#i think it looks kinda okay (if we ignore the quality cos i wasnt really focusing on that so shhhhhhhhhhhhh) | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

tumblunni · 7 years

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OKAY WOW I just started reading a lets play of Tales of Graces and HOLY SHIT I love Sophia! I think I was amoung the majority of people who got umm.. Really Put Off by her character design prior to actually learning more about the game. Cos seriously, prelease stuff was like a fuckin minefield of ‘loli’ trope red flags, it looked like she was gonna somehow be pushed into a romance route with the protagonist despite being 14. And her design is just kinda boring and doesnt really say anything about her ACTUAL plot role and personality which were HOLY SHIT so unexpected and amazing and life affirming and jesus christ she is already my favourite tales character in all of history and I’m barely two hours into the damn game!! seriously I had to go look up spoils just to be ABSOLUTELY SURE I wasnt gonna be surprised with creepy fanservice of a young child, like in some of the older goddamn games in this series, and instead i found FUCKING AMAZING EVERYTHING FOREVER and like.. ACTIVE SUBVERSION OF LOLI TROPES but lol i cant really talk about it without kinda spoilering?? So UMM YEAH rest of my thoughts under the cut:

okay seriously its LITERALLY THE OPPOSITE OF WHAT WE ALL EXPECTED, HOLY FUCK nobody had ANY CLUE before the game came out that she’d be introduced as the twice-your-age figure to the protagonist instead of the other way around! getting to play a flashback prologue of everyone as kids was a really unique awesome feature that I wish we could get in other tales games its SO COOL to see the design and personality changes for everyone between their flashback selves and the ones you actually play as later on plus its a playable flashback! very short section of getting to see the kiddos actually have unique battle animations even! also it is REALLY EMOTIONALLY DESTRUCTIVE HOLY SHIT it explains everything about everyone’s personality forever why did these poor children have to suffer AAAAA

so umm yeah ANYWAY BACK ON TOPIC Sophie is introduced as this mysterious older teen while everyone is tiny babies, and takes on a kind of simultaneous big sis lil sis role cos of her amnesia and unfamiliarity with the world and like THANK YOU we dont get any weird fetishization of that as a concept! (look up the ‘born sexy yesterday’ trope for how this kind of plot tends to go down... yikes...) And like, even tho she’s comically oblivious about basic emotion concepts and stuff, she’s also A MASSIVE BADASS who’d have thought that such a cliche pinky pretty loli design would have a stoic badass superweapon personality??? THANK YOU. I feel so bad for assuming things, but seriously THANK YOU for being like THE ONE GAME where that kind of character appearance isnt given just One Same Plot Again And Again And It Is Gross and seriously man I WILL NOT STOP BEING HAPPY THAT THERE IS NO LOLICON HERE HOLY FUCKIN SHIT (well.. except some of her dlc costumes seem to be the actual lolicon characters from earlier games, which is Annoying.) but yeah seriously she’s fuckin like CONSTANTLY PUNCHING DOWN DOORS AND SHIT and I’M LOVE HER and like her earliest establishing moment is her oblivious of human culture norms actually leading to her being like.. the wise one in the conversation her cutting off asbel’s ‘wah but I should be the one protecting you cos I’m a boy, even though you’re like eight years older than me and i can barely lift my sword’ and her making this declaration of protection to him is the moment that shapes her entire character and becomes like the emotional core of the whole plot and she gets THE MOST BADASS scene of (seemingly) sacrificing herself to save his life, ending this cute kiddie flashback on a super somber note and then Asbel dedicates his goddamn life to becoming a knight in her memory after she fuckin SUPLEXED A GODDAMN DRAGON WOLF THING WITH ITS CLAW STABBED THROUGH HER STOMACH and just... I REALLY LOVE SOPHIE!!! seriously kid asbel literally said ‘i’m embarassed to be protected by you cos you’re a girl’, like HOLY SHIT DUDE and this is ACTUALLY SHOWN AS WRONG and he CHARACTER DEVELOPS OUT OF IT and HER PROTECTING HIM IS LIKE THE WHOLE FUCKIN GAME and just THANK YOU seriously tales of beseria had a bunch of weird sexism issues despite being the most recent game, its so annoying how the series has such inconsistant quality on this stuff, so im just REALLLLLLL FUCKIN GLAD to see this, thankz

oh and like... they even do... LITERALLY the ‘but she’s really 700 years old’ excuse for ‘loli’ characters BUT NOT AS AN EXCUSE FOR LOLI CHARACTERS she’s a thousands of years old magic soldier homunculus thing that will forever look like a young girl, but NOBODY USES THAT AS AN EXCUSE TO FUCK A YOUNG GIRL THANK YOU GEEZUS CHRIST cos like.. goddd... being super immortal and eternally a child is A COOL PLOT that has SO MANY OTHER DIRECTIONS it could be developed in, instead of just fuckin pervy lazyness and this game ACTUALLY DOES THOSE DEVELOPMENTS aaaaaUUUUAUAAAUUUUA god its SUCH A RELIEF we start the game off with the intriguing wonder of how everyone changed post time skip yet she still looks the same age (plus of course ‘how on earth did she survive that apparant death’) And it just keeps having even more cool meta discussion of being so ageless?? and really sad philosophicalness about outliving all your friends?? and all the plots these dumb loli excuse things always ignore and just SERIOUSLY THANK YOU

hell she doesnt even ever really have any romantic plot with anyone ever, except kinda Pascal? tho that’s just a weird ‘lol gay as joke’ thing where its supposed to be funny that Pascal doesnt take no for an answer and like.. seriously why is Sophie even instantly repulsed by Pascal anyway? ‘hey i have no concept of any human social norms except heterosexuality apparantly’. It Is Weird. So yeah lol the game isnt absolutely flawless but I mean geez AT LEAST THEY DIDNT SHIP THE FUCKIN KID WITH ADULTS seriously she has NO ROMANCE PLOT and protagonist man ends up with someone completely different and its just NEVER EVEN DISCUSSED AS AN OPTION like fuckin CHRIST thank yooooou god, just, HOW TERRIFYING it was to see her listed as ‘the heroine’ of this game next to a guy way older than her usually whichever female character has the biggest plot role is automatically the love interest I cant believe i fuckin DIDNT PLAY THE GAME FOR ALL THIS TIME because of that!!!

oh and OH AND the endgame!! the endgame final relationship of her and protagonist? DAD. He not only doesn’t romance her, he ends up adopting her as his daughter by the end of the story its so surreal and interesting tho, cos she was like an older sister to him when he was younger, and now they’ve met again they ended up having such a vastly different relationship and like... well, they’re still like family, just in a different way! i’m so happy seriously DEAR GOD for once a ‘immortal child’ plot actually ended well and no grossness ever and ALSO SHE IS A REALLY ENDEARING BADASS HOMUNCULUS WARRIOR PERSON and aaaa

ok this has been bunni’s rambling post ok back to watchin lets play im SO HAPPY i got spoiled for that thing of the ending like seriously HOW RARE is that???

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