#i saw childe showing in the trailer and went feral | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

ryuichirou · 3 years

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Lord God Savior of All Ryu, I ask for but one noble request. lol i just wanna see all your AUs. Like, I always here about them in replies and stuff but I've almost never seen what they actually look like. So if you could just tag pics of them or doodle (they can be super bad 30 sec doodles too, it don't matter to me) them, I would be the happiest, most joyful little shit ever.

Anon!! Thank you for being so interested in our AUs and wanting to learn more about them. It was a very good excuse for us to go through the list of the AUs, doodle them, revisit some of the older ones, etc. So yeah, your wish is granted lol

Here’s the majority of them, we decided not to include those that we’ve barely talked about and thought out... I’ve put tags for those AUs where we have at least something posted. Most of them are something we haven’t even talked about at all and they don’t have a single sketch, but I liked drawing chibis for them way too much. Sorry, I used your ask lol

We have a general tag for our aus and specific ones for some of them, but sometimes an au from here is not tagged separately, so you might have to use this general tag...I tried to fix it, I don’t think I missed anything, so it should be ok now! ;w;

1. Space AU. It’s a story about a space expedition.. which turned out to be not exactly what everyone planned thanks to Erwin. What a commander!

2. Tribal AU. It’s a story about Eren becoming a part of the tribe where Erwin and Levi live.

3. Babysitter AU. Levi is a babysitter to Eren and Zeke, unfortunately for Zeke, who’s 17 and not exactly thrilled about being babied. Sometimes there’s kid Erwin too. We’ve never posted anything related to this AU, I think, and I don’t think we will. There’s another AU related to this one, but 19yo Eren from the paths (he has the memory of the manga events) keeps kid Eren company as an invisible ghost, while others think that kid Eren is cursed or something.

4. SnK AU. A classical one, where Eren has dreams about the plot of SnK, but when the story stops progressing, he decides to kidnap Levi to make the plot go on. Erwin finds out later... and keeps Levi in the basement because he wants to know the ending too lmao plus it’s hot.

5. Mines AU. Erwin gathered a team for his wonderful plan to find a treasure, but it’s not like the rest of the team needs to know where they’re really going. Zeke’s particularly terrified to find that out. Despite its name, they spend the majority of time in the forest. Also, there’s a timeskip of 11 years.

6. AU with Neetwin who’s a history teacher. We don’t tag this one though, it’s not like it’s our AU. So now it’s a Neetwin tag, although one of the drawings is with adult Levi... eh, who cares.

7. CC AU (cleaning company). Levi works in a cleaning company and cleans up Neetwin and hobo Eren’s apts. They need a lot of work. Yes, they make their apts even dirtier to make Levi spend more time there.

8. Prison AU. Damn this one is good... we came up with it before reading the timeskip in the manga, so Eren’s appearance doesn’t really match his age, he’s 17 lol Levi is a mafia member who goes to prison because he need to kill one of the inmates (who later became Zeke) on Erwin’s (Levi’s boss) request. Eren’s his personal guard, although Eren works as a regular guard too.

9. King Kong AU. It’s an AU where the Beast Titan is King Kong lmao Zeke is having fun killing dinosaurs... Levi, not so much. Thank Erwin for his wonderful plan of going to this island.

10. Rus AU, basically just characters living in Russia. Because ofc we will have this type of a setting... Damn, I thought we drew this one more often, huh.

11. Sea AU. Mainly our modern AU, we use it as a base for other modern stuff for the most part. Levi’s getting two boifrond rings, he lives with Erwin, Eren visits them often, Zeke bitches a lot, fun times with and without Zeke, stuff like that. There’s also a subplot (11.5) where Eren gets “kidnapped” by a witch, so Zevi have to find him and bring him back. Titans exist in this AU, Eren and Zeke are titans, and all of them have military training, but Erwin and Levi retired some time ago. We don’t have a tag for just a modern setting, though.

12. Cult AU. Eren lives on a farm and has a whole village of his followers. He also has cursed animals... and I think we’ve told about some of the plot points in replies. Erwin’s really into all this cult stuff because it affects reality for real, so he asks Levi to follow rituals, although Levi came to ask Eren to go back to normal life and finish the fucking school.

13. Serial killer AU. Eren’s a serial killer, duh. Never posted anything with this one, unfortunately, but Eren got disappointed in the police when he was a child, so he decided to fix the situation himself, while Erwin and Levi, as a part of a special department, investigate his “fixing”. It also has a time skip. I really need to redraw at least one sketch...

14. Hospital AU. Levi gets into Marley trying to make Eren go back, but it’s not that simple because Eren doesn’t want to lol Basically canonverse with this small change.

15. Hobo AU. Eren and Levi are hobos, Zeke wants his brother to stop living under a fucking bridge. Later Erwin takes both of them under his roof because he really likes Levi, but he can’t leave Eren alone.

16. Doggies AU. AU where Eren’s a wolf and Erwin’s a doggo. Levi got Erwin because he was a retiring trained dog and sniffed enough drugs in his life, and Eren... his “owner” found him on the streets and lied to Levi about Eren being a dog. Later Eren turned into a magnificent beast and now he doesn’t want to leave. There’s also Zeke, but he belongs to Xavier.

17. AU where Eren wants to become a mangaka. The first post is self-explanatory, although I’d probably make some changes now if I cared enough. There’s also a time skip where Eren ditched his manga and became hobo!Eren. His editor was pissed lol

18. Scolopendra Eren AU. You know the drill, and I’ve talked about the plot in some of the replies.

This post doesn’t show up on the tag for some reason.

19. Ghost Eren AU. I should’ve named it combini AU... Anyway, I’ve talked about this one a lot, although poor Erwin gets neglected a little bit lol it’s hard to compete with a ghost when you’re just a mere stalker... but a very invested one. Eren likes Erwin here, they’re vibing on the same malicious-towards-Levi wave.

20. Shark Eren AU. It’s just for us for funs, Eren’s a shark, and Levi’s there to help him fight depression. Eren later escapes into the sea.

21. Midsommar AU. Levi and Erwin get an invite to go to the village from Yelena, Eren’s a part of a cult who is kinda attracted to one of the newcomers... Such a good movie, we need to draw them properly. Both Yeagerists and Eldians are a part of the cult, they don’t have any specific rules by which I categorised them... Although not all characters are present, and some of them (Jean, I think) are newcomers who will join the cult later. Sorry, I don’t remember much.

22. Silent Hill AU. It started with Erwin peeking into Levi’s apartment, but now there’s Eren too... We haven’t thought out this one, I’m bad with Silent Hill AUs for some reason.

23. House Eren AU. Eren’s a house, and we’ve explained how it works too, so just check out the tag. Levi actually lives there with Erwin, but I don’t remember if we’ve mentioned it or decided to skip this info.

24. Eren pack AU. It’s an AU where Erens of all ages (6 of them, I believe) are a little bit feral, and they have wolf ears and tails, and they live in a specific place and Levi visits them every day and takes care of them. They love Levi. Here’s the only post that survived, and here’s a link for a twitter post which I never got back on tumblr after it got deleted.

25. Trailer AU. The story is about Levi who has to live with Zeke for a month as his slave because Erwin lost him in a game of cards lol To be fair, Erwin lost a lot of money and their whole flat, and Zeke gave them a choice between that and Levi (he’s horny ok), and Levi agreed. Zeke even put Levi on a chain, although Levi doesn’t even try to escape...

26. Flower shop AU. Eren’s a plant, and he brings death to the whole planet. He keeps Levi alive though, as a treat for himself. We’ve explained some of the stuff in the replies.

27. Blair Witch AU. It’s pretty much explained in this post, and if you saw the movie, there’s nothing for me to tell you. Everything that’s different from it is in the post lol

28. Corpse AU. Eren’s a corpse, Levi’s a pathologist who works on difficult and mysterious cases alongside the police. Eren later comes to life along with a couple of other bodies...

29. Antichrist AU. Zevi adopt baby Eren, but Eren’s a fucking satan. He loves Levi, but Zeke... not so much. Zeke loves Eren to death, though. Eren would love to organise that, but first he needs to grow up a little bit. It doesn’t mean that he won’t torture his parents during his journey. And everyone else who interact with them.

30. This one doesn’t have a title, but it’s an AU where kid Eren went missing, and Levi goes into the forest to find him. Levi owns Erwin who’s a good doggo and helps him find Eren. It turns out Eren killed two adult dudes, and he has paths!Eren telling him what to do and how to do it... Paths!Eren has the memory of the canonverse.

31. Zombie apocalypse AU. There’s only one drawing with it though, but basically Levi builds himself a wonderful place to survive the apocalypse, and he keeps Zombie Erwin in the basement in hopes of Hange finding a cure. Then Eren joins just because he can and because Levi’s very awesome. Eren has a boner for the apocalypse and enjoys every second of it.

32. No title, but Eren was casted away from the canon universe for the rumbling, and now he’s a mythological giant wolf who lives in a deep very old forest. He was very surprised to find out Levi exists in this universe... So he kidnapped him ❤️

33. Halloween AU. You’ve seen this one, it’s a story where Jean, Connie, Sasha and Eren get into the wrong house and find a ritual instead of a Halloween party... So after saving the child who, as it turns out, is not really a victim, they decide to ditch him at Eruri’s place.

34. Okusan AU. Levi’s a housewife, Erwin is a cuckold who’s really into adultery. He invites both Zeke and Eren from time to time to act as Levi’s husbands, and they (Levi and Erwin) almost get caught because the “husband” suddenly came home... Sorry, we’ve read too many doujinshis lol

35. Island AU. Erwin loves sending Levi to dangerous places to get souvenirs for himself, and now it’s time for Levi to get a crystal from a very isolated island full of strict rules in terms of interacting with outsiders. We have a cool idea for a two part drawing (like with our flower shop au), but it’ll take us ages to complete anything at this rate... I have like two sketches on Patreon for now, but damn this AU has so many cool visuals we wanna draw... It’s another cult AU with people living on Paradis (more like one village in the middle of the island), isolated from the rest of the world. They don’t welcome strangers, and Levi has three months to find and steal that crystal, although it’s not that simple.

