KOUGA has very little memory of her.

At some point, TAIGA saves MITSUKI YUJI, inspiring the creation of the picture book "The Black Flames + Golden Wind". If KAORU's dream is of a real event, on a later event, after the book was produced, TAIGA also saved a young KAORU. Alternatively, this could be a warped memory of BARAGO, in which case it was later.

TAIGA begins serious instruction of KOUGA, including a hatch but necessary lesson about HORRORS. Soon after, he is killed in battle with BARAGO, due to KOUGA's presence.

Kouga Era

ZARUBA agrees to a contract with KOUGA, acknowledging his intent to become the next GARO.

BARAGO marks 6 year old MITSUKI KAORU as the Gate of MESSIAH, and will monitor her development for the next 17 years. (As BARAGO has the Mark of Death, this is after killing TAIGA.)

In uncertain order, KOUGA is apprentices for some time under the Makai Knight KENGI, and also attends a training camp where he is under SHIJIMA WATARU, BARON, unfortunately the rest of his class are wiped out by RAIZON. Given his long history, WATARU probably already has use of the Madou Horse SHINGETSU.

Unknown to KOUGA, his classmate FUDOU SIGMA also survived, and also believes himself the only survivor of his group. He returns home, but does not reveal the massacre to REO, who attended a different camp. The event distorts SIGMA's ambitions of Knighthood, and he starts contemplating adding Magic to the Knights repertoire. Wile both expect SIGMA to inherit RODO, both brothers make efforts to learn not just swordsmanship from their father, but Priest techniques their mother had used.

During this same period, to prevent the Mark of Death affecting him, BARAGO begins using a potion of face disguise, adopting the identity of psychiatrist RYUZAKI KARUNE, and with the help of the East Watchdog continues to hunt down and absorb HORROR, working towards 1000 total. During this period he kills many Makai Knights, including several battles with BADO, the senior disciple of ZERO. In one event he happens to save GODO AKIRA from a HORROR, but the boy is cursed with an ability to take on female form as MISAKI. BARAGO trains AKIRA to become a Makai Knight despite turning away from the path himself, but after his curse manifest advises becoming a Makai Knight wll be impossible as a woman, and eventually leaves him, leaving AKIRA/MISAKI to cope with their feelings for BARAGO. Despite BARAGO's warning, AKIRA is eventually able to become YAIBA, and partnered with GIRUBA, is assigned to the South District.

A Pregnant Priestess is possessed by a HORROR and dies, but her daughter miraculously lives. However, she possesses the unique ability to seal HORRORS within herself. Raised for a time by SHIDOU, her relative, the SENATE ultimately believes she is best kept as a Madou Tool for dangerous HORRORS, dubbing her MAGOU YURIGATA, or MAYURI. Her abilities kept in check by SHIDOU, she will be returned to the SENATE after any successful missions and returned to storage, losing her memories in the process.

The last of the ZERO bloodline, DOUJI, adopts orphans GINGA and SHIZUKA, and trains GINGA to succeed him.

KOUGA attains a HAGANE,, and subsequently attains the qualifications to finally become GARO, serving in the Eastern District as his father had.

FUDO GOKI chooses his younger son, REO over his elder, SIGMA, to succeed him as RODO, to both brothers shock. SIGMA leaves, deciding to be a Priest.

YAMAGATANA TSUBASA and RIN are orphaned when their adoptive parents are killed. TSUBASA trains as a Makai Knight, but his dedication makes him inflexible and distant to RIN. He trains in KANTAI alongside KAZUMA until he is forced to withdraw due to injury, and inherits the title of KANTAI protector DAN, alongside GORUBA, and takes two students, HYUGA and AKATSUKI.

SIGMA find the remains of MESSIAH's Fang, GYANON, and removes them from their resting place. Subsequently Makai Guide ELDA and her lover SHINJI arrive at the same location and are betrayed and murdered by their companions. BARAGO also comes here seeking to absorb GYANON, and kills the two Knights and revives ELDA as his servant.

After sometime as a HAGANE, GINGA successfully inherits the title of ZERO, accompanied by SILVA, at some point earning the use of GINGA.

KAORU starts seeing RYUZAKI as her psychiatrist, in some meetings MESSIAH possesses her, in one case forcing him to eliminate his remaining light triggered by BADO, represented as a battle with TAIGA and GOTEN while riding RAIGO.

Running low of the Potion of Disguise, BARAGO attacks DOUJI's estate to claim some from him, murdering DOUJI and SHIZUKA, GINGA barely witnessing. Based on his use of Saejima Family techniques, SILVA identifies the killer as possibly GARO, and GINGA takes the name SUZUMURA REI, seeking revenge, and is assigned to the West District.

The events of GARO take place. I would estimate Gaiden:Smile takes place about halfway through, before KAORU learns the truth about her fate. According to Ankoku Makai Kishi Gaiden, during this period AMON encounters REI, and KOUGA meets the school principal. AFTER his death BARAGO's spirit regrets his actions, and with TAIGA and AMON help ZARUBA enable KOUGA to summon GARO and defeat KIBA.

As KAORU travels to Italy for art study, KOUGA is assigned to the North, with REI taking over his territory in the the EAST. Whilst in Italy, KAORU encounters a reincarnated BARAGO, the son of a Makai Knight, evidently born before he died.

RIN is contacted by AMON's spirit, who aware of the Orin Arrow dulling and needing JABI to restore it, needs KOUGA sent to retrieve her from the Makaiju before the White Night.

The events of Byakuya no Maju play out.

According to CR GARO, KIBA revived, re-abducts KAORU. KOUGA journeys through MAKAI to save her, receiving aid from ZERO, DAN and JABI. He defeats a MAKAIRYU with GOTEN, and after defeating KIBA, escapes Makai with KAORU using the MAKAIRYU.

FUDO REO, acting as a Makai Priest instead of assuming the role of RODO, creates the GORYU, vastly enhancing Priest's ability to defeat HORRORs on their own, an accomplishment that will eventually see him assigned to the SENATE. SIGMA returns after sometime, and tougher with MIO they plan to create the ultimate GORYU, IDEA.

As a young girl, HIROMI ALICE finds the last DRAGON EGG and in a sense communicates with it. It is then forcibly taken by Priests to RUNE CITY, placed in a secure storage area.

The Demon Mirror KARMA makes a contract with KURUZU KENICHI, a man driven mad with grief over the death of his lover SHION, making him into a HORROR, alongside a recreation of SHION, to gather her prey. Many Makai Knights attempt to slay KARMA but are all killed, including KENGI. KARMA also charms lead Makai Priest in the area, AKAZA, into protecting her. Her father's death making her increasingly bitter about her inability to become a Makai Knight, REKKA goes on a training journey, spending some time in KANTAI under JABI, she leaves AKAZA behind with fellow pupil SHIGUTO.

The events of Yoseki no Wana. KOUGA encounters MISAKI, REI allows AKATSUKI, who has now earned a HAGANE, to join him and SILVA for a time. RIN is witness to, and informs TSUBASA and JABI of the theft of certain items from KANTAI. At the SABBAC, AKIRA attempts to revive KIBA, but is then redeemed, and gets to meet BARAGO's spirit. SUZAKU assigns KOUGA a special mission from the SENATE to slay the Apostle HORRORS.

