#zestypost

[securi-tye-blankey]

For anyone that has my current discord, DNI and block. I got hacked, so if anyone wants my new discord dm me after blocking to avoid confusion. Thank you uwu;

[igneouswyvern]

when sorey said "i won't let you be my sub lord because this isn't your dream and i don't want you getting roped into something you don't personally believe in" and mikleo came back with divine artifact in hand and strengthened resolve to become a sub lord and he said "this is my dream too" but what he really meant was "you are my dream." and "you are my everything. your dreams are my dreams. your beliefs are my beliefs. and i would go to the ends of the earth and back just to be with you. and i would give my life and my everything just to see your dreams realized because i know it means the world to you and you are the world to me."

and when sorey says "i want to create a world where humans and seraphim can coexist" he means "my bond with mikleo is so great that i believe every human should have the opportunity to have a bond like that. everyone should get to have what i have. humans and seraphim were meant to be together and i know this because mikleo and i were meant to be together. and i would go to the ends of the earth and back and give up everything if it means the rest of the world has a chance at someday having what i have. because every human deserves a mikleo."

mikleo's "i would give the world for you" and sorey's "i need to give you to the world."

[zesty-lemon-bread]

I love Pokemon's world building because its just so absurd but interesting at the same time

Yes, there are Gods, and yes they have godly powers, even control over the very fabrics of reality.

But heres the kicker

They're litterally just feral animals that will attempt to fight eachother on sight due to territory reasons and not give a single shit about the ramifications of their battles

Imagine living knowing that reality could collapse at any second because Palkia looked at Dialga in a funny way and now Dialga's out for Blood.

[igneouswyvern]

finished my replay of zestiria a few days ago and something that's been really on my mind is just how incredibly hard all of this must have been for mikleo in particular. we all know the tragedy of mikleo waiting multiple centuries for sorey to come back but what about the immediate tragedy. he literally lost zenrus right before the final showdown and then he loses sorey right after. the two people he's known as long as he can remember. both of them snatched away from him in one fell swoop. what must that have been like for him? he still has the rest of the party, but they aren't what gramps and sorey were to him. the extent to which he can emotionally lean on them for support is just not as great. so he probably had to bear most of the grief by himself. and of course he knows sorey will probably be back in some form, but he also knows it will be longer than he can imagine. lonelier than he can imagine. and what can he do while he waits? elysia isn't really elysia without gramps. without sorey. exploring ruins isn't as thrilling without sorey. seeing new places, meeting new people, adventuring? sorey is what made all that special. what can mikleo do without sorey? a thousand years is a long time.

something that's even more tragic to me is that i know mikleo would sacrifice himself in a heartbeat to help sorey. he knew the risks involved with being used by seigfried in that way and he didn't care one bit. he'd throw his life away without question if it meant sorey would be able to accomplish his goal. and instead, he's cursed to live on. muse is dead. zenrus is dead. sorey is in stasis for so long he may as well be dead. only mikleo remains, cursed to survive. cursed to walk the earth for all of eternity, cursed to lose everyone he loves. cursed to loneliness, as he waits for a day that may never come. a foil for heldalf, although this is a curse of circumstance rather than of malice. and i just. i can't imagine what that must be like. to have lived your whole life with people and then to suddenly have them all taken from you at once. how do you even go forward at that point? how can you carry on?

but he did. he waited something like a thousand years, and he never gave into his grief. he never succumbed to malevolence. he lived a hundred lifetimes, all alone, and he stayed pure and holy. and sorey really did come back for him. all that loneliness, that heartache, that waiting, was all worth it in the end. and i'm crying