36. Erewan. Not exactly a full AU, but Erewan’s a cursed animal plushie who kills people and loves Levi a lot.

37. Cat AU. Everyone’s a cat (duh). Not really our AU, but it has its own tag, and it’s only asks.

38. Tiny founder Eren AU?? Again, not really our AU, but now it has its own tag.

I’ve also found the reply where I talk about how characters’ relationships work in some of the AUs, you can check it out too. I thought it was fitting for a master post.

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mihorapendeja · 3 years

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happier than ever | tsukishima x you

the one shot in which tsukishima basically falls for a female version of everyone's favorite sunny tangerine.

genre: fluff/soft core smut lmao i haven't done this in years i feel silly but here you go

pairing(s): kei tsukishima x you (referred to as "ria kihira" in part 1 bc this was originally going to be an OC thing but nvm a/n's: show this some love and interaction pls.

PART 1: THE PAST

❝Again?❞ Even though Tsukishima complained again, this time he made it easier for her as he even stood completely still. Such a good boy.

❝Let her beat your face!❞ Shoyo exclaimed as she smiled in delight, then moving on to pat the powder puff on his stupid face. Of course she only took a few seconds for him, but all the time in the world for Hinata.

While the two chirped about the new reboot trailer for Dexter, Kuroo's sleazy self slid beside his lanky child with an extra smug look on his face. That man was a menace.

❝Say, don't you think they look related?❞

Tsukishima was a difficult man to catch off guard, but right then and there, a mini existential crisis kicked in. His eyes darted back and forth between Shoyo and Ria Kihira, the makeup artist on set for the commercial filming day.

Kei knew Kuroo was a slut for all the pretty things in life — he constantly had a trope of hot women surrounding him.

But this time, he'd really outdone himself.

Not a stupid man entirely, a huge shit-eating grin formed on Tetsuro's face. He followed Kei's eyes who desperately wandered back and forth their matching hair, skin tone, lack of height... "please let it be a mere coincidence because it's bad enough that—" Kei shut his own intrusive mind from further thinking as he slapped his hand over Kuroo's mouth shut. Tight.

That hyena laugh was not being unleashed today.

THE STORY OF HOW YOU MET:

ca. 2019, on set of a commercial for one of Kuroo's production companies. After Tetsuro had defeated Kei in a game of beer pong, he had to comply with the loser's bet -- be part of the damn commercial along with Shoyo, for a viewership boost. So he said. Ria was the makeup artist on set that day, and it pretty much went from Tsuki acting like a feral cat who didn't want to be touched by any makeup tools, to blissfully passing out in a chair while she gently stroked his face with a soft powder brush.

Near the end of the day when he'd no longer back away from her with animosity, it was Kuroo's stupidly astute observation that left him rattled. The boy was put into a choke hold because he refused to like someone with the same orange hair and milky skin tone as Hinata. Someone equally bright, bubbly, and stupid ... yeah that refusal didn't last long. Ria spoke her mind so freely, being direct but never pleading because she respected herself in that regard. He liked that and before Kei knew it, he found himself admitting to her that he was, "actually quite fond of you." She understood it was his way of saying those pesky 3 words, 8 letters.

PART 2: THE PRESENT, 3 YEARS LATER.

THE ALARM CLOCK rang it’s deathly siren like tone, nearly sending you into cardiac arrest. Although he defensively stretched an arm out over your chest as if ready to protect, Kei did not get up.

Of course he wouldn't.

Like every morning at 4am, it was you who suffered the most when getting out of bed to grab the phone to silence that torture down. As you had deeply sighed and turned to face the bed, Tssuki was now face up with the covers all the way up to his nose.

Even in your groggy state, you could tell he was smirking. That smug bastard stared at you intently, dead still. While Kei typically minded his own business and was at times thought of as quiet, the boy was definitely not shy. You wouldn't call him a total flirt, but he could so hold onto a gaze without so little as batting a long eyelash.

Kei was, extremely competitive. Lightning would have to strike his literal eyes to keep them from staring at you, specifically at your curvy thighs.

The way your soft cotton shorts rode up them was always a very pleasant sight, so he just kept staring, happily.

He loved that little penguin walk you busted into every morning when shutting the alarm off.

It’s like you couldn’t balance properly, and he swore that you were always shorter looking in the early hours of the day. He didn’t know how you could lack more height than you already did at barely 5 feet 2, but it always seemed that way.

It was especially cute, like he could just grab you and keep you in the palm of his hand.

Tired, you sat back down on the bed. You scooted until meeting the headboard, and then just let her head dip back.

It was so incredibly peaceful until you could no longer ignore his obvious glaring. “If you’re awake already, why don’t you get up?”

“It’s barely 4:05,

we don’t go in till 5am.”

He said so factually that you just deeply exhaled. Tssuki was definitely not a morning person, and neither were you.

Even though you were much more energetic, it was a Friday and you could not wait for the end of the workday already.

While Tssuki could be late to practice because let's be honest, few would even confront him, you could not pull off the same irresponsibility.

You cared way too much, and in general, hated the feeling of being late to anything. "Come on." You murmured, nudging Kei as he completely ignored you and kept on sleeping.

You waited for another minute before climbing out of bed, grabbing his attention once again. This time, your black shorts were scrunched further up. So far up that your ample ass cheeks were out in all their glory.

“Arigato, thank you god.”

Nishinoya would say.

“Well I’m not as naturally good looking as you so I’m gonna go shower and start getting ready.”

You huffed, truly riling Kei up inside. Hearing you say that genuinely made something inside of his stomach stir, so he instinctively reached out towards your wrist.

Even in the dark room, he could see your face clearly and tell you weren’t joking. "The fuck is wrong with her?" He thought, not angry, but extremely concerned because you weren't fishing for a compliment.

The two of you had been together for over 3 years now, and so he more than knew that you were not that kind of girl.

Yes, you lacked height at 5’2, but you were physically strong. Literally, you could carry all the grocery bags in one go with no issues. Lifting abilities? Check.

Even though Tssuki cruelly chose the apartment with extra high kitchen shelves, you would never ask for help to reach for stuff. "Help I can't reach" was not a phrase that existed in your world.

Literally, he’d sometimes walk in for some juice and find you on top of a chair reaching for something, if not on the literal counter tops to store items.

Independent? Check.

Resourceful? Check.

On top of all that, you had a voluptuous body he thought was fucking scrumptious. He understood that the norms for women in Japan could be vicious, especially if you weren’t a slender door like he was, but despite your insecurities, you still wore it all so well. You didn’t let it stop you from wearing whatever you wanted (as you should).

At times he did think you were a little bit stupid for fretting over such body image issues, but Tssuki was okay with that.

He didn’t want a know it all like himself, that be beyond insufferable.

Before he knew it, you were teaching him a thing or two as well. So Tssuki then knew you were not a vapid pick me girl, and that was honestly a pretty big turn on for him.

SPEAKING OF TURN ons, Kei found it incredibly hot to have you pinned beneath him, like you currently were.

It wasn’t an ingenue kink, to have you below him so submissively and weak, no. It was the way you fought to assert yourself, and the way you writhed. The way you tried to break free was no half assed attempt either.

Sometimes you'd even throw in a few knees into it, and Tssuki didn't mind it one bit. Two dominate personalities, things were always bound to be feisty in bed.

This time however, he sensed some a defeat in your soul.

Convinced to rekindle your spirits, his brows furrowed as he lowered himself closer to your pretty face.

“Take that back.” Tssuki growled in a low, oh so sexy deepened morning voice.

“I can’t, It’s true.” You protested, sighing as he pulled himself away only to then wrap his arms around your waist and throw you over his shoulders.

Misreading the situation, you first protested before breaking into full on laughter as he stormed into the shower with you still dangling, kicking your short legs in the air.

You had thought this was playful Tssuki, the version no one was too familiar with.

Except you … and Yamaguchi. You and Yams lived to exchange Tssuki-isms.

You were mistaken when trying to approach him as he had stripped entirely. God, you so badly wanted to touch his defined chest and close the space between —and that’s when your favorite salt mine smirked as he instinctively reached back to swivel the shower handle on.

Grabbing the detachable shower heard, Tssuki sprayed you down.

"That son of a bitch." You thought, having jumped back in shock, literally. The water was so fucking cold.

Tssuki raised a brow, testing you. On one hand, he thought you looked like a helpless kitten that was abandoned on some random parking lot on a rainy day.

He was an asshole, but if he ever came across a lonely stray cat, he'd so scoop it up and take home for some warm milk.

On the other hand, he thought you looked even more hot with the way your baggy shirt now clung onto every part of your curvaceous body.

Tssuki had to exhale as he saw your nipples peaking through your smaller but perfect chest. He just wanted to cup your perky tits, squeeze them and hear you moan in delight—your hot breath on his ear as you rested a side of your face on his.

“Can’t touch me till you take that back.”

He warned as you tried to take a step forward.

“Tssu— you whined, sighing as you crossed your arms, cold.

“Admit it, you’re beautiful. Say it.” He insisted as you tossed your head back. "I’m beautiful … kinda, I mean” you trailed off, too distracted by your own cruel thoughts to notice when he raised the shower head again to spray you down.

“Ouch!” You gasped this time, burned by the super hot water. Tssuki turned, realizing that instead of increasing the water’s pressure, he had turned it to the hot side.

Steaming hot.

He rubbed them back of his neck, sheepishly trying to play off. That stupidly cool bathroom is literally what had sold him into choosing that apartment.

After a long day of training, having a large bathtub to soak in, or large walk in shower that doubled as a sauna to rest in was a treat. Not only that, but curative. You swore that this man's epsom salt baths were the reason his long limbs were always good to go, pain free.

Tssuki rushed to place the shower head back on, pushing a few buttons on the digital control panel to get some therapeutic steam going.

On a good morning, he'd already have you pinned to the wall. Your face buried into his neck as Tssuki spread your ass apart, drilling his every inch into you.

But sadly, this wasn't a good morning ... yet. When you waved a hand out in defeat, eyes swelling with tears, Kei grabbed you right before you could step away.

You slammed into his chest with a light thump as he then grabbed your shoulders to keep you balanced. "My clumsy pumpkin." He thought as you raised your head to meet his warm eyes.

Tssuki lowered his face, gently planting a kiss on your forehead. Pulling away, he grabbed your arm & extended it out as he begin to plant a trail of kisses over the burned-pink area. His kisses deepened the closer he got to your neck, stopping only when at your jawline.