Over the month or so leading to events of RED REQUIEM, KOUGA slays Dust HORROR DARODA and Thunder HORROR BAKUGI.

The events of RED REQUIEM play out, Tower HORROR BABEL is slain, REKKA defeats SHION, GARO defeats KURUZU, and with AKAZA's sacrifice the Mirror HORROR KARMA is slain.

Over the course another month or so, KOUGA slays Paper HORROR PARC, Needle HORROR NIDOL and Music HORROR UNIZON. For this accomplishment, he is set to be appointed to the position of Senatorial Knight.

According to CR GARO RED REQUIEM, KURUZU revives and captures REKKA in a mirror realm. KOUGA seeks to save her, receiving aid from AKAZA's spirit and recovering her flute, before deaf eating KURUZU using Ryujin GARO. REKKA is then abducted by the revived KIBA, who now has the ability to become KIBA Sumeragi to attack, and KOUGA continues through the Makai to rescue her, receiving support from JABI, KAORU in spirit, SHIGUTO, ZERO and DAN. Along the way, he and ZERO, riding GOTEN and GINGA, defeat a 2,000 HORROR army as a sequel to the 1,000 faced previously, and the 3 Knights face BABEL. Aided by a golden MAKAIRYU, GARO defeats a rampaging DAIGORYU, and the uses it to free REKKA.

By the events of MAKAI SENKI, TSUBASA has earned the right to use HAYATE.

Discovering SIGMA has been killing women to try and awaken GYANON's power in order to activate IDEA, MIO tries to stop him and is slain. REO discovers her body and realises what his brother has done, but does not report it to the SENATE, and still hesitates both in fighting as RODO and in consults ERUBA. At some point the records of the FUDO family go missing. SIGMA manages to tap into GYANON's power, becoming the Masked Man, and gains the ability to create a shadow copy of an armour as JAAKU, and creates the familiar GIGI. He marks numerous Makai Knights with the Seal of Destruction, almost all in the country. His penultimate victim is the Silver Fang. The only Knight he spares is REO.

The events of MAKAI SENKI play out. Based on CR GARO MAKAI SENKI HAGANE, GARO has a battle with the Madou Train unrelated to the events, fights a revived KURUZU with GOTEN, and uses a winged GOTEN and DAIGORYU against JAGANRYU, and around this period DAN battles GENOJIKA.

KOUGA leaves for the LAND of PROMISES to fulfill his debt to GAJARI, and will not return for several months.

If CR Makai Kessen GAOH is canon, this would seem the place for it, assuming it involves the characters we know. It does not depict the SABBAC, according to the rules of that contest, and the presence of KIBA and arguably BADO is troublesome no matter what, and indeed the true boss. In the story for that machine, GENBU, a SENATE Knight who is in fact OUGA, stands atop a tournament between the 8 Knights, YAIBA, DAN, BADO, RODO, KIBA, BARON, ZERO & GIGA. Aside from battles between the pairs, each pair also battles powerful enemies, DAN & BARON face LEGULES, ZERO & BADO face RIGURU, GIGIA & RODO face GRAU DRAGON and KIBA and YAIBA face KOKURYU. Atop their Madou Horses, ZERO, DAN & BARON face TORIGA.

During a HORROR hunt by Makai Knight KURODO and his Priestess wife IYU and their partner KAIN, IYU is believed dead after a HORROR attack. In fact she is saved by RING, entranced by her healing song and believing it will be the key to his community. IYU, blinded, will stay with RING, hoping to create a world where her daughter will not have to fear HORRORS.

Right before KOUGA's return from the events of Soukoku no Maryu, the SABBAC is held again. Tougen no Fue plays out right before the final match, between REI and TSUBASA. REI is the winner, and after choosing to meet TAIGA, encounters the returned KOUGA, and they have another rematch. Per CR GARO Makai no Hana, this may have lead to an armoured battle inside the SENATE building.

KOUGA reunites with KAORU.

Per CR GARO FINAL certain battles take place. It's possible that for KOUGA some of these occur during his journey back from the LAND of PROMISES. He battles NERO using Tsubasabito GARO, KARMA surfing on the Zanbaken, 4,000 HORRORS atop a flaming winged GOTEN, and Chou IDEA is battles with help from JAGANRYU. With TAIGA he battles KIBA again, and he uses a controlled SHINMETSU JUSHIN GARO to stop a rampaging SHINMETSU JUSHIN ZERO.

The Makai Knight KURODO is killed by RING, his arm severed, while investigating his COMMUNITY, witnessing IYU being alive as he dies. IYU does not realise KURODO is dead. The only witness, KAIN, will not reveal IYU's survival to her daughter YUNA, and other request implants KURODO's arm bone into her so she can wield his Makaiken.

The event of BLACK BLOOD take place.

Per CR ZERO, ZERO & GARO battle again in another realm, ZERO battles RING in MAKAI with GINGA, battles IDEA with GARO and DAN, and battle OKA GENRYU, SILVA's true form, as Tsubasabito ZERO.

Various events in Makai Retsuden presumably take place around here. REKKA saves a girl from undead Makai Knights, WATARU and URUBA wipe out HORROR dens, REO acknowledges YUNA as a Makai Knight and Makai Priest like himself, SHIGUTO contemplates retirement, TSUBASA consults JABI.in finding KAZUMA, wanting to confirm if he has become a HORROR.

On the way to visit KOUGA alongside SHIGUTO, REKKA is abducted by ZAJI empowered by EIRIS. While SHIGUTO is unaware of what happens, the event leaves REKKA with foreknowledge of KOUGA's departure, and instead of making her visit she goes to prepare, creating a living portrait of an Infant MAKAIRYU she will gift to KOUGA.

Per Hagane no Houkou, a young RAIGA is told stories of the Makai and their history by GONZA, his family and friends.

Per GARO ASURUA, SAEJIMA KAORU terls her son RAIGA a story of GOUKI.

Now operating in RUNE CITY, still supported by BAR LUPO's BAKURA, REI fights the HORROR AKASHIC. REKKA has been assigned to the SENATE, with a team of Priests under her. Low level sibling Priests KAGOME and OKINA, and their sprite HANATSUMI, learn of the legendary ancient protector the DRAGON KNIGHT EDEL. OKINA believes if he can awaken EDEL he can help protect humanity, rushing to do so before KAGOME can stop him. Believing her Dragon Egg is in RUNE CITY, HIROMI ALICE journeys there herself.

The events of DRAGON BLOOD occur.

When RAIGA is six, his parents disappear. Based on Makai no Hana and Gekkou no Tabibito, KAORU is abducted by EIRIS' vines before their eyes, with KOUGA following into the unknown with a last tale of the Traveller. Per P GARO Saejima Kouga (some of the differences are probably explainable by laws regarding the featuring of minors in Pachinko), KUROMARU suddenly appears at the SAEJIMA estate and steals KAORU's paintbrush, seeking a way to restore his friends in the LAND of PROMISES, KAORU chasing after.

