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coalitiongirl · 3 years ago

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Fic Recs (under 300 edition)

So I wanted to get back to reading Swan Queen fic regularly, and I asked people to rec longfic that they'd read (not written) and loved that had fewer than 300 kudos! I haven’t read most of these, but I’ve collected them here so y’all can go through the list and discover some new fics with me! Please try to kudos and review every fic that you read! It means the world to the writers and will keep em writing, and then we all win. 😁

Atonement by SgtMac (M): With Regina's magical heart failing thanks to years of previous evil, Emma and Regina and Henry (and Granny!) set out to save her life by traveling to the Enchanted Forest and requesting help from ancient magical beings known as the Guardians. Given a mission as simple as it is impossible - to achieve atonement by creating peace - the ladies find themselves joining a rebellion and fighting for the very soul of the Enchanted Forest all while trying to help Regina to understand that the self-loathing and guilt which have driven most of her actions don't have to doom her chance for a new beginning or even, a chance to live and love again. A S4(ish) SQ love story set against the turmoil of war and the chaotic savagery of the old world.

Blood and Sand by cheshire6845 (E): A/U The Savior is a slave forced into the role of fighting as a gladiator for the House of Hearts. The odds are against her survival as she will have to win in the arena, navigate Cora's schemes, outlast a general's vengeance, and not be killed out of spite by the current House of Hearts Champion - Regina the Undefeated. This story follows the major plot points of Starz Spartacus with some twists along the way.

But what if there was no time by KizuRai (M): When she wakes up, it's dark. She can't move, she can't see, she can't feel and she can't hear. Where am I? She feels a forceful oppression, pressing her down, draining her of her energy and she's powerless to stop it. How did I get here? The question of here is relative, she's not even sure where here is. What happened? There must be some reason for being stuck here but her memory is fuzzy, like all her thoughts are being sifted through a filter. Who am I? She's not sure if she actually exists or she suddenly became sentient in the darkness.She hears a voice reverberating in the distance, it's distorted and quiet but she hears it all the same. It breaks the monotony of the silence. Someone's coming for her, they will get her out. She's just not sure she wants them to as the price might be too great.

Finding Home by evl_rgl (T): “I wanted to remember you so badly that I pulled back your cursed town just so that the memories would make sense. I needed you so badly that even when I had no memory of you, I still tried to find you.” Regina gave Emma and Henry memories of a happy life together before they fled Pan’s curse, leaving them with no memories of their lives in Storybrooke. However, when the memory spell shows signs of failing, threatening to rip apart the minds of both Emma and Henry, Regina makes a drastic choice to go back and fix it, understanding that it will mean living alone in a world where her son doesn’t know her. Was the spell really faulty, though? (swanqueen)

Five Flames by MariaComet (U): In the past, Emma Nolan disconnected from her peers in high school, preferring to keep to herself. In her sophomore year of high school, she decided to try and join the boy’s wrestling team because she was bored. She didn’t expect herself to become the champion of the most bullied kid in school or the secret best friend of the school queen. She also didn’t expect to join a club that would change her life. In the present, Emma is trying to cope with a humiliating loss in her martial arts career. She claims to be “training” but is stuck in limbo between wanting to retire and try again. She is isolated from her former best friend, Regina Mills, a local celebrity chef and the rest of her old friends. When one of them calls her with an idea to honor their deceased teacher, she is confronted with unresolved feelings and questions about how powerful love truly is.

A Glamour of Truth by PrincessCharming (T): After 2x10, Regina uses magic to show Emma the obvious truth. A tentative trust forms between them amid hilarious bickering. With Emma's help, Regina struggles to regain a place in her son's life... until Cora arrives, wanting her daughter back. Pieces of Regina's past emerge showing that the board was set long before the game started. The final battle begins soon.

His Dark Materials 'verse by MoonlitMidnight (M): A modern Alternate Universe in which Dæmons (the external physical manifestation of a person's 'inner self' that takes the form of an animal) are present. In which Emma and Regina have led slightly different lives and they make slightly different choices.

How Many Miles to Avalon? (WIP) by RavenOutlander (E): Regina would do anything to save Emma from the darkness and bring her back home safe and sound. Even put up with the two idiots, Captain Guyliner and a bunch of dwarves she decidedly wanted to drop off at the nearest exit. But in their search for Emma, they find that she might not need that much saving after all. Caught up in a search for the infamous Philosopher Stone, an all out war between DunBroch and Camelot, and ghosts from the past to haunt her every waking moment, Regina finds herself scrambling to keep her and her family's happy endings from falling apart.

The Hyperion by FrankenSpine (M): After wishing upon what she believes is a shooting star, Emma Swan finds herself aboard the Hyperion, the royal starship of an alien Queen from a faraway galaxy. She quickly learns of the tensions between the Queen's people and her own, but the Queen takes an interest in her and agrees to take her away from Earth forever. Adventure awaits. *(Loosely based on Guardians of the Galaxy with just a hint of Farscape)*

If Wishes Came True (It Would've Been You) by Angeii_K (M): After Regina films a guest appearance on her friend Neal’s popular show, he invites her to spend the weekend with him and his girlfriend. What she never expected was to actually like the woman. Sparks fly between the two, which results in them questioning everything and making choices they will later regret. 4 years later, they meet again in the most unexpected of ways. Now co-stars on the same show, they are forced to work through the emotions from their last encounter. What will happen next? Only time will tell.

The King Doesn’t Have To Know (WIP) by highheelsandchocolate (M): The White Knight had never seen anyone like her before: the Queen was nothing short of mesmerizing. Her possessive yet neglectful husband, however, was another thing entirely.

The Lich by Dangereaux (M): Gay disaster Emma, exasperated Regina, and a monster. A Halloween special.

Maybe if We Close Our Eyes we Can Reach the Stars by wellthizizdeprezzing (T): Emma is a lonely astronaut. Regina is an adventuring alien. Their paths cross leading them onto a journey of new discovery. Between galaxies and many miles of cold black space, despite not speaking the same language, they manage to fall for each other. An out of this world love story.

A prisoner long forgotten by sugarsweet_19 (M): ‘I wish I had a child as white as snow, as red as blood and as black as the wood of the window-frame. Soon after she had a little girl, who was as white as snow, with lips as red as blood and with her hair as black as the ebony of the window-frame. She was therefore called Snow-white.” This is how our story starts but how will it end?The evil queen as been locked up in a tower and forgotten that is until princess Emma looks for a place to hid from her parents after they tell her she has to marry Neal the son of the dark one.

Revenge of the Three Little Pigs by mskyo (M): Regina and Emma find themselves alone and looking for the rest of their party. The Evil Queen must face the consequences of her past actions. Will Emma come to her aid, or understand that justice must be served... *Some chapters have fairly graphic sex, and violence*

Things I Almost Remember by cheshire6845 (T): A/U Despite an oncoming war between the Dark and the Light, Emma and Regina are best friends growing up in the Enchanted Forest. When war does come, they find themselves on opposite sides. Regina will have to defy her mother to save Emma. Will Emma be able to save Regina when Cora curses her daughter to live in the Land without Magic?

What We Make (WIP) by DiazTuna (M): “My mother.” He says calmly. He’d known all along, she’s aware. But he’d known that today would be the day that would get this going. She wants to ask what it was like, to have woken up this morning, laced up his boots and walked into hell just knowing. “It’s programmed the cyborg to kill her. Before I have a chance to be born.” -In which the leader of the future sends his best soldier back to the past to save his mother from a killer cyborg. Terminator AU.

The Wrong Way by pcworth (M): Takes place right after Zelena steals Regina's heart. Zelena offers Regina a chance to go back in time with her and change both of their lives for the better. But what will be the price of that decision. Slow-burn to SwanQueen

zombie trash by 13pens (T): Zelena could have her brain and eat it, too. Fic operates on three premises 1. this takes place in any universe where zelena is a reformed asshole 2. zombies are a thing and exist iZombie style 3. i have NO chill

#swan queen #fic rec #ouat

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katyahina · 3 years ago

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Speaking of the league, what are YOUR hcs??😳 (since u asked of mine as well lol)

OKAY I actually do, thank you for the ask!! However keep in mind that pretty much it's work in progress, because literally every single day I remember an item description I forgot or get a new perspective/idea on my own! But as of now (September 11th, 2021) here goes!

Under cut though because I have many headcanons, plus it's mostly text and no pictures this time...

* Valtr

- As the type to be 'obssessed with his job', formerly as a constable and now as a hunter, he struggles to have hobbies or even enjoy his rest time at all! But when his friends DO manage to convince him to relax and try to do something fun like drawing or cooking or whatever, he quickly gains enough competence in the thing to start criticizing and teaching THE person who showed him the way to begin with! That can be frustrating, and they have to ask him to STOP now, which is as hard as getting him to start was....

- I already talked about how seeing Vermin relies on one's own ability to define what is acceptable and what isn't in this post, but yeah. He stopped seeing Vermin because of 'nothing deserves to live anyway' mindset that makes Impurity rune redundant; however as dialogue suggests in my opinion, the hunter betraying him does piss him off enough to see it in them! If you never do though, presume he moves on sheer autopilot to at least find himself a replacement. He still does the right thing even if it does not matter anymore...

- His passionate praising and affection to confederates for squashing bugs is genuine but at the same time pragmatic! Vermin is seen by anyone with Impurity rune in what/who they deep down think should be exterminated, and theme of 'some things only can harm you if you are able to perceive them' is strong in Bloodborne - so Valtr needs to fuel the feeling that they are in the right in them, because if they hate themselves and see Vermin in themselves... at least they will suffer physically, at likeliest they'll die.

- Valtr is similar to Gehrman with the 'whatever your backstory/motivation/hunting style/etc is, if you are ready to kill and can do it WELL - you are accepted' approach (as opposed to Ludwig's quite unifying and inspiring chivalry), however, Valtr is of course way better at reading hidden emotions and needs of his subordinates than him.

* Yamamura

- Arrived with long hair in ponytail like concept art of him suggests, cut it short with a sword as sort of a sign of starting new life in Yharnam.

- Is unable to take a break like Valtr, however, for Yamamura it is very detrimental. Think of the person who never switches TV channel when it's bad news, never blocks internet content they hate or disturbed by, like, no matter how bad their mental state gets - they keep exposure up because 'well it will not disappear just because I stopped looking at it'. Valtr was very stoic and even felt the more in his element the worse things got - but Yamamura is an emotional, intricate, sensitive person, so his eventual insanity came from this. Just think of the person that denies every temporary comfort because "it will not change how the world is"... He is very self-destructive - that varies from understandable(?) denial of help when he needs it to crazy things such as defying himself his own human needs.

- Needs a hug but says he does not because "if I feel nice now it won't change how awful the world is :/". Valtr takes boundaries of his confederates seriously, however requests like 'let me wallow in literal insanity and suffer whereas simple affection could make a difference' are to be taken in reverse, so too bad, hugs from all confederates for him.

- Valtr did not offer Yamamura to leave the League directly, nor would Yamamura agree, yet Valtr recognized him as very sensitive so he started talking to him often, more often than with other League members that didn't instantly disappear to hunt in distant places, to know how he's feeling and what he is thinking. As result, they became very close.

- His Insight is high enough to make him be harmed by things others cannot even see - drown in the water others do not know even "exists" here, burnt trying to hold an object others do not know is even "burning", poisoned by a spike on a plant others can hold just fine - because for them this spike doesn't exist! The 'some things can only harm you if you perceive them', remember!

- Draws and writes and plays music - at least sometimes, because often his drawings might come to life and attack him, or sound of his music turn into something ears-scattering. Has a diary halving "japanese" and "english" language, as he has not heard his native speech in years before he died, thus many of his thoughts went "english". Some almost prophetic notes and drawings can be found in his diary.

- Choosen 'cursed' Cainhurst blade because it reminded him of home, did not care about its life-draining effects because 'well the hunt slowly ruins all of us anyway, choosing different way to harm oneself won't change it so why not through a weapon'. Like.... you see his problem by now I am sure.

* Henryk

- He believes that one true way to REALLY know the person is to fight/kill them, as he has almost supernatural empathy towards someone he just killed (like the rune he drops suggests). This mindset made him become fast friends with Valtr, however, he only lifted this mentality for Gascoigne and his family.

- Used to crush on Gascoigne, however introduced him to his family (that at the moment was only his adopted daughter, Viola) only after Gascoigne ditched the Healing Church. However, when he saw how desperate Viola got from almost the first sight, he knew what he needed to do, so he subtly helped her to win Gascoigne over and them to get together. He might have had some sadness within, but when the first daughter between Gascoigne and Viola was born, he cried such tears of joy that they presumably washed away any grudges he might have had left.

- Only accepts death in the honest battle, yet nothing can kill him, so his life is long overdue. Although, 'you' can defeat him, as his skill is severly weakened because of heartbreak upon seeing both Viola and Gascoigne dead.

- Took advantage of younger Madaras twin not knowing semantics to teach him say cuss words, cracked the hell up every time, got bonked by Valtr with the League staff upon being found out.

- Has strange heritage he is uncertain of, such as the suspiciously bolt-resistant costume and a music box that plays weird tune that feels familiar. He is as much descendant of land of Loran as Cainhurst nobles are descendants of Pthumerian royalties, but he knows even less about his mysterious heritage, so he ventures in Byrgenwerth when it was 'still good' to ask about melody music box he was given plays. He was not able to accomplish much though, so he opted out to just gifting this music box to Viola and Gascoigne as the wedding gift.

- When stressed throws knives at the pictures of his enemies that Viola drew, hung on the wall for convenience.

- Lets his actions speak for him instead of the words, however, when he DOES talk, usuall it is edgy james bond esque over the top quote.

- Although he does not talk much, he would accomplish more if he did; always, he has something important to say and is arguably better at delivering the point from the first try when Valtr struggles to explain it at the 10th time. He just knows what feelings and sentiments to cater to to be more convincing.

* Younger Madaras Twin

- He got very attached to humanity's more civilized ways in the contrast of his more feral brother, tried his best to learn to hold tools and speak some words from the start. Perhaps, his previous life no longer seemed as satisfying when he learned of something different.

- Has intense loyalty to Valtr. He killed his brother (and snake!!!) for the ideals Valtr introduced, without even having enough verbal/cognative development to comprehend complexities of 'crime and innosense' concept Valtr introduced. He still relays on Valtr as his moral compass, hence why he attacks the good hunter regardless of whether Valtr was killed or passed his leadership down. He does not have this deeply-rooted will for the Hunt normal hunters have that is so strong in can rise them up from the death - instead, he just sticks to Valtr (and Henryk as follows) as it 'feels right'. Is it son/father bond? Is it apprentice/mentor bond? Even dog/owner bond? It is hard to describe with a single term, but ether way, this guy traded what he felt more familiar and safe with for Valtr's ideology, and although Valtr values loaylty - what truly matters is WHAT you're loyal to, and this is why thus guy will always be a true confederate.

- Catches small animals that are unaffected by the beasthood to eat them raw as food - shared trait with my versions of Izzy and Amelia. Old habits die hard.

- Has very keen senses like his brother even if they appeared to be very different people upon more about the world being revealed, athough they are mostly tied to emotions. Without words, he is very likely to understand how you truly feel, if not try to provide comfort with cuddles and occasional cheek licks (like a dog...).

* Relevant Encounters

Older Twin: He has always been more reluctant to mingle with the humans than the older one. Did not enjoy using tools to eat, rejected getting a haircut, did not even try to learn to say some human words... He appreciates his upbringing more than some randos that 'found' him and his brother and declared the lifestyle he was perfectly fine with barbaric and animalistic. Never was a true member of the League per say - in fact, his death WAS what brought younger twin to be recognized as a confederate. However, he was very loving and strong in his own regard - he felt undying gratitude to his mother figure even though she appeared to be filled with Vermin, he could show attachment and loyalty not every 'civilized' human could.

Madaras Snake: Long time ago, a terrifying creature of superior kind settled within ancients, punishing those who searched for more knowledge than they were supposed to have with deadly gaze that petrified their bodies. However, it had snakes growing all over its head, and they disagreed with the main body, loving the humanity and wishing to 'live in dirt' with them. Creature had been slain yet lives in the void some dedicated researchers still look into, but some snakes were cut away from its body and settled within mankind, their origin explaining them having enough intelligence to raise human children. Indeed, their snake was a mother figure for them, but through eating beasts (who were in turn transformed people) she is filthy and depraved, and not everyone can accept that their parent figure was "nothing but filth all along".

______

Gascoigne: He had the same 'nothing deserves to live' depression that eventually reduced Valtr's ability to see Vermin much earlier - although unrealized, as he was trying to live his best life and even found joy in caring for his family. However it was enough for Impurity rune to 'not work' on him although Henryk suggested to hunt with the League. He was just like ':/ Nothing changed', and League that knew what that means was like '...oh no' internally. However, he is still in contact with friends of Henryk, and at times Gascoigne and Valtr find such great common ground that Henryk feels left out in these moments x)

Viola: Whereas she does not oppose the concept of teaching her girls to fight back as soon as they physically can, but she thinks that 'dad's friends are weird' and would rather prefer doing it within family or some more level-headed hunters (are there any?..). She still has faith in the future where her girls could grow up and accomplish things (oh no...), so she does NOT vibe with the idea of Valtr inspiring them to grow up to be cops stuck in the hunter mindset even when there will be no need.

Dorothy (younger daughter): Very scared of Valtr's antics, he can give QUITE a maniacal murdery speech whereas other people be like '...dude she's like, 6 :/' . However, she hoped that younger Madaras twin could teach her animals language at some point.

Sally (younger daughter): She thinks Valtr is really cool and sometimes wraps herself in blue blanket and puts actual bucket on her head to act like him (and maybe to scare her little sister a bit). It is "VERY similar", according to Henryk.

