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veronika-tserber · 1 year

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Natal SUN/PLUTO Aspects The Quest for Authenticity🕯️

Let me set the vibe, first.

It's a brand-new playlist, and I do accept recommendations!

The Sun in astrology is the archetypal King figure. It represents our consciousness, the pure awareness that I AM. Every planet has its own WILL, and the Sun’s will is to BE — to shine and express itself into the world. This is our personality and ego, but also our Life Force, a.k.a Spirit. When we look at the Sun and its aspects/house placement, we see what gives us a sense of fulfillment and purpose in life.

On the other hand, Pluto is the Lord of the Underworld, the Sorcerer hidden away from the light. It’s a generational planet that helps us heal and evolve spiritually by putting us in critical situations. Similarly to Uranus and Neptune, Pluto is an Outcast , a Divergent— the opposite of the widely accepted and adored King. I personally imagine him as a Quasimodo-looking character, but make no mistake. Pluto is immensely powerful.

When these two unite, it’s uncomfortable for both. Pluto feels exposed, and it desperately wants to hide away from the light, whereas the Sun feels like it’s been covered with a thick cloak of darkness.

The Aspect is Most Potent if:

it’s within 5 degrees (those are the orbs that I’m using)

it’s APPLYING instead of SEPARATING

it's a conjunction, square, opposition, quincunx, or quintile (harmonious aspects are usually less intense, especially the Trine)

SUN/PLUTO NOTES

📌 This is a highly karmic aspect - especially karma from their father or paternal side of the family. They are essentially breaking the taboos and secrets their ancestors couldn't didn't dare to speak about and confront. These people are the ILLUMINATORS who shift their family's paradigm around heavier, darker topics. They don't have to dig for any familial secrets, though. If they do their personal shadow work, they will break the chains of karma for all past and future generations.

📌They might become socially powerful and be known for their power/sexuality/mystery/criminal activity or occult/healing abilities. They could also become self-obsessed, or obsessed with their goals and desire to be known.

📌The Sun represents a woman's ideal husband, which is why in a woman's chart, this aspect can be really dangerous. She might be unconsciously attracted to (and even marry) abusive, controlling, really DARK individuals. They will mirror, and take to an extreme, her own unintegrated Shadow and/or unresolved daddy issues.

📌You might know these people for a long time, and not actually know them. Some of them have IMPENETRABLE defenses. When they do let someone in, they are terrified of being truly seen - with their good, bad, and ugly sides. This vulnerability is the cave they fear to enter, but it holds the treasure they seek. Deep down, they DO want to be seen and accepted as they are. But they most likely won't get that love from another person until they learn to love themselves unconditionally, first. They have to stop trying to run away and hide from themselves (or their father).

📌 Their father, and specifically his relationship to his Shadow, and the darker aspects of life, played a big role in the formation of their personality, and how they view themselves.

There are three scenarios here - 1) he was either a PUNISHER of the shadows (could've literally worked as a policeman, for example); he was an EXPLORER (psychologist, investigator) or he was a HEALER - occultist, energy worker, etc.

These are three levels of consciousness. If he punished the shadows - his and the world's - the more shame and guilt he could've projected onto his child(ren). These people might feel as if he's always monitoring their steps, and they can't hide anything from him - especially their mistakes or anything "taboo". If they were heavily judged or punished, they will grow up feeling guilty and ashamed of a very big part of what makes them human.

This affects how they view themselves - they can either see themselves as a Divine Child, with both the Yin and Yang, light and dark within or as a Beast, some sort of a Devil responsible for all the evil in the world.

They should know that whatever it was, it had nothing to do with them and EVERYTHING to do with their father's own degree of self-acceptance and wholeness.

Nonetheless, their relationship with him is/was intense, and there might've been a lot of power struggles involved.

📌These people are MAGNETIC in a way people can't explain. Even if they aren't traditionally "beautiful" or "attractive", they just draw others in. Powerful presence and aura.

📌 It might take them some time to realize the power hidden in their shadows. They are destined to become Alchemists, but how easily or quickly this will happen depends on their free will and desire to separate themselves from their father's projections/expectations.

The task here is to become SELF-AWARE. They can use a myriad of tools - therapy, meditation, yoga, energy healing, somatic work, OR ART to channel their Shadow and integrate it into their consciousness.

📌 During their lives, they are often called to the gates of the Underworld. They learn how to enter it fearlessly, and how to listen to the voice within. This process of illumination (Sun) will help them transform their subconscious mind (Pluto), and when they emerge from this metaphorical Underworld, their work and expression in the world will have a different quality, richness, and potency to it. This is how they step into their power and leadership - by making peace with the demons of the past.

📌 Introverted or extroverted? Both. It mostly depends on the specific aspect, but also on other placements. We know that Mars is Pluto's lower octave. So, in their early life, some of them might be quite extroverted, focused on worldly ambitions, and even be less selective about the people they let in their close circle. As they age though, their focus turns inwards. They can progressively become more introverted, self-reflective, and their goals/values can dramatically shift. As their vibration goes up, they go from being the Warrior to being The Wizard.

📌 If they don’t work to reclaim their power and express themselves truthfully and unapologetically in the world, they can become jealous and bitter. They can lurk behind the scenes of life, and try to sabotage those who do what they want to do, or they might try to destroy themselves. Depression is possible, as well as suicide attempts and risky behavior.

Pluto wants them to kill something about themselves, which is most likely their cowardice/pride/vanity/past conditioning. But not their physical selves. It's never about the physical, although it can feel this way. These people will either feed the Collective Shadow or help heal it. When they do the latter, they become potent forces of transformation for other people, as well.

📌 Life wants them to be humbler. They can carry a lot of pride and might try to appear as perfect and "spotless" as possible. They might be afraid of their reputation being destroyed or bruised in some way.

📌They are on a Quest for Love. When they learn how to forgive themselves and others, their HEARTS will open, and the light of the Sun will shine through. They can become truly unconditionally loving, and they have to start with themselves, first.

📌 Pluto is connected to our Divine Feminine energy (although it's not a feminine planet) a.k.a Kundalini. So, these people need to learn how to SURRENDER to the Divine. This is a major lesson, so for a good portion of their life, they might feel tempted to gain power through CONTROL and domination, but this will only worsen their karma.

As they will understand, the only real power is the power of Truth and Unconditional Love.

- Foxbörn

The Ask Box is open for specific questions, folks! 😊

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#sun square pluto #sun conjunct pluto #astrology notes #astro notes #astro observations #pluto aspects #sun aspects #sun pluto aspects #astrology #natal chart #birth chart #sun quintile pluto #sun opposition pluto #zodiac #sun pluto #astro community #Spotify

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literallyjusttoa · 1 year

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Some interesting differences between Greek and Roman myths (and other things) that I think would've been really cool to explore in HoO and ToA

Disclaimer: I am no scholar, and while I have tried my hardest to check my resources for accuracy, any sort of second-hand account of mythology has a chance of holding misinformation. I sadly do not have access to many primary sources, so this might not all be 100% accurate!! If you see something and you know it's wrong, pls let me know so I can fix it!

Anyways, onto the list! This is REALLY long, but the organization is gonna go like this.

Fact about the difference between Greek and Roman myths or worship.

Reason why I think it would be interesting to explore in the riordanverse.

and so on and so forth. This is really just for me to document ideas I've had, but hopefully y'all get something out of it too, read at your own risk, I suppose.

The Romans believed that after the Titanomachia, Saturn (The roman name for Kronos) fled to Italy and took refuge with it's king. Saturn eventually shared the throne with this king, and their kingdom was known to be joyous and peaceful. Romans actually worshiped Saturn bc of this, and he had a temple at the foot of Capitoline Hill.

Imagine if Percy arrived at Camp Jupiter, and one of the first things he sees is a temple to the titan he just spent 5 years trying to defeat. Like, I know he has no memories at this point, but I'm sure it would make him at least a bit uneasy. I think this would do a lot to sell the greek/roman schism in HoO, bc that whole plot point never really hit with me. We keep being told the Greeks and Romans hate each other almost instinctively, but other than Octavian, we aren't really shown it. Also it always seems like the Romans hate the Greeks and the Greeks are just kind of offended that the Romans hate them. Having actual tangible reasons for our main Greek character to feel uncomfortable around New Rome would a lot to make this actually feel like an equal issue.

2. In Greek mythology, Zeus was thought to be powerful, but not a supreme force. He was still beholden to the strings of fate. On the other hand, Jupiter was seen as the lord of life and death, having complete power and control over the cycle of life. He was more powerful than fate, and never came down from Olympus, as Zeus was known to do often.

Again, a HUGE discrepancy that I wish the books explored. This just kind of goes with the underdevelopment of Jason in HoO, but how cool would it be if Jason had this understanding of Jupiter. Like, yeah, in canon Jason points out that Jupiter is stern and distant, but it never gets to all-powerful controller of life levels. Having Jason see his father's distance as right and just would make him an incredible contrast to Percy, who just spent the last 5 books trying to get gods to be more open with their kids. It would add so much to Jason's arc about being torn between Camp Jupiter and Camp Half-Blood. As a Roman and Praetor, Jason understands why his father never speaks with him, but as a kid, he wishes he could know the humanity of the Greek side of his father. (ofc in pjo Zeus sucks either way but Jason doesn't know that)

3.Juno was actually seen as much nicer and more matronly than Hera, and was said to watch over every woman from her birth until her death.

I just think this would do wonders for Hera's characterization in the riordanverse. Imagine if we got to see her actually help one of the girls on the Argo II as Juno, especially since she basically put EVERY SINGLE MALE CHARACTER on the Argo II personally, yet had nothing to do with he female characters??? Seriously, Hera was behind Leo, Frank, Jason, and Percy being a part of this quest, but as far as I can remember, she had nothing to do with Annabeth, Piper, or Hazel being there. What is up with that? It would've been so cool to see Juno watch over Hazel, or help Annabeth (Could lead to some awesome character development for both Hera and Annabeth), or even just give some advice to Piper. Seriously we were robbed.

4. This isn't really a difference, but there is actually a period in Rome where Apollo does not seem to have been worshiped at all, or at least not in any major capacity. One temple is noted to have been built for Apollo in 430 B.C.E., but we don't really see him again in any sort of public way until Augustus takes power hundreds of years later. Seeing as Apollo was one of, if not the most popular Greek deity, this is a rather large change. Of course, once Augustus brings him back to the limelight, worship of Apollo becomes hugely popular, with many emperors claiming his moniker to show their own divinity.