To find out where KAORU has gone KOUGA visits the Tower of Heroic Spirits in order to learn her location. Along with seeing she is in the LAND of PROMISES, he also sees that in 20 years RAIGA will make a bargain with GAJARI, and that the payment will be to wonder time and space fixing distortions for GAJARI. He requests to make the payment himself, and GAJARI agrees.

Aware it is a one way trip KOUGA heads to the Promised Land, after fighting past REI who tries to stop him, but sends him off with an Infant MAKAIRYU REKKA has prepared for this moment. KOUGA instructs REI to adhere to their previous agreement and train RAIGA when he turns 10.

KAORU starts helping to mend the Objects of the LAND of PROMISES, starting with RAUDO.

Per Makai Retsuden, at some point in his search for KAORU, KOUGA happens upon and saves REKKA and RIAN from ZAJI. He asks RIAN to let REKKA know he will definitely return, and continues his search.

KOUGA on his journey battles a Time-Space castle with aid from GOTEN and REKKA, FALCONIA using Orin GARO, AJURA as Ryujin GARO, battles MEDORICA alojgside DAN and ZERO on their Madou Horses, and battles BYAKKO, defeating it using a power received from the wishes of REI, KUROMARU and KAORU, Taigan Jushin GARO, and rescues a number of Objects, who reveal to him that KIBA has captured KAORU. He may also cut down 8,000 HORRORS.

KOUGA finds and confronts KIBA, defeating KIBA SUMERAGI using Taigan Jushin GARO enhanced by the wishes of the Objects, and reunites with KAORU in the Land of Promises with their allies KUROMARU, RAUDO and ESARUTO among other objects. Witnessing from there the eventual effects of EIRIS' awakening, they see a vision of RAIGA, who has only inherited a HAGANE, confronting EIRIS and being overpowered, and have KUROMARU create a gap in space-time they are able to send ZARUBA through to RAIGA.

You can maybe justify P Shin GARO's battles as fitting here. 3 are remixes of classic battles, ANGRAY, UTOK and ERUZU, the others are against the Ultimate HORROR BEAR and MENCAL.

Raiga Era

Age 6, RAIGA loses his parents, leaving him to be raised by GONZA. ZARUBA is either left behind, or sent back. He will come to believe his parents are dead.

At some point, RAIGA visits a glassworkers, and will create a wind chime he will keep with him.

Just before he turns 10 RAIGA still endeavours to become a Knight. After an injury a passing Makai Priest, AKARI, treats him.

The night he turns 10, RAIGA is taken by REI on a HORROR hunt so he may choose for himself if he truly seeks to become a Makai Knight. With RAIGA's heart set, he gives AKARI a gift of his wind chime as thanks for her treatment. At this time she is worried for the life of someone close to her leaving on a journey.

After completing RAIGA's training REI intends to leave to make sure everyone can come back.

Dark Slasher and originator of the Soul Insertion technique, ZESSHIN, is arrested after killing someone whose Soul Orb was not blackened. The SENATE will believe his family dead save one daughter, who will seek to live a normal life and escape her father's evil. Increased stress from the incident caused Dark Slasher co-founder BYAKKAI to attempt to abandon his duties, resulting in the SENATE placing him under House Arrest. His pupil BIKUU will continue to perform her duties. At some point BIKUU causes an injury to her brother, the Makai Knight IZUMO, that will have a lifelong affect on his combat.

RAIGA becomes a Makai Knight, and visits the Tower of Heroic Spirits, learning his father yet lives before the armour of GARO is released to him by KOUGA.

Senatorial Knight BUSUJIMA EIJI, GIRU, leader of a group of Shadow Knights that include KURO, who is partners with ORUVA distraught at his inability to save AKARI from disease, even after she gives him her treasured wind chime, comes up with a plan to use EIRIS to resurrect AKARI, planning to preserve her soul in MAGOU YURIGATA. Unknown to him, this plan was doomed to failure, as MAYURI could not contain souls, she simply said his name because she senses his desperation, however this instead convinces EIJI his plan will work.

Priestess MUTSUKI, desperate to save her son from a corruption, steals the Kaen spell and uses it to save him, imbuing him with it. Falling to darkness in the process, MUTSUKI is hunted down by BIKUU and slain, though BIKUU ensures her Madou Brush is returned to her family. Her son, KURUMA DAICHI, will not resent BIKUU for this, and even admires the Dark Slashers, instead resenting his mother for falling to darkness despite her doing it to save him.

EIJI unseals the ADY Slate, beginning the process of EIRIS' resurrection. The events of the Makai no Hana okay out. As EIRIS is fully awakening, it contacts ZAJI and makes a deal to snuff out the light across time.

Following EIRIS's defeat, EIJI is imprisoned by the SENATE.

Per CR GARO Makai no Hana, RAIGA battle LEGULES ZAN as Orin GARO, battles HUMPTY MAGNA atop GOTEN, 6000 HORRORs alongside KURO, and Cho MAKAIRYU first GOTEN, then as Shin Tsubasabito GARO.

The events of BIKUU occur. After, with ZESSHIN and BYAKKAI dead, BIKUU resists DAICHI's attempts to become her pupil.

Various events from Makai Retsuden presumably take place here. MAYURI visits ANNA to restore the MAKAIRYU picture, BIKUU encounters ERIKA, KURO confronts EIJI to redeem him, BIKUU gives DAICHI a test to see if she will continue training him as a Dark Slasher.

Over passing years, MAYURI turns her work towards growing magical plants.

KIBA is reawakened by the sound of newborn RAIGA's cry, his essence kills and possesses the Makai Knight SHIROKU, who wears a black Madou Ring resembling ZARUBA, and begins engineering a scheme to acquire the strongest Armour, OUGA, which he has learnt is stored within the Tower of Heroic Spirits.

The events of Gekkou no Tabibito play out.

Per CR GARO Gekkou no Tabibito, the following events occur, some of these may occur relatively earlier for TAIGA and/or KOUGA. KOUGA GARO & GOTEN get into a HORROR extermination/race/battle with ZERO & GINGA, DAN & HAYATE, BARON & SHINGETSU and KIBA & RAIGO. RAIGA has to cut down 9000 HORRORS. RAIGA battles KIBA, aided by KOUGA, allowing him wield two Garoken, KOUGA battles ASMODEUS, TAIGA supporting him with flame, TAIGA battles a Giant HORROR fusion, KOUGA helping create a flaming tornado to attack. The 3 SAEJIMA witness KIBA's last summon, the Sacred Beast SUZAKU. TAIGA and KOUGA merge with GARO to form GARO OUGA, and the finishing blow is achieved by transforming further into Kyoki Tsubasabito GARO OUGA Kanzen Kiniro

In the future, RAIGA and MAYURI will have a son, who is fated to inherit the title of GARO.

It took way too long just to cover the Saejima Era, but it is the most clearly defined. Moving on to discussing the Dougai era timeline.

RYUGA era

RYUME, already a renowned Makai Priestess, finds her resolve in mastering a protective spell thanks to an encounter with shady Priests D RINGO and GINJI. The two escape arrest, with RYUME asking it be overlooked, and with renewed confidence, RYUME and her families FUJI and RAIJI head to HORROR den LINE CITY, where RYUME uses her spiritual power to purify the land.