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Gratia and Simon:

Yamamura was the last core member to join, and although skilled fighter in his own place, still needed to master plenty of skills and things about beasts. Valtr encouraged him to mingle with the Church hunters of Ludwig's kind under the guise of 'needing some training' as Church had some suspicious aura about it which did not sit well with Valtr. However, there was interior motive tied in as well - Valtr noticed Yamamura in his sensitive emotional spirit did not belong to League as much and it was ruining him, so he hoped he'd find more motivation and comfort with noble, optimistic ways of the Church hunters and keep friends from that kind of hunters even if something horrible comes up about the Church. And he was right - Yamamura laughed and smiled in his stay in Church Worskhop more than he ever did in the League, he made friends with two other 'weird weapon choice' hunters - as one picking 'cursed' blade socked from Cainhurst after the raid as it reminded him of home, and at the brink of his sanity he recites inspirational speech of the Church, not something relevant to the League. It was a matter of 'if you love them - let them be where they're happier' mindset in a way...

Yamamura however, ended up in (unfortunate) adventure to unveil the Church's secrets with his new friends - Simon as he shared same suspicions and Gratia because 'You are my friends, I will go where you go'! They were quite a team - Simon with his big information basis and ability to sneak everywhere and snatch everything, Gratia who is a huge physical force and Yamamura as 'the seer' hahah; If only all of them avoided being caught and lived longer...

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Djura: Valtr used to affiliate with Djura as his weapon was crafted at Powder Kegs, and sudden change of heart with 'beast are people just less fortunate ones' did not sit right with him. He is not a coward to jump into the battle he cannot win, either. However, the fact that beasts of Old Yharnam have no means to escape anyway is what truly allowed Valtr to leave him be. He even has mild agreement with Djura that if a person League is chasing ends up escaping in Old Yharnam - they leave them be; they cannot escape, plus if they were so 'impure' they are probably soon to become the beast anyway. My inspiration was finding a single red-eyed scourge beast in Old Yharnam - and you collect Vermin from red-eyed old hunters, so. Perhaps, Valtr sees Djura as a sort of 'jailer' so he gives Djura a pass even if he's not the type to spare ANY beast normally... oh boy.

Church Doctors/Proto-Choir: Valtr thinks they are crazy, as they saw the 'filth within man' to be the soil to plant weird things within them, usually coming in the forms of the flowers. There is a rune on Clocktower Dial that looks like Impurity but slightly altered, which I took as the doctors misinterpreting (misspelling?) a concept and finding a way to 'plant' phantasms to cleanse mankind - yes, it has to do with how Milkweed rune makes your head a broccoli, as well as with Fluorescent Flowers and glowing plant life at Rom's back. "Watering" the dirt allows "flowers to grow from it", and Valtr is NOT here for it. Ya'll trying to toss humanity away, ya'll aren't slick!

Geranea: A nice doctor/hunter that attempted at Research Hall experiments to cleanse the beasthood, but early realized they were subjecting themselves to some otherwordly mind humans better be sceptical towards and chickened out. However, she did lose one eye (as existance of Eye Pendant suggests), so she made a habit from wearing a helmet that resembled a bucket, but with just one eye hole in it. As someone familiar with Caryll's runes language she helped Valtr to make sense of the 'inhuman noises' he got within him after eating a beast, however their approaches altered. Geranea refused to ever harm a human that still never turned into a beast, as no human deserves to die in her opinion, so she was dead set on treating 'impurity' medically. Valiant effort, but when you 'treat' terrible, dirty, depraved humans for too long - it infects you, and in Bloodborne so many psychological concepts are also literal. In the end she realized that SOME humans did deserve to die - mostly her for what she became from raw exposure, so she turned herself in to Valtr asking to be killed by his own hand, thus indirectly encouraging him to confirm his oath. He still wears her bucket helm unaltered despite having both eyes, as a reminder to not repeat her mistakes and from sentimentality. She did not stop being his friend just because she chosen a different (and less safe) way to rid the world of evil, after all, she still put up a fight against filth, so.

Dog: Back in his constable times, Valtr struggled to find a dog he'd like to keep as a companion. However, after like, 30 tries he met THE one most fodmiddable and aggressive to call his friend. He knew it was THE one xD Unfortunately, before the beast that invanded district Valtr was in started killing people, it had this exact dog as its first victim.

Izzy: She was very interested in her pursuit for what humanity really IS, what is the border between man and beast, and her picking interest in a guy that seemed to get something figured about "the world of man" was only a matter of time. She talked him into revealing the secret to her, having pretended to crush Vermin like others for some time, but actually secretly stocking most of it to research. Eventually she concluded Vermin was natural for humans and Valtr was the one crazy for wanting to cleanse it. You can imagine that did not go well... Even her eventual beast form had insectoid features. She is the only technically-confederate that Valtr doesn't count as such, the 'we do not talk about THAT one' deal for the League.

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Eileen: She knows the hunt is a tragic necessity, not some sort of entrertainment to 'seek' for, thus she questions League's determination to seek the reasons to hunt 'not just tonight but every night', however, they do not seem to listen. However, she questions whether they feel pain or joy when someone they suspected to be Impure proves to be so, which puts her in complicated relationship with Valtr. I imagine he to be the one to be able to ground Valtr if he was ever to approach blood-drunkedness; meanwhile, she just does the 'STOP IT YOU ARE SCARING CHILDREN!' on him when he tries to start shit during the light of the day when people have a chance to have something good as the night of the hunt is far away.

#valtr master of the league #old hunter henryk #younger madaras twin #yamamura the wanderer #bloodborne #bloodborne headcanons #not art #text post #ask reply #valtr beast eater #i use 'zero waste' politics so him having two eyes despite helm owner stated to only have one didnt sit right with me #so forgive me this sudden fan character indulgence #also eileen is the same mbti type as yamamura which is a perfect match to valtr's mbti hahaha #he just needs a caring senstive person who at the same time means business and is badass #crow mom superiority #bb

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tigerkirby215 · 4 years ago

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5e Zephyr, the Hellion build (XCOM: Chimera Squad)

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Would you believe me if I said that I had this build on the backburner for nearly half a year? Like honest to god I said I’d “maybe” make XCOM builds over a year ago and I beat Chimera Squad around last November. (Yeah I kinda put the game on the backburner for 3 months before finishing it.)

With that being said Zephyr was easily one of my most valuable units, and she pretty much plays like the typical Monk. So naturally I jumped at the chance to make her!

GOALS

Crippling Blow - Punching criminals is all well-and-good but if you’re fighting outworlders with psionics and poison glands you need something to get the upper hand.

Momentum - “Move fast or die slow.” Play around cover if you want to stick around.

Crowd Control - When the mobs get too rowdy get ready to run in and knock them all down.

RACE

Zephyr was literally made for war which means holy crap we actually get to use Custom Lineage to make a Hybrid! You are a Medium sized creature with a +2 in Dexterity to start. You can pick either Variable Trait as either Darkvision or a Skill Proficiency (ideally Perception to see incoming hostiles) will be useful. You can also get a Language of your choice so I’d pick whatever you fancy, though perhaps going for something more alien would work well.

Of course you get a Feat at level 1 when using a Custom Lineage and ADVENT training makes you a bit of a Martial Adept. You get a d6 Combat Superiority die to use on one of two Maneuvers: Disarming Attack can be good to disable an opponent’s weapon (especially if your DM lets you kick it away after disarming them) and Parry will let you, well, parry! While you might not reduce the damage completely like in Chimera Squad you can still absorb some close-ranged blows!

ABILITY SCORES

15; DEXTERITY - Can’t get shot if you outrun the bullets.

14; WISDOM - Used for a variety of things, notably AC.

13; CONSTITUTION - Zephyr isn’t the biggest member of Chimera Squad but giving her some body armor is usually a good call.

12; STRENGTH - It’s not that she’s weak; we can just use DEX instead of STR.

10; INTELLIGENCE - ADVENT probably teaches military strategy but history is already formed by the victors.

8; CHARISMA - Zephyr is a rather blunt edge. ADVENT training doesn’t include comedy class.

BACKGROUND

War... war never changes, and you were literally made to fight. You are a Soldier by the purest definition of the word. You get proficiency in Athletics as well as Intimidation, Land Vehicles (someone has to drive!), and a Gaming Set of your choice (chess helps you learn military strategy so perhaps ADVENT training included Dragonchess training.)

Your feature Military Rank puts you in the ranks of Chimera Squad! Members of the City 13 PD recognize your rank, and you can get supplied with standard government-funded equipment as needed.

(Screenshot by u/jasonrodriguez_dt on Reddit.)

THE BUILD

LEVEL 1 - MONK 1

Put bluntly punching is more important for this build! First level Monks get proficiency with two skills from the Monk list: Acrobatics is good for dodging and Stealth is good for the breaching phase. You also get proficiency in a tool of your choice: Grey Phoenix will never be ready for your Calligraphy Tools! You’re welcome Tulok!

As a Monk you get Unarmored Defense equal to your Dexterity plus your Wisdom, even if Zephyr does wear body armor in XCOM. But more importantly you get Martial Arts! You can use DEX to punch, your punches do a d4, and after attacking you can punch as a Bonus Action!

LEVEL 2 - MONK 2

Second level Monks get Ki for a variety of military tactics. Flurry of Blows allows you to make two Unarmed Strikes with your Bonus Action instead of one, Patient Defense lets you Hunker Down and Dodge as a Bonus Action, lowering the enemy’s chance to hit (though this is XCOM so remember that 5% chance to hit can still hit), and Step of the Wind lets you Dash or Disengage as a Bonus Action to get up close and personal.

You also get Unarmored Defense, increasing your movement speed by 10 to help you dive for cover after attacking. And because Tasha’s wants to let Monks use weapons you get Dedicated Weapon, allowing you to turn any weapon you’re proficient in into a Monk weapon! (As long as it isn’t Heavy or Special.)

LEVEL 3 - MONK 3

3rd level Monks get to choose their Monastic Tradition and to float like a butterfly and sting like a bee Drunken Master works remarkably well. You get Bonus Proficiencies with both Performance and Brewer’s Supplies, but more importantly you get access to Drunken Technique. Whenever you use Flurry of Blows your movement speed increases by 10 feet and you gain the benefits of the Disengage action, basically giving you the Mobile feat that works whenever you use Flurry of Blows.

Additionally Deflect Missiles will let you Parry bullets! If you’re targeted with a ranged attack you can use your reaction to reduce the damage by a d10 plus your Monk level. If the damage is reduced to 0 you can catch the bullet, and then use a Ki point to throw it back!

You also get Ki-Fueled Attack but it literally doesn’t matter since you don’t have any abilities which use Ki that aren’t attacks.

LEVEL 4 - MONK 4

4th level Monks get an Ability Score Improvement: increase your Constitution by 1 for a little more sturdiness and your Dexterity by 1 to punch a little harder.

Additionally you get Slow Fall to safely hop down off tall ledges, and because Tasha’s didn’t think Monks had enough features you get Quickened Healing, letting you spend 2 Ki points to heal yourself for a roll of your Martial Arts die plus your proficiency bonus. Much like Second Wind you can use this before Short Resting if you have spare Ki for faster recovery after combat.

LEVEL 5 - MONK 5

5th level Monks get an Extra Attack, meaning you can punch twice with your action plus an additional time with your Bonus Action, or an additional two times with Flurry of Blows. Which is good because your Martial Arts die now increases to a d6, making your fists just a little more deadly.

But more importantly you can inflict a truly crippling blow thanks to Stunning Strike, which forces a Constitution save on the enemy or stun them, making them easy pickings for the rest of the squad!

Tasha’s also gave you some Holotargeting thanks to Focused Aim, allowing you to increase your hit chance with Ki, just to make sure none of your blows bounce off their armor.

LEVEL 6 - MONK 6

6th level Monks can make Vital Strikes thanks to Ki-Empowered Strikes. You get to ignore magical resistance and immunity now!

Additionally you get some more boosts to your mobility with Tipsy Sway, letting you Leap to Your Feet when prone with only 5 feet of movement and Redirect Attacks that miss with a Ki point so they hit another enemy in melee! “Should’ve kept your distance!”

And to top off your mobility your Unarmored Movement increases by 5 feet, equaling 15 extra feet of movement speed or 45 feet total.

(Screenshot from stevivor.com)

LEVEL 7 - FIGHTER 1

ADVENT training teaches you to do more than just run and punch. First level Fighters get their choice of a Fighting Style and seeing as we aren’t using Knives and Guns we may as well grab Superior Technique for more Maneuver die! You can learn another Maneuver like Distracting Strike to lower a foe’s defenses for your allies. And you get another d6 per Short Rest to use on Maneuvers!

If you aren’t going to hit level 11 as Monk (total build level 14) then Unarmed Fighting is also a good choice to increase your damage output.

You can also get some help from Terminal for a Second Wind, healing for a d10 plus your Fighter level.

LEVEL 8 - FIGHTER 2

Second level Fighters get Action Surge, for another action to do either a little bit more movement or a bit more punching. Yes this does mean that if you want you can punch a total of 6 times in a turn!

LEVEL 9 - FIGHTER 3

Third level Fighters get to choose their Martial Archetype and a Battle Master can inflict all sorts of Crippling Blows! Firstly you are a Student of War, granting you proficiency with another Artisan’s Tool of your choice. Maybe pick up some Woodcarver’s Tools to do something while out in the unpopulated areas.

But of course the main appeal of being a Battle Master is the Combat Superiority. You get four d8 Superiority die (on top of your two d6 die) to use on your Maneuvers. You already have several Maneuvers but how about a few more? Trip Attack is like Stunning Strike but it forces a Strength save to knock the enemy over, making them easy to hit in melee (or with a shotgun) but harder to hit at range. Goading Attack will keep foes off your friends and force them to focus you instead. And Grappling Strike will let you try to root an enemy in place.

(Video icon by Alpha155.)

LEVEL 10 - MONK 7

We got all the Maneuvers we could want and more so now it’s time for more Monk training to master our fists. 7th level Monks get Evasion to avoid explosions (and other things that force DEX saves) as well as Stillness of Mind to avoid panicking (or being charmed.)

LEVEL 11 - MONK 8

8th level Monks get another Ability Score Improvement: better max out that Dexterity to make sure that 99% chance to hit does actually hit.

LEVEL 12 - MONK 9

9th level Monks can defy the laws of physics with SCIENCE! Unarmored Movement Improvement lets you run across walls and liquids, as long as you end somewhere solid when you’re done. Enemy on high ground? Just run up the wall!

LEVEL 13 - MONK 10

10th level Monks get Purity of Body, making them immune to Earthbound diseases and Viper poison. Additionally you get 5 more feet of Unarmored Movement, meaning that you can now move 50 feet in a turn!

LEVEL 14 - MONK 11

11th level Monks have what the game calls Drunkard’s Luck, but I’d personally call Teamwork! If you make a roll with Disadvantage you can use 2 Ki points for some teamwork, negating the Disadvantage!

Your Martials Arts die also increases to a d8, so you can shake off the stress before going in and apprehending the target!

LEVEL 15 - MONK 12

12th level Monks get another Ability Score Increase. While we’ve got plenty of ways to be effective without Wisdom intuition is still good to not get hit. So increase your Wisdom by 2.

(Image from “Agent Profiles: Zephyr” Chimera Squad trailer video. Yeah it’s honestly really hard finding good images to put into this build.)

LEVEL 16 - MONK 13

City 13 PD are expected to be able to communicate with any species, and Chimera Squad is no exception. 13th level Monks get Tongue of the Sun and Moon, so anyone can understand what you’re saying and you can understand whatever they’re saying.

LEVEL 17 - MONK 14

Sick of dealing with things more dangerous than guns? Well Diamond Soul will give you proficiency with all saving throws! And your Unarmored Movement increases to 55 feet total!

LEVEL 18 - MONK 15

15th level Monks can live life with the game on pause thanks to Timeless Body. You can’t be aged by magic, though you will still die of old age. You also don’t need to eat, which is certainly helpful.

LEVEL 19 - MONK 16

16th level Monks get their last Ability Score Improvement for the build. I’ll leave this up to you: more Wisdom would mean more AC and more deadly Stunning Strikes, but the Mobile feat would allow you to save your Ki instead of using Flurry of Blows to move around.

LEVEL 20 - MONK 17

17th level Monks can finally lay down the Crowd Control thanks to Intoxicated Frenzy! When you use your Flurry of Blows, you can make up to 3 additional attacks with it, provided that each Flurry of Blows attack targets a different creature this turn. This means that you can target a total of 5 enemies with Flurry of Blows, not to mention the two punches you get from your regular action! And speaking of punches your Martial Arts die is now a d10, letting you really thin the herd!

FINAL BUILD

PROS

Reaper - Ever punched 9 times in one turn? Would you like to? Intoxicated Frenzy and Action Surge can allow you to really thin the herd.

Lockdown - You’ve also got plenty of ways to keep said herd from getting close with 6 total Combat Superiority die to spend on all sorts of Maneuvers.

Fearless Advance - You’re not exactly a frontliner but you can afford to take a few hits, with good health, strong AC, and very high saving throws thanks to Diamond Soul.

CONS

Berserker - Running fast with your fists out is great and all, but sometimes enemies will be in places you simply can’t get to. When that happens all you can really do is keep to cover.

Adder - Good ol’ limited resources. Even if you have plenty of Ki as well as a remarkable amount of Combat Superiority die they will still run out. Remember to take breaks between breaches.

Praetorian - Rules as written there’s few ways to boost your damage output or your armor. Bracers of Defense or an Insignia of Claws can definitely help but much like in Chimera Squad you might be left out as the party gets upgraded.

But if the streets get too full there isn’t anyone better to call. ADVENT wanted you to be the perfect soldier; it really sucks for them that you ended up fighting for the good guys! Keep the peace and stop the baddies from resisting arrest. Don’t worry about police brutality; outworld physiology is quite good at repairing broken bones.

(Artwork by Team Wreckloose on Tumblr.)

#dnd #dnd build #dnd guide #XCOM #xcom chimera squad #XCOM Zephyr #dnd monk #do people even care about this game?#idc #it's my blog #I'll make #what I want

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jmsa1287 · 5 years ago

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With Her Quarantine-Themed Opus 'How I'm Feeling Now,' Charli XCX & Her Clique Level Up

Charli XCX has been at the forefront of pop music over the last decade and with "How I'm Feeling Now," a quickly-made album created entirely in quarantine with a madcap collection of Internet musicians and input from fans, Charli goes to the next level.

