#though all the personal quests are pretty boring tbh....

[kirkwallguy]

honestly as much as im disliking taash's narrative and still am really not into weekes' style of dialogue i might actually rank them above harding and lucanis right now... at least they're not boring

[motheatenscarf]

FREEDOM.

I'm FINALLY done with Heavensward and Stormblood society quests!!

I had the Stormblood ones done a while ago, actually, they were a delight and I breezed through them, but put off doing the combined quest until after the Heavensward one bcs I'm trying to do them in order. But the Vanu and Moogles took SO LONG to do because they only give you a max of 150 reputation every day instead of the standard 180. That doesn't sound like a big difference, but jesus christ, it adds up, wound up adding like an extra 2 or 3 weeks onto the grind. Un-fucking-bearable.

I think that extended grind might be why I didn't enjoy the Heavensward societies that much.

The Vath were okay, kinda cute, didn't overstay their welcome, but I just wasn't terribly invested in them. I've seen the "trying to break away from a hivemind" story before and this one didn't have anything especially interesting to say and the bonds forged didn't feel especially profound. But they did give 210 rep a day, so it just breezed by and didn't annoy me at least.

The Vanu Vanu are.... fine? I personally find their speech patterns to get real old real quick, same problem I had with like. All of the ARR society quests. Just feels unnecessarily Othering. The vath at least have the excuse of being very alien in their hive-mind social structure, but the vanu are just. Big Time islander coded and those are just... people. Which also made the not-Haka dance emote you get from them, the Sundrop Dance, just feel all the more Wrong to use. Like, that feels like it's maybe crossing a line. None of the NPCs really stood out and I kinda didn't pay attention to most of it. Linu Vali has a pretty flower crown and THAT'S IT.

The Moogles are exhausting. I say this as someone who fucking loves moogles, even if not ESPECIALLY when they're being annoying, useless little shits, but they're kinda one-note and it gets old quick. Like, if I, me, someone who spent $40 on a plush of Lulu's moogle doll from FFX twice because the first one had its pom eaten by my dog, that person, ME, if you can't win ME over with your moogle in a hard-hat and drunk moogles getting hit by cartoon bombs, you've done something wrong. It especially drags because you're only getting 150 rep a day and the map is huge and you've got to use special mounts on so much bullshit, and fuck you if your queue popped while you were traveling on the mount, you have to go back and start over on this huge, huge map once you're done with your dungeon. Same problem I had with the Vanu, tbh. Just. A miserable grind and you will feel every second of it. It's almost worth it for the moogle dance though.

But the combined role quest was nice. I like the dance emote, it's got elements of the not-haka dance in there, but enough of the moogle dance that it just feels cute and not appropriative.

Also I'm getting tired of meeting this guy in his speedo.

But at least someone blew up his ship again, so all's well that ends well! Onto Stormblood, which I actually really liked the society quests for!

The Kojin were my least favorite of this bunch, their fixation with spiritual treasures and then "the real treasure being the friends we made along the way" was kinda dumb and not in like, a self-aware or silly way. It was played completely straight and I didn't really find any of the NPCs this time interesting or engaging so it all just fell kinda flat with me. Also I have. A big issue. With the naming of their prayer emote you can pick up being labelled; "Ballroom Etiquette: Heathen Gestures." Like. I know the etiquette books are played for very tongue-in-cheek laughs about boring fuddy duddies, but c'mon, man. That... yikes.

The Ananta are a big improvement, though, I really like them and Alpa stood out as a charming and vibrant character, she's so cute and driven and the humor finally lands for once. Having J'olhmyn as the straight-man to M'zhet Tia's antics works well, and the social blunders that Alpa makes through her more isolated upbringing are endearing. Neither aspect is overmined for laughs and Alpa is treated with enough sincerity that you buy-in to her emotional reality and care about her. Just a solid little self-contained story, I really like the ananta quests, and the emote you can get from them of the /charmed sway of being bewitched/enchanted by something or someone is just adorable. Also, love the false nails you can pick up, and the griffin and elephant mounts are cute too! A good story, fun NPCs, fantastic rewards, this is maybe the first society quest I actually recommend people do for something besides completionism or accessibility to crafting materials. The Ananta are great, I love them and my snaughter, snake-daughter.

The Namazu might be my favorite of all society quests. They're not the best one, I think those come in Endwalker, but they might be my favorite. I just.... I just love them. They're so muppety and stupid and the exact brand of physical comedy that can actually get a chuckle out of me. They're adorable and the premise of saving them from various improbable and absurd extinctions is hilarious. There are so many recurring gags and jokes and none of them overstay their welcome and the comedic timing is perfect every time. The quests are all cute, the story is hilarious and adorable, the characters are great, the rewards are AMAZING, if you love the Muppets or Gremlins or anything with Little Creechurs Doing Antics, you will have so much fun with these quests and love every minute of them and look forward to them. Also, just, like, side-note, but so many of the species in the society quests are so over-designed imo; the kojin, the vath, the amalj'aa. But the Namazu are so simple in a very iconic and cute way, like, they could literally be a new mascot of the Final Fantasy series they're so well designed. I love them so much.

And for once I kinda cared about the combined role quest! BECAUSE THEY KIDNAPPED MY SNAUGHTER! And also they stole one of my fish buddies and I had to get them back too. Also, the puppet who came to life from the kojin story, but he was already kinda dead anyways, so like, whatever, but OH NO! My snaughter!! So I was very invested in getting her back.

Also, the tables have turned, and now Talia is the one in her swimsuit when the villain shows up! WHAT A TWIST!

I mean, he's also in a speedo, this scene takes place in a hot spring, but I'm still counting it as a subversion.

Anyway, the Stormblood society quests are the first time I will call this GOOD CONTENT. The surprising siliness of ARR's combined society quests was entertaining after they'd all been played so straight with their dire stakes, but this time it felt like a consistent through-line from the individual to combined quests. The Kojin are the only ones that feel like kind of a letdown and even then, they're still as good as anything from Heavensward or ARR, so if you've done those until this point, you won't feel like you're wasting your time with them at least. And the other two are just great, and the combined quest is fun, and M'zhet Tia turns out to have been carrying Chekov's grenade this entire time, and it's just great. Actually got me to finally LAUGH and not just smile.

[kyogre-blue]

Mostly finished the Wuwa 1.2 festival event, largely in one go.

I have minor nitpicks but tbh I liked it quite a bit? This is kind of annoying angle to take, but I think it's actually better than any of Genshin's festivals (that I actually paid attention to).

I don't passionately love Jinzhou, but I like it well enough. I'm an easy sell on emotional appeals in general, so I like the welfare girl squad, I like Jinzhou's NPCs and the Midnight Rangers, I like Jiyan even though he's boring, and I was quite fine with the other characters too. So seeing everyone happy, having fun, looking forward to the future was very nice. I think the little stall quests were cute enough, the NPC sections were fine and consistent with Wuwa's overall themes, and the Xiangli Yao storyline was like... better that at minimum 95% of Genshin's story quests. The guy actually emoted at the climax!

Overall, it wasn't quite enough to be called amazing, but it was pretty enjoyable. (I still have to finish getting popularity, but I doubt there's much story behind that.)

Small notes:

Leaks are saying that 1.3 will be Black Shores related and then 1.4 will the be last 1.x patch, followed by 2.0. This is starting to look more plausible after this event. There's several mentions about how Jinzhou is now going to be at peace because we stopped the Threnodian's awakening, which has a very "time to move on to the next plot" feeling.

Additionally, we have a few namedrops of the next Sentinel, Hsin. A fox, apparently. They are definitely starting to gear up to move on.

I like that you can interact with the fireworks to set them off. I love being able to press F to interact. There's also a bigger firework on the fortune stick terrace, which looks very nice.

I also love buying stuff in game. I bought all the recipes I could already. But I am disappointed that the firecrackers will disappear after the event period. Let me keep them?? (Also, let me buy a fan?? This is just rude teasing.)

I'm fine with the stall management minigame, but I kind of wish there were a few more. Like a more extensive shooting or gulpuff minigame.

Initially, I was going to say that Taoyuan village has too few decorations compared to Liyue at Lantern Rite, but it fills up as you build the stalls. It's pretty lively by the end.

There are some stalls you need to interact with daily. The fortune sticks give you an actual buff (I got increased echo drop rate today), the riddle and lottery give prizes. You can also get more of the request coupons daily.

It's kind of a hassle that you need funds to run the requests but you also use funds to do the stall upgrades. This means if you rush to do an upgrade right after you get enough funds for it (which makes an exclamation mark appear, btw), you'll end up with not enough funds to run the high tier requests. The requests don't even use the funds, you just need to have them.

The game crashed on the final cinematic, though I think I only missed the group selfie at the end. lmao, honestly

Just on a personal note, I appreciate that Pascar wasn't crazy and that his research meaningfully contributed to the world. I was almost expecting some kind of rugpull that would undercut the moment, but it really was just a good, hopeful thing. Although this is just circumstantial, he also contrasts well with Geshu Lin, who had a surface similarity in his "my goals at any cost" approach to what Pascar is initially presented as.

But dang, Wuwa faces are so pretty. The models really do look so good.

I can't believe I have to wait two more weeks to get this man. CRIMINAL

Does anyone have the welfare girl squad selfie? I missed snapshotting it...

[eurofox]

Yakuza Ishin! review

Finished as much of this as I'm bothered with. Spoilers btw

Ok story wise this has to be one of weakest. I get that it's meant to be somewhat rooted in historical fact so it was limited in that way but it's just not great IMO. It takes forever to get going and when it finally does get interesting it's too near the end and a lot of shite is just dumped in the final cutscene. At least they didn't make us fight Jingu The whole 2 Ryoma thing got confusing and the reason behind it all felt flimsy. The great fire of Kyoto ended up being no big deal with most minimal damage ever? like wtf. I liked the historical setting but it felt undercooked overall tbh. Also I can buy bare knuckle Kiryu somehow never killing people, but Ryoma is straight up canonically using a sword, so it started feeling silly. I honestly appreciated the fact that he did just start killing near the end.