Now, the two of you were staring directly at each other, his eyes radiating all the comfort you wanted to see: love, adoration, lust. It was so quiet, but your heartbeat was so damn loud.

His actions were doing all the talking. Now completely soaked, you looked down at the hem of your shirt as Tssuki grabbed both ends and begin to lift the blouse up and away from you.

Left in nothing but shorts, he kept his eyes locked on you as you nodded while he lowered himself to help you out of them.

Now, completely naked, he just stared at you in awe.

You were his goddess, and he was going to happily worship, service, respect, love.

ARIGATO GOD.

“I don’t know why you hesitate” he softly whispered as you took in a deep breath, suddenly feeling overly emotional. Near tears kind of overwhelmed.

To keep yourself from actually sobbing, you cleared your throat to speak up, “I love my job, but I guess sometimes working with so many beautiful models, I can’t help but to compare my—

Tssuki had heard enough about your delusions. His hands flew the sides of your face, pulling you in for a deep kiss. You felt such a thrill surging through your body as he so easily hoisted you up.

It was your favorite thing in the world, to wrap your legs around his long torso, and it was Tssuki’s favorite thing to dig his hands into your firm ass, your soft thighs.

Pulling away, he takes slow steps forward so your back gently meets the wall. With one hand, he caressed your face , thumb gliding over your cheek before connecting his forehead with yours.

“As I was saying, - I don’t know why you hesitate to say it, but I think you’re the most beautiful person in this whole goddamn world.”

A pesky tear escaped onto your cheek, and Tssuki blotted it away with a kiss, burying his face closer to yours. So close your noses are now touching.

When he wanted to, Tssuki could be so completely soft.

“You don’t know every single person in this world.”

You laughed, still touched by his bold declaration.

“I mean it. Waking up to you every morning I think wow, I’m so lucky.”

He admits as you then break into another chuckle. “You’re so full of shit, that’s not the first thing you think of.”

Tssuki pulls on your lower lip down with his thumb, chuckling back. “You idiot sandwich I didn’t say it was the first thing, but it’s a close second.”

You find yourself laughing out loud, his frisky smile fully plastered on his face as your nose scrunches in that way he finds so fucking adorable.

“Begone negativity.” He both teases and shudders at the thought of how Suga burned that in the back of his mind.

“Do I have to sing that stupid One Direction song to you?” Tssuki then jokingly added as your eyes widened.

“You wouldn’t!”

“You’re right that’s disgusting.” He scoffed, hoisting you further up as he took your breath away with another kiss, this time, his hands running through your hair.

It was always a mystery with him, never knowing if he was going to pull on your hair, or caress it.

This time however, as his tongue slipped into your mouth, eager, you couldn’t help but to squeal. You had to give it to him, the man was great at multitasking. While he deepened the kiss, Tssuki tapped the melody of that dumb song on your thighs as if drumming.

"You're insecure, don't know what for, you're turning heads when you walk through the door / don't need makeup to cover up, being the way that you are is enough --

Everyone else in the room can see it

Everyone else but you

Baby, you light up my world like nobody else

The way that you flip your hair gets me overwhelmed

But when you smile at the ground, it ain't hard to tell

You don't know, oh, oh, you don't know you're beautiful."

Tssuki had really taken SMACK MY ASS LIKE A DRUM to a whole other level, and you couldn't even be mad about it.

"Having fun, ya happy doing that?" You teased as he now gave himself a quick rub, fully erect. Your man was so well endowed and that was both exciting and terrifying at times. While you loved dominant Tssuki, today he was a bit more mellow and less gimp man.

"Fuck, Kei-" You moaned as he slowly entered you, rubbing your clit with his thumb, the pressure just right. "I'm definitely having fun, in fact" he smirked as you moved down to slam yourself further into him, begging for more, "I'm happier than ever."

#haikyuu oneshot #haikyuu tsukishima #haikyuu!!#tsukishima x y/n #kei tsukishima #tsukishima x you #kuroo tetsuro oneshot #shoyo hinata #tsukishima fluff

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iguessishouldbethankful · 4 years

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Sly Cooper 1 Review:

As in, I recently completed the game and since I was asked to, I will give my review on it. I’m a little nervous because this is the first time I’m doing this, so hopefully I’ll get this right.

KEEP IN MIND: I did not grow up with this series, and I am going in after @oroanillado gifted me the entire series for the PS3. I am a new fan who basically grew up on Nintendo products, so my views might come off differently.

ALSO: SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

Onto the review.

0. Initial Reaction:::::::::::::::::::::::::

I was pretty surprised how the game collection required no download or installation. So that was a good little bonus as I could immediately sit down and play it without much of a wait. As for the starting point on top of the roof... lemmie say that Sly is adorable at first glance. His movements are fluid and it’s very satisfying to control him--especially the fact that he has a bass sound to his steps that is beyond addictive. I love it.

Not to mention the music is nice. Not exactly as memorable, but I can listen to it and it does give the area a feel.

And then Bentley opened his mouth. Whew boy. Okay. Rok heard my live commentary every time he opened his mouth, so it’ll be a theme. It wasn’t that bad at first though so it’s mostly me wanting to explore the Police Station. It’s mostly a tutorial level so it’s nothing impressive, just giving the feels.

When Carmelita showed up, like expected, I was stunned by two things: she owns an extra fancy taser gun, and that slow as fuck taser gun is able to cause the destruction of public and private property as a massive scale. Ma’am, can we talk? Can you not blow up the cars?? LADY-

As for the comic style animation? Yes, perfect. I was looking forward to it and was not disappointed. I love the cartoony look it gives to the whole world. Which is something else I noticed--the feel and look of the game is very much like the love child of Banjo Kazooie and Psychonauts. The colors and collectathon.

Also the character motivations for Sly, Bentley and Murray are believable. All are orphans, and Sly saw his family get killed but the bad guys and the family book of thieves stolen. Carmelita? Eh, wish I had more context to her but good cop trying to catch the robber is good enough.

Note: I had no idea Carmelita was actually someone that worked for Interpol. My dumbass thought she was just a French cop. The more you know.

As for the hub safehouse area, it’s simple and direct to the point.

Okay. We good? Now onto the levels.

1. Tide of Terror:::::::::::::::::::

Sly dies in one shot.

No. This was okay. I was determined to find out how I could get around this. I explored the initial open area, collecting the coins and trying to get the bottles because I knew that the point of the games was to collect all pages, right? So I needed the bottles to get the clues so Bentley could give me the code. Thing is, I ran into a few problems on the get go. BESIDES SLY BEING A ONE HIT WONDERBOY.

I didn’t know I could pimp whack enemies with the cane. So I see this walrus looking mofo just hammering away on a boat and I’m like... How do I not aggro this dude. Keep to myself, reach areas I new I could jump to, and... OH FUCK THERE ARE BOTTLES ON THAT BOAT GOD DAMN IT! Fine. Let’s sneak in. By sneak I mean run around the walrus and realize that the guy just sees me and hammers harder. What? Okay then he doesn’t chase me. Get the bottles, realize after 5 minutes that Sly’s pimp ass cane can in fact obliterate the ship’s pole to get the last bottle, before trying to confront the walrus.

So I died the first time. Then I smacked him. You know, for a one hit wonder as Sly is, I appreciate that the enemies are the same as well. That balanced everything out and not made it a colorful furry version of Dark Souls. So off I go. Up the ladder and jumping right into the second area where there are search lights. I’m like okay, let me go around these and--

WHAT DO YOU MEAN THE ROSE BUSH KILLED SLY?!

GOD DAMN IT!!

Yes, a lot of this happened. It has been a while since I played a colorful game like this and I a lot of this is simple designing that is obvious, but I am also someone that enjoys finding other ways to get around them. So many choices in the game seems nonsensical. A raccoon unable to brush by some thorn bushes was rather hilarious. I was basically fussing at full volume while Rok was laughing at me. Which was good, I meant to be hilarious.

I discovered the wonders that were the search lights and that they are easily turned off in the small sections. That I could in fact dodge most attacks from the minor enemy characters. Realized that this damn raccoon cannot swim to save his damn life. LITERALLY.

kjsdbkjsd And then I realized that I was missing quite a few bottles once I got to the end. I was frustrated. I wanted to get them all already. So I went back and tried figuring out how to get them and I SWEAR TO GOD I CANNOT EVEN LOOK AT THE SAFE WITHOUT BENTLEY GOING “YOU DON’T HAVE THE BOTTLES NEEDED TO OPEN IT U-”

Bro. Bro I know. Bro please.

Shut the fuck up.

Got the bottles and moved on. Found out that I absolutely adore Sly being in a barrel and wanted to take that barrel with me everywhere but I couldn’t. Realized that Sly puts come paper cuts outs of his emblem in opened up safes and--can we talk about this? Does Sly just sit in his room with colored craft paper and cuts these out every night? Does he redo them if one comes out funky? Does he get glittery paper or is it like the kiddy kind? Does he do them in the van? Is it with scissors or an x-acto knife?! How do you make these bro you don’t simply walk into a FedEx’s Kinkos to print these out!

Anyway, I’m learning more tricks as I go along, getting all of the keys and bottles and I do go back to each stage to get all of the damn bottles because I am not leaving one behind because I really want all of the pages. I am also seeing all of the death animations Sly does and honestly, the humor in each of them is not lost on me at all. I adore them. The first time I saw him just realizing he’s gonna fall to his death and he just-

I busted laughing so hard and Rok got to hear me lmao oh my god-- But for real, most of his death animations are strangely adorable in my opinion. Especially when he just falls and his little leg twitches. They never made animations like that for other games I played so far (not even for Banjo Kazooie). And the lightness of everything makes it less frustration in my opinion. As though I had no problem if Sly died along the way. Whereas I would get way more frustrated with how Mario or Banjo would die.

Anyway those are my tidbits. But lemmie tell you something.Once I got to the last stage where I needed to get the 7 keys to access the final boss? There’s a treasure chest with crabs mini games.

FUCK. THAT. GAME.

The only reason I got through it was because I’m stubborn and I distracted my frustrations in my chat with Rok as I had this damn raccoon swim around in a submarine, killing about 100 crustaceans just for 40 chests!! 40! Not a normal number like 20 or 25. No. 40. That drove me nuts for some reason.