Between 2014 and 2017, Charli XCX almost became the next Lady Gaga. She had released bonafide hits like her Billboard Hot 100 top 10 banger "Boom Clap," from the soundtrack for the tragic teen romance "The Fault in Our Stars." She wrote songs for huge pop stars like Selena Gomez, will.i.am, Blondie, the K-pop group Twice. She was also featured on chart-toppers like Icona Pop's "I Love It," and Iggy Azalea's no. 1 hit "Fancy." But instead of choosing a path where she'd work with producers Max Martin and Pharrell, Charli looked further ahead, stayed online and became the most interesting pop star currently working.

Last week, she released "How I'm Feeling Now," what she's calling her fourth studio album. It arrived on streaming platforms after the British musician announced its conception about six weeks ago on April 6 via a Zoom chat with fans, stressing that it would be a D.Y.I. project with them while she's under lockdown and in quarantine at her Los Angeles home. With 11 songs and a 37-minute runtime, the album, a collaborative effort to be sure, is a masterpiece where Charli makes the most vulnerable and powerful album since Beyonce's 2013 self-titled surprise release. It's an urgent piece of emotional art that finally unifies Charli's ethos and talent into an impressive synthesis of sounds, songwriting and style. And it arrives at a vital moment.

"HIFN" follows her eponymous album from last year — a collaborative effort in a different way as it features several popular artists (Lizzo, HAIM, Christine and the Queens, Kim Petras, Troy Sivan, Sky Fierrea, Cupcake, Big Freedia and more) contributing vocals and felt like, at the time, it was meant to elevate Charli's status in the pop world. It's Charli at her most polished — so much so that the edginess of her music was scrubbed too clean and not everything worked. Her frequent collaborator A.G. Cook, the leader of the internet-dwelling musical collective PC Music, had his signature 00s computer nostalgic sounds bump up against other producers' ideas. A few years before "Charli," she shared the four-track EP "Vroom Vroom" — a maximalist effort from Cook and SOPHIE (another prominent member of PC Music who has had a successful solo career while working with huge names like Madonna) that marked a pivotal career turn for her; a flag signaling that Charli had fully invested in PC Music's chaotically beautiful inorganic sound. In 2017, she released back-to-back mixtapes: the stellar "Number 1 Angel" and the critically acclaimed and fan-adored "Pop 2." Over the release of those four projects, her partnership with Cook grew, morphed and worked out its kinks. On "HIFN," Charli and Cook — both credited as executive producers — unite their best talents while welcoming other sounds from producers, like BJ Burton (a Bon Iver collaborator who is also credited an executive producer), Danny L Harle (who got his start with PC Music as well), Dijon, Palmistry and Dylan Brandy, one half of the mind-bending duo that feels like the logical evolution of PC Music, 100 gecs.

At a time when major-label pop stars are delaying the release of their music — like Lady Gaga, who put off her long-awaited sixth album "Chromatica" a month-and-a-half due to the coronavirus pandemic — Charli is seizing the moment. (Similar to Charli, rising pop star Dua Lipa bumped up the release of her disco-inspired sophomore album "Future Nostalgia" a week back in March.) By directly working with fans — asking them to submit phone footage for music videos and gathering their input on songs by sharing demos to social media and hopping on Zoom chats — Charli has turned her new project into something beautiful and hopeful during a time when most of us are craving any sort of interaction, never mind from a legit pop star. The pandemic is forcing everyone inside and closing us off from family and friends. But Charli is rising to the moment — a moment that feels destined for her —reaching out to her fans to make something that's so of our time.

Though "HIFN" is an impressively made album with music that sounds like it simultaneously comes from both the past and the future, it's untimely successful for being a cathartic and freeing album. Charli has full creative autonomy here and isn't constrained by label meddling. "HIFN" is loud, abrasive, sad, confident and sexy. It's a patchwork of sounds that are stitched together by Charli and Co. where she jumps from genre-to-genre (and sometimes from mico-genre-to-micro-genre) in a matter of seconds, similar to the 100 gecs album "1000 gecs" from last year. It'll give you whiplash where songs are so complex and intricate it's hard to believe it was made in about a month, like on the pulsating and glitchy "Claws," co-produced by gecs' Brady, bounces from love-song to a rave banger that gives way into an eruption of static. To call "HIFN" visceral would be an understatement as a number of tracks are and raw; walls of sound pummel you like on the opener "Pink Diamond," where she sings, "Every single night kinda feels the same I'm a pink diamond/ I need space" as a cacophony of synths and sound effects ram into each other.

"HIFN" defies expectations in many ways; not only that it exists and is excellent from start-to-finish, but the songs themselves are like puzzle pieces arranged in such a way that they pull tricks on what you expect from convention songwriting and producing. Production on "HIFN" is constantly shifting with some tracks initially feel like two or three songs slapped together but careful listening is rewarding as it's revealed how stunningly crafted they are, like "c2.0." That song begins with a sludgy beat but sheds itself to reveal a slick pop song, sounding nothing like the first 90 seconds. It also interpolates Charli's self-titled album cut "Click": "I miss them every night / I miss them by my side / Catch my tears when I cry / My clique on me for life," she sings about the lost days and nights with friends.

Songs you think are about to end go on for another two minutes (like the ethereal and wound-up "Detonate," an album highlight) and songs that you expect to climax collapse inward, like the epic "party 4 u" — the album's best song. It's a lovelorn track full of yearning about throwing a party for a crush who never shows up. It's a simple message (when you're into someone but they don't quite reciprocate those feelings) that's been expressed millions of times throughout the history of pop music - but not quite like this. It opens with an otherworldly synth and builds and builds until it reaches its apex. But instead of a release of sound that you expect, "party 4 u" — the longest song on "HIFN" (nearly 5-minutes) — goes silent and starts from the beginning, becoming one of the most powerful moments on the album.

The track also brings "HIFN" full circle in a profound way. It's a song that's been around for a few years and, after leaking online, it quickly became a fan favorite where people would request it at shows. Charli and A.G. Cook said they always considered putting it on an album but Charli said she was "hesitant...because I like the mythology around certain songs." Nevertheless, Charli said that including "party 4 u" on the album might seem "small and silly" but "it's the time to give something back." Indeed, it's a payoff for those who have invested in the world-building and mythology Charli has created for the last five years as "party 4 u" closes with a live recording from a concert in which fans are requesting the track itself, prior to its official release. It's a beautiful sentiment that propels the album and Charli and her team to a new level of artistry.

#charli xcx #how i'm feeling now #music #pc music #a.g. cook #ag cook #100 gecs #bj burton #Danny L Harle #dylan brady

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thatfunkyopossum · 6 years ago

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Hello!! I love your art, and I was wondering how do you draw such fluffy looking hair (even Kirishima's!)? Makes me wanna pet it

I’m so so so so so SO sorry that this took as long as it did! I didnt know how to explain my process, but i do now!

For soft hair you want to go with gentle, natural curves and soft lines. The rounder everything is, the softer it looks! Things that also have a more matte, diffused surface tend to look softer. Basically: keep your hand loose, your lines light, and dont make it TOO shiny! It also helps to lighten the linework of the hair falling into the face and/or mix a very light amount of the skintone color into the hair color so it looks like the skin tone is showing through.

For fluffy hair its ALL ABOUT VOLUME! Make that shit THICK! add in gravity defying cuves and you’ve pretty much got it!

Combine the two of them to make U L T I M A T E S O F D as for kiri here’s my process for him!

I kinda start in the front and work my way back, then at the end i add in all the shit i forgot and clean up and adjust as I go. Also, making his horns cuvy and voluminous ad having all of his “spikes” curving up really adds to the “fluff”. Imagine him running his hands through his hair to style it! ALSO pay attention to the the fact that his hair grows like… out of his scalp and a little out of his neck. I see SO many drawings of kiri where none of his neck is covered up by his hair from the front or ¾ view.

Finally, I STRONGLY advise against giving him a real hair part because 1) he doesnt have one 2) it looks bad! it looks so bad!! dont do this!!!

it looks so fucking bad i’m beggin y’all stop it kills me every time i see it

#art tutorial #kirishima eijirou #eijirou kirishima #how to draw kirishimas hair #hair tutorial #my art #Anonymous

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usuigoi · 5 years ago

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it's about time i do this hehe

meet astoria clover, my cradlesona! special thanks to @lovingsiriusoswald for the template owo

“do you want to go higher than ever before?”

route: seth hyde

timeline: three years after alice II

nickname: give her one and she'll end you ;)

birthday: 15/05 (taurus sun, aries moon, gemini venus, sag rising)

age: 23

height: 171cm

blood type: AB+

¤¤

eyes: dark brown and narrow

hair: dark brown to black, set in a bob with bangs

accessories: doesn't wear em unless it's important

features: beauty mark on the bottom right of her chin, huge forehead (mention that and she'll end you too)

illnesses: none, actually; her parents have been taking very good care of her

♡♡

affiliation: black army

occupation: (LOR + Cradle) astronomer

relationships (quite condensed since i don't want long stuff):

- jonah clemence: slightly mad at her because of her father, and stayed like that for months on end until an event happened that made him change his mind

- ray blackwell: agreed to keep astoria in since she fell down; one of the recepients of her constant nerding (also enjoys reading books with her)

- fenrir godspeed: helped astoria adjust to cradle life and helped her with her performance arts studies

- lancelot kingsley: witnessed her magic when they first met; one of the only people to know of her lineage. they're just chill as months pass

- dalim tweedle: astoria often visits his bar whenever she's free and in need of some unwinding (just a glass of vodka u Fools); she shows her latest creations to him first

- mousse atlas: the atlases are close to the clovers so by the time they first met, mousse could point out the classic clover look from her; cuddle times, usually (pre-seth)

- oliver knight: usually helps her with creating new instruments in his free time

- seth hyde: seth fell for her three months in; astoria four months later. they have this really sweet/hoo boy it's hot in here kind of relationship, mostly coming from astoria's bold attitude

personality: she may not be outgoing or enthusiastic much, but she's quite bold and assertive. she has a rebellious streak and isn't afraid to try things that aren't society's definition of normal (her music style usually shows that). constantly talks to herself to organise her mind.

she can come off as really rude at times because she tends to be frank and blunt. try not to make her or any of her friends mad, unless you want to get a long rebuttal from her. constantly fights for her rights and can sometimes defy authority as a result.

on the other hand, she has a mother's instinct, which means that if anyone's having a bad time, it won't even be six milliseconds till she sits them on a comfortable place and becomes their confidante. always strives to be the best person she can be.

(p.s. she can be quite provocative and seductive, too---part of her bold nature. keeps seth on his toes. always makes fenrir crack up. makes luka as red as a tomato. earns a facepalm from sirius.)

family and history: astoria's father, winston clover, is the eldest in the family and next-in-line for the position of 9 of hearts. he's an intelligent guy, yes, yet has the heart of a pacifist and cannot stand the idea of war. so when astoria was just six months old, she and her family went to the land of reason to escape the war. she lived peacefully with her older sister, ioanna.

turns out escaping to the land of reason did wonders for her.

she's the only magic-wielder in her family in 600 years, a thing that they didn't know of until she accidentally vaporised a vase in their sitting room. only one other person in the house of clovers possessed that ability.

her first day in cradle was met with atrocity---jonah clemence immediately recognised the clover insignia from her bow and almost took her away for questioning, until oliver came to the rescue. second day didn't go as well, either. her magic manifested since coming here, sending signals to both armies.

skills / special abilities: -inborn magic; has medium stamina

- trained in fencing for a year before stopping

- penchance for dancing and singing

paired with: seth hyde

life in cradle: if she isn't doing errands for the black army, she can be found in cradle's observatory, hidden in the red territory, managed by her cousin ioanna clover. every other day she visits the house of clovers, and catches up with her extended family. (jonah reluctantly lets her in.)

#cradlesona #ikerev #playlist coming soon

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zerolympiustrife · 5 years ago

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Favorite video games of all time?

Get ready for a LONG post, folks! However…allow me to break this down to my three favorite video game genres: Fighting games, RPGs/JRPGs, and Platformers/Action Platformers (both 2D and 3D). However! Since I feel like these posts are gonna take MUCH longer than I thought it would, I’m just gonna divide the genres into separate posts. But for now, let’s stick with the…

FIGHTING GAMES!:

Dragon Ball FighterZ: My number one favorite (traditional) fighting game of all time. My favorite ArcSys game of all time. My favorite Dragon Ball game of all time. This game is the reason how I got into the Dragon Ball franchise back when I’ve had to little to NO interest in the franchise, even when I’ve watched the ENTIRE Namek saga from the original anime back in 2009. The game’s GORGEOUS art style, every character animation’s (such as specials, supers, intros, victory poses, and ESPECIALLY the Dramatic Finishes) faithfulness to the original manga AND anime of Dragon Ball Z and other DB properties (such as GT and Super), the AWESOME soundtrack (courtesy of ArcSys theirselves, who’re known for awesome music in their games), the 3v3 gameplay, the character roster (though I’ll admit that having five Gokus and Three Vegetas is rather silly), having a new character design by DB creator Akira Toriyama himself, and lastly, being a breath of fresh air to those new to the fighting game genre (since the genre itself is notorious for its high learning curves) AND to Dragon Ball fans who were sick and tired of having the story of DBZ recapped over and over and over AND OVER AGAIN is a fucking sight to behold. This game FUCKING RULES (and a million times better than MvC:I). However, I wouldn’t call it perfect. I’ll admit that the Story Mode is rather lackluster, Arcade Mode is rather lacking, the Shop is completely randomized, and the Online Mode, much like every other fighting game, suffers from lag, spammable players, or just outright ragequitters. That, and the fact that, unlike MvC3 and BB:CTB, every character assist only sticks to ONE attack (meaning that more than one character is gonna have a Kamehameha assist), and that MOST PLAYERS you’re gonna run into is gonna main the likes of Cell (who ENJOYS dragging out combos for as long as possible), Adult Gohan (like Cell, also drags out long combos), and Vegeta (Super Saiyan, because of his assist. Need I say more?). But aside from those flaws, it is hands down the BEST fighting game I’ve ever played, next to…well, below.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate: My number one favorite (unique) fighting game of all time. My favorite Nintendo game of all time. Series creator Masahiro Sakurai is a man that I’d like to describe as…well, not only doing the impossible and HIGHLY respected, but also putting those filthy naysayers about certain characters in their place. The fact that the whole point of Smash Ultimate was to include EVERY SINGLE CHARACTER FROM SMASH 64 TO SMASH 4 (Wii U and 3DS), INCLUDING EVERY THIRD-PARTY CHARACTERS DESPITE THE LICENSING AND DEVELOPMENT ISSUES THIS WOULD CAUSE is another sight to behold. FUCK Melee, THIS is hands-down the best Smash game of all time! The inclusion of Spirits, the Adventure Mode, the Boss battles, the gameplay, the kind of chicanery you can pull, the game’s main theme “Lifelight”, the roster, the soundtrack…there’s just ALOT about this game that I just fucking adore. What can you make folks more hyped about this game? Oh, I don’t know…why not shock everybody with JOKER (from Persona 5) AND BANJO & KAZOOIE (who’s still owned by Microsoft) being in the game. What I love about Smash Bros is how Sakurai is just outright defies those say certain characters can’t appear in the series for silliest (or justifiable) reasons. Cloud can’t be in Smash because his game was never released on a Nintendo console until 2019? No problem! Ridley’s too big therefore he can’t be playable? Fuck that! Banjo & Kazooie can’t be in Smash because they’re owned by Microsoft of the Xbox brand? It’s fine! Why? “Because I AM HERE!” -Banjo (JK, but seriously, the fact that Banjo’s in was quite a surprise.) Smash 4 is the reason how I got into Final Fantasy VII, and I hold the entire Smash series in high regard for doing so. Goddamn, do I love this franchise! But! Again, it’s not perfect. The Online Mode is MUCH worse than DBFighterZ (to the point where you’re more than likely to end up in a battle with Items TURNED ON or stages with distracting hazards, OR end up fighting the SAME fucking characters I hate fighting against, such as Little Mac, Falco, Inkling, Incineroar, etc.), and that fighting against EVERY single spirit in the Adventure Mode to get 100% can get rather tiring (not to mention that you gotta get BOTH bad endings from fighting Galeem solo AND Dharkon solo), lack of additional content upon release (Stage Builder and Home-Run Content weren’t even implemented into the game at first), and lastly (although these two complaints are one of more personal matter and one towards Square Enix), the fact Zero from Mega Man X, my favorite video game character is ASSIST character instead of a playable was really heartbreaking to see (but hey, I’m not complaining TOO much since I enjoy interacting with him in my free time in Training), and lastly, the fact that Cloud, and to high extent, Final Fantasy VII AND the FF franchise as a whole has LITTLE TO NO representation in this game whatsoever (again, I feel like this was more of SE’s fault than Sakurai’s). No spirits, no “Fighter Spirit” artwork from the original FFVII, no Assist characters, not being dubbed in English AGAIN (though this was more of a contract issue with SE), no additional music on Midgar, NOTHING. But, nonetheless…this game is fucking awesome.