As youths, Priests BURAI, HAKANA and OUMA visit the Tower of Heroic Spirits, and see interred there the stained black armour of GARO, the chief priest there tells them how the previous GARO lost his light in a terrible battle, it is unclear.if this Priest was a witness or not. HAKANA can sense that GARO wants to be restored to golden radiance.

AGOU, a humanoid Madou Tool created by Priest SOTATSU to fight HORRORS, both destroyed by DEGOL, reawakens after being struck by lightning. Over a few decades he undergoes self-repair, and, unknowing influenced by a portion of DEGOL within him, makes a plan to fulfill his and the Priest's dream to create a world free of HORRORS, by using another fragment of DEGOL to destroy humanity.

Makai Knight JINGA and Makai Priestess AMILY meet for the first time during an attempt by AMILY to deliver a REIJU pelt to HIKAGE and KAGAYA in HOMURO alongside KISARA, ZUNA and YUMEKA. The two promise to meet again, and will eventually marry.

KANESHIRO TOUSEI, illegitimate son of VOL CITY founder KANESHIRO KENSUI and KAREN, a member of a disgraced Makai Priest family, successfully uses a Madou Tool to summon a HORROR that kills everyone in the house. He begins researching ZEDOM, the source of Soul Metal, knowing VOL CITY is atop the burial spot of ZEDOM's head.

HAKANA and her son, DOUGAI RYUGA share the dream of restoring GARO. BURAI takes RYUGA, age 7, to an island to train with his familiar, RAGO.

So they can restore GARO's light for when RYUGA claims it, BURAI and HAKANA meet with brother and sister priests RIKYA and SARI, and Makai Knight SONSHI, at the site of ZEDOM's to harvest Soul Metal. The ritual is attacked by TOUSEI, resulting in HAKANA being filled with Madou Plant seeds, TOUSEI then turns SONSHI into a Madou HORRROR that serves him, who consumes SARI. TOUSEI takes HAKANA captive to harvest more plants. BURAI, separated from the others in the attack, finds RIKYA dying, and promises to ensure his daughter is safe, but does not learn the truth of what happened.

TOUSEI and SONSHI take HAKANA to VOL CITY, and the resting place of ZEDOM's head. Using the plants from HAKANA, TOUSEI turns influential people in VOL CITY into Madou HORRORS, with SONSHI acting as voice to them. The Madou HORRORS allow TOUSEI to secretly take control of VOL CITY, and make deals with Inga HORRORs to do his bidding in exchange for food, over the course of 15 years. Among those he makes into Madou HORRORs are RIVERA, lead spokeswoman for VOL CITY's NEWS TIME.

BURAI finds RIAN, informing her of her father's death and giving her his barrette as an heirloom. Initially he asks OUMA to take RIAN to KANTAI, and feeling responsible for orphaning both RYUGA and RIAN, attempts to kill himself in penance. OUMA stops him, and when RIAN witnesses RYUGA through BURAI's portal, her earnest intent to do her best, and encouragement to the boy she doesn't know but who shares her circumstances changes BURAI's mind, and he instead trains RIAN himself. Despite BURAI's intent to send RIAN there, by the time of GOLDSTORM Sho RIAN has ambitions to rebuild KANTAI.

KUSUGAMI AGURI trains to succeed the title of GUY. Initially peerless in archery, in his youth he meets a pair from TEIGEN village, BANBI and TENMA JUDO. TENMA's family also specialise in archery, and he becomes the one whose back AGURI always follows. AGURI will fall in love with BAMBI, but her love will always be JUDO's.

AKIZUKI DAIGO and HIBA SEIJI train together as Makai Knights and sworn friends, and both take the role of DOUSHI, training boys to become Makai Knights. DAIGO takes the title of GIGA

JINGA and AMILY arrive in a forest village with their son, YUTO, and save it from the HORROR that threatens it. Upon slaying the HORROR, they return to find YUTO murdered as sacrifice of appeasement, and in a rage murder the entire populace of the village, both falling to darkness. Their bloodlust not sated, they continue to attack other forest villages, their rampage only halted when a HOMURO priest uses a self-destruct spell, giving the sole survivors, brother and sister, directions to HOMURO.

JINGA and AMILY's spirits linger, and they both become HORRORs. Abandoning all pretense of humanity, the two maintain their Makai abilities, AMILY is able to enhance JINGA's HORROR form with a dark mirror. The two prefer to feed not on humans, but on HORRORs, encouraging them to feed on humans before consuming them.

The brother and sister after many days reach the hidden village of HOMURO, the brother having encouraged his sister HARUNA with a small puppet he crafted. The two are taken in by Makai Priestess HIKAGE. HIKAGE will give the boy the choice of training as a Makai Knight or Makai Priest, but hating Makai Knights due to the murder of his family, the boy will insist on being a Priest, inheriting the title of GARUDO, he who watches the seal of CASTLE RADAN. HARUNA will become a Priestess specialising in navigation and tracking, supporting GARUDO by speaking through a puppet replica. By the time of GOLDSTORM Sho the siblings are all that remains of HOMURO.

After training for 10 years, BURAI gives RYUGA his final task, forcing him to slay RAGO, and only then reveals to him HAKANA's death. Incensed both by being forced to kill RAGO and the deception, RYUGA loses all trust for BURAI. He keeps RAGO's fang as a memento, and is given ZARUBA by BURAI, and begins a life as a wandering Makai Knight. ZARUBA refuses to acknowledge RYUGA as GARO.

As adults and now Knights, AGURI and JUDO will both give gifts expressing their feelings to BANBI. Later, JUDO asks AGURI to accompany him in a duty to seal the EMPEROR that awakens every 200 years, as part of a guard to accompany him as he seals it. JUDO keeps secret the truth of the ceremony, until after firing his arrow at the EMPEROR, he is issued a choice by his enemy. Either he must surrender himself to darkness, or surrender the one he loves. Refusing to sacrifice BANBI to the darkness, JUDO entrusts her to AGURI and forcibly falls to darkness. AGURI fails to meet his conviction, leaving JUDO to be slain by the other Knights in attendance. After telling BANBI that if he were in JUDO's position he would have done the same, she leaves him forever.

BURAI produces a new RAGO familiar, and takes RIAN to VOL CITY, aware of its status as a HORROR den, and takes authority there, and also recruits JAKUZURE TAKERU, ZEN, they begin their work to attempt to liberate VOL CITY from the grip of HORRORS. AGURI comes to VOL CITY while trying to find BANBI, and stays to help liberate the city.

ENHOU becomes captain of SG-1, VOL CITY's security forces.

Based on CR GARO Konjiki ni Nare, RYUGA makes some use of a dragonic HIRYU as a mount and per CR GARO GOLDSTORM Sho, RYUGA as the blackened GARO battles TIGAN, FANERETE and MAJUNSA.

Feeling a need for more allies to help handle the VOL CITY situation, BURAI sends orders to RYUGA calling him to VOL CITY, 5 years after their last meeting.