Anyway, finally got to the final boss after I collected all the horseshoes and lives around the main hub of the level, and then yeeted Sly from the canon ALA Wind Waker style.

Raleigh is freaking gross. Not in voice, but his animation made me feel really nasty with looking at him, which in my opinion was a good visual design and motivator to get rid of him faster. It was also easy to sort of find out what the boss fight was requiring from me in the end--making it so much easier as well. I guess for a kid it’s a bit more difficult and I can understand that. I just enjoyed the fights for having a repetitive nature that was satisfying. Like even if I died many times, the game didn’t throw me all the way out of the level at all. It restarted the fight from the beginning and that, to me, was a good way to introduce me to the entire function of a Sly Cooper 1 boss fight.

I felt happy when I defeated Raleigh. And of course, Sly isn’t a “killer” so froggo dude is still alive, just in prison after “HOT LATIN FOX LADY” caught him. Of course. Can someone tell me where Carmelita is from? Is she Spanish or Mexican or..? Like was that defined by the games or was it thrown up in the air?

Anyway, onto the next level.

2. Sunset Snake Eyes:::::::::::::::::::::

Lemmie just say that I actually enjoyed Mugshot’s backstory? It made me feel really sympathetic towards him in a way.... Despite him being a murderer but you know. It was a nice touch.

Okay so, are any of you familiar with the whole “Mickey Mouse is taking his dog Pluto for a walk” dilemma? Well, I had a moment like that as well in this section. Why? Because Mugshot has feral dogs all over his turf and that messes me up a lot for some reason. Like I always wondered how, evolutionary wise, can an anthro dog and a feral dog look so similar? I had a moment like that as well when reading Farewell, Beloved Falco. There was a feral pig in that comic and it bother the fuck out of me. But it didn’t impede me from playing the game.

The look was very much classical American desert wasteland in the middle of nowhere. Possibly southwest USA if I were to guess, and I liked the feel of the casinos and run down RVs, trailers and cars. However it made me question why this place was a junkyard almost if he kinda has a functioning casino. For Raleigh I could understand because it was a hideout, you do what you can right? Even if you have a fucking floating metal blimp over your hideout, like that won’t catch military attention at all, nooooooo--

But like, an abandoned casino suggests that it was once owned by the mafia or a mob, and just--Okay. Police regulations and gun control. Etc etc, I’m rambling on about things that have nothing to do with the game. Back to the design.

Again, collecting all the bottles like a desperate AA member that needs a hit for old times sake and running back to open up the safe. Can I just say that the names of each Cooper ancestor is rather amusing? Like some have the most dumb but adorable names. Huckleberry Cooper jfc--

And once I got into the main hub, I got my first taste of the “Murray can’t think without his stomach thus gets himself in trouble and needs to race his Moon Rover turned into a Van to win one of the keys” mini game and “Bentley told me I gotta keep you alive as you run through this area full of trigger happy criminals, Murray, plEASE STOP RUNNING IN FRONT OF MY BULLETS MURRAY-” mini game. Nice. Not as bad as the 40 treasure chests crabs.

Also, why would Mugshot or his minions just leave a red sports car running on reverse for days on end?? Anyway.

The inside of the casino was a nice section to play ngl. I enjoyed that a lot. The platforming too, despite some of the bottles being utterly difficult to get without having to die and do the entire section again to get them. And then comes the level when Carmelita decides to destroy private property because she’s after this dumbass raccoon. I wonder how she felt seeing him jump around back and forth breaking bottles and dodging her SLOW AS FUCK TASER GUN.

“Could you stand still?!”

“Nope. Not my fault you couldn’t get a license for a firearm.”

Finally I got to the Mugshot boss fight and like the first one, it was a very satisfying fight. Mugshot had me in stitches because he walked around with his long ass arms instead of his legs at first like lmao! Also once I got to the final third stage, I was all cautious and excite to jump around the wires. Yessss.

Defeated, all bottles collected, Carmelita caught this villain as well, and off we go... stealing shit from the USA before coming back to the Safehouse? Alrighty then.

3. Vicious Voodoo:::::::::::::::

Let me tell you something about myself. I have an intense love for Voodoo in video games. Started with Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Father, Princess and the Frog and I had an intense call back to one of the swamp areas of Banjo Kazooie in this level.

So basically, this is my favorite level.

I think it’s also the level where I argued the most with Bentley as well. Or at least the second one because, since the very first game, he keeps repeating the same obvious commands all the time with a constant reminder of press the O button. Sly? Sly?? SLY! PRESS THE O BUTTON! Bentley? You’re cute, but you gotta stop my dude.

The sliding effect on the long branches was a lot of fun, the tree enemies that had more than one hit kills were also satisfying to beat the shit out of. I also enjoyed the general murky color of the level in general. Just the spooky was definitely my aesthetic. You know what wasn’t my aesthetic? The first mini game I ran into, which was the candle mini game where Bentley would repeat himself all the time right at the start of if you had to restart the level. I muted the entire thing and had Sly mindlessly killing the fishes to turn on the candles while blabbing to Rok on the phone so it was easier for me not to get nervous about the time limit or the amount of candles I had to turn on. It was the same thing with the Chicken Gumbo mini game, but I didn’t mute that one. Because Bentley stayed quiet.

Also, @oroanillado is the biggest troll. I was on the beast section of the game and they did not describe to me what it was like. So I’m honestly not expecting much at all, just wanted to grab my bottles and go. Once I’m halfway though, and I already saw the water moving around I’m having Amnesia the Dark Descent flashbacks like OH SHIT OH FUK O Shi- But no. No. What got to me was... This intensely huge serpent coming out of the water and chasing me and my camera kept pointing BACK instead of pointing forward so I could navigate Sly out of that mess while also getting the fucking bottles along the way!!

I was shrieking!! I have an acute fear of things that are larger than normal (it’s connected to my Agoraphobia). I have that with whales and sharks and fish, so I usually avoid big mobs if possible in any game. Yes, including the 3 mythical dragons from Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. @thekursedone-lylat was present when I was freaking out about saving Naydra and how huge it was. But at the same time I have a big fear of these sorts of creatures, I was laughing and cursing at the end of the level because honestly, Rok was having a good time and so was I.

Oh yes, also the other mini game where I had to navigate the same speed boat thingy and shoot down the on coming ghosts and flaming rocks was pretty annoying until I figured out I needed to destroy the pillars where the ghosts came from. Then it was easy.

But my absolute favorite section of this whole level was the Green Water Full of Body Parts and Bones. Bentley was losing his shit at the beginning of the level and I would accidentally yeet Sly into the water of decomposing bodies like yeah, yeah the turtle won’t like the smell of this. It was just a well designed level, so I had no problems having to redo it to get all the bottles again and again.

Now, the boss fight? I was warned about this ahead of time so I had to unfortunately put Mz. Ruby on mute so I would concentrate on her attacks but apparently they were supposed to go with the rhythm of the song and the Sly Cooper Collection messed that up? I think she was the only Boss I was really wanting to listen to as she talked because she was giving me good “yeah I’m bad, probably not the best one in the group, but I don’t care I’mma own up to it so try to dodge my attacks as best you can” vibes. It was also entertaining to see Sly go Neo with some of the commands.

All bottles collected and onto Winter in China.

4. Fire in the Sky::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Oh hey look, fireworks!

.....oh.

Surprisingly, this entire stage was rather meh to me? It worked like the others, felt like the others, but I really wasn’t as wowed by it. It might also be just the fact that I mostly saw white in general due to the snow, and spent most of my time looking for a few bottles on one section that really irritated me. Like I legitimately got mad in one section and didn’t want to deal with it because of the noises some of the monkeys were making.

This section. I hated it so much because I thought the bottles I was missing were in here and 2 of them were but I needed hints for it. Argh... Everything else in this section was pretty much a blur for me besides the two mini games with Murray, and the one level where Carmlita came back again, destroying more private and ancient property with her taser gun--and the main reason I remember this was because:

Carmelita saying she was going to catch criminal scum Sly and Sly just went “you really need to get woke, I’m not the bad guy here.”

I collected all the bottles but Bentley told me I had to defeat Clockwerk before I could open this damn safe, and it was the only one requiring this!!

Carmelita went down with the dragon statue, into the hypothermia levels of cold water while shaking her fist into the sky.

I will say the part of Sly and Bentley discussing the whole mechanics of Sly taking the rockets into Panda’s lair was pretty funny tho. Just,

Bentley: Hey you might be able to reach the top of the tower before these explode.

Sly: Okay but what if they explode before I get there?

Bentley: Then I guess you’ll blow up into many pieces.

Sly:

As for the Panda King boss fight, it was okay. I just kept running in circles around the arena while approaching the dude. Defeated him and was like okay, I really need to go and defeat Clockwerk now so I can open that safe.

5. The Cold Heart of Hate:::::::::::::::::::

Look.

I get Sly probably weighs next to nothing, Murray, but could you at least break once Sly gets knocked off the top of the van? Or when the rocks are falling down towards us, maybe also step on the breaks so not everyone is being driven to their ultimate death?

No?

Okay.

I will say, I headcanon that both Bentley and Sly were getting an intense case of whiplash when Murray was driving that van around at 120 MPH collecting all 60 computers because... Bentley needed those to hack into something??? It wasn��t as bad as the 40 crabs and treasure chests but man. And then of course there’s the section where, oh surprise surprise, Carmelita is in an obvious trap, slamming her fist on the glass, needing to be saved. Bentley warned Sly it was a trap. But of course Sly is like:

OH THANK GOD THE BARREL IS BACK.

Anyway, obvious trap is an obvious trap. Carm just bitches at Sly right as he gets stuck in the glass chamber and is sprayed with RAID. So Bentley has to save his ass. This is possibly the mini game I dislike the most. I just put Bentley on constantly circling mode as he shot down the targets.I died about 9000 times before I won.

Carmen is all Oh I was wrong about you the whole time Sly!

Sly: Duh.

And off we go to the next section where Sly lost his cane and he needs to recover it with Carm’s help. So I’m controlling Carm’s taser gun. Guess how many times I purposefully killed Sly? Many. For funsies. Because the gun magically got faster once I was behind the trigger.

Next section was the whole climb up the beam tower as it’s being consumed by lava! I very much enjoyed this whole climbing bit. It was fun. Again, died a lot and I actually glitched through the walls because I jumped somewhere I wasn’t supposed to and had to kill Sly along the way. But still very fun.