It was nice to see Mine again, but he felt underused. I don't care for Baba so I'm alright with Zhao. Having Ryoma's bro played by a former villain was pretty much a spoiler from the get go, could see betrayal coming a mile off. They did Daigo so dirty, making him the bald Shogun that gets almost no screentime :( . Also kinda disappointed Andre Richardson/Glover didn't do his asshole move of refusing to speak Japanese despite understanding but he did get his cool theme. Ryoma was interesting and felt different enough from Kiryu personality wise. I'm glad they kept Haruka as a side character so it wasn't retreading the same old stuff

Combat is stiffer than what I was expecting, but this is an old game I guess and I last played lost judgement which is very smooth so that didn't help. Brawler did so little damage and every enemy is armed so I stopped using it early on. Gunplay was a nice change, and so was wild dancer but both didn't really do much damage either. Stuck with sword most of the time but it got old after awhile, again it felt very stiff. Avoiding combat was a nightmare in this game, enemies were always waiting in that same narrow street The long battles are usually my favourite part of any game but they were rare and not done well here. Aside from storming Daigo's castle, which was ok. Way too many boss fights and most of them felt spongy as hell, like, if I'm setting a TIGER on you why is it doing so little damage? I actually didn't mind the trooper cards though overall, added a bit of variety. The blacksmith requires far too much grinding in an already grindy game so I made one ok gun and never looked back. Most weapons you find seem to be better anyway.

There was a few interesting substories, like the bathhouse and Sumo brothel but way less than other games. And fucking hell the amount of friendship bonds was out of control and boring as all fuck, just repetitive fetch quests and sob stories. One or two were funny but the rest I could not give less of a shit about.

Karaoke and dancing are fine, I just suck at them but it was cool seeing it in the historical setting. The brothel games got dull fast and chicken racing sucks. Never liked gambling anyway. The Farm simulator was an ok distraction and so was the cooking but very simple and I didn't find myself going back to them much. Fuck those prize ticket machines though, turning a wheel over and over to win like 40 scraps of paper.

Graphics wise it was ok, especially main cutscenes which are actually pretty good. You can see every stitch in the haoris But still looks very dated otherwise and the amount of pop in was crazy. I could be halfway down the street before textures loaded.

Soundtrack is ok. Nothing really stood out aside from the remixed themes though.

Everything feels so sloooow. Scrolling menus especially. And talking to people. And going into fights or entering buildings. other yakuza games are like this but only older ones.

I did enjoy it and played til the end, but far from my favourite Yakuza title. I'll admit a lot of the issues are probably because it's a remake of a 10 year old game so of course it's going to feel clunky, so I'm glad I didn't pay full price for this.

Stuff I liked:

Historical setting

Guns and trooper cards could be fun

Some of the sidequests

Mine getting some time to shine (even if it's only a little)

Ryoma himself is pretty cool

Story cutscenes look great

Stuff I didn't like:

Awful pop in and slow menus

friendship bonds with every other clown in the streets of Kyo

Meh story

Poor damage output making battles way too long, with brawler being straight up useless

Too much steam in bathhouse fight

Bald Daigo

Blacksmithing

[game-boy-pocket]

So... Nintendo Direct thoughts I guess.

I joined a little late, so honestly, I just fast forwarded through all the games I didn't care about. Kinda the way to go tbh.

I still don't know about pokemon man. Everyone is saying "Yeah it's poorly made but it's one of their better games in a long time" but like I don't know how much I trust a pokemon fan's opinion on that that... you know I preordered Violet, after Legends Arceus left a good impression on me. But I cancelled it after some financial harships started happening and now I feel like I dodged a bullet.

Sonic Super Stars is looking pretty good, I really... really wish Fang was playable... I know he's a bad guy but I love him so much and have always wanted him to be playable... I'm just glad he's back at all, and his 3D model looks decent.

That "Saturday Morning Cartoon" inspired game intrigues me but like they shouldn't have had the boring Nintendo Direct narrator talking over the trailer and let the game speak for itself, show it's personality a little... does it have cheesy filmation style dialogue?? Also their villain looks kind of lame compared to like, Skeletor or Prime Evil.

Still not sure about Splatoon 3. It just looks like more of the same to me, I am kind of curious, but at the same time, it feels too late to start now... then again, if the game really is as samey as it looks, I could probably just coast on what I know from Splatoon 1 and 2.

I have no interest in Detective Pikachu as a franchise and the fact that his personality just seems to be "I love coffee" does not endear me to the character.

Super Mario RPG

Holy Fucking Shit

I didn't think the maniacs would do it.

When I heard the rumors I was like "Yeah right... this does not fit in line with the current corporate image of Mario, they're not gonna do it, and if they do, they'll butcher the art style"

I was so fucking wrong, it looks amazing. They even made Mario all squat and pudgy like the original game, I love it so much, and it looks like there are new cinematics... possibly even entirely new sections of the game what with Bowser riding his Clown car with the others.... that or they're new special attacks. I can't fucking wait you guys it looks so fucking good, I hope they consider making it a franchise again. I still have the original game but I am going to buy this day one.

We even saw Boshi briefly, and the spines still have their weird shapes. I have no reason to believe they'll change Terrapins into standard looking Koopa Troopas now. Literally all my fears are gone.

Don't know what to think about the Peach game. I make it no secret, I'm kind of over the whole arts and crafts aesthetic in games and a game that's just a stage play seems no different. I'm not even sure what kind of game it is. I just would have wanted another platformer. I guess I have to see more.

Luigi's Mansion 2 coming to Switch is a pleasant surprise. I wonder if we're going to enter an age of 3DS ports, because I can think of several 3DS games I want to see on Switch. Kid Icarus and A Link Between Worlds chief among them Luigi's Mansion 2 is my least favorite in the series, but it's still a good time. It not being on handheld makes me more likely to replay it. I do think they could have enhanced the visuals a little more though.

Too little too late with Batman. I already bought it on PC. I would have bought the Arkham Trilogy day one if it launched earlier in the Switch's life. But i'm glad the option is there for people.

I'll be honest I thought Dragon Quest Monsters looked pretty "meh", and I don't know if it's just a bad trailer or what, but the fact that the Solo, the Hero from DQIV shows up, immediately got my interest, he hs my fave hero design, and I was happy he was a skin in Smash Bros... still, man, this looks like a 3DS game... How can they be releasing this after Dragon Quest XI?? Also, is the playable character the bad guy from DQIV? I played the NES version so I didn't really see his human form.

Not much to say about Pikmin. It looks like Pikmin. Which is a good thing. But I don't know how eager I am to play it. Not a day one purchase, but an eventual purchase.

I am tempted by the Metal Gear Solid collection but it has so much extra shit that I don't really need which probably jacks up the price and I think I might prefer playing MGS1 on a CRT anyway. But man it's jsut been so long since I played Metal Gear that I don't even care I just want a way to play it. I'm just glad it's not a fucking Cloud game.

Penny's Big Breakaway had my attention just from the character designs, it screams Playstation 1 platformer. Like Mega Man Legends or Tail Concerto or something. And it's a 3D platformer... but when I heard the Sonic Mania team is working on this, i'm all in. I just wish the enemies weren't just a bunch of dopey looking birds, I want a least some kind of cool factor in the game. But yes I will be keeping my eye on this one.

Mario Kart 8 DLC looking okay. I expected Petey. He's cool I guess but i'm not gonna play as him. I'll be happy to see him on the track though. He was kind of a big part of Mario History in the Gamecube and Wii era.... Wiggler though? Meh... and KAMEK. He should have been in the base game imo, he should be a mainstay in every spinoff, he should have been introduced with the Yoshi's Island course... I'm very happy to have Kamek here. The course looks interesting too. Glad it appears to be another new course.

The new Wario Ware....... looks like Smooth Moves 2. Was the boring Nintendo Direct Narrator doing a Wario voice or did Wario get a new voice actor?? Anyway. I'll keep an eye on this. Smooth Moves was my 2nd Fave Wario Ware game, so this shows potential.

I was pretty bummed out when they mentioned Tears of the Knigdom, and it was only to announce some Amiibos... I still can't even find the Link Amiibo. They look nice though. It will be nice to have a Ganondorf Amiibo that doesn't look like shit. ( No offense to TP Ganondorf fans, but you gotta admit, the first wave f Smash Bros Amiibos is kind of rough ) ...I hope this isn't a deconfirmation of DLC. I really want more of this game, now that the main story is done and my list of side quests is rapidly shrinking, I'm getting sad about the inevitable end of one of my fave Zeldas.

And the big one

Super Mario Wonder

I'll admit I was disappointed that it was doing 3D again instead of a hand drawn style...

But the characters look so good now. They actually look more like 3D models of Koichi Kotabe's artwork. Mario and co are so expressive, their stances are not nearly as boring as the New Super Mario Bros games, their animations are so good, calling back to Mario 3 and Mario World with the blurry feet and airplane run, Mario actually HAS facial expressions now... and holy shit is fucking DAISY playable? Without sacrificing Toad? This is pretty huge! The enemies are looking really cool and stylized too, they all seem to have gotten model upgrades!

I will say... this is reminding me a little bit of Kirby Return to Dreamland, which... is worrying to me. That "wonder Flower" reeks of a Kirby gimmick, and I honestly find that Kirby's gimmicks lately just kind of slow the flow of the game, and often times just feel like all flash and no substance. "ooh I destroyed a hole room of enemies with a really big sword that I was forced to pick up" like I don't actually feel like I accomplished anything with that... I hope I'm wrong.