[igneouswyvern]

the zestiria timeline baffles me to no end because i know all the camlaan stuff takes place 17 years before the events of the game and i know it has to be that way because that's the only way for sorey and mikleo to have originated in camlaan. and yet. what do you mean heldalf has only been living with his curse for 17 years. what do you mean the celestial record is 21 years old. what do you mean camlaan has only been around for less than 30 years. in my head all this stuff takes place on a waaaaaay larger scale like heldalf should have been wandering the earth in solitude for at least a century right? you're telling me it only took him 17 years to give into the malevolence? what a loser. and the celestial record felt like an ancient book from a time long past when they were nerding about it in the beginning of the game. you're telling me it's barely older than sorey and mikleo themselves? and you can't just go around calling a village that existed 22 years ago and was lived in for only 5 "the origin village." like nah that thing has to have been around for at least 50 before you go calling it something as dramatic as that. idk. in the two-and-a-half-years in between playing zestiria i forgot all the lore and i had it in my head that shepherds were like a once-every-one-hundred-years deal and michael was from like ages ago and all this stuff was ancient as hell. and it feels so silly to me that it was all so recent

[igneouswyvern]

one of the things i love about zestiria is that it's not a classic chosen one story. they set it up like it is one in the beginning with the legends but in reality the only requirement is that the shepherd have high resonance so he can communicate with lailah and form the pact. there's no destiny there's no "chosen by the gods" it's just about being able to see seraphim. really the only thing that makes sorey special is that he grew up around seraphim instead of humans

and even further, the role of the shepherd isn't something you have to take. it's not "a calling" it's a choice. lailah makes a point of confirming with sorey that this really is something he wants to do. he could have refused if he wanted to and i think that's really interesting cause you see a lot of destiny stuff where the protagonist has to take it on and zestiria is really refreshing in that way

i really hate destiny type shit in my stories. and i love that zestiria doesn't do that

[igneouswyvern]

anyways guess who has zero self control

[igneouswyvern]

SO curious what's going on between edna and lailah. they very clearly have history together but to what extent. how long have they known each other. when did they meet and what were the circumstances. how much time have they actually spent together. they seem to not only know each other pretty well but also seem to be on surprisingly friendly terms. edna pokes fun at, teases, makes jokes at the expense of, and is just generally rude and disrespectful to pretty much everyone in the party. except for lailah. not only does she never direct any snarkiness lailah's way but she even seems to actively respect her. and perhaps even enjoy her presence. and for lailah she is the one character never annoyed or put off by edna's antics. she's clearly very used to it and doesn't seem to mind it at all. maybe even is amused by it. and they seem to be on the same wavelength about stuff so often. whether it's teaming up to coach sorey on weapon skills or edna telling lailah to riff and then praising her performance afterward or just kind of. generally agreeing on stuff. they rarely seem to be on opposite sides of a debate. and they even both make puns. i feel like edna picked it up from lailah. and edna never being surprised when lailah dodges the question because of her oath. im just. why are they so in sync. why are they so used to each other. why do they know each other so well that they've picked up each other's mannerisms. what is their history. zestiria please tell me more what is going on between them i need to know

[igneouswyvern]

anyways zestiria swap au because im insane

i searched high and low (a few tags) on tumblr to see if anyone had done this before and i saw a couple but none done quite like this idea i had so i guess we can officially say i had an original idea maybe (yay)

so the first swap is mikleo and sorey. mikleo is a human raised by seraphim in elysia and sorey is a water seraph and his best friend ofc. their story starts out mostly the same bc you know sormik is sormik. but once they leave elysia MIKLEO is the one who becomes the shepherd. *evil grinning*

the next swap is alisha and lailah, the ladylake gang. lailah is the princess of hyland and a knight, and becomes mikleo's squire. alisha is the lady of the lake, a fire seraph, and mikleo's prime lord.

i deliberated about the rest of the party a LOT but i think i've finally settled on a rose/edna and dezel/zavied swap. i hate just swapping the two wind seraphim but i think rose and edna as a swapped pair works the best out of the possible combinations. so edna is the leader of the sparrowfeathers and the scattered bones, a merchant and an assassin. she was taken in as a child by eizen, leader of the wind riders, who became a pseudo older brother to her. after he died she carried on his legacy.

i think rose's eizen has to be brad, i can't think of anyone else for her. you know father figure = brother figure right? idk. but yeah they're both earth seraphim and rose's motivation for joining the party is mikleo's promise to bring brad back. i think these pairs also work because it kind of keeps rose/dezel and edna/zavied together as the established pairs, where dezel knew brad back in berseria days (LOL) and is thus tangentially familiar with rose, while zavied, former member of the wind riders and friend of eizen's, feels responsible for looking out for edna. so even though it leaves dezel and zavied in a really unfortunate position i think it's the best way to handle their respective dynamics.