FINALLY.

CLOCKWERK.

Are we serious? Are we actually serious right now? Clockwerk had absolutely no motivation beyond ultimate hate? WHAT?! That’s just... not a satisfying reason ngl. Anyway, the jetpack flying section was probably the easiest thing ever and I loved it. What I didn’t like was the laser section that came after it... I kept dying. Again. FUCK. THOSE. LASERS.

Clockwerk speaking random little words while malfunctioning was super cute those. I don’t why, but I loved it. I was shrieking by the end of everything though because once I got right at the back end, where I’m supposed to jump on this mad owl, I was not expecting the head to jump on me. HHHHHHH!!!

Anyway, I killed Clockwerk dead. Back into the lava you go. Witnessed Sly give Carmelita the slip of the tongue and handcuffed her onto a railing over an active volcano before yeeting himself. Classy. Then back to his old tricks again with the gang. End credits.

NO WAIT.

The last chest. In the Panda section. Yeah I went back for that and got the extra ending.

0. MY RATING::::::::::::::::::::

Honestly, 8 trashcans out of 10. If Clockwerk actually had a believable motive besides hate, I’d give it a higher rating. But the game is satisfying and I love the mechanics of it.

Bentley just needs to chill the fuck up tho. God.

#sly cooper #sly cooper reviews #peep peep #long post

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twdmusicboxmystery · 5 years

Text

9x09: Analysis

Okay, let's talk about this episode.

***As always, spoilers abound for episode 9x09. Don’t read until you’ve watched. You’ve been warned!***

The beginning was definitely freaky. As I suspected, from watching the trailer, are heroes got out of the graveyard fairly quickly, but watching the whisperer unlock the gate was super spooky.

Negan’s story:

Negan’s story was by far the most important where TD is concerned. Really fascinating symbolism. Let’s dive right in.

We see him eating a tomato. That's important because tomatoes were an important part of Carl’s story line and specifically Carl’s vision for the future. I think showing Negan eat the tomato shows that this is the beginning of him moving toward the Negan we saw in Carl's vision. In other words, a good Negan who will cooperate with TF.

He goes into Judith’s room. I noticed a little purple fan. I won’t say much about this now but I will tell you that @frangipanilove is working on a purple theory that I will share when she gets done.

Negan also takes a compass. The compass is super-important guys. As we��ve noted already, Henry is wearing a compass rose on his T-shirt and the compass is linked to the North Star because both of them help you find your way. Remember that, in Alone, which was a huge Beth episode, Maggie had a broken compass. So, we can definitely link the compass to Beth.

When he offers to give it back to Judith, she says, "Keep it. It will help you find your way." Not only is that very symbolic, but I think it hearkens back to when Carl pointed at the North Star and when Judith was a baby in S6 and said it would help you find your way home.

Well, putting Beth aside, I think that this does very much have a lot to do with Negan and him finding his way back to goodness and redemption, and TF. But we also can't ignore the parallels to Beth and the ways in which we can connect this to her arc. So overall, and still feeling like she may come through meetings arc because of all the symbols around him that have to do with her.

Judith, of course, catches Negan before he goes over the wall but ends up letting him go. One thing that really caught my attention was that Negan said he had if he stayed in Alexandria all he has is, "four walls and a bedpan." That's super important because it's a form of the title of 5x03, which was Four Walls and a Roof.

We’re not sure exactly what this means or how to tie it to Beth, but we have a few ideas. This form for four walls and a roof was a significant episode for a few reasons. There's a lot of bloodshed going on in that episode, it was in 5a, which was the major part of Beth’s arc, and the red machete was involved.

In terms of what the line actually meant in the episode, Father Gabriel said, "this is God's house." Maggie answered, "No, it's just four walls and a roof." I’ve always taken that to mean, by extension, that this is not God's house. It's simply a place where they kill to survive. And if Beth is the Christ figure, that means they’re symbolically saying that Beth is not there. Which in the plot, she wasn't. She was never at Father Gabriel's church. During that time, she was at Grady.

Another important thing, as @wdway reminded me, in 9x05, which was Rick's hallucination and final episode, in the part where he hallucinated talking to Shane in the squad car, Shane referenced this episode too. He said Rick needed to be strong again like he was in the church with that red machete. At the time, we honed in on the red machete reference. But he was obviously referencing what happened in Four Walls and a Roof. So, this is twice now this season that they’ve referenced that episode. It must be important. Maybe it’s a red machete thing. Maybe something else. But we’ll keep an eye on it.

Later, he kills her walker while sitting in the bed of a truck and eating. When he sits down, some walkers wake up in the back of the truck. One of them was burnt and was very ashy. Naturally, I want to connect that to, "we ain’t ashes,” as well as other burnt walkers around Beth (Still and Always Accountable). While he's fighting with the walker, the walker pulls itself loose and loses its legs.

So we have an example of the lost shoe/foot theme. Italso reminds me a whole lot of 4x01 in the Big Spot where Bob looked at the lower legs of a walker. So more callbacks to 4a. Then, Negan dropped his bag of food, fighting the walker and I noticed that she was an apple lying on the ground.

Let's just remember that especially an apple rolling on the ground is indicative of the Snow White/apple theory.

We saw the lost shoe/foot theme in Inmates with Beth, not too long before she went missing. We also saw it with Rick in 7x12, not long before he went missing and was presumed dead.

So seeing it here either means that Negan is going to go missing and be presumed dead, or else that Beth is close. (And I’m really not feeling like Negan is going to go missing.)

So let’s discuss what they’re doing with Negan here. There were a lot of signs in the background that suggest becoming the man you’re meant to be. So again, we’re seeing him move toward a different kind of Negan than we saw in the past.

Most of us in my group also noticed that when he was puking, he was in the clearing Abe and Glenn died in. Nicotero confirmed that on TTD, saying that, because he was kneeling where his victims knelt, that’s giving him a new, humble perspective, which may play into his change of heart.

Then something interesting happens. We start to see a TON of Beth symbolism around him.

So then he goes into a store to look for new shirt. This part was huge, guys. I literally had to pause live TV because I couldn't write fast enough to write all the symbolism down.

First, he tries to turn a flashlight, but it doesn't work. In other words, the batteries are dead. So we have the Battery Theory. He finds a crank flashlight and manages to crank that to create some light. On the floor is a green can of food which I'm pretty sure is okra. Remember, okra figured heavily in Alone. We saw on the table at Beth and Daryl’s candlelight dinner. We also see the flashlight flare I've noted before.

So that's still in play and we definitely saw that with Beth. I think that's important because, along with the bats, it’s another way to connect Beth to Negan.

Then he sees the corpse of a guy who obviously shot himself in the head. Guys, look at this comparison. This guy looks exactly like the guy Daryl saw him 5x10 with the dead deer.

You can't tell me that's a coincidence. There are callbacks to the themes, Beth episodes, including Alone, things that link Negan and Beth, and then finally a callback to 5x10. You know, where the music box woke up?

I’m also thinking the mannequins around the corpse are important. There’s one female mannequin, which could represent the mannequins and “Rich Bitch” corpse we saw in the golf club, or could just represent Beth herself, simply because it’s a female, not a male. The other two mannequins there are both little kid mannequins (Child/Baby symbolism around Beth.)

Then @thegloriouscollectorlady said something brilliant. She said, “this is Negan’s Still.” She’s SO right. Think about it. He’s wandering on the outside like Beth and Daryl were in Still. He ruined his shirt and walked into a dark place and finds a new shirt. There’s the flashlight flare, which happened in the golf club as well. There was okra. And dogs.

Dogs! Like Sirius/dogstar symbolism. There's three of them and they are wild and chase him. Not only is this a Siris reference, but it's a call back to Them and the feral dogs that team family saw there. In this case, Negan hides from them.

So the clothing store represented the golf club. The lighting was the same, racks of merchandise and clothing, even mannequins.

So, even as I thought all of this, I could just visualize the Asks in my inbox and the concerns people would have. “Couldn’t all the Beth symbolism around Negan simply suggest that he has a similar arc? That he’s trying to figure out who he is, become the strong person he’s meant to be, and possibly disappear like her?”

Well, let me first say that I wasn’t worried about that one way or the other. While I get the worry in that, it also doesn’t explain the million other symbols around Beth that suggest her return. It doesn’t explain the dialogue, the blue herons, the Christian/resurrection symbolism, the 8:00 clocks, etc.

But the interesting symbolism around Negan didn’t stop there. We noted a bunch more things that were callbacks to Beth and Daryl and S4, but after a while, we realized they weren’t Negan/Beth parallels. They were Negan/Daryl parallels. So Negan goes to the Sanctuary and says, “Home sweet home,” which Daryl also said at the moonshine shack in Still.

Then Negan breaks through a wall of the Sanctuary and finds a motorcycle (obvious Daryl symbolism) and cans of dog food.

So callback to 7x03, The Cell, and also the handcuffs and dog food Daryl found in S8.

And of course later on Negan was riding a motorcycle, just like Daryl, and when Judith shot at him and he wiped out on the bike, he did it exactly like we always see Daryl wreck when he does.

So basically, Negan was symbolically rehashing BOTH Beth and Daryl’s arcs from S4 to S8. So at that point, I don’t think it can simply be a matter of him following a similar path. Something else is going on here.

At the Sanctuary, Negan tries to force the Sanctuary to feel like home. He even puts together a makeshift living room, but he’s obviously not feeling it. He finds a walker he knew before named Big Richie. At first, he doesn’t kill him. Then he looks at Judith’s compass and does.

I think maybe he didn’t kill him because he promised Judith he wouldn’t.

Reminds me of Daryl almost covering Lenny with the white tarp because of what Beth taught him, but then not doing it; just another parallel to S4 and Daryl symbolism where he’s learning from what the female sheriff taught him. In fact, you could argue this is a lot like S4 that way too. Negan and Judith were separated just like Beth and Daryl. Granted, in Negan’s case, the separation was his choice. Daryl realized the Claimers were bad people and he didn’t want to stay with them, just as Negan realized he didn’t want to stay in the Sanctuary anymore. Then Negan and Judith--the female sheriff--are reunited. So this could be another way to point to Beth and Daryl reuniting. Will she shoot at Daryl and knock him off his bike? Probably not. But it’s interesting. ;D.