Also, I heard the rumor that there would be elephants... I don't like elephants. I thought I'd hate Elephant Mario... but you know what, he makes me smile.

I am so excited for this game.

This was definitely one of the better Nintendo Directs in a while, it won't top the back to back Banjo in Smash and Tears of the Kingdom reveal for me, but i'm pretty happy with what's on the horizon.

[ansu-gurleht]

so for me personally i only really care about wow for world content and story which means the zones are kind of the most important part for me? so i wanted to talk a bit about the zones in dragonflight. in the order you visit them:

the waking shores: gives me wod and bfa vibes tbh. i quite like it! it's not my fave zone but it's cool, the spires everywhere are annoying when you first visit on your first character but once you get all the dragonriding tokens and talents it's pretty cool. cool vibes overall

ohn'ahran plains: LOVE this zone. really grew on me more and more as i explored/quested. the flat/slightly hilly layout of it reminds me of the barrens tbh, when was the last time we had a cool zone like that? wod nagrand maybe? nagrand vibes as well minus the floating islands. LOVE the centaur as a race and culture, they're really neat. their faction armor pieces are also dope. love this place

azure span: when was the last time we had a proper "snow" zone? frostfire in wod? there were some snowy areas in kul'tiras in bfa, and some in highmountain in legion iirc, but not a full-fledged snow ZONE. i love snow zones, bc i was addicted to dun morogh as a kid. azure span has more northrend vibes than dun morogh tbh but it's still nice. love the tuskarr as well, and the emphasis on fishing for them. only gripe with this zone really is the way the elevation works? like there's a huge drop in elevation as you travel east-to-west. it's a pain when you're flying east, especially before you get all your dragonriding talents. other than that, and some collision issues with trees completely killing your speed, it's a really great zone!

thaldraszus: kind of boring tbh, which is sad, it's cool in theory. big mountainous zone with floating islands and a vague autumnal color scheme, what's not to love? there's just not a lot going on here, unfortunately. you barely spend any time here in the main quest. there's some side quests to do here and there but most of the zone's questing takes place at that hourglass bronze dragonflight place. which was a cool questline i'm ngl but still, the overall zone felt really underdeveloped quest-wise. valdrakken is nice, has everything you'd need out of a capitol city. very easy to fly around on your dragon as well.

forbidden reach: it's a cool starting zone, fun to fly around in. don't have much to say about this one tbh. it's cool.

zaralek caverns: have not explored this one much yet. working on it. might update this post later after i've played in it more.

the emerald dream: not out yet! might also update after it's released and i've had a chance to play in it.

overall: i really like the dragon isles! it's all connected, unlike shadowlands, the disjointedness of which was really disappointing tbh, and the dragon isles being back on azeroth and as a result less cosmic in nature is refreshing, even though the shadowlands concepts were really cool!

i do have a small gripe with the overall progression of the dragon isles, though, and that's that you get flying almost immediately. i always liked the period at the beginning of an expansion before flying was unlocked where you just had your ground mount and you had to really explore the land itself. but i understand that dragonriding was a big selling point of this expansion and so it had to be introduced early. it doesn't take TOO much out of the exploration, but i feel like there are a lot of place my feet have never touched because i just fly over them.

[thebonerpit]

I finally finished Cyberpunk 2077 and wanted to share some thoughts on it. My beautiful baby girl V welcomes you in to this rambly post ✌️

First of all just as an fyi I don't have the Phantom Liberty DLC yet. I know it's recommended and that it adds a lot of fun content but I wanted to see what the game was like as-is first.

Secondly, I had tried to play this game about 4 separate times in the past and every single time I just could NOT get into it. I had tons of fun in the character creator but I found the opening of it kind of boring and confusing and even just running around Night City and trying to build my character I was like...??? What am I doing lol.

I'm not really sure why this time clicked for me tbh. Maybe because I've had the experience of those past attempts? Idk. But in any case, I still found the prologue part a little bit slow and I kinda wish the game was introduced in a different way but once I really got into the meat of things in Act 1 I was having an absolute blast. I love doing stealth in games if I can so I was basically just using netrunning to hack things and bopping people with headshots with my knife and silenced pistol.

The main story and most of the bigger quests were genuinely fantastic. It was actually surprising to me that I just wanted to continue with the main story rather than go off and do side quests like I normally do! But the side quests were also really fun so it was a good balance. I will say that as much as I loved Night City and the world in general, I barely read any documents laying around. Usually if I really adore a game I will sit there for hours reading lore (like Dragon Age or Control) but it didn't grab me as much in this one.

With respect to the romances (aka the most important part of a RPG lol) I'll admit I was a little disappointed. I made a female V and when I met Panam I was immediately in love with her but sadly she's only a male V romance. I never connected with Judy in more than a friendship kinda way so I wasn't interested in her. I ended up romancing River and even though I read he's the least picked romance and I guess a lot of people don't like him, I was SO thrilled with his romance. He was super sweet and genuinely felt like he cared for V, his quest (while horrifying omg that farm) was so cool with the detective angle, and I found his ending super satisfying. Like it really seemed like he understood who V was and although he loved her and wanted her to stay, he trusted her to do her own thing? I definitely cried during their last phonecall before the final mission ;_; And then I was thinking during the game ok well I know Kerry is a male V only romance so maybe I'll make that my next character but then I met Kerry and was like... no thank you lol. I don't like him much at all?? And you meet him SO fucking late in the game which is really disappointing. Like I didn't even finish his missions because I had done everything else and couldn't be bothered waiting around for him to call to continue them. I feel like the male romance characters got really shafted in this game, like you don't meet River until later too and he's missable if you don't do that specific quest. Judy is there from the beginning in the main quest and Panam has a whole-ass ending option!

And speaking of the endings, I didn't look up anything until afterwards about them and just went with my gut. I got the Sun ending and I was satisfied with that one. My girl goes to space lol! And MY personal headcanon is she goes and completes the mission and Mr. Blue Eyes has a cure for her so she survives and lives happily ever after with River in their bomb-ass penthouse THE END. It kind of sucks that there's no real "happy ending" confirmed unless you headcanon it that V is saved later on, but I kinda get it. The whole game is pretty grim. I think I could have gotten the extra ending where you and Johnny storm Arasaka together because we were friends by the end but I'm happy with this one.

Ok and a little about Johnny. I hated his section the first time I was forced into playing as him. I was like what is this?? I want my V back, I don't care about Johnny, this is annoying. And he was such a dickhead at the beginning so my V was really antagonistic and they bickered all the time but holy shit their relationship grew so naturally as the game went on and even though they still bickered lol they did actually become friends and it felt really, really good. I ended up caring for him and it was really hard to choose to send him into cyberspace with Alt because I don't feel like that's a "happy" ending for him either. Alt was clearly not herself anymore but maybe Johnny changes too? But at the same time I did not want to give him V's body and I don't think he would have made that choice either.

Anyway this has gone on long enough lol but overall it was actually a really great game. I didn't connect to it as emotionally as I did with some other games (like the only time I teared up was during that River phone call) but I think I would play it at least one more time with Phantom Liberty installed. I want to do male V nomad and go the whole Panam route with her ending too.

And to end it off, here's another shot of my V posing with a cat she found that opened a safe for her after she fed it. Amazing.

[fantrollology-bios]

ashes to ashes, dust to dust, the guys are fuckboys, the girls are sluts

Last Updated 4/6/2023

Back to Select Page

Art by fnatrolls!

— intro —

Your name is IONYLL ORDAVE. 

You are a member of the LUCID, an interdimensional society granting its followers gifts like THE ENERGY OF THE DYNASTIC, PANSOPHICAL VISION, and IMMORTALITY as aids in their everlasting quest to, uh, what was it again? Whatever, blah blah blah! The most important thing is that you escaped the stupid cold and boring grub caverns and now you wield MAGIC. The real shit, too. Forget lowblood psionics (lame) or highblood durability (yawn)! And what, all it cost you was your LEFT EYE? Oh yeah, and a bit of your SOUL. Whatever the fuck that really means. All you have to do is recruit more beneath you and you rake in even more fantastical abilities; though TBH, you’re pretty cool with what you’ve got. 

Getting out of the ground had its struggles but you’ve landed yourself a pretty sweet deal. You live with your moirail, PJ, in his hivestem situated above his little soap shop. He doesn’t even make you pay rent! Probably just because you are so fucking awesome. Plus, he rakes in enough cash scamming richies anyways.

In your free time you work on your abilities, attend whatever social events you get so much of a whiff of, and doll yourself the fuck up. You’re pretty fond of cosmetics, though you’re not the best at them, and love watching tutorials and following all of the hilarious internet drama in the community. You’re not, like, invested, but if NYXELF MACOPI doesn’t release an apology for killing SEPHOR AULTAA’s auspice within the next week you’re unfollowing. So unnecessary.

— basics —

Name: Ionyll (Io) Ordave Pronouns: She/her

Orientation: Bisexual, tends to crush more on guys

Age: ~11 Sweeps

Height: 5'4"”

Location: Townhouse apartment above a soap shop on Alternia

Occupation: Unemployed

 — alternia —

Caste: Jade, #004C34

Lusus: None, grew up in the caverns.

Weapon of Choice: Magic

Abilities: Various dark magic abilities

— personality —

Sign: ♊ Gemini

Likes: Makeup, her magic, boring men who make her feel special, partying, doodling her eye on stuff, pampering herself, The Bellhop

Dislikes: Criticism, people who are prettier than her, ‘24 hour lipsticks’ that are NOT 24 hours, cult obligations

— plot —

Current Status: Smoking weed in her underwear

Goals: Sexy and free

Open Hooks:

    ●   Her backstory has a lot of pieces but I’d love to flesh out the details. If you have a Jadeblood cavern that she could be a former member of, let me know :-)

    ●   Even better if you have jadebloods from that cavern who would have known her     ●   Not directly associated, but if you’d like to have your character be a member of the Lucid I am open to that! Let me know :D

Past plotlines:     ●   Leaving the Caverns & Joining the Lucid - No content yet!