also i just really wanted to make edna an assassin LOL

anyways that makes the party layout:

mikleo: shepherd

squires: lailah and edna

water seraph: sorey

fire seraph: alisha

earth seraph: rose

wind seraphim: zavied, later dezel

that's about as much as i've worked out currently. i really want to swap all the side characters around too but i haven't quite worked out who swaps with who. i think the most obvious choice is michael as the lord of calamity and heldalf as the previous shepherd, but that's as far as i've gotten. i wanna swap around symmone, mayvin, zenrus, maltran, sergei, lunarre, etc but i have no idea what pairs are good for this. idk

anyways yeah. it's there

[igneouswyvern]

After nearly two and a half years of being completely obsessed with Zestiria after I beat it way back in July of 2021 I finally decided to go back and watch the anime, Zestiria the X and, yeah I have some thoughts

I'm gonna start with the good. Definitely the best part was getting to see Rose and Alisha interact with each other, and Dezel and Zavied interact as well, since they were never in the party at the same time in the game. The anime format also did a lot of good for both Alisha and Zavied's characters (I'm so glad Zavied is something besides "the horny guy" now). Really the story works a lot better with the full party of 8 together towards the end.

The anime also gave me the one thing Tales games never give me, which is a full proper ending, and by that I mean showing us exactly what happened to the world after the final battle was won. I've never been very good at using my imagination when it comes to a peaceful and normal world so it was nice to see that fleshed out. While unrealistic I am also glad Sorey came back within Rose and Alisha's lifetimes because that always kinda bugged me in the game

Using Berseria as a legend in Zestiria was pretty cool considering they didn't get to do that in the game since it came out first. I thought it worked really well. However I am very confused on why they decided to animate the first three hours of post-prologue Berseria smack dab in the middle of the Zestiria plotline and just...never return to it. I don't know why they decided to do that, it didn't fit at all and the whole time I was just wondering if or when they were ever gonna come back to it. And if they were gonna do it for context's sake shouldn't they have, I don't know, jumped ahead to some part where Velvet actually fights Artorius?? It just felt so strange to me.

Onto some more bad: Why the hell did they make Maltran a good guy. She worked just fine as a twist villain. They just cut that entirely for no reason??

And there's one particular huge thing that they just completely changed. One of the most interesting things to me about Zestiria's narrative was the underlying theme that "you can't save everyone." From "everyone knows you can't purify a dragon" to that first moment in Pendrago when they encounter a hellion so strong that the only way to quell its malevolence is to outright kill it, leading all the way up to the finale of the game where Sorey has to kill Heldalf because he can't be purified. They learn over and over again that malevolence has consequences, and that the Shepherd's journey isn't without sacrifice, and that sometimes taking a life is the only way to save that many more.

And Zestiria the X just throws that whole concept out the window?????

First they straight up replaced the corrupted church lady in Pendrago with something totally different and far less impactful, just a corpse that can be purified. And then they go and purify a real dragon??? You can't just do that????? And of course that means they won't kill Heldalf either. He ends up unrealistically purified as well. It just bugs me so much. It goes against everything the original game wanted to set up. Sure it gave us a happier ending but we don't always need a perfectly happy ending! Life is full of heartache and tragedy and sacrifices, and the original Zestiria showed that in a really neat way. And the anime just goes and tosses all of it out the window. It just...it makes me really upset. Tbh the Pendrago sequence is one of my favorite moments in the game, and the dramatic sequence where you kill Heldalf is another favorite, and I was really excited to see those in anime form. And instead they just got binned entirely. My disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined :(

And for that matter they also kind of completely got rid of Sorey's character arc, as meager as it may have been. One of my biggest gripes with Zestiria the game is that Sorey is just too perfect a guy, he's too pure and innocent and never really makes mistakes and the game had opportunities to allow him to do that but were too scared to actually commit to it. But despite that, Sorey still has a character arc of some sort, mainly in what I mentioned above where he has to accept that sacrifices are inevitable but in some other ways too. Meanwhile the anime just removes all of that. Sorey pretty much never struggles, except maybe in matters of strength in the beginning you know, and he always gets his way--he never has to make a sacrifice and always saves everyone. All this culminating in The X Sorey being somehow even more flawless and perfect and static than game Sorey. And it's really disappointing to see because I was really hoping to get a more fleshed out Sorey as a result of the anime format.