This could actually fill a big plot hole in the riordanverse. It makes no sense that Apollo has 6-7 Greek children as of the end of ToA, yet he has no roman kids at all? However, in this light we see Apollo as a god who never really connected with Rome, and was a bit of a late runner when it comes to Roman worship. If you look at it from a character standpoint, instead of a strictly historical or mythological view, it almost seems like Apollo was holding onto Greece. The Romans started taking Greek colonies in the 200's B.C.E, and have fully taken the area by 146 B.C.E.. In this time, and even before it, almost every Greek deity was co-opted into Roman worship. Apollo, however, stayed steadfastly Greek, until Augustus started to pray to him for victory in battle. (Fun fact: Augustus actually credited Apollo with his victory over Marc Anthony and Cleopatra in Actium) This whole thing makes it look like Apollo just didn't want to be Roman, or at least he didn't want to let go of Greece like the other gods were. And it seems like he didn't let go of Greece at all in the end, as there are very few notable differences between his Greek and Roman depictions. From this, I take two things. One, Apollo was probably never Roman, at least not in the way HoO depicts a god being Roman. This creates some interesting implications for how Apollo lived during Roman times, but that's a whole other thing. Two, because of this, Apollo might not be able to have a Roman demigod child. After all, the demigods at Camp Jupiter are classed as such for being born to specifically roman counterparts of gods. If Apollo has no such counterpart, he can't have the kids. Of course, this begs the question of Octavian, but I'll expand on that later.

5. When you look into it, the Roman god Diana is actually much closer to many characteristics of Hecate than she is the Greek portrayal of Artemis (though this is mainly because Artemis and Hecate were mixed together often, even in Greek times.) It is said that Diana has three forms: In the heavens she was Luna, the moon; on earth she was Diana, the goddess of the hunt; and in the underworld, she was Proserpine, a malevolent master of witchcraft.

Ok, ok I know this actually makes no sense in the context of HoO, but wouldn't it be so cool if Hazel worked with Diana instead of Hecate. I just think it would really expand the arc!! Seeing a different side of Artemis, one of the godesses we've probably saw the most of in the original series, would be so neat. Also, Diana as Proserpine having connections to both witchcraft and the underworld makes her a perfect fit. IDK IDK I just think it would be really cool. PLUS it would give Hazel and Frank a fun little parallel bc Frank would be inspired by Apollo while Hazel was trained by DIana. Vague sun and moon parallels my beloved.

6. The job of an Augur is actually much closer to the Greek's soothsayers than it is their oracles. While oracles are said to interpret the god's will, soothsayers and augurs see the future simply through simple acts of nature. The way in which augurs tell the future actually has a lot less to do with the gods than one might assume.

I just wish this fact was mentioned in HoO bc honestly it clears up so much for me. Also when it comes to Octavian, I think it makes more sense for him to be blessed by Apollo instead of descended from him (I know he says he's both in the book but shhh wait let me keep going for a sec) Soothsayers and Augurs were priests, directly picked by the gods to divine the future on their own. While oracles were basically the gods mouthpieces, Augurs would be allowed to divine their own interpretation of the future from what they saw in nature, all condoned by whatever god blessed them (probably Apollo). In this way, the whole "Apollo is turned mortal bc he supported Octavian" thing makes a lot more sense. In canon, we only get told through a throwaway line that Apollo was "totally swayed by Octavian's promises of power guys, trust me." It always just seemed so out of left field to me. If I were to take it in a new direction, I would lean much more into the fact that Octavian was an appointed priest of Apollo, who abused his supposed ability for prophecy to cause war. Apollo is now directly stated to be Octavian's willful benefactor, so of course he'd take the fall this. It would show Apollo's callousness. He doesn't care for Camp Jupiter as much he does Camp half-blood (see point 4) so he let the position of Augur become corrupt with little complaint. Also, if Octavian isn't Apollo's descendant, my whole "Apollo can't have a roman kid" theory is FOOLPROOF HAHAHAHAAHAHAHA

7. While both cultures had large religious festivals, Rome's were much more centralized and documented. This is mainly due to Rome being ruled by a single republic or emperor, as opposed to Greece's city-states.

This isn't changing anything in canon as much as wishing there was more of it. Man, I wish we could've seen more of the Roman festivals. We're always just told they happen, but I wanna know the specifics! These are huge religious events! Are the New Romans actually fully worshiping the gods these festivals celebrate? How do the Roman characters we have feel about the festivals? Does Jason miss them while on the Argo II? Do Hazel, Frank, and Jason try to put on a small celebration for the festivals that pass while they're sailing to Rome? Let these things be important dangit.

8. When the Greeks sculpted, they focused on the ideal form, with emphasis put on the athletic male figure. Because of this, the face of the figure was not specific to any individual, as it was not the focus. In contrast, the Romans put a heavy emphasis on the face. In Rome, you wanted your lineage to be known, so you had your face sculpted with intense detail. That way, sculptures of your face could be compared with sculptures of your forefathers, or your children.

Again, I wish we were shown more of a difference between Greeks and Romans than "Romans are strict and organized, Greeks like to have fun" They're two entirely different cultures!!! Imagine if we showed the Roman emphasis on lineage in someone other than Octavian. Have Jason be genuinely proud of the affluence being a son of Jupiter gives him, let that be a flaw of his, a point of contention on the Argo II. Show how family pride can be important in arcs like Frank's, where he learns how to accept the fact that he is Mars' son, and grow into that role. Put the emphasis of these arcs on the fact that they're struggling with the ROMAN idea of family lineage. Let being from New Rome be an real identity. I feel like the synopsis of this whole thing is that I wish the Romans had whole beliefs that were wildly different from the Greeks. They could value different things, interact with the gods in distinctly different ways. We always see the conflict of swords between the Greeks and Romans, but never the conflict of beliefs, and I think that kind of sucks. Also it makes NO SENSE THAT THE ROMANS HATE THE GREEKS ANYWAY! Ancient Romans fucking loved Ancient Greeks! They saw the Greeks as their ancestors, adapting all of their religion and art out of a genuine appreciation for the culture. If anyone should hate anyone, it should be the Greeks, bc the Greeks were the ones who GOT CONQUERED. But in HoO, all of the Greeks just seem mildly disgruntled by the idea of Romans. idk it doesn't make much sense to me.

If you got to the end, I hope you got something out of my rambles. I honestly still feel like I have more to say about this stuff, so if anyone has any questions or wants me to expand on anything lmk! If not tho, thank you for reading!

#long post #trials of apollo #heroes of olympus #too many characters to count #sunny speaks #thank my 47 pages of art history notes and the book I just found on the history of greek and roman mythology for this boys #headcanons

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romanticizingmurder · 1 year

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i know ur blog has more of a jason focus not a dick focus but since u posted NTT it unlocked a memory: at some point (i think batman year 3?) dick compares loving bruce to loving an alcoholic father, like directly compares bruce's dependency on crime/he can be a good dad sometimes but he just... gets wrong sometimes! it's a take that i personally am obsessed with but idk what ur thoughts on it are/were, maybe esp w/r/t say, jason's backstory? >:3c

I've seen that page!! I really like it. So I think this is one where I have to make the disclaimer that I think actual canon on Bruce as a parent is incredibly inconsistent. Especially wrt Jason, his post-crisis time unfortunately was just so short I don't think we had time to see how that dynamic might have played out. The Cult has some interesting stuff in it (and gorgeous art) with Jason having to be in charge at points while Bruce is unable to be but that's only a 4 issue series.

So! Headcanon central:

I tend towards the idea that Jason was the kid Bruce most acted like a parent towards as a child. I don't think the level of parentification that Dick had was nearly so present for Jason and I think that kind of reflects in how they think about Bruce! Dick has this fear of disappointing Bruce but also of his absence harming Bruce. He feels like he needs to be there to watch out for Bruce and be his support.

Otoh, Jason's major post-resurrection crisis is fueled by this belief that Bruce has failed him as a father by not avenging him. In some ways I think part of why Jason can hurt Bruce so badly is that Jason doesn't feel that obligation to protect Bruce or be in any way the bigger or more mature person - that's his Dad.

I think one of the tragedies of Jason and Bruce is that they can't go back. Some things change who you are so completely you can never turn the clock back. Jason is still Bruce's son, but they'll never be like that again. I actually desperately want canon to have them both acknowledge that - that they're both grieving the loss of each other, and the loss of the boy Jason was who will never return. And maybe they can't have that story back, but they can write a new one, figure out how to exist with each other in ways that don't hurt, how to fit their sharp edges together. Okay sorry that was a tangent I have a lot of thoughts on changing and mourning re: Them.

In terms of the alcoholic analogy I honestly think Jason could go either way with it? Something I was thinking about with this is I think out of the Gotham vigilantes, Jason, Cass, and Bruce are the least likely to put down the mask. I'm not going into Cass because I'm not qualified but! For Jason, his civilian life is...over. He's been removed from the non-cape world for years. I don't think he's ever going to build it back up in a meaningful way - even when I picture him retired, I can't really picture him with non-cape friends. That's just me, though. But Bruce... Bruce can't stop, because he can't. He has a life outside Batman, but the guilt and fear and shame and sense of duty won't let him leave the cowl behind. So I think on one hand Jason might agree with the alcoholic analogy because his situation is different to Bruce's, on the other hand he might kind of just view them all as dependants on this lifestyle. They're all going to die in their masks (some of them twice).

And just in general, my preferred Bruce is deeply flawed but trying Bruce. I think Bruce is at times a pretty terrible father, in canon. Not for lack of love, but because he's a man with severe mental health concerns who refuses to get help and spends his nights in an endless and largely futile quest fueled by survivor's guilt. That doesn't make the best formula for a stable father but, at least for my headcanons, I like to think that he tries so damn hard. He loves his children. The tragedy is never a lack of love.

Sorry I don't know if I really answered your question but I guess here's a long ramble on Bruce and Jason's family dynamics?

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aero-sense · 1 year

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This level takes place in a forest that feels like a prototype Swamp episode. Not much happens in terms of world building, but now Haru has joined the group as a fourth player and it's great seeing his character expansion.

It takes me a while to put these posts out, and it's partly the way I tackle the levels. It's not fun jumping between three different game systems for each level, just to keep the story pace consistent. So for the sake of my sanity, I'll finish a level completely before going to the next system and hopefully update sooner.

This is not meant to be a critical review or a detailed walkthrough. All I will do is point out little details I notice or like. I'm doing this for fun, not to be accurate.

The Forest

Haru is a great addition to the team. Out of all the minor characters, he's the best candidate to join. He has a good dynamic to develop with the gaang and his backstory is naturally tied into the game's themes.

There are at least two occasions where Haru saves people from being crushed under rocks. It shows great improvement in his bending from his last appearance in the show.

I like how this guy was still injured even after we healed him. He's just doing it for the dramatics.

So while fighting enemies, Sokka can let out a war cry that will boost his stats, indicated by a orange aura. Sadly, for the longest time, I thought it was a glitch that Sokka will scream and combust into flames anytime he's hurt, regardless if firebenders were around or not. That includes fighting wolves in a raining forest. But it's quite in character for him.

Kind of nice that there's a quest where you help a woman seek repentance from her sick daughter, after tossing away her toys in the forest. It's suggested that the spirit of the forest made her daughter sick for her to learn her lesson, and it ends with the mother hoping her daughter will forgive her. Spirit nannies.

There's a quest where you rescue a bear from poachers and you have to sneak past without alerting them. The issue is that the characters can cloak but the bear doesn't, so no one notices or even cares about a massive, escaped bear walking past them.