— relationships —

Romantic:

    ♥   Matesprit Name - #None - [N/A]

    ♦   PJ - #Scams R Us - You don’t like mentioning it, and neither does he, but PJ kind of scraped you up off the sidewalk. You question a lot what exactly about you charmed him, but he really makes it seem like it’s everything. It’s super lame, but you don’t know where you’d be without him. It’s nice to have someone you can be completely yourself around, even if you don’t really know who that is.

    ♠   Kismesis Name - #None - [N/A]

Platonic:

    ●   The Bellhop - ????? - ?????

    ●   Bealxi J - #None - Fellow party girl and one of your besties. If PJ won’t take you somewhere, you can count on Bea!

— links —

Playlist ● Character Tag ● Art

Interest Tag ● Asks

[atopearth]

Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII- Reunion Review

Personally, I'm not a fan of Crisis Core or Zack (blasphemy, I know) because when I first played the original, I felt like it was trying way too hard to connect every little thing to the original Final Fantasy VII and banking in on that nostalgia so that everything is related and you're like "oh, that's connected, and that too" blah blah, and it just didn't feel like the game had its own personality. Anyway, I don't believe I ever ended up finishing the original so we'll see if my impressions will change now that time has passed and I've kinda accepted that Square Enix will milk Final Fantasy VII as much as they can and want to lol. The opening scene is basically similar if not the same as Final Fantasy VII and seeing Zack doing squats really made me remember that I definitely did play Crisis Core because I was like, I remember that scene! Genesis sounds familiar but rings no bells, most likely because I thought he was a boring character, and all I remember about Angeal is him carrying the Buster Sword. Genesis is a First Class Soldier who took some other Second Class and Third Class Soldiers with him and left or something? 🤔 This is definitely a remaster though because the graphics have improved but definitely not as good as the Final Fantasy VII Remake which is understandable.

I keep thinking circle is dodge and instead waste all my potions😭😭 Anyway, I was wondering why Wutai and Shinra were at war, but I guess I should have known, what else could it be about aside from Shinra wanting more areas to expand their use of mako energy😅 I remember meeting young Yuffie! It's kinda funny to see those hand motions she does when she's not a block, it's actually pretty silly looking and doesn't have the same effect as when she's a block tbh haha! I wonder how old she is right now? 10? Hmm, so Angeal and Genesis come from the same hometown. Oh wow, I don't need such a sad story for the Buster Sword, Angeal's father died trying to repay the debt for making that sword for Angeal when he first joined Soldier?? And here is Cloud in FFVII swinging it around like it's nothing🥲 How very cruel of Genesis to come back to his hometown and kill the townspeople. And why did Angeal have to kill his mother? Bahamut was kinda cute. I remember why I don't remember Genesis, he was annoying to me😅 How very sad that there's that NPC kid who thought his mother would spend more time with him after Genesis and Angeal died but she's still too obsessed about groupie things to give him attention... Poor kid. Even Genesis copies have wings? Ooh Cissnei is cute, I like her hair🤔 Renoo, my favourite boy. Anyway, so I guess Genesis and Angeal are failed versions of Sephiroth in which Hollander wanted to replicate? Poor Angeal and Genesis are deteriorating and dying.

Well, how very convenient to connect everything between Aerith and Cloud to be basically the same as how she spent her time with Zack lol. Like, do we need to make it so blatant that even the way they meet is exactly the same just so we can say Aerith always loved Zack and only Zack? And how many times does this church get destroyed? Although I did enjoy Zack flirting with Aerith and her being receptive to it to an extent, that was cute. One thing I find very interesting is one of the missions/quests with a little girl that's waiting for some uncle to come back, and in Japanese, it very clearly says the girl said she wanted to marry the uncle in the future, but in the subtitles, it says she wants to work for him in the future lol! Censoring the innocent dreams of a little girl? Anyway, so Zack promised to show Aerith a pretty sky one day huh? I'm not sure selling flowers would make them rich considering Aerith was selling them for like 1 gil or something in the original game haha. Anyway, what I think I don't like the most about this game is how much they want to push every single thing Aerith does to be related to Zack. Yeah, I acknowledge how important she was to him and stuff like that but it's annoying when every little thing is about him, like can they give her back her own sense of self too? Omgg squat games again?! I am sickkk of these lol. At least it's not as frustrating as the one in the Remake lol. I'm so invested in that kid's life, it's so sad that his mother is sick in bed now because of the news about Angeal/Genesis and he's like he'd rather be neglected and have her feel well than for her to be like this. Such a good kid. Yuckkkkk did that other little girl say the uncle she likes and thinks is nice has a job as a "don" in Wall Market and he's nice to girls and he's handsome??? Ewwww!!! Don Corneo? Ewww!! I mean, Don Corneo is funny as a block, but when it's realistic, he's just creepy and disgusting.

We have met Cloud!! He's such a cute little boy!! Anyway, I'm obviously not made for reconnaissance missions because I only got one treasure chest and lost the rest and just battled all the guards instead of hiding😅😅😅 Hollander is just a cheap Hojo, Crisis Core really just recycled everything about FFVII and called it a day. Honestly, Angeal dying was so random. I kinda wish they remade the story of Crisis Core instead of the Remake because it's so bland right now. It's kinda cute how Zack hung out with the Turks, they're like his friends! Man, the amount of random battles in this game is so annoying, I'm so tired of it. It makes the mundane story even more frustrating tbh. Anyway, I've really had enough of chasing Hollander, there's only so many times we can do this like seriously. Otherwise, I personally think Cissnei is a better fit for Zack than Aerith. And even Seventh Heaven is named that because of Zack? C'mon.... At least the mother and the kid are finally spending time together by working on the Angeal fan club together, that's kinda cute. And why does this game never mention Zack sending letters back to his parents and then "suddenly" stopping?🥲  Anyway, even though the wagon thing was annoying, I'd say it was hilarious when Zack's cool wagon was seen as a weapon and even security came for it🤣

That little kid has to be lying, how could it be possible for them to go on the Mt Nibel trail without encountering a single monster considering the crazy encounter rate in this game?? Aww I'm glad the code for the safe in the Shinra Mansion is much easier than the original hahaha, I was about to riot. I'm kinda sad they skipped the whole part where you go up the mountain to get to the mako reactor, I personally thought that part was nice and it would have been cool to see Sephiroth fight. I always find it so cute when you realise that Cloud was the Shinra soldier blocking Tifa from going into the reactor haha. Omgg and Genesis is now being inserted into the part where Sephiroth starts to go crazy after thinking about his true origins? Ughhh. I wish Genesis didn't ruin this moment with his annoying existence😮‍💨 But I guess the saddest thing is that we don't get to see the talk Zack had on the train with Cloud. Aw, I'm also sad that you don't get to run down the stairs to Vincent's place, that was the fun part! Aww it sucks that there's a quest to open coffins but you don't even get to see Vincent! It also sucks that even though Cloud sends Zack a mail about wanting to go home with him, you don't actually get to visit Cloud's mother with him, nor do you get to play the piano in Tifa's house! Anyway, fighting Sephiroth was easier than fighting these other random bosses.

I think it's sweet to see in Zack's memory of Aerith how much he cares about the things she says and how much he wants to go back to her at the risk of his life. Sweet but saddening. Wonder if they'll make it that Cissnei disappeared by the time of the original FFVII because she let Zack go or something, or maybe she got tired of Shinra. Anyway, doesn't matter I guess since we'll see if she'll appear in the Remake. Otherwise, it seems like we'll be forced to endure Genesis' existence again in the future if he's still alive, which is very unfortunate if he keeps citing Loveless. After some googling, it seems that Lazard was President Shinra's illegitimate son, I was wondering why the slums people kept talking about the president having an affair of some sort with a woman from the slums. Honestly though, considering how randomly he ended up just disappearing from Shinra and everything, I'm not sure what was the point of this part of the story other than him protecting Cloud near the end, but even then it wasn't a necessary part of the story. The Price of Freedom is a nice soundtrack but yeah, I can't say I felt much about the ending of Crisis Core other than being glad it was over tbh, which is very mean but I'm honestly tired. I think the only thing I'm a bit happy about is seeing and knowing how much Aerith and Zack thought about each other and cared for the other until the end. Maybe they can finally reunite in the Remake considering the changes. Seeing the beginning of the original FFVII makes me think maybe it's time to play it again but maybe I'll do that after the second part of the Remake instead lol.

Overall, young me was right and knew my tastes well. Young me back in the day didn't want to play Crisis Core because I knew I wouldn't like it so I never bothered playing it until my bro got a PSP and I tried it but gave up halfway because it was boring. Since the Remaster came out, I thought I would try again especially since I hated the original battle system and this Reunion one is so much better! Honestly, I'd give the game a 5-6/10 mainly because I found the battle system quite enjoyable even though it was limited. The other points would be given to Zack for being a happy puppy but honestly, Zack isn't very memorable to me because I don't feel like he ever established himself as a proper character for me in this story. He was nice but forgettable and he's basically what he was described as in the original so nothing much to add. Aerith has none of the spark she has in the original tbh so nothing to say. Cissnei was cute and I guess it was nice to see how much Tseng cared for both Zack and Aerith but now it feels weird to think of Tseng liking Aerith despite his rather close relationship with Zack. Anyway, whatever I guess. 