The events of Yami wo Terasu Mono occur. Per CR GARO Konjiki ni Nare, METALLIC takes on HORROR form during the Bright Hope battle before GARO cuts him down, RYUGA cuts down 5000 HORRORs. In another battle with SONICLAUS GARO defeats it using a bow, defeats INVERGE again, and battles BOUQUERIA, now merged with a Goddess statue.

After ZEDOM's head is sealed, AGURI remains in VOL CITY to defend the Makai village ruins, instead of taking summons to the SENATE, TAKERU departs to the West, and RYUGA, RIAN and ZARUBA head to the South.

Per CR GARO Konjiki ni Nare, RYUGA meets with GAJARI, battles VIOLATOR in its clockwork realm, rides GOTEN to defeat BEGURU, alongside ZEN and GUY while all on HIRYUs they face ANDRAGO. In battle with ZAJI he is forcibly reverted back to Shikoku GARO, but receives power in the form of two infant MAKAIRYU from KOUGA, who could be a heroic spirit or just on his journey, and acquired the power of Shingetsu GARO to defeat Jaryu ZAJI. A Golden KIBA may have appeared.

DAIGO's pupil KOOKI acquires the title of ZANKO, that of senior apprentice to GIGA.

Over 2 years, RYUGA and RIAN make various changes to their arsenal, both in outfit while retaining certain keepsakes, and to their weapons, RIAN using a whole new Madou Gun, and RYUGA changing the design of the GAROKEN and affixing blades to the scabbard.

D RINGO and his partner YUKIHIME set up a kebab business in LINE CITY, D RINGO using SOUTETSU's emblem as the business logo. AGOU finally moves from his resting place, aiming to destroy humans to eliminate HORRORs.

The events of GOLDSTORM Sho the Movie occur. A small portion of AGOU is retained, enough to channel his power if need be. RYUGA and RIAN continue their own journey, with RYUGA now wearing GARO Sho, and ZARUBA now modified by RYUME with a cover to reach her Watchdog Centre. D RINGO and YUKIHIME also leave LINE CITY.

Per Makai Retsuden, RIAN briefly departs for another city in order to use moonlight to reinvigorate certain of their items.

D RINGO and YUKIHIME set up an antiquities business.

In order to awaken CASTLE RADAN, JINGA and AMILY abduct Makai Priest GIN, threatening to kill his daughter is he doesn't cooperate, in truth they have already killed her.

The events of GOLDSTORM Sho take place. With RADAN resealed, JINGA and AMILY slain, RYUGA and RIAN have now solidified their relationship.

Per CR GARO GOLDSTORM Sho, RYUGA again makes use of HIRYU on occasion, and is able to use GARO Sho's ZANBAKEN when riding the flaming GOTEN crafted of GARUDO's fire magic. He slays 7000 HORRORS, and visits the Tower of Heroic Spirits. He battles DEMONDO, GORADO, alongside GIGA he battles GRYSIS. He confronts the Sacred Beast QILIN, initially using GARO On to evade it's attacks, then by resisting an onslaught of QILIN's offspring absorbs them and becomes Ginyoku GARO to defeat it.

Per Makai Retsuden, GARUDO, wanting her to have a normal life, sends his sister to high school under the name HOMURO HARUNA. After a HORROR infiltrates her school and is defeated by GIGA, HARUNA chooses the path of a protector, forming a partnership with DAIGO.

While talking with YUKIHIME and D RINGO, RIAN is abducted by ZAJI, and meets a Makai Priestess very different to herself, and another era's Golden Knight.

Per KAMINOKIBA -MEZAME-, ASHURA rouses JINGA's spirit in MAKAI, he remembers only his hate for the Golden Knight. He begins gathering HORROR followers including YUBANGI. RYUME's pupil, RIKYO, who serves as the senior authority in HELL CITY, and her attendants RINRI, KIRIRI and KUMORI, sense JINGA's revival. After KOOKI and his Priestess partner NATSUKI slay HORROR MIDOUJI HAYATO, who then falls under JINGA in MAKAI, saving pupil Knight TEKKAN. Learning of JINGA's revival, KOOKI seeks to go to MAKAI to avenge his master's friend SEIJI, while NATSUKI seeks to repay the Golden Knight for saving her. KICHIYA sends the two to MAKAI, where they attempt to battle JINGA, but as he remembers and ASHURA reveals herself as AMILY, they betray YUBANGI and ultimately slay both KOOKI and NATSUKI, as KICHIYA, RIKYO and TEKKAN can only watch in shock and torment.

A group of HORRORs lead by RINZA and BOEL make a plan to use KAMINOKIBA to escape to the moon, for which they need a large gathering of HORRORS and a Makai Knight who has fallen to darkness. RINZA makes a deal with BAMBI, knowing of a ritual to resurrect a Fallen Makai Knight for one night, which is achieved by stealing Armours, and in exchange the resurrected JUDAU will launch KAMINOKIBA for them. BAMBI agrees, and convinces old friend AGURI to help her steal the armours, DAIGO is among those to have his armour stolen.

The events of KAMINOKIBA play out. RYUGA, AGURI and TAKERU go there own ways again.

Per P GARO GOLD IMPACT, GARO Sho battles HEDERIC atop a train, with ZEN he battles BOEL, with ZEN and GUY he battles RINZA, battles 10000 HORRORS with Fire GOTEN before switching to GARO On. A super enhanced JINGA can appear. GARO On confronts the sacred beast SEIRYU, before power from QILIN empowers him into Reijurin GARO to defeat it. In battle with a HORROR KAMINOKIBA, GARO, ZEN and GUY share the golden light again.

Immediately after returning to Makai after being slain again by GARO, JINGA decides to challenge the restored MESSIAH. The battle does not go well for him.

Some years later, ZARUBA no longer has his face covering. RYUGA goes on a training journey an encounter SHIRAHANE GODOU, ZANGO and his Madou Ring IRUVA, who is on a journey to learn more about the GATE OF DESTRUCTION, that sits beneath his territory of CREACITY. Impressed by RYUGA's mastery of his own darkness, GODOU teaches him the SENKOKENBU technique, informing him of its opposite, the SENEIKENBU, and entrusts his son to RYUGA should they meet.

Returning to CREACITY, GODOU tells MUTSUGI, chief Priestess in CREACITY, who has familiars SHIPPU and REPPU, of meeting RYUGA. When SOUMA's attempt to use SENKOKENBU fails, GODOU helps stop him rampaging, and gives gentle encouragement.

MUTSUGI despairs after a man she saved from a HORROR murders many, and becomes fearful of letting any with Inga live. After reading of the Forbidden Fruit hidden within the Gate of Destruction, she joins GODOU, who has recovered the Stone of Darkness from SEKIGAN Forest, in the ARIVIS labyrinth. At the Gate of Destruction, to eliminate Inga.and the encouragement of the Seducer, she attempts to open the Gate of Destruction, to stop her GODOU seals it using ZANGO, consumed by his armour. The thin crack causes Parfum of Darkness to spread in CREACITY, chasing humans to succumb to HORRORs with far greater ease for the next 3 years. Not revealing the truth of GODOU's disappearance, she also doesn't send SOUMA off for further training, needing him to unseal ZANGO when the chance comes.