Blazblue: Cross Tag Battle: Ahahahahaha! Ah…Oh, Blazblue…I love this franchise oh-so much, but the fact that it hasn’t received the same treatment as Guilty Gear lately (not to mention the mainstream Blazblue games, aka the C-series, has pretty much came to an end) is a rather sad sight to see…depression aside, I love Blazblue. I REALLY do! I love the characters, I love the stages, I love the music, the story is confusing as FUCK, but it’s a fighting game franchise I’ve discovered WAY back 2012 and I still love to this day, even more so than Guilty Gear (don’t @ me). So…what to do now? Could there perhaps be another Blazblue game? A game that just so happens to be a crossover? One just as awesome as Smash Bros? Ooh! How about…PERSONA 4?!? UNDER NIGHT IN-BIRTH?!? A FRANCHISE THAT, LIKE DRAGON BALL AND FFVII, I’VE HAD NO INTEREST IN UP UNTIL 2018 (aka RWBY)?!? AAAAAAAAAAAAAA- Fangasm aside, the fact that this game even EXISTS is an achievement in its own right. As stated before, this game is the reason how I got into RWBY. What I really love and adore about the game are the interactions among the characters. That, and I was SO HAPPY to hear that the game would be dubbed in English, after GG:Xrd Revelator and BB: Central Fiction lacked a dub. I was not only excited to hear the likes of Ragna, Noel, and Hazama voiced in English again, but I was also happy to hear that any characters who’ve never been dubbed in English in the past (characters from UNIB, newcomers in BB:CF, etc.) would be dubbed in English as well. Hell, the fact that the characters from both Blazblue AND Persona 4 (two franchises/games I really love) being in the EXACT same game together was enough to make me be all like “Shut up, and take my money!”, considering how crazy excited I was in the past to see them interacting with one another via fanart and fanfiction (thanks to the Persona 4 Arena games being developed by ArcSys). And if you thought having only THOSE four franchises in the game was enough, you’d be wrong! Here’s Arcana Heart! Here’s Senran Kagura! Here’s a FIFTH character from RWBY: Neo Politan! This game, much like DBFZ and Smash Ultimate, is awesome. However, complaints I do have towards the game are the Online Mode (although the chibi interactions are cute and adorable and I will praise the Online Mode for that, and ONLY THAT), Gordeau from UNIB is still a problem, the rest of the half of the roster is entirely DLC, lack of additional content upon release, the control scheme is WAY too simplistic (even moreso than DBFZ), and lastly, while I love the sprites ArcSys did for RWBY, the reused sprites from Blazblue, Persona 4 Arena, and UNIB is also a complaint I have (but a minor one, mind you. They could’ve just easily redone the sprites specifically for this game, but…no). And while this game isn’t exactly in my top two favorite fighting games, it’s definitely in my top THREE. Also, I have yet to actually to play the Story Mode of this game, but I haven’t yet, therefore, I hold no opinion on the story as of currently. Marvel vs Capcom-styled traditional fighting games are hands-down, my go-to preference for traditional fighters.

Dissidia (and Dissidia 012): Final Fantasy: Forget Dissidia NT, THIS game (mostly Dissidia 012) is what an awesome 3D Action Fighting game is about! Much like how Smash Ultimate’s a unique fighting game (a Platform Fighter), this game is also a unique type of fighting game, possessing RPG elements and just having a blast with its awesome combat system. Cloud and Sephiroth were just so much fun to play as, with Terra, Squall, and WoL being my other favorite characters in this awesome game. This game is also essentially a HUGE homage to Final Fantasy as whole. From the ongoing conflicts between Cosmos and Chaos, to MULTIPLE references to the character’s original games, to additional modes that involve unlocking the likes of Gilgamesh from FFV, or fighting against the most frustrating secret final boss I’ve ever had the displeasure of fighting against (Feral Chaos), these games are awesome! Also, the reason why I’m addressing both games as a single installment here is because technically, while Dissidia 012 IS a prequel, it pretty has the same content (no, scratch that, MORE content) from the first Dissidia game and it’s pretty much an updated…well, not a “port”, per say, more like an enhanced re-release, much like Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 or any of the Blazblue EXTEND re-releases. However, complaints I have for Dissidia is that certain characters are annoying to fight against (such as Jecht, FUCK that character), the RPG system takes a while to build up until your favorite characters are FINALLY at Level 100, trying to get the rarest Equipment is rather difficult, and lastly, the action commands for certain character’s EX Bursts can be retooled for the sake of a proper fighting game, but then again, Dissidia ain’t a “traditional” fighting game. But aside from that, not only is this my favorite Action RPG/Fighting game of all time, but this is also my favorite Final Fantasy Spin-Off of all time.

Tatsunoko vs Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars: What’s that? You were expecting a Marvel vs Capcom game to be on this list, let alone my top 5? Too bad! It’s Tatsunoko, baby! This one definitely holds a spot in my heart as this game stands as my number one favorite “Capcom vs Whatever” game of all time (yes, even moreso than Marvel vs Capcom itself OR any of the SNK vs Capcom games, don’t @ me). I love this game. I love its soundtrack (ESPECIALLY its main theme, “Across the Border”), I love the roster (despite being small), I love the final boss of the Arcade Mode (Yami, from Capcom’s Okami), and I love the gameplay. My complaints goes towards the lack of additional content outside of Arcade and the Gallery (although the top-down shooter minigame is rather fun), and, as stated before, small roster. But other than that, this game was really fun to play.

OTHER FAVORITE FIGHTING GAMES:

Sonic Battle, Persona 4 Arena Ultimax, Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3, SvC: Chaos, and Blazblue: Chrono Phantasma.

Coming up next: My favorite RPGs/JPRGs!

#fighting games #dragon ball fighterz #super smash bros ultimate #blazblue cross tag battle #dissidia final fantasy #tatsunoko vs capcom

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baneofloslorien5384 · 6 years ago

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A (hopefully) Unique Robcina Headcanon

As some of you may be aware, I am very much a fan of the M!RobinxLucina pairing from Fire Emblem Awakening. Have been since I was reading spoilers in fanfics before I even played the game. Bad Bane, bad! Anyhow, I’ve seen Robcina fics in all shapes and sizes, but one factor that’s largely absent is this: how would things be affected if Lucina’s present day counterpart, the one who’s born just before your first brouhaha with Valm, knows and understands just who her counterpart from the future is? Well, here is my interpretation. Enjoy!

- At times, living with her younger self could prove quite confounding when Lucina tries to say…well, anything, really. For instance, when regarding her then-infant younger self, she would start by saying “Isn’t she” and then fumble before beginning again by saying “I mean, me, adorable?”.

- Robin, who’s never one to let such an opportunity for a good laugh go to waste, slyly replies “Yes, you really are cute, Lucina”. This prompts the older Lucina to blush adorably and run out of the room in embarrassment, all the while trying to convince herself that her younger self giggling is just a mildly sinister coincidence.

- Robin, who’s much easier to slap with a “Guilty” verdict, then slips Little Lucina a cup of tasty fruit juice, saying “Here’s my end of the deal”.

- Lucina is not the only one to end up confounded when talking about this subject. When Robin encourages Lucina to spend time with her younger self, he gets discombobulated in midsentence as he splutters out “You were…are…is…a cute kid?”.

- Following the end of the Valmese War, when the Shepherds regrouped at Ylisse prior to heading to Plegia, Lucina was more-or-less gang pressed into spending time with her younger self. Eerily, Little Lucina did not seem at all nervous when confronted with a stranger and even seemed to get fussy if Lucina tried to leave the room while Little Lucina was still awake.

- As Lucina has stated several times, her original plan is to leave Ylisse once Grima is vanquished. This goal becomes increasingly difficult to follow-through on as she falls in love with Robin and reconnects with her parents, but hints are dropped that she still intends to go through with it.

- Though Robin would resign from the Shepherds in a heartbeat if he had to choose between that and Lucina, he rather dislikes having to make such a choice at all, especially since he can see how kinda-sorta having her family back has helped Lucina to open up and become happier.

- Deciding that this dilemma calls for not the tipping of the scales, but for the scales to be tipped over and smashed into itty bitty pieces, Robin goes to Chrom, tells him of the situation, and suggests that the Exalt “do something ham-fisted”.

- Chrom apparently obliges…and handily. For, within days, the story of the Warriors from the Future leaks out. With the public now aware of Big Lucina’s true origins, which are backed up by her Brand and the existence of a second Falchion, her plans to leave are rendered utterly pointless.

- After Lucina shoots Robin and Chrom any array of blistering and yet strangely ineffective death glares, she resigns herself to her secret being out and ponders how her life will proceed from here. Ultimately, she takes the post of Captain of the Castle Guard (to be clear, Frederick is Chrom and the royal family’s personal bodyguard…slash-unofficial-butler, while Lucina handles the security of the castle) while Robin becomes Chrom’s chief advisor.

- As Little Lucina grows from a baby to a toddler, she picks up on Big Lucina’s true identity with downright creepy speed, and promptly develops a unique blend of hero worship and self-aggrandizing.

- Ascribing to the, technically correct, belief that the two of them are the same person, Little Lucina greets Big Lucina by saying “Hello, Me”. Big Lucina, who just can’t ignore that particular bait, replies “You are not me and I am not you. You are you, and I am me”.

- Little Lucina, who still isn’t deterred after, literally, hearing this at least once a day, minimum, always answers “You were me, and I will be you”.

- Considering how much Big Lucina does NOT want Little Lucina growing up like she did, combined with her tendency to take things too literally, Big Lucina finds this assertion annoying at best and outright alarming at worst.

- For a time, Big Lucina was kept much too busy to agonize over her younger self’s unique quest for an identity, given that she now had to police the castle on top of being a good wife to Robin and a good mother to Morgan.

- Of course, even that doesn’t go off without a hitch since, when Lucina is fitted with new armor to denote her rank, Robin’s belting out “HOLY CRAAAAAAP!!!!” is heard echoing through the castle, causing everyone who can fight to come running…only to discover Robin’s amazement that Lucina isn’t flat after all, but wore bindings over her chest to make her masculine disguise more convincing.

- In a rare show of volatile temper, Lucina loses it and, in order to get back into her good graces, Robin must brave the direst of perils, venture into the darkest depths, and steel his nerves against abominations that defy explanation even as they turn the stomach and scar the soul…by which, I mean he has to go to the boutique and splurge on the clothing that Lucina prefers.

- After getting over the sheer weirdness of there being two Princess Lucinas, one of which is supervising her own home security, the castle guard grows quite fond of their unlikely captain, even following her unspoken orders to treat her like their captain rather than their princess.

- During one particularly memorable instance, Big Lucina was marching through the castle on an inspection of the guard and the castle’s defenses, straight and brisk, hand on hilt, shoulders squared, and back straight. Much to her surprise, she realizes that everyone was snickering at her when they thought she was out of earshot. Only after nearly an hour did Big Lucina realize that this was because Little Lucina was marching alongside her, mimicking her marching style flawlessly.

- Robin treats Little Lucina much the same way as he, later, treats Little Morgan. That is, like a daughter or a favorite niece. When Big Lucina was elsewhere, and Chrom and Sumia were busy, Robin would read stories to Little Lucina, play Hide-and-Seek with her, and such.

- At first, Robin is bewildered that Big Lucina seems so alarmed by these seemingly harmless moments…until he realizes that Big Lucina and Little Lucina have a very important commonality: both of them grew up having a crush on Robin.

- This is illustrated by, for example, Robin taking a day off to have a family picnic with Big Lucina, only for Little Lucina to snatch his hand and ask him to play with her. This leads to a tug-a-war between the two Lucinas while Robin contemplates the existential weirdness of not only having the same woman on either arm but the impact that a nigh-literal duplicate of oneself can have upon one’s sense of uniqueness in the universe…okay, he instead contemplates how many terrible puns he can make about “having arguments with yourself” he can milk out of this situation. So, sue me!

- Though Robin never, EVER passes up the chance to rile up Chrom after he becomes the world’s youngest grandpa, his ability to be mean is actually rather limited. Thus, he is constantly hard pressed to do anything other than melt submissively in the face of Little Lucina’s adorable smile and ten syllable version of the word “Please”.

- The matter is not helped when Little Lucina decides that, since she and Big Lucina are technically the same person, that that makes Robin THEIR husband. Being the softy that he is, Robin does too little to disabuse her of the notion whereas Big Lucina, upon hearing Little Lucina ask that Robin address her as “my little bluebird” (Robin’s nickname to Big Lucina), straight up loses it.

- Robin has to talk fast, and mightily strain his thinking muscles, in order to convince Big Lucina that he isn’t going to trade her in for a younger model somewhere down the line. And, though she eventually comes around, tensions between her and Little Lucina persist.

- Morgan, being Morgan, merrily pours gas on this particular bonfire by greeting Little Lucina with “Hi, Mom!” And Little Lucina, not to be outdone, replies by saying “When I grow up, I’m going to have you!”

- Robin then makes the truly grave mistake of dissecting that particular statement. If he were to abandon all sense of fidelity, morality, decency, common sense, self-preservation, and proper hero archetypes, and did, in fact, have a baby with Little Lucina, then would that child essentially be a third Morgan? For that matter, when Little Lucina does grow up and marry (hopefully) someone else and have children, then would those children be half-siblings to Morgan and…Morgan? And, just how would that look on a genealogy chart? Would Big Lucina and Little Lucina share an entry line they’re technically the same person? If so, how would the genealogist get across that these are two ladies from different points in time rather than one woman with two husbands? How could the genealogist illustrate that Big Lucina’s children and Little Lucina’s children are half-siblings, assuming that’s the case. And…and Robin decides he could really use a drink right about now.

- Despite Morgan’s insistence on addressing Little Lucina as “Mom” whenever she thinks it’s funny, she typically treats her more like a little sister or a favorite niece and the two become fast friends. Later, Morgan begins instructing Little Lucina in the fine art of pranking.

- As Little Lucina is still quite young, most of these pranks involve myriad ways to get out of taking her afternoon naps. These include, but are not limited to, arranging stuffed animals beneath the sheets to create the appearance that she’s under the covers, mixing up smoke bombs to distract the guards, setting up buckets of round nuts to trip people up, ropes and pulleys arranged to bury entire rooms in flower petals, and other brain aneurysm-inducing nonsense.

- Big Lucina, who’s near to a tantrum over these shenanigans, adamantly and hotly insists that she was nothing like that as a child and takes Morgan to task for meddling with the “purity” of her younger self.

- Morgan, characteristically, begins to gush about how maternal Big Lucina sounds when giving a scolding, which causes Big Lucina to relent a little…until Morgan tells her that Little Lucina is a “brilliant prodigy of pranking who comes up with brilliant pranks”, and that nearly all of Little Lucina’s shenanigans were ones she thought of herself. At this, Big Lucina loses it and lets out one of those she-could-break-glass screams, which has Chrom and half the castle guard breaking down her door before they realize it’s a false alarm.

- A horrified castle functionary (i.e. useless bureaucrat) then sees the damage and, after a long moment of abject horror, says that that door was over six hundred years old. This triggers an amusing, and irreverent, discussion about just who the hell keeps track of those sorts of things.

- Robin, being Robin, is about to throw his bit of gasoline on the bonfire by saying that Big Lucina puts a whole new spin on the phrase “you’re too hard on yourself”. When he notices that Big Lucina looks like she’ll dismember and eat him alive if he tries it, he instead asks if she’d like a trip to the Bathrealm.

- Although Little Lucina’s prankishness tapers off enough that the castle is not poised to explode, her nursemaids and governesses, even years later, will insist that Morgan and Little Lucina’s pranks were the stuff of legends. And that they have the gastric ulcers to prove it.

- Given that Robin has dodged many of Morgan’s pitfalls and snares, sometimes by tricking her into setting them off herself, it’s no surprise that Robin is sometimes called in to diffuse suspected traps set by Morgan and Little Lucina.

- Since Morgan is well aware that Robin is her toughest quarry to prank, she, Little Lucina, and sometimes Lissa and Big Cynthia as well, will sometimes arrange massive arrays of double-bluffs. Or triple-bluffs, quadruple-bluffs, quintuple-bluffs, sextuple-bluffs (and, yes, that’s a real word), etc.

- In these instances, lots and lots and lots of pitfalls, snares, etc. would be laid out in the hopes that Robin, in his efforts to avoid as many of them as he could, would get got simply by virtue of the law of averages. Remarkably, this strategy did not work…because other people, including the pranksters themselves, got caught in them before Robin even arrived. This explains the forest of people dangling by their ankles all pointing, in a very disgruntled manner, in Morgan’s general direction. It also explains the cardiac arrythmia Frederick has at such hazardous untidiness and the urge Chrom has to buy a wyvern when people start complaining to him about his granddaughter.

- Curiously, Morgan hardly ever pranks Big Lucina, partly because Big Lucina is quick to learn the fine art of maternal scolding and partly because, due to Morgan’s memories of Big Lucina being so fractured and hazy, Morgan is worried about turning what memories she does have of her mother into bad ones. Little Lucina, by contrast, will prank Big Lucina at the drop of a hat, usually to get her older counterpart to loosen up and have fun. As with more than a few convoluted concepts, Big Lucina finds this quite baffling.

- At some point, either consciously or otherwise, Big Lucina finds herself laughing at Little Lucina’s shenanigans, prompting the latter to, literally, jump for joy and give Big Lucina an impressive tackle hug. Knowing her original plan to leave Little Lucina to live her own life, and that staying with her is throwing that life out of whack, but also knowing she’d long since stopped wanted to leave her younger self, Lucina says aloud “Sometimes, I just don’t understand myself.”

- Robin, being Robin, gets a kick out of this choice of words and, since seeing Big Lucina smile is one of his greatest, and hardest fought, pleasures in life, promptly adds Little Lucina to his arsenal of “secret weapons”.

- Big Lucina, who we already know is quite capable of envying herself, gradually finds it becoming harder and harder to watch her younger self have the childhood she lost, from such things as Chrom reading Little Lucina a story to Sumia giving her a simple run down of how to bake. Big Lucina’s own recollections of these are few, distant, and tarnished since, even back then, Grima was known to be lurking on the horizon. Watching Little Lucina live the life Big Lucina wanted her to live thus, paradoxically, heals one old wound and creates a new one for Big Lucina.

- Jealousy, in this case, works both ways, as Little Lucina clearly sees that Robin doesn’t look at her the way he looks at Big Lucina. And, this is further accentuated by Big Lucina being bigger, stronger, and prettier than Little Lucina.

- Though Chrom is definitely not as bright as Robin, he’s no dolt. He can clearly sense that something is very wrong with his daughter…his two daughters…his two Lucinas…whatever. And, having about as much subtlety as Ike when someone is serving vegan cuisine, he decides upon a ham-fisted intervention (i.e. tricking them into going the same room, locking them in, and waiting until they make up before letting them back out).

- After a rather lengthy period of trying to break the door down, yelling at each other, and then ignoring each other, the ice begins to crack. Eventually, recalling her chat with Severa at the Bathrealm, Big Lucina tells Little Lucina her reasons for not wanting her to grow up the same way Big Lucina did. ALL of them.