Angeal was okay but forgettable too, and I honestly wish I could forget Genesis' existence. I would have felt sorry for him if he wasn't so frustrating to listen to and see. His existence in the story just makes me want to bang my head. Sephiroth didn't have the same impact as he did in the original but it was nice to see him being friendly. I guess other than the terrible story that had cheap copies of Hojo and Sephiroth, I also didn't really like the vibe of Crisis Core because it relies on your love for the original FFVII, but it doesn't have the fun and magic of the original and never establishes itself as it's own individual game with its own charm imo. Maybe other people will say otherwise because I'm sure alot of people like Crisis Core but I personally find it boring and I regret playing it because it added nothing of substance to me other than thinking yeah I guess Aerith and Zack are kinda cute but the chemistry is still lacking imo. I'll miss the battle system but I won't miss the encounter rate and hearing activating combat mode every 5 steps.

[spicyicymeloncat]

Okay general question for Ninjago fans but what are your favourite and least favourite seasons and why???

I’ll start: Master of the Mountain is my favourite, just because I liked all the episodes showcasing the ninja’s individual dynamics (Cole and Wu, Nya Jay and Lloyd, Zane and Kai) and tbh I feel like a lot of characters got a little moment of fame despite it being titularly Cole centric. It gave us backstory to Cole’s mother which was great, the scenes with her in, I found rlly emotional but maybe that’s because I’m very fixated on Ninjago rn idk. I though the jokes were really funny, idk I remember years ago screenshotting some dialogue to show my friend so that was fun. I really like Vania, her personality is great, she’s silly but also admirable like she really went “of course I wanna go on a ninja adventure in the middle of the night”. Like she really just dives headfirst into the action. I liked the other characters too, although if I had to critique it, vangelis didn’t have that much of a personality and his villain motivation could have been developed more. I enjoyed the animation, the animation recently has been rlly good! Overall standard season, but like I think jokes and family dynamics are what I enjoy most so while I get it’s not the most heart wrenching or lore heavy, and it’s kinda filler, it’s still probably my favourite.

Least favourite season might just be season 7 just because idk I think it had a lot of potential that didn’t get carried through. Krux and Acronix are basically time wizards and time wizards are supposed to be cool. I did find their dynamic funny so I’ll give them that, but they’re motivation is rlly boring and under developed. They’re just like “we should rule Ninjago because we have time powers” like bruh you don’t see Karlof decide to villain arc his way into becoming king of metalonia just because he’s got metal hands? They could’ve at least expanded on what time dictatorship would’ve looked like but instead the stakes are… no more technology? Even though that was mostly played off as a joke? And Acronix actually liked technology. And ig Ray and Maya were here which was cool but yknow I feel like the plot was a little uninspired somehow. Also like the parents only really act as leverage, not really as characters yknow and I kinda wish we saw more bonding and dynamics before Ray got hit by the time blade. The samurai X plot was interesting, it was a nice call back. People really don’t like the reuse of snakes but I don’t mind it honestly. This season was supposed to be a call back and the serpentine are rlly interesting in my opinion. The vermillion warriors were creepy and I liked the dynamic between the generals (although I’m pretty sure machia is supposed to reference a… well it it flew over your head maybe that’s a good thing, I’m not sure I should really discuss it). I think the time blade fetch quest wasn’t that interesting idk. My main crit is that the parent plotline and the time twins motives were kinda uninteresting. The temporal whip is cool.

But those are my opinions! I wanna know what other people think (this is kinda research since I’m doing Ninjago season rewrites)

[honorhearted]

GET TO KNOW THE MUN !

BASICS

BIRTHDAY : 12/25 -- I always get my birthday off. *flips on shades*

PRONOUNS: she / her

NAME : Mattie

ZODIAC :   Capricorn   

FAVORITES

Favorite Author: I wouldn’t say I have one? I like what I like, and it’s not always by the same writer. I get more excited about fanfic authors releasing new stuff, tbh lol. But I do like/admire C.olleen McC.ullough’s style. 

Favorite Character from Literature : Uhh, I guess Anne Sh.irley in terms of classics, and H.annibal L.ecter for contemporary. Very different types of characters lmao.

Favorite Music Genre: I’m the most eclectic person when it comes to music. I can find something I love in every genre!

Favorite Kind of Book: I’ll read anything with a good premise, so I don’t really have a favorite genre for books either. I tend to avoid f.antasy/sc.i-f.i though.

Favorite Animal: Cats. My day isn’t complete until I harass my furry gr.emlins.

Favorite Disney Cartoon : B.eauty & the B.east. Since my mom and I are essentially the same person, it’s her favorite too. 

Favorite Video Games: I’m very old school, so I only like the really old games, like M.ario, D.onkey K.ong, and G.uitar H.ero. I don’t enjoy anything with quests/having to think lol. Though I like watching g.ames get played, and I really loved watching K.ingdom H.earts.

Favorite Color: All shades of blue.

Favorite TV Shows: M.oonlighting, The G.olden G.irls, T.7S, TURN (duh lol), and probably tons of other stuff that’s not coming to mind. 

Favorite Mythology: I’ve never liked/cared about m.ythology, tbh.

Favorite Food: I’ll go ahead and say pizza since I eat it like 1-3 times a week lol.

Favorite Actor: *drags hands down face* Don’t out me like this, okay? Obviously (well, to those who know me), my FC...like, to an unhealthy amount lol, but I also love K.acey R.ohl.

Favorite Countries: I’ve only been to E.ngland, S.cotland, C.anada and B.ermuda (not a c.ountry, but it’s still outside of the U.S.), and even though I liked them, I wouldn’t say I have a favorite! I’m not very adventurous, cuz I’d prefer to just explore the states.

ROLEPLAY QUESTIONS

CANON OR OC:  Canon! I do have one OC page, but this is the literal first time I’ve written my OCs in RP (or at least, the first time since I was like 13/14 lol), cuz I’m protective of my brain children and don’t want them stolen. I’ve seen it happen. Anyway, canon’s much easier to get threads/ships going on, cuz ppl don’t tend to care about OCs too much and think they only want “one thing.” Which is insulting, but y’know.

HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN RPING : Since like 2003 lmao. Probably 2004, actually, since I’m pretty sure I wrote fanfiction first (created my first fanfiction page in Oct. 2003).

WHO IS YOUR CURRENT FC : S.eth N.umrich. :’ ) *cuts to everyone whispering WHO? in the BG*

FAVORITE GENRE :  I’ll write anything! But my biggest M.O.s tend to be angst and trash, sooo I’ll just go with that.

SOFT MUSES OR EVIL MUSES : I tend to like grey area the most! Cuz too soft is boring, and too e.vil can be equally boring, so I like a sound medium. Ben’s more soft, but he’s definitely done some questionable stuff -- the fandom just refuses to see it lol.

WHAT IS YOUR PREFERRED WRITING STYLE ? : Third person/past tense.

HAVE YOU BEEN ON OTHER PLATFORMS ? : Soooo many lmao. I started with A.IM and LJ, then some host site I can’t remember the name of, M.yspace, F.acebo.ok, as well as s.itemodel, r.oleplayer.me, Sk.ype, and now here! :’ ) I know ppl RP on d.iscord, but I sincerely don’t like that. I enjoy having everything neatly in one place where I can re-read if I want, and that just isn’t possible (or done easily) on a ch.at platform.

WHO IS YOUR TOP MUSE AT THE MOMENT ? : I mean... *gestures at Ben* The BoiTM, ofc. I don’t share my OC page with ppl unless they ask.

NAME YOUR MUSES YOU HAD IN THE PAST: LITERALLY TOO MANY TO NAME. I’ve had muses from C.owboy B.ebop, D.ark Sh.adows (the OG, not the shit 2012 movie), The D.ark Kn.ight/B.atman, O.UAT, H.annibal, and now TURN. I know that may not seem like “too many to name,” but you’re underestimating how many muses I had for each fandom LoL. I’ve also consistently RP’d since 2004 without taking any time off, sooo it’s been a while! 

tagged by:  @luckhissoul ~ thanks muchly! <3 :)​

tagging: YOU! <3

[tolkien-feels]

You can't just tease us with Celebrimbor/Orodreth like that (is that even a ship?) and not go through with it! Tell us more

I never know what are or aren't ships tbh? Well, it is for me. Anyway, here's a rambling answer:

As with everything Celebrimbor, canon is fuzzy and I'm going with whatever suits my purposes

Celebrimbor and Orodreth, in my mind, were the definition of neutral towards each other in Aman. Just the blandest relationship that isn't even like or dislike, it's just "This kinsman exists and I don't have any particular emotions about that."

Kinslaying and ship burning hardly improved things, but because there was never any great affection, Orodreth doesn't feel really betrayed, and Celebrimbor could feel more guilty tbh. They're not eager to hang out in Beleriand but like, they could easily make small talk if necessary

Then: FA 455, Celebrimbor gets to Nargothrond. Orodreth isn't there, but Finrod is very kind to Celebrimbor, and Celebrimbor is good at reciprocating. It bothers him that he can't do much to repay the welcome he gets, but that doesn't turn into bitterness, he's really just eager to have something useful to do

Two years later, Orodreth gets to Nargothrond, and he's... Not okay. Sauron goes out of his way to mess with his head as much as possible in the limited time before Orodreth retreats, and much more willful elves than Orodreth would struggle to shake that off. And look, Finrod couldn't possibly do more to help Orodreth feel better, but receiving kindness from someone Orodreth feels he's failed can be difficult, even if you aren't the most proud Finwean to ever live

Oh, look, Celebrimbor has something to do! His was driven out of his home under much less traumatizing circumstances than Sauron hating him specifically and it still took him a while to get over it, he really feels bad for Orodreth, and Orodreth is dear to Finrod, and Celebrimbor owes Finrod, and well. You do the math.