Pretty in tone for Sokka to be moved by the mother bear-cub relationship (bets on him projecting?)

Interesting that the machines are targeting the poachers. I might have to revisit this detail later after finishing the game to know.

It's kinda creepy when the machines mob around you, because when fighting fire nation soldiers, at least you will overhear them making jokes and conversation before attempting to kill you on sight. But with the machines, it's nothing. Just this eerie, ticking silence creeping up beside you. Understanding it as an anti war message: you could reason a human to lay their weapon down, but you can't with a machine. (Let's not forget though that the FN are the ones that pushed for mechanized warfare).

Turns out one of the prisoners you free from jail in the previous level is the father to some of the men you save from the mine. It's a nice conclusion to that storyline, especially when delivered by Haru, who only recently reunited with his enslaved father.

I really like the ancestral bear's design, it has twisted horns like a ram and silly long fangs.

[DS]

When you join up with Haru, you fight the machines that are attacking the camp separately first. It's a great mechanic to introduce a new party member while also keeping players familiar with their og party members' fighting styles.

Ok ok so, Katara's perspective is that she does all the chores while Sokka gets to play warrior all day, but apparently Sokka's narrative is that Katara lazes around eating all the time while he has to go out and hunt.

Cute how Aang holds Haru in such high praise, even though since their last encounter, his earthbending skills were nothing too note-worthy. Also cute how Haru also praises the group in excess. There such good friends!

All we know about Yuan, the missing earth bender, is that he was Haru's close friend and was well liked in the village, similar to the previous missing bender. Haru has been to the earthbender training camp before, but I don't know if Yuan is from the village or Haru's people. I assume the former.

There's a side quest where you save some hog monkeys from poachers. Apparently it's illegal to capture them, though they are a real nuisance both in-universe and as a enemy in the other versions.

I like how everyone huddles around Aang when your playing him, a bunch of tall intimidating teenagers hovering over him for advice.

A photo of everyone leveling up, look at those radiant smiles!

Sokka being skeptic about a cave, repeats again in the Lover's Cave. The games land the mark for a lot of future plot beats the show was going to do.

When we beat up the bear, it huddles up and hides his face, like it's crying. It looks like we are just bullying it for kicks :(

[PSP]

So a different game mechanic, you can only have two people in the party at the time, as opposed to the full party of four. It's an odd choice, but much more manageable then switching between four characters, I suppose.

Ironically, I main Haru and Katara mostly for this version, while I main Sokka and Aang in the PS2.

The machines are a lot more threatening as enemies in this version. There's a mechanic that you can increase your defense only for certain elements, to prepare for the different types of machines. Personally, I find it a little annoying, but it makes a larger range of enemies to look out for than just firebenders.

Clever to use the endangered earthbenders as a reason to explore the forest, so players will get familiar with the map.

They unironically made Haru such a pretty boy in this game. It's near ridiculous how detailed they made his hair.

When choosing which party member will come along, Sokka states he'll go, Katara and Haru ask, and Aang is excited to go.

A lot of Haru's dialogue comes off as polite and a bit shy, but very hard-core during a fight. His idle animations is looking down, kicking his feet, and rubbing his head, coming off as an awkward teenager regardless. I like how much detail the game writers put into fleshing out his character while going off only one episode. Oh, and in the PS2 version, his idle animation is playing with his hair. It really made an impression on them.

Funny how in this version Aang actually cares about beating up a bear.

#i think this was the most boring level of the game so it only gets better from here #the next one should be exciting #atla the game (2006)#aang #katara #sokka #haru #game sense

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aotopmha · 10 months

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If you do all the sidequests and look up the lyrics of "Moongazing" it's very obvious that Clive survived. Metia goes out at the end because Jill's prologue wish came true, Clive was returned safely to her. That's why she smiles. "I realized that, no matter how terrible the night, dawn will always come. You will always come for me." The dawn came, Clive returned to Jill.

Yeah, at a point I skipped the side quests, but I do plan on going back and checking them out and people have been telling me this.

But I believe y'all.

I hate stories that play with death like this (and I adore FF14, which also has issues with death).

To elaborate on my issues with the thematic core of the story: Joshua surviving was on really shaky ground from the moment it was revealed he survived.

In fact, it is pretty much the central thematic element to Clive's character.

I think the Ifrit battle is absolutely fantastic character work and it's all based on the fact that Clive killed Joshua. But I gave Joshua surviving a pass because he is the Pheonix and Clive still had to put in the work to overcome his trauma.

If Joshua is alive, all of that struggle IS softened because well, the object of grief, Joshua, is alive.

And if Clive is alive, that revival has no cost whatsoever. He just defied death with no consequence whatsoever.

And this wouldn't even be this big of an issue if it also wasn't part of the thematic core of the story that life is suffering, but we move on regardless.

If Clive can get his brother back by just crying and wishing really hard and Jill can get Clive back just by wishing really hard, what was that entire talk about accepting humanity's suffering and accepting humanity's flaws?

What is the measure of suffering?

Clive and Joshua have been through a lot more than just losing each other.

Their father is dead, Clive was a slave for 13 years and being a Dominant was especially painful for Joshua.

Cid still died.

But aside from Joshua, Wade lived, Torgal lived, Ambrosia lived. Jill lived. Clive basically was handed almost everything back by the narrative.

The suffering he felt is obviously valid and character growth comes from a real place.

And the setup for the survivals is valid, too.

Metia has been there since the very first cutscenes. Ambrosia, Wade, Torgal and Jill were all off screen enough to believe it.

And we see the flaws of humanity in other strong ways.

Clive gained the power of a literal God. Of course he could revive Joshua.

But this is all stuck in the execution of the writing.

Joshua already lived to begin with. I think he just could not have had that fake death.

While Ultima is a god, it has been established Pheonix Downs actually can't bring back the dead. Throughout the series, they heal from unconsciousness.

And I even cried at that scene!

What was all that about not stooping on the level of an arrogant God? Nope, here, have all the dead back because you prayed hard enough.

And Jill went through some shit, too.

It's not like all of the *feelings* were undone.

But that 10 minutes at the end undermines the strongest themes really hard, even if it "makes sense".

It's so frustrating.

And I'd even give it an easier pass if Barnabas or Ultima were interesting characters, but I thought they were painfully one-note with maybe good ideas buried in there.

The final battle was mostly just repeating old character beats with less nuance and depth.

If Clive truly is as definitevely alive as the side quests imply, what can they do to fix the thematic substance?

This is like the most basic writing mistake *the first Pokemon movie* made.

So many stories do this.

Writing advice:

Don't fucking write a story about loss if you don't fucking want to kill characters. Depicting death and then undoing it is horrible for the sense of danger and reread value of the story, rather than an easy way to produce it.

There's plenty of other powerful themes to explore that don't involve death or simply have it at the periphery.

Not wanting to hurt your characters can still yield meaningful stories. (All you need is simply *some sort* of interesting conflict.)

I think the story simply would be so much stronger if either Joshua or Clive (or both) stayed dead.

But if they don't, I at least want some consequence to *literally reviving the dead*.

(I guess some can take comfort from that fantasy, but I can't because that's just not how people work.)

As I said above, if Joshua wasn't fake-killed to begin with, this entire thing would already be better, too. Because Clive wouldn't need to revive the dead. Let both of them fuse into the Ifrit fusion, share the destruction of the crystal and let them survive it and you've got an actual, even if loose, satisfying happy ending.

So what can potential DLC do to fix this mess?

I'm still keeping the possibility of Clive's death in here, as obvious as his survival might be from side quests.

- Maybe even if Clive lived, he's still somehow stuck in his mind or not entirely "saved" and this time Jill and Joshua have to work to truly save him. Would at least lead to some consequence for playing god and reviving dead people.

- If Clive died, maybe Jill and older Joshua could be playable, become heroes in their own right and work through their trauma. Grieving, but remembering him.

There's still plenty of summons to make into boss battles/playable.

That or they just make it an addition to main story because all of the magic IS gone after Ultima and there's no additional epilogue material.

Thank you for the ask!

#Final Fantasy 16 #Final Fantasy XVI #FF16 #FFXVI #FF #Final Fantasy #Asks

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pumpkinachai · 2 years

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So the reason I've been quiet, other than health issues and a toxic job I left within the past year, is this monster of a reference sheet. @jadebee and I have been plotting on Digimon AU's where Tamers have multiple partners. After creating Ribbons the Crusadermon last year, I decided to make another reference sheet similar to one I had already made, but this time around include an older Eikou, who is 18 in most of these AU's. Like the previous reference sheet, Veevay's Fresh, In-Training, Rookie, and Mega forms are to scale against Eikou. Same goes for Ribbons' Fresh, In-Training, Champion, and Mega forms.

[Reblogs > Likes]

A little bit about them below...

Eikou: Eikou is your typical American girl who likes to crack jokes, spew sarcasm, and crack heads. While she is guarded around strangers, those who earn her trust and friendship are met with a caring and fiercely loyal individual. On the other hand, those who earn her ire usually end up with a chancla thrown at their face accompanied by a colorful string of Spanish words. Behind her seemingly confident and tough personality, Eikou suffers from severe depression and PTSD after losing her father and being placed in the foster system, but wears a mask to hide that part of herself as she's afraid of hurting others. She deeply struggles with finding her place in life and ultimately finding a new family.Upon finding a Digimon in her back alley dumpster, Eikou is suddenly thrust into a large scale conflict within the Digital World. While she is hesitant to get involved at first, she ultimately decides to help the Royal Knights restore balance as it would be something her father would do.

Veevay: A true Knight like in the fairy tales, Veevay is level-headed, serious, and devoted to his duties and masters as a Royal Knight. There are times he has a short-fuse, especially regarding his current situation stuck as a Veemon and over the dramatic antics of his comrade-in-arms Crusadermon. He sometimes butts heads with his hot-headed Tamer Eikou when it comes to certain tactics, with Veevay trying to patiently think things through while the more childish Eikou is ready to act. The result is usually him reeling her in, unless there’s a chancla involved or the other digimon drag him into their juvenile shenanigans. Despite their differences, Veevay grows to appreciate Eikou for standing by him and having someone to relate to after the loss of most of the Royal Knights while Eikou deals with the loss of her father. During their quest, they learn to face their inner demons. Ribbons: Flamboyant, dramatic, and cocky are what best describe the effeminate Crusadermon. Ribbons finds beauty in many things and will not hesitate to let you know how wonderful and beautiful he thinks he is. He is a fellow comrade of Veevay’s in the Royal Knights, and he loves to tease said comrade given his polarizing calm and serious nature. At first Ribbons isn’t interested in Eikou, being more concerned with restoring his own pride and getting revenge on those who humiliated him. After he is forced to de-digivolve to Meicoomon and Eikou stands by him does he learn a little humility and begins to relate to her, especially after she reveals her own trauma and the two become official partners. During their quest, they both learn to lower their masks and be more honest with their feelings, even asking for help when they need it despite their fear of being looked down upon.