- Hearing that Big Lucina’s being such a strong warrior came at the cost of her parents, her home, and most of her countrymen, Little Lucina is able to put much of Big Lucina’s reactions into context. The two also have a more civilized conversation about their reasons for envying each other.

- Little Lucina, quite possibly recalling something she overheard between Big Lucina and Robin (or even acting on something Robin told her) tells her that she knows Big Lucina is just as welcome to spend time with her…their…whatever…parents as Little Lucina is. She even relays how proud Chrom is of how strong and brave Big Lucina is, and how much Sumia’s face lit up when Big Lucina was cooing over a Pegasus foal.

- One thing that astonishes Little Lucina is that Big Lucina envies the former’s time with her tutors. Being a little kid, Little Lucina finds this utterly incomprehensible…until Big Lucina admits that her own education (reading, writing, maths, dancing, etiquette, etc.) was cut short by the rise of Grima. Indeed, Big Lucina can barely read and hasn’t written since before her parents’ deaths. This resonates with Little Lucina, since she loves reading, not-so-coincidentally because it’s one of her favorite pastimes with Chrom and Robin (she might leave out that second one).

- Little Lucina, in turn, admits that even though she’s happy enough being a princess and all that entails, she wants to be strong enough to keep her people safe, especially her family, which is something Big Lucina can’t readily ignore.

- Ultimately, the two reach an accord: Big Lucina will teach Little Lucina how to fight and Little Lucina will teach Big Lucina the same lessons Little Lucina herself is learning from her tutors.

- After Chrom the Ham-Fisted lets them out, it quickly becomes apparent that the two have reconciled their differences. In one particular instance, Little Lucina, upon hearing that Big Lucina wanted to learn how to dance in time for her and Robin’s wedding anniversary, decides to teach Big Lucina the waltz. Given the height differences, however, some…out-of-the-box teaching techniques were called for.

- By that same token, Big Lucina allowed Little Lucina to accompany her on her inspections in order to learn the layout of the castle, as well as the names and faces of the guards, since a would-be intruder just might be wearing the same armor as them.

- Though Robin didn’t say anything, it wasn’t hard for him to guess that Big Lucina could barely read. He did, however, step in it when he discovered, the hard way, that Big Lucina’s handwriting hadn’t changed much from her childhood dabblings, right down to how she used the Brand of the Exalt to dot the i in her name. When he saw some of Big Lucina’s attempts to write out some “homework”, he assumed that the author was Little Lucina…which led to some awkwardness.

- At both Robin and Little Lucina’s insistence, Big Lucina puts her penmanship lessons into practice by writing letters to Robin that he can read when he’s busy and/or away. She would tell him about her day, ask how he’s been, and, somewhat unconsciously, allow a clearer view into her thoughts and feelings than most are likely to get from her in-person.

- BIg Lucina’s handwriting improves quickly and, although Robin sometimes misses the cuteness of his wife’s childlike handwriting, he does manage to talk her into continuing to dot the i in her name with the Brand.

- As Big Lucina’s reading improves, she, Robin, and Morgan make a point of reading together late at night. When Little Morgan comes along, Big Lucina is seemingly chomping at the bit to read the baby a story before bed.

- Robin, who discovered how exploitable time travel is for those fond of puns, would often use this to jerk around certain people, such as Both Lucinas’ governess and/or Chrom. For example, when asked where Lucina was, Robin would answer “She’s playing with herself”. This would prompt a mad dash to quash lewd and lascivious behavior unbecoming of a princess…only to discover that Big Lucina and Little Lucina are playing chess. This, in turn, led to a mad dash after Robin, who hadn’t counted on his pursuer(s) having ready access to hammers.

- As a new family tradition to underscore that Big Lucina is considered as much a part of the Ylissean royal family as Little Lucina, Chrom and/or Robin (there’s an ongoing debate about which of them came up with the idea first) have the two Lucinas celebrate their birthdays on the same day, right down to sharing a big cake with ‘Happy Birthday LucinaS’ written on it in icing and with the two Lucinas trying – sometimes successfully, sometimes not – to cut their respective first slices in unison.

- Although the gifts for each Lucina underscore how the two are similar and yet different, such as Big Lucina getting an eye-melting yukata while Little Lucina gets a similarly hideous hair ribbon, someone (usually Robin) sometimes gets them matching jewelry or other accessories.

- The two Lucinas also get gifts for each other. In one particularly cute instance, Big Lucina got Little Lucina a rare first edition of the chronicles of the Hero King Marth’s exploits while Little Lucina got Big Lucina an exact duplicate of the butterfly mask she wore while traveling as Marth.

- As the years go by, Big Lucina and Little Lucina begin to develop more divergent personalities. Big Lucina’s fashion sense is still atrocious whereas Little Lucina’s taste in clothing is much more normal…but she compensates by being fond of terribly gaudy accessories, such as hair ribbons with zebra patterns and jeweled hairpins which are bright enough to act as a substitute for flash grenades. Further, while Big Lucina can sometimes be tightly wound and over-serious, Little Lucina seems able to move from decorous to rambunctious in a heartbeat.

- Although Big Lucina does not want to rule Ylisse, as she believes that to be Little Lucina’s right, she reluctantly consents to being named third in line for the throne, in the event that Chrom, Sumia, Little Lucina, and Little Cynthia all predecease her.

- When Big Lucina becomes pregnant with Little Morgan, Little Lucina is delighted. Although by then she no longer considers Little Morgan her daughter simply by virtue of her and Big Lucina being “the same person”, she is nonetheless keen to help her older self.

- Aside from reining in Sumia, who’s a little too excited at her and Big Lucina being pregnant together, Little Lucina is keen to make sure Big Lucina gets her bed rest, helps read to the unborn baby, and generally proving weirdly effective as a pregnancy coach.

- In as much as health permits, Big Lucina continues her duties as Captain of the Castle Guard during her pregnancy…I mean, come on, can you picture Owain doing it? Or Cynthia? Or Noire? Or Brady? Or…well, suffice to say, none of the future children are management material.

- Eventually, swollen ankles force Big Lucina to stop her regular patrols. That and some found her hard to take seriously when she was squeezing a baby bump under her armor. At that point, she not-so-voluntarily assumed the administrative duties of her post while the actual patrolling, inspections, and drills were divvied up between Big Morgan and Little Lucina.

- At some point into the pregnancy, Little Lucina, and the Big Lucina, sense that Big Morgan, despite putting on airs, is somewhat leery at the prospect of her younger self’s birth. Deciding to play the Big Sister…I mean Mother…I mean…I don’t know what I mean, but Little Lucina tries to talk to Big Morgan, ultimately gleaning that Big Morgan is worried that she’ll be replaced by Little Morgan.

- After pushing Big Morgan to talk to Big Lucina about her problems, Big Lucina gets some good practice in helping to reassure a child who is in distress. In fact, Big Lucina is uniquely qualified to deal with Big Morgan’s fear of being replaced by…well, herself. Chrom and Sumia promptly join in and, between the three of them, relay some of their interactions and how, when they sensed how out of place Big Lucina felt in this timeline, they MADE a place for her.

- When Little Morgan is born, Big Morgan and Little Lucina are tripping over each other, and/or tripping each other, to get in the queue to hold her.

- Even though Little Lucina knows she’s much too young to have much of a shot at being Little Morgan’s godsmother, she says she’ll so be in the running once Robin and Big Lucina have a few more kids. Proving that at least some of her impishness is here to stay, she times this assertion to coincide with Robin and Big Lucina taking a long pull of their drinks.

- Aside from pranking others, Big Morgan tries to teach Little Lucina a variety of other bad habits, including Taguel torture, dressing like Big Lucina, circularly dramatic speech (i.e. “My Super Genius Plan of Genius Planning!”) and eating like a starving wolf…in terms of both quantity of food eaten and table manners.

- Most of these “lessons” don’t take. Little Lucina likes rabbits too much to pull on Yarne’s ears (and certainly knows better than to pull Panne’s), prefers to melt people’s eyes with her accessories rather than her clothes, can talk dramatically but not circularly enough, and nyxs the eating bit because, though she’s not above messiness, Big Morgan’s brand is a bit much and she also learns, the hard way, that she shares neither Big Morgan’s immunity to stomachaches nor her imperviousness to sudden upticks in dress size.

- Though Little Lucina will always have a soft spot in her heart for Robin, she does eventually get over her crush. She does, however, insist that, when she does find someone she loves, that Robin and Big Lucina will come to the wedding. Naturally, there are no objections.

- Little Lucina does, eventually, fall in love with Raphael, the Prince of Warriors.

- Who is Raphael, the Prince of Warriors, you ask? He is one of the sons of Priam and Say’ri. In fact, Robin, the two Lucinas, and several veterans of the Shepherds visited Chon’sin to celebrate his birth.

- Some were startled when Big Lucina, upon seeing then-baby Raphael suddenly seemed quite overcome and then left the room, crying uncontrollably. Though it was well known that Big Lucina adored babies, not the smallest reason being how rare they were in her timeline, even those who knew her best thought her reaction a bit extreme.

- Robin, being Robin, managed to track her down and get the truth out of her. Much to Robin’s amazement, Big Lucina reported that she’d actually met Priam in the future, as she and the other children were making their escape to the past. Though Priam proved a valiant warrior, and was instrumental in their escape, she distinctly remembered how melancholy he was, as he knew his time was ending and that there were none to inherit Ragnell or to carry on the legacy of the Radiant Hero. Seeing Priam, married and with children, acted as a particularly overwhelming sign that she truly had changed history for the better.

- Robin, being Robin, took the opportunity to tease Big Lucina about how much of a sentimental softy she could be…which must’ve been especially galling since Big Lucina actually resorted to inviting the ever-present Tharja to join their little chat.

- Though Little Lucina loves lording her Little Lord role over the other younger counterparts to the children from the future, perhaps developing a liking for telling people what to do like her father, Robin, and Big Lucina, people begin to notice that Raphael is much harder to boss around.

- Aside from being born handsome, enough so that Little Lucina sometimes has a hard time keeping her words straight when talking to him, Raphael is an independent thinker who is not impressed by fancy titles, honorifics, or pretty words. Raphael, much like his father, respects strength and bravery, but he also respects wisdom and conviction, owing to his mother.

- Though copious translation was needed, Miriel and Laurent posited the theory that, although Little Lucina was becoming her own person rather than considering herself to be nigh-predestined to become a second Big Lucina, she did retain the subconscious psychological belief that there would be a certain area of overlap, namely that Little Lucina would also be judged worthy of respect and deference by all who knew her. Robin had a much simpler explanation: Little Lucina had a crush on Raphael, and was galled at how he seemed to find her unimpressive.

- Little Lucina, rather like Big Lucina, is not one to take such sleights lightly. Sensing that getting Raphael’s respect is best done with feats of strength, Little Lucina makes several attempts to prove that she can play with the big boys.

- In doing so, Little Lucina learns, the hard way, that it’s hard for a young woman to develop Ike-esque biceps. Later, much like Big Lucina did in her still-wanting-for-a-proper-explanation fight with Chrom in Arena Ferox, Little Lucina learns that fighting strength-for-strength against someone who’s much, MUCH stronger than you tends to end badly.

- Much like Big Lucina did, Little Lucina decides that, in order to overcome this aggravation, she needs to evolve. She studies many fighting styles, including several Chon’sinese styles, and devises her own fighting style which can be adapted to numerous opponents and tactical situations.

- Little Lucina was eager to use these new talents to put Raphael in his place…but, much to her surprise, this did not go to plan. Rather than fight, Raphael insisted that they meditate, after which Raphael made some rather pointed comments on how Little Lucina’s chi, and priorities, were a bit out of whack. The dedication Little Lucina showed in her efforts was impressive, but it was done out of jealousy, pride, and a unique perception of entitlement, rather than the good she could do with what she’d created.

- Flummoxed, Little Lucina reflects on her motives and, not-so-coincidentally, both the original and subsequent motives of Robin and Big Lucina. Granted, both of them found different reasons for fighting as time went on, but the consistent part of it all was that they were fighting to protect the people and land they both loved. Fame, recognition, respect, and such had never factored into it.

- With this fresh perspective, and with her persistently wounded ego no longer acting as a distraction, Little Lucina challenged Raphael to three (non-lethal) duels, the stakes being that, if Little Lucina won at least once, Raphael would take her on a date. Raphael lost. Well, sort of. He later came to very much enjoy Little Lucina’s company.

- Ultimately, Little Lucina and Raphael get married. As promised, Robin and Big Lucina attended the wedding.

- Despite being a prince of Chon’sin and a distant relation of the Crimean royal family (IkexElincia; I am SO PISSED that it wasn’t even an option, let alone a thing!) Raphael simply does not do decorum, and he has a rather selective adherence to tradition.

- In a rather jarring example, when it came time to carry Little Lucina off, rather than carrying her bridal style, he simply slipped one hand under her rear end and lifted her up, forcing her to stay balanced upon his palm.

- In truth, Little Lucina’s combat training with Big Lucina made keeping her balance an easy, but fun, feat. She nonetheless made a good show of swaying in place, flailing her arms madly, and making all sorts of I’m-about-to-fall noises in order to cause the wedding guests to have infarctions. It worked too.

- When Raphael was informed that he was supposed to carry his bride using both hands, he, demonstrating that he had the combined candor of Priam and Ike, asked “Why? She’s not as heavy as she looks.”

- After this remark caused several more guests to have infarctions, Little Lucina gave a credible imitation of a scandalized gasp and whacked her groom on the head, which caused several more guests to have infarctions.

- Halfway to the door, someone (probably Robin) remarked that Little Lucina was having too easy a time keeping her balance. Raphael responded by saying “Well, like I always say, let the women work too!” and then began to flex his wrist and walk in a weaving pattern, thus making things more fun (but hardly more difficult) for Little Lucina. Needless to say, the guests and their flimsy cardiovascular systems gave the castle’s healers quite a workout.

- While Big Lucina was experiencing a truly unique case of being embarrassed at herself, Robin was taking the display in the spirit with which is was intended; namely by laughing his ass off. He then remarked that he fully expected to die laughing and Big Lucina, who still had some tone deafness when it came to idioms, took his words literally, scooped him up, and raced towards the nearest healers, trampling several important persons in her path.

- Many years later, Raphael and Little Lucina’s son, Greil XXXVIII (VERY popular name amongst Ike’s progeny) was introduced to Robin and Big Lucina’s youngest daughter, Elena.

- Just to be clear, Elena is not Little Morgan. Little Morgan’s name is…well, Morgan. Much like Big Lucina and Little Lucina are both named Lucina.

- …and, somewhere in Ylisse Castle, the Royal Genealogist just has a heart attack. But I digress.

- Greil XXXVIII, who is clearly going to inherit the family biceps when he grows up, keeps Elena entertained by performing feats of strength that would be tricky for boys twice his size. Needless to say, Elena comes away quite impressed.

- Despite already sensing that Greil and Elena will stay “just friends”, Robin simply can’t resist and ponders aloud as to whether a relationship between the two could be considered incestuous, since Greil XXXVIII and Elena, technically, have the same mother.

- The response to this wiseassery is the Ylissean royal family delivering a syncopated and very well practiced chorus of “Robin, shut up”.

Likes are appreciated, reblogs are appreciated, and feedback via messaging and ask is loved. Thanks for reading, and catch you later.

#Fire Emblem Awakening #Robin x Lucina #Robcina #FE13 #Fire Emblem #Time Travel #Is Weird #Priam x Say'ri #Chrom x Sumia #Lucina!Morgan #Implied Ike x Elincia #They should've been an option dammit!#Draws from various sources #Some on Tumblr and some on Fanfiction.net

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rontra · 6 years ago

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do you have any recommendations on how to like. Take In Umineko. I think it looks really cool and I’d like to get into it, but there’s a lot of things that are confusing (like all of the different games, the manga, the anime, ect.) and I’m not really sure where to start watching/reading it. Do you have any advice on where the best place to start is?

HOH BABY NOW THIS IS A GOOD ASK

Basically, a lot of this depends on you and how you prefer to take in media. People are different after all; some people like reading long novels, some prefer comics, u know! So let’s just go over all the avenues and how to get at them, and the rest is up to you!

I’m gonna make this post very long. VERY VERY LONG. IM SO FUCKn SORyr

First, I’ll talk abt what umineko is; then I’ll discuss the various media; finally, at the end, I’ll write down what I typically recommend to newcomers! SCROLL REALLY FAST TO THE HEADERS IF U HAVE NO TIME FOR MY RAMBLING LOL

So…here we goooo

READING UMINEKO: UNTANGLING THE WEB

OR: what the fuck is umineko and why do you want me to read it, diesel?

Since this is a general To Whom It May Concern post: Umineko no Naku Koro ni (Or Umineko: When They Cry, alternatively When The Seagulls Cry) is a murder mystery/fantasy/metafiction visual novel published between 2007 and 2011. I know “murder mystery” and “metafiction” sound pretty boring when you combine them, but trust me–Umineko’s unlike anything you’ve seen, and defies explanation. Still, I’m here to do my best!

Umineko is about a rich and complicated family, and their annual family conference–and the year it goes super duper badly. On an isolated island, in the middle of a typhoon, tragedy befalls the family–on a massive scale! Someone is killing them–all of them–and the only answer that seems to be rising is–

“Beatrice did it.”

But Beatrice isn’t supposed to really exist. Not for real!! No one by that name is on the island. It’s just a story! She’s made up–Beatrice is a legend. A witch who has lived for a thousand years–who loaned the family patriarch ten tons of gold, an insane amount of wealth, in exchange for his soul. Now she’s collecting on that loan, taking everything back, with interest–the lives of the family included.

Is the culprit a human, or not? Does the witch exist, or not?Is the culprit one of the 18 people? Does a 19th person exist? Or…?And, most importantly–when the typhoon passes, will anyone remain alive on the island?