Curufin (who doesn't exactly hate Finrod but has... mixed feelings) is pretty sure it'll be useful at some point to have his son be close to Finrod's favorite so he opposes this much less than you'd think. It's a miscalculation, though

For the next eight years, Orodreth and Celebrimbor become friends. Just that. Not even terribly close friends, but there's a kind of constancy to their friendship where there are never any exciting ups, but there aren't any downs either.

(What are we doing about Finduilas and her mother? I'm not entirely sure, actually, but I'm taking suggestions)

And then, the Quest for the Silmaril disaster hits. And that's very much a turning point. Celebrimbor is pretty sure Orodreth is going to hate him now, Orodreth is pretty sure Celebrimbor will side with Curufin, and then neither thing happens and they're like "Oh. We've just the most important people in our lives. Maybe that's the event we can finally bond over?"

And it is! They do bond over Life Sucking, actually. They have all kinds of complicated emotions to sort through, after all

And then we have what? 30 years before Nargothrond falls? Enough time to finally get a friends to lovers arc done with time to spare before disaster strikes

If I'm being honest, the thing that appeals to me about this ship is the notion of having characters in a very low stakes relationship for several decades even as the world outside is falling apart. I don't care much about what happens after they get together, the thing I'm after here is two people taking the longest possible route to get to each other not because of hate, but because they foolishly believe that, being immortal, they have all the time in the world to let their relationship develop naturally - but of course, they don't.

So yeah, I'm rotating decades long slow burn, but not as in "they're both in love but take forever to get together" - as in "they take forever to fall in love in the first place" because I'm a boring person who likes boring relationships

[gringolet]

INTRO TO ARTHURIANA MASTERPOST

under the cut for absurd length

HOW TO GET STARTED WITH ARTHURIANA

The Arthuriana fandom is very broad and there's no one piece of media, which can be confusing for people just getting into it! There’s no right way to engage with arthuriana, and no minimum level of knowledge or reading you need to attain to qualify. 

The basis of the Arthurian Legend is a body of hundreds of texts written across the medieval and early Renaissance period in dozens of languages and cultural traditions. Which can seem pretty overwhelming, but there are a lot of modern vernacular translations-- you absolutely don’t have to learn old French or anything. I’ll go more in depth on where to get started with texts further down.

You also don’t have to read texts at all. As I said, there is no minimum basis-- if you prefer to engage with modern adaptations, or want to engage with medieval arthuriana outside of reading texts, that's also cool! 

In terms of modern adaptations there is a wealth of choices, which I am very much not an expert in lol, so I’m afraid I can’t give much in the way of reccs. Books I have heard good things about are, Exiled from Camelot, Idylls of the Queen, The Buried Giant, the Squire's Tale series, and Gawain by Gwen Rowley (warning that this one is apparently erotica? Good for him). I trust @princesslibs  for modern book reccomendations. and if you speak French Kaamelott is purportedly a very good tv show. Frankly no modern adaptation will ever be better than Spamalot to me, but that's just my personal take. 

If you are curious about engaging with texts but (understandably) don’t want to read a ton of dense medieval literature, one really cool resource is Norris J Lacy's New Arthurian Encyclopedia, which you can pick up at most used bookstores for under ten bucks. It’s a very thorough easy to look through reference of characters stories and texts. I know a lot of people like the Nightbringer wiki, though I personally am wary of it because it basically never cites sources. It’s a good quick reference though and a lot of people like it, I’d just take it with a grain of salt. Sparknotes also has a lot of summaries of the major texts like Le Morte D’Arthur and the romances of Chrétien De Troyes. You are not a fake fan for doing this I promise. And of course you’re always welcome to send me an ask <3 

Finally, getting started with texts. Quick glossary of terms:

--Verse Romance

    A verse (poem) story which can vary a great deal in length. These deal with the adventures of individual knights, usually Gawain, and tend to have a great deal of magical elements and the stereotypical monster slaying, questing, damosel rescuing knight adventures.

--Prose Novel or Romance

    A non poetic narrative, more like a modern novel, more likely to deal with the fall of Arthur, sword in the stone, Mordred, fall of Camelot sort of affair. They are usually quite long. Most famous of these are Le Morte D’Arthur and the French Vulgate, but there are a slew of late medieval Prose novels floating around. Eluding Rey.

--Pseudohistory

    I’m gonna b real these are boring I think. These are, as the name suggests, written as accurate depictions of history.  They very much are not, but they claim to be. Most famous of these is Jeffrey of Monmouth, Mr Jeff Mouth himself, and his History of the Kings of Britain, which I haven’t read because it bores me. You can if you want. It’s in Latin. Whatever. These tend to be some of the earliest texts, and include the “lives of saints” stories. Life of Gildas is the only funny one.

--Ballads

    These are only arguably texts, as most of them were written after the time of the “canon” being composed. But I like them. These are songs telling stories, recorded by people like Francis Child and Thomas Percy. They are very short and fun and include stories like The Boy and the Mantle, Kempion, and King Arthur and the King of Cornwall.

--Lai

    A specific type of French verse poem, usually quite short. The most famous collection of lais are those of Marie le France, including things like Bisclavret and Lanval. 

--Traditions

    Since Arthuriana was written all over, there are different literary traditions across time and space. The French tradition is one of the most famous, including works like the vulgate, Chretien and a lot of verse romances. The English tradition is one of the most influential on modern adaptations, including the Morte D’Arthur and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. There are also Welsh, German, Dutch, Hebrew, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Tagalog, Greek, Belarussian, Scottish, Irish, Breton, and probably even more. There’s a lot. It’s very cool and sexy.

A note that there is also a big tradition of Victorian revival Arthuriana. I wrote a starter guide to that here, it’s all very fun and like, aesthetic. 

Alright, now, which texts do you start with?

If you’re a little intimidated by long texts or medieval lit, starting with short verse romances in modern translation is a great place to start. These include Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, which is very good and gay and well known, Lancelot and the Hart With The White Foot, which is very good and gay and underappreciated, or Lanval, which is homophobic but funny. 

If you want to start with what is considered the oldest King Arthur Story, Culwch and Olwen is short and fun!

If you want to read about the grail quest, you can start where it started with Story of the Grail or Percival, then the four continuations, Essenbachs Parzival, the vulgate version of the Grail quest which you can buy paperback for like 5 bucks (I can also scan my copy for you just shoot me an ask <3)

If you want to read about the fall of camelot, I have the Vulgate death of Arthur section scanned here. There’s also the Alliterative and Stanzaic mortes, which are in middle English. I have scanned Simon Armitage's Alliterative Morte translation here. I’m working on my own translation of the Stanzaic but it’s not done lol. If you want the first third or so DM me lol. King Artus is very short and readable and it’s a Jewish text which is really cool.

If you want to read about Lancelot, Chrétien de Troyes Lancelot is his first text. He also has a whole long vulgate section, the first part is scanned here by val <3, and there's Lanzelet,  Sebile is in it so it’s probably very good. He’s also basically the main character of Le Morte D’Arthur which I might as well talk about here uhm. It’s long and fun in places and boring in others but it does have like the version most modern adaptations take from and tells the whole story of Arthur and Camelot from beginning to end. The Keith Baines version scanned by val is the most readable but it is an abridgement I believe. people who like le morte usually read this version so its probably the best choice lol

If you want to read about Gawain, good news! He’s in basically everything. Even texts that aren’t supposed to be about Gawain are doomed to become The Gawain Show Featuring The Protagonist Of This Text As A Sidekick. Which is so funny of him. The Roman Van Walewein is very funny and long and Gawain™. I also recommend, L’atre Perilous, Diu Krone, Sir Gawain and the Turk, and I could go on but for brevity's sake let's start there. 

If you want to read about Tristan, go shoot an ask to Valentine @lanzelet on tumblr because Tristan scares me. 

Thank you to rey @gawain-in-green for helping me find links and put this together! They are also a super great resource for stuff and very cool and nice <3 They have a tag on their blog for full text resources so deffo look at that if you want more scans and links, and an info tag and tons of cool shit that is way better organized than my blog lol

Okay finishing this off, if you want content warnings for any texts, feel free to shoot an ask! I know medieval lit can be A Lot and there aren’t a lot of good warning systems, so if I’ve read it or know someone who has I can give you warnings if you want to read something but are understandably wary . <3

In terms of tagging, Arthuriana and Arthurian Legend are the main ones on tumblr. Arthurian Mythology is also used but tbh shouldn’t be. On Ao3, we’re trying to get our own Arthurian Literature tag but <3 its a whole thing. Anyway the tag is Arthurian Mythology, but I’ll b real, it’s kind of flooded with stuff that doesn’t really belong there, because even though it’s a fandom tag other people unknowingly tag stuff as Arthurian Mythology when it’s like, a knight au. Which is not their fault bc it’s confusing but, ah, alas. ANyhow, feel free to drop in my inbox anytime with questions, suggestions, reccs, etc!

Okay godspeed!! Have fun reading, watching, browsing, etc! 

[musclesandhammering]

Non-Controversial Loki Headcanons for These Trying Times

1.) Loki has had dozens of Midgard-based aliases over the years, for no other reason than the fact that he was bored and it was funny. DB Cooper was one of them. Hank Williams was another. He may or may not have even pretended to be a vampire at some point.

2.) Loki can definitely sing. Not just in a funny ironic way, but like.. he actually enjoys singing. It shouldn’t even come as a surprise considering he’s such a fine arts nerd, but yeah. He plays the guitar too. Surprisingly folksy.

3.) Loki’s rooms in Asgard literally look like a witch’s lair. I mean straight up spooky. All dark earth tones, spellbooks strewn everywhere, runes drawn on the walls to keep certain big brothers from messing with things they have no business messing with, vials of poisonous stuff sitting on every available surface, shelves full of strange little trinkets and talismans, a dramatic ass medieval-looking bed, a whole ass cauldron… and then in the corner on a stand there’s his Hank Williams Guitar aasdfghhjkl-

4.) When people call Loki a witch, they’re not joking. He’s. Like. An actual stereotypical, like.. witch. He doesn’t just do finger wavy magic- he mixes potions, he does rune work, he recites spells, he has a cauldron.