Something pretty insignificant that bugged me was the fact that they pretty much never got to explore ruins or old temples or whatever else. The game's gameplay loop was pretty much go to a town, deal with some political stuff/watch some cutscenes, go to a ruin or temple and fight a boss, back to the town. Which worked really well for a game setting, but I recognize doesn't work as well in an anime. However, what the anime decided to do was completely cut out any ruins exploration and focus exclusively on the political conflict in the towns. I see why they did this, don't get me wrong, but I just can't help that it doesn't really feel like Zestiria when Sorey and Mikleo aren't nerding out over random stuff in ruins, you know? All that political stuff started to get really boring after a bit. And like so much of the game's story and lore takes place in those dungeons, so it just feels so odd to have them completely removed.

Pretty minor thing but I felt like they kind of messed up Lailah's character. Her whole thing in the game is that she knows everything about the Shepherd's journey but she's not allowed to talk about it because of her oath, so she does the whole inconspicuous whistling and deflecting to other topics the whole time. And I kind of liked it because she looks totally airheaded but it isn't true, she knows a lot she just can't tell us. But in the anime it felt like Lailah didn't know all that much about the whole situation, like she seemed just as surprised as the rest of the party in a lot of scenes. And I feel like that just kind of took all the life out of her character. She was already kind of generic in the game and taking away the one thing that made her interesting just made her even worse.

Okay I'm starting to make it sound like I hate Zestiria the X, I don't. I think I am just a huge purist when it comes to the original game and the anime did a lot of things contradictory to the game that I didn't like very much. But it's okay it was still a good anime and worth watching

It didn't really help me like my favorite characters (Sorey, Mikleo, and Edna) even more, but it did help bring the characters I was lukewarm about (Alisha, Rose, Zavied) about up to par with the original three in terms of how much I liked them, so that's nice. (Lailah and Dezel were more interesting in the game anyway.) I think if you took The X Alisha, Rose, and Zavied, and put them into the game's narrative, you'd have a pretty solid experience in total.

[igneouswyvern]

i never really cared for either character on my first playthrough but now that im playing zestiria again im simultaneously sad that dezel dies and sad that zavied is only present for the latter like quarter of the game. i feel like both characters are hurt by the fact that neither is present for the full duration of the game

dezel is kind of boring most of the game but they up his interactions with the rest of the cast in the wind shrine and it makes me sad that it takes so long for us to get to the point where he becomes interesting. and even then they didn't do nearly enough to flesh him out throughout the game. they could have done a lot with him if they hadn't gone in knowing he was gonna die from the start

and i think zavied is a pretty interesting character although i haven't gotten to the point in the replay where he joins but i know he's definitely a lamer character for having joined so late in the game. there would be a lot more time to get to know him and like him if he was there for more of the earlier plot beats. but he's also the token horny character and that makes him difficult to enjoy. and like the fact that the horny character doesn't join until this late also proves that the presence of a horny character isn't integral to the party dynamic anyways which makes him even weirder

i feel like ideally i would have dezel in the party for the full game and flesh him out better and zavied would be more of a recurring side character who doesn't join the party at all. maybe im just liking dezel a lot right now but im sad he's gonna die soon lol