[YouTube: Umineko opening]

I’d super-recommend Umineko if you enjoy: strong characterization, a solidly built mystery (with plenty of smaller mysteries to try your brain with along the way ;) ), complex and nuanced characters, hype magic fights, Logic-Based Combat(???), deep discussions of trauma and its consequences, large casts of characters, Genre Fuckery, coping, Meta™, and milfs Complex Lore

I would, however, NOT recommend Umineko if you are triggered by/can’t stomach reading about: body horror, gore, death, trauma, child abuse, bullying, discussion of suicide, discussion of sexual assault, etc (you can message me for a more complete list of warnings; I’m happy to provide super-specific ones if there’s something specific you’re concerned about, or even give you specific scenes to watch out for. I kept this vague on purpose, but if you message me off anon or via DMs here or at @aceyasu, I’ll be happy to answer anything!)

Overall it’s a pretty dark, emotional story, with a lot of Themes™–but it’s also full of love and genuine heartfelt Feelings. I don’t think any story has touched me the way Umineko has! Of course, everyone’s experience is very unique to them, but I think Umineko has something for everyone (provided, of course, that we’re taking into account the content warnings and excluding people who can’t/don’t want to encounter those things!). The characters, music, story and message–it all has a lot of heart and it all is very important to me as an individual. Obviously no media is flawless, but I think Umineko’s good outweighs its bad…YMMV though of course :p

Also, hype magic fights.

OKAY WITH THAT OUT OF THE WAY

Umineko’s story is told over 8 arcs–styled as “episodes”. I use “arc” and “episode” sort of interchangeably! Specific ones I just call “EP#” though. All you really need to know though is there’s 8 of them, of varying length, and you have to read them all for the full story.

Thankfully they’re numbered, am i right?? HAFDmgkdfmg

Each episode has its own focus within the overarching narrative and comes with its own fun mysteries and harrowing developments just for you! yay! But basically, the important thing is that they’re divided into the Question Arcs (1-4) and Answer Arcs (5-8).

Sometimes, to make things confusing, the Answer Arcs are also called “Core Arcs” or “Chiru”. I will use “Answer Arcs” here, but if you encounter those two elsewhere, that’s what they are. :p

ACTUALLY EXPERIENCING UMINEKO

(now that im done YAPPING)

The anime

Generally viewed as a poor product. It’s a bad adaption that fails as a standalone, too, because of the amount of important scenes that are missing. Don’t watch the anime first if you really want to get into Umineko. It’s a fun watch once you know how it’s supposed to go, though :p Covers the Question Arcs only, ends with EP4–so even if it was good, it would only be half the story… press f to pay respects. The opening fuckin slaps though, and all the VAs are solid.

The manga

Each Episode has its own manga adaption, usually done by a different artist (with exception of EP1, EP3, and EP8, which are all by the same artist). Generally solid; gets the most important parts. For people who want to get through quicker, the manga helps a lot.

The primary cost is that a lot of characterization doesn’t get to shine AS bright, as there’s simply no time to get into the nooks and crannies (still a great cast, though). However, the art is usually fantastic–since the artist changes every EP, it’s easy to deal with even if you don’t like a specific one’s style. It’ll be gone by next Episode!

A lot of moments get punched up by the more visual format of the manga. You really get a better sense of the characters interacting physically with one another! You do, however, run into the Scanlation Problem…..

I know, I know–most people, when given the option to, don’t want to pay for things. So when given the choice between fan scanlations and the official release, a lot of people would choose the scanlations. And they’re fine…for the most part…except for the parts that aren’t. Some parts (notably in the Answer Arcs) are…bad. Really bad. Even I can’t really understand it sometimes, despite knowing this story inside out… LOL

If you’re good at parsing Scanlation SNAFU or can’t afford/don’t want to buy it, you can find Umineko on MOST manga hosts! I don’t know which you prefer so I’m not gonna link ‘em hahahafkgmfh I usually use Manga Rock but that’s because I usually am reading on my phone and I like their app. The episodes are all numbered, so it’s pretty easy to find your way around!

On the other hand, if you have a hard time understanding poor translations, reading inconsistent typesetting/fonts, or simply Can afford it/prefer buying media, the manga is being officially released in English by YenPress! As is standard nowadays, you can get them in both physical volumes and digital e-books! However, YenPress’ release is currently ongoing–the first volume of EP8 is slated to release in March.

[YenPress link]

The visual novel

Ah, here we are–the head honcho himself…! This is the original version of Umineko. These are the ones we call “games”, and why we sometimes say u “play” Umineko, but. Really. It’s just reading. They’re kinetic novels. Its literally just reading. So I don’t know why we complicate things like that.

(“if she an .exe, shes a game”, I guess… xD)

This is where the characterization and voice of Umineko really shines! The style is often simple to read, sometimes even comically casual, but it cuts deep when it wants to. Even really simple lines can have a really strong impact–it’s a really pleasant style to read, IMO…pretty easy to understand most of the time, but emotionally resonant all the same!

Reading the VN is somewhat of an undertaking, because of the amount of hours required…It’s a far longer read. Depending on your reading speed and whether or not you pause to think/talk about things as you read, people clock in 100-200 hours to finish it.

But, on the upside–because it has so much more time than the manga, the VN can really get deep into the characters, their dynamics, and their inner conflicts. You really get a deep sense for everyone’s character and it makes most of the cast feel fleshed-out enough that you appreciate all of them to some extent (whether positive or negative :P)

Oh, actually–the original Umineko branded itself a “Sound Novel”….as opposed to a Visual Novel, where the emphasis is on, uh–Visuals–Umineko leans more heavily on audio to create its atmosphere. And the music? Fuckin rips!! The Umineko soundtrack is huge and has tons of absolute bangers. It’s easy to see why it decided to market itself as a Sound Novel rather than a visual novel–the graphics of the original PC version are simple, but the atmospheric sound effects and BGM really shines.

Here’s some enticing tracks to pique yr interest (be careful about the comments/etc though, there’s Definitely spoilers in there xD)[worldenddominator] [dead angle] [dir] [system0] [hope]

The VN nowadays is split into the two halves; if you get EP4, it’ll include 1-3 as well, essentially. Picking up Question Arcs (or EP4) and Answer Arcs (or EP8) gives u the whole 8 episodes. Easy peasy! Because we live in the future now, and retroactive inclusion of past games is just convenient!

There is an official English release now, which is a brand new luxury. It’s even on Steam! Wow! That’s the easiest way to get your paws on the hands-on experience. The translation has been slightly updated as well! Also, they added a new set of toggle-able graphics that are…um…I mean they’re certainly new…#BarelyContainedOpinionAlert

If you don’t want to pay or can’t afford it…uhhh….I used to have torrent links but they’re all dead. :T still, you can probably just find them, if you know your way around torrents. For the translation, you’ll have to either get a pre-patched version of the game, or use the translation group’s instructions to patch it yourself.

If you can’t do either of those, or just don’t really have a preference, or…any number of reasons, you can also find all the games fully recorded and uploaded to YouTube (with or without commentary)!

As for the links, I’ve got them right h–

Wait–oh, sh–the graphics are bad?!? You think the graphics are bad? Or you think plain reading is boring? Y-you can’t understand what the background image in this scene is even supposed to be? Ah…the post-2007 struggle….

The visual novel, Part Deux: AH, THE JPEGS edition

OKAY SO I SPLIT THIS APART BECAUSE IT*S IMPORTANT

If you wanna spruce up your VN-reading experience, here’s the thing: they ported the game to PS3, with brand new graphics and–get this–full voice acting. Wow! There’s even CGs now…Jeez!

These are NOT the same graphics as the new ones from the official English release! That’s important!

SO, if you wanna spruce up the graphics a bit, or you enjoy voice acting with your novels, you can do that! People took apart the PS3 games and made patches for the PC version to enjoy the new graphics and voices. And now it’s available for the Steam version as well!

[SPRITE COMPARISON: ORIGINAL PC | PS3 | STEAM]You pick your favorite!

ALSO VOICE ACTING! WOW!! Remember how I said the anime got two things right and they were the OP and the voice cast?

SAME CAST, BABEY!!!! They are all excellent and do a wonderful job! It can really add some more interest if you struggle with staying focused on “plain” reading.

Okay so NOW the links:

You’ll have to dig up torrents yourself if you want those, bc its 6am and I’m too sleepy to… uzu

QUESTION ARCS[Physical Eng release] or [Steam page] +[PS3 PATCH]

ANSWER ARCS[Physical Eng release] or [Steam page] +[PS3 PATCH]

YOUTUBE[Non-commentated, with PS3 patch] you can find more just by searching but this one looks good to me :p

RONTRA OPINIONS / SUGGESTIONS

Personally, I favor the VN for most scenes, but the manga for my light casual reading. Y’know? The VN can be pretty…um…dense, at times.

Ironically, I think EP1 itself might be the biggest hurdle for total first-timers. It’s definitely paced as a “part 1 of 8″ for the first solid portion! By which I mean, it really takes its time establishing the cast and their individual situations. Which isn’t a bad thing–especially in the overarching scope of how long the story is–but if you aren’t sure about the premise, format, or if you’ll enjoy Umineko at all, it can be sort of…challenging.

It all really depends on the individual–things like attention span, investment, and personal preferences, imo. Some people just don’t enjoy reading that much text at once! And that’s fine! Some people love it and that’s fine! Some people think the intro is too long, some people think it’s intriguing from the start. Some really like watching character building, and some prefer to see action happening. Either way is fine, so it’s really up to you!

Usually, if someone isn’t sure, I suggest they try EP1 in manga form first, just to see if the general premise entices them; it’s fully possible to jump back and do the VN if you decide you like it! It sacrifices some characterization in exchange for exploring the main premise a little faster.

Similarly, if you just can’t get into the VN–you can read the entire thing with manga too, if you favor action over the deepest character lore. It’s still a good time and a good experience!

Though, in EP1′s favor–if you ARE sure about it, and are able to dedicate your attention to the first 10-13 hours of set-up, EP1 has one of the most rewarding escalations I’ve encountered! If you are able to sit and read a fairly long-winded introduction, you are rewarded with the most buck wild Popping Off you can imagine.

So there’s nothing wrong with jumping right in there with the VN, if you enjoy reading!

However, if you do find that the VN is dragging too much for you, you can go in reverse too–and finish EP1 by manga, then decide if you want to jump back to the VN or not. I promise, the novels pick up the pace too–it’s just getting all the introductions down that can be daunting, when the initial cast size is a staggering 18 people (plus the LORE has to be established too)!!

Just for you–if you want to get into Umineko, but struggle with EP1, I’ll offer my private archive of YenPress manga rips for EP1–read the manga, official english translation, for free thanks to your dealer friend, rontra,You will have to message me about it, though–off anon or via DMs, here or at @aceyasu.

My favorite setups when I play by myself are either Original PC Graphics + Voice Acting, or Full PS3 Patch. I personally really like the original PC graphics, but I understand some people think they’re kinda…um…Rough, to say the least xD PS3 graphics are a close second for me though.

I don’t really like the steam version’s new sprites. Some people don’t mind them, so it’s up to you what you prefer, but I think they don’t really convey the feeling as well as their counterparts sometimes… :/

But hey, everyone’s got their own opinions!

I also prefer the EP8 manga to the EP8 VN. If I have control over someone’s first playthrough, I always push over to the manga for EP8! In my opinion, it’s a rare instance where the adaption is better than its original. People have different opinions on this, of course, but since this section is My Opinions Central, that’s my opinioooon!!! :D

SO BASICALLY MY OWN PERSONAL PREFERRED STRUCTURE IS

->TRY EP1 (jump over to manga if struggling; if enjoyed manga ep1 until the end, hop back into the VN at EP2 and come back to EP1 if you want to later)

EP2-EP7 VN

EP8 MANGA(EP8 VN if desired afterwards, once the dust settles)

But you’re free to do what you want, of course. ;9

And then after that there’s some spinoffs that I didn’t talk about because that’s a post for another time. (There’s a fighting game! It’s packed full of spoilers.)

AFTERWORD

All in all, Umineko is…big. its very very big. it has a huge cast (the final count comes out to like, almost 70 characters!) and a huge story. and huge feelings.

The manga and the VN are the main avenues of getting into it. It’s easier than it looks at a glance; and yet, more daunting than it seems…

If you have the time and energy to pour hours of your time into it, Umineko is a super worthwhile story that tackles genuinely difficult material with a delicate but honest hand.

It clowns up sometimes and stumbles over its own demographic–see: Weird Vaguely Unpleasant Anime-brand Sex Comedy that springs up a lot in EP1, some in EP2, and then largely disappears save for a few dumb jokes here and there–but overall is a solidly built and solidly delivered story about trauma, love, loss, and getting your family ritual-murdered by a thousand-year-old witch who may or may not be real.

And if you have any questions at all (or just wanna talk Umineko), you can send an ask or IM me here or at @aceyasu–you can ask for my Discord too if you wanna really get into it. Or DM me on twitter! I’m happy to answer any question or elaborate on anything you’re confused about. I tried to go over this post quickly, so if I was too vague on something, feel free to ask!

The same of course applies to content warnings; if there’s something specific you’re worried about, I can answer it for you, whether it’s “does [specific thing] happen/appear” or “how much of [thing] is there, i can handle a little bit”! Anything! Of course I want people to read my favorite, but I also more than that want u all to be safe.

I’m very sorry that this post is literally three thousand words long. Umineko’s been my special interest for almost ten whole years. I get chatty! But hopefully my passion shines through and gets you excited!!!

LOVE, A BIG NERD

#Anonymous #long post #the umineko post

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wilmaoswalt72-blog · 5 years ago

Text

10 Well-liked Music Genres You’ve Never Heard Of

But, as our chat reveals, the discordant story doesn't end there: the naturally talented Neelix attended his first doof little more than a decade in the past, confesses to be in poor health at ease in the studio, and plans to supply pop music within the close to future. The start of EDM can from the disco style, heavily popular in the late 1970's. Disco music aimed to maneuver crowds of individuals on the dancefloor, using drum machines and electronic devices to create synthesized rhythms. Standard disco music that helped to create the EDM scene included Donna Summer time's 1977 synthesized disco hit I Really feel Love ," which was written by Pete Bellotte and Giorgio Moroder, who would later collaborate with Daft Punk; and the 1974 hit Rock Your Child ," by George McCrae, which used a drum machine and Roland rhythm machine.

Bambuco, Pasillo and Vals, three of the foremost rhythms of a genre of music usually performed in a duet with a guitar or mandolin and a smaller, 12-string guitar-like instrument known as a tiple. The tiple is an official national instrument of Colombia, though its use has seen a big decline in latest many years. Pop comes from the word "Well-liked". It is the development that a lot of the common folks are following. The purpose of the music is to enchantment to a common viewers, moderately than to a selected sub-tradition or ideology. Katy Perry was topping on Pop music charts just a few months again, when all of a sudden Gangnam Type came to conquer our playlists. In Pop music, the inventive and technical aspects are given lesser attention than the "poppy" really feel. - Rock genre is gradually decreases in recognition through years, by including much less songs and new genres are emerging. I don't pretend to know the solutions, nevertheless it's arduous to consider listening to New World Symphony or Michael Stanly Band's "Candy Jane" would not elicit some of the identical effects that it has on me. Why? Is my musical receptors more or less heightened , different, or just another huge difficult human spirit that defies rationalization. The IFPI (International Federation of Phonographic Industries) recently took a survey of 19,000 shoppers around the planet to see what kinds of music had been the most popular.

Ever since the Mozart Effect" increase from the 1990s, individuals have related listening to classical music with increased intelligence. Whether or not the findings of the unique Mozart Effect study hold are a matter of appreciable debate What's plain is that this one examine sparked countless extra research intended to understand the interplay between music and the human brain. As if it nonetheless bears mentioning, EDM and the rest of dance music made using electronic devices are not the identical factor. The etymology of the time period "EDM" is not absolutely recognized, however in response to critic Joshua Glazer (who can also be a THUMP contributor) writing in Cuepoint, it is a " company term used to envelope disparate sounds into one easy-to-market division" that was coined in 1985 within the US, but did not achieve notoriety till the late 2000s. The 90s had been rife with musician-coined genres. Riot grrrl was the name of a 1991 fanzine put together by four of that music's key players: Allison Wolfe and Molly Neuman of Bratmobile; Kathleen Hanna and Tobi Vail of Bikini Kill. Illbient was coined in 1994 by DJ Olive, of the trio We, to explain a multimedia presentation to a journalist in Brooklyn. "Some older man who mentioned he was a journalist requested me if this was ambient music," Olive says, "and I blurted out as a joke, 'Nope, this is illbient.' We all had fun about it." And in 1996, producers Ed Rush and Trace of the No U Turn label minted the phrase techstep to describe their blaring, dense, hard-as-hell style of drum and bass. What distinguishes these sounds and scenes from lengthy-standing genres like techno or drum & bass is they not hold to the notion of center and periphery. They are not shaped from the highest down by a handful of rich, influential cities who transmit the culture while everyone else is relegated to receiving it. If anything, similar membership scenes in places like London and Berlin wish to their Latin American counterparts for inspiration. From this new ecosystem, an unbiased network of artists has begun to take form, and whereas London and Berlin are welcome to join the dialogue, they're definitely not dominating the conversation. For me personally, before I switched to doing EDM, I was a Rock Musician who used to play the Lead Guitar. I really miss those glorious days of Rock and Metallic music box russia truthfully. Another difference between Arduous Rock and heavy Metallic is the power involved in taking part in these two music genres. Initially of the millennium, festivals have been the place you'd hear guitar bands; on Radio 1, guitar music was largely relegated to the Night Session However, in 2016, radio playlists are bursting with guitar music and festivals have shifted their focus. None extra so than V pageant, whose top names this yr are Justin Bieber, Rihanna, David Guetta and Sia.

is the go-to vacation spot for wall art and other enjoyable visible products that categorical private interests, life-lengthy passions and of-the-moment obsessions. With a choice of over three,000,000 photos, AllPosters has one thing for every price range and decorating type. Find your favourite artwork prints from basic masters and discover up-and-coming artists. Browse the most popular posters in music, motion pictures and sports. Explore our range of t-shirts and novelty gifts. You possibly can even flip your own picture into an art masterpiece with MyPhotos. Plus, select from custom framing, canvas and wooden mounting to actually make a chunk your personal — all excessive-quality at wonderful costs.YouTube Music is a new music streaming service with the official audio, official video, playlists and artist stations. Plus, the remainder of the story you can't discover anyplace else: reside performances, remixes and more. I like rock music as a result of it keeps me pumped up all the time. Before I do something that's really nervous to me, I wish to take heed to my music to calm me down, however not too much. I am unable to stand slow music as a result of it makes me actually sleepy and it will get annoying. I might listen to anything, however nation is essentially the most annoying of all for me. I just need to get their cowboy hats and stomp all over them.If you happen to performed someone High Horse," it might take a few guesses earlier than they recognized it as a rustic song. That 4-to-the-ground beat with the funky, Nile Rodgers guitar, that popping bass—none of these are parts of country that must be on a hit from one of the genre's brightest stars. But the elements are all there: the center-American lyrical imagery and references, the light slide guitar solo, the banjo, the background acoustic strings. It is like a winking scrambling of genres that creates a sound entirely Musgraves' own. Some often compare her to Taylor Swift as a rustic artist with main crossover potential. But much less a brand than her uber-well-known counterpart, Musgraves has more in frequent with the likes of Sturgill Simpson or Chris Stapleton, who are crossing over primarily based on musical potential alone.