Meanwhile, Negan realized the Sanctuary would never be home again, so he kills Ritchie and returns to Alexandria. Judith is his home now.

But again, we saw this with Beth and Daryl in S4. They tried to make an emotional home with each other, but more tangibly, they tried to make the funeral home a permanent home. Daryl wanted to stay there and make it work. But in the end, they couldn’t, and after they left, they (or Daryl at least) reunited with TF. Just like Negan in this episode.

So it’s hard to know where this is going for sure, but I feel certain it has something to do with Beth and Daryl.

@wdway also noticed diamond patterns on clothing and in background. Remember Beth is the queen of diamonds and we saw several instances of diamonds around her in S4.

In terms of me REALLY wanting to read into things as foreshadows?

1) In TTD, they said something interesting. They did a segment on the dogs they used that chased Negan around. In describing the scene, they said that, unbeknownst to Negan, these dogs had been secretly tracking him. It’s pretty impossible to understand that from what they showed us in the episode, which means they wanted us to know about it. So if dogs = Beth because of Sirius symbolism, I feel like at some point, Beth will be tracking Negan or pose a threat to him. Which kinda throws the dogs in 5x10 into a new light, doesn’t it?

2) They also explained that the reason Negan threw up is because of drinking the water. It was bad water and made him sick. Um… Beth = water. So I want to say that it shows Beth is going to end up being a major threat to Negan. Both of these symbols suggest that. Just thought I’d throw that out there.

One other thing? There were a LOT of 10s mentioned in this episode. That points at S10 for something. Maybe it’s Beth. Maybe it’s something in Negan’s arc. But Lydia mentions 10s too, which might be a Whisperer thing. So don’t know what it means, but thought I’d mention it.

I’d also like to point out that at the end of 9x08, we saw Negan walk into the Sanctuary and whistle. There was a time jump forward to show something that was really a hint of things to come. Then, this episode they went back and showed Negan leaving his cell, leaving Alexandria, and other things that happened on his way to the Sanctuary. So just another example of how they can skip over things and jump forward, but they always go back and show us what we missed. They have to do that with Beth eventually. (And with whatever gave Michonne and Daryl their X scars.)

Daryl and Michonne:

I really loved this interaction between Daryl and Michonne. I thought it was really sweet.

It was obvious that Daryl didn't really trust Magna and her people until Michonne assured him that she would vouch for them. Then he was cool. She said burying Jesus would mean a lot to his loved ones. Daryl then says, "I'm sorry, couldn't do that for you." Michonne: "I’m sorry I couldn't do it for both of us. Thank you, for looking for him.” Obviously, they’re talking about never finding Rick’s body. And there’s an emphasis on how important burial and closure are. Not only did Beth not get a funeral, but remember she emphasized to Daryl at the funeral home how important burials are. How important they were to her personally.

But then Michonne says something downright tantalizing. She says, “And for after." This is really interesting because Michonne is thanking Daryl for something that happened “after” Rick’s presumed death. Remember that right after the bridge exploded and Daryl started off to look for him, they did the time jump. We don't know what came “after.” So, what she's thanking him for must have something to do with whatever happened during the time jump and gave them their scars.

On TTD, Norman talked about this, and it kinda freaked me out. He says that Daryl and Michonne shared an experience that no one in the group except them knows about. And that it’s a very, very DARK secret. Wow. That’s super-ominous. I have NO idea what that means, and it’s a little frightening.

But more than that, it doesn’t explain some of the mysteries we saw in 9a. It doesn’t explain why the Hilltoppers were terrified of riders showing up and booked it inside the walls. It doesn’t explain why Maggie, Tara, Diane, and the rest are so pissed off at Michonne, and why she seems totally understanding about the fact that they are.

So I don’t know if that’s all part of the same thing or not. Maybe something happened with Michonne and, specifically because the Hilltoppers don’t know what happened to her and Daryl, they don’t understand her actions, and that’s why they’re mad. OR, maybe we’re talking about multiple events we know nothing about. I don’t know, but this is a serious interesting twist of events.

But I loved Daryl and Michonne’s little bonding moment on the road. I thought it was sweet. Kinda melted my heart.

I’m also excited because I think the After theme has everything to do with Carl/Beth entanglement and leading to Beth’s return. And this means whatever caused those scars is also in the mix somewhere.

Daryl and Henry:

Henry still has a compass rose on his shirt and is in the jail cell when Daryl returns.

After that, we had such a supremely sublime Beth moment. After letting Henry out for a short time, but saying he needs to do his time and stay in the prison cell another night, Henry asks if alcohol always makes you feel this bad. Daryl looks at him in a considering way and answers simply, "No." Guys, he HAS to be thinking of Beth when he says that. Remember, they made a point of saying that she was a happy drunk, she held her liquor well, and she actually liked the feeling. So, alcohol didn’t make her feel bad like it did Henry. That's one major difference between the two of them. My heart just absolutely melted when he said that because I knew he had to be thinking of Beth.

They also discussed figuring out who you are. Henry says he's just he feels bad about what happened (getting drunk) but is just trying to figure out who he is not new in this new place (Hilltop). That's actually a whole lot like Beth too. They never said it quite that heavy-handedly with Beth, Beth and Daryl on the road together were very much was very much them trying to figure out who they were in the work of the tragedy of the prison family and who they were together and in this new setting. So Daryl understands where Henry is coming from.

Lydia:

When they captured Lydia, I was struck by the image of her blond wig/scalp being left behind, along with her knife. The camera focused on that a minute and it just screamed Beth. Beth’s blond hair and Beth’s knife.

Lydia talks about how the walkers protected them (because they wear walker faces, they can walk around with the walker herds and be protected) and so they protect the walkers, too. So the Whisperers believe their relationship with the walkers is symbiotic. That’s actually a whole lot like the what the wolves believed.

Lydia also says, “we were always going to kill you. That's just what you do know. Kill people.” That tells us a lot about the Whisperers’ mentality. They believe killing people to survive is the obvious thing to do. Not what our heroes and TF believe. She also says that her mother is "A good person” and “just one woman out there alone." That combination has to make Daryl think of Beth, who spoke to him about good people and was also on her own at Grady. And, you know, there’s the blond angle.

Daryl is being verbally abusive to Lydia, Henry tells Daryl to stop. Much like many others such as Beth, Henry is acting as Daryl's moral compass, trying to tell him what the right thing to do. When Beth was Daryl's moral compass, he listened to her. He's really not listening to Henry at all.

He was smart because he did sort of a good cop/bad cop routine. He yelled at Lydia to intimidate her, probably knowing that Henry wouldn't like it, and that then maybe Lydia would bond with Henry and trust him. So when they started talking, he sat outside the window listening and heard everything. Daryl is not so dumb. ;D

Daryl walking in and telling Henry (Beth proxy) about Jesus’s death felt a lot like him telling Beth about Zack’s death in 4x01.

Luke and Alden:

Luke volunteers to go out with Alden to look for Michonne and Daryl’s group. Luke made the joke that he was "two hand Luke,” as well as saying, “Do you need a hand? I have two of them." I feel like it’s a foreshadow of someone (maybe Luke) losing a hand.

Before they leave, Enid tells Alden to, "be safe out there." Definitely a foreboding foreshadowing. Because by the end, there captured by Alpha.

Luke and Alden talked a lot about music with an especial emphasis on singing. Beth anyone?

I couldn't help but notice that Alden has machete with a handle wrapped in white tape. I don’t think it's the red machete, but having the handle wrapped in exactly the same way the red machete’s was wrapped in mini series strikes me as important.

We also found out that Rosita is pregnant with Siddique’s baby. Euguen found out when finally professed his love to Rosita. Poor guy. But he also made an hour glass reference. Not only is that a time reference, but remember that in 5b, Carl played with an hour glass. I believe it’s yet another way to show the arc has turned over and Beth, who wasn’t in the show from 5b on, will reappear in this current arc.

Enid watching for Alden to come back reminded me of Maggie looking for Glenn to come back in 6a. Which I THINK shows that Alden will live. In that case, it was Glenn’s death fake out and he did make it back to her alive. Of course he died eventually, so I could be wrong about that. On the flip side, Alden s also the song bird right now. He’s the only one on the show that sings. So maybe that will lead to his death? Guess we’ll have to wait and see.

I won’t go into this too much, but we saw the Us vs. Them theme, and also a lot of bikes. There were bikes in the background several times, the bike Negan found and rode, which admittedly might have ONLY been a Daryl reference. But every time I see bikes, especially with an emphasis on the tires, I think of a prominent one we saw in 6x02 when the wolves attacked. That might make sense since we know the Whisperers are about to arrive. Maybe it’s a symbol that a bad group is about to show up at the gates. But a lot of us also suspect ties between the Whisperers and the Wolves, and a lot of the symbolism we saw in this episode kinda backs that idea up. Just saying.

Okay, that’s all I have for today. I really loved this episode, though. SO much symbolism that makes me very excited for what’s to come.

#beth greene #beth greene lives #beth is alive #beth is coming #td theory #td theories #team delusional #team defiance #beth is almost here #bethyl

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eirenare · 6 years

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FFXV: Episode Ignis — My experience (hint: a lot of feels)

Okay, so between me needing time to get out of my happy shock for Episode Ignis (gods, it’s been hard to find the will to write because I couldn’t even arrange my thoughts well enough), certain movie coming out, and the fact that I usually need to wait for nighttime’s peace to write (and often inspiration and/or will are quite picky, not to mention when your brain gets blocked when it comes to writing), I took my time to finally write this, but...

Here I go!

[22/12/2017: EDITED THIS POST TO HIGHLIGHT NAMES, CHECK PUNCTUATION AND TAGS, AND EDIT MISTAKES.]

I would like to start by saying that Episode Ignis gave me way more than I would have EVER expected. Like, really. I expected for it to be a great DLC, but the experience exceeded that word easily: it was EVERYTHING. And it was everything because it HAD everything.

I’m still not over it, days later. Damn, I’ve even dreamt with it two times (and I remember almost nothing, but I think Ravus was in both lol).

I was sooo hyped for Episode Ignis that I started playing it a little after midnight and I ended up... AT 6 AM. And I had to wake up in theory at, like, 9 AM. But that night, nothing else mattered outside this DLC and, DAMN, what a night. Totally, absolutely worth it to spend so much hours playing it and losing sleep. I had a great time, and oh gods, some parts had me so excited.