[igneouswyvern]

every day i live in anguish over the pendrago arc of zestiria because i am and always will be of the opinion that sorey should have been the one to kill cardinal forton and not rose

listen i understand why they made that choice. i understand why they waited to make the drama of sorey's first kill in the final battle with heldalf. i understand that rose is the assassin and it tracks for her to be the one to do the dirty work and it makes sense for her to not want the shepherd to have to do that. i get it. i understand. however. i simply think sorey should have been the one to do it

it's such a turning point in his character arc as he learns that some people can never be saved and sometimes the death of one is what's best for the rest of the world. it's what makes him start to realize that he can't be the hero of every person ever. and that maybe death is better for the individual than living the way they do. and we can see it impact him (briefly). but can you imagine how much more he would have been impacted by it if the blood was on his hands. in the game he grapples with the fact that he wasn't able to save her. but imagine if he also had to grapple with the fact that he was the one who took her life. can you imagine what that would have done for his character

and i mean i would have understood if he was too pussy to do it, like he hesitated and wasn't strong enough to go through with it and rose had to cover his ass before he got himself killed. but like no. he was standing there, knife in hand, winding up for the kill and she just jumped in and did it instead. he was resolute, he knew what he had to do, he was fully prepared he was fully ready to deal the killing blow. and rose stole it from him. listen you can't just show him holding the knife, preparing to stab her, and cut to black and play a gross stabbing sound effect and NOT expect me to go wild imagining what could have happened when the lights came back on.

and okay maybe it's just me being sadistic and wanting to make sorey my punching bag. i do love doing that. but you have to understand where i'm coming from right. how much more interesting his character arc would have been if he'd had to be the one to make that kill. and that whole sequence and what follows just convinces me that the writers were too afraid to hurt sorey too badly. they wouldn't let him kill and his signature tales-protagonist-depression-arc lasts all of two minutes before he's back to cheery and nerdy and optimistic sorey. please. please i'm begging you im on my hands and knees please hurt sorey please cause him emotional damage please let him feel like shit for more than 10 seconds i am pleading with you zestiria writers give me this give me this one thing

[igneouswyvern]

I NEED TO REPLAY ZESTIRIA AND BERSERIA WHY ARE THEY BOTH 50 HOUR GAMES

[igneouswyvern]

i am so normal about zestiria (lying). my thoughts about zestiria are completely average (fibbing) and i definitely Do Not lie awake at night thinking about the game and inventing plot lines and analyzing character interactions (telling massive falsehoods) (i am mentally unwell)

[igneouswyvern]

sorry everyone. i am obsessed with a guy and im not gonna shut up about him

[zesty-lemon-bread]

I know everyone’s been making posts about how Steven Universe has affected them in their journeys of self-discovery, acceptance, and everything else, but I don’t think i’d feel right if I didn’t either, because it really did mean a lot to me.

I started a bit late, right at the start of S2, but it’s probably good that I did then, because that’s when the show really started to take on a more serious approach to issues, just as I was beginning to realize why I was feeling so awful about life and living at the time. 

I started with Pearl, who made her mistakes and felt awful about them, and even if her friends forgave her, she couldn’t forgive herself. And it eventually spilled over, and like myself, she really had to evaluate how she was living her life, and made the decision to move past and onward, but not forget what made her into who she is today. 

Pearl’s journey is where I learned about my problems, Lapis is where the work really started. Instead of just knowing about my problems and feeling sorry about it, Lapis taught me how important it was to want to change, and take action towards it.

Each time she acted selfishly I saw myself, making all these same mistakes over and over, fearing I’d be trapped in an endless loop of suffering and hurting others. Lapis looked for all the easy escapes, but each time it just led her to another prison, another Mirror that reflected her true nature. What it took was realizing just how, even though we had our own trauma, It didn’t justify making others feel how we did. Others have their own struggles, and we aren’t going to get any better unless we’re willing to help eachother, and not make it all about ourselves.

I grew with lapis, and hell, both of us aren’t done growing. Old habits die hard, I’ll slip up here and there, relapse into bad behaviors from my past and beat myself up over it. I still make mistakes, I still feel trapped in certain ways, but it’s ok, because every day I’m making little improvements. I’m always evaluating myself and trying to perfect the arts of self care, and caring for others, and thats what matters.

Every day my wings sprout a few new feathers, and I’m able to fly just a little bit higher.

Thank you Steven Universe and all your dynamic, complex characters, for an amazing, emotional, and memorable journey.

I can’t wait to see whats next.