You can read more about all of them on my Toyhouse account!

#digimon #digimon oc #veemon #magnamon #meicoomon #crusadermon #my art

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bobatelevision · 1 year

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Why is Childe your favorite, of all the genshin characters?

oh anon im sorry that im about to talk your ear out ahahaaha

so initially before i started playing genshin, i had definitely already seen some childe fanart and while i thought he was cute i wasnt that deeply impressed, like okay an anime pretty boy whats new. so then i actually started the game, i got the liyue arc, and experienced the "hey girlie" scene. i thought that was kinda charming but im still not sold at this point. so im playing more through his quest and i liked him as a character, i was like "you alright white boy". him being pretty just sorta helped that too haha

i pulled him on his 1st rerun, and he was my 1st limited 5 star ever so i was pretty excited to have him for that reason. now idk if you actually play genshin, anon, but if you do you know how every character has a friendship level that unlocks more of their backstory. i read his entire backstory and honestly i feel its very well written. i kinda felt for him, because no child should ever have to experience what he did while stuck in the abyss.

but what really hit the nail in the coffin was his character story... oh man. seeing the amount of pain he would put himself through in order to protect his little brother's innocence is probs what really made me fall for him as a character. especially when you consider that he wants to protect teucer's childhood dreams as much as he can, because childe himself had his own dreams torn apart way too soon. you really see how much of a good big brother he is to his siblings. the amount of love he has for his family is what i love so much.

even if he is an antagonist and has really, really damaged morals as a result of being a child soldier enlisted by his own father (yup, theres daddy issues involved!!), i just appreciate that he is much more complex than whatever "fuckboy haha hey girlie" persona the fandom tries to push on him (which i personally despise but thats a tangent for another day lol)

TLDR: bad guy loves his family

#istina asks #tartagliaposting

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vicious-valor · 2 years

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Fun Theory Corner

(copy/pasta’d from another conversation because I had this thought at 3am and therefore no one should criticize me aklsjd)

OKAY I AM HERE I AM REMINDED ABOUT THE KOKIRI THING IT PROBABLY ISN'T ACCURATE OR NEW BUT IT'S FUN, HEAR ME OUT

So, playing through OoT, you get some conflicting information (imo) that can easily be explained on a production level but is more fun to turn into lore,

Namely, the deku sprout telling link his mother was a casualty of the great war, which the king brought peace to, which would mean that the war was still going on less than a decade ago -- but despite nothing in hyrule reflecting a warzone (especially considering botw is 100 years post-war and still looks like that in places, which is a system memory issue but is more fun as lore) and all of the tombs having clean bones in them (which is a ratings issue, but is more fun as lore --) a woman in Hyrule Castle town refers to this time as 'The Long Peace' which, to me, does not suggest less than ten years, so either hyrule was fixed by this wise king shaking his ass holding his 1-2 year old daughter to cast Magic Fix at a nat 20 to repair all of the damage that war brings to a land, or,

Link is not ten years old

Hear me out: Link has grown up in Kokiri forest, under the protection of the great deku tree, who has been waiting until the 'time was right' to give him a fairy and send him on his quest. The Kokiri, who do not age, act like they've known Link for a very long time, even though to them a decade would easily still see him treated like the weird new kid growing up from a baby, so what if, what if, he's been preserved for his protection

what if zelda's father isn't even the king who ended the war, but his successor or his daughter's husband

The whole game is about time being funky, and we know that magics have the power to preserve a living body (even though it is aging in the sacred realm, but that's on purpose), so it's not outlandish to consider the possibility that the deku tree and the forest have the ability to extend time, especially because Navi suggests that children who get lost in the forest become skull kids, while that other kokiri girl suggests that adults become stalfos

thank you for coming to my ted talk this has been: Rascal Thinks It's Really Funny That There's a Possibility Baby Link is Older than Ganondorf

#ooc #oot theory time #i'm....certain this theory exists elsewhere but it is so fun to think about #this brought to you by me and momo talking about nabs and gan's ages in oot and then oot being weird about timelines #this is me making lore out of production limitations as always i am your humble servant

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derekscorner · 2 years

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“Finished” Nier

I finally pushed through my run of Nier Replicant 1.5 tonight. My experience was very up and down. I had moments I loved but spent a whole lot of the time annoyed.

It was quite a jarring experience given how much I liked Automata. Which, I’m aware they’re very different games in function but given how the new Nier rerelease had some Automata shine put on to it I went in expecting less aggravation than I got.

The parts I enjoyed most were definitely character ones. I enjoy Taro’s darker- or rather, his unique storytelling. It’s a nice change compared to tropes you’d see more often. The fact he made Drakengard 1′s entire main cast out of tropes her personally dislikes is enough to get me to follow the mans work. lol

For Nier, the things I tended to enjoy the most was the small character interactions. Especially watching Kaine and Weiss give each other shit. I’ll never be able to hear the word hussy and not laugh again.

I loved learning that Weiss is scared of ghosts or that Kaine basically takes Emil camping being far nicer than normal. I also love that she doesn’t want Nier to know this preferring to maintain her “image”.

Nier himself I had the most issue caring about. Perhaps it’s just my western existence but I find his motivation hard to truly engulf in. I spent the game wishing Pappa Nier was in the game instead.

In the time I spent learning DrakeNier lore playing Automata I found Nier’s premise more engaging when Nier is the father, not the brother. I could by a Nier’s motives, and failings against humanity, more when he’s a father. The desperation of a parent is not to be underestimated.

Brother Nier is passable and some scenes do make more sense for this version but I personally can’t be as invested in this version. Although, I do like that Nier-Kaine dynamic.

What would the game be without the love between a murder hobo and her twink~

Sadly the game fell apart for me outside this. Combat is perfectly fine but I had a hard time playing the game. I’d have to force myself to sit down and do it because I was determined to at least do one route by my own power.

And you may wonder how I had such a hard time playing when I liked characters well enough and find combat fine as is. The simple answer is tedium. I tried doing as many side quests as I could.

I wanted to make sure I saw as much of the story as I could and not miss anything given Taro’s reputation. This was admittedly a bad idea because the sheer back track between this and story missions got to me.

It somehow felt frustrating to even go to a story mission after a point. I can not quite figure out why this is. Perhaps it was the constant back track & jog and perhaps some missions just were not fun.

After finishing part 1 I couldn’t take it anymore. I downloaded some saves and played part 2 onward achieving Ending D. The file itself only had Nier two levels higher than the file I had initially done so I didn’t cheese the game in terms of power.

I did however cheese the sidequests. This let me get an ending despite how cheap it would seem to some of you bigger fans. I’m also sure I missed a few story/world beats by doing this but I refused to fetch quest anymore.

The game was just doing something in a way that I couldn’t stand anymore even if I can’t quite place a finger on why. I also refused to do any fishing minigames. A hidden leveling system? 10 or so fish requests? No thank you sir never.

I left this game a bit sad that I couldn’t enjoy it but I can’t bring myself to replay this for a long time. The tedium is just too much, I’ll have to settle for my shameful hacked route D.

I eventually just youtubed the ending E which...left me with so many questions but that’s for a rant or talk with someone more versed in the DrakeNier mythos than myself.

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Editor Derek: I forgot to add that I seemed to be most interested with the story at the intro. I feel way more invested in the fall out and war timeline after Caim and Angelus fell into the Nier world.

This is to the extent that the shift from that intro to the actual story was as stark as my first time playing KH2′s intro in 05 to the story after Sora wakes.

----------

I’ll leave this on one final humorous note:

I had the audacity to kill shade Nier with a pipe. lmao

#nier #nier replicant #ramblings

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archer3-13 · 2 months

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impressions on the job questlines of FFXIV: A Realm Reborn

i was gonna put it off until i did the heavensward jobs, but those are different enough i feel confident in talking about these now. This is only impressions up to level 50 for each of these jobs and i'll be going over first how they all feel to play in a quick manner and then talking about the job questlines with a bit more depth on my opinions for them.

so, game feel. from best to worst, though spoiler warning i dont feel any one job feels outright bad to play.

monk. it benefits from pugilist being the most fun starting class to play in my opinion, is hurt a bit from stagnating when ya first get the soul crystal, but comes back around to being fun by level 50. well ya dont have any ranged poking options so when your avoiding attacks its either charge chakra or take a breather, the class more then makes up for it with how fun it is to get into a rythmn and when the chakra gauge starts autofilling after certain combos the whole thing is pretty much a lovely chefs kiss.

bard. this is about what i would want from a dps with buffing support elements and i find myself rather enjoying it. you have some nice debuff tools, some good buffing tools, and off ya go. its only issue i would say is that its basic attack rotation is... too simple.

warrior. aggressive tanking raar. well the starting tank classes start off near identical, when they get their soul crystals they begin branching into their own and i much prefer the warriors more aggressive footing.

dragoon. even at level 50 its kit just feels incomplete somehow, but other then that its a reliable useful class with good sound design and useful tools.

black mage. this one surprised me because thaumaturge is kinda a drag, but black mage really picks things up as a force of destruction thanks to its later tools being much easier to handle and use at successive rates.

white mage. ill never be super comfortable as a healer, but i do feel white mage is a pretty decent class to get used to healing on the whole. the levels ya get parts of its kit are rather inconvenient mind, but its kit is also just really useful on the whole especially when ya realize how valuable regen is.

summoner. it can feel fiddly at times, and parts of your kit feel kinda dubious. but on the other hand its fast and its kit can hit real hard once ya do get a handle on things. all around solid at the arr level of things.

scholar. well its faster and its tools more immediately useful, i actually find myself not liking this class as much as white mage once ya hit level 50. its certainly fast mind, but there are more parts of its kit i find redundant and it all feels a bit watered down on the whole.

ninja. i can appreciate what they were trying to do, but the mudras just slow everything down even if they are very powerful. plus a lot more of its kit ends up being redundant compared to other classes which especially sucks given rogue already had a shallower pool of skills to pull from.

paladin. im sure some people really like this class but the defensive tilt of the paladin just isn't for me.

so ya, theres the game feel. now as for the job questlines, we'll go from best to worst once more

dragoon. theres a good reason estinien got promoted to main quest relevant outside of the fact heavensward deals so heavily with ishgard. it tells a competent even compelling story, it has solid character writing, and it gets you doing things that feel unique or interesting enough. its all the strengths of what a job questline should be in essence, teaching you about the job in terms of how to use it but also the jobs relation to the world its suppose to exist in. all well still telling the story of a falling out between the dragoons golden child and his father figure mentor due to unresolved guilt and a lack of communication. as far as ARR goes this one gets the gold.

black mage. like the class this one ended up leaving a stronger impression then i thought it would. we start off strong with 'watch out for ye powers of hell, ye know not what ye trifle with' presentation and end with a naturally integrated 'the real power of hell was the friends we made along the way' kinda message involving beastmen friendships and the repentance of an old sinner trying to give his own comrades the peace they deserve. solid stuff. plus the quests themselves run the needle of fun, interesting and challenge.