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themyskira · 6 years ago

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Wonder Woman Annual #2

Previously in FUCKITY FUCK FUCK I FORGOT THERE WAS AN ANNUAL AS WELL: Diana prepared to face down her most terrifying foes yet: the Dark Gods.

Who or what are the Dark Gods? Dunno.

What do they want? No clue.

What is this awesome and terrible power that they wield? So far, mostly just the ability to shoot lasers out of their eyes and incite people to deliver badly-written villainous monologues.

Why are we supposed to be so pants-pissingly afraid of them? Because James Robinson told us so.

Last issue ended with the Dark Gods manifesting over Washington DC, at which point it was revealed that they are… giant floating statues, I guess? But, like, scary floating statues. With lasers. So scary.

And then moments later, a couple of Star Sapphires arrived to whisk Diana away so she could appear in this shitty annual.

Diana is teleported to the Star Sapphires’ home planet of Zamaron, which is heavily battle-damaged.

The two Sapphires who brought her here are called Miss Bloss and Miri Riam, who are apparently pre-established minor Green Lantern characters — something I had to figure out on my own, because Robinson just assumes we all known them, and that Diana does too (I’m reasonably sure they’ve never met). The one time his overexplaining might have actually been useful, and he couldn’t be arsed taking a panel or two to make introductions.

Diana yells at them that she’s too busy to help with whatever their deal is, and launches into a recap of last issue. But, you know, that was all of two weeks ago, so by all means, spend a page getting us up to speed.

She’s also still throwing around ‘crazy’ and ‘insane’ like they’re going out of style.

“…and although I’m not certain — the woman who told me was insane at the time--“

How about ‘possessed’, ‘out of control’, ‘somewhat incoherent’ or ‘compromised’? Any of these would be more accurate in this context, as well as not equating mental illness with dangerous and violent behaviour.

But anyway, essentially Diana says ‘my world is being attacked by the Dark Gods and it’s my fault’, and Miss Bloss is like, ‘well, if that was your fault, then our thing must be your fault, too’, and points up at the giant floating Dark God statue thing that Diana has somehow failed to notice until this exact moment.

Oh, goody.

Diana starts questioning them about what happened. Honestly, that’s really all she does these days. If she’s not delivering plot recaps herself, she’s setting up allies for flashback-exposition or allowing villains to monologue at her. Oh, sure, occasionally she fights somebody, but mostly she’s just a vessel for tedious exposition.

Miss Bloss describes the Dark God’s attack:

“Even to recall it now, it feels like a dream or vision from another world. Almost like we were looking at ourselves from outside of it all.”

The first time I read this, I took it to be a figure of speech. I interpreted it as an expression of Miss Bloss’s deep level of shock at the devastation she’d experienced, that it still felt unreal, as though it had happened to somebody else.

I was giving Robinson too much credit: he meant it literally.

As we’ll learn in a few pages’ time, one of the Dark Gods has some kind of power over people’s perceptions, enabling him to induce in others a sense of unreality and dreamlike detachment. We’ll learn that the Dark Gods have deliberately used this ability in order to confuse enemies and limit their ability to respond to or even comprehend attacks.

Frazer Irving — who illustrates the flashback, along with a couple of other scenes in this issue — plays into this well. His stylised art and colour work lends a somewhat eerie dreamlike quality to his pages, creating a sense of altered reality.

Unfortunately, Robinson can’t write dreamlike.

So what in theory should be an eerie, confusing, unreal flashback instead just turns into Miss Bloss telling us that her memories of the attack are eerie and unreal and hazy… aaaaand then proceeding to describe the attack, the enemy, his name, the concept he embodies, his powers and the precise reason why he was able to kill so many Star Sapphires, all in exacting detail.

The Dark God who attacked the Sapphires is called Karnell and he calls himself the god of love, but the love he embodies is dark and gritty and edgy and corrupted. He can sense any ‘impurities’ or ‘flaws’ in a person’s love and rub it in their faces. When he does this to Star Sapphires, something something their rings freak out and they spontaneously combust.

Diana asks, ‘yeah okay, but you didn’t know that this was my fault when you dragged me here, so what gives?’, and Bloss and Miri are like, ‘welp, our leaders are all dead, Carol Ferris is busy in another comic, we all frankly suck, and you were a Star Sapphire once in that Blackest Night crossover event.’

At which point I went, ‘wait huh what??? but that was before the New 52 reboot!’, before remembering that Geoff Johns’ entire preboot GL run survived the reboot for no other reason than because Geoff Johns gets whatever he wants.

Diana agrees to lead the Sapphires against Krakoom (I’m sorry, I’m not going to bother to learn his name, he’s not worth that kind of time), and the Sapphires respond by giving her the Nazi salute due to an unfortunate artistic miscalculation.

Diana: And if I am going to stand among you — fight alongside you — let me look the part. Sapphires: As you wish it, so do we, Wonder Woman… be a Star Sapphire once more.

And with that, they give Diana a makeover.

It’s not a bad costume, especially when you compare it to her Blackest Night design. That one tried to ape Carol Ferris’ hideous then-costume, which featured hip cut-outs and a plummeting neckline that ended around the crotch area, by giving Diana a bathing suit with hip-holes and a bared midriff. This design retains many familiar Star Sapphire costume elements — the stiff pointed white collar, the combination tiara/mask, the starburst symbol, the long gloves and high boots — without going into creepy male-gazey territory.

buuuuut it also looks like Diana is wearing a pink apron over her usual costume, and that is something I cannot get past. It also varies wildly across the issue, depending on which of the four credited artists is drawing it.

By the way, I say ‘makeover’ because despite violet blaze on her right ring finger, it took me several times flicking back and forth before I was certain that Diana had been deputised into the Corps as opposed to just being given a new costume in order to “look the part”, as she put it. I know this sounds like it should have been self-evident, but Robinson gives absolutely no indication of any deeper change in her. Not even lip service to the fact that Diana is connected, through the power ring, to the emotional spectrum and the violet energies of love.

Contrast this with Diana in Blackest Night: Wonder Woman #3:

“Extraordinary. All of them, in their way, have tried to explain it to me before. Hal, John, Kyle… even Guy, may Ares watch and aid him. But it defies all attempts. There is no way to describe it. What it is to wear a power ring, and feel emotion made manifest. To wear fear on anger or will or hope on one’s hand… To wear love. Too beautiful for words…”

There’s a lot about Wondy’s Blackest Night tie-in that’s flawed and frustrating and flat-out bad, but this page gets it right. If you’re going to make Diana a Star Sapphire — going to give one of the most loving hearts of the DCU the power to channel her love into tangible power — then you need to acknowledge the weight of that.

In this comic, it’s as insubstantial as a costume change.

Flying up to confront Kratakoa, Diana wonders if she could really have summoned the Dark Gods. Supergirl said she brought them into this plane with a careless wish, and… oh, come to think of it, she did inadvertently make a wish during the recent Dark Nights: Metal crossover, while coincidentally handling some magical wishing metal. But nah, that couldn’t possibly have done it!

She reaches the big floaty statue and a bloke with spiky wings emerges from it. It’s Klangalang, and he’s got his monologue cued up and ready to go!

He opens with a fairly standard ‘ahaha, I’ve been expecting you, hero!’, and the implications fly straight over Diana’s head.

Kibble: You came, Amazon! Sooner than I expected, too! Good… I’m going to love this! Diana: You’re some kind of seer, too? You expected me?

Let’s review: The villains Diana supposedly summoned, the villains who have been trying to kill or neutralise Diana before she can interfere in their plans, have attacked the Star Sapphires in advance of their invasion of Earth. Despite not knowing about Diana’s connection to their attacker, the Sapphires reached out to her for help, teleporting her away at almost the exact moment that the villains launched their opening assault. Now the one villain who hasn’t joined the invading force is cackling that he’s been expecting Diana.

Even a half-competent hero should be able to join the dots and realise they’ve been deliberately lured away. Not so Robinson’s Diana, who gazes at him wide-eyed and demands, ‘omg, u expected me? are u psychic or sumthin???’

After a couple more rounds of obscenely dense questions from Diana (along with another out-of-character ’crazy’ slur), Klunk ends up having to straight-up spell it out for her. He also explains how she summoned the Dark Gods.

Krunch: You wished for the gods’ return. Well, here we are. Here I am! Diana: Like a dream, but yes, of course. But I meant the Greek pantheon, not— Krump: Gods! That’s all you said.

Small nitpick: Diana would not think of her gods the “Greek pantheon”. She’d be more likely to call them “the Patrons”, “my gods”, “the gods of my people”, “the gods of Themyscira”, “the gods of Olympus”, “the Olympians” — she knew them as all of these things long before she knew Greece, or any world outside her island home, existed. The only reason she might refer to them as “Greek” is for the benefit of people in Man’s World, as a point of reference.

More importantly, are you friggin kidding me, the friggin layers of incompetence here from our supposed hero

accidentally makes a wish while wielding a weapon of magical wishing metal

manages to make the vaguest wish possible, opening a loophole for THE WORST GODS to infiltrate reality

immediately forgets she ever wished it

why would she even wish for that?! her gods haven’t gone anywhere!

To be somewhat fair, the reason she doesn’t really remember it is that “the God With No Name” (YES REALLY) made it all feel like a dream so that she wouldn’t realise she’d made an irresponsible wish and needed to immediately rally everybody together to resist the Dark Gods.

Except… that in itself doesn’t make any sense.

There are two possibilities here: the Horse With No Name could have clouded Diana’s memory of making the wish after the Dark Gods were pulled into this reality — in which case, why? How would she even land on the conclusion that she’d accidentally summoned some evil gods that she’d never heard of, when her intent was to call on her own gods and she’d had no indication that it had even worked?

Alternatively, he clouded her mind in the moment of the wish, to render her thoughts vague and imprecise and open the door for the Dark Gods’ invasion. Which doesn’t work either, because it turns out that the Dark Gods are pretty pissed off at being pulled out of their awesome reality.

King Koopa: War was declared the moment you dragged us from our home… our beautiful world — which you regard as the ‘Dark Multiverse’ — we see as a paradise… where we were more than even gods to our worshippers… we were everything!”

So basically their plan is to turn Earth into a desolate hellscape just like their home.

Diana, who has already been told that Kraig is a god of corrupted love, conveniently forgets this fact just so that Robinson can tell it to us again.

Diana: You call yourself a god of love. What kind of love wants to be feared? Love is unconditional. KHAAAAAN: Spoken like the addled naive romantic I expected. Love always comes with conditions. Sometimes, I confess, I question… am I god of that love, of those conditions behind it? But then I realise… I don’t care.

Cool story. Glad we can agree on one thing, at least.

He monologues for a couple of pages about how he’s going to open her eyes to the truth of how horrible and selfish and corrupt love is, then draws Diana into his mind so that he can monologue some more.

We learn that the world of the Dark Gods was forged by a group of divinities called Titans, “much like the reality of your own Greek pantheon” (incorrect, you’re thinking of the Protogenoi; the Titans were the second generation of gods). But because these Titans were hardcore, they did it by smashing five other realities together. And into this terrifyingly dark edgy metalscape came… +~teh D4rK g0dz~+

Robinson then undermines the super-extra-double-dark feel he’s going for with another embarrassing name and an accidental rhyme.

“We Dark Gods followed, as gods do. King Best and then the rest.”

KING. BEST.

But wait, we haven’t even gotten to Kalamazoo’s dark edgy totally original backstory!

In fact, this is so dark and edgy and original that I’ll throw in a quick content warning here for descriptions of domestic violence and shittiness towards sex workers.

“You’ll meet a boy — his mother broken by a wanton father who forced her to cheapen herself further with wraiths and under-beings. The mother died — beaten to death. When he saw her blood still dripping from the fists of his father, the boy ran, fearing the same fate. The boy loved his mother, but hated his father and the world. Both emotions — love and hate — burned so brightly that even from within the darkness of our world, their glow caught the eye of mighty King Best.”

Domestic violence! Sexism! Slut shaming! Fridging! It’s like a game of grimdark bingo!

After three goddamn pages of this, Diana suddenly twigs what we all figured out eleven pages ago, ‘oh now waaaaaait a minute, you didn’t lure me here so that your buddies could invade Earth while I’m distracted, did you?’

Klinger responds by almost murdering Diana, and is only stopped by the intervention of the Star Sapphires. They all retreat, and Diana proposes a new plan: all the Sapphires will channel their energy into her, something something, true love wins the day.

So Diana flies up to Kimberley, sword held aloft and blazing with violet energy, and announces, ‘boy did you make a mistake when you told me that you used to be a sad boy child! now I have only love in my heart for you!’

Karma Khameleon is like, ‘oh no, love! my one true weakness!’, and I’m like, “d… didn’t we just have this story?”

Then Diana straight-up stabs him with her love sword, and Korgo fades away with an ‘I’ll beat you next time, Captain Planet! Next tiiiiiime…’

Diana farewells the Star Sapphires, and Robinson shoehorns in this bit of virtue signalling:

Miri: Please… Diana, think of us as your sisters, too, for all time. Diana: Or “brother,” I notice. Miss Bloss: Love is love, no matter who bears the heart.

This is a welcome and needed change to the Star Sapphires. The fact that they have been portrayed up until this point as an all-women corps (with the exception of a few briefly deputised blokes) is bound up in ugly gendered ideas, exemplified by Geoff Johns’ comment in 2009 that “anyone can join, but most men are not worthy”.

But there’s something gratingly self-congratulatory in the execution of this course correction. Robinson’s doing the absolute bare minimum here — including one or two male background characters in a handful of panels — and flagging it as progress with a phrase associated with the LGBTI community. We haven’t even seen a single named male Sapphire, let alone one with a speaking part; I think it’s a little premature to be looking for kudos. And either Miri or Miss Bloss could very easily have been replaced in this story by a new male character.

The Sapphires teleport Diana back to Earth, where she finds DC a smoking ruin. And as the air clears, she sees—

—wait for it—

—this is truly shocking and terrifying—

THE DARK GODS MADE A MEGAZORD

THEY MADE A FUCKING MEGAZORD WITH THEIR DUMBASS FLYING STATUES

A GODDAMN MEGAZORD WHO WHAT HOW WHY.

Diana’s face does this:

#the james robinson shitshow #comics talk

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a-magpie-witchling · 7 years ago

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WOOT BROKE W(b)ITCH HAUL

HEY YOU

YES YOU

ARE YOU BROKE BUT STILL WANNA PULL THE THREADS OF THE ETHER AND DEFY THE ESTABLISHED LAWS OF MAN INVOKING THE ANCIENT MAGICK?

GOOD.

You and I are gonna go S H O P P I N G

But, Semiramis! I just told you I’m broke! I can’t get nice things!

*smack*

WRONG.

The world is full of wonders, one of them being

DOLLAR STORES

Remember sweeties, a witch’s best friend is scavenging.

Open your eyes. Look around. Scout your neighborhood.

But what about the things that I can’t get out on the streets!?

That’s what we’re shopping for!

Now before we move on, close your eyes… then open them again because you need to read the rest of the message… and repeat the following mantra:

THE CRAFT REQUIRES NOTHING. THE CRAFT REQUIRES NOTHING. THE CRAFT REQUIRES NOTHING BUT MYSELF.

No fancy ingredients, no pretty crystals, no expensive incenses will work better than your RAW HEART AND SOUL.

Mkay?

Now let’s go get some of that good shit.

How good?

Diz gud.

Now, it’s no mystery that a broke ass witch needs to pay a visit to the local dollar stores to get her materials every once in a while, but if you’re like me and live in a place where there are no dollar stores (and there are no dollars either) WHERE TO GO?

The answer is here:

CHINESE IMPORT STORES ARE YOUR NEW SANCTUARY.

These places are AWESOME for a witch on a budget, because they carry EVERYTHING. From toys to art supplies to kitchenware…

AND SPIRITUALITY SUPPLIES.

(That’s where we come in)

Speaking of budget, by the way. Let’s set one.

Say… $15?

FIFTEEN AMERICAN DOLLARS. I will take you home with some nice and rare goodies that will spice up your spells.

Let’s go in.

Oooh what a promising start. This here, my friends, are 25 grams of the purest coke Palo Santo wood. Don’t like it in its natural state?

They have it in incense too!

But we ain’t getting that shit. I’m allergic so I can’t burn anything scented or else I… die.

But know they’re there, as well as essential oils, and they’re quite accessi-

WHAT!?

28 BUCKS FOR A BOTTLE OF ESSENTIAL OIL!?

AIN’T NOBODY GOT CASH FO DAT

Nah I’m just kidding. This is the price in pesos, meaning that these oils are *math happens* $1.55 each!

What a D E A L

BUT THAT’S NOT WHAT WE’RE HERE FOR BECAUSE I’M SOON TEACHING YOU HOW TO MAKE YOUR OWN OILS.

Also, holy shit…

You HAVE to see the candles aisle in this place.