I mentioned this already in my non-spoiler comment about Episode Ignis, but... I expected to cry more than I did in the end. For years, I’ve been a person that cried way too easily when watching movies, playing videogames, reading... Like, really, I tended to cry so much. I often was an emotional mess, I would sob a lot and my chest would literally hurt (if you had seen me with FFXV’s ending, oh dear...). But lately I’ve noticed that, in that regards, I’ve become... a bit “numb”. I enjoy the stories, oh gods if I do, and I still get feels (a lot), but it’s like the intensity has lowered some, and that’s something I don’t like. I miss being a crybaby about these things, damn.

During Episode Ignis, if I recall well there was only one time in which I cried, and that was at the end of the original route of the DLC, when Ignis tells Noctis about “sharing the load”. My goodness, Iggy, you’re such a good, great man...

But well, the thing is, I may have not cried much when I played Episode Ignis, BUT the excitement, the feels, the emotion were there.

I would sometimes jump a bit on the sofa out of excitement, for example when the last scene of that amazing alternative ending was starting... A moment which also had me frantically gesticulating with my hands in the air, much like when I saw Noctis alive and sitting in the throne (I thought Ignis was just like, going to bow before an empty throne and then say something like “thank you” and cry, but OH GODS, I’m happy I was so wrong in that assumption).

I was smiling while fighting with Ignis all around Altissia and collecting items, and damn, my smile went from ear to ear during the alternative ending, ever since I saw Ravus alive in the stairs (and SMILING, Ravus ACTUALLY SMILING, that’s something beautiful and precious — although I have to admit that seeing his beard almost made me laugh a bit, it was between weird and adorable), and up until the very end of it. And what an ending, oh my goodness... That ending was EVERYTHING, and I can’t stop thinking about it. And oh gods, the addition of that camp scene at the official ending, THE FEELS...!

Oh, and I can’t stress enough how much of a “FUCK YES” it was to see Caligo die and, the best thing, by Ravus’ hand. I don’t know if anyone reading this has seen my post about Caligo, but a past trailer had a VERY creepy moment of Caligo cornering Luna when she was a child while a storm raged on outside the building they were in, and ever since I noticed that the man was Caligo I’ve been wanting so badly to see him actually die.

On the other hand, some moments really made me frown, or be SO sad. Seeing Ravus so broken about Luna, and then lashing out at a protective and understanding Ignis... Man. MAN. And Ignis. Oh dear gods, Ignis. It was sad to see him sacrifice himself to save Noctis (Ignis is such an AMAZING character), and I worried so much that he was going to die in that alternative ending...

Still, if there’s something that would make you picture just how much excited I was, it’s this: NON-STOP TREMBLING.

And it was that kind of trembling that shakes all your body and that you can’t stop (it simply couldn’t be because of the low temperature though because I was warm, wrapped in a blanket like a burrito and with the heating on). I don’t know when it started but it just happened, and it didn’t end until some time after I finished the DLC at 6 AM. Basically I spent hours trembling because of my excitement, so... yeah, that was the biggest sign that I was excited, haha

Damn, my legs even were WEAK, although I didn’t notice that until I got up from the sofa. Also, I still trembled as well when I watched a livestream that same day.

But well, continuing on~

Having Ignis and Ravus as teammates was SO AMAZING. They had such synchrony when they executed movements, that was BADASS.

And the gameplay was SO good, so smooth, so strategic while at the same time being fast! Seeing Ravus execute “Last Rites” (here in Spain the name is a reference to the boat to the othe world, though) is espectacular, and Ignis jumping like that? HELL YEAH. I didn’t use much the “Overclock” in all honesty because I loved to spam the jump, lol. The dagger system felt really amazing, and probably my favourite element for them was ice. The lightning element was exhilarating, and fire did so much damage... But I just loved the ice daggers too much, not only because of how they felt, but because it was kinda beautiful, like seeing Ignis dance lol.

And oh my goodness, Ravus and Ignis fight together almost feel like a choreography, and I DIED at how perfectly they combine their moves.

Oh oh, and I went absolutely scavenger mode, looking out for items all around the map, haha. Going to cross the bridge to help Noctis? ... Nah, the loot man, THE LOOT.

And Altissia... Oh my god, Altissia was amazing (although it hurt to see a place that had been so beautiful now destroyed), such a good open place to explore~ I had INSANE FUN with the hook (oh gods when I discovered that as you fall you can still use I went full Spiderman mode hahaha), and taking back territory from Niflheim. As of now, though, I haven’t picked up all the collectibles and average items, or bought these awesome glasses, or fought Noctis in the Friendly Match, but... SoonTM.

I have to say I accidentally discovered that, if you’re out ot combat and press triangle, Ignis removes and puts on his glasses, or checks them, and so on, lol. That was a cute detail. Oh, and I liked that Weskham did that little appearence! Camelia is just... well... it’s... her. I don’t like how Camelia acted, to be honest...

Buuut well, onwards.

The music was just PERFECTION. Every theme was AMAZING. That’s an aspect I’ve loved about this DLC, it’s so very well executed! Every piece fits to perfection, and... I just have to mention this: Ardyn getting another version of his theme. One that is just SO scary... Damn, the music of this DLC was perfection.

And now, the time has come... The time to talk about characters and story. The time for DEM FEELS.

The story was just SO WELL EXECUTED. It wasn’t very long, but I felt it SO satisfactory.

Seeing Ignis so worried about Noctis really does something to your heart, like... Just how much this man cares about him? It’s overwhelming, in the good sense.

I’m glad that Ignis got to show in this DLC just how amazing of a character he is, because he deserved it. I mean, he’s shown during the game itself that he cares deeply, but in this DLC you can see just how far he’s willing to go to protect Noctis, and it’s amazing, it’s beautiful, albeit tragic. It’s not that he’s so dedicated because it’s his role to take care of the King of Light, no, but because it’s NOCTIS. He does it for the person, simply. This DLC just shows to what extent, and oh dear... The word is DEVOTION.

Seeing Ignis not harbouring any doubt before putting the Ring of the Lucii to fight Ardyn later on is just... Wow. He goes through so much pain, through such of a sacrifice, risking his life, to protect Noctis. It’s A LOT. And, you’re going to pardon me for breaking the epic of his act, but... Ignis looks so gorgeous with his hair down and so disheveled. Not to mention that aura around him... I think the world would be “feral”.

Ignis is amazing, in every sense. He’s got a fierce, protecting soul. I don’t doubt that he was scared about what he was doing, but he cared so much for Noctis he just did it. It’s sad when he just falls to the ground besides Noctis after fighting with Ardyn, when he asks Ravus if Noctis is alright, with that tone, because he has no way of knowing by himself. I loved that Ravus talked to him like he did (being all understanding, reassuring), you can tell there’s respect after seeing what he just did. Man, I love their dynamic, even if the time they spent as comrades was short.

And I just can NOT talk about what happened after they landed on the altar.

Pryna... Oh gods, Pryna. I wasn’t expecting that, to see the poor thing dying just before Ignis’ eyes... And sure as heck I wasn’t expecting for Pryna to show Ignis the future. That left me agape and added yet another layer of pain to Ignis...

Gods, Ignis and Ravus deserved such a hug.

It was moving seeing Ravus so broken at Luna’s death. One sees earlier he wants to protect her badly, but this... Gods, how much of a pain must be to see a dear sibling lying dead before your eyes? I can totally understand why he lashed out like that, thoughts totally clouded by anger and grief that it’s way too heavy because not only is he grieving Luna right there, but also re-opening the wound of losing his mother. Good thing that Ignis was there to avoid another tragedy...

The fight was... pretty intense. I loved that moment in which Ignis pushed Ravus twice to avoid getting closer, it was a nice touch to the scene. And damn, Ravus really was resilient, it took a bit of time to defeat him, although I liked that fight.

And, gods, the scene of Ravus embracing his sister, begging for her not to leave him... That was truly heartbreaking. It was his dear sister, but it’s not only that, no... With her death, he was totally and absolutely alone, and since the goal of his life seemed to be protect her, that’s gone as well. He had nothing. The poor man looked so lost and pained...

Oh, and Ardyn. Ardyn, as always, quite the showman (and a scary one, all the more in the alternative ending, when he tells Ignis the truth and they fight). I have to admit that, for a moment, he had fooled me. I’m impressed that Ravus saw right through the disguise so easily. That means he either knows Ardyn a lot, or that Ardyn might have changed his appearence earlier before him. Or it could be he thought that Gladiolus was being way too much of an asshole and suspected of Ardyn... But, regardless of what it is, it just implies that Ravus knew back then there was something off about Ardyn. I really hope he hadn’t used his appearence change for anything fucked up related to Ravus...

I liked that you could swap point of view and move the camera during that scene with Ardyn, it was interesting. He wouldn’t have, however, killed Noctis. He needed him alive, after all... and for Ignis to get blinded. He just had to push some buttons. I can’t help but think of Ardyn’s expressions when Ignis was hellbent on putting on the ring, before it happened... It happens briefly, but the look doesn’t seem fake, just like in the train, when he talks about Noctis hurting his feelings. I would have loved to know what was going on Ardyn’s mind in these moments when his performance cracks.

I have to admit I thought we would have the option to choose the alternative path from the start, but well, better like this, being forced to choose the original option on the first time. It would have been weird to start with the alternative universe.

Oh, and before I forget it... The soldier with Ardyn’s fedora. Gods, I automatically smiled then, it had been a funny gesture that almost made me laugh. I wasn’t expecting that at all.

The confrontation with Ardyn... Ah, yet another hard fight, but I achieved to defeat him (and, omg, that moment when he just teleports in front of Ignis, that was between awesome and scary). As I said, I loved the scene with Ravus back then. Also, Gladio almost reaching for Ignis’ hair when he’s on the ground... Bury me with feels. Bury me even more when the credits, too. Seeing Ignis so vulnerable, with Prompto and Gladio so nervous and breaking... Not to mention the scene of Ignis’ talk to Noctis. Oh, dear... I get that he wanted to protect Noctis from death (what a heavy knowledge to bear, knowing of the future...), but it wasn’t a very logical thing, to suggest Noctis to stop. Uuunless he wanted to cause Noctis to move forward.