white mage. i think what elevates this one is the quests which also run the gambit of challenging yet fun and interesting. in terms of story though this is good overall. nothing particularly revolutionary but i always enjoy a 'magic and spirituality relation' lesson, and it is telling a story about characters and growth, about long held traditions and culture and how beautiful it can be but also how it can restrict an individual or blind them with pride. with an appropriate if somewhat confusing conclusion of temporary spirit resurrection but hey it is white magic.

monk. i kinda enjoy this one as it gets more interesting and complex as it goes on, and windigart and erik become more interesting along with it. the problem is that the dragoon questline does what the monk questline does but better, both in a story sense and in a gameplay sense as well which is unfortunate. what does save the monk quest though is that it has a decent blend of humour to it and i like erik being the one to resolve things emotionally but also in defusing the situation by punching some sense into windigart something thats always tempting in stories like these. also windigart just gives you his shirt for the final piece of the outfit at the quests end which is hilarious.

bard. nothing particularly exemplary here but its still a good questline. you get a good appreciation for the jobs history, theres a working character arc for the job trainer that deals with trauma and ptsd in a respectful way. and well what your doing in the quests is kinda eh, its functional for getting the story across without being disengaging.

ninja. high production values and a ninja story send up save what is one of the more pedestrian stories. its fine for what it has going on, and as i said this is very much homaging ninja media in a fun 'ninjas but not in japan' kinda fashion. i think its problem is that karasu is its best character, tsubame is solid if ancillary, well the person whos suppose to be the 'main character' of the questline oboro is... the dim one. functional but not particularly exciting as a character either in what his journey as one is nor in terms of his personality. pretty fun in terms of what ya do mind, but again it has better production values on the whole.

summoner. this one rocks in terms of what your doing, with a strong flashy start and fun quests including faux primal fights with their boss themes kickin in and everything. the problem wit the summoner arr quests is that in terms of character and story its shallow as fuck. tristan presents some initially interesting questions until being revealed as just some asshole whos making deals with ascians, and other then him the story of the summoner quest is just focused on the learning how to use it as opposed to learning about it. i like the job trainer though even if i cant remember her name, shes fun.

warrior. your lucky that your kinda cute curious gorge. a whole lot of faffin about doing nothing of particular interest until a sudden last minute plot twist of gorge being more culpable for problems then initially appeared and taking the spot of your fight for the quest instead of the expected opponent. this quest is thankfully saved from being the worse by its characters being overall pleasant and for atleast not wasting time. though to an extent everyone involved in the quest almost comes across as too reasonable for whats happening.

scholar. ya do a whole lot of boring stuff for this questline in ARR right up until the end when suddenly a whole bunch of stuff about nym comes up and the tonberries. i definitely wish that was all more of its own quest and story stuff because its a lot more interesting then the job trainer who is just... so bland. wall paste bland. and as noted the quests themselves leading up to it are pretty boring themselves.

paladin. fuck the paladin ARR quests. they're both boring and actively infuriating at times with how stupid and irritating its job trainer is. and the quests themselves are equally boring, though thankfully not irritating.

#final fantasy xiv #ffxiv #ffxiv arr #final fantasy xiv a realm reborn #impressions

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adlbeay · 3 years

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I wanted to talk about the themes in the Walk in the Dust event. The story of Arknights has always had a high level of thematic consistency, but it’s especially prominent in this event. I feel like a lot of the discussion of the story in certain places comes down to “lore” and surface-level plot details, so I wanted to get this out there somewhere.

The two big ideas that are covered in Walk in the Dust are that of revenge and the homeland. Let's talk about revenge first. Long post and story spoilers under the cut.

In the beginning, we are introduced to Elliot, aka Passenger, who by the time we meet him, is an aimless husk of a man. He is utterly empty inside despite being the most powerful figure in the Reefsteep black market, with vast wealth and political influence under his thumb. Having completed his decades-long quest to slay everyone who was involved in betraying his teacher, he has no more goals for his life. After killing the Lord Ameer of Ibut, the last of his targets, he realizes that the revenge he had been pursuing was ultimately empty, that the weapons he built and the schemes he engineered to that end no longer moved him. Even the death of the Lord Ameer didn't matter one bit in the political landscape of Sargon.

As for the Sargon army... We live in different times now. The ruling Padishahs simply care not about what is happening here in this barren wasteland. My guess is that it matters not to them whether it's the father or the son that's in charge. Actually, to tell the truth, it hardly matters to me either.

Ultimately, no one cared if the Lord Ameer was murdered or simply died in an accident, not even Elliot himself. Sargon continues to be exploited by the Columbian military and the ruling Lords. Professor Thorne remains dead. His research, once entrusted to Elliot to prevent it from becoming a weapon of war, has nonetheless been used by Elliot himself to bring even more death. Now, 22 years later, Passenger sees finding Kal'tsit as his only path to salvation, so that she can once again give him a purpose like she did when she rescued him the first time.

Folinic's mom, Lillia, also shares the same kind of story. Her husband was killed in Chernobog when the count decided to purge the researchers working on the sarcophagus device. Among the children of the families broken up by this incident are Lyudmila (later Crownslayer), Alex and Misha (later Skullshatterer), and Luisa (later Folinic). Lillia finds Kal'tsit after months of searching, intending to take revenge on Grand Duke Vanya not just for her husband, but also for Luisa, who never got to know her father because of it. Kal'tsit tries to talk her out of it, even during the final phases of the plan, but Lillia's mind is set. She entrusts Kal'tsit with taking care of both Luisa and Lyudmila, as she knows she won't be able to come back to live a normal life after this. And... she succeeds. Although it is Kal'tsit who ultimately administered the poison, their plan works flawlessly and Duke Vanya is finally dead.

Except it still ended up being completely meaningless. The Grand Duke was in a glorified nursing home already near the end of his life, and if Kal'tsit didn't kill him then some other conspirator from the Ursus political backstage would have done it anyway. He was already crippled and blind, and as we find out during the confrontation with the Emperor's Blade, even Kal'tsit only agreed to Lillia's plan because it defused the conspiracies of other powerful figures who would have used the Duke's death to spark another rebellion. The only thing that Lillia ended up accomplishing was making sure that Louisa would grow up without both a mother and a father, and Lyudmila would never get the answers she really wanted about her family's death. And, although she ended up not doing it, she was even also planning to go back to Chernobog to kill Sergei, Alex and Misha's father, for his betrayal.

And this carries on through the future outside the event. Crownslayer ends up joining Reunion because she thinks it will give her the answers she wants and avenge her father. Folinic almost lets her anger at Atro's death get her into a confrontation with Wolumonde. In the end, Crownslayer is stopped by Kal'tsit and Folinic is calmed down by Suzuran, but we might be able to imagine what would have happened if they managed to carry out their vengeance.

The theme of homeland is one that's intrinsically tied to Kal'tsit and has at least a bit of relation to the broader story outside of the event. It's harder to talk about since it's not clearly split into individual stories like previously, but there's at least one character that exemplifies this theme the most: Old Isin.

Old Isin is appropriately to his name, old as rocks. He remembers being a servant to some lord of a long-lost city that very few even know once existed, and spends his time telling fortunes while trying to seek out people who, like him, also share that past. According to Kal'tsit, the city's people were scattered when it was destroyed, and now only Isin even remembers the origin of the name "Reefsteep". Even then, Isin only has vague memories, and believes it to be his unforgivable sin that he has forgotten so much about the city.

Old Isin originally helps Kal'tsit and Elliot because he hopes that she can help him remember about the lost city, and thus absolve his "unforgivable sin". And Kal'tsit indeed does help him. Isin begins to recall the conquests of armies a thousand years ago, something even with his age he should not have been a part of, much less remembered. Kal'tsit dispels the illusions clouding his memory, and reveals that what Isin remembers is only the stories that the padishah recounted to him, that the glory of his old city was only a memory of another memory. In truth, the city in Old Isin's memory was merely a stepping stone for the padishah's ambition to conquer the uncharted deserts, and was abandoned just as easily when that campaign failed. His homeland's glory was just an illusion created in his mind by the padishah's charisma.

Which brings us to the Emperor's Blade. Wherever he stands is the dominion of the Empire of Ursus. Whatever he does carries out the Ursus Emperor's will. Or at least, that's how the Royal Guards imagine themselves, single-handedly carrying out their homeland's legacy. Kal'tsit lays it out clearly:

Kal'tsit: Tell me, what does the current Ursus Emperor think of the Pine Valley affair? Or do you mean to tell me the seeds of that uprising, the origins of the crisis were all the will of the Emperor? Feel free to keep deceiving yourself, but the truth is the young emperor is unaware of the events that transpired there. You believe he has no need to know. You... all of you seek a bygone era. You are just caught up in the former emperor's grand vision!

As does Patriot in Chapter 8:

Patriot: I fought with your fathers. Your strength and tactical acumen are no less impressive than theirs. But you look at the Ursus of those times with rose-colored glasses. What you see is nothing more than your wild fantasies.

The Royal Guards are described in not too unclear words as soldiers who probably believed too much of their own grandiose affect. They are unparalleled fighters, to be sure, but it isn't hard to infer that those words about executing Ursus's will and each Royal Guard being his own nation are words intended to strike fear into their enemies rather than statements of any real truth. Indeed, if you know anything about the internal politics of Ursus, the idea of "Ursus's own will" can be seen as more of a nostalgia at a bygone era when Ursus was, or at least seemed, united in conquest under the previous Emperor. The perceived glory of their homeland is what motivates the Emperor's Blade, but like with Old Isin, the truth behind it is shaky at best.

We also have the contrast between the retired veteran at Pine Valley and Grand Duke Vanya. While talking to Witte, the veteran cuts off one of his own fingers, claiming that the scars he has suffered in Ursus's wars, once considered symbols of his glory and honor, were ultimately meaningless, and he wants this self-inflicted wound to be his only legacy to Ursus. At the same time, the Grand Duke is postulating about how the seeds he had sown in the winter would give birth to beautiful flowers. Even though his actions and the crimes he committed never bore fruition, he is convinced even in death that Ursus's soil will bloom.

The issue of a real or imagined homeland, and its loss, is also shared by the Sarkaz as a whole not only in this story but in the main story and many other events. It's even arguable that Rhodes Island's mission to help the Infected was originally inherited from Babel's goal of establishing a stable homeland for the Sarkaz. After all, as pointed out in many places, the Infected and Sarkaz share much of the same discrimination.

Sarkaz Mercenary: Home...? How could us devils... us Infected possibly have one... Kal'tsit: The Sarkaz have tried to rebuild 'Kazdel', their home for centuries, though they have never succeeded. Everyone has a different idea as to what the term 'homeland' means, but as it stands right now, Kazdel is perhaps as close as you can get to the term's original meaning.

And in Twilight of Wolumonde:

Armed Infected: We’re going home? To what home?

Mudrock: Kazdel. There may be no place for Sarkaz outside of Kazdel. But in Kazdel, there is a place for you. Not because of tolerance. But because there is... nothing there. Kazdel... is where the homeless go. A land of rootless people.