3 years after GODOU disappears, MUTSUGI, against the wishes of SHIRAHANE SOUMA who wears a HAGANE, has her pupil KOYORI summon RYUGA to CREACITY for what she claims to be a plan to ensure the Gate of Destruction remains closed. She also summons from the neighbouring territory the Swordsmen of AGORA, IGUSU and his pupils RON and OBI, who all wear HAGANE.

The events of Hagane wo Tsugu Mono occur.

With GARO needing urgent purification, RYUGA sets out, carrying with him a memento of the woman he is returning to. He leaves CREACITY in the capable hands of SOUMA, KOYORI, RON & OBI.

Jinga Era

Conjecture: AMILY emerges from a GATE decades ahead of JINGA reincarnating, and makes a deal with the Makai to become the Madou Ring of the MIKAGE family, the Knights of which hold the title of ROZE.

Following losing his battle with MESSIAH, JINGA is reincarnated into the MIKAGE family of Makai Knights as MIKAGE JINGA, son of MIZUTO and SAYURI, and will have a younger brother in TOUMA. As a boy he will meet FUSA, priestess pupil of YOYU, MIZUTO's best friend, the two will become partners.

Per KAMI NO KIBA -JINGA- TENSEI, in MAKAI, MESSIAH'S Breath TOMINO revives, her servants FUGI, RUKA and SASHA are concerned about the HORRORS that are loyal to JINGA, like MIDOUJI and PAKTORA, as AMILY prepares to change the game.

AMILY stabs MIZUTO with a HORROR dagger, turning him into a HORROR, he kills SAYURI and JINGA tries to stop him, not helped when TOUMA mistakes JINGA for the HORROR. JINGA manages to slay his father, and YOYU erases TOUMA's memories. Now forced to step up as ROZE, JINGA struggles for six months with the empathy he feels for those who become HORRORs, while trying to train TOUMA. He and FUSA are under the authority of Watchdog KERUS and her guards RUMIDO and RAMEDO. Also under her authority is the renowned Makai Knight ROZAN.

The events of KAMI NO KIBA -JINGA- occur.

Per KAMI NO KIBA -JINGA- TENSEI, both JINGA's encounter Priestess TOMOHA, causing her to view him as a saviour. PAKTORA and MIDOUJI turn on JINGA for reincarnating as a human, but then join him in wiping out TOMOHA's training site, lead by SIERA.

Per KAMI NO KIBA -JINGA- TENSEI, as KERUS tries to reclaim control of the situation after the mass HORROR outbreak, as TOMINO possesses TOMOHA and her servants oppose JINGA

VERSUS Road era

The present GARO and his wife, a Makai Priestess, are killed combatting a 500 year evil. Their daughter is born in this disaster, but is changed by the darkness her parents destroyed, and able to manipulate darkness in many forms. The girl is raised by Priestess KADOU as KADOU AZAMI, while with the GARO bloodline severed, the armour is watched over by the MONASTERY.

Around 15 years after the cataclysm, SUGO, head priest of the MONASTERY, alongside attendants NAIRU and AGIRU, and in agreement with KADOU, believe a new GARO must be found. Using MONASTERY technology to restrain & control HORRORS, at least those in the portion of MAKAI they control, they opt to recreate the ancient Makai Knight selection methods that inspired the SABBAC. 100 trainee Makai Knights are summoned to the monastery, and like at training camps are instructed not to use their names, instead being issued a number. Under SUGO and his cohort's ministrations, in accordance with the ancient traditions, the youths are to engage in duels to the death.

As the youths die, their Inga is absorbed into the GARO armour, and merges with the Soul Metal forming the mysterious Dark Metal within. Nobody is aware of this, except KADOU AZAMI, who is able to sense and manipulate it, in addition to her other abilities.

The last 4 left are Seven, Thirteen, Fifty-Five and Eighty-Four. The nature of the competition makes it hard for the boys to cooperate. When SUGO tests them by having a HORROR attack them, Thirteen slays it. Seven's pride is wounded, and unable to cope with the pressure and expectations in him as a relative of GARO's lineage, and he commits suicide.

In the final test, Fifty-Five murders Eighty-Four, enraging Thirteen into fighting him seriously. Already victorious, Thirteen cuts down his defeated opponent, and attempts to draw the GAROKEN unsuccessfully. (Conjecture: GARO rejected him due to his striking in anger his already defeated human opponent.)

With SUGO planning to just start again, Thirteen, furious at the waste of life for nothing, instinctively channels the Dark Metal just after AZAMI uses it to murder KADOU, and causes a devastating strike that wipes out the MONASTERY leadership. KADOU AZAMI and HAGIRI SHOUSETSU meet, and SHOUSETSU begins to desire the power of Dark Metal. He takes the still living Fifty-Five out of MAKAI with him.

Fifty-Five withdraws from the MAKAI altogether, becoming a florist.

KUON SENA and HOSHIAI SHORI are lifelong friends, KUON always protecting HOSHIAI from bullies. One day the two get matching charms as representation of their friendship. KUON will still be defending HOSHIAI into college, as HOSHIAI whiles away at game centres.

AMOU RYOSUKE and KANATA DAI are frequent rivals in street battles, occasionally fighting when AMOU is pressured to fight for the Yakuza to settle his debts, but they have a healthy respect for eachother. AMOU is trying to go straight, running his bar Meteor, while KANATA is leader to the upstart Hangere gang, clashing regularly with the Yazuka.

NAGUMO DAISUKE has an eidetic memory, and established himself as popular YTuber NAGUSUKE. Struggling with his abusive manager, he seeks to go independent.

NODA TAKESHI, struggling with years of bullying and abuse from his mother, and possibly in order to survive, snaps and kills some of his classmates. Eventually they reemerge as KOZUKI TAKANE, and start to establish them self as a Genderless Model, hiding their past.

HYUGA REN, an infamous serial killer, escapes custody, seeking a strong fight, the news regularly reporting on him.

20 years after their first meeting, SHOUSETSU and AZAMI meet again again the MONASTERY. Untouched since then, SHOUSETSU has taken over the facility, and seeking to use Dark Metal to create an armour to surpass GARO, dubbed VAIL, and so has created VERSUS ROAD, which will bring 100 souls into competition, supposedly for the right to claim GARO. To achieve this aim, SHOUSETSU has forced the humanoid Madou Tool SHUKA into the role of navigator, makes use of the controlled HORRORs, and employs the use of special items the "Knights" can shape into weapons. AZAMI, also wanting more Dark Metal, agrees to assist him, taking actions to ensure certain players stick with the game.

The day before VERSUS ROAD begins, KUON protects HOSHIAI from NAMIOKA JUN, and AMOU fights KANATA on behalf of NOWAKI KAZUYA.

The events of GARO: VERSUS ROAD takes place.

With all other players dead, and SHOUSETSU dead at AZAMI's hand, she assures KUON they will meet again, but leaves with her Dark Metal, while KUON, just wanting a normal life, leaves the GAROKEN on a snowy hillside.