5.) He also used to dress super witchy. Used to. Past tense. I’m talking black nail polish, lots of necklaces, rings, eyes makeup (ok maybe I wouldn’t go that far, but Loki in eyeliner would be pretty hot, right?), clothes that were like.. 15% scarier yet more fashionable than the ones he wears in canon. The only reason he toned it down was because someone whose opinion he cared about (it was Thor) made a joking comment about his appearance looking “wicked” or “evil” and it made him feel self conscious, so he changed how he dressed. :(

6.) He was rocking the whole short hair look years before Thor in Ragnarok. In fact, by pre-canon Loki’s standards, his hair in Thor 1 was even a bit too long. He did this because a.) he hates how his natural curls soften him and will do anything to get rid of them and b.) in Asgard short hair wasn’t really worn by noblemen because it symbolised servitude, so this was Loki’s subtle way of being defiant and deviating from the norm.

7.) As Frigga said in Endgame, Loki is very good at sneaking. Even when he’s not trying to. There have been many-an-accident in the Palace of Asgard because he unintentionally almost gave Thor a heart attack.

8.) Loki and Thor weren’t always at each other’s throats. They actually got along pretty well up until Odin started planning for the coronation. Loki was still jealous of the way Thor was treated compared to the way he was treated, but he knew that wasn’t Thor’s fault- not really. And Thor was still arrogant and entitled, but that was mostly directed at other people and not his own family, so while Loki knew about Thor’s character flaws, it didn’t really effect him personally. When the planning started, though, Thor gradually became even more superior and insufferable than normal, and Loki became even more bitter and unsettled, and their relationship just kind of went downhill from there.

9.) Loki absolutely joined the Mile High Club with that flight attendant from the first episode of the show. Her name was Florence and she was adorable, Loki thought so too.

10.) Loki’s the only person on Asgard who can beat Volstagg at an eating competition. He has a giant’s metabolism, after all. And, contrary to his elegant and refined tastes in most other areas, he’s actually a straight-up carnivore. I mean he eats other foods too, obviously, but meats are by far his favourites. Boar, fish, poultry, steak. Just meats. He doesn’t know it, but this is because frost giants are mostly carnivorous.

11.) His relationship with the Warriors 4 was always split down the middle. He and Sif always hated each other. Hogun never trusted him and Loki never had any interest in spending time with Hogun. Fandral and Volstagg, on the other hand, were always much nicer and Loki always sort of considered them his friends as well as Thor’s. This is why they were more reluctant to believe that he’d let the frost giants in in Thor 1.

12.) I refuse to believe Loki doesn’t have at least one tattoo somewhere. Probably more. Probably of a snake. The only parts of his body we didn’t see naked in Episode 1 were his thighs, lower back, knee area, pelvic region, and the back of his neck. So it’s gotta be in one of those places. (Might I suggest: snake thigh tattoo, tiny nape tat, goth tramp stamp lol, rune tat behind his ear, Norse mythos leg tat, badass above-dick tattoo).

13.) Loki’s prickly and insecure and has layers like an onion, but once you get to the point of actually being friends with him, he’s a total sweetheart. I mean a literal smol dork. A bit hyperactive and excitable, but still very very soft. It’s because he’s had so few actual friends in his life.

14.) Sometimes Loki only goes a few days before his gender changes, sometimes he stays one gender for years at a time. And he tends to shapeshift his body to match. That being said, one of his biggest pet peeves is how his other-gendered clothes get all dusty and musty when they have to stay in the closet for long stretches of time. So he’s taken to wearing luxurious gowns around the house when he’s in his male form. You know, just to air them out.

15.) Loki hates sleeping with people. Sex is fine, but he’s just so solitary and paranoid that he’s never been comfortable sleeping in a bed with another person. This may or may not have gotten him in trouble a few times when his partners woke up and found him gone lol.

16.) Laufey is actually incredibly similar to Loki, the way Odin is very similar to Thor. He prefers smaller blades (ice daggers), he’s very analytical and calculating, he’s very calm and non-confrontational even when he’s in a stressful situation, and tbh he seems like a better king than Odin- much like Loki probably would’ve been a better kind than Thor. (Whoopsie this one’s a bit controversial)

17.) Loki adores animals! …But he’s also a bit obsessive about keeping his environment clean. Not organised, per se, just clean. And animals tend to be hairy and slobbery and feathery and slimy and poopy and dirty, so he’s never been able to have a pet. He just takes a lot of nature walks to compensate :)

18.) All jotuns are naturally intersex, including Loki. This is a bit unusual for Asgardians, but because Loki is genderfluid and a natural-born shapeshifter- and has always had a tendency to change his body parts around as his gender changes (male, female, both, neither)- he’s never had a reason to find it very odd. In hindsight, that was one of the many eccentricities that should have made him realise something was a little fishy with his “asgardian” genetics.

19.) The snake + stabbing story from Ragnarok was nowhere near as nefarious as Thor made it seem. What actually happened was: Someone accidentally mixed a real knife in with the blunted practice knives. Thor and Loki didn’t know this, of course, and when they were playing a battle game, Loki ended up with the real knife. When Loki “won” and went to “vanquish his enemy” he ended up actually stabbing Thor for real. They were both hysterical and it took longer to calm Loki down than his brother. It ended up just being a flesh wound, though, so everything turned out fine.

20.) A lot of people think Loki discovered his “secret passageways between worlds” from TDW through some sort of inter-realm questing or magical study or something, but in reality, he discovered them when he was like 16 and desperately trying to find a way to sneak out of Asgard without Heimdall telling his parents.

Tagging @natures-marvel & @little-s-creampuff for expressing interest. Thx for listening to my mad ravings lmao <3

[soulerflaire]

I’ll put a tl;dr at the bottom since this is gonna be kinda long.

So a couple months ago I decided to finally give Final Fantasy XIV a real shot. I kept hearing how amazing a game it was, and I’d been missing playing an MMO since the whole Blizzard fiasco and quitting WoW. It was definitely not what I was used to; completely different aesthetic, a daunting UI, and constant mentions of features I had no concept of. But I stuck with it, and I am so glad I did. The hype is true; this game is a lot of fun, and the story is incredible...once you get past the base game.

FFXIV is divided into five chapters currently. A Realm Reborn is the base game, then the four expansions: Heavensward, Stormblood, Shadowbringers, and Endwalker. A Realm Reborn’s story is pretty bland and dull. The characters are flat, and some of them are just plain annoying (Alphinaud being famously the most annoying character by far). It’s a real slog to get through, with a lot of the quests being simply “Go here, talk to person.” They focused on story to the exclusion of fun gameplay, except the story isn’t very interesting. There’s also the problem that they seem to expect you to already know all the characters, so they don’t give good introductions to any of them and you never really feel any kind of connection to them.

BUT

That all changes with the very end of A Realm Reborn’s storyline leading into Heavensward. The story picks up, and from then on it’s amazing, with excellent character development for existing characters (Alphinaud becomes one of my favorite characters by the end of Heavensward), really interesting new characters, and quests that actually feel like they matter! And it just keeps going into the next three expansions. There are, as with anything, good and bad points, but overall the story stays strong throughout. Shadowbringers is incredible, honestly my favorite chapter by far. Legit brought me to tears at a couple points. Even the bad guys are well written with interesting motivations and personalities (except Zenos. God I hate that guy, he’s the most boring kind of bad guy. But he’s not the main villain for the most part).

Something else that I have thoroughly enjoyed is that all five chapters, from A Realm Reborn to Endwalker, are part of the one single storyline. Sure it’s got chapters to it, but the entire plot begins with learning about the Ascians and ends with saving the world from an eons-old apocalypse. It’s all one connected story, and it’s just incredible seeing how it all fits together so well. Callbacks to previous story beats that aren’t just “Hey remember this thing that happened?” They’re actual story elements that were planned and incorporated into what is currently happening.

And I mentioned it before but ohhhhhhhh man the character development is so good. Seeing Alphinaud go from spoiled brat with an ego the size of a mountain to a heroic young leader capable of rallying a nation. Seeing Thancred go from outwardly cheerful womanizer who drinks to dull his guilt to a father who fights not just to protect his adopted daughter, but to see her thrive and achieve her goals. I don’t think I’ve ever cared more about NPC companions in a video game than these people. I could go on for days about how much I love all the characters.

I legitimately recommend this game to anyone who loves story, especially Final Fantasy stories. If you played any FF games and enjoyed them, then you will almost certainly enjoy this game as well. You just have to make it though the A Realm Reborn slog first, which is not an easy ask, I know. I nearly quit a couple times during it, tbh. But it’s worth it to get to the rest of the story.

One piece of advice: Don’t read all the text/watch all the cutscenes for side quests. Every single quest, no matter how small or unrelated to the main story, has paragraphs and paragraphs of text with it. It can get very overwhelming trying to read them all, and they don’t matter for the main story. If the game doesn’t require you to do a quest to progress, then you don’t need to read that quest’s text in order to understand the main story. Even if you’re the kind of person who loves doing every side quest and reading every piece of lore, these might get to be too much for you.

TL;DR FFXIV is a fantastic game and I highly recommend giving it a try. It’s free up through level 60, which includes A Realm Reborn and Heavensward, though trial accounts are severely restricted in terms of group play (can’t send or receive mail, can’t trade with other players, can’t join parties, can’t add friends). If you decide to give it a shot, let me know! I’d love to hear what you think of it (and also none of my friends play so I have no one to talk about the game with : p )

[ziracona]

hey zira, what are your hot takes on all of the fo4 companions?