So what does all this have to do with Kal'tsit?

In the ending cutscene, Passenger asks Kal'tsit whether this "Rhodes Island" is yet another passing persona to be used to accomplish a goal and discarded when it's complete. Like the persona of the Trusted Advisor, or the Servant, or the Laterano Cleric, will she abandon Rhodes Island as well? Kal'tsit initially puts up a front saying he has no right to ask, then bluffs about having thousands of answers, but is pushed by Passenger saying he'll even accept a lie. In one of the only times we get to see Kal'tsit faltering, she actually has no answer to this.

Unlike the other characters we see throughout the story, Kal'tsit has no homeland. No matter how fake or illusory it is, Old Isin and the Royal Guard have something to believe about a place where they can belong. The nobles in Victoria, as incompetent as they appear from the outside, are dedicated to defending the peace of their home despite having no ruler. Even the ostracized Sarkaz can ultimately go back to Kazdel, as unpleasant as that might be. But while Kal'tsit wanders the earth to keep the homelands of others from falling into chaos, she has no homeland of her own to go back to.

In one of the trailers for Chapter 9, we hear a recording from Theresa, addressed to Kal'tsit: "I hope this Rhodes Island can be a place to call home, a place you can always return to."

#arknights #arknights spoilers #kal'tsit

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echodrops · 2 years

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Finally Finished Endwalker

I was delayed a lot by work, but I finally managed to finish Endwalker and boy do I have Thoughts™.

Under the read more to hide spoilers, but if you’re on mobile and the read more didn’t work, please be aware the rest of this post is full to brim with

Endwalker spoilers!

Things I Loved:

1. That entire sequence in Garlemald hit like a truck. Watching Jullus recognize the trauma he had experienced was deeply moving. “Alea Iacta Est” was one of the most atmospheric and stage-setting quests in the game.

2. The humor sprinkled in throughout that kept the otherwise ridiculously dark storyline from becoming too overwhelming. Finding out Estinien is actually terrible with money, that Urianger curls into a ball when he feels sick, and that Alphinaud has fanboys was all so emotionally relieving after the literal crushing despair of the plot’s main events.

3. Vrtra. Just... Everything about Vrtra, especially his relationship with Estinien. Watching Estinien play big brother to a fifty-ton dragon with self-esteem issues is just so heartwarming and fantastic. I absolutely love the way dragons are handled in FFXIV--they both fulfill that ancient dragon lore itch, of the towering beast that ferociously guards its hoard (in Vrtra’s case, the hoard is people), but the FFXIV dragons are also all incredibly unique characters with decidedly human personalities, challenges, and feelings. Seeing Estinien find such respect and care for the First Brood continues to delight over and over again.

4. Lunatender... Lunatender...

5. The character interactions were absolutely what makes Endwalker. FFXIV in general would not receive nearly as much acclaim if it weren’t for the genuine love that goes into the writing of each character and their interactions with others. Alphinaud proving himself to his father, Urianger finding closure for Moenbryda’s death through her parents, sharing stories of joy with Venat on the wall in Elpis, Emet-Selch’s utter refusal to be seen as emotionally vulnerable... Every moment of the story was overflowing with the writers’ love for their characters, and the tiny interactions between these figures who we have known and cared for for so long elevate Endwalker into something truly magical. I cried like seven times, I don’t know about you.

6. Azem. The concept of Azem in general. The absolute care and attention that went into building the concept of Azem and tying it directly into the player’s literal journey from a level one newbie adventurer to a god-slaying Warrior of Light is just incredible. Every time the idea of traveling, drinking in the wonders of the world, and the hint of adventures still left to be enjoyed comes up in the story, the profound feeling of love this triggers in the player is nothing short of masterfully done. Being “the Traveler” is simply wonderful, both in the game and as a concept applied to the real-life players. Venat being the previous Azem was a super clever way to make players immediately care for her.

7. Related to this, the cultural influences on each zone truly give the game a global feeling. Experiencing India in Thavnair and revolutionary Russia in Garlemald (this last one surprised me; always thought it had a more Roman vibe), the ancient Greece of Elpis, and the hilariously British feel to Sharlayan creates the sense that the world of Etheirys is as wide and varied as our own. Zones are good stuff in this expansion. Ultima Thule left such an impression on me, I’m still thinking about it now.

8. The music. I don’t even need to say anything else. I resented every quest sound and battle sound effect in the last zone for interrupting my listening experience.

9. The new side characters. They really nailed it with the side characters this time around. Erenville’s push to unionize the gleaners was fantastic, Loifa getting clowned on in his own quest line was endearing, Matsya’s struggle in the jungle, Ahewann’s sacrifice... Incredibly well done side characters throughout. Hythlodaeus is single-handedly the best ancient.

10. There is a lot of underlying allusion and connotation to unpack with Meteion, especially in terms of stories like “the bluebird of happiness” and the--I’m sure--intentional references to alchemy through the concept of the “Bird of Hermes.” Although I didn’t quite think that this story had the depth of allusion that Shadowbringers did, it’s not without its Easter egg bonuses for those who are well-versed in literature.

11. Endwalker selected a “moral of the story” and ran with it. This expansion had a point worth making about life and finding joy in our experiences even though we all also experience suffering. It is a valuable and timely message that undoubtedly hit many, many players very hard.

Things I Disliked:

Hoo boy. Where to start. Listen. If you take Endwalker at its surface level, it is the pinnacle of classical JRPG. It absolutely feels like being back in the 90s, playing FF6, FF7, FF9, etc., the games that reshaped your very understanding of JRPG and 90s’ video games in the first place. It has all the hallmarks of truly classic Final Fantasy through and through: quirky party members, the bizarre mash up of technology and magic that just somehow works in concept, the weird jokes, your party members following along behind you like ducklings, random mini games that appear without warning, the bosses that literally stepped out of Yoshitaka Amano artwork, the spectacular, over-the-top battles with planets being thrown around, and most notably... a high-stakes story line that makes absolutely no sense if you think about it too hard.

I loved everything about Endwalker except the actual plot. On an individual level, the dialogue of the characters was masterfully written. Everything had an incredible emotional impact. But it’s putting it gently to say the plot was a mess.

Fandaniel wants to kill everyone because he’s actually Amon, who wants to kill everyone because he enabled the collapse of his own society, because he’s actually Hermes who accidentally initiated the downfall of his society and killed everyone because he’s a member of PETA--

The elder primal, Lord of Darkness Incarnate you were looking forward to fighting for eight years is nothing but a husk to be possessed by said ancient clown and your character will kill him 1/4 of the way through the story as if he were nothing more than a stepping stone only to realize you done fucked up and now the deaths of thousands of people are on your hands--and at no point in the story will anyone ever say “Man it probably would have been better for you to not stand there and watch dumbly while Fandaniel possessed Zodiark, WoL. You could have interrupted his monologue at any moment. Thanks for kickstarting the Final Days again, bro.”

Half way through your story, the narrative will be high-jacked by a bunch of talking rabbits, who, while cute, also serve as a walking deus ex machina plot device to dump anything you could possibly need for the rest of the story directly into your character’s pocket, all while no explanation for their existence--which breaks several previously established rules of the game’s world-building--is ever given.

And then we get the fucking time travel. Let’s actually just put aside the frustrating idea that this entire scene contradicts the pre-established rules of time travel in FFXIV (that you can, in fact, change the past, and doing so just creates splinter timelines). Did I love going to Elpis and seeing Emet-Selch, Hythlodaeus (truly a joy), and learning about Venat? FOR SURE. Did Hermes pose an interesting moral dilemma in his love for all creatures great and small? Definitely. Does any of the rest of it make sense with the rules FFXIV established earlier? Not in the slightest.

It was literally laid out in previous works that things created with creation magic do not have souls. They can acquire souls by accident, spontaneously at the time of creation, or their off-spring can eventually acquire souls if they adhere to the natural order of the world. So why does no one fucking bat an eyelash at Meteion? Where did her soul come from? Is Hermes really so constantly overwrought by the deaths of subjects that, for the most part, shouldn’t even have souls?

Then we get the memory wipe nonsense with Kairos, which, honestly, while another painfully obvious plot device, would at least have made the entire fact that we went back in time to Elpis no longer a plothole-inducing nightmare... But Venat isn’t caught in the memory wipe.

Venat isn’t caught in the memory wipe. Which means she knows everything. She knows Meteion is the cause of the Final Days, she knows what is coming with Zodiark and Hydaelyn, she knows the future of mankind...

And she does nothing to stop any of it.

She lets the apocalypse happen. She lets Zodiark happen. She makes the Sundering happen.

“Oh but Echo,” I hear you saying, “the Convocation wouldn’t have believed her so she had no way to stop the Final Days from happening.” Absolute nonsense. HERMES KNOWS ABOUT DYNAMIS. You’re really going to tell me that Elidibus wouldn’t have at least listened and considered what she had to say? That Azem--who was still on the Convocation at the time--wouldn’t have sided with her if she told them an alien entity was attacking their planet? Absolute nonsense through and through.

“Oh but Echo, she had to let Zodiark happen because there was no way to shield the planet from Meteion’s Dynamis without him.” The story is really trying to tell me that people who can create entire living beings from thin air could not have come up with a better plan to shield their planet than CREATING A GOD if they were given proper warning and actually knew what was attacking them? More nonsense.

“Oh but Echo, she had to Sunder the Ancients because she needed people who could deal with despair and manipulate Dynamis to defeat Meteion.” Again, is the story really trying to tell us that there was no other way than BREAKING REALITY to develop beings capable of manipulating Dynamis? HERMES CREATED METEION. My head hurts, guys.

“Oh but Echo, Venat had to Sunder everyone because they were seeking perfection and seeking perfection is what leads to the stagnation of civilizations! They would have been their own downfall if she let them stay that course!” The story doubles down on this idea that “perfection leads to stagnation” so many times over the course of the latter zones that it’s actually painful, but it’s portrayed in such a stupidly black and white way that it breaks immersion in an otherwise fairly politically realistic story. Are you really trying to tell me that every single society in the universe that ever achieved health and prosperity eventually devoured itself from the inside out because of unflagging extremist values and that none of them ever managed to just... modulate themselves and tend toward mediocrity again? None of them ever managed to change course?

There was really no other way to prevent cultural stagnation than breaking people’s souls into tiny pieces and inventing the concepts of war, famine, disease, suffering, and violent death? No incremental social change? Ancients can create gods but can’t create the concept of activism? My head really, really hurts.

“Oh but Echo, Venat had to do all those things because she knew the WoL was from the future and she had to protect the WoL’s timeline and people too.”

Yes, the people she created by fucking up so badly in the past.

Being more serious, the real issue with Venat’s actions after Elpis is that they have nothing to do with her genuine character. None of the choices are organic. Instead, they are all done in service to the plot. The Final Days needs to happen, Zodiark needs to happen, Hydaelyn needs to happen, and the Sundering needs to happen all because the pre-established plot demands that they do. Venat’s choices after Elpis don’t happen because they are genuinely how a person in her role and with her personality would actually act--they’re just what the plot NEEDS her to do. She becomes nothing more than a sock puppet for the story rather than actually having any agency of her own. Couple all this with the retcon to Hydaelyn’s motivations that happened with Shadowbringers, and we have the recipe for truly bungled character.

And the stupidest thing is that none of these questions needed to exist--if Venat had been caught in Kairos’s memory wipe too, we would have had no doubts about her motivations and would have just said “She did all those things because she didn��t remember the future; she was only trying to stop Zodiark. She didn’t know about Meteion and had no idea they could have stopped her themselves all along...” etc. If she had just forgotten like Emet-Selch and Hythlodaeus, there would have been no issue, so why???

And that bungling occurs at all levels, introducing as many plot holes as there are shards of the star. Where did the Loporitts get their souls? How do the Loporitts have creation magic? Why would Hydaelyn tell the Sharlayans to build a spaceship when the Ancients KNOW HOW TO CREATE TELEPORTERS? How did Hydaelyn “Send Fandaniel far away”--HE CAN TELEPORT!! Why turn the moon into your escape device when it also houses Zodiark? Oh no, our memory has been wiped by this mysterious Kairos “explosion”! It sure would be convenient if we had a magical power that let us view memories left behind, imprinted on each location... Yeah, too bad that doesn’t exist, right?

Then we get to the main message of the expansion: life is hard, but you can’t give in to despair. Totally fine. Great message even, very meaningful and relevant to our time. But then the story applies this message seemingly randomly.

If it had just been a straightforward: we’re all mortal, death is inevitable, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t make the most of life, it would have made perfect sense. The problem is that they also had the dimension of having the utopian world of the Ancients. So they had to figure out how to justify the downfall from utopia to painful mortality, and then still give people the message that life was worth living. Their solution to this conundrum was to suggest that the downfall of civilizations that seek perfection is inevitable, and that the act of seeking perfection is itself what causes cultures to collapse, and therefore mortality and failure is necessary for society to keep on persisting.

But then they’re all over the place with this idea. The dragons were literally doing nothing, just living their lives, and death came for them anyway. Sure the ancients might have been on the path to stagnation, but it wasn’t stagnation that wiped out their society; it was entirely by random chance that Meteion happened to experience what she did and happened to be able to control Dynamis the way she could. Seek perfection and you die. Don’t seek perfection and... you still die.

If any society that strives to eliminate war and famine is doomed for a downfall, then what has been the purpose of all our Warrior of Light’s peacekeeping and nation-uniting actions up to this point? We’ve spent five games’ worth of time and effort now trying to eliminate Etheirys’s wars, heal the sick, fight for freedoms--only to now hear that the only reward of the very course we’ve whole-heartedly committed our characters to for eight years now might be the eventual fall of our planet?

The ultimate point of the story is that nihility is terrible and mankind’s greatest strength is his ability to hold on to hope and not give up despite facing endless suffering. That living and pursuing your dreams in life is essential to continuing to lift yourself from the dust again and again... But also, don’t pursue your dreams too hard because if you succeed in achieving all your dreams, YOU’LL KILL YOUR ENTIRE SOCIETY.

In trying to make a powerful statement against nihility but also using fantasy races of immortals as their examples, the plot becomes an ouroboros that eats itself: The more your character strives to help people, end wars, unite countries, and make the world a better place, the closer Etheirys comes to perfection--and therefore, apparently, to total fucking annihilation.

Endwalker tried to tie too many disparate plot threads and references together to really create the sensation of a finale, but in trying to tie so many threads together, they created a tangle that will unravel if you think at it too hard.

And just... the tension was never where it needed to be in the last half of the story! How were we supposed to be afraid for the scions sacrificing themselves in Ultima Thule KNOWING that Hydaelyn had just specifically given us the power to bring them back from that exact thing??? When base Shadowbringers was ending, I was completely on the edge of my seat, wondering what would happen, how we’d overcome both Hades and the light, how we’d get back up to do the fight, how our character would get out of the recreation of the Final Days... And when Ardbert handed us his axe and G’raha summoned champions from beyond the rift, it was like watching the puzzle pieces all fall perfectly into place. The feeling of satisfaction was immense. Watching all the NPCs gather in Sharlayan was nice, but there was never any doubt or concern for that obvious outcome. There were no stakes because everything was telegraphed so blatantly. The creation magic, the personal teleporter... Ultima Thule’s plot got the wind taken out of its sails because it was supposed to be about our character “holding on to hope and not giving into despair,” but because it was blatantly obvious that no one was in any actual danger and all the scions sacrificing themselves would be immediately undone in the end, the story in Ultima Thule gives us nothing to despair over and nothing we would desperately need to hope for either. It was disappointing to not get to experience those feelings fully because the plot devices were simply way too obvious.

Anyway, look, I can’t think about the plot for much longer or I’ll get brain cancer, so let me just talk about something else:

The pacing of the story varies wildly, and the order in which you start the MSQ really impacts the flow of the beginning of the expansion.

Splitting players in to two different zones makes sense to reduce the load of players in opening areas. Doing this in Shadowbringers worked well because whether you picked Alisaie or Alphinaud, you got a similar brief experience and then were able to move into the first dungeon without a noticeable delay. However, in Endwalker, if you choose to start in Thavnair instead of Sharlayan, the pacing of the expansion’s opening is utterly destroyed. Dealing with the drama of Nidhana being kidnapped and Fandaniel being there tormenting you in the tower... only to then leave and do a bunch of joke quests about reading books and turning into frogs to stealth past your adopted kids’ dad literally sucks all tension out of the opening before the first dungeon. And, in general, the push to the first dungeon is way too long--literally twice the number of quests it took to get the first dungeon in Shadowbringers, with twice as many cutscenes and significantly fewer battles. Unless you start in Sharlayan, the pace of the opening before reaching the first dungeon is terrible.

And the same thing happens again on the moon. The Loporitts are cute, but you’ve literally just been told that your actions straight up RESTARTED THE APOCALYPSE. Trying out blue carrots and taking a bunny on a walk ring as nothing more than hollow diversions from an already tenuously held together plot line. I like the Loporitts, but having to spend all that time exploring the moon base was a disaster in terms of maintaining the natural progression of the story.

My only other truly major gripe was the villains. After writing such a fantastic villain in Emet-Selch, seeing this expansion’s meandering villains was such a let down. Anima was completely over-hyped and underdeveloped in the story; there should have been so much more to that reveal. The horror of hacking your own father up to use his limbs to create mindless slaves to the empire via propaganda is interesting, but the radio aspect under-utilized--if the radio had been the medium through which Varis’s tempering was spread, I think that would have been much more interesting.

Zenos had zero actual role in the plot except as a deus ex machina at the end; he was just... there. No contributions to 9/10ths of the story, just... there. At the beginning, I thought we might actually get some kind of character growth out of him, but even all the way to the end of the story, he is never able to bridge the gap between himself and others. All the way to the final scene, he never understands the Warrior of Light. He still just asserts his own version of events into every line of his dialogue, and that’s... sad. It’s sad to see a character that could have been really interesting just flounder in a plot that is SO RELEVANT to his (obviously nihilistic) character and yet gives him absolutely nothing to do. There is no way you can convince me “Zenos learns life has meaning after meeting Meteion, the embodiment of despair” wouldn’t have been an infinitely more logical plot for his character. And there’s so much they just never explained... Why become a reaper? Why does he get such a unique voidsent avatar? Why did he dream of the Final Days? I can only assume he isn’t really dead and will be coming back to have more of a role in the future, so they’re leaving questions unanswered for now, but it was not satisfying.

Fandaniel being Amon was interesting but also criminally under-developed. We should have gotten much more extended flashbacks to the Allagans to really highlight the comparison between the Allagans and the Ancients and to show Amon‘s struggles with the dreams of horror of Hermes’ past. To really understand his motivations and his reason for choosing to cling to “Amon” specifically instead of Hermes, we needed much more of Amon himself.

And don’t get me started on Hermes. Just... don’t. Did I sniffle a little watching him say goodbye to the liokanes that had to be returned to concepts? Yes. Did the ending voiceover of granting Meteion the Elpis flowers in Ultima Thule hit me hard? Yes. Does anything else about this character make sense? No.

His point that the Ancients are callous towards their creations would feel a lot more relevant if it wasn’t a last second retcon that the Ancients could even create things with souls in them. Since it was previously established that their creations don’t contain souls, his bleeding heart just comes across as a bit bizarre. There’s also no explanation for why he--and he alone!--seems to have this bleeding heart, when all the others are ambivalent. It’s even kind of vaguely implied that due to having so much aether, the ancients can’t interact with Dynamis easily, and therefore you might think their feelings are more muted than humans’ would be--but not Hermes. For no reason that the story ever bothers to explain, he just really, really, really cares.

He cares so much that he hears one report’s worth of terrible news and decides... to kill everyone. Including his precious animals.

Hermes: Death is NOT beautiful.

Hermes, ten seconds later: I’LL SEND US ALL INTO OBLIVION.

This character is the literal definition of “That escalated quickly.” Even if he was faced with despair on a cosmic level, the absolute and ultimate futility of life, is that really enough to make such a gentle and peaceful man actively decide to kill everyone?

The jump from 0 to 100 happened too fast and without sufficient development to make it genuinely believable.

And what’s this fucking shit with retconning tempering to be “just something the Ascians threw in”? If Zodiark wasn’t tempering people, then that meant he was literally just doing his fucking job, bothering no one, being a savior... and Hydaelyn beat the shit out of him and imprisoned him for 12,000 years for ENTIRELY NO REASON. What a horrible life for a being to have. To be honest, this idea right here is probably the worst thing Endwalker had to offer, and I hope they fix it in the future, because retconning tempering that hard just invalidates so much of the previous story that it’s actually offensive to my sensibilities.

What do I even say about Meteion? I liked her? I felt terrible for her? Her boss design was cool and very classic Final Fantasy, but... at the end of the day, she was just disappointing compared to the theories I had been formulating in my head about what the “Sound” from beneath the earth might be for the two years since Shadowbringers. I really believed we would be dealing with some cosmic invader that feasted upon living planets to gorge itself, etc. Finding out that the cause of the Final Days was instead just a single misguided familiar invented by a single misguided Ancient tuned the scale of hype down a lot.

Not going to lie, but between the idea of a sound from under the earth and the previews of Elpis looking so much like Zeal, plus the announcement of the Chrono Cross remake, I was really, really hoping they’d be linking in some Chrono Trigger/Chrono Cross material in the story, and I was SO GAME for the “sound” to end up actually being Lavos.

Sighhhhhhh.

Anyway, this is already so stupidly long, but speaking of missed opportunities, there were three other things that I really wished we had gotten instead:

1. The final dungeon shouldn’t have been random other worlds; it should have been glimpses into the calamities that destroyed the other shards. All they had to do was throw in some line for Meteion like: "Hydaelyn tried to sunder Etheirys to protect its people from me, but no heart is shielded from dynamis. I am wherever hopelessness lives, even inside your palest reflections--" And then BAM, the dungeon opens and it’s the previous shards experiencing the calamities of wind, water, earth, lightning, etc. That would have been so much more meaningful (and a better way to close out on the shard/calamity plot) than just random collapsing planets.

2. Why do Hydaelyn and Zodiark look nothing like their statues and previous hints we’ve gotten of them? I understand they wanted to match the Amano artwork but the Amano artwork doesn’t match the story. Whyyyyyy?

3. I will never forgive Square Enix for not ending the last cutscene with the question “Where will you go, Warrior of Light?” and giving us the dialogue option “Wither the wild rose blooms.” HOW COULD YOU MISS THE EASIEST FUCKING CALLBACK, HOW--!!!

(Oh and also, one last gripe I just recalled... there were way too many follow missions at the beginning of the story. I actually liked traveling and chatting with the characters when the quests were meaningful, but some of these quests just existed specifically to show off the devs’ cool new thing. I get that they were excited but it was excessive at the start. Just saying.)

Anyway, overall, Endwalker gets a solid 7/10 from me. I cried like seven times. (It gets one point for every time it made me cry.) The character work and interactions were beyond words incredible. The music, atmosphere, zones, and battles were stunning. But the story was just so full of plotholes and underdeveloped villains, so many places where the characters were ramrodded into stupid actions simply to forward the very specific moral message the developers were trying to send the players, that I can’t forgive it.

Did I like Endwalker? Yes. But is it an example of good storytelling? No.

I’ll just be over here enjoying the little things in life, I guess...

(It’s me. I’m the little thing.)

#Endwalker #Endwalker spoilers #Endwalker review #Final Fantasy XIV #Final Fantasy XIV spoilers #FF14 #FF14 spoilers #in which I express my enduring love #but also the brain aneurysm Endwalker gave me #Cry count: 7 #Rage count: Immeasurable

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battlinghurricanes · 3 years

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LITYERSES HEADCANONS!!!!!!!

I saw some other headcanon posts for him, so I felt inspired to throw my own ideas out there! I think some of my headcanons are pretty different from the ones a lot of people have of him, but I always like reading other people’s ideas so hopefully people will like this too!

(also theres a lot, this is long *cough* my bad)

- After the incident in The Lost Hero, after Midas dies, Lityerses is homeless. His father’s mansion is destroyed and it’s not like he has anyone to turn to.

- They mention in The Lost Hero that the Hunters of Artemis came across Midas and Lityerses earlier. When they did, Lityerses heard in passing about Camp Half-Blood. It’s the only place meant for demigods that he has even the slightest knowledge on, so he sets his sights on making it there.

- It takes eight grim months to reach New York. It’s half a miracle, slowly taking busses, hitchhiking, and sometimes just walking to the next city. Monsters attack him the entire way and he adds plenty of new scars to his collection.

- There’s no reliable way for him to get money. He gets much, much better at using his powers as a son of Demeter. He uses it to grow fruits, vegetables, and any sort of edible plant so he can at least have food of some kind.

- He goes to New York City because he doesn’t know what else to do. He doesn’t even know if the Hunters were talking about the city or the state but he figures he has to start somewhere. Unfortunately, the Triumvirate notices his presence before anyone from Camp Half-Blood does.

- He follows some demigods to Nero, who sent them to collect him. He offers a position working for the Triumvirate in exchange for food, lodging, and other basic support. Lityerses is tired and he wants to sleep in a bed and have proper meals he doesn’t have to worry about acquiring.

- He accepts, not caring if what the Triumvirate is doing is shitty or not. Nero sends him to Indianapolis to work for Commodus.

- Apollo’s decision to give him another chance was very affecting. Especially coming from ancient times when the stories of the gods on earth were far more real and immediate, he knows very well how the gods could treat mortals as simply disposable.

- He had never questioned his belief that any mortal who got wrapped up in business with a god suffered a horrible fate because of it, whether the god intended it or not.

- But then Apollo saved his life and defended him at the Waystation and told him he trusted him and Lityerses’s mind keeps drifting back to him over and over and over.

- His mind wants to reconcile what Apollo did for him with what he knows about the gods. He can’t, and that makes him feel a great many things that he can’t pin down. Apollo decided to care about him when he had no reason to, and he doesn’t know what that means for him.

- He feels a twinge of gratitude whenever he steps into the sunlight and pulse of anxiety whenever he wonders if he’s okay on his quest.

- He thinks about Meg, his little sister, and hopes they’re keeping each other safe.

- Lityerses can occasionally seem really dull, indifferent, or unresponsive because he gives super minimal reactions to things sometimes, but that’s really not the case.

- Being in the modern world for him is sort of like a slight, but near constant sensory overload. Sometimes, his brain is too busy processing other stuff to fully load up an emotional response. He’ll react to something in his mind but he won’t express it outwardly at all.

- Leo, running up: Wanna help me strap a firework to a crossbow bolt and try to shoot it into the office building across the street to see if it’ll blow up in there?!!!!! Lityerses, with a completely flat voice and blank expression: I think that’s a very bad idea.

- It’s definitely not all the time, but it does happen.

- (Me? Projecting sensory issues onto every character I like? It’s more likely than you think.)

- He has a very “go with the flow” attitude, to the point of being a character flaw sometimes. It can make him easy to manipulate.

- (Commodus: hey lityerses go put this barbed wire and war helmets and metal teeth on these ostriches Liyerses, in his head: uhuh uhuh uhuh uhuh yeah cool got it i hope i still have some fingers left tomorrow)

- He’s working on it though. He’s working on it.

- One side effect of this is that whenever Leo makes some pop culture or meme reference, Lityerses will just nod and agree. It takes Leo forever to realise that he was just lying going along with it.

- *mid conversation* Lityerses: I’d go get some food, but I don’t have any money Leo: dude, you’re literally just the 69 cents vine, not enough for chicken nuggets Lityerses: oh, for sure Calypso, overhearing: wait, you understood that?? Lityerses: no, I’ve never understood a single word that’s left leo’s mouth Leo: what?!!!! but you said you understood my reference to that dril tweet the other day, right?! Lityerses: yeah, of course Calypso: what’s a dril tweet?? Lityerses: I don’t know. Leo: YOU TRAITOR

- Another side effect: he’s a complete pushover for Georgie.

- At one point, when some of the Waystation crew are walking out in the city, she complains that she’s tired and wants to be carried. When her moms gently refuse, she immediately goes over to Lityerses and holds her arms out and says that she’s tired. He doesn’t even stop walking, he just swoops her up and puts her on his shoulder right away.

- Hemithia and Jo glare at him but he just avoids eye contact. “She’s already up there, too much effort to put her down now.”

- He was in the Fields of Punishment in the Underworld and wow was it incredibly traumatizing.

- His memories of death are sickeningly agonizing, but they also usually feel distant and unreal. Sometimes, though, they’ll worm their way into his dreams with horrific clarity. He’ll wake up in a cold sweat, hyperventilating, with full body tremors he can’t control.

- One morning after waking up like that, while sitting on the floor regaining his composure, Hemithea comes in to see why he wasn’t up yet. He pulls himself together in due time. He doesn’t answer any of her questions.

- He never talks about it, but he’s truly terrified of dying. He never was before, but now that he knows what’s waiting for him...

- It doesn’t help that he knows that, no matter how careful he is or how well he defends himself, he could die at any moment if Thanatos decides to bring him back to the Underworld.

- It weighs on the back of his mind that, at least on a technical level, he has no right to be alive. Sometimes he can’t help but think that the things he does now don’t matter in the end, because there’s no reason he would get a second judgement when he does eventually return to the Underworld.

- He does his best to shut that down and remind himself that trying to do the right thing helps the people around him, no matter what happens after his death, but the thought exists and it is painful.

- He really never voices these fears because he feels like all he can really do is try not to think about it, and when he does, he tries to forget as soon as he can. It’s a burden he shoulders as quietly as he can.

- He isn’t used to owning a lot of material possessions, both from how he lived in ancient times and then from being homeless for a while. He’s only ever described wearing that Cornhuskers shirt because it’s the only one he owned for a while.

- Not long after joining the Waystation, the first time he was going out somewhere them, Jo snapped that it just made him look stupid, trying to look tough by going without a coat when it was so cold outside. Earnestly confused and defensive, he tells her that he just doesn’t own one.

- After that, she insists on filling his wardrobe until he has enough clothes.

- (Speaking of the Cornhuskers shirt, he just picked it out on a whim, sort of thinking of Demeter (They grow corn here like we used to grow wheat, right?) and sort of just thinking it looked cool. Olujime once tried to talk to him about how some college teams were doing and Lityerses just goes “What’s football?”)

- He doesn’t really get modern fashion trends. Leo offers to catch him up, but he declines very quickly.

- In ancient times, dyes and patterns available for clothes were much more limited and much more expensive. He’s fascinated by all the colors and prints people can wear just all the time now. Lityerses wears a lot of bright colors because he thinks they’re cool and fun. He likes red, blue, and purple the most but he’ll wear a lot of stuff.

- Along with not really following any trends, he also hasn’t picked up on a lot of unspoken gender connotations that come with modern clothing.

- When the Waystation are first trying to get him some clothes, he picks out a pink jacket and Leo snorts at him like “You’re going for pink?” Lityerses just stares at him like “Yeah. It’s just pink.” Leo sort of realizes and goes, “Oh, it’s just, you know...” to Calypso. But Calypso is also just staring blankly and says, “No I don’t. I don’t get it. Is there something about pink?” And Leo notices Hemithea glaring daggers at him and he laughs nervously and goes, “Nevermind, it was a stupid joke anyway.”

- Hemithia: Leave the ancient demigod and ex-titan blissfully unaware of our complex, modern gender stereotypes. Leo, sweating: gotcha.

- He pretty much just wears what he finds comfortable. Generally it’s just t-shirts with jeans or basketball shorts.

- Lityerses is a super clingy sleeper and will reflexively grab on to anything within arms reach while he’s asleep. (He’s a big spoon by nature.)

- Leo discovers this and now, whenever Lityerses falls asleep on one of the couches, he’ll entertain himself by slowly pushing a pillow up to him until he inevitably grabs it and pulls it against his chest.

- No one gets those pillows back until Lityerses wakes up.

- He’s very buff. His muscles aren’t super defined, nothing at all like a bodybuilder, no six pack abs or anything. But he’s built. Thick arms.

- He’s very limber and flexible too. He has great balance, which lets him move as fast as he does in combat. He’s quite physically fit in general.

- He’ll never admit it, but he ended up getting attached to the highlights in his hair he got when Apollo revealed his godly form. He thought they were fun and different and he sort of missed it when his hair grew out.

#trials of apollo #toa #lityerses #pjo #litpollo #well none of its super litpollo but #you know you know #long post #also sorry for giving you super cute georgie and lityerses headcanons #and then punching you in the gut with the trauma of death and revival with no warning #not that sorry tho #god its been a long time since ive done headcanons like this #this better go in the tags #edit- it did for a min then disappeared :^)

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