The actual timeline conjecture

Pictured bellow is a photo I've taken of a timeline included in the 2019 Garopia. While one is also included in the 2024 edition, it is not as informative, dividing by media type rather than character.

While not offering any information on VERSUS ROAD, the way the line continues from Gekkou no Tabibito to the bottom of the page, to me at least, implies acknowledging the later stuff is in the future rather than separate.

I feel determining a true order between the 4 distinct periods (Saejima, Ryuga, Jinga, Versus Road) necessitates a look at two major factors, those being the state of the order in general, and GARO's condition. I might look a little at political states and technology as well, but real world technology is not a good indicator.

First of all we have to treat the Saejima Era as the earliest point between them all, no questions. Anything in Ryuga's time that does imply a relationship indicates Kouga is in the past.

So here's what we know about that period. GARO has been in the Saejima family for at least 3 generations, probably more, and at least one more generation past Raiga. As for the state of the order, it's basically the strongest we ever see it. The Senate is definitely willing to do some shady things in the name of stopping Horrors (treating Mayuri as a Madou Tool is probably the best example), and the mere existence of the Shadow Knights and Dark Slashers could be seen as signs of corruption, but the Senate actually demonstrates shockingly little oversight over the Knights and Priests, let alone the Watchdogs.

The undersdanding we have of the Order during Kouga's time is that Japan(?) is divided into 4 territories each overseen by a Watchdog. The Senate itself also has at least two Watchdogs, Suzaku and Grace. The individual districts are then divided into various territories that have their own Knights or Priests assigned to them, they are expected to perform duties only within that territory unless ordered otherwise. Then there are Knights and Priests that serve directly under the Senate.

The order definitely has some organisational issues. Rei seems to have been accepted by the Western Watchdog without any confirmation of what happened to the previous ZERO, although it's possible Douji made some form of introduction. However we also have the case of Akira, who somehow was accepted by the Southern Watchdog and received the title of YAIBA, when his only links to the Makai were a man who was A: a traitor and B: believed dead. Although all that pails in comparison to the situation with Garm, whose only punishment for trying to summon Messiah was being split into Keil, Bell and Rose and confined to the Easter Watchdog Centre, and even then Kodama was free to leave to follow her orders. The Senate is still failing in security measures by the time of MAKAI SENKI, Reo was accepted as a Senate Priest for his achievements, a deserved appointment to be sure, but no background check seem to have been performed, as nobody knew of Sigma, knew the previous RODO had died, or realised the Fudo family records had disappeared until after the unmasking. While probably the responsibility of the Watchdog rather than the Senate, no Knight was assigned to replace Kengi after his death, and following Akaza's death Rekka and Shiguto seem to be the only ones assigned to the city.

It seems likely that things like the Barago and Sigma situations contributed to the decision to accept the creation of the Dark Slashers, despite the mistrust that materialised.

By Raiga's time the districts are now denoted by colour, which I assume means there's been come decentralisation, which does make sense. There's also less issues with not knowing stuff, although they apparently lost OUGA and had no idea it was in the Tower of Heroic Spirits.

Throughout this period, while the Order may maintain a lot of properties both isolated and within population centres, the Makai only community seems to be Kantai, which seems to operate solely under the authority of Garai, and it's unclear whether Kantai falls under any Watchdog's territory, although notably a different district is assigned to send backup for the White Night every time it comes.

We move now to the situation in Ryuga's time, and it definitely seems like there's been a decline in the Order overall. While the Senate apparently still exists, the Watchdogs seem to have essentially vanished. Ryume and her pupil Rikyo are close, including having what are essentially Watchdog Centres, and Ryume in particular holds the most authority of anyone we see in this era, but the two are both explicitly Priests, and tend to only deliver orders in serious situations, and Ryume's authority may also come just from her experience. However, what we see throughout this period is Priests being the senior authority within an area, Burai in Vol City, Ryume in Line City, Rikyo in Hell City and Mutsugi in Creacity. Ryume and Mutsugi also are shown to have familiars of uncertain nature in Ryume's masked attendants and Mutsugi's hooded priests. While Rikyo's female attendants may also fall into this category, Burai only has Rago, which I would not put in the same category. There's also more insular Makai communities, like Homuro, although given that forest also hosted a number of human settlements that might not be important, but Ryuga and Rian both seem to have been from Makai only villages as well. Another sign of some decline with the order is Kantai managing to fall in a space of about 15 years.

As for GARO, prior to Ryuga becoming GARO aged 17 and then restoring it's light five years later, there had been no Garo for some decades, probably before Hakana and Burai were born. A Priest at the time told them of GARO's last battle and how the light was drained, but it's unclear if this knowledge was firsthand. Whatever it was though left the armour stained black. One conjecture is the armours got bathed in large amounts of Inga and Jaki in the last battle, and was never purified. Whatever the circumstances, it has probably been about 3 generations since the last GARO fell, be that Raiga and Mayuri's son or a descendent.

Kami no Kiba -JINGA- has no presence of the Golden Knight, so the order is our only real point of conjecture. While I personally believe it to be the future, if BARAGO can be reincarnated at a point before he died, I see no reason Mikage Jinga cannot have been reincarnated from Jinga before Jinga was born or died. The state of the order is all we have to go on. There are actual Watchdogs, however the example we see, Kerus, has attendants in Rumido and Ramedo like Ryume does. I like to think this is an example of the order rebuilding, as while Kerus is a Watchdog, she lacks the somewhat ethereal qualities of other Watchdogs.

This leaves us with VERSUS ROAD. As the Order as we see it, and GARO itself are directly linked I will discuss together. For most of the series, we see no Horror activity not directly related to Versus Road, all we know is GARO is unclaimed and absorbing the players Inga, all the Horrors we see are restrained and only act by Azami's will, and she and Shousetsu are deliberately encouraging Inga generation. The flashback in episode 9 gives us most of our information. It tells us that the last GARO died 30 years before the series, with no obvious successor. I would assume the 500 year evil he was facing was battled in MAKAI, and the GAROKEN rests where he fell. Evidently no purification was done, I presume the Monastery took stewardship for it, and eventually attempted to find a successor, because of the proximity to their outpost. Aside from Azami's birth mother, who used a Madou Brush, every Priest we see uses magic which seems to have a slight technological aspect to it, I will treat this as the Monastery's specialty technique. Did the Senate approve the Monastery's actions in attempting to find a new GARO? I'm sure they agreed with the desire to find one, but we cannot know if they knew Sugo was reviving the ancient contests. If there were 100 families willing to send sons as candidates, we can otherwise infer the Order was in decent shape at the time, so maybe the fact we don't see any sign of HORROR activity outside Versus Road is because the Makai are dealing with it properly. Shousetsu definitely wanted his activity unnoticed by them.

Regardless of their status at the time of Versus Road, the Senate are unaware of what's going on, so we can only question what they know of the events of 20 years prior. I see 3 options: they know nothing, they have some idea, they know most everything. If they lost contact with the Monastery, they may have investigated, but it may well have been sometime before they did so,.and either way it seems likely they would conclude the whole monastery wiped out by Horrors, forcing them to write off GARO as lost. The only way they would have more concrete information is if Shousetsu or 55 reported to the Senate, and if he did, I imagine Shousetsu left out Azami and the Dark Metal. In any case, the Monastery is abandoned by the order until Shousetsu takes over in preparation for Versus Road, and the order are forced to consider GARO unobtainable.