Haha, I don’t know how hot they are, but I can give you a speed run! (Also I am very excited to get this. FO4 was the first open world game I ever played and just the concept of that and the hugeness of the world and branching story & sudden feeling changes towards me in companion characters totally blew my mind, & it still lives rent free in my heart).

Ada, Old Longfellow, and Strong I /still/ haven’t maxed despite having too many hundred hours to want to list on this game—the former bc they were DLC, Strong because honest to god I left him at a nice settlement and then completely forgot about him and remembering that I am the energy in this Ryan O’Flanagan video but abt leaving my super mutant in a tiny settlement alone. I will get there! To max affinity I mean. But anyway, I don’t truly know those three, so my takes are incomplete. So far though, I really like Ada. She is a good girl just trying her best. Fucks me up I can tell her to self destruct. Even though I feel sure she would ignore me, I cannot imagine ever saying that to her. It was really sweet she was willing to forgive the Mechanist and move on with her life. A good girl. Longfellow I am maxing rn (was last time I played anyhow). I enjoy him. Gruff grumpy old man but he seems quite decent and I like his idle banter and when he sings to himself a lot. Seems like he’s had it rough. Strong I liked. He’s wild, and I loved how insane meeting him was, and am worried about him eventually understanding poetry and how that might mess up his sense of world understanding. But he’s a chill dude in his own way and I am glad they gave us at least one nice super mutant.

For the companions I actually do know like the back of my hand, the speedrun:

Nick Valentine: Best man on earth. One of two fictional characters I ever called husband. I would die kill or live for him. I want to be 1/4th the man Nick Valentine is. One of the best characters ever period and I adore literally everything about him. It fucked me up early in game where right after he offered to basically risk destroying his mind to help a stranger look for her son, he asked me how I was doing. First character in the entire game to do that. His first companion dialogue is abt how you’re doing TuT. The man is very kind and forgiving and fair, but knows when the draw the line and take no shit. Emotionally mature, kind, caring, longsuffering. Incredibly damaged and broken by life, but holding on and living kindly and to help others anyway. One of the four most marryablen fictional men I’ve ever seen.

Preston Garvey: Brave, kind, sweet man. I would defend him with my life. He really just wants so bad to make the world better and life has been so hard, but he’s still trying. A beautiful and underrated companion and I would throw hands for him on sight. I adore how he whistles. A true and gentle and loyal friend. Take him to Quincy and let him get his justice it’s what he deserves. People who hate him because he tries to get help helping civilians in that game are weak. I love him so much... please give him enough time to reach max affinity he’s so worth it.

Deacon: *To the tune of You Are My Dad* You are my friiiiend! You’re my friend! (Boogie woogie woogie). Initially, he pissed me off bc he lies all the god damn time, but after we got close enough he actually trusted me, he stole my heart and I would also die for Deacon. He’s a really good person who thinks he’s shit because of who he was on his past. Also him 🤝 Preston: massive survivor’s guilt. They should be friends. Poor Deacon has been the last member of the Railroad like four times, and it’s awful. Help him. Give him love and support. He’s one of my all time faves. Also, Railroad hands down best faction and if you kill them for any reason other than like a walkthrough route video and I ever get the chance I would 100% clock you in the face as hard as I can, like going for losing teeth, and feel no guilt. I know it’s a game and that’s wrong, and I’d be wrong, but I’d still do it. Also, Ryan Alosio (his VA) saw me do cosplay for Deacon once and told me it was great and it filled me with even more love. Anyway Deacon is great. Also, his whole “There are other organisations out there. And, in time, I'm sure they're going to spoon-feed you their own patented form of bullshit. Ignore the verbage and look at what they're doing. What they're asking you to do. What sort of world they'd have you build and how they're going to pay for it.” Is one of the like, two most iconic quotes in all of FO4 & just super good in general.

Hancock: Hardcore badass man but also a good dude and a champion for the people. Man really puts his money where his mouth is and you gotta respect that; another favorite companion for sure. Big fan of the way he stabs a guy for you upon meeting, and is a cool leader who organized his crime and does a decent job actually leading. He works hard to help people and bites back hard. Social justice advocate, dangerous man about town, not afraid to cosplay a revolutionary war hero 24/7 & u gotta respect the no fucks given attitude. A chill dude. Like that he fights the institute, hates the Brotherhood, helps the Railroad, and is friends with Nick. He’s legit af. Also, his VA gives a different answer every time someone asks him about the voice he did for hancock and they’re funny af.

Piper Wright: A cool spunky lady. Lois Lane on the case, kicking butt, and taking name. She’s nice but also hardcore and smart, supportive, fun. A good person. You always get points if you like Nick (which most companions do), and they’re good friends. She’s funny and I love her. A good heart.

Codsworth: He’s great. He’s family. He’s like my...weird brother. Getting to max affinity is heartwarming and also makes my heart go :’-] . Great early-game companion bc he kicks ass and doesn’t need stims to heal. I love getting called by my name and think that was a great feature (well, my PC’s name). He’s a wonderful funky little robot dude and I am so glad he likes me.

Dogmeat: Amazing. A good boy. Doggo of the year. His actor deserved the game award she won. Cute, full of love, and plays with a teddy bear if you give him one. 100/10z

Cait: I like her a lot. She’s been through so much shit, and it makes sense she is how she is. I like they actually gave her an emaciated and messy (though still pretty) design, since she is a drug addict. And that they make her main quest about taking that seriously and wanting to get help, and that she’ll call out the player if they fuck around and do drugs in front of her after she gets rehabilitated. Her relationship to the PC if good is really sweet, and I am a fan. I like that while she’s not sympathetic to synths and thinks they aren’t people, she forgets that every time Nick walks into a room and is like “Oh hey Nicky : )”. She’s a good girl who has been through a lot and still needs time to heal and find herself, but she’s making great strides.

Robert Joseph MacCready: Human disaster (loving). Homeboy a goddamn /mess/ but I love him. He tries so hard to be cool. I love he makes you pay him to come with, then chickens out and gives it back lol. A fool ball of anxiety and bad decisions and what he thinks brovado is. I wish he, Preston, and Deacon would quit fighting, bc I am always like “ :’-] </3 Boys Please” when they swap out, but I love them just the same. He’s doing his best, he’s just stupid and a fool. Like Philip J Fry. Keeping his goddamn soldier toy, which somehow is listed as junk instead of sent to Misc with quest items where it would be fine, safe?parylizes me with fear. I’ve lost 2 hours of gameplay reloading an old save bc I accidentally lost it.

X6-88: A more complex one to answer about. He’s bad, but like, I’m pretty sympathetic to how he got that way. He was created in a lab and had his emotions mostly dragged out of him in intense psychologically damaging training so he would be a weapon and view himself as an object. I was relieved he chose me over the institute even if he wasn’t a fan of the chocie, and think that means there’s a lot of hope for him. Wish he’d chill the fuck out and quit intimidating civilians for 6 god damn seconds, but I like him. I bring him fancy lad snack cakes home from travels all the time, bc Synths are supposed to like them. Really like that he’s the /most/ sympathetic companion towards Danse in Blind Betrayal, even though he should not be programmed for that, and Danse hated him and made it clear any time they interacted.

(EDIT) Curie: I FORGOT HER BABY IM SO SORRY. I like Curie a lot, despite the fact I temporarily forgot she existed. I stg I thought she was in here. Uhhh, okay. Curie: like her character and personality, HUGE un-fan of both the way her desire to get a synth body is to be ‘more real,’ as if Codsworth isn’t a fully realized person while the same robot type she is, instead of just like. Because it would make her happy. ALSO hate how much of a Born Sexy Yesterday she is, even intentionally in not-determinate affinity talks. It’s gross. But her herself, I like a lot. She’s my daughter and I will protect her. She works at The Castle right now as their on-site medic.

Paladin Danse: I know I’m gonna take heat for this but honestly? He didn’t do much for me. I like that he looks and sounds kinda like Buzz Lightyear, and that’s fun, but idk at all why people think he’s so hot. He’s very boring & generic looking to me. Like you’re valid! Taste all be different. But he doesn’t do it for me personally in looks or personality. I don’t at all like, hate him. Or even dislike. Tbh I am fairly neutral on him. It was funny making affinity with him though. Every other companion I had maxed, I liked more and more with each affinity talk. They’d be like “So my dad was a minuteman and died and I want to honor him” or “I just want to really feel like I’m a person, for real, myself, and I am glad I met you, because the good we have achieved together is ours, even if I can’t be sure of anything else,” or “My brother threw the cultural minorities out of our city for clout bc the rich citizens were all racist, and I tried to help—I snuck them food to the unsafe ruins they set up in for weeks, but eventually, they just vanished, and I still bear immense guilt and self-hatred over not having stopped that.” And Danae’s would be like “One time a buddy of mine got kidnapped by super mutants. They turned him into one of them, and they’re all abominations, so I killed him and it made me really sad.” And I was just like “...Oh danse. I really wanted to like you more. But what the fuck.” His relationship to Haylen is sweet though. And ofc I saved him in Blind Betrayal. I blew up the Prydwin so he’s safe now too, and he lives in the garden by my house and tells me how glad he is we’re friends, and I’m p into that. Overall, my feelings on him are not strong at all though.

Porter Gage: Not a fan. Like, I appreciated he helped me kill the old boss, sure. And bc I owed him for that, I went to max affinity to see what there was to him as a person. And like, as far as raiders go, he was okay. But he wasn’t deeply sympathetic, and he’s a slaver, and if you try to liberate the slaves he and the others own, he /will/ turn on and attempt to murder you immediately, no matter how close you were, so he made his choice, and it was to be a bad person and an asshole to the last. Really enjoyed the VA’s work a lot on him tho.

And there you have it 👈👈😎. Thanks for asking!