They have them twirly

Large

Larger

The photo is not blury, you’re drunk

Scented

Scentless

Birthdayful

Oh hellooo thereee~

Twelve candles for $1.94 you say?

Meaning SIXTEEN CENTS A CANDLE?

Adopted.

Don’t let anyone tell you cheap candles don’t get the job done, people!

Plus they burn just as good.

NOW at this point the store was 10 minutes away from closing time, so I had to stop taking pictures to get my ass outta there, BUT

Here’s a look at what we got:

That doesn’t look too good, let’s add a F I L T E R

Those little crochet doilies that will serve as my new altar tablecloths? They were $0.55

But Amis! Those don’t look too witchy, more like what my grandma puts under her vases!

First of all, how dare you.

Second of all, how dare you.

Granmotherly stuff is witchy by D E F I N I T I O N. Embrace the grandma aesthetic, y’all!

Also:

If you’re poor you have to be CRAFTY. Look at that! It has a pentacle now. How long did it take? Literally 30 seconds! Imagine what we could do with a whole afternoon!

Ok, I admit it, that was a fiasco, BUT WE’RE ONTO SOMETHING THERE.

Let’s take a closer look at what else we brought, shall we?

This tiny chest is 7.5 cm wide x 5.5 cm tall x 5.5 cm deep (3 in x 2.1 in x 2.1 in) and will hold my pocket altar. It was *drum roll* $1.70!

I was getting tired of using my mom’s big ass scissors to cut my tiny delicate herbs, so I got myself this pair of snips! Price: $0.55 and they’re sharper than Tom Hiddleston’s style. Plus they serve a multitude of purposes, like shanking a bitch.

A quick stop by the crystal shop that was also closing (pfft crystal shop. Sounds like out of a fantasy novel, love it) yields the following goodies:

-Onyx ($0.55)

-Fluorite ($0.27)

-Snowflake obsidian (hard to get where I live. It’s kinda pricey at $2.20. I recommend other kinds of obsidian or maybe just black glass as I’ve been using until today, it still works awesomely. I got the obsidian because I wanted to experiment with it and my Mentor recommended me to get it, same as the fluorite).

-And the CUTEST little quartz formation. This one kinda defeats the purpose because it was a bit pricey. You don’t need it; any clear quartz will work the same. It was $4.50 and it was my guilty pleasure of the month. It also came with a free satchel that’s most certainly going to be used with magickal results in the foreseeable future.

More of it because it’s so gorgeous ♥

Back to the fluorite! That shit is large and cheap! Well, you see, it’s kinda ugly because I was part of a larger stone and broke down the middle when they were trying to perforate it to make it into a pendant.

But check this hot babe out

W O R K I T

Coming back from the imports store, I paid a visit to my pot dealer erh I mean my herbs supplier. Got myself some ginger for $0.27

AND THEN

I SAW IT

Maybe they don’t package it like this in your country, but here this little shitty capsule is worth its weight in GOLD.

Y’all know what this is?

This is SAFFRON.

Now normally I steer fucking clear of things this expensive, but when I asked my dealer I mean the vendor she said it was on sale.

This stuff LITERALLY sold by FRACTIONS OF GRAMS. In this case that’s 0.2 grams of saffron, that’s 0.007 ounces. YES. ZERO POINT ZERO ZERO SEVEN. Insert here Bond reference

Retail price? Normally around $8 per capsule (EIGHT AMERICAN DOLLARS!)

How much on sale?

TWO DOLLARS.

A tip for the broke witch: hunt down for sales. Even if you don’t use the ingredients in your spells, you can still trade them with other witches or with anyone, really.

After this I went home and decided to try out my new candles.

And as I said, if you’re poor, you gotta get crafty!

I cut one of the candles in half. A part went to my pocket altar, and the other half…

I used one of those ceramic saucers with the little erh… lower level circle in the middle?

USE CERAMIC. THIS IS IMPORTANT. IT RESISTS TEMPERATURE WELL AND YOU’RE GONNA NEED IT.

Melt the wax in the microwave or on the flame and then make sure it stays in the center of the saucer. Then take it out and wait until it cools down (or put it in the freezer if you are an impatient little shit). DO NOT LET IT SOLIDIFY COMPLETELY.

Then you take it out and use a round cookie cutter (or if you’re a cheap ass like me, find something else)

I just used the styling nozzle of my hair drying because F U K D A P O L I C E

Put it again in the freezer and once it’s completely solidified use a spatula because you, my dear witch

Just made yourself a moon wax amulet!

Engrave it with your sigils, place it on your altar, carefully soften the bottom with heat and use it as a seal, the possibilities are endless!

BUT WAIT, WHAT ABOUT THE REMNANTS!?

EVIL EYE WARD!

The rest? Melt it again or use it as a poppet in case you wanna cast a spell over an onion ring…

By the end of the day, our haul is:

-Altar cloth $0.55

-Herbs snips $0.55

-Mini-altar wooden box $1.70

-Dozen of blue candles $1.94

-Ginger root $0.27

-Satchel $0

-Snowflake obsidian $2.20

-Fluorite$ 0.27

-Onix $0.55

-Quartz crystal formation $4.50

-Saffron Capsule $2

A grand total of $14.53!

Of our budget of $15 we still have $0.47 that where I live is enough for the bus ride back home!

If we take away the unnecessarily pricey stuff (the quartz and the saffron) we got everything for $8.03!

Now if THAT’S not magick, I don’t know what is!

SOME FINAL TIPS!

1) REUSE as many things as you can.

2) MOVE THOSE FEET. I know it doesn’t sound appealing, but CHECK SEVERAL PLACES. Find the best prices by checking different stores and comparing.

3) BE CREATIVE. If you find yourself in need of something you can’t afford, think and find a way to replace it or get it through other routes. As I said, witch trading is a thing!

4) BARGAIN. There’s no shame in it, people! If you’re dealing with independent merchants and buy regularly/are buying a lot, try to get better prices! Don’t disrespect their business, though!

5) REMEMBER YOUR MANTRA. Witchcraft requires NOTHING. Except you.

Now go out there and work your Magick!

-Semiramis, the Magpie Witchling

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dragimal · 7 years ago

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alright just finished Crybaby, and here are my Opinions

(big spoilers for anyone who wants to watch it, and if u do plan on it, be aware of major trigger warnings like hardcore gore/body horror, death, full-on nudity/sex, and sexual assault. some of these elements are present in most dman adaptations to some degree anyways, but imagine those adaptations ramped up to 50)

things I liked:

- art style! I’m a HUGE fan of the fluid, gangly style, and it works so well w/ the high-action, intense fights

- the crying theme. it's a rly nice visual indicator that Akira is still in there, and how much he was affected by all the death and heartbreak. one of my fave parts of Akira as a character is how he has to reconcile his demon instincts w/ his humanity, so to see Crybaby Devilman break out into tears is esp powerful

- the development of the side characters. the bullies are some of my fave characters in the original, and I rly like how they were adapted into disenfranchised rappers in this one (and I esp love the relationship the one rapper had w/ Miko briefly like?? precious). speaking of Miko, she was EXCELLENT, easily one of my new faves, and her confession to Miki was heartbreaking. I also love that one gay runner (forgot his name..), and his camaraderie w/ Miko was truly mlm/wlw solidarity at its finest (before he y’know.... betrayed humanity...)

- I also rly like the approach to Miki’s character in this one; making her strong and capable was a good move. some ppl may know that I have mixed feelings abt og Miki, b/c I like her individually, but I hate how whenever she’s w/ Akira she bullies him for being soft (at least pre-Devilman) and forces him to protect her in fights she instigates. I like how Crybaby completely cut that from this adaptation and just made her awesome and actually nice to Akira. and believe it or not, I actually ship them in this adaptation, which is shocking to me b/c I’ve only ever shipped them in the chibi “Go Nagai World” adaptation and Devilman Grimoire. like that bit where Akira was all over-acting like, “oh yes, I saved you!” and swept Miki off her feet? I die. actually I ship Miki w/ several ppl in this adaptation, like Miko (of course), and that one bald rapper. also, was her “witch” nickname a reference to Grimoire? if it was, that’s cute <3

- the restructuring of the plot points to fit a slightly new plotline were mostly p good. like it was cool how Crybaby had Jinmen possess Akira’s dad, making for a double-whammy of pain seeing both his parents die at once. or how Devilman sucked Ghelmer straight out of Miki and burned the water out of his own body. just some neat changes. also I didn’t think any adaptation could ever top Jinmen’s subplot in terms of heart-wrenching pain, but look at that! Miki’s demon-bro topped it! thanks Crybaby I didn’t need my heart anymore!!!!!!

- Miki’s cat became a demon?? 10/10 easily the best part of the series

things I didn’t like:

- Ryo. just.... fuckin Ryo. part of me wants to like Ryo in any dman adaptation, so I didn’t actively hate him while watching the show, but the more I think abt how his character was portrayed in this, the more frustrated I get. like, Ryo is easily my top fave character from Devilman as an overall franchise (if not necessarily every specific adaptation), alongside Akira. so to see this character I love just whittled down to what he is here... it hurts, man. for those who aren’t super familiar w/ og Ryo, let me show u a panel that I think encompasses his temperament

Crybaby Ryo is cold, calculating, and largely unemotional. og Ryo, on the other hand, rapidly flips between stone-cold, almost comically blank, and hysterical. he’s not a “cool” character necessarily; Go Nagai may have attempted that portrayal originally, idk for sure, but any reader will tell u that’s not the outcome he achieved, nor how he was eventually portrayed in the OVAs. og Ryo is unhinged and clearly not emotionally prepared to take on the world, but by GOD that fucker’s gonna run in guns a-blazin’ or die trying. the simplest way to describe him is, “nihilist conspiracy theorist with a gun, oh god why does he have a gun who gave him that-”

just imagine this guy w/ a gun, shades, and blonde mullet, and that’s Ryo. but instead of getting that Ryo in Crybaby, we get, “unemotional nihilist (with a gun)” Ryo, and that’s rly all there is to him

and one of the worst things abt Crybaby Ryo is that he’s so.... reprehensible. not that og Ryo doesn’t do some terrible things-- he absolutely does-- but he either does them in such a hilariously goofy manner, or he’s so earnest u can’t help but shake ur head at him like, “Oh Ryo~” (again, not to excuse him, but trust me, there are ways to make villains charming, and Go Nagai originally hit on that p damn well, whether intentional or not). plus I don’t rly remember og Ryo ever killing ppl for the sake of “covering his tracks”. I only ever remember him killing ppl who were directly harming himself/Akira, and then just injuring ppl as a part of his goals (like that scene w/ him slashing ppl at the black sabbath is in the og version, b/c the sabbath needed fresh blood to initiate the transformations). I could be wrong, but I don’t think og Ryo particularly cares who sees him committing crimes, so long as he’s not directly confronted abt it. he’s.... not exactly a gr8 strategist in that respect... or at all....

and this is double sad for me b/c not only does og Ryo actually have emotions, but he’s so clearly pining for an oblivious Akira throughout the story, which is why they’ve always been my dman otp. there are some cute moments b/t Akira and Ryo in Crybaby (the pool scene, mainly), but they seem more instigated by Akira on an unwilling Ryo, and Ryo seems to only keep Akira around for the muscle/demon-power, so I can’t rly buy Ryo’s apparent “affection” for Akira here at all....

- there was too little build-up to Akira becoming Devilman. like the whole first volume in the 5-volume og series is dedicated to Devilman’s buildup and initial transformation, yet only one ep of this 10-ep series is dedicated to it. this fails for several reasons: 1) the longer build-up in the og establishes how close Ryo and Akira rly are, and how willing Akira is to help Ryo, even at the expense of his life. 2) the og build-up gives you time to get attached to Akira before his transformation, and not only feel his pain at losing parts of himself to the transformation, but also the ability to recognize when his Akira-brand humanity is making an appearance post-Amon. 3) why the hell did Akira believe Ryo so readily? why isn’t he concerned at all about either demons’ existence or Ryo’s mental health? where’s Akira’s classic, “WHERE’S THE PHONE,” reaction??

- now setting aside my love for og Ryo, and Crybaby Ryo’s likability as a character for a sec, Crybaby’s approach to Ryo RLYYYY fucks up the entire Satan plotline for me. in the original, Ryo also doesn’t remember being Satan, so he is also trying to help humanity. but in the original, you FEEL that! you can feel how hard he's trying, and yeah he goes abt it in often dangerous/morally dubious ways, but in the end (before he regains his memories), his goals are for humans. he's a, “sacrifice the few for the many,” kinda guy-- which is absolutely questionable, but still has humanity as a whole in mind

Crybaby Ryo, on the other hand, doesn’t feel like he has ANY protectiveness for humanity, even when he's still under the impression he's a human. hell, I thought this adaptation had him start out knowing he’s Satan and actively manipulating Akira for his plans the whole time, that’s how little I believed in his want to protect humanity (I mean, the 2004 live-action film went that route, so u can’t rly blame me for being wary). maybe it would have been different if I had come into this fresh, not knowing Ryo was Satan, but I just never bought that he was anything but manipulating everyone specifically for the demons, so I was kinda surprised when he started to “regain” his memories b/c I thought he already HAD them. which is just frustrating b/c that big reveal is one of the best twists ever, in the original! b/c u believe this weird gun-toting dude’s rly truly trying to help out humans, but it turns out he’s been in the demon’s league the whole time!

b/c of this, the Crybaby ending also severely lacks the emotional punch of the og end, when Satan realizes they were wrong (and no, ”you taught me abt love,” is not the same thing as confronting their mistakes)

- and that leads into how Crybaby dropped the ball on the demons in general too. in the original, the demons were Earth’s original lifeforms, but this didn’t please God, so he tried to wipe them out. Satan was the only angel who defied this, trying to protect these creatures who had the right to keep living. THAT was why Satan was cast out of heaven, and Satan convinced the demons to freeze themselves into hibernation until they could later confront God together. upon reawakening, Satan and their demon crew are pissed to find the world taken over by humans, and THAT’S why demons have a grudge against humans. thus, Satan decides to disguise themself as human and tuck their memories away in order to intimately learn the weaknesses of our species in order to end us. all the demons were in on this plan, and were willing to sacrifice themselves to the cause. in the end, when Satan is sitting on Sadness Island w/ (half of)Akira, they realize that in their rage, they turned into exactly what they originally opposed, but it’s far too late to reconcile their mistakes

what’s the motivation of Crybaby’s demons? uh... fuck man, idk. snuff films? I guess they want to be revived, but why aren’t they in on Satan’s plans? why are they all surprised when Devilman is made, when this is a specific goal in Satan’s grand scheme? why didn’t Jenny reveal this plan to anyone else? how did demons’ “essence” survive, can we plz have more of an explanation for that? it doesn’t make sense???

not that the og didn’t have its own weird explanations for things (”global warming is melting the demons out of their hibernation! also here’s a complete misinterpretation of evolutionary theory!”), but idk man, at least it mostly made sense w/in its own canon, I think.

- the one other big thing that bothers me is the fact Devilman, the franchise, exists Crybaby? like I get that it’s just a joke, but it wasn’t just one-off, like this is brought back SEVERAL times, and it rly breaks my immersion every single time. like if the dman franchise exists in Crybaby, why is anyone here surprised by anything? and it’s not even an obscure story in-canon, it’s popular enough that ppl recognize the character, and Miki’s brother is obsessed w/ it. so if there’s a rly popular story that already reveals more-or-less Satan’s entire plan to the public, why are ppl so shocked?

the only way I can justify this is that it seems like maybeeee the only part of the dman franchise that’s present in the Crybaby universe is the 70′s tv show, which has a distinctly different plot from the original, and doesn’t feature Satan at all. but even with that explanation, not everyone who’s watching Crybaby knows that, and it’s still immersion-breaking even knowing that. like if they wanted a cute reference to Go Nagai’s works, why couldn’t they have featured Mazinger Z, or hell even Violence Jack

- some of the psych horror of the og/OVAs was cut and that’s a real bummer b/c it was honestly more horrifying than the gore. like og Miki’s parents phasing thru the walls/furniture when Ghelmer is attacking? that haunts me. also a lot of the demons in the og sacrifice themselves by merging w/ humans and killing the humans and themselves in the process in order to increase mass panic in the humans, which is a horrifying but cool tactic

- thankfully these bits were p quick, but everything involving the Amazon natives was....... uncomfortable at best. like, fair-skinned boy being worshiped as a god by darker people? hmmmmm. like idek why that part even existed, why didn’t Ryo just immediately wake up on that island where Akira lived, why did he have to be raised by the people in the Amazon only for him to become an orphan on that island anyways. Akira could have still found him on that cliff later on, it’s not like Satan Themself would have died if he wasn’t cared for as a baby. it would even make sense for Crybaby Ryo, considering that lack of affection in his formative years could have made him into the sociopath he is today

also when Ryo was explaining how old monsters of myth are demons, there were a few shots of gods shown, like.... Ryo.... those aren’t monsters those are religiously/culturally significant figures wtf are u doing...

- this adaptation is weirdly sexual? I mean, most dman adaptations have weirdly sexual elements, but most of the time it’s purely nudity with some /hints/ at sexual elements. like, ppl just Happen To Be Naked, and also sometimes make sexual comments. not that this isn’t questionable in and of itself (Silene’s og design, w/ her tail feathers UNDER her buttcheeks is uhhhhhhhhh), but it never felt like sexual assault or anything when ppl were fighting; ppl just happened to have their Whole Titty out when fighting. in Crybaby, there’s a blatant connection between the violent gore and the sex, and it’s uncomfortable at times. like I’m not necessarily a squeamish person, so most of the time I wasn’t that affected, but when Akira-- our hero-- effectively raped Silene on-the-fly during their fight I was like NO THANKS

overall opinion?

despite how long the “didn’t like” section is, I do like the show a lot. it’s strong as an independent series, and there is a lot to love as a dman fan as well. however, Ryo is not only an important character to me, but to the Devilman franchise as a whole, so to drop the ball on his character isn’t just insulting to me personally, but weakens Crybaby’s overall lore/plot in places it should be strongest

#shut up ashley #devilman #devilman crybaby

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