My wild conjecture is that Versus Road is between the Saejima Era and Ryuga. I see two possibilities. One, if the priest who told Burai and Hakana about GARO's last battle spoke second hand, then he was describing the battle of Azami's parents, and after Kuon rejected GARO perhaps it automatically returned to the Tower of Heroic Spirits now that it was back in Jinkai, with all the Inga absorbed over the 30+ years leaving it stained black. The order has no knowledge of what happened in Versus Road so believe the blackening was due to the last battle.

My current theory

The alternate possibility is that someone eventually finds the Garoken on that snowy hillside and claims GARO, and their line eventually fails, possibly again due to the darkness that has stained it in the interim never being purified.

The big problem I see with this theory is Zaruba, who has no presence in Versus Road but was in the Tower of Heroic Spirits, and apparently well acquainted with Burai, in the backstory to Yami wo Terasu Mono. I can see two options, either he was moved to the Tower immediately after GARO fell to await the arrival of a newcomer, or he was destroyed, and Ryuga's is a new incarnation, or at least postdating Versus Road.

Saejima Era

Versus Road Era

Dougai Era

Mikage Era

I think I'm unlikely to move from this position unless we get new information, probably from something that picks up from the end of Versus Road. And plenty of people are happy to consider them all distinct anyway.

[foxingpeculiar]

FF16 Blogging: this update comes after a long night in Twinside. Very spoilers heavy up to that point, this one.

*deep breath*

Okay. Let’s start with the big picture. I now know what Ultima wants. It wants to be reunited with Mythos, whom it seems to view as a peer of some sort. I’m not really sure what that means, because I still don’t know what it IS, exactly. It’s not an Eikon. Though they may be related to it (more on that in a minute).

Somehow, though, Mythos is Clive. Or, I suspect, it’s more like Clive is a part of Mythos—fundamentally a manifestation of it, but without its full consciousness or essence or whatever. Ultima does seem to be very interested in consciousness. And it said Mythos was yet “unclaimed by humanity.”

What that makes me think of is how I said they were drawing out the whole Clive/Jill thing. Ultima mentioned love among the things it wanted to strip from Mythos, so their interpersonal tension is a reflection of that larger conflict.

It also sounds like whatever’s happening to Mythos is intentional? Ultima said it wants Mythos “back on our side,” which makes it sound almost betrayed (although I don’t think it experiences that as an emotion). But that raises the question, side of what?

This is where the Fallen seem to come into play. The hole in the map got explained, sort of. But whatever The Final Sin was, exactly, it seems like maybe Ultima was the one that did it? In leveling up Tomes, one of the new lore notes he “discovered” said that the mothercrystals were “set by Ultima.” Setting aside the fact that that somewhat contradicts Tomes saying he found nothing about Ultima, the whole scenario has very Tower of Babel vibes. Whatever the Fallen were doing there, it pissed Ultima off and that power was divided. I dunno, I don’t know the details yet, but it feels like that’s where it’s going.

It’s clear that Olivier is connected to Ultima in some way, both from Dion’s near-death vision (he’s never seen Ultima, so it can’t be a hallucination cos how would he know what it looks like?) and from whatever Olivier did to him to make him flip out. It feels like there was more to it than just breaking him, psychologically, but even if it was just that, the dispassionate and scheming way it was done, and that it seems to further Ultima’s goals, and that Olivier referred to Mythos, all seem to make that connection undeniable.

The Bahamut fight was sick, btw. Not as hard, gameplay-wise as Titan, but it FELT harder, narratively. Also, we were in fucking space! I think the whole “Ifrit Rising,” Voltron thing happened because Mythos is whatever Ultima is. What Ultima divided (the elements of magic, manifested in the Eikons), he can unite. That’s a guess, and a bit of a reach, but what I want to be true.

I was, however, wrong about Annabella. She was not behind the Olivier/Ultima connection nor, apparently, aware of it. She was just a garden variety Nazi-like eugenicist (gotta keep the superior bloodline alive and pure). And she went out like a bitch. But, there’s this weird feeling I have that she wasn’t entirely wrong, re: the importance of bloodlines. It’s not for nothing that both Clive (Mythos) and Olivier (Ultima) are her sons. She just maybe didn’t realize the way in which she was right, or what it really means. There was that one sidequest where I was looking for a noble in Dalimil to ask about a sword for Blackthorne and one of the people I talked to was a drunk guy who had a “theory” that the Fallen were still alive among us. He may have been on to something there.

Going back to that lore note about the mothercrystals, it said three had fallen prior to the events of the game. Two, Drake’s Horn and Drake’s Eye, follow the naming pattern of the remaining five (now down to one). But the other one was called Dzemekys. Which is also the name of the kingdom of the Fallen (or Dzemekians), per that one scholar guy who hired me in the border town to follow him around and listen to him prattle. So, like… what does that mean?

Other stray thoughts:

Where is all the water that’s been constantly spilling into The Final Sin since forever going, exactly? Wouldn’t it eventually fill up?

Learning more about Otto was nice, even if his backstory isn’t.

Medicine Girl showed up again in Twinside. She gets around. But WHY? It’s driving me fucking nuts.

What was happening to Drake’s Breath? It regenerated, it… bloomed, for lack of a better word, and its heart was outside it and shot Bahamut. None of the others have done stuff like that.

When Ultima appeared disguised as Benna for Barnabas, I almost did a spit take, like I KNEW SHE WASN’T DEAD, but no. Also, his naked mom? Creepy. What’s his deal? They’re apparently in cahoots, but how? Why? Since when? Etc.

So, Clive has absorbed 5 Eikons now (Phoenix, Garuda, Ramuh, Titan, Bahamut), along with Ifrit, who would be an unexpected ninth. Plus, there’s Shiva and Odin still in play. But that leaves one unaccounted for. Wait, fuck, unless THAT’s Medicine Girl and she just hasn’t awoken yet? I dunno, it’s as good a guess as any other I have about her.

And lastly, Kat came in during a scene with Joshua and Clive and observed that they look, respectively, like Justin Bieber and “how Nikki Sixx sees himself in his mind.”

I am apparently 3/4 of the way through the game at this point. Very excited to see how the last quarter plays out.

[disisphlebotinum]

I love when Dion uses his powers. I understand almost none of what they are. It feels like he can do anything.

Tevin's powers grow on me every time i see it.

Janelle is magnificent.

[jewishraypalmer]

I made this post after Raising Dion S1 and I'll say it again after finishing S2...SPOILERS...casting Jason Ritter is the most genius choice they could have made. This time I was like hell no fuck Pat but even STILL a little part of me was like but aww it's Jason Ritter and I knew...I KNEW he hadn't changed (boy literally was like "I have had a hard time! I WAS REJECTED!" 😐👀😓 and yet there he is crying a little bit and I almost fell for it bc JASON RITTER and of course the end happens and I'm like oh y'all played me AGAIN 😂😂