#here you go fe fans i hope you appreciate it

[moeblob]

Does anyone remember when I would draw Glenn being a lil shit to his dad? Anyone?

#fe three houses #rodrigue achille fraldarius #felix hugo fraldarius #glenn fraldarius #glenn govan fraldarius #bc that loser got a middle name in thropes so here we go payin respects to that #fraldarius family #anyway i loved drawing silly lil stupid meme type situations with these three a while ago and #for some reason remembered YOU KICK MIETTE? today and had to do this #as someone who needs a wheel to spin to tell me what to draw most days the fact i knew without a doubt i had to draw this today? #balling thank you brain for suddenly hyperfixating on this stupid idea #here you go fe fans i hope you appreciate it

[putschki1969]

Kaji Fes.2023 Day 2 FULL Video

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❗FOR PERSONAL USE ONLY❗ ❗CREDIT me if you SHARE on other sites❗

Yes, finally we have a recording of Day 2. Even though I was there for Day 2 back in December, I was still excited to experience the whole thing again. Unfortunately, I never got to write my report so I guess I will use the opportunity to share some of my memories and current thoughts.

Here goes nothing┗(•ˇ_ˇ•)―→

street corner: Looks like they cut this. I am surprised because they had a much longer slot for Day 2 (3 hours instead of just 2) so I was sure they would be able to squeeze all of it into the broadcast but apparently not. Oh well, can't say I am said about that because being confronted with the accordion right from the get-go at the live really didn't leave a good impression on me. I had pretty high expectations for the whole thing and this intro left me more than underwhelmed. Thank God we transitioned right to "希望の光".

希望の光: Now THIS is the intro I was hoping for. What a gorgeous melody! I wasn't familiar with the track but my God, I got goosebumps all over. I literally felt this in my entire body. The gradual build-up to a more grand-scale symphonic arrangement towards the end really impressed me. I am just obsessed with the uilleann pipes and the Celtic sound. I honestly struggle to get beyond this because I keep rewinding the video.

prelude to Act 1: The look on my face when I heard those first few notes. I was shooketh to say the least. I most definitely did not expect them to do the Kalafina block this early in the live but I knew that if they were doing the Madoka instrumentals, the most logical thing would be to transition straight into a Kalafina track. While I have never watched the anime, these are melodies I hold very dear to my heart so I loved this. It was also a great pleasure to hear Eri Ito live for the first time. I will never get enough of Yuki's more classically trained vocalists. it's such a pleasure to listen to them.

Numquam vincar: After "prelude to Act 1" this was no surprise at all but damn, I am so glad they played this. I've never actually had the chance to experience this track live even though they obviously performed it numerous times during Kalafina live intermissions. What a pleasure to be there and truly feel the epicness of that intro. Once more I was covered in goosebumps.

Magia [quattro]: At this point I knew it was coming but it was still a shock to my system. Like I said earlier, I was sure that they would wait until the very end to do the Kalafina block (that's what they had done for earlier lives) so I thought I had some time to prepare myself and get into the groove so to speak. My body certainly wasn't ready so maybe that's why my brain couldn't properly compute the whole thing. I remember not being as hyped as I expected to be and that made me kinda sad. I am so grateful that we are getting this recording and a blu-ray release because I feel like I couldn't fully appreciate the performance while I was there. Getting to see it again is a real treat and I must say, I like this much more than the previous FJ "covers" we have gotten of this song. Hikaru and Keiko sound so perfectly in tune and I just love their powerful delivery. For the most part, I don't mind the higher harmonies provided by Yuriko and Joelle. Although during some parts (e.g. mayowazu ni yukeru nara), I feel like Joelle and Keiko don't harmonise very well together but whatever, it doesn't bother me too much. On a random side note, I wasted way too much time wondering about why I thought that Keiko's arms looked kinda naked until I finally realised that the puffy sleeve pieces of her outfit were missing.

storia: I did not expect this to make it onto the setlist but I am a big fan of the song so I was happy when I heard the first notes. Overall, I think I like this version well enough although I will admit that my favourite part has always been the chorus with Keiko and Wakana so it is a bit jarring to hear Joelle for these parts. Don't get me wrong, Joelle sounds great and I feel like the harmony between her and Keiko works better here than during "Magia" but still, it can't quite touch my heart. I mean, just thinking of all the Kalafina performances where Wakana and Keiko gaze lovingly into each other's eyes while they sing the "yasashii uta..." line makes me tear up. Nothing will ever be able to replace that for me. A few days later I attended Wakana's concert where she also performed "storia". This may sound ridiculous but hearing those performances more or less back to back almost felt as if the three of them had been reunited. Even though this might have been a coincidence, just the idea of this little connection had me in tears.

君の銀の庭: Oh, another cut song. Thank God we are getting the Blu-Ray. I will be honest with you though, I am quite sad that they chose two Kalafina songs that I don't particularly like. I couldn't get as excited as I wanted to be. I think I had no complaints about this performance, enjoyed everyone's vocals and didn't really notice Wakana's absence. But I guess that's because I wasn't a big fan of the song to begin with :P

to the beginning: It will forever be a mystery to me why this is such a fan favourite but oh well, let's not linger on that. In some way, it's almost a blessing in disguise for me to not have such a strong emotional connection to these songs because it helps me appreciate the new versions a lot more. No matter how skilled of a singer Joelle might be, if I am invested in a performance with a prominent Wakana part, there is no way anyone will ever live up to that. It's 100% a me problem, I realise that but I doubt I will ever be able change that way of thinking. Anyways, this was a perfectly fine rendition.

海と真珠: Don't think I've ever heard a JUNNA song. Not a huge fan of her voice, it's just too generic for me. But there's something about this song that I like, especially that those hey-hey woah parts. The chorus is decent too. It's not a track I would skip but also not something I would actively seek out.

太陽の航路: Not my cup of tea. I can tell that there is a nice melody hidden in the chorus but it's a bit too fast-paced for me.

time to sail!: Yet another cut. I loved this. Was already familiar with it from a previous recording so I really appreciated getting to hear t live. It's somewhat of a very epic and grand-scale version of "Umi to Shinju" which I am only realising now XD

The main theme of “L.O.R.D”: Can't tell you how very much I am in love with this song. The first time I got to experience this live was in Taiwan back in 2019. The song is so fucking good, I will never get tired of it. I was utterly blown away by Joelle's vocal prowess. I know it always sounds like I am low-key bullying her but that's really not my attention. I am just forever too hung-up on Wakana to ever be able to accept anyone else taking up my favourite parts of her.

I talk to the rain: Can't wait to hear this again on the Blu-ray.

a song of storm and fire: In my report for Day 1 I did talk about tis and "salva nos" being my first introduction to Yuki Kajiura's music. I feel so privileged to have finally been there for a live performance. Needless to say, it was everything that I could have asked for. Watching the recording now doesn't even do it justice. It was so much more powerful at the venue.

ring your song: This always brings tears to my eyes. The melody is just so beautiful and when they all join in, it's literal perfection.

ことのほかやわらかい: God dammit, I really want to like this song because in theory it should be right up my alley. I mean, the instrumental intro is to die for, it's so promising but then it's just all over the place and I can't get into it T_T

夜光塗料: Not a huge fan of ASCA unfortunately and I do not care for the song either.

雲雀: Surprisingly fond of this. Very nice melody. Can see myself listening to it on a regular basis.

君が見た夢の物語: Not much to say about this except that I enjoyed Keiko's lower harmonies. It's not a bad song per se so I probably would have liked it more if it didn't have ASCA on main.

everlasting song: This is always fun although I do enjoy the version without FJ ASUKA more. I know that sounds horrible considering it's literally her song but I will never be a fan of Yuki's vocalists with a more generic voices. Wakana's "kimi no me ni..." will forever be my favourite!!

世界の果て: No thoughts really.

優しい夜明け: Joelle is a much better fit for this See-Saw song than Yuuka. Very enjoyable.

君がいた物語: A favourite of mine. Do I prefer the version with Wakana? Of course! Do I have fun with this version too? Mostly yeah! Kaori's always work for me here but I can tolerate it.

Rainbow~Main Theme~: This was a nice treat. Very fond of KOKIA as a vocalist and this is just a super beautiful song. Have always liked it.

風よ、吹け: Not as smitten with this new KOKIA song but it's nice enough. I certainly wouldn't skip it

lotus: Wow, two Hanae cuts! How rude!!

inverse operation:

目覚め: I do love the Wakana versions but I also enjoy versions with other main vocalists. And of course, Hanae does an amazing job.

夕闇のうた: I know this didn't leave a good impression on me when I first heard it and I can't say I feel much different about it now.

荒野流転: This upcoming FJ Yuuka corner didn't do anything for me, it was the point where I started to get really tired and distracted. It was a struggle to still pay attention even though these were all more up-beat songs.

Silly-Go-Round: Nope.

cazador del amor: Meh.

nowhere: The only song I actually enjoyed from this corner. ASCA thankfully used a voice that I didn't find too grating (which can't be said about rito, JUNNA and Lino). Almost wish I had stood up for this performance and the next because Keiko was spending a lot of time on the left side of the stage (I had an arena seat pretty close to the stage on the left) but I probably wouldn't have had a good view of Keiko anyway so I preferred to just watch the screen. And to be honest, I am not the type of person to stand up and do some weird moves anyway so it was probably for the best. No need to embarrass myself in front of people who actually know how to move their body.

zodiacal sign: I mean, when is this ever not an absolute pleasure?

into the world: I was hoping to see Hikaru again since almost all the other guest vocalists had had a second appearance and yay, she came back on stage for the final song before the encore! "into the world" was such a perfect ending. I definitely got choked up, especially towards the climax of the song when Keiko was really putting all of herself into it.

red rose: Not my favourite but a good track for all the musicians to shine again.

Parade: It's my favourite song from the album and a fitting ending for this behemoth of a concert. At this point, everyone was close to tears after Yuki's little speech so that made it so much more moving. Love, love, love!! Right after they all take a bow and everyone is leaving the stage, I am glad they zoomed in a bit on Keiko who was wiping away some tears and leaning on Hikaru. That moment killed me at the live.

#yuki kajiura #kajiura yuki #report #kalafina #keiko #hikaru #Kaji Fes #Kaji Fes. #Kaji Fes. 2023 #fictionjunction #wow #this was looooong #even with the cuts #Youtube

[dimiclaudeblaigan]

Thank you for sending these, nonnies! I appreciate you taking the time to send these!

I’ll be sure to use a different name and/or use censors for it!

What I will say is that there’s no way they can just get me off Tumblr. I’ve been on this hellsite since like... 2012 or so? Granted, the only reason I responded was to point out that they were trying to start shit on a post that they just grabbed at random because their comments weren’t even related in the most distant way to my post.

As far as the dumbass who responded to that post, I did block them once I responded. I could tell immediately that their comments had nothing to do with the post and that they tried to warp it into “this is hate for the character and ship” when it wasn’t hate for either of those. It was me pointing out that those types of people are gross for their bi erasure, and in my tags I also expressed that anyone who does that I feel the same way about.

In other words, I know exactly what they’re trying to do, but evidently they can’t read nor comprehend English and so failed to realize the post literally had nothing to do with the characters themselves and was entirely about the circle jerk of bi erasure in their community.

That was it. That was the post lol. If they try to get involved with me or send henchmen after me for advocating against bi erasure, this person is making themselves a problem in a much larger community than the nonsense they pull in the Houses fandom. The post itself wasn’t about their little waifu or ship, so as a group of people they have nothing to use as leverage for “but this is hate!” (especially when it wasn’t in any tag whatsoever to do with FE). The post wasn’t about her or the ship. It was about how stans are not supportive of LGBT+ as long as they continue to exclude, you know, the B part of that term (also hilarious how it’s the stans themselves who take offense simply to that term when the comments have nothing to do with the character at all, and as soon as they see the term they cry “character hate!”... despite it not even being related to the game or its characters, etc even remotely).

So yeah, I may not like the stans but I would like to guess that not all of them are that level of moronic that they would see a post complaining about bi erasure and go “character hate spotted!”. This nutcase just saw the term hooha stans and replied with a post full of incorrect assumptions. On a site like Tumblr, I would very much not recommend bullying someone for defending bi people, lest, again, the person wants even bigger problems than their fictional media.

What they did would be like if I took a post about Ferdinand talking about his morality and then being like “okay, here’s my ship headcanon for Ferdinand and Dorothea”.

Not that I don’t appreciate you two sending these asks! I just really hope their entire fan group is not that idiotic that they would see a comment about LGBT+ and somehow connect that to hate for their faves. Also, Tumblr is kind of my Home Base tee em and I happen to enjoy talking about Ike here, so... no matter how much controversy they start, I’m not really deep in Houses discourse. I’m just cycling through FE as a whole and making posts they don’t care about.

Thanks for caring though, nonnies! I send you huggies and happiness!!!

#DCB Ask #imagine just talking about LGBT+ issues and someone straight up tries to start a fight with you over something wholly unrelated #and in fact still takes it a step further to PROVE MY POINT by making a headcanon about the exact thing #and group of people I'm talking about. like you're really not helping you or your fanbase' image buddy #Tumblr is NOT the place you want to send hate to people for defending LGBT+ and that's all that post was so #they have zero other leverage on that post to say they're justified if they try anything #if I ''have it coming'' for defending bi people they're gonna have it coming when actual LGBT+ supporters have a bone to pick with them :/

[faroreswinds]

Hi, I REALLY appreciate your posts on Fire Emblem. You’re really insightful! I have a question though and I hope you don’t mind me asking: what’s the deal with Zelda? I’ve only ever played Twilight Princess and 64 Ocarina. It seems like AoC and SS are controversial, but why?

Why did Skyward Sword almost ruin Zelda for you? (I’m not super familiar with the franchise)

I got two different anons asking pretty much same thing here, so I figured I would answer both in one.

First of all, to the first anon, thank you so much for your kind words about FE! I'm glad someone at least enjoys my posts occasionally. ;)

Now for both anons - Zelda.

For those who don't know, I'm technically not a FE blog. I'm a Zelda blog. At least originally. I know, shocker. My icon is Engineer Link, my name relates to the Goddess of Courage, etc.

Zelda is my #1 favorite franchise of all time.

But oooohhh man, have the latest games been testing my patience.

Let's start with AoC, because that's a shorter answer.

AoC is controversial because of the marketing mostly. When Aonuma presented the game in the trailers, he purposely used language to make it seem like AoC was a proper prequel in BotW.

SPOILERS FOR BOTW: BoTW takes place a 100 years after the Great Calamity, which was when Calamity Ganon emerged from the earth and wrecked havoc on Hyrule. In the process, he killed the 4 Champions, those chosen to pilot the Divine Beasts (which, in turn, are giant mechs designed to kill Calamity Ganon), nearly killed Link (which put Link into a 100 year coma), and Zelda went to seal Ganon and herself for 100 years until Link woke up.

Link awakens to a ruinous Hyrule and meets 4 new people who help him get onto the Divine Beasts to free the souls of the dead Champions. Then he goes to save Zelda, who then seals Calamity Ganon for good, the end.

With all this in mind, AoC being a prequel to BotW sounds like we were supposed to be experiencing the events of those deaths. We never actually see them in BotW, nor do we see much of the past in general. So, it was a very interesting premise.

So when AoC released and it turned out that it was not ACTUALLY a prequel, but a pseudo-canon alternative story where time travel saves the day and no one actually dies, people were PISSED. They felt it invalidated BotW (even though AoC is never stated to be canon in any way as of now) and they felt lied to because they didn't get to experience tragedy. Not to mention that BotW is sort of a soft reboot for the series - Zelda has a complicated timeline with multiple and BotW was set so far in the future that it didn't matter WHERE in the timeline it fell, so Zelda could start fresh. But by adding a new time travel branch, it basically was like a giant middle finger to fans who felt the soft reboot was important.

Now personally, I was not mad at it. Why? Because I saw it coming a mile away. I know the moment I saw the new character (the egg robot Terrako), that this was going to be a story that was not canon to the actual events of the past BotW. I figured time travel would be involved too, because the playable cast from BotW's past would be way too small for a musou. So, use time travel to add future characters into the roster as well. And finally, from what we DO know of the past... it's pretty uneventful. Not much actually happens. The characters really spent more time just talking and walking around than FIGHTING, which is the antithesis of a musou. So, they were going to have to make up a bunch of scenarios that didn't originally exist to justify this musou existing.

While not all my predictions were right about the game, I was overall pretty spot on on what this game would actually be. But I can't deny the marketing was very... misleading, in a dishonest way.

Now, for SS. Why is it both controversial in the community and why do I personally hate it?

As for the community side... it will depend on who you ask. Some absolutely ADORE it because it has ZeLink material (they are canonically crushing on each other), they consider it the best story in the series, and it honestly has some decent dungeons in it. SS is a solid game at it's core.

However, a lot of fans agree that it's... the weakest 3D title of all the 3D Zelda games. It basically has no exploration what-so-ever. It holds your hand the entire way (your companion character, Fi, literally solves riddles and puzzles for you before you even get a chance to actually ponder them). It uses motion control for EVERYTHING (swimming, flying, swinging your sword) and the sensor is... touchy. It doesn't always work as you want, which results in you dying or something dumb. The overworld is empty. The character models are insanely ugly, even Link and Zelda are kinda off. There are repeated bosses that are not considered fun to play at ALL.

It was so badly received by fans that BotW is considered the correction - it went from no freedom to so much freedom that you can literally do almost anything you want without barriers.

But none of those are why I hate SS. I can stomach those. Nah, instead, I think the writing is TERRIBLE.

Fujibashi is the director and he cannot write worth shit. All his games in the Zelda series have the weakest stories. BotW is one of those - most fans agree that BotW has a weak story compared to the older titles.

SS is just awful. It introduced awful story elements that changed Zelda forever, it retconned some important information and made mistakes, it caused a huge fight in the Zelda fandom about what lore is canon and what is not, and the time-travel elements in it are so BADLY done that I can't believe it made it past the control group.

I hate what SS added so much that when those elements wormed their way into BotW's lore, I hated those in BotW as well.

Let's talk about the easy things. Retconning and lore mistakes. Here is a short list.

The Master Sword was originally stated to have been made by sages. SS entirely retcons this by making the MS a sword created by the Goddess then forged into the Master Sword by Link.

The Triforce was originally stated to have been left behind by the Three Golden Goddesses in the Sacred Realm. This was retconned in that the Golden Goddesses left the Triforce in the care of a newly created goddess for this game, Hylia.

It is stated in MULTIPLE GAMES that you must touch the Triforce to make your wish. This is the ONLY game where Link PRAYS in front of the Triforce to get his wish granted. This is a LORE MISTAKE.

But then there are story elements this game adds that makes the rest of the series look strange.

Hylia is such an important figure in Zelda history but then completely vanishes from their daily lives in the rest of the games (barring BotW). It makes it seems like she was forgotten about. This would not have been an issue if BotW hadn't brought her back into the lore again. Now it just looks awkward.

The Loftwings are supposed to be important animals in the lives of the humans, but we never get to name our Loftwing and it plays barely any role in the story what-so-ever.

Hylia's plan is so messy and so dumb that I don't even have time in this post to explain why.

The time travel follows different time travel rules at different times, yet insists that it's a closed perfect loop (it's not).

But there's more! Because SS added two things I hate the MOST: 1. Zelda is now literally divine, and 2. Link may or may not reincarnate.

Let me explain.

Prior to SS, Zelda has always been varying levels of special. Sometimes, she's super special. She's a Sage, or she's a magical princess, or sometimes... she's just a princess. Just depends on the game.

But NOW, she's literally descended from a Goddess. This changes Zelda at it's core. Now, every Zelda is literally of Goddess blood.

Before this change, there was always a sense of separation between the mortals and the gods. The gods chose heroes, or other special people. The mortals had great tasks thrusted upon them. Etc.

Now, though, Zelda is basically a goddess in her own right. So OoT Zelda being chosen by the gods? Well, she's ALSO divine herself so that doesn't mean much. Oh, that Zelda is descended from Sages? GUESS WHAT SHE'S ALSO DESCENDED FROM A GODDESS. That Zelda has a special light inside of her from the Minish? WELL SHE ALSO HAS GODDESS BLOOD TOO, DID YOU THINK ABOUT THAT?!

The Royal Family literally is now divine, and therefore have the divine right to rule as well.

Not to mention how MESSY it makes everything. Zelda's bloodline is special because it goes back to the goddess. But, realistically, have a few hundred years everyone will be descended from the Goddess. So, how in the WORLD is it only the Royal Family now?!

See how it's just pure awful?!

But then it gets worse, because SS decided to add a character called Demise and he, along with Hylia, are the worst additions to Zelda lore.

Hylia... is an idiot. Her plans are stupid. Her thought processes are stupid. She literally forces Kikwi and the swuid things to fight, but apparently Humans are unable too??? What kind of logic is that?! She also is apparently not aware of the importance of the Triforce to the world (another dumb addition might I add).

But Demise, man... Demise was added as a "pre-Ganon" type entity, meant to be the origin of all evil. Fine. Whatever.

But SS plays coy with Demise supposing to be a past Ganon (it's not, btw, they are two different entities) but now a lot of fans believe Demise IS Ganon.

AND TO TOP IT ALL OFF, Demise throws in a "curse" that made everyone believe that Link and Zelda reincarnate to fight Demise's incarnation for all time.

BUT THIS JUST DOESN'T MAKE ANY SENSE AT ALL!

I don't have the energy to explain why, but let's just say that now, thanks to SS, a lot of newer fans have a lot of bad lore beliefs, and it doesn't help that SS literally plays coy with "maybe it's true, maybe it's not" kinda feel. It's so stupid, and I hate Aonuma and Fujibashi for it.

Hylia being Zelda literally made me almost quit Zelda forever. Over time, I've come to accept this revelation a bit more, but I still hate it to this very day.

I could go on. But I'm out of time and energy. This is just the tip of the iceberg, and I hope it makes some sense.

#my thoughts #anon asks

[san-fics]

December 2021 posting schedule

Hey, guys! We are finishing Moonlight trap tomorrow, which was the third Felinette in a row after Breaking the rules and Living a dream for my local Felinette November.

So I have a new posting schedule for December to announce. As you can see I don’t plan on posting the same story every day. Instead we’ll have it every third day, and 2 other ships in the meantime.

As I promised, we have Micro-event for canon love-square on Dec 1st — which is a short (~7k) time-travel reveal fic (written before Ephemeral though, even I used the pictures from the episode for the cover, so it only resolves the Chat Blanc reveal dilemma).

Then we start a new PV-fic called Playing a game for Bridgette and Felix, and have it posted every third day as well. It is also a short (~8k) reveal fic, I guess those are my specialty for now.

And yes! I try myself in a new shared fandom, paring Marinette with Damian Wayne in Behind enemy lines story. I’ve read few of the fan fictions with this ship and I find some things the authors do there to some of the characters rather sad, so I came out with my own version for this ship. I’m close to 15k for the moment, but I still see much development there, so we’ll see how far it goes, but the first 10 chapters are already done, so I wanna share and hear your opinion.

* Damian’s character will be mostly built based on DC Universe Animated Original Movies (2015-2021) starting with Son of Batman, but if you’ve read dc-comic books or met him in some other media — I hope my vision of him will be valid as well.

After Micro event is over I go on posting Canon love-square one-shots every third day, as you can see from the schedule. I already have the ideas and some scenes for most of them. There are 4 times Chat Noir let Adrien out and 1 time Ladybud let out Marinette, High opinion and Truth or dare short text-fic in that list already. So be prepared for some Ladynoir fluff, and maybe even Adrianette smut if I’m bold enough to post it...)

I still can’t stop writing about Felinette, so we’ll have some canon-Felix and Marinette stories starting from Dec 20th. I call them one-shots in the schedule because they are longer then my usual posting chapters (1,5-2k), but they are actually follow one another in one storyline, and I already have 5 of them writen and some ideas for more (You may see the titles at the schedule at the beginning of this post).

And the last, but not least for December 31rd — is the first chapter for my new project — which is a shared PV/canon AU, that doesn’t have a name yet.

I always felt like canon Marinette more fits to PV Felix, as well as canon Adrien more likely to go along with PV Marinette (Bridgette). So yeah, there are few fics where the autors switch Mari and Bri places, but they are rather dark and bloody, I couldn’t even read through.

So I have this plot idea and few ships to develop along the way, wich include the main characters (Mari, Bri, Fe and Adri) as well as secondary ones (Chloe, Alix, Kim and Luka) from two different universes. It doesn’t have a cover yet, but I still have a full month for it, so...

🎁

Now, if someone want’s to be tagged only for some ships and avoid the others — please inform me, so I would only tag you to the stories you likely to appreciate.

And if you have some ideas for love-square or felinette stories — feel free to share.

Love you all, and see you in the comments! 🧡🧡🧡

Come for more completed MLB fanfic here!

Tag list (ask me to join)

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@snow-leopard-777

@loves-books

@turiankitty

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#miraculous marichat #mlb marichat #marichat fanfic #marichat #miraculous ladynoir #mlb ladynoir #ladynoir fanfic #ladynoir #adrianette #miraculous adrinette #adrinette #ladrien fanfic #ladrien #miraculous ladrien #miraculous fanfic #miraculous fandom #miraculous au #felix agreste #miraculous felix #mlb felix #bridgette #mlb fanfic #felix graham de vanily #felix as chat noir #maribat #damian x marinette #maribat au #dc x mlb #ml x dc #maridami

[kiarou]

Fire Emblem Three Houses is, to date, the most successful Fire Emblem game- both commercially and critically. It took me a while to play and complete the routes, but after having done so, I can understand why. FE3H is a radical departure that really emphasizes the characters over the gameplay. The FE series is currently going through a rebirth process that mixes several genres, resulting in a massive game that has its ups and downs. When it’s good, it’s really good- better than FE4 and FE6. But when it’s bad- it’s worse than FE Fates.

As a FE veteran, I had many moments where I was questioning if what I was playing was actually an FE game. At times it felt like a dating sim and other it felt like a visual novel. Both of those aspects aren’t bad, but I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that some of the more interesting map designs and FE game mechanics got lost in the rebirth.

However, I pleasantly surprised by the main three lords. These three are some of the most interesting Lords to ever be in FE. I tend to have a penchant towards Dimitri since he is the most traditional FE lord with complexities and morally gray areas built into his character. The result is a character with massive amounts of depth and nuisance. The same goes for the Edelgard and Claude. I think all three complement each other as difference aspects of FE archetypes, highlighting the positive and negatives of those traits. Edelgard is the idea of empire- that only the strong would be able to rule. Dimitri is the idea of the king- that only the chosen should be able to rule. And Claude is the idea of the Machiavellian politic- that only the exploiters can rule.

The concepts of war, tragedy and perspective are the most interesting part of the game. However, the scope and breadth of those concepts lead directly to my biggest criticism. Most of which revolves around the writing and how the events unfold from point A to B. This problem is twofold- first from a game play perspective and second from the perspective of Byleth.

My first point is simple- the individual routes are simply too short. 21 chapters did not seem enough to wrap up each of the routes. I can’t help but get the feeling that the original story for the game was sliced up into subpar outlines to produce passable plots that end without a proper conclusion. I can’t play BE and gain closure on TWSITD, and same goes for BL. But both routes provide satisfaction for the larger geopolitical situation. Meanwhile GD rushes through the political conflicts with flippant ease only to fully delve into TWSITD as a true ending- while most of the characters have very little to do with the organization. Both Edelgard and Dimitri have more reason to seek the truth than Claude.

And even within the routes, I feel not enough time was given to the world, specifically in part II. How great would it have been to have a map showing Dimitri’s escape from execution, similar to FE7 Chapter 11 Hector Mode where you control only two units (Dimitri & Dedue) and have to make it from one end of the map to the other. Or to have a map where Edelgard storms the castle to reach her father so that she can become the new emperor. A lot of plot points in the game happen off screen and with very little explanation. As much as I love Dimitri’s exile and fall into madness, I never got to see it and it made it that much harder for me to understand him, which really hurt his eventual character arc. My point here is that each route would have benefited from 28-35 total chapters to flesh out the events of part II.

I understand that a lot of plot threads were split up and placed in other routes to provide incentive to play the other routes (so that one can see the full conclusions), but I would argue that part I makes the replay value excruciatingly painful and that the strength of the characters fully explored would be reason enough to replay (like FE8’s split route)

On a side note, was anyone else confused by how the time skip was handled? Byleth just fell asleep? Why do that when you have a perfectly good mechanic already introduced. The spell of Zahra would have worked as a perfect reason for a time skip. Byleth gets trapped, escapes but time has passed differently and it’s now 5 years later. This handling of the time skip had me completely flabbergasted.

On the note of Blyeth, that leads me to my second point. Byleth is a narrative road block. On one hand, I understand the reason for Byleth’s inclusion as a self-insert character. But on the other, many of the decisions in how he/she interacts with the world really hurt the story. The decision to make Byleth never speak or have a defined personality made every interaction awkward for me and difficult to take anything relating to him/her seriously. Another point of serious contention is how the story treats Byleth as the main character.

The three new lords of the series are so interesting yet they are treated as side-exhibits for the main attraction of Byleth. When I chose a route, I chose it to spend time and see one of the three Lords be the protagonist. Instead, in every route, the majority of the time and effort are spent on Byleth and his/her past and super-special-ness. In my opinion, the houses leaders should be the main driving force and the focus of that route, like any other Fire Emblem entry sans Fates.

Despites these negative points of a rushed story in all three routes and the annoying intrusion of Byleth, I greatly enjoyed the game and appreciate how many new fans it has brought to the series. I have high hopes that they can fix some of the writing issues and improve on their map designs for the next entry.

#fire emblem #fe3h #dimitri #fire emblem three houses #FE風花雪月 #DimitriAlexandreBlaiddyd #fire emblem 3 houses #my art

[casualotptrash]

Fixes to the Persona Series

Oh boy I hope you all are ready to talk about this for the hundredth time!

My recent tirade about the FES vs Portable discussion started to make me think about what I think could be done in the next coming installments of the series to make it either feel a bit more fresh or just as an overall improvement. Now, I know many of the things I’m about to say have been said time and time again, but...this is my post so I’m going to give my opinion on this :)

Enjoy and feel free to vent with me about your biggest gripes with the series, because I’m always ready for a salt-fest.

(This post will pretty much have any spoilers about Persona 3, 4, and 5 (including Royal) so beware if you haven’t finished those)

To clarify right off the bat, anything I don’t mention in here as something I would fix I either don’t think it is a problem or I just happened to forget it.

1. Player Gender Options

(Royal Spoilers)

Starting off with a great one, I think that an improvement to the series would be to allow an option between a male and a female MC. I don’t think this choice would affect the story in Persona 3 or 4 very much (and we’ve seen that with Persona 3), but I have imagined and seen so many fanfics about how it would actually be a really interesting twist for Persona 5. For most of the story it probably wouldn’t matter too much, but it could impact the first palace so much. The first palace/story arc is already one of the best arcs in the game, so imagine if the player could relate to Ann and Shiho on an even deeper level? To be clear, I’m not saying the player has to be sexually assaulted or something, but I imagine Kamoshida would at least treat the player more like Ann rather than just a delinquent nuisance.

Also, and this just came to mind, but picture this: in the third semester Maruki actualizes things that he thinks will make others happy. Obviously, Joker and Akechi are against this. In the game itself there are a lot of clues to point that Joker does care about Akechi, and does want to see him again, but in the end they both agree that they need to fight for the real world that they worked for, not for a fake reality. If Joker was a female, they could still go the route of doing this (especially if romancing Akechi was an option? Or they just hint at them having feelings but Akechi doesn’t want to commit because he’s a self-loathing boi who needs to work on himself first).

Alternatively...what about a badass narrative of a girl, in a powerful position as the leader of the Phantom Thieves, fighting against a man who believes he knows what’s best for her and tries to appease her by just bringing back Akechi? Kinda like a “Yeah fuck what you did, you just need Akechi/a man and he’ll make you happy” type of thing. Obviously this would all be subtle, because I do think Maruki has good intentions, but he also blames himself for all of the hard things Rumi has gone through and may internalize that as women needing a “strong man” to protect them. Of course this might seem too preachy for people, but I thought it was an interesting idea to run with and that some people could relate to the whole “Woman trying to think and do things for themselves? Nah just sit in your little fake world and be happy, thanks.”

(Sidenote, Sae would be such a good role model...after her change of heart of course. You crush it girl.)

However, I do understand that this could be a lot of extra work, especially when the game is so long and tedious. That’s why I would also be fine with the strategy of “switching off” per say. By that I mean if Persona 5 has a male MC, then Persona 6 would have a female MC, and if a 7th game was made (in 2040 or whatever) then it could go back to a male. This would eliminate the issue of having to record all the voice lines twice or any other extra work that would come with having to make both genders an option. Honestly I know this option doesn’t matter too much to people, they just want an MC who is either a self-insert or actually a character (more on that later), but I do think it would be a very nice inclusion especially for the female fans of the game. It kind of sucks that three of the most popular games in the series all have male protags, and the female protag who was introduced often gets shafted for very dumb reasons. (Oh no, you have the option to romance a kid that most people don’t even choose or like, that means she’s a p*do! :I I know this comment is normally a joke but seriously it’s not funny).

2. Setting of the game (not transfer but also maybe involve the other games?)

(Spoilers for the Arena games and Persona 5/Royal)

So there are two main points to this suggestion: where the game takes place and how it relates to the other games.

As we all know, the three latest entries in the mainline Persona series have all followed a certain trend. They are all high schoolers, who transfer to a town, and know basically no one there. This formula has been repeated for the last three games, and while they are still great games, I think this trend needs to change. Any amount of switching this up would be better than nothing in my opinion. For example, the MC could be a new college student who goes to a new place for college (if they wanted the MC to move somewhere), and there meets the party members who are a mix of people who also don’t know the area (new to the college) and those who do know the area/some people there. This would appease people who have been really wanting an MC to not be a high schooler, while also giving the feel of meeting new people and seeing a new place.

On the other hand, the next game could take place in the MC’s home town, where plot stuff happens and they connect more to the people they already knew (aka party members) to solve the plot stuff. They could be in high school or college, either I think would work, but it would appease people who don’t just want to be a transfer student each time and also have some connection to the characters prior to the game. However, this would be difficult to do given the current “flow” that the games have, that is that the MC doesn’t know anything and has to ask a million questions. It would be very strange to go up to someone you have known most of your life and ask them a basic question, which is why that style of storytelling(?) would not fit well with this and other methods would need to be used.

Now, for the second point, I understand that they don’t make strong connections to the other games because they want each game to be able to be played as a stand-alone, and not to hold people back by forcing them to play the other games to understand this. Makes sense, but usually what happens is that people play one game in the series and then try another game, if they really like the one they started with. After playing through the ones they want to, and if they like them, then there is an appreciation for the series as a whole. Of course Atlus sneaks in little references here and there, like having the P4 gang go to Iwatodai or some TV news announcements on P5 that allude to Adachi and other characters, but those cant always cut it. One of the biggest letdowns I would come to know is the fact that the Shadow Operatives are not mentioned at all, outside of those small references, in P5.

Persona 5 literally has the PT’s broadcasting all of their heists, and includes major government officials like Shido. There are also the mental shutdowns/psychotic breakdowns, which also have people confused, along with how the PT’s steal hearts in the first place. I don’t know about you all, but this seems like the perfect opportunity to get the Shadow Operatives involved. This is like...literally what they were made for? Investigating persona/shadow activity and such, and we already know that the PT’s deeds reached at least Hawaii so it would be strange for the SO’s to have not heard anything. There are headcanons that they were blocked by Shido or something, which is pretty interesting to think about/develop, but it was only thought up to make an excuse for why they aren’t there. Persona 5 introduced a lot of people to the story, so yeah some people would probably be very confused about who the SO’s are and stuff, but it could payoff in the long run for long-time fans and those who play the other games after.

Depending on the story of P6, I don’t think it would be a bad idea to start including casts from the other games into newer ones...especially when each game introduces 8-9 new characters per game, and those games usually get made into spin-offs that include the characters made in the previous games! Counting only the characters introduced in the previous games (3-5), Persona Q2 has 33 characters (11 P3, 10 P5, 10 P4, and 2 P3P, this includes the velvet room assistants for each respective game). That’s a ton! Sure, having new characters each time is part of the fun, but I believe there is definitely a way to split them up. I don’t think it would be too much of an issue to have a smaller party member group (you can only have 4 fight at a time anyway), that way there is still the enjoyment of seeing new characters, while also filling up some of those spots with preexisting ones.

3. Characterization

This kind of piggybacks off of the second point, but personally I think they need to stop with the self-insert protags. First, like I mentioned earlier, it kind of messes up the “flow” of the game since they have to pretend that the character doesn’t know anything because the player doesn’t know anything (yet). For example, how many times did the option to say “Probation?” or “Expelled?” or something like that come up as a dialogue choice in P5? Too often, in my opinion. I assume anyone over the age of 15 would probably know what those things mean, but in case anyone doesn’t they have to make it an option to say.

Adding onto this, it also seems like people start to like the characters a whole lot more when spinoffs or movies/animations come out that really expand on the character, because in those games/mediums the player is taken out of the self-insert role. I would say out of the three games, the Persona 3 protags have the most characterization in game through their dialogue. I haven’t watched the movies, but I heard it fleshes the MC out a lot more. In Persona 4...well, I see what they’re going for but I also feel like Yu has the personality of a cardboard box. The animations definitely helped out this one, as did Arena, and I’ve seen other people agree that they liked Yu a lot more after playing/watching those things.

As for Persona 5, I think they tried to give Joker some characterization (and oddly enough “Joker” has a lot more to him than Akira/Ren, but he still fell more on the side of self-insert. P5 the animation is...of questionable quality, but I think Xander did a good job in the Dub (which is the one I watched) in trying to make him feel more like a human being. I haven’t played Strikers, but I assume it goes more on the route of P5 because you’re still controlling Joker. Oddly enough, I feel like the dancing game gave him the most characterization? Call me crazy, but his dance moves and voice lines just ooze of his suave, friendly, and supportive attitude. I wish that they took whatever those voice lines embodied and just put them into the game, because I would like Joker a lot more than I already do (which, to be clear, I do still like him a lot).

Although this doesn’t have much to do with the characterization, it would also be nice if Atlus could just put the “canon name” in the game while also still having the option to choose your own name. Again, this might add a little more work but maybe if someone chose the “canon” option then their name could be spoken in voice lines, but if they don’t then the names would be left out (except for text) like usual. Honestly this is mostly up to personal preference because I like some of the “not canon” names more so I would want to use those if I could, but I also don’t like having the characters just randomly cut off in the end of sentences when they’re saying your name. Just kind of breaks immersion, which is probably why I really like Joker because at least they say “Joker” quite a bit.

(Little rant, but why do the PT’s get like two group names? At first Morgana defaults to “The Phantom Thieves of Hearts” but then when you get to choose the name of your team, that name is what shows up instead. However, everyone still calls you the “Phantom Thieves” and the gang refers to themselves as that too! I get naming the group is kind of cool, but I would have preferred if they were just called The Phantom Thieves (of Hearts) and that way their name could be spoken in dialogue too.)

4. Choices matter...please? (romance and regular dialogue)

This might be easy or difficult to implement, I’m not so sure because I’m not a game developer, but I really wish choices mattered more in this game. I feel like most of these suggestions (especially later on down the list) are just little things that could be added to the game that would really amp it up, and this is one of them.

When I talk about choices mattering, I do not mean that dialogue should be so open that there are branching paths and that your choices affect the story. What I mean is that you could choose two different options and not get the same exact answer. I get that this isn’t always the case, but when it is it feels very strange. In this same vein of things, please stop with the illusion of choice because everyone sees right through it. I didn’t really see this as much in P3, and I still need to finish P4, but it was definitely apparent with P5. I felt that so many times in the game there were two options that were just “Option A” or “Synonym for Option A” as the choices.

Along the same lines, I think it would be great if romance choices were actually acknowledged. Again, there is a little of this in P3 and P4 where some party members comment on your relation to the other party members (Ex. Junpei saying to take care of Fuuka if you date, Yukari stating that Akihiko probably wouldn’t want FeMC going on a group date if they’re dating, and Yosuke coming to assumptions about who Yu spends the summer festival with), but they are very few and far between. I also saw no evidence of this at all in P5, which was pretty disappointing. In fact, in Persona 5 Royal if you are dating Ann and go on the Christmas Date with her, she makes some comment about not wanting the others to find out about them. Like...girl, considering someone can finish Ann’s social link as early as June or so on NG+ I’m pretty sure your friend group would notice if you’ve been dating for 6 months?? I know that romance is definitely not the focus of the game, but if you’re going to include it why is it shoved into the farthest corner and never touched?

Don’t get me wrong, it is cute to see the romances in the game play out and such, but on the same hand I can see how much better it could be. In reality it kind of sucks to romance someone in the Persona games because no one acknowledges it, and you only get like 3-4 small scenes in each game to spend with them (beach in P5, festival in all, Christmas in all, valentines except for 3, White Day in P5R). Just imagine if you could take a walk in Kyoto with whoever you romanced, or were able to take your partner to the Jazz Jin in P5R and they would get like special date dialogue or something? Very very small additions, but it would go a long way in making the romances feel a bit more connected.

5. LGBT Romances

I went into this in some detail in Part 3 of my FES vs Portable debate post, so I to save your eyes from reading more I’ll just quickly say that Atlus definitely needs to add in more LGBT romance options because it’s ridiculous at this point. The fact that you can’t romance any guy (because all of the MC’s are male, this is not including the FeMC stuff because that’s not typical in the Persona series) but can have a whole harem (despite what they may do to you) is just ridiculous. They’d rather let you date a fully-fledged adult than someone of the same gender.

Also they’re cowards for scrapping the Yosuke romance and that’s that :)

6. Fixing Social Links

Link to the stand-alone post about this section.

I literally was going to include this in this post, but this section alone (which I knew was going to be the biggest) was almost as large (a few hundred words off) than everything prior to this point put together. I’ll make a separate post with just this section soon, but this criticism of mine can basically be boiled down into the fact that the main growth of a character should happen outside of their social link in order to avoid tonal whiplash in the story, and that this will fix the problem of some characters feeling “one-note” if you do not do their social links/confidants. Essentially, go back to the P3 method.

However, something that needs to be fixed for all of the games is that you shouldn’t only get social link points for saying what the person wants to hear. I get the train of thought that if you say what they want to hear they will like you more, but that’s not how real friendships work? Obviously you shouldn’t be saying something that offends them and think it will raise your points, but sometimes people just need to hear things?

I can think of three standout examples: Nozomi in P3 (Gourmet King), Mishima in P5, and Shinya in P5. Nozomi’s link is a hot mess in of itself, but it was very frustrating to at one point just be like “Hey can you chill?” when he’s trying to induct you into a scam/cult or whatever, and it reverses the social link. Like ok buddy fuck you too, I was just trying to say no and that you need to stop scamming people?? For Mishima in P5 (I’ll go more in depth on him in a later post), it’s just kind of strange that you can clearly see him starting to obsess about the PT’s but you can’t really tell him he needs to stop until the social link demands it. Even then, the only way to get points is pretty much to go “Wow Mishima, you’re the best! You’re the reason we exist! We love you!!!” and it just feels kind of wrong. Shinya’s is very much along the same line as that, except you basically have to do something even worse and encourage him to keep being a bully? Thankfully P5 doesn’t reverse confidants, but I probably would have done so with Shinya because I kept telling him he shouldn’t bully others until I realized how to get points with him. It just feels wrong to encourage such behavior until the character suddenly realizes they’ve been acting wrong. No shit, I’ve been trying to say that.

I think social links need quite the fix to them, but this is definitely one of them. Strong, real relationships are not just built upon telling the other person what they want to hear.

7. Have Characters Hang Out

This is mostly a suggestion based off of P5′s downfall in this aspect. I think that P3 and P4 did a good job at showing the characters hang out in other aspects, or hang out separately outside of the MC. P4 had a lot of good group hangouts, but not many scenes without the MC. P3 had the opposite where members kind of hung out together a bit, but also showed or mentioned them hanging out without the MC. However, P5 didn’t have much for the group hangouts and also I can’t really recall a single scene of the party members hanging out outside of the MC.

Along with all of the problems I mentioned earlier with the cardboard cut-out personalities, I feel that this contributed to P5′s group feeling a bit less cohesive. Obviously when they all hung out they acted like a real group of friends, but it’s hard to see it as legitimate when 95% of their hangouts are just meetings for the Phantom Thief stuff. The only times they hang out outside of the PT stuff is the TV station, the fireworks festival, helping Futaba + the beach trip, and the culture festival. Like I said, I can’t recall them hanging out together outside of being with the MC/PT business, although I could have missed some stray text message if one was mentioned.

In this aspect, P5 feels like a small step down from P3 and a huge step down from P4. I think some of the events in P4 are a bit unnecessarily long, but at least they go through the effort of showing that the group is also a real friend group, not just people trying to solve the murder. Strikers may be a step up from P5, but I haven’t played it yet so I can’t judge that.

Also bring back school trips to prior locations of Persona games. Imagine P5 group going to Inaba and it turns out this is the small country town that Joker came from? And they sprinkle in references to P4? *chefs kiss*.

8. Remove/Change Certain Tropes

(Spoilers for the babe hunts, stupid ass hot springs scenes, and Ryuji abuse after certain palace)

By that spoiler tag, you can probably tell that this is the category I’m most passionate about. I can deal with social links feeling a bit disconnected. I can deal with the MC being a self-insert. What I cant deal with anymore? These. Dumb. Ass. Scenes.

Let me explain (insert Sojiro voice here)

Every game has three main tropes. One, the babe hunt scenes. Two, the hot springs scenes. Three, one character being dunked on by everyone else. I’ll go through each, scream about my feelings about them, and why they need to change.

First, the babe hunt scenes. I don’t have much of a problem with this trope to be honest, I just think it could be done better in some games. I actually think the one in P3 was quite funny, because the group treated it like an “operation” which added a bit to humor. Truth be told, I was just a bit disappointed in P3P FeMC route when you didn’t have your own version of the “babe hunt” thing. I know Yukari and Mitsuru aren’t the types to go hunt for boys, but perhaps the MC could have suggested it as a fun idea. In P4, this scene happens in Okina and largely remains the same as the P3 formula, but I think it lacks just a bit of the humor that the P3 one had. Lastly, in P5 this scene happens during the beach trip but compared to the others it’s pretty...lackluster?

It shows a montage of Joker, Ryuji, and Yusuke talking to girls but no actual dialogue goes on. After talking to three or so, Yusuke disappears and this is when Joker and Ryuji meet the two “flamboyant” men again. This time, the men either chase them down or call after them (?) depending on if you’re playing Vanilla or Royal. I don’t like how they use these men in the first place, but on top of that it kind of takes the “babe hunt” out of “babe hunt” if you don’t actually...hunt for babes? Like no actual dialogue is spoken when trying to convince the girls, which was most of the fun in the other scenes. You don’t even have free reign to walk around at the beach, and the scene is formatted in a more cutscene type of way.  It just makes P5′s babe hunt fall flat in many ways, and overall I finished the scene with a strong “meh.” The only good things about this was watching Makoto and Ann defend themselves and Yusuke with the lobsters.

Now for the hot springs scenes....hoo boy.

Simply put, in my opinion, these scenes suck ass in almost all of the games. P3 is the least egregious in my opinion, for a couple reasons. First is that it shows that Junpei and Ryoji were kind of trying to peep on the girls, and Akihiko and MC were just dragged into it. They have some funny dialogue, and in FES and Portable they even included the option to try and evade the girls. I found the little evade minigame to be really fun, even though every time I can’t help but fail because I want to say “It was a cat!” I find it interesting that there is the option for the men to get off scott-free, and that their dialogue after the trip is over changes slightly because of this.

On the FeMC side, I also find it fun that you have the reverse of the minigame and actually seek out the boys. My only letdown with this entire scene is if the boys are caught. I get it, it’s supposed to be funny with Mitsuru executing them and such, but as a reasonable person with a brain it seems really dumb to me that Mitsuru would just punish all of them when it’s just Ryoji and Junpei’s fault? This is nothing against Mitsuru, but her actions just seem so...exaggerated for some reason? Like Mitsuru is usually smart, and even if she is embarrassed I don’t get why she would punish innocent party members. A huge disappointment for me was that the FeMC isn’t able to stop Mitsuru from doing this either. Not even a choice to try and encourage Mitsuru or discourage her (so both options would be available). You just kinda sit there and watch, even after Akihiko say “It was a misunderstanding!” or something. For me it was especially strange because MC was dating Akihiko at that point, so why wouldn’t I try to hear him out? Just struck me as kind of dumb.

If I thought that was dumb, P4 and P5 were out to really make me roll my eyes and sigh in disappointment. Unlike P3, which has most of the scene being pretty good besides the very end where Mitsuru punishes the boys, the P4 and P5 scenes are all bad. This is not the first time anyone has said it, and won’t be the last, but they aren’t funny scenes in the slightest.

In P4, it’s actually the girl’s fault that they’re in the hot springs when the boys walk in. They stayed over their allotted time and into the time when boys are supposed to be in there. So what do they do? Get flustered, yell at them, and throw buckets at the group. Oh, and they don’t listen to the boy’s protests at all. Really.

Who thought this was a good idea?? The girls even realize after that they were in the wrong, say they should apologize, but I don’t think they ever show a scene of them apologizing after. This whole scene, like the hot springs ones in general, are just exaggerated (ie. throwing masses of buckets) to be funny, but they really fail in my opinion. It just serves to make the player kinda angry (since they’re usually on the receiving end) and make the girls look wildly unrealistic and dumb. I have never really thought that needless physical abuse is funny, so these scenes are just the bane of my existence apparently.

There actually isn’t a hot springs scene in P5, but they did add one in Strikers.

If they wanted to still do these scenes, maybe they could switch from making it “just beat up the boys” into something else. For example, the girls could try to peep, or walk in on the boys. Equality y’all, sometimes girls can do those things too (but still don’t beat them up. Just don’t beat anyone up). If none of that happens, or maybe that’s how the scene ends, the rest of the scene could just be a chill, relaxing scene between those involved. Essentially, how the scenes go before the whole “lets beat up the boys” thing comes in.

Lastly, on basically the same vein as why I don’t like the hot springs scenes, I’m starting to get real sick of the “let’s shit on this one character” trope. In Persona 3, I don’t think it’s that bad because they kind of do it with Junpei but they also give him a lot of character development, and eventually the sort of hostile shitting on him turns into just gentle teasing.

For P4 I still don’t think it is too bad, because Yosuke is kind of the one being shit on but he also does the same to the other people in the group? I suppose the only thing that really sticks out to me is how Teddie abuses Yosuke’s wallet (making him buy/pay for a lot of stuff with his hard earned cash), but I also don’t like Teddie at all in the first place so I may be biased about him. Oh well, he still shouldn’t do those things and I don’t really find it funny but to each their own.

However...this problem walks and rocks the fucking runway in Persona 5. Namely, this happens with Ryuji. The most obvious aggressor in this is Morgana, because him and Ryuji butt heads so often, but the other thieves kind of do it as well. Obviously they don’t do this all the time, but it’s extremely frustrating when they do. Morgana getting into arguments with Ryuji at the drop of a hat get old very quick, and the other thieves poking a bit of fun about how dumb Ryuji can be is also not that riveting. Despite all of that, the scene that highlights all of this is the scene after Shido’s palace collapse.

You all knew this was coming, but I couldn’t resist talking about it. The scene is so tone deaf in so many ways that it takes away all of the emotional impact that they were trying to build. Even the first time I watched this scene, in which I didn’t think they would kill off Ryuji, I could still sympathize with the group being concerned about him. Then when he shows up they...just beat him up and leave him unconscious next to a pole while they walk away? Wow.

On all subsequent playthroughs I just skip this scene, but I truly cannot understand why that was the angle they went for. Were they trying to insert some humor right after an emotional scene? That can be done in certain cases, but....why??? It’s so unbelievable it’s almost laughable. It’s not even like the bath scene where the the girls think the guys are trying to peep on them. It’s simply because he survived which I assume is what they wanted!

“Oh no you made us thought you were dead (even though he didn’t because he couldn’t control any of this), we’re going to beat you up!” Now you just make the characters look like irrational idiots.

Seriously Atlus, stop doing this. In most cases it just serves to make the player kind of frustrated, and in this case it it literally takes all of the emotional weight out of the scene and makes me think worse of the entire female cast. Please. Stop.

Well that’s the end of that. I don’t think I said anything too revolutionary, although my opinions about the social links and characterization might get me some flak. I just want the characters to be more than one personality trait... This was a really long post again, so kudos to whoever made it to this point!

Next time, on Dragon Ball Z Casual’s pointless posts: something Persona related :)

#long post #persona 3 #persona 3 portable #persona series #persona 4 #persona 5 #persona 5 royal #p3 #p3p #p4 #p5 #that's a lot of p's #ready to get shit on for my opinions #but maybe just ask me first before doing so #who's ready to play persona 6 when it comes out and be slightly disappointed #I am! #but I'll still like it because it's persona

[gra-sonas]

Hey! I hate to ask this, you already do so much for us! But would you mind just a tiny recap of Vlamis’ live from last night? You don’t have to go into a ton of detail or anything, I just saw that it was a half hour long. I have a weird anxiety thing that keeps me from watching lives and stories for the most. Still haven’t even been able to work myself up to watching the vlamburn one as much as I’d love to! 🙁

Either way, thank you for everything!

Okay, nonnie. I went and watched the whole thing again and wrote you a detailed account of what’s been said. I’ll link the live again, then you can watch here if you want to. Or not. Up to you. 🤗 Hope this helps. 💕

Brushing his teeth and flossing for 3 minutes while talking.

800 new follower lately “where have you been before?”

“Do you do anything to your hair at night?” He adds Moroccan hair oil in the morning, nothing at night.

“What’s your favorite of the drop?” He hasn’t seen everything from the drop (like the COSMIC tie-dye) bc he’s in Santa Fe. He loves the COSMIC and MALEX embroidered things (“so subtle”) bc they are in Vlamburn’s handwriting, he loves the Manesqueeze shirt bc you can make Alex and Michael kiss by putting your wrists together. He *loves* the candle (there’s one burning on his bedside table), the silky PJs are great, but he can’t decide on just one favorite thing.

“How’s Jesa’s sanity?” She needs like 3 weeks of sleep. He explains, that while we *are* the Vlambase, the Vlambase merch company’s just Jesa and Vlamis. Jesa has a team, but all the day-to-day things, ideas, emails/customer service (Jesa), the newsletter (Vlamis). They hadn’t collaborated with anyone before Tyler, so working with him was a new experience. 

One fan mentions how they wanted to buy stuff but couldn’t. Vlamis says that he’s been there, and when he wanted something in the past he couldn’t afford, he started putting away a Dollar a day. 

“Thought on One Direction?” Vlamis is a Harry Styles guy. “Harry Styles’ swagger is next level!”

“What do you think about Russia? Will Vlambase merch be available here?” Talks a bit about how annoying things are with shipping companies, says they wanted to protect themselves for the holidays, and now that the Christmas rush is over, some shipping options have become available again. 

“Who came up with  MANESQUEEZE” He ponders about it, and settles on Jesa. It was Vlamis’s ides to put tiny Alex and tiny Michael on the sleeves so that they can kiss tho. And Tyler came up with the idea to put a “toupee” on his head (in a previous drop, the NEVER LOOK AWAY design had tiny Alex and tiny Michael on the sleeves, but poor Alex was bald) for the design.

Someone got a MALEX pin and the candle. He knows the pin sold out fast, and he feels bad about that. They want everyone to get everything they want, but it’s difficult to make proper calculations how well an item will sell. The pandemic made things even harder. Like the PJ sets. Normally, they would wait until the sale ends and see how many sets were actually ordered, but during the pandemic, stock listings have been changing dramatically from day to day, so they had to pre-order the PJs and robes to make sure they had a certain number at their disposal. He said that they “overshot” on a couple of things, but ultimately sales have been great, and he appreciates that.

“I’m excited to make the MANESQUEEZE doodles kiss bc I do that with the NEVER LOOK AWAY shirt” Vlamis jumps up and shows his closet that’s full of Vlambase merch items.

“Why am I here, it’s almost 3am” He mentions that he’s been staying up until 4 in the past couple of days, but he has to be on set in 7 or 8 hours. 

“Hello, just wanted to let you know that I got a tattoo for you” Vlamis asks for a photo and to be tagged.

“Kyle the packer [Vlamis’s roomie KA, who works in the warehouse when a new drop is ready for shipping]” Vlamis says they’re working him to death.

“Please save this live” He doesn’t know whether he’ll save it. Thinks the one with Tyler was important, but since it’s just him, he doesn’t think it’s important.

“I followed Jesa, Jesa is the real MVP” Vlamis says that Jesa is “a beast, and best in the game”. Quickly explains who Jesa is, and that she’s his partner in the Vlambase merch company. He mentions that she recently called him with an idea for Valentine’s Day, and he was like “Jesa, we need to relax!” But she loved the idea. She’s a big fan of RNM and the characters (and Tyler). “Jesa’s amazing.”

“What about new Soli art [Soli’s the artist who created the Boys Will Be Boys art for a previous drop]?” Vlamis smiles. “What about new Soli art. I like that idea. 😏“

“Your house [in New Mexico] is so cute.” Vlamis says thank you and shows the ceiling of the house (which he likes best). “Santa Fe is dope!”

“I adore your teeth” *shows his teeth* Says he had to wear braces (some even adjustable)

“I could’ve used my birthday money to buy something but I forgot” 🤨 << Vlamis’s face. “How you you forget, man?”

“Back to Twitter after this live” He mentions that he’d just been on Twitter before the live.

He got retweeted by Mountain Dew and loves it.

“I’m from Australia and hope my merch arrives before winter” Vlamis says he hopes shipping will be fast. 

“Love the Valentines” They’re not actually Valentines, hence they’re “Love Notes”.  Vlamis considers doing them not just around Valentine’s Day. 

“You catch any of the CW shows returning this month?” “Might have to” But he knows what he’ll be catching on the 12th. “Prodigal Son, baby!”

“Where did you get the Game Boys?” Those are his Game Boys. He has a Game Boy Advanced and a Game Boy Color. 

“How do you feel about Forlex?” *scoffs* 😒 “Yeah” 

“So excited for the robe!” Vlamis gets excited. “The robes and the PJs are so comfy!” Talks about how it’s a bit weird, bc they don’t make them themselves.

Several people mention that their closet looks like his closet bc of all the merch and he loves that. 

“How do you feel about Forlex” *gets agitated* “Why are you asking me this? Don’t do that to me, alright?” *softer* “Don’t do that.”

“How are you doing?” He’s doing very well. Very relieved that eh sale went well. This drop was like 3-4 months of work, the night before the sale felt like an entire month, too. Jesa and Vlamis Facetimed for more than 5hrs. They set up the website, and that’s how the glitch with the GIVE ME MALEX OR GIVE ME DEATH shirts and poster happened. They made a mistake and only noticed after the website went live. 

“Do you know when S3 will air?” No, he thought it might’ve been sooner, but apparently not.

“I love your poetry from the last drop so why no poems this time?” He writes poems when he’s inspired, he hasn’t written a poem in a while. He’s currently preparing to direct his first movie in June 2021, and he’s been very focused on that. 

“The Meet & Greet day changed.”  Filming schedule changed bc they had snow, the schedule’s changing constantly. He’ll be set all day tomorrow (well, today, Jan 11) from 8am until 8 or 9pm. Sometimes they might even wake up in the morning and learn that the schedule’s been changed. 

 “You could talk about nothing and we’d still watch.” He doesn’t want to talk about nothing, wonders if anyone has any questions about the sale.

“I’m so excited about the robe. I was going to buy more but I’m broke.” He says we should be responsible.

Someone’s still waiting about their Black Friday stuff, but he says it’s the shipping company, not them. 

“Vlamentines" He *loves* that, thinks it’s a good pun. 

“Gotta support Aurora.” Always. 🥰

“Jealous Guerin in S3?” You’ll see, you’ll see.

“I placed 3 orders, last one last night. Give me Malex or give me death.” He loves it. He also mentions, that they’re working hard on figuring out how to combine orders in the future so people don’t have to pay for shipping several times. They just can’t do that logistically at the moment. 

“Real talk, how often do you check your DMs?” He says, that some people might’ve noticed that he occasionally likes random photos on people’s IG pages. When that happens, it’s a sign that he read someone’s DM. He feels bad when he checks his mentions with a delay, and people’s stories have already vanished after 24hours. He sometimes doesn’t get to checking DMs for a week.

“Will we ever get the original pic of the kiss recreation?” *smiles* *waggles his eyebrows* “Maybe in the morning”

“So happy the Trevor Project was chosen for this merch drop!” He’s very happy, too. According to him, it was a no-brainer. Tyler’s worked with them in the past, so it made even more sense. They wanted to make sure that Tyler felt very strongly about wherever they’d be donating. 

People urge him to go to sleep. “You want me to go to bed?” 

“Why is your merch not available in India?” *deep breath* “It should be, it’s ridiculous. Unbelievable.”

“Your poetry was awesome.” He appreciates the praise and promises to write some more poetry. 

Someone asks whether the movie he’ll be directing in June will be a comedy, but he says it’s the opposite. He’s mentioned in the past that Aurora and him will both act in the movie, but apparently he forgot about that. He doesn’t want to jinx the movie and doesn’t know how much he should reveal just yet. Talks a bit about 5 Years Apart. 

Someone mentions that it’s Jeanine’s birthday on January 14th. 

“Do (or don?) a face mask, Vlamis.” He refuses. Mentions his friend and roommate Spencer Waldner, who makes face masks.

“If there’s leftover merch, will you do another sale?” He says that most things are actually sold out bc they use Blank Clo’s blanks and will only make what’s been ordered.  They might try to restock some pins tho, bc they went so quickly. 

“USPS are a joke” He defends them. “They’re a public service, they’re trying hard, guys.”

“You should do a Vlambase drop with the Real Vlamis [a.k.a. Jeanie]” He’s excited and thinks it’s a good idea and asks if anyone’d be interested. 

Someone congratulates him on directing his first movie. He points out that he’s directed before (Making It, a 3-part web series, it’s on YouTube).

 “Would you ever come to Australia Comic Con?” He’d love to. Mentions that he’s supposed to be in Paris in May for a convention, but he’s not sure whether that’s gonna happen considering how things are currently going with the pandemic. 

Some more talk about 5 Years Apart.

Circles back to doing a merch drop with Jeanine. People like the idea. 

“Please save this live.” After an IG update, things have changed and he doesn’t know how to do it. In the past he had the option to save it [for 24hrs], now he can only upload it to IGTV. 

“$30 shipping to Australia hurts my soul but I did it anyway.” He appreciates that and mentions, that he lived in Australia for 6 months in the past.

“Sing some Bright Eyes” He thinks his singing would hurt people’s ears. 

Jesa Joy pops up in the chat and urges him to go to bed. 

“Jesa is yelling at you.” Vlamis says that Jesa’s a “yeller”, and that she has a tattoo that says “Don’t yell tho”. He admits that Jesa often yells for a good reason. “I need to be yelled at sometimes.”

Someone asks him to accept a request to join his live. He says he’s pretty tired. 

He says hello to someone from Germany (not me btw :P) “What’s up, Germany ✌️” 

More people ask him to sing, but he says he cannot sing. He says it’s not like a joke  or him being modest, he straight up can’t sing and is a horrible singer. 

“Will there be a sequel to 5 Years Apart?” Maybe a sequel called “10 Years Apart” (he’s joking and visibly tired)

“Should I buy anything before the sale ends?” Yes.

Jesa Joy’s from Michigan, and Vlamis’s grandma’s from Middlesborough, Kentucky.

“Is Tyler singing again?” He doesn’t know. “I hope so. Love that kid’s voice” (Tyler’s 3.5 years older than Vlamis :P)

He’s getting sleepy and will read a little bit before bed. Considers drinking some Mountain Dew. 

“Do you take design ideas.” Sure. Sometimes he sees design ideas from people they’ve been working on for months, but he’s gonna “steal” an idea from someone, he’ll tell them. He’ll steal it, though. 

“Are you still reading SAGA?” He read the first one and is half-way through the second. He’s currently reading a book called “My First Movie” by Stephen Lowenstein. “How cliché.” Aurora got it for him.

Purple Skittles are his favorite. Purple everything.

“Your girlfriend’s the best girlfriend.” She is, she really is.

Asks Jesa Joy whether he should go to bed now.Even though it’s late, he’s hungry. Considers eating something. People tell him to go to bed.

He asks “Should I get naked and put on the PJs?” *waggles eyebrows* “I’M KIDDING, YOU’RE SICK. YOU’RE ALL DISGUSTING.” xD

“Don’t eat!” He laughs.

Says goodbye and says that Jesa’s posted a surprise picture. 

“Any advice for aspiring actors?” Tells them to make their own stuff bc no one’s gonna hire them. (He’s being sarcastic). “It’s dark, but it’s what you need to hear.”

“Okay, love you guys. Thank you again! It was our best sale yet. Means a lot to me. Means a lot to Tyler. Us doing so well might mean that Tyler will work with us again. So I really appreciate it. Okay, I love you all.”

Jesa promises to post the pic in 4 minutes. He’s excited. “See, I got her to do it! The picture is kind of ridiculous.”

*pretends to take off his shirt, stops halfway through* “Noooooo, noooooo, noooooo!”

*throws kiss* “Love you guys, good night.”

#michael vlamis #vlambase #mgv ig #mgv interviews #nonnie asks

[ill-be-istj-if-no-one-else-is]

Hello! Love your blog. I was wondering if I could get some typing help? I have a general idea of what I am, but that’s not saying much since I have a tendency to hop between a few of them (INTJ, ENTJ, ESTJ specifically). Either way, hopefully you can help me settle it.

I’m 22 and about to graduate from college. It’s been a journey, because I’ve transferred twice and changed plans a few times, but that’s the proper college experience, I think. One transfer closer to home can be owed to depression and Covid, while the first was simply me not meshing with the campus. I’m not too worried about how it’ll affect my grad school apps due to good grades and valid reasons.

Despite the schooling-related indecision, I tend to get an idea of what I want, then fixate on it heavily. Example: I recently tried to publish a novel I’ve been working on for years now. Realistically, I know the odds of getting your first work published and making enough money to start a career on it are beyond low, but a big part of me thought “yeah, except I worked on this draft consistently all these months and this feels right, so it has to pay off” – of course, it didn’t. That’s not to say it wasn’t worth it, but I’ve come to accept it won’t be that easy, so I’m going to focus on a job with more security first lol. That means proceeding with law school. Some friends might think I’m selling my soul by putting my dreams on the back burner. I disagree, though, because if writing is meant to be I can still make it happen this way but with more security. Plus, I’m used to having some higher objective to motivate me through each day, and I don’t like feeling aimless. To me, that would be settling for less: wasting time working next to minimum wage at some place I can’t see myself staying.

I’d like to think of myself as spontaneous despite knowing I’m really not. When I’m with friends, maybe, but I’m more than happy to do nothing on Friday nights, knowing I’ll be able to wake up early tomorrow and do whatever I’m doing at a decent time. That being said, I would be happy to hop on a flight across the world if someone offered to pay the way. I love travel, so I’d hope to find a career that makes that possible. The same goes for whatever work I’m doing. Ideally, I could move from place to place as I do my job, because I fear being rooted will keep me from seeing everything I’d like to see.

I’m definitely an introvert dichotomy wise, but if group work appears, I’m happy to make a plan and remind everyone when a due date is near, and I expect them to follow through or provide some forewarning. I’m not outright nasty when someone inevitably slips up, but I’m not going to give them an excuse either. Can’t relate since I’ve never had a problem with procrastination. Like, I’d say I’m procrastinating, but to me procrastinating is choosing not to get ahead on the project due next week while I have spare time now. That makes me sound like a robot or a liar, but I’m mostly just very aware of my limitations and have learned how to manage work in a way that keeps me from having to stress.

I have no idea how to end this. Quick notes? I’m ambitious but not competitive – literally cannot relate to envy, because I don’t think someone having something means you can’t have it too – you just have to work on/for it. I’m not very curious lmao. Like, I’m as curious as the average person, but I don’t care about how things work (Ti slacking?). Uhh, fandoms annoy me. Like, seeing fans distort characters and needlessly project onto them in cringe ways makes my brain itchy. I’ve been called insensitive. I can easily cut someone off after finding, for a fact, that they’re being manipulative. Whatever baggage they have, I don’t care. I don’t see the point in fighting for a relationship when a “friend” is working against you. I’m also the “advice friend” because I don’t have drama and seem to know how to diffuse it easily or cut it out completely. Now that I think about it, all of my closest friends have a lot of anxiety, so maybe I collect them and care for them a little since I have none.

Hopefully that wasn’t too much useless info. I think I’m mainly struggling on differentiating between lower Ne vs Lower Se. My indecision comes in rare bouts, so maybe that’s the weak Ne manifesting. Or maybe I’m lower Se for forgetting the larger scheme by focusing on material things like getting to travel and making a high salary? Whatever. These are things most people prioritize, though. Let me know if you need any specifics. Also, thank you for taking the time to read this! I really appreciate how informative your blog is and all the resources you share.

Hi anon,

To be honest I am really not sure based on this, and it might be good for you to revisit this after a little bit of time out of school. I would rule out the Ti-Fe axis, but I can actually see arguments for either high Te or high Fi My guess is high Ni if you have high Te you don't really sound like a high Si user - and part of what is tripping me up the most is that you said a lot of things that make me thing of high Fi and the spontaneity of Se or Ne, but there's a lot here that really sounds intuitive but distinctly not like an Ne user. So I actually think there are arguments for either INTJ or ISFP, and I actually lean a little more towards "ISFP with good discipline/time management" than INTJ.

Here's my thought process, which hopefully can get you started.

I do feel like transferring twice is a little abnormal (not bad, just more than the typical college experience of maybe one transfer and changing one's major once or twice) but COVID did fuck with things more than usual so no conclusions there.

The fixation on writing a novel and the long-shot of gaining enough success to focus on that full time - particularly right out of school or even before graduation - is either intuitive or possibly high Fi. I really do not think an ESTJ would have that idea - not that they wouldn't be a writer, but I don't think they would have had the same expectations surrounding payoff and would have assumed from the start that this will not be their career initially. For that matter I have my doubts on ENTJ, but it could be possible for INTJ.

The part about spontaneity actually fits really well with auxiliary Se or Ne, in that those types at your age will have moderation from Ni or Si respectively and will often want a combination of stability but also the ability to travel a lot and move around. The example you gave actually still seemed very spontaneous; a lot of ExTJs for example might really dislike doing nothing on a Friday night and would instead have something planned. What you describe sounds very go-with-the-flow, just in a low-key way.

The part about procrastination indicates that Ne is probably off the table but Se is possible; some SPs are pretty good at being realistic about getting things done and it sounds like you don't have the high Te motivation of "I must get this done early" (not that high Te users can't procrastinate or do things on time but not down-to-the-wire).

I often tie ambition/competitive nature to enneagram more than MBTI, but I will say a lot of Te users and especially Te-doms tend to be both. They don't have to be (and if they're only one, usually it's ambition over competition), but it's pretty common. Curiosity is complicated but not caring about how literally everything works does seem like it would rule out Ti and I'd fully agree there. The part about being frustrated by fandom distortion of characters is relatable to me and I feel that comes from a place of sensing, ie, were you not paying attention to canon, so that seems like a point towards high Se for you. The parts about advice and interpersonal relationships mostly just reinforce that you sound more like someone on the Fi-Te axis, which you already suspected, but again...being the advice friend, particularly from a caring position, seems more high Fi to me than INTJ; a lot of IxTJs (and definitely ExTJs) at your age are just not emotionally ready for that level of patience with anxiety. I know I wasn't.

I would also say focusing on the material things (travel, a liveable salary) is more in line with higher Se! Te users do have a measure of pragmatism, so again, can't rule out INTJ, but the travel especially is what's making me think Se is pretty high in your stack.

All in all? My guess is an ISFP with good time management skills, possibly with an enneagram 6 adding to the stability/pragmatism. That said I wouldn't totally rule out INTJ (possibly also enneagram 6?); I just think it's less likely.

#mbti #isfp #intj

[itsnothingofinterest]

Hawks’ conflict of interest

So given new confirmation on how Hawks admired Twice, I’d like to take one last crack at the mystery of why he killed him. Especially since, I imagine the next time this’ll get brought up his motives will finally be explained.

To get everyone caught up: Hawks killed the villain Twice in a move that one could politely call controversial. As a result, his actions have been hotly debated; and through those debates, I’ve found several questions plaguing my mind about Hawks’ motives for doing that, which’ve really divorced me from the narrative of “Hawks killed Twice because his quirk was too strong”. Namely:

a) Why did Hawks think to do that when killing is a major taboo for heroes such that no one does it under any circumstances? If no other hero has ever needed to, and we do know other heroes have been in tighter jams, Hawks shouldn’t have felt he had to either. Logically, his mind had no reason to jump to that solution.

b) Why did he feel he needed to do it against Twice when his quirk counters Twice’s so hard that “I couldn’t handle his quirk” would sound more believable from Eraserhead? Twice got a Parade off and Hawks still beat it! Even a 2-on-1 shouldn’t have been an unreasonable task for the no.2, never mind that he could’ve subdued Twice before Dabi even arrived.

c) Why did he seem to come in prepared to kill him unless, & only unless, Twice came willingly and did not resist arrest? Both before Twice rejected coming quietly, and again after he reviewed Twice’s wounds, Hawks planned to take Twice in alive, only to go back to lethal force once Twice resisted. So what’s the deal with that?

(Also, just to quickly talk on some other points of evidence people like to discuss. We know he was going to kill him with or without Dabi being there. He was stabbing a sword into Twice’s head right as Dabi arrived. I know it can be hard to admit that he would kill a guy he has pinned, but we know this is true because we’re working with a form of photographic evidence that comes with actions lines. For this reason, we can surmise that he did, in fact, come prepared to kill Twice. Although additional evidence for this includes him bringing a tape recorder, explaining to Twice he would have to die if he didn’t surrender, letting him get his last words in, and then yeah, going to stab him. We got all that? Great.)

Now previously, I theorized that his reasoning was simply what he said to Twice; when a hero fights a villain who is too determined to give up or stay down, a trait Hawks knows Twice possesses, one party isn’t leaving alive. And while we know this isn’t true, plenty of heroes have beaten villains without the villain necessarily giving up, it’s a believable view for Hawks to have...but you see, the thing is that this comes with the implication that Twice wasn’t exactly Hawks’ only kill. Determination is not exactly a super rare trait for villains. And, well, I kind of learned the hard way that his fans don’t really appreciate this implication. So we’re benching this theory. For now, at least.

So here’s the new theory: What if he couldn’t afford to have a villain he sympathized with out there on the other side?

Basically; we know he liked Twice, even seemed to respect him a great deal. Despite this, he had no sympathy for what he was fighting for, and found his group a danger and natural enemy to his own worldviews and motivations. It’s easy to see the conflict of interest here, yes?

This could explain why he couldn’t just arrest Twice by force; because then his friend still hates him, thinks he’s a traitor, would probably be cursing him all the way to jail (which he’d probably be there for the whole journey to, as villains appear to get hero escorts that can counter them in case of an escape attempt; and Hawks is the only hero we know that can counter a Parade). He would not be able to help his friend, or even visit him in prison without being reminded of how deceitful he is and how much Twice hates him. And what’s more; Hawks may feel sympathy for Twice, and thus be drawn into Twice’s cause, which could lead to Hawks doing something bad. It’s an incredibly selfish motive, but it’s easy to think why Hawks would want to avoid this conflict of interest.

So, what’s an easy way to deal with this conflict of interest? You kill Twice in battle. It’s simple really, if Twice is dead then he can’t hate Hawks, nor can he draw Hawks to his side. With Twice dead, he doesn’t have to deal with their differences or how Twice died hating him; all that’s left of him to Hawks is the admirable & idealized version of him in his head, right next to the idealized Endeavor he has in his head. An extreme solution for sure, but when you realize how easy arresting Twice should’ve been, and how frowned upon killing is for heroes, any reason for why this happened is gonna imply some loose screws. What fixes Hawks’ problems, fixes Hawks’s problems. 

This theory even answers one of the most difficult questions to figure out: if Hawks was so prepared and fully intended to kill Twice if he fought, why still arrest him if he didn’t fight? Well, that means abandoning the PLF for Hawks’ point of view, possibly even Hawks himself. No conflict of interest in that case. It’s a standard Fire Embalm situation (as I understand; I’ve never played an FE game you see). You sway the likable enemy lieutenant to your side and that’s it; they’re on your side and not on the enemy side anymore, so you can continue doing what you must to the rest of the enemy without issue. It’s like that, but with jail time because Twice was still a criminal; but that’s okay because it’s Hawks’ viewpoint for it to be okay and Twice was gonna be cool with that. And he was even gonna be cool with how Hawks phrased the whole thing as a threat to Twice’s life. Or I guess that’s what Hawks was hoping for anyway. I know, I’m surprised it didn’t work out that way too.

Anyway, that’s the theory. Not sure if it’s my best work but it’s internally consistent and when you’re trying to figure Hawks out that may be the best you can hope for. And I have been trying to hard to wrap my brain around his actions for so long that now I’m pretty sure it’s either this, he’s a secret serial villain killer, or he’s just really, really bad at his job. So I think I’m gonna stick with this theory until he actually explains his thought process and proves all of us wrong.

#bnha #hawks #jin bubaigawara #twice #hero society #dabi #analysis #quirk analysis

[taylorswiftdiscographyrate]

#150-141

150. Welcome to New York (5.091) Highest score was 7.3; Lowest score was 1

This feels more like a tourism ad than a song. I’ve actually warmed up to it a bit over the years (by which I mean I gave it a 2 instead of a 1!), but that’s mostly because I’ve realised I love the emotion in Taylor’s voice when she sings “it’s a new soundtrack i could dance to this beat forevermore / the lights are so bright but they never blind me”. There’s also something to be said about how, for being a song about New York, it doesn’t really say much about New York, but as someone who neither lives there nor has visited I’m probably not the person to elaborate on that critique.

Highlighted comments: @leadinmeon: “there is a weird fucking production thing on this song and i hate it” @liabilitys: “our first proper gay rights reference” @yourivysgrows: “It feels as bright and busy as NYC”

149. Highway Don’t Care (5.122) Highest score was 10; Lowest score was 1

To go from naming your debut single after a famous country singer to collabing with said famous country singer - what a glow up! And Aussie icon Keith Urban is there too! This is another song I have listened to exactly once; I appreciate it for what it is, but what it is isn’t really my thing.

Highlighted comments: @itspeterlosingwendy: “their voices are so complementary” @yourivysgrows: Just not my cup of tea”

148. The Outside (5.141) Highest score was 7; Lowest score was 2

Some of you didn’t cry your eyes out to this after your first day of high school because you had no friends, and it shows! Seriously, this song holds a little bit of a special place in my heart, and it hurts a bit to see it this low. Some of you need to go and relisten to “How can I ever try to be better? Nobody ever lets me in” and think about what you’ve done!

Highlighted comments: @onceintwentylifetimes: “bonus points for just being such a comfort so many times”

147. Speak Now (5.216) Highest score was 8; Lowest score was 2

Now here’s a take for you all: Speak Now is a better album title than Enchanted, and Taylor was right to change it, but Speak Now the song is a terrible title track. It’s cute I guess, but it’s all a bit saccharine for me and I just cannot vibe with it, sorry! Also I spent a long time convinced that this had a music video and I’m still shaken by the fact that my memory lied to me all those years.

Highlighted comments: @yourivysgrows: “We love a good storyline” @corneliaavenue: “she is cute”

146. Only the Young (5.219) Highest score was 9; Lowest score was 1

When Miss Americana (the documentary) released, my IRL Swiftie friend watched it before me and messaged me about this song, saying how amazing Taylor’s lyricism was and her ability to set a scene with her writing - and looking at the lyrics on the verses in this song, she was right! There are some great lyrical moments in this song, but there are also some... not so great lyrical moments, and the production... let’s just blame Joel Little for that one. It’s a shame, because I think this song had a lot of potential that it just never reaches.

Highlighted comments: @corneliaavenue: “the only time I liked this song was in the joe biden ad.” @onceintwentylifetimes:  “Some great lyrics in there, but feels a bit unfocused. Also that chorus could've been improved...” @treacherousdemo: [after giving it a 4] “i'm sorry.” (there’s no need to apologise to me, I gave it a 1!) 

145. Stay Beautiful (5.241) Highest score was 9; Lowest score was 1.5

What does “Corey’s eyes are like a jungle / He smiles, it’s like the radio” mean? The world may never know. Honestly, one of the most iconic parts of the Debut (and Fearless) era is that Taylor held nothing back when it came to name dropping the guys she liked, even when she had pretty much never spoken to them, as was the case with Corey in this song... girl was brave. 

Highlighted comments: @yourivysgrows: “cOrEy'S eYeS”  @corneliaavenue: “one of her worst use of metaphors”

144. Stay Stay Stay (5.322) Highest score was 8; Lowest score was 1

Okay, okay, I hear you... but as a Stay Stay Stay apologist, can we have some appreciation for “you took the time to memorise me / my fears my hopes and dreams / I just like hanging out with you all the ti-i-ime / all those times that you didn’t leave / it’s been occurring to me / I’d like to hang out with you for my whole li-i-fe”? That’s all I’m asking.

Highlighted comments: @corneliaavenue: “a toxic relationship set to Wii background music” @yourivysgrows: “Actually this is the only Taylor song I hate 👁👄👁”

143. Crazier (5.431) Highest score was 7.5; Lowest score was 3

As someone who was neither a Swiftie during the Fearless era days by virtue of me being an oblivious 9 year old nor a Hannah Montana fan, this song doesn’t really mean much to me. I don’t even really know what the context was for Taylor appearing as herself in the movie (I don’t even know what the movie is about full stop.) It’s a nice enough song though.

Highlighted comments: @treacherousdemo: “not the strongest song but a classic nonetheless” @onceintwentylifetimes: “13/14 year old Taylor wrote this and I think it deserves more praise. Lovely imagery, lovely vocal delivery...Just so nice and wistful” @yourivysgrows: “Best song on the HM movie soundtrack”

142. Gorgeous (5.484) Highest score was 9.5; Lowest score was 1

Lyrics that can cut glass, anybody? I went with my cousin to the rep tour, and when this song started playing she went absolutely feral to it, and yelled “this is my favourite song!”. I said nothing. And before all the Gorgeous stans get mad at me, I do think this song is fun. I just don’t think it’s particularly good.

Highlighted comments: @corneliaavenue: “300 people know👀” (war flashbacks!!) @liabilitys: “i prefer the acoustic version she did in the making of videos but still a bop” @onceintwentylifetimes: “There are some days where I really do vibe with this but alas…”

141. You Need to Calm Down (5.522) Highest score was 9; Lowest score was 2.1

I think every possible critique that can be made about this song has already been made, by people who are both more qualified and more eloquent than I am. So all I will say is that despite my misgivings about this song, it’s is fun to sing along to and I do now have a habit of saying “damn... it’s 7am” whenever I have to be awake at 7am.

Highlighted comments: @liabilitys: “not one of her best songs but this mini era helped me realise i was gay so it has a special place in my heart.” @tobesolonely: “im gay” @onceintwentylifetimes: “Maybe it's just the vibe, but I feel like she could've done more with this. I don't like bubblegum pop that much.”

#results

[putschki1969]

Hello Puts!

I don't think I have seen you share your thoughts about Keiko's latest single. I personally really enjoy this release and I am curious how you feel about it?

Ugh, yeah, you got me there🫣I've been uncharacteristically quiet about Keiko's 「夕闇のうた」. Quite frankly, I've just not had enough positive things to say to warrant a proper review😭. As most of you probably know, I do not get any pleasure from lingering on stuff I don't particularly like, I simply move on and prefer to focus on things I actually enjoy. But hey, since you asked, I might as well write up a few things that have been going through my mind.

Disclaimer: Needless to say, this is all just my personal opinion. I am by no means an expert on music or singing, I am just a fan who is very invested in my girls but due to having a very specific taste, not everything works for me but of course that doesn't mean that it won't work for anyone else.

Let's start with the single's A-Side 「夕闇のうた/Yūyami no Uta」. It's not like I hate the song or anything, objectively it's a decent track, I just can't really get into it. There are some songs and melodies that immediately resonate with me, others grow on me over time and then there are some I need to hear performed live to properly appreciate them. In this case, none of these options apply unfortunately. We got our very first snippet way back at the end of November and to be honest, that didn't do much for me which already kinda tempered my excitement. Ever since then the song has had time to marinate but I haven't been able to warm up to it. Even the live performance at last year's Kaji Fes didn't have a noteworthy effect on me. My last hope was hearing the full studio version but my reaction was once again rather lukewarm. The visuals of the PV helped a bit to get me into a good mood for the song but ultimately, I was pretty much underwhelmed. And the worst thing is, I struggle to pinpoint what exactly is bothering me about the song. One thing I am definitely not a fan of is the overly rushed and repetitive drum-beat in the verses, for some reason I feel like it clashes a bit with Keiko's singing and cheapens the overall vibe of the song but that could just be my personal impression. I prefer a good build-up to a chorus and I don't think we are getting it here. Speaking of the chorus, the structure of the chorus doesn't work for me or maybe it's the melody (lack thereof?) that doesn't appeal to me? Not sure exactly but it's not giving me what I would have liked. The first part starting with "inori" is pretty generic and then we get a sort of crescendo for "utau/fureru" which feels oddly out of place, especially when it transitions right into the scat singing. Maybe there is too much different stuff going on or it's all happening too fast but it doesn't have the impact on me which it probably should have. I am usually a big fan of Keiko's scat singing, I mean, her yay- yay-yay part in YK's "vanity" or Kalafina's "Door" regularly gives me an eargasm so why the hell does it leave me so unimpressed in "Yūyami no Uta"???!!! I guess it's more of a combination of the melodic arrangement and the accompanying scatting which makes songs like "vanity" or "Door" so much more epic for me....? As for the bridge, it's okay I suppose. In her interviews, Keiko has mentioned multiple times how her progress as a vocalist has made it possible to tackle all these high parts and that just a few years ago, Yuki Kajiura would have assigned Yuriko Kaida or one of her other chorus singers to sing those sections. Keiko's higher registers are a hit and miss for me, sometimes they work, other times not so much. Here she sounds perfectly fine and I fully understand why YK would feel confident to let Keiko handle this on her own. But again, the whole part is just meh and by now I am convinced that it is because the song doesn't have a sufficiently nice melody to provide a good base for Keiko's singing.

I want to continue with 「夕闇のうた Special Edit ver.」 because I honestly feel like we have been robbed of something really good here. Whoever decided to bypass this in favour of the normal version should really start questioning their life choices. I am not saying that this version is perfect (we don't even get all that much to form an opinion on it) but from what I hear, it is superior in many ways and would have worked better as an ending (edit: apparently, it has actually been used as ED on the 3rd ep). That gorgeous strings intro alone takes the song to a whole new level, making it so much more melodic. And the somewhat obtrusive drums feel way more toned down here since they are introduced at a later point of the song to create more of a proper build-up towards the chorus. The chorus itself is pretty much the same from what I can tell but I wonder what the bridge and the remainder of the verses would have sounded like in this style. The ending verse of the song also works a lot better for this special edit, wish they had included all of it starting from "itoshii" and then concluded it with another strings section.

Now all that's left to talk about is the single's B-Side, 「燈命/Tōmei」. This song is a big no-go for me so I'll keep it short. The composition, arrangement and lyrics were all done by Saku who has previously worked with Keiko on "Ray" (Lantana), "Sakura wo Goran" (dew) and "YOUR" (CUTLERY). He was only in charge of the arrangement for"Sakura wo Goran" but out of those three songs, "Tōmei" feels closest to this one in terms of vibe and overall blandness. I've come to enjoy "YOUR" quite a bit (even if I am not so happy with some of Keiko's higher notes) and "Ray" is decent too but my entire body outright rejects songs like "Sakura wo Goran" and "Tōmei". Sorry🙈I don't even know what else to say. I listened to it and immediately was like, nope, next one please.

Phew, this turned out longer than expected. I feel shabby for going on and on about all the stuff I didn't like but oh well, what's done is done. Moving on...

#kalafina #keiko #reply #review #夕闇のうた #yūyami no uta #燈命 #Tōmei

[someobscurereference]

Hey 👋, I’ve had this concept in my head for a while (read: years) and I wanted a second opinion on what topics I could touch/could be improved, if that’s okay? I’ve seen you analyse and write on a lot of Fire Emblem topics and you have so many interesting ideas so I thought I’d ask. Otherwise just delete this, I’m not 100% sure what asks you answer 😅

Revelations Route. After defeating Anankos, his magic begins to fade and the Trio is sent back to Ylisse. The process is slow enough that others notice and exchange words, but too quick to give a proper explanation and get some closure. The Nohrian royalty and army is left with three missing retainers and a lot of questions

The main plot would be Leo, an year later, finding a spell to not only track the three of them but also teleport a small group to them. That’s how they arrive at Ylisstol. It doesn’t actually take them long to find the three of them…

The problem is that the three of them don’t know who they are

After Anankos magic faded, so did their memories of their time in Nohr. They know there’s a three year gap in their memories because the others told them they’ve been missing for that long, and there’s scars and burns where they weren’t before

That’s the bare bones of it. There’s this whole subplot with Lucina and the other children trying to decide if they should trust their new visitors and whatnot, but I don’t wanna get on a tangent. Anyway, I’m calling this Dream AU

Hi, anon! I appreciate you reaching out to me. I don't really offer critique advice on fics other people write though; I'm just here to have fun with whatever you + other FE fans are thinking about and having fun with!

I don't see any reason why you couldn't write this idea as is, however. Trio losing memories of their time in Nohr as Anankos's magic fades is a fun premise to mess around with! Gaps in your memories you can't fill! Friends and family are worried about where you've been! Your old friends (whom you don't remember) are looking for you! That's cool stuff!

I can't help you with fic writing or plot holes. If you're very worried about it, you should advertise for a beta reader. I'm sure there are people who would love to get a sneak peak at what you're doing! But in general this sounds like a fun idea, and I hope you go for it :)

#my text #asks #fe14 #queue

[neptrabbit]

So. Here are some of my personal thoughts on ith movie. since this post is LONG, most of the thoughts are leaning towards criticism & ofc it contains spoilers so imma put my bad takes under cut. they’re my personal, subjective opinion, so it’d be normal if you agree/disagree. anyways, you’ve been warned.

The opening song

stage performance & movies are two VERY different media, so unavoidably they had to make many changes to adapt the musical to big screen. One thing they were trying to adapt was the breaking the fourth wall narration in the opening song. they changed the setting of a lot of these lines to Usnavi telling a bunch of kids in an unknown future timeline abt Washington Heights. I personally am not a fan of this decision. the cut between the two different timelines in that 8 min release got me pretty confused & taken out & that feeling did not change much when i was watching the movie either. in the course of the movie, suddenly cutting to future timeline breaks the flow & consistency of the narrative for me, esp since the future scenes rlly aren’t that long. Ik it's for the reveal in the end. I still don't like it.

Choreography

the choreography & cinematography by themselves are hella fantasitc. there’re VERY pretty scenes and choreography, esp during songs. from top of my head i can name a few: the reflection of dancing in the opening song, the running scene in It Won’t Be Long Now, the pool scene (with Vanessa floating on a life saver in the middle) in 96000, THE FUCKING ENTIRETY OF PACIENCIA Y FE, the dancing in The Club, the horizontal dancing scene in When The Sun Goes Down, etc. But a lot of the scenes, esp those that involve group dancing, seems a bit out of place when they seem to take place in the real world rather than on stage. This is prolly another demonstration of the difference in the media of stage performance & movies. I had a hard time to suspend my disbelief, and the movie trying to place some of the dancing in the actual narrative rlly didn’t make it better for me.

(at first I thought for some reason the pool scene in 96000 was everyone’s imagination coming together & was looking forward to it. I did not expect it to actually take place in a pool in the movie & they even used a whole sequence of them going to the pool to show them going to the pool to set it up. So is the dancing in the intro. i did not expect an overhead shot to reveal that it actually happened. Moments like these gave me serious pauses & made me unable to rlly appreciate the fantastic cinematography & choreography.)

bc of the reason i stated & the fact the movie is so centered around these songs & the plot gets cut by the narration from the future, this movie kinda strikes me as a series of well-made music videos connected by loose plots & themes rather than an actual movie.

Plot change

as we all are aware, they made several choices regarding the plot. 

changing nina’s reason to leave Stanford from unable to take care of school & jobs to provide for her living at the same time to experience of racism. i’m personally not a fan of this change - i am not implying that racism is not an issue that poc experience daily. It’s just, I expected a more nuanced discussion on racism & identity in a movie centered around a socially & financially marginalized minority group than a few lines of “my roommate lost her shit so her & RA searched me”, “the school board thought i was a waitress at diversity dinner”, “the waiters looked at me in the looks that question if i am with them”, and “i felt lonely and without a community there”. They are pretty superficial considering their impact in the story. tbh the line “when i was younger i’d imagined what would happen if my parents had stayed in Puerto Rico” did a much better job to capture the identity crisis that first gen immigrant children go thru and gave me more emotional impacts than all the horrible things stanford did to nina. 

deleting Hundreds of Stories and putting Paciencia y Fe right before abuela’s death. i understand it’s a narrative choice bc they decided to reveal that abuela won the lottery later & make it that Usnavi had saved to move to DR in the beginning. in the changed lyrics of Paciencia y Fe we also had a peak of abuela’s struggle of deciding whether to leave or stay in Washington Heights. which is nice. but putting that song right before abuela dies rlly makes her conflicting feelings unimportant to the story... maybe the leave or stay refers to her dying, but she doesn’t rlly have much of a choice either way, does it. she’s just.. kinda like some characters in anime.. whose tragic backstory is narrated right before they die to get the readers emotional... but in a pretty song sequence... the choreography & lighting is very pretty tho. gotta give credit where it’s due.

Sonny’s subplot. i rewatched the movie and realized that there was some foreshadowing of his illegal status in the beginning when Daddy Sonny was talking to Usnavi, but tbh it was quite easy to miss.. so i was a bit surprised when they brought up Sonny’s subplot when there was only 45 min left of the movie. that was not enough time to fully develop this plot, esp given that time is used for other subplots too. we know Sonny is very aware of the politics & is sorta an activist, but him wanting to be like Nina & wanting to get into college wasn’t established earlier, so that part following the protest scene feels a bit flat.

Other things

I’ve seen the discussion of the film’s lack of rep of Afro-Latinos, but I am not the most qualified person to talk abt the experience of Afro-Latino community. I’m keeping my ears open and learning on this subject. 

I liked that they made Daniela & Carla a couple and was excited when i heard the news. The movie itself was not rlly explicit on their relationship tho - there were scenes of Carla pulling Daniela outta bed in the beginning & their dancing. but tbh the fact that they added a third Salon lady, Cuca, who’s always hanging around, makes D&C relationship harder to notice. Im not gonna say blink and you’ll miss it, but it’s pretty easy to miss. obv their relationship has nothing to do w the main plot, but eh. wished it was more explicit.

Tl;dr: i think they have a lot of interesting ideas that they didn’t explore fully so the movie feels a bit all over the place. this goes for Vanessa’s hope to become a fashion designer, Nina’s experience of racism & identity crisis, Sonny’s illegal status. Loved Daniela and the songs tho. Piragua song’s funny as hell. A bit sad they didn’t paint abuela in the finale :(

i am familiar w the source material & liked it a TON but i don’t like it enough to feel nostalgia.. so i can’t go in there with a fresh mind & see it without comparing it to the original, and neither do i hold so much affection for it that i can happily ignore the defects. so honestly i’m probably in the group that has the worst experience watching it

also: pls lmm i beg u pls don’t make a live action adaption of hamilton, pls

#ith movie #ith spoilers #my bad takes

[achorusofcleris]

how about 'C - A ship you have never liked and probably never will.' ?

Hoo boy. I'm probably going to have to put this under a read more since I’m sure I’ll get some hate for this one, and also because this ended up being long af.

Also, I added backslashes to specific terms to keep Tumblr’s search engine free of my salt. I tend to avoid airing my grievances with things I dislike on here since I try to keep my Tumblr positive, so I’m not normally this salty or ranty.

I’m not someone who has a lot of NoTPs these days. I used to have a bunch, but as I’ve grown older, my problems with most of them went away. A lot of my former most hated ships are ones I’m now either neutral towards or ones that I’ve learned to enjoy (hell, some of them ended up being among my current faves).

That said, there are two FE/3H ships that I ended up really disliking as I played through all four routes (+ CS). I shipped one of them before the salt set in, but I was neutral towards the other one until I played my last route. As such, I’m going to be dumping on Edel/eth here (sorry).

I have four problems with this ship, though two of them aren’t exclusive to Edel/eth in particular. 

First is that the specific kind of power distance (student/teacher ships) is one that I have trouble reconciling. I worked very closely with one of my former teachers for nearly two years, and I never became comfortable calling her by her first name. It’s definitely a “me” problem, but the student characters calling By/leth by their title rather than their name seems to imply that the power distance still exists to some degree (which is probably because you can pick By/leth’s name, but it still makes it weird for me). Like I said, this isn’t unique to Edel/eth, so I can’t really hold it against the ship that much.

The second reason is that I don’t really care that much for By/leth. I won’t go into too much detail as to why here, but I’ll just say that I can’t care about a relationship if I don’t care about one of the parties involved. Like I said, this isn’t unique to Edel/eth and is how I feel about pretty much every By/leth ship (they’re not bad, they’re just not my thing). 

Unlike my discomfort with the power-distance and me not liking By/leth that much, my final two reasons are the ones that moved the ship from “eh, it’s not my thing, but not awful” to “holy shit, I just can’t anymore.”

The first reason of the two is that, unlike with Dimi/tri and Cl/aude, I don’t feel like Edel/gard’s relationship with By/leth helps her develop into a better character. Unlike in AM, where By/leth defies Dimi/tri’s wishes by killing Rand/olph, they never call Edel/gard out on any of her questionable decisions to her face. Unlike Hu/bert, they don’t have an established history with Edel/gard to explain why they won’t call her out, instead, they’re just some schmuck who happened to become her teacher. By/leth isn’t a fan of Edel/gard working with Jer/alt’s murderers, but they only bring up their grievances with Hu/bert. Then there’s the Arian/rhod lie, which would have been an amazing catalyst to help develop Edel/gard further, but she’s never called out by anyone, and By/leth just stands there and lets her do her thing.

The final reason I dislike the ship is that I feel like it reduces Edel/gard into a waifu. The rat scene is what I feel is the most egregious example of this, as it downplays Edel/gard’s trauma to make her cuter to the player. For example, she seems far more distressed about sensei spotting her doodle than she does of being reminded of her captivity and her siblings dying. As someone who has gone through my fair share of trauma, I find this decision to be pretty gross. If I was reliving a traumatic memory, the last thing I would want would be for someone to say that my distress was “cute,” and I think Edel/gard’s situation should have been handled with much more respect than she was given.

What really sucks is that Edel/eth had the potential to be an amazing ship. They have are a lot of great moments, like By/leth rescuing Edel/gard in the prologue, which could have easily made their relationship compelling. In fact, I subconsciously ended up using a lot of their best moments when coming up with Seir/helm headcanons, so I can definitely get behind the concept of their relationship.

Unfortunately, the way their relationship was executed just left a bad taste in my mouth. Given my first two grievances, I doubt I would have shipped it; but if the last two grievances weren’t a thing, then I’d probably still be neutral about it. Hell, I could probably end up feeling neutral about this one in the future, but who knows?

If you, or anyone else, likes this ship. Cool! I’m happy that it sparks joy for you, and that you can appreciate something I can’t. I also hope that if you ship it, you don’t take this as a personal attack. Everyone’s experience playing this game is going to be different, and my opinions here are the result of my own.

Also, I probably have some ships that you think are garbage (I can think of two, in particular, that people might have a problem with), so I would take the complaints I made here with a grain of salt. This could easily be one of my shit takes, but ymmv.

TL;DR: I don’t like Edel/eth because of the unequal power-dynamics, me not liking By/leth as a character, By/leth not helping Edel/gard develop the way they did with the other two lords, and for reducing Edel/gard to little more than a waifu. If you like it despite my grievances, that’s great, it’s just not my thing.

#answered #sevarix #puts up flame shield #rip me

[gascon-en-exil]

Bottom Ten Three Houses Characters

I decided after a while that I couldn’t fulfill an anon request to do a top 10 list for the whole series, because it would overlap too much with ones I’ve already done - lord privilege is a thing that exists, and I’ve ranked those before - and because it’s really difficult to compare so many characters (~600 if we’re being thorough) across so many different games.  Instead I decided to go negative with it, although around 2/3rds of these ought to be totally uncontroversial at least in my corner of the fandom. Starting from the one I dislike least:

(Dis)honorable Mention: Anna, for putting in such a lackluster showing that she doesn’t deserve a spot on this list despite technically being in the playable cast. It’s not only the lack of supports, although that hurts, but also how obvious it is that the writers have no new material for her. Anna’s gimmick worked fined when she was an NPC and perhaps for the space of a single game as a playable character, and Fates originated the meta idea of making her paid DLC so you have to shell out real money to use her, but that’s the extent of her here too. As a unit she’s far from spectacular, and her paralogue isn’t even good for much but a ton of (mostly mediocre) drops and a tiny bit of context for that Pallardó guy from non-CF Chapter 13. Here’s a revolutionary idea: for the next original FE it might be good to have Anna back to being only a wacky dimension-hopping NPC shopkeeper.

#10 Constance - It pains me that she’s on this list, more than anyone else by far. I really wanted to like Constance, and at first glance she’s right up my alley as a haughty impoverished aristocrat coping awkwardly with her diminished status. I like the dark flier class she’s built around, and her default personality is an even louder pre-timeskip Ferdinand whom you know I love. However, it’s that “default personality” bit that sours me on her, because she’s got two of them. What could have been an interesting take on Constance’s struggles with identity and self-esteem in the wake of her family’s disgrace is presented in such an over-the-top comedic manner that it’s impossible to take her very seriously. It’s more reminiscent of FE13′s Noire than anything, and at least she has the excuse of a mother who performed dark magic experiments on her and fractured her psyche. Constance also supports Jeritza and yet somehow they do no more than lightly allude to their personality issues which is as much a missed opportunity as you can get with such a terrible character (see below), opting instead to try softening Jeritza with his fondness for roses. Lovely.

#9 Leonie - Fandom exaggerates her Jeralt fixation, although it does pop up at the worst times (see: her Byleth support right after his death). As I’m not very concerned with Byleth’s nonexistent feelings though this placement more comes down to general indifference. Leonie feels completely disconnected from the rest of the Deer, and although she’s a supposed reflection of the house’s more egalitarian bent there’s nothing connecting her to the politics or larger culture of the Alliance until you learn about her student loan debt. She really is best understood as a Jeralt fangirl first and foremost, which is why perhaps the most surprising thing about her is when reality comes knocking in her endings and it turns out she picked up her mentor’s vices as well. Jeralt himself would be even further down this list were he playable, but as he isn’t I’ll have to settle for side-eyeing all of his adoring fans. Which brings me to....

#8 Alois - Remember that dating sim Dream Daddy that people were talking about a few years ago? The one that willfully misunderstands what the term “daddy” means in gay male spaces to write fluffy dad joke-laden romances intended for a presumably not-gay audience? Alois is the spirit of that game personified as an FE character, which is not something I ever would have thought to know that I didn’t want. He’s got some funny lines here and there, but that’s the most you can say about him when otherwise he’s just passable midgame filler (of a unit type each house including the Wolves already has one of) standing in Jeralt’s imitation Greil shadow. I don’t even mind the platonic S support all that much because it’s still only Byleth, but it occurs to me that just about the only thing that would have made Alois memorable would be if his S support was romantic but he remained married to his wife. I can’t think of a time when this series has allowed the player to indulge in adultery, so even if it had been limited to an option for f!Byleth it would have been a fascinating option.

#7 Cyril - This isn’t about his devotion to Rhea, which is fully understandable given his circumstances. Nor is it about his performance as a unit which in my experience at least is actually rather good for a Donnel/Mozu-style villager archetype. No, what gets me is that he’s a self-righteous workaholic which makes for quite the grating personality trait. I understand that he finds meaning in his work and that he’s got some entertaining supports calling other characters to task for their terrible work ethics or ignorance of the lives of commoners (VW should have really dug more into his back-and-forth with Claude), but the lectures on not interrupting him or telling Byleth to get back to work are as tiresome as they are frequent. It’s petty I know, but one can only hope he grows out of it eventually. At least he doesn’t wear a pot on his head....

#6 Mercedes - Like Constance, she’s the type of character I wanted to like from the start. She’s pious pseudo-Catholic clergy, with a quirky thing with ghosts and some quiet lesbianism with her BFF that I can take or leave but that I know some people really enjoy (and also she’s bi-for-Byleth, but no one talks about that). Unfortunately as I touched on when talking about Marianne in my Top 10 characters list, Mercedes’s appealing points are sharply contrasted against her more annoying ones. The breathy voice acting I can mostly get used to, but her backstory is unnecessarily convoluted - three families and two flavors of evil adoptive father - and as is also true of Constance her association with Jeritza drags her down a fair bit. To this day I still have no idea what we’re meant to make of the Lamine siblings’ dynamic, but Mercedes’s eagerness to overlook her brother’s crimes and unrepentant bloodlust so she can coo over what a sweet boy he is deep down say some pretty odd things about her personal moral code. Maybe it was implied all along with the paranormal fascination that she’s not as orthodox as she appears to be, but the dissonance is real especially in CF where she gets a support line with Jeritza that tries to woobify him and affirms how much she loves him...and meanwhile in monastery exploration she’s wringing her hands over how much she hates the idea of fighting Faerghus and the church. There’s no through line here, and as justification for characters siding with Edelgard go this one is pretty flimsy.

#5 Gilbert - Similar to Cyril, I don’t dislike Gilbert for the reasons that most of the fandom does. Yes, he’s a crappy father, but as I’m pretty indifferent to Annette and to father-child bonding in general I can appreciate the fresh spin he places on the archetype of the devoted knight. In short, he’s a knight who wasn’t devoted and ran away from his duty, and his arc in AM is all about making up for his past failures both to his family and to his liege. This is an angle to knighthood FE doesn’t delve into often, and it makes him an explicit foil of Dedue as explored in their supports. The reason that Gilbert is on this list though in fact has more to do with that opposition, because I am painfully aware that had AM not killed off Dedue by default in service of self-insert romance Gilbert would not have had to be scripted as Dedue’s replacement both as a unit and as a retainer figure. It’s not his “fault” of course, insofar as one can ever blame fictional characters for the actions of their writers, but whenever I’m running AM and have to take those randomized supply run quests from Gilbert instead of the route’s actual retainer I’m reminded of how we were robbed of power couple Dimidue (in AM anyway - CF of all routes delivers on this point). Gilbert could have been father of the year to Annette and freely given Byleth his (grand)daddy dick and it still wouldn’t overwrite the fundamental problem that Byleth screwed over all three AM-exclusive characters in different ways. As to that, well...look at #1.

#4 Raphael - It’s hard to describe just how much wasted potential there is to this guy. Along with Ignatz and Leonie he could have illustrated the greater social mobility of the Alliance and the increased opportunities non-nobles enjoy there, but all three are mostly side characters. He’s repeatedly positive in the face of tragedy and remains motivated by his love for his remaining family, but 90% of his dialogue revolves around either eating or training to the point that he’s arguably the closest FE16 comes to gimmick character writing (something almost every FE is guilty of, but that has come under heavy scrutiny in recent years because of how much Awakening and Fates used it). He has a sweet friendship with Ignatz with even a bit of chemistry that sits in good company with the kind of simply affability he has with almost everyone he supports, but they have a no homo ending involving one of the game’s eternally offscreen characters. He supports Dimitri, but the bara content is thin on the ground and their line stands out as easily the least substantial of the house leaders’ cross-house supports. Even as a unit he’s lackluster, in the same repetitive category as Alois with nothing that makes him really stand out from the other axe-and-brawling guys. Highest HP growth in the game...whee. I’ve seen arguments that Raphael’s simplicity is the source of his charm, and while I can sort of see that he feels like he belongs in a game like the GBA or Tellius titles where characters have a much smaller amount of overall content to their name. In a game like Three Houses the sheer torrent of lines about food and training wear thin quickly.

#3 Bernadetta - see #8 here. To sum up, she’s annoying, her sex appeal falls flat with me and is frankly just kind of confusing, it bugs me that a significant portion of the Ferdibert fandom headcanons her as Hubert’s bestie when the man clearly does not do besties, and the most positive thing I can think to say about is that based on her habit of befriending known murderers among other things she might be a bit of a sociopath. That’s not very flattering, but at least it’s somewhat interesting. Oh yeah, and Edelgard setting her on fire at the Gronder rematch is good for a meme although I suppose that isn’t technically attributable to Bernadetta.

#2 Jeritza - Jeritza sucks. Everyone, apart from the small number of fans into Bylitza for some reason, is aware that he sucks. He’s a bloodthirsty serial killer we’re meant to like because he killed his father to protect his sister and also because he likes ice cream and kittens...and because he’s clearly mentally ill in some way and Edelgard is weaponizing his illness for her war which means all the murder is okay, I guess. Jeritza is like FE7 Karel if he was somewhat important to the plot and that instead of a redemption arc between games he got Karla and some other characters swearing that he’s really sweet deep down and also he can romance the male self-insert - yay. I love the line of thinking sometimes espoused in anti circles that M/M Bylitza is the only non-Problematic™ Byleth ship because he’s their only gay romantic S rank partner who’s not one of their students, a loli, or Rhea who is obviously the most evil character in the game. As I’ve mentioned above Jeritza also makes other characters he supports worse by association, although he’s not quite as bad in that regard as #1. Do I even need to bring up the painfully affected voice acting? It’s ironic that the vocal director for the English localization turns in unquestionably the worst performance among the named cast, and I have to assume he picked the role for himself solely because he sounds like an imposing Death Knight and not because his voice is at all suited to the troubled twunk underneath the armor. Just about the only thing that would have salvaged Jeritza for me would be if he and Hubert got to have an epic competition to determine once and for all which of them is more evil. Hubert would wipe the floor with this poser.

#1 Byleth - see here at the bottom. They fail as a self-insert, they fail to be a properly realized character even more than previous Avatars, they damage other characterizations and arcs all over the place, and Three Houses overall would have been vastly improved if they didn’t exist or at least weren’t the PoV character. In that previous post I listed just two reasons why I still prefer Byleth to Robin as an Avatar, one being that their significance to the plot is set up before the game even begins and the other being that their lack of a voice makes f!Byleth a less obtrusive presence when it came time for me to have her S rank all the guys to fill out the support log...not enough to where I could treat her as a self-insert, but any amount helps. I do however have to add a third small bit of praise for Byleth, in that they apparently drive antis up the wall for the most asinine of reasons which is always entertaining to witness. I recall when this game’s school setting was first revealed that everyone in the fandom nodded their heads and made the easy prediction that there would be teacher/student sex because that’s just how FE rolls, but somehow still there’s outrage over it. Even so, Byleth is horrible by every significant parameter, and it’s a shame we’ll only be able to imagine what FE16 would have been like had the developers not felt the need to write the whole thing around an Avatar.

#Fire Emblem #FE16 #Fire Emblem Three Houses