Chapter 3 Verse 2 is... ANDLFNGLFNLDNASDAS. Or, translated to English, straightaway my death because it was SO-A-MA-ZING. Tragic. Beautiful. With a happy ending (YESSS I mean I love tragedy in fiction but this alternative ending made me soar and now I can’t stop thinking about it).

I almost forgot to say this, but... That “Mysterious Voice”...? In the credits you can see that the voice actress in every language is Luna’s voice actress, but it’s weird that they would process the voice like that AND not say it’s Luna... Not to mention that the way that voice talks isn’t very much “Luna-like”.Regardless of who it is that is talking, the only thing we know is that it’s a voice coming from the Crystal.

A thing that I haven’t mentioned earlier, and it’s very much noticeable now, is that Ardyn has been VERY hard with Ignis, and it may sound crazy but it looks as if he’s just taking it out on him. He said about speeding the process of Noctis becoming the King of Light, but isn’t Ardyn reaching important levels of aggresivity? And it’s not like his mood is the same as always, no, you can see that sometimes his perfomance craks here too, as it does when he fights Noctis in Insomnia. He reveals to Ignis who he is, though (and gods YES at least we get him explicitly saying it was his brother, something that’s good because a lot of people was still thinking who Izunia was), before attacking Ignis... And, in fact, it’s not just that he goes hard on Ignis, is that Ardyn becomes VICIOUS to unsuspected points.

The music of his 4th theme helps make him look scarier, too, and not to mention the fact that he seems to own every weapon of every descendant of his brother Izunia... The fight against Ardyn was VERY hard and tiring.

An interesting thing: while in English the options are named “sacrifice your life”, “risk your life” and “give up”, in Spanish we have that, instead of “risk your life”, the option’s named “sacrifice your senses” > “sacrifice your body” > “sacrifice your soul”, depending on if you choose that option repeatedly until only “sacrific your life” / “give up” remain.

it was sad and worrying seeing Ignis doing such sacrifices, and I seriously thought he was going to die... But, somehow, Noctis made the Crystal answer to his call in such a way that it would heal Ignis, and that was sooo much a relief. This scene was so tragic, it gave me so much feels... Gods, hearing the brothers voice their grief... And Gladiolus specially reached me.

When I saw the group going around in the credits scene, talking to other characters everywhere, it was SO nice. I loved it, it was very nostalgic, and I love so much FFXV’s NPCs.

But the best thing was the alternative ending... *internal screaming noises of happiness*

“We walk tall — together”. YES. I loved that new version of the phrase.

Ravus being happy, and with that weird, funny yet adorable beard~ ... And SMILING. After all that shit in his whole life. Give me TEN. PLEASE.

And oh my goodness Ignis nodding to Ravus like “you’re one of us, come”, and Ravus going with them with ANOTHER SMILE. Omg. You can blame this DLC that now I headcanon that in this alternative ending Ravus is friends with the bros but specially with Ignis (I mean, Ravus was totally ALONE, he needed someone around him that could understand his pain, and who better than Ignis, that saw him at his worst).

And in fact, I’ve started to ship both Ravus x Ignis (both one-sided and loved back), and Ignis x Noctis, apart from liking a lot BROTP Ravus/Ignis... HELP hahah. Nah, I’m kidding, don’t help me, I’m comfortable in shipping/BROTP hell lol.

The last scene... Ah, dammit. I wasn’t expecting for Noctis to be alive AT ALL, yet there he was, all majestic and amazing, with that smile on his lips. As I said, at first I thought Ignis was going to enter the throne room to do something symbolic, like saying “thank you” while crying or something, but... NOPE! And I’m so glad I was wrong.

Pfff... This DLC is PURE BEAUTY.

It has amazing music, a good scenario, smooth gameplay, it answers some questions while it makes you question other things, but most importantly... it portrays the characters very well and gives them more deepness, and the story is solid.

I don’t know if I’ve forgotten something, and I think I could have written this way better, or express more feeling, but well, this is what I’ve written for now, haha.

To anyone that might be reading this: thank you for checking the post, and have a nice day!

#Episode Ignis #Ep Ignis #Ignis #Ignis Scientia #Ravus #Ravus Nox Fleuret #FFXV Episode Ignis #FF15 Episode Ignis #FFXV: Episode Ignis #FF15: Episode Ignis #Final Fantasy XV Episode Ignis #Final Fantasy 15 Episode Ignis #Final Fantasy XV: Episode Ignis #Final Fantasy 15: Episode Ignis #FFXV #FF15 #Final Fantasy XV #Final Fantasy 15

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musesmilk · 7 years

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MYLISSA FITZSIMMONS

Mylissa Fitzsimmons is a writer, director, and producer working in LA. After her youth as a feral child, sneaking into horror movies and scrambling through creek beds, she found her way to photography and then to film. Her recent short film That Party That One Night just won the Audience Choice award at the Film Invasion LA festival!

“I started shooting super 8 movies when a teacher taught a class about filmmaking using super 8 . That is pretty much my extent of film school. The same teacher also really encouraged me to stay behind the camera and make documentaries and short film. It’s true what they say about good teachers, they change your life. This one changed mine. I shot my first short films and short documentaries in High school and pretty much my love of all things film started then.”

Muse’s Milk: Tell us your story.

Mylissa Fitzsimmons: I grew up in Moab, Utah till the age of 13. Growing up in Moab allowed me to be a feral child who spent most of her days swimming in creek beds and scrambling over large red rocks. There was this amazing drive in theater where we could sit atop the the trailer and watch a movie at night, the sound coming through all the car radios . There was this little movie theater that would play movies all day. During the 80’s they would show horror films all day and I would sneak in the back door and hide behind the curtain till the movies would start . It would be night time by the time I left. Watching horror films all day was simultaneously the best and worst thing a 10 year old could do. I saw E.T. , Empire Strikes Back, Nightmare On Elm Street at that theater. Years later when I went back and the theater was being turned into some persons house and they had ripped out the whole inside and all the movie chairs where sitting in the sun being thrown out. I was walking amongst them and I found the chair where I had carved my name into, “Mylissa was here.I watched ET.” It had all the carving marks for each time I saw it...22 times! I asked the man if I could have the chair since it was being thrown out. It’s one of my most favorite things I own. Years later the drive in was torn down to make way for some Condo’s. Every time I go back a house or trailer park I lived in is gone to make way for more condo’s or hotels. It breaks my heart that my childhood is disappearing. But I still love the creeks and red rock beauty on Moab.

After Utah we moved to Salem, Oregon and I remember thinking at the time that this was the big city. Anyone who has been to Salem know this to be the exact opposite. In high school I got more into photography after my grandpa encouraged me to pick up a camera to document life. I started out by shooting what I knew, which was skateboarding and punk rock bands. I used to sell the photos to make money to buy more film. I started shooting super 8 movies when a teacher taught a class about filmmaking using super 8 . That is pretty much my extent of film school. The same teacher also really encouraged me to stay behind the camera and make documentaries and short film. It’s true what they say about good teachers, they change your life. This one changed mine. I shot my first short films and short documentaries in High school and pretty much my love of all things film started then. I didn’t realize that it could be a job.It was just something I did as an outlet to express myself when I had something to say or to tell stories I thought were interesting. I still think the same way.

MM: What was the process of making That Party That One Night? Can you speak about your process conceptually as well as the logistical planning aspect?

MF: That Party That One Night is inspired by my love of growing up on John Hughes films. Molly Ringwald was my Queen and I had always wanted to make a coming age story. The short is a proof of concept film for a feature that is loosely based on me and my friends in High School. Its about that last week of school and every seems to have a plan for their future except this girl. She has always been this socially awkward girl who didn’t quite fit in and just really wants it all to be over with. She gets pressured into going to a party where she gets ditched by her friends but ends up in a parking lot with the boy she’s had a crush on for years. I basically had this scene in the feature that I couldn’t get to work within the context of the film but I kept going back to this memory and this night . So I sat down and wrote it as a short because I felt that it must be something if I keep thinking about it.

I ended up getting this micro budget grant from The Bureau of Creative Works to make it. Since I had just finished the script days before I got the grant I hadn’t really thought about making it. But I had this grant so I just went for it. The budget was super small and I basically begged friends to work for lower rates and borrowed whatever props and locations I could. I'm also part of the Los Angeles Women’s Film Collective so I leaned on all these wonderful ladies to help me find talent and crew and resources. Along with some funds from a good friend that I’ve known since age 14 who saw something in the film he liked and kicked in the extra funding to make it work. I only had 2 days to shoot it and a bare bones crew. But we all came together really fast and were able to get it done.

The whole film from start (writing it) to finish (festival premiere) took 3 1/2 weeks. It is kind of insane to do to work at that speed. I wouldn’t do it again. I mean we edited this film in 4 days editor, Jaffe Zinn and myself got real sick and we had 102 fevers and chills and were up till 4 am editing for 3 nights straight in my back studio. Then I'd get up and help my kids get ready for school, sleep for a few hours and then get back to work. Part of the reason we did it that way was because we went to edit the film and had to get a trial editing program and only had free use for 5 days. So we just said fuck it and went for it. We made it work and we only sacrificed our health for a week, HA! I also tend to work really fast on projects. I just don’t think you need to spend months or have big budgets on a short films.

MM: What are you working on now?

MF: I recently won the Sun Valley Short Film Lab with a short film script I wrote called , Who Decides, about who decides when its your time to die. I just finished shooting that film.

MM: Is there anything else you would like to add? Advice for women in the arts? Festival tips?

MF: I’m not sure I have any advice that hasn’t already been said already, especially for women. Female artists are amazing,we’re killing it everyday and its inspiring. I like to ask myself, Who am I? What do I have to say? How do I want to say it? And then I just go out and do that.If you’re doing it for any other reasons then whatever you produce won’t be authentic and you’re doing yourself and others a great disservice.

As far as festivals go…know that festivals are just one of many tools in your toolshed.There are many ways to get a film seen. Research, make a plan, don’t spend all your money on submissions and know that rejections and acceptances don’t mean what you think they mean. Also,just go to a festival as an audience person, watch movies. This might be your only chance to see all these amazing films being made that you might not see otherwise…especially short films.

#mylissa fitzsimmons #director #producer #writer #muse's milk #woman artist #filmmaker